Month: October 2005

not for making the leak, but for not making it work well enough. In 2003.

New York Daily News is reporting:

“Other sources confirmed, however, that Bush was initially furious with Rove in 2003 when his deputy chief of staff conceded he had talked to the press about the Plame leak.

Bush has always known that Rove often talks with reporters anonymously and he generally approved of such contacts, one source said.

But the President felt Rove and other members of the White House damage-control team did a clumsy job in their campaign to discredit Plame’s husband, Joseph Wilson, the ex-diplomat who criticized Bush’s claim that Saddam Hussein tried to buy weapons-grade uranium in Niger.”

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/357107p-304312c.html

On Tuesday, at dusk, the eagles flew from the Coroner’s Court. Unfurling their wings of stone, they launched themselves into the deep blue beyond. Commuters, impatiently awaiting their buses, did not believe their eyes.

On Wednesday it was the turn of the women. One calmly led a lion, against whose back she had reclined for the past century, out over the railings onto the roof, coaxing it as one might a reluctant cat. They disappeared from sight, though not from memory.

Psst. Don’t tell the Muslims, or they might get mad, riot, and kill some people.

Airing tonight, on Australian television:

Our psy-ops guys are so clever. They really excel at convincing Muslims that we have respect for their religion, culture, and status as human beings.

Add this to list of Geneva violations, and let’s get the impeachment rolling.

Update [2005-10-19 18:37:51 by BooMan]: also see Spiderleaf’s diary on this topic.

While rumors are the theme of the week, here’s a hefty slice from the Beltway Insider Pie that comes to us via an e-mail from a Democratic House member’s staffer to Jan Frel at AlterNet.

Four items, viz.:

• Fred Flights, an assistant to John Bolton, is a named name who could be indicted.
• Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham have been suggested as replacements for Dick Cheney.
• Colin Powell told John McCain he showed the infamous memo with Plame’s identity on it two just two people; Dick Cheney and George Bush.
• Fitzgerald is looking at the precedent set from the indictment of Tricky Dick’s veep Spiro Agnew to pursue against Cheney.

Note, the e-mailing staffer eschews CAPS, a quirk that I’ve preserved.

The DEM Report is a new weekly report on familiar faces from the headlines. The DEM Report analyzes leaders, scandals and others who are making the headlines. Read more about The DEM Report here. I decided to cross-post the first DEM report on a few other sites to get a wider range of feedback and to give it a bit more exposure. Let me know what you think about the first issue of The DEM Report.

Dennis Hastert – – What Is Dennis Hastert Smoking?

Don’t you just love watching the GOP tangle itself up in it’s own lies. Rep. Dennis Hastert now wants to blame the Democrats for the failures prior to Katrina and he also wants to lecture us on fiscal responsibility! Excuse me but where has Hastert been for the past 5 years? The Bush administration, a Republican administration mind you has put us into a war of choice that has cost us over 200 billion dollars. Along with that the Bush administration erased the Clinton surplus and pummeled that surplus into a massive deficit. Here is the quote from Dennis:

Well excuse us Dems for trying to help the victims of Katrina! The GOP has been hard at work cutting taxes for their rich buddies and now they are trying to balance Katrina’s cost on the backs of the nation’s poor. I say give Hastert two big red ones for his irresponsibility and the nonsense that comes out of his press office.

Tom Delay – – Tom Delay Continues To Sink

Delay and his attorney are complete morons. Look at what his attorney called the charges being put forth against his client:

Well then what the hell would his attorney call Delay’s actions while he has been serving in the House. To see how Delay has his fingers in just about every corrupt move in DC go to the DCCC’s HouseofScandal.org and check out that map.

Delay’s attorneys can blabber all they want about “outrageous government conduct” but lets not them forget about Delay’s history in the House and his history with Abramoff and other scumbags. Give Delay a two for being just about the most corrupt GOPer that we know of and for the “outrageous” remarks by his attorneys.

Jack Carter – – Carter for Congress?

If the blogosphere needs someone to rally around then it’s going to be this guy. Jack Carter is the son of former President Jimmy Carter and is considering a run for the Senate in Nevada. Carter is planning to run against Sen. Ensign who is vulnerable and up for reelection in 2006. Jack Carter made a recent stop in Elko, Nevada and hammered away at the Bush administration. Here is a choice quote:

Sounds reasonable to me and it sounds better knowing that both Jimmy Carter and Sen. Harry Reid support his run for the Senate. It isn’t final on whether he will challenge Ensign in ’06 but I’d love to see a Carter in the Senate. I’ll give Carter one green star because he would make on hell of a candidate but expect to see him again on the DEM Report because I’m sensing that he will run but only time will tell…

False Terror Alerts – – The Government That Cried Wolf

I don’t know about you all but I’m tired of these false terror threats that end up being the result of bad intelligence. First it was the false information that led to the NY Subway scare and now ABC News reports that yesterday’s Baltimore terror scare was based on faulty intel also.

I’m glad that these false alarms have turned out to be just that, false alarms but these “scares” can’t continues. Every time we have one of these so-called “terror scares” our government loses credibility with its citizens. I say give them two red stars until they get their act together. The Bush administration has had four years since 9/11 to get their act together and we are still languishing in the dark relying on pitiful intel to protect our citizens.

Iraqi People – – Kudos to the Iraqis

Personally I thought the Iraqi elections meant very little in the long run and they mean even less in the ultimate goal of our departure but lets give the Iraqis some credit for showing up last Saturday. I’m not saying the elections were perfect because their was undeniable fraud but getting Iraqis to participate in an election is something to be proud of whether you agree with the war or not.

Wesley Clark said it best in this past weekend’s Democratic radio address:

As a testament to the difficulties that lie ahead in Iraq the US military reported yet another dead US Soldier and more violence was reported throughout the country on Tuesday.

The fraud that I mentioned above hasn’t been “confirmed” but then again is electoral fraud ever “confirmed” before it’s too late? We will have to wait and see what happens with the audit but in the meantime lets give the Iraqis a big green one for showing up and voting last Saturday. The difficulties that lie ahead are enormous and having an incompetent President doesn’t help but the Iraqis deserve Kudos for showing up.