Thursday AM News Bits

First of all, I wanted to thank Crooks and Liars for linking me early yesterday. For some reason, people were attracted to the Big Fish Plane, and the hits from yesterday SLAUGHTERED my previous one day record three times over. Grand total: 18,670 hits. Holy shit, that's a lot.

But also, I'd like to thank the folks who came by and thought enough of my little soapbox to shoot off a complementary email or comment. Even if you didn't email me, but you're back today because of what you saw yesterday, I do appreciate it.

On to the news of the morning:

As AmericaBlog pointed out, Karl's lawyer was damn certain that Patrick Fitzgerald was NOT interested in Karl, but seems to have revised his statement to more of a "no comment" this week. I wonder why that would be, hmmm?

Last week:

"Not quite a year ago, I received oral and written assurances from the counsel that Karl is not a target of the investigation," Rove attorney Robert Luskin said Friday. "There is nothing I am aware of in the matters that have come to light since then that would change that."

This week:

Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, declined to say whether his client had been contacted by Fitzgerald. In the past, Luskin has said that Rove was assured that he was not a target.

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Oh boy, looks like conservatives are REALLY pissed off at Bushie!

Conservatives Confront Bush Aides
Anger Over Nomination of Miers Boils Over During Private Meetings

The conservative uprising against President Bush escalated yesterday as Republican activists angry over his nomination of White House counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court confronted the president's envoys during a pair of tense closed-door meetings.

A day after Bush publicly beseeched skeptical supporters to trust his judgment on Miers, a succession of prominent conservative leaders told his representatives that they did not. Over the course of several hours of sometimes testy exchanges, the dissenters complained that Miers was an unknown quantity with a thin résumé and that her selection -- Bush called her "the best person I could find" -- was a betrayal of years of struggle to move the court to the right.

At one point in the first of the two off-the-record sessions, according to several people in the room, White House adviser Ed Gillespie suggested that some of the unease about Miers "has a whiff of sexism and a whiff of elitism." Irate participants erupted and demanded that he take it back. Gillespie later said he did not mean to accuse anyone in the room but "was talking more broadly" about criticism of Miers.

Hey, do you hear that? I think it's the sound of conservative brains asploding! "pop"

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Yippee! 90 out of 99 senators don't like torture! Of course, there's always a few that enjoy a good round of kicking a naked guy while he's hogtied. This would be the list, read it closely:

• Wayne Allard - Colorado
  
• Kit Bond - Missouri
  
• Tom Coburn - Oklahoma
  
• Thad Cochran - Mississippi
  
• John Cornyn - Texas
  
• James Inhofe - Oklahoma
  
• Pat Roberts - Kansas
  
• Jeff Sessions - Alabama
  
• Ted Stevens - Alaska

Oh lookee, there's good ol' Cornyn, Roberts, Coburn. Notice that Ted Stevens from ALASKA is on that list? Remember kids, he's connected with the Big Fish Plane. Thanks for being a prick, Ted!

Back later with more "Fresh from the Vine" news is ready to be disseminated.