when he had this little conversation with whatever fly on whatever wall, did he not then ascertain that she was covert?  In fact, did he not think "wow, she's not just CIA, she's the most important side of CIA, working on an issue we have been harping on for 2 years?"

this, to me, is the fatal flaw in rove and his defenders' arguments over the past two days.  the guy learned new information about VPlame between July 8 and 11.  how?  from who? 

if you want to buy the right-wing meme-of-the-day, this would support their contention that the WMD people in the CIA were out to get Bush.  It still makes rove a criminal bastard, even if you are utterly insane enough to believe their offense-as-defense.  obviously, here in realworld, i don't.  i think it makes him look like a liar who tried to cover his tracks with a story that isn't tracking with contemporaneous evidence (similar, by the way, to novak, who is himself contradicted by his contemporaneous accounts of the actual event in july 2003).

um, i'm not a reporter.  at all.  this wasn't hard.  the nyt and the wapo seem incapable of doing this fourth grade level of digging.  pathetic, and shameful, on all of them.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117925329?categoryid=18&cs=

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Since no one will be able to read the above link without a subscription (only 230 bucks!  A bargain! Ankle your current job, you prexy, you!!!!), some of the article below:

<span class="article">Americans who are stricter about their religious doctrine are actually more likely to see films rated R for violence than those who are less conservative. </span&gt<span class="article">

That's according to a MarketCast study presented at Wednesday's Integrate '05 conference, co-sponsored by Variety.

The study, which examined whether political and cultural attitudes affect what movies people watch, found that the habits of Red State fundamentalists aren't that different from Blue State types.

The analysis was based on a survey of 1,000 Americans and presented by MarketCast president Joseph Helfgot, vice president and general manager Henry Shapiro and managing director Karen Hermelin.

"Our data has shown that most people, even the most religious, are quite satisfied with their moviegoing," Shapiro said. "They like what they see." He added that MarketCast commissioned the research to offer balance in an increasingly rancorous public debate. "This isn't just civic boosterism, we've put money and time into this research because we were tired of listening to the chatter that was drowning out the real message and clouding the issue," he said. "Clearly, this level of noise is being generated by a vocal and organized minority that is disproportionately impacting the debate," he added, "to the point where the thread gets picked up as fact and fed back and amplified by politicians, reporters, commentators, even some industry executives."

(Can't get this damn interface to indent, so my comments in bold)

Well, this doesn't surprise me a bit.  as we know from Nielsen, "Desperate Housewives" is a huge show in Alabama, Wyoming and so on.  Mostly, people compartmentalize their belief systems and keep them separate from their viewing and entertaiment habits.  i have friends in the porn industry who will make this argument most vociferously, as they count their filthy lucre from the reddest of the red.

i've sold two projects based on "red v blue" over the past two years, and all that anyone cares about is will-it-play.  if yes, then the most liberal hollywood exec is happy to program it.  sony is doing "left behind 3:  really far behind" or whatever it's called, because the first two made money.  that's what we do out here--we make money.  or lose it.  mostly lose it.  but no matter.

The most reliable predictor of where people stand on these issues, however, was how intensely religious people consider themselves.

In the study, 32% said they were "very religious," while 45% said "somewhat religious" and 23% were not religious.

The religious and nonreligious people in the study were nearly indistinguishable in their attitudes about their own individual moviegoing experience.

The two groups only disagreed on broader questions of "the movies" in general and their place in culture.

Moviegoing habits were fairly uniform across all groups, with more than half of the respondents, no matter how religious they consider themselves, saying they see between two and 11 movies a year.

And while those who are very religious were the most likely to criticize Hollywood and the movies in general, they were just as satisfied with the films that they did see.

According to the study, 92% of all respondents agreed that people had the right to see whatever movies they wanted to, 91% said they enjoyed going to the movies, and 75% said they go to theaters to be entertained, not for moral messages.

Of course all of this is self-justification (the study was paid for by the industry for the industry) but frankly, every year, no matter who wins steals at the ballot box, the overall total entertainment sales dollar keeps going up.  we on the inside love to bitch about how shitty things are (esp.if we work for the studio accounting dept and owe the writer of this blog money, it's all about "cutbacks" and "downsizing" yet still there you all are out to dinner at Ago every night...) and yet bush in power doesn't change a damn thing.  culture is culture, and all the brent bozells in the world aren't going to change that a bit.

unless, by stigmatizing certain things in certain communities, they make them more attractive.  that shit works--just ask the iranians about bush.