Shakesville

34%

That's the number everyone's talking about. It's the president's bargain-basement approval rating, according to the latest CBS News poll.

Say it with me: Bush is not a popular president.

I found this tidbit particularly interesting:

For the first time in this poll, most Americans say the president does not care much about people like themselves. Fifty-one percent now think he doesn't care, compared to 47 percent last fall.

I can't imagine what gives them that idea. Or, more accurately, what has suddenly given them that idea, when they didn't notice his utter contempt for the hoi polloi before.

Crooks and Liars singles out another bit:

WTF is this statement doing in the report?
"In a bright spot for the administration, most Americans appeared to have heard enough about Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting accident."
Cheney is clocking in at 18 percent, which is down from 23 percent in January, how is that a bright spot for the administration?

Perhaps because Cheney's approval rating can't go any lower, that remaining 18% undoubtedly being primarily comprised of dim, senile, or otherwise confused film fans who think they're being polled about Lon Chaney.

(Post-script heh: The Heretik has that sinking feeling...)

An Open Letter to Women from Conservatives

Secured by my crack investigative team:

Dear Uterati,

Fuck you.

Love,
Conservatives

P.S. Especially you bitchez in the Red States.

P.P.S. Thanks for your votes!

While the FDA dithers endlessly about making emergency contraception, specifically Plan B, available without a prescription, the states are starting to legislate its access—and, predictably, while blue states are looking to expand access, red states are seeking to restrict it.

With the application in regulatory limbo, a growing number of states have passed bills that allow pharmacists working in conjunction with doctors to dispense Plan B to women who do not have a prescription -- with Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New Mexico and California acting most recently. The Massachusetts bill was passed last year over Republican Gov. Mitt Romney's veto…
But some bills would make it more difficult for many women to get emergency contraception, which is effective for only 72 hours after a woman experiences a contraceptive failure or unprotected sex. Legislation in New Hampshire, for instance, would require parental notification before the drug is dispensed, and more than 20 other states will consider bills that give pharmacies the right not to stock the drug and pharmacists the right not to dispense it, even to women with valid prescriptions…

Efforts by antiabortion groups led to the passage last year of a Texas bill that eliminated the drug from a demonstration family-planning program, and to an Arkansas bill that kept emergency contraception off a list of protected contraceptives.

Huzzah! Because what we really want is to revictimize rape victims by withholding emergency contraception that could ensure they don't get pregnant with their rapist’s baby. And we definitely want to force women using contraception, but who have an unfortunate and unavoidable birth control failure, to go through the a more invasive abortion procedure. And we most certainly want to make sure that couples who weren’t responsible enough to use birth control in the first place face the possibility of being responsible for a child.

I suppose it’s also futile to point out, yet again, that parental notification laws are bullshit. In a perfect world, pregnant teens would be able to tell their parents they are pregnant and they could work out the best solution together, but in this world, step-fathers rape their unconscious and dying step-daughters. (And only get 9 years for it, which is a whole other post.)

Because I have a filthy mind…

…this takes on all sorts of ugly, gut-churning connotations.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that President Bush's chief political strategist Karl Rove "spends a lot of time obsessing about me."

The thought of Rove “obsessing” about Hillary Clinton is just really about the grossest thing I can imagine not involving Denny Hastert.

What the F?

Someone please tell me this is the most elaborate episode of Punk’d ever.

Paris Hilton is thrilled to be playing Mother Teresa in an upcoming biopic.

The hotel heiress has been approached by award-winning director T Rajeevnath, who is convinced that she will be a huge success…

Hilton explained, "It's such an honour. I'm so excited. I really want to learn more about this amazing woman, so that's what I'm doing in a few months."

In preparation for the role, Paris is apparently joining the Order of Mother Teresa missionaries, and will travel around Bangalore and Calcutta to care for the sick.

“Do those babies have flies on their faces? That’s hot.”

Like the desperately poor and infirm of Calcutta really need to have their lives futher worsened by the revolting presence of that ninny-brained waste of space.

On the other hand, if the idea is to make even the most poverty-stricken desperates appreciate their lives, sending a functionally illiterate heiress whose utter uselessness beggars belief to their bedsides is a pretty decent idea.

(Via Dlisted.)

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

Passed on by Shaker Tony, who hat tips Yglesias and reports: “I got an 8/10. Everybody else got a 10/10, of course. I still passed though, but I am sulking and the rest of my day is ruined.” LOL. I feel your pain, T. If it had been a grammar or verbal test of some kind, I probably would have done the same (and then felt the same), but I was always better at math.

I’m with Ezra

Who’s with Sully. Send Clinton.

Notes from Restoration Weekend

Restoration Weekend is an annual do put on by David Horowitz, the self-appointed defender of minorities and other groups under attack including “Christians and white males,” at which 350 conservative movers and shakers confab and hobnob. The Nation’s Marc Cooper attended the event last weekend (as a liberal panelist), and found that many of these movement stalwarts are worried about the GOP’s chances in the fall elections. Or, as he put it, “there's a lot of fear and trembling going on among Republicans.”

Former Congressman Pat Toomey, current head of The Club for Growth: "We have to acknowledge we have a President who is not popular… The war in Iraq is the 800 lb. gorilla in the room and a major downturn could drown anything we do… We won in 1994 because we promised small government and going into the 2006 elections this is key idea we have abandoned."

[…]

Missouri Lt. Governor Pete Kinder on the state of the party: "The demoralization of the base is real. I hear it everywhere."

I honestly was thinking that I wasn’t sure which is a worse position to be in—part of the disillusioned progressive masses almost completely marginalized from federal governance or part of the demoralized conservative masses whose party enjoys near-total dominance and doesn’t see a shred of conservative principle in federal governance—until I read a bit on Cooper’s personal blog about that latter group:

Generally speaking, the audiences at these events are usually quite gracious and easy-going if indeed out-to-lunch politically. It’s a much friendlier venue than your usual lefty gatherings. The Weekend-goers here are disportionately [sic] richer, older, more comfortable, less angry than your average progressive (duh!). And as they will usually admit that their politics are much more about self-interest than purportedly about saving the world, they don’t get very worked up if you disagree with them. Doesn’t really affect the bottom line, y’know.

Then I basically thought, Eh, fuck ’em. When you’re only interested in “Gettin' mine,” how sorry can I feel for you?

(I do, however, still gravely pity—and disdain—any average, struggling schmoe who votes Republican thinking they’re going to do best by him.)

In any case, I don’t think most of this demoralized base will ever vote Dem, so this isn’t really news about something the Dems could directly exploit. It is, possibly, a warning that lots of fed-up conservatives may be staying home from the polls come November, though. If the Dems can appeal to the older demographic which is rife with frustrated seniors pissed about the Medicare prescription debacle, and give the rest of their potential voters something to vote for, aside from just trying to shred the GOP stranglehold on Congress, they just might pull it out of the bag.

Harper's lays it out

Harper's Magazine takes a strong stand in its March issue with an article called: "The Case for Impeachment" with the subtitle of: "Why we can no longer afford George W. Bush". An excerpt of it is available online today. While it is nothing new to those of us who covered Downing Street this summer, it's nice to see all of it in print.

It starts out introducing our favorite man, John Conyers, and questions him on just what he was thinking by introducing a resolution "to make recommendations regarding grounds for possible impeachment” in a Republican-majority House, given how the neocon Congress are nothing more than lemmings (slight paraphrase). Conyers goes to brass tacks in answering why:

“To take away the excuse,” he said, “that we didn't know.” So that two or four or ten years from now, if somebody should ask, “Where were you, Conyers, and where was the United States Congress?” when the Bush Administration declared the Constitution inoperative and revoked the license of parliamentary government, none of the company now present can plead ignorance or temporary insanity, can say that “somehow it escaped our notice” that the President was setting himself up as a supreme leader exempt from the rule of law.

Excellent, Mr. Conyers. Most excellent. Lewis Lapham read Resolution 635 and his experience was, shall we say, very familar:

[O]n reading through the report's corroborating testimony I sometimes could counter its inducements to mute rage with the thought that if the would-be lords of the flies weren't in the business of killing people, they would be seen as a troupe of off-Broadway comedians in a third-rate theater of the absurd. Entitled “The Constitution in Crisis; The Downing Street Minutes and Deception, Manipulation, Torture, Retribution, and Coverups in the Iraq War"

Of course, in the end, Lewis comes to the same conclusion that any rational, non-kool aid drinking person would:

Before reading the report, I wouldn't have expected to find myself thinking that [impeachment] was either likely or possible; after reading the report, I don't know why we would run the risk of not impeaching the man. We have before us in the White House a thief who steals the country's good name and reputation for his private interest and personal use; a liar who seeks to instill in the American people a state of fear; a televangelist who engages the United States in a never-ending crusade against all the world's evil, a wastrel who squanders a vast sum of the nation's wealth on what turns out to be a recruiting drive certain to multiply the host of our enemies. In a word, a criminal—known to be armed and shown to be dangerous.

SMACK!

I wonder how much traction, if any, this issue will get. What do you think? Think it will go anywhere now?

As a side note, if you live in NYC (or close by), there will be a public meeting with Lewis, John Conyers, Michael Ratner, Elizabeth Holtzman, and John Dean on March 2nd at 8 pm about impeachment. It'll be moderated by Sam Seder of The Majority Report. It will be at:

Town Hall
123 West 43rd Street
New York, NY 10036

(cross-posted @ expostulation)

RIP Darren McGavin

Darren McGavin has died at 83. He was Mike Hammer and The Night Stalker…and he was also The Old Man in A Christmas Story, whose fascination with his Major Award causes his wife all sorts of consternation.

Fra-gee-lay. That must be Italian.

Jesus Appears in Sheet Metal

Holly passes on this article, probably because she knows I’m a fan of holy folks presenting their visages on trees, more trees, wardrobes, water stains, grilled cheese sandwiches, potato chips, and all manner of everyday objects.

Thomas Haley was unloading supplies for his job at Hardy's Hardware when he said something odd caught his eye: the face of Jesus Christ on a piece of sheet metal.

Now, Haley and a co-worker are hawking the holy hardware on eBay, hoping potential bidders will agree that the blurry oil stain on the sheet metal does, indeed, resemble Jesus…

Haley said that whatever money is raised will be split between him, Jackson, another worker, and two customers. But he's still a little ambivalent about the sale.

"I feel kind of bad just pawning off Christ," Haley said.

But not bad enough to not do it. I found the listing on eBay, if you’re interested. You can “Buy It Now” for the reasonable price of $10,000. So far, bidding has reached $510.

Haley said he was unloading a supply truck two weeks ago at the Manchester hardware store when he turned a corner and was awe-struck by the holy likeness gazing back at him from the $15.49 piece of sheet metal.

Since then, Haley and 18-year-old co-worker Jonathan Jackson have shown the piece to a few other workers and customers, and even took it on a short pilgrimage to a nearby hair salon.

A pilgrimage to the local hair salon? Why a hair salon and not, oh I dunno, a church? I admit I don’t spend tons of times in either hair salons or churches, but as far as I’m aware, hair salons haven’t become the arbiter of all things holy, right?

They say several people agreed with their assessment, although a few suggested it looks more like legendary rock singer Jim Morrison of The Doors.

"Some people said, 'Are you sure it's Jesus?' and I think, 'Who else would come to give us a sign, Groucho Marx?' " Jackson said.

I actually think that’s a good question. In truth, it’s why I find these appearances so interesting. Why wouldn’t Groucho Marx appear in a piece of sheet metal, or a hedge, or a turnip? Is there’s a heavenly rule that no one but the holy family is allowed to engage in these little bits of earthly performance art? Are they mad about being sold on eBay? And why would they do it? Doesn’t this, in some way, undermine the principle that Christians are meant to see God in everything? If this is a genuine message from the above, it’s definitely a mixed one, at best.

Man Titty

I read a lot of non-fiction. A lot of it. When I'm at the bookstore, I'm always browsing the "Current Events," (or "Politics") "Sociology," and "Psychology" shelves. I'll look up books on film for fun, or maybe browse other areas to see if anything new shows up that punches my interest buttons. ("A new book on giant squid? Cool!")

So, after reading the billionth book on the amazing trainwreck of the Bush "presidency," or yet another book on how much it sucks to live in this country if you're not wealthy, white and powerful, I sometimes need a little break. That's where my shameful vice comes in.

I'm completely addicted to crap horror books.

I'm not talking about King. Frankly, I burned out on him a while ago, once I realized he's basically written the same book for the last ten or fifteen years. (Troubled author living in Maine encounters evil alien presence/car/haunted object/crazy person. Also, has anyone else besides me gotten the feeling that King really has a strong dislike for gay people?) So I've left the more well-known authors, and jumped feet-first into the world of pulpy, pulpy horror fiction. I'm a little picky, though:

1. No freakin' vampires. (This is really difficult to avoid, as they're definitely the most popular "monster" to write about. I'm sorry, I just never found vampires to be all that interesting, and they give the book an idiotic "erotic thriller" feel that just leaves me cold.)

2. Bonus points for zombies. Everything is better with zombies. Give me a zombie book, and I'm a happy guy. I picked up a new zombie book this weekend, and I can't even think of the title or author. That's how knee-jerk my response can be.

3. There's gotta be a monster. Or an alien. Or some other-worldly force. Books about maniacs and serial killers just don't interest me. Buh-bye, Dean Koontz.

Anyway, that's my weakness. I'm sure most of you out there have a guilty pleasure when it comes to reading. The one genre that I've really never been able to get into, even on a camp level, is the Romance Novel. I find them endlessly hilarious, but I could never bring myself to actually pick one up and read it.

Enter Smart Bitches, Trashy Books.

Take a look. You're gonna love it.

(Coming soon... "Hard Case Crime" and my love of Crime Fiction.)
(Science Fiction... Double cross-post)

The Accidental Administration

Who knew there was even going to be a report on Bush’s bike accident in Scotland last year when he crashed into a Scottish police constable while cycling in the grounds of Gleneagles Hotel? I certainly didn’t. Pam, who gets the hat tip, notes:

The Scotsman reports that the facts were kept under wraps for "fear of embarrassing Bush" by the local police. When you read [the facts], it's obvious why.

Indeed. Because the conclusion is basically that Bush is an uncoordinated doofus who can’t write a bike, wave, and talk at the same time.

The official police incident report states: "[The unit] was requested to cover the road junction on the Auchterarder to Braco Road as the President of the USA, George Bush, was cycling through." The report goes on: "[At] about 1800 hours the President approached the junction at speed on the bicycle. The road was damp at the time. As the President passed the junction at speed he raised his left arm from the handlebars to wave to the police officers present while shouting 'thanks, you guys, for coming'.

"As he did this he lost control of the cycle, falling to the ground, causing both himself and his bicycle to strike [the officer] on the lower legs. [The officer] fell to the ground, striking his head. The President continued along the ground for approximately five metres, causing himself a number of abrasions. The officers... then assisted both injured parties."

At the time, it was all chalked up to “slick roads,” and the police officer he hit was described as having suffered a "very minor" ankle injury. But, curiously, the Scotsman article notes that the officer was out of commission for 14 weeks.

John Scott, a human rights lawyer, said: "There's certainly enough in this account for a charge of careless driving. Anyone else would have been warned for dangerous driving.

"I have had clients who have been charged with assaulting a police officer for less than this. The issue of how long the police officer was out of action for is also important. He was away from work for 14 weeks, and that would normally be very significant in a case like this."

Hmm…minimizing the injuries of someone accidentally hurt by a member of the administration, dubious acknowledgement of personal accountability at the time of the accident, and evasion of charges that would certainly have been brought against anyone else. Am I the only one reminded of a more recent accidental injury at the hands of an administration member?

Yeah, I know this isn’t exactly taking us to war on trumped-up intelligence or spying without a warrant or even pursuing tax cuts that hurt a lot of Americans. But in some way, I feel that these incidents speak more clearly to the character of the men who are running our country than some of their major policy failures. If we want to know why they stay on vacation while poor black people drown or don’t hesitate to out a covert CIA operative in a game of political retribution, it’s not because they’re conservatives; it’s because they’re men who view themselves and their lives as more important than others’, and because they believe they’re above the law.

Of Squirrels and Monsters

The rightwing blogosphere is all aflutter about a book called Why Mommy is a Democrat, which features a mommy squirrel explaining to her baby squirrel why she’s a Democrat. Funny, but they didn’t seem too concerned about Help! Mom! There are Liberals Under My Bed!—which features caricatures of actual prominent Democratic politicians posing as the “monsters” under a child’s bed. I guess that was just all in good fun, unlike these heinous, dogmatic squirrels who talk about sharing and going to school.

I’m not a parent, so take this for whatever you think it’s worth, but I imagine the best way to teach a child about one’s political principles is simply to live by them. The Democrat book doesn’t seem to be all that nasty, serving as more of a primer on Democratic tenets, but the anti-liberal book is a real piece of work, not enlightening about conservative ideas, but just basically denigrating liberal ones instead.

Of course, demonizing those with whom you disagree is much easier and less time consuming than living by example, so I guess the book is helpful for the busy conservative parent whose quality time is diminished by a demanding schedule of picketing abortion clinics and petitioning the legislature to criminalize gay marriage. After all, Take Your Child to Work Day only comes once a year.

Question of the Day

A twist on the old Actors' Studio question about what one hopes god would say upon one's arrival in heaven. Instead, "If there is a god, what would you say to him/her when you arrive?"

I'd have to think about this one a bit for a serious answer, although recently, in a fit of pique on a day with an infuriating number of stories about American conservative Christians claiming persecution, I did email the following to a friend:

I'm starting to hope there is a god, just so I can say "Fuck You!!!" when I come before him for my final judgment.

St. Peter: "Looks like we're going to have to send you to hell, Liss."

Me: "Sounds great! After a lifetime of listening to your yokels babbling incessantly about how persecuted they are, an eternity of hellfire should be a breeze!"

RIP Don Knotts

Don Knotts has died at age 81.

He was Barney Fife, he was Ralph Furley, and he was Dubya. But for me, he’ll always be Theodore Ogelvie from The Apple Dumpling Gang.

Bird-Hating Flesh Monkeys

Funny. Current is Al Gore’s cable channel.

Ouch

Think Progress:

“The Justice Department has a message for Congress: clean up your house or else we may have to do it for you. A senior federal law enforcement official told TIME that the paralyzed and often lax House ethics committee has created a vacuum that prosecutors won’t hesitate to fill. The House’s internal mechanism for keeping corruption in check is ‘broken,’ says the official.”

Snap!

I’ll believe it, however, when I see it.

Morrissey Has Killed Me

Of course he has, the dirty terrorist. The first single from his new album, Ringleader of the Tormentors, due out April 4, is called “You Have Killed Me.” I just listened to it and watched the video (true to form, it sucks; it wouldn’t be a Morrissey video if it didn’t), and now I’m basking in the jittery, giddy glow that ever accompanies hearing the first notes of a new Moz album. April 4 cannot come soon enough.

As I live and breath, you have killed me. Yes, I walk around somehow, but you have killed me…

The album “review” put out by the label is, as they always are, hilarious.

Ringleader of the Tormentors – which those who have heard it are identifying as one of his greatest recording achievements - is a record of a different complexion than all previous Morrissey records. It seems somehow suffused with a new confidence and, dare one venture, happiness?

Every Morrissey album has been his greatest recording achievement yet, and every one has signaled a new happiness, if you go by the label announcements. According to them, he’s been on a steady incline toward euphoria since The Smiths’ Meat is Murder.

Recorded at Forum Music Village in Rome with long-term hero Tony Visconti (who produced favorite records for T-Rex and David Bowie, during their most creative periods of the 60’s and 70s), the album positively crackles with fire.

That’s quite cool, actually. (Pic of Moz with Visconti here.) Cool enough, in fact, that it doesn’t need to include a repulsive turn of phrase like “the album positively crackles with fire.”

‘To Me You Are a Work of Art’ may contain the classic Morrissey couplet, “I see the world, it makes me puke.”

LOL!

‘Dear God Please Help Me’. Orchestrated by Ennio Morricone (who has over the years made much of his significant work at Forum Music Village), this beautiful song, which for the most part simply describes walking through Rome with an unfettered heart, is almost sanctified in its atmosphere. Yes, the lyrical content is frank-bordering-on-prurient, and yet over its six rousing minutes the song swells to almost hymnal proportions, until you feel that, for all his supposed remove from the human race, few people can deliver a universal emotional message with more power than Morrissey.

Sounds great. Let’s get this album in my grubby little hands ASAP!

As I’ve mentioned before, aside from relatives and my lovely, twisted, and immeasurably valuable friendship with Mr. Furious, the longest relationship with a man in my life is with Morrissey, and I have spent countless hours in his presence, mostly at concerts, but there have been a few occasions when I’ve met him as well. I have a little photo album somewhere of all my pictures of me with him, his arm slung across my shoulders, but it’s packed away somewhere and I’ll be darned if I can find it. So these second-tier images will have to suffice in fulfillment of my promise (or threat, depending on one’s perspective) to post some pics of said occasions.

Harold Washington Library, Chicago
Release Party: Your Arsenal

Shakes with Morrissey as he signs a postcard for her, and she tells him it’s a pleasure to meet him, and he responds, more genuinely than she would have expected and looking at her dead in the eyes, “The pleasure is mine, my love,” from which she has never recovered.

Mr. Furious with Morrissey. I won tickets to the listening party by sending in a postcard to a contest held by Chicago radio station XRT. I got to bring one friend, and there was no chance it was going to be anyone but Mr. F. A few weeks later, we were at Mr. F.'s house late one Saturday night when his stepdad called through, "Melissa's on TV!" JBTV, a Chicago music show and staple of the local alternative music scene, had filmed the Your Arsenal party, and was rebroadcasting it. So we got to watch ourselves meeting Morrissey in slack-jawed awe, failing completely to put in a videotape.

Kingston Mines, Chicago
Video Shoot: “Glamorous Glue”

The Mission: Show up clad in black at the Chicago blues club Kingston Mines and the first 100 in line will be permitted to enter and appear as the audience in Morrissey’s video for the single “Glamorous Glue” from Your Arsenal.

We got there early and got in. They told we lucky hundred sods not to take any pictures or rush the stage. It was hopeless. Flashbulbs went off like it was a press junket and fans completely ignored the tables at which we were meant to sit quietly, instead rushing the stage and clamoring for the man. They finally just let us all get things signed, touch the messiah, speak with him, and then we were ushered out. In the end, the video was shot with a single audience member—an elderly black man who had probably never heard of Morrissey, and hasn’t again since.

Tower Records, Chicago
Album Signing: Vauxhall and I

We wait patiently for our turn with Moz. There were literally thousands and thousands of people who waited to see him. Luckily, we were toward the front of the line. He seemed in no huge hurry, and spent time speaking with each of us and taking pictures with us and generally being his amiable and accommodating self.

Then-boyfriend speaks with Moz while he signs the album cover. When I stood with him to have my picture taken, he turned to look over our shoulders out the window, where waiting fans were lined up for blocks. “So many people who want to see you,” I said. “I’ll never get over it,” he replied.

(Related: The Songs That Saved Your Life, or intro to my adoration for Moz.)

White House “Discovers” Emails Related to Plame Leak

Truthout (via Memeorandum):

The White House turned over last week 250 pages of emails from Vice President Dick Cheney’s office. Senior aides had sent the emails in the spring of 2003 related to the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald revealed during a federal court hearing Friday.

The emails are said to be explosive, and may prove that Cheney played an active role in the effort to discredit Plame Wilson’s husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, a vocal critic of the Bush administration’s prewar Iraq intelligence, sources close to the investigation said.

Sources close to the probe said the White House “discovered” the emails two weeks ago and turned them over to Fitzgerald last week. The sources added that the emails could prove that Cheney lied to FBI investigators when he was interviewed about the leak in early 2004. Cheney said that he was unaware of any effort to discredit Wilson or unmask his wife’s undercover status to reporters…

Cheney said he was unaware that Ambassador Wilson was chosen to travel to Niger to look into the uranium claims, and that he never saw a report Wilson had given a CIA analyst upon his return which stated that the Niger claims were untrue. He said the CIA never told him about Wilson's trip.

However, the emails say otherwise, and will show that the vice president spearheaded an effort in March 2003 to attack Wilson’s credibility and used the CIA to dig up information on the former ambassador that could be used against him, sources said.

The emails reportedly also reference Plame’s identity and CIA status, issues about having not uncovered WMD in Iraq, and suggestions by “senior officials in Cheney’s office” about how the White House should respond to Joe Wilson’s criticism of the administration.

I’m not sure what this means, exactly, in terms of the law. Cheney was, as you’ll no doubt remember, not put under oath when he was interviewed by investigators, so I suspect there’s no chance for any kind of perjury charge, though I don’t think obstruction would be off the table—if, indeed, the “discovery” of these emails leads to any kind of charges at all.

On its face, this seems rather explosive to me, but at the same time, I can’t imagine these emails weren’t carefully scrubbed before they were miraculously rediscovered. On the other hand…Cheney is clearly a liability. He’s got abysmal approval ratings, his handling of his hunting accident created a whole new scandal for the administration, and he’s never been an heir apparent for the conservatives, who would undoubtedly prefer to have a veep in place to walk into a leadership role on a successive administration. There’s a small part of me that wonders if we’re not about to witness a partial coup.

Question of the Day

Suggested by Shaker Pazuzu's Petals…

Think of a person you knew only briefly—no more than one year—who nonetheless left a significant and lasting impact on your life. It could be a lover, teacher, friend, boss, whatever. What did you learn, gain, or lose?

I can’t think of anyone who I knew for so short a time. Even my teachers were people I saw often after having their classes, because my parents were teachers, and so it was typical for me to see teachers outside of school. The closest I can come to answering this question is actually someone I never met—Tammy Zywicki.

Tammy Zywicki was driving from her home in Evanston, Illinois back to college in Grinnell, Iowa on August 23, 1992, but she never arrived. Her car was found abandoned, and her mother reported her missing. She was last seen by passing drivers, between 3:10pm and 4:00p.m, speaking with the driver of a tractor/trailer, who was described as a white male between 35 and 40 years of age, over six feet tall, with dark, bushy hair. On September 1, 1992, her body was found along I-44 in rural Lawrence County, Missouri. She had been stabbed to death, and her killer has never been caught.

I was headed for college for the first time that same day. My parents drove me, and all my stuff, and when they left, I was safe, if a bit lonely and nervous living away from home for the first time. I was at Loyola University Chicago’s Lake Shore Campus, just a few miles away from Evanston, from which Tammy had departed earlier that day.

Over the next few weeks, I heard about Tammy, and watched the news compulsively, hoping desperately she would be found. And then she was. And then I started hoping her killer would be found. But the days dragged on and on, and soon the story wasn’t even getting a mention on the news anymore.

But Tammy stayed with me. One of the first searches I ever did on the internet was for news about her case, to see if anyone had been caught. I still search occasionally, and I’m always disappointed to find no news.

I don’t have to remember to think about her; the memory of her comes unbidden. And it’s not that I use her to remind myself that life is precious. There was just something about the way her story fell out of the news so suddenly—one day there was an update, and the next there wasn’t, and then there never was again—that made some part of me keep her with me. And I think of her on important days—my college graduation, my wedding day—as if in some way I’m living life for both of us, since hers was taken away so abruptly on a summer day when we were both headed to college.

(Btw, in case it's not clear, it's Pazuzu's question and my answer.)