Judy is back on the Neocon payroll

* jim henley on the iranian badges:

"They made it up. Taheri and The Post ran a provably false report, on their own initiative or at the behest of some publicity-shy agency of some government or other, played in as inflammatory way as possible. Why? So that months from now, someone hearing about plans to bomb Iran, or seeing footage of bombing on TV, will say to themselves, “Didn’t I read that Iran was going to round up all the Jews and make them wear yellow stars like the Nazis? Something like that. Well, good riddance.” All the story had to do was live long enough to get into circulation."

* emptywheel:

This news tells us two things we already know--that Judy is back on the Neocon payroll (or at least some faction thereof), and that John Bolton is pursuing regime change. And that, by association, Judy got her toes wet on the Iran warmongering at the same time as her former speakers bureau, Benador Associates, started placing outrageously fraudulent stories to justify a war.

The Iraq warmongering started in earnest on September 8, 2002, six months before the war started (though there were many signs BushCo planned to start the war several weeks earlier). And while I suspect the observations of Sam Gardiner are more reliable than my own propaganda watch, both observations are saying the same thing--the propaganda war has started, with the expectation that the air war will start (80-90% chance, Gardiner says) in four to six months.

Add in the face-to-face meetings with allies coinciding with the beginning of the propaganda war, and everything seems to progressing right on schedule.

That's their schedule. What's ours?"

* meanwhile, wapo via laura:

"A top adviser said Rove and White House political director Sara M. Taylor are advising candidates not to duck the issue of Iraq, but rather to make it a centerpiece of their campaigns.""

brilliant. knock yerselves out. happy talk, happy talk. i'm not quite sure how that plays out against the new invasion of iran...

* kathleen informs me

"that presidential pardons for criminal prosecutions flowing from cases of impeachment can be voided. If the criminal prosecutions were related to the impeachable offenses and the pres is impeached, his pardons can be voided. It's a long shot, of course, but comforting to think that the people on top would be punished to the full extent of the law the way we at the bottom always are. Article 2, Section 2, Clause 1."

hmmm - so we have to be very comprehensive when writing up the bill of particulars for impeachment... e.g. outing Plame relates to the lies told to go invade iraq.