Fitz

fitz!!!!!

FITZ!!!!!!!!

I like the steam that sorta, kinda threatens to envelope them… or is that smoke from something burning? nice.

the jaws of hell are opening around them and smoke is billowing from the fiery, fiery furnace …

steam - that’s the hot air billowing from the defense team. Or, it’s contrail from Fitz’s smokin’ hot case.

If I’m not mistaken, Walton wants to know which items from the indictment Fitzgerald intends to use in his case-in-chief against Libby, which will help with Walton deciding various discovery and other matters, presumably. If that’s so, it should be a very revealing hearing. Too bad we can’t listen in, and can’t really count on an accurate recounting of it until we get the transcript.

Christy,
I’m not sure where I read it, but I know I read it this week. There was an Order from Walton that laid out topics the Pat was supposed to come prepared to discuss. I was startled when I read it B/C is looked like a huge piece of work.

Maybe it was in the Order reconsidering his prior discovery Order? You know, the one that came out the day before yesterday? It may have been there.

I cannot wait for that transcript.

I hope it’s out today so that we can spend the weekend disecting it. If I did not have so much to do today, I would be tempted to get on the shuttle and go watch.

EPU’d : will the hearing be open to our crack D.C. reporters or is it closed to the public?

looseheadprop and Jeff — I know I read it somewhere this week as well, and I’m scrambling through all of my files on this to find where I read it. Dang — why don’t I have a color-tabbed, highlighted notebook with margin notes like Libby did on the Wilsons? *g*

If someone can go and watch the hearing today, I’ll be more than happy to post a re-cap. That would be fantastic. :)

Here it is. Mary posted it here the other day, and if I’m reading correctly, looks like Ryan is misreporting and this is actually even more significant: today’s hearing is the hearing on Libby’s third motion to compel discovery. As part of that, Walton wants what Fitzgerald is going to use from the indictment, which will help deal with Libby’s requests:

ORDER
On May 5, 2006, this Court will conduct a hearing to address the defendant’s Third
Motion to Compel Discovery Under Rule 16 and Brady. A substantial number of the defendant’s document requests, which are the subject of this motion, are predicated upon the defendant’s desire to respond to each factual allegation in the October 28, 2005 indictment. Accordingly, resolution of many of the issues in the defendant’s motion may depend, at least in part, on which factual allegations in the indictment the government intends to introduce evidence about in its case-in-chief.

Accordingly, it is hereby this 3rd day of May, 2006,

ORDERED that the government should, at the May 5, 2006 hearing, be prepared to specify which factual allegations contained in the indictment it intends to introduce evidence about in its case-in-chief.

Christy and lhp -

If it’s a separate order, why isn’t it posted on the D.C. District Court’s Web site? Judge Walton’s most recent order was posted there two days ago. Here’s a link to this year’s (so far) opinions and orders of the D.C. District Court:

http://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/op.....-2006.html

Christy - This is a side note at the moment, but since you mentioned Libby’s binder on Wilson, I’ve been meaning to mention that it looks to me from the LAT article that Libby didn’t put that binder together until April 2004, prompted by the publication of Wilson’s book. There is some obscurities with regard to chronology in that article - like, it looks like Libby put the binder together in April 2004, but it also looks like the vigorous efforts to respond to Wilson was shut down by Bartlett at the White House in April 2004 (which is not impossible, of course, but it sounds weird). In any case, it’s not at all clear that Libby was scrapbooking on Wilson in the more relevant spring 2003-through March 2004 period.

Wish I could get more interested in the ongoin Libby saga- but I suspect that we are just watching time being killed in preparation for a Clusterfuck pardon before the trial begins.

Re: George Allen.

“This snip from Wiki sure makes him sound like every right wing, privileged, racist Republican I have known.

(Snip)

Allen’s younger sister Jennifer Allen alleges in her memoir Fifth Quarter: The Scrimmage of a Football Coach’s Daughter that Allen visited sadistic attacks on his younger siblings during his childhood. She claims that Allen held her by her feet over Niagara Falls; struck her boyfriend in the head with a pool cue; threw his brother Bruce through a glass sliding door; tackled his brother Gregory, breaking his collarbone; and dragged Jennifer upstairs by her hair. In the book, she wrote, “George hoped someday to become a dentist . . . George said he saw dentistry as a perfect profession–getting paid to make people suffer.”

-GSD

OT, EPU’d, and running late for work. Sorry about the typos!

There seems to be a common thread throughout the comments; leaderless Dems, inability to focus message, paralyzed country, etc. but I’d like to focus on the “grown up†side of the argument.

I understand the importance of the 2006 elections, but I’m afraid if the Dems take both house, the movement to clean up corruption and slap back the unitary executive will wilt.

Majorities are needed to win elections, but as kateNC pointed out, by restructuring your local Democratic party you create the future candidate pool at the national level. This type of movement that forged leaders of the quality of Conyers, and God knows how many more leaders like that we could use.

You see, as a grown up, sometimes you sacrifice instant gratification for a larger payoff down the road. Like buying a used car instead of a new one so more funds are available for a child’s education, etc.

The next great president will seize on this theme. After all, it is truly patriotic. No one except for 9/11 families, military families, and the victims of Katrina have truly sacrificed because of the evilness/incompetence of the gov’t. The current Pres’ mouth is writing checks his ass can’t cash.

A great President will rally Americans to sacrifice, ie. higher taxes, higher prices, rip out corruption to pay down this horrible debt and finalize the Iraq situation.

I think Carville is all ready planning on Hilary Clinto presenting this argument.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12596919/

GSD– His wiki has been updated nicely…as I said in the previous thread….mwahahahaha. Marathon Man, anyone?

Fitz reported last night on his blog ( http://patrickjfitzgerald.blogspot.com )about his meetings today. I think the Note just reads it there and reports like MSNBC does to Raw Story.

Also, he has a nice bio on Judge Regiie Walton. I didn’t know he was a brother, cool!

Jeff at 15 — we’ve been trying to pinpoint on that as well, because you are correct that the LATimes article on its own isn’t all that clear. We know that Libby ordered a background dossier when Wilson’s criticisms first began to surface in Kristoff’s column and elsewhere — but the notebook reference only surfaced clearly in the weird LATimes article. It’s pretty clear he was keeping tabs on things for a while — given the level of staff attention that was required to continuously compile all the info. over that extended period of time, but the finger pointing about Libby publicly from people in the Administration trying to deflect only began surfacing during that initial indictment frenzy last October. I, for one, and looking forward to some more specifics on this when and if we get to trial.

Oh my– CNN international is playing McGovern vs Rummy with John Roberts breaking in to editorialize that Rummy did say those things in 2003. Happy Dance– the whole world can see that not all Americans are sheep!

Hello says:
May 5th, 2006 at 9:10 am

That isn’t his blog. Given the demands on his time, how could he possibly find the time to post on it?

OT– thanks Dead Eye:
>>>>>>

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer 14 minutes ago

MOSCOW - A Russian newspaper said Friday that Vice President Dick Cheney ‘s harsh criticism of Moscow‘s human rights record signaled the start of a new Cold War.

Churchill coined the “Iron Curtain” expression in his 1946 speech that warned of Soviet expansion.

“There are forums that create an impression … that they are convened … for the sake of uniting against someone,” Lavrov said.

http://www.localnewswatch.com/.....;id=184330

Wyo Nate @ 9:07 am (#18) - You’re right, I think, that if all we do is replace some Republican politicians with a few Democrats like the ones we already have far too many of that things won’t change all that much.

Some days, faced with the choice of Maria Cantwell or some guy who probably is the typical Republican these days, I wonder if maybe we shouldn’t just vote Cantwell out and try for something better next time. There’s not a whole lot of practical difference between Cantwell and her challenger, and I’m thinking that as long as we let people like her be the representatives of our point of view that our point of view won’t be well represented.

I’m not against “centrists” necessarily, I’m against people who won’t take a stand when they really should, and Cantwell has shown time and again that she won’t. I’m tired of watching people like this piss our government away.

Angie,

I think we are going to be hearing alot about the book by his sister.

Sounds like Allen would have done well in Abu Ghraib or on the Duke lacrosse team too.

Maybe when he and Bush get together they wax poetic about the good old days when Bush blow-up frogs and brand asses and Allen would abuse women and whack people with pool cues while wearing his confederate flag.

Also, Deadeye Dick Cheney in a stroke of strategic brilliance is opening a fourth front with his attacks on Russia…..

His best butt-boy Tony “The Poodle” Blair has just tanked in the polls. That leaves Cheney and Bush with the strong support of Israel and the Republic of Tonga.

I am sure that Putin will now be incentivized into working hard to end the US/Iran dispute.

http://reuters.myway.com/artic.....SA-DC.html

-GSD

I’ve kinda decided it might be better if we have to wait until maybe mid-summer or so for indictments in this case. Here’s why: The administration and its Congressional lackeys have been assaulting our gov’t and institutions on all fronts, and now they’re starting to get some serious pushback from all over the place. The Boston Globe story about the 750 signing statements (a usurpation of power if there ever was one) ran in the same week that the Cato Institute came out against Bush’s over-reaching, along with Stephen Colbert and Ray McGovern, etc etc. The Fornigate scandal is getting some traction, and Abramoff is also going to provide some rich-in-sleaze details. The average (i.e. non-Kool Aid swilling - although the Kool Aid has seeped into the groundwater, apparently) Republican voter is just now (Helllll-o!) beginning to get disgusted. In June they’re doing their “Divine Strake” test. That should seriously freak anyone half-way sane out. All this will have exposed beyond all doubt the thoroughgoing amorality and self-interest of these sanctimonious fucks.

If we then get the indictments, which will show the depth of the depravity of this crew in all its treasonous vileness, and with direct its implications for what they’re cooking up in Iran, and the “average” Republican voter will be about ready to join the lynch mob, if I read their personalities correctly - at once sheeplike yet with amazing capacities for hostility and violence (born out of their fear). Hopefully at this point the Democrats will start listening to Feingold and Dean and others with consciences and actually take a moral position without first focus-grouping it, and at the insistence of the vox populi take action that cleanses the corruption out of government root and branch. The change is coming, and we’re probably going to pay a heavy price when the reckoning comes. But as Lincoln suggested in his 2nd inaugural address, we’re all at least partly culpable, living our livestyles without much thought for the kinds of deals our government and our corporations have been making with the devil for generations. Here’s hoping for another “new birth of freedom” to come of all this.
(/raving pipedream)

Do you know anyone else that has a picture of him without a tie on?

http://patrickjfitzgerald.blog.....ad_04.html

Many say it is not his blog, some say it is his staff, others swear it is him. Who knows?

Stephen: the “free” site has actual opinions posted, but where there is just an order with no memorandum opinion, they are on the pay/pages (although PACER is cheap).

That is why the order is not on the site you linked.

This order was entered late on 5-3 and I have to wonder how they are going to handle it. I could understand the prosecutor, with short notice and other ongoing investigations, wanting to try to keep some of what he plans to put on in the Libby case still under wraps for now, plus keep as much flexibility as possible.

OTOH, at some point Libby has to know what he is looking at and the Judge is going to have to start make rulings on the subpoenas, so he needs to know that if he tells Libby he can’t get into something bc it is not material or not relevant,that it does not end up being an element in the evidence and case offered against him.

I think it could be interesting in that some of the issues like the covert status, etc. that are not necessary to prove perjury, etc. and which may be based upon classified docs that the prosecutor may not want to get into - but which might also go to motive etc. - well, you could see a case either way for wanting to offer or not offer proof on them at trial.

It doesn’t seem like Gov got much lead time, although I’m sure they have kicked this around the block and have their A plan, B plan etc. - it still is tough to have to lock in.

Hello — it is not his blog.

Somewhat off topic, although relevant - emptywheel’s most current post:

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.c.....l#comments

Christy,

Any way you can get rid of this fake fitz guy who keeps pimping his site here? I find it crass that he is trying to appropriate Fitz’s persona. Not the sort of thing that we encourage here.

Thanks for all that you do.

Mary at 29 — the scheduling for the hearing has disappeared from the court calendar as of a noon update. Am wondering if they’ve decided to reschedule on a short notice grounds for the attorneys involved — assuming the judge only gave notice at the 5/3 order and didn’t do a heads up call prior to that on a phone conference with the parties. Am trying to track down something more concrete than an online schedule change…

A Thousand Points of Blight.

http://english.aljazeera.net/N.....73FA78.htm

-GSD

Mary says:
May 5th, 2006 at 9:24 am

Thank you very much for that information!

From Wayne Madsen
May 5, 2006 — Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is meeting with Grand Jury and the presiding judge this morning in the CIA Leakgate matter. The media is now gathering at the US Court House in DC. WMR will be present awaiting any developments this afternoon.

GSD– Tony Blair fired Jack Straw and it does appear it was not only that Blair was flogged but that it was over… Iran.

>>>>>>
The problem for Mr Straw is that Tony Blair does not view Iran the same way. He regards the threat posed by Iran as the most serious in the world today, and is even more messianic on the issue than George Bush. That does not mean that a military strike will happen but Mr Blair, like Mr Bush, thinks it is a good idea to keep the option on the table, if only to keep Iran guessing.

Downing Street phoned the Foreign Office several times to ask Mr Straw to stop being so categoric in ruling out a military strike. And the White House also phoned Downing Street to ask why Mr Straw kept saying these things. And that was before Mr Straw dismissed as “nuts” the prospect of a tactical nuclear strike on Iran, an option that Mr Bush subsequently refused to remove from the table.

http://commentisfree.guardian......st_69.html
>>>>>>
Are you sure Tonga’s still with us? Puti-put’s eyes are not gonna be nearly as soulful toward W. at the G-8…

angie

Problem is, when people see that on CNN Internationl, they assume that it must be covered the same way on CNN Dumb and Stupid. So they don’t understand how a majority of people were stupid enough to support Bush last election.

Every time I go overseas I struggle to explain to people who the “freest” country in the world can have shitty shiity press.

this is how Fitzgerald announces his press conferences: http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/iln/.....y_1028.pdf

Christy - I just pulled the order the end of the day (3rd) from the Pacer site when I pulled up the opinion that was entered earlier that day. I think there had been a schedule hearing already on the discovery motions - rescheduled from an earlier date?? So I think they knew about the conf and the context (the motions) but spelling out that Gov had to be prepared to say which statements in the indictment it was definitely going to offer evidence on - that seemed very tight notice to me. I can unerstand that the Judge may have thought they should be ready for that anyway in the context of what needed to be addressed for the motions, but still, it puts more on the Prosecution than I would have expected for the motion hearing and on pretty short notice.

If this was a civil case with a less than two day notice re: an Order to present, the conf call on scheduling would sound like the final act in an Opera - drama, soaring notes, some latin, some Ancient Anglo Saxon, etc.

You’ve got a point, emptywheel. I know people here who won’t even watch the International edition cause it does not cover all the missing white women and american idol bs. They think it is boring cause they talk about all that other stuff in the world that is far away and has no impact on their everyday lives. Besides, it does not tickle their fancy. It is difficult to explain our press– I have had friends and family from overseas that come here and watch our news and are fascinated by the sheer entertainment value… ah, well; we have lots of work to do in so many areas.

BREAKING NEWS: Jeff Gannon is GAY!

Whew, that was a shocker. He is calling for “outing” of other anti-gay politicians. Maybe he has had a bit of an epiphany about the religious right wing that controls the Republicans that wants him re-educated of eliminated.

India to US. Thanks for the nukes, but about those troops? Smell ya later.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/.....320001.htm

*Pelosi calls for investigation of Rep. Jefferson from Louisiana. Bravo.

-GSD

Totally OT but this made me think of Christy’s post yesterday on preventative medicine.

From the NY Times:

Contraception use has declined strikingly over the last decade, particularly among poor women, making them more likely to get pregnant unintentionally and to have abortions, according to a report released yesterday by the Guttmacher Institute.

The decline appears to have slowed the reduction in the national abortion rate that began in the mid-1980’s.

“This is turning back the clock on all the gains women have made in recent decades,” Sharon L. Camp, the president of the institute, said.

Among sexually active women who were not trying to get pregnant, the percentage of those not using contraception increased to 11 percent from 7 percent from 1994 to 2001, the latest data available, according to numbers Guttmacher analyzed from the National Survey of Family Growth, a federal study.

The rise was more striking among women living below the poverty line: 14 percent were not using contraception in 2001, up from 8 percent in 1994. Better-off women — those who earned more than twice the poverty rate — were also less likely to use contraception: 10 percent did not use any in 2001, up from 7 percent in 1994.

The number of white women not using contraception increased to 9 percent from 7 percent; Hispanic women not using it increased to 12 percent from 9 percent; and black women not using it increased to 15 percent from 10 percent.

The rate of unintended pregnancies, which had declined 18 percent from the early 1980’s to the mid-1990’s, has leveled off since about 1994. That reflects a diverging trend: among poor women, the rate rose 29 percent, but among better-off women, it declined 20 percent.

angie says:
May 5th, 2006 at 9:29 am

Here’s a story about the British cabinet reshuffle:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_.....975938.stm

Please note the reference in the story to “rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic” and look at the sidebar providing details about who went where.

Well. via Raw Story:

Plame gets four book offers: Seven figures: Soon…

OT, but On the subject of hearings.

On Tuesday the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on Judicial Nominations. This is the Kavanaugh hearing that Specter has scheduled in order to try to avert a filibuster. The hearing will be at 2:00 in Dirksen 226, although they move these things around fairly often. You can find out more at capitolhearings.org, or judiciary.senate.gov.

I’ll try to go, and post a diary on it at dKos. Any other FDLrs planning to attend?

On another topic, Milbank did a chat at WaPo LiveOnline today (trancript available at washingtonpost.com) and I would have to say he defended himself reasonably well. Trust me, I’m no big Milbank fan, but I think that many of us would benefit from taking a look at his comments with an open mind. I don’t know about anybody else, but I have better things to do than turn into a left-wing version of a nut who runs around with nothing to say but “media bias, squaaack, media bias”.
peace,
jim

angie @ 9:37 am (#41) - I think you can sum up the explanation of our press for your foreign press as follows: our news organizations are advertising driven, and this is what their audience wants. Sad, but true.

There are many of us who’d prefer real news, but not enough, I think, to justify having our own news channel or our own national newspaper.

angie says:
May 5th, 2006 at 9:42 am

Please note which story is just beneath the one you mentioned. *g*

Of course, there is so much that she won’t be able to mention in whatever book(s) she writes…

Stephen Parrish– methinks they want Tony’s head. This was a major shuffle… he’s a lame duck with now clipped wings. Not much left to do but quack quietly into that good night.

tt #29:

Given that mainstream voters are so far in front of the Dems, focus groups likely would reveal a yearning for the Democratic Party to take a principled stand. The question in my mind is whether the party as an institution - and as represented by its “establishment” incumbents - is capable of doing so.

Stephen Parrish # 48– huh? Maybe RS changed the headlines– what was it??

angie says:
May 5th, 2006 at 9:55 am

Right below the headline about the book deal offers was the headline about Jeff Gannon.

jim preston @ 9:45 am (#46) - I’ve given up on trying to access those chat transcripts at WaPo. I always get diverted back to the main chat page.

Anyway, my beef with WaPo isn’t just that it’s biased, it’s that it doesn’t report the facts honestly, and that dishonesty seems to work in favor of the Bush Administration. Sorry if that sounds immature, but after a while you just start to notice a pattern. What’s more, if you check into the backgrounds of the people who write and edit the Post, you find many of them have ties to the Republican party, and some have spouses or close relatives who work for the Bush Administration as political appointees.

They can whine all they want, but if they don’t do their jobs properly they deserve to be called on it.

rwcole 16 –

Pardon, Schmardon — Scooter Libby is a minnow in a pool of sharks.

Looking at the Libby-might-skate angle is a big time downer —

The good news is — every hearing, every indictment, every mention in the press is a round of mortar fire raining down on the BushCo Bunker.

Ya know, I would give odds that Fitz is in Chicago. There is still stuff going on with the Ryan trial. The defense in the Ryan trial is trying to get a mistrial declared because one of the jurors allegedly brought in outside material. (Although, the person making this accusation is a juror who was dismissed because she lied on her questionairre and had an outstanding warrant.)

My bet - Fitz asked for a delay or this is being done by teleconference.

Breaking–W. to make a personnel announcement @ 145pm from Oval Office– is Rove out??????????

*g* Stephen– got it!

Re: Kavanaugh

From Indepenent Judiciary (and yes, they have a liberal bias, but they are pretty thorough)

http://www.independentjudiciar.....report.pdf

When first nominated in 2003, Kavanaugh had been a lawyer for less than thirteen years and had little courtroom or litigation experience. Of the 54 judges appointed to the D.C. Circuit since Congress created it in 1893, only one, Kavanaugh’s mentor Kenneth Starr, had fewer years of experience than Kavanaugh. Even now that Kavanaugh has been a lawyer for more than fourteen years—albeit in a non-legal position since his nomination—only three D.C. Circuit judges had less experience at the time of
their appointments: Starr, failed Supreme Court nominee Douglas Ginsburg, and turn-of-the century jurist Charles Henry Robb.

Remember the Senate Judiciary Committee Dems having their computer files hacked earlier?

Questions also remain regarding whether the White House Counsel’s office received
copies of memos stolen from the computers of Democrat Senate Judiciary Committee staff by Republican staffers.27 Citizens for Responsibility filed a Freedom of Information Act request to find out whether either the Department of Justice or the White House had received copies of the documents.28 When asked about it in written questions, Kavanaugh stated that “[b]efore there was a public revelation of this matter in late 2003, I was not aware nor did I suspect that information related to the Senate’s judicial confirmations process had been obtained from Democratic computer files. I was informed that I was not a target or subject of the investigation into this matter.â€29 But Kavanaugh declined to answer 31 written questions asking whether he had information that would have made a reasonable person suspect that he was privy to confidential information from Democrats.

The fact that he was in with White House counsel while wiretapping, torture, detainee, etc. policies were being formulated coupled with his lack of experience as anything but a partisan (Starr pupil) makes me uncomfortable with him. He’s youngish and it’s already a slanted Circuit and it’s a lifetime appointment to one of our most important courts.

OTOH - we already have the precedents set that we don’t really worry too much about things like the 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th or even 1st amendments anymore - so does it really matter who you get when DOJ has the deck pre-stacked to evade the Constitution like dead skunk in the road?

Re: my last

To underscore my point about the whining, which often takes the form of insulting the readers after making strawmen of their arguments, here’s a bit of the Milbank chat from today that was posted on the WaPo blog, which some of us have been using lately to critique the Post to their faces:

Baton Rouge, La.:
We’re attacking the Washington press corps because we don’t think you’ve been doing your jobs. The Washington press corps was complicit in the run up to the war in Iraq and has never held Bush accountable for anything. It took Colbert to do the job for you.

Dana Milbank: Oh, dear. Baton Rouge really needs to get a life. Can somebody get Baton Rouge a life? Rochester? Milwaukee? Anybody?

Does this strike anyone here as how an adult handles a criticism? Please, speak up. I’m sure Dana would appreciate your support.

btw– cspan1 is carrying Snootie’s last briefing.

angie says:
May 5th, 2006 at 10:02 am

Where did you see the breaking news??

CNN via Scott’s last briefing.

Question about Tony Blair and the firing of Straw. There was just a bit (from CNN International natch) about Blair losing many seats in a recent election and that he is in much trouble. If Blair holds an election, will the tory party win? The Tory party is conservative, and they will align even more closely (if possible) with Bush than Blair did.

I just don’t see how a change of leadership in England from Labor to Tory can help hold American leadership in check. Am I missing something?

Maybe Dana would like to give Baton Rouge one of the lives we’ve taken in Iraq?

Mary @ 10:04 am (#57) OTOH - we already have the precedents set that we don’t really worry too much about things like the 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th or even 1st amendments anymore - so does it really matter who you get when DOJ has the deck pre-stacked to evade the Constitution like dead skunk in the road?

But, but, doesn’t the Second Amendment garauntee all the others? What’s happening? I’m so confused.

Oh, wait, the seven day waiting period destroyed it. I’m better now. For a moment, I thought maybe all those nice folks at the gun shows were lying to me.
</SARCASM>

Anyway, this Kavanaugh sounds like a typical Bush appointee - long on political correctness (in the old Stalinist sense) short on skills.

28: I like to think the “faux” PJF blog is a brilliant PR move with intent to keep off certain people off-balance. I also have a feeling that it is a shared effort with more than one person posting to it. After following it for several months, I think that at least one of the posters has some inside knowledge from the SP’s office.

Even if that is not so, I enjoy the sly humor of it.

Cannot believe anyone here is dumb enough to think that’s actually Fitz’s blog.

Seriously, seriously disappointed.

Christy, in #30 that should be…

“Hello, McFly - it is not his blog.”

Mary @ 10:10 am (#63) - Maybe one of the LA National Guard’s, for instance (scroll down to “Babin”).

Bet John Snow at Treasury gets the boot today.

Cujo 58

wow, that’s some sad shit

Aw, come on, Jim J! You mean you didn’t know that “Little Green Footballs” is a black humor site run by Josh Marshall and Kos?

Just want to clarify my # 56 — it was purely my hopeful speculation that it’ll be rover. Maybe it’s spring fever and being Friday afternoon newsdump time and Fitz being in D.C.

#50 al-Scooter-

That the establishment Dems, aside from Feingold, Dean, and a very few others _are_ incapable of taking a principled stand was part of my point, obviously ill-stated since I was kind of venting (ranting?). I guess I was hoping that when the rest of them see where the wind really lies they’ll tack over to get behind Feingold et al. Right now Hilary etc think talk about throwing the military around = strength in the mind of the voter. I’m hoping integrity and principle become the new black for them. Not that they’ll have any, but if they’re scurrying to look like they do, something meaningful might inadvertantly get done.

RawStory.org headline:

CNN: Bush to make personnel announcement at 1:45 ET…

Bush is making the announcement?

Hmmmmmmm……………..

GrandmaJ says:
May 5th, 2006 at 10:10 am

The seats Labour lost were in local elections, according to what I have heard on the radio or have read online. One of the best Web sites I can think of for details about those local elections is the BBC’s Web site.

Cujo359,

I’m not going to argue with you about “The Washington Post” as if it is a single individual. I raised as big a stink as anyone in the country about the absurd “Good Leak” editorial, for example, and like I said, I am no big Milbank fan. Your choice of a quote from Milbank is disingenuous at best. He got a little snarky? I sure hope we can take it!! He makes some reasonable point to defend himself. The first one was that his “not terribly funny” thing was intended to be in Colbert’s defense and was misinterpreted by the blogosphere. Fair or not? He also shows how he was a reporter who did point out some of the falsehoods that Bush was peddling prior to the Iraq invasion, so I think he has a legitimate complaint about being lumped in with the “lapdogs who failed to question the runup to war”. Like I said earlier, I think that he has something worthwhile to say in his responses today, although not in the sentence that you quoted. As they said at Woodstock, “it’s your trip, so you can take that with as many grains of salt as you wish.”
peace,
jim

Mary @ 10:10 am (#63) - Better yet, Dana can give back this one, from that same CNN list

Name: 1st Lt. Christopher W. Barnett
Age: 32
Unit: Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 156th Armor Regiment, 256th Brigade Combat Team, Louisiana Army National Guard
Home: Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Details: Killed when a roadside bomb detonated near his military vehicle in Baghdad, Iraq, on December 23, 2004

Milbank outta be ever so ashamed; callous and stupid response.

Oops - Bush personnel announcement already posted by others up above. Sorry - I was just SO excited! Fingers crossed. And toes. And…well, let’s just forget the rest!

http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/

Mary, “Maybe Dana would like to give Baton Rouge one of the lives we’ve taken in Iraq?” That scared me for a second, thinking you were referring to me! LOL at myself.

angie says:
May 5th, 2006 at 10:21 am

I was putting all that together - what you mentioned in your post - and arriving at much the same conclusion. Let’s add one more item: what is the significance of Mr. Bush making the 1:45 announcement about personnel changes? Wouldn’t Josh Bolten normally make that announcement? Or could the White House press secretary make it?

Let’s stay tuned…

Shit. I’ve got a Dr.’s appointment at 11:30 EST. Oh well, I’ll just tell them whatever they want to hear and get the hell out of there FAST!

OT –Salon is giving away a copy of Eric Boehlert’s book, Lapdogs, with a subscription renewal — it’s enough to get me to sign up again!

Eric Boehlert in today’s Altercation:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12577601/#060505

As for L’Affair Colbert (Fox News, I own the copyright on that term), plenty has already been said this week about the comedian’s clever digs, as well as the MSM’s by now patented, tentative response. (Note that the same Beltway crowd that last year was telling us the Downing Street Memo was not news, is the same crowd insisting Colbert was not funny.) What I think is interesting is that none of this should have come as a surprise. Meaning, the press has always advertised its strongest sycophantic urges at these silly, springtime Beltway ritual dinners. Remember last year when, in an obviously scripted routine, First Lady Laura Bush ‘interrupted’ W. and told some funny jokes? The MSM went bonkers with delight, going on and on (literally for days) about how she’d stolen the show, helped humanize the president, blah, blah, blah. (USA Today posted Laura’s entire routine; that’s how newsworthy it was.)

But even more revealing were the events that transpired during the spring of 2004 at the annual Radio and Television Correspondents Association dinner, where tradition held, that Bush was supposed to poke at himself. He did, by mocking his rationale for invading Iraq, where U.S. soldiers were dying on a daily basis. Bush—and the press—thought it was hysterical.

Cujo 68 - That site is very hard to look at. You forget how many people 2400 is and so many 19, 20, 22, 24.

We’ve paid a very high price already for GWB’s whims and “gut” feelings.

Double shit. I meant 1:30 ET.

This treason and lying and illegal war and countless lives ended/ruined and constitution destroyed shit is fun y’all, but haven’t you heard - a Kennedy hit a security barrier in his car!

C’mon!

hello (#28):

“some say it is his staff. others swear it is him. who knows?”

a bigger pile of B.S. could not be found in victoria toensing’s boudoir.

there isn’t anything about that site and it’s writer that is consistent either with our hero or the actions and self discipline of his staff.

Bush wouldn’t jetttison Rove without an indictment and a crowbar. It’s a Treasury Sec change.

Did Kennedy shoot an old guy in the face while he was drunk?

We always have Cute Overload-worthy duck coolness going on every year at the Library of Congress too.

clueless– you’re funny! :)

Today is Scottie’s last press briefing. Wouldn’t it be hilarious if he “got” to announce Rove’s resignation due to impending indictment!

mc 90 - yes! AND ATE HIM!!!!

AND THEN SOLD HIS CHILDREN INTO SEXUAL SLAVERY!!!

and then SAID SOMETHING LIBERAL!!!

I believe, I still believe, I want to believe, need to believe, believe I believe in Fitz, the grand prosecutor, the maker of Libby’s demise. I believe Fitz is thorough and through it all, he sure do know how to take his time.
When, inthenameagawd, is the shit gonna fly? The indictments come down? The heads roll?
I don’t mean to be mean, but the suspense is goading me!

Ducks - a silent protest by Mother Nature herself against the Rove led EvilBushCorp.’s desecration of the environment?

Haha. James Wolcott.

Heaven and Hell are the good cop/bad cop headquarters of a religious theology that people cleave to in order to believe that earthly injustices are rectified in the hereafter–that the dictator who dies peacefully in his sleep gets his karmic payback in the infernal depths. The truth is that I don’t entertain any great visions of Rumsfeld, Cheney, Bush, Richard Perle, and the rest suffering medieval torment; it would be bad faith of me to place them in a Hell I don’t believe in, and goes against the spirit of the Tao. I’d be quite happy to settle for the fantasy-come-true of the architects of the Iraq war being arrested, convicted, and warehoused in a secure prison; like Moussaoui.

#88 - I respect your opinion, just don’t pop a vein in your forehead over it, but really - who knows - stranger things happen in DC ;)

back to work - see y’all lata

vox clamantis 95 –

Next Week; May 11th –

Mary @ 10:27 am (#85) - Working around soldiers, as I used to do, it’s really difficult to deal with sometimes. Most of them are young enough to be my children, and are only a little older than my nieces and my cousins’ kids. That’s why I wrote in the last thread that I find it hard to believe that anyone would expend these lives for the sake of pride or political gain. Yet, I suspect, that’s exactly what’s happening.

maybe Rove got his target letter and the Preznit gots to fire him at 1:45pm today? un Fitzo de Mayo verdadero!

Was just checking out the other threads and there is a new poster and a heckuva post on the previous thread from a gent named Ralph # 135. Christy and Jane and mamayaga are all praised to the skies! It’s quite a piece– talk about delurking!

OT - Patrick Kennedy to hold presser at 3:00 PM eastern

Has anybody got a TV with CNN? Supposedly Bush is announcing a personnel change as we speak. Snow? Rove? Rummy? Himself? Appointing Reddhedd as attorney general?

Porter Goss Resigning!!

it Goss thats going !!!! CNN reports!!!!!!