Just something the "Decider" decided to do

A handwritten note (above) from VP Dick Cheney seems to indicate
the Plame outing came on orders from the president himself.

Has to happen today.

Call out to key press saying same thing about Scooter as Karl.

Not going to protect one staffer & sacrifice the guy this Pres. that was asked to stick his neck in the meat grinder because of the incompetence of others.

I never believed that the president was ignorant of the etiology of the Plame leak. Never. But the note above sure makes it look like the decision to out a covert operative and compromise intelligence assets was the idea of the president himself.

Which just confirms that he is truly every bit as vile and evil as I have been convinced he is since he was governor of Texas.

Compromise an undercover intelligence officer for petty, political reasons? Par for the course.

Just something the Decider decided to do.

Can we get our impeachment on yet?

Troop buildup coming?

Fox news has been reporting that the president is "leaning towards" sending an additional 20-30,000 troops into Iraq - A final putsch, if you will.

Not to be too cynical, but does anyone remember Cheney being summoned to Riyadh a couple of weeks ago? Mary hadn't announced the pregnancy yet, so he wasn't appearing for a command performance to accept the congratulations of the Saudi royal family on impending arrival of his sixth grandchild.

The Saudis are in a tenuous position as a kingdom and a country, and they are not at all thrilled with that sectarian civil war in Iraq raging next door. Do you recall the nationality of most of the 9/11 hijackers? If you said Iraqi's you need to go back to middle school on the short bus and demand that you receive the Social Studies education that is your right.

If you said Saudi's, you get a peanut-free, gluten-free, low-sodium cookie with 0 grams of trans-fat.

I can see Darth Cheney being taken to the woodshed by Emperor Palpatine er, I mean King Abdullah, and I gotta admit, it gives me a tingly feeling. You know he doesn't tell Abdullah to go f*ck himself. In fact, you just know that Mr. Swagger-n-Leer is a cowering boot-licking minion in the presence of the Saudi King.

Abdullah somberly informed Vice that the Saudi's would have no choice but to fund and materially support the Iraqi Sunni militias if the U.S. pulls out too soon. They are also discouraging talks with Iran and encouraging peace talks with Israel and the Palestinians.

Anyone else have a WTF?!?!? moment there? Of course the Saudi Wahabist Sunni's would prefer we avoid talking to their sworn adversaries the Persian, Shi'ite Iranians!!! We aren't going to listen to this BS, are we? Silly question...we may not, but Bush/Cheney will, while we shake our heads incredulously and watch these dumbshits try desperately to put out a fire by throwing petrol on the flames.

It would be a suckers bet to put a few bucks on the Saudi's being the authors of this current more troops idea. It isn't hard to see it, either. They are the only ones who stand to benefit from the wacky scheme.

Cheney admits prisoners were waterboarded

This is a waterboard. The picture comes from the Genocidal Tuol Sleng Museum in Phnom Penh - Cambodia. This device got a lot of use during the brutal rein of the Khmer Rouge regime.

Today, Dick Cheney admited that the United States has engaged in torture of suspected terrorists. Cheney indicated that the Bush administration doesn't regard water-boarding as torture and allows the CIA to use it. "It's a no-brainer for me," Cheney said at one point in an interview in a reich-wing talk-radio interview this afternoon. (Emphasis mine)

Lee Ann McBride, a spokeswoman for Cheney, denied that Cheney confirmed that U.S. interrogators used water-boarding or endorsed the technique.

"What the vice president was referring to was an interrogation program without torture," she said. "The vice president never goes into what may or may not be techniques or methods of questioning."

Usually we are told what the president really meant. This speaking out to explain the actions of Vice is unusual, since there were no firearms or alcohol involved.

(Hat tip to Enozino at We Torture for the photo.)