Fredo Has Gone Fishing

It's no wonder that the Prez assigned the moniker of "Fredo" to the deposed AG. The guy didn't appear to have a handle on basic legal matters like the Constitution, Habeas or his memory for that matter. Al Berto did the honorable thing by taking his ball and going home. In the end he was not the right point man for the president's executive power grab orchestrated in the name of national security. Just like the weak minded Fredo Corleone he couldn't keep it together when pressured under oath about his involvement in the Rovian politicization scheme at the DOJ.

The only photo missing from the weekend meeting between the Prez and Alberto was one of W. laying one of those wet new years eve kisses on his Fredo. I new it was you all along.

He's Gone, Let It Go...

Karl "turd blossom" Rove has left the White House presumably to start his career as caretaker of the eighth circle of hell.

I am asking all of the Democratic leadership in the House and Senate (especially Leahy, Waxman and Conyers) to give it a rest and move on to bigger and badder things. Yes we all wanted to see Rove's head on a pike in front of the capital building but alas it's not going to happen. The guy has always proved to slippery to nabbed cold handed. Honestly gents, it was starting to look a bit quixotic in the way every investigation or line of inquiry would some how lead to getting the goods on Bush's brain.

I suggest we focus our efforts on more important and even attainable goals. Mr. Leahy get the Phase II intelligence report back on track. Mr. Conyers how about more attention to assuring fair elctions, there's a big one coming up next year. Henry keep doing that oversight and contracting abuse thing that you do so darn well. Karl would have been a nice prize but it's time to move on.

Photo- AP Photo / Manuel Balce Ceneta

Cygnetec Opens Shop

Vince Rubino has resurfaced as an independent consultant under the moniker Cygnetec. We were surprised when we heard then news of his departure from Hope Homes, Inc. in March. It didn't take long for this impresario of health care services to dive back into the work he has been involved in for over three decades. Check out the website for a look at what's new.

And the Winner Is...Clinton Did It.

So much for the Scooter serving any time. Oh well we new that was coming. The right wing apologists including the Wall Street editorial page wasted no time getting out the real story behind the president's commutation of Mr. Libby. The old favorite "Clinton did it" is back. Every Libby supporter on all the cable news and NPR produced old reliable right within seconds of any discussion.

Yes Clinton pardoned the convicted white collar fugitive Marc Rich at the end of his term and many people right and left criticized that pardon. Of course the lies that got Scooter in trouble have contributed to thousands of American war dead.

TDF One Week Away

The greatest sporting event in the world gets underway in one week.

No Landis, Basso, or Jan. No wonder the betting websites favor Alexander Vinokourov to win the maillot jaune. Not bad for the Astana squad's top rider. More posts to follow.

"Al Queda" - The new Kleenex

Everything we're shootin' at in Iraq has been deemed to be Al Queda. I thought i had noticed this trend recently in the various news crawls and Wolf Blitzer blatherings. My suspicions were confirmed after reading Glenn Greenwald's column in Salon.

All of a sudden, every time one of the top military commanders describes our latest operations or quantifies how many we killed, the enemy is referred to, almost exclusively now, as "Al Qaeda."

What's even cuter is that the media are picking up the cue. He goes on to provide some recent examples from stellar publications such as The New York Times and The Washington Post.

It appears the surge of mind speak was started to coincide with the military version. The same thing has been happening with Iran references. I have found from my observations that Iran is being accused of funding shia AND sunni militants in Iraq. My favorite was the claim made by the State Department earlier this month that Iran is funding and arming the Taliban in Afghanistan. So Iran is helping sunni groups whose idealogical bent is to destroy all shia (read Iranian) influence in the region? War truly is peace.

FERC Denies Hydroelectric Farce

Sunday's ABJ reports that Metro Hydroelectric had its request for a permit denied by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. This is just another legal slap down that Metro Hydroelectric has experienced in its questionable pursuit of hydro power in the Gorge. I guess FirstEnergy thought that using a "green energy" project as a front would protect them from the future liability associated with removing the dam.

This is not just good news for the Gorge Metropark's monkshood colony but bad news for the ol' Edison dam. There's a legion of grassroots stakeholders (and paddlers) who are hoping to bring down the industrial age relic and uncover a forgotten paradise. The river will thank us for it when we are done.

We (not) the People II

As i had mentioned in a previous post war supporters are still refuting the November election results were a referendum demanding the President to change direction in Iraq. This time I caught Repub' strategist and former Minn. congressman Vin Weber on the Diane Rehm Show throwing out the "this a republic not a parliamentary government" excuse for the president's tone deafness on the war. This makes sense considering that the President has made it clear that he is the decider and ain't nobody outside his administration gonna tell him how to run this war. Except think-tankers, Bill Kristol and the Saudis.

This one talking point is still a refuge for war apologists regardless of the lack of progress the "surge" is showing or the stalemate exhibited by the Iraqi government. And just when you thought things really stink, Turkey is starting to complicate the one successful (until now) aspect of our national experiment in exporting democracy to the Middle East. I'll guess we'll just have to wait until September for something to change.

I will follow up on the Turkey situation in a later post.

It looks like DiLuca

There are still three days left but it looks like Danilo DiLuca will keep the maglia rosa and win the 90th Giro D'Italia. Gilberto Simoni took 30 seconds from the leader but the rider in pink was able to hold on and grab a respectable fourth at the top of Monte Zoncolan while fending off Simoni and the younger Schleck.

It's all pretty much flat until the end. Do I smell another Petacchi sprint victory?

Wolfie to media "Get bent!"

It was only a matter of time before the real culprit behind the Wolfowitz World Bank meltdown was made public. Of course it's the media stupid. In a BBC interview Wolfie explains that it wasn't the lack of support from bank employees that made him leave. The inaccuracies reported in the media were at fault, "I think it tells us more about the media than about the bank and I'll leave it at that" was the gem he offered in a BBC radio interview on Monday. Remember the bank's board had accepted that he had acted ethically in providing his girlfriend with a big-ass raise. Paul I think the bank was willing to agree to anything to get you out of there. It's too bad more people didn't follow the Wall Street Journals editorial remarks more carefully because the media wouldn't have had to take such a big piece of the blame.

I guess it's the media's fault that your ridiculous claims of Iraqi oil revenue funding the war never came to pass. Or how about the 12 million barrels a day that has yet to happen? Media's fault right?

We (not) the People

The Nov. 7th elections have been marginalized as a quaint relic of a bygone time. We are reminded by war sympathizers that this country is not a direct democracy but a representative democracy. So the voters sent a message loud and clear to their elected reps in Congress to change direction in Iraq - in a democratically representative fashion. Now we are told this country does not have a parliamentary system of government and the president makes war policy and will not cater to the wishes of Congressional constituents.
Tony Blankley summed it up nicely when addressing the is matter on the Diane Rheam show on Friday by saying "... following the wishes if the voters isn't a bad thing...".

Floyd: The Mennonite Icarus

Guilty. Flew too close to the sun of France on wings of exogenous testosterone.