Iran in the news update.

Because my personal blog is the heart and soul of journalistic integrity, I need to amend my earlier ranting about how no one ever reads the New Yorker except pinko lefties like yours truly. (But see, the thing is, I assumed that my favorite magazine's audience must be limited to people like me- the NYer broke the Abu Ghraib scandal- Seymour Hersh again, I might add- and if you had read that article, or even a watered-down version, there would be NO WAY that you could in good conscience vote for an administration that condoned that kind of treatment of prisoners, or "created an atmosphere where torture was acceptable," or whatever. And yet they won a second term. Do you see what I mean?)... But last night watching the news, it became apparent that everyone from Rumsfeld to Ayatollah (Kumeni? Katani? Ketani?) knew of Hersh's article and had reactions to it (Cheney: "That's totally untrue. We want to avoid war in the Middle East, if we can." - umm.... Mr. Vice President, I hate to tell you, but... Bush: "I think we should trust what the Pentagon says about this issue, not some journalist." Umm... right. Trust the Pentagon when it denies that it is usurping power from the CIA etc? Over the reporting and fact-checking of a well regarded journalist? Ok. Ayatollah: "We will come down on the infidel with a firestorm of death." umm... Mr. Ayatollah, I feel your anger, but that might not be quite the appropriate diplomatic language, given the circumstances...)-

My husband who works in the entertainment industry, which is like the next office down from the "media industry," apparently, explained to me how these things work:
Noisette: "Whee! Yaay! I'm so glad people are reading the New Yorker! Who knew that the Ayatollah himself had a subscription?"
Husband: "Don't you know how these things work?"
Noisette: "....?"
Husband: "well, when a magazine like the New Yorker is about to break something, some big piece of news, they send to all the major news outlets sort of like a press release, explaining that they are about to break a story on such and such a date, and that the other news vehicles should do follow up reporting. That way, the story gets out, and the New Yorker gets credit, more people buy the New Yorker, and everybody wins."

Huh. So there you have it. Bush, Cheney and the Ayatollah are not New Yorker subscribers. The major newspapers and networks, however, are- or at least follow up dutifully on the press releases. Whatever- as long as some version of it gets out.

In other news (this just in!)- I'm currently avoiding revising my asylum brief. I try not to think about what will happen if I lose this case- but sometimes, like this morning, I can't avoid such thoughts. Let's see- what should I do if I lose my asylum case, and my client gets deported to his war-torn African country, to face god knows what (god DOES know what, and I know what too):

1. Become a nun. (super easy for a half-Jewish atheist).
   
2. Join the peace corps.
   
3. Go work for an asylum clinic full time and try desperately to redeem myself.
   
4. Become my client's bodyguard and protect him from the dangers he faces upon his return to his native land.
   
5. Find a job that requires intense, hard manual labor, so that I can come home every night physically spent and not have to think about what happened because of me.
   
6. Die.
   

Seriously, I am working as hard as I can on this (the present 20 minutes notwithstanding). And of course if I lose in immigration court I will appeal this sucker all the way up. But our judge has one of the worst records in the country for granting asylum- he only grants 20% of them, or something. Them ain't good odds. If this were the racetrack, I wouldn't bet on me. So there is a chance, a decent one, that we might lose. Oh god. I can't believe I'm the only thing standing between this man and deportation.

Don't get me wrong, I went to school for all those years and accumulated upwards of $150k of debt (seriously, folks) exactly because I wanted to do this sort of thing, have this sort of responsibility, have skills that can really help people. But sometimes, like this morning, I wish I could curl up on the floor and only have myself to worry about, y'know?