This guy stole a dishwasher. Wow.

Jeffrey King takes various news outlets to task for regurgitating the “Bush added a qualifier” line to their coverage of Bush’s comments regarding firing a leaker.

Today Bush said regarding the Plame controversy:

“if someone committed a crime, they will no longer work in my administration.”

And this is somehow different than what he said on Sept. 30, 2003:

“And if the person has violated law, the person will be taken care of.”

So the MSM asserts he has “added the qualifier“, “shifted from a broad pledge“, “changed his stance“, “shift[ed] his standard“, and “rais[ed] the bar”.

Excellent points, Mr. King.

This Sunday’s sermon was about not being afraid to ask questions.

Check this out from the trial of Galileo. Galileo, as you know, proposed that the Earth was not the center of the universe, but rather that the Sun was. He agreed with the Copernican theory based on various observations he made of the universe through his newly invented telescope, and he published his thoughts and findings. He was put on trial for heresy.

The proposition that the Sun is the center of the world and does not move from its place is absurd and false philosophically and formally heretical, because it is expressly contrary to Holy Scripture.

The proposition that the Earth is not the center of the world and immovable but that it moves, and also with a diurnal motion, is equally absurd and false philosophically and theologically considered at least erroneous in faith.

The consequences?

We condemn you to formal imprisonment in this Holy Office at our pleasure. As a salutary penance we impose on you to recite the seven penitential psalms once a week for the next three years. And we reserve to ourselves the power of moderating, commuting, or taking off, the whole or part of the said penalties and penances.

Bill Gertz says the CIA outed Valerie Plame twice before Cooper and Miller.

Mrs. Plame’s identity as an undercover CIA officer was first disclosed to Russia in the mid-1990s by a Moscow spy, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

In a second compromise, officials said a more recent inadvertent disclosure resulted in references to Mrs. Plame in confidential documents sent by the CIA to the U.S. Interests Section of the Swiss Embassy in Havana.

Andrew McCarthy elaborates:

Have you heard that the CIA is actually the source responsible for exposing Plame’s covert status? Not Karl Rove, not Bob Novak, not the sinister administration cabal du jour of Fourth Estate fantasy, but the CIA itself? Had you heard that Plame’s cover has actually been blown for a decade — i.e., since about seven years before Novak ever wrote a syllable about her? Had you heard not only that no crime was committed in the communication of information between Bush administration officials and Novak, but that no crime could have been committed because the governing law gives a person a complete defense if an agent’s status has already been compromised by the government?

…

You see, if you really want to know what the media think of the Plame case — if you want to discover what a comparative trifle they actually believe it to be — you need to close the paper and turn off the TV. You need, instead, to have a peek at what they write when they’re talking to a court. It’s a mind-bendingly different tale.

Read the whole thing. It’s incredible. (H/T: MM)

Michale Barone thinks that Joseph Wilson will be our Titus Oates.

Titus Oates was once a name every schoolboy knew. Oates was the disgraced Church of England clergyman who, in 1678 and 1679, accused various English Catholics of a “popish plot” to assassinate King Charles II and take control of the government of England.

On the basis of the testimony of Oates and a few other similar characters, more than a dozen Catholics were found guilty and executed. Priests were arrested and held indefinitely, and Catholics were excluded from Parliament.

Then, as the trials went on, it became clear that Oates’ detailed charges were all lies. His name became a synonym for liar.