The Dish

Kevin Drum has an interesting take on what Alberto Gonzales meant when he told the Senate that the administration was not violating the FISA law by wire-tapping U.S. citizens without warrants. He notes what Gonzales actually said about the president and the law:

"[T]o the extent that there is a decision made to ignore a statute, I consider that a very significant decision, and one that I would personally be involved with, I commit to you on that, and one we will take with a great deal of care and seriousness."

Translation: we reserve the right to ignore the law of the land, but we will only do so very carefully. Reassured now?

A fascinating graph of raw data for each president’s polling during their respective terms.

Mystery Pollster dissects the myth of the post-SOTU instant "jump" in presidential approval ratings. A little nerdy, but useful info in advance of the spinalanche we’re about to receive around, say, 11.30 pm tonight. Bottom line: ignore the instant polls. Wait a month.

The stage is now set for an early abortion court show-down. I should say I have no problems with over-turning Roe. It was a terrible decision. At the same time, for reasons of prudence and individual liberty, I’d oppose the kind of stringent anti-abortion laws now being proposed in a few states.

The Ratzinger fan-club blog has an excellent round-up of responses to the first papal Encyclical of Benedict XVI. They take a few pot-shots at yours truly, but what’s new? One passage from Benedict’s work struck me, reading it on the blog:

"Faith is not a theory that one can take up or lay aside. It is something very concrete: It is the criterion that decides our lifestyle. In an age in which hostility and greed have become superpowers, an age in which we witness the abuse of religion to the point of culminating in hatred, neutral rationality on its own is unable to protect us."

This attack on reason as a neutral way of understanding the world is what makes Benedict an ally of the fundamentalisms we see colliding and resurging around us. As humans, we only have reason to temper the passions and the demands of religion. By submitting reason to the imperatives of faith – imperatives Benedict alone has ultimate authority over – we see this Pope’s essential position with respect to the Enlightenment. Opposed.

Just when the Islamists seem to getting ahead on the anti-blasphemy front, America’s religious extremists reminds us they exist as well. They’re targeting AOL because of alleged blasphemy in its new Instant Messaging icon ad campaign. Money quote from the outraged fundamentalist:

"He is the Creator and Savior of the world. He alone is to be worshipped. To take His name in vain, or use as a common thing is blasphemy, a vulgar sin of offense. Perhaps you have not read the Third Commandment, since they have removed it from so many public monuments in the last decade. But breaking it as a means of marketing your products offends the mind of everyone who worships Him."

I’m waiting for Bill Clinton to weigh in.

I’ll be blogging the SOTU live on CNN tonight during the Anderson Cooper show.

The post-Brokeback must-have Superbowl Sunday accessory: scented candles.

"The effect of liberty to individuals is, that they may do what they please; we ought to see what it will please them to do, before we risk congratulations," – Edmund Burke. It’s cited in George Will’s superb column today.

It seems to me clear that the attorney-general lied under oath to the Senate. In his confirmation hearings, he described warrantless wire-tapping of Americans as a "hypothetical situation," when he was fully aware that such wire-tapping was already in place. We impeached a president for perjury about a civil sexual harassment suit. And Gonzales gets to perjure himself in front of the Senate on a basic matter of national security … and the world yawns?