Sunday, December 27, 2009

Pushback from the legal profession

AzBlueMeanie of the excellent Blog for Arizona posts a nice map of the high-powered artillery coming to bear on Sheriff Joe and Andrew Thomas, and recaps the issues and the tactics that the Republic characterizes as "using the law to pursue political enemies." Our County Attorney is in the thick of a much bigger push by an appalled profession to get control of these guys.

Buddy Ross shares this photo from Lamington National Park in Oz.

Editorial: Senate scruples sell briskly lately

The unnamed Courier editor again betrays his confusion of reality and fantasy -- the little "anecdote" he opens with as "popular legend" is of course a distortion of a famous exchange in the Jack Englehard novel Indecent Proposal, which became a hit film with Robert Redford in '93.

I absolutely agree with the editor that the rules of the Senate need sweeping reform to eliminate the sort of venal tyranny we both see in the actions he describes.

The editor would have a whole lot more credibility on the issue, however, if he could claim any consistency in criticizing this behavior by Republicans. But we know what that's about. Even a stopped clock, as they say.

I notice that Ben didn't have much time to write this week, so he built this by recycling chunks that aren't about Republicans from the newish post on his pseudoblog, which rehashes the same lame message from months of these sporadic columns. Just once I'd like to see Ben invite an actual Congressperson to respond to his ignorant foolishness.

Op-ed page on autopilot

I notice that someone on the online op-ed page is apparently asleep -- no less than five pieces are posted twice as I write this, one under two different headlines. Yeesh.

Update, 2:30pm: The duplicates are gone, along with the comments posted to them.

The annual canned spam

We're now deep in end-of-year-roundup season, where most of the paper's space is devoted to enervating canned features to allow the staff time off. It makes reading the paper in search of news pretty well pointless for probably another week or so.

For the reader who hasn't shut down her frontal lobe for the duration, I have a few recommendations:

The Boston Globe has a succinct comparison of the differences that the House and Senate will have to resolve in their health-care bills.

The Guardian furnishes a first-person account of who killed the Copenhagen initiative -- maybe not who you'd expect.

A little obscure history on a serious, well-financed plot to install a fascist government in this country by military coup in 1933.

Enjoy!