Y2K?

Why 2k?

From CNN:

U.S. military death toll in Iraq reaches 2,000

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The war in Iraq saw two milestones Tuesday that reflect the country's path toward democracy and its human toll as officials said the referendum on a draft constitution passed and the number of U.S. military deaths reached 2,000.

A cynic would suggest that the announcement of the referendum result was held to co-incide, and so try to mitigate, the death toll landmark.

In a further co-incidence, not noted by the CNN report, Darth Cheney may now be implicated in the effort to discredit WMD truth-teller Joe Wilson.

Dan Froomkin on the NYT report:

The New York Times this morning reports that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby apparently first learned that Joseph Wilson's wife was a CIA agent from none other than his boss -- Vice President Cheney.

This new revelation suggests that special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald's investigation into the leak of Valerie Plame's identity has reached even closer to the vice president than was previously known.

It is no great leap to speculate that Mr. Cheney shared this info with Scooter in order to help co-ordinate a typical BushCorp style ad hominem attack on Mr. Wilson.

And while. as the Times story stresses, a discussion of classified information between a veep and his CoS is not illegal, I must point out that if it's with the intent to commit a crime (say exposing an undercover CIA agent for example) it certainly is criminal, and in this particular case, treeasonous. And further, if Darth or Scooter lied to federal prosecuter Fitzgerald about their communications regarding Wilson and Plame, they may be guilty of obstruction and/or perjury regardless.

Stay tuned, Fitzmas is expected any day now.