Continuing our walk down Traitorgate posting memory lane this morning, it continues to boggle my mind how much work we have done on this one case. And how little information has come out of the grand jury that has done the investigation on this, along with the fantastic folks at the FBI who have worked alongside Fitzgerald's legal team. Truly an exemplary performance from all of them: Fitz runs a tight ship, and his team has stood up with a substantial amount of integrity toward the grand jury process. When you compare and contrast the leaky sieve that was the Ken Starr investigation of President Clinton, you really get a good sense of who respected the process and who used it for partisan political advantage.
And before some wingnut trollery comes over to scoff at this, ask Andy McCarthy over at NRO if I'm not spot on in this comment. You either respect the legal process and conduct yourself in a manner befitting the seriousness of the matter that you are pursuing, or you should not be doing the job. And, as Judge Walton himself has said during the trial proceedings against Libby, Fitzgerald is one of the most scrupulous government attorneys with which the judge has ever worked. Considering Walton's lengthy career, that is certainly saying something.
In any case, here are another batch of links to articles that we have done here at FDL. This ought to keep the Plameaholics busy this weekend and not jonesing for more testimony. Enjoy!
– 9/13/05: Strategic story placement to take Rove's name out of the headlines.
– 9/14/05: Questions about the scope of authority of the Fitzgerald grand jury.
– 9/15/05: Congressional attempt to get Fitzgerald to expand inquiry.
– 9/16/05: A portrait of Jailhouse Judy as a sympathetic journalist. Not.
– 9/17/05: Dabbing ones watering eyes for the plight of Jailhouse Judy, Queen of All Iraq.
– 9/19/05: Why is Tenet peeved with the Administration and Judy Miller?
– 9/20/05: Judy Miller v. Jayson Blair.
– 9/20/05: Some questions about Bolton and Fleitz.
– 9/26/05: Why the interest in Judy — and what else is Novak hiding?
– 9/27/05: Fitz and the neocons: Part II.
– 9/28/05: The many faces of Bob Woodward.
– 9/29/05: Jailhouse Judy gets sprung.
– 9/30/05: It's Miller time — Judy to do Grand Jury.
– 9/30/05: How's your day, Scooter?
– 9/30/05: Froomkin nails it: reporters should expose secrets, not hang onto them.
– 9/30/05: Scope of Judy's G/J testimony.
– 9/30/05: Sussing out the web of lies…and more Judy.
– 10/1/05: The "Dear Judy" letter.
– 10/1/05: The Powertools try to run over Judy with a Wurlitzer bus.
– 10/1/05: Ante up: reading between the anonymous lawyers.
– 10/2/05: Pay sucks, but great perks and tips.
– 10/2/05: Miller and the NYTimes.
– 10/3/05: The leak of the Aspens letter.
– 10/3/05: Judy starts a war within the NYTimes, too.
– 10/3/05: Judy returns to the NYTimes to a miniscule crowd of paid greeters well-wishers.
– 10/4/05: Scooter, you are so screwed.
– 10/4/05: The Harriet Miers life raft for Hurricane Patrick.
– 10/5/05: Inner workings of a Grand Jury. (This one is my very first Traitorgate post. And I was right yesterday, Teddy — my first post was on Harriet Miers.)
– 10/5/05: Be afraid. (Or Cheney cut out of the loop.)
– 10/5/05. Oh happy day.
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Yay reruns!
Go get em, Fitz!
Looking back at all these posts, I can’t help but wonder if Smith and Hamsher are the new Woodward and Burnstein.
PSA – new Tornado warning for Vero Beach Florida and 10 miles south of.
Christy. Thanks for everything you do, especially the posts that highlight what’s important among the sea of details that can drown the non-Plamologists.
Simplifying this whole morass helps maintain interest and attract attention to this historically critical topic.
The major hope here is that Cheney, Rove and Bush are somehow, sooner or later, taken to task for their obvious involement in the Libby mess. I doubt I am alone on this.
Such a lovely pic of Fitz.
Look, everybody, I’ve got a major beef.
Please stop the “Scooter” business.
HIS NAME IS IRVING.
Do you long to send the creep round the bend faster than the Roadrunner of speed?
THEN CALL HIM BY HIS RIGHT NAME!!
twolf1 @ 4
We ‘in the alley’ do not like tornadoes. I lived for more than ten years in the Gainesville area. There surely can be nasty weather in Florida too.
Well, and another thing about Traitorgate vs. Monicagate: one matters to the country and the rule of law, and one so completely didn’t.
The Rude Pundit did a wonderful, um, earthy tribute to Molly Ivins. Among the tidbits he quotes is from Molly on Fox news in the midst of the Lewinsky of it all:
Just as the original “gate” – the Water one, remember? – encapsulated the paranoia and lawlessness of Richard Nixon, this episode is turning out to beautifully (if not succinctly) represent the win at all costs, truth be damned machinations of Bush, Cheney, and, in large part, the modern Republican party.
It’s almost like the fistulated cows that are used in agriculture research – this trial is a view into the underbelly of the Bush-Cheney administration, and since Fitzgerald opened them up, there’s not much they can do while the world strolls over and takes a peek.
So thanks so much, Christy, Marcy, & Jane, for the diligence and outrage that all of you FDLers bring to this study.
Only 717 more days of these criminals in power. Not that I’m counting.
http://www.RawStory.com banner:
Senator Clinton heckled at DNC winter meeting: Developing…
David Ehrenstein @
7
David, I can’t quite agree with this. The name a person receives at birth is not their doing and they don’t deserve ridicule for it. I know many people who suffer with the names their parents saddled them with. However, I have no problem ridiculing people for the names they chose for themselves.
‘Scooter’? ‘SCOOTER’???!!! Hooooooooohoooooo, hahahahahahahah, *snurk*, haa!
Irving Lewis (”Scooter”) Libby Jr., even.
Someone said something SO chilling in a prev note, to the effect that what was most worrisome is that we seem to be in a race between justice and war.
C’mon Justice!
Gates says U.S. not planning for war with Iran
MSNBC News Services
Updated: 2 hours, 16 minutes ago
Another Bush boy telling the truth. Gates. Of Iran-Contra infamy.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 14
Another member of the Aspen Institute group.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 14
The plans are complete, not in ‘planning’ stage anymore.
According to The Artist Formerly Known As Bowtie Tucker, Fitz is “a lunatic running around destroying peoples’ lives for no good reason.”
Right, you lame-assed American Idol Pundit Contestant.
_
Scrupulous but SLOW. A snail was seen passing him about two years ago.
ChickenMan @ 3
Just way better looking. *g*
Oklahoma kiddo @ 14
A head-fake designed to take us off the dribble and to the hole.
???
Sen. Clinton: We must not permit Iran to acquire nuclear weapons
Clinton spoke at a Manhattan dinner held by the largest pro-Israel lobbying group in the U.S., the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/821284.html
BobbG at 18 — Did he disclose that his father is one of Libby’s foremost fundraisers for his defense fund? No? Hmmmm…I think we should all “>e-mail MSNBC about this non-disclosure of conflict of interest. Because that just screams unethical shilling to me.
punaise @ 10
Northern Virginia blogger Kenton Ngo has been liveblogging some of the meeting (with official blogger credentials!), if you want more on-the-scene perspective.
Redshift @ 24
thanks.
I so wanted to be there liveblogging the DNC meeting today, but, alas, The Peanut has a cold and momma stayed home instead. I’m so glad that some other folks were able to make it. Can’t wait to read their accounts. :)
Christy Hardin Smith @ 23
Christy, I keep forgetting that. Yeah, the other day when he said that, he prefaced it with this irascible eye-rolling crap, saying “I hate this trial…”
Yeah, he’s an obvious prop player.
_
That 9-16-2005 one is hilarious:
Locked in the Alexandria Detention Center for the past 11 weeks, New York Times reporter Judith Miller is cut off from the world. She has no Internet access and precious little opportunity to view CNN. Her phone calls are limited, friends say. Her daily newspaper arrives a day late.
JANE: Yeah, and her two best friends are a gal named Pudge and a Hefty bag full of pruno. Wait while I break out the world’s smallest violin. The article goes on to describe her “elite” visitors, a “who’s who of friends, supporters and Washington and New York luminaries”:
John R. Bolton, President Bush’s new ambassador to the United Nations, former “NBC Nightly News” anchor Tom Brokaw and former senator Robert J. Dole (R-Kan.). Gonzalo Marroquin, president of the Inter-American Press Society and director of the Guatemalan daily Prensa Libre has been by.
JANE: That’s it? That’s your “luminaries?” Wow, her struggle for First Amendment freedom really isn’t bringing out the big guns, is it? Some deranged streetcorner drunk with a sandwich board and a shower cap screaming about John 3:16 and fluoridated water could draw bigger names than that.
(1) We should call Libby whatever he wants to be called, whether it is Scooter or Lewis or whatever. At my son’s elementary school they teach that one way we show basic “respect” for another human being is to call them what they want to be called. That’s why Bush looked like such a twerp during the SOTU when he referred to the “Democrat Party” during this very formal address and during the very portion of the speech when he was supposedly trying to reach out to cross the partisan divide.
(2) Christy is insightful to shine the spotlight on Libby’s refusal to state his full name to detectives. He could have just said, “My full name is Irving Lewis Libby, but I prefer to be called Lewis or just Scooter.” But by refusing to say his full name, he demonstrated his complete and utter hubris.
And I have often thought (and hoped) that it would be the hubris of the Bush/Cheney administration that would cause and accelerate their eventual downfall. They were/are so drunk with power, having controlled all three branches of government and most of the press and punditocracy. As others have said, Libby had no reason to believe that this would be a real investigation (under Ashcroft) and that Judy Miller and the other press sycophants would risk the “access” privileges that kept them on such a short leash.
This anecdote amply illustrates this fatal hubris.
flatus @ 19
He’s a federal prosecutor, being careful is what he does. He’s also been a bit busy lately. It is ironic that he is now the peg we are pinning our hopes on since our President is a homicidal maniac, our elected representatives are owned by Big Bizness, our voting system is corrupted, Congress will not perform its function of oversight and our press is a tool.
Shouldn’t we at least attempt to hold the fort until the FitzCavalry arrives?
From Haaretz:
And now for Iran
By Joschka Fischer
But air strikes on Iran, which America may see as a military solution, would not make Iraq safer; they would achieve exactly the opposite. Nor would the region as a whole be stabilized; on the contrary, it would be plunged into an abyss. And the dream of “regime change” in Tehran would not come true, either; rather, Iran’s democratic opposition would pay a high price, and the theocratic regime would only become stronger.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 23
Christy, do you have a link to the Scooter defence donors?
Referring to previous thread:
Shez @ 100, yep. Joe Wilson’s op-ed gave the Black House the perfect opportunity to bring down Brewster and Jennings. Perhaps that’s why Wilson was sent. If/when he spoke up as it was assumed he would, his wife would be outed but things would quiet down quickly after the damage was done because the BH had the AG and the media. The best laid plans of rats and men….
It’s time for Tenet to take some tarnish off his Freedom Medal and tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help him God.
Drowsy @ 101, I believe the FBI can rely on notes and memory and does not have to have a recording of interviews. If true, I don’t like it.
Cheney Is In The CIA’s Sites
http://www.worldreports.org
CHENEY BRIBES OFFICIALS TO ABORT WANTA PAYMENT
INVESTIGATORS, CIA ‘WHITE HATS’ CONFIRM BRIBERY
Friday 2 February 2007 12:53
CODES WERE READY FOR PAYMENT THURSDAY 1ST FEBRUARY
BRIBERY INFORMATION COMES FROM INSIDE WHITE HOUSE COMPOUND
CHENEY COUNTERMANDED PRESIDENT BUSH’S EXPLICIT INSTRUCTIONS
CONDOLEEZA RICE’S UNDERTAKINGS TO THE ICJ CIRCUMVENTED BY CHENEY
CRISIS ESCALATES AS THE OFFICIAL CLEPTOCRACY AGAIN MISUSES WANTA’S FUNDS
By Christopher Story FRSA, Editor and Publisher, International Currency Review, World Reports Limited, London and New York: http://www.worldreports.org. Press CLICK HERE and the ARCHIVE Button on the http://www.worldreports.org Home Page for Wanta Crisis reports since April 2006.
The Vice President of the United States, Richard Cheney, against whom a subpoena issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is outstanding and whose immunity from its consequences has not been lifted, bribed one of more officials associated with the US Treasury Thursday or earlier this week, to stall the Wanta Settlement payment.
Monies were actually transferred into the bank account(s) of the bribed officials, to stop the Wanta Settlement, according to investigators and CIA ‘white hat’ sources.
PRESIDENT BUSH SIGNS PAYMENT PAPERS AT BANK OF NEW YORK
On Wednesday 31st January, President George W. Bush Jr. appeared at the offices of Bank of New York, in New York City, where he personally signed off the documents authorising the $4.5 trillion payment to be made to the securities account of Ambassador Leo Wanta’s AmeriTrust Groupe, Inc. He did this in accordance with his undertaking not to impede the Wanta Settlement any further, given to the ICJ by Ms Condoleeza Rice, as mentioned in our previous report.
But the documents were not executed via US Treasury compliance, which was irregular. As a consequence, the system was short-circuited for improper off-balance sheet and other purposes, enabling Cheney and his corrupt associates to access the funds in order to generate yet further off-balance sheet, untaxed accruals using the Ambassador’s money without Wanta’s permission.
Specifically, on Thursday 1st February, Cheney corruptly negated the authority of US Treasury compliance staff, preventing them from activating the prearranged banking codes and remitting the $4.5 trillion at last to the Ambassador’s securities account.
CHENEY COUNTERMANDS EXPLICIT INSTRUCTIONS OF THE PRESIDENT
In so doing, he countermanded the signed bank instructions of the President of the United States himself, representing an act of treason which probably has no historical precedent. This arrogant man appears to be running rings round President Bush Jr., who may or may not realise that Cheney, like Paulson, has been thumbing his nose at the White House for his own personal gain.
Prior to the arrest of US Treasury Secretary Paulson, we predicted that his arrogance would lead to a dramatic fall: and this duly happened. We now predict that Vice President Richard Cheney is heading for an even more humiliating stumble, and, having delayed his resignation, may find that his official colleagues turn sharply against him.
INVESTIGATORS AND ‘WHITE HATS’ FURIOUS AT THIS FURTHER ABUSE
Furious investigators have informed the Ambassador and Michael C. Cottrell, M.S., the Executive Vice President and Treasurer of AmeriTrust Groupe, Inc, that – and we quote – ‘Cheney bribed somebody in the Treasury not to make the payment’. This statement was separately confirmed by ‘white hat’ sources at the CIA, Langley. The sources added: ‘Cheney et al tied the money up to work it through the weekend’.
It is believed that these rogue operatives knew that Mr Cottrell was deliberately refraining from authorising any further Internet postings this week, given his acceptance at face value of the ‘line’ that payment was to be completed by Friday 2nd February. Such assurances can no more be relied upon than official signatures on US documents, as the whole world now knows.
The $4.5 trillion tagged and earmarked for the Ambassador and AmeriTrust Groupe, Inc, remains located at Bank of New York (as previously reported). Banking codes are normally valid for 48 hours, but on this occasion the period was extended: it expired automatically at midnight Eastern Standard Time on Thursday 1st February. After midnight on the date of expiry, the old codes cannot be activated and new codes must be issued for the following week……Con’t
HotFlash at 32 — No one has a link to the donors. But Tucker’s dad was one of the first people on the Board of the Scoter Defense Fund. You can find it on the Libby Defense Fund website. SIGH Why there has been so litle written about this in the corporate press is an irritating mystery…but Tucker ought to be forced to be UP FRONT about his conflict of interest in this.
In fact — if anyone can pull up a string of MSNBC and NBC News e-mail addresses and contact information, I’d be more than happy to highlight Tucker’s mendacity in my next post. (I’m in the middle of something at the moment, or I’d find them myself. But if someone has the time, I’ve love to pass the information around on this.)
I haven’t looked much at the Aspen Institute that people have been talking about today. When I was researching the backgrounds of the “experts” who were in the working groups of the Iraq Study Group, I was struck how many of them had passed through the same half dozen major think tanks and institutes. I came away with the idea that we have a foreign policy class which cycles back and forth between government (according to which party controls the Administration) and one or another of the Establishment think tanks. The result is an institutionalization and fossilization of thinking, even when the original thinking wasn’t very good.
Thank you for another outstanding photo of Fitzgerald. For my superhero collection, posted on my study wall where I can look to them for inspiration. Ambassador Wilson is front and center.
The link in the prior thread to the Aspen Club for Neocolonial ME Reconstruction is very telling.
How can we restructure ME without opposition?
Members include Madeline Albright, Diane Feinstein, Jane Harmon, Judy Miller.
As I gaze into my usually infallible crystal ball, I see………. VP Cheney having a health setback requiring him to regretfully step aside in order to spend the remainder of his days in the bossom of his family. Senator John McCain parlays his otherwise inexplicable support for the war escalation into being appointed Cheney’s replacement for the remainder of the term, automatically positioning himself as the undisputed odds-on choice for the GOP 2008 presidential nominee.
What else does Swami see? It doesn’t work. Democrats rule the roost for at least two generations until the collective memory of Americans fade and they foolishly entrust the Repub party for another date with disaster. (Why not “Repub party?” They call us the “Democrat Party.”)
twolf1 @ 16
They didn’t plan for Iraq. Why would they plan for Iran?
Letters to the msnbc website:
letters@msnbc.com
Newsweek editorial questions:
WebEditors@newsweek.com
Comments and feedback about msnbc dot com:
GeneralComments@feedback.msnbc.com
Christy,
The NBC News and MSNBC contact info is all here By host, by show, by dept, by whatever, including links to local affiliates.
Another, more ominous photo of Patrick Fitzgerald surfaces.
One scary dude.
_
Producers, anchors, and correspondents:
viewerservices@msnbc.com
Meet the Press
MTP@NBC.com
Dateline@NBC.com
What finally killed off the news cycle was the opening of the Scooter Libby trial. Libby, as most of us are aware, is on trial over the leak to journalists of the name Valerie Plame. People who have followed the investigation since the beginning say that it is big news, bigger than just whether an aide to the president had a case of loose lips.
Perhaps, but the bigger news is how the trial is being covered.
One of the people sitting in the press gallery is a Michigan native named Marcy Wheeler. Wheeler recently published a book on the investigation, and is covering the trial as a blogger.
There is nothing particularly novel about that anymore. People have been covering news (but mostly the media) for years. The remarkable thing is that she is covering it live, and posting witness testimony (and the fact that right now, as I write this, that she is at lunch), from the press gallery. That means, at firedoglake.com, you can instantly learn if one of the witnesses drops a particularly damning bombshell.
http://www.themorningsun.com/s…..n001.shtml
Christy (35) — just ask us to SPOTLIGHT the next post and we’ll take care of it for you.
;-)
Andrew (33) — has there been any firm, validated reporting on Treasury Secretary Paulson’s alleged arrest? Would love to take this report as valid — would not be a bit surprised given the ca. 2002-2003 consideration by EU gov’t of indicting Cheney on corruption charges — but there needs to be more and better reporting. We live in a time filled with many dark parties working psyops on us, must be sure we are following the truth.
BobbyG @ 45
So funny! They fuzzed out the bird!
Nightly News w Brian Wms
Nightly@NBC.com
Weekend today:
WT@nbc.com
Today@NBC.com
The Libby Legal Defense Trust site is here:
http://www.scooterlibby.com/
Donors aren’t listed but members of the Advisory Committee are including Richard Carlson, Tucker’s father.
I was thinking if Cheney happened to die of heart complications…..the good news is that he is already lying in state.
Ken Star has a new job. I believe he is now the counsel for Blackwater, USA. There’s a man with integrity.
KO
countdown@msnbc.com
abramsreport@msnbc.com
hardball@msnbc.com
ccmask @ 50
Hee Hee!!!
Scarborough:
joe@msnbc.com
Imus@msnbc.com
msnbcinvestigates@msnbc.com
Hugh – iirc, in the recent lobby reform legislation AIPAC and the Aspen Inst. were the only “organizations” allowed to remain exempt from new law. Will look for links a bit later on.
Is anyone in contact with our old friend lotus? Have you heard if she is alright or nay? New Smyrna Beach was in the path of this mornings storms.
Per MSNBC, I think it’s Dan Abrams who is Tuckers Boss, fyi.
ccmask — wow, cool article, thanks for that link!! The news cycle is definitely done; I can’t see the value in getting my local newspaper for this reason, the news is 1-2 days old by the time I get it. It’s really only a newsprint-wrapper around advertising flyers; why should I pay someone to give me their advertisements?
And yes, lying in state. Lying like a rug. Supine, flat out, lying.
headliners@msnbc.com
in general:
viewerservices@msnbc.com
Coffee break? :)
Francis Fukuyama is on the steering committee for Libby Legal Defense Trust.
thank you Sally @ 32
Hugh @ 38
I think that is the kindest construction. How about, they are intended to provide continuity, and the actual government is only required as a figurehead?
I live in a democracy that retains a figurehead monarch for old times sake (Canada). We love our Queen, but she just reads the speeches they hand her and launches the occasional ship.
I think you live in an oligarchy that retains a figurehead elected government for appearances’ sake. These think tanks are governing and have been for decades.
Are there any presidential contenders from either party who would work hard at arriving at a fair and just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
Your welcome Rayne. Here is another article that is a good read. I thought Christy might enjoy it.
New Priorities, Not New Prosecutors
What the Justice Department really needs
snip
while a president may appoint federal prosecutors who share his priorities as previously appointed U.S. attorneys’ terms expire, it’s rare that a U.S. attorney is dismissed without cause, much less a half dozen or more of them at the same time.
http://www.reason.com/news/show/118446.html
linked thru http://blog.kir.com/
Hugh @ 51
I did not know! So many roots are connected. Anybody up for a DC geneology?
Oklahoma kiddo @
60
Dennis Kucinich
Hugh – iirc, in the recent lobby reform legislation AIPAC and the Aspen Inst. were the only “organizations” allowed to remain exempt from new law. Will look for links a bit later on.
Is anyone in contact with our old friend l**us? Have you heard if she is alright or nay? New Smyrna Beach was in the path of this mornings storms.
Per MSNBC, I think it’s Dan Abrams who is Tuckers Boss, fyi.
WASHINGTON – The Bush administration will ask for another $100 billion for military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan this year and seek $145 billion for 2008, a senior administration official said Friday.
Ms. Hardin, Thank you for all the hours you spent at court and posting your account. jean
mc @
19
Is that a cross between Smith and Hawkins and Smith and Wesson?
AIPAC and the DLC just “are”. We’ll never be rid of them.
Best laugh of the day thus far.
Reading about the Libby trial this week, the question I keep asking myself is, why on earth did Libby go to trial? He’s been busted three ways to Sunday, and yet he’s spending millions to sit in a federal courthouse and pretend he’s in the right. (Granted, this is only the prosecution’s side of the story, innocent until proven guilty, etc…)
And then there’s this.
I hate like hell to link to the NYPost (Bird cage liner, ok. Reading material? Not so much.)
What a disconnect.
BobbyG @ 70
Ha, ha, ha! Jinx, you owe me a coke.
OK kiddo (57) — I’d read that somewhere about Fukuyama.
Fukuyama is one of those guys cut from the same cloth as Addington. (And I would bet good money from the same cloth as my father, much to my chagrin.)
There’s a 2-hour long BookTV program that interviews Fukuyama in depth. I came away feeling like I knew this guy, so much like my dad. He’s very competent at what he does, very technically gifted, but he is a geek of the first water, not the kind of guy who is well-rounded, does not excel at social stuff. Everything seems so very black-and-white to him; not absolutist, but very defined in his world.
What I found telling, at least to my perspective, is his take on antique furniture. He admired Chippendale furniture so much (I’m pretty sure it was Chippendale), that he learned wood working in order to create some himself. And he’s done a creditable job, made stuff that I would not be ashamed to have in my home. That’s a huge investment of time, materials, equipment to learn and master, no understatment.
But to someone like me, I found it amazing that he could make such a substitution. If you really want Chippendale, it may be incredibly expensive, but it’s the real thing, buy it. Or buy something of quality in Chippendale-style.
I guess it just didn’t compute for me, this ready substitution. In some ways it’s a commentary about the way he sees the world, and in some ways a commentary about why he bailed out on the PNAC’s line about Iraq. The neo-cons weren’t willing to master the craft of nation building through investment, weren’t willing to learn to execute properly; it’s not unlike learning to build Chippendale furniture. But there is no substitute for Chippendale; this is where Fukuyama goes wrong, since democracy, like Chippendale, is organic and happens on its own and is valued for its incomparable singularity.
Weird…I guess I didn’t know I had that bit bottled up in me about Fukuyama. I’ve been trying to make sense of the man after that BookTV program and reading two of his books.
The Libby Trust website says you can sign up for email updates from them. That might be interesting…
*xyz at 74 — Thus far, a lot of pleas for money and the occasional press update. Nothing special. Perhaps you have to actually give them some money to get the good stuff…but no thanks.
HotFlash @
63
OK, so Twinkletoes Carlton’s daddy, Bettin’ Bill Bennett — didn’t he walk in to the courtroom wih Judyjudyjudy? — and Ed Meese, omg.
Senator Schumer was peddling his new book on Charlie Rose last night. He mentioned that in his recruiting of candidates with Rahm that anti choice candidates are acceptable now, in my party.
Sort of like having the Birthday boy run in and kick over the punchbowl. He also mentioned how badly Democrats just want to win. Just confirms, to me, how much he is willing to sell out any standards in order to win. He says his book is part of the search for an eight word message for Dems. The guy is just trying to be Karl Rove, imo.
HotFlash — No, Judy’s attorney is Bill Bennett’s brother — Bob Bennett who, among other high profile clients, represented Pres. Clinton during the impeachment mess.
Eureka at 77 — Well, things have worked out awfully well for Rove, haven’t they? I mean, he is a beloved and well-trusted GOP insider that no one would ever think would stab them in the back with his high standards of ethics and conduct…oh, wait. Never mind.
*g*
Mutant Poodle @ 9
Now I’m not sure what I’m more scared of. The fistulated cows, or topless Danny Bonnaduce.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 78
Right, I remember now. Can’t figure out why People mag and Soap Opera Weekly aren’t all over this stuff, it’s more convoluted and way more fun.
egregious @
52
m
Floyd’s son
delete, he’s gotten a promotion
Scarborough: Bush willing to take his party over a cliff to prove his point
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16942296/
Rove is to Bush as was H.R. Haldeman to Nixon.
Dipping into the links. Christy, you and Jane and FiredogLake are national treasures.
Rayne 73
“But there is no substitute for Chippendale; this is where Fukuyama goes wrong, since democracy, like Chippendale, is organic and happens on its own and is valued for its incomparable singularity.”
What a very interesting insight. Thank you for sharing that.
There are two backing stabbing Demos. One is Joe Lieberman.
BobbyG @ 71
I can’t help myself. Knowing Podhoretz is dipping his toe in the lake to see what us dirty fuckin’ hippies have to say.
Let me quote him here;
‘Maybe that’s because the case against Scooter Libby is so astoundingly petty that arguing over it is like arguing over scraps.’
Scraps.
They are the scraps of our constitution, sir.
And we are trying to see justice done so that we can go about restoring that constitution,which your President declared to be,”Just a Goddamn piece of paper”.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 82
I’ve got an issue with Scarborough:
At some point, GOP senators and congressmen need to understand that this war is no longer a battle between Republican war heroes and Democratic 60s hippie freaks.
This war was always promoted by Republican draft dodgers and chickenhawks, and opposed by people with common sense and decency.
People post it regularly, but the site meter tells an interesting tale.
I am so impressed with you guys. What you have built in two short years is nothing less than phenomenal.
HotFlash @ 61
Interesting, HotFlash. I have a friend in Toronto who basically says the same thing. He’s also quite adamant that the US needs to have a viable 3-4 party system before we can quit being as dysfunctional as we accuse our neighbors of being.
I don’t disagree with my Toronto friend at all and, in fact, I would LOVE to see a system where we have at least 3-4 viable parties. There are very few other “democratic” countries (if any) I know of that don’t have such a system.
But then again, are those countries owned lock, stock and barrel by corporate interests? Or perhaps that is exactly the point. Impossible to accomplish such a feat if there are that many parties involved.
Hmmmmm
HotFlash @ 47
Pathetic. They pixellated an already pixellated thing.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 87
No both are Joe Lieberman. He is Janus.
I don’t want to become a single issue voter but a womans right is awfully sacred to this man.
Is nothing other than “winning” sacred to Senator Schumer?
He also had a suggestion for solving the immigration problem that included national ID’s with retinal verification for everyone.
I am thinking about getting upset…(ht okk)
Oklahoma kiddo @ 58
Defending THE neo-con’s neo-con while he writes op ed pieces in the UK castigating neo-cons. That’s what I call playing both sides of the fence.
The Insanity Defense
Clarice Feldman’s “live blogging” is certifiable.
A small sampling of clips/highlights from our favorite American Thunker holding court yesterday at JustOneMinute.
Were you at the trial today?
No–there was a spot available but I figured it would be boring today and I still have to figure out what keeps knocking out my wireless connection.
Dishing on fellow bloggers and NPR:
Jeralyn Merritt has been hands-down the most conflicted person covering this case, since she is both a Bush-bashing progressive and a defense lawyer with no natural affinity to prosecutors. Jeralyn is a very pleasant, good natured person used to hearing 2 sides of things.
EW has to me the determined mien of an old time prohibitionist. I appreciate her stenography..the rest not so much.
much more
I might have to charge her with a BUI. A laptop, a bed, blogging, Kool-aid and Stoli = a very dangerous combination.
Richmond @ 93
minus the J
Eureka Springs, AR @ 94
NY dems have to get rid of Schumer -and NYC’s rethug mayor. What is it with these guys? They now have a great governor.
Rayne @ 73
That is weird, for exactly the reasons you say. I kind of admire someone trying to learn a skill that obsessively; like, trying to learn to paint in an Old Master style. But like you say, ain’t no substitute for the originals.
Eureka Springs, AR @ 94
There are what, 435 reps and 100 senators, of whom approx 34 are up for re-election in any election year. And Chuck can’t find 470 Dems who believe in a woman’s right to choose? Where is he looking?
ChickenMan @ 3
yep!
punaise @ 97
*g* – well actually, belly deep, coffee spilling laugh!
Does the SLDF advisory committee hold a seance to get J Kirkpatrick’s input?
Basically he said (more than once) he was looking for personality more than anything.
Eureka Springs, AR @ 104
And just how, exactly, would Chuck Schumer know it if he saw it?
Sparkles (99) — yeah, I can understand the concept of wanting to fully understand the artistry and craftsmanship of people like Leonardo da Vinci and Jefferson. But actually creating their works requires more than skilled draftsmanship, whether in science or politics.
It’s the failed argument that right-wing twit (whose name escapes me) made this past week, that right-wingers should encourage their children in the arts because there aren’t any rightists in the arts truly influencing our culture.
That’s because it takes an open mind to be truly creative, not a dogmatic and closed one.
Fukuyama attempts art and craft because he admires it, yet is blind to the fact that he cannot really replicate art and craft.
Eureka Springs, AR @ 104
So typical Dem. R’s go for loyalty and get a tight machine, currently being used exclusively for harvesting. Dems go for ‘charisma’ and get some guy who can’t keep his charisma in his pants. Ay carumba!
Rayne @ 106
Yeah. Notice how it’s always the avant garde in art that is remembered 100, 200, 500 years later – not the guys who were being conservative and old-fashioned. Those guys might make it as craftsmen, but not artists.
David Ehrenstein @
7
And anyone wanna take bets on whether he calls himself “Scooter” so his high-powered WASP-y conservative friends don’t have to be reminded all the time that he’s Jewish?
707! thank you…)
Sparkles the Iguana @
108
Not so sure about that. Bach was considered dreadfully old-fashioned in his day.
Christy Hardin Smith @
22
Don’t forget to CC Media Matters, too:
mm-tips@mediamatters.org
So did they give Irving the first count of lieing to the FBI (Full name? Scooter Libby.) a mulligan?
Major loophole in Democrats ethics bill.
As promised above, here is a link to AIPAC and Aspen Institutes exemptions. via rawstory.
Phoenix Woman @ 111
Thanks. I just copied them on the gripe letter I sent all over MSNBC.
_
Maybe this is why he goes by Scooter . . .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U077BiDMmPE
montag @ 105
he’d create people in his mind who have personality, then pretend they are real people, until someone calls him out on the fact that they are fictitious. Then, he’ll act like he was saying they were fictitious all along. Just like the Bailey family (who he “cleverly” changes to have a different ethnically-inspired name wherever he’s speaking. Is it just me, or is that pandering to a pathetic extreme?)
(EPU’d)
I’m curious – What was the “second stream” referred to in JM’s testimony?
Libby’s sister, Sandra Libby, is married to John Rendon. He runs the Rendon Group, a public relations firm that played a major role in leading the U.S. into war through its work for Ahmed Chalabi and his Iraqi National Congress. Could the “second stream” have been referring to Feith, the OSP, Chalabi, the INC, etc? The channel the CIA was being shut out of the loop from?
Or was Libby just lieing to JM and using her by suggesting there was much harder intel in the part of the NIE supposedly not declassified?
E&P: Libby Trial for Dummies
One thing I have been wondering about this trial and the great fun it is to follow. Is it a big diversionary tactic from the real story?
I know Wayne Masden is often considered a crackpot by many readers here but often I think he is dismissed just because he makes too much sense and exposes the world for what it really may be. He suggested that Plame’s outing was in fact motivated by shutting down the nuclear counter proliferation activities that were being undertaken by Brewster Jennings because they were getting too close to some embarassing if not criminal activities of the adminsitration and their “friends”.
The more cynical of us would say that the Libby trial is a perfect diversionary tactic to cause us not to consider who benefits from the outing of Brewster Jennings and the exposure of its work in investigating the nuclear proliferation/weapons trade underworld!
Think about this as you read the next sintillating installment of the Libby affair. The age old question should be asked … who benefits from this trial and the attention it draws?
M
Mike @120
As the prosecutors among the FDL regulars have repeatedly explained, prosecutors – particularly of Fitz’s calliber – build their cases one brick at a time. Rather than try initially to charge high ranking officials of the Executive branch of government of conspiring to out a covert CIA agent and the organization that had been a front for her and others (to monitor and prevent WMD proliferations), Fitz has started with something that may well lead to other charges, i.e. perjury and obstruction of the investigation into the more serious charges.
I think you’ll notice if you are carefully following the testimony – that there are significant pieces of information coming to light that, if Libby is convicted, could well support a conspiracy charge.
ccmask @ 50
Autopsy, DNA test, and a wooden chopstick soaked in garlic juice, wrapped in silver wire, and shoved through the remains of his heart. That’s what I want when he keels over.
More like Schumer wants malleable personalities. Those he can bend to the DLC ideal. Not too much personality, or they could end up giving them the finger. Much like Webb and Tester have, really. *grins* There is much to be said for truly strong and sure sense of self. Both those men do know that too.
stingray @ 118
Very interesting!
Libby’s sister, Sandra Libby, is married to John Rendon. He runs the Rendon Group, a public relations firm that played a major role in leading the U.S. into war through its work for Ahmed Chalabi and his Iraqi National Congress.
Isn’t it interesting that the Aspen Institute seems to link all the major players?
Cheney, Libby, Miller, Chalabi – all members of the Aspen Institute – and connected through Chalabi to the unreliable ‘Curveball.’
Here’s a link to a WaPo article that depicts Miller as a ‘liason’ on the ground in Iraq between the Army and Ahmed Chalabi:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..55_pf.html
One of the Money Sections in the article:
“But Miller’s work stood out. She relied on a collection of Iraqi defectors whose information proved faulty and whose credibility in many cases was suspect. And during the war, when other newspeople and experts began realizing that the lack of evidence of Iraq’s WMD was likely an indicator that there was no WMD, Miller held out longer and continued to write from the field as if they would be found any day.
“In early 2003, as the war began, Miller was embedded with one of the U.S. Army teams whose sole task was to find a WMD. The unit was called Mobile Exploitation Team Alpha, and Miller played a strangely involved role in it, according to Washington Post reports of that time.
“She appeared to act as a liaison of sorts between the Army and Ahmed Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress, one of the exiles she had known for several years, and whose veracity on Iraq’s weapons turned out to be suspect.
“Several military personnel involved with the weapons hunt told The Washington Post two years ago that they felt Miller had virtually hijacked the team.”
—
So, what are the chances that the ’second stream’ of Intel was coming to the Aspen-Cluster via:
‘Curveball’ who gave his frightening, but contrived, WMD intel to Chalabi.
Chalabi then passes it on to Cheney, Libby and Miller through the Aspen Institute.
Cheney vettes ‘his’ info through OSP and WHIG, by-passing the national intelligence establishment.
When it comes time to make the case for War, Cheney:
- disparages Wilson’s Niger Report (’bad methodology’,) while
- using his ’second stream’ intel to promote the Niger story to CAUSUS BELLI for the SOTU
Bush and Cheney were SO SURE Saddam had WMDs that all they were looking for back in January of ‘03 was a ‘pretext’ for pre-emptive War.
They had the Brits in bed with them on the Niger story.
All Cheney had to do was to keep any internal dissent on the Niger story suppressed, and they were home free to invade Iraq, and have Bush fly over for ‘congratulatory’ pictures taken standing by the centerfuges.
So, Cheney gambled on the Aspen-Cluster to give him the pretext for an ‘immoral’ War of Choice.
Once it failed due to NO WMDs, he didn’t get to re-write history like a ‘victor’ does. Instead, he now had to defend his actions against his critics – like Joe Wilson, who KNEW the Niger claim was FALSE.
Cheney chose to ‘deal’ with Wilson by orchestrating a LEAK CAMPAIGN – off the record – to discredit Wilson with a charge of *nepotism* based on his wife having something to do with him going on the trip to Niger.
When Cheney sent his minions out to LEAK, they were doing so with the belief that they were completely protected by the Press’ Confidentiality of Sources.
And then Rove and Libby, in the very act of sliming a GOOD man’s integrity with a low-blow, ‘hay-maker’ shot, HIT a real, live covert CIA Agent.
Fitz, with the help of the Supremes, took down the Confidential Source Shields and what did he find? Rove and Libby cowering with a list of 6 reporters, and carefully coordinated talking points intended to point the blame for the 16 Words at the CIA and (unfairly) destroy the reputation of a good man.
Could it be something like that? Or, am I just dreaming?
presque vu @
116
Oh yeah, the 142nd fastest gun in the West!
radiofreewill at 126 says:
Isn’t it interesting that the Aspen Institute seems to link all the major players?
Yes, many of the same players but I doubt the intel got funneled thru the Aspen Inst.
My opinion is they wanted the war for reasons they knew wouldn’t fly with Congress of the public, and so the happily took bogus intel, stovepiped it via the OSP so it couldn’t be properly vetted, but still has something to point to, to cover their asses. If there’s any justice they will ultimately pay for that.
Wolfowitz outright said they “settled on WMD for beaurocratic reasons” in one interview.
They probably figured even if the WMDs weren;t there, at least they were into Iraq and it would be too late for anyone to change that. True, but Wilson called them to account and they screwed in trying discredit him.
It’s Roves MO to use folks and then bust them for it. He did it with Saddam (who was really the agressor here?), with reporters (you just ~know~ it was his idea to tag reporters for the Plame outing) and with the CIA (for questioning the causus belli). Rove (and Bush) were almost certainly behind the selling of the war and the use of what they ~knew~ to be shaky and bogus intel. Hence the the entire Powell speech, all the smoking gun talks (threats to us, really) and – of course – the 16 words that finally led to them being them facing a Federal Court.
I am sure Bush huddled with Rove over all of it. It’s what they do.
But it can’t possibly be legal, can it?
Dang – I need to preview, obviously. Apologies..
Just saying, we have a dog named scooter and we lover her. Scooter is handicaped and a terrific Rat Terrier.