Here’s my conversation with Lanny Davis. Sorry everybody, start from the bottom up to read the messages!

On Sep 2, 2007, at 2:00 PM, Davis, Lanny J. wrote:

….But last time I looked, we lost the 2004 election.

Well, that depends on whether the acts of the recently deposed USAG and various others in the WH violated Federal laws, like the Hatch Act, etc. Even so, the DEMOCRATS won the 2006 Election…and Congress has the right and responsibility to have hearings regarding the Presidents selections and then decide upon the qualifications of them. This is the “advise and consent” clause in something called…lemme see… the CONSTITUTION!

Valley Girl @ 5

LHP- any idea what’s up with this being in the WSJ? Not where I would have expected it to come from/ appear.

Not what I would have expected either. I guess you don’t have to worry about anybody saying it’s coming from a left wing media outlet looking to criticize tha Admin.

Maybe the author knows that s/he is going to be “Rupertized”…so it’s the last shot at something “relevant” before the layoffs begin.

why should they be allowed to die their way out of it!

let them live the term of their natural life in a small room on refugee rations,contemplating the consequences of their own actions.

and may they live a long,long time!

bmaz @ 152

LHP – Whoa and wow on the murder attempt bit. My sincere condolences. I hope that it was not in relation to your job, that would be unsettling. Well, ok, that is a kind of stupid thing to say; it would be unsettling under any circumstance; but could be extra mentally taxing if it was linked to your work as an attorney.

No connection to my work as far as anyone can tell. Just your garden variety psycho sexual serial killer. 1/2 hour after he faile dto kill me, he killed another woman. Beheaded her, cut the rest of her up into chum and then did kinky things with the severed head.

I just want him to go to prison forever.

I want to add my belated shock and prayers to the others offered here. What a shocker! I’m so glad you survived! Your personal encounter with this beast must have been terrible enough, but then to find out what he did to the next woman must have been really traumatizing. I join in your wish for an eternal prison sentence for him.

Bob in HIlooseheadprop @ 75

Eureka Springs @ 41

lhp, Any hint of a change in the next budget? Would the D’s dare to betray the Chimperor and ask his own appointees to do some work?

I guess that a lot will depend on who the next Ag is.

What if Paul Clement is, in effect, the next AG for the rest of this year? Or longer?

Bob in HI

bmaz @ 248

Holy crap. If they have those facts locked up, that shouldn’t be an issue one would hope. This is one guy that I wish was in the Texas criminal justice system. Never thought I would have occasion to say that….

Perhaps that says something about wishing death for people that harm or kill one of our own. I have struggled with this, thinking about what I would want if someone killed one of my daughters…

Oh, I was not necessarily indicating I wanted this guy dead. Texas is real good at getting them tried fast and locked up for good too. I am not particularly in favor of the death penalty. Not totally on moral grounds, although that is part of it, but more on economic and certainty grounds. Due to the way, ahem, cops often do their jobs, and a lot of other factors, there are very, very few cases that I think have the requisite certainty to even consider the death penalty, even if I was fully on board with it morally. Secondly, although I don’t know the relative figures today, but for a very long time it was pretty much a lot cheaper, in terms of overall cost cost involved, to incarcerate the average capital convict than to go through all the necessary appeals and other steps required to get him to the death chamber and finished off. So it was not worth it morally or economically. Where those relative economic stats are today, I don’t know though.

I think any lack of funds is coming from the War in Iraq and the nebulous war on terror (and busting of bumbling wannabes). The WSJ reported:

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, federal priorities shifted to terrorism from routine crime fighting. The cost of the Iraq war also prompted Congress and the White House to slow the growth of many types of domestic spending.

…[M]ore than 100 lawyers and administrative personnel from U.S. attorneys’ offices have gone to Iraq to help the fledgling government there. The offices generally pay the salaries of the seconded attorneys, which would typically be about $120,000 a year plus an additional 25% in combat pay.

Even though I’m not seeing any decrease in the number or quality of prosecutions or of prosecution resources in my neck of the woods, I think the solution may be as simple as shifting the priorities back from anticipating terrorism to crime-fighting and bringing the prosecutors home from Iraq.

Well, I’d say there are two problems with the initiative. One is, of course, that it’s only California (well CA, and North Carolina which curiously has exactly the same issue, but the parties reversed, going on now). The second is that the basis is NOT on populr vote percentages, but on congressional districts. Think for a moment what a general nightmare gerrymandering districts is. Now consider what it would be with electoral votes hanging on them. Actually that gives rise to a third issue: some states will have a considerable imbalance between number of electoral votes and congressional districts so how would that even be resolved across the board?

Best scenario would be for each state to pledge to switch to vote-percentage basis and for it to take effect once a certain number have done so. Don’t know how likely that is.

You mean like this?

(Spot-on about the problems, btw.)

get some borax

mix it with some water (say-2 tablespoons per pint)dip a cloth into it-wring out-wipe cloth every where ant trails are-let dry-repeat every time you see an ant.

wahlah

some times you only have to do it once
other times,it takes a few goes before they get the message