From Meet the Press yesterday:

MR. SAFIRE: They're going to be needed, I think, next year. And I think in the next month or two you'll see a turnaround and a swing of the pendulum. I hope next week the president really does address a crisis that may be developing in bird flu. And that suddenly is more important than all of this. I would like...

Yeah, that's Bill Safire coming weirdly close to hoping for a pandemic because Bush is in trouble.

If you ever forgot how rude Rudey is, check this out:

Meanwhile, in the most gruesome display, Bill Frist escorted Alito to the Rotunda, where, under lockdown, Alito was encouraged to fuck the corpse of Rosa Parks.

Yeah. Awe. Me too.

We here at Salto love the poems.

Dear Scooter, You will go to jail in the winter. It is fall now, as in “free fall.” You will have your ass to cover—in appeals court, and most especially in the shower. Outside, where you won’t be, the aspens will continue turning, year after year. They turn in clusters, much like public opinion has turned against you. Looks like you won’t be coming back to work—or life. Contentedly, Ginger

Eat shit, Scoot.

See First Draft.

Booooo!

Reports filter in on the indictment (I haven't read it yet):

Josh Marshall:

It's true that perjury charges can in some cases amount to 'gotchas', prosecutions brought for minor misstatements or possible lapses of memory.

This ain't one of those cases.

An indictment is always the prosecutor's case, unrebuted by the defense. But Fitzgerald seems to make a very powerful case that Libby repeatedly made claims under oath that he simply must have known were false. We'll have time to go over the details as time goes on. But that's my sense from a quick read.

Far more important, however, is the rest of the information included in the indictment. If you read the recitation of events which takes up, roughly, the first half of the indictment, one thing is made very clear: Libby was in communication about what he was doing with all sorts of people at the White House while he was doing it.

Updates as I wade through today's blogospheric eruption.

Fucking Cheney.

MORE: Wait. Maybe this is Rove? See here and here.

The first Bush administration criminal is indicted. Fitz's investigation continues.

It's time to drop the nukular bomb of animal high-five pictures. Get ready!

Chirrup!

We get presents at noon, and Santa explains them at 2pm (EST).

Watch here too!

Question answered.

First see here, where I bring "camel toads" to your attention (if you haven't already);

then check Snopes.

[via BigD]

Another Murray Waas bombshell:

Vice President Cheney and his chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, overruling advice from some White House political staffers and lawyers, decided to withhold crucial documents from the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2004 when the panel was investigating the use of pre-war intelligence that erroneously concluded Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, according to Bush administration and congressional sources.

Among the White House materials withheld from the committee were Libby-authored passages in drafts of a speech that then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell delivered to the United Nations in February 2003 to argue the Bush administration's case for war with Iraq, according to congressional and administration sources. The withheld documents also included intelligence data that Cheney's office -- and Libby in particular -- pushed to be included in Powell's speech, the sources said.

The new information that Cheney and Libby blocked information to the Senate Intelligence Committee further underscores the central role played by the vice president's office in trying to blunt criticism that the Bush administration exaggerated intelligence data to make the case to go to war.

This is serious, serious stuff.

Nadler wants a Congressional investigation.

Deeper and deeper...

From the AP on Plame:

The public appeared divided about the controversy. A CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll taken over the weekend found 39 percent of Americans believe the leak of Plame's name was illegal, another 39 percent believed it was unethical but not illegal and the remainder saw nothing wrong or were not sure.

OK.

This graf sez that the public appears divided.

Then it says that 78 percent of Americans think that the leak was unethical.

78%.

This is a divided public?

As if confusion about the law is really the important part of this poll. Most Americans are not lawyers, thank goodness. But all of them have an internal ethical barometer. And many of them remember Bush's fake-ass bullshit about "restoring honor and dignity to the White House."

Fuck the AP.

Um.

Eva Braun was convinced even during that last week in the bunker that Hitler might actually have one of those secret weapons he talked about, or a reserve army corps, or a brilliant diplomatic maneuver he could pull out of his hat at the last hour to reverse the situation.

When he sat beside her on that sofa, and handed her the cyanide pill, she put aside the ways of childhood, and accepted her real situation.

This was a comment to this must-read post. Aw man, it's almost cute.

[via SG]

Had some job ishyous and took a day off. But damn. Shit's moving fast these days.

Miers "withdrew." Check out the Times, then Josh Marshall, then Harriet's own blawg.

Good times.

MORE: Read Digby too.

This one's got a wicked curve on it...

FITZGERALD & MIERS [Rich Lowry ]
Just trying to puzzle out the politics here: If there are Fitzgerald indictments that are weak and over-reaching it will rally conservatives to Bush in a big way, and, my guess is, help Miers' cause politically...

"Weak and over-reaching." Heh.

Steve Clemons says:

1-5 indictments
issued tomorrow (Wednesday)
Fitz press conference Thursday

Fitzmas Eve!

Woof!

Froomkin sez it's

1. indictments
2. resignations
3. Praznit makes "a public statement"

MORE: From the Daily News:

Behind the scenes, however, Team Bush was finalizing its campaign to discredit and undermine special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's conclusions, sources told the Daily News.

The White House strategy is counting on major help from GOP allies and neocon commentators who turned on Bush for naming Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court and are now looking for redemption with a miffed President.

An emerging theme in the Bush war room is arguing that his top political aide, Karl Rove, simply got tripped up on his recollections of whom he talked to and what he told them when questioned about the outing of CIA spy Valerie Plame. He shouldn't be indicted simply because of contradictory grand jury testimony, a source said.

Bush allies have already begun casting perjury and obstruction charges as irrelevant in a probe created to find out who leaked classified information.

The Dem response is pretty good.

A senior Senate Democratic aide said, "When it's about perjury and obstruction and it deals with sex, Republicans think it's worthy of impeachment. When it's about perjury and obstruction dealing with national security, they don't take it seriously."

From Sher Zieve in The Conservative Voice:

Question: If Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald brings indictments for non-crimes against members of the Bush/Cheney Administration, will the Dems use him—again—to indict President Bush and/or VP Cheney for additional non-criminal behavior? We’ve already seen Democrat partisan D.A. Ronnie Earle getting away with using bogus documents, and non-criminal charges to indict conservative Rep. Tom DeLay.

Besides, this is the same Fitzgerald who praised the outcome of the Martha Stewart case; the case where prosecutors couldn’t legally charge her with the original (AKA underlying) indictment of “insider trading”. So, the prosecutors “got her” on “lying about it”. I still can’t figure out how she could be convicted of lying about something that she was judged not-guilty-of in the first place. But, it now appears that convictions of selected individuals, for “crimes” that aren’t crimes is the new-and-ever-burgeoning prosecutorial delight of the moment. If this Stalinesque new-and-devolved legal tactic is allowed to continue, everyone could be charged and convicted with multiple non-crimes. The ramifications are staggering. Also, the Clintons were never indicted for lapses of their respective memories. This is another case of, at least in the political arena, only conservatives being prosecuted for that “offense”.

In other words, conservative politicians will be prosecuted for being “political” but, liberal politicos will not. House minority leader Nancy Pelosi was recently found guilty of campaign fraud. Do any of you remember reading anything--anything at all about it in the mainstream press accounts? I didn't think so.

Not only do we now have an activist judicial system that has gone wild but, we also have prosecutors who have gone over the edge. Allowed to continue to charge, prosecute and convict US citizens of crimes that aren’t crimes will more quickly than anything else bring the country to its knees—and lead it to absolute destruction. Keeping the Second Amendment intact was never more important than it is now.

Yikes.

More from Investor's Business Daily:

Whatever fate befalls White House adviser Karl Rove, Vice Presidential Chief of Staff Lewis Libby and any other administration official caught up in the prosecution over the leaked name of a CIA officer, there's a back story to this case that should not be ignored.

It's about the CIA itself.

This is a story that most of the media will be trying hard not to cover. They share former Ambassador Joseph Wilson's stated desire to see Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald "frog-march" Rove out of the White House in handcuffs.

So Congress should leave the media no choice. Hold hearings. Put the CIA on the spot and blow the lid off any politically motivated funny business. Bring some transparency to what has become a very murky issue.

We believe that someone needs to answer the questions raised recently by Joseph F. DiGenova, a former federal prosecutor and independent counsel:

Was there a covert operation against the president?

If so, who was behind it?

These aren't the musings of the tinfoil-hat brigade. A sober-minded case can be made that at least some people in the CIA may have acted inappropriately to discredit the administration as a way of salvaging their own reputations after the intelligence debacles of 9-11 and Iraqi WMD.

Yow.

More, from Michael Barone:

The Espionage Act is less narrowly drafted. But it does set out specific things that cannot be disclosed -- ''information concerning any vessel, aircraft, work of defense, Navy yard,'' etc. The list does not include identity of CIA agents -- there weren't any in 1917 -- which is why the drafters of the 1982 IIPA felt the need for a new law to protect a very limited class of covert operatives.

So it seems clear to me that an indictment under either of these statutes would be a gross injustice. It is a general principle of law that when the government wants to criminalize acts other than traditional common law crimes like murder or theft, it must set out with great specificity the conduct that is forbidden. To visit the rigors of criminal indictment, trial and punishment on someone who has done nothing that is specifically forbidden is unjust -- the very definition of injustice.

Yowza!

Raw Story sez that Fitz is going for at least two indictments.

Let's hope it's more like 22.

Woof!

Josh:

QUESTION: Back in 2003, the Vice President said publicly that he didn't know who sent Joe Wilson on the Niger mission, back in June of 2003 -- or July of 2003 -- when the person who sent him's name first became public. There now seems to be contradictory evidence that, in fact, he did know. Do you know, did he know, did he not know?

SCOTT McCLELLAN: This is a question relating to an ongoing investigation, and we're not having any further comment on the investigation while it's ongoing. That is on all questions relating to the investigation.

QUESTION: But that isn't really a question about the investigation.

SCOTT McCLELLAN: It relates to the whole issue that the special prosecutor is investigating, or looking into.

QUESTION: Well, it relates to the truthfulness of the Vice President with the American public, too, doesn't it?

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Terry, I think you're prejudging things and speculating. And we're not going to prejudge or speculate about things.

QUESTION: Does the President have confidence in the Vice President?

QUESTION: Does the President have confidence in the Vice President?

SCOTT McCLELLAN: The Vice President is doing a great job as a member of this administration and the President appreciates all that he is doing.

If he's not indicted, the first thing that should happen after the indictments is that this fucker should lose his job.

We'll collect 'em here for the Doughy Pantload to peruse at his leisure.

Here's Digby with an anonymous (of course) smear from "one White House ally":

"He's a vile, detestable, moralistic person with no heart and no conscience who believes he's been tapped by God to do very important things," one White House ally said, referring to special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald.

Tell me how you really feel, um, dick. (Dick?)

On a rainy Monday night in October (at least here in San Francisco), I awaken from a little nappy to find that the dam may have burst.

The centerpiece is this article from the NYT.

The article, sourced to "lawyers involved in the case," informs us that Libby got Plame's name and occupation from the Vice President.

It also informs us that Cheney testified under oath at some point in the past. We do not seem to know the contents of his testimony.

Jane Hamsher has collected the informed speculation. This is something you must read.

Josh Marshall shows us that Cheney quite clearly lied to the American people on national television.

Larry Johnson wonders how exactly Cheney got this information.

Athenae has a thought about the imminent smears of Prosector Patrick Fitzgerald (fuck you, Jonah).

Lots more out there. I have the feeling tomorrow's going to be an informative day.

MORE: 11:21pm on the left coast and Drudge, of course, has absolutely nothing to say. He's probably out getting fucked up on Jager with Ken Mehlman and David Dreier.

Woof!

Raw Story, via Gilliard:

Those close to the investigation say that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has been told that David Wurmser, then a Middle East adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, met with Cheney and his chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby in June 2003 and told him that Plame set up the Wilson trip. He asserted that it was a boondoggle because she was a CIA agent, the sources said.

Libby then shared the information with Karl Rove, President Bush's deputy chief of staff, the sources said. Wurmser also passed on the same information about Wilson and his CIA to then-Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and then-National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice, they added.

Within a week, Wurmser, on orders from "executives in the office of the vice president," was told to leak her name to a specific group of reporters in an effort to muzzle her husband, Wilson, who had become a thorn in the side of the administration, those close to the inquiry say. It is unclear who Wurmser had spoken with in the media, the sources said, but they confirmed he did speak with reporters at national media outlets about Plame.

"Libby wanted to discredit him right from the start," one source close to the investigation told RAW STORY. "He used David Wurmser to help him do that."

Neither Wurmser or Libby could be reached for comment.

Wurmser had a direct link to the CIA because of his work on intelligence issues related to Iraq and frequently met with CIA analysts who worked on weapons of mass destruction. Through his contacts, Wurmser was told that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was a CIA agent working on WMD issues and it was she who had recommended Wilson for the trip, the sources said. Those familiar with the investigation say, however, it is unclear whether Wurmser was told that she operating as a covert agent. They believe it was likely he was told she was an "analyst" working on WMDs in a similar capacity to the other agents Wurmser had interacted with.

Those familiar with information provided to Fitzgerald say that shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Wurmser was handpicked by Harold Rhode, a Foreign Affairs Specialist in the Office of Net Assessment, a Pentagon "think tank," and Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith to head a top secret Pentagon "cell" whose job was to comb through CIA intelligence documents and find evidence that Iraq posed an imminent threat to the United States and its neighbors in the Middle East so a case could be made to launch a preemptive military strike. Wurmser largely invented evidence that Iraq had close ties to Al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden, sources knowledgeable about his work told RAW STORY.

...

For two years, Wurmser, Feith, Perle, Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had a tumultous relationship with the CIA who they blamed for not providing them with the type of evidence they wanted to see, specific, tailor made assessments that Iraq was an imminent threat. But with Wilson they feared a public backlash.

In June of 2003 that Libby first learned that Wilson was discrediting the administration's intelligence information, specifically the claims that Iraq tried to purchase yellow-cake uranium from Africa for an atomic bomb.

Wilson went to African country of Niger in 2002 to investigate the allegations and reported that the uranium claim was unfounded. According to a Senate report, the mission grew out of a request by Vice President Cheney earlier that year. Vehemently denying that his boss had requested the trip, Libby became so incensed by Wilson that he sent word to Wurmser to find out who Wilson was and sought details of his trip, those familiar with the investigation say.

So the reports are that Wurmser, who apparently was the original source for Plame's identity, has flipped. And Wurmser was also in charge of "stovepiping" raw intelligence to find stuff to mislead the American people about why we wentshould have gone to war with Iraq after being attacked by an unrelated organization.

When you put these two things together, it sounds like there's serious potential for Fitz to address a lot more than perjury and obstruction of justice. Sounds like a pretty wide-ranging criminal conspiracy to me.

See this Jane Hamsher post for more support and some dissent.

Woof!

Ick. Oh, ick.

Here.

So be good for goodness' sake.

When it's a wire service, and not a blogger, that concludes their article like this...

The marketing is over but the war goes on. The press is baying and the law closes in. The team of Bush loyalists in the White House is demoralized and braced for disaster.

...you can't help but to raise a glass and dance a merry, merry jig.

And high five your weird, ratty dog.

Woof!

The weirdest thing about all of these WH leaks is how obviously the rats are fleeing the ship. Another story by DeFrank, who's rumored to have excellent connections. Lots to be interested in here:

Bushies feeling the boss' wrath

Prez's anger growing in hard times - pals

BY THOMAS M. DeFRANK
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF

WASHINGTON - Facing the darkest days of his presidency, President Bush is frustrated, sometimes angry and even bitter, his associates say.

With a seemingly uncontrollable insurgency in Iraq, the White House is bracing for the political fallout from a grim milestone that could come any day: the combat death of the 2,000th American G.I.

...

"He's like the lion in winter," observed a political friend of Bush. "He's frustrated. He remains quite confident in the decisions he has made. But this is a guy who wanted to do big things in a second term. Given his nature, there's no way he'd be happy about the way things have gone."

Bush usually reserves his celebrated temper for senior aides because he knows they can take it. Lately, however, some junior staffers have also faced the boss' wrath.

"This is not some manager at McDonald's chewing out the help," said a source with close ties to the White House when told about these outbursts. "This is the President of the United States, and it's not a pleasant sight."

...

Presidential advisers and friends say Bush is a mass of contradictions: cheerful and serene, peevish and melancholy, occasionally lapsing into what he once derided as the "blame game." They describe him as beset but unbowed, convinced that history will vindicate the major decisions of his presidency even if they damage him and his party in the 2006 and 2008 elections.

At the same time, these sources say Bush, who has a long history of keeping staffers in their place, has lashed out at aides as his political woes have mounted.

"The President is just unhappy in general and casting blame all about," said one Bush insider. "Andy [Card, the chief of staff] gets his share. Karl gets his share. Even Cheney gets his share. And the press gets a big share."

The vice president remains Bush's most trusted political confidant. Even so, the Daily News has learned Bush has told associates Cheney was overly involved in intelligence issues in the runup to the Iraq war that have been seized on by Bush critics.

Bush is so dismayed that "the only person escaping blame is the President himself," said a sympathetic official, who delicately termed such self-exoneration "illogical."

A second senior Bush loyalist disagreed, saying Bush knows "some of these things are self-inflicted," like the Miers nomination, where Bush jettisoned contrary advice from his advisers and appointed his longtime personal lawyer.

"He must know that the way he did that, relying on his own judgment and instinct, was not good," another key adviser said.

OK. Here's the summary: Bush is fucking pissed. Bush is nuts and lashes out at everyone, including the secretaries. The press is Bush's bogeyman. Cheney was "too involved" with fixing the intelligence, according to Bush. And senior aides are leaking that Bush makes bad decisions.

Not good for 1600.

Is this real?



Click to expand.

[stolen from Poundy]

Giblets on Grover Norquist and creeping fruitism:

Even now they are introducing creeping fruitism into our proudly heterosexual stock market and pansying up our once-butch interest rate! They even handle the same money we do, getting microscopic particles of gay all over our precious national currency! Did Abraham Lincoln just wink at Giblets from the five dollar bill? Get away from me, Honest Abe! Giblets doesn't need your mincey forfathery leering and your log cabin jokes! Help!

Hott.

"Hat hair."



Click for the story.

[via Poundy]

I'll have what he's having.

Oh dear. The descent into delusion continues.

RE: SMEARING FITZGERALD [Jonah Goldberg]
Wow, [suggesting that the Republicans are smearing Fitzgerald] is really, really lame. Even for Conason. The real story is obviously the reverse, as Byron suggests. This White House -- unlike Conason's preferred Clinton White House -- has cooperated with the prosecutor. It hasn't attacked him. Nor have any of Bush's surrogates or supporters in the press. You'd think Conason would prefer to stay quiet rather than conjure the more obvious comparisons.

Well, Jonah may believe that the White House has "cooperated" with the prosecutor, but credible allegations of perjury on the part of White House staffers and probable indictments forthcoming lead those in the reality-based community to think otherwise. Obv. What a tard.

And it's not as if the loony wingers haven't already started the Fitz smears. Howz about you start over at Jonah's (MILNF) mom's joint? Woops!

Woof!



UPDATE: The pudge can just eat it. Jeebers.

With a decision expected this week on possible indictments in the C.I.A. leak case, allies of the White House suggested Sunday that they intended to pursue a strategy of attacking any criminal charges as a disagreement over legal technicalities or the product of an overzealous prosecutor.

Froomkin:

John Borland writes for CNET News.com: "In a quiet cafe in Washington, D.C., a cell phone rings. But instead of the commonplace digital bleeping or buzzing, it plays a recording of President Bush's voice.

" 'Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job,' he says, and Arlo Guthrie's 'City of New Orleans' starts playing under the looped quote. The remark is a snippet from a speech Bush made in the flooded southern city, in which he praised Federal Emergency Management Agency head Michael Brown shortly before Brown resigned.

"The homemade ring tone, a pointed political statement, is the creation of Eric Gundersen, a Washington-area Web developer for nonprofits. It's an early take on the genre of protest ring tones, a grassroots practice now picking up steam in the United States after emerging in the Philippines a few months ago."

Here's the Brownie ring tone from Gunderson's blog post on the developmentseed.org Web site.

This is genius.

Click here to get the ringtone.

With Joe Wilson.

But the LA Times article is giving off a distinctively creepy vibe with regard to Scooter Libby, and I'm wondering who in that WH inner circle is craven enough to plunge that knife deeper into Libby's back to save his own skin. (*cough* Rove? *cough* Bartlett? *cough* McClellan *cough*...well, I could go on, but it's a long list of possibilities.)

After Wilson published a book criticizing the administration in April 2004, during the closely fought presidential campaign, Libby became consumed by passages that he believed were inaccurate or unfair to Cheney, former aides said. He ordered up a meticulous catalog of Wilson's claims and public statements going back to early 2003.

The result was a packet that included excerpts from press clips and television transcripts of Wilson's statements that were divided into categories, such as "political ties" or "WMD."
The compendium used boldfaced type to call attention to certain comments by Wilson, such as one in the Daily Iowan, the University of Iowa student newspaper, in which Wilson was quoted as calling Cheney "a lying son of a bitch." It also highlighted Wilson's answers to questions from television journalists about his work with Sen. John F. Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee.

The intensity with which Libby reacted to Wilson had many senior White House staffers puzzled, and few agreed with his counterattack plan or its rationale, former aides said.

Okay, that's not so beyond the pale. I mean, opposition research is a way of life in Washington, D.C., right? Of course they'd want to keep track of what a critic of the Administration was doing, right? I mean, the extreme anger is a bit unusual, considering you do your best oppo with a cool head -- loyalty is one thing, but outright, intense and sustained hatred suggests something a bit deeper than "he said something bad about my boss, that jerk," doesn't it?

Then we get to this:

The documents and interviews portray Libby as highly attuned to detail. He dictated the format for internal memos, including that paragraphs be indented.

The documents and interviews show that, when it came to monitoring media coverage of Wilson and other issues affecting the vice president's reputation, Libby was meticulous. Staffers were instructed to use Nexis and Google to watch even the most obscure publications.

Is it me, or is this anonymous leaker trying to twist that knife a little more in Libby to do some serious damage control for everyone else involved in this mess? But in doing so, are they willingly throwing Cheney under the bus as well?

Woof!

The new Murray Waas article only really assures us of two things:

(1) Scooter Libby's gonna get indicted; and
(2) Judy Miller isn't a journalist, she's a political operative. And she should also be indicted.

Woof!

Fairly quiet in Plameworld. Fitzy better hurry up. I'm getting fidgety.

Why does everyone who sees the behind-the-scenes of this administration come out looking a little green?

In a scathing attack on the record of President George W. Bush, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to Mr Powell until last January, said: “What I saw was a cabal between the vice-president of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, on critical issues that made decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being made.

“Now it is paying the consequences of making those decisions in secret, but far more telling to me is America is paying the consequences.”

Mr Wilkerson said such secret decision-making was responsible for mistakes such as the long refusal to engage with North Korea or to back European efforts on Iran.

It also resulted in bitter battles in the administration among those excluded from the decisions.

“If you're not prepared to stop the feuding elements in the bureaucracy as they carry out your decisions, you are courting disaster. And I would say that we have courted disaster in Iraq, in North Korea, in Iran.”
[snip]

Mr Wilkerson said his decision to go public had led to a personal falling out with Mr Powell, whom he served for 16 years at the Pentagon and the State Department.

“He's not happy with my speaking out because, and I admire this in him, he is the world's most loyal soldier."

I really don't think Colin Powell is all that. He's been sadly tainted.

Lookee.

One suspects that when the inside story of this investigation is finally told, it will be seen that the key to breaking the case open was the alacrity with which top White House aides clawed their way to the tape recorder in order to squeal on each other. No Gordon Liddys in this bunch, I think.

Whiskey Bar
October 10, 2005

Kudos.

Another flip-flopper in the White House?

Oh. Dear, dear me.

And his name is suspiciously similar to this guy. Antonomasia?

Woof!

When he told the press that he didn't know who the leaker was.

And Clinton got impeached for lying about a blowjob.

Meow!



MORE: And he may have lied when he was questioned in the Oval Office. Could that be a problem? Maybe:

Regardless of whether or not the President was under oath, lying to federal prosecutors seems like a pretty clear case of obstruction of justice.

Of course, proving the President's involvement is another matter entirely. Can Fitzgerald prove that the President lied? If the rumors are correct that someone in the Administration has "flipped", then there's a good chance that the President's "displeasure" towards Rove was well known within the White House. After all, this is a President who wears his heart on his sleeve getting pissed at his most trusted advisor over an issue that everyone was talking about. This wouldn't just get the rumor mill buzzing, but would likely lead to some communications within the White House about the President wanting everyone to get their shit together. Remember, the big news out of today's scoops isn't just when the President found out but his anger that his team "did a clumsy job". A single saved email along these lines and some fibbing by the President about what he knew and when he knew it could be all the rope Fitzgerald needs to hang Bush out to dry.

*dances a little jig*

If the indictments come out in the next day or two, with this scary hurricane in the Gulf...oh dear. It's gonna be bad.

At the top of every newscast on every network: "A massive hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico and a massive political hurricane in Washington."

Ick. Ickickickickick.

I hate it already.

Please no.

UPDATE: Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrg.

Highly important information on that "Bush knew" story here.

Sounds credible.

And very troubling for everyone in the White House, including, possibly, Bush.

That Rove was smearing Wilson.

According to "a Presidential counselor."

Hm.

Read this Times article on Fitzgerald not issuing a report (because he's gonna indict). The last sentence is sort of strange and out-of-place.

Right?

Under Justice Department regulations, it is not clear whether Mr. Fitzgerald has the authority to issue a final report, even if he wanted to, although he has operated under a broad delegation of authority, issued in a pair of letters by James B. Comey, the former deputy attorney general. Those directives gave Mr. Fitzgerald virtually the same power as the attorney general to conduct criminal inquiries.

But even the attorney general is restricted in what information he can release publicly or present to Congress when it has been obtained, as Mr. Fitzgerald has gathered it, through extensive use of a grand jury, whose proceedings are secret. Even so, some lawyers have argued that Mr. Fitzgerald could issue such a report and have said there is general authority to report his findings if they are requested by Congress.

Without a report, it seems likely that questions about the case may remain unanswered and that a complete account of the administration's activities may never be known, including the details of testimony by the scores of administration officials who were interviewed in the inquiry.

The likelihood that crucial details might be kept secret would be increased if Mr. Fitzgerald brought charges that were narrowly focused on perjury, false statement or obstruction of justice counts involving misstatements by officials in their testimony. But he has also examined broader potential violations, among them whether there was an illegal effort, directed by senior officials, to disclose Ms. Wilson's identity.

Officials who testified or were questioned by investigators also included John Hannah, Mr. Cheney's principal deputy national security adviser.

Boom. End of article.

It's an obvious signifier. Hannah really hasn't been mentioned much until today, when he was identified as the White House Flipper.

The Times knows Cheney's gonna be indicted. That's my take.

Else, it's an awfully odd way to end an article...

Woof!

Read the article carefully. Look who the quotes are from.

Cheney's getting indicted.

And don't forget to read the article about the Cheney aide that apparently flipped.

I don't even know if I'm ready for it.

In a move people involved in the case read as a sign that the end is near, Fitzgerald's spokesman yesterday told the Associated Press that the prosecutor planned to announce his conclusions in Washington, where the grand jury has been meeting, instead of Chicago, where the prosecutor is based. Some lawyers close to the case cited courthouse talk that Fitzgerald might announce his findings as early as tomorrow, though hard evidence about his intentions and timing remained elusive.

You heard it here first: Cheney is an unindicted co-conspirator, at minimum.

MORE: Thrills and chills here and here.

Frist day at new job. Internet access here, apparently, which may mean this blog picks up speed.

Be warned.

Is probably going to be more about this than any of this fancy criminal indictment stuff.

Their long-awaited story is up.

I've read it (and Judy Miller's thing) only very quickly, but one thing seems clear.

Scooter Libby, Vice President Cheney's Chief of Staff, is going to be indicted. Karl Rove too.

Libby gets extra points for obstructing justice.

And the prosecutor asked a lot of questions about Cheney.

MORE: An "indefinite leave of absence" -- i.e., she's gone from the Times. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

And go here to see spin and self-delusion congeal into a weird, spinny, self-delusional puddin'.

Bush's approval rating among blacks?

2%.

Here.

And don't miss Kevin Drum making an ass of himself.

I have the feeling that the whole Plame thing is gonna explode over the next week or two.

Here are your critical sources as it happens:*

Murray Waas;
firedoglake; and
Billmon.

These are the places to check in order. Waas seems to get the very few prosecutor-side leaks. Firedoglake (fire-dog-lake, no, i don't understand either) is excellent for informed speculation based on flimsy clues (Plameology). Billmon provides context and political predictions (and you should be reading him anyway).

You'll need them later so bookmark them now.

*You'll notice that this place isn't on the list. This is because they're pathetic (see here and here and here and here).

Let it end soon.

I don't know if my poor heart can take it.

Only in the blogosphere.

Warning: it ain't pretty.

Um.

It's only 6:17 a.m. Central time, and President Bush is already facing his second question of the day about Karl Rove's legal troubles.

"Does it worry you," NBC's Matt Lauer is asking him at a construction-site interview in Louisiana, that prosecutors "seem to have such an interest in Mr. Rove?"

Bush blinks twice. He touches his tongue to his lips. He blinks twice more. He starts to answer, but he stops himself.

"I'm not going to talk about the case," Bush finally says after a three-second pause that, in television time, feels like a commercial break.

Only the president's closest friends and family know (if anybody does) what he's really thinking these days, during Katrina woes, Iraq violence, conservative anger over Harriet Miers, and legal trouble for Bush's top political aide and two congressional GOP leaders. Bush has not been viewed up close; as he took his eighth post-Katrina trip to the Gulf Coast yesterday, the press corps has accompanied him only once, because the White House says logistics won't permit it. Even the interview on the "Today" show was labeled "closed press."

But this much could be seen watching the tape of NBC's broadcast during Bush's 14-minute pre-sunrise interview, in which he stood unprotected by the usual lectern. The president was a blur of blinks, taps, jiggles, pivots and shifts. Bush has always been an active man, but standing with Lauer and the serene, steady first lady, he had the body language of a man wishing urgently to be elsewhere.

The fidgeting clearly corresponded to the questioning. When Lauer asked if Bush, after a slow response to Katrina, was "trying to get a second chance to make a good first impression," Bush blinked 24 times in his answer. When asked why Gulf Coast residents would have to pay back funds but Iraqis would not, Bush blinked 23 times and hitched his trousers up by the belt.

When the questioning turned to Miers, Bush blinked 37 times in a single answer -- along with a lick of the lips, three weight shifts and some serious foot jiggling. Laura Bush, by contrast, delivered only three blinks and stood still through her entire answer about encouraging volunteerism.

Perhaps its the DTs. It's only gonna get worse.

I'll streak Haight Street.

You've got to be kidding me.

UPDATE: Whaaaaaaaaaaaa?

"You are the best governor ever - deserving of great respect!" she wrote in 1997, in a belated birthday note that was typical of the tone she used in her correspondence with then-Gov. Bush.

The letter was one of a handful of personal notes included in more than 2,000 pages of documents released Monday by the Texas State Library - most of them routine legal memos, press releases and transcripts. The letters offer a rare glimpse into the mutual admiration that sprung up between Miers and Bush after they began working together on Bush's first campaign for Texas governor in 1994.

Bush responded to her birthday wish in kind, and included a humorous, if baffling, postscript.

"I appreciate your friendship and candor. Never hold back your sage advice," he wrote. "P.S. No more public scatology." Whether Bush was referring to Miers' rough-and-tumble time as chairwoman of the Texas Lottery Commission or something else isn't clear. Scatology refers to "the study of or preoccupation with excrement or obscenity," according to Webster's dictionary.

Ted Kennedy grills Harriet Miers on SCAT!

Bwahahhaaaahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Great stuff on Hardball.

Video here.

Some unbelievable chutzpah on the evil side.

Fuck Bill Kristol.

Doesn't sound very good.

With his promotion to anchor, Colbert says he will draw from the "dazzling hubris" of Bill O'Reilly, along with Sean Hannity and Joe Scarborough, plus "the folksiness of Aaron Brown, the way he mulls the news and loves to chew the words. And the sexiness of Anderson Cooper. Certainly they sell him as attractive." Watching O'Reilly and company inundate viewers with opinions, he says, is like witnessing a spectacle "as natural as a gorilla beating his chest." ...

Colbert says that although "The Daily Show" is a decent program, he jumped ship because "I really think they have shirked the responsibility that comes with the awesome power of basic cable." The new anchor set plays on the egomaniac theme, with virtually every inch emblazoned with Colbert's name or the initial C.

Colbert works in a loft-like building off Tenth Avenue, all overhead pipes and exposed brick, where a bulletin board festooned with blue, purple and pink index cards lists possible segments: "Stephen Settles Debate." "So Awful We Can't Bear to Show You." "Species That Are Screwing Up America." "Kindergarten Sobriety Test." "Stephen Debates 21-Year-Old Self."

Ben Karlin, executive producer of both shows, says that Colbert will begin each program with an O'Reilly-like commentary and that when anything goes wrong, he will stop the show to yell at the errant staffer. Colbert the anchor doesn't trust reporters, Karlin says, so he will rely on far-flung "citizen journalists" to give him the news.

"Those reports will invariably be shoddily produced, poorly reported and sloppily edited," says Karlin, who directs his young staff in a T-shirt, shorts and flip-flops.

"We don't want any filter," Colbert sniffs. "The correspondent is only going to put his spin on it."

In a play on the O'Reilly-Al Franken feud, a liberal radio host named "Leiber" -- to be played by a well-known comedian whose identity Karlin is guarding like a state secret -- will pop up to torment Colbert. ...

Once the new show was announced, Colbert says, he was often asked: "Are you guys going to continue the 'Daily Show' tradition of injecting a note of gravity into late-night comedy?" His response: "God, I hope not."

(I'm actually totally excited.)

Anything strange about these two paragraphs?

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Karl Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, said Monday his client "did not circulate" the name of an undercover CIA operative.

"Karl has truthfully told everyone who's asked him that he did not circulate Valerie Plame's name to punish her husband, Joe Wilson," Luskin said. Asked if that included President Bush, Luskin said, "Everyone is everyone."

Yeah, the first paragraph? As phrased, it's a lie. The second quote has a suspicious prepositional clause at the end. "To punish her husband." Mm-hm.

"The final scene shows a scorched and tattered Baby Smurf sobbing inconsolably, surrounded by prone Smurfs.

The final frame bears the message: 'Don't let war affect the lives of children.'"

Here.

The people of Belgium have been left reeling by the first adult-only episode of the Smurfs, in which the blue-skinned cartoon characters' village is annihilated by warplanes.

The short but chilling film is the work of Unicef, the United Nations Children's Fund, and is to be broadcast on national television next week as a campaign advertisement.

The animation was approved by the family of the Smurfs' late creator, "Peyo".

Belgian television viewers were given a preview of the 25-second film earlier this week, when it was shown on the main evening news. The reactions ranged from approval to shock and, in the case of small children who saw the episode by accident, wailing terror.

Unicef and the family company, IMPS, which controls all rights to the Smurfs, have stipulated that it is not to be broadcast before the 9pm watershed.

The short film pulls no punches. It opens with the Smurfs dancing, hand-in-hand, around a campfire and singing the Smurf song. Bluebirds flutter past and rabbits gambol around their familiar village of mushroom-shaped houses until, without warning, bombs begin to rain from the sky.

Tiny Smurfs scatter and run in vain from the whistling bombs, before being felled by blast waves and fiery explosions. The final scene shows a scorched and tattered Baby Smurf sobbing inconsolably, surrounded by prone Smurfs.

The final frame bears the message: "Don't let war affect the lives of children."

...

Julie Lamoureux, account director at Publicis for the campaign, said the agency's original plans were toned down.

"We wanted something that was real war - Smurfs losing arms, or a Smurf losing a head -but they said no."

I must see this for myself.

[APS]

Here.

When I first came to your planet and demanded your homes, property and very lives, I didn't know you were already doing so, willingly, with your own government. I can win no tribute from a bankrupted nation populated by feeble flag-waving plebians. In 2008 I shall restore your dignity and make you servants worthy of my rule. This new government shall become a tool of my oppression. Instead of hidden agendas and waffling policies, I offer you direct candor and brutal certainty. I only ask for your tribute, your lives, and your vote.

-- General Zod
Your Future President and Eternal Ruler

[via ]

Watch near-fisticuffs break out on the floor of the House.

Corruption is ugly.

Here.

Prediction: at least three high level Bush Administration personnel indicted and possibly one or more very high level unindicted co-conspirators.

I'd pray if I were a believer.

So.

Looks like Rove got a letter. Betcha Libby got one too. And we can only hope for Cheney, Hadley, etc., etc.

Ooh ooh.

This could be the end of it.

22 indictments?

For Plame?

God, if only.*

*If something like this happens, I'm drinking champagne in the middle of Haight Street. You're welcome to join me.

Judith Miller backgrounder here.

And he should be.

If these new torture pictures are released, people are gonna notice.

The new torture pics (and, apparently, video)?

Bad.

Very bad.

"'The American public needs to understand we're talking about rape and murder here. We're not just talking about giving people a humiliating experience,' Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told reporters after Rumsfeld testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee. 'We're talking about rape and murder -- and some very serious charges.'

"A report by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba on the abuse at the prison outside Baghdad says videotapes and photographs show naked detainees, and that groups of men were forced to masturbate while being photographed and videotaped. Taguba also found evidence of a 'male MP guard having sex with a female detainee.'

"Rumsfeld told Congress the unrevealed photos and videos contain acts 'that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhuman.'"

The military later screened some of the images for lawmakers, who said they showed, among other things, attack dogs snarling at cowed prisoners, Iraqi women forced to expose their breasts, and naked prisoners forced to have sex with each other.

In the same period, reporter Seymour Hersh, who helped uncover the scandal, said in a speech before an ACLU convention: "Some of the worse that happened that you don't know about, ok? Videos, there are women there. Some of you may have read they were passing letters, communications out to their men ... . The women were passing messages saying 'Please come and kill me, because of what's happened.'

"Basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys/children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. The worst about all of them is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They are in total terror it's going to come out."

Far worse than these, which you should now look at.

This is an exercise in reading comprehension.

Are you up to it?

From the Times:

Ms. Miers has generally contributed financially to Republicans in the past - including a total of $4,000 to Mr. Bush's successful presidential runs, and $5,000 to the Bush-Cheney recount fund in 2000. But Ms. Miers also gave $1,000 to Senator Al Gore's presidential campaign in 1988 and to the Democratic National Committee the same year, according to politicalmoneyline.com.

Well. That's interesting.

Read Ezra's summaries of reaction on the right.

Then go read Kos.

I'm withholding judgment.

MORE: Sullivan has good, good stuff too.

Poor Alberto Gonzalez.

I wonder if he took a sick day.

He's weeping and stuffing himself on chocolates and watching the Price is Right with the sound way up.

And it rulez.

Important stuff:

But a new theory about Fitzgerald's aim has emerged in recent weeks from two lawyers who have had extensive conversations with the prosecutor while representing witnesses in the case. They surmise that Fitzgerald is considering whether he can bring charges of a criminal conspiracy perpetrated by a group of senior Bush administration officials. Under this legal tactic, Fitzgerald would attempt to establish that at least two or more officials agreed to take affirmative steps to discredit and retaliate against Wilson and leak sensitive government information about his wife. To prove a criminal conspiracy, the actions need not have been criminal, but conspirators must have had a criminal purpose.

Yeah, yeah.