Posted on 09/26/2007 2:33:29 PM PDT by Fudd Fan
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I think he said the “Jena Six” teen
WHAT ABOUT TERRI SHIVO?
Seymour is older than I am!
THANK ME!
The DA wanted Bell’s priors on the paper... obviously, the parents don’t give a damn. Instead of jumping on the parents (they didn’t do jack, and they should have made sure he wasn’t involved in any sports program with his prior actions, that’s a reward), they jump on the whole town.
What the hell took them so long to bring the case?
I saw the Democracy Now video BS of two of the kids ironing clothes to go party... they’re not worried.
It’s also nice how Bell’s dad... who wasn’t involved, flew down when this came out; I wonder if the revs called him to make it look more family-like or dad smelled moolah.
Hey IJ!
CRAIG! GET OFF OUR SIDE YOU BIG DOPE!
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/09/26/national/w153855D39.DTL&type=politics
Sen. Larry Craig said Wednesday he will remain in office while a Minnesota judge considers his bid to withdraw a guilty plea, overturning the senator’s previous statements of intent to resign by Sunday.
The Idaho Republican said he will stay in office “for now,” but people close to him said he will remain until the judge rules. Hennepin County Judge Charles Porter said he probably won’t decide the matter until next month.
Craig, who originally had planned to seek a fourth term next year, pleaded guilty in August to disorderly conduct following a June 11 sting operation in a men’s room at the Minneapolis airport.
Craig’s comments Wednesday were greeted with chilly silence from Senate Republican leaders who have made clear they wish he would step down and let Idaho’s GOP governor name a replacement. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters he had nothing to add to previous statements in which he said he thought Craig made the right decision on Sept. 1, when he announced his intention to resign by the month’s end.
“Today was a major step in the legal effort to clear my name,” Craig said in a statement Wednesday. “The court has not issued a ruling on my motion to withdraw my guilty plea. For now, I will continue my work in the U.S. Senate for Idaho.”
He later told reporters in the Capitol he had nothing to add.
Craig did not attend Wednesday’s hearing in Minneapolis before Porter. His lawyer, Billy Martin of Washington, acknowledged the difficulty of getting the guilty plea withdrawn, saying it is “near impossible, and it should be.”
Still, Martin’s team pursued a dual strategy, arguing that Craig’s conduct was not criminal and that the state didn’t handle the plea properly. They said the plea petition had no signature or other indication a judge had accepted it.
Craig has said he panicked and foolishly pleaded guilty without consulting a lawyer, in part because an Idaho newspaper had been pursuing claims he is gay. Craig says he is not gay.
Porter listened intently to Martin, peppering him with questions. Martin said Craig denies intentionally touching or talking to the arresting officer. “You should have either touching, or words,” Martin said.
Prosecutor Christopher Renz said the timing of Craig’s decision to withdraw his plea was political.
Craig “sat and was able to think about it a thousand miles away at his apartment on the Potomac,” Renz said at the hearing. “He called me about it” and could have called others if he needed advice.
Minnesota law allows guilty pleas to be withdrawn if a “manifest injustice” is shown. The term is not defined in law, leaving it to judges to decide.
When the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call reported the arrest in late August, some GOP colleagues urged Craig to step down. He signaled plans to do so, but left the door open with vague statements about hoping to clear his name.
Craig’s continued presence in the Senate is embarrassing to many GOP colleagues on two levels. First, he has pleaded guilty to a crime that some consider serious even as late-night TV hosts joke about it. And it adds to a list of scandals dogging Republican candidates, most of them related to allegations of influence peddling.
Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., noted Wednesday that Craig’s decision to stay in office beyond Sept. 30 would mean the Senate ethics committee will look into the airport incident. It was widely assumed the committee would not bother with an investigation if Craig stepped down promptly.
Craig gave up his leadership posts on Senate committees after his arrest become public. Senate Republicans would have to vote to restore those posts, an action seen as highly unlikely.
While top-ranking GOP senators had little or nothing to say about Wednesday’s events, Craig received warm comments from his Idaho colleagues in Congress.
Sen. Mike Crapo. R-Idaho, said in a statement, “I support Senator Craig’s decision to remain in the U.S. Senate. He, like every citizen facing allegations, deserves to be able to fully defend himself.”
Conyers’ own words:
Casting Aside the Separation of Powers
By John Conyers, Jr.
t r u t h o u t | Statement
Sunday 20 March 2005
By passing this bill, in this form, we will be intruding in the most sensitive possible family decision at the most ill-opportune time. It will be hard for this member to envision a case or circumstance that Congress will not be willing to involve itself in under this precedent.
By passing legislation which takes sides in an ongoing legal dispute, we will be casting aside the principle of separation of powers. We will be abandoning our role as a serious legislative branch, and take on the role not only of Judge, but of Doctor, Priest, Parent and Spouse.
By passing legislation which wrests jurisdiction away from a state judge and sends it to a single preselected federal court, we will abandon any pretense of federalism. The concept of a Jeffersonian Democracy as envisioned by the founders, and the states as “laboratories of democracy” as articulated by Justice Brandeis will lie in tatters.
By passing this legislation, in the complete absence of hearings or a committee markup, and with no opportunity for amendments, in complete violation of what we used to call “regular order,” we will send a signal that the usual rules of conduct and procedure no longer apply when they are inconvenient to the Majority Party.
By passing this legislation, and taking this sensitive decision away from a spouse and giving it to a federal court, we will make it abundantly clear that all the talk last year about marriage being a “sacred trust between a man and a woman” was just that - talk.
My friends on the other side of the aisle will declare that this legislation is about principle, and morals and values.
But if this legislation was only about principle, why would the Majority party be distributing talking points in the other body declaring that “this is a great political issue” and that by passing this bill, “the pro-life base will be excited.”?
http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/38/9769
Question.
Since illegals are getting licenses in NY, what’s to keep them from voting? Just asking.
Deunionize.
Nothing at all.
Heya Dahlin.
When the murderer of my BIL was trying to get his sentence commuted, my Congressman Lee Terry, said that he could not use his office to influence the courts.
He (or rather someone on his staff) said that the only thing he could do was to step in if we were not given a chance to address the parole board.
The young man I spoke to though was very helpful in giving me all sorts of ideas and those we could talk t, and how to phrase our letters and testimony.
Yeah that’s me./s
Quick pass the hat!
Don’t even need to show ID at voting booth in my county in NY!! go figger
Well, to be honest, nothing, and it didn’t really stop them before this.
All you require to register to vote is the “last four digits of a SSN.” Basically, you can pick 4 random numbers and you’re home free. They never check IDs anyway.
Same here.
But... they don’t have to show SSN to get a license now.
I interpreted that as a “star turn”. That is to say if she turns slow, the eye moves to her.
Yet you need ID to buy cigarettes at the convenience store or a bottle of wine at the liquor store. Voting is one of the greatest privileges offered to citizens of our country, and yet it’s treated more cavalierly than any other function in society.
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