Emptywheel discovered a striking footnote in the court order Judge Reggie Walton issued allowing Scooter Libby’s powerful legal friends — 12 top-shelf lawyers, including Robert Bork — to issue briefs on Libby’s behalf. It is an impressive show of public service when twelve prominent and distinguished current and former law professors of well-respected schools are […]
Take a wild guess who shared these words of wisdom during a recent commencement address (via Jonathan Schwarz): “While it’s wonderful to have the world literally at our fingertips, the tsunami of information at our beck and call has the potential to drown us and actually make us less informed…. Surfing the web may be […]
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sat down yesterday with the editors of the New York Daily News to discuss Iraq policy. She repeated most of the mantras we’ve come to expect from administration officials, including the obligatory sense of impatience. “[O]ur patience is not endless — not just the patience of the American people but […]
With Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Mullen replacing Gen. Peter Pace as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Wall Street Journal noticed an interesting trend among top military officials. Adm. Mullen, like many of his four-star colleagues on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was skeptical of the decision to send additional U.S. […]
The God Machine is focused on just one jaw-dropping religion story this week — a piece from the Florida Baptist Witness about Lt. Michael Peyton, the military chaplain assigned to the Blue Angels precision flying team. “One of the rules of thumb in the Navy’s chaplain corps is just the power of presence of the […]
Given what we know of Bill O’Reilly, I guess this was inevitable. On the June 1 edition of Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor, discussing the recent news that attorney Andrew Speaker traveled by airline while infected with an antibiotic-resistant strain of tuberculosis, host Bill O’Reilly asserted that the “the story comes down to … philosophy […]
Guest Post by Morbo Some religious people I know insist that there is goodness in all people. We all carry a spark of the divine within us, they argue, and therefore no life can be without some worth and dignity. I respect the people who hold this view, but I must disagree with it. Some […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * Gen. Peter Pace’s successor as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, is not exactly a non-controversial choice. Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), for example, said, “While I have deep respect for Admiral Mullen’s distinguished service, his view that this is a ‘generational war’ will not do […]
There’s been a bit of a lull in getting testimony from White House officials — most notably, Karl Rove — on the prosecutor purge scandal. Today, the NYT suggests it’s time to stop waiting and start subpoenaing. Congress has now heard from everyone in the Justice Department who appears to have played a significant role […]
Finally, a reason to look forward to Monday. The Senate will hold a “no confidence” vote on embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales this Monday, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, announced. In a statement released Friday, Schumer said if all senators followed their conscience, “this vote would be unanimous.” “However, the president will certainly exert pressure […]