Treason?
Ruh-roh:Rep. Jane Harman , the California Democrat with a longtime involvement in intelligence issues, was overheard on an NSA wiretap telling a suspected Israeli agent that she would lobby the Justice Department to reduce espionage-related charges against two officials of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful pro-Israel organization in Washington.
* * *
In exchange for Harman’s help, the sources said, the suspected Israeli agent pledged to help lobby Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., then-House minority leader, to appoint Harman chair of the Intelligence Committee after the 2006 elections, which the Democrats were heavily favored to win.
Seemingly wary of what she had just agreed to, according to an official who read the NSA transcript, Harman hung up after saying, “This conversation doesn’t exist.”
Jane, Jane, in George W. Bush’s America your conversations are forever.
1. Congressman Jane Harman (D – CA) told a suspected Israeli agent that she would lobby the Justice Department to reduce espionage-related charges against two officials of AIPAC, the powerful pro-Israel lobby.
2. This is known because of an NSA Wiretap.
3. The suspected Israeli agent then promised to lobby Nancy Pelosi to make Harman chair of the House Intelligence Committee after the 2006 elections (she wasn’t).
4. There were some reports of this influence peddling in 2006, but it was dropped for a “lack of evidence” by Alberto R. Gonzales, who intervened to stop the investigation.
5. Gonzales intervened because he wanted Harman to defend the administration’s warrantless wiretapping program, which was about [to] break in The New York Times.
6. And she promptly went out and defended it.
Nobody could have predicted ….
Sources: Wiretap Recorded Rep. Harman Promising to Intervene for AIPAC [CQ Politics]
Watch how the MSM will ignore it like the Larry Franklin mess starring Jane’s friends at AIPAC.
Hear Jane blab
Wiretap Jane’s comms
Watch Jane get outted
Spin Jane Spin
Democrats. They’re just like them.
Ironic she would have had a lifetime’s involvement with intelligence issues.
And P.S. What is she wearing? Conforming to stereotype here but really, WTF? She looks like a Barcalounger.
Can’t wait for further developments. But this has not shaken my faith in Change and Hope. More than ever I Hope we can Change.
I remember recently reading a defense of the right-wing Israel lobby (AKA: AIPAC) stating that they were no different from the Cuban lobby or the gun lobby. And I’m thinking to myself: “If that’s a defense of AIPAC, I’d hate to see what critics have to say about it.”
She defended the wiretap program that… got her on tape seemingly trading pressure on a prosecution for a chairmanship and then going all Ministry of Truth on us.
Also: AIPAC has been asking for it for a long time. But in a world with Mahmoud (who still thinks himself too sexy for a necktie), as well as Hamas and its band of unmerry men, anybody coming after AIPAC is still going to get their political legs broke.
CNN is playing a live press conference by a UFO organization, and the head nutcase, who has teh crazee eyes and cuts and bruises on his face like he fell down went boom during his ether binge last night, is saying that he has information which indicates that the Obama administration is going to disclose the ET presence, and he says if Obama doesn’t do it by the end of May, he is going to blow the whistle.
So that will be interesting.
Ok, political newbie time. I will state in advance that I am asking an honest question, and not implying anything about any people, religions, organizations, etc.
Why the fuck are we so pro-Israel, as a country? Israel seems to have done some pretty shitty things lately, things that would land other, less-favored nations, in the doghouse. I know the answer is likely complicated, but I’d appreciate a little primer if anyone can condense it for me.
(What I already understand: there’s Jews here, and Jews are obviously going to be generally pro-Israel. AIPAC has boatloads of money. Israel started as a beautiful dream in 1948 or so, presumably as some kind of repercussion of WWII. That can’t be all, though.)
@Prommie: Maybe he’ll break the news during Alien Daze UFO Fest here in Mac.
@IanJ: Because they are God’s chosen people per the Old Testament and we are a Christian nation. Every politician who ever spent a day in church or Sunday school knows the stories. That’s my take, anyway.
@redmanlaw: I suppose it could also be a sort of collective liberal guilt regarding the gazillion years of persecution culminating in the Holocaust. Interesting perspective, that wouldn’t have occurred to me.
@IanJ:
Also guilt plays a role. Before WW2, the US America and the West in general did not have a very good history with the Jews. Oddly, the Japanese had a better record defending Jews than the US did albeit for odd if not twisted reasons.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Japan
Now, it’s all about the money.
@IanJ: Cause they are a non-Arab state in that place where there’s all that there oil. We can give them weapons and use them as a proxy in exerting dominance over an area rich in a vital natural resource. They give us an excuse for attacking countries like Iraq and Iran (or else, they commandeered our defense department and used our army to attack Iraq and almost Iran, too, I am not sure which, it might be mutual, the thing between them and the neocons). And the number of jews in the US is sufficient to make courting their votes very worthwhile. Defense contractors make money selling our most expensive weapons to them, too, and they therefore lobby the guv to give Isreal the money to buy the weapons.
Oh, pretty much everything ugly and crooked in US politics and foreign affairs is present in a major way in the US-Isreal dynamic.
TJ/ Headline of the day for me.
“Yankees may pull Wang from rotation”
http://www.fannation.com/truth_and_rumors/view/99832-yankees-may-pull-wang-from-rotation
Yes, it might seem rather insensitive considering I am Asian but I can’t stop laughing. I haven’t had a good laugh like this since Joan Loves Chachi (Chachi sounds like Korean for penis.) I am a 12 year moran.
@IanJ: The fundies are very pro-Israel because they believe the return of the Jews to the Holy Land will hasten the end times, the return of the Messiah, and Armageddon. Southern men also have a lot of respect anyone who can fight like the Israelis. The Six Day War did more to ease anti-Semitism in the South than anything before or since.
@ManchuCandidate: Thats so cool. When do you think they will put Wang back in? Does the manager ever have to yank Wang when he is getting creamed out there?
@Prommie:
The manager has had to prematurely pull out Wang the last three times. Wang got whacked by the Indians on Saturday on National TV, well, Faux.
Problem with Wang is that his balls aren’t dropping the way they’re supposed to (seriously! He’s a sinkerball pitcher who needs to keep his balls low or he’ll get pounded.)
TJ/ CP emerges from winter hibernation, sees shadow, six more weeks of snark-free posts anticipated.
Okay, return to the usual high-brow discussion of whether Wang is capable of going the distance or not.
@ManchuCandidate: What was the weather like for that game? Warm?
@redmanlaw:
Yes. Not shrinkage weather.
@Nabisco: Maybe they should give away steak knives?
@Nabisco: Who’s your pick for New York’s open Senate seat?
Nabisco: God. Greg must have been drunk. Seriously — he hasn’t posted in months, and he puts up something at 0106 EDT this morning.
Now: I am not at all against drunk-blogging. Hell — it’s the best kind. But drunk bloggers have a little bit of self-awareness. Greg? Not so much. (And besides — it was stale and boring. Which, of course, is a Blog Fashion Don’t.)
@ManchuCandidate: Wang can’t hit the box?
@nojo: Perhaps he has begun to fear the bats of others. How long before he feels the rubber on the mound and looks his catcher in the eye?
@Benedick: And what’s up with the Member of Congress and American flag pins just randomly tacked up on her shoulder? My grandma had a couch in that pattern in the ’70s.
Let’s not forget that they are a stable liberal democracy in a place where there are very few such governments. That, and they let us base troops in the region and provide intelligence regularly.
Very “Deep Space 9”, now that I think about it….
@SanFranLefty: And I think in that very fabric.
OK. Now I have to go and do something butch like play with my powertools.
@SanFranLefty: @Benedick:
How much do you think she spent on that little number? Gah, it is so ugly I bet it roams the street at night, sniffing for the blood of innocents.
@Tommmcatt the Wet Sprocket: As a friend explained to me back in the day, that DS9 analogue is not by chance. You know how Ron Moore likes his scifi political metaphors.
@Tommmcatt the Wet Sprocket: @Benedick: Is that houndstooth?
Ratsfang, I would say.
@SanFranLefty: That is not, I repeat, NOT houndstooth.
@ManchuCandidate: @nojo: @Prommie: @Nabisco: Excellent discussion of Wang’s late-season droop, gentlemen. Being related to Sport it took me a while to cotton on.
@Tommmcatt the Wet Sprocket: Rattan, like patio furniture. Or maybe that soft flexy straw used for baskets like hippies carry at the farmer’s market.
@SanFranLefty: There are so many things wrong with it, I hardly know where to begin. The double stand-up collar? The member pin on the armpit? The weird zipper thing that doesn’t go all the way down? The wonky looking boob flaps? The beige turtleneck that might just be her actual neck? The whole thing is very “chip in a chip way” as La Malandrino would say.
@Jamie Sommers: @SanFranLefty: @Benedick: On a positive note, it makes me miss my Baja pullover I had in 7th grade.
tj/Stephen Hawking hospitalized.
@Jamie Sommers: boob flaps
Be sure to take credit when I steal that sometime in the next five years.
Which came first…the brown background or the outfit?
@cuthbert:
The outfit. That outfit predates humanity. It is a curse of the Elder Gods- Shub N’uggurath wore it at her coming out party.
@Jamie Sommers: The turtleneck channels Space: 1999 in my mind for some reason.
@rptrcub:
I think Harmon’s Barbara Bain feathered hair cut helps with that.
@rptrcub: Even I wouldn’t dare that reference. And now that I look into it, who knew that Barbara Bain divorced Martin Landau in 1993?
Space 1999! Now there’s bad TV I can get behind.
@Tommmcatt the Wet Sprocket: An early knock-off of Di-Or of the Kissy-Lips.
@nojo: Indeed: I tread among bad sci-fi references, which is probably par for the course amongst the Stinquers. But srsly, what caused the divorce after they married, like, in 1957?
@rptrcub: Wasn’t Landau a drinker, or was that Lithgow? Alls I know is that Cinnamon Carter was le sigh of my youth.
@Benedick:
Yes indeed. It was rated #2 worst SF TV of all time or something like that among SF critics. But I have to say it had one of the most, er, dramatic opening themes on TV.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DF9nDJZrdA
I admit to having a weakness for bad Brit SF TV which explains why I own the DVD sets for UFO and Space 1999.
@ManchuCandidate: How did that UFO press conference that Prommie was talking about go?
@ManchuCandidate: Well! Haven’t seen or heard that in some thirty years…
Now, if I’m lucky, the local jazz station will cleanse my mind with some Lalo Schifrin this afternoon.
@ManchuCandidate: The apotheosis of Brit sci-fi has got to be Thunderbirds Are Go! complete with puppets and very elaborate models which then carried over into Space 1999 . One of the puppets showed up as a character on Ab Fab.
@rptrcub: Maybe they didn’t like each other any more?
@Benedick: I’d rather go with a booze/floozy theory, personally.
@Benedick: Speaking of British sci-fi, AMC has remade/is remaking The Prisoner.
I have but vague distant memories of Thunderbirds, and still await the live-action remake of Wacky Races, although I’m uncertain about whom to cast as Penelope Pitstop.
@Benedick, Manchu, Nojo: Don’t forget Fireball XL5, with puppets, spaceships and the cool theme song.
I only remember Captain Scarlet, his lucky number was 13.
@redmanlaw: Now I remember what creeped me out about those shows: the eyes.
Looks like we chased the girls away about an hour and a half ago.
@redmanlaw: Hey! Come back! The dress looks like my Volkswagen upholstery! It’s safe!
@redmanlaw:
It’s not that we chased them away. I think that once we unleashed our inner geeks, they ran away screaming.
TJ: There is nowhere to go on TV anymore for a good old song and dance number, except Family Guy. This one is called “Bag of Weed:” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_fldwTQaG4
@Prommie: Scrubs did a good musical episode a few seasons back. How’s Cafe Prom coming along?
Wow, after a slow weekend on Stinque the bad fashion and the sci-fi really brings everyone out! Nice to see…
@redmanlaw: Have an artist working on the logo and sign, contacting purveyors, the LLC is formed, bank account opened, but we don’t get physical possession until May 7, so we will be sprinting from there.
@Benedick: Jim Caviezel or however you spell his name, so it’ll have that Christiany flavo(u)r to it. Simply known as “Six.” And I don’t think the penny-farthing bicycle will appear on it.
@homofascist: Slow afternoons while you’re in holding patterns waiting on faculty to get back to you will do that, too.
I have seen undertakers do far more lifelike makeup work, by the way, also.
Note on the Space: 1999 thing — if you’re in Seattle this coming weekend, you should drop in to Open Circle Theater, where they’ll be lambasting Space: 1999 in an episode of OCTV. I hear reports that it’s freakin’ hilarious.
Also to all: thanks for the thoughts on Israel. I figured it would be something like that, but it’s good to hear other opinions. I particularly like Prom’s explanation about a democratic (and friendly) gov’t sitting on the same oil-bearing sandy wastes as all those other, less-friendly countries. If I can trace it back to oil, it all makes sense.
@Jamie Sommers: Not only is there the weird faux mandarin collar on that jacket, but it looks like there’s some sort of weird floppy tie (a la ’80s fashion) between the flesh-colored turtleneck and the sofa jacket.
@ManchuCandidate: You didn’t drive me away with your science fiction talk, I was busy having lunch for two hours with Dodger, Ewalda, and [drum roll] Flying Chainsaw. Great time, two beers, one bottle of wine, one glass of wine consumed by the table (pretty impressive for noon on a Monday). No photos, for obvs. reasons.
@SanFranLefty:
So, what is FCS like?
@ManchuCandidate: If I told you, I’d later disappear.
@ManchuCandidate: @SanFranLefty: You’ve both said too much already…nice knowing ya.
How cool is that! Dodger is great, isn’t he? Not that Ewalda and FCS aren’t, but they are still just internet ghosts to me.
Oh, and sharp eyes on the tie, there. Is it made of the same hideous material? The mind reels.
@Tommmcatt the Wet Sprocket: @SanFranLefty: Oh good, we’re back to fashion. That jacket is such an abomination the zombies in the Stinque bible wouldn’t be seen undead in it. Although they’d like to know who does her makeup. It suddenly occurred to me: what if that is the jacket of a suit and she’s wearing that Barcalounger pelt head to toe? The mind reels just trying to imagine.
Don’t even get me started on the awful plastic surgery.
@Tommmcatt the Wet Sprocket: What tie? I don’t see a tie?
@Mistress Cynica: oh, I’m certain it’s a suit. She’s far too matchy-matchy with the turtleneck color for that not to be a suit.
It is there if you look close. Either that or the lapels have grown lapels of their own, like a fungus.
What are the odds on the pants having wide, church-lady pleats? Pretty good, I’ll bet…
@Jamie Sommers: I was trying to point to the photo with my mouse and then realized you’re not sitting next to me.
Look really closely at the base of her throat, below the turtleneck.
@Mistress Cynica: Of course it’s a suit. I just pray to FSM that it’s a St. John’s skirt suit and not a Hillary pants suit.
P.S. Her plastic surgery is no worse than Pelosi’s or Barbara Boxer’s jobs. Harman is from SoCal, after all, home of blow up lips and vaginal regeneration surgeries, among other medical atrocities. Jane’s plastic surgery still looks better than the Octomom’s.
That’s not Cloris Leachman?
So a US Congresswoman commited treason? Is it Presidential Medal of Freedom season already?
gasp!
You. Met. FCS!!! OMGOMGOMGOMG!
Without giving too much away, does his REAL name rhyme with Narack Womoma? (As I speculated during the primaries. Hey there’s a reason BHO was so desperate to hang onto that Blackberry.)
@Original Andrew: No, it does not.
@nojo: ding, ding, ding!
The webz have been silent on both Chainsaw and Rush Linblow for quite awhile now. Just sayin…
@Nabisco: @SanFranLefty:
I always saw Chainsaw as the little black dude from Spy VS. Spy. I’m worried if I ever met him in person the mystique would wither and die….
@IanJ: Ian, Israel has no oil, but they are near the oil countries, and we make sure that they are a powerful thorn in the ass of the oil rich countries.
FCS is our Keyser Soze
@Benedick: You want butch? How about the gay SWAT team guy from Albuquerque?
http://www.abqjournal.com/news/state/202248262890newsstate04-20-09.htm
tj/Anyone else watching “The Last Waltz” on vh1 Classic with commentary by Martin Scorsese and Robbie Robertson? Es pretty cool.
@redmanlaw: They won’t let me read it because I’m not a subscriber. Are newspapers still trying to make money or something?
@Tommmcatt the Wet Sprocket:
I made a boring ass of myself, as is my wont. SFL was the gracious and engaging host, as always. Dodger is charming and entertaining. Chainsaw is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, and conversant in many things.
I have spent the last few hours watching/listening to DCI performances online. Flame on, Blue Devils / Vanguard / Scouts / Regiment / Crossmen / Cadets / Spirit / Star / Cavaliers / Crusaders / et. al. .
Alums, remember your years in the Corps with pride.
@Mistress Cynica: I googled it and found it at the link below:
http://awildmonkeydance.blogspot.com/2009/04/gay-cop-struggle.html
What an amazing and yet sad story. I hope those guys know that they can get living wills, medical and financial powers of attorney that can give them some of the benefits they need, especially hospital visitation.
There may also be a way to mitigate the benefits issue, depending upon how the plan is set up. They need a good financial advisor and attorney.
@Original Andrew: I’m sure they will be getting tons of offers to help now that the story is out. That sheriff Darren White, btw, is a self-promoting, hard right Bush committeeman who was probably advised to be cool with the guy, at least in the story. A former Santa Fe County sheriff’s deputy who is a lesbian was harassed out of her job by the knuckle draggers and mouth breathers around here. The word is that she got a nice fat settlement that she could retire on and got herself an alpaca farm.
@redmanlaw: OMFG, I will offer to represent them. Please.
@Tommmcatt the Wet Sprocket: I met Dodger a year ago IRL when Rptrcub was in town for work and Dodger was in town for work and Libertarian Tool/Hose Manikin was free. And yes, he’s a rock star.
@Ewalda: Darling, why so self-effacing? You were not an ass – you were fabulous and it was great to see you again. And we were dazzled in Chainsaw’s presence. I don’t remember the last time I went from denouncing the Talibunny to discussing the finer points of bugle corps and discussing the best campgrounds in New Zealand in the span of 15 minutes.
@Promnight: Totes Keyser Soze.
@Original Andrew: @Original Andrew: Um, hello, this article is missing a hook. By which I mean pictures, preferably shirtless and sweaty, tattoos and all.
@homofascist: The paper has two photos, none of which would meet your standards.
@Ewalda: Now stop that. I found you utterly charming.
@Ewalda: Well I thought you were a dick.
@homofascist: (hee hee – we’ve never met)
@homofascist:
meanwhile, Harmon’s story hit the MSM tonight, but nobody is pointing out how hideous her outfit is. Where are the gheyz in the liberal media?
So what happens when a Congressperson commits treason and–more importantly–gets caught? Firing squad at dawn? Last cigarette and all that? Leonard Cohen playing during the montage, perhaps?
FLYINGCHAINSAW • TRUMP: MACHINE GUNNING ORPHANAGES AND CONVENTS BY ME IS CONSTITUTIONAL AND SOMETIMES IT MAKES ME ERECT WITHOUT PHARMACEUTICAL ASSISTANCE! Sen. sENEMA has a career ahead of her in giving designer psychedelic enemas to trust-fund…
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