| Talking Points Memo | Viewing the Profile of justabill

Biography: I'm a sans-culotte. History/Government major at William and Mary.

View Talk posts »

Now that the Whitehouse has chosen to thumb its nose to the Democrats with his recess appointment of Bolton in Congress, they should filibuster everything. Don't let 1 single bill pass. I don't care how important. Filibuster everything all the way through the 06 elections. If that forces the nuclear option, so be it. The payback for doing that will be the worse for them. Time to give up the now for the long view.

Posted at August 1, 2005 9:54 AM in response to Roberts not Bad Enough?
My latest letter to the editor, please feel free to borrow from it.

Lately in the news we’ve got the FBI kicking down the doors of Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R) and associates in an investigation into his habit of getting wealthy businessmen to pay him double or triple market rates for home and boat sales, and then sell them at a loss. (1)
There’s also Senator John Thune (R) who is now in hot water regarding his political and financial relationship with a local car dealer Dan Nelson, who filed for bankruptcy after having secured millions in loans from financial institutions where Thune served on the board of directors. Prior to that Nelson had served as Thune’s political advisor. (2)

Then we’ve still got the slow moving investigation of whether House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's travel expenses were paid by a lobbyist or his clients. Of course Delay denies the charges but lets remember that last year alone he was rebuked by the ethics committee three times. (3)

And topping off the corruption countdown we have the Plame case. Special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald has spent two years working the case of whether senior Bush officials broke the law in the outing of CIA covert operative Valerie Plame. Her name was first revealed to the press on July 14, 2003, just eight days after her husband, Joseph C. Wilson, wrote in an article in the NYT claiming that members of the Bush administration, and Bush himself in the Jan 03 state of the union, were repeating false allegations about Iraq’s nuclear capabilities. (4) It now seems that the White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove may have played a role in the Plame smear campaign.

One thing, regardless of which “two senior administration officials” leaked Plame’s name to Novak, Cooper and Miller, this case makes obvious the truth of the Downing Street Minutes' claim that the administration was fixing the facts to make the case for war. This administration didn’t hesitate to try to ruin a CIA agent’s career, perhaps ruining an important covert CIA operation, (5) before they would have let the truth get in the way of the war. (6)

I thought that the Bush administration was going to bring moral values back to government after Clinton’s shenanigans?

1) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/01/A R2005070101905.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/08/A R2005070801536.html
2) http://www.keloland.com/NewsDetail2817.cfm?Id=0,40913
http://www.kotatv.com/localnews/story.asp?ID=21250
3) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/01/A R2005070100133.html
4) “Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction.” http://www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/printrn20030714.sh tml
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30D12F7355E0C758C DDAE0894DB404482&incamp=archive:search
5) http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/7/3/16838/88864
http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2003/10/10/ap parent_cia_front_didnt_offer_much_cover/
6) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/07/A R2005070702215.html
Posted at July 9, 2005 12:18 AM in response to Auction House
That's why we should not let ourselves get too fixated on Rove. By Rove's own admission, he engaged in trying to smear Wilson by spreading around his wife's name (he only claims he didn't start it) as a "fair game" retaliation for Wilson's pointing out that Bush and team were lying to make the case for war!
Rove has confirmed that the DSM was true!
That is the impeachable offense.
This isn't about Rove in particular.
This is about the DSM and how the Plame affair proves it true.
This is about the end of the Bush/PNAC empire builders.

The PNAC/DSM/Plame tutorial.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downing_street_memo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PNAC
http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Plame
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/printrn20030714.sh
tml

1. The PNAC Clinton letter proves the admin had a hard-on to go to war before they ever took office.
2. The Plame affair, regardless of who was the initial leak, proves that the allegations made in the DSM were true. This admin was so pre-set for war, they wouldn't even hesitate to smear the name of a covert agent as revenge, Rove's idea of fair game, to keep the truth from getting in the way. All Wilson did was point out that the admin., specifically Bush in his 03 state of the union (his 12 words", was lying to make the case for war.

This should be the end of shrub!

Posted at July 3, 2005 3:26 PM in response to A-Roving We Shall Go
Yeah you're right, Tenet's and Pavitt resignations,
and Bush and Cheney lawyered up due to the Plame case all at the same time.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/06/02/politics/main620810.sht
ml

Posted at July 3, 2005 12:04 PM in response to A-Roving We Shall Go
I realize, as I pointed out, that there is a lot of questionable conclusions drawn in the article, but the resignations of Tenet and Pavitt, Bush and Cheney's lawyering up, the Guardian ARAMCO article, all check out and when added to what else we do know, help paint a different picture, albeit one still missing pieces, than you'll find elsewhere. It's worth reading.

Posted at July 3, 2005 11:54 AM in response to A-Roving We Shall Go
Also George Tenet resigned on June 3, and Pravitt, the CIA's Deputy Director of Operations resigned the following day.

Posted at July 3, 2005 11:44 AM in response to A-Roving We Shall Go
Wishful thinking.
http://www.needlenose.com/

Posted at July 3, 2005 9:58 AM in response to A-Roving We Shall Go
Cooper was protecting Rove, because TurdBlossom has the crap scared out of 95% of the msm, and has discredited the other truthspeaking 5% as the "liberal media".
Post-Rathergate, the truth isn't worth pursuing if it involves Rove.

Posted at July 3, 2005 9:47 AM in response to A-Roving We Shall Go
We should not let orselves become so fixated on the prosecution of Rove. The real story here is that the Plame affair proves that we were lied into a war.

The outing of Plame by anyone in the White House, or as Novak put it "Two senior administration officials"..
( http://www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/printrn20030714.sh
tml This is the article that started it all)

... only confirms exactly what the DSM was saying. So what if Rove's found some way to make his "fair game" accusations in some way that will keep him from being charged with a crime. I sure hope not, but if so, that doesn't get the admin off the hook for the fact that by Rove's own admissions, he was spreading Plame's name (not the first to do so as he claims) in retaliation for her husband Joe Wilson's saying 'excuse me liars' for getting us into this war.
This is exactly what the DSM claims. They were fixing the facts to make their case for war. The Plame affair proves by example that the DSM was right on the money. The admin didn't want the truth, they wanted Iraq.

Plame confirms what the DSM was saying, and shows that Bush was lying! Remember those "16 words" in his 03 state of the union. Don't get fixated on Rove so much that we lose the real crime here! This is a big deal. This is the talking point.

I'm still chewing on this article, posted by someone on Americablog. I don't know if at all should be swallowed, and I'm skeptical on some claims, but it definitely makes many valid ones that do check out, and I've yet to see elsewhere. Wow! http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/060804_coup_detat.html Wow! This may explain why DOJ has persisted on sticking with this against a white house that has been untouchable by everything else so far. Wow! Definitely worth reading. Wow!

Posted at July 3, 2005 9:14 AM in response to A-Roving We Shall Go
Two Princes of Calabar by Randy J Sparks 2004
http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/SPATWO.html
Truly excellent, fascinating look at the 18th-century slave trade from an African perspective. Gives an in-depth picture of the slave trade from Africa to the colonies to Britain and back to Africa. Chronicles two brothers who go from being princely African slave traders, taken as slaves themselves, and despite numerous setbacks and overwhelming odds they manage to escape, secure their freedom in the British courts only to return to Africa and pick up where they left off as slave traders. Siblings who perservere through setback after setback. Theirs is a true version version of Lemony Snicket's unfortunate events.

Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto Che Guevara 2003
The movie is good, but the actual letters are awesome! Get to know Che as he becomes Che.

Both of these books are relatively short but thoroughly informative, frequently hillarious, and above all captivating.

Posted at June 12, 2005 2:34 AM in response to More History Books