extreme Catholic 

It's too late for that. If there was anything in the public written record of Miers that the White House could feed to the media and say "Here -- this clearly is a writing sample of an intellect that belongs on the Supreme Court"

The White House hasn't done so. It's the conservative opponents of the nomination who have discovered and made her writing -- such as it is available -- to the nation.

The loyalty of the conservative movement to President Bush is not in question: We stood by for the sellout on education, immigration, Medicare prescription entitlements, signing McCain-Feingold. That's loyalty.

Rather, it is President Bush who is being disloyal to the conservative movement who elected him twice by picking someone for whom the chief priority seemed to be to always appear as if she didn't have a stake in how the Court interprets the constitution.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 7:14 PM   Permalink  

The Department of Homeland Security is looking into whether or not agency officials tipped off family members about last week's alleged terror threat against the New York City subway system before the public learned about it from the mayor.

A report in Thursday's Daily News says people received emails about the potential threat as early as October 3rd, three days before Mayor Michael Bloomberg's announcement about the suspected plot.

Very bad for Homeland Security. In public they cut Bloomberg and Kelly off at the knees -- for being alarmists. In private they were sending out warnings to insiders.

Good for Bloomberg and Kelly. If this had come out and they had not taken the cautionary steps they did, it would have been bad.

Bad for Fernando Ferrer because it its means that that some in Homeland Security were privately very sure that this was a serious threat and not a hoax.

You're Fired (and maybe you go to jail) for the person or people who sent these emails.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:10 PM   Permalink  

Los Angeles Files Recount Decades of Priests' Abuse: New York Times

The confidential personnel files of 126 clergymen in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles accused of sexual misconduct with children provide a numbing chronicle of 75 years of the church's shame, revealing case after case in which the church was warned of abuse but failed to protect its parishioners.

People watching the scandal since 2000 or earlier have known that Los Angeles has been able to dodge the bullet for years. No longer it seems.

This is only the signal that the documents will be released sometime this week. The worst is yet to come.

Leaked emails published two years ago indicated the efforts they were making to avoid this day.

The Times speculates that the price tag to settle all the oustanding cases would be over $500 million.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:04 PM   Permalink  

I have a body of knowledge that I use in my work. How financial markets have worked, work now, and will work in the future, and the information technology of their concrete realization.

My knowledge was put to the test when I changed jobs. I had six interviews of one hour each on these topics.

There's no way I could fake it. Likewise, I'm self-taught in history and Catholic theology and it's these two areas that I blogging about because of my personal interests. I can spot fakers in these area as well.

The consequences to one who fakes their mastery of a body of knowledge in a job interview are they will be denied a job offer and embarassed. A nomination of a Supreme Court is orders of magnitude more significant.

Has Harriet Miers mastered the constitutional law of which she will er... "Supreme" in its future interpretation?

I think this is a wonderful opportunity for Schumer, Kennedy, Biden, Feinstein, Leahy, and Durbin to look smart after being made to look stupid.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 6:17 PM   Permalink  

Priest said he voiced concerns about Erickson to a bishop : AP

A co-worker of a priest who was found by a judge to have likely killed two people to cover up his sexual misconduct said [Rev. John Anderson] had voiced concern about the priest's social habits to the Superior diocese bishop.

A judge last week ruled that the Rev. Ryan Erickson almost certainly shot to death funeral home director Dan O'Connell, 39, and employee James Ellison, 22 in 2002. St. Croix County District Attorney Eric Johnson said evidence suggests the O'Connell had found out that the priest was sexually abusing someone, was providing alcohol to minors, or both.

The ruling came Oct. 3 after a so-called John Doe hearing requested by the victim's families.

I need to add that these proceedings are rather unusual. Erickson is deceased, and apparently he is not represented by attorney from his estate.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 5:10 PM   Permalink  

1. If being an originalist were made a crime would there be enough evidence to convict Harriet Miers of being one?

2. Bush can survive withdrawing the Miers nomination. Are you sure that Conservative movement will have the opportunity to get another Scalia or Thomas on the Court in the not too distant future?

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 4:41 PM   Permalink