Professor Juan Cole, an expert on the Middle East, takes on Bush’s "major speech" yesterday by presenting, you know, facts. A must-read.
Nobel Peace Prize
What?!? Bush didn’t get it? I thought he was making the world a safer place blah blah blah! To add insult to injury, the Peace Prize went to the International Atomic Energy Agency and its director, Mohamed ElBaradei. And ElBaradei was on the opposite side of Bush on this whole Iraq thing. From Think Progress, April 27, 2005: He Was … Read More
Who Will Be Indicted?
Lawrence O’Donnell, who seems to have pretty good sources on the CIA leak story, predicts the following: "At least three high level Bush Administration personnel indicted and possibly one or more very high level unindicted co-conspirators." In a subsequent post, O’Donnell says Karl Rove’s agreement to testify again before the grand jury is a solid indication his lawyer thinks he’ll … Read More
Bush Ratings Hit New Low; Terror Alert Raised
Connection? Actually, I think this terror alert is pretty bonafide, and might actually be unrelated to Bush’s ever-sinking popularity. UPDATE: Okay, maybe the terror scare is nothing.
Plame Update
There’s rumors floating about that indictments are expected soon (like, any day now) in the CIA Leak/Valerie Plame matter. And Rove, some are saying, has been seen much — missing White House meetings that he usually attends, etc. UPDATE TO THE UPDATE (and post bumped to top): Rove to testify to grand jury. And no immunity. Good. It’s important to … Read More
Bush: “God Told Me To Invade Afghanistan And Iraq”
Yup. According to the BBC, that’s what Bush reportedly said.
Who Is Larry Littwin And Why Should He Testify At The Miers Confirmation Hearings?
And what does it have to do with Bush and the Texas Air National Guard? Good questions. You may have read that, as part of her patchy career, Harriet Miers was the chair of the Texas Lottery Commission. You may have read that she was credited for cleaning up some lottery scandal in Texas. Central to the scandal was a … Read More
“Major Speech”
It was billed as a "major speech" on terrorism, but you know it’s a lie, because Bush gave it at 10:00 in the morning. I didn’t see it, but it sounds like it was the same old rhetoric: ("9/11", "evil", "WMDs", "evil hearts", "making progress", "9/11", etc.)
Short Bites
Jimmy Carter has a son? What Matt says Ever said "There oughta be a law…."? Here’s your chance… Um, why? With this avian flu thing hanging over us, is it really a good idea to intentionally reconstruct a 1918 flu virus that killed 50 million people?
More Pop Quiz
The quote: "[T]he argument that the [Bush] administration making is, this was a good decision because the president made it and the president makes good decisions. And that might be enough for a monarchy, but it’s plainly not a persuasive argument in a democratic system." (1) Was the pundit who said this: (a) conservative or (b) liberal? (2) Was he … Read More
As My Mother Says….
"Oh, that man!"* Bush gave a press conference: "I’ve known her long enough to know she’s not going to change,…" Wait. I thought 9/11 changed everything. ….that 20 years from now she will be the same person with the same judicial philosophy she has today," Bush said. Call me crazy, but I don’t hold much stock in one’s judicial philosophy … Read More
Other Shoe Drops (More To Follow)
A separate grand jury has indicted DeLay. The charge? Money laundering: Both indictments accuse DeLay and two political associates of conspiring to get around a state ban on corporate campaign contributions by funneling the money through a political action committee to the Republican National Committee in Washington. DeLay’s earlier indictment charged that conspirators carried out a fund-raising scheme by having … Read More
Miers Updates
* The mainstream media has had the story line: This Reuters article was originally titled "Bush Pick For High Court Outrages Conservatives". It’s been watered down a little (conservatives are now just "wary"). * Powerline speculates a deal with Dems: Check out the NARAL and PFAW web sites. Nothing but bland press releases adopting a wait-and-see attitude. What did happen … Read More
The Iron-What’s-Her-Face and Tom Delay
Mmmm. This is an interesting turn of events: A DOCUMENT linking Margaret Thatcher to a US corruption probe is so explosive civil servants have been asked to ensure it remains "sealed". The 79-year-old former Premier is said to have met Congressman Tom DeLay in Britain while he was on a suspected favours-for-freebies scam. In return for his free holiday, DeLay … Read More
Plame Update
I haven’t forgotten about this — but I’m not digging in the dirt about it either. Judith Miller revealed that her source was Scooter Libby — no surprise there. But the real speculation is on what special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is cooking up. I’ll let Kevin Drum speak: In the Washington Post today, Jim VandeHei and Walter Pincus provide some … Read More