Football: As to that Colts game, apparently that questionable review/non-interception call was based on some rule that apparently only the review official knew about. Anyway, it was telling that the Colts drove the ball from the end to end in the Second Quarter ... taking up over half the quarter in the process ... and scored all of three points. The Steelers probably gladly took that three. Again, Tony Dungy might be a great coach, but in the playoffs his skills are very questionable. Perhaps, you can blame the Colts players, but he did something similar while in Tampa.
[Update: The league admitted it was a bad call. Millions say "no shit," but this is dumb. You won the game. Shut up already.]
Alito: A Daily Kos post that matches my feelings on the Alito matter. A defeatist post that fails to face up to the fact that the Democrats still do not know how to properly "win a losing battle." To properly address such comments as these, written by a former co-worker of Judge Alito. The essay refuses to see that Bush crosses the line:
But if there are specific needs that justify exceptional practices under either law to secure the nation's safety, the president is right to see them as part of his constitutional duty, and the signing statement reservation ought better be understood as an effort to alert, not scuttle, Congress. The president and Congress have a common enemy, after all, and it is not themselves.
Yes, sometimes the executive can voice his/her constitutional views as they apply to legislation. But, Bush crossed the line, ignoring that the legislature has the power to determine certain actions are not legitimate "to secure the nation's safety." As Kennedy's Attorney General wrote today respecting wiretaps to listen into conversations of Martin Luther King Jr.:
Forcing the executive to explain its reasons for intrusive law enforcement is essential to maintaining not just privacy but freedom itself. A congressional committee must exercise oversight. So too must an independent court because Congress is also subject to possible political pressure.
Defending this viewpoint, one the people deep down seem to support, can be done now. This is a "constitutional moment" of sorts, a metaphor perhaps used during one of Senator Biden's musings (or by someone else), when the people as a whole can get into the business of discussing what our basic liberties mean.
Comics: I just love Pearls to Swine ... today the incompetent neighbor croc gleefully captures lawn ornaments, today a gnome. The demented smiles on the characters' faces alone crack me up. Sometimes, you need to laugh like that.