Rove == perjury?, the ill tempered fools of the DLC, Andy Tweeten unharmed in Montana earthquake, surprise Israeli settler poll

There was a big earthquake over in Montana, and I shot Andy an email about it. He says he's doing all right, but the big thing he's looking out for is the Yellowstone Caldera, which could really take out the whole area if it blew up. What is in Yellowstone's Future? There was an earthquake off the coast of Kamchatka just a little while later.

Couple days ago: Bloomberg Reporting That Rove, Libby May Be Subject To Perjury Charges

Arianna raises a theory that Judith Miller herself got very angry with Joe Wilson, which propelled her into telling Rove Plame was a CIA agent. In other words, good Judy was very much a fellow traveler of the neocons and Chalabi, and therefore took accusations they were spoofing the intelligence very personally. That would be a horrible twist, yes?!?! Steve Clemons on it, he thinks it tracks loosely with other things he's heard.

Social Security: Thomas Frank, a good article on the trillion dollar hustle. Frank is doing this Book Club thing online at TPMcafe and it's pretty interesting. He also linked to Pissed Off White Truck Driver Guy:

Can't you morons in the DLC see that blue-collar America clings to the Repubs. because the Repubs. WANT us. And they PROVE it by consistently addressing just 1 or 2 wedge issues that concern blue collar America. Nevermind that these issues don't even relate to our work life; it still trumps the absolute NOTHING that Democrats offer!

And _traditional_ Democratic values offer the blue-collar worker nothing less than actual salvation from what ails him at work. But these working-man values - even the mere NAMING of these ailments we are plagued with - have been WITHHELD for 20 years! Not a peep. Not a sound. No one comes. No one speaks. No one gives a diagnosis. 

So, clearly, we have been thrown away. Disposed of. And there still are MILLIONS of us. Millions who could be voting Democratic by 2006 if the Party would actually come and talk to us, beginning with the NAMES of the Unfair Labor Practices used against us everyday. Posing for pictures with John Sweeney once every 4 years is not even in the ballpark of what is needed!

Do you want us? Really?

Then show us. Come down to the loading dock.

The GOP wishes to investigate Pat Fitzgerald. Josh Marshall thinks it's funny that Sen. Roberts is such a tool, but will Hastert try to can PattyPat?. Also a dude named Murray Waas on the situation. Agonist notes: For Two Aides in Leak Case, 2nd Issue Rises: NYT - At the same time in July 2003 that a C.I.A. operative's identity was exposed, two key White House officials who talked to journalists about the officer were also working closely together on a related underlying issue: whether President Bush was correct in suggesting earlier that year that Iraq had been trying to acquire nuclear materials from Africa.

Also see: Ex-CIA Officers Rip Bush Over Rove Leak and related thread: Testimony By Rove And Libby Examined

Also WaPo: "Prosecutor In CIA Leak Case Casting A Wide Net" now including all that damn fake intelligence!!!

Always worth checkin in on Juan Cole. Just found occupationwatch.org and its list of news aggregators.

CNN.com - U.S. study: Insurgents infiltrate Iraq police - Jul 25 Raimondo: Blowback in Iraq: The U.S. invasion empowered Iran: was that the agenda all along?

Maybe I put this before but its worth repeating: Government Defies an Order to Release Iraq Abuse Photos. Sad: Burns in NY Times: If It's Civil War, Do We Know It - Iraq. Patrick Cockburn: Sunday Independent - Iraq has descended into chaos way beyond West's worst-case scenario. Peter Galbraith: NY Review of Books: Iraq: Bush's Islamic Republic

The DLC is quite catty these days. (via Atrios)

If only we could hear such moral clarity from our own party's left! Instead, we heard from Daily Kos, the ur-liberal ur-blogger, whose blog included a cheer for, among others, outcast Labourite George Galloway, who blamed the attacks on Blair's Iraq policy -- and was roundly denounced by virtually all British politicians. "See, Democrats? That's how it's done," lectured the blogger ignorantly [Ed note: This item was written by "Bill in Portland Maine," a regular contributor to Daily Kos]. Likewise, Matt Yglesias, an articulate liberal voice at The American Prospect, who belittled Marshall Wittmann's call for moral clarity as a phrase never used "unironically" anymore. No wonder Democrats are perceived to have a values problem.
My liberal friends are quick to point out that the left's chief grievance is with the war in Iraq, not the war on terror. But what does it do for the image of the Democratic Party -- not to mention the thinking of rank and file Democrats -- when some of our most skilled commentators use a moment of unambiguous terror to first find fault with an American policy (unseating Saddam Hussein) rather than first condemning the terrorists? It's both morally wrong and politically dumb. These musings in the left-wing blogosphere may be read regularly by only a few thousand people, but they seep into the intellectual bloodstream of the Democratic Party. They once again place Democrats on the wrong side of the ultimate issue of our time: winning the war on terror.

Haaretz - U.S.-Israel crisis deepens over defense exports to China. Corridors of Power / Who would give the go-ahead? Peace Now: TV program funding incitement by extreme right wing. This stuff about the religious right wing wanting to take over the state, and their bizarre messianic theology, is most alarming.
The results of this poll of Israeli settlers are fascinating:

Compensation law should apply to West Bank too, settlers say

By Akiva Eldar, Haaretz Correspondent

Most settlers want the government to compensate residents of West Bank settlements - and not just those from the Gaza Strip - who move within the Green Line, according to a poll conducted by Market-West on behalf of the Peace Now movement. 

Fifty-three percent of settlers said the Evacuation-Compensation Law, which determines that settlers evacuated under the disengagement plan will receive compensation payment, should also apply to the West Bank.

While a solid majority of religious settlers (83.6 percent) oppose the disengagement, the level of support for the pullout among the secular settler population is not much lower than the level in the overall Israeli population. Nearly 47 percent of secular settlers support the pullout from Gaza and part of the northern West Bank, while 58 percent of the overall population expressed support for the plan. 

The Peace Now poll, conducted on July 18, surveyed a representative sample of 503 people over the age of 18 from 57 settlements. Of the respondents, 126 described themselves as secular, 207 as religious, 111 as traditional and 60 as ultra-Orthodox. 

A slight majority of secular settlers oppose continued construction in the West Bank settlements, the poll found.

While 51.3 percent of secular settlers say further construction must be prevented, 42.7 percent expressed support for more building in the West Bank. 

However, 67 percent of the overall settler populace expressed support for the construction of new West Bank settlements, an increase of 6 percent since January. 

A whopping 86.6 percent of religious settlers expressed support for continued construction, while just 7.5 percent oppose more building. 

Among settlers who described themselves as traditional, 58.1 percent support continued settlement construction and 35.2 percent oppose it. 

Among the ultra-Orthodox settlers, 66.7 percent said they support more construction and 25.4 percent oppose it.

Well who knows, even settlers can surprise the hell out of me.