Tom Raum of the AP puts together one of the first DNC press releases disguised as a news story on the Libby conviction. Reading this leads you to believe that Richard Armitage, a Bush critic and the primary leaker of Plame’s name, never existed. This kind of propaganda is key to helping the Democrats achieve their goal, which is to make sure uninformed Americans believe that Libby is just the tip of the iceberg. In order for this to work, they need to count on the American public being ill informed about the details of the Libby case. And that’s where the MSM comes in. Watch CNN this afternoon. Look for a number of stories like Raum’s tomorrow and the rest of this week. Watch the Sunday news shows. The playbook has been distributed and the game is underway.
PunditGuy
Libby Guilty
Former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby has been convicted of obstruction, perjury and lying to the FBI in the investigation into the leak of Valerie Plame’s identity as a CIA operative.
The Counts
Obstruction of Justice – The indictment charges that Mr. Libby did “knowingly and corruptly endeavor to influence, obstruct and impede the due administration of justice by misleading and deceiving the grand jury” about when and how he learned that Plame worked for the CIA.
False Statements – Mr. Libby made false statements to FBI investigators during their interviews with him on October 14 and November 26, 2003, about his conversations with Tim Russert of NBC News and Matthew Cooper of Time Magazine.
Perjury – Mr. Libby committed perjury before the grand jury on March 5 and March 24, 2004, when testifying about his conversations with Mr. Russert and Mr. Cooper.
Libby will be sentenced in June.
One thing is clear. The media will use this judgment as an indictment against the Bush administration. They wanted Bush so they could impeach him. They couldn’t get him. They wanted the next best thing (Rove), but they couldn’t get him. They settled for Libby and now will project this conviction as if it were imposed on the entire White House. We’ll be hearing about this from now til election day 2008.
MORE: New York Times | MSNBC | CNN | AP | WaPo |
25 Years Gone
John Belushi overdosed and died 25 years ago on this day, on March 5, 1982.

From Wikipedia…
Known for his drug usage, which eventually cost him his life, Belushi was found dead on March 5, 1982, at age 33, in a hotel room at the Chateau Marmont on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. The cause of death was a speedball, an injection of cocaine and heroin. On the night of his death, he was accompanied by friends Robin Williams and Robert De Niro (at the height of their own drug exploits), who later left the premises, leaving Belushi in the company of Cathy Smith. His death was investigated by forensic pathologist Dr.Ryan Norris among others, and while the findings were disputed, it was officially ruled a drug-related accident.
RIP
Think Castro’s Not Such a Bad Guy? Think Again.
Political prisoner Armando Valladares describes his time in Castro’s gulag.
Once in prison, if the guards felt like punishing us, they would put us in cages, with mesh roofs, and walk along the edge while pouring buckets of urine and excrement all over our bodies. Sometimes, guards would shoot prisoners for target practice.
h/t Babalu Blog
Character Assassination
Following a weekend of press noting his high approval ratings, The Daily News submits this hit piece on Rudy Giuliani. According to the story, Rudy is a bad dad and a philanderer who makes a habit of playing marital musical chairs. The New York Times got in on the game too.
Welcome to the race for president Rudy. It’s only gonna get uglier.
Panderer
From M-W
Pan·der
Function: intransitive verb
Inflected Form(s): pan·dered; pan·der·ing
:to act as a panderer; especially : to provide gratification for others’ desires – See Hillary Clinton
Now the question remains…if Hillary is willing to put on a (badly done) southern drawl just to collect money and/or votes from an African American constituency, how long will it be before she admits to being a lesbian just to pull the Hollywood vote?
Uhmmm, Okaaaay…
Am I the only one who doesn’t ‘get’ the faggot comment by Ann Coulter? I mean, there has to be some kind of inside joke happening here, right?
It was a joke, wasn’t it?
“Averagely naughty, without being wicked.”
Shock! Picture of twenty something Tony Blair proves he was a normal college student prone to a prank now and then.
So he was a twit. Big deal.
Hot Potato
Al Mohler asks…
What if you could know that your unborn baby boy is likely to be sexually attracted to other boys? Beyond that, what if hormonal treatments could change the baby’s orientation to heterosexual? Would you do it?
Without question.
Temperature Check
From John Hawkins…
Right Wing News polled 63 right-of-center bloggers on eight issues of interest. The results, which you can see at the following address, may surprise you.