I’m spending most of my day (indeed, my week) putting the Finishing Touches on the novel. But two quick things:
1) There’s a lively discussion going on in this weekend’s thread. Is Judith Miller a criminal? Is the left helping the right destroy the press? Is it suspicious that the latest giant military contracts in Iraq went to Halliburton and… Bob Novak ? Find out below (except the Novak thing - I made that up).
2) Lost in today’s Plame-related hijinx is the big trade pact we signed with Iraq, along with a number I hadn’t seen before: “The United States imported $8.5 billion worth of mostly oil from Iraq last year.” It’s a proud day - this is oil that was freed from French and Russian contracts, and it has greeted us as liberators. My source in the administration summed it up nicely: “No, this isn’t what we’re fighting for. Of course. But it rocks, doesn’t it!?”
Fanny Roborat
23 comments
dee
July 11, 2005 at 6:29 pm
1There’s oil in Iraq?
ice weasel
July 11, 2005 at 6:45 pm
2The sad part is, all that money from that oil is, according to reports, conveniently disappearing. Billions in actual US currency just, oops, disappearing.
wottawaytorunacountry, eh?
Bob
July 11, 2005 at 7:11 pm
3For a major laugh, go to:
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/07/11/briefing-711/
and read the transcript of today’s White House press conference.
The typically docile White House reporters smell blood in the water. About time.
Landis
July 11, 2005 at 7:44 pm
4Alright, Adam, you asked for it: who’s your source?
dave
July 11, 2005 at 8:50 pm
5Bob-
Yes, there is blood in the water.
Unfortunately, the WH press corps seems to be mostly guppies, not sharks.
If I was Scotty, I would’ve left the podium and immediately started doing shots.
tess
July 11, 2005 at 11:39 pm
6Wow, this is really what the White House meant by energy independence. We have our very own oil colony! Whee!
Then again, did the White House ever make any assertions concerning energy independence, specifically?
Lynne
July 12, 2005 at 9:23 am
7Dave:
Scotty probably went to the nearest bar and did many, many shots…while crying.
But I have to disagree about guppies because David Gregory was fabulous. He actually interrupted and asked follow up questions. Then Terry Moran said, “You’re in a bad spot here Scott.” Was he ever.
It was a thing of beauty.
Murray
July 12, 2005 at 10:03 am
8Man Adam, quoting an unnamed source is just crazy. It’ll be only hours before Torture Boy comes to lock you away. This has become the administration’s latest weapon to keep those lap dogs placid. “Unnamed source? Tell us or go to jail. We may not even listen if you tell us, and still send you off”
You sure got to hand it to Novak. Talk about big balls. Would that Democrats had half that chutzpa. After being involved in publishing classified material to punish whistle blowers, he now feels that he was doing a good thing because the Wilsons were bad people. Novak would have been the first to call for, not only impeachment, but capital punishment had this happened in the Clinton White House. Betraying one’s country is fine if the higher good is revenge for telling the truth.
I think that everyone should follow John Steward’s lead and refer to him as “That douche-bag Novak”. (Unless you have something stronger).
Kim
July 12, 2005 at 10:16 am
9Murray - He is a good steward (one of the best), but I have no idea whether he’s ever been a john (ahem).
His name is actually Jon Stewart, though.
[I am usually not so nitpicky as to correct someone’s spelling errors, but since you gave me the opportunity to inflict not one but TWO horrible puns upon Adam’s poor innocent readers, I couldn’t resist. Muahahaha.]
P.S. comedycentral dotcom (I’m writing it weird to confuse Fanny) graciously offers a lot of streaming video. Next to lurking on FA, watching Daily Show clips is one of my favorite time-wasters (aka day-enhancers).
Pete IVDL
July 12, 2005 at 12:10 pm
10Maybe Scotty could be called the “Minister of Misinformation” or something.
It’s such a pity that so few have to do the work of so many until there’s someone’s (anyone’s) blood in the water.
I do have a good image of Scotty later that night, surrounded by shotglasses, mumbling “join the White House, they said. Have a career, they said…” while a cloaked Rove comes in from the snow outside, taking his kidskin gloves off, and handing his fedora to his henchman…
Kim - thankyouthankyouthankyou! We only get to see a few minutes of Jon Stewart each week, and then only if the sminfurgle’s fully aligned with the gorfhammer. So a separate bag of video chips is great!
Monty Zoom
July 12, 2005 at 5:03 pm
11Judith Miller is a criminal. She is “protecting a source” whose act of telling her - his/her information was a crime. Thus, she is aiding a criminal which is a crime. In cases where source priveleges have prevailed, the judge agreed that the privelege was similar to a doctor/patient or husband/wife privelege. However, it fails in her case.
When I deride the press, it is because they aren’t doing their job. They are an important part of a democracy. If they take their job lightly and let important issues go unchallenged, I don’t like it. There should have NEVER been a war in Iraq. The press and the democrats let us down. They took at face value the Niger/Uranium story. Mr. Wilsom found there wasn’t anything to it, and the press should have been able to do exactly what he did. They didn’t. They didn’t do their job. Their job is to give us the information we NEED. They need to stop giving us information that THEY think we WANT. We want what we need, so give it to us. If they don’t start doing their job better, we’re all in a lot of trouble.
Steady as she goes on the novel.
Murray
July 12, 2005 at 5:39 pm
12Let me take Adam’s side here. The MSM didn’t let us down. They did report on this item and many more, but a story has legs only if other politicians and the public demand to know more. Our news system is such that we get only what we demand. If America says “Ho hum, tell me about Jacko” instead of “WMDs? prove it!”, it’s not hard to see where the reporters are going to camp out.
Now on the other hand, the Democrats just don’t have the balls to go after the President, so this story and many more get lost in the mud.
If you and I know about a story it’s only because it has been reported. If the public doesn’t know it’s because they are willfully ignorant. You can’t blame the press for the stupidity of the American public.
Murray
July 12, 2005 at 5:44 pm
13Kim,
I take no responsibility for my spelling that goes through spell-check. Names and places are pretty tough on me. (Although I can usually hide this particular flaw better than my others).
Mary
July 13, 2005 at 3:36 pm
14I was outraged when I heard of the outing of Ms. Plane. To “blow” the cover of one of our operatives is unforgivable and treasonous. I fear P. J. O’Rourke missed the point when he claimed she was holding a desk job at the time. Perhaps she was, but the report made her unusable for any future work. Just because she wasn’t in immediate danger, doesn’t make it less treasonous.
Bush has GOT to clean house. Having his wife claim Rove is “an honorable man” is stupid and naive. It only makes the administration look even more foolish.
I’m going to go look for a cool place to lay down and rest. I think this 100+ heat is getting to me.
tess
July 13, 2005 at 4:20 pm
15Mary,
It wasn’t so much that they outed Plame even if she were just doing desk duty, but they exposed a CIA-owned company when they exposed her, meaning that anyone who worked for the company could be traced AND any one of those people’s activities can be retraced, meaning a whole section of our intelligence may be compromised.
Or that’s what I read. Gah, I wonder some days if I’m just paranoid.
Murray
July 13, 2005 at 6:08 pm
16Mary,
It’s that hot in Michigan?
It’s only in the 80s’ here in PA.
ice weasel
July 13, 2005 at 9:02 pm
17Mary,
I’m not sure I know what Valerie Plame-Wilson was doing at the CIA. I’m not sure it’s even relevant. We do know, indisputably, that she was a NOC. The CIA themselves stated this in their complaint to the justice department. So the issue what she was physically doing is irrelevant.
Murray,
I think you make a good point. The American people have to take a portion of the blame. But that still leaves with a compliant media that prefers to transcribe white house press releases to actual reporting (in general) Yes, there are a few good reporters doing good investigative work.
The only analogy I might make would be that even if I was allowed to go to work drunk, wearing a clown outfit and even if it made me more popular with customers, doesn’t mean it’s in the long term best interest of my company or upholds the high standard of conduct and performance any self-respecting person has for their job. Whatever that job is.
Which is only to say, they could do better. They choose not to.
Murray
July 13, 2005 at 10:00 pm
18Ice weasel
If going to work drunk and wearing a clown outfit made you more popular and you got a raise, you would probably not worry about your job performance and just go with it.
Sure journalist can take the high road, but if the public demands crap it’s hard not to give them what they want, especially if there is a reward in doing so.
(One of the good things about owning a bike touring company is that going to work drunk and wearing a costume is normal. One of my friends thinks that I should wear a cape, but I think that’s probably over the top).
hedera
July 13, 2005 at 11:56 pm
19The appalling thing about the whole Rove/Plame mess, is that our Fearless Leader Dubya, who sounds off constantly if not very grammatically about our National Security, seems to have decided that his personal loyalty to his good friend Karl is more important than said National Security. If Rove did anything like what the evidence suggests, he should be fired. I know Dubya values loyalty over almost everything, including the rule of law, but this is absurd. After all, the Nixon team only committed burglary - this is treason, dammit.
I pass over the fact that 2 years ago Dubya said that if one of his people had outed Valerie Plame, he would fire them. He has a consistent record of never following through on his promises (look at - for? - the funding on No Child Left Behind or AIDS), so that’s only to be expected. Now that it looks like one of his people did out Valerie Plame, the White House as an institution has clammed up.
And on that subject, you must not miss the S.F. Chronicle’s Bad Reporter column today on the subject of why Scott McClellan isn’t responding to questions on the investigation…
Mary
July 14, 2005 at 11:21 am
20Thanks, tess. I forgot to add all of that. I was frothing over hearing Miss Laura defending Rove.
Murray- it has been in the 90s with an heat index of over 100. It was doing that in June here!! And Shrub claims global warming is silly. Maybe I should send him my electric bill.
hedera
July 14, 2005 at 11:55 pm
21No, no, Mary, you missed the miracle - Shrub actually admitted, on his way to the G8, that the surface of the earth is warmer than it was and that it’s because of human activity! The heat must have gotten to his brain. Trouble is, since he was in Denmark, it can’t have been all that hot…
And tess, you aren’t paranoid. They really are after us.
Pete IVDL
July 17, 2005 at 8:39 pm
22Murray. Cape. Photos. Now!
Murray
July 21, 2005 at 7:41 pm
23Adam, when you are done with this book you should bundle up your blog w/ comments into one. It shouldn’t be that much work.
I got to meet your agent on Tuesday before Susie’s performance. He gave up Elvis Costello in the park to be there. He made the right decision because Susie brought the house down.