Terrific NY Times piece, on the type of person who becomes a paparazzo:

He sits at nightfall in his home office in the San Fernando Valley, a dimly lighted room except for the glow emanating from his computer, his flat-screen television, and a half-dozen other state-of-the-art gadgets. He is showing off a little: not just his high-tech toys, but the quality of his information.

"That's the thing that's valuable," Mr. Griffin says, explaining how his cash payoffs to tipsters can come to $100,000 a year. "The best ones are the ones who do it for pure greed. Because nothing else colors their judgment."

He opens a drawer, pulls out a few stacks of paper. Here, he says, are this week's scheduled movements of every famous passenger of a major limousine company in Los Angeles. He has an employee of the limo company on retainer, with bonuses "if there's results."

Here, too, are what Mr. Griffin describes as the passenger manifests of every coast-to-coast flight on American Airlines, the biggest carrier at Los Angeles International Airport. "I get the full printout," he says. "If they fly any coastal flight, I know. I can also find anybody in the world within 24 hours, I guarantee it. If they don't mask the tail number on a private plane, I'll find it." He says he has law-enforcement officers on his payroll, too, and can have a license plate checked in an hour on weekdays, 20 minutes on weekends.

(snip)

He pulls out a photocopy of what he says are the transcribed notes of a top film actress's examination by her doctor, and points to a reference to her breast implants.

What's really sad is that these people's lives revolve around getting a candid photo of...Alyssa Milano? Anyways, why can't the local paper get entertainment reporting like this?

The Supremes: Rumor has it that Edith "Joy" Clement will be nominated tonight to fill the O'Connor seat on the Supreme Court. Clement has been a federal judge for fourteen years, and an appellate judge for four; both times she was confirmed by 99-0 votes. People for the American Way has a page sampling some of her appellate decisions, but if this is the worst they have to offer, she shouldn't have any problems getting confirmed.

UPDATE: The timing of the nomination hasn't been lost on the media. According to Reuters:

Sources said the timing of an announcement had been moved up in part to deflect
attention away from a CIA leak controversy that has engulfed Bush's top
political adviser, Karl Rove. A Republican strategist with close to the White
House described Clement as the leading candidate. "She's pretty
untouchable," he said. "Plus, it helps take Rove off the front pages
for a week."

Unless, of course, it isn't Clement after all; ABC is reporting that an "informed source" told them that Judge Clement was notified this afternoon that Bush had decided to go in "a different direction".

UPDATE [II]: CNN is now reporting that Bush has picked John Roberts for the spot. Good--another white boy. We can filibuster this guy and not lose any sleep...

UPDATE [III]: ...or maybe we should just sleep on it. Several progressive bloggers are actually quite sanguine about this nomination, with one posting that it indicates how far Bush's star has fallen in the last few weeks that he has to settle for Roberts. We don't have to even think about a filibuster until after the Judiciary Committee decides whether to forward his nomination to the floor, which probably won't be til late September anyway.

Remember Heath Shuler? A former high first round pick by Washington (as a Blue Stater, this site has a policy of not printing racist slurs unless it's really, really necessary, so the team's nickname will be omitted), Shuler's NFL career quickly fizzled. But just to show that he's no Ryan Leaf or Todd Marinovich, Mr. Shuler has decided to run for Congress next year in North Carolina, as a Democrat !! That's right; there is actually a real life, honest-to-goodness, highly-paid white pro athlete who is also a Democrat. I haven't been so shocked since discovering John Malcovich was a Bush supporter.

Has any writer so completely and utterly destroyed whatever remaining bit of personal integrity he had faster than Christopher Hitchens? Going from an inheritor of the Mantle of Orwell and a self-proclaimed "contrarian" just a few years ago to a Pegleresque crank has got to cause anyone whiplash...I blame it all on Rickey Ray. Here, the once-inventive provocateur parrots Mehlman's Talking Points on the Plame Affair, including a reference to the discredited accusation that Valerie Plame "authorized" her husband's mission to Niger, and he might be the last person who still believes in the authenticity of the documents in question.

It would be like shooting fish in a barrel to come up with counter-examples for how he reacted when Clinton was President. He's gone from a defender and protector of Salman Rushdie to a supporter of the Bush Administration leaking leaking bogus information to discredit political opponents. The man has no bottom.

What earthly difference should it make to Mr. Alterman (or anyone else, for that matter) that the "extremely capable" Democratic opponent of George Pataki one election was African-American? Would it have been o.k. if the NY Times had endorsed Pataki over an "extremely capable" white nominee? Does the Grey Lady have some sort of responsibility to rubber-stamp endorsements of African-American Democrats?

Anyways, if whoever was so "extremely capable", how come he was running as a Democrat in New York, but still couldn't win?

What I Learned This Weekend While Attending My Cousin Dean's Wedding:

1. Never, ever go to Las Vegas in July unless you really, really have to. Lord, it was a scorcher. On the outskirts of the city, where the wedding took place, the thermometer got as high as 118°, and even at night, it rarely dipped below 100. Man was not meant to live in such an environment. Of course, casinos are always air-conditioned....

2. Avoid video blackjack. The odds are even more decisively in favor of the house than they are at the tables, where you at least have more options to double down, and the speed at which you can play ensures that at some point, you will encounter the bane of any player, which is the prolonged losing streak. If you must play video blackjack, do not drink. Besides the fact that the casino is comping the drink precisely so that you stay longer, you will end up doing things without thinking that you would never do at the tables. There is nothing better at killing the human spirit and shredding any sense of dignity than accidently hitting on 20 (twice !!), unless it's hitting on 19, getting dealt an ace, but still losing to the dealer's 21.

3. If you like to gamble, avoid the Strip. Most of the high-rent hotels aim for higher rollers, so the table minimums can be prohibitive for a working-class stiff like myself (my family stayed at The Venetian, which is tres posh). Downtown is less pretentious, has lower table limits, and you can even find places where they play single-deck blackjack, if you happen to possess certain Rain Man-like talents. Hotels on the Strip may be more comfortable, but you are not honor-bound to patronize their facilities, and the Downtown casinos are only a cheap cab ride away.

4. Never go to Vegas on a weekend of a major event, such as a title fight or a poker championship, both of which converged on the city at the same time Saturday. It pretty much made the south end of the Strip unnegotiable, so going to the MGM Grand or Mandalay Bay (two favorite stops of mine) was out of the question.

5. (For L.A. residents only) Always assume that at some point on a weekend visit, you will hit a major traffic jam both coming and going. Although there is plenty of room to do so, the federal government has never seen its way to construct a third lane of traffic for the I-15, so any accident or mishap will effect cars hundreds of miles away. Just accept the things you have no control over.

Little Green Futbol [III]: In the wake of last week's bombings, British authorities fear this alliance, between soccer hooligans and anti-Muslim hate groups. Of particular concern to authorities is the opening-day match in England's Championship (ie., AAA-livel minor) League between Millwall, which is notorious for its racist, out-of-control fans, and Leeds. [link via OffWing Opinion]

Claiming that he could run for reelection and defend his honor, but not do both at the same time, Randy "Duke" Cunningham announced this afternoon he would not seek another term. I suppose the next question is whether he will resign before his current term expires.

Ziffel's on the Take: Meanwhile, back on Planet Hollywood, the LA Times is reporting that the Governor of California, the man who holds what is arguably the Second Toughest Job in America, agreed to become a paid consultant for a number of fitness magazines. In exchange for his consulting, the governor is set to receive up to $8 million, firmly cementing his place in the party of Tom DeLay and Duke Cunningham.

More suspiciously, Ahnolt vetoed a bill last year that would have regulated the prescription of "dietary supplements" to high school athletes, which would have directly impacted the business of the principal advertisers to said magazines:

Schwarzenegger's two muscle magazines are crammed with ads for performance-enhancing dietary supplements promising chiseled bodies and surges of energy. The 257-page August issue of Muscle & Fitness contains 110 pages of ads for supplements, from creatine ethyl ester to anabolic/androgenic "absorption technology."

The governor used his regular column in the June issue of Muscle & Fitness to defend the supplement industry. He vowed to oppose any effort to restrict sales of the products in California, writing that he is "so energized to fight any attempt to limit the availability of nutritional supplements."

An article in the August issue of Muscle & Fitness said Schwarzenegger had "lent his support" to a new lobbying group that would work to promote nutritional supplements. "The governor also made it clear that he will remain a phone call away as the coalition progresses," the magazine said.

Gives a new meaning to the phrase, "pay to play"....

Good primer on the underlying story in RoveGate, ie., the accuracy of the conclusions drawn by Joe Wilson following his trip to Niger, from Bloomberg News.

Among the rhetorical excesses in our current politics that I find most annoying is the habit of calling people you disagree with "liars". A lie is an intentional or reckless misstatement of fact, made in an attempt to mislead or deceive others. It is not simply making a false statement; the liar has to either know that the statement was false, or be indifferent to its accuracy (in fact, it's even theoretically possible to "lie" when making a true statement). Scott McLelland stating that Karl Rove was not involved in the Plame leak two years ago is only a lie if he had reason to know, at the time he said it, that Rove was the leaker. Joe Wilson denying that his wife recommended him to her superiors at the CIA is a lie only if there's proof he knew at that time she had done so.

Et tu, Rupert?: Even FoxNews hasn't bought the latest spin about Karl Rove being an intrepid whistleblower. {link via AmericaBlog}

From the Beeb:

The NHL and the players' union say they have struck a deal in principle that will finally end their labour row.

"Labour row", eh?

Prothonotary Warbler Revisited: Are the various apologias by GOP spindoctors and their acolytes in the blogosphere for Karl Rove beginning to sound nauseatingly similar? Maybe that's because those are actually real-life, honest-to-goodness "talking points" they're parroting...btw, is there any evidence that Joe Wilson has ever claimed he was personally sent to Niger to investigate by Dick Cheney or the V.P.'s office? The original N.Y. Times column that he wrote (ie., the column at issue at the time his wife's position was betrayed) asserts that he went to Niger at the behest of the CIA. Josh Marshall and Tim Grieve also answer no, while professional media scourge Bob Somerby says, well, maybe, kind of, he did.

Much of the talking points center around the argument that what Mr. Rove told Time Magazine (and possibly others) was true, and/or that he was motivated by the desire to dissuade them from publishing an inaccurate story. Such an argument does Mr. Rove no favors. In cases involving espionage, treason, or the unauthorized disclosure of classified information, the "truth" is not a defense; in fact, it happens to be an element of the crime. If Alger Hiss or Aldrich Ames had knowingly passed on information to the Soviets that was false, it is highly unlikely that they would have been prosecuted for anything. If Ms. Plame had never been employed by the Company, Karl Rove would still be resting on his comfortable perch, regardless of what he leaked.

YBK [Part 10]: U.S.A. Today has an interesting primer on how the changes in the bankruptcy law effect the ability of businesses to seek Chapter 11, along with the now-routine prediction that we will see a greater increase in such filings as we draw closer to October 17. To put it simply, the new law imposes mandatory time limits for compelling a company to assume or reject leases, and allowing a debtor to propose a reorganization plan, which will necessitate almost immediate access to credit post-petition. Actually, these changes, which aren't all that bad, as a whole, have little to do with the YBK problem, which deals with the unholy conjunction of increased consumer filings with the collapse in the housing market, but it is yet another worry for the economy as the fall months draw nigh.

Vote of Confidence: Turd Blossom is toast....

Terrific column denouncing racial discrimination at the college level, concerning the lack of black coaches, by former Auburn head coach Terry Bowden:

There are 117 colleges participating in Division I-A football and there are only three black head coaches. You don't have to be too smart to know how stupid this looks.

Let me lay it out for you:

Fifty percent black athletes leads to 25 percent black assistant coaches leads to 3 percent black head coaches.

Fifty percent white athletes leads to 75 percent white assistant coaches leads to 97 percent white head coaches.

A profession that so desperately seeks a level playing field offers nothing close to one for the black athlete who aspires to rise to the pinnacle of the college coaching profession.

Plainly and simply, folks, this is discrimination. More precisely this is one of the last and greatest bastions of discrimination within all of American sports.

In college football, we are winning games, building programs and making millions of dollars with the sweat and blood of African-American athletes. I should know. In the last dozen years, my family alone has made more than $30 million as Division I-A head football coaches.

At least once a day, I get asked, "When are you getting back into coaching?" Heck, schools don't need to hire me. They need to hire from the untapped talent that exists within the pool of black assistant coaches.

[link via Salon]

It now appears likely that none of the London bombers last week got out alive.

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

To paraphrase Mr. Rove, liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers; conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared to ruin the career of one of the country’s spies tracking terrorist efforts to gain weapons of mass destruction -- for political gain.

Politics first, counter-terrorism second -- it’s as simple as that.

--Keith Olbermann

Fire Rove: The groupings for the first-ever Baseball World Cup have been announced. The U.S. is paired together with Canada, Mexico and South Africa (!) in the first round. Still up in the air is whether Japan and Cuba will participate.

UPDATE: Not up in the air is whether Gary Sheffield will participate:"My season is when I get paid," Sheffield told the New York Daily News. "I'm not doing that. ... I'm not sacrificing my body or taking a chance on an injury for something that's made up." Damn--I'm sure every American baseball fan wanted to see the colors represented by the likes of Sheff.

A defense of Malcolm Glazer, from the editor of World Soccer magazine. He, too, is somewhat confused about the animosity surrounding the Bucs owner, and asserts that the pathetic efforts to boycott the club by various Man United fanclubs are motivated by "pure xenophobia" against a "funny-looking septuagenarian".