I'm Confused...

"the law is a ass--a idiot."
Charles Dickens
1812-70

Lewis "Scooter" Libby was sentenced to 30 months in jail and fined $250,000 for obstruction of justice.

So the question is this: How do you obstruct an investigation into a crime that not only was never committed, but was impossible to commit?

Justice American style...

“Where do I go to get my reputation back?”
Ray Donovan, former Secretary of Labor after his acquittal on fraud and larceny charges in 1987

Once upon a time in America, a man or a woman could make a mistake, pay their debt to society and if needs be, go west and start with a clean slate.

Yesterday the state of North Carolina dropped the remaining charges against the three young men from the Duke University lacrosse team.

These young men were tried and convicted in the court of public opinion. The District Attorney rode their reputations, false accusations and defective evidence to victory in the election last fall.

Wikipedia is the only place that a lie repeated 10 times, becomes the truth.  What hath Google wrought?

Once upon a time in America, a man or a woman could make a mistake, pay their debt to society and if needs be, go west and start again with a clean slate.

Once upon a time in America…

Forgive and forget?

“NEW YORK-CBS fired Don Imus from his radio show Thursday…”
The Associated Press
April 12, 2007

Don Imus’ remarks about the Rutgers Women’s Basketball team were crude, racist and uncalled for. There is no excuse for it. However, Don Imus recognized his mistake and apologized. And apologized and apologized and apologized…

Jesse Jackson’s remarks about Jews were crude, racist and uncalled for. There is no excuse for it.

Al Sharpton’s remarks about white members of NYPD in conjunction with the Twana Brawli incident were crude, racist and uncalled for. There was no excuse for it.

On Easter Sunday in a spirit of love and forgiveness, the Reverend Al Sharpton and the Reverend Jesse Jackson called for the firing of Don Imus.

“Jesus wept.”
Gospel of St. John 11:35

I have a dream?

"...reject the blind violence."
Lyndon Baines Johnson,
April 4, 1968

I remember vividly two things that happened thirty-nine years ago today. The world remembers the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., I remember I turned 11 years old.

I recall vividly my childhood righteous indignation when shortly after the assassination many openly stated that like Christ, given the opportunity, Dr. King would have frankly forgiven James Earl Ray. I was angry. In my mind, they were placing Dr. King above the Savior.

Many years later when Arizona, New Hampshire and Utah bucked the national trend and created "Human Rights Day" or "Civil Rights Day" as opposed to, "Martin Luther King Jr. Day", I remembered what his associates had said about this man in 1968. I applauded those states’ efforts by reasoning that given his selfless dedication to Civil Rights, Dr. King might be embarrassed at being singled out as the sole honoree and seemingly taking credit for the work of so many. Taking credit for the courage and sacrifice of the Rosa Parks, Phillip Randolphs, Michael Schwerners, and Roy Wilkins of the world. I found it even more impressive when current leaders in the Civil Rights movement recently were seen to be making efforts to convert just another day off into a national day of service.

And now, I wonder…

Why the belittling and bullying to force a change. We’ve changed from honoring the Civil and Human Rights that all peoples of the world deserve and hunger for, to honoring one out of the many who fought and died for those rights.

In Mississippi in 1964, three young men were brutally murdered. Their only crime was registering African-Americans to vote. Nearly forty-five years later, do you remember or even know their names?

Why do some feel the need to legislate service?

In 1994, President Clinton signed legislation designating the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday as a national day of service. Isn’t service a virtue that by definition cannot be forced?

Dr. King, was any of this part of your dream?

Chinese Idol Revisited...*

"Chris, you are staying. Stephanie Edwards heads home tonight."
Ryan Seacrest
Host "American Idol"

I guess Sampan, my favorite Chinese restaurant is more popular than "my" American Idol.
If you didn't like Stephanie, don't judge my taste in food by my taste in music.
I think I'll smother my sorrows in House Special Fried Rice and Pot Stickers.

*To fully understand this post, read my post "Chinese Idol" of March 2nd.

Truth, justice and my batting average...

"Never confuse the law with justice."
James R. Brown esq.

I’ve recently been a casual observer at a court proceeding and in conjunction with a prior court experience I was intimately involved in; I’ve learned that Wikipedia is not the only place a lie repeated over and over again, somehow becomes the truth.

When I was a kid, Saturday nights in our home meant watching "Perry Mason" on television, or perhaps I should say, it meant waking up on the floor in front of the TV as the show ended. You know the infamous stack of three law books. (Thank goodness for nighttime re-runs on KBYU so I can finally get the answers to all of those; "Who did it?" questions still weighing heavily on my mind nearly 45 years after the fact.) But, whether it was on TV, or in Erle Stanly Gardner’s books, both Lt. Tragg and District Attorney Burger’s ultimate goal was to get the truth. (Admittedly Tragg was usually easier for Mason to persuade.)

But I digress, the job of the state, was then, and still is to enforce the law. However, it seems to me that back then, the job or goal of the state was also truth and justice.

Will someone please tell me when the Prosecutor’s "Batting Average" or for that matter, any attorney’s "Batting Average" became more important than the truth?

Oh, and while you’re at it, is perjury still enforced or like adultery and fornication to the far right, is perjury just kept on the books to make some of us feel warm and fuzzy?

"Wikipedia is the only place that a lie repeated 10 times, becomes the truth."
Kimberly A. Hinckley
March 5, 2007

http://kimberlyahinckley.blogspot.com/

A Question of Truth...

"The truth is always the first casualty of any legal proceeding."

Michael T. Russell

(My late best friend of 25+ years)

"I've always told you some variation of the truth."

Harry Sanborn as portrayed by Jack Nicholson

"Somethings Gotta Give"

"...what I told you was true, from a certain point of view."

Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi as portrayed by Sir Alec Guinness

"Return of the Jedi"

I've been thinking about the truth quite a bit of late and I'm wondering...

What is truth?

or

What is the price of the truth?

They say the truth hurts. But, does knowing the whole truth make the facts any more or less harsh?

Or, is it all simply a matter of perspective?

Chinese Idol

After a rather long work week this week, including tonight (7:30 to 7:00 is that just under a half-a-day?) I elected to have take-out from my favorite (Sampan 2100 South and 7th East in Salt Lake City) Chinese restaurant for dinner.

To get through, I hit the redial key on my cell-phone more times tonight than I did on Wednesday night to vote for "my American Idol".

The question is...

Does "American Idol" have more phone lines than Sampan or is Sampan more popular than the young lady I voted for Wednesday night?

P.S. The pot-stickers and house special fried rice are the best.

P.P.S. Once again, "my American Idol" made it through to the next round.

If a tree falls in the forest...

A good friend of mine who is a skilled writer/blogger recently tackled the age old question; "If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is around to hear it, does it make any noise?" (http://rachelthomae.typepad.com/ There's No Record)

It brought to mind an experience I had nearly ten years ago. I was a religious volunteer at the Utah State Prison in Draper. During our training session, (a totally fascinating way to spend a Saturday) we learned of a study out of the Louisiana Penal System.

A Louisiana study concluded that well over 80% of their inmates believed even if they committed the crime, if they were either acquitted, acquitted due to a technicality or if their conviction was overturned on a technicality, they not only didn't commit the crime, the crime didn't even happen.

If a tree falls in the forest...

A matter of degree...

The recent U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruling regarding the Guantanamo Bay detainees reminded me of detainees in another time and another place.

The Registration Act of 1940 required Japanese, German and Italian Americans to register at their local post office and the act also required these people to re-register within five days of moving. Shortly after the act was passed and President Franklin Roosevelt signed it into law, the FBI and military intelligence began to watch the leadership in the ethnic communities covered by the act.

Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor ended on Sunday December 7, 1941, the President signed Executive Order 9066 and the army and FBI conducted raids across the United States and arrested thousands of foreign nationals and U.S. Citizens.

In January of 1942, Japanese-Americans were banned from living on the East and West Coast of the United States and within all Class 1 Military Zones. (Class 1 Military Zones included most of the United States.) Civilian Exclusion Order #5 was also signed by President Roosevelt. This order compelled the liquidation of all assets that these Japanese-Americans couldn't carry with them. It's certainly a good thing that California had banned non-citizens from owning property back in 1910. Just one minor problem, they didn't enforce the ban until 1942.

The final insult (or was it) came in May of 1942 when over 120,000 Japanese-Americans, over 60% of whom were U.S. Citizens, and members of certain Eskimo tribes were ordered to pickup points throughout the United States. Many of these men, women and children had no idea of the fate that awaited them.

They were "relocated" to "camps" throughout the Western United States where they were kept until the end of World War II.

I do not condone what happened to so many U.S. Citizens during the second world war. I'd simply ask those who are opposed to detaining terrorists captured during combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq to step back and compare. Compare the "crimes" and conditions in each case. Compare if you dare the legal process in each case.

Of the over 8,000 detainees at the Topaz camp in Utah, nearly 500 volunteered to serve in the U.S. Army, Navy and Marine Corp. My mother, who worked for the FBI at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, transmitted names and other information by teletype for nearly two straight days after the attack on Pearl Harbor and she always believed in what she was called to do in the defense of the United States. I have the luxury of time to reflect on what happened.

I think that this summer, some sixty-three years after the fact, I'd like to visit Topaz and see for myself.

We interrupt this program...

"In the future everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes."
Andy Warhol 1928-1987
From a catalogue of an exhibition of his art in
Stockholm, Sweden 1968

When Andy Warhol made his now famous statement in 1968, I was 11 years old, breaking into "Regularly Scheduled Programming" was reserved for important issues and only Zsa Zsa Gabor was famous for being famous.

So when "Regularly Scheduled Programming" was interrupted nearly two weeks ago to inform the world of the admittedly tragic and untimely passing of Anna Nicole Smith, I realized American Pop culture is now in full control.

Over six hundred women have graced the centerfold of "Playboy" magazine. What else did Anna Nicole Smith accomplish in life that would merit interrupting "Regularly Scheduled Programming"?

Will Paris Hilton overtake Britney Spears as both spiral towards an ignominious end?

Is all of the attention previously paid to Anna and now focused on Paris and Britney the latest All-American sport or simply a deathwatch. Perhaps it’s a morbid combination of both.

When did fame from notoriety and bad behavior become more desirable than the fame earned from a lifetime of accomplishment and service?

P.S. My "American Idol" made it through, did yours?