'Best of TBH Politoons'
Reader Comment
Lt. Watada's Mistrial
Marty;
America's (not so) New Military Kangaroo Court System Where A "Judge" Can
Declare "Mistrials" Until He's Assured a Conviction
A main question that must be asked regarding the "Missing Movement"
charge being prosecuted against this patriot of America's Constitution:
Did any conduct of either Lt. Watada or his councel cause this mistrial?
As it appears however, that the accused had nothing to do with it and did
not want this mistrial! The stipulations hammered out before the trial
seem to be quite clear ... Watada NEVER intended to imply that he had
ILLEGALLY missed movement.
Previously the presiding military judge, Lt. Col. Head, had attached his
seal of approval to the stipulation now in question. But unlike before,
seeing that his prosecutors had rather incompetently left open an avenue
for the defendant to introduce the fundamentally illegal nature of
America's conflict in Iraq, the trial court judge found it necessary to
"switch hats" and don that of a prosecutor. Lt. Col. Head then attempted
to "fix" his problem by expanding (wholly for the prosecution's benefit)
an element of the stipulation that Lt. Watada's defense team had clearly
rejected.
As ANY judge is only supposed to be a neutral observer who insures that
the rule of law is assiduously observed by both parties during any
courts-martial proceedings, It IS NOT the presiding official's job to
guarantee that only the government's representatives may have any
unqualified superior advantage to achieve their ultimate goal of
conviction. However, when it was discovered that the defendant had been
left with an advantage to present his case as a Constitutionally relevant
issue, exclusively because of the prosecution's sloppiness, under the
deceptive excuse of "protecting" Lt. Watada from "mistakes" made by the
prosecution, military judge Head has instead decided to "protect" the
prosecution from its own incompetence by declaring a mistrial.
Now, IF the defense had caused this mistrial, then under that
circumstance, the prosecution has the option of retrying the defendant
for his alleged crime. HOWEVER, IF the prosecution's own incompetence
motivates the presiding official to declare a mistrial, that prosecutor
shouldn't get a "second chance" to screw up again. As it is, it seems
that Lt. Col. Head yet intends to call mistrials until his prosecution
dunderheads finally get it right! To him, DOUBLE JEAPORDY is obviously a
Constitutional obligation that all United States military members may be
required to suffer.
Because of the obvious bias against the defendant that Lt Col. Head has
displayed, he should summarily be removed from the case. ALSO, because
the cause of this mistrial rests with the prosecution's inability to
"insightfully" perform, the case SHOULD be dismissed WITH PREJUDICE.
(related article)
DanD
Thanks, Dan!
Freshly Updated!
Dick Eats Bush
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Francesca Heintz: Jesus Walked (citypaper.net)
Repent America learns that anti-gay rhetoric isn't necessarily protected speech.
Chris Braiotta: Election-Stealer Steals Movie (weeklydig.com)
Ralph Nader is uncool at any speed.
Deanna Isaacs: Whose Idea Is It Anyway? (chicagoreader.com)
In copyright law, it doesn't really matter-it's the execution that counts.
Amy Goodman: Goodbye, Dear Molly -- Pots And Pans, Play On!
Molly has died, but the fight goes on.
Nancy Snow: Why I turned down Hustler (latimes.com)
A propaganda expert mulls over and ultimately declines an interview with Larry Flynt's magazine.
Beverly C. Lucey: Movie Star Teachers (irascibleprofessor.com)
There's a cliché around that says, "Everyone knows everything about their own business and show business." Also, because most everyone has gone to school, somehow it makes them experts in their own field... and teaching. Another aphorism notes, "Show business is like high school, only with money."
Joel Stein: TV Sucks? Don't blame the execs (latimes.com)
Writers whine about idiot bosses ruining shows, but their own writing is often the culprit.
Scott Renshaw: It Had to Be Hugh
Music and Lyrics shows that Hugh Grant still has the romantic comedy chops.
Reader Comment
Re: Teacher Faces Prison
Marty-
We had a similar incident in our District this year. A teacher had his fifth grade students working on research and while walking around helping them, he found a student shutting down an inappropriate site. The student denied it. The teacher reported it immediately to his Principal.
The final decision, after the teacher was suspended for ten days, was that his students are not using the computers.... The reason given: the computers in his classroom were dismantled and he is forbidden to set them up again. If he does set them up, he will be considered "insubordinate" and fired.
The District refuses to set them up because they are "obsolete" which means older than five years. So once again, the students suffer!! The parents are afraid to complain because the students love their teacher and they don't want him to get in any more trouble.
SGV Teacher
Thanks, Teach!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Overcast, but no rain.
In a 'normal' year we'd have had about 8½" of rain by now - the total this year is 1½".
Added a new flag - Laos 
Documentary To Be Shown In Portuguese Schools
Al Gore
Ex-US vice president Al Gore's global warming documentary will be shown at public schools across Portugal as part of a campaign to tackle climate change, Prime Minister Jose Socrates said.
"I think the duty of a politician is to divulge a political message so that all citizens are more aware of what they can do to solve this global problem," Socrates, a former environment minister, said after meeting with Gore.
The world's largest solar power plant began operating in Portugal's sunny south last year while the world's first commercial wave power station is planned for the country's northern Atlantic coast.
Several other countries, including Spain and Britain, have decided to show Gore's film in their public schools.
Al Gore
Director Visits Tolkien's Grave
Matthew Warchus
The director of a revamped "The Lord of the Rings" musical went to J.R.R. Tolkien's grave to seek the author's posthumous blessing for staging the cult classic -- and he apologised in case the writer disapproved.
"That was a magical moment," director Matthew Warchus told reporters on Thursday when presenting to the press the 50-strong cast of what is being billed as the most expensive musical ever staged in London.
The musical, extensively reworked and cut by 40 minutes after its world premiere in Toronto received some damning reviews, opens in London in June where it faces tough competition from a string of hit musicals.
Matthew Warchus
Rescues Hand-Drawn Animation
Disney
Hand-drawn animation, out of fashion in the computer age, experienced a rescue worthy of a fairy tale on Thursday, when Walt Disney animators announced they would bring back the art form to the big screen.
"We will be bringing back hand-drawn (two-dimensional) films," said Disney's Ed Catmull, the President of Pixar and Disney Feature Animation.
Animators refer to hand-drawn animation as "two dimensional," as opposed to computer-generated animation, referred to as 3D.
Disney
Media Under Siege
`Frontline'
The timing could hardly be better. "News War" is a "Frontline" probe into the modern Fourth Estate, embattled from many directions. And, by chance, it coincides with the imminent conclusion to a Washington free-for-all that has ensnared the news media: the perjury trial of former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
The first hour of the four-part series does a splendid job of untangling the snarl of events that began in early 2003 with the Bush administration's successful drive to win support from the public, and the media, for invading Iraq.
Airing Tuesday on PBS at 9 p.m. EST (check local listings), "Secrets, Sources & Spin" lays out how the government peddled its point of view to major media outlets by planting confidential tips that supported administration claims about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Such tips sparked stories which the government then cited as bolstering its claim.
Few in the media broke this information loop at the time, nor managed to uncover what became obvious only after the invasion: There were no WMDs.
`Frontline'
Rupert Claims Turf
Sacha Baron Cohen
British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen has signed a deal to make "Borat 2," a sequel to the hit film about a boorish Kazakh journalist on a road trip across America, News Corp. Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch said on Thursday.
Murdoch, whose company owns the Hollywood studio behind the original film, 20th Century Fox, offered no details about the planned follow-up as he spoke to reporters at a media conference, other than to say the film's star and creator was on board.
Asked whether he had seen "Borat," Murdoch said, "Sure, about three times. ... We laughed like hell. We went out to dinner and laughed all over again."
Sacha Baron Cohen
Painting Sets Record
Francis Bacon
Christie's auctioned a Francis Bacon painting belonging to Sophia Loren for the record price of 14.2 million pounds (21.2 million euros, 27.5 million dollars).
The sale price makes it the most expensive work of art ever by Bacon, and a record price for a painting in the post-war period in US dollars, though not in pounds -- an effect of modern exchange rates.
"Study for a Portrait II," painted in 1956 by the Anglo-Irish artist and part of the series inspired by the portrait of Pope Innocent X by Velasquez, was estimated to sell for 12 million pounds, the highest estimate of any work in a bumper crop of auctions this week by Christie's and rival Sotheby's.
Francis Bacon
Political Purge
U.S. Attorney
Former U.S. Attorney John McKay said his resignation was ordered by the Bush administration without explanation seven months after he received a favorable job evaluation.
"I was ordered to resign as U.S. attorney on Dec. 7 by the Justice Department," McKay said Wednesday in a telephone interview from Washington, D.C. "I was given no explanation. I certainly was told of no performance issues."
His comments came one day after Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty acknowledged to the Senate Judiciary Committee that the Justice Department had fired seven U.S. attorneys in the West in the past year, most of them for "performance-related" reasons he would not divulge.
A provision in the reauthorization of the Patriot Act that took effect in March allows the attorney general to appoint U.S. attorneys indefinitely without Senate confirmation.
U.S. Attorney
Keeping It All In The Family
Uncle Bucky
One of resident Bush's uncles, William H.T. Bush, was among directors of a defense contractor who reaped $6 million from what federal regulators say was an illegal scheme by two executives to manipulate the timing of stock option grants, documents show.
The uncle, known as "Bucky," is the youngest brother of former President George H.W. Bush. William H.T. Bush was an outside, nonexecutive director of Engineered Support Systems Inc., a defense contractor whose profits were bolstered because of the Iraq war.
Bush and the others who sat on the ESSI board were not accused of any wrongdoing in the SEC's civil lawsuit Tuesday against the company's former chief financial officer and former controller. Those two were accused of enriching themselves and others with a backdating scheme. Bush made about $450,000 selling some of the stock in 2005.
Uncle Bucky
Tofu Grave For Needles
Hari-kuyo
Kimono-makers laid their old needles to rest during the "hari-kuyo" needle festival at Buddhist temples all over Japan on Thursday, sticking them into soft chunks of tofu bean curd to thank them for their hard work.
Japan's throwaway culture can rival that of any Western country, but at the Sensoji temple in central Tokyo, dozens of women in jewel-coloured kimonos honoured their broken tools with the 400-year-old rite.
Women crowded around a big slab of tofu spiked with a multitude of colourful pins in front of the temple, purifying themselves with incense, praying and carefully adding their own needles as a group of monks chanted in the background.
Hari-kuyo is one of the many festivals where animist beliefs rooted in Japan's Shinto religion merge with Buddhist rites.
Hari-kuyo
Oh, Canada
Hacker
Red-faced officials at Canada's nuclear safety watchdog on Thursday said they were probing how a hacker had managed to litter its official Web site with dozens of colour photographs of a nuclear explosion.
The Ottawa Citizen newspaper said every media release on the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission's Web site had been labelled as a security breach on Wednesday. When opened, each document had a headline reading "For immediate release" and underneath was a large photo of an exploding atomic bomb.
The Citizen -- which published a colour photograph of one of the tampered pages -- said the hacker had left a message saying "Please dont (sic) put me in jail ... oops, I divided by zero".
Hacker
Friend Of Scooter
Fred Thompson
Joining Libby's public relations person, Barbara Comstock, in the public gallery was former Tennessee Republican Sen. Fred Thompson, who plays a New York City prosecutor on the NBC series "Law & Order." He came to listen while another NBC star, Washington bureau chief Tim Russert, was cross-examined by defense attorney Theodore Wells.
At one point, Libby's wife, Harriet Grant, went back and sat beside Thompson. They hugged, laughed and chatted for a few minutes before she returned to her seat in the front row.
Asked why he came, Thompson said, "I'm a friend of `Scooter' Libby and his family."
The former senator is on the steering committee of the Scooter Libby Legal Defense Fund Trust, an organization that set out to raise more than $5 million to help finance Libby's defense.
Fred Thompson
In Memory
Anna Nicole Smith
Anna Nicole Smith, the pneumatic blonde whose life played out as an extraordinary tabloid tale - Playboy centerfold, jeans model, bride of an octogenarian oil tycoon, reality-show subject, tragic mother - died Thursday after collapsing at a hotel. She was 39.
Through the '90s and into the new century, Smith was famous for being famous, a pop-culture punchline because of her up-and-down weight, her Marilyn Monroe looks, her exaggerated curves, her little-girl voice, her ditzy-blonde persona, and her over-the-top revealing outfits.
The Texas-born Smith was a topless dancer at strip club before she entered her photos in a search contest and made the cover of Playboy magazine in 1992. She became Playboy's playmate of the year in 1993. She was also signed to a contract with Guess jeans, appearing in TV commercials, billboards and magazine ads.
In 1994, she married 89-year-old oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, owner of Great Northern Oil Co. In 1992, Forbes magazine estimated his wealth at $550 million.
Marshall died in 1995 at age 90, setting off a feud with Smith's former stepson, E. Pierce Marshall, over his estate. A federal court in California awarded Smith $474 million. That was later overturned. But in May, the U.S. Supreme Court revived her case, ruling that she deserved another day in court.
Smith starred in her own reality TV series, "The Anna Nicole Show," in 2002-04. Cameras followed her around as she sparred with her lawyer, hung out with her personal assistant and interior decorator, and cooed at her poodle, Sugar Pie. She also appeared in movies, performing a bit part in "The Hudsucker Proxy" in 1994.
Smith was born Vickie Lynn Hogan on Nov. 28, 1967, in Houston, one of six children. Her parents split up when she was a toddler, and she was raised by her mother, a deputy sheriff.
Anna Nicole Smith
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