Tough to take the CIA seriously when you read stuff like this:

It came to us, George [Tenet, the former head of the CIA] had a raised eyebrow, and basically we passed it on ... into the organization. You know, it was: "Okay, we gotta do this, but make it go away" ... As I remember it -- and, again, it's still vague, so I'll be very straight with you on this -- is it wasn't that important. It was: "This is unbelievable. This is just like all the other garbage we get about ... I mean Mohammad Atta and links to al Qaeda. "Rob," you know, "do something with this." I think it was more like that than: "Get this done."

So basically...

"yeah we forged it, but it wasn't that big of a deal. They didn't hand it to me all formal and say, 'This is a very serious matter.' George was practically laughing the whole time about how crazy these guys were! See, it's all hilarious how we got into a war! So don't investigate or calling wrong-doing, it's just a big joke!"

This morning, the "sorority link" was front page news on the Chicago Tribune, Detroit Free Press, Yahoo, and CNN websites, before the NYT article questioning the evidence was up. Shortly after that, all the links to Ivins & his alleged sorority obsession were removed from those other sites.

Time to send the tube back to the Ministry of Information to delete the links and alter the content... How about "alleged Al-Qaeda #2 possibly in Iraq"? Or maybe "Marines kill X number of suspected militants in Afghanistan"? or my favorite: "golden retriever adopts tiger cubs at local zoo"?

In my opinion, the statements from the therapist, Ms. Duley, are the most troublesome. (Not that I believe them). The ridiculous aspersions cast on Ivins regarding the KKG sorority, alcohol abuse & pornography really don't hold any water when you think about them. But if a licensed therapist (albeit one with some criminal & substance abuse problems of her own) is claiming you threatened to kill people and go out in a blaze of glory... that seems to be the most damaging allegation so far. And since the FBI only needs to convict the now-deceased Ivins in the Media & Court of Public Opinion, it is a sticking point.

I read the article noting that Duley was still in college as of '07 - '08, but shouldn't it be even easier to find out if she was a licensed therapist at all? Does Maryland have a state board overseeing this? Or was she just holding impromptu therapy sessions open to the general public in her living room?

Now the ball is back in their court to drag these jokers out in front to testify.

I bet they were hoping the court would rule the aides had immunity so they could go back to merely whining about their refusal to testify, instead of doing something about it.

Didn't see your post before I posted mine!

Everyone have a nice night!

Nor is there any chance it can become a religion.

Religion: the use of ignorance, also known as "faith" to justify accepting vague, and illogical explanations of how the world around us "works."

Science: the use of observable physical evidence of natural phenomena to collect data, and analyze this information to explain what and how things work.

Honestly... it's the 21st century, man. It's time to get with the program.

PS - And to that weasel Ben Stein, claiming scientists are being close-minded by not willingly debating creationists. They had that debate back in 1850... YOU LOST. Who's really the close-minded one here?

I'm not so sure she won't at least bring this up for a vote. As noted, Mukasey has been ordered by his "client" Pres. Bush not to investigate further.

I've got to assume Pelosi is aware of the backlash among some of her constituents for her blanket refusal to pursue impeachment proceedings, and for the FISA deal. The Bush Administration probably still owes her a little something for all her loyal service, so they'll cover for her here, knowing there's really no chance anything will happen to Karl Rove.

I'm sure she could care less whether Rove is held accountable or not. But she can score some cheap political cash by holding the vote, and passing the buck to the DOJ, well aware they're not going to do anything about it.

At that point it will die... she can preserve the notion that she's still doing something while in office, and 99% of the American population won't know any different.

And of course, when we here in Oceania are once again allied with the Eastasians, and at war with the Eurasians, all Brownback's comments will be retroactively deleted from the senate record.

Hope I can keep up so I don't inadvertantly commit any Thoughtcrimes...

Monthly figures seem more apt to determine the trend. Why only go back one month, as cited in the article? Why not graph out the last three or four? That makes the most sense to me.

They are both relevent, of course. The year-to-year numbers show the depth of the problem, but they hold no prediction value, in my opinion.