...more recent posts
I've been patiently waiting for this story to break as it seems like the best (only?) hope of disrupting our beltway overlords. Next week Josh Marshall is going to post an interview with Joseph Wilson. If you don't know who he is you hopefully will soon. Here's the starter piece, but it gets way more interesting from there. After the Niger debacle described in the first piece, Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was identified as an undercover CIA agent by "senior administration officials" to Robert Novak as reported in this article. Yes, she was outed by her own team! My understanding is that whether or not this was done to take some revenge on Wilson, the act of revealing a CIA agents identity is, shall we say, highly illegal. Like go to jail style illegal. And now Wilson himself is suggesting that the "senior official" in question is Karl Rove.
I am very much looking forward to this interview. I believe the press is dodging this story because it is just too incredibly hot. The pressure to keep the lid on this must be intense, as we are talking about the puppet master himself. But they won't be able to keep it quiet if people like Josh Marshall keep digging. This could be a very important story.
On Tuesday, two days before the Sept. 11 anniversary, Attorney General John Ashcroft will be speaking in New York City in support of the controversial Patriot Act. This is yet another exploitation of Americans' fear and mourning to promote the Bush administration's political agenda.
The New York ACLU and the New York Bill of Rights Defense Campaign have organized a demonstration to show the broad public sentiment against this threat to our freedoms. They are asking all supportive people to attend with signs.
Please consider joining this important action during your lunch hour on Tuesday.
WHAT: Demonstration to demand the protection of our basic civil liberties, and counter Attorney General John Ashcroft, speaking in the latest installment of his stealth Patriot Act road show.
WHEN: Tuesday, September 9 at 12 noon
WHERE: Federal Hall, 26 Wall Street at Broad Street (next to NYSE) 2/3 or 4/5 to Wall Street or J/Z to Broad Street
Map: http://www.moveon.org/r?469
WHO: New York ACLU (www.nyclu.org), New York City Bill of Rights Defense Campaign (www.nycbordc.org), United for Peace and Justice (www.unitedforpeace.org), and 60 other civil liberties organizations. Contact Udi Ofer at (212) 344-3005 x242.
Please let us know you can attend
The situation is so completely FUBAR I don't know what good it does commenting, but here's a quote anyway:
"We're dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon," Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told Congress a week after the war began. Oil revenue, he predicted, "could bring between $50 billion and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years."Phew, at least we won't need another or anything.
How many times does Wolfowitz get to be wrong before he becomes a serial miscalculator? (And where is Ken Pollack these days? Strangely quite it seems to me...)
how to talk about israel (nyt alert)
4pm: insufferable light begins to seep through permagray skies. rats scuttle back into sewers. home depot announces flatiron store.
I've never been overly enthusiastic about Jeff Beck's recorded music but I saw him live at Wolftrap for the first time tonite and it was fantastic. Drummer formerly for Zappa was also impressive. Keyboard player was no slouch. Drive back here in light traffic took only one hour. I was only person on road for last three or four miles, which after driving in DC traffic is a sweet thing indeed.
No doubt you've all seen the Time magazine piece making the rounds. Is this as explosive as it sounds?
Yet when Zubaydah was confronted by the false Saudis, writes Posner, "his reaction was not fear, but utter relief." Happy to see them, he reeled off telephone numbers for a senior member of the royal family who would, said Zubaydah, "tell you what to do." The man at the other end would be Prince Ahmed bin Salman bin Abdul Aziz, a Westernized nephew of King Fahd's and a publisher better known as a racehorse owner. His horse War Emblem won the Kentucky Derby in 2002. To the amazement of the U.S., the numbers proved valid. When the fake inquisitors accused Zubaydah of lying, he responded with a 10-minute monologue laying out the Saudi-Pakistani-bin Laden triangle.
mint?
Con Ed gives you money
mickey hart interveiw on wnyc today (soon, leonard lopate show). it's taped from a few weeks ago.
the world as blog
did anyone see the giant rubik's cube at astor place?
day 1: aol weblogs
Satellite photos before and after (during) the blackout.
Blackout history project (via TPM)
"Even if within two hours it was pretty clear, for a president to say something, it's got to be more than pretty clear, it's got to be 100 percent certain," said one Republican with strong ties to the White House."
ok i think i figgered it out - the stooges blew a fues in sound check and hence a cascade to remember :
Blackout Cancels Mich. Iggy Pop Concert
CLARKSTON,Mich. - A high wattage rock band and a venue named after a power company couldn't make the show go on during the blackout that hit the state.
Iggy & the Stooges had finished a sound check Thursday at DTE Energy Music Theatre and were headed back to their Auburn Hills hotel when the power went out, the Detroit Free Press reported on its Web site.
It was supposed to be the biggest Detroit rock reunion of the year: Iggy with brothers Ron and Scott Asheton performing their first hometown show in three decades, in front of what would have been a packed crowd of fans.
The concert was rescheduled for Aug. 25.
Fans seeking refunds can get them at their point of purchase. That may not be much consolation for those who'd trekked from England, California and elsewhere to witness the big night.
"I'm so bummed," said Eric Danville, who flew in from New York. "It had to be an act of God or a solar flare that would keep me from seeing the Stooges."
I heard about a Microsoft Worm on NPR yesterday and I think I got it. Ninety seconds online then a system shutdown message with a sixty second timer.
You know those weird time traveller emails? The one where the guy is looking to buy all sorts of non existent futuristic equipment so that he can get back to the future? Well, this guy has had a long email conversation with him, and apparently there was some message indicating a drop time and location for delivery of the goods. And this other guy works 10 minutes away from the location and went by to check it out. And he wasn't alone.
Insert comment here about having a little too much time on your hands.
kartoo is a new (to me) meta-search engine which presents your results in a map display. i haven't played around with it too much yet, but i find these sort of visualizations interesting.
Ahh, vacation...
Skinny found out our good buddy Carlo has been hard at work....