Friday, October 28, 2005

Who told Novack?

"Scooter" Libby has been indicted for lying to the FBI and the Grand Jury in the Valerie Plame investigation. While proves that he was an idiot, it still does not answer the pertinent question of the investigation. Namely, "Who told Novack?" Robert Novack is the guy who outed Plame in his column. Not Matt Cooper or Judith Miller, though Miller will not survive at the NY Times it appears, but Novack. So the important question is who told Novack. Novack testified before the Grand Jury and since he did not go to jail for contempt, he must have given up his source. Whoever that person is should have been indicted, or called to question to find out how he or she had access to classified information. At some point in the process, someone told someone else something they should not have.

While purging our government of people so stupid they lie when they don't have to is always a good thing, the person who committed the crime that started this mess has not been named. Perhaps Fitzgerald should worry about getting the criminal (i.e. the leaker) first and getting the nitwits later.

Thursday, October 27, 2005

Miers' Withdrawal

Harriet Miers withdrew from her nomination to the Supreme Court. Since all of Washington has been focusing on the impending indictments of Karl Rove and "Scooter" Libby I imagine it was something of a shock for most of the city. All I can say is good riddance to bad rubbish as she certainly was not qualified to be on the bench (though Thomas and Ginsberg certainly suggest that the bar is not all that high). My only concern is that now Bush is really going to bend over for the far right and give them exactly what they want. Some fire-breathing reactionary who thinks Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh actually have anything useful to say. This will lead to the left exploding and in the end the person will probably get confirmed but not until we have seem millions of dollars spent on advertising that I certainly have no desire to see or hear and the Senate will have practically destroyed itself over it.

Maybe Dick Cheney will get indicted and distract us from this.

Thursday, October 20, 2005

Senators

Currently, Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma is trying to bring the federal government's spending under a little bit more control by trying to remove some of the most egregious peices of pork out of it. This to make room for all the money to be spent on rebuilding Mississippi and Lousiana after Katrina and who knows what will be needed in Florida after Wilma swings through this weekend.

This sounds like a grand idea.

Unfortunately his amendments are going to down to defeat. Not only that but Patty Murray, one of the despicable human beings to ever serve in the Senate and that's saying something, is now threatening any Senator who votes with Coburn. I guess being able to wield power as a member of the Appropriations Committee by handing out unneeded projects and wasting billions of tax dollars is more important than taking care of thousands of citizens who are without. Isn't it great to see how liberal Democrats really care about the little people.

Murray should resign in disgrace and apologize to the people of the State of Washington for being a true bottom-feeder.

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Imus in the Morning

One of the nice things about living in the Central Time Zone as opposed to the Pacific Time Zone from Hell is that I get to watch about an hour of Don Imus on MSNBC in the morning before I go to work. Imus tends to have great guests who and rather open with their opinions when talking with him.

Also, his cast of characters is first rate. This morning Larry Kenney who is the impersonator on the show was doing Ted Kennedy and his schtick was unbelievable funny. At times, his Dr. Phil impresonation can become tiresome but not that not a problem today.

Kudoes to the funny man.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Annoyed Again

Politics, politicians and pundits are beginning to once again annoy me. The CIA leak investigation is spinning in circles and I want it to be done. If Karl Rove or "Scooter" Libby (and shouldn't he have dumped that nickname at his frat house) violated the law, Bush should know by now and should have taken direct action. If they did and he doesn't then he is complicit in the action in my opinion. Lately there have been pundits saying that is is all the criminalization of political behavior, I suspect, opening a door for someone to weasel their way out of what they have coming to them. It is not the criminalization of political behavior, it is the enforce of the law on criminal behavior. If politics in this country have reached the point where criminal behavior is acceptable as political behavior, then we need an entirely new set of politicians and pundits.

The pundits and, for anyone following Judy Mitchell's foolishness, many reporters are as deeply invested as the politicians and as complicit in the faults therein. To be more blunt, the difference between politicians and the political reporters covering them has become almost nonexistant and their agendas are as likely to drive the outcome of political activity as any other lobbying group. They just don't have to report their contributions or spending publically.

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Harriet Miers

George Bush has nominated Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court. I have been watching the right wing rant and rave and think there are two groups ranting and two reasons for their dissatisfaction. The first are the guys like George Will who aren't happy because Miers never went to an Ivy League College and simply does not measure up to their intellectual elitist standards. They simply need to get over themselves and realize that smart people can attend other universities, sometimes even (gasp) public universities, and still accomplish outstanding things.

Then you have the nutjobs. Ann Coulter and Pat Buchanan and Rush Limbaugh and all the rest. I can only surmise that they have been betting on which of the right wing ideologes out there Bush was going to appoint and are mad that their betting pools are now defunct.

My biggest problem with Miers is found in one of Bush's common comments. He is always saying of her that "she will not change." I must ask, is she not open to new ideas or willing to consider new arguments? I don't care which side of the debate a potential justice is on, what I want is someone willing to listen and think about an issue before making up their mind. If one thinks that there is a need for ideologically pure justices, just look to Thomas and Ginsberg. There are two who have made up their so-called minds long before any argument is made. We don't need a third. I would prefer to see another O'Connor or Kennedy because they actually think about an issue before making up their minds. Wouldn't it nice to see a position like this held by someone who is both smart and thoughtful.

Friday, October 07, 2005

Travelling events

As a travelled across the country, I ended up with less time to wander and sightsee than I had originally planned. That was Ok. One neat thing I did see was in SLC. I stopped and spent a day with my Aunt and Uncle and we went downtown to look around and stopped to see the new LDS Conference Center. We just happened to get there as the daily organ recital was beginning. It was a lovely performance on a beautiful, huge organ. What impressed me was learning that this was a daily event and had been going on for a hundred years. It is not every place that had a daily (FREE) recitial by a world class musician for whoever happens by to listen.

That was rather cool.