Bad brains...

I sit in wonder when I contemplate how otherwise intelligent people can be hoodwinked by the proto-fascists of the Bush regime. It's not like they're good liars, or even good proto-fascists or propagandists. In fact, Fox News is pretty bad propaganda compared to what I used to hear from Radio Havanna. Fox is more like the way Radio Tirana used to be when Enver Hohxa ran Albania. So ridiculously false yet compelling.

So being a bit bored this morning, I happened over to Glenn Reynolds. Besides, the shit's hitting the fan, so to speak, re: Republicans, Bush, Rove, criminality, Alito being unfriendly to pretty much anybody who's not an "artificial person," and basically the withdrawl of even the pretense of the mandate of heaven.

So Glenn points me to the illustrious Victoria Toensing.

Apparently Ms. Toensing doesn't realize:

1. The issue of whether or not Plame was a covert operative is pretty much already decided, and if Ms. Toensing wasn't motivated by her 15 minutes of fame on the right-wing talking heads shows, she'd be honest enough to understand that an indictment is issued by a grand jury when they've determined there's a preponderance of evidence in the indictment. Among the facts therein was that indeed, Plame was covert. That wasn't ever an issue.

2. There's other laws besides the Intelligence Identities Protection Act in play here, among them, the Espionage Act. And Toensing wasn't exactly, shall we say a lawmaker at the time, only the person who drafted it.

3. Minerals ("yellowcake") are not in and of themselves weapons of mass destruction.

4. What does the signing of a confidentiality agreement have to do with anything? Oh, yeah, they're pissed because Wlson called the Bush regime on its lies. Remember, a covert operative was outed. I would suspect also that there is a good reason why such an agreement wasn't signed.


5. Ms. Toensing's obviously got no idea of what covert operatives do. Bush pere was head of the CIA. Can we assume that Barbara Bush is a spook because Bush was also chief diplomat to China at one time?

6. The CIA is not an agency in the Justice Department. It's in the Defense Department.

This is the kind of garbage that passes for right-wing discourse these days, and if anyone gives credence to this kind of thinking, they're basically believing in fantasies.