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The Uncashed Check

 Posted on January 21, 2013 in Uncategorized

An annual tradition at Defending People, more important this year because King's name will undoubtedly be invoked today by the President, who has spent the last four years sending the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners to kill the sons of goatherds and poppy farmers and die in the desert mountains of Afghanistan.

The text:

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.We cannot walk alone.And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.We cannot turn back.There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."¹I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest - quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.I have a dream today!I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" - one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.I have a dream today!I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."2This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.And this will be the day - this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning: My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, From every mountainside, let freedom ring!And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.But not only that: Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

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TSA: Rule 407 Does Not Apply

 Posted on January 20, 2013 in Uncategorized

The TSA will remove all 174 backscatter scanners from the 30 airports they're used in now. Another 76 are in storage. It has 669 of the millimeter wave machines it is keeping, plus options for 60 more, TSA spokesman David Castelveter said.Not all of the machines will be replaced. Castelveter said that some airports that now have backscatter scanners will go back to having metal detectors. That's what most airports used before scanners were introduced.

(AP.)

This is huge news.

It isn't huge news because the TSA is getting rid of nude scanners. The 669 millimeter-wave machines are nude scanners too-the TSA claims that they don't produce the explicit images that the backscatter machines provide, but I don't know why we would trust the TSA on this. For all we know, the millimeter-wave machines have a boss key that switches from All Nude All The Time to Gumby for media medicine shows.

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You're Soaking in it.

 Posted on January 19, 2013 in Uncategorized

Judge says... baby pooped on (Reeves) – if he threw a dog off the bed because the dog peed on bed what would he do if baby pooped on him?

This is the content of a note that Polk County, Texas investigator David Wells says prosecutor Kayce Jones (who was observing) passed to prosecutor Beverly Armstrong (who was trying the case) during the trial of a felony injury-to-a-child case. Wells saw the note, preserved it, and wrote a report accusing the judge, Elizabeth Coker, of of sending text messages from the bench to help Armstrong.

(Jones has since been elected judge of the 411th District Court. Wells's wife, the stenographer in that court, is likely to lose her job because of Jones's whistleblowing: that's the way Texas judges roll.)

The criminal-defense lawyers interviewed for the Chronicle article call Coker's actions "shocking" (Richard Burroughs) and "unusual" (Stan Schneider). I am not shocked, but I do find Coker's conduct unusual-not in its underlying contempt for the adversarial process, but only in its high-tech (and easily documented) execution.

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The “Gun-Show” “Loophole” and Tort Law

 Posted on January 18, 2013 in Uncategorized

The "gun-show loophole" is the popular name for the idea that people who wouldn't be able to buy guns from federally licensed firearms dealers can go to gun shows and buy guns without background checks from non-FFLs.

I've been to several gunshows, and haven't seen more than a handful of guns for sale by non-FFLs. The loophole-if it is a loophole-is, more accurately, a private-transfer loophole.

"Loophole" is a value-laden word; the rule allowing private citizens to transfer guns to each other without background checks is more accurately an exception-an exception that allows gifts between family members as well as sales between strangers.

How significant is the private-sale exception? The New York Times asserts that "Nearly 40 percent of all gun sales are exempt from the system." I find that surprising, and would have to see the source of the statistics. Any interstate gun sale, even from one non-FFL to another, must pass through an FFL (and so requires a background check). I hunch that intrastate individual-to-individual sales don't make up 10% of gun sales.

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…Same As the Old Boss?

 Posted on January 17, 2013 in Uncategorized

Scott Greenfield comments on my take on Robb Fickman's post about Joan Campbell:

Maybe there's some variant of entropy that applies only to criminal defense lawyer bar associations, where they start out bold and purposeful, with a clear understanding of why they exist and whose voice they express. But over time, the strong grow old and weary, and new people come into the organization. The old were there out of a sense of duty, and they were willing to risk their personal comfort and welfare to achieve greater goals.The new come in for other reasons, some because they want to go from unknowns to players in the field, or seek validation, or want to network, are joiners, like the kids nobody notices in high school who are in every club. These are not the sort of people who take risks. They certainly won't put themselves as risk.

I had written about lawyers who want to return the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association to its halcyon pre-2006 days, when the organization wouldn't have dreamt of disturbing its leadership's cozy (and sticky) relationship with the bench by filing complaints with the Commission for Judicial Conduct. It is interesting that Greenfield read this as "new people," for the H&K lawyers who think HCCLA should return to the old days are Greenfield's age, and were members (and board members) long before Fickman radicalized the organization.

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Mad Feminists: Developing the Argument

 Posted on January 17, 2013 in Uncategorized

Commenter Akio Katano writes in part:

One thing that needs to be established is that the infographic debacle (which, mind, has caused significant criticism across the board) is that it's a failure of statistics, rather than reflective of a broader ideology....* * * * *Another, more important point is that it is CERTAINLY possible to be misogynistic – or racist/homophobic/classist/what have you – without intent or knowledge.* * * * *[P]eople want to believe that they are reasonable, fair, just, and coherent, and are very good at pretending that their biases are simply The Way Things Are. It's not just a matter of conscious intent.

My response to the comment became long enough to justify a post of its own:

The infographic was entitled "The truth about false accusation." The number it used for the portion of allegations that are false was 2%-a number not supported by any statistics, but only by ideology.

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Judge Joan Campbell's Legacy

 Posted on January 16, 2013 in Uncategorized

Two views of recently retired judge Joan Campbell:

  1. The Houston Chronicle's view, from Brian Rogers.

  2. The criminal-defense bar's view, from Robb Fickman.

I say, "the criminal-defense bar's view," but of course there is more than one view represented in Harris County's criminal-defense bar. Some criminal-defense lawyers-at least one of whom aspires to be the next president-elect of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association-would vocally disagree with Fickman telling the truth about Campbell. These lawyers take the position that "we should avoid making enemies" is a good excuse for not doing the right thing. They would rather give judges (metaphorical?) handjobs or kolaches than file judicial-conduct complaints.

If Judge George Godwin told one of those handjob-and-kolache lawyers...

that any attack by the defense bar on his brethren or "sistren" of the judiciary, would be viewed as an attack on all of them.

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Writing Better

 Posted on January 15, 2013 in Uncategorized

I got a writing sample in the mail today.

I'm not looking for contract help right now, but if you write better than I do I might give you a shot: smart people seek to hire smarter people.

One thing that I can do is write; another is edit. So if you send me a writing sample and there are grammatical errors on the cover page (there were), you are not in the running for anything except maybe a free writing lesson.

The lawyer who writes well has an advantage over the lawyer who doesn't. Most criminal-defense lawyers can't write worth a damn, and don't even know it. Official letters leave the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association, bound for courts and government agencies and the media, with grammatical and typographical errors. Fortunately, most judges can't write worth a damn either, so they aren't bothered by grammatical and typographical errors. But the rest of them can, and are. It is in order to persuade those judges that lawyers should learn to write better.

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You're Fired. No, Really. Stop Laughing.

 Posted on January 14, 2013 in Uncategorized

I believe this is the first time I have ever written about a TMZ article.

Sources connected with the L.A. prosecution of Lindsay tell TMZ... Heller - who according to the New York Times has been called a "menace to the public" by some lawyers - sent a letter to Holley saying he was now repping her on all criminal matters.Bad timing on Lindsay's part, because sources tell us... Holley was literally on her way to the courthouse when Heller sent his letter - she was trying to negotiate yet another sweet settlement for Lindsay in the lying-to-cops case.

Not that the press that would cover anything Lohan related cares, but this is really not the way things work.

A letter from Lawyer Two telling Lawyer One that Lawyer Two is now representing the client and Lawyer One is fired has no legal significance. Lawyer One is still responsible for the case, legally and ethically, not only until the client tells her otherwise, but also until the court lets Lawyer One off the case and Lawyer Two on.

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The Mad Feminist

 Posted on January 13, 2013 in Uncategorized

There are, I suppose, many flavors of feminism. The behavior of some feminists cannot reflect on all feminists any more than the behavior of some libertarians reflects on all libertarians.

But many feminists, like many libertarians, are barking mad.

I recently wrote a post on the nonsense of the Enliven Project's "truth about false accusation" infauxgraphic. One of my commenters wrote a comment (cross-posted elsewhere, which is annoying, but what the hell) and prefaced it with, "Rape is a heinous crime that, in my opinion, should merit the strictest penalties that the law allows."

Why would anyone feel it necessary to say this?

To the Mad Feminist there is no such thing as honest disagreement with feminist orthodoxy. There is either enthusiastic agreement or misogyny. On the topic of rape, you toe the line (false accusations are rare) or you are a "rape apologist."

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