Thursday, October 27, 2005

Ecstasy... Agony The laudable New West Records just debuted on eMusic this week.  This small, feisty label with Austin roots hosts head-turning artists like Delbert McClinton, Ben Lee, Buddy Miller, Vic Chesnutt, Dwight Yoakum, and the Drive-by Truckers.  So what fine album do they choose to make their big splash on eMusic? "Dirty Diamonds" by Alice Cooper.  Feh.  (Paste Magazine reluctantly gave this album one star, and calls it a "lifeless collection of rubber-stamp rock tunes."  And I had so much hope for Alice...) 7:45:21 PM     Speak up!  []

Miers - Out! Harriet Miers has withdrawn, bringing to an end (for now) the remarkable fragmenting of the Republican base over her nomination to the Supreme Court.  Sam Brownback is on NPR right now, praising the "strength" of Miers' retreat, and pounding the drums about needing a true conservative like Priscilla Owen on the court. Her resignation letter contains two interesting tidbits.  First, no surprisingly at all, she targets the fight over the release of White House documents as the reason for her withdrawal.  Not the assault by nearly every influential conservative, and not her embarrassingly lightweight writing, and not her tragic inability to pay her bar dues, and not her juvenile love letters to George W. on far too many Christmas and birthday cards to mention.  No, it was all about the separation of powers.  Second, Miers expresses hope that Bushie will be able to appoint a judge with "a conservative judicial philosophy" and someone who "will interpret the law, not make it."  My guess is that she's trying to make good with the conservatives who torched her nomination, and make it easier for Bush to nominate a right-wing loonie like Owen or Janice Rogers Brown.   But I still don't see how he's going to get one of these clowns through the Senate with launching a filibuster that he may or may not be able to overcome.  6:41:53 AM     Speak up!  []