Associate Justice Clinton?

So there I was wrapping up my time at the beach and the news of Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement comes along -- something to restore the blood bressure to normal working levels.

Anyone who was watching all the filibluster recently had to know it wasn't really about these two women who sat quietly beside their president as he complained about their nominations being held up in the Senate. No, this was about O'Connor. Yeah, yeah, all the blabber was about Rehnquist retiring, but he'd be replaced with a similar conservative ... no real movement.

It would be O'Connor's departure that Bush might need the so-called nuclear option for and indeed the time is here. Just one problem --- his approval ratings are in Nixon territory. If the Senate tips toward the left next year and Bush loses that control, wow ... watch out. There will be hearings on Gitmo, on Haliburton and on everything that's has simmered for the last 5 years.

And that's why, in my sun-soaked moment of screen writing I thought how can Bush save himself? There's only one answer: Nominate Hillary Rodham Clinton to replace O'Connor. When you're done laughing, think about the problems this would solve for Bush ...

1. NY Governor George Pataki would replace Senator Clinton with a Republican -- Rudy? Are you ready?
2. There could be no clearer "gesture" of reconciliation ... reaching across the aisle toward democrats.
3. As a member of the court, Clinton would obviously be out of the '08 presidential race.
4. More importantly, she would not be raising money for the democrats, which is why such a move would make the Democrats more weak in the knees than Republicans. She'd be out the radical right's hair (on the political side) virtually forever. Holding control on the Senate in '08 would be a lot more secure with Hillary out of the picture.

She might just say no, which would make the gesture argument even more perfect, but she'd have to be careful in doing it. When your president calls, you answer.

"Not Guilty"

So young Mr. Pan goes home to Neverland (I can call him young ... his birthday's about two weeks after mine) and can claim to be innocent. Fine. But the jury wept, asked for privacy and wouldn't look at Michael Jackson today. To me, that screams "not guilty" --- not "innocent."

Wouldn't it be nice to think that now he'll keep his hands of the young boys who seem to flow toward him somehow. Unlikely.

I'm glad the jury had the integrity to hold the prosecution to its burden, even though they apparently failed to meet it. Certainly the public is warned. He'd have died in prison within a year anyway.

:-(

Why isn't this woman under arrest?

Say what you want about Michael Jackson's perverse proclivities, the fact is he would have a much harder time if it weren't for the many people who have been so helpful to feeding his various diseases (drug/alcohol dependencies, too).

Case in point: this private flight attendent who explains that when MJ began to explain that he like his wine to be served in a Diet Coke can, she interrupted him ... "Say no more," she said. "I know all about it."

And I suppose that when he served some of that to a kid, which he could then do in plain view, she would claim to know nothing about it? Why in the world is she not under arrest for facilitating this delivery of alcohol to a minor?

Like Elvis, no one can cay no to Michael. All of these twisted parasites will stop at the prison gate in their service to their master, however. How dispicably pathetic.

Where's Michael?

Watching the "Verdict Watch" coverage of the California freak show (the Michael Jackson Trial) and now the twist comes. Michael's father, Joe Jackson, appears at the courthouse demanding, "Where is my son?"

While everyone on Court Tv is asking why they're so bizarre, I'm asking, why can't you see that he's skipped? Joe Jackson certainly knows damn well that Michael is supposed to be at Neverland awaiting the verdict, but I wonder why they're not asking ... when's the last time MJ was actually seen by anyone? Last Friday when it went to the jury?

There are reports (by Jackson's spokespersons) that he was seen at an ER for back pain, but no pictures of him going to a hospital. He could have left California on Friday.

Come on ... he's skipped the country, right?

San Francisco dispatch

Weather's perfect. Food's outrageously good. What all this I hear about fog? What fog?

Dinner last night at John's Grill with hubby's biz associates was unexpectedly way-gone fun. We met up with Mr. & Mrs. Actuary (We are Mr. & Mrs. Underwriter) and talked about cars, kids, movies, Internet and wine.

Bring more wine.

Waiter, we're out of wine.

Apparently our hitting it off was conspicuous to the rest of the dinner's group. I worry that we weren't engaged with everyone else (all really nice folks, too). But then again, the sound level in these situations is often so much that you'd only be looking at moving lips and smiling faces. You nod, you think you agree. You may have just laughed at an unfunny joke about your boss -- you don't really know.

When are there going to be restaurants that offer "quiet zones" for those of us with mild hearing loss?

Fun to go to a city far from home and meet people who feel so familiar. Do you have tales like that?

Too good -- bravo, N & O

Check out the interactive game on the News & Observer's site -- "Governor Easley's Wide Ride." It's the most fun when you crash the car. Make sure your speakers are on.

It's a twister (it's the news)

Thankfully, the news landscape has been free of the wild speculation about the release of the results of the Shiavo autopsy. The medical examiner handling the case says it will be a few more weeks before he releases his report -- sure to be a bestseller.

We have a runaway bride to obsess over, a runaway plane trickling into restricted Washington D.C. airspace and then there's Dave Chappelle, the comic whose standup success caused him to freak out, stand up and run away to South Africa. Time magazine was so skeptical of Chappelle's disappearing act, they sent a crew to take pictures of him on the continent. He had to get away (from his $50 million contract) because , he says, he was worried when he saw a white member of his crew laughing. Maybe his comedy was "making the wrong people laugh," he said.

Maybe it's making the wrong guy rich.

Meanwhile, in case it matters, there's Iraq. My son's girlfriend called this evening. She had a question -- how to do a search online to find our whether or not her high school friend Joel, now a 2nd Lt. in the 11th Infantry, has been injured or killed. He's not answering her emails, she said, and his unit has been his be a car bomb once already. They sent him back in for more.

We talked about that -- about where to look. We found an informative site, a disturbing one. The domain says it all -- icasualties.org. It compiles the data released daily by the government into a searchable database.

It's not a government site, it is a private site. A quiet patriotic act.

As for Joel, he's not listed.

The future of open source media

Take a look at this eight minute flash presentation - a fascinating "review" of future events in media consolidation via open source journalism. It gets beyond the view of blogging's new-gadget status and starts to get to the profit and global benefit vision. Some ideas (fully automated editing and gatekeeping) are pretty out there, but so was the notion of unlimited online storage and pushbutton free publishing tools just over a decade ago when I was graduating from the J-school at UNC-CH.

In '94, the debate was whether or not online newspapers might wipe out print and the prevailing thought (correct) was that they would not. That didn't (and doesn't) stop some papers from digging in and resisting (Herald-Sun). Even now, only a handful of papers like the News & Observer and the Greensboro News & Record have had the vision to embrace blogging as a means to connect better with readers -- a means to expand the paper's value, not cry about the potential "threat" that blogging might present.

When I see some of these traditionally syndicated editorialists waving their arms and whining that bloggers "aren't even trained as journalists!" I have to laugh at their fear of competition. If these pajama clad writers are such nitwits, why would you even acknowledge they're on the landscape?

Because they can see that lines are blurring and that it will be the marketplace of ideas and not the easy division of have and have-not that will drive who gets read and who gets ignored. That won't bode well for the lazy, the rich and those who have held power so long that they've forgotten they weren't born with it. I haven't yet seen a woman or a minority writer complaining about open source journalism. Coincidence? I think not.

Had your fill, buster? Birth control is next

This week shapes up to be quite a showdown on the Hill as Republicans make the grab for the juduciary. Make no mistake, this is all about laying the foundation for the next Supreme appointment, which will very likely be forthcoming before 2008. The neocons wants an anti-abortion zealot in that slot. The ultimate goal is not just to reverse Roe v. Wade, it is to reverse Griswold v. Connnecticut --- to eliminate women's right to birth control.

Don't believe it? Show me a single instance where a so-called "right-to-life" advocate has said that couples should avoid unwanted pregnancy through the practice of birth control. I'm leaving out unmarried people -- there's no way they'd advocate anything but the pure Christian life for them (no sex whatsoever). No, no ... let's be realistic -- I'm talking young married couple who waited until their honeymoon to consummate their relationship. Can she go on the pill? Can they use a condom to avoid an unwanted pregnancy?

Hell, no.

"I don't think Christians should use birth control. You consummate your marriage as often as you like -- and if you have babies, you have babies." Randall Terry, Operation Rescue

Think it's just the flakes?
From Catholic.com:
Contraception is wrong because it’s a deliberate violation of the design God built into the human race, often referred to as "natural law." The natural law purpose of sex is procreation. The pleasure that sexual intercourse provides is an additional blessing from God, intended to offer the possibility of new life while strengthening the bond of intimacy, respect, and love between husband and wife. The loving environment this bond creates is the perfect setting for nurturing children. But sexual pleasure within marriage becomes unnatural, and even harmful to the spouses, when it is used in a way that deliberately excludes the basic purpose of sex, which is procreation. God’s gift of the sex act, along with its pleasure and intimacy, must not be abused by deliberately frustrating its natural end—procreation.

Funny, I always thought of orgasm as the "natural end" of marriage's most intimate act and it certainly is bad to frustrate that. Maybe it's all a big misunderstanding.

The N&O blogs on

The News & Observer has joined the blogosphere, launching its own blogs earlier this week. Way Cool, Most Excellent. More proof yet that the Paxton-$un is marching into the future while looking backward (they're in the newspaper business and cannot compete with a 24/7 TV-world news cycle according to to Editor Bob Ashley).

Yah, whatever.

The N&O seems to "get" that future of opinion leadership (look it up, Bob ... that's part of the newspaper business) is developing in blogging. Becoming more interactive with readers and moving away from talking down to them is where the future lies.

And boy, oh boy, Durham could really use some interactive opinion leadership right now. The freakin' school district is in a near-nuclear state of meltdown. Meetings that devolve into shouting matches and arrests because the school board has totally lost control of itself. We're left to imagine what a good forum for discussion of issues might provide --- the Herald-Sun is asleep at the switch. No money in sticking their necks out, so they'll hang on the sidelines, watch and cover the train wreck and sell as much popcorn as they can.

Wouldn't it be awesome if they'd do some in-depth coverage of the issues these school critics are bringing about? Wouldn't it be amazing if they, along with Channel 11, sponsored a town hall meeting with ground rules so that the community had outlets for discussion other than blwoing up school board meetings?

*sigh*

And thanks for all the fish

Oh, how we've missed Arthur Dent at my house. Run, don't walk, to go see The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It's a large popcorn-and-Rainettes worthy romp with great special effects that are fun but don't overwhelm the story. (Rare find)

We were surprised to see a thin crowd on Saturday night (@ Timberlyne) but the movie is playing on so many screens, maybe they've managed to saturate the market. More space for us to go back and ride through once more.

Runaway Story

Jennifer Wilbanks, the story goes, needed some time to herself. What she got was, well, the opposite.

Rather than confront her issues with a wedding larger than Charles & Camilla's, rather than embarass herslef and or Mommy & Daddy, she instead took what she thought was an easy way out and hopped a Greyhound for Vegas (of all places). Okay, the woman has issues.

But what gets lost, it seems to me, is this: what excuse do the Deluth cops have? They come out on Wednesday or Thursday with this big pronoucement -- this is now a criminal investigation. Why? What evidence could they possibly have had? With all the focus on this distraught young woman's perpetrating a hoax, how much attention is paid to the cops not holding the line on this simple, apparently self-evident fact -- there was no crime. This wasn't a child who disappeared, it was a woman who went jogging -- an experienced runner. No amber alert, no faked ransom note, no apparent attempt to totally disappear, just an ordinary person who freaked.

Theory on dumb assumption: Rich white people don't run away, so something must have happened. Had Wilbanks been black and lower middle class, there would be no dragnet, her family would have been told that this was a missing person and nothing more.

Wilbanks bought her bus ticket in advance -- she must have. To create the illusion, she left her wallet and credit cards at home ... along with her photo ID, so no flying. The cops can say that's evidence of a crime, I say it's evidence of stupidity. Further proof -- she ended her silence ona Friday night/Saturday morning, leading to wall-to-wall CNN coverage all day Saturday -- an utterly inexcusable treatment of a case of this nature.

White House reporters asking tough questions?!?!

I was thrilled to see a couple of reporters actually do their freakin' jobs and push back a little when their questions weren't answered. "But Mr. President, I was asking about religion in our political debate, not in society in general."

For those who watch these things closely, Bush's accepting and answering the handful of followups represents a serious change. Right after the election, he playfully but firmly gave the back of his hand to reporters trying to follow up on blustery answers. "I told you ... no followups" he'd say, shaking his finger, looking like Clinton denying relations with "that woman."

Thanks to bloggers, WH reporters (including the gay hooker) have been taking it in the shorts (ohhh, sorry) over their impotence in pressing this president. Lap dogs they're called -- deservedly so. They should be junkyard dogs -- hungry and ankle-biting. Can it be that some of the attributes of actual jounalism may see a revival? The answer is -- sure, if viewers want it.

Smoking out DeLay

In the hypocrite-of-the-week report, check out this one on Tom DeLay ... sucking on a Cuban double corona for the cameras. The photo appears in this weeks' Time Magazine.

Uh, yah, that would be DeLay ... an outspoken advocate for keeping those sanctions in place and preventing trade with Cuba ... wanting, he said, to keep money out of the bloodthirsty hands of Fidel Castro.

Those who kneel also serve

The White House male hooker saga continues as it is revealed that gay prostitute "Jeff Gannon" was frequently signed into the White House on a day pass, but never signed out. Where are these sanctimonious Republicans on the issue of this guy getting into and moving around the West Wing without supervision or tracking?

On a Day Pass? (Maybe this is the real security application.)

That's the lowest (oohhh) form of security clearance for the White House press operation. Of course, it's more security clearance than New York Times Columnist (and Bush critic) Maureen Dowd can get. Bushie won't let her in, the scaredy cat that he is. She can wave her Pulizter all she wants, she has to watch briefings on TV ... as Scott McClellan throws the floor to the hooker. Go a-head, Jeff.

The price of nice

A new study shows that the ability to manipulate others to benefit yourself is your ticket to financial and professional success. So, nice guys really do finish last. This, the study says, explains women's poorer wages and slimmer chances at tops jobs. They tolerate being told "no" more easily than men (that's a whole different conversation).

This would explain the success of tender souls like Donald Trump and John Bolton, the Bush administration's nominee for U.N. Ambassador. Apparently Mr. "T" wasn't available, so Bush chose someone a little tougher.

And needless to say, the rise of Martha Stuart could be described as a mystery solved, but Martha -- to her credit -- always said that a man with the same personality attributes would simply be considered ambitious. Absolutely true.

And I still don't like Stuart, but that's a personal thing. I buy her products because they tend to be well-made. That's why her company survived her felony conviction -- not the quality of her personality -- the quality of her products.

Congrats Tar Heels

Oy. Someday when I have way too much time on my hands, I'll explain it all, but a trip to the ER on Championship night meant that hubby, teenage son and I missed the whole freakin' game.

Well, ALMOST all of it. We heard much of the second half on the radio on the way home (medical issue all okay) and the last 15 seconds on TV. Better to get the last 15 than only the first. I must say I was thinking while listening in the car that I wonder how many national title games Woody Durham has left in him. He's so great at his job of play-by-play ... a dying art in broadcasting. Hearing the game through his voice made missing the live TV event bearable.

Great job, Heels!

Finally back to the Final Four

Put simply, wahoo ... Go Heels! The drought is over, the Heels are back.

Last week, I was at the NC Specialty Hospital as my son had knee surgery. Within spitting distance of Duke's East Campus, I wore my Carolina longsleeve T-Shirt ... it says simply "Carolina." I took some flack from the many Dookies on staff there, but now that we're playing and they're home, success is the best revenge.

So go get 'em Roy and no matter the outcome, it's been a great ride all year long.

The Right to Die Without CNN

Maybe the right wing has finally sailed off the edge.

You hear all the time that you really can't understand this or that until you've been through it, yet a stunning number of right wing self-proclamed "Christians" have declared that they know better than Michael Schiavo what should happen to his wife, Terri.

Remember ... these are the same people who want to protect the sanctity of marriage from gay people.

First, the case is driven heavily by (big shock) money. Read more here.

If you've never had the experience of having to execute the wishes of a loved one and withdraw treatment, food and water, then I envy you. It is an agonizing task even when the path is absolutely clear.

In our case, it was my father-in-law, who had made his views very, very clear. As with most of us, he said (and conveyed to us in legal documents) that if he were stricken with, for example, a massive stroke or strokes and had no hope of recovery or regaining awareness that he was alive, that we should discontinue treatment (he was diabetic) and all life-sustaining support. That means giving the order for no more food or water.

That's what happened (two strokes, one on each side of his brain) and that's what we did -- executed his wishes. What we might have wanted was irrelevant. My husband made a solemn oath to his father. He kept his word. It took a week for him to die. It felt like a month.

But we did all this as ordinary people do -- without CNN and FOX news running his deformed image as art for B-roll video. We did it with some discussion and discomfort among family members, but we explained how the process works, we explained that these were his wishes and not open for negotiation. Above all else, we explained that he was not only not suffering, he was not aware that he was alive. We had no right to hold his body, if not to say his very soul, hostage for our own comfort.

So, to the freaks who claim to be attempting to "save" Terri Schiavo ... shame on you. If you do this on a religious basis, you should account for yourselves to a God whom you claim to trust, but whose will you would stubbornly thwart through machines and artificial existance.

This case is one of flexing political might and everyone knows it. for a matinee, Bush flies back to Washington to sign emergency legislation. Don't they have a fax machine in Crawford? Is it not a law if it's signed out of the district?

This follows the main event -- Congress passing a piece of legislation under orders from Randall Terry (head of "Operation Rescue") that those who did not vote for the bill would pay dearly at election time. He and his supporters didn't work so hard for the last 15 years to control both houses to watch it all go down the drain now, he said.

That's pretty overt.

Thankfully, the courts have been remarkably swift, responsive and consistent. They have backed this man whose commitment is remarkable. Let's hope a peaceful end is not far away for this poor woman and that her blood relatives can figure out how to let this go.

Embracing gay marriage

My dearest and I took our vows in the living room of a Justice of the Peace at 8:00 p.m. on a rainy Wednesday night, after working all that day. Our only witnesses were the JP's two dogs. His wife respectfully excused herself to the next room.

Our marriage, licensed by the state of Connecticut, has never been validated by either of our churches.

We have, however, a remarkably rich spiritual life. We take good care of each other and our children. We cared for his parents until each of them died. After 27 years of marriage and 28 years together, we still stay up late talking to each other, whispering our hopes and fears across our pillows.

It is too much to hope for that every couple could enjoy such comfort and happiness. It is too little to demand that every human being have the chance to pursue it. Perhaps this is why our country's founders put that "pursuit of happiness" clause in the earliest documents of our creation. It is not the espoused "values" of any church that matter here, it is the public policy of a civilized society.

After all, churches don't license and regulate marriage -- the state does that ... and that's all the state should do. My marriage doesn't need "protection" from gay couples any more than I need "protection" from people with blue eyes or red hair.

Why I do need protection from is the intrusion of the state and corporations, whether under the disguise of the Patiot Act or the everyday indignity of the store clerk asking my zip code before selling me a pack of gum for 50 cents.

Of course, that's a whole different rant ...