I haven’t posted on the seizure because I’ve been waiting for more information. When a similar thing happened in June, 2004, it was over in a week. Fortunately, the UK has an embassy in Iran and talks to the government, which makes the resolution of these things a lot easier.

Thers of Whiskey Fire covers the wingnut reaction to an Andrew Sullivan piece, which basically said that the US treatment of “enemy combatants” could well make things rough on the Royal Navy and Marine people who were taken.

I don’t think the Iranians are going to mistreat their prisoners. Fortunately their batshit crazy president has no actual power, so the decisions will be made by people who are going to rub the West’s nose in the fact that an Islamic country doesn’t mistreat prisoners or hold mock trials, like the Shrubbery. Iran’s real leaders are looking for international support to fight the recently imposed sanctions over its nuclear program, and this would be a golden opportunity to demonstrate what an exemplar of a peace-loving, law-abiding nation that Iran is. [I plead too many years reading Soviet agitprop.]

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Update: Ms. Goodling has some money behind her, because John M. Dowd, partner and head of the criminal litigation group at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, doesn’t come cheap. He has popped up in Iran-Contra, Resolution Trust, and investigated Pete Rose for Major League Baseball. Ms. Goodling graduated from Pat Robertson’s Regency University Law School in 1999.

The lead story at CNN [I guess they forgot about the white woman’s autopsy results]: Justice official to plead the Fifth before Senate panel

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A Justice Department official will refuse to answer questions during a Senate committee hearing on the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, citing her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself, her lawyer said Monday.

In a letter sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Monica Goodling’s lawyer said she would not testify because senators have already decided that wrongdoing occurred.

“The public record is clear that certain members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have already reached conclusions about the matter under investigation and the veracity of the testimony provided by the Justice Department to date,” John Dowd, Goodling’s lawyer, said in a letter to the committee’s chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont.

Yo, Mr. Dowd, if the Senators didn’t feel there was a problem they wouldn’t be holding hearings and voting on sending subpoenas. They don’t just get together over a nosh in the cloakroom and say, “hey, for giggles and grins, let’s investigate the Justice Department.” A Congressional hearing isn’t a trial court, it’s closer to a grand jury investigation, without the secrecy. They want to know if something is wrong, and by standing on her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, your client has indicated that she thinks there’s a problem, and that problem is a crime.

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Cat Daddy & Dr. Squeeky wonder about Media priorities.

Apostropher wonders about the exchange rate in Alabama.

Reuters states what everyone already knew: Dark chocolate is good for blood vessels.

Pierre of Candide’s Notebooks is getting a little cross.

Oh, the site was down for a short period this morning. Less than two dollars a month just doesn’t buy what it once did.