In the hours before the Justice Department informed the White House in late September 2003 that it would investigate the leak of a covert C.I.A. officer's identity, Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, gave reporters what turned out to be a rare glimpse into President Bush's knowledge of the case.
Mr. Bush, he said, "knows" that Karl Rove, his senior adviser, had not been the source of the leak. Pressed on how Mr. Bush was certain, Mr. McClellan said he was "not going to get into conversations that the president has with advisers," but made no effort to erase the impression that Mr. Rove had assured Mr. Bush that he had not been involved.
Since then, administration officials and Mr. Bush himself have carefully avoided disclosing anything about any involvement the president may have had in the events surrounding the disclosure of the officer's identity or anything about what his aides may have told them about their roles. Citing the continuing investigation and now the pending trial of I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, they have declined to comment on almost any aspect of the case.
The issue now for the White House is how long it can go on deflecting the inquiries and trying to keep the focus away from Mr. Bush.
The above is from Richard W. Stevenson's "White House Tries to Keep Distance From Leak Case" in this morning's New York Times. Stevenson is merely humming "Victim of Romance" today -- as opposed to singing it at the top of his lungs.
We noted Douglas Jehl's article, in today's paper, yesterday. What else does the paper have to offer today?
Would you believe it if we told you, "Not real much"?
How about this for an example, in the e-mail the Times sends out each day to promote the articles in the paper, the e-mail for today notes an article by Associated Press. The Times, in their self-promotional e-mails, feels the need to promote a non-
article. That's how bad today's paper is.
Michael Wines will probably be applauded by many for "The Forgotten of Africa, Wasting Away in Jails Without Trial:"
When the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights last visited the Central African Republic's prisons in 2000, it heard that officers had deemed 50 prisoners incorrigible. Then, dispensing with trials, they executed them.
Even the African Commission's special representative for inmates has not visited an African prison in 18 months. There is no money, said the representative, Vera Chirwa, a democracy activist who herself spent 12 years in Malawi jails under a dictatorship.
"The conditions are almost the same," Ms. Chirwa said. "In Malawi, in South Africa, in Mozambique, in almost every country I have visited. I've been to France, and I've seen the prisons there. In Africa, they would be hotels."
How do you write about prisoners detained for years and make not one mention of Guantanamo Bay?
A question I sometimes get from visitors is "Aren't you too hard on Dexter Filkins?" No. I'm obviously not hard enough on him judging by the stenography in today's paper: "Chalabi, in Tehran, Meets With Iranian President Before Traveling to U.S. Next Week."
He goes to great length to quote Chalibli and makes little effort to inform readers of certain realities. Such as the Times acting as a megaphone for Chalibli's point of view. Dexter's not unaware that a niece of Chalabli was working for the Times in Iraq. But that's left out as is any harsh reality that might intrued on, "I will be back!" and the talk of how he might, MIGHT, be doing a little mission in Iran for the US government. There's no indication made of any attempts to determine the veracity of Chalibli's claims, they're just quickly rushed into print.
We'll note the passing of C. Delores Tucker. From Douglas Martin's "C. DeLores Tucker, a Voice for Minorities and Women, Is Dead at 78:"
When she was 16, Mrs. Tucker raised her voice from the back of a flatbed truck to protest a Philadelphia hotel's refusal to admit black athletes. She went on to become the highest-ranking black woman in any state government when she served as secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the 1970's.
She started the first Commission on the Status of Women in Pennsylvania and helped found and led the National Political Congress of Black Women. She held leadership positions in the Democratic Party, the National Women's Caucus and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, among many other organizations.
Mrs. Tucker achieved perhaps her greatest fame in the 1990's when she campaigned against gangsta rap lyrics, calling them "sleazy, pornographic smut." At one point, she bought 20 shares of Time-Warner stock and rose at an annual meeting to demand the company's leaders read aloud the lyrics on records one of their subsidiaries was selling. They declined.
And that's going to be it for this morning. I'm going to get Isaiah's two comics up here and try to grab two hours of sleep.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
the new york times
richard w. stevenson
dexter filkins
michelle phillips
victim of romance
elite fluff patrol
