Patriot Roll-call
I have more complex cooking than usual on my mind tonight as a result of relatively frenetic news threads. Not for the word-phobic.
I work on the 13th floor of my building. No mas - I'm not particularly superstitious. I'm not immune though. For example, I am wary of a schadenfreude epidemic given all the hopeful signs available if one looks beyond the corporate monopoly-media for news. True American patriots have good reason to be cautiously upbeat right now given all the potential for indictments and other difficulties for the genocide-mongers and war criminals currently occupying the white house thanks to supreme court criminality and widespread and repeated voter fraud. This is a good time to be upbeat but not smug. Cornered venomous creatures (yes you, Karl) are unpredictable, especially when a pattern of feeling themselves to be above the law (and getting away with it) is well-established.
While there are multiple minefields out there for the thugs desperately holding on to power, and appropriately so given the awe-inspiring scope of illegality/corruption, Constitution-destruction, and incompetence that Barbara Bush et al have bequeathed us, it is the Plame episode that is the primary focus here tonight. Rumor has it that even the Wall Street Journal will be fielding an interesting article tomorrow.
Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo has it thusly:
In any case, an article (sub.req.) in tomorrow's Wall Street Journal contains this pleasant sounding sentence: "Mr. Fitzgerald's pursuit now suggests he might be investigating not a narrow case on the leaking of the agent's name, but perhaps a broader conspiracy."
And then further down there's this: "Lawyers familiar with the investigation believe that at least part of the outcome likely hangs on the inner workings of what has been dubbed the White House Iraq Group ["WHIG" -ed]. Formed in August 2002, the group, which included Messrs. Rove and Libby, worked on setting strategy for selling the war in Iraq to the public in the months leading up to the March 2003 invasion. The group likely would have played a significant role in responding to Mr. Wilson's claims."
First of all, it did play a big role. That's where the push back came from.
If this description is accurate, it must have many folks at the White House in cold sweats.
If Karl Rove goes down in this investigation it'll be a disaster for the president, both in terms of the damage occasioned by such a high-level White House indictment and, frankly, because he needs the guy like most of us need legs.
But this WHIG thing is a whole 'nother level of hurt.
This group was the organizational team, the core group behind all the shameless crap that went down in the lead up to the Iraq war -- the lies about the cooked up Niger story, everything. If Fitzgerald has lassoed this operation into a criminal conspiracy, the veil of protective secrecy in which the whole operation is still shrouded will be pulled back. Depositions and sworn statements in on-going investigations have a way of doing that. Ask Bill Clinton. Every key person in the White House will be touched by it. And all sorts of ugly tales could spill out.
Vital musical interlude/excerpt:
Some of them were angry
At the way the earth was abused
By the men who learned how to forge her beauty into power
And they struggled to protect her from them
Only to be confused
By the magnitude of her fury in the final hour
And when the sand was gone and the time arrived
In the naked dawn only a few survived
And in attempts to understand a thing so simple and so huge
Believed that they were meant to live after the deluge
(Jackson Browne, "Before the Deluge")
I strongly recommend you pull out the source disk "Late for the Sky" and give it a listen. For that matter when did you last listen to "Lives in the Balance"? Mr. Browne has always made terrific music, and his harmonious sounds are often uncannily timely. He's been watching our back and taking notes on US imperialism from way back. Excerpts from a few "Lives in the Balance" tunes:
For America
As if freedom was a question of might
As if loyalty was black and white
You hear people say it all the time-
"My country wrong or right"
I want to know what that's got to do
With what it takes to find out what's true
With everyone from the President on down
Trying to keep it from you
Soldier of Plenty
You measure peace with guns
Progress in mega-tons
Who's left when the war is won?
Soldier of misfortune--
Soldier of an angry call
Soldier on foreign soil
I'm not here to fight your war
I know what you're fighting for
Ah boy boy
This world is not your toy
This world is, this world is
Long on hunger
Short on joy
How much longer
You gonna keep the world hungry boy?
Lives in the Balance
I've been waiting for something to happen
For a week or a month or a year
With the blood in the ink of the headlines
And the sound of the crowd in my ear
You might ask what it takes to remember
When you know that you've seen it before
Where a government lies to a people
And a country is drifting to war
And there's a shadow on the faces
Of the men who send the guns
To the wars that are fought in places
Where their business interest runs
That Deluge clip is here because I believe that is Bernard Weiner's titular reference point (musical connections are always warming, even if only imagined):
Before the Plamegate Deluge
A political and media onslaught is about to be unleashed with the indictments of a whole host of key White House officials (including you-know-who) caught up in the Plamegate coverup. The unraveling of this potentially treasonous scandal - which began with the outing, for political reasons, of a covert CIA officer - could well provide the tipping point that will allow the Democrats to retake the House in the next election, initiate Congressional investigations of Bush Administration crimes, and possibly even pass an impeachment resolution.
So, before all the craziness begins, it might be useful to remind ourselves how far we've come in the battle to remove the extremists who currently rule so recklessly and incompetently in our names. And how the work we've all been doing in the political trenches, unearthing the corruption and incompetence and dangerous initiatives of the Bush Administration, has helped weaken that crowd of crooks and liars to the point where impeachment is a serious possibility.
We deal so often with the negative high crimes and misdemeanors of the Administration, and with the cluelessness and cowardice of the ostensible Democratic opposition, that it's easy to be swept totally into that Bush shadow world and lose sight of the strength and powers at our command, and the hope they represent.
Weiner goes on in his terrific post with a full-out awards ceremony, naming names and URLs and all in the pantheon of those who have kept the racket up along the sidelines despite general sycophancy by the corporate media shills. If you have any inclination at all to get involved or informed or be more involved or informed, believe me you ought to read the whole post. That's why you are willing to read my stuff, right?? For those of you with attention problems or deficits of various sorts I will offer up a couple short-cuts, but please take a stab at the whole piece.
Useful shortcuts courtesy Weiner article above for true patriots looking for more connections:
The Dissenting Internet
Recommended Blogsites
Lastly, offering a bit of (yeah, trivial) symmetry in a world of chaos, thanks again to Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo (he noted the epitaph-like quality):
Rove's Long History With the Bush Family
1973 -- Rove became chairman of the College Republicans. During his time in Washington, D.C., he became a special assistant to Republican National Committee Chairman George H.W. Bush and met George W. Bush.
1977 -- Worked for a political action committee dedicated to making the elder Bush president in 1980.
1978 -- Advised younger Bush during his unsuccessful Texas congressional campaign.
1980 -- Assisted George H.W. Bush's unsuccessful presidential campaign.
1994 -- Adviser for George W. Bush's successful Texas gubernatorial campaign.
1998 -- Adviser for Gov. Bush's successful re-election campaign.
2000 -- Chief strategist for Bush's presidential campaign.
2004 -- Chief strategist for re-election campaign.
2005 -- Currently assistant to the President, Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Adviser to President George W. Bush.
I work on the 13th floor of my building. No mas - I'm not particularly superstitious. I'm not immune though. For example, I am wary of a schadenfreude epidemic given all the hopeful signs available if one looks beyond the corporate monopoly-media for news. True American patriots have good reason to be cautiously upbeat right now given all the potential for indictments and other difficulties for the genocide-mongers and war criminals currently occupying the white house thanks to supreme court criminality and widespread and repeated voter fraud. This is a good time to be upbeat but not smug. Cornered venomous creatures (yes you, Karl) are unpredictable, especially when a pattern of feeling themselves to be above the law (and getting away with it) is well-established.
While there are multiple minefields out there for the thugs desperately holding on to power, and appropriately so given the awe-inspiring scope of illegality/corruption, Constitution-destruction, and incompetence that Barbara Bush et al have bequeathed us, it is the Plame episode that is the primary focus here tonight. Rumor has it that even the Wall Street Journal will be fielding an interesting article tomorrow.
Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo has it thusly:
In any case, an article (sub.req.) in tomorrow's Wall Street Journal contains this pleasant sounding sentence: "Mr. Fitzgerald's pursuit now suggests he might be investigating not a narrow case on the leaking of the agent's name, but perhaps a broader conspiracy."
And then further down there's this: "Lawyers familiar with the investigation believe that at least part of the outcome likely hangs on the inner workings of what has been dubbed the White House Iraq Group ["WHIG" -ed]. Formed in August 2002, the group, which included Messrs. Rove and Libby, worked on setting strategy for selling the war in Iraq to the public in the months leading up to the March 2003 invasion. The group likely would have played a significant role in responding to Mr. Wilson's claims."
First of all, it did play a big role. That's where the push back came from.
If this description is accurate, it must have many folks at the White House in cold sweats.
If Karl Rove goes down in this investigation it'll be a disaster for the president, both in terms of the damage occasioned by such a high-level White House indictment and, frankly, because he needs the guy like most of us need legs.
But this WHIG thing is a whole 'nother level of hurt.
This group was the organizational team, the core group behind all the shameless crap that went down in the lead up to the Iraq war -- the lies about the cooked up Niger story, everything. If Fitzgerald has lassoed this operation into a criminal conspiracy, the veil of protective secrecy in which the whole operation is still shrouded will be pulled back. Depositions and sworn statements in on-going investigations have a way of doing that. Ask Bill Clinton. Every key person in the White House will be touched by it. And all sorts of ugly tales could spill out.
Vital musical interlude/excerpt:
Some of them were angry
At the way the earth was abused
By the men who learned how to forge her beauty into power
And they struggled to protect her from them
Only to be confused
By the magnitude of her fury in the final hour
And when the sand was gone and the time arrived
In the naked dawn only a few survived
And in attempts to understand a thing so simple and so huge
Believed that they were meant to live after the deluge
(Jackson Browne, "Before the Deluge")
I strongly recommend you pull out the source disk "Late for the Sky" and give it a listen. For that matter when did you last listen to "Lives in the Balance"? Mr. Browne has always made terrific music, and his harmonious sounds are often uncannily timely. He's been watching our back and taking notes on US imperialism from way back. Excerpts from a few "Lives in the Balance" tunes:
For America
As if freedom was a question of might
As if loyalty was black and white
You hear people say it all the time-
"My country wrong or right"
I want to know what that's got to do
With what it takes to find out what's true
With everyone from the President on down
Trying to keep it from you
Soldier of Plenty
You measure peace with guns
Progress in mega-tons
Who's left when the war is won?
Soldier of misfortune--
Soldier of an angry call
Soldier on foreign soil
I'm not here to fight your war
I know what you're fighting for
Ah boy boy
This world is not your toy
This world is, this world is
Long on hunger
Short on joy
How much longer
You gonna keep the world hungry boy?
Lives in the Balance
I've been waiting for something to happen
For a week or a month or a year
With the blood in the ink of the headlines
And the sound of the crowd in my ear
You might ask what it takes to remember
When you know that you've seen it before
Where a government lies to a people
And a country is drifting to war
And there's a shadow on the faces
Of the men who send the guns
To the wars that are fought in places
Where their business interest runs
That Deluge clip is here because I believe that is Bernard Weiner's titular reference point (musical connections are always warming, even if only imagined):
Before the Plamegate Deluge
A political and media onslaught is about to be unleashed with the indictments of a whole host of key White House officials (including you-know-who) caught up in the Plamegate coverup. The unraveling of this potentially treasonous scandal - which began with the outing, for political reasons, of a covert CIA officer - could well provide the tipping point that will allow the Democrats to retake the House in the next election, initiate Congressional investigations of Bush Administration crimes, and possibly even pass an impeachment resolution.
So, before all the craziness begins, it might be useful to remind ourselves how far we've come in the battle to remove the extremists who currently rule so recklessly and incompetently in our names. And how the work we've all been doing in the political trenches, unearthing the corruption and incompetence and dangerous initiatives of the Bush Administration, has helped weaken that crowd of crooks and liars to the point where impeachment is a serious possibility.
We deal so often with the negative high crimes and misdemeanors of the Administration, and with the cluelessness and cowardice of the ostensible Democratic opposition, that it's easy to be swept totally into that Bush shadow world and lose sight of the strength and powers at our command, and the hope they represent.
Weiner goes on in his terrific post with a full-out awards ceremony, naming names and URLs and all in the pantheon of those who have kept the racket up along the sidelines despite general sycophancy by the corporate media shills. If you have any inclination at all to get involved or informed or be more involved or informed, believe me you ought to read the whole post. That's why you are willing to read my stuff, right?? For those of you with attention problems or deficits of various sorts I will offer up a couple short-cuts, but please take a stab at the whole piece.
Useful shortcuts courtesy Weiner article above for true patriots looking for more connections:
The Dissenting Internet
Recommended Blogsites
Lastly, offering a bit of (yeah, trivial) symmetry in a world of chaos, thanks again to Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo (he noted the epitaph-like quality):
Rove's Long History With the Bush Family
1973 -- Rove became chairman of the College Republicans. During his time in Washington, D.C., he became a special assistant to Republican National Committee Chairman George H.W. Bush and met George W. Bush.
1977 -- Worked for a political action committee dedicated to making the elder Bush president in 1980.
1978 -- Advised younger Bush during his unsuccessful Texas congressional campaign.
1980 -- Assisted George H.W. Bush's unsuccessful presidential campaign.
1994 -- Adviser for George W. Bush's successful Texas gubernatorial campaign.
1998 -- Adviser for Gov. Bush's successful re-election campaign.
2000 -- Chief strategist for Bush's presidential campaign.
2004 -- Chief strategist for re-election campaign.
2005 -- Currently assistant to the President, Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Adviser to President George W. Bush.
posted by Sir Gumbo at 10:18 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home