CIA Leak Panel Liveblog at Yearly Kos

I did this at Daily Kos today, finally getting some time to port it over here:

Hi, thought I'd put this up early...

Incidentally I just got out of an amazing Electoral Reform Panel with KRIST MOTHERFUCKING NOVOSELIC OF NIRVANA!!!! I'll be posting a full report of that a little later.

Update [2006-6-9 12:48:0 by dday]: Funny story... I bumped into Ryan Lizza of The New Republic at the coffee stand this morning, and I mentioned how I went to college with Jon Chait and how he used to write a really crappy, Dave Barry rip-off column for the college newspaper. I wish I could hear that conversation on Monday morning.

Update [2006-6-9 12:48:0 by dday]: I'm in the "Progressive Player" panel right now. Wanted to get in early to get a seat. This is a good panel as well, with members of DFA, MoveOn, and Progressive Majority.

Update [2006-6-9 12:48:0 by dday]: OK, the Progressive Players panel just wrapped... I don't usually beg for reco's but please rate this up... Byron York and Ron Brownstein are at the next table over. Mike Stark cornered hair-boy York last night and challenged him to a debate, which he demurred on...

Update [2006-6-9 12:48:0 by dday]: The panel looks like a paparazzi event, there are literally dozens of people snapping pictures of them as they all get settled...

Update [2006-6-9 12:48:0 by dday]: Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake is starting it off. "This subject typifies the very best of what we do in the blogosphere and why it's so important." If the RWCM had being doing their jobs, we wouldn't need to do so... Jane's setting the scene... "sneering gimp of a VP" my favorite line so far.

Update [2006-6-9 12:48:0 by dday]: Hisses for Bob Woodward... "Hi Bob," says Jane.

Update [2006-6-9 12:48:0 by dday]: Standing O's for Murray Waas and Larry Johnson and Christy Hardin Smith...

Update [2006-6-9 12:48:0 by dday]: A good comparison between Plame and Whitewater... I wonder how embarrassed reporters are about their role in that fake story. Emptywheel is now being introduced. I talked to her briefly this morning, she was discussing how she was pumping Joe Wilson for information last night over drinks...

Update [2006-6-9 12:48:0 by dday]: Joe Wilson is beginning his portion of the panel... that's two, count them, two standing ovations for him... "Let's get on with it," he says. I'm Mr. Valerie Plame...

Update [2006-6-9 12:48:0 by dday]: It's insane that Wilson's been talking about this stuff for almost three years. He's working it back to the blogs and the marketplace of ideas. "Competition will emerge" in that marketplace (that means us).

Update [2006-6-9 13:50:38 by dday]: York had no reaction to that rip by Wilson, incidentally.

Update [2006-6-9 13:50:38 by dday]: "Who put a lie in the most important speech the President gives every year, in a year when he was taking the country to war, and why did he do it." Now that's an elevator pitch for this story, isn't it?

Update [2006-6-9 13:50:38 by dday]: This scandal has been all about intimidation, which is what Wilson's talking about right now. "We can stand up to these schoolyard bullies." That's true for much more than Plame, IMO.

Update [2006-6-9 13:50:38 by dday]: "An administration determined to ensure that its narrative was the dominant narrative, and determined to slander those that try to change that narrative." "The simple act of telling the truth is revolutionary." (Orwell quote)

Update [2006-6-9 13:50:38 by dday]: Dan Froomkin is up now, and he's highlighting Murray Waas and the journalistic issues at play. "The sad moment for journalism is that reporters didn't develop sources for this story."

Update [2006-6-9 13:50:38 by dday]: People don't realize that were it not for Waas' reporting, Judy Miller might still be considered a martyr and not a shill. And Libby might not have been indicted...

Update [2006-6-9 13:50:38 by dday]: Froomkin talking about the modus operandi of the White House, to defile the public square. The truth is that the more disgusted people get with government, the more predictable elections become, and the more favorable an environment for Republicans. Froomkin giving a mea culpa now... "I'm not a Washington Post reporter, I work at home..."

Update [2006-6-9 13:50:38 by dday]: "The path of least resistance" for reporters is Froomkin's topic now. This is so true. The corporate media doesn't want to be hassled, and they think they'll be hassled more by the right than the left. Journalists are starting to be a little gun shy about incurring the wrath of the left.

Update [2006-6-9 13:50:38 by dday]: Murray Waas is up now. Or as I call him, Bob Woodward 2.0.

Update [2006-6-9 13:50:38 by dday]: There's no reporter for any major news org. covering this story even one or two days a week, according to Waas.

Update [2006-6-9 13:50:38 by dday]: "They're shouldn't be a writer who writes for a magazine with 13K readers that's the only one doing original reporting on this." Waas calling out York, who smiled. "Two words why I covered this: health insurance. If Dick Cheney's ever had a bad day from what I wrote, it's because he couldn't come up with a good health insurance plan."

Update [2006-6-9 13:50:38 by dday]: "We don't know where this story's going to go..." says Waas. His last point is that even though there's no stomach for pursuing these stories, still what he's writing goes with the conventional wisdom. Whereas in the Lewinsky scandal, the conventional wisdom was the very opposite of what was happening in the country.

Update [2006-6-9 13:50:38 by dday]: "The question we face is 'Are some stories not going to get covered at all?'" Talking about the shots he was taking during impeachment. "Let's not close the public square to discourse and debate rather than making ad hominem attacks. Let's try to reclaim our media." Great quote.

Update [2006-6-9 13:50:38 by dday]: Emptywheel is up now. What the blogosphere offers is expertise (legal issues, etc.) "I'd put any FDL reader up against The Note in understanding this story."

Update [2006-6-9 13:50:38 by dday]: Emptywheel on understanding character of the players involved... something the trad media really can't do. Also, testing hypotheses online, which is what she does really well.

Update [2006-6-9 13:50:38 by dday]: Emptywheel now on the blogs calling out journalism spin. Going a little bit into the weeds about the INR memo and Air Force One and Ari Fleischer and how sources were trying to set him up...

Update [2006-6-9 13:50:38 by dday]: Larry Johnson is up now. "I'm a lifelong conservative, but I'm not sure what conservative means anymore in the light of this Administration."

Update [2006-6-9 13:50:38 by dday]: Johnson is setting the scene, providing all the lies and vindictiveness. "Poor, unwitting George Bush..." "I wish we were making this crap up."

Update [2006-6-9 13:50:38 by dday]: Johnson is defending the CIA, which deserves defending IMO. How the White House ignored CIA warnings. "If that's not the basis to outrage anyone, you have lost your heart and soul." Standing O for that.

Update [2006-6-9 13:50:38 by dday]: About Plame specifically, her covert status... if she wasn't covert, why would the DoJ be investigating? And the nonsense about "there was no damage done."

Update [2006-6-9 13:50:38 by dday]: The word treason is finally brooched. Good for Larry Johnson. ReddHead up now.

Update [2006-6-9 13:50:38 by dday]: ReddHead is discussing the value of legal expertise and real-world courtroom experience. "You never begin a grand jury without thinking you'll be securing some charge." It's not a fishing expedition. It'd be a waste of the grand jury's time. He's using a REGULAR GRAND JURY (that was for The Note, apparently).

Update [2006-6-9 13:50:38 by dday]: Just because Fitz isn't there doesn't mean the grand jury isn't meeting... and just because the grand jury is meeting doesn't mean they're meeting on Plame.

Update [2006-6-9 13:50:38 by dday]: Finally we start talking about Rove. It's ReddHead's understanding that the investigation is ongoing, because, uhh, Fitzgerald said so. And so did the judge. A lot.

Update [2006-6-9 13:50:38 by dday]: ReddHead now on the issue of the journalists who have been caught up in this case, from a legal perspective. She doesn't think the shield laws would protect a journalist from naming sources who are committing a crime. That's a great point.

Update [2006-6-9 13:50:38 by dday]: We're at Q&A now. Wilson says that he has great faith in the institutions of democracy. Agreed that we can't give up on democracy, because obviously when we do, Republicans win.

Update [2006-6-9 14:5:29 by dday]: Murray Waas about the presumption of innocence and not rushing to judgment. Waas is now talking about pardoning... have any news orgs. covered that? Or blogs, for that matter, sez Waas.

Update [2006-6-9 14:5:29 by dday]: ReddHead mentions that Mary Matalin is holding a $500-a-plate dinner for Libby's legal defense fund. Joe Wilson on his wife being a crack shot with an AK47 (funny joke)... ReddHead thanks the White House Iraq Group.

Update [2006-6-9 14:5:29 by dday]: clammyc asks the Jason Leopold question...

Update [2006-6-9 14:5:29 by dday]: emptywheel is good on this answer. Be wary of sources is the takeaway, basically.

Update [2006-6-9 14:5:29 by dday]: My laptop battery's cashed so I'm done. Thanks all.