Untangling the Rove / Gonzales web, bit by bit

I IMed a link to a friend earlier today about the news that Karl Rove was, unsurprisingly, more involved than the White House originally admitted in the current US attorney firing scandal. Her response was (more or less): “I wonder if this is what it felt like during Watergate”.

I grew up with two highly politically aware parents and am old enough to remember Watergate. I don’t remember the story unfolding piece by piece — I mostly remember odd details like the “Impeach Nixon” buttons — but I do know exactly where I was the day Nixon resigned, becasue we were on an airplane to Hawaii when it happened, and the captain got onto the intercom to announce the news.

All of which is a long way of saying, I don’t know if this is like Watergate, or just another three-day scandal. Even if it is, I doubt we’ll have the same outcome. If Gonzales and Rove get booted from their jobs, well, that’s at least a step in the right direction. We’ll know more next week, maybe, at Senator Schumer’s hearings.

Things Might Be Getting Interesting

Josh Marshall has the details. More, undoubtedly, to follow:

We now know that Gonzales, McNulty and Moschella each lied to Congress. We know that the purge was a plan that began at the White House — and it was overseen by two of President Bush’s closest lieutenants in Washington — [former White House Counsel Harriet] Miers and Gonzales. [AG Gonzales’ Chief of Staff Kyle] Sampson is the second resignation. There will certainly be more.

Why Am I Not Surprised?

A tip of the hat to Discourse.net for this bit of news:

Halliburton, the big energy services company, said today that it would open a corporate headquarters in the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai and move its chairman and chief executive, David J. Lesar, there.

[snip]

The announcement about the Dubai move, which Halliburton made at a regional energy conference in Bahrain, comes at a time when the company is being investigated by the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission for allegations of improper dealings in Iraq, Kuwait and Nigeria. Halliburton has also paid out billions in settlements in asbestos litigation.

Halliburton officials did not elaborate today on what the shift of its top executive might mean. The move seemed to raise questions about whether Halliburton might gain tax advantages or other benefits from shifting into a foreign country with pro-business regulations.

One might also wonder what the extradition treaties with Dubai are like…..

Pssst… Want to Blog?

Thinking about starting a blog? Then this article is definitely worth reading.

The one thing the author is overlooking (although perhaps he’ll say something about this is a later post) is that starting a blog actually isn’t the hard part. Keeping one up is. I’d be willing to bet that a significant percentage of new blogs get abandoned within the first 30 days. Just in the past six months, I know of three people who’ve started blogs, put a couple of posts out, and then stopped.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that, as the saying goes. Like any other activity, not everyone who tries blogging is going to like it enough to want to make it a regular part of their life.

I have to get going to meet some friends for brunch, but I’m going to start thinking about pulling some tips for “how to keep on blogging” into a post.

Weekend Cat Blogging

Startled Mid-Groom

Tommy and Bear, startled by a noise, look up. Tommy prepares to run off to either hide or investigate.

I had a rough week, and next week probably won’t be much better. Bleh.