By way of explanation

I want to tell you why I'm so fixated on the Plame-gate issue, why it's so important that it be tracked to its ultimate conclusion. It's because all the other excesses and illegalities of the Bush administration (except, of course, his social security craziness and his various other economic debacles) are cloaked in claims of "national security": the torture and rendition thingees, the invasion of Iraq, the spying on us, the secretive usurpation of power.

But this Plame thing is different. If it's proven that Rove/Libby/others leaked Valerie Plame's name and function as a CIA operative in order to denigrate Joe Wilson's reportage from Niger, that's just plain ol' politics. Just like Watergate, or, as John Dean says, Worse than Watergate, because it's possible that Plame was working on intelligence of Iran's nuclear capacity, Iran, one of the members of Bush's "axis of evil."

I'm here to tell ya, if Rove is indicted and the case proceeds toward trial in the next several months, this could be the end of Bush's administration. Not by impeachment--that's too much to hope for. But by disgrace and discredit, which will lead to revulsion by Americans, which might lead to a period of fair and intelligent government.

So--tick, tick, tick...

...tick, tick, boom.

Now it's being reported that Fitzgerald has handed Rove's attorney the sealed indictment, and that an announcement of the charges will be forthcoming next week. Jason Leopold, the author of this report and of the report I linked to above, is the same man who broke the story of the Libby indictment in the hours before it was announced by Fitzgerald, so it's hard fact. Rove is going down, baby.

Unfriendly fire

I suppose that's the word for when units of an army, in this case the US-trained Iraqi army, attack one another.

Tick, tick

Time is running out for Karl Rove.

Staking out Fitzgerald

Reliable sources--trust me on this, I don't want to surf to find them--have noted that Plame-gate prosecutor Fitzgerald released the information about Libby's indictment on a Friday afternoon, and that he's about due to announce Rove's indictment too. They've taken to roosting in front of Fitzgerald's office every Friday, and I'll roost here, waiting, waiting, waiting and wishing.

Whaaaa?

A bunch of Ugandan soldiers sodomized at a US military base in Iraq? Whazzup with that?

What are we to do?

Those of us Americans--and there are millions and millions of us--who want sanity in our foreign policy, starting with getting the hell out of Iraq, are in jeopardy of failing our mission if the Democrats are split between the sane ones and the warmongers: H. Clinton, E. Bayh, Lieberman, Biden and their ilk. That split can hand the Republicans continued control of Congress and, possibly, the White House in 2008. We've got to get a plan, as well as a much louder voice!

Remember that popular female Iraqi television reporter?

Recall that she was killed some months ago, reportedly shot, along with her cameraman? Well, recently a cellphone-camera was discovered that contained a clip of her death. Here's how she died at the hands of "two musclebound men in military uniforms."

Was it worth it?

All those dead and maimed Americans and Iraqis, all those billions of dollars, all that enmity and ruin--to establish a "democracy" that ceases to function because of a ringtone?

Boiling blood

What does it take to get my blood to boil? What about this story about a $6.1 billion--that's with a B--contract for a fleet of helicopters for the President? For some reason the story surfaced again today, but the contract was actually awarded in early 2005.

As to the earlier story, note (scroll down) that among the supporters of the contract was Hillary Clinton, quoted as saying it was "an Oval Office in the sky." Note also that the award went to a syndicate of largely foreign companies at the expense of the Sikorski Company of Connecticut.

A fleet of 23 Oval Offices, at a cost of 6.1 billion dollars! And get this:

"Measuring eight feet wide and 25 feet long, the cabin will include a lavatory and a galley kitchen. The fold-down stair spares the president from ducking during photogenic entrances and exits


These people in Washington are fucking crazy!

A milestone

but a dubious one.

I gotta agree with our soldiers in Iraq

These latest uniforms look "goofy."

Unknown site

Here's the Home page of a site that's fun to surf. Most illuminating is the page that presents, in a quick series, various newsworthy events from around the globe, using TV clips from AP, Reuters, BBC--whatever. I have cable connectivity and so am able to receive the clips as clearly as if they're televised. They're a day or so late, but the breadth of news coverage (for examples, an ominous volcano in Indonesia, a "Watergate" scandal in France) surely make me feel more like a citizen of the world, not merely a vessel for the news that American channels choose to present. And it's not apparent from the site itself what if any axe it has to grind, because its coverage is ubiquitous, or seeming so.

Ain't this grand?

A border war between Kurdish militias in northern Iraq and Turkish troops to the north; concurrent with blasts of Iranian border towns, likely the result of Kurdish incursions into Iran to the east. Need a program to follow the action? Here's a BBC article on the latest attacks, with map and links to earlier stories. This is precisely the "destabilizing effect" in the region that was predicted by those who opposed our invasion and occupation of Iraq. The Kurds, long constrained from expansionist and separatist acts, are now loosed by the American presence in Iraq to carry out a plan they've long had--to create a separate nation in the geographic center of four bordering nations: Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Iran.

The Iranian Oil Bourse

Some months ago I posted about this prospect, and now it's a-comin'. True, there won't be any immediate impact on the dollar, even if Iran pulls it off, but I think the phrase "death by a thousand cuts" came from the East, didn't it?

ROTFLOL

It's rare that I use smiley-faces or cyberinitials--I really hate them, dunno why--but if you want to roll on the floor laughing out loud check out this clip from a year-old Daily Show program. If you wonder why Porter Goss is out at CIA, the look on his face in the clip is your first clue.

Wanna bet

that the Chinese leaders realize the threat of global warming before our president does?

Ya wanna hear something really good?

Check out this rant by an LA Bush-supporting radio talk-show host as he apologizes for having supported Bush and calls him the worst president ever. Couldn't said it better myself. (Click on link for download of audio.) BTW, he's the morning drive-time talker, with a huge audience on a huge station.

Those Brits are getting quite cheeky

Two weeks ago their Foreign Secretary calls a report that Bush doesn't rule out using nukes on Iran "nuts"; and now their Attorney General calls for the US to close Gitmo.

They need a good bitch-slapping.

In case you thought the Bush tax cuts paid for themselves

by stimulating the U.S. economy and thereby creating more tax revenue, you're not just wrong, the economic concept itself is a Laffer.