Well, somebody from NH should get a press pass. And who will write the book? The three stories I find exhaustively covered here are the Plame story, especially the press-Rove part, the Supremes, and the Flu. Bad news all around, except maybe for The Plame Thing. So that is why I so avidly check in with emptywheel two times a day. It is the closest thing to possible good news I see.

Very interesting, emptywheel. If anyone is holding their breath waiting for the press to bust â€anonymous sources†who lie to them, they’ll probably be there for a while. If Fitzgerald can scare the crap out of faulty leakers and give real consequences to their actions, the faux-First Amendmenters who have been whoring for Judy and whining about all the damage Fitzgerald is doing to a free press should just STFU and say thanks for a valuable public service.

I’m not sure what you mean here. In court, using something from a newspaper article is hearsay if offered to prove the truth of the statement, as opposed to being offered for some other purpose. Any statement by an out-of-court declarant is hearsay if oiffered for the truth of the matter stated, and is not admissible except in specific, pretty well-defined situations, such as to impeach a witness. (â€Now you are quoted here as saying x, which is contrary to what you just testified to. Which time were you lying?â€)

He could ask something like â€Scott McClellan said you weren’t involved in the Plame leak. Did you ever give any statements to Mr. McClellan to the effect that you were not involved in the Plame leak?†This wouold not be offered to prove whether Rove was in fact involved or not, but whether he ever told a federal official something which the prosecutor can prove was not true–evidence of lying to federal officials.

This is a very tricky area which I’m sure Fitz knows backwards and forwards. but you are correct in your basic point, that people who go around telling too many lies are likely to be caught in their own web.

Hmmmm. This is nice:

â€This is huge, huge, huge,†said John Oxford, a professor of virology at St. Bartholmew’s and the Royal London Hospital, who was not part of the research team. â€It’s a huge breakthrough to be able to put a searchlight on a virus that killed 50 million people. I can’t think of anything bigger that’s happened in virology for many years.â€

Glad he’s so ecstatic. But what I can’t find in that article you linked, DemFromCT – at least not directly – is whether this news makes it MORE likely that avian flu will make the human-to-human transition.

People are getting concerned. A friend who had spent last week getting an earthquake emergency kit together asked me what to do in addition about avian flu. I said add Gatorade, Tylenol and ibuprofen, and be prepared to endure periods of isolation for 2-3 weeks and possibly intermittent outages of services. Also, wash hands and build up resistance. Get lots of sleep. If it comes, avoid public transit and places with a lot of people. Telecommute. What I learned from flu wiki and Alphageek’s diaries on Kos. I also refer people to Boccaccio’s â€Decameron†for what it might be like–a bunch of aristos holed up in a country house telling stories to each other to pass the time during the Black Death (i.e., what to do if the TV goes out).

Ot for DemfromCT

Did you see this post about the DHS guy in charge of the Pandemic Response?

http://www.transparentgrid.com…..0/05/1174/

Another suggestion regarding flu preparedness: institute (or lobby for) a mandatory sick-leave policy at work. (This is useful for cold/flu season in general, not just extreme circumstances.) The one I’ve implemented at my company states that you must stay home for a minimum of 24 hours after the onset of cold/flu symptoms, with authorization to leave work expeditiously if you start feeling ill during the day.

It Just Makes Sense when you think about it: if you’re not too sick, you can work from home for your mandatory leave. (We’re a software/services company.) If you’re too sick to work, then you shouldn’t be coming in anyway. This policy has reduced intracompany transmission of colds and flu in the last 2 years, judging by sick days taken and anecdotal observation of the number of ill employees seen at work.

Meteor Blades and all – Mentioning of the Swine Flu from the 70s – Ah, the swine flu pandemic that never was. Classic case study for public admin students. Terrible public policy resulting from the scare and added nightmares for the Carter admin.

The pandemic failed to develop as predicted and the vaccine killed more folks than the disease. As I recall from the case study, the original data was flawed, contaminating the predictions, and resultant public policies.

There was some element of military involvement but it may have been as simple as deaths in military populations resulting from the vacs and no comparison the Bush proposed quarantines.

Warrants my refreshing my recall for sure. Pretty foggy recall. Can’t remember which Carter principals were most involved in the fiscal and political nightmare.

On a personal note, the vaccine made me sick in the Spring of 1976. First and last flu vaccine for me.
Ann