The jury determined the designated scapegoat for 9/11 is eligible for the death penalty, even though the prosecution offered a problematic "he didn't incriminate himself" argument that ZM did not offer what he knew, and in the process thus blocked the feds from realizing what was about to occur. [Yeah, it's his fault.] Even if the argument works -- really it should be overturned on appeal -- the clarity of immediate proof (given death is at stake) is slim. But, that is the next step -- the jury now has to determine if he warrants the penalty.
Overall, I cannot blame the jury for accepting the eligibility, since the prosecution and judge left it open. [Anyway, jurors are as imperfect as the rest of us -- it is not like, again, the government exactly shined here. In fact, given the crosssection of the community deal, it is like some jurors are better than the government.*] The former in particular are to blame here, especially given the questionable way how things were handled, including by one of the prosecution. Twisting the law to help this moron get his martyrdom wish would be tragic. And, appalling.
Talking about appalling, I did catch a bit of the censure hearings. I missed the early ad hominem attacks on John Dean, but did catch Arlen Specter and Orin Hatch sliming themselves, especially the latter. Sen. Hatch's routine is getting a bit old -- he has this sickening holier than thou tone, which is annoying when people I basically agree with like Sen. Schumer does it. By now, I cannot really take him seriously whenever he opens his mouth -- President Bush has reached this point years ago. But, Sen. Specter sold his soul too. He tried to the "no bad faith" dodge as if President Bush broke the law, but did so as a sort of honest mistake.
But, Sen. Feingold made it a point to show bad faith here, including various misleading public statements. So, no Arlen ... you are full of shit, and you must know it. If not, you are a moron. There is a simple right and wrong matter here, also shown in the Plame matter, and a few other basic situations from 2000 on.** A clarity that makes the Democrats' who tried to beg off or not even show up for the hearing just a tad disgusting. Props to Sen. Leahy though who showed real disgust when calling on one of the pro-Bush witnesses who assumed good faith -- as he noted, given all the secrecy, how are we supposed to know?
Nod to Justice Souter as well, who also showed his cards during the Hamdan orals -- his disgust is clear. [Justice Ginsburg even has her moments -- in her dissent from denial of cert. in the Padilla case, she noted how it should have been decided the last time up.] I like that -- disgust is an appropriate emotion along with the basic realization that we are dealing with people full of shit. Let us call the proverbial spade by its true name. For instance, I am getting sick of Barack Obama's attempts at "moderation." The sentiment seems to be that we are just dealing with a gentleman's disagreement, and if we are reasonable and unitive all will be well. Nice sentiment, but at some point it is pablum without more.
On that note, Feingold's shot across the bow is right on target.
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* I was called to jury three times in the last fifteen years. It has been over four years since I last was called, even though I did vote each year (voting rolls is a major source of jurors). I have this idea that they will call me when it is inconvenient.
** My disgust at his "presidency" started in November 2000 and never ebbed. A statistician was on C-SPAN recently and started his remarks on polling and such by noting somewhat off topic that it is clear that Gore won Florida, but Kerry lost Ohio. This really has to be underlined, though we are supposed to "get over it." I would say that definitely there is a preponderance of the evidence that Gore won, probably there is a clear and convincing clarity involved, and many would say beyond a reasonable doubt. I probably am on the fence on the last one, but it is not necessary: the bridge between the last two is a pretty weak "legitimacy" for our tyrant in chief.