Odds & Ends

This will be short as we have some real work we need to do.

Last night, we watched Independent Thinking.  It was 30 minutes earlier than scheduled because KBDI was having problems with Colorado Inside Out and did a switch after about three minutes of blackout.

The most interesting item to come out of IT was a quote from Bill Clinton.  We found it on the internet at an abc news site.  So far as we know, even though this was said in Denver in January, it made none of the local papers:

I don't really think there's much debate that, at least initially, a full commitment to reduce greenhouse gases would slow down the economy….

A very liberal attorney, Andrew Oh-Willeke has an excellent blog posting on how both the judicial selection and the judicial performance system works.  For those who want to cut their reading time down, skip the judicial selection system and go directly to judicial performance.  Just because the guy is a liberal doesn't mean that he doesn't know what is going on.

For those who have missed it, Mark Udall has a new spokesman, Absurdicus.  How quaint!

Absurdicus states flatly that there is no such thing as a lie in a campaign.  Lies are not lies, it seems.  They are merely campaign tactics that someone else won't like.

Other gems:  Mark Udall was correct expect the Supreme Court to uphold the "reasonable" total District of Columbia ban on handguns.

A 2000 Ford Ranger is the bed for a SUV, so therefore it is a SUV.  We didn't know that there was such a thing as a "compact" SUV:

2000 FORD RANGER

Ford Ranger, America's best-selling compact pickup truck since 1987, adds significant youth appeal for the 2000 model year and some new options that enhance its tough and athletic reputation.

Absurdicus is an in your face liberal who, when faced with an argument he finds that he cannot win, tries to shift it to new ground where he thinks he can win.  When that doesn't work, he switches to pure name calling.

When told after speculating that I owned a SUV that I actually owned an underpowered Ford Ranger, he tried to claim that what I owned was the basis for a SUV and therefore, he was right.  He documents nothing that he writes about, but demands that his opponent document everything or he won't accept it. 

Added:  Someone drug over comments that were on Oh-Willeke's blog.  The funny thing is that I wrote one of them.  I didn't say OW was perfect or above criticism in his analysis, I said it was excellent, and I stand by that. 

Comments

[RK]

Dissenting view on Andy's blog:
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Colorado's judicial system sucks beyond comprehension, because judges are not held to account for even willful misconduct on the bench. Where else but in Colorado could you witness the spectacle of a judge deciding a case in which she is the defendant, even though there are sixteen other non-conflicted judges available and authorized by statute to hear the case?

The greatest strength of a system of judicial elections is that when a judge commits willful misconduct on the bench, his opponent in the next election is going to point it out. What's more, in states with judicial elections like Michigan, Texas, and California (which have judicial elections -- California's is a hybrid system), you will find functional systems of judicial discipline. By way of example, California purports to discipline judges for indefensible decisions:

"A judge's error in a decision or ruling -- by itself -- is not misconduct. … The California Supreme Court has determined that a judge who commits legal error is subject to investigation and possible discipline only if the legal error clearly and convincingly reflects in addition bad faith, bias, abuse of authority, disregard for fundamental rights, intentional disregard of the law, or any purpose other than the faithful discharge of judicial duties."

State of California Commission on Judicial Performance, “How To File a Complaint” (web page), available at http://cjp.ca.gov/filingacomp.htm.

When is the last time you've seen a Colorado judge disciplined for willful misconduct on the bench? Or, for that matter, disciplined at all? Here, they quietly "resign," like Grafton Biddle.

Blue-ribbon commissions are often front-loaded with people who have a vested interest in protecting the judges and as such, never tell the people the awful truth about our judges. As a result, no one hears the truth.

The judges say that they need new laws to protect them from the people they have screwed. Who is going to protect us citizens from the judges?
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Andy may know what's gong on, but you can't expect him to be honest about it. Dan Caplis illustrates the lawyer's trademark spinelessness, when confronted by a caller:

"First and foremost, I'm a trial lawyer, and my obligation is to my clients. And that's why there are going to be times when a judge -- a local judge -- deserves criticism and I won't offer it on-air, because I don't want to compromise my clients' interests."

Dan Caplis, Caplis and Silverman (KHOW radio broadcast Mar. 10, 2008) (mp3 on file).

[RK]

Another interesting comment puts the lie to Andy's analysis:
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Unfortunately the retention system is significantly worse than you describe for too many reasons to go into here.

The fundamental problem is that the lawyers on the commissions see it as their job to protect the judges and the judges expect to be protected.

You need to look into SB08-054 which is renewing the performance system. It has cute little provisions in it that mandate that a lawyer or commissioner who votes to non-retain a judge CAN NOT ask to have a future litigation removed from that judge's jurisdiction. No where does that bill mention the word ethics and commissioners ARE NOT to examine the judge's conduct against the ethics canons. If they accidently discover unethical conduct by a judge, they can only report it if seven of ten commissioners agree to report it, meaning at least one lawyer must agree.
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As everyone should know, our system of judicial discipline is worse than non-existent.