Free Stan Shunpike!

Just finished reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince this morning. I think it qualifies as the best book of the series so far. Fortunately, it appears that Rowlings has either gotten a better editor or has come to the realization that a tighter story is a better story. The last two books were overly long while this book is very economical in its use of page space. Furthermore, it ties a lot of threads from previous books into an overall narrative that adds a whole new layer to what has gone before.

Michael Gitz of AMERICABlog has a good (non-spoiler) review that discusses some of the political similarities between what happens in the book and what is happening in our world today. I especially appreciated this point:

But one element -- that doesn't spoil the plot at all -- involves people thrown into jail by the wizards in power. As Dumbledore and Harry discuss it, some of those people are completely innocent AND THE GOVERNMENT KNOWS IT. But they leave those people to rot in jail because they're desperate to be seen as doing SOMETHING to fight the terrorists...pardon me, I mean the Death Eaters. Harry knows this is wrong and says so.

So think about that. Millions of kids around the world have been reading and respecting Harry Potter. They probably can't imagine anyone in the real world would ever do something like leaving people they KNOW are innocent to rot in jail. And when these young people realize it's actually being done this very moment by their own government, they'll say, quite simply, "That's not right!"

Of course, I wonder how many readers will make the connection between the plight of Stan Shunpike (read the book) and the current erosion of our civil liberties.

The Cowardice Of The Establishment Media

Courtesy Crooks & Liars comes this exchange on the Chris Mathews show that puts in stark relief the problem of the mainstream media and the possible solution offered by the blogosphere:

Fineman: If nobody is indicted here this whole story will go away.

Page: Should the story go away? (cross-talk)

Fineman: It's going to go away (cross-talk)

Page: That's the point it should not go away and it won't go away even if it takes the bloggers to keep it alive. It is going to stay alive.

The establishment media has become so corrupt, so cowardly, that the only way they will stick their neck out on a story is if someone else, say a special prosecutor with indictments, has done so already. Far be it from the Fineman's of the world to report a story simply because it deserves to be reported. No. He won't talk about it unless there is someone else (Joe Wilson, Patrick Fitzgerald, a Democratic leader) to lead the charge.

Well, I guess the bloggers are leading the charge and are forcing poor little Fineman to actually do the job he is paid to do.

What. A. Putz.

(Not to mention the implication of Fineman's statement that ethics in Washington is now purely defined by what is legal and what is not legal.)

Top Secret Politics

I was struck by the following passage from this week's edition of Newsweek's coverage of Rovegate (link courtesy AMERICABlog):

Missions accomplished. Except for a few little details. Under a 1982 law, it's a felony to intentionally disclose the name of a "covered" agent with the intent to harm national security. Under another, older statute, it could also be a felony to willfully disclose information from a classified document�which the State Department memo and, apparently, the Condi briefing book were. There is no indication that Rove saw the briefing book (Rumsfeld didn't get one) or that anyone disclosed classified information. But no one in the administration seems to have noticed the irony�or the legal danger�in assembling a top secret briefing book as guidance for the Sunday talk shows (my emphasis - Chris). Exactly what papers with what classifications were floating around on Air Force One? Who, if anyone, was dipping into them for info about the Wilson trip?

The bolded sentence says it all. The Bushies see nothing odd about preparing confidential/top secret briefing books, not for national security reasons, but for political purposes.