“It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship, she said, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings.” Former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor goes after judge-bashers on the right, quoting very intemperate remarks by Boss DeLay and Sen. John Cornyn. Kudos to her, although, as Ed ranted earlier today, this is all coming a bit late, isn’t it? I mean, where were Justice O’Connor’s concerns about avoiding such ends when she became the swing vote on Bush v. Gore (arguably for dubious personal reasons)? Like her fellow Arizonan John McCain, Justice O’Connor talks nice about standing up to right-wing power-grabs. But, also like McCain, when it was her turn to face them down, she didn’t walk the walk.
Nothing Ever Happens on Mars.
“I think that this mission will re-write the science books on Mars.” More happy space news following the discovery of water on Enceladus: NASA successfully pilots the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter into Martian orbit. “It was picture perfect. We could not have planned it any better.” (Phew…looks like everyone successfully converted to metric this time.)
Jack draws First Blood?
Ostensibly to “catch her breath,” Interior Secretary Gail Norton resigns from the Cabinet, effective at the end of the month. Besides opening federal lands for oil drilling whenever possible, Norton’s office also appears to have traded access for bribes from Casino Jack, through aide Italia Federici. “Abramoff boasted in e-mails of having an inside track in Norton’s department. Norton posed for a photograph with Abramoff in her office in 2002.“
Boing Boing.
Spring has sprung here in New York City, hopefully to stay. It couldn’t have been a nicer day here.
Hearing Loss.
“Leave it to Rumsfeld to invoke memories of Vietnam as others in the administration are trying to dispel such comparisons. Leave it to the Senate to miss the slip-up.” In yet another sad example of the AWOL Senate of late, Slate‘s Fred Kaplan watches the Appropriations Committee flub a hearing with Rumsfeld and Rice on Iraq.
Red Bull gives you Wingers.
In a happy collusion of one of my favorite sports and one of my favorite drinks, the New York Metrostars are now Red Bull New York. Mmm, Red Bull. I’m not usually one for blatant corporate sponsorship, but I think I may have to buy some RBNY paraphernalia close to immediately. Now if only we can get Guinness to buy the Revolution…
Cubism.
“The cubicle was not born evil, or even square. It began, in fact, as a beautiful vision. The year was 1968. Nixon won the presidency. The Beatles released The White Album. And home-furnishings company Herman Miller (Research) in Zeeland, Mich., launched the Action Office. It was the brainchild of Bob Propst, a Coloradan who had joined the company as director of research.” (Propst would later deem his invention “monolithic insanity.”) Fortune‘s Julie Schlosser recounts the ignominious rise of the cubicle as the bane of the American workplace. “The cubicle has been called many things in its long and terrible reign. But what it has lacked in beauty and amenity, it has made up for in crabgrass-like persistence.”
Snowspeeder Luge.
Now bidding for the 2014 Winter Olympics (past the deadline), Hoth. That’ll never work. Even notwithstanding the wampa attacks, the tauntauns would freeze before they reached the first marker. (By way of Webgoddess.) Update: In very loosely related news, Landocalrissian Butler? (Via Cheesedip)
The Cars that go Boom.
AOL Moviefone gets the new trailer for Pixar’s Cars, and it appears to be one part Ricky Bobby, one part Doc Hollywood…and far afield from Toy Story or The Incredibles.
Rubber Stamp Roberts.
“Far from ‘reasserting responsibility and oversight,’ Congress is putting itself out of business. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., suggested that, after this week, the intelligence committee will sink ‘further into irrelevancy.’ The Times went a step further today and declared the committee dead.” Century Foundation fellow Patrick Radden Keefe takes issue with the Pat Roberts “compromise” over the NSA’s warrantless wiretaps.