Quotes From Around Yon Blogosphere

You see, the iPhone is the device I've waited for all my short life. It's the perfect synthesis of the two gadgets that this frog really wants in one perfectly designed "lust until you bust" package: My digital assistant and my digital music player. The fact that the iPhone can also make calls is a bonus...I guess. But I wouldn't really use it for that because what I really want is that beautiful, high-resolution screen; that "now it's vertical...whoops...now it's horizontal" switching. I want that video/music player that also happens to be my calendar, my email, my stock watcher, and my Internet browser. I want WiFi and Bluetooth. I want all of those really cool Apple widgets that make PalmOS look like cuneiform on a stone tablet.

But alas, it is not to be. Because what I don't want is a mandatory f*cking 2-year service agreement with AT&T. I don't give a sh*t about making calls, and I don't want to switch from my current provider (T-Mobile). So sorry Apple. The iPhone may be the coolest thing since sliced bread, but I don't think that you're gonna sell
as many as you hope, and the sad thing is that it could have been so sweet.

-- KVATCH

Ever since President Bush rammed the Military Commissions Act of 2006 through Congress to lend a pretense of legality to his detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, we have urged Congress to amend the law to restore basic human rights and judicial process. Rulings by military judges this week suggest that the special detention system is so fundamentally corrupt that the only solution is to tear it down and start again.

-- THE NEW YORK TIMES

There are now three American hostages in Iranian hands, and five Iranian hostages seized by the Americans in Arbil. Cheney’s decision to block Rice's proposal to release the Iranians in Arbil was a conscious provocation targeting Tehran, and the Ahmedinejad government has responded just the way Cheney wants: in kind. The hands of this crisis are again approaching midnight, and Rice's mastery of the strategic playing field in Washington is anything but clear.

-- SCOTT HORTON

Before we think about casting our own votes, we need to hear from every candidate whether he or she includes in their "withdrawal" package the abandonment of Kurdistan. And it would be nice to hear from the Bush administration, as well, a few crisp words on the identical subject. If we are not for ourselves, then who will be for us?

-- CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS

The highlights of this year's presidential debates have been the delightful hypothetical scenarios the moderators have laid out for the candidates to test their wits. In this week's Democratic presidential debate Wolf Blitzer asked the candidates to raise their hands if they would take out Osama Bin Laden even if innocent civilians would be killed. Asking for a show of hands is an even more economical way of quizzing candidates than limiting them to 30-second sound bites. In the future the networks might consider limiting all debates to 20 yes-or-no questions that can be answered with a show of hands, which would spare us from having to listen to them speak.

-- JON SWIFT

Will Jeri [Thompson] help or hurt Fred's candidacy -- I've been fascinated by the responses. Men are overwhelming positive about her. . . . I've seen all too many men suggesting she's an asset because she's the first First Lady they would love to f*ck. Now that, I think is far more insulting than the term trophy wife as I used it. It clearly suggests she has no value other than as a sex object. I imagine it's precisely that reaction that defined the term in the first place and rendered it an insult rather than than a compliment.

Women, on the other hand had a largely negative reaction. A handful of women came out in support, most of them seemed to be women who are also in successful May-December relationships, but more commonly the reaction on seeing Fred and Jeri Thompson together in a photograph, was basically -- ick.

-- LIBBY SPENCER

House Democrats, in their first draft of new energy legislation, would wipe out California's landmark global warming law -- despite their California speaker's promises that her party would use the state as a model to combat climate change.

The legislation would pre-empt California and 11 other states from implementing laws requiring automakers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across their fleets. The bill would prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from granting the states waivers to put their climate change rules into effect.

California officials, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's top environmental aides, blasted the legislative proposal.

-- ZACHARY COILE

In the future, I plan on taking more of an active role in the decisions I make.

-- PARIS HILTON

As Americans, both Valerie [Plame] and I are grateful that justice has been served, reconfirming that our country remains a nation of laws.

We are also saddened for the pain that Mr. Libby has inflicted on his family, friends, and the nation. Mr. Libby benefited from the best this country had to offer: the finest schools, a lucrative career as a lawyer and many years of service in Republican administrations. That he would knowingly lie, perjure himself and obstruct a legitimate criminal investigation is incomprehensible.

It is our hope that he will now cooperate with Special Counsel Fitzgerald in his efforts to get to the truth. As Mr. Fitzgerald has said, a cloud remains over the Vice President.

Every official in this administration must be held accountable for their actions.

-- JOSEPH WILSON