Reasons to be cheerful

"The GOP just lost all of their Supreme Court talking points. Who in the GOP is going to be able to stand up with a straight face and say 'every nominee deserves an up or down vote'? Kiss that talking point good bye.

"And who is going to be able to argue that there should be no 'litmus test' on abortion and other issues?"

- AmericaBlog.

Woopsies!
Bringing honor and dignity back to Washington, corrupt scumbag Tom "several House ethics investigations" DeLay admits he failed to report fund contributions as required by law.

It ain't over till the fatboy's lady sings
Karl Rove's mistress is leaving him to marry a ranch foreman named "Rhett Hard." Really.

LOLOL

New TPS cover sheets, red Swingline staplers ordered by special prosecutor
TWN reports that instead of wrapping things up, Patrick Fitzgerald is renting more office space:

Fitzgerald's office is at 1400 New York Avenue, NW, 9th Floor in Washington.

What I have learned is that the Office of the Special Counsel has signed a lease this week for expanded office space across the street at 1401 New York Avenue, NW.

Another coincidence? More office space needed to shut down the operation?

I think not. Fitzgerald's operation is expanding.

Think Progress reports:

Time Magazine’s Mike Allen “has some of the best sources in Washington.” Here’s what he had to say about the leak scandal on Hardball:

MIKE ALLEN: A lot of activity happening that we’re not seeing. A likely scenario for what happened today, Patrick Fitzgerald got some indictments from this grand jury. He is now able to go to the…

TWEETY: You think they’re sealed right now?

MIKE ALLEN: Very possible. What I’m told is typically, in a case like this, he could get the indictments and now he can go to the targets and say, you can plead to these or I’ll go back Friday and get more. You have 12 to 24 hours to think about it.

And from the NY Daily News: is Karl copping a plea, the traitorous, puling little chickenshit?

Jittery Bush aides gnawed their nails yesterday as a special prosecutor zeroed in on White House political guru Karl Rove's role in blowing a CIA agent's cover.

In the closing hours of the grand jury probe, special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald paid a visit yesterday to Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, prompting speculation that a plea bargain could be in the works for the deputy White House chief of staff.

Breaking breaking!: Raw Story is reporting Fitgerald has secured an indictment. No details yet.
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Pic by idle_hands.

Leak indictments will be a sad, sad day for the country, says Joseph Wilson, between gasps for air from laughing so hard.



Breaking news
Bush flip-flops Bunnypants crony Harriet Miers has 'withdrawn' her nomination to be a Supreme Court justice "in the face of stiff opposition and mounting criticism" about her non-qualifications.

Preznit Mindbogglinglystupid Personal Accountability, of course, blamed the Senate:

"Gub! Dur! Uhhhhhh... duh!" Bush said in a statement.

Gawd, if he was cranky a few days ago, he has to be absolutely ballistic today. Good. Spoiled, pompous little git.

The bad news is he's now free to appoint a religious-rightwing firebreathing puritan hack to get back into good graces with his troglodytic base. Swell.

And so we wait...
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FEMA #ucks up in Florida
"All that time. This is all we get?"

I was supposed to be in South Florida on Friday, but with no power, no water, and no phone computer service, I just don't think that's going to happen.

Breaking
Fitzgerald is asking the grand jury to indict Karl Rove and Scooter Libby, Raw Story says...

Double standard
Mwaaaaa! The Houston Chronicle lays the smackdown on hypocritical a-hole Kay Bailey Hutchison:

Texas senator who voted to impeach President Clinton on perjury and obstruction of justice now calls such charges 'technicalities.' What a Christless tool.

Public officials such as Sen. Hutchison do not enhance their stature when they seem to support one standard of justice for officials of the opposing party and another for their own. What was good for the Democratic goose in the Clinton impeachment trial should be good enough for the Republican gander in the Plame investigation. So eat it, bitch. And here, have another drink:

“Explosive”
Italy's intelligence chief met with Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley just a month before the Niger forgeries first surfaced.

Neocon pal Nicolo Pollari brought the Niger yellowcake story directly to the White House after his insistent overtures had been rejected by the CIA in 2001 and 2002.

Their secret meeting came at a critical moment in the White House campaign to convince Congress and the American public that war in Iraq was necessary to prevent Saddam Hussein from developing nuclear weapons.

Although Berlusconi's government clearly sought deniability while pushing the Niger uranium claims, the Bush White House went still further by trying to blame its citation of exaggerated and discredited Iraq WMD claims on the CIA, the very same agency that consistently discounted the Niger claims.

The White House's war on the CIA and on the Wilsons --the extent of which has been revealed in recent news reports emerging from the Fitzgerald investigation -- has always had an excessive and almost hysterical quality. Why was the White House so worked up over Wilson and the Niger hoax, when there was so much evidence that the administration had based its drive for war on claims that were so thoroughly discredited from top to bottom? Why did Wilson and his CIA wife become the primary targets, when Wilson was hardly alone in pointing out that the White House should have known better about the Niger claims?

"Zzzzzzzt! Gak! Arrrrghhh!"
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New York Times' White House propagandist in talks over her job status
Judy Miller: "I know how important it is for the paper to protect its reputation, but I have my reputation to protect also."

Ha ha ha ha ha!

After both the editor and the publisher of the Times expressed regret for their support for her and her fraudulent columns, Judith 'Iscariot' Miller has begun discussing her future employment options with the newspaper, including the possibility of a severance package, a lawyer familiar with the matter said yesterday.

Technicalities
Won't somebody think of the children?

Jane at Fire Dog Lake reminds the rethugs just how important the charge of perjury was.


Eat it, repukes!
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Indictments in the CIA leak case to be handed out today
Why Karl Rove is two giant steps closer to a prison cell.

Sources close to the lawyers involved in the case said that target letters to those facing indictment were being issued, with sealed indictments to be filed on Wednesday and released by the end of the week.

Those in legal jeopardy may include Scooter Libby, vice-president Dick Cheney's chief of staff, and Karl Rove, Bunnypants' chief nanny and 'The Architect' for the major shitheap we find ourselves in today.

As further proof that Fitzgerald may be closing in on Karl, the special prosecutor was seen at Rove's lawyer's offices on Tuesday.

On Fitzmas Day in the morning...

"Frist keeps lying"
Integritude...

Senate records show sanctimonious hypocrite Bill Frist had been notified for years that he continued to own stock in his blind trusts, contradicting public statements he made in the past about the distance the trusts put between him and his assets.

"He's killing his own political career. Nobody else has to do a thing to him, because he's just imploding."

Pic seen at BartCop and Fark, and hopefully all over the news tomorrow.
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Breaking
Raw Story and Crooks and Liars both report that target letters went out today.

An uber-insider source has just reported the following to TWN:

1. 1-5 indictments are being issued. The source feels that it will be towards the higher end.

2. The targets of indictment have already received their letters.

3. The indictments will be sealed indictments and "filed" tomorrow.

4. A press conference is being scheduled for Thursday.

The shoe is dropping.

More soon.

Can you feel it?
That 'tomorrow's Christmas!' feeling you had when you were little, before the world turned into a dreary, soulless shitscape of endless, hopeless drudgery?! Yeah, baby! Santa's coming to town - to kick some rethug ass.

I hope I hope I hope

It's beginning to look a lot like Fitzmas...
Sources say Fitzgerald will seek indictments. No story yet, link goes to headline at Raw Story.

Hmmmmm...

"When the year one thousand came, Thorkel Amundason was five years old, and hardly noticed how frightened everyone was."

- King Hereafter, by Dorothy Dunnett.

Shakespeare's Sister asks 'What’s your favorite opening line from a novel?'

Ummmm, do they have to be republicans?!
“Name the Replacement” contest!

The Pensito Review is asking who you think would replace Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, etc. once the CIA leak case is over and Fitzgerald has thrown all their asses into prison.


"I'd make a fabulous vice president!"
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Heh
The General has a timely new Dick Cheney T-shirt.


"Arrr! Ack! Zzzzztt..."
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Osama? Check. Health care? Check.
Mr Cheney's copy of Caged Heat? Check...

Having solved all other problems facing our great nation, the Bush misadministration sends a cease & desist order to The Onion.

What goes around...
Or, karma's a bitch, ain't it?

We are on the verge of an extraordinary moment in American politics. The people running our government are about to face their day -- or days -- in court.

Those who thought investigations were a wonderful thing when Bill Clinton was president are suddenly facing prosecutors, and they don't like it.

Clinton's conservative enemies said over and over the Clinton mess was not about sex but about "perjury and the obstruction of justice" and "the rule of law."

The old conservative talking points are now inoperative.

It's especially amusing to see former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay complain about the politicization of justice...

- read more here.

Rule of law! Rule of law!

"My question for today is: Why are contemporary Republicans so full of shit? And a follow-up... How did the party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and General Eisenhower get taken over by such lying, thieving, self-serving scoundrels?"

- Alec Baldwin, at the HuffPo.

Times bombshell explodes near Cheney

[N]otes taken by Scooter Libby show that he learned of Valerie Wilson's employment at the CIA from his boss, Dick Cheney. These notes contradict Libby's testimony to the grand jury that he had first heard of Valerie Wilson from journalists.

[D]id Cheney--or anyone else at the White House (Bush included)--know that Libby was not testifying truthfully to the grand jury to save Cheney? Would that knowledge imply consent? Conspiracy? This scandal just got uglier and even more threatening for Cheney.

If Cheney purposefully did not tell Fitzgerald the truth--even if he was not under oath--he might be vulnerable to an obstruction of justice charge or perhaps other charges. (I am no lawyer.) But this new development raises the possibility of an orchestrated cover-up that reaches the vice president. Remember the "unindicted coconspirators" of the Watergate days? Who would believe the waiting-for-indictments period could become more intense?

-David Corn.

"The CIA leak issue is only the tip of the iceberg."

Congressman Jerry Nadler, along with 39 of his House colleagues, is calling for Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation to be expanded to examine whether the White House - President, Vice-President, and members of the WH's Iraq War Group - conspired to deliberately deceive Congress into authorizing the war.

As Nadler said, lying to Congress is a crime under several federal statutes.

“We are no longer just talking about a Republican culture of corruption and cronyism,” Nadler added. “We now have reason to believe that high crimes may have been committed at the highest level, wrongdoing that may have led us to war and imperiled our national security.”

Mr. Leaker and Mrs. Wilson: A picture story
Or, "You've just been indicted, Karlie Rove!"

I know, here it is, almost Fitzmas, and I'm posting Halloween pics...

Big-time trouble for Big-Time?

Scooter Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, first learned about the CIA officer at the heart of the leak investigation in a conversation with Mr. Cheney weeks before her identity became public in 2003, lawyers involved in the case said Monday.

Lawyers involved in the case said they showed that Mr. Cheney knew that Ms. Wilson worked at the CIA more than a month before her identity was made public and her undercover status was disclosed in a syndicated column by incontinent traitor Robert Novak on July 14, 2003.

That apparent discrepancy in his testimony suggests why prosecutors are weighing false statement charges against him in what they interpret as an effort by Mr. Libby to protect Cheney from scrutiny, the lawyers said.

And from firedoglake:

Cheney was interviewed by Fitzgerald last year under oath. That would make it perjury to tell a lie. Although Republican logic tells us that perjury is only a crime if you're getting a blow job in the bargain, a legitimate US attorney might not see it that way.

Cheney lied. Under oath. Put any Republican (and a few DINOs) in the wayback machine, and they will tell you -- this is an impeachable offense.

In a related story...
Busted! Sanctimonious hypocrite Bill Frist is such a goddamned liar. And quite possibly a crook.


"La la la, I can't hear you..."
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Repuke trash machine already starting up
Remember all those promises of how the rethugs were going to bring ‘character’ and ‘accountability,’ ‘honor’ and ‘dignity’ back to the White House?

Yeah, that was pretty funny!

Washington on precipice as CIA leak storm set to break
DC is braced for a political earthquake over the CIA leak scandal, with the special prosecutor narrowing in on key aides to Preznit Integritude and Vice Preznit GrownupInCharge.

[O]ne report this week in the New York Daily News suggested Cheney himself might be in the frame.

"Reading the tea leaves, it looks like something more is going on now," said Katy Harriger, a law professor at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, who has written two books on previous presidential investigations.

"There is some speculation that it might be that Cheney is in the sights as well and that is very big," she told AFP, noting that Fitzgerald may have moved away from the original scope of the inquiry and be mulling wider charges such as conspiracy or perjury.

Bush critics are salivating, because they at last see hope that the White House will pay for what they see as lies and half truths told to grease the path to war.

Pic via FireDogLake.

Doucheb Colostomybag of Liberty squealed to save his wrinkly, pallid skin

A critical early success for Fitzgerald was winning the cooperation of Robert Novak, the incontinent Chicago Sun-Times columnist who named Plame in a July 2003 story and attributed key information to "two senior administration officials." Legal sources said Novak avoided a fight and quietly helped the special counsel's inquiry, although neither the columnist nor his attorney have said so publicly.

Article bonus: 'Rove, who spoke to the grand jury four times, changed his story after failing to mention that he discussed Wilson and his wife with the Time correspondent.'


Click to open.

"George H. W. Bush, the president's father, was the head of the CIA, and he has said that outing a CIA agent is treason. So basically, what it looks like is going to happen, is that Libby and Karl Rove are going to be executed. Yes, and I don't know how I feel about it because I'm basically against the death penalty." - Al Franken, to David Letterman.



Bunnypants is getting vewwy, vewwy cwanky
An' it's evwybody else's fault!

"The President is just unhappy in general and casting blame all about," said one Bush insider. "Andy [Card, the chief of staff] gets his share. Karl gets his share. Even Cheney gets his share. And the press gets a big share."

[S]ources say Bush, who has a long history of keeping staffers in their place, has lashed out at aides as his political woes have mounted.

Bush is so dismayed that "the only person escaping blame is the President himself," said a sympathetic official, who delicately termed such self-exoneration "illogical."

Accountabilitude.

Bestest governor ever!
Somebody’s got some explaining to do…

SC nominee Harriet Miers collected more than 10 times the market value for a small slice of family-owned land in a large superfund pollution cleanup site in Dallas where the state wanted to build a highway off-ramp.

The windfall came after a judge who received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Miers' law firm appointed a close professional associate of Miers and an outspoken property-rights activist to the three-person panel that determined how much the state should pay.

The resulting six-figure payout to the Miers family in 2000 was despite the state’s objections to the "excessive” amount and to the process used to set the price. The panel recommended paying nearly $5 a square foot for land that was valued at less than 30 cents a square foot.

“Who’s the terrorist? Bush or us Muslims?”
The War Preznit’s public relations chief, former pro wrestler Karen Hughes, lies, pisses off Muslim audience. Again.

Miers supporters are supinely acquiescing rectum-osculators
George Will, attacked by a rampaging Thesaurus, has conniption fit, wallows in own crapulence.

Yoink!

"Scooter" Libby is known for his sarcastic, world-weary and at times dark sense of humor. He once quipped to an aide that he planned to stay as Vice President Cheney's top adviser until "I get indicted or something." - the WaPo.

As Cookie Jill says, I guess he can probably cross that "something" off his list.

Heh. Indeed. Pic from Rox Populi.
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Do it, you #ucking asshat!
The republican Senator of Alaska threatens to resign if the Senate cuts funding for the infamous bridge to nowhere.

Corrupt scumbag's mugshot taken during oral sex
Smug, shit-eating grin on the indicted face of malevolent fucktard Tom DeLay could also be a ploy to foil Democrat campaign ads.

Here, they can use this one:




Corrupt scumbag seeks new judge in case
Congressman's arraignment postponed because judge in case is a Democrat - and everyone knows only republicans have the lock on fairness and ethical behavior.

Preznit Partyhat's political fortunes provided a windfall for Harriet Miers' law firm
OMG!!11!! Governor Bush paid us $163,000! I am like so never going to use that money!! He is sooooo cool!!1!1!!

Some senators are planning to explore Miers' legal work for Bunnypants, but the White House says it won't release any memos detailing that work.

"I think people across the country recognize the importance of attorney-client privilege," said White House spokes-tool Scott McClellan with a straight face, crossing his fingers behind his back and knocking his stupid wooden head.

Bush critic became target of Libby
Cheney's chief of staff reportedly hated Wilson with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns.

"Libby became consumed," and was so angry about the statements of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson that he monitored all of Wilson's television appearances and urged the White House to mount an aggressive public campaign against him, becoming almost unbalanced on the subject, say former aides.

The grown-ups are back in charge.
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White House defense shaky in CIA leak case
It wasn't their fault! It was the media! Everyone else was doing it!

Honest! I ran outta gas! I had a flat tire! I didn't have enough money for cab fare! My tux didn't come back from the cleaners! An old friend came in from out of town! Someone stole my car! There was an earthquake, a terrible flood, locusts... it wasn't my fault!!

Yeah... that's the ticket!

Even if White House aides leaked a covert CIA officer's identity, they were simply passing along information they'd already heard from the news media, the administration's supporters maintain in a defense that looks increasing shaky as new evidence accumulates.

Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald now knows that Scooter Libby met three times with New York Times' WH propagandist Judith Miller before the leak of Valerie Plame's identity, that Libby initiated a call to NBC blowhard/Clinton cockhunter Tim Russert and that Libby was a confirming source about the wife of Bush misadministration critic Joseph Wilson for Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper.

Accountability. Character. Values. Integrity.


Oh please oh please oh please...
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"The wheels are coming off" the Bush misadministration
So says WH apologist David Gergen, who ought to know. Crooks and Liars has the video.

Cover-up is focus in leak inquiry
The accounts given by slimy WH svengali Karl Rove and neocon warmonger Scooter Libby about their conversations with reporters have been under investigation almost from the start, sources say.

As he weighs whether to bring criminal charges in the CIA leak case, Patrick Fitzgerald is focusing on whether Karl Rove, the puffy, flatulent WH adviser, and Scooter Libby, chief brownshirt for Dick Cheney, sought to conceal their actions and mislead prosecutors, lawyers involved in the case said Thursday.

Among the charges that Mr. Fitzgerald is considering are perjury, obstruction of justice and false statement - counts that suggest that the two White House aides sought to cover up their actions, the lawyers said.

Mr. Rove and Mr. Libby have been advised that they may be in serious legal jeopardy. But they may not be the only people at risk...

Yes, we're looking at you, Mr Novak!