Ripped From The Headlines....Unfortunately
Okay crackers....I's gonna spend the greater part of this post giving praise to....a Republican.
(Muffled voices....gasps....patrons leaving the theater)
Yes, friends I, your beloved author and noted leftist, have some kind words for Senator Arlen Specter.
That would be the same Arlen Specter who, as junior counsel for the Warren Commission, created what is known as "The Magic Bullet Theory."
That would also be the same Arlen Specter who openly attacked Anita Hill during the confirmation for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
And yes it is the same Arlen Specter who, as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, backed the confirmations of Supreme Court Justices Sammy Alito and Johnnie Roberts despite all his claims of fairness in seeking non-ideological appointments.
But that will have to wait for a paragraph or two, as I must speak on the Andrea Yates developments.
Now, as a journalist of sorts, I am about to make every effort to summarize this story in completely impartial terms.
Andrea Yates, in a most heinous act of violence, systematically drowned each of her five children in the bathroom of her Texas home. To complete a series of events she herself admitted had been two years in the planning, she stalked her seven-year old son (By now aware of what his mother was doing.) throughout the home, finally catching him and dragging him kicking and screaming into the bathroom. At this point she pushed his head beneath the bathwater and held it there as he struggled for his life until every last gasp of air had escaped from his fragile body.
Ms. Yates has never denied killing her children, insisting it had to be done as her children had become unrighteous due to her own faults as a mother. What she neglected to mention is they had also become unliving due to her faults as a human being.
A Texas jury, wisely dismissing all bullshit claims of insanity and (buzzword alert) postpartum psychosis, found her guilty of capital murder. Unfortunately the jury also, in a move I would consider atypical of a Texas court, declined to sentence the woman to death, opting instead for life in prison.
Fast forward a couple of years and the Yates verdict was vacated. Seems during the trial an expert witness in the field of psychology made reference to a specific episode of Law and Order which had run just prior to the murders in which a woman accused of murdering her children was acquitted. The relevancy of this being Ms. Yates saw the show and figured she could get away with it also.
The only problem with all this was the episode of Law and Order never was actually on the TV. Oops.
Well our legal system being the fair one it is, Ms. Yates was properly granted a new trial. Sadly this new jury bought into her "the sadness made me do it" defense and found her not guilty by reason of insanity. (That soft rustling sound you hear is five tiny bodies spinning in their graves.)
I don't doubt for a second Ms. Yates had some emotional problems. Normal people don't kill their children. She had a rough marriage and subscribed to some outside the norm fundamental religious ideologies. That all said, her acquittal is sad on more levels than I care to think about. I realize she isn't going home tomorrow. She'll be spending many years in a hospital. But she will go home someday. She won't die in a hospital like she would have died in prison.
I am tired of nothing being anyone's fault anymore. If you commit a crime these days it isn't a matter of if you can afford a good lawyer...it's whether or not you can afford a good doctor. Postpartum psychosis, repressed memory, mental defect...it goes on and on. Don't you sometimes wish M'Naghten had just be sentenced to a prison term?
Now I'm not poo-pooing all insanity pleas, but a greater number of people need to be held accountable for what they've done. At some point justice must be had for the victims and their families.
Now moving on to Senator Specter, the esteemed gentleman from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is preparing a bill which would bring suit against president george w. bush over the w.'s use of signing statements when signing bills into law.
For those not in the know, signing statements are amendments applied to bills that generally outline how the President (general reference) would like to see particular agencies execute the law being signed into effect. The current president (specific reference) has used his signing statements in an attempt to declare portions of the given law to be, in his well-educated opinion, unconstitutional or a threat to national security.
Incidentally, the w. has made nearly 800 signing statements since illegally coming into office. That number is more than the last 41 Presidents combined. For those less versed in our nation's history, that would be all the other Presidents combined, covering some 230 years of American history.
The w.'s signing statements are effectively line-item vetoes that cannot come up under congressional review, and therein lies the basis for the supposedly impending lawsuit. Senator Specter feels this to be a violation of the separation of powers, thus his authoring of the bill to sue ol' dumbya.
Now, I really don't see this bill going anywhere, but I give kudos to Specter for standing up for what he believes to be right at a time when party division is continuing at an all-time high. Combine this with his voting against President Bill Clinton's impeachment and his sinking of the Robert Bork Supreme Court Nomination and Arlen is coming close to making up for fucking over the whole JFK thing.
Finally I'd like to wrap this up with a salute to former N*SYNC member Lance Bass, who shocked absolutely no one the announcement he is, in fact, a homosexual. This also clears up his obsession with going to the moon as he was clearly interested in "sky rockets in flight" and getting some "Afternoon Delight" with a "Rocket Man."
Which actually reminds me of a good story I know about a guy named Shane, Filipino strippers, Automated Teller Machines and Happy Endings. But that will have to wait for some other time.
Oh, and should anything in this posting ultimately be determined illegal, it's worth noting I was completely insane when I wrote it. Ask anyone...these last 15 minutes have seen me totally break with reality. It is not my fault.
Until next time....repent.
JeffRey
(Muffled voices....gasps....patrons leaving the theater)
Yes, friends I, your beloved author and noted leftist, have some kind words for Senator Arlen Specter.
That would be the same Arlen Specter who, as junior counsel for the Warren Commission, created what is known as "The Magic Bullet Theory."
That would also be the same Arlen Specter who openly attacked Anita Hill during the confirmation for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
And yes it is the same Arlen Specter who, as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, backed the confirmations of Supreme Court Justices Sammy Alito and Johnnie Roberts despite all his claims of fairness in seeking non-ideological appointments.
But that will have to wait for a paragraph or two, as I must speak on the Andrea Yates developments.
Now, as a journalist of sorts, I am about to make every effort to summarize this story in completely impartial terms.
Andrea Yates, in a most heinous act of violence, systematically drowned each of her five children in the bathroom of her Texas home. To complete a series of events she herself admitted had been two years in the planning, she stalked her seven-year old son (By now aware of what his mother was doing.) throughout the home, finally catching him and dragging him kicking and screaming into the bathroom. At this point she pushed his head beneath the bathwater and held it there as he struggled for his life until every last gasp of air had escaped from his fragile body.
Ms. Yates has never denied killing her children, insisting it had to be done as her children had become unrighteous due to her own faults as a mother. What she neglected to mention is they had also become unliving due to her faults as a human being.
A Texas jury, wisely dismissing all bullshit claims of insanity and (buzzword alert) postpartum psychosis, found her guilty of capital murder. Unfortunately the jury also, in a move I would consider atypical of a Texas court, declined to sentence the woman to death, opting instead for life in prison.
Fast forward a couple of years and the Yates verdict was vacated. Seems during the trial an expert witness in the field of psychology made reference to a specific episode of Law and Order which had run just prior to the murders in which a woman accused of murdering her children was acquitted. The relevancy of this being Ms. Yates saw the show and figured she could get away with it also.
The only problem with all this was the episode of Law and Order never was actually on the TV. Oops.
Well our legal system being the fair one it is, Ms. Yates was properly granted a new trial. Sadly this new jury bought into her "the sadness made me do it" defense and found her not guilty by reason of insanity. (That soft rustling sound you hear is five tiny bodies spinning in their graves.)
I don't doubt for a second Ms. Yates had some emotional problems. Normal people don't kill their children. She had a rough marriage and subscribed to some outside the norm fundamental religious ideologies. That all said, her acquittal is sad on more levels than I care to think about. I realize she isn't going home tomorrow. She'll be spending many years in a hospital. But she will go home someday. She won't die in a hospital like she would have died in prison.
I am tired of nothing being anyone's fault anymore. If you commit a crime these days it isn't a matter of if you can afford a good lawyer...it's whether or not you can afford a good doctor. Postpartum psychosis, repressed memory, mental defect...it goes on and on. Don't you sometimes wish M'Naghten had just be sentenced to a prison term?
Now I'm not poo-pooing all insanity pleas, but a greater number of people need to be held accountable for what they've done. At some point justice must be had for the victims and their families.
Now moving on to Senator Specter, the esteemed gentleman from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is preparing a bill which would bring suit against president george w. bush over the w.'s use of signing statements when signing bills into law.
For those not in the know, signing statements are amendments applied to bills that generally outline how the President (general reference) would like to see particular agencies execute the law being signed into effect. The current president (specific reference) has used his signing statements in an attempt to declare portions of the given law to be, in his well-educated opinion, unconstitutional or a threat to national security.
Incidentally, the w. has made nearly 800 signing statements since illegally coming into office. That number is more than the last 41 Presidents combined. For those less versed in our nation's history, that would be all the other Presidents combined, covering some 230 years of American history.
The w.'s signing statements are effectively line-item vetoes that cannot come up under congressional review, and therein lies the basis for the supposedly impending lawsuit. Senator Specter feels this to be a violation of the separation of powers, thus his authoring of the bill to sue ol' dumbya.
Now, I really don't see this bill going anywhere, but I give kudos to Specter for standing up for what he believes to be right at a time when party division is continuing at an all-time high. Combine this with his voting against President Bill Clinton's impeachment and his sinking of the Robert Bork Supreme Court Nomination and Arlen is coming close to making up for fucking over the whole JFK thing.
Finally I'd like to wrap this up with a salute to former N*SYNC member Lance Bass, who shocked absolutely no one the announcement he is, in fact, a homosexual. This also clears up his obsession with going to the moon as he was clearly interested in "sky rockets in flight" and getting some "Afternoon Delight" with a "Rocket Man."
Which actually reminds me of a good story I know about a guy named Shane, Filipino strippers, Automated Teller Machines and Happy Endings. But that will have to wait for some other time.
Oh, and should anything in this posting ultimately be determined illegal, it's worth noting I was completely insane when I wrote it. Ask anyone...these last 15 minutes have seen me totally break with reality. It is not my fault.
Until next time....repent.
JeffRey
posted by The Crazy Leftist at 10:19 PM
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