II. Restoration
—
Or, as Jane puts it, just because the investigation is almost finished doesn’t mean the consquences — read: indictments — are.
Back to Main
October 30, 2005
WB: Crouching Prosecutor, Hidden Charges +
Comments
You can bet your bottom dollar it’s not over yet.
Even if it’s not Fitz, others will be there to finish the job. People have yet to realize the magnitude of the act… cooking intelligence and going to war. It’s done all the time, but to do it openly, blatantly, and with so much taunt…unh uh.
The White House is crippled and bleeding and they can’t staunch the flow. For the first time there was no terror alert or some such fabrication to kill the story in the news. The media have been waiting to exact revenge. There is so much more to come. It’s following classic drama and the end is predictable. They reached their heights and they can never retrieve that. It’s physics. Balance. Can’t argue. Like the colors in the spectrum. It’s written in stone.
Keep in mind that these are legal proceedings and there is no way we can know the facts.
And these are big crimes, so we have to be satisfied with the law handling it, rather than some dubious street revolt by the people at this point.
he will restore decency and integrity to the Oval Office.
Hunter Thompson once described a party he attended with some highly interesting articulate people. George was there. No one would talk to him, and he ended up passed out in the bathtub. Maybe if they picked him out of the tub he could go on and bring us all decency.
Posted by: jm | Oct 30 2005 8:55 utc | 1
Thinking a bit about this, and is there not an emergent sense of (have you no ) decency (sir), first with Cindy Sheehan, now with Patrick Fitzgerald that have managed to unmask the liers with unhalting native simplicity — where the demonizers, in their work are seen as such — done, in a Will Rogers sort of way.
Posted by: anna missed | Oct 30 2005 10:22 utc | 2
FBI translator suit dismissed over security issues
The Justice Department and the FBI both argued to the court that her [Sibel Edmonds] lawsuit should be dismissed because much of the information needed to be considered for it was protected by the “state secrets privilege,” which is meant to protect classified national security information from being disclosed.
U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton agreed with the government’s position. U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton will be hearing Libby’s case. U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton is a Bush appointee.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 30 2005 11:01 utc | 3
I read somewhere that Libby is shopping for a new lawyer. His lawyer sofar was not impressive (handing over Libby’s full notes and that having Libby testifying and contradicting his own notes).
Maybe the new one will make him see the light. The case is certainly not closed yet.
It’s the spook factor. The heebie jeebies. The Hoo Doo Man has just taken up residence in the White House. He doesn’t eat much, either.
These people will be jumping out of their skins, looking over their shoulders, wondering whom to trust. It’s the best thing that could have happened to keep them all running loose with one another.
The fear and nervousness will get them. And He’s supposed to rework his administration and pull his presidency out of the sewer with this going on?
George W. Bush will repair what has been damaged
Jeeziss.
Posted by: jm | Oct 30 2005 11:13 utc | 5
The following post is rated: CD for ‘critical discernment’
having said that, it seems compelling and quite plausible…
Is Patrick Fitzgerald a Zealous “Independent” Prosecutor or Experienced Cover-up Artist?
“Sometimes questions are more important than answers.”
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 30 2005 12:02 utc | 6
@Uncle that stuff on Fitzie is the sort of stuff I’ve been meaning to get into for a while. I’ve only had a quick look because it’s late late here and altho sleep isn’t a go concentration is hard.
Without offending attorney’s who come in here and who probably do great work, because I have met more than a few such attorney in my time, I reckon that they are a small minority and most lawyers are motivated by self interest. Within my own whanau the only supporters of right wing asshole philosophy are lawyers (once a slightly lefty govt got in power they modified a little the better to seek advantage I spose)
Lets face it lawyers and selflessness is pretty rare. But idealism and being a prosecutor just doesn’t happen.
I’ll be the first to agree that it should.
Prosecutors’should’ also just present the facts and not pursue a result but they don’t do what they ‘should’ there either. Not just their fault in the statistically driven bureaucracy they work in but still it can’t be ethical to claim to be representing the public interest and twisting evidence to distort it just to ‘win’.
So it would be very surprising if Fitz had got where he has in his job without be highly motivated about satisfying his own wants first.
This is pretty much what a lot of us has been saying for a very long time. But this isn’t an “I told you so situation” Much more a “why am I only correct about bad shit like this” sort of a moment.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Oct 30 2005 12:34 utc | 7
There are really only two questions (both of which, in the words of Falstaff, Fitzgerald has told us are “not to be asked”):
Can the Bush administration survive another high-ranking indictment?
Will there be another high-ranking indictment?
Odds of a “No” answer to question #1: 90%
Odds of a “Yes” answer to question #2:
Well, it’s interesting that Hunter Thompson had that episode with Bush. It dovetails nicely with the fact that Fitzgerald has interviewed Bush. If Fitzgerald can get Bush, he will. Oh God, will he!
Posted by: arbogast | Oct 30 2005 13:32 utc | 8
Couldn’t the so-called speaking indictment be the product of Fitzgerald being exacting and thorough because this is such a high profile case? He’s only human. I can’t believe he isn’t influenced (at some level) by the fact that he is going after the White House.
Posted by: ml | Oct 30 2005 13:32 utc | 9
Typepad was down for maintnance last night so I couldn’t post the following response to a comment on another thread:
Such information is highly classified but more importantly highly comparmented on an extremely strict, truly, ‘need to know’ basis … it is NOT information that would ever be passed accidentally or via briefings to the WH and would be specifically redacted from raw source material prior to any official dissemination …
Posted by: Outraged | Oct 29, 2005 12:15:13 PM | #
The Plame information itself came from the CIA, via fax, to Libby and Grossman. As I understand it, requests for information from the Office of the Vice President to intelligence agencies is…Well, the office receiving the request falls all over itself to provide the information requested. There is ALWAYS a need to know when the OVP wants to know it.
Missing in the indictment itself is the specific classification, at the time, of Plame’s employment (one thing) and of her particular postition (another thing) which I think is key to the charges made – or rather, the charges not made. We haven’t heard from the CIA, but I expect we will.
******************************
Then I read Kevin Drum’s post at Washington Monthly “Was Outing Plame a Crime?” As the simplest explanation will usually suffice (Fitzgerald didn’t make charges where charges couldn’t be made) I suggest those here read it as well.
Posted by: Pat | Oct 30 2005 13:56 utc | 10
Always remember to answer “Fitz is a Republican” in response to attacks on him.
As for the nature of Libby’s charges, the investigation is not over by any means and the new grand jury will be selected and sat within the next week or so. The actual criminal aspects of the Plame outing are still being examined under a microscope. This is the beginning, not the end. There is nothing said that these are the only charges Libby will get, or that there are no other criminal charges in the works. Of course there could be when the investigation is DONE. Libby was so flagrantly guilty of just these procedural infractions that it was worthwhile to charge him immediately, perhaps to squeeze him and, at the same time, put the others on warning that Fitz is not going to pussyfoot around with them. I will repeat, the investigation into the Plame outing is still ongoing and I don’t expect criminal indictments until the end of that investigation when it will be determined if a crime has been committed or not. That has not even been determined yet so why does anyone expect charges on that issue now?
I am a bit rambling this morning; have only had one cup of coffee so far.
Posted by: Ensley | Oct 30 2005 14:44 utc | 12
thanks Scam for the update about Edmonds.
—-
It is all very curious.
In the Global Relief leak investigation Fitz indicted no one.
I presume the leaker was Judith Miller.
The story was this: at the tail end of 01 there was a spate of accusations against Muslim charities for funding terrorism. One of these – Global Relief – was to be raided on x day. The day before, a reporter from the NY Times called them asking for their reaction, thus tipping them off. I think the reporter was not Judith, but someone else who got the tip from Judith. So, the charity had time to shred documents and were accused of such, although they denied it. The New York Times argued that reporters can protect their sources, and they won. (This time they lost! – weird.) That Grand Jury was disbanded.
All this is known and can be looked up. I may not have it quite right.
Here we have Fitz investigating another leak (and not the crime of funding terrorism.) One must note that Fitz is practically the creator of the Muslim-charities-fund-terrorism theme. How this scam worked was described by Ali Mohamed in the Embassy bombing cases. And Fitz quotes him (e.g. before 9/11 investigations), omitting the fact that Ali was a double agent, having worked for the CIA, the FBI and Binny! (Oh, btw, Ali Mohammed is a free man today.)
Judith beat that drum hard. Endless articles about charities etc. obviously supposed to provoke reactions of disgust and horror and make Muslims seem inhuman – imagine fooling people into giving for poor children and then depriving the children of that money to kill other children!
And Judy Miller tips off the charity!
Amazing.
—-
Looked it up, here is Laura Rozen:
“Fitzgerald, as the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, was asked to investigate who told Miller, back in the fall of 2001, that the Bush administration was about to put a Chicago-area Muslim charity on a U.S. government list of designated terrorist groups. Miller, who had been reporting on the charity’s alleged ties to terrorist figures for more than two years, got the tip, and shortly thereafter her Times colleague Philip Shenon reportedly called the Global Relief Foundation, and in asking for comment, alerted its officials that the group’s assets were about to be frozen.”
Village Voice
Just one old article, for flavor! about Ali Mohammed:
Globe and Mail (Canada)
Posted by: Noisette | Oct 30 2005 15:46 utc | 13
One can only hope
And hope has nothing to do w/ The Law.
It is fascinating how wide-ranging the response to the Affair has been among disparate legal observers. It all goes to show just how useful the law is to powereful people. The bigger the labyrinth, the harder it is to find the Minotaur.
Unless Chaney crazily announces his involvement, there’s just no chance he’ll be busted. And the fire underneath Scooter is cold. How often is perjury proved against high-ranking officials? Not really a fair question, because the more recent experience of Iran-Contra climaxed with the 1992 pardons of conspirators. Even fucking Clair George was pardoned.
Scooter will be Director of Counter-Caliphate Planning in President George Allen’s administration. Of course.
Posted by: slothrop | Oct 30 2005 16:17 utc | 14
Ivan Illich: “Hope is the ready willingness to be surprised.”
Posted by: slothrop | Oct 30 2005 16:20 utc | 15
American Taliban
Debs, your French Polynesia story was a good
riposte, to which I’d add others, more relevant.
I’d add them … and I did, spending an hour last
night writing about them in detail, all the horrors
and the deaths, one here in the States at a DoE
facility, and one a US Protectorate, a DoD facility,
both of them war crimes, going on for year, and
still going on, with a massive coverup program.
We are all war criminals. I proved it, but because
TypePad was shut down, I didn’t post, and won’t.
Exposing them will only cause Americans to turn
away. Exposing them would only create another
grotesquely expensive Federal investigation, one
that would only pin blame on some lower-level
functionary, and end up on 60 Minutes with Don
Rumsfeld saying, ‘We know we have problems,
and we’re working on it.’ End of story. Look away.
Yeah, right. Forty years, thousands of deaths,
billions of our tax dollars. We’re working on it.
And then the deaths would *really* skyrocket!
So I’ll stick to the story we all know. Our Abo’s.
In my home town, the farmers drove the Indians
to an island accessible only at low tide. Every
now and then, the farmers would go on an orgy
of beatings, shootings, rape and murder. The
microfilm news stories actually talked about it.
So-‘n-so whites killed twenty Indians last night.
Go team!
Today those Americans live quietly at the edge
of the sea. They have a tiny casino that only
barely pays for itself with unstamped tobacco
sales, and every fourth of July, fireworks sales.
In the winter, they dive for geoduck. In the spring,
they dive for an ever dwindling supply of herring
roe on kelp. In the fall, they fish for an ever
dwindling supply of salmon.
And that’s it!
Their former lands are farmed by well-off whites,
and US BIA takes whatever treaty reparations are
due the Nat’s, and wastes them on bureaucracy.
Something like 95% of the treaty obligations we
have, all of US white Americans, are burned up
within BIA itself … government admin overhead.
In many cases, those royalties due the Nat’s for
use of their lands: timber, mining, oil, uranium,
are never even collected by BIA, under reported,
and/or spent away before the Tribes get them.
When Congress demanded an accounting,
the Administration refused! C’est incredible!
We look away. What’s that pop song today?
Story Of The Year, We Don’t Care Anymore.
“Underneath the gun in front of waiting eyes
Our time has just begun no second chance to die
So we want the longest days to live inside the
shortest nights
We compromise our hearts to keep them satisfied
The shadows of our past, hard to ignore but judgment
means nothing,
That’s not what we’re fighting for
We don’t care anymore
We don’t care anymore.”
I mean, just look at GW I, UN sanctions, and GW II.
Have you looked at the pictures of the war dead?!
So, I destroyed the post about the DoE facility that’s
killed hundreds of Americans with horrible deaths,
and which continues to, despite a massive Fed
coverup/cleanup program.
And I destroyed the post about the DoD facility that’s
killed hundreds of Islanders with horrible deaths,
and which continues to, despite a massive Fed
coverup/cleanup program.
We are all war criminals, but we don’t care anymore.
Saddam has nothing on US. Nothing.
– – – – – – – – –
Thanks, Malooga. Same to you!
Posted by: tante aime | Oct 30 2005 16:32 utc | 16
Could Fitzgerald be holding the espionage charge in reserve? Could he keep it in his pocket until Bush is out of office, and thus deprive Bush of the chance to pardon Libby? Can Bush pardon Libby for any and everything he might have done, even if he hasn’t been charged?
Posted by: david78209 | Oct 30 2005 16:47 utc | 17
I think David Brooks summed it up well on NewsHour: “There is no conspiracy.”
We get a show of justice, and the political class is not exposed as, well, a class.
Posted by: slothrop | Oct 30 2005 16:53 utc | 18
I have acquaintances like David Brooks: wind them up and they miss the point. It is a gift of sorts.
Posted by: eftsoons | Oct 30 2005 17:12 utc | 19
“there’s a black mercedes rollin through the combat zone” bob dylan
the argument so far that there are possibilities of other indictements seem to me closer to metaphysics than they do to the concrete reality of fitzgeralds own words
certainly, he was allusive about the question of a grand jury – whether new old or continuing – whether this allusiveness is a tactical strategy has for me in this moment no materiality, whatsoever. i wish it did
this allusiveness also is consistent with the indictement – especially the question of not so mysterious official a (which is surely rove) – & it seems the only time a person under menace gets hinted at – so at a stretch – i am hoping that rove is under a great deal of pressure to negotiate his position. though this machiavel like monstrosity – would do anything to keep his fat self alive & kicking – i do not think he has squealed – the squealing he does elsewhere
“in the valley of the giants where the stars & stripes explode” bob dylan
tho the learned mr fitzgerald does not want to connect this investigation with the ongoing butchery of iraq – it must be our intention to connect those two fronts all the time – it is the least we can do – in opposing an imperial agression that is absolutely consisent with an empire that has clouded its so called liberty – with imperial ‘adventures’ as the american mexico war or the spanish american war . there is nothing new under the sun in their naked agression against iraq except in this case it is so clouded with the vulgarity & the crudeness of the enterprise
libby & rove lied because they serve the interest of those who rule from the roll of dollars – their strategic interests are those of capital. it has always been so – it remains so
so of course, pressure needs to be mounted against any effort by the whore media to try to forget where the crimes of a libby, a rove or a cheney originate from – nor should they be allowed to make light of the charges already made
for fuck’s sake franklin gave secrets, state secrets to a foreign govt, israel & i imagine very little will happen to him – that is a crime so clear – so banally obvious – yet no one in the whore media is saying anything at all about it. &it feels like he will & they will get away with it
“i see pieces of men marching trying to take heaven by force” bob dylan
this war as will be the coming wars against syria & iran are abdominations – they are not being done to protect us – rather the opposite is true – they will occur in concertt with the worst elements within the theocracies of the m e & with gangsters like chalabi’s who suck at the lifeblood of their people.
perhaps if we fight enough on this level & take advantage of the natural weakening of the cheney bush junta at this moment – we can make those wars less likely – tho i am unconvinced at the moment that the junta will not come out of this experience & that of meirs energised to to make further insults in our faces & in the faces of the world
we must as bob dylan suggests:
“if my hands are tied, must i not wonder within
who tied them up and why & where must i have been”
today it seems all the whore press wants is for ths moment to pass & there are notable exceptions but i am not as optimistic as the girls at firedoglke who seem to have a disproportionate belief in the ‘law’ – a law which incidentally incarcerates the largest population in the living world
there are two issues – prima – that of rove which will need to be dealt with quickly – if it is not – it will never happen & secundo – is the so called espionage act – those are the two fronts on which something might happen but i think highly unlikely
we have entered a period so dark – so pulsing in the most evil machinations -that it is clear to one & all that criminals – substantial criminals are at the control of all the executive & all th power within
they will not give that up to the people – they certainly won’t give it up for fitzgeral & even less to a tardive press who have only been recently on their knees before the corrupt pygmies at the white house
“seen the arrow on the door post
saying this land is condemned
all the way from new orleans to jerusalem”
bob dylan
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 30 2005 18:00 utc | 20
this criminal executive have all the ethics of a igfarben representative about 1943
they wouldn’t know ethics if it ran over them in a mack truck
ethics is something you demand, implore, in black people as we have so recently witnessed in new orleans
to demand it of themselves – well that is out of the question – as it has always been for tryants & their toadies
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 30 2005 18:04 utc | 21
rgiap
bravo.
Reading like this wants to convince how perilous Scooter’s situation is and how close the investigation is to some other indictment(s). If it is true Scooter is the one obstruction of justice, then he can sit tight. He’s 18 mnths away from a trial and longer from an appeal, and one administration away from a tidy pardon.
Posted by: slothrop | Oct 30 2005 18:28 utc | 22
Billmon’s essays on this matter are especially compelling because he seems to sit right at the cusp, walking the tightrope between the communities of hope and the communities of doubt, despair and outright complicity. He is sceptical, but hedges his “willingness to be surprised.”
Is George II a King and, with his minions, above the law? Is the administration of justice in this country ever anything other than a political operation?
From Justin Raimondo we get,
Fiat justitia, ruat coelum.
“Let justice be done, though the heavens fall.”
The above Latin quotation – usually attributed to Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, a Roman statesman and Julius Caesar’s father-in-law – succinctly summarizes both prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald’s view of the law and the possible consequences of its application in the case of the CIA leak investigation.
From the apologists and downright obstructionists we get,
Wilson is a liar.
~ Newt Gingrich
There is no conspiracy.
~ David Brooks
and so on — “the perjury technicality” — and so forth.
I’m not on the fence. I’m with Justin and the community of hope.
Billmon’s “crouching Prosecutor, hidden charges” analogy is dead on.
Fitzgerald’s indictment of Libby is a slam-dunk, full-tilt lock. He’s got Scooter by the nads.
Libby will plead to a felony and go to jail.
Further, the supererogatory elements of this indictment parellels and dovetails with the language of still more charges and other indictments that Fitzgerald will proceed to file in the coming weeks and months.
What jm said at the top:
You can bet your bottom dollar it’s not over yet.
Posted by: manonfyre | Oct 30 2005 18:37 utc | 23
Oh…forgot to add Libby in 3 years or so may have to defend himself against a civil lawsuit. But, that’s an epoch in political time.
Posted by: slothrop | Oct 30 2005 18:45 utc | 24
slothrop
you are correct
there is no jurisprudential road to freedom – that path lads only to desolation
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 30 2005 18:47 utc | 25
“In our system of government an accused person is presumed innocent until a contrary finding is made by a jury after an opportunity to answer the charges and a full airing of the facts.”
Vice President Richard Cheney 28 October 2005.
Yeah, maybe if you are rich and have powerful friends. Little people don’t get this much leeway. Funny how these same people, the ones who demonstrate nothing but contempt for domestic and international law when it suits them, are the first to become proceduralists when one of their own has their delicate necks on the chopping block.
Hypocrisy, thy name is neocon.
Posted by: Monolycus | Oct 30 2005 19:00 utc | 26
Let’s not forget the political situation. NeoNuts on the warpath again. “Realists” want them out, headed by Scowcroft & Eagleberger, but including most sane people. “Realists” Can Get Serious Hearing in Elite Media. If that keeps up, Cheney becomes a liability, and could be pressured to resign for “health” reasons, or be made an offer he can’t refuse. Don’t think Halliburton would dare do it, but…
On the other hand, they may pull some terrible caper(s) here & perhaps abroad, which again changes the calculus.
Speaking of lawyers, Rove’s is “liberal” friend of Fitz.
Posted by: jj | Oct 30 2005 19:07 utc | 27
I am neither optimist nor pessimist in the case. Fitzgerald has set his trap and it may work or it may not work.
But at least the story gets legs and this may add to some wind of change in the US. A Leak, Then a Deluge a good Sunday A1 piece in WaPo and everybody who has read that one, even if he/she never heard of the plamegate before will see the very dark site of the Cheney government. It also contains more “leaks” of some “Senior Officials” against the cabal.
What I am really missing in the case is an open conection to Rumsfeld. There is one.
tante aime: If long and/or link-filled posts are worth writing, they’re worth writing offline in text files that can be copied and pasted into the comments box. Don’t let Typepad problems be an excuse in future.
Posted by: eb | Oct 30 2005 19:38 utc | 29
As long as Bush holds the Pardon Pen, there is no 30 year sentence hanging over Scooter, or anybody else. For all we know, the President has furthur obstructed justice by promising a pardon to anyone who falls on their sword and keeps the fickle finger of fitzgerald from pointing to Cheney or Rove or even Bush, himself.
Posted by: bcinaz | Oct 30 2005 20:07 utc | 30
Izzykof said that fitz went to see bush’s lawyer to tell him that tubby mctreason wasn’t getting indicted (eyes rolling)
As long as Bush holds the Pardon Pen, there is no 30 year sentence hanging over Scooter.
If you were scooter would you put the next 30 years of your life in “the war preznit’s” hand?
Frank Rich is ripping in today’s editorial on this very issue.
One Step Closer to the Big Enchilada
Posted by: Ensley | Oct 30 2005 20:52 utc | 33
it also might depend on who is holding the hand holding the pen.
Rove could threaten the Sampson (MAD) maneuver – bring him down, there will be no pardons and he brings the whole regime down with him. Who would risk it?
Just half-backed speculation.
Posted by: eftsoons | Oct 30 2005 20:58 utc | 34
Nice post via needlenoose:
Fitzgerald Refuses to Set Timetable for Withdrawal of Investigators
Special Prosecutor Vows to ‘Stay the Course Until the Job is Done’
Special to the Associated Press
28 October 2005
WASHINGTON, DC — Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald declined to announce a deadline for the removal of a team investigating the leak of a CIA agent’s identity, declaring that such a move would only encourage the insurgents currently occupying the nation’s capital.
…
Fitzgerald refused to comment on whether a new jury had been selected. However, he said his team has made excellent progress in training Congressional Democrats to defend their own territory.
“As they stand up, we will stand down,” he said.
I think it would have been too trite and circusy to have a plateful of endictments handed down and that would be it. This has piqued my interest more than anything lately, and I’m surprised, as I was getting bored and intending to tune out of this. Alas, mystery has prevailed.
Fitzgerald is a sure-footed, calculated, one step at a time professional. And also a showman as so many lawyers are. This is the opportunity of a lifetime and there are others behind it. He might be through with his part, or he might have more up his sleeve. No way of knowing, but that’s were our love of suspense kicks in. It makes complete sense that tease would be involved and that the conspiracy charges would come later, either through the judiciary, or an investigation by Congress. The force against this syndicate has been building for a long time and I think it’s solid and ready. It’s always advisable to aim and go in for the kill once and completely.
Especially as they all keep weakening throughout the year. I think their cohesion has been ruined.
The despair people feel about life is natural and ongoing, but this situation is immediate and offers a chance to participate in an unfolding story, and perhaps get some relief from the awareness and sometimes obssession with the futility of it all.
The tension created is the story, not Libby, Fitz, the judge, and all the others. As this drags on, I believe it will not lose it’s impact. Maybe gain momentum, and cause a great deal of political damage. It’s no mistake that this is all unfolding in an election year. I think we will be amused at the efforts of these people to scramble and prevent the downfall.
I think it’s political and metaphysical, that the end of their time is here. Not that this is any kind of solution at all, but it is a break and an opportunity.
Posted by: jm | Oct 30 2005 21:19 utc | 36
When Fitz gives you lemons,
make lemonade…
– – – – – – –
Mom, and Apple Pie(s) (serves 8, twice)
Filling (for two pies)
4 Jonagold or Northern Spy apples, large
4 Grannie Smith apples, large, and ripe
1 ripe lemon
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup corn syrup
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 dashes cloves
1/2 cup apple cider
1 tablespoon corn starch
Crust (for two pies)
2 packages Krusteaz pie crust mix (hey…)
1 stick (warm) unsalted butter
5-7 tablespoons COLD water per crust
handful of yellow cornmeal
handful of white sugar
In a large non-metallic bowl, wash, core
and cube apples into 1-1/2″ x 3/4″ pieces
Squeeze lemon juice over apples, grate
some of the peel in, and mix until coated.
Add sugars, syrups and spices, mix until
well-coated. Let sit to meld the flavors.
Wipe two 9″ pin tins with butter or lard
Put dough roller in freezer
In a large metallic bowl, using one package
of Krusteaz for bottom crust for two pies,
take 1/2 stick butter added in small lumps,
mix into pea size crumbles with wire wisk.
Add only a few tablespoons cold water and
mix, until crust ball lifts away from bowl
Cut one half crust ball onto wax paper and
pat flat. Shake corn meal over crust, and
roll to a thin crust, (it’s in the freezer!)
just to where it gets hard to keep spreading.
Invert over pie pan and peel off wax paper,
pushing crust gently into pan. Trim excess.
Repeat for other pie bottom crust. Keep warm.
Repeat above for top crusts, but set aside
in a warm place while you finish the filling.
Set oven at 355 degrees to heat. Set a flat, rolled edge pan in the lower rack, and set
the upper rack just above the mid-height.
Stir corn starch into cold cider, heat until
mixture clears and thickens. Remove from heat,
and pour into apple mixture, turning with your
hand until evenly mixed.
One handful at a time, fill pie pans equally
to a mounded shape. Pour thickened juice mix
into pie, but only to within 1/4″ of the rim.
Avoid dripping onto the rim. Lick the bowl.
Invert top crusts over filling and gently
press down around the rim. Quickly clean up
while you wait for oven to reach pre-heat.
The crust trimmings can be frozen for later.
Almost done….
Rinse hands in cold water and gently wipe
the top crust rim. Using a fork, gently
press the top crust rim into the bottom
crust rim, fluting the edge. With a small
knife, pierce top crust in a tiny pattern.
Shake white sugar over warm top crust, and
holding over the sink, blow off any excess.
Put pies into oven. Set timer for 30 minutes.
At thirty minutes, rotate pies 180 degrees,
and switch their positions on the oven rack.
Start watching closely. After about another
15 minutes, crust will begin to tan. Rotate
pies 180 degrees again. After about another
ten minutes, pies will start to bubble and
drip. Let them, watching crust until it sets
up golden, and sugar just begins to carmelize.
Immediately remove pies and set on counter.
After 5 minutes to set up, remove the pies
to window, garage or refrigerator to cool.
As soon as they are just warm, bring them
back into the kitchen, so crust stays crisp.
Best eaten with home-made, hand-cranked,
goat-milk vanilla ice cream, and maple syrup
topping, like we used to do back in Vermont
during apple picking, down on the farm.
– – – – – –
Au chante’!
Posted by: tante aime | Oct 30 2005 22:47 utc | 37
Another good quote from the WaPo article Billmon cites:
And by a 3 to 1 ratio, 46 percent to 15 percent, Americans say the level of honesty and ethics in the government has declined rather than risen under Bush.
As this drags on, I believe it will not lose it’s impact. Maybe gain momentum, and cause a great deal of political damage
the implications from this are stunning. the more tantalizing the more dangerous for them in the election. with a change of balance in congress the opportunity for a full open investigation and possible impeachment becomes possible. it will be an election like no other. the scrutiny of the election process and the need for the thugs to cheat , once again will be paramount.
Posted by: annie | Oct 30 2005 23:10 utc | 39
From Frank Rich’s editorial:
Why have the official reports on detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo spared all but a single officer in the chain of command? Why does Halliburton continue to receive lucrative government contracts even after it’s been the focus of multiple federal inquiries into accusations of bid-rigging, overcharging and fraud? Why did it take five weeks for Pat Tillman’s parents to be told that their son had been killed by friendly fire, and who ordered up the fake story of his death that was sold relentlessly on TV before then?
These are all excellent questions, but are not material in any way to the Plame investigation.
Also, there’s no law prohibiting lies made by elected officials to the public about “reasons” for war.
Posted by: slothrop | Oct 30 2005 23:11 utc | 40
In my opinion Fitzgerald is a side-show.
It’s just diverting US from endless war,
and a crash-diving economy, no prospects.
This really is about loaves and fishes.
Ben Stein was on Sunday Morning today,
proselytizing about Adelphi’s bankrupcy,
and the impending bankrupcies of Ford
and GMC, and impending US recession under
new Fed Chair “Printing Press” Bernanke.
In a sense, he’s right. Check this out:
http://tinyurl.com/bqtb4
That’s the number of non-IT US engineering
jobs out there right now, from a national
job aggregator database. Kinda depressing!!
The US is becoming hollowed out, until
it’s no more than retail, finance and IT,
and IT is going overseas like gangbusters.
So retail, and finance, and big government.
That explains the $8T government deficit.
Works Progress Administration, making bacon.
Once that deficit and US$ devalution hits,
retail will go south, leaving only finance.
Big Finance, and Big Government.
Well, well, well.
Now you know the rest of the story, and
why Ben Stein and his Wall Street buddies
are crying in their beer. All those US
pension funds going bankrupt are the
death knell of Wall Street. All those
401(k)’s that nobody can afford to pay
into a ‘for whom the bell tolls’.
If you’re a Wall Street trader, you gotta
be screaming in your Mercedes. No way to
claw your way into a shrinking government,
with everything and everyone gone 1099-P/C,
fewer and fewer small investors, and the
big ones integrating behind the corrupt.
In one sense then, Ben Stein, and Ben
Bernanke, represent one future of US.
Either invest everything you have in
the stock market, and run the printing
presses night and day, hoping to make
your (paper) billions, or sit at the
railing, watching the lifeboats pull
away, singing Nearer My God to Thee.
Wasn’t it FDR who said we have nothing
to fear, except fear itself? Should we
shower our hard-earned savings down on
the departing lifeboats? Don’t the elite
traitors have enough of our estate?
Rosa Parks said, “But when I had to face
that decision, I didn’t hesitate to do so
because I felt that we had endured that
too long. The more we gave in, the more
we complied with that kind of treatment,
the more oppressive it became.”
So, Mr. Stein, with all due respect,
you and your Wall Street buddies can
kiss my ruby-red ass. I’m not buying
into your ponzi scheme anymore, not
with after-hours trading and point-
shaving-before-post, pump-and-dump
and time-to-shear-the-sheep.
Wall Street is Las Vegas East.
I expect the monies *paid into* the
Social Security *Trust Fund* to be
there, and I expect to collect them,
or I expect to kick some serious ass
at the ballot box, or in the streets.
And if Fitz brings the Neo-Cons down,
then, hoo-rah. Same s–t, different day.
Posted by: tante aime | Oct 31 2005 0:19 utc | 41
Here’s a passage from today’s Fitzgerald indictment:
On or about July 10, 2003, LIBBY spoke to NBC Washington Bureau Chief Tim Russert to complain about press coverage of LIBBY by an MSNBC reporter. LIBBY did not discuss Wilson’s wife with Russert.
Who was the reporter drawing Libby’s ire? It was almost certainly Chris Matthews.
1. What happened with Matthews coverage after that? Did Matthews get with the program? Are there indications that Russert muzzled Matthews?
2. When did Matthews tell people about “fair game.”
Does anybody know the sequence?
Posted by: eftsoons | Oct 31 2005 0:56 utc | 43
Hope, doubt, despair, defeatism . . . and worse.
I concede I am not among the sharpest tools in the shed here. “Naive”? Perhaps. Still . . .
If I surrender hope, then there is no reason to act. And if I do not act, then I have surrendered my political power.
If I tolerate injustice, if only by dejected acquiesence, then I am complicit in the commission of that injustice.
If justice is the sum of the prevailing political calculus, rather than mewling about what may or may not happen in this case (as in others), we should, indeed, be standing up and demanding that “justice be done though the heavens fall.”
All the GOP water carriers and their media apologists certainly have not surrendered.
Sideline whiners are their accomplices and deserve to be disappointed.
Democracy is a participation sport. Get in the game!
btw:
Also, there’s no law prohibiting lies made by elected officials to the public about “reasons” for war.
~ slothrop
Former Nixon Counsel, John Dean, comes to a very different legal conclusion:
To put it bluntly, if Bush has taken Congress and the nation into war based on bogus information, he is cooked. Manipulation or deliberate misuse of national security intelligence data, if proven, could be “a high crime” under the Constitution’s impeachment clause. It would also be a violation of federal criminal law, including the broad federal anti-conspiracy statute, which renders it a felony “to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose.”
~ http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20030606.html
And Article 2 and Article 5 of the Impeachment bill drawn up by for US Attorney General, Ramsey Clark, go directly to the issue of “lying” us into this illegal war in Iraq:
http://impeachbush.pephost.org/site/PageServer?pagename=VTI_articles
Posted by: manonfyre | Oct 31 2005 1:44 utc | 44
Re tante aime etc, it blows my mind that Everyone is More Concerned about Iraq than the fact the western banks are cannibalizing the entire productive legacy of 2000 yrs of western culture…shipping ’em lock stock ‘n’ barrel to China. Gone Mad w/Greed. And no one, including Tablogs, is more than mildly concerned. That’s Waterloo. Everyone should be fighting mad. That should be Front & Center of Everyone’s concerns, here & in Europe. The rest is tertiary, after environmental/population concerns. It’s why West. govts. getting into the business of Merchandising Fear.
OT, radio on in background. Seems to be some Jimi Hendrix special. Jimi Flunked Music in School!!
Posted by: jj | Oct 31 2005 1:44 utc | 45
Wilson is a liar.
~ Newt Gingrich
this is incredibly funny since Gingrich was one of the visitors to the OSP bypass operation at the Pentagon. Why not have one of the manson nuts say that Charles is sane?
Sizemore- why couldn’t that reporter be Olberman? He got called on the carpet for having TWO liberal guests within two days of one another.
now back to woik.
Posted by: fauxreal | Oct 31 2005 1:52 utc | 46
You people are too cynical and have no patience.
Seems to me the Memphis lawyer has it about right.
Posted by: Groucho | Oct 31 2005 2:21 utc | 47
manonfyre
thanks for the clarification. I should certainly have added the proviso ‘no law’ prohibiting prevarication to the public via media.
I’ve read Dean’s article. I’d point out the debate over executive dominance of war powers is tangled by legal precedent. Federal courts have routinely rejected Congressional challenge to executive instigation of conflict and have mostly extended executive power. But I’m no expert. How lies can be ignored by such power, as a practice defended by legal precedent, is unknown to me.
Posted by: slothrop | Oct 31 2005 2:48 utc | 48
@Pat Oct 30, 2005 8:56:54 AM
To expand on my early post and by way of further clarification:
The actual identity of classified sources and in this case covert operatives, especially those under deep, long term, Non Offcial Cover (NOC), is very strictly protected indeed by explicit classification and selective ‘sanitization’ of even indirectly corroborative information re thier true identities and status.
Unlike classified material of all grades, which can be disseminated in a wide variety of forms, i.e. reports, summaries, analysis, briefings, etc, the actual identity of such individuals is constrained on a very strict, ‘Need to Know’ basis.
This is at the heart of the Agency approaching the Justice Department and instigating the Plame investigation.
When the WH, OVP or NSC, etc, requested information re Wilson and Niger the briefings and written materials would have been ‘sanitized’ to specifically prevent source or operatives being ID’d.
Unless of course, ‘active’ measures were taken to discover the true status of Valerie Plame and subsequently out Plame and her cover company, Brewster & Jennings … such actions don’t fall under any applicable definition of the ‘Need to Know’ re serving National Security interests.
They in fact amount to treason.
I say again, the ‘outting’ of Valerie Plame and Brewster & Jennings, is at the heart of the Agency approaching the Justice Department and instigating the Plame investigation. And its all very much indeed about the strict application of the ‘Need to Know’, regardless of the authority of the individual or office concerned or thier level of security clearance …
Posted by: Outraged | Oct 31 2005 4:45 utc | 49
Thanks for the response, Outraged.
“When the WH, OVP or NSC, etc, requested information re Wilson and Niger the briefings and written materials would have been ‘sanitized’ to specifically prevent source or operatives being ID’d.
“Unless of course, ‘active’ measures were taken to discover the true status of Valerie Plame and subsequently out Plame and her cover company, Brewster & Jennings … such actions don’t fall under any applicable definition of the ‘Need to Know’ re serving National Security interests.”
Outraged, why would CIA’s Mr. X pass along information to which the OVP was not entitled? What is that standard as it applies to the OVP? DID Mr. X IN FACT pass along information to which the OVP was not entitled? I have not read that anywhere and it is not in the body of the indictment, which finally concerns itself with HOW the fact of her employment made it into the public domain – rather than finally HOW the fact of her employment made it into the OVP. I have not read or heard of Need to Know being violated by the transmission of the fax from the CIA that provided the Plame backround.
What was Plame’s status at the time? The indictment does not tell us and the CIA has been mute. As there are more personnel classifications than NOC – employment and position often classified separately and subject to change – and her status seems not to have satisfied the requirements for a successful prosecution of Libby under the IIPA, I take it that her employment and position with the Agency were otherwise classified at the time. How long, for instance, since she’d been working overseas in a covert capacity?
One can consider it a technicality, Outraged, a technicality which prevented Fitzgerald from bringing the indictment most expected – one which prevented him from charging Libby with ‘outing’ a covert agent under the law he has to work with.
Posted by: Pat | Oct 31 2005 6:06 utc | 50
As getting all wound up, only to be bitterly disappointed, is generally not a good thing, I offer the following from the Washington Monthly (posted there yesterday) and leave it to other commenters to pick over and apart:
[…]
However, as Steve at Begging to Differ reminds us, “covert” is a very specifically defined term for the purposes of IIPA:
“A present or retired officer or employee of an intelligence agency…whose identity as such an officer, employee, or member is classified information, and who is serving outside the United States or has within the last five years served outside the United States.”
Here’s what Fitzgerald said about that yesterday:
“I am not speaking to whether or not Valerie Wilson was covert….I will confirm that her association with the CIA was classified at that time through July 2003. And all I’ll say is that, look, we have not made any allegation that Mr. Libby knowingly, intentionally outed a covert agent.”
So her identity was classified, but had she served outside the United States during the five years prior to her outing in 2003? She was based in Brussels in early 1997, but as Vanity Fair reported last year:
“In 1997, Plame moved back to the Washington area, partly because…the C.I.A. suspected that her name may have been on a list given to the Russians by the double agent Aldrich Ames in 1994.”
So for the six years previous to 2003, Plame was based in the U.S., not overseas. And legally, as far as IIPA is concerned, that means she wasn’t covert.
And that’s the most likely reason that Fitzgerald didn’t indict anyone for the actual act of leaking Valerie Plame’s name. As reckless as it was — and Fitzgerald made it crystal clear that he did think it was reckless — he probably decided on technical grounds that he wouldn’t have been able to successfully win a conviction under either of the applicable statutes.
—Kevin Drum 7:11 PM
Posted by: Pat | Oct 31 2005 6:31 utc | 51
Thank you Uncle$ for your troubling link to the Sibel Edmunds case. Again, with all of the Fitzy hullabaloo, we must be extra vigilant to monitor and publicize actions like this and the Patriot Act stuff that the powers that be think they can conveniently sweep under the table.
****************
One point which I have not seen brought up anywhere else: If Fitz actually pulls off the Big Kahuna here–major indictments of conspiracy with absolutely convincing evidentiary records, what would such a success mean for his personal ambitions? I submit that if he was able to deliver it all on a platter, that he could virtually write his own political ticket, including support from a left/right coalition that Perot couldn’t hope to wet dream about. If people felt he stood for unimpeachable integrity, the spin machine would be powerless to destroy him, and as Dean has shown, campaign money from the lumpen proletariat would be almost endless. In other words, we are potentially looking at a figure fully as formidable as Teddy Rossevelt. What do others think?
******************
One additional thought: About a week ago I started reading firedoglake blog, as many others here have. The postings and comments went a long way to helping me understand the Plame situation and clarify my thoughts. Then, in just a few short days, I witnessed a phenomenon similar in type but even greater in scale than what I saw happen to Billmon’s original blog. The blog became so popular, and comments became so copious that the insight rapidly devolved into useless drivel of the order of “I gotta go to the bathroom, so I might not respond to you’all for the next seven minutes.” A group massage within an echo chamber within a hall of mirrors.
It is interesting to see an example of “catastrophic success” in action. Actually, many blogs that have become wildly successful have become exponentially less interesting as they have developed. Two years ago, I used to read Kos with a lot of interest. Now I hardly ever find anthing of much value there.
How do others feel about this?
I would be interested in hearing a clarification of a minor technical point: the 30 year figure for Libby’s potential jail time is the sum of the terms associated with each of the 5 counts of the indictment. Is it usual to serve such sentences consecutively or concurrently? If the latter, it would seem that his potential period of incarceration drops to 10 years or less. I doubt that he will undergo any more than a brief symbolic incarceration, even if convicted.
Nevertheless, one has to wonder if this indictment is to be compared to the initial arraignment of Barker, McCord and the the other Watergate burglars, although it starts much higher up the administrative ladder. If the prophylaxis is to be brought to term it must cauterize not only the open wound around the presidency, but also three entire branches of government. Disinfecting the entire body politic will be no easy task. It is clearly beyond the capacity and charge of even the most resolute, competent and honest prosecutor. Nevertheless, I agree with those who urge not patience, but perserverance.
It’s been better said a long time ago:
It is for us …, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Yeah, it’s dangerous and heady prose, dripping with exceptionalism and messianism, but any movement seriously
attempting to right the obvious wrongs with American foreign and social policy had better find a way to incorporate that still resonant rhetoric into the fiber of its protest.
Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Oct 31 2005 7:32 utc | 53
Drip…drip…drip…
don’t look now, but while they’re distracting us w/Fitz, Iraq, Syria..blah.blah..bullets…and more bullets, NYT Mag. droped a Hydrogen Bomb today: The End of Pensions
I’ll have to check a few Tablogs to see if any gave a Shit. Billmon obviously didn’t. Don’t think Americablog did. Didn’t see it on quick glance @Buzzflash…I didn’t name ’em Tablogs for nothing, though I wondered if MacTablogs would be better name (Manipulation and Cartharsis Tabloid-Weblogs), but thght. it too obscure & had trouble w/the capitalization…Since the Soros party will be only too happy to go along w/their destruction, guess they don’t want to offend their patrons.
Posted by: jj | Oct 31 2005 9:02 utc | 54
Japan’s Ruling party, has released a new draft of the Japanese Constitution The draft drops the whole ‘renouncing war’ bit, and re-titles article 9 ‘national security’.
My girlfriend is Japanese, I love Japan, but this sucks…She thinks so too.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 31 2005 10:06 utc | 55
opps, that was meant for the open thread sorry…
Again on preview, to Malooga’s comments above, in which he wrote:
The blog became so popular, and comments became so copious that the insight rapidly devolved into useless drivel of the order of “I gotta go to the bathroom, so I might not respond to you’all for the next seven minutes.” A group massage within an echo chamber within a hall of mirrors.
Interesting point, I never thought of it that way, but it definitely resonates better than my theory.
Which is two fold in that, I think people whom blog get blogging comments mixed up w/IM (chat) and forget it’s not “real-time”, my other thought was that, blogs do seem to ‘breath’ and expand/deflate, often they become what Hakim Bey refers to as a TAZ ( Temporary Autonomous Zone ), then peters out, and starts all over again. But often w/less quality. But a “A group massage within an echo chamber within a hall of mirrors.”, far outweighs my theory…lol
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 31 2005 10:29 utc | 56
Malooga points to “catastrophic success” of of the firedoglake blog – it’s getting so filled with comments that it serves a cybersocial, rather than informative function –
yes, that happened also at Whiskey Bar – Billmon turned off the comments – Moon of Alabama cropped up – and now here we are – many thanks to bernhard and all those others whose efforts have resulted in this
yet another example of the Goldilocks principle in action – the superiority of the middle way – a few, but not too many comments, findable, but not too close to the original postings
Posted by: mistah charley | Oct 31 2005 14:09 utc | 57
malooga & mistah charley
firedoglake is the only other site i have poster other than our own l
lespeakeasy
it seemed to me about 2 months ago – there was fresh & ften new information – sometimes very detailed & as here – some extremely important links
however in the week preceding the indictement & now there is a form of optimism completely outweighed by the availabla facts & some of the empirical reality
they are doing some good work still – the three girls – but their faith in the ‘law’ itself is counteracted by the known facts
mu own take you know is considerably more dark – but the empire we fight is so dark that every now & then on wants to be believe in infantilist fairy tales where the dragonslayer kills the monster. i too am guilty of that & unlike slothrop i move too far from the texts
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 31 2005 14:33 utc | 58
just had to say that a group massage (are we all naked? Oiled? Is that insense I smell, and what’s that smoke–it doesn’t smell like normal cigarettes, oh, the sounds…echoing…echoing…oh-ing…and the lights glittering, all that skin, digging deep into my muscles, ah, yes, oh, that one too? Cool.
So, as one who would be privileged to add smoke, mirrors, and sensuality to the proceedings….Ahem. Ahurgh. Agharrumph!
Yes. Cough. Myself, I see it as a pub conversation where I’m happy to sit and listen. I don’t need to know who’s going to the toilet. But it’s good to know who’s buying the next round.
Barman, whatever they’re having. Mine’s a pint of Natural Blonde (Dark Star brewery, Sussex, England) and, okay then, a single malt. Make it salty.
Cough.
Argh!
Posted by: Argh | Oct 31 2005 15:59 utc | 59
(Far far out, way beyond OT…)
just had to say that a group massage (are we all naked? Oiled? Is that insense I smell, and what’s that smoke–it doesn’t smell like normal cigarettes, oh, the sounds…echoing…echoing…oh-ing…and the lights glittering, all that skin, digging deep into my muscles, ah, yes, oh, that one too? Cool.
So, as one who would be privileged to add smoke, mirrors, and sensuality to the proceedings….Ahem. Ahurgh. Agharrumph!
Yes. Cough. Myself, I see it as a pub conversation where I’m happy to sit and listen. I don’t need to know who’s going to the toilet. But it’s good to know who’s buying the next round.
Barman, whatever they’re having. Mine’s a pint of Natural Blonde (Dark Star brewery, Sussex, England) and, okay then, a single malt. Make it salty.
Cough.
Argh!
Posted by: Argh | Oct 31 2005 15:59 utc | 60
group massage?? where? this is a bar for christ sakes;)
Posted by: annie | Oct 31 2005 17:46 utc | 62
group massage?? where? this is a bar for christ sakes;)
LOL 🙂
Posted by: Outraged | Oct 31 2005 17:57 utc | 63
BREAKING IN ITALY: How the Iraq War was Prepared
While Berlusconi dishes out his intergalactic bullshit (Title of il Manifesto yesterday: Balle spaziale) as a latter-day peacenik, the Bonini- D’Avanzo team publish a new series that promises to have far-reaching consequences. The first installment reveals what happened at the secret Rome meetings starting in December 2001, involving Sismi agents, Ledeen, Franklin, Rhode and the crucial protagonists, Aras Habib Karim and Francis Brooke. Ghorbanifar, according to Sismi sources, had a minor role, more as a decoy, to divert attention.
Posted by: annie | Oct 31 2005 18:01 utc | 64
r’giap, your firedoglake didn’t open, i suppose you are referring toreddhedd’s new post
a good one i might add
I know. Shocking. But it looks like Dick Cheney is now being cast in the role of convenient pariah to take the heat off the Empty Suit Bushie and Unka Karl.
Posted by: annie | Oct 31 2005 18:58 utc | 67
annie, no it was the dkos article from fdl
they are still a good source but i find the optimistic rendering of the poster ‘me” – a little difficult to swallow in relation to events
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 31 2005 19:06 utc | 68
Open Letter to Crisis Papers Co-Editor, Bernard Weiner
Dear Mr. Weiner:
Starting with the search term, “permanent war,” I have been combing the internet this morning for ammunition — truth, really — aimed squarely at the overthrow of the war party that has seized political control of our country. One can only describe the colossal deviousness of the Bush Adminstration and its philosophers as diabolical, particularly as regards their use of WAR! as the principal vehicle for achieving not only their dubious Pax Americana abroad, but as “cover” for their utterly corrupt and subversive machinations here at home (looting the Treasury; stealing our pensions; raping the commons; rigging elections; authorizing torture: reversing “settled” law; and so on and so forth, ad nauseum). Nod, Heir Rove, to Herman Goerring:
“It is always simply a matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”
and to the Wizard of Oz:
“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.”
Eventually, I entered the search term, “grave national crisis,” presuming I might bring up some historical, five-alarm opus penned at another perilous juncture in our past. The “#1” result (found at http://www.dogpile.com), however, is your your Crisis Paper essay, “A Cancerous Tumor in the Body Politic: Time for Surgery.”
I am a nobody; a working-class slob — but a deeply concerned citizen, and a living witness to one of the gravest national crises into which the United States has ever been sunk.
Thank you for this excellent prescription! Let’s hope we can break through the collective denial; choose, as a nation, the surgery you recommend; and rightly manage the years of recovery and rehabilitation that must follow.
Sincerely,
Posted by: manonfrye | Oct 31 2005 20:00 utc | 69
I know. Shocking. But it looks like Dick Cheney is now being cast in the role of convenient pariah to take the heat off the Empty Suit Bushie and Unka Karl.
This is the best FireDogLake can do? No wonder they’re in league w/DailySoros.
Manonfyre if you keep up w/bushwatch, they feature art. by CrisisPapers editors, Chris Floyd, as well as major headlines from the day – vastly superior to the overwrought party hack stuff @buzzflash, as the link to today’s linked articles demonstrates. They used to be better (& far more fun!!), but still the best I’ve found recently.
Posted by: jj | Oct 31 2005 20:39 utc | 70
I have always found this to be the unfortunate case. The larger the crowd, the lower the common denominator. I am titillated by popular blogs with infinite comments at first, persuaded by false excitement, but I quickly see the reality.
I tuned into Firedoglake for the first time last weekend, and the enthusiasm was nice and the people good hearted, but an hour or so was all I needed. Too fast, too much, and not enough density and creativity for me. Child’s play.
One major factor that keeps drawing me back to Moon of Alabama is the political interest mixed so gracefully with the artistic. It’s an age old tradition and needs to be continued. The space and attention each one gets is equal to the talent with words that I experience from so many here. This requires a small group, I believe, to maintain such high quality. Being sueezed and hurried is not good for self expression.
I’ve been a barfly since the age of 12, and my career ended up there, so I suppose that explains a lot. I’ve never shied away from the altered state of mind.
Posted by: jm | Oct 31 2005 21:49 utc | 71
I took a look at jj’s link about pensions would first of all like to say that if many of us appear unconcerned about the fate of the Amerikan worker it’s that the decimation of their rights although bad, has occured within the context of a ‘participatory democracy’ and although I am sad that they are being burnt, they have had considerably more input into the situation than the forty iraqis slaughtered in a US bombing raid last night.
As someone who has had considerable experience negotiating retirement benefit packages for union members I would like to say that any union official who by the early 1980’s was signing up to agreements that didn’t a\Require the employers to fund a worker’s retirement benefits during the time of their employment and b\Insist that the fund be independent of the employer’s control, particularly on investment decisions; was foolish, lazy or corrupt.
Myself being the exception that proves the rule, you didn’t meet a whole heck of a lot of stupid people being allowed anywhere near negotiations for the vast amounts of money that pension plans entail.
Whenever I have seen instances of workers’ representatives attempting to be remiss in ensuring that employers fund their obligation, there has been a bit of the old ‘quid pro quo’ at work. That is it wouldn’t be unusual to find some of the ‘upfront cash’ for the fund being invested in something like a property trust which buys the union’s headquarters building.
The other consideration that needs to be taken into account when examining the actions of these ‘not stupid people’ is that if the union movement in the US is anything like movements in other developed countries, these people will have senior plum spots in the demopublican party by now.
Does that mitigate the effects on Joe Lunchbox now 60 and without a pot to piss in or a hope in hell of getting adequate care for his by now chronic medical condition?
No of course not but it does mean that the outrage at these battlers parlous situation needs to be properly focussed at the causes and channelled to best deliver amelioration.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Oct 31 2005 21:54 utc | 72
It happens eventually to all suckers who sell their souls to the company store. Who put the company into a parental role and abdicate all responsibility for their futures. Who think they can sit back in front of their Big Screens and ride it out devouring the products these companies sell, eating fried animal parts and multi-colored drinks to the bursting point.
Anyone who thinks he can give up the second to second personal vigilance it takes to survive is bound to get screwed.
Posted by: jm | Oct 31 2005 22:22 utc | 73
As long as Bush holds the Pardon Pen, there is no 30 year sentence hanging over Scooter.
I don’t think a pardon is likely as long as the investigation into the leak remains open. The indictment of Libby actually helps Bush avoid a full accounting of the Plame leak, at least temporarily. Here’s how.
As a criminal defendant, Libby now has an absolute Fifth Amendment right not to answer any questions about the Plame leak, including any questions about his conversations with Cheney and Rove in which they discussed Plame and her status. Right now, Fitzgerald cannot compel Libby to answer any questions or provide any information about the leak. Libby would simply invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
If Libby were pardoned, however, he would be granted immunity from all criminal prosecution for the crimes charge in the indictment and any other crimes, including IIPA and the Espionage Act, and would lose the right to invoke the Fifth Amendment.
If Libby were pardoned, Fitzgerald would immediately subpoena him to the Grand Jury and require him to explain his dealings with Cheney, Rove, etc, and his conduct in leaking Plame’s identity to reporters. In addition, and perhaps more importantly, Fitzgerald could require Libby to explain why he lied to the FBI, Grand Jury, etc. If Libby refused to answer, Fitzgerald could seek a contempt order and have him jailed until he provided answers (see Judith Miller).
In addition, a pardon would give immunity only for past conduct and would not protect Libby from prosecution for future perjury. If Libby were subpoenaed, he would have to answer all questions completely and truthfully. If Libby lied, he could be indicted again for perjury.
In a perverted way, Libby’s indictment actually helps Bush since it acts as a natural firewall to further disclosure to Fitzgerald about the leaks by Libby. For these reasons, Bush is unlikely to pardon Libby at least as long as the investigation remains open.
Posted by: pearlymatt | Nov 1 2005 3:24 utc | 74
It is interesting to see an example of “catastrophic success” in action. Actually, many blogs that have become wildly successful have become exponentially less interesting as they have developed. Two years ago, I used to read Kos with a lot of interest. Now I hardly ever find anthing of much value there.
How do others feel about this?
Mind your nostrils, barfiles, we’ve got a marksman here. Completely crushed it, Malooga. As I’ve said here before, the more popular/successful (read: traffic and $$$) blogs are becoming exactly what they despise: The MSM! With the success and the ammount of money they’re pulling in from BlogAds, donations, and merch, they start thinking that they’re really important and the blogosphere would be nothing without them. In other words, just like the insulated MSM, popular bloggers start to believe their own bullshit on the same level as James “Ultimate Warrior” Helwig — the former WWF wrestler who turned conservative moonbat.
Nowadays, Helwig is known as “WARRIOR”. Even his kids’ surname is “Warrior”. The idea that he legally changed his name from James Hellwig to “Warrior” should tell a person straight off that all the little Warriors chainganged inside Hellwig’s skull stopped pulling their weight on the ol’ elevator cable a long, long, time ago resulting in them getting crushed with an audible SPLUT! and anyone that actively seeks out a political debate with him is either an old school wrastlin’ fan that still ties bicycle streamers to thier own flabby bicebs to this very day, bored stiff, has an equal ammount of dead little warriors underneath their own perpetually grounded elevator, or a combination of all the above.
In much the same fashion, debating or discussing current events on popular/successful blogs can be just as harrowing as a debate with “Warrior” … and sometimes, you might be lead to believe that a debate with Warrior could be enlightening in contrast just as long you leave the streamers on the goddamned bicycle. But nevertheless, deep inside, you know that you’d be better off just picking any of the four walls surrounding your PC and yammering to your own shadow instead.
Here’s a nice little tidbit to masticate:
All dressed up in a civil suit
Posted by: jm | Nov 1 2005 4:49 utc | 76
Thought you’d like it, Annie.
Maybe we artists live in a fantasy world, but what the hell. Maintaining hope isn’t a crime yet.
Posted by: jm | Nov 1 2005 6:51 utc | 78
deconstructing jj
yo jj,
thanks for the bushwatch link, though i have not yet gotten it to work. perhaps their server is down or updating. could not quite make the chris floyd/crisis papers link, either.
given your (how shall i say this?) acerbic wit and my reading that you are bit pissed off with any number of our compatriots here on the left, i wondered for an instance if i shouldn’t take what appears a very straightforward and kind referral as something else; like maybe, “hey firedude, that tablog bushwatch has news AND pictures. it suits you. take your crayons.” but i’m past that. again, thanks.
for clarity’s sake, can you say more about what you mean by the “soros party?” do you mean something like nader’s “corporate toady” democrats; the slightly more socially responsible side of the “two wings of the US Chamber of Commerce Party” democrats; “America, Best Democracy Money Can Buy” democrats; “significantly beholden to the invisible dictatorship of capital” democrats?
and beyond bushwatch and the whiskey bar, where do turn for the straight story?
(does this belong on the “open” thread? i’d’ve emailed personally if you’d provided a link.)
said the fly to the spider?
Posted by: manonfyre | Nov 1 2005 8:06 utc | 79
Anyone care for a tall slim glass of Irony?
Pro-manufacturing posters, goofy & vintage
The Manufacturer’s Blog posts a new pro-manufacturing poster every Wednesday, predominantly vintage Americana of the sort displayed here, which reads YOU PROSPER WHEN FACTORIES PROSPER (other gems: WHAT IS GOOD FOR INDUSTRY IS GOOD FOR YOUR FAMILY, GOOD TIMES FOR INDUSTRY MEAN GOOD TIMES FOR YOU, and TO OUR TRENTON MANUFACTURERS: IF YOU HAVE MEN OR WOMEN WORKING FOR YOU WHO ARE NOT AMERICAN CITIZENS WONT YOU HELP THEM TO BECOME CITIZENS? THE SAFETY OF OUR REPUBLIC DEPENDS ON THIS. THE LIONS CLUB OF TRENTON NEW JERSEY.)
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Nov 1 2005 11:32 utc | 80