LA Times Already Excusing Rove

It appears that the LA Times has decided to back the White House (or Karl Rove...same shit) in it's effort to keep the outrageous level of vindictiveness it shows to those who don't to the party line. Check this out:

"Some people close to the case theorize that the identity of Plame was introduced to administration officials by journalists who might have known of her status and mentioned it in the kind of back-and-forth that is common in reporters' conversations with sources. Repeating such gossip, however unseemly, would probably not be illegal, legal experts say."

You got that? The LA Times thinks that Cooper or Novak told the government about the identity of its [b]own frigging agent![/b]

Ahhh, I give up! How...why.....??? Just who in the fuck do they think we are ???!!!?
I'm hoping that when this administration is exposed as the lying, cheating, deceitful bunch of pathological murders *for profit* that they are....that the reporters who have enabled them to keep up with this charade (for profit) are hauled away by their skinny little asses, up to the wall and shot like the traitors [u]to humanity[/u] that they are... a la Nicolai Ceausescu! C'mon! There's a sickness in the world today, and it is the mindless attempt of the corporations to meet the bottom line. It is an amoral pursuit in a world that is inhabited by people who depend on the morality of their fellows. It must stop.

Mycos

Comments London Bombing

Some comments on the bombings in London.....many of them right on.

Mycos
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It's really sickening how most of the media here tend to accept Blair's absurd view, echoing Bush's about 9/11, that they are irrational and want to impose their beliefs on us.

I managed to get this read out on Radio London:

Ted Welch
Jon,

when am I going to hear this kind of Londoner's view, not from a middle-class liberal, but an older cockney guy in a pub near Wembley: "It's terrible. But, to be fair, we had it coming. What do you expect when you invade someone country and kick the shit out of them.?"

You have admitted you were conned by Blair about WMD, which Blair claimed created a terrorist threat. It was a lie - there were no WMD and Blair was warned by the intelligence services that attacking Iraq would create a greater terrorist threat. His attempt to escape blame by claiming it was an attack on all civilised countries is ludicrous - but the media repeated it endlessly without laughing out loud.

Jon Gaunt the presenter, then responded by echoing the government line: 9/11 happened before the attack on Iraq. He didn't read out my reply: >Jon,

you replied to me on-air, please read my reply - because you've been conned again.

You've been conned by the line (repeated by Jack Straw last night) that 9/11 happened before the invasion of Iraq. Yes, but Bin Laden made it clear that it was because of US forces in the Middle East after the Gulf War, in Saudi Arabia, etc. So it clearly makes no sense and invites further attacks, like the one on London, if you then attack Iraq and have even more US and now British forces in another Islamic country.

Cf. Robert Fisk in today's Independent:

"If you bomb our cities," Osama bin Laden said in one of his recent video tapes, "we will bomb yours." There you go, as they say. It was crystal clear Britain would be a target ever since Tony Blair decided to join George Bush's "war on terror" and his invasion of Iraq. We had, as they say, been warned. The G8 summit was obviously chosen, well in advance, as Attack Day.

And it's no use Mr Blair telling us yesterday that "they will never succeed in destroying what we hold dear". "They" are not trying to destroy "what we hold dear". They are trying to get public opinion to force Blair to withdraw from Iraq, from his alliance with the United States, and from his adherence to Bush's policies in the Middle East. The Spanish paid the price for their support for Bush - and Spain's subsequent retreat from Iraq proved that the Madrid bombings achieved their objectives - while the Australians were made to suffer in Bali.

It is easy for Tony Blair to call yesterdays bombings "barbaric" - of course they were - but what were the civilian deaths of the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq in 2003, the children torn apart by cluster bombs, the countless innocent Iraqis gunned down at American military checkpoints? When they die, it is "collateral damage"; when "we" die, it is "barbaric terrorism".

If we are fighting insurgency in Iraq, what makes us believe insurgency won't come to us? One thing is certain: if Tony Blair really believes that by "fighting terrorism" in Iraq we could more efficiently protect Britain - fight them there rather than let them come here, as Bush constantly says - this argument is no longer valid.

http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/msg/251509.html

Don't believe all this stuff about the calm, heroic Londoners - there are criminals and idiots here like anywhere. Already mainstream, peaceful Muslim organizations here have received thousands of hate emails and there have been some attacks, including a petrol bomb.

Ted Welch

Counterpoint: Forget Confidentiality, Out Rove

Counterpoint: Forget Confidentiality, Out Rove

By Bill Israel

07/06/05 'Editor & Publisher' - - In 99.9 percent of cases I know, journalists must not break the bonds of appropriate confidentiality, to protect their ability to report, and to defend the First Amendment. I've testified in court to that end, and would do so again.

But the Valerie Plame-CIA case that threatens jail time for reporters from Time and The New York Times this week is the exception that shatters the rule. In this case, journalists as a community have been played for patsies by the president's chief strategist, Karl Rove, and are enabling him to abuse the First Amendment, by their invoking it."

cont.....

Will Karl Rove be Indicted?

"Will Karl Rove Be Indicted?

By JOSHUA FRANK

Occasionally I get emails from Washington folks who work on the Hill claiming to possess juicy insider digs on our public servants and their corporate paymasters. I usually delete said emails, as I don't want to be responsible for propagating dirty rumors or false information that can't be corroborated. I'd rather let Judith Miller and the New York Times do that. Nonetheless, in the past 24 hours I have been contacted by three separate Congressional Democrats in Washington, and a Justice Department official, first by email and later phone, who all say the same thing: Karl Rove is about to be indicted."

cont......

KARL ROVE IS WORSE THAN OSAMA BIN LADEN

KARL ROVE: WORSE THAN OSAMA BIN LADEN

By Ted Rall Tue Jul 5, 8:05 PM ET

NEW YORK--In war collaborators are more dangerous than enemy forces, for they betray with intimate knowledge in painful detail and demoralize by their cynical example. This explains why, at the end of occupations, the newly liberated exact vengeance upon their treasonous countrymen even they allow foreign troops to conduct an orderly withdrawal.

cont.....

Save the First Amendment--from Karl Rove

Save the First Amendment--from Karl Rove

Here's a man who taught with Rove, and considers him a friend, writes that in the Valerie Plame case, Rove is using journalists, and the First Amendment, 'to operate without constraint, or to camouflage breaking the law.' That's why neither reporters Cooper and Miller, nor their publications, should protect Rove (or anyone else) 'through an undiscerning, blanket use of the First Amendment that weakens its protections by its gross misuse.'

Cont..... "

More Dirty Tricks

It seems that thieves targeted the Ohio Democratic Party Headquarters this week, stealing a computer and a high-tech communications gadget belonging to party chairman Denny White. Posters celebrating John Glenn accomplishments still hung on the walls of the headquarters, a portable stereo sat on a desk, and a few Sony Vaio desktop computers with flat panel monitors remained untouched. Yet items belonging to Mr. White; a Dell computer valued at $800, a flat-screen monitor valued at $250, and a $250 BlackBerry communications device, were the only items stolen.

So this is the score. The thieves left several thousand dollars in laptops, items that are far easier to hide and transport, in favor of a middle of the road PC with a big old lunky monitor. Why the monitor you wonder? Because they were ordered to take a specific computer, and for someone used to taking orders, the monitor was part of the computer they were told to take. The implication here of course, is that this is a conspiracy. Someone else gave the order to steal a specific computer because if the person who wanted the stored information were the actual B&E artist as well, he would have taken only the CPU.

Yup. Rove, DeLay y, Roe, the Downing St. Memos, no WMD'ss, Halliburton's missing billions, and the hundreds of times that this administration has been proven to have lied, altered documents, suppressed or distorted scientific reports on the environment, global warming, on the economy, the war, the elections, the assets of administration members as they regard *overt* conflicts of interest (Cheney, perhaps the most vocal advocate of the Iraq debacle, has had his net worth skyrocket as a result of the war), the humiliated or fired career analysts, military commanders or even dirt poor farmers.....

Look. This administration is evil to it's very core. Nixon was a saint compared to these guys. And the thing that makes me so damn angry is that we knew this guy was rotten from the start. We tried to tell others, but instead of listening, we were branded as traitors and told bullshit like "we didn't support the troops". Hey! We support the troops by not supporting a president who puts them in danger only so that Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld et al can pursue their dream of an "American Century". So Dick Cheney can line his pockets while the Christian Right can bring about the "end-times" by supporting the Israeli extremists in their fight to destroy the muslims Dome Of The Rock. In their warped thinking, this will bring about the "end times"....a time where they think we (progressives) will all go to hell and they will be raptured up to heaven. Yes! They are that fucking nuts! They will bring about a nuclear war , believing that they alone are safe because they "believe".

No. Wake up. You are killing yourselves to make these bastards richer. They laugh at you behind your back of course) when you teach your children that it is their duty to grow up and work for them, to not ask questions about whether a war is justified if the president says it's so. They laugh and they laugh and they laugh......

Mycos

Another Break-In at Democratic Headquarters! (Watergate Anybody?)

Ok. We've got Karl Rove unlawfully revealing the names of undercover CIA agents. We've got a president who knowingly "fixed facts" in order get the people and Congress to go along with the war plans of Dick Cheney ( for profit) and his neocon advisors who want to dominate the world (PNAC). He did this against the advise of his own generals, men who were subsequently removed from their command (Shalikashvilli) for daring to voice opposition. They were replaced by men from the Bolton school of intelligence, that being that you only reveal information that is supportive of government policy, the dangers thereof be damned. Now this.....

Isn't it long overdue to start impeachment proceedings? At least ones that are taking place upstairs where they get to use the good china? This is after all, very much in the best interests of the United States Of America. It is patriotism to proceed against this administration before they drain the treasury and kill more sons and daughters of good Americans (note that none of their own kin are in combat)

Mycos
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Watergate Again? Another Break-in, More Computers Stolen at Democratic Headquarters in Ohio
Bella Ciao
Saturday 2nd July 2005 (17h07)

COLUMBUS - Thieves targeted the Ohio Democratic Party Headquarters this week, stealing a computer and a high-tech communications gadget belonging to party chairman Denny White.

Police said yesterday one or more burglars appeared to have climbed a wall Monday and crawled through an unlocked second-story window overnight at the party headquarters about three blocks from the Statehouse.

The break-in occurs at a time when the Ohio Republican Party is threatened by one of the largest scandals to hit the states government in decades.

Some Democrats also say the break-in is eerily similar to a burglary at the Lucas County Democratic Party Headquarters last fall, in which three computers were stolen.

Police, though, said it is unclear if the theft had anything to do with politics, or the investigations into investments at the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation.

Until we find the person, there's no way of knowing that, said Sherry Mercurio, a police spokesman, who said investigators lifted fingerprints at the scene.



The complete article may be read at the here

The break-in occurred a week after the Ohio Democratic Party began airing a 30-second TV ad that links Republican office-holders with the states failed $50 million rare-coin investment with Tom Noe.

Lawyers for Mr. Noe, a Republican fund-raiser, have told authorities that about $13 million in assets are missing from the coin fund.

Jason Mauk, a spokesman for the Ohio Republican Party, said the state GOP had nothing to do with the break-in.
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Sincerely,
David Dillard
Temple University


(215) 204 - 4584"

Rove Lawyer as much as admits that his client exposed Plame

Rove's 'I Did Not Inhale' Defense: 07.04.2005 Lawrence O'Donnell

Karl Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, had his holiday weekend ruined on Friday when I broke the story that the e-mails that Time delivered to the special prosecutor that afternoon reveal that Karl Rove is the source Matt Cooper has been protecting for two years. The next day, Luskin was forced to open the first hole in the Rove two-year wall of silence about the case. In a huge admission to Newsweek and the Los Angeles Times, Luskin confessed that, well, yes, Rove did talk to Cooper. It is a huge admission in a case where Rove and Luskin have never, before Friday, felt compelled to say a word about Rove's contact with Cooper or anyone else involved in the case.

Luskin then launched what sounds like an I-did-not-inhale defense. He told Newsweek that his client 'never knowingly disclosed classified information.' Knowingly. That is the most important word Luskin said in what has now become his public version of the Rove defense.

Not coincidentally, the word 'knowing' is the most important word in the controlling statute ( U.S. Code: Title 50: Section 421). To violate the law, Rove had to tell Cooper about a covert agent 'knowing that the information disclosed so identifies such covert agent and that the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such covert agent's intelligence relationship to the United States.'

So, Rove's defense now hangs on one word—he 'never knowingly disclosed classified information.' Does that mean Rove simply didn't know Valerie Plame was a covert agent? Or does it just mean that Rove did not know that the CIA was 'taking affirmative measures' to hide her identity?

In Luskin's next damage control session with the press, let's see if any reporter can get him to drop the word 'knowingly' from the never-disclosed-classified-information bit."

Rove (finally) going down?

Lawrence O'Donnel on McLaughlin Group: 'I'm probably gonna get pulled into the grand jury for saying this, but it will be revealed in Cooper's notes that it is Karl Rove who leaked Plame's identity'... Developing...

First thing I thought was GREAT!! But then I started thinking about the way this might play out regarding an impeachment of 'Bush and crew'. If an impeachment hearing is initiated, then Rove will of course be central to all kinds of information that will be necessary for the process. But with Rove indicted, he can claim all kinds of procedural issues allowing his non-compliance with giving evidence. The impeachment would possibly have to go on hold until the trial of Rove was over, and you know how long that could be. Fat little f**k will be dead of old age, nevertheless a heart-attack or something a little more excruciating.

Speaking of, what if.....what if the man developed a conscience?!!! Ohhh, the skeletons he must have in his closet. I think that could possibly be the most horrifying, the slowest and possibly the most agonizing death possible for him. Yeah....yeah. As unlikely a it is to happen, the very thought gives me enough pleasure to carry on....

Mycos

The Priesthood and Celibacy: A "Sin"

Pope obstructed' sex abuse inquiry

It asserted the church's right to hold its inquiries behind closed doors and keep the evidence confidential for up to 10 years after the victims reached adulthood. The letter was signed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was elected as John Paul II's successor last week.

A contributor noted that "Many Catholic priests here in Italy have girl friends (and go to discos, without dog collars), and as a result, child molestation seems to be less frequent here."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yes, that brings up something that I saw from a Catholic that struck me as a little odd. It was stated that molestation was no more prevalent among the Catholic Church than others, and perhaps not even as bad. Well, I'll go along with that if the list being compared to is a list of churches that require celibacy.

C'mon. Celibacy is not a normal way to behave. It flies in the face of every socio-biological drive that we have. It is a perfect recipe for trouble. Look around. I see over and over again that people respond to having a natural bodily functions perverted or demeaned, by developing another perversion or abnormality of behaviour in response.

Just as the pressure to remain skinny in a culture where food is everywhere is expressed as anorexia/bulimia, to abstain from the sex-drive results in suicide, pedophilia or outright madness. If you taught someone that they were a bad person for taking going to the bathroom (I'm serious!)you'd get one f***ed up adult. And if you beat them I bet you'd get a whole range of various bizarre behaviours.... and not just the ones you'd expect from somebody who was beaten for "acting up". I mean, is any of us surprised when we hear that a mass murderer was brought up by parents who were very religious and strict? Certainly not me. I expect it.

As well, when you make celibacy a prerequisite to the priesthood, what kind of young men do you think will be coming through that door? How about a young man who is having a sexual identity crisis. He's scared that he might be gay, but he thinks that it is wrong and shameful. Where to go to be delivered from that conflict? The priesthood of course! So now you have people who not only deny their own sexuality, but someone who reads daily, who speaks out daily in front of a congregation that the person he is on the inside... is evil. Add to that he hasn't been laid yet, and you got trouble.

Or what about someone who does have feelings of pedophilia right from a young age? How to live an acceptable life is going to be a big problem unless he sublimates that behaviour. Presto! The priesthood......and a life of daily reminders of his evil nature.

C'mon. It's a no brainer. Celibacy only aggravates any existing problems and will almost certainly lead to the development of some if you don't already have them.

Gary Williams

US Torture of Jailed Iraqi Children

US Torture of Jailed Iraqi Children
Thomas Reutter
(July 5, 2004) -- Moderation Fritz Frey:REPORT has come across a totally unbelievable suspicion.

In Abu Gharib and elsewhere, children and youth have been incarcerated and mistreated.
Thomas Reutter reports.

REPORT:With tanks coming through the gate, US soldiers storm an apartment building looking for terrorists. Sometimes during such roundups the soldiers also arrest children. What happens to the children? About that the military gives no information. We investigate, as it happens, through informants.

One of them, who is knowledgeable about these things, is Sergeant Samuel Provance from US Army Intelligence. For half a year, he was stationed in the notorious Abu Ghraib torture-prison. Today, five months later, we meet with Sergeant Provance in Heidelberg.

His superiors have strictly forbidden him from reporting to journalists about what he experienced in Abu Ghraib. Yet Provance wants to talk about it nonetheless. Pangs of conscience plague him. He tells us about one 16-year-old, whom he himself had to lead away. "
cont....