Karl Rove Indicted Last Week?

SPANISH INQUISITION?

Michael Axelrod: ‘Nonsense! James Reston, Jr. should try being a critic in a real dictatorship. Try Saudi Arabia for a start.’

YOU HAVE TO LAUGH

He climbed Mt. Everest, and . . . this takes ten seconds if you have broadband.

AMERICAN IDOL VOTE COUNT EXPOSED

M.I.T. Howard: ‘The whole country has just been subject to voting fraud (well maybe only the half who care). Yes, last week’s American Idol vote tallies were meaningless. Remember the percentages for the three finalists: 33.68%, 33.26%, 33.06%

Was America really this closely divided? Unlikely. The close percentages are a tribute to the quality of the phone system. The phone lines for all 3 candidates were saturated! The lines were open for a fixed period of time and the pipeline of people voting was enough to saturate the system. The phone system did a marvelous job of accepting almost identical vote tallies for each candidate. Now that’s good engineering.’

OHIO VOTE COUNT EXPOSED

Or at least seriously called into question – here.

WHAT AMERICA THINKS ABOUT THAT

More than half those polled who consider ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC or CNN their favored source of TV news feel the 2004 election was stolen, according to this – while just one-half of one percent of Fox News fans agree. Come back, Walter Cronkite – and Walter Cleaver and the Beave, for that matter – we need to be one country again!

WHAT MIKE WALLACE THINKS

I missed this in December when he gave an interview – at the age of 87 – to the Boston Globe:

Q. President George W. Bush has declined to be interviewed by you. What would you ask him if you had the chance?

A. What in the world prepared you to be the commander in chief of the largest superpower in the world? In your background, Mr. President, you apparently were incurious. You didn’t want to travel. You knew very little about the military. . . . The governor of Texas doesn’t have the kind of power that some governors have. . . . Why do you think they nominated you? . . . Do you think that has anything to do with the fact that the country is so [expletive] up?

KARL ROVE INDICTED LAST WEEK?

Couldn’t ‘a been – it wasn’t in the paper or on the news.

And yet, from the truthout.org blog . . .

By Marc Ash,
Sun May 21st, 2006 at 11:58:26 AM EDT :: Fitzgerald Investigation

I’d like to break this posting into two categories: What we know, and what we believe. They will be clearly marked.

We know that we have now three independent sources confirming that attorneys for Karl Rove were handed an indictment either late in the night of May 12 or early in the morning of May 13. We know that each source was in a position to know what they were talking about. We know that the office of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald will not confirm, will not deny, will not comment on its investigation or on our report. We know that both Rove’s attorney Robert Luskin and Rove’s spokesman Mark Corallo have categorically denied all key facts we have set forth. We know we have information that directly contradicts Luskin and Corallo’s denials. We know that there were two network news crews outside of the building in Washington, DC that houses the offices of Patton Boggs, the law firm that represents Karl Rove. We know that the 4th floor of that building (where the Patton Boggs offices are located) was locked down all day Friday and into Saturday night. We know that we have not received a request for a retraction from anyone. And we know that White House spokesman Tony Snow now refuses to discuss Karl Rove – at all.

Further, we know – and we want our readers to know – that we are dependent on confidential sources. We know that a report based solely on information obtained from confidential sources bears some inherent risks. We know that this is – by far – the biggest story we have ever covered, and that we are learning some things as we go along. Finally, we know that we have the support of those who have always supported us, and that must now earn the support of those who have joined us as of late.

We now move on to what we believe. (If you are looking for any guarantees, please turn back now.)

We believe that we hit a nerve with our report. When I get calls on my cell phone from Karl Rove’s attorney and spokesman, I have to wonder what’s up. “I” believe – but cannot confirm – that Mark Corallo, Karl Rove’s spokesman gave Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post my phone number. I believe Howard Kurtz contacted me with the intention of writing a piece critical of our organization. I know that Anne Marie Squeo of the Wall Street Journal attacked us and independent journalism as a whole in her piece titled, “Rove’s Camp Takes Center of Web Storm / Bloggers Underscore How Net’s Reporting, Dynamics Provide Grist for the Rumor Mill.” We believe that rolling out that much conservative journalistic muscle to rebut this story is telling. And we believe that Rove’s camp is making a concerted effort to discredit our story and our organization.

Further – and again this is “What We Believe” – Rove may be turning state’s evidence. We suspect that the scope of Fitzgerald’s investigation may have broadened – clearly to Cheney – and according to one “off the record source” to individuals and events not directly related to the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame. We believe that the indictment which does exist against Karl Rove is sealed. Finally, we believe that there is currently a great deal of activity in the Plame investigation.

We know that this story is of vital interest to the community, and that providing as much information as we can is very important to our readers. We want you to know that this is challenging territory and that we are proceeding with as much speed as the terrain will allow.

Marc Ash, Executive Director – t r u t h o u t