Yet if anyone knew who was actually responsible for the White House's trumpeting of the Niger claims, it would seem from the Repubblica report that Hadley did. He also knew that the CIA, which had initially rejected the Italian claims, was not to blame. Hadley's meeting with Pollari, at precisely the time when the Niger forgeries came into the possession of the U.S. government, may explain the seemingly hysterical White House overreaction to Wilson's article almost a year later.

The infamous "16 words" don't trace to CIA, but instead to Stephen Hadley. They also think that White House was out to get CIA for not backing them up. Interesting fit with the leak of Plame and Brewster-Jennings & Associates...

Yellowcake Story Leads to White House, Not CIA

The notes, taken by Mr. Libby during the conversation, for the first time place Mr. Cheney in the middle of an effort by the White House to learn about Ms. Wilson’s husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV, who was questioning the administration’s handling of intelligence about Iraq’s nuclear program to justify the war.

Lawyers said the notes show that Mr. Cheney knew that Ms. Wilson worked at the C.I.A. more than a month before her identity was made public and her undercover status was disclosed in a syndicated column by Robert D. Novak on July 14, 2003.

Things just changed. While it's most likely legal for Cheney to know (he is VP after all) it might not be legal for him to tell Libby. It also means Libby knew 11 days before the first meeting with Iceberg Judy, and since this was apparantly not disclosed to Fitzgerald, Libby is basically done.

The next question is, how wide a net does Fitzgerald want to cast? From what we've already seen, he could throw one big enough to snare just about everyone at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave and the Naval Observatory and probably reel them in.

Cheney Told Aide of C.I.A. Officer, Notes Show - New York Times

When she finally did find a pharmacy with it, she said she was told the pharmacist on duty would not dispense it because of religious and moral objections.

If the pharmacy doesn't carry something (and in this case they comment later that a bit over half the pharmacies in the state don't carry it), then they don't carry it. If I owned a pharmacy, and I carried it, and I had an employee who refused to fill a prescription, I ask why, and if there is a medical reason (drug A, which the person is on, reacts badly with drug B) then we tell the person and we refer them back to their doctor based on that. That's a valid reason to defer filling the prescription.

If I have an employee who refuses to do it for "religious or moral reasons," I get a new employee. Kosher butchers don't carry bacon, and religious kook pharmacies don't carry RU-486. I can't get bacon at a kosher deli, they don't carry it. But if I go to a non-kosher butcher for bacon (which they have) and get told, "No, I won't give you bacon because it's against my religion," then that person is working in the wrong place.

Rape victim: 'Morning after' pill denied | The Arizona Daily Star

The second is that NATO sources have confirmed to United Press International that Fitzgerald's team of investigators has sought and obtained documentation on the forgeries from the Italian government.

With this now out, all bets are off. Literally anything could come out of Fitzgerald's office. The grand jury on the Plame Affair may end this week, but as a full member of the US Attorney's office, he has a responsibility to follow that trail as well.

This is not going to come to anything like a quick and easy end.

UPI - Fitzgerald looking at Niger forgeries.

Since 2001, the trustees have written to Frist and the Senate 15 times detailing the sale of assets from or the contribution of assets to trusts of Frist and his family. The letters included notice of the addition of HCA shares worth $500,000 to $1 million in 2001 and HCA stock worth $750,000 to $1.5 million in 2002. The trust agreements require the trustees to inform Frist and the Senate whenever assets are added or sold.

Sorry Bill, that "blind trust" story you've been spouting just got skewered like a pig on its way to the fire. Would you like to try a better story now, or did you already tell that one to the SEC under oath?

Letters Show Frist Notified Of Stocks in 'Blind' Trusts

Bush usually reserves his celebrated temper for senior aides because he knows they can take it. Lately, however, some junior staffers have also faced the boss' wrath.

"This is not some manager at McDonald's chewing out the help," said a source with close ties to the White House when told about these outbursts. "This is the President of the United States, and it's not a pleasant sight."

Things getting a bit unhinged over at 1600? The descriptions sound like Nixon in '74.

New York Daily News - Bushies feeling the boss' wrath

And this of course has pissed off Bud Selig and company.

Got Milk? Fun

Key results of the demographic survey include:

* Male = 88.5%, Female = 11.5%
* White = 83.3%, Black = 2.0%, Hispanic/Latino = 2.5%, Asian = 7.5%, Other = 4.7%
* Heterosexual = 92%, Lesbian/Gay = 2.7%, Bisexual = 2.7%
* Average age = 31 years
* Average years in the industry = 5.4 years
* Percentage of people with disabilities = 13% (e.g., cognitive, mobility, sight, etc)
* More than 80% have a university level education or greater
* More than 60% of studios claim that obtaining diverse applicants is challenging

I posted this because...
Heterosexual 92%
Lesbian/Gay 2.7%
Bisexual 2.7%
Total 97.4%

Ummmm... that's 2.6% unaccounted for. What are they? Confused? Eunuchs? Nematodes? Just waiting for that VR suit so they don't have to go to cons as "furrys" anymore?

IGDA - Demographics Report

The initial "crime," however parsed by statute, exposed more than Valerie Wilson as an undercover operative. It revealed her "employer," a consulting firm named Brewster-Jennings, & Associates, a CIA front developed over the years and used by a number of different covert agents, whose intelligence has been compromised.

This one item means the leak WAS inviolation of Foreign Intelligence and Identities Act, because she is listed as working there, and NOT for CIA.

The Unnoticed Piece of the Plame Puzzle

In a preview of how Republicans would counter charges against top administration officials by Fitzgerald, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas brushed aside an indictment for perjury -- rather than for the underlying crime of outing a covert operative -- as a "technicality."

Now I want to see if I have this right. Bill Clinton was impeached for perjury, for saying he didn't have sex with Monica Lewinsky, and that was worth three years, hundreds of millions and 200 FBI agents working on it, but Rove and Libby lying to a grand jury to cover up a breach of National Security isn't?

If that's their argument, they should be run out of town on a rail.

Lawyers see charges this week in CIA-leak case