Plumegate
has been mastered by The Poor Man. He began my day with Shorter Right-Wing Punditry's Reaction to the Valerie Plame Affair: An Internal Dialogue, an incredibly accurate and hysterically funny assessment of the apologists. And he finishes (for now) with an audio clip of Julian Borger of The Guardian explaining that Karl Rove is the bad actor, then going on to explain why reporters can't say so.

I'm ashamed that I didn't have him on the linklist until now.

Molly Ivins on the California Candidates
Today on CNN ... Grey Davis makes Mr. Rogers look like he is on steroids. And Arnold looks like a condom stuffed with walnuts.

Can't top that.

Who Done It?
I want so badly to weigh in on the 1600 Crew leaking Ms. Plume's identity. Not to mention the totally ridiculous press conference today wherein Mr. Scott kept telling the press if they knew anything they should report it to the Justice Department. The problem is that it keeps breaking so fast that I can't keep up.

C-Span is expected to replay this morning's interview with Mr. Wilson this evening at 8.

Shana Tova
This year Rosh Hashana, the birthday of the world and the beginning of year 5764, is on the sabbath. This is a time of reflection and repentence culminating with Yom Kippur in 10 days. My wish for all of us is for health, peace, and joy.

Edward Said
died yesterday. Many sites have commentary but I'm having trouble deciding which to link to. I think I'll just mention that he was an important thinker and leave it up to you do decide in what way he was important.

Game du Jour
I'm bored with the California election. So why don't we all try to predict the Republican excuses that we will hear if and when one of their own is not Governor of California when it is over;

DNA Testing of Prisoners
In My Local Paper yesterday former FBI Director William S. Sessions wrote a strong call for post-conviction DNA testing. He said
"There are always reasons -- time, money, bureaucratic obstacles -- that something cannot be done. But when it comes to justice and fairness, those reasons are just excuses. Prosecutors not only have a professional duty to seek the truth, they have a moral responsibility to respond to the DNA no-match rate. Just as pretrial DNA testing has illuminated the unexpected frequency with which police and prosecutors have targeted the wrong person, post-conviction testing in cases that were tried 15 or more years ago -- before the availability of forensic DNA -- can exonerate those wrongly convicted, and can possibly identify the true perpetrator and shed light on the causes of the wrongful conviction."
and
"During my time as a federal judge in Texas and as FBI director, I had contact with prosecutors and law enforcement officials who are among the best anywhere, working together in a criminal justice system that is the model for countries around the world. But we can -- and must -- do better. Given the stakes involved, we cannot deny defendants a right to post-conviction DNA testing."

Tropical Storm Reading
I read Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right entirely by candle/flashlight. I felt like Abe Lincoln. Am I a dedicated stalwart or what?

Anyway I've decided that I agree with Franken. Our President is mean, just like his mother. It is entirely possible to be dumb and mean at the same time. And we're letting him get away with being mean by blaming Karl Rove, Condi Rice, Dick Cheney and Don Runsfeld for everything. They are responsible for lots of evil, but so is Our President.

Power
No, not the kind you're thinking of. We had a little rain, a little wind. And the electricity of 2/3 of the customers of My Deregulated Electric Utility went out. Mine was out for 67 hours. Many folks still have none. And the Electric Company is suggesting that they may all be back by Friday. Now the co-ops in Virginia and North Carolina got power back on for most of their customers in 12-24, and they had an actual hurricane.

And Feds are afraid of telling our enemies about our vulnerabilities.

So expect me to be on a rant about deregulation for a while. After I refill my refrigerator and write to all of my elected representatives and go to the 'town meeting' which will feature the president of my electric company. We are not amused.

Isabel
Here in the environs of Your Nation's Capital total panic reigns. There appears to be a hurricane headed in this general direction sometime, later. They are predicting rain and something like 40 mile an hour winds. And hysteria abounds. It is totally weird.

Now, mind you, I haven't seen a drop of rain, and the leaves on my trees are fluttering gently. There is some cloud cover. *yawn*

The Federal Government is closed. Every local school system is closed. All nearby states have declared a state of emergency. The subway system will be closing in five minutes. And NOTHING HAS HAPPENED. Nothing. I kid you not.

Ok, the power will go out. The power always goes out. It is a lot like living in Iraq or Afghanistan. Five days out of seven I have some kind of power failure, so I can be pretty certain of a blogging hiatus. And cable TV will go out because the lousy connectors seem to fail whenever the wind approaches, say, 8 mph.

Our Fearless Leader has retreated from the relative safety of the White House to a wooden 'cabin' in the middle of a forest. Oh, that's bright. Those trees have been ordered not to fall over. But he gets to talk to the press wearing an ugly bright blue open necked shirt with a sports coat. Just one of the guys.

And the press ... well that's another rant.