Frank Rich of the New York Times thinks the President's premature Supreme Court announcement and unexpected choice are signs of a vain attempt to escape the widening scandal over administration insiders' blowing a C.I.A. Agent's cover as political payback.
One particularly ugly note is that Rich reports that Karl Rove has a history of trying to smear his opponents by questioning their sexual orientation.
White House Aims to Block Legislation on Detainees
The Bush administration in recent days has been lobbying to block legislation supported by Republican senators that would bar the U.S. military from engaging in "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" of detainees, from hiding prisoners from the Red Cross, and from using interrogation methods not authorized by a new Army field manual.
Apparently John McCain and other moderate Republicans are hoping to preempt a more sweeping Democratic bill calling for a 9/11-style Commission to investigate torture of American prisoners.
Between Series, an Actress Became a Superstar (in Math) - New York Times
Who says girls can't do math?
Andrew Sullivan quotes George Orwell on why torturing our enemies is morally repugnant, tactically ineffective, and politically unwise.
Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster - New York Times
On a recent Sunday morning when Lew Tucker's Dell desktop computer was overrun by spyware and adware - stealth software that delivers intrusive advertising messages and even gathers data from the user's machine - he did not simply get rid of the offending programs. He threw out the whole computer.
Puh-leeze. The ultimate in waste in the SUV society. And why was a Ph.D. in computer science using a computer without an antivirus program?
New York law examiners have raised the bar on this month's bar exam, prompting the state bar association to create a panel to investigate whether the exam really measures lawyer competence.
The article notes that it is remarkable that it is the New York Bar Exam is coming under scrutiny, since New York has devoted unusual attention to its admission process. (The article also points out that New York is unusual in that a quarter of the candidates are educated abroad, but cites no correlation to rising scores.)
Bastille Day is as good a point in history as any to mark the moment that Europe entered the modern age, for better and for worse. A mes amis français, salut!
Powell's Books is 100% Blue.
My sympathies, condolences, and solidarity go out to the British people today. Clearly the people who perpetrated the monstrous crime of bombing civilians on the tube and the buses do not understand that no trait is more British than fortitude in adversity.
Reporter Jailed After Refusing to Name Source - New York Times
WASHINGTON, July 6 - Judith Miller, an investigative reporter for The New York Times, was sent to jail on Wednesday after a federal judge declared that she was "defying the law" by refusing to divulge the name of a confidential source.
One of the many curious facts that I learned at the Oman pavilion at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival was that the Sultan of Oman has a bagpipe band. Rachel, meanwhile, was more interested in joining the traditional musicians as they danced the qasafiya.
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