Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees that another copy of Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince has been sold. This time in New York state. It was sold to a nine year old girl.

In other news, Scholastic (Rowling’s Publisher) has received a Writ of Stoopidous Rulingus (co-signed by Justices Stevens, Breyer, and Ginsburg) ordering the girl to do the following: 1) not read the book, 2) surrender the book to Scholastic, 3) to not talk about anything she may have read in the book, 4) eat her broccoli, 5) listen to her teachers, 6) exercise three times a day, 7) stop growing, refrain from sexual intercourse until she is at least 18, 9) submit written lists of everthing she buys at any store or from any individual to the Federal District Courts of New York for the next 10 years so that the court can review whateconomic activity she engages in can be construed as interstate commerce, and 10) buy property in an urban renewal zone so that it can be taken from her at a later date.

In other news, Retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said in a C-Span interview that if this case should make it before the Court at a later time the Justices should create a 10 point test to guide lower courts in future ruling concerning premature book sales.

In other other news, Justices Scalia and Thomas check themselves in to Walter Reed Medical Center because “they feared their eyes would bleed or their brains explode” if they read anything written by their collegues on the Court.

No word on how this might affect the supposed retirement of Chief Justice Rehnquist.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader, for the very first time ever, is now regretting that he hasn’t moved faster on that blog redesign. (BTW, it is underway now… And moving…) He would love to see the nasty-gram comments his recent Rove post would be getting…

It seems that to be a right-leaning (okay, who is your Maximum Leader kidding - right-wing) blogger and be calling for Rove to resign/be fired is enough to get a serious news network to mention you on the air. No really! It happened to Dr. Rusty… Really… See his link: Hell Freezes Over: Jawas on CNN

Not only that… The lovely Annika linked to your Maximum Leader as well. And she is getting some nasty nasty comments as a result of her stance.

And the always thoughtful Buckethead at the Ministry of Minor Perfidy weighs in too. Buckethead’s take is that Rove was speaking on deep background and didn’t intentionally do anything to reveal Plame’s name.

And to add to all this, loyal reader Powermfn writes:

How soft you are on the Karl Rove thing! Having worked in govmint I know how these things go. Loose lips sink ships. I would bet you a dozen donut holes that Rove is now cursing the moment he even brought up what he thought was an indirect reference to Plame during the meeting with the reporter. It is no big leap to take what he said and find the name Valerie Plame. As for being blameless because he did not know she was a CIA operative, why did he make such an indirect reference in the first place? Plame was at that time a consultant with a CIA cover company. Yes, that makes her “under cover”. Did she have the authority that Rove attributed to her, of setting up and authorizing her husband’s trip abroad? No. That authority is up a bit in the flow chartfrom her level.

Legal? Political? Try breach of trust, not only with the Prez who swore that no one in his WH was behind this, and then breaching trust with the American people. As far as many of us are concerned, Rove can fade back into the sagebrush where doubtless he just might find work for his “skills” with the contemporary version of Quantrell’s raiders cuz nobody with an illusion of integrity will have anything to do with him.

And, no, it is not the fault of the press! When is the WH going to wake up and realize that this sort of tack is totally discredited!

Well with all this going on your Maximum Leader supposes that he should speak some more to this point. (And perhaps get lucky and have Juliet Huddy or Kiran Chetry on Fox News mention this site on the news!)

Your Maximum Leader has, in keeping with the spirit of the new stories out there, focused his comments on Rove’s role in whole deal. To restate, your Maximum Leader is quite confident that Rove did not break the law. Plame was a consultant for the CIA. Nothing he has read has done anything to convince him that even with a stunningly broad reading of the law could you classify Plame as the type of agent for whom the law was written. From a legal perspective, your Maximum Leader is confident that Rove has little or nothing to fear.

Now some of your Maximum Leader’s liberal, or “independently minded” (*cough*squishy*cough*), friends say, “Well what about the Independent Prosecutor? Why would he be working on the case still if there was no case?” Good question there. Allow your Maximum Leader to state clearly and specifically his views on Independent Prosecutors. The Independent Prosecutor laws are a travesty in our Republic and bring shame on our mealy-mouthed yellow-bellied political class. Any politician who advocates the renewal or extension of Independent Prosecutor Statutes should be treated with scorn.

Independent Prosecutors are unaccountable legal thugs sanctioned by our government because the government is too cowardly to investigate contraversial issues. Independent Prosecutors have unlimited spending authority and no accountability to anyone. Independent Prosecutors have no time frame in which to conduct their investigations - and no limits to what they can investigate. They are at least as bad as the Star Chamber of old. Your Maximum Leader didn’t approve of Ken Starr. Your Maximum Leader didn’t approve of Lawrence Walsh. Your Maximum Leader doesn’t approve of the office at all.

In the Plame matter, the Independent Prosecutor investigates because he can. He will continue to investigate until he thinks it is time to wrap up. It can take another 5 years for all we know. It could take 10 years. You have no way of knowing. Will he find a crime? You know, he just might. Will he find a crime related to the “leaking” of Valerie Plame’s name? Your Maximum Leader doubts it. But if Patrick Fitzgerald looks for long enough someone will be charged with something.

Now back to the issue at hand. The one issue with which your Maximum Leader can not agree with many of his right-wing bretheren is that because Rove didn’t do anything illegal he didn’t do anything wrong. This is actually the crux of the matter. Your Maximum Leader feels that the White House made this whole situation possible by (wisely and rightly) saying that they were going to hold themselves to a higher standard. That standard should be (and is in your Maximum Leader’s mind) more than “we’ll punish people who break the law.” Your Maximum Leader didn’t support the President because he thought that, in the ethics department, the Bush people would emulate the Clinton Administration. What Rove did, even if it was just in deep background for a reporter, is highly questionable because of the national security argument surrounding the individuals involved. Because it is highly questionable behaviour, Rove should resign on his own. Should he not resign, he should be dismissed.

Now you might be saying “What about presumption of inocence?” or “How can you let the Democrats (or the Media) define the ethical standard for the President?” First off, your Maximum Leader is presuming Rove to be innocent of a crime. But we have evidence that shows that Rove did something more than we orginally were led to believe. The issue of Rove resigning or being fired is not a legal matter but a political matter. This has already dragged out for two years. It will drag out further the longer that Rove remains. If the President is serious about waging a war on terrorists, and getting social security reform, and nominating one (maybe two) Justices to the Supreme Court, and reforming Homeland Security you have to be somewhat free from distractions. Rove will be a distraction for as long as he remains in his job. As for the “letting the Dems define the standard,” the President defined the standard. One can’t really blame the Dems and media for trying to hold him to it. Your Maximum Leader will freely grant that the Dems and the Media would like to raise the ethical standard for the Administration to include jaywalking and failing to pick up your dog’s poop offences severe enough to merit removal - but in matters of national security the President already defined the standard.

Now, your Maximum Leader hasn’t touched on all the impropriety and conflict-of-interests on the Wilson/Plame side of this. There is more than enough scorn to heap on them. That Plame would send her husband on a mission to Niger doesn’t seem to strike anyone as odd. That Wilson would then return and start to claim that Dick Cheney pushed his mission - when that is not the case - is deeply troubling. That Wilson, and to some extent Plame herself, have demonstrated such a deeply partisan slant in this matter should have lots of people up in arms. Frankly your Maximum Leader would bask in the delightful irony of it all if Patrick Fitzgerald wound up prosecuting Plame or Wilson for violating some obsure federal nepotism law.

Your Maximum Leader actually agrees with everyone who says that this whole bit isn’t really all that serious. He agrees that Rove wasn’t intentionally doing anything wrong. And furthermore he agrees that the motives of his accusers are suspect. But he disagrees on the point that what Rove did can’t be construed to break the standard for behaviour set by the White House for themselves.

And furthermore, if Rove were to leave the White House (which he should) he would just get a head start on being the scourge of Democrats running for President in 08. Contrary to what Powermfn says, Rove would not fade into obscurity. He would be a super hot commodity among the ranks of GOP Presidential aspirants. And that side effect of all this isn’t being considered at all by the Dems who are too focused on the here and now to look beyond their noses at the longer road.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader reads that Brad Pitt checked himself into a hospital in LA. His “people” say that he is suffering from “flu-like” symptoms.

First off allow your Maximum Leader to say that when suffering from flu-like symptoms he (your Maximum Leader that is) likes to lay around in bed and watch TV and drink juice and sleep. Why this solution isn’t good enough for Mr. Pitt is quite beyond your Maximum Leader. (The flu is a virus afterall. They don’t have drugs for it.)

Secondly, your Maximum Leader bets it is just a little food poisoning from that undercooked beetle Brad shared with Angelina in Ethiopia.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has become addicted to his new cell phone. No, your Maximum Leader is not one of those annoying people always talk, talk, talking away in public places on his phone. But he has found over the past two days that he has had to loiter in some very long queues at various places. Today it was in a Chipotle restaurant. He was waiting in the long queue and started to get bored. So he whipped out his handy Motorola Razr and started surfing the internet. Surfing the internet on his phone has suddenly become an addiction of your Maximum Leader while waiting in stores and restaurants. He just stands there and gets stock quotes, sports scores, news headlines, weather, traffic, everything really.

It was while waiting for his delicious burrito that he was surfing the news headlines. The number 8 headline displayed on the Yahoo News area (just below a story on Karl Rove and just above a story on Lance Armstrong) was this: Harry Potter Books Sold by Accident. So your Maximum Leader went and read the article. Well, well, well. Aren’t those Canadians tough. Not only were the lucky people who got the book before they should under court order not to tell anyone about the book. They have to surrender the book to the Publisher. One assumes that there would be a judicial consequence of not following the Court’s order.

So, to make sure he got this straight. Some 14 Canadians did nothing more than walk ito a bookstore, buy a book that was displayed for sale, and go home. For this they are now under court order to keep their mouth’s shut about anything they did read, and furthermore they are ordered to stop reading and give up their property to someone else. Damn. Next thing you know the Canadian Courts will be telling the people they have to give up their homes for strip malls containing more bookstores (which are part of a larger redevelopment scheme for the town)…

That all seems quite harsh. Would one of these 14 people be jailed for talking? Your Maximum Leader exhorts these 14 to defy the Courts! Your Maximum Leader will surely lead the “Free The Canada 14″ efforts.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader watched Scott McClellan squirm under reporters questions yesterday as more information becomes public about Karl Rove’s involvment in the leaking of Valerie Plame’s name to reporters. The latest installment of reporting from the Washington Post on this matter is here.

There are a few points which your Maximum Leader would like to make on topic.

As your Maximum Leader said to his loyal ministers over the weekend, if Rove leaked the information he should pay a price for it. We are now seeing the beginning of a sematic arguement about whether or not Rove leaked the information.

This sematic game is separate from the legal considerations. Frankly, your Maximum Leader feels that no law was violated in this matter. Valerie Plame was an analyst, not a field agent working undercover. That is a key consideration from a legal perspective. With the exception of the reporters involved, no one will be sent to prison for the commission of a crime in this whole matter.

Now, back to the semantics. Rove, from what your Maximum Leader has read, didn’t actually mention Plame. From Rove’s perspective this is probably tantamount to not leaking her name. But it has been reported more than once that Valerie Plame’s connection to the CIA was one of the worst kept secrets in Washington. You can’t exactly keep a low profile on the Washington social circuit when your husband is an Ambassador and well connected. So, looking at it slightly differently, by mentioning in passing that Wilson’s wife (who ever she may be) might be involved in the authoriziation of the trip to Africa you are pretty much the same as telling anyone in the know to ask someone who Joe Wilson’s wife is.

There is plenty of legal cover for Rove in this, but not much from a public relations/politics perspective.

And that is really what we’re talking about here. Much criticism was leveled at Bill Clinton (and his aides) taking precisely the position that is seems Karl Rove might be taking here. That position is “I didn’t break any laws, thus there is nothing to hold be accountable for.” And as your Maximum Leader recalls, that line seemed to work pretty well in the Clinto years. But your Maximum Leader isn’t here to bash Clinton…

Now, insofar as your Maximum Leader is concerned, he would prefer if George Bush’s Administration held itself to a higher standard than the Clinton Administration. Indeed, the President, Scott McClellan, Andrew Card and others are on the record about being committed to a higher standard. It would seem that under this higher standard the President (who we all know is loathe to let go people he trusts) should let Rove go.

That would be a great loss for the President. But let’s try and think through what it might mean in the greater context. If you were a Democrat wouldn’t you rather have Karl Rove sitting in a lame-duck White House working on policy? If he isn’t working for Bush, he’s gonna be working for some other Republican. Some other Republican with presidential aspirations. Do you really want that? Be realistic, Rove isn’t going to go back to Texas and raise some organic cattle and watch re-runs of The West Wing and cry in his Lone Star. He is going to start scouting out candidates for whom he will try and work his electoral magic.

So for Rove’s opponents this doesn’t look like quite as fun a victory as it might. Force Rove out for leaks, but then let him loose on the field of Republicans with presidential aspirations…

We’ll see out this plays out. Your Maximum Leader, for one, will be more than a bit disappointed if all the information comes out, and Rove is obviously responsible for the leaks, and retains his job. To allow the President to focus on the work at hand, Rove should resign.

Carry on.

UPDATE: Dr. Rusty says pretty much the same thing as your Maximum Leader. Only a lot less politely.

UPDATE 2: Skippy has a thoughtful breakdown as well.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader saw this: Strong Odors Expose N.Va. House’s Secret on the Washington Post today. He knows the street. It is in the area where he grew up. If there was a better photo, he might even know the house…

Why is it always cats? 273 cats in one house. Damn! Your Maximum Leader doesn’t think he could bear one…

The house is now condemned. One wonders if it will be torn down and replaced or if they will try and clean it. Your Maximum Leader votes to tearing down.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is gravely disappointed in his minions. So much so that dwarves will feel his righteous anger tonight. Your Maximum Leader will heap scorn, abuse, and pain on many in a futile attempt to get him to forget the indiginity done to his person.

July 9th was the second anniversary of this blog. Since it was a weekend he decided that he wouldn’t think much on it until yesterday… But then his thunder was stolen by those damned Llamas and their fancy-schmancy new site. Or it could be the fault of the Crack Young Staff and reviewing their fan-mail that caused you all to forget. Or perhaps you decided to leave your Maximum Leader’s site to read about how Gordon is going to be cast out of the great Zionist conspiracy.

Well… It doesn’t matter why. Y’all forgot anyway…

There is one way to make it up though… Visit your Maximum Leader’s on-line swag store. Then buy something. Buy a T-shirt. If you are a guy, you might like the “Well Hung” T-Shirt. If you are a lovely lady minion, you could get a tong and camisole. (Mrs. Villain officially endorses the Naked Villainy camisole and boxers as perfect sleepwear for the ladies.) And hey, if you are a lady and so inclined, you could buy a camisole/t-shirt/thong and mail your Maximum Leader a photo of you wearing it. (Preferably a “racy” photo.) Yes, you could be the official Naked Villainy Swag Babe!

Yes… Photos of a sexy Naked Villainy Swag Babe would make your Maximum Leader happy.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees that the lovely Annika has closed the voting and declared that her readers have voted that Beatrix Kiddo would whup Lara Croft’s arse. (As if we needed a vote to tell us that…)

The money line from Annika’s article: “…, the only thing Lara Croft could make explode was a pair of nipples through a quarter inch of neoprene.” And just what, your Maximum Leader asks rhetorically, is wrong with that? Absolutely nothing. It isn’t the five-point exploding heart technique, but those nipples are nothing to be sneezed at.

Anyho… The new poll is up. Maggie from “Point of No Return” vs. Nikita from “La Femme Nikita.” So basically you’ve got Bridget Fonda’s (remade) renegade street urchin turned government assassin versus Anne Parillaud’s original wild street urchine turned government assassin. This is a particularly hard one for your Maximum Leader. He really thinks that after Henry, Bridget is the best think about the Fondas. But Anne Parillaud just has a captivating effect on your Maximum Leader.

Of course it goes without saying that “La Femme Nikita” is the better film. Especially since “Point of No Return” is essentially a shot by shot remake of “Nikita.” Anne Parillaud is edgier and more convincing in the role. And she is dead sexy. Your Maximum Leader has lust in his heart for Anne.

Well… Go vote. Vote for Anne Parillaud’s original, edgy, sexy, Nikita.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was perusing the AP news wire when he saw something that looked interesting. It was Scientists Detail Study of Kennewick Man.

Your Maximum Leader is always interested in news from the world of archeology and anthropology, so he clicked through. What a useless blurb. Other than saying that Kennewick Man had a narrower face and smaller cheeks than are typically associated wit Native Americans the abstracted news piece didn’t say anything. They even built it up in the early going by saying how your biography is written in your bones and all.

Your Maximum Leader was hoping for learning how old Kennewick Man was when he died. Did the arrowhead in his thigh contribute to death? What did he eat (ie: was he well nourished)? How tall was he?

But none of those fun questions were answered.

Quite disappointing.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is tired. Very tired. He suspects that the Smallholder, Foreign Minister, and Minister of Propaganda are just as tired. Jackfest, the celebration of the Wee Smallholder’s Christening, was a rousing success.

Allow if you will, your Maximum Leader to recount some highlights.

1) Cases of Newcastle Brown Ale were consumed.

2) A pig was roasted, pulled, and devoured.

3) Karl Rove was convicted by both the Smallholder and the Minister of Propaganda in the Valerie Plame scandal. Your Maximum Leader held that the law wasn’t violated, but that if Rove did leak the information (which according to news reports out today it seems he may have), he ought to suffer some consequence for his actions.

4) Smallholder taught the Villainettes how to call pigs to be fed. Now Villainette #2 likes to run around yelling “Soo-WEEE!”

5) The Minister of Propaganda regaled us all with stories of Hollywood stars. (Martin Sheen is a prince among men to name but one; and your Maximum Leader will not publically name the dicks…)

6) Your Maximum Leader and the Minister of Propaganda both agreed that one of Smallholder favourite books (The Moral Animal) is a tough read.

7) The Smallholder and Foreign Minister worked up heavy (frothing - even) sweats as they toiled in the fields.
The (atheist) Minister of Propaganda did not burst into flames when crossing the threashold of the church. Neither did his presence cause the holy water turn to blood.

9) Your Maximum Leader and his Minister of Propaganda learned that sometimes you just have to suck it up and pay $4/bag for a 5lb bag of Kingsford charcoal.

10) Always… Always… Liberally apply bug spray before sitting in a lawn chair to drink beer with your buddies. And be sure to spray all exposed skin lest you wind up with 5 mosquito bites in a small area of uncovered skin near your ankle.

Those are the high points. Well… The high points that are suitable for general consumption at any rate.

Your Maximum Leader is quite tired now (combination of staying up till 2:00am every day and beer). He may blog lightly today and get to bed early.

Carry on.

Just a quick note of congratulations to Mark the Smallholder on the occasion of his son’s christening. Peace and blessings.

_

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader will keep the peole of Britain in his thoughts.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has seen many bloggers have put up Union Jacks to show their support for the British people as they recover from the terrorist attacks of yesterday. The Brits are the greatest friends any nation could hope to have.

Your Maximum Leader thought he would put up a Union Jack too. But he remembered a WW1 poster he has in some dusty tome on the shelf in his office. So last night he found the photo and was trying to scan it. Well, it looks like JR (blogging on the site of the lovely SondraK) found it too.

Your Maximum Leader found another copy and enlarged it slightly. It is presented above.

In other news. Your Maximum Leader is preparing to go to the Smallholder’s farm and visit with the Smallholder, Mrs. Smallholder, the Smallholding offspring, as well as the Foreign Minister and his family. Guess what else? The Minister of Propaganda will be there too!

And there was much rejoicing.

The occasion for this fest is the Christening of the Wee Smallholder. And of course, where there is Christening there will have to be some consubstantiation (maybe some transubstantiation if we’re lucky), a bit of invoking, probably some praying, an attempt at singing and giving praise, and - of course - lots and lots and lots of drinking. Oh yes! And a pig has been slaughtered as well. So we will have food with our drink.

And there was much rejoicing.

Needless to say, don’t anticipate any posting over the weekend. A redacted report of goings-on will be posted on Monday…

Or whenever the hangover ends.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees that the AP is reporting that at least 450 Sheep Jump to Their Deaths in Turkey.

Humm… This must be a sign. Sign of what you may ask? A sign of demons in Turkey. It seems painfully obvious to your Maximum Leader that this is a sign that the sheep were possessed by demons.

Just like the pigs in the Gospel of Mark.

Perhaps they need to get some exorcists over there. Those poor Turks can’t afford to lose their sheep.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader wants to thank the loyal, but confused, minion who found their way to this site by doing a Google search on “personality disorder maya angelou.” You had to sift through 4 and a half pages of other Google matches before you found your Maximum Leader. But he is sure that you are feeling a lot better about yourself (and a lot less better about Maya Angelou) for visiting.

Carry on.