There is much anticipation of the imminent, deserved indictments. I am excited and my champagne is well chilled (well, actually it's iced tea). My circle of friends is itching for a party next weekend. Hopes are high.

But I think it is worth discussing the other side of this game: Bush is now facing a corner that literally threatens his remaining term AND the GOP generally. The tendrils of an indictment will lead directly to inquiries for how involved and knowledgable Bush was personally. The scale of the corruption threat to the GOP movement is hard to overstate.

This means Bush is going to treat Fitzgerald's indictments for what they are: a direct and imminent threat to his power. A threat demanding a response.

In short, I believe we are likely to have a very dangerous, unprecedented week and beyond of political hardball ahead of us.

Further on the flip.

Did you miss this story like I did?

Evidently in a speech last week for government managers--but barred to the press--Tenet explicitly called for the era of internet freedom to come to an end.

The money quotes:

More below:

You have won today. This is clear and there is no value in illusions about this. But your might has never been, is not and never will be evidence of your legitimacy. Your authority, no matter how pervasive, will never be legitimate in my eyes. Never.

Every single day of the rest of my life I will fight every aspect of your agenda. Every breath I draw is a breath dedicated to freedom from your world of lies, enslavement and empire.

Your corrupt, cheap grace, bullshit religion. Your deceptions. Your disregard for honesty. Your media whores. Your scoundrel patriotism shuck and jive. Your towering greed. Your hatred of science, rationality and co-existence with those not like you. Your lip-service values which are nothing more than a tissue of lies. Your violence, brutality and arrogance. Fuck every single thing about you and what you believe in. Every. Single. Thing.

I happened to stumble across this Aesop's fable tonight on the free eBooks site: www.manybooks.net

It seems to sum up the Iraq escalation quite concisely...

The Wolf and the Lamb.

A Wolf met with a Lamb astray from the fold, resolved not to lay violent hands on him, but to find some plea to justify the Wolf's right to eat him. He thus addressed him:

"Sirrah, last year you grossly insulted me."
"Indeed?" bleated the Lamb in a mournful tone of voice, "I was not then born."
"You feed in my pasture," the Wolf then said.
"No, good sir," replied the Lamb, "I have not yet tasted grass."
Angrily, the Wolf accused, "Verily, you drink of my well!"
"No," exclaimed the Lamb, "I never yet drank water, for as yet my mother's milk is both food and drink to me."

Upon which the Wolf seized him and ate him up, sneering, "Well! I won't remain supperless, even though you refute every one of my imputations."

MORAL: The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny.

You should be aware that Duncan Hunter signed the letter given to Max Cleland today when he confronted Bush down in Crawford, Texas.

In it Mr. Hunter has endorsed the efforts of the Swift Boat group as an act of free speech rather than condemning it for the conspiracy of libel that it is.

Please tell your east San Diego county friends (District 52) about this and encourage them to write Mr. Duncan and tell them what they think about him supporting liars.

My own letter is as follows:

Kevin Drum has a good post here about some BS happening at the USDA. They are refusing to allow/certify a private ranch in Kansas from testing 100% of their cattle for Mad Cow.

A clear example of a captured agency betraying the public health which should be getting wider attention. Please tell others and let's get a buzz going about this corruption.