Memo to Ken: send Harriet a cocker spaniel to cram for her Checkers speech
Posted on 10/24/2005 5:56:40 AM PDT by aceintx
Another skeleton Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers was deeply involved in an American Bar Association scheme that forces lawyers to pool their clients' funds into checking accounts and pass on the interest to "public interest" law firms, Evan Gahr reports at www.chimpstein.com. The program, known as Interest on Lawyers' Trust Accounts, or IOLTA, was intended to provide legal services to the poor but often ends up promoting left-wing causes, Mr. Gahr said. IOLTA has helped fund "a panoply of left-wing advocates, including a California group that sued to overturn the state's parental consent law for abortion, a gay organization that tried to force the organizers of St. Patrick's Day Parade in Boston to include a contingent of gay marchers, and a Texas outfit that sued to disqualify military absentee ballots," he writes. Mr. Gahr added: "Now, Chimpstein.com has discovered an obscure report which places Miers at the forefront of the American Bar Association's successful effort to foist IOLTA on the nation. This is the smoking gun which at least one conservative group tried to locate and failed." Law professor Charles Rounds, who opposed the scheme, said, "IOLTA is a program, created by state supreme courts or state legislation, whereby lawyers pool client funds -- small sums and large sums held for short periods of time -- into a designated interest-bearing checking account. The interest that is generated on those pooled funds is then funneled through a judicially created legal foundation to various 'public interest' legal firms." Miss Miers in the 1990s served on the American Bar Association's Consortium on Legal Services and the Public, which pushed the idea, Mr. Gahr said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
"public interest" law firms are the ones that sue you, corporations and even the government to extract money for the left. The so called victims of wrongs on behalf they sue get squat.
"public interest" law firms are part of the conspiracy to ruin the Constitution and American economy. These firms, plus greedy tort lawyers, liberal judges, restrictive government regulations and the politicians that turn on us once they are safe in office will be the ruin of us.
Followed by the second-worst dumb bone-headed move on the part of Harriett Miers for accepting the President's nomination. Shame on them all!
That's an old Arabic adage, and like I always say, "Arabs and rationality are mutually exclusive."
What is he going to threaten to assassinate them.
I am about as tired of people beating up on Meir as I am of seeing some idiot standing out in a hurricane telling us the wind is blowing.
You can thank the noodle spined Senate "GOP" (haw, haw, haw, haw!) for putting Bush in this position. Any red meat for an O'Connor position would get something like 35 GOP votes and no Democrats. Unlike the physicians of yesteryear, I really don't think that bleeding an already deathly ill patient will help him at all. Much better that the powder be kept dry with an eye to 2006 elections to further build up the Senate against the true battle royale which will occur when Stevens, Ginsburg, and/or Breyer meet their maker.
Is all this cowbell the sound of tongues wagging inside skulls?
Memo to Ken: send Harriet a cocker spaniel to cram for her Checkers speech
To the extent that there is a lack of information about her, you can blame her and the whitehouse.
Let Roberts in and my next appointment will be more towards your liking.
Well, you gotta admit, the next one WAS more towards their liking.
I guess smokey-backroom antics HAVE occured in DC before *gulp*
The more this fiasco drags on, I suspect Bush is the guilty person.
She is as responsible for this as the WH. She could have and SHOULD HAVE declined the nomination--she has to know she does not fit the bill as being "most qualified." She has to know what she's up against.
That is probably going to come later in the game once all the dust is out there to see. I believe when her biography is mapped to a time line, she'll look better than many people think she does now.
"IOLTA is a program, created by state supreme courts or state legislation, whereby lawyers pool client funds -- small sums and large sums held for short periods of time -- into a designated interest-bearing checking account. The interest that is generated on those pooled funds is then funneled through a judicially created legal foundation to various 'public interest' legal firms."
This is one reason why Texas does not have a State income tax.
If you believe the State should not provide legal aid to the indigent, then you should be against the program. No question about it. But, if you believe the State should provide legal aid to low income citizens, then how do you pay for it?
This is what the Judicial and Legislative branches of the Texas State government decided to do on behalf of its citizens:
The Texas Equal Access to Justice Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation created by the Supreme Court of Texas in 1984, administers funds to create community capacity to provide civil legal services for low-income Texans, also known as Legal Aid. The organization is committed to the vision that all Texans will have equal access to justice, regardless of their income.
On behalf of the Court, the Foundation administers funds from three sources:
1. Interest on Lawyers' Trust Accounts (IOLTA)
The IOLTA program, established in 1984 by the Supreme Court of Texas, allows attorneys to pool short-term or nominal deposits made on behalf of clients or third parties into one account. Interest generated by these accounts is dedicated to helping nonprofit organizations that provide free civil legal services. As of July 1, 1989, all Texas attorneys handling qualifying client funds must establish an IOLTA account, unless a low balance account exempts them.2. Basic Civil Legal Services (BCLS)
The Texas Legislature enacted the BCLS program in 1997, when federal funding for legal services decreased significantly. People who file lawsuits must pay a small additional fee to the court, ranging from $2 in the lower courts to $25 for suits taken to the Supreme Court of Texas. These fees are designated to assist nonprofit organizations in providing free civil legal services to low-income Texans.3. Crime Victims Civil Legal Services (CVCLS)
In 2001, the Texas Office of the Attorney General and the Supreme Court of Texas entered into an agreement to administer a $5 million Crime Victims Civil Legal Services fund over the next biennium. The monies granted must be used to provide free civil legal services to low-income victims of crime.These diverse funding sources make it possible for the Texas Equal Access to Justice Foundation to grant millions of dollars each year for the provision of Legal Aid to low-income Texans
Now come on you know Cheney is the only one that knows how to operate that machine properly.
(Audible groan.)
What would you do, keep on sending vote losers out to the Senate?
Wrong. Roberts was put to replace O'Connor. That was a good pick. When Rehnquist died, GWB gave us the status quo by replacng Rehnquit with Roberts. Now, at best we get the status quo and probably a move to the left with Meirs.
This move was the sellout. No name calling, no elitism, just plain facts. GWB could have left things the way they were and replaced Rehnquist with another true conservative without the threat of Filibuster.
Call names if you like, this was a terrible blunder and in no way even comes close to strategery or whatever nonsense we are told.
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