Letters to the Editor
Patrick2007
Published Letters: 19
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Still looks like the weakest season
[Read the article: Hot off "The Wire"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Seems like McNulty's serial killer scam can only play out one of two ways.
It blows up in his face, probably due someone inside the department calling bullshit on him, and Donald showing up articulate enough to tell his story.
Or, so many in the Department are using it to fund legitimate police work (or at the Sun, to further their journalism careers) that when it finally does come to light, it's decided to pin some medals on a few people and bury the whole thing to avoid emabarrassing management.
My bet is on the second scenario; it'd be most consistent with the idea of institutions so corrupt that the only mission of those running them is to advance their own careers.
The best part of this season was barely touched on in this episode -- what's going to become of Marlo? Haven't a clue as to how the final confrontation between Marlo and Omar will happen or end, but I'm guessing that at some point Omar puts a fatal bullet into at least one of the Chris-Snoop duo -- probably Snoop. I think he'll get his chance to go face-to-face with Marlo before the last episode.
No further developments on the leak of grand jury sealed warrants; sooner or later somebody's going to have to tie that loose end up.
I was disappointed in the Clay Davis trial -- not in how it played out, but simply that it consumed so much screen time at the expense of other far more interesting stories. OK, accept that given the episode time available everything had to be unnaturally compressed. So this mash up of implausable courtroom proceedings has to stand in for the much longer flow of a real trial. Even so, who cares? Clay is just another corrupt politician; we already know that. Across the whole series he's never been much more than background for the real stories. I've never been that interested in his character and now that he's acquited there's not much left for him to do. Seems like his story was a lot of effort for very little payoff.
Overall, I just can't warm up to this season. Compared with the past four, it has a disjointed, uneven feel to it. The magic isn't totally gone, but it's definitely fading fast.
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Questions For Glenn
[Read the article: John Yoo: Spearhead or scapegoat?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What is the legal mechanism by which charges of war crimes or crimes against humanity could be bought against this administration? Who would lead this effort? How is it pursued? Is it different depending on whether Bush is in- or out of office?
Given that Pelosi & company have taken impeachment off the table and show no inclination to return to it in an election year, this seems like the best way to raise an investigation of this administration's criminal activities.
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Why is Yoo still teaching?
[Read the article: John Yoo's ongoing falsehoods in service of limitless government power]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Hell, why is Yoo still allowed to practice law? We can't find the will to impeach Bush or Cheney, or disbar Yoo. Nothing could better illustrate how utterly broken and debased our legal institutions have become. Not a peep from the ABA disowning Yoo and holding his ideas up to the ridicule they deserve.
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bystander
[Read the article: John Yoo's ongoing falsehoods in service of limitless government power]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I understand that efforts have been made to disbar Yoo & end his tenure, but all of these efforts are external to the organizations who actually have the authority to take action. Interestingly enough, I can't find the state where Yoo is a member of the bar -- and maybe he's not. From
http://balkin.blogspot.com/2008/04/response-to-dean-edley.html
Back when I was a student at Boalt, my professors, including Yoo, always boasted how they did not take any bar exams and never would. It was, they conveyed with barely disguised disdain, just beneath them to sit for a bar exam.
They, including Yoo, always said you couldn't pay them enough to work at a law firm. It was, they conveyed with barely disguised disdain, just beneath them to have to suffer clients.
They, includig Yoo, always said, we're here to "teach you how to think like a lawyer." It was, they conveyed with barely disguised disdain, just risible how we students were clouding our legal analysis with moral judgement.
So, if you look at Yoo's memo, it makes for a brilliant answer to a final exam -- it spots all the issues, it rigorously applies IRAC, it reaches novel conclusions. HH! (that's Boalt speak for "High Honors" or "A"). AmJur! (that's Boalt speak for "American Jurispruence Award" or the highest grade for the class.)
In other words, it's a memo only a law professor (who's never practiced law) could love.
So, to the existential question, what makes a (good) lawyer? Yoo will never know.
But the point of my original post was -- none of the organizations that have the authority to take meaningful action or even issue an authoritative rebuke to John Yoo and his ideas have done so. In fact, they are either silent or cautiously supportive of him. So I guess we'll soon be hearing about the child with crushed testicles -- that's what we've come to, and neither a great university nor the national bar association will disown it.
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Thanks For The Leadership!
[Read the article: Campaign against warrantless eavesdropping and telecom amnesty is expanding]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thanks to GG and all who have banded together to pull the Beltway up short on FISA and other abuses to our constitution. Exposing their rotten actions to sunlight in front of their constituents, and running strong primary challenges against them, is the best way to make them understand that we've had enough of their deceit and lies. I look forward to Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Rahm Emanuel getting strong, harsh doses of the same treatment Hoyer's got coming to him. BTW, donated yesterday & again today -- please do the same so this crowd can be hit hard where it will hurt them the most.