Isaac Laquedem

800,000 lawyers in America

And out of them all, the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth find their way to the one, a District of Columbia attorney named Benjamin Ginsberg, who is lead counsel to George Bush's campaign.

But the mild phrase "lead counsel to George Bush's campaign" is a far too modest statement of Mr. Ginsberg's extensive involvement in Republican politics. Mr. Ginsberg is a partner at the Washington law and lobbying firm of Patton Boggs, where his biography on the firm website includes the following:

In both the 2004 and 2000 election cycles, Mr. Ginsberg served as national counsel to the Bush-Cheney presidential campaign; he played a central role in the 2000 Florida recount. He also represents the campaigns and leadership PACs of numerous members of the Senate and House, as well as the Republican National Committee, National Republican Senatorial Committee and National Republican Congressional Committee. He serves as counsel to the Republican Governors Association and has wide experience on the state legislative level from directing Republican redistricting efforts nationwide following the 1990 Census and being actively engaged in the 2001-2002 round of redistricting.

Coincidence? Maybe, until I read these two sentences in the news report (second link above):

"They have legal questions and when they have legal questions I answer them," Ginsberg said. He said he had not yet decided whether to charge the Swift Boat Veterans a fee for his work.

Not charge? Somebody's paying for the museum-quality art on the walls of Patton Boggs.

Happy Birthday, L.J.!

Today is the __th birthday of one of the Sisters Laquedem, whom in this weblog I'll nickname "Little Jewel" for reasons that she'll understand. Happy birthday, L.J.!

My college education finally pays off

Because I can read this, the first Nigerian-fortune-scam e-mail I've received in French, and passable French, at that. C'est magnifique!
---------------------------------
Mme Aicha Mainassara
Email: *********@yahoo.es
16,Rue des jardins Cocody les Deux-Plateaux
Abidjan Côte D'Ivoire .

Je vous prie d’emblée de m’excuser pour tous les désagréments qu’un tel courrier pourrait vous causer.
Mais même si nous ne nous sommes jamais rencontrés, je crois fermement que sur la base du droit d’assistance humanitaire qu'une confiance véritable peut naître de notre communication et favoriser ainsi un véritable partenariat entre nous deux. Aussi c'est avec un réel plaisir que je vous contacte depuis ABIDJAN la capitale économique de la COTE D’IVOIRE(AFRIQUE de l’Ouest) où je vis depuis quelque temps avec mes trois enfants Nasser, Moussa et Samira.

En fait je suis Madame Aicha Mainassara, l’épouse légitime de l’ex-président de la république du NIGER (AFRIQUE de l’Ouest) assassiné par une jeune militaire en avril 1999. Pendant l’exercice de son man dat présidentiel, mon époux avait déposé une valise métallique auprès d’une compagnie de sécurité en Cote d’Ivoire contenant la somme de vingt huit millions de dollars américains(28.000.000$ US) pour lui permettre de concevoir un projet d’investissement à la fin de son mandat présidentiel. Malheureusement le sort en a décidé autrement.

Quelques temps après sa mort, j'ai découvert dans le testament cette information et j'ai automatiquement pris contacte avec la dite compagnie de sécurité pour revendiquer cet important legs en ma qualité d’épouse légitime et au regard des stipulations testamentaires. Au jour d’aujourd’hui ma préoccupation majeure est de transférer cette somme hors de l’AFRIQUE de l’Ouest. Vu que nous avons mes enfants et moi assez sérieusement soufferts des brimades et tracasseries de la part des adversaires politiques de mon Mari. C’est dans cette perspective que je vous contacte pour que vous m’aide r à retirer ce consigne de la compagnie de sécurité. Car, croyez-moi je compte sur vous pour m'aider dans cette tâche qui du reste est dénuée de tout risque.

Je peux ainsi vous rassurer qu’à la fin de l’opération je vous consentirai 10% du montant total comme votre récompense personnelle.5% de ce montant seront dégagés pour faire face aux dépenses que susciteront cette opération. Je voudrais savoir compter sur vos qualités humaines, vertueuses et professionnelles.

Recevez mes salutations les plus sincères.
Fraternellement,
Aicha Mainassara.

J. Irwin Miller (1909-2004)

Chuck Currie reports the death of J. Irwin Miller, a businessman from Columbus, Indiana (not Ohio) who was head of the Cummins Engine Company for more than 40 years, and president of the National Council of Churches in the early 1960s. Chuck links to a press release from the NCC describing more of Mr. Miller's service to his church. Included in that press release is the following intriguing passage:

Miller transformed Columbus, Ind., into a city of architectural wonders, attracting prominent architects and earning Columbus the nickname the Athens of the Prairie. For that, the NCC’s Department of Worship and the Arts in 1992 presented him with an award celebrating his "lifetime of service to worship and the arts."

How does a corporate president transform a small town into a "city of architectural wonders"? The New York Times, the Oregonian (cribbing from the LA Times/Washington Post news service) and other obituaries explained what was behind this intriguing sentence. As printed in the Oregonian on August 24:

After serving in the Navy during World War II, he returned to his hometown of Columbus and watched as several schoolhouses were built to accommodate the growing population in the city about 40 miles south of Indianapolis. Unhappy with the buildings and believing that "mediocrity is expensive," he offered to pay the fees if the school system would engage notable architects to design the buildings. The program grew from there, and Miller established a foundation to finance other architectural fees. The idea of fostering good architecture also became a matter of civic pride, with others following in Miller's footsteps.

Here's a field in which Portland can make the major leagues without spending $100 million on a baseball stadium: spend $1 million subsidizing architecture. It will last a lot longer.

Seven ways to clean up television

Staff at the Federal Communications Commission has proposed to require every television and radio station to record its programming 16 hours a day, to make a record that the FCC could listen to if a listener should complain of indecency on the airwaves. Stations oppose the proposal because they would have to install equipment to record their broadcasts and then store the tapes or data for 80+ days.

Underlying this issue is the question of whether stations should be free to broadcast whatever they want to, or whether they should have to comply with standards of decency in the communities that they serve.

I support keeping our airwaves clean and decent, but cleanliness and decency goes far beyond prohibiting "four-letter words" and sanitizing Howard Stern. If we're going to require broadcasters to clean up their act, then we need to require far more than eliminating George Carlin's seven words. For example:

1. Ban all "get rich quick seminar" advertisements from promoters who have gone bankrupt.
2. Prohibit news shows from mentioning Britney Spears, or any part of Ms. Spears, in the first 10 minutes.
3. Keep the Sacramento Kings off of television.
4. Fine stations $10 for each improper use of "like" in place of "as."
5. Eliminate camera shots of men wearing baseball caps backward who are not wearing a catcher's mask.
6. Don't show Sandra Bullock films when children and critics might see them.
7. Do something about Robin Leach.

Captain Travaillot's ship set a record for overtime parking

Captain Oswald Travaillot still interests me. He left his ship at the bottom of the Willamette in front of D Street (now NW Davis Street) in 1852. It was still there when he died in Barkerville, British Columbia in 1879. Jewel Lansing writes that it was still there in 1882. How long did his ship sit on the riverbed? It was still there in 1928, when divers from the Pacific Bridge Company rediscovered it.

The inmate who pays his own way

During Andrew Wiederhorn's prison stay following his guilty plea to two federal felonies, his employer, Fog Cutter Capital, Inc., is continuing to pay him his salary and a large bonus, at a rate which works out to be $4,611 per day in prison. His income as an inmate crosses the $100,000 mark today, his 22nd day behind bars. Congratulations, sir!

Shoot first, answer questions later

I was fascinated when b!X posted this report on Commissioner Francesconi's advertisement, in which Commissioner Francesconi alleged that Tom Potter, when chief, reinstated a police officer who had shot a suspect 23 times. Then b!X followed his first report up with another on the treatment that KOIN news had given the story, in which KOIN basically took what the Francesconi campaign had said as fact.

The gist of the controversy is that (1) Mr. Potter wasn't chief of police when the officer was reinstated, (2) KOIN is wrongly reporting that he was, and (3) KOIN won't check the facts.

As best as I can tell, the facts are these. In 1992, an officer was accused of using excessive force against a suspect. Charles Moose, then a police captain, found that the officer had used excessive force and wanted the officer suspended. Chief Potter disagreed and reinstated the officer. In 1993, Mr. Potter resigned as police chief, and Capt. Moose became chief. After Mr. Potter resigned, the same officer shot a suspect 23 times. Chief Moose fired the officer.

The Francesconi ad is technically correct but misleading. It doesn't state that the officer fired the 23 shots while Mr. Potter was chief of police. (It does, however, according to b!X, include the sound of shots.)

Here's the sentence from the KOIN news report as it appeared on KOIN's website on August 20:

What Potter did was reinstate an officer who was demoted after shooting at a suspect 23 times.

Francesconi's campaign didn't say that; it said that Potter reinstated an officer after allegations of excessive force, and after Potter resigned as chief, the officer shot a suspect 23 times. KOIN has telescoped that into one wrong sentence. (KOIN also couldn't spell "Francesconi" correctly.)

KOIN is not reporting the Francesconi campaign accurately, and people are thinking that the Francesconi campaign said what KOIN said it said, which is not the case.

Don't get me wrong: the Francesconi campaign has other problems, the main one of which was exemplified by what my recent lunch date, a moderate insider, told me last week: "Francesconi is 40 points behind in the polls." Her belief, shared by everyone at the table, is that the contest is over.

Bush is shooting Stars, but missing the target

The Genial Old Codgers whom I number among my friends include several who served in the military and saw combat overseas in World War II or the Korean War. My military experience is limited to having played Stratego many years ago, so I occasionally consult them when I want to learn more about military matters. I have been trying to reverse-engineer President Bush's attack on Senator Kerry's military record and medals (meaning that I have been trying to figure out what he hopes to gain by doing it), and brought the subject up with the G.O.C. whom I took to lunch this week. This particular G.O.C. was first a career army officer (becoming an officer the hard way, not through West Point or the Texas National Guard) and then an academic. He also was awarded two Bronze Stars for valor on two separate occasions.

The Bronze Stars (he told me) weren't handed out like candy, but were awarded based on detailed reports filed by his superior officers, which were then questioned and investigated by headquarters before the awards were made. A soldier didn't just cozen his superior into giving him a Bronze or Silver Star for the fun of it -- the medals weren't cheap honors. He contrasted these medals with the Purple Hearts (for injuries received in battle), which were far more numerous and for which the investigations were simpler. Not all injured soldiers received Purple Hearts; for one thing, some soldiers didn't bother doing the paperwork.

Not so with the Bronze Star and the Silver Star. Those meant something.

How did the President's challenging John Kerry's right to the Bronze and Silver Stars affect his views? I asked. As with other career soldiers, the G.O.C. has a strong respect for the Presidency and for patriotism in general. But I got the sense that he was personally offended that a president who had no wartime experience would snipe at a soldier's Bronze and Silver Stars. And he mentioned particularly the recollection of the soldier whom Lieutenant Kerry had saved, who said that Kerry turned his boat around into fire to rescue him. "Turning your boat around to approach hostile fire to rescue another soldier," the G.O.C. said drily, "is highly unusual" -- and in his view easily worth a Star for the lieutenant in command. The President's attacks didn't impress him.

President Bush may have other ways to win the votes of this cohort, but his attack on Senator Kerry's medals isn't bringing this group of G.O.Cs. over to the GOP.

Two weeks without the Pablog

Worldwide Pablo is taking two weeks off. Send him and his knee (due for some arthroscopic surgery) your good wishes, here.