[T]here was the president, landing on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, stepping out of a fighter jet in that amazing uniform, looking--how to put it?--really hot. Also presidential, of course. Not to mention credible as commander in chief. But mostly "hot," as in virile, sexy and powerful....I mean, that swagger. George Bush in a pair of jeans is a treat to watch.

The coverage of this war in the press and on television has been disgusting.

The worst culprit was also the one with the most "embedded" reporters and the most exciting live footage, and so it was, sadly, the one that I watched most of the time: CNN, the voice of Centcom. CNN was more irritating than the gleefully patriotic Fox News channel because CNN has a pretense of objectivity. It pretends to be run by journalists. And yet it dutifully uses all the language chosen by people in charge of "media relations" at the Pentagon. It describes the exploding of Iraqi soldiers in their bunkers as "softening up"; it describes slaughtered Iraqi units as being "degraded"; some announcers have even repeated the egregious Pentagon neologism "attrited" (to mean "we are slowly killing as many of them as we can"). I don't know if I'm more offended by the insidiousness of this euphemism or by the absurdity of its grammar.

To recite from a Pentagon press release that an Iraqi division has been "degraded by 70 percent" is an astounding abdication of journalistic responsibility. A journalist these days must not just report the facts, but also explain the news, give it color and significance. The graphic reality of "degradation" is a large pile of dismembered bodies. Surely some picture or explanation of what the wiping out of an entire division with high explosives actually looks like is called for.

N.O. man cleared in '84 murder

New trial in Liuzza killing brings an emotional end to epic case

By Gwen Filosa
Staff writer

Eighteen years after he was sent to death row for the 1984 murder of hotel executive Ray Liuzza, a New Orleans man was acquitted Thursday night and will go home today.

John Thompson, 40, who has always insisted he was innocent, smiled with relief as the verdict was announced less than an hour after the jury began deliberating. His relatives seated behind him sank back into their chairs with tears.

Liuzza's family members, who sat through the three-day trial in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court, appeared stunned. The acquittal means the case ends with no one held accountable for the killing.


posted by Tyler at 11:32 AM

After months of serious consideration, consultations with family and friends, communing with nature, the establishment and subsequent disbanding of several "exploratory" committees, an occasional nap, and a bizarre ceremony involving chicken bones and a hair from the head of every other candidate, Will Markson has decided to run for President.
That means America's favorite fictional candidate will formally launch his campaign in late spring, and begin a groundbreaking effort to expand voter participation across America. It promises to be unlike anything you've ever seen. Unless you're a time traveler from the future, which means you've already seen it. How'd we do?

We hope you'll join us (and him). Because when voter turnout is just 50%, it's difficult to ensure that government policies truly reflect the will of the people. And that's no joke.


posted by Tyler at 10:46 AM

As described by a Senate Republican official and confirmed by Frist's office, Frist would keep the 60-vote threshold for the first vote on breaking a filibuster, declining in three steps to a simple majority of 51 by the fourth vote. No such "cloture" vote could be held until after 12 hours of debate, and a two-day interval would be required between votes.

Both the Administration and the Senate should agree to the creation of nominating commissions in every state, the District of Columbia, and each Circuit Court of Appeals. Every commission will consist of an equal number of Republicans and Democrats, chosen by the President and the opposition party's Senate leader. Each commission will propose one candidate to fill each vacancy. Barring evidence that any candidate proposed by a Commission is unfit for judicial service, the President will nominate the individual and the Senate will confirm her or him.

To ensure each vacancy is filled rapidly but not hastily, the Commission will have a reasonable period of time within which to propose a nominee, the President will have a short time within which to make the nomination, and the Senate will have the same short period of time within which to confirm him or her.

He's only got a half-hour, and this is what they're taking?

Rebecca, from Goshen, Ohio writes:
I was wondering what is it like to work with the President?

Judge Gonzales
Good question, it is an honor to work with George W. Bush. The President is a remarkable person. It is hard to be around the President and not learn, just by watching and listening. It is also hard to be around the President and not like him.

Good question??? You've got the ear of the White House Counsel, a man deeply involved in critical government policies, and you ask this? Could you have done any worse, short of asking him, if he were a tree, what kind of tree he would be?

Also, I liked this exchange:

Gregory, from Sandusky, OH writes:
Since the advise and consent role of Congress, as spelled out in the Constitution, specifically states that a simple majority vote is required, is it not unconstitutional for the Senate Democrats to insist that a 60 favorable vote to break a fillibuster is needed for the whole Senate to vote up or down on a judicial nomination?

Judge Gonzales
The Senate has a constitutional responsibility to provide an up or down vote. It is unprecedented for a minority of Senators to block a vote on an appeals court nominee by means of a filibuster. Both Miguel Estrada and Priscilla Owen have the support of a majority of Senators, and should receive a vote and be confirmed.

Alberto Gonzales knows that the Constitution does not "specifically state[] that a simple majority vote is required." Why did he not correct the questioner's misapprehension? By the way, have you noticed how many of the softball questions have misspellings and grammatical errors (e.g., "fillibuster") to go along with their often mistaken factual premises? I'm shocked (shocked, I tell you) that your well-constructed question was not deemed more worthy of answering than these.

Patrick, from Richardson, TX writes:
Though a bipartisan merit selection system for federal judicial appointments would have political drawbacks for whoever is president--such as the loss of a tool to reward core constituencies and an inability to shape the ideological direction of the courts, 1) do you see any advantages from such a system, and 2) could there ever be the political will to seek an institutionalized compromise that would back away from the historic drive to pack the federal courts the impulse behind Marbury v. Madison afterall?

Judge Gonzales
The framers of the Constitution wanted one person to be responsible and accountable for the nomination of federal judges, and the Senate as a whole to vote on the nominees.

Rafael, from Englewood, Colorado writes:
Does the President employ a litmus test when selecting his nominees?

Judge Gonzales
No.

Considering the fact that currently there are fewer federal court vacancies (50) than Clinton nominees denied a Judiciary Committee hearing or vote (54) during the 6 years of Republican control, why does this administration continue to accuse Senate Democrats of treating President Bush's nominees unfairly? And what, if anything, can be done to remedy the situation?

At trial in the McCoy case, [Coleman] denied guilt and provided well-supported alibis for his whereabouts at the time of the murder. But a jailhouse informant said Coleman had confessed to the crime while awaiting trial, and blood evidence taken from the scene did not rule Coleman out. He was convicted in 1982.

Questions persisted among those who doubted Coleman's guilt:
- Why was there no coal dust on McCoy's body when Coleman's clothes were covered with it that night?
- Why didn't Coleman's lawyer mention a bag of blood-soaked sheets, two shirts and a pair of scissors found near McCoy's home after the murder?
- Why did Coleman's clothes lack bloodstains and why were there no fingernail scratches on his body if McCoy struggled as the evidence at trial suggested?

An interdisciplinary team of scientists at Michigan State University and the California Institute of Technology, with the help of powerful computers, has used a kind of artificial life, or ALife, to create a road map detailing the evolution of complex organisms, an old problem in biology.

The program, called Avida, is an artificial petri dish in which organisms not only reproduce, but also perform mathematical calculations to obtain rewards. Their reward is more computer time that they can use for making copies of themselves. Avida randomly adds mutations to the copies, thus spurring natural selection and evolution. The research team watched how these "bugs" adapted and evolved in different environments inside their artificial world.

Avida is the biologist's race car - a really souped up one. To watch the evolution of most living organisms would require thousands of years – without blinking. The digital bugs evolve at lightening speed, and they leave tracks for scientists to study.

But Michael J. Behe, a professor of biological sciences at Lehigh University who is one of the most vocal proponents of intelligent design, says that the simulation proves nothing. "If I were a Darwinist, I would be embarrassed for this paper to be published in Nature," he said.

"There's precious little real biology in this project," Mr. Behe said.

"When the president says he wants apple pie, we want apple pie. When he wants raisin cake, we want raisin cake," said Jade West, a former GOP Senate staffer who helps run the [Tax Relief Coalition] from her post at the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors. "We will support the president. That is a condition of membership."

Public Advocate of the United States, a Virginia based pro-family organization announced today that they would be sponsoring a debate between Senator Tom Daschle and himself on the issue of judicial nominations....

The debate will be comprised of two volunteers wearing Daschle masks, standing opposite each other to represent how the Senate Democratic leader has proved to be two-faced when it comes to confirming judicial nominees. The demonstrators will remind Americans that in 1999 Tom Daschle told his Senate colleagues that he found "it simply baffling that a Senator would vote against even voting on a judicial nomination..." and now he and other leftist Senators have taken the unprecedented and unconstitutional step of filibustering judicial nominees, increasing the vote needed for confirmation from a majority in the Constitution to the 3/5 required to stop a filibuster.

OK. There was some good news this morning. According to the French government tourist office, "THE FACTOR" led boycott has cost the French economy about $500 million so far. More than 40 percent of Americans who planned to travel to France have modified those plans. We say good. Until President Chirac apologizes to all Americans for putting us in danger, the boycott stays.

President Bush's address to the American people announcing combat victory in Iraq deserved to be marked with solemnity, not extravagance; with gratitude to God, not self-congratulatory gestures...American blood has been shed on foreign soil in defense of the president's policies. This is not some made-for-TV backdrop for a campaign commercial.

Gary Hart is not running.
Dick Cheney and Bob Graham are.
OMB head Mitch Daniels is prepping to bankrupt Indiana (as MaxSpeak puts it.)

Police in Bergen have charged Norwegian comedian Otto Jespersen and his boss at TV2 with insulting the flag of a foreign state. Jespersen burned a US flag during his weekly monologue on an episode of what was supposed to be a humorous talk show earlier this year.

Lawmakers looking to cut millions from schools and government health-care programs to cope with a massive budget crisis could end up giving religious groups a big infusion of cash.

A proposal would set aside $625,000 in state money to help churches and other faith-based organizations get their hands on new money flowing from Washington.

Rep. John White, R-Kettering, said a new office is needed to help nonprofit groups acquire shares of the $70 billion in federal money set aside by President Bush's faith-based initiative.

"It's like they're robbing Peter to pay Paul," Ulmer, who oversees Catholic Charities in Richland County, said.

"With a faith-based charity, as long as you're not proselytizing, you're permitted to apply for that money. All this means is that there are going to be more people drawing from the same pool of money. Either that, or there will be a lot more faith-based organizations created."

She said that since Bush pledged to set aside the money, she's experienced nothing but funding cuts.

"George Bush may have said he wanted to do this," Ulmer said. "But the man in Columbus (Gov. Bob Taft) is cutting and cutting and cutting."

Ulmer said that in the late 1980s or early 1990s there seemed to be an abundance of funding to help organizations like Catholic Charities.

[P]erhaps the reason that conservative groups aren't commenting on the bill's passage is that they don't know whether—even with amendments strengthening abstinence funding and allowing religious groups to opt out from condom distribution—spending $15 billion to combat AIDS worldwide is such a good thing.

Although Hussein pledged full support for the Palestinians, many of them now say he did little in their behalf away from the public eye. Free rent, often for a room in a home with a half-dozen other families, was the most generous benefit. But Palestinians were not allowed to own homes or cars. Only by joining the Baath Party could they win additional monthly stipends for food and clothes.

Many Iraqis believed the Palestinians were receiving far more, mostly because of Hussein's speeches celebrating the Palestinian cause and welcoming refugees. The image of special treatment stirred resentments, which may be motivating the evictions today.

President Bush didn't have to make a dramatic tailhook landing on this aircraft carrier. He could have flown here on a helicopter as presidents normally would, the White House said Friday.

Bush's aides were delighted by the saturation television coverage and front-page pictures of Bush's visit Thursday to this ship homebound from the Persian Gulf. Press secretary Ari Fleischer dismissed any suggestion that the overnight trip was custom-ordered to provide campaign footage for Bush's re-election campaign.

"This is not about the president. This is about thanking the men and women who won a war," he said.

Fleischer had said last week that Bush would have to fly out to the carrier by plane because the Lincoln would be hundreds of miles offshore, making helicopter travel impractical.

As it turned out, the ship was just 39 miles from the coast when Bush scored a presidential first by landing on the flight deck in a small S-3B Viking jet that was snared by a restraining wire. He climbed out of the cockpit wearing a flight suit and carrying a helmet under his arm, and was swarmed by crew members. The scene was captured on live television and replayed again and again.

"He could have helicoptered, but the plan was already in place," Fleischer said.