Christy and coffee!

These guests are so idiotic… it’s the same old same old..

Let’s hear from some one new for a change.

Anyway I never bother watching.

I do very well with FDL. Kos… and the usual unreliable sources… hahahaha

Bob White!

Good morning all. This day in history ~ May 6th 1937: “Oh the humanity!”

What’s catching my eye is that not enough dems are calling Bush and the BS about leaving his doo doo for them to clean up in the post repuke era to begin in 08.

It won’t matter… that they think they can pin the failure on the next dems administration… It won’t stick… cos when the do a little truth and reconcilliation… most of them will be hauled in and made to suffer once again without exec priv to hide behind.

There will be a massive shreader party in Jan 08 as they try to destroy all the eividence.

I imagine all of it exits on hard drives and back ups and is recoverable. Interesting attribute of the digital age. You can’t destroy electrons…. hahahaa

Anyway I am off to work in the boat and imagine a world worth sailing in.

Good morning, Christy!

You wrote:

(Since Vice President Cheney isn’t in the Sunday line-up today, I thought it would be safe to post this photo of a lovely quail sent to me by Tom in AZ.)

Might also want to include an elderly lawyer.

Good to see a mix of people and ideologies. Could this start to be the norm?

I missed any early posts; total luch on scoring the zed…so, I’ll just say Charlie Savage is onto the Graves/Shhlozman USA shuffle in MO.

http://www.boston.com/news/nat…..n_firings/

Globe front page. GO Charlie!

Good morning, Christy – how was your trip to New York? Like you, I would like to know more about the contents of Kyle Sampson’s notebook.

I see one correction to make in your post:

…think they’ll ask him what the penalty ought to be for lying to Congress, perpetrating a fraud on the American public, dissembling on the road to a war of choice, and perverting our judicial system ought to be?

Morning Christy!

Morning all!

I have to admit to getting really impatient these days. I won’t mince words.

It’s nice to see/hear the slicing & dicing by Lugars & Schumers & Rangels & Edwards & all.

But I’d far rather cut to the chase and dump the whole filthy administration right out of office with all their dirty bathwater. Just one big swoosh – out the door & into the gutter where they belong!

Ahhh! Now THAT would be worth watching! ;->

smapdi @ 3

Bob White!

Gambel!

smapdi @ 3

Bob White!

Christy -

Thanks for the pix of a wonderful memory from my childhood living on a farm. I used to love seeing bob whites followed by their new families scuddling for the ditches bordering the fields during the summer. Have talked the man who farms for me into leaving borders between the tree line and plantings in some areas in hopes of encouraging reintroduction of quail population. Have at least one flock of wild turkey that have made their way back into the landscape.

SanderO @ 2

These guests are so idiotic… it’s the same old same old..

Let’s hear from some one new for a change.

Anyway I never bother watching.

I do very well with FDL. Kos… and the usual unreliable sources… hahahaha

From Bill Moyers Journal with Jon Stewart:

MOYERS: How do you explain that the Washington press corps, by and large, particularly the Sunday shows join the game with them? I mean, you watch those shows

STEWART: They don’t all, I mean…

MOYERS: No, not all of them do, but there’s a kind of wink-wink questioning going on there. You know, I’ll ask the devil’s advocate…

STEWART: Well, it’s because it’s the Harlem Globetrotters playing the Washington Generals. It’s they’re the only teams playing, and they know they’ve got to play each other every week, and they all have sort of assumed their role. And, I mean, at this point, the government is just you know, blowing the doors off the media. And not everywhere, and I think, this is where you know, a lot of those blog reporters and all of those things are bringing a lot of urgency and a lot of momentum to stories that wouldn’t normally carry any momentum.

Watched a rerun early this a.m. of Alex. Pelosi’s “Journey with George” as well as an interview tweety did w/her concerning the documentary. Boy! is the disease of the media laid out bare for all to see………beyond disgusting. And the more I see and hear of the tweet, the more revolting he becomes.

I admit not fully reading all the junk on the Graves ouster with Shlozman. I got the gist at TPM. Is this quote form Savage’s piece new:

Schlozman was reshaping the Civil Rights Division,” said Joe Rich , who was chief of the voting rights section until taking a buyout in 2005, in an interview. “Schlozman didn’t know anything about voting law. . . . All he knew is he wanted to be sure that the Republicans were going to win.”

Pretty ugly.

Newt on Face the Nation? The man who “would not run”….are him & Buchanon waiting for the rest of them to implode before they change hats?

In the interest of accuracy in reporting, all wonderful memories of farm upbringing aside, I fear that ain’t a Bobwhite. That thar be a Gambel’s Quail, thru & thru.

Sorry if this spoils anyone’s coffee besides mine.
BOTH are beautiful birds for sure. ;->

G’mornin’ Christy

The story that has hit me the hardest today is this one.

— She had raised her daughter for six years following the divorce, handled the shuttling to soccer practice and cheerleading, made sure schoolwork was done. Hardly a day went by when the two weren’t together. Then Lt. Eva Crouch was mobilized with the Kentucky National Guard, and Sara went to stay with Dad.

A year and a half later, her assignment up, Crouch pulled into her driveway with one thing in mind _ bringing home the little girl who shared her smile and blue eyes. She dialed her ex and said she’d be there the next day to pick Sara up, but his response sent her reeling.

“Not without a court order you won’t.”

You mean……none of the shows are concerned with the sentence give to Paris?

I had to look up Gamble’s Quail, I didnt know. Do they at least make the same sound?

‘Morning, Christy, FirePups!! I’m beginning to think that we need to have a Sunday morning chat with someone we’d have like to see on the Sunday morning television shows, to fill in the void of the corporate-owned media. Imagine if Sundays at FDL were the place to go (as if this isn’t already the place to be Sunday morning)…

Morning all — coffee is warm and life is good here this morning. Sunshine all around today.

Here’s some Frank Rich to enjoy with your coffee: “Is Condi Hiding the Smoking Gun?”

http://select.nytimes.com/2007…..ch.html?hp

Good morning. Rain here in Minnesota. I am now living with my daughter. Quite a transition I might say — going from living alone to a large house with land and 4 kids, 4 cats, 3 dogs, 3horses — and me.

Been unable to comment for awhile, but thanks for all you do to keep this place up and visible. I would check in here whenever I could and I would seem to know more than those reading the newspapers. Obvious statement that, we already knew the newspapers aren’t about to share anything new.

However, I did read the Boston Globe article linkes above. Veeeerrrryyyy interesting. And distrubing.

Do you think anyone on today’s shows will talk about this?

To the Army’s 1st Information Operations Command,
the “media” is just another threat – along with “al Qaeda,” “hackers,” and “drug cartels.”

Then again, the talking heads aren’t really media anyway.

smapdi @ 20

I had to look up Gamble’s Quail, I didnt know. Do they at least make the same sound?

Nope. Bobwhite’s cuter. Gambel’s is more of a generic 2-note yell. It would be hard to turn down either, tho. They act like plump little feathered windup toys.

The thot of bigshot ordering his underlings to release a cage of tame, farm-reared quail to stand there stupidly while he plays blast-a-way with their lives….. Well. Suffice to say, everyone in DC should have known what the bigman would do if he was given free rein in office, on a silver platter yet.

hm-m-m…. Maybe coffee would help, sigh.
Back in a sec just to lurk. I promise. I’ll try to keep my grumpies to myself from now on.

Where are all the cheerier voices? Everyone sleep in? Glued to the telly? C’mon! Woof!

Trailer on CNN describes shrub’s approval rating at a “paltry” 28%. *g*

Checked out defs on “paltry”………”trifling; insignificant; practically worthless; contemptible; petty”. Yup, all very accurate descriptors of the twit.

All the Repugs are going to talk about is the Repug debate and which one of these canditates channelled Reagan enough to beat Hillary.

The Repug strategy seems to be that they have decided for us that Hillary is inevitable, while at the same time heaping false allegation on her and making her synonymous with the Democratic Party. I think they’re relying on the fact that fifteen years of Clinton bashing will be enough to keep her out of the WH. I think they are more scared of Obama. They love bashing Hillary and if nothing else, would at least enjoy themselves to no end screaming and complaining about her.

Sangemon at 18 — Oh, God. Reading just that passage hit me right in the gut. I’ve been in the middle of custody nastiness with clients and as a mediator and guardian for the kids, and invariably it is the children who are always, ALWAYS, destroyed in situations like this. There is a very good reason that I stopped doing domestic cases — I constantly wanted to smack all the adults involved upside the head. Nothing like having to live through fertility problems while watching people value their own egos more than the needs of their own children. Am going to have to go and read that whole article now…

Mornin’ all.

Can anyone get Frank Rich out from behind the firewall?

GrandmaJ! HI There! Good to hear from you! ;->

Morning, everyone.
Just reading the polls. My favorite:
How do you view Bush’s recent actions in Iraq?
62% say that they show he is stubborn and unwilling to admit mistakes.

Now can we end this horrendous war?

Sally @ 23

Here’s some Frank Rich to enjoy with your coffee: “Is Condi Hiding the Smoking Gun?”

http://select.nytimes.com/2007…..ch.html?hp

I like that he calls on Powell to come clean. Why isn’t he being subpeonaed?

Grandma J — Great to see you! :) Hope the move was a pleasant one, and we are happy to have you back in the comments — you were missed.

Sorry, solai. Looks like the war will go on and on and alla killing for months and months.

What a tragedy.

This gets my attention:

New Story for Firing Emerges
Ex-U.S. Attorney Clashed With Bosses Over Murder Probe

A U.S. attorney in Seattle was singled out for dismissal in part because he clashed with senior Justice Department officials over the investigation of a federal prosecutor’s murder, and he was recommended for removal 18 months earlier than was previously known, according to newly disclosed documents and interviews.
“The idea that I was pushing too hard to investigate the assassination of a federal prosecutor — it’s mind-numbing” that they would suggest that, McKay said. ” . . . If it’s true, it’s just immoral, and if it’s false, then the idea that they would use the death of Tom Wales to cover up what they did is just unconscionable.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..id=topnews

Waccamaw @ 27

Trailer on CNN describes shrub’s approval rating at a “paltry” 28%. *g*

Checked out defs on “paltry”………”trifling; insignificant; practically worthless; contemptible; petty”. Yup, all very accurate descriptors of the twit.

The Republicans have the Democrats right where they want them.

You can almost smell the overreach.

Good morning Adie. Been awhile since I commented. Thanks for remembering me.

solai @ 32

Morning, everyone.
Just reading the polls. My favorite:
How do you view Bush’s recent actions in Iraq?
62% say that they show he is stubborn and unwilling to admit mistakes.

Now can we end this horrendous war?

I second that! NOW!

Here’s a nice one from the NYT this morning.

With New Clout, Antiwar Groups Push Dems

Please sir, I’d like some more.

Now, I’m watching a segment on the Kansas tornado. I’ll be anxious to see how FEMA responds.

Dont be grumpy! With all these riches and Monica’s tears to make us happy. We just had that racist Cannon tell us during the Comey hearing that nothing improper had happened, but the interviews with congress and the Office of Perpetual iRresponsibility tell us something different.

And good morning to you, too, Christy. Has anyone (besides your hubby and beautiful child) told you that you are amazing recently? I was fighting to share a computer with my 5 year old grandson when Comey testified. But the little I did read of your commentary was excellent.

Don’t have my own computer yet (but soon) and then I can be a regular again.

And this gem from Tristero:

It blows my mind to think 28 percent of this country still thinks God’s Joke From Texas is doing a fine job. Ok, ok, I know it’s not entirely scientifically kosher, but that sort of means you go walking down a street – or go to a mall – and more than 1 out of every 4 people you pass is completely insane.

Sally @ 23

Here’s some Frank Rich to enjoy with your coffee: “Is Condi Hiding the Smoking Gun?”

http://select.nytimes.com/2007…..ch.html?hp

::cries:: Oh no! It’s behind the subscribers wall…

Anyway good morning everyone! It’s sunny outside and I’m just lazily plodding my room until brunch is served on campus….::Homer Simpson voice:: mmmmm…brruuuuunnch

EPU’d from Marion
Marion in Savannah says:
May 6th, 2007 at 3:55 am

Good morning, pups. It’s MoDo and Frank Rich in the NYT today. Modo is writing about one of France’s presidential candidates instead of ours, and tells us it’s not just cocktail wienies they serve the press in France. Frank Rich feels that Condi Rice has an obligation to explain why we’re mired in Iraq.

http://mgpaquin.wordpress.com/

Coffee and tea are all ready, and help yourselves to waffles.

Palestinians ‘tortured’ by Israel

The treatment of Palestinian detainees by Israel’s security services amounts to torture in some cases, says a report released on Sunday by two Israeli rights groups.

“These measures are defined as torture under international law. Their use is not negligible, even if not routine,” the report said.

Sixty-seven per cent of those surveyed said they were subjected to “beatings, painful binding, swearing, humiliation and denial of basic needs”.

http://english.aljazeera.net/N…..72E7EF.htm

“EPU’d from Marion
Marion in Savannah says:
May 6th, 2007 at 3:55 am”

Send some karmic hugs, firepups. Marion’s recovering from perio surgery and in a bit of pain this morn.

Christy Hardin Smith @ 29

Sangemon at 18 — Oh, God. Reading just that passage hit me right in the gut. I’ve been in the middle of custody nastiness with clients and as a mediator and guardian for the kids, and invariably it is the children who are always, ALWAYS, destroyed in situations like this. There is a very good reason that I stopped doing domestic cases — I constantly wanted to smack all the adults involved upside the head. Nothing like having to live through fertility problems while watching people value their own egos more than the needs of their own children. Am going to have to go and read that whole article now…

First thing I read when I got up this morning and it killed me.

{{{Marion}}}
who is so pleasant in the mornings.

Multi-task reading, so sorry for dripping/dropping quotes in. This Savage coverage is cute:

Schlozman moved fast, so fast that his office got one of the names on the indictments wrong. He announced the indictments of four former ACORN workers on Nov. 1, 2006, warning that “this national investigation is very much ongoing.” Missouri Republicans seized on the indictments to blast Democrats in the campaign endgame.

Critics later accused Schlozman of violating the Justice Department’s own rules. A 1995 Justice election crime manual says “federal prosecutors . . . should be extremely careful not to conduct overt investigations during the preelection period” to avoid “chilling legitimate voting and campaign activities” and causing “the investigation itself to become a campaign issue.”

“In investigating election fraud matters, the Justice Department must refrain from any conduct which has the possibility of affecting the election itself,” the manual states, adding in underlining that “most, if not all, investigation of alleged election crime must await the end of the election to which the allegation relates.”

The department said Schlozman’s office got permission from headquarters for the election-eve indictments. It added that the department interprets the policy as having an unwritten exception for voter registration fraud, because investigators need not interview voters for such cases.

Signing statement written in invisible ink? Jeez. From the farking Justice Department! I go back to the U.S. News coverage of how they used 9.11…
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/n…../27fbi.htm

In the dark days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a small group of lawyers from the White House and the Justice Department began meeting to debate a number of novel legal strategies to help prevent another attack. Soon after, President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to begin conducting electronic eavesdropping on terrorism suspects in the United States, including American citizens, without court approval. Meeting in the FBI’s state-of-the-art command center in the J. Edgar Hoover Building, the lawyers talked with senior FBI officials about using the same legal authority to conduct physical searches of homes and businesses of terrorism suspects–also without court approval, one current and one former government official tell U.S. News. “There was a fair amount of discussion at Justice on the warrantless physical search issue,” says a former senior FBI official. “Discussions about–if [the searches] happened–where would the information go, and would it taint cases.”

That MO is SOP across the board these days.

MSNBC talking about gas prices. We need a national “Do not drive” day.
$4/gallon coming?

Morning all. This caught my eye this morning; 59 years and the killing goes on and on.

Bushra’s final exam

By Gideon Levy

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/855435.html

Blood on the hands: Two crimson handprints stain the white wall. The tile floor shines in shades of brown, the walls are painted in white and soft pastels, their
new house, after the two previous ones were destroyed by the Israel Defense Forces. The bloody handprints stand as silent testimony on the wall of the staircase that goes up to the second floor. This is where Ruqiya stood, the blood of her dead daughter all over her hands, as she pounded them on the wall in a panic, desperately calling to the neighbors for help. She pounded and pounded, her palms staining the wall, when outside stood a line of terrifying jeeps, on the roof of the building down the street stood the snipers and in the other room Bushra lay dead in a spreading pool of blood, a bullet hole in the center of her forehead.

(snip)

Fox News Sunday has the head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Convention — think they’ll ask him what the penalty ought to be for lying to Congress, perpetrating a fraud on the American public, dissembling on the road to a war of choice, and perverting our judicial system

Anytime you submit your political views to a religous authority, you start to mix religion and the interests of the public. History has proven that this generally is a mistake, often leading to religous wars. In the course of the Bush administration, we have too much influence of religion on policy. This is a real danger to peace and tranquility in our country. The question to the head of the Southern Baptisi Convention ought to be: “What will it take to get your fingers out of politics?”

GrandmaJ @ 24

Good morning. Rain here in Minnesota. I am now living with my daughter. Quite a transition I might say — going from living alone to a large house with land and 4 kids, 4 cats, 3 dogs, 3horses — and me.

Been unable to comment for awhile, but thanks for all you do to keep this place up and visible. I would check in here whenever I could and I would seem to know more than those reading the newspapers. Obvious statement that, we already knew the newspapers aren’t about to share anything new.

However, I did read the Boston Globe article linkes above. Veeeerrrryyyy interesting. And distrubing.

Hi Grandma. Good to see you! I was thinking of you several times…

What’s catching my eye this morning? An internet buddy of mine started chronicaling his health ordeals in an effort to help others who suffer from his condition. It’s pretty surreal and I had no idea he was going through so much. If anyone is interested, you can read his story about anxiety/panic disorder. I’m glad he’s doing better!

That and watching George Tenet weasel, lie, and dodge culpability disgusts me.

GrandmaJ @ 38

Good morning Adie. Been awhile since I commented. Thanks for remembering me.

This place isn’t the same when you’re not here.
Here’s hoping you get that new ‘puter soon ;->

Boehner on Foxnews Sunday. Less of a smirk than usual. But same talking points.

“It’s hard not to be drawn to a presidential candidate with a name like a Bond girl, a smile like an angel, a figure that looks great in a bikini at 53, a campaign style like Joan of Arc, and a buffet for the press corps brimming with crustless fromage sandwiches, icy chocolate profiteroles, raspberry parfaits, red Bordeaux, espresso and little almond gteaux. (When in France, let us eat cake.)” ~Maureen Dowd

Let us EAT CAKE?
Uh, yeah, and then be dragged by a starving mob to the guillotine and wind up with your head on a pike…for God’s SAKE. But I hope those crusty chees-parfaits were delicious, but look out, you’ve got something in your teeth.

retirin’ in five @ 48

“EPU’d from Marion
Marion in Savannah says:
May 6th, 2007 at 3:55 am”

Send some karmic hugs, firepups. Marion’s recovering from perio surgery and in a bit of pain this morn.

{{{{{Marion}}}}}

Just you rest, hon. Grumpy or not, we’ll pull the sled today, kay? ;->

Sack has an especially nice ‘toon for tenet:

http://editorialcartoonists.co…..cfm/34924/

Ahhhh…okay, have had my first cuppa coffee. Feeling much more human now.

There’s this from the Krugman article:

If former or incumbent national security advisers like Henry Kissinger, Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski could testify before Congress without defiling the Constitution, so can she. As for her answers to Senator Levin’s questions, five of eight were pure Alberto Gonzales: she either didn’t recall or didn’t know.

ccmask @ 55

GrandmaJ @ 24

Good morning. Rain here in Minnesota. I am now living with my daughter. Quite a transition I might say — going from living alone to a large house with land and 4 kids, 4 cats, 3 dogs, 3horses — and me.

Been unable to comment for awhile, but thanks for all you do to keep this place up and visible. I would check in here whenever I could and I would seem to know more than those reading the newspapers. Obvious statement that, we already knew the newspapers aren’t about to share anything new.

However, I did read the Boston Globe article linkes above. Veeeerrrryyyy interesting. And distrubing.

Hi Grandma. Good to see you! I was thinking of you several times…

You had horses Grandma?! ::swooons:: My gram had to move from a big beautiful house with gorgeous gardens and woods to a tiny (albeit totally New-England-y quaint) apartment. She loves the apartment, but that house was her baby, she designed it and decorated it. It was very hard for her to move. I still have dreams of that house. I hope your transition has been a happy one, I wish you luck (^_^).

I hope everybody noted the following from T-Rex’s LLNFDL–
George Bush: 17-points lower than Spiro Agnew just prior to his resignation.

Can you tell me again why impeachment is such a non-starter? If he were merely a bad president, I might understand it, but he’s so much more….

Did everyone see that Dana Perino issued a correction: it turns out that Bush is “a commander guy,” not “the commander guy.” So glad we cleared that up.

Just read the Boston Globe article. Disturbing. But it brings up a matter that I’m not clear on. Congress retracted that provision that allowed USAs to serve w/o Senate confirmation, correct?
So, for those that are serving w/o confirmation, are they out 120 days after the change or are they immune from the new rule since they were installed when AGAG had the power to appoint them?
Christy???? Anybody????

Waccamaw @ 61

Sack has an especially nice ‘toon for tenet:

http://editorialcartoonists.co…..cfm/34924/

He got the face down PERFECT. He has that “I have no idea what’s around my neck” expression…

I’m listenning to BBC at the moment, sorta. Couldn’t get CSPAN to stream. With all the Bushie scandals breaking out, and questions about a ’smoking gun’ that will end this farce, I’m reminded of something I heard on BBC about a year ago relating to Blair’s peerage purchasing scandal. The interviewer asked if THIS was the smoking gun that would bring down Blair. The response (from someone very much like the ‘usual suspects’ parading each Sunday AM here) was ‘By itself, no.’

I recall making a comment here, probably at the end of a Sat. Late Night thread, or maybe in this Talking Heads. I recall absolute outrage in my commment. I feel deja vu all over again.

When the conventional wisdom moves away from ‘Overreaching Dems’ I will have a better perspective. But for now, I am not sanguine.

Elizabeth B. @ 59

“It’s hard not to be drawn to a presidential candidate with a name like a Bond girl, a smile like an angel, a figure that looks great in a bikini at 53, a campaign style like Joan of Arc, and a buffet for the press corps brimming with crustless fromage sandwiches, icy chocolate profiteroles, raspberry parfaits, red Bordeaux, espresso and little almond gteaux. (When in France, let us eat cake.)” ~Maureen Dowd

Let us EAT CAKE?
Uh, yeah, and then be dragged by a starving mob to the guillotine and wind up with your head on a pike…for God’s SAKE. But I hope those crusty chees-parfaits were delicious, but look out, you’ve got something in your teeth.

Is there some way of getting Maureen on the no-fly list, so that she can inflict her
trivialization-of-politics-through-pop-culture-references schtick
on the French in the future, instead of us?

The whole Tenet belated mea cupla/blood on my hands/book shill tour is quite nauseating. But, today, on Timmeh, Tenet hits a new low, even for him.

When asked about the ‘16 words’ in the SOTU in 2003 (which Tenet, admits, he hadn’t read in advance – he farmed it out to subordinates who, ipso facto, are to blame for its inclusion), Tenet tells Timmeh that he didn’t hear the State of the Union when it was given.

Excuse me?!?!?

This ranks up there with other classic BushCo dodges:

-Who would’ve thought Al Quaeda would attack us with airplanes?

-I didn’t participate in the firing of any US Attorneys.

And so forth. (Too numerous to mention.)

Let me get this straight: Tenet, head of the f*cking CIA, didn’t watch the State of the Union???

Pardon me – I have to start drinking heavily.

P.S. Timmeh, IMHO, is being fairly diligent in his questioning of Tenet. Shocking.

Blank Kludge @ 68

When the conventional wisdom moves away from ‘Overreaching Dems’ I will have a better perspective. But for now, I am not sanguine.

“Conventional wisdom” is an oxymoron.

mornin’ y’all. coffee’s on. laundry is going. wish we had some of that rain GJ (welcome back). I’m about 6 threads behind, so can anyone tell me if there’s a strategy for getting more Comey questions to Conyers/Sanchez or do we just do our own thing?

Balrog @ 40

Here’s a nice one from the NYT this morning.

With New Clout, Antiwar Groups Push Dems

Please sir, I’d like some more.

Good morning Doggies! Here’s a question I had about that article…is it me, or is the Times assigning more power and clout to these groups then they really have? Move On has been awfully slow to come around on the war, and other than Vote Vets, I haven’t heard of any of them.

The term “anti-war” also conjures up images of hippies burning flags, etc. Is that why the Times uses it, to strip legitimacy from the movement?

SEE #66
ANYONE KNOW?????

Interesting Comey article. He seemed like the first guy who had to go to make everything else work.

Still, I wonder: Without Comey’s protection, what deal did Fitz cut to let Roverer off the hook? 5 times Roverer gets to testily, or 4 times, lie, and one time tell the truth? At best?

Fitz is on the “average” list and then is not fired. Lam’s firing is verrry transparent. No reason to fire her but for her dogged pursuit of Rethuglicans. Black in Guam going after Abramoff in 02(?) is the first to be fired and it stops the investigation in its tracks.

cuewhiffle @ 71

Blank Kludge @ 68

When the conventional wisdom moves away from ‘Overreaching Dems’ I will have a better perspective. But for now, I am not sanguine.

“Conventional wisdom” is an oxymoron.

I thought Oxymoron was Excellence In Broadcasting. But, thank you. I guess I’m waiting for more hands raised in Dem Presidential debates supporting Kucinich’s move to oust the VP, or at least statements along those lines, or something.

solai @ 66

Just read the Boston Globe article. Disturbing. But it brings up a matter that I’m not clear on. Congress retracted that provision that allowed USAs to serve w/o Senate confirmation, correct?
So, for those that are serving w/o confirmation, are they out 120 days after the change or are they immune from the new rule since they were installed when AGAG had the power to appoint them?
Christy???? Anybody????

Congress is working on eliminating that provision but AFAIK the Pres has not signed it into law. So they can still make indefinite interim appointments without Senate confirmation.

solai @ 74

SEE #66
ANYONE KNOW?????

and to clarify, repealing the provision would probably not affect the ones who were appointed under prior law. that’s why Griffin and Jeff Taylor are still there.

Ninbus @ 6.38 -

Didn’t tenet also say he didn’t even read the transcript? Talk about a stomach turning interview……..blerrrrrrrrgh!

whateva @ 75

Interesting Comey article. He seemed like the first guy who had to go to make everything else work.

Still, I wonder: Without Comey’s protection, what deal did Fitz cut to let Roverer off the hook? 5 times Roverer gets to testily, or 4 times, lie, and one time tell the truth? At best?

Fitz is on the “average” list and then is not fired. Lam’s firing is verrry transparent. No reason to fire her but for her dogged pursuit of Rethuglicans. Black in Guam going after Abramoff in 02(?) is the first to be fired and it stops the investigation in its tracks.

I think the Black firing was a test case. They got away with it (no oversight) so they went whole hog after that.

If a lie is told and Tenet does not hear it/read it, does that mean it is not a lie?

solai @ 52

MSNBC talking about gas prices. We need a national “Do not drive” day.
$4/gallon coming?

in April 1997, there was a “gas out” conducted nationwide in protest of gas prices.
Gasoline prices dropped 30 cents a gallon overnight.

On May 15th 2007, all myspace and facebook members are asked to not go to a gas station in protest of
high gas prices. Gas is now over $3.00 a gallon in most places.

There are 73,000,000 American members currently on the myspace network, and the
average car takes about 20 to 30 dollars to fill up.

If all myspace members did not go to the pump on the 15th, it would take
$2,200,000,000.00 (that’s BILLION) out of the oil companys pockets for just one day,
so please do not go to the gas station on May 15th and lets try to put a dent in the
Middle Eastern oil industry for at least one day.

If you agree (which I can’t see why you wouldn’t) repost this bulletin, repost it with
‘Don’t pump gas on May 15th’

I joined this group on Facebook.

If the partisan USAs are not removed then I fear we will lose in 2008. They will purge the rolls, have massive arrests aimed at minorities, drum up phony charges against dems, suppress the vote, etc.
They did all this in 2006 and we won anyway. But they will learn from their mistakes and their efforts will be tenfold next time.

solai @ 74

SEE #66
ANYONE KNOW?????

I might be wrong, but I think it is until the end of Bush’s tenure…anyone else out there??

Nice head ware on that quail. Mother Nature is the ultimate artist and designer.

Any other NJ resident’s here? I’m going to need some help with a state wide action soon. The grant program that funds land preservation expires next year. Action is required to get the program onto the ballot and then to get it approved by voters.

I went to my town’s Arbor Day and Earth Day Festival yesterday, and to my surprise I found out that this program had an expiration date. I’m now going to assist a local organization with outreach and communications, and if anyone in NJ wants to help, please drop me a line at

my username at mac dot com

Thanks!

Actually, Elizabeth8, I, respectfully, don’t agree. It doesn’t address the issue of consumption. It will just mean filling up day before/day after with no reduction in actual amount of gas purchased.
Having said that, I’ll honor your request and not purchase that day.

solai @ 83

If the partisan USAs are not removed then I fear we will lose in 2008. They will purge the rolls, have massive arrests aimed at minorities, drum up phony charges against dems, suppress the vote, etc.
They did all this in 2006 and we won anyway. But they will learn from their mistakes and their efforts will be tenfold next time.

I wouldn’t be too worried yet, Leahy is plowing through…crossing his t’s and dotting his i’s. All good lawyers have a pretty clear idea of what the answers are to the questions they ask. This thing is snowballing like whoa.

Elizabeth B. @ 84

solai @ 74

SEE #66
ANYONE KNOW?????

I might be wrong, but I think it is until the end of Bush’s tenure…anyone else out there??

I believe interim appointments under the existing Patriot Act provision last until the end of the current Congressional term (basically Nov 08)

I’m assuming everyone’s aware of this:
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-…..amp;EDATE=

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales to Appoint Kenneth E. Melson as Director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys

WASHINGTON, May 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Attorney General Alberto
R. Gonzales today announced that he will appoint Kenneth E. Melson as
director of the Executive Office for United States Attorneys (EOUSA) at the
Department of Justice effective on May 14, 2007. Melson has served as first
assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia since June
1986 and will leave that position prior to taking office as director of
EOUSA. He will succeed Michael Battle, who served as director of EOUSA
since June 2005.

Looks legit to me. But, I have’t seen LHP or Mary(4) give opinion. Or emptywheel.

solai @ 86

Actually, Elizabeth8, I, respectfully, don’t agree. It doesn’t address the issue of consumption. It will just mean filling up day before/day after with no reduction in actual amount of gas purchased.
Having said that, I’ll honor your request and not purchase that day.

::laughs:: You know, I don’t even drive…I have never purchased gas…I guess that’s obvious.

Good morning from L.A. Went to a wonderful raucous street party on Olvera Street yesterday to celebrate Cinco de Mayo- great music, terrific food, & came away w/a Chile Relleno recipe that I’ve got to try soon…

Catching up for the week on several blogs & what caught my eye this a.m. is Pat Lang’s take on George Tenet- like Larry Johnson, his good friend, Pat pulls no punches:

Dead Man Talking

solai @ 86

Actually, Elizabeth8, I, respectfully, don’t agree. It doesn’t address the issue of consumption. It will just mean filling up day before/day after with no reduction in actual amount of gas purchased.
Having said that, I’ll honor your request and not purchase that day.

A more effective measure would be to stop driving for a day or two; carpool, take the day off and stay home, take the bus, whatever. even better if 4 people carpool who used to drive alone.

::laughs:: You know, I don’t even drive…I have never purchased gas…I guess that’s obvious.

And I carpool.

Adie and ccmask – it feels good to be remembered.

And I am certainly chomping at the bit to get both a T.V. and computer hooked up soon. I am having withdrawal symptoms from not knowing the very latest. Cable guy was here – now all I need is electricity. Coming soon. The only reason I am commenting this morning is because everyone here went out of town for the weekend and it is just me — and the 3 dogs (sitting besides me as I type) and 4 cats. Already was outside to water and feed the horses.

And I rode horses again. Both in Texas and my daughter’s horse. Happy dance. :=) Sorry to be so ‘windy’, but it has been awhile. And I need to chat.

Is Condi Hiding the Smoking Gun? By FRANK RICH

IF, as J.F.K. had it, victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan, the defeat in Iraq is the most pitiful orphan imaginable. Its parents have not only tossed it to the wolves but are also trying to pin its mutant DNA on any patsy they can find.

George Tenet is just the latest to join this blame game, which began more than three years ago when his fellow Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Tommy Franks told Bob Woodward that Douglas Feith, the Pentagon’s intelligence bozo, was the “stupidest guy on the face of the earth” (that’s the expurgated version). Last fall, Kenneth Adelman, the neocon cheerleader who foresaw a “cakewalk” in Iraq, told Vanity Fair that Mr. Tenet, General Franks and Paul Bremer were “three of the most incompetent people who’ve ever served in such key spots.” Richard Perle chimed in that the “huge mistakes” were “not made by neoconservatives” and instead took a shot at President Bush. Ahmad Chalabi, the neocons’ former darling, told Dexter Filkins of The Times “the real culprit in all this is Wolfowitz.”

[Mod Note; To help keep the FDL servers running smoothly and to avoid any copyright issues, please do not post entire articles. Thank you.]

GrandmaJ, where did you come from and where did you move too?

solai @ 93

::laughs:: You know, I don’t even drive…I have never purchased gas…I guess that’s obvious.

And I carpool.

Public Transportation, Baby!! note: REQUIRES headphones!

We need to look on the bright side of expensive gasoline.
More public transportation will be available.
Less polution.
Less traffic.
Overweight people will, by default, lose weight because the have to walk more.
People will be healthier bacause they are exercizing more.
People will be less likely to buy things they don’t need because they will have to carry it.

this caught my eye this morning..another repub involved in a scandal…peter smith-former vermont rep–education official at unesco and the name letitia chambers is ringing a bell, but can’t remember whyhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/…..rrer=email

Smith first encountered Navigant through Letitia Chambers, a former executive director of the Commission on Higher Education who serves as Navigant’s Washington director, Seguin said. Chambers did not respond to requests for comment.

Good morning, GrandmaJ, Nice to see you here again. I hope the move brings you joy!

Good morning pups – the Central Valley growers have been trucking their sunshine into the farmers’ markets…last week brought the season’s first cherries…this week apricots and peaches returned….

…and the local salmon fishery re-opened this weekend.

must.go.hiking.

Wooh! Marcinkowski quoted on Timmeh.

He is a pithy sumbitch.

OT and a drive-by, but Pulitzer winner Charlie Savage in today’s Boston Globe has a story about the US Atty in Missouri.

TM at 95 – I lived in a small town west of the Twin Cities called Buffalo, Minnesota. I moved in with my daughter in a small town north of the Twin Cities called Zimmerman.

But in Buffalo, I lived in the middle of a growing city. At my daughter’s house, we are on acreage on a DNR lake and have horses. Very different lifestyle.

If having a boycott of buying gas for a day raises some awarness I’m all for it. Give people a reason to pause and think, and a few more people will change their habits.

Transportation is ingrained into the public’s lifestyle. Abrupt change is going to happen to the masses overnight.

I would love to be able to take public transport, but as a sales rep it is impossible. Plus it stinks out loud in central Indiana. I do my part by working virtual as much as I can.

Elizabeth B. @ 82

solai @ 52

MSNBC talking about gas prices. We need a national “Do not drive” day.
$4/gallon coming?

in April 1997, there was a “gas out” conducted nationwide in protest of gas prices.
Gasoline prices dropped 30 cents a gallon overnight.

On May 15th 2007, all myspace and facebook members are asked to not go to a gas station in protest of
high gas prices. Gas is now over $3.00 a gallon in most places.

Perhaps forgotten in the fog of war is that a freebie benefit of invading Iraq, foreseen by the serious wise men of Washington, was that the newly democratized, pro-western, pro-Israel regime would open the spigots
( or, preferably, hire Halliburton to open the spigots) and flood the market with oil,
thereby lowering the price and defunding the Islamo-fascists.

Oh, those were the days.

Blank Kludge @ 89

I’m assuming everyone’s aware of this:
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-…..amp;EDATE=

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales to Appoint Kenneth E. Melson as Director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys

WASHINGTON, May 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Attorney General Alberto
R. Gonzales today announced that he will appoint Kenneth E. Melson as
director of the Executive Office for United States Attorneys (EOUSA) at the
Department of Justice effective on May 14, 2007. Melson has served as first
assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia since June
1986 and will leave that position prior to taking office as director of
EOUSA. He will succeed Michael Battle, who served as director of EOUSA
since June 2005.

Looks legit to me. But, I have’t seen LHP or Mary(4) give opinion. Or emptywheel.

Is the A*P*C espionage prosecution based in the VA Eastern District office? If so, I’d be curious to know how Nelson’s appontment would affect the reources available for that prosecution in the coming weeks.

GrandmaJ @ 94

Adie and ccmask – it feels good to be remembered.

And I am certainly chomping at the bit to get both a T.V. and computer hooked up soon. I am having withdrawal symptoms from not knowing the very latest. Cable guy was here – now all I need is electricity. Coming soon. The only reason I am commenting this morning is because everyone here went out of town for the weekend and it is just me — and the 3 dogs (sitting besides me as I type) and 4 cats. Already was outside to water and feed the horses.

And I rode horses again. Both in Texas and my daughter’s horse. Happy dance. :=) Sorry to be so ‘windy’, but it has been awhile. And I need to chat.

Welcome back. Keep leading those horses to this watering hole..er lake.

Blank Kludge @ 8

I missed any early posts; total luch on scoring the zed…so, I’ll just say Charlie Savage is onto the Graves/Shhlozman USA shuffle in MO.

http://www.boston.com/news/nat…..n_firings/

Globe front page. GO Charlie!

Blank Kludge, thanks for the article. I’m from Missouri, and I was aware of the Schlozman/Graves shuffle, but looking for more info on it…

A quick clip of this week’s GOP circlejerk debate: Bush WHO?

Plus it stinks out loud in central Indiana.

A Wolverine in Indiana, be careful, especially after you thrash the Irish in the BIG HOUSE next season.

Hi GrandmaJ, you are remembered.

I missed the Marcinkowski quote on Timmeh. If anyone can give me a high level recap, much appreciated it.

IMVHO, Tenet, appearing a lot more humble, a lot less combative than previous interviews that I have seen.

Damn, every single question from George Stephanopoulis to John Edwards is a gotcha question!

WTF? I think the Corporate Media realize that there’s no way a Puke is going to win, so they want to make sure it’s a neutered Dem, like Clinton or Gore.

Quzi -

Sure thing. Gives me an excuse to let my obsession with this subversion of democracy free rein.

I recall streaming the McKaskill/Talent debate just days ahead of the election via CSPAN. Talent was using some trumped up skullduggery very similar to the case just overturned in MN, I think.

McKaskill was AG in MO, right?

John Casper @ 110

IMVHO, Tenet, appearing a lot more humble, a lot less combative than previous interviews that I have seen.

this is the first time i’ve watched tenet talk about his book…. and i’m finding it hard to watch… it was worse previously?

Tenet wants to cash his paycheck in return for hard work effort. Unfortunately, most of us get paid for results.

Wow. George Stephanopoulos is acting like the Republican shill that he truly is, he’s suddenly such a big tuff guy when he’s questioning Democrat John Edwards. He’s spent the entire interview trying to distort Edward’s positions and character.

OK, so Tancredo is next. So what do you think George Stephanopoulis is going to do with him, give him a blow job or a rim job?

There is a positive side to higher gas prices but, as always, the poor suffer the most. My sister manages a low-income housing complex with about 100 units. She said nobody is driving. Getting to the grocery store/Dr’s office etc. is a problem for them. I should add that this is in a rural district where public transportation is not a viable alternative. Her tenants would have to walk a mile just to reach the bus line. And then I think about that ridiculous $100 they were going to give us to compensate and I think that these people would have been helped.

Wow! I missed this story yesterday. Jon Tester calls on Montana’s USA to resign:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..02353.html

John Casper @ 110

Plus it stinks out loud in central Indiana.

A Wolverine in Indiana, be careful, especially after you thrash the Irish in the BIG HOUSE next season.

Hi GrandmaJ, you are remembered.

I missed the Marcinkowski quote on Timmeh. If anyone can give me a high level recap, much appreciated it.

IMVHO, Tenet, appearing a lot more humble, a lot less combative than previous interviews that I have seen.

Can’t stomach the talking heads this a.m. so no idea what was quoted, but here’ a link to No Quarter’s post of Jim Marcinkowski’s piece on Tenet:

A Man’s Got to Know His Limitations

RagingGurrl @ 116

Wow. George Stephanopoulos is acting like the Republican shill that he truly is, he’s suddenly such a big tuff guy when he’s questioning Democrat John Edwards. He’s spent the entire interview trying to distort Edward’s positions and character.

He didn’t ask Edwards one single substantive question, they were all gotcha questions.

kirk murphy 106-

That is a possibility.

But, I’m no emptywheel. Especially on that case.

John Casper, this one’s for you!

A few things caught my eye this a.m.:

Good piece on the IPCC climate change report including a handy table of “Mitigating Technologies and Practices” in Spiegel International Online: “How The World Can Be Saved” – Spiegel article

Tom Barnett’s blogpost on The Curious case of Turkey’s Islamist middle class in which he includes an analogy with US political/religious right tension

Larry Beinhart’s analysis of a few days ago about the “political right”

and

Video evidence that Democracy is alive in Vermont – impeachment action!

Elizabeth B @ 45, I didn’t realize some cannot open a link behind Times’ firewall. Very sorry about that! (I really don’t know how that works.)

it was worse previously?

Yeah, imvho.
60 Minutes youtube

You have to wade through the first sixty seconds of the youtube, before you get to George as combative and defensive.

Thanks Marie Roget.

Thanks Twisted.

GrandmaJ @ 94

Adie and ccmask – it feels good to be remembered.

And I am certainly chomping at the bit to get both a T.V. and computer hooked up soon. I am having withdrawal symptoms from not knowing the very latest. Cable guy was here – now all I need is electricity. Coming soon. The only reason I am commenting this morning is because everyone here went out of town for the weekend and it is just me — and the 3 dogs (sitting besides me as I type) and 4 cats. Already was outside to water and feed the horses.

And I rode horses again. Both in Texas and my daughter’s horse. Happy dance. :=) Sorry to be so ‘windy’, but it has been awhile. And I need to chat.

Oh, good, you still have the animals. I wasn’t sure about that from reading your first post. Is this a permanent arrangement – living with your daughter?

Stephanopoulis isn’t on yet here. But I said last night that I would be watching for bias and would be ticked if the interview was a “gotcha”. More than one person told me to wake up and arm myself with items to throw at the TV. Guess they were right.

Riesz Fischer @ 117

OK, so Tancredo is next. So what do you think George Stephanopoulis is going to do with him, give him a blow job or a rim job?

You know he’ll swallow.

Well, now that I’ve seen how threatened the MSM is by Edwards, I’m now his newest supporter.

Niger forgeries now on Pumpkinhead Timmeh

After reading about the suspicious deaths of the U.S. attorneys and knowing some of how far this administration has gone with lawlessness to hold on to their power, I’m fearful about the threats against Senators Clinton and Obama.

Don’t think this has come up here yet, though I was out yesterday. Also, OT, but this one just really annoyed me; I thought we were past this point. Anyway …

Anybody here from South Dakota? Ever found a personalized license plate there offensive, or or you disagreed with, or even just annoying because they use too-hard-to-figure-out abbreviations (2DVS4U). Here’s your chance to do something about it. Courtesy Raw Story, from the Rapid City Journal:

Heather Moriah loves the personalized license plates on her silver Prius encouraging the impeachment of President George W. Bush. But somebody doesn’t agree. And that somebody complained to the state. Now, the South Dakota Division of Motor Vehicles is trying to recall the plates — which read MPEACHW. And if Moriah doesn’t turn them in voluntarily, the state might send law-enforcement officers to pick them up.

Even so, she’s not immediately inclined to cooperate.

“I don’t think I’m going to play,” Moriah said Thursday afternoon. “The plate isn’t in poor taste. It‘s not sexual in nature or pornographic. To me, a political message should not be considered offensive.”

But Division of Motor Vehicles director Deb Hillmer said Thursday that the law clearly gives the state authority to recall the plates and have them forcibly removed if necessary. And although only one person complained about Moriah’s political statement, that’s all it takes to recall a set of vanity plates, Hillmer said.

“I’m following the letter of the law,” she said. “It’s offensive to someone and not in good taste and decency. And the plates are the property of the state of South Dakota.”

So, y’know, if you see someone with ILUVDOGZ and you’re a cat person, complain, ’cause dammit, that’s just plain offensive.

Tenet: “American public needs to retain counsel in order to understand our declassified estimates.”

/s

Wow! I missed this story yesterday. Jon Tester calls on Montana’s USA to resign:

Same old, same old. We ask lots of people to resign. People totally disgraced and revealed as being incompetent or corrupt.
They say in response: ‘Go Cheney yourself’ and continue on.

“Reliable Sources”: Howard Kurtz says the the Dems ought to be able to answer questions from Brit Hume in their debates. So then I guess he considers this to be a question, I don’t.

HUME: General Clark, Governor Dean has said that you’re a good guy but he thinks you’re a Republican. Now, we’re told you did vote for several Republican presidents � President Nixon, President Reagan � said good things about the first President Bush and even about this President Bush.

You said, in an article published in The Times of London back in April as the war ended, quote, “Liberation is at hand. Liberation, the powerful balm that justifies painful sacrifice, erases lingering doubt and reinforces bold actions.”

As to the president, you wrote, quote, “President Bush and Tony Blair should be proud of their resolve in the face of so much doubt.”

Given those statements, given your votes, I think it is not unreasonable to ask you when you first noticed that you were a Democrat.

(LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE)

CLARK: Well, actually, actually, Brit, actually, I did vote for Al Gore in 2000 and for Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996.

But when I was in the military, I was not a member of any party. I was an independent, and that’s the way it is done in the state of Arkansas.

John Casper @ 125

it was worse previously?

Yeah, imvho.
60 Minutes youtube

You have to wade through the first sixty seconds of the youtube, before you get to George as combative and defensive.

i don’t think i can watch 60 min too… maybe later if i can work myself up for it.

this is soooo painful. memories of 2002/2003 when i was freaking out about how insane it all was…. organizing and protesting and educating. i was out on the street handing out flyers and bush/cheney/rice et al. were on tv lying us into a frenzy of fear while using tenet to legitimize their bs.

i still feel horrible that we weren’t able to prevent this disaster.

As per Tenet not hearing or reading the SOTU with the infamous 16 words. Aren’t all the big shots in the room that night, big shots like he was at the time? It should be easy to prove he was there, if indeed he was, with footage from the TeeVee coverage. On the other hand, even if he was there, that doesn’t mean he was paying attention.

After all, he said he believed most of the pre-war crap and only had caveats about certain details. So either he is still just covering for the Commander Guy and his evil master Shooter, or he never pays attention. Paying attention would be a good skill for a director of intelligience to have. But then appropriate skills always tended to be more of a career wrecker than desirable trait for working in the Bu$h administration, from the top down.

“We let the Secretary down,” wrt invading a soverign country = “we’re not perfect.” No George, you’re certainly have nothing to worry about wrt approaching perfection.

Good Morning from AZ….

lovely picture of our state bird front page. Grew up with that bird on the door of my fathers work truck…. AZ Game & Fish emblem.

john casper 126

You have to wade through the first sixty seconds of the youtube, before you get to George as combative and defensive.

tenet was on charlie rose the other night and had a few freudian slips………was talking about iraq and said “we let them……..” we let them, ohboy…….said he wasn’t a policy maker, said quite a few things, but was of the kind that he was not intelligent enough to know what he just said, i said oops for him a few times…….charlie was in his face a lot…….and tenet kept ducking….no link, but is worth watching, too.

About the deaths tied to the US Atty scandal, I thought I’d bring this comment from yesterday that were stunning.

Bob Schacht @ 52

The unreported U.S Attorney scandal:
US Attorneys had more to worry about than just getting fired! Look at what my friends at Democracy for America in Flagstaff have found:

First, from Tom Flocco .com:

Texas assistant U.S. attorney deaths raise foul play questions

Senate ignored 5 Texas asst. U.S. attorney deaths and firings at Gonzales hearing

Also worth noting is the death of an assistant U.S. Attorney in Seattle. The U.S. Attorney there who tried to investigate the killing got fired, apparently for wanting to use resources for other than the Bush priorities, i.e. investigating Democrats and vote suppression.
Josh Marshall is onto this at TPM.

There needs to be a special prosecutor for these things.

Bob in HI

There is also a murder of an assistant US attorney Jonathon Luna in Maryland. This was a vicious murder at a time when he was being pressured into a plea which Luna did not believe was legal. He disappeared from his office, leaving his cell phone, laptop with the plea and his glasses needed for driving. He ended up in Pennsylvania stabbed 36 times, genitally mutilated. The US attorney he worked under was DiBiagio, one of the two Comey fired.

solai @ 52

MSNBC talking about gas prices. We need a national “Do not drive” day.
$4/gallon coming?

I received an email from a friend last week encouraging all not to buy gas on May 15. Maybe those interested at FDL could do likewise.

Blecchhh…I had to take a break from watching Timmeh and Tenet.

I’ve avoided watching anything about Tenet’s book tour until this morning. What a tool; he’s still plugging that the intelligence they (meaning somewhere in intelligence) had was adequate for the purposes of making the marketing case to the public for war, that the marketing case was a slam dunk.

The only thing he’s denying is that he used the phrase “slam dunk” in the manner in which Cheney quoted him on Timmeh’s show all those years ago, or that his use of that phrase was the “seminal moment” that sealed the deal and launched the war.

Tenet deserves every bit of verbal and written beating he gets and more; he supported the war, failed to ever say to members of the administration, Congress or the public that 1) his department did not agree with OVP’s or DoD’s cooked assessments; 2) that the intel was manipulated in any way; 3) that the war was going to be a mistake because of the likely launch of a civil war.

He owns it, as much as Bush, Cheney, Condi, Rummy, all WHIG and PNAC own this war. It’s his and the blood of hundreds of thousands is on his hands.

solai @ 135

Wow! I missed this story yesterday. Jon Tester calls on Montana’s USA to resign:

Same old, same old. We ask lots of people to resign. People totally disgraced and revealed as being incompetent or corrupt.
They say in response: ‘Go Cheney yourself’ and continue on.

The other shoe about the provisions put into the Patriot Act re-authorization is the OTHER provision.

Tester is talking about the provision put in that the State USA’s DO NOT HAVE to live in their district. The Montana USA has been truly absent, not on Naval Reserve duty but living and working in DC at another job plus MT USA management.
Tester Calls on Montana U.S. Attorney to Resign

Since 2005, William W. Mercer has served as acting associate attorney general at Justice Department headquarters in Washington as well as being the U.S. attorney in Montana, where he spends just three days a month. That has drawn the anger of a Montana federal judge who contends that Mercer is violating a federal law that requires him to live in Montana.

William W. Mercer worked to alter federal law to escape residency terms as a federal prosecutor.
William W. Mercer worked to alter federal law to escape residency terms as a federal prosecutor. (Department Of Justice Web Site)
Special Report

The Washington Post reported yesterday that on the same day in November 2005 that Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales assured the judge that Mercer was in compliance with federal law, Mercer asked Senate aides for new legislation that would allow him and a few others to escape it.

Congress approved the change in 2006 as part of the renewal of the USA Patriot Act.

Fresh thread, up and readyfor the reading.

meep at 133

So, y’know, if you see someone with ILUVDOGZ and you’re a cat person, complain, ’cause dammit, that’s just plain offensive.

i’ve seen some pro-life ones that peeved me off………guess there would be a few of those in south dakota, huh? wonder if they’re pullin’ those, too.

Thanks dmac. Charlie Rose, asking hard questions, wow.
I’m glad Timmeh is, for a change at least, listening to Tenet’s ridiculous responses. I personally am much more focussed on pumkinhead’s follow-up questions, rather than Tenet’s attempts to side step.

Timmeh is certainly capable of occasionally asking a good qeustion. The reason I so seldom waste time watch him any more, is because he so rarely follows up a tough question, based on the answer with an adequate follow-up question.

solai @ 129

Stephanopoulis isn’t on yet here. But I said last night that I would be watching for bias and would be ticked if the interview was a “gotcha”. More than one person told me to wake up and arm myself with items to throw at the TV. Guess they were right.

You will want to throw your TV out the window.
He even gave Tancredo an easy out on his racist “Miami is a third world country” remark… Gee, didya really mean it, hon?

Wow – he gave Tancredo a total pass – a pussy of an interview.

Attention C&L or Think Progress: PLEASE edit these interviews back to back or go back and forth between Tancredo’s questions/answers and Edward’s questions/answers!

It’s truly a remarkable study and prime example of the bias in MSM coverage of Democrats and Republicans. It’s an indictment of George, ABC and his phony news show, which has consistently given Republicans a platform for freely spewing talking points unchallenged – remember Gingrich blaming liberals for the Virginia tech shootings? George didn’t even say a word in opposition.

Timmeh is no more a journalist than Judy Miller.

He’s a Dick Cheney sock puppet. And that’s ALL he is

Tenet: How many AQ Kahn’s are out there, that we don’t know about?

A lot more since after we invaded Iraq.

john casper 148

May 6th, 2007 at 7:45 am

Thanks dmac. Charlie Rose, asking hard questions, wow.
I’m glad Timmeh is, for a change at least, listening to Tenet’s ridiculous responses. I personally am much more focussed on pumkinhead’s follow-up questions, rather than Tenet’s attempts to side step.

Timmeh is certainly capable of occasionally asking a good qeustion. The reason I so seldom waste time watch him any more, is because he so rarely follows up a tough question, based on the answer with an adequate follow-up question.

yeah, it was something, am going to watch it again today to see what i missed……but when he said–”we let them” like a parent ‘letting’ a child do something, well, that said it all for me……….charlie was spitting out confrontations as fast as he could…didn’t let up. but tenet said a few things out of context of the questions and that is what was telling………. wasn’t as ‘cool’ as he appeared, i think. like i said, i said oops for him a few times…..wish more people would have seen it……..charlie rose, pbs…….

I don’t think a do not drive day will do it. I believe that if we target 2 of the biggest and stop buying from them all together, we will get better results. For example, if everyone stopped buying from Mobil/Exxon for example….

I was impressed by John Edwards. He hit all of those hardballs out of the park. Stephie tried his best to get a gotcha but Edwards used each of those questions to get his message out. Good job, John.

Howard Anis Kurtz, gooper Trophy husband always trying to be an irrelevant as possible is still defending Imus today saying there is room for discussion as to whether the comments he made were racist and sexist.

grs @ 56

What’s catching my eye this morning? An internet buddy of mine started chronicaling his health ordeals in an effort to help others who suffer from his condition. It’s pretty surreal and I had no idea he was going through so much. If anyone is interested, you can read his story about anxiety/panic disorder. I’m glad he’s doing better!

That and watching George Tenet weasel, lie, and dodge culpability disgusts me.

Good morning grs -

Thanks for posting your friend’s blog.

I’m glad his symptoms have been releived, and I regret the doc who diagnosed him with the panic disorder didn’t give him more accurate info.

Although panic disorder (four or more panic attacks per month) sometimes remits spontaneously, effective treatments for panic disorder (pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic) offered soon after the onset of symptoms appear to decrease the risk that the initial symptoms will persist.

That’s a good thing. People with chronic panic disorder restricting their activities (agoraphobia) have a greater risk of suicide than people with mild to moderate depression.

[Also, chronic “anxiety neurosis” - a British diagnosis that appears to encompass panic disorder - have an elevated risk of strokes and heart attacks if their symptoms go untreated for two decades or more].

OK, what works for treatment?

One therapy and some drugs.

I. Psychotherapies

Psychotherapy comes in different forms – like people.

Most people imagine “psychotherapy” to be sitting around talking about life events.

This form of therapy (”insight-oriented psychotherapy”) is no better than placebo for relieving panic disorder, and far more expensive. Psychoanalysis – an even more expensive form of insight-oriented psychotherapy – is even more expensive, and also ineffective.

A very specific form of cognitive-behavioral therapy works as well as do (effective) meds in relieving anxiety disorder symptoms. Properly conducted, this therapy has been shown to reverse the abnormal brain blood flow patterns associated with OCD (the most severe form of anxiety disorder) and relieve symptoms with the same power shown by medications. Unlike medications, the benefits of the specfic therapy persist after the meds are discontinued.

This specific therapy was developed by David Barlow, PhD and Michelle Craske, PhD. They actually studied the results of the therapy with rigorous assessments and published their results. Their tools work.

Barlow/Craske wrote a series of treatment manuals (Mastery of…) detailing use of this specific therapy. For panic disorder, the title is Mastery of Your Anxiety and Panic, with one guide for patients (a workbook) and another for therapists.

Because the treatment works, ex-patients often sell their workbooks.

New workbooks may be obtained from Graywind Press (titles apparently devoured by Oxford University Press).

For reasons requiring such intricate explanations I shan’t complete them in time for hiking, most “cognitive behavioral” therapies for anxiety disorders you’ll find in the self-help section are incomplete. Many mental health professionals offerring CBT don’t have enough tools in their tool kit to do it well.

The Barlow/Crakse series brings patients and clinicians effective, university tested therapies which cure anxiety disorders in a significant proportion of patients.

II. Drugs

Two classes of medications are effective in relieving panic disorder symptoms: benzodiazapine anti-anxiety drugs (including clonazepam or Klonopin) and antidepressants (includiing the new SSRI class and the older tricyclic class).

Klonopin and its cousins relieve symptoms, but also cause withdrawal (and therefore high risks of dependency) with sustained use. Brief use of these tools can clarify diagnosis and help to bring down initial symptoms.

(Chronic use of benzodiazapines or other prescribed “sleeping pills” increases accident risks and accidental death rates in people over 60.)

Antidepressants (when prescribed for patients without bipolar disorder or psychosis) offer safe control of panic disorder for patients not pursuing CBT. SSRI’s (the Pr#z*c/ P*xil/ Z#l#ft group) work quite nicely for this.

As 90% of psychoactive meds in the US are prescribed by non-psychiatrists, info about effective use of SSRI’s for panic disorder is often helpful.

Concept: the starting antidepressant dose suggested for depression will make anxiety symptoms worse before making them better. Most clinicians don’t know this.

The easiest SSRI to use for panic disorder is sertraline (the Z one). This tool allows teh doc to start the drug at the lowest possible fraction of the effective depression dose (as little as 12.5%). Once the patient tolerates sde effects (increased anxiety symptoms) at the low dose, the dose can slowly by increased to the theraputic range.

Second concept: for most patients, the SSRI dose required to control anxiety symptoms is greater than the dose required for depression.

For sertraline, this can mean theraputic doses from 200-300 (or greater) to control panic disorder.

Hope all this helps – if not your friend, than someone else at the Lake (or their friend).

I learned the above info training and the joining the staff of an Anxiety Disorders Clinic at a major UC med school. Outside of academic med centers, the above info seems…well…a lot less available than I would like.

I’m sharing this info on the Lake so people here may help “educate” those caring for them and those they love.

PS – Disclaimer – I’ve no financial links with Dr. Barlow, Dr. Craske, or Big Pharma.

It is interesting how the issues of war, financial and domestic policy and strategy are discussed seperately, as if one has no effect on the other.

I would love to see all of the folks interviewd asked how they expect to deal with whatever priority they cite when the country has the largest deficit in history, the war is draining the treasury, the militaty is over-stressed and desperately needs to be re-equipted and rebuilt, the Social Security under funding problem lurks, Medicare underfunding is also coming to a head and there is a growing demand for an increased government role in domistic issues such as education and universal health insurance, etc.

The question has become not “, would you pull out of Iraq and if so when?”, but “how long can we afford to stay (in terms of both blood and treasure)?” Can we even fund the basic priorities that they declare without a massive re-funding (read tax increase) of the government? How will their position on the “war on terror” affect the nations ability to fund that endeavor and the many other domestic priorities they favor?

I’d love to see someone dicuss these issues with a healthy dose of reality, not just platitudes and sound bites designed to apeal to 14 people in New Hampshire, Iowa or California!

Twisted Martini @ 105

I would love to be able to take public transport, but as a sales rep it is impossible. Plus it stinks out loud in central Indiana. I do my part by working virtual as much as I can.

Oh gosh, I know…My boyfriend has to have a car or he simply could not earn a living. And I have the luxury of living in the major NYC Metropolitan area…I have no excuse NOT to use it.

Katymine: That’s why I’m calling them “Testercles” from now on.

Tenet on Meet the Press: “Never trust a man who wears a pink tie and talks about war.” That’s what T said, and she was right. Tenet should put his money from the book where his mouth is.

That and watching George Tenet weasel, lie, and dodge culpability disgusts me.

I read FDL daily but have never posted before. I find that if I wait someone will bring up the very points I find curious or interesting and expound on them. I watched the Larry King interview with Tenet the other night and wow, I don’t creep out easily but this guy did it for me. I’ve been watching for someone with a psych.
degree to analyze Tenets not so subtle control tactics in his manner of speaking. Specifically the way he uses the interviewers name at the beginning of every response. What’s with that? It was “Larry, blah blah blah.” Larry, blah blah blah blah.” Is this from the SpyMasters Hand Book because it sure didn’t matter what BS he spouted after that the interviewer in this case was just left sitting there with a silly grin on his face. I have to give Larry a break, he is a friendly interviewer and not given to being adversarial but I would have loved it if he would have stood up and said, “George, you’re sounding like a manipulative, lying asshat, George. Did I say George, George?”

Can anyone tell me what is so crazy about Tom Tancredo? His comment on Miami was not so far off.

Mr. Murphy, thanks for sharing all this info. I would have loved if if the doctors would have figured it out earlier, but it was accompanied (if not started by) a real underlying medical condition, so that’s where they continued to look for so long. By the time I was diagnosed, I’d been having 2 to 6 panic attacks per day for over a year and was already getting agoraphobic.

While on the Klonopin, I’ve been working hard at changing the way I think about things and all that stuff. I’m also considering CBT or some other program, too. I’ll look into the ones you described.

If you wouldn’t mind coming over to the blog and letting me know what you think about long-term, low-dose benzo treatment, I’d appreciate it. I’ve discovered that they’re somewhat out of favor, but have found studies that suggest it’s not too bad, as well. The key seems to be keeping the dose low…higher doses are likely to develop tolerance to sedative effects, although not necessarily anxiolytic effects.

Please let me know what you think. Hopefully you’ll read this. I read firedoglake somewhat often but do not check the comments very much…so if you’d be so kind as to contact me more directly that would be helpful.

Thanks again.

And thanks to “S” for posting my link here. Not the usual place for such a link, but hey, it led me to someone who seems to know their stuff.

D

And I’m sorry to go off-topic on a board I hardly ever post in. That’s against “netiquette”, or something, I’m sure.

debased @ 163

And I’m sorry to go off-topic on a board I hardly ever post in. That’s against “netiquette”, or something, I’m sure.

noooo…… be welcome! and i hope you return often…

there are few posts where “off topic” is a problem (the book salon or blue america are examples where there is a guest).