Thursday, August 17, 2006

Timing the Big Story

I guess it's lucky that Mr. Karr, the putative JonBenet Ramsey killer, waited till this week to get caught and sing like a canary to the press, as opposed to last week. I mean, with rockets on Haifa, liquids off airplanes and Paul and Heather calling it quits, TV media would have had a collective nervous breakdown. . .
UPDATE 2:45 p.m. (17 Aug.) Watercooler consensus at my office is that this Karr fellow is a few sandwiches short of a picnic. In any case, either way he's looking at three squares and a wool blanket -- either in the slammer or in the nuthouse.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

allow me the completely off topic comment:

this is a sentence from a michigan judge, anna diggs(?).
in her ruling today declaring the administrations eavsdroping program unconstitutional this was a statement in her ruling:

"There are no hereditary kings in America and no powers not created by the Constitution."

i get the part about no kings, means she's a wack-job, but what does the "no powers not created" phrase mean in legalese? sounds like a double negative on steroids to me.

El Jefe Maximo said...

I haven't had an opportunity to read this epistle yet, but phrases like that make this judge simply look stupid.

I looked at the FISA business once before -- and the Bush program is not unlike many similar programs that Presidents have created or administered as long as there has been electronic communication. The real issue is whether the FISA limited the ability of the president to use his inherent powers under Article II to run his surveillance program. I thought the Attorney General correctly concluded that he could.

"[N]o powers not created by the Constitution." Hmmmmm, now this is a bit of a joke, considering the history of judicially created rights since the 1930's. In general, judges come up with declaratory statements like that when they're about to do something really outrageous, such as restrict an inherent presidential power. (Aside: an "inherent power" -- somewhat similar to what the British call the "prerogative" is a power that, although not spelled out, exists becuase it is necessary to carry spelled out powers into execution).

I am not unduly surprised by this ruling...there are enough liberal judges out there (this lady is a Carter appointee) that it was always on the cards that SOMEBODY would rule this way. I'll be curious to see what the Court of Appeals does with it.

Candidly Caroline said...

I'll believe it when I see DNA results.
Clearly, this guy should be in jail, but I'm not convinced yet he had anything to do with the death of JonBenet, God rest her sweet, young soul.