Another Powell Hits the Bricks

As one must expect in this media-saturated world, post-Inauguration analysis is pouring in from all over. Much of the world has taken to mocking the "End of Tyranny" claims repeated throughout Bush's speech. And some conservatives on this Continent are even saying Bush over-reached. For example, Peggy Noonan (who knows a little something about speech-writing) writes in today's WSJ:

"The inaugural address itself was startling. It left me with a bad feeling, and reluctant dislike. Rhetorically, it veered from high-class boilerplate to strong and simple sentences, but it was not pedestrian. George W. Bush's second inaugural will no doubt prove historic because it carried a punch, asserting an agenda so sweeping that an observer quipped that by the end he would not have been surprised if the president had announced we were going to colonize Mars."

Noonan later wrote, "Ending tyranny in the world? Well that's an ambition, and if you're going to have an ambition it might as well be a big one. But this declaration, which is not wrong by any means, seemed to me to land somewhere between dreamy and disturbing. Tyranny is a very bad thing and quite wicked, but one doesn't expect we're going to eradicate it any time soon. Again, this is not heaven, it's earth."

Of course, the Brits smacked the speech upside the head much more harshly. Drudge tries painting them all with the same brush in one of his classic over-simplifications. I suggest reading a bit more into their reporting that just reprinting the headlines.

My favorite Michael Moore-worthy shot is in the slideshow of the Inauguration put up by the WashingtonPost. Near the end, before all the obligatory goofy-protesters shots, there's one of Cheney waving from inside his limo as a snowball melts on the car's exterior. Classic.

Amidst the din of talking head blather, most people run the risk of missing FCC Chair Michael Powell's resignation announcement. The WSJ broke the story which feels like a plant just before the Friday newscycle garbage dump, but now everyone's running with it. I suggest that Howard Stern's reaction to the news will be the most entertaining and relevant. Stories of the infighting on the FCC are coming out, too. According to the NYTimes:

"Mr. Powell faced criticism from conservatives as well for not being even tougher, including from another Republican member of the commission, Kevin J. Martin. Mr. Martin was also behind a rare defeat for Mr. Powell, when the commission turned down his proposal in 2003 to deregulate the local telephone market."

I predict that a smoother pro-deregulation biznocrat will be nominated sometime before the Super Bowl (with Paul McCartney as the halftime show bigname this year, wardrobe malfunction distractions seem like a longshot). But as they say in cheesier parts of the news bidness, stay tuned...