chelle

Please discuss. - - - - - The New York Times November 18, 2004 House G.O.P. Acts to Protect Chief By CARL HULSE ASHINGTON, Nov. 17 - Spurred by an investigation connected to the majority leader, House Republicans voted Wednesday to abandon an 11-year-old party rule that required a member of their leadership to step aside temporarily if indicted. Meeting behind closed doors, the lawmakers agreed that a party steering committee would review any indictments handed up against the majority leader, Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, or any other members of the leadership team or committee chairmen, to determine if giving up a post was warranted. The revision does not change the requirement that leaders step down if convicted. The new rule was adopted by voice vote. Its chief author, Representative Henry Bonilla of Texas, said later that only a handful of members had opposed it. The Republicans' old rule was adopted in August 1993 to put a spotlight on the legal troubles of prominent Democrats. Mr. Bonilla said revising it had been necessary to prevent politically inspired criminal investigations by "crackpot" prosecutors from determining the fate of top Republicans. "Attorneys tell me you can be indicted for just about anything in this country, in any county or community," said Mr. Bonilla, an ally of Mr. DeLay. "Sometimes district attorneys who might have partisan agendas or want to read their name in the paper could make a name for themselves by indicting a member of the leadership, regardless of who it may be, and therefore determine their future. And that's not right." Mr. DeLay said he had not instigated the change. But he applauded it nevertheless, saying it could deprive "political hacks" of an ability to influence the makeup of the Republican leadership. Republican lawmakers "fixed the rules so that Democrats cannot use our rules against us," he said. Mr. DeLay said he did not expect to be indicted, but added, "This has nothing to do with whether I was going to be or not going to be.'' The comments of Mr. DeLay and Mr. Bonilla were clearly directed at Ronnie Earle, the district attorney in Travis County, Tex., including Austin, who won indictments earlier this year against three political associates of the majority leader. The investigation by Mr. Earle, a Democrat, involves charges of illegally using corporate money to help Republicans win state legislative races in 2002. Those Republican victories in turn gave the state party enough legislative muscle to win redistricting changes that helped Congressional Republicans gain five additional seats in Texas on Nov. 2. Despite the indictments of his associates, Mr. DeLay has not been called to testify, and Mr. Earle has not said whether the congressman is a target. Not all Republicans agreed with Wednesday's rule change, which was adopted after some two and a half hours of debate. "This is a mistake," said Representative Christopher Shays of Connecticut. When the Republicans gained control of the House in the elections of 1994, "we were going to be different,'' Mr. Shays said. But "every time we start to water down what we did in '94," he said, "we are basically saying the revolution is losing its character." Democrats and outside watchdogs bitterly criticized the change. "Today Republicans sold their collective soul to maintain their grip on power," said Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the Democratic whip. "They unabashedly abandoned any pretense of holding themselves to a high ethical standard, by deciding to ignore criminal indictments of their leaders as reason for removal from leadership posts in the Republican Party." Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, a group that follows campaign finance issues, said: "With this decision, we have gone from DeLay being judged by his peers to DeLay being judged by his buddies. It's an absurd and ludicrous new rule and an affront to the American people." Republicans said Democrats had no standing to criticize them, since House Democratic rules have no provision to remove indicted party leaders, though they do require indicted committee chairmen to step aside. The minority leader, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, said Wednesday that her party would quickly expand the provision to cover leadership posts as well. "Republicans have reached a new low," Ms. Pelosi said. "It is absolutely mind-boggling that as their first order of business following the elections, House Republicans have lowered the ethical standards for their leaders." The change follows two admonitions that Mr. DeLay received from the bipartisan House ethics committee this fall, one involving a House floor vote, the other a fund-raiser. Mr. DeLay has built strong loyalty in the House over the years by helping raise campaign money and paying close attention to the personal legislative interests of Republican lawmakers, and the ethics committee's action angered some of his supporters in the chamber. Mr. DeLay and many other House Republicans have criticized Mr. Earle's inquiry as highly partisan. "Ronnie Earle is trying to criminalize politics," Mr. DeLay said. "I think that is wrong." Mr. Earle, in a statement issued by his office, said the Republican rule change would have no effect on the continuing investigation. But he added, "It should be alarming to the public to see their leaders substitute their judgment for that of the law enforcement process." House Republicans did not dispute the idea that the change had been brought on by the events in Texas but said most of the majority's lawmakers had also concluded that the rule was simply unfair. "In my sincere opinion, it only provoked the timing" of the change, Representative Trent Franks of Arizona said of the Texas inquiry. "When you look at the rule, it is an outrageous rule." The new rule says that upon the return of an indictment against a committee chairman, a subcommittee chairman or a party leader, a steering committee made up of House leaders other than the accused lawmaker will have 30 days to recommend to the full Republican conference "what action, if any, the conference shall take concerning said member." Though the change had been a subject of discussion for the last week, it was not submitted by Mr. Bonilla until right before a Tuesday deadline that Republicans had set to offer proposals for rules in the new Congress. Mr. Bonilla and others said the Republican conference, including many members elected only two weeks ago, had been insistent on the revision. "It is the right thing to do," said Representative John Carter of Texas, a former judge. While House Republicans were acting on the rule, Congress continued its reorganization for 2005. House Democrats and Senate Republicans re-elected their leadership teams for the most part. In the only real race, Senator Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina gained a one-vote victory over Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota to head the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which provides guidance and money for Republican candidates.

Anyone ever gone to a music show at the Key Arena? I don't typically like big venue deals, but it looks like the Shins have outgrown the Showbox... Is it a decent venue?

Nice TR. Here's a link to the other TR with the photo.

I imagine that space is limited at some of these venues. Is it a case of getting there early or are there sign up lists?

Dave -- good luck to you! Keep us posted on the climbing and fun out in SLC.

Maybe they showed movies really late. None were shown by the time I left at midnight. But the couple of "included" beers and the company made it a worthwhile ticket.

Awesome TR! Warm enough to climb in short sleeves?

T'waz a very good time. Saw lots of old friends and made a couple new ones.

Looks like an awesome movie. Even though I still lock my heels down. The snow will soon be falling.

Check it out. Titan Ice Fall

Damn that is tempting. It is a beautiful day! But I'll be a good student and work on my research paper.

What GK suggests is great: ice, heat, rest, rebalance. When I injured my shoulder last summer ('03) I went to a sports rehab PT and we did rest, ice, TENS, then strengthening and worked on rebalancing the muscles. I eventually progressed to what Layton suggested and more strength stuff. I was not getting better and was actually feeling worse after the proprioception training and increase weight exercises. This was about $750 into my PT treatments and 5 weeks of my summer. So I went to see an awesome massage therapist. She worked to relieve the inflammation and relieve adhesions in the individal muscles involved. 3 weeks later I had my range of motion back and slowly got back to climbing. If you want a referral pm me for the info.

An interesting Op-Ed from today's NYTimes. Our Not-So-Free Press By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF aging China! Help us! Urge the U.S. government to respect freedom of the press! It does sound topsy-turvy, doesn't it? Generally, it's China and Zimbabwe that are throwing journalists in prison, while the U.S. denounces the repression over there. But now similar abuses are about to unfold within the United States, part of an alarming new pattern of assault on American freedom of the press. In the last few months, three different U.S. federal judges, each appointed by President Ronald Reagan, have found a total of eight journalists in contempt of court for refusing to reveal confidential sources, and the first of them may go to prison before the year is out. Some of the rest may be in prison by spring. The first reporter likely to go to jail is Jim Taricani, a television reporter for the NBC station in Providence, R.I. Mr. Taricani obtained and broadcast, completely legally, a videotape of a city official as he accepted an envelope full of cash. U.S. District Judge Ernest Torres found Mr. Taricani in contempt for refusing to identify the person he got the videotape from, and the judge fined him $1,000 a day. That hasn't broken Mr. Taricani, so Judge Torres has set a hearing for Nov. 18 to decide whether to squeeze him further by throwing him in jail. Then there's Patrick Fitzgerald, the overzealous special prosecutor who is the Inspector Javert of our age. Mr. Fitzgerald hasn't made any progress in punishing the White House officials believed to have leaked the identity of the C.I.A. officer Valerie Plame to Robert Novak. But Mr. Fitzgerald seems determined to imprison two reporters who committed no crime, Judith Miller of The New York Times and Matthew Cooper of Time, because they won't blab about confidential sources. Federal District Judge Thomas Hogan is threatening to send them to prison; a hearing is set for Dec. 8. As for Mr. Novak, he is in no apparent jeopardy, for reasons that remain unclear. Then there's a third case, a civil suit between the nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee and the government. Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson held five reporters who are not even parties to the suit in contempt for refusing to reveal confidential sources. In yet another case, the Justice Department is backing a prosecutor's effort to get a record of telephone calls made by two New York Times reporters - uncovering all their confidential sources in the fall of 2001. Put all this together, and we're seeing a broad assault on freedom of the press that would appall us if it were happening in Kazakhstan. Responsibility lies primarily with the judges rather than with the Bush administration, except for the demand for phone records and for the appointment of Inspector Javert as special prosecutor. But it's probably not a coincidence that we're seeing an offensive against press freedoms during an administration that has a Brezhnevian fondness for secrecy. We journalists are in this mess partly because we're widely seen as arrogant and biased, and we need to wrestle seriously with those issues. But when reporters face jail for doing their jobs, the ultimate victim is the free flow of information, the circulatory system of any democracy. The Chinese government recently arrested Zhao Yan, a research assistant for The New York Times in Beijing, and the Bush administration has been very helpful about protesting the case. Maybe Colin Powell can work out a deal: the Chinese government will stop imprisoning journalists if the U.S. government will do the same. Protecting confidential sources has been a sacred ethical precept in publishing ever since John Twyn was arrested in 1663 for printing a book that offended the king. Twyn refused to reveal the name of the book's author, so he was publicly castrated and disemboweled, and his limbs severed from his body. Each piece of his body was nailed to a London gate or bridge. So, on the bright side, we have evidently progressed. In May, Iran's secret police detained me in Tehran and demanded that I identify a revolutionary guard I had quoted as saying "to hell with the mullahs." My interrogators threatened to imprison me unless I revealed my source. But after a standoff, the Iranian goons let me go. Imprisoning Western journalists for protecting their sources was too medieval, even for them. Let's hope the U.S. judicial system shows the same restraint as those Iranian thugs.

Yikes! Do you have to click the link for there to be an infection or are you screwed if you just view the message?

I thought you said a couple months ago you were heading to Thailand for 6 months...

Glad you had a helmet on ivan. Softball sized rock to the top of the head while downclimbing the snow gully on Shuksan. Thank you one-time-use foam Petzl helmet. I now own a BD Halfdome.

IMO Psychology Today is just pop psychology. Don't take it seriously. It was not well thought of by my psych profs when I was in school.

Thanks.

Have any of you ever gotten spam from paypal? I got a note today that my PayPal account recived a deposit of $175. I don't have a payPal account. There was a header bar with a notice that the message might not be from paypal and to beware of links. Not sure if that part was from my email provider or par tof the message... I just deleted it and reported it as spam. Is this some sort of new internet scam? If it is spam, that totally sucks because this was my one spam free account. I guess I have been found.

Very cool. It sounds like they were an independent team.

Bummer...a positive outlook and some oxycodone will go a long way. Are you having surgery?

I've taken time out from climbing twice. I sprained my neck trying to be a hotdog snowboard chick the winter after I learned to climb. I was out of the game for all sports for 2 years after that one and it sucked. Did well in my career though because I couldn't do anything else but work or read without pain. I was out with a strained rotator cuff injury for most of the 2003 climbing season from a stupid gym climbing move in May. To stay in shape I hiked and jogged. Rehab was important. I tried going back to climbing too early and ended up reinjuring it which is why I was off climbing until Sep. Mentally it was hard to be out of the game and it sucked not having my usual playmates to hang with on the weekends because they were all out climbing. But once I was strong enough to climb I was back to it, although not pushing myself at my limit on lead until this season when my shoulder was strong enough. You'll be back to it once you're healed. Give yourself time to heal. The rock climbing season is over and gym climbing sucks. Go skiing when you're able and concentrate on rehab to make sure the hand heals correctly (you are too young to develop a chronic problem because you didn't take the necessary time off), avoid reinjury, and have fun outdoors in the winter hiking, skiing or doing other stuff.

If you are worried about pens damaging the fibers and affecting stregth of the rope, just take some Gore floss and sew a line of it into the sheath at the middle. Go around several times and you have something white to show you where the middle is. It is also something that you feel so when it is getting dark and you're rapping down you can be sure you found the middle when setting your raps. Keep some of this magic stuff in your repair kit. Another benefit of Gore floss is that it is strong enough to repair things in a pinch, Sew a torn tent fly or camp chair. I've even used it to hold crampons together when a friend lost the little nut that sets the crampon length...

No. We may not know who the governor is until after Thursday once the absentee are counted and it may come down to how the provisional ballots are counted up later this week and next. It boggles the mind that WA would vote for Kerry, but endorse the republican agenda by voting for Rossi. I don't care that there are legitimate criticisms of her performance as attonrney general. Rossi is a proxy for the republican religious right. I am keeping my fingers crossed on this one. Scott, STFU. I think the question DFA brings up is a valid one. I would like to know that the elections were fair and that people's votes were accurately counted. If they were conducted fairly great, then the populace has spoken. Do not blindly trust that nothing underhanded happened this time. I find it a bit suspicious that 6 months ago the CEO of Deibold told GWB that he would deliver OH for the republicans. His company was making voting machines, without paper trails at the time. And in Iowa, the republican observers were intimidating Native American voters (who mostly vote for democratic candidates)by taking down liscense plates and then Thune wins.

...the American Taliban, safely in charge of the US and soon to be the world. Rat - you forgot that little piece of legislation called the Constitution Restoration Act of 2004. It prohibits the judicial branch from reviewing cases that promote federalism because the officers of the court "acknowledge" only God is the soverign source of law... The country is fucking fucked.