I’ve been meaning to write about this for a couple of days, but Ellroon at Rants from the Rookery beat me to it: Another attempted shut down of a blog by legal threats.

Lisa at All Hat and No Cattle is being threatened with a libel suit by Joe Scarborough for her web page on the death of one of Joe’s office staff in Fort Walton Beach under mysterious circumstances.

The page has been up for years, so why bring it up now? The point of the page is the remarkable lack of coverage by the local media of this event, even though it occurred during the same time as the Gary Condit / Chandra Levy media scrum. The case was poorly investigated and poorly reported, and Lisa details the problems and wonders why?

You have wonder if Joe’s attorney has ever heard of the Sullivan “Actual Malice” Rule which is the reason the Swift Boaters can get away with their crap. If you are a politician, you make yourself a target and have to prove actual malice as well as falsehood to win a libel case. If you know you can’t prevail in court, the only reason for talking about a lawsuit is to intimidate someone. Joe was once a practicing attorney, he should know these things.

The BBC, CNN, and MSNBC are all flashing about an explosion in the US embassy in Athens, Greece at around 11PM CST. No word on any injuries.

Update: Here’s the Reuters stub and the BBC stub. Not much information yet.

Will Bunch at Attyhood compares the Shrubbery’s reading with LBJ’s State of Union of 01/10/1967: “E-Day”: It was 40 years ago today.

That may explain this reaction noted in the CNN report, Sparring senators threaten Iraq fund cut, filibuster:

One of those Republicans, Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, showed his strong opposition to Bush’s plan Thursday during Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“Madam Secretary, when you set in motion the kind of policy that the president is talking about here, it’s very, very dangerous,” said Hagel, a decorated Vietnam War combat veteran. “As a matter of fact, I have to say, Madam Secretary, that I think this speech given last night by this president represents the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam — if it’s carried out.”

About that filibuster, Harry Reid says that based upon the dozen Republican Senators who have spoken in opposition to the plan, he’s not concerned.

The BBC is reporting US forces storm Iranian consulate in Irbil in Kurdish territory and detained six Iranian diplomats. They also took documents and computers from the offices.

The NPR report on the hourly update this morning said the Kurds are angry and there is tension between US and Kurdish forces.

Great, they decide to really antagonize the one group in Iraq that doesn’t totally hate the US.

I would note that the seizure of the US embassy in Teheran was by student radicals, not the armed forces of Iran, and it occurred in Iran, not a separate country. “Jerry” Boykin may be on his way out [praise be to Robert Gates], but this smells like one of his stupid ideas.

The BBC talked to various people about their reaction to the speech on the world service this morning and their interview with an Iraqi exile, a woman forced to leave Iraq after death threats was illuminating for her clear understanding of the Shrubbery. She said he only listens to himself and people who agree with him, he never consults with the Iraqis before making these decisions.

They also conducted some interviews with people in a sports bar in Seaside, California, outside of Camp Pendleton. After several quotes from Marines in the bar, who were all saying “it’s our job” and “Semper Fi,” the reporter asked a waitress what the Marines said when the media wasn’t there. She said that they wondered why they couldn’t come home after Saddam was hanged and let the Iraqis take care of their own business.

Today the Shrubbery is off for a photo op at an Army post to hide from his critics by surrounding himself with the people who are paying the real price for his arrogance. It may be time for the Democrats to take away the keys to Air Force One, and make the guy spend some time in the office doing some work.

A server went down for under an hour, but things are back to normal.

Sorry for any inconvenience.