bandits in the white house limited civilian unrest


ringed lily, by ivan hitchens, 1948

* From E&P:

"This morning, Court TV gathered a group of columnists, editors, attorneys, and academics to discuss “the rule of the law vs. the rule of journalism” at the popular media haunt Michael's in mid-town New York.

"With panelists Norman Pearlstine, Floyd Abrams, Nicholas Lemann, Richard Cohen, Michael Goodwin, Michael Wolff, Paul Holmes, and moderator Catherine Crier, the allotted hour was barely enough time to kick around complicated issues -- like the unfolding of the Plame story and other related concerns about confidentially and anonymous sources.
...
"With that, Court TV's Crier threw out the first question, seized by the call-'em-as-he-sees-'em Vanity Fair Contributing Editor Michael Wolff.'

"Crier: "When is a source not a source?'

"Wolff: 'When the source is a story. That's a softball question.'

"Wolff, whose column in the September issue of Vanity Fair sharply hit the role of journalists in the Plame story, pushed his argument even further this morning over a plate of scrambled eggs and pancakes. He posited that if Time magazine had run the Matt Cooper story -- i.e. Rove as the leaker and master puppeteer -- a year ago, President Bush may not be in office serving a second term or we may not have had as many deaths in Iraq.

"Further, Wolff called this the 'biggest story of our age.'

* From cowboy mouth, a play by patti smith and sam shepard:

"I mean I can't be the saint people dream of now. People want a street angel. They want a saint but with a cowboy mouth. Somebody to get off on when they can't get off on themselves. I think that's what Mick Jagger is trying to do...what Bob Dylan seemed to be for a while. A sort of God in our image...ya know? Mick Jagger came close but he got too conscious. For a while he gave me hope... I want it to be perfect, 'cause it's the only religion I got...in the old days people had a Jesus and those people to embrace... They created a god with all their belief energies... and when they didn't dig But it's too hard now. We're earthy people and the old saints just don't make it, and the old God is just too far away. He don't represent our pain no more. His words don't shake through us no more. Any great motherfucker rock'n'roll song can raise me higher than all of Revelations. We created rock'n'roll from our own image, it's our child... "