J's Cafe Nette

Archive for June 5th, 2007

Many might think that those who wear the black robes and preside over a trial or hearing are some of the most intimidating figures in society. After all, they hold more power in their hands in regards to the lives of others than just about anyone else here on earth.

Yet, every once in a while we come across a judge who seems to rule not only in a fair manner but with a sense of humor. Judge Todd seems to have those qualities.

Judge cites 42 Beatles songs to teach beer thief a lesson

A judge sentencing a Beatles-loving beer thief quoted 42 of the band’s song titles in his verdict.

Andrew McCormack, 20, was asked to recommend to a US court what his sentence should be for stealing beer.

McCormack: Got more than he bargained for after his beer theft
He wrote: “Like the Beetles say, Let It Be”. But his cheeky quip did not impress Gregory Todd, a 56-year-old district court judge in Montana.

In a sentencing memorandum Judge Todd first corrected McCormack’s misspelling and then gave the defendant a lesson in The Beatles discography.

If you have ever enjoyed Beatles music this is a must read. The incorporation of their music in this sentencing was both humorous and imaginative. I won’t spoil it by quoting any of it here, it is better if you read it in its entirety.

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I missed the beginning of the Republican debate tonight, and started watching it at 7:45.

I can tell you the candidates I have definitely ruled out even if they were in the running.

Ron Paul is number one on my list of unacceptable candidates.

Tancredo comes in a very close second.

Duncan Hunter is iffy at best.

Mitt Romney strikes me as too polished and a flip-flopper.

Governors Huckabee and Gilmore sound good, but they have no chance.

McCain’s time has come and gone.

Tommy Thompson isn’t going anywhere either.

Giuliani is not conservative socially, but is strong on national security so he’s acceptable to me at the moment.

Senator Brownback is unforgettable even though he seems to say the right things.

My eyes are now on Romney and Giuliani with Huckabee and Gilmore dark horses to me.

We have too many candidates and cannot gauge their stands on anything within the timeframe they are given.

I thought the questions from the audience were great.

I thought Wolf Blitzer asking them what mistake President Bush has made that they want to point out was an unfair question for them to be asked of a sitting president of their party. President Bush is not on the ticket in the next election.

CNN is going to stay on the air until midnight, which means they have devoted five hours to coverage. With that much time to give to the debates and discussing it after, I don’t understand why they couldn’t have been more lenient on the time constraints and gone into Larry King’s or Anderson Cooper’s over-analysis of the debate.

That would have been a service to the American voters if we have to endure a two year campaign for president.

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We may have to do a rewrite of many history books in the world if the DNA studies in this story are factual.

Which came first–the chicken or the European?

Popular history, and a familiar rhyme about Christopher Columbus, holds that Europeans made contact with the Americas in 1492, with some arguing that the explorer and his crew were the first outsiders to reach the New World.

But chicken bones recently unearthed on the coast of Chile—dating prior to Columbus’ “discovery” of America and resembling the DNA of a fowl species native to Polynesia—may challenge that notion, researchers say.

“Chickens could not have gotten to South America on their own—they had to be taken by humans,” said anthropologist Lisa Matisoo-Smith from the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Polynesians made contact with the west coast of South America as much as a century before any Spanish conquistadors, her findings imply.

Just joking about the history books. Through the years there have been several theories about who was the first to discover the Americas but there would be a certain humor in finding that fowl bones would be the determinate of the disagreements.

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Indicted Congressman William Jefferson has sent a letter to Speaker Pelosi indicating he will temporarily step down from his committee seat until his case is resolved.

“In the light of recent developments in a legal matter involving me in the Eastern District of Virginia, I hereby request a leave from my duties as a member of the House Small Business Committee pending my successful conclusion of that matter,” Jefferson wrote.

“In doing so, I, of course, express no admission of guilt or culpability in that or any other matter that may be pending in any court or before the House of Representatives,” he wrote, adding that he has supported all the Democratic ethics and lobbying reform measures passed this year.

That relieves the Speaker of having to remove him from his assignment and facing the ire of the Congressional Black Caucus.

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According to an MSNBC reporter standing outside the courthouse, Scooter Libby got 30 months in jail and a $250,000 fine for his conviction of perjury and obstruction of justice, and two years’ probation after he gets out of jail.

The hearing is ongoing still, and speculation is it is being decided whether or not Libby will be free on bail while he’s appealing his conviction.

This sentence seems to me to be overkill. Who did he murder?

Update: A bail hearing is scheduled for next Wednesday, June 13, but the judge is giving all indications Libby should go to jail now and not be on bail while awaiting his appeal.

Go to Just One Minute to read the live blog done from the courthouse today while the procedings were going on.

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When Speaker to be Nancy Pelosi campaigned last year she campaigned against the Republican “culture of corruption”.

With yesterday’s indictment of William Jefferson, Speaker Pelosi is being watched to see what she plans to do with the indicted congressman.

Some expect her to discharge him from his committee asignment on the Small Business Committee and some are speculating a delegation will go to Congressman Jefferson and ask him to resign his House seat.

This doesn’t appear to be going over too well with the Congressional Black Caucus.

Through it all, much of the Congressional Black Caucus has stood by Jefferson and against the Democratic leadership. And yesterday, Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-Ill.), a veteran caucus member, said it would be “as supportive of our colleague as possible, in terms of saying a person in America is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty.”

Pelosi would not say what actions she would take, but she called the charges “extremely serious” and, if true, “an egregious and unacceptable abuse of public trust and power.”

“Democrats are committed to upholding a high ethical standard and eliminating corruption and unethical behavior from the Congress,” she said.

The Democratic steering committee, which sets committee assignments, will convene this week to consider whether to remove Jefferson from his last committee post: a seat on the Small Business Committee, a relative backwater of power. Senior House Democratic leadership aides said he almost certainly would be dropped. Some leadership aides suggested emissaries could be dispatched within days to ask for Jefferson’s resignation from the House.

“I can’t imagine that based on what’s happened and what we’ve done [on ethics rules changes and lobbying legislation] that at the very least, he’ll be asked to step down from committee,” said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), who stressed that he was not speaking for the leadership. “We’ve set down a pretty clear marker about what’s going to be expected.”

Read the rest of this entry »

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Lewis I. “Scooter” Libby is at the courthouse now, awaiting sentencing which will come sometime today.

According to this article he’s between a rock and a hard place.

Before sentencing the judge will ask him if he has anything to say. If he says nothing it will probably go against him. If he says he’s sorry for putting his family through this legal mess for the past couple of years it will go against him.

If he says he apologizes sincerely for committing the crime of perjury he has no appeal left, but might make the judge happy enough to give him a lighter sentence.

Who really knows? My guess is the judge’s mind is made up and isn’t going to change no matter what goes on in the courtroom today.

I say go for silence or a general statement not admitting any guilt since he has his conviction under appeal.

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