Day: December 2, 2005

Bush Bails On Jury Duty

Buck Banks

I’d rather be stacking the Supreme Court: Worst President Ever George W. Bush had to explain that he was too busy running the United States, fighting a global war on terror and trying not to get impeached to report for jury duty.

Bush never received the summons to appear at a court in Crawford, Texas, for jury duty on Monday and the White House only learned about it through media reports, White House spokesliar Scott “I Only Lie When My Lips are Moving” McClellan lied Thursday. Bush, whose ranch is in Crawford, is scheduled to give a speech in North Carolina on Monday.

“We have since called the court to inform them that the president has other commitments on Monday, and that he would like to reschedule his jury duty,” McClellan lied.

“One serious note: jury duty is an important civic responsibility. And it’s important that people do serve,” McClellan lied.

Last week, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, served as foreman on a jury for two days at a civil case in Boston.

Chinese Arrested for Selling Fake Bird Flu Vaccine

Buck Banks

Pandemic profits: Nine people have been arrested for selling fake bird flu vaccines that are suspected to have contributed to an outbreak of the disease in northeastern China’s Liaoning Province.

Police found that two companies had manufactured and sold 200,000 vials of 12 different kinds of bird flu vaccine nationwide, the Liaoxi Commercial Daily reported Wednesday. With 29 outbreaks of the disease discovered so far this year, China is seeking to vaccinate an estimated 5.2 billion farm-raised birds.

Investigators found that fake vaccines were used on farms in Liaoning’s Jinzhou region, where an outbreak of bird flu occurred in mid-October. Some 2.5 million farm-raised birds were culled in the region following the outbreak, devastating the livelihood of farmers in the region..

“The use of fake and shoddy vaccines will result in a disaster,” Agriculture Minister Du Qingling said. “If the vaccines are not up to standard, then immunization to the virus will not be uniform or effective. This could bring huge losses. If we miss the chance to exterminate the virus in the early stages, then the difficulty in wiping it out will increase by several times, as will the spread of the epidemic.”

Simple Reason Why the Death Penalty Is a Bad Idea

Buck Banks

Too expensive: Kenneth Lee Boyd has bought the farm with a lethal injection in Raleigh, N.C., for the murders of his estranged wife and father-in-law — in front of his children. He was the thousandth person killed by the gubmint since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Boyd told reporters he didn’t want to be remembered as a statistic, but that’s what he has become.

What’s wrong with the death penalty is not that it unfairly is applied to the income and racially challenged of America, nor that it is inhumane and cruel and unusual, it’s that it costs too much.

The typical capital punishment case, once it has run its course through the various appeals processes and courts, costs over a million dollars. The average cost of housing a convict is $50,000 per year. In other words, we could house a convicted murderer for 20 years for what it costs to put him on death row. Which means that since Boyd was convicted 17 years ago, besides the million-plus we spent on defending the decision to kill him, we also spent about $850,000 to keep him alive until we could kill him. That’s what’s wrong with the death penalty. Oh, and it’s also cruel and doesn’t deter crime.

An Example of What’s Wrong with the Democratic Party

Buck Banks

Clueless losers: I received this e-mail today from someone purporting to be the chair of the Florida Democratic Party, though the writer never identified itself other than by the cryptic e-mail address, kthurman@fladems.com. This e-mail is an example of what’s wrong with the Democratic Party — they are clueless on how to mount a communications and marketing campaign. Here’s an example of the limp drivel the Dumbocrats think will inspire and incite their constituents:

As the Chair of the Florida Democratic Party, I want to remind you that our 2005 Conference is coming up in just over a week. We still have room for a few good Democrats and I wanted to take this last chance to let you know what we have planned.

That might have been a good place to mention WHERE the conference is being held, but that little detail is missing from the entire text of the e-mail. And we won’t mention the embarrassing random capitalization of nouns that was popular in the 17th century.

First up, for the dinner on Saturday, December 10, we have featured speakers US Senator Barak Obama and our National Party Chair, Dr. Howard Dean. Senator Obama and Dr. Dean will talk about the Democratic Party’s message for the 2006 election cycle, and discuss the many opportunities ahead for Democrats from all over the country to be part of our march to victory next year. We also have former US Senator John Edwards and Governors Mark Warner and Tom Vilsack making presentations. But these three prospective Presidential candidates are just the beginning. All of our statewide candidates will be with us: US Representative Jim Davis and State Senator Rod Smith, who are running for Governor; State Senator Walter Campbell, running for Attorney General; Alex Sink, running for Chief Financial Officer and Eric Copeland, running for Agriculture Commissioner.

There will also be exciting opportunities for training. We will have workshops on Small Donors Fundraising, Campaign Finance Compliance, our new Voter File application (the Voter Activation Network, known as “VAN”) Early & Absentee Voters and Earned Media. Our Outreach Caucuses will be meeting to discuss the issues affecting African-Americans, Women, Young Democrats, GLBT Democrats, Hispanics, Democrats with Disabilities and Carribbeans. The Small Counties Coalition will also meet.

Man, don’t that sound exciting? Makes me want to go, if I knew where it was.
[…]

Bush Admin Quashed Justice Dept. Objections to DeLay’s Texas Redistricting Plan

Jon Ponder

Washington Post:

Justice Department lawyers concluded that the landmark Texas congressional redistricting plan spearheaded by Rep. Tom DeLay (R) violated the Voting Rights Act, according to a previously undisclosed memo obtained by The Washington Post. But senior officials overruled them and approved the plan.

“The State of Texas has not met its burden in showing that the proposed congressional redistricting plan does not have a discriminatory effect,” the memo concluded.

The memo, unanimously endorsed by six lawyers and two analysts in the department’s voting section, said the redistricting plan illegally diluted black and Hispanic voting power in two congressional districts. It also said the plan eliminated several other districts in which minorities had a substantial, though not necessarily decisive, influence in elections.

“The State of Texas has not met its burden in showing that the proposed congressional redistricting plan does not have a discriminatory effect,” the memo concluded.

The memo also found that Republican lawmakers and state officials who helped craft the proposal were aware it posed a high risk of being ruled discriminatory compared with other options.

But the Texas legislature proceeded with the new map anyway because it would maximize the number of Republican federal lawmakers in the state, the memo said. The redistricting was approved in 2003, and Texas Republicans gained five seats in the U.S. House in the 2004 elections, solidifying GOP control of Congress.

J. Gerald “Gerry” Hebert, one of the lawyers representing Texas Democrats who are challenging the redistricting in court, said of the Justice Department’s action: “We always felt that the process . . . wouldn’t be corrupt, but it was. . . . The staff didn’t see this as a close call or a mixed bag or anything like that. This should have been a very clear-cut case.”

Babs Is Angry with Rove, Cheney & Card over Junior’s Fall in Polls

Jon Ponder

The Washington Note:

Barbara Bush is allegedly TICKED off at Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Andy Card, nearly all of them — except Karen Hughes — for how her boy is faring in the hearts and minds of Americans.

The matriarch of the Bush clan is colder than North Pole ice right now to those around her son who she thinks have undermined him. I’ll tell who my sources are if Patrick Fitzgerald gives a call and makes me — but the sources are very close to Poppa Bush (41), who has been traveling a bit with some of his old entourage, including Brent Scowcroft and others of the first Bush regime…

Should be interesting to watch the role of the First Mother in the coming couple of months. Watch for a lot to change right after the State of the Union address, I’ve been told.