Have the Conservatives noticed yet that their new guy John G. Roberts does not seem to fit their mold?

Where the f*** is his obligatory flag jewelry.

How the f*** are we supposed to know he's a Republican if he doesn't wear the Red White 'n' Blue® on his regulation dark lapel.

How dare he appear in an underdressed state even when he's appearing with The Fearless Leader in The White House?? These pictures are from yesterday during his introduction by el Presidente.

Does anyone have a picture of him in proper patriotic attire?

And shouldn't the justices of the Supreme Court have flags sewn onto the sleeves of their black robes?

Just Asking,
True Blue Liberal

Some of us accept facts. Some of us live in a more malleable world where "facts" are "fixed" or "done"

The quote of the day from 18 July 2005 from WhiteHouse.gov (emphasis added):

PRESIDENT BUSH: We have a serious ongoing investigation here. (Laughter.) And it's being played out in the press. And I think it's best that people wait until the investigation is complete before you jump to conclusions. And I will do so, as well. I don't know all the facts. I want to know all the facts. The best place for the facts to be done is by somebody who's spending time investigating it. I would like this to end as quickly as possible so we know the facts, and if someone committed a crime, they will no longer work in my administration.

Just another mindless ungrammatical nonsensical Bushism? Or in the Bush/Cheney White House are "facts" understood to be mere arbitrary constructs to be created and manipulated to fit the changing needs of an omnipotent spin machine?
Compare the similar treatment of "facts" in the Downing Street Memo of 23 July 2002 (with emphasis added):

Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.

Thanks to Shakespeare's Sister for pointing out the presidential grammatical "misstep" in yesterday's short meeting with the press.

True Blue Liberal

The NRA should hold its convention in some state that actually voted for the Bushies.

CNN.com - "Assault weapons ban triggers NRA cancellation" - 19 July 2005. Columbus, Ohio is located in a "red state" on a technicality. Let the NRA conventioneers bring their assault weapons to Texas or Wyoming where their presence fits more closely with the philosophy of the natives and where they can ogle the lubricated barrels of each other's weapons without threat that the local constabulary will pry their semi-automatic rifles from their cold dead hands.

(There have been a lot of visitors to TBL lately, but very few of them have been commenting. Maybe THIS post will attract some comments. Gun Nuts -- yes, I mean you -- are psychologically incapable of keeping their mouths and keyboards quiet when they are told that they are using a .357 magnum to compensate for a lack of anatomical size elsewhere, or when the name of their God, Charlton Heston, is taken in vain. Charlton Heston couldn't even stop a gang of effete British apes from taking over the earth, so what good is he?)

Now let me have it,
True Blue Liberal

No. 10 Downing Street pre-emptively blocks a senior diplomat's book on Iraq that could help place The Downing Street Memo in its proper context

From The Observer | Politics | No 10 blocks envoy's book on Iraq:

"A controversial fly-on-the wall account of the Iraq war by one of Britain's most senior former diplomats has been blocked by Downing Street and the Foreign Office.

Publication of The Costs of War by Sir Jeremy Greenstock, UK ambassador to the UN during the build-up to the 2003 war and the Prime Minister's special envoy to Iraq in its aftermath, has been halted. In an extract seen by The Observer, Greenstock describes the American decision to go to war as 'politically illegitimate' and says that UN negotiations 'never rose over the level of awkward diversion for the US administration'.[ . . .]

Here's a repressive power of Tony Blair's I bet Bush envies. Bush has to rely on his blind faith in the fact that the American media will continue to ignore the question of war aims, and that American people will continue not to care how we were dragged into the current war. But what if Colin Powell finally decides to tell all? Until then ...

Remember Downing Street Memo day on June 23,
True Blue Liberal

Attention Brave Citizens of Rovemania: What Are Your Plans for Downing Street Memo Day, July 23?

Because some prominent internet service providers (notably Comcast) and spam blockers (Brightmail) have been "innocently" protecting us from many e-mails that contain the offensive term "AfterDowningStreet.org", here is a link to events taking place on the third anniversary of the meeting whose minutes were recorded in The Downing Street Memo: "DSM Day - July 23, 2005 | AfterDowningStreet.org". If you have your own blog, pass this link on, and mention it often between now and this Saturday.



George's ventriloquist gets his dummy to say, "The What Street Memo?"



Democrats.com has a page about the July 23rd Town Hall Event here: "July 23 NYC: Torture and Lies - Who Is Accountable?"

John Conyers also has a page of events: "John Conyers' July 23rd House Parties featuring Joe Wilson and Randi Rhodes".

I'm especially glad that Congressman Conyers is explicitly linking Rovegate to the Downing Street Memo. A push on the DSM now from those of us in the liberal blogosphere can help to connect the two and frame the issue of Karl Rove's exposure of Valerie Plame as part of the larger pattern to discredit all intelligence (like Joe Wilson's factfinding trip to Niger) that did not fit their preordained march to war. DSM Day should not distract from the push to expose Rove's crimes and an examination of Karl Rove's prominent role in selling the war through the White House Iraq Group (WHIG); attention to the Downing Street Memo at this time should simply help more people connect the dots of this story of the illegal and immoral march to a war of choice, rather than focussing only on the distracting legalistic details of "who told who what when about Valerie Plame, and whether or not she was mentioned by name".

Happy DSM Day,
TBL

You don't have to wait until 2006 to show what you think about Rovian political tactics. Karl Rove is hard at work in NJ in 2005.

Karl Rove has personally visited the wealthy Republican enclave of Rumson, New Jersey within the past month to raise tens of thousands of dollars for the campaign of millionaire GOP (rhymes with slop) gubernatorial candidate Doug Forrester. If you find it unseemly that Doug should be financing his negative campaign against Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Jon Corzine with money from a man who would expose a CIA agent to further his current boss's war plans, then please sign this petition asking "that Doug Forrester give back the money that Karl Rove raised for him, or explain why he condones Rove’s actions. Potentially criminal behavior compromising national security should never be endorsed by any political candidate. New Jersey deserves better."
Thanks to Blanton's and Ashton's for the link to the petition. The GOP is already making the 2005 race for Governor of New Jersey a national effort. Please think about doing what you can to embarrass them even if you're not lucky enough to live in the Garden State.

Thanks,

True Blue New Jersey Liberal

Look who wants to be the next Joe Lieberman, Guardian Of America's Youth Against Popular Culture

BBC NEWS | 14 July 2005 | Clinton wades into GTA sex storm:

As well as seeking to find out who put the content in the game, Senator Clinton wants the FTC to find out if the game has been given the wrong rating by the ESRB.
Senator Clinton also wants to find out if game stores are doing enough to stop minors getting hold of the game.

With all the crimes and violence coming out of the Bush Administration, she's worried about Grand Theft Auto? Well, if it's games you're after, then worry about this obscene, free, government-sponsored video game Senator Clinton. Worry about whether we're doing enough to stop the US Army from getting hold of minors with sleazy dishonest sales pitches.

"Abu Ghraib Tactics Were First Used at Guantanamo" Washington Post / A new ribbon magnet for your SUV "Support the Troops but Fuck the Generals"

Cuff him Dan-O!

Here are the first and last paragraphs of an article you should read in full here: "Abu Ghraib Tactics Were First Used at Guantanamo" / Washington Post / 14 July 2005:

Interrogators at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, forced a stubborn detainee to wear women's underwear on his head, confronted him with snarling military working dogs and attached a leash to his chains, according to a newly released military investigation that shows the tactics were employed there months before military police used them on detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
The techniques, approved by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld for use in interrogating Mohamed Qahtani [...] were used at Guantanamo Bay in late 2002 as part of a special interrogation plan aimed at breaking down the silent detainee.

[... the important middle of the article gives more details, shows how the techniques migrated from Gitmo to Iraq, and tells how generals protected generals in the military "investigation" of this systematic and systemic torture ...]

Some Republicans [...] said the alleged abuses occurred in just a small fraction of cases. They noted that there have been 24,000 interrogations at Guantanamo Bay and highlighted recent improvements at the facility. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) called the Guantanamo abuse relatively 'minor incidents' that should not be a matter of national interest.[ ...how about INTERnational interest. Nuremberg Trials anyone?]

Look, just because Senator Pat Roberts, Republican from the flatlands, regularly wears women's underwear on his head and a dog leash around his neck while playing with his herd of snarling Dobermans, that doesn't mean the rest of us consider this government-sanctioned mistreatment of prisoners "minor" or "American" or "human". Amnesty International didn't go far enough in its condemnations. There are some generals and "intelligence" officers and analysts and interrogators and at least one cabinet member who need to be taking the place of Lynndie England and Charles Graner (whose only deviation from accepted operating procedures appears to have been the use of a digital camera) before the bar of justice.

The puppeteer in the corner by the window may soon be losing his seat. But then who will pull the strings on the marionette? (A CAPTION CONTEST)

"What evil ventriloquist over my shoulder?
I don't see no evil ventriloquist over my shoulder."







You have a better caption?

WHIGgate. Is the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) the key piece of connective tissue for connecting the Rove/Plame story to the Downing Street Memo?

There's been some worry expressed among those trying to keep the Downing Street Memo in the public eye that the Karl Rove story will distract the mainstream media just as it was starting to show some interest. But read this recent interview from Citizens for Legitimate Government: Joseph Wilson on Bush Crowd: "A Real Threat to Our Republic." This interview with Valerie Plame's husband seems like an important piece of the puzzle because it connects, by name, the Downing Street Memo, with its insistence on "fixing the intelligence" to fit preordained war plans, with the outing of his wife because Wilson's intelligence and analysis didn't fit the "intelligence" they needed about Iraq's nuclear intentions and capabilities. But, even better, it extends the story into the White House Iraq Group (WHIGgate anyone?).

I wrote in my book that there was a conspiracy in the White House to find out everything they could about me and then use it against me. I think the logical place to look for the conspiracy is in the White House Iraq group (WHIG) which included Rove, Scooter Libby, Karen Hughes, Ari Fleischer and others. I don’t know who among them might have been the leaker or authorized the leak.

The full list of WHIG members is very heavy with people with ZERO intelligence background but lots of experience in political spinning and dirty tricks. This Washington Post article from August 10, 2003 seems like a good place to start digging.

'Educating the Public'
Systematic coordination began in August [2002, right after the DSM was written], when Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. formed the White House Iraq Group, or WHIG, to set strategy for each stage of the confrontation with Baghdad. A senior official who participated in its work called it "an internal working group, like many formed for priority issues, to make sure each part of the White House was fulfilling its responsibilities."

In an interview with the New York Times published Sept. 6, Card did not mention the WHIG but hinted at its mission. "From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in August," he said.

The group met weekly in the Situation Room. Among the regular participants were Karl Rove, the president's senior political adviser; communications strategists Karen Hughes, Mary Matalin and James R. Wilkinson; legislative liaison Nicholas E. Calio; and policy advisers led by Rice and her deputy, Stephen J. Hadley, along with I. Lewis Libby, Cheney's chief of staff.

The first days of September would bring some of the most important decisions of the prewar period: what to demand of the United Nations in the president's Sept. 12 address to the General Assembly, when to take the issue to Congress, and how to frame the conflict with Iraq in the midterm election campaign that began in earnest after Labor Day.

A "strategic communications" task force under the WHIG began to plan speeches and white papers. There were many themes in the coming weeks, but Iraq's nuclear menace was among the most prominent.

'A Mushroom Cloud'
The day after publication of Card's marketing remark, Bush and nearly all his top advisers began to talk about the dangers of an Iraqi nuclear bomb. . . .

The story of Rove (or other WHIGs) outing Plame is the story of the Downing Street Memo in action. Period. Come on Boys and Girls of the press, Scott McClellan is not going to answer any questions about Karl Rove, so ask him about WHIG! See if you can get him on the record!

Just a suggestion,
True Blue Liberal

Addendum, 13 July, 8:30am: Here's a quick link to a reference page on the White House Iraq Group, with further links to information about all its members.
Addendum, 26 July, 10:50am: The link to the Washington Post story isn't working up above and it doesn't show up with a search of their site, but Truthout has the text posted here.
Tags:WHIG;WHIGgate;Downing Street Memo;DSM