The Prissy Patriot: Return of the Jedi in PlameGate Update

Name one tyrant in history that was not arrogant enough to believe he would get away with it. None of them did, and these guys won't either. Desperation is in full force at the White House-thus Dubya's angry yet easily discredited attempts to re market the war in Iraq. He's wasting his breath and our airwaves...

Prissy believes Patrick Fitzgerald will strike when the prosecutable iron is hot and the time is right. It cannot be much longer, which explains why Bushco has began in earnest the Swift boating of Fitz. There was really no need for the cabal to concentrate on this before, with Fitz keeping mum during most of the investigations progress.

Team Bush would never understand Team Fitz is a team always cognizant of their responsibility to We the People and the constitution-not to mention criminal law. Politics don't come into play on the case and the politics on the Hill certainly have nothing to do with how this investigation was conducted.

It is silly for Bushies to make the claim Fitz is playing politics because when you open the core of this republican party's apple, one finds the whole thing full of worms. So if you read the corporate owned news calling Fitz a player for the Dems, give him a break.

Naturally, with more indictments close at hand- the also guilty media must crank up the smear machine. Singing a new song, yet the same tune with the trio they have had going for quite some time-the White House and Pentagon...If the media continues on that course, it would surely motivate Prissy and the others to write that class action brief for military family lawyers, suing all of the major corporate news for their own liability in the pre-war reporting. It won't be a difficult case to prove.

Bushies may not believe it, but there are true independents in this world. They usually make it a point to strive for fairness in an investigation, before they are willing to put their name on it.

At the very least, this cabal and its fans should realize the only thing Fitz could be called a stick-in-the-mud for; is an investigation which shows major legal violations- done in systemic, purposeful fashions which have cost thousands of innocent lives.

Hmm...sound like anyone we know?

Hot Links

Media Matters Media figures repeat false claim that Armitage role in Plame leak exonerates Libby and Rove

Summary: Numerous media figures have asserted that a recent report purportedly identifying former deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage as Robert Novak's original source for Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA operative prove that Karl Rove and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby were not involved in the leak of her identity. However, Armitage's role as Novak's first source is not inconsistent with Rove's and Libby's involvements in the leak -- both were original sources of the information for two other reporters.

BBC Merkel trumps Rice on power list

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has overtaken US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as the world's most powerful woman, says Forbes magazine.

Neither of them can seem to tell Dubya to keep his hands to himself...so how powerful can they really be?

Haaretz Report: Israel discusses freeing 1,000 Palestinians in Shalit swap

An Israeli delegation is visiting Egypt to discuss a proposed deal for the release of Gilad Shalit, an Israel Defense Forces soldier abducted by Hamas on June 25, a Saudi Arabian newspaper reported Friday.
The deal involves Hamas' release of Shalit in exchange for Israel's release of about 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli jails, according to a senior Egyptian source quoted by the newspaper, Okaz. The paper said Egypt would help carry out the swap.
According to the proposed deal, the Palestinian prisoners will be freed in three phases, with the first phase beginning three days after Shalit's release, the newspaper reported.

News from Alaska...more mostly republican woes-look for this to happen all over the country. You go Feebies! Federal agents raid legislative offices

Agents conducted office searches in both Juneau and Anchorage belonging to Sen. John Cowdery, R-Anchorage, the Senate Rules chairman. The senator stood by in Anchorage as authorities sifted through documentation.
The offices of Senate President Ben Stevens, R-Anchorage; Kohring; Rep. Bruce Weyhrauch, R-Juneau; Sen. Donald Olson, D-Nome; and Rep. Pete Kott, R-Eagle River also were searched.
Four different teams of at least six federal agents spent hours searching offices on each floor of the Capitol. Agents left Stevens' Capitol office Thursday evening with 12 boxes of documents labeled "Evidence" and loaded them into a vehicle waiting them outside. Special Agent Wade Dudley said they were being taken to an undisclosed location in Juneau.

Jane's Intel Israel revives plan for anti-rocket laser system

Begun in 1996 by Israel and the US, the Nautilus project was meant to counter Hizbullah's 122 mm Katyusha rocket attacks. TRW (now Northrop Grumman Space Technology) was awarded a contract to develop the THEL: a chemical laser gun designed to intercept short-range rockets and mortar bombs.
However, despite several successful tests, and although Israel has since been under repeated attack by rockets from Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, Israel and the US decided to abandon the THEL development in January.

Reuters Alertnet The trouble with trauma...

We are all traumatised these days. From a bad day at the office to the breakup of a relationship to 9/11 itself, the language of trauma has made its way into every corner of our daily discourse. No self-respecting journalist gets through an account of pretty much anything without qualifying it as, in some way, "traumatic".
Humanitarian emergencies would, at first glance, serve up a fairly straightforward narrative when it comes to traumatic stress. Displacement, abuse, torture, conflict and natural disaster are easily characterised as universally distressing experiences that call for some kind of professional therapeutic intervention

More Military Families Speak Out members, making a difference. NYT Letter to the Editor:Rumsfeld Says War Critics Haven’t Learned Lessons of History (August 30, 2006) “Moral or intellectual confusion about who or what is wrong or right.” (Rumsfeld)

Dear Editor,
No, Mr. Rumsfeld, we’re neither immoral nor confused. Al and Celeste Zappala, lost their son, Sherwood, when he was sent on a mission to look for WMD’s, four months after the inspectors declared there were none. When John Fenton, visited his son, Matthew, at Bethesda Hospital, he saw hundreds of other gravely wounded troops – single, double, and triple amputees. There were many others, like Matthew, whose skulls had collapsed from head injuries from IED’s. Now, Matthew is dead. (The Bush administration reduced funding for brain injury research)
At least 2638 troops have died. They volunteered for the military, but not for your war based on lies.
All over the country, members of Military Families Speak Out are talking about their loved ones who have been redeployed over and over, or like the Stryker Brigade, have been extended by your backdoor draft. They are talking about their loved ones with PTSD, many of whom have attempted or committed suicide (not considered war deaths).
No, Mr. Rumsfeld, we don’t want our loved ones and the loved ones of the Iraqi people to be killed for your LIES or your quest for oil. You lie, hundreds of thousands die. The vast majority of the military and the public are not at all confused by your jargon. We say, “Support the troops. Bring all of the troops home NOW! Take care of them when they get here.”
Patriots must continue to demand an immediate end to the occupation of Iraq. It’s our moral obligation.
Paula Rogovin
Military Families Speak Out, Bergen County chapter Son in the Marines Co-founder of the weekly Wednesday vigil in Teaneck, NJ at the National Guard Armory

Understand politicians-you WILL give in before military families do. Bring them home NOW. The fine soldiers this government has misused did not decend from cowardly stock.

Columbus Dispatch answering the question "Are military families who protest this war really making a difference in the next election? Tiberi latest Republican to break step with Bush

"I can’t defend how the president laid out the need for (going to war in Iraq). I don’t support Rumsfeld, Tiberi said.
The comments from the three-term congressman came during a meeting before the Dispatch editorial board with challenger Bob Shamansky, whose spokesman revealed that the Bexley Democrat has committed more than $1 million of his own money to the race.
Asked whether Bush has operated above the law regarding government surveillance, Tiberi responded: "He might have."
The comments signaled a clear effort by Tiberi, a longtime Bush loyalist, to separate himself from the president.
It’s a growing trend.

Gee Pat, nice of you to notice 118 needlessly dead young Ohio soldiers. Would you be willing to sacrifice your own kin for this cause which you supported? Supported, that is, until looking at last weeks poll numbers.

Prissy warned you last year this was going to happen-but you didn't believe it. Too drunk on the kool-aid to listen...

Now their blood is on your hands for your failure to protect our youth from misuse. Prissy isn't buying your pro-life until birth stance. All because Tiberi refused to stand up for what was right-and what the majority of his constituents' wanted.

A nice time line of the events in "PlameGate" Plamegate Timeline Updated daily

Bush, Cheney, Rove, Novak and Libby all lied about their roles in 'outing' Plame before the 2004 elections, Guardian July 2006, but the main stream press did not report this until the fall of 2005. Mail & Guardian ... "The cover-up worked". Washington Post (file) The Libby indictment says he learned of Plame's id from Cheney in June 2003, but Cheney went on national TV in September of 2003 and said that he didn't know Wilson or who sent him to Niger. Mail & Guardian

Video: Salt Lake City, Utah mayor slams 'dishonest, war-mongering' Bush

"A patriot does not tell people who are intensely concerned about their country to just sit down and be quiet; to refrain from speaking out in the name of politeness or for the sake of being a good host; to show slavish, blind obedience and deference to a dishonest, war-mongering, human-rights-violating president," Mayor Anderson told the crowd, estimated by organizers to number between 4,000 and 5,000

Flashback from Dec 26, 2001.. Fox telling the truth? Report: Bin Laden Already Dead

Usama bin Laden has died a peaceful death due to an untreated lung complication, the Pakistan Observer reported, citing a Taliban leader who allegedly attended the funeral of the Al Qaeda leader.
The Coalition troops are engaged in a mad search operation but they would never be able to fulfill their cherished goal of getting Usama alive or dead, the source said.
Bin Laden, according to the source, was suffering from a serious lung complication and succumbed to the disease in mid-December, in the vicinity of the Tora Bora mountains. The source claimed that bin Laden was laid to rest honorably in his last abode and his grave was made as per his Wahabi belief.

USA Today Financial aid records of college students examined in terrorist search

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings learned of the project on Wednesday, said Samara Yudof, another department spokeswoman.
Project Strike Back is virtually unknown within the higher education community, even among top financial aid and admissions officials. The program was mentioned in a September 2002 Education Department report to Congress, noting that it had been initiated. And a May 2004 Government Accountability Office report on data mining noted that the program compares Department of Education and FBI data "for anomalies. Also verifies personal identifiers."
Terry Hartle, senior vice president of government and public affairs for the American Council on Education, which represents colleges nationwide, likened the project to the IRS turning tax returns over to the Department of Homeland Security "for possible ties to terrorism."
"Ultimately, this is troubling but not surprising," Hartle said. "It's hard to be surprised when it has become obvious that the government is mining every database that they have. In the war on terror there are no safe harbors where federal data is concerned."

BBC Repairing the levees

The US Army Corps of Engineers, which has been overseeing the work, is examining a number of longer-term options to defend the canal entrances, including a design for floating barge dams equipped with built-in "bowthruster" pumps to repel storm surges.
Despite this work, critics say not enough has yet been done to improve the city's storm protection system.

China People's Daily Annan arrives in Damascus for talks on Lebanon truce

The stance of Syria, a supporter of Hezbollah, was deemed critical to the success of this resolution.
Syria has always been accused by the United States and Israel of funneling arms to Hezbollah, an allegation it denied.
Syria also rejected an Israeli demand of deploying the UN peacekeeping forces along the Lebanese borders with it and threatened to close the borders if they were deployed.
Annan just wrapped up a visit in Jordan where he denounced Israel's use of cluster bombs in Lebanon and urged for a swift lift of Israeli blockade there.

Many folks in the know on Syria say it isn't so...

TPM Muckraker Byrd Confirms "Secret Hold" on Porkbusting Bill -- And Drops It

There was an effort to pass a bill (S. 2590) on an important subject without debate just before the Senate recess. Senators have an obligation to their constituents to know what they are voting on before signing off on any proposal. The American people ought to demand that bills receive scrutiny by Senators before those bills are approved. We have seen the consequences of rushing legislation through the Senate without any time for review or understanding.
On August 2, the last day before a month-long Senate recess, a Senate committee gave its approval to a brand new piece of legislation, cosponsored by Senator Obama and Senator Coburn. That same day, there was an effort to rush the legislation through the Senate without any Senator having the chance to ask questions.
Senator Byrd wanted time to read the legislation, understand its implications, and see whether the proposal could be improved. Now that there has been time to better understand the legislation, Senator Byrd has released his hold. Senator Byrd believes that the bill should be debated and opened for amendment, and not pushed through without discussion.

The Nation Blackwater Shot Down in Federal Court

In a major blow to one of the most infamous war profiteers operating in Iraq, Afghanistan and New Orleans, a federal appeals court has ruled that a wrongful death lawsuit filed against the mercenary firm Blackwater USA can proceed in North Carolina's state courts. The suit was brought by the families of the four Blackwater contractors ambushed and killed in Falluja, Iraq on March 31, 2004. Blackwater had tried to have the same case dismissed or moved to federal court.

Chicago Tribune Bush: War on terror is ‘ideological struggle of the 21st Century'

John Mueller, a professor of political science and national security at Ohio State University who has studied the impact of casualties on public support for war, suggests that Bush is playing to his political strength with this new offensive but has passed the point of regaining support for the war in Iraq.
"It's his strongest suit, and terrifying people over terror can win votes for him and his party," Mueller said. "There is an election coming. Terrorism is his strongest suit. The standard thing in an election is to focus on your strongest suit."
Mueller cites the words of a 20th Century social critic, H.L. Mencken: "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed."
Yet, "judging from polls," public support for the president's argument that the war in Iraq is the central front of the war on terror "is starting to wane," Mueller said. "I don't think they have any new arguments, so people may not pay much attention, because they've already heard this 400 times… What happens is, as people drop off, they tend to stay off."

Hat tip to Lukery at Wotsitgood4-Investor's Business Daily Did Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald Lie?

Fitzgerald's contention in October that Libby was "the first official known to have told a reporter . . . about Valerie Wilson" may therefore have been a lie.
Fitzgerald knew in the early days of his politicized witch hunt that no crime was committed. No one intentionally revealed the identity of a truly covert agent. Yet he made a reporter, Miller, spend nearly 90 days in jail for refusing to reveal her source.
Meanwhile, Fitzgerald refused to reveal to the public the true source. From top to bottom, this has been one of the most disgraceful abuses of prosecutorial power in this country's history. That it's taking place at a time of war only magnifies its sordidness.
We wouldn't be surprised if Fitzgerald ran for high elective office in the next few years — likely as a Democrat. The Plame case proves he can bend the truth with the proficiency of the slickest of pols.

As Lukery said 'Can you smell the desperation?' Like the kids in prison Prissy used to babysit, Lukery.

Prissy is here to tell you- if Fitz lied about Libby, she'll eat her hat. Sue 'em Fitz...

Reuters-remember this? Soldiers' families question Rumsfeld on deployment The rest of the story from Prissy's inbox and straight from the mouth of one who was there!

One military family member said :

You should have seen the response at the protest on Sunday. Rummy was booed and most notably shaken his warm welcome. It's too bad that it didn't make the front page.

And check out the picture the you'll never see in the corporate owned media...(click to enlarge)

Ansa Peres and Prodi meet on Lebanon

"Italy has a worldwide reputation as a great builder of bridges so it can promote peace efforts not just in Lebanon but throughout the region". "We do not hold Italy's good relations with Arab countries and the Palestinians against it. It garners respect and appreciation from all those in the region." Peres said Rome had acted "swiftly and decisively" to help defuse the crisis and Israel "thanks it for all it is doing." "Italy is not a country that steps in to gain something for itself but simply to help bring peace," he added .
Prodi recalled that he had discussed the situation in Lebanon with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during a phone conversation on Tuesday. "Assad assured me that Syria would back Resolution 1701 and the UN peacekeeping force." Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema told Syria on Wednesday that the international community "would not stand by idly" if it endangered a UN brokered ceasefire by sending arms to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Syria should know that if it sends arms "the international community will find out and will not idly stand by," D'Alema told state broadcaster RAI radio. "We ask Syria to cooperate," D'Alema said .
Before meeting Prodi, Peres referred to a suggestion by D'Alema on extending the UN force's mission to Gaza, saying this would largely depend on what happened in Lebanon .

And this troubling quote:

The 34-day conflict was triggered by a Hezbollah incursion into Israeli territory on July 12, when guerrillas belonging to the group killed eight Israeli soldiers and captured two others. Some 1,000 Lebanese civilians and more than 115 Israelis, mostly soldiers, were killed during the fighting.

The Next Hurrah Rove's Silence Amid the Din

Correct me if I'm wrong. But the real silence isn't coming from the lefty blogosphere. The real silence is coming from Karl Rove.
I could be wrong. But I have yet to see any of these articles actually quoting Rove. I have yet to see any reports of Karl Rove, gloating not only at his vindication, but attacking Patrick Fitzgerald for pursuing a case when he knew, the wingnuts claim, everything he needed to know by October 2, 2003 (even before Fitzgerald was appointed). Gloating that Richard Armitage is being dragged through the mud instead of him.
Oh sure, lots of Rove mouthpieces are doing so, starting with Isikoff and continuing to Hitchens and Brooks and Byron. Rove apparently still employs Mark Corallo (even though some eleven weeks have passed since Corallo declared this "over"), because he complained to Byron York that Rove was never contacted for the Isikoff-Corn book (Libby's Comstock made the same complaint). Though Isikoff says Rove was given the opportunity to comment, but chose not to:

Emptywheel, Prissy thinks you're onto something...