More Corner Bashing

How creepy is this? (Perhaps he's referring to this, but it's still just creepy.)

Reasons According to Jim sucks, No. 478.

Let's see.

As for the Blog News Service, a lot of work needs to be done and a lot of questions answered. An editorial board consisting of Glenn Reynolds, PowerLine, Lawrence Kudlow, Hugh Hewitt, Marc Cooper, Wretchard of the Belmont Club and Tim Blair, as well as the founders, is already in place with other bloggers in many countries having signed on as contributors.

This is no way meant to be exclusive. We invite you all to join us. On the advertising end, any blogger -- whether political or not -- is welcome. We would be delighted to place ads on your blog and pay you for them. You may find out more and, we hope, join by simply emailing us at join@pajamasmedia.com.

Hmm... There may be a trapdoor under that Welcome mat. Professional standards and quality assurance, I'm sure.

Oh, well. It looks like PMS screwed Hugh Hewitt and the PowderPuff boys out of their seats as well.

p.s. -- It looks like I'm making as much money off of advertising as Roger el-Simon right now.

Two Years Before The Mast

Another one of the talking points from Big Pharma, Instacracker and the like is "Two years! And only one person indicted! What's the big deal? Special prosecutor run wild."

There are two immediate responses to this bit of diversionary nonsense:

1. A year's delay was created by Cooper/Miller fighting the subpoenas and Miller refusing to testify for three months after the appeals were exhausted. I'm certain there was other work done during this time period, but Fitzgerald had an obligation not to go forward before all the discoverable evidence was presented to the grand jury. As Fitzgerald said, "I would have wished nothing better that, when the subpoenas were issued in August 2004, witnesses testified then, and we would have been here in October 2004 instead of October 2005."

2. More importantly, the completion of the investigation was delayed because Libby lied to the grand jury. Had Libby told the truth, Fitzgerald wouldn't have had to spend all that time untangling Libby's lies. The same applies to Karl Rove and his (alleged) multiple attempts to walk back his lies after Cooper finally testified. Had Bush's operatives done what Bush supposedly wanted them to do (cooperate fully with special counsel) they could have started serving their sentences already and be looking forward to their 2025 release dates.

* Void where prohibited by the PATRIOT Act.

Pumpkinhead For The Prosecution

Don't expect to seek any more hour-longs with Tim Russert stroking Biggus Dickus.

Mr. Fitzgerald has gathered documents and other evidence showing that Mr. Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, learned of the identity of a C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson, weeks before he talked with the three reporters. But, according to the indictment, Mr. Libby told the grand jury that the information came from Mr. Russert.

The reporters fought subpoenas, arguing among other things that they should not be converted into an investigative arm of the government. All eventually testified, relying, they said, on Mr. Libby's permission.

Mr. Russert's testimony, in August 2004, was particularly noteworthy. As part of a deal with Mr. Fitzgerald, Mr. Russert testified only to his end of a July 2003 conversation with Mr. Libby. According to a statement issued by NBC News at the time, Mr. Russert said he did not provide information about Ms. Wilson to Mr. Libby. Indeed, this statement said, Mr. Russert said that he had first learned of Ms. Wilson's identity on July 14, 2003, when it was disclosed by Robert D. Novak in his column.

Only with yesterday's indictment, however, did it become clear just how crucial reporters will be to proving the case, Ms. Kirtley said.

"They were used to get the indictment," she said of the reporters, "and will be a central part of how the prosecution proceeds."

I can see why Scooter thought Russert would lie for Cheney, given Russert's hosting duties in Cheney's informercials for war. But he should have known that Little Russ wouldn't give up his beachfront properties for the federal pen.

Pajamas Media today revealed that its editorial board members and contributors include "Instapundit" Glenn Reynolds, one of the world's most-read bloggers; CNBC's Larry Kudlow, blogger and host of "Kudlow & Company"; Michael Barone, blogger and senior writer, U.S. News & World Report; David Corn, blogger, columnist and Washington, D.C. editor for The Nation; and Claudia Rosett, a prize-winning journalist and blogger central to breaking the United Nations' "Oil for Food" controversy.

Other luminaries on Pajamas' current roster of editorial board members include:

Tammy Bruce, an author, former president of the National Organization for Women's Los Angeles chapter, host of "The Tammy Bruce Show," flag-shipped at KABC-AM (Los Angeles) and heard on more than 160 affiliates, and the personality behind www.tammybruce.com

John Podhoretz, a New York Post columnist, Fox News contributor, and blogger for the National Review Online's "The Corner"

Richard Fernandez, a Sydney, Australia-based software developer and author of the widely-read "Belmont Club" blog

Jane Hall, an assistant professor at American University's School of Communication and weekly panelist of Fox News Watch

Dr. Michael Ledeen, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and expert on U.S. foreign policy

Clifford D. May, a veteran news reporter, foreign correspondent and editor at The New York Times, and currently president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a policy institute focusing on terrorism

Tim Blair, an Australia-based blogging pioneer and author of "Tim Blair"

Marc Cooper, an award-winning author, journalist, and contributor for the The Nation, and author of "Marc Cooper"

Mark Steyn, a noted, internationally syndicated journalist covering global politics and current affairs

Adam Bellow, a widely-respected Random House editor and son of Nobel Prize-winner Saul Bellow

Kudlow will supply the coke.

For those unable to attend the launch party,

The company's mid-November New York gathering will include, both online and in-person, of some of the most thoughtful, noteworthy industry leaders and influencers in blogging and journalism, and will feature roadmap discussions with Pajamas' founders, panel discussions on blogging, journalism and advertising, as well as addresses by industry luminaries, including Reynolds.

They're gonna need a lot of coke, Larry.

Since el-Simon is changing the name of this illustrious venture, I'd recommend he snap up "Neoclownhall.com" before it's taken.

Grand Old Police Blotter: The First Noe-l Edition

Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people:

A federal grand jury has indicted Tom Noe, the former Toledo-area coin dealer at the center of a state investment scandal, of illegally laundering money into President Bush's re-election campaign.

The three-count indictment ... states that beginning in October 2003, Mr. Noe contributed to President Bush's election campaign "over and above the limits established by the Federal Election Campaign Act."

"He did so, according to the indictment, in order to fulfill his pledge to raise $50,000 for a Bush-Cheney fund-raiser held in Columbus, Ohio, on Oct. 30, 2003," Gregory White, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, announced at an afternoon news conference.

The two other counts were for conspiracy and filing false statements.

Noe is a Bush Pioneer. He faces fifteen years in the pen.

Paddy wagons, ho!

Cultural Illiteracy At The Wall Street Journal

Nooners:

Our public schools don't work, and there's little refuge to be had in private schools, however pricey, in part because teachers there are embarrassed not to be working in the slums and make up for it by putting pictures of Frida Kalho where Abe Lincoln used to be. Where is Osama? What's up with trademark infringement and intellectual capital? We need an answer on an amendment on homosexual marriage! We face a revolt on immigration.

Idiot.

MoDo's Common Touch

From her Wednesday column:

"Remember the days when the only torture was listening to politicians reciting their best TV lines at dinner parties?"

Nope. Don't remember that.

Unwashed cretin that I am, I don't share a table with Pinchloaf and other, more influential apologists for torture and fraudulent wars.

Maybe I should get out more often.

While White House staffers were tense, Fitzgerald's team relaxed from their stoic, all-business demeanor. The cheery prosecutors shared an elevator ride with a News reporter and cracked up over a private joke.

Must be the one that starts, "Libby, Rove and Dick Cheney go into a cell...."

Bush, Emasculated, Lies

The coward who said "Bring 'em on" has been neutered by such deep thinkers as John Podhoretz, George Fwill, the Doughy Pantload and Johnny Assrocket. And, as usual, he lies about it:

"It is clear that senators would not be satisfied until they gained access to internal documents concerning advice provided during her tenure at the White House -- disclosures that would undermine a president's ability to receive candid counsel," Bush said. "Harriet Miers' decision demonstrates her deep respect for this essential aspect of the constitutional separation of powers -- and confirms my deep respect and admiration for her."

Bush admits that Republican Senate has no respect for the Constitution. He should know.

More on the Dickless Executive here.

p.s. -- Imagine how Hugh Eunuch feels right now.

Howie the Putz Scorecard: Lies, 10; Truth, O

Is there anything this Republican sack of shit won't say?

"10) Vanity Fair spread. Monica posed while a prosecution witness; Valerie posed while a covert CIA operative."

Putz.

You'd expect such dishonesty from a human stain like Mark Levin, not from someone who claims to be objective.

Even when the Putz plays at evenhandedness, by admitting the obvious, he can't help himself.

"2) The stakes. Clinton's slippery testimony was to cover up an extramarital affair with an intern, a huge personal embarrassment. The Bush administration's outing of Valerie Plame was to get back at her husband over the WMD issue, a huge national embarrassment when the original rationale for war crumbled."

National embarrassment, my ass. Bush, the Post and the Putz have plenty to be ashamed of; I don't.

"1) Personal involvement. Clinton was the man who assured the country he did not have sexual relations with that woman; Bush, as far as we know, had no direct involvement in Plamegate."

Bush is the man who assured the country he would fire anyone who leaked Plame's identity. Bush is also the man who lied about WMDs.

And Kurtz is the man who lies for Bush.

The Clench Before The Storm

A Word From Your Host

Today marks the third anniversary of this weblog. My sincere thanks to everyone who has read or participated in this blog.

The traditional third anniversary present is justice. Let's hope Pat Fitzgerald didn't forget to get me something.

Breaking News From The New York Times Editorial Page

That Stripper's Not Really Into You

And watch for the forthcoming exposes from the nation's premier opinion page:

There's A Reason Your Phone Sex Operator Sounds A Bit Mannish

and

Pay $34.95 for TimesSelect If You Like, But Thomas Friedman Still Won't Answer Your E-Mail

Big Time Fights Back

Biggus Dickus isn't going down without a fight.

Via Bloomberg, Defibrillator Dick sends Scooter a message:

I. Lewis Libby, Cheney's chief of staff, first learned of agent Valerie Plame's identity in a conversation with Cheney weeks before her name became public in July 2003, the New York Times reported last night, citing lawyers involved in the case.

The disclosure doesn't indicate that the vice president did anything wrong, said a senior Republican with ties to Cheney. The person declined to make a similar statement about Libby.

The senior Republican, who spoke on condition of anonymity, sought to portray Cheney as uninvolved in any violation of a 1982 law forbidding the revelation of a covert intelligence agent's identity. The official noted that both Cheney and Libby had the security clearances necessary to discuss Plame's identity.

With Dick, loyalty's a one-way street.

BIG TIME

You've already read it. But here it is again:

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 -- I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, first learned about the C.I.A. 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.

Notes of the previously undisclosed conversation between Mr. Libby and Mr. Cheney on June 12, 2003, appear to differ from Mr. Libby's testimony to a federal grand jury that he initially learned about the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson, from journalists, the lawyers said.

...

The notes help explain the legal difficulties facing Mr. Libby. Lawyers in the case said Mr. Libby testified to the grand jury that he had first heard from journalists that Ms. Wilson may have had a role in dispatching her husband on a C.I.A.-sponsored mission to Africa in 2002 in search of evidence that Iraq had acquired nuclear material there for its weapons program.

But the notes, now in Mr. Fitzgerald's possession, also indicate that Mr. Libby first heard about Ms. Wilson - who is also known by her maiden name, Valerie Plame - from Mr. Cheney. 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 Mr. Cheney from scrutiny, the lawyers said.

Your ass is burning, Scooter. Your lies convict you. Come back to court -- and jail. Until then, give up your co-conspirators.

With admiration,

Roger

Remedial Punditry

The following statements are from a man who has been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by the United States Department of Education:

The damn broke, and it's President Bush's fault.

We cannot forget that Al Qaeda has replicated disease like throughout the world.

And yes, his strong stances tend to make him a magnate for criticism.

So much so, that when a damn in New Orleans breaks or a bomb explodes in Iraq, we look to blame our President.

But he's absolutely, though unintentionally, right about one thing:

This is troubling, not only because our president deserves our support, but also because the fight against terrorism remains a very real threat to our national security.

What A Barone!

Michael Barone tries to top Mark Levin in the Bushlicking Sycophant Sweepstakes. His column is a lying points roadmap for the lawless right.

Shorter Barone: Indicting Rove and Libby for perjury for their secret grand jury testimony will harm the people's right to know.

I especially enjoy this bit:

Any indictment of Rove or Libby brought by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's grand jury, which is scheduled to go out of existence on Oct. 28, would in my opinion be a grave injustice. It would hurt the administration by depriving it of the services of one or more very talented and dedicated officials. But it would also set a bad precedent by creating a precedent that would obstruct the flow of information from government to the press and the people.

Enforcement of the law = bad precedent. I'm convinced.

Bring Out Your Brain Dead

Here's a fun site which seeks to find liberal bias in the Washington Post but instead reveals the idiocy of the right.

In this excerpt, the proprietor appears not to understand the differences between the U.S. military accounting for its own casualties and the military estimating the deaths of insurgents/enemy combatants.

Somebody at the Media Research Center needs to hire this genius before Accuracy in Media or AEI snaps him or her up.

Amazing Grace

How sweet the fraud/The wretch from Tennessee/He once could see/But now he lies/The scumbag G.O.P.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) was given considerable information about his stake in his family's hospital company, according to records that are at odds with his past statements that he did not know what was in his stock holdings.

Managers of the trusts that Frist once described as "totally blind," regularly informed him when they added new shares of HCA Inc. or other assets to his holdings, according to the documents.

...

In January 2003, after winning election as majority leader, Frist was asked on CNBC whether his HCA holdings made it difficult for him to push for changes in Medicare, a federal health program for seniors that added to the hospital company's revenue.

"I think really for our viewers it should be understood that I put this into a blind trust," Frist replied. "So as far as I know, I own no HCA stock." He added that the trust was "totally blind. I have no control."

Two weeks before that interview, M. Kirk Scobey Jr., a Frist trustee, informed the senator in writing that one of his trusts had received HCA stock valued at between $15,000 and $50,000.

Defending The Indefensible

If Patrick Fitzgerald indicts Libby and/or Rove and/or others, how will the wingnuts respond? Ignoring Traitorgate will no longer be an option, and not all of them can claim to be too stupid to understand the story, like Glenn Reynolds can.

The trial-balloon posts of hairless troll doll Mark Levin, written while Levin polishes his pate in anticipation of non-stop appearances on Fox, are instructive.

So far, Levin has floated the following "defenses":

Ambassador Wilson outed his own wife;

We want them to be indicted, so we can abuse the Wilsons during discovery;

and

Fitzgerald is another Lawrence Walsh (which, in Levin's pin head, is a bad thing)

Smarter monkeys, please.

Better Headline Writers, Please

"Fitzgerald Is Expected to Decide Whether to Seek Indictments"

Saint Ronnie Endorses Miers From Beyond The Grave

A week before Hallowe'en, spiritual medium Hugh Jass summons the spirit of Ronald Wilson Reagan from the grave and calls upon him to haunt those punks who are TPeeing the White House:

It is disappointing to see both Judge Bork and George Will run off the cliff in the same week, and to do so with such intemperate rhetoric. (What does Judge Bork think of
think of Justice Powell, I wonder?)

But I am certain that Ronald Reagan -- who asked George Will to prep him for debates and who nominated Robert Bork -- would have nothing of the assault on Harriet Miers. Nothing. At. All.

I'm sure she and the Pumpkinhead could tell us quite a lot we don't know about Traitorgate.

Unreliable Soreasses

Only caught part of Reliable Sources. Howie first had the adults on (Geneva Overholzer, Ron Brownstein and David Gergen) to opine on Judy Miller and Traitorgate. Howie the Putz was suitably outraged at "speculation" which pointed toward Administration crimes.

At the half hour, the children's table was heard from. Two right-wing bloggers, John Hindlicker and Jeff "Fucking Moron" Jarvis were teamed with John Dickerson of Slate to say nothing of consequence about Miers and Miller. Jarvis provided some comedy by claiming he was "on the left." I guess all the real leftists from The Corner didn't return the Putz's calls.

Is there anything more absurd than Jeff Jarvis lecturing newspapers on "getting facts wrong, covering things up"? Jarvis only has credibility among those who don't know his standard operating procedure.

And the Putz is taking balance lessons from G.E. Pumpkinhead, who today balances two Republicans (Kay Bailey "Perjury Is Not A Crime" Hutchinson and George Allen) with one Dem (Charles Schumer).

Update: Transcript here.