Sunday, July 03, 2005

President Reverses Himself on Supreme Court Nominee   In both of his campaigns for the Presidency, George W. Bush said he would seek to appoint judicial nominees in the mold of Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia.  It seems he has changed his mind since then, however, since on Friday he said, "The nation deserves, and I will select, a Supreme Court Justice that Americans can be proud of." Since neither Scalia or Thomas are anyone that Americans can be proud of, the President must have changed his mind. 10:49:10 PM    comment []

Two Reporters Paying for the Sins of their Brethren   Matt Cooper and Judith Miller will probably spend some time in prison, starting any day now.  It may be a very short stay since Time has turned over Mr. Cooper’s notes. The reason prosecutors and attorney are going after journalists trying to protect their anonymous sources is because of the massive abuse of this practice.  Anonymous sources have been used in 592 Washington Post articles in the last 6 months; in that time, the New York Times has used anonymous sources 334 times.  I am totally unaware of 900+ scoops by those two newspapers this year.  Mostly anonymity is given to allow someone to say something they would never stand behind if their name was attached to it.  (Due to Time complying with a court order, we now know one of Matt Cooper's anonymous sources was Karl Rove.  Does anyone honestly think he said anything that wasn’t intended to glorify the administration, and hurt opponents; or that he demanded anonymity because even an anonymous quote has more credibility than the word of an administration attack dog?)  People defend the use of anonymous sources by referring to Watergate.  They have difficulty summoning so much as a second case where anonymous sources truly provided essential information that would not have otherwise come to public light; and it's not unlikely Watergate would have still emerged without Deep Throat; only more slowly.  4:23:21 PM    comment []

Quote for the Day   "He's got a lot of charm." "Yes, it comes naturally.  His grandfather was a snake!"   -Ralph Bellamy (Bruce Baldwin) and Rosalind Russell (Hildy Johnson), His Girl Friday 11:16:20 AM    comment []