When the bald-tired wheels of justice finally roll to their conclusion, we will find out if Karl gets his. If there's breath in the old concept of legality still, 'Bush's Brain' should be heading to the big house for revealing classified information to his buddies in the cheerleader press. Though if, as many may suspect, we are living in a rough approximation of a totalitarian banana republic, it is more likely that Bush will reward his faux pas with a free pass to promotion. Perhaps Queen.

Just to keep track of the ins and outs of this Shakespearian tale of treachery and deceit, here's a handy 'Rove Scandal For Dummies' timeline (oldest news first) or click here for the latest.

COULTER SPAZZES OUT

Alan Colmes: "If Karl Rove wasn't revealing something secret, why did he have to speak on double super secret background?"

Ann Coulter: "Because you don't generally read in the press - you know - I think it was all - you didn't see Karl Rove, I think, being quoted on a lot of these things - but I think the point was, umm, Clown Wilson was going around implying that he had been sent by the CIA and reported to Dick Cheney's office... I mean, it's amazing if you go back and read these articles now, he uses these - you know - sort of Clintonian legally accurate phrases..."

At last someone manages to fuse the robo-bitch's polemics circuit and, believe it or not, it was none other than Alan 'tame Liberal' Colmes on last night's Hannity and Colmes puppet show. (NewsHounds.us) Even Colmes is rediscovering his tiny, vestigial Colmes balls. It truly is the beginning of a new era...

BRIAN KILMEADE SPEAKS
FOR AL QAEDA

When Kilmeade talked about the London bombings as 'working to our advantage' on F(oxymoron) News, it was the most startlingly uncompassionate comment I ever remember hearing on TV (Fox networks included).

Kilmeade's obnoxious theorizing could just have easily come straight from the mouth of bin Laden himself. Why else would al Qaeda have been interested in bombing Britain other than, as Kilmeade put it, to concentrate Tony Blair's mind on "the number one priority of the War on Terror?" and distract attention away from his liberal obsessions with global warming treaties and African debt relief.

In the run-up to the 2004 election, bin Laden rooted for a Bush second-term. Now we have lame TV sports commentators taking pages from the al Qaeda play book. With this creepy codependency in mind, do we need any further proof that the War on Terror is nothing more than a mutually self-serving power struggle between two groups of religious and political extremists? Bush and bin Laden need each other. Neocons and 'NeoIslamists' exist to validate each other's world domination plans. The rest of us are just caught in the fallout.

Whether you're the man-in-the-street in Kansas or the man-in-the-casbah in Cairo, you have nothing to gain by pledging support to either head of the same war pig except more bloodshed and paranoia. All Kilmeade has done is further validate the murderous bullshit and egregiously offend our supposed allies in Britain. What next? Post-game sports analysis from Osama bin Laden?

ROVE SCANDAL FOR DUMMIES

February 2002: SADDAM BUYS URANIUM?

CIA envoy and former US ambassador to Gabon, Joseph Wilson, dispatched to Niger, West Africa to explore claims that Iraq had bought 'Yellow Cake' uranium from Niger to use in the development of nuclear weapons. (NucNews.com)

March 2002: URANIUM CLAIMS BOGUS

The CIA informs the Bush government that the uranium story has no factual basis. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspection team in Iraq concludes that the evidence relating to the uranium sale was faked. (NucNews.com)

September, 2002: JUDITH MILLER: PRESS WHORE FOR WAR

Steadfastly refusing to be put off-message by contradictory evidence, Judith Miller pulls a scary exposé about Iraqi WMDs out of her ass in the New York Times. She raves: "[Iraq had] stepped up its quest for nuclear weapons and has embarked on a worldwide hunt for materials to make an atomic bomb." Rice, Powell and Rumsfeld all later reference Miller's bogus articles when selling the Iraq war. (Wikipedia.org)

January, 2003: POTUS LIES TO THE NATION?

In his 2003 State of the Union Address, Bush plugs the long-dud Iraqi uranium story to back up his assertion that Saddam is developing nuclear weapons and must be stopped. "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

"The CIA warned the US Government that claims about Iraq's nuclear ambitions were not true months before President Bush used them to make his case for war, the BBC has learned. [T]he CIA official has said that a former US diplomat had already established the claim was false in March 2002 - and that the information had been passed on to the government departments, including the White House, well before Mr Bush mentioned it in the speech." (White House 'warned over Iraqi claim', BBC News)

March, 2003: OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM BEGINS

The war in Iraq begins with claims about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction still cited as a primary justification. (Iraq War Begins, PBS.org)

July 6, 2003: JOSEPH WILSON SPEAKS UP

Wilson writes an opinion piece in The New York Times claiming the Bush administration had twisted intelligence to exaggerate the threat posed by Iraq in the lead up to the invasion. He pointed out that evidence cited by Bush in his State of the Union address was false and that the government had known this for up to a year. ("What I didn't find in Africa", Joseph C. Wilson 4th)

July 14, 2003: NOVAK DOES THE DIRTY DEED

Blow-hard Washington Post columnist Robert Novak writes an opinion piece that seeks to trash Wilson's preceding article. He also blows his wife's cover as a CIA operative of 26 years standing thus committing a federal crime. As a consequence of Novak's article, Valerie Plame's team of 70 overseas assets are instantly rendered useless and stood down. This transgression is widely perceived as government payback for Wilson's continued public contradiction of the Bush line. ("Mission to Niger", Robert Novak)

July, 2003: BRITISH WEAPONS INSPECTOR OFFED

Dr David Kelly, head of the British weapons inspectors in Iraq, is found dead in suspicious circumstances. He had previously leaked information on Bush/Blair's reliance on such false evidence as the Iraqi uranium deal to justify the invasion of Iraq. ("Death deals devastating blow to Iraq arms hunt", The Observer)

August 29, 2003: WILSON ACCUSES ROVE OF LEAK

Wilson identifies Karl Rove as the source of the leak to the Washington Post. "At the end of the day, it's of keen interest to me to see whether or not we can get Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs. And trust me, when I use that name, I measure my words." (Wikinews.org)

September, 2003: SPOOKS DEMAND INVESTIGATION

The CIA asks the Justice Department to investigate allegations that the White House broke federal laws by revealing the identity of one of its undercover employees. (CommonDreams.org)

September 30, 2003: BUSH LAYS DOWN THE LAW

As the Justice Department initiates a full-scale criminal inquiry, the White House announced that Rove had denied involvement and asserted that Wilson's allegations are "simply not true." Presidential spokesman Scott McClellan pledged the White House's cooperation with the Department of Justice and suggested anyone involved in the leak would be fired. (NYTimes.com)

October 7, 2003: WHITE HOUSE DENIES ROVE IS SOURCE

The White House firmly ruled out any role by administration officials in the leak. McClellan said it was "ridiculous" to suggest that Rove was involved. "The president knows he wasn't involved." Bush announces "Leaks of classified information are bad things. We’ve got too much leaking in Washington, I want to know who the leakers are." (FoxNews.com)

October, 2003: PLAME GOES PUBLIC

Valerie Plame goes public for the first time since having her cover blown when she attends a Washington luncheon where her husband is awarded a $10,000 "truth-telling" prize by the Nation Institute. (CommonDreams.org)

January 22, 2004: COURT IN SESSION

A federal grand jury begins hearing testimony in the investigation into the leak. (TalkLeft.com)

May 26, 2004: MILLER TRASHED

A New York Times editorial acknowledges "information that was controversial [was] allowed to stand unchallenged." during the run up to the Iraq war. The editorial refused to place "blame on individual reporters," but it was noted that ten of the twelve flawed stories discussed had been written or co-written by Judith Miller. (ANOCA.org)

June, 2005: BUSH CALLS HIS LAWYER

After witnesses testify to the grand jury that Bush knew about and took no action to stop the release of a covert operative's name, Bush makes a 'just in case' call to attorney James E. Sharp to enlist his representation in any future court action. (San Diego Union Tribune) Some of Sharp's previous clients include Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord, a major figure in the Iran-Contra scandal who helped Lt. Col. Oliver North accumulate untaxed millions in overseas accounts and his self-avowed “good friend” Joe Harry Pegg convicted of conspiring to import marijuana during the 1980s. (RawStory.com)

October 15, 2004: ROVE IN COURT

Rove testifies before a federal grand jury trying to determine the source of the leak. John Kerry's senior adviser Joe Lockhart issues a statement calling on Rove and other aides to 'come clean about their role in this insidious act.' (Democrats.com)

June 29, 2005: JUDGE GETS TOUGH

Matthew Cooper of Time magazine and Judith Miller held in contempt of court and threatened with imprisonment for refusing to disclose secret sources in their stories connecting the White House with Valerie Plame's outing. U.S. Federal judge Thomas F. Hogan gave Miller and Cooper one week to reveal their sources or face 18 months in prison. (PenUSA.org)

July 4, 2005: ROVE'S LAWYER SPEAKS

Attorney Robert Luskin (career milestone: defending a convicted money launderer who payed his fee with gold bars, thus piqueing the curiousity of the IRS) confirmed that Cooper had called Rove in July 2003 but insisted that his client did not disclose any confidential information. (CNN.com)

July 6, 2005: MILLER GETS HERS

Miller is sentenced to Maximum Security Prison in Washington, D.C. for refusing to comply. Cooper spared at the last minute after his source gave him the go-ahead to name names. (MediaWeek.com) Says Miller: "Ms. Miller joined my wife, Valerie, and her 20 years of service to this nation as collateral damage in the smear campaign launched when I had the temerity to challenge the president on his assertion that Iraq had attempted to purchase uranium yellowcake from Africa." (LibertyPost.org)

July 10, 2005: ROVE OUTED AT LAST

Newsweek publishes details of an email sent by Cooper to his bureau chief dated three days prior to Novak's 2003 exposure of Plame. Cooper wrote that he had spoken to Rove on "double super secret background" and that Rove had told him that former Ambassador Joseph Wilson's "wife...apparently works at the agency on WMD issues." (MSNBC.com)

July 11, 2005: NO COMMENT

Several reporters (apparently rediscovering their job descriptions) round on Scott McClellan at a monday White House press conference and demand to know the facts. The official line is total evasion - to the extent that McClellan gives a curt 'no comment' when asked if Bush still has confidence in Rove. (RawStory.com)

July 12, 2005: ROVE FORMERLY REVEALED AS SOURCE

Cooper confirms to a grand jury that Karl Rove was his source. "Today I testified and agreed to testify solely because of a waiver I received from my source," Cooper said outside the courthouse. "Once a journalist makes a commitment of confidentiality to a source, only the source can end that commitment." (Fox News)

On the same day, the GOP regroups and releases a bulleted list of 'talking points.' The spin is that Rove only tried to prevent his press contact from leaking Plame's identity. They also make a big deal about the confusion over who sent Joseph Wilson to Niger to begin with and try to make Wilson out to be a liar. (RawStory.com) Rove's defenders claim that Wilson told the world he was sent to Niger at the behest of Dick Cheney when, in reality, he had been sent by his wife. Both talking point claims are untrue as Wilson had never claimed to have acted on orders from big Dick and it was the CIA's Directorate of Operations, Counterproliferation Division (CPD) that sent him to Niger, not Valerie Plame. After the previous day's confusion, the Republican line now presents saintly Rove as the hapless victim of a partisan liberal attack orchestrated by the DNC and MoveOn.org. (MediaMatters.org)

July 13, 2005: BUSH'S HONESTY RATING DENTED

Only 41 percent [of respondents] give Bush good marks for being "honest and straightforward" — his lowest ranking on this question since he became president. (MSNBC.com)

July 14, 2005: WILSON WEIGHS IN

'Today' speaks to Joseph Wilson: "It's now public that President Bush's top adviser, Karl Rove, did talk to at least one reporter about your wife. But Rove insists he never used her name and that he did not know that she was undercover."

Wilson responds: "My wife's name is Wilson. It is Mrs. Joseph Wilson. It is Valerie Wilson. And he named her. He identified her. So that argument I don't believe stands the smell test...The president said he would fire anybody who was caught leaking in this matter. Karl Rove has now been caught. The president has said repeatedly, I am a man of my word. The president really should stand up and prove to the American people that his word is his bond and fire Karl Rove." (MSNBC.com)

On the same day, Democrats demand legislation be implemented to 'deny security clearances to officials who unmask undercover agents' and get slammed for partisan activism. Yup, to ask that your government does not betray it's own undercover operatives is now deemed crazy liberalism. (NYTimes.com)

July 15, 2005: BUSH STANDS BY HIS MAN

Bush, often characterized as loyal to a fault, publicly backs Rove. Rove's attorney sticks with the logic-bending defense that he did not refer to Plame or the CIA by name and that Rove's statement 'Joseph Wilson's wife works for the agency' therefore did not constitute an illegal breach of secrecy. He also deflects blame by insisting that Rove learned about Plame from Novak, not vice versa. (story at CBS5.com)

July 16, 2005: SECURITY AMENDMENT KICKED OUT BY CONS

Conservative commentators were quick to seize on Democrat calls to tighten up the disclosure laws as evidence of partisan activism. Just to prove that the Republicans are above all that, the amendment was voted down by the majority Republican House. The measure simply sought to prevent access to classified information by federal employees guilty of leaking said information to unauthorized sources. Them crazy liberal bastards. (WorldForum.org)

July 17, 2005: GOP STANDS BEHIND ROVE

Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, who once worked for Rove, declares: "The fact is, Karl Rove did not leak classified information." Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) calls the controversy "a nonstory." (LATimes.com) But, even if Rove was not the source, as the GOP are insisting, and actually heard the story first from Matt Cooper, he is still on record as saying 'I heard that too' when he was told who Wilson's wife was. Not only is leaking classified information in breach of the 'Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement' (SF-312) that all White House staff are required to sign, confirming previously revealed classified information is also a breach of security. The wording of the nondisclosure agreement is pretty unambiguous: "Before confirming the accuracy of what appears in the public source, the signer of the SF-312 must confirm through an authorized official that the information has, in fact, been declassified. If it has not, confirmation of its accuracy is also an unauthorized disclosure." (yubanet.com)

July18, 2005: COOPER BLAMES ROVE, BUSH BACKTRACKS

Even if Novak told Rove and not vice-versa, Matt Cooper still insisted that it was Rove who told him about Valerie Plame. "After that conversation [with Rove] I knew she worked at the CIA and worked on WMD [weapons of mass destruction]," said Cooper.

Bush backtracks on his prior statement that anyone involved with leaking classified information would be fired. He now says: "If someone committed a crime, they will no longer work in my administration." (CBC News) Seems like Bush is betting on Rove getting a slap on the wrist without any specific criminal charge being applied.

July19, 2005: MOVEON.ORG LAUNCHES TV CAMPAIGN

MoveOn.org releases a TV ad calling on the President to keep his word and fire his top political advisor Karl Rove for disclosing the identity of Valerie Plame Wilson.

July 20, 2005: PUBLIC OPINION AGAINST ROVE. SO WHAT?

71 percent of Republicans in an ABC News national poll believed Rove should be fired for being the leaker (83 percent of Democrats) and only 25 percent of the public believed President Bush is cooperating with the investigation. Democracy in inaction?

July 22, 2005: MORE PRESSURE ON BUSH

"I wouldn't be here this morning if President Bush had done the one thing required of him as commander in chief - protect and defend the Constitution," said Larry Johnson, a former CIA analyst at a hearing organized by the Democrats. "The minute that Valerie Plame's identity was outed, he should have delivered a strict and strong message to his employees." Johnson, a registered Republican, said he wished GOP lawmakers would have the courage to stand up. "Where are these men and women with any integrity to speak out against this? I expect better behavior out of Republicans." (Washington Post)

August 1, 2005: BUSH BLOWS HARD

"Karl’s got my complete confidence. He’s a valuable member of my team," Bush said in his strongest defence yet of Rove. (MediaChannel.org)

August 13, 2005: BRING ON ASHCROFT

The fact that Rove lied to FBI investigators in 2003, insisting that he never discussed Plame with Matthew Cooper, now raises the issue of Attorney General John Ashcroft's complicity in the affair as the guy in charge who originally let Rove off the hook.

Rove previously served as an Ashcroft adviser and had fiercely advocated for his appointment as Attorney General. Rove's company also earned more than $746,000 for services rendered. John Conyers, the current ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, is calling for an investigation into Ashcroft's role in the leak.

According to Conyers: "There has long been the appearance of impropriety in Ashcroft's handling of this investigation. The former attorney general had well documented conflicts of interest in this matter, particularly with regard to his personal relationship with Karl Rove....Pursuant to standard rules of legal ethics, and explicit rules on conflict of interest, those facts alone should have dictated his immediate recusal." (VillageVoice.com)

GREAT PIONEERS OF NEOCON THOUGHT #12

"Don't get the idea I'm one of those goddam radicals.
Don't get the idea I'm knocking the American system."

Alphonse Capone

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