Holy Mackerel! The White Sox are in the World Series!

Oh man, this means I have to start watching sports again. Read More......

Judith Miller's "secret" security clearance

Lots of weirdness surrounding this supposed clearance she got.

First, Atrios pulls a great snippet from E&P; about the implications of Miller getting a secret security clearance.

Not only does this mean the government is in essence licensing journalists, but Miller is agreeing to muzzle herself should she receive any classified information during her work. I suspect that the agreement Miller signed to get her clearance, if she really got one at all, made her promise not to divulge ANY classified info that came her way at all, even if the info came to her way via sources back in DC that she had BEFORE she got the clearance. That means prior to the clearance Miller could have reported whatever she wanted that she heard in DC, but after the clearance she would have been legally muzzled by her own signature even if the info had nothing to do with her embedding in Iraq. That's a hell of a trade-off for a journalist.

Then there's this from E&P;, which calls into question whether she had a clearance at all:

Team leader Navy Cdr. David Beckett of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, in a brief phone conversation, sarcastically dismissed the idea of her "supposedly having some sort of clearance." However, Colonel McPhee, the overall task force commander, is known to have said that Miller was "cleared at the secret level." Regardless, it was generally believed and commonly said in the field that Miller was cleared for information classified "secret." Either she pulled off a hoax, or a very unusual clearance for a journalist was granted by some Pentagon authority.

Barton Gellman of the Washington Post spent one day on the scene with Miller, accompanying a nuclear survey team at the Tuwaitha site at the beginning of May. Some of the soldiers asked whether Gellman had a "secret" clearance, "as Judy did."

"I said I had no such clearance, but did have the commander's permission to be there," Gellman told me. "The team leader, Navy Cdr. Beckett, did talk to me" but Gellman was asked to step away from a conversation about a classified matter. "I heard Judy tell him, 'I'm cleared for that, but he isn't.'"

Read More......

Sunday Night Open Thread

Well Mr. President, after the morning shows, the morning papers, and Mr. Fitzgerald, you're going to be wishing for these before going to bed. It's going to be a long week if they don't show up to save you. May I suggest:

Four Horsemen

Scale ingredients to servings
3/4 oz Jose Cuervo® Especial gold tequila
3/4 oz Jagermeister® herbal liqueur
3/4 oz Rumple Minze® peppermint liqueur
3/4 oz Bacardi® 151 rum

Pour contents in shaker over ice and shake well. Pour into glass. This is a big shooter so you have to use a small rocks glass.

I thought he needed a "big shooter". Open thread away!

P.S. I'm off to Iceland this week for the Iceland Airwaves music festival. Any Iceland advice welcome! Read More......

A little Prozac with your drinking water?

Pretty scary stuff happening but not surprising. Studies are showing the connection between prescription medicines such as birth control pills and Prozac and the wildlife downstream from water processing plants. I recall the Post writing a few articles earlier in the year about male bass in the Potomac carrying eggs and studies and it sounds like that is one of many problems around the country. Prescription drugs are simply not being filtered out of the water processing systems. What is going into the fish in the rivers is of course also going into Americans drinking water as well.

The toothless EPA, now an industry sponsored tool that has had little effectiveness ever since the radical changes by the GOP, is dithering about (like those tadpoles that have traces of Prozac) wondering what to do, apparently waiting for orders from industry who continue to do a stellar job with self-regulation and civic responsibility. Industry meanwhile is saying sure we can filter, but taxpayers are going to pick up the tab for filtering water from prescription pharmaceuticals. The administration has no issue with dumping more of a burden on the middle class if they give a damn about an issue but in this case, they don't so they won't. So who is looking out for the health and safety of Americans these days? Read More......

Reuters: Fitz to decide this week

Decision day is approaching for Libby and Rove. Sounds like Fitzgerald has lots of options:

President George W. Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, and Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis Libby, were among the possible targets of the probe. Legal sources said special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald was likely to decide this week whether or not to bring indictments.

While Fitzgerald could try to charge administration officials with knowingly revealing the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame, several lawyers in the case said he was more likely to seek charges for conspiracy and easier-to-prove crimes such as disclosing classified information, making false statements, obstruction and perjury.

Fitzgerald could also decide that no crime was committed.

Yeah, and it's business as usual at the White House.

Remember, the White House staff and many, many members of the MSM have known for over two years what Rove and Libby were doing. They knew how bad it would be if the truth ever came out. And, looks like we're close to seeing if the truth will come out. Read More......

Rove's strategy for Rove

Resign or unpaid leave? That is the question if/when the indictment hits:

Karl Rove has a plan, as always. Even before testifying last week for the fourth time before a grand jury probing the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity, Bush senior adviser Rove and others at the White House had concluded that if indicted he would immediately resign or possibly go on unpaid leave, several legal and Administration sources familiar with the thinking told TIME.

Resignation is the much more likely scenario, they say. The same would apply to I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, the Vice President's chief of staff, who also faces a possible indictment. A former White House official says Rove's break with Bush would have to be clean—no "giving advice from the sidelines"—for the sake of the Administration.

Severing his ties would allow Rove—who as deputy chief of staff runs a vast swath of the West Wing—to fight aggressively "any bull___ charges," says a source close to Rove, like allegations that he was part of a broad conspiracy to discredit Plame's husband Joseph Wilson. Rove's defense: whatever he did fell far short of that.

Read More......

When Bush said he was going after Al Qaeda, he didn't mean it

Think Progress has Condi's statement today on Meet the Press to explain the Bush Iraq strategy:

The fact of the matter is that when we were attacked on September 11, we had a choice to make. We could decide that the proximate cause was al Qaeda and the people who flew those planes into buildings and, therefore, we would go after al Qaeda…or we could take a bolder approach.

That is way, way too nuanced for George Bush. He told us he was going to get Al Qaeda. Bin Laden was going to be captured "dead or alive." Not true after all.

So, the "bolder approach" was to go after Iraq? That had nothing to do with September 11, or the people who flew those planes into buildings. But he said he was going after Al Qaeda. Thanks for clearing that up.

Condi's right about one thing: Bush did have a choice to make. He said his choice was to make us safer from terrorism. That would have meant going after Al Qaeda and Bin Laden. He made another choice by invading Iraq. That has made us less safe, killed a lot more Americans and increased terrorism. Nice job. Read More......

So what happened on the Sunday talk shows?

I'm TiVO-less at the moment, anything good? Read More......

Harriet Miers and Condi Rice are longtime com buddies... not that there's anything wrong with that

No comment

It's been widely reported that Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers is a longtime close friend of the man who nominated her, President George Bush.

What's less known is that she's also close to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice - who likely played a role in her selection.

In fact, in the past five years Miers and Rice have often enjoyed a "girls' night out" along with Ann Veneman, the former agriculture secretary who's now the executive director of Unicef.

The three got together last month at the Bull and Bear steakhouse at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan.

They've met at the restaurants Olives and Galileo in Washington, listened to concerts together from the president's box at the Kennedy Center, and even sat down to a home-cooked meal at Veneman's house....

As to what the women discuss on their "girls' night out," a friend said: "There's a lot of girl talk. It's about life, not business."

NB Newsmax doesn't include the URL for this article in their email, so I don't plan on hunting for it. Perhaps some day people will learn. Read More......

How Abramoff ran his crew with the help of right wing leaders

Washington Post has a long piece today exploring the inner workings of the Abramoff family through his dealings with a pro-gambling client, eLottery. Very interesting and worth a read. There are the usual DeLay related cronies involved, and a lot of right wing leaders are wrapped up with this guy:

Abramoff quietly arranged for eLottery to pay conservative, anti-gambling activists to help in the firm's $2 million pro-gambling campaign, including Ralph Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition, and the Rev. Louis P. Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition. Both kept in close contact with Abramoff about the arrangement, e-mails show. Abramoff also turned to prominent anti-tax conservative Grover Norquist, arranging to route some of eLottery's money for Reed through Norquist's group, Americans for Tax Reform.

Yep, Lou Sheldon, who Abramoff called "Lucky Louie." Course, now they are all scrambling to distance themselves from Abramoff:

A spokesman for Reed -- now a candidate for lieutenant governor of Georgia -- said that he and his associates are unaware that any money they received came from gambling activities. Sheldon said that he could not remember receiving eLottery money and that he was unaware that Abramoff was involved in the campaign to defeat the bill. Norquist's group would say only that it had opposed the gambling ban on libertarian grounds.

Sheldon claims to be "shocked" Abramoff was involved:

Sheldon said in an interview this week that he recalled little about his efforts against the bill in 2000. He said he did not remember receiving a $25,000 check from eLottery, but added that it is possible that his organization did receive it. He said he remembered some money coming in to pay for fliers he had printed and mailed to congressional districts to persuade members to oppose the bill.

"I wasn't aware the money was coming from them [eLottery]," Sheldon said. "I don't think I ever saw the check. It came in, and we paid the bill for some of the printing."

Sheldon also said he had no idea that Abramoff was lobbying against the bill or that he was working for eLottery.

"This is all tied to Jack?" Sheldon said. "I'm shocked out of my socks."

Abramoff's tentacles run deep in to the entire GOP leadership, through the White House, Hill leadership and, clearly, the right-winger establishment. Read More......

Harriet's getting a makeover

Mike Allen reports that Harriett's got a full 20 person team working to give her a new look:

Get ready for a whole new Harriet. After a disastrous two weeks, White House officials say they hope to relaunch the nomination of Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court by moving from what they call a "biographical phase" to an "accomplishment phase." In other words, stop debating her religion and personality and start focusing on her resume as a pioneering female lawyer of the Southwest. "We got a little wrapped around the axle," an exhausted White House official said. "As the focus becomes less on who she's not and more on who she is, that's a better place to be."

So, as the White House counsel begins her formal prep sessions this week for a confirmation hearing that's likely to start in early November, President Bush will hold a photo op with former chief justices of the Texas Supreme Court who will testify to Miers' qualifications and legal mind. The White House's 20-person "confirmation team" will line up news conferences, opinion pieces and letters to the editor by professors and former colleagues who can talk about Miers' experience dealing with such real-world issues as the Voting Rights Act when she was a Dallas city council member and Native American tribal sovereignty when she was chairwoman of the Texas Lottery Commission.

Read More......

Sunday Morning Open Thread

What will this week bring? Read More......

Blair joins Bush in Iran bashing and war mongering

The Blair government has been trying to blame Iran for bombings in Iraq that killed eight UK soldiers but the problem is, evidence is strongly suggesting that Iran had nothing to do with it and that UK security services actually created the methods during the counter insurgency in Northern Ireland years ago, according to The Independent. This method was perfected by the IRA who later shared the information with other terrorist organizations including Palestinian groups who also partnered with Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party who were of course, not on friendly terms with Iran.

So why is Blair and his pack of poodles itching for war with Iran? Haven't they botched Iraq enough? Why do they continue playing this game with the Bush people, looking for a new war and a new mess? No wonder Jack Straw is going to be spending more time with Condi. Read More......

Why does Leavitt and Bush want Americans to die? Isn't every life precious?

HHS Secretary Leavitt is touring SE Asia and has recognized that sooner or later, the bird flu will become a major problem and there is nothing anyone can do about it except be prepared. What this means is that the world, the US included, should expect around 25% of the population to be infected. In 1918 the pandemic killed 50 million people worldwide, many more than WWI claimed. The 1957 and 1968 flu killed many less but still one million globally.

The question of whether or not this will happen is not even in question for the administration. It's just taken as a given. Fine, we're all together there. The problem is that the US is at the bottom of the list of world nations for preparing to combat this flu when it hits. With a goal of attaining medicine for 2% (as in, we are well short of that feeble percentage) of the US population clearly extraordinary steps need to be taken quickly. No, not with this team, the team that handed over a no-bid contract to Halliburton for cleaning up NOLA even before the stranded people of the city were provided with food and water. See, they could really care less about situations like this despite their talk about "every life is precious" garbage. That's just talk, nothing more.

Kofi Annan has suggested a temporary suspension of patent rules so that other companies can produce more medicine to combat the flu and more people can be saved if it strikes soon. The administration has once again said to hell with saving people, let's help boost profits for Big Pharma who are loving this last minute order. Big Corporates over America's safety, again and again and again and again. Why does the GOP hate America? Read More......

Open thread

In Maine, raining cats and dogs, but at least I got my lobstah.

The event is tomorrow at 2. Will check in in the morning. Chat away. Read More......