Within the commission, the discussion about Pearson's future has focused on when and whether it is right to measure a judge's performance by his behavior outside the courtroom. The panel looked specifically at whether Pearson's extraordinary zeal in pursuing the case against the Chungs was so frivolous and embarrassing to the judicial system that it should be taken as evidence of his lack of judicial temperment. "A judge has a right to bring a lawsuit like any other citizen," said a source close to the commission, "but he doesn't have a First Amendment right to bring a frivolous lawsuit."
The commission is expected to address the Chung case specifically in its letter to Pearson, pointing out that his no-holds-barred pursuit of mega-millions in a case stemming from a $10.50 alteration on a pair of suit pants raises serious questions about his judicial temperment and raises public questions about judicial ethics and standards. Following receipt of the letter, Pearson would then have the right to a hearing before the commission. Only after that hearing would the commission formally move to end Pearson's tenure as a judge. Pearson has not been sitting as a judge since the end of April, when his first term on the bench expired. Rather, he is now technically considered an "attorney advisor" to the Office of Administrative Hearings. Asked what Pearson does in that position, a high-ranking city official said, "Zippo."
And even if he loses his job, the Chungs probably won't have to look for an unemployed Pearson to help them recover the legal fees since they recently received donations to help offset the costs.
It's nice to see justice happening in this case. It's restoring my faith in the legal system.
Hillary Clinton said that Barack Obama was naive on foreign policy. And obviously out to prove her point for her, he suggests that we might unilaterally invade Pakistan.
Pakistan is an ally. Pakistan has nuclear weapons.
That's the end of Obama's rookie campaign. Sure, there will be backpedalling big time, but not fast enough. He's done.
ETC: Pale Ride says rightly in the comments, "Don't forget Edwards was talkin' tough about Saudia Arabia last week. So let's see, some Democrats want to piss off the few islamic allies we have, yet open dialog with those who hate us (Iran, North Korea, etc). To quote the wise and all knowing Wile E. Coyote, 'I'm such a genius!'"
"I think it would be a profound mistake for us to use nuclear weapons in any circumstance," Obama said, with a pause, "-involving civilians." Then he quickly added, "Let me scratch that. There's been no discussion of nuclear weapons. That's not on the table."
His remarks show that he hasn't really considered the idea that as president he'll have at his disposal the use of nuclear weapons. For all his yik-yak about Bush and the war, you'd think that he's had plenty of time to consider his position on this. It's kind of important.
This guy is such a wet-behind-the-ears rookie. I don't think Hillary needs to do much more campaigning. She'll be the one left standing at this rate for the Democrats.
My thoughts about the use of nuclear weapons: of course there are circumstances that warrant the use of a nuclear weapon - even in the case of civilians. I'll give one:
AQ unleashes a lethal biological weapon that poisons a town with a highly contagious pathogen. The choice is either to nuke the place or to allow it to spread planet-wide.
There are probably others. Fortunately, the state of our technology allows us to avoid the use of such massive weaponry. We have precision missiles that can hit just about anything squarely, so why go deer hunting with a canon when we can use a rifle?
No one who aims to be president should take our assets off the table - in any circumstance.
A while back, I mentioned Matt, a global explorer who captured his journey in an engaging YouTube video, shown below.
Matt was contacted by Google and asked to use Google Earth to highlight some of his favorite spots on our globe.
Here's the result:
Matt's just an average guy who wanted to do something extraordinary - travel the world. He didn't spend a fortune doing it. In fact, he says it was cheaper than we might expect.
I saved up at my job for a few years and then quit. That's the simple answer.
It also doesn't cost as much as a lot of folks think. Aside from the flights, I spend less on any given day than I would sitting at home paying utilities, car insurance, parking tickets (I get a lot of parking tickets)...
If you visit regions like Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, South America, and most of Africa -- and you're willing to rough it a little -- you can get by on dollars a day.
His only ambition was to do a bit of travel, and look where it has led him...
So what's your dream? Are you pursuing it? If not, why aren't you taking steps toward it?
Like I quoted from Paul Valéry yesterday, "The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up." Get up and do it and make it happen. It might be amazing what comes of it.
"Seeing is forgetting the name of the thing one sees."
Pretty pithy. I think you can substitute "listening" for "seeing" and have an equally true statement.
"Listening is forgetting the name of the person one hears."
Check out what else he had to say:
Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.
The trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be.
What others think of us would be of little moment did it not, when known, so deeply tinge what we think of ourselves.
A businessman is a hybrid of a dancer and a calculator.
Love is being stupid together.
The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.
If some great catastrophe is not announced every morning, we feel a certain void. "Nothing in the paper today," we sigh.
The painter should not paint what he sees, but what will be seen.
The world acquires value only through its extremes and endures only through moderation; extremists make the world great, the moderates give it stability.
There is no word in isolation.
Thinker! That ridiculous name, and yet one could find a man who would be neither a philosopher nor a poet, not definable by the object of his thought nor by his quest after some exterior goal, such as a book, a doctrine, a science, the truth . . . but who would be a thinker in the same way as one is a dancer, using his mind the way the dancer uses his muscles and nerves . . . an artist not so much of knowledge but of himself.
That is such a feast of provocation on which to savor...
A friend of mine who also enjoys quotes and the thoughts of others is Tony Gallegos, who is, in my esteem, the most exceptional mortgage industry blogger out there. Any company who retains him enjoys a bounty, to be sure. His latest burst of quotes are found here.
We went to the Des Moines Farmer's Market today and I caught these images of a little girl dancing to herself in the street, unaware of all around her.
I love that.
Got a few other pictures. Here's a couple. The rest are in my gallery.
The fundraiser netted more than $64,000, with more pledges still coming in, organizers said.
"Without your support, the Chungs could very well have gone bankrupt," defense attorney Chris Manning told the crowd of about 150.
The organizers said they also wanted to raise visibility for tort reform in the face of lawsuits that unfairly target small businesses.
"Our motto is the spirit of free enterprise," said Lisa Rickard, president of the Institute for Legal Reform. "The Chungs epitomize that in our perspective. They've really been living the American dream, and that all came to a halt with the filing of this lawsuit.
These two groups see the damage that lawsuit-lotteryists cause in their absurd and greedy wake, and they push to change the system. From the Institute for Legal Reform:
America's runaway legal system imposes burdensome costs on workers, consumers, small businesses, and healthcare. The cost of America's lawsuit-happy culture totals $261 billion a year, or $880 per person, according to seminal research by Tillinghast-Towers Perrin (2006). According to a 2004 study commissioned by the Institute for Legal Reform, small businesses alone pay $88 billion a year to cover the cost of America's tort system - money that could be used to hire additional workers, expand productivity, and improve employee benefits.
On another page of their web site, it's nice to see that Iowa ranks well in terms of how reasonable and balanced the tort liability system is perceived to be by U.S. business. We're the fourth most reasonable state. Another good reason to start a business here.
