for no good reason at all, 37 % of the American people still approve of Bush. Incredible how many people remain duped.
BTW, there are some folks who think Bush is a goner, that he’s been abandoned by his own party, that he’s headed for the duck pond. Not so fast, friends. Presstitutes imagines a plausible scenario by which he could quickly rebound. And as Digby himself noted below, the Miers nomination may be criticized by many on the right who were praying like crazy for Son of Bork, but it is all of a piece with the Bush strategy to maintain Republican hegemony well beyond 2008. After all, it’s best to have a rabid Republican loyalist in place when the inevitable criminal cases directed at the top of the Bush administration comes to the Supreme Court than someone whose loyalty is in doubt.
Hi, everyone! I’m very honored to be posting here on Digby’s blog. And it will be kind of fun to be back in the saddle posting on a regular basis. So without any further ado, here goes.
I’ve been following “Scopes 2,” aka, the Pandas Trial, aka Kitzmiller v. Dover. This is an ACLU-supported challenge to the Dover (Pennsylvania) Area School Board moves to include “intelligent design” in public school science classes. I hope I don’t jinx anything by saying that things are looking very good. The scientific witnesses have been very strong and the defense’s arguments are very, very feeble. You can find a running blog covering the trial here and they link to trial transcripts. I haven’t gone through them all yet, but I would certainly recommend Barbara Forrest’s testimony. She is the co-author of the absolutely indispensable Creationism’s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design, a definitive survey of the IDiots, as I’ve nicknamed them. I reviewed Forrest’s book here.
Incredibly, some of the smartest people I know are quite confused over “intelligent design.” A few years ago, my wife and I were having lunch with some friends, two enormously gifted investigative reporters for two Major Metropolitan Newspapers here in New York, folks whose bylines often appear on the front page. The subject turned to the evolution debate and John (name changed to protect the guilty) said, “Actually, I really think ‘intelligent design’ should be taught in science class.” I was absolutely shocked, He had no idea what the actual issues are. Similarly, last week, we were having dinner with a philosopher of science and his wife. They, too, didn’t quite understand why “intelligent design” does not belong in biology classes. So, in case any of you find it unclear, here’s the skinny:
1. The theory of evolution proposed by Darwin and elaborated over the past 140 years or so is as close to proven fact as anything in science.
2. Despite an incredibly expensive marketing campaign to convince an unsuspecting public, and its lawmakers, otherwise, there has been no original research in “intelligent design” published in respected science journals. That’s because none of the IDiots has done a stitch of science that can withstand peer review.*
4. Therefore, since there is no science to “intelligent design,” and since it is clearly a religious belief, there is no reason under the sun why it should be taught in public school science classes. It would make more sense to teach astrology.
I’ll be writing more on the subject later. I think it is important not only to defeat this recent attempt to undermine science by defending real science against creationism, but to go after the “intelligent design” advocates on their own turf. In other words, I’m suggesting that not only is “intelligent design” bad science, but also bad theology.
By the way, to those who want to argue in favor of IDiocy, first go to Pharyngula and argue with PZ Meyers, an expert on the subject of evolution. When you convince him that there is actually something scientific in “intelligent design”, feel free to come back here and I’ll be delighted to discuss it with you.
*A few minor articles, like literature reviews have occasionally been snuck past an editor, but they have been quickly debunked.)
In a furious bout of post-prison housecleaning, Judy Miller just “happened” to find notes today from June 2003 when she spoke with Scooter Libby about Joe Wilson.
Of all the amazing discoveries. She’s the fucking Indiana Jones of dust bunnies, that one.
I keep coming back to the September 15 letter (PDF) from Scooter Libby to Judy Miller, kind of like a scab you just can’t help picking at.
Consider:
1. In Patrick Fitzgerald’s “leaked” letter of September 12, 2005 (PDF) to Libby’s lawyer, Joseph Tate, he runs down the facts as told to him by Libby:
Mr. Libby has discussed a meeting with Ms. Miller on July 8 2003, at the St. Regis Hotel and a later conversation between Mr. Libby and Ms. Miller by telephone in the late afternoon of July 12, 2003. Mr. Libby has described his recollection of the substance of those two conversations, without limitation.
Libby was most probably quoting the party line that everyone else was testifying to — namely, that whatever was done to Joe Wilson came in response to his July 6, 2003 editorial in the New York Times entitled What I Didn’t Find in Africa. They weren’t trying to smear him, doncha know — they were just providing appropriate counterbalance to what he was saying, trying to helpfully provide the press with some mitigating factors.
2. Joe Wilson, in his book and elsewhere, has long maintained that the White House Iraq Group — whose notes and records Fitzgerald has subpoenaed — did a workup of him in March, before his editorial was ever published. As early as his October 13, 2002 article in the San Jose Mercury News, Wilson was calling ’em all a bunch of hosebags. He had been flying in their radar for a while.
3. When Libby wrote his sodden mash note to Judy it seems to me that he was quite obviously trying to hip her to the fact that it was okay to talk about anything that happened in July:
The Special Counsel identified every reporter with whom I had spoken about anything in July 2003, including you. My counsel then called counsel for each of the reporters, including yours, and confirmed that my waiver was voluntary.
Translation: It’s okay for you to talk about July meetings but nothing else.
Judy Miller was sitting in fucking prison on tenterhooks. She’s had plenty of time to think about each and every time she met with poor lovestruck Aspen-riddled Scooter, and what the implications were of each and every one of those meetings along the way. She didn’t fucking “forget” an entire month there looped on pruno. Scooter let her know what she could say. And she probably complied.
4. If Libby was lying, he did not believe that there was anything provided to Fitzgerald that was going to contradict what he had to say, like — oh — the minutes of the White House Iraq Group, or the testimony of those in WHIG, including Karen Hughes, Mary Matalin, Condi Rice, Stephen Hadley, James Wilkinson and Nicholas Cailo, in addition to the Rove man himself.
5. On Thursday, September 29, when Judy agrees to testify, Fitzgerald goes to the slam and spends a little quality time with her, just to get her story down before she goes and has a steak with Pinch. (Does she have a thing for men with awful names or what?)
That night, Fitzgerald calls up Joe Wilson, and confirms what he probably already knew one way or another — Judy and Scooter were talking as early as June, contrary to what both were saying.
(Emptywheel has penned a nifty little dramatization of this particular sequence of events. Highly recommended, Oscar-caliber stuff. Considering the skeevy characters involved, we applaud her for leaving out the sex scenes.)
6. Suddenly Judy REMEMBERS her earlier “notes” and meeting with Scooter. I’m guessing the dog didn’t just barf ’em up — her attorney probably got a helpful memory-prodding phonecall from Fitzgerald, who probably knew Judy was going to lie her lying face off all along.
7. Suddenly — VOILA! — a SLEW of people want to come in and spend quality time with Fitzgerald and the grand jury again. They are VOLUNTEERING. Because, as you know, testifying before Fitzgerald’s grand jury is all the rage in DC these days, and everyone needs a hobby.
I will leap to the presumption that the “we were just reacting to Joe Wilson’s editorial” group bullshit is falling apart faster than a cheap thong in a hot dryer. It’s hard to know just how much sleight-of-hand went into perpetuating this particular lie, but I will wager no small amount.
Note to self: do not EVER play poker with Patrick Fitzgerald.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove told President Bush and others that he never engaged in an effort to disclose a CIA operative’s identity to discredit her husband’s criticism of the administration’s Iraq policy, according to people with knowledge of Rove’s account in the investigation.
[…]
They said Bush asked Rove to assure him he was not involved in an effort to divulge Plame’s identity and punish Wilson, and the longtime confidant assured him so. He answered similarly when White House press secretary Scott McClellan asked a similar question.
Sure. Uh huh. Rove’s just another White House employee and big boss Junior called him in and asked asked him for “reassurance” that he wasn’t involved and Karl said “no sir.” Yeah. That’s believable.
Either somebody thinks it’s finally time to cover the Preznit’s ass or this is the most beautiful prosecutorial mindfuck ever. Or both. Even Turdblossom has to be impressed with the threat to prosecute for lying to the president. That’s downright Shakespearean.
Remember, there is one guy who knows for sure who leaked what and would have very likely been in on any subsequent cover-up — The King of the Undead, Count Novakula.
He didn’t pull a Judy so it’s assumed he cooperated. He quite blatantly changed his story publicly from “I didn’t dig it out, they gave it to me” to ” I don’t know nothin’ bout’ namin’ no operatives.”
I sure hope he didn’t make the mistake of fibbing to the Fibbies about any of this…
Lucky Duckies. The inimitable Jane at firedoglake has also agreed to guest post here for a few days so that you can all keep up with your necessary Fitz fits and Plamey goodness (among other things.)
In case anyone’s wondering what is the real reason that Porter Goss is refusing to make public the CIA IG report, here’s a little clue:
George Tenet is not going to let himself become the fall guy for the September 11 intelligence failures, according to a former intelligence officer and a source friendly to Mr. Tenet.
A scathing report by Inspector General John Helgerson criticized the former CIA director and a score of other agency personnel for their failure to develop a strategy against al Qaeda. The report, delivered to Congress this week, recommends punitive sanctions for Mr. Tenet, former Deputy Director of Operations James L. Pavitt and former counter-terrorist center head J. Cofer Black. Mr. Tenet’s response to the report is a 20-page, tightly knitted rebuttal of responsibility prepared with the aid of a lawyer, according to the friendly source.
Mr. Tenet’s decision to defend himself against the charges in the report poses a potential crisis for the White House. According to a former clandestine services officer, theformerCIAdirector turned down a publisher’s $4.5 million book offer because he didn’t want to embarrass the White House by rehashing the failure to prevent September 11 and the flawed intelligence on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. Mr. Tenet, according to a knowledgeable source, had a “wink and a nod” understanding with the White House that he wouldn’t be scapegoated for intelligence failings. The deal, one source says, was sealed with the award of the Presidential Freedom Medal.
Now that deal may be off. Mr. Tenet’s rebuttal to the report is detailed and explicit. In defending his integrity as CIA director, Mr. Tenet treads perilously close to affirming the account of Richard Clarke, the former NSC terrorism official whose public disclosure of the Bush administration’s delay in adopting a strategy against al Qaeda stirred controversy last summer.
The IG report is the result of a 17-month investigation by a team of 11 CIA officials. The Senate and House intelligence oversight committees requested the report, which follows in a CIA tradition of analyses of past mistakes in order to prevent recurrences. After double-agent Aldrich Ames was unmasked, the CIA inspector general produced a detailed account of the agency’s failure to protect its Soviet spies. That report, which was made public, prompted sweeping changes in CIA counterintelligence practices.
In contrast, the IG report and Mr. Tenet’s 20-page rebuttal are classified. This is a departure from past CIA practice. There is much about the IG report that is unusual. It was completed, according to multiple intelligence sources, by July 2004. Acting CIA Director John McLaughlin passed this hot potato to his successor, Porter Goss. As chairman of the House intelligence committee, Mr. Goss had lead the joint congressional inquiry into September 11 and called for the inspector general’s report.
[…]
Under normal conditions, Karl Rove would already be taking pre-emptive action. But he is neutralized until the Valerie Plame leak probe ends. That leaves it to the president’s allies on Capitol Hill to keep Mr. Tenet’s rebuttal under wraps. With the families of September 11 victims demanding disclosure, this will not be easy.
CIA Director Goss is between a rock and a hard place. He will be criticized for covering up if he does nothing. But if he follows the IG’s recommendation to convene formal hearings as a prelude to sanctions, Mr. Tenet himself may go public to defend his reputation. The $4.5 million book offer may soon be back on the table, and this time Mr. Tenet might take it.
As a commenter on the Newshour said last night — “it will come out, it always does.”
Remember when I said Harry Miers was a Republican machine justice?
Check out this from last night’s conference call to conservatives (via IsThatLegal):
One of the things that someone as a sixth-generation Texan that I want to add to this call and that is this: The two things that are probably … there are two virtues that are valued as highly as any virtue can be valued in the Texas culture, and those two virtues are courage and loyalty. Courage and loyalty. And this President, he knows that Harriet Miers is also a Texan, and, with a degree of understanding that would never have to be articulated, he and she both understand that if she were to get on the Court and she were to rule in ways that were contrary to the ways that the president would want her to approach her role as a justice it would be a deep personal betrayal and would be perceived as such by both by him and by her.
That’s from Richard Land of the Southern Bapist convention. There’s more. Like this one from Jay Sekulow:
I’m involved in three three cases at the Court this Term, and believe me: I want Harriet Meirs up there voting on these critical cases.
Bush vs Gore proved how crucial the Supreme Court is to the consolidation and maintenance of Republican power. It’s clear they learned their lesson well. They aren’t even trying to hide it.
Very interesting prediction of how the case will go by commenter Sara at TPM cafe, followed by an equally interesting counter-theory by Ed Fitzgerald of Unfutz.
