I hate when this happens-

I try to avoid the right wing spin cycle on MSNBC, diving in for Olbermann and scramming.  Pushed the wrong button on the remote and that little twerp Tucker (rhymes with fucker) Carlson was playing tailor with whole cloth again.

And this is why I need Larry.

He had  a "former CIA middle-east specialist" named Reuel Marc Gerecht on.  This guy threw out so much horse****, it was like an Amish fertilizer wagon.  After fumbling for a pen an scratchpaper, I was able to get this much down:

• "Valerie Plame had no serious cover" and had it lifted by her superiors for some "actions" of hers.
• The CIA has had thin to non-existant covers for decades
• Senior agents routinely lift their own cover at will
• Joe Wilson gave no oral report because the CIA doesn't have oral reports
• The agency really didn't care about Wilson's mission because he was only (something, I think it was "table") hopping
  

During every cutaway from this guy, the bullet point at the bottom of the screen said:

"Did Liberal Agenda Spur Scandal?" 

In finishing the segment, Carlson looked at the screen and said Well I wish we would have had you on sooner....

I'm going to try and calm down now, and get the transcript of "The Situation" 11/09/05 and see if I might just have been having a bad dream.

Larry, if you're out there, got any info on this guy?  Carlson hinted in portraying him as a spook, and turtleneck, sport coat and three days growth of beard made him look like someone you might see skulking down an alley in Amman or Cairo.

I'm so pissed right now at that little shit, I'd like to bitch-slap him into next week.

But then, I'd like to do something he wouldn't like. 

1. Douglas Feith- 

As Chris Suellentrop in Slate puts it:

“who, as the Defense Department's undersecretary for policy, is the Pentagon's No. 3 civilian, after Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz”

“He's only tangentially related to the mystery of the missing weapons of mass destruction, for example. (Though it's a significant tangent: An anonymous "Pentagon insider" told the Washington Times last year that Feith was the person who urged the Bush administration to make Saddam's WMD the chief public rationale for going to war immediately.)”

 

And Jim Lobe in the Asia Times:

“His now-defunct Office of Special Plans (OSP) is alleged to have collected - often with the help of the neo-conservatives' favorite Iraqi exile, Ahmed Chalabi - and "cooked" the most alarmist pre-war intelligence against Saddam Hussein and then "stovepiped" it to the White House via Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney, unvetted by the intelligence agencies.”

“The OSP also excluded many top Mideast experts from the State Department from playing any role in the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq. And it is Feith's office that, with the CPA, recommended companies for huge, and in some cases no-bid, contracts in Iraq that have amounted, in the eyes of some critical lawmakers, to flagrant profiteering. Among the firms that have profited most are those whose consultants or officers also serve on the Pentagon's DPB, members of which are chosen by Feith.”

 

So in October, 2003, when the shit has hit the fan, Condi has to step in with the Iraq Stabilization Group and take control away from Feith.  He served his purpose and now he seems to be getting a little above the radar in looking for his part of the gravy train.

And from Laura Rozen, "Ye of Little Feith", The American Prospect Online, May 18, 2004:

"He was very arrogant," Karen Kwiatkowski, Feith’s former deputy, says, describing what it was like to work with him. "He doesn't utilize a wide variety of inputs. He seeks information that confirms what he already thinks. And he may go to jail for leaking classified information to The Weekly Standard." (As she explains, an article appeared in The Weekly Standard that included a leaked memo written by Feith alleging ties between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda.)”

and as right-web puts it:

"Feith became embroiled in a new intelligence scandal in late August 2004 when it was reported that the FBI had for the past two years been investigating intelligence leaks to Israel from the Pentagon. The Pentagon official named in the media reports is Lawrence Franklin, who was brought into the Office of Special Plans from the Defense Intelligence Agency. Franklin, who had served in the military attache's office in the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv in the late 1990s as a colonel in the Air Force Reserve, is suspected of passing classified information about Iran to the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee and Israel."

 

Oh, Oh.  FBI investigations!  Prosecutors!  Can’t risk taking any action now, the election is too close to call…….

And from Julian Coman, News Telegraph on November 7, 2004

"There are senators who are clearly gunning for Douglas Feith now. This is turning into a classic conspiracy investigation. They want to get Feith and see if, through Feith, they can go up the ladder to even bigger fish."

Whew!  Made it through the election and the Inauguration.  Hey Doug!  Seeya!

On January 26, 2005 the Defense Department acknowledged Feith’s resignation.

2. Larry Franklin

Well, what about the AIPAC guy that worked for Feith, Larry Franklin?  Franklin got indicted in a two year old investigation that didn't appear connected to anything, and supposedly cut a deal.  Well, maybe.  He was cooperating, but this guy Fitzgerald started nosing in with his prosecutor attitude and wanted to ask some questions…..

And then, Franklin stops cooperating, fires his court appointed lawyer and hires Plato Cacheris.

As Justin Raimondo at Anti-War.com details:

“When Cacheris took up the case of Ana Belen Montes, Castro's top spy in the United States, neoconservative writer Ronald Radosh argued that he "seems to be the chosen counsel for most of the recent American spies for foreign powers." But this misses the real point to be made about the Washington super-lawyer: he specializes, not in espionage cases, but in high profile scandals, the kind that make mile-high headlines. From Watergate (he represented Attorney General John Mitchell) to Iran-Contra (he got Fawn Hall immunity in exchange for her testimony) to Lewinsky-gate (he was one of Monica's attorneys), one thing is clear: the spotlight is his natural habitat – yet another indication that the Franklin affair, which seems to have dropped into the black hole of journalistic memory, is going to resurface big time.”

 

Well, now, Larry worked in Feith’s OSP and the same player’s names seem to keep surfacing- Chalabi, Judy Miller…Judy Miller??  Wasn’t she gonna be a problem?  Naw, we got that covered.  They’re appealing and it’ll be one of those First Amendment things- never go anywhere.  Fitzgerald’s all but done and without her and Cooper, they got nothing…

Oops!  On February 15, 2005, the Appeals Court rules against the NYT!  Shit!  They’re gonna have to testify…or go to jail.  Look, we need to buy time. Get the word to Judy- it's time for her to really play "soldier".

Scooter, we’d love to cut you loose, you moron, but that would really be obstruction.  But we’ve got a few loose ends to get out of the way now before the heat gets on ‘em.

3. John Bolton- Well, what can I say about this pick for the UN? Does the word antithesis sum it up?    March 7, 2005 

4. Paul Wolfowitz- arguably the strongest voice in the pro-Israel, anti-Iraq strategy, and intimately involved in the war planning.  Been at it since BiBi Netanyahu was in power, trying to sell the plan to overthrow Saddam way back when.  Nomination to head the World Bank met with "shock" by the WB employees, and skepticism around the world.  March 17, 2005

Fucking Senate!  They’re giving us shit on Bolton.  Fuck ‘em.  I’ll recess the bastard and get his ass out of the way.  After he gets to the UN, tell him to go see Judy and tell her it’s ok to give up Scooter.  That should stop it at Dick’s door.  Un-indicted co-conspirator will be the worst thing that can happen to him and I’ll pardon him later for the ‘good of the country”.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN FITZGERALD’S GOT A MOLE IN THE OFFICE????

Dick, you idiot!  Well, you’re not taking me down for obstruction for trying to cover your tracks.  Now who could testify that I was briefed on this and can tie me to all this shit?  Oh, OH….. uh, Harriet?  Can you come in here please?  How would you like to be on the other side of the bench for a change?

5. Harriet Meirs- not just unqualified to sing with the Supremes, can't even muster a fan club.  October 3, 2005

 So every time a key player might be in the weeds, our attention is distracted and the pickpockets get to work.  Take a look at these key nominations.  They have all attracted ridiculous amounts of attention because of their outright inappropriateness.  That’s our attention being distracted.  If you’ve been feeling a hand in your pocket, it’s probably Georgie Boy.  He may play dumb, but I think that’s just another con game.

On Friday before the storm came ashore, a Presidential directive put Secretary Chertoff and the Department of Homeland Security in charge of preparations and the recovery program.  At least someone was supposedly in charge.

We expected that plans and supplies were in place to satisfy the basic needs.

Why did it take so long to satisfy these needs in New Orleans?

Were supplies not provided?  Was money not available?  Did leadership fail to act?  Were there no plans?

Americans died because our government failed to do what it was obligated to do.

"Who are we if we can't take care of our own?" - Maureen Dowd.

Now I'm sure that there are thousands of hard working, dedicated people at DHS- I know a few who spend every hurricane gathering numbers to assess potential damage estimates, and what it will take to put things right.

And that's the problem with this disaster.

I'm not going to get all conspiracy theory here- there are enough hard facts to support the same level of negligence to this disaster as there were warnings of 9/11.  This scenario of a natural situation causing this much destruction (as opposed to a terrorist attack) has been bandied about for years.  The problems have been studied, the solutions proposed but the key to getting it done is that it just wasn't on the agenda.  The Bush agenda, that is, or "mandate" as he likes to portray it, is to deal with the real potential for problems as "possibilities", while advancing the conservative pipe dreams that were bought and paid for by his campaign funding as "realities".  In short, the things that make a nation prosperous, safe, and well protected that only government can do have taken a back seat to wielding the power of our nation to advance corporate interests.

Mr. Bush's newest excuse for the war in Iraq is to keep the oil fields safe from terrorists.  My, my, my, Mr. President.  I'm sure that Sheik Yerbouti sleeps securely, knowing that while our refining and port facilities for Gulf of Mexico oil seem to have disappeared, his pipelines to India and China will keep on pumping. I'm glad that you are telling the nation not to buy gasoline that they don't need.  If this is the disaster of proportion that estimates say, then why don't you exercise some real authority and issue Presidential Emergency orders to freeze the wholesale price of gasoline for the next 60 days?  Why let any more of the citizens of this country be subjected to the profiteering of your pals in the oil biz?  Oh, sorry, I forgot- we live in the "free-market" part of your conservative pipe dream.  My mistake. Never mind.

Well, it's time for the citizens to make a stand against this political system that says "to the victor go the spoils".

Republican or Democrat- all politicians need to be put on notice- fix this shit or you are all out in 2006.  Period.  If Dems don't stand up and say enough is enough- they're Out.  If Republicans dont backtrack on Social Security, tax cuts, and Roe- they're out.  Incumbents- Out.  Anybody else- In 

We can do no worse with a whole new body of unbeholden neophytes than we have been done by the ones holding power now.  And if they don't get it done right, they're out too.  We need to let them know that they work for us- not the other way around.  

If Jesus did just what this market basket of "Christian" preachers (and in that basket you can find Dobson, Parsely, Robertson, etc.) want him to do, i.e.; return, what do you think he would say?

I don't claim any special knowledge in this area, nor do I think I am high on the rapture's A-list, but I cant help but think that for most of my 54 years this same bunch has making a living off the fear of God's vengeance.

Is the market so competitive these days in the religious industry that in order to keep a job they have to out shout each other?  Be more "Apprentice" like in the over the top performance?  There used to be a smarmy TV preacher with a bad toupee in Ohio, Earnest Angely, of the Angels Grace Cathedral, who would do "healings" by sticking his finger in someone's ear until the seal was almost airtight, then pulling it out with a "pop", shouting "Out, Devil!".  The dazed recipient of this "healing", having their eardrum streched like a balloon was then whisked offstage (and probably to the local ER).  Now that was entertainment!

Contrast that to Pat Robertson and his "700 Club", pronouncing that Chavez should be whacked beacause he doesn't like us and he has oil, Dobson claiming in his pamphlets that he will reveal the signs that your child could be gay and how to stop it, and how can we forget Rod Parsely being "Silent No More" on why we need to kill the Muslims (note to Rod- you are a lame white guy, you can't dance like a Black preacher, don't try- it's embarrassing to all).

Somehow I can't help but think if Jesus did show up today, he'd buy the stripper a drink and turn to the "Apprentices" and say:

You're Fired.