There was a dictator named ShweWhose couldn't get dates, straight or gay.To compensate for this lackHe imprisoned a packOf activists -- watch what you say!This being America, we don't have to watch what we say. We can say, for example, that Burma's dictator, Than Shwe, is a subhuman pederast without fear of being imprisoned (TimesOnline, h/t Tannebaum).The same is, sadly, not true the world over.So here's the

Spending lots of money on the web advertising yourself as a "DWI Lawyer" when you have taken only six criminal cases, only four of which were DWI cases (PDF) -- and have never handled one to completion -- in your home county in the three years you've been licensed is not quite enough, by itself, to win you an Asshat Lawyer of the Day Award.Claiming to have

It will be interesting to see the changes in the next few years. With eight courts being led by judges on a "learning curve," watch their dockets increase. Watch the appellate courts reverse decisions, the tax dollars wasted and the criminals who are set free.Last week I discussed the first part of this chicken-littling -- that dockets will increase. Today, on to the bogeyman of increased reversals

Chicken-littling (from a letter to the Chronicle) about the sudden appearance of new judges, not fresh out of the DA's office, in Harris County's Criminal Justice Center:It will be interesting to see the changes in the next few years. With eight courts being led by judges on a "learning curve," watch their dockets increase. Watch the appellate courts reverse decisions, the tax dollars wasted and the criminals

I got this message from Lunarpages:Hello Mark,I've checked your account usage and your cpu usage still seems to be higherThe current usage statistics is quoted below for your reference. fightt2 fightthefeds.com 1.79 0.04 0.1 Top Process %CPU 92.0 [php] Top Process %CPU 23.0 /usr/bin/php /home/. . ./public_html/bennettandbennett/blog/index.phpNote that the acceptable usage range for shared plans is 1.0% average %CPU or less, 1.0% average %Memory or less 0.2%

Something in blog.bennettandbennett.com/index.php was burning processor time, so LunarPages moved me to another server (pranging my email) and threatened to shut me down. I've stripped down to the bare essentials in my blog design to try to fix the problem.Major redesign coming soon.

From this morning's Chronicle story (by Mary Flood and Brian Rogers) on the ouster of the Republican judges:Civil District Judge Sharolyn Wood, who lost the seat she's had since 1985, lamented that voters have lost "about 250 years of judicial experience" in this sweep. She said Harris County's judiciary has been kept stable by an understanding that experienced judges weren't challenged, but that unspoken agreement was tossed

There's much gnashing of teeth among the prosecutors and other right-wingers down at the courthouse this morning about the Democratic near-sweep of the nine open felony court benches.Those who have suddenly realized that partisan election of judges is not a good thing should consider . . .First, that this was not the first partisan election of judges ever. The judges who were replaced were themselves elected in

Sure, a Black man was elected president, but the big news in yesterday's election comes from Harris County, Texas, which has a functioning 2-party political system for the first time since 1996. That year was the last in which a Democrat won a countywide race. Until last night.In this year's countywide races there were several Republican winners: County Judge Ed Emmett (the County Judge is the County's

There is the law as we learn it in law school, and there is the law as it is practiced in the real world. I was reminded of this today in a telephone call with a federal prosecutor in a state that rhymes with bassachusetts. I told the lad that I expected my client, when haled before a grand jury, to take the Fifth, and inquired whether