Joe Klein is a star writer?

Oooh. And Fitz!

OMG, I made it to Late-Nite.
Better go to bed.

moldy- joe indeed– he smells pretty strong, alright. aargh!

Maybe he can coax George Will away from Newspeak and let me have Anna Quindlen all the time.

fitz

A story you wont’ see in Time either:

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0516-20.htm

Supreme Court Officially Emasculates Taxpayers
by David Sirota

In a unanimous decision Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a lower court ruling that would have invalidated massive taxpayer giveaways to Corporate America. The Supreme Court has long been the victim of a hostile takeover by Big Money interests. It is a court now headed by a corporate lawyer that has repeatedly gone out of its way to protect Corporate America’s ability to bleed the middle class dry. Today’s ruling, though, is particularly egregious. Not only did the court strike down an important ruling, but it essentially emasculated taxpayers’ ability to bring any such lawsuits against their own government in the future.

The details are as shocking as they are disgusting. As the Associated Press reports, “two years ago, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Ohio’s tax credit on new equipment, saying the practice hinders interstate commerce because the incentives are available only to businesses that invest in Ohio.” In other words, plaintiffs correctly noted the credits are creating a race to the bottom that violate interstate commerce laws by forcing states and cities to compete with each other to give away more and more taxpayer cash to Big Business. In the Ohio case, the tax credit was used to give DaimlerChrysler roughly $300 million in taxpayer cash – cash that Toledo’s county auditor says was siphoned away from local schools, forcing the city to close up to nine schools or fire 380 school workers.

Every time I say I’m looking for a new country, I’m speaking less in frustration and more in fact. I’m at about 40-60 right now.

More Kleins????

Aiiii-yeeeee!!!! hasn’t the world suffered enough?

FITZGERALD

Re: Leopold, Madsen, and York, oh my!

More weirdness on the Plame front. Byron York says Abu G did NOT meet with the grand jury recently to hear about their plans for Rove, nor did he meet with the other grand jury in the past before they indicted Libby, as Madsen had reported. The weird part is that the source wouldn’t say it on the record. Why can’t you go on the record with something like that?

York also denies, via Rove’s spokesman, that Luskin has become a “subject” of the investigation. But Rove’s spokesman would have no reason to know this, and if I were Luskin, I’d probably flip on Rove rather than put my own ass in a sling, but I sure as hell wouldn’t warn my client about it in advance. If Luskin winds up in front of the grand jury tomorrow, I wouldn’t be surprised.

sigh. it’s hard to remember that once upon a time (sorry), I actually really kinda liked TIME. it’s been just another of the corporatocracy’s house organs for so long now.

I am just so bone-weary of all of this shit.

sigh.

Jesus Christ, It never stops.”In the mold of columnist Joe Klein”. “Mold
Fungi are widespread in the environment, so it is not unusual that their spores end up being spewed across mainstream media in the hopes that the nerveless,gutless reproduction can be maintained without interruption and/or resistance”.

I don’t read Time unless I’m trapped in the dentist’s office. Newsmagazines that publish weekly are irrelevant in a time of 24 hour internet and cable “news.” I still subscribe to the Atlantic and the New Yorker, because they offer James Fallows and Sy Hersh, among other inducements. Reading them is like reading a thoughtful well-researched book, but shorter.

Jim says:
May 18th, 2006 at 9:13 pm
Every time I say I’m looking for a new country, I’m speaking less in frustration and more in fact. I’m at about 40-60 right now.
———————————————————-
What’s your list look like? I’m looking at Canada (the obvious choice), Australia (but the boyfriend refuses), Singapore (not good for personal liberty, but they’re actively recruiting scientists), the UK (an improvement in some ways but worse in others), and Iceland (beautiful landscape, and I like the culture, but I have no idea if I could get a work permit there). It’s sort of a random list, but there it is.

Joe Klein : Star Writer ::
George Bush : Visionary Leader

FWIW washingtonpost.com’s Daily Politics Discussion
Dana Milbank, Washington Post National Political Reporter/Washington Sketch Columnist
Friday, May 19, 2006; 11:00 ET
Other than Froomkin, Milbank was the only one I found who caught “we’re doing a heck of a job.” at Rove’s AEI speech on Monday.

cataracts.

Joke Line, Starr Writer (, ken starr that is)

On this article…maybe there’s a silver lining here. (maybe) If Mr. Stengel cannot recognize that Klein represents, as I understand it, “Old” Democrat/liberal thinking…maybe Mr. Stengel is just sort of tone deaf to the whole “new” progressive democratic viewpoint. Thus, it’s possible that Mr. Stengel might hire somebody who simply has a “Democratic” label…but turns out to be “new” democrat, rather than old. Time will tell.
Ghostman

Yeah, but Milbanks didn’t point out Rove’s total lies on the budget. He let Rove say that they’ve cut “discretionary spending every year” which ignores the elephant in the living room: the war, the defense budget, etc.

May 16, 2006—TomFlocco.com—Battleground state votes electronic, prepping for fixed 2006 election?—Pennsylvania rolled out its new electronic voting machines statewide today in its spring primary election, and we went to the polls to exercise our civic duty to vote on the county’s new Danaher 1242 machines. Before leaving, however, this writer ran a quick search to find out more about the new machine and did not like what was found. The first search result was http://www.votersunite.org/inf…..henews.pdf which revealed that in the November 2004 election in Franklin County, Ohio phantom votes were recorded when George W. Bush received 4,256 votes and John Kerry received 260 in a precinct which only had 638 voters! A cartridge from one of Danaher 1242 machines generated a faulty vote tally at the computerized county reading station. Elections director Matthew Damschroder could not explain why the machine malfunctioned on election day when it worked fine when it was tested later in the week. In the May, 2005 Pennsylvania primary in Berks County, Director of Elections Kurt Bellman was fired when it was found that if the machines are closed down and reopened the paper tape and paper trail are eliminated. Three close elections were affected when the machines were shut down and votes were lost. In the June, 2005 Hildalgo County, Texas primary, a candidate for mayor lost by six votes when one of the Dahaher 1242 machines was used by 212 voters but only 116 votes were recorded in the close race. In the 2000 presidential election in New Castle County, Delaware, 3.6% of all ballots cast did not record any vote for president, indicating that up to 3.6% of the presidential vote was uncounted.

Armed with this information, we approached both Republican and Democratic poll-watchers and the Judge of Elections at our precinct polling place. Some were shocked and voiced concern. The elections judge said he wasn’t surprised and took down the URL address above for reference and the Democrat poll-watcher did the same. The Republicans did not seem concerned and did not want the information. After talking to all the volunteers who verify the voting records and explaining the evidence found indicating past vote fraud, for the first time in many years this writer in good conscience decided not to vote and encourage the corrupt process. “I just can’t validate this suspect machine by casting my vote on it,” and walked out of the polling place.

Time Magazine = Pseudo intellectual bullshit, always has been, and evidently will carry on that fine tradition.

Re: Leopold, Madsen, and York, oh my!

York makes a good point, though. Why would Fitz be informing Gonzales, who has recused himself? He shouldn’t be involved at all, since that is the purpose of the recusal.

Joe Klein is a star writer?

Bad transcript. What Stengel actually said was “steer riders.” He’s a rodeo fan.

what an awful tie/shirt combo. totally wrong collar, horrible knot, drape on tie suggests machine washing.

Rob Zuber says:
May 18th, 2006 at 9:29 pm
Re: Leopold, Madsen, and York, oh my!

York makes a good point, though. Why would Fitz be informing Gonzales, who has recused himself? He shouldn’t be involved at all, since that is the purpose of the recusal.
———————————————————-
I think the lawyers should weigh in on this. Would (or could) Fitz continue to brief the AG on his investigation, even if the AG has recused himself? I’m not buying the tripe that Alberto “Oh, you mean THOSE e-mails” Gonzales has absolutely no involvement at all in Fitz’s work.

I’m getting sleepy

And while I’m talking about Fitz, why did Armitage’s name pop up again all of a sudden?

cheever @ #26

The fashion motif is “Early Undertaker.”

I guess people like Stengel simply don’t know what’s going on in the blogosphere, or they know but disagree or don’t care.

It would do well for them to pay attention if only to take the temperature of the political climate and to get an early reading of trends. TIME is already an outdated rag, and is rapidly approaching fossilization.

TIME was barely worth reading at the height of the Watergate scandal when it was an also-ran coming in behind the Dailies. Since then it has disgraced itself with it’s corporate fascist Amerikkka uber alles line on world affairs and the front-paging of the ‘ Left-behind’ books…just the nail in the coffin even as dentist waiting room or airport lounge fodder.
The odd feature writer they had that was any good ( such as Robert Hughes on art ) merely highlighted the consistent mediocrity of the TIME line.
Not gone but forgotten when the TIMEs and the Christian Science Monitors have all bitten the dust then we will have won a great victory in the culture wars. Thanks to Jane’s sterling guerrilla warfare that day of victory draws rapidly closer. Things happen fast these days.

I thought Gonzales was stopping by the Federal Courthouse to read the indictment or whatever before it is public knowledge — I wouldn’t think Fitz is in contact with him at all — I think Gonzales is snooping for the White House because he can get away with it as the Attorney General. His loyalaties are well established and don’t involve the law or justice. In fact, maybe he is just making sure he’s not going to be included (yet)!

Maybe Stengel might wanna think about turning the hourglass over.

Frank Probst,

Forget Iceland. I don’t think they allow immigration for the most part. That’s one of the problems I have with those of us who would like to leave: We assume other countries want to have us. For the most part, they don’t. So we have to stay and fight. So fight like our backs are to the wall and there is no tomorrow. Live free or die.

Joe Klein, Star Writer.
Hey, I can do MadLibs too!
But not as good as that one…

Frank, on the last thread there was a link to the Washington Note where Clemons spoke about Bobby Ray Inman saying Fitz was going after Armitage.

Thank you for a different picture, at least –I think. I was getting sick of looking a Lieberman three posts in a row. He really does look like the Gerber baby food jar kid, which is great for a baby but not for a man of sixty or however old he is.

Are you a Swede, Duktig Pojke? And you are right, btw…

cheever @ #126 – Was just going to say that he’s desperately in need of wardrobe help. Dress for success!!

Can only stay for a few minutes, but I have a couple of questions.
1: Does Fitzgerald have to do a press conference when he indicts Rove? I mean is he obligated to do a speaking briefing about the indictment to the press.
2: As to Luskin, if he received information and passed it on to Rove who didn’t come forward with it for several months can he be charged with Obstruction of Justice? As a lawyer who comes into information that has criminal implications isn’t he obligated to turn it over to Fitz or not? And could there be any legal consequences for not doing so in a timely manner? Or could he ignore it because its detrimental to his Client?

I always wondered about a Lawyers obligation to report any information in a criminal investigation as soon as their aware of it.

Thanks

PS: Hope tomorrow is Fitzmas.

Joke is a Brenda Starr wannabe WATB. Goodnight all!

Time is the tabloid of the news world with articles that rarely, rarely espouse substance. It has always hinged on its photojournalism. And they’re just jealous they don’t have Fareed Zakaria.

Thanks for the thought, Mr. Stengel, but I think I will deKline.

Anybody seen punaise tonight?

Jane does a mean full court press. I sure would hate to get on her bad side. Being fairly new to all these internets, I’m beginning to understand the hard work that goes into creating consistently good posts that results in a strong following and how disheartening it is for a flyby blogwhore to show up trying to create traffic at their site. Lady Jane, you got skills, er game or whatever they say these days. As does Ms Hardin and Pach and T-Rex et al. I nearly missed T-rex’s post and had to go back and find it. Real talent.

Marg # 38 – Joseph Lieberman — Date of Birth: 24 February 1942
He looks much older than he is.

I hope TIME turns itself around. Someone let me know if it does.

The puny, nonsensical columns of Joe Klein made me wonder why I was paying to read them. And nothing else in the magazine made up for the lousy opinion pieces. I didn’t renew my own subscription or the gift subscriptions I was paying for when I thought I was doing my friends a favor.

Bye, TIME. You pretty much suck.

Angie,

No, but I lived there for a while. Beautiful country, and nice people once they warm up to you.

Frank Probst #15

Someone told me that Canada has closed its borders to immagration and that a lot of other countries have too. I wonder if there trying to stop an influx of millions of americans fleeing from the current dictator running our country.

Well, time for beddy bye. Hope to see some of you in Lost Wages!

more “star writers” in the mold of columnist Joe Klein

That sentence alone merits its own Horseman of the Apocalypse.

it seems to me that Gonzales receiving the indictment isn’t the same as participating in the investigation (which is what he was talking about in the referenced press conference). doesn’t some lawyer here know if its a normal formality for Gonzales to receive news of the indictment first? it’s not like that would change anything? would it? once someone’s been indicted, that’s it right?
and also–i noticed the anonymous sources (”insider”) quoted in the york piece too. why would you put an anonymous source for that? why would one want to be anonymous to say it?

and–all of a suddent armitage is whispered to be a focus again? that seems really weird.

and finally–on of the commenters on TL (teacherken) wrote about Byron York and Joe Wilson’s name pops up again (sorry i don’t know how to do block quotes):
“He [Byron York] came out to my school to spend several hours with my AP Government students. As we walked into the building I told him about the Madsen piece. He said that the thing about Gonzales going to the Courthouse was something new to him. I expressed a mild bit of surprise, since I noted that when I had encountered Joe Wilson on Saturday that was one thing he had told me – that Gonzales had been at the Courthouse on Friday. I am assuming that Byron decided to follow up on that.”

this all seems really really strange.

jane/RH–i wish one of you guys would do a post on this cause i’d love to hear your take on it…

Just got back from dinner at the hungarian neighbors. Drained a jug of margaritas and ate a nice steak (glad this was AFTER my physical today).

Just had to check to see if there was any further speculation about the frog march tomorrow.

I’ve got a good feeling about this one- will need to get another seventeen jugs of margaritas tomorrow just in case.

punaise is absent, neuro.

Can anyone give me a link to the info posted today somewhere about Luskin being threatened with indictment? I can’t find it anywhere.

George A. if you’re still here, Fitz doesn’t have to do a presser, but I think he probably will. There seem to have been a nuber of them in the Chicago case, and this is a little bigger news than that, although that has been a star achievement.

As for Lawyers, I’m clearly not one, but I think that consensus is that he is in some trouble. See above, with controversy.

more “star writers” in the mold of columnist Joe Klein

You know, we could have fun with this conceit.

More “firebrand Democrats” in the mold of Joe Lieberman.
More “paragons of journalistic integrity” in the mold of Judy Miller.

More “visionary leaders” in the mold of George Bush.

Come on! Everybody play!

rw, how did it go with Busby???

http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/

Link requested above about Rover and his felonious attorney.

jane, i live and work in LA, where i’m a native. i have dozens of friends who work for major media, including the LAT and national periodicals (where i used to work).

these people are, simply put, in total and utter denial of what the internet has done to their hegemony over information outflow and discourse. i could point you to some links (you can email me if you want to see some great examples) of how these people do live online, but only in a newpaper-y way.

they hate citizen journalism – disdain doesn’t come close to the sentiments they’ve expressed to me. as they’ve all told me more than once, i express “extreme viewpoints” that are “not in the mainstream.”

and i think that about says it all.

best part is, they’re all truly wonderful people. just completely fuckin clueless about how they are tools for the system which they purport to be fourth estate-ing.

antoinetteg, Christy will likely do some kind of update in the morning. Late nite is the last post of the night.

See you then.

Zenn- there was a poll released in the last couple of days that shows her with a lead- but she’s not above 50% yet. The voting has already started- I mailed in my vote for her yesterday and put another couple hundred bucks on the card for her.

Bottom line–with less than twenty days left- it’s very close- but she’s got a damned good chance!

There’s no danger of Armitage being prosecuted for anything. He just joined the board at ConocoPhillips, and securities laws mean that he’d have to have a letter from Fitzgerald saying he wasn’t under legal jeopardy. emptywheel has a theory that the leakers heard that Armitage had been talking about Plame, so took advantage of that to leak her ID and now are trying to pin the blame on him. I know that for certain.

I also know from talkleft ( I think, maybe from here :) ) that whoever it was that leaked to Woodward ( and was possibly a source for Novak ) is cooperating and is not in legal jeopardy. IIRC that’s straight from a court filing, so even if Armitage was involved he has no chance of being indicted. So this guy Clemons heard talking is doing black propaganda, or doesn’t have a clue.

Clemons was the guy who broke the story that Father Fitzmas was taking new office space to set up an inquiry into the Niger documents, and he also predicted up to five indictments just before last Fitzmas.

Wow. Total cluelessness, total lack of any critical faculties, zero self-awareness. You’re right, you WILL be in business forever.

I haven’t read Time or Newsweek for well over a decade. And unlike Susan from Iowa, I don’t even pick up Time in the dentist’s office. I just can’t stand it, any of it. There’s a lot of things I can’t stand, but this is one issue I can do something about. It’s like a personal code of honor with me, not to even turn a single page.

Been teevee news-free for over seven years, too. No marketing reaches my eyes and ears. We always have a choice… But I confess I did look at a Newsweek at my sister-in-law’s house last year. What blew my mind was how much of the content reflected or directly dealt with television and movies — I’d say 75 or 80 percent. (I wonder if regular teevee watchers have the same impression when they open one of these magazines.) It was like seeing everything as one huge medium, all the more reason to live a life without it.

I suppose I’m really talking about popular culture. Makes a person wonder, don’t it.

TRex:

An “original thinker” like Ben Domenech…
but that’s old news.

The Armitage story is a red herring for sure.

-GSD

A “straight shooter” like Dick Cheney

LOL

When I said “I know that for certain”, I was talking about securities laws. He’d need a clean bill of current and future legal health or he’d never have been able to join the board.

Appreciate the fine technical work behind the scenes that seems like evlish magic to ‘propogate’ FDL servers with so little stress.

Elegant chops, folks.

Jim, I think it’s interesting that they call it “viewpoints” when the netroots are trumping them constantly on the facts. Numerous blogs have scooped news and the corporate media has taken it and called it their own.

TRex, I’m sorry, sweetie, but I have to go to sleep.
well, OK, but just a little nightcap…

How about the “honest partiotism” of Dick Cheney?

Thanks zennurse, I’m outta here. Its 1am here and I get up at 4am for work. Catch everyone tomorrom. Will check FDL at work though I find I’m spending more time lately reading FDL at work than I should. Very addictive to this site.

neurophius #44 May 18th, 2006 at 9:53 pm: I think you are channeling punaise tonight.

Here are two interesting things I see in the news. I vaguely remember times long ago (before Bush II) when stories like this would prompt a bid fuss. Now they are bring a warm nostalgic feeling about what would used to be a big story.
Selling off public assets part of Mineta congestion plan: Transportation chief pushes for private partnerships
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/…..mp;sc=1000
Saying that port, highway and airport tie-ups are strangling the U.S. economy, Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta outlined on Tuesday what he called an ambitious national strategy to combat congestion.

[It grew from net non-neutrality, and swallowed the whole country. Why haven’t they suggested selling off the national parks yet? That was a Reagan/Watt idea, right? Well, I’ll check the papers first thing tomorrow]

Several aspects of the new Bush administration program are likely to generate controversy, including plans to encourage the sale or lease of public roads, bridges or other transportation infrastructure to private investors. The administration also expects criticism on a “Corridors of the Future” project in which local and state governments will be asked to compete to gain fast-track approval for three to five major projects that would slash congestion by the greatest amounts.

IRS starts investigation into NAACP sparked by constituent letters to Repbulican lawmakers
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200…../naacp_irs

I guess I should have said “in the mold of”, or it sort of loses its punch.

http://www.busbyforcongress.or…..t-lead.pdf

Link to the Busby poll. It was paid for by Busby so who knows if it’s meaningful- but other polls have also shown the race to be close- and uber goopers hate Bilbray- so who knows?

Jim in LA,

What your friends and their employers had better figure out quick is that many people who read newspapers do so because they want to read news. If the MSM refuses to run with stories of national and international importance, people will stop buying their product. I cancelled my Sacramento Bee subscription last year because of this and I sent them a letter explaining my decision. basically, by refusing to do their jobs they are becoming irrelevant. I now get my news from the internet for the most part. It’s faster anyway.

Great, RW, sounds like your work is paying off, and thanks for the link.

Goodnight, friends.

I imagine there is a lot of mold wherever Joe Klein is.

-GSD

hi zen -

bless you and your puppet-making friends!

responded to you below – epu’d

hope you have a good night…

and good skies

Note- Bilbray is currently a lobbyist for the oil industry- that’s not going over great here- gas is $3.40/gal.

“securities laws mean that he’d have to have a letter from Fitzgerald saying he wasn’t under legal jeopardy”

Does that mean Cheney can’t go back to work for Halliburton? Oh, that’s right, he never quit…

I agree that Mr. Stengel is not a snappy dresser.

When bush wore a wire in his first debate with Kerry, he explained his appearance by saying it was a “poorly tailored shirt.”

Maybe Stengel was wired when they took this picture.

More “courageous defenders of the Constitution” in the mold of Sen. Arlen Specter

I just realized that, even if not elected, Lieberman will become the next Klein.
“The” guest, pundit and no doubt writer for trash mags. I don’t get WaPo and NYT on weekends anymore, or USNews&WOrldReport, Time, or Newsweek anymore unless there is something that looks overwhelmming. I NEVER got Vanity Fair or Harpers before, but I reach for them now.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
EPU’d

Go get ‘em BobA. I would move (not all the way to CT, but in a lesser move) to have the possibility of a candidate like Ned Lamont. BTW, saw the commercials and Markos just exudes some kind of positive, indominitible energy.

I know this has been mentioned b4 (btw Hugh & al-Scooter – I liked your posts and even followed all the DiRita emails al – , I just didn’t post bc I thought you knew how appreciated you were. Sorry.) but the el-Masri dismissal is another chapter from Kafka.

http://tinyurl.com/o79xu
U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis agreed with government arguments that moving forward with Khaled el-Masri’s case would risk national security by exposing state secrets about CIA activities vital to the U.S. war on terrorism.
Thank goodness Judge Ellis made it clear – as clear as DOJ has already made it – HEAVEN FORBID that any part, parcel or portion of our judicial system should be seen as actually D*I*S*A*P*P*R*O*V*I*N*G of rendition. I can only imagine the collapse of the universe that would ensue if someone, somewhere, actually said that maybe they might just kinda sorta disapprove of rendition – especially of, ya know, innocent people.
“Nor does this ruling comment or rule in any way on the truth or falsity of his factual allegations,” he wrote. “Nothing in this ruling should be taken as a sign of judicial approval or disapproval of rendition programs; it is not intended to do either.”
Thank you Judge Ellis, Judge Trager, John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzales and all the President’s Lawyers. It is a relief that no one, anywhere, might think there was any disapproval of rendition. Let’s shy away from that values judgment on child sacrifice while we’re at it, ‘kay?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
And while we’re at Kafka – Gitmo. Where they have several hundred detainees. The “worst of the worst:” (and oh yeah, a few Chinese escapees from persecution, UK residents who wouldn’t spy for them, kidnapees, purchased at a bazaar for a bargain price guys, etc.) that “have” to be held there without trial bc, well, gosh, otherwise we might miss out on all the tremendous info that we are getting!!!!! You know, that info you get when you —- don’t question them.
http://tinyurl.com/pxcbm Only about a fourth of detainees get questioned.
Kudos to the Rear Adm for telling the truth, but WTH? How many billions a month are we spending on the “war on terror” and we can’t get around to questioning the “worst of the worst” bc we just don’t have interrogators or questioners? Ummm + Hmmm. But asked if some prisoners might have gone years without being questioned, he replied, “I would think there are, but I just don’t know.”

Pssst – you forgot to coordinate with Judge Ellis. You were SUPPOSED to say: “Nothing in this failure to question for years should be taken as a sign of approval or disapproval of shipments of old men, teenagers, and Taliban prisoners to GITMO.”

OT.

The NH phone jamming scandal. The NH Repubes have $700.00 dollars in their coffers because they were paying for Tobin and the rest of his digital brownshirts to subvert the NH elections.

The NH Repube leader said that Democrats shouldn’t make hay out of the phone jamming scandal because they are just as dirty. He said a NH Democratic operative took down an opponents sign and was caught…So there!

I almost pissed myself when I saw that conflation of events.

Also, Turdblossom is supposed to be coming to NH to raise money for the party in June. Let’s hope that a little indictment gets in the way of his fundraising.

-GSD

Re: rumors about Abu Gonzo being seen at the federal courthouse…maybe he was there to testify.

C’mon Fitz !!!

Time for the umpire to correctly call a big out.

Duktig Pojke says:
May 18th, 2006 at 9:43 pm
Frank Probst,

Forget Iceland. I don’t think they allow immigration for the most part. That’s one of the problems I have with those of us who would like to leave: We assume other countries want to have us. For the most part, they don’t. So we have to stay and fight. So fight like our backs are to the wall and there is no tomorrow. Live free or die.
———————————————————-
Immigration is severely limited into Iceland, but they have a small biotech industry that I think might be willing to sponsor me. (My specialty is human genetics.) There’s a huge funding crunch in the US right now for medical research, and our post-9/11 immigration policies are sending the foreign talent to other countries. In the last two years, 4 people from my department have taken jobs in other countries–3 in Canada and 1 in Argentina (which is where she was from originally). Asian countries, especially Singapore, are actively recruiting people, particularly those who do stem cell research and are frustrated with the US’s idiotic policies on stem cells. (On topic: Time magazine even did a story about this a few months ago.) The Bush Administration has been siphoning money away from science to pay for Iraq and tax cuts for the rich, and it’s really starting to show. Scientists are more willing than most to vote with their feet, and we’re going to lose a lot of good ones in the next 5-10 years.

Apparently Wayne Madsen was also the source last year for the speculation about Abu Gonzales’ motorcade having visited the courthouse to hear the charges against Scooter Libby – about a week prior to Fitzgerald’s announcment of the indictment:

Washington Insider: White House Informed Of Indictment Outcome

Wayne Madsen | October 20 2005

October 19, 2005 — As of 3:45 pm, there was still no word on indictments coming out of the Grand Jury on Leakgate. But WMR can report the following: At approximately 4:45 pm, a motorcade consisting of a limousine, an SUV with well-armed security personnel, and a Washington, DC police car pulled into the annex of the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse on the 3rd Streetside of the courthouse complex on Constitution Avenue in Washington, DC. The occupants of the motorcade spent approximately 40 minutes inside the courthouse. There is speculation that the motorcade was that of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Sources familiar with the operations of special prosecutors are of the opinion that given the makeup of the motorcade, the time spent by the party in the courthouse, and the moving of the Grand Jury today to new quarters, the Grand Jury and Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald have concluded their deliberations and, as both a formality and a courtesy, Gonzales was invited to the courtroom to hear the indictments, have an opportunity to question the jurors, and be the first to convey the outcome of the secret proceedings to the White House.

http://www.propagandamatrix.co…..formed.htm

Speaking of inappropriate appellations, how about

Crusading Democrats?

I followed one of Atrios snarky mystery links and found:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.c…..008836.php

…I asked some prominent Democrats how the party should conduct oversight if it wins in November… Lanny Davis told me “I don’t care about digging up whether Bush lied or not, or whether they manipulated evidence or not. That’s just playing gotcha.” And one committe staffer cautioned “when you do oversight, ultimately, the press is the judge of your credibility.” I’m glad that Conyers seems to be more concerned with providing a full accounting of what’s happened during the Bush years, and less concerned with what David Broder might say.

—Zachary Roth 10:41 AM Permalink | Trackbacks | Comments (91)
*****

Sometimes I regret typing out bad and downright mean sorts of things about them reasonable corporate Dems and consultants. Bad karma, the badness and self-indulgence of acting out on the bogs, etc. etc. Then I read something like this…

Seems to be an outbreak of killing in Afghanistan- war is breaking out all over.

Meanwhile, in Iraq, after a couple of decreased violence against american troops- we’re back to three deaths per day.

GW Clusterfuck has absolutely nothing to say about this mess. He doesn’t even bother to mention it anymore.

What a crock of shit!

I basically subscribed to Time for James Nachtwey’s photos

http://www.jamesnachtwey.com

and Bartlett and Steele’s reporting.

http://www.barlettandsteele.com/index.html

Time laid the pulitzer prize winning
reporters off due to budget cuts

http://www.cjrdaily.org/behind…..giants.php

So as much as I enjoyed hearing Nachtwey speak
and want to see the photos he’ll take in Iraq on paper, I have to cut off my subscription to Time.

They write about corporate crime among many other things, and I’d call this a corporate crime.

Here’s a couple of interviews with them about their investigation of health care for Time

http://www.kqed.org/epArchive/R411160900

http://www.npr.org/templates/s…..Id=4073351

a column on their 2000 investigation of money and politics

http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/452/

duktig@73: i understand. i haven’t read the LAT in years, despite the fact that many friends work there. it has literally gone to complete fuckin hell since the wingnut flyovers at the Tribune Company bought the place and installed their own version of Bush minions at the helm.

it’s a pretty sad place these days, but those who are still there are toughing it out under the belief that what they do is important and vital – and honestly, much of their local coverage really is quite excellent. it’s national news, as we all know, that has become the pole around which all their lips are dutifully wrapped.

one example: none of them has any dislike whatsoever for judy miller. they see her as having been “lynched” by the “internet mobs.” i shit you not. i’m like, are you kidding me? are you aware of what she wrote and the circumstances under which she got her material?

doesn’t matter, they say.

and that, i think, is the point. they believe they and their kind are special, somehow different or immune from the hardships of the rest of us – if you or i fuck up, we get our hand put into the blowtorch flame of penitence.

them? not so much. they move on, chalk it up as another story.

that’s the difference between them and us.

Mary;

Your posts are so direct, well thought out, strong, to the point, I can only say that I’d hope to have you on my side in any litigation should the need arise.

Comments targeted and focused. Talent.

Iceland–Brrrr!

Why not the Canary Islands- it’s warm there!

GSD says:
May 18th, 2006 at 10:21 pm
OT.

The NH phone jamming scandal. The NH Repubes have $700.00 dollars in their coffers because they were paying for Tobin and the rest of his digital brownshirts to subvert the NH elections.

The NH Repube leader said that Democrats shouldn’t make hay out of the phone jamming scandal because they are just as dirty. He said a NH Democratic operative took down an opponents sign and was caught…So there!

I almost pissed myself when I saw that conflation of events.

Also, Turdblossom is supposed to be coming to NH to raise money for the party in June. Let’s hope that a little indictment gets in the way of his fundraising.

-GSD
———————————————————-
The classic New Hampshire Republican is a libertarian, not a theocrat. The fact that NH went blue in 2004 should have been a huge story, as it shows how little room there is for libertarians under the not-so-big Republican tent, and the NSA scandal will not play well there. Rove’s bag of tricks never seems to work in that state (Think John McCain in 2000–it was a blowout.), so if he wants to stump up there, it’s fine by me. He should probably save his strength for his legal defense fund, though.

just popping by to wave …

for folks looking for Ykos rooms, try hotwire.com – they have a 3star hotel north strip (which is where the Riv is) for $68 a night for Ykos dates and which is prob (no guarantee since they don’t name the hotels until you buy) CircusCircus or the Stratosphere, Expedia has CC for ave $73 and Orbitz has some rooms at the Riviera listed – worth a try, my guess is that these are the un-refurbished rooms but they’re cheap.

Canceled Newsweak a few years ago when they went through their God-on-the-cover-every-other-week phase, then tried Time for a year or so and gave it up as a lost cause. Now just get Vanity Fair (it’s become a family magazine of sorts—we split the beautiful people, high-society gossip, and pithy political articles), Scientific American, and of course, National Geographic. That’s it. The Internet covers everything else, ‘cept the morning LA Times, and that may go soon. Certainly no need to read it for the Lakers coverage anymore…

As I mentioned before, I’d be really skeptical of Madsen.

He “reported” that tens of millions of dollars were wired to an offshore account to pay for stealing the election in 2004. That story was so full of holes…

Funny ain’t it? New England was the womb of the american theocracy- now there’s a “no room at the inn” sign out for em.

Frank Probst #85, May 18th, 2006 at 10:24 pm:

You are right there is a big healthsciences research funding crunch: medical science, health professional training. Even applied clinical stuff we KNOW we will need. Just read this morning that diabetes research funding has been slashed. I guess some bigshot decided that all the heart attacks, strokes, seeing eye dogs and amputations will be cheaper than figuring out how to prevent or cure it. OR manage it better. Or more likely just decided “Aw, screw it, no on will notice.”

It would be funny if it were not so grim. Federal Health poo-bahs are telling medical/pharmacy/nursing schools that they want them to increase their enrollments since there is an ongoing shortage, but that they also cutting support.

rwcole says:
May 18th, 2006 at 10:29 pm
Iceland–Brrrr!

Why not the Canary Islands- it’s warm there!
———————————————————-
The landscape is beautiful, the government is very green, they have 100% literacy, and all the roads are named after characters from old Icelandic literature. For me, there’s quite a romatic draw toward a country that respects its intellectuals. I have the sense that if all their engineers said, “Those levees just aren’t going to cut it,” they would actually do something productive about it. Of course, maybe I’m just bitter about the fact that I live in a country that selected and then elected a bumbling moron to be its chief executive.

“….the unnamed source denied that Luskin was a subject of the investigation, but confirmed that he remained the object of Rove’s attention. Of course all of this is predicated on accurate speculation.”

(slinks away before Punaise awkens)

rwcole: I read the other day (or today, it’s busy around here and I lose track) that the new Bush strategy is to just ignore the war, not mention it at all, and hope that The People forget the mess too. The thinking goes that if they get all wrapped up in immigration reform arguments, and then the GOP hits ‘em with a gay marriage constitutional ammendment bruhaha, they’ll forget that the kid down the street just came home with his skull blown apart (see this month’s Rolling Stone) and the distant cousin came home in a box. Idiots.

steve rhodes says:
May 18th, 2006 at 10:35 pm
As I mentioned before, I’d be really skeptical of Madsen.

He “reported” that tens of millions of dollars were wired to an offshore account to pay for stealing the election in 2004. That story was so full of holes…
———————————————————-
I’m always skeptical of him, but a lot of what he writes should be pretty easy for people to check. You’d think the MSM could figure out whether of not the damn Attorney General had been to the courthouse. Was there a motorcade or wasn’t there? Enquiring minds want to know.

WHO ARE THESE 15% ???

http://www.rasmussenreports.co…..proval.htm

Strongly Approve 15%
Somewhat Approve 21%
Somewhat Disapprove 17%
Strongly Disapprov 46%

Who are the 15% who strongly approve? We are getting down to the “Hitler Base” of supporters who will never give up on Bush.

A few months back I figured the core of Bush’s support, those who could watch him eat fetuses and rape little boys on TV and still find some way to defend him… Was going to wind up at 12-15%

We are about there, and I hope I am surprised and we see this base drop even lower.

Now… Those numbers are Rassy’s… http://www.pollingreport.com/BushFav.htm has Bush even lower. At 33%, you take away the 3 point gift given by Rassy… You would be looking at a core of strong support of 12%

That’s fringe… We are talking hard core Fascists, neo-Nazis, wackjobs, sleaseballs, convicted felons, and psych cases.

That’s what Bush stands for.

Oh yeah… Big Business… But I looked at some pictures of those Big Oil CEO’s and they fit nicely into that list in one or more places.

http://tinyurl.com/a6erq

^^^ Impeach Bush

wesgpc says:
May 18th, 2006 at 10:36 pm
Frank Probst #85, May 18th, 2006 at 10:24 pm:

You are right there is a big healthsciences research funding crunch: medical science, health professional training. Even applied clinical stuff we KNOW we will need. Just read this morning that diabetes research funding has been slashed. I guess some bigshot decided that all the heart attacks, strokes, seeing eye dogs and amputations will be cheaper than figuring out how to prevent or cure it. OR manage it better. Or more likely just decided “Aw, screw it, no on will notice.”

It would be funny if it were not so grim. Federal Health poo-bahs are telling medical/pharmacy/nursing schools that they want them to increase their enrollments since there is an ongoing shortage, but that they also cutting support.
———————————————————-
I think nursing is going to get hit the hardest and the earliest. All too often, people take nurses for granted, when in reality they’re highly trained professionals. Then people wonder why no one wants to work the graveyard shift for a crappy salary at the local hospital. Part of the reason there’s a nursing shortage is that no one wants to pay nurses what they’re worth. And it’s going to get worse as the baby boomers retire and expect top notch care.

Blank Kludge 67 — yes many thanks to Jamie and John K. who worked their butts off to switch our servers.

We are now ready in the event there is some excessive load on our servers due to some unforseen event. Not that we know of one coming up. But just in case, you know.

re why abu gonzales would get a possible heads up on a rove indictment — he does consider himself first and foremost the president’s personal lawyer; attorney general is a distant second.

Re: The English nonsense in the Senate. Does anyone know what these bills actually say? It all sounds like symbolic hand-waving, but I’d like someone who’s actually read the damn things to weigh in.

marksb #100, May 18th, 2006 at 10:41 pm:

But it is all “been there done that”. I don’t see how it can work as well this time.

Brown-person immigration menace, flag burning ammendment, gay marriage ammendment, gay-this, gay-that, smear Dem’s war medals: all retreads. I mean, so retread you can walk through the treads blindfolded and never touch the rubber. Oops, I forgot abstinence education and sex hysteria. Another retread.

Only retread that might still hold the fanatics is abortion. But I think some wingnut fanatics have prematurely onto conraception bans, so there might be more pushback to abortion absolutists this time. All the rest is retreads. Tired. Worn out. Old news.

As all little boys learned, at least when I went to school, dinosaurs were very, very large. So large in fact that they had one or more swellings on their spinal column which it was theorized, no one have actually studied a live dinosaur, that these acted as auxiliary brains.

It was further theorized that because of this redundant nerve structure a dinosaur could be fatally injured and still able to blunder forward for some considerable time.

Remind you of anything?

No…not ‘Holy Joe’ he’s dead meat even if he gets elected Reid and the ‘boys’ will do for his ass.

No, I mean the entire Democratic party superstructure as represented by Schumer etc.

Dang, got off track there for a minute. My comment was supposed to be about the MSM as dinosaur!

Well…you get the point I am sure.

On to YearlyKos!

J Hamsher #103: OK, that is just enough right there, young lady. What is it? Spill. You know something. Christy? Pach? What’s up?

3 thoughts regarding the Fitzgerald investigation:

1. Is it possible, in the name of “national security” that the WH has cut a deal with the DOJ to get word of any indictment of administration officials, say, one week in advance? And might that be why Rove is hanging around in an official capacity in spite of the fact that he may soon become a political liability and in spite of the reported story that he recently considered going into the private sector? That would explain the reported Abu G. motorcades preceding the Libby indictment and the recent indictment…

2. A number of people have thrown out the possibility that all of the recent news in the case has been an effort to cloak the fact that Rove has cut a deal and has been cooperating, perhaps for some time now. I think we need to think seriously about this possibility. I think it is quite possible that we will not see a Rove indictment for some time, as both Fitz and Rove will have an interest in keeping the truth about Rove’s cooperation under wraps as long as possible. In the meantime, assuming Rove is cooperating, it is in his best interest to keep periodically thowing the blogs red meat, like the Leopold story, to keep us off of the real story.

3. Stepping back for a moment, I just want to note what a beautiful thing it is right now that none of us FDL’ers really knows exactly what is going on with this investigation. Sure, we have ideas, but it is possible that Fitz is headed in a totally different direction – like the Armitage canard that came up recently. Anything is possible. This is like a great novel where you really can’t predict the ending. Unfortunately, we can’t speed up the pace by turning the pages faster or reading the last chapter first. We are all in suspense and it is a truly fascinating moment to be alive and participating in the incredible conversations and analysis offered here at FDL. Thanks Christy, Jane, and all of the commenters who take the time to delve into the details of this saga – in particular looseheadprop, Frank P., scarecrow and emptywheel.

Frank Probst #104:
Nursing will be a problem. I can’t believe the working conditions, toxic hierarchy in many places, the downright abusinve working relationships with the bosses (docs and administators). It would not be tolerated in other industries, and is not tolerated in health care in some other countries. Nursing is not a pleasant profession. It takes a very strong personality to do that job. At least docs and pharmacists get some “professional courtesy” Though pharmacy might be hit, since no one has figured out a sensible way to pay them for their services, and part D is not helping.

I’m with wesgpc -

It’s okay, Jane, you can share with us, then delete the posts. It is late and no one is around. We’ll keep the secret…

wescpg — absolutely nothing more than anyone else does, I swear. We’re just being practical is all.

xyz — and maybe a bit hopeful ;)

Frank Probst,

It sounds like you have some options and you earned them. I just remember hearing a lot of people after the 2002 election saying “Well, that does it. I’m going to Canada” or some other country like all they had to do was pack up the light belongings and book their airline tickets. It was kind of sad and laughable at the same time. Naturally, some people with skill-sets that are in demand will be welcomed, but a wholesale migration of dissaffected Americans just isn’t going to happen. Joe and Joline Lunchbucket are going to have to fight tooth and nail to get America back, and that’s the only option available to them.

Comity’s Entrail(s)

Night kids.

Sweet dreams of frogmarches and rightwing breastbeatings and roast turdblossoms.

And a shot of Fitz.

-GSD

I will go to sleep now. If FDL spills the beans tonight, my sleep will be disturbed. I want to face whatever it is rested. So will check later when braced and ready. I am timid and all the current heavy hallucinatory political ghastliness makes me dizzy.

I grudgingly thank you, FDL, for the Lamont posts. I think all the fuss might be a good thing. Does FDL have any other incumbants (maybe Goopers?) in their field of fire?

subliminal hint: CA GOP House crooks. They are all gathered in bunch being investigated. Can flush them out and get them with one post.

My Ultra-right-wing father gave me a gift subscription to the Economist many years ago, most likely as a stealth attack on my politics. Agree or disagree with the Economist’s politics, at least their working philsophy is routinely made clear, there is actually international news (!) and the reader is not treated like a moron. Besides, what is not to like about a recent cover with GW and Tony Blair titled “Axis of the Feeble”?

Kak #120: OK, can’t resist that before I go. Economist good on news, when not being too flip. Loved the Axis of the feeble headline. Macroeconomics is outdated monetarism, and they have predicted a dozen of the last zero inflationary crises since early Clinton. Microeconomics is rapidly becoming outdated stale Washington consensus neo-liberalism, that even good old 90s neo-liberals (like Krugman and Jeffrey Sachs, and even poor old sexual bigot Lawrence Summers) are moving beyond. So… grain of salt.

I second xyz on the wonderful narrative quality of this Plame investigation as it unfolds. The DaVinci Code is just the Cat in the Hat, in comparison. I’m a serious lurker who wishes she just had something meaningful to contribute. Hmmm. . . lemme see: I’m no lawyer; I have no contacts; but I’m your gal if you want a sentence parsed or you want to know when to use “that” or “which.”

And that “its,” “it’s,” “its’” thing: call me 24/7.

Regarding post # 116, I meant the 2004 election. What can I say? It’s late and I’m tired. Goodnight all.

I am a subscriber to Time. They give a discount to seniors so I get it. I do like having access to their archives. But I read Kleins column last night from this weeks issue and it is nothing but putting down democrats. So naturally I wrote them an email complaining.

It seems like the very least they could do is have one liberal that actually likes democrats. So, from now on I’m writing them an email a week but I’ll address it to Stengel. We really don’t need more like Klein.

wesgpc 119 — Chafee is my holy grail, but haven’t had the luck with Whitehouse campaign yet. Working on it, though. Chafee, too, must pay for his Alito vote, something we will all be absorbing damage from for the next 30 years.

…I grew up in freezing cold NH and couldn’t run west fast enough…my memories of the granite state are that one didn’t talk politics, didn’t talk religion, and never, ever talked money…wealthy folks had frayed sleeves and patches right along with po’ folk…all my neighbors were conservatives but that didn’t mean they were republicans…they just c-o-n-s-e-r-v-e-d everything….it was a great place to develop an “outsider” mentality when you’re parents were musicians from Boston inviting the bindle stiffs that jumped from the trains to the sunday afternoon poetry/violin gathering…I never fit in with anybody there ever…turns you right into granite…lovely spring there…

Off topic but possibly important (at least to me). Homeland Sec agents shot and killed a driver, wounding his four passengers, near the San Ysidro border crossing on I-5 this afternoon. The guy apparently failed to heed instructions to stop (in time?) but did not otherwise appear to be armed or threatening according to witnesses. And the car was suspected of carrying illegal immigrants. Thr federals say that they only shot to disable the driver but this photo clearly shows a shot out back seat window as well. http://kfmb.com/story_graphics…..ing2.0.jpg

Meanwhile the Great Decider restated his intention today to build a triple-tier Berlin Wall along our southern frontier, patrolled wit the assistance of the military.

Welcome to America. Now die.

I need to find a way off this ride…

Blub #127: All wingnuts were celebrating as you wrote that…

Blub >”…Homeland Sec agents shot and killed a driver, wounding his four passengers, near the San Ysidro border crossing on I-5 this afternoon…”

I can`t quite put my finger on it but when I first read that story I had this sense that there was a lot left “unsaid” that would make more sense out of it – strange story

Scary !

“The future is here. It’s just not evenly distributed yet.” – William Gibson

TIME magazine lost whatever credibility it had with it’s “Man Of The Year” issue for 2001

It went to Rudolph Giuliani not because he had the most influence on events of that year, but simply because he happened to be the Mayor of NYC on September 11-Until the attack, he’d been getting slammed hard for numerous personal peccadillos and a police force that was mired in claims of abuse

I felt there should have been two people who should have gotten that designation, as they both had far more impact on events than anyone else, President Bush Jr and Usama bin Laden

I’m wondering how the new Chief Honcho felt about Klein lying outright when he denied being the author of “Primary Colors”

Oh well, I suppose a weekly column by Jayson Blair isn’t out of the question now

Welcome mauricehall 122, hope you don’t get your heart broken over the apostrophe in “it’s.” When the century turned, I gave up that battle, although it still rankles when I see it awry. Nice to know there are other purists about. Welcome!

Jane #103: long-range vision. I admire that. (no hints at all? Darnit.)

Me3 @ 103:

“Who are the 15% who strongly approve?”

‘The common clay of the New West…You know…’

darkblack, so evil!

#129

You’re probably right, but I can’t conceive of a scenario this side of a suspected truckbomber where a car on a US freeway needs to be stopped with lethal force against a driver and passengers while driving on the highway approaching an armed checkpoint, where it presumably could have been forced to stop. I have a sinking suspicion that our Great Decider issued new orders since his speech a couple of days ago, telling Homeland Sec to Abu Ghraib the border. Shoot first and cover up later.

Jamie, John K., Jane, thanks for your hard work and perseverance today. Good to be prepared, but hard not to sound prescient!

Couldn’t sleep. Got up to see if there was any Fitz news. G’nite all. I am hopefull for the mornin.

#127

Great. Just fucking great.

We’ve been here very recently, you know. It was only 8 or 9 years ago that a Hispanic kid working on a farm (goats?) was shot in the back by Marines, over near Big Bend. Nobody’s forgotten it on the border.

It’s a whole other world on the Mexican border, especially in Texas. I’ve lived there. I still have family there, so I’m down there often. I love it, but it has some, er, peculiarities that take some getting used to. You have to learn when to see things…and when not to. When to keep driving. And when to pull over, duck and hope for the best. Like that time I was driving down Bicentennial Blvd in McA, and two guys in front of me started shooting at each other.

Pull over. Duck. Hope for the best.

Do these Bushco yahoos even realize what’s going on down there?

It’s not only illegal immigrants crossing.

Something else is crossing. A lot of it. Something a lot of people on both sides of the border are gonna fight hard to keep flowing. And they’re not innocent people just crossing to go shopping in McAllen. They’re armed. Heavily. And they don’t care who they kill. If they have the cojones to kill the police chief of Nuevo Laredo in cold blood within hours of his inauguration–in broad daylight, think they’ll think twice about killing, oh, a Border Patrol officer? Think they’re going to let a wall get in their way?

I keep saying that these wankers are biting off way more than they can chew with “patrolling” that border. I don’t think they really understand what kind of a bloodbath could get started. Hell, there already is one. Nuevo Laredo is insane these days.

But don’t take my word for it:

NUEVO LAREDO – The Tamaulipas State Police Cabinet Secretary and the head of the State Police Homicide Division were ambushed as they left a restaurant in Nuevo Laredo Tuesday.

Witnesses say the men were shot with high-powered weapons.

The last high-ranking police murder in Nuevo Laredo was last year when the local police chief was gunned down. He had only been on the job for a few hours.

That was the 16th, folks. Only three days ago.

Well it’s Friday morning here in Yurp.

I’ve been up for hours … here’s a little very late night cheer for any FDL folk still awake over there so that when/if you go to bed dreaming happy dreams of frogs and marching

rwcole @ 10:27 pm (#88) – Reports today and yesterday at the BBC and CBC talk about large casualties, and an analyst on the BBC World tonight said it looked more like combat operations than terrorism. It’s been getting worse there for some time now, but of course we don’t hear much about it in the U.S.

Why doesn’t time just hire Karl Rove he already writes most of the “talking points ” that writers “coff ” like Klein all repeat ” you have to admire the Republicans abilty to stay on message”

Kak in LA @ 11:11 pm (#120) – I don’t agree with The Economist’s politics, either, but their reporting is first rate. They have a much better record when it comes to leaving my questions unanswered than most newspapers and news magazines. The also cover economics pretty well (big surprise!), which is something that most U.S. news can’t manage on their best days.

Does anybody know if Stengel is a CFR member like Klein?

[following on TRex’s game…]
More stalwart civil libertarians in the mold of Michael Hayden.

Off topic, but I few days back was an invitation to share our response to the question “Who’s your hero?”

Forgot to include ‘the youngest ambassador’ Samantha Smith.

http://www.ucando.org/ssmith.html

—-
F
i
t
z

“…Middle Class Exodus from Iraq begins”

Sorry, I screwed up tags in 146, but the link leads to a great/sad/crushing article in NYT’s about how bad it is in Iraq.

time has always been a college humor magazine — too naive to get the joke on itself

Okay, I know I’m in EPU country but here goes anyway.

Here’s my wild ass speculation on the Plame front. With all required caveats, I think Leopold is right-that Rove has been indicted and that Fitz gave him 24 hours to “put his affairs in order” (whatever THAT means). That doesn’t mean Fitz has 24 hours, though-he could take 24 weeks to announce the indictment if he so wanted. The 24 hour warning does put Rove on eggshells, though. To mix metaphors, I (and I’m sure many others) love the image of Rove twisting in the wind.

But all the silence from the administration, and speculation from Madsen, Clemons, and others leads me to believe there might be a bombshell lurking on the horizon. I think there’s another indictment in the offing. Hadley, Armitage, Luskin, Cheney-why do these names keep popping up? Assuming that Fitz did inform Abu Gonzales last Friday, could that not mean some other high government official is about to get served. Remember, even though Abu has recused himself, indicting a sitting Vice-President for perjury, obstruction, or conspiracy, would require Fitz to inform the AG. Not only would that be a courtesy, but, as we all know, Fitz covers all his bases and informing the AG of a pending indictment against the VP would give Fitz the opportunity to tell Cheney, through Abu, that the evidence against him is solid.

Cheney would come at Fitz with both guns blazing. I know Fitz is not a political animal, but informing Cheney of a possible indictment is a smart political move. Cheney’s office can’t say anything now (what if Fitz decides to hold off the indictment?), and if the indictment IS announced, Cheney can’t claim he was caught off guard. Plus, any indictment of Cheney is disastrous for Bush. Fitz serves justice, he doesn’t want to destroy the ability of the government to function. Minimizing the chaos that would result from indicting Rove AND Cheney is not just a smart move, it’s absolutely essential.

Madsen writes that Rove’s indictment will be announce today. Any other announcements pending?

In 04 campaign, Kerry folks sent Leiberman to FLorida to campaign for Kerry among the retired Jewish communities. He told the retirees – and this was reported in MSM – that Bush had been good for Israel. And he did that while traveling on Kerry’s dime. Would someone w/ access to LexisNexus dig this up? I think it might be Wapo that repoted it.

The 15% rasmussen numbers just confirmed my gut feeling that the 29% approval poll # was too high or maybe I just didn’t want to believe that 29% of americans were that insane. That makes the Feingold-Spector dustup yesterday even more frustrating…this pandering to the lunatics is disgusting.

OK it’s 8 am here on the east coast and I am not prperly caffinated yet but:

Assuming 9and I don’t) that the Wayne Madsen thing about Abu visitng the Grand Jury is true, could Gonzales be the second indictment.

I am inclined to think there is something to the 2 indictment theory.

Where I am going crazy,a short trip for me, is who the second indictment might be, Luskin or Abu? Maybe I’m still asleep and am only dreaming I am sitting in front of my computer,…Hmmm.

Need to locate large quanitites of coffee so as to allow for rational thought.

Mark from Ireland, a cara,(is that right? A cara for masc. and an chara for fem?)

Thank you for the cute froggies.

It ain’t happening today. Don’t know why, or if, or when. But I do know I’m tired of scouring for news of the “imminent” events.

I deeply hope I’m wrong about this, but it is a pervasive ‘vibe.’

IMHO, the silence from the media means that nothing will happen today. Yes, the media sucks, but they love scoops.

Jim in LA (58) validates the observation we’ve made about the media from an insider’s perspective. I must say there’s a similar challenge with some corporations as well, particular a couple that should absolutely know better being in the tech industry.

We do have some work cut out for us over the next 6 months to shift the perspective of the average news consumer, although data on television and its loss of audience suggests it’s not a far walk. If Stengel thinks Klein is the stuff that will prevent a further decline, our job’s even easier.

We should be brainstorming on how to bust through to the next level, don’t you think? Have we started to nag the nationals for coverage at yKos — like they’ll miss out if they aren’t there to cover it, or they might screw themselves with the next majority if they don’t get in early?

Just remember, in crazy Bushworld where “steady progress in Iraq” means more people getting blown up, anything can happen.

Maybe it’s just that it’s Friday, and I’m high on French Roast, I can’t help feeling giddy about Fitzmas. ;-)

Speaking of the news weaklies, the WaPo had a little tidbit yesterday in the Special Interests column that mentioned where Viveca Novak has landed:

“New Job for Time Magazine’s Novak

Viveca Novak, a former Time magazine reporter who got caught up in the CIA leak case, will be landing at Annenberg Political Fact Check. She will start in June as deputy director of the nonpartisan organization that monitors the accuracy of political ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases.

Brooks Jackson, a former CNN investigative reporter, is the director. The organization says on its Web site (http://www.factcheck.org)that it ‘accepts no funding from business corporations, labor unions, political parties, lobbying organizations or individuals. It is funded primarily by the Annenberg Foundation.’

Novak did not initially tell her editors at Time that she may have alerted Karl Rove’s lawyer in 2004 that the senior aide to President Bush had leaked information to a magazine colleague about CIA operative Valerie Plame.

She and her editors agreed that she would take a leave of absence, and earlier this year Novak took a buyout from Time.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..84_pf.html

punaise 117

Comity’s Entrail(s)

EWE! that is the funniest stretch of imagipunation
i have heard in a very L O N G time…

thanks!!!!

Morning all,

Hiring more guys like Klein, huh? You mean the cancer doesn’t want to leave the body politic voluntarily? Golly.

By the way, sweet Jeebus and Buddha and Karmic law–which we all know is balance, not retribution–please throw Karl’s fat ass in prison after he’s indicted today. There will be millions of people who will be that much nicer to their friends and neighbors as a result. Amen.

Good morning!

Fitz has kept everything under wraps and never lets anything get out. If the indictees have done the same, which I’m sure they have been, MSM wouldn’t know anything early.
In the Libby case, we may have known early because Rove wanted us to.

Great good morning to everyone. I love my job but hate the fact that I have to go to work in a few minutes. If Fitzmas comes along, please celebrate in style but leave some hors d’oeurves for us latecomers! Who is the house DJ tonight?

Congratulations FDL on the server migration. Not an easy thing to do.

Joke Line is a blight on journalism. That this new guy is oblivious to that fact makes you wonder about the dinosaurus on the hiring committee. Maybe they don’t know that nobody reads Time anymore.

The border killing last night was probably performed for the benefit of W, who was in Arizona to do a backdropped photo op about his “plan.” Murder for hire.

Here’s wishing you a Merry Fitzmas and a Happy New Year. Later.

Well, it’s a good thing Matthew Cooper is going to be there to makes sure the actual reporting is equally dishonest and agenda-driven.

Isn’t it?

Hey Christy — your household okay today? how’s the little one, doing better?

Had a question for you, or anybody else with background in law enforcement:

Would DoJ ever dispatch a detail to escort someone that might be under watch, either for fear of flight or for security? do law enforcement entities ever do this with white collar suspects at federal, state, local level?

From Capitol Hill Blue: Drop dead day
“Any way you slice it, today is “drop dead day” for Karl Rove or some web sites and blogs that have staked their reputations on a story on an indictment story that may be fact, fiction or just wishful thinking.
Writes Tim Grieve Thursday in Salon’s War Room:
If reporters in Washington are working hard on the Karl Rove indictment watch, they’ve sure got a funny way of showing it.
When Rove took questions from reporters at the American Enterprise Institute Monday, only one — the Nation’s David Corn — bothered to ask about the Valerie Plame case. Rove tossed it off with a joke, and nobody followed up.
Tony Snow got one Plamegate question at his first televised White House press briefing Tuesday. He refused to answer, and nobody pushed him on it. Helen Thomas asked Snow Wednesday if the White House is contemplating any change in Rove’s “status” in the near future. “Not that I know of,” Snow said, and the next reporter changed the subject. Somebody returned to Rove a few minutes later, and everyone in the room shared a good laugh.
As for the more immediate question? Maybe — as some expect and many more hope — there will be news to report on Friday. After all, Patrick Fitzgerald announced Scooter Libby’s indictment on a Friday back in October. But at this point in the week then, the mainstream press was full of Fitzgerald sightings and speculation. There’s nothing like that in the papers or on the networks now.
One source close to the case told us today that he hasn’t heard anything new. And we just got off the phone with Fitzgerald’s spokesman, who is, once again, not saying anything about anything. He can’t say if any sort of announcement is coming, can’t say whether the grand jury will be meeting Friday and can’t speak about any travel plans Fitzgerald may have.
Meanwhile, Truthout and reporter Jason Leopold, who started this whole Rove-watch with an as-yet unproven “scoop” seven days ago claiming Rove had already been indicted, keep saying time will prove them right and hint that today may be the day they are vindicated.
If that happens it will be the most stealth-announcement of Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s investigation. No press conference is on Friday’s schedule of events in Washington and everything seems to be business as usual.
Even the die-hards on the liberal sites, blogs and discussion boards are starting to sound nervous. On Democratic Underground, where anything published by Truthout is treated as gospel, an increasing number of clockers and watchers now say today is the drop-dead date for an indictment and, if one doesn’t come down, they want answers from Leopold and the web site that published his story….”

meta 161 –

re: GWB @ the border plus drive-by.

I agree. Quite a coincidence.

The ‘Dear Mr. President’ song by Pink asks “How do you sleep?”

Good fucking question. I really hope he hasn’t gotten a bit of rest overnight. Too excited waiting for Fitz to announce the arrival of new indictments.

9 AM east coast…

TICTOC…
‘ask not what your bell can do for you. ask what you can do for your bell. let the chimes of freedom ring.
toll, bell, toll!

hmm…the newest in Fitz SnarkSnacks — BellSouth TollCall BigHouse Cookies…

No Press Advisory yet @ http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/iln/osc/

I tend to agree. There was a lot more media hype last time. But as you might remember it was the last day of the GJ last time.

I also have the feeling that there will be more than one indictment this time around. I even have thoughts of Fitz shooting his whole wad and lasso all the cowboys.

I think Cheney’s handwritten notes on the Joe Wilson’s NYT article that snuck itself into the prosecution’s last filing was the shot over the bow. That juicy little tidbit surely will give a heads up as to who is cooperating.

I have no opinion whatsoever if ti will be today. I just have an idea that there will be two indictments unless soemthing happens at the last minute to scuttle one of them.

I am intrigued by what seems to be two deviations from SOP, the trip to Luskin’s law firm and the Gonzales visit to the GJ.

Of course, we don’t actually know if either of these events actually happened.

Any intrepid bloggers happen to recall what time the media advisory for Libby’s indictment was posted?

Thank you Frank Probst and wesgpc for your comments above re: the current and future state of nursing in this country. On the Beeb last night I heard a pol from CA (Sanchez) answering questions about immigration who said that we needed Mexican immigrants to do home nurses aide work with our elders because, “It’s not very pleasant work”. There is a huge problem in this country when a legislator has that much of a disconnect between the national reality and her own experience, and I hope she gets some pushback from the homecare agencies in her area which describes the unique skills and natures of her constituents who provide this care. At my agency we have a widely multicultural HHA team including white, african, haitian, Dominican and Russian men and women. We have retired nurses and former executives who have chosen this as their career because they love the patient contact and the care and relief they can provide to our patients and their families. The unpleasant parts Sanchez refers to are an important part of their care, considered dignity and comfort care, not something to be suffered. I was so pissed off I couldn’t sleep after hearing this idiot and she was a Democrat! It was disappointing after all the work the CA nurses Association has done, but these may not be issues they have tackled yet.

(/rant)

City Girl: thanks for the heads up on the annenberg/novak hire.

i just sent this email:

to: Editor@FactCheck.org

from yesterday’s washington post:

New Job for Time Magazine’s Novak

Viveca Novak , a former Time magazine reporter who got caught up in the CIA leak case, will be landing at Annenberg Political Fact Check. She will start in June as deputy director of the nonpartisan organization that monitors the accuracy of political ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases.

if the above report is correct, it seems to me that you would guard your credibility above all else. viveca novak found herself smack dab in the middle of a national security investigation for playing ball with “insiders.” She didn’t even bother to tell her boss.

how do you not get tainted having her on board?????? maybe you could at least wait until the plame investigation has ended?

how can i or you trust her reports: even the annenberg name can’t carry that weight.

sincerely,
JP
myrtle beach, sc

It is close to Memorial Day, so perhaps we can look forward to Fitzmoral Day today – It is well past J*s*n L**p*lds “24 Business hours” thing (No, wait maybe that was in Dog years) – time for he and Truthout to “out” his sources

WTF??…..Steve Clemmons at Washinton Note says Richard Armitage is a Fitz target

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/

larry says:
May 19th, 2006 at 6:29 am

Clemons notes that it is a “rumor”. I think it was also bandied about a couple of months ago as well.

It’s still early here on the west coast, but I’ll make a ham sandwich if Fitz wants to, you know, stay sharp.

Also, Judy, Judy, Judy claims she knew 9-11 was coming and regrets not warning anyone.

Shorter Judy: It’s all about ME!

oh, btw, last night at Amerciablog another comment inspired me to adjust the lyrics of ‘video killed the radio star’ (you know that ole buggles tune?) to the 21st century. Now it’s kind of a hommage to Joe Klein and media whores like him:

Blogosphere killed the media star!

I saw you in my paper and on TV, too
Lying awake intent on calling back to you
If I was young it didnt stop you coming through
Oh oh
They took the credit for your mistaken story
Rewritten and published with new technology
And now I understand the superblogger scene
Oh oh
I met the children
Oh oh
What did you tell them

Blogosphere killed the media star
Blogosphere killed the media star
In my mind you’re cast in tar
We cant rewind we’ve gone too far

And–

I was so happy to see how smoothly the site came up and how fast the refresh is. Thanks to Jamie who, as before, worked very hard to prevent interruptions in our rabid and piercing attention and to Jane and Christy and Pach for their focus, calm reason in the face of chaos and concern for our well-being. Beautifully done.

I haven’t projected any energy into this being “drop dead day”. It’s almost like a Hallmark holiday, created by snippets on various blogs and fed by our desire for a Fitz fix and for justice in this case. I clearly remember last time and am just as anxious as everyone else for the indictments to come, but I am like bertrand @ 153, there is no vibe anywhere for me.

With the increased violence in Afghanistan and the unrelenting horror in Iraq, we now have a burgeoning civil war in Gaza at the same time the Sufis in Islamabad are arriving at the shrine where ?100 of them were murdered last year. Condi is telling them that the US won’t have anything to do with Hamas, but that she expects them to negotiate for peace. The defense minister (on radio) said last night that things are bad and that he is extremely concerned.

palestinian conflict

New thread

bertrand,
I pulled this pdf of Fitz’s October 28 “media advisory” off his site. It looks to me as though he issued it the same day as the Press Conference, October 28.
Given as it is 9:43ish on the east coast, I am officially going into “sealed indictment” mode, and figuring until facts surface to prove otherwise that Leopold and WMR simply got it wrong.

Armitage has been a signatory to at least one of the more high profile PNAC documents, I recall seeing his name on their letter to President Bill calling for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein (late 90’s) as his containment policy was “eroding”.

One less neocon crafting his evil plans will be ok by me.

Part of the reason Fitz gave the press advisory was the end of the Grand Jury’s term. Folks figured (a) no indictments, and so let’s wind it up here, or (b) indictments galore, and here’s the list. Instead we got ( c) one now, and we’re still working.

He’s still working, and we’re still waiting. “Please Fitzmas, don’t be late . . .”

Deep, deep in EPU territory, but this seems to be the perfect “more star writers” bookend, and no one’s mentioned it as far as I can see. It’s down at the end of yesterday’s NYT article (Katharine Q. Seelye) about Stengel:

Donald Barlett and James Steele, two investigative reporters who have chronicled the vicissitudes of the American economy for Time magazine since 1997, have lost their jobs in a budget squeeze.

The reporting duo, who together won two Pulitzer Prizes and two national magazine awards, were on the payroll of Time Inc. Their jobs were among about 650 that the company has eliminated in the last six months.

John Huey, editor in chief of Time Inc., said that as he cut corporate costs, he sought unsuccessfully to place the two men on the payroll of a company magazine.

“They’re very good but very expensive, and I couldn’t get anyone to take them on their budget,” Mr. Huey said. “We’ll miss their work.”

Mr. Steele, 63, who began working with Mr. Barlett, 69, at The Philadelphia Inquirer in 1971, said: “We’ve had a great run at Time, but apparently the decision was made at the corporate level not to fund this kind of work.”

Not that Barlett and Steele are star writers or anything. Those Pulitzers are cheap, everyone knows that. (Link here, registration required.)

I know this is EPU’ed but al-Scooter should get a kudo or two for his clever remark about the ham sandwich . . .

markfromireland – The frogs are smiling! Me, too. Thanks.

Rayne at 163

I’m not sure I understand your question about “escorting”.

If you mean the motorcade to the GJ, there would not be a limo for someone in protective custody. There might be several cars, but limos are for presitge not protection.

Yes, witnesses are sometimes escorted to testify in the GJ if there is a fear for their secuity.

If there is a fear of flight, they can be arrsted on a material witness warrant and would be incarcerated and moved like a prosiner. (Not describing that b/c don’t want to tip off mafia or drug lords).

In neither case would you want to call attetntion to the move with a limo and such. The best protection is to be undetected.

Limos are for show. When high officials want to get around undected, they don’t use limos. And even if there are several cars, they don’t move in motorcade formation.

The difference betrween how Mayor Koch and Mayor Dinkins moved around NYC during their respective Adminstrations was striking.

The cops who handled their security and who were trained in some of the same programs used for the presidential protective detail (little known fact, local law enforcment can enroll their people into federal training academies such as the FBI academy at Quantio, by paying tuition for them)used to complain mightily about how much more vulnerable Dinkins was because he insisted on a large and unwieldly motorcade.

Koch would quite often travel in a fairly standard looking city issue crown victoria. looking like some middle manager, but with tinted windows. and an unmarked police car trailing a few car legths behind. Aseemingly unrelated marked PO car a few lengths ahead to break open any traffic jams.

It was a very effective security plan for quick,unubtruisive transport. For formal occasions he had a Lincoln Town Car? Cadillac? (I’m not a car person)that was recognizable and would then used a motorcade.

i’m wondering why we waste so much ether space speculating about the Rove indictment. it will either happen or it won’t. if it happens we can have a party. if it doesn’t, whoa! what kind of teeth-gnashing and temper tantrums are going to ensue?

we’ve got plenty of work to do. things to be addressed and expressed, plans to be made, worthy candidates to support and candy ass congress critters to harass. we need to keep our eyes on the prize.

the other morning bug-up-my-arse moving me to write is this: the people who keep dangling their thoughts of leaving the country in our faces on this thread sure don’t do much for the rest of us. just think about it:

“what would a patriot do?”

she sure as hell wouldn’t leave the country.

full disclosure: i am leaving the country in six weeks but it’s not because of what’s happening here. i’ve got a job in dresden. i’ll be posting from “the international desk of FDL”. me and hunter s. thompson. and i will be back. and i will vote absentee in the mean time. this country is too good to give up on.
clusterfuck and his band of dastardly pukes will be swept into the dustbin of history, just like the Nazis and the Communists they resemble. But not if we throw up our hands and run away.

How did this Times Editor get the job? What’s he he written?

“He has written for the New York Times, New Yorker and New Republic and is also the author of “You’re Too Kind: A Brief History of Flattery.” “

Ha Ha.

looseheadprop (185) — thanks for the reply. The reason for the question was the allegations of SS detail accompanying Rove to AEI speech and to the alleged Patton Boggs meeting.

Which set me to wondering if they really were SS since Rove isn’t necessarily entitled to them…or were they SS and they were assigned to Rove in spite of his non-role for the EOP because somebody wanted him, ummm, tailed…

he sounds like a hostile takeover type. rape it, bankrupt it, hype it and say bye bye.
pretty funny about Herr Klein being a “columnist” or “reporter” Maybe this new guy got his job via nepotism? he doesn’t have to know what he does, crony at work!

i try to find something at google.com and take it on your site…thanks