New Supreme Court Justice?

I'm not overly politically active, but I got an e-mail from moveon.org today that opened my eyes to a potential problem.

This morning, President Bush nominated Harriet Miers to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court. Miers is a long-time political appointee, campaign counsel, personal lawyer and Bush loyalist who has never served as a judge.

No matter what her political views may be, I have to agree that we should at least have someone who has been a judge sitting on the supreme court. Moveon.org went on to list some details of her career:

1970--Graduated from Southern Methodist University Law School
1970-1972--Clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Joe Estes
1972-2001--Joined Texas law firm, Locke, Purnell
1985--Elected president of the Dallas Bar Association
1986-1989--Member of the State Bar board of directors
1989-1991--Elected and served one term on the Dallas City Council
1992--Elected president of the Texas State Bar
1993-1994--Worked as counsel for Bush's gubernatorial campaign
1995-2000--Appointed chairwoman of Texas Lottery Commission by Gov. George Bush
1996--Became president of Locke, Purnell, and the first woman to lead a major Texas law firm
1998--Presided over the merger of Locke, Purnell with another big Texas firm, Liddell, Sapp, Zivley, Hill & LaBoon, and became co-managing partner of the resulting megafirm, Locke Liddell & Sapp
2000--Represented Bush and Cheney in a lawsuit stemming from their dual residency in Texas while running in the Presidential primary
2001--Selected as staff secretary for President Bush
2003--Promoted to Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy
2004--Selected as White House Counsel

What is to make me think she isn't a political toady? (But then, isn't everyone in politics.)

Anyway, moveon.org has asked people to help compile research of FACTS.

There are many important questions that need to be addressed, including:

• What policies did she advocate for on the Dallas City Council?
  
• What was her record at the head of the scandal-ridden Texas Lottery Commission?
  
• What cases did she take on while working as a corporate lawyer in private practice, and what positions did she fight for?
  
• What has she written or said in and outside of her law practice about her views on constitutional issues like privacy, the "commerce clause" or equal protection
  
• As White House councel Alberto Gonzales played a pivotal role in softening America's stance on torture. What positions has Harriet Miers advocated for in the same role?
  
• Has she ever publicly distanced herself from George W. Bush?

It's important that we move quickly in answering these questions. The Bush spin machine has been prepared for this nomination for some time and is already cranking at full speed. The strategy is to move Miers through as an enigma. We need to make sure the facts about her views are known.

This kind of decentralized research may never have been tried before at this scale. But a Supreme Court nominee with a record only the president really knows is a new national challenge. If we act quickly, we can meet that challenge together.

Please pitch in by taking some time to research today, and post what you find at:

http://www.moveonpac.org/judgefacts/index.html

Thanks for all that you do,

--Ben, Marika, Rosalyn, Joan and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team
Monday, October 3rd, 2005

PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

I've changed the link above to be for people who are not already signed up with moveon.org. I figure this could help. We need to start to take back our country.

Faire Recap

For most of the civilized world, a three day weekend means an extra day of relaxation, time with friends and loved ones, and most of all sleep.

But for those of us who have committed our lives to Ren Faires, it's just the opposite. (And we wouldn't have it any other way... which explains why we should all be committed.)

As much as I may complain throughout, I truly enjoyed performing over the weekend. It was the usual. GBU Shows and joust shows. But I got to do something I hadn't done in a while. Just stand around and do schtick. It only happened on one day, Sunday. I was ready early. There wasn't a million things to do. And I had about an hour to kill. So what does a ren faire performer do with an hour to kill? Does he relax back stage? Does he chat with old friends? Does he catch a show? No. He goes out to the front gate and does his best to entertain the hell out of those poor folks who have to stand in line to wait to buy tickets.

Now, I'm not the best street performer around. I'm usually a good second banana. And thankfully, there was another performer out there to play with. But I did my best to keep people entertained. One kid found me and told me he'd won at the "line game" and the "gate game". It felt good. I wish I'd had energy all day to keep it up throughout. I actually like doing street work. But because I'd been sick all week and had allowed myself to become sunburned after two previous blistering hot days, I couldn't spend too much time outside. But I entertained, I hawked the GBU show (which continues to get better with each performance) and I felt like I wasn't playing the role of snobby independent. Most of the really good indy acts spend their day on the street, getting people to come to their shows simply by entertaining them. They may take small breaks. Maybe our shows take more out of a person. Maybe I'm lazy. Maybe, sometimes, I stop caring. But Sunday, I felt like I cared again. I felt like I was having fun. I remembered the good stuff.

Oh yeah, Friday and Saturday were good too. For Saturday and Sunday, we had a five horse show and a four horse joust. It was great, outside of the list breaking on Sunday and having to hold the center rope taught. But it just shows that when everyone knows what they're supposed to be doing, and everyone pulls together, no matter what goes wrong, we come through. I have no doubt that Paragon Jousting has the best ground crew of any joust I've ever seen.