Poetic justice on so many levels.

No Kidding………unreal the depths of moral vacuity in the service of greed.

Who will be the first reporter to ask Bush the following:

If Iran is such a threat, why does your White House still employee Karl Rove, the man who treasonously betrayed the identity of a CIA agent who was working to stop Iran from getting nukes?

Ask the question.

xyz — yes that is the question now, isn’t it?

nobody said fitz?

ok, I did it

fitz!

Good to see a national reporter doing some good work.

But the WashPo says it was a “Good Leak”, so I guess we are all wrong. :)

Fitz! Maybe he can work the question into the next GJ meeting.

the Plame/Iran story has hit Eschaton and TalkLeft too. This story has legs now … even the DCCC blog has it http://www.dccc.org/stakeholde.....04660.html

now for my comment;

first, holy crow,valery is hot!

second;

I can’t believe nobody is doing the leg work to find out what was lost when brewster jennings and assiciates had to close shop from this exposure of our assets.

brewster jennings and associates is the undelying reality and I hope someone can get larry johnson to come in here and comment

I also hope some of the journalists that frequent this site understand that this is where they need to do some more research if they want to discover what really happened to some of our most valuable covert assets

(CBS/AP)

(CBS) With gas prices sky-high and no end of the Iraq war in sight, President George W. Bush’s approval rating hits an all-time low in a new CBS News poll.

Only 33 percent approve of his job performance, Mr. Bush’s lowest approval rating yet in CBS News polls. A majority – 58 percent of those polled – say they disapprove of the president. Mr. Bush appears to be losing support from his own party. His approval rating among Republicans has dropped to 68 percent. (Read the complete poll results here.)

Mr. Bush’s ratings are even lower on the issues dominating news coverage: near-record gas prices and the war in Iraq.

The poll found that 74 percent of Americans disapprove of the president’s handling of the gas crisis. Even more think that the administration has not developed a good plan to get gas prices under control.

Jane,
The problem is, once again, that without documents to back it up, no one will give credence to the “Plame was working on Iran” story. And that will require a whistleblower brave enough to leak the documents. I would hope someone would come forward now, because such a revelation could help prevent any actions against Iran.

4 Jane Hamsher says:

May 1st, 2006 at 3:53 pm
xyz — yes that is the question now, isn’t it?

an excellant question and one for the press corp

I would also like to see someone ask the president or snow if they renounce the progject for a new american century

I want to see them go on record with that question

I also want to see the president go on record and asked if he is a “dispensationalit” (a person that wants to bring on the battle of armageddon so to rush the rise to heaven)

OT / probably already mentioned / this may reassure Redd that at least Rush isn’t getting “special treatment” in one regard: random drug testing.

Limbaugh will face drug tests under deal
Talk host agrees to prosecutors’ terms in settling painkiller charge

GW Clusterfuck scores another career low in the latest CBS poll. His 33% is the lowest JAR ever recorded for him by CBS. Clusterfuck was at 37% in last month’s poll.

Jane - thanks.

We need to get a concise version of this question out into the popular consciousness.

It says it all, really.

OT - I’m so sorry - EPU’d! - but maybe that’s a rite of passage. This does belong on the last post - but is it possible that Fitzgerald already had the Rove/Hadley e-mail from Hadley?

Treason, motherfuckers, treason!

(re-posted from previous thread)

Congrats for David Schuster. Next new territory… “Brewster-Jennings� This complex dimension of Plame’s work deserves to become more well-known, and analysed.

PS - Best case: Wed. = Rove sealed indictment; Thurs. = press conference for Friday announced at Fitz Web site; Fri. = Rove indictment announced, and Fitz press conf.

You have to wonder if Team Libby is rethinking its demand for the CIA’s damage assessment…

somebody said plame had discovered that some neocons were trying to sell america’s nuclear technology on the black market & not just to iran — the neocons want us to become so entangled in the middle east that we need to stay there forever — that’s part of chalabi’s job: all along he’s been stirring the pot just exactly as the neocons told him to do, which is why they’ve rewarded him by bringing him back as consultant

“Mr. Snow - how long will it take before the President defends our country against traitors in our midst by firing Karl Rove, the man who betrayed the identity of a CIA agent who was fighting to stop Iran from getting the Nuclear Bomb?”

Didn’t Bob Woodward say that his “sources” indicated that the Plame outing was no big deal. That an assessment was done and it wasn’t bad. Woodward is such a tool.

The media will probably describe the “outing” of Brewster-Jennings as incompetent bumbling, as opposed to deliberate sabatoge, which is what I think this whole Plame affair was about.

And then there is also that cute little Libby quaking aspen line in his welcome back to the fold missive to JudyJudyJudy. Something about Iran in it wasn’t there?

Apparently Clusterfuck hasn’t bottomed out yet in the polls. He’s got a pretty weighty bottom.

Or, even more simply:

“Mr. Snow: Why does the President employ traitors”

without documents to back it up, no one will give credence

I disagree. I think many average people will believe it if they hear it from the mainstream TV media.

Scooter to Judy:

You went into jail in the summer. It is fall now. You will have stories to cover – Iraqi elections and suicide bombers, biological threats and the Iranian nuclear program. Out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning. They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them. Come back to work – and life. Until then, you will remain in my thoughts and prayers.

We all suspected from the get-go that outing Plame was seriously damaging. Horrible result (deliberate or not) - but it’s good to see some validation of that reality, finally. May the perps be hoisted by their own petards.

You will have stories to cover – Iraqi elections and suicide bombers, biological threats and the Iranian nuclear program.

Yayy!!!
I think part of the anger from your rank and file towards Joe/Valerie is envy.
Clinton envy too.

heart pounding, head reeling, skin crawling…

Make America have a chance again– expose it all and get rid of the traitorous, undead carrion feeders in this administration and their loyal followers.

Put them all on trial and let the world see.

*ilson46201 28

Thank you - that is exactly what I was misremembering! The clusterfuck roots are slowly being exposed, aren’t they?

Bush needed to get the inspectors out of Iraq since they could prove there were no WMD….
maybe Ms. Plame’s outfit could have proven Iran was so far away from making a nuke that Bush et al would have no reason to invade…..

1,039 DAYS AND THE KILLING GOES ON AND ON…

Mike Majiia,

“…that will reqire a whistleblower brave enough to leak the documents.”

No Mike, since it has showed up on the prime time corporate media, the whistle has blown. If the administration goes after Shuster or his sources, they draw attention to the charges and it doesn’t matter if they expose the source and keep the documents hidden…the story is out and it can’t be pushed aside.

This is the beginnin’ of the end for this administration…no diversionary issue like gay marriage er concentration camps fer immigrants will push this or the indictments that are comin’ off the screen. Every Republican candidate for office from Senate ta dog catcher is gunna hafta deal with treasongate and this criminal administration.

KEEP THE FAITH BUT KEEP YER CHILDREN INDOORS, THE SHIT IS REALLY COMIN’ DOWN NOW!!!

That is, aspen roots = neocon lies.

I am not a Plame expert so forgive me if I get some of the details wrong but I wanted to point out this from swopa on April 28 about the Rove Hadley email:

“Note what’s missing there? That’s right, any mention of Joseph Wilson’s wife, the former Valerie Plame.”

Cooper says he talked to Rove about Plame and in consequence Rove suddenly finds an email. Yet the email doesn’t mention her.

The meme here should reflect the reality, which is that the Neo-Conservatives don’t give a flying fuck about the United States, it’s Constitution, it’s people, or their security. They never have and they never will.

Not to preach to the choir here, but I assume we all understand that the Neo Cons are essentially a criminal cabal, or somewhat more sophisticated “crime family”, and they care exclusively about two things: money and power, with those two items to be held in large concentrations by as small an elite as possible.

Once this is understood treasonable actions like the Plame outing are totally predictable.

“The problem is, once again, that without documents to back it up, no one will give credence to the “Plame was working on Iran†story.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3080466/

“Shuster headed up the MSNBC “ad watch team,†fact checking and analyzing more than 150 campaign commercials throughout the course of the election.”

It’s about time the press picked up on this story. Why does it happen so often that stories are out there for months in the UK press or the blogosphere before the US media wakes up and says, hey! Lookit this!

That having been said, Shuster’s been doing a good job. Slowly, ever so slowly, the press seems to be waking up.

Hugh #37, the email was supposed to prevent Cooper from testifying at all. If it had been taken at face value, without any documents from TIME, it might have worked.

The Hardball repeat is on now, if anyone wants to catch it.

NorskeFlamethrower -

Seriously, this is what happens when you F with the CIA.

The CIA protects its own. This was going to get out eventually.

And the more the Bush administration tries to tamp down on CIA leaks, the more pissed off people at the CIA will get, and the more leaks will spout.

Bush F’d with the wrong agency.

And with Porter Goss falling into possible hooker scandals, his time and attention will be diverted from investigating leaks to trying to survive the public storm.

I know that the clannishness, vengefulness and secrecy of the CIA has been responsible for great evil over the course of the last century, but right now I am grateful that the CIA’s wrath is now being vented at the appropriate targets.

Schuster rules.

If it can be established that Ms. Plame was indeed working on Iranian nuclear research, then even a few conservatives might want to see the leakers executed. I am opposed to the death penalty, but if this doesn’t count as aiding and abetting our enemies during a time of war, it’s hard to imagine what might qualify for that description. Certainly life in prison would not be an excessive penalty in my book.

Think of it: the leakers (Rove, Cheney, Libby, Bush, whoever it was, not to mention Novak et. al.) may have allowed the crazies in Iran just enough leeway to get their hellish devices built five or ten years down the road. They risked the lives of millions for what? For political payback.

Does this rise to the level of lying about sex? Whadduya think?

ITMF’s A (note the plural)

…me o my oh. son of a gun, we’ll have big fun on the Bayou building up the gulf coast with bottom dollar labor as our dollar tumbles…meohmyoh…son of a Bush we’ll have some gumbo on the Bayou..bayonet Rove in his buttocks on the bayou, me oh my oh…send out Scooter an’ let all de pukes drown in the bayou!

The question in my mind is:

Fitzgerald knows…what is he going to do about it?

This assumes he already knew it…I’d say it is a fair bet he’s known for some time given that we know that intelligence officials have been cooperating with him.

regarding the Libby love letter:

biological threats and the Iranian nuclear program.

OK, I’ll bite, what biological threats?

this is a bit creepy.

#20 Harald Hardada,

And no one is saying that Valerie Plame’s team stopped VX shipments in Turkey that were bound for Iraq.

As for nuclear technology and Iran, it was simply part of her beat as counterproliferation director, Mideast Region. It was her department’s job to keep the bad stuff out of Iran, so it was ipso facto damaging.

And as for Brewster-Jennings, it was outed by the WaPoo at White House behest well before Valerie was. More to this iceberg than meets the eye, and I echo the sentiments of others here who hope that some journalist is building the dossier that becomes The Book. The story will out, just a question of when. Ummm, sooner would be good.

Introducing the next press secretary of the Progressive WH– Daaa-vid Shuster!!

Harald Hardrada 20, some neocons were trying to sell america’s nuclear technology on the black market & not just to iran —

There have been suggestions that that’s part of what Sibel Edmonds’ gag order prevents her from talking about.

Hmmm.

This revelation is going to make it a whole hell of a lot harder to swiftboat Fitz if and when he comes down with indictments on Rove.

Norske #35:

The timing of this story almost makes me wonder if someone in the intel community is responding to the Gossish Inquisition with a high-and-inside fastball of his/her own.

Then again, maybe it’s just coincidental.

Schuster is no fool and understands the import of his Plame/Iran story. He also has editors and they OKed this story. It definitely raises the whole Plamegate Kerfuffle to a Certified Brouhaha.

David Derbes:

IMTFs???definition

She was working on nukes in Iran?

That quite a missing piece. It makes me wonder if there’s an element of the whole story that we’re not hearing yet.

Big, huge National Security thing that’s just behind the curtain, just barely out of reach, but soon…

michael ledeen and doug feith. these two have to be right in the middle of the nougat. or at least under the hottest, most radio-active rock. and in the nearestby rock is chalabi

I’m delighted that VP’s actual work and cover are finally being talked about in the msm, but really what took everyone so long?

I remember a slew of fascinating posts at the time of the Libby indictment at TPM Cafe about revealing Plame’s identity and the damage it did to Brewster Jennings, a 20+ year old CIA cover company.

It was already reported then that Plame specialized in tracking and securing nuclear materiel from the Soviet bloque and the CIA was livid that BushCo had ruined such an important CIA cover company–20+ years, with all the contacts that longevity entailed–as well as degrading our ability to fight the GWOT by wrecking an important part of our ability to track nuclear materials in old Soviet bloque and the -stans.

All to smear the former ambassador to Iraq (who served with real courage in the first Gulf War) for speaking out and telling the truth.

hey xyz–

The Agency is full of wrongheaded patriots. You’re absolutely right about the “great evil”. But these people are true believers. Not crony capitalists. They absolutely despise the neo-cons. Bush is completely fucked.

One other interesting point:
I’m wondering if this means someone in the CIA has decided it was time to apply more pressure on the Bush administration.

Further, it could mean someone in the CIA has not yet been expelled by Goss. Also, it could be retaliation AGAINST Goss and his Bush handlers for firing that other agent.

So many possibilities!

xyz 43: Beat me to it.

Can anyone imagine the congressional right trying to protect or defend this? Pat Roberts? Hastert? Frist? Would they even try?

MarcLord #49
And as for Brewster-Jennings, it was outed by the WaPoo at White House behest well before Valerie was.

When did WaPo write about Brewster Jennings before July 14, 2003? Never heard this before, so I’m curious.

Judy was a co-author on a book about Biological Weapons http://www.amazon.com/gp/produ.....oding=UTF8

she was involved in the Anthrax Attacks (remember those?) and allegedly even received some nasty powder at her workplace (then the NYTimes). She was definitely a player in that story…

watertiger’s on it

the real target

Hi everybody, my name is Sharkbabe and I’m a fitzaholic.

whatevah, susan…

I can’t WAIT to hear the spin on this one.

The whole attempt by Goss/Bush to “purge” the CIA of anyone who wasn’t a party loyalist was foolhardy.

Even if they fired all the career agents, the agents can still leak about what they know about the first several years of Bush’s presidency, which is plenty.

And with a lot of career agents being jettisoned from the CIA, it certainly frees up a lot of the “retirees’” time to nurse grudges, put together paperwork, call reporters, etc.

Scooter to Judy:

“You will have stories to cover – Iraqi elections and suicide bombers, biological threats and the Iranian nuclear program.”

*ilson46201, you wouldn’t be suggesting that each of these issues in Libby’s mind required complicit journalists to spread organized, pre-packaged misinformation via the country’s elite media?

Would you?

somebody in here today earlier said this White House gang are such fuckups that they could start a fire by pissing on a wall . . .

From DailyKos - It appears Mr. Snow has some explaining to do:

From the February 3 edition of Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor: SNOW: Very quickly — very quickly, you got this Valerie Plame case. Now, it turns out that [special counsel] Peter (sic: Patrick) Fitzgerald doesn’t — can’t even identify any harm. She wasn’t a covert agent. She wasn’t compromised. As a result, what you’re doing is possibly sending a senior administration official off about a faulty memory over something that wasn’t a crime. Meanwhile, you got [CIA director] Porter Goss saying that there’s serious damage here. Don’t you think this deserves at least an opportunity to try to figure out what happened? CROWLEY: Well, I’ll take exception with you. The fact that we had a covert operative that was exposed, it’s possible. SNOW: She wasn’t covert anymore. Even her husband says she wasn’t covert for six years.

Hi Sharkbabe, My name is Clare and I belong to the cult of Branch Hamsherians, we worship the 11th muse > . . .

Karl is practicing for his next GJ appearance:

http://derenegade.blogspot.com.....ottie.html

I truly don’t get why ’suicide bombers’ are included in Scooters To-Do List for Judy . . . the other stories require expert flacks to hype (catapult) the propaganda.

zennurse:
I can imagine it. These bastards aren’t smart enough to be embarrased.

#66 - Hi, Sharkbabe! (waves) The meetings here are the best–all the support for your habit you’d ever need.

Sounds like Karl might be wearing a tight collar at the end of the day after all.

I heard about this angle of the story well over 18 moths ago, so like the hookergate story it’s been swirling but MSM has been loath to go to print on it. Dicey proposition, writing about super secret stuff without compounding the problem. Maybe someone should ask Seymour Hersh what he thinks about this story. It would seem to me that he’s the kind of guy who always has a book up his sleeve.

The Colbert speech with the Rove sitting a couple tables away from Wilson and Wilson’s wife was powerful.

The jpeg workup I couldn’t post till I got home:

www.bgladd.com/The_Disgracer_in_Chief.jpg

He thinks COLBERT gave him a rough time? I’d love to tell him to his face what I think of him, narcissistic criminal prick.

Abusing the CIA as they’ve done just shows the utter contempt of these guys and their overweening arrogance. And W’s Oedipal madness. The Agency and the Pentagon have both had more than enough and the long knives are officially out.

Goss will go somehow, probably with panties on his head, in a Clinton-era redux pushback.

We’ll see lots more generals on parade, and more ex-analysts too. It’s been said before, but who every would have thought that we’d be rooting for the CIA?

I figured this was what was going on. The idea that they’d risk so much simply to discredit Wilson — one of many war critics — never seemed right to me.

But it MIGHT be worth it if they could effectively distract from the real prize — say, dismantling the Iran investigation — by taking a little heat for playing hardball with Wilson. I guess they never counted on anyone having the spine to really look into it.

What cynical, morally bankrupt bastards.

Hi, Sharkbabe! Indeed, Jane, Christy and Pach are powers much, much higher than I am–and I am so grateful to them.

okay guys, I just watched the Shuster report on HB, and not a single follow up question from the feathered one - que ?

BobbyG, good pic. “Coward One” — so true.

“Branch Hamsherians” LOL!!!

Yeah, but instead of Kool-aid, we drink Aussie Shiraz and 18 year old single malt. And we are forensic-epistemological “Lutherans.”

Leslie in CA -

Thanks. Thinkin’ about adding a thought bubble comin’ from the dude in red, “Yeah, right, valiant defender of the TANG NCO Club No-Fly Zone.”

This came up in a news story or two several months ago.

Not to burst anyone’s bubble, but if any of the broadcast or print “journalists” bothered to read the available published stories out there…

… this would have broke weeks ago.

Bobby, some of us stick to elaborate coffees and mineral water, dear, having adequately sampled the grog in a former life. But we partake in repartee with great enthusiasm as part of the rites of Hamsherism. I am, first and foremost, a minion.

cbl 85, maybe Tweety didn’t get his fax from Mehlman in time.

So this is what Judge Tatel was referring to in his finding way back when? Something about “grave issues of national security” or something like that?

Sombrero, we are well aware and our bubble is not burst. It is the media bubble that has burst, this information will not be confined to the netroots now and will travel wide for all to see. That’s the cause for celebration, sad as it is.

KO is gonna cover Colbert!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY.

zennurse -

I also grind my own beans and keep cases of Pellegrino on hand, and had reached my Lifetime Permissible Dose of Quervo by age 27 (33 years ago).

But, right now I’m gonna pop open a bottle of Shiraz and go watch Keith.

;)

BobbyG, I think the guy’d be thinking something a lot ruder than that . . . don’t you?

Pretty damn RUDE of a comedian to MAKE FUN of a president in public who has lied to take us to war and has apparently broken laws with impunity. The NERVE of that guy. I can certainly understand why the press is ANGRY at him- and right in front of his WIFE too!

on the replay, M$NBC wisely cut Tweety’s fatuous remark about Colbert was so bad because he didnt realize Bush is the Head-of-State, not just another politician…

wise editors!

rwcole # 97–Just wondering if lump o’ stepford boyfriend killer got choked up watching and hearing the truthiness the other nite… like Mrs. Scaleslito.

nope– the icy slushy grey stuff lumbering thru her veins does not allow feelings– even fake ones. Learned that from Babs.

Reporter Charlie Savage is on Countdown right now. He looks 12 years old. :)

JWR:

I never bought the idea that outing Plame was political payback to Wilson. Always thought it had more to do with Brewster-Jennings. But, there was a lot more going on there B-J than just investigating Iran- a whole mess of intertwined neo-con stuff- and I think that the fact that this has come back to bite them in the butt re: Bush’s threats to Iran is ironic, bec. I don’t think that was necessarily the first, or prime reason that B-J was a threat to the neo-cons. Y’know, Bush may have been stupid enough to buy the line that it was “political payback” for Wilson, but I think whoever got the ball rolling had something more sinister in mind (or something more sinister to protect). Ledeen to Rove to Bush.

And, from the venerable WaPo http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....Found=true
===Karl Rove, the most powerful adviser in the White House, serves as President Bush’s eyes and ears. But who serves as Rove’s eyes and ears while he toils in the bubble of the West Wing? [..]
Rove is widely considered Bush’s most powerful aide because of his long history with Bush and his status as one of three (with Vice President Cheney and Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr.) who routinely command private audiences with Bush. Though he is Bush’s top political aide, Rove also has a seat at daily White House policy meetings, and his network of advisers includes those who talk to him about terrorism and foreign policy.

One is Michael Ledeen of the American Enterprise Institute, whose specialties include terrorism and the Middle East. His latest book, according to the official summary, asserts that “America must topple the regimes of the terror masters to eliminate the threat of terrorism.”

The two met after Bush’s election. “He said, ‘Anytime you have a good idea, tell me,’ ” Ledeen said. Every month or six weeks, Ledeen will offer Rove “something you should be thinking about.” More than once, Ledeen has seen his ideas, faxed to Rove, become official policy or rhetoric. ===

xyz—“Mr. Snow - how long will it take before the President defends our country against traitors in our midst by firing Karl Rove, the man who betrayed the identity of a CIA agent who was fighting to stop Iran from getting the Nuclear Bomb?â€

Yes. THIS IS IT. Who will be the hero to ask this question??

Helen Thomas comes to mind.

The bombshell that Valerie Plame was working on Iran WMD matters and that her mission was compromised when her identity was betrayed is significant in two ways that are not immediately obvious:

1. This revelation makes it much more difficult for the administration to successfully swiftboat Fitz or impugn the investigation as politically motivated.

2. It also makes it much more difficult for Bush to get away with pardoning anyone. Any attempt by Bush to pardon Rove or Libby would have immense consequences, up to and including impeachment. In other words, Bush does not need to simply worry about the midterms - he needs to worry about the security of his office itself.

Bush cannot simply wait until after the midterms to pardon, because, now that the American people know the significance of the treason that has occurred, impeachment may be a real threat if he were to pardon at ANY time during his presidency.

In turn, Libby and Rove, seeing their chances of a pardon diminishing, may start to see the virtues of cooperation in a clearer and more positive light.

egregious @ 102

My money’s on Stephen Colbert

Michael Ledeen -

“Every ten years or so the United States needs to pick up some crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show the wolrd we mean business.”

Such has been the BushCo mindset since Day One.

xyz’s question needs to be faxed and emailed to EVERY SINGLE PERSON working in the mass media. There is no more critical question, unless it be, do we as Americans support the first strike use of nuclear weapons on a whim because we feel like being bullies.

Somebody, somewhere, STOP US: world, we are calling out to you.

I’m a Branch Hamsherian, but on alternate Sundays, I attend services at the Redd Headian Temple and the First Pachacutecian Church.

I was out of town for a few days with my family. I have returned with a sunburn and an infestation of anti-FDL trolls at my blog.

Turn your back for a minute and they’re everywhere.

I heard Stephen Colbert was on tv the other night. What happened?

(kidding)

Marclord at 49:

I’m not finding a story in the WaPo in the on-line archives any earlier than Oct. 2003.

Do you have a link - or at least a citation?

Bobby G- but do you get my point that the relationship bet. B-J and Iran nukes was not the whole story, and that there might be some “irony” here? What do you think about the Ledeen- Rove- Bush angle? And that Bush may have been played?

Valley Girl says
May 1st, 2006 at 5:12 pm

Thanks for that. And isn’t that crazy Milroie(sp) woman also a well known policy advisor? I saw a story in The Guardian shortly after the Hersh - Iran story came out stating that Rove was vehemently opposed to striking Iran. I always thought Rove was more an electoral, as opposed to a foreign policy wonk, but all bets are off if he’s taking advice from Ledeen.

ok, me to me has good questions too.

Does the US government officially repudiate PNAC?

Does the US government desire or not desire Armageddon by inciting nuclear war/destroying Temple Mount/starting WWIII for real?

Does the US government approve actions leading to the alleged ‘Rapture’ despite the Bible saying NO ONE EXCEPT GOD KNOWS WHEN THE END OF TIME IS??

Are we happier knowing that I looked up how to spell Armageddon? TRUTH IS IMPORTANT, in matters large and small.

For history: GOD FORGIVE US.

xyz definitely sees the political angle to the Plame/Iran story. Outting a ‘covert CIA agent’ sounds bad but is awfully abstract. Connecting her work to opposing the Big Bad Boogey Man *I*R*A*N* puts things in a very different light.

“Myrtle, you mean to tell me that idiot Bush just pardonned somebody who wrecked a spy network against Iran? We need a Congress that can handle that fool — maybe impeach him or sumtin!”

egregious,

I would actually encourage everyone to take a crack at refining the question b/c it isn’t grammatically perfect right now.

If you keep all of the elements in there and make it a bit more elegant and more concise, I think it could be most deadly.

But, that being said, it is pretty good the way it is…

JWR- Milroie(sp) woman also a well known policy advisor?

Sorry, missed that- was that in WaPo, or elsewhere? Doesn’t ring a bell.

Please take a few moments to appreciate these flash animations by a 15 year old peace activist from Alabama. They are just wonderful.

http://peacetakescourage.cf.huffingtonpost.com/

Iraq: war of aggression. Iran: second war of aggression.

Treason trials. War crimes. The Hague.

We are the new Germany.

WORLD: stop us

*ilson46201 -

Exactly - this has moved from a possibly victimless crime to an act of treason that hurt america’s efforts to fight a war on terror. We may never know how many agents died because of this leak, or how many Americans and others may die because this important work to monitor Iran’s nuclear program was undermined by Traitors.

from a lurker #82

If Goss goes, it may not be with panties on his head. We shouldn’t assume that these were female prostitutes. In Manhattan, for instance, the Police Department makes a big show every few years of rounding up bunches of female prostitutes but that’s only because male prostitutes enjoy the patronage of so-called straight political leaders

Of course, we are all members in good standing of
The Redderalist Society

xyz says:
May 1st, 2006 at 5:16 pm

Doesn’t this revelation also preclude a greymail defense?

now we see why the wingnuts were so frantic to poo-poo Ms. Plame’s covert status into just another Langley desk jockey — to make it into a ‘victimless crime’ — wrecking a spy ring against Iran is awfully hard to justify (except in Tehran)

xyz re grammar, i think what we’re doing is deadly enough. So many Iraqi civilians killed. Children handcuffed and shot in the head with a bullet. WHY????

Weapons of mass destruction? Uh…no. Replacing a dictator with a democracy…uh…no. Oil belongs to us/US? Sure!!

FALLUJAH civilians burned to a crisp with our use of white phosphorus.

WAR CRIMES. WE ARE KILLING PEOPLE WHY?????????

The best of the bestest clips of SC on KO!

Valley Girl - Not in the WaPo, but she has a long history with the neo-cons and I seem to remember hearing that her book, about Saddam being behind the OKC bombing, was being read in the WH. This article has a lot of info on Mylroie:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.c.....ergen.html

disappointing to see olbermann take the wdc line on colbert.

egregious says:
May 1st, 2006 at 5:24 pm

How is PNAC, whose parent nonprofit has revenues of under one million dollars in the most recent form 990 I was able to find, able to exert so much influence? AIPAC’s revenues amount to approximately 40 million dollars. When time permits, I need to look at the most recent form 990 for the American Enterprise Institute.

What other nonprofits do we need to conduct more research on?

Valley Girl -

Yep. Absolutely.

(btw- just enhanced by pic of the day, click my name)

wow, olbermann really sucked tonight. the president won? won what?

Much as I do so enjoy all our little chats on tactics and stratergery should we not turn our attention at some stage to the topic of LOGISTIC’S?

I mean moving out half a million or so ‘ War on Drug’s’ prisoners to make room for all the Republican’s?

Milbank: the networks call the shots in this business.

all of his other hoopla, not so much. but that was a stunner.

http://www.editorandpublisher......1002425872

===Records of Abramoff Meetings at White House To Be Released
WASHINGTON The Secret Service has agreed to turn over White House visitor logs that will show how often convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff met with Bush administration officials — and with whom he met.

[…]The visitor logs are to be delivered to Judicial Watch by May 10.

Bush’s spokesman has said Abramoff attended ”a few staff-level meetings” at the White House, as well as Hanukkah receptions in 2001 and 2002.

The president has said he does not know Abramoff personally. When a photo of Bush with Abramoff surfaced earlier this year, the president said he has his picture taken with ”a lot of people.” In the 2001 photo, Bush is shaking hands with a leader of an Indian tribe. Abramoff is in the background.

A few days after Bush made the remarks about the photo, Abramoff expressed surprise in e-mails to a magazine editor about the president’s faulty memory. Abramoff told the Washingtonian magazine that he had met with Bush nearly a dozen times and that Bush knew him well enough to joke with him.

Three former business associates of Abramoff also told The Associated Press that Abramoff often mentioned White House adviser Karl Rove when talking about his influence inside the White House.

Abramoff was a $100,000 fundraiser for Bush and lobbying records obtained by the AP show his lobbying team logged nearly 200 meetings with the administration during its first 10 months in office on behalf of one of his clients, the Northern Mariana Islands.===

Atrios has a pink work-out pony, with an Eye of Horus sweat band . . .

Now, That’s HOT!!!

Dana Milbank does’t think Colbert was funny. What Dana Milbank doesn’t understand is that there really isn’t anything funny about George W. Bush.

Libby to Miller: You will have stories to cover – Iraqi elections and suicide bombers, biological threats and the Iranian nuclear program.
>>>
Ok we’ve got everything except the biological threats. October surprise? Avian flu imaginary emergency? One American allegedly dies of avian flu in October in a completely fact-free incident. Panic/martial law/cancel the elections. Rumsfeld has already made $5,000,000 from avian flu vaccine.

Folks: unless there is demonstrated person-to-person transmission, avian flu is small potatoes compared with a great many other biological threats. Of course those other threats are not being enhanced by the neocon
new big brother government. They plan to scare us into submission and use our military for their benefit until the military is exhausted [we are close to that, n’est pas?]

What other nonprofits do we need to conduct more research on?

how about those vanity projects of cliff may — foundation for defense of democracies. it’s only a couple of years old.

and frank gaffney — center for security policy — another middle aged man living off his sugar daddy.

Framing the questions here is critical. Is this why Bolton said today that the WH may stop televising press briefings?? Why would Snow take the job if he’s not on teevee every day?

If only the MSM had the balls to refuse to go if it is not televised.

ck 133

woah, Nellie!

Ride a painted pony, let the spinning wheel spin…

What goes down must go down even further.

Milroie(sp) woman also a well known policy advisor?

They’re talking about Laurie Mylroie, who co-wrote a book with Judas Miller about Saddam Hussein. She works at AEI now (I think). She’s crazy and an idiot, one of loudest cuckoo clocks chiming about Saddam as an imminent threat viz a viz WMDs of all stripes and behind the majority of anti-US terrorism.

In other words, get her the padded cell already. She’s that fucking stupid, and that fucking nuts.

BobbyG 128

that picture is so…uncodly

What the media wanted to see Saturday

What they actually saw

Bobby G- that is a brilliant graphic. I am going to print it out and post on the local bulletin boards (real, not virtual bbs). What is the deal with the guys in the colored jackets? Did you add those, or is this some kind of military thingy that has escaped me?

http://www.bgladd.com/The_Disgracer_in_Chief.jpg

Get ready for a possible bogus avian flu “pandemic” requiring Decisive Action by the Deciderer…
_____

WASHINGTON (AP) - The government forecasts massive disruptions if bird flu or some other super-strain of influenza arises, with as much as 40 percent of the national work force off the job, but it doesn’t foresee closing U.S. borders to fight the spread, according to a draft of the national response plan obtained Monday by The Associated Press.

An outbreak could lead the government to limit international flights, quarantine exposed travelers and otherwise restrict movement in and around the country.

But a complete shutdown of the border would not be likely, nor would it do more than slow the pandemic’s spread by a few weeks, according to the plan that is being finalized by Bush administration officials for release Wednesday at the White House…
_____

The epidemiological community is pretty much in consensus that a massive avian flu jump to humans is HIGHLY unlikely.

Dover 141

2nd linky no worky

Stephen Parrish–AIPAC, WINEP, Heritage Foundation, many others I cannot remember in my rage. We might decide to defend Israel to the death even if it means our destruction as a nation. But shouldn’t we at least discuss this before sending our children to war? Military deaths, cilivian deaths, lost arms and legs, destroyed minds, destruction lasting another 60 years….

We read in the newspapers about people who are still suffering from WWII. Right now WE are responsible for generating suffering that will last ANOTHER 60 years. This is our legacy…unless we can stop it.
God help us.

Civilian.

Valley girl -

No, I initially got that pic from one of FDL’s earlier threads this morning. I’m sure that was legit, all part of the pomp & circumstance photo-op pageantry for His Most Serene Exaltedness Victorious Deciderer Strutting Chief.

punaise, really? weird…. just a picture of a mirror

Biological threats — I may be wearing my tin too tight, but I worry about states cancelling or postponing elections on account a “bird flu containment.”

They’d only have to cancel in a few states to hold onto a majority.

what egregious has been sayin all thread.

Anybody who’s seen V for Vendetta is especially worried about inside-job bio-threats.

I plan to be the first entry on the next thread.

Re: above

Yes, this will make it harder for a future Washington Post editorial to be titled “A ‘Good’ Pardon”.

Laurie Mylroie, Judy Miller and Lynne Cheney have their own confabulation press in the bowels of the WH. Laura catalogues their voluminous output into the dewey decimal system… and the twins shelve the turdilicious tomes while giggling at the misfortunes of regular peeps.

Hurry up Jane, I just bought some new cookies.

Valley Girl - Mylroie wrote a book with Judith Miller which was praised by Perle, Libby, et al. From the article I linked above:

“Lewis “Scooter” Libby, now Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff, is thanked for his “generous and timely assistance.”

And as far as Bush being “played” I think that’s called plausible deniability?

LJ- thanks

There is more about Mylroie at Sourcewatch: http://www.sourcewatch.org/ind.....ourceWatch

I typed Mylroie into the search box, and there was a lengthy page. I am not linking that here, bec. in the past, for some reason, those page links from SW don’t work.

===Mylroie is the author of Study of Revenge: Saddam Hussein’s Unfinished War Against America, a book published by the American Enterprise Institute in 2000. It pushes her theory that Iraq was behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

According to writer Peter Bergen, Mylroie’s theory was the basis for “the belief that Saddam posed an imminent threat to the United States,” which “amounted to a theological conviction within the administration, a conviction successfully sold to the American public.”

According to Bergen, “Mylroie and the neocon hawks worked hand in glove to push her theory that Iraq was behind the ‘93 Trade Center bombing. Its acknowledgements fulsomely thanked John R. Bolton and the staff of AEI for their assistance, while Richard Perle glowingly blurbed the book as ’splendid and wholly convincing.’ I. Lewis Libby, now Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, is thanked for his ‘generous and timely assistance.’ Others who merit expressions of gratitude in Myleroie’s acknowledgements are Cheney’s foreign-policy advisors John Hannah and David Wurmser as well as Francis Brooke, a principal Washington lobbyist for the Iraqi National Congress.[1] (http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4799686/)

And it appears that Paul Wolfowitz himself was instrumental in the genesis of Study of Revenge: His then-wife is credited with having ‘fundamentally shaped the book,’ while of Wolfowitz, she says: ‘At critical times, he provided crucial support for a project that is inherently difficult.’”

Bergen comments, “Mylroie became enamored of her theory that Saddam was the mastermind of a vast anti-U.S. terrorist conspiracy in the face of virtually all evidence and expert opinion to the contrary. In what amounts to the discovery of a unified field theory of terrorism, Mylroie believes that Saddam was not only behind the ‘93 Trade Center attack, but also every anti-American terrorist incident of the past decade, from the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania to the leveling of the federal building in Oklahoma City to September 11 itself. She is, in short, a crackpot, which would not be significant if she were merely advising say, Lyndon LaRouche. But her neocon friends who went on to run the war in Iraq believed her theories, bringing her on as a consultant at the Pentagon, and they seem to continue to entertain her eccentric belief that Saddam is the fount of the entire shadow war against America.” [2]===

While many of us already knew about Plame’s work on Iranian weapons proliferation, it is astounding that it has taken this long to wend its way into the MSM. I hope this answers the question about why the CIA bothered to refer this matter to the Justice Department, for those who bought into the “she wasn’t even covert” nonsense.

Yes, Mr. President, with so much concern for Iranian nuclear capability, why have you shown little interest in the exposure of an important intelligence operation in this very area, through the outing of Valerie Plame by members of your own administration? Is it possible that Plame was outed and the Brewster Jennings cover deliberately sabotaged so as to make it possible for your administration to once again manipulate intelligence for the purpose of waging war?

Inquiring minds really, really want to know.

egregious says:
May 1st, 2006 at 5:51 pm

What’s WINEP, please?

Valley Girl -

You’re in bioscience, right? Back me up. I heard some a recent interview — I forget the exact source, somebody in CDC or NIH — saying that, owing to the huge difference between avian and human lung physiology, the bird flu virus, given its molecular structure and M.O. of aveolar infiltration, is highly unlikely to affect humans on a large scale any time soon, if ever.

I am WAY suspcious of the hyping going on, and these “quarantine” plans.

The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Mr. Parrish.

http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateI01.php

and this is WINEP’s board of advisors:

Warren Christopher
Secretary of State

Lawrence S. Eagleburger
Secretary of State

Alexander Haig
Secretary of State

Max M. Kampelman
Senior Diplomat

Jeane Kirkpatrick
U.S. ambassador to the UN

Samuel W. Lewis
U.S. ambassador to Israel

Edward Luttwak
Center for Strategic and
International Studies

Michael Mandelbaum
Johns Hopkins School of
Advanced International
Studies

Robert McFarlane
National Security Advisor

Martin Peretz
Editor in Chief and chairman,
New Republic

Richard Perle
Assistant Secretary of Defense

James G. Roche
Secretary of the Air Force

George P. Shultz
Secretary of State

Paul Wolfowitz*
Deputy Secretary of Defense

R. James Woolsey
Director of Central Intelligence

Mortimer Zuckerman
Publisher, U.S. News and World Report

And now, for something completely new:

Washington Post, Monday, May 1, 2006; 1:57 PM

President Bush today called the selection of Iraq’s new leaders “a turning point” for the country…
____

What’s the aggregate “turning points” tally thus far?

JWR- hope you didn’t think that I was letting Bush off the hook. What I meant by being played was that he might have gone for the outing of Plame to punish Wilson without having any deeper awareness that there might be something more going on in terms of complexity. I meant that he is an easy mark- an easy tool. That’s a brief response. More, if I need to explain further.

President Bush today called the selection of Iraq’s new leaders “a turning point†for the country…
____

whoa- Mission Accomplished!

Stuff a potato in that man’s pants.

I think the Wilsons’s are a classy couple.

Mollie Ringwald makes an appearance on an all new Medium.

Dover 148: FYI this is what I see -

“403 forbidden

Server configuration does not allow access to this page. Please go back and try again.”

no biggie - I get the picture.

Bobby G.- re: bird flu specifics- yes, biologist here, but in neuroscience. I don’t have the background to address your question, alas. TRex, who is not a scientist, but a science “groupie”- I think he used that word or another similar in an email to me- with an educated fascination for infectious diseases could probably give you a better answer! TRex- are you reading? sorry I can’t remember his web addy right now, or I would link it. Incomprehensible Demoralization?

angie says:
May 1st, 2006 at 6:06 pm

Thank you very much!

bkny says:
May 1st, 2006 at 5:44 pm

Many thanks for your suggestions.

Here’s a link to the source of the form 990s I perused, thanks to someone who posted it some weeks ago on an FDL thread: http://www.guidestar.org/

Vg 101:

I’m with you - have never been able to buy the idea that the Plame/Wilson story was simply a bungled attempt at domestic political retribution. I think they got a two-fer, or maybe a three-fer with that one. It is maybe even ironic that the smallest bit (revenge on Joe Wilson) is what may bring these guys down. IMO, it’s the Brewster-Jennings angle that bears looking at most closely.

I was a bit shocked just now reading that David Schuster’s report is the first time Old Media has acknowledged that Plame was working on Iran WMD issues. I thought everybody knew that. I gotta get out more.

Sibel Edmonds (yeah I know - appropriate amounts of salt and all) has intimated, being shut up by the Secrets Act and unable to come right out and say it plainly, that Brewster-Jennings had come across a vast neo-con criminal enterprise. Perle, Feith, Cheney, Hastert, lots of people at State… guns, drugs and money - you know, mother’s milk to BushCo…. Story’s too big to ever come out in full, but if the Valerie Plame angle brings them down, I’m good with that.

I hope these links work - they don’t look right in Preview, but they’re from wotisitgood4.com . Ms. Edmonds has taken to working with Luke from that site. Occasionally he publishes and links right from the comments section here at FDL too.

For my Sibel Edmonds stuff:

maybe start here

or Summary

or ‘Interview’

So when is the first FDL anonymous meeting. Would LOVE to meet this crowd.

BobbyG,

“I am WAY suspicious of the hyping going on, and these “quarantine†plans.”

Last week someone on teevee estimated the body count from a pandemic would be about 2.5% of those infected. Similar numbers to “regular” flu but more people would catch it.

BTW, I don’t think it’s going to happen (pandemic)

I’m not going to jump on the “It was a crime because Plame was working on Iran” bandwagon. The fact is that people in the White House used the press to discredit Wilson by outing his wife and accusing them of cooking up the Niger trip. It was a nasty and despicable thing to do, and I would feel the same way about it if she was working on the next-generation shoe-phone for Maxwell Smart, or working undercover in the lingerie department at Wal-Mart. Then they lie about it. Pricks.

One thing I need to tell you about Dana Milbank: Dana Milbank thinks that Dana Milbank is funny. He gets quite a bit of reinforcement for this opinion from the kids at the WaPo. He really stepped into the limelight when he wore the hunting gear and his ego has not deflated yet. I didn’t think the hunting gear was really that creative, but that’s what passes for edgy here in DC.
peace,
jim

crap

Stephen Parrish — I know I ran across some interesting PAC’s when looking at the finances of many of the far right Senators; Coburn was one of them. If you look through his filings for the last couple of years, pick any PAC that isn’t an obvious corporate-funded PAC, then look to see who else received money from the same PAC and who funded the PAC. You’ll be amazed at the web.

Mike Mejia — my apologies for what will surely sound witchy, but there aren’t going to be a lot of documents floating around if Plame was doing covert work. Capice? If there were, this would be tantamount to even more leaks. Read Ret. Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski’s essays about the OSP and the folks from foreign entities who had incredible amounts of access and familiarity with DoD and other offices; I think you can piece it together. Also Google up any of Wayne Madsen’s comments about Brewster-Jennings and Iran, some going back well before May 2005 — Madsen appears pretty sure that the outing was NOT about Iraq alone, NOT about yellowcake alone, NOT about Wilson speaking out, and NSA intercepts acquired by John Bolton may have been involved. This was a two-fer, IMO.

Aravosis is steaming over the Plame/Iran treason http://americablog.blogspot.co.....ng-on.html

jayt — funny you should mention “salt” and Sibel Edmonds in the same sentence.

Ever hear of “salting”?

Valley Girl - No, I got it. Thanks ;-) And don’t forget, Richard Perle once said something to the effect that Bush was a perfect candidate beacause he was an “empty vessel”.

rwcole says:
May 1st, 2006 at 6:12 pm

Speaking of turning points, have you seen this on ThinkProgress?

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/.....-rhetoric/

Bush Stays the Course on ‘Turning Point’ Rhetoric

In March, Boston University professor and former Army colonel Andrew Bacevich told the San Francisco Chronicle why he thought the public had soured on Bush’s Iraq policies. “My view of his problem,†he said, “is that the administration has repeatedly announced that the war had reached a turning point…and each time, that turning point didn’t count.â€

Today, Bush again tried to characterize a political development in Iraq as the true “turning pointâ€:

President Bush today called the formation of a new Iraqi government “a turning point,†after hearing from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld about their weekend meeting with that country’s prime minister designate.

But the administration has tried this rhetoric in the past, with limited success.

(snip)

BobbyG (163) — I think we’ve done enough “turning corners” that we’ve driven around the block several times over, year after year. Figures; the man’s either too arrogant or too stupid to ask for directions and we’re stuck in the back seat behind this moron.

For all the latest PlameGate news, legal filings, key documents, relevant statutes, timelines and more, see:
“The CIA-PlameGate Scandal Resources.”

rwcole # 165– hear, hear.

hmmm, potato with cod.

I do think we’d be better off wrt foreign policy if we stuffed potatos sprouting eyes into every admin mouth. Those kind of eyes would be more truthful than the lying eyes we have become accustomed to and the cabal would effectively be stopped from speaking at all. They can then fall back to grunting and gesticulating a la Scalia and reveal the unevolved cave critters they really are.

with all these turning points, it just seems we are going around in circles…

184 comments…

So… what did I miss? ;)

Stephen Parrish –

When do you think the administration will start using a different phrase than “turning the corner”?

We’ve turned like 50 corners. They are literally running in circles! (A fitting metaphor for this administration if you ask me.)

well, they are constantly bellying up to the tippling point…

Rayne says:
May 1st, 2006 at 6:19 pm

From which Web site(s) were you obtaining information about PACs, please?

I know I’m in the EPU zone, but I’ve just got to say, this is TREASON. We need to repeat this meme over and over until it is all around us.
After witnessing thousands of people marching in the streets for the priviledge of servicing this country’s economy, I am livid to see in poll data that the immigration issue TOPS the American public’s concern above the Iraq war. This is crazy bullshit.

Avian flu: the new uber-hyped fear. BE AFRAID! Well, be afraid if you have unprotected intercourse with chickens. That would include a lot of Republicans, no?

Also BE AFRAID if you have a lot of chickens living in your house who have avian flu. Rumsfeld…$5,000,000 from artificial avian flu scare vaccine. Just being concerned about public safety! Ya, that’s the ticket.

And finally, BE AFRAID if you live in a nation where your government wants to be in power forever by cowering you into submission/cancelling elections because SCARY THINGS ARE HAPPENING. Boo. Or something.

Rayne- I’m not following the subtext re: Edmonds- could you say more? Same ? to jayt- is this a question re: her credibility?

“A new Iraqi government represents a strategic opportunity for America — and the whole world, for that matter,” Bush said. “We believe this is a turning point for the Iraqi citizens, and it’s a new chapter in our partnership.”

His May Day comments came three years to the day after he stood on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln beneath a banner saying, “Mission Accomplished,” and proclaimed, “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.”

The new Iraqi leadership was announced after four months of wrangling that followed parliamentary elections in December. The formation of a government of national unity has been seen in Washington as a vital step in curbing Iraq’s insurgency, which is fueled largely by disaffected Sunnis.

Acknowledging the difficulties in Iraq, Bush said, “There’s going to be more tough days ahead.” He said Rice and Rumsfeld are “realistic people” and gave him “an assessment of what they saw on the ground” during their one-day trip, in which they remained largely in the heavily fortified Baghdad enclave known as the Green Zone and stayed overnight before returning to Washington.

Bush said of the assessment that “some of it’s positive and, obviously, there’s some difficult days ahead because there’s still terrorists there who are willing to take innocent life in order to stop the progress of democracy.”

So Rummy and Condi gave GW Clusterfuck a picture of what’s goin on on the ground- inside the “green zone” that is. Huh? And he BUYS this shit? The decider strikes again.

Rayne says:
May 1st, 2006 at 6:22 pm
Ever hear of “salting�

Er… Like a scam - salting or planting some evidence?

I dunno - Edmonds’ story seems mostly plausible to me - I tend to think if she was totally off base the Secrets Act wouldn’t have been drug out for the first time since… well, ever, so far as I know. IIRC, official reason for enforcing the Act was that her story could endanger foreign relations, not that she was fulla crap.

jim preston @ 174 -

I’m a broken record on this…
The actions against Wilson were intended to keep “effectively” secret the fact that uranium from Africa was bullshit. They were keep ’secret’ (in the Wurlitzer sense) into the last week of June 2003 that there was no evidence of acquisition.

Fitz has pointed that out quietly in his filing with the Woodward reference.

Hell, most troops in Iraq think they punished Saddam for his involvement with 9/11. Can you imagine that? Iraqi teenager who knows better looking at the soldier stand on that street knowing statistically the soldier believes he is there for a reason so divorced from truth.

Angie at 154; Yeah but is there hot lesbian sex ?

There; a horrible mental picture. My work is done.

Ya gotta hope that Fitz is havin some fun with the criminals in the White House.

1) Only doin perjury- no underlyin charges– they threw dust in my face- can’t see- can’t see.

Now that everyone has spilled their guts about the actual leak:

2) Just kiddin- underlyin charges- underlyin charges- consipiracy!

Gotcha!

Everythingseemsoneat @134

I can’t believe you don’t think Bush is funny. Have you forgotten how funny his skit was 2 years ago when he was looking under his desk and could not find the WMD? Everyone in the room was rolling over in laughter. You just have a lousy sense of humor. Lighten up!

let’s pour salt on that slug Karl

re #154 : Mary & Heather have roles to play…

I have a feeling that Joe Wilson is
David Shuster’s source. Shuster earned his trust from Wilson by being dogged, truthful and straight with his plame reporting. And the fact that he earned the trust of liberal bloggers also played a role.

Joe Wilson is onto something big (and he is also manager of his wife’s career now).
The couple are sitting on a goldmine.

My prediction:

Plame’s book deal with Joe Wilson as the co-author probably is worth $5M to $6M. They are probably writing the the book now, but it will not be out until Fall, 07 - to cash in after all the publicity that Libby trial will bring in spring and summer 07.

A movie deal as part of the book deal with be worth another $4M to $5M. The movei will probably come out in Summer 08, during 08 campaign season.

The whole deal with be worth $10M.

Then after a couple of years, if they write a mystery/spy novel based on their experiences (Valieries from CIA and Joe from 20 yrs of diplomancy in Africa), a movie/book deal can be another $10M.

And if they hit the college speaking circuit jointly, they can easily command $25K per speech. This will pay for their household expenses at 10 speeches per year.

Friends - you are looking at a $100M brand
(or more and if they hit on James Bond spy formula, even 10 times that in the next 20 yrs)
with Valerie/Joe. Joe is a smart PR guy/diplomat. He knows to plan and execute.

Wolcott on Colbert…”MISSION ACCOMPLISHED”
Vintage Wolcott.

http://www.jameswolcott.com/

Sort of off-topic, but not really: Plame looks great in Armani, doesn’t she? Eventually, the MSM is going to realize that there’s a beautiful blond woman at the heart of this scandal. When that happens, even nukes in Tehran won’t be able to get this story off the news.

Let me review my understanding of the ‘Plame” issue:

Valerie was involved in covert activity investigating some neocons possibly selling WMDs to Iran using Brewster-jennings as a cover. NOW, Rove, Libby and Cheney outed her identiy stopping her true job of preventing sale of WMD to Iran.

This allows these same neocons to sell WMD to Iran without discovery. And now, knowing that Iran was just sold WMD by the neocons, we can invade them to get rid of these same WND we just sold them.

Is this like Rumsfeld and Bush Sr. giving Saddam chemical weapons only to later accuse him of having WMDs.

At the risk of repeating myself:

Ledeen, Feith, Chalabi.

Ledeen is the G. Gordon Liddy of Plamegate. Only worse, much more sinister than G. Gordon even hoped to be in his wildest dreams.

Doug Feith: at the heart of the pipelined so-called intelligence on the Iraq lead-up. Stiffed the CIA info that was more pertinent, and pumped the koolaid to the Prexy.

Chalabi: spreader of the WMD lies. Hated in Iraq. Wanted for embezzlement in Jordon and with very close connections to Iran

rw- just got to thinking, after reading yet another Bush statement (your post)- it’s like his mental abilities stopped developing right around the age of 5 or 6, or whatever age it is that a kid really starts to suspect that Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny are parental hocus-pocus, but still keeps telling himself that SC and EB are real, so as to cling to that special, cosseted, it’s-all-for-me time.

ecoast @ 200 -

I have a feeling that Joe Wilson is David Shuster’s source.

Maybe, or maybe it was an “intelligence source” as he said. I said before… you REALLY REALLY don’t want to piss off the CIA. They specialize in bringing down governments.

ecoast @ 200– I think you are correctamundo wrt to Shuster being a trusted newsperson by the Wilsons or somebody very much in the know. I think the timing is fitztacular. A very special evening out and now this… justice soon come… Day’O!

Karl Rove=Lark Over

-GSD

Oh, and while I’m on the topic of white women, did the media EVER interview the ambassador to Switzerland? Remember her? She’s the one that was standing next the the Vice President when he shot an old man in the face.

BobbyG

“What’s the aggregate “turning points†tally thus far?”

Eleven if count Bush’s must recent statement. I listed them earlier today and could do so again if you are interested.

WHY NOT COMPARE BUSH AND HITLER?

WELL, FOR ONE THING, HITLER FOUGHT IN COMBAT AND WAS DECORATED FOR HEROISM. FOR ANOTHER, HITLER WAS ELECTED. STILL, THERE ARE SOME SIMILARITIES…

http://www.opednews.com/articl.....hitler.htm

America’s Hitler
Tell A Friend
Doing the Unthinkable — Comparing Bush and Hitler; Part I of five parts

by Lonna Gooden VanHorn

http://www.opednews.com

Protestor’s sign confiscated by German police during Bush’s Feb. 2005, visit:

“We had our Hitler, now you have yours.”

What follows is a comparison between Hitler’s rise to dictatorial power in 1930’s Germany and the Bush administration’s rise to dictatorial power in America today, focusing on the role “religion†and “patriotism†played in both. It is based largely on the psychological study of Hitler commissioned by the United States government during WWII and undertaken by a team of people including psychologist Walter C. Langer in 1942-43. It was published in 1972 as a book titled The Mind of Adolph Hitler by Walter C. Langer.
(L.) indicates Langer’s words, (H.) indicates Hitler’s words.

It has been deemed unacceptable, even laughable to talk about or write about G.W. Bush’s administration as being like that of Adolph Hitler. But now, with Bush’s claims to extraordinary “war times†powers — which have, alas, gone largely unchallenged by Congress and todays media — coupled with his description of Iran’s leader as being “like Hitler†and the fact that nearly identical measures are being used by this administration [parroted by a still largely stenographic press] to fear-monger America’s people into war against Iran that were used to fear-monger the public into supporting war against Iraq, perhaps the public should be given a glimpse of how the good people of Germany allowed Hitler to become, over time, the monster he became.

It is interesting to note that many of the people who are most convinced of the truth of the premise that Bush is like Hitler and America is like Germany was in the 1930’s are people who lived in Germany while Hitler was in power. Indeed, a gentleman who grew up in Germany under Hitler and emigrated to America following WWI moved back to Europe last year. He said he was leaving because he had seen what is happening in America happen before in Germany and he could not bear to see it happening again. He said he had been too young to be able to help try to stop Hitler in Germany, and he is too old to be able to help stop Bush’s takeover in America. He said he would pray for us. link

I include here an excerpt of the writing of just one person who lived under Hitler during the Holocaust:

“So why, now, when I hear GWB’s speeches, do I think of Hitler? Why have I drawn a parallel between the Nazis and the present administration? Just one small reason -the phrase ‘Never forget’. Never let this happen again. It is better to question our government - because it really can happen here - than to ignore the possibility.

“So far, I’ve seen nothing to eliminate the possibility that Bush is on the same course as Hitler. And I’ve seen far too many analogies to dismiss the possibility. The propaganda. The lies. The rhetoric. The nationalism. The flag waving. The pretext of ‘preventive war’. The flaunting of international law and international standards of justice. The disappearances of ‘undesirable’ aliens. The threats against protesters. The invasion of a non-threatening sovereign nation. The occupation of a hostile country. The promises of prosperity and security. The spying on ordinary citizens. The incitement to spy on one’s neighbors -and report them to the government. The arrogant triumphant pride in military conquest. The honoring of soldiers. The tributes to ‘fallen warriors. The diversion of money to the military. The demonization of government appointed ‘enemies’. The establishment of ‘Homeland Security’. The dehumanization of ‘foreigners’. The total lack of interest in the victims of government policy. The incarceration of the poor and mentally ill. The growing prosperity from military ventures. The illusion of ‘goodness’ and primacy. The new einsatzgrupen forces. Assassination teams. Closed extralegal internment camps. The militarization of domestic police. Media blackout of non-approved issues. Blacklisting of protesters - including the no-fly lists and photographing dissenters at rallies…â€link

AND THE ARTICLE GOES ON, FOLLOW LINK

186 Matt O. says: “We’ve turned like 50 corners. They are literally running in circles!”
May 1st, 2006 at 6:28 pm

Good question! Were they turning a corner or reaching a turning point?

Think of a regular polygon inscribed in a circle. As sides are added to it, please note that its shape will become approximately circular with the addition of more and more sides. So as more corners are turned on that polygon, the more the journey around them becomes tantamount to running in circles as more sides are added to the polygon.

Grandma J- wow that is quite an astute pithy summary. And, hugs to you. xxoo

the connections/involvment of Moussad should also have a thorough scrutiny. In the White House, in the State Department, and standing behind a lot of congress-critters.

Just a note, I’m scanning for wingnut reaction to the Schuster piece. They don’t react very quickly do they? I mean its like eons in internet time…

xyz is a political genius. Thanks for the posts and maybe coffee sometime in Los Angeles?

tryggth #215

In their defense, that would require to stop frothing at the mouth for a while, stop the gay/Latino bashing for a bit, to process something intellectually dense like the Plame scandal.

Matt O:

But us gay latinos would feel so neglected!

Tryggth #215–they are still enjoying their newly placed potatos and adjusting their masks… and practicing speaking and lying with a straight and outraged face and patriotic tone. hard work, you know.

oh yeah, they are waiting for the all- important talking points.

TIME’s Top 100 Influential People

Includes Arianna Huffington and our boy, Stephen Colbert.

thanks JayT for the shoutout - those links obviously didnt work. For those interested in my sibel stuff, and also my interview with Larisa which includes a lot about how Plame and Brewster Jennings and Iran fit together, as well as Sibel - follow the links on the right hand side at wotisitgood4.blogspot.com (particularly see part 2 of the interview)

Angie @ 207 -

Yes, Plame “coming out party” timing is perfect.
Joe Wilson lost control when he and his wife did a photoshoot with Vanity Fair last year, but they are back in the saddle. Every thing they do from now on is part of their grand stratey. Did you notice Valerie’s only utterances at the WHCA dinner were (as reported in blogs/papers) “It is an Armani”(her dress) and “I am spending most of my time with my 6-yr old twins.”

See how controlled that message was! - she is model-like but a mom.

With Libby/Rove/Cheney problems wtih Fitz and the trials and their own potential civil suit, Joe/Valerie have choreographed everything
and and it is all execution for them now.

Oh what the hey, here are the turning points again.

1. End of major combat operations announced on board the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln: Mission accomplished May 1, 2003

2. Saddam Hussein’s sons Uday and Qusai killed July 22, 2003

3. Saddam Hussein captured December 13, 2003

4. Interim Constitution March 8, 2004

5. Interim government/Sovereignty returned June 28, 2004

6. Second siege of Fallujah November 2004

7. First elections for transitional assembly January 30, 2005

8. Transitional government formed May 3, 2005

9. Vote on constitution October 15, 2005

10. Elections for permanent assembly December 15, 2005

These guys could not piss against a wall without starting a fire

Matt O. @ 217 -

I’m trying to figure out their response time. They had they marching orders this morning and am wondering about the turnaround time for reacting. One of things I’ve personally noticed (though it probably has been true forever) is that they, like the “enemy” in Enders Game require central control and direction from a central authority.

I think that is an important “personality” characteristic of the collective entity.

Does a nosedive count as a turning point. . . thinking in three dimensions?

ecoast #200 -

Very interesting speculation. Yeah, a 100 million dollar brand. LOL!

Way, way back a long time ago, Harpers once ran a piece entitled “Making Book,” about the dealmaking that went into John Dean’s (now ex-) wife Maureen’s book deal. The very LAST thing that happened there was the ghostwriting of the actual book. After it was published, she was candid to say that no, she’d hadn’t read it, and didn’t intend to.

Valley girl at 142

“What is the deal with the colored jackets?”

Clicky

apologies - particularly see Part 2 of the interview with Larisa: “Brewster Jennings, and how that does, and does not, relate to Valerie Plame.

Pacha -

Come on now, Pacha. You cannot hog all of the attention forever.

Besides, as Latinos, it wouldn’t be new to us to be neglected.

One beef I have with history books (or at least the ones I had) is that other than the Zuit Suits and the civil wars in South America in the 1980s, we do not get much attention in the 20th century history books. Or at least the history books I had to read in school. We have cameos where we appear here and there.

The wingnuts aren’t going to say shit about the Plame piece.

http://tinyurl.com/a6erq

If you have not sent a letter out today, please take a few minutes and do so. Vermont delivered some Impeachment Resolutions to Dennis Hastert this morning, word is the staff was not happy to see them.

http://www.congress.org/congre.....p;state=IL

You can email Hastert there ^^^

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/

Write your Reps and tell them: Impeach

Don’t let up…

P.S. You don’t have to send long letters, I doubt they read much more than the titles on Impeachment at this point.

“Adore ME.”

http://www.bgladd.com/The_Disgracer_in_Chief.jpg

He was SO proud of himself 3 years ago today. The War President kicks major ass in no time. Look at that face.

um, guys.. perhaps i’m seeing things -
but did anyone else notice that ‘avian flu was discovered in nj”?

defcon 4 for weird coincidences…

http://www.newsday.com/news/lo.....pnewjersey

Pachacutec says: “Does a nosedive count as a turning point. . . thinking in three dimensions?”
May 1st, 2006 at 7:02 pm

How about dead cat bounces in the polls? *g*

Jeebus — I take a break to pick up my daughter from preschool, buy groceries and make dinner. Then I log back on and…whammo! Ever since Larisa’s article, everyone’s been trying to chase that one down. Good on David Shuster.

john in sacramento-

Bush’s carrier landing flight suit should have been PINK.

Wa Sabi

The Nexus of Politics and Fear — starting up again, only this time, they learned their lesson on using terror alerts. Now - it’s deadly virus alerts. Expect more of these to come.

Bobby,

ROFLMAO :)

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi.....7546/873-c

===Chance of bird flu mutating into virus transmissible between humans is “very low”
Michael Day

London

Scientists are continuing to test dead birds on Scotland’s east coast after the discovery there of a dead swan infected with H5N1 influenza, in what was the United Kingdom’s first official case of the infection. An emergency telephone line set up after the incident has received thousands of reported sightings of dead birds, but no further cases have emerged, and senior officials have sought to downplay the risk to human health.

As the BMJ went to press, David King, the government’s chief scientific adviser, said that bird flu was “absolutely not” present in poultry, and he added that he was “fairly optimistic” that neither was it present in wild birds. He stressed that so far only one dead bird had been found with H5N1 and suggested that it could have come from a previously infected part of Europe.

The chances of the virus mutating into a form that could spread between humans were “very low,” and it was “totally misleading” to say that such a mutation was inevitable, he added.===

BobbyG says:
May 1st, 2006 at 6:04 pm

Valley Girl -

You’re in bioscience, right? Back me up. I heard some a recent interview — I forget the exact source, somebody in CDC or NIH — saying that, owing to the huge difference between avian and human lung physiology, the bird flu virus, given its molecular structure and M.O. of aveolar infiltration, is highly unlikely to affect humans on a large scale any time soon, if ever.

I am WAY suspcious of the hyping going on, and these “quarantine†plans.

Hey, BG-

Well, this is what I do know. Currently H5N1, the avian flu virus is not properly adapted to be spread from birds to humans via respiratory infection. It is, however, capable of sickening other animals, including domestic cats. This is especially alarming because this is the first flu virus that scientists have seen that is transmissable to cats.

Many human flu viruses, including the 1918 H1N1 virus, originate in birds, but in order to become readily adaptable to humans, it must go through an intermediary animal like pigs or mice in order to mutate into a form that is easily transferable between human patients.

There is some hope that a mutated form of H5N1 will be less virulent, but most of what I have read indicates that this is somewhat unlikely, given that once it’s in the tissues of a host and reproducing, the cell-killing toxins it makes are so poisonous that they are unlikely to weaken significantly through mutation.

So, in other words, the jury is out on the odds of its mutating into a human-transmissable form, but if it does? We’re in big trouble. Trouble that we’re about as prepared for as FEMA was for Katrina.

And that unreadiness is largely due to our health care system’s corporatization and its slavish worship of the bottom line, the administration’s gutting of the CDC and the overall apathy and contempt that this government has for “experts” in any scientific field.

Hope that answers your question.

Rex, MD

Looks like Elizabeth Bumiller has hit the Gannon Button in an attempt to ignore Stepehen Colbert.

-GSD

Whack away Liz, the button is broken.

One thing I need to tell you about Dana Milbank: Dana Milbank thinks that Dana Milbank is funny. He gets quite a bit of reinforcement for this opinion from the kids at the WaPo.

He thinks he’s a sketch-writer on a par with Brits like Simon Hoggart and Matthew Parris. Here’s a hint, Dana: you ain’t. And everytime you file copy, you show how hard it is to be a good sketch-writer.

As for Shuster, his pieces tend to exist in a total vacuum when they appear on Hardbollocks. But together, they’re as good a reason to give him a Peabody as any.

john in sacramento-
thanks very much for the link to the colored jackets thing. I had no idea.

REx -

Great stuff, thanks so much!

So this is what Judge Tatel was referring to in his finding way back when? Something about “grave issues of national security†or something like that?—Mercury

thought it had to be at least at this level from the alarm the judge communicated. isn’t Rove supposed to have said something like, that makes Wilson’s wife fair game, after the 7/6 article? as if an excuse were being sought? aaa-hrg! but these are some dirty schmoes.

Nancy Grace was doing her part, having this loon woman rant about how the immigrant marches have a “good prop director,” and they are (paraphrasing) “dumbing down” (our children I think?).

I was initially attracted to fdl because the Plame-Wilson coverage was the best on the web - and the fastest - and the most thorough. That was ten months ago.

Even then, places like whatreallyhappened and waynemadsen were publishing speculation that the whole outing was a takedown of Brewster -Jennings, rather than a threat to Wilson to silence other war critics. I always felt Tenent wouldn’t have made his initial complaint to DOJ unless something bad had happened to a network out there.

Ed*ard Teller -

Either way…

I thought Pachahutec might enjoy this. It’s about the Inquisition and religious extremism in a novel I’m reading.

Desconfíen siempre vuestras mercedes de quien es lector de uno solo libro.

As true of the Inquisition as the Taliban, bin Laden, or the religious right.

OT but McCurry has posted yet another piece at HuffPo and he is absolutely raving now:

>>>>>
Oh yeah, how many of you lifted a finger to protect the First Amendment when the Washington Post and other “MSM” cited it to ferret out the truth about WMD and the wars inside the U.S. intelligence community over the pre-Iraq war (and now pre-Iran war)? (And don’t lecture me about how they failed to do their job — I have had Pultizer Prize winning reporters tell me that they feel intimindated and they lack public support. Of course they — and their editors– feel that way. Most of the blogosphere spends hours making them feel that way).

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....20179.html

>>>>>

oh my.

TRex!!!! How odd that I posted right before you. Thanks for the additional info. Did you see my “call” to you earlier, as someone who could address Bobby G’s question, or are you psychic?

Yo, “Dr.” Frist, I just paid $51.10 to gas up, probably be about the same tomorrow when I fill up my wife’s car before she gets back to town.

Need that hundred bucks, dude.

;)

sadly, BobbyG, that’s as elegant as the Bush mob gets - take out the civil servants, take out our best intel on Iran.

I read your story about your daughter the other evening, and was so touched, I called mine as soon as I finished reading.

Off to rehearse for three hours. We add “Pomp & Circumstance” to the mix this evening.

Hugh: nice quote!

VG-

Did you see my “call†to you earlier, as someone who could address Bobby G’s question, or are you psychic?

I was just chilling out in the RexCave and saw the bright red RexPhone light up and start flashing. I looked out the window and sure enough the RexSignal was shining against the clouds, so I knew that someone needed help.

Okay, no, actually I am psychic.

Vallry Girl & TRex -thanks to both of ya’s. I just had recalled hearing someone authoritative interviewed on NPR about the low relative p() of the virus jumping.

But, yeah, it’s complex and fraught with uncertainty.

As a practicing statistician, it is my goal in life to be wrong only 5% of the time.

;)

Somebody, somewhere, STOP US: world, we are calling out to you.—Egregious 107

Will Turkey do? Courtesy of BuzzFlash:
YNet and Jerusalem Post.

First a comment on Bush: A long time ago they led Bush into the Oval Office and told him the suitcase of bribe money was in the corner.

Michael Leeden:

He was outted as a Fascist by Patrick Buchanan some time back. I think it’s his wife who is undercover MOSSAD.

http://www.amconmag.com/06_30_03/feature.html

Flirting with Fascism

Neocon theorist Michael Ledeen draws more from Italian fascism than from the American Right.

Just a little FYI documentation.

ok, someone compared bush to hitler, I would like everyone to read and compare hitlers “enabling act” to bush’s “the patriot act”

http://www.furnitureforthepeople.com/actpat.htm

pretty scary stuff

Ed*ard Teller -

Thanks, bro’. I miss my Sissy.

:(

OT, on the immigrant issue.

Down here in South Texas, where we kinda know a few things about immigrants, the first data is starting to trickle in about the impact of the immigrant boycott/protest/work shutdown:

After half a year of preparation, the Rialto Hotel in downtown Laredo welcomed their first guests on Monday, but not without some setbacks.

“We opened our doors at 7 a.m. this morning, and unfortunately our staff didn’t show up to work,” Rialto general manager Daniel Pereida said.

Only one employee showed up.

The others — laundry workers, housekeepers and maintenance staff — participated in the nationwide boycott by being absent, but only after asking Pereida to make sure they wouldn’t lose their jobs on their first day.

“We feel a little bit of a let down, because this is one of our most important days — it’s our grand opening,” Pereida said, adding that the hotel would not punish the workers because he respected their right to protest.

Other hotels reported similar problems.

Protests were larger on the Mexican side of the border, where residents held their own boycott. Dozens of protesters in Nuevo Laredo massed in front of the Gateway to the Americas Bridge Monday morning, blocking traffic from crossing into Texas.

And this, from the article, was the most heartbreaking, about a man marching in Port Isabel (very small town near South Padre):

Mario Reynosa, 47, a servant, gourmet cook and mechanic, walked near the back of the pack. He’s been working illegally in the United States off and on since 1973.

“I was working and I don’t have any felony and I pay taxes — maybe not with a social security number, but I go to the H-E-B, to the buy gas,” he said in English. “Everything you buy, you pay taxes.”

Reynosa wants to be recognized legally so he can start a legal business.

“If they permit me, I can grow and have employees and have my own American dream,” he said

Now what the hell is anti-American about that?

I only have one thing to say hang them as they deserve.

And no I’m not kidding.

Traitors need to be…they cry out to be…hung by their fat necks until they are dead.

Just as dead as the, as of this post 2,617, coalition troops who are. Along with tens of thousands of Iraqi’s who were guilty of nothing more than living in a country that The Face of Evil chose…that’s right chose to invade.

A question for yer…are we any different from the Germans who lived under Mr. Hitler?

The answer my friends is: No.

Unless…

We bring Mr. Bush and his crimnal crew to justice.

I’m for it. How about you?
.

A. Citizen -

A full investigation to air out their dirty laundry before we bring out the nooses. Let’s not start ranting about killing people like the loons on the Right do.

I just got an e-mail from a gooper that claims that there are some mexicans who have been singing the national anthem– IN SPANISH!

Holy shit!

A. Citizen -

Agree with Matt. Indictments, impeachments, convictions, and imprisonment are worthy enough goals, and don’t run the risk of being construed as “a threat against the President” by the Secret Service and Torture Boy’s goons.

Clusterfuck said today that the national anthem should only be sung in ENGLISH! No wonder people love him so!

I didn’t catch what the penalty will be for singing it in another language- like Hopi!

rwcole -

Bet there weren’t any blues licks or Mariah Carey R&B trills defacing it, though.

rwcole says:
May 1st, 2006 at 7:44 pm

“Clusterfuck said today that the national anthem should only be sung in ENGLISH!”
____

Well, where would that leave HIM? If his rhetorical drool is “English,” I’m Anna Nichole Smith.

Bobby– Yeah- and as far as I know- the singer’s tit didn’t flop out either- so as bad as it is- it could have been a hell of a lot worse!

Jose’ can you see?

-GSD

It’s taking me about a minute between typing something and seeing it on the screen. .Kinda drives me nuts. Anyone else?

a gooper … claims that there are some mexicans who have been singing the national anthem– IN SPANISH!

Oh.My.God.

Next thing you know, they will be giving Spanish names to American States — like New Mexico; Colorado; California; Texas; and who knows what else!!!

rw- not here- and I have never had this problem. Is your ISP AT&T?

Jose’ can you see?

Funny!

Lukery: 228 Part 2 link …Thank You

Valley–Nope. Others have complained about it.

GSD:

Ha! Lots of Hispanics here have been singing that lyric whenever an Anglo complained about the Spanish version of that wretched SSB.

Even funnier:

Down in the Rio Grande Valley, where I used to live, you never EVER heard the kids sing Jingle Bells at the school Christmas pageants. They always ended up saying “Jingle” as “CHINGA” which, well, isn’t a very nice thing to say. In Spanish, anyway.

new thread - old timeline

More thanks to John in Sacramento for the explanation of the colored jackets on the aircraft carrier. I thought they were supposed to be giant Teletubbies!

Goopers are going to pass a national anthem amendment- so that singing the national anthem in spanish can’t be construed as free speech. It’s kinda like burning a flag- but different.

Don’t forget Montana, C.K.!

Although, technically, Texas isn’t a Spanish word. It’s a Spanish corruption of various, but similar, words used by various NA tribes the Spaniards encountered here, and may or may not mean “friend,” as the legend would have it. WIth some tribes, the word was a greeting of sorts. More here.

Let’s not start ranting about killing people like the loons on the Right do.

I will give lip service to civil discourse, but as far as I’m concerned, A. Citizen is right on. Bush should pay for his war crimes by ending his life with a short, sharp shock at the end of a rope. Thousands on thousands of people have died at his behest. Osama Bin Laden only managed to kill 3000 Americans on 9/11. Bush has matched that number in our soldiers alone.

No punishment is too harsh for spoiled, sociopathic sons of privilege who slaughter innocents by the thousands, whether they’re from Saudi families or American political dynasties. Bush is the terrorist. He just has more weaponry at his disposal than OBL.

egregious(#190)

if you run out of condoms, i’ll let you have some of mine………

Thesaurus Rex 282 -

Point taken.

I don’t get this flap over the National Anthem in Spanish.

Are they wanting to replace the English version? Not that I can tell.

Do they think it will be sung in Spanish from now on? Where does it say there’s a movement to have it played instead of the English version? Do they want it played after the English version? I’m not getting this.

If they want to write it, let ‘em. Who cares?

Lamar Alexander Introduces Senate Resolution on National Anthem http://alexander.senate.gov/in.....ase_Id=997

Me3 (#258):

Ledeen may work for Moussad. Wilson helped the CIA. If Ledeen is related to a Moussadi, why not? (not that that would be a necessity). The US is infiltrated by Moussad to a far greater extent than the Soviets ever were. Israel is our ally, but that shouldn’t be an excuse for them leveraging as much influence on us as they have. We have one convicted Israeli spy in prison and others (one of whom is a former State Department employee) on trial right now (at least I think that they’re still on trial). You can feel the influence the Israelis in most of our Middle East policy. This is something that doesn’t get talked about very much in the US. They have too many congressmen and administration officials in their pocket.
Ledeen is definitely in thick with the Neocons though, even if he is more of an Italian fascist, as you say (like Berlusconi). Add Doug Feith (who’s certainly disappeared from view!) and Ahmed Chalabi and you come up with a vile, bilious brew.

My bet, just a hunch, is that Ledeen, some gone-astray-ex-intelligence officer, Doug Feith and Chalabi are either directly involved, or, are touchy-feely with the people that Valerie Plames’s group were investigating.

Valley Girl (191) — I tend to believe Edmonds; what does she stand to gain from all the grief she’s received for her trying to speak truth to power? No, my comments were about her work potentially validating the primary or secondary reasons Plame may have been outed.

jayt (193) — Can no longer pull up the first story I read about Edmonds’ connection to Iraq; she may have overheard Turkish persons of authority discussing a salting operation intended to place WMD in Iraq after the war began, to bolster the adminstration’s claims. The foreign relations threat was to Turkey specifically (not to mention the rest of the world) since they needed to maintain a certain position on Kurds while accommodating the U.S. [Ask Mike Mejia if he’s still in here. He knows more - the real Mike Mejia, anyhow.]

Stephen Parrish — finally got the contract monkey off my back, I’ll poke around and see if I can turn up those PAC names and links for you. Innocuous names, right up until you start digging into the donors. You can start with America’s Foundation and America’s Majority Trust (note their donations to ). I think the idea is to amass enormous amounts of cash from many organizations and individuals, mix it up, then dole it out. The amounts aggregated are SO LARGE that it’s difficult to follow any specific donation; in other words, it might as well be laundered. Unless donation dates can be matched up across multiple organizations, within a 24 hour window give or take.

I have a close friend, a Panamanian, who claims that if anything like this happened in his country, there would be riots in the streets.

I’m hoping that, after today’s events across the country, some of that Latin flair will have infected us all, and we won’t have to suffer through another “terrar” threat level elevation, or hyped threats just as this story heats up. At least not with out a little less apathy.

OT, sort of. I am so tired of hearing how rude us peons are. The attitude from the goopers is that it’s ok to screw someone over as long as you’re polite about it.

VG and Trex:

I’ve read that the transmissibility rate of avian diseases to humans is low, but anything a pig can get, a human can get. pigs and birds coexist in farmyards all over the world. if we start hearing about pork populations being culled to prevent propagation of disease, it’s time to realy start worrying. Have you heard that? (My source is a report from a privately run intelligence consulting business called Stratfor). sorry, no link.

Don’t forget about the executions in Iran. They happened right after she was outed. Treasonous, rat bastards!

God, what I wouldn’t give to see Bush/Cheney, Rove/Libby tried for treason.

I want to hear this administration deny the allegation that Plame was working on Iranian nuclear matters when she was “outed”. But the question must be asked. Will the WH MSM corresponcents ask Snow that question ???

EPU’d:

Having seen Ms. Plame for the first time in this post, I only have four words — well, maybe eight:

HBO movie.
Jeri Ryan.
During the Gore Administration.

I’m not tooting my horn or anything, but I have been pointing out this Plame/Iran connection from time to time here for a couple months or more. I’ve thought for awhile now that embarrassing or discrediting Joe Wilson was a red herring and the true goal of outing Valerie and Brewster-Jennings
was to eliminate a source of accurate information regarding Iran. Truth is this administrations biggest enemy - if they could get that troublesome force neutralized (truth), they could get on with their program for world domination by themselves and their cronies.

Orange jumpsuits for the lot of them and may they all go bird-hunting with Dick daily.

RE:

“I am not a Plame expert so forgive me if I get some of the details wrong but I wanted to point out this from swopa on April 28 about the Rove Hadley email:

“Note what’s missing there? That’s right, any mention of Joseph Wilson’s wife, the former Valerie Plame.â€

Cooper says he talked to Rove about Plame and in consequence Rove suddenly finds an email. Yet the email doesn’t mention her.”
***************************

You asked a great question because that is exactly what they talked they about and its absence is damning evidence that shows (1) Rove knew that leaking her name was a crime, but decided to do it anyway, (2) he knew that email never is tuly private, (3) and he knew that he had to give his boss an update on the caper: Mission Accomplished, as the presdent likes to say. Otherwise, you have to believe that Matt Cooper committed perjury when he testified that Rove revealed that information to him, confirmed its veracity, and authorized him to print it, so long as he did not identify him by name as his source. Particularly with this administration that so covets control and secrecy, I find it difficult to imagine that an experienced, but newly assigned reporter to cover the White House for TIME, would write his first story regarding a matter of considerable national and international attention and mis-attribute his sources. That would have been the last story that he wrote while working for TIME, if Rove believed that he had misrepresented him, or published classified information. No way Cooper lied, or misunderstood what Rove told him.

I believe that people of this country are like a shadow grand jury and we have probable cause to believe to that (1) Rove knew about Plame’s covert status because he had reviewed the State Department Memo for President Bush (to review with Powell on his trip to Africa) and the memo revealed her status (or someone along on the trip like Ari Fleischer called and tipped him off), (2) Rove and others knew that they would be committing a crime if they outed her, (3) they decided to do it anyway for reasons that remain uncertain since the White House was in the process of “admitting” that there was no basis to support the infamous sixteen words in the SOTU address, and (4) by prior agreement with Hadley, Rove’s loose description referencing Wilson was intended to convey the following message: I passed on what you and I agreed that I should say, but not memorialize in an email. Rove’s message could only have been coded to assure local privacy. If I’m right, Hadley has some explaining to do.

Of course, we should not discount the possibility that Rove created the Hadley email at a much later time, but Fitzgerald certainly will have that possibility checked out.

Isn’t this the sort of decision that members of this administration would defer to the Decider, particularly given his rather keen interest in syping and national security? If I were Rove, I would want to know that my president had authorized me to commit a serious felony involving national security. Did Rove desire such assurance?

Sorry, folks, Saddam WAS trying to buy yellow-cake from Niger.

See Christopher Hitchen’s piece on it.

Jose,
If you trust Christopher Hitchens, I have some swampland to sell, too….

How long before the insane wingnuts call for Shuster’s prosecution for ‘damaging national security”? After all, they don’t have the mental agility to grasp the concept of ‘exposing government lawbreaking’.

Are people maybe underestimating how important the reactions of those in our immediate proximity are when we judge what is funny? A comedy always seems funnier if we see it at the premiere, with the director in attendance. Jim Jarmusch seems amusing if you’re at the premiere and all those cool people are there breaking up over every hip thing he says. Colbert’s jokes were very funny (though it did go on a bit long). But it just seems less funny than on his show, say, since the people watching the show are so fanatically in his corner it’s like a laugh track. He’s always funny. I don’t think he was any less funny at the Correspondence Dinner. But even the funniest jokes sound flat in a live context if the audience is uncomfortable. Reading the Titanic/Hindenberg joke on paper was really funny. Then I saw it, and no one laughed. I think that has more to do with the mood of people afraid to laugh at the president, or uncomfortable with the edginess of the material.

Whoever said this 43 year old mom was attractive:

http://www.time.com/time/quote.....39,00.html

That’s an understatement. Believe me, when I worked for DIA, I never saw *anybody*, male or female, that good looking. Must have hung in the wrong spy circles.