He's No Patton

Gee, these night vision binoculars work really good!

Dr. Strangelove

I know: He was actually for stem cell research before he was against it!

Can anyone explain Sen. Frist? No, of course not, it has to be his "persistent vegetative state" of "shooting himself in the foot" that he is trying to cure. Doctor, all the stem cells in the world cannot help you. Did you notice the "warp speed" that the Dobsons and Evangelicals pounced? Like sharks devouring their own.

Moving on to other newsworthy items:

NoFatCat - Check out Huff Po, Arianna is on the Judy Miller story big time and others are tasting the blood too. As Red Dog pointed out weeks ago, Miller is protecting someone bigger and not just her First Amendment rights. She may even be protecting her own ass. She was, after all, in bedded ...er... embedded with the squad looking for WMD's just so she could get the scoop. I'm still thinking Cheney or Rummy.

Bush is likely to make a recess appointment of a liar to the U.N. Bolton "forgot" that he had been interviewed over the WMD intelligence. How nifty! The State Department also lied backing up the lie that Bolton told. Now that's been done before. Remember the "mobile labs", the intercepted messages, and "Someone Left A(Yellow) Cake Out In The Rain?" Of course, the whole damn administration is nothing but one lie after another.

At the Neshoba Fair, the Guv'ner proudly proclaimed that he an Marsha were going somewhere to receive the award that Mississippi was declared the "Safest State for Unborn Babies." That's really great, when does he get the award for the State with the highest infant mortality rate?

I'm still having difficulty with the DDT reporting over the Burn Center. The horses have long since left the barn. Let it go, Louie! Where are the hard questions for Humphreys, like how long ago did you decide that you were going to kill the Burn Center? Why didn't you tell somebody? Or, did you?

Have a great weekend and we can all rest easy now, Congress is on recess for a month. Spend all your money before they get back in session and spend it for you.

What? Are You On Dope?

No, no,no,no

I don't drink it no more

Got tired of waking up on the floor.

No thank you, please

It only makes me sneeze

Then makes it hard to find the door.

---Ringo Starr

Under the category of "You must be kidding" or WTF?

Bill Frist pulled the Defense Authorization Bill to move the Special Interest NRA Bill (Gun Manufacturer's Liability Bill) ahead of it before Congress goes on recess. The reason? So as not to embarass the President, because of Sen. McCain and Sen. Warner amendment to prevent torture of prisoners of war at Guantanamo. When confronted as to why the Gun Bill was more important than providing for money, benefits, operations, and weapons purchases for the troops, Frist replied that the Gun Bill was higher priority because if the gun manufacturer's didn't have protection from litigation, they may file bankruptcy and the sidearms our soldiers were using would have to be "outsourced" jeopardizing the safety of our troops. FLASH, FLASH.....Dr. Frist!...... The gun manufacturer he is referring to is none other than, are you ready for this?....Berretta! That All American company that we all so love and adore. No, it's not Smith&Wesson or Colt that supply sidearms for our troops, it's good ole Berretta. Maybe I missed something but Italy is still a foreign country, right?

Dubyacans Strike Again! I feel ooh soo much safer, now!

Scorecard

Special Interests Legislation so far:

• Big Financials (Bankruptcy Act)
• Big Corporations (Class Action Act)
• NRA (Gun Manufacturer's Liability Act)
• Multi-nationals (CAFTA)
• Big Oil Companies (Energy Bill)

What have they done for us?

• Healthcare (Nothing)
• Anti-terrorism or Homeland Security (Zilch)
• Illegal Immigration (Nada)
• Education (Zero)
• Gasoline and energy prices (Exxon - $32 Billion Profit)
• The Environment (Cough, cough - too much energy from the Sun)

Don't blame me,I voted for the smart guy

Like Watching the Grass Grow

It's over.

After keeping the voting open for over an hour over the 15 minute time limit, the Free Traders won the CAFTA vote 217 to 215. It was close for us regular folks, but Big Business won again. It took the jaw boning of the President and the arm twisting of the House majority leaders to pull it off and the sucking sound you will hear again is American jobs going to Central America. Mind you the GDP for all these countries combined is about the same as that of Tampa, Florida. It will be interesting to see who will benefit the most from this agreement and what "deals" were made in the last minute to get the vote.

Our Mississippi delegation was split along party lines.
Thompson - No
Taylor - No
Pickering - Yes
Wicker - Yes

The administration even had to play the "terror" card. A vote against CAFTA is a vote against democracy and a vote for the terrorist. Some people will believe anything. If anything, the rich will get richer and the poor will get, well you know the line. Anyhow, workers in Central America will not benefit, American workers will lose jobs and Multi-National Corp will gain and this is good for you?

Be sure to thank Cochran, Lott, Wicker and Pickering when you are standing in the unemployment line.

Investigate the Investigator

Day 1414 - Osama is still Wanted: Dead or Alive!

So what does the Senate Intelligence Committee want to do?

Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kansas) thinks he needs to hold hearings to help the CIA determine what "covert" means. In other words help the Special Prosecutor in his case and solve the issue of whether or not Karl Rove, et. al. committed a crime by outing someone who was a "paper pusher." A couple of things smell here: Shouldn't we be enraged that during a time of "war" (the President's definition) that an agent of our intelligence agency is outed and it's not a treasonable offense? What's more, we know who outed the agent and no one is in jail except one reporter who never wrote a story outing the agent! Why is the Senate Intelligence Committee getting involved on Senator Roberts whim unless he feels it is more important to protect some WH aide than a CIA Agent?

Let's review again, this administration's record:

• Our country was attacked on 9/11 while the President was preoccupied with being on vacations and ousting Saddam Hussein.
• This adminsitration made the case for war in Iraq based on their possession of WMD's and capability of using them against us.
• Just when bin Laden was about to be captured or killed, we stopped the pursuit and invaded a country that posed no threat to us.
• This adminstration lied to the American Public and to the Congress of the United States about the need to go to war.
• The intelligence was "cooked" to justify the war (Remember Colin Powell's presentation to the U.N.?)
• The cost of operation in Iraq is $1 Billion each and every day.
• This administration outed a CIA Agent in time of war.
• The policies of this administration regarding POW's resulted in the total embarassment of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.
• The President donned a flight suit and declared "Mission Accomplished" in 2003.
• The Iraqi democratic constitution denies rights to women.
• The "coalition of the willing" is no longer willing.
• The Vice President declares the "terrorists" are in their last throes.
• Where is the oil money from Iraq's oil going?

Maybe it's time for a real investigation to take place and, to think, all Clinton did was to lie about having sex in the White House. I believe it was Pat Roberts that said lying and perjury were serious offenses, maybe even "impeachable." No one died from the Clinton lie.

"Waist deep in the Big Muddy and the Big Fool says to Push On!"

Bombshell from Gonzo

Gonzales spills the Beans! White House given 12 hours to shred evidence in the Plamegate investigation. Shades of Rosemary Woods and the 18 1/2 minute gap. Check out Bob Schieffer's interview of Alberto at http://crooksandliars.com and watch him stutter when Bob asks him if he told anyone at the WH. What Alberto said and the WH probably wishes they could erase all the tapes is that he did tell Andrew Card, WH Chief of Staff twelve hours before he told anyone else. This is HUGE! I'm really feeling sorry for Scotty in advance, he will be mugged tomorrow. Of course, my question is: If the Attorney General doesn't have any problem discussing the ongoing investigation, why doesn't the WH?

Basa Nova

Professor Doug Marshall at MSU sure opened a can of worms (sometimes I crack myself up). His study showed that MSU students preferred Vietnamese Basa three to one over Mississippi farm raised blue channel catfish. Now we don't know who these 58 students are but let's assume they are 58 Pikes at a Beer Bash. First of all they don't know what they're eating, secondly they don't care what they're eating and thirdly if you furnish the beer and catfish, they'll tell you anything. Hardly a scientific study unless you count the burps and other bodily emissions.

At any rate in an attempt to put out the outrage from the entire freeworld catfish industry, MSU declared the study as "preliminary" and only meant to encourage academic debate. The only debate I see is how long will Prof. Marshall remain at MSU, I'm sure the moving van has already showed up at his house.

Prof. Marshall may be a smart man in books, but I really am concerned about his mental stability of releasing a study in the "catfish belt" that praises a foreign fish from all places, Vietnam, especially since the local farmers had already fought that battle once.

Now Red Dog doesn't have any scientific genes in his body when it comes to catfish. I have eaten some really bad catfish and some really good catfish, always fried. I probably couldn't tell you the difference between Basa and Cat, but I know what I like, and the best place in the whole world to eat catfish is Mr. B's in Heber Springs, Arkansas and I have eaten at a lot of catfish places. I don't know whether it's basa or the real thing but it sure is good. (Really, I think there is a statement on their menu that they only serve U.S. pond raised catfish). Now, Red Dog isn't getting any commission from Mr. B's so you know it's the truth. That's my disclaimer.

Anyhow, the whole thing is equivalent of Vincente Fox saying he prefers Taco Bell burritos over his mother's. Some things are best left unsaid.

Bumbling British Bobbies

How many of the above suspects are Brazilian?

After being impressed with the initial British Intelligence over the bombings, I am now skeptical that they have a f---ing clue. First they tell us they are linked to Pakistan, well sort of, except they were all British citizens, three of them born there and one from somewhere else. Then they tell us the person they killed (five shots to the head and torso) was "linked" to the bombings. Now we find out the guy was a Brazilian, and not even Muslim and had no relationship to the bombings. Of course, our crack Army Intelligence said the bombings were linked to Zarqawi. The Brits did manage to say "Oops, Sorry!" Londoners not only have to worry about terror bombings, but risk being snuffed out by their own police. Is there a color code for that?

Pakistan Prime Minister Masaraf told Prime Minister Blair, in an interview, to "run your country and I'll run mine."

Question I'd like to ask Tim Russert tomorrow:

So, Tim, "Scooter" Libby testified to the Grand Jury that you gave him Valerie Plame"s name. You testified to the same Grand Jury that you didn't reveal her name to him. Which one of you is lying?

Terror, Plame, and Basagate

OK, the terrorists have blown up Britain and Egypt, so it must mean that it is time for Bush to invade, oh let's say Niger! Ha! That must be where the WMD's are! It wasn't "yellow cake" after all, he was looking for a place to hide his WMD's.

Bush Administration is stonewalling the release of the photos and videos of Abu Ghraib. They need more time to censure the pictures and cut and paste Lynndie England's face in them. She was, after all, the mastermind in the prisoner abuse. It doesn't sound like the latest pictures are going to be all that pretty. If Rummie has turned in his resignation twice and it's been turned down, maybe the third time will be the charm.

Caught the discussion on C-Span of the CIA agents testimony before a Democratic panel. Frightening and disgusting as to the outing of a CIA agent and the implications that has on our intelligence effort around the world. The current thugs in the White House are beginning to make the Watergate thugs look like altar boys. "[S] is for Secret, that's good enough for me." .....Oops......Oh yeah, they're trying to kill Cookie Monster too.

John Roberts will not get a "free pass", He will be asked some uncomfortable questions, will he answer them? He should. Supreme Court Justices are confirmed for life, remember? If Ann Coulter is against him, there has to be something in his past. Maybe he stood 'ol Annie up once.

Hats off to John Conyers, he alone will not let the Downing Street Memos die. If you stand back and look at the overall picture, Plamegate and the Downing Street Memos are connected. Yeah, it's old news...Bush lied to us on the reasons for war, so what? Right?

Red Dog is sniffing out the latest scandal in Mississippi, "Basagate" Stay tuned. Could this be the Nissan of rural Mississippi? Did the Guv'nor rig the study to move the industry overseas? When will the AG be investigating? Looks like the study is more of a "crawfish" study to me.

Have a great weekend. Go out and make history.

NoFatCat.......are you on vacation or just asleep?

Red Dog Reporting

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) in a Faux News interview compares John Roberts to Jesus Christ, calling Roberts the "greatest person there is." Uh, Orrin, did you read the part about Jesus throwing the money changers out of the Temple? This is great news for Liberals, that means Roberts is against Big Business and for the poor and down-trodden and the gasp! minorities. What a great choice! Why I bet Roberts even feels that Roe v. Wade is settled law and would not consider over turning that decision. That makes him a pro-Choice Justice. Referencing a previous post, Orrin Hatch must be an alien, check out the ears and eyes and incoherent speech the next time you see him.

On the religious front, Bethany Christian Sevices reverses policy and decides that Catholics are "Christian." What a bunch of hypocrits! Their board in a unanimous decision decided that Catholicism did fit their religious values, whatever they are.

President's Energy Policy got a big boost today from the House of Representatives. Daylight Savings Time is being extended by three weeks. That's right from the second week in March to the first week in November. Representative Upton (R-Mich) declared that all the children are excited that they can get one more hour of trick or treating in on Halloween. Really, I'm not making this up, go check it out.

The House, also, passed an extension of the Patriot Act after the new London bombings were announced. This is true to form for the rats that run for shelter every time a Cessna flies into the "no fly" zone over the Capitol. The "We Are Afraid" Act will have to be conferenced with the Senate version passed earlier. --Those who will give up freedom for security, deserve neither.

Condi Rice's entourage in Sudan gets manhandled by Sudanese Guards. Andrea Mitchell gets forcibly removed from the room. I wonder how Sudanese currency will be doing in the morning? Condi was outraged and demanded and got an apology. Hell, Madeline Albright would have simply opened a can of "Whupass" now that's diplomacy.

Pentagon report says Iraq's police and military are not capable. Two Hundred Billion Dollars and they aren't capable of what? Seems to me, desire is the first step to being trained to defend one's country. Also, the Shiites version of the Constitution severely restricts the rights of women. Is this the Bush Democracy we went to war over?

New York City police will start randomly checking bags in the transit system. Can you imagine 4 Million New Yorkers slowing down to have a bag checked? Also, the Mayor says there will be no racial profiling. Well, in New York, what exactly does that mean? It is the big melting pot.

On the local level, the County Supervisors should stop trying to get some political press over the Burn Center. Where were they when the Hospital Board was deciding to close it? The Burn Center is gone, give it up, DRMC will not reopen it. Stop wasting time. The Appian Way was built in less time than the replacement to the Fish Lake Bridge.

Oh, and Greenvillians. The water is dirty. Brown water is only an inside joke and it is not funny to the rest of the world who have and are used to clear water. It represents the city to tourists and business just like the trash on the street does. So get a life about the water and clean it up.

Let the Games Begin

John Roberts, not exactly a household name. No real track record, only two years on the apellate court. So we don't know too much about him. Given there are no real "surprises" lurking out there, he should get confirmed. I know the extreme left is not happy, but believe me, it could have been worse. I think I even saw a list with Kay Bailey Hutchinson on it!

Roe v. Wade will probably stand up for now, and the Democrats shouldn't waste a lot of energy opposing the nomination (unless there is some "surprise"). The real battle will come when Rehnquist decides to leave. So, my advice to Dems is to confirm the guy and get back to the real issue at hand.........Plamegate and the lying White House.

I'm sure there will be overkill coverage on the nomination from the news networks over the next several days (barring any "dead blonde" stories), but until the Judiciary Committee starts its hearings there's not much to talk about. No blood in the water, yet. There's still plenty of blood in the water on the Rove story. Do ya think the President had an incentive to get the Roberts' nomination out today?

Have no fear, Red Dog will be vigilant in finding out just who John Roberts really is and why he says an 'enemy combatant' is whoever the President says it is. We're back to the definition of "is."

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

I finally figured it out. It's not that Bush talks like that because he thinks we are retards, he talks like that because he has been taken over by an alien. In fact, all Republicans talk like that. Ken Melhman talks in "tongues", he has never answered a direct question.
"So, tell me, Ken is it raining outside?"

"This President is executing his agenda to stengthen the economy, he is winning the war on terror, the American people are supporting this President's move to reform social security, yada, yada, yada.........blah, blah, blah........."

Terry Holt: He thinks Bill Clinton is still President, because he's still living in 1999. Total Recall gone bad or the cryogenics haven't fully thawed.

Scott McClellan: Poor Scotty, he doesn't seem to be fully assimilated by the Borg, but he is trying. "I have already answered that question, I would love to talk about it but there is an ongoing investigation, you heard what the President said....rewind.......zxrgyppptrrhzqvjptth..I have already answered that question,......."

Dick Cheney, "Darth Vader" of the White House, need I say more.

Twenty five percent of the country believe that the White House is fully cooperating with the special investigation. These are the Ann Coulter readers that believe that al Qaeda and Iraq are the same country we invaded to rid the world of WMD's.

And today, the not so subtle change in Bush's statement from "anyone involved" to "anyone commiting a crime" is further evidence that alien forces are work in this administration. Scottie:"The President has always been consistent."

So it's lies, damned lies, and crap put out by the Bush Administration. In the fog of "Plamegate", remember it was all about the push to war by the White House. Making intelligence fit the plan. lying to the American People about the need to go to war, not having a plan to rebuild, and now not having an exit strategy, while Iraq marches toward civil war. The whole affair started with the White House trying to discredit its adversaries, now we have a cover up and a new definition of "is."

Today we heard that the President doesn't know all the facts and that he is anxious to get this over. One thing I'm certain of is that Bush has talked to Rove and they have discussed what was said and who said what to whom. The President knows the facts and he knows who is complicit, he's just not telling. In other words, he knows what "is" is. Whether a crime has been committed is immaterial.

So, where are we? No closer than two years ago, but one thing is for sure, "The Truth is out there."

CAFTA!

You know I Hafta

Go vote for CAFTA

And collect my dough.

I voted for NAFTA

You got the Shafta

And away we go!

Way to go Trent and Thad! When will you start representing your constituents instead of Big Business Lobbyists? More jobs that will not be coming to Mississippi. It's time for a change.. You can fool some of the people some of the time.

**********************************************************************

Top Flea of the Week:

Bethany Christian Services - Policy against Catholic couples adopting children. I guess Catholics are not Christian. This faith based organization also receives money from car tag sales in Mississippi.

**********************************************************************

Other noteworthy items:

• Chief Justice Rehnquist tells all speculators to "Kiss Off and leave me alone."
• Who is leaking the Grand Jury investigation testimony on the leaks? Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald seems to have problems, I think Republicans have a special team for that, they called themselves "The Plumbers." I think they are all out of jail now.
• Apparently the British Bombers were of Pakistani descent, didn't the Pentagon state that they had intel that they may have been supported by Zarqawi? I heard that, I know I did. The British brand of terrorists just doesn't seem to be the same ones blowing themselves up in Iraq. Maybe we need to invade Pakistan next.

Locally:

• Kudos to the DDT for a good editorial on the state of the city. However, this tri-state mecca for medical care is a big farce and "don't get too far out there", DRMC needs to give more justification for building a new facility South of town and what will they do with the older ones, at what cost? Great to point out that service sector jobs won't hack it and that when companies like Textron move in and bring all their management and professional people with them it really doesn't do much to help the local economy.
• Baxter got their welfare check today from the Special Session, will probably take another session and another $35,000 to approve Northrup Grumman's $56 Million.

As usual keep scratching and have a great weekend. I once had a History teacher that always told us on Friday's to "Go out and make history."

Just be careful out there, ya hear?

Down on the Farm

Well, Well, 'ol Bernie did the crime now he's gonna do the time. I'm sorry, this crying crap gives me indigestion. Bernie bilked some decent folks out of their life savings and was living the life of luxury and his defense? He didn't know. Well the jury was right, he should have known and he did know. 25 years is not enough. Yazoo City is too good for the crook. If he had been tried in Alabama, he may have gotten a Get Out of Jail Free card and had a statue erected in the State Capitol in his honor. Maybe Scrushy will visit Bernie and they can pray together.

I can't stay away from it! The Republican strategy to protect KR is to attack the victims, predictable. Let's see today we heard, It's Joe Wilson's fault, he outed his own wife. KR did a great public service in not letting a kid reporter publish erroneous information, which turned out to be true. My only comment, so far, is that Fitzgerald is on to something bigger than KR or this whole thing would have already been settled. Oh, and which White House lie do you want to believe? The one about anyone involved would be fired or Karl Rove was not involved? I don't guess there is any need to answer that one.

The free traders are running for cover over CNOOC's bid to buy UnoCal. The House held some pretty nasty hearings today on this subject. Seems as if The Cato Institute thinks it's a good idea for a communist country to own an American company and it's oil reserves. A former CIA Director called the economists favoring the move out of touch with reality. That's an understatement. $700 Billion trade deficit to China, thank you Walmart!

Keep an eye on your Senators, the CAFTA vote is coming up soon and remember that "sucking sound" from NAFTA with all of our jobs going to Mexico. Send them an e-mail (links on the right...naturally) telling them to not support CAFTA.

One more thing, prior to our invasion of Iraq, Iraqi children were not being blown up by suicide bombers.

Come to think of it, Dubya does favor Alfred E. Neuman when he smiles.

Olio

Thought I would give the Turd Blossom a rest tonight and let the press and the special prosecutor do their jobs. Maybe do a whirlwind on some local and state matters.

Local
Councilman Carl says he don't want to pay more for mosquito killing. Me neither, Carl, but, dammit, we gotta do something! Heartworms is a terrible disease, not to mention encephalitis and West Nile virus. I hear cow patty burning helps.

GPD on rape over the weekend: "Ya'll be careful out there, ya hear?"

DDT Editorials: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Somebody wake 'em up over there. Are all the great writers in McComb?

Welfare and blackmail: A company that makes hundreds of millions of dollars a year needs to hold up Mississippi taxpayers for $24 million over three years. If you don't, we'll move our plant. In some places thats illegal, it's called extortion. It happens on the Coast, too. Your bill for Northrup-Grumman, $45 Million. Throw in a few "good 'ol boy" projects and you have well over $100 Million the Legislature and Governor are throwing away. I sure am glad that Haley's interviewing all the Medicaid recipients to insure for the taxpayer of Mississippi that no one is receiving benefits that they shouldn't.

The Guv is throwing another party for the Legislature to pass the money for Baxter. Is this number four or five special session? At the cost of $35,000 per day and an accumulated $600,000 for the year in special sessions. I still say get rid of all of them, every last one of them.

The next "Nissan of rural Mississippi": SteelCor ...The new Beef Plant you ordered at a mere $100 Million.

Ya'll Come Back Now, Ya hear?

Beam Scotty Up!

Caught the White House Press briefing today and the normally jello-spined recorders took Scott McClellan to task on the Rove story. Being true to form Scotty evaded all the questions, pulling the "we don't comment on on-going criminal investigations" and the always popular "I've already answered that." However, poor Scott looked like he would rather be sitting straddle a barbed wire fence.

I'm still convinced there is a bigger fish in the special prosecutor's investigation.I guess we have to sit back and wait for the supoenas.

It's not a theory if they are actually doing it.

Spinning Wheel

I gotta admit, Red Dog is perplexed. I'm totally missing something, but I am sure that there is a "vast Right Wing Conspiracy" involved.

This whole business of Judith Miller and Matt Cooper and the outing of Valerie Plame is a total mystery that even Agatha Christie could never solve.

Reviewing:
Someone in the White House leaked to Robert Novak the name of a CIA operative (Valerie Plame) and Novak writes an article identifying her as a CIA Agent. The publishing of the article is not a crime, but leaking the identification of an agent is. O.k. so whoever told Novak is a criminal and could be punished as a traitor. The White House (Bush) says this is a serious matter and whoever leaked the name would be dealt with. So couldn't the president just call everyone together and ask who did it? Let's, for the sake of argument, say that he did and no one fessed up.

Tomorrow Newsweek (here we go again) will publish a story claiming the person who leaked the identity to Matt Cooper was none other than Karl Rove. Rove's attorney (why does Rove have an attorney?) verified that Karl Rove did in fact mention to Matt Cooper that Joe Wilson's wife (Valerie Plame) was someone at the CIA dealing with WMD investigations, but he did not mention her by name (a subtle technicality).

Now, the conversation between Cooper and Rove took place three days before the Novak article was published. Novak, in his article, cited source(s), more than one.

Patrick Fitzgerald is a special prosecutor investigating the case and has Matt Cooper threatened with jail and has Judith Miller in jail for refusing to identify their sources. Cooper received a "permission slip" from his source before the deadline to reveal his source. The permission slip was from Rove, apparently. So, Cooper avoids going to jail, but he must testify to the Grand Jury. Judith Miller apparently received no permission slip from her source or she wants to be a martyr for the First Amendment.

The judge's ruling in this case is that the First Amendment doesn't always apply, especially if there is a matter of National Security involved.....therefore, the journalists must reveal their sources. Neither Matt Cooper nor Judy Miller published their stories nor revealed any names in any articles, yet they are the ones facing jail time! What about Robert Novak?

So, the questions will be forthcoming and Red Dog will be trying to figure out the answers to these questions:

1. Why isn't Novak being pressured for his sources by being threatened with jail? Maybe he is cooperating with the Grand Jury and has given testimony.
2. Who is the other Novak source?
3. Are Judith Miller's sources the same as Matt Cooper and Bob Novak?
4. Did Karl Rove break any laws?
5. Why does Karl Rove have a "need to know" of agents at the CIA?
6. Is Dick Cheney involved in any way? There is a connection between Cheney and Miller over Chalibi. Is Judith Miller protecting a bigger fish than Rove?
7. Is Bush involved? If Rove did fess up, is George covering up and obstructing justice?
8. Is Fitzgerald on to something really big that smacks of Watergate?
9. Will Rove 'fall on the sword' for his friends in the WH?
10. How does this all lead back to the "yellow cakes" and cooking the intelligence to go to war?

Stay tuned we will all find out soon, or the spin doctors will pull off the coverup of the Century. Some integrity!, this stuff makes 'Ol Bubba look like a Boy Scout, only lying about an affair with an intern, what was he thinking?

Depends on Your Definition of .....

So, the Bush War on Terror is a failure. Aren't we suppose to be "fighting them over there so we won't have to fight them over here?" England is close enough to "here" to be "here." It will be interesting to see what spin the President puts on the London bombings on Monday in his address at Quantico. I'm sure he will say we are winning, but it takes a lot of "hard" work. His job is to "lead" in the war to "stamp out" terrorists. I'm sure he will say he will not "cut and run" and those who gave their lives have not "died in vain." How many cliches do you think he will recycle in his speech? Maybe he will tell us the bombings are proof that the terrorists are in their last "throes."

Let's review why we are in Iraq.

1. Weapons of Mass Destruction - Not!
2. Saddam attacked us on 9/11 - Well, Bush planted that seed.
3. Saddam was a miserable dictator - Agree, but so are a lot of other rulers who are in fact our allies. So was Saddam once. Remember Rumsfeld kissing up to him during the Iran thing?
4. The Iraqi people will be better off - Maybe we should ask them. They'll greet us with flowers and candy. Their oil will pay for the reconstruction.
5. The Iraqis want freedom and democracy - They are only free with our military being there. "We had to save the village from terrorists by destroying it."
6. We'll fight the war on terror "over there" instead of here - There were no terrorists in Iraq prior to our invasion. London and Madrid are not "over there."

In the meantime, Usama bin Laden is still running loose. Al Qaeda has morphed into a more difficult enemy. Americans now have less freedoms than they had before 9/11 and we are not any safer now than we were then.Remember, 9/11 happened on Bush's watch, despite warnings from the CIA that he chose to ignore. He was already focused on taking out Saddam and invading Iraq. If we had killed or captued UBL in Afghanistan, the country would have had less of an appetite to preemptively invade Iraq. So, we backed off the hunt for bin Laden and went after a less formidable foe.

So, our President lied to us for the reasons we invaded Iraq. He has no exit strategy (sounds like a quagmire). He made the intelligence fit the policy (Downing Street Memos). Plus, he put off our allies (forget about the "Coalition of the Willing"). All in all, he seems rather inept.

Rumsfeld needs to resign and Congress needs to start impeachment proceedings against Mr. Bush. After all, if a Democratic President had made these lies and blunders, you can bet your ass that a Republican Congress would have already started the proceedings.

Sad Day

Today we are all British.

While I have a heart felt sympathy for the Londoners who were attacked today, it's hard not to be angry. Angry at the misguided policy of fighting the "War on Terror" on a piece of sand, half way around the world under the pretense of making the world safer. The attack in London could well have been in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, or any American city. And as we learned today, we are not safer because Saddam is in jail, in fact, we are not safe, at all. If the bombing was the work of Al Qaida, then we must not have taken out the right leaders or they keep growing them faster than we can kill them off.

It gives me no reason to relax because there is no intelligence about an attack in America. Our borders are porous, our ports are inadequately protected, our Homeland Security is a joke and we believe this administration has been doing a great job of protecting us. Pure luck is the only thing that is protecting us from another attack, and I fear the next one will be much more devastating than 9/11.

These people don't hate our freedoms, they just hate us, because they believe we are the evil ones. There is no military or political action that can change that and they will always want to see us dead. Our war in Iraq is a blessing to these people because they are learning how to fight us, they are recruiting and training the terrorists of tomorrow. We can't train the Iraqis to defend themselves, much less defend a foreign concept such as democracy.

Yes, it's a cowardly and dastardly way to fight, killing innocent people. Yet it is effective, by getting into people's heads and making them scared and want for more security and less freedom. It's when we desire less freedom that the terrorists have won. All our military might and battlefield victories haven't overcome the terrorists ability to take the war to Madrid, London, New York and Washington. Maybe the strategy we have undertaken isn't working. Maybe Karl Rove needs to see a therapist.

Thanks for Your Patience

'Ol Red Dog has been through it, but finally joined the 21st Century computing technology. It was and still is a painful process to upgrade. I still have files and programs to move over to this computer, so I'll be spending the next week trying to do that and learn the XP software. Hopefully, the computer "fleas" are gone now.

Thanks to the few of you who have continued to check for postings and your patience. I know you thought Red Dog had gotten "lockjaw" and "writers block", neither of which is true. I got plenty to say and will get caught up. So much has happened in the past two weeks, I don't know where to start. Here's a few scraps.

Supreme Court Nomination - I have a favorite. Alberto Gonzales. He appears to be hated by the extremists, both left and right. So that must make him a pretty good candidate, despite the "torture memo". He has been confirmed for the AG so his nomination shouldn't be that contentious and there is no need for Dr. Fristenstein to invoke the Nuclear Option.

Bush Address to the Nation - Weak. No plan. No time table. Just spend another $600 Billion for nothing. Sick and tired of hearing 9/11 invoked every time he speaks on Iraq. There was no link between Hussein and Al Qaida, but morons still want to believe that there was.

Window Tint - All you "J.T. and Dave" listeners, I hope you got your window tint inspected. It's scary to know that these people are voters.

Scrushy Trial - Can you say hallelujah! and amen!? If in Mississippi it's "Jackpot Justice" in Alabama it's "High on Pot Justice." What is it about lyin', cheatin', and stealin' that Alabamans don't understand? And it's not even football or basketball season!

Oil Still Gushing - $3 a gallon by the end of the year? Write it down. Bush and Congress still refuse to address the issue head on. Nothing in the Energy Bill gives relief to us common folk.

The Guv'ner - Finally got his Momentum Mississippi passed. How many more special sessions will we need? At what cost?

Just a few things off the top of my head. Feel good that Red Dog is back, looking out for you. As always, I welcome your feedback and comments. Well, some of it.

I Ain't Dead

My computer is! I hope to get it resolved or get a new one and be back this week.

Happy Fourth

To Nofatcat: Tom Cruise's numbers are down too! Later