Kristof to Cheney: "Balderdash"

i may have to reconsider kristof's weenie status... he must have freaked out over the tarring he's gotten recently and decided to get serious...

Mr. Cheney said in a written statement: "Because this is a pending legal proceeding, in fairness to all those involved, it would be inappropriate for me to comment on the charges or on any facts relating to the proceeding."

Balderdash. If Mr. Cheney can't address the questions about his conduct, if he can't be forthcoming about the activities in his office that gave rise to the investigation, then he should resign. And if he won't resign, Mr. Bush should demand his resignation.

like bush should have demanded libby's resignation... like bush should have demanded rove's resignation... like bush should have accepted rumsfeld's resignation... bush likes to think he has a pair but i seriously think barbara has them in a jar back in houston...

(thanks to armando at kos... this link to kristof's column only works for times select subscribers of which i ain't one...)

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"He lied about it . . . under oath and repeatedly."

let's keep in mind fitz's exact words...

"At the end of the day what appears is that Mr. Libby's story that he was at the tail end of a chain of phone calls, passing on from one reporter what he heard from another, was not true. It was false. He was at the beginning of the chain of phone calls, the first official to disclose this information outside the government to a reporter. And then he lied about it afterward, under oath and repeatedly."

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Robert Parry: "The White House got a walk."

i expressed the same feeling earlier today when i said, "i feel like i'm being sent back to square one while our country continues to be trashed by a gang of criminals..."

The larger conspiracy – to punish an Iraq War critic for telling the truth about false intelligence used to take the United States to war – will go unpunished and unexplained, at least for now.

In street terms, it looks a lot like the White House got a walk.

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The drugstore cowboy wants to bounce back...

'scuse me...? pardon me...? run that one by me again...?

George W. Bush hopes to find the path to recovery from a week of bad news that staggered his presidency in a nuts-and-bolts focus on governing.

[...]

A former White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official still provides regular advice, said Bush needs "moves of conscience and conviction" that evoke the leadership abilities that helped get him re-elected.

the drugstore cowboy is toast... not only didn't he have the leadership abilities when he got re-elected, he's NEVER had them, EVER... and if anyone wants convincing proof of what a false-front, empty-suit leader bush really is, all one had to do was watch fitzgerald in action yesterday... bush and fitzgerald might as well have come from two different planets... (hmmmm... interesting thought... i'll have to ponder that a bit more...)

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Saturday photoblogging - the Buenos Aires paseaperro

porteños, as the residents of buenos aires are known, love their pets... it seems everyone has a dog or a cat but i think the number of dog-owners may outweigh the cat-owners... being a city of primarily apartment-dwellers, the dogs, naturally, require walking which, naturally, requires time which... well, you can see where this is going... so, again naturally, an entire profession of professional dog-walking has arisen... paseaperros (literally dog-walkers) are ubiquitous in bsas (the local abbreviation for buenos aires) and can be seen all over town from morning until evening... hordes of paseaperros and their charges descend on the beautiful parks to converse and play fútbol while the dogs get acquainted...



A paseaperro with his happy charges

needless to say, walking around town presents some specific hazards... you need to watch your step... always and everywhere...

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Discounting severity, downplaying implications and the forgetfulness meme

[N]othing in this indictment suggests a broad-based conspiracy that requires endless further investigation by Congress or others. Nor does this case prove (or refute) charges that President Bush misled the country about the grounds for war.

so, everything's fine... settle down... take it easy... no need to give yourself a stroke from high blood pressure... it's only a little cover-up...

[Fitzgerald] offered renewed evidence of that oldest of Washington axioms: the cover-up is always worse than the crime.

but why the need for lies in the first place...? lies don't arise spontaneously... lies are told for a purpose... lies are meant to persuade that reality is not what it seems... i feel like i'm being sent back to square one while our country continues to be trashed by a gang of criminals...

oh, but wait... i FORGOT...! libby wasn't LYING... he just has a faulty memory... i guess my memory is going too...

"As lawyers, we recognize that a person's recollection and memory of events will not always match those of other people, particularly when they are asked to testify months after the events occurred."

just like al franken said yesterday... his "only defense will have to be early alzheimer's...

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Fitzgerald as a worthy public servant

i was smitten yesterday by the, yes, i'll say it, LEADERSHIP displayed by fitzgerald in in his press conference... i don't think we could have asked for a better display of what a public official, public SERVANT, could and should be... he was strong, he was cool, he was professional, he was in charge, he was obviously shoe-leather honest... but in conveying all of those things, he resorted to no trickery, no code or catch phrases, no stage props, no boasting, no pandering... i ache on a daily basis for authentic, worthy leaders to come forth and, yesterday, i saw one... arthur silber seems to feel the same...

[W]hat a wonderful, revivifying breath of bracing fresh air. Straightforward, always clear, always in command of the facts and the arguments, as brief and to the point as possible, and with a complete absence of personal grandstanding. All the plaudits we have been hearing about Fitzgerald were borne out in this crucial moment in the glare of national attention: here is a man focused on the facts and the law, and on the specific mandate he was given. Nothing else matters to him, and he seeks no personal gain or glory from performing his job -- except for the gain or glory which are justly his, by virtue of the fact that he does perform his job, and does so with exceptional mastery. Would that more public servants -- and politicians in particular -- followed Fitzgerald's model.

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"Very little sympathy on Capitol Hill" for Bush

now, THIS is what i've been waiting to hear... after listening to the hob-nailed boots of congress, the republican party and the executive branch marching in lockstep to rove's drum, it's a relief to see some of the faithful breaking ranks and speaking out...

House Government Reform Committee Chairman Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.) was stinging, saying he was "very disappointed in Libby, and the White House, and the vice president and the president."

"They should have taken care of this a long time ago," Davis said in an interview. "They should have done their own investigation. They're going to get very little sympathy on Capitol Hill, at least from me. . . . They brought this on themselves."

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What next for Bush...? "One shudders to think..."

in an opinion piece entitled "bush's imploding presidency," robert kuttner acknowledges the satisfaction felt by some, myself included, at the difficulties being experienced by bushco's criminal gang... but he also echoes my own profound gloom as i survey the wreckage of their rule to date and contemplate three more years of the same... particularly troubling is the speculation on what new and potentially more destructive adventures they might cook up now that they're wounded and feeling cornered...

One can only hope that Bush will respond to the damage created by his alliance with the far right by rejecting the captivity of Rove, Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld, and turning outward. Given all the temptations in this dangerous world, and all we've learned about the administration's cynicism in using the politics of fear and division to manipulate public opinion, one shudders to think what Rove, Cheney, et al. might dream up if Bush, in his present damaged condition, circles the wagons.

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Rove is "Official A...?"

stay tuned...

Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove was the mysterious 'Official A' named in the indictment of Vice President Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff. [...] Rove is expected to be identified in several newspapers Saturday. The Associated Press is also close to naming Rove as 'Official A.'

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Krauthammer reads from the script

as predicted, the spin-meisters are out in force...

"What we have now is the usual Washington story – one that seeks to make a crime about denying a crime.”

Krauthammer said Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s claim Friday that the investigation into Rove’s involvement in the case "isn’t over” seems strange.

"You would think that either the prosecutor has something on Rove, or he doesn’t,” he said. "Either review it or not. Don’t keep a cloud hanging over the White House gratuitously on the belief that something might be out there.”."

Krauthammer said Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s claim Friday that the investigation into Rove’s involvement in the case "isn’t over” seems strange.

"You would think that either the prosecutor has something on Rove, or he doesn’t,” he said. "Either review it or not. Don’t keep a cloud hanging over the White House gratuitously on the belief that something might be out there.”

fitzgerald was abundantly clear that he could make no comment on anything "outside the four corners of [libby's] indictment..."

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Kennedy on the offensive

(senator kennedy posted on kos...)

Scooter Libby and Vice President Cheney withheld critical documents in the Senate's investigation of the use and misuse of intelligence and the abuse of power in the decision to go to war and in the management of the war.

These documents must be handed over, because the American people deserve answers.

That is why I'm urging the White House to hand over those documents - and asking you to join me in doing so. We need as many Americans as possible to join us in the next few days to show the White House that we are not letting this indictment be the end.

you can show your support here...

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Dick Morris' take on implications for Cheney

(think progress reporting from fox news...)

"But it is very possible that the prosecutor looks up the food chain to Vice President Cheney. These investigations have a way of rising. And according to the terms of the indictment, Cheney told Libby about Valerie Plame and then Libby lied to the grand jury about how he found about it, saying that he got it from a reporter. Well, if that’s the case, the Vice President knew that Libby was lying.

And it wasn’t like his grand jury was secret. It was all over the place, you could read it in any newspaper. So my question is, why didn’t the vice president say anything? Why didn’t he speak up? And when you’re out there committing perjury and your boss is silent, and your boss knows that you’re doing that, it’s [the silence is] a subtle signal from your boss to say, 'I appreciate it.'"

one can only hope...

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Josh Marshall: "They both knew."

close and careful reading by josh...

Go to page 5 of the indictment. Top of the page, item #9.

On or about June 12, 2003, LIBBY was advised by the Vice President of the United States that Wilson's wife worked at the Central Intelligence Agency in the Counterproliferation Divison. LIBBY understood that the Vice President had learned this information from the CIA.

This is a crucial piece of information. the Counterproliferation Division (CPD) is part of the CIA's Directorate of Operations, i.e., not Directorate of Intelligence, the branch of the CIA where 'analysts' come from, but where the spies come from.

Libby's a long time national security hand. He knows exactly what CPD is and where it is. So does Cheney. They both knew. It's right there in the indictment.

it's hard waiting for all the pieces to fall into place... i can only hope that they continue to do so...

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Gays want to marry and straights don't... Go figure...

and the christian right wants to forbid gays from participating in the sanctity of marriage... you'd think pursuing the sanctity of a committed relationship would be a good thing...

Nearly 1.5 million babies, a record, were born to unmarried women in the United States last year, the government reported Friday. And it isn't just teenagers any more.

"People have the impression that teens and unmarried mothers are synonymous," said Stephanie Ventura of the National Center for Health Statistics.

But last year teens accounted for just 24 percent of unwed births, down from 50 percent in 1970, she commented.

The increases in unmarried births have been among women in their 20s, she said, particularly those 25 to 29.

looks like heterosexual marriage ain't workin' out so hot...

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Strong statement from Fitz

"This is a situation where the conversation between the offical and a reporter may have been itself a crime." [bold mine]

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Fitz is destroying the "technicality" talking point...

"Truth is the engine of our judiciary system."

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Sources and State Department Under Secretaries in 2003

steve clemons highlights the four sources...

Libby had four sources for his information on Valerie Plame:

1. Senior CIA Officer

2. An Under Secretary of State

3. Vice President Cheney

4. another member of the Vice President's staff

and think progress does a little research...

According to the indictments, one of the first people to tell Scooter Libby about Valerie Wilson’s identity was an “Under Secretary of State”:

On or about June 11 or 12, 2003, the Under Secretary of State orally advised Libby in the White House that, in sum and substance, Wilson’s wife worked at the CIA and that State Department personnel were saying that Wilson’s wife was involved in the planning of his trip.

There are 6 people who hold that title in the State Department. Here are the people who held the position of Under Secretary of State in June 2003:

John Robert Bolton
Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs

Marc Isaiah Grossman
Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs

Grant S. Green
Under Secretary of State for Management

Charlotte L. Beers
Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy

Paula J. Dobriansky
Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs

Alan Phillip Larson
Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business, and Agricultural

and shares this thought...

Obviously, certain people are more likely candidates than others.

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Fitz's press conference

after fitz described the chronology of libby's testimony, al franken broke in and said that the "only defense will have to be early alzheimer's..."

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Scott Ritter: Libby's indictments should be a "boost for Congress"

on the huffington post, nathan gardels posts scott ritter's commentary taken from gardels' syndicated global viewpoint column... as i've recently posted, scott ritter is making some points that should not be taken lightly...

[T]he indictment of Libby must not be the final punctuation in this tragic tale of lies and deception. Instead, it should serve as a much-needed boost for Congress, the media and ultimately the American people to carry out a massive re-examination of the totality of the processes that took place in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq.

[...]

There must be a wider investigation into the totality of the criminal conspiracy undertaken by the Bush administration to defraud Congress and the American people about the issue of war with Iraq, and in particular the case used to justify the invasion of that country. The crime that was committed goes far beyond the outing of a rogue diplomat's CIA-affiliated spouse, as serious as that charge may be. The deliberate and systematic manner in which the Bush administration, from the president on down, peddled misleading, distorted and fabricated information to Congress and the American people represents a frontal assault on the very system of government the United States of America proclaims to champion. (C) 2005 GLOBAL VIEWPOINT

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Libby resigns

Vice presidential adviser I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby resigned after indictment on obstruction of justice, false statement and perjury charges.

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And here's Fitzgerald's press release

WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL I. LEWIS LIBBY INDICTED ON OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE, FALSE STATEMENT AND PERJURY CHARGES RELATING TO LEAK OF CLASSIFIED INFORMATION REVEALING CIA OFFICER’S IDENTITY

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The court document on Libby's indictments

all 22 pages of it...

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Today's calendar of important events

(from hotline...)

The grand jury met today at 9:00 a.m. We expect an announcement from the prosecutor around 2:00 pm.

Fitzgerald will presented his indictment to a magistrate around 11:30 a.m.

At 2, he'll head down the block to the DoJ headquarters to give a press conference. At the same time, he'll release his report on the case on his web site.

ABC's George Stephanopoulos reports that if a member of the White House staff is indicted, President Bush will speak on it this afternoon.

(and this from americablog...)

Christopher Wolf, counsel for Ambassador and Mrs. Joseph Wilson, will be making a statement on behalf of Ambassador Wilson at 3 PM in front of the U.S. Courthouse, 333 Constitution Avenue, N.W.

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The removal of people of color and the gentrification of New Orleans

now i have a better understanding of why so many poor, disadvantaged people of color who couldn't afford to evacuate on their own were scattered across the country... if they couldn't afford to evacuate, they can't afford to return...

In Mississippi's ruined coastal cities, as well as in metro New Orleans, Landlords--galvanized by rumors of gentrification and soaring land values--are beginning to institute mass evictions. (Although the oft-cited Lower Ninth Ward is actually a bastion of blue-collar homeownership, most poor New Orleanians are renters.) Civil-rights lawyer Bill Quigley has described how renters have returned "to find furniture on the street and strangers living in their apartments at higher rents, despite an order by the Governor that no one can be evicted before October 25. Rents in the dry areas have doubled and tripled."

Secretary of Housing Alfonso Jackson, meanwhile, seems to be working to fulfill his notorious prediction that New Orleans is "not going to be as black as it was for a long time, if ever again." Public-housing and Section 8 residents recently protested that "the agencies in charge of these housing complexes [including HUD] are using allegations of storm damage to these complexes as a pretext for expelling working-class African-Americans, in a very blatant attempt to co-opt our homes and sell them to developers to build high-priced housing."

the stench of greed is overwhelming...

(thanks to alternet...)

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James Moore keeps us grounded in reality

bless 'im...

Leaking the names of CIA agents is not politics; it is a crime. Lying to congress about evidence for a war is not politics; it is a crime. Failing to tell a grand jury that you met with a reporter and talked about the CIA agent is not forgetfullness; it is a crime. Deceiving your entire nation and frightening children and adults with images of nuclear explosions in order to get them to support a bloody invasion of another country is not politics; it is a crime. Anyone other than Karl Rove and Lewis Libby and Tom Delay who does not get this, please raise your hand. The three of you will need to stay after class for further instruction in civics.

(from the huffington post...)

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Bush is taking it on the chin from all sides, left AND right

nobody's cutting him any slack... and, god knows, he doesn't deserve any...

from scot lehigh in the boston globe...

Bush's conservatism is an exercise in ideological incoherence or contradiction.

harold meyerson in the american prospect...

Reality is mugging the Republican Party, and its elected officials are scrambling to save themselves.

from todd purdum in the nyt...

George W. Bush has been in the White House for 248 weeks, through a terrorist attack, two wars and a bruising re-election. But it seems safe to say that he has never had a worse political week than this one - and it is not over yet.

"I think all bets are off," said former Senator Warren B. Rudman, Republican of New Hampshire. "Who knows what's next?"

even before the miers announcement, richard viguerie was on bush's case...

"President Bush desperately needed to have an ideological fight with the left to redefine himself and reenergize his political base, which is in shock and dismay over his big-government policies."

stephen pizzo via alternet sees bush as turning on those closest to him who are in legal jeopardy...

Already we are seeing evidence that Bush may be getting ready to whack his own loyal aide, Karl "Turd Blossom" Rove. They have already brought in sub-capo Ed Gillespie to fill the hole. Eddy is already giving interviews, while Karl is nowhere to be seen. Bad sign.

david tuerck, a hard-line conservative, sees bush as having caved to "the grip that the left exerts over the nomination process" by allowing miers to withdraw despite "her obvious lack of qualifications..."

Whether this president, besieged as he is on many fronts, can salvage his presidency depends now how strongly he can resist this kind of pressure.

bush's formerly effective "change-the-subject" strategy is now being visibly and publicly outed...

Mr. Bush appeared eager to change the subject and calm conservatives only 24 hours before a special counsel might announce indictments.

and, whaddaya know, even right-wing gasbag hugh hewitt argues that, by forcing the withdrawal of miers, the right has completely negated the "up/down" vote argument...

Over the last two elections, the Republican Party regained control of the United States Senate by electing new senators in Florida, Georgia, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, South Dakota and Texas. These victories were attributable in large measure to the central demand made by Republican candidates, and heard and embraced by voters, that President Bush's nominees deserved an up-or-down decision on the floor of the Senate. Now, with the withdrawal of Harriet Miers under an instant, fierce and sometimes false assault from conservative pundits and activists, it will be difficult for Republican candidates to continue to make this winning argument: that Democrats have deeply damaged the integrity of the advice and consent process.

personally, i think it's quite a stretch to say that those republican senators were elected largely on the basis of their support of an up or down vote... if that was being made a point in campaign rhetoric, it totally escaped me...

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"Very, very dark days for the White House"

the telenovela is approaching the denouement... (yeah, i'm mixing languages... so sue me...)

Two sources said I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, was shopping for a white-collar criminal lawyer and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove began assembling a public relations team in the event they are indicted.

[...]

A Republican consultant with close White House ties said Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. had canceled at least two trips in the past week and had met with Bush over the weekend to focus on how to react to the grand jury's decisions.

"These will be very, very dark days for the White House," the consultant quoted Card as saying.

is that in character or what...? libby is looking for legal counsel and rove is crafting p.r...

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Here it comes... More bankruptcy as a business strategy... Pension-dumping...

we wanna do what united did... aw, c'mon... they did it, why can't WE...? aw, c'mon... ple-e-e-ase...!

Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines want Congress to grant them pension relief, but experts believe the bankrupt carriers instead might try to terminate their plans even if given more time to fund them.

Scrapping the plans would affect as many as 180,000 people.

The airlines say they still want the legislative fix they sought months before filing bankruptcy petitions in mid-September. Enormous cost pressures and recent steps by other bankrupt rivals, however, may provide a rationale for the companies to seek court permission to drop their plans and save billions.

dumping the pension plans was the idea from the get-go...

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The Guardian's Steve Bell on the Iraq death toll

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More indictment speculation, rumor and maybe a nugget or two of truth...

hum-dum-de-dum... ~taps fingers impatiently on table~ ~looks at watch~ ~refreshes links~

Fitzgerald intended to announce that he had secured indictments against I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, and Karl Rove, President Bush's deputy chief of staff, Wednesday afternoon as well as two people who work outside of the administration, those close to the case said.

But his office was contacted late Tuesday by attorneys representing figures outside the White House, lawyers said, who expressed interest in entering into plea talks with the prosecutor. Several have agreed to enter into last-minute plea negotiations with Fitzgerald in exchange for providing testimony that could result in criminal charges being brought against additional officials inside the White House, they added.

[...]

An eleventh-hour deal could help Fitzgerald "build a strong case against some very senior officials in the office of the vice president," one attorney said.

"Mr. Fitzgerald is extremely thorough," the lawyer remarked. "He had advised Judge [Thomas F.] Hogan more than two weeks ago that there was a strong possibility that some defendants may be inclined to cooperate at the last minute."

(thanks to raw story...)

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Exporting democracy: your mission, if you choose to accept it...

like they have any choice...

A new strategy document issued Wednesday by the Bush administration ranks efforts to "bolster the growth of democracy" among the three top missions for American intelligence agencies.

John D. Negroponte, the director of national intelligence, said the rankings were intended to align the work of intelligence agencies with the administration's broader national security goals. The top two "mission objectives" are efforts to counter terrorism and weapons proliferation.

imho, democracy needs a lot of "bolstering" right here at home...

Main Entry: bolster
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): bol·stered; bol·ster·ing /-st(&-)ri[ng]/
1 : to support with or as if with a bolster : REINFORCE
2 : to give a boost to

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On changing the subject and being wary of surprises...

jeffrey feldman, in his diary at kos, gets his usual a+ for pattern recognition...

[A]ny news agency that is currently running the Miers story as a "surprise" is aiding the White House's campaign to distract the American public from the real story: George W. Bush's top aides will soon be charged with serious crimes.

Let's think about this for a minute. Do we really think that Harriet Miers made this decision in private? That she confided in nobody and then just dropped a letter on the President's desk?

Nobody in America is that naive. And it is an insult to the American people to use this Harriet Miers "surprise" in an effort to distract the media (which appears to be working).

Don't believe it. Harriet Miers was forced out by the President when he realized she was not going to be confirmed. The reason? Because she is not qualified for the job. This decision was probably made last week. It is likely that the communications team at the White House decided they would throw it at the media as a "surprise" the day of the Grand Jury indictments.

Stay tuned. This is just the first distraction. I fear that the White House may be cynical enough to pressure the Department of Homeland Security to issue a terrorism alert.

Beware of all "surprises" in the news, today. The big story is not a surprise. It's the story we all know is about to hit: criminal charges against the White House.

i don't think it's at all cynical to think that we may have a terrorism alert or, worse yet, a staged attack... remember scott ritter's quote from my post the other day...

"When you have an irresponsible administration like the Nixon administration, like this current administration, and they start to feel embattled, surrounded, they take on a fortress like mentality where everybody becomes the enemy."

Asked if he thought a staged terror attack was possible, a scenario previously considered by former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, Ritter responded,

"Yeah, you have people who have no regard for the rule of law. These aren't people who appreciate the Constitution, to them the Constitution is an impediment, it's an obstacle, it's something in the way, it's something to be avoided. They are married to an ideology of global domination, of global imperialism and they're not going to deviate from this."

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Bush: Home Alone

There is no one left to rescue the Republican Party from George W. Bush. He is home alone. [...] Bush has so thoroughly destroyed the Republican establishment that no one, not even his dad, can rescue him now.

(thanks to patriot daily and salon...)

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Bathroom breaks at Ford

~frantically waving hand~ but, TEACHER...!!! T-E-A-C-H-E-R...!!! i gotta GO...!!!

You know things are tense at work when management starts timing rest room breaks. But beleaguered Ford Motor Co. is doing just that.

i remember when northwest airlines merged with republic... the first thing northwest management did was go in to republic headquarters on the south end of the minneapolis-st. paul airport and take all the doors off of the bathroom stalls... as they say in the army, "how do i get a transfer out of this chickenshit outfit...?"

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"My little crony" bows out

now i guess we wait and see what litmus-tested, far-right fringe nominee he's gonna put forward in her place... this one obviously didn't cut it with the "base..."

The Texas lawyer nominated to the US Supreme Court by President George W Bush, Harriet Miers, has withdrawn as a nominee to the court.

oh, but wait... it couldn't POSSIBLY be george's fault...

"It is clear that senators would not be satisfied until they gained access to internal documents concerning advice provided during her tenure at the White House — disclosures that would undermine a president's ability to receive candid counsel," Bush said.

you set it up precisely so you could say that, you dickhead... you only announced that you wouldn't be providing documents AFTER it was clear that miers had no support... if you were anybody else, i might be willing to grant you that face-saving move but, given it's you, hell no...

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Steve Clemons-in spite of his accident, he keeps on cranking: Fitzgerald's expanding

[UPDATE]

steve was wrong and admits it...

steve, your energizer bunny impersonation is very realistic...

Well, news has just reached TWN that Patrick Fitzgerald is expanding not only into a new website -- but also into more office space.

Fitzgerald's office is at 1400 New York Avenue, NW, 9th Floor in Washington.

What I have learned is that the Office of the Special Counsel has signed a lease this week for expanded office space across the street at 1401 New York Avenue, NW.

Another coincidence? More office space needed to shut down the operation?

I think not. Fitzgerald's operation is expanding.

don't forget to take care of yourself, ok...?

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A call to Mom from a firefight in Iraq

man... this got the tear ducts working... can you imagine...?

"Hey Mom it’s me." Something my son always said every time he called, but this time his voice sounded unusual. He had a really serious tone in his voice and the automatic gunfire in the background was loud and more constant than usual. My heart began to race and I took a deep breath.

"Hey, I'm trapped on a rooftop and I don't think we are going to make it out of here, so I just called to tell you that I loved you and that I am thinking of all of you." The gunfire in the background was so loud that he had to pause, and then he continued. "We were out on patrol and were just getting ready to return to base and a bunch of our guys got overrun and so we went to help them, but when we got close we got overrun as well and had to retreat to this rooftop."

I could hear yelling in the background and then big explosions. The phone then seemed to be put on the ground and there was more yelling and automatic gunfire, but this time it was my son who was doing the shooting. My son picked up the phone and in an out of breath voice said, "I really don't think we are going to make it out of here alive."

by all means, go read it all...

(thanks to john at americablog...)

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Your call is very important to us...

i love it...

Prayers for White House indictments will be handled in the order in which they were received. Do NOT hang up and pray again. We are currently busy handling the prayers of other progressives. For more immediate service, you may visit our website. Your schadenfreude is very important to us, so please continue to hold and we will serve you as soon as we are available.

(from the huffington post...)

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How many Abu Ghraibs do we REALLY have...?

you KNOW they're out there...

U.S. human rights groups have denounced before the U.N. Human Rights Committee that there are perhaps dozens of secret detention centres around the world where Washington is holding an unknown number of prisoners as part of its "war on terror".

[...]

Priti Patel, an attorney and representative of the New-York based group Human Rights First, reported to the Committee members on the secret detention centres for individuals allegedly linked to terrorism.

"There are locations you know about, like Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib, and Bagram in Afghanistan," commented Patel, "but there are other locations which you know exist, but you don't know exactly how many or where they are."

According to Patel, these are transient facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan that are close to conflict zones, but move around, to wherever the United States decides.

"There are around 20 of them in Afghanistan, but you don't know how many people are being held there, and you don't know how they are being treated," Patel told IPS.

"And then there is the worst case scenario, which is you don't know even their location," she added.

For example, Patel remarked, "we don't know if people have been held in Diego Garcia (a small island in the Indian Ocean, home to a U.S. military base), but we have enough credible reports to make us believe it."

diego garcia is about as far from anything as it can be and still be on the planet... i had an air force navigator friend once who flew in and out of there... he couldn't believe how remote it was... it was a top secret installation then and that was nearly 30 years ago... its name pops up every now and then, usually in conjunction with some "black ops" story...

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Maybe this afternoon... [UPDATE]

(bumped)

[UPDATE]

(thanks to crooks and liars...)

I just got off the phone with Fitzgerald's office and the person I talked to was very cordial even after a long, hard day. I was told it would be highly doubtful if anything happened tonight. I asked for permission to print that and was told I could.

(thanks to think progress and richard sale writing on colonel w. patrick lang's blog, Sic Semper Tyrannis 2005...)

Indictments will be announced later this afternoon, according to former UPI reporter Richard Sale.

[UPDATE]

it's almost 6 p.m. EDT and still no announcement... looks like we'll be waiting another day...

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Best wishes to Steve Clemons

steve was in a minor car accident yesterday and, other than some back pain, is doing nicely... take care of yourself, steve... we need you out there...

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Yep, bankruptcy is the new business strategy... Take it or leave it...

and with the metaphorical gun to your head - the cuts or your job - what're ya gonna do...? ask the employees of united, northwest, delta, us airways, refco, and perhaps, soon-to-be, gm...

If Delphi Corp. has its way, workers for the nation's largest auto parts supplier would be paid as little as $9 per hour under 65% wage cuts, and be hit with a tenfold increase in health-care costs, no dental and vision care and other sharp reductions in benefits, according to a proposal revealed on the Web site of a UAW local.

The document shows for the first time the severity of the cuts the bankrupt company has told the union it needs to survive.

warren buffet had it right when he wrote about becoming a "sharecropper's society..."

"A country that is now aspiring to an 'Ownership Society' will not find happiness in--and I'll use hyperbole here for emphasis--a 'Sharecropper's Society,'" Buffett wrote. . ."

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Some thoughts on "Fitzmas..."

i'm having qualms about the "fitzmas" thing... not because of any religious hang-up but more because the country has been trashed so thoroughly by these irresponsible criminals that i find it hard to take cheer at indictments... besides, indictments are just the beginning... the whole trainload of shit is poised to hit the fan as soon as they're announced and we're going to be slogging through it for months, if not years, to come...

if fitz really has the goods, and i can only hope he does, it will be of sufficient gravity to force the whole gang, including george, to resign... however, from what i read, fitz is looking at possibly empaneling another grand jury to pick up where this one will leave off...

yeah, i'm impatient, i suppose... i guess i've just watched the deconstruction of our country for so long - since george stole the election in his first term - that i just desperately want to see it stopped and am not going to be in any mood to celebrate until it has...

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Good news...! Bush is backing off Davis-Bacon

oh, my...! bush BACKING OFF ANYTHING...?!?!? i don't suppose for one minute that he's really concerned about subsistence level workers being able to make a bare subsistence level wage...it's THE PRESSURE, GEORGE...!! go yell at your staffers some more... you'll feel better...

By Rep. George Miller (D-CA)

It was announced today that the President will overturn his Gulf Coast wage cut on November 8. This was a direct result of intense pressure from Democrats and labor and religious leaders.

(thanks to tpm cafe...)

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It looks like Rove and Libby - so far...

and rove's going to fight the charges, AFTER he resigns one would assume...

Special Prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald has asked the grand jury investigating the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson to indict Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby and Bush’s Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice, lawyers close to the investigation tell RAW STORY.

Fitzgerald has also asked the jury to indict Libby on a second charge: knowingly outing a covert operative, the lawyers said. They said the prosecutor believes that Libby violated a 1982 law that made it illegal to unmask an undercover CIA agent.

[...]

Those close to the investigation said Rove was offered a deal Tuesday to plead guilty to perjury for a reduced charge. Rove’s lawyer was told that Fitzgerald would drop an obstruction of justice charge if his client agreed not to contest allegations of perjury, they said.

Rove declined to plead guilty to the reduced charge, the sources said, indicating through his attorney Robert Luskin that he intended to fight the charges. A call placed to Luskin was not returned.

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Ralph Reed in the lead...?

The results of a three-day poll of 800 likely Georgia voters conducted by Strategic Vision, LLC from October 21-23, showed strong support for former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed.

now that's just wrong...

(ralph reed, from wikipedia...)

In 1981, Reed moved to Washington, D.C. to intern for Jack Abramoff, the newly elected Chairman of the College Republican National Committee and later the central figure in the Indian gaming scandal that would beset Reed's campaign for Lieutenant Governor. Abramoff promoted Reed in 1983, appointing him to succeed Grover Norquist as Executive Director of the CRNC. Norquist would later serve as President of Americans for Tax Reform, an anti-tax group that would serve as a fundraising conduit in the Indian gaming scandal.

At the CRNC, Abramoff, Norquist and Reed formed what was known as the "Abramoff-Norquist-Reed triumvirate." Upon Abramoff's election, the trio purged "dissidents" and re-wrote the CRNC's bylaws to consolidate their control over the organization. Reed was the "hatchet man" and "carried out Abramoff-Norquist orders with ruthless efficiency, not bothering to hide his fingerprints." (Nina J. Easton, Gang of Five: Leaders at the Center of the Conservative Crusade, page 142)

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Brownie was gonna resign anyway

Michael D. Brown was days away from announcing plans to resign as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency when Hurricane Katrina hit Aug. 29, according to e-mails released by separate House and Senate investigations into the government's flawed response to the disaster.

Sen. Susan M. Collins (R-Maine), chairman of the Senate investigation, questioned whether Brown's status played a role in the response.

"The fact that it appears that Michael Brown was planning to resign may explain in part his curious detachment during the Katrina catastrophe," Collins said.

that just has to be the lamest, most disgusting excuse for criminal negligence i could ever even imagine... i don't give a good goddam if he was planning to resign... one of the greatest disasters to hit the u.s. is in progress and he's FRIGGIN' DETACHED...?

(thanks to raw story...)

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Canadians see Americans as "rude, greedy and violent..."

if the shoe fits...

Pollster Michael Adams said Canadian views of the United States this month are the most unfavorable he has seen in 25 years. His findings coincide with the results of a survey of 17,000 Canadians in June by the Pew Research Center in which 53 percent viewed Americans as "rude, greedy and violent."

with a president who's rude, greedy and violent and a population that freely elected him, what's anyone who doesn't live here supposed to think...?

but, hey....! it's condi to the rescue...

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Ottawa Monday and Tuesday to try to soothe the rancor.

hmmm... guess not... maybe they should have sent karen hughes instead...

But her arrival served to remind Canadians of their irritation with the United States. In April, Rice pointedly canceled a visit to Canada as a diplomatic rebuke for its decision not to participate in the Bush administration's missile defense system. The decision broke a long tradition of visits to Canada by incoming secretaries of state.

The Toronto Star newspaper noted Monday that Rice visited 39 countries, traveled 167,366 miles and spent 357 hours in the air "before making the 90-minute hop to Ottawa."

when you try to make nice after flipping people off, they tend not to believe you...

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A damn good perception of the Democratic leadership

after suffering years of cynical apathy over the political situation in this country, cynicism so deep that i actually didn't vote in 1996, the horrors of buscho bestirred me to embrace the democrats once again in the person of howard dean... but, over the past year, it has been increasingly clear that the dem leadership is as bankrupt in its way as the r's, minus the megalomania and ideological fervor... susan douglas seems to be having the same struggle...

The Democratic leadership seems somehow unable to grasp the huge gap in outrage between them and their base. Go anywhere, talk to people who are Democrats or, poor souls, progressives, and the sheer fury of everyday people, if it could be harnessed, would solve this winter's upcoming energy crisis. People are not only enraged; they are also deeply worried.

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AMERICAblog asks: "Y2K?"

indeed... 2000 u.s. troops and unknown thousands of iraqis have given their lives and for what...?

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After so much intensity, how about something pretty

i received this today from my dear friend, slobodanka, in macedonia... she and her husband were returning last week from a short vacation and snapped this photo of dubrovnik, croatia, early in the morning on their drive out of town... i haven't been to dubrovnik but i understand it's a treasure... all the pictures i've seen have been equally as nice as this one...



Dubrovnik, Croatia,
overlooking the town
and the Adriatic Sea
October 2005

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A $250K anti-Miers media buy - by conservatives

A conservative group opposing Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers bought $250,000 of TV and radio time Tuesday to broadcast an advertisement nationwide calling for President Bush to withdraw her nomination.

bush better call in for an increase in the spending limit on his political capital charge card...

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Scott Ritter on an "embattled," "irresponsible" administration...

i have never gotten the impression that scott ritter wears a tin-foil hat...

"When you have an irresponsible administration like the Nixon administration, like this current administration, and they start to feel embattled, surrounded, they take on a fortress like mentality where everybody becomes the enemy."

Asked if he thought a staged terror attack was possible, a scenario previously considered by former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, Ritter responded,

"Yeah, you have people who have no regard for the rule of law. These aren't people who appreciate the Constitution, to them the Constitution is an impediment, it's an obstacle, it's something in the way, it's something to be avoided. They are married to an ideology of global domination, of global imperialism and they're not going to deviate from this."

it certainly seems as though that is what the increases in the terror threat level were all about - keeping people in fear so that the administration could keep doing as it pleased without too much scrutiny...

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The headline says it all

Bush Tries to Revive Support for Iraq War

[italics mine]

President Bush tried Tuesday to begin reviving U.S. support for the war in Iraq and reinvigorating his troubled presidency as the U.S. military death toll topped 2,000.

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Stop Bush from issuing pardons

i remember all too well the "friday night massacre" when richard nixon ordered the firing of special watergate prosecutor archibald cox... i also remember the pardons issued by gerald ford... i wouldn't put it past george to pull the same stunt...

evidently, rep. john conyers has the same itchy feeling... conyers has put together a petition to bush demanding that he not engage in such a short-circuit of justice... you can sign it here...

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Indictments tomorrow...? Steve Clemons has more...

steve has more inside sources than a dog has fleas...

An uber-insider source has just reported the following to TWN (since confirmed by another independent source):

1. 1-5 indictments are being issued. The source feels that it will be towards the higher end.

2. The targets of indictment have already received their letters.

3. The indictments will be sealed indictments and "filed" tomorrow.

4. A press conference is being scheduled for Thursday.

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Top CIA leak investigation falsehoods

along with the anti-spin, fitzgerald talking points i published the other day, media matters has also put together a compendium of falsehoods relating to the entire leak investigation... visit media matters for the complete run-down...

Falsehood: It is legally significant whether the leakers disclosed Plame's name in their conversations with reporters

Falsehood: Wilson said that Cheney sent him to Niger

Falsehood: Plame suggested Wilson for the trip to Niger

Falsehood: Wilson was not qualified to investigate the Niger claims

Falsehood: Plame's CIA employment was widely known

Falsehood: Fitzgerald must prove that Plame's covert status was leaked

Falsehood: Fitzgerald's investigation was originally limited to possible violation of 1982 law

Falsehood: Leak investigation is the result of partisan motivations

Falsehood: Leaks go on all the time in Washington

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Steve Clemons has a hot one

steve's been burning up the internet lately what with wilkerson's "cabal" speech, the first scoop on scowcroft's new yorker article, and, who knows, now this...?

This just in from a close friend who worked inside the pinnacle of Republican power in the Senate a few years ago, so while this is rumor -- it's Republican rumor, which makes it interesting:

Steve, just heard from trusted friend that McCain was approached about serving as VP if Cheney has "health problems" or otherwise steps down.

Beyond that, speculation that Miers will step down to be replaced by a Bork-like sub (even better, Bork himself...). In other words, Cheney takes a bullet, a titanic battle over SCOTUS ensued to change the subject. You didn't hear this from me, but feel free to pass on such unsubstantiated rumors.

The politics of distraction and wag-the-dog style political machinations happen in this town.

just something to keep the mind occupied while waiting for something big and verifiable to happen...

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Raw Story sez indictments presented to the Grand Jury

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has decided to seek indictments in the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson and has submitted at least one to the grand jury...

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Iraq constitution approved... A top Sunni disagrees...

Iraq's landmark constitution was adopted by a majority in a fair [italics mine] vote during the country's Oct. 15 referendum, as Sunni Arab opponents failed to muster enough support to defeat it, election officials said Tuesday.

it's still not clear that the referendum was conducted fairly...

A prominent Sunni politician called the balloting "a farce."

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National security decision-making "dictatorship"

wilkerson's at it again, this time leaving zero doubt about his intention to pull the curtain away from the nefarious white house methods of operation... it's brutal and, i am sure, shoe-leather honest...

(the los angeles times via steve clemons...)

In President Bush's first term, some of the most important decisions about U.S. national security -- including vital decisions about postwar Iraq -- were made by a secretive, little-known cabal. It was made up of a very small group of people led by Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

[...]

Its insular and secret workings were efficient and swift not unlike the decision-making one would associate more with a dictatorship than a democracy.

harsh words but no surprise to anyone who's been paying the least bit of attention... anyone with an eye for subtlety or with an ability to recognize patterns could see what was going on right from the day that george took office his first term...

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Bill "Kinky" O'Reilly

oooooooo, bill... you naughty, naughty boy...

"Now in the Great Depression, every American got spanked. And those Americans went to war during World War II and won the very intense conflict and showed bravery across the board, the Greatest Generation. The Greatest Generation, almost down to the man, was spanked, 'cause that's the way we did it in America."

(from media matters, the accuracy in media site, that o'reilly claims is "100% dishonest...")

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A flurry of headlines don't bode well for Bush

just a sample of the headlines from one paper, the washington post...

Presidents Past Inspire Bush's Damage Control

Rarely has a president confronted as many damaging developments that could all come to a head in this week. A special counsel appears poised to indict one or more administration officials within days. Pressure is building on Bush from within his own party to withdraw the faltering Supreme Court nomination of Harriet Miers. And any day the death toll of U.S. troops in Iraq will pass the symbolically important 2,000 mark.

Conservatives Escalate Opposition to Miers

Conservative activists intensified their opposition to the Supreme Court nomination of Harriet Miers yesterday, launching two Web sites and planning radio and television advertising aimed at forcing her withdrawal.

Bernanke Seen as Safe Pick For a White House in Straits

In nominating Ben S. Bernanke as the next Federal Reserve Board chairman, President Bush turned to a candidate for the job with unassailable credentials and enough distance from the White House to blunt charges of cronyism or ideological motivations, former White House officials and economists said yesterday.

and then there's this one from the nyt (which i can't excerpt because i refuse to spring for times select)... i am intrigued by the teaser, however, which suggests that nickie might be aiding and abetting the administration's spin campaign about the indictments...

Hurricane Fitzgerald Approaches the White House

It was wrong for prosecutors to cook up borderline indictments during the Clinton administration, and it would be just as wrong now in the C.I.A. leak case.

[UPDATE]

evidently i was right about kristof... atrios has given nick and the article his "wanker of the day" award...

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Cheney: the walls are closing in

tsk, tsk, tsk... bad dick... go to your room...

I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, first learned about the C.I.A. officer at the heart of the leak investigation in a conversation with Mr. Cheney weeks before her identity became public in 2003, lawyers involved in the case said Monday.

i'm tellin' ya what... when fitz lets the dam break, the flood's gonna take a lot of stuff down river...

[UPDATE]

steve clemons, as per usual, has an illuminating take on this, as steve puts it, "jaw-dropping" development...

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Border Film Project

(from the huffington post...)

Every day, thousands of undocumented migrants cross the U.S.-Mexico border looking for a better life for themselves and their families. This summer, we went to migrant houses in Mexico and distributed 400 disposable cameras in prepaid, self-addressed envelopes to potential migrants, instructing them to take pictures of their journey across the dangerous Arizona desert.

[...]

[W]e sent another 60 cameras to the controversial Minuteman Project volunteers and asked them to document their lives on the border. Both sets of photos will be developed, juried by a panel of politicians, community leaders, and artists, and shown at major art galleries in the coming months.

one of my best friends crossed the border illegally two and a half years ago to work construction with his brother who was already in the u.s... a year ago this month, he was killed in an automobile accident in kansas... he left behind a wife and a six year-old daughter in mexico... i am his daughter's godfather...

(visit the border film project here...)

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Marketing exploitation of children

if it's true in britain, it's equally true in the u.s...

[T]oday's average British child is familiar with up to 400 brand names by the time they reach the age of 10. Researchers report that our children are more likely to recognise Ronald McDonald and the Nike swoosh than Jesus. One study found that 69% of all three-year-olds could identify the McDonald's golden arches - while half of all four-year-olds did not know their own name.

[...]

Meanwhile, childhood obesity has tripled in the past 25 years. Nearly one in six British kids is overweight; 6% are obese. For the first time, children are being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, a disease previously thought to be confined to the over-40s.

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The KKK given permission to rally in Austin...???

against gays...???

The city has given permission of the Ku Klux Klan to hold a rally on Saturday, November 5. The group says they want to have a pro-family values rally in front of City Hall that afternoon to get voters to vote against gay marriage.

a rather amusing side note... here's the screen shot of kxan's kkk story... i placed a red asterisk next to the ad on the bottom right...



here's the ad enlarged...



(thanks to raw story...)

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Argentina election reaffirms Kirchner

with the economy growing in double digits, the candidates kirchner supported were heavily favored although an opposition candidate took a seat in the contested city of buenos aires race and several radical party candidates took seats in the provinces...

Argentina's President Nestor Kirchner has strengthened his support in legislative elections, in which his wife won a Senate seat.

[...]

According to exit polls, Mr Kirchner's allies will firmly control the Senate with 40 of 72 Senate seats, and 85-100 seats in the lower house of 257 deputies - still short of a majority.

[...]

Mauricio Macri . . . finished first in the voting in the capital, Buenos Aires. He beat Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa, who was backed by the president.

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Iraqi constitution in doubt - along with vote tallies

so much for all the "happy talk" and "purple thumb" spin coming out of the white house...

Two Sunni-dominated provinces in Iraq have rejected the country's draft constitution, according to partial results given by election officials.

Electoral rules mean the document will fail if three out of the 18 provinces vote "No" by two-thirds or more.

[...]

Now all eyes are on the largely Sunni province of Nineveh where the result is due to be announced within two days.

[...]

If the constitution were to fail, it would set the political process back by roughly a year.

New elections will be held in December and the resulting parliament would again undertake the task of producing another constitution, our correspondent says.

In Anbar, 97% of voters cast "No" ballots while it was 82% against in Salahuddin, electoral commission chief Abdel Hussein al-Hindawi told reporters, quoting preliminary figures.

nineveh is the province where the vote count has been in dispute...

According to the widely cited preliminary figures announced by the spokesman for the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq (IECI) in Nineveh, 326,000 people voted for the constitution and 90,000 against. Those figures were said to be based on results from more than 90 percent of the 300 polling stations in the province.

[...]

However, according to the U.S. military liaison with the IECI in Nineveh, Maj. Jeffrey Houston, the final totals for the province were 424,491 "no" votes and 353,348 "yes" votes. This means that the earlier figures actually represented only 54 percent of the official vote total -- not 90 percent, as the media had been led to believe. And the votes which had not been revealed earlier went against the constitution by a ratio more than 12 to 1.

as iraq teeters on the edge of civil war, the death toll for u.s. troops is close to surpassing 2000...

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Journalists in Iraq: U.S. forces are their biggest danger

today's news...

Three enormous bombs, one of them a cement-mixing truck packed with explosives, blew up near an Iraqi police post near the Palestine Hotel — home to many foreign journalists in Iraq. Police said 17 people were killed.

the above is what tends to make the news in this country because fingers can be pointed at the insurgents... it isn't the insurgency, however, that presents the biggest danger to journalists in iraq...

The US authorities in Iraq have been ranked as one of the biggest dangers to journalists in the world, worse than the regime in Georgia and Afghanistan in a new global survey of press freedom.

They have been ranked 108th by Reporters Without Borders, putting them just above Cambodia and only 11 places ahead of the Palestinian Authority in terms of safety.

The press freedom organisation said it had given the US its own separate ranking in the war-torn country because of the number of journalists killed by US army gunfire.

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Bernanke Fed Chairman

President Bush Monday nominated Ben Bernanke, chairman of his Council of Economic Advisers, to succeed Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.

let the googling begin...

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Bush: "...not some manager at McDonald's..."

"He's like the lion in winter," observed a political friend of Bush. "He's frustrated. He remains quite confident in the decisions he has made. But this is a guy who wanted to do big things in a second term. Given his nature, there's no way he'd be happy about the way things have gone."

Bush usually reserves his celebrated temper for senior aides because he knows they can take it. Lately, however, some junior staffers have also faced the boss' wrath.

"This is not some manager at McDonald's chewing out the help," said a source with close ties to the White House when told about these outbursts. "This is the President of the United States, and it's not a pleasant sight."

sorry but this story really pisses me off... i have been exposed to plenty of managers and executives "chewing out the help" and there's no goddam excuse for it... none... i don't give a rip whether it's mcdonalds or the white house... verbal abuse is verbal abuse...

i once had a consultant working for me... gracious, polite, professional - to ME... then one of the clerical staff came to me in tears because this gracious, polite, professional was in her face, yelling at her... i pulled the consultant aside and told her that my expectation was that she would treat ALL of us with dignity and respect, that such behavior was unacceptable and that, as soon as her day's gig with us was over, she would not be back...

to me, this article says more about bush than even a biography could... sure, he's under tremendous pressure... but HE'S the LEADER, goddamit... HE'S the one responsible for setting the tone, the example, the role model to be followed... instead he dumps his pressure on others... so much for his REAL character...

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In memoriam: Paul Wellstone

(from a memoir by john harris in today's washington post...)

One of the most joyful political careers of modern times came to an end three years ago tomorrow amid indelible sadness. [...] In a horrible instant, a beguiling and wildly improbable political and human story was over.

i had just flown in to minneapolis that day and was on the highway up to duluth when i heard the news... a terrible tragedy, still deeply felt...

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Death as a measure of success

Eager to demonstrate success in Iraq, the U.S. military has abandoned its previous refusal to publicize enemy body counts and now cites such numbers periodically to show the impact of some counterinsurgency operations.

and where's the numbers for the iraqi death toll...?

i have to confess, at one point in my life, many years ago, i would have accepted the reporting of such numbers without question... now, it just seems obscene...

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Banning the sale of firearms and ammunition in Brazil... [UPDATE]

[Bumped]

Partial results in a referendum show a clear majority of Brazilians have voted against a ban on gun sales.

With 90% of the votes counted, 64% rejected the ban and only 36% wanted firearm sales to the public outlawed. [...] Guns kill one person in Brazil roughly every 15 minutes, giving it the world's highest death toll from firearms.

too bad...

(yesterday's post below...)

i hope it passes...

[A] sudden shift in public opinion indicates that Brazilians could very well end up voting against a proposed gun ban in a referendum Sunday [tomorrow].

Up until September, the polls showed that over 70 percent of respondents planned to vote in favour of the prohibition on firearms sales. But with the referendum just around the corner, surveys now indicate that more people will vote against the initiative than for it.

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The real legacy of the Bush administration

A composite photo of George W. Bush
using photos of U.S. troops who have
given their lives in Iraq.

(this photo was circulated about the time the death toll for u.s. troops in iraq reached 1000... the photos are real but, tragically, the losses have now doubled... the photo also does not take into account the massive loss of iraqi lives, the true number of which may never be known...)

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Sen. George Allen, R-Va., says: "I think they should step down."

Asked whether Rove or Libby should step down in the event of an indictment, Sen. George Allen, R-Va., said: "I think they should step down. I do think that's appropriate ... if they're in the midst of an indictment."

how about cheney...? if cheney is indicted and resigns, shouldn't george offer to go too, out of solidarity if nothing else...?

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Frist hasn't "lost the public's trust..."

and you can claim that you haven't "lost the public's trust" because...?

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist says a federal investigation into his sale of stock in a family-owned hospital chain will affect his decision on whether he will seek the presidency in 2008. Frist, R-Tenn., said Saturday during a visit to Iowa — site of the nation's first presidential caucuses — that he has not lost the public's trust and wants people to "wait for the facts before passing judgment."

well, lessee... yeah, there's the stock sale... there's terri schiavo... there's justice sunday... there's the nuclear option... ok, ok... i trust you, bill...

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Gergen: Times and Miller "used" by White House

(from cnn reliable sources via atrios...)

Were Miller and "The Times" used by Iraqi exiles and by administration officials?

GERGEN: Clearly. Clearly they were used. And the administration was used as well, and it appears that intelligence agencies were used or misused by Chalabi and by -- and others did the same thing.

"the administration was used as well...?" puh-leeeze... let's keep clear about who was the "user" and who was the "usee..."

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Good ol' Howard... Can't resist telling the truth...

Continually explaining what you are against and tossing out negative attacks is not an agenda, despite Chairman Dean's claims."

such a shame that, in these dark days, truth-telling has been confused with being outrageous...

[Howard] Dean was asked Sunday by ABC "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos: "If [Fitzgerald] finishes his investigation without bringing indictments and without issuing a final report, will you accept that as the end of the matter?"

"No," Dean shot back. "Because I fundamentally don't think these are honest people running the government."

The top Democrat said that regardless of whether Fitzgerald brings any indictments, it's clear the White House engaged in a cover-up.

they came in as dishonest, they've been dishonest right along, and they'll go out as dishonest... it's a dna thing...

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Miers down the hole

one, two, three... FLUSH...!

"If you held the vote today, [Miers] would not get a majority either in the Judiciary Committee or the floor," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York. On the 18-member GOP-controlled committee, "there are one or two who said they'd support her as of now."

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Excerpt from Scowcroft's New Yorker interview on The Washington Note

steve clemons has an excerpt from scowcroft's interview posted... one of the most telling comments, in scowcroft's own words...

"I consider Cheney a good friend -- I've known him for thirty years. But Dick Cheney I don't know anymore."

(more at the new yorker...)

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Media Matters anticipates Fitzgerald attacks

media matters reminds us of a few of the salient points regarding patrick fitzgerald... keep these handy when the right's attack dogs are fully unleashed...

In anticipation of some of the claims we expect you'll be hearing a lot in the coming days and weeks, it's worth keeping a few things in mind:

* Fitzgerald was appointed U.S. Attorney by President Bush after being recommended by conservative Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-IL; no relation) and was named special prosecutor by the Bush Department of Justice. Bush has described his investigation as "dignified." Fitzgerald was given a broad mandate not limited to investigation of possible violations of any specific laws.

* "Leaks" may happen every day in Washington, as we're frequently told by pundits seeking to dismiss the seriousness of Plame's outing. But leaks of classified information that blow the cover of CIA agents and harm national security are far different from the run-of-the-mill leaks of a politician's position on a piece of legislation or of which consultant hates which members of Congress.

* Outing a CIA asset is serious. That's why former President (and former Director of Central Intelligence) George H.W. Bush said at the 1999 dedication of a CIA building named for him, "I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious, of traitors." And why then-RNC chairman Ed Gillespie conceded in a 2003 interview with MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews that the outing of Valerie Plame would be "worse than Watergate."

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Big Brother coming to a college or university near you

chip, chip, chip, chippin' away...

The federal government, vastly extending the reach of an 11-year-old law, is requiring hundreds of universities, online communications companies and cities to overhaul their Internet computer networks to make it easier for law enforcement authorities to monitor e-mail and other online communications. [...] The Justice Department requested the order last year, saying that new technologies like telephone service over the Internet were endangering law enforcement's ability to conduct wiretaps "in their fight against criminals, terrorists and spies."

criminals, terrorists and spies - oh, my...!

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