Never again will corporate management to bestow, or allow there to fall, so much power in the "press" on one guy.

Kronkite essentially drove Johnson from office when he reported during and after Tet that the US m ission there was doomed to failure.

In other news from Duluth, a jury has awarded a woman to pay $1.92 million for downloading songs from the internet using file-sharing software.  That is $80,000 per song X 24 songs.  What a joke.

I really think that punitive measures like this one, and the fact that this verdict is so eye-poppingly out of step with anybody's conception of what these songs might be worth, is only going to increase the ill will toward the record industry that has accrued over the last decade

Mainstream-media political journalism is in danger of becoming increasingly irrelevant, but not because of the Internet, or even Comedy Central. The threat comes from inside. It comes from journalists being afraid to do what journalists were put on this green earth to do.

What is it about Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert that makes them so refreshing and attractive to a wide variety of viewers (including those so-important younger ones)? I would argue that, more than anything else, it is that they enthusiastically call bull$hit.

Calling bull$hit, of course, used to be central to journalism as well as to comedy. And we happen to be in a period in our history in which the substance in question is running particularly deep. The relentless spinning is enough to make anyone dizzy, and some of our most important political battles are about competing views of reality more than they are about policy choices. Calling bull$hit has never been more vital to our democracy.

It also resonates with readers and viewers a lot more than passionless stenography. I'm convinced that my enthusiasm for calling bull$hit is the main reason for the considerable success of my White House Briefing column, which has turned into a significant traffic-driver for The Washington Post's Web site.

I'm not sure why calling bull$hit has gone out of vogue in so many newsrooms -- why, in fact, it's so often consciously avoided. There are lots of possible reasons. There's the increased corporate stultification of our industry, to the point where rocking the boat is seen as threatening rather than invigorating. There's the intense pressure to maintain access to insider sources, even as those sources become ridiculously unrevealing and oversensitive. There's the fear of being labeled partisan if one's bull$hit-calling isn't meted out in precisely equal increments along the political spectrum.

The return of Democrats to political power and relevancy gives us the opportunity to call bull$hit in a more bipartisan manner, which is certainly healthy. But there are different kinds of bull$hit. Republican political leaders these past six years have built up a massive, unprecedented credibility deficit, such that even their most straightforward assertions invite close bull$hit inspection. By contrast, Democratic bull$hit tends to center more around hypocrisy and political cowardice. Trying to find equivalency between the two would still be a mistake - and could lead to catty, inside-baseball gotcha journalism rather than genuine bull$hit-calling.

If mainstream-media political journalists don't start calling bull$hit more often, then we do risk losing our primacy -- if not to the comedians then to the bloggers.

Evidence is not always fixed; with new science continual development is on going though not specifically defined,evidence, in the Constitution, yet is the primary core of any prosecution intrinsic part of due process. Don't you think? Especially with this bell curve stuff now with DNA.

My daughter is going to school for forensic science so my interest is also pointing in that direction. Please understand that as a simple Joe six pack that I am with the Internet power and capability sends my "thinking wide open"

Here certainly our highest court kicks the stuff back down to the people in a vicious cycle to change the law. A cycle that could go on forever. And, is currently in motion. But...

Here is our failure in the Justice System, worse the interpretations of the Constitution with a partisan slant seems inevitable, if anyone should be wire taped during a case these Justices should be, for those friends of the families could tend to lean to prevent criminal charges placed on favorite politicians that choose them.

This system is the chosen type that has screwed America these past decades. It has all the properties of the Congressional legal living ear mark system as illegal as can be yet flourished among the well connected politicians and corporate leaders. For me the Supreme Court should have developed an opinion about that ear mark stuff along time ago. But no, let corruption proliferate to let them the Congress condemn who ever needs to be. But only does condemnation at election time.

What jumps out at me are the tenth Amendment and the way I read it, powers not delegated by the Constitution jumps right to the citizen or no to the people a person...

Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

How many times have I watched Western movies on cable for decades and evidence appear to have been a fraud? Yet at the eleventh hour, or after conviction the hero is able to untangle the fraud to show evidence of innocence.

The Supreme Court in the 2000 screwed the America and the World by halting the voting in Florida helping Jeb Bush give his brother George the presidency.

Our Supreme Court Justice has revealed it self into a reeling confusing turn of events that has proliferated torture debate, War, economic business failure, and moved corruption into the main theme of governance via the Republican Party that is far from real Conservatism obviously distilled trillions in tax dollars to secret money deal though out the Bush years. . . Ladies and Gentleman this Supreme Court brought us here to where we are now, Dysfunctional. Black robes instead of black turbins is were we are at.

I hope not.

Random drug testing for all public school employees.

And when the fear is gone, the people are free.

DETROIT - Hours after police plucked him out of a suburban alley, Vincent Smothers dropped a bombshell confession: "I don't have a profession," he told an investigator. "I kill people for money."

Then, police say, he laid out details of how each of eight hired hits happened. He stalked his victims before shooting them at close range. He killed some while talking on his cell phone and fired on others even when they appeared to be lying lifeless on the ground.

Even in Detroit, which had more than 300 slayings last year, Smothers' case is notable: Rarely is one person charged in so many deaths. On Friday, his lawyers planned to ask a judge to have the confessions thrown out, arguing he was worn down while in custody. Police deny it.

"He'd been accused of doing so many, he just wanted to get it over (with)," said Detective Sgt. Ken Ducker of the Michigan State Police.

Police say the work paid $60,000 over two years, although Smothers did one job for as little as $50. All but one of his victims were involved in drugs. The exception was a police officer's wife.

Poor guy, sounds like a smart businessman to me...bankroll a grow-op and sell more Chinese food:)