Left Rudder

Condi Rice seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth. Not that she ever accomplished anything.

Good piece by Tony Karon.

But it’s not likely he’s going to be around long.

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales met with senior aides on Nov. 27 to review a plan to fire a group of U.S. attorneys, according to documents released last night, a disclosure that contradicts Gonzales’s previous statement that he was not involved in “any discussions” about the dismissals.

Justice Department officials also announced last night that the department’s inspector general and its Office of Professional Responsibility have launched a joint investigation into the firings, including an examination of whether any of the removals were improper and whether any Justice officials misled Congress about them.

The stench of Abu’s corruption and mendacity will soon overwhelm Young Master Bush’s pungent aroma. Abu will soon be “spending more time with the family.”

Looking far and wide for any shard of a silver lining in the debacle that is Iraq, Neptunus Retardus thinks he’s found one:

It’s easy to understand why some people have gotten so very frustrated with the Iraqi people. They simply will not stay on message:

He quotes from a column by Marie Colvin of the TimesOnline (UK) . Ms. Colvin is also known as one of Ahmed Chalabi’s favorite stenographers reporters, having discovered both WMDs and terrorist training facilities in Iraq.

Anyhoo, we have a poll which Neptunus ArrestedDevelopus holds proudly aloft that purports to show Iraqis prefer the current Government to Saddam’s regime.

Problem is, it doesn’t. As can be seen 49% of those surveyed prefer Maliki’s Government to Saddam’s. 26% preferred Saddam. The rest said there was either no difference between the two or refused to answer.

Meanwhile, Neptunus Cubiculus will continue to find “happy news” in the quagmire.

In a stunning relevation, Khalid Sheik Muhammed confessed to [redacted], [redacted], and flying cocaine into the Mena, AR with Oliver [redacted].

KSM confessed to financing many Al Qaeda operations via a dramatic ransom caper in the early 1970s perpetrated under the name [redacted].[redacted]. Cooper.

In other news, Young Master Bush reiterated his opposition to torture.

Looks like Abu Gonzales is going to be told to spend more time with his family.

“I think the attorney general should be fired,” Sununu said.

For days, Republican have issued only lukewarm statements of support for Gonzales after some of the fired prosecutors complained at hearings last week that lawmakers tried to influence political corruption investigations. Several dismissed prosecutors also said there had been Justice Department attempts to intimidate them.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., predicted Wednesday that Gonzales would lose his job.

“I think he is gone. I don’t think he’ll last long,” Reid said in an interview with Nevada reporters. Asked how long, Reid responded: “Days.”

There’s blood in the water; Abu G. is chum.

Prediction: Adios by 25 March 2007.

One Headlight, The Wallflowers, Bringing Down the House
Nuclear, Ryan Adams, Demolition
Another Nail for my Heart, Squeeze, Greatest Hits
Tangled Up in Blue, Bob Dylan, Blood on the Tracks
C’mere, Interpol, Antics
Red Light, JonnyLang, Red Light-Single
Ain’t Nothing Wrong With That, Robert Randolph, Colorblind
Rockin’ In The Free World, Neil Young &Crazy Horse, Weld
Lazy Eye, Silversun Pickus, Carnavas
Copperhead Road, Steve Earle, Copperhead Road

As convicted felon Scooter Libby waits for a pardon from Young Master Bush, the Wilson civil suit proceeds apace.

Despite the conviction, Wilson said he and Plame are moving ahead with a civil suit, alleging the White House was behind the leak.

Wilson told CBS News’ The Early Show that President Bush and Vice President Cheney “really need to step forward and reassure the American people that they had nothing to do with this - or explain to the American people what they had to do with it.”

Wilson said he and his wife are going forward with their civil suit against the vice president, White House political adviser Karl Rove and others, because they “want the whole story to come out.”

The trial revealed Cheney’s eagerness to discredit Wilson, an outspoken critic of the Bush administration’s Iraq war policy, as well as the administration’s policies on talking to reporters and its strategies for dealing with a crisis.

It’s that time of the week again!

Today, we find Neptunus Stupidus arguing perjury and obstruction charges can be noble acts.

Yesterday, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby was found guilty of four felony counts: giving false statements to the FBI, obstructing justice and two counts of perjury.

But said criminality is just fine with Neptunus DeskJockey because Joe Wilson is a liar. How do we know this? Well, Neptunus Ridiculous cites the Senate Intelligence Commitee investigation “proved Wilson lied at every step.”

Of course, Neptunus isn’t telling the truth. The Senate Intelligence Committee said no such thing. In fact, the Senate Intelligence Committee stated Wilson’s assertion that it was “highly doubtful” that Iraq had been able to purchase yellowcake uranium from Niger was supported by intelligence reports by both the CIA and the State Dept’s INR.

But let’s play the devil’s advocate for a moment. Let’s suppose every word Joseph Wilson has ever uttered was a lie. Exactly how does this excuse Scooter Libby’s perjury, false statements and obstruction of justice?

Via MaxSpeak, a warblogger comes to his senses:

Anyone who argues for war plays with dangerous forces, so they must do it responsibly or not at all. Foolish wars have led countries to disaster. They have caused the deaths of millions. History and psychology tells us that war parties tend to be over-confident, paranoid and emotional. So the minimum you should expect from a responsible war supporter is that they are aware of this bias, and do their best to counterbalance it.

It’s not enough to believe that you are right. You have to be actively open-minded, you have to listen to your critics, and encourage devil’s advocates. You have to set up a robust information structure that makes it as difficult as possible for you to ignore reality. This is the only good way to prevent self-deception. It works. And we did not do it.

What we did was the opposite. At every level, from the lowliest blogger to the highest official, war supporters set up filters that protected them from facts they did not want to hear. We saw what we wanted to see, and if anyone saw differently, we called them left-wing moonbats who were rooting for the other side. We defined the entire mainstream media establishment as irrelevant, leaving more biased, less experienced “new” media as our primary source of facts. We ignored reasonable critics, and focused on the crazy ones, so that we could tell ourselves how incredibly smart we were.

Read it all.