Letters to the Editor
Elephantman
Published Letters: 1312 Editor's Choice: 15
-
catnmus -
[Read the article: Give me those abortion records!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Wow. You sure do have a novel theory of discovery in a civil lawsuit. I'll bet that there are a lot of car manufacturers, pharmaceutical producers, hospitals, tobacco companies, insurance companies, and about 1001 other large categories of civil litagation defendants who would love it if you were right. But you're thoroughly wrong, unfortunately.
What you need to do is to go to your local library and ask a reference librarian for the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and look at Rule 26. Then, for extra credit, find out what the Ohio corollary to FRCP 26 is.
"Parties may obtain discovery regarding any matter, not privileged, that is relevant to the claim or defense of any party..." And "confidential information" like names in medical records, may be subject to discovery under a "protective order," of the kind that the Roes were apparently quite willing to abide.
There is no "burden of proof" in discovery; certainly not the kind that you suggest, mirroring the burden of proof in the case in chief. In discovery all you need to show is that the documents are "relevant", which might not even be the same as "admissible." It need only be "reasonably calculated to lead to admissible information."
So there. Glad you were able to learn something today.
-
"Infamous"?
[Read the article: Bjørn Lomborg feels a chill]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This marks the first time that I have ever heard anyone describe Bjorn Lomborg as "infamous."
Was this a liberty taken by one of Salon's ideologue headline writers? Does Kevin Berger agree with the characterization?
-
2008 Senate news for the Salonistas -
[Read the article: Cowardice and courage]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Larry Craig will resign; more or less pushed out by Republicans who want to clean their house (and their senate). His seat will be filled by the Republican governor of Idaho appointing one of the Republican Congressmen to the vacant seat, and that Repulican will win in 2008.
As for Tim Johnson, if he had a real job, he'd be retired on disability by now. Tim Johnson won by a whisper before; he'd have faced a very tough fight in 2008 no matter what. If Tim Johnson were a Republican House member instead of a Democrat Senator, I know what Rahm Emanuel would be thinking -- it would simply be a matter of finding the right person to take Johnson down.
I suppose that in all fairness, if you are a South Dakota Democrat, it doesn't matter in the slightest if one of your Senators has missed every vote in this term of Congress; you know that just by lying in a hosptial bed, the guy held a critical seat and kept it from the Republicans.
I don't know what sort of weird thing goes on with some voters when they vote for somebody who dies (Mel Carnahan) or who is clearly disabled from normal functioning (Tim Johnson). It is strange; some kind of get-well/sympathy card in the form of a 6-year term in the United States Senate.
-
"And she's probably a Republican..."
[Read the article: Miss dumb blond USA?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"It's not just her dumbitude, which is considerable.
Its also the perfection of her image, her hair, her lip gloss, and then the total absence of spark in her eyes, "black eyes, like a doll's eyes".
And, she's probably a Republican, which explains a lot about why we're in Iraq and George Bush has yet to be impeached, removed, indicted, tried and convicted, and imprisoned for the rest of his unnatural life."
THERE ya go! Gosh darn it, I had to read through nearly half the comments before I reached the insult de rigeur of the Republicans and the President of the United States!
Of course, the one and only reason that anyone is laughing about the clip is that it featured a gloriously attractive blonde-haired white girl, from red-state South Carolina, in an All-American institution like the Miss Teen USA pageant. Things that all good liberals can work up a mean hate for...
If instead of a pretty blonde from South Carolina, it had been a thoroughly/equally ignorant black girl with dreadlocks from Malcolm X High School in Detroit, uttering exactly the same words, in a Juneteenth Pageant, not a soul would have dared to crack so much as a smile.
And that's probably as it should be. The best humor always arises out of the plight of the underdog, the downtrodden, at the expense of the rich and/or comfortable.
But who in hell wants to be downtrodden?
-
There's little for Republicans to gain out of this, except this:
[Read the article: Poor, sad Larry Craig]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You won't be able to tell us that any Democrat who has an imperfect record of supporting gay rights (and ultimately that will include just about everyone except Dennis Kucinich, Tammy Baldwin and Barney Frank) and who is outed after having led a closeted life, won't be political 'fair game.'
As for Larry Craig, I'll be glad to see him go, soon, and stop embarassing his party.
I feel about the same way toward the Idaho party that advanced Craig and the Idaho voters who propped him up, as the way I feel about the voters who elected Barney Frank or Gerry Studds: there's not much I can do about it so why let it bother me.
But mark my words; if a Democrat, any Democrat, who ever voted for DOMA or any other 'compromise' in the culture wars is outed, he or she will be toast. There won't be any defense that it is a private matter or that it is a Republican witch-hunt.
Of course, if Jim McGreevy is any example, those cases won't take much pushing by the Republicans.
-
Remember this is the guy who managed to creep out the already creepy John Kerry...
[Read the article: John Edwards turns on his fellow Democrats]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...with the repetition (!?) of the story that he "had never shared with anyone" about hugging the body of his dead son... Kerry knew that Edwards was lying about having "never shared [the story] with anyone" before because (this is where Keith Olbermann pauses before pronouncing who is the "Worst Person in the World") -- Edwards had used the same story on Kerry before, and had apparently forgotten that he had done so.
John Edwards! Worst Candidate in the World!
And it would surprise anyone that this amoral cypher would "turn" on his fellow Democrats?