Month: October 2005

Washington, DC (APE) – A second rare two-headed turtle was found far north of Havana Cuba in the United States crawling along the banks of the Potomac River. The finding immediately fueled opinions over the intelligent design, versus evolution debate. Pictured at right is the original turtle found by a policeman in Havana, Cuba. The second turtle was found crawling around and hiding in the mud and slime along the Potomac by an amateur herpetologist, Pat Fitzgerald. The second finding has led to speculation that this may be an entirely heretofore unknown species.

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Having read a ton of reactions from the left and from the right I have come to one solid conclusion. Everyone was geared up for a fight and everyone is feeling ripped off. It’s like paying fifty bucks to see Mike Tyson fight Evander Holyfield and all you get is an early round ear-biting disqualification.

Yet, I don’t think people should despair of a good fight. I don’t think Harriet Miers chances of being confirmed are very good. Bush inadvertently played into the post-Katrina memes of incompetence, lack of qualifications, and cronyism. He also failed to feed the right-wing beast that has been fighting for this moment for thirty-two years. They are furious, depressed, despondent, confused…

If Miers embarrasses herself (or is exposed as corrupt) in the hearings it could easily become a reinforcing lesson that further cements the Katrina fallout.

And if indictments come down in the Plame case, there will be very few people in the mood to defend the Presidency.

My first take? She might be a terrible judge, she might be a less than terrible judge, but her selection was a short-term political mistake.

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disgusted once again: Liberal Street Fighter

Once again, we’re faced with the prospect of the “opposition” party reaching its hands out in friendship toward a predatory regime beholden to big money and the religious right. Capitiulation masquerading as principle, betrayal masquerading as comity, a stance characterized by refusing to stand. Behavior that is celebrated by right-wing advocacy groups like Progress for America Voter Fund in a recent ad called Principle:

Announcer: “John Roberts. Overwhelmingly supported to be Chief Justice.

“Why did the process work?

“President Bush consulted with 70 Senators, from both parties, before choosing Roberts.

“After testifying for 22 hours, even Democratic Senators called Roberts “brilliant.”

“Many Democrats are putting principle above politics, voting for Roberts.

“Urge the Senate to continue putting partisan politics aside…

“…hold fair hearings and give the next nominee a fair up or down vote.”

Go HERE to see the ad. Watch the list of twenty-two Democrats scroll down the screen, celebrating their votes for Chief Justice Roberts.

Now another movement conservative, a deep-inside party functionary has been nominated for elevation to the Supreme Court, with laudatory words rising from the so-called leadership of the Democratic Party. This is bad, but only a symptom of a broader problem: the party of the “left” has left the principled left behind, bowing to the claim that this is a conservative country, that these outcomes are inevitable, that they are there for the rest of us to support as brakes on it getting completely out of control, rather than champions to fight against a corrosive poltical movement.

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MSNBC: Breaking news. This is from a different grand jury (?). So, he faces two separate indictments.

Lou Dobbs on CNN is confirming via an A.P. wire.

Update [2005-10-4 16:15:59 by susanhu]:

Alternet’s PEEK has “Peek: DeLay Grand Jury foreman speaks (video).”

‘There is enough evidence.’ For more than one indictment perhaps?

VIdeo

From PBS Newshour

October 4, 2005, 12:15pm EDT

DELAY INDICTED ON NEW MONEY LAUNDERING CHARGE

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, was indicted again Monday on charges of conspiring to launder money and money laundering, following an indictment last week that caused him to step down from his leadership post.

Sept. 28, 2005:

Two experts discuss the first indictment of Tom DeLay.

The money laundering charge carries a penalty of up to life in prison. The charge of conspiracy to launder money is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, reported the Associated Press.

Last week, DeLay was charged with conspiracy to violate campaign finance laws. Defense lawyers asked a judge Monday to toss out the indictment, contending it was based on a statute that did not take effect until 2003, a year after the alleged acts.

The new indictment from District Attorney Ronnie Earle came just hours after the new grand jurors in Texas were sworn in.

“Ronnie Earle has stooped to a new low with his brand of prosecutorial abuse,” Delay said in a statement.

“He is trying to pull the legal equivalent of a ‘do-over’ since he knows very well that the charges he brought against me last week are totally manufactured and illegitimate. This is an abomination of justice.”

A statement from Earle’s office outlined the new charges but did not address DeLay’s criticism.

More than 40 grand jury indictments have been returned so far in Earle’s two-and-a-half-year investigation of Republican campaign tactics during 2002 state House elections in Texas …

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August Wilson, one of the great playwrights in American theatre history, died on Sunday. He had been diagnosed with inoperable liver cancer in late summer, and began telling friends that he’d been told to expect only a few months left of life. He died in his home city of Seattle, surrounded by family.

By his example and by his insistent voice, August Wilson did more to bring African American culture into the precincts dominated by ruling class and upper middle class white culture than anyone else in the past 30 years, and more than any other playwright in the 20th century.

And of course he provided wonderful moments of drama, laughter and song for those of us who experienced those plays, mostly as audience in the theatre, but also as readers.

 He worked with the rich rhythms of speech, capturing the cadence of black American talk and infusing it with a magical lyricism. He transformed the emphatic repetitions and insistences of people who had to use every device to be heard into incantations with the power of memory, tragedy and soaring spirit.

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