Max Sawicky caught this ABC News article in which an Administrations spokesman claims that since the President has the authority to declassify something it basically means by definition he can't be considered a leaker... "It's like accusing a shopkeeper of shoplifting from himself" we're informed.  What it is is abuse of the classification system for political ends and their defense rests on the kind of legalistic hairsplitting that the media used to pound the Clinton Administration over. 

What happened here?  The President didn't authorized that the entire NIE paper be declassified and shown to the media and the general public, he authorized select "favorable" passages be made available to one "friendly" reporter in hopes of deflecting political criticism of his decisionmaking leading up to the Iraq war. 

Moreover, he was so confident that what he was doing was correct, within his inherent powers and done according to all previously established protocols that he avoided all previously established protocols and neglected to inform various intelligence officials (CIA, NSA, etc.) of his decision. 

Furthermore, since he was in the right, instead of directly and personally providing this friendly reporter (ie. Judith Miller) with said NIE passages or even showing copies of the "declassified" passages to a national television audience, he took it a step further and decided that information should first pass through his Vice President and then the Vice President's Chief of Staff before it got to the reporter. 

Finally, the friendly journalist who received the scoop did not mention that she got the information directly from the President, Vice-President or the VP's Chief of Staff when she used this information in her reporting. 

If this is on the up and up and proper why does it seem like there was a conscious effort to keep the President's role in it all so insulated?  Also, are you telling me something was declassified and given to only ONE reporter, who doesn't have any sort of security clearance to begin with?  Seems like an awful lot of sneaking around and obfuscation for something that isn't a leak, wouldn't you say? 

This might be one of those days that people remember in history.

The New York Times: 

In Court Filings Cheney Aide Says Bush Approved Leak

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he did not know what Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was talking about when she said last week that the United States had made thousands of "tactical errors" in handling the war in Iraq, a statement she later said was meant figuratively.

Speaking during a radio interview on WDAY in Fargo, N.D., on Tuesday, Rumsfeld said calling changes in military tactics during the war "errors" reflects a lack of understanding of warfare.

She's not the only one who lacks an understanding of warfare, Don.

The people who released footage of Saddam Hussein's dead sons are alarmed that Iraqi insurgents would release video of the Apache helicopter they shot down and the two American pilots they killed.  Oh the irony.

Well, Mr. Delay has saved himself from a "bruising" (please?) reelection fight that would have been quite tame compared to his upcoming legal battles.  Saying one's been undone by rabidly partisan Democrats means you never have to say you're sorry and so goes Tom.  Then again, when the people who ran your congressional office, a number of good friends (ie. campaign contributors and lobbyists) have been convicted of a variety of bribery and public corruption charges, and oh, by the way they're all suddenly wanting spill to the Feds, its gonna be really hard not to say that you didn't notice anything was wrong.  Watch his retirement speech and tell me the man doesn't seem more than a little nervous.  Whatever happens to Tom Delay from here on out its worth remembering that the Republican Party that holds Capitol Hill is Tom Delay's Republican Party, he built it, paid for it, and gave it its corrupt "ends justify the means" ethic and although the man is gone, his stench remains. 

 What is hard to believe is that by stepping down Delay can just convert his campaign chest into a legal defense fund?  Did those contributors give money to Mr. Delay with the thought of helping him avoid criminal prosecution?  Do you think most of the people that gave the man money did so knowing it would cover his legal bills?  I don't, nor should they, the man has his own money and plenty of fat-cat friends he's done favors for for years that he can go to if he needs it.  Knowing him he'll even raid one of those phony charity organizations he's set up for the money, but please, just leave the political contributions and contributors out of it.  If anything Democrats should introduce legislation to overturn any such provision in federal law as soon as possible because it in effect endorses all the crap Mr. Delay has pulled over the years. 

Make the Delay Republican Party vote to protect their man one more time... you know they want to and I can't think of a better opportunity to put their lack of principle or integrity in perspective.

Eschaton reports that Tom Delay told Chris Matthews that he's withdrawing from his re-election race and CNN has confirmed it.

Let's see, that's $200 million divided by 20 clinics over 2 years...so ten clinics per year at a cost of $10 million each and 122 that were never finished? 

Makes me wonder how the rebuilding of New Orleans is gonna go?

Update (4/4/06):  Christy Hardin Smith over at Firedoglake notes that Parsons is ranked no.2 in the amount of dollars received for contracts in Iraq in Afghanistan, after KBR/Halliburton, of course.

Atheist: America's most hated non-religious minority.

big picture:  Not always as promising as those who don't want to talk about the details would have you believe.

bombing campaigns:  Tend to be the next logical step when all other tactics have failed.

censure: One of the least consequential statements of Congressional displeasure.  Synonymous with "impeachment" as currently used.

civil war: You know it when you see it...except in cases where you need to officially deny it.

dead bodies:  Horrible.  Continue to get in the way of more favorable coverage of the situation in Iraq.

energy prices:  What goes up evidently stays up.

fiscal conservatism: Given a bad name by all those routinely referred to as "fiscal conservatives".

Hamas:  Inadvertent beneficiaries of "Democracy on the March" in the Middle East.  Terrorists. 

illegal:  Complicated issue.  Often confused with a situation in which one ignores or purposely breaks laws as enacted by Congress or other legislative bodies. 

immigration reform:  Evidently only applicable to undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Central America.

Istanbul:  What Baghdad would look like if there weren't any car bombings and assassination attempts.  See "dead bodies" or "civil war".

John McCain: Always principled.  Evidently holds the only legitimate claim to term "bipartisanship" on Capitol Hill.  Media darling.

lobbying reform:  Another worthy effort undone by the reformers.

multi-generational commitment:  A term once reserved for social welfare programs but more recently describes the President's position on Iraq.

New Orleans:  Not as compelling a disaster as previously thought.  Current estimates of 25 years to rebuild a major American city put further strain on the term "American Ingenuity".

plagiarism:  Not as big a career killer as previously thought. 

progress:  Great buzzword.  Much kinder in the abstract as opposed to any actual effort at objective measure. 

radical base:  Commonly used to describe those passionate partisans who are pandered to come election time but avoided at all costs afterwards.  Not applicable to the Republican Party.

revisionism:  Inflammatory charge used to attack critics when a previously reported official version of events doesn't actually pan out.

sectarian violence:  Much more palatable description of "civil war", than "civil war".

strategic errors:  Not to be confused with the cumulation of thousands of "tactical" errors.  Think "big picture".

We need a peace settlement that isolates the al-Qaeda fighters from the rest of Iraq.  In other words, a deal with the Sunni resistance.

From Riverbend in Baghdad:

E. was sitting at the other end of the living room, taking apart a radio he later wouldn’t be able to put back together. I called him over with the words, “Come here and read this- I’m sure I misunderstood…” He stood in front of the television and watched the words about corpses and Americans and puppets scroll by and when the news item I was watching for appeared, I jumped up and pointed. E. and I read it in silence and E. looked as confused as I was feeling.

The line said:

وزارة الدفاع تدعو المواطنين الى عدم الانصياع لاوامر دوريات الجيش والشرطة الليلية اذا لم تكن برفقة قوات التحالف العاملة في تلك المنطقة

The translation:

“The Ministry of Defense requests that civilians do not comply with the orders of the army or police on nightly patrols unless they are accompanied by coalition forces working in that area.”

That’s how messed up the country is at this point.