Headline: Bush’s job rating continues to drop

President Bush’s job approval rating continues to plummet, with 39 percent of Americans surveyed in the latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll supporting his performance, compared to 58 percent expressing disapproval.

Headline: Poll: Bush would lose an election if held this year

A majority would vote for a Democrat over President Bush if an election were held this year, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll released Tuesday…

In the poll, 42 percent of those interviewed approved of the way the president is handling his job and 55 percent disapproved.

MLB Commissioner Bud Selig says the new design reminds the public of the ability of umpires to call games “fairly” and “accurately“.

Update: A couple more for your viewing pleasure….

That’s for you, Lawhawk…

Within days of Hinrichs’s death, a number of Internet websites were speculating that he had planned to blow himself up inside the stadium — and that he was a radical Muslim terrorist. Blog headlines screamed, ‘’Jihad at the University of Oklahoma?” and ‘’The Oklahoma Suicide Bomber.”

The mainstream media can be arrogant. But the bloggers and their readers are sometimes too willing to accept trafficking in rumor and speculation as a process from which the truth will ultimately emerge through the self-correcting power of debate.

By the time it emerges, too much damage may be done. If the ‘’citizen journalists” want respect, they must hold themselves and one another to higher standards of accuracy.

Back on October 3rd, I posted my “pre-caffeine, Monday morning thought” on the Harriett Miers’ nomination:

One thing that crossed my mind — true, it’s a pre-caffeine, Monday morning thought — but what if Miers was picked as a trial balloon? It wasn’t a secret the Democrats were going to fight like hell against anyone the President picked this time. So what if Bush, et al. selected Miers to waste the Democrats’ energy fighting against her and plan on her being rejected by the Senate so they can come back with an Estrada or Brown sort of pick later?

The next pick might then be easier to get through because the Democrats will just look like pure obstructionists if they did it twice in a row, plus they will have spent much political capital already. To say nothing of the fact that Democrats like Hillary will have other things to focus on come 2006…

So what has the Miers’ nomination given us? Many on the right have questioned the Miers’ nomination for one reason or another. Either there’s not enough record to review or she supported this or that at some point in her past. Bottom line is that a Bush nominated a candidate that many from his own party disagreed with. Yet, there’s no call for fillibuster or obstructionism. Even those opposed to the nomination call for an up or down vote and say “let the chips fall where they may.”

So while the Left is trying to figure out what how they’re supposed to respond to the Miers’ nomination, the opposition on the Right has (mostly) set an example of civil discourse and debate on the nominee.

So what happens if Miers withdraws or fails to get confirmed? Bush will nominate a new candidate. And what happens when he nominates someone the Democrats clearly disagree with? Well, now we have a benchmark against which to compare their reactions.

Will they be civil and let the process work as it’s supposed to? Or will they show their obstructionist side and fillibuster? Will they try to prevent a legitimate up or down vote? Will they use 527s to launch uncivilized and baseless attacks?

Now we have a measuring stick against which to measure their actions. And the time to measure will likely come smack dab in the middle of the ‘06 cycle. What a better way to campaign against Democrats then to let them just be themselves in front of voters. It’s almost too perfect.