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.

Loothing Faith

I imagine that like me you hate to miss a Frank Rich piece lately. He's been on a roll. I gather the NY Times has realized that in addition to Krugman and a few others Rich is a winner and is pulling in readers; they apparently have made the infamous "business decision" to erect a pay-wall to keep us freeloaders out (hmmph - I prefer to think of myself as a news-junky!). As a result, I rarely bother with the NYT online (and their advertisers!) these days, generally settling for vital op-eds I find posted elsewhere. The demise of the Gray Lady continues.

Try thith on for size:


The Faith-Based President Defrocked

To understand why the right is rebelling against Harriet Miers, don't waste time boning up on her glory days with the Texas Lottery Commission. The real story in this dust-up is not the Supreme Court candidate, but the man who picked her. The Miers nomination, whatever its fate, will be remembered as the flashpoint when the faith-based Bush base finally started to lose faith in our propaganda president and join the apostate American majority.

Though James Dobson, America's foremost analyst of the gay subtext of SpongeBob SquarePants, was easily rolled by Karl Rove and dragged back into the Miers camp, he's an exception. The pervasive mood on the right was articulated by Cathie Adams, president of the Texas branch of Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum. She told The Washington Post: "President Bush is asking us to have faith in things unseen. We only have that kind of faith in God."

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Like most Bush fictions, the latest are driven less by ideology than by a desire to hide incompetence. But there's a self-destructive impulse at work as well. "The best way to get the news is from objective sources," the president told Brit Hume of Fox News two years ago. "And the most objective sources I have are people on my staff who tell me what's happening in the world." Thus does the White House compound the sin of substituting propaganda for effective action by falling for the same spin it showers on the public.

Beware of leaders who drink their own Kool-Aid. The most distressing aspect of Mr. Bush's press conference last week was less his lies and half-truths than the abundant evidence that he is as out of touch as Custer was on the way to Little Bighorn. The president seemed genuinely shocked that anyone could doubt his claim that his friend is the best-qualified candidate for the highest court. Mr. Bush also seemed unaware that it was Republicans who were leading the attack on Ms. Miers. "The decision as to whether or not there will be a fight is up to the Democrats," he said, confusing his antagonists this time much as he has Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.

[clip]

But skepticism is widespread. It's refreshing to realize that when dubyah and his fellow puppets speak, more and more have learned to doubt:

No sale

Over the last weeks, the White House quietly has been trying out a new argument on Iraq. Aimed at shoring up public support, the tactic compares the difficulties there with historic conflicts, such as World War II and the battle against communism.

What Iraq shares with those periods, the argument goes, are bouts of doubt and confusion followed by victory - if we are resolute and patient.

It's a good argument, but not good enough. My bet is that it's too late and has too many holes in it to be persuasive for those sick of the carnage in Iraq.

[clip]

A new sales pitch won't cut it. Only clear progress will bolster a doubting public. We need convincing proof that the brutal insurgency is being defeated. Until then, all talk will remain unconvincing.

Indeed, some of the talk is counterproductive. It doesn't help when Bush, on Thursday, vowed that "we never back down, never give in and never accept anything less than complete victory."

That's complete nonsense. No one, including in the White House, can possibly believe that "complete victory" is in the cards. The goal, as Bush himself has said, is to get Iraqis ready to fight for their own country. The minute they can, we're outta there. And Bush knows it.

At least I hope he does.

And if you're still with me, here's a little reward, courtesy of cousin Steven in Adelaide.