Eleven and one-half months is more than long enough to stay stuck on stupid, much less in Sore-Loserland.
What do you think will be this week's Faux Outrage?
Just 88 minutes before the February 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham, Gov. Rick Perry's office received by fax a crucial arson expert's opinion that later ignited a political firestorm over whether Texas, on Perry's watch, used botched forensic evidence to send a man to his death.In a letter sent Feb. 14, three days before Willingham was scheduled to die, Perry had been asked to postpone the execution. The condemned man's attorney argued that the newly obtained expert evidence showed Willingham had not set the house fire that killed his daughters, 2-year-old Amber and 1-year-old twins Karmon and Kameron, two days before Christmas in 1991.
On Feb. 17, the day of the execution, Perry's office got the five-page faxed report at 4:52 p.m., according to documents the Houston Chronicle obtained in response to a public records request.
But it's unclear from the records whether he read it that day. Perry's office has declined to release any of his or his staff's comments or analysis of the reprieve request.
A statement from Perry spokesman Chris Cutrone, sent to the Chronicle late Friday, said that “given the brevity of (the) report and the general counsel's familiarity with all the other facts in the case, there was ample time for the general counsel to read and analyze the report and to brief the governor on its content.”
A few minutes after 5 p.m., defense lawyer Walter M. Reaves Jr. said he received word that the governor would not intervene. At 6:20 p.m. Willingham was executed after declaring: “I am an innocent man, convicted of a crime I did not commit.”
"Certainly from our standpoint, this gives us a sense of momentum — when the United States has accolades tossed its way, rather than shoes."That's the take of Hillary Clinton's State Department on President Obama being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, according to her spokesman, Assistant Secretary PJ Crowley.
Crowley was referring to the incident last December when an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at President George W. Bush during his final visit to Iraq of his presidency.
Muntader Zaidi, who worked for the Iraqi television station Al Baghdadiya, hurled both his shoes at Bush and called him a "dog" during a press conference with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. He narrowly missed the president, who quickly ducked.
The shoe-throwing, considered one of the highest insults in the Middle East, illustrated the deep anger toward the United States over its invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Crowley's comments suggested a recognition by the Obama administration that the Nobel Prize was as much an indictment of the Bush administration as it was an effort to praise President Obama's outreach to improve the US image around the world.
Echoing comments by the White House, Crowley said the award was not just an "affirmation" of the Obama administration's foreign policy strategy of engagement, but also on its robust foreign policy agenda, which includes non-proliferation, dealing with Iran and North Korea, and pursuing peace in the Middle East.
"There is an opportunity here," Crowley said. "The tone has changed — but obviously we recognize that, while the tone in the world has changed, the challenges remain. They are very significant."
Harris County Clerk Beverly Kaufman, a one-time Waller County farm girl who oversaw record-keeping and election functions of the nation's third largest county, announced Friday she will not seek a fifth term next year. ...
n 1994, Kaufman was appointed to fill an unexpired term as county clerk after the death of Molly Pryor, who had been appointed eight months earlier after the death of longtime clerk Anita Rodeheaver.
Duties of the county clerk include maintaining records for commissioners court, probate and civil courts; overseeing records of real property, tax liens and vital statistics, and supervising elections.
On Friday night, a bad call might have cost the Minnesota Twins a chance to beat the New York Yankees on the road in their American League Division Series. In the 11th inning of Game 2, Minnesota catcher Joe Mauer sliced a ball down the left-field line that not only glanced off Melky Cabrera’s glove in fair territory but also bounced at least 6 inches inside the line and then into the stands for what should’ve been a ground-rule double. Umpire Phil Cuzzi, standing 10 feet away, called it foul. (See photo above.) And even though Mauer singled and the Twins managed to load the bases with no outs, they didn’t score, and the Yankees won 4-3 on a Mark Teixeira home run later that inning.
The Twins were here, of course, because of an umpiring error earlier in the week. A pitch glanced off the jersey of Detroit third baseman Brandon Inge with the bases loaded in the 12th inning of the Tigers’ one-game playoff with Minnesota. Umpire Randy Marsh didn’t call it. The Twins scored in the bottom half of the inning. Marsh claimed not to have seen the video, and MLB’s umpiring boss, Mike Port, said he stood by Marsh.
So that’s what baseball has come to: supporting egregious flubs to protect their own. It’s the epitome of an old-boys’ network, and it’s insulting to the game. MLB says it uses a grading system during the regular season that rewards the best umpires with playoff assignments. That alleged fair and impartial grading system, mind you, rewarded a postseason series to C.B. Bucknor, about whom a player once said: “My grandpa would be a better umpire than him. And my grandpa is dead.”
Bucknor, by the way, blew three calls at first base in Game 1 of the Red Sox-Angels series. Bungling one call is bad. Mangling two is unconscionable. Blowing three in a single game is fireable.
All of this, again, has happened within a half a week’s time. Two game-defining calls and three more that could have led to … well, no one knows. That’s a wall MLB hides behind: that even if Mauer were on second, who’s to say Jason Kubel and Michael Cuddyer would’ve followed with singles?
Technology exists to ensure that such errors are rectified before they cost a team. If Cuzzi is willing to admit he’s wrong after the game – “There’s a guy sitting over in the umpire’s dressing room right now that feels horrible,” crew chief Tim Tschida said – then it behooves him and others to allow their calls to be vetted in-game. In no way does it subvert their authority. Players will respect their fallibility, a grand quality for so many who try to play god.
Take the cue from football. Use a red replay flag. Each team gets two per game. If the manager throws them too early, or misuses them, and can’t overturn a poor call later, it’s his mess. ... Accompanying the technology is the urgency. Nobody inside baseball wants a postseason defined by its umpiring screw-ups, and yet year after year, they happen. Ignoring the issue won’t make it go away.
The human element. That’s the best argument purists muster against widespread instant replay in Major League Baseball. Let’s see how that works: Umpires make mistakes because they’re human, and ... that makes it OK! Somehow, it’s difficult to believe such reasoning would stand up in a court of law or, say, anywhere in the world not populated by baseball’s dopey decision makers who don’t understand that a huge integrity problem is about to smack them in the face.
John B. Stevens Jr., a Beaumont lawyer and Lamar alumnus, has presented Lamar University with first editions of “The Papers of Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar” and other rare documents chronicling the man regarded as the father of Texas education. ...
“These documents chronicle Texas history at a time when its leadership was just made up of dreams and hopes,” said Stevens. “They had little or no money. They just had a love of freedom to inspire the people to follow them and pledge their lives and their sacred honor. And what has come of that? A great nation, then a great state and a great educational institution.”
“Anything related to Texas history is directly related to Mirabeau Lamar,” Stevens said in an earlier interview. “I don’t believe any of our Texas forefathers compiled such an extensive set of manuscripts chronicling Texas’ road to independence. Many owe much to Mirbeau B. Lamar, and he is often taken for granted.”
At the conclusion of his presentation, Stevens announced a surprise gift: A signed and numbered edition of Philip Graham’s “The Life and Poems of Mirabeau B. Lamar,” published in 1938 and which he described as the pre-eminent work that is not only the greatest chronicle of Lamar’s poems, but also one of the best biographies of Lamar.
“The first 1,000 of this issue of the book were numbered, and Lamar University already has No. 441,” Stevens said. “The first 300 were numbered and signed. You do not have a numbered and signed one – until today. It is my great honor to present No. 219.” ...
Stevens graduated from Lamar in 1974 with a degree in government and history. He went on to post-baccalaureate studies at the University of Texas and to receive a law degree from the University of Houston Law Center in 1979. He earned a master of social sciences from Syracuse University in 2001.
He began his legal career in the Jefferson County district attorney’s office, where he served as an assistant district attorney from 1979-81. Stevens spent four years in private practice, then began a 20 year career as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas.
He resigned from that post to become a candidate for judge of Jefferson County Criminal District Court. After receiving the Democratic nomination for the post, he is unopposed on the Nov. 7 (2006) ballot.
Jefferson County Sheriff Mitch Woods is a step closer to becoming the next U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Texas. The U.S. Marshal Services is a federal law enforcement agency that protects the federal courts and its personnel. It is the oldest law enforcement agency in the United States. He applied for the job in July and recently his name was submitted for it. Sheriff Woods tells FRONT ROW that the next step is to pass an FBI background check and receive Senate confirmation. Woods has been sheriff since 1996.
The position is appointed by the President of the United States. There are 94 U.S. Marshals, one in each federal judicial district. If Woods gets the job, he'll remain in Beaumont. The office is housed at the federal court building.