Bush’s nominee for attorney-general denounced the “Bybee Memo” on torture, analogizes the values it embeds to those of Nazi Germany, and disavows a special commander-in-chief-override rule that lets the president break the law:
Good for him.
Eight in 10:
Number of Americans who favor Congress’s legislation to expand SCHIP, “including large majorities of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents.” Just 22 percent of the public approves of President Bush’s handling of health care, a number even lower than his approval rating on Iraq (26 percent).
Hastert to announce retirement tomorrow.
Roll Call reports that Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) is “expected to announce Thursday that he is resigning his seat in Congress effective later this year, eventually setting up a special election to succeed him.” In August, Robert Novak reported that Hastert would resign effective Nov. 6.
Markets and Journalism
A slightly pointless discussion over whether or not journalists are subject to “merit pay” standards takes a turn for the interesting when Jason Zengerle rephrases his view as “I don’t think journalists are totally immune from market forces.” And obviously we aren’t. On the other hand, it really is noteworthy how much of the more prestigious journalism out there is produced in a manner that’s somewhat shielded from market forces. The American Prospect, National Review, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Washington Monthly, Harper‘s and Reason are all run as non-profits. The New Republic, The Atlantic, and The Weekly Standard are run as non-profitable “for profit” organizations. The Washington Post (and Newsweek), The New York Times (and The Boston Globe), and until recently The Wall Street Journal were profitable but controlled by journalism-minded families willing to eschew some degree of profit-maximization in order to pursue some larger goals. NPR and its affiliates are a somewhat complicated non-profit arrangement. And among prestigious foreign outlets with a substantial American audience you see the BBC as a public broadcasting endeavor and The Guardian (and affiliated publications) is run by the Scott Trust.
On top of that, of course, a lot of people writing on serious topics will, at least for some portions of their careers, benefit from fellowships or think tank gigs that help subsidize their work.
All of which puts something like Jason’s followup contention that journalism is a mostly meritocratic endeavor into perspective. On the pundit side, while it’s true that to succeed you generally need to do “good work,” the sense in which it has to be good has less to do with whether or not there’s a large audience for your work than with whether or not your work is pleasing to potential funders, be they donors to non-profit publications, owners of vanity publications, or people in a position to hand out grants or fellowships.
Obviously, this sort of thing isn’t like living under Communism so maybe you want to call it a form of being subject to market forces, but it’s pretty different from being in a field where success requires you to meet some kind of objective standard of performance. Bill Kristol has had a very successful career in journalism as an editor and a pundit, but it’s a career whose foundation is Rupert Murdoch’s patronage rather than the objective merits of his work or some public clamor for a weekly neoconservative magazine. There are probably tons of people who could run a glossy magazine with the Weekly Standard‘s budget and a slightly larger audience that, nonetheless, couldn’t get off the ground because nobody wanted to pay for it.
Photo by Flickr user Will Hybrid used under a Creative Commons license
Mukasey: ‘I Would Not Advise’ Granting Habeas Rights ‘Beyond Those That Detainees Already Have’
One year ago today, the Military Commissions Act of 2006 suspended habeas corpus for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo and other offshore prisons. “At the urging of the Bush administration, the Republican-controlled Congress last year voted to sharply limit detainee access to the courts.”
In the confirmation hearing of Attorney General nominee Mike Mukasey, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) — who previously threatened to filibuster the Habeas Corpus Restoration Act — asked Mukasey whether he would restore habeas corpus to “unlawful enemy combatants” held in U.S. detention centers.
Mukasey said he would not support granting habeas corpus rights to detained prisoners at Gitmo:
GRAHAM: Would you advise the President of the United States to allow unlawful enemy combatants to have habeas rights, to grant them habeas corpus rights at Guantanamo Bay?
MUKASEY: I would not advise the President to grant rights beyond those that they already have.
Watch it:
[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2007/10/mukaseyhabeas2.320.240.flv]
Graham asked if Mukasey “associates” himself with former Attorney General Robert Jackson’s statement that expanding legal rights to detainees would cause a “conflict between judicial and military opinion highly comforting to enemies of the United States.” “Yes I do,” affirmed Mukasey.
Earlier in today’s hearings, Mukasey refused to say whether he would recommend to Bush that Guantanamo be shut down. Unfortunately, it appears that many of Alberto Gonzales’ punitive detainee policies will continue under Mukasey’s Justice Department.
UPDATE: Today, Amnesty International took out a full-page ad in USA Today commemorating the Military Commissions Act’s one-year anniversary. View the ad HERE.
What Chris Bowers Said
This stuff makes me sad and angry all at the same time.
Lynne Cheney wants a leader in the ‘the Dick Cheney mold.’
In an interview with the Associated Press today, Lynne Cheney indicated that the thought of Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) as president makes her feel “uncomfortable.” She added that she wishes the senator were more like Vice President Cheney:
I kind of like politicians that are more in the Dick Cheney mold, who say what they mean and mean what they say.
Most Americans don’t agree. Just 23 percent approve of the job Cheney is doing.
RESTORE Act vote postponed.
CongressDaily reports (sub. req.):
House Democratic leaders postponed a vote this afternoon on legislation that would limit the Bush administration’s spying activities, a development that signaled backers did not have enough votes to ensure passage. According to a memo to members from Majority Leader Hoyer, the House will have no other votes tonight after wrapping up railroad safety legislation.
Greg Sargent reports Deputy Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) had today planned on introducing an amendment clarifying that nothing in the bill “shall be construed to prohibit the intelligence community from conducting surveillance needed to prevent Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, or any other foreign terrorist organization…from attacking the United States or any United States person.”
UPDATE: House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-MD) has put out a statement:
Once again, House Republicans have chosen to engage in politics rather than substantively address the challenges that face the American people.
Once again, they have offered an amendment that, if passed, would have substantially delayed this important legislation — which is designed to protect the American people — by proposing language already provided in the bill.
We have every intention of completing consideration of this critical legislation and fulfilling our twin objectives — protecting the American people and protecting their civil liberties.
The Gospel According to Jon (Cohn)
Why we need universal health insurance in one reasonably brief blog post.
Regent University Student: Pat Robertson Is ‘Crazier’ Than I Am
Adam Key, a Regent University law student, has been “indefinitely suspended pending a psychiatric evaluation” for posting on his Facebook page an “unflattering photo” of university founder Pat Robertson:
As McClatchy notes, the picture is “from a YouTube video in which Robertson scratches his face with the middle finger of his right hand. The video is edited to freeze the frame in that position for several seconds.”
A dean justified the suspension by alleging that Key “brought a gun on campus.” But Key insists he has “never owned or carried a gun.” In an interview with Above the Law, Key elaborates on why this “pychiatric evaluation” is ridiculous:
Keep in mind, this is the same school that published law review articles relying on sources like Paul Cameron, the man kicked out of the American Psychological Association for deliberately falsifying data in order to further his cause. I would gladly consider an evaluation by a legitimate psychiatrist that is entirely unaffiliated with Regent.
However, as I have repeatedly emphasized, I will undergo this psychiatric exam after Regent forces Pat Robertson to undergo one. Truly, what’s crazier… disagreeing with the administration, or hearing voices that tell you about hurricanes that don’t happen, and the impending apocalypse?
A look at some of Robertson’s past comments:
“I don’t know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he [Hugo Chavez] thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it.” [Link]
Robertson suggested that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s recent stroke was the result of Sharon’s policy, which he claimed is “dividing God’s land.” [Link]
“You know some of them [college professors] are killers!” [Link]
“I believe it’s [Islam] motivated by demonic power. It is satanic and it’s time we recognize what we’re dealing with. … [T]he goal of Islam, ladies and gentlemen, whether you like it or not, is world domination.” [Link]
Regent is rated the #1 most conservative school in the nation. Approximately 150 of its graduates are serving in the Bush administration. Key said that he went to Regent to “to show people that liberalism isn’t a sin.”
