Lewis "Loose Lips" Libby

I can't say I'm surprised, can you? I did hear Bush's speechlet on the way home. What struck me the most is not anything he said, but that he made the statement from the driveway of the White House. It just struck me as strange. I have to think about that some more. Plus he sounded, um, odd? He's obviously very stressed. I haven't seen the footage yet, but it will be interesting to watch because his body language often doesn't match what's coming out of his mouth. I haven't heard from my friend who's into NLP, but I'm sure she has been busy analyzing it.

Today has been laundry day, so I've not been able get enough of my media fix. I haven't even read the indictment yet.

I'll post something tomorrow.

Iraq War Grief

Pass the flame on. This in not my graphic, it's from Iraq War Grief

President GHW Bush once referred to 1,000 points of light. Well, friends, we need to be point of light for the Iraqi children. I strongly suggest every day that you read Iraq Daily War Grief. Today it's on day 292. I'll warn you ahead of time this is graphic stuff. This is the war the networks aren't televising. This is real life, not Hollywood special effects. It's available at DailyKos, Booman Tribune, European Tribune, and My Left Wing.

This is the war your sons and daughters and husbands and wives and partners are fighting. This is the face of the war you need to remember when you are judging the Powers-That-Be that lied to get us into their war. he faces of those children, could soon be our children if we don't find our way out of "Bush's Folly" as I like to call it.

When Iraqis and the rest of the world see these pictures, especially the ones of of children with the blood of their parents splattered on them, the pictures of Abu Graib -- it gives them a reason to despise the US. Don't anyone give me any crap about "these pictures are only one side of a story". There's always more that one side. What you need to ask is why pictures like these aren't in the media. Remember Viet Nam. I remember vomiting more than once on seeing photographs and footage from that war. That's one of the reason people became so outraged and we finally got out. Get outraged!

Since the Republicans are in their own little bubble, fellow Democrats, it's left to us. Tell the truth, present the evidence. Let's not screw it up.

2006, then 2008. Start now and change the future.

My Sweet, Sweet Onion

One of my favorite publications, The Onion, uses the prezinetial seal with its parody of the weekly radio address. So, the WH sent a letter and said "stop that!" It turns out that there is a rule that says you can't you the seal to for a commercial enterprise, but the Lair isn't a commercial enterprise. So, why'd they send a letter to the Onion when they should have also sent one to http://www.westernwhitehousegifts.com/pages/915632/. They have jewelry, assorted and sundry items and a rug with the presidential seal made of 100% New Zealand wool. Were all our American sheep were busy? I wonder where it was actually made?

Anyhows, lot of blogs are now showing the seal as well. And support my sweet, sweet Onion. It shouldn't be fried just because some wonk got their knickers in a knot! Check out Daily Kos for more.

Andrea Mitchell, Hardball and Deliberate Misinformation

On a recent visit to Hardball, Andrea Mitchell checked some facts on the door. She's NBC's chief foreign affairs correspondent, so you'd think she'd know better! So what did she say that's getting people like me in a tizzy?

This is what Andrea Mitchell said on NBC's Meet the Press, July 6, 2003 edition:

"Joe Wilson went on television with us and in interviews and said he had been dispatched by the vice president...he led people to believe, he said publicly, that he had been dispatched by the vice president. And that was clearly not the case by every bit of reporting that I have been able to do."

Media Matters can't find any reference anywhere that Wilson claimed that Cheney sent him to Niger. Mitchell can't seem to back the her own assertions either. In the July 6, 2003, interview, this is what Wilson said regarding the his Niger trips:

"The [question of Iraq seeking uranium from Niger] was asked of the CIA by the office of the vice president."

This what Factcheck.org says on the matter:

July 6, 2003 – Wilson publishes " What I didn’t find in Africa" in The New York Times, identifying himself for the first time as the unnamed “envoy.” He writes, “I have little choice but to conclude that some of the intelligence related to Iraq 's nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.” Wilson does not mention that he learned there was a possibility Iraq had sought uranium during a 1999 trade meeting with Niger’s former Prime Minister.


Contrary to later statements by White House officials, Wilson does not claim that Cheney sent him on the Niger trip, only that he was sent to answer questions from Cheney’s “office.” He also doesn’t claim that Cheney was told of his findings, only that it would be “standard operating procedure” for the CIA to brief Cheney’s office on the results of his mission. (Wilson, " What I didn’t find, New York Times July 6, 2003).

How did Mitchell come to her conclusion that Wilson had been "dispatched by the vice president"? What does her "every bit of reporting" include? Apparently a fanciful leap of logic. I think she owes viewers an explanation and a retraction.

Note to Andrea Mitchell: Facts still are facts Andrea; how about checking yours before you make on-air statements instead of being a shill?

There's an excellent diary at Daily Kos that goes into the matter in more depth, and since I'm not one to reinvent wheels, I'll send you there so you can read VirginaDem's diary.

Every few centuries a handful of people make a change in our lives, our ways of thinking, our world. Some are driven from birth to grab the world by the shoulders and shake it into change. Some decide to use their voice and argue the world into change. On December 1st, 1955, one tired woman simply sat down on a city bus and our world changed forever. Today, Rosa Parks left this earth, and I know that in Heaven she is gathered among the angels and the saints who left this planet a better place than they found it when they first arrived.

I was born a little over a year after Ms. Parks sat down on a Montgomery, Alabama bus, but I can remember, even as a young child (maybe three or four years old), how my grandmother told me a the story of the woman who wouldn't give up her seat to a white man and go to the back of the bus as was expected of her in that day and time. I forget exactly under what circumstances my grandmother has decided to tell me the story, but I do remember her sitting me on her lap to tell me about Ms. Parks. I remember she said that she though the woman was an angel sent to earth to teach us all a lesson about love and what was right.

Rosa Parks, we will miss you here, but we are eternally grateful for your courage that turned a simple act of defiance (even though you only wanted to get home!) into a lesson for us all.

I'm doing the happy dance!

Because I won an argument with my cable and internet provided about a payment made via bounced check to my account. Some slight problems though: I don't use checks to pay my bills, the amount didn't match what my bill monthly payment is, my bank showed no record of a transaction that matched what "Company X" said was mine, I didn't have a check by that number anyway, and at the time the payment was made (in a very odd amount I might add) I had just paid my monthly fee and had a balance of $0.00.

It took over a week to straighten in out, and I did my little bit of hell-raising, and eventually they had to admit I was right. Even after one of the customer service androids said "We can't make a mistake like this, the computer won't let us."

Hah! I'm back, and I have a nice fat credit to my account too.

And that is why there have been no entries. I will make up for it though because there has been a wee bit going on in the world.

Let's have a sing along!

This is what I do when I'm bored. Even though the indictments aren't out yet, it's wishful thinking by a lot of us! Enjoy, and let me know if you want a song mangled to current events. Snarkmusik is always free! Cross posted at Daily Kos.

Holly Jolly Fitzmas
Rogneid (c) 2005

Have a holly, jolly Fitzmas;
It's the best time of the year
I don't know if Bush will go,
but Libby 'n Rove are toast.
Have a holly, jolly Fitzmas;
And when you walk down the street
Wave bye-bye to Scooter and Turd
and pray Darth Cheney's next.

Oh, how the crooks must go
all hung out to dry;
Somebody's perpwalking
It's just so great to see.
Have a holly jolly Fitzmas,
Just one thing left to do:
impeach Dick 'n Dubya too
and have a jolly Fitzmas day!

With sincere apologies to Johnny Marks, whose musical skills far surpass mine!
Holly Jolly Christmas, Johnny Marks (c) 1962
But feel free to pass mine around as long as yougive me credit...I'm soooo needy ;-)