The Hall of Fire

It will have some effect, though not much. I might influence some African-American voters. Unlike some here (I won't name names, vison ;)), I have some respect for Jesse Jackson. No he is not perfect, he can be very opportunistic, and even hypocritical at times, but he has done a lot of good things ...

Kyle Sampson, Gonzales' former Chief of Staff who resigned over the scandal, testified today and put a few more nails in Gonzales' coffin. Most damning, he directly contradicted Gonzales' statement that he was not closely involved in the firings, testifying that he recalled numerous conversations th...

You know, it occurred to me after I posted that that you probably did not know that, and I that by posting it I might have upset you. I'm relieved to learn that you had heard about it from another source already. I myself did not know that a torture charge had a life sentence until I looked up the s...

To give a sense of the level of responsibility that Fairamond and his fellow jurors were facing:

Penal Code §206.1. Torture is punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for a term of life.

I wish I had the exact list of conditions for a finding of guilty on the torture count. Here you go: California Penal §206. Every person who, with the intent to cause cruel or extreme pain and suffering for the purpose of revenge, extortion, persuasion, or for any sadistic purpose, inflicts great b...

Fascinating, as always.

Wow, that must have been interesting, Elsha! When you say his message was one of unity, I presume you mean unity between both sides, not just unity among his supporters? more than that, fixing economic and social crises such as health care and drug use. This is what I find most encouraging; it reall...

As soon as I split this thread off it turned to yet a different topic.

Sigh. At least it is an interesting one.

to JogOn, another old friend, under a different name (which I will leave to him to reveal or not reveal).

Good to see you here!

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will be holding bi-weekly discussions aimed at paving the way for a final settlement to the Middle East conflict. I don't know how much room there is for optimism, but talking is better then not talking. Frankly, until there is an Am...

Yes, I would say that is a good assumption.

I think there is some chance that that will happen, Cerin, though I share your skepticism. There is certainly a growing movement in that direction. From CBS News' Court Watch, yesterday: Getting most of the publicity this past weekend were official documents that directly contradict the statements A...

Yup. I think they had so much on their plate, and they tried to do so many things, that they just forgot to tie up that thread.

Yes, it was. I think, quite frankly, that it fell through the cracks.

Thanks for the update, Tosh. I was beginning to wonder. Looking forward to the next installments.

The news today that long time enemies Ian Paisley, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), and Gerry Adams, head of the mainly Catholic Sinn Fein, sat side by side for the first time today to announce a ground-breaking power-sharing agreement struck me, at least from the point of view of an o...

Today the lawyer for Monica Goodling, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' liaison with the White House announced that she will refuse to answer questions at upcoming Senate hearings about the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, citing her Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination. I think th...

Me neither, yov. I actually think it was quite cleverly done, and an excellent way to bring Arwen into the second film, when it became clear that the originally (in my opinion badly conceived) concept of having her play an active role in the fight at Helms Deep was (fortunately abandoned). But that ...

Well, its a small, and often very slow community, with a very low profile in the broader internet community. We are trying to expand slowly but surely. Getting thoughtful people like yourself on board is just what we are looking for. Poke around to your heart's content, and jump in whereever and whe...