The Power of Denial

Raw Story has a terrific piece on how our beloved Chimpie is capable--or incapable--of resolving contradictions between his belief and actual proof in all matters.

Bush knows Rove is innocent because that is what Bush’s heart tells him; his brain is incapable of grasping the resulting circularity. This kind of knowledge, so widely and deeply embraced by his supporters, was the basis for Bush’s elevation to the White House. It explains his intransigent stance on Social Security, on John Bolton, and virtually everything else he has wrought since; the light of reason is not allowed to reach the dark place where Bush holds his beliefs.

It does seem to be a common capability required to become a far-right theo-fascist, as I witnessed in my old ex--brother-in-law, Knobhead, or in any of the radical Xtian wingnuts I deal with locally. It makes me wish that the second coming of Jesus would really happen, and he would return as a militant Marxist lesbian who tells all the theocratic nutballs that he meant what he said, that is, give away your shit, turn the other cheek, and follow me into a communal sharing and loving.

I'd love to see them reconcile that.

Meanwhile, here on earth, in the USA, the Rove/Plame matter bubbles on beneath the surface of the kneepad press's focus on Day 61 of the missing Alabama white girl in Aruba, but prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald steadily moves forward. As the Raw Story piece notes:

So our President knows Karl Rove is innocent of any wrongdoing, no matter what facts may bubble up from the tar pit he nurtured but cannot acknowledge. Because Bush cannot recognize the incompatibility between his knowledge and the facts that refute it, he cannot resolve that contradiction. Thus it falls to Patrick Fitzgerald to resolve it for him.

Yes, one can only hope that the ultimate effect of this investigation will result in impeachment, removal from office, indictment for criminal acts, conviction, and detention in a federal prison where the sociopath Chimpie and his minions can continue to live in denial without anyone getting hurt any longer by it.

I'm willing to compromise a little on this. Imprisonment in an international prison for war crimes would also be satisfactory, just so Chimpie has plenty of free time to ruminate over these--for him--difficult paradoxes.

Mr.Fitzgerald, Here's What I Want for My Birthday

Yep, my b-day is in a couple of weeks, and I can think of no better present than to have the head of Condoleeza Rice served up alongside those of Rove and Scooter Libby on a handmade plate of indictments from the special prosecutor. Counterpunch has a fantastic treatment of her complicity or complete control over the outing of Valerie Plame entitled "Condoleezza Rice at the Center of the Plame Scandal: The Source Beyond Rove" written by former National Security Council staff member Roger Morris.

In fact, though her pivotal role has been missed entirely ­or deliberately ignored-in both the media feeding frenzy and the rising political clamor, Condoleezza Rice was also deeply embroiled in the Niger uranium-Plame scandal, arguably as much as or more so than either Rove or Libby.

This article goes to the larger crime of which the Rove/Plame scandal is but a single part: the illegal war on Iraq.

Slowly, relentlessly, despite the evidence, the hoax of the Iraq-Niger uranium emerges as a central thread in the fabricated justification for war, and thus in the President's, Rice's, and the regime's inseparable credibility. The discrediting of Wilson, in which the outing his CIA wife is irresistible, becomes as imperative for Rice as for Rove and Libby, Bush and Cheney. And when that moment comes, she has the unique authority, and is in a position, to do the deed. Motive, means, opportunity-in the classic terms of prosecution, Rice had them all.

As the author notes, it's not a simple, easy-to-follow story, hence the kneepad press, who couldn't put two Legos together unless they were handed them already joined, has never reported it. But take the time to read this. It will be the new turn in the story, and when Chimpie's star player, Condi Rice, is ultimately indicted, it's going to be a thing of beauty to watch him try and squirm out of responsibility for what will follow.

Chimpie and the criminal cabal is finished. It's over, twerp!

Is It the Heat? Sorry, But I Can't Help It

How could I not point you all to this lovely headline?

GOP Should Probe Rove, But Won't

Wait. I thought that was what Jeff Gannon/James Guckert was doing at the White House. (Ba-da-bum!)

Sorry. I just can't resist a setup like that. Anyway, the opinion piece under that title is quite a good, concise summary of the case, although diplomatic. Here's the subtext: Your government has been taken over by extremists who will even excuse the most blatant criminality so long as they can maintain or increase their power from it.

Family values, my friggin' ass.

Why I Think Fitzgerald Is Going to Take Down the Entire Bush Empire

Patrick Fitzgerald knows something, and what he knows is that he is now bigger than Bush, and all of the lickspittles who have been carrying Chimpie's water all these years are terrified of the special prosecutor.

If you were in Mr. Fitzgerald's shoes, which would be a more meaningful career move, as well as a personal accomplishment--being a Chimpie chump, or taking down a sitting president and his entire corrupt criminal organization?

Which one do you think will assure the man a place in history?

And although I believe that Mr. Fitzgerald probably just wants to do the right thing, fulfill his obligation to his office, and follow the law, I can forgive him a little bit of ambition at what he now has the power to do to these bastards, especially after what they have so brazenly, arrogantly, and with evil joy done to our country.

It's gonna be sweet!

Get Rich Quick Schemes You Never Thought Of: Part One

Taking a break from Rove and Chimpie and all that crap, there is this:

An Italian couple stole 50,000 euros from a woman in the Sicilian city of Palermo after convincing her they were vampires who would impregnate her with the son of the Anti-Christ if she did not pay them.

I hesitated to put this story on my largely unread blog here, because spreading the word would, you know, undermine the likelihood that I could pull the same scam in my own community. But then no one reads this, right? So what the hell.

At least, I was plenty amused by it.

Reading for the Weekend

Daily Kos has a nice summary of the Rove/Plame case, and if you missed the Congressional hearing on leaked intelligence on C-SPAN today co-chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman of California and Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, here's a brief summary. Chimpie is earning the wrath he deserves from the intelligence service he has betrayed, and I've got to say, it's not wise to double-cross spies.

Or special prosecutors. Check out this piece in the Washington Post and another in the Los Angeles Times. Here's to another sleepless night for Karl and Scooter.

Here in the mountains of the southwest, the monsoons have at last arrived, complete with light and sound extravaganzas of lightning and thunder, which scares the shit out of my two dogs who follow my every step around the house. Makes me feel truly needed, you know?

Does This Constitute Treason?

In the New York Times today, there is a piece on Rove and Libby's role not only in the Plame case but also with regard to George Tenet's remarks when he was head of the CIA. Here, buried in the body of the text, is the most chilling text:

The effort was striking because to an unusual degree, the circle of officials involved included those from the White House's political and national security operations, which are often separately run. Both arms were drawn into the effort to defend the administration during the period.

Got that? They were not combining efforts to defend the country, mind you, but the administration, during a time of war.

The diehard Republican fantasists who still defend these motherfuckers are hopeless. Are you Bush-lickers still ready to go to the mat for this corrupt and stupid, stupid, stupid administration? Because they'd sell your ass out in a second to maintain power or to avoid the ugly truth. This administration is more dangerous to our security than any external threat. Get 'em out, indict, convict, imprision, and let's get some national leadership that actually cares about real national security above all else.

Why Karl Rove and Scooter Libby Are Hugging and Crying in the White House Coat Closet

Aside from certain Jeff Gannon/James Guckert-related reasons for Rove's being in the closet, what I'm talking about here is pretty simple. There's leaking classified information and then there's lying to the FBI about leaking classified information. And, in case you aren't already buried deep enough, you can then lie to a grand jury convened to investigate the CIA's belief that the leaking constituted a criminal offense.

Let's review: leak, lie to FBI, lie to grand jury. Oh, and have the career officers at the CIA pissed at you.

And the special prosecutor is Patrick Fitzgerald, a young man, an energetic man, a dedicated man who has an impeccable reputation as a prosecutor.

Karl and Scooter have never before been in a position like this, I would guess. It's a position not controlled by them any longer, nor to be helped by their influential friends, nor the cronies of the fathers of their influential friends, and they don't have any damaging material to leak about Fitzgerald. And, of course, even a sleazebag like Rove must realize the idiocy of trying to smear a special prosecutor once he's got the goods on you. About all that's left is to bitch yourself into the kneeling position and beg for mercy.

I'm so happy this morning. Yes, I know it's schadenfreude, but don't you think that this will be some real justice done for a change? If you were a CIA operative in the field, or a foreign asset working with our CIA, how would you feel about a White House official leaking classified information in time of war? And Chimpie's next, by golly. And Cheney. Chimpie and Cheney, just a hair's breadth from indictment city, baby. Yeah!

Go to Bloomberg and read all about it.

Dum-da-dum-dum (Dragnet Theme)

Another step closer to Club Fed for Karl "Pillsbury Doughboy" Rove, it seems from a front page story in the Washington Post today.

A classified State Department memorandum central to a federal leak investigation contained information about CIA officer Valerie Plame in a paragraph marked "(S)" for secret, a clear indication that any Bush administration official who read it should have been aware the information was classified, according to current and former government officials.

Now another piece of the puzzle snaps into place, although others are still being fitted. For one, did Karl Rove see that memo when he was on Air Force One on the Bush trip to Africa with Colin Powell, Chimpie, and Ari Fleischer, among others? If Rove did read the memo, who would know he did? And, finally, has special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald asked the necessary questions of one of those who might have witnessed Rove's perusal of the memo?

One sweet detail in the memo is that it puts forth the State Department's case for why they believed Iraq was NOT seeking uranium from Niger, the very thing Ambassador Joe Wilson made known from his trip there. So, if Rove read a classified state department memo that supported Wilson's claim and also contained the identity of his wife flagged as "Secret," and if Rove used that information in his attempt to discredit Wilson, Rove is then guilty of violating, at minimum, his own signed non-disclosure agreement, and at maximum the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982. If it's the latter, he could be facing ten years in a federal penitentiary. Given the venal, malicious, and dangerous manner in which this was done plus the fact that he withheld information on the case for over two years in an attempt to hide what he had done, there may be obstruction of justice charges and perjury thrown in as well. A "law and order" judge might decide to make an example of such a person in a time of war, wouldn't you think?

And here's a little bit of circumstantial evidence that does not bode well for Karl's other explanations of things:

The memo was delivered to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell on July 7, 2003, as he headed to Africa for a trip with President Bush aboard Air Force One. Plame was unmasked in a syndicated column by Robert D. Novak seven days later.

"How convenient," Church Lady might have said.

And then there's the possibility of conspiracy charges piling up. Who knew what when? Who was in on the disclosure and smear of Wilson before the fact? Who knew later? Who among those who were on Air Force One that day have known about the illegal disclosure of Valerie Wilson's identity and know that Rove read that memo but have failed to come forth?

Two words to Karl and any other members of the pre- or post-crime conspiracy: Fresh Meat!

Hey! Look Over There!

That's about all it takes to distract the mainstream kneepad press to get them to let go of a story. Okay, so Chimpie nominates John Roberts to the Supreme Court. We already know that the Democrats will cave and pass him, quietly wishing that the Republicans will be nice to them now, sort of like pathetic beaten dogs. The press, meanwhile, has shifted its short but broad attention to Roberts such that it is possible to switch to all operating cable and broadcast news channels and see Bush and Roberts displayed on every single one of them. If a station switches focus, it's only to cover the missing white girl in Aruba, unless it's FOX, in which case they'll devote a whole hour to it.

But meanwhile, the Rove/Plame story is oozing like a swollen yellow suppurating sore, pus dripping out and revealing the rottenness of this administration to more and more Americans, illustrating that the decay and corruption run all the way through Torture Boy Gonzalez, Scooter Libby, Flabsack Rove and up to the alleged president, Chimpie McChimperson, criminal-in-chief.

Drip, drip, drip. Someone has rolled on this White House (Ari? Colin?), and the indictments are going to be stunning and brutally damaging. Chimpie may hold on to the last, hoping, as usual, that Daddy's friends will bail him out, but this time he's going to face his well-deserved fate all alone, because even a power-mad fanatic like Karl Rove will recognize when it's time to cover his own ass so he won't be having it traded to other inmates for cigarettes.

So let the press slaver over Roberts, ignoring the real story. In a few days, unless Roberts is revealed to be in the KKK or buried some kids in his basement, this Supreme Court gassing will expire because nothing much will really happen (if anything at all) until hearings begin next month or in September. Roberts is a desperate and temporary ploy by Bush to try to get the press to run away from the Rove story. But Patrick Fitzgerald isn't running away.

And that means that Rove is itching his scabs with even more nervousness. When the spark comes, the whole rotten gasbag that is this administration is going to explode.

A Momentary Summer Vacation?

It feels like I should take one, even though it's been less than two months since Berlin and Prague. It's too hot to work, even here in the mountains where we're really spoiled by dry air and cool nights.

The Rove/Plame scandal continues to build, with the White House clearly panicking as Bush starts answering questions about it and even schedules a Supreme Court nomination tonight in prime time, perhaps because yet another shoe is about to drop. Oh, how I hope it involves Jeff Gannon/James Guckert, Ari Fleisher, two chickens, some Astralube, and an illegal prescription for Cialis. And Chimpie and Laura watching while Uncle Dick engages in some auto-erotic asphyxiation in the coat closet.

Ugh. I just creeped myself out.

Actually, the auto-erotic asphyxiation seems to be more Bush's thing--remember the pretzel incident? That was a coverup for what he was really doing. Doesn't that bastard look oxygen-starved to you? Yeah, too much choking the chicken while choking the Chimpie.

Yes, I'm well past the border of bad taste, but commenting on the news seems sort of pointless today. Bear with me.

Is Rove Taking a Bullet for Cheney?

I hate to get fooled again, and you've got to hand it to those Bush fuckers for being able, like good conjurers, to constantly divert our attention to something "big" while they slip something even bigger behind us.

But then it occurred to me that no one seems to be connecting the Valerie Plame Wilson affair, which involved the CIA, to the allegations that Dick Cheney visited the CIA offices at Langley as many as fourteen times, something that has been called unprecedented. Word was that he had been over there pressuring analysts to spin things the way the White House wanted for war, a war in which the chief beneficiary is the Halliburton company. Cheney, after serving as Secretary of Defense under Bush I then became CEO of Halliburton before becoming vice president. During his tenure as Secretary of Defense, he oversaw a massive privatization scheme in the military which set up the sort of transfer of duties and massive amounts of cash to private contractors.

So the question is this: is Rove taking a bullet for Dick? Is this a distraction from the real source of leaks to the press about Plame and others? Is it feasible that Dick Cheney would really have no idea who Joe Wilson was, even though it was Wilson who was acting ambassador to Iraq before the first Gulf War?

Just wondering. Someone else is wondering too, over at After Downing Street Memo. Go give it a read. Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is purported to be a serious and thorough fellow and this observation by Justin Raimondo may prove rather prescient about what Fitzgerald is really after now:

If, however, Fitzgerald can prove there was a conspiracy inside the government to collect and selectively reveal classified information in order to crush political opponents, and shape U.S. policy, then the charges could be much more serious. By all accounts, the Plame investigation is said to be widening, and I would venture to say that by this time it is wide enough to include charges of espionage.

Indeed, against charges of actual espionage for political gain at the expense of national security, Rove's little leak would seem puny. Perhaps the plan is to throw Karl to the wolves, then pardon him and hope that Fitzgerald can't make any other charges stick.

Or maybe Cheney will conveniently croak just like William Casey did in time to damage the investigation into Iran-Contra. Maybe that's why Dickie hasn't been seen much lately. Maybe he's reading the writing on the wall and realizes that his number's up if he gets exposed as the real culprit here.

I wish I knew, but I'm still optimistic that these bastards are going to go down hard.

The Simplest Statement of the Rove Treason

It boils down to this:

Joseph Wilson went to Niger to ascertain whether or not Iraq was attempting to buy nuclear materials. Who sent him is irrelevant.

In the 2003 State of the Union Address, George W. Bush said this: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

Joseph Wilson wrote an op-ed piece entitled, "What I Didn't Find in Africa," contradicting Bush's claim.

Robert Novak, citing two White House administration sources, announced that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was a CIA operative.

The White House denied Karl Rove was a source. Bush said he would "take care of" anyone who is a leaker of classified information.

Two years later, Rove's attorney admitted Karl Rove was a source.

The White House refused to comment.

Rove currently retains his security clearance.

So in the course of two years, when did Bush know that Rove was the source? Why hasn't he followed through on his promise? Why is Rove still sitting behind Bush in cabinet meetings?

Wilson's motives are irrelevant. Who sent him is irrelevant. The facts are that Bush claimed Iraq sought Uranium, was proven wrong, and his closest aide disclosed the identity of a CIA agent who specialized in WMD in time of war in order to discredit Wilson, who had proven Bush wrong...or a knowing liar.

Rove is a traitor. He has aided and abetted the enemy by directly exposing an operative of the CIA who worked as a NOC, which means she had no diplomatic protection while undercover. All her contacts and assets in other countries--intelligence assets in the area of WMD--are now compromised. This has undercut our ability to fight the war on terror and prevent the proliferation of WMD into terrorists' hands.

Rove is a traitor.
Rove is a traitor.
Rove is a traitor.
And those who cover for him are traitors as well.

And don't take my word for it. Go visit Bloomberg News for their take on things--hardly a left-wing bastion.

It's Not Partisan Hype: Rove Was and Is a Threat to America's Security

When yours truly was doing his duty during the Cold War in a classified position, among the things emphasized in the non-technical part of the training was the absolute necessity of remaining silent about the mission, the people doing the mission, and anything at all in any way connected to the mission. The reasons for this were simple. Just as we pieced together seemingly disconnected bits of information into usable wholes, so were our adversaries doing the same. A question about what one did or who one knew could be innocent, or could be the normal data collection that most intelligence operations is made of. A name here, a location there, measure some antennae on a building, observe the comings and goings of people, and before you know it, you've figured out exactly what some intelligence entity is up to and you can now work to thwart their mission.

So when it came to light two years ago in Bob Novak's column that two White House officials had exposed Valerie Plame as a CIA operative, I naturally assumed that this would be one screwup that would not be countenanced by a White House which was staking its entire being on a war on terror. After all, exposing someone in intelligence operations, even someone who is not on a covert mission, is a very serious act, and had I or one of my colleagues back in the early 1970s done such a thing, we would have been stripped of our clearances, banished from any access, and likely court martialed for violating clear security rules. There would have been no question, no hesitation, and no spinning. You compromise security, it's over for you. Period.

So here we have the commander in chief of all US forces, a man who is at the top of the pyramid for our security, and his right-hand man, his deputy chief of staff, Karl Rove, tells not one, or two, but at least three reporters that Joe Wilson's wife is in the CIA. However, innocent he may have been of Valerie Plame's darker assignments undercover, and however ignorant he may have been of how useful such information might be to skilled intelligence services, he broke the trust of his position.

Something else that is not discussed by our kneepad press is what might have happened to all those foreign operatives who were connected to Valerie Plame when she was indeed working overseas to investigate WMD. What has become of them? Once her name was out, those known to have socialized with her or been involved in the cover business under which she operated were in deep jeopardy. Fraternizing with an attractive blonde woman in business circles surely gets you attention in the Middle East, and if that blonde woman suddenly becomes known as a CIA agent who did extensive work on WMD in your country, well, you might find your testicles wired up to a telephone generator at some point while your relationship is explored.

That's why Karl Rove is dangerous and even treasonous. I expect him to follow the same code I swore to back in my day, and I also expect him to suffer the same fate I would have had I acted as he did.

Karl Rove is a traitor at worst, or at minimum a political partisan to whom power means more than the security of the American people. He needs to be taken down. And if George W. Bush has known this all along, then he too must go, and I expect to see articles of impeachment drawn up within days.

Of course, with a Republican Congress, that won't happen, which shows you just how corrupt and dangerous that party has become to our entire nation.

Just Two Ways in Which the Bush Criminal Empire Is Ruining Our Country

First, there is this little matter of using the wife of someone who criticized one the administration's lies about why we should invade Iraq, that being that Saddam Hussein was trying to acquire yellowcake uranium from Niger. That "someone" was Ambassador Joseph Wilson, once ambassador to Gabon and also a former acting ambassador to Iraq in the run-up to the first Gulf War in 1991, whose actions won him high praise from then-president George H.W. Bush. Now that Karl Rove has been thoroughly fingered as the source for the outing of Wison's wife as a CIA agent (and fingering is going to seem quite pleasant compared to the prodding he'll get as this thing widens...and then there's prison life--ba-da-bum!), the White House spin is shifting to say that Rove did what he did only to discredit Wilson because Wilson was lying about who sent him to Niger and what he saw there.

The single largest charge against Wilson's credibility? That his wife recommended him for the mission. Given his background, it doesn't seem at all like the boss forcing you to take his ne'er-do-well son-in-law as your new supervisor, but that's the spin the White House and its whores keep making. They're intimating nepotism, but unfortunately for them, Wilson was possibly among the very best qualified people in the country for the mission. The White House just didn't like the results, because it directly contradicted their increasingly hysterical claims about Iraq's capabilities. Remember the "mushroom cloud" that Condie Rice and Chimpie kept saying would appear over us if we didn't invade?

So let's just weigh the credibility of these two men. Joseph Wilson is a lifetime public servant who put his own neck in harm's way on behalf of those in his charge, even showing up at a meeting with journalists in Iraq in 1991 wearing a noose around his neck. "If you want to execute me, I'll bring my own fucking rope," Wilson was reported to have said, staring down Hussein who had considered taking embassy personnel hostage. Wilson was also, as mentioned, ambassador to Gabon, and was familiar with the people, the culture, the politics, and the officials who were in a position to know something about their uranium supply and who might be in the market for it. He had also served as President Clinton's national security advisor on African affairs. He has had a stellar career, been honored by Republicans and Democrats alike, and has demonstrated courage under fire.

Then there is Karl Rove, fired by George H.W. Bush from his campaign in 1992 for leaking material to (surprise!) columnist Rovert Novak. He is known for his ruthless campaigns against Republican and Democratic opponents alike, the apotheosis of which was perhaps the smear campaign that took down John McCain in the South Carolina primary in 2000, after McCain had wiped the floor with Bush Jr. in New Hampshire. Rove's brilliance and "total war" approach in any campaign has proven quite successful for Bush Jr., who by any measure is a second-rate intellect wrapped in an adolescent's temperament. Given Rove's penchant for scorched-earth retaliation against opponents, no one expects Bush Jr. to be the one to put the brakes on.

So if Rove attacks Wilson on the basis that his wife, CIA agent Valerie Plame recommended Wilson as envoy to Niger, given his extensive experience and service, how does that discredit Wilson? And since it is Karl "Turd Blossom" Rove (that's Chimpie's nickname for him) doing the leaking of these allegedly damning charges, why should anyone believe him, he who orchestrated the campaign that claimed that John McCain collaborated with his torturers at the Hanoi Hilton while he was a POW?

You make the call. Here's the the Los Angeles Times' Robert Sheer has to say about it:

In the end, though, what Rove's leak and Novak's column really exposed was the depravity of the administration's deliberate use of a false WMD threat and its willingness to go after anyone willing to tell the truth about it.

"Depravity" is exactly the right word.

So now we're in Iraq. And the upshot? The Army is stretching to the breaking point. According Chicago Tribune piece,

According to the RAND study, the strain on the Army is so great that combat units are spending one of every two years deployed on overseas battlefields, instead of one of every three years, as called for in troop deployment guidelines.

These frequent absences from the U.S. and the exposure to combat not only have a negative effect on recruiting but interfere with the Army's ability to train troops in new skills or have them available to deal with contingencies elsewhere.

So are we stronger or weaker now after this ill-conceived war? Are we safer or in more danger?

And this takes us back to the crime that Karl Rove has committed, which is only one of many that were committed in leading up to the greatest, and international crime, of illegal war. Rove tried to suppress through intimidation and denunciation any report that contradicted the desired intentions of the Bushits to invade Iraq.

And even if there are a few of you hanging on to this notion of "pre-emptive war" as legitimate, you might want to take a gander at the U.S. Army website which contains a report by a military historian and analyst.

America will likely be unsuccessful in the war against terrorists through military superiority alone. A doctrine of preemption without a substantial nonmilitary component may well place the United States in a strategic box similar to that of Dulles’s massive retaliation: undertake military operations on the scale of a national invasion or do nothing at all. In practice as much as in policy, America’s defense doctrine must include, as the National Security Strategy outlines, more sophisticated and nuanced diplomatic initiatives and humanitarian programs, efforts designed, in former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s words, “to reduce the underlying sources of terrorist motivation and recruitment.”

With our military stretched to, and beyond, its limits, what seems like the most prudent path? More invasions based on more lies to feed the grandiose and increasingly insane dreams of glory for deserter George "Chimpie in a Flight Suit" Bush?

Now the iron is hot. This administration must be taken down. Bust Rove, impeach Bush, and send the whole criminal gang to the cells they deserve, or to the gallows, if the International Criminal Court dictates that it be so. This is our country they're destroying. It's time to take it back.

"A Climate of Fear"--Is This Our America?

From a Buzzflash interview with former ambassador Joe Wilson, whose wife, Valerie Plame, was outed as a CIA operative by Karl Rove, in retaliation for Wilson's blowing the whistle on the Bushit lies about Iraq obtaining yellowcake uranium from Niger:

BuzzFlash: Up until now, hasn't Rove succeeded? His goal and modus operandi is to use any weapon possible to intimidate persons critical of his candidates or elected officials, even if it is harmful to the national interest. Doesn't the acquiescence of the media to the White House spin and the relatively few whistle blowers indicate that Rove's reckless bullying has silenced many people who would otherwise come forth with the truth?

Ambassador Joe Wilson: I have always said that I believed the outing of Valerie was a signal to others that, should they step forward, the White House would do to their families what they did to mine. I have also had a number of journalists share with me their own experiences of being intimidated by senior officials in the White House. We should not be surprised that a climate of fear prevails in Washington.

I don't think that those who stood to defend our nation over our history did so to enable a collection of gangsters to rule through a "climate of fear." Sixteen years after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, we find our own "leadership" adopting the tactics of that regime in the quest of perpetual power, power to wage illegal war launched on lies and then to silence critics through personal destruction.

Take the country back. Send these criminals to the stockades, starting with Karl Rove. And when he squeals, the whole fucking enterprise is going to unravel, mark my words. Karl thought he was untouchable, a god. But when the rough trade in prison reaches him, he's going to remember what mortality means, and I think he is going to rat out the bunch of 'em.

Uptight Down in Dixie

Since it's Friday, how about something lighter? Here is one reason to get the hell out of the South. I realize that stripping can be an exploitive business, but really--should parents be arrested for giving their son a birthday thrill? After all, he didn't have sex with the woman (which I'm sure he wanted to)--not that that would make any difference, because the age of consent in Tennesee is fourteen, I believe, and young girls that age can be married off to lecherous old dudes with no problem. Anyway,

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A couple pleaded guilty Thursday to hiring a stripper for their son's 16th birthday party and were sentenced to two years probation.

Landon and Anette Pharris, who were charged with contributing the delinquency of a minor, also were ordered to take parenting classes.

The parents hired the stripper to perform at a September party attended by about a dozen young people.

Good grief! You can read the rest of it here.

Forty-two Percent and Climbing: Impeach the Bastard

In a Zogby poll now available there is some really bad news for Bush, but excellent news for the country and the world.

Days after President Bush’s televised address to the soothe the nation’s anxiety over Iraq, the latest Zogby International released a poll finding that 42 percent say they favor impeachment proceedings if the president is found to have misled the nation about his reasons for going to war with Iraq.

That sounds about right. And this news from the red states isn't going to cheer Chimpie up either:

In the Red States, 36 percent say Congress should use it if the president is found to have lied on Iraq, while 55 percent reject this view

Even with whatever bounce Chimpie thinks he'll get from the London bombing, this is got to have the White House working overtime to distract and coverup the crimes of this administration. He's going down, and it's just a matter of how fast it's going to happen. Well, actually, there is a problem.

First, the mainstream media doesn't seem to think that this is news, as Dan Froomkin notes in his blog for the Washington Post:

But you wouldn't know it from following the news. Only three mainstream outlets that I can find made even cursory mention of the poll last week when it came out.

You also wouldn't know it judging from the political discourse in Washington, but that makes a little more sense. After all, impeachment is for all practical purposes a political act, not a legal one. So with a Republican-controlled Congress that doesn't even like to perform basic White House oversight, it's basically a moot point.

And second, as Froomkin notes, a right-wing Congress won't do its duty to the country that is now mired in an illegal war.

Vietnam becomes Vietnow.

More Tragedy, and Yet More Tragedy

Innocent people killed in London, and it is a terrible, terrible thing to attack people who only happen to live in the wrong place at the wrong time. I hope all of you will remember, even as you commiserate with Londoners after this terrorist attack, that tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis have also paid the ultimate price for having committed no sin but being born in the wrong place at the wrong time. The killing of innocent, non-combatants is wrong, period, whether carried out by rogue terrorist groups or governments in the name of anti-terrorism.

That's something that George W. Bush will never understand, and that is why his words from Edinburgh today after the London attack are so offensive and hollow. His sociopathic view of reality prevents him from seeing the awful irony of his declarations, and that is a great danger to us all in this world.

The True Heart of Young Republicanism

Taking their cue from chickenshit chickenhawks George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Pearl, Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and countless other right-wing warlovers, young Republicans have learned that hypocrisy and insincerity are valuable assets. This summer, I want all college Republicans to really examine their hearts and see if there isn't the tiniest squib of honesty there that shames them about not throwing their own bodies up for a war for which they have bleated so loudly. As the Army struggles to meet its recruiting goals, it is considering lowering standards regarding criminal background, education, aptitude, and possibly even sexual orientation. This last alteration alone should have the good Republicans flocking to enlist to prevent gay soldiers from protecting their asses, even if conscience can't motivate them.

It's a simple equation, folks. If you support the war and yet do not volunteer to fight it yourself (or, if you are overage, then encourage your children to enlist), you are a hypocrite and a coward and not deserving the spittle that should be sprayed at you from those who have so honorably and selflessly served.

Here are a couple of people who are going in your place, you fucking chickenshits:

Many of those soldiers who have answered the call have come to Fort Jackson, S.C., for training. It's a place none of them really expected to be. In fact, very few expected to be mobilized at all.

"I automatically started crying for about two hours. I couldn't stop, because I knew I was gonna have to leave my babies," says Spc. Carey Trevino, who was called up in August.

She's 31, and has three kids; the youngest, a 7-month-old baby boy. She'll be leaving her children behind when she goes to Iraq for another year and a half.

"I need to serve my country and the call has come out, so I am doing that," says Chief Warrant Officer Margaret Murray, who did her active duty back in the '60s.

She's 55, and 4 feet, 8 inches tall. Her M-16 is almost as big as she is, but that didn't stop her from qualifying as a marksman this week.

Does she find it unusual that the Army is now calling up a female soldier in her 50s?

"No, although I think what they need to look at is our ability to perform in a tactical environment," says Murray. "For myself, I am going to find that a difficult thing to do physically."

Especially if Murray winds up in a place like Fallujah. Does she find that daunting? "Scary," says Murray. "[But] I need to do my job. … I did not retire. And so, now the Army's calling me back to service. And I'm here to do that."

Doesn't that make you feel proud, tough, like a real American freedom fighter?

Chimpie could go a long way toward improving his image if he put daughters Jenna and Barbara up as new recruits. Such a gesture from the "war president" would help stimulate the Republican base to get in the act instead of cowering on the sidelines, shitting themselves that they might be held accountable for the policies they cheerlead. Out of the bleachers, Republicans! Iraq and Afghanistan beckon to you to show your love.