BottleOfBlog

No Shit

WASHINGTON - An unclassified summary of outed CIA officer Valerie Plame's employment history at the spy agency, disclosed for the first time today in a court filing by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, indicates that Plame was "covert" when her name became public in July 2003.

I can't even believe this is a news story.  I mean, actually, I can, but I don't want to.

The fact that this story is news which seems to prove one thing actually only proves an entirely different thing:  that the right wing Noise Machine is so loud and so omnipresent, and its ridiculous claims are so readily given credence by the "liberal" media that it routinely makes the most painfully self-evident facts of modern American life issues of controversy.

Let's review:

(CBS/AP) The Justice Department has launched a full-blown criminal investigation into who leaked the name of a CIA officer, and President Bush directed his White House staff on Tuesday to cooperate fully with the probe…

The investigation stems from a CIA complaint two months ago that one of its agent's identities had been disclosed.

That's an article from September of 2003.  There are many more like it.  They state the simple fact that the CIA made a complaint to the Justice Department that a covert operative's identity was intentionally disclosed.

True, the article goes on to say that the CIA makes about 50 of those complaints a year and few ever go beyond a preliminary investigation.  But common sense tells us that few go beyond preliminary investigations because there's no evidence that the revelation of a covert operatives identity was intentional.

You have to be about the world's biggest moron to think that few investigations ever go beyond preliminary investigations because the CIA doesn't know whether its operatives are covert or not.

If the CIA complains to the Justice Department that a covert operative's covert status has been intentionally compromised, the one thing you can be sure of is that the operative was covert. 

Why else would the CIA complain???  So that the Justice Department could investigate and helpfully inform the CIA whether their own agents are covert or not???

Dear "liberal media" and 28 percenters:  the CIA knows which agents it employs are covert.  The CIA makes them covert.

The second the CIA complained to the Justice Department the question of Valery Plame's covert status was definitively answered. 

If you weren't a moron or so emotionally wed to George W. Bush that you could comfortably divorce yourself from reality and disown a lifetime's worth of common sense and experience.

So, it's great that the question of Plame's status is redundantly answered.  But it's endlessly depressing that your "liberal" media thinks this is news.

That's A Wrap

Army?  Plan sucked.

Soldiers?  War sucks.

Americans?  New plan sucks.

Intelligence?  This thing sucks exactly in the way we told you it would suck.

Allies?  We don't think it sucks, but we still would like a twelve billion dollar fence between it and us...if you know what we mean when we say it doesn't suck...

Iraqis?  Occupation sucks.

There's basically no one, except our gubment, the three out of ten Americans who are crazy, and Thomas Friedman, who think this thing is worth spending one more dime or American life on.

Just what exactly will it take to get us out of Iraq?

Oh, that's right.  I forgot.

Presidents of the future.

Please, tell me again, why anyone thinks this "surge" is anything other Bush sacrificing a couple of Americans a day and nine billion dollars a month just so he can pass the buck onto the next guy who lives in the White House.

She'll Never Sleep Again

JERUSALEM (AP) -- A man clad only in underwear and a T-shirt wrestled a wild leopard to the floor and pinned it for 20 minutes after the cat leapt through a window of his home and hopped into bed with his sleeping family…

Du Mosch's pet cat was in the bed with him at the time, along with his young daughter who had been frightened by a mosquito in her own room.

Jesus Christ, the girl left her bedroom because of a mosquito and then a fucking leopard jumped on her!

I'm betting she grows up into kind of a "devil you know" type woman.

These Are The People Who Got Us Here, Explaining Why We're Not Going Anywhere

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Republican presidential candidate John McCain, comparing the U.S. effort in Iraq to military campaigns like the Normandy invasion, said Saturday the current plan is the only decent option.

The Arizona senator has criticized Democrats for failing to consider "Plan B" - or the consequences of withdrawing troops.

"I believe that General (Dwight) Eisenhower didn't have a Plan B at Normandy, and I don't think that General (Ulysses S.) Grant had a plan B when he decided to take Richmond," said McCain, referring to turning-point battles in World War II and the Civil War. "I know of a number of other options - the problem is, none of them are any good…"

While McCain again assailed Democrats of for wanting to "retreat and abandon the battlefield," he acknowledged that as he faces political peril as the war grows increasingly unpopular.

Reeeeally?  Dwight Eisenhower didn't have a Plan B to "retreat and abandon the battlefield" if the Normandy landings had turned out to be a total fiasco?  That's interesting!

It's just a shame he doesn't have any idea what he's straight-talking about:

On the eve of D-Day June 6, 1944: The night before the invasion of France, the Allied Supreme Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, wrote a note and tucked it into his pocket to release to the press the next day. He hoped that wouldn't be necessary.

"Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold, and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack [at Normandy] at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air and Navy did all that Bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone."

General Eisenhower never had to read his contingency statement, of course.

D'oh!

And could someone please explain to McCain The Warrior the subtle but important distinctions between a single battle, like Normandy, and an entire War and Occupation, like, say, Iraq?

A Little Bit Of Both, I Guess

I saw this over on tbogg's blog, and I left a comment, but since hardly anyone ever reads him, I thought I'd do him a favor and introduce him to the much wider audience of my blog.

Goodling initially refused to answer committee chairman John Conyers' first question -- about who drew up the list of prosecutors who were fired last year. Conyers responded by granting Goodling immunity, as approved earlier by the judge.

"You are obligated to answer each question completely and truthfully," Conyers, D-Mich., said sternly.

‘Did you break the law?’

Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., hammered Goodling on her decisions to hire prosecutors who favored Republicans.

“Do you believe they were illegal or legal?” Scott asked.

“I don’t believe I intended to commit a crime,” Goodling, a lawyer, answered.

“Did you break the law? Is it against the law to take those considerations into account?” Scott said.

“I believe I crossed the line, but I didn’t mean to,” she responded.

What's really astounding about that is that Monica Goodling is a lawyer.  And not just any lawyer.  She's one of the highest ranking officials in the Bush "Justice" Department and that department's liaison with the White House.

And when asked if she committed a crime, she basically says that she did but she didn't intend to.

And why is that astounding?

Intent is an element of every crime.  Someone wants to convict you of something, they have to prove intent.

But intent doesn't mean that you intended to commit a crime.  It just means that you intended to do what you did.

In other words, if you shoot a handgun out your window just for kicks and accidentally kill your neighbor, did you intend to kill your neighbor?  No.  Are you innocent of a crime involving killing your neighbor?  No.  Because you did intend to fire the handgun.  It wasn't an accident. 

The element of intent deals with whether you intended your actions--not whether you intended your actions to result in a crime.

This is shit they teach you in your first year of law school, people.

And here's one of the highest ranking officials in the Bush "Justice" Department and she doesn't understand the element of intent.  It is, frankly, the equivalent of being a carpenter and not knowing what a nail is.

Unless she's honestly trying to say that she accidentally tried to hire people based upon their political affiliations.  In which case, she just intended to commit the crime of lying to Congress under oath.

I really don't know what's more appalling about this administration and the modern Gee Oh Pee.  Is it their casual disregard for the Constitution and the United States Code?  Or is it that, at its highest levels, its chocked full of people who lack the requisite knowledge, competence, experience or skills to get even an entry level job in the departments, agencies, and organizations they run?

Christ, in some sort of meritocracy, half these people would show up for work every day wearing a polyester uniform and a paper hat. 

The other half would be dreaming about the day they got promoted to wear the paper hat.

Yuck

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate on Tuesday defeated a measure that would have eliminated a guest worker program from the bipartisan immigration legislation announced last week.

The amendment, introduced by North Dakota Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan, was rejected with a 64-31 vote.

Want to know what your Senate just voted for?  For the People of The Great United States?

Saudi Arabia has 25 per cent of the world's oil reserves, but the average Saudi woman has six children, and state funds have not kept pace with the population boom. Incomes have fallen by about two-thirds since the Eighties, and unemployment is up to 30 per cent. Saudi women and children beg at traffic lights, a sight unthinkable just a few years ago. Meanwhile, more than 4,000 princes live lavishly at state expense, and millions of foreign "guest workers" from Asia, often treated like servants, keep the country running by taking the jobs Saudis are unable or unwilling to do. Foreigners make up a staggering 90 per cent of all employees in the private sector.

It's even got the same name.

What is wrong with these people?

Don't get me wrong.  I'm not blaming the modern Republican party for this one.  Sure, George W. Bush, the Worst President Evah, first introduced this repugnant piece of garbage.  But its a Democratic Senate.  They should have sent this thing down the expressway to the scrap heap of history.

What exactly--disastrous wars, empire crippling deficits, nearly revolutionary reversals in representation--just what exactly will make it clear to the people who live and work in Washington, D.C. that the 99% of Americans who don't make a living out of working for the Federal government actually take all that bullshit in the Federalist papers, and the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution seriously?

I know.  That's not true.  But some of us do.  A lot of us do. 

And most of the people who do?  They show up on election day.

First Things First

WASHINGTON -President Bush, trying to defend his war strategy, declassified intelligence Tuesday asserting that Osama bin Laden ordered a top lieutenant in early 2005 to form a terrorist cell that would conduct attacks outside Iraq — and that the United States should be the top target.

Frances Fragos Townsend, the White House homeland security adviser, said the intelligence bolsters the Bush administration's contention that al-Qaida wants to use Iraq as a staging area to launch terrorist attacks around the world, including the United States.

I read this article like three times, and I'm still at a loss to understand how this awful bit of news somehow helps Bush.  Prior to Bush's ill and nearly non conceived invasion of Iraq, the only remotely connected al Qaeda in Iraq was in the no fly zone Kurdish territories, where Saddam couldn't go.  But we could.  But we didn't, because it might undermine the Bush administration's contention that we had to invade Iraq.

So instead of going after bin Laden or Zarqawi, we went after Saddam, who had nothing to do with September 11th.  And we ignored bin Laden.  Just like we passed on Zarqawi. 

And, after we took out Saddam, bin Laden, who Bush had said was so unimportant and marginalized that he didn't even think about him, was giving orders to Zarqawi, who Bush had declined to go after because it might undermine his case for invading Iraq, to attack the United States from Iraq.

I guess I'm missing something.  Because to me, rather than bolster Bush's position on Iraq, this declassified memo damns Bush's fiasco in Iraq in a horrific way.

It basically confirms that Bush's stupid war in Iraq has provided bin Laden with a new safe haven for terrorism and contradicts Bush's own assertion that bin Laden has been marginalized to the point where he's no longer a danger to the United States.

In January 2005, bin Laden tasked al-Qaida operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was in Iraq, to organize the cell, Townsend said. Al-Zarqawi, the former leader of al-Qaida's Iraq operations, was killed there in June 2006 by a U.S. airstrike.

"We know from the intelligence community that al-Zarqawi welcomed the tasking and claimed he already had some good proposals," Townsend said.

Everytime these clowns kill the new Number Three guy in al Qaeda they can't shut up about how it bolsters their contentions for the disastrous Iraq War.

Though, they continue to say that catching or killing the Number One guy in al Qaeda is really not that important.  So much so that the Preznit doesn't even think about it, anymore.

The endless Number Three guys?  Super important. 

The Number One guy?  Not so much.

bin Laden is in Pakistan.  This declassified report says that bin Laden, in Pakistan, is still giving orders to people to attack the United States.  Much like bin Laden gave orders to attack the United States on September 11th. 

He hasn't been marginalized.  He hasn't been smoked out of his cave.  He hasn't been brought back to the United States dead or alive.

He's still sitting around, free as a bird, making crapass videos, and thinking up ways to kill thousands of Americans, just like he did on September 11th.

Pull the six billion dollar a month United States military out of Iraq.  Let the Iraqis do what they're ultimately going to do, anyway. 

And go and catch or kill the murderer of 3000 Americans. 

And then we can deal with whatever disaster Bush has created in the Mid-East.

The Grand Old Plutocracy

My good dear friend, Elkit asks:

Damn, why can't [Clinton] run again?

And my other good friend, Mary, wonders:

Why can't we have Bill back?

First of all:  Elkit, good to see you back!  And hullo, Mary!

The answer to both your questions is, "The Big Dog can't run for President because of the 22nd Amendment, but there's no reason we can't have him back again. At all."

The 22nd Amendment doesn't say anything about Bill Clinton running for Vice President and, you know--wink, wink--inheriting the job.

As many times as he wants it.

Course, if that happened, Republicans would throw a national temper tantrum about Democrats cheating.  They'd probably immediately demand we amend the 22nd Amendment.

A funny little thing about the 22nd Amendment:  it was proposed by the 80th Congress--the original "do nothing" Congress--which was controlled in both the House and the Senate by Republicans.

They did it after four consecutive elections of FDR and fourteen years of Democratic presidents.

They wanted term limits for Presidents.

And, of course, Eisenhower opposed the Amendment(once he was president) and Reagan favored repealing the Amendment.

Nixon muttered something about it, but it was lost forever to history in the rotorwash of the helicopter whisking him away from his impeachment in his second term.

In 1994, just before the Republicans took back the House for the first time in forty years, Republicans proposed their Contract With America.

They wanted term limits for Congressmen.

Then Republicans won the House in 1994 and didn't think term limits for Congressmen were such a good idea until probably, like, 2006.

When they lost the House again.

In fact, from 2002, when Democrats lost both the House and the Senate, until 2006, Democrats had to endure endless almost childlike schoolyard taunts from Republicans about how Democrats were unhappy with the disasterous Bush years only because they didn't know how to win elections.

I'm sure if the Gee Oh Pee loses more seats in 2008, we'll start hearing, once again, about how essential term limits are to our democracy.

If they can't win, they change the rules.  If they think they can't win, they promise to change the rules.  And if they win, they either want to change the rules back or the renege on their promise to change the rules.

And what are The Rules?

The first two articles of the Constitution.

The part about democracy.

One Door Closes, Another Door Opens

WASHINGTON - Embattled World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz will resign at the end of June, he and the bank said late Thursday, ending his long fight to survive pressure for his ouster over the generous compensation he arranged for his girlfriend.

It's always saddening to see a man like Wolfowitz--whose almost inhuman capacity for gross incompetence, croneyism, and dishonesty rocketed him from the humble beginnings of making policy at the highest levels of our government to the dizzying heights of the Presidency of the World Bank--be persecuted, brought down and ruined for having the all too human flaws of being grossly incompetent, dishonest, and instinctively corrupt.

Shocking?  Maybe.  Enfuriating?  Of course!

The bastards destroyed him for the very things that once made them whisper his name in awe.

But what can you do?  That's life.  It's just one more sad variation of The Same Old Story.

And that story is...King Kong.

On the bright side, I know the perfect guy to replace him with!  In the same way that Bush restored honor and integrity to the White House, pride and strength to our military, humility to our foreign policy and fiscal responsibility to our government, this guy can certainly restore the meritocracy to the World Bank.

And the best part is, even now as I type, this guy is already looking for a job.

Better To Get Sucked Than To Totally Suck

Your ex-President, in his spare time:

A coalition of 16 of the world’s biggest cities, five banks, one former president and companies and groups that modernize aging buildings pledged today to invest billions of dollars to cut urban energy use and releases of greenhouse gases linked to global warming.

Under a plan developed through the William J. Clinton Foundation, participating banks would provide up to $1 billion each in loans that cities or private landlords would use to upgrade energy-hungry heating, cooling and lighting systems in older buildings.

The loans and interest would be paid back with savings accrued through reduced energy costs, organizers of the initiative said at a news conference in Manhattan. Typically, such upgrades can cut energy use and costs from 20 percent to 50 percent, they said.

He got a bunch of people together and came up with a practical and innovative solution to help solve an incredibly complex problem.

And just what did the CEO styled War Preznit get accomplished today?

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush on Tuesday chose Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, the Pentagon's director of operations and a former leader of U.S. military forces in the Middle East, to oversee the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He appointed another guy to do something he already has the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Secretary of Defense, the National Security Adviser, and the Commander of CentCom to do.

Yep, your "small gubment" Preznit added one more layer of "bureaucracy" to help cut through the red tape of Wershingtin's...bureaucracy.

Never mind that as Commander And Chief and self-proclaimed War Preznit, he's supposed to be overseeing the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Christ, Bill Clinton is retired and he still gets more done than George W. Bush.