News and Commentary

News tidbits:

Fox News ratings have plummeted, down 28 percent (love the t-shirt)since Aug. 2005.

** Well yeah, it's hard to believe the "we're winning the war on terror" spiel anymore isn't it? Oh, and the Bush pandering is probably not as popular anymore either. I'd like to think that America is getting smarter, but I think it's just a case of media malaise. FoxNews is no longer edgy.

In another related story the new Bush line is that people unwilling to "stay the course" (that'd be the "where am I going and what is this handbasket I'm riding in crowd") are in fact defeatists. Or in Rummyworld they are practically Nazi-sympathizers...

The new Census figures show "the gap between the richest and poorest Americans widened last year." "What have been missing," the New York Times explains, are policies "like strong support for public education, a progressive income tax, affordable health care, a higher minimum wage and other labor protections."
** And just where did those social programs go.... that's right Virginia they are now evaporating at a rate of 6 billion oysters a month in Iraq. Of course, what's left over is also decreasing due to the death of the estate tax.....


Former President Jimmy Carter has expressed his willingness to meet with former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami after Iranians indicated their desire for such a meeting. Carter's spokesman said, "He believes that it is much better to be talking to people who you have problems with than not to, and that's the approach he takes now."

* Ah, Carter.... I wonder what it would be like to have a leader who didn't believe in the my way or the highway policy. I mean, why do you need to talk to those who agree with you already, isn't disagreement the foundation of diplomacy?

Women are suddenly scarce among Supreme Court justice clerks, accounting for only 7 of the 37 clerkships for the new term. That is "the first time the number has been in the single digits since 1994, when there were 4,000 fewer women among the country's new law school graduates than there are today."
* This probably has nothing to do with the ultra-conservative swing the court has taken during this administration, probably nothing at all...... sure... let's see of 4 clerks each, Scalia (who has only ever hired 2 women, out of 28 hires), Thomas and Alito have no women working for them, Roberts has 1, Souter who normally has greater than 1/3 female representation among his clerks has none, Ginsberg has 2, Breyer has 2 (and has a 15 of 28, more that 50% female hiring history), Stevens has 1, and Kennedy has 1.
So let's see, that's 6 clerks out of 7 are all clerking for generally more progressive justices.... oh and that 1 clerk for Robert - she was a hold-over from Rehnquist.