Alternate title: Watch "24" and the Terrorists Will Win!

I had a thought about this week's episode of "24," and Prof. Yin's concise summary of one plotline sets it up nicely:

Smarmy Will Cummings, chief of staff to the toady President Logan, has been unmasked as the mole who's been helping the terrorists unload lethal nerve gas. Turns out he fancied himself a patriot who wanted to help the U.S. by creating a WMD disaster somewhere else, which would strength the country's hand in going after terrorists. Former President Palmer's assassination and the deaths of the hostages at the Ontario Airport were just regrettable necessities.

My thought is, How different is this from the terrible and ridiculous Sept. 11 conspiracy theories that the White House knew of or planned the attacks? Something like this:

Smarmy [Karl Rove], chief of staff to the toady President [Bush], has been unmasked as the mole who's been helping the terrorists [hijack airplanes]. Turns out he fancied himself a patriot who wanted to help the U.S. by creating a [terrorist attack] somewhere else [like New York City], which would strength the country's hand in going after terrorists. [The atack on the Pentagon] and the deaths of [innocents on the airplanes and on the ground] were just regrettable necessities.

Now, I don't think the writers of "24" had this in mind, and I suppose that it's mildly more believeable that high-level administration officials would be willing to trade a WMD disaster overseas in order to "strengthen the country's hand."

But, first, it's not like we (the United States) have to create terrorist attacks elsewhere -- they've been happening on their own for a while, and will continue to happen without our help. So it's kind of ridiculous to think that Cummings would have to manufacture some kind of terrorism "event" when there are plenty of un-staged ones to choose from, including WMD attacks.

Second, is there any danger that well-produced and compelling shows like "24" will lead more people to believe in Sept. 11 conspiracy theories? (I won't even waste time debunking such ludicrous notions that President Bush directed those attacks, an idea which is about as realistic as my hope that Hugh Hefner will sign the deed to the Playboy Mansion over to me.) I know that most people can tell the difference between fantasy and reality, but could someone watch "24" and start to think that, Hey, maybe it could happen?

I don't really believe that "24" will make a Sept. 11 conspiracy theory seem more plausible, but it was just a thought I had after watching the latest episode. I'd be interested to see if any long-time viewers (I just started this season) have found themselves more willing to believe nefarious doings are afoot. Um, aside from any nefarious doings we already know are happening, that is.

Finally, I agree with Prof. Yin that the Audrey phone call subplot was laughable. It was so loony it almost made me give up on the show.

Via How Appealing, I see that the Supreme Court has issued a new order allocating Circuit Justice assignments. SCOTUSBlog and Orin Kerr at the VC mention it, too. Sadly, nobody cites my post from back in July about the Circuit Justice assignments. I published those thoughts in light of Justice O'Connor's retirement, and in anticipation of Chief Justice Rehnquist stepping down as well.

My post had this bit of conjecture: "Justice Kennedy would seem to be a natural choice for the Ninth Circuit, but he currently has the Eleventh Circuit, and it seems inconceivable he would be assigned to two circuits with such heavy caseloads. Perhaps Justice Thomas would take over as Circuit Justice for the Eleventh Circuit." And lo and behold, that's what has come to pass! I was prescient even without knowing who the new Justices would be. I rock.

Also, my post discussed the duties of the circuit justices, especially in relation to receiving stay applications from death row inmates. I suggested it might not be a coincidence that the most vigorous proponents of the death penalty on the Court were assigned to the circuits containing the most active death penalty states. This included Justice Thomas's assignment to the Eighth Circuit, containing Missouri. Under the new circuit justice allotment, Justice Alito gets the Eighth Circuit. This makes sense. There's no compelling reason for Justice Alito to get any other circuit, besides the Third, and one can imagine recusal issues there. But it also means that stay applications from the Eighth Circuit will first land on the desk of Justice Alito, and not the desk of someone like Justice Breyer or Justice Souter.

1. Dick Cheney's tie is not tv-friendly, at least on my low-def set.

2. Dennis Hastert is third in line to the presidency.

3. President Bush seems almost pleased -- well, amused -- when the applause only comes from one side of the aisle. To me, he seemed ready to chuckle at it. And then the Dems got him back by applauding his Social Security efforts being stymied. I thought the finger-wagging was a bit much, though.

4. During the portion of the speech devoted to the war on terror, Bush mentioned that it would "be fought by Presidents of both parties." I won't say which network I was watching, and it may have been a pool camera or something, but very shortly thereafter, they showed Hillary Clinton close-up. Subtle.

5. I think Bill McKay from The Candidate wrote the Democratic response. (The joke there is that McKay's slogan was "There's got to be a better way," and Tim Kaine kept saying "There's a better way.") The speech suffered both because Bush isn't as inept as Crocker Jarmon (although the smirks are similar) and because Tim Kaine is more reminiscent of The Rock than Robert Redford.

6. I like seeing Supreme Court Justices at the State of the Union speech, but I also kind of like not seeing them, too. I like seeing them out and about, but still acting like judges, and not just giving some q-and-a at some law school. It was also nice to see the warm greeting Homeland Defense Secratary Michael Chertoff gave his former colleague Justice Sam Alito. But I'm also glad to see that not all the Justices are present. One reason is security, of course. But another is the same reason that I'm glad to see the Justices not clapping or standing during any but the most banal applause lines: I like that the Justices (and, incidentally, the generals behind them) strive to appear to be nonpartisan. It's a nice touch.