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Justice DeLay-ed, not denied
It ought to be a somber moment when a man who was once a high-ranking member of the leadership of our nation’s Congress is convicted of a high crime for his actions while in office, and it would have been in a more innocent day. But on this day, I admit to being downright giddy that Tom DeLay—the Hammer—once my representative in the United States Congress—was nailed by a jury in Austin, Texas for violating our state’s election laws.
I don’t mean just that I was pleased 
because someone who broke the law was convicted of the offense; we all should take comfort when the system shows that the powerful are not above the law. I mean, I was gleeful to hear that this particular sanctimonious, obnoxious, slimy, dishonest bully was finally getting what he deserved. His wife and daughter seem to understand the seriousness of his predicament: not satisfied with mere victory at the polls, he engineered an illegal money-laundering plot to ensure partisan victory into the next generation—and that was before the Citizens United decision would have made it so easy to avoid prosecution for corrupting the process.
Schadenfreude? You bet your ass.
The guy who forced a redistricting of the just-completed redistricting in order to secure a Republican majority that was already without doubt, is now a convicted felon? Excellent. The guy who insisted that lobbying firms fire every Democrat on the payroll in order to play ball with the Republicans in power, will now carry the stain of criminality for the rest of his life? Perfect. The guy who threatened that judges would become political targets if they couldn’t see their way clear to ignore the law to advance his partisan agenda? Outstanding!
Sentencing comes in December so we don’t know yet if he’ll actually go to prison, but there’s hope, America…don’t give up hope.
Invasion of the body scanners
I like to think I don’t take a back seat to anyone when it comes to defense of civil liberties—I was against the Big Brother-y Patriot Act before it was cool—but I don’t get all the fuss about body scanners in airports.
I’ve been able to mostly ignore the uproar about the Transportation Security Administration’s airport security measures because, well, I’m pretty good at ignore. But I couldn’t look away from a series of posts by Padre Steve, a guy I find to be a pretty entertaining read, on the existential threat to liberty from our surrendering freedoms in the name of security. Admittedly, I was hooked by his extended reference to an episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” to illustrate the problem.
With respect to Padre Steve and the others who have suffered indignities at the hands of an idiotic TSA employee, I’m not convinced. It seems likely to me that when one man pithily proclaimed “don’t touch my junk,” that was all that was necessary for the news media—the people with too little judgment and too much space to fill—to rev up the hysteria generator; Howard Kurtz does a good job surveying the landscape of the freak-out over pat-downs.
I’ll posit that we all agree that commercial air travel is not a right but a public accommodation justifiably subject to regulation in the interests of safety—would you get on a plane today if there was no screening of passengers or baggage? We can debate the appropriateness of the screening measures that are being used, but that’s just details. And in the meantime, there’s always the train or the bus.
Most experts believe the full-body scanners do not pose a serious health risk for the vast majority of travelers. As to the complaint that they’re too invasive, because someone will see a black-and-white x-ray depiction of your naked body—
Oh, yeah…verrry sexy.
I don’t think that’s too much to ask for the sake of better collective security, and certainly not when considered against the alternative of an all-over hands-on greeting from the TSA. All in all, the scan seems a reasonable security tactic in a world where religious fanatics convince poor lemmings to stuff their shoes and underwear with explosives to strike a blow against people they don’t know who’ve never harmed them.
But in the spirit of the holiday, I will say I am thankful for the comedy (click the pic):
Texas jury pounds The Hammer
Must pass along the good news: my former representative in Congress, Tom DeLay, has been convicted of money laundering and faces a possible sentence of life in prison–the American jury system triumphs, even over the powerful and well-coifed! More later…
Easily, the best news of the day
(…even though the day is very young.) The owner of the Houston Astros is getting seriouser about selling the team! I can imagine no more encouraging news, or anything more likely to improve the team on the field, than for Drayton McLane, Jr. to get the hell out of the way, not even the blockbuster news of the trade for a 31-year-old .254-hitting shortstop (for reals).
UPDATE 9:30 am→
Thanks to Astros County for pointing out that Mark Berman at Fox 26 broke this story last night.
UPDATE 5:00 pm→
The Old Grocer confirms, the team is for sale…now if he can just find somebody to pay his criminally inflated asking price, we’re in business. Oh, frabjous rapture!
HEY, IT'S PAT RYAN'S BLOG! 