Keep your powder dry

Remember the scene in Do the Right Thing when the D.J. played by Samuel Jackson screamed into the radio microphone that everybody needed to chill the fuck out? That's how I feel about the impending Supreme Court nomination. Mookie's throwing trash cans through windows before Sal has the chance not to put a brother on the wall.

We're not shy about beating dead horses on Cole Slaw Blog. When the time comes, the Cole Slaw Blogarrhea about this nomination will be voluminous. For now, the matter has been notable mainly for truly terrible newspaper reporting, and unwarranted spazzing by right-wing and left-wing groups. If Bush nominates Michael Luttig or Edith Jones, I'll go apeshit. Unless and until that day, focus your anger on Karl Rove's smears about 9/11, or the president's incompetence in Iraq.

For now, here's a little bit of Times bashing. Jeffrey Rosen is often very good in his Supreme Court reporting, but this article in the Times's Week in Review section was hideous. Rosen took some broad categories of conservative thought and then positioned (either inaccurately or inappropriately) potential nominees into those categories. The article taught nothing about conservatism or the judges; it was pure tautology. I felt embarrassed for Rosen. The article is representative of the bullshit "analysis" being given to the nomination, in which the press appears to think that it's handicapping American Idol.

Also, we're less than a week in, and the phrase "activists on both sides" has become parody. If a TV reporter talks about "activists on both sides," s/he is pimping a manufactured storyline and not talking about anything important. S/he is treating you like an idiot.

Much, much more to come.