The Cleveland Bar Association is threatening to fine the parents of an autistic boy $10,000 for not hiring a lawyer when they brought, and largely won, a court case on their son's behalf four years ago. After a long court battle, Brian and Susan Woods settled their case with the Akron school district in 2002 when the district agreed to send Daniel, now 11, to a private school. The bar charged them with unauthorized practice of law and threatened a $10,000 fine, saying that although the Woodses were allowed to represent themselves, they could not act as lawyers for their son.

The bar charged them with unauthorized practice of law and threatened a $10,000 fine, saying that although the Woodses were allowed to represent themselves, they could not act as lawyers for their son.

Edgar linked to a great article by John W. Dean at the end of the last open thread that speculated on an October surprise and the Presidents personality.

. If anyone doubts that Bush, Cheney, Rove and their confidants are planning an "October Surprise" to prevent the Republicans from losing control of Congress, then he or she has not been observing this presidency very closely.

I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.

macro, I love that he'd do it for nothing if they "bring him over". I picture Narius with a home-based execution business. "We can hang 'em in the garage, electrocute 'em in our modified La-Z-Boy recliner, or just shoot 'em in the bathtub. Give us a try and we'll give you a top quality execution at low cost, because we have no facilities overhead. Except for my carpet cleaning."

Dean did not speculate on whether or not there would be an October Surprise. He speculated on what that surprise would be.

WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans proposed a $100 rebate check for millions of taxpayers Thursday to counter high gasoline costs, but linked the assistance to drilling in an Alaska wildlife refuge, assuring the measure would face stiff opposition from most Democrats. Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee called the proposal "a bold package that will give consumers some relief" from gasoline prices that have passed $3 a gallon in many parts of the country.

The new 1,724-page energy law, four years in the making, will provide $14.5 billion in tax breaks. The recipients will include producers of oil, natural gas, coal and nuclear power, as well as smaller incentives for consumers who use cleaner-burning fuels produced in this country.

A poem in itself. Reminded me of Richard Brautigan's "The Rivets in Ecclesiastes."

Are you on the side of the bigots that assaulted the poor hispanic? No outrage towards what they have done? I thought the lefties were on the side of the oppressed minorities?

I hope the hispanic boy recovered. If not, these 2 animals should be sent to the dead row.

I don't know what is.

I was unaware that Homeland Security is building its own prisons(ie. detention centers).

If there is no "October Surprise," I would be shocked. And if it is not a high-risk undertaking, it would be a first. Without such a gambit, and the public always falls for them, Bush is going to lose control of Congress. Should that happen, his presidency will have effectively ended, and he will spend the last two years of it defending all the mistakes he has made during the first six, and covering up the errors of his ways. There is, however, the possibility of another terrorist attack, and if one occurred, Americans would again rally around the president - wrongly so, since this is a presidency that lives on fear-mongering about terror, but does little to truly address it. The possibility that we might both suffer an attack, and see a boost to Bush come from it, is truly a terrifying thought.

In addition, Barber notes that the active/negative president "has a persistent problem in managing his aggressive feelings." Bush seems to deal with his through strenuous exercise -- running and weight training -- which, for him, have (laudably) replaced alcohol as a way to "blow off steam."

narius - How about waiting until the trial and the facts of the case have been sorted out before you and O'Reilly start foaming at the mouth?

Despite the studies showing ethanol energy efficiency and the studies showing the fuel efficiency will not drop in FFVs that use E85 actual mpg in 2006 models that use E85 are 25-30% lower than the same vehicles with regular engines.

In an op-ed piece for USA Today, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wrote that "when he assumed office President Bush announced that he wanted the Defense Department to transform. ... We are in a new century, and we have to make sure that we are organized and equipped for this new century" (Dec. 21, 2004, p.13). A year later, an element of this transformation was revealed in one of the most important, yet least reported, changes in U.S. military protocol. The Associated Press (on AOL News, Dec. 29, 2005): "In a Bush administration revision of plans for Pentagon succession in a doomsday scenario, three of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's most loyal advisers moved ahead of the secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force." This was accomplished by "a little-noticed holiday week executive order from President Bush ... [moving] to near the top three under-secretaries who are Rumsfeld loyalists and who previously worked for Vice President Dick Cheney." Doomsday scenario, indeed. Should worse come to worse, the shots will be called, not by experienced strategists, but by Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld "loyalists," specialists in ignoring reality - the same breed of ideological fanatics who've blundered into the tragic quagmire that is today's Iraq.

three of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's most loyal advisers moved ahead of the secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force

These articles require the obedience of LAWFUL orders. An order which is unlawful not only does not need to be obeyed, but obeying such an order can result in criminal prosecution of the one who obeys it. Military courts have long held that military members are accountable for their actions even while following orders -- if the order was illegal. "I was only following orders," has been unsuccessfully used as a legal defense in hundreds of cases (probably most notably by Nazi leaders at the Nuremberg tribunals following World War II). The defense didn't work for them, nor has it worked in hundreds of cases since. More...

these pilots indoctrinated by the Air Force Academy's head chaplain to believe that "those not 'born again' will burn in the fires of hell"?

Posted by Jondee April 27, 2006 04:15 PM Kdog - Speaking of the Mookie Wilson grounder, Im a Sox fan, and a friend of mine and I, being sure the sox had it in the bag, partook of a certain fungi species that grows in cow flop that night and went for an extended walk in the moon light. When we came back inside (Im not effing kidding), Wilson was just coming up to bat and the rest is, as the fella said, history - in the history of weirdness. I think said to somebody, or thought, "just another example of how reality can trump any hallucination." I can laugh about it now.