Our Pet Peeve (and then some more of my own peeves)

We got him at PetCo today, his accessories cost more than he did. (For those who are curious, he is a male Beta Fish. Other interesting tidbits on the adventure can be found here.

Here's another look:


OK now on to intelligence scandals. The first involves Valerie Plame and the Journos that are hiding the name of the scumbag in the White House who revealed Former Ambassador Wilson's wife was a covert CIA agent (something the scum would sit in jail for). TIME's Michael Cooper is making himself the martyr to the journalistic shrine. This way, we can all write about him and magazine, newspaper, and TV people can get up on a pedestal and remind us mortals of how wonderful and ethical journalists are. If a politician did this, we would all scoff and ignore it, but since journalists do this worshiping, we all have to listen to this crap. I am sorry but if you are covering up in a crime by not revealing a source, then you should go to jail too. Another problem is the over-reliance on unnamed sources, who can slander and lie without real repercussions. The Plame Affair is the apex of the phenomenon (and hopefully the end of it).

The second is Chuck "Hey I am the senior Senator from New York" Schumer and his fuss over the leaking the news of Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan's capture (who as a double agent in Pakistan) and blaming it on the White House. But reading the tea leaves of another unnamed source it seems that this is a person at State maybe CIA/FBI, but definitely not the White House.

The third is another Senator, Republican Richard Shelby, who like Schumer is going to coast to reelection and is hoarding his multimillion dollar warchest despite public groans from other senators and their party's campaign committees. The Senator from Alabama was the source of intelligence leaks that were fussed over last summer (and he was the ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee at the time).

Well, ok I lied, we got 4 things. Retiring Florida Republican Congressman (and ex-clandestine service CIA agent) Porter Goss has finally been named by President Bush to replace disgraced and departed DCI George "It's a slam dunk" Tenet. Finally, Democrats are growing what Bush calls cajones (he speaks 5 words of Spanish remember? Of course, that alone means Hispanics should vote for him right? Viva Bush indeed.) and will be grilling the crap out of Goss, just in time for the election. The committee vote (with John Edwards having a seat) will be soon so that the full Senate (and more importantly John Kerry) will have a vote on Porter by September.

Not such a great move Bush. Lets just all remind everyone what a crappy job the CIA did on Iraq and WMDs and lets recall that Goss and his House Committee (he was chair of the House Intelligence Committee) rubber stamped the intel to the house and possibly other senators in the rush to war with Iraq. Goss was also supposed to be asking the tough questions to intelligence officials in making us safe before 9/11, but I guess being one of the guys might have compromised things just a bit.

You see Porter, Congress has a role in government, they are supposed to look out for the people and be watchdogs over government agencies to make sure they keep us safe and don't rip us off. I think you failed on both accounts sir. We were charged hundreds of billions, not to mention the loss of over 900 of our young men and women, or our standing in the world for a war that actually made us more vulnerable to attack from terrorists. Somehow I don't think he deserves a promotion to DCI.