Rumsfeld and Keller in China - helps them dodge pesky questions I suppose.

Actually, Secretary Rumsfeld was asking for reassurances from the Chinese on their missle buildup. I wonder if they gave a meaningless but long response or perhaps explained how they were concerned with our aggressive policies or maybe just told him to go fuck himself?

Not to break up the news about the indictments but...

Maybe they are going to all get indicted so no one will pay attention to stories like this. This is about testimony about FEMAs activities, or lack thereof in Gulf when Katrina was there. It makes it seem even worse than it had seemed before. And if I had to guess, the more we learn the worse it will look.

I have a thought though about how Michael Brown can try to rebuild his resume in the realm of disaster management (as opposed to horse shows). When I arrived at my normal Starbucks this morning there was a sign that said the expresso bar wasn't working so there would be no expresso drinks or steamed milk ALL DAY. I didn't know this was possible, but it happened, so hell, it must be. And there is the opening for Michael Brown. He can apply for a job with Starbucks as the emergency expresso machine fixer. When one goes out he can jet to it and arrange for it to be repaired as soon as possible to keep the flow of tasty hot beverages uninterrupted. Yea, I know it isn't quite like managing FEMA but you have to start somewhere. See how he does keeping the lattes rolling out before he gets put in charge of something again where if he screws up people die.

Jeb Bush Asks About Hurrican Wilma

Jeb Bush has said that people in his state must be asking "Why us?" For most people, if they said that I would assume they were asking a rhetorical question. However, given Jeb's reportedly very religious nature the question might a real one.

In that case one possible answer would be, "Have you ever heard of "Shock and Awe""?

Plamegate - it isn't misnamed

So I have been following this and have put together the pieces more or less. So this is what I think happened. First, let's start with Bob Novak. Bob why haven't we heard more from him? Well, I think it is because at the first frown from Fitzgerald he was on his belly begging for mercy and telling all he knew. This led to his source. Probably John Hannah.

So how would he respond. If he tells up the ladder he can save himself but lose all his support. If he keeps quiet he does what, 18 months and then has a wonderful high-paying and cushy job waiting for him at Halliburton. I figured from what was going on that he must have talked. That was why the investigation was going the way it was, and the rumors of what was going on became so prevasive. So why would he talk?

Well, here is one possible reason. Maybe he wasn't ready to do any time for his bosses. On the other hand maybe it was something else. Remember when the FBI raided Chalabi's INC offices a while back? The leaks were that they were looking for information about who was giving classified information to the INC that was ultimately migrating from Baghdad to Tehran. Well, according to todays reports, the main contact between the INC and the administration was Hannah. Hannah was in contact with various people including Feith, whose name I believe came up at the time of the INC raid.

Now all of a sudden it maybe isn't 18 months and then Halliburton's VP for Sales in Bermuda if he keeps quiet. Giving classified information to a foreign national who then passes it on to the intelligence services of states that are declared by us to be our enemies is a lot more serious than letting slip the name of one covert agent to an American reporter. Now maybe it is life for espionage? That would have to be a rather heavier thumb of the balance of talking or not.

In addition this opened the larger conspiracy to Fitzgerald. The conspiracy to take information from Chalabi and people in our government and plant it in the media with the kind help of Dame Judith and Pravda on the Hudson. All the news that Chalabi and the WHIGs want to print. But if someone attacks it, someone from the inside, then all of the people involved in spreading the false information to build up the war are all of a sudden finding themselves with a vested interest to take down those who would discredit the information.

The beauty of the whole thing, from a truth is beauty perspective, is that the Plame leak is inescapably linked to the "sexed up" information made to support the war in the first place. It can be used to bring in everything from the fake yellowcake information and the incorrect aluminum tube information to the "Downing Street Memo" All in one neat, but large and slimy package.

Despite ongoing efforts to convince people things are going well, people know they aren't

The president's approval rating continues to fall. This is from a few days ago. I flagged the article but am just coming back to it now. But this really is a continuing, developing story that is the basis for much of what we are seeing in the political news and in how the political news is reported.

More and more people have become aware that the perception they have had about the direction the country was headed, and perhaps in particular the success of the war on terror, was based on an administration public relations construct rather than on reality. That realization is behind the falling poll numbers. It is also behind the story about the fake teleconference that Bush had with some troops in Iraq that was in the news in the past week and and which I posted about a few days ago. This story would not have been reported had the presidents approval rating been at 60%.

But now it is becoming not only acceptable, but perhaps even fashionable, for the media to turn on the administration. We can now even see media personalities who are not exactly known as critically thinking, fact finding journalists (Matt Lauer pops to mind) asking The Leader tough questions. This trend can't bode well for the administration, but it is also important for us to realize what it shows us about the media.

The administration had their attempt to manufacture news with the teleconferecne called out last week most of the mainstream media. But this type thing has been standard operating procedure for the adminstration since before they were an adminstration. The trip to Iraq for serving turkey and the bogus reports of near detection by a British Airways plane to add suspense to the trip come to mind as a classic example. But only bits of this were reported by some of the media as being staged. No one really put the whole things together and called it for what is was, a complete media stunt. And most of the country were blissfully unaware any of it was staged.

So now the mainstream media is making some efforts to actually report facts rather than to be mindless sycophants of the administration. But make no mistake, up until very recently, most of the media have been active collaborators in the adminstrations efforts to control public opinion by the distortion of facts regarding the results of their policies. The adminstration's public relations construct of an effective policy in the war on terror would not have been possible without an complacent media community, unwilling or unable to report the objective facts rather than the politically generated "fact system" created by the administration to bolster their political support.

The old adage, "better late than never", is still true. But it is of little comfort that the media is only starting, and let's emphasize starting here, to do their job at this point in time. Thousands of our troops have died in Iraq and the good-will and support received after September 11 from around the world has not been used to further the war on terror but rather squandered by invading the wrong country. We could have used some help from the media in critically analysing our activities before that happened. Instead we got public relations and cheerleading from them. It's a god damn shame.

What is interesting about this story isn't that it happened.

The media has covered fairly extensively that the Bush telemeeting with soldiers in Iraq was staged.. The fact that the event was staged isn't a surprise to anyone that has been paying attention for the last five plus years. They are always staging these events.

The news is that the media covered the fact that it was staged. They have stood by for years and acted as collaborators in the administration`s manipulations of public opinion. Now they all of a sudden take an interest in reality. Better late than never I suppose.

I know I said we should wait before deciding on Miers, but......

The Washington Post has a story about the duties of the nominee at the White House.. Apparently one of those duties was approving the White House Christmas cards. Now, not that this isn't important, but it is a bit odd soundind.

Then there is this little twist.. It has been alledged that Ms. Miers whacked a proposed Christmas card for being too Christian. I have to say that I really love that little story. Bill O`Reilly needs to focus more on this than fantasy war crimes by American troops in WWII. Billy Boy had a great gig going last year about Macys and Christmas. Totally false but what the hell. In this case it might even be true. Think what Billy Boy can do.

Senator Frist, the cats are here again; with a subpoena.

Oh me oh my, the kitties are meowing with joy! Kitty Mengele has gotten a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission. Bad Senator Fristy, bad! Maybe by "blind trust" it meant that he thought others would be blind to the fact that it wasn't really blind after all. Just sort of in the dark as to the arrangements. But ah, Senator Fristy, cats, and the SEC it would seem, can see very well in the dark.

Bill O'Reilly and tales from "The Twilight Zone"- Part II

Another tear in the fabric of history courtesy of Falafel Bill. This one was picked up by Media Matters. Here is what Billy Boy said:

"My people came from County Cavan in Ireland. All right? And the British Crown marched in there with their henchman, Oliver Cromwell, and they seized all of my ancestors' lands, everything. And they threw them into slavery, pretty much indentured servitude on the land. And then the land collapsed, all right? And everybody was starving in Ireland. They had to leave the country, just as Africans had to leave -- African-Americans had to leave Africa and come over on a boat and try to make in the New World with nothing. Nothing. And succeeded, succeeded. As did Italians, as did -- and I'll submit to you, African-Americans are succeeding as well. So all of these things can be overcome I think, [caller]. Go ahead."

Now media matters and many others focused on the point that Billy Boy seemed to be saying, well, that isn't quite right, he did say that coming over in chains on a slave ship and then living for generations as slaves was the same as immigrating to the US. I certainly would't want to criticize anyone for focusing on that little nugget. But since people are already smacking Billy Boy around over that, let's look at the rest of what he said.

In particular the sentence, "And the British Crown marched in there with their henchman, Oliver Cromwell..."

It probably came as news to the British monarch that Oliver Cromwell was carrying out their work in Ireland. On second thought maybe it wasn't of much concern to the king, Charles I. The reason being that by the time Cromwell went to Ireland on his military campaign he had already signed an order to remove not just the crown, but rather the whole of Charles I's head. And the order had been, for lack of a better word, executed. So here according to Bill, with again an able assist from Rod Serling, the dead king is ordering Cromwell around Ireland on his military campaign. At least in one dimension.

In our dimension, Cromwell was not only not a "henchman" of the "British Crown" he went to Ireland to defeat royalists loyal to the monarchy. In fact, Cromwell so endeared himself to the "Crown" that after Cromwell's death, when the monarch regained power, the new king had his "henchman" dug up from his grave and posthumously executed: hung drawn and quartered with his head put on top of a spike. I would say that is more than a bit indicative that the "Crown" was not favorably disposed towards their "henchman", Cromwell. But again, that is in our dimension.

What about in Bill's dimension? I suppose we can only hazard a guess. On the other hand, I'm not sure I can handle the neural processes that come up with some of this stuff.

Bill O'Reilly and tales from "The Twilight Zone"- Part I

Take a look at this little tidbit from falafel Bill. Bill and his guest, General Wesley Clarke, were discussing the court order to release additional photos of US prisoner abuse from Iraq. Clarke said that it is important to follow abuse up the chain of command as far as it goes and prosecute or otherwise deal with it appropriately according to the law. Billy Boy agreed with this but said these type of abuses always happen in war. Clarke acknowledged that they happened but said that whenever they were done by the US military they have been prosecuted. Billy Boy argued about My Lai but Clarke pointed out that there had been prosecutions in that case. Then Billy Boy let out this screech of a brain fart:

"General! You need to look at the Malmedy massacre in World War Two, and the 82nd Airborne who did it!"


Cue Rod Serling......

Okay, now those who would defend O'Reilly would say that those who criticize him for saying things that arent true are picky. That they focus on minor details that dont really change the point. Um, seriously???

In this case, our Bill, looking out for all of us, has confused the US Army's 82nd Airborne division with the German Waffen SS 1st Panzer Division (aka Adolf Hitler Division). Nope. Not close. Not a detail. No, No, No!

Really, what the hell is this about? This isnt like saying it happened on December 18, 1944 and it was really on the 16th. In most contexts that would be a minor error (although not in all). But he not only got the division wrong, he not only got the type division wrong, he got the whole damn country of the division wrong. I really find it hard to imagine how anyone could get that "confused". And when I am thinking of "confused" I don't mean "I am speaking to you from another dimension, where time and space flow differently than in our own" nor do I mean "I just making stuff up when I feel like it"

I Hate to Post Something and Not Try to be Funny

But I'm going to make an exception and do it here. The subject is the recent nomination for the Supreme Court. There has been a pretty incredible negative reaction from the right on this nomination. Much of it has centered on the nominees education and her experience. Much of the rest has centered on the president`s reasons for picking her; and these have said he did it out of weakness.

But perhaps there is another reason he picked her, and you have no idea how much it pains me to say this, maybe he thought that she would add a missing dimension to the court, would be a good judge herself and make the court better by her presence.

Much of the criticism of her is nothing but "credentialism" in my opinion. Other, more reasoned criticism claims she will not be able to write scholarly opinions. I'm not sure that any of us know if that is true. I am positive that it won't necessarily prevent her from being a great judge.

Being a great judge, or a great anything, isn't a simple thing. It doesn't have clear objective parameters we can use to predict it. If it did, they would be used. People lacking in one dimension can compensate in another. Likewise, people very strong in one way can ignore other aspects of their role and fail.

We will know a lot more after her confirmation hearings. Hopefully we will know enough that we can be comfortable with whatever decision comes from the senate. What I find appaling is that I suspect many of the people whining the loudest now are people who were whining the loudest about the Democrats not being willing to give Judge Roberts a chance to testify before criticizing him. Now they are doing exactly the same thing themselves.

Some of the things they are saying are positively shocking. And some of the people should perhaps read and think about what they writing. They should know better. Can you hear me George Will?

Please tell the puppets to change the rules back

Okay, they changed the rules back on the constitutional vote in Iraq (see original story below). Ah, I long for the good old days when we weren't micromanaging our puppet governments. Well, when we weren't micromanaging them as much.

Bennett Isn't the Story - This is: Part II

Yes, yet another story from a couple days ago. This one about Iraq. It seems that they have changed requirements to reject the Iraqi constitution in order to make it a lot more difficult to do so. The Sunnis are really angry about it and making accusations.

Maybe these Iraqi guys can come to Florida and Ohio. They seem to have the necessary skill sets to manage elections in those states.

Bennett Isn't the Story - This is: Part I

Okay, I know this story is from a few days ago but I'm a but behind. The story says that despite the fact that Saudi Arabia is one of the very worst nations in terms of freedom of religion we are going to suepend any sanctions against them. Right. And I paid $3.79 for premium a couple weeks ago. And we are spreading democracy and freedom the world over. What a bunch of assclowns are "running" the show. Or is it "ruining" the show.

Not only is Saudi Arabia one of the least democratic, least free governments in the world, they have, according to U.S. News and World Reports been one of if not the primary financial supporter of extremist Islamic groups around the world for near as long as anyone can remember.

Like I said, stop talking about Bublin' Bill Bennett, this story is one of many that is a lot more important.

We don't need no stinkin troop cutbacks.

Ooops. Maybe that isn't exactly what he meant. This from a couple of days ago. Im sure this has no relation to the fact that it is the biggest shortfall for Army recruiting since 1979 (see story below). Or maybe the recruiting numbers are sort of like stock market prices. The market had factored this in even before the announcement.