The judge in the Tyco embezzlement trial declared a mistrial ... after juror No. 4 ... received an insulting letter postmarked in Massachusetts, according to police sources.
In declaring the mistrial, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus would say only that one juror's recent media notoriety had led to "efforts to pressure the jury from the outside." Jordan, 79, became the focus of media coverage last week ...
The clearly angry judge placed all details of Juror No. 4's letter under seal, and blamed the press for "widely disseminating" the name and background of a juror "in violation of the convention that is normally observed, and wisely observed." Revealing Jordan's name sets a precedent that could have a damaging impact on future jury selection, he complained.
Jordan's name was first revealed publicly by the Wall Street Journal, in its online edition story about the impasse in deliberations and bizarre "OK" gesture. The Post then printed Jordan's name in a front-page story the next day, last Saturday.
"We stand by our reporting on this trial," said Col Allan, editor in chief of The Post. "By her extraordinary behavior - signaling her thoughts to the defendant - the juror created public interest in her identity."
As most readers of this blog know, we do diagrams. Here we focus on political issues, but we also like to diagram all sorts of other stuff. Most recently we tackled the book of Genesis. Our reason? Mainly to get a sense of how the story hangs together - with a focus on the individuals mentioned (the "begats" stuff).
Well, that's what we've been up to for most of this week. For those interested, the diagram - which is very large - can be seen here.
NOTE: To avoid any misunderstanding, we point out that we are skeptics when it comes to religion, but thought that it's worthwhile to understand what has shaped history for centuries.
Other diagrams are also available from this web page.
President Bush to appear before 9/11 Commission jointly with Vice-President Dick Cheney. The same Cheney who helped head up the search for a running mate for Bush in 2000.
Republicans complaiing about Kerry's use of scripture.
An emotional former President George Bush, senior, has defended his son's Iraq war and lashed out at White House critics.
It was "deeply offensive and contemptible" to hear "elites and intellectuals on the campaign trail" dismiss progress in Iraq since last year's overthrow of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, the elder Bush said ...
The former president appeared to fight back tears as he complained about media coverage of the younger Bush that he called "something short of fair and balanced."
"It hurts an awful lot more when it's your son that is being criticised than when they used to get all over my case," said Bush, who has often complained about media coverage of both Bush presidencies.
And we're supposed to come up with satire for this sort of stuff? Or point out the inanity of the situation?
If Americas don't see how absurd the Republicans are, then they deserve the government they've got.
Kerry never mentioned Bush by name during his speech at New North Side Baptist Church, but aimed his criticism at "our present national leadership." Kerry cited Scripture in his appeal for the worshippers, including James 2:14, "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?"
"The Scriptures say, what does it profit, my brother, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?" Kerry said. "When we look at what is happening in America today, where are the works of compassion?"
Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said Kerry's comment "was beyond the bounds of acceptable discourse and a sad exploitation of Scripture for a political attack."
... the meeting that Dick Clarke, of course, missed -- or was not invited to -- was at Camp David, when I can tell you that we rolled out a map, not of Iraq, but a map of Afghanistan.
... at the National Security Council meeting, what happened? There was a map that was unrolled on the table, and it was a map of Afghanistan.
* - no press report or transcript could be found for this quote. This is our own audio clip taken from ABC's morning program. (Yes, we tape a lot of stuff.)
In developing this post, we searched the web and individual websites looking for Rice's statement this past week. Imagine our surprise, then, when we encountered this photo and caption in a story from September of 2001
September 29 - President Bush receives a briefing with CIA Director George Tenent at Camp David. A map of Afganistan is on the table. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and Chief of Staff Andy Card also attended. (Eric Draper/White House Photo)
OUR COMMENTARY: It strikes us as mindless to point to a thing - and not a particularly notable thing at that (a map on a table) - and hope that addresses concerns about policies discussed, promoted, and implemented. Rather childish, we think.
Grown-ups in charge? Nah.
NOTE: Rice was on Fox & Friends early last week (22 March?), and (we believe) also on Hannity sometime later. So she might have mentioned a "map on the table" a couple more times than our list indicates. Unfortunately, we can't find transcripts or audio for those events.
UPDATE: We checked, and in Condoleezza Rice's Washington Post Op-Ed of 22 March, she does not mention maps being rolled out onto tables. There is no mention of maps at all.
