Dec 19 2007
If you think that the world works any other way than this, that people do business with their friends or other people they have relationships with, you are doomed to disappointment.
Still, one thing I have a very hard thing tolerating is abuses of power relationships. Call it bullying or harassment or what ever kind of coercive threat you care to, I find it fundamentally offensive.
I’m going to present 3 cases of what I think are abuses of power and I’d be curious to see how you react to them.
Dec 19 2007
This is a question for people here. Recently, I found out that shortly after the Supreme Court decision ending mandatory minimums for crack cocaine, President Bush commuted the fifthsentence of his Presidency. He commuted the sentence of Michael D. Short, who had served fifteen years for conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine, and will be released in February, less than a year before his sentence will expire.
Now, this is something I consider good news. I am a member of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, as is Mr. Short. But I couldn’t help but to be curious as to why this one particular individual was given clemency by President Bush, with no explanation given, mere hours after the Supreme Court made its decision public. So I dug a little deeper.
Mr. Short, as it turns out, was convicted in a trial of 26 members of what was called the “Woodridge group”, a cocaine dealing ring in Washington D.C. in the 1980s. His trial was part of a large group of trials known at the time as the Winestock trial. Mr. Short, along with nearly all the other people convicted in that trial, have filed many appeals, all of which have been denied, but Mr. Short, unlike other co-defendants, only appealed on procedural and inadequate counsel grounds. Beyond numerous recorded phone conversations, the main witness in the Winestock trial was a member of the Woodridge group who gave testimony in exchange for leniency at his own sentencing. That witness was Brian Lee Tribble, who had previously been accused and then cleared of providing basketball star Len Bias with the cocaine that killed him the night after he was selected second in the NBA draft.
I have, of course, a lot more details, but none of it really goes anywhere. I can’t answer why Bush chose this individual out of all the people in America serving long sentences for crack distribution. But the whole thing seems odd. Is this worth blogging in detail? Or am I wasting my time?
Dec 19 2007
(Iglesia is a serialized novel, published on Tuesdays and Saturdays at midnight ET, you can read all of the episodes by clicking on the tag.)
Previous Episode
.
She just laid there for a while…feeling.
When she realized she was afraid to close her eyes, it made her brain start up.
Where am I, how did I get here, where’s my gun, what am I going to have for dinner….wait, back up.
Ok, what was her tactical situation here, get a grip think clearly, use your training. She was in a fabulously ornate domed pavilion that was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. She was laying motionless on some sort of platform, she had no idea how she got here and her last memory was…….
Dec 19 2007
Politickery, some late-night shows returning without writers, awards shows denied waivers, action and donation links, more politickery…
and nothing at all like this:
In the meadow we can build a snowman And pretend that he’s a circus clown We’ll have lots of fun with mister snowman Until we get kinda thirsty. Nom nom nom. |
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Dec 19 2007
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For a few months we have been a member of BlogAds – one of over 1500 participating blogs. BlogAds has subdivided the blogs into “hives” to allow advertisers to more easily target particular audiences. You need to get permission from the hive owner to join. Docudharma was recently accepted in the Liberal Blog Ads Network (LBAN) hive. This is the same network that Daily Kos and a lot of the big name political bloggers belong to (see below). There are currently 156 members, so there are a lot of lesser known blogs on it too… like us. Being in the LBAN helps distinguish us amongst the umpteen other categories, such as Parenting, Sports, Science, Religion, Gay, Gossip, Music and Other blogs.
One of the criteria to join LBAN is that you have to take part in the Blog Reader Survey. This will help us to be more successful at drawing advertisers based on our demographics, so please do your dharmic duty and….
Take the Blog Reader Survey
Dec 19 2007
(This is my personal opinion and does not represent the views of DocuDharma or any of the other bloggers at DD)
The blogosphere is abuzz with praise for Senator Chris Dodd.
The Republicans also acted like asses, as usual, which may have soured some of the Democrats who were trying to give them everything they wanted and yet they wouldn’t take yes for an answer.
Whatever the case, while the “Lieberman for Lieberman” senator from Connecticut may have spent the day preening all over the television shilling for war and Republicans, the Democratic senator from Connecticut, Chris Dodd, was acting like a patriot.
Whatever else is true, Chris Dodd took a principled stand today, sacrificing his presidential campaign and alienating his long-time colleagues to do so, and he won. He demonstrated what “leadership” is in action, rather than “rhetoric.” Acts of that kind on our national political stage are rare indeed.
Chris Dodd showed tremendous leadership. He stood by his principles and wouldn’t back down, even in the face of opposition from members of his own party who were in the tank for the telecos and the Bush Administration.
Well played, Senator Dodd.
And while you’re at it, a few thanks yous are in order. Kudos to the Senators, including Boxer, Kennedy, Wyden, Brown, Feingold and Bill Nelson for engaging with Dodd on the floor on this issue, showing their willingness to stand with him and help in the filibuster, and to Reid for listening to us.
But most importantly, thank you Senator Dodd.
Dec 19 2007
or too few?
PLEASE GO TO moneysmiths PONY PARTY
She is a personal friend of Jack Nicholson.
PLUS-there’s a live webcam and whipped cream all over the place!!!
And moneysmith is taking all of us to the Grand Caymans to PARTY if you all go over there and stop commenting here!!
Dec 19 2007
There’s music at NOCATZ’s Pony Party!! And he’s giving away free money, too! PLUS, THERE’S PUPPIES EVERYWHERE — ADORABLE, CUDDLY WUDDLY LITTLE DOGGERS, FREE TO THE FIRST 100 VISITORS! QUICK, THEY’RE GOING FAST!!!
Greetings from Ground Zero for all things silly and superficial (aka, Hollywood), and welcome to the Pony Party Totally Augmented Edition, brought to you by the “30 Minute!! Breast Enlargement” (Great Financing Available!), which I am so not making up. (Note to doctor: thanks for the bulk mail postcard offering your services, but I’m gonna pass. Small quibble: not sure how many anatomy classes you missed in medical school, but re: the “scarless, soft, natural” breasts you’re offering – those are already standard equipment on all the Double X chromosome models. Just thought you should know…)
Burning Pony Party Question du Jour – forget that time’s running out on the annual epidemic of madness, honoring the holy trinity of Visa, MasterCard and American Express, during which otherwise sane people part with way, WAY more money than they should and spend the next eleven months looking for a country that has no extradition treaty with the U.S. regarding consumer debt.
Let’s get right to the good stuff – New Year’s Eve, baby! This entire year has pretty much sucked big time. Just like many of those before it. So how about something different? Something – hmm, what’s that word? Starts with an “FU”-no, not that one, the one you never hear anymore. Oh, yeah, FUN!
You know you want it! Even if you can’t remember what it feels like to laissez les bon temps roulez! So let’s get busy, party people. Let’s put aside our pathetic pleas for justice and begging for an end to torture and wiretaps. Take a deeeeeeeep breath, and exhale. Good! Now visualize the Republicans (and a pretty good chunk of Democrats) where they belong — featured on “America’s Most Wanted: Multiple Felonies with No Plea Bargains Allowed Special Edition”! Feel the tension fall away as your jaw finally unclenches and your hair stops standing on end. Very nice!
Now let’s keep it going by indulging in a little fantasy: If you could spend New Year’s Eve partying — guilt-free, with no regrets and no need to hire a good defense attorney afterward — with anyone on the planet, who would be the lucky person?
Giddyup! And remember: Do not rec the Pony Party (Seriously, you were going to rec this??? How drunk are you? Give me the car keys right now, okay?) Just divulge your innermost fantasies for December 31 and begone with you, while I snicker over your choices stand in awe of your outstanding taste. The critically acclaimed Front Page awaits, with late-breaking news, insightful analysis and actual substance, none of which you’re in danger of finding here
Dec 19 2007
Greetings, literature-loving Dharmiacs. Last time we discussed gay Harlem Renaissance author Richard Bruce Nugent, who tapped into the experimental cadences of black modernist literature to spin fantasies on queer life long before it became acceptable to do so. This week we’re going to talk about another American experimental writer, albeit one who achieved enormous popularity both at home and abroad.
With torture and extraordinary rendition so much in the news, it may come as something as a surprise that today’s subject experienced the agony of unjust political imprisonment first hand. But in 1917, this recent Harvard graduate and volunteer in a World War I ambulance corps found himself thrown in prison for “espionage” without recourse to any legal defense. Fortunately for history (and for us) the experience did nothing to crush his puckish personality, and he went on to become one of America’s most warmly loved artists.
Follow me below for a jaunt with this 20th century master:
Dec 19 2007
It’s the time of year… we look upward for a sign
Maybe it’ll be this year… we’ll find what we’ve always been looking for.
We lay there & looked up at the night sky and she told me about stars called blue squares and red swirls and I told her I’d never heard of them. Of course not, she said, the really important stuff they never tell you. You have to imagine it on your own.”
Brian Andreas, Blue Squares
