SPOKANE JURY NULLIFICATION DRESSED UP AS A BILL OF RIGHTS

A SMALL PACK OF ATTORNEYS DON'T LIKE THE LAW AS WRITTEN AND DISCOVER WHAT THEY CAN DO ABOUT IT: GET A COMMUNITY BILL OF RIGHTS ON THE BALLOT AND TRY TO BAMBOOZLE THE VOTERS INTO VOTING FOR IT. AND BY THE WAY, NOTE THIS IS NOT A BILL OF COMMUNITY RIGHTS.

THIS IS THE WAY JURY NULLIFICATON WORKS, TOO. THERE IS THE POWER

TO THROW OUT THE LAW. BUT IS THERE THE RIGHT? NO!

IN THE BILL OF RIGHTS CASE, IF PASSED, THERE COULD BE DESTROYED, FOR EXAMPLE, DECADES OF WORK AND THOUGHT BY HUNDREDS OF ELECTED OFFICIALS AND PLAIN CITIZENS ON PLANNING PROCEDURES AND POLICIES. JUST ON THE WHIM OF A TINY GROUP OF ATTORNEYS, SOME NOT EVEN FROM SPOKANE AND WITH BIGGER FISH TO FRY.

THERE IS MUCH TO SAY ON THE DETAILS OF THE PETITION, BUT i WILL SAVE THAT FOR LATER. AND MANY OTHERS WILL BE WEIGHING IN. PLEASE PAY ATTENTION.

ENVISION SPOKANE HEARING

The City Council held a hearing last night as to whether Envision Spokane (ES) had presented a valid initiative. It was entertaining and instructive. Even though the petition was clearly not valid, five members of the council were sufficiently cowed by ES as to accept that it was.

The way certain members caved in to ES you would have thought ES was actually tied into the Russian military and a nuclear strike was imminent. After all, ES opponents were calling them Communists. I wish they had been Communists. Any self respecting Communist would have written a more sensible and democratic petition.

I do have to give the ES plotters credit for effective tactics. A few months ago, I thought they were going to be laughed out of the room. But they've cobbled together a coalition of the naive and the special interest that is working just fine. Keep throwing out the word democracy. You'll get your way.

As of today, I still only give it a 60% chance that they have enough valid signatures. You would be suprised at the number of folks who don't know whether they live in the city or not but sign petitions.

The five wimps on the council seemed confident that the voters would see through the nonsense in the initiative. But remember that these are voters that elected George Bush twice. How smart can they be?

Just to be clear, let me close with this. I am in favor of a major overhaul of city government, which would actually be more radical, democratic and "leftist" than what ES proposes. It would center on a new structure of governance, truly responsive to the people. But I hate to see a diversion such as what we have here. ES has the goal of wiping out our US constitution (their own words). I don't buy it.

FRANCIS COLLINS NOMINATION

The President has nominated a born again Christian to head up the National
Institute of Health. This is not good. Check out the Collins-Dawkins debates to see how muky Collins's thinking is. I would expect to see his religious views affect how
the NIH spends its money and hence how health science progresses (or regresses) in this country.

NOT PERFECT

The sports world loves the memory of Steve McNair. Oh, sure, he wasn't perfect, they say. Well, if he was so dang "not perfect," why didn't we hear more about it before? Why didn't we hear months ago, over the air or in print, that, "McNair was a great footballer, but he is cheating on his wife and kids with a fun loving teenager. No one's perfect." ?

And then we get this additional tripe from the jockstrap world. They want to leave judgment to the higher authority. This shows how really dumb and perverted they are. There is no higher authority; that is, other than our human reason and moral sense. But I regret to note the obvious fact that that is not what they are leaving it to.