So...

Got lots done last night, not the least of which was grocery shopping at Trader Joe's. I must share this as it was one of my few moments of *genius*. I picked up these garlid/portobello mushroom burgers they had that I'd never tried before and heated one up for dinner. Pulled out two slabs of shepherd's bread then decided to spread a little Chummus on them just to see what would happen. The result: taste orgasm.

I shit you not, this was like the best meal I've had in ages.

I have 3 patties left, one is earmarked for Aelf because she MUST TRY THEM, and the other two are all mine. But for a little over $2.00 for a package of 4 I believe I more than got my money's worth. Combined with some sesame honey almonds for dessert (damn you and your delectable nut selection Trader Joe's, damn you to hell!), and we're talking one seriously happy Ellie.

Of course I felt just decadent enough after such a meal to try a new abs workout routine that was deadly. I couldn't even make it through the entire thing and ended up hoarsely muttering, "No, Tammi dear, you do 12 reps, I'll do 8." But as far as obliques go, you can't beat this routine even if it does leave me whimpering for my mama. As inspiration for getting back up on the working out horse, I popped in my Bellydance Superstars dvd and stared at Rachel Brice's midsection. If you've never done this I highly recommend it, because her body comes as close to perfection as one can possibly hope to achieve in a lifetime. Now I know I'll never get there, not at my age, but it doesn't hurt to have goals and this one's slightly more realistic than sprouting large white feathered wings spontaneously from my back. Not by much, granted, but enough.

And tonight I finally get back to dance class as I feel like my old self again and am eating entirely normally, woo! Also the 3 pounds I lost while sick are actually staying off, go me! Now to keep them off while I'm on vacation in Vegas may be a bit tougher...

NOC, NOC

Quite possibly the best piece I've seen on why the Plame scandal is actually pretty fucking important, and why you should care about it:

There is an explicit and implicit contract between the United States and its NOCs. It has many parts, but there is one fundamental part: A NOC will never reveal that he is or was a NOC without special permission. When he does reveal it, he never gives specifics. The government also makes a guarantee -- it will never reveal the identity of a NOC under any circumstances and, in fact, will do everything to protect it. If you have lied to your closest friends for 30 years about who you are and why you talk to them, no government bureaucrat has the right to reveal your identity for you. Imagine if you had never told your children -- and never planned to tell your children -- that you worked for the CIA, and they suddenly read in the New York Times that you were someone other than they thought you were.

There is more to this. When it is revealed that you were a NOC, foreign intelligence services begin combing back over your life, examining every relationship you had. Anyone you came into contact with becomes suspect. Sometimes, in some countries, becoming suspect can cost you your life. Revealing the identity of a NOC can be a matter of life and death -- frequently, of people no one has ever heard of or will ever hear of again.

In short, a NOC owes things to his country, and his country owes things to the NOC. We have no idea what Valerie Plame told her family or friends about her work. It may be that she herself broke the rules, revealing that she once worked as a NOC. We can't know that, because we don't know whether she received authorization from the CIA to say things after her own identity was blown by others. She might have been irresponsible, or she might have engaged in damage control. We just don't know.

What we do know is this. In the course of events, reporters contacted two senior officials in the White House -- Rove and Libby. Under the least-damaging scenario we have heard, the reporters already knew that Plame had worked as a NOC. Rove and Libby, at this point, were obligated to say, at the very least, that they could neither confirm nor deny the report. In fact, their duty would have been quite a bit more: Their job was to lie like crazy to mislead the reporters. Rove and Libby had top security clearances and were senior White House officials. It was their sworn duty, undertaken when they accepted their security clearance, to build a "bodyguard of lies" -- in Churchill's phrase -- around the truth concerning U.S. intelligence capabilities.

Some would argue that if the reporters already knew her identity, the cat was out of the bag and Rove and Libby did nothing wrong. Others would argue that if Plame or her husband had publicly stated that she was a NOC, Rove and Libby were freed from their obligation. But the fact is that legally and ethically, nothing relieves them of the obligation to say nothing and attempt to deflect the inquiry. This is not about Valerie Plame, her husband or Time Magazine. The obligation exists for the uncounted number of NOCs still out in the field.

Americans stay safe because of NOCs. They are the first line of defense.

via Steve Gilliard's News Blog

EDIT: Also, from the same page,
Cheney's Office Is A Focus in Leak Case
Sources Cite Role Of Feud With CIA

Oh, before I forget

I meant to link to Steve G's rebuttal of Kristol's whiny bleat on how poor conservatives are being picked on by the big bad Democratic bullies:

How about this: maybe they're crooks?

Maybe they violated the law so openly that they were caught and exposed?

This is pathetic. I don't remember Dems running to defend Rostankowski or Wright. They were happy to see them go. Dems don't defend the corrupt or excuse them. People were disgusted with Clinton, but applied common sense rules to his behavior, not turn it into a jihad.

Yet, in typical whiny GOP form, they say it's some kind of vendetta against conservatives. Well, no. It's a reaction to criminality.

The real reason Kristol is worried is that the party is over. The GOP is about to be the defined as the party of corruption. Raw, naked corruption and Bill can see his paychecks floating away.

Kristol is being purposely dense here. Classified information, sure. Plame's name and role was not classified. It was Top Secret-SCI, restricted to the Directorate of Operations and its most senior officials. Her work at the CIA was a state secret. Revealing it was a crime. It wasn't just politics as usual. But it wasn't her name alone, but revealing her work as an employ of Brewster-Jennings which caused the real problem. When a judge is asked to review Fitzgerald's requests, he's never been turned down. Most of his public papers are redacted. People probably died as a result of that revelation. You can bet Fitzgerald has that information on tap. It was a major intelligence defeat and a self-inflicted one at that.

But Kristol and friends would rather defend the unacceptable than deal with the consequences of what is basically treason.

There's a rumor floating around that Fitzgerald may announce his findings as early as today. *fingers crossed*

EDIT: firedoglake likens this to the calm before the gathering storm, and fills in some more details on just what Fitzgerald might be sharing with us soon. Also, the Rude One chimes in on his gut feelings on the matter:

The Rude Pundit is not a prognosticator. But there's something that he's feeling in his gut: that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald may just try to save America. If Fitzgerald is the hardcore law and order guy we've been led to believe, then he may just decide it's his job to take down the Bush administration, so rank with the stench of lawbreaking.

Why the gut feeling? Because if, as some Rude Pundit readers have suggested, that this is all just a show, that there'll be some whitewashed report and it's done, then it would have been over by now. Fitzgerald would have put on a good show, held a press conference or two, and it would have been done a long time ago. But more and more, the indications are that Fitzgerald is going after something more than a couple of powerful aides who committed something akin to treason. Fitzgerald has fucked with the PDA schedules of many, many administration members and hangers-on. He has opened up the investigation into the evil White House Iraq Group.

Unlike that pathetic gloryhound wannabe, Ken Starr, who had to bray about every semen stain to make it seem as if he had a real case against Bill Clinton, Fitzgerald's investigation has been virtually impenetrable and quiet. And it's always the quiet ones who end up being the most vicious killers.

And Billmon points to some more good news:

President Bush's job approval rating continues to plummet, with 39 percent of Americans surveyed in the latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll supporting his performance, compared to 58 percent expressing disapproval.

The approval rating was lowest the poll has recorded during Bush's presidency . . .

Yes, you read that right, a Gallup poll puts Bush at 39%.

Also kudos to Billmon for creating the "Captain Renault Righteous Indignation Award", I'm madly tempted to create a visual for this. It'd make a killer icon :)

Move over Desperate Housewives...

In case you missed it last night, The Daily Show's take on the hottest drama on t.v. "The White House". If you get the chance, catch the entire episode as it repeats tonight at 8 on Comedy Central.