White House Tricks, NPR Treats

On Thursday, Harriet Miers announced her withdrawal as Supreme Court nominee, effectively siphoning off some of the build-up to Indictment Day.

On Friday, a major figure within the White House was indicted, and the odds are that the Scooter Libby is just the first among several Bushies who will be swept away by the ongoing Fitzgerald investigation. The biggest names actively in play are Karl Rove and Dick Cheney. Gee, you think the White House might want to divert the press from continuing to report on the scandal?

After a weekend's repose, we all woke up to the White House announcing its new Supreme Court pick. Monday morning - the first real news cycle after the indictments came down. The administration's intent would be obvious to a third grader, or a program planner at Faux News looking for something, anything to air that didn't dwell on the catastrophes of the Bush regime.

How did savvy, independent NPR handle this ploy? Did they, in their necessary coverage of the nomination, point out the diversionary nature of the announcement? No, in the immediate hour after the announcement, Morning Edition went wall-to-wall with Alito. Perhaps one of their analysts mentioned something about the timing, but if they did slip that in, that must have been while I was in the shower. Other than their weekly Cokie Roberts interview, Morning Edition didn't even mention the White House scandal, as far as I heard or can see on their website. Their hourly news headlines have led with Alito, and had absolutely nothing about Treasongate in the cycles I've heard.

Top aide indicted? Look, over there, it's the Supreme Pumpkin, NPR. Trick or Treat!

Arizona's Shame is America's Shame

The Arizona Daily Star has this story about a rape victim who was refused emergency contraception because of pharmacists in Tuscon who are too moral to stock or dispense the drug. Tuscon is one of Arizona's largest cities, and Arizona is one of the less rigidly Neanderthal red states. Women in more rural areas of much of the South and West must find it absolutely impossible to purchase Plan B. The result, of course, is that they will not get the drug in time, they will become pregnant, and then they will seek abortions (at great difficulty and expense). The pharmacists who won't supply morning-after pills to women who don't want to become pregnant presumably do so out of the righteous certainty that "life begins at conception." Are they too stubborn to realize that their actions actually lead to more abortions, not fewer? Or are they just too dense to understand that they are not God and are not uniquely capable of determining God's will?

I pray for them, for the Tuscon victim of rape and willful pharmacist malpractice, and for the thousands of women at risk of being saved from unfortunate pregnancies by the Bible Belt. May God have mercy on their souls.

Free, Free Falling

Things aren't going so well for the Bush regime these days. As if quagmire in Iraq, bungling after Katrina, and a universally negative reaction to his crony pick for the Supreme Court weren't bad enough, now they've got to contend with jokers like this:

http://www.planetdan.net/pics/misc/georgie.htm

(The link points to an addictive little interactive web commentary on the presidency. You can use your mouse if the Bushie gets stuck.)