Emil Review

by Steve Crampton, Esq.**
The shattered remains of our once-glorious legal tradition are littered with the opinions of stealth nominees chosen by Republican Presidents who asked us to trust them.I don’t know Harriet Miers personally. Neither do most pro-family leaders, Congressmen, or for that matter most Americans. And there’s the rub: President Bush’s latest stealth candidate for a seat on the Supreme Court is an unknown with no paper trail. For all we know she could have been in the federal witness protection program for the past twenty years.

Stealth politics is premised on the theory that the less information the opposition can glean about a particular nominee, the less likely they will be able to defeat her nomination. I am as supportive of anyone of seeing qualified judicial nominees affirmed, or at any rate at least ensuring that they receive a floor vote by the entire Senate. But there is a down side to stealth politics, and the nomination of Ms. Miers underscores the inherent limitations of such tactics: Even the President’s friends are left to guess at her qualifications.

John Roberts was called a stealth candidate, too, but after two years on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, 39 Supreme Court arguments, and several law review articles, compared to the mole hill of Ms. Miers the paper trail of Judge Roberts looks like a massive mountain. Judge Roberts’ judicial philosophy was consistently reflected in his written opinions as a judge, echoed in his briefs written as a lawyer, and stated straightforwardly in his testimony before the Senate Judiciary — and still doubts remain.

Harriet Miers’ judicial philosophy, as best we can discern, even now has not been fully formed, much less articulated. After an hour’s private meeting with her, Senator Sam Brownback, an influential member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a staunch conservative, left frustrated at the lack of information and insight revealed. Like the rest of us, Senator Brownback was left trying “to gather little pieces of shreds of evidence” about who Harriet Miers really is and what she believes.

The factors weighing in favor of Ms. Miers may be summarized as follows: (1) President Bush, who has performed well with other judicial nominations, has said she is the best candidate for the job; (2) her friends assure us she is a devout evangelical Christian; and (3) Dr. James Dobson has endorsed her nomination. With all due respect, this is not exactly an overwhelming case for confirmation.

Merely being an evangelical Christian does not automatically qualify one for any position. Specific knowledge and skills are required for almost any job, and sitting on the highest court in the land is not just any job. Dr. Dobson’s endorsement, while admittedly weighty, was predicated upon the private assurances of Ms. Miers’ friends and colleagues, and her church affiliation. While these may be important factors, they do not provide assurance that she possesses the necessary skills and knowledge for the job, and they do not settle for most of us the question of her judicial philosophy.

President Bush, in what was intended to be the clincher in winning over his base, assured us he “knows her heart.” This phrase is a mushy, modern evangelical expression intended to vouch for an individual’s faith. It is not a phrase heard in the Roman Catholic or Orthodox traditions, and for good reason: it is entirely unscriptural. Loose language makes for muddled logic. It clouds our thinking and confuses the issue.

Scripture provides a clear example of the utter inability of man to truly know the heart. The good prophet Samuel, sent to anoint the next king of Israel, looked on David’s eldest brother, Eliab, who apparently presented an impressive outward appearance, and said to himself, “surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him.” But God chastised Samuel and instructed him that “man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” In other words, man cannot see the heart; only God can.

While President Bush obviously knows Ms. Miers well, even he does not know her heart. He cannot be certain that she will stand firm under the intense fire generated against a Supreme Court justice, or how she will vote on particular issues that arise. His claim to know her heart, then, does not clarify anything; it only confuses the matter further.

Reduced to its essence, the President’s invitation is to simply trust him: This from a man who rode to reelection on the promise to appoint judges in the mold of Justices Antonin Scalia or Clarence Thomas. And whatever else Ms. Miers may be, no one has seriously suggested she is another Scalia or Thomas. (Neither is John Roberts, for all his many good qualities.)

For me, the stakes are too high to place blind trust in the President’s choice. The shattered remains of our once-glorious legal tradition are littered with the opinions of stealth nominees chosen by Republican Presidents who asked us to trust them: Warren, Brennan, Blackmun, Stevens, Souter, and O’Connor head the list. Indeed, I am hard pressed to think of a single stealth nominee who actually turned out to be a constitutionalist (though to be fair, the jury is still out on Chief Justice Roberts).

It is too late in the day in our nation’s history to play another round of Russian roulette with the rule of law.

Friends don’t let friends make weighty decisions in ignorance. Unless Ms. Miers can demonstrate unequivocally her judicial philosophy and qualifications for the office of Supreme Court Justice, her nomination should be withdrawn.
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**Mr. Crampton serves as Chief Counsel of the American Family Association Center for Law & Policy (CLP), a public interest-type law firm. The CLP’s web site is www.afa.net/clp. Mr. Crampton’s daily radio show, “We Hold These Truths,” can be heard on almost 200 radio stations nationwide. He can be reached at clp@afa.net.

futuregoogle
Originally uploaded by Jesper Juel. We all heard yesterday’s news about Google’s acquisition of Double Click. What does the future hold? Philipp Lenssen at Google Blogoscoped sees the future:MAY 12, 2017 - BUSINESSWIRE. Mountain View-based search giant Google Inc today announced they’ve acquired the internet for the astounding sum of $2,455.5 billion in cash. The deal had been rumored in various search blogs since the beginning of the year and was now confirmed by the company’s CEO. “This is in line with our vision to make information more accessible to end users,

This morning Scott Ingram of NetworkInAustin.com and I were the presenters at the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce “Breakfast Club Meeting”. Over 80 people participated in this interactive facilitated networking discussion at Casa Chapala Restaurant (3010 Anderson Lane, Austin, TX).

Great time had by all.

We spoke about the importance of “Word of Mouth” in your personal networking and marketing efforts. Scott said, “Talk is cheap, unless you want people to be talking about YOU!”

Every person then shared experiences of great experiences they have had with companies with others at their table. Followed by stories about their own business - and why it is phenomenal. The passion that the participants had in their voices rang loud and clear.

Quoting from the Word of Mouth Marketing Association website, we reminded everyone that the voice of the customer is the best advocate that a company can have. It is honest, unadulterated and pure communication.

Buzz about a product, service or person does not happen by accident. Plan for your word of mouth. You need to give people unique and exciting things to talk about. Nobody will talk about a bank that just has a drive through (so what, everyone does). But when the teller at my local bank sends candy suckers out the the kids every time….that is worth a mention!

I have to praise the restaurant owner and his team. The food was delicious, and they were friendly and helpful. If you live in Austin, I want to give my “Word of Blog” endorsement for Casa Chapala!

Have A Great Day.

thom
thom@thomsinger.com

.NET Valley Live!
 
 Add this event to your calendar
 
Location: At The University of Scranton
Wednesday, June 27, 2007 5:30 PM - 8:30 PM
 
This event will begin at 5:30pm in the Hyland Hall Room 407. Parking is available along Jefferson and Linden Streets. In addition, there is a parking garage up the road. Be sure to register for each session in this event by clicking the register button under each presenter’s picture. The agenda is as follows below:

Time

Happening

5:30pm

Pizza, Soda, and Social Gathering

6:00pm

IT Professional Talk

7:00pm

Break

7:15pm

Developer Talk

8:15pm

Raffle and Closing
 
Session 1 : 6:00 PM
 



Exchange 2007 Transport and Routing Architecture
 
Presented By: Michael J. Murphy

Tags: Exchange
Session Length: 60 minutes
Session Summary:

In this session, we present the improvements made to transport and message routing in Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, and we highlight the benefits these changes offer to both users and administrators. We start by looking at the pros and cons of message routing and transport services in Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 and Exchange Server 2003. Next, we compare Exchange Server 2000 and Exchange Server 2003 with Exchange Server 2007. We demonstrate how to set up connectors between the Hub and Edge Transport server roles, and how to enable transport rules within your organization.
 
Session 1 : 7:15 PM
 



AJAX Best Practices
 
Presented By: Lindsay Rutter

Tags: AJAX | ASP.NET | JavaScript
Session Length: 60 minutes
Session Summary:

We’ll review the architecture of ASP.NET AJAX and check off key areas to consider. You’ll learn how to write cleaner and more maintainable code, how to address accessibility requirements, and how to keep your sites scalable and secure as you add interactivity. You’ll leave this session with the confidence you need to build industrial strength AJAX applications.

“My life has fallen into a terrible cycle. With each morning, cool repentance comes, and by night I am in hell again…I am transformed into a suppurating beast, someone with a smell of evil about his person. Yes, I have become him. Oh my Christ—

I have been slowly making my way through the symptoms experienced at the end-of-life. The next symptom I would like to address is the malodorous wound.

People may have malodorous wounds for various reasons throughout their life. However, there are certain wounds seen more often at the end of life. Some of the malodorous wounds seen at the end of life include bedsores and fungating breast cancer lesions. The odor is caused by anaerobic bacteria in necrotic (decaying) tissue, which release volatile fatty acids as a metabolic by-product.

The odor can impact the quality of the patient’s life and may lead to social withdrawal, embarassment, shame, and psychological distress.

Some possible interventions for managing these wounds include:

-Cleanse the wound with water or normal saline.
-Metrogel 1% applied to breast cancer lesion daily and covered with an occlusive dressing (such as vaseline gauze). Metronidazole (the active ingredient in Metro-gel) may also be taken orally. The oral form is less expensive, but the few studies that have been performed have shown marked improvement in odor with its use.
-activated charcoal / odor-absorbing dressings. These dressings should be changed daily or more often if the odor becomes noticeable before the next dressing change is due.
-Peppermint oil - many pharmacies carry this oil. You can place gauze in the top with the lid off and it works as an air deodorizer. Peppermint oil is a much more tolerable air freshener than most air deodorizers. Do NOT apply peppermint oil directly to the wound. You can also apply peppermint oil to a wash cloth and drape over a fan or air conditioning vent. Peppermint oil should not be used alone, as it may become associated with the smell of the wound and lose effectiveness.
-Palliative radiation is another option and may help to heal the wound.

Although this post focuses on odor, always remember to treat the pain associated with any wounds.

See Prodigy Guidance for additional information on malodorous wounds.

Los equipos de los deportes norteamericanos son comercios grandes tambi

Salt Lake City, Utah - ©2007 - The Deseret Spectacle

First of all, a big thanks to Marshall for rallying together a handful of posts during my extended absence. Life sometimes brings unexpected challenges, and although I’ve very much missed posting to the Deseret Spectacle as frequently as I have in the past, it has simply been unavoidable. However, as life begins to regain some ’semblance of normalcy, posting on the Deseret Spectacle should as well.

With that out of the way, you may be asking “What’s up with the title?” Well, my dear reader, that’s a very good question. It’s not exactly the tone I wanted to make my return on, but what can I say, it’s what’s on my mind right at the moment.

Now, don’t get me wrong: There are literally dozens of recent incidents revealing yet more high-profile Republican scandals, idiocy, hypocrisy, arrogance, etc. And we’ll be getting to them soon. But I just read an article which made me cringe a bit, and as such I thought I’d do a quick post which aims to look at our side of the street a bit so that we might avoid going down the same road that the Republicans did.

There have been a few things which would be worth considering, but here are two cases which I think stand out and that we should all be extremely critical of, and one issue in which we are currently in the thick of, and should be extremely wary of.

I’ll be going over each of these in separate posts. This is the first of three.

First up is what I consider to be the first major betrayal by the Democratic Congress of the American people:

In May, the Democratic Congress, pressured by the frighteningly powerful Pharmaceutical lobby, removed a loophole which allowed Americans to import cheaper drugs from Canada and other sources:Updated: 5:35 p.m. MT May 7, 2007

WASHINGTON - In a triumph for the pharmaceutical industry, the Senate on Monday killed a drive to allow consumers to buy prescription drugs from abroad at a significant savings over domestic prices.

On a 49-40 vote, the Senate required the administration to certify the safety and effectiveness of imported drugs before they can be imported, a requirement that officials have said they cannot meet.

“Well, once again the big drug companies have proved that they are the most powerful and best financed lobby in Washington,” said Sen. David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican.Perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not, Sen. Vitter was recently outed as one of the “D.C. Madam’s” clients. Whatever hypocrisy Sen. Vitter may be guilty of, and he most certainly is, he has been a tireless advocate for allowing Americans to import cheap medication from abroad.

Advocates for closing the loophole include our own Senator Hatch, who has even written op-ed pieces in the Deseret News to convince Utahns how dangerous it is for us to import cheap drugs.

The argument against importing cheap drugs goes something like this:Sen. Mike Enzi, a Wyoming Republican, said the requirement for a safety certification was essential to protect the public.

“Under both Democratic and Republican administrations, secretaries of Health and Human services have declined to certify that foreign drugs — like those allowed under the Dorgan Foreign Drug Act — are safe for American consumers. They realized, as I do, that close enough isn’t good enough,” Enzi said.In other words, it’s better for our seniors to go without needed medications than risk unsafe medications - a theory which has never been supported by reality. Even more shameful, others have claimed it opens us up to terrorist attacks:Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., said the proposal was an attempt to push the FDA into reversing itself while “creating a massive hole on our capacity to secure our borders and protect ourselves.”

“If I were a creative terrorist, I would say to myself, ‘Hey, listen, all I’ve got to do is produce a can here that says ‘Lipitor’ on it, make it look like the original Lipitor bottle, which isn’t too hard to do, fill it with anthrax,” Gregg said.

Lipitor is a cholesterol-lowering drug.What a terrible lie. If a terrorist wanted to go this route, they would have an almost limitless number of imported products to “fill with anthrax.” Indeed, why not choose something like, say, toothpaste?

Not only did the Democratic Congress cave and give the Pharmaceutical industry, which may be the single most powerful, scary lobby in Washington, they did it in the shadow of hypocritical ad campaign criticizing the Bush administration for just this sort of thing:

What started as a trickle of humble bus trips across the Canadian border by senior citizens looking for cheaper medication is picking up national momentum.

Democratic strategists have seized on the issue of importing low-cost prescription drugs and are launching a multimillion-dollar airwave assault on President Bush in 17 presidential election swing states, including Florida and Michigan, where imports are popular.

…

A narrator in its spots, which depict an elderly couple at a kitchen table, says Bush “sided with drug companies, blocking Medicare from negotiating lower prices and banning Americans from importing low-cost drugs from Canada. For President Bush drug company profits come first.”I fully realize that the pharmaceutical lobby is an almost unstoppable juggernaut in American politics. But I cannot and will not excuse them for this. My hopes for the Democrats would be that they would stand up against such forces in spite of their influence.

I have been pleased with the Democrats on other fronts, namely their push for oversight and accountability of a runaway Executive branch, yielding to the drug lobby was a demoralizing slap in the face. I can only hope they endeavor to make it right - and I do have hope, for I think that many in the Congress are fed up being bullied by the Pharmaceutical lobby.

They are our representatives. It seems most members of Congress forget this fact. Our Republican representatives here in Utah most certainly have forgotten this. But just to put this in perspective, take a look at this informal poll on this issue:

While this is not a controlled scientific poll, one would be hard pressed to argue the American people don’t want to be able to import medication from abroad.

It is doubly baffling considering how this will anger the “old-people voting block.” I’ve often commented that you can count on this block to do four things: not die, eat, take drugs, and vote. Why would you alienate this group? In a latter post I’ll explain some of the methods the Drug industry and Congress are taking to ameliorate this danger.

Also in a later post, I’ll be returning to this issue to expand on the corruption and money interests which permeate the Pharmaceutical lobby and their interactions with the Congress. I’ll also be including a video of what may be the most poignant television segment “60 Minutes” ever ran.

But next up is a critique of the liberal response to Don Imus’ (wiki) foolish and insensitive characterization of Rutgers University female basketball team.

DS
Salt Lake City, Utah
The Deseret Spectacle is in no way related to the Deseret Morning News.
Letters to the Editor

Looks like I am moving to San Francisco. In a week and a half. There is a lot to do until then, which is probably good, because when I have time to sit around and think about something, somehow the very worst possibilities of what could go wrong come to mind. But I am excited, too, to feel like a real adult with a real job, and to finally start putting my degree to use.

I am going to be the new hall director of Pedro Arrupe Hall at the University of San Francisco. Right there in the city, a few blocks east of Golden Gate Park. It’s beautiful there, and its going to be terrific. Jonathan is already studying maps of the BART in order to spend time with me, which better be every free minute he has. Mom, dad, and sister are also planning their visits.

Part of what helped me to make my decision to accept the job was knowing that I would be sorry if I didnt, because I would be making my decision out of fear of the unknown. I think I realized that hanging on to what is comfortable and familiar here in So Cal just isn’t possible anymore. It cant stay the same because everyone else around me is leaving and changing. My roommates and some of my best friends are now all over the country and the world, and its no longer possible to hang on to what life was like in college. I dont want it to be the same, because I certainly am not, but it was nice we all stuck around after we graduated. It made the transition easier. Three years later, it seems like everyone is finally moving on.

So I will too. I admit its easier to be one of the ones leaving rather than one being left behind. But it’s not like I am gone forever, and who knows what will happen in the next one or two years. I keep reminding myself that I really believe that God loves me, that he knows what I need to be healthy and feel cared for. I believe that he will provide what I need right now and in the next few months as I transition into life in San Francisco.

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