Colbert Lampoons Bush at White House Correspondents Dinner-- President Not Amused?: "A blistering comedy ?tribute? to President Bush by Comedy Central?s faux talk show host Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondent Dinner Saturday night left George and Laura Bush unsmiling at its close. "

BBC NEWS | Americas | Leftist trio seals Americas pact: "The left-wing leaders of Bolivia, Cuba and Venezuela have signed a three-way trade agreement aimed at countering US influence in Latin America."

Well, Leopold is really putting his neck out there...

Fitzgerald to Seek Indictment of Rove:

"Despite vehement denials by his attorney, who said this week that Karl Rove is neither a 'target' nor in danger of being indicted in the CIA leak case, the special counsel leading the investigation has already written up charges against Rove, and a grand jury is expected to vote on whether to indict the Deputy White House Chief of Staff sometime next week, sources knowledgeable about the probe said Friday afternoon."

Totally check this out. This player integrates RSS, bitttorrent, and VLC to create an internet TV interface. You can subscribe to channels, download music videos, and probably some stuff I haven't figured out yet. It's open source, works on windows, linux, and mac. Download "Democracy Now" with a click. Sorry for the commericial, but this makes me excited since I don't have cable. Oh, and its called "Democracy Player."

Soon these individuals will be eliminated from all historical records, and while in Mexico, end up with an ice pick somewhere where it doesn't belong. Umm. Stalinism anyone.

From the same National Journal article.

"I think the [publications] that are causing the most kickback now are things that look like they're critical of the administration," said one former official who has written about intelligence policies and techniques. "The [career] agency people feel like they are regarded by the White House as the enemy." They "feel like Goss's real job is to decimate the place," said the former official, who, like others contacted for this story, asked for anonymity to avoid reprisal from the CIA.

File this under: Techniques for consolidating executive power when professional bureaucracies assert independence.

NATIONAL JOURNAL: Silencing The Squeaky Wheels (04/27/06):

"The CIA has imposed new and tighter restrictions on the books, articles, and opinion pieces published by former employees who are still contractors with the intelligence agency. According to several former CIA officials affected by the new policy, the rules are intended to suppress criticism of the Bush administration and of the CIA. The officials say the restrictions amount to an unprecedented political 'appropriateness' test at odds with earlier CIA policies on outside publishing."

Stop it I said! Okay, I really really mean it this time!

Sen. Specter Threatens to Block NSA Funds - Yahoo! News: "WASHINGTON - Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter said Thursday he is considering legislation to cut off funding for the Bush administration's secret domestic wiretapping program until he gets satisfactory answers about it from the White House.

'Institutionally, the presidency is walking all over Congress at the moment,' Specter, R-Pa., told the panel. 'If we are to maintain our institutional prerogative, that may be the only way we can do it.'"

The Raw Story | MSNBC reports Rove believes he is in legal jeopardy:

"Karl Rove has described his three and a half hour meeting with a grand jury as grueling, and is more worried about being prosecuted than ever, MSNBC is reporting."

New House Bill will extend general arrest powers to NSA and CIA agents.

Congress cracking down on U.S. leaks - baltimoresun.com:

If the measure is approved by Congress, the nation's spy chief would be ordered to consider a plan for revoking the pensions of intelligence agency employees who make unauthorized disclosures. It also would permit security forces at the National Security Agency and the CIA to make warrantless arrests outside the gates of their top-secret campuses."

The Raw Story | Outed CIA officer was working on Iran, intelligence sources say: "According to current and former intelligence officials, Plame Wilson, who worked on the clandestine side of the CIA in the Directorate of Operations as a non-official cover (NOC) officer, was part of an operation tracking distribution and acquisition of weapons of mass destruction technology to and from Iran."

Tony Snow to be named White House Press Secretary. Interesting footnote. He studied Philosophy. Not sure how he turned into a Republican hack, though. From Washington Post: "B.A., philosophy, Davidson College; graduate work in philosophy and economics, University of Chicago." Guess he couldn't finish.

Location where the veil was lifted more explicitly...this is an energy war Rice says during questioning (and one can see echoes here in her opening remarks):

The U.S.-India Civilian Nuclear Cooperation Agreement: "Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Opening Remarks Before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Washington, DC
April 5, 2006"

Gay fairy tale sparks civil rights debate in MA: "A parents' rights group said on Monday it may sue the public school in the affluent suburb of Lexington, about 12 miles west of Boston, where a teacher used the book 'King & King' in a lesson about different types of weddings.

'It's just so heinous and objectionable that they would do this,' said Brian Camenker, president of the Parents Rights Coalition, a conservative Massachusetts-based advocacy group.

Camenker said he believes the school, Joseph Estabrook Elementary, broke a 1996 Massachusetts law requiring schools to notify parents of sex-education lessons. 'There is no question in my mind that the law is being abused here,' he said."

Times-Standard Online - Tommy Chong keynotes at NORML rally:

""I know Dick Cheney's Secret Service guys smoke pot," Chong said. ?The reason I know that is I sold them bongs."

He insinuated that President Bush was on methamphetamines.

"The dangerous thing about tweakers is they can take things apart but they can't put them back together again," Chong said. "That's what George Bush has done to this country.""

Sounding very much like a Cartesian, Bush Admits Mistakes in Iraq, Defends Tactics:

"Bush said: 'I base a lot of my foreign policy decisions on some things that I think are true. One, I believe there's an Almighty. And, secondly, I believe one of the great gifts of the Almighty is the desire in everybody's soul, regardless of what you look like or where you live, to be free.'"

Illinois Democrat asks State Legislature to push Bush impeachment: "State Rep. Karen Yarbrough (D-Maywood) has sponsored a resolution calling on the General Assembly to submit charges to the U.S. House so its lawmakers could begin impeachment proceedings."

Bush's third term - Los Angeles Times Editorial:
"IF PRESIDENT BUSH HOPES the 'shake-up' of his administration initiated last week will re-energize his listless presidency, he's bound to be disappointed. A far more audacious makeover is needed ? one that sends Vice President Dick Cheney into early retirement. "


The editorial also calls for Rumsfeld to hit the bricks as well.

I love MS. It is so awesome. Hmm. Want to remove our software? Nope.
Umm. Isn't this the same way they got into anti-trust business with their browser?

2.4 How do I remove Windows Media Player from my computer entirely?

Windows Media Player is a feature of the operating system and cannot be removed entirely. However, depending upon which version of the Player and Windows you are using, you might be able to revert to an earlier version of the Player or remove access to the Player.

If you are running Windows Media Player 9 Series or later, you can revert to an earlier version of the Player. For more information, see question 2.3.

If you are running Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1), Windows XP SP2, Windows 2000 SP3, or Windows 2000 SP4, you can remove access to Windows Media Player by using the Set Program and Access Defaults feature. Note that this only removes links to the Player. It does not remove the Windows Media Player software. To remove access to Windows Media Player, do the following:

1.
In Control Panel, double-click Add or Remove Programs.
2.
Click the Set Program and Access Defaults button, and then choose a configuration (such as "Non-Microsoft" or "Custom").

Protesters force Bush to move Stanford meeting:

"President Bush's visit to Stanford University's Hoover Institution was quickly moved to another location after more than 1,000 protesters converged around the Hoover tower.

The White House said the protesters blocked the only road into the central areaof the campus where Hoover is located, which forced a meeting with several Hoover fellows to be moved to the campus home of former Secretary of State George Shultz, a Hoover fellow who organized the gathering."

"Don't Let Congress Ruin the Internet
Right now Congress is pushing a law that would abandon the First Amendment of the Internet -- a principle called "network neutrality" that preserves the free and open Internet. Congress needs to hear from you today or they will hand over control of what you do online to companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast.

Politicians are trading favors for campaign donations from these companies. They're being wooed by people like AT&T's CEO, who says "the Internet can't be free." Sign this petition to tell your elected representatives to protect Internet freedom now."

While this organization seems really bad at explaining what is happening, I think it is worth 5 minutes to send an email to reps and sens. Of course, what they are proposing is that it will be legal for gateway companies like AT&T and Comcast to take money in exchange for faster load times. That is, Amazon could pay for the routing to its sites to be quicker than those of independent book stores or whatever. BTW I had a friend who wrote about this possibility some time ago. He blames CISCO routers.
Anyway here's the site:
http://www.savetheinternet.com/

US intel report: Major increase in terrorist incidents | csmonitor.com:


UPDATE 4/29/06: The actual report released today :

The report said there were 11,111 attacks that caused 14,602 deaths in 2005. Those figures stand in contrast to prior State Department reports, which cited 208 terrorist attacks that caused 625 deaths in 2003; and 3,168 attacks that caused 1,907 deaths in 2004.

But officials from the State Department and the National Counterterrorism Center were quick to say that they believed the dramatic increase was due largely to the fact that they were using a far more inclusive definition of what constitutes a terrorist attack than in previous years.

The biggest single factor was the inclusion of attacks within Iraq, which in prior years were largely excluded, the report said.

At least 30% of terrorist incidents last year occurred in Iraq, as did 55% of related fatalities, or about 8,300, the report said. Fifty-six Americans were killed in terrorist acts, 47 of them in Iraq. A total of 40,000 people were killed or wounded, including about 6,500 police and 1,000 children, the report said.

"In a report to be released next week, US government figures will show that the number of terrorist attacks in the world jumped sharply in 2005, totalling more than 10,000 for the first time. That is almost triple the number of terrorist attacks in 2004 -- 3,194. Knight Ridder's Washington bureau reports that counterterrorism experts say that there are two reasons for the dramatic increase: a broader definition of what consitutes a terrorist attack, and the war in Iraq."

And Knight Ridder's story makes it clear that this figure only includes non-combatant casualties.

Roughly 85 percent of the US citizens who died from terrorism during the year died in Iraq. The figures cover only noncombatants and thus don't include combat deaths of US, Iraqi and other coalition soldiers.

A new CIA official to come in from the cold on the administration's pre-war sellective use of Intelligence to speak on 60 Minutes this Sunday night:

"(CBS) A CIA official who had a top role during the run-up to the Iraqi war charges the White House with ignoring intelligence that said there were no weapons of mass destruction or an active nuclear program in Iraq.

The former highest ranking CIA officer in Europe, Tyler Drumheller, also says that while the intelligence community did give the White House some bad intelligence, it also gave the White House good intelligence ? which the administration chose to ignore.

Drumheller talks to 60 Minutes correspondent Ed Bradley in his first television interview this Sunday, April 23 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

Drumheller, who retired last year, says the White House ignored crucial information from a high and credible source. The source was Iraq's foreign minister, Naji Sabri, with whom U.S. spies had made a deal.

When CIA Director George Tenet delivered this news to the president, the vice president and other high ranking officials, they were excited ? but not for long.

'[The source] told us that there were no active weapons of mass destruction programs,' says Drumheller. 'The [White House] group that was dealing with preparation for the Iraq war came back and said they were no longer interested. And we said 'Well, what about the intel?' And they said 'Well, this isn't about intel anymore. This is about regime change.' '

They didn't want any additional data from Sabri because, says Drumheller: 'The policy was set. The war in Iraq was coming and they were looking for intelligence to fit into the policy.'

The White House declined to respond to this charge, but Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has stated that Sabri was just one source and therefore not reliable.

Drumheller says the administration routinely relied on single sources ? when those single sources confirmed what the White House wanted to hear.

'They certainly took information that came from single sources on the yellowcake story and on several other"

NASA - "New and Improved Antimatter Spaceship for Mars Missions"

Grand Jury Hears Evidence Against Rove:

"Just as the news broke Wednesday about Scott McClellan resigning as White House press secretary and Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove shedding some of his policy duties, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald met with the grand jury hearing evidence in the CIA leak case and introduced additional evidence against Rove, attorneys and other US officials close to the investigation said.

The grand jury session in federal court in Washington, DC, sources close to the case said, was the first time this year that Fitzgerald told the jurors that he would soon present them with a list of criminal charges he intends to file against Rove in hopes of having the grand jury return a multi-count indictment against Rove."

I assume you all have heard of Fred Phelps. Not sure if you've seen what he's up to these days. Well, it turns out that you don't die unless you deserve it, and a sufficient condition for deserving it is not being against gays and lesbians. So, if you're a soldier, and you die, you must not have stood strongly enough against gays and lesbians. State Legislatures are now passing all sorts of laws limiting protests at funerals. I wonder if this means I can't dance on the grave of war criminals.

I'm off to D.C. for a nice little trip, but I wanted to post the latest Jason Leopold article. Jesus, this guy deserves the Pulitzer.

State Department Memo: '16 Words' Were False:

"Eleven days before President Bush's January 28, 2003, State of the Union address in which he said that the US learned from British intelligence that Iraq had attempted to acquire uranium from Africa - an explosive claim that helped pave the way to war - the State Department told the CIA that the intelligence the uranium claims were based upon were forgeries, according to a newly declassified State Department memo.

The revelation of the warning from the closely guarded State Department memo is the first piece of hard evidence and the strongest to date that the Bush administration manipulated and ignored intelligence information in their zeal to win public support for invading Iraq."

ContraCostaTimes.com | 04/16/2006 | By any name, it's civil war, Iraqis admit:

"Pease said he recently had a conversation with an Iraqi police officer that underscored how vexing the issue of militias has become. Out of earshot of the police officer's commander, Pease said, he asked the young street cop to give him an honest analysis of what's going on in the street.

'He said to me, 'Do you want me ... to tell you the truth?'' Pease recalled. 'His assessment was that the militias are everywhere ... and his officers weren't going to do anything about that because their units are infiltrated, and they know what the cost would be for working against the militias.'"

Take that Wasington Post editorial board! NYT editorial responds. A Bad Leak.

Another Julian Borger piece:

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Britain took part in mock Iran invasion: "British officers took part in a US war game aimed at preparing for a possible invasion of Iran, despite repeated claims by the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, that a military strike against Iran is inconceivable."

You've got to check these out, a lot of them. One or two are interesting, but 20 or 30 gives pause...

Flickr: Photos from stoneth: "stoneth's photos"

UPDATE 4/20/06 With McCellan's abrupt but predictable resignation this week, to my knowledge he never did have to answer the question of whether or not Bush was personally aware of the DIA's report issued to the White House two days before his remarks on the Mobile Labs. I guess Scotty had a final victory after all...


Alright - indulge me once again. I give you the wonder of today's Press Gaggle.

Imagine your Scott McCellan, and you walk into today's press meeting knowing full well that there is one question that the WH press corps wants to ask today and you also know that you cannot say anything, ANYTHING in response. How do you do it? You try to run out the clock.

First, you come out swinging with the first question, even if its on an unrelated subject. This oughta kill some time. And if you're lucking open up new dead end lines of questioning.

QUESTION: Is the President alarmed at the climate of feeling that we're going to attack Iran? And there seems to be more and more scare --

SCOTT McCLELLAN: The wild speculation he referred to the other day?

QUESTION: Pardon me?

SCOTT McCLELLAN: You mean the wild speculation he referred to the other day?

QUESTION: Yes.

You've opened strong -- let them know that you're going on the offensive and gonna try to run out the clock. You're not gonna take shit. They'd better be afraid of direct confrontation with you...But now you've got some momentum...You've come out strong, but you know the dreaded question is coming soon

QUESTION: Does the President think that the remarks from the Iranian President on television were in any way timed as a response to Mr. Bush's own comments or on the eve of ElBaradei's visit?

SCOTT McCLELLAN: I wouldn't try to make an assessment of the timing of it. I mean, I think that they had been signaling that they were going to be moving in this direction previously.

Then, with no beating around the bush, the lousy reporter changes the subject and WHAM from the current Iran situation right smack into the one question you cannot say ANYTHING about for the rest of the Gaggle.

QUESTION: Was the President aware that the Defense Intelligence Agency had found that there was no evidence of WMD in the trailers two days before the President said that there was evidence of that?

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Well, the President made his -- the President's comments were based on the intelligence assessment of the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency that was publicly released on May 28, 2003.

QUESTION: But he wasn't aware of the report that they had delivered --

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Well, I think what you'll -- you'll have to ask the international community what they looked at to put into that report. There's a briefing that was done for reporters on May 28th, and the intelligence community said that they were highly confident about these labs, these mobile labs being used for producing biological weapons.

There - you've played the only move you have: you've acted like you've misunderstood the question. Can't hold on to this tactic long, though. Better change the subject and quick...

MCCELLAN: But let me -- you're going to the article in The Washington Post today, and, I mean, the article in the lead leaves readers with an impression that the President was saying something that had been debunked by the intelligence community. That is not true. That is irresponsible reporting. In fact, the CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency had jointly assessed at the time that the labs were for producing biological weapons.

Now've tried diverting attention, but what do you do when the question just keeps coming back?

SCOTT McCLELLAN: ...Again, I can tell you what the President made his comments based on. And I think this is just, frankly, reckless reporting.

QUESTION: So the President was not aware of the fact --

QUESTION: -- President was so definitive --

SCOTT McCLELLAN: And I think it's reckless reporting for ABC to go this morning and say that The Washington Post says that the President knew at the time what he was saying was not true.

Almost slipped here...You want to say SOMETHING, but look what happens when you do!

QUESTION: So was the President made aware of the fact --

Oh, fuck 'em. Just yell back in their faces...

SCOTT McCLELLAN: And are you all going to apologize?

(Can you fucking believe this was the best he could do?)

QUESTION: Was the President made aware of the faxed field report?

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Are you all going to apologize for that?

QUESTION: Was the President aware of the faxed field report?

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Is that a correct statement?

QUESTION: Scott, was the President made aware of the field report that was faxed?

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Jessica, I just told you, I've asked the intelligence community what they based this paper on. I can't tell you what they based their paper on. You have to. We're not an intelligence-gathering agency.

QUESTION: No, but was the field report faxed --

Okay - nobody's fighting back in response to your j'accuse. Guess you'll have to go back to the one move left: pretending you don't understand the question.

SCOTT McCLELLAN: The President made his comments based on this white paper that was publicly released by the Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency, which is the arm of the -- which is an arm of the Pentagon --

But the jackals just won't stop

QUESTION: -- [Did the] President have access to material before it's declassified, so the question is, was he aware of this report on May 27th?

So it's about here you realize that you're not going to make the whole Gaggle, and are goning to have to split before all questions are answered. But you've got some steam left. And then, all of a sudden, WHAM you get the same question phrased in a different way...

QUESTION: Would you clarify what's wrong with the article
--

SCOTT McCLELLAN: I've got to go. I just said what -- the lead. I just did, repeatedly, Jessica.

QUESTION: Which is that the President didn't know the information that is contained in that --

SCOTT McCLELLAN: You -- the lead -- I just said that the lead suggested that what the President was saying was based on something that had been debunked. And that is not true. In fact, the President was saying something that was based on what the intelligence community, through the CIA
--

QUESTION: -- contradictory information out there.

SCOTT McCLELLAN: -- and I'm trying to go gather information from the CIA to find out what went into that paper. They're going to have to say what went into that paper. That's what the President's statement was based on. And so, for ABC to go on there and suggest --

Oh, fuck, and now their explicitly on to your game of not saying anything...

QUESTION: You're not denying --

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Hang on. Are you saying that the President went out there and said something that he knew was not true? That's what you said on ABC News --

QUESTION: I didn't say anything on ABC News --

SCOTT McCLELLAN: ABC News said that this morning. And is ABC News going to apologize for making that assertion?

QUESTION: My question is, are you denying that there was --

SCOTT McCLELLAN: You haven't answered my question. Are you going to apologize for that?

QUESTION: -- contradictory information --

SCOTT McCLELLAN: I just did, Jessica. I just answered that very question.

QUESTION: I have one. Can I have one?

Now that you're not saying anything or your non-denial denial has itself become topic of public scrutiny, time to split.

SCOTT McCLELLAN: I'll be back later.

An interesting display of commodity fetishism. I can understand the political reasons why this reification occurs (i.e. look at the international recognition of Iran over the last 5 days alone based upon these productive acts), but it is still a bit creepy to see uranium being praised like a savior.

From MJS at Corrente

#1: the Egg is Democracy, the Rabbit is Fate, the Man is Leo Strauss and George W. Bush is the Little Girl?her pale dress is a vestige of The Old Morality. The Man told the Little Girl fanciful stories of Power, Treasures and a World that Was Hers for the Taking. Having stolen the Blue Egg, the Little Girl is dragged along by the theories of Strauss which take her only so far before they are overcome by the Reality of Fate. All the theoretical Straussian cant will not protect you from What Is. Bush got to carry the Blue Egg for about a minute and a half, but illegitimately. The Egg will be lost. He will cry and moan, and talk about Jesus; Strauss will find a new little girl to play with. And Jesus? He and Judas rule the antiquities market..."

looks like we just got our first comment spam. There is some way to delete them, working....

Haaretz is an Israeli newspaper that was suggested to my by Maya. I wanted to see what was being said about Iran...

Haaretz - Israel News - The Iranian clock:

The two gears that are turning the Iranian clock are described by an experienced administration assessor. The first: What will come more quickly - the nuclear capability or the democratic revolution? And the second: If the nuclear move is stopped by a military action, will this accelerate the process of democratization in the country or will it set it back by igniting a new explosion of deadly hostility?

"Brigadier General Mark Kimmet, who has one star on his lapel and whose position is 'deputy director of plans and policy' at the Central Command, is one of the busiest briefers, and also one of the most experienced, in the U.S. army. He carefully weighs his answer to a question about a military option in Iran - especially at a time when the command is so busy with the ever-increasing problems in Iraq: We hope, he says, that a diplomatic process will solve the problem. This is the best, most desirable way to deal with it. However, he continues, if there is 'any country' that believes that the problems in Iraq will prevent us from carrying out other missions that will be delegated to us, it is not calculating its steps correctly.

The answer to the wrong question is immediately obvious: There is a military option in Iran. The means exist, and so do plans. A possibility of failure also always exists. Hitting the nuclear installations is an option; and even if this does not destroy them, it will cause damage, which will delay Iran for many years. "

Haaretz - Israel News: "LUXEMBOURG - European foreign ministers will review options on Monday for possible restrictive measures against Iran, including eventual financial sanctions, if Tehran continues to defy calls to halt sensitive nuclear activity.

But European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who drafted a confidential options paper for the 25 ministers, and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw insisted it was just a contingency planning exercise and sanctions were not imminent.

Solana told reporters the plan was not for an immediate imposition of sanctions."

Immigration protests unseen before, international pressure to leave Iraq, neocon and Israeli pressure to attack Iran, 'talks' w/ N. Korea, NATO intervention in Sudan, Chavez threatening to kick out US ambassadors, not to mention Plame, NSA, elections, DeLay, et al....what is going to stop another war, at bare minimum to distract us from all this? Sudan, Venezuela, Iraq, Iran - all major oil producers and all having major issues right now w/ US. I'm loosing my powers of abstraction and rational footing...(e.g. see following post)

Young Officers Leaving Army at a High Rate - New York Times: "WASHINGTON, April 9 ? Young Army officers, including growing numbers of captains who leave as soon as their initial commitment is fulfilled, are bailing out of active-duty service at rates that have alarmed senior officers. Last year, more than a third of the West Point class of 2000 left active duty at the earliest possible moment, after completing their five-year obligation."

Funny how fast the logic of the situation works...NY Times is reporting on the first attempts to save Bush from the cancer on his own presidency.


Bush Ordered Declassification, Official Says - New York Times: "WASHINGTON, April 9 ? A senior administration official confirmed for the first time on Sunday that President Bush had ordered the declassification of parts of a prewar intelligence report on Iraq in an effort to rebut critics who said the administration had exaggerated the nuclear threat posed by Saddam Hussein.

But the official said that Mr. Bush did not designate Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr., or anyone else, to release the information to reporters. [emphasis add]

The statement by the official came after the White House had declined to confirm, for three days, Mr. Libby's grand jury testimony that he had been told by Mr. Cheney that Mr. Bush had authorized the disclosure. The official declined to be named, because of an administration policy of not commenting on issues now in court. "

The New York Observer: Viveca Novak Leaves Time: "Time correspondent Viveca Novak, on leave since December after her embroilment in the Valerie Plame Wilson leak case, left the magazine last week. Novak was one of three staffers in Time's Washington bureau to take a buyout in Time Inc.'s most recent round of staff reductions.

'She voluntarily resigned,' managing editor Jim Kelly said.

Novak was brought in to talk to special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald in November, after the prosecutor learned that she had discussed the Plame leak with Karl Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin. In those discussions, Novak had told Luskin that Rove was a source for Time's Matt Cooper--a connection that the lawyer had previously not known."

From a Washington Post Editorial called "A Good Leak." Are they full of shit or what? Somebody explain this to me. Did Wilson's report really show the opposite. Even if all this is true, umm. these aren't mutually exclusive are they? and the government is supposed to held to a higher standard than some guy, isn't it?

"Mr. Wilson originally claimed in a 2003 New York Times op-ed and in conversations with numerous reporters that he had debunked a report that Iraq was seeking to purchase uranium from Niger and that Mr. Bush's subsequent inclusion of that allegation in his State of the Union address showed that he had deliberately "twisted" intelligence "to exaggerate the Iraq threat." The material that Mr. Bush ordered declassified established, as have several subsequent investigations, that Mr. Wilson was the one guilty of twisting the truth. In fact, his report supported the conclusion that Iraq had sought uranium."

Outed CIA officer was working on Iran, intelligence sources say: "The unmasking of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson by White House officials in 2003 caused significant damage to U.S. national security and its ability to counter nuclear proliferation abroad, RAW STORY has learned.

According to current and former intelligence officials, Plame Wilson, who worked on the clandestine side of the CIA in the Directorate of Operations as a non-official cover (NOC) officer, was part of an operation tracking distribution and acquisition of weapons of mass destruction technology to and from Iran."

Nuclear inspectors arrive in Iran: "Nuclear inspectors arrive in Iran"
ALI AKBAR DAREINI
Associated Press

TEHRAN, Iran ? Five U.N. weapons inspectors arrived in Iran to visit uranium enrichment and reprocessing plants, Iranian media reported Saturday ? a visit Iran hoped would prove its nuclear intentions are peaceful."

The visit by the inspectors for the International Atomic Energy Agency was the first since Iran announced in mid-February that it was suspending surprise inspections and removing agency cameras from some nuclear facilities.

Iran's deputy nuclear chief, Mohammed Saeedi, said the inspectors would begin their work at the Isfahan Uranium Conversion Facility in central Iran on Sunday, followed by a visit to the Natanz uranium enrichment plant.

Aljazeera.Net - 'US planning to attack Iran': "'Regardless of how bad Bush's poll numbers are, Americans love a display of firepower.'"

Another interesting, but ambiguous, piece by Hersh (i.e. is this a 'watch out for Iran/support actions against Iran' threat-escalation piece or a 'this whole insane situation is already out of control' Bush must be impeached piece?). Iran War a viable option already? I thought it would take until this summer for this whole situation to escalate - having a war in September so as to pull Bush & Co. back up in the polls in time for Nov elections. This would seem to be an option that puts Plame, NSA, et al, on ice...freezer ice that is, not 'on the rocks'...

The New Yorker: "A government consultant with close ties to the civilian leadership in the Pentagon said that Bush was ?absolutely convinced that Iran is going to get the bomb? if it is not stopped. He said that the President believes that he must do ?what no Democrat or Republican, if elected in the future, would have the courage to do,? and ?that saving Iran is going to be his legacy.?"

The House member said that no one in the meetings ?is really objecting? to the talk of war. ?The people they?re briefing are the same ones who led the charge on Iraq. At most, questions are raised: How are you going to hit all the sites at once? How are you going to get deep enough?? (Iran is building facilities underground.) ?There?s no pressure from Congress? not to take military action, the House member added. ?The only political pressure is from the guys who want to do it.? Speaking of President Bush, the House member said, ?The most worrisome thing is that this guy has a messianic vision.?

Some operations, apparently aimed in part at intimidating Iran, are already under way. American Naval tactical aircraft, operating from carriers in the Arabian Sea, have been flying simulated nuclear-weapons delivery missions?rapid ascending maneuvers known as ?over the shoulder? bombing?since last summer, the former official said, within range of Iranian coastal radars.

The Pentagon adviser on the war on terror said that ?allowing Iran to have the bomb is not on the table. We cannot have nukes being sent downstream to a terror network. It?s just too dangerous.? He added, ?The whole internal debate is on which way to go??in terms of stopping the Iranian program. It is possible, the adviser said, that Iran will unilaterally renounce its nuclear plans?and forestall the American action. ?God may smile on us, but I don?t think so. The bottom line is that Iran cannot become a nuclear-weapons state. The problem is that the Iranians realize that only by becoming a nuclear state can they defend themselves against the U.S. Something bad is going to happen.?

Another Jason Leopold/Truthout update:

Bush at Center of Intelligence Leak:

"According to four attorneys who over the past two days have read a transcript of the President Bush's interview with investigators, Bush did not disclose to either investigators or the special counsel that he had authorized Cheney or any other administration official to leak portions of the NIE to Woodward and Miller or any other reporter. Rather, these people said the president said he frowned upon 'selective leaks.'

Bush also said during the interview two years ago that he had no prior knowledge that anyone on his staff had been involved in a campaign to discredit Wilson or that individuals retaliated against the former ambassador by leaking his wife's undercover identity to reporters.

The 39-page court document Fitzgerald filed late Wednesday included previously unreported testimony given to a grand jury by Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby. Libby was indicted in October on five-counts of perjury, obstruction of justice, and lying to investigators about how he discovered Plame Wilson's identity.

Libby testified that Cheney had received explicit instruction from President Bush to declassify a portion of the October 2002 NIE that said Iraq tried to purchase 500 tons of yellowcake uranium ore from Niger and share that information with reporters like Miller and Woodward, whose previous work proved to be sympathetic to the administration and would help to discredit Wilson, according to the court document and attorneys and current and former administration officials close to the investigation."

Iran opens garrison to recruit suicide bombers against West: "A military garrison has been opened in Iran to recruit and train volunteers for ?martyrdom-seeking operations?, according to the garrison?s commander, Mohammad-Reza Jaafari.

Jaafari, a senior officer in the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), told a hard-line weekly close to Iran?s ultra-conservative President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the new ?Lovers of Martyrdom Garrison? (Gharargahe Asheghane Shahadat, in Persian) would recruit individuals willing to carry out suicide operations against Western targets.

The full text of the original interview in Persian can be seen on the weekly?s website at www.partosokhan.ir/283/page08.pdf .

?The Lovers of Martyrdom Garrison has been activated and we will form a Martyrdom-seeking Division for each province in the country, organised in brigades, battalions and companies to defend Islam?, Jaafari told the weekly Parto-Sokhan."

Waas apparently was waiting for the 'Cheney said Bush said it was okay to leak" story to break to print a few insider details he apparently had on hand.

NATIONAL JOURNAL: Libby Says Bush Authorized Leaks (04/06/2006):

"Libby 'further testified that he at first advised the Vice President that he could not have this conversation with reporter Miller because of the classified nature of the NIE,' the court papers said. Libby 'testified that the Vice President had advised [Libby] that the President had authorized [Libby] to disclose relevant portions of the NIE.'

Additionally, Libby 'testified that he also spoke to David Addington, then counsel to the Vice President, whom [Libby] considered to be an expert in national security law, and Mr. Addington opined that Presidential authorization to publicly disclose a document amounted to a declassification of the document.'"

[snip]

"[Libby] testified in the grand jury that he understood that even in the days following his conversation with Ms. Miller, other key officials-including Cabinet level officials-were not made aware of the earlier declassification even as those officials were pressed to carry out a declassification of the NIE, the report about Wilson's trip and another classified document dated January 24, 2003." It is unclear from the court papers what the January 24, 2003 document might be.

During those very same conversations with the press that day Libby "discussed Ms. Wilson's CIA employment with both Matthew Cooper (for the first time) and Judith Miller (for the third time)," the court papers further said.

[snip]

One former senior government official said that both the president and Cheney, in directing Libby to disclose classified information to defend the administration's case to go to war with Iraq and in formally declassifying portions of the NIE later, were misusing the classification process for political reasons.

The official said that while the administration declassified portions of the NIE that would appear exculpatory to the White House, it insisted that a one-page summary of the NIE which would have suggested that the President mischaracterized other intelligence information to go to war remain classified.

Oh, and wasn't one of the Bills of Impeachment against Nixon for having "used classified information for political purposes"?

I doubt you missed this, but I thought it appropriate to reposit this here...

Bush Authorized Leak to Times, Libby Told Grand Jury - April 6, 2006 - The New York Sun - NY News:

"A former White House aide under indictment for obstructing a leak probe, I. Lewis Libby, testified to a grand jury that he gave information from a closely-guarded 'National Intelligence Estimate' on Iraq to a New York Times reporter in 2003 with the specific permission of President Bush, according to a new court filing from the special prosecutor in the case."

Gonzales Suggests Legal Basis for Domestic Eavesdropping - New York Times:

"WASHINGTON, April 6 ? Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales suggested on Thursday for the first time that the president might have the legal authority to order wiretapping without a warrant on communications between Americans that occur exclusively within the United States.

'I'm not going to rule it out,' Mr. Gonzales said when asked about that possibility at a House Judiciary Committee hearing.

The attorney general made his comments, which critics said reflected a broadened view of the president's authority, as President Bush offered another strong defense of his decision to authorize the National Security Agency to eavesdrop without warrants on international calls and e-mail messages to or from the United States.

[snip]

At the House hearing, Mr. Gonzales faced tough questioning from Democrats and Republicans but declined to discuss many operational details.

Representative F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., the Wisconsin Republican who is chairman of the Judiciary Committee and one of the administration's staunchest allies, accused the administration of 'stonewalling.'

'Mr. Attorney General, how can we discharge our oversight responsibilities if every time we ask a pointed question, we're told that the answer is classified?' Mr. Sensenbrenner asked. 'Congress has an inherent constitutional responsibility to do oversight. We are attempting to discharge those responsibilities.'

And the fucking NY Times doesn't miss a chance to reduce everything to the only terms it can understand as dictated by its bipartisan epistemology:

"The House and Senate have conducted limited inquiries into the surveillance program, which many Democrats contend is illegal."

Car Bomb Explodes Near Sacred Iraqi Shrine

The shrine is among the world's most sacred sites for Shiite Muslims and contains the tomb of the Prophet Muhammad's son-in-law, Imam Ali.

Such attacks are rare in Najaf, which is tightly controlled by police and Shiite security guards. Iraqi Shiites consider any attacks within Najaf as a grave provocation."

Entertainment News Article | Reuters.com:

"LONDON (Reuters) - British anti-terrorism detectives escorted a man from a plane after a taxi driver had earlier become suspicious when he started singing along to a track by punk band The Clash, police said Wednesday.

Detectives halted the London-bound flight at Durham Tees Valley Airport in northern England and Harraj Mann, 24, was taken off.

The taxi driver had become worried on the way to the airport because Mann had been singing along to The Clash's 1979 anthem 'London Calling..."

Strummer and Jones must be partly pleased, I imagine.

Report Faults Video Reports Shown as News - New York Times:

"Many television news stations, including some from the nation's largest markets, are continuing to broadcast reports as news without disclosing that the segments were produced by corporations pitching new products, according to a report to be released today by a group that monitors the news media."

Scientists Call Fish Fossil the 'Missing Link' - New York Times:

"Scientists have discovered fossils of a 375 million-year-old fish, a large scaly creature not seen before, that they say is a long-sought 'missing link' in the evolution of some fishes from water to a life walking on four limbs on land."

In a private FED meeting during the 2000 election recount, Former High Priest Greenspan offered this gem to his friends and colleagues:

Wall Street Journal: "I've heard that if you rig the numbers in the beginning, you won't have to do a recount."

Another Jason Leopold special on Fitzgerald and Plame Investigation...

Fitzgerald Knew Identity of Leaker From Start:

"The special counsel appointed in late December 2003 to investigate the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson found out the identity of the Bush administration official who disclosed her undercover status to syndicated columnist Robert Novak just two months after the probe began.

But in early February 2004, a month after he started the investigation, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald shifted gears and started to build a perjury and obstruction of justice case against White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and Vice President Dick Cheney's former Chief of Staff I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby according to several attorneys close to the investigation.

That month, Justice Department investigators working on the leak case approached a senior official in the Office of Vice President Dick Cheney who had been identified by witnesses as having played a major role in the Plame Wilson leak.

The Bush administration official was given an ultimatum: either cooperate with the special counsel's probe or face criminal charges for his involvement in the leak, attorneys close to the case said.

The senior official decided to cooperate with the investigation and told Fitzgerald that Libby and Rove spoke to reporters about Plame Wilson, the attorneys said.

The official has been identified by attorneys and four current and former White House officials as John Hannah, a senior national security aide on loan to Vice President Dick Cheney from then-Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs John Bolton."

New York Daily News - Politics - 80% of kids don't wanna be Prez:

"A new online poll conducted by Scholastic magazine says more than 80% of kids don't want to be the leader of the most powerful nation on Earth.

Amazingly, that's a nearly total flip from 2004, when 75% of the elementary and middle school children did want to rule the roost from the White House."

Guantanamo Bay Teach-In:

"To Those Who Care About the Rule of Law In America:

On October 5th, academic institutions across the United States will join together in the first national effort to study the unprecedented action of our Government in indefinitely detaining at least 517 individuals claimed to be 'enemy combatants' but not 'prisoners of war.' The Constitution, the Rule of Law and the Role of Lawyers will explore, in Teach-In format, the legal, political, and moral implications of the Detention Center at the United States Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba."

Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | The tethered goat strategy: "Since the Iraqi elections in January, US foreign service officers at the Baghdad embassy have been writing a steady stream of disturbing cables describing drastically worsening conditions. Violence from incipient communal civil war is rapidly rising. Last month there were eight times as many assassinations committed by Shia militias as terrorist murders by Sunni insurgents. The insurgency, according to the reports, also continues to mutate. Meanwhile, President Bush's strategy of training Iraqi police and army to take over from coalition forces - 'when they stand up, we'll stand down' - is perversely and portentously accelerating the strife. State department officials in the field are reporting that Shia militias use training as cover to infiltrate key positions. Thus the strategy to create institutions of order and security is fuelling civil war."

DeLay's been spanked...

Well, Festum, a wager?

CNN.com - White House shake-up to continue? - Apr 3, 2006: "Others are expected to survive the shake-up. Karl Rove, the president's top political adviser, Vice President Dick Cheney's team, and Joe Hagin, Bush's deputy chief of staff, likely will stay, administration sources said."

Labor Shortage in China May Lead to Trade Shift: "The shortage of workers is pushing up wages and swelling the ranks of the country's middle class, and it could make Chinese-made products less of a bargain worldwide. International manufacturers are already talking about moving factories to lower-cost countries like Vietnam."

Iran: Scenarios of an American strike
By Mustafa El-Labbad

"In the history of the UN Security Council, there has not been one case of a state threatened with economic sanctions or military action successfully extricating itself without meeting the council's conditions."

"Until now, Washington has succeeded in pulling Iran up before the UN Security Council without providing evidence to substantiate its allegations. Transferring Iran to the Security Council is considered a necessary step on the path to punitive measures, military strikes justified down the line on the argument that economic sanctions did not meet their goal. The military solution seems to be the final solution favoured by Washington in the case of Iran for numerous reasons, despite media claims that "the military scenario is not being considered now."

"Military wars are no longer followed by media wars. The media has become theatre of operations wherein wars are often won or lost in advance. Based on previous American experience, strategic media communications in the case of Iran will be split into three stages. First will be building the groundwork, emphasising the "evil" nature of the Iranian regime. This stage is currently underway. Second will be expanding the crisis within America and abroad, internationalising what is a US- Iranian confrontation. This stage will be accompanied by the imposition of economic sanctions on Tehran. The third and final stage will be to choose the appropriate timing for war. When this moment comes, the media will correlate step- by-step with the military, and any international initiatives to solve the problem peacefully will be derided and defeated."

Looks like someone at the Washington Post is reading your excerpts of the Bush's appearances, Festum. That or Peter Baker has the same eye for Bush trying to be funny that you do.
The article opens with the 'topic du jour' and later has the bible of freedom, I'm the funny guy exchange.

The President as Average Joe
Trying to Boost Support, Bush Brings Banter to the People

By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 2, 2006; Page A04

President Bush was taking questions from an audience the other day when he was asked about the immigration debate raging in Washington.

"It's obviously topic du jour ," he said.The audience laughed at the famously Francophobic Texan's faux accent.

"Pretty fancy, huh?" Bush asked, mocking himself. "Topic du jour ?"

The audience laughed again.

"I don't want to ruin the image," he added conspiratorially.