Fitzmas Gift

Scooter indicted on five-count felony charge

With the release of documents shortly after noon, the federal grand jury probe of the Plame/CIA scandal culminated today with a five-count felony charge for I. Lewis Libby.

The criminal charges were one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of making a false statement and two counts of perjury, all related to the Plame case in 2003 and releasing information to reporters.

Libby immediately resigned his post as chief of staff for Vice President Cheney. According to the New York Daily News, his post will be filled by Cheney's chief counsel David Addington.

The details, according to cable news summaries of documents just released: Libby is accused of lying to FBI agents on Oct. 14 and Nov. 26, 2003; committed perjury on March 5 and 24, 2004; and engaged in obstruction of justice by impeding the investigation.

The indictment

Pair-o-deez

The latest hipster game - Pair-o-deez: a sneaker memory game.

Also available in analog

Next SCOTUS Nominee?

Jesus H. Christ

friday random ten

Photo by Ryan McManus

Friday Random Ten:

The Hours - This Microwave World
I Spent My Last $10 (On Birth Control and Beer) - 2 Nice Girls
Gay Sailors - Fuck Emos
Outskirts - James McMurtry
Gotta Keep Moving - Sue Foley
Been a Long Time - Texas Eastside Kings
Wake Up - TunaHelpers
Hangover - The Motards
Parking Space - Glass Eye
Runaway - The Sweethearts

Republican Indictment of the Day

Noe indicted in Bush money-laundering case

Via the American Prospect

Dallas Derby Devils Exhibition Bout

The flat track Dallas Derby Devils will skate an exhibition bout this Sunday, October 30^th.

High Seas Hotties
vs.
The Wrecking Crew

Sunday, October 30.

Arlington Skatium

Tickets are $10 in advance, $12 at the door.

Doors open at 7pm, bout at 7:30pm.

Please visit the Dallas Derby Devils website for more info.

tags: roller derby, rollergirls, Dallas Derby Devils

Arizona Roller Derby Bout

The flat track Arizona Roller Derby skates this Saturday, October 29^th.

Surly Gurlies
vs.
Bad News Beaters

Saturday, October 29.

Castle Sports Club

Tickets are $10 in advance, $12 at the door.

Doors open at 7pm, bout at 8pm.

Please visit the Arizona Roller Derby website for more info.

tags: roller derby, rollergirls, Surly Gurlies, Bad News Beaters, Arizona

Kansas City Roller Warriors Bout

The flat track Kansas City Roller Warriors skate this Saturday, October 29^th.

Saturday, October 29.

Winnwood Skate Center

Tickets are $10 in advance.

Doors open at 7:30pm, bout at 8pm.

Visit the Kansas City Roller Warriors website for more info.

tags: roller derby, rollergirls, Kansas City, Roller Warriors

No Pardons for Treasongate

Congressman John Conyers

As the Fitzgerald investigation nears its conclusion, I am becoming increasingly concerned that Bush will prevent the exposure of wrongdoing in Treasongate by pardoning any indicted members of his administration before trial. I wrote a letter in July asking the President to pledge not to pardon these persons. I have yet to receive an answer so I have organized a letter writing campaign demanding an answer. Over 4,000 people have already signed so I'd like to generate at least 10,000 letters to Bush.

As some of you may recall, the President's father, President George H.W. Bush, pardoned officials under indictment in the Iran-Contra scandal. Some of those pardoned by Bush Sr. include officials in the present White House, like Elliott Abrahms, as well as others who have been purportedly linked to the falsification of the Niger documents. Those previously indicted and pardoned seem to be nearby when further crimes are committed against our country.

While the White House had publicly promised its full cooperation with the investigation, their strategy has been attack, attack, attack -- most significantly on Mr. and Mrs. Wilson, the prosecutor, the Central Intelligence Agency and the press. Let's make sure that while the administration tries to divert attention away from its culpability, they are forced to pledge that those indicted by Fitzgerald will not be pardoned by the President.

"Nigergate" quell'incontro segreto del capo del Sismi alla Casa Bianca

Laura Rozen in the American Prospect

In an explosive series of articles appearing this week in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, investigative reporters Carlo Bonini and Giuseppe d'Avanzo report that Nicolo Pollari, chief of Italy's military intelligence service, known as Sismi, brought the Niger yellowcake story directly to the White House after his insistent overtures had been rejected by the Central Intelligence Agency in 2001 and 2002. Sismi had reported to the CIA on October 15, 2001, that Iraq had sought yellowcake in Niger, a report it also plied on British intelligence, creating an echo that the Niger forgeries themselves purported to amplify before they were exposed as a hoax.

Today's exclusive report in La Repubblica reveals that Pollari met secretly in Washington on September 9, 2002, with then–Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley. Their secret meeting came at a critical moment in the White House campaign to convince Congress and the American public that war in Iraq was necessary to prevent Saddam Hussein from developing nuclear weapons. National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones confirmed the meeting to the Prospect on Tuesday.

Pollari told the newspaper that since 2001, when he became Sismi's director, the only member of the U.S. administration he has met officially is his former CIA counterpart George Tenet. But the Italian newspaper quotes a high-ranking Italian Sismi source asserting a meeting with Hadley. La Repubblica also quotes a Bush administration official saying, "I can confirm that on September 9, 2002, General Nicolo Pollari met Stephen Hadley."

The paper goes on to note the significance of that date, highlighting the appearance of a little-noticed story in Panorama a weekly magazine owned by Italian Prime Minister and Bush ally Silvio Berlusconi, that was published three days after Pollari's meeting with Hadley. The magazine's September 12, 2002, issue claimed that Iraq's intelligence agency, the Mukhabarat, had acquired 500 tons of uranium from Nigeria through a Jordanian intermediary. (While this September 2002 Panorama report mentioned Nigeria, the forgeries another Panorama reporter would be proferred less than a month later purportedly concerned Niger.)

The Sismi chief's previously undisclosed meeting with Hadley, who was promoted earlier this year to national security adviser, occurred one month before a murky series of events culminated in the U.S. government obtaining copies of the Niger forgeries.

monday morning reads

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Liar)

Juan Cole - Rupert Murdoch and Judith Miller

WaPo- Enemy Body Counts Revived

World O'Crap eviscerates Wall Street Journal editorial.

San Francisco in Jell-O