Welcome to The Now

Now, that I've had some time to digest the last LOST episode, some thoughts: 1. It was very meta-healthy, almost as if the writers and producers were saying, "We didn't get to do exactly what we wanted, but we're going to do something memorable with these characters anyway." From Nikki's quip about guest stars to the couple "not wanting to end up like" Shannon and Boone, you got a sense that the ep was trying to justify the direction the show's been taking. 2. My first impression was: "If I had never read Edgar Allen Poe's Fall of the House of Usher, or watched the movies Along Came a Spider and Psycho, this ep would have shocked me greatly." but since I did all these things, the ep was more homage-like than anything. 3. Vincent apparently knew that N&P was alive. My question is: does paralysis affect body temperature? I ask because if it does, than Vincent's only means for telling that they were alive (at least to me) was s...

She's a former aide to Jack Abramoff and Karl Rove, which means that she knows things. House Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) wants to know what those things are .

That's how long Attn. Gen. Alberto Gonzales lasted until he decided to end his Chicago news conference. Reporters had started to ask about the lawyer firings at that point (specifically about the potential firing of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who prosecuted Scooter Libby).

President Bush declares April 2007 as "National Donate Life Month."

E. J. Dionne Jr. talks about how Bush's support for the war is dwindling (among Democrats and Republicans alike): To the extent that there has been movement in the Senate, the indications are that support for Bush's policy has slipped. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) suggested yesterday that a bill containing a withdrawal provision could eventually reach the president's desk and require a veto. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) has often voted with Bush but now favors Senate language that includes calls for withdrawal and benchmarks for judging success. Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), a longtime Bush critic, issued one of his strongest condemnations of the war over the weekend. "We essentially are ruining our National Guard. We are destroying our Army. We're destroying our Marine Corps," he told ABC's George Stephanopoulos. "We can't sustain this. . . . I will not accept the status quo." With most counts showing Senate Democrats needing only o...

From the AP: Pat Tillman’s family firmly rejected the Defense Department’s findings into the former NFL star’s friendly-fire death in Afghanistan , calling for congressional investigations into what they see as broad malfeasance and a coverup .

1. Everybody Run... : An aide of Sen. Jim Webb is caught trying to enter the Senate Office building with a gun. Webb issued a statment saying the aide is "a former Marine, a long-term friend and trusted employee of the Senator" and that they're "still awaiting facts." This is a good example of how to diffuse a situation before it gets out of hand, and still support your people. 2. Consolidation Without Pity : Does Bravo's aquisition of TWoP mark the end of the snarky site's independence? Personally, I hope not. 3. Safe From What, Exactly? : " A man accused of killing his ex-girlfriend and burning her on his patio grill is safer behind bars and is not asking to be released on bond, his attorney said Monday ." I don't think anyone who does something like this to another human being should feel "safe." 4. Oy! : The Jewish Theological Seminary will now be accepting gay and lesbian applicants. This is an interesting move for a traditi...

Via Oliver Willis and YouTube : Tom DeLay needs his glasses to dispute what's written in his own book (guess he had it ghostwritten). More to the point: if you need reading glasses and you know you're hawking a book, wouldn't you BRING YOUR GLASSES WITH YOU in case people ask you questions about it?

Eric Alterman on why political pundits (like Time's Joe Klein) seem to like to dish it out, but can't take it : Have you noticed that every time Klein is asked to defend something he has written, he responds with a personal attack against the person making the charge? It's not just me; it's anyone. Look at the names he calls Media Matters and the bloggers generally. Note that Tom Friedman and Howard Kurtz, among others, react similarly. Pundits are used to making Olympian pronouncements and then having everyone praise their wisdom and courage, the way Walter Lippmann defined the job. Asking people whatever happened to the last 10 times you said Iraq has only six more months, or that Bush is sure to be a centrist, and they flip out and call you an ideologue or an "obsessive." I've always wondered why political pundits thought they had an authority that the average man or women didn't. Anyway, I find Alterman's story interesting mainly because it...

From USA Today : A Pentagon investigation will recommend that nine officers, including up to four generals, be held accountable for missteps in the aftermath of the friendly fire death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman in Afghanistan, senior defense officials said Friday. The Defense Department inspector general will cite a range of errors and inappropriate conduct as the military probed the former football star's death on the battlefront in 2004, said one defense official. Sgt. Brad Jacobson, who said it was apparent to the platoon after only "a few days" that Tillman was killed by friendly fire , said "It's about time something happened to somebody that was indirectly responsible for what happened afterward" to ESPN . UPDATE : From the WashPost : " High-ranking Army officers made critical errors in reporting the friendly fire death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman in Afghanistan, but there was no criminal wrongdoing in the shooting of the former NFL star by fellow...