Day: October 28, 2005

If I see this word on one more Lefty blog I swear I’ll go postal.

It really would have been great if Denny Hastert had blogged about the indictment of Scooter Libby today, but then I guess he’d have to be a real blogger for that to happen right? As I suspected in this post from yesterday, Denny’s blog has already stopped being a blog. Today’s post is by his communication director Ron Bonjean, and it’s not really even a post, it’s a cut and paste job.

What a let down.

Apparently he’s been so useful that the agency has extended his contract for another 30 days. In another 30 days, they could do it again. Supposedly, he resigned from FEMA on September 12th. What a resourceful guy!

Mississippi Congressman Gene Taylor puts it this way:

“I’ve got tens of thousands of people living in two-man igloo tents tonight, and less than a quarter of the people who have asked for FEMA travel trailers have gotten them,” Taylor said. “And at the same time they can find $140,000 a year to pay this incompetent son of a gun; that’s ridiculous.”

Indeed.

This is creative.

The Blue Gene/L supercomputer broke its own calculation record, reaching 280.6 teraflops (280.6 trillion calculations a second). Each person in the world with a handheld calculator would still take decades to do the same calculations Blue Gene is now able to do every second.

Problem is, the massive box does nothing but run tests on itself, and from where I sit, that’s one worthless computer.

Oh, and while we’re being geeky – Happy Birthday to Bill Gates, who turned 50 years old today.

It’s all coming down today, and nothing has changed from last night. Libby gets it, Rove doesn’t (for now). Website information will be posted at 12 NOON EDT, news conference at 2 PM EDT.

UPDATE: It’s 9:05 AM PDT, 12:05 PM EDT and indictment documents have not yet been posted on the website of the Office of Special Counsel. Michelle Malkin is watching each and every move closely. Same for Tom Maguire and The Corner.

UPDATE II: According to Drudge, Scooter Libby has been indicted on obstruction of justice, false statement and perjury charges. Kathryn Jean Lopez: 1 count–Obstruction of justice/ 2–counts perjury/2 counts–making false statements

UPDATE III: AP now has the story on the Libby indictment. CNN too. Still no documentation on Fitzgerald’s website. Drudge has since taken down the notice of documents being available at 12 NOON EDT.

UPDATE IV: Indictment PDF is up. More at the Smoking Gun.

Now, we await the news conference, which is still scheduled for 2 PM EDT.

UPDATE V: Libby has resigned.

UPDATE VI: Interesting insight from Tim Graham via The Corner:

More media history for your Fitzmas. When Clinton cabinet officials Mike Espy and Henry Cisneros were indicted in 1997, the networks were completely bored. Not only did they not disturb “Days of Our Lives.” They could barely manage a few sentences in the evening. Butterflies got better coverage. Some morning shows skipped them altogether.

Glenn Reynolds adds a few comments.

Mark R. Levin – “What I resent about this press conference is the effort by Fitzgerald to paint Lewis Libby as outing a cover CIA operative, jeopardize national security, and harm CIA recruitment. As many times as I have now read this indictment, I see obstruction, perjury and false statements. I see no charges relating to any of this rhetoric. And so we now have some news reports claiming that Libby outed a CIA agent when, in fact, as a matter of law, he’s not even charged with that. As for the recitation of facts in the indictment, they will now be put to the test by defense counsel, who will have an opportunity to question the government’s witnesses (including Miller and Cooper), talk to their own witnesses, and conduct other discovery. People need to understand that this is just the first salvo.”

Levin on Plame – “It doesn’t matter what Plame’s neighbors did or did not know, which is why sending FBI agents out to interview neighbors had, in my view, little to do with the law, and everything to do with Fitzgerald wanting to announce, as he did today, that her neighbors didn’t know she worked at the CIA. Fitzgerald is trying to claim this is about defending a CIA officers identity and national security. But this is not the case. The issue, as a matter of law, is whether she was classified as covert by the CIA, and whether the CIA took steps to protect her identity.”

AP – Charges Don’t Directly Address CIA Leak

Blogcritics.org – The Question Not Asked

12:51 PM PDT – Statement by the President.

“Today I accepted the resignation of Scooter Libby. Scooter has worked tirelessly on behalf of the American people and sacrificed much in the service to this country. He served the Vice President and me through extraordinary times in our nation’s history.”

“Special Counsel Fitzgerald’s investigation and ongoing legal proceedings are serious, and now the proceedings — the process moves into a new phase. In our system, each individual is presumed innocent and entitled to due process and a fair trial.”

“While we’re all saddened by today’s news, we remain wholly focused on the many issues and opportunities facing this country. I got a job to do, and so do the people who work in the White House. We got a job to protect the American people, and that’s what we’ll continue working hard to do.”

“I look forward to working with Congress on policies to keep this economy moving. And pretty soon I’ll be naming somebody to the Supreme Court. Thank you all very much.”

A prediction from Bill Quick