Thanks to AK for the tip.
Apparently, revealing the name of a secret agent who was specializing in tracking the black market for weapons of mass destruction is not a crime:
The decision by the prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, announced in a letter to Mr. Rove’s lawyer, Robert D. Luskin, lifted a pall that had hung over Mr. Rove who testified on five occasions to a federal grand jury about his involvement in the disclosure of an intelligence officer’s identity.
In a statement, Mr. Luskin said, “On June 12, 2006, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald formally advised us that he does not anticipate seeking charges against Karl Rove.”
Ann fans: Media Matters has performed an important civic service — they’ve collected many of the instances where conservative analysts and TV mouth-breathers have come to the defense of Ann Coulter, who they say is being pilloried unfairly for inflammatory statements in her latest book. Besides being guilty of vote fraud, as Editor Trish so eloquently pointed out here, Coulter went way over the top when she attacked the widows of the 9/11 victims:
Coulter’s comment that has perhaps drawn the most attention is an attack on the widows of 9-11 victims, appearing on Page 103 of Godless: The Church of Liberalism (Crown Forum), and read by [Matt] Lauer [on the Today Show]: “These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by grief-arazzis. I’ve never seen people enjoying their husbands’ deaths so much.”
Now her co-dependent neocon neighbors on the far right are riding their slime trails to her rescue. Media Matters has a detailed run-down on these reprehensible defenses of Coulter’s even-more reprehensible statements. My favorite, though, is Bill O’Reilly actually seeming to NOT defend Coulter. Maybe even Bill has a bottom past which he will not go. Nah, he’s just being argumentative.
From the June 7 edition of Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor:
O’REILLY: Now for the top story tonight, another view of this, joining us from Chicago, Fox News contributor Sandy Rios, a conservative analyst. Where am I going wrong here Sandy?
RIOS: Well, Bill, I think, I don’t disagree with your basic premise. I mean, it is certainly not my choice to attack people. However, we are living in strange times. And I think while everybody else is making nice, Ann’s words are laser-focused on truth. She says things that no one else dares say and it kind of made me think about, for instance, holocaust pictures. Do we have to see pictures of emaciated bodies to understand what happened? It’s kind of offensive. But, you know what? Yes, we do.
Sometimes I think Ann’s words, yes, as harsh as they are, they are like a clarion wake-up call, like cold water, like, “Stop it!” Because women have lost their husbands in an accidental bombing, which is tragic, and we have great sympathy for them, does not give them license to then criticize the commander in chief, to work against —
O’REILLY: Whoa, whoa. Whoa, whoa. Hold it. They’re American citizens. They can criticize the commander in chief all day long.
I do think we’re living in a time where a lot of people enjoy the death of their loved ones.
— Sandy RiosRIOS: And they can be criticized in return.
O’REILLY: You can criticize their criticism, absolutely. Look, there’s nobody who did more damage to Cindy Sheehan in this country than I did, but I did it by exposing her agenda.
RIOS: Yes you did, Bill. I agree.
O’REILLY: Telling people who was behind her movement, who was paying the bills, who was running her. I did not, I did not, I did not call the woman any names, disparage her as an American citizen or do any of that. And if I had, I would have lost the debate instead of Cindy Sheehan losing credibility in my opinion.
RIOS: You know, I know that that’s true. Bill, I like the way you did that and I thank goodness you did. But I would say that Ann is a unique person. I don’t believe Ann does this stuff for theatrics. I think she really believes what she is saying and she has certainly a gift of words and imagery.
O’REILLY: If you’re going to stand by that Sandy, then Ann Coulter writes in her book that these people are enjoying their husband’s deaths. Now, come on, you know that’s not true. That’s brutal to say something like that.
RIOS: It is brutal. But Bill, I would say this, I do think we’re living in a time where a lot of people enjoy the death of their loved ones. I know that sounds terrible.
O’REILLY: It sounds awful. In order to say that to specific people, you’re going to have to prove it.
RIOS: No, I know that. Personally, I would not say it, but I am telling you that I think it’s true that people are making a lot of money off the death of their loved ones in a lot of different cases.
Hello Alberto: With the first hurricane of the season heading toward Florida’s west coast, representing, by the way, the first missed forecast of the season (they said it wouldn’t become a hurricane), the first of the “funny” e-mails has started circulating. While I don’t know the provenance of this (though it sounds like Dave Barry), it is at least mildly amusing — at least to us beleagured Floridians looking ahead at the next five and a half months.
Hurricane Preparedness
To: ex-Floridians, present Floridians, and future Floridians or those who know a Floridian.
We’re about to enter the 2006 hurricane season. Any day now, you’re going to turn on the TV and see a weather person pointing to some radar blob out in the Gulf of Mexico and making two basic meteorological points:
(1) There is no need to panic.
(2) We could all be killed.
Yes, hurricane season is an exciting time to be in Florida. If you’re new to the area, you’re probably wondering what you need to do to prepare for the possibility that we’ll get hit by “the big one.”
Based on our experiences, we recommend that you follow this simple three-step hurricane preparedness plan:
STEP 1. Buy enough food and bottled water to last your family for at least three days.
STEP 2. Put these supplies into your car.
STEP 3. Drive to Nebraska and remain there until Thanksgiving.
Unfortunately, statistics show that most people will not follow this sensible plan. Most people will foolishly stay here in Florida. […]
Beyond help: A recent Zogby poll found that George Bush’s 30-something approval rating would not receive a boost if Osama bin Laden were captured.
Asked how much credit Bush would be due if bin Laden were caught, 52 percent said they would give him no credit, 28 percent would give him all the credit, while 17 percent said he would deserve some of the credit.
Bush’s job approval rating in fighting terrorism would be at 42 percent if bin Laden were found, which is about where he is now with bin Laden still on the loose. A Zogby telephone poll in May showed his job approval for fighting terrorism at 41 percent, down from 44 percent in February.
While 86 percent of Republicans would give him positive marks for fighting terrorism if bin Laden were found, just 3 percent of Democrats would give him a positive rating on terrorism. Among independents, 36 percent would give him good marks, while 64 percent would give him negative marks.
What’s interesting here is that to a large extent Bush created this conundrum — he tied the war on terror, i.e., bin Laden and al Qaeda, to the war in Iraq. And most Americans are sick of the war in Iraq and, by extension, Bush’s war on terror. Neither “war” can be won in the traditional sense of “victory,” but Bush can continue to lose indefinitely, Osama or no Osama.
Killer editorial in the Sunday Palm Beach Post. The Post is the Florida paper that broke the story about Ann Coulter joining the ranks of Republicans who can’t vote straight.
It was only last year that Bush puppetmaster Karl Rove was discovered cheating on his voter registration in order to cheat on his taxes in Texas.
…the self-appointed defender of American democracy and values is fighting allegations, which The Post’s Jose Lambiet first exposed in February, that rather than correct her address, she voted in the wrong precinct during the Feb. 7 Palm Beach election. Rather than admit her error, correct her registration and move on, Ms. Coulter has hired former U.S. Attorney Marco Jimenez to defend her from the indignity of having to follow the law…
During her Tuesday spewfest on Fox News’ Hannity & Colmes, Ms. Coulter made clear that she doesn’t want her home address to grace a public record, even if it is required for voting… “Should we get my stalkers on the line with my address and apartment number?”
Works for me.
But what I really want to know is why the hateful skank is allowed to pedal her wares on a book tour, instead of every interview being about the felony of which she stands accused.
Less than a year since it took effect, Florida’s new “Stand Your Ground/Kill at Will” law has been used to justify killing at least six men and wounding at least four others. The good news is one of them was actually armed.
The Orlando Sentinel examined the fallout from the NRA-backed statute, which allows anyone who says they feel threatened to shoot to kill. The paper researched court records from five of the law’s eight months on the books.
The law is all about fear, and acting based upon it. In fact, without clear evidence of some other emotion being involved, specifically “anger, frustration, or malice,” police can only investigate -— not detain or arrest — the trigger-happy. But don’t get the wrong idea, says one of the gunmen.
“You’re not talking about freaks and geeks slinging guns around like Dirty Harry…” said [Michael] Brady, 43, of Winter Haven, who in April killed a stranger who was threatening him with his fist. “I do believe in Americans having a right to protect themselves, but strapping [pistols] on their hips and going back to Western days — absolutely not.”
The Sentinel’s main finding was that there is a huge variation in the way the law is applied and cases are handled from county to county and from suspect to suspect.
In one case, for instance, an off-duty Maitland police officer was arrested after shooting and wounding his host and another guest at a Jan. 15 party near Casselberry.
Despite claiming he feared for his life, Daniel Metevier was jailed by the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office on two counts of aggravated battery with a firearm.
The charges were dropped two months later…Metevier provided his medical records to prove he underwent knee surgery shortly before the shooting. He claimed he was unable to defend himself, partly because of the injury, without resorting to deadly force…
“I wasn’t so inebriated I didn’t know my name. I was thinking logically,” Metevier said.
Goes without saying. […]
And I thought California was a hotbed of voter apathy! Prognosticators are predicting that only 3 percent to 5 percent of registered voters will turn out in the Democratic primary for the senate in Virginia this Tuesday. The candidates are a former Republican, James Webb, who was secretary of the Navy under President Reagan, and Harris Miller, a Democratic Party insider.
Advantage: quasi-crypto neo-confederate GOP Sen. George Allen, who currently holds the seat, but who is planning to run for president in 2008.
In the immediate aftermath of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, Team Rove staved off a political firestorm by issuing talking points that characterized criticism of the president’s performance (or lack thereof) as attempts to “play the blame game.” This was a surprisingly effective strategy but the enormity of the failure of leadership required more blame-shifting.
Michael Brown, the FEMA director during the crisis, was a convenient patsy.A die-hard Republican loyalist, Brown appeared to stay true to the president during the grilling he took from Democrats when Congress investigated the federal govenment’s failures during Katrina.
Now, maybe — just maybe — Brown is has had enough of maltreatment from the Bush political office. Last week, he revealed the contents of an email from a senior Bush official who told Brown that the president was grateful that he had fallen on his sword:
This was the text of the email message to Brown read on the air: “I did hear of one reference to you, at the Cabinet meeting yesterday. I wasn’t there but I heard someone commented that the press was sure beating up on Mike Brown, to which the President replied, ‘I’d rather they beat up on him than me or Chertoff.'”
In the diplomatic ranks, trained professionals toil,
To keep the peace and tamp down foreign turmoil.
But for Greek ambassador,
Trump picked an artful dodger —
The grifting, drunken blackmailer Kimberly Guilfoyle.
