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NEW YORK TIMES REPORTER JUDY MILLER
- Is in Talks Over Her Job Status ___ Slate
Severance Package Discussed...
New York Times reporter Judith Miller has begun discussing her future employment options with the newspaper, including the possibility of a severance package, a lawyer familiar with the matter, said yesterday.
The discussion about her future comes several days after the public rupture of the relationship between the Times and Ms. Miller, a 28-year veteran of the paper. Both the editor and the publisher of the Times have expressed regret for their unequivocal support for Ms. Miller when she spent 85 days in jail for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury investigating the unmasking of a Central Intelligence Agency operative.
...the paper effectively ended Miller's career as a serious journalist last Sunday by portraying her as a newsroom loon and weapons-grade egomaniac. Assisting the paper in that assessment was Miller herself, whose accompanying first-person account described how she clawed her way into the Alexandria Detention Center and wimped her way out 85 days later.The Times won't break free of Miller's malevolent spirit until the paper commissions an exorcism in print
The NYT's editor, Bill Keller said:
...if I had known the details of Judy's entanglement with Libby, I'd have been more careful in how the paper articulated its defense, and perhaps more willing than I had been to support efforts aimed at exploring compromises.
NYT Columnist Maureen Dowd wrote: ...before turning Judy's case into a First Amendment battle, they should
have nailed her to a chair and extracted the entire story of her
escapade.
GEORGE ALLEN IS AN ATTRACTIVE CONSERVATIVE CANDIDATE - but will REDSKINS vote for him?!
Chris Lehane in Slate on the possible presidential candidacy of GOP Senator George Allen:
George Allen will be George Bush without the brains or the fig leaf of compassion. . . a Confederate flag-waving, tobacco chewing, Bob Jones stumping, Bin Laden missing, economy dumping, Schiavo diagnosing, country dividing right winger at a time when the public will be looking for someone who will be a strong leader, non-partisan, capable of making the right choices for the country, and tough on national security and right on the economy. . . And HRC will make that character match-up.
Something tells me LeHane's spot on...
TOMORROW - FRIDAY: UP TO 5 INDICTEES?
Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, Stephen Hadley, The Dick Cheney, John Hannah, Bob "The Dark Angel" Novak, Judy Miller?
By now you know that Harriet Miers has dodged a bullet. She won't be a justice on SCOTUS - but she probably won't end up being indicted...
Salon.com has this:
Libby is reported to have been deeply involved in analyzing and distributing intelligence on Iraqi issues. The vice president, himself, visited CIA headquarters at least five times during the run-up to war, to question analysts. Yet little is known about the vice president and Libby's dealings with analysts, or what, if anything, the White House did that was inappropriate. A criminal trial of Libby, or others in the vice president's office, might peel back this curtain.
KARL KOMMENTS: "If Patrick Fitzgerald HAD a dick it'd be this big!"
THOSE FORGED DOCS?
...a recent report by UPI, quoting sources at NATO, revealed that Fitzgerald's team "sought and obtained documentation on the forgeries from the Italian government." This included a full, as yet unpublished, report to the Italian Parliament on the documents. It is possible that Fitzgerald now knows more about the origins of the forged Niger documents than many members of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
(...the leading Italian newspaper La Republica the Italian military intelligence service, or SISMI, was behind the forgeries, and that the head of SISMI bypassed the CIA and took the documents directly to Stephen Hadley, at the time the deputy national security advisor. According to the articles, Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi wanted to curry favor with the Bush administration. Laura Rozen gives an account of the articles in the American Prospect.)
claimed that
PISTOL PACKIN' LIBERALS?!
PAGE SIX says Hollywood liberals love to pack heat. "It's fascinating that Hollywood is so hypocritical," John Milius, the screenwriter behind "Apocalypse Now," tells the paper. "Many people own [guns], but consistently vote against them and never talk about them. I used to shoot with Spielberg and [Robert] Zemeckis and Robert Stack. But no one else would admit they had any."
Apparently, the Gun-Fearing Wusses @ page Six think this passes as entertainment gossip. But the
real story may that Page Six (and perhaps, Mr. Milius, if he provided said list) may
be more interested in "outing" celeb gun-owners than providing any
substantive information. Page Six goes on to list some Hollywood other gun owners: Steven Seagal, Sylvester Stallone, Robert De Niro and Harvey
Keitel. Also Donald Trump, Howard Stern and
Don Imus.
OK. Just a cursory glance at these names tells me Page Six's point, if any may be obscured. Bob Stack (deceased) was a prominent Goldwater-Reagan conservative. Trump and Imus don't strike me as "liberals"; I'd guess Stallone and Seagal lean rightward from the middle, but I could be wrong; I have no idea about Zemeckis; DeNiro and Keitel are liberals and Stern postures as one lately. Like Da Rev and a lot of other progressives, I'd guess we may count as many firearms owners as the card-carryin' NRA fringe-types. Just a guess.
$TAR IN A COAT MADE FROM THE FUR OF HUNDREDS OF VARMINTS SHE ATE LAST FRIDAY EVENING - and her husband Al. (Yes, I noticed the bow-tie. How gay is that?)
Radar Online has this - $TAR'S FOR $ALE
This mag prank'd STAR JONES' AGENT: they attempted to book her for an eating contest. The price for Jones' participation starts at $25,000 and moves quickly to $50,000 and then higher, with her agent at one point saying, "Make a hundred-grand offer and I'll get her to do everything on your list except strip."
Radar: Oh, we don’t want her to strip. Please, no.
Agent: I was kidding.
Radar: That's it. The dining with guests, the eating contest, working as a dealer, dancing, singing a cappella at brunch, and arm wrestling. So what's the number? I want her to say yes.
Agent: I'd say $125,000 …
Radar: But for $125,000 …
Agent: She'll eat as much as she can …
THAT EDWARD R. MURROW FLICK
Actor David Straithairn as Murrow
We almost never go to theaters. We are well-served by pay-tv options on our big-screen HDTV - albeit, six months to a year later than first-run. But I can't wait to see "Good Night & Good Luck"!
It was only a matter of time 'til the first Joe McCarthy apologists began beating their chests and telling us there REALLY WERE COMMUNISTS in our gummint. Yes there were, but McCarthy, along with the closet queen FBI-Director damn near turned the USA into a nation of Stalinist snoops.
Whether McCarthy's motives were pure or not, he fabricated stories
and fudged figures. He was notoriously disorganized, which had as much
to do with his brief ascent as with his rapid descent. A lot of his problems
are traceable to his binge drinking. As with some of the people around
DUBYA, the majority of the GOP were looking for a way to distance
themselves without having their names added to the "alleged" list of
Commies and sympathizers...
Matthew Gross blogs: And the question remains-- why?
Not for WMDs. Not for oil (output is far lower than before the war). Not for "democracy." Not for the war on terror-- we've created more terrorists and more terrorism.
For what?
WHO IS CONDI RICE? WHO IS SUSAN RICE?!
A corollary to all the indictment speculation is the other
discussion about whether Cheney will be damaged by the revelations and
be forced to resign. And Condi Rice would be grabbed-up by DUBYA to be
VP and the designated favorite to run to retain the Rethuglickers' hold
on the Oval Office.
But just who is this Condi Rice? Eugene Robinson has written, "...she
grew up in a protective bubble as the tumult of the civil rights
movement swirled around her..."
Steve Gilliard blogs: ...Rice has always been the special girl. Her parents made her special, her mentors made her special. At no time was she obligated to help or assist anyone behind her. Because she was special. Everything is all about her. Rice also has benefitted from the approval of her elders. Why challenge those who help you along and praise your manners?
Her parents raised her with the idea that achievement was good enough. If she was cultured and smart enough, it would be a sign that she could compete with whites and that was important. The problem was that Rice is blind to the fact that her position was only possible by the sacrifice of others. So while Rice played her piano, other kids were being beaten by the local police. She has never thought she owed them anything, despite her success.
The fact that she is single, childless and an only child also comes into play. She's never had to worry about anyone else. Ever. Now, some people say she's a lesbian, others that she's Bush's mistress, either way, she's never had a public, adult relationship with anyone which required responsibility to another human.
By comparison, *** her cousin, Susan Rice***, also a likely candidate to be Secretary of State one day, is held in much higher esteem by her peers as a foriegn policy expert. She's also a liberal democrat who worked for the Clinton Administration with a completely different world view. She does not defend her cousin. Condi's second rate education has been quietly accepted as a sign of genius when if a man had it, he'd be transcribing tapes at the NSA.
Christianity Today describes the education of Condoleezza: St. Mary's Academy, an independent Catholic school was the first integrated school Condi attended. It was also where a school counselor advised her parents that their daughter was not college material. At 15, she enrolled in the University of Denver...
Rice pursued a degree in piano performance...Rice encountered, perhaps for the first time, world-class competition... which made her think twice about a career as a performer...
Rice enrolled in a course on international politics at the University of Denver where she graduated cum laude with multiple honors and a degree in political science. The 19-year-old then headed to Notre Dame University to earn a master's degree in government... Rice returned to Denver to earn a Ph.D. in international studies.
STRANGER THAN FICTION!! Washington Post
Remember how Abe Lincoln's secretary, Kennedy, warned him not to go to the theater, and John Kennedy's secretary, Lincoln, warned him not to go to Dallas?
Guess what we found -- more proof of the global politico-media cabal secretly running the world! Get this: The man at the center of the CIA leak scandal is the vice president's chief of staff, Lewis Libby . . . and the National Public Radio reporter assigned to cover his saga is Libby Lewis.
They were born Irving Lewis Libby and Dorothy Elizabeth Lewis, and if they went by Irving Libby and Dottie Lewis, there would be no dots to connect. BUT . . . "Scooter" Libby never uses his first name, and Lewis can't stand her first name ("I'm not a Dorothy. I'm a Libby"). Coincidence? We think not.
"I've never met Mr. Libby personally," Lewis told us yesterday. "But I do think he ought to tell me everything, because of our connection."
MARTYRS & PESTLES
Dahlia Lithwick writes in Slate:
Should pharmacists be allowed to refuse to dispense birth control? "... whatever you may think of the morality of taking a morning-after pill, the incontrovertible fact is that it loses efficacy after 24 hours and becomes virtually useless after 72. So, one pharmacist's refusal to dispense them can rapidly morph into an unwanted pregnancy. That means—particularly in isolated or rural communities—the religious objections of the pharmacist can trump the mother's legal rights. This may well lead... to an increased number of later-term abortions. Which would be ironic, were it not so sad.
IT'S SUNNY AND A LITTLE CLOUDY TODAY, SO WE'LL LEAVE THE TOP UP ON THIS SEXY '41 PLYMOUTH COUPE CONVERTIBLE. 
Good fortune. COMMENT!! Please spread the meme. Don't smoke in bed...
