Tom Delay is GUILTY

Found this on Texas Kaos:

A few things I'm thankful for

1. Tom Delay was convicted. I'll be even happier if he actually goes to prison.
2. DWTS is over. (Please can we have a break from the Palin family for awhile).
3. Puri, a Pakastani fried bread that I had with my ex-neighbor Sheema and her lovely parents for Thanksgiving. I had more than Puri but that's what I'll remember.

John Paul Stevens

Last week I went to hear Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens speak at an event sponsored by The Progressive Forum. Justice Stevens retired from the court in June after being nominated by Gerald Ford in 1975, and was considered one of the more liberal justices. The hall at Wortham Center was completely sold out and the audience was very enthusiastic...lots of cheering, clapping, and standing ovations. It was so nice to be in a room with intelligent progressive people and the Q&A with JPS was informative and inspiring. It is hard to believe he is 90 years old when you hear him speak.
GWB was in Houston the following day signing his book. If JPS had prevailed in Bush v. Gore we might not have had to endure 8 years of his disastrous presidency. Here is Stevens quote about Bush v. Gore:
"One thing, however, is certain. Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year's presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the nation's confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law."

I hope she'll stay there

Barbara Bush on Sarah Palin:
"I sat next to her once, thought she was beautiful, and I think she's very happy in Alaska," Bush said, before adding, "and I hope she'll stay there."
For once BB and I agree on something.

Ginger (or why I work 2 jobs)

I took Ginger to the vet a few weeks ago for a urinary infection. While examining her they discovered a rather large tumor on her rectum which was probably causing her a lot of pain. The vet told me there was only a 25% chance it was malignant so I decided to have the surgery done even though she is almost 13. Today I found out that it is benign so I made the right decision. She is feeling great and is back to being the happy active puppy she has always been. I've spent almost 2,000 in vet bills in the last 2 weeks but it's easy to see why it was worth it when you look at that precious face.

Happy Birthday Neil Young

I found this wonderful post, with several videos on Salon about one of my favorite singers, Neil Young, who is 65 years old today.
http://open.salon.com/blog/lschmoopie/2010/11/07/man_with_a_heart_of_gold_neil_young

Claude Howard Jones

I just finished listening to John Grisham's new book The Confession. It tells the story of a young African American high school football player unjustly accused and convicted of the murder of his white female classmate in a small Texas town. The governor in the book sounds a lot like W. It was hard to read because of the subject matter and the incompetence of the judicial system but if you are interested in reading about how things really work in Texas or if you are on the fence about capital punishment I would suggest reading this book or listening to it on audio like I did.

I found this true story in the Houston Chronicle today. I'm sure this isn't the only innocent person put to death by Bush. Just one more person to add to the list of innocent people killed by him here and in Iraq.

Hair casts doubt on executed man's guilt

by Allan Turner

In 1989, the robbery-murder case against Claude Howard Jones relied largely on a strand of hair recovered from the Point Blank crime scene. Microscopic tests identified the hair as Jones', and a San Jacinto County jury sent the career criminal to his execution.
On Thursday, however, a DNA test on the same hair revealed that it likely belonged to the robbery victim, liquor store owner Allen Hilzendager.
Jones, 60, was executed for the November 1989 crime on Dec. 7, 2000 — protesting his innocence to the last.
One day before his execution, Jones' lawyer, James A. DeLee of Port Arthur, petitioned then-Gov. George Bush for a 30-day reprieve so that the hair could be subjected to DNA testing.
Bush, who earlier had endorsed DNA testing in life-and-death cases, denied the reprieve. He apparently made his decision on the recommendation of his staff lawyer, Claudia Nadig, who, in reporting the bid for the reprieve, made no mention of the request for DNA testing.
Nadig, now a government lawyer in the nation's capital, could not be reached for comment.
The new test, performed by Mitotyping Technologies, a private Pennsylvania laboratory, was requested by the Texas Observer, an Austin-based political journal, and the New York-based Innocence Project.
The testing found that hair DNA was consistent with that of the victim and his maternal relatives; it was not consistent with Jones' or that of his accomplice, Danny Dixon.
"We can't say for certain that he's innocent, because the DNA tests don't implicate another shooter," said the Observer's Dave Mann. "But it certainly raises troubling questions about the case. The strand of hair was the piece of evidence that tied him to this crime and put him in the liquor store doing the shooting."
Other than the hair evidence, prosecutors relied on witnesses who testified they saw a man resembling Jones enter the liquor store.
Jones' second alleged accomplice, Timothy Jordan, who testified Jones had confessed the crime to him, later admitted that he had lied to jurors. Jordan was sentenced to prison for aggravated perjury after he told differing stories to grand and trial jurors.
In addition to DNA testing, the hair also was subjected to additional microscopic examination.
Nicholas Petraco, an associate professor of chemistry and forensic science at City University of New York, reported that the hair in evidence was not suitable for "meaningful microscopic comparison" because it merely was a fragment.
"A meaningful forensic hair comparison requires that suitable questioned and unknown hair specimens be compared from root end to tip end while being observed side-by-side on a transmitted light comparison microscope," he wrote.
Comments from the San Jacinto County District Attorney's office were not immediately available.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROSIE!

Rosie is 11 years old today. We celebrated with cupcakes from Crave. They just opened up a store on Kirby and have the best cupcakes in Houston, possibly the world.