After Bushies Treasonous Act Today

bush commutes Libby's sentence, a traitor that is trying to cover up a conspiracy to commit treason, are there any of you who still don't think these actions are necessary?

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You are lying to yourselves if you think that anything less will stop these traitorous criminals in the White House.

I. Lewis "28301-016" Libby

Via the Daily Muck:

Scooter Libby has a new name: inmate number 28301-016. That's according to the Bureau of Prisons, which is ready and waiting for Libby's arrival.

While Libby is still waiting to actually go to jail they are getting number "28301-016" a room with a barred view ready.

Via BooMan at the Booman Tribune:

"We Won't Rest Until They're Frog-Marched Out"

What’s with the Frog?

"It's of keen interest to me, to see whether or not we can get Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs.'' - Joseph C. Wilson IV.

To learn the etymology of the term frog-march you can read this column by Bill Safire. He may have spent his career shilling for the Republicans and our intelligence services, but he is a reliable source on language.

In any case, Booman Tribune encourages its users to band together to do the investigative journalism that the mainstream media has forgotten how to do.

The frog is a reminder that politicians do occasionally get drummed out of office for corruption or unethical behavior. And we would like to speed that process along.

In fact, our motto is "We Won't Rest Until They're Frog-Marched Out" So, even if the amphibian is a criminal, you must learn to love the frog.

Well? No rest for the weary, IMHO, as Karl Rove, Richard Armitage, and Dick Cheney are still traitors on the loose... Not to mention all of the other criminal bush administration wankers that have yet to see justice brought down on them for their own very special little crimes.

What To Expect From a Thompson Primary Run?

Just more of the same that you get from any GOP candidate these days... Lies, broken laws and MORE LIES! Mark Kleiman at HuffPo gets this one started:

But Thompson's real vulnerability is going to come from his speech to the Council for National Policy , which Fitzgerald's sentencing memorandum in the Libby case shows to be a mostly a pack of lies.

Thompson said:

As you may recall, for some inexplicable reason, the CIA sent the husband of one of its employees to Niger on a sensitive mission. She had suggested it. He came back to the U.S. and proceeded to publicly blast the administration. Naturally, everyone wanted to know "who is this guy?" and "why was he sent to Niger?" Just as naturally, the fact that he was married to Valerie Plame at the CIA was leaked.

Having virtually guaranteed that Ms. Plame's identity would be ultimately disclosed by using her, shall we say, "politically active" husband, the CIA then demanded that this leak of her name be investigated by the Justice Department for a possible violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act.

The Justice Department, bowing to political and media pressure, appointed a Special Counsel to investigate the leak and promised that the Justice Department would exercise no supervision over him whatsoever -- a status even the Attorney General does not have.

The only problem with this little scenario was that there was no violation of the law, by anyone, and everybody -- the CIA, the Justice Department and the Special Counsel knew it. Ms. Plame was not a "covered person" under the statute and it was obvious from the outset.

Furthermore, Justice and the Special Counsel knew who leaked Plames's name and it wasn't Scooter Libby. But the Beltway machinery was well oiled and geared up so the Special Counsel spent the next two years moving heaven and earth to come up with something, anything. Finally he came up with some inconsistent recollections by Scooter Libby, who had been up to his ears studying National Intelligence Estimates. But he worked for Dick Cheney, so that apparently was enough for the special counsel.

I didn't know Scooter Libby, but I did know something about this intersection of law, politics, special counsels and intelligence. And it was obvious to me that what was happening was not right. So I called him to see what I could do to help, and along the way we became friends. You know the rest of the story: a D.C. jury convicted him.

As we can all figure out by now, because of the Fitzmas gift that keeps on giving, all of Thompson's speech up there is 100% pure bush crack:

Removing any doubt about the status of Valerie Plame when Scooter Libby, Karl Rove and Dick Armitage started leaking her name out to the press, the CIA releases an unclassified summary of her employment history:

An unclassified summary of outed CIA officer Valerie Plame's employment history at the spy agency, disclosed for the first time today in a court filing by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, indicates that Plame was "covert" when her name became public in July 2003.

The summary is part of an attachment to Fitzgerald's memorandum to the court supporting his recommendation that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's former top aide, spend 2-1/2 to 3 years in prison for obstructing the CIA leak investigation.

Click on images for a lager view
(Images taken from original PDF)

Just trying to make it easy reading for those of you that might hate PDFs as much as I do!

Dan Froomkin spells it out for those of you that don't understand how serious the leak of Valerie Plame's identity by Scooter Libby, Karl Rove and Dick Armitage is:

In Friday's eminently readable court filing, Fitzgerald quotes the Libby defense calling his prosecution "unwarranted, unjust, and motivated by politics." In responding to that charge, the special counsel evidently felt obliged to put Libby's crime in context. And that context is Dick Cheney.

Libby's lies, Fitzgerald wrote, "made impossible an accurate evaluation of the role that Mr. Libby and those with whom he worked played in the disclosure of information regarding Ms. Wilson's CIA employment and about the motivations for their actions."

It was established at trial that it was Cheney himself who first told Libby about Plame's identity as a CIA agent, in the course of complaining about criticisms of the administration's run-up to war leveled by her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson. And, as Fitzgerald notes: "The evidence at trial further established that when the investigation began, Mr. Libby kept the Vice President apprised of his shifting accounts of how he claimed to have learned about Ms. Wilson's CIA employment."

The investigation, Fitzgerald writes, "was necessary to determine whether there was concerted action by any combination of the officials known to have disclosed the information about Ms. Plame to the media as anonymous sources, and also whether any of those who were involved acted at the direction of others. This was particularly important in light of Mr. Libby's statement to the FBI that he may have discussed Ms. Wilson's employment with reporters at the specific direction of the Vice President." (My italics.)

Not clear on the concept yet? Fitzgerald adds: "To accept the argument that Mr. Libby's prosecution is the inappropriate product of an investigation that should have been closed at an early stage, one must accept the proposition that the investigation should have been closed after at least three high-ranking government officials were identified as having disclosed to reporters classified information about covert agent Valerie Wilson, where the account of one of them was directly contradicted by other witnesses, where there was reason to believe that some of the relevant activity may have been coordinated, and where there was an indication from Mr. Libby himself that his disclosures to the press may have been personally sanctioned by the Vice President." (My italics.)

Two suggestions:

• Scooter Libby should buy a few years supply of "soap on a rope"
• cheney should put a fresh battery in his pacemaker.

It's going to be a rough ride for both of them.

If you like rough rides than Libby is your man, Freddy m'boy! About the only thing Thompson got right in his speech to the Council for National Policy was the fact that he and Libby are friends. But Thompson takes his Libby loving a little more seriously than many of the other 2008 GOP candidates that are doomed to failure.

Former Senator Fred Thompson, a member of the Advisory Committee for the Libby Legal Defense Trust has graciously offered to host another fundraiser for the Libby Legal Defense Trust. We will be providing additional details in the coming days.

That little quote above is straight off of the front page of Libby's official "Defend the Traitor" page. There is little wonder why this little nugget buried in Dan Froomkin's Libby article the other day about Plameologist extrordinaire Marcy Wheeler might become relavent as people start looking for a better picture of 2008 candidates:

Nexthurrah blogger Marcy Wheeler blogs at the Guardian about how Libby's "defense team solicited his friends and associates to write letters to the judge arguing that Libby deserves a reduced sentence. Last Friday, Libby's lawyer Bill Jeffress submitted a filing opposing the release of those letters to the public. In it, he writes: 'Given the extraordinary media scrutiny here, if any case presents the possibility that these letters, once released, would be published on the internet and their authors discussed, even mocked, by bloggers, it is this case.' "

Concludes Wheeler: "Jeffress' invocation of bloggers is a cheap attempt to dismiss precisely what bloggers bring: an appropriate scrutiny of the motivations and actions of those who lied us into war and outed Valerie Plame."

Plan B?

You have to wonder if Thompson stepped up and sent an embarrassing letter in support of Libby to the judge. Unfortunately for Thompson, he seems to want to surround himself with many of the same bush players that are getting caught up in investigations:

The Wall Street Journal reports (sub. req.) that Timothy Griffin, the former aide to Karl Rove who became one of the most controversial figures in the U.S. attorney firing scandal, is in talks with Fred Thompson's presidential campaign:

Backers look for Fred Thompson to use a June 2 speech to Virginia Republicans to step closer toward the race. Thompson allies have had discussions with Tim Griffin, the Arkansas U.S. attorney and Rove protégé, about taking a top job with the campaign.

Griffin, of course, was installed as the U.S. attorney for Little Rock last year. Emails from Kyle Sampson have shown that the Justice Department and White House were plotting to use a little noticed provision in the USA PATRIOT Act Reauthorization Bill to keep Griffin in place throughout Bush's term without the need for Senate confirmation. Alberto Gonzales has somewhat unconvincingly disavowed the plan.

All of this is may seem like small potatoes, as far as Griffin's involvement in the GONEzales saga, but there are likely more important reasons why Griffin is leaving his government job. In light of the politicization of DoJ and USAs by the bush administration, old stories of Tim Griffin's involvement in "CAGING" (illegally purging voter rolls) suddenly start to look like blockbuster stories to the average American:

Greg Palast joins Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!

Greg Palast exposes true intent, cover up and criminal acts of Bush administration's US Attorney scandal. In summary, it's about wrongfully charging Democrats with made up crimes in order to influence the outcome of elections. In other words, it's about stealing elections or subverting our democracy. Just more evidence of the Bush administration's stated goal of turning America into a one-party state. Which comes pretty close to meeting the definition of treason.

Did he say treason? SNAP! I thought he said that...

Part 1



Part 2



Part 3



It should get interesting as Palast will now turn over to Conyers the many RNC Emails that they accidentally sent to him.

Yep, those incriminating Tim Griffin Emails. Tim Griffin is nothing more than a mini-me version of Karl Rove with a law degree. And thompson wants this piece of Republican junk to work on his campaign? It should be interesting as Fred Thompson tries to explain why one of his campaign workers might be found guilty of taking away Black soldiers right to vote in 2004.

Go ahead and run Thompson. We're just getting ready for you over here with a nice warm welcome to reality... Expect lot's more of this as you continue to open your big gaping piehole along the way.

Fitzgerald files Libby Papers: Hints at Cheney Involvement

Removing any doubt about the status of Valerie Plame when Scooter Libby, Karl Rove and Dick Armitage started leaking her name out to the press, the CIA releases an unclassified summary of her employment history:

An unclassified summary of outed CIA officer Valerie Plame's employment history at the spy agency, disclosed for the first time today in a court filing by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, indicates that Plame was "covert" when her name became public in July 2003.

The summary is part of an attachment to Fitzgerald's memorandum to the court supporting his recommendation that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's former top aide, spend 2-1/2 to 3 years in prison for obstructing the CIA leak investigation.

Click on images for a lager view
(Images taken from original PDF)

Just trying to make it easy reading for those of you that might hate PDFs as much as I do!

Dan Froomkin spells it out for those of you that don't understand how serious the leak of Valerie Plame's identity by Scooter Libby, Karl Rove and Dick Armitage is:

In Friday's eminently readable court filing, Fitzgerald quotes the Libby defense calling his prosecution "unwarranted, unjust, and motivated by politics." In responding to that charge, the special counsel evidently felt obliged to put Libby's crime in context. And that context is Dick Cheney.

Libby's lies, Fitzgerald wrote, "made impossible an accurate evaluation of the role that Mr. Libby and those with whom he worked played in the disclosure of information regarding Ms. Wilson's CIA employment and about the motivations for their actions."

It was established at trial that it was Cheney himself who first told Libby about Plame's identity as a CIA agent, in the course of complaining about criticisms of the administration's run-up to war leveled by her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson. And, as Fitzgerald notes: "The evidence at trial further established that when the investigation began, Mr. Libby kept the Vice President apprised of his shifting accounts of how he claimed to have learned about Ms. Wilson's CIA employment."

The investigation, Fitzgerald writes, "was necessary to determine whether there was concerted action by any combination of the officials known to have disclosed the information about Ms. Plame to the media as anonymous sources, and also whether any of those who were involved acted at the direction of others. This was particularly important in light of Mr. Libby's statement to the FBI that he may have discussed Ms. Wilson's employment with reporters at the specific direction of the Vice President." (My italics.)

Not clear on the concept yet? Fitzgerald adds: "To accept the argument that Mr. Libby's prosecution is the inappropriate product of an investigation that should have been closed at an early stage, one must accept the proposition that the investigation should have been closed after at least three high-ranking government officials were identified as having disclosed to reporters classified information about covert agent Valerie Wilson, where the account of one of them was directly contradicted by other witnesses, where there was reason to believe that some of the relevant activity may have been coordinated, and where there was an indication from Mr. Libby himself that his disclosures to the press may have been personally sanctioned by the Vice President." (My italics.)

Two suggestions:

• Scooter Libby should buy a few years supply of "soap on a rope"
• cheney should put a fresh battery in his pacemaker.

It's going to be a rough ride for both of them.

And I would be unrealistic if I didn't point out the FACT that what this all adds up to is that the 3 people that admitted to the leaking, Scooter Libby, Karl Rove and Dick Armitage, did in fact provide aid and comfort to the enemy, whether purposefully or not, by taking down a CIA operative that was serving in Counter Proliferation Duties (CPD) under Non official Cover (NOC), pretty much as dangerous as it can get working for the CIA.

I may just have to start a Technorati tag called "Republican Terrorists" with how many of them there are out there to keep track of... That is a sad statement about the state of the Republican party today.