Birmingham Blues

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via Blue Gal.

There’s a lot of hot air around the blogosphere right now, and plenty of vitriol aimed at Melissa McEwan at Shakespeare’s Sister.  She announced her resignation from the Edwards campaign — with dignity and grace, IMHO — and the poison in the related comment thread was just horrific.  Some of the personal contacts she received included physical threats, which definitely influenced her decision.  I’d do the same if I found myself in her position.

So, how can those of us who appreciate Melissa and her blog help in a concrete way?  She was job-hunting for some time before she accepted the position with the Edwards campaign, and she’s now without income again.  While I expect that someone with good sense will see the quality of her writing and snap her up ASAP, she still has bills to pay in the meantime.  If you’re so inclined, click over and make a donation (right-hand column, PayPal or Amazon).  Any amount, large or small, makes a difference.

Thanks!

Seems the unnamed officials who gave the Iran briefing in Baghdad a couple of days ago may have gone a bit too far in their statements:

BAGHDAD, Feb 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. military in Iraq on Wednesday seemed to distance itself from comments made by a U.S. defence official at the weekend that implicated the “highest levels” of Tehran’s government in arming Iraqi militants.

The official made the comments at a briefing on Sunday at which journalists were shown what U.S. officials said were weapons and explosive devices of Iranian origin that have been used to kill at least 170 U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

The official, a defence analyst who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Qod Forces was training and funding Iraqi militants and was getting its orders from the “highest levels” of the Iranian government [emphasis added].

But he really, really didn’t mean to implicate the Iranian government:

U.S. military spokesman in Iraq Major General William Caldwell said in Baghdad on Wednesday that the intention of Sunday’s briefing had not been to implicate the Iranian government but to present evidence of Iranian involvement in Iraq’s violence.

“This was not the intention behind the briefing. He (the analyst) was responding to questions and trying to be informative,” Caldwell told a news briefing.

JCS Chair Gen. Peter Pace has already disavowed the connection.  So what’s going on here?  Was this more Bush administration overstepping, or some kind of negotiation technique?

…oh, never mind.  It turns out that neither Scooter Libby nor Dick Cheney will testify at Libby’s perjury trial.  The defense put John Hannah, Libby’s former deputy, on the stand to testify to Libby’s poor memory.  Sounds more like Libby was one of those crappy bosses who likes to steal ideas from underlings:

Mr. Hannah also provided testimony for another defense argument when he said Mr. Libby had a notoriously bad memory. “On certain things, Scooter just had an awful memory,” he said, using Mr. Libby’s nickname.

He said that on occasion Mr. Libby would tell him some idea in the afternoon, having forgotten that he, Mr. Hannah, had given him the idea in the morning. Mr. Libby, sitting at the defense table, laughed. Mr. Hannah said in response to a question from a juror — an unusual procedure used by Judge Walton — that Mr. Libby had a good memory for ideas and concepts.

I’m not sure Hannah’s testimony will generate much sympathy for Mr. Libby.  The defense is expected to rest today, and closing arguments start next week.

Something is wrong with this picture: some of the people who purported to be offended by Melissa’s writings decided the appropriate response was threats of violence.  Good God! Melissa, I completely support your decision. 

Go read her announcement here.

Is this what we’ve come to in our supposedly civilized country?

The Birmingham Police Department will be featured on some upcoming episodes of A&E’s The First 48.

The show’s premise: For homicide detectives, the clock starts ticking the moment they are called. Their chance of solving a case is cut in half if they don’t get a lead in the first 48 hours.

Though episode titles are provocative, such as “Party’s Over,” “Stripper’s Revenge” and “The Wrong Side of the Tracks,” senior series producer Wendy Greene said the show’s mission is to show the gritty side of detective work.

“I think people are interested in what goes on behind the scenes in a homicide investigation,” Greene said. “There are a lot of shows that give fictional accounts, and people want to see the real life part of it. It’s a lot of hard work, knocking on doors and good old fashioned police work, and that’s what we’re following them doing.”

The film crew will arrive this week and stay in town for at least 15 weeks.  Sadly, the show’s producers will likely have numerous cases from which to choose.

The city finished 2006 with 109 homicides, and so far there have been 11 this year.

Gen. Peter Pace, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has expressed serious doubts about Bush’s latest push to blame Iran’s government for problems in Iraq.  Maybe that’s because no one from the Pentagon was included in the briefing, which was closed to cameras or recording devices, although not to reporters.

In an interview with Voice of America, Marine General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said he did not agree with military leaders in Baghdad, who told reporters on Sunday that the government of Iran is providing roadside bombs to Iraqi insurgents.

According to the Associated Press, the U.S. military presentation in Baghdad on Sunday was the result of weeks of preparation and revisions as U.S. officials put together a package of material to support the Bush administration’s claims of Iranian intercession on behalf of militant Iraqis fighting American forces.

…General Pace said he could not, from his own knowledge, repeat the assertion that the elite Quds brigade of Iran’s Republican Guard force is providing bomb-making kits to Iraqi Shiite insurgents, VOA reported.

“…the result of weeks of preparation and revisions as U.S. officials put together a package of material to support the Bush administration’s claims…” [emphasis added]  Gee, this sounds a lot like what we’re now finding out about Doug Feith’s shadow organization that manipulated intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war.

Gen. Pace’s statement could be dismissed as mild disagreement or perhaps just a different viewpoint if he were a civilian, but it sounds to me like the Pentagon is not going along with Bush this time.  I wonder who will be the first to accuse Gen. Pace of being a wild-eyed liberal.

I hate for William Donohue to think for even a couple of seconds that he’s won something here, but I understand why Amanda wouldn’t want to deal with what surely would have been a constant drumbeat of crap.  Donohue is a bigot and a bully, and now that Amanda is free to speak her mind, I look forward to reading as she takes him on.

A California pastor fleeced his flock out of their church and parsonage, forging documents that allowed him to sell the buildings and buy himself a snazzy BMW and a laptop.  After he was (eventually) arrested, he turned jailhouse snitch and is hoping to get a plea deal that will preclude prison time.  While he was awaiting trial, he blogged about his experience and negotiated a book deal for a “fairly truthful” memoir detailing his crimes.

“He’s very remorseful and regretful about the situation,” his lawyer said. “I think he made some egregious mistakes. But in an imperfect world … people behave imperfectly.”

Uh huh.  Remorseful, my ass.  And that’s a really interesting definition of “mistakes”.  At least he didn’t claim to be an alcoholic and go into rehab.  Not yet, anyway.  He still has to find a way out from under the civil suits.