In Which We Learn That Cheney Had Reasons For What He Did

Mike Allen of The Politico excerpts the Cheney interview with John King on CNN:

Asked Sunday on CNN if he thinks President Obama "has made Americans less safe," former Vice President Dick Cheney said: “I do."

Looking slimmer and relaxed, Cheney told John King on “State of the Union” that Bush administration policies on detention and interrogation of suspected terrorists – some of which were immediately modified by Obama — “were absolutely essential” to preventing another 9/11-style attack.

"I think that's a great success story. It was done legally. It was done in accordance with our constitutional practices and principles," the former vice president said. "President Obama campaigned against it all across the country. And now he is making some choices that, in my mind, will, in fact, raise the risk to the American people of another attack.

The usual suspects emit the usual emoting, but I think Cheney is just having trouble letting go and believes he is still Vice President:

"It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We're about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."

Or maybe Cheney thinks he has become Secretary of State:

"I don't think it was by accident that al Qaeda decided to test the new prime minister, Gordon Brown, immediately. They watch our elections as closely as we do, maybe more than some of our fellow citizens do. They play our, you know, allies. They do everything they can to undermine security in the world. So let's not forget you're hiring a president, not just to do what a candidate says he or she wants to do in an election. You're hiring a president to be there when the chips were down."

One man's fearmongering is another man's honest difference of opinion.  Or woman's.

MORE:  End Al Gore's fearmongering on the environment?  Don't be daft.

[end of thread]

Comments

[verner]

With Russia putting bombers in Cuba, Biden looks positively psychic with the JFK prediction. OY.

Goodness I miss the ole hard ass. Tell me Putin would try that mess with him in control.

[narciso]

So, Cheney has and will be proven right again,sadly as was the closest thing to a successor, in these parts, I don't see the grounds for complaint. You went to law schools before business right Tom, this smacks of socratic dialogue

[Danube of Thought]

Speaking of Gore, there's this from Florida State University:

"Tropical cyclone (TC) activity worldwide has completely and utterly collapsed during the past 2 to 3 years with TC energy levels sinking to levels not seen since the late 1970s."

[centralcal]

A Cheney post and we haven't yet heard from Sue?

Where are you, gal?

[centralcal]

Narcisco - yoo hoo. Sue, you too . . .

You gotta see this, thanks to Red State

Assassination

I like it. I really, really like it!

[Danube of Thought]

As I understand it, Russia has not yet said it will place bombers in either Cuba or Venezuela. A general mused about the possibility, and I believe Chavez said it would be OK with him. Anything more firm than that?

[SteveMG]

Candidate Obama and his liberal followers repeatedly charged the Bush Administration with making us less safe. They argued that the Administration's policies had alienated our allies and angered the Islamic world to such an extent that it was fueling greater recruitment among terror groups. We were making more terrorists, they claimed, than we were eliminating.

Because of this, Obama even argued that al-Qaeda was stronger now (2008) than ever before.

And yet if Cheney throws the charge back at the liberals it's scare tactics or smears.

You know that on Monday the loon Olberman will issue the same smear he has done the past half dozen years. That Cheney's a terrorist and his statements were outrageous.

Meanwhile, the left's same claim goes unchallenged.

[clarice]

Steve--Ding Ding Ding--I think we may already have a winner in Monday's "What was the 8:45 a.m. message today?"

Fearmogering..

[SteveMG]

Barack Obama (8/1/07):
Because of a war in Iraq that should never have been authorized and should never have been waged, we are now less safe than we were before 9/11.

Scare mongering?

And: According to the National Intelligence Estimate, the threat to our homeland from al Qaeda is "persistent and evolving." Iraq is a training ground for terror, torn apart by civil war. Afghanistan is more violent than it has been since 2001. Al Qaeda has a sanctuary in Pakistan. Israel is besieged by emboldened enemies, talking openly of its destruction. Iran is now presenting the broadest strategic challenge to the United States in the Middle East in a generation. Groups affiliated with or inspired by al Qaeda operate worldwide. Six years after 9/11, we are again in the midst of a "summer of threat," with bin Ladin and many more terrorists determined to strike in the United States.

Using fear? Scare tactics?

Nah, he's just promoting his policies and criticizing the other guy's.

[narciso]

Great find, central, it also flips around that silly poll out of USF comparing Angelina Jolie and Sarah, on suitability for office or something; when they were they were queried by C4P, they were that coherent. I sent it over to them.Regretably we have this stumbling maladroit at the Naval Observatory now, as impeachment insurance

[Cecil Turner]

The latest Obama position is completely incoherent:

The Justice Department said yesterday that it would seek to hold only terrorism suspects who "substantially supported" those groups and not those who "provide unwitting or insignificant support" to al-Qaeda and the Taliban. [emphasis added]

They're obviously having a problem figuring out whether this is a war or a criminal prosecution. If the latter, and "suspects" are being held without a charge, that's clearly a due process problem . . . and it's real hard to explain those Hellfire missiles instead of arresting the miscreants. If it's warfare, the common term for those fighting on the opposite side is "enemy combatants." The President can call 'em anything he likes, but that doesn't change anything (except how seriously I'll take the next thing coming out of his mouth).

[kim]

No, it's that the Republicans are so political they are holding back the community effort needed to pull us out of this slough of despond.

DoT, Ryan Maue, he of Florida State, has a nice post at climateaudit.org about the drop of Accumulated Cyclone Energy, or ACE. Incidentally, the North Atlantic may be countercyclical, so that even with the drop in ACE from a cooling globe, our local hurricanes may get worse.
===========================================

[kim]

I mean the 8:45 call will be about how the Republicans are too political to play nice.

Ugly demagoguery from the Deadly Duo, Axelrod and Emmanuel.
=============================================

[narciso]

Well clearly it's Despondex in the water supply, Noonan's neighborhood was one of the first trial balloons, like the fluoridated water tests

[Uncle BigBad]

Cheney/Petraus 2012

[matt]

"help! I've fallen and I can't get up"

Barack Obama

[JM Hanes]

DoT:

Fausta's Blog has links to both an AP article and reactions to the Russian bomber story:

A Russian Air Force chief said Saturday that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has offered an island as a temporary base for strategic Russian bombers, the Interfax news agency reported.

Should this come about, I predict the UNKennedy will say that if we have missiles on Russia's doorstep, we can hardly complain about Russian bombers in our own backyard.

Fausta is a must read on all things Latin America. She liveblogged the Lula-Obama presser, in which the Brazilian "ate Obama's lunch."

Obama has now blown of Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, the Brits and eastern Europe, while Clinton works on Russian & the Chinese. After sucking up to Venezuela, Cuba, Syria and Iran, can North Korea be far behind?

[JM Hanes]

Cecil: That make-it-look-like-I'm-doing-something-different tangle of obscurantism was a real piece of work

[Danube of Thought]

This is the report I had in mind:

"'If there is a corresponding political decision, then the use of the island ... by the Russian Air Force is possible,' Zhikharev was quoted as saying.

"Interfax reported he said earlier that Cuba has air bases with four or five runways long enough for the huge bombers and could be used to host the long-range planes.

"But Alexei Pavlov, a Kremlin official, told The Associated Press that 'the military is speaking about technical possibilities, that's all. If there will be a development of the situation, then we can comment,' he said."

Sounds to me like there's not much going on--yet.

[JM Hanes]

kim:

I'm emailing back and forth with a family member who may actually be willing to entertain some global warming skepticism. I doubt he's seen any of the contrarian evidence. I'd like to point him to a couple of sites, perhaps one with the best roundup of the basics, and one with an ongoing discussion that he might find interesting enough to follow. Could you make a couple of recommendations? I don't know enough about who's who & who's doing what, and I don't want to blow it with a potential convert.

[Rick Ballard]

JMH,

The whole world is trying to take Obama's measure. It's causing a helluva run on micrometers and jeweler's scales. It appears that the consensus to date can be summed up with a Bill the Cat observation: Phbbbt!

[paladin2]

I do not think Cheney is having trouble letting go and assumes he is VP or Sec. of State. He is more likely answering a question honestly, at least in his opinion.I will take his opinion over anyone I have heard from since 9/11.

[JM Hanes]

DoT:

I don't think it qualifies as anything remotely resembling a "plan" either. The appearance of defying the U.S. has tangible political benefits on its own. If there's zero pushback, though, I can see them deciding to take it a step further here or there at some particularly awkward moment down the road. It could also easily be a distraction from something far more serious going on elsewhere -- this administration certainly looks distracted and distractible on the international stage.

At the very least, the developing Venezuela/Iran/Russian axis should be ringing some alarm bells. Unfortunately, the foreign policy community has been singlemindedly focused on keeping Bush from invading Iran for the last umpteen years, and I'm not sure anybody outside of the White House was actually manning the Latin America desk at State. I don't even recall Condi traveling south, although she might have. Who knew what she was doing after her first couple of months on the job there anyway?

[kim]

JMH, Lawrence Solomon, a Canadian journalist has the best single series of articles about skeptics. Christopher Booker, a British journalist, has an article today at RCP. Melanie Phillips is another British journalist who is pretty aware.

Anthony Watts, whose site is linked under my name, has a running blog of great topical interest and the discussions range from so-so to excellent scientific debates. Climateaudit.org is the sine qua non of sites auditing the claims of the IPCC, but policy discussions and overt skepticism is discouraged by the blogger, Steve McIntyre. That site is also very heavy on the statistics, and powerful scientific discussions, usually well over my head. They speak English, though, and write elegantly.

Wikipedia is corrupted about climate, being in the autocratic hands of an alarmist, William Connolley.

Climate Progress, run by Joe Romm, a Center for American Progress idealogue is a propaganda site; it took him only a couple of days to ban me. Open Mind, run by a fellow with a closed mind, censors skeptics. Realclimate.org, run by a nasty alarmist has high-powered science, but also censors skeptical viewpoints. Andy Revkin's DotEarth is a well-moderated site with a variety of viewpoints, but predominated by true believers.

Roger Pielke, Sr. has a site climatesci.org which is marvelous. You can get away with just reading his bolded comments. His particular schtick is regional climate change caused by land use changes, but he comments regularly on the whole literature. His son, Roger Pielke, Jr. runs a blog called Prometheus which gets into policy issues. Finally Roy Spencer at the University of Alabama has a nice blog, and he's on the cutting edge of research showing that the climate models' assumptions about water vapor feedback are incorrect.

Once he gets started he can find many links. This is a coming thing, since we are cooling, folks, and kim is pretty sure for at least 20 years, and maybe for a hundred if the sun is going into hibernation.

Bon Voyage.
===============

[hit and run]

SteveMG:
You know that on Monday the loon Olberman will issue the same smear he has done the past half dozen years. That Cheney's a terrorist and his statements were outrageous.

Meanwhile, the left's same claim goes unchallenged

Sorry, Steve, but you apparently http://thevimh.blogspot.com/2008/04/other-symptoms-may-include.htmlyou suffer from NDD.

Not as bad as NHD, though.

[pagar]

Sounds to me like there's not much going on--yet.

They are waiting for Obama to OK it.

[kim]

Bush made a nice trip to South America about a year and a half ago. South America is dividing into our allies and allies of Cuba and Venezuela. That's why the Democrats shut down the trade bill with Colombia; they are on our side.
===============================

[hit and run]

Doh. Looks like I posted a broken link. Too self serving to fix. sorry.

[pagar]

Kim, you're 100 % right and the people of South and Central America know that is the reason.

[PD]

Previously, commenters have noted here that comments left on Tapper's blog sometimes appear to have gotten deleted. I had the interesting experience today of having a comment edited.

Well, at least they didn't change my own words. They just deleted the quoted part from another (deleted) comment that gave the context for my reply.

[Rick Ballard]

Kim,

Isn't knowledge concerning the depth of adherence to the Warmer Articles of Faith necessary prior to suggesting a deprogramming regimen? I certainly don't disagree with your suggestions (WUWT has a blog roll that does the trick) but but there's a difference between the approach used if the subject is shedding a tear for drowning polar bears as opposed to the subject being someone curious as to whether water vapor has a positive or negative sign within models of radiative balance.

I'd want to know if the subject could identify the current geologic period, provide a brief summary description of what an interglacial period was, identify how long they generally last and identify when this one started for openers.

Being able to define and describe a tautology would be a bonus.

[Old Lurker]

Kim, thanks for that rundown on climate sites. It's very helpful.

[kim]

Here's a quick summary. The Pacific Decadal Oscillation, possibly determined by the sun, runs the climate. The climate is the continuation of the ocean by other means. CO2 has a minimal greenhouse effect, perhaps 1 degree Fahrenheit per doubling, but the panic has been engendered by the assumption of a large positive feedback by water vapor. That assumption appears to be in error, and natural cycles, like the PDO, are now entering a cooling phase, which will overwhelm the effect of CO2. The warming of the last quarter of the last century was the PDO in its warming phase.

Weeks ago, the moderator at Tapper's edited and deleted a lot of stuff of mine which was clean, but sharp. I won't go there anymore, despite it being a lovely little sandbox.
===========================================

[bad]

The usual suspects emit the usual emoting,

But they did say it's for the last time.

[bad]

The President can call 'em anything he likes, but that doesn't change anything (except how seriously I'll take the next thing coming out of his mouth).

I dunno, Cecil. O may have something in his renaming strategy. Think about it:

job loss = income makeover
devastated 401k = savings incentive
disappearing 529 = work/study program

Don't the new terms make you feel good?

[verner]

DOT:Sounds to me like there's not much going on--yet.

Maybe this will be the comrade-in-chief's excuse for a) giving back gitmo and b)normalizing relations with the Castro crime family.

I can read the teleprompter now..."this treaty will guarantee peace in our hemisphere blahblahblah."

[kim]

Bombers, schbombers; it'll be missiles, folks. How many even kim doesn't know.
===================================

[JM Hanes]

kim:

Thanks so very much! I'll gather up the links and pass them on, along with your excellent executive summary. Then I'm going to archive your post. I decided to start trying to win folks over one family member at a time. So far only the avowed socialist has banned further political engagement. I take that to mean that I'm making real progress, so I'm going for 100%.

[JM Hanes]

kim:

Thanks so very much! I'll gather up the links and pass them on, along with your excellent executive summary. Then I'm going to archive your post. I decided to start trying to win folks over one family member at a time. So far only the avowed socialist has banned further political engagement. I take that to mean that I'm making real progress, so I'm going for 100%.

[JM Hanes]

But I repeat myself.

[kim]

You can't say it two much.
==========================

[matt]

and there I thought the Pacific Decadal Oscillation was the chart of number of times I go out dancing.

[Ann]

JMH,

Like a good book, you are worth reading twice!

[sbw]

Bill the Cat (Phbbbt!)

A candidate both parties can get behind. [It's safer there.]

[MayBee]

SteveMG- good to see you, and those quotes are good finds.

[Captain Hate]

I think Cheney is just having trouble letting go and believes he is still Vice President

Douche comments like this, based on nothing more substantial than male PMS, is why I skip the posts and go right to the comments. Otherwise it's like AllahQuisling without vidoes.

[PeterUK]

JM Hanes.

Global Warming/Climate Change/Rising Sea Levels/Acidification of the Oceans is part of of a slow motion political coup d' état that is intended to result in world government.
Far fetched? Read what comes out of the mouths of the elite.

[Captain Hate]

vidoes == videos

[PeterUK]

"and there I thought the Pacific Decadal Oscillation was the chart of number of times I go out dancing."

No,it's the name of the dance.

[Rick Ballard]

Cap'n,

Wrong turn. You really have to read that with a picture of SloJo catching his comb on a hair plug in mind. There's no slight to Mr. "See if the beaters can flush out another attorney for me. That was fun." Cheney.

[JM Hanes]

Subsidy = Investment
Partnership = Federalization
Free Choice = Unionization
Fairness = Redistribution
Don't stuff money in your mattress = Go shopping
Legacy Assets = Toxic Assets
Shovel Ready Projects = Pork
Waiver = Double Standard
Bipartisan = Face it, I won.
Stimulus Package = The Rapture for Democrats
The fundamentals of the economy are strong ≠ The fundamentals of the economy are strong = Cognitive Dissonance.
As I've always said = Exec. Lies on Videotapes.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

I do not think Cheney is having trouble letting go and assumes he is VP or Sec. of State.

Another example where the Internet cries out for an "irony" font.

[MayBee]

I think Cheney is just having trouble letting go and believes he is still Vice President

You guys...TM is making a joke!
He quotes Joe Biden- the current Vice President- at that link.
Cheney is no more a fear monger than the current guy. Get it?
Geez.

[MayBee]

Yay bad and JMH!

Don't forget-
Loss of 20% of wealth of the country = eliminating bubble-based wealth to build foundation for real wealth

[Captain Hate]

Thanks Rick; if this wonderful piece of software let us edit our comments I'd delete it.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Hit's link.

[narciso]

Captain, you have to understand what his style, is, to provoke thought, He has a fairly good read on what most of our opinions and attitudes are on most issues.
So by bringing up a premise that Cheney is exceeding his bounds as a retired high official he knows we will challenge him.
Allah's method is different, be provokes
a thread about Palin, Atheism, and he lets
go wild, rather than close and open a new thread. It's too obvious what you're trying
to do.

[PeterUK]

Obama the moving target. That Wascally Wabbit keeps changing rhetoric.

[Rick Ballard]

Cap'n,

My first comment today illustrates the fact that there are moments (many moments) when TM's irony whistles in one ear and out the other without meeting any obstruction. He was making fun of the Time's desperate attempt to drive click revenue and I flat missed it. As I do with so many things.

I always manage to remember that TM done his part in "helping" the Time's over the past five years. Sometimes I remember it late in the day but I never entirely forget it.

[Captain Hate]

Captain, you have to understand what his style

Thanks narciso; like Chaco said an irony font would be pretty helpful for us relative noobs because I tend to take words literally.

[Captain Hate]

Thanks Rick; I don't feel quite as clueless. Although sometimes I have the unsettling feeling that I'm on the exterior of a massive inside joke.....

[sbw]

Okay, now all the insiders laugh at Captain Hate.*

[* Written in my irony font.]

[narciso]

Hey it's taken sometimes a dozen posts, before I realize what his goal was, but I figured it out. The reference to Al Gore's
fearmongering, often illustrating at Don
Surber's with a fire breathing Gore, was probably the tipoff for what he was going for.

[PD]

Okay, now all the insiders laugh at Captain Hate.

But really we all love Hate, actually.

Wait, that didn't come out right.

[Extraneus]

Seriously, if Russian bombers took positions in Venezuela and/or Cuba, what would be the proper response? Not direct confrontation, no carriers or blockades or anything like that, but something along the lines of shoring up Sevastopol, possibly Georgia. Maybe a claim in the Arctic.

Anyone have any opinion on whether Obama or the brain-trust has any thoughts along these lines?

Heh. Sorry.

[PD]

Not along those lines, or any others, I'd guess.

[mel]

extraneus-

drop the electricity grid in Venezuela, no more gas to make planes go. Sure they have oil wells, nice sour stuff (high sulphur content, I believe, rough on equipment), but their refineries run on lots and lots of electricity. Foil up the high tension stuff, and they're off the grid for a year.

Not that I would endorse such a policy, of course.

[Jane]

OT:

Ron Silver died (LUN)

For some reason I find that shocking.

[Topsecretk9]

Captain Hate

Don't worry, sometimes TM's irony is hard to detect and I've been here a long time. I've learned if I have to scratch my head and wonder what exactly TM's saying it's a cue for me to read it 3 or so more times and then I usually figure it out - and still I sometime need to ask for help.

[Extraneus]

VIDEO: Cheney: Obama wants 'massive expansion'

[narciso]

It's an interesting strategy, but there's no one in this administration, savepossibly General Jones, who would consider this course of action. We'd be back to the Cuba/Berlin standoff with Tblisi filling in for Berlin. Under a differentadministration a little more cognizant of strategy and the importance of petroleum, well, that only happens in the alternate universe for now.
where the bluff would not have been called in the first place.

[Dorothy Jane]

Off topic - The White House seems to have found the MSNBC poll from the other day and fixed it:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29493093/

[Etraneus]

I like that Cheney is coming out now. Wait till his book comes out, that ought to be good.

[narciso]

I had speculated about why Ron Silver hadn't
posted at Pajamas Media in a year and a half, now we know why. He was one of those liberals who became a 9/11 Republican of sorts like Roger Simon and Dennis Miller, his outspokenness probably cost him some roles, in Hollywood, he still played the liberal as the Dick Morris type pragmatist
in the West Wing, and the anti Iraq war attorney in Law & Order, but they came few and far between; a real shame that someone of that caliber has left us.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Thanks Rick; I don't feel quite as clueless. Although sometimes I have the unsettling feeling that I'm on the exterior of a massive inside joke.....

Sometimes I think that's a theological position.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

I would take Cheney's word about the future terror risks before any of those clowns running the show now.

[narciso]

Yes, but no one gives the punch line, or the hook to show the event is over. You know you hate it when even the New York Post of all papers has to editorialize politically and wrongly in an obituary;
"Ron Silver didn't go to the far right, they are the ones who seek common cause with the likes of the Sunni Wahhabis and their retainers like Charles Freeman, he was probably closer to a JFK Democrat in that era. It's all part of the narrative of the real bonobo sophists; for the life of me someone explain to me what that is.

[clarice]

Simon said last week that Slver's role was particularly heroic as he was in a major fight with cancer.

Narciso--noemie emery has a fine piece about Noonan et al and Palin coming out in DC Examiner. You'll really love it.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

The world media may have hated Bush & Co., and if you only got news of America from CNN International, you'd probably hate America too. But, world leaders didn't hate him, at least not those who counted on America to keep them safe. They trusted that Bush meant what he said and would not back down to threats, like Obama/Clinton already have and certainly will.

We are at far greater risk today. Osama has been waiting for the paper tiger to return and it has. Russia is making noises about putting bombers in Cuba & Venezuela. This is no accident. This is the world laughing at this new Admin. as they realize that the pantywaists are back in charge with nothing but a bunch of narcissistic children at the helm.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Jane: I feel like someone punched me in the gut, that is how shocked I am about Ron Silver passing away. I didn't even know he was sick.

My best friend's husband died of cancer of the esophagus at exactly the same age. It must be a virulent form of cancer.

[mel]

Sara-

It's slow starting, rarely diagnosed until too late, and, it metastasizes easily, usually starts with Barrett's syndrome, an off-shoot of acid reflux and very family fond.

If the acid bugs you, get the upper GI, worth the search.

Very common in my family, among other things. No snickering back there, you.

[Captain Hate]

Sorry to hear about Ron Silver; I'm sure his politics cost him some roles. RIP

[DebinNC]

Speaking of actors, Sean Penn to play Joe Wilson and script news.

[narciso]

My uncle died at age 54 of complications from lung cancer, I'd never touch the stuff, even though it probably would have made me more popular with my college cohort.
Back when cigars were the rage, back in the mid 90s I tried one I promptly spit it out.
Yes caffeine's about my drug of choice, explains those postings at odd hours huh. The kicker to the Post obit is that it shows not a trace of sentiment, only vaguely
eluding to his family, but making sure to put the political insinuation in the article. The fact that he was a Far East studies major before turning to acting may have something with it.

I'll look for the Emerie piece, one og my favorite writers from the Standard, that Luce like part of the Murdoch empire.

[clarice]

Deb--puke---

[Ann]

DebinNC,

You should of warned me:

"Most of the script revolves around relationship struggles between Mr. and Mrs. Wilson, as well as some international covert ops that depict Plame as a quick-witted, globetrotting Jack Bauer type, instead of the low-level “glorified typist” caricatured by GOP pundits."

For anyone that watches "24" that is gut busting hilarious.

Thanks as always!

[Captain Hate]

Speaking of actors, Sean Penn to play Joe Wilson and script news.

More garbage from Whoreyweird but I wonder if a pompous gasbag like Joe Plame feels insulted by having a brainless loser like Jeff Spicoli play him.

[kim]

Hah, hah, puking in the men's room sink at Langley. Thanks for the link to the Plame movie, Deb. Too bad they won't get the story right. No Armitage, bah.
=================================

[kim]

Man, the script we could have written.
========================================

[narciso]

These people show great stupidity, it's Sydney Bristow, not Jack Bauer, did Alias
fade in the zeitgeist that quickly. plus
Sydney Bristow would not send a campaign contribution from Credite Delphine; the front group for the CIA which actually represents the villainous rogue agents
SD-12. This is Oliver Stone territory from this snippet; I left out the made up swearing, directed at Fleischer:

The sequence is one of many explosive re-imaginings of Fair Game, a new film based on the saga of outed CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson, which was written by Jez and John Butterworth and based on Plame’s autobiography. (Screenplays inevitably go through multiple drafts, and the version obtained by The Daily Beast has no cover page to denote when it was written.) The film goes into production this month.

The truth is much more interesting, but sadly not as convenient to all parties involved

[kim]

I like, though, the recognition by the author at the link that at some level it is a fairy tale, for instance, his pointing out that there is no Armitage in the film.

And whattya bet the perjury of Russert and the insanity of Fitz are absent from the finished product. Or should I say the waste product.
========================================

[kim]

And I'm still highly suspicious of what Plame was doing in Jordan. I'm torn between competence, in which she was up to something deeply devious, like the murder of Foley, who had to know a lot about Africa, and what is more likely, incompetence, with ham-handed blundering around the corridors of power, packing her aluminium tubes. I guess the best I can hope for is a split between the two and dueling tell all memoirs. Not really unlikely, given the character of those two characters.

And I'm sure Cheney's book will be a nice read on the affair. Will Libby write a book? Does a bear shit in the woods?
======================================

[narciso]

Officially her job was to debrief the Iraqi scientists, although it's left unclear if she did in her capacity with Brewster Jennings, the real life analogue to Credit
Delphine or officially with the CPD of the operations division. Considering how Ames had her number at some point before 1994, and the DGI as of 1995. The interesting thing is that books about the Agency, like
Claire Berlinski's Loose Lips, rely on the old tradition of names from a 1926 london
phonebook; like Alice G Freniston (I have no Idea if that's a real name, but it's harder to figure out than changing your maiden name to your married name) So maybe she intervened on behalf of Wilson, to get the Niger mission. Or Joe's businesspartners
the Alamoudis at Rock Creek partner,
contacted Joe and he in turn contacted Val. Either story is better than this pastiche. of fact.

[Stephanie]

Does a bear shit in the woods?

Only after a government certified location can be found and adjudicated and the proper carbon taxes paid for the offense to Gaia. ;)

[daddy]

Wow, Great plume coming out of the top of Mt Redoubt as I type this. The sunset is just going down so the mountain is highlighted beautifully with pinkish dusk. A plume about half the height of the mountain is going striaght up probably a few thousand feet, compact and dark looking, then mildly disentegrating at altitude. Very, very cool. The kids and I all have binoculars out and can easily see it at 90 miles or so distant from our kitchen windows. Don't think its really anything big, just a beautiful visual. The wife is trying to get somegood pictures, but I am now going back to the binoculars and the Alaskan Vilcano Observatory websit to see if they have any new news on Redoubt.

Pliny the Elder---errr daddy.

[daddy]

Redoubut is still pluming. ADN.com is a good link to go first. Seemsthe mountain hasbeen going off now for about 3 hours and they say the plume went at least 3 miles high. From my couch it looks to be about a third to a half the size of the mountain so my ballpark guess is that it is probably reaching 18,000 to 20,000 foot levels before it starts stretching out horizontally. At altitude it appears the winds are carrying the plume not towards Anchorage but towards the Kenai peninsula. No earthquakes, etc, but the thick black column seems like it must have been going off for about 3 hours now so may be an interesting evening.

By great coincidence,it being Ides of March and all, one of Caesar's Father's in Law (he had many wives) was very wealthy, and an old college Classics friend told me years back that this in-laws house was known to be in Herculaneum, the very wealthy town just next to Pompeii that is actually better preserved. Don't know if this was wife Calpurnia, the one who had to be above suspicion (Help Elliot). Anyhow, thiey know this particular Father in Law had a wonderful personal library and my classics friend has always hoped that we will have developed technology capable someday of reading the carbonized scrolls that they are confident are still buried there, as they have been unearthing such things for 200 years, so maybe eventually we'll get a chance to read what Caesar browsed thru at his in-laws thanks to a volcano.

Unfortunately the twilight has almost entirely faded now, so Redoubt is almost invisible. In daylight it is very prominant on the horizon, unmissable from 90 miles on any clear day, and today was gorgeous. Will update as interesting stuff happens.

"The Ide's of March are here soothsayer, yet here I stand unharmed", I recall Caesar having quipped. "Aye Caesar", replied the Soothsayer, "but they've not yet passed".

[narciso]

Stay safe there Flynn, remember what happened to Pliny the Elder at Pompeii; I read Harris's book

[daddy]

Well Porchlight,

Mount Redoubt just set off one big Birthday Candle for you!

[MayBee]

You can see it, daddy?
How cool.
And.
Be safe.

[daddy]

Easily visible MayBee and thanks Narciso,

Even on my couch just looking out the window I could easily spot the plume this evening before darkness and Redoubt has to be 90 miles distant. We are still gifted up here frequently with very clear air and the vista's are amazing. Denali (20,000 foot tall Mt McKInley) as the crow flies I believe is about 168 miles distant, and on a rare clear day when you are looking down Runway 32 for Takeoff it is just sitting out there distant but very majestic and beautiful and easy to spot. 10,000 foot tall Redoubt is visible probably 10 times more than Denali, due probably to to just being clearer in that direction and also not so tall that it creates its own weather system. Redoubt's visibility is probably very similar to how on good visibility days back in Japan you were easily able to spot Fuji in the distance if you were within a hundred miles radius of it. Redoubt and Fuji off the top of my head are quite similar in shape and size.

Even in the dark, after letting my eyes acclimate to the dark, I can still see the top of the mountains sillouette and the plume still vaguely evident coming out of the top right. Definitely way cool. The little girls are all running around all pumped and we're having a dickens of a time calming them down for bedtime. Big excitement!