If it's secret how come I know it?
I've watched all the Sunday morning talk shows. I've read all the newspaper accounts and blogs.
I've listened to talk radio. I've even read the entire 22-page against I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
Want to know how this boils down?
The apologists argue for revealing classified information. They support publicly identifying CIA covert agents.
Non-official cover agents at that and not those protected with diplomatic immunity. They are in favor of perjury, lying to FBI agents and obstructing justice. .
They are against national security. They love losing a national intelligence asset in the area of non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. They poo-poo how this undermines CIA's ability to recruit informants and agents.
They deny that the CIA and not the Democrats demanded a investigation. They refuse to admit that it wasn't a foreign government that exposed Valerie Plame it was our own. They dismiss the and Karl Rove in the intentional outing of a political critic's wife.
They say it's not really a crime or if it is it's merely a technicality. They say there was no underlying crime charged so this indictment is wrong. As if what Monica did to Bill in the Oval Office was a crime.
(Unless she did it badly which really is a crime.) They know that "Scooter" won't do any jail time since a pardon will happen. They make me sick.
There are not two sides to this story. . If people can't see the need for our government ruthlessly protect rather than publicly expose a CIA undercover operative then stop reading now.
It's pointless. It's like saying jaywalking and murder are both crimes. But this wasn't some accidental mis-remembering about an unintentional release of classified information.
. Don't believe me? Read the indictment carefully.
The White House and Republicans should send Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald a nice Christmas gift because based on his indictments and press conference it's clear he was overly cautious in his use of criminal prosecution. What he basically said was "I indicted only because I was dared to do it by this in your face lying guy "Scooter." If he wanted to he could have charged others.
He didn't and most likely won't. Rove must feel pretty untouchable at this point after a lifetime of practicing political black arts.
All this has taught the nest of vipers at 1600 Pennsylvania is that you can go after anyone in America, even a CIA non-official cover secret agent and get away with it.
It has taught me that America deserves better from the people running the government and we aren't going to get it anytime soon. It probably also taught , a U.S.
Marine who worked for the staff of the Vice President Cheney that if you are going to disclose classified information it's better to be the Vice President's chief of staff rather than a Marine.
Indictments - One for you, One for you...
The indictments are being printed up and its going to be bad.
Bad for the people involved and bad for the country. When the Vice President and his office should have been worried about Osama Bin Laden they were obsessed with Joe Wilson. That was the best use of their time and their awesome responsibilities apparently.
Track Wilson and everything he did and said, out his wife, smear his service to the country and tell reporters he and his wife are "fair game." Bullies and cowards. Sickening.
So now the end game is here and multiple indictments will be handed down. The "law and order" Republicans are already saying perjury and obstruction of justice are "technicalities" and that if there is no indictment for actually leaking Valerie Plame's name then no crime should be charged. That is to say the cover-up and perjury are secondary crimes and they wouldn't be in this jeopardy but for the underlying crime which they say there is none.
Wonder how they would feel about giving a posthumous pardon to Al Capone since he was sent to his death in prison for tax evasion and not murder.
While the news media and blogosphere wait impatiently for news of indictments (I personally keep hitting my "refresh" button on my internet browser at least once a second) it truly is sad for the country. What a waste of time, money, energy and criminal prosecution.
Don't get me wrong. Perjury and obstruction of justice are serious crimes. The only way the legal system can function is if the people in it, including judges, lawyers and witnesses, are truthful.
What is sad is that the people in positions of power spend most of their time figuring out ways to win politically and deem that an achievement rather than solving problems facing America which would be a real achievement. Health care, gas prices, energy policy, counter-terrorism, nuclear proliferation are all areas where "Scooter" Libby (I mean really, "Scooter?" Do you have faith in a grown man proudly calling himself "Scooter?
") could have directed his attention. Nope. Compiling a dossier on Joe Wilson's television appearances and leaking CIA covert operatives to news reporters were a better use of government resources and his time.
All these pinheads should be indicted for felony stupidity. But I'll be satisfied with perjury and obstruction charges, the very same charges Bill Clinton was impeached for but found not guilty of in the Senate. I don't think these bullies and cowards will be so lucky.
Republicans - Soft on crime, unless you're not in the GOP.
First they took away the rights of the weakest and the poorest of people - those filing for bankruptcy. Then they give blanket immunity to the gun sellers and manufacturers. Then they pass a legal shield for the food industry.
Hear that giant sucking sound? It's your rights.
The Republicans like to say they are enacting their agenda.
As I wish I had said, but Bill Maher beat me to it, stop calling it an agenda. It's not an agenda, it's a collection of laws that your contributors paid for. Amen.
You may like the bills passed, (it's not "may or may not" just like it's not "whether or not") but the overreaching by this Congress is breathtaking. Laws are being passed solely because they were bought and paid for. What is even more shameful is the Democratic support these bills are getting.
It gives the Republicans cover. They can say, "See, it's bi-partisan!" Shame on the Democrats.
People are working hard going door-to-door for them (I mean other people, not me of course my feet are too delicate) and this is how they vote? Shameful.
And the Democrats wonder why people don't understand what they stand for as a party?
What is the narrative of the brand? Do you know? What springs to mind when you say Democrat?
Is that what you want to be associated with? Is that who you want to wait in line for hours to vote for?
I hope there are a bunch of youngsters reading this blog.
I'm going to save you from a lifetime of heartbreak. Don't believe in people. Believe in yourself.
People have great capacity to disappoint you. I expect it from Republicans. I shouldn't have to with Democrats.
I've got good news and bad news...
The good news is that a number of people will be indicted by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. It's pretty clear that this is going to be train wreck for the White House and Republicans.
Use common sense. It's been a thorough two-year investigation involving tossing Judy Miller in jail for 85 days and calling Karl Rove back before the grand jury four times. Add to that Fitzgerald's office has said that indictments, if any, will be announced in Washington D.
C. and not in his home base of Chicago. Now his office says it will not issue a public report, an alternative to indictments people expected if no criminal charges were filed.
Throw on top of that rumors on reasonable blogs and magazines that , a mid-level national security aide for Vice President Cheney received a "target letter" (meaning an indictment was a sure thing) has now flipped and is .
The speculation on blog sites is red hot. that National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley will be indicted.
Others say as many as 22 people are facing criminal charges. muses that Cheney may resign. Wow.
It's starting to look a lot like Fitz-mas!
Now the bad news..
.
Even if Rove and Libby and Hadley and Matalin and Cheney and Hannah and god knows who else get indicted, W will pardon them. Yes, read it again.
Read it a third time. W will pardon everyone involved. There it is.
It makes sense now huh? Feeling deflated? The only question is whether W will pardon them before or after the 2006 mid-term elections.
Did you really think these people aren't above the law? Rove has been knifing people for decades. Only this time they did it someone that legally that can't mess with - an undercover CIA operative.
But no matter. They always have an out. W will give it them.
The conventional wisdom will be he will pardon them after the 2006 elections. But the Curmudgeon's prediction is that W pardons everyone on Saturday, December 24, 2005, a.k.
a. Christmas Eve in the spirit of Christ-like forgiveness. Then it will be a story for a couple of days - maybe even the week just before New Years Day and then that's it.
The public will go back to watching the Superbowl and thinking about spring training and wonder what all the fuss was about. Republicans will say and W righted a terrible wrong. That W had the courage to take the heat for standing up to the "criminalization of politics" and that this proves why the special prosecutor law should never be renewed.
You think you live in a democracy where no man is above the law? I have some additional bad news for you -- there is no tooth fairy, Easter Bunny or Santa. But have faith.
There is something to believe in. A Curmudgeon to explain what you think you already know.
Merry Fitz-mas.
Bah. Humbug.
The first we do, let's kill all the lawyers...
No, this isn't a piece about evangelical Christian lawyer Harriet Miers who would never ever have been considered for the Supreme Court had she not been friends with Bush. Let's put it another way, when W was looking for a lawyer in 1993 the first two turned him down before Miers was brought to his attention. Had one of those two lawyers accepted no one would have ever heard of Harriet Miers.
Oh, you say, she worked for Microsoft and Disney? Woohoo. So have thousands of lawyers.
Do you know their names? Talk about lowering the bar. Memo to all you law students out there.
Don't write anything and if you do don't put your name on it. (I guess you can't prove I'm The Daily Curmudgeon so keep my name on the short list Mr. W) Being of the right religious background and friends with the president is much more important.
A "good heart" is the only qualification I can see at this point. What's next? Just having a heart?
Or a brain?
Speaking of brains..
. ? First, Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle indicts Tom DeLay for conspiracy to violate election laws and then when DeLay's lawyer, Dick DeGuerin files a quick motion to dismiss the charges Earle gets a second indictment to correct any errors the first charge had?
From a grand jury that had been impaneled for like 10 minutes? Did they even know where the bathrooms were in the building? Ronnie baby, when you go to strike down the king, you strike him down.
You finish the job. You don't let him get back up. You don't let him get away.
In his brief, DeGuerin argued that the conspiracy statute did not apply to the election code until the Legislature amended the law, effective Sept. 1, 2003, after the 2002 election. DeLay and his alleged "co-conspirators" are charged with sending $190,000 of corporate money to the Republican National Committee, which, in turn, donated the same amount of non-corporate money to seven Texas candidates' campaigns at their direction.
The date on the $190,000 check to the committee was Sept. 13, 2002. The committee checks cut to candidates were dated Oct.
4, 2002. Simply because the new law explicitly stated the conspiracy statute applied to the election code after Sept. 1, 2003 doesn't mean it didn't apply before.
But Earle should have anticipated this and the second indictment for money laundering should have been done when the first one was issued.
Secondly, there is a three-year statute of limitations and it could be argued that DeGuerin should have waited until at least Oct. 4, 2005 to file his motion to dismiss.
But then I found out that last month DeLay signed a waiver of the statute of limitations in an attempt to head off an indictment! Say what? Who gave him that great advice?
Some lawyer for DeLay who graduated from the Ringling Brothers School of Law? Now, of course, as the flip-flopper he is, DeLay wants to withdraw his waiver and fight the indictments on that basis. That's some great lawyering there counsel or should I call you Bozo?
Another point. If I remember correctly, conspiracies don't really have a statute of limitations problem because the conspiracy continues forever until it is exposed. That is, the co-conspirators keep silent to keep the conspiracy going so the statute of limitations doesn't start running at the time the actual underlying crime is committed.
What does all this mean? It means that there are some really bad lawyers and lawyering out there and I wouldn't be surprised if they one day all serve on the Supreme Court. A government as good as its people and now a Supreme Court as bad as its bad lawyers.
God bless the United Cronies of W.
P.S.
Brit Hume of Faux News, actually said W's pick of Miers wasn't cronyism because W was actually moving her out of his inner circle and over to another job. Boy I wish I was a crony of Roger Ailes or the like to get paid $2 million or so a year to spout ridiculous ideas. Right now I don't even make half that doing it.
LATE BONUS POSTING: Good commercial . Probably banned by the Pat Robertson/Intelligent Design types who run this country now.
So another person looking to fill a job slot found...
herself. Cheney who led the search for a vice-presidential pick found the best candidate was..
.himself. Harriet Miers, leading the search for Supreme Court nominees only found one other person at least as qualified as herself before nominating, well, herself.
What a coincidence that the best qualified person to be on the Supreme Court for life just happens to be leading the search. At least it reinforces the adage, "It's not what you know, it's who you know."
She of course is a Bush crony and and has been described as a tough "pit bull in size 6 shoes.
" Hopefully, she turns out to be a female David Souter who led a monastic-like life living with his mother in New Hampshire before being selected by H.W. He turned out to be a disappointment to conservatives.
Lets just hope this single, church going, "she's a man baby" looking woman is in fact a closeted lesbian who will act more like a Souter rather than a Bush lackey enforcer loyal to party and person rather than country. Don't bet on it. That's what is really going on here.
A cult of personality. W, the man, the myth, the legend. Miers has called W "the most brilliant person" she's ever met.
Surprising she doesn't refer to him as glorious leader. Son of God is a bit much.
Two down, seven to go.
Pat Robertson is probably in overdrive praying for the untimely (or timely) departure of the rest of the court which would leave room for him and six other arguably mentally ill loons in nicely tailored suits just waiting to inflict their brand of religious fascism on the rest of us. The real problem is that as long as the Senate (and House for that matter) are controlled by Republicans W could nominate Jessica Simpson to the Supreme Court and she'd get confirmed. And all of you who support W and his party should be indicted for aiding and abetting this conspiracy to turn the United States of America into the United cronies of W's America.
Guilty as charged.
BONUS POSTING: Lt. Gen.
(that's three stars) William Odom, a former Vietnam veteran and head of the under Reagan from Iraq and reposition its military forces along the Afghan-Pakistani border to capture Osama bin Laden and crush al Qaeda cells. “The invasion of Iraq I believe will turn out to be the greatest strategic disaster in U.S.
history,” said Odom, now a scholar with the Hudson Institute. Probably another Democratic dead-ender and Cindy Sheehan follower giving aid and comfort to the enemy, right boys?
BONUS POST II: - Favoritism shown to old friends without regard for their qualifications, as in political appointments to office.
Also pronounced, "Harriet Myers or Michael Brown."
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