A Suit Over A Suit (June 18, 2007)

Posted in Law, Society on June 18, 2007 by e-commentary.org

A suit over a suit.  Not by Bobby Bork this time.  By an administrative law judge in the District of Columbia who raised an issue in the courts that he should have taken up with his therapist.  He brought a much publicized suit over losing not his shirt but his pants.  He took the pants to be pressed and they were lost or mislaid.  The matter should have been resolved in a few minutes with a few dollars.  Something is wrong when the civil legal system cannot resolve matters in a much more just, speedy and inexpensive way.  Roy Pearson, the troubled fellow, is likely to do the American thing and appeal.

In the Scooter Libby trail, a dozen individuals allowed to teach at profitable law schools in America were paid handsomely by the Republican Party to say that Scooter is a hip White guy who should be allowed to go on the lecture circuit pending appeal and a pardon by Bush.  In his order allowing the boys to share their thoughts, Judge Reggie Walton notes in a footnote:

“It is an impressive show of public service when twelve prominent and distinguished current and former law professors are able to amass their collective wisdom in the course of only several days to provide their legal expertise to the court on behalf of a criminal defendant.  The Court trusts that this is a reflection of these eminent academics’ willingness in the future to step to the plate and provide like assistance in cases involving any of the numerous litigants, both in this Court and throughout the courts of this nation, who lack the financial means to fully and properly articulate the merits of their legal positions even in instances where failure to do so could result in monetary penalties, incarceration, or worse. The Court will certainly not hesitate to call for such assistance from these luminaries, as necessary in the interests of justice and equity, whenever similar questions arise in the cases that come before it.”

The Dirty Dozen include our friend Bobby Bork, Alan Dershowitz, Vikram Amar, Randy Barnett, Viet Dinh, Douglas Kmiec, Robert Pushaw, Richard Parker, Gary Lawson, Thomas Merrill, Earl Maltz, and Robert Nagel.  They should be appointed to handle the appeal for the Chungs pro bono.  However, that is the rub.  These boys will say or do anything, but they must be paid.  Appoint them anyway and hold them in criminal contempt if they fail to handle the matter.

Bumper sticker of the week:

Get a life

Et tu, Bobby? (June 11, 2007)

Posted in Law, Society, Supreme Court on June 11, 2007 by e-commentary.org

Et tu, Bobby?  Bobby Bork filed a frivolous lawsuit?  Tell me it isn’t so.  It is so.  So hypocritical and dishonest and unseemly.  His frivolous lawsuit is even a matter of public record.  In print.  In black and white.  You could look it up.  He actually filed a lawsuit in federal court.  And demanded to mulct the defendant for punitive damages.

There he was making the big bucks on the lecture circuit discussing the number of frivolous lawsuits filed in America each year.  Bork claims in his frivolous lawsuit that when he tried to approach the lectern, he found no stairs to climb onto the dais which was of “unreasonable height.”  The sneer quotation marks are his.  That’s a no brainier, as they say.  If it is unreasonable to act, don’t act unreasonably.  Don’t mount the dais.  Everything that happens from that time forward is Bob’s fault.

Bork was defeated for the Supreme Court twenty years ago.  He is one of the darlings of the Federalist Society which believes that too many frivolous lawsuits are filed each year.

The federal judge handling his case should show Bobby the respect he does not appear to show himself.  Put him out of his misery and shame.  Dismiss the lawsuit and address serious matters.

Bumper sticker of the week:

Stop Frivolous Lawsuits

Public Housing For Paris And Scooter (June 4, 2007)

Posted in Prison/Criminology on June 4, 2007 by e-commentary.org

America warehouses far too many Americans, particularly Black and Brown citizens, in prison.  However, there are some White hooligans who should be afforded some publicly-financed down time.  Sending a Black (or Brown) kid to prison has a negligible deterrent effect on the kid and on other young Black (or Brown) kids.  By contrast, sending one White guy to prison has a tremendous deterrent effect on the individual and on White society.  Sending a corporate executive, politician, lobbyist or inside trader to prison triggers tremendous fear, anxiety and reflection in the White community.  The sentence dominates conversation on the links and in the locker room.

Paris, the amateur porn star and celebrity who is famous just for being famous, earned a spot in the pokey.  Scooter is scheduled to be scooted off to the hoosegow, although Bush will pardon him.  Charles Colson, one of Nixon’s buddies, left prison committed to serious prison reform.  Perhaps the “Paris and Scooter Foundation” may undertake much needed prison reform in America (PSprisonproject.org).

While we are at it, Sandy Berger also should have done some down time for his theft of documents, but he too is White and well connected and well above the law.

Bumper sticker of the week:

If you don’t want to do the time, don’t do the crime

Memorial Day (May 28, 2007)

Posted in Society on May 28, 2007 by e-commentary.org

Silence is most appropriate today.  Maybe the sound of a flag waving.  Remember.

Bumper sticker of the week:

The Land Of The Free Because Of The Brave

The Immigration Imbroglio (May 21, 2007)

Posted in Immigration on May 21, 2007 by e-commentary.org

The outlines of proposed immigration bills include a provision to require those who are in the country illegally to return home before being considered for legal re-entry.  Of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants, is there a realistic expectation that even 10,000 would be fooled by this offer?  The desire to control a country’s borders is a reasonable exercise of sovereignty.  However, the border with Mexico will always be as porous as a colander.  Building the Berlin Wall on the border with Mexico is as ill-fated as the Berlin Wall.  Under any scenario, the Wall can only be constructed economically with illegal labor from Mexico.  As someone observed, if the U.S. builds a ten foot wall, those who seek to enter will build an eleven foot ladder.  Some will tunnel under the wall and others will saunter around it.

There are likely to be a million non-legal immigrants a year into the U.S. every year regardless of what is done or not done.  Trying to stem the tide of illegal immigration is akin to passing legislation ordering the tides to stop running.  The tides flow in and out with some predictability.  The tide of immigrants flows one way.  In 2008: 13 million total non-legal immigrants; 2009: 14 million; 2010: 15 million; 2011: ….  Some have said that the immigrants bring with them poverty; every immigrant group coming to America brought with them poverty–the British, French, German, Dutch, Russian, Italian, Irish, Polish, etc.  Americans are legitimately divided on the just solution and would rather debate the challenge.  At core, Americans are simply unwilling to admit the limits of legislation.

Bumper sticker of the week:

No Hoy Excusa La Violencia Domestica

Term Limits (May 14, 2007)

Posted in Politics, Term Limits on May 14, 2007 by e-commentary.org

Senators Byrd, Stevens and Inouye (and others) haul billions of dollars of pork to West Virginia, Alaska and Hawaii (and other locales).  Some say that the citizens of those states can exercise the franchise and limit their terms of office.  However, the citizens of these states want the pork.  The problem is that the citizens of other states cannot vote to get politicians from offending states out of office and away from the public trough.

Term limits are necessary to reduce abusive spending, among other public maladies.  Term limits of six two-year terms in the House and two six-year terms in the Senate balance the desires for institutional memory and new ideas.  The professional politician will be limited to two dozen years in the Congress.  The 22nd Amendment states in pertinent part that: “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice . . . .”  The consummate professional pol is limited to three decades ((2 x 6) + (6 x 2) + (4 x 2)) at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.  Most individuals focus their careers on either the House (Sam Rayburn) or the Senate (Strom Thurmond) and would be limited by these limits.  These limits are hardly restrictive, yet they provide some outside parameters.

Bumper sticker of the week:

Stop Repeat Offenders
Don’t Re-elect Them

Shop While They Drop – The $2.99 Sacrifice (May 7, 2007)

Posted in Consumerism, Military, Society on May 7, 2007 by e-commentary.org

After the events on 9/11, Bush suggested that the American populace should go shopping.  Not that they should sacrifice but that they should consume.  Not that they should give up but that they go get.  There is a deep disconnection between the American public and the troops in Iraq.  While a few fight, the rest shop ’til they drop.  They shop while the soldiers drop.  They shop for a “Support The Troops” decal, slap it on the back of the SUV and call it good.  The $2.99 sacrifice.

Bumper stickers of the week:

“…And they, since they/ Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs”

War is terrorism with a bigger budget.

We Will Get Fooled Again (April 30, 2007)

Posted in Supreme Court on April 30, 2007 by e-commentary.org

We did get fooled again.  John Roberts, under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee, stated that he would be an impartial umpire calling balls and strikes at the plate.  He mouthed support for the doctrine of stare decisis – the doctrine that when a court has once established a principle of law as applicable to a state of facts, the court will adhere to that principle and apply it in all future cases where the facts are substantially the same.  He pined for stability in the law.  Alito made the same representations.  Under oath.  They lied.  It is the American way.  The recent abortion case, Gonzales v. Carhart, 550 U.S. ___ (2007) is not substantively different than Stenberg v. Carhart, 530 U.S. 914 (2000).  An honest Supreme Court could have issued a one-page or even a one sentence decision citing the earlier precedent. Instead, Kennedy and kin disregard precedent, mistate the proper and settled legal standard of review, pat the little ladies condescendingly on the head, and do violence to truth and precedent.  Another day at the office.

Bumper sticker of the week:

I’m Pro-Choice About Everything

Violence In The Classroom And At The Court (April 23, 2007)

Posted in Guns on April 23, 2007 by e-commentary.org

Making sense of the slaughter at Virginia Tech is trying.  There simply are too many nuts who have access to guns.  Those who oppose efforts to control guns are single issue personalities.  The gun is the iron penis.  Any suggestion that there could be restrictions even on others who could cause harm triggers a primal response.  The unconscious fear of castration and emasculation trumps all other issues and concerns.  The Democrats cannot touch the issue except perhaps to require more reporting of mental health determinations.  However, when the criminals shoot the sheriff and the deputy, the cops and mayors may take action.  Another day on the streets.

Bumper sticker of the week:

Guns Kill People
People With Guns Kill People

Outrages Du Jour (April 16, 2007)

Posted in Race, Society on April 16, 2007 by e-commentary.org

Is Don Imus a racist?  Al Sharpton?  Jesse Jackson?  Some members of the Duke faculty?  Some editors and writers with the The New York Times?  The Washington Post?  The National Review?  Are the opinion shapers in America more racist and hypocritical than the general populace?

The “Duke Lacrosse Scandal” should go down in history as the “North Carolina District Attorney’s Office Scandal” or “Mediagate.”  Bad behavior that is not illegal is only bad behavior.  Victim’s names should be confidential; liar’s names should be made public.  The legal system only determines guilt or a lack of guilt; the statement by the North Carolina District Attorney that the kids are “innocent” is appropriate and courageous under the circumstances.  The Durham District Attorney, Nifong, should be disbarred and put behind bars, but he is white and a lawyer so he will get off with a scolding.  And if the three kids had been Black?  They likely would have joined tens of thousands of other Black males who have been sent to prison because they might have done something marginally distasteful to someone in power.  The prosecutors and police are often as dangerous as the alleged perps.  That is why there is a Bill of Rights.  It’s all so black and white.

Imus apologized.  This week should see apologies from the others.

And the War Against Women continues unabated.

McCain proved beyond a reasonable doubt that a United States Senator can walk furtively in the Green Zone in Baghdad if he is escorted by a hundred heavily-armed U.S. troops, dozens of Humvees and a covey of Apache helicopters circling overhead.  Some real military strategists such as Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut should be consulted on the issue.

Wolfowitz causes trouble everywhere he goes.  Wolfowitz used his position at the World Bank to get his girlfriend a generous pay package.  It’s time to go.

Lost e-mails?  More lies from the Bush Administration.  The technology may trap them.  Even the 18 minutes deleted by Rosemary Woods has been recovered. Bush will pardon Libby before Libby is sent to prison and anyone else subject to any criminal charges just before Bush flees the White House.  Criminal investigations should be developed now and no charges filed until after Bush leaves office.  Rove and his boys are cunning enough to anticipate the indictments. Bush could issue a blanket pardon to anyone and everyone who ever worked or now works in his White House.  Nothing is inconceivable.

The Supreme Court recently held, in another 5 – 4 decision, that the Environmental Protection Agency must protect the environment.  The health of the environment turns in part on the health of a Jerry Ford appointee, John Paul Stevens, who turns 87 on Friday.

[Kurt Vonnegut – “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.”  He pretended to be himself.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Never lose your sense of outrage