I kind of wanted to give my take of Bush’s little press conference the other day. But I couldn’t bring myself to summon the rage necessary to cover it in the depth it required.
Factesque captures the rage nicely.
Those activist judges are at it again.
Next up - is the earth flat? Same batshit crazy time, same batshit crazy channel...
I didn't expect it, but the MTA and the workers union couldn't solve their differences.
I'm working from home today, but tomorrow I won't have that luxury, so here's hoping they work it out. But for those of you who had to walk in to work, please try to bear in mind that this is not the workers' fault, as much as the media and in particular Bloomberg and Pataki would have you believe. This is the MTA's attempt at fitting in with the current business-first culture that is running rampant across this country. Between Wal-Mart freezing unions out of their stores, the airlines cutting pensions, factories across the country being non-union shops, and the teachers going without a contract for years at a time, the union is a dying breed. This city has even made a law saying that a strike is illegal, which is in so many words saying that the union itself is illegal, because what other weapon does a union have in its arsenal?
If you voted for Bloomberg, you see now what is so bad about him. A Democrat would have stepped in. His goal is to break this union, entrenching himself firmly on the side of big business. Even a business as poorly run as the MTA who cook the books, who raise the fares every year while cutting service, who make their workers change their jobs from customer service to garbage collection, who tried to sell some sweet land to the New York Jets at half its appraised value. The MTA never made a real effort at negotiating because they didn't think the WTU had the balls.
Workers unite!
The Senate blocked the extension of the Patriot Act. Hmmn... It makes me wonder if I have it all wrong about this fascism thing.
Nah...
The government is allowed to spy on you now.
You see how it works? You don’t become a military fascist state overnight. They chip away at your civil rights little by little until the Constitution is merely a historical document.
Yet another Republican is going to prison. This happens so often that it’s not even exciting anymore.
It’s to the point where a Republican would have to be filmed smoking crack with a naked underage boy to actually get anyone’s attention. The current Republican party is so criminally corrupt, Charles Manson would be nervous about taking calls from them for fear of sullying his image.
Just take a stand on something, Mr. President.
Can you comment on an ongoing investigation or can’t you?
Should we be torturing people or shouldn’t we?
Flip flop! Flip flop!
This is a completely self-indulgent post, but for those of you who don’t live in New York, it might be interesting to see what goes on out here.
You see, there is this possible MTA strike tonight at midnight. The MTA runs all the buses and subways in all five boroughs. So it’s a big deal. Few of us city-dwellers have cars, and even if we do, they can’t all be in the tiny little 23 square miles of Manhattan. And in fact, if you want to bring your car anywhere south of 96th street (which is like WAY uptown) during the strike, you have to have four or more people in the car.
Anyway, so everyone has to have a so-called contingency plan. “How am I getting to work tomorrow” sort of thing. Anyone with any sense of decency and does not have the very highest priority type job (doctor, fireman, stripper, etc.) should absolutely stay home. The streets would be so clogged, we don’t need to be gumming up the works driving into our job at the golf driving range when there are transplant surgeons trying to get to the hospital before the kidney goes bad. So my office, which shall remain nameless, sent out this email yesterday offering one of three options:
1) [The Office Manager] has gathered information about those who drive and have space for colleagues. If you need a ride, please email her so that we can arrange carpools tomorrow morning.OK, fine. I guess if you absolutely have to come in to work tomorrow, whatever, come in. But I should stress I don’t work in a hospital or anything. I can’t imagine who here has to come in tomorrow. On a Friday. A week before Christmas. But whatever.
2) Staff who will have difficulty getting to work and whose work lends itself to it, may, with prior approval from their supervisors, work from home on Friday (the strike is not expected to go beyond the weekend).Right on. And that is the option I’ve selected. But here’s the noggin-scratcher:
3) If neither of these options seems feasible, we have a few options for people who need a place to overnight. (If you think you might fall into this category, pack a bag tomorrow.)Come again? Pack a bag? Am I sleeping in the conference room? Should I bring my sleeping bag and pajamas? Will we be telling ghost stories and making s’mores? Are they honestly going to suggest that someone’s job here in my office is so important that not only are they not allowed to work at home, but they’re not even allowed to go home tonight?
Did they elect him? What happened again? Those movies were so long!! They should make them into a book or something so I could take it on the subway.
Anyway, Aragorn has got a couple of things to say about our real-life king:
“I’m not anti-Bush; I’m anti-Bush behavior,” Mortensen told Progressive magazine. “In other words, I’m against cheating, greed, cruelty, racism, imperialism, religious fundamentalism, treason, and the seemingly limitless capacity for hypocrisy shown by Bush and his administration.”See, now what you need to do, Vigs (we’re tight), is cobble together a bunch of freaks with axes and swords or whatever, find Bush’s Precious and throw it in a chipper shredder or something.
Hey, anonymous. You want another example of what I’m worried about?
I’m worried about the fact that the Pentagon is “monitoring” peaceful protest groups and Quakers because they consider them a “threat” to national security. Hmmn... I wonder what sorts of governments of the past used the military to monitor citizens who might disagree with the government.
You know, someone should write a novel about that or something.
Remember Diebold making the voting machines with no paper trail while the CEO was promising to deliver Ohio to George W. Bush? Well, I hope you're sitting down, this is going to come as quite a shock...
The company is run by a bunch of crooks!
How long until Webster adds "criminal" as a synonym of Republican?
Christmas (bleh) is fast approaching. You can tell because every store you go to has a bunch of Christmas trees and wreathes and crap piled all over the damn place, you can't move more than a few feet in any direction because some Fertile Myrtle always has her double-wide stroller parked sideways in the aisles, and disgusting, otherwise-unemployable old men everywhere are stroking their flea-ridden beards, drinking their Old Crow, and scratching their scabby laps in anticipation of the arrival of your children. So to help you get that horrific image out of your head, check out this list of Seven Christmas Movies That Don't Totally Suck.
1. Bad Santa - Say what you will about Billy Bob Thorton. You know, that he's a crazy, emaciated redneck who's obviously some sort of powerful warlock, seeing as how he got Angelina Jolie to have sex with him. Never has there been a better portrayal of Santa Claus. I mean, he blows that douche from Miracle on 34th Street right out of the water. This movie has it all: drunkenness, sex, cruelty to children, swearing, a shootout... uh, John Ritter. The scene where Billy Bob drunkenly tears apart the weird little kid's beloved advent calendar and shoves all the candy into his mouth puts me in the Christmas spirit like nothing else can. And when he beats the skater punk with his own skateboard... I mean, who HASN'T wanted to do that?
2. It's a Wonderful Life - This isn't really a Chirstmas movie. I know everyone thinks it is, and they show it so many times around Christmas time that I can recite the damn thing verbatim, but it's really just a movie about a man's life, and the story just happens to end on Christmas. Die Hard takes place at Christmas time, does that make Die Hard a Christmas movie? Yeah, that's what I though, bitch.
So, I've seen this movie about six meeeellion times and I never get sick of it. Why? I dunno. Jimmy Stewart ROOLZ as always. The story is funny. And a litle sappy at the start. Then takes a crazy, dark turn into suicide and drunkness and sleaze, then builds to the feel-good ending of all time. Any movie that can go from The Donna Reed Show to film noir then back again in the course of 2 hours has gotta be good, right? Plus it has Mr. Potter, one of the all time great movie villians, the cranky old bastard. Also, he looks like Dick Cheney. "Merry Christmas, Mr. Potter!" "Happy New Year to you... IN JAIL!!!"
3. Christmas Vacation - The best of the Vacation movies, and I'll fight any man who says different! Those two wretched kids from European Vacation are gone (what a couple of mutants those losers were. That son would have gotten his ass kicked by Anthony Michael Hall, easily. And that daughter... were we really supposed to believe that the bad guy from Karate Kid would go out with her?) and are replaced by that kid from Roseanne and Juliette Lewis before she went nuts. This might be the last good movie Chevy Chase ever makes, so savor it.
4. A Christmas Story - One of the few movies to accurately capture what it's like to be a kid, and what it's like to hope and pray you'll get what you want for Christmas. Then of course, you end up getting a bunch of socks and earmuffs and underwear and shit. This helps prepare you for the constant crushing defeats and disappointments you'll face in your adult life. Like, I always wanted an AT-AT, but did I ever get one? Noooooooo! Fuuuuuuuudge.
5. Die Hard - Hahahahaha, remember what I said earlier? Well, screw it, there aren't any more good Christmas movies, so here you go. How can you go wrong with a movie that features the line, "Now I have a machine gun, ho ho ho?" Lots of 'splosions and wisecracks. Republican dipshit Bruce Willis actually still has a little hair in this one, too. And Alan Rickman is great, he's like a walking version of Mr. Potter. He kind of sounds like Mr. Potter too, if you really listen. Oh, and if you drink lots of whiskey.
6. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer - this cartoon isn't really a movie, but it's Christmasy and it's seriously effed up. You've got this weird, Chernobyl-ized reindeer whose gross deformity makes him a social outcast. You've got an elf who's unjustly ostracized for his sexual orientation (sure, Hermie, those nazi elves hate you because you want to be a "dentist." You're not fooling anyone). You've got an anorexic Santa. You've got this crazy prospector who can't find any silver or gold (I'm guessing it's because rather than, oh, say, DIGGING IN THE GROUND, his method of searching for precious metals is to stick his pick-axe in the snow and then lick the end of it. Science!). And you've got this big gorilla-thing who gets all his teeth knocked out and seems to enjoy it. So, you've got mutation, bigotry, closeted homosexuality, eating disorders, axe-licking, and animal cruelty/sado-masochism. Merry Christmas, everyone!
7. That Charlie Brown Christmas Special Thing - Snoopy is cool. But I kinda question the logic behind this special. So, the message is that the commercialization of Christmas is bad, right? Yet we're getting this message from a cartoon that's interrupted every ten minutes by ads for Dolly Madison snack cakes? Also, how exactly did that shitty tree get so robust and healthy at the end? Was it the mighty power of Jesus? Or was it the power of Zingers? Does anyone besides me even remember what Zingers are?
There’s an article in Salon from yesterday about a new family package soon to be offered by cable providers. So much for the kick ass ala carte plan. Whatever. The only reason I’m writing about it is this:
For instance, Isett said cable providers' family plans should not include channels like ABC Family, which shows PG-13 movies…Ha! ABC Family is too racy for these people? Have you ever watched ABC Family? Me neither. OK, bad example. But if I did, I’m sure it would be pukingly wholesome entertainment, wouldn’t it? I imagine some old-school Mary-Kate and Ashley stuff (you know, before the anorexia and rehab), a little Rodgers and Hammerstein action, a sprinkle of after-school special programming. PG-13? Might there be a woman in a skirt that falls above her knee!! Heaven forfend!!
Slate has a nice little article about the latest bullcrap doctored ad from the Bush administration.
The RNC's new Web video "Retreat and Defeat" starts with a flat-screen TV playing clips from Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, Sen. Barbara Boxer, and Sen. John Kerry. As they speak, a white flag waves over their faces while ominous music moans. Dean says the war in Iraq can't be won; Boxer says withdrawal should start after the Iraqi election; and Kerry says U.S. soldiers shouldn't be "terrorizing kids and children, you know, women." Then the camera pans back, and we learn that we've been watching these clips over the shoulder of a U.S. soldier dressed in desert camouflage, his service rifle strapped to his back. Candy canes hang on the wall just above the screen, which flashes the message: "Our soldiers are watching and our enemies are too."
The video conveys the impression that somewhere in Iraq, a soldier is having his mission and Christmas tarnished by weak-willed Democrats.
Bush has distorted images of U.S. soldiers before. During the 2004 campaign, he got into trouble when one of his ads, titled "Whatever It Takes," doctored the images of soldiers. The ad showed a crowd of soldiers listening to the president. But some of the faces appeared several times in several different places within the same crowd shot, the result of an attempt to increase the number of soldiers appearing to listen to Mr. Bush.
What neither party has done—until now—is inject the idea that the other party is undermining our troops overseas. The RNC is pimping a mute and unnamed soldier not just to defend the Iraq war but to imply that Democrats are white-handkerchief-waving cowards who want the United States to lose.
This is not the president's official message, at least in classier settings. "There's an important debate going on in our nation's capital about Iraq," he said last week at the Council on Foreign Relations, "and the fact that we can debate these issues openly in the midst of a dangerous war brings credit to our democracy."
George W. Bush is the world’s highest profile proponent of freedom and democracy, right? He ousted an evil dictator in the Middle East on that principle alone.
Well, in our most-favored-nation trading partner China, democracy is rearing its pretty little head, only to have it shot clean off by Chinese security forces.
How will Bush react, I wonder?
One of my favorite playwrights, Harold Pinter, won the Nobel Prize for Literature recently. He delivered a brilliant acceptance speech, and it would appear that he is opposed to United States’ foreign policy, to put it mildly. Some excerpts to whet your appetite:
Political language, as used by politicians, does not venture into any of this territory since the majority of politicians, on the evidence available to us, are interested not in truth but in power and in the maintenance of that power. To maintain that power it is essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lives. What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed.And if you read the entire piece, you see that he’s not criticizing the Iraq war specifically as much as everything we’ve done since the end of World War II. And he makes a great point – it’s time to face the fact that we are as vicious a brutal tyrant as any of the last century, but we use our clever propaganda techniques to wrap ourselves up in the concept of freedom and democracy, thus fooling the world (some of the time) and ourselves that our actions are righteous and just. What he doesn’t discuss is that even we (as U.S. citizens) can see our lost freedoms and democracy. It is well-documented that Al Gore won the 2000 election. It is well-documented that oil and pharmaceutical companies write their own bills specifically designed to make them richer at our expense. It is well-documented that we torture and murder innocent people. It is well-documented that our government claims every right to search/take/hide/listen to whatever or whomever it likes. It is well-documented that we have invaded a foreign land based on nothing other than it is what we wanted to do, again under the guise of protecting ourselves.
...
The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It's a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.
...
Language is actually employed to keep thought at bay. The words "the American people" provide a truly voluptuous cushion of reassurance. You don't need to think. Just lie back on the cushion. The cushion may be suffocating your intelligence and your critical faculties but it's very comfortable. This does not apply of course to the 40 million people living below the poverty line and the 2 million men and women imprisoned in the vast gulag of prisons, which extends across the U.S.
...
It quite simply doesn't give a damn about the United Nations, international law or critical dissent, which it regards as impotent and irrelevant. It also has its own bleating little lamb tagging behind it on a lead, the pathetic and supine Great Britain.
...
I know that President Bush has many extremely competent speechwriters but I would like to volunteer for the job myself. I propose the following short address which he can make on television to the nation. I see him grave, hair carefully combed, serious, winning, sincere, often beguiling, sometimes employing a wry smile, curiously attractive, a man's man.
"God is good. God is great. God is good. My God is good. Bin Laden's God is bad. His is a bad God. Saddam's God was bad, except he didn't have one. He was a barbarian. We are not barbarians. We don't chop people's heads off. We believe in freedom. So does God. I am not a barbarian. I am the democratically elected leader of a freedom-loving democracy. We are a compassionate society. We give compassionate electrocution and compassionate lethal injection. We are a great nation. I am not a dictator. He is. I am not a barbarian. He is. And he is. They all are. I possess moral authority. You see this fist? This is my moral authority. And don't you forget it."
Step One: Bomb Real News Outlets.
Step Two: Pay For Fake News.
The good news is step two works domestically as well.
In a stunningly consumer-minded decision, the FCC has decided that we should no longer have to pay for every cable channel just because we want IFC. Now we’ll be able to pick and choose which channels we want, tapas style.
In a sharp reversal, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission said Tuesday that the agency now thinks cable companies should stop forcing people to subscribe to bundles of channels and give them the option of choosing individual channels.No Thanks:
Kevin Martin, FCC chairman since March 16, asserted that a la carte pricing could both allow parents to block offensive programming and lower their surging cable bills. His stance might push Congress to require cable and satellite companies to offer the option.
I don’t even have a comment. Just read it for yourself.
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) says the NFL and Philadelphia Eagles are being unfair to wide receiver Terrell Owens, and he just might bring the matter to the antitrust subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee he chairs, so there. Just because Owens is a spoiled brat who humiliates his teammates and ruins their season is no reason for them to prevent him from playing or talking to other teams; it's "vindictive and inappropriate," said Specter. (The Eagles deactivated Owens on Sunday after a four-game suspension; an arbitrator ruled the action was supported by terms of the player's contract.)And we thought the steroid hearings were a waste of time. Arlen Spector’s constituency now consists of only one spoiled asshole football player who lives in New Jersey during the off-season? Would that he cared how inappropriately Wal-Mart treats its employees. How about how inappropriately the Pentagon treats its employees?
They’re at it again, folks. Some pharmacists in Missouri have refused to fill a woman’s legally prescribed birth control medication. They’re “morally opposed” to it. They’re morally opposed to doing their jobs. I know, I know, we’ve written about this before and it’s roughly the same song and dance. But it irritates me so. When on earth did these overblown stock clerks in white jackets get so full of themselves as to second-guess the decisions of an individual, a doctor, the local and federal government, and the fucking United States Supreme Court? Who the fuck do these people think they are?
And morally opposed? I’m morally opposed to making printouts for my boss because he never figured out how to open attachments and to fixing everyone’s goddamned mistakes here around my office, but you know what? I do it. You know why? Because they pay me to. You do your job, you go home, and you bitch about it to your spouse. That’s the American way. So shut up about it before I come over there and smack that self-satisfied shit-eating grin off your face.
It would appear that our esteemed Secretary of Defense and our new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have a few disagreements to hammer out before they go on camera.
Encouraging reporters to consult their dictionaries, the defense secretary said: "These people aren't trying to promote something other than disorder, and to take over that country and turn it into a caliphate and then spread it around the world. This is a group of people who don't merit the word 'insurgency,' I think."Oh, and that’s not all. The bickering defense staff have different ideas on how to solve the torture problem.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace, standing at Rumsfeld's side, evidently didn't get the memo about the wording change. Describing combat in Iraq, he paused and said, "I have to use the word 'insurgent' because I can't think of a better word right now."
"'Enemies of the legitimate Iraqi government' -- how's that?" Rumsfeld proposed.
"What the secretary said," Pace continued, to laughter. [ed. - HA! HA! Dead people...] But Rumsfeld's new description -- ELIG, if you prefer an acronym -- didn't stick with the general. Smiling, he uttered the forbidden word again while discussing explosive devices.
The secretary recoiled in mock horror. "Sorry, sir," Pace explained. "I'm not trainable today."
When UPI's Pam Hess asked about torture by Iraqi authorities, Rumsfeld replied that "obviously, the United States does not have a responsibility" other than to voice disapproval.I think General Pace wanted to say, “with all due respect…” but quickly reconsidered when he realized that calling him “sir” was giving him much more than the respect he’s due.
But Pace had a different view. "It is the absolute responsibility of every U.S. service member, if they see inhumane treatment being conducted, to intervene, to stop it," the general said.
Rumsfeld interjected: "I don't think you mean they have an obligation to physically stop it; it's to report it."
But Pace meant what he said. "If they are physically present when inhumane treatment is taking place, sir, they have an obligation to try to stop it," he said, firmly.
Reuters's Charlie Aldinger asked about "uniformed death squads" in Iraq. Rumsfeld replied: "I'm not going to comment on hypothetical questions."Secretary Rumsfeld, what do you say to the reports of gravity keeping the earth in orbit around the sun?
When Aldinger protested that the question was not hypothetical, Rumsfeld replied that Iraq is "a sovereign country" and suggested the death-squad allegations could be politically motivated. "I just don't know," he said. "I can only talk about what I know." With an exaggerated shrug, he added: "That's life."Hey, we all end up in a box six feet under, am I right? Donald Rumsfeld – the Jean-Paul Sartre of the 21st century.
Fortunately for the Iraqis, things are going well there, in Rumsfeld's view. He rattled off a series of improving statistics -- "seven operational divisions and 31 operational brigade headquarters"-- accompanied by a collection of favorable descriptions: "Largely peaceful . . . liberating and securing . . . solid progress . . . positive . . . a darn good job."Meow!
"The strategy is working, and we should stick to it," Rumsfeld judged.
Particularly now that the insurgents have become ELIGs.
Have you seen this show on MTV? It takes the most rich, spoiled, entitled 15-year-old girls and films them planning their 16th birthday party with all the grace and elegance of Jackie O. herself. There are rich scenes with lines such as, “I’m sixteen and I get what I want,” and “She’s too ugly to come to my party,” and “Everybody has to look at me, it’s my birthday.” Ah yes. It is the stuff of Dickens.
Anyway. I’m not sure what to make of this. It sounds made up.
For his daughter's coming-of-age celebration last weekend, multimillionaire Long Island defense contractor David H. Brooks booked two floors of the Rainbow Room, hauled in concert-ready equipment, built a stage, installed special carpeting, outfitted the space with Jumbotrons and arranged command performances by everyone from 50 Cent to Tom Petty to Aerosmith.And so you see the true downside of war profiteering. It’s not our soldiers dying needlessly or our treasury being robbed by unethical, cold-hearted death merchants. It’s that it enables The Bitchening&trade of the next generation of Paris Hiltons. Who’s not proud to be an American today?
I hear it was garish display of rock 'n' roll idol worship for which the famously irascible CEO of DHB Industries, a Westbury-based manufacturer of bulletproof vests, sent his company jet to retrieve Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry from their Saturday gig in Pittsburgh.
...
The party cost an estimated $10 million, including the price of corporate jets to ferry the performers to and from. Also on the bill were The Eagles' Don Henley and Joe Walsh performing with Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks; DJ AM (Nicole Richie's fiance); rap diva Ciara and, sadly perhaps (except that he received an estimated $250,000 for the job), Kenny G blowing on his soprano sax as more than 300 guests strolled and chatted into their pre-dinner cocktails.
"Hey, that guy looks like Kenny G," a disbelieving grownup was overheard remarking - though the 150 kids in attendance seemed more impressed by their $1,000 gift bags, complete with digital cameras and the latest video iPod.
For his estimated $500,000, I hear that 50 Cent performed only four or five songs - and badly - though he did manage to work in the lyric, "Go shorty, it's your bat miztvah, we gonna party like it's your bat mitzvah."
At one point, I'm told, one of Fitty's beefy bodyguards blocked shots of his boss performing and batted down the kids' cameras, shouting "No pictures! No pictures!" - even preventing Brooks' personal videographers and photographers from capturing 50 Cent's bat-miztvah moment.
"Fitty and his posse smelled like an open bottle of Hennessy," a witness told told me, adding that when the departing rapper prepared to enter his limo in the loading dock, a naked woman was spotted inside.
Q: Tom DeLay? Tom DeLay! How would you describe a man who had taken more than $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors while he was on the defense appropriations committee?
TOM DELAY: “Duke Cunningham is a hero. He is an honorable man of high integrity.”
For your reference, faithful readers:
Hero (n):
...but PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE let this happen!
50 [Cent] thinks the president is "incredible ... a gangsta."
"I wanna meet George Bush, just shake his hand and tell him how much of me I see in him," 50 told GQ. If the rapper's felony conviction didn't prevent him from voting, 50 said he would have voted for Bush.
Sea to shining sea, purple mountain majesty and all that crap. If you find yourself overwhelmed by the massive volume of Republican scandals, have no fear. Someone else can do the research for you and write it all down in a handy Scandal Scorecard.
Think of all the time we would save if the Republicans could just abide by the law instead.
Republican congressman Duke Cunningham pleads guilty and resigns.
The first of many, no doubt.
“I voted guilty before I voted not guilty.” -Senator John Kerry on jury duty.
"I just found him to be a knowledgeable, normal person," said Cynthia Lovell, a nurse and registered Republican who says she now regrets voting for President Bush in last year's election. "He kept us focused. He wanted us all to have our own say."You ready?
The former Democratic presidential candidate reported for duty Monday and none of the lawyers in the case objected to putting him on the jury.
"I was a little surprised," Kerry said of being selected for jury duty.
Pope Peter Lorre, er, Benedict just released the most retarded document since George W's last college paper or Ann Coulter's last book.
In spelling out its position on Tuesday, the Vatican office that deals with education within the Catholic Church made a distinction between deep-seated homosexual tendencies and what it called "the expression of a transitory problem."
"The Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question, cannot admit to the Seminary and to Holy Orders those who practice homosexuality, present deeply rooted homosexual tendencies or support the so-called gay culture," the document said.
The 21-paragraph document -- -- which advises bishops and seminary rectors on how to deal with potential gay priests entering the church -- did not spell out how the "transitory problem" could be overcome, or how a potential priest could offer proof that he no longer had such tendencies.
The new document underlines that church teaching consider homosexual acts "grave sins" and also intrinsically immoral and contrary to natural law, news agencies reported. "Therefore, in no case can they be approved," it says.
These four grave sins are: Murder (Genesis 4:10), the sin of the Sodomites (Genesis 18:20, 19:13),the oppression of the poor (Exodus 3:7-10, 20:20-22), Injustice to the wage earner (Dt 24:14-15).
An estimate of the number of gays in U.S. seminaries and the priesthood range from 25 percent to 50 percent, according to a review of research by the Rev. Donald Cozzens, an author of "The Changing Face of the Priesthood."
Other estimates have been as low as 10 percent and as high as 60 percent, according to news agencies.
Remember during the last presidential election, when Bush would go on and on about how many Iraqi soldiers and police we we're training and how great they were going to be, and how our troops would be out of there in no time flat? Well, like everything else he said, that was bullshit.
But the U.S. officers in charge of training the Iraqis say the chance to turn over Iraq to Iraqis may not come any time soon.
Dempsey, commander of Multinational Security Transition Command, whose mission is to help the Iraqi government train the new security forces, acknowledges there are problems.
"Progress is uneven," he said. "It's uneven across the country, it's uneven across units, it's uneven between the army and the police."
The U.S. military says there are 100,000 Iraqi troops. The number given for trained and equipped Iraqi troops has fluctuated wildly over the past year and has been the subject of debate in Washington.
At the moment, the United States says some of the formed battalions control their own areas, though they still rely on U.S. support.
Lt. Col. Ross Brown of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment said he is hard on his Iraqi recruits because he wants them to survive. But he sometimes does not get the same commitment in return.
"They didn't do too much work yesterday. They didn't do too much work the day before. They haven't done too much work since they've been here," Brown told CNN.
The need to build a new army came after the former U.S. administrator of Iraq, Paul Bremer, disbanded the 400,000-strong force that had served under Saddam Hussein. At the time he said that many Iraqi soldiers simply laid down their arms and went home, sometimes looting the barracks as they left.
I don’t know if you’re paying attention to the furor in the House over the last few days. I know, many of you get your news only from these pages and we’ve been busy living life lately. Sorry about that.
To sum up, Rep. John Murtha is a hawkish Democrat, a decorated Vietnam vet from humble working class roots. He is respected on both sides of the aisle. And last Thursday, he made a statement saying that the time has come to withdraw the troops from Iraq. Of course, the White House will not tolerate dissent so the attack dogs came with both barrels, comparing him to Michael Moore and saying that we cannot surrender to the enemies. That sort of thing. The standard Swift Boat type stuff. (Not that Murtha just sits and takes it like a certain junior senator from Massachusetts who ran for president last year – Murtha on Cheney: "I like guys who've never been there who criticize us who've been there," Murtha said. "I like that. I like guys who got five deferments and never been there and sent people to war and then don't like to hear suggestions that what may need to be done.")
But that’s not the money shot. Representative Jean Schmidt has the least seniority of anyone in the House. She just won that special election against Paul Hackett in the Ohio 2nd. Remember that? So she’s been in for a few months, yet she decided it was time to go on the floor and launch some Scud missiles at the loveable old war hero John Murtha.
In attacking the Democrats' position, Ms. Schmidt, the newest member of Congress, said she had received a call from a Marine colonel, who "asked me to send Congressman Murtha a message: that cowards cut and run, Marines never do."You should hear the tape of the speech. The House really did explode with catcalls and jeers. It sounded like questions for the Prime Minister in the British parliament. And even that’s not the funniest part. Read what she said in her very first speech after her swearing-in ceremony.
The House exploded in catcalls and jeers among outraged Democrats. When debate resumed, Ms. Schmidt retracted her comments and said, "I did not intend to suggest they applied to any member," especially Mr. Murtha.
Honorable people can certainly agree to disagree. However, here today I accept a second oath. I pledge to walk in the shoes of my colleagues and refrain from name-calling or the questioning of character. It is easy to quickly sink to the lowest form of political debate. Harsh words often lead to headlines, but walking this path is not a victimless crime. This great House pays the price.It would appear that we have already had to pay that price, honorable congresswoman. Well played.
The new irresponsible journalist? Our favorite old-time hero (played by Robert Redford in the movie) turned Republican operative Bob Woodward. There’s no sense writing my own nonsense when Talking Points Memo can do it so much better:
So the news is out from the Post now -- both in a statement from Bob Woodward and in an article from the Post.The interesting parts to me are a) the not telling the editors what was going on. That just stinks of Judy Miller and in both cases speaks to a sense of entitlement from these two - “I’m above the rules.” And b) what sort of journalist runs around making comments about an investigation in which one is embroiled without revealing that you are part of that investigation? The latter applies to Mr. Tim Russert as well.
The details still seem sketchy and I suspect we're going to find out a lot more in the next few days. But it now seems that Woodward -- who has long been publicly critical of the Fitzgerald investigation -- has been part of it from the beginning. Literally, the beginning.
From the Post account it appears that Woodward was told of Valerie Plame's identity before any other journalist by an as-yet-unnamed senior administration official who is not Karl Rove or Scooter Libby.
More problematically for Woodward, he didn't tell his own Post editors about any of this until last month and then only after the unnamed senior administration official came forward to Fitzgerald and told him about it. That apparently led Fitzgerald to subpoena Woodward.
Woodward claims that he told Post reporter Walter Pincus about it at the time. But Pincus says he has no recollection of such a conversation.
Dan Savage writes about privacy today in the New York Times. And oh my god, he’s right. This is it. This is how we win, and by doing something noble for a change.
If the Republicans can propose a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, why can't the Democrats propose a right to privacy amendment? Making this implicit right explicit would forever end the debate about whether there is a right to privacy. And the debate over the bill would force Republicans who opposed it to explain why they don't think Americans deserve a right to privacy - which would alienate not only moderates, but also those libertarian, small-government conservatives who survive only in isolated pockets on the Eastern Seaboard and the American West.Why aren’t they doing this? I’m sure it wouldn’t pass, but it would alienate everyone who opposes it. Do it! Do it!!
Of course, passing a right to privacy amendment wouldn't end the debate over abortion - that argument would shift to the question of whether abortion fell under the amendment. But given the precedent of Roe, abortion rights would be on firmer ground than they are now.
I live in New York City, since you asked. First it was the Republican Convention last year. Tonight, it's the CMA Awards. Even Wal-Mart wants in on the action. What on earth is going on? Is there a redneck committee out there in the Heartland who decided it's time to conquer the City? Will we slowly be converted to cowboy boot wearing pod people? Will it suddenly become acceptable to wear a ten gallon hat to a business meeting? Look. We gave you the whole country. All we ask in return is the northeast, the west coast and parts of the industrial midwest. Can't we work this out without a hostile takeover?
I fear the future, friends.
Oh god! Friends? Fear the future? It's already starting!!!
Since it’s something that’s become foreign to us over the last five years, I thought you might be interested to see what it looks like when someone actually accepts responsibility for a mistake.
Eleven top Jordanian officials, including the kingdom's national security adviser, resigned Tuesday in the wake of last week's triple hotel bombings, state-run TV announced.Of course, the finger pointing and the rewriting history works well too, if you’re a weaselly sonuvabitch.
You might want to eat your breakfast before you read this.
A woman died in a Calcutta hospital after ants ate one of her eyes as she was recovering from a cornea operation, media reports said Tuesday.Damn, that is gross! Do you think they took the pieces of her eye and carried it away in one of those single-file lines you see on nature shows? Carrying 800 times their body weight of eyeball back to the nest?
Gauri Chakraborty, 55, had complained of terrible pain after the operation at a state-run hospital, but a nurse told her it was normal and left her unattended, her son Soumen told the Press Trust of India news agency.
He said that when her bandage was removed the next day they found big black ants nibbling at her eye, PTI reported.
"She died a ghastly death. We don't even know the reason of her death," Amitabha Kar, Chakraborty's son-in-law told PTI.
See if you can tell the difference between these two presidential speeches:
John F. Kennedy on April 27, 1961:
I not only could not stifle controversy among your readers--I welcome it. This Administration intends to be candid about its errors; for, as a wise man once said: "An error doesn't become a mistake until you refuse to correct it." We intend to accept full responsibility for our errors; and we expect you to point them out when we miss them.George W. Bush on November 11, 2005:
While it's perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began. (Applause.) Some Democrats and anti-war critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people about why we went to war. These critics are fully aware that a bipartisan Senate investigation found no evidence of political pressure to change the intelligence community's judgments related to Iraq's weapons programs.This president is fully aware that the Senate refused to investigate the claims of political pressure to change the intelligence. This president is fully aware that Harry had to shut down the freakin’ Senate just to get the Republicans’ attention on this gravest of national security concerns. This president is fully aware that his God tells him not to lie.
Sweet jebus on a pogo stick. I don't even know what to say about this:
Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., says that the No. 1 health care crisis in his state is medical lawsuit abuse and in the past he's called for a $250,000 cap on non-economic damage awards or awards for pain and suffering. "We need to do something now to fix the medical liability problem in this country," he declared at a rally in Washington D.C., this past spring.
But Santorum's wife sued a doctor for $500,000 in 1999. She claimed that a botched spinal manipulation by her chiropractor led to back surgery, pain and suffering, and sued for twice the amount of a cap Santorum has supported.
And for once, I’m not talking about the “news” channel. They’ve cancelled Arrested Development. How long will the Pamela Anderson show run, I wonder?
Between this and Firefly, they’ve cancelled the two best shows on network television not called Lost in the last five years. I hate you, Fox!!
Pat Robertson provides us with more evidence, as if we needed it, that God loves you… until He kills you.
As reported in these pages (a.k.a. cut and paste from the Times), science was declared the victor in its battle against ignorance in Dover, PA this past Tuesday. And even though God designed our brains Himself to function so highly as to allow us to use logic and the scientific method to uncover the answers to millions of life’s mysteries, it would appear that it pisses Him off when we do so.
Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson warned residents of a rural Pennsylvania town Thursday that disaster may strike there because they "voted God out of your city" by ousting school board members who favored teaching intelligent design.Jesus! God can be such a drama queen.
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"I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God. You just rejected him from your city," Robertson said on the Christian Broadcasting Network's "700 Club."
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Later Thursday, Robertson issued a statement saying he was simply trying to point out that "our spiritual actions have consequences."
"God is tolerant and loving, but we can't keep sticking our finger in his eye forever," Robertson said. "If they have future problems in Dover, I recommend they call on Charles Darwin. Maybe he can help them."
Who better to tell you how to live your life than the most morally upright citizens in all the land, the United States Senate? Good news! They’re furiously studying masturbation with reckless abandon.
According to the Senate, the pornography industry has grown in mammoth proportions. Wherever you look nowadays, you will find it thrusting its head deep inside the warm folds of your family’s life. Despite the obvious dangers, everyday Americans continue to stroke the porn industry such that it has risen to stand tall and firm across this great land, a rock solid pulsating pillar of evil in a once happy community. As the evil grows, the two spheres of morality and wholesome family life are left dangling below, not receiving the attention they deserve. If pornography continues to be abused in such a manner, it will soon explode, spreading its evil seed far and wide across the underbelly of the heartland.
This must be stopped. I, for one, am glad that the Senate is here for us, to provide protection. A rubber sheath of sorts with which to wrap up this filthy beast, keeping our hearts and minds clean and pure. Apparently, when it comes to pornography, I can’t even trust myself!
She went on to explain that the experience of masturbation activates about 14 neurotransmitters and hormones, causing a quick chain reaction of brain activity. "There have been some experts who have even argued that, in and of itself, overrides informed consent when encountering this material," she said, apparently suggesting that an adult's own sexual self-stimulation can lead to a loss of judgment.Oh my word. I've been taking advantage of me! It’s clear. I cannot be trusted. You cannot be trusted. The only people who can be trusted are the God-fearing, righteous men and women in the U.S. Senate. Bravo, Senators! Thank you for saving me from myself.
It just occurred to me! Delusions of Grandeur had its first birthday last week on November 4th. Hooray! We’ve been busy irritating conservatives and entertaining literally several people for over a year now. We look forward to entertaining you in the years to come. Perhaps you’ll even tell one of your friends! In the meantime, here is a short list of incredibly useful DoG statistics:
A common Beltway definition of “gaffe” is when someone accidentally tells the truth. What happens when a White House gaffe is caught on tape? They try to wash it down the memory hole.
At the Oct. 31 briefing, David Gregory of NBC News stated the following question to McClellan about White House aides Karl Rove and I. Lewis Libby: "Whether there's a question of legality, we know for a fact that there was involvement. We know that Karl Rove, based on what he and his lawyer have said, did have a conversation about somebody who Patrick Fitzgerald said was a covert officer of the Central Intelligence Agency. We know that Scooter Libby also had conversations."The news agencies aren’t having it, thankfully. It’s a different press corps than the one from 2003. They’ve moved back with us into the reality-based world, except for those who want to forever remain in Bush’s fantasy world – they just up and quit.
The official White House transcript states that McClellan's response was "I don’t think that's accurate."
But two outside news agencies, Congressional Quarterly and Federal News Service - which provide transcripts for a fee -both reported the response as "that's accurate."
The differing accounts have sparked a flurry of buzz on numerous blogs, such as thinkprogress.org, Wonkette, Eschaton and DailyKos. They say a video of the press briefing reveals McClellan saying "that's accurate."
White House officials contacted the news outlets and ask for a change to their versions of the transcript.
The Secretary of State Condi Rice is actually meeting with convicted embezzler, intelligence-maker-upper, Iranian spy, and oh yeah, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi today in Washington. What is the matter with them?
They’re addicts. They really want to try to kick the pipe. They come over your house and promise that if you just let them stay the night, they won’t have any more secret prisons, they won’t leak any more national security secrets, and they really, really promise to stop lying and go back to school.
But when you wake up in the morning, the couch is on fire and your TV is gone.
From the Times:
All eight members up for re-election to the Pennsylvania school board that had been sued for introducing the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution in biology class were swept out of office yesterday by a slate of challengers who campaigned against the intelligent design policy.Just when you think your faith in humanity is broken once and for all, the people do something inspirational. Big ups, Dover!
What’s the matter with Kansas, the book title asks. This is what’s wrong with you.
The fiercely split Kansas Board of Education voted 6 to 4 on Tuesday to adopt new science standards that are the most far-reaching in the nation in challenging Darwin's theory of evolution in the classroom.Intelligent Design is not science. This has been said so many times and so many ways so there’s no need to go into detail about it. But these idiots – these Jesusfreak morons – are so frightened by the idea that the Bible might not be literally true that they need to ruin any chance of success for their children. They need to change the school curriculum to see to it that no one sullies their children with the curse of critical thought.
The standards move beyond the broad mandate for critical analysis of evolution that four other states have established in recent years, by recommending that schools teach specific points that doubters of evolution use to undermine its primacy in science education.
Among the most controversial changes was a redefinition of science itself, so that it would not be explicitly limited to natural explanations.Someone needs to point out to Mr. West that supernatural explanations are by definition not science. And then hit him in the head with a brick. Perhaps science alone cannot explain the complexities of life, but saying that magic powder was sprinkled on the earth doesn’t explain anything either.
The vote was a watershed victory for the emerging movement of intelligent design, which posits that nature alone cannot explain life's complexity. John G. West of the Discovery Institute, a conservative research organization that promotes intelligent design, said Kansas now had "the best science standards in the nation."
Kenneth Willard, a board member from Hutchinson, said, "I'm very pleased to be maybe on the front edge of trying to bring some intellectual honesty and integrity to the science classroom rather than asking students to check their questions at the door because it is a challenge to the sanctity of evolution."The rube leader speaks! He thinks that talking about ghosts and goblins in science class is intellectual honesty. Isn’t that cute. Here’s some intellectual honesty – science is all about asking questions, Mr. Willard. The problem here is that all the questions you’re raising are being asked by real scientists too. They may or may not find all the answers, but the difference between them and you is that they are actually looking for answers among facts and fossils. Your mind is already made up. No amount of evidence will ever convince you that you weren’t placed on this earth by your all-knowing father figure who’s looking after you and making sure you don’t masturbate.
Here at DoG, we don’t espouse any religion other than using one’s own brain. You can worship the Moon Gods for all we care as long as you don’t start telling us how your lunar overlords think we should live our lives. That said, in light of a recent press release from the Pope, I decided to compare and contrast two popular Christian religions – Evangelical Whackjobs and Catholicism – and definitively tell you which is better.
Spiritual Leader
EW – Failed oil baron and former cokehead George W. Bush
C – Pope Benedict XVI
Winner - Catholicism
Parties
EW – Crackers and Tang
C – Wine and Guinness
Winner – Catholicism
Music
EW – Michael W. Smith, Stryper, Amy Grant
C – Gregorian chant
Winner – Draw (let’s face it, Satan wins this round)
Literature
EW – Left Behind, The Purpose Driven Life
C – Saint Thomas Aquinas, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of Christ
Winner – Catholicism (Latin is pretty damn cool)
Clothes
EW – Wal-Mart
C – Flowing robes and hats as big as Charles and Di’s wedding cake
Winner – Catholicism
Sex
EW – Only within the confines a loveless marriage and for the purpose of babies, babies, babies.
C – Only with alter boys
Winner – Evangelical Whackjobs (by a nose)
Art
EW – None
C – Almost everything up to the 17th Century
Winner – Duh
Celebrities
EW – James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Cotton Mather, John Ashcroft
C – John F. Kennedy, John Kerry, Mel Gibson, Antonin Scalia, Mother Teresa, Conan O’Brian, Sinead O’Connor, Alec Baldwin, Eddie van Halen, Bela Lugosi, Christina Aguilera
Winner – Catholicism (but Mel Gibson makes it close)
Church Proceedings
EW – You can bring drums and guitars into church, but you’d better not dance to them. Did Jesus really turn grape juice into the Blood of Christ?
C – Is this thing ever going to end? Uck, did he just throw water on me?!
Winner – Evangelical Whackjobs
Schools
EW – Buy Mom a blackboard for Christmas
C – Notre Dame, Boston College, Trinity College (Dublin), Fordham University
Winner – Catholicism
Gays
EW – Sure, if you want to burn in hell for all eternity
C – If I become a priest, maybe I’ll stop having such sinful thoughts
Winner – Draw (grow up, you guys)
Science
EW – Sure, if you want to burn in hell for all eternity
C -
Monsignor Gianfranco Basti, director of the Vatican project STOQ, or Science, Theology and Ontological Quest, reaffirmed John Paul's 1996 statement that evolution was "more than just a hypothesis."Winner – Catholicism
"A hypothesis asks whether something is true or false," he said. "(Evolution) is more than a hypothesis because there is proof."
Aside from cronyism, corruption and sleaze, there’s a major running theme throughout Bush’s reign of terror.
He acted alone.
They are the most secretive tight-knit cabal of cronies in the history of this country until something goes wrong, and then it’s all – who’s that guy? I think I might have met that dude at a party once. When Abramoff went down, his BFF Tom DeLay acted as if he had never met him, and definitely erased the speed dial button from his phone. Lynndie England is caught Girls Gone Wild style pointing and grinning at some prisoner’s johnson and she’s the one bad apple. Pay no attention to the administration memos endorsing torture, the guy taking the photograph, the boots on people’s heads in the photos, or all the suicide attempts at Guantanamo. Now it’s Scoots. Scooter Libby participated in a treasonous act undermining our national security and then proceeded to cover it up. Dick Cheney, George Bush and Karl Rove are marching around as though it caught them off guard. They can’t believe that he would do such a thing. Bullshit. Everyone knows it’s bullshit, but there’s this burden of proof that they’re going to hide behind and in the meantime act as if they were completely unaware of his actions. No one acts alone in this administration.
When something happens often enough, it eventually gets called a pattern. How many times are we supposed to swallow the one bad apple theory? Ten times? Twenty? Bringing accountability to the White House indeed.
You know how sometimes you read a supposedly negative movie review but reading it you think – that sounds really cool! For example, sometimes philistines see a David Lynch film and say, “It made no sense. It didn’t follow a linear narrative. I couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on.” And I say perfect. I can’t wait to see it. The same group of words can mean different things to different people.
So are you paying attention to the Scanlon –Abramoff scandal? It’s all tied in with DeLay and money laundering and ripping off Indian casinos, playing both sides against each other, getting rich off it and funneling the money into Republican campaigns. Really dirty stuff, or as it’s known around D.C. - the Official Republican Playbook. There was a Senate hearing about these scumbags yesterday and an interesting memo came to light:
"The wackos get their information through the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet and telephone trees," Scanlon wrote in the memo, which was read into the public record at a hearing of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. "Simply put, we want to bring out the wackos to vote against something and make sure the rest of the public lets the whole thing slip past them." The brilliance of this strategy was twofold: Not only would most voters not know about an initiative to protect Coushatta gambling revenues, but religious "wackos" could be tricked into supporting gambling at the Coushatta casino even as they thought they were opposing it.Scanlon describes his dirty strategy the exact same way that I would. But he’s selling it, mind you. Even Republicans think of the religious right as nutjobs and the general public as morons.
Oh, that kooky Dubya. He’s breaking down comedic barriers Lenny Bruce style:
Q Mr. President, in Argentina, you will have a bilateral meeting with President Kirchner.HAHAHAHAHAHA!! Stop it, Mr. President! My sides are literally splitting!! Treason in the White House! HAHAHAHAHA! You so crazy!
THE PRESIDENT: Si.
Q What I want to know -- sources of the government told me that they would ask you about more cooperation on support for Argentina, you know, in the IMF fund --
THE PRESIDENT: IMF.
Q Exactly.
THE PRESIDENT: Please don't tell me that the government leaks secrets about conversations to the --
Q Well, I have my sources in the government.
THE PRESIDENT: You do? Okay, well I'm not going to ask you who they are, of course. (Laughter.)
Q No, please.
THE PRESIDENT: Inside joke here, for my team.
Or as Slate’s Robert Gordon puts it:
When Antonin Scalia starts looking good, you know you're in trouble.Oh boy...
Boy, the Dems are beboppin’ and scattin’ all over the Republicans today. Where'd they find the balls? Senate Democrats forced a closed session to talk about that whole investigation into Iraq thing that the Republicans decided to put off until after the election. Which made sense, I mean why would the voters want to know how the Iraq intelligence was misused by the White House before they cast their votes?
Anyway, the Senate Dems are doing a nice bit of old fashioned grandstanding and damn, are the Republicans pissed!
Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., said Reid was making "some sort of stink about Scooter Libby and the CIA leak." [ed. – talk about making a mountain out of a “treason in the White House” molehill!]Breaking Senate traditions? Those poor helpless Republicans wouldn’t know anything about that, would they?
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In addition, Lott said, Reid's move violated the Senate's tradition of courtesy and consent. But there was nothing in Senate rules enabling Republicans to thwart Reid's effort.
Think Progress summarizes Alito’s Way.
The reason for record oil company profits is now clear. DoG has obtained photographic evidence that Exxon Mobil Chairman and CEO "Lee Raymond" is actually intergallactic crime lord Jabba the Hutt. Sadly, after this photo was snapped, "Raymond" slammed his meaty palm down on a button beside the platform upon which he was reclining, sending the brave DoG photographer through a trap door and into the lair of the mighty rancor. He was immediatley devoured, but the camera and its contents survived.
I know you people lead busy lives. You don’t have time for nonsense. So I’ve gone ahead and read the twenty-two page Libby indictment so you don’t have to. I’m sure you can find a better, more detailed analysis almost anywhere else. But here are the relevant points as I see them:
Disclosure of the fact that such individuals were employed by the CIA had the potential to damage the national security in ways that ranged from preventing the future use of those individuals in a covert capacity, to compromising intelligence-gathering methods and operations, and endangering the safety of CIA employees and those who dealt with them.
Valerie Wilson was employed by the CIA, and her employment status was classified. Prior to July 14, 2003, Valerie Wilson’s affiliation with the CIA was not common knowledge outside the intelligence community.
On or about June 11 or 12, 2003, the Under Secretary of State orally advised LIBBY in the White House that, in sum and substance, Wilson’s wife worked at the CIA.
LIBBY participated in discussions in the Office of the Vice President concerning how to respond to Pincus.
On or about June 12, 2003, LIBBY was advised by the Vice President of the United States that Wilson’s wife worked at the Central Intelligence Agency in the Counterproliferation Division. [ed. – they're trying to counter the proliferation of nuclear weapons] LIBBY understood that the Vice President had learned this information from the CIA.
That official [Libby’s Principal Deputy] asked LIBBY whether information about Wilson’s trip could be shared with the press to rebut the allegations that the Vice President had sent Wilson. LIBBY responded that there would be complications at the CIA in disclosing that information publicly, and that he could not discuss the matter on a non-secure telephone line.
LIBBY asked that the information LIBBY provided on the topic of Wilson be attributed to a “former Hill staffer” rather than to a “senior administration official,” as had been the understanding with respect to other information that LIBBY provided to Miller during this meeting.
LIBBY spoke to a senior official in the White House (“Official A”) who advised LIBBY of a conversation Official A had earlier that week with columnist Robert Novak [ed. – better known as Douchebag of Liberty] in which Wilson’s wife was discussed as a CIA employee involved in Wilson’s trip.Who is Official A? And is he sweating in his skidmarked underpants this weekend?
Irving Lewis Libby (I refuse to call a grown man “Scooter”) was indicted today on five charges including perjury, obstruction of justice and making false statements.
Let’s say it all together now, right-wingers – Perjury isn’t a real crime. It’s only lying. We lie every day! And as long as we don’t lie about sex, who cares?
In the meantime, the Rove investigation is ongoing. Guess what Asshole is going to do.
As Rove departed his home in Washington Friday morning, he told reporters, "I am going to have a great Friday and a fantastic weekend and hope you do too."In the meantime, let us not forget this:
Bush suggested at the beginning of the investigation that he would fire anyone on his staff who was involved in the leak.See? They lie all the time!
He appeared to set a higher standard in July, saying, "If someone committed a crime, they will no longer work in my administration."
So. It looks like Libby’s going to be indicted, but Rove isn’t. Yet. But don’t let that fool you. I don’t want to hear any platitudes from the Bush administration (although I’m certain we will) about being vindicated or exonerated. He is most definitely guilty. They just can’t quite connect the dots. Yet.
This is his M.O. Do the most underhanded, illegal, and in this case treasonous dirty trick you can think of, but stay removed from it just enough to keep your fingerprints off it directly. It’s OK if everyone suspects you as long as they can’t prove it. He’s done this so many times before. Read Bush’s Brain (or watch it you lazy-ass). In it you’ll hear about all his nefarious schemes, like when he bugged his own office and blamed it on the Democrats. Everyone knew Rove did it. All the evidence pointed to Rove doing it. They just couldn’t prove it. But after Rove showed the bug to the press, his candidate made huge gains in the polls - just enough to win. This is what he does.
But let me ask you – just because O.J. was acquitted, do any of you think that he didn’t kill his wife? I didn’t think so.
Of course, even guiltier than Rove – Vice President Cheney. But I guess we can all go fuck ourselves, eh, Dick?
