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January 15, 2008
Primary Day #3
We've had the Iowa caucus (Obama, Huckabee). We've had Wyoming (Romney) We've had New Hampshire (Clinton, McCain) and now we are on to Michigan, to be followed by South Carolina on Saturday. I don't know about anyone else but I'm rooting for 5 winners in the first 5 republican primaries - well 6 actually since everyone seems to be pretending that Wyoming didn't happen. So I'm looking for a Romney win today and a Thompson win on Saturday, to be followed by a Guiliani win in Florida.And then hope against hope, I'd love to see a brokered convention.
On the left...I am taking particular delight in watching Hillary attempt to bludgeon Obama with the same dishonest rhetoric the Clintons have used against the right for years. Her biggest problem is that Obama is more like Bill Clinton than is Hillary. Barack is Teflon, he's "taking the high road", while successfully twisting Clinton's words and those of her surrogates into "race talk".
July 12, 2006
Novak, Plame and Fitzgerald
I'm a committed Plamiac. I've been following this story since Novak's 2003 column that started the whole kerfluffle. So Novak's revelation yesterday that he got Plame's name from Wilson's own entry in Who's Who of America, certainly didn't surprise me.
So here is what we know so far: Joe Wilson went to Niger at the behest of his wife, Valerie Plame who worked at the CIA. We don't know if she was covert but can assume she wasn't because no one has been indicted for that crime and at this point, the special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald has abandoned that hunt.
Joe Wilson, while working as an adviser to John Kerry in his election bid, published a report that said the President lied about his reasons to go to war, because his reasons conflicted with Wilson's report from Niger. The bi-partisan 911 commission determined that Wilson lied.
In 2003 Novak learned that Wilson was sent to Niger by his wife who worked for the CIA. He wrote as much in this column. (According to Andrea Mitchell, Plame's employment was the worst kept secret in Washington.) He learned this from an unnamed government official (UGO). The vast speculation is that UGO is Richard Armitage who was the under secretary to Colin Powell. We also speculate that Armitage learned that information from Marc Grossman - who worked for Armitage and who was a long standing buddy of Joe Wilson, going back to their college days. (Armitage is also assumed to be Woodward's source.)
After learning this information from UGO, and checking with Who's Who in America, Novak said, in the middle of a conversation with Karl Rove: "I heard that Joe Wilson's wife works at the CIA." Rove replied: "I heard that too".
This was all done in the context of the White House push back against the false Wilson report, in attempt to publish the truth.
The left went nuts, and Chuck Schumer demanded an investigation of whoever leaked Plame's name. My guess is they were surprised when the request was granted.
Within three weeks of his appointment, Patrick Fitzgerald knew all of Novak's sources, including UGO and decided not to prosecute the leaker, either because Plame was not covert (and thus there was no crime) or UGO's revelation was "unintentional" and again there was no crime.
Instead of closing up shop and going home, Fitzgerald began a systematic process of trying to find someone to indict.
On October 28, 2005, Lewis Libby, adviser to the VP was indicted for perjury. He leveled a 5 count indictment. Three of the counts have fallen apart. (They are based on testimony by Matt Cooper, directly contradicted by his own notes) and the two other counts are predicated on the a lapse of memory either by Libby or Tim Russert.
What we don't know is why Fitzgerald is covering for Armitage. There is speculation that Fitzgerald was given his job by Comey at the FBI who specifically wanted to hamstring the administrations position on the war, so he specifically pointed him toward the VP.
This speculation was fueled by the letter sent from Hoekstra to The President in May, and leaked in part by the NY Times this Sunday, wherein Hoekstra stated that the Plame case was a "set up by an anti-Administration clique in the CIA".
The go-to guy on this case is Tom Maguire at Just One minute. And here is his time-line.
Update: Don Surber wonders why Bill Keller and Dean Baquet (editors of the NY Times and LA Times) don't defend Novak.
July 10, 2006
Getting Frisched
If anyone misunderestimated the power of the blogosphere, the events of this weekend should permanently change their minds.
Jeff Goldstein blogs at Protein Wisdom (currently down with its third DDOS attack in as many days). If you haven't read Goldstein he is conservative, irreverent, funny, sometimes off-color, and always a good read.
Deb Frisch is, uh, make that was an adjunct lecturer in psychology at the University of Arizona professor.
In the comments section of Protein Wisdom , Frisch made several provocative posts about Goldstein's child (vis Patterico because PW is down):
[â?¦] as I said elsewhere, if I woke up tomorrow and learned that someone else had shot you and your tyke it wouldn't slow me down one iota. You aren't human to me.[â?¦]
So if you could just tell me the AGE and SEX of your tyke, Id be stoked!
Thanx!
She then went on to talk about the child being "Jon-Benet(ed)" - as in Ramsey, and other choice things.
The blogosphere erupted. Within a day Ms. Frisch announced that she had tendered her resignation at UofA (citing a desire to be in the more moonbat friendly Eugene Oregon) but referencing the volume of email received by her boss. Conservative bloggers and liberal bloggers weighed in.
Frisch apologized then backed off from the apology, ultimately blaming Goldstein and calling herself a victim. To their credit, many lefty bloggers condemned Frisch' actions. Others praised her.
Now the MSM has picked up the story which continues to gain steam as time goes on.
There is a warning here for anyone who participates in the blogosphere. As Goldstein promised, under the right circumstances, you too can be turned into a verb.
July 05, 2006
Swift a Secret?
According to Patterico,(who got it from Cassandra,) In 2005, Eric Lichtblau, the author of the soon-to-be Pulitzer Prize winning report wrote an article called “U.S. Lacks Strategy to Curb Terror Funds”in which he boldly admonishes Bush et al:
The administration has made cutting off money to terrorists one of the main prongs in its attack against Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. It has seized tens of millions of dollars in American accounts and assets linked to terrorist groups, prodded other countries to do the same, and is now developing a program to gain access to and track potentially hundreds of millions of international bank transfers into the United States.
But experts in the field say the results have been spotty, with few clear dents in Al Qaeda's ability to move money and finance terrorist attacks. The Congressional report-- a follow-up to a 2003 report that offered a similarly bleak assessment -- buttresses those concerns.
Senator Charles E. Grassley, the Iowa Republican who leads the Senate Finance Committee and was one of the lawmakers who requested the study, said he was disappointed to learn that in an area as critical as countering terrorist financing, ''they haven't gotten very far yet.''
In an interview, Mr. Grassley said: ''It's as simple as learning to stop the infighting and turf protection and get on with the job. What's happening is just inexplicable in light of the war on terrorism.''
So Swift, the very successful unsecret, secret SWIFT program, was indeed secret, at least to Eric Lichtblau, as recently as last year. Maybe Google at the NY Times is blocked by a pop-up called arrogance.
July 03, 2006
Hail Romney!
The MA state legislature is overwhelmingly democrat. One of the legislators, Rep Michael Ruane, served from 1974 until 2004. During that time, Ruane opted to not contribute to the very generous state pension plan. Twenty years after opting out of the pension system he was given another chance:
In 1994, lawmakers approved an amendment that would have allowed Ruane to enter the state system - with credit for his prior 20 years of service - simply by beginning to contribute then. That option remained open until the end of Ruane’s tenure as state representative.
He steadfastly declined.
When Ruane was diagnosed with cancer his colleagues voted to award him a
pension, with survivor benefits, using taxpayer money despite the fact that he was not eligible, and no longer serves in the legislature. The proposed benefit would total $44,000.00 a year. Ruane died Sunday night. before the bill was signed by the Governor.
When the bill went to Gov. Mitt Romney's desk, he proposed an
alternative. He proposed that the legislature pay for the pension out
of their own funds, $275.00 a year. And he pledged that he and his
Lt Governor, Kerry Healy, (neither of whom draw a salary), each pay $675.00 and $650 respectively a year of their own money to fund the pension. The Governor released a letter saying in part:
“Without my proposed amendment, the bill would play favorites by creating a special benefit for the family of one former legislative colleague that is not available to other similarly situated persons,” the Republican chief executive said in a letter to lawmakers, a majority of whom are Democrats. “Through my amendment, the elected officials responsible for this legislation will be able to demonstrate compassion and at the same time bear all the costs associated with the bill.”
One House member, Rep. Kevin Murphy, D-Lowell, laughed out loud upon hearing of Romney’s proposal.
Ironically, A google search on Mike Ruane reveals that his son, Mike was a real estate manager for the Commonwealth's pension fund.