Saddam Trial - Part III

Now my critique of Saddam himself.

You have to admit, even after nearly two years of confinement and eating American snack food (which I swear kills brain cells), he's a feisty cuss.

But there was also something almost scripted about him yesterday. And it took me three times through the "translation" (and I always question how much to rely on those) before I realized what it was!

Saddam was doing a GREAT imitation of Dr. Seuss! And no, I'm not joking. With only slight rearrangement of what he said, you basically get the classic passage in "Green Eggs and Ham":

Who are you? I did not hire.

Address me please as your sire.

I do not like circus nor ham.

I do not like this, Saddam I am.

Saddam Trial - Part II

There was a lot that bothered me about what I saw and much of it smelled like something the Bushies cooked up as stagecraft.

Oh, there are undoubtedly many, many, many, many reasons to try this man - although I'd argue we should be turned closer to home in examining our own despot-in-chief - for an assortment of crimes. But our fingerprints - and American-made gas-the-Kurds canisters - are fucking all over some of Saddam's worst atrocities, up to and including Bush I getting Iraqis to rise up against Saddam only to hightail and leave those people to pay.

Has our government EVER cared about the Iraqis? FUCK NO. And we SOLD THEM THE GAS to ethnically cleanse the Kurds that we THEN USED AS THE JUSTIFICATION for both Iraqi wars. We BOMBED the hell out of stuff Halliburton and Bechtel (owners of Cheney and Rumsfeld, respectively) could overbill billions to poorly repair while paying slave wages to non-Americans.

I KNOW WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE BUT I DON'T GET HOW SO MANY OTHERS ARE BLISSFULLY BLIND TO IT!

A year before Dick Cheney became the VP candidate - he was the head of the selection committee for VP, as you recall; I've always wondered how toughly he interviewed himself - he was standing in the US Senate DEMANDING sanctions against Iraq be ended because Saddam was a defeated man and Halliburton wanted to do (even more than they were doing under cover of darkness) business with them.

So... I ask... do you think Saddam is the only one who belongs on trial?

The Opening to the Greatest Circus in Baghdad... er... Saddam's Trial - Part I

I didn't write about this yesterday because... well, gosh.... um....

Let me add a few notes up front, just to limit the hate mail telling me I'm a Saddam lover (again). Uh, sorry, no. The world would have been better if Saddam - or a Pinochet, Khadafi, an Ariel Sharon of the 60s-70s era, a Kim Jung Il, and oh yes, let's not forget, or George W. Bush - had never gotten closer to power than watching it on TV. These men have caused such death with such lies and evil incarnate (a term I never use lightly because, sadly, I do believe in true evil).

Yet, although I don't really want to give the devil (Saddam) his due, there are actually a couple of areas in which I can say Saddam did have a slight edge up on other evil despots:

---specifically, a mostly secular government (run by a mix, including more than a few Catholics; while our fundamentalists call Iraq a "godless" country, a large number of Iraqis practice Catholicism not to mention many other God-centric religions)
---where women participated (a lot of our fundamentalists aren't too crazy about that one but they won't say a peep because they believe in that old rube: "I can beat my wommin all I want, but you, you cannot beat my wommin").

Spanish Judge Orders 3 US Soldiers Detained

Also from CNN:

MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- A Spanish judge issued an international arrest warrant Wednesday for three U.S. soldiers, charging them with murder in the death of Spanish TV cameraman Jose Couso in Baghdad, Iraq.

Couso, who worked for Spain's Telecinco network, died at the Palestine Hotel on April 8, 2003, as U.S. forces advanced to take control of the city in April 2003.

Investigating magistrate Santiago Pedraz of the National Court will seek the extradition of the soldiers to Spain, a court spokeswoman told CNN.

They are wanted for "murder" and "a crime against the international community," according to the warrant, a copy of which was viewed by CNN partner network CNN+.

The warrant said the soldiers were assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division and identified them as Sgt. Thomas Gibson, commander of the tank that allegedly fired a projectile at the hotel where Couso was filming; Capt. Philip Wolford, Gibson's superior; and Lt. Colonel Philip D. Camp, the captain's superior, CNN+ reported.

It said the United States provided "no judicial cooperation" in trying to resolve the death of the cameraman.

The judge previously had sought to question the soldiers but received no response from U.S. authorities.

Question remains: why are journalists dying at a much higher per capita rate than soldiers in Iraq?

The Chase Thing

Today, I received my third note asking me why I call this site Cut to the Chase and what the hell the name Chase means anyway besides the obvious definition, as in racing in pursuit.

My blog's named Cut to the Chase because.. uh.. that's my name. It's also my philosophy. I'm (generally) an impatient person (although few who know me well realize this, save for those who live with me).

The term "cut to the chase" was believed to have been coined during early film making, when a scene moved to a climactic moment.

But the name Chase itself has different meanings.

The Chase side of my family is Anglo Saxon and goes back for centuries. The name was actually spelled "Chaece" before the Chase side of the family began to flee England for the colonies (and Chaeces appeared among the first white residents of Virginia and Plymouth). Leaving England wasn't much of a choice - we're an outspoken crew - because many Chaeces were burned as heretics and witches for disagreeing with Church of England and government policies, to come over here to populate what was then Native American land (also an arm of my extended family).

Today, you almost never see the name spelled as Chaece; it has converted into the modernized Chase.

Chase can mean ornamental work carved into metal, a conduit for some resource, a trench for disposal of waste, the empty areas in a casting mold, or a front-positioned gun.

Yet, like many families among the Anglo-Saxons and others, the family name derived from the work done by those clans. Chaeces hunted, pursuited, sought. Up through my father's generation, they were also mainly secretive freemasons or Masons. My first and only Bible for years was a Masonic one with all that really odd imagery. Don't ask me to explain that part; I can't. The secrecy of the Masons, you see. To my knowledge, there are no women Masons although they can belong to an auxiliary group.

At best, I'd like to think that in my journalism elsewhere and my blog here, I am fulfilling my family destiny of pursuit: pursuit of the truth. But I also see myself as that chase as a conduit.

Some days, I do better than others.

You Can't Buy Everything at Wal-Mart

From CNN:

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Elizabeth Paige Laurie's name was on a sports arena when a former University of Southern California roommate alleged the Wal-Mart heiress paid her $20,000 to do her homework. Now it isn't even on a USC diploma.

Laurie, the granddaughter of Wal-Mart co-founder Bud Walton, has returned her degree, nearly a year after Elena Martinez told ABC's "20/20" that she had written term papers and done assignments for Laurie for three-and-a-half years.

"Paige Laurie voluntarily has surrendered her degree and returned her diploma to the university. She is not a graduate of USC," the school said in a statement dated September 30 but not widely disseminated until the school newspaper wrote about it late last week. "This concludes the university's review of the allegations concerning Ms. Laurie."

Bush is the Bestest at the Worstest!

Posted by Karlo at SwerveLeft (and he's got a lot of other good stuff, like a Chicago court ruling against spyware, up so go visit and give my regards):

Lest anyone say that the current administration has failed to take the lead, we should keep in mind that the year 2004 currently ranks number one, according to the comptroller general, among the fiscally most reckless years in U.S. history. (Did one of them free spending libruls sneak into the White House when the president was away chasing ponies on his ranch?)

And while we're cutting corners on our funding of Amtrak and the U.S. infrastructure, we should reflect on the fact that by the year 2050, we're projected to pay out $285,000,000,000 in disability payments. (And if my discussions with Gulf War vets is representative, this money won't even begin to compensate the actually losses sustained by vets.)

Of course, our tax money does do some positive things like aid other countries. (With a whopping 25% of it going to "help" countries by supplying or repairing their weapons.)

And our "aid" to other countries, except remarkable exceptions like Israel (which, if you notice, is fairly self-supporting except for its military that we finance) is a single pee in the Pacific Ocean compared to what Americans are trained to believe we spend.

The US as the most generous country in the world? Only if you count what we ship in bullets and chaos 'round the globe.

Scccccccccccccarrrrrrrrrrry

Is anyone else getting creeped out by Judy Miller staring out of the banner of my blog?

It's scaring me half to death.

The Pitter Patter of Little Virii Around the Globe

The avian - aka bird - flu has now made it into Russia.

As you may have heard, they're having a little problem with public health there.

Trust me, this is no pool but... how long do you think before it strikes here?

And are you ready to be quarantined forcibly, potentially into concentration camp style locations, with the military (posse comitatus waived because it's just a pesky law) holding M-16s on you while you lie ill? Go back and read two of Bush' speeches in the past month because that's exactly what he told you to expect.

Pharmaceutical companies, rather than trying to work on their own here in the US, are instead simply suing the Swiss for the vaccine copyright so they can produce the Switzerland vaccine here at no cost to them but plenty to you.

Remember: if they started today, there would likely be no vaccination in place by the time the pandemic hits. At its current rate of progression, I don't see how we make it more than a year without a major outbreak. (But forcible occupation of the potentially ill? This will take some constitution twisting.)

And there's that little matter of how our PhRMA (not a typo - this is the pharmaceutical manufacturers' lobbying group) companies everyday choose to keep drugs out of the hands of other countries where people desperately need them.

The Bush Years: a fun time was had by very few... a select very few.

Publishers Go After Google

Note: In the interest of full disclosure, while I report this, I have also been under contract at one time or another (and in two cases - currently) with every publishing unit part of this suit short of Penguin which is a division of a major publisher I have written for.

From CNN:

SAN FRANCISCO, California (Reuters) -- Five major publishers filed suit against Google Inc. in Manhattan's federal court on Wednesday seeking to block plans to scan copyrighted works without permission.

The complaint lodged in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Google names as plaintiffs McGraw-Hill Cos. Inc., Pearson Plc's Pearson Education and Penguin Group (USA) units, Viacom Inc.'s Simon & Schuster and John Wiley & Sons Inc.

The suit seeks a declaration that the Web search leader commits infringement when it scans entire books covered by copyright without permission of the copyright owner.

As a writer, I have to depend to a degree on the copyright for my survival. I'll also tell you that I have NEVER successfully collected any remedy for copyright infringement because most of mine - to my knowledge - occurs outside the US limits (I'm a hit in some countries where my articles and a short book have appeared under someone else's name without my permission).

Realistically, however, the changes in the Millennium Copyright Act, often sets me as principle creator of a work to have far less rights as an individual than the major media companies enjoy under "individual" status.

Then tack onto that fact that the "rights" of a corporation to be protected as individuals under constitutional law is commonly believed to be a deliberate misinterpretation by a judge's clerk that has stood lo these many, many, corporate profitable, politician-contributing years. Thom Hartmann's a good source on this legal point.

Finally, I have mixed feelings about this Google plan. On the one hand, you might have something of a reconstruction of the Great Library of Alexandria - and let us not forget it was destroyed by Christians threatened by knowledge - that would be fairly difficult to sack. On the other? Where do the lines of ownership, domain, and private work get drawn?

Ethics

Around the age of 20-22, I realized that the real definition of the word ethics meant doing what you believe in your heart to be the correct, best-for-everyone thing to do in a situation, even if it means it hurts you like hell to do it.

Now, my definition had evolved - half of Kansas, please cover your ears at such language as a word like "evolved" - over the years because a lot of crackpots would tell you that's why they blew up the gynecologist, shot their spouse, or stole their neighbor's lottery ticket.

But rationalizations aside, I found myself today being offered the creme d' la creme of the titles on a publisher's "wish list" (meaning: I'd choose first which title(s) I wanted to write). One title stood out as a no-doubt bestseller.

Seriously. If I wrote this book, even without lots of marketing, I'd make some real money.

And I could use some real money.

But it's also the book I cannot write because if I write the book the way it "should" be written by the publishing world standards of today, I will feel like I ruined the lives of a small percent of people who read it.

A book can't create an addiction, of course; a book can only stimulate those with a predeliction to engage in a specific behavior.

And of course, we hear this again and again in lawsuits like "my teenager committed suicide or killed half the school" because he listened to Ozzie Osbourne (sp?) or watched "Train Spotting". That's bullshit. We can't control the press, the media etc. based on what "could" happen.

Yet it's not lawsuits that are my worry. Or people being angry.

I've taken on a few big players over the years. For a short time (2 years?), I appeared on a Christian right wing hit list for an article I wrote that appeared in Los Angeles. I've been threatened with a loaded gun and had that gun shot past me to follow up a story on a developer's efforts to fake engineering samples to claim he could build far more homes in a protected wetlands than he could. And, since the day I began to really speak out, I've had my income taxes for almost a decade computed and recomputed and such all by the feds. Strange, only happened in the Bush years.

So it's not outside interests that make me afraid to write the book.

But I can't feel good with great royalties twice a year feeling like I've contributed to big problems for people rather than finding solutions for them. I wouldn't be the one to make them do it and yet I would feel culpability in the fact I facilitated.

No, don't pat me on the head and tell me how good I am. That's not my point.

Everyday, we make choices. We all do. We have to weigh our decisions carefully.

Good Night, Soldier. It's Long Past Time You Went Home.

A World War II airman has been located after some 60 years.

From KTVU, Fresno:

Rangers in Kings Canyon National Park and a military recovery expert on Wednesday started excavating a glacier-entombed corpse that is believed to be a World War II airman who died in a 1942 plane crash.

Two ice climbers spotted a frozen head, shoulder and arm while climbing the glacier on the side of 13,710-foot Mount Mendel in the Sierra Nevada on Sunday, park spokeswoman Alex Picavet said. The body was 80 percent encased in ice, and still wearing an Army-issued parachute.

A crew of rangers and specialists are camped on the mountain side, in sub-freezing temperatures, and are ready to stay there during the entire excavation process, which is expected to last for days, Picavet said.

"We're not going to go fast," Picavet said. "We want to preserve him as much as possible. He's pretty intact."

Losing anyone is difficult.

Losing someone and never knowing what happened, where they are is so much worse. Been there, done that more than once. I don't advise anyone buy that t-shirt if they can help it.

Good night, pilot. I'm so sorry that your parents never knew, had no body to bury, cemetery to visit - just tears to shed and a hole rent in their lives that they could not fill.

Wanted: Dead or Alive: Tom DeLay

Thank you, whoever gave me my 2004 birthday wish a little late with the news that Tom must submit for booking and fingerprinting in Texas as an indicted felon (indicted felon, not a convicted one, of course). Not yet anyway.

Now, what about what I wished for in 2003 and 2005?

Is it too much to ask for a perp walk? Pretty please?

And to have Tom wanted in a state that spends the per capita lowest on mental health services, too. If he pleads insanity, they'll hang 'em.

I'll Be Back

I just caught the knuckle of my dominant hand pinkie and it's about the size of a rhino ankle and very blue. ::cough::

Unfortunately, I have to finish writing a whole quarter of a Windows encyclopedia this afternoon and I actually use all my fingers typing so... I better turn my attention there.

More on the Supposed Louisiana Hospital Euthanasia Cases

Wulf, posting in comments, seems to take issue with my post yesterday about the Hurricane Katrina related charges of euthanasia in hospitals. Logically, I can appreciate why people would be upset at the concept. Realistically, every single drug that would be used in this case in a controlled substance drug that must be accounted for everywhere from that hospital all the way to the feds. The doctor in charge of anesthesiology, for example, says the hospital can account for enough drugs and drug records (because they were stored on an upper floor) to show this did not occur. Drug counts occur constantly throughout a hospital day.

But here's what I posted in comments:
The doctor who is making the charges is not only less than credible (a three week temp hire doctor is NOT going to be consulted by the chief medical staff on a procedure like euthanasia), he can no longer be found. The nurse has "disappeared" too.

OK, let's say for the sake of argument that these folks are possibly telling the truth and they've disappeared out of fear. This does happen.

But here's the clincher, at the time when
the "euthanasia" supposedly began, the hospital was filled to overflowing with volunteers and family members (confirmed by more than 100 people so far) who were providing care. Not one volunteer or family member interviewed so far has said anything like this happened. Support staff inside the hospital, far removed from medical services, like the engineers and such who were on floors trying to keep machinery running, also categorically deny it; they say every patient was surrounded by people fanning them, applying cool compresses to their heads, etc. to combat the 107-115 degree heat.

If there was more evidence, I'd say yes, investigate. But those bodies aren't going to produce reliable tox screens now. Lots of patient records have been destroyed both on paper and on computer because of water damage.

Also:

But if the drug formulary in the hospital can account for what drugs they had before the flood and what they had after, and there is no questionable difference, ball game's over.

To have Louisiana investigate EVERY hospital death during Katrina is an exercise in.... bureaucracy. The costs for this investigation will end up coming out of direct medical care for the living.

Related to My Cheneyist Post Earlier

MSNBC is now reporting that the focus of the Plame leak probe is directly on Cheney's office and the extremely close relationship with and Libby's loyalty to dear, dear Dick.

So Why Are Cars "Stolen" in the US Turning Up as Suicide Bomb Vehicles in Iraq

From the Aussie press:

The FBI's counterterrorism unit has launched a broad investigation of US-based theft rings after discovering some vehicles used in deadly car bombings in Iraq, including attacks that killed US troops and Iraqi civilians, were probably stolen in the United States, according to senior US Government officials.

The FBI's deputy assistant director for counterterrorism, Inspector John Lewis, said the investigation did not prove the vehicles were stolen specifically for car bombings in the Middle East, but there was evidence they were smuggled out of the US by organised criminal networks that included terrorists and insurgents.

Cracking the car-theft rings and tracing the cars could help identify insurgent leaders and shut down one of the means used to attack the US-led coalition and the Iraqi Government, the officials said.

The inquiry began after coalition troops raided a Falluja bomb factory last November and found a Texas-registered four-wheel-drive being prepared for a bombing mission...

I had not heard this before. I'm also not sure how well this will play in Iraq where as much as 60-70% of the population believes that many of these bombings are American military actions being blamed on insurgents.

Funny thing is that right now, I cannot find a HINT of this article appearing in the US media.

Why is Bush and Rice Now Backing Away from Al Qaeda as Primary Target in Original War Effort?

That's the $64 trillion question, isn't it?

Why does the story about why we went in Afghanistan and Iraq constantly change?

American Conservative Magazine: What the [Bleep] Is Bush Doing?

I did tell you that I read the magazine occasionally, so don't fall out in a faint with palpitations.

From ACM:

Billions of dollars have disappeared, gone to bribe Iraqis and line contractors’ pockets.

by Philip Giraldi

The United States invaded Iraq with a high-minded mission: destroy dangerous weapons, bring democracy, and trigger a wave of reform across the Middle East. None of these have happened.
When the final page is written on America’s catastrophic imperial venture, one word will dominate the explanation of U.S. failure—corruption. Large-scale and pervasive corruption meant that available resources could not be used to stabilize and secure Iraq in the early days of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), when it was still possible to do so. Continuing corruption meant that the reconstruction of infrastructure never got underway, giving the Iraqi people little incentive to co-operate with the occupation. Ongoing corruption in arms procurement and defense spending means that Baghdad will never control a viable army while the Shi’ite and Kurdish militias will grow stronger and produce a divided Iraq in which constitutional guarantees will be irrelevant.

The American-dominated Coalition Provisional Authority could well prove to be the most corrupt administration in history, almost certainly surpassing the widespread fraud of the much-maligned UN Oil for Food Program. At least $20 billion that belonged to the Iraqi people has been wasted, together with hundreds of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars. Exactly how many billions of additional dollars were squandered, stolen, given away, or simply lost will never be known because the deliberate decision by the CPA not to meter oil exports means that no one will ever know how much revenue was generated during 2003 and 2004.

Some of the corruption grew out of the misguided neoconservative agenda for Iraq, which meant that a serious reconstruction effort came second to doling out the spoils to the war’s most fervent supporters. The CPA brought in scores of bright, young true believers who were nearly universally unqualified. Many were recruited through the Heritage Foundation website, where they had posted their résumés. They were paid six-figure salaries out of Iraqi funds, and most served in 90-day rotations before returning home with their war stories. One such volunteer was Simone Ledeen, daughter of leading neoconservative Michael Ledeen. Unable to communicate in Arabic and with no relevant experience or appropriate educational training, she nevertheless became a senior advisor for northern Iraq at the Ministry of Finance in Baghdad. Another was former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer’s older brother Michael who, though utterly unqualified, was named director of private-sector development for all of Iraq.

The 15-month proconsulship of the CPA disbursed nearly $20 billion, two-thirds of it in cash, most of which came from the Development Fund for Iraq that had replaced the UN Oil for Food Program and from frozen and seized Iraqi assets. Most of the money was flown into Iraq on C-130s in huge plastic shrink-wrapped pallets holding 40 “cashpaks,” each cashpak having $1.6 million in $100 bills. Twelve billion dollars moved that way between May 2003 and June 2004, drawn from accounts administered by the New York Federal Reserve Bank. The $100 bills weighed an estimated 363 tons.

Once in Iraq, there was virtually no accountability over how the money was spent. There was also considerable money “off the books,” including as much as $4 billion from illegal oil exports. The CPA and the Iraqi State Oil Marketing Board, which it controlled, made a deliberate decision not to record or “meter” oil exports, an invitation to wholesale fraud and black marketeering.

Thus the country was awash in unaccountable money.

Bird Flu

Have you SEEN any of those maps that show how much of the world has evidence of bird flu exposure to humans?

Fuck!

Did Hell Just Get a Cold Front Come Through?

Judith Miller just admitted her lie. Note singularity of the noun. There ain't just one, boys and goils.

From the wires:

Judy Miller just admitted her deliberately deceptive role in the White House smear campaign against Joe Wilson.

Her New York Times “personal account” explains that her articles usually referred to Libby as a “senior administration official,” since it’s the truth. But when Libby gave her information about Wilson, the truth wouldn’t cut it.

So at Libby’s request, she agreed to deliberately deceive her readers by describing him as a “former Hill staffer.” The scheme was absurdly misleading, as Arianna explained. It helped Libby trash Wilson without implicating the White House. In Miller’s words, “Mr. Libby did not want the White House to be seen as attacking Mr. Wilson.”

This misleading sourcing violates the New York Times official guidelines, a key fact the Times article ignored. The newspaper requires reporters explain anonymous sourcing arrangements without being “coy,” and “especially when we can shed light on the source’s reasons” (emphasis added). Can you imagine how that might read?

“A former Hill staffer, who insisted on anonymity because he did not want attacks to be heard from the White House, where he currently works, said that Ambassador Wilson has credibility issues.”

Of course, Miller’s misleading sourcing was not just an office violation. It leveraged the credibility of the New York Times to advance the White House’s smear campaign to anonymously trash Joe Wilson for exposing the Bush Administration’s prewar lies.

For Vermont Visitors

October 28th marks a special day for the Second Vermont Republic, a movement gaining in momentum and consideration, that is investigating whether it is time for Vermont to go it alone, to return to a time when Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain boys fought off forceable attempts to make us join what was passing for America at the time.

When I first heard the idea, I dismissed it as a crackpot idea. But the more I talk with neighbors, look at what we get from Washington vs. what we lose to it, how we're treated, the direction in which America is headed, etc.... I listen.

No one's proposing the leap tomorrow. Instead, they're trying to find ways to make it work if enough Vermonters choose to make a lot of map printers happy by reducing the country by a state.

Listen. Tell them what you would want as part of the move. Make your own decisions. I'll be glad to post links to it if anyone is interested.

They Must Have Sent the Bushie Election Crews

Iraq is turning up with more votes than eligible voters in several voting regions.

And Bush through Rice keeps telling us the constitution passed even though the official count is still not prepared.

Remember the old days when they did the outrageous thing of actually counting the votes before deciding the election results? I miss those days.

Chicago White Sox

I really wish I could muster the requisite enthusiasm but I... uh.. well...

Congratulations, White Sox fans. As a (former - they no longer need me) Red Sox fan (and only out of underdog sympathy), I know what it's like to finally have the impossible happen.

But after watching 5 minutes of Nascar the other night, I'm really far more worried about what goes on in red states. You can't be fascinated with cars racing around a track 581 times (and mind you, I went to high school next to Lime Rock Racetrack where my brother worked the pits back when Paul Newman raced and you'd get all these celebrities) and not lose brain cells.

Please, red state enthusiasts: they're fucking with your minds. Stand up and don't let them do it anymore. The brain cells you save will be your own.

Border Minutemen: If You Speak Out Against Us, You're Terrorists!

From my neck of the woods, the Burlington Free Press. Yes, this story talks about MY border, with Canada... that other little border we have. We've never had this kind of crap up here.

Fifty miles south of the border, not far from me, people have been stopped on a regular basis to prove they're American citizens. Did you get a paper on that when you were born? I did not. I have a birth certificate but I don't fucking well carry it around in my car.

Think their first cousins married? You've seen what inbreeding has done to the British royal family.

Louisiana's Investigation into Sick Patient "Euthanasia"

I really question stories about widespread euthanasia in hospitals during Hurricane Katrina. I've worked in hospitals for more than five years and any doctor's who's spending an emergency IN that hospital isn't doing anything but trying to keep people stable.

This investigation is going to open more pain, put more pressures on medical staffs and families already pushed beyond what most of us could withstand, and amount to money and effort better spent on the living. After all, Louisiana's last charity hospital just closed. LAST.

When Jesus' General is Away, the Subs Will Play

Desi posting at Jesus' General shares this:

Exclusive first look at the letter sent moments ago from Rep. Conyer's office to Donald Rumsfeld.

"Who's That Knockin at the Door? Who's that Ringin' the Bell?"

Dick Cheney?

Why don't you open the door and let them in. :) They're from the government and we're holding out the slim, negligible possibility that they're there to help us by kicking your ass to the best federal facility your budget has paid for.

GOP-Led Washington Dismantling Public University Education

Posted by Rob at AmericaBlog:

How much damage can Republicans do in five years dismantling the very foundations of what makes our country strong? More than you can imagine. From the New York Times we learn that, with the neglect since Republicans took control of two branches of government, public university education has been struggling:

Taxpayer support for public universities, measured per student, has plunged more precipitously since 2001 than at any time in two decades, and several university presidents are calling the decline a de facto privatization of the institutions that played a crucial role in the creation of the American middle class.
...
At an academic forum last month, John D. Wiley, chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said that during the years after World War II, America built the world's greatest system of public higher education.

"We're now in the process of dismantling all that," Dr. Wiley said.

Creates a wider, wider divide between the haves and have-nots, sorta like the new bankruptcy law, the new Medicare plan, "No Child Left Behind" Act, et al.

Firefighter's Wife Details Nightmare of FEMA Ineptitude in NOLA

From the Columbia Tribune (Oct 4th):

When former Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown started pointing the fingers of blame for mishandling the Hurricane Katrina response, he surely was right about one thing.

FEMA was not alone in bungling its portion of relief efforts.

That being said, there are plenty of firefighters across the country clamoring for FEMA to point the finger directly at itself. Part of the emergency agency’s response to the disaster included calling up 1,000 professional firefighters from all over the nation to serve as community service representatives going from town to town in devastated areas representing FEMA. Firefighters were quick to respond to such a request. It’s what they do. It’s why they got into the business. They’re not heroes, and most of them don’t like that word. They’re paid to do a job that on most days involves helping people.

The problem is, many of the firefighters who were sent to the Gulf Coast - this is a program separate from the FEMA search-and-rescue teams such as Missouri Task Force 1 - never got an opportunity to do the one thing they wanted to do: a real job.

So say many of the firefighters who wanted FEMA to put them to work and instead feel like they wasted taxpayers’ money. One of them, a Missouri firefighter who used to ply his trade in Boone County, kept his wife informed of his exploits, and she kept a diary of his so-called work. It ought to be required reading for every federal official, bureaucrat or politician who becomes involved in the business of studying what went wrong with Hurricane Katrina. Mostly, it’s a diary showing the frustration of a citizen whose government got in the way of his job.

Nods to Buzzflash for the link.

Young Chickenhawks: Mouths Don't Match Their Actions

With a point from Buzzflash, this from CBS News

The cheeky website buzzflash.com recently posted a petition calling for Jenna and Barbara Bush to serve in Iraq. But the famously private Bush twins have never disclosed their views on the war; they may even be opposed. So calling for them to serve might not be fair. But there are young and prominent Bush-backers who deserve to be targets of such a petition: The assorted leaders of the College Republicans and Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) are cheerleaders for a war they are unwilling to fight.

Both YAF and College Republicans have staged prowar demonstrations on college campuses across the country. Prior to the invasion of Iraq, the College Republican National Committee released a statement proclaiming, "As our troops prepare for battle, the College Republican National Committee and its 100,000 members are prepared to show the world that the majority of students support the efforts of the president and our troops to liberate the people of Iraq and to rid the world of this murderous dictator and his weapons of mass destruction."

The CRNC's website praises George W. Bush for "defending the peace by taking the fight to the terrorists." The even more zealous YAFers have made it clear that they not only support the war but are openly hostile to those who oppose it. Their rowdy prowar rallies have attracted plenty of press. In March 2003, CBS News reported on a YAF event held in Minnesota at which the chapter's executive director Chris Hill had strong words for antiwar activists: "The top of the antiwar movement is led by communists, and I will call them that," he said. "Unlike these communists, we have truth on our side.... We say to those who oppose this war, Go to France."

Hill's YAF chapter has also publicly denigrated antiwar demonstrators as "cowards." All of this raises the question: If opponents of the war should go to France, shouldn't Hill — and other members of YAF and College Republicans — go to Iraq? In response to a query by The Nation about whether any leaders have volunteered to fight the war in Iraq, Shauna Moser, the chairman of Penn State YAF, said only that information on YAF officials could be found with a simple "search in a search engine."

Republicans Don't Like Bush Either

From the Chicago Trib:

Pessimism over the war in Iraq and skepticism about the economy at home have cost President Bush support among the most reliable segments of Illinois Republicans, a Tribune/WGN-TV poll shows, and now nearly 6 out of 10 voters statewide disapprove of his job performance.

The government's tepid response to Hurricane Katrina and a summer-long spike in gasoline prices also have helped drive Bush's job-approval rating down to 33 percent in the state, the lowest point among Illinois surveys involving his administration. A similar poll in May showed Bush's approval rating at 41 percent.

Support for Bush has dropped 14 points in the last year among Republicans, and GOP officials fear that could complicate their efforts in next year's races for Congress and governor. For the first time in his presidency, half the voters in Chicago's Republican-rich collar counties disapprove of Bush's job performance, a departure from last fall when he carried all five suburban counties.

Fire the Bum!

From Greg Mitchell (good writer and analyst):

It’s not enough that Judith Miller, we learned Saturday, is taking some time off and “hopes” to return to the New York Times newsroom.

As the newspaper’s devastating account of her Plame games -- and her own first-person sidebar -- make clear, she should be promptly dismissed for crimes against journalism, and her own newspaper. And Bill Keller, executive editor, who let her get away with it, owes readers, at the minimum, an apology instead of merely hailing his paper’s long-delayed analysis and saying that readers can make of it what they will.

Let’s put aside for the moment Miller's exhibiting the same selective memory favored by her former friends and sources in the White House, in claiming that for the life of her she cannot recall how the name of “Valerie Flame” got into the reporter’s notebook she took to her interview with Libby; how she learned about the CIA operative from other sources (whom she can’t name or even recall when it happened).

Bad enough, but let’s stick to the journalism issues. Saturday's Times article, without calling for Miller’s dismissal, or Keller’s apology, made the case for both actions in this pithy, frank, and brutal assessment: "The Times incurred millions of dollars in legal fees in Ms. Miller's case. It limited its own ability to cover aspects of one of the biggest scandals of the day. Even as the paper asked for the public's support, it was unable to answer its questions." It followed that paragraph with Keller's view: "It's too early to judge." Like Keller says, make of it what you will.

My view: Miller did far more damage to her newspaper than did Jayson Blair, and that’s not even counting her WMD reporting, which hurt and embarrassed the paper in other ways. The Times should let Miller, like Blair, go off to write a book, with no return ticket. We all know how well that worked out for Blair.

Miller should be fired if for nothing more than this: After her paper promised a full accounting, and her full cooperation, in its probe, it reported Saturday, “Miller generally would not discuss her interactions with editors, elaborate on the written account of her grand jury testimony or allow reporters to review her notes.”

Rove Cancelling Engagements, While Undergoing Pressure

Good old New England stoning isn't good enough for him, but I digress.

WaPo:

Rove, the mastermind of Bush's political career, who is considered the leading architect of White House political and policy plans, has emerged as a central figure in the investigation. In addition to his four trips to the grand jury, he spoke with investigators several times early in the probe.

His story has changed from the earliest days, when he told reporters he had nothing to do with the leak of Plame's name. Since then, Rove has testified that he discussed Plame in passing with two reporters, including Robert D. Novak, whose July 14, 2003, syndicated column first publicly identified Plame as a CIA operative married to former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV.

US Ad Chief: US Government Does Nothing to Combat Anti-Americanism and it Costs Us All

From the Times-Dispatch:

WILLIAMSBURG -- A surge of hostility toward Americans in other countries will hurt U.S. businesses unless they act to reverse the trend, an advertising executive told Virginia business and government leaders yesterday.

"Sooner or later, anti-Americanism is bad for business," said Keith Reinhard, chairman of the New York advertising firm DDB Worldwide. Reinhard also is the founder and president of Business for Diplomatic Action, which is organizing U.S. companies in a private-sector initiative to improve America's image in the world.

Meanwhile, the push to de-fund public schools and take real science out of the curriculum is turning out college grads who don't know the basics of science or virtually anything else. Nice work, Bushies!

Josh Marshall Talks Judy Judy Judy too

From Talking Points Memo:

I could spin out numerous hypotheticals. And this is probably already more information than most folks want. But in this case it certainly seems as though the tacit bargain between Miller and Libby was that Libby would provide Miller with information in exchange for her assistance in deceiving her readers. And that violates the rule or principle that amounts to the Occam's Razor of journalistic ethics -- fundamental honesty with your readers.

Amen!

Wait! California's in Financial Trouble and...

Maria Shriver, Mrs. Arnold Schwarzenegger, lets tax payers pay a half million a year just for her assistants?

Gee, if Ah-nold's the reform candidate, I'd hate to see the normal one.

Hidden Scandal in Judith Miller Case and Reporting on WMD

Great additional piece in Ed and Publisher:

There is one enormous journalism scandal hidden in Judith Miller's Oct. 16th first person article about the (perhaps lesser) CIA leak scandal. And that is Ms. Miller's revelation that she was granted a DoD security clearance while embedded with the WMD search team in Iraq in 2003.This is as close as one can get to government licensing of journalists and the New York Times (if it knew) should never have allowed her to become so compromised. It is all the more puzzling that a reporter who as a matter of principle would sacrifice 85 days of her freedom to protect a source would so willingly agree to be officially muzzled and thereby deny potentially valuable information to the readers whose right to be informed she claims to value so highly.

Yes, boys and girls, this is a HUGE issue.

Judith Miller - and if the Times knew about it, they too - compromised everything that journalism is supposed to be to go on her little "I see WMD everywhere" mission to support the Bushies. SPJ should take back its goddamn journalism award they just handed her and shove it up her ass.

Ed & Pub: Dissecting The Times' Article on the Judith Miller/Plamegate Case

My assumption from this is the Times' grade is not too good - definitively not Ivy League scoring unless you're a legacy candidate like Dubya.

Financial Times: White House Prepares for Indictments

Story here.

Can't we indict Bush, too, for gross neglect, treason, and a multitude of other things?

I mean, the outing of Valerie Plame is awful. But we're not exactly prosecuting the WORST of the Bushie crimes now, are we?

Whom Am I to Quibble with The New Republic?

Well.... within reason; they have some imperfections.

But they're really hawking a piece by Andrew ("Oh, my glorious butt cheeks! Let me massage them on camera on national TV as I have already done before!") Sullivan on the "death" of the gay culture.

Were it not written by a man who enjoys self-hatred so much, I'd feel better about the piece.

Before people jump me, I do not believe all gays are self-hating. Nor do I think all women, Jews, and other groups traditionally associated with the label of "self hating" practice this dogma. Of course, it's easy to peg a few - no one hates women more than Lynne Cheney (read her body of work, from interviews, to lesbian fiction to her work with "lower" education) and no one hated Jews and homosexuals more than the Jewish and gay Roy ("I love the smell of electrocuted Rosenbergs in the morning") Cohn who enabled Joe McCarthy.

AND - for the show stopper, I don't think Andrew just self hates because he's a gay man in a conservative Republican nightmare. I think we see - not directly, but around the other side - an incredible influence of self-hating Christian moralists, self-hating right nutwing idealogues, and so on.

Actually, no, that's not the showstopper. This is: Bush HATES himself. Oh, not for the reasons we do. But he knows, he knows he shouldn't be commanding the free world. That's why he tells us all the time he should. Churchill and Roosevelt never had to prove their manhood, their stripes like this.

Before I Get into the Nasty Stuff

I highly recommend the 70s flick Amazon Women of the Moon.

I'm sure it's even more fun stoned but it was pretty good even with just a bad sinus headache. Think Kentucky Fried Movie and Flesh Gordon but more the former than the latter.

My nod to "Andrew J Borden" who posts here with whom I used to go see some outrageous films. Not all the films were intended as camp either. Jaws III, for example and just about every 70s scifi, superhero, or similar genre.

A Point of Clarification

By smart pig referenced in the previous post, I am definitively NOT speaking about Karl Rove, Noni Scalia, Clarence Thomas, or Dick Cheney.

Thank you.

Signed,
What we loosely call "management" here

Oh Great...

I finally get to post and the lights are flickering.

Sometimes, I feel like "Green Acres" except that I am definitely NOT the wealthy NY lawyer Oliver whatever his name was. Only thing missing is Arnold the smart pig.

I could use a smart pig.

Is This the Real Reason They Hate Miers?

Anyone to the left of Grover Norquist or the "Reverend" James Dobson doesn't have to say a word about Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers. The right is foaming at the mouth. So much so that many are also debasing Clarence Thomas, who was clearly a token appointment and not even a good one. Articles I've read over the years indicate that among right-leaning African American potential candidates, assuming Bush I chose primarily based on his color, Thomas was the dead bottom of the deck.

While they do this, they all invoice the name of David Suiter, a conservative appointed by Ronald Reagan whom they like to call "the leader of the left wing of the Supreme Court." Now, I'm no Supreme Court specialist, but I do actually read a far amount about the court, its cases, its decisions, and supporting/dissenting opinion. It is after all our third arm of America's overall operation.

Read Suiter and you don't see an idealogue. O'Connor - God love her - split the vote when she felt there were sufficient concerns to do so. The same is true with those that were appointed by Dem presidents.

Go back since slightly before Thomas' arrival and you see a court where the idealogue in chief is Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas his "ditto" yes man, and the late Rehnquist there to protect the uneven handedness of Scalia.

So don't let a nutwinger tell you they're rejecting Miers because she's "bottom of the deck" because a Bush has already given us a bottom scraper. They're rejecting her because they had decided on a few candidates and Bush did not name one of them.

Listen to David Frum, and you hear that if Libby and Rove are indicted, Bush will be forced by the conservobots to ditch Miers. Guess we'll see.

Would Someone Be So Kind

as to confirm to David Frum - former Bush speechwriter, now paid talking head for everything Bushian, the mental giant behind the phrase "axis of evil" and the only Canadian Bush doesn't want to make into smoked bacon - what I have told him numerous times?

Specifically, his 15 minutes are up and while it's lovely to have someone who doesn't hold American citizenship earn a high salary in a taxpayer-paid job to lie and spin for the Bushies, just Jonah Goldberg's size alone exceeds the "Tidy whitie" Bushie racial quota for tubby Jewish mama's boys who pretend that James Dobson would let them into a lifeboat.

My New Favorite Bumper Sticker

Seen on a vehicle driving near Goddard College in Plainfield, VT:

I hate to break this to you, but the Rapture already happened.

And look where you are, staring up Bush's rump!

Booga Booga

Yeah, I'm finally coming up for air and there is just too damned much to discuss.

I have decided, however, that if Bush had a favorite t-shirt, that shirt would feature the slogan, "What? Me Worry?" while Dick Cheney's would say, "I'm with Stupid."

And to Think Martha Stewart Went to Prison for Far Less

Outside the blind trusts he created to avoid a conflict of interest, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist earned tens of thousands of dollars from stock in a family-founded hospital chain largely controlled by his brother, documents show.

The Tennessee Republican, whose sale this summer of HCA Inc. stock is under federal investigation, has long maintained he could own HCA shares and still vote on health care legislation without a conflict because he had placed the stock in blind trusts approved by the Senate.

However, ethics experts say a partnership arrangement shown in documents obtained by The Associated Press raises serious doubts about whether the senator truly avoided a conflict.

In that case, the HCA stock was accumulated by a family investment partnership started by the senator's late parents and later overseen by his brother, Thomas Frist. The brother served as president of the partnership's management company and as a top officer of HCA. Sen. Frist holds no position with the company.

The senator's share of the partnership was placed in a Tennessee blind trust between 1998 and 2002 that was separate from those governed by Senate ethics rules. Frist reported Bowling Avenue Partners, made up mostly of non-public HCA stock, earned him $265,495 in dividends and other income over the four years.

Edmond M. Ianni, a former Wilmington, Del., bank executive who established blind trusts for corporate executives, questioned why the senator's brother was able to manage assets "when the whole purpose of a blind trust is to ensure lack of not only conflict of interest - but appearance of conflict of interest?

With a Bow to Matt Lauer

From Dan Froomkin of the Washington Post:

It was such a lovely photo op -- President Bush and his wife joining the volunteers building a house in Louisiana. The perfect backdrop for an upbeat interview, live on NBC's Today Show.
But then Matt Lauer had to go and pull back the curtain and ask: Isn't this all just an empty photo op?

What ensued was an unusually testy interview, with Bush waving off more questions than he answered, chiding Lauer for quoting too many Democrats in his windups and making it clear that he would have been much happier fielding questions about the charitable nature of the American people than about politics.

Here's the text ; here's the video .

"Q So much more visibility on your part, President Bush, following Hurricane Rita and, as I mentioned, the eight trips to the region, as compared to what was seen as a slow and inefficient federal response after Hurricane Katrina. Is this one of those situations where you're trying to get a second chance to make a good first impression?"

"PRESIDENT BUSH: I do my job as best I can. One of the things that we do is we respond to crisis. And as I told the people, if I didn't respond well enough, we're going to learn the lessons. If there's any mistakes made at the federal level, I, of course, accept responsibility for them. . . .
"Q I talked to a prominent Democrat in Louisiana who has said that this type of appearance, while it's great to see you guys rolling up your sleeves and grabbing a hammer and helping with this piece of wall here, that it's a photo op, and they want to see a plan on paper, your plan to rebuild this region. Do you have that kind of a plan?

"THE PRESIDENT: Well, Matt, you see, I don't think Washington ought to dictate to New Orleans how to rebuild. I guess we have a different philosophy than whoever the prominent Democrat was you spoke to. Last night, Laura and had dinner with Mayor Nagin and a group of distinguished New Orleans citizens from all walks of life. And my message to them was, we will support the plan that you develop.

Edward R Morrow

Unless I'm wrong, I think George Clooney's movie on Edward R. Murrow is a worth-see.

First, there are a lot of similarities between the McCarthy era and today - something I never, ever, ever, ever expected to say during my lifetime (McCarthy predated me). Second, it's a glimpse at how even in those days, networks and media giants were very concerned with issues other than accuracy of news.

Third, Clooney strikes me as remarkably astute in politics and in other areas. Not just another pretty face.

Special Forces Suicides After Return Home Raise Questions

From the Las Vegas Sun (with kudos to Buzzflash for the pointer):

Chief Warrant Officer William Howell was a 15-year Army Special Forces veteran who had seen combat duty all over the world. Sgt. 1st Class Andre McDaniel was a military accountant. Spc. Jeremy Wilson repaired electronics.

They had little in common, other than having served in Iraq with the 10th Special Forces Group based at Fort Carson, Colo. They did not know each other, and they had vastly different duties.
Each, however, committed suicide shortly after returning home, all within about a 17-month period.

The Army says there appears to be no connection between the men's overseas service and their deaths, and Army investigators found no "common contributing cause" among the three. The fact they were in the same unit is only a coincidence, Special Operations Command spokeswoman Diane Grant said at Fort Bragg, N.C.

Others are not so sure. Steve Robinson, a former Army Ranger and veterans' advocate, said he suspects there were problems in the men's unit - namely, a macho refusal to acknowledge stress and seek help.

Bloggers "Probably" Not Journalists

Bloggers would "probably not" be considered journalists under the proposed federal shield law, the bill's co-sponsor, U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar (R.-Ind.), told the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) Monday afternoon.

Lugar emphasized, however, that debate is not yet closed on how to define a journalist under the proposed law. "As to who is a reporter, this will be a subject of debate as this bill goes farther along," he said in response to a question from Washington Post Deputy Managing Editor Milton Coleman.

"Are bloggers journalists or some of the commercial businesses that you here would probably not consider real journalists? Probably not, but how do you determine who will be included in this bill?"According to the first draft of the Free Flow of Information Act of 2005, the "covered person" protected by the bill's terms includes "any entity that disseminates information by print, broadcast, cable, satellite, mechanical, photographic, electronic, or other means and that publishes a newspaper, book, magazine, or other periodical in print or electronic form; operates a radio or television station (or network of such stations), cable system, or satellite carrier, or channel or programming service for any such station, network, system, or carrier; or operates a news agency or wire service." The legislation also covers employees, contractors or other persons who "gathers, edits, photographs, records, prepares, or disseminates news or information for any such entity."

A key reason some journalists oppose the popular federal shield proposal is fear that giving Congress the power to define who is and isn't a journalist could lead effectively to the licensing of journalists.

In other remarks about the legislation at IAPA's 61st General Assembly, Lugar acknowledged that the legislation could amount to a "privilege" for reporters over other Americans.

The above from Ed and Pub.

For the record, I'm not fully sure if I have a problem with this. A journalist can blog; some bloggers behave as journalists. But being a blogger doesn't immediately produce a press card.

As I've said before, although I am a journalist and a card carrying member of the press, I do not treat this blog as a journalistic endeavor. Yet there are many bloggers I would consider full journalists.

Answer This

So why did President Bush send Harriet Miers a birthday card telling her "no more public scatology"? Of course, she called him the most brilliant man she ever met (Harriet really needs to get out more)

From Dictionary.com:

Scatology

The study of fecal excrement, as in medicine, paleontology, or biology.
An obsession with excrement or excretory functions.
The psychiatric study of such an obsession.
Obscene language or literature, especially that dealing pruriently or humorously with excrement and excretory functions.

Don't mess with Tex-ass?

National Journal: Cheney Aide Libby Failed to Disclose Key Conversation

Here:

In two appearances before the federal grand jury investigating the leak of a covert CIA operative's name, Lewis (Scooter) Libby, the chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, did not disclose a crucial conversation that he had with New York Times reporter Judith Miller in June 2003 about the operative, Valerie Plame, according to sources with firsthand knowledge of his sworn testimony.

Libby also did not disclose the June 23 conversation when he was twice interviewed by FBI agents working on the Plame leak investigation, the sources said.

Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald apparently learned about the June 23 conversation for the first time just days ago, after attorneys for Miller and The New York Times informed prosecutors that Miller had discovered a set of notes on the conversation.

Imagine that, the Prince of Darkness handpicked demon spawn not telling the truth. Be still my heart.

A Note to California's Governator

Dear Arnold:

Considering what a mess you've made of California - and you, God help us, were the recall and reform candidate - I would think you would be more concerned about stop fucking up the state you lead.

But gosh, no, you're signing movie deals. And God knows, the world needs more semi-elderly super heros with a neck the diameter of a redwood tree trunk without a mastery for the English language. The latter, however, won't keep you from being president as our current leader in thief exemplifies.

Speaking as a pacifist to a non-pacifist, someone really ought to slap you silly.

Signed,
A non-fan in Vermont

Bird Flu Redux

You know, not so long ago I was lamenting that our brilliant leaders were paying almost no attention to bird flu which could make the losses on 9/11, or NOLA, or Pakistan seem like a birthday party.

But now, the Bushies are just using it to distract everybody. And using it to push the end of Posse Comitatus. Talking about forced quarantines. You know, generally fucking it up the way only Bushies seem able to do.

Sigh.

A Prophet, a Warrior, AND Not Gay

General JC Christian has come screaming out of the closet to announce that he is not a homosexual.

Neither am I.

Good. Now that this is settled we can return to the world's chaos, already in progress.

A Toilet You MUST See

Read this interesting article about an American solidarity movement at Karlo's SwerveLeft... then check out the "holy image" in the toilet.

Strangely, during my 32 hour power outage two weeks ago, I ended up with an image of Condi Rice in my lavatory toilet off the kitchen.

Posted by the Good Folks

at Skippy International. I'd read this before but I enjoy reading it again. ;)

theodore roosevelt heller, 88, loving father of charles (joann) heller; dear brother of the late sonya (the late jack) steinberg. ted was discharged from the u.s. army during wwii due to service related injuries, and then forced his way back into the illinois national guard insisting no one tells him when to serve his country. graveside services tuesday 11 a.m. at waldheim jewish cemetery (ziditshover section), 1700 s. harlem ave., chicago.in lieu of flowers, please send acerbic letters to republicans.

National Guard Deaths in Iraq Have Doubled

Story in The Times.

So Now We've Lost Another Billion in Iraq

From USA Today:

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq has issued arrest warrants against the defense minister and 27 other officials from the U.S.-backed government of former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi over the alleged disappearance or misappropriation of $1 billion in military procurement funds, officials said Monday.

Those accused include four other ministers from Allawi's government, which was replaced by an elected Cabinet led by Shiite parties in April, said Ali al-Lami of Iraq's Integrity Commission. Many of the officials are believed to have left Iraq, including Hazem Shaalan, the former defense minister who moved to Jordan shortly after the new government was installed.

For months, Iraqi investigators have been looking into allegations that millions of dollars were spent on overpriced deals for shoddy weapons and military hardware, apparently to launder cash, at a time when Iraq was battling a bloody insurgency that still persists.

In Baghdad, a suicide bomber detonated a car full of mortars near an entrance to the fortified Green Zone on Monday, killing a U.S. soldier and six Iraqis in one of a string of insurgent attacks in which at least 13 other Iraqis also died.

No Values Like Family Values (Cough)

From Oregon Live:

Law enforcement officials said Saturday they are investigating complaints that Louis Beres, longtime chairman of the Christian Coalition of Oregon, molested three female family members when they were pre-teens.

"There is an investigation of allegations that have been made," Multnomah County District Attorney Michael Schrunk said Saturday.

The Oregonian talked to three of Beres' female relatives, including two who told reporters that he molested them. All three said they have been interviewed for several hours by detectives.
"I was molested," said one of the women, now in her early 50s. "I was victimized, and I've suffered all my life for it. I'm still afraid to be in the same room with (Beres)."

Beres, 70, whose group champions socially conservative candidates and causes, confirmed he is under investigation for alleged molestation. He blamed "personal and political enemies" for the reports and said, "I never molested anybody."

Top Three U.S. Automakers About to Belly Up?

That's what The Times and other news sources are saying.

Clear the passageways: Rat are running off the Good Ship Dubya

Maybe it's his deodorant; from the Mercury News:

For almost five years, Republican lawmakers have seamlessly marched together to deliver President Bush's legislative agenda. At times, they have made the normally messy business of writing laws look easy.

Now, for the first time in Bush's presidency, party discipline among Republicans has broken down to the point that he faces insurrections on a variety of fronts, from Harriet Miers' Supreme Court nomination to the nation's policy on the treatment of prisoners.

Republicans in the House, in the Senate and in key conservative groups have begun criticizing the president and his policies in a way not seen since he took office.

"With fiscal conservatives, we've been disappointed," said Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a leader in the fight to push the White House to restrain federal spending.

Plummeting ratings for Bush and many of his policies, from Social Security to the war in Iraq, have clearly played a part, freeing people to speak their minds, Flake acknowledged: "When you're taking on water, it's easier to complain."

Bush's problem with his own party coincides with his low popularity ratings around the nation. According to a recent CBS News poll, Bush has hit an all-time low with just 37 percent approval. A new Associated Press-Ipsos poll shows that 28 percent of the electorate says the country is headed in the right direction, while 66 percent say it's on the wrong track.

Now conservatives who have been crucial to Bush's electoral and legislative successes are speaking out against the president.

Jessica Echard, executive director of the Eagle Forum, a grass-roots organization founded by Phyllis Schlafly, describes the mood among her 80,000 members as "disillusionment."

"The Harriet Miers nomination has brought to the surface a lot of concerns and disappointments that have been smoldering beneath the surface," Echard said. "We've been concerned and frustrated by the president's stances on immigration, border security, spending and the fact that he hasn't used his veto power in five years in office."

In recent days, Bush has faced legislative setbacks in the House and Senate and public complaints about his actions and policies. And, for a change, none of the president's trouble has come from the Democrats:

Rejecting White House pleas, the Republican-led Senate voted 90-9 to ban cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment against anyone in U.S. government custody.

In the House, a band of fiscal conservatives has been badgering the White House and Republican leaders to pay for billions of dollars in relief for Hurricane Katrina by cutting other federal spending. GOP leaders eventually relented, promising across-the-board spending cuts by the end of the month.

Bush's nomination of Miers has provoked consternation outside the Capitol, as conservative special interest groups have complained bitterly that Miers does not have a proven track record of supporting their socially conservative agenda.

Bush's push to overhaul Social Security with private investment accounts is widely considered to be dead, having failed to attract enough Republican support.

The Eight Years of Our Discontent OR Cold Reality

I was reading about the expected federal indictments that may extend beyond
Karl Rove via a threat at Think Progress which made me stop, think for about four-five tours around the topic.

Does this strike anyone else any particular way?

Face it- There will be pardons long before any trial, thus eliminating the possibility that the crimes committed by the bush regieme will ever come to light in a public forum.
The fact that the USA electorate refused to challenge the blatantly false “official” 2004 election results is proof enough that the corporate repugs will continue to rule for the foreseeable future.

Stoopid USA citizens will always sell-out the USA in favor of moronic corporate jingles.

Face the truth- Even if rove is shot for treason, almost half of the USA electorate is far too stupid to ever understand the CONCEPT of treason, and most of the other half, is far too stupid to get off their ass and vote.

The USA was once a nation of LAWS. The USA is NOW a nation of MORONS.

For every non-USA citizen who harbors hatred towards the USA, Relax- the USA will be gone forever soon enough. Certainly in less than 2 decades- most likely in less than a decade.

Bide your time, and invest in euros.

The USA is defined by it’s constitution- but almost everyone sworn to to defend the USA constitution is working to destroy the USA constitution.

The noble experiment has failed after more than 2 centuries.The USA is dead.

I find that second to last paragraph stunning in its truth.

Have an Idea That's the Best Thing Since Sliced Bread?

Saw this link to Since Sliced Bread in an ad at Talking Points Memo. Interesting whatever it is.

Mr. Bush's Desire for a Martial Law Police State

Mr Natural at Left Edge North points us to this important piece at Take it Personally.

Snippet from profmarcus:

yeah, uh-huh... right... just trust us... s-u-u-ure... here's the key phrase: "covert operatives need to be able to approach potential sources in the United States without identifying themselves as government agents..." you can't have trust when you don't know what's going on in the first place...

Interesting Poll Result

Now a few different polls indicate that, among the Americans who've ever heard of Harriet Miers after two weeks on nonstop discussion about her, they report feeling more disturbed rather than reassured that Mr. Bush considers her a good friend and an excellent choice.

Social Dem Schroeder Out, Christian Dem Merkel In as Germany's Leader

Interesting. She's Germany's first female leader. Interesting solution to the closeness of the vote, too: Christian Dems agreed to give up key cabinet posts to Social Dems in exchange for Schroeder stepping aside.

This "winner takes all" and "mandate" shit that goes on with our elections doesn't help Republicans, doesn't help Democrats, doesn't help anyone in between or outside the two parties.

Mystery of Dead Journalist in Iraq Deepens

Buzzflash points us at this piece in Editor and Publisher:

Steve Vincent, a New Yorker and a freelance reporter, remains the only American journalist slain in Iraq since the fall of Baghdad more than two years ago. It happened on Aug. 2, but more than two months later, no one has been caught or charged with his murder.

Just before his death, after being kidnapped in Basra, he had written an op-ed for The New York Times. That newspaper re-visited his killing today, revealing or speculating on several fascinating angles, including the role that his very close relationship with his Iraqi interpreter may have played in the mystery. Vincent's death was followed on Sept. 19 by the slaying of Fakher Haider, 38, an Iraqi journalist working for the Times, with the circumstances similar and his killers also still at large.

The paper's Kirk Semple wrote today, "Radical Shiite militias, who have infiltrated the government and police force in Basra, are widely suspected of committing the crimes, though it is not known whether the killings are linked in any way."

Vincent and his Iraqi interpreter, Nooriya Taiz, were grabbed off the street by several armed men and thrown into a government pickup truck in Basra, and found several hours later, riddled with bullets. Taiz survived. From the beginning, speculation about a motive for Vincent's killing focused mainly on his reporting and that July 31 op-ed, which revealed his increasing concerns about the role of radical Shiites and the fundamentalist crackdown in that city since the January elections. But his relationship with Taiz may have also played a big part.

Semple, in a frank account, revealed today that the relationship between Vincent and Taiz "developed well beyond a business arrangement and a shared indignation about the spread of hard-line Shiite control. They clearly adored each other." Among those Semple cited for this: Vincent's wife of 13 years, Lisa Ramaci. Many people who met the writer and the interpreter in Basra were told by them that they intended to marry.

Toledo Blade: More on Ohio GOP Coingate

Although this story of corrupt Ohio GOP's connection to losing a lot of employee money in rare and bad coin purchases goes to the very depth of how legitimate the 2004 presidential elections results from Ohio, the deciding state, this story has only once to my knowledge made it to the airwaves.

From the Toledo Blade, a paper doing steady work on this case:

Tom Noe often transferred tens of thousands of dollars from the Ohio rare-coin funds he managed to his personal business before bankrolling Republican candidates and causes with contributions and loans.

A Blade examination of the accounting records from Mr. Noe’s $50 million rare-coin venture shows a pattern of large sums of money moving from the coin funds to his personal business, Vintage Coins and Collectibles, in the days and weeks before the coin dealer and his wife, Bernadette, made contributions to Republican candidates ranging from President Bush to U.S. Sen. George Voinovich and Gov. Bob Taft down to Lucas County Auditor Larry Kaczala.Mr. Noe typically listed the payments from the coin funds to Vintage Coins as "profit distributions" or "coin purchases."But both of those explanations have been assailed as fraudulent by Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro, who has branded Mr. Noe a thief and accused the former Toledo-area coin dealer of running a Ponzi scheme and making questionable coin trades with the state fund.

Last month, Mr. Petro accused Mr. Noe of diverting coin-fund money to his personal business and then to his personal checking account to pay for his former Catawba Island home, landscape his home in the Florida Keys, and pay off a business loan. Mr. Petro said the accusations largely came from "tracking the flow of dollars" out of the coin funds to Mr. Noe’s personal accounts and measuring the "proximity of the transfers" before large purchases or payments.

According to the computerized accounting records of Capital Coin I, II, and their subsidiaries, Mr. Noe since 1998 transferred more than $19 million from the state coin venture into his business accounts at Vintage Coins, including more than $13 million for "coin purchases" and more than $1.7 million in "profit distributions." In that same time period, Vintage Coins transferred about $5 million back to the coin funds, the records show.

As Mr. Petro lodged accusations about how Mr. Noe bought houses and paid-off loans with state coin fund money, he stopped short of making claims about how the coin dealer paid for political contributions and loans he and his wife doled out, totaling more than $300,000 since 1998 — the year he received his first installment of $25 million from the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation to invest in rare coins.

Mr. Petro, who has returned $6,100 in campaign contributions from the Noes because of concerns that the money could have come from state funds, said during a news conference that coin-fund money could have been used for political purposes, but his office is focusing on "personal resources" in building its civil case against the coin dealer.

Cheer Up, Kidderoos

After all, as of midnight, we only have 1,197 days of King George's reign left. And they'll all be a bad Monday.

Newsweek on the Republican Party of George Bush and Tom DeLay

Reasonably interesting. I think it barely even tries to scratch the surface, however.

John Dean: The People Vs. Tommy The Bugman DeLay

John Dean is a regular read of mine and this analysis is interesting, explaining lots of the nuances lost in the babble.

Snips:

The (now) former Majority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives was indicted on September 28, and again on October 2, by two different Travis County, Texas grand juries. The second indictment is far more serious than the first.

The first indictment charges DeLay with engaging in a criminal conspiracy in violation of Texas Penal Code Section 15.02. It states that DeLay and two of his associates (also indicted) agreed to make corporate political contributions which are prohibited by the Elections Code. If convicted, DeLay faces up to two years in jail and a $10,000 fine.

Six days later came the second indictment, which is twice the length of the first, with its two counts. The first count charges another conspiracy under Section 15.02, again to violate the election law - but ALSO to launder corporate money, in violation of Texas Penal Code Section 34.02, the state's money laundering prohibition. The second count charges DeLay outright with the offense of money laundering, and because the amount of the money allegedly laundered exceeds $100,000, that is a felony punishable by life in prison.

AND

One experienced criminal defense attorneys (from Texas, who is following the case closely) volunteered his surprise that DeLay was going around to radio and television shows to speak out on the matter. DeLay has visited Rush Limbaugh's show, Sean Hannity's, and Chris Mathews's "Hardball" to mention a few. At each stop, DeLay repeats his claim that the grand jury had no basis, no evidence whatsoever, to indict him.

"It is just not smart for a criminal defendant to blabber on," the attorney told me. "Those public statements will come back to haunt Tom DeLay in a courtroom, probably early next year." I asked that he be more specific.

This attorney said he had watched DeLay contradict himself on "Hardball," and then, apparently, lie about never having been requested to appear before the grand jury. I pulled the transcript.

Referring to the fund-raising entity at the heart of the case, Texans for a Republican Majority PAC, DeLay told Mathews, "TRMPAC is a separate entity. I had no fiduciary responsibilities. I had no managerial responsibilities. I had nothing to do with the day-to-day operation. I was simply, along with four other elected officials, on an advisory board. They used my name as headliners for fund-raisers."

A few minutes later, though, the transcript reflects that DeLay is contradicting himself. He tells Mathews he was, in effect, deeply involved: "Everything TRMPAC did -- and I insisted on -- to even be on their board of advisers. Now, TRMPAC was my idea. I wanted the Texas House to be a Republican majority. And I went down there and worked with them to do that. We were successful."

Christian Coalition: That They Were Morally Bankrupt Stood Without Question, But Financially?

Oops.

The Christian Coalition, the onetime powerhouse of the religious right founded by Pat Robertson, is struggling to stay afloat.

The group’s annual revenue has shrunk to one- twentieth of what it was a decade ago – from a peak of $26 million in 1996 to $1.3 million in 2004 – and it has left a trail of unpaid bills from Texas to Virginia. Among the creditors who have sued the coalition for nonpayment are landlords, direct-mail companies, lawyers and at least one former employee seeking back pay.

It has even come to this: The company that moved the group out of its Washington headquarters in 2002 went to small-claims court Friday in Henrico County trying to collect $1,890 that remains unpaid on its three-year-old bill.

It is the latest in at least a dozen judicial collection actions brought against the coalition since 2001. The amounts sought by creditors total hundreds of thousands of dollars.

NOPD Officers Beat Older Man

Not the best time for the NOPD in a history that has not been filled with all the best stuff anyway.

Snippet:

NEW ORLEANS - At least one police officer repeatedly punched a 64-year-old man accused of public intoxication, and another officer assaulted an Associated Press Television News producer as a cameraman taped the confrontations.

There will be a criminal investigation, and three New Orleans Police Department officers will be suspended Sunday, arrested and charged with simple battery, Capt. Marlon Defillo said.

"We have great concern with what we saw this morning," Defillo said after he and about a dozen other high-ranking police department officials watched the APTN footage Sunday. "It's a troubling tape, no doubt about it. ... This department will take immediate action."

The assaults come as the department, long plagued by allegations of brutality and corruption, struggles with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the resignation last month of Police Superintendent Eddie Compass.

The APTN tape shows an officer hitting the man at least four times in the head Saturday night as he stood outside a bar. The suspect, Robert Davis, appeared to resist, twisting and flailing as he was dragged to the ground by four officers. Another officer then kneed Davis and punched him twice. Davis was face-down on the sidewalk with blood streaming down his arm and into the gutter.

Newsday: No Evidence NY Subway Terror Threat Real

But it sure wasis distracting!

NEW YORK -- A reported plot to bomb city subways with remote-controlled explosives has not been corroborated after days of investigation, law-enforcement officials said Sunday amid an easing sense of concern about a possible attack.

Interrogations of suspects captured in Iraq Thursday and Friday after an informant's tip about bomb-laden suitcases and baby carriages have yet to yield evidence that the plot was real, three officials with knowledge of the investigation said.

"The intelligence community has been able to determine that there are very serious doubts about the credibility of this specific threat," Homeland Security Department spokesman Russ Knocke said. "This is after ongoing review and analysis."

Homeland Security officials have been skeptical about the threat since it was publicly announced on Thursday, but officials who were more assertive about the potential danger last week also appeared to be softening their assessment Sunday.

"I believe in the short term we'll have a much better sense of whether or not this has, you know, real substance to it," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said on CNN's Late Edition.

Sound Familiar, FEMA?

Posted by Lambert at CorrenteWire:

According to the Republican Playbook, the first step in privatizing is you always to underfund and trash a government agency. Then, you can privatize the agency—and hand out the contracts to your contributors! Nice work if you can get it…

But you’d think the Republicans would have some stopping points; some ethical constraints; some limit where they’d say, “We can’t do this, it’s just not decent. Money’s one thing, but people’s lives could depend on this!”

But n-o-o-o-o-o!

After Katrina—or Andrew, for that matter—you’d think the Republicans, as the governing ruling party, would be doing their best to defend American citizens at risk from hurricanes. Think again:

While hurricanes relentlessly pound America’s coastlines, breakdowns in crucial weather-observing equipment are thwarting forecasters at the National Hurricane Center … a Miami Herald Investigation has found.

Grudge Match #2: Patronizing Pimp Boy Pat Robertson vs. Hugo the Terminator Chavez

Raw Story says Pat Robertson is at it again, this time saying Chavez cut Osama bin Laden a generous check. Hell, the Bushies have written LOTS of checks to bin Ladens who are their business and financial partners.

Snippet:

PROMINENT US TV evangelist Pat Robertson has accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of giving Osama bin Laden $US1.2 million after the September 11 attacks and of trying to obtain nuclear material from Iran.

Mr Robertson caused uproar in August when he called during his televised religious program for the US government to assassinate Chavez. He later was forced to apologise to the leftist leader.

But the conservative preacher issued a new denunciation of Chavez yesterday, local time, in an interview with CNN.

"The truth is, this man is setting up a Marxist-type dictatorship in Venezuela, he's trying to spread Marxism throughout South America, he's negotiating with the Iranians to get nuclear material and he also sent $US1.2 million in cash to Osama bin Laden right after 9/11," Mr Robertson said.

"I apologised and I said I will be praying for him, but one day we will be staring nuclear weapons and it won't be (Hurricane) Katrina facing New Orleans, it's going to be a Venezuelan nuke," Mr Robertson said.

SARS Spread by Bats

I'm not terribly surprised by this, but considering how SARS and the "avian" flu can have fairly similar symptoms I wonder if bats - even though they are mammals and not birds - could spread the bird flu as well.

Now, the same time SARS broke out, I happened to be taking a three week vacation in ICU with SARS' nasty big brother, ARDS, which isn't known to be communicable. If the bird flu is anything like SARS or ARDS, God help us. Two and a half years later, I have yet to draw a breath that is not accompanied by staggering pain and a sense of my left lower lung being on fire, an effect of all the scar tissue left behind by a respiratory syndrome that turns your organs to jelly.

What's Your Call on Miers

The Carpetbagger Report - for those who aren't regular readers - has a nice habit of opening up the discussion on one key topic every Sunday, and the questions or dilemmas presented are usually good ones, with a lot of good discussion.

Today's topic is Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court (and here's an interesting tidbit: as late as yesterday, polls were showing that between 7 and 9 out of every 10 people have no idea who she is when asked to identify her). Should we actively support her confirmation (I'd probably prefer to eat glass) or happily sit by and watch the extreme right - who my my my has really been snarling about being stuck with Clarence Thomas 14 years ago - demand her replacement because it would be another nail in King Georgy's coffin?

For myself, I can't applaud her nomination. But even to make Georgy Porgy seem bad am I willing to consciously hurt the country by allowing the rightists to trample all over the court.

OK

I gotta go pretend to be a productive member of society instead of... well... whatever it is I am. Then I need to consult my dog about an appropriate super hero's costume, preferably something without bronze breast plates.

NY Daily News: Americans Aren't Buying What Bush and Rice Are Selling

Here:

Bush & Rice make new Iraq pitches but Americans aren't buying.

Over the last weeks, the White House quietly has been trying out a new argument on Iraq. Aimed at shoring up public support, the tactic compares the difficulties there with historic conflicts, such as World War II and the battle against communism.
What Iraq shares with those periods, the argument goes, are bouts of doubt and confusion followed by victory - if we are resolute and patient.

It's a good argument, but not good enough. My bet is that it's too late and has too many holes in it to be persuasive for those sick of the carnage in Iraq.

The first peek at the new approach came Sept. 30, when Secretary of State Rice linked Iraq to history's "extraordinary times" in a speech at Princeton University. Then, last Thursday, President Bush picked up the theme in Washington, where he compared Osama Bin Laden and other Islamic terrorists to Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot.

Rice was more thoughtful and less bellicose, but her audience, drawn mostly from the Woodrow Wilson graduate school, responded politely but unenthusiastically. Although her office billed the speech as major, it did not get wide attention, so parts of it are worth repeating here.

Citing setbacks the free world suffered in the first five years after World War II - the division of Germany, the Communist victory in China, the Soviet atomic bomb, the Korean War - she put our choice in stark terms.

"If we quit now, we will abandon Iraq's democrats at their time of greatest need. We will embolden every enemy of liberty and democracy across the Middle East. ... If we abandon future generations in the Middle East to despair and terror, we also condemn future generations in the United States to insecurity and fear."

Bush's Chats with God

Errrr.....

WASHINGTON -- Once again, a private conversation between President Bush and Palestinian leaders two years ago has come back to bedevil the White House.

Despite the dubious nature of Bush's reported words -- which the White House insists have been mischaracterized -- the latest account asserting that Bush once claimed a divine mandate to wage war in Afghanistan and Iraq has spawned headlines around the globe, in newspapers and over the Internet.

Commentators have been especially ruthless in Europe, where Bush's born-again Christianity is viewed with suspicion.

The story has its roots in a meeting in June 2003, when Bush attended back-to-back summits in Egypt and Jordan to launch a peace plan for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The BBC will broadcast a documentary this week in which a senior Palestinian official alleges Bush privately suggested that he invaded Afghanistan and Iraq on the orders of God.

Florida's New #1 Educator Promotes Creationism

Oh, glorious.

Cheri Pierson Yecke began her job as one of the most powerful educators in the state last week with little fanfare, receiving her office keys and e-mail address and meeting in a two-day retreat with Department of Education staff.

But the reputation of Florida's new chancellor for kindergarten through 12th grade, second only to Education Commissioner John Winn, preceded her with more flourish — and fear from some.

Yecke, 50, who served most recently as Minnesota's top educator, is a conservative, a believer in creationism, a critic of teachers unions and a strong proponent of President Bush's education reform programs, some of which she helped write.

She was forced out as Minnesota's education commissioner last year by a Democrat-controlled Senate.

She then worked as a senior fellow at the conservative think tank Center of the American Experiment, where she wrote articles blaming childhood obesity on the "liberal media" and said "liberal criminal sentencing laws" make streets unsafe for kids.

The Case of Judith Miller's Mysteriously Missing Then Reappeared Notebook

From Editor and Publisher (curioser and curioser):

If its recent track record is any guide, The New York Times, later today or tomorrow, will get around to confirming Michael Isikoff’s Newsweek revelation late Saturday that the missing notes Judith Miller suddenly found and turned over to the federal prosecutor on Friday in the Plame case were located in a notebook in the newspaper’s Washington, D.C. bureau. The prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, has now scheduled another meeting with Miller on Tuesday.

Besides the ongoing mystery of why the Times is always a step or two behind its competition in reporting on its own reporter, this latest twist raises all sorts of tantalizing issues. If anyone at the Times objects to raising the following questions: It’s your own fault for not disclosing more about this case yourself.

And, before getting to The Case of the Missing Notebook: What’s with the Times, which long supported Miller going to jail for 85 days, purportedly to stand up for a journalistic principle (protecting a source), now willingly turning over a reporter’s notes to the prosecutor? And did Miller turn over the notes herself, or did the Times locate and do the honors itself?

The notes in question, we now know, cover a Miller discussion with I. Lewis Libby on June 25, 2003, two weeks before Joseph Wilson’s WMD op-ed that was thought to have set the Bush backlash in motion. These notes, the Times had disclosed, do mention Wilson. Isikoff observes that the notebook is “significant because Wilson's identity was not yet public.”

Greg Mitchell's been a strong writer on the Bushies for some time.