The Last Candle

I admit to not having the greatest clue about what’s going on in the Valerie Plame deal, reading only enough from the various blogs to get a general idea of the kerfuffle. While it might be simple to toss out a detail that could change my whole scope of it, yesterday’s developments really threw me off:

N.Y. Times Reporter Jailed Over Source <p/> U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan, who sent Miller to jail for almost four months unless she recants and testifies [about the Plame case], and prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who demanded her jailing, took pains in court to say they were not trying to deny reporters their sources. <p/> Hogan noted he had let Miller remain free while she appealed up to the Supreme Court. He added that a Supreme Court decision 33 years ago that reporters could not always keep their sources’ names secret had not destroyed press coverage of government scandals, including Watergate. <p/> […] <p/> Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper, who identified Plame after Novak, avoided the same jail term given Miller. Also held in contempt by Hogan for refusing to testify before Fitzgerald’s grand jury, Cooper shocked the packed courtroom Wednesday by announcing that his source had contacted him just hours earlier to give him specific, unambiguous permission to tell the grand jury about their conversations. <p/> […] <p/> Miller never wrote a story naming Plame, and there’s been no official explanation why Fitzgerald wants Miller’s testimony. The court rulings upholding his effort have blacked out details of his reasons. New York Times’ attorney Floyd Abrams speculated Wednesday that “most likely somebody testified to the grand jury that he or she had spoken to Judy.”

What strikes me as really bizarre in this whole mess is that out of all the months of huffing about various people throughout Bush’s administration — the latest rumor falls upon a favorite target, Karl Rove — the final witnesses come down to reporters — the folks who are the ones who are supposed to deal with this sort of thing, and one has chosen this moment to not talk about it. <p/> Yes, anonymous sources and principle and all that. But even though it’s not clear what Miller has to offer, this whole deal is presently stalwarted, or, at the very least, given hesistation, by a member of a wide, organized, and intensely dispersed community in a country that gives it an essential freedom to report as they please about the government. And she doesn’t, so the whole thing grinds to a halt. <p/> I don’t know if that’s just plain bizarre, stupid, or a little bit scary, but it seems in very ill interests.

My July 4th was celebrated by being with my oldest sister, bro-in-law, and handsome nephew, with a little Myst IV: Revelation and some Psychonauts on the side. However, when the Gamecube’s clock struck 7, I was ready for the fireworks celebration at the ole’ fishing pond in our Animal Crossing town — and what a splendid scene! Much better than the one outside, since it rained from about 5 to 10. Kinda sad, but everything will be digital one day anyway. I can envision people sitting on their lawnchairs in a park to watch CG fireworks projected onto clouds (or a really big screen) with a super projector… <p/> Here’s some reading from the Fourth — articles are mostly from political sites I read, but they’ve been checked to be non-partisan (excluding the advertisements and sidebar content):

• Power Line recounts a great Lincoln speech from The Abe-olitionist.
• The Indepundit travels back in time and blogs from the year 1776!
• Power Line again with a message from “Major E.” in Baghdad. Fighting for a war and democracy in a country on the other side of the world must certainly bring a more poignant sense of liberty.
• Jeff Harrell has a typically well-written and striking account of a personal experience.
• Ace brings out the animated GIFs, but he is spared any ridicule by 1) including the dragon GIF and 2) that excellent Mencken quote at the top of the page.

<p/> And, of course, Dad and I watched a bit of the “American Wins!” classic Independence Day as a last hurrah for the holiday. It’s a little late to bring out the Yun-Fat-o-Meter, but while the film is still quite fun in that over-the-top CG disaster spectacle kind of way, the stupidity is a lot more prevalent than I remember. Chalk it up to age and goofy filmmaking.

Dear Friends, the grand concert series of Final Fantasy music, is coming to Detroit July 23rd and July 23th — and tickets to the Saturday performance have been acquired! Gwaha ha ha ha! <p/> Very exciting. A year ago, Dear Friends was only a single concert that was played in Los Angeles; there were seemingly no plans to turn it into a nationwide series. I had teased thoughts to see it at the time — the hopeful result was never more than distant and unreachable — but thanks to the Detroit Symphony, we’re gonna be rocking out to two hours of Terra’s Theme, Liberi Fatali, To Zanarkand, the Prologue song, probably the Chocobo theme in some variation, and a bunch of other orchestrated tunes spanning the series. <p/> I’m hoping to hear orchestrated versions of some of the more rockish songs such as Still More Fighting (which iTunes calls Fight On! for some reason) and The Man With the Machine Gun, but I’m not holding my breath for ‘em. (Besides, that’s what The Black Mages are for anyway.) (The Black Mages on iTunes!)