Nose-Picking: More Acceptable than Judge-Picking

Watching CNN can sometimes incite one to hate society, and even some things that happen within our government, including our justice system. Even when you weigh all the matters as any rational person, you sometimes have to sit in wonder at what is allowed in our country.

Judges shouldn't be bought, or accept gifts--in general, it's a bad practice that leads to compromising our very foundations of society, tainting what we believe about ourselves and each other.

Yesterday afternoon I watched as CNN broke news that BP is 'requesting' a certain judge, in a certain oil-state in the US, who has previously presided over trials where the outcome was favorable for one of his biggest constituents, a corporation that won a $3 million dollar decision by his hand, or at least on of his hands, while his other hand was busy receiving gifts from that same corporation totaling over $50,000 (and that's only what was found so far).

By evening, CNN had put together this report online, complete with proof and more info proving that BP has no right to ask us for any judge--they'll get what they deserve, not what they want, or think they deserve. Entitlement is dangerous enough in America among teens; to allow it inroads into the operations of our judgeships is patently wrong, and self-destructive.

I've always thought that the major prerequisites of becoming a judge are that the candidate be above and beyond reproach, show no political favoritism, practice good judgment, and able to show compassion and mercy on the poor and unfortunate, no matter what their background, affiliation, or resources.

It is important that any trial for BP be held in Louisiana--this is far different from Katrina, which was, by New Orleans Mayor Nagin's own admission, 'an act of God' [but he said something a little different, if you remember....wow], and certainly different from 9/11, which is almost 'untryable', it remains such a notorious crime against humanity...this one needs to stay in LA, and definitely out of oil territory.

You gotta love TX for what it's worth, but that trial needs to remain within the legal region it affected.

I compare this to any small town alcoholic opining on his favorite judge, who inevitably shares his problem, so that poor town drunk will be a chronic soul-mate of his 'judge', maybe even joined by that judge eventually.

We don't need to subject any of our territories to an ultimate, long-term mistrial, then be forced to watch the proceedings on the media of choice, while the entire gulf will obviously never recover from this, not in our lifetimes...think about that.

My Hometown of...'Eminent Domain'

Lately my hometown is being over-annexed by a city commision seemingly bent on securing public funds for private folly.

Nationally, 'eminent domain' has been used enough to worry smaller communities into more recent watchdog groups, and there was even a 'Heraldo' special on it on his new Fox network.

This weeks' surprise was finding out that our city commissioners (five-wide, all in assent) approved a change to move our planned parking garage for our brand-new baseball park to the local university area, which makes things much more dangerous for families trying to control children scattering downtown on the way from private lots to any future games.

My subtitle for this little 'dandy' was going to be 'Eminent Domain--Annexation without Representation", but (seriously) thanks to Google, I just discovered that I didn't invent that line.

However, the slant seems to be toward 'local line itemization' in city government--and I think it's a bad thing...m'kay?

Here's the entire post I am making toward this end on our local 'Daily News' website, before I submit it to them also as an editorial letter.

"[WKU President] Ransdell's intention to use only 100 spaces in the parking garage should have been made clear before the vote.

100 petitioners signed against the change, and more than 20 showed up to argue against it [during the vote session itself].

I, for one, feel intentionally misled.

WKU runs off private funds--that's how they name the buildings at these university-'things'!

The city doesn't need [too look like] that, and WKU isn't serving enough of our demographic to qualify for public funding.

[Therefore, I think] BG is quietly being privatized.

The new WKU football stadium is only the most obvious example.

Who can care how bad WKU's football team is getting beaten, when you can't even read the stupid sign from the 'public' road anymore!

[WKU erected a giant monolithic scoreboard that feeds only those in attendance, without even a peek at the score from the whole world outside. Without the media, we would never have even known how badly they absolutely reek!]

The city commission misrepresented the facts from the beginning of their venue change, right down to local media coverage--which 'stanks', BTW!

If they had stated WKU's paltry request from the beginning, it would have made us ALL 'balk'.

I wouldn't be surprised if [lifetime local Good Ol' Boy Warren County Judge Executive] Mike Buchannon already has plans to shut down the ballpark anyway, most likely to make room for his own giant Hummer garage.

I am openly ashamed of the way politics has messed up the downtown area.

[For one thing,] The old Jr. High would have made a wonderful Community Center for everybody."

VP Joe Biden--No Slip of the Tongue!

Now, this is the right way to react to something as dumb as Barton's apology...I now forgive Biden for his many tongue-tied media flub-ups. I guess this goes to show that it really does take an opportunity like this to build character, to form a politician's outlook, and his/her public persona. Compare this opportunity to all the flub-ups, and basically you'll begin to see a pattern that we can all learn from...give a politician enough opportunity to mis-state (as in boring media-attended dinners, tedious photo-ops, even live state of the nation-style addresses), and he'll surely mess up eventually; and yes, so would we, or else we'd be too concerned on that job, believe me.

But, give anyone, anywhere, something to say based on what they believe, and you'll end up with something almost surely famous, if not merely repeatable for generations to come. Without purpose we'll flounder, but give us a reason, and we'll all turn out smarter.

Joe Barton Privately Knighted for His Butt-Grubbery

My first submission here was prompted by an evening news report showing Texas Congressman Joe Barton apologizing to BP CEO Jack Hayward for the way his company's image had been tarnished by our government.

Wow.

Herein lies the rub, as they say...except in this case, herein lies the entire, unedited context of my letter to Barton about an hour ago, which I 'emailed' him using his website contact form.

To Joe Barton:

I was sickened to hear your simpering, apologetic manner during the rightful, long overdue congressional hearings today. You should apologize to your constituency and all US citizenry for your disgusting lapdog behavior today while addressing a smirking, snotty-looking BP CEO Hayward. His attitude during the entire procedure, and of course, the entire preceding weeks, has angered me far beyond any other media personality I have witnessed in recent years.

You behaved as if you were in his pocket, sir.

I don't know you, but I assure you that your attitude today showed a severe cowardice and lack of good judgment. In the light of other recent revelations concerning Judge Lynn Hughes, I am certain the focus of the media will be on you both very, very tightly in the future weeks, and our people, the citizens of this proud country, will also be watching very closely as well, as you by no means are representing us, but both of you, yourselves, and yourselves only. Good luck in your next elections there in TX, now that we all are more concerned than ever that a foreign corporation could eventually begin buying votes there, or worse, tainting future elections using voter fraud.

Mike Denney