PlameGate Grand Finale Coming for Corruption & the Bush Administration
And the lesson learned for those of us who have worked diligently to see justice was done? We will not let this group near the gates of our government again! Ever
Recall this from The Pen, Oct 25, 2005:
For those who are still trying to get their minds around the possible indictment of Rove and Libby, now a near certainty, consider that no one in the Bush camp is capable of telling the truth under any circumstances. As for Bush himself, one of his Harvard Business School professors said that Dubya was "famous" in his class for being a "pathological" liar. Bush has known all along who the leakers were, and he's been lying all along. Fitzgerald interviewed Bush for over an hour, and it's unlikely that he told the truth in any respect. Bad move, George. Fitzie don't play that.
But wait, you say; that interview wasn't under oath. Try telling that to Martha Stewart who just got out of prison from her conviction for deceiving an investigator. Likewise with Dick Cheney. Even if two of his bag men had not cut deals with Fitzgerald already. And as for those who did testify untruthfully to the grand jury under oath, ask Li'l Kim what heinous lie she told to keep her in federal prison for a year. All she did was deny that she knew somebody that she did, in fact, know.
So let's put it together. We have a president who seems unable to tell the truth. We have an independent prosecutor of immaculate integrity who will not tolerate a lie. The INESCAPABLE conclusion is that Bush will be indicted, along with each and every member of his administration who participated in this. There has been talk on the web of 22 indictments. Rove and Libby -- (that's two), add two for Hannah and Wurmser (already cooperating but not given immunity), plus Bush and Cheney -- that gets us up to six . . . why don't we just say conservatively for the purposes of the pool . . . that 12 people will be indicted.
Besides perjury (and false statements), Fitzgerald has conspiracy and obstruction of justice to pick from as well, and those are just a couple of the technical crimes. Remember that he has the authority to pursue this investigation wherever it leads, and he is driven to do just that. He was born for this. Among other things, he requested from the Italian authorities the files on the forging of the Niger documents themselves. That was what Joe Wilson's trip was all about. And why they were so compelled to "out" his wife in the first place in their clumsy attempt to discredit him. What do you think the chances are that the most zealous prosecutor they could have appointed won't get to the bottom of that one, too? He may even expose what really happened on 9/11. Wouldn't that be the "coup de grace"? Hot Links
Skip the corporate owned media on PlameGate for now; they'll come around. They will have to-or close up shop...
TruthOut Smearing the Wilsons and Sliming America By Larry C. Johnson
How low can they go? I refer of course to the latest vitriol directed at Valerie and Joe Wilson by the likes of Christopher Hitchens and Fred Hiatt of the Washington Post, who claim that Joe Wilson, not Bush administration officials, is responsible for destroying his wife's cover and exposing her as a CIA operative. Hitchens's battle with the bottle may account for his addled thinking, but what is Hiatt's excuse? Both men perform like Cirque du Soleil contortionists in dreaming up excuses for the nutty and destructive policies and actions of the Bush administration. In watching their behavior, we see a parallel with the devotees of Jim Jones, who gathered in Guyana almost 30 years ago to drink poisoned kool aid.
BBC Bush compares Bin Laden to Hitler
President George W Bush has compared Osama Bin Laden to Lenin and Hitler in a speech to US military officers.
Oh, the muffled laughter in that room...AWOL boy to Officers who have actually studied those people. Good one, Dubya. 
TruthOut Special Counsel Under Attack by Mark Ash, Editor
Whether righteous or misguided in their ire toward Fitzgerald's perceived attacks on them, the US commercial press has abandoned objectivity in their reporting of the Plame investigation. Fitzgerald's investigation is ongoing, there are multiple individuals under examination, and right now US commercial press can't bring themselves to say it.
AmericaBlog ABC thinks only Republicans care about September 11, only reaches out to GOP bloggers
Or does ABC want their fictionalized account of September 11 to be a political contribution to Republicans? Sure looks that way. ABC is only sending advance copies of the show to Republican bloggers, apparently in order to build an even greater Republican following for the show.
Which begs a very large question. If ABC is so sure that their soap opera version of the murder of 3,000 Americans and others on September 11 is unbiased and doesn't make a mockery of one of the most tragic days in American history, then why are they only sharing the film with Republicans? Wouldn't it put the scandal to rest by sending us all copies of this "great" show so we can see how fair and balanced it really is?
Of course it would. And the fact that ABC is only targeting Republicans with this anti-Clinton TV show is prima facie evidence that this is nothing more than one big fat campaign contribution from ABC/Disney to the Republican party. A contribution grotesquely wrapped in the ashes of nearly 3,000 Americans.
It's time for someone to sue ABC.
Yes-they may force this to happen. The clock is ticking on that five day notice, corporate owned media...bloggers are watching you very carefully.
TPM Cafe 'Twas The Night Before Fitzmas?
‘Twas the night before Fitzmas, and all through D.C. The Senate stood empty, just waiting to see. The Grand Jury listened to Fitz with much care, He hoped that the votes all would be there.
Ken Mehlman and Rover all snug in their beds, While visions of November danced in their heads, And Dick in his bunker, as “W” did sip, A drink from the flask he poured through his lips.
When out at the Post arose such a clatter, They sprung from their cubes to se what was the matter. Away to the phones they flew like a flash, Called up their sources who asked for some cash.
The Times of New York had the lights all aglow, As they savored the scuttle they knew soon would flow. When, what to their wondering eyes should appear, But a signature sheet with twelve names written so clear.
The Nation What Valerie Plame Really Did at the CIA
Valerie Wilson was no analyst or paper-pusher. She was an operations officer working on a top priority of the Bush Administration. Armitage, Rove and Libby had revealed information about a CIA officer who had searched for proof of the President's case. In doing so, they harmed her career and put at risk operations she had worked on and foreign agents and sources she had handled.
Another issue was whether Valerie Wilson had sent her husband to Niger to check out an intelligence report that Iraq had sought uranium there. Hubris contains new information undermining the charge that she arranged this trip. In an interview with the authors, Douglas Rohn, a State Department officer who wrote a crucial memo related to the trip, acknowledges he may have inadvertently created a misimpression that her involvement was more significant than it had been.
Family Security Matters The Return of Patrick Fitzgerald August 24, 2006
Fitzgerald tried through various means to get the names of the government sources who leaked the information before he went to the Justice Department and then the courts to gain access to the reporters’ phone records.
Hiding behind the First Amendment, the Times has consistently argued that the government should not be allowed to examine the reporters’ phone records because confidential sources would be revealed. But that argument was flatly rejected by Judge Ralph Winter, who wrote for the majority that there was “no danger to a free press” in allowing the government access to the records. He said, “Learning of imminent law enforcement asset freezes/searches and informing targets of them is not an activity essential, or even common, to journalism. Where such reporting involves the uncovering of government corruption or misconduct in the use of investigative powers, courts can easily find appropriate means of protecting the journalists involved and their sources.”
The ruling that was overturned by this decision said that the First Amendment did provide a qualified privilege to maintain the confidentiality of the reporters’ phone records. Winter and the majority on the Court of Appeals have basically found that there is no such privilege. The case could now be headed for the Supreme Court, which in the past has failed to find any constitutional right by the press to protect sources.
Essentially, Judge Winter has put forward a very reasonable argument that there should be no shield law, and that there are court precedents, state-court shield laws, and federal guidelines that govern such a situation. In this case, the media argument for maintaining confidential sources runs directly contrary to the clear and convincing need for the government to know who leaked the information to the Times, thus possibly compromising a sensitive law enforcement action.
Al Jazeera Putin, Mbeki sign nuclear deal
Moscow has signed a range of economic deals with Pretoria, including one to supply fuel to South Africa's Koeberg nuclear power station.
Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, on the first visit by a Russian leader since the fall of apartheid, said on Tuesday that the nuclear deal would last until 2010, but gave no further details.
"We propose the widening of this co-operation and making our co-operation in the sphere of developing atomic energy for peaceful aims long term and large scale," he said.
Reuters Iraqi president sees UK troops gone by 2007
Beckett stressed London had no date in mind for troops pulling out and said the 2007 timeframe was Talabani's personal opinion. After meeting Iraq's top leadership, she said she found general support for the continued presence of 150,000 mainly U.S. forces until 300,000 Iraqi troops and police are ready.
"Coalition forces can't go now because that would create a security vacuum," she said, noting however that Iraq was making "very slow" but distinct progress on improving security and describing that as "two steps forward, two steps sideways".
While some in Iraq wanted foreign troops to leave, most officials, she said, were anxious they stayed until such time as Iraqi forces were ready: "Hardly anyone thinks that time is now or is likely to be in the immediate future."
Some is not 82% last summer, Ms Beckett. Each time there was a new election, the recognized government representatives of Iraq asked us to leave...is that why Dubya makes them keep having elections? 
BBC Leaked Blair memo: key quotes
The memo claims the exit strategy includes Mr Blair making appearances on Blue Peter, Songs of Praise and Chris Evans' radio show.
He will reportedly spend a day, then an overnight in six cities across the country; visit the 20 most striking buildings opened or redeveloped since 1997; increase the number of high-profile tours of schools and hospitals and avoid discussing job offers.
Reuters. And you thought Prissy was kidding about her ESP...Telephone telepathy - I was just thinking about you
Many people have experienced the phenomenon of receiving a telephone call from someone shortly after thinking about them -- now a scientist says he has proof of what he calls telephone telepathy.
Rupert Sheldrake, whose research is funded by the respected Trinity College, Cambridge, said on Tuesday he had conducted experiments that proved that such precognition existed for telephone calls and even e-mails.
Each person in the trials was asked to give researchers names and phone numbers of four relatives or friends. These were then called at random and told to ring the subject who had to identify the caller before answering the phone.
"The hit rate was 45 percent, well above the 25 percent you would have expected," he told the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. "The odds against this being a chance effect are 1,000 billion to one."
WaPo. Well, well what do we have here? More oil finds, but they wouldn't have found more stuff to burn up the environment if it weren't for record profits to "encourage exploration."
See what we are getting for our money? And in the Gulf of Mexico, no less... Test Discovers New Oil Reserves in Gulf of Mexico
An oil discovery well drilled by Chevron Corp. has bolstered prospects that giant new reserves lie far beneath the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Chevron said today that 6,000 barrels a day flowed from a test well from an area known as the Tertiary trend more than 20,000 feet beneath the sea floor in 7,000 feet of water 175 miles off the Louisiana coast.
Quotes of the Day
For Team Fitz and all of Prissy's heroes, thank you. I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom.--Bob Dylan (1941 - )
Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes.--Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) German playwright, founder of the Berliner Ensembl
The unity of freedom has never relied on uniformity of opinion.--John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) Thirty-fifth President of the USA
Freedom is what you do with what's been done to you.--Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) French writer and philosopher.
