Is it just me, or has anyone noticed gas prices down, just as the CIA leak investigation is about to break, and just as the 2000th Iraq war troop died? I’d like to say that, like terror alerts, all these events are unrelated but since oil companies posted record profits in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, I don’t think so.
Marc Lefkowitz, who lives across the street from Plame, told Reuters two FBI agents asked him on Monday if he knew about Plame’s CIA work before her identity was leaked to the press in 2003. Lefkowitz said he told them: “I didn’t know.”
Two lawyers involved in the case said such questioning could indicate that prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald intended to charge administration officials for the leak itself, in addition to possible charges for easier-to-prove crimes like perjury and obstruction of justice…
Lefkowitz said Monday was the first time he had been questioned by the FBI in connection with his neighbor. The agents told him they were talking to other neighbors as well…
White House officials were anxiously awaiting the outcome [of the investigation] since any indicted officials are expected to resign immediately. If there are indictments, Bush is likely to make a public statement to try to reassure Americans he is committed to honesty and integrity in government.
With rumors flying about who would replace which indicted co-conspirator in the CIA leak investigation, Pensito Review has decided to sponsor a contest. Please write in the names of the people you think would replace Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, etc.
You can choose anyone you think would a) actually be selected, b) be qualified, or c) probably not be named but should be.
For example, I doubt “Jeff Gannon” could make a worse deputy chief of staff than Karen Hughes, whose Mideast “Listening” tour set back American relations almost as much as the war in Iraq. And yet, Hughes’ name is being bandied.
Nor could there be a bigger train wreck than Condo Rice for vice president, but at the Bush White House, nothing succeeds like…utter, abject failure. So no suggestion is too wild, too preposperous, too depressing to consider.
Come on, let us hear from you. The winner will receive something we haven’t figured out yet but it will certainly include being applauded on your favorite News and Information Web Site.
Wilma blows: From the Northeast Florida office: Under only a wind advisory (30 – 40 miles sustained and gusts to 50) and tropical storm warning. Squirrels not using feeder.
Conservatives have opened a web site, WithdrawMiers.org. Important among the many reasons to shun Miers, they say, is not just the candidate herself, but the way Bush has handled her nomination.
Instead of a robust discussion about judicial philosophy and adherence to the Constitution, Ms. Miers has been defended on the basis of her gender, religious background, church membership, pro-bono legal service, ‘real world’ heartland perspective, and purported attention to detail. Further complicating the process has been the suggestion of private assurances about her vote on specific issues and cases.
They are also upset to be on the receiving end of the tried-and-true Bush strategy of ignoring the merits of your argument and instead slinging mud about your character or motivation.
Proponents of her nomination have responded to critics with unwarranted charges of “cynicism,” “elitism,” and “sexism,” made worse by the claim that those concerned about her nomination are merely “whiners.”
Among those listed on the site as calling for Miers’ withdrawal are some of the folks Bush – and the rest of us – thought would not only drink the Kool-Aid but help clean up afterward:
American Conservative Union
Charles Krauthamer
Citizen Outreach
Conservative HQ
David Frum
Fidelis
George Will
Liberty Counsel
Mark Moller, Cato Supreme Court Review
National Review
Patrick Buchanan
Peggy Noonan
Phyllis Schlafly
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Republican National Coalition For Life
Judge Robert Bork
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Kristol
Young Americas Foundation
Advertising Age magazine analyzed employee blog-reading during work time and published the results.
U.S. workers in 2005 will waste the equivalent of 551,000 years reading blogs.
About 35 million workers — one in four people in the labor force — visit blogs and on average spend 3.5 hours, or 9%, of the work week engaged with them, according to Advertising Age’s analysis. Time spent in the office on non-work blogs this year will take up the equivalent of 2.3 million jobs. Forget lunch breaks — bloggers essentially take a daily 40-minute blog break.
And so, what’s your point, Ad Age?
The article seems to suggest that time spent reading blogs is wasted, that little work-related information or work-related benefits could result. I mean just because you work at say, Acme Transportation Company’s call center doesn’t mean you don’t need to know about the larger world. And it totally ignores the contribution that blogs (sorry, “News and Information Web Sites”) like Pensito Review make in keeping employees informed, well-rounded, and smarter than the competition. How am I doing?
Besides, we love blogs.
Technorati, a blog search engine, now tracks 19.6 million blogs, a number that has doubled about every five months for the past three years. If that growth were to continue, all 6.7 billion people on the planet will have a blog by April 2009.
Whoa, that might be taking things too far. On second thought, quit reading this and get back to work.
Hey, it always worked before: Tom DeLay, the master of Texas redistricting, is pursuing the same winning strategy in his trial on charges of conspiracy and money laundering.
There’s a lot to be said for stacking the deck, after all. Here in Florida, Republican-controlled redistricting has turned the state from a lovely shade of indigo to a solid 186 red. And although Florida continues to have more registered Democratic voters, that majority goes largely unrepresented in state and local politics.
If redistricting weren’t so effective, Arnold Schwarzenegger wouldn’t be spending wads of money to put it in the hands of trusted GOP flunkies. If he is successful, we can all watch this country’s biggest Democratic bastion turn into Repug Central, with absolutely no shift by the electorate whatsoever.
Tom DeLay knows all this, and just as he has always picked his own voters instead of voters picking him, he is now attempting to select his own judge and jury. Houston Chronicle:
• DeLay’s lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, avoided media coverage of DeLay’s arrest by switching his surrender from Fort Bend County to Harris County. Reporters and photographers had staked out the Fort Bend County Jail since Wednesday.
• DeGuerin asked state District Judge Bob Perkins of Austin to remove himself from hearing the case because he has donated money to Democratic organizations and MoveOn.Org, a group that has raised money in the past year by attacking DeLay politically.
[District Attorney Ronnie] Earle said he would oppose the motion because it would mean judges could try only criminal defendants of their own political party.
• DeLay’s defense team also asked to have his trial moved out of highly Democratic Travis County. They cited news coverage of Earle’s investigation.
They also noted that DeLay orchestrated the congressional redistricting that divided Travis County into three districts, angering many Democrats.
DeLay’s red-eyed but smiling mug shot says it all: he’s running for Innocent (R-Texas). But courts aren’t political districts – yet – and the day hasn’t come when politicians can campaign their way out of felonies.
If Democrats were ever of a mind to say, “I told you so,” now would be the time.
• Hurricane Katrina, which offered Bush a way out of the nightmare Cindy Sheehan had made of his extended vacation – as well as an opportunity to look presidential again – instead exposed cronyism and ineptitude.
• Bush’s must-do social security reform campaign laid there like road kill, with Democrats holding their noses and politely steering around it.
• The Harriet Miers nomination shows Bush to be clueless but committed – just like in Iraq – no matter bad a choice he’s made.
But Democrats are doing what any party without power does, pointing out problems while no one pays attention. After hearing Howard Dean on ABC’s This Week talk about the Democratic platform for 2006, I only feel gloomier.
Dean named several things Americans care about: schools, jobs, health care. He left out a clean and diverse environment as well as reestablishing America in the eyes of the world as a good country full of good people.
Dr. Gov. Dean has spent too much time in rooms full of fellow Democrats, debating the best way to appeal to the most voters. He’s distilled the issues into inoffensive bromides all can agree on. But what that means is that no one cares very much about a single one of them.
Here’s what Dean and my other party leaders don’t seem to get: Kitchen table issues like “more jobs” don’t bring out voters. They don’t rally people, they don’t fire up the electorate. Republicans know this. The best way to turn out a bunch of GOP voters in Florida is to put a constitutional amendment barring gay marriage on the ballot, even though this state already forbids gay marriage through statute. Repugs know if they convince their folks that unless they turn out to vote on Tuesday, legions of gay couples will appear on Wednesday, people will vote. And while they’re there, they’ll vote the rest of the GOP candidates and initiatives as well.
Instead of running from things that actually matter, like separation of church and state or protecting a woman’s right to privacy within her own body, Dean is focused on… nothing much. And even on issues he’s identified, like health care, there are no distinct Democratic solutions. Dean isn’t standing up and saying something radical like, “We have to quit tying health care to employment.” Instead, the Democrats just want to “help” (read: have the government give tax breaks to) businesses so they can continue to provide health insurance to employees.
Al Gore has never followed the Dean strategy, which might be why he a) got more popular votes than Bush in 2000 and b) electrifies our party every time he makes a speech. Man, I hope he runs in 2008.
Meanwhile, if the CIA leak investigation produces indictments, and Tom DeLay ever gets convicted of anything, Democrats have a real opportunity to say not only, “We told you so,” but, “Give us back our country and move over because we’re taking it where it needs to go.” Dean’s milquetoast truisms aimed for mass appeal will only produce more Republican victories.
No-brainers are hard to come by, so this is big stuff. AP:
It took a hurricane to do it, but Congress has finally ended federal subsidies for users of Viagra and other sexual performance drugs.
The Senate on Wednesday passed without debate and sent to the president legislation that ends Medicare and Medicaid payments for erectile dysfunction drugs as part of a package that extends medical help for the poor and provides unemployment benefit aid to states hit by Hurricane Katrina.
“This legislation extends very important benefits for people who live on the edge of poverty,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.
“And the provision included to offset the cost of these programs recognizes that taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for certain lifestyle prescription drugs through Medicare and Medicaid.”
Mom taught me not to be gleeful at other people’s misfortunes, but surely she didn’t mean Tom DeLay. A warrant has been issued for the accused felon, and arresting him will involve fingerprints and mug shots.
Bwwahhhhaha!
DeLay was expected to appear at the sheriff’s office in Fort Bend County today for booking on state conspiracy and money laundering charges.
“Tom DeLay, turn to the right.” Oh yeah, you already did.Fort Bend County Chief Deputy Craig Brady said arrangements were being made to bring DeLay to the sheriff’s office in his home county sometime Thursday for booking and fingerprinting.
The process was expected to take between 45 minutes and an hour.
“Tom DeLay, turn to the right.” Oh yeah, you already did.
Tom’s team has employed the time-tested “I know you are but what am I?” defense on Prosecutor Ronnie Earle with no success.
“It’s retaliation, plain and simple,” [DeLay attorney Dick] DeGuerin said. “He’s retaliating because we haven’t given him any quarter.”
Now they’re crying they’re being persecuted. I guess when you hang out with people like Indian-tribe-stealing-contract-killer-using Jack Abramoff and play by the kind of rules DeLay uses, you naturally assume everyone else does. And you expect to have a more dignified arrest than the average American. Guess again.
When DeLay was first indicted Sept. 28, DeGuerin said he wanted to avoid having Earle put the congressman through a publicly humiliating “perp walk” like those federal defendants often face.
“What I’m trying to avoid is having Ronnie Earle having him taken down in handcuffs and fingerprinted and photographed,” he said. “That’s uncalled-for, and I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
That is when Lynch issued the summons at Earle’s request.
“We’re treating him just like any other felonious scumbag fraud,” Earle said.
O.K., he didn’t really say that but he should have. Can’t wait to see those pix!
What if you planned a Kentucky MAGA event and only heard crickets? Previously, announcing Freedom Fest turned on the money spigots. Kid Rock was planned as headliner, But organizer Eric Deters was a whiner: The […]
