This diary has been posted by Migeru at the EuroTribune. and he allowed me to repost it here.;It was written by Alicia Castro, a member of the Parliament, at a time when Bush is about to travel to Argentina to take part of the Americas Summit. I think it is important because it shows how the president is thought of abroad.
Read MoreLanny Davis is doin’ the limbo! Check this out from BTC News:
While Davis [in the NYT today] admonishes Republicans for their “criminalizing politics” mantra, he likewise chastises Democrats for finding an indifference to national security in the Plame leak.
Similarly, the Democrats are playing up the idea that White House officials may have endangered national security in playing hardball politics. Well, I can remember all the times I picked up the phone and talked “on background” to reporters, “pushing back” against rumors damaging to President Clinton and citing information that I thought was “out there.” I don’t remember ever worrying about whether the facts that I felt were public knowledge might have been classified….
Don’t move that limbo bar … You’ll be a limbo star… How low can you go. (Chubby Checker) … OPEN THREAD:
Read Moreby Larry C. Johnson
The level of disinformation being put out against Joe Wilson is amazing and appalling. What is really remarkable are the number of prominent journalists (Andrea Mitchell, Dana Milbank spring to mind) who are repeating conventional wisdom as truth without taking time to check out the facts.
The radical right is desperate and grasping at straws in the wake of Scooter Libby’s indictment. They are carrying copies to most TV interviews of the report by the Senate Intelligence Committee from July 2004 regarding what the intelligence community knew and reported on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. One poor soul on Wolf Blitzer the other day tried reading from it in a desperate bid to try to make Joe Wilson the focus of the story. Sorry guys, Joe didn’t get indicted for perjury, Scooter did. Let’s keep our liars list up to date. Okay?
That said, it is also worth noting that the Senate Intel report is an abomination. It is full of misleading information and was deliberately crafted to shield Vice President Cheney and his staff from scrutiny. Unfortunately, the Democrats rolled over and signed off on the report.
Despite the flaws in the report there are key tidbits that help blow the cover off of the White House scheme to cook the intel books. I am going to post up a couple of items on this matter in the next couple of days. For starters I wanted to ensure that everyone has had a chance to read Joe Wilson’s letter to Senators Pat Roberts and Jay Rockefeller.
One thing is clear–it ain’t Joe Wilson that’s doing the lying.
Joseph C. Wilson, IV
July 15, 2004
The Honorable Pat Roberts
Chairman, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
The Honorable Jay Rockefeller
Vice Chairman, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
Dear Senator Roberts and Senator Rockefeller,
I read with great surprise and consternation the Niger portion of Senators Roberts, Bond and Hatch “additional comments to the Senate Select Intelligence Committee’s Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community’s Prewar Assessment on Iraq. I am taking this opportunity to clarify some of the issues raised in these comments.
First conclusion: “The plan to send the former ambassador to Niger was suggested by the former ambassador’s wife, a CIA employee.”
That is not true. The conclusion is apparently based on one anodyne quote from a memo Valerie Plame, my wife sent to her superiors that says “my husband has good relations with the PM (prime minister) and the former Minister of Mines, (not to mention lots of French contacts) both of whom could possibly shed light on this sort of activity.” There is no suggestion or recommendation in that statement that I be sent on the trip. Indeed it is little more than a recitation of my contacts and bona fides. The conclusion is reinforced by comments in the body of the report that a CPD reports officer stated the “the former ambassador’s wife ‘offered up his name’” (page 39) and a State Department Intelligence and Research officer that the “meeting was ‘apparently convened by [the former ambassador’s] wife who had the idea to dispatch him to use his contacts to sort out the Iraq-Niger uranium issue.”
In fact, Valerie was not in the meeting …
Continued below:
Read MoreSomeone asked, in relation to my mini-screenplay The Valachi Papers. Pt.II (which was posted here today), whether there would be another installment.
My answer is below. Read on
Read MoreIt’s no longer a “what if” situation — at least one frantic rape victim (we know of), now has been denied emergency contraception by a so-called “activist” pharmacist, forcing his religious views on another woman’s medical care.
And it’s a nasty situation also coming soon to your local market, if it hasn’t already.
Along with the pharmacist who denies you — or your wife, your daughter, your mother, your best friend — her birth control bills.
Read More
