We interrupt this discussion of Karl Rove’s email to bring you an important reminder: there were no WMDs and the world is considerably more violent than it was two years ago. Now, back to what did Rove
know and when did he know it. mjh

Google Search: Karl-Rove

FOXNews.com – Politics – Can Bush Survive Without Rove?

President Bush said last year that if someone in his administration leaked the name of a CIA agent, that person would no longer be in his administration.

I’m really surprised at this common misquoting of Bush. More often, it is said that Bush said he would fire the culprit. Not so. I’ve seen the tape many times and Bush literally says such a person would be “taken care of.” How is that clearly “fired”? It could just as easily mean promoted or executed. Why do we all accept this constant interpreting of Bush as a non-native speaker (here’s what he meant, not what he said)? mjh

Rove e-mailed adviser about talk with reporter BY JOHN SOLOMON

“When he finished his brief heads-up he immediately launched into Niger. Isn’t this damaging? Hasn’t the president been hurt? I didn’t take the bait, but I said if I were him I wouldn’t get Time far out in front on this.’‘ …

He later told a grand jury the e-mail was consistent with his recollection that his intention in talking with Cooper that Friday in July 2003 wasn’t to divulge Plame’s identity but to caution Cooper against certain allegations Plame’s husband was making, according to legal professionals familiar with Rove’s testimony.

Rove sent the e-mail shortly before leaving the White House early for a family vacation that weekend, already aware that another journalist he had talked with, Chicago Sun-Times syndicated columnist Robert Novak, was planning a column about Plame and Wilson. …

The AP reported Thursday that Rove acknowledged to the grand jury that he talked about Plame with Cooper and Novak before they published their stories but that he originally learned about the operative’s identity from the news media, not government sources.

Republicans cheered the latest revelations Friday, saying they showed Rove wasn’t trying to hurt Plame but instead was trying to informally warn reporters to be cautious about some of Wilson’s claims. Democrats, however, said that even if Rove wasn’t the leaker, someone still divulged Plame’s identity.

AP

My reading of the text above is that Rove wanted to delay Cooper so Novak, a friend of the administration, would get the scoop. Or, that Rove was trying to discourage a reporter from Wilson’s claims (ie, let’s keep this quiet). mjh

Tennessee Independent Media Center: feature/6261
Karl Rove’s Defense is No Defense
by H.C. Kennedy

Novak’s initial column identified Plame as “an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction.” He has since claimed that he believed Plame was merely an analyst at the CIA, not a covert operative — the difference being that analysts are not undercover, so identifying them is not a crime. Critics contend that after decades as a Washington reporter Novak was well aware of the difference and would be unlikely to make such a mistake. Indeed, a search of the Nexis database for the terms ‘CIA operative’ and ‘agency operative’ shows Novak correctly used them to describe covert CIA employees every single time they appear in his articles. Including the Plame article.

Unconfirmed Sources

After all, Mr. Rove was not trying to destabilize the United States; at least not more than he’s already done. He was only engaging in petty revenge against his political enemies. That’s not a crime, that’s just your run of the mill Republican politics. Ms. Plame’s outing was more of a governmental friendly fire thing than out and out criminality.

Health News Article | Reuters.com
Asthma gene variants may cut risk of brain cancer

New research suggests that gene variants, which are known to raise the risk of asthma, decrease the risk of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a common type of brain cancer that is rapidly fatal.

We should all be very aware that we know little about subtlety and synergy in genetics. We are already dabbling in “gene therapy” and genetic modifications. What happens when we take something terrible out and that thing was actually a component of something wonderful? Worse, imagine we also take out the ability to perceive the change. Oh, it’s so wonderful that everyone is tall and beautiful and lives forever thanks to our glorious god-king! mjh

PS: Damn it, Mark, it’s hyperbole like that that makes everyone ignore the rantings of environmentalists! Can’t you just say it is cheaper to have asthma than brain cancer? That’s the kind of reasonable argument that wins public support.

Go read Jim Scarantino’s column on the decline of environmentalists in public opinion (Enviros’ sinking credibility starts at home); I’ll wait. Done? OK.

I appreciate Jim’s thoughtful concern over this supposed decline and its implications to the future well-being of the environment. And I celebrate Jim’s rarity as a Green Republican (about as welcome as a Log Cabin Republican to the True Believers).

For local color, Jim points out that former founders of the Weather Underground and Earth First! live in Albuquerque. He neglects to mention one has long been a teacher who changes the world through sweat instead of bombs. The other in involved in numerous organizations that no one sensible would call radical. Hey, Jim, don’t you know any young radicals? Well, who does.

As long as we’re looking at New Mexico as microcosm, perhaps Jim can explain how ranchers, a small and declining group, can thwart wolf reintroduction when a very large part of the public favors it. And, how is it that this group is so powerful in the Gila and powerless in the Four Corners, where they oppose the environmental degradation caused by drilling?

Nobody does hyperbole like Jim. He sounds like a mainstream conservative when he slickly moves from the “hype” over arsenic to the implication that “enviros” are just as wrong about mercury (and 10,000 other pollutants) and massive species die-off. No, he assures us, “we’re doing fine.” Worse, those incompetent enviros who cry wolf have no one but themselves to blame if the public doesn’t listen if the enviros ever get it right. (Jim would be thrown out of any truly conservative group by allowing that enviros might be right about something.)

While some damage has been done to the Environmental Movement by Earth First or the Earth Liberation Front — or even PETA — it pales in comparison to that other force that Jim doesn’t give it’s full due: the Radical Wrong. It has been 35 years since the first Earth Day, but it has been more than 40 years since Big Tobacco began denying a connection between smoking and cancer and industry sang the praises of DDT (your death is their profit). It has also been more than 20 years since Ronnie Raygun blamed smog on trees and James Watt said Christians didn’t need to worry about the environment because god gave it to them to use as they see fit. These aren’t just fringe wackos — these are pillars of their community. And their message hasn’t gotten a whit friendlier to the environment or your health and well-being. Welcome back, DDT. Hello, nuclear bunker busters!

Even today, hordes of writers, deluded or paid, crank out messages about the uncertainty of “global climate change” (instead of Human-caused Global Warming) and science in general. The destroyers ridicule “little creatures we’ve never heard of” and the tree-huggers who care. Along the way, the Radical Wrong has pissed in every well they can to convince us that everything is a matter of opinion, all of equal standing (except when it comes to the Constitution and Bible being immutable truth subject to no interpretation ever). Who profits when people are uncertain, confused and deceived? Not the environmentalists nor the environment itself, that’s clear.

Ultimately, even 50 million environmentalists can’t stop the selfish profiteers or alter that sense of entitlement — of Manifest Destiny — that is the real threat to the earth. It’s my land and I can do anything I want with it. Now git. mjh

Something isn’t quite connecting for me in the matter of Karl Rove’s involvement in the outing of a CIA agent. That’s in spite of my belief that I have paid very close attention to the matter from the earliest days.

I need to walk through a few things to come to grips with this:

There are 3 reporters involved. Robert Novak published an article that made Plame’s identity public; he wrote that TWO administration insiders had confirmed this.

Matt Cooper and Judith Miller also knew about Plame from someone in the administration. (Miller was a big fan of the WMD lie.) How do we know that Cooper and Miller knew anything — did they publish that fact or is this a leak from the special investigation / grand jury?

Cooper says his source released him to talk but, I believe, has not publicly said that source is Rove. Miller is in jail — we do not know who her source is.

Novak is not in jail, so we assume he has cooperated. Who are the TWO sources?

I believe Rove’s lawyer says that Rove learned about Plame from Novak (leaving TWO other sources for Novak) and mentioned “Mrs. Wilson” to Cooper. Some sources say this was to indicate that Wilson was lying when he said Cheney sent him to Africa. How does one disprove the other?

I want to know who Novak’s other one (or two or more) sources were — and how the source knew. Do all 3 reporters have exactly the same source(s)?

I don’t want Rove to become a martyr so that someone else gets off free. I want to know why Novak isn’t in jail and why he still has a job as a reporter. mjh