Killing her with Kindness?

have democrats stumbled (and the key word here is stumbled) onto a great strategy to defeat Miers? It seems that by having Senate Democrats come out and praise a woman whose only job qualifications are that Bush thought she did a great job on a duck hunting cabin case before he was governor of Texas has sent conservatives scrambling.

Maybe she is Souter II, or maybe she is Scalia II. We have no clue because she has never been a judge and her only policy driven legal writings were when she was Bush's WH counsel since 2004, when Alberto Gonzales left for the AG's office. But conservatives were expecting someone with a clear history of opposing Roes and a host of other conservative bugaboos (like ten commandments etc.) Bush knows he couldn't get such a nominee past the Senate without doing a Fillabuster showdown of epic purportions.

And it seems that the man whom Miers called the most brilliant man she knows realized that with his polling in the high-30s to low-40s, he had no capital to spend. However, the reaction from conservatives has been much more negative than liberals. Kos is hoping she is a Souter, while conservatives are crying cronyism. In my opinion, that ship sailed long, long ago fellows.

Instapundit, the leading conservative legal blogger has the round up:

UPDATE: More here. Perhaps they'll change my mind, but so far I'm underwhelmed.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Mark Daniels: "Another stealth nominee?"

GayPatriot has predictions.

Paul Deignan: "Harriet Miers is many things, but she is not a Constitutional scholar . . . She is an unknown and unproven functionary whose chief virtue is the one virtue that we must reject--a strong tie to a particular chief executive."

Baseball Crank: "Color me less than thrilled."

PoliPundit: "Miers is a cipher."

The ACLJ, however,loves her.

Rich Lowry: "After the Roberts pick conservatives swooned and said Bush doesn't care about 'diversity'; it's only high qualifications that matter to this bold, let-the-chips-fall-where-they-may leader, etc., etc. Don't we have to take all that back now?"

David Frum: "An unforced error. . . . nobody would describe her as one of the outstanding lawyers in the United States."

MORE: GayPatriot's predictions are already coming true!

Meanwhile, Thomas Lifson thinks that this is a brilliant sucker-punch thrown at the Democrats. But even if that's true, that doesn't make Miers a good pick. In fact, if I really thought that this pick was motivated by such tactical concerns, I'd be appalled, but I think that Lifson is being a bit too clever here. [LATER: Further googling has convinced Lifson that he's wrong. Good!]

John Hawkins: "George Bush's decision to appoint Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court is bitterly disappointing." Not that there's anything wrong with having supported Al Gore in 1988 . . . .

What troubles the social conservatives is the fear that Miers may not be a social conservative. That doesn't bother me, of course. But I don't see what she brings to the table. Granted, you could have said that about other Supreme Court picks who turned out to be great justices. But you could have said that about a lot of other Supreme Court picks who didn't turn out to be great justices, too.

Meanwhile, this won't comfort social conservatives, but it doesn't comfort me, either:

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had urged the president to consider Miers, according to several officials familiar with Bush's consultations with Congress.

Hmm. (Via Jon Henke, who rounds up lots of other interesting stuff). More on Reid and Miers here.

AnkleBitingPundits (formerly CrushKerry.com): "Ugh. This is what we fought for?"

Bush may have managed a Perfect Storm here. Democrats will still want to beat him on Miers, because they always want to beat him. Republicans may be happy to see her go down, too. So who, exactly, is going to get her confirmed? Harry Reid?

STILL MORE: Hugh Hewitt: "It is a solid, B+ pick.. . . The president is a poker player in a long game. He's decided to take a sure win with a good sized pot. I trust him. So should his supporters."

The Anchoress thinks it's rope-a-dope.

Social conservative Professor Bainbridge is deeply unhappy with Miers. Does that mean I should be happy?

Ed Morrissey: "I find this pick mystifying."

Meanwhile, the GOP just sent out this collection of endorsements -- and number 3 is Harry Reid. I smell some sort of a deal.

Maybe Reid is a genius, maybe the keeping the powder dry strategy worked. I think the real strategy was just to sit back and hope that the GOP destroys itself. It only took 12 years, but it seems to be working.

Delay is under indictment and sounding biter that he got dropped by his collegues; Frist is under investigation for a Martha Stewart-like move; Bush and Cheney's top political advisors are the chief suspects in a criminal investigation; and then there is the Iraq debacle and the Katrina debacle. Someone in Biden's and Liberman's offices are working up a plan to snatch defeat from the jaws of almost assured victory, I am sure.

Bush heart Abramhoff

Think the White House has distanced themselves from Jack "indicted" Abrahoff? Think again, Casino Jack has struck again in the wake of Katrina, even when a Bush appointee, whom used to work for both Abrahoff and US Representative Chris Cannon (R-UT) was put in charge of post-Katrina procurement.

If that weren't enough added insult to injury, Bush's reconstruction plan will give tax credits to these same casinos that Jack used to work for (as he privately insulted his Native American bosses in a racist fashion). Even the casino's can't figure out why they have it so good. "We're actually scratching our heads. We can't ever remember an instance of being offered a tax credit -- ever." said Alberto Lopez, director of strategic communication at Harrah's Entertainment Inc., which lost two major casinos on the Mississippi coast. "But just because the casinos did not ask for the investment write-off doesn't mean they won't take it. "Anything that the federal government can provide, obviously we'll take advantage of it," the official said."

Everything that should be ecnomic development and rebuilding the Gulf coast is seen in as a possible handout to special interest, regardless of what is good policy. According to the Washington Post, Democrats and Republicans alike in congress are upset by "Federal Emergency Management Agency's $5 billion effort to purchase 300,000 trailers and mobile homes, despite record-low apartment occupancy rates in the states just beyond Katrina's reach."

Big government Conservatism

Faced with a humanitarian crisis mostly of his own making, last night President Bush offered the same solution he has given to every other problem: throw lots of money at it. The amazing thing is, Republicans used to be the party of fiscal conservatism, and Democrats the party of tax and spend.

Then Clinton ran on (thanks to Perot) fiscal conservatism, and balancing the budget. That was so early 1990s. Nowadays, Bush can't spend fast enough. Hundreds of Billions every month are spent on Iraq, and the security situation has hardly improved. I haven't heard much about the water supply or electricity or schools or oil, but if you can't go outside without worrying if you are going to be blown up, what's the use in all those things?

Bush has never vetoed a single bill let alone a spending bill. Spending has increased dramatically since the halyclon days of the Republican Revolution of 1994. Sure 9/11 greatly effected spending, but tax cuts and the Iraq war were both voluntary and a big chunk of that. Don't forget the massive farm and transportation bills, so stuffed with pork that it puts the gigante burrito I ate the other night to shame (but at least I got a free desert for finishing it, where is US's free desert). Same goes for the energy bill and the prescription drug bill, more corporate welfare for hundreds of billions.

And the Federal government under the GOP feels just fine in spending this money to tell people not to smoke medicinal mary jane, even if your state says it is ok, or to clothe Justice, or to keep emergency contraception behind the counter (despite its own medical panel saying otherwise), or trying to keep alive a brain dead woman, or to prevent research on human blastocysts to prevent diseases. In short, the GOP government is happy to step into your home, your bedroom and tell you what you can and cannot do.

Oh and don't forget the tax cuts for the rich during an elective and non-elective war, gotta have those.

What happened to the Libertarian Republicans of old? Who didn't try to bribe various voting blocs into supporting them? Who wanted to make government as small and unobtrusive as possible? What happened to those Republicans that wanted to balance the budget and get rid of departments, instead of creating new ones?

They only surfaced when Katrina's price tag game in, and Rove decided the best way out of the political mess was to exponentially increase it. "They will for get our screwups when our political allies have contracts to clean the mess up," thought Karl. Cronyism abound, but that is not what spooked the GOP congressmen, it was the price tag. And not the amount, but that the largess wouldn't extend to their districts and states. They are fine with boondoggles that take money from blue states and redistribute it to red states, but heaven forbid that everyone pay for one ravaged area.

It seems they misunderstand the purpose of government. It is not a tool to give money and jobs to your cronies, or to reelect you, but rather, it is a system by which society demonstrates its values through actions. Americans have said that we value the hard work of our elders, and would be happy to make sure they have adequate health care and income in their later years. Americans have said that poor children shouldn't go hungry at school. Americans have said that children shouldn't go uninsured just because their parents can't afford it. Americans have said that discrimination, whether by race, religion, or physical impairment should go punished no matter if the offender is a person, corporation, or state. Americans have reached out with our blood dollars, clothes, food, and homes to those effected by Katrina. We all want to help. We don't want to segregate those who have survived, we don't want to slash their wages while they try to repair their homes. And we certainly don't want people to make profits off of all this suffering, especially when their only claim to this profit is that they were roommates of some guy who is a big donor to the President.

Photo of the day

courtesy of Wonkette



This is a note from President Bush, to Secretary Rice during a UN meeting. I hope he had to get one of those keys they give you at gas stations with a brick attached.

My question for Roberts if I was on the Committee

Senator Oldenburg: Judge Roberts, why am I here? Why are you here?

Roberts: Senator, I don't understand your question.

Oldenburg: Well, franking Judge Roberts, I don't understand your answers, or should I say non-answers. Why are we wasting our time here if you feel free to take the 5th and only answer questions that are politically safe?

Roberts: If you feel that this is a waste of time Senator, we should just have the vote now.

[chuckles in the room]

Oldenburg: You wrote the book on giving evasive answers and non-answers, yet your scant record contains lots of troubling issues. You dismiss them by pretending they aren't your opinions but then feel free to pretend your politically beneficial work does reflect your views, which is it? Why don't you feel compelled to explain if and how your views have changed in the last 20 years?

Roberts: Senator, I don't feel it is appropriate to comment on cases that might come before the court.

Oldenburg: And you are the arbitor of what might or might not come before the court? it seems like every "live" issue you fail to discuss with us happens to be one which are politically sensitive to say the least.

Roberts: My job here is to...

Oldenburg: and my job here is to advise the president on whether his nominee is proper for a lifetime appointment to the chief justice of the Supreme Court. And you are being supremely unhelpful to put it kindly. Our job as Senators is not to rubber stamp this president's nominee, but to thoughfully consider you and give the president our advice on what to do with you. That's what President Washington did. That's what President Clinton did. Why is it so difficult for you answer our questions?

Roberts: I feel compelled to prevent what I say here from prejudicing the outcome of future cases.

Oldenburg: Assuming we confirm you. Look, I am tired of the this Kabuki theater. We all know what is going on here, you have the votes to be confirmed, but maybe not to get out of committee if Senator Spector here grows a conscience. I will tell you right now Judge Roberts, I intend not to vote for you. I don't need to pretend to ask you tough questions and you don't need to pretend to answer them any more. I give up.

NYC dems are a joke

How can you out number the other party somehwere approaching 75-25 and still repeatedly lose the mayoral race and the governorship? New York City Democratic Party will show you how. It is a mix of race-baiting by folks like Al Sharpton, late and divisive primaries, terrible candidates, and moderate to liberal NY Republicans.

The Congressmen from the city and environs are more concerned with lining their campaign coffers and their district than helping get a majority in the House. The local office holders are happy to be corrupt or to make a GOPer look good as long as it makes their primary rivals look bad.

Yesterday, the NYC dems had their primary for November's mayoral election (that's right, the second week of September) and the guy who was the losing nominee for past two or three times barely got 40% if at all. The local congressman who was running has been pressured to concede, even if he can't by law. So their might be a fake run off. Meanwhile billioniare Mike Bloomberg is willing to spend or do whatever it takes to win (after all, he used to be Democrat, but didn't want to go through the primary and kiss the rings of folks like Al Sharpton) re-election.

It looks like Democrats will finally recapture the Governor's office, seemingly the first time since Rockafeller. Of course, it takes a TIME magazine Man of the Year. If only the Utah Republican Party was so inept, Democrats would have the governor and maybe two congressional seats.

Questioning Roberts

I had the idea that the law school might be interested in watching the confrimation hearings of Judge Roberts, so I asked to reserve a room and broadcast CSPAN off the internet. Yesterday, I had 10-15 people. Now today, when there are actual questions by voting members of the committe, I only have 7. I think it is because of all the techical difficulties I had yesterday.

But still how can only 7 students care about the next potential chief justice of the sumpreme court, who will in all likelihood sit as chief for the next 30-40 years.

As sad as that is, even sadder is the softball questions of every republican save the chairman of the committee. I wish partisanship would not trump senators pursuit of their rights as members of the senate. Demanding that the burden be on the 8 democrats and not on Roberts, demanding that his resume and the appointment alone is enough to confirm him.

Roberts seems to be giving a Constitutional Law lecture for several hours now. He sounds like a conversative con law professor. He is wailing against Kennedy's use of foreign law in such cases like Rooper. He is obviously extremely smart, but I don't know if he is in the mainstream. But I am tired of the "questions" that really are compliments.

Utah, Katrina, and Racism

I am happy to report that my summer clerk friend and Tulane Law student Ethan will be in two classes with me as a visiting student at the law school here. It is good to hear that he is alright and will only be 3 weeks behind the rest of us.

Other evacuees in Utah are not stationed in as nice a place as their parents' house in Sugarhouse. A few hundred or dozen folks have been placed at Camp Williams, a desolate camp near point of the mountain. That's right, near the Utah state prison. Another fun fact is that as far as I can tell, they are all African-Americans. Is it a coincidence, I doubt it. If something like this hit Orange County, I fee the response would be totally different

For many, it was the first time seeing mountains and it will be the first time seeing snow if they are stuck here that long. Some will stay here, either because they are LDS and see it as a sign, or because they have nothing left and no where to go. I am sure they are greatful to be out of the flood waters and not stranded on a freeway overpass, or trapped in the Superdome or Astrodome or Convention Center. However, if I read one more feel good piece about how they all love it here in Utah, I am going to tear up the newspaper. Many don't know where their family members are. It seems officials have done a good job of late of finding hospitals and other places to take care of all these overwhelmingly poor, overwhelming Black survivors of Katrina, but they have done a piss-poor job of writing down WHERE they are sending WHOM.

People's family's will be separated for far too long because of incompetance. In this day and age of the Internet, how can it be that people can't find out where their grandmother is?

Of course, the media coverage has taken a turn for the worse, because now they just paste in whatever a "unnamed senior white house official" told them, regardless of facts and they can't even get into the city under Presidential order. This is pure damage control, shifting the blame onto state and local officials who were overwhelmed by the disaster from Federal officials who shouldn't have been.

The Bush White House is good at one thing and one thing only: campaigning. Everything else they do is squeezed into their campaign mindset. Every piece of legislation is a campaign platform, promise or spin. Every time the president speaks, every where he goes, it is a staged photo-op. Who cares that the national guardsmen are needed to save lives, the firemen to put out burning homes and businesses, the president has to look like he is in charge.

There is no accountibilty for these people except for elections, and in case you forgot, they won in 2004 and can't run again. So there is no incentive to do anything but cover their own butts with sham investigations and blame shifting. This is the second time in 4 years that people died because of their campaigning instead of governing. And this one had much, much more warning.

a photoshoped picture says a thousand words

via boing boing

A loss for words

I don't feel I have any place to write about the Hurricane that has destroyed New Orleans. I could go on about the Bush Administration's incompetence and lack of leadership. Or about how it is a bigger dent in the economy than 9/11 was. Or about the racial and class issues about how the city was evacuated.

I would rather talk about my wife's old AP US History teacher and Church Choir Organist George (and our church organist), who is trapped in the Sheraton down there because he was at a College Board conference. Or about my friend Ethan whom I met this summer clerking who went back to Tulane Law 3 weeks ago. Or my dad's ex-law partner who taught at Tulane and his house was 8 blocks away from one of the leavies that broke. I have seen online that many schools have graciously let law students visit their schools for the semester. I just hope Ethan and his French wife are ok, and from the email I have read, my dad's old partner is ok, but financially devistated. Or that George is coming through ok.

They are the lucky ones. Their body isn't floating in the flood waters. They weren't trapped in the Superdome. While the Tulane professor has lost his house and won't have a job at least a semester, he has shelter and has been in contact with friends and family.

We may see more deaths from the water-born diseases that come from unsanitary water and massive flooding. This really is the definion of disaster. It is a glimpse of what the people of South East Asia experienced last winter with the Tsumami. God bless all those souls in New Orleans and in the South East Asia.

Clark is back

Over the course of a week, Gen. Wesley Clark has emerged as the only possible 2008 voice out there besides Sen. Russ Feingold. Not surprisingly, both are talking about Iraq. Feingold is demanding troop withdrawal by 2006, which despite sounding tough and making certain folks in the blogosphere happy, is really a non-position. Why? Because Bush Co. is going to get out of there by this time next year anyway, even if the country dissolves into civil war (a realistic prospect these days). After all, they don't want to risk GOP control of congress. Not for a little thing like the stability of the Middle East.

Clark has spoken out on Darfur on NPR, wrote a blistering Op-Ed on Iraq in the Washington Post, and appeared on Meet the Press in the ex-Generals panel all in the course of a few days. This week, he is the guest of honor at TPMCafe, he is traveling to Feingold's home state of Wisconsin, and spending several days in the state that doomed his presidential bid last time, Iowa. Make no mistake, this man is running for President again. And he is going to run on Iraq. He is playing to his strengths by being able to talk about ethnic conflict and getting allies together and foreign policy. If 2008 ends up being about immigration, or energy policy, or health care, it will be hard for Clark to make headway. But if Iraq continues to be issue #1 on the minds of Americans, his success in Kosovo could be an asset that would be hard for primary voters to pass up.

The most interesting thing for me watching Meet the Press yesterday was not to hear what Clark had to say, because I knew what he would talk about. The behind the scenes part of the panel was watching how his fellow retired Generals took to Clark and his thoughts. You could see some resentment that he had such a spotlight; you could also see doubts in their eyes, believing that Clark was saying what he said to appease Democratic primary voters. Some were still fresh from the spin zone of the Bush administration, so they still believed the poop that is the Iraq planning smells like Roses. Others were aghast that Clark said that the Generals in the E-Ring were complicit disaster that is the Iraq war plan. It seems that the harder Wes would criticize Bush's Iraq, the more his colleagues would concede that things were going badly.

I support Clark because every time I think about Foreign Policy, and come up with where I stand, I discover that Clark is on the same wavelength. Only he says it much better. Clark is back, with a vengeance.

This takes me back

The Deseret News has a story about how SLC Mayor Rocky Anderson got tons of email for his anti-war stunt. Its seems like only yesterday my MA State Rep. boss was getting spammed from all over the nation and all over the world. Of course, most of the negative stuff were from Red States and most of email overall was not in her district. And at the end of the day, all she really cared about were the out of state supportive ones and the in district ones.

Anyway here is fun graphic, which has the same trends as gay marriage.

The media's tunnel vision

Funny I didn't see this picture in the Salt Lake Tribune


Similiarly, I was sitting at the TRAX station across the street from the KUTV station (CBS affiliate) when a camera man and reporter came up to me. "Are you a student at the U?" The KUTV reporter asked. I told him I was. He asked why I took TRAX, was it high gas prices, parking, or the HIGH COST OF GAS? I knew that if I said it was the high cost of gas, I would be filmed and might get two seconds on local TV. But instead I chose to tell the truth, that we have one car and my wife needs it for work and choir practice. As a result, not filmed. The reporter wants to do a story on how much the high gas prices are effecting students and others, but screening this way gives you preordained quotes and story line. As a result, people will think it is a bigger problem than it really is.

Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed

The Third Avenue's book of the day:


No, this isn't a joke. It is a scary children's book that conservatives are supposed to read to their children so that they will forever be in fear of government regulation of business, business taxation, separation of church and state, etc. First they go for Enron and Bob Jones, next thing you know, they after Timmy's lemonade stand.

I wonder when "Help! Mom! James Dobson Is Under My Bed" will come out. Here is my plot summary: Two consenting adults are about to engage in pre-marital sex, and Dobson pops up to stop them. When the couple is gay, Dobson gets out his gun. When the couple's brain dead daughter is on life support, he blocks the daughter's husband from pulling the plug, even though the daughter asked him to do so.

I guess living in Utah has made me a libertarian that occasionally sees the value of government to prevent our fellow citizens from screwing us over: (insurance companies, big oil, big pharma, televangelists/megachurches, the hyper-rich, etc.). The government's regulation should stop at my bedroom, however, unless I am raping, robbing, murdering, or molesting someone.

hat tip to Political Wire

VFW attendees want the troops to come home soon

"I'd like to see him get it over with and get our veterans back home," Korean War Air Force veteran Cartatl Parrott said. "I don't want to see it drag out like Vietnam or Korea." "They ought to not leave there until the new government is in place," Parrott said. "But it seems like it's dragging on a little slow."

Desert Storm veteran James Stewart, of Ohio, said he supports the troops serving in Iraq now, but "I don't necessarily support the war."

Other Veterans parroted Dubya's talking points. "If George Bush had done nothing after 9/11 we'd be fighting the war here right now," Vietnam veteran and Utah VFW member Michael Parks said. Lyn Dimery, a Vietnam War Air Force veteran from Murrells Inlet, S.C., said he supports the president and feels the world is a safer place now that Saddam Hussein has been removed from power.
"It's better for us being there and getting one," he said referring to the ongoing hunt for Osama Bin Laden. It's the classic trait of many war supporters, getting Ossama bin Ladin and Saddam Hussein confused and conflated. Gee, I wonder why so many do that. It's not like the Bush Administration tried to mix the two.

"Update" Bush spews the same old lines on Iraq for the 10 billionth time. When does he get his free groceries?

UPDATE-- Channel 4, the ABC affilate (and not the NBC affilate that is owned by the LDS Church that finds Saturday Night Live offensive enough to not broadcast it) is refusing to air an ad by Cindy Sheehan's group. Paul Dayton has the story.

Bush photo caption contest

Rove carries Bush's baggage, this time to SLC.


The only non-veteran in the room begins his lecture on war.


Your turn.

Kos et al v. DLC

I for one am so tired of the same old left wing vs. DLC fight that happens about every summer. In the old days, it would be a "The Nation" Op-Ed or a DLC "Memo" that started the food fight. Now a days, it is a post or article online by Kos or MyDD or the DLC.

Each side spins the other's arguments into completely unpopular views that would be political losers. I don't think the party should oppose Bush just because it is a position that Bush took, and I know running to the Chomsky left will not win us national elections. However, I think the stunning display or timidity displayed by folks like Biden and Kerry is frustrating. The pro-war Democrats, particularly the Senators, are having a hard time doing anything besides critiquing the administering of the war, which is too wonkish for Americans to really get.

We shouldn't be discussing the lack of post-war planning, the inadequate number of troops, the looting and disappearance of small arms and munitions that are now being used to kill and maim our soldiers. Those issues where important in 2003. But two years later, Iraq is a disaster. The Iraqis in charge right now don't want us to leave, because they won't be in power in the real Iraq that immerges. Talibani (the Kurdish leader who is PM/President of Iraq, not the Afghan Muslim extremists) has been sabotaging efforts to train and equip the Iraqi army, because Bush and others have said once the Iraqi army can do it alone, the US will get the hell out of Dodge (or Baghdad). The rest of Iraqis can't wait to see us go. The Iranians have been loving every minute of this war, now that a weakened US military won't bother to challenge their virtual takeover of Iraq whom they bitterly fought in the 1980s. This is the Shah’s Revenge.

Democrats need to talk about change, and incompetence in the sense that the GOP has made us less safe by going to and bungling Iraq. We can't just pull out completely immediately, but we can't hang around until January 20, 2009, when a more reality attached president takes charge.

Specific Dates aren't a good idea, but specific events are good times to reduce troops. Like after the constitution is ratified and after elections take place. I don't think we will want to be the Islamic Republic of Iran...I mean Iraq anytime after that anyway.

The DLC and its leadership are obsessed with not repeating the debacle of Vietnam, when Democrats were right, but lost horrifically for years to come. Vietnam was a mistake or many reasons, one of which was that we didn't understand that we were involving ourselves in a battle for independence from Colonialism, and we got on the wrong side. Iraq is war more like Yugoslavia, and one which we created by destroying Saddam's pitiful military and administration. There are three major ethnic groups that were thrown together for the sake of an oil pipeline, and had no history of getting along prior, unlike Yugoslavia. Because it is the desert, these ethnic groups were not as exposed to each other and not used to living and governing together prior to the British drawing all the lines in the sand and appointing despots left and right.

In college I studied the Kurds, and I thought at the time that the best hope for Iraq would be like creating a confederation of 3 semi-autonomous states with relations to the national government like Candada to Quebec, except with insted of upset French Candians obsessed with their culture dissipearing, you have murderously power-hungry religious and ethnic factions who believe they have they exclusive view on the proper way to practice Islam (oh and don't forget the 3rd largest proven oil reserves). So, Iraq of the early 21st century is more like Europe during or before the 30 Year's War...except worse.

In sum, I think both sides are wrong to some extent. But there is no easy way out or solution to any of this. Nevertheless, declaring war on your fellow party members is silly and really won't do much besides elevate the level of attacks. Nobody's mind will change.

Political careerism shows no party lines

A bipartisan group of congressmen in California, led by Reps. Howard L. Berman (D-Valley Village) and John T. Doolittle (R-Roseville), worried that they might actually stand for election. The FEC has allowed them to raise unlimited soft money to combat Gov. Schwartzengger's redistricting ballot initiative.

California's congressional and state legislative districts are perfect example of what is wrong with the current system. There are ZERO competitive races in California except those that are state-wide races. Every single district that was carved out by the state legislature-- either for themselves or their congressional delegation-- are hopelessly partisan such that the only campaigns occur when the incumbent dies/retires/resigns in scandal and there is a pitched primary fight. Otherwise, voters can and do mostly stay home. This is why our democracy is in danger, because of greedy folks like Congressmen Berman and Doolittle (aptly named if you ask me).

I don't know if I support the specifics of Prop. 77, or the way in which signatures were gathered, but I do approve of removing redistricting duties from state legislators or other partisan and/or elected officials.

The only good thing I can say about Gerrymandering is that one Rep. way back felt the need to come up with the Bill of Rights to win in his Federalist district. But back then, redistricting was a brute alchemy. Today, with decades of computerized voting totals and computer projections based on race, income, marital status, church attendance, etc. these hacks can virtually guarantee a 10 year term for a 2 year office in the House of "Representatives"

The nutjob that never was

With the release of the pre-screened John Roberts files of the Reagan Administration, the Salt Lake Tribune noticed a familiar name was in the running for what became O'Connor's seat: Dallin Oaks, a then-Utah Supreme Court Justice and soon thereafter a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (which, like the U.S. Supreme Court, is a lifetime appointment).



"Bruce Fein, then an associate deputy attorney general, said people like Oaks and future nominee Robert Bork were researched, but they were second-tier prospects because of their gender." And remember how the GOP got all over Clinton for seeking out only women for certain appointments-- like AG, Supreme Court, etc.? Sound like another case of "you're OK if you're a Republican" or otherwise known as hypocrisy. "There weren't anybody but women considered virtually from the start," said Fein, "It wasn't any discredit to Dallin. Bork and [now-Justice Antonin] Scalia weren't in the running either because they weren't women." Bork, Scalia and Oaks in the same breath, you get the idea.

"All this prognostication that this would make Reagan a hero in the female community was absurd, and we ended up with a moderate, then a liberal" in O'Connor, whines Fein. "All those kind of wobbly, non-constitutional or extra-constitutional standards never would have seen the light of day, because she was a vital vote in those cases." I guess he is still bitter they let O'Connor get the nod over those "Constitution in Exile" folks who want to turn the clock back to 1937. O'Connor was a smart pick, there was no real way for Democrats to oppose her and she became the Defacto Chief Justice because of her political savviness. Any liberal progress in the O'Connor court has been lurching yet gradual. I have a hard time crediting or blaming her for launching a new era of Warren Court like liberalism. However, without her, Roe might have been overturned in 1992 with Casey and although she didn't author Lawrence v. Texas or Atkins v. Virginia, they wouldn't have happened without her. Padilla v. Bush also might not have happened.

I am doing a Lexis Nexis search (thanks law school) on his opinions pre-1984 and really focusing on the pre-1981 period, when he was under consideration. Then we can see why folks like Fein liked him.

another dissipointing weekend

So on Friday, we put in an offer above list price, and STILL lost the house by Saturday. I wonder how much more the other buyer offered, but I am sure they are overpaying. Still, in a way I am happy because I want to be able to get a place on my own without so much financial dependance on our parents to make up the difference between what the bank will finance us for and what we have to offer to get the place.

Even worse was the places we looked at on Saturday, a tiny condo facing a busy highway that leads to I-80/215, a small house on 1st Ave that looks like it was 1950 since anyone stepped inside it. I guess I need to come face to face with my poverty and general craziness of the housing market, but still. Every day that goes by without sucess makes me sadder and sadder since that means I will have to live at my parents for that much longer.

Not that they are terrible, but once you hit a certain age, living with your parents becomes an incredibly annoying and stressful experience, particularly when you have experienced living without them and then have to move back home.

I Raq N Roll

Our T-shirt of the month (hattip to Atrios):




Clint will be the featured singer for the DoD's jinoistic May Day Parade...I mean "America Supports Freedom Walk" on the 4th Anniversary of 9.11.01. Freedom, according to the Neo-Con chicken hawks, means giving your full name and telephone number to the government to do a background check to walk with others from the Pentagon to the National Mall to hear right-wing country music star Clint Black.

You can count me out. I walked for Freedom when I strolled into my polling location on November 2, 2004. I guess not enough of us did because now we have four more years of these jokers in charge.

Deja-Vu all over again

It's the dead of August. The DC press is bored because there is nothing to do in the District, and the President's "ranch" is in the middle of nowhere in a dry town. He is taking the longest vacation in over 30-some-odd years.

Bush's poll numbers are well below 50%, people are wonder why they voted for the guy. They don't believe the guy more and more. Democrats are talking about regaining Congress in the mid-term elections next year.

Really it could be the year 2001 or the year 2005. The only difference is this year, we have a woman camped outside his compound whose lost her son in Bush's war that has gone increasingly South. With no end in sight and nothing to do, the press talk to Cindy Sheehan. The right wing noise machine attempted their tried and true Swift Boating. But it seems cheep and biter on your average citizen, and not a public servant or a candidate for office.

Maybe I really can buy into all the talk of the implosion of the Bush-Cheney machine. They have indictments on one of their biggest assests on K Street, whose linked to several powerful members of Congress, including the House Majority Leader. You have the likely indictments of Bush's "brain" and Cheney's "right hand man" in the fall, and it all circling back to the increasingly unpopular War in Iraq. Their are hints that the Plame investigation links back the temporary U.N. Ambassador and the manufactured causus belli for the War.

I can only dream of a Cheney '08 campaign. Almost any Democratic Nominee (maybe even the hapless Kerry) would stomp him into a Dukakis-like drubbing, by running against the Bush-Cheney record the VP's amazing ability to be on the wrong side of a policy decision almost every time throughout Bush's presidency. A close second dream GOP nominee for me would be Bill Frist, the Senate Majority leader tied to indicted vote suppressor in New Hampshire. Frist is also famous for flip-flopping on which GOP interest group he panders to most, the business lobby or the religious extremists. Dr. Bill has also been a terrible Majority Leader in terms of actually getting the president's agenda through the Senate and making his GOP collegues look good. Tied for third place would be Sen. Brownback and Rep. Tancredo, who represent the extreme Right-to-Life and anti-Immigrant wings of the GOP, respectively.

NARAL is NA-wrong

There is something about Roberts that spooks me. Maybe it is deep blue eyes, his smile, his youth, and his hidden ideology. In his 2.5 years on the DC circuit bench, he has done a great job of keeping his head down and following in Reinquist's footsteps as GOP political hack to Supreme Court Justice.

Even though I am basically pro-choice (because I believe in the right to privacy), there are many things I disagree with NARAL. This TV ad is one of them. First of all, on style: it features a lady who was bombed at an abortion clinic talking about how her life has changed etc. but her quotes say nothing about John Roberts. The whole thing is super tenuous.

Why is NARAL making such a ridiculous ad? They figure if the religious right is so excited about Roberts, he must be radically pro-life. And him preparing an Amicus Brief for Operation Rescue makes one rightfully think there is something to NARAL's guess.

We would all be better served if the White House would just release these papers and we could get a better picture of what Roberts really stands for, rather than just guessing based on associations (Federalist Society, Operation Rescue) and side legal work (LAMBA Defense League). Because right now, it looks like he is pro-Corporation, wildly pro-life, and yet pro-gay rights.

On J. Golden Pond

Well reality drove home Saturday afternoon when my parents arrived home from their weeklong vacation. Now it is clear that we have 4 people living in the house with 3 cars and 3 jobs.

We took my mom with us on Sunday to look at a place. I have to say that we are good detectives. First some one told us the previous owner died of brain cancer. But on our second tour of the condo, I noticed a Rx bottle on the floor. On it was the person's name and what used to be in the bottle. When we got home, we learned that the medication was for depression and that the previous owner died of non-Hodgkins Lyphoma about a year ago (we found the obituary). We also now know she had two cats, which to the renovator's credit, you can't smell. She sounds like a great lady.

Overall we like the actual unit, with a nice location, good size (1530 sq. ft.), 2 beds , 2 baths, and over all nice appliances etc. The major downsides are that the HOA fees are high for seemingly no purpose (nearly $200 with no pool etc.) and that the exterior of the building needs lots of work. My bet is that the two are related. So it is still in the running, but we have some serious doubts.


Why the title? Utahns and LDS church members will know that J. Golden Kimball was the "swearing elder" who lived in Utah from the day the Mormon Pioneers came into the Salt Lake Valley until 1938. On Sunday night, my wife and I volunteered at KUED for those telethons. I was one of those schucks answering the phones. It was actually quite fun because we were placed with irreverant Barnes and Noble employees and friends and we got a free dinner and tour of the studio. But the show "On the Road with J. Golden Kimball" was the last one to play and it brought the money pouring into KUED. People love the folk stories of "Uncle Golden" as told by his grandnephew Jim Kimball, who died last May of brain cancer (see how it ties together with the condo?). If even half the stories are true, Uncle Golden was quite a funny man and good figure for the church that has a reputation for taking itself too seriously.

I hereby gladly accept any and all J. Golden Kimball stories in this comment thread.

Out-Reagan

The cult of Ronald Reagan is too wierd for me. Before he was even dead, the House of Representatives were tripping over themselves to name stuff after him. Now Rep. Bonilla wants to renaming 16th St. in Northwest DC after him.

Did Democrats back in the day trip over themselves to name stuff after JFK and RFK? If so, at least they waited until the body was cold.

(Hat tip to AmericaBlog)

Sub-urban America

Channeling my favorite bit from Billmon:

I try to remind myself that not all Americans live in Clermont County [OH, county that gave GOPer Jean Schmidt her suspiciously late and recount proof margin over Democrat and Major Paul Hackett]or its vanilla wafer clones in the great suburban outback of GOP America. Maybe some of them still care about trivial things like lost wars and dead soldiers. Or maybe not. Maybe it takes something like $10-a-gallon gas -- or the mass abduction of young, pretty white women -- to get anybody's attention in this bizarre post-industrial shopping mall we now live in. Because at the moment, death, destruction and imperial humiliation a third of the way around the world still don't seem to be cutting through the fog.

Whisky Bar is always a joy to read. To me, he seems like Ed Kilgore's separated-at-birth twin. Only Billmon became a cursing liberal Democrat, and Ed became a witty Third Way-er. Both can write brilliant lines with ease and have personalities to match their prose.

Somedays I wake up and wish it was all a dream, that our President wasn't George W. Bush, and he hadn't been reelected and John Kerry hadn't been the nominee. It is just amazing to think of how different things would be if Al Gore or Wesley Clark were president instead. I guess it wouldn't fix suburban America though, with its miles and miles of strip malls filled with oversized portions of food, people, and vehicles.

Needless to say, I am still searching for a place in the city.

redistricting reform

Why is this important?

Did you realize that over 95% of Members of Congress are reelected with ease every year? I can tell you right now, it is not because over 95% Members of Congress are great Representatives, it is because the system is rigged.

Fewer than 30 districts out of 435, about 6 percent of the entire House of Representative will be competitive (i.e. the winner will capture 55-60% of the vote). Although the US Constitution sets out 2 year terms for Members of the House, in reality the terms of office for most members is at least 10 years.

Why? Because every ten years, local politicians in every state decide how to divide up their state into Congressional districts. The results are either incumbent/party protection-- like California and New York-- or purely partisan gain-- like North Carolina and Texas. The result is the elections of extremists, increased partisanship and decreased voter turnout.

There are only a few constraints with redistricting-- the districts must be equal in population size, and the districts can't be based on the race of the residents/voters. The courts have no problem with creating districts based on partisanship, leading Republicans in Texas to re-redistrict in 2003 after they made won some more seats in the state house. And now the source of the funding for those Republicans is under criminal investigation. Despite this, Democrats in states like Illinois and New Mexico contemplated re-redistricting their states.

Enough is enough. We can stop politicians from picking their voters by pushing through common sense reforms state by state. Ballot initiatives have already started in California and Ohio. Add your state to the list and bring representation back to the House of Representatives. Let the voters pick their politicans, not the other way around.

(cross-posted on Let The People Choose)

Close but...

Sorry for the long absense from posting. We have subsequently had several close calls on getting a condo but for one reason or another they fell through. This Saturday we moved out of our apartment and into my parent's basement with the help of my great friend Evan.

It is a bit sad to be back to the place where I lived in since 4th grade with no hope of our own place anytime soon. There appears to be almost nothing in our price range that is halfway decent near downtown/the law school.

Meanwhile, my summer job is winding down even though I will be staying on for the school year. I wonder if it will change a lot when the out of state clerks go back to school or when the graduated and bar examed law clerks get shoved out the door.

Tribby busts another Mormon myth

No, they didn't need to bother with the "Mormons have horns" or "Mormons have 10 wives" bigoted "myths," but instead the Salt Lake Tribune focused on the claim that the LDS church is the fastest growing church in the world. It's conclusion: false.

Today, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has more than 12 million members on its rolls, more than doubling its numbers in the past quarter-century. But since 1990, other faiths - Seventh-day Adventists, Assemblies of God and Pentecostal groups - have grown much faster and in more places around the globe.
And most telling, the number of Latter-day Saints who are considered active churchgoers is only about a third of the total, or 4 million in the pews every Sunday, researchers say.

The 4 million number comes from counting the people on the Church rolls for every continential region and multiplying by the average Sunday attendance. In the early 1990s, Canada, the South Pacific, and the United States had between 40 percent and 50 percent. Europe and Africa, the average was 35 percent. Attendance in Asia and Latin America hovered around 25 percent.

This sounds like Missionaries are having a tough time keeping converts converted, or at least keeping them active in the church. Experts in the article say 70-80% are lost. Never the less, don't feel bad, there are more mormons than jews, and Judism is a major world religion.

The times they are a-changin'

The lead story in today's Salt Lake Tribune on this holiday weekend (for those of you who aren't from Utah, today is Pioneer Day, the day Brigham Young and his troops of Mormon pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley with President Young proclaiming from a stretcher that "this is the place!") is that the LDS population in Utah, while growing is getting outpaced by non-LDS folks moving in/multiplying in state.

Within the next three years, the Mormon share of Utah's population is expected to hit its lowest level since The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints started keeping membership numbers. And if current trends continue, LDS residents no longer will constitute a majority by 2030.

To me, this story sounds strangly like those "Whites will be in the minority in California by 20XX" stories, with the same undertone that such an event is something to fear and not welcome.

I think having LDS folks in the minority in this state will only bring good things, and not because I dislike mormons, but because it will ease the stereotypes about the state and about the religion itself. Everytime someone meets me from out of state and I tell them I am from Utah, the first question they ask is: "Are you Mormon?" Maybe some day it will be "Do you ski like every weekend?" or something less centered about the dominant religious group of this state.
According to Church membership documents only 62.4% of the state's population is LDS. That is a lot lower than I have been telling friends from out of state (I thought it was 70%), but it doesn't mean Utah will become a cosmopolitan any-where USA state any time soon.

Professor Tim Heaton, who studies LDS demographics for church-owned Brigham Young University, says the county numbers probably come from church membership rolls, and that between half and one-third of those people are not active in the faith. If that's true, then, at most, 41.6 percent of Utahns are church-going Mormons.

This gradual change does mean that my children will grow up in a much different place than I did. And maybe Pioneer Day won't be big-to-do it is these days.

GOP Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr. (who is LDS) believes this will have political implications down the road as well-- believing that people of the LDS faith vote Republican and non-LDS vote Democratic. "We will become more balanced between Republicans and Democrats eventually," he said, which he later added was a good thing of which he has always been supportive. This is why Jon Jr. has one of the highest approval ratings of any governor in the nation right now. That and people in this state hold a great deal of respect/deference for authority.

This article is the shocker opening article to a series that the Trib will be doing through Tuesday. I think I will be reading them carefully. Very interesting stuff. Like how the fertility rate has nearly halved since the 1960s in this state-- 4.3 to 2.6 kids/woman makes me think many LDS women are either secretly using birth control, or they are gaining more say over the family than they did 40 years ago. Stay tuned.

Photo of the Day

credit: Joan's Lewis & Clark Geek Page/DailyKos

I am sure this was just a party gag, but when you get your picture wearing a button like that, which is making a false statement about something that has prompted a Grand Jury investigation with Special Prosecutor...It ain't all that funny anymore. Especially when you are posing with the rotting corpse who started the whole mess. I have seen Novak in person, and he really is a short, giagantic headed, nastly fat, old white man.

Don't those two make a pair though? They sure deserve each other, as goes CNN and Novak for their little lovefest and spiral down the tubes. It feels like it was only yesterday that they were a respectible world leader in 24 reporting. Now...they are Fox News, Jr. At least CNN international is like the CNN of old, only with more caring about the world around the US. Personally, if I could swap the two without going to super fancy cable, I would.

radar jamming Roberts

The Bush Aministration still has a few tricks up its sleeves and the MSM is still lazy and dumb, or it just seems that way. Rove's wrecking crew pretended several O'Conner-esque judges were in the running, including syncophant Alberto Gonzales, but then pulled out the old standby: a classic "Stealth Nominee."

John Roberts is a partisan political hack who has movie star good looks, youth (50 years old), stellar resume, and most importantly, no track record. Yet the American Taliban must know something the press doesn't since they are pleased with this pick, saying repeatedly that he is Scalia/Thomas II. This guy clerked for Rehnquist, wrote George Bush I's amicus brief pushing to overturn Roe for a case where the landmark case wasn't even at issue. He was part of the BC2000 Florida recount legal team, he wrote amicus briefs in support of "Operation Rescue," the hyper-pro-life group that is one step removed from abortion clinic bombers like Eric Rudolph.

We need to pressure the media to cover both Roberts' "secret" life of a paleo-conservative and Rove et al's illegalities. To put it into cult TV show terms if "The West Wing"'s Josh and Bailey outed "Alias"' Marshall to score political points for the rush to Pres. Bartlet's war, 75% of Americans would say that is dead wrong and that Josh and Bailey should be in the slammer. And if CJ lied to Danny about it all, well same deal. Next imagine Bartlet and his staff deciding to float their secretly super-liberal nominee in sooner than expected after Josh and Bailey got in trouble with a special prosecutor. One would rightfully be skeptical about their motives and not let up just because the subject was changed.

But in the real world, our so-called journalists (TV-face-time whores) are like goldfish. "Oh look, a treasure chest!...Oh look, a castle!...Oh look, a treasure chest!"

tired of waiting

Right now I am waiting until it is 6 o'clock and I can get off work. So I can wait to see if my copy of Harry Potter has arrived 4 days late (thanks Amazon), so I can wait a week to find out how to add/drop courses for next year. Before that, I get to wait until Bush announces his Supreme Court nominee, so I can wait for the information and nomination process, so I can wait for Patrick Fitzgerld to counter the distraction by handing down grand jury indictments on folks like Karl Rove.

And then I can wait to find the perfect house/condo, so I can make an offer, and wait to find out what the buyer thinks, and then wait until closing. So I can live in a cramped basement apartment on a month-to-month basis, or move back in with my parents.

When I was younger, I kept hearing people telling me to wait until I was older, and I still feel like I am waiting for something, until I am done with law school, until 2008/impeachment, until whatever. Well, as someone who was diagnosed with ADD as a child, I can't stand waiting (any longer). Some say life is a journey. I am begging to wonder if it isn't just a line at the DMV.

a growing niche job

It is amazing to see how bloggers have become a normal high-level position to fill in big campaigns. In just a few years we have gone from novelity to must-haves for part of the communications and fundraising wings of campaigns.

I am pleased to know at least one of them: Matt Stoller. In the summer of 2003 he was a blogger extrodiniare and Clark Draftee. By the summer of 2005 he is on his second major campaign as blogger. First, he worked for Simon Rosenburg in his big for DNC chair, now he is working for Sen. Corzine in his bid for NJ governor. There are others like him. Folks like Tim Tagaris, who works for GrowOhio.org a pre-Senate grassroots site for US Rep. Sharrod Brown (D-OH) and a PA US Senate candidate whose name I have trouble spelling. He also blogs on SwingStateproject and all the other major democratic blogs.

Of course, I am sure Webmasters used to be a new fangled thing, but now a serious campaign couldn't imagine not having a website, even those running for city council. And before that, it was the TV guy or the Radio guy or the Telephone guy (they were all men I am sure back then).

What will the future bring, and am I too late to get on the blog consultant bandwagon? By the time law school is over, I won't have much of a chance to get on board at a high level of a campaign that is national. Maybe a state-wide one in my beloved state of Utah, but even there I may be too far behind the curve. Still, I always love sharing my thoughts with you all and getting some input.

As an aside, if you have any public interest law topics you would like to speak in public about to the U law students, please contact me. Or if you have any suggestions for events, also feel free to contact me.

Quote of the Day

From the New York Times: "After his conversation with Mr. Cooper, The Associated Press reported Friday, Mr. Rove sent an e-mail message to Stephen J. Hadley, then the deputy national security adviser, saying he 'didn't take the bait' when Mr. Cooper suggested that Mr. Wilson's criticisms had been damaging to the administration."

The bait huh? So I guess Karl wasn't "correcting a false report" like his defenders say he was. Sounds like he was hoping some idiot member of the MSM would pick up his lie and say something like "But Senior Administration officals insist that Amb. Wilson was sent on the mission by his wife, Valarie Plame, a covert CIA operative." There goes that talking point.

long time no update

Dear faithful readers,

I appologize for my week-long absense from the blogging world. My newly minted wife and I have entered the world of real estate while simultiously trying to move out of our apartment. We have made one offer already, but then thought better of it and are now contemplating making an offer on another place. I will be sure to send you all photos if we do. I have returned from my honeymoon and began to dive back into motions gallore at the District Attorney's office.

Meanwhile, the vultures are starting to circle in closer on Karl Rove and the rest of the Bush White House. People are beginning to realize that they do not care about national security, only about how their policies appear to the American voter. They do so by deamonizing their enemies, making them seem what BushCo. really is: weak, politically-centered, poll-driven, and willing to do anything to win an election, even if it means putting people's lives at risk (military and civilian).

Even more dangerous than jeparizing the lives of Vallerie Plame and her contacts to scare off future intelligence community whistleblowers, in my opinion, was the announcement of an important Al Qaeda arrest shortly after the Democratic Convention in the summer of 2004. Prof. Juan Cole points out that this announcement to the world that certain information givers on Al Qaeda had been compromised and stunted a British investigation into cells in their country that were likely involved in last week's bombings of Central London. This was no "accidental leak" like Karl Rove's to Bob Novak and Matthew Cooper, this was a press event by then-DHS Sec. Tom Ridge, who wouldn't have tied his shoelaces without Rove's, and ultimately George Walker Bush's, consent.

How dare they wrap themselves in the flag, dress up in uniforms, and pretend they have our country's best interests at heart? How dare they call veterans like John Kerry waffling political opportunists, career civil servants like Richard Clarke and Joseph Wilson partisan hacks, when it they are only describing themselves?

This is the most politically divisive, inempt, lying, politically-motivated, partisan thugish Administration since Nixon's. And in someways, they surpass that group of criminals. The Bush folks don't give a damn about abortion, gay marriage, or anything else religious conservatives care about, they just pretend to care because a solid 35% of voters do that they can decieve religious conservatives into voting for these morally corrupt individuals.

The more I think about what they are doing to our county and to our relations with the world and our citizen's safety, the madder and more sickened I become. Read this Op-Ed from General Clark to see how it should be done.

Something every group can hate

What's that? A hate/stereotype filled reality show called "Welcome to the Neighborhood" that ABC just canceled under pressure from all sorts of groups. Rare is the day when the FRC (Family Research Counsel) and GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) are united in their dislike in the characterizations on the same show.

FRC hated it because it made their clientele- Rich, White, Religious Conservatives from Red States- come off as moral bigots. GLAAD disliked how the FRC-types found the gay couple on the show's affection for another "disgusting."

Hispanics were mocked as overbreeding animals. I don't know what things they had in store for the black family, or the pierced family, or the family with a Wiccan, or the family with a stripper.

"Why should people of color and others ... be humiliated and degraded to teach white people not to be bigots?" said Shanna Smith, president of the National Fair Housing Alliance. "That's not good for race relations in America."

What's really not good for race relations in America is how semi-self-segregated our country is becoming. Why is it that this neighborhood is filled with White people? Why is it there are Black neighborhoods and Hispanic neighborhoods and Gay neighborhoods? Why is it that schools over the last several decades have become as segregated now as they were pre-Brown v. Board of Education? Do Americans of different sorts really not like each other that much? Is the melting pot really a salad bowl? Or is it due to the widening gap between rich and poor, between the suburbs and the inner cities?

Studies have shown that when people call about housing with a "black voice" or a "gay voice" they get different responses as to the housing's availability than if a "white voice" calls (I am sure the same would happen for a "hispanic voice" or an "asian voice"). I would like to think that things really have changed a lot since the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 60s, but has it really?

Sure, ethnic and racial minorities (and openly out homosexuals) now have the ability to move into the middle class and upper management and to move into any neighborhood they please, the color lines are gone. But yet, you still don't see very many truely diverse neighborhoods in Suburbs or in cities like Chicago or Washington, DC.

Debasing shows like "Welcome to the Neighborhood" to me show that we still have a long ways to go in the battle for civil rights. Even a coalition of GLAAD and FRC can't make that ugly fact go away.

US SJC betting pool

From my cousin Nick, a lawyer who has clerked on the Federal Bench:

Since there is no basketball, football or hockey (and baseball bores me to tears), I thought a Supreme Court pool might provide some entertainment.

Five dollar entry fee. Seventy percent of pool to winner, twenty to second place and ten to third.

All entries must be received by Monday, July 11. Checks can be mailed to address below. Winning votes not supported by a check are not winning votes.

Entry must contain one name for the current opening as well as a calculation on the Senate confirmation vote. (Closest vote tally will break a tie among those who submit the same name.) Filibuster is an acceptable entry, but the filibuster must hold until the end of the calendar year.

To start things off, my entry: Judge Luttig and 70-30.

If any readers are want to join the pool, email or comment with your "bet" and I will send you my cousin's postal address.

Personally, I don't know if I have five bucks plus postage, but I am going to go with 10th Circuit Appeals Court Judge Michael McConnell (57-43). He is as consistantly conservative as Clarence Thomas, but as clever as Antonin Scalia. Rather than appointing a yes-man like Gonzales, Bush would be smart to appoint this Utah Law professor.

back in the USA

well I am back in the good old USA and UT and back to posting after weeks abroad and wedding fun. Soon I will put up a few of the nearly 600 pictures we took on the honeymoon in the meanwhile, i will just say that I am glad to be where there are nice bathrooms with toilets that flush and suck the waste water away, showers that are separate from the bathroom floor and pillows that are firmer than a wet towl. Oh and I am glad to not be surrounded by chainsmokers and to experience air conditioning again.

Other than that, I loved our trip and Europe. So much tell, I don't even know where to start, so I will just go on to the topic that has been spiralling in mind since I saw it on CNN international: O'Conner's retirement.

The true chief justice's retirement was in step with her usual political savvy. Bush is going nowhere but down from here on out. It is better to leave now while she can still get a GOP justice replacement who will be sitting in her chair for another couple of decades than try to hang on through the next Clinton administration or which ever Democrat wins in 2006.

To me, this is the worst case scenerio. Rehnquist's retirement really wouldn't have changed much other than prolonging the 5-4 tenative social moderation majority. But O'Connor was THE swing vote on so many critical social and political issues. Justice Kennedy has taken notes from her recently but O'Connor always seems to find herself in the 5 of a 5-4 decision.

I think this Gonzales talk is a smoke screen but he is a scary choice because of his puppetness to GWB.

Ethan Berkowitz for AK Gov...and last post for a while

First things first: I would like to Endorse St. Rep. and House Min. Leader Ethan Berkowitz to run for Governor of Alaska.

Berkowitz (D) filed the paperwork for a bid 6/13. Berkowitz: "What made me decide is every journey has to start somewhere, sometime and there's no time like the present." Berkowitz has been min. leader since '99 and a state Rep. since '97. He said many constituents encouraged him to run since he returned from the '05 session. Berkowitz: "People kept coming up to me and asking if they could contribute and they can't contribute until I file a letter of intent." He said he plans a listening tour around the state to hear from the public, which he says has been largely ignored by Gov. Frank Murkowski (R). Berkowitz: "There's a lot of promises that have been made that have been broken." He also said the GOP majority hasn't maintained fiscal discipline in spending the state's oil surplus (Inklebarger, AP, 6/14).

I have interviewed Ethan when I worked for the DLC and found him to a smart, honest, and fairmined person. He has innovative ideas to lower greenhouse gases to Kyoto Protocol Levels in a state that loves to drill for oil. [please read it, it wrote it] And amazingly enough, he has a good shot of winning. US Rep. turned Governor Frank Mulkowski has been a disaster, and his daugther just bearly got elected Senator last year.

He went to Harvard for college, Post-Grad at Cambridge (Masters of Philosophy, Polar Studies), his law degree from UC Hastings and was an ADA for the Ankorage District Attorney's office. He clerked for the Alaska Appellate Courts, and was an Enforcement Officer for United States Antarctic Program.

As an aside, this is my last day on the job for awhile and the last time I will post for awhile as well. Perhaps I will post from Europe, but I doubt it. The wedding and honeymoon stuff are really heating up so I will need to devoke more time to helping out poor wife-to-be with this big production. To all of you who are coming, we can't wait to see you and enjoy the weather.

Monday's Quote of The Day

Quote of the Day (Hotline's Last Call!): "Perhaps at some point Howard Dean and Cheney will realize that they're not so different after all, like Maverick and Iceman."

California and Michael Jackson deserve each other, as well as OJ Simpson and Rodney King.

The soon to be in-laws have just arrived. Wedding Week has officially begun. As much fun as it will be, I can't wait until its all over. Too much stress.

Earth to Joe Biden

I guess Biden wants to be the Joe Lieberman of 2008. He will be the pathetic, beltway C.W. candidate that is shocked that real people don't like him as much as DC pundits do.

And why do they like Biden? Because he sounds serious, is/was chair of an "important" committe, foreign relations, and makes good copy by canibalizing his own party members.

Look, readers of my blog know I am not a great fan of HoHo, and that I thought he shoots a bit too much from the hip. But there is no need for a safe senator from the blue state of Delaware to critique, nor is there one from a never contested super-liberal district in San Francisco (paging Minority Leader Pelosi). If it was Ben Nelson, I would understand. Or even Harold Ford, Jr. I get, but Joe "MBNA" Biden?

The majority of the GOP's base and elected officials are white and christian conservatives. There is no two ways about it. They get lots of support from Cubans, but that is about the only minority supporters and elected they have besides a smattering of African-Americans and non-Cuban Hispanics nation wide.

I hope this brings in big bucks for the DNC like all the people on DailyKos and MyDD say it is, but those places are filled with Deaniacs and the echo chamber twists your perspective.

So I end with this: Joe Biden, you will fail miserably and like Lieberman only win Delaware if you run for president. No one likes you in the party. You are a blow hard. Why don't you just retire so the council on foreign relations can hire you and you can pontificate to people that care to hear self-important pompuous know-it-alls? And then on the side you can lobby for your beloved credit card companies and banks that are impoverising and endebting the nation.

Oh and Delaware annoys me, get rid of that terrible toll bridge.

The most unbelievable lie of the day

CoinGate: the scandal the keeps on ticking in Ohio. For those who do't know what is going on, GOP appointees invested state pensions and other taxpayer money into rare coins and other memorabilia which "just so happened" to be owned by a major campaign contributor to OH and and National GOPers (including Bush/Cheney 2004). Of course, the coins lost lots of money, and President Taft's great-grandson looks like he is done with politics, whether he wants to be or not.

"'For the second time in two weeks' a memo surfaced that contradicts when Gov. Bob Taft's (R) office said they learned about investment losses at the OH Bureau of Worker's Compensation. Ex-bureau admini. James Conrad (who recently resigned) had informed the GOV office in a 10/26 memo that the loss was as much as $225M. Taft exec. ass't for business and industry James Samuel 'recalls receiving the memo...but said he did not forward it to Taft,' but Taft spokesperson James Rickel 'couldn't say why.' Taft 'didn't learn the full details' until 6/6. 'The governor is 'disappointed' that Samuel didn't share the memo' and plans to create a 'special liaison' to the bureau to 'inform him of day-to-day issues.'" (Niquette/Hallett, Columbus Dispatch, 6/9).

Great! So they will waste more taxpayer money and get another politcal appointment out of a sham job to continue the lie that the governor had no idea what was going on.

This story is great because Mr. Noe (the coin collector/fundraiser/contributor) has lots of connections to 2006 OH Gov candidates like Secretary of State Ken "conflict of interest" Blackwell (R), who was at the center of the Ohio recount that never was. The Toledo Blade has been leading the pack on this story from the get go, but the Dispatch is a more influential paper. Here's the Blade's version of the story.

Most embarrassing headline ever

" What's up with Hispanics? Learn Spanish and find out Ogden Standard-Examiner.

I know the author means well, but the whole thing comes off as ignorant white Americans. After reading the article, it gets better:

A few years ago, I attacked Utah's pathetic "English as the official language" bill and got a pile of letters that were, to be frank, racist. Writers saw the bill as a way to prevent Hispanic gangs and illegal aliens, although it did nothing about either problem. If all else failed, the letters just ranted about "them."

But "them" are not going anywhere. Like my German immigrant grandparents, "them" are "us." That's America.

Indeed, I like the idea and tone of the article-- get to know another language and don't jump to racist stereotypes. But whomever wrote the headline needs to be slapped. Although I guess it did get my attention.

When was the last time I read anything in the Ogden Standard-Examiner? Maybe in 2002 for the coverage of the First District Race which I thought was going to be much closer than it was.

Proof that I was at the Red Sox Game too 

I have got the ticket to prove it. Don't try and copy this, they change the colors etc all the time. Plus, it is illegal. 

State of Utah v. Mark Hacking

Today was pretty slow, so all the law clerks who where there went to go see Mark Hacking, the man who lied to his family about graduating from college and Medical School Admission...which lead to him murdering his wife Lori, get sentenced this afternoon.

It was a very intense, emotional proceeding, with Mark's brother's and sisters and mother and father pleaing for his life, whiping away tears. Some of them were still in denial how their brother had constructed an elaborate web of lies, including studying for college and applying and getting into medical school.

Mark himself got up and said that "It doesn't matter if I get life [in prision] or less...I guess I deserve [a] life [sentence]." He appologized to Lori's family. He also admitted for the first time that Lori was pregnant and that he was a de facto double murder under "Laci's Law" but now of course it was too late for the death penalty. "She didn't do nothing but love me unconditionally, even when I didn't deserve it. She was the greatest thing that ever happened to me, but I killed her, and took the life of my unborn child and put them in the garbage and I can't explain whey I did it," Hacking said.

Lori's mother and step-mother really laid it into Mark (her father was OK and another male relative talked too quietly to hear, only the judge's mike was working) rhetorically asking "Did you love her when you lied to her about medical school, costing her money she didn't have to fly out to your fake interviews?... Did you love her when you shot her in the back of the head while she was sleeping? Did you love her when you threw her body and that of her unborn child in garbage bags and tossed them in dumpsters? Did you love her when you told the world that she was missing while her body and her baby's body rotted in the city dump for 2 months?"

Lori's mother regailed us with all the things people had sent her, all the calls and letters, and emails she has gotten, how Mark has thrust her into the national and international spotlight. The tensest moment of the whole day came when she turned away from the judge and looked Mark dead into the eyes and asked, "How could you do that, Mark? How could you do that to me?" "I'm sorry," Hacking replied, dabbing his eyes.

The judge sentenced Hacking to the maximum 6 to life, but in reality he won't even see a parole board for 25-30 years. The judge will recommend that, which is pretty standard for 1st degree murders. In all likilhood, Hacking will never breathe free air.

It was an interesting experience to sit behind Salt Lake Tribune reporters and watch them fill their notebooks. Here's their version of what happened.

T-minus 12 days

So my lack of posting is for a reason: I am busy at work and then when I get home I have to dedicate myself to aiding my bride as much as I can in finishing up wedding planning. The event is occurring in 12 days as you might of guessed.

Some other things are also on my mind however. And so in no particular order and in typical roving mind manner, we begin with my weekend roundup.

What's said in Vegas, should stay in Vegas: "Half of you will fall asleep, 25 percent of you will drift off into some sexual fantasy, and the other 25 percent of you are going to pay attention."-- Rep. Jim Gibbons (R-NV) on giving a speech after lunch, Las Vegas Review-Journal, 6/6 (By the way, this man is running for Governor and Sen. Reid will only lukewarmly endorse the Democrat per the non-aggression pact.)

And what's with the Media's obsession with white women? I feel like we are back in the day when all of western society was built around trying to "protect" white women from men, especially black men. Women of other ethnicities and races go missing every day, but they don't get round the clock coverage on the cable news networks. But Chandra Levy, Laci Peterson, the Runaway Bride, and that woman lost in Aruba all do/did. There is a more subtle version of racism today than in turn of the last century, but this coverage just shows that our society hasn't progressed as much as we would like to think it has.

Either that, or the media thinks this is what we want to hear: Michael Jackson trial coverage, a lost middle-class white woman, and political "balance." To me it shows just how out of touch and arrogant the media have become, especially with the memory of the last bit of real reporting-- Watergate resurfacing with the name of Deep Throat.

On to Political Balance. Many have said, and I agree, that if Watergate had happened today (Bush had ordered a snooping on Terry and Kerry with idiot goons and gotten caught) that Bush would not have the same fate as Nixon. One reason is the media is filled with the Right Wing Noise Machine, GOP loyalist who will tout talking points to save their party figurehead and not the principles of their party. Another reason is that the GOP controls congress and it would take a long time for those clowns to get off their duffs and investigate the crime. A third is that Bush has a lot of more charisma than Nixon ever did.

And really this is so true because in my opinion sending our nation off to a optional war based on lies and deception is much worse a crime than trying to bug the DNC and then trying to cover it up (and is certainly much worse than having oral sex with an White House intern). When will congress investigate WMD-gate? When will the media care? Well again the problem is that they are co-conspirators/willing accomplices in the whole mess (paging Ms. Miller).

Memorial Day at Fenway, can it get any better? Well, maybe if the Red Sox would have won. Aren't these seats killer? 

most of the rest of team groom at the Sox game. 

That's right, a ten gallon drum of MSG in plain view on Comm Ave. Not going to eat at that resturant. 

No we didn't drink all that, it just feels like it. 

Pitch'n'putt golf. A nice transition for me from mini-golf to the real thing. NIce glove, Jacko! 

SoCo with Lime, day 1 

Nice try Bishop

Rep. Bishop is trying to score a fast one on Rep. Matheson for those in the press that don't pay attention. Bishop and his CoS claim that Jim "may oppose a bill that would give the state a fourth congressional district." Bishop "senses Matheson may be against redistricting" because it could allow a GOPer to win his cong. seat. Bishop's CoS Scott Parker: "I don't think anyone should base their support or nonsupport of this bill on the potential makeup" of one Congressional District.

Gee, when has Jim ever said he opposed it? More generallym, how is one Rep. from one party "sensing" a vibe from another Rep. from another reliable news?

Matheson Press Sec. Alyson Heyrend says Matheson "has always favored" UT having a fourth seat in DC.

The new district lines would be determined by the UT Legislature, of course, something I am personally against. (All quotes thanks to Schwebke, Ogden Standard-Examiner, 6/3).

Bachelor Party

photos to come but in the meanwhile, let me just say that I need to detox for a long time before I go and do something again. Everyday in Boston was filled with action: pitch'n'putt golf, BBQ, Red Sox, bowling, bar hopping, and a U2 concert.

All of my friends who made it were terrific, especially my friend from high school who flew on the way out there on a terrible schedule to be with me and 3 guys he didn't know. I know the other two groomsmen who couldn't make it out there wanted to be there and had serious comitments.

So big hearty thank you goes out to everyone and I will just need to sleep it off somemore.

Scenes from bumblepalooza

The President Tuesday "Participated" in a "Social Security Conversation" in New York saying, "As you -- as I mentioned to you earlier, we're going to redesign the current system. If you've retired, you don't have anything to worry about -- third time I've said that. (Laughter.) I'll probably say it three more times. See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda. (Applause.)" (emphasis mine)

Boy, I couldn't come up with it better myself. Great Fruedian slip there Mr. President.

real reason for judicial "compromise"

All the puindits thought the senate was headded towards armagedon, so of course a compromise was reached minutes before Frist was about to begin the show.

The activists on both sides think this was a terrible cave in by their party's senators, but I really think that document isn't worth the paper on which it is written. It is filled with self-defined phrases and hollow promises on both sides. I would like nothing better than to have the whole Senate vote down Owens and Brown.

So why did this "compromise" happen? Was it James Dobson's pressure, the strong arm of George W. Bush/Dick Cheney, People for the American Way? In my view, it was none of the above. It was big business.

With religious conservatives pet peeve consuming weeks of the Senate calendar and Democrtats threatening to shut down/slow down everything but appropreations, the business community was worried about bills important to them dying a slow death. CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Agreement), Asbestos tort reform, Immigration reform, Social Security "reform," health care reform for small businesses, pension "reform," and a whole host of other bills are primed to be passed in the senate under the normal rules and procedures. But if a lone Democrat objected to a uninamimous consent rule, the whole place grinds to a halt.

One look at the US Chamber of Commerce site shows that judicial appointments are no where to be seen. They already have plenty of pro-business GOP-appointed judges on the bench. In fact, about 80% of the current federal bench was appointed by a Republican president.

To me, this whole incident just shows who is really in charge of the GOP. They may do big show events for social conservatives, denying Plan B for over the counter use, talking about a "culture of life," gay marriage constitutional amendment, Terri Schavio, Stem Cells, and Judical Nominees, etc. but given their complete control of the government and large majority of the judiciary, why haven't they overturned Roe, passed the constitutional amdendment, banned all stem cell research, etc? It is because business pays the bills. Social conservatives may provide the votes, but the real money is in being a business lackey.

All those Senators in the "mushy middle" who signed on to that judicial "compromise" I bet also voted for cloture on the bankrupcy bill. I bet many of them are also signed on to many of business' legislative priorities, like free trade, asbestos reform, immigration reform, health care reform, and pension reform. I haven't done the research, but I would love someone to prove my thesis wrong; but I bet they can't.

Bulworth=McCain 2000

Was it just me, or did that movie really seem like the blueprint for the senior senator from Arizona? I mean, other than the whole rapping/black thing, I think it is basically what Weaver advocated.

The whole "I'm a reformed corrupt politican who is going to tell it like it is" really works well. I am not saying that McCain took out an insurance policy on his life or said things nearly as inflamatory as fictious Sen. Bulworth (R-CA) but the whole similarity thing was striking.

I am thinking of this because Warren Betty seems to think that if Arnold can do it, why can't he? After all he played a politican in a movie. "I'm an opponent of (Schwarzenegger's) muscle-bound conservatism with longer experience in politics than he has" Betty told Reuters.


As an aside, I love that song "Ghetto Superstar" from the soundtrack.

T-minus 28 days

Soon, I will no longer check that "single" box on my W-2s. For guys, things don't change that much, especially for those who are used to wearing rings on their fingers. I don't have to go down to the Social Security Administration to change my name, along with a dozen other places. I don't have to buy a dress or anything either.

While the bridal-industrial complex is engulfing my soon-to-be-wife this afternoon, I am off to see Episode III with a friend I have had since 4th grade (and I've known him since kindergarten, when he and another kid named JC Foster destroyed my He-Man thermos, which meant war of course) who is going to be a groomsmen and join me in Boston for the revelry next weekend with the other members of Team Groom.

The weather of late has been like Boston last year: erratic. We have had rain, snow, rain, and then 70+ degrees days in a row with sunshine nonstop. Not that I am complaining. This state still has the best weather for seasons of anywhere in the world.

The winters are pretty mild, the average temp is around 30-40 degrees with lots of snow to make it worth your while. The falls are great and last from September to October/November. Spring is not as muddy and overcast as others I have experienced and towards the end (April/May) it can be quite lovely. Summer is hot but doesn't get to the hundreds until late July and August usually. And remember, it's a DRY HEAT.

I am wondering if 2005 will be like 1983 in Salt Lake, when I remember sandbags and bridges over State Street because of all the excess run off. I haven't seen this much precipitation in Utah since then, and my memory is pretty hazy because that was back in the He-Man days.

Work is going well. Everyday I get a new motion or memo to write, and I get to learn what a motion in lemine is or whatever. Doing research now has a point, instead of make believe people we worked for in our Methods class. Now I work for the taxpayers of Salt Lake County and the victims in that case. My senior law clerk who is showing me the ropes has to go in for another Elizabeth Smart hearing soon. I wish I could go and hear that nutbar sing. Even though she tried to explain it to me, I still don't get why they have to let him sing every time and not just have him be present via closed-circuit TV. That way he can sing all he wants and not disrupt the proceedings, which is what he really wants to do.

Only in New York

Some Hillary can lose to the same state (NY) as a presidential candidate (albiet narrowly, within the margin of error) that she trouces in her Senate reelection bid. There's even a Giuliani cross over where he wins NY electoral votes but she gets the senate seat. Somehow, I doubt that will happen. Then again, it is a Fox News poll.

A Fox News/Mason-Dixon poll shows Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) trailing both GOPers ex-NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani (46%-44%) and Sen. John McCain (42%-41%) in WH '08 matchups among NY regis. voters.

The Fox News/Mason-Dixon poll shows Clinton defeating 4 possible GOP '06 SEN opponents: Giuliani (53-43%), NY Gov. George Pataki (59%-36%), Westchester Co. DA Jeanine Pirro (60%-24%) and Nixon son-in-law/atty. Ed Cox (58%-25%) among regis. NY voters

And you call yourself a conservative?

Our quote of the day"I've never read the Bible cover to cover; maybe I should have."-Sen. Rick "Man on Dog" Santorum, New York Times Magazine, 5/22 issue.

The next most endangered GOP Senator this cycle is Conrad Burns of Montana, who "led all 535 members" in donations from Jack Abramoff and the tribes, "netting at least" $136K from '01-'04. As Bureau of Indian Affairs budget panel head, Burns "had a say" in the funding to tribal casinos. Yet he screwed over tribes in his home state over those represented by Abramoff.

The second highest recipient was Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) with $115K and then Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH), with $56K. So that's why I hate P. Kennedy dumb AND corrupt. I already knew Ney had no shame (the "only lawmaker to receive donations from both Abramoff and Scanlon"), but Patty K.?

Just because he is a Kennedy, it doesn't mean we give him a free pass.

Nevada governor signs 'anti-pimp' bill

"AB470, dubbed the "anti-pimp bill,"removes a requirement that an act of prostitution or pimping be corroborated by a third party to prove guilt. With the new law, a pimp can be prosecuted based solely on the word of the prostitute."

It's all the name of economic efficency. See, without the middleman sucking up all of the Whores' money, there is more money for Hookers to live off of and thus less need to sell their body to the night, to paraphrase Sting. Less sex means less chance of contracting diseases and less pimps means less abuse of the prostitute as well.

Now the only people she has to fear is pycho Johns, serial killers, and the police. Nevada is such an enlightened state.

SL Co. Tuition Reimbursement policy change

In keeping with my new standards of ethics, I am just going to copy and paste an email notice in it entireity that has been public knowledge for months and which I have previously discussed on this site:

The County Council has approved an amended "Tuition Reimbursement Program" effective May 23, 2005.
All applications for the program, as of that date, will be on a reimbursement basis as opposed to the current front end tuition assistance payment.

You still must submit your application for tuition reimbursement no sooner than 30 days prior or 30 days after beginning classes.

Applications currently submitted pending required documentation will be processed under the new reimbursement policy.

Bugman covers his bases

Maybe the Majority Leader knows the jig is up and it prepping to return to his old career. Or maybe it is just our quote of the day

"It's always good to know a trade" -- Pest Control Board's Murray Walton, on Tom DeLay completing 8 hours in training each year to maintain status as a "pest control technician" Thanks Austin American Statesman (reg. req.)!

first day on the job

So I don't know how it happened, but somehow I managed to get an awesome summer job that pays: a Law Clerk for SL County. So now I think cannot write about Yocum or Carroon or anything covered by county government because I am part of their legal team.

Also, I cannot talk about all the interesting stuff I see as far as cases and victims etc. But, I can say that the people are very nice, interesting and friendly. I am sure I will work hard but at least right now, I am so pumped and happy. I usually get too excited about a new job, only to get quickly cynical, so I will have to watch out for that. But right now, I am just so greatful to have such a great job.

Plus, I got lots of free stuff (mug, folder, pins) with my this logo on it:

And if that weren't enough, you have to see office supply closet. It is like Noah's Arc. I have great pens and wonderful choices of everything. My female collegues get pink notepads and purple post-its. And one of the out-of-state clerks (from U. of Tulane) is hooked on those rubber covers for your thumb to turn pages: "These things are like GOLD!" I am just happy to have a computer and cublicle near by senior law clerk. Lord knows I will need the help. "Have you taken Crim Pro?" ME: Nope "Evidence?" She asks hopefully. ME: all next year, sorry. I guess I will just learn it on the job.