Judy In Time(s) Out

The NYTimes gives us its long-awaited "explanation" of the Judas Miller saga:

The Miller Case: A Notebook, a Cause, a Jail Cell and a Deal

I put explanation in quotes because there ain't much there there. No mention of how the earlier, June meeting with Libby was discovered by Fitzgerald, no discussion of the "aspens connected by the roots" letter, and more importantly, Judas

[S]pent 85 days in jail for refusing to testify and reveal her confidential source, then relented. On Sept. 30, she told the grand jury that her source was I. Lewis Libby, the vice president's chief of staff. But she said he did not reveal Ms. Plame's name.

And when the prosecutor in the case asked her to explain how "Valerie Flame" appeared in the same notebook she used in interviewing Mr. Libby, Ms. Miller said she "didn't think" she heard it from him. "I said I believed the information came from another source, whom I could not recall," she wrote on Friday, recounting her testimony for an article that appears today.

So if she couldn't recall which source told her "Valerie Flame"'s name, what source was she protecting?

I don't get it.


The Times also gives us Judas's own account (btw, Raw Story reporting that she is taking an "indefinite leave of absence, effective immediately"):

A Personal Account
My Four Hours Testifying in the Federal Grand Jury Room

This line from her fanciful, pretentiously written story gives me hope:

Before the grand jury, Mr. Fitzgerald asked me questions about Mr. Cheney.

If this were a game of Clue, I'd be guessing the Big Dick in the Oval Office with a w(h)ig and a chimp.

Finally: We Got The Number One in Al Qaeda

We've captured the most senior Al Qaeda

....barber.

Really! He gave the best haircuts! You should have seen his scissors fly! The blunt cuts! Oh, and his work with the clippers: chilling in its exactitude! And what a colorist! Worked miracles with extensions! Facial hair a specialty! He could make Osama bin Laden look like George W. Bush in about 25 minutes! He could make any run-of-the-mill insurgent look like the no. 2 man in Al Qaeda!

Coming attractions: Over the next few months, expect that we will arrest 33 or so of the "2nd in command" to this most senior barber.

You think I'm joking, don't you? Gotcha.

Al Qaeda "barber" arrested in Iraq

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces in Iraq said on Saturday that they were holding a man suspected of acting as a barber to senior al Qaeda militants and helping them change their appearance to evade capture.

The man, named as Walid Muhammad Farhan Juwar al-Zubaydi -- "aka 'The Barber,"' the U.S. military statement said -- was arrested in Baghdad on September 24, the day before U.S. troops caught up with and killed a militant they described as the most senior al Qaeda leader in the capital, Abu Azzam.,

"'The Barber's' duties included altering senior al Qaeda in Iraq members' appearances by dying hair color, altering hairstyles and changing facial hair in their efforts to evade capture," the military said in the statement.

Also detained on September 24 was Ibrahim Muhammad Subhi Khayri al-Rihawi, the military said, naming him also as Abu Khalil and calling him a "close associate" of Abu Azzam.

"(He) served as an executive assistant for the terrorist emir. He also acted as a banker for Azzam and stored the terrorist organization's funds so they would not be confiscated should Abu Azzam be killed or captured," it added.

Abu Azzam was described by U.S. commanders after his death as second only to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in the Islamist network's organization in Iraq.

U.S. forces are keen to show progress in tracking down insurgents.

What's next? The most senior chef? The most senior dialysis nurse? The most senior food taster?

Wanted, dead or alive.

It's Poison, Poison, I Tell You

From truthout.org, an article originally published in the French paper Le Monde:

We Are All Chemically Contaminated

When one out of two men, one out of three women, today is affected by cancer, it's no exaggeration to talk about an epidemic. Certainly, it's not as visible as the epidemic of the plague. The victims don't die on the street, but the tribute exacted is heavy, with 150,000 deaths a year in France. Risk factors other than chemical substances are implicated (diet, tobacco use ...), but with the evaluation of chemical substances, we know for certain that we can dry up a part of the source of these chronic illnesses. Moreover, it is unacceptable that this public health imperative not be imposed upon the chemical industry.

The volume of chemical substances at a global level has gone from 1 million tons during the 1930s to 400 million tons today! The chemical industry has thus put on the market - without evaluating them - substances that will sometimes be withdrawn once the damage to the population's health is assessed. That's the "proof by people" to demonstrate toxicity that was the rule at the end of many long years. Still, that's only the case for a minority of substances, since for 97% of the substances data is incomplete or nonexistent.

Years ago I read The Politics of Cancer (1978) [updated & released in 1998] by Dr. Samuel Epstein. He argues that all cancer is environmentally caused.

From a review of his book by Robert Weissman:

As Dr. Epstein points out, from 1950 to 1998, the overall incidence of cancer rose about 60 percent, with much higher increases for cancer of some organs. For non-Hodgkins lymphoma and multiple myeloma, the increase has been 200 percent. Breast cancers have increased by 60 percent. Prostate cancer has increased 200 percent. For testicular cancer in men of the ages 28 to 35, there has been a 300 percent increase since 1950.

And don't let anybody fool you into thinking that the cancer rate increase is because the population is getting older -- these rates are age-adjusted. The cancer rates of a group of 50 year old men in 1990, for example, are compared to the cancer rates of a group of men in 1950.

So, why is the cancer establishment losing the war against cancer? "The cancer establishment is fixated on damage control -- diagnosis, treatment and basic genetic research -- and is indifferent, if not sometimes hostile, to cancer prevention -- getting carcinogens out of the environment," Epstein told us recently. "The second factor is conflicts of interests, which are significant when it comes to the National Cancer Institute, but profound and overwhelming when it comes to the American Cancer Society. In the book, I go into great detail on conflicts between the American Cancer Society and the cancer drug industry, the mammography industry, the pesticide industry, and other such industries."

According to Epstein, the outgoing director of the National Cancer Institute left that organization to go to the cancer drug industry. Another NCI director in the 1970s left NCI to go to the American Cancer Society and from there to head up the fiberglass industry (fiberglass is a recognized carcinogen).

Epstein charges that the cancer establishment is misleading people into believing that it is spending a good chunk of its stashed away billions on prevention -- which is untrue.

Farewell, Fans Under Glass

From the Boston Globe:

Opening day for renovations
Maligned .406 Club is the first to go at Fenway

Originally named the "600 Club" (for its 600 seats), the name was changed to the ".406 Club" in 2002 to honor Ted Williams, MLB's last 400 hitter. (Unfortunately, this was 17 days after he died. Couldn't they have done it before then?)

[Speaking of last 400 hitters, did you know that the last 400 hitter in baseball was Artie Wilson of the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League?]

We plebians who usually sat in the bleachers always called it "Fans Under Glass".

Reportedly, it changed the wind patterns at Fenway Park, and the players hated that.

It's All About Appearances, Karl Rove edition

Karl Rove left his house this morning in his Jaguar, then showed up at Federal District Court for his court appearance in a tan Toyota Camry.

The Jaguar

Another view of the Jaguar

Karl looking annoyed getting into the Jag

Karl, leaving court in the tan Camry

CBS video of Karl getting into the not-Jaguar tan Camry

Update, 10/15/05: Today's Washington Post says the getaway car was a Ford Taurus.

Just For Laughs

When Harry met George
By John Kenney, JOHN KENNEY is a humorist who has just finished his first novel.

From the Los Angeles Times, the imagined correspondence of Harriet Miers to "cool" George W. Bush.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Not much to say today. It's raining. I got my hair cut. Had to replace a mount on my rear tire ($169). It's still raining.

Karl Rove begged not be indicted today, for four hours. The New York Times still isn't talking. Rumor has it that Judith Miller may resign. Good riddance. Josh Marshall asks a couple of interesting questions: What did Harriet Miers know about the Plame outing and the subsequent cover-up? What does she know about what the President knew?

Still waiting for the Bush Administration's traditional post 5:00 p.m. Friday news dump, calculated to draw as little attention as possible to bad news.

No photo ops for Bushie today. Guess the White House didn't like seeing the word "staged" used so much by the MSM.

Hey, did I mention that I'm going to England next week, for two weeks? Whee-hoo!

Publication of this blog will be suspended until November 1st.

Maybe by the time I return it will have stopped raining.

The (Wo)man Behind the Curtain

Here's the official White House bio of the director of Bush's "spontaneous" Q&A today:

Allison Barber, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense

Current Assignments: Allison Barber is the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Internal Communications and Public Liaison. In this position, she is responsible for the Department's communication to the men and women of the military, worldwide, and for community relations programs that link citizens to members of the Armed Forces at home and abroad. Ms. Barber is also an Army wife and her husband recently returned from a year's deployment in Iraq.

[]

Past Experiences: Ms. Barber comes to her position with extensive experience in public relations and advertising. Prior to this position, Ms. Barber was the President of Sodenta, her public relations firm in Washington, D.C. Previously, she was President of the Washington D.C. office of PlowShare, a Connecticut-based advertising agency. From 1992 to 1998, she was a Public Relations Director for the American Red Cross. From 1986 to 1991, Barber was a grade school teacher at Merrillville Public School in Indiana and served as Vice President of the Teachers Association.

Education: Ms. Barber holds a BS in Elementary Education from Tennessee Temple University and a MS in Elementary Education from Indiana University.

So, she's been

a grade school teacher (5 years)

"a" PR Director for the American Red Cross (not "The" Director) (6 years)

"President" of the Washington DC office of PlowShare advertising agency which counts among its clients the American Red Cross. (If you go on PlowShare's website, there's no mention of a President or a Washington DC office. The principals are referred to as "partners". Sounds like a bit of resume puffery to me.)

Then President of her own PR agency, Sodenta. Looking them up on the internets, I suspect a freelancer who incorporated for tax purposes.

Here's the address, on a YourTownMall services directory:

Sodenta Agency
2916 Stuart Drive
Falls Church, VA 22042
Phone: (703) 698-7608

SourceWatch couldn't find any other listing for her agency. Looking at googlemaps, I suspect she ran this out of her home.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense. Another PR flack. Because the Bush Administration is all about the PR. No substance. I will say in her defense (no pun intended), like a good elementary school teacher she had those soldiers lined up nicely, well groomed, and they repeated their lines very well.

Pay no attention to the woman behind the curtain!

Like We Wouldn't Notice

Bush Teleconference With Soldiers Staged

Or as the Wizard of Oz said: "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!"

WANTED: The Banana Republicans

America's Most Wanted

Click on the link to see the poster.

For many years, my dad had a poster hanging in the back of the room where he taught high school social studies. I brought it back for him from my senior trip to Washington, DC. It said "Wanted", and had pictures of Nixon, Haldeman, Erlichman and Dean and all the Watergate conspirators. All but Nixon had "Apprehended" splashed across their pictures.

I've got to dig that poster out.

When You're a Shiite, You're a Shiite All the Way

From your first cigarette to your last dying day:

From Knight-Ridder:

Sectarian resentment extends to Iraq's army

The Bush administration's exit strategy for Iraq rests on two pillars: an inclusive, democratic political process that includes all major ethnic groups and a well-trained Iraqi national army. But a week spent eating, sleeping and going on patrol with a crack unit of the Iraqi army - the 4,500-member 1st Brigade of the 6th Iraqi Division - suggests that the strategy is in serious trouble. Instead of rising above the ethnic tension that's tearing their nation apart, the mostly Shiite troops are preparing for, if not already fighting, a civil war against the minority Sunni population.

[]

"In Amariyah last week, a car bomb hit a U.S. Humvee and their soldiers began to shoot randomly. They killed a lot of innocent civilians. I was there; I saw it," said Sgt. Fadhal Yahan. "This happens all the time. If they keep doing this, the people will attack them. And we are part of the people."

Sgt. Jawad Majid chimed in: "We have our marja'iya [the ruling council of clerics led by al-Sistani] and we are waiting for them to decide when the time to fight (the Americans) is, when it is no longer time to be silent."

We are training and arming the Iraqis for their coming civil war. Our troops will be fortunate to be withdrawn before the guns of our trainees are turned against us.

A-HEM

From the smoking gun:

The Harriet And George Letters
Bush-Miers Texas correspondence reveals mutual admiration society

The sycophantic letters of Harriet E. Miers (HEM) to George W. Bush.

My firm had an employee once who wooed me with constant flattery. She wanted to work for me. It was embarrassing, and I never trusted her for a moment because it was so transparently brownnosing.

These letters remind me of that woman. Sad.

I wish some handwriting expert would opine on the flowery, loopy handwriting. Looks like a 9th graders. Apologies to any 9th grader reading this. Mier's handwriting looks like she should be drawing hearts over her "i"s.

Still haven't decided a position on Miers, though I don't think it matters what position the Democrats take on Miers. The right wing is going to take her down.

Operation Photo Op,George W. Bush to Iraq edition

Just watched President Stupid's photo op with 15 soldiers sitting in formation in camouflage in Iraq. GWB hunched over a lecturn in the White House before a giant TV screen showing the soldiers. I wonder how much this little TV moment cost? Let's see, giant TV screen, cameras and lighting for White House, cameras and lighting for soldiers in Iraq, video conferencing equipment, scriptwriter, days of preparing and rehearsing statements, drycleaning uniforms, and there's much more, I'm sure.

Who wrote the scripts for the soldiers? They're clearly giving prepared speeches. Bush keeps interrupting them.

Bush is standing with his left, twitchy side away from the camera. Someone at the White House must have finally seen the internet video compilation of his jaw tic.

How is that our military men and women are ALL more articulate than their Commander in Chief?

Guess none of those high school dropouts without GEDs the Army is now accepting made the 15 member panel.

All that was missing was the plastic turkey.

FEMA: Let Them Eat Beanie Weenies From Florida

Louisianans get few post-Katrina contracts

A Department of Homeland Security official tasked with helping local businesses get post-Hurricane Katrina contracts resigned in frustration last week because he could not secure catering work for local vendors.

Doug Doan, a business liaison at DHS, lined up a group of Louisiana chefs and restaurants to provide 26,000 meals a day in St. Tammany Parish to people without power and unable to cook for themselves.

Instead of the seafood pasta and beef with a red wine mushroom reduction that Doan arranged, box lunches and military rations known as meals-ready-to-eat, or MREs, from outside Louisiana are being served.

Gulf Coast lawmakers, such as Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and other critics have complained about the federal government's failure to steer recovery dollars to businesses in the areas affected by the storm. A list of contracts awarded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency showed that as of Oct. 3, two of 140 agreements had gone to Louisiana prime contractors.

"Louisiana makes the best food in the world," Doan said Tuesday. "To be bringing in beanie weenies from Florida or peanut butter sandwiches from Ohio at a greater cost ... is an outrage."

The Incompetence, The Corruption, The Cronyism: October 13, 2005 edition

The Incompetence:

We could make this all FEMA, all the time:

DIY Disaster Relief

Don’t let anybody kid you. The government response to Hurricane Katrina was not only a disaster when the storm first hit. It’s still a disaster now.

I’ve been talking to medical professionals who have been to the Gulf Coast in the past couple of weeks, and this is what they have told me.

First, FEMA continues to be next to useless. It is not providing relief workers with the access they need to areas crying out for their help. It is not keeping up with bills for the emergency work it has authorized so far. A shockingly large number of doctors and nurses are being told that their services are not needed. Those with the guts and the initiative to go ahead regardless are finding that the exact opposite is true – thousands upon thousands of storm evacuees who have run out of their prescription medications, or require new prescriptions, or need help with a panoply of storm-induced problems, from simple cuts and bruises to infections and depression and suicidal feelings.

Secondly, FEMA and the Red Cross are not talking to each other to sort it all out. At the Cajundome in Lafayette, Louisiana – home to more than 5,000 evacuees – there was, as of a few days ago, no formal on-site medical care. That meant people had the unenviable choice of going to the emergency room of a Lafayette hospital, waiting in line for hours and hoping for the best, or somehow fending for themselves.

Thirdly, the failures of the first six weeks or so since Katrina struck are likely only to compound the problems down the road. Sanitation in the shelters is a nightmare. Some professionals don’t exclude outbreaks of tuberculosis or other diseases one might have associated, pre-Katrina, with an earlier, more backward era.

Mobile Homes, Campers Wait at FEMA Sites

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) -- More than 9,000 mobile homes and campers meant for the victims of Hurricane Katrina are sitting unused at government staging areas while displaced families continue to live out of tents and shelters.

$11 Million a Day Spent on Hotels for Storm Relief

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 - Straining to meet President Bush's mid-October deadline to clear out shelters, the federal government has moved hundreds of thousands of evacuees from Hurricane Katrina into hotel rooms at a cost of about $11 million a night, a strategy local officials and some members of Congress criticize as incoherent and wasteful.

[]

The American Red Cross started the hotel program days after Hurricane Katrina struck, when it became clear that the shelters it had opened were not adequate to deal with the 600,000 to 700,000 families displaced by the storm, a spokeswoman, Carrie Martin, said.

The hotel program was intended to last a couple of weeks but has twice been extended by FEMA. Now Red Cross officials are saying there is no end to the initiative, which pays for 192,424 rooms in 9,606 hotels across the United States, in a range of cities as diverse as Casper, Wyo., and Anchorage, Alaska.

Congress last month appropriated a $62.3 billion for the relief effort, most of it designated for FEMA. The agency had told Congress that it expected to spend more than $2 billion to buy up to 300,000 travel trailers and mobile homes to house displaced residents. The agency also planned to give out $23.2 billion in assistance to victims for emergency needs and for temporary housing and housing repairs.

But the temporary housing program has been troubled since the start, observers say. Instead of setting up as many as 30,000 trailers and mobile homes every two weeks, as of Tuesday, just 7,308 were occupied. Even counting berths on the four ships that FEMA has leased and rooms on military bases and elsewhere, the agency has provided only 10,940 occupied housing units for victims in the three Gulf states.

The Corruption:

The law may be catching up with Senator Frist:

SEC Issues Subpoena To Frist, Sources Say
Records Sought On Sale of Stock

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has been subpoenaed to turn over personal records and documents as federal authorities step up a probe of his July sales of HCA Inc. stock, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

[]

The formal request for documents usually presages an acceleration of a federal probe. In Frist's case, regulators had to proceed with caution due to his status in Congress and their mutual desire to avoid triggering constitutional objections to the release of documents. The disclosure of the subpoena comes as Democrats blasted Frist anew for his financial and personal ties to Hospital Corporation of America, a Nashville chain founded in 1968 by his father and his brother, Thomas Frist Jr. Critics yesterday seized on a report that Frist held a substantial amount of his family's hospital stock outside of blind trusts between 1998 and 2002 -- a time when he asserted he did not know how much of the stock he owned.
The Associated Press reported on Tuesday that Frist earned tens of thousands of dollars from HCA stock in a partnership controlled by his brother, outside of the blind trusts he created to avoid a conflict of interest.

"It seems that for years, Frist may have misled his constituents and the American people about his health care industry stock holdings and the conflict of interest they created as he drafted our nation's health care policy," said Democratic National Committee Communications Director Karen Finney. "This deal raises even more questions about the Republican culture of corruption in Washington, D.C."

The Cronyism:

Great article in the New Republic, outlining the 15 worst hacks in the Bush Administration. Here's just one:

Welcome to the Hackocracy

11: Patrick Rhode
Acting Deputy Director Federal Emergency Management Agency

As acting deputy director of FEMA, 36-year-old Patrick Rhode had, until recently, the unenviable job of backstopping the hapless Michael Brown, a man who needed much backstopping. Unfortunately, it's not clear that Rhode is much more qualified than Brown to be managing the nation's worst disasters. Before joining FEMA, the biggest disaster he had helped manage was the Small Business Administration (see Hector Barreto)--and even that was something of a stretch. Rhode entered federal government in 2001 as deputy director of advance operations for the Bush White House, a job he had also held for Bush's 2000 campaign. Never fear, though: Rhode has covered disasters--as a TV anchor for local network affiliates in Alabama and Arkansas, in which capacity he developed "an acute interest in what responders do in times of crises." Perhaps not acute enough. He recently said that FEMA's response to Katrina was "probably one of the most efficient and effective responses in the country's history."

High Crimes and Misdemeanors

From attytood "Covering Philly and the world like Cheese Whiz":

The President's day: One high crime and two misdemeanors

Misdemeanor No. 1: In using religion as a key basis for offering Miers a job, the president would appear to have violated the spirit, if not the letter, of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. According to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Title VII of the law "prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin."

Misdemeanor No. 2: More specifically, one could make the case that Bush's actions are also in violation of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, which specifically covers federal employees. According to the same EEOC primer: "The CSRA prohibits any employee who has authority to take certain personnel actions from discriminating for or against employees or applicants for employment on the bases of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age or disability."

High crime: As you might expect, the "high crime" here is more serious, and is also the area where it's hardest to argue that the president did not cross the line. We are referring to Article VI, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution, which states that "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."

We Must Get Out This Vote!

From Intelligence Squad, via The News Blog:

Bush Approval Is 2% Among Blacks

Apparently, watching thousands of one's people drown, starve and dehydrate while the man responsible for assisting them squeezes a couple of extra days out of his vacation tends to make folks appropriately cranky. According to NBC's Tim Russert, the network's latest poll has only 2% of blacks saying they approve of the job Bush is doing as president. Those are Ku Klux Klan-like levels. I bet Newt Gingrich had better numbers than that among blacks as Speaker of the House during the Clinton impeachment. I bet Jefferson Davis had better numbers as the president of the Confederacy during the Civil War. Apparently Condi Rice, Minister T.D. Jakes, Ken Blackwell, and a tiny handful of other sellouts are the only black folks left in America still willing to support this monkey.

Why We Still Love Nomar

He's just a great guy.

Former Red Sox shortstop rescues two women from the water

Who's On First?

I got this from an email; traced it back to about.com:


George: Condi! Nice to see you. What's happening?

Condi: Sir, I have the report here about the new leader of China.

George: Great. Lay it on me.

Condi: Hu is the new leader of China .

George: That's what I want to know.

Condi: That's what I'm telling you.

George: That's what I'm asking you. Who is the new leader of China?

Condi: Yes.

George: I mean the fellow's name.

Condi: Hu.

George: The guy in China.

Condi: Hu.

George: The new leader of China.

Condi: Hu.

George: The main man in China!

Condi: Hu is leading China.

George: Now whaddya' asking me for?

Condi: I'm telling you, Hu is leading China.

George: Well, I'm asking you. Who is leading China?

Condi: That's the man's name.

George: That's who's name?

Condi: Yes.

George: Will you, or will you not, tell me the name of the new leader
of China?

Condi: Yes, sir.

George: Yassir? Yassir Arafat is in China? I thought he's dead in the
Middle East.

Condi: That's correct.

George: Then who is in China?

Condi: Yes, sir.

George: Yassir is in China?

Condi: No, sir.

George: Then who is?

Condi: Yes, sir.

George: Yassir?

Condi: No, sir.

George: Look Condi. I need to know the name of the new leader of China.
Get me the Secretary General of the U.N. on the phone.

Condi: Kofi?

George: No, thanks.

Condi: You want Kofi?

George: No.

Condi: You don't want Kofi.

George: No. But now that you mention it, I could use a glass of milk.
And then get me the U.N.

Condi: Yes, sir.

George: Not Yassir! The guy at the U.N.

Condi: Kofi?

George: Milk! Will you please make the call?

Condi: And call who?

George: Who is the guy at the U.N?

Condi: Hu is the guy in China

George: Will you stay out of China?!

Condi: Yes, sir.

George: And stay out of the Middle East! Just get me the guy at the U.N.

Condi: Kofi.

George: All right! With cream and two sugars. Now get on the phone.

(Condi picks up the phone.)

Condi: Rice, here.

George: Rice? Good idea. And a couple of egg rolls, too. Maybe we
should send some to the guy in China. And the Middle East. Can you get Chinese food in the Middle East?

You Know the Bloom Is Off Your Presidential Rose...

...when the Washington Post publishes articles like this:

For President Under Duress, Body Language Speaks Volumes

...The president was a blur of blinks, taps, jiggles, pivots and shifts. Bush has always been an active man, but standing with Lauer and the serene, steady first lady, he had the body language of a man wishing urgently to be elsewhere.

The fidgeting clearly corresponded to the questioning. When Lauer asked if Bush, after a slow response to Katrina, was "trying to get a second chance to make a good first impression," Bush blinked 24 times in his answer. When asked why Gulf Coast residents would have to pay back funds but Iraqis would not, Bush blinked 23 times and hitched his trousers up by the belt.

When the questioning turned to Miers, Bush blinked 37 times in a single answer -- along with a lick of the lips, three weight shifts and some serious foot jiggling. Laura Bush, by contrast, delivered only three blinks and stood still through her entire answer about encouraging volunteerism.