The World Around You

James decides to stir the pot with this week’s Caption Contest.

Talk Left posts on some of the bloggers who have been having an influence on the political discourse. One additional example I have noted is John Leo’s columns in US News & World Report. this week he cites two bloggers in his column. Bob Somerby here,

The media’s handling Of the uraniun-from-Africa story was too much for Bob Somerby, one of the better-known Internet commentators of the left. Somerby usually spends a lot of time and energy criticizing George W. Bush. But last week at his Daily Howler Web site, a headline said: “There they go again! The press corps has made up its mind on Iraq. Result? Basic facts will be mangled.”

And Eugene Volokh here,

Another example of an easy-to-tell but misleading story is criticism of Vice President Dick Cheney for saying on Meet the Press back on March 16: “We believe [Saddam] has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.” Several commentators savaged Cheney. But as University of California-Los Angeles law Prof. Eugene Volokh argues persuasively, if you look at the entire transcript, it’s clear that Cheney was saying that Saddam would try to reconstitute his nuclear program.

Kevin at Wizbang uses the statements from Bill Clinton last night to help clue in the Democratic candidates that repeating the Clinton mantra from 1992 might not be a bad idea. I agree, “It’s still the economy stupid.” is the only chance any Democratic candidate has. Whoever the candidate turns out to be needs to hammer that point continuously.

Laurence Simon at Amish Tech Support posts an open invitation to Saddam. I would make the same offer, but my wife doesn’t like ruthless dictators on the furniture.

The NY Times weighs in once again on the Bill Pryor nomination that may come for a vote in the Judiciary Committee today.

Mr. Pryor, who has been nominated for a seat on the Federal Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, based in Atlanta, has views that fall far outside the political and legal mainstream. He has called Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion-rights ruling, “the worst abomination” of constitutional law in our history. He recently urged the Supreme Court to uphold laws criminalizing gay sex, a position the court soundly rejected last month. He has defended the installation of a massive Ten Commandments monument in Alabama’s main judicial building, which a federal appeals court recently held violated the First Amendment. And he has urged Congress to repeal an important part of the Voting Rights Act.

All true, but all of these stands are very different from ruling in a particular case. I’m more concerned that Mr. Pryor has never been a judge and therefore has no judicial record. It’s very possible that he would have a different judicial temperment than what he exhibited as the state Attorney General. Is the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals the appropriate place to test this theory?

(NOTE: I think Mr. Pryor has been a very good attorney general, and I hope we can keep him in Alabama for awhile longer. Despite his support of Roy Moore in the Ten Commandments case.)