THE NOOSE TIGHTENS...

Americablog has the scoop, as does Raw Story...somebody is lying in all this, and the only ones who really have any motivation to lie are Rove, Libby, et. al. Olbermann pointed out this evening that the Wall Street Journal will have more on the classification level of that State Dept. memo and it doesn't look good for Rove and friends, because it was marked "Top Secret" and the sentences about Valerie Wilson were marked "SNF"--short for Secret--No Foreign intelligence services can see it. By the way, Olbermann is a great broadcaster in my book.

Shit, goddamn...these Rove defenders are running out of excuses...the facts just ain't turning their way...

Here's a short list of some of the arguments/justifications they've used in the past, and even tonight on Hardball with McCain (even if he cut his losses with Bush now, he's still tarnished by his campaigning for Bush in '04 and his water-carrying for Bush ever since):

1. Plame was not undercover--the Washington Post story from today and the Wall Street Journal article from tomorrow disprove that.

2. The British still stand by the "16 words" (McCain trotted this out on Hardball tonight)...

Well, wait a second--in looking for links I ran across this summary of this debunking of the pro-Rovers. Someone's got this numbering thing all wrapped up, so I'm leaving it at that...

More Terror Attacks in London...

You know, I was a little disappointed in Jon Stewart tonight. He commented on the strategy of the bombers in London, mocking them for bombing civilians when what they want to achieve is Britain's withdrawal from Iraq. He said that commuters have no power to withdraw the British from Iraq and aren't responsible for British soldiers being there in the first place.

Well, I know he said that as a gesture of solidarity with the British people, echoing his emotional remarks after 9/11, but it wasn't funny or even that helpful. Let's remind ourselves again, these people don't want to destroy British or Western society. The successful London bombers were part of it and benefitted from it.

What they want is the West out of the East, and they know they don't have the military might to attack the leaders of the West. But they know they can attack the people those leaders supposedly represent, and so they do, hoping that will cause the represented to badger their representatives about getting out of a situation we should have never created in the first place. Because in fact, in a democracy, each of us is responsible for the policies of our government.

God knows I feel nothing but sympathy and heartache for the victims of suicide bombings. That shit is so fucked up. But if we want them to end, all we have to do is accommodate the reasonable wishes of these people. And those of you who would write me or make comments that don't agree with this will of course draw a parallel to Chamberlain and Municha and appeasement and argue that you can't negotiate with terrorists and so forth and so on--I know the drill. Spare me.

But really, what they want is so simple--it's what people everywhere want, which is to be left alone and to be free of interference from foreign governments and not to be occupied by other countries who seek to control their resources and what have you. It's actually not unreasonable at all and ought to be heeded. Don't forget the conclusions of Robert Pape in Dying to Win...

I'm in no way saying that if terrorists threatened endless suicide attacks unless America became a fundamentalist Islamic country, that we should go ahead and do it so the suicide attacks would stop. We have defend our right to exist as we see fit, just as they are doing. But demands that we leave their lands do not strike me as unreasonable, and yes, I am aware that we use a lot of their oil. But we should have gotten off oil decades ago and we should accelerate our research into renewable sources of energy and convert to them pronto and then, as Dan Bern says, we won't have to kiss the ass of whoever's got the oil...