The Llama Sutra

Heh.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:24 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Sometimes, journalists simply flub a key fact, as did San Francisco Chronicle Washington correspondent Edward Epstein in this article about Saturday's constitutional referendum in Iraq:

Analysts do not see an end to Iraq's nonstop jockeying among competing ethnic and religious groups or to an insurgency that is averaging 570 attacks a day, despite voters' apparent approval of a new constitution on Saturday.

Epstein claimed that terrorists in Iraq were averaging 570 attacks each day in Iraq. When I emailed him asking for the source of this staggering figure, he quickly responded:

From latest CSIS report:

"The Bush administration's Oct. 2005 report to Congress does not show any decline in the number of attacks before the referendum. They totaled some 570 a week during 29 Aug. to October 2005. This compares with about 470 during 12 Feb-28 Aug.'"

When I pointed out that the report was claiming 570 attacks a week, not a day, (a difference of 3,420 attacks a week), Epstein quipped:

Where were you yesterday, so you could have caught that mistake?

Thanks, we'll run a correction tomorrow.

Professionals and amateurs alike, we all make mistakes from time to time in the stories we write. A certain columnist at the NY Times could learn a lot from Mr. Epstein on how to handle those mistakes.

Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org. more...

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 08:24 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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hilzoy at Obsidian Wings. Anonymous Liberal. Bilmon. O-Dub.

The last time the left got this excited a dress got ruined, but what exactly does today's Washington Post article Cheney's Office Is A Focus in Leak Case by Jim VandeHei and Walter Pincus actually tell us?

Not a whole lot, actually.

While full of speculation and reputed leaks from inside special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald's office, the WaPo "bombshell" is using much of the same powder it has tried to fire before, only to watch it fizzle.

But don't take it from me. Ask Kevin Drum:

Today's Washington Post story about Dick Cheney being a target of the Valerie Plame probe turns out to have no actual new information about Cheney being a target of the Valerie Plame probe. In fact, it quotes a former Cheney aide saying that "it is 'implausible' that Cheney himself was involved in the leaking of Plame's name because he rarely, if ever, involved himself in press strategy."

It looks like the WaPo is slinging stuff against the wall and hoping that something sticks. We'll find out soon enough if and of it does, and should the charges have it have merit, I'm sure that the White House can think of someone to step into the vacated position...

...but at this point, VandeHei and Pincus seem to be engaged more in wishful thinking than serious journalism. I'll take everything I hear regarding "Plamegate" with a mine full of salt until Special Prosecuter Fitzgerald lays out his case, at which point I hope justice is served.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 02:05 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Associated Press writer Darlene Superville, who first gained critical acclaim for her whimsical Plasterer's Digest expose, "Cheney: A Study in Stucco," and turned heads with the tawdry American Builder Weekly home foundations article, "What's in Condi's Crawlspace?" has now turned out her finest work yet in the riveting, "Rove: A KingBuilders Garage:"

He is "the architect" who steered George W. Bush to victory four times, twice as Texas governor and twice as president.

But can Karl Rove organize his own garage? Can the master of Bush's political planning figure out where to put the ladders, paint cans and cardboard boxes?

Engrossing, isn't it? Just the kind of stellar reporting you've come to expect from the Associated Press. But that's not all the sordid detail Superville has to offer:

There was no car in the garage. And the stuff left behind turned out not to be much different from what gathers dust inside most American garages.

The inventory, seen from outside:

_Some cardboard file boxes stacked one on top of the other, labeled "Box 6," "Box 4" and what appears to be "Box 7." No sign of boxes 1, 2, 3 and 5.

Could it be possible? Are these the same "boxes 1, 2, 3 and 5" that a secret operative of "G.W" removed just last week, claiming that the only contained jeans and assorted ties? Was there in fact a spotted blue dress? Has Patrick Fitzgerald Fitzgerald Patrick been notified?

What appear to be paint cans stacked alongside a folded, folding chair.

Are these really paint cans, or are they the WMDs planted in Uncle Saddam's Happy Fun Palace, used to justify an illegal and immoral war to force democracy upon unwilling Iraqi torturers, and then smuggled back to Rove's lair for later use against Syria or Finland?

A rather large wood crate marked "FRAGILE" and painted with arrows indicating which way is up.

Could she verify that this crate contained the stolen and almost mythical Daily Kos Plan For Taking Over The Democratic Leadership Council?

On top of the crate, two coolers.

Uday? Qusay? Oh, Bartleby! Oh, humanity!

A tall aluminum ladder.

Because the ice caps are melting and sea level is rising! Proof of global warming!

A snow shovel leaned in front of another cardboard box.

Because the ice sheets are returning and glaciers are coming! Proof of global cooling!

Wicker baskets inside of wicker baskets on top of a shelf running the length of the rear wall. Transparent plastic storage bins crammed with indiscernible stuff. Another cardboard box.

Is it really "indiscernible stuff," or Ohio ballots carefully hidden from Keith Olbermann among the Longaberger?

In one corner, the rear wheel of a bicycle sticks out, along with what appears to be a helmet.

Just a reminder of who's really in charge, eh George?

Another ladder, this one green, leaning sideways.

Leaning right, you devious shill.

I can hardly wait for Somerville's next article, "Scooter Libby's Private Privy."

Update: Don Surber has similar thoughts.

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M.D. Patrick Cunningham sent the following email to Instapundit today regarding avian flu hype:

As a medical researcher, I want to make a gentle but sincere plea to the blogosphere to calm down this flu hysteria just a bit. The main way that flu kills is by predisposing its victims to "superinfection" by bacterial illnesses - in 1918, we had no antibiotics for these superimposed infections, but now we have plenty. Such superinfections, and the transmittal of flu itself, were aided tremendously by the crowded conditions and poor sanitation of the early 20th century - these are currently vastly improved as well. Flu hits the elderly the hardest, but the "elderly" today are healthier, stronger, and better nourished than ever before. Our medical infrastructure is vastly better off, ranging from simple things like oxygen and sterile i.v. fluids, not readily available in 1918, to complex technologies such as respirators and dialysis. Should we be concerned? Sure, better safe than sorry, and concerns about publishing the sequence are worth discussing. Should we panic? No - my apologies to the fearmongers, but we will never see another 1918.

Patrick Cunningham M.D.
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Section of Nephrology
University of Chicago

I emailed Glenn the following as my response:

I am not a doctor, nor a biologist, nor a chemist. In any way that matters, I am completely unqualified to challenge the theory of Patrick Cunningham M.D. that the avian flu is over-hyped to the point of hysteria.

I'm going to do so anyway.

I, too, thought little at first of the media-darling pandemic, because I still remember the doom and gloom of Y2K, which wasn't that long ago. Hype alone doesn't do it for me. Then I read this article in the Raleigh, NC News and Observer, and decided to do some reading. I wasn't happy with what I found, and among those unhappy surprises, was the concept of "surge capacity."

To quote Dr. David Weber, medical director of hospital epidemiology at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill:

"Wal-Mart doesn't have a three-week supply of TVs; they may have a 12-hour supply," Weber said. "We've designed our hospitals the same way. We don't have surge capacity for anything, be it a bioterrorist attack, the avian flu, whatever."

In other words, if a pandemic does hit, it will happen with such speed that it will overwhelm the medical system by sheer weight of numbers, in an extremely brief amount of time. Having 50 ventilators in a hospital is a great thing, until you need 500, along with every other hospital in the region. The hospitals will fill up quickly, and after that, people will be largely on their own, and essentially left to fend for themselves at home, where technologies aren't that different on the internal medical front where they were in -- you guessed it -- 1918.

To me (and more importantly, the North Carolina Division of Public Health, and UNC epidemiologists interviewed in the N&O article) it seems like Dr. Cunningham's premise amounts to whistling past a graveyard.

I would love to be very, very wrong.

Sincerely,

It seems that a lot of the experts are blindly focusing on what we might have the knowledge to do, but not on the technical capability we have to execute their schemes in the compressed period of time in which a pandemic will likely occur.

What I've seen from the medical community so far (and what they've gotten wrong) makes flu pandemic planning look like Hurricane Katrina evacuations in a lab coat.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 07:14 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Via ABC News:

The driver of a bus that caught fire while carrying nursing-home patients fleeing Hurricane Rita was charged Monday with criminally negligent homicide in the deaths of 23 passengers.

Juan Robles Gutierrez, a 37-year-old Mexican citizen, was taken into federal custody on an immigration violation five days after the Sept. 23 explosion near Dallas...

* * *

...Sheriff Lupe Valdez said investigators also found no evidence that Robles helped several people off the bus before it was engulfed in flames, which was widely reported after the explosion.

"After an exhausting number of interviews, we have been unable to confirm any of those claims," Valdez said in a statement.

However, Peritz said a failure to help crash victims was not part of the charges against Robles.

Great.

It makes you wish that the Minutemen, or more properly the Border Patrol, had been their to intercept this coward at the border instead of not picking him up until he after stood by and watch 23 elderly people in his charge burn to death.

Perhaps if the President gave a damn about border security, this loser wouldn't have been behind the wheel, or the motorist who tried to flag him down before the bus caught fire might have been able to communicate with him. Possibly not.

I've had it up to here with illegals in this country, those businesses that employ and them, and enablers in the government (local, state and federal) like President Bush. This issue only gets more pressing as time goes on, and these 23 nursing home residetns are just the latest victims.

Are you listening, '08 hopefuls?

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 06:28 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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John Fund in today's WSJ OpinionJournal:

Two days after President Bush announced Harriet Miers's Supreme Court nomination, James Dobson of Focus on the Family raised some eyebrows by declaring on his radio program: "When you know some of the things that I know--that I probably shouldn't know--you will understand why I have said, with fear and trepidation, that I believe Harriet Miers will be a good justice."

Mr. Dobson quelled the controversy by saying that Karl Rove, the White House's deputy chief of staff, had not given him assurances about how a Justice Miers would vote. "I would have loved to have known how Harriet Miers views Roe v. Wade," Mr. Dobson said last week. "But even if Karl had known the answer to that--and I'm certain that he didn't because the president himself said he didn't know--Karl would not have told me that. That's the most incendiary information that's out there, and it was never part of our discussion."

It might, however, have been part of another discussion. On Oct. 3, the day the Miers nomination was announced, Mr. Dobson and other religious conservatives held a conference call to discuss the nomination. One of the people on the call took extensive notes, which I have obtained. According to the notes, two of Ms. Miers's close friends--both sitting judges--said during the call that she would vote to overturn Roe.

I'd still like to see Harriet Miers get a chance to get up in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee before I make my decision on whether I'd support her or not, but at this point...

Let's just say things don't look too good.

Update: Brian at TBSC discusses the relaunch of Miers and explores a bit of SCOTUS nominee history. I think the "ship of state" above pretty much sums up the extent I think relaunching the nomination will now accomplish. They've played this badly since the beginning.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 07:17 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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[please note: this post is about the marketing of the film, not the film itself, which I have not seen.]

Quick: What movie does this describe?

"This story is about four kids, disempowered by the war in their own world, World War II, who enter this land where they're not only empowered, but they're ultimately the only solution to war in that land. And it's only through betrayal and forgiveness and finally, unity as a family, that they can overcome those odds... We're taking the story of a family, and exaggerating it to the level of the battle between good and evil. But at its heart, it's still a very personal story."

"This story" of Andrew Adamson is not one I would easily recognize, even though I've read it through several times as a child, and later as an adult.

Adamson's quote comes from the Educator's Guide, to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, a 15-page PDF that literally misses the point of the source material entirely. There is not one reference to Lewis' background as one of the greatest Christian writers and apologists of all time, nor of the importance and power of the story as Christian myth.

Adamson, devotes quite a bit of his time and quite a bit of Walt Disney's money to ignoring the fact that this series by C.S. Lewis is one of the greatest Christian stories told in the 20th century.

When I heard that they were having a go at the C.S. classic Chronicles of Narnia I was both excited and filled with trepidation. I was worried they would botch the script, and that they would rip the Christian not-quite-an-allegory (Lewis called it a "supposal") that is The Lion... to shreds in an attempt to be politically correct.

To be honest, we still don't know how or what they did with the actual film, but their marketing of the film so far is chilling...

Last week, I attended a “sneak peek” of the new Chronicles of Narnia movie, put on by Disney for local pastors. The purpose of the event was to encourage pastors both to encourage their congregations to see the movie, and to the release as an outreach opportunity.

But what are they getting at?

This is all an attempt to replicate some of the success of The Passion of the Christ, which has made something like 600 million dollars primarily by marketing to church groups.

As I said yesterday, I think this is going to be a great movie, and I look forward to seeing it. But I have two main concerns about the marketing effort:

1) The people that are making and marketing the movie are non-Christians who have no concern whatsoever for the promotion of the gospel, except that they have now realized that there is a lot of money to be tapped into in the church...

Disney is willing to sell out Christ for coins. That sounds familiar.

You should click over to FoolishBlog to read Eric's full concerns about some of the things surrounding film, which are troubling, and to my mind, justified.

Mel Gibson had wonderful success with a movie about Jesus Christ. Andrew Adamson and Disney would appear to deny Christ's role in this series, despite author Lewis's own clear intent:

In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the fifth book of the series, Aslan tells the children that although they must return to their own world, they can find him there also (Hooper 123). Aslan says, "There I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there" (Hooper 123). Some of Lewis' readers wonder what the significance of this statement is and begin to search for Aslan here on earth. Hila, an eleven year old girl from the United States asked Lewis what Aslan's name is in this world (Dorsett 31-32). His response was this:

As to Aslan's other name, well I want you to guess. Has there never been anyone in this world who (1.) Arrived at the same time as Father Christmas. (2.) Said he was the son of the great Emperor. (3.) gave himself up for someone else's fault to be jeered at and killed by wicked people. (4.) Came to life again. (5.) Is sometimes spoken of as a Lamb.... Don't you really know His name in this world. Think it over and let me know your answer! (Dorsett 32)

When Lewis' readers find Aslan in the real world, they will find out that his true name is Jesus Christ. And when this occurs, Lewis is successful at opening a person's heart to accepting Christianity.

The Mouse seems more than willing to take Christian money, but not before betraying the essential Christianity that runs in, around, and through this series of books.

Disney had a wonderful opportunity to share a wonderful story with the world, and if the director's all-too-P.C. slant in the marketing materials is any indication of the slant of this movie, then they have failed their audience and the intent of the author by half.

I had great hopes for this film, but right now those hopes are only running on faith.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 12:33 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Judith Miller: The New York Times "Blair" Witch

via Editor & Publisher:

Saturday's Times article, [my link] without calling for Miller's dismissal, or Keller's apology, made the case for both actions in this pithy, frank, and brutal assessment: "The Times incurred millions of dollars in legal fees in Ms. Miller's case. It limited its own ability to cover aspects of one of the biggest scandals of the day. Even as the paper asked for the public's support, it was unable to answer its questions."

It followed that paragraph with Keller's view: "It's too early to judge."

Like Keller says, make of it what you will. My view: Miller did far more damage to her newspaper than did Jayson Blair, and that's not even counting her WMD reporting, which hurt and embarrassed the paper in other ways.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 10:49 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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This is our 7th Anniversary weekend for "Mrs. Yankee" and I, and as my parents have our daughter, blogging will be light (you're looking at it).

I'm a very, very lucky guy, and it will be nice to have some time for just the two of us. We don't have a whole lot planned (I did manage to sneak in a reflexology pedicure for her), but I'm sure we'll think of something to do later.*

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:29 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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WS: "George, have you ever read 'Much Ado About Nothing?'"

GWB: "No, I never read the Times."

Update: (ht:MM)

WS: "All the world's a stage."
GWB: "Um, No."

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 07:15 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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Not only is George W. Bush one of the most "misunderestimated" presidents in American history, he is also one of the most ambitious, a fact that the Harriet Miers nomination now proves.

John Paul Stevens is 85. Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 72.

Both could conceivably serve on the court for years to come, potentially outlasting the Bush administration... if they wanted to. But what if they didn't want to?

What if the court was stripped of its prestige and dignity, and was instead ridiculed and scorned by the press and citizens alike? What if the press ignored your contributions and body of work, and continually focused upon the capricious whims of the "new kid" on the court, a mash-note writing cheerleader that cites odd bits of scripture in her opinions?

After years of prestigious service, retirement might start looking like quite an attractive option. With Michael Luttig and Janice Rogers Brown waiting in the wings, Bush's "trust me" nomination of Harriet Miers is nothing less than a court-packing trojan horse.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 10:17 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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According to an article in the 10/12 Raleigh News & Observer titled "N.C. flu plan needs checkup," reporter Amy Gardner notes in her opening paragraphs:

The potential for a catastrophic flu outbreak has public health leaders worldwide reviewing how ready they are. In North Carolina, the bottom line is the same as nearly everywhere else: A pandemic would overwhelm the state's health care system.

With a shortage of hospital beds and vaccines, the state would struggle to treat the sick in a worst-case epidemic infecting 1 million North Carolinians, hospitalizing 25,000 and killing 5,000.

Wait just a minute. 5,000 dead?

The numbers cited by Gardener came from the N.C. Division of Public Health's Pandemic Influenza Plan.

The NC DPH begins its report by admitting it was calibrated using obsolete data, basing their population data on 1999 NC population figure of 7,425,183, and readily admits that these figures are substantially off by approximately 1 million residents. This concurs with 2004 US Census Bureau estimates, which states North Carolina had an estimated population of 8,541,221. Acknowledging that your base numbers are wrong to begin with doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

Based upon woefully outdated population figures, the DPH actually cites a worst case scenario (PDF) of nearly 1.4 million North Carolinians infected and requiring outpatient visits, 30,631 hospitalized, and resulting in the deaths of 6,994. The figures cited by the News and Observer story above were actually mid-range figures from the same report, not the worst case as the article claims.

With a rough calibration taking into account the 15.044-percent jump in population from 7.43 to 8.5 million, more accurate numbers are probably that same percentage (15.044%) higher.

A worst-case scenario flu pandemic based up these figures with a 35% infection rate claims to kill fewer than 11,000 North Carolinas, or something in the neighborhood of 0.129-percent of the total North Carolina population.

This is what we are afraid of?

Not quite. These are estimates based upon one software model that I am highly suspicious of, as history shows us something else entirely.

The closest-known relative of the H51N avian flu we currently fear is the H1N1 Type a Influenza virus responsible for the 1918-19 pandemic.

Overall infection rates of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic were 20-30 percent of the overall population. Global mortality rates from the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic ranged from 2.5-percent to 5-percent of the infected population.

Figuring a 20-percent infection rate in a population of 8.5 million, and a minimal mortality rate of 2.5-percent of the infected population, we are looking at 42,500 dead, not 5,000.

I may be wrong on the math. It has been consistently been my worst subject throughout my educational career.

That said, I cannot understand the huge apparent discrepancy between the anemic pandemic forecast by the NC Division of Public Health, and the historical example of the last major Influenza Type A infection seen in the Spanish Flu of 1918.

Comments and a thorough debunking are encouraged. I'd be thrilled to be wrong on this one.

Note: "Captain Trips" was the nickname of a weaponized super-flu that escaped a military weapons lab and killed 99.6% of Earth's human population in the 1978 Stephen King opus, The Stand.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 01:23 AM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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The al Qaeda attack on the U.S.S. Cole five years ago today was my first awakening to the willingness of Osama bin Laden to attack the United States head-on. Michelle Malkin has the definative round-up.

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Via Fox News:

...two rockets exploded near the U.S. Embassy in the center of the Afghan capital Wednesday, wounding two people hours hours before Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was due to arrive on an official visit. Rice's visit on Wednesday is her second trip to Afghanistan as secretary of state.

Sooner or later, people are going to learn that terror attack just serve to make make Condoleeza Rice that much more determined.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 07:08 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Overall al Qaeda #2 man Ayman al-Zawahiri sent a letter to al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al Zaqawi, a letter that was intercepted by coalition forces. That letter hasnow been made public. Download the entire letter al-Zawahiri letter here, or read the conveniently annotated version below.

In the name of God, praise be to God, and praise and blessings be upon the Messenger of
God, his family, his Companions, and all those who follow him.
.................................

The gracious brother/Abu Musab, God protect him and watch over him, may His religion, and His Book and the Sunna of His Prophet @ aid him, I ask the Almighty that he bless him, us, and all Muslims, with His divine aid, His clear victory, and His release from suffering be close at hand. Likewise, I ask the Almighty to gather us as He sees fit from the glory of this world and the prize of the hereafter.

1-Dear brother, God Almighty knows how much I miss meeting with you, how much I long to join you in your historic battle against the greatest of criminals and apostates in the heart of the Islamic world, the field where epic and major battles in the history of
Islam were fought. I think that if I could find a way to you, I would not delay a day,
God willing.

[I know if I left the cave, the Americans and Pakistanis would light me up like an infidel Christmas tree.

2-My dear brother, we are following your news, despite the difficulty and hardship. We
received your last published message sent to Sheikh Usama Bin Ladin, God save him.
Likewise, I made sure in my last speech-that Aljazeera broadcast Saturday, 11 Jumadi I,
1426h, 18 June 2005-to mention you, send you greetings, and show support and thanks for the heroic acts you are performing in defense of Islam and the Muslims, but I do not
know what Aljazeera broadcast. Did this part appear or not? I will try to attach the
full speech with this message, conditions permitting.

Likewise, I showed my support for your noble initiative to join with your brothers,
during a prior speech I sent to the brothers a number of months ago, but the brothers'
circumstances prevented its publication.

[Infidels once again captured my messengers before the could carry out their mission]

3-I want to reassure you about our situation. The summer started hot with operations
escalating in Afghanistan. The enemy struck a blow against us with the arrest of Abu
al-Faraj, may God break his bonds. However, no Arab brother was arrested because of
him. The brothers tried-and were successful to a great degree-to contain the fall of
Abu al-Faraj as much as they could.

[For a change, the capture of al-Faraj did not lead to the capture of his entire cell. You could learn from this. Ha-ha.]

However, the real danger comes from the agent Pakistani army that is carrying out
operations in the tribal areas looking for mujahedeen.

[They're on us like a fat kid on a pork chop] more...

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 12:59 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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If you a member of the media and you intend to snipe at a critic over the quality of localized newspaper reporting, you might want to start by not mischaracterizing what he says.

Jay Rosen of PressThink takes News and Observer Executive Editor Melanie Sill to task on her blog for getting it wrong.

John in Carolina has more.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:57 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I expect at least 27 orders from the Senate...

The Quag-Miers Store

Undecided on my vote (well, if I had a vote), unabashed in my capitalism.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 07:16 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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As previously on-the-fence conservative pundits make their decisions about Harriet Miers and others reverse course, I'm starting to feel more than a little lonely at the table marked "wait and see."

Despite all the emotionally inflated commentary to the contrary by some very smart people, Harriet Miers is qualified to be a Supreme Court Justice. The Constitution is not the sole property of Ivy League law school graduates, and it never should be.

Intelligent Americans can understand and interpret the Constitution without a degree from Harvard or Yale. If our system gets to the point where only elites are allowed to understand and interpret the Constitution, then it is time to re-write the Constitution (and yes, we have that legal option as Americans).

Miers is not the most experienced, nor the most highly educated, nor the best pedigreed candidate... but she appears to be as qualified as some who have worn those black robes, and more qualified than a few. That said, while Miers seems qualified on paper, it remains to be seen if she should be confirmed. Miers, if anything, is a cypher.

She has given up precious little in her defense, and sadly, neither has the administration. She is presented as a shoo-in conservative bysome because she is an evangelical. Kids, I got news for you; I belong to an evangelical church that saw its membership skyrocket in the 60s by recruiting California hippies. Slapping on the label "evangelical" on someone doesn't make them a lockstep conservative, and other elements of Miers' past paint her as being a potential—you know—"S"-word.

I still want Harriet Miers to have her day in front of the Senate. That said, if the President doesn't start providing her some support soon, her experience is likely to resemble that of Caesar's.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:49 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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This can't be good news for President Bush (via Drudge):

Nearly half of Senate Republicans say they remain unconvinced that Harriet Miers is worthy of being confirmed to the Supreme Court, according to a survey conducted by The Washington Times.

As with the nomination of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., the vast majority of senators say they will not announce their final decisions about the nomination until after Senate Judiciary Committee hearings, which are expected sometime next month.

What's troubling for President Bush, however, is that 27 Republican senators -- almost half of his party's members in the chamber -- have publicly expressed specific doubts about Miss Miers or said they must withhold any support whatsoever for her nomination until after the hearings.

While I want to see how Harriet Miers performs in front of the Senate before I render a verdict on her nomination, it is increasingly apparent that Miers is not gaining support in the Senate, and is at best holding her own. Pro-Miers advocates have their work cut out for them.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 06:56 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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