Informed Speculation

I was a freshman at the University of Texas. U2 played 2 nights at the Summit in Houston to celebrate the release of their breakthrough The Joshua Tree, and the album had been out a grand total of three days when I saw them from about the 20th row, lower deck, six o’clock. 85% of [...]

…for the moment, as was widely reported last night from a leaker who was almost certainly Rove’s lawyer. The news conference will be at 1:00 p.m. central, I believe, and I will be on the road. It appears, though, that we can say with a fair degree of certainty that Libby will be indicted and [...]

No, I don’t have any inside info…but I’m going to be in and out during the day, and I leave later for my big U2 show tonight (woooooo-hoooooo!), so, after devoting so much time and space to PlameGate, I may very well miss any announcement. Here’s my guide (and it’s nothing many others haven’t said [...]

So reports the New York Times: Lawyers in the C.I.A. leak case said Thursday that they expected I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, to be indicted on Friday, charged with making false statements to the grand jury. Karl Rove, President Bush’s senior adviser and deputy chief of staff, will not [...]

My conservative brethren are relieved for the most part, and so am I. I am also deeply disappointed. There were elements on the right (not all her opponents, mind you, but I think we all know who they are) that behaved atrociously, and some of those same elements seem to think that they can throw [...]

Ryan James has the retrospective (and the floor seats!)…this will be my fifth show (yes, I’ve been saying fourth – I forgot I saw two shows on the Joshua Tree tour!). The other four? Houston (Summit) and Austin (Frank Erwin Center): The Joshua Tree San Antonio (AlamoDome): Pop Austin (Frank Erwin Center): All That You [...]

Mickey Kaus has the bill of particulars against the Times publisher: 1) Falling for Howell Raines’ con and hiring him as editor over Bill Keller, only to have to fire him after a scandal and staff rebellion, during which the publisher made an idiot of himself by brandishing a stuffed moose–Bad Move; 2) Bullying his [...]

You can read the short piece here. Answer: yes it can, but only in the long haul, by appealing to them as individuals and not a special interest group. We’ll never outpander the Democrats, nor should we attempt to. Incidentally, Time features a photo of Michael Steele, the Lt. Governor of Maryland. So does the [...]

The New York Times is reporting that tomorrow will be the day, as we’ve already surmised, when we hear from Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald…if he doesn’t make any announcement before about 11:30 or so in the morning, I’ll be on my way to Houston to see this little ol’ band…

My initial reaction…I would have liked to have seen her go to the hearings…but considering how divisive the nomination was, it’s probably for the better…more later… The initial CNN report suggests that the ‘cover’ of the document requests was indeed successful… Where do we go from here? Should Bush bow to the hardcore ‘rebels’ like [...]

The focus of the final Volcker Committee report will be on kickbacks: More than 4,500 companies took part in the United Nations oil-for-food program and more than half of them paid illegal surcharges and kickbacks to Saddam Hussein, according to the independent committee investigating the program. The country with the most companies involved in the [...]

…from all indications…naturally, I’ll be out of pocket most of the day as I hit the road for U2 in Houston, so all of you may well know before I do what Fitzgerald comes up with…good tidbits from the WaPo, though: The prosecutor in the CIA leak investigation presented a summary of his case to [...]

Regular readers of this blog will know that I am not a very confident camper heading into 2006; I think the Republicans are in for a very rude awakening if things don’t change, and quickly. I’m not the only one…Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard opens his new piece like this: IF YOU’RE A REPUBLICAN [...]

Well, it looks like Bono won’t have to worry about wearing that Astros cap after all. My fellow Texans have stunk it up, but good, this World Series. Before we bid goodbye to the boys of October, though, I highly recommend the following very informative and entertaining piece on the 1919 version of the Astros’ [...]

Judy Miller had better hope that book contract she will soon sign is lucrative (well, okay, probably not; I’m sure she’s richer than I’ll ever be and that the New York Times has a generous severance package). Reports the WSJ: New York Times reporter Judith Miller has begun discussing her future employment options with the [...]

Patrick Fitzgerald was seen meeting with the Chief Judge overseeing the PlameGate investigation – so add the possibility that Fitzgerald is seeking a grand jury extension to the list of unconfirmed speculation…

Our good friend Tom Maguire has thrown caution to the wind and come out with his fearless predictions: Libby goes to trial, and Rove walks. The rest, you’ll have to read for yourself – and don’t miss the TradeSports updates, either…you, too, can personally profit from the outing of Valerie Plame!… UPDATE 12:51 p.m.: The [...]

Of course, it’s anonymously sourced, like everything else PlameGate related… Meanwhile, in far more important news, President Bush addressed the Joint Armed Forces ‘Wives’ Luncheon yesterday, as you probably know. You can read the transcript here. This is the story that must not got lost in the buzzing, the reason why we are in Iraq: [...]

…we have the announcement that Andrew Heyward, who presided over the Rathergate fiasco as head of CBS News, will be be stepping down, to be replaced by Sean McManus of CBS Sports.

Lest anyone think anti-Semitism is not one of the driving motivations of radical Islam, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad crawled out from under his rock and spewed out the following venom: Iran’s hard-line president called for Israel to be “wiped off the map” and said a new wave of Palestinian attacks will destroy the Jewish state, [...]