He went before Congress today and told us a lot of what we already know. But, again, it looks like this was definitely one of those cases where people wanted to wish that nothing happened instead of accepting the reality that Libby (and Rove and Cheney) were intimately involved with this leaking.
Excerpted liberally from the [...]

On the President’s tendency to lie to himself…

On misleading the American people…

On being part of the propaganda campaign to sell the war…

On knowing that the book would have an impact…

Frankly, this doesn’t sound like a guy who’s afraid of speaking his mind. I wonder if he will indeed testify, especially about the Rove/Libby/Plame stuff.
More as [...]

That’s what one Dem congressman wants…
Today Congressman Robert Wexler (D-FL) called for former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan to appear before the House Judiciary Committee to testify under oath regarding the devastating revelations made in his new book on the Bush Administration’s deliberate efforts to mislead the American people into the Iraq War.
“The [...]

Now it’s turning into a he said/he said scenario, and Rove is clever enough to know that he can muddy the waters enough simply by throwing a few big rocks into this pond…like when he says McClellan sounds like a left-wing blogger.
From Hannity and Colmes last night…

Folks, how out of the loop does Rove really [...]

After the administration threw Scott McClellan under the bus in the Plame affair, you knew this had to be coming. But most revealing is his inside info about the Iraq war.
Politico details some of his assertions:
• McClellan charges that Bush relied on “propaganda” to sell the war.
• He says the White House press corps was [...]

Yep. He’s talking out…finally.
From the book, “WHAT HAPPENED: Inside the Bush White House and What’s Wrong With Washington”:
“I stood at the White house briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the seniormost aides in the White House: Karl [...]

And he details how the conversation with Richard Armitage went down.
From SunTimes:
I then asked Armitage a question that had been puzzling me but, for the sake of my future peace of mind, would better have been left unasked.
Why would the CIA send Joseph Wilson, not an expert in nuclear proliferation and with no intelligence experience, [...]

Because of stories like this…
A veteran who spent 14 months in prison for filing a conscientious objector application against redeployment to Iraq has spoken out against the commutation of Scooter Libby’s sentence by President Bush.
“I was imprisoned for 14 months after trying to apply for conscientious objector status after seeing the reality of the Iraq [...]

I predicted a Libby pardon a couple days ago. Will it happen?

Via Sully
PRESS: “If there are more than 3,000 current petitions for commutation — not pardons, but commutation — in the federal system, under President Bush, will all 3,000 of those be held to the same standard that the president applied to Scooter Libby?”
SNOW: “I don’t know.”
I’d like to hear the answer to that one too. [...]

As I puzzled over Bush commuting Libby’s sentence today, I came up with what I think is a pretty straight forward explanation as to why it happened and why a pardon is forthcoming.
Libby recently lost an appeal to stay out of jail while he was appealing his guilty verdict. Only then did Bush decide to [...]

People don’t like it. Not one bit.
From Political Wire:
A new SurveyUSA instant poll finds just 21% of Americans agree with President Bush’s decision to commute Scooter Libby’s prison sentence, 60% say Bush should have left the judge’s prison sentence in place, and 17% wanted a full pardon.
The most important part of those numbers…
Only those familiar [...]

But doesn’t pardon him? That means that Scooter will still have a conviction on his record and will have to pay the $250K if he doesn’t win his appeal.
So why did Bush do it like this?
From CNN:
In a written statement commuting the jail sentence, issued hours after Monday’s ruling, Bush called the sentence “excessive,” [...]

Did he deserve it? Personally, I think he’s getting off easy for obstruction of justice, especially when it comes to outing a covert agent.
From CNN:
WASHINGTON (CNN) — I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was sentenced Tuesday to 30 months in prison for lying to investigators looking into the [...]

(NOTE: I’ve revised this one from March 16th, and included the bloggers who commented.)
Seriously. Let’s get a blogosphere show of hands.
See, the reason I’d like to hear from you is I’ve read that she wasn’t time and time again. I’ve seen people argue it in the comments sections when I’ve posted about Plame and [...]

How about that for a title?
From E&P (emphasis mine):
NEW YORK Dr. James Knodell, director of the Office of Security at the White House, told a congressional committee today that he was aware of no internal investigation or report into the leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame.
The White House had first opposed Knodell testifying but [...]

Gallup this time. But the numbers are interesting.

Those who followed the story closely…55% think he shouldn’t get a pardon, while 44% should.
Those who followed it somewhat closely…73% think no, while 25% think yes.
Those who didn’t follow it at all…66% say no, 15% say yes and 20% didn’t have an opinion.

Think it’s because of partisanship? Not [...]

But correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that about the same number who wants us to pull out of Iraq?
From CNN:
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Nearly 70 percent of Americans oppose a presidential pardon for former White House aide Lewis “Scooter” Libby after his conviction on perjury and other charges related to a CIA agent’s exposure, [...]

(Stolen from TMV.)

As a follow-up of sorts to my genetics of altruism post, The New York Times magazine had a fascinating, thought-provoking piece on the evolutionary advantages of belief.
Turns out that some scientists have been studying religion from an evolutionary perspective, trying to figure out why religion is universal when it is seemingly maladaptive to survival: usually, [...]