Wednesday’s Mini-Report

December 27, 2006

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) had hoped to score some points with the GOP base for his presidential campaign by filing a lawsuit that would have forced a constitutional ban on gay marriage on the state ballot, over the objections of the legislature. Today, the state Supreme Judicial Court rejected Romney’s case.

* Remember in October when Nevada gubernatorial candidate Jim Gibbons (R) was accused of assaulting a cocktail waitress in a parking garage? Now he’s Gov.-elect Gibbons and he’s received some good news — Clark County District Attorney David Roger said there was insufficient evidence to prove criminal charges against Gibbons “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

* Ohio Gov. Bob Taft (R) hasn’t been nearly as fortunate. The state Supreme Court voted Wednesday to publicly reprimand Taft over his ethics violations, a black mark that will stay on his permanent record as an attorney.

* David Wallis makes the argument that Barack Obama’s middle name really will matter in 2008. How sad.

* Today’s must-read is this fine column from Tom Schaller about his recent visit to Arlington National Cemetery. It’s very sad, of course, but it’s definitely worth reading.

* Speaking of sad, war-related essays, also be sure to check out a first-person story written by Muhammad Abdel Kader, 36-year-old Iraqi coffin maker. It’s heartbreaking.

* With all the talk about earmark reform, Christopher Hayes reminds us in The Nation about why “tax earmarks” — tax breaks inserted for the specific benefit of a given industry or group of parties — are just as big a problem as pork-barrel spending, if not more so.

* If you haven’t seen the graphic novel created by the National Rifle Association, you’re missing out.

* For all the concerns we have about government invasions of privacy in this country, it sounds like Britain has even more serious “Big Brother” concerns.

* I think more journalists should do columns like these, in which they look back and consider arguments/observations they got wrong.

* And, finally, several far-right blogs are all aflutter about a picture that allegedly “proves” that troops avoided John Kerry during his recent visit to Iraq. Shaun at Upper Left, a Kerry fan, sets the record straight. John Cole, who doesn’t even like Kerry, also has some compelling thoughts on the subject.

If none of these particular items are of interest, consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.

“Between December of 1973 and August, 1974, in a space of just eight months, Gerald Ford had gone from bland, obscure Congressman from Michigan to bland, obscure President of the United States (So bland, in fact, that famed impressionist Rich Little used to complain that Ford didn’t have a distinctive enough voice to imitate). And, like George W. Bush a quarter century later, Gerald Ford was never elected to either the Vice Presidency or the Presidency…” – “Gerald Ford, the Accidental President.”

  • As I recall there is a principle in law that laws are never passed for or against a single individual. Earmarks violates that principle.

    Mitt tried to ban gay marriage. It reminds me of all the useless efforts of the Republican congress to please their base without actually doing anything. Mitt sucks even if he does meet Prager’s first five books of the bible rule.

    That’s the Republican proof of innocence, “can’t be proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.”

    The NRA belives in “lobsterrorists”. I believe in Gun Rights Terrorists and Anti-Abortion Terrorists and Anti Gay Marriage Terrorists. They think tacking on the word ‘terrorist’ will scare everyone. That’s pre-11/7 thinking.

    The troops avoiding Kerry story reminds me of those urban legends about the soldiers at the White House borderline disrespeting Clinton. For one thing it didn’t happen and for another thing, let’s face it the troops aren’t exactly a brain trust brimming with reliable opinions about anything.

  • Dale (#2), Bill of Attainder: “Definition: A legislative act that singles out an individual or group for punishment without a trial.”

    When Washington’s Governor Dixie Lee Ray wanted to force my country (Whatcom) to be the unloading point for all incoming Alaska petroleum, she got the legislature to pass a law saying Washington’s “home rule” charter provisions (through which we could vote to block oil deliveries) didn’t apply in “all those counties lying north of Skagit and west of Chelan. The court ruled that since “all those counties” included only Whatcom, this would have amounted to a Bill of Attainder, prohibited by the US Constitution, Article I, Section 9, paragraph 3.

    Then Senator Warren “Maggie” Magnussen (who had been one of her co-chairs when she first campaigned for Governor) made the whole issue moot — and Dixie Lee very, very angry — by forcing his own bill through the Senate and House … in one morning then having the president sign it that afternoon (think declaration of WWII may have gone through quicker). Among other things, the bill prevented any oil-spill producing single-hull tankers from even entering Puget Sound. That was as fine an example of legislative power as I’ve seen.

  • Clark County District Attorney David Roger said there was insufficient evidence to prove criminal charges against Gibbons “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

    I’d like to see what all the evidence in the case is. If it’s just his word against hers it’s a triable issue and a matter of assessing credibility for a jury to decide.

  • My guess is they got the chick to shut up and the prosecutor is dismissing this on the “nothing to prosecute” basis as a favor to Gibbons.

    Otherwise, why throw out something there’s evidence to support a conviction in beyond a reasonable doubt.

  • Basically, a prosecutor can be subject to professional discipline for abusing his powers. The standard for what kind of evidence will support a criminal conviction is clear and well known. If I’m right and there’s a victim statement implicating Gibbons without some other evidence showing that her accusation is next to unbelieveable, it seems pretty unlikely that this guy would use his discretion to dismiss the case unless he was pretty sure she wasn’t going to talk about it.

  • I’d like to see what all the evidence in the case is. — Swan, @4

    “That’s where the dog lies buried”, as the Polish (and German) saying goes. There’s the issue of the dog which didn’t bark in the night or, as the case might be, of the security tape. Which, first, was not to be found at all — maybe they didin’t put it in that night, maybe the camera wen’t kablooey.Then, the tape reapears,in a private safe of somebody who wasn’tsupposed t have it. Then, it not only doesn’t show the alleged attack, but doesn’t even show either of them in the car park, even though *both* said they were there.

    There’s really nothing else the judge *could* have done.It seems to me he’s saying “I believe he’s done it as charged, but I do not have solid enough proof to support my belief”. Even if he *had* pushed the case, it would have been thrown out on the nearest appeal if not earlier, so why waste the time and money?

    And, Swan… If it came to the “he said, she said” and “assessing credibility” by the jury, she’d have been *creamed*, in public. She’s lovely to look at and he’s hideous, but she’s a barmaid and he’s a governor. You and I may assume that a politician’s word is not worth the air used to expel it but a lot of people accord (unearned) respect to office. And a lot of people think that “barmaid” is just a polite way of saying “prostitute”. His defence would have *shredded* her and her reputation and the jury would, probably, just have nodded in agreement. She doesn’t need that. I’m suprised she had the guts to push it as far as she had, since it was obvious from day one that the cards were stacked against her.

  • My favorite line concerning Scott Johnson, the creator of the doctored Kerry photo.
    “UPDATE: Scott writes that he’ll be filling in for Sean Hannity on his radio show Wednesday and Thursday, and promises to talk about the photo…”

    A photo,
    on a radio show……
    Hannity must be so proud.

    And great comic book (a “graphic novel” is for the last time a fucking comic book), except the NRA artist didn’t make that Ratte Juden Soro’s nose hooky enough.
    But big props for warning Armed White Christian Conservative Males about the dangers dynamite-toting owls pose to America.

  • If you haven’t seen the graphic novel created by the National Rifle Association, you’re missing out.

    Some beautiful examples of “Stalinist art” there in that piece.

    Every time I think of the NRA, I’m so glad I was a state champion target shooter (rifle) with the JROTC in High School and that it’s a skill I have maintained over the years. It will be so much easier for me to knock off the booboisie who don’t know that their gun even has a safety on it, let alone that the pointed ends of the bullets go in front, when it comes time to ethnically cleanse the South (which my great great grandfathers should have done when we had then down on their knees), er, I mean NRALand. What a bunch of clowns! Well, they’d be clowns if it wasn’t for the fact that these morons are as dangerous as they’d like to think they are.

  • “Clark County District Attorney David Roger said there was insufficient evidence to prove criminal charges against Gibbons ‘beyond a reasonable doubt.'”

    I’m as curious as Swan is – is determining the sufficiency of the evidence of criminal charges the job of the *D.A.*?

    I mean, I get that a county D.A. might be gun-shy about doing anything that’d look like going after someone as powerful as the *governor* of a state, but that doesn’t smell like a legal standard, that smells like flop sweat.

    I wonder if that’s still an important difference in George W. Bush’s America…

  • Another look at the Barack Hussein Obama debate can be found at JABBS.

    It’s not just his middle name that has led to conservative scare tactics. Rush Limbaugh has gotten in the habit of saying “Obama Osama” and Larry Kudlow last week “accidentally” called him “Osama” on his CNBC show.

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