Letters to the Editor
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The right-wing megaphone
"from Rush Limbaugh down" --- isn't that wrong-side up? On second thought, maybe Ann Coulter is lower, but not by much.
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Dishonesty
Don't forget the official, on the record, statements by McLellan in his capacity as Press secretary, that he had spoken to both Rove and Libby and could assure the press, and all America, that neither Rove or Libby were involved in the leak.
There is no question that statement is untrue. The only questions are whether Libby or Rove, or both lied to McLellan: whether McLellan lied to the press; or all of the above.
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Taking a step back...
Remind me again...why is our military in Iraq?
In lieu of the indictment against "Scooter" for lying in an effort to cover up the fact that it was he who outed Valerie Plame, will the mainstream media at any time in the near future examine what he was trying to cover up by outing her?
Why is our military in Iraq?
I clearly remember vice president Cheney saying something about a "nexus" in Iraq. Is that what this was all about? Are we fighting a "nexus?
What the hell is a "nexus"?
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Libby and Bush
Here are my predictions.
Bush will not admit to anything.
Libby will cop a plea.
Bush will pardon him.
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As usual, well done!
Joe,
There's another question. Reading though the facts presented in the indictment, it's clear that Cheney knew that Libby had lied under oath. Yet he did nothing. For almost a year Matt Cooper and Judith Miller were fighting the subpeona. Judith Miller spent 85 days in jail, yet Cheney did nothing.
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Just in time for Halloween
With all due respect, I find that -- although Salon's coverage of this story has been impressive -- most folks would glaze over and walk away from the bulk of Media's coverage long before they'd begin to grasp why they (we) should care. The fine dissections become "white noise," effectively obscuring the significance of the bigger picture affecting us all.
As important as TurdBlossom and Scooter have been to the current administration, most folks don't know these guys, so I bet they mostly write all this off to the now-classic polarization of partisan politics and media mavens. Blah, blah, spin, blah, blah... Whatever. We're already beat up.
Why not say something really simple yet compelling, like: Mr. Rove and Mr. Libby are the two most influential men in the lives of our nation's top two commanders. They were SO intimate with George and Dick, there is just NO way their bosses didn't know what was going on. In fact, it's next to impossible to imagine they didn't green light all of this from the start.
Did Bush and his gang really do all this just so they could play their war games without interference? Yes, they did. It's that simple. The rest is just a tangled web of ego, greed, corruption and one feeble fella who's in way over his head depending on some really icky people to get the job done.
So why is George W. pretending that he had nothing to do with all of this (and visibly running away as fast as he can)? Because what's surfacing is so scary that the scariest halloween story couldn't capture the dark, gory, truth of it -- a nightmare of such frightening historical (and Karmic) proportions that we (as a nation) may never overcome its collateral damage.
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Scooter's Crash
This drama has a long way to run yet. The prospect of five to thirty focuses the mind of even the most loyal apparatchik. Fitz is making the WHIGs sweat. Results of the sustained pressure are evident in Junior's recent no-brainer malfunctions. Expect some friendly fire and collateral damage as the pressure mounts. On treacherous slopes, flippers turn faster than aspens. Scooter should loose the crutches, the FDR look is far more statesmanlike. As I said, Karl's mind seems to be elsewhere these days.
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Libby Takes the Fall
Bush, Cheney, Libby, and Rove, probably all agreed that Libby would take the fall. Fear not: Bush will pardon Libby if he is convicted, and Cheney will find him a multi-million dollar job with Haliburton.
Neither Bush nor Cheney will come clean. Nor will there be a major house-cleaning in the Administration. Look at who is now replacing Libby: Addington, a vicious partisan of secrecy and of absolute Presidential power.
This gang is not about to relinquish power. Like all dictators, Bush and Cheney will dig their heels in until they are thrown out by forces bigger than themselves.
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The crime of Libby
What keeps getting missed in most of the opeds about Libby's crime not being what Fitzgerald was supposed to be investigating is that Libby's lying to the grand jury and the FBI created an obstruction to Fitzgerald's investigation of the original issue about the outing of CIA agent Plame. Libby lied to block Fitzgerald's investigation from getting to the truth about why she was outed. LYING TO A GRAND JURY and THE FBI regarding an ongoing investigation about a potential crime, is, in and of itself, a crime. Fitzgerald has not yet been able (partially because of Libby's lying) to determine whether the outing of Plame was done maliciously and purposefully by the Bush administration, and if so, why?. That part of the investigation is still ongoing, but for now at least, Libby is out of the way.
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Why Libby Lied..and took the fall
Joe:
I've been watching pundits scratch their heads and wonder, "Why did Libby lie..it was so stupid," while his defense attorney is trying to claim it was simply a "memory lapse."
You need to point out that Fitzgerald is not charging him with "not remembering," but rather with fabricating a story (i.e., that he learned of Plame as the "end" of a chain of journalist's revelations to him).
Please go back and pull the contemporaneous GOP "talking points" at the time Libby was first contacted by the FBI. They claimed that the information about Plame came from reporters, not the administration.
With Ashcroft still in charge of the investigation when Libby was first interviewed, he simply regurgitated the "talking point" cover story as if it were true and was thereafter stuck with it.
Finally, it would be highly interesting if you could ferret out where these talking points originated. If Rove and Libby were involved in crafting them--and given what is already stated in Libby's indictment concerning their involvement in this matter--it would establish a conspiracy to obstruct justice.