I beg to differ. We have evolved a legal system over more than 250 years. Our system balances the rights of the accused versus the rights of the victim. Trials are as much about evidence as they are about process. We’ve been told by our politicians that we are a good and just people. If that is true then we should be able to have a trial in which US citizens set on the jury, weigh the evidence and make a fair decision. In my opinion, these trials are as much about placing the guilty behind bars as it is in showing the world that eight years after the terrorist attacks that we can conduct a fair and just process not only in the eyes of the American people but also in the eyes of the world.

more

I beg to differ. We have evolved a legal system over more than 250 years. Our system balances the rights of the accused versus the rights of the victim. Trials are as much about evidence as they are about process. We’ve been told by our politicians that we are a good and just people. If that is true then we should be able to have a trial in which US citizens set on the jury, weigh the evidence and make a fair decision. In my opinion, these trials are as much about placing the guilty behind bars as it is in showing the world that eight years after the terrorist attacks that we can conduct a fair and just process not only in the eyes of the American people but also in the eyes of the world.

more

http://bossip.com/179300/for-the-stans-bey-bey-...

http://bossip.com/179311/charles-barkley-and-tn...

this is so funny; watch the video at the link.

Denzel Washington's son Malcolm played his first basketball game as a member of the University of Pennsylvania tonight, and the movie star attended to cheer his son on. Wearing a black Yankees cap and Patagonia fleece, the AP reports that Washington went “virtually unnoticed in the Jordan Center crowd.” Malcolm did not play and his team lost to Penn State, 70-55.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/13/denzel...

MILBRIDGE, Me. — Down a rural road where wood smoke spirals from chimneys in the settling twilight, a five-acre lot thick with spruce trees is the unlikely site of a dream deferred.

This is the intended spot for a small apartment complex for farmworkers, a few hundred of whom are Hispanics living year-round in this remote corner of Down East Maine. They harvest blueberries, process seafood and assemble holiday wreaths, and most live in trailers near the fields and factories where they work.

A local nonprofit group won a $1 million federal grant last year to build the six-unit complex, a first step toward expanding housing options for the immigrant laborers, most of whom come from Mexico and Honduras.

But then ugly words were uttered, a petition was circulated, and voters in this town of 1,300 approved a moratorium on multifamily housing in June, blocking the project.

Now the group, Mano en Mano — Spanish for Hand in Hand — has filed a federal lawsuit alleging discrimination under the Fair Housing Act and the equal protection clause of the Constitution. And Milbridge, which once won acclaim for its efforts to welcome and integrate immigrants, is smarting from accusations of racism.

“We have always been very open and receptive and accommodating,” said Lewis Pinkham, the town manager, police chief and code enforcement officer. “In my personal opinion, this got blown out of proportion.”

According to the lawsuit and local newspaper accounts, some residents opposed the project on grounds that farmworkers’ children overburdened the schools; others predicted it would be a drug haven. The petition, signed by 48 residents, said jobs should be saved for local lobstermen, whose industry is suffering, and not “given out to minorities that may move into these units.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/us/15milbridg...

WASHINGTON — In the official record of the historic House debate on overhauling health care, the speeches of many lawmakers echo with similarities. Often, that was no accident.

Statements by more than a dozen lawmakers were ghostwritten, in whole or in part, by Washington lobbyists working for Genentech, one of the world’s largest biotechnology companies.

E-mail messages obtained by The New York Times show that the lobbyists drafted one statement for Democrats and another for Republicans.

The lobbyists, employed by Genentech and by two Washington law firms, were remarkably successful in getting the statements printed in the Congressional Record under the names of different members of Congress.

Genentech, a subsidiary of the Swiss drug giant Roche, estimates that 42 House members picked up some of its talking points — 22 Republicans and 20 Democrats, an unusual bipartisan coup for lobbyists.

In an interview, Representative Bill Pascrell Jr., Democrat of New Jersey, said: “I regret that the language was the same. I did not know it was.” He said he got his statement from his staff and “did not know where they got the information from.”

Members of Congress submit statements for publication in the Congressional Record all the time, often with a decorous request to “revise and extend my remarks.” It is unusual for so many revisions and extensions to match up word for word. It is even more unusual to find clear evidence that the statements originated with lobbyists.

The e-mail messages and their attached documents indicate that the statements were based on information supplied by Genentech employees to one of its lobbyists, Matthew L. Berzok, a lawyer at Ryan, MacKinnon, Vasapoli & Berzok who is identified as the “author” of the documents. The statements were disseminated by lobbyists at a big law firm, Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/us/politics/1...

Found some INTERESTIN' INFO of Alter:

+Jonathan Alter
From Wikipedia,

When Newsweek launched his wide-ranging column in 1991, it was the first time the magazine allowed regular political commentary in the magazine, other than on the back page. After the election of Bill Clinton in 1992, during which Alter was a consultant to MTV, he was among a small group of reporters and columnists who had regular access to Clinton, though he was far from a reliable supporter, particularly during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. “Alter bites me in the ass sometimes, but at least he knows what we're trying to do,” Clinton was quoted as saying in the book Media Circus by The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz.

Sooooo- it seems as IFF – - -ya CAIN'T TRUST him!!!

I – - -HEAR ya!! :>) :>)

I hate this kind of bs article.

A very good source tells me that African-American friends of the Obamas in Chicago and Washington are steamed over the editing of the campaign documentary By the People, which aired on HBO last week. The documentary team was granted extraordinary behind-the-scenes access to the Obamas and their staffers and friends.

Senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and close friend and informal adviser Marty Nesbitt were interviewed at length for the film but appeared only in the background. (The source wasn't sure whether a third longtime friend of Obamas, Eric Whitaker, was interviewed.) Both were present for critical moments like the Reverend Wright episode and are, of course, extremely close to Obama. But in the film, they came across as extras.

The source said that the filmmakers shot much more tape than they could possibly use and that lots of important people and scenes were left on the cutting-room floor, but the omission distorts history. “For them to exclude her [Valerie] is a false reflection of reality,” said the source, a close friend of both Jarrett and the Obamas. “Some of us were almost physically sick watching it.”

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thegaggle/archiv...

Clinton also headlines NBC’s “Meet the Press,” where she’ll be followed by an education discussion with Education Secretary Arne Duncan, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and the Rev. Al Sharpton.

Giuliani also appears on CNN’s “State of the Union,” as do senior White House adviser David Axelrod, who's traveling with President Barack Obama on his nine-day Asia trip; Sens. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and Judd Gregg (R-N.H.); and Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat.

Gregg, the ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, will be interviewed as well on C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers.”

The former mayor, who’s reportedly flirting with a bid for New York governor, also takes to “Fox News Sunday,” along with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.).

CBS’s “Face the Nation” hosts Michigan Rep. Pete Hoekstra, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, and Vermont Sen. Pat Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Bloomberg’s “Political Capital” hosts Anita Dunn, who's stepping down as White House communications director, and White House Budget Director Peter Orszag.

Dunn, interviewed Friday by Bloomberg’s Al Hunt as part of its Washington Summit at the Newseum, said the White House’s fight with Fox News had discouraged other TV networks from following its lead. “It did help people get a sense of perspective again,” Dunn said. “People took a step back and said, ‘Hmm, am I really wanting to go chase those stories?’ ”

Finally, TV One’s “Washington Watch” interviews Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.), retired Army Major Gen. John Hawkins and Ibrahim Hooper, national communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.