Update: Justice Scalia's apology regarding marshals seizing recordings from reporters in the audience as he gave a speech led me to write this. In general, it helps put things in context. To update again, various people were upset at his request that electronic media respect his "First Amendment" right not to be broadcast. Ahem. He doesn't have such a right -- Justice Scalia might be talking about courtesty and privacy, which is good and all, but it's somewhat different. A textualist like him should know the power of words. I shall also toss in this discussion on one concern of mine -- the common (and probably unconstitutional) way this country avoides the Art. II rules for treaties.

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Air America Edition: I caught some of "Unfiltered,” the late morning show on Air America. The team had good chemistry and provided an intelligent mixture of voices [black, Brit, and lesbian, lol]. It is useful for some to ridicule the network, but I suggest you listen to the various shows to decide for yourself. Don't let isolated instances or certain annoying personalities lead to hasty generalizations. Tariq Ali, author of the well-written Bush in Babylon, was on this morning -- this is a guy we should hear from more. His opposite number, Christopher Hitchens, was on last night. I find the guests the best part of AA thus far.

I listened to an interesting discussion on veteran benefits (or the lack thereof). One troubling aspect of this war is the use of the National Guard, which is generally considered the modern day "militia," a body that was not really meant for extended foreign military service. [For a more expansive view of the term, see, e.g., here.] During the War of 1812, most of the militia ("civilians primarily, soldiers on occasion," to quote U.S. v. Miller) didn’t even want to cross into Canada. As one caller said last night, you sign up for whatever reason, but don't quite think you will be going to war. Surely not a war in which your term of duty is extended. The effect this will have on nonprofessionals basically is unclear.

One "professional" was John Kerry, who currently is getting in trouble because he is a Catholic but believes in legalized abortion. This makes him roughly like one of three American Catholics (at least), including the now deceased Justice Brennan. It is not hypocritical to not want to legally force your moral choices on others. As one Catholic near and dear to me said, it does look bad, but yes, she too wouldn't legally force her moral views on others. Call Kerry a hypocrite? Try looking in the mirror.

Talking about looking bad -- the number of pictures of Condi Rice looking annoyed alone almost makes one sympathetic. My local paper has a picture of her holding an umbrella and standing with an annoyed look on her face as President Bush (on vacation again ... parts of Iraq are hellholes, but various reporters might say the same thing about Crawford, Texas) tried to explain away the 8/6 memo. This is compared to his belittling those who wanted too much evidence before acting against the WMD threat.

Algebra will tell you that when x+2=4, x=2. This isn't high school, George, it is more like grade school -- connect the dots. Talking about school, here's a vocabulary word for Dr. Rice: "perjury." Historical document? I'm thinking talk of impeachment (sure, it's not sexual, but we are being screwed here; and yes, executive appointees are impeachable) from voices other than Ralph "I'm not a spoiler goddamnit" Nader might just be appropriate. As we know, the administration tends to ignore and/or edit scientific studies that they don't like. Logic isn't their strong part either or historical analysis. Or economics. They do like English ... or playing with the English language at least.

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Happy Birthday ... Claire Danes and David Letterman. Oh, and when you are up 10-1 in the eighth, you shouldn't have to bite your fingernails in the ninth, okay Mets? Luckily, I did not see or hear that part of the game. Sheesh.