4 ms·

politely asking for a formal admission of wrongdoing counts as "not fucking around" now? how about some actual punishments or any sort of deterrent to more of

politely asking for a formal admission of wrongdoing counts as "not fucking around" now? how about some actual punishments or any sort of deterrent to more of this sort of behaviour?

Shivetya 13y ago
Show me where the current DOJ is held accountable,when you can hide behind the politics of identity, have a complacent if not complicit press, where does justice come from?
rhizome 13y ago
Two questions, two answers: 1) There's a such thing as decorum. 2) One step at a time. "The mill of justice grinds slowly, but it grinds exceedingly fine."
- TelmoMenezes 13y ago
  1) Go ask some poor kid doing time for smoking weed about the level of decorum in common criminal procedures. I bet he also got a polite letter with suggestions. 2) When it comes to powerful people, it grinds so slowly and so fine that you can't even see the result.
  - rhizome 13y ago
    I know what you mean, and I sympathize, but there's simply no way to predict the future. However, this is the best chance in a long time in a rigged system for some accountability, possibly at a criminal and constitutional level.
wpietri 13y ago
I once got to see a federal judge tear a plaintiff's lawyer a new one. I sat through the whole trial, and up until the judge was mid-way through his ruling, I had no idea which way he was going to rule. But suddenly I realized, despite the measured prose of the decision and the unraised voice reading it, that the judge was pissed. He felt the whole thing was a giant waste of time, and that any lawyer who wasn't a complete fuckup would have kept the case from turning up in his courtroom. And it wasn't just me that realized it; we all watched the plaintiff's lawyer slowly wilt. It was an incredible thing to watch. The formality of the occasion, the power of the judge, the power of the system he represented, the normal range of courtroom expression: they all set a context in which a slightly raised eyebrow was more powerful than the loudest shout, that arch deprecation was more cutting than a raft of verbal abuse. I expect it's the same deal here. These are US Senators asking, and they're basically, in polite language, making direct accusations of lying to the Supreme Court. I suspect that they, mindful of the co-equal status of the government branches, very rarely say things like this. So when they do, everybody knows that they mean it.
- rhizome 13y ago
  Here's non-trial one from just a couple months ago: http://abovethelaw.com/2013/09/who-wants-to-watch-a-prosecutor-get-benchslapped-en-banc/ http://abovethelaw.com/2013/09/who-wants-to-watch-a-prosecut...

politely asking for a formal admission of wrongdoing counts as "not fucking around" now? how about some actual punishments or any sort of deterrent to more of this sort of behaviour?

Shivetya 13y ago

Show me where the current DOJ is held accountable,when you can hide behind the politics of identity, have a complacent if not complicit press, where does justice come from?

rhizome 13y ago

Two questions, two answers: 1) There's a such thing as decorum. 2) One step at a time. "The mill of justice grinds slowly, but it grinds exceedingly fine."

TelmoMenezes 13y ago
1) Go ask some poor kid doing time for smoking weed about the level of decorum in common criminal procedures. I bet he also got a polite letter with suggestions. 2) When it comes to powerful people, it grinds so slowly and so fine that you can't even see the result.
- rhizome 13y ago
  I know what you mean, and I sympathize, but there's simply no way to predict the future. However, this is the best chance in a long time in a rigged system for some accountability, possibly at a criminal and constitutional level.

wpietri 13y ago

I once got to see a federal judge tear a plaintiff's lawyer a new one. I sat through the whole trial, and up until the judge was mid-way through his ruling, I had no idea which way he was going to rule. But suddenly I realized, despite the measured prose of the decision and the unraised voice reading it, that the judge was pissed. He felt the whole thing was a giant waste of time, and that any lawyer who wasn't a complete fuckup would have kept the case from turning up in his courtroom. And it wasn't just me that realized it; we all watched the plaintiff's lawyer slowly wilt. It was an incredible thing to watch. The formality of the occasion, the power of the judge, the power of the system he represented, the normal range of courtroom expression: they all set a context in which a slightly raised eyebrow was more powerful than the loudest shout, that arch deprecation was more cutting than a raft of verbal abuse. I expect it's the same deal here. These are US Senators asking, and they're basically, in polite language, making direct accusations of lying to the Supreme Court. I suspect that they, mindful of the co-equal status of the government branches, very rarely say things like this. So when they do, everybody knows that they mean it.

rhizome 13y ago
Here's non-trial one from just a couple months ago: http://abovethelaw.com/2013/09/who-wants-to-watch-a-prosecutor-get-benchslapped-en-banc/ http://abovethelaw.com/2013/09/who-wants-to-watch-a-prosecut...