Al Nye The Lawyer Guy

Negative Campaign ads

I'm sick, sick, sick of the negative campaign ads I see on the television. I know both parties do it, I know that they're effective, I know that they've been around for longer than I've been alive, and I know that my complaining about them won't change anything.

I'm just disgusted that campaigning has to reach such low levels.

This election can't come soon enough for me ....

LEADERSHIP

LEADERSHIP
By Rudolph W. Giuliani
Hyperion, 77 West 66th Street, New York, N.Y. 10023-6298; $25.95, hardcover, 407 pages; ISBN 0-7868-6841-4 (2002).

Before September 11, Rudolph Giuliani was generally known as the effective, though controversial, Mayor of New York. While some newspapers touted his accomplishments of reduced crime and taxes in the city, other articles went into great detail about his acrimonious divorce. Had the terrorists’ attacks on the World Trade Center never occurred, Giuliani would have been but a footnote in history. But when the eyes of the world were upon him, he delivered dynamic leadership to a nation reeling in shock, pain and sorrow.

Will Giuliani say anything?

Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani spoke in both New Hampshire and Maine yesterday. The Concord Monitor reported that Giuliani criticized Kerry for his comments on the missing stockpile of explosives in Iraq.

Here's what the paper reported:

Giuliani also said that in blaming the president for the loss of the explosives, Kerry was implying that the troops did a poor job.

"What John Kerry is trying to do is blame our troops," he said.

But Giuliani was criticized for similar comments he made earlier in the day on NBC's Today show: "The president did what a commander-in-chief should do, and no matter how you try to blame it on the president, the actual responsibility for it really would be for the troops that were there. Did they search carefully enough, or didn't they search carefully enough?"

The Portland Press Herald quotes Giuliani as saying that the "ultimate responsibility" in Iraq rests with Bush but suggested it was unfair to lay all the blame on him.

Well, which is it Giuliani? Who is at fault? The troops? President Bush? I know -- perhaps it was Senator Kerry?

THE SUPERNATURAL SIDE OF MAINE

THE SUPERNATURAL SIDE OF MAINE
By C.J. Stevens
John Wade, Publisher, P.O. Box 303, Phillips, Maine 04966
paperback, 276 pages; ISBN 1-882425-17-0 (2002).

If you believe in ghosts and ghouls,
And things that go bump in the night,
Then pick up this book and read of tales,
That will give you quite a fright.

The Supernatural Side of Maine,
Is filled with stories told,
Of Guardian Angels and UFO’s,
And witches young and old.

O'Reilly Settlement -- What does it mean?

BeldarBlog has an interesting analysis of the meaning of the O'Reilly settlement. BeldarBlog: Mackris/O'Reilly et al. litigation settles with a whisper, not a bang

Quote from the article: "Just think of it as history's highest-priced phone sex."

Iraqis Tell of Looting at Munitions Site

Wait until the Kerry folks read about this.

This link might interest them too.

Red Sox World Series Champions

October 27, 2004

Red Sox 3 Cardinals 0

It's been a long time coming!

I had to smile. The Portland Press Herald reported the Sox victory on the front page -- the entire front page!

Making Money for Lawyers

Ed Poll has an informative article on the ABA's Law Practice Management Section site located here. The information is pretty basic -- but it's never a bad thing to be reminded on how to be profitable.

The on-line Law Practice Today site features other marketing, management and technology tips of interest.

Pedro Martinez owned all the Cards

The Red Sox beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-1, last night. This gives them a commanding 3-0 lead in the 100th World Series and makes it seven wins in a row (including the amazing come from behind wins against the Yankees). Pedro Martinez was the Pedro of old. He pitched seven innings and retired the final 14 batters he faced. After a rough start in the first few innings, he settled down and owned the Cards.

Mike Timlin pitched the eighth inning and the Cardinals went down in order. Keith Foulke closed and gave a up a homer that came too late to matter.

I loved watching those Cardinal fans in the stands trying to change the luck of their team. They were changing hats, wearing them inside out, waving them -- all to no avail. What a scream.

The Red Sox magic number is 1!

Derek Lowe tonight.

Go Sox!

The Wall Street Journal is Wrong

On the Opinion Section of The Wall Street Journal today, there is a piece that is critical of John Kerry's claims that he would fight the war in Iraq with more "competence." The article basically states that wars never go as planned, hard decisions need to be made, and mistakes happen. It then warns Americans to be wary of politicians who promise more "competent" leadership.

The Wall Street Journal is wrong.

One part of the opinion piece reads as follows:

"Certainly the Bush Administration has made mistakes, as these columns have noted along the way. The CIA failed to anticipate the Baathist strategy of yielding the war conventionally in order to wage it later unconventionally. Stopping the Marine advance in Fallujah last April sent a message of hesitation this is only now being corrected. Muqtada al-Sadr's career ought to have been ended when he was an upstart; today he's an untouchable. The political handover should have happened much sooner than it did, and we should have trained more Iraqis to fight by our side before the war. And so on."

The very next paragraph begins with these words:

"Yet to acknowledge these blunders in hindsight doesn't mean anyone else would have done better."

The key phrase in that sentence is "to acknowledge these blunders." That, I submit, is the real downfall of this Administration. President Bush and his Administration never acknowledge making mistakes. In fact, Bush admits that even with hindsight, he wouldn't change his decisions regarding Iraq.

While I admire Bush's single-minded determination to win the war, I question following a leader who never admits making a mistake. People learn by making mistakes, by failing a task. Only then do we find out how to succeed. Thomas Edison once said, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

The Wall Street Journal article goes on to show that war is a tough business and argues that bad decisions and failure tend to precede good results.

"During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln hired, then cashiered, Generals Scott, McClellan, Burnside, Hooker and Meade before settling on Grant. That took about two years, during which the catastrophes of Bull Run (Union casualties: 2,896), Fredericksburg (13,353) and Chancellorsville (18,400) intervened. How's that for poor Presidential personnel choices leading to unnecessary loss of life?"

Again, the Journal misses the point. Abraham Lincoln admitted that he'd made a mistake with the Generals that he sacked. He recognized that his choices weren't getting the job done and replaced them. He didn't just push forward and declare that the Union was winning the war, despite the clear facts before him that things were in chaos.

And what about this argument that in war "bad decisions and failure tend to precede good" decisions? Tell that to the 58,245 men and women listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. You remember Vietnam don't you -- where one bad decision led to another and another. It could be argued that the only "good decision" in that war is when we decided to bring our remaining troops home.

I don't claim to know whether or not Senator Kerry will be a more "competent" leader in the war in Iraq, but it appears he'll at least be able to admit when some decision is wrong, when some strategy doesn't seem to be working. In this unconventional war on terror, I think Abraham Lincoln would consider that to be a good thing.