Scott Lockwood's Journal: Pudgewatch: Will Pudge ever learn to shut the fuck up?

What an asshole!

WRT your charge of "Unconstitutional"

[smittyoneeach]

I think a review of the Fifth Amendment may be in order (emphasis mine):

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor

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[ces]

The problem here is if you refused to answer the question or answered the question in the affirmative your career was quite likely over.

Similarly if you claimed you had associated with "known" communists or refused to answer the question you could be ruined.

In order to "prove" you were a good loyal citizen the typical tactic was to ask you to name names. To refuse was a career limiting move to say the least.

The "Red Scare" of the 40's and 50's fits most of the classic definitions of a witch hunt. This is no

Re:

[smittyoneeach]

The "Red Scare" of the 40's and 50's fits most of the classic definitions of a witch hunt. This is not to say there weren't people passing information to foreign governments during that time. However I suspect standard counter-espionage tactics would have been a far more effective way of dealing with the threat.

As respectfully as possible, I disagree.
Take a read through Blacklisted by History [amazon.com]: the crap then was as surreal as the crap in the current presidential campaign.

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[Scott Lockwood]

Why? ces is right.

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[smittyoneeach]

I submit that ces may be short some context.
Killing sucks, and A may have ended the life of B.
One might find a substantial difference between a crime of passion in peacetime, or the death occurring in the midst of battle.
Similarly, if there was a random choice of one political party for special abuse, we might call that a "witch hunt".
If there was widespread infiltration of the government, media, and academia, such that, say, Mao and the Communists take over China, for example, and those who got in the

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[ces]

Huh?

Why would those who were acting at the behest of Moscow tell the truth at a public hearing? Why wouldn't they give names of people who were in their way when asked to name names? Why wouldn't some be strident anti-communists in public?

The reason for using counter-espionage techniques is so you can discover as many links in the chain as possible and do things like feed false information.

The red scare was nothing more than political grandstanding that ruined many careers, some justifiably so, some not so

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[smittyoneeach]

According to Evans, and I haven't done any research into the matter, your cart and horse may be reversed.
As with AIDS, when the disease has penetrated the immune/counter-espionage system, then We May Have A Bigger Problem.
The possibility that the Truman and Isenhower administrations were engaged in massive CYA efforts (a tradition lamentably carried on today) also exists.
McCarthy had served in the military. Had the administrations simply clued him in that he was, in fact, disrupting legitimate efforts,