Why day one? Well, it wasn't until yesterday (as far as we know) that someone who definitely knows finally named Karl Rove as the source of the Valerie Plame leak to the grand jury investigating the case. It's official ... unless Chris Cooper perjured himself (and pre-falsified his notes to support his story), Rove is the man.
We'll follow this one all the way down the sewer, folks. We have to. We are, after all, professionals. For now, the affair goes down two tracks:
The legal track
Did Karl Rove tell the grand jury the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth when he testified previously? If not, he's shoulder high in fecal soup and sinking fast without a life preserver. Even if he can successfully defend himself against the charge of breaking federal law in outing Plame, he's got a perjury rap to deal with.
I don't know about you, but if I got dragged off to serve on a grand jury for month upon month on a case like this, and at the end of it all found at that ol' Turd Blossom could have put the thing to bed early and easy but decided to dodge, I'd be inclined to throw the library at him -- go ahead and indict on the charge originally at issue and for perjury, and maybe just for conspiracy to cover it up as well (with most of the Bush White House as indicted or unindicted co-conspirators).
If he's indicted, I can't see even President Bush -- among whose few virtues is intense loyalty to his friends -- keeping him on at the White House. The purge preparations are already in their early stages as Bush dodges the bullets and waits to see what happens.
The political track
But what if Rove isn't indicted? Maybe he gave sufficiently detailed and honest testimony that Cooper's (and Judith Miller's) notes don't reveal anything new. Maybe the grand jury has already concluded that his conduct didn't meet the standard for indictment on charges of outing Plame. Maybe this thing is a legal dead end.
In that case, it all comes down to politics. I don't think that Bush will bend or break under demands to fire Rove if there's no indictment. And other than the fact that he seems to have promised to fire whoever was responsible for the leak (since when do politicians keep their promiises?), I don't see why he should.
Politics is a nasty business, and Rove's job has always been to handle the nastiest part of that business: to go after his candidate's enemies with a meat ax, bury their bodies deep in the woods and make sure that his guys can credibly say that they don't know where those bodies are. That's what he does. Bush isn't going to fire him for it if it can be avoided. Firing your best employees makes it hard to hire good help.
Think there's anything new there? Think it's a partisan thing? Think again. Ever heard of Lee Atwater? How about James Carville?
When it comes to practical politics, Carville is my idol. This is a man who can ram a red hot poker up his opponent's ass, and nobody else notices anything but the beatific smile that lights up his face while he's doing it. I've been in the position of having to take the fight to the enemy myself* -- even over my own candidate's objections -- and it was Carville's example which lit my way. He makes Rove look like a rank amateur (which he may be -- this isn't the first time he's been caught with the dirt still on his hands).
Like making sausage, folks. Like making sausage. But you don't get sausage made without the sausage makers.
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Technorati Tags: Karl Rove, Valerie Plame, PlameGate
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Lemme see if I have this right ...
Back in the day, Hillary Clinton didn't think that the contents of her husband's -- or her own -- papers were anyone's business: "I'm not going to have some reporters pawing through our papers. We are the president." [Quoted in Blood Sport: The President and his Adversaries, by James B. Stewart]
But now she thinks that it's her business if a video game (rated for sale to 17 and over only, btw) includes a sex scene that can only be accessed intentionally, after voluntary purchase of the game and acquisition of a special program to unlock the sex scene.
Presumably the papers of public figures who are mired in scandal and litigation are more a matter of public interest than what you and I are looking at on our PlayStations.
And this assclown wants to be president?
But now she thinks that it's her business if a video game (rated for sale to 17 and over only, btw) includes a sex scene that can only be accessed intentionally, after voluntary purchase of the game and acquisition of a special program to unlock the sex scene.
Presumably the papers of public figures who are mired in scandal and litigation are more a matter of public interest than what you and I are looking at on our PlayStations.
And this assclown wants to be president?
Support your libertarian POWs, revisited
As I mentioned awhile back, it makes sense for us to support libertarian POWs/political prisoners. I'm putting together some more information on doing that. Time for an update:
- As Brad Spangler mentioned, there are existing Anarchist Black Cross networks that might be useful. Here's one. And here's another. However, Black Cross seems to be mostly a "general solidarity with prisoners" kind of thing, not a "support for a particular prisoner" kind of thing.
- Federal prisoners can receive letters at specified addresses. Sending money to them is a little more complicated. It has to be sent to a separate address so that the federal corrections thugs can put it in a "lockbox account" for them (presumably this is to keep them from having cash on hand which might come in useful in an escape, or that would make a nice big fat theft target, or whatever). The prisoners can "draw" on their "accounts" to buy items from the prison commissary.
- Money for federal prisoners has to be sent in the form of a "money order or money gram." No personal checks, and there doesn't seem to be any direct electronic payment mechanism. I've looked in vain for any online service which specializes in turning your PayPal or credit card payment into a money order for a prisoner (because many people simply will not go out, get a money order, put it in an envelope and mail it if they can avoid doing so -- I'm one of those people). No such service seems to exist. However, I've contacted some services that do similar things (auction payments, for example) to see if they're interested in acting as a conduit. As soon as I can find, or create, a convenient electronic method of routing money to federal prisoners, I'll let you know. Your five bucks could make a prisoner's month behind the wire a lot more bearable.
In the meantime, money orders for libertarian POW Don Meinshausen can be sent to:
Lockbox, Federal Bureau of Prisons
Don Meinshausen, Inmate Register number 08496-050
PO BOX 474701
Des Moines, Iowa 50947-0001
While correspondence for libertarian POW Don Meinshausen should still be sent to:
Don Meinshausen
Inmate number 08496-050
FCI FT Dix
PO Box 7000
Ft Dix NJ 08640
- As Brad Spangler mentioned, there are existing Anarchist Black Cross networks that might be useful. Here's one. And here's another. However, Black Cross seems to be mostly a "general solidarity with prisoners" kind of thing, not a "support for a particular prisoner" kind of thing.
- Federal prisoners can receive letters at specified addresses. Sending money to them is a little more complicated. It has to be sent to a separate address so that the federal corrections thugs can put it in a "lockbox account" for them (presumably this is to keep them from having cash on hand which might come in useful in an escape, or that would make a nice big fat theft target, or whatever). The prisoners can "draw" on their "accounts" to buy items from the prison commissary.
- Money for federal prisoners has to be sent in the form of a "money order or money gram." No personal checks, and there doesn't seem to be any direct electronic payment mechanism. I've looked in vain for any online service which specializes in turning your PayPal or credit card payment into a money order for a prisoner (because many people simply will not go out, get a money order, put it in an envelope and mail it if they can avoid doing so -- I'm one of those people). No such service seems to exist. However, I've contacted some services that do similar things (auction payments, for example) to see if they're interested in acting as a conduit. As soon as I can find, or create, a convenient electronic method of routing money to federal prisoners, I'll let you know. Your five bucks could make a prisoner's month behind the wire a lot more bearable.
In the meantime, money orders for libertarian POW Don Meinshausen can be sent to:
Lockbox, Federal Bureau of Prisons
Don Meinshausen, Inmate Register number 08496-050
PO BOX 474701
Des Moines, Iowa 50947-0001
While correspondence for libertarian POW Don Meinshausen should still be sent to:
Don Meinshausen
Inmate number 08496-050
FCI FT Dix
PO Box 7000
Ft Dix NJ 08640
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