"I like to think of de-classifyin' as a way of using a filter to remove the filter. Heh, heh."

Ahrrrgh...it's been a while since a straight-up newsie post. Working on other things, but never losing touch with what matters. Such as being aghast at all the folks who've judged Bill Clinton's smackdown of Chris Wallace without actually taking the time to watch the interview. It will fully blow your mind, guaranteed. Bill's still the smartest guy anywhere near the Federal government - current or past tense. And the attacks on him thereafter just prove once again how much he's hated by the right-wing crowd. Compelling TV, nonetheless.

This whole National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) de-classification debate is as much fun as having a testicle rammed up where testicles don't usually chill. Dubya's gotta deal out more than 3 pages of 30. And it's gonna hurt. For everyone. But the Bushies will eventually dangle from this one. Just imagine one scenario from this document's description. Imagine that our intelligence services estimate that our Iraq operations over 3 years at a cost of well beyond $400 Billion and approaching 3000 American lives made us less safe. Created terrorists. Wasted our advantage. Lost us allies. And left us open to attack. Now just imagine that someone actually cared that this scenario was more than real - it was the currently agreed upon truth from the professionals. So they leak it before the election. And then raise the dubious ire of Dubya as a "political" move. Even though the Bushies' misappropriating the truth of this "War" for purely political purposes should be so, so much more appalling. Dubya tried to discredit this NIE as the view of the shite from way back in April. As if anything's been fixed since then. Face it, you 14,000 die-hard Dubya supporters living in your Y2K bunkers waiting for the other shoe to drop...you're horse is so far out of the barn there just ain't no gettin' it back.

I'll get through some more of the backlog in the next few days. All's well on this end - Maya's taken to the Lutherans like a fish to a new bicycle that's got a comfy banana seat. Hope your own logic somehow works today. Rock on.