National Security 101

For all the hubbub over Bush vs. Kerry GPA's at Yale, I'm guessing Bush failed NatSec101.

From Americablog, which is doing yeoman's work on the Bush admininistration's conspiracy and cover up of the illegal identification of an undercover CIA agent:

If Rove leaked the name of an undercover agent during World War II, how long before FDR had him thrown in the brig? It is doubtful that President would have let Rove keep his top level job at the White House. Rove would have been tried and punished already (and back then, it would have been a very, very, very tough punishment). No other president would be harboring a top staffer who undermined national security -- especially during a war.

Bush is the exception. What is he hiding? Maybe like John Dean said, it is Worse than Watergate.

CIA Held Hostage

Day 741: Karl Rove still has a job. How conveeeeeeeeeeeeeenient.

Former CIA officers blow Rove's cover here -- (pdf warning)

Washington Post: "The paragraph identifying her as the wife of former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV was clearly marked to show that it contained classified material at the "secret" level, two sources said. The CIA classifies as "secret" the names of officers whose identities are covert, according to former senior agency officials."

To paraphrase Future Frog Marcher Rove: no more needs to be said.

Eyes on the Prize - Rove, Novak, et. al

President Bush will most likely get his very conservative and partisan nominee on the Supreme Court this year. (Roberts helped halt the vote counting in Florida for Bush in 2000.)

This nominee is ready to do Bush's bidding and put the lie to the President's "compassionate" conservatism. Bush is a hard right ideologue, whose fealty to religious conservatives is only outdone by his compassion for big business.

It may take a few years, even up to three and a half, but I'm optimistic the general public will finally see Bush as a divider, not a uniter. They'll see his incompetence with the economy and his wrecklessness with our national defense. They'll see through the spin to the truth.

Here's what he said after his first election (well, you know) about bringing responsibility and ethics back to Washington, DC:

"We must remember the high standards that come with high office. This begins with careful adherence to the rules. I expect every member of this administration to stay well within the boundaries that define legal and ethical conduct. This means avoiding even the appearance of problems. This means checking and, if need be, doublechecking that the rules have been obeyed. This means never compromising those rules."

He didn't exclude Karl Rove from that, or the press.

So, if the public is shocked into consciousness, or the press gets a backbone, or the Democratic pary starts fighting for what's right as hard as their adversaries fight, that will spell trouble for [R]'s for years to come. It will also put the onus back on Democrats to instill fiscal reponsibility, a thoughtful and tough national defense, and civil rights for all Americans back on a track that our founding fathers set all those years ago.

Yeah, I'm an optimist.

Karl Rove - perjurer?

Circumstantial facts pointing to Karl Rove's commission of perjury.

drip.

Anything for Karl

There being a major emergency requiring extraordinary measures, the President is going to stay up past his usual beddie-bye time of 9PM tonight. The President will sacrifice a few zzzzz's for his nominal brain, Karl "The Traitor" Rove, and try to change the subject of many recent news reports regarding a certain administration figure who likes to jeopordize CIA agents' lives - yes, that same Mr. Rove. And like 8-year-olds playing soccer, the press will fall for this tactic head over heels and follow the bouncing, shiny ball.

But from the initial reports of the person Bush has picked to replace Sandra Day O'Connor, it sounds like very little news will be made tonight, except that we may not be getting the ultra-Right, phony-Constructionist type that Bush says he likes (like this fictional court seen below):

(Edit: Karl ain't totally off balance - Z)

Scary as that is, the main news tonight is that Bush is trying to save Turd Blossom from his soon-to-be treason indictments. Bush dismissively and arrogantly brushed aside the question yesterday at his news conference, though it's plain as the twitch in Karl Rove's eye that this is the plan: name the justice, take the media's eye off their current obsession, get the public thinking about how decisive and "Presidential" Bush is, and get Karl's ass out of that sling.

I don't think it will work. And federal prosecutors couldn't care less what's in the news - they do their job like pit bulls with a bloody bone, and nothing, not even a presidential news conference, can make them lose that blood thirst.

Go get 'im, Patrick.

(picture courtesy - ok, I stole it! no need for me to get indicted too - from Mike Tidmus, who seems like the creative type and has a very entertaining blog -- Z)

Update

It has been 739 days since Karl Rove violated his obligations under Standard Form 312 without the White House taking “corrective action.”

President Explains Legal Implication to Blogger

Letter from the President, explains his new legal standard for someone to continue working in the White House: they have to be indicted, convicted, held up on appeal, and sentenced to a prison with high-speed internet and secure phones (I think).

I love this new era of responsibility the Prez has brought to DC.

(from Hoffmania)