SOFT! Soft on Terrorism I Tell you!

It seems we've been force feeding detainees in Guantanamo. How many? 41 hunger strikers on Dec 15, which has winnowed down to three now. Sure, this had been reported, but it had also been denied; and now Gitmo commnder General Bantz Craddock (actual name) has confirmed we've been force feeding them, strapped down to to chairs.

His major complaint? Medical staff had been indulging these terrorists, to the point of "permitting them to choose the color of their feeding tubes."

The Sport of Breaking Wills

It can be fun to read a scathing book review. A favorite is a Dorothy Parker one-liner: "This is not a book to be tossed lightly aside, but to be thrown with great force."

The following review is crispy with the kind of scorched slander that only academic condescension can produce. About the author Daniel Dennett, who acknowledges that in writing on the tussle between science and religion, he opens himself up to being poked in the nose and yet he is steeled to take on this burden, the reviewer proclaims: "Giordano Bruno, with tenure at Tufts!"

Enjoy.

Compound phrases are useful

for conveying there is more to be known than is apparent.

There is no law

but the President's word.

Torture is a technique

which can be used on anyone.

325,000 Names on Terrorism Watch List

WaPost.
The National Counterterrorism Center lists 325,000 names in a database of terrorism suspects and people who allegedly aid them.

Only a small small fraction are Americans and US residents, they say. What's a small fraction? I think 5% is small. So, 15,000 Americans?

So, how long until we herd these folks into "happy camps"?

Cheney shoots (does not kill) Lawyer

I don't know if this falls under the banner of "another bad day for W", but his Veep has shot a 78-year old lawyer while quail-hunting on the ranch of a major campaign contributor: NYT story.

Among the questions provoked by this story: Is Mr. Whittington's "stable" status in the ICU of a major metropolitan hospital consistent with the donor's characterization of him, post-accident, as "fine... sitting up in bed, yakking and cracking jokes"? Why did the Veep's office delay 24 hours before notifying the media? And: If it's open season on lawyers, why hasn't Dick let the rest of us in on the fun?

Patrick as a South Park character

Make your own.

Bad Day for Bush

Yesterday, Bush detailed that a Southest Asian country had arrested an Al Qaeda operative in 2002, who told them about a plan for Southeast Asian men to use a plane to take down the "Iconic Library Tower" of Los Angeles, using "shoe bombs" to get through the cockpit door (recall, Richard Reid was caught Dec 2001).

It remains unclear how much of this information was gained by holding him underwater until he passed out; stipping him naked and threatening him with dogs to attack his genitals; oh, and where this mastermind involved in what would have been the second major attack on the US in a year is now -- still in Indonesia? Why don't we have this person in US Custody? Why is he not on trial here?

One news cycle later, Libby is saying Cheney told him to leak secret information, in violation of the National Security Act. ( NOTE TO SENATE: No hearings on this! Oliver North's testimony and the immunity you gave him ruined the prosecution for the Iran-Contra episode. No Immunity for Libby!)

• White House Knew the Levee Failed Monday.
  
  
• Ex-CIA Official Faults Use of Data on Iraq The 28-year career official was the US point man for Near East and South Asia intelligence. He says the Administration "cherry picked" intelligence, and never even asked for a pre-war strategic assessment, which would have shown the insurgency we see now.

Too Scared to Think Yet?

Bush Gives New Details of 2002 Qaeda Plot to Attack Los Angeles. According to Bush, who never lies, the plot was to unfold a month after Sept 11 using a "shoe bomb" to gain access toan airplane cockpit, to take down the U.S. Bank Tower ("Library Tower") in Los Angeles. It had purpotedly been targeted, because it is the tallest building west of the Mississippi, a fact which no one west of the Mississippi knows.

Libby's Defense: "Cheney Told Me To Leak Classified Information"

NATIONAL JOURNAL: Cheney 'Authorized' Libby to Leak Classified Information : "Beyond what was stated in the court paper, say people with firsthand knowledge of the matter, Libby also indicated what he will offer as a broad defense during his upcoming criminal trial: that Vice President Cheney and other senior Bush administration officials had earlier encouraged and authorized him to share classified information with journalists to build public support for going to war. Later, after the war began in 2003, Cheney authorized Libby to release additional classified information, including details of the NIE, to defend the administration's use of prewar intelligence in making the case for war."

Libby on record that he was ordered by Cheney to leak

All I can say is 'wow'.

He was ordered to do it. Can anyone tell me at what point do they drag Cheney away in handcuffs?

Believe It

Microsoft will begin selling a security one stop shop for Windows. Unbelieveable.

Would you stand for it if your car came with an ignition that could be started by easy to fabricate keys? If your bank said "We'll take your money, and put it in a certain place, but if you want some real protection that'll cost extra."?

If this becomes a real money-maker for Microsoft, what incentive do they have to make Windows secure? From the level of CPUs that are turned into zombies, there are certain days where the entirety of the internet slows down to a crawl because there are so many machines that run Windows, and ends up affecting everyone. Much of the spam generated in the world comes from PCs running windows that have been hijacked. Why is it that Microsoft isn't required to build this safety in?

Vonage Plans Sale of Stock

Article.

Thank god. For years, Vonage has been under attack by traditional landline providers, cable companies, ISPs, using the FCC and legislation to restrict what they can do. And how to do you stop that? Broaden the base of people who are invested in the companies success.

Fashion is the New Architecture

Architecture is one of those things that all wine-drinking academics have to pass through. You gotta know Corbusier from van der Rohe, care about the shoddy treatment of Libeskind over Ground Zero; you can moo that Gehry has his best work behind him. Kind of like baseball.

But, if you care about keeping up appearances, I think Fashion is the new thing. Where else is the dialogue between the creator and the consumer so rich and detailed? The language of clothes, and what they are supposed to say about the wearer and the culture is almost as well developed as, well, language. Which is why I'm interested in the fact that the NYTimes review in fashion says that there's a word to describe what's goin' on. Rebellion.

Brokeback to the Future

I haven't posted in a while, so I thought I'dshare this.

The Google Subpoena

Question for a lawyer: How does it happen that the Justice Department can subpoena web search records from Google, Yahoo, AOL, and MSN, when the request is not pursuant to a criminal investigation, and the companies are not themselves a party to the suit?

Note that the legal case in question is an ACLU challenge to the constitutionality of a federal law (the "Child Online Protection Act", a law to regulate pornography on the Internet). Could Attorney General Gonzalez subpoena my own personal web cache in order to defend his favorite anti-pornography legislation, too? (Just asking.)

Bob Curling

35 Poutines later, that is me thowing the stone in my very first curling outing.

Bush a two-time lawbreaker

According to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (NYT story).

We all know that Bush has been in flagrant violation of FISA - which requires a warrant from the FISA court for every domestic wiretap by the NSA. The President has cheerfully admitted that he has been existing in a world of his own, a world where that restriction has magically evaporated, for three years now. No one believes the excuses he, the Veep, Condi, and Alberto Gonzalez have since put forward to "legalize" this behavior. Moreover, the fact that the President & Co. kept even their own Justice Department in the dark about what they were up to makes it pretty clear they knew it was illegal, themselves.

However, as Bob pointed out in this post below, the President has also been in violation of the NSA Act, which established the NSA and tasked the Congress with oversight of its operations. Telling the party-hack committee chair that you have kept the NSA busy violating the rights of thousands of citizens, on a daily basis, for the last 3 years - without informing anyone else of this activity - is apparently not really consistent with that oversight function. Or so the CRS has ruled.

Two more reasons to impeach the President.

Gore Calls for Government of Laws

Washington Post has the transcript (thanks to Josh Marshall for pointing this out).

In the meantime, Bush has responded, stating that he, for one, is just fine with a government of men. (Joke! You tell me whether you laughed or cried.)

Actually, Erica watched "All the President's Men" last night... her take-away? "Oh my gosh, all of that fuss over a few dirty tricks. What we have going on right now is much worse."

Did You Hear Cheney Went To The Hospital with Shortness of Breath?

Apparently, somebody told him his daughter was a lesbian.

Republican House Intelligence Committee Chair Pushes Back

Republican NYTimes. Yesterday, Jane Harmon, in a letter to Bush, accused him of a second major legal violation: The National Security Act of 1947, which says that the administration must completely and currently brief the House and Senate committees on Intelligence.

The importance of Harmon's statement is that it is: (1) it is far easier to prove violation than that of FISA.

The Chair of the Senate committee on intelligence has been totally silent on this issue, not saying a single word on what was or was not told to him or members of his committee.

However, today the Chair of the House Intelligence Committee implies that Bush was in compliance. Actually, that's not what he says, he says that the Briefings that Bush did provide to the Committee leadership were in compliance. Well, sure, but my walking down the street is in compliance with the National Security Act, too. The question is whether Bush's briefings were sufficient to satisfy the National Security act. Based on Democrats' public statments, the answer would seem to be no.

The Scandal Has a Name!

WaTimes: Russ Tice, an NSA employee, wants to testify to the Congress about Bush's illegal wiretapping. No doubt, this is an extremely brave choice.

As importantly, Mr. Tice's letters to the Intelligence Committee reveal what the Bush administration called these illegal wiretappings: The Special Access Program.

So, the scandal now has a name: it is the SAP-Scandal.

Keeping Score

From my wish-list, number 1 of 7 has just happened: Abramoff has turned states evidence (Jan 3, goal was Jan 15).

So, that's 1 of 7.

Number 2: "DeLay convicted by Feb 1" doesn't look like it's going to happen; it appears he won't get a trial date in January.

Pearls before Swine people!

I'm just pointing out to y'all that today, I did a diary post over at DKos. Right now it's the most commented article all day, with 142 comments (after 5 hrs); and for most of the afternoon, it was the second most highly recommended article, behind one by Cindy Sheehan.

Impeachment Watch: Day 17

NYTimes
quotes Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) saying Bush acted within the constitution, and that the focus now should be on hunting down the whistleblower.

Of interest: McConnell thinks hearings should be in the Intelligence committee (it's Chair, Sen. Roberts, has been defensive about how his committee has given "oversight" to the program) wherey can be secret, rather than on Spector's Judiciary committee, where they would not. Judiciary is the proper venue, because at issue is the Executive's compliance with FISA, requiring its reporting to the Judicial branch.

For: 3 (Feingold, Feinstein, Spector)
Against: 2 (McCain, McConnell)
Uncertain: 95

Bush to Assert the Ice-9 of Presidential Powers

George Bush is preparing a broad public push to assert that his illegal wiretapping -- in violation of the FISA act -- is permitted due to his war-powers. Specifically, in a time of war, a President can do what he needs to defend the country.

This claimed power is the Ice-9 of all claimed powers. With it, he can violate any of the Bill of rights, any Congressional law -- there is no limitation to what he could do.

The Senate, in its oversight obligation, has a job to do: (1) continue to point out that the wiretapping continues to be illegal under the FISA act; (2) require that the President immediately end to all activities which violate the FISA act; (3) pass legislation which requires that all previous domestic wiretaps which have not been approved by the FISA court be presented to the FISA court for approval; and (4) because innocent Americans should not be victimized by the US Government, all wiretaps not approved by the FISA court be provided in transcript to the American citizens affected.


Otherwise, if Congress does not check Bush's power, he and members of his administration will abuse it.

De

The End of the Wiretapping Scandal

Just where is this all leading? one might ask. Prima facie, the President violated an important law, the 1978 FISA act, which says he can't spy on Americans on American soil. The act was passed to counter Nixon's abuses, to keep the President from using easily assumed powers as a tool of political oppression.

Bush has indeed re-assumed the "spying on Americans" power. But that power itself is not an evil, though it is onerous. The evil of it comes when that power is abused to be a tool for political oppression -- such as sending off-bankroll folks to break into the psychiatrist's office of one of your chief critics, in an attempt to get some career-ending dirt on them.

So did Bush use his capriciously assumed wiretapping power as a tool for political oppression -- for example, spying on journalists, politicians, innocent Americans in an attempt to collect information which is irrelevant to Bush's War on Terror, but might prove useful in other contexts?

Nobody knows. He certainly had the capability to do this, which, actually, he's not supposed to; it's the role of the FISA court, had he bothered to make his requests properly, to ensure that Bush's spying ability is not used as a tool of oppression, but Bush did not keep them informed of when and how he was using this power.

Neither did Bush inform congress -- unless they're not telling us something -- of the specific instances (we're told, over 500 such wiretaps, ordered by NSA shift supervisors and unreviewed by their superiors, running at any given time for the past 3 years).

To bring Bush back in compliance, Congress should pass a law requiring that each and every single FISA violation now be brought for the court's review; and every instance which is not approved retroactively, the corresponding transcripts should be given to the affected party.

The most important part of this process is to make the other two branches of government fully aware of Bush's spying activities, so that it can be determined if he did abuse his power. And he might have abused it. This is the administration that the Vice President's office used secret information leaked to the press to silence a critic, taking that information from CIA insiders, to the Vice President's office, and then to their political arm in the person of Karl Rove, who then coordinated that leaking with the Vice President's office (Scooter Libby) and the NSA (Stephen Hadley). So, it's kind of far from given that abuses have not taken place.

If abuses did take place, we then have an oppressive KGB-insider for a President. I should think that would be sufficient to bother Republican lawmakers to remove him from office.

But, on the other hand, if all Bush did with this power is listen to direct phone calls between Osama Bin Laden and his his totally hot niece who was born in California , then it is our unfortunate situation that Democrats are intellectually consistent enough and Republicans self-interested enough to not see this as a threat to the Republic, and to simply to let the matter drop. Sure, it would be nice that law and order rule the day.

Stop the Yammering!

Seriously people, could the left please stop engaging in the argument "Is Bush's warrantless wiretapping illegal?" Of course it is illegal.

The questions now are:

1. Is Bush abusing this power to substantially violate the rights that FISA is meant to protect? Such as freedom of the press, and freedom of political activity? So, who did Bush spy on? Journalists? Members of Congress? Senators? any Judges? Prominent members or donors to the Democratic part?
   
   
2. Was any of this information used to violate the rights meant to be protected by FISA? Did they politically go after journalists they got information on? Did they go after Members of congress they got information on? Was any information passed around to anyone outside the NSA, like to the FBI? Or to the political folks, like Karl Rove?
   

Also, Democratic Senators should immediately introduce a bill to stop these violations of FISA, and to correct the violations that have occurred. Specifically, the Congress should direct the President that he does not have the power to violate FISA under the statute he claims; that all previous wiretaps must now be presented to the FISA court for approval, and that the subjects of wiretaps that the FISA court declines to be approved be alerted to the existence of the wiretaps and given full transcripts of what was taken down.

Yummy! Crispy!

Remember the savory bites you'd get at communion? Now you can grab a bag at the store! Communion wafers newest Quebec snack craze

"Nothing."

WaPost:

At a private White House meeting in November 2004, President Bush thanked his Press Secretary Scott McClellan for his help in Bush's re-election:

"Is Scotty here? Where's Scotty?" Bush asked, half-grinning, according to two people who were in the meeting but asked not to be quoted by name because they were discussing a private event. Bush scanned the room for Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary.

"I want to especially thank Scotty," the president said, looking at his aide. "I want to thank Scotty for saying" -- and he paused for effect. . . .

" Nothing ."

At which point everyone laughed and the president left the room.

They Couldn't Dream One Up

WaPost:

"Sources knowledgeable about the program said there is no way to secure a FISA warrant when the goal is to listen in on a vast array of communications in the hopes of finding something that sounds suspicious. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales said the White House had tried but failed to find a way.

One government official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the administration complained bitterly that the FISA process demanded too much: to name a target and give a reason to spy on it.

'For FISA, they had to put down a written justification for the wiretap,' said the official. 'They couldn't dream one up.'"

In other words, the administration regularly spies on Americans in a complete fishing expedition.

This is the worst of all possible worlds.

Bob's Wish List 2006

What do I wish for in the coming year?

• Abramoff turns state's evidence by Jan 15 2006
  
• DeLay convicted by Feb 1 2006
  
• Indictment of Karl Rove by Feb 15 2006
  
• Impeachment hearings begin in the House by May 1 2006
  
• Indictment of Dick Cheney by June 1 2006
  
• Bush Convicted in the Senate by July 1 2006
  
• Nov 2006: Democrats re-take the House, Senate.
  

In short. A return to law and order.

First Comments from the Man Charged with Congressional Oversight: Sen Pat Roberts (R-KS)

Bush has said that he had congressional oversight, and the Senate Committee charged with this is the Senate Intelligence Committee, chaired by Pat Roberts (R-Kansas), who has been silent until now.

Here he is, mocking Senator Rockefeller's handwritten protestation to Dick Cheney that the strictures Cheney placed on the few Senators briefed on the warrantless spying program (under threats of violating national security laws) made it impossible for him to give oversight:
AP:

"Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., pushed back Tuesday, saying that if Rockefeller had concerns about the program, he could have used the tools he has to wield influence, such as requesting committee or legislative action. 'Feigning helplessness is not one of those tools,' Roberts said."

This is very disappointing. My question for Roberts: is he prepeared to assert that his committee gave oversight to this program -- oversight which resulted in direct violation of congressional laws (FISA)? Because oversight which permits violation of congressional laws is not oversight at all, it's incompetence.

Cheney notified Roberts in July 2003 that the Bush administration was regularly violating the FISA act. Why did he not report this to the Senate?

George Bush on Court Ordered Wiretaps

President Bush: Information Sharing, Patriot Act Vital to Homeland Security

"Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. It's important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution.

-- President George Bush, April 20th 2004, by which time Bush had authorized wiretaps circumventing court orders for more than five 45-day periods, in violation of the FISA act.

Big. Fat. Anti-constitutional. Liar.

Impeachment Watch Day 3: Two Conservative Scholars Chime In

Think Progress: Two conservative constitutional scholars argue that Bush has committed impeachable crimes.

Bush: Spying on the Media?

Over at Americablog, John has an interesting speculation. Bush stated in his press conference today that he was spying on people who were talking to people who had known ties to Al-Qaeda.

That describes at least two kinds of people: Al Qaeda members, and members of our fourth estate.

Bush as Messiah

Bob points below to Bush's tautological explanation of why it was legal for him to order illegal wiretaps and email intercepts on US citizens: that because he ordered it, and because he "shares some concerns" about our civil liberties and has sworn to uphold the law, therefore it is legal. This amounts to a declaration that anything Bush does is, by definition, within the law. No matter what the law says.

This circular argument is so absurdly logic-defying that it seems more like the plot device in a Mel Brooks movie than the governing philosophy of our nation's leadership. And yet this is exactly the argument advanced in the two infamous legal memoranda of UC Berkeley (Boalt) Law Professor John Yoo: the first "torture memo", which argued that only the most extreme torments qualify as torture under US law; and the second, which argued that the President had ultimate authority to conduct whatever activity he considered necessary in prosecuting the "war on terror", thanks to the "inherent executive power" granted his office by the Constitution. (Boy! For a crowd that claims to favor strict construction of that document...)

Anyway, we are not used to encountering this argument of "Because I do it, it must be right" in our day to day lives. And there is a good reason for that. In fact, to my knowledge there is only one entity prior to George W. Bush who satisfied this claim: namely, the Lord made flesh, i.e. Jesus. Or more broadly: Jesus, plus those occasional dictator kings who also claimed the godhead.

So for those of you that had your suspicions about this, I argue, here is your proof: Dubyah considers himself our Risen Savior.

Merry Bushmas!

Gonzoles: The Authorization for Force was the Authorization to Spy on Americans

NYTimes: "Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales also spoke out today as the Bush administration mounted an all-out offensive to rebut the criticisms of Democrats. 'Our position is that the authorization to use military force, which was passed by the Congress after Sept. 11, constitutes that authority,' he said."

So the position of the President was that the statute which authorizes activity which would be (they say) illegal under FISA was the authorization by Congress for Bush to use military force in Iraq.

My Illegal Tactics are Required by the War on Terror: The Law is My Word-- Bush

During Bush's press conference today, he made the following statement:

I can fully understand why members of Congress are expressing concerns about civil liberties, I know that. I share the same concerns. I want to make sure the American people understand, however, that we have an obligation to protect yo, and we're doing that and at the same time protecting your civil liberties. Secondly, an open debate about law would say to the enemy, "Here's what we're going to do." And this is an enemy which adjusts. We monitor this program carefully. We have consulted with members of the Congress over a dozen times. We are constantly reviewing the program. Those of us who review the program have a duty to uphold the laws of the United States. And we take that duty very seriously.

What Bush is saying here is that, because he has a duty to uphold the laws of the United States, he has the authority to order a warrantless spying program which is in violation of the FISA act. In other words any program he approves is not in violation of any law. He's effectively saying, "my duty to uphold the law means that whatever I do is approved by law, because I approved it. The law is my word."

More significantly, he reveals some of what his reasoning was in ordering an illegal wiretapping operation by the NSA -- "an open debate about law would say to the enemy, 'Here's what we're going to do.'" -- i.e., even though this stuff is illegal, he couldn't try to change the law because that would tip terrorists off as to our methods.

This is very disturbing reasoning. Bush seems to believe both that he is empowered and that it is right for him to conduct illegal actiivities as President, because that way terrorists would never know what it is he's willing to do to catch them. Under that reasoning, he could use any completely illegal activity he wanted to prosecute the war on terror. Indeed, that's what he's done here -- he's ordered violation of the FISA act.

This is a serious threat to the American people. Our rights cannot be shunted aside by a President who finds them inconvenient. Our rights were here before he arrived in office, and they were supposed to be left intact after he leaves office. He swore he would uphold them, and now he's violating them.

Bush Declares War

NYTimes.
Bush is asserting that his illegal spying on Americans is, in fact, legal, and has asked the Justice department to investigate leaks.

Perhaps some intrepid reporter will ask the President if he expects all White House personnell to cooperate with the investigation; whether or not he would fire anyone who was involved in leaking secret information; and if it his policy to fully disclose all information he has about people leaking to the press when the Justice Department asks for it, and to the American people.

In other words, all the quesetions they asked with regards to the Plame investigation, but which the White House equivocates on.

More importantly, demanding the Justice department to go into this indicates that he is through the looking glass; he is staking the territory that spying on Americans in the US without a court warrant is legal, and defensible.

The problem, of course, is that Bush knows that, on balance, what you can get away with is abusing power in a way which seems socially responsible. Example: Nixon's ordering people to lie to the Justice Department in investigating the Watergate break-in, bad; but if everyone thinks it's okay to follow hot phone trails, that's okay, even if he's breaking the law while doing it.

Another example: courts have, de facto, had a standard that leaks of secret information will go unpunished if the leak serves a substantial social benefit. Example: the Pentagon Papers, unpunished, because it gave the public important information about the duplicitousness of the executive branch in prosecuting the Vietnam War, telling us it was going swell, when in fact all was chaos, and getting worse -- result: no prosecution. Counter-example: the Plame leak, where a CIA agent was outed for political punishment -- result: prosecution.

Here, I think, the courts will find against Bush, because in performing his activity, he has ignored the legal authority of Congress in setting the law in the first place, and in the reviewing role of the FISA court to make sure the administration does not abuse the ability to spy on Americans.

Homeland Security Agents Really Do Use Library Loans to Try to Discover Terrorists. Welcome to the Soviet Union

I never understood why Bush wanted the power to demand library loan lists. Even aside from the more important civil liberty, the right to be let alone, not having your reading scrutinzed by the U.S. government, would agents really think they could efficiently generate a list of terrorists by watching who checks out what books?

Turns out,
the answer is yes. Agents tracked down, met and interviewed a UMass Dartmouth history student because he checked out a copy of Mao's "Little Red Book". The book is on a "watch list", the agents told the student, and, combined with the fact the student had spent a lot of time abroad, they thought they would drop by, make sure he wasn't planning to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge with blowtorches, or something like that.

This sort of exercise is not a dismissable joke. The Bush administration has asserted the power that they could take into custody people like the student above -- not "arrest" them, because they take them without charge -- and hold them without a lawyer, without judicial review forever.

We have become the Soviet Union. There is no nice way to put it. You combine the above to powers, and we have arbitrary and capricious arrest powers in the hands of our government. This does not make us safer -- in fact, it puts us in danger, but not at the hands of terrorists: at the hands of our own government.

Impeachement Watch: Feinstein

Chronicle.

Feinstein leaves little wiggle room that she views the activities as illegal, even as former Senator Bob Graham (D-FL) who was chairmon of the Senate Intelligence Committee at the time that Bush started eavesdropping, reports that he only learned about it after he was off the committee. Feinstein embelished, saying that, the way things sound now, Bush failed to meet the basic oversight requirements given by law.

The total listing so far:
For: 3 (Feingold,Spector,Feinstein)
Against: 0
Uncertain: 97

Impeachment Watch Day 1: Tallying Senators: Russ Feingold, Arlen Spector

Vote counting -- the guesswork and confirmation ability that made Johnson a great Senate leader -- is an exercise in reading tea leaves and public statements to determine who will vote which way on a given bill.

So, I'm declaring the beginning of an Impeachment Watch, starting December 18 2005, to tally up the Senators who indicate publicly if they believe Bush has broken the law -- which, implicitly, means they would vote to convict him on a bill of Impeachment.

Today: we have Russ Feinfold (Democrat) and Arlen Spector (Republican):

Bush Administration Mounts Broad Defense of Iraq War - New York Times: "'The issue here is whether the president of the United States is putting himself above the law,' Mr. Feingold, a member of the Judiciary Committee, said on CNN, 'and I believe he has done so here.'"

The Republican chairman of that committee, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who on Friday had called the surveillance "a violation of our law beyond any question," moderated his tone today, but still said that he would hold hearings to investigate the matter.

The total listing so far:
For: 2 (Feingold,Spector)
Against: 0
Uncertain: 98

Convict Us, we Dare You -- White House

The White House is daring the country to convict Bush on domestic spying charges, declaring thta he is the only voice which will be heard on the issue. NYTimes: "'There was an interest in saying more about it, but everyone recognized its highly classified nature,' one senior administration official said, speaking on background because, he said, the White House wanted the president himself to be the only voice on the issue. 'This is directly taking on the critics. The Democrats are now in the position of supporting our efforts to protect Americans, or defend positions that could weaken our nation's security.'"

Spooks on the line

Actually, my first take-away from the NYT story Bob talks about below was: "Omigod, the NSA has been listening to our talks with Bob!"

Disturbing, yes - but at least it explains those annoying "click" sounds we've been hearing.

NSA Spies Domestically -- and the New York Times waits a year to tell us because the White House Asked them to

In Today's article Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts , the NYTimes included this little paragraph: "The White House asked The New York Times not to publish this article, arguing that it could jeopardize continuing investigations and alert would-be terrorists that they might be under scrutiny. After meeting with senior administration officials to hear their concerns, the newspaper delayed publication for a year to conduct additional reporting. Some information that administration officials argued could be useful to terrorists has been omitted."

So get this: The NYTimes, a reporting agency, delays reporting news based on policy considerations. If they agreee with the policy considerations of the Administration and the need for secrecy to further those considerations, the NYTimes will not report.

So how is that not the organ of the White House? Would they have waited a year if they had not agreed with the need for the policy, if the thought the policy was bad for the country?

Is there any news organization left in America which defends the people's right to know, without fear or favor?

Abercrombie & Fitch subject of SEC inquiry

It seems they're being accused of having a monopoly on hotness.

Tortured Confessions

Nice to see that our European allies have been able to focus attention on the illegal acts of torture being carried out in our name by the current Administration, a task that our own "independent media" had not quite gotten around to at this point, four years after 9/11. Today Condi Rice announced, as a new policy of the US Government, that inhumane interrogation tactics would no longer be permitted at US military installations overseas (Herald-Tribune story).

Given the fact that:

• Memos from the White House and Justice Department demonstrated several years ago that the Administration was approving new techniques of cruel & inhumane interrogation for use by the CIA and military;
• Chief among these was a memo by current Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, written in his capacity as White House Counsel (i.e., legal counsel to the President);
• Also among these was a signed certification by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approving these techniques;
• Vice President Dick Cheney is known to have sponsored this strategy;
• Since the introduction of John McCain's bill reiterating the legislative ban on such tactics, and since it gained approval 96-0 on the Senate Floor, Dick Cheney has been secretly working to either kill the bill in the House, in conference, or to preserve an exception for CIA interrogations overseas;
• Such tactics are outlawed by the UN Convention on Torture, to which the US is a signatory;
• These tactics are also outlawed by the enabling US legislation, passed by Congress in 1994;
• If any of this torture had yielded the slightest bit of useful intelligence, you can be sure we would have heard about it by now; and
• Secretary Rice's latest revision of policy is de facto a confession to all of the above;

I really only have one question left:

What is it going to take to try this lot as war criminals?

Three "Left Behind" Movies - and counting

Over at Slate, Grady Hendrix has watched all three - yes, three - of the "Left Behind" movies, and so that we don't have to, he's written about the experience.

Worth a read, especially for the bit about how viewers might be confused about the residents of present-day Israel, and how the Antichrist-slash-UN Secretary General goes about consolidating his power (think "Godfather").

I recall these movies being discussed in our blog's pages a year or more ago, but can't track down the relevant post(s) (the "search this blog" feature above promises way more than it delivers - trust me on this). As I recall, Patrick briefly had an open bet on whether a movie would be made from these books or not, before Robin pointed out that the first had already been made.

F-Student has CIA Arrest (and Torture?) his professor

The CIA -- since it's not being watched over by anyone else -- has to police its own mistakes. Of thousands of people they've arrested and interrogated, they expect some mistakes. According to a an article on those mistakes in the WaPost: The list includes several people whose identities were offered by al Qaeda figures during CIA interrogations, officials said. One turned out to be an innocent college professor who had given the al Qaeda member a bad grade, one official said."

Miami Police Terrorize City

Of course, the way they see it, you have nothing to be afraid of if you have nothing to hide. So, they'll be sending in squads to randomly surround banks, cordon off areas, and take ID from everybody. "We want that shock. We want that awe. But at the same time, we don't want people to feel their rights are being threatened."

Pardon the Turkey

Over at Slate, "has been" Bruce Reed makes a good point about the traditional turkey pardon that President Bush engaged in last Tuesday - namely, that this is expected to be the first of many for the second-term President.

Actually, with his approval ratings sinking to Carterian (if not Nixonian) depths, the President's plight itself is reminiscent of a certain hobbled variety of water fowl...

Record new HIV cases in '05

HIV is spreading. Which to be more fearful of? HIV? Bird flu? who can tell?

Or, perhaps we should take to heart Sarah Silverman's words on the subject: "When God gives you AIDS, make lemon-AIDS!"

Bush's Asia Trip Meets Low Expectations

Okay, that's not my headline -- that's the headline on the relevant WaPost article.

GM Closing 6 plants in US, cutting 30,000 jobs.

Front page news flash at NYTimes, now.

Bush immediately introduced a new tax cut proposal, where the affected 30,000 workers will see their income taxes cut in proportion to their decrease in income. Bush says no new laws need be passed for the propsal to take effect. I'd sure like to see how he's going to accomplish THAT crazy calculus.

Bob Graham: What I Knew Before the Invasion

Former Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL) describes why he voted against the Iraq invasion, and how he knew the Administration was lying. [WaPost]

Amusing Ourselves to Death

NYTimes. The article points out that most households making more than $77K/year spend more on entertainment than food, clothing, or gasoline.

That's completely crazy. Someone should start the American Hobby movement.

The Article goes on to describe ways to bring that way down.

Why Did Woodward's Source Come Forth?

It's been speculated that Woodward's source must have been cooperating with the prosecuter, because it was the source who told Fitzgerald about their conversation.

Nope. According to the WaPost, Woodward's source had testified earlier. And then, Woodward -- apparently beginning effort to come clean which we hear about now -- approached the source and reminded them about the June 2003 conversation. It was then that the source went to Fitzgerald to tell him about the conversation.

Thus, Woodward's source is presently exposed to obstruction of justice charges, for not having previously mentioned having told Woodward about Plame to the grand jury. And he was looking forward to getting away with it, because Woodward had apparently decided to keep mum.

Woodward was Told About Plame by Dick Cheney before the Novak Article

Further in that Rueters article, we learn from Rove's lawyer that Karl Rove "absolutely, positively is not the source" for Woodward.

Okay. And Scooter Libby's been handing open permission (to Judith Miller, for Example), so it can't be him who's denying permission to Bob Woodward.

Do the math. The only person left here is Dick Cheney. He has never said he gives permission to reporters to talk about his involvment.

Dick Cheney told Bob Woodward that Plame was a CIA agent prior to Novak's article.

Woodward is Gonna Go To Prison

So Woodward has now admitted publicly that he got Plame's name from a White House official, but that official won't 'release him from his pledge'.

We know what happens in these cases: Fitzgerald asks the Grand Jury to hold him in contempt, and he goes to prison.

[Reuters]

The press needs to outline ethical standards that distinguish between providing access to a free press, and their being a tool of government opression.

Bush Administration Member Still Not Cooperating with the Plame Investigation

Bob Woodward reported today that he has a source in the White House who he talked to about Plame prior to the Novak article, but that source expressly told him not to reveal his identity -- as recently as this week!

This means that someone in the White House is disobeying Bush's direct instruction to completely cooperate with the investigation.

Here's text: "The Post disclosed this morning that Woodward testified under oath Monday in the CIA leak case. Woodward said today he had gotten permission from one of his sources, White House chief of staff Andrew H. Card Jr., to disclose that he had testified that their June 20, 2003 conversation did not involve Plame, the wife of administration critic Joseph C. Wilson IV. He said he had 'pushed' his other administration source, without success, to allow him to discuss that person's identity, but that the source has insisted that the waiver applies only to Woodward's testimony.

"

The Trees are Coming to Dunsinane

In editorials like these, you can hear the chords of the new national consensus: Bush lied us into war.

Bush Becoming Reclusive: Talks only to Laura, Condi, his Mom and Karen Hughes

WaTimes via AMERICAblog.

This should really freak y'all out.

I mean, us all out.

French Employment Minister: Riots not due to racism, but to polygamists

You see, says the minister, the problem could be that the large, polygamous families these people come from leads to a lack of a father figure and, thus, anti-social behavior and riots. How does he know? Well, it seems he once knew personally of a youth who was arrested -- arrested, see --- and it later turned out that he came from a polygamous family. So you see, no racism here, he says, it's because of these teeming masses of polygamous families. An aide -- who refused to be named -- later said polygamy was not the overwhelming cause of the riots.

Holy bejeezus fuck. This guy is their employment minister .

Disco Inferno

Last week, the Pentagon was all like "We SOOO did not use white phosphorous in Falluja. Today they're all like "OK, so what if we did? So what? We didn't sign the international treaty restricting its use, so it's not illegal.

Burn baby, burn.

Alito says he was 'totally kiddding' about backing abortion curbs in '85

Seriously. That's a direct paraphrase.

White House Policy: We Torture

Earlier this week, George Bush made the statement: "We do not torture." That sounds pretty unequivocal.

But National Security Advisor and future indicted administration member Stephen Hadley issued this important clarification. That is to say, we torture.

Of course, future indictee Hadley says we use "enhanced interrogation techniques" to get information that "may help" provide information to avoid future attacks.

Oh my god. You've got to be kidding, Hadley. "May help"? As in, "I think this punk has information we need to get -- call in the guys with the scalpels." That's completely unacceptable.

Revolution of the Center

Anybody watch The Daily Show this week? On was John McCain, who didn't talk about his 2008 plans. However, he mentioned, incidentally, the opinions on specific subjects held by one Colin Powell -- you've probably heard of him. To be precise, McCain twice talked about Colin Powell, apropos of nothing.

So: McCain/Powell. With any luck, they'll announce early, and give Cheney that gripper we've all be hoping for.

Hasta la Vista

In case those of you no longer in California haven't been paying attention, Governor Arnold Schwarznegger put 4 propositions on the ballot yesterday. Those propositions, as well as all 4 other propositions on the ballot failed. This would seem to be the end of Arnold's "reform" agenda and the end of his political career.

Why NBC, CBS and DirecTV are a Pack of Idiots

CBS, NBC to Offer TV Shows for 99 Cents - Yahoo! News. Here's how they think they're going to compete with Apple:

• DirectTV is shipping new DVRs
  
• DirectTVs DVRs have 160 hours of prorgramming -- they'll let the consumer use 100 hours, and they will download 60 hours of content which the consumer can then purchase, at 99 cents a show.
  

In other words, people who can already record the shows will be the only ones who can purchase the shows. Also, they are downloading EVERY single show for sale onto EVERYBODY's DVR, and then asking them if they want to buy it. So the bandwidth costs are alread spent by the time the consumer decides to buy -- and if they don't, DirecTV is out of luck. Mostly, people won't. If only 5% of all people buy a particular show, that means they have to charge at least 20x what it cost to deliver that show to recoup, which they either aren't doing. Apple, meanwhile, charges only to make a single copy of a show, $1.99. All that goes back to the Studio, with no additional bandwidth costs to Apple, the studio, anybody.

A pack of screaming idiots at NBC and CBS, not to mention DirecTV. This sort of thing could bankrupt them.

Who Knew?

The New York Times reports that the Bush Administration had an intelligence report from Feb 2002, which said a top Al Qaeda member was a big ol' liar, and shouldn't be trusted when he said that Iraq was supporting Al Qeada's work with illicit weapons.

Oh my goodness. This means the Bush Administration probably knew all along that the Iraqi WMD/terrorism claims were lies. Who knew?

Alito, Dark Prince

If you're not scared yet about the Alito nomination, you haven't read this piece by Slate's William Saletan.

Note that Saletan is not a liberal on abortion.

Rove Indictment to Come Within Weeks

[WaPost]: "Fitzgerald is considering charging Rove with making false statements in the course of the 22-month probe, and sources close to Rove -- who holds the titles of senior adviser and White House deputy chief of staff -- said they expect to know within weeks whether the most powerful aide in the White House will be accused of a crime."

The article also says that his WH colleagues are saying that if he wants to stay, he has to issue an apology to the public and colleagues for misleading them. That's like saying "He's been obstructing justice." And if WHouse colleagues are saying, boldly, that Rove's been obstructing justice, the guy is as good as toast.

America Has Secret Prisons

WaPost

This stuff is supposedly okay, because it's not done on US soil.

Good Night and Good Luck

Participant Productions (which I wrote about below) had what may be their second large social drama released this weekend, 'Good Night and Good Luck'. I saw last night, and it's interesting, and worth a watch -- a sort of 'fear but fear itself' movie.

And now, they are working on a movie based on 'Fast Food Nation'.

Participant is, without a doubt, the most interesting production company to arise in decades. When was the last time that somebody worked so hard on filims with a real angle? And who are they? The company was founded by Jeff Skoll, a co-founder of eBay, who put together entertainment talent to make films with social value.

Fitzgerald: A Miss Piggy Enthusiast

I'm sure some were disappointed with Fitzgerald's News Conference. After all, the major charges were for perjury in the process of the investigation.

Read closer: what Fitzgerald is doing is following a dictum succinctly annunciated by Miss Piggy: "Never eat more in one sitting than you can lift."

We don't know what Fitzgerald has on Rove, on Cheney. He didn't even get Libby on the main point of his investigation -- knowingly revealing classiified secrets. But if you read the indictment, what becomes clear is that, if he's able to prosecute Libby under these charges, he will have prima facie convicted him on the knowingly revealing classified secrets as well.

So then you might ask -- why doesn't he just go after the whole group. And here is where a combination of wishful thinking (mine) and wry poker-manship will come in: Fitzgerald is a single little man in the employ of the DOJ, and They are the White House. If he came out with indictments for 4/5 of the White House, they'd have him on the end of a hot pitchfork, dangling him above the howling coulters.

So what has he done -- something which looks almost silly: he's indicted someone who appears to be key, but small enough fish to appear politically important -- a sacraficial lamb, if you will, that Rove can wave bye-bye to as a casualty of political war -- who can be fully prosecuted. And, in the process, everything we the public might want to know, will be revealed by the prosecuters of that case, in the public courtroom.

Which is a much heavier eater than Mr. Fitzgerald. And that's where Rove and Cheney can find themselves on someone else's pitchfork.

AAAARRRRRGGGHHHH!!!!

Why would SBC do this when I BLOODY HATE AT&T!!!

Ugh, the way they made my wireless life miserable.....

Rumor: 1-5 Indictments tommorrow, press conference Thursday

The Washington Note .

I'm scheduling a party for the night of the indictments being made public.

Report: Vice-President's Office "ordered" the leak of Plame's Name to the Media.

In RawStory -- which has been reliable in pre-reporting issues 3-7 days in advance of the regular press for the Plame Affair. It's reporting that a mid-level White House Staffer -- David Wurmser -- first brought the information regarding Plame to the White House, telling Scooter, Stephen Hadley and Condi Rice (Scooter told Karl Rove). He was then "ordered" to leak this information to the press by "executives in the Vice-President's office". He has past ties to the CIA, where he got the information.

That's conspiracy. This is big news. This guy's not in regular touch with reporters, so being "ordered" to tell this to specific reports constitutes a dedicated effort to use this information to discredit Joseph Wilson.

Is it Scandal When It Helps Your Poll Numbers? Campaigning in Quebec

[NYTimes]
In a party leadership contest, the frontrunner was hit by revelations that, while a government minister, he spent wild drunk weekends in Quebec City, often very high on cocaine, the "kind where you can't remember where you parked your rented car afterwards". Result: his poll numbers went up, from 53 to 64 percent.

Scooter Libby a Big Fat Liar

The NYTimes is reporting that Fitzgerald has notes which demonstrate that Scooter Libby learned on June 12 2004 that Valerie Plame, a CIA operative, was Joe Wilson's wife from none other than --- guess who? -- no, not Judith Miller as he had been claiming (that happened on June 23rd) but from

Dick Cheney

Hmm.... now why was Dick Cheney talking about this to Scooter Libby? Could it be that they were talking about ways to discredit Joe Wilson, who had been already by then talking about the President's misstatments in the State of the Union Address around the government?

But then, wouldn't that make him part of the group effort to publicly discredit Wilson? by spreading that it was his wife who sent him on a junket? Conspiracy to treason, sounds like.

No Limits to Pettiness: Abramoff

Unbelievable. Jack Abramoff -- the DeLay enabler and lobbyist -- worked with Ralph Reed to, now get this, block the appointment of one Angela Williams to be the head of the Interior Department's Office of Insular Affairs (which oversees the US government's dealings with Abramoff's client, the Northern Mariana Islands).

Why? Apparently, because she is the wife of a guy who was a vietnam POW with Senator John McCain.

Journalist, with Fangs

Deborah Solomon, who usually asks benign if interesting questions in her weekly "Questions For" column in the NYTimes Magazine, this week suddenly grows fangs while interviewing Connie Mack, who headed the President's advisory committee on tax reform -- soon to recommend the popular mortgage interest tax deduction, and who advocates repealing the estate tax.

Here's to a vigalant press.

The New Social Films: Participant Productions

Participant Productions is a new production company, which is now coming out with a series of films which should attract interest. I mentioned North Country (below), and you've probably already heard of GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK -- the movie about Edward R. Murrow and newscasting during the McCarthy/Red Scare years. MURDERBALL was a documentary, showing the hard-ball game played by wheelchair buond men. And soon, we have SYRIANA -- starring Matt Damon and George Clooney in a mid-east centered action film.

However, what brings these films together is that they are meant to be message movies. The production company's motto: "Changing the world one story at a time." NORTH COUNTRY did not deliver on this promise, with the exception that, at least, it highlights real social problems which exist, today, even if it did so hamhandedly. SYRIANA looks far more interesting -- highlighting the relations between the businesses and Middle Eastern politics.

In any case, have eyes wide open here.

A couple of movies not to see

Don't bother seeing Elizabethtown or North Country .

North Country, in particuilar, is unworthy. "Based on a true story", it ends up being an amalgam of SILKWOOD and THE ACCUSED, with the family unification theme thrown in ("I just want to be able to feed my kids"). Now, certainly, life is real drama -- but the "based on" tells us that the moviemakers found some drama a little too dramatic. Spoiler alert . But, the movie starts being about the mineworker simply wanting to work her job, unmolested -- hello NORMA RAE -- and ends up in a courtroom, where the entire drama hinges upon whether or not one of her attackers, who, coincidentally, she knew in high school, will confirm that she was indeed raped by one of her teachers. The script is a dog.

Go see A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE instead.

Fitgerald Blows the Timing, Cosmic Concordance

Too bad -- Fitgerald blew his chance at a cosmic concordance by lagging on those indictments, to drag Rove, Libby or Cheney into court to plead "not guilty" on the same day as Saddam Hussein.

That would've been a neat trick.

An Arrest Warrant for Tom Delay

A warrant has been issued for Tom Delay's arrest. Bail's been set at $10,000.

NY Daily News Confirms: Bush Knew About Rove & Plame

Daily News story with confirmation from White House sources: Bush knew about Rove's role in the Plame Affair two years ago.

Josh Marshall's item on the story over at the redesigned and markedly-more-debonair TPM (check out that stubble!).

My previous deductions here at 13D go back three months: July 17, July 23, October 14. Bob also contributed some commentary.

Plame Game - Final Days

One of the strategies taken by conservative commentators throughout L'Affaire Plame has been to insist that "there is no there there" - that is, that Valerie Plame was not "really" a covert operative, that the Intelligence Identities Protection Act represents an unconvictable statute, that "all is fair" in love, war and domestic politics, and so forth. Usually, these arguments walk hand-in-hand with an enumeration of the lies which Amb. Wilson is alleged to have told in his NYT Op-Ed and following public appearances (plus - did you hear he worked for the Kerry campaign?).

For example, I am informed (via Salon) that John Tierney engages in this rhetorical strategy today within the gated community of the NYTSelect.

Apart from the facts that (1) By attempting to smear Wilson at the same time that they allege no harm done, these commentators undermine their own case - since if there is no crime, there is no victim, and no need to smear same; and (2) The CIA made the initiating criminal referral to the Justice Department, would not have done so if no crime were committed, and presumably know better than anyone else whether Valerie Plame was "truly" covert or not; we now have (3) Another iron-clad argument that proves - proves - that somewhere in the machinations against Wilson/Plame lies a true crime.

Namely, we now have the cover-up. I am not talking about the various public statements, now revealed to be lies, that were made by Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, Scott McClellan, and the President. Lying to the American people is their stock in trade (apparently). No - I am talking about lying to Federal investigators, which is a Federal crime. According to news reports, both Rove and Libby have been caught in lies made to investigators or the Plame grand jury.

If there was indeed "no crime" then this was the dumbest thing they could have done - they told a lie, which was a crime, to protect themselves from... nothing. These men are not dumb, and they know the ins and outs of the law. Whether or not the IIPA is provably unconvictable, it is a very tough statute to get a conviction from. So long as they told the truth - or took the fifth! - in response to every question, they had nothing to fear... as long as there was no original crime.

The fact of the cover-up therefore proves the existence of that original crime.

Old Time Miers Friends Judge Kinkeade and Justice Hecht Say: Heck Yeah, Miers will Overturn Roe v. Wade

Online, from notes in a conference call of the Arlington 60. The White House told Dobson to talk to these guys, they know Harriet Miers.

Update on Rich's WHIG artlce!

It's Free Online! NYTimes may have made an error, in that I found an obscurely placed link to an unprotected version. Everywhere else, it's marked "TS".

Frank Rich gets the WHIGs

Over at the OpEds, Frank Rich is writing about the White House Iraq Group.

I'm *dying* to read this. I'm *this* close to caving.

Conspiracy in the White House

I just wanted to make a note, for the record. As Patrick Fitzgerald prepares to indict senior Administration officials, it is reported that he may choose to indict them under criminal conspiracy charges. Namely, a felony was committed - the leaking of the name and covert operative status of Valerie Plame Wilson - and several members of the Administration, including Scooter Libby, Karl Rove, and Ari Fleischer, were involved. So this is prima facie a conspiracy if he gets indictments on two or more of these. (The smearing of Joe Wilson was basically a self-anointed task of the WHIG group.)

As I have argued in these pages, the President himself has been aware for more than two years of Karl Rove's involvement in this conspiracy. To my knowledge, he has not during this time cooperated with the Fitzgerald investigation, or reported his knowledge of Rove's involvement to proper authorities.

In other words, if there is a criminal conspiracy, our President himself is an accessory after the fact - if not a co-conspirator.

Facing revolt, White House touts Miers "experience" - Reuters

Reuters article. The content isn't that interesting -- but what is interesting is that Reuters decided, when talking about Miers experience, to put it inside quotation marks.

Don't Worry! Yachts And Caviar Are Still Cheap!

Inflation Surges to Highest Monthly Rate in 25 Years - New York Times: "The much-watched consumer price index, which has been on a far more steady rise through much of the year, surged at a pace not seen since March 1980. But in a sign that the price of most goods remain restrained through much of the economy, the Labor Department reported that the excluding the energy and food sectors, the index only rose 0.1 percent."

So, other than food, heat and gasoline, nothing's increased in price!

*Big* sigh of relief in the White House.

"

Wow! What an Endorsement

No less a person than the former special assisatant to the President and Deputy Director of Speechwriting (2001-2004) comes out for Harriet Miers in this NYTimes OpEd, declaring "what America got is a nominee of enormous legal ability and ferocious integrity, and in the bargain a gracious Christian woman only more qualified for her new role because she would never have sought it for herself." Where do they dig these guys up?

In case you haven't noticed: The reason "Christian" is appearing everywhere now is, in case her nomination fails, so the Wingnuts can scream "Anti-Christian Bigotry!"

The White House Iraq Group (WHIGS) -- An Historic Group

You had better read this story. It will probably determine what happens politically in the US for the next 2 years. Skip past the Cheney parts -- that's not so interesting. [Raw Story]

Ever hear of the White House Iraq Group, or Whigs? Me neither. But, we will be hearing a lot about them from now on. Better bone up:

The Whigs were formed in August 2002 by Cheif of Staff Andrew Card for the express purpose of developing, coordinating and deploying political strategy to sell the Iraq war --- which began with invasion in March 2003 -- to the American People. Let's repeat that -- the war which Bush was claiming could lhave been avoided the night before it occurred was being pushed politicallly by this group beginning eight months before.

It's membership included: Special Assistant to the President Karl Rove (Chairman), Chief of Staff to the Vice president Scooter Libby, National Seciruty Advisor Condoleezza Rice (now Secretary of State), external advisor Karen Hughes (now Deputy Secretary of State), Deputy National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley (now National Security Advisor), Deputy Director of Communications James Wilkinson, Assistant to the President and Legislative Liaison Nicholas Calio.

There were meetings, conferences, group emails. They set about writing reports to put together all the "information" we received through the press about Iraq's WMD. They coordinated the propoganda effort within the whitehouse -- which includes, everything.

They fed Judith Miller her first story on the aluminum tubes they alleged were for centerfuges (they weren't technically capable of being centerfuge parts); Miller took her information from them, anonymously sourcing them -- and then quoting them explicitly too, as if they were independent sources (these were the stories which the NYTimes has now disavowed as being wrongly sourced).

Bush, the Dick

[Can you believe this guy?]: "Mr. Bush joked late last year with Matthew Cooper, a reporter for Time magazine, about why Mr. Cooper was not yet in jail for fighting a subpoena demanding that he testify about a conversation with a source who later turned out to be Mr. Rove."

He openly mocked the journalist who was protecting the ass of his senior advisor.

Margaret Thatcher: Against the Iraq War

You get your quotes where you can find them. Thatcher (famous for stiffening George Senior's spine with "don't go all wobbly on me, George" prior to the Gulf war) is quoted (second hand) about the wisdom of the Iraq war in this WaPost OpEd by Tina Brown: "The former chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain, Lord Palumbo, who lunched with Mrs. T six months ago, told me recently what she said when he asked her if, given the intelligence at the time, she would have made the decision to invade Iraq. 'I was a scientist before I was a politician, Peter,' she told him carefully. 'And as a scientist I know you need facts, evidence and proof -- and then you check, recheck and check again. The fact was that there were no facts, there was no evidence, and there was no proof. As a politician the most serious decision you can take is to commit your armed services to war from which they may not return.'"