I saw Joe Wilson speak tonight at a Barnes & Noble in NYC.

[milkyway]

There wasn't anything new on the leak investigation. Wilson said he firmly believes the investigators are doing everything they can, so the White House must be stonewalling. Either bush lied when he said he wanted to get to the bottom of this, or his senior staff is guilty of insubordination.

I really enjoyed listening to Wilson. He's a great American and a great guy (he grew up in California, was a shaggy beard 60's guy, was a ski bum for a while, then a carpenter for five years before going back to college and studying foreign service). I really admire him. He has spent a quarter century overseas, and he has a great respect and appreciation for other cultures (unlike the nitwit bush, who practically flaunts that he knows nothing about the rest of the world and doesn't care to find out). Wilson is very candid in his strong criticism of the bush administration. It's obvious he is very angry and saddened by the damage the bush administration has done to this nation and the world.

My favorite quote from tonight (paraphrasing): Speaking of Bob Novak, I fully intend for my wife to some day be driving his Corvette.

[thebigidea]

1. the thought of Novak driving a Corvette cracks me up

it really goes with his combover, I guess.

[nostamj]

3. off-topic but andre.....

andre.... gotta talk about the revue!

we have new dates, new space and... huge interest!

would love to have the video component!

[thebigidea]

5. to quote Curly Howard: "Soitanly!"

Congrats on the good news! Do tell, do tell.

And now back to our regularly scheduled Novak-bashing.

Insert "douchebag" reference here. Insert talk of dentures and spittle here.

[nostamj]

6. sending PM now n/t

[Tellurian]

29. Novak-Corvette?

hahahaha!

A James Dean wannabe1

[nostamj]

2. which one?

I was in the city tonight to see Tim Robbin's EMBEDDED at the Public Theatre (stunning, hard-hitting POLITICAL theatre!) and almost stopped in the Lafayette Sq store afterwards to pick up Brock's new book...

[milkyway]

7. He was at the Union Square store. He said that he's not in NY much,

but when he is he usually finds himself at the Union Square bookstore between appointments. Regarding the leak about his wife, he said that someone in the White House decided that their political agenda was more important than his wife helping to keep a bomb from going off in Union Square.

[wtmusic]

4. Is Fitz still leading the investigation? What's the holdup? n/t

[milkyway]

9. I'm sure he is. Wilson believes they are investigating in good faith. My

gut feeling is that this is the type of story that lays dormant for a couple of months, but then out of seemingly nowhere there is a press conference announcing an indictment that becomes a big story that is very damaging to bush.

[dansolo]

12. I trust Patrick Fitzgerald

He is an honest man, and from what I read, has suprising little ambition. He is a dedicated civil servant. I would expect him to do a thorough job, and he is one of the few people that I honestly believe can get to the bottom of it. He has a reputation for being relentless.

[Eloriel]

8. He's a national hero

I adore him -- not just because he's an attractive man for his age, but also because he's SO intelligent and articulate (also very attractive to me) and also because he's been such a staunch and courageous defender of his wife (not to mention U.S. National Security). He's just AMAZING. Ranks right up there for me with John Dean.

[KharmaTrain]

10. Slime By Michael Medev...

Scanning the "nose-bleed" radio stations...the low power ones at the far end of the dial, I came across Michael Medved and his going off the daily blast fax...this time on Joe Wilson.

By finding that ONE Sarin shell, that we still don't know really was sarin, or it's age (I'm still betting it has the Rumsfeld Bros., Made In The U.S.A. label on it) somehow meant WMD (one shell is an entire program?)...then goes on to slime Joe that somehow this discovery negated both Wilson's truthful claim about the Nigerian Yellow Cake and the lies in the SOTU...and all that Wilson's trying to do is sell a book...and that he's a <shudder> Democrat.

He then went on to read the Saffire NYT piece, claiming that the Times (always liberal, right) had finally come to its senses on the issue...as if they just hired Saffire? What planet is this guy on?

And then, Medved goes on to say how by electing Kerry, this would open the doors to people like Wilson to get in positions of power. Oh No!!! Personally, I think he'd make a great CIA director.

I found myself just laughing after a bit as the desperation of the wingnuts these days destroys any credibility they have with the people they, and we, need to reach the most...the small "middle" that will determine if this country heads back towards a representative government or further into represssion.

[calimary]

31. Let's all keep in mind, too, that Medved works for the SALEM Radio Net.

Remember them? They just recently tried to pretend as though "Nightline" didn't exist - at least when it wanted to broadcast the names of all the troops who've died in Iraq. So consider the source.

Just for the record:

Their minor-league rogues' gallery of a lineup consists of:

Mike Gallagher 9a - noon
Dennis Prager noon - 3p
Michael Medved 3 - 6p
Hugh Hewitt 6 - 9p
David Lawrence 10p - 1a - All Times Eastern

A whole new network's worth of limbaugh/savage/o'reilly/hannity wanna-be's. My apologies - at least three of these (the middle three including Medved) came from, or rose to national prominence from, Southern California. Ick!

Oh yes, and guess what else? I am struck that - considering that the talent whose schtick I actually know portrays itself as a Great Arbiter of Contemporary Morality - that the Salem Radio Network also boasts a separate-but-equal show with an individual who is presented as a jewel in the crown: Mr. Bill "National Scold" and I'll-see-ya-at-the-tables Bennett. Morality, 'eh? I suppose we could all make bets... Never heard Mike Gallagher or David Lawrence, so I can't testify as to what they say and how they portray. But there is a great deal of sanctimonious, self-congratulatory, self-righteous holier-than-thou's on that network. By the way, Bennett's cohost on "Bill Bennett's Morning in America" is a fellow named Tom Tradup. Also executive producer he is. I've not heard him on the air, either.

Just thought you'd like to know who's who. Might be good to remember who these people are and who they work for.

[bacchant]

11. Heard him on the radio for the first time last week

Immediately struck me as a very bright and cool guy.

[milkyway]

13. Also: Wilson also said tonight that PNAC was the real reason we went to

war in Iraq. An audience member asked him if he thought the real reason bush went to war was for oil. (paraphrasing) Wilson said that was a part of it, but not the main reason. He said the reasoning for war in Iraq was spelled out in the PNAC document. He said it was a blueprint for an imperial America. Wilson said studies showed that it would be ten years before oil in Iraq was profitable, and that these guys don't think that far-term.

[Stephanie]

16. Oh my god, I'm in LOVE with him

I am SO sorry I didn't know about this appearance. I would have taken the night off. It is time to really TALK about PNAC. It is time to NAME the NEO-CONS and what they stand for, starting with CHENEY.

[Lugnut]

14. I'm reading his book now

It's very good and well worth the read. So many books....so little time. :)

[Dropkick]

33. Just finished it and loved it!! eom

[Tellurian]

15. Thanks for the update...

Why do I have the feeling the whole entire cia are behind Joe?

And of course, all of US! (double entendre)

I Love it..

[Stephanie]

17. I think you're right

I think BushCO crossed the line, and while their idiotic idealogy and their complete incompetence are reason enough to boot them, the utter DEPRAVITY of their outting a CIA agent for political REVENGE is the turning point. It just instantly turns everyone who is good and honest against them. It's indefensible. It's equivalent to Robert Hansen. It destroyed a whole network that was working on WMD detection. Justify that! This administration is sick and depraved and everyone knows it.

[Tellurian]

18. By and large I've found-

Republicans are the most vindictive people I've ever met. There is never a truce with these people. If they're smiling at you, then for damn sure they have a plan in the works to carve you up six ways from Sunday.

[Stephanie]

19. These guys are worse than mafioso

Because they have no honor whatsoever. They are brutal and amoral. At least the Corleones had a code of honor. They would never pull something like this. Against they guy's WIFE? Who is an agent of our own CIA? I think this is beyond any previous example of Republican brutality.

[nostamj]

22. Tim Robbins is SO brutal to the Neo-Cons

in EMBEDDED... funny, but chilling. lots of Strauss refereneces.

any DUer that can see it will love it.

[dusty64]

20. Cool, I've been

wondering what happened to that whole story. Its completely fallen off the face of the Earth, totally unlike EVERY manufactured "scandal" of the Clinton years.

[notadmblnd]

21. His book came out the same week as the torture scandal

He was on many fo the news shows and I thought (at the time) maybe the misadministration was itself pushing the scandal to blow Joe's book off.

[LizW]

23. Has Plame filed a civil lawsuit?

I'm reading John Dean's book and he says that option is open to her, and that she could depose the newspeople who were contacted with the leak and compel them to testify, just as newspeople were compelled to testify about leaks in the Wen Ho Lee civil case.

Dean also says that Fitzgerald could haul the journalists before the grand jury and compel their testimony, and that would get to the bottom of the thing.

Dean's book enumerates the criminality of the Bush administration in great detail, but this leak is the thing he notes above all else as the impeachable offense. He compares it to Nixon's offenses and shows clearly how the Plame leak goes far beyond anything Nixon ever did or contemplated. First, it was an attack on a man's wife, something Dean says is unheard of, even in the lowest of slime politics. Second, it was potentially life-threatening, not just for Plame, but for a circle of unknown people connected to her. Despicable slimeballs!

Anyway, it certainly doesn't sound like the Wilsons are going to shut up and go away, in spite of Bushco's stonewalling. Good for them!

[milkyway]

24. Wilson also said there were three types of neo-cons

in the bush adminstration:

--the whack-and-rollers (sp?). He described an arcade game where you wait for something to pop up out of one of a number of holes. When it does, you whack it. You keep trying to whack the objects when they pop up. He puts Cheney and Rumsfeld in this group.

--the PNAC people who want an imperial America. They went to war to reshape the Middle East. "They have certainly done that."

--the utopian neo-cons, led by Wolfowitz. They have the idea you can spread democracy with M-16s and tanks. Wilson said that other societies have their own tendencies, and that the people of the Middle East "tend to resist foreign occupation.They remember the overthrow of the Caliphate in 1258 as if it were yesterday."

One other Wilson quote: "Dick Cheney is a lying son of a bitch." Apparently he's said this before.

[Tellurian]

25. I think Wilson is being too kind to Cheney-

Cheney is as much a War Criminal, as the rest of them.

The scandals have *softened* up their image...you know, the way the interrogators softened up the prisoners getting them ready to spill..

The public's perception of the troika has drastically changed in the last few weeks. Critical mass has been achieved, revealing the 'holier than thou Christians' are no more than hypocritical white washed sepulchers, who are by far, the biggest terrorist threat facing Americans.

[Tellurian]

26. I'm not clear about..though..

--The Whack and Rollers?

I don't quite understand the meaning described in the example.

[milkyway]

27. Imagine a game where there's a bunch of rabbbit holes.

When the rabbit suddenly pops up in one of them, you whack it. When it pops up in a different hole, you whack it again.

The overall idea is that Cheney and these guys are reactionaries--there's no planning for the future, just reacting with force to events as they occur. But things are never made better for the long-term--you're simply moving from crisis to crisis.

[Tellurian]

28. OK, now I understand what you mean...

sorry to say, I'm Rethug challenged.
I try not to associate with the RWingers if at all possible.
Their mindset gives me migraine headaches. The violence and
hate speech is just too much, it's too over the top for me.

How would you categorize the Conservatives like McCain,
and Chafee? I like both of these men. I've had conversations
with Sen. Chafee and he seems to be a decent guy.

[Lisa]

32. there's a carnival game based on this ...

I think they use moles or groundhogs (hence "whack-a-mole"), rather than rabbits -- anyway, it's a bunch of mechanical creatures that pop up out of holes in a random order, and you have to tap them on the noggin before they disappear again. There are some electronic games available online that replicate it.

Anyway, the imagery is perfect -- Rummy being so obsessed with the "moles" that he misses the bigger picture (why are there so many in the first place?).

I laughed like anything when I saw Joe Wilson's interview with Jon Stewart. Seemed very intelligent, funny, and good-humored. I think it's a great combination for a diplomat -- sophisticated and still down-to-earth.

And if his wife is anything like he is, they lost a real prize. If a government has an intelligence agency, I think that being informed about what's going on in the world is actually a good thing. I never thought I'd ever be defending the CIA, but if it were focused on "intelligence" rather than meddling (e.g. Kermit Roosevelt in Iran) it could actually do something positive.

[Bandit]

30. I take that last sentence to mean he is planning a law suit against Novak

I truly hope so and when he does that it gets all the national attention of OJ's civil suit. I hope they get a hell of a lot more than a corvette. If he isn't going to jail I hope he is made a pauper.