Colbert

Moussaoui sentence - life in prison

Moussaoui gets life.

Oh, wait, somebody beat me to it.

Fitz.

The full videos of Colbert on youtube are gone … does anyone know of any alternative sources? Thanks.

(BTW Christy’s superb analysis of the latest Libby filing was heavily excerpted in Editor & Publisher today, and deservedly so.)

gee, and here I thought that E&P would have been publishing the analysis of that legal genius, Clarice Feldman!

Congrats, Christy

Re: Moussaoui. Well, that’s a big egg on the government’s face. Does he at least get access to psychiatric care? Maybe some good can come out of this whole farce.

JH RH that is great about the E&P link and long quote from Christy’s article. I loved that they didn’t cut out the snark e.g.: “Yowch. The bloom is off the rose, it’s withered on the vine and been stomped on a few times by elephants.” and more. Well, we can be pretty sure that FDL is a go-to place for E&P. Is it a fair guess that Team Fitz is also a reader of FDL on issues Plame?

Fitz is SO DREAMY.
That is all.

T. Rex- don’t know if you have had time to read prev. comments re: bird flu. Are you going to be posting on this issue?

Sounds like an attentive and involved jury. They did good work, imho. That must have been hard and painful work…..especially considering the many clamoring for revenge…

psst…. w, cheney, rummy, that is what hard work looks like.

I hope he has access to some help; probably not.

Will, the Colbert videos are at thankyoustephencolbert.org

It’s nice to see when a jury can look pass a truly repellant defendant and see that the government had no death penalty case and so bungled the case it did present that it’s mainstay was precisely the ugly nature of the defendant’s character. Moussaoui and the government despite their best efforts to subvert the process got justice. I salute the jury and am proud of them and their good sense.

two beers #11, thanks. unfortunately the videos at thankyoustephencolbert.org are just links to the files hosted at youtube. there is just a message now saying “This video has been removed due to copyright infringement.”

(btw- in light of the media blackout on Colbert - the Guardian in the UK had excerpts from Colbert in the paper the next day)

I know this has been addressed before but I couldn’t remember the details when someone asked on a previous thread. What kind of vote/ agreement does there have to be within the GJ to present a “true bill”? Seemed to think it wasn’t 12/0 but?

Redd is dreamy too. Congrats! I am not surprised in the least.

apropos “The Note” : even a stopped clock is right twice a day …

Jane - This particular week, the additional significance of the GJ maybe meeting is that Jason Leopold was on the radio yesterday almost guaranteeing that Fitz would present a Rove indictment to them today, announce a press conference tomorrow and announce Rove’s indictment Friday. Of course, he may have been completely wrong, and so far today, there’s been nothing but that one line in The Note. But in any case, it’s Leopold that’s causing the stir, not the patronizing weasels at The Note.

Valley Girl

IANAL but I think it is a simple majority.

Well, how great is that, E&P tips their hat to our heroes today!!! congratulations, might be a busy night here at the ranch.

Just looked at the medical personnel section in “The Plan” and there is not a single mention of nurses, the nursing shortage or the fact that 30% of health care workers have reportedly said they would not show up in the event of a pandemic. There is a huge assumption of volunteer medical capacity, which is abusive and insane. It does at one point mention providing home-based care, but doesn’t specify by whom. The biggest role is given to Emergency Services and the need for thier response, but that isn’t even 1/4 of the impending problem. Unbelievable.
This is a proposal, it outlines what HHS, DHS and all the various government agencies will do to plan and respond, talks about plans for vaccines (which it notes will be extremely difficult to disseminate), how to ramp up production and maintain a stockpile. Well, historically this has all been in disaster mode for the Bush administration, what with FEMA ready to implode and all, so start buying bottled water and powdered milk. I don’t think much will come of this plan.

T. Rex- don’t know if you have had time to read prev. comments re: bird flu. Are you going to be posting on this issue?

I am not abreast of that discussion. Have not been able to dip into the comments sections today. What’s the question, exactly?

Remember, I’m not actually a “scientist”. I just stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

Will,

try crooksandliars.com

Yay Christy! You and Jane are just the best.

ralphbon, from last thread — okay, we’re cool.

I do agree that they should be speaking out more on the insanity of Bush’s war plans for Iran. I cut Dean slack on that because the (devil’s) bargain he took when he took the DNC job is that he would have a relatively free hand there in return for not making policy. But as for the “leadership”, I agree completely. It never ceases to amaze me how they can still be fixated on the idea that they risk being perceived as “weak” because they’re not warlike, rather than the real reason, which is that they appear to form their positions based on what they perceive people want, rather than having solid principles and fighting for them.

Well, I wonder if Abu Gonzalez and the former governator of TX are having their pity party yet. They were so used to ex-e-cu-ting in their former iteration…

wait, they still are!

Foiled by a durn jury…with their eyes wide open and the pesky law laid bare.

wrt to The Note– sheesh.

Sharkbabe, what is a true note and why are you asking?

will #13:

I have it in .wmv (9.35mb. Don’t know how to host, but I can sure e-mail it.

Wingnut:
I’m gonna spend my hundred dollars on gasoline.
That’ll get me by for three weeks. They better hold off on the checks til October 1. Then it
will be fresh in my mind when I go to the polls. I ‘ll remember who gave me a hundred bucks and it weren’t no stinkin democrat. They voted against it.

Hugh, I agree. Must nuke the birds. Kill em there so we don’t have to kill em here. We’re not protected by oceans anymore. Birds can fly.

I’m gonna go shoot a bird in the face.

And will someone tell me how Bob Ney won his primary???? I guess people want criminals in office.

zennurse #18

I haven’t looked at this report. From what you are saying it seems as if this is a write a report and hope for the best because we don’t have a real plan and one may not even be possible.

will:

It’s also still up at C&L

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/04/29.html

IIRC, it takes a majority to deliver a true bill.

I just noticed in the E&P article it says “Hardin writes:”

Congrats on the E&P showing!

THe WH correspondents dinner is at CSPAN complete with the Videorgy aka Seemy-Side Showcase of the Vanities, by which I mean people making their entries obviously preoccupied with being seen [in latin seem = the passive form of the verb to see: videor, videari].

30 wrt GJ at least 16 have to be present and 12 have to vote for a “true bill” or “no true bill”

Hugh, it’s a plan, but most of it is “DHS will be responsible for…” and many pages of how pandemics work. There is information about the WHO protocol, but that isn’t original thought. It is like some grant proposals I’ve reviewed; long on what we will do, short on how it gets done. I have just skimmed it, certainly didn’t read 250 pages yet, but didn’t see a whole lot of goals, targeted timelines or specificity.

I wouldn’t fund it. I like specifics:

” The DHS will train x number of emergency room doctors in response protocol by x date, following every 6 months thereafter.”, etc.

The Note on plantary movements:

On Thursday, the Sun may (or may not) rise in the East.

Tune in to ABC Nightly News, where someone may (or may not) interview Apollo, the chariot driver god of that bright shiny thingy that crosses the sky everyday.

wheee! Congratulations Ms. Christy on the excerpting and the associated props– nice to see other respected venues recognize brilliance!!

zennurse says:
May 3rd, 2006 at 2:01 pm

Have you looked at this? http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=1915227

Am a fierce opponent of the death penalty and that, in itself, is the biggest reason I’m satisfied with the Moussaoui verdict.

Additionally, the revenge/blood lust/punishment psyche of the rightwing that masquerades as “justice” and as “strong on law and order” is truly frightening. It seems to be generally accepted in this country that the death penalty is just, but it’s not justice that motivates the right wing - it’s a creepy sadistic nature, I think. I’ve seen these people salivate over the death penalty too many times…

Combined with their rabid nationalism, just hearing a verdict of “death” for Moussaoui would have given orgasms to the wingnutjobs - I can hear Hannity, Rush and O’Reilly now. For that reason alone - denying them their jollies - I would be happy for this verdict.

Expecting to hear all the self-righteous, “law and order” anger for a long time from the right wing. And, of course, their perennial favorite, “a monumental waste of the American taxpayers’ money keeping a foreign terrorist in prison for years” - love that sentiment coming out of the spend and waste republicans.

I’m also glad that Moussaoui was denied martyr status for his own murderous and misguided deeds.

For me, lots of reasons that this verdict is the right one…

Jane, you & Christy both do an outstanding job — years ago i started reading the note but choked on it — then i subscribed to arianna’s e-mail [before she set up huffpo] but terminated it because she doesn’t relate to regular folks: too much talking about what she’s heard at dinner parties — now i use your site & juan cole’s as my top two sources — thank you

and can I say that I am so very glad that Fitz has the leak investigation rather than the Moussaoui case?

thanks for all the responses. i’ll see if i can access it via the c-span website (i think the C&L video misses the opening remarks - which are some of the best imo).

T.Rex- more like rhetorical questions, having to do with latest news about Bush response, is this latest highlighting of news a disctraction well timed… They are not specific questions like the one Bobby G. asked the other night. More like political spin, tamiflu, Rumsfeld and tamiflu, etc. I know you are not a scientist, but your reply the over eve, it seemed to me that you were more knowledgeable about the various scientific views than I, and also I know you are much more savvy about politics. I was asking if you were going to be blogging (meant to say blogging) at ID or SS about the general issue- if so I hope you will link here. To my knowledge, there aren’t any virologists or epidemiologists who read/ comment at FDL, and failing that, the educated perspective of a smart non-scientist (you) is likely to much more informative and worth reading than the non-educated perspective of a scientist not in the field (me).

I think the plan is to give the $100s to the birds, at least the chickens, so they can go out and buy Shake & Bake(tm), coat and marinade themselves with it - it would be just like a day at the spa for a human, which protective coating will then protect America from the bird flu.

I think Moussaui is mentally ill. He is a maddening and pathetic man.

Still he appears to hold deep seated hatred and harbors lots of violent fantasies.

Also I am just glad that he wasn’t offered up to the American right wing Gods of vegeance and death.

-GSD

Still he appears to hold deep seated hatred and harbors lots of violent fantasies.

You know, you are describing any number of repug apologists there, particularly those of the freeper land, Malkin, Faux News, Freeperland, Coulter variety.

Stephen, more info at pandemicflu.gov, helpful.
Thanks.

OT- the Minutemen are on a nationwide march,
saying they’re not racist.

I shouldn’t have repeated Freeperland, but my mind is still on those chickens coated in Shake & Bake(tm). Um, um, good.

Not surprised that Editor and Publisher picked this up. I am surprised that everyone else hasn’t. Great, great trilogy by Christy, thanks.

zennurse,

What I would be interested in seeing is if there has been some thought given to whether common sense precautions: hygiene, quarantine, limitation of exposure would likely be effective. I would also feel more comfortable if I saw some discussion of dealing with degraded systems. As you pointed out, healthcare workers might not show. They are people after all. They might also become sick, be overstretched, or just be overwhelmed and that would also hurt the response. In addition, to these I could see problems with transportation, communication, and law enforcement.

GSD, couldn’t agree more.
Bush, Cheney, Rove, have to be pissed out of their minds. The jury revealed them for the cowardly chicken hawks they are.

Whoo hoo. The defense attorney MacMahon said that he heard an FBI man on teevee saying 9/11 could have been prevented had Moussaoui talked. He said he hopes he doesn’t see that again, excusing the govt’s behavior prior to 9/11. (paraphrased of course.)

Zen- “true bill” is what GJ has to return to Fitz (in this case) asking for indictment of (say) Rove. JC correct me if I have mistated.

Joe Biden on Tweety true to his odious form. He is cheering on prisoner abuse for Moussaui. Go polish those Chuckles teeth Joe, you are a clown.

-GSD

Also, read this little blurb from Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency.

They are touting how their family planning program has prevented 400 million births.

Imagine the vapors such a report in the US would cause.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/engl.....504327.htm

-GSD

My hunch is Fitz & his staff are well aware of FDL and likely find it essential reading. Nor could the dashing Fitz - not unlike we faithful readers - hope for more intelligent analysis of his brilliant work, not to mention incisive corrections exposing MSM’s sloppy & indefensible spin, slant & all too often - silence.

Am equally certain Rover & Scooter’s legal teams keep an eye on FDL as well. Real or imagined the thought alone warms & cheers my broken heart.

My late great Dad was a real reporter who never met an elected demagogue he could resist exposing in the golden good old days of numerous real newspapermen/women.

Not even slightly off-topic:

As of today 2407 US service personnel and uncounted innocent Iraqi civilians, Kurd, Turkoman, Arab, Christian, and Jew alike have died in the war for which Libby whored out his country.

That is the real crime of which he and the corrupt, inept, incompetent crew headed by Richard Cheney and fronted by George W. Bush are guilty. Never ever ever forgive, and never ever ever forget that.

yo, red, strange lawyerese question here

is there any way the Judge in scooter’s case can question or refute the statements in scooter’s filings ???

specifically in regard to this statement (from pt 2):

“Mr. Libby can rebut this theory [that Administration officials engaged in a vigorous effort to discredit Wilson by outing his wife] by showing that his conversations with reporters about Mr. Wilson and his trip were necessitated by, and focused upon, the false information being spread by Mr. Wilson, and were not focused upon Mr. Wilson’s wife.”

can the judge grill scooter’s lawyres about this part of that statement:

“the false information being spread by Mr. Wilson”

could scooter’s lawyers be required to present any evidence of Joe Wilson ever making a false statement that is material to this case ???

seems to me that scooter’s lawyers want to lie about Joe Wilson in their briefs

can the court question them about any falsehoods like this that are contained in their breifs ???

I asked emptywheel at DKOS, but i think she became exasperated at my persistence, and then I realized I was asking the wrong person

can a defense council be punished for filing documents that contain deliberatly false and misleading statements about facts material to the case ???

thanks in advance

ick, ptooey– a guy wrote in to Cafferty saying that Moussaoui should be thrown into Yankee stadium and pummeled by NYPD and NYFD and whatever is left should be mixed with hummus and served to prisoners in GITMO by Jackie Mason and Barbra Streisand while they’re singing the Israeli National Anthem.

blergh.

racism, anyone? blood lust?

BTW, although I would expect that Froomkin has picked up the E&P article and Christy’s trilogy, it wouldn’t hurt to email him. In a previous version of WHB it said he appreciates tips, tho I don’t see that now. Also, his direct email was prev. posted, but now there is a form:
http://projects.washingtonpost.....+froomkin/

Hugh, that is addressed to an extent, but more in a general way for communities to begin planning. The main issue with hygiene and limited exposure is that many people just don’t and for the ones that do, it may be too late if the behavior changes too late. An example is that every healthcare worker knows they should wash thier hands for longer than a minute, well really all the time, but studies show that they don’t do it consistently in spite of understanding the issue. This virus will be spread by droplet and is very hard to contain.
There is talk about quarantine and that may have to happen if it’s really bad, but it’s a reverse isolation thing, containing the healthy which diminishes resources for the ill.

There are places in the world where they are way ahead on this, so hopefully we will have some models, but this report appears to say that the communities can’t count on the Feds to help much, because, well, it’s hard.

Sorry, I’m pretty disgusted. Most of the money Bush is giving to this is for vaccine, not infrastructure; he thinks already burdened States and communities should pony up…again.
I’ll bet there are two earmarks somewhere that would provide funding to make this work better.

On a more serious note, does anyone know what the migratory patterns of chickens are? Do they go up the Eastern Seaboard or do they track more through the Mississippi Valley? Do they travel in small groups or in great flocks? And what about the danger of falling eggs?

Re: The White House Bird Flu announcement.

This was a combination of pure spin and a behind-the-hand warning that we are at their mercy. So far, we aren’t seeing strong indications that Bird Flu is rapidly mutating into a human disease, so I think that the WH announcement is, in fact, an attempt to divert the current discourse away from other issues that Chimpy McFlightsuit and friends don’t want us to talk or think about.

What was genuinely disturbing to me about the announcement was that the government seems to be saying:

1. If you get sick, we can’t help you.
2. Medicine will be rationed to the people we want to have it.
3. A pandemic is not like a hurricane. It’s like a war, so we can impose martial law and strip you of your rights to travel and communicate.

They have effectively laid the groundwork to impose armed restrictions on the rights of the populace while simultaneously absolving themselves of blame or responsibility for the population’s welfare.

Then Bush said he would restrict the Congress’s ability to allocate funds for it, touting (of all things!) “fiscal responsibility”. (Cos, you know, why spend money to save lives when we can spend money to kill people in other countries?)

The whole thing is frighteningly disingenous, but (get your tinfoil hat to read beyond this point) the thing that really frightens me is how the administration seems to be laying out a blueprint to seize power and keep it beyond the fall elections if they can declare a pandemic emergency. These people are so power-crazed and desperate to escape punishment that it makes me wonder how far-fetched it would be to think that they would breed and release a killer flu. Sure, it would kill a large swath of the populace, but they could hide out in their bunkers and cancel the elections and turn the country into an armed camp.

Yes, I said that. I’m sure the NSA will be knocking on the door of my office any moment.

From Reuters:

Moussaoui gets life

EPU #45: ROFLMAO (though as a bird-lover, am a tad horrified that this misbegotten bunch of fuckups AKA our guvment will attempt a nationwide bird-a-cide, or at least recommend to our fellow citizens that they poison the nasty little WMDisease carrying critters.)

GSD #55: Please add in the bad doll hair. To wit: Chicklet-toothed Chuckles with bad doll hair.

Thanks Christy for the Irwin Goes Shopping Trilogy and kudos on the E&P pickup!

Hugh–they’re held/raised in concentration camps all over the countryside…

I am gonna watch Chicken Run again tonite, Hugh. Will get back to you.

Roger Wilco.

Hugh - On an even more serious note, I am quite confident that only Shake & Bake(tm) can protect you from chickens.

the chicks that run this blog will keep us informed about Bird Flu … I think the Sunday morning bird pictures are a good start !

Who is that good looking dude with the serious look on his face? I’d like to meet him.

The interesting issue is what will ever happen with those in “custody” who have not been charged, probably never will be charged, and who can be handled however anyone d*mn well pleases.

The whole thing is a huge festering mess and it all goes back to the acquiesence in militarization of our criminal and judicial system. The Moussaoui jury had a tough job. I’m only one foot in the anti-death penalty camp, but the offshoots of asking for the death penalty for:

failure to speak about things that might not have made a difference

seems pretty consequential and you have to be glad that it was handled, at least by the jury, pretty seriously. The problem is that it reinforces the Padilla mentality for Gov.

Why bother with facts, rules and a trial - just turn people over to a secret military detention and let them torture what they can out of them, and someone somewhere come up with an eventual disposal policy.

“For the reasons set forth below, the government’s motion is granted because the Court concludes that it must correct a clear error of law.” - Judge Reggie Walton, May 3, 2006

By way of:

http://www.democraticundergrou.....15;1093968

Special Counsel Fitzgerald’s elegant motion seeking clarification or reconsideration of an earlier Opinion by Judge Walton was thoroughly vindicated today. I commend the Judge for openly acknowledging and remedying his earlier Opinion so frankly and cleanly. Bodes well for future, complex decisions yet to be made in this case by this Judge, I think (even if he may need a little assist now and then from his colleagues in the area of classified information procedure).

Very well done, Special Counsel and team.

zennurse says: “Stephen, more info at pandemicflu.gov, helpful. Thanks.”
May 3rd, 2006 at 2:27 pm

You’re welcome, and thank you for the reminder about pandemicflu.gov. I saw a link for it elsewhere (in one of the stories I perused), but haven’t visited that Web site yet.

Thanks T. Rex- I appreciate you taking the time to comment. That is the perspective that I was wanting (er… interested in?). I’ll have to bookmark your comment # so that I can post it when the issue comes up again, and I’m sure it will. FDL now has so many comments that it is certainly no longer possible to read comments on every thread!

My sister is an Infectious diseases specialist. She had a ring side seat here when SARS broke out. She’s a great go to person about avian flu.

She posts over on Kos but I know she doesn’t come here (she’s very disciplined and must limit her fun). If people would like, I’ll ask her if she’d like to weigh in over here on the subject of pandemics.

Let me know.

Colbert’s speech at the Correspondents’ Dinner:
http://www.leahys.net/blog/wp-.....olbert.wmv

Mike Isashill is on!

Also, interesting article about the Secret Service releasing the logs of Abramoffs visits. The list may be incomplete? It’s the cover-up that makes you look sleazy pud-wipes.

http://www.oxfordpress.com/new.....W9964.html

Notice that the driving force behind this story is Judicial Watch..the same outfit that badgered Clinton to all hell. At least they are showing some consistency.

-GSD

I will see if I can’t sum up my thoughts at ID as well. You’re totally welcome, though.

Zen - they don’t deal with the effect of no-shows? You know, they had a nice “plan” that was put into place several months before Katrina. I believe copies were widely distributed throughout DHS as door props and the media used their copies to look taller on camera.

More OT - Leopold put the Prosecutor in with the GJ the week before everyone else put him there and for the new predictions - I just find it hard that someone like Fitzgerald can slip in and out without anyone noticing. In the Twenty Questions mindset - he’s bigger than a breadbox.

T Rex- be sure to post a link here (also send me an email to link as appropriate, if not too much trouble)- do you still have my addy?

Thanks for the info EPU

I will remember:

If the bird starts to quake
Then you must shake and bake

OK, bring ‘em on.

I like The Note, and tire of these easy attacks on apparently any MSM media target available for abuse.

Presidents Birdflu Commission Recommendations

1) No choking the chicken

2) No giving the bird

3) No talking turkey

4) Wash hands after handling cocks

5) In the event of flu outbreak, rent The Stand and watch. Wrap house in Rumsfeld Plastic Wrap(Available at Wal-Marts this fall). Snack on powdered milk and tunafish and suffocate slowly with family and think of the good old days when you had faith that your government could step in and do something in times of trouble.

Brianna– that has got to be a top 10 picture of that man. I would not even mind being on the receiving end of that intensity… :)

You know, just let him talk about his day and how things are going…

Anyone who’s looking for general (as opposed to Gov’t.) info on the bird flu should check out the Flu Wiki. One of the best resources out there.

Cheney.
Very. Strange. Man.

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

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002775.htm

OT (but not)
===DIEBOLD DISASTER: Cuyahoga County Still Counting as 70 Memory Cards Missing from 200 Precincts
50 Temp Workers Hired to Count Absentee Ballots which Diebold Machines Fail to Scan Properly…
Problems Also Reported with ES&S and in Several Other OH Counties…
[]As to Cuyahoga, the Plain Dealer has set up a running blog on their website covering the ongoing problems. Here’s the latest…
http://www.cleveland.com/newsl.....tml#137477
Election workers continue to count votes
12:07 p.m.

Cuyahoga County election workers continued to count votes Wednesday, with about 85 percent of the votes cast on the touch-screen machines counted by 11:15 a.m. But 70 memory cards - with results from 200 precincts - were missing. Cuyahoga County board of elections officials are checking the voting machines to see if the cards were inadvertantly left inside.

Meanwhile, a second team of 50 temporary agency employees continued the hand count of 17,000 paper ballots used by absentee voters. Election officials decided to hand count the paper ballots after tests on the optical scan machines showed innaccuracies. Vote totals for the absentee ballots are expected sometime this evening.===

Thanks everyone for all the comments — am going to try and get to questions this evening. Had to take our dachshund in for emergency surgery this morning, so I’m a little behind in comments response — sorry. I figured getting the analysis up was more important for everyone. Promise I’ll try to get to questions as soon as I can.

ooh, is your little one ok? Christy, what happened? good thoughts heading your way…

64 Thesaurus Rex says: “It’s like a war, so we can impose martial law and strip you of your rights to travel and communicate.”

May 3rd, 2006 at 2:40 pm

Let’s discuss martial law, suspension of habeas corpus, and declaration of a state of national emergency for a few minutes.

Martial law

That term appears nowhere in the Constitution, nor have I found it in the United States Code, to which I will refer later. Of greater concern would be the declaration of an unjustified state of national emergency.

Suspension of the right of habeas corpus

So long as the courts are open, the right of habeas corpus cannot be suspended - remember the discussions of Ex Parte Milligan on previous threads.

Declaration of a state of national emergency

For statutory guidance pertaining to this topic, we need to turn to 50 USC 1601 through 50 USC 1650 - the National Emergencies Act. If other Federal statutes are relevant, I would appreciate some information about them.

angie at 90 — she’s doing well. She had an abcessed tooth that cropped up yesterday evening — by this morning the swelling under her right eye was enormous and we didn’t want to take any chances as to what it was. They had to pull two teeth, but she’s sleeping in her bed now, and happy to be home (so long as Fi isn’t trying to chase her). We were just so grateful it wasn’t something worse.

Thanks, GSD, I knew there was a plan. So it’s pretty much bend over and kiss your ass goodbye. Good to know.

Bionic- great idea. Sounds like she would be a great source of info. Since she limits her commenting (understandable) it would be unfortunate if her comments got lost amidst the moving threads. Any ideas on that point? And, do you have any links to relevant comments she’s made on kos? that would be welcome.

angie 82 - “You know, just let him talk about his day and how things are going…”

Sure, that’s all the intensity you want. ;)

Christy, so sorry about your doggy, Fiona must be a little freaked, too. We’d like to know what happened when you have a minute (haha). Does Fi “get” that you blog, yet? Does she have a little computer so she can blog along?

GSD says:
May 3rd, 2006 at 3:00 pm

Another recommendation:

6) Be good to your immune system: don’t get in a “fowl” mood!

I also meant to say earlier that I hope the hearings that are happening around the mine disaster, as painful as they are for everyone, will bring some sense of peace and support to the families of the miners who died. NPR has been doing good reporting on it AM and PM.

Now THAT’S a sexy guy!
Be still my heart!

Christy, glad she’s doing okay. Doxies are such sweet little dogs.

Christy- I am so glad the doggie is okay. Since she’s family, can we have her name? There is the cutest little dach in the neighborhood, and he gives me a total face cleaning when ever we meet.

Christy, I hope your pup is feeling a lot better really soon. Glad it was just a screwy tooth and not something truly narsty. ;^)

“1. If you get sick, we can’t help you.
2. Medicine will be rationed to the people we want to have it.
3. A pandemic is not like a hurricane. It’s like a war, so we can impose martial law and strip you of your rights to travel and communicate.”

Yeah that sounds like about what I would expect from this crew. Nicely put.

ralphbon — thanks for the mea culpa. We won’t see eye-to-eye on the issue of Iran for the reason that Redshift gave; those of us who encouraged Dean to seek DNC Chair understood he’d necessarily be silent on some issues and in a pickle on others. He’s stated as a candidate that he does not like the leadership of Iran (pre-Ahmadinejad), and as DNC Chair that Dems will not permit Iran to become a nuclear power when speaking on the issue of national security. He’s in a rough spot because he must position the entire party as being the obvious choice on the matter of national security, must convey to outside parties and foreign entities that there will be no slacking if/when Dems regain majority control and/or the White House. Think about it; we don’t have a sufficiency of intel on Iran and IAEA is being shut out by a country that clearly has a nuclear energy program if not a nuclear weapons program. Dean must walk a very careful line here for the future, not just because of the Bush Administration’s warmongering incompetence.

Instead, Dean must concentrate on helping us get Dems elected — the kind who will support Murtha, the kind who will actively question intel and not merely rubber stamp. I know you worked on the Kerry campaign; I also know the campaign was highly flawed depending on the organizers involved. It would be great if you could make sure what didn’t work then doesn’t get repeated in your state.

I don’t take this at all lightly. My stepson served in Iraq, came back with PTSD, and is likely to be called up again if Bush strikes Iran. My family unit is compromised by this monster in the White House - it’s personal. And it’s why I work so damned hard at taking this country back.

Stephen Parrish, CPA

Curiously, in the 1918 outbreak those hardest hit were mature adults with intact immune systems. It was essentially the robustness of their immune response on their own bodies that killed them. Children with developing immune systems and older people with less intact immune responses fared better.

Christy - I just want to say congrats. You are becoming the go-to women for all things Plame. Great that the media is recognizing it.

O/T Breaking news blog update:

http://santafeandthefatcityhorns.blogspot.com/

pow wow says:
May 3rd, 2006 at 2:46 pm
“For the reasons set forth below, the government’s motion is granted because the Court concludes that it must correct a clear error of law.†- Judge Reggie Walton, May 3, 2006

By way of:

http://www.democraticundergrou....._all&a ddress=364×1093968

Special Counsel Fitzgerald’s elegant motion seeking clarification or reconsideration of an earlier Opinion by Judge Walton was thoroughly vindicated today. I commend the Judge for openly acknowledging and remedying his earlier Opinion so frankly and cleanly. Bodes well for future, complex decisions yet to be made in this case by this Judge, I think (even if he may need a little assist now and then from his colleagues in the area of classified information procedure).

Very well done, Special Counsel and team.
———————————————————-
Link’s broken, and I can’t find any mention of this anywhere else. Is this legit? Was there a ruling today?

Mary- I missed your comment, sorry!
The pandemicflu.gov site breaks things down a little more. The part I like is how to provide support to overburdened health care providers (nutritious snacks, light exercise) and psychosocial support for thier families who will never see them until its over.

I may sound more cynical than usual, but I see a lot of lip service about the “boots on the ground” reality of our very shaky and overburdened healthcare system. Nurses and aides will be essential to this, should it happen, and it just frosts me the assumptions that are made about just who will appear at the bedside. Bush doesn’t realize that we are an aging population and that more people leave nursing than enter it yearly. There are also a lot of “nurses on paper” who may be counted through boards of registration but who have left clinical practice and just maintain thier licensure. We are not all Melanie Wilkes, although there should be a kernel of her somewhere. I am a lot more like Melanie in my world than I think many nurses are in other areas where there is more physical work with mandated overtime. I’m fortunate and will be able to help, but I think there should be an expectation that many won’t.

Rayne- thanks for spelling out the tough position Dean is in re: Iran. That was my surmise, but I didn’t post bec. I couldn’t articulate it with enough knowledge. And, I am so sorry for your step-son - the PSTD issue (among others) just makes me so angry about Bushco.’s cavalier attitude re: troops.

Hugh–I think Mary accounted for the other migrating chickens–those not in concentration camps are being held in custody but not charged…

Hugh says:
May 3rd, 2006 at 3:26 pm

That is very interesting and seemingly counterintuitive; one would think that the hardest hit would be those with compromised immune systems. Developing immune systems, under those circumstances, might be those best able to adapt to coping with mutating viral strains.

TREX in 64

I’m with you on your hypothesis, but could they pull it off? They are so incompetent in their execution, they probably would screw this up too.

I think it would be easier for them to declare war on Iran and then impose martial law after the blowback from that hits. Two birds…

“true bill†bird flu
the trump-up and the swan (song)

Redd –

My prayers for your pupster (and you, of course).

Tonight we take our beloved pup back to the vet. She has a broken tooth (last one in the back, used for grinding food) and we seek to prevent what your little dachshund had to suffer.

More ominously, in the check-up she got before our 10-day trip, the doc found “something” a “little bit of thickening” in the tissue during a routine anal sac clearing. This area of tissue is a common site for cancer to appear.

I’m a bit of a nervous wreck.

If you (and others) would just cast a very brief thought/prayer in “the kid’s” direction (that’s how we refer to her so she doesn’t know we’re talking about her — she’s so damned smart she knows that the words “she” and “her” are most likely in reference to Her Own Most Exalted Cuteness Incarnate).

Thanks!

And thanks for all your hard work here; I’m amazed at all you can juggle. Congratulations on the well-deserved notice from E&P. Take whatever time you need for your pupster and yourself; we won’t be going anywhere — the questions will still be here when you get back to it.

Have you noticed that all the good “guys:”
Fitzgerald, Feingold, Plame, are so good-looking? Just clean, open faces with an intelligent gleam in their eyes. (Christy, you share those attributes.) The E&P mention is well-deserved, and should lead to the Traditional Media swiping some of your good thoughts, as they tend to do to all the good, careful blogs several days, months, or years later. That’s alright. It’s the thought that counts, as they say.