I’m still processing my thoughts on YearlyKos, which are mostly very way highly positive but with a few suggestions/concerns I’d like to share with the rest of the class when I figure out how to state them coherently.  But hear this clearly: way high praise to Kos and the volunteers.

One definite high point for me — the first of many — was my very first moment at the conference.  I was wandering the halls of the Riviera, a monument to greed made worse by its own simmering decrepitude, reminding me with every sight, sound, and smell of some of humankind's least impressive qualities.  And I was wondering if I was even in the right place.

Then I turned a corner, and the very next face I saw was that of Ambassador Joseph Wilson.

This would be the Joe Wilson of blew-the-whistle-on-yellowcake-lies, CIA-wife-got-screwed, now-Scooter’s-in-trouble, Rove-might-be-flipped-to-nail-Cheney Joe Wilson.  Yep.

But Joe Wilson is also the guy who once personally stared Saddam Hussein down in a way that Bush and Rove and the rest of the Chimpy Legion could never have mustered.

It’s September, 1990.  About sixty of our fellow Americans in Iraq have sought safety by heading for the American embassy.  So Saddam, thinking they’d be nifty to keep around as hostages, sends a note along saying he’ll execute anybody harboring foreigners.  And what does United States Ambassador Joseph Wilson do?

Joe Wilson has one of the Marines on staff tie a big ol’ noose, puts it around his own neck, and calls a press conference, with one simple message:

If the choice is to allow American citizens to be taken hostage or to be executed, I will bring my own f---ing rope.

And sure enough, Saddam backs down.  And the Americans get out OK.

This was a guy whose hand I would want to shake, sixteen years later, even if the name “Valerie Plame” is never made public.

Can anyone really tell me that any one of the allegedly strong and brave Chimpsters, or any of their supporters — Cheney, Rumsfeld, Hannity, Limbaugh, you name it — would have had even half the yarbles that Wilson has?

It occurs to me: while a lot of people have heard of this incident, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen any stills or footage of Wilson with the actual noose around his neck in Baghdad.  I’d like to post it.  I think that’s an image people should think of when they think of this guy.  But I can’t find it with Google and the other search engines I’ve tried.

Is it out there?  Anyone out in the vast Overmind know a link, have a copy, or can introduce me to a skeevy video guy in a back alley somewhere?  If so, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .  Thanks!