omg FITZ !!

And today I wake up to the headline: Cheney has Harsh Words for Moscow.

Mr. Congeniality is lecuring Putin on human rights.

Isn’t Russia one of the few countries who has clout with Iran? And don’t we have a problem with Iran?

It would be funny if it wasn’t so tragic.

If they keep going this way, I’m not so sure simply a vote “against” will not suffice in November.

make that lecturing and change who to that. I must be pissed off.

“… he’s hunkering down and hoping that nothing else bad happens between now and then.”

not bloody likely!!!

THEY know it. But THEY want US to do something about it. THEY won’t soil their hands and police their own.

Two days ago the corporate Repug types quietly ask my spouse what I’m thinking…since I’m the only progressive they know. Last night the hairdresser admits that things must change, punctuates it with raised eyebrows. Must have hurt because she’s one of the religious types — not quite a fundie, but that’s where a third of the people here are, on the edge of fundie-ville.

Yet they don’t say we’re going to fix this problem. They’re either admitting there’s a problem or they’re looking to us.

I want to tell them you can’t expect anything from people you spent 10 years bashing into a corner — but that would merely feed their side’s framing that we have no ideas.

After mulling it over for weeks, I think it’s time to start brainstorming out loud. It’s time we did start putting out those ideas NOW so that they have 6 months to stew on them. Things aren’t going to get any better on their side of the aisle. (As if DeLay and Abramoff and Cunningham and NSA spying and Katrina will just disappear…) THEY are definitely approaching desperate and are ripe for picking.

I think there is a reason that these columns appeared after Colbert excoriated Washington. Those of us saying, when will anyone realize that our government is being scrapped and melted down, finally can stop asking that question and turn to imagining scenarios in which something different happens. Despite the poll numbers of the past six months, I still had the feeling that no one had effectively pointed out the imperial lack of clothing. Now the issue turns from a matter of changing the consciousness to concretely changing the government.

I have been for impeachment for a long time. But until the rest of the country catches up, we need to work in the short term towards catalyzing the Republican realization that they are in public opinion hell. The first goal should be to tie the Administration’s hands so they can’t start a war in Iran, Russia (gasp), or anywhere else. The second should, of course, be the midterm election. The third should be exactly what Dole is afraid of: a law and order campaign that lands her back home in the sleepy summer heat of Salisbury, North Carolina. On parole.

Morning Redd. Great piece..

Yes I think the media are shielding Clusterfuck- don’t wanna kick him when he’s down- are a little worried about what happens if he slips even further with 2 1/2 years to go. etc.

It’s OK though the poor fucker is already dead and will put in 2 1/2 years of nothingness.

If the public allows the gooper party to retain control of both houses of congress- and cover up the crimes committed by these sociopaths- then there is little hope for America.,

Irony alert…the US is lecturing other countries on how not to bully neighbors (Cheney).
To me this is also something people have missed, we have lost ALL MORAL authority.
It’s like parents telling their kids not to do drugs and have sex, while toking a spleef during group sex…

Reposted from Froomkin’s ‘reposting‘

“Today, however, thanks to the reposting of the Colbert video online, any of you who are curious about Colbert’s performance have probably already seen it. Colbert wasn’t playing to the room, I suspect, but to the wide audience of people who would later watch on the Internet. If anything, he was playing against the room — part of the frisson of his performance was the discomfort he generated in the audience, akin to the cringe humor of The Ali G Show. . . .

“To the audience that would watch Colbert on Comedy Central, the pained, uncomfortable, perhaps-a-little-scared-to-laugh reaction shots were not signs of failure. They were the money shots. They were the whole point.”

emphasis mine.

” but he’s hunkering down and hoping that nothing else bad happens between now and then.”

I agree with #4. In Bush’s tiny little mind, something bad happening would save his rancid bacon.

Irony alert…the US is lecturing other countries on how not to bully neighbors (Cheney).

Hey, Iraq and Iran aren’t our neighbors, right?

Sophist (10) — exactly. It’s those moments immediately after Colbert slips in the shiv, when the audience reacted by sucking in its collective breath, or the crickets chirped in the background, that I laughed the hardest. Damn near wet my pants during a couple of those vaporous gaps of dead air. They were like the quiet of the eye of a miniature but deadly hurricane.

I know you didn’t mean it like this, but I had to laugh — you summed it right up…

“people are thinking about the Bush Administration in terms of a “Hump Day” for the whole country”

Christy, you said:

“People are already thinking past President Bush, but he’s hunkering down and hoping that nothing else bad happens between now and then. He’s already thinking past himself, too.”

I hope you are right about him “hunkering down,” but I have been concerned for some time that he might “allow” or “arrange” something dramatic and disasterous which would require something like “martial law.” This is not mere paranoia: when you consider 9/11 and all the irresponsible behavior of the intelligence community, the FAA, etc. I believe he is like most wounded animals: dangerous and unpredictable.

Yes I think the media are shielding Clusterfuck- don’t wanna kick him when he’s down-

Well, they sure didn’t kick him when he was up, now did they?

It’s like someone said last night, I hated him when he was at 91% and standing on a pile of rubble. Do I get any credit for that?

Waiting for Bush to ‘wait out’ the remainder of his term, is like locking the bank robbers in the bank vault and the police taking a lunch break. The police will get back only to find that the bank is empty and the robbers gone. With all the loot.

The need to expose all the money laundering and their fraud schemes (and FDL does so well on the Saturday series) needs to be taken up by the front page media. There are now just burbs of 5 seconds or so in MSM.

I got three calls yesterday to donate money to dem organizations. One of them was DSCC (Senate org. run by Schumer, right?) and I said I am holding my money except for DFA and specific candidates. When the dems step up (here and there they are, but then they run and hide before anyone can notice they said something against Bush), there may be an alternative.

In the last few days I have talked to 2 people who hate Bush. And rant and rant about how bad he is. BUT, one is against immigrants and will NOT VOTE because the dems won’t keep them out of America (I am trying to talk to her, but at 86 not sure she is listening) and the other is upset about the abortion issue. He can’t articulate WHY, but thinks human life is not valued and so is wishy washy about voting.

Until the fire can be built by the dems saying that our country is in dire need and give them a strong voice to follow, these voters will wallow in their own personal uncertainy morass.

Watching the mayhem the U.S. has been busy conducting throughout the world for the past century. I’m torn between believing some of the wilder tinfoil hat talk re: the GWOT paving the way for New World Order ‘utopianism’.

Whose utopia it will end up being I’m not sure.

One thing that seems clear however is that the U.S. will NOT be in charge, or stand as beneficieries, they will be too tainted; ruined and bankrupted, financially, morally and otherwise, by their history as agressors.

I’m sure whatever damaged and deranged portion of U.S. sovereignty remains in such an event will be bound to end up made a scapegoat for all that was wrong with the ‘Old World Order’. If past revolutions are any indication that is.

Here’s to hoping there is no truth to the larger conspiracy perspectives.

While they are hunkering down they are also preparing the poison pill.

The tax cut package has gone to conference and come out –extending the tax cuts on capital gains and dividends until 2011 when everything will expire at once. This locks in the day of reckoning past the 2008 election cycle.

Will the Democrats stop it in the Senate or will they be complicit and help dig the debt hole deeper?

It is hard when the public is out in front of the politicians as they are in Iraq and (either there or close) on Bust Tax Cuts.

This is one of the last chances for the GOP to lock in a last, screw-the-pooch tax situation before 2006.

Oh, and Boehner says there needs to be a lame duck session after November.

To answer why the corporate media is reluctant to point out the flaws of the president, think of it this way. Think of the media as the playboy bunnies, and Bush as Hugh Heffner. They all know what they are doing as legal but immoral, but if they speak out against anything Heff does, they lose access to the mansion, glamour, outragious parties with famous people, and lots and lots of money.

his past records

Blowing up Frogs
(to now blowing up Americans)

National Gauard Service
(nonservice)

these facts alone tell you
there an’t nothing there

Iraq is in the past. Some mistakes may have been made, but will never
be admitted. It is time to forget all that and move on to the immediate
threat posed by Iran.
It has been learned by ace reporter Ruby Diller that the administration
has an Iranian defector (code name “screwball”) who has first-hand knowledge
of unusually large shipments of paper towels to Iran. Clearly the only
reasonble use for so many rolls of paper towels is to use the tubes in the
middle to create high-performance subterfuges used in purification.
So called “international experts”, probably French, have suggested that
cardboard is not suitable for such purposes, but anyone who is not a
liberal America hater can see that simply fusing multiple tubes together
and coating the inside with high-strength aluminum would yeild a cutting
edge purification system. Obviously, there can be no other use for these tubes.

That’s not all. The administration also has a second previously high-ranking
Iranian “scientist” informant (code name “slider”) who has documented proof that
Iran had a contract to buy “angel-food” Unnilennium from the Romulans in a deal closed on one of the moons of Saturn. Slider said: “We know where they were. They were in the area around Tethys and Iapetus and left, right, up and down somewhat. Your perspective may vary.”
Some “Trekkies” have suggested that the Romulan imperial seal is not correctly
depicted on the documents, but this view has been discounted since “Trekkies” are known
to be left-wing science-loving “appease-monkies” in the words of the administration
and will from now on be referred to as “Nevilles”.

Clearly we must get behind the administration based on this rock-solid intelligence
to thwart this immediate, if not sooner, threat to our very existance. Our freedom
depends on your support.

Signed,
The “We have it right this time, don’t listen to Colbert” MSM

Money. That’s what really matters. Power and holding elective office aren’t ends, they’re means. Means to getting money. Then that money begets more power, begetting more money. As long as Boeing, GE, Microsoft, Siemens, TRW, Halliburton, Carlyle, Exxon and the rest of corporate America (and the media they own directly or tangentially) are taken care of Bush and his henchmen and successors are safe and taken care of. Can you personally host a fundraising dinner bringing in a million dollars for the RNC? I didn’t fucking think so. Now go back to work, play with your kids and shut the fuck up. Oh, don’t get any fancy ideas you’ll fix all this at the ballot box. We have that taken care of and we’re watching you, “Mr. Unlawful Combatant”. One word from us and even if you prevail in court we’ll have you millions in debt to lawyers, permanently impoverished.

The latest headline: “Cheney Angers Russian Leaders: His “Speech Looks Like A Provocation ”

Maybe were just going to jump on past Iran and declare war on Russia. As long as we seem to be trying to alienate the entire world, might as well go for some of the big fish right now. Go for the gusto, I always say.

After reading the other comments, specifically Sophist and GrandmaJ, I am convinced that the Democrats are being called out as well.

Republicans and their various misdeeds will be swept under the rug until a TRUE opposition party is established and speaking in the same manner as Colber(t).

Where are those people? Who – other than comedians – will hold this administration’s feet to the fire and demand accountability?

This is not a rhetorical question; we really need to know so we can throw in behind that person and get the momentum going for November.

I think the problem is that they (the media)never leave Washington – that whole “inside the beltway” mentality. Chris Matthews is a prime example of that mentality. I still can’t get over him talking about the Christmas Party with the President and the media (why are they so chummy?) and him gushing about how Bush noticed his red scarf! “The leader of the Free World talking about my scarf!” It’s such an insider club. They don’t get what everyone else is thinking – and in a way, I don’t think they care. The way they looked at each other during Colbert’s truthiness was a typical insider response. (How gauche!)

The word “clusterfuck” comes to mind. Not very pretty, but descriptive.Many have pointed (for decades) to the confluence and corruption of power through the mechanism of government, business, media. Is it too much of a leap to say that a main mechanism of propaganda — that concept we smugly attribute to communist excess — is finding a quite receptive home in the U.S. Could be simple as that. We keep trying to redeem the press, but they may have gone too far over the cliff to come back.

Anyone who speaks of a need for moderation, whether from dems or whoever, in the light of the radical corruption of our institutions, misses the point. The power structure becomes more dangerous by the day, as America fades from the stage in terms of moral authority, and actual control (all being internationally, corporatively dictated), but the bullies retain raw aggressive force.

Mike (19)

Maybe the post-election session will be to declare the elections null and void.

Rayne #5: THEY know it. But THEY want US to do something about it. THEY won’t soil their hands and police their own.

…
Yet they don’t say we’re going to fix this problem. They’re either admitting there’s a problem or they’re looking to us.

I want to tell them you can’t expect anything from people you spent 10 years bashing into a corner — but that would merely feed their side’s framing that we have no ideas.
We do have the ideas, so I think the thing to tell them is that if they’ll pitch in with us, we can all do something about this together. Take their asking about what you’re thinking not as “maybe she can save us,” but “maybe she’s right, and we should think that, too” and encourage them to act accordingly. (Even if that’s not what they’re actually thinking, we can still lead them in that direction.)

I don’t mean voting for progressives (yet), that may eventually follow, I mean calling their congressperson to support actions like HCR391 saying the President can’t attack Iran without Congressional authorization, oppose S1955, which would gut requirements for insurers to cover cancer screenings, and calling to oppose the NSA spying program. We need to make it easy, get them their reps’ phone numbers and point them to scripts with ideas for what to say. Tell them that they have special power, because they can begin their call with “I’m a lifelong Republican…”

Tell them about the port security bill that overwhelmingly passed the House yesterday over opposition from the White House. It’s not perfect, but it’s a heck of a lot better than we’ve been getting for the past two years. Point out that this happened because the people across the political spectrum came out against the Dubai ports deal. This means we do have the power to change course, if we do it together.

We’ll provide the ideas, if they’ll provide the (additional) support. The great thing about this is that it undermines the us-vs.-them mentality that is essential to the modern GOP. Once they start seeing that on the really important things, we can come together, well, anything’s possible.

Sophist (10)

I hear you! I just read that in Froomkin’s online column, and was blown away: “money shot” pretty much nailed it: those we-don’t-get-it stares from the kneepads media-fugs in the audience were what it was all about. They’re paid not to get it, and we are not paid to sit here at our screens, hanging out with each other and trying to get it….

and if FDL is any indicator, (and we know it is, eh?) A LOT of people are now WAY GETTING IT…

OT: any prophecies for indictments this week?

I’ve been wondering about this for quite some time. Even before the election, I’ve wondered “how many times do they get away with this stuff? I first started saying this about military service/chickenhawks. And I said it real loud during the swiftboat nightmare. But you can apply it to just about anything the Bushies touch. I heard Russ Feingold say it on “Face the Nation” awhile back. I think I’m in love.

The media would embrace a “Mr. Smith”.
Is it Gore? Perhaps. But as GrandmaJ (17) mentioned, whoever it is is going to face the issues of abortion and gay marriage. I would suggest a simple way to blunt the “wedge” of these issues. “Abortions and gay marriage are serious issues that need to be discussed but we face myriad crisis right now and must attend to them first.” No need to list the priorities for FDL readers.

What would YOU do if you knew that everything you did was monitored/recorded by government spooks (NSA etc) & if you “stepped out of line” all your transgressions would become front page fodder and all your “stuff” would be lost ?

What would YOU actually DO in that situation ?

Think long & hard about it

Then think about the situation of those that are in positions of power such as Congress & the Media

Just what WOULD you do ?

If YOU think I am just making stuff up then YOU have no idea how far down the rabbit hole “We the people…” have wandered

The worse stuff is probably still to come out – hookers on the hill is probably the “easy” part

“Every once in a while, you’ve got to do something hard, do something you’re not comfortable with. A person needs a gut check.” – Corporal Chad Ritchie, U.S.M.C.

#15

“but I have been concerned for some time that he might “allow†or “arrange†something dramatic and disasterous which would require something like “martial law.†This is not mere paranoia: when you consider 9/11 …”

not bloody likely — back then the public gave bush the benefit of the doubt. today he has no credibility or trust. another 9-11 scale attack would only be more proof of his incompetence and impotence. the public will excoriate him. he’d be much better off pulling osama out of a hat. it might be worth a bounce.

neither will the public tolerate his invoking martial law. bush has so far managed to increase his power only through obscure arguments of constitutional law in the wastelands of senate subcommittee chambers, but an overt nationally televised prime-time power grab that even joe sixpack could understand will backfire badly.

Poor bugger knows he’s ratshit. They put him in a rubber room on suicide watch while he is prepped for brain salad surgery. When the ‘ dead man walking’ wakes up from that and btw, have you ever seen someone in the depths of a stone cold ether binge?
My god there is nothing quite so deranged and degenerate on earth but I digress. That frontal turd blossom lobotomy was just a rinse – the heavy duty cycle’s coming straight up. First remove the brains – then remove the balls. That’s the plan Stan and the Barber shop surgery boys from Chicago will have the Chimp’s nut’s off before you can wink at the judge.
The future sandwiched between the Rumster and ‘ wife’ Condi does not look appetizin’ to any good-ol-boy I know.
Leastin they’ll get his mind right. He can work as a W/house spitoon for a coupla years’n then get an honest job as a road hump. So long George – it’s been real.

Sophist – Exactly. Colbert was creating a piece of performance art in which the audience played perhaps as important a role as the speaker. Their stunned silence then, and their harsh response in the subsequent days, have been part of Colbert’s point.

Colbert’s regular audience, who know his act well, understand precisely what he was up to and the reaction from the press he expected to get. Now the press is playing their predicted role with great alacrity. The performance piece continues and with each passing day, the willfull blindness, obstinance, cravenness and pompousity of the washington insider press is on full display for all the world to behold.

The “I know funny” column was perhaps the best reaction. Colbert could not have hoped for a more satire-worthy response.

Rayne,
just an idea for the brainstorm-
AIPAC controls congress to a large extent by targeting individual congressmen/women from both parties. i.e. vote this way for us and we give you money and support (press, intros. etc). Vote against us and we bury you by supporting your opposition. They go past the parties if necessary to get at the representatives directly regardless of party.
Why can’t the blogosphere do the same thing? Apply it to all constituancies regardless of party affiliation. Make it damn personal just as it was damn personal when each of them stepped up to vote for the war and for the Patriot Act.

Is there a vote on an issue coming up that could be used as a qualifier for support – something to put them on notice?

If the issue is a vote on citizens rights, for instance, and support is contingent on the way each rep votes and disregarding party affililiation, it could then be sold to the general public as an issue for a “democratic republic”. Taking back the country.

To throw these bums, or make them toe the line, it needs cross party action. I don’t think it will gett he mass appeal as a Democrat action. And if it did, whose to say the Democrats wont continue to play the same old game?

when bush attacks iran, leading democrats will applaud — the neocons rule when it comes to setting our foreign policy — we need to form a third party even if it seems counterproductive at first: many third parties have forced the major parties to change — clinton won because a third party took more votes away from bush senior — this time, the republicans are being clever in that frightened whites who are uniformly ignoramuses on economics are eager to expel the very immigrants our country needs as millions of service jobs go begging — if the prejudiced folks [both parties] get their way, america will suffer a collapse that will make the depression look mild

colbert’s a man of brilliance but the folks who get his wit are a small circle that was already against bush: that’s why the mainstream media can afford to ignore him

a democracy needs two pillars in order to defend itself: armaments & universal conscription — we’ve overdone the armaments, thinking we can offset the decay that a volunteer military fosters: if every family was exposed to the risk of war, the bumblers who lead us would think twice before attacking iran, syria & all the other places they have in their sights

As to the question of why corporate media still treat the WH as if it credibility, I am sure part of it is access, maybe some of it is protection (really depends on which journalist you’re speaking of). But I think there is something more, being the rules of the game. The norms of reporting help establish the centrality of certain sources. A beat says, “this source is perpetually important.” When you get to the level of the WH, the ultimate source of significant information in politics, there are simply no rules for dealing with an executive branch that has lost all credibility.

I am speaking on the whole, not about individuals. There cannot be 50 Murray Waas’s because not everyone is that good and most journalists are assigned institutional locations.

The only option that do seem to exist are to wait for someone like Waas to break a story, then maybe follow up on it, and when you do, go into scandal cycle with overheated repetition of information regardless if it moves the story an inch.

The fact the Bob Schieffer was reported as contemplating leaving the WH to an intern is an indication of the structural problem facing contemporary political journalism which doesn’t just report. It invests. It invests institutions with credibility because it gives deference to institutions. And when those instititions become useless and deceptive, there isn’t any backup plan.

Another important factor is character. For better or worse, the corporate political journalists in Washington are often caught between editors who are protective of Bush and their own lack of tenacity. I know journalists are feeling glum and attacked and defensive but the failures are legion over the last few years to work on behalf of the public interest and not on behalf of the business of journalism. The central question is why do political journalists report? To what end? If one of the first answers is not “as a check on power” then frankly, that person should consider another brand of journalism. The civic ethic of journalism is simply weaker today. Combine that with instiutional siting which extends and helps create the credibility of the sources it depends on, and you have a system that is not worth a whole lot anymore.

The Washington access journalists and their enablers are doing what every group does in the face of an external threat: circle the wagons and hope it goes away. The sad/funny part is that the more we outsiders figure things out for ourselves, the lass valuable their access becomes.

Ii’s no surprise that readership/ratings are falling. The cerebral part of the news business (meaningful analysis and commentary) have moved on-line to sort through the non-access (i.e., real) reporting that still somehow manages to slip through the filters.

When day-to-day relevance is all they have to sell, making their output less relevant doesn’t do much for their market share. Even in America, things only can be dumbed down so far before even the dummies get what’s happening.

In military terminology, Bush is “short,” or a “short-timer.” You stop fighting when you’re getting ready to rotate out. Lots of tropps keep “short-time calendars,” where they mark off the days until they rotate.

Is it just my perception or is Bush deseperately embracing relgion as his last defense?
“”America is a nation of prayer. It’s impossible to tell the story of our nation without telling the story of people who pray,” Bush said during a White House celebration of the National Day of Prayer. “At decisive moments in our history and in quiet times around family tables, we are a people humbled and strengthened and blessed by prayer.”"
Isn’t this the scoundrel’s last redoubt, the place where no one dares follow? And in his sacred cave of religiosity, does Bush imagine he will be able to protect his secret cowardice?

Mike #19, and notjonathon, #27
This is May 5th. Why is Boehner saying this now?
No joke here, This is something to watch VERY CAREFULLY because if he is floating this idea now knowing the Repubs are in deep trouble, something is up and it is not good for us.

delurking:

a lady I’ve worked with for many years (a Rush Limbaugh disciple) with whom I’ve sparred many times in a friendly way over political matters, came up to me the other day and said she’s “sick of Bush, and doesn’t know what to do about it”. she’s still going to vote and vote republican, but her disenchantment is growing daily. (She’s depressed about the continuing bad news, but mainly doesn’t think he’s tough enough on illegal immigration.)
Wedge issue!! she’s a complete racist of course, but doesn’t realize it. I’m counting on Repubs like Sen Kyl to make a case which she can support, which will alienate more moderate Republicans who will be forced to acknowledge the ugly reality of their party’s base.

Sounds like a good gooper insurance policy to schedule a lame duck session of congress- in case they LOSE one or both houses- they can get in a few licks on their way out the door. Shows that they are taking the possibility of losing seriously.

AP/Ipsos Results:

http://www.ipsos-na.com/news/a…..opline.pdf

Wow. Bush hits a new low on the AP Poll of 33% approval — previous low was 36%.

Even more amazing, the ’strong approval’ rating for Congress is, get this, 2%. Statistically, that’s a tie with a negative -1% strong approval.

No wonder the House & Senate Republicans are worrying about a November Massacre.

Republicans have spent roughly 30 years bashing all things Democratic, liberal, progressive or left wing.

Now that 6 years of unadulterated Republican right-wing rule has left the nation on the brink of collapse, you can see why so many of the true believers, and not so true believers are a bit paralyzed with indecision and fear.

The old Bush the decider schtick has gotten mighty tiresome to most Americans but they are still not willing to commit themselves to any of the alternatives just yet.

*Nice to see Tony Blair getting a drubbing, even though ideologically I am a Labor and not a Tory.

Every week now, a new small town hero is emerging to give is heart and to let us know that the battle is being taken to the administration. The Ray McGovern story is giving us our Colbert Moment this week.

-GSD

PS. NH’s two Republican Congressional seats appear to be in play with both incumbents below 50%.

You folks may want to adopt one of these seats too.

Goopers hope to use the “Curse of immigration” to get out the vote in November. Of course they’ll have to deal with the question “Say haven’t you guys been in total power for years now? So why are you only now getting around to going ballistic?”

This is OT, and yet, maybe not, because it reflects activism from children for something that is precious to them, and it also indicates that there are still some teachers in this country showing children what government should be: questioning officials about why they pursue the policies they do. The article linked is about the proposed sale of a national forest in NC.

I’m going to have to withdraw some of my negativity posted in #15. Bush is a wounded animal and he is dangerous, but he might not be able to get away with anything too outrageous to hold onto power, because with his poll numbers, it just might not be possible.

http://wwww.nytimes.com/2006/0…..gewanted=1

From the Note:

ABC News’ Jason Ryan reports, “The grand jury hearing the leak investigation case is scheduled to meet at 9:30 am ET. Special prosecutor Fitzgerald is in town for a 1:30 pm ET hearing before Judge Walton in the Libby case. The hearing will be a status conference requested by Libby’s lawyers after Fitzgerald disclosed in court papers that President Bush had authorized Libby to disclose sections of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq’s WMD.”

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics…..?id=156238

The NOTE throwing up smoke signals again most likely.

I’d think Fitzgerald would schedule a press conference when he offers the GJ a Rove indictment. He isn’t going to do this the same day he has a hearing on Libby.

At least one would think.

Ideas on how to fix this? What to do? Pretty obvious!!! Well, maybe obvious but, probably hard to do. Get money out of government. Simple, no? Remove money from the equation. That would mean something like:

1- Really reform lobbying. No gifts. How could you or I lobby our government? Not with $100,000 and trip to a golf course in Scotland. With a discussion of ideas. Make that the definition of lobbying the government.

2- Election campaigns. Make them publically funded. Resources to be used by all. Eliminate the finicial influence of huge organizations and corporations……

Hey, aren’t these ideas sounding familiar? Sure, we’ve been talking about them for years. But the congresscritters didn’t have to listen then. Make them listen now.

Hundreds of thousands of people marching for immigration. I know that has value to our country and people. But don’t you think the state of our country and democracy are more important to get back on track? Can’t we organize hundreds of thousands in marches for real reform and real changes? How can we get that moving? Hundreds of thousands of loud voices in the summers of a voting year!!! They must be heard, now!

OT – Citations have been issued to Pat Kennedy – failure to keep in proper lane, driving at an unreasonable speed, failure to give full attention to operation of vehicle.

GSD: “The Ray McGovern story is giving us our Colbert Moment this week.”

I thought Colbert gave us our ‘Colbert Moment’ this week.

Maybe we should change that to “giving us yesterday’s CMOD (Colbert Moment Of the Day)”.

It’s probably something we actually for which we need an acronym, given that a CMOD seems to be occuring as frequently now as: The Daily Embarrasment, The Twice-A-Week Scandal, The Morning Outrage, The Mid-Day Arrogance, and The Evening Mendacity.

Atta- Agree-when it’s indictment day- Fitzy will schedule a press conference well in advance- and everyone will know what it means.

Perhaps NEXT week.

The traditional media wants to maintain its access to an administration that punishes those who don’t play along with them. The traditional media are “hunkering down” too. The only thing I can think of that will force the traditional media to do its job is if this stance loses them money. So I say cancel your newspapers, your Time & Newsweek magazine subscriptions, and lay off watching CNN, MSNBC & FOX and write them a letter telling them why you will no longer buy their products.

OT.

Who would have guessed that MILF’s have political clout in the Phillipines. I wonder if Stiffler’s mother is on the ballot?

http://news.xinhuanet.com/engl…..512890.htm

-GSD

Atta – agree as well.

However, keep in mind that Fitz may be extremely unwilling to do Luskin any favors at this point given the sand that he has kicked up time and again. The Viveca thing may have been the last straw. I would consider it a remote possibility, but a possibility nonetheless, that Fitz might surprise Rove with an indictment without the courtesy of advance notice via scheduling a press conference. Just a thought.

This post by Christy clearly defines our fight as twofold. The first is with the current administration. The second and probably more important is with the current DC do-nothing press corps. The Colbert Affair clearly shows that the press is extremely unwilling and uncomfortable with their complicity to support this administration’s memes and spin. Their failure to accept this reality is hurting America more than this or any administration could possibly cause.

Carpe Diem? You bet your ass and in more ways than one!

Dems now leading in three of the six races they need to take over the senate.

They have a substantial lead in Pennsylvania, a good lead in Montana, and a very small lead in Missouri. Rhode Island and Ohio remain close- Tennessee doesn’t look good at this point..

Virgina is still developing- and could be the kicker state if everything goes VERY well.

Is the president a lame duck, or is he a wounded and cornered wild animal? My fear is that it is the latter and that, rather than hunkering down to survive the remnants of his presidency, Bush will attempt to “redeem” it in some spectacular fashion, or at least to try to cram into two years the entire Republican “thousand year Reich.”

My first concern is neocon desperation. The neocon world view is going down in flames. However, famously having never been anchored in reality, neocon fantasies have grown wings and are soaring in the rarified air of truly lunatic heights. This week we’ve had Steele in the Wall Street Journal claiming that the world’s problem is that there is not enough White Supremacy and too much guilt about slaughtering brown people. We have Instacracker claming that seizing the oil fields in Saudi Arabia and Iran and pumping like mad could be the way to solve our energy problems.

Do not forget Iran. Every sensible, reality-based analysis of Iran screams out against attacking. But these are the neocons. They are perfectly capable of believing that dropping a few nukes on Iranian cities would cause the populace to suddently overthrow the Mullahs and convert to Western democratic capitalism (while throwing flowers at the feat of American troops occupying Iranian oil fields). To some extent, Steele and the Instacracker are preparing for exactly that.

My second conern is the looting of America. If big corporate interests and their employees in congress realize the jig is going to be up in ‘06 or ‘08, they may well try to get what they can while the getting is good. I expect a run on corporate giveaways slipped into bills after conference.

Now is no time for compacency. Very bad people run our government, and I don’t believe they will be trying to run out the clock so they can slink away after they’re out of office.

Burglars steal sun porch to enjoy sunshine.

Did we know that Murtha voted for the Republican reform package? I was a little downmouthed at that, although I know he’s not a liberal. I would have hoped he’d vote along party lines and see it for what it is: an old dry band-aid with no stick to ge through the election season.

I don’t know if Gyro Gear is around but:

THANKYOU!!!!!!!!!
for posting the Pearl Jam webcast last night!
It was just amazing and I’m getting out of here now to get the CD. It’s going to be 80 here today. I love you all but I need some loud protest rock and roll.

Impeach.

Johnson/Atta/Chrisy/anyone else.
Re: Jason Ryan reports…

What the hell is a status conference?

T-

Good morning all and great post Christy with an added bonus of one of my favorite actors of all time…

OT–Tony Blair has fired Jack Straw. Could it be that there is a profound disagreement over foreign policy–ie Iran???

I just posted this on Daily Kos but it’s not being read. Can I get you to glance at it? Many thanks.

Let me tell you a true story.

In 2003 my county formed a group of progressive Democrats. We didn’t think the local Democratic party had its priorities straight nor did we like the inefficient way they organized and the way the money was spent. They were past their prime.

We took our energy and know-how to the meetings, were elected as delegates, organized precincts in 2004, and worked to get out the vote. The excitement was incredible.

Then we elected progressives as officers of the party. They are much like the people on the front page here, much like the diarists: intelligent, energetic, full of ideas. 2005 was our year.

Our officers made it clear that this was a new day. And it was.

By the end of 2005 all of the moderates and conservatives had dropped out along with most of the progressives who weren’t pure enough, who had a different and more inclusive idea of what a Democrat was.

Now it is 2006 and there is little organizing going on, there is little money coming in, there is no energy or excitement.

In our primary this week, there were no Democrats standing outside the polling places, no Democrats working the phones. No Democrats.

But our local party is still “pureâ€, much smaller, but “pureâ€.

As I said, this is a true story.

I read Daily Kos two or three times a day. It’s a great site. It’s a great community. But it only supports a half dozen Democrats. All of the national Democrats are “spinelessâ€, “don’t have an agendaâ€, “just don’t get it.â€

You’ve finally convinced me. There are no Democrats, except the chosen half dozen, who should be elected to office.

Yeah, the Republicans are ruining the country, our economy is going south, Iraq is a catastrophe. Health care. science, jobs and educational opportunities are disappearing. Global warming…good god!

I won’t vote for a Republican. Only a handful of Democrats are worthy of holding office. But we agree we must take back the House and Senate in five and half months.

With who, exactly?

My county Democratic Party writ large.

I agree with deCascadian #32 regarding the rabbit hole. In addition to blackmail, I believe these are the other reasons why the MSM lap dogs roll over and play dead:

- Some are employed by intelligence agencies to spread propaganda;
- Some are on the payroll of certain groups or entities;
- Some are just enamored of access to “power” and its perks;
- Some are parlaying their cooperation into more lucrative gigs as corporate speakers, etc.
- Some reporters are really producing stellar work, but other, less dedicated reports, succumb to the unofficial organizational codes of what’s acceptable.
I believe the problem is multi-layered, and I find it amazing that there are as many great reporters left as there are. Perhaps we need to put more of our energy into supporting and thanking those reporters (e.g., Dana Priest, James Risen, etc.)doing a great job under increasingly difficult conditions.

If the goopers lose both houses of congress- you will begin to see some piling on by the media- and some major changes in attitudes.

Big gooper donors will realize that they are going to have to play both sides of the fence in order to succeed. The media will see the story line unfolding “public rejects gooperism”. This is a big one.

It’s not just Iraq. It is also (and much more dangerously) true that the domestic policy is much worse than foreign policy. After all, stay or go, Iraq is a disaster but I think it will remain Bush’s Folly. What will happen to the next president when he or she is faced with the expiration of the tax cuts? How will we pay for the war? What will happen to health care and social security? The administration has tried to ruin medicare, FEMA, and many other programs. We are on the precipice of a complete domestic disaster and few democrats are talking about these problems either.

Kate–Nice post.

Eventually one discovers that in order to win- one must break bread with some who don’t share all of your views. The alternative is global gooperism.

Of the tattered Bush “agenda” one aspect has a decent chance of passing – tax cuts.

The GOP approach to the fiscal shape of the Nation truly is the height of cowardice and the opposite of what was promised. They keep talking about the importance of making “hard choices” fail to address them and give away money instead in the form of tax cuts that will be paid for later, while pretending that they will magically pay for themselves.

We have less than 1000 days to go, we must do our best to limit the amount of damage Bush and the GOP can continue to do to the nation. The most viable way to do that at this point, is to elect a Democratic Congress. While far from a sure solution it has to be better than the current makeup of our government and at the very least should slow the damage.

Wow.

The US military is lamely making hay out of the Zarqawi video outtakes….Is that strategy working for you guys?

So Zarqawi is a half-baked bumbling nit-wit. Great, and he has been killing American troops for the past three years and he hasn’t been captured by the most powerful, technology savvy military in the world?

Hopefully Al Qaeda won’t be raising their standards and hiring more competent killers, the boobs, bumblers and knuckleheads seem to be doing a fine job at keeping the US hamstrung and Iraq mired in war and mayhem.

What a mockery of a sham.

-GSD

Goopers are counting on five factors to help them hold onto the house and the senate.

1) midterm elections are low turnout- and goopers do better in low turnout elections.

2) They plan on having a LOT more money to spend than the dems.

3) They are going to whip the religious right into a frenzy with the gay marriage amendment and more limitations on abortion.

4)The immigration issue is hot and they will play to it as the rascists they are.

5) They have done a good job of creating safe gooper seats in much of the country.

It might work.

Went to a talk featuring Markos Moulitas and Jerome Armstrong, dkos and mydd, Crashing the Gate two nights ago, hosted by the DFW, Democracy for Wisconsin, an outgrowth of the Dean campaign. The message, loud and clear, is it’s time to think long and this means getting directly involved to re-energize the Democratic Party, to resurrect its progressive roots.

I too am sick of the Dems. I hang up, politely, when I get their fundraising calls. I send money selectively to individual candidates, shunning the party machine. I’m tired of the dirty politics played by both sides in my state–the Dems are just as bad here.

But, but…taking the long view, maybe I’m going at this all wrong. Maybe it IS time to take back the party, show up to the state convention, become a delegate, send money.

We don’t have three years to wait while our planet continues to heat up, as the day the energy piper demands payment looms ever sooner, as our oil addiction drives us into deeper and deeper debt to world politicians with their hands on the oil spigot.

Party discipline is what the Republicans have that we don’t. I’m sick of losing elections to these criminals. And we can’t sit by in despair waiting these crooks out. We need to take back a house of Congress this fall and start moving a progressive agenda forward now, today.

Forgive me if someone has already raised this, but I had a “lightbulb” moment and wanted to share before I go back and read everyone’s posts..

I’ve been pondering why it was that the media had absolutely no problem kicking Clinton from one end of the block to the other, and yet they seem more than reluctant to take any but the most mild shots at Bush, and even then, it’s usually couched in a way that makes it somewht ambiguous.

I wonder if it’s because with Clinton, they knew that at bottom, Clinton wasn’t a dangerous president. Yeah, he had serious zipper problems, but he wasn’t dangerous to the country. Clinton was smart, and not given to acts of revenge to soothe his own ego and boost his self-esteem. Bush isn’t so smart, and is given to acts of revenge. Both men profess to be religious, but Clinton seems to have been the product of the “God is loving” branch, and Bush seems to be the product of the “God is vengeful” branch. And when someone has made it clear that God speaks to him, it’s scary thinking that that voice is a vengeful one, especially when the person He’s speaking to has his finger on the nuclear trigger.

I think the media is afraid that Bush is a president who could be provoked into doing something stupid – and dangerous – in an “I’ll show them who’s in charge” way, and that’s why they haven’t been forceful in their criticism or gone deeper under the surface of this administration.

We need something to vote for — not just something to vote against — in order to secure a Congressional majority in November for the Democrats.  Now would be a very good time for all of the grown-ups to step up to the plate.  A whole lot of Mr. Smiths would go well with the political climate of the moment.  This nation needs its leaders to rise to the occasion and lead the way out of the wilderness in which we find ourselves at the moment.

I respectfully disagree. I think the “where are the grownups” question is exactly what’s killed this country. We ARE the “grownups,” and hoping someone else comes along to set things right amounts to abdication of individual responsibility. Every TV show we watch, every product we buy, everything we do that keeps the same old bullshit rolling along to hell only perpetuates inaction. It’s not the politics, it’s the dominant culture, which is way past merely having a cold.

There isn’t any Mr. Smith out there. If there were, we wouldn’t have George Bush, and if we think there is a “Mr. Smith,” we’ll end up annointing a monster. What we face is world-wide and NOT fixable by any current or historical means. Thinking it is is exactly what cripples us. It may not be “fixable” at all, in fact, and I’m not sure this is even a bad thing. Our concept of who and what we are is due for rebirth. I feel this more and more strongly every single day.

Yes, the country is paralyzed by the president’s cowardice. The idea that the next president will inherit Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay is so disgraceful that most people refuse to even admit it. Talk to your less-involved friends and see how many troops they think we will have in Iraq in 2007/2008. I bet that they will tell you that they think we will be pretty much out of there by then. Based on what evidence? Ask them if they think that the administration has a plan to resolve the Guantanamo situation instead of handing 500 men in cages over to the next administration. They’ll tell you “I dunno”.

Stop and think for a moment. The two biggest stories of the last few days have been that someone told some sharp jokes about the president when he was president and that (gasp!) someone asked the Secretary of Defense a question. Oh, and that gas is expensive. What a big surprise! This is where we are as a country. Do we address issues? Do we solve problems? I’m not seeing it. If the Dems can’t take the House and Senate, then we are looking at some deep doodoo ahead. If they do and we don’t see some real leadership emerge, then there’s gonna be trouble. If neither party is for the people, the people are going to have to do something about it, right?
peace,
jim

xyz says: “I would consider it a remote possibility, but a possibility nonetheless, that Fitz might surprise Rove with an indictment without the courtesy of advance notice via scheduling a press conference. Just a thought.”
May 5th, 2006 at 7:34 am

Yes, that was one of the thoughts crossing my mind yesterday.

There is a thank you Ray McGovern website set up–
linky here:

http://thankyouraymcgovern.org/wordpress/?p=1

kateNC– very nice diary! I have no recommend powers, though. Good luck.

Thanks again, Christy, for all your hard work,

If you haven’t heard the NPR interview with Paul Reickhoff yesterday with Terry Gross on Fresh Air, give it a listen. It’s amazing.

As a child of a military family, I respect and appreciate the troops, suffer for their sacrifice, and it was refreshing to hear Paul’s first hand perspective on things like the good and the bad, and how Bush is really viewed for things like:

(Paraphrasing)

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED — “My reaction was fury.”

“Bring it on!” — “Is there anything more irresponsible to say when you have soldiers in harms way with a wife and two kids who just want to get home?”

Terry asked him flat out if he felt speaking out against the war was unpatriotic and he said ‘No. We were too busy trying to stay alive over there to worry about what people said back here. And that’s why we were there. To protect our rights in a Democracy.”

We ARE too cowardly in this fight against the Bush administration, especially in light of the fact that some of our favored sons and daughters are dying for a man who pisses on their bravery and uses their lives like so much toilet paper.

This can’t go on another two years. Every day someone dies because of this man. Someone who doesn’t deserve to. We spent more energy and effort stopping the Green River Killer, and he never reached the 2,000 mark.

We have to stop thinking of it as ‘He’s a bad President” and remember that people are dying because of him for — as Ray McGovern pointed out, powerfully and emotionally — lies.

I’ve had the same thought as Josh Marshall about Bush’s handling of Iraq. I don’t know if I’ve ever expressed it here, but I’ve had it. It’s one of those things that you suspect may be true but you hope is wrong. It’s hard to imagine that someone would let a situation like this fester just so someone else will be blamed for its ending. Yet we have the example of Presidents Johnson and Nixon during Vietnam; neither wanted to admit defeat, or to be blamed for it, yet it was, even in 1968, clearly a situation that had to be ended.

Bill Maher once observed that Bush was a man who had never had to clean up the messes he made. Unfortunately, this character flaw will probably cause him to leave the mess he’s created as President for someone else.

I’ve also had that thought about the tax cuts. It might be true of the spending needed to fix New Orleans, too.

If it were just Bush who felt that way, though, it’s pretty obvious that the rest of Washington could figure out how to fix some things. Congress could repeal the tax cuts, and it could demand that he withdraw from Iraq, or set a timetable, or do something that would end what has clearly become an untenable situation. They haven’t, and most likely they won’t. Vietnam is instructive here as well. I still hear folks say if we’d only done this or that in Vietnam we could have won, and that the President/Congress/traitorous Americans didn’t let them. To me, this is obvious nonsense worth ignoring, but to Republican politicians in particular, this is their base.

As you implied Christy, it’s not just Bush. He’s being enabled by a great many people who don’t have the courage to admit that they made a colossal error and now want to fix it. Jack Murthas are rare, and one only need take a look at the abuse that’s been heaped on him by people who aren’t fit to criticize anyone about this mess to see why.

Time and time again I hear the same three angles brought up in regards to the gentle way the MSM handles this disasterous administration:

The Israeli Angle:
Bush is “good for Israel” and the MSM is a tool of the Mossad.

The Corporate Angle:
Bush is “good for business” and the MSM is a tool of the corporations.

The “inside baseball” Angle:
Its all about access to sources and invites to the right parties.

None of the above ring true for me (I think Bush is bad for business AND Israel in the long run). I think its a much more serious problem — we, as a nation, just do not produce great thinkers as we once did. The MSM is full of mediocre minds with no creativity or vision.

Think of where you work — I will wager most people here work with, or for, people who are just too plain stupid to hold the positions they do. Now, why would your work place be any different from the offices of any MSM outlet?

It is the Peter Princinple in full effect and on such a level that our very democracy is suffering.

Redshift — I don’t think these ‘wingers think “maybe she can save us” at all; we’re still leaving the state of denial they’ve been in for so long, need them to emerge into anger, through bargaining and then into acceptance before we get there and that may take another two years, pre-2008. I think they are simply ready for someone to say, “Welcome to the Reality-Based Community – the coffee’s on as you can tell by the smell…”

Definitely, we need to encourage them using a unity framing process to encourage them to action; the two bills in particular that you cite are perfect examples of those that every citizen should work to defeat. There’s also Medicare D and Katrina-FEMA, depending on the audience; while laying out canvassing/GOTV strategies last night over precinct numbers, we repeatedly came to high-density population clusters of seniors to whom we will talk about Medicare D and how voting this very fall for change may save what remains of their savings and their lives. We have to make it that personal. I know even my father-in-law, major hardcore rightie, is starting to waiver; he’s struggling to pick a Medicare D plan given my MIL’s $900/month prescription drug bill every month. He’s worried if he doesn’t pick and he buys from Canada that “someone” will shut Canada down. And that right there is the opening: who will do that to seniors? Democrats? Not likely.

We also need to hammer on that ports deal; “somebody” fanned up the immigration issue as a response to the ports debacle. I would lay this at Rove’s door since this is a classic move (take a strength and make it a crucifiable offense). The ports are still unresolved and they’re worried about immigrants?

Griffon (36) — I think we’re in agreement that if PNAC was the brains, AIPAC was the brawn; need only look at their financials to see this. But Dems like Feingold may be AIPAC supporters; what I think we need to do is be very conscious of AIPAC’s positioning, then turn it to work in our favor for us. Think Sun Tzu-Art of War here; if AIPAC is arguing about the security of Israel, we need to talk about how dealing with the root causes of terrorism will ensure Israel’s safety, capice?

Orcatjf (51) — absolutely spot-on, campaign and lobbying reform are essential to restoration of a representative democracy. Feingold is the pointman to lead on this, too, would be straight shooting and plain spoken, easy for the public to understand. But we need to get the public focused on the underlying problem that allows the perpetuation of corruption, and that is corporatism. We lost our way when we allowed non-human, non-voting entities to obstruct the will of the people; we should have a nationwide conversation about policies that encourage the growth of innovation and business while protecting entrepreneurs, but not at the loss of rights that inherently belong to the people. No business should have more access to my government that I do, yes? The business owner as a citizen should have access, but not the business itself. Were we to ensure a societal ethic that put the needs of citizens first, focused on the common good, we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in.

So how do we kick this off? SinceSlicedBread.com is a nice concept, but we need a dialogue that’s bigger and focused at a higher level, upon common ethics and values and reformulation of the institutions that serve us.

Clusterfuck figures that he will have to withdraw some troops this summer to create the impression that the war is “winding down” and that the long nightmare is coming to an end. But we lost 82 more troops in April- so it’s difficult to argue that things are going well enough to withdraw.

We’ll probably get a temporary reduction- and the number will be built back up after the election.

[continuing from my last comment … ]

And as much as I’d like to see it and can’t help praying for it, a Democratic congressional majority won’t solve a damn thing except in the very short run. This is the kind of hoping that holds us back. The game is over, that horse is dead. Walk outside and breathe deep. Smell the clover, watch the clouds, feel the sun.

It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it, thank God.

rwcole (59): “Dems now leading in three of the six races they need to take over the senate.”

Polls on the specific outcomes of Congressional races are kind of unreliable at this point.

For instance, I can think of one way the Republicans might, just *might*, retain control of both houses: if they impeach and convict Bush and Cheney themselves, before the next election.

Never happen, of course. But wouldn’t it be great if it did?

is the Fitz/Libby hearing today at 1:30pm open to the public? if so, I assume our crack D.C. reporters will be there…

J–Yes they are pretty unreliable- particularly where a challenger is running against a well known incumbent. Many states haven’t had their primaries yet- so we don’t know for sure who’s running- etc.

But it’s still interesting to watch.

KateNC and Angie (#78) I recommended Kate’s diary at dkos just now. Good post, Kate!

Anne @ 7:54 am (#74) – I don’t think it was that Clinton wasn’t threatening, as it was that the employees who are left at many news organizations simply don’t want to disappoint their bosses by criticizing conservatives. Most of the folks who run the big news corporations are from that side of the political fence, and they aren’t the sorts of people who take disappointment well. Very few journalists are likely to have the courage to do that, and even fewer are likely to be able to remain in place afterward. And, much like how the CIA is muzzled, the owners of the news can put people in editorial positions, like Howard Kurtz and Jim Brady at WaPo, who will gladly make editorial decisions the way they want them to go.

noblejoanie (73) — It’s definitely time. Past time, really, but we’ll simply make do.

In November 2004 after the elections, Howard Dean met with 25 DFA activists here in neighboring Michigan to discuss the future of DFA, the DNC and the country. Among all the things we discussed, he pointed asked each and everyone of us to get involved with the Dem Party and to run for office, from dogcatcher to Senate; he knew that we needed to rebuild the organization from the inside out and the outside in. And we took his word to heart. I attended my first party meeting only days later — we’ve completely upended the local party and are going to work hard to both reform and win at the same time.

You can do the very same thing; I know it, I’ve done it, so have the rest of my DFA-MoveOn friends here. We are making change happen, and we know that without this effort we could kiss this state goodbye. If you take on the challenge, I must warn you: you will need a stout spine, tough skin on the backside, and an unflinching righteous anger to see you through some rough patches. But you will find yourself among some of the best sort of folks who also have the same accoutrement of progressive toughness and determination.

Kind of like this FDL crowd, only in the flesh. And now I really must bug out, need to get down to the Dem Club office and work on posting photos from last night’s event with the governor to the Dem Party website, get it in the face of the Repugs that I know are watching closely. Go for it, noblejoanie. Feel free to drop me a note if you need more encouragement. Ditto the rest of you FDL’rs.

This country is in the greatest danger of its history. President Cheney and his idiot puppet are psychopaths on the order of Charles Manson and there is no one to stop them.

All I know is that come November, WE THE PEOPLE must take the government back. We allowed this to happen because we have become too complacent and too busy to care about our own government.

Meanwhile you have a small group of people with ALL the intention of destroying this fragile Democracy or at least attempt to while we are too busy with our ipods and our Internets and flat screens.

Some one must PAY. Even if it means investigations for the next ten years! Some one has got to PAY!!!!

GSD 71; while watching “that mockery of a sham” last night, I thought; can’t handle a gun, eh?… reminds me of Darth Cheney, but with less damage.

afterthought @ 6:36 am (#22) – Thanks for the laugh. And you’re right, Trekkies just aren’t taken seriously enough ;-)

Anne 74 –

It’s about the money.

Attack Clinton and ridicule Democrats while sucking up to GOoPers is the first step on the path to success as a corporate media whore.

Praise Bush and deflect all criticism, and you will have a endless supply of cocktail weenies, invites to the talking bobble-head shows, and the down payment for that house in the Hamptons.

Dare to tell the truth about the Bushies, and you will be booted to curb before the ink is dry — just ask Robert Parry.

It’s all about the money . . .

The whole “bumbling Zarqawi” thing yesterday and today…I know why, but why doesn’t some reporter in those conferences ask about the previous reports that Z had a leg amputated?

And what are they thinking anyway? If he’s supposed to be the representative face of the evil al-qaida in Iraq, why turn him into a bumbling fool? Do they think that the Iraqis can see this stuff, and be influenced? Don’t they know that there hasn’t been any electricity in Baghdad for the past week? I know it. No one’s watching American tv over there.

John 84: the very short term is important. This King is so dangerous we just can’t have him doing anything whatsoever for the next two years, and our only chance to ensure that is six months from now.

We can’t let the patient bleed to death while we’re trying to decide on how to cure the cancer.

for that matter, didn’t Rumsfeld tell us just yesterday that Zarqawi had been in Baghdad during the Saddam years? As I recall, the whole point of his hospitalization had been to amputate that leg…maybe superior Al Qaeda medicine regenerated the limb?

72# rwcole says:
May 5th, 2006 at 7:54 am
Goopers are counting on five factors to help them hold onto the house and the senate.
1) midterm elections are low turnout- and goopers do better in low turnout elections.
2) They plan on having a LOT more money to spend than the dems.
3) They are going to whip the religious right into a frenzy with the gay marriage amendment and more limitations on abortion.
4)The immigration issue is hot and they will play to it as the rascists they are.
5) They have done a good job of creating safe gooper seats in much of the country.

and how about . . .

6) election fraud . . . black box voting, systamatic disinfranchisement etc . . .

let’s face it they are in control of the voting machinery . . . especially in critical areas ( OH, FLA )

i fear they will retain control by one of two seats . . . how?? predictable???

GSD, Dru– What kind of propaganda is that anyway??? I really don’t get it– they’ve got some soldier mocking Zarqawi’s prowess and the media giggling like schoolchildren– which audience was targeted? It nakes no sense to me. Sounds as though bubble boy dreamed it up by himself with perhaps consultation from the little ones at the Easter Egg Roll.

Some Iraqis don’t even think he exists, btw. And he was handling a US weapon…and wearing US issued clothing…weird, eh??

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/a…..81,00.html

He’s already thinking past himself, too.

That’s why he is going to try to do everything he can to sneak through a bill to eliminate the estate tax. So after the weekend, he and his cronies (and their heirs) will get to keep the loot!

Anne, what are you smoking? Pass it around.

The corporate press has continually demonstrated that it is not concerned with the nation’s well being, only their self preservation.

They are exhibiting a clinical case of groupthink and are only concerned with access (cocktail weenies).

They are also producing warm and stinky pantloads due the fact that the blogoshpere does what they get paid to do much better for free.

T-

OT – “The grand jury hearing the leak investigation case is scheduled to meet at 9:30 am ET. Special prosecutor Fitzgerald is in town for a 1:30 pm ET hearing before Judge Walton in the Libby case. The hearing will be a status conference requested by Libby’s lawyers after Fitzgerald disclosed in court papers that President Bush had authorized Libby to disclose sections of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq’s WMD.â€

From the Department of Off-Topic and Off-The-Wall:

(as Swopa would say) Raw Story has a non-linked teaser saying that good old Jeff Gannon is “coming out” and may “out” anti-gay legislators. This could be rather amusing if nothing else.

So, Raw Story has a headline up at the moment that Jeff Gannon has come out and publicly admitted that he’s gay.

Uh… yeah?

Isn’t this kinda like George Bush copping to being a Republican or Tommy Chong admitting that he likes to “shoot pot” or Dolly Parton admitting that she has a balcony you could do Shakespeare from?

Jeff Gannon is gay… fine. Now the next pressing question is, will this tray of water actually turn to ice if I chuck it in the freezer?

;^)

rwcole #59: Virgina is still developing- and could be the kicker state if everything goes VERY well.

The thing I find most entertaining about the Virginia senate race is that George Allen’s presidential run is causing people to look at all sorts of questionable things in his background that few paid much attention to before. I think if Allen wasn’t running for president, he’d have won re-election easily, and the “just deserts” of the situation are delicious!

I think the MSM is mad at Colbert. Not only because he is highlighting that they dropped the ball on the lead up to Iraq War II; but because they just assumed because they are (in their minds) the totality of the media that they would get away with being so incompetent and complacent. I’ve seen Colbert be funnier. The fact that he WAS saying those things to Bush’s face and to the MSM’s public avatars made it both an historic and hysterical delivery. If you watched it outside of the context of the audience it is only mildly amusing. Big brass ones, that man has.

thaumaturgist (40), FIGMO is also another military term for short-timers: “F–k it, got my orders.” In Jorge’s case, he means his orders from on high.

To rwcole#83:

I think you are correct that the war will wind up after it “winds down.”

A friend of mine had a very recent conversation with a young sailor who stated that his ship was shortly leaving for the Gulf with a shipload of marines. I won’t mention the port where they are leaving from, because I would not give “aid and comfort” to the enemy, but this information does not give me any “comfort” to know we are sending more troops over there. I certainly have much, much sympathy for our soldiers, and realize they are in a “catch22″with needing additional soldiers to help, while, at the same time also wanting to get out of a losing proposition.

urbanmeemaw #66 well said.
I can’t help but think that we should also include:
- It’s hard out here for a pimp.

Oh, and Obsessed… my post wasn’t in response to yours, but rather to having just seen the Raw Story headline myself. I just noticed that with our posts next to one another, it almost looks like I’m dismissing your post (which I didn’t and wouldn’t do.)

So… I wanted to be sure you knew that you and I cross-posted. ;^)

(And I’d missed the bit about Gannon wanting to out anti-gay legislators. You’re absolutely right… that could be some excellent, train-wreckish sorta fun!)

new thread – new hearing

Some very atriculate just phoned into the Diane Rehm show, with William Kristol on — and brought up the Cobert affair. As I say, very articulate; basically said, when are these jerks in D.C., especially the press corp, going to let some fresh air in. The host, not Diane, Susan Page, basically laughed it off, deflected the question. Kristol said the caller was just misinformed and, again deflecting, started talking about how congresscritters are elected from all over the country, and he himself goes outside Washington so, what’s the beef.

It was a perfect opportunity for the host to give some credibility to the problem and, instead, she shucked and jived.

The time has come for us to disrupt as many administration appearances as possible–legally without violence. Vietnam ended because of two circumstances shown on TV. One was the constant picketing of politicians photo-oped for the tube, and the other was the televising of the wars unseemly side. The naked girls running out of town and the Vietnamese cop shooting an unarmed man on a dirt road.

Our message of disgust is out there, and understood–time for us to take to the streets. Being right (write) and powerless makes us “part of the problem.”

Redshift # 106– mwahahaha– just checked wiki and see that it has been nicely updated to include some of Georgie’s less attractive history…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Felix_Allen

New Fitz thread.

the whole point of [Zarqawi’s] hospitalization had been to amputate that leg…maybe superior Al Qaeda medicine regenerated the limb?

Hah!!! Proof positive of the Romulan/Al Qaeda alliance, and the transfer of inter-galactic Romulan limb regeneration technology!!!

We must invade Mars, before the Romulan fungo-viruses infect the mushrooms, and we are all engulfed in mushroom clouds of death!!!

seenos says: “That’s why he is going to try to do everything he can to sneak through a bill to eliminate the estate tax.”
May 5th, 2006 at 8:32 am

If the estate tax were repealed, what happens to Section 1014 of the Internal Revenue Code? That code section permits a stepup in basis of inherited property to fair market value as of the date it is inherited. Repeal the estate tax, and the consequence will very likely be that the cost basis for inherited property will be the decedent’s cost basis, just as it usually is for property acquired by gift if that property is sold at a gain. How well will that go over?

Perhaps a compromise will eventually be reached in which the estate tax is imposed only on very large estates.

One of the visuals that comes back and haunts me is a short scene played right on live TV towards the end of the IranContra affair. All the testimony of Bush I’s men has played itself out…….Ollie North didn’t fall on his sword. The rapier-sharp minds of Cohen and Mitchell parsing words with one witness after another, blowing away one divisive excuse and obfuscation after another. Maine’s finast hour – I might add. Each witness was exposed for the being either a dupe of the administration or an active participant in a plot. And finally, when the whole truth of the administrative blunders had been exposed right up to and almost through the Oval Office door, Henry Hayden in his blowdried hair and $1000 suit, starts pleading with some witness (might have been Poindexter)about the absolute necessity of NOT letting another President be dragged through the ignomy of another impeachment. “We CAN’T let that happen”. His exact words. It is this moment that comes back to me each time Arlen Spector drops the ball on investigations, every time Ari and Puffy McMuffinface stalled in front of the White House Press, every lie repeated and recycled by this administration. Why did they do it then? For the same reason they are doing it now. For some people, politics is their whole life – their whole reason for being. They feel defined and vindicated by their politics. Everything else…..family, religion, health, personal values…..everything is subservient to the great god of the GOP.

Even the late-night comedians have figured it out, and have ramped up the jokes at Bush’s expense. In my view, journalists like Cohen, Bumiller, and their lapdog colleague Dana Milbank, look like complete stooges themselves.

I’m sure whatever damaged and deranged portion of U.S. sovereignty remains in such an event will be bound to end up made a scapegoat for all that was wrong with the ‘Old World Order’. If past revolutions are any indication that is.

Here’s to hoping there is no truth to the larger conspiracy perspectives.

I have spent alot of time considering the same thing and here’s what worries me most about it: What if it’s not some huge conspiracy leading us down the path that so many “empires” have gone down before us? Could it simply be human nature that leads us into destruction as a nation?

There seems to be a common thread throughout the comments; leaderless Dems, inability to focus message, paralyzed country, etc. but I’d like to focus on the “grown up” side of the argument.

I understand the importance of the 2006 elections, but I’m afraid if the Dems take both house, the movement to clean up corruption and slap back the unitary executive will wilt.

Majorities are needed to win elections, but as kateNC pointed out, by restructuring your local Democratic party you create the future candidate pool at the national level. This type of movement that forged leaders of the quality of Conyers, and God knows how many more leaders like that we could use.

You see, as a grown up, sometimes you sacrifice instant gratification for a larger payoff down the road. Like buying a used car instead of a new one so more funds are available for a child’s education, etc.

The next great president will seize on this theme. After all, it is truly patriotic. No one except for 9/11 families, military families, and the victims of Katrina have truly sacrificed because of the evilness/incompetence of the gov’t. The current Pres’ mouth is writing checks his ass can’t cash.

A great President will rally Americans to sacrifice, ie. higher taxes, higher prices, rip out corruption to pay down this horrible debt and finalize the Iraq situation.

I think Carville is all ready planning on Hilary Clinto presenting this argument.

Robert Parry explains why the Bush family gets a free pass from journalists

More and more people ARE asking why the MSM is continuing to treat Bush like his approval ratings are still above 60%, and that dissonance is more pronounced now that the JARs are approaching the high 20’s. What is being reported and how it is being reported have begun to resemble an infomercial. I’m sorry, but whatever the MSM and the president are trying to sell me, I’m not buying.

It irks me when I see a Democrat, speaking as a Democrat, who appears to have his head almost all the way up his ass. It irks me because I am a Democrat, and I don’t think that’s where MY head is (up my ass, that is, not his!).

We have to find a center, a core from which everything radiates. The variations in Democratic positions, which we have to encourage, and not view as threats, have to be able to be seen as radiating from a center, instead of looking like separate entities that have no nexus. When someone takes a position that tends more to the right, or over to the left, we have to be able to show that at it’s core, the position is still in line with Democratic values. It really does have to be simple, because the more complex it is, the harder it is for people to identify with it and see themselves a part of it.

There are, for example, any number of nuanced positions on abortion. At the core, it comes down to having the freedom to make one’s own medical decisions. The morality of the choices people make has to be, like religion, a matter of individual conscience. Democrats who aspire to represent all of the people have to be able to articulate the importance of preserving that right, which includes the individual right not to have an abortion.

In its simplest form, Democrats have to remind the people that the Constitution was designed to protect the rights of all people from the waxing and waning of popular opinion – that we don’t legislate away people’s rights just because there are enough people who believe, at some given moment in time, that it’s a good thing to do so.

And nothing I have said above should be construed, or viewed, as an endorsement of Joe Lieberman. While I respect his right to be opposed to abortion, I do not respect his willingness not to protect and champion the rights of others. And while I respect his religious views, it appears to me that he is sacrificing what is right for this country for what is right for Israel, and he is not being honest with the country or with his own constituents.

“But I can’t help but wonder: how many times does this particular issue have to be exposed before it sticks with the corporate media?”

I find it hard to believe that this is an issue of the press still not getting it. This can only be one thing: collusion with the Bush administration and the GOP.

I read a poll today that found that there are only two countries where the press is trusted less than the government: the US and UK. People just aren’t buying it that thius is a case of press ineptitude.

Most of those who show up prominently on the national scene got there by either supporting the current political ethos or by not challenging it. This is true for both politicians and the corporate media. They are coopted by their own private interests. How many times has some once good reporter been castigated at this site for shamelessly drinking the KoolAid. Woodward, Hitchens, Klein, and so many others started out as real writers and reporters. They got known and promptly smelled the coffee. They could lead lives of comfort and celebrity in a corporate media that didn’t mind a little bomb throwing early on while they were getting their names out there as long as they didn’t make a career of it. Or they could continue on . . .on their own.

The same could be said for politicians. How often we poke our barbs at the Bidens and Hillarys of Washington because they try to triangulate between the right and far right and forget about their base that craves a little straight talking, some principle, and even glancing evidence of a backbone. If power is delivered into their hands, can we honestly expect forthright leadership from them? Do we really think they have these really great ideas that they have been keeping in readiness against the day? If they do, they have been hiding them remarkably well.

As for the right, Bush and the Republican Congress are about the victory of yahooism in American politics. It used to be that people would be ashamed, at least in public, to espouse their racist, classist, anti-intellectual views but if history has taught us anything you can’t keep an ignorant bigot down. They are the American Taliban. They are the Party of God and his will be done, even if that will is kind of murky, doesn’t pay attention to facts, and doesn’t work in practice. It is not that it failed or they failed. It was sabotage. It was naysayers. They were stymied. The real problem was that they were not allowed to go far enough.

For those of us who wish for a modicum of sense in our government and politics, we may be waiting a long time. Now there is a groundswell of discontent in the country but in many ways it is as unthinking and undirected force and in this it resembles most of our political life for the last forty years.

Redshift, (#106), but they’re also digging up confederate stuff in Webb’s past to counter the criticism of Allen. It’s going to be damn tough to beat Allen even with his run for president. I hope Georgie loses, but I’m not optimistic yet.

Being right is not enough.

It’s counterproductive to criticize the Democrats for the next five and a half months. Take up criticism again in January.

We must support Democrats now no matter how “impure” they are.

We must support them in full cry.

We must register voters, organize precincts, get out the vote.

Once we’ve taken back the House or the Senate, we can once again hold the Democrats’ feet to the fire.

5 Rayne says:

After mulling it over for weeks, I think it’s time to start brainstorming out loud. It’s time we did start putting out those ideas NOW so that they have 6 months to stew on them. Things aren’t going to get any better on their side of the aisle.

I guess the question that I still mull over is this: How long do you let them stew in their own mess and how long do we withhold our vision/plans for the future.

My guess is that if we come out too soon with our vision/plans, the repubs will simply steal these ideas, call them their own ideas and leave us with nothing come Nov.

And let’s face it – even with the Dems proposing NOTHING, the polls show Bush, the repub Congress and the repub party continues to freefall into oblivion. So I think it’s proper that the Dems get the hell out of the way of this freefall.

The American people seem to be clearly expressing their disgust with the repubs, so the Dems can’t really accelerate the rate of decent any faster than freefall.

As we get closer to the Fall elections, the Dems can start laying out their ideas and be positioned to keep ownership of those ideas (rather than see the repubs hijack the ideas). I suspect – or at least HOPE – this is the Dem plan. Rollout date for this plan? Don’t know. I’m hoping the Dem experts have it all planned out. Key word here: “HOPE”.

Anne @ #75: you are way too kind. T @ #103 is completely correct. Washinton reporters are not in the business of evaluating whether presidents are “good” or “bad” for the country; they are in the business of 1) building their own careers, first and foremost 2) telling their bosses what they want to hear. Note that 1 and 2 are closely related. Former NYT editor Howard Raines HATED, absolutely HATED Bill Clinton.

Evidently they can sometimes be shamed or intimidated into doing their jobs. Clearly the right wing assault has them walking on eggshells. We can do the same.

16 Thesaurus Rex says:

May 5th, 2006 at 6:27 am
Yes I think the media are shielding Clusterfuck- don’t wanna kick him when he’s down-

Well, they sure didn’t kick him when he was up, now did they?

It’s like someone said last night, I hated him when he was at 91% and standing on a pile of rubble. Do I get any credit for that?

Yep – 9%! (A very small but very elite group!)

GrandmaJ says:

In the last few days I have talked to 2 people who hate Bush. And rant and rant about how bad he is. BUT, one is against immigrants and will NOT VOTE because the dems won’t keep them out of America (I am trying to talk to her, but at 86 not sure she is listening) and the other is upset about the abortion issue. He can’t articulate WHY, but thinks human life is not valued and so is wishy washy about voting.

Grandma – look at it this way: Every repub that stays home in Nov. is a vote FOR the Dems. If you can’t convince people to vote FOR the Dems, encourage them to say ‘fuck it’ and stay home in protest!

18 Sophist says:

May 5th, 2006 at 6:27 am

Whose utopia it will end up being I’m not sure.

One man’s utopia is another man’s gulag.

Even if no more sharks attack while our chums are still in the White House, the Bushies have set in motion enough environmental disasters to make Iraq look like a one-week garbage strike.

Will the Dems ever mention this, except in passing? There are indications that this is a potentially winning cross-party issue, but it seems as if the consultants have decided saving the planet isn’t sexy, so we get at least eight years of irreversible degradation — morally, too!

Hi, Christy (yikes, it really is this long!)

Hard as it may be for veteran bloggers to even imagine it, there are a few of us, troglydites that we are, who are still new to this whole blogging thing. I only recently discovered your blog and in fact over the weekend wrote you a letter in an attempt to convey my appreciation and gratitude for what you and Jane are so brilliantly doing. I think it’s a phenomenal service you are providing for our country, and I have since become a rabid die-hard fan. I started out commenting on mamyaga’s beautiful posting about Fitz, which had moved me beyond what I seemed capable of expressing, and then I just took off from there and before I knew it, I had on my hands what seemed like an excessively long letter that I thought I maybe I ought to think twice about sending. Soon I was debating with myself whether I should just leave it here among all the other postings; it did not seem to me the sort of thing you just post in a public forum for everyone else to read. But being an old-fashioned sort of fart, I am still learning (groping?), trying to find my way around the blogosphere, and wasn’t quite sure how to go about getting the letter to you without making it public. And since I noticed that you sometimes get upwards of 100 responses per blog, it seemed inconveivable to me that you could possibly get to see every single one anyway.

So I then thought I’d just e-mail (or perhaps snail-mail) you the letter. But then I got stuck again: how, exactly? I poked around here for a few days to see if I might discover a way to do this, but have come up empty. I know, I know, I’m a hopeless old fogey; you don’t have to rub it in. It’s probably been staring right at me in my face this whole time (and I will be so incredibly embarrassed when you finally point it out–I’m an old New Yorker kinda guy, what can I tell you?), but I simply don’t see anywhere an e-mail address where I might send it. Clearly we are all agreed that I need to take some sort of dunce capster’s tutorial on how to “do” the blogosphere (any ideas, by the way?), but for the time being I’m throwing up my hands and leaving the entire thing right here for you, hoping that someone sees it who will then alert you, or perhaps you will come across it yourself, or there might actually be someone there at your end who monitors and reads all this stuff before it goes up (?). If by any chance there is, then obviously you’ll understand that I’d prefer not to have it published.

(By the way, as I write this, I am also watching–with my jaw virtually hanging down all the way to my toes–the most bracingly spectacular smack-down of Donald Rumsfeld I have ever seen. It’s on CNN now and former CIA analyst Ray McGovern is the one doing the smacking down. Take THAT, and THAT…and THAT. OH MY GOD! There are generals jumping up and down with glee, one might well imagine, right about now. McGovern is being interviewed by Anderson Cooper after McGovern’s startling confrontation with Rumsfeld earlier in the day. Since McGovern seems to be at another CNN outlet or studio now, I’m guessing this must have been awfully well-planned. McGovern is simply superb, I must say: elegant, supremely confident and trenchantly articulate, he looks ideally suited to the task of going head to head with the Secretary of Defense. Bravo!! The man needs a standing ovation…or something!!! If anyone is capable of giving that arrogant old fool the comeuppance that has been so long overdue, I think the ideal candidate might just be Ray McGovern. Central Casting could scarcely have conjured up a more devastating master smacker. He’s got this sly humorous glint in his eyes as he speaks, and a disarmingly elfish grin to offset his slightly tweedy professorial air (he’s actually quoting Paul Pillar from Foreign Affairs Magazine, for Christ’s sake!); and he’s delivering those smackeroos with consummate panache and wit. This is really something to see; I hope you and Jane can get to it at some point–perhaps someone somewhere will get it on “the internets”. Whoa!! I believe I may have just witnessed the birth of our next big rock star! Hail! Hail! Fitz and Ray–our Dandy Dynamic Duo. What a week this is turning out to be!! Who was it who said, “May you live in interesting times”? Don’t get much more interestin’ than this, I don’t think. First the delerious joy of Karl Rove being hauled before the grand jury an unprecedented FIFTH time, then Stephen Colbert comes up with the brassiest, ballsiest satirical turn ever right in the stupefied presence of everyone who matters–and now this!! What’s next? Is it possible tomorrow turns out to be Indictment Day?)

But I’ve gone and digressed inexcusably, haven’t I? Well, anyway…as I was sayin’ (he says, quickly sobering up), here’s that letter I was talking about from the other day:

I know exactly what you mean, ReddHead: while I don’t want to get my hopes up excessively high, and am just as loathed to catch myself idly speculating whether Mr. Fitzgerald, with his umistakable aura of integrity and his seemingly unwavering fealty to the truth, might just be too good to be true… still – somethin’ HUGE is a-comin’, I feel like. And with such a truly inspiring figure at the helm – indeed, an honest-to-God postmodern dragon-slayer superbly cast in the mold of a classic hero – it’s awfully hard (don’t you think?) to deny oneself the uplifting and certainly very human emotion of hope. After the festering malignancy and moral rot that we have seen gnawing away at the very heart of our government these last few years, we would seem to be more than overdue for the tide (finally, at long last!) to turn. Surely some form of poetic justice must be at hand. If I were an agnostic (which I am not), and had read mamyaga’s spine-tingling posting, I am tempted to think I might very well have found myself exclaiming something like “Glory be – there is a God, after all.”

Bless you (and bless, too, that fabulous, rioutously foul-mouthed flamethrower, Ms. Jane, of course) for all that you do on behalf of your timidly expectant fellow-citizens; and today, most especially, I want to thank mamyaga for her wondrous posting. WOW!! I can’t tell you what a profound impact it had on me. I actually believe it must be the most extraordinary thing I’ve ever come across on “the internets.” I felt blessed just having the privelege of reading about her wonderfully unobtrusive silent encounter with Fitz. Something about it struck me as sacred, almost mystical. It even seemed a sort of sign – delivered uncannily through the agency of mamyaga’s privileged moment of synchronicity – a sign meant to reassure the nervous among us that we are, in fact, safe and in extremely capable hands. Under these circumstances, it’s hard not to feel that Mr. Rove has finally met his match, and that in some way (without trying to get too Biblical here) this is indeed the extraordinary purpose for which Patrick Fitzgerald has suddenly emerged amongst us, the special divine mission he has always been destined to fulfill in this lifetime.

And at this juncture he really does seem to be our last best hope, doesn’t he? At this troubling moment in our history I can’t conceive of anything other than his painstakingly scrupulous and methodical work that could more effectively rip the lid off that rat’s nest of corruption that currently resides in the Oval Office. Dare we hope? I think we must.

I am, of course, all too keenly aware of certain “parameters” which Fitzgerald apparently feels honor-bound to observe in order to accomplish his work; I duly took note (admittedly, with some degree of nervous apprehension) of the fact that at his big press conference last fall, he went out of his way to stress that this trial was not going be about the merits of the case to go to war. That, he seemed to suggest, was well beyond the scope of his mandate–a mandate which he did not have the authority to supercede. He may even have pointed out at the time, if I remember correctly, that this was an issue that was more properly the province of Congress, not his prosecutorial office. But since I have no legal background and really don’t know the first thing about the law (Constitutional or otherwise), and since I therefore have no clear idea of what his perceived strictures might be, this gave me pause and made me wonder what, exactly, he can have meant by it. He seemed to deliver this in the manner of a warning. Was there a specific audience for whom this remark was intended? If so, who? Was he saying that there was a certain line beyond which he would not go, even though he was aware that some would no doubt be eager to have him do so? Where was that line? And was he ruling out altogether the possibility that his investigation might turn up some unexpected crucial piece of information that would, in fact, require him to cross that line and get him into uncharted territory? Under such circumstances, would he then feel it necessary, as a matter of principle or law, to hold back, or not? It occured to me that if we had a healthy functioning press determined to fulfill its traditional watchdog duties and a robust Congress that wasn’t seriously hobbled by a paralyzed opposition party, we would not have to worry about such questions. But of course, as we all know too well, we have neither at this fragile moment in our republic’s history, which puts the rest of us in the position of (unfairly? unrealistically? foolishly?) pinning all our hopes on this rather extraordinary man who many of us are no doubt secretly hoping will save us. I know that I have found myself in the months since that conference worrying at times about whether Fitzgerald would have to be insensible to the myriad ethical and moral dimensions of the case which, for all I know, might be considered, strictly speaking, “extra-legal”–and therefore beyond his domain. After all, despite what Fitzgerald maintains, the singular importance of this case derives from the fact it does go directly to the issue of why we went to war. This is an issue that has not been satisfactorily resolved in the minds of the American people, and now that a majority have turned so decisively against the war, with bitterness over it increasing with each passing day that this president refuses to be honest and clear about it, there is simultaneously a growing urgency and clamor for the truth to come out, a clamor that is hardly likely to die down unless we suffer another devastating terrorist attack before the whole truth becomes widely known. This case, I’m convinced, would not be anywhere so significant if it were not, at bottom, about Iraq. And I wonder what you, as an experienced attorney, would have to say about this(?). Can this aspect just be ignored if it is not, in the strictest sense, germane? Should the obvious moral and ethical implications of a case never be considered if such matters are held to have little or no bearing on the letter of the law? What about when one might accurately say that the fate of a nation is literally at stake, as it seems to me to be the case in this instance?

The way I understand things (and please correct me if I’m wrong) is that all Fitzgerald really needs to be concerned about at this point is to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that perjury was indeed committed–by Libby, by Rove, or whoever. A federal prosecutor, one Patrick Fitzgerald, was lied to. The White House, of course, would have us believe that any “lies” that were allegedly told were merely the normal consequence of faulty memory, careless record-keeping or trivial harmless slip-ups, and that in fact there was no reason on earth to lie in the first place. The party line continues to be that an ungodly mountain is being made out of a tiny molehill and that everyone would be much better off if we all just stepped back a pace or two and took a deep breath. But if Fitzgerald can then come back and demonstrate that neither faulty memory nor innocent mistakes had anything to do with it, and that not only Libby but Rove also did lie, then there’s every reason to believe that (heretofore unnamed) others have lied, too, in an effort at least to keep stories straight–and then we’re looking at a rather grand criminal conspiracy, aren’t we? The question then becomes, Why? What was at stake that the situation demanded that a group of senior level officials place themselves in serious legal jeopardy? Now my non-legal mind tells me that this would be something very much worth looking into and sussing out. At the same time, I can also recall various times when it seemed to me that the law can sometimes work in strange and unfathommable ways, and that purposely getting entangled in legalisms can work effectively to undercut all common sense. And so I guess remain somewhat uncertain as to whether, under such a scenario, Fitzgerald would still have the legal authority to pursue questions of motive, because it seems to me that this is inevitably where you come up against questions such as why was it necessary to lie about the war and whether, if we’re going to impeach presidents for lying about extra-marital indiscretions, we might then consider that lying about war, even if not done in court and under oath, could rise to a comparable level? How far can Fitzgerald take such a line of inquiry? And if in the end he could not show, in a manner that would satisfy the requirements of the law, that any lying and intentional efforts to mislead had indeed taken place, does this mean he would just drop everything, say never mind, and go back home to Chicago? My feeling is that a dogged persual of the truth which Americans are entitled to know would lead him into some squirmy gray areas, and I suppose I would like to believe that, say what you will about legal parameters and mandates and such, he would be under a certain obligation to go there regardless. If you play religiously by the book, as Fitzgerald seems to do, how much moral leeway can you still have? The implications and ramifications of this case seem so HUGE that they truly boggle the mind. I would like to believe Fitzgerald is alive to all its moral and political nuances. But once you begin wading into those murky, swampy waters, you had better be well prepared to accept that this case quickly becomes about something decidedly different than just lying to Patrick Fitzgerald or a grand jury. Egregious as the lies are, it’s no longer about just lies and the pettiness of lying. At that point, the outing of Valerie Plame, the hugely important catalyst which set the whole thing in motion, really becomes a kind of side issue that ultimately has relatively little importance by comparison. The question then is, Can Fitzgerald go there? Will he go there? Will he be able to take us with him? Will we go? Those are fairly knotty big questions neither the media nor Congress is really equipped to grapple with at this point. And so we end up, once again, with expectant faces turning to Mr. Fitzgerald.

The catastrophic failure of the media is something that most of us have yet to fully grasp and I’m afraid it’s the members of the media themselves, from all the evidence, who will be among the last to understand what actually happened. It’s one of the more puzzling (and perhaps for many of us the most frustrating) feature of this whole dispiriting affair; the almost unaccountable inability to seize and capitalize on what, by all rights, should be one of the biggest, juciest story of our times has flummoxed me in ways that surprise me even to this day. The unmasking of Karl Rove is an event I have been vainly anticipating for years. The public record (right there, hiding in plain sight) could not be clearer, or more damning! Yet for all the hype one routinely hears in the media about his alleged brilliance and political wizardry, blah, blah, blah, it’s remarkable how few ordinary Americans really have any idea what manner of man this is and what his real agenda is. Even among the most casual of news consumers, many recognize his name, but precious few can tell you what it is, precisely, that he does. Throughout his legendary career, his villainy has been so over-the-top (from the moment he surfaced in Washington to become, fresh out of college, a protege to his beloved life-long hero, Richard Nixon, and got himself recruited into Donald Sigretti’s gang of dirty tricksters, infamously known as “the rat fuckers,” to the dastardly Swift-boating of John Kerry, an incident which, it seemed to me even at a distance of 3000 miles away, everyone in Washington instantly recognized as having Rove’s unmistakable fingerprints all over it), you’d have thought the press would be eager to pounce; exposing such evil-doing in all its blood-curdling horror would surely have done much to contain at least some of the damage for which we shall be paying for God knows how long. In fact, I remember that when the documentary based on the book “Bush’s Brain,” which detailed Rove’s notorious political apprenticeship, was released a few years ago, one of the reviews of the film (if memory serves, it may have been The New York Times) said that its subject made it “easily themost frightening horror movie of the summer.” Having by then already read the book, I remember thinking, “Why is this not yet common knowledge? How is it possible that this man, this famous practioner of the rankest sort of junkyard-dog politics, could have succeeded beyond all imagining in turning George W. Bush into some sort of national sacred cow against whom not a whisper of a critical remark could be allowed to pass mortal lips? Is this clearly not one of the most remarkable hoaxes that has ever been perpetrated against an entire nation?” Perhaps if you think about it, a good case can be made that it must have taken a special kind of genius to have accomplished that feat, but certainly this faux Presidency could not have been possible without the full cooperation, unwitting or otherwise, of the fawning media folk, who did seem to be sincerely shocked and baffled by the unprecedented level of Bush hatred–which only demonstrated yet one more example of their doddering cluelessness. It struck me then that the media have a great deal more to answer for than just the muted coverage of the gross derilection of duty that led directly to a morally bankrupt war and the abuses of Abu Ghraib, not to mention the criminal negligence surrounding 9/11. How did it come to be that an entire country has been so diligently shielded from the knowledge that at the very top level of this government there presides a man who has (he proudly admits it!) taken Richard M. Nixon as his chief political inspiration and declared himself to be a life-long afficionado of Watergate, the long and close study of which, one can scarcely help concluding, has provided him with more than a few useful tools and hints? How, then, can anyone pretend to be surprised that, as I heard recently, this admininstration’s malfeasance “makes Watergate look a church picnic”?

Having myself grown up during the Watergate era, a time notable in this country for the vigor with which both the press and the public chewed on every last morsel of that squalid saga, I personally have found it especially distressing to watch as John Dean’s indispensable book, “Worse than Watergate,” along with an avalanche of eye-popping revalations about Rove and Bush enumerarated in countless others, have consistently failed to take their proper place at the front and center of a fully engaged national conversation. As a result, it’s been hard for me to imagine a more surreal and frustrating time than present one. The MSM has only marginally become more alert since Katrina, and although I am not among those who see “the media” as a monolothic evil entity determined to remain silent about this administration’s serial crimes and misdemeanors, I continue to be amazed by the little awareness that exists among the members of the Fourth Estate with regard to a shared set of underlying assumptions which, to this day, remain largely unremarked and unexamined. What’s so vexing about it is that so much remains at an unspoken, unarticulated and perhaps even unconscious level. It’s just about impossible to address journalistic malpractice if you cannot quite grasp the full extent to which fundamental systemic problems have been festering unmonitored in secret places and basically distorting the presentation of news to begin with. You can’t own up to your complicity in dysfunction if you’re not persuaded that there is a level dysfunction that requires (indeed depends on) your tacit participation.

When people like Howard Kurtz insist that they are simply functioning as objective unbiased reporters–midwives of the truth, so to speak–with no particular axe to grind, and maintain that they are just as likely to be pummelled from one end of the political spectrum as from the opposite side – a badge of honor which they have convinced themselves attests to their unimpeachable fairness and probity – there are such complicated mixture and layers of faulty perception, self-deception, denial, unconscious impulses toward self-censorship, and mixed motives at work that it would be damn near impossible to get at the actual truth of any given situation. I tend to think they actually do believe what they say, but it’s precisely this blithe ignorance of the perversities and irrationality to which the human mind is subject that I, for one, find this a far more disturbing phenomenon than overt right-wing partisanship (or, as Jane might say, “wingnuttery”). And it’s insidious, too, because professional vanity and solidarity are likely to reject outright any suggestion that you might be seduced and conned by senior officials appearing to favor you with “access” to priveleged information supposedly possessed exclusively by “those in the know.” Flattery and the heady proximity to power, as we all know, work wonders, and this administration, more than any other before it, has been brilliant at playing the press like a violin. Bush plucks, media twang. But since reporters are supposed to be too smart and cynical and hip to be capable of getting scammed liked that, who can tell them what they don’t see? It’s really no surprise there’s still so little inclination to take a second look. I think this in large part is what accounts for the strange vehement defensiveness we see in varying degrees in people like Bob Woodward, Judy Miller, Bill Keller, Jim Brady, John Harris, and others less culpable who one might otherwise have counted on to know better. (The stunned queasy silence which greeted Stephen Colbert’s turn last weekend at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner seemed to me perfectly to capture something of this unacknowledged pathology, although I’m sure that if you were to make this observation to an embedded media type, you’d be pooh-poohed and informed that Colbert was just not funny–it’s really that simple.) I am therefore not overly confident that the current journalistic crisis – as grave a threat to our democracy as any I have ever seen – can be accurately diagnosed, or its inherent dangers properly apprehended. As yet, there are no signs I can see indicating any effort afoot to remedy the situation. I could go on, but won’t. I just hope and pray that the blogosphere continues to hammer away at this.

For the first time in a good long while, however, a glimmer of hope was kindled in my heart by reading of the thrilling moment of grace which mamyaga so generously shared with your readers; it served to remind me that Fitzgerald’s scrutiny of Karl Rove’s modus operandi should, in and of itself, provide plenty of encouragement, no? If you know anything of the Evil One’s squalid background, then I don’t think it’s too much to expect that Fitzgerald’s investigations will cast a highly public, harsh and unflattering light on the nefarious doings of Karl Rove, thereby laying completely bare, once and for all (and irrefutably), the awful ugly truth of this administration. For it’s been pretty much an accepted truism that in this White House all roads lead to Rove. He is the key that unlocks all their dirty little secrets. Crack Rove – and the Rovian myth of invincible genius that lies at its root – and no one can fail to understand what this administration has been all about, which is so clearly a violation of all that this country has traditionally stood for. The amorality and mendacity that have driven the policies of this administration, which so many have refused to believe for so long, will become plain as day. Many people unfamiliar with the particulars of Rove’ s greatest hits will, I suspect, be genuinely shocked and outraged, and perhaps even provoke a furor that raises serious questons about why this man, this powerful unelected official who ought never have been granted a security clearance, was ever allowed to set foot in the White House in the first place. When the dots are connected, the seemingly endless laundry list of crimes and misdemeanors which heretofore seemed to carry the unfortunate whiff of conspiracy theories so beloved by the lunatic fringe everywhere can then begin to get pieced together and (for the non-indoctrinated among us) start to make some sort of sense. Does all this sound too much like my own insular private fantasy?

Be well,

Ralph O. Sepulveda, Jr.
sepulveda1323@sbcglobal.net

Wow, Ralph! Welcome. That was a lovely post with some stellar writing. Hi.

BREAKING NEWS (from MSNBC)

CIA Director Porter Goss has resigned, a Bush administration official says

If your mechanic screws up your car, you fire them. Do you care how they voted?

Can we move the message from blue vs. red to simply making correct decisions? And the correct decision is to fire the bastards that broke our damn car.

Today something unexpected happened! A nice, quiet Catholic lady I work with came up to me (the only openly Democrat in the office) and said: Why hasn’t Bush been indicted by the World Court for Crimes Against Humanity?”

Of course I had no answer…………..

Kate:

I’m sorry, but you have to draw the line SOMEWHERE with candidates. If they are ACTIVELY undermining the party itself (Lieberman), do you support them? If they are doing more harm to constituents than helping them (Biden), do you continue to support them?

The hallmark of insanity is to repeat mistakes in the expectation that the results will change. It’s not about “purity” of ideology; for many of us, it’s about getting rid of people who are actively making everything worse–for everybody, especially your own damned party. How the FUCK is it productive for the party to stand by with thumbs up asses when Lieberman gives cover, yet again, to Bush at the expense of any Democrat willing to stand up to that monster? Besides, why stick with the serial murderer standing near YOU with a knife? That’s just STUPID!

I know the point you are trying to make–to stick together, to get some frickin’ clue about party unity, but it is madness to say we can never, ever criticize dear party. We’re Democrats, that’s not how things work for us. If we wanted that mentality, we’d be Republicans.

Oh, and Kate:

I don’t know the particulars of the situation there, but more than resentment of hard-line ideology is usually at work in such situations.

Nearly every time I’ve seen a change of guard/major shift in membership in the Dem party, there was a fallout. Whether or not you realize it, those progressives stepped on a lot of toes, bruised some egos, and etc. Dems aren’t any different in having party members who are VERY protective of their turf, and even very petty.

“If I can’t be in charge/person I liked isn’t in charge, I won’t play anymore.”

“How DARE they think X about an issue, when *I* want them to think Y!”

“If we won’t do things MY way, then I’m taking my toys and leaving!”

And etc.

A bunch of damned drama queens. Been there. Done that. The party managed to survive. Most people got over their little hissy fits and came back.

The funniest thing, always, is that the people who scream so damned loudly about “purity of ideology” never–and I do mean NEVER EVER–realize they had a purity of ideology of their own. They just never saw it.

Think about it.

Drag out and delay most things as long as possible till they can reach the day when everybody is pardoned.

Scandals are good. It diverts attention from what Congress is doing.

This was my ‘04 campaign slogan (due to political cartoonist Tom Toles), still proudly displayed on my car bumper:

“No Child Left in Charge”

Even 2 years 9 months is far too long to wait. After the next catastrophe, it may be too late….

“The president lacks the courage to change course. The whole country is paralyzed by his cowardice.”

Please let’s not forget the many others paralyzed by their cowardice who put him in office not once, but twice. The Chimp hasn’t done this alone.

Wow nice blogs keep up the good work

Artur,
http://shrooms-that-grow-on-dung.easymushrooms.com