WE NEED A WOMAN PRESIDENT; HOW ABOUT VALERIE PLAME?

I got to know Joe Wilson because he's been an avid Blue America supporter and comes to our weekly Saturday afternoon sessions at Firedoglake. He seemed to know all the candidates we invited on for chats because he had been in their districts campaigning for them. Small world. And then one evening at dinner Jane introduced me to Valerie. What a charming and astute woman-- as the whole world saw today. And what a great side by side comparison: Valerie Plame for the forces of Truth, Decency and Humanity and that hideous harridan Victoria Toensing diGenova for the Dark Side.

I was driving home from a meeting today and I heard a discussion on the radio about Waxman's hearings today. Arianna Huffington and Bob Scheer were brilliant and factual; the right-wing propagandist, Tony Blankley-- Newt Gingrich's former professional flack, currently spinning tall tails for the Regime at the Moonie Times-- had nothing to say so made a snide remark about Valerie's hair being dyed. That was the only thing the far right could say about Valerie's devastating testimony today, anything, anything, anything to get off the topic of treason. For regardless of proven liars and gossip mongers like Toensing and her professional character assassin husband Joe DiGenerate and a slew of right wing professional propagandists* masquerading as journalists, the CIA gave the committee a written statement that ends whatever debate there ever was on this: Valerie Plame was a covert secret agent at the time that the Regime decided to illegally reveal her identity. That's a serious crime, a very serious crime for which Bush, Cheney, Rove need to be put in prison.

Perhaps, before we delve into today's revelations, you'd like to sit back and watch little video to get relaxed first?




Odd that neither the rubber stamp Republican Congress nor, odder still, the White House ever bothered to even investigate. Of course, they already knew exactly what they would find if they did. And they sure didn't want to find that-- despite the pack of lies Bush told the public about "huntin' down the leakers." So the hearing kicks off with the star witness, the incredible Ms Plame, a true, unsung American heroine. And she got right to the point: she was a covert C.I.A. agent. She testified that her cover was "carelessly and recklessly" blown, destroying her cover for political purposes.

"I felt like I had been hit in the gut," Plame said of the moment she learned her name and agency affiliation had been published in a July 14, 2003, column by Robert D. Novak. The conservative columnist attributed the information to two senior administration officials, who were later identified in court as Richard L. Armitage, then the deputy secretary of state, and Karl Rove, a senior adviser to President Bush who currently serves as his deputy chief of staff.

"I could no longer perform the work for which I had been highly trained," the willowy blonde former CIA officer told the committee. "I could no longer travel overseas or do the work . . . which I loved. It was done."

The Regime opposed allowing him to testify, but when threatened with a subpoena they relented and Dr. James Knodell, director of the Office of Security at the White House, proved most informative. He admitted to the committee that he was unaware of any internal investigation into the leak of Valerie's identity.


Republican business tycoon/TV personality, Donald Trump, pictured here with Republican presidential contender Rudy Giuliani (not in South Carolina) is just another American fed up with all the lies and filth seeping pouring out of the Bush Regime this week.

Donald Trump has two words for the Bush Administration: "You're fired."

The business mogul didn't hold back in criticizing the administration in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer Friday, calling President Bush, "probably the worst president in the history of the United States."

He labeled former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld a "disaster," and accused Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of "never making a deal." He also charged Vice President Dick Cheney of sugarcoating the conditions in Iraq.

"I don't know if they're bad people. I don't know what's going on. I just know they got us into a mess, the likes of which this country has probably never seen," Trump said. "It's one of the great catastrophes of all time."

Jane and her crew have spent the most time on the Plame case, know all the main figures and have the most comprehensive news and analysis. Today there are half a dozen great stories. I'd recommend starting with Marcy's late afternoon piece and working your way backwards.





*So, who were the pet Regime "journalists" who pushed out the Rove talking points that Valerie Plame wasn't a cover CIA agent?
L.A. Times' Jonah Goldberg- "Wilson's wife is a desk jockey and much of the Washington cocktail circuit knew that already. Jonah didn't mention (in the National Review) that Rove wrote that for him.

Fox's laughable Mort Kondracke- "I frankly don't (sic) think since Valerie Plame was not a covert officer that there was a crime here." Mort didn't mention that Rove wrote that for him.

Robert Novak (AKA- The Dark Prince), who still hasn't be arrested or charged with treason in this case for some reason- "No evidence that she was a covert agent was ever presented to the jury."

Fox's resident moron, Hannity- "She did not meet the criteria, in any way, shape, matter or form as a cover agent." (And he saw a James Bond film once.)

And, of course, professional liar-for-pay, Victoria Toejam (in the Washington Post)- "Plame was not covert. She worked at CIA headquarters and had not been stationed abroad within five years of the date of Novak's column."