Before I die

I want to make out in the ruins of the Marquis de Sade's castle in France. It just sounds like a cool thing to do.

In 4 days we'll be here...

...laying on the beach, drinking beers and margaritas, eating seafood fresh out of the Pacific, and not much else.

Some days are better than others...

I recently produced a music video for Spoon's song "Sister Jack." The 2nd day of filming was spent running around getting a bunch of different shots (called b-roll in the biz), mostly of this guy in a nun habit. But Hunter, the guy, had to leave for a couple of hours in the middle of the day, and as we had a tight schedule I doubled him for one shot, which consisted of yours truly being driven around in the back of this killer Cadillac, dubbed the "Official Car of Texas Music" by it's owner Doug Moreland, on the upper deck of IH-35. Watch for the video next month locally on AM15 and elsewhere nationally.

Rove & Khan

Maybe you know about these things, maybe you don't. I want to make sure you know because this shit pisses me off.

First, Karl Rove leaked classified information, specifically, the identity of a CIA operative working on weapons of mass destruction (our original reason for invading Iraq), to reporters. The operative, Valerie Plame, is the wife of former ambassador Joseph Wilson. He was sent to Niger in 2002 to investigate reports about Iraq wanting to buy yellowcake from that African country. Yellowcake is uranium, that when enriched, can be used in the construction of nuclear weapons. Wilson determined these reports to be false, and reported such to the CIA, who had sent him. In January 2003, Bush nevertheless made the yellowcake claim in the State of the Union address, attributing it to British intelligence. Documents that formed the basis of the initial reports were later determined to be forgeries, and yet the Bush administration continued to make the Iraqi/Niger claims.

In July 2003, Wilson published an op-ed in the New York Times. A short time later, his wife's name was revealed in a column by conservative columnist Robert Novak (per Jon Stewart, a "douchebag of liberty"). Novak said he received this information from 2 senior administration officials. At the time, Bush said he would fire the leaker, should they be unmasked. WH press secretary Scott McClellan said Rove (and others) did not do it.

In December 2003, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft recused himself and a special prosecutor was appointed to investigate the case. To reach the bottom (or is it the top?) of the case, he felt the need to compel 2 journalists to reveal anonymous sources. (The freedom of the press is a difficult side story of this affair if you're interested.) One, Matt Cooper of Time Magazine, has done so. His source was Karl Rove. The other, Judith Miller of the NY Times, has not, and currently sits in jail. In grand jury testimony, Rove has apparently said that he confirmed Plame's identity to Novak. He was the 2nd source.

Now, McClellan is clamming up in the face of the WH press corps growing a pair, and Rove continues to pull the strings that make Bush dance.

I haven't provided any links b/c I don't know where to begin; there are so many out there. Google "Rove Plame leak" and you'll find plenty.

Finally, some words from Daddy Bush (who fired Karl Rove back in the day for being a trickster):

"Your mission is different now than it was back then. The Soviet Union is no more. Some people think, "what do we need intelligence for?" My answer to that is we have plenty of enemies. Plenty of enemies abound. Unpredictable leaders willing to export instability or to commit crimes against humanity. Proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, narco-trafficking, people killing each other, fundamentalists killing each other in the name of God. These and more. Many more. As our analysts know, as our collectors of intelligence know - these are our enemies. To combat them we need more intelligence, not less. We need more human intelligence. That means we need more protection for the methods we use to gather intelligence and more protection for our sources, particularly our human sources, people that are risking their lives for their country. (Applause)

Even though I'm a tranquil guy now at this stage of my life, I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious, of traitors." --- link.

Second, and this goes hand-in-hand with the story above, that this administration puts political standing in front of the security of the country, is the naming of an al Qaeda mole, Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, by the administration during the Democratic National Convention last year. Yet another anonymous source gave his name to a reporter who published it, despite the fact that he was still in communication with al Qaeda operatives, including a cell in Britain. British intelligence had to rush in and arrest the cell prematurely. What did Khan have to do with the British cell? On his computer were found clues pertaining to a bombing of the London Underground.

Check out this post at americablog.com for the full story.

Alright, that's it. Now go tell the sheeple. And when your Republican friends/family try to rebut it or shrug it off, get them to imagine that Clinton is the president while all of this is going on. Would they still shrug it off?

You find the funniest things...

... in tinfoil-hat threads on political blogs. Such as this. Which I found here.

London

The Mrs. and me were there with Mother slight almost 2 years ago. We all had a really great time, and fell in love with the city. Sorry to any New Yorkers checking in, but I think we'd move to London before the Apple. We had a flat in Bethnal Green in the East End that Mother slight got thru a an old work contact. Every day, we'd step out of our building that used to be a school in the Victorian days, and walk down the street past the multi-colored faces, the corner shops, and the Buddhist center to a little restaurant run by Greeks where we'd have our English breakfasts. Then it was on down the street to the Bethnal Green Underground Station where we'd catch the Central (red) line into central London.

The next stop was the Liverpool St. Station, where some of today's victims emerged from the tube.

We switched to other lines there and wandered around it's neighborhood some, too, as it was the haunt of Jack the Ripper and I kind of have an interest in that.

That bus. Shit.

Peace.