Timing is important. Yesterday, the New York Times ran an editorial supporting jailed New York Times reporter Judith Miller. As if arguing to the Judge, the paper declared that Miller should be freed, because if she hasn't talked by now, she isn't going to talk. Under the civil contempt statute, the Judge may release an imprisoned contemnor if satisfied that the person won't talk, no matter what.

Judith Miller's lawyers have not filed a motion seeking her release. Miller attorney Floyd Abrams appeared on CNN's Lou Dobb's show yesterday. He denied that Miller was acting out of self-interest or for any reason other than her principled stand that journalists' sources must be protected.

At Huffington Post today, Arianna takes a look at the New York Times handbook on ethical standards (pdf) for its reporters. She writes:

by TChris

It's easy to understand why Lena Baker shot her employer.

In her one-day trial, Ms. Baker, who was black, testified that E. B. Knight, a white man she had been hired to care for, had held her against her will and threatened to shoot her. She said she grabbed a gun and shot him when he raised a metal bar to strike her.

Sadly, it's also easy to understand why, in 1945, she was convicted.

She was convicted by an all-white, all-male jury.

Sixty years after she was electrocuted, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles granted her a pardon. While that decision comes sixty years too late to benefit Baker, it may help ease the pain for family members who have labored to clear her name. More information about Lena Baker can be found here and here.

by TChris

Anti-war protestors supporting Cindy Sheehan erected white crosses bearing the names of fallen soldiers at her Crawford campsite. An anti-Sheehan protestor drove his pickup truck through the crosses. So much for free speech in Crawford.

At about the time a prayer service was to begin at Sheehan's camp yesterday, a sheep farmer fired a shotgun into the air. He told the police he was preparing for a hunting season that begins Sept. 1.

Kenneth Jones of the Crawford city police said firing a gun in the countryside is commonplace, and it shouldn't surprise or frighten anyone. Hunting season's coming up and guns are part of the culture in Texas, Jones said.

"This is still redneck country," he said.

No kidding.

[Update: (TL): Crooks and Liars has the video to the Today Show segment on the destruction of the crosses.]

Markos at Daily Kos wrote yesterday that Jeanine Pirro has not sewn up the Republican nomination for the New York Senate race. Ed Cox previously has said he's still in the race. Monday, he issued this press release, which shows he considers himself a serious contender.

Cox's schedule will be a combination of private meetings with party leaders, as well as appearances at public and political events for the Republican and Conservative Parties. He will also be taking time to meet with local media in each location.

In addition to Jefferson County, Cox is slated to visit Wayne, Livingston, Wyoming, Erie, Broome, Ontario, Onondaga, Monroe, Steuben, Genesee and New York counties as well. By the end of the week he will have visited nearly half of New York's 62 counties this summer.

Many will say Jeanine made a mistake in choosing to run for the Senate instead of for New York Attorney General. She's a prosecutor and the AG's spot would have made her New York's top cop. Instead, she's positioning herself in a no-win situation: She's too centrist for Republicans, and not as popular as Hillary. It's early, but this is shaping up to be a fun race to watch.

How do the ticket agents keep a straight face when stopping parents from boarding a plane with an 11-month old because the baby's name matches one on the no-fly list? If we ever needed more reasons that these lists are feel-good measures that don't make us any safer, this article supplies it.

The TSA supposedly instructs ticket agents not to deny boarding to children. It happens anyway.

The TSA has a "passenger ombudsman" who will investigate individual claims from passengers who say they are mistakenly on the lists. TSA spokeswoman Yolanda Clark said 89 children have submitted their names to the ombudsman. Of those, 14 are under the age of 2.

Capitol Hill Blue has a pretty scary commentary on Bush. It begins:

Buy beleaguered, overworked White House aides enough drinks and they tell a sordid tale of an administration under siege, beset by bitter staff infighting and led by a man whose mood swings suggest paranoia bordering on schizophrenia.

They describe a President whose public persona masks an angry, obscenity-spouting man who berates staff, unleashes tirades against those who disagree with him and ends meetings in the Oval Office with “get out of here!”

It goes downhill (for Bush) from there. Thoughts?

The New York Post takes a cheap shot at Jeanine Pirro today by blaring on its front page an exclusive interview with Albert Pirro's out-of-wedlock daughter and her mother.

Why is Albert's daughter or her mother's opinion of Jeanine and Albert relevant to the discussion? I can see that Albert's past, including his tax fraud conviction, and his present, including his work as a prominent lobbyist, are germane because there have been questions about how much Jeanine knew about his unlawful tax return which she signed, and because he lobbies on issues she will confront as a Senator.

But the media should leave the now-adult daughter (and her mother) out of this. Since the mother and daughter have never met Jeanine, I don't think they contribute anything to the discussion of whether Jeanine should be Senator. In other words, they are unfair game.

This just in from Arianna...a trusted source tells her that John Bolton recently visited NYT reporter Judith Miller in jail.

I wonder if Fitzgerald will now subpoena Bolton to find out what they talked about. Or if the Alexandria Detention Center monitors conversations during jail visits.

Adopting a less confrontational strategy, Cindy Sheehan has invited President Bush to a prayer vigil for the troops on Friday. His schedule reportedly is clear. Crooks and Liars has the video.

Indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff's lawyer, Neal Sonnett, tells the Daily Business Review that his client is a victim in the charged fraud.

Miami attorney Neal Sonnett, who represents Abramoff, said the longtime Republican lobbyist who formerly worked for Greenberg Traurig, the Miami-based law firm, was a "victim." "All I can tell you is that Jack understood that he was involved in a legitimate business deal, and he was not involved in the negotiations, was not even present at the closing," Sonnett said in an interview Friday.

"He only signed documents that were faxed to him with assurances that everything was in proper order," Sonnett said. "So I think Jack was as much as victim as anybody else in this case, perhaps more because now he has to defend himself against criminal charges for something that he did not do."

Sonnett also says that Abramoff is not cooperating with the feds in the Indian tribes investigation:

The Senate is in recess, but the Judiciary Committee lawyers are working through it, day and night, pouring over thousands of pages of released documents on Judge John Roberts to ready the Senators for the confirmation hearings that begin September 6. The Chicago Tribune has an informative article on what the staffers are doing and how the Senators have divided the work.

Specter's staff lawyers are readying talking points to combat negative information, not to be partisan, but to be fair. Cornyn's lawyers essentially admit their partisan role. Sen. Diane Feinstein will take the lead on Roe v. Wade, while Sen. Edward Kennedy will focus on civil rights issues.

Here's a clue to how it's going to go:

Upddate: Murray has more over at his blog, Whatever Already, including this very important news:

What has not been previously reported until now (a blog breaks news!?), is that not only could Rove not remember the name of the journalist who purportedly might have told him of Plame's CIA employment, but he also claimed to remember virtually nothing about the circumstances of the purported conversation. He could not even recall whether the conversation took place on the phone or in person.

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Original Post: 8/14 6:20 pm

Investigative journalist Murray Waas who has broken some of the biggest stories in RoveGate has a new article up at the Village Voice.

To paraphrase:

• Federal investigators believed Karl Rove fibbed during one of his first interviews on the Valerie Plame leak. He didn't tell them about talking to Time Reporter Matthew Cooper. They also doubted his claim that he had learned about Plame's identity from a journalist.

• Despite concerns over former Attorney General John Ashcroft's close personal ties to Karl Rove, Ashcroft got briefings on the investigation. Members of the Justice Department believed Ashcroft should recuse himself because of his ties to Rove. Eventually he did and Comey then appointed Fitzgerald to lead the investigation. But the Justice Department has never explained its reasons for Ashcroft's recusal.