I'm a bit embarrassed by the state of my blog lately. The fact is I haven't put out a new post for nearly a month. Part of this is due to the increasing pressures of work and family, and partly this is due to the fact that I really have very little to add to the news these days. It appears the Republicans are disintegrating, or at the very least reaching new heights of paroxysms and seizures. So what? I had assumed that would be the case, like rising gas prices and falling house prices, months ago. Been there, predicted that.
Let me point out a seminal event in the history of my own blog -- my first "fisking" by a right wing blogger. Back in June I predicted that the Plame affair would have more significance than the so-called Downing Street Minutes. The winger agreed that the minutes didn't amount to much, at least in terms of a media event, but he also took me to task for suggesting that "Plamegate" (since we all know that '-gate' suffix equals "scandal") would actually amount to something:
You can throw incendiary allegations around, or you can engage in careful fact-checking and do your homework. I didn't see much of the latter in your post, although the tone was, for the most part, reasonable. But you still have to make your case.
Let me be the first to say -- and I mean this with all humility -- "nyah, nyah." Sorry Mr. Wingnut, but with time the fact-checking and homework -- in short, reason -- has ended up on my side of the debate. If you want a case, read the indictment.
Is there some evidence to back this up? Say, to refute the conclusions of the Butler Report, the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, or the 9/11 Commission, which all concluded that there was no improper manipulation of intelligence?
In some sense all this remains to be seen, and will unfold in the fullness of time. In another sense, you wear your willful ignorance on your sleeve to even make such a suggestion. Don't take my word for it -- read it in tomorrow's newspapers, if you can maintain your attention that long. As the old joke goes, what do you call the arrest of a senior Whitehouse official, even if it is just the assistant to the VP? Answer: a good start. I predict, in the spirit of my remarkably prescient (yet somewhat recently quiescent) blog, that this is just the first of many.
- jack*
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