RIP GOP

Somewhat premature, but well worth looking forward to - those divergent factions of corporatism and moralism should forget their shotgun marriage of the recent past.

They should look to a future where civics and values can be expressed freely, and where the cold hard grip of greed is tempered by the true democratic and moral values this country was built on.

Traitor-gate

(NOTE: This picture is a photoshop special, not real yet.)

Traitor-gate: use it often, use it well. From Randi Rhodes, the Mistress of Understatement.

Let the Republicans defend the act of a traitor who outed a deep under cover* CIA agent. Or is a bj worse than this?

* NOC = non-official cover, you are on your own, persona non grata, and don't call us, we'll call you.

Taken to Task

The Republican spin machine is still in heavy mode, with various and sundry excuses being used to explain why Karl Rove identified a Non-Official Cover CIA Agent working in WMD counter-proliferation to columnist Bob Novak - who promptly spilled her id and the front company she worked for. Good job, Bob!

Some of the reasons:

• Time's Matt Cooper is smearing Karl Rove (ha!)
• Rove didn't want Cooper to print a bad story based on false premises (I really like that one)
  
• Every one knew Valerie Plame was CIA, or she wasn't under cover, or the CIA didn't verify her cover. These are all lies.
  

The only problem with all these reasons is that no one denies this is exactly the kind of thing Karl does, and the main reason he's been with Bush for so long. Arthur Silber at The Light of Reason takes Bush to task for supporting the treasonous acts of Karl Rove, and details the specious logic that Republicans live by, to the detriment of our democracy and our national security:

George Bush, Traitor - Part I

George Bush, Traitor - Part II

Harsh words for a contemptible act. Will the President uphold his promise to fire those responsible for leaking CIA agent's names during a time of war?

Don't hold your breath.

True (Karl Rove Redux)

Liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and prepared for war against the perpetrators.

Conservatives saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and decided to reveal the names of CIA agents to the terrorists, thereby endangering their lives and the lives of all their contacts.

Kerry was right: Allawi now says "Brink of Civil War"

Yesterday, Iyad Allawi was quoted in the Sunday Times of London as saying, "We are practically in stage one of a civil war as we speak."

But only last fall, he addressed a joint session of Congress with an entirely different message - one that was heavily orchestrated by the Bush administration and which John Kerry immediately recognized as self-contradictorty and a puff piece for Bush's re-election bid. Funny how all of those right-wing bloggers who were baying about Kerry "dissing" Allawi's speech are utterly silent on this new Allawi sitrep ("situation report" - and his new one is VERY different in tone).

Allawi said, "The problem is that the Americans have no vision and no clear policy on how to go about in Iraq," [sic] and followed up with (quoting from the Sunday Times article):

Allawi said that he had discussed the urgency of rebuilding Iraq’s military with President George W Bush and Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, last year. “Bush earmarked $5.7 billion (£3.2 billion) . . . but I did not receive the money,” Allawi said.

Guess what, Mr. Allawi, Senator Kennedy found this out in Bush's first term: when dealing with W, get the money (or the promised political com[promise) UP FRONT.