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« January 2006 | Main | March 2006 »

Bode is a Bust — Now Can We Just Forget Him?

I haven’t mentioned Bode Miller before because I was sick of hearing about his immature antics and partying long before the Olympics even began.  I don’t intend to write about him again.

I mean, what a jerk.

Here’s one of his quotes from the Olympics: 

“It does matter that it’s the Olympics. I just did it my way. I’m not a martyr, and I’m not a do-gooder. I just want to go out and rock. And man, I rocked here.”

Um, excuse me Bode, but you entered 5 events, won no medals and didn’t even finish 3 of the races.  If that’s doing it your “way” — well, your way sucks.

Here’s another stellar quote:

 “Me, it’s been an awesome two weeks,” Miller said. “I got to party and socialize at an Olympic level.”

Bode, I wish you’d told us all before the Olympics that you were really there to party and that you were just going to screw around in the races.  It would have allowed us to make up our minds even sooner that you’re just not worth another minute of our attention.

You’ve had your time in the spot light — and at least in the Olympics it showed you for what you really are — a loser.  It’s not that I’m upset that you didn’t win any medals.  No, what ticks me off is that it’s obvious that you YOU didn’t care whether or not you won any medals.

Tony Kornheiser of the Washington Post says he feels bad for Bode because he’s now known as “one of the more colossal losers in recent sports history.”  Sorry Tony, but Bode brought that on to himself.  Miller was much more interested in partying than he was in obtaining some U.S. medals.

So party on, dude.  Just do it some place where I don’t have to feel embarrassed that you’re from the USA.

 

Posted by on February 27, 2020 at 01:35 PM in Current Affairs, Games, Sports, Television | | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

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The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly

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THE LINCOLN LAWYER

Michael Connelly

Little Brown & Company;

$26.95, hardcover, 404 pages; ISBN 0-7316-73493-4 (2005).

Michael Connelly has written eleven Harry Bosch mystery novels beginning with The Black Echo in 1992 and ending with The Closers published this year. The Lincoln Lawyer is his sixteenth novel and his first legal thriller. His mysteries have won numerous awards and been immensely successful. This terrific novel will only add to his reputation as a crafted storyteller.

 

As an Abraham Lincoln fan, I admit that my first thought at reading the title of this book was that it was somehow linked to our 16th President. I was wrong. The novel focuses on criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller, a "Lincoln Lawyer" who operates out of the backseat of his Lincoln Town Car, traveling between clients and courthouses in and around Los Angeles. His driver is a former client who is working off his legal bill after Mickey got him probation on a cocaine sales conviction.

 

Mickey is a familiar figure to those who read legal thrillers – the clever but downtrodden criminal lawyer who defends society’s misfits: con artists, drug dealers, bikers and thieves. Mickey is a tough, seasoned and thoroughly cynical lawyer at the beginning of the book. He still has some integrity left and always does a good job for his clients. Mickey knows that in criminal court it’s not always about whether the client is guilty or innocent. More often than not, it’s about what the state can prove and what advantages a lawyer can gain through negotiations and working the system.

 

Mickey’s plight of primarily representing low or even nonpaying clients is about to change. A rich Beverly Hills playboy is arrested for the attempted murder and rape of a woman he picked up in a bar. For reasons that aren’t initially clear, he chooses Mickey to defend him. The case appears to be a defense lawyer’s dream – a franchise case, one that’s easy to win and has a high-paying client. Mickey explains it this way:

 

Every attorney who works the machine has two fee schedules. There is Schedule A, which lists the fees the attorney would like to get for certain services rendered. And there is schedule B, the fees he is willing to take because that is all the client can afford. A franchise client is a defendant who wants to go to trial and has the money to pay his lawyer’s schedule A rates. From first appearance to arraignment to preliminary hearing and on to trial and then appeal, the franchise client demands hundreds if not thousands of billable hours. He can keep gas in the tank for two to three years. From where I hunt, they are the rarest and most highly sought beast in the jungle.

 

Naturally, everything about the case soon goes wrong. Someone close to him is murdered and Mickey suspects his new client is behind the killing. The case he so cherished having is introducing him to an evil he’s never experienced. Soon, both his career and his life are on the line.

 

This novel is colorful, fast-paced and filled with clever plot twists. Connelly spent several years, on and off, hanging out with lawyers in LA, and a judge allowed him full access to her courtroom to see how hearings and trials were conducted. As a result, for those who insist that legal thrillers should be as authentic as possible, the courtroom scenes are credibly presented and impart a good understanding of criminal procedures.

 

This book would be the perfect thriller to read on a lazy summer day at the beach – or (more likely here in Maine) by a warm fireplace on a cold winter. Either way, you won’t be disappointed.

Posted by on February 27, 2020 at 11:36 AM in Book Reviews, Books, Current Affairs, Legal | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

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Clueless George On Port Deal

“I want those who are questioning it to step up and explain why all of a sudden a Middle Eastern company is held to a different standard than a [British] company,” President Bush told reporters yesterday.

Um … Mr. President.  Maybe it’s because there were two Arab terrorists on 9/11.  The British are our allies — you remember that Tony Blair guy right? 

Just let me understand this right.  You’ve not seen it necessary to use your Presidential veto after 6 years but you’ll use it to allow a Middle Eastern Company to assume management of several key U.S. ports?

Are you kidding me?

To hell with the Arab company, I say put Dick Cheney in charge of Port security. 

 

Posted by on February 22, 2020 at 01:38 PM in Business, Current Affairs, Legal, Politics, War | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

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Nearly 9 Billion Wasted in Iraq

CBS is reporting that $8.8 billion spent for reconstruction in Iraq is unaccounted for, says the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.

Much of it appears to have been funneled to Custer Battles, a contractor now being sued for fraud.

The former number 2 man for the Coalition Provisional Authority said the Coalition kept billions in case for payment of projects and that the accounting was “nonexistent.”

It’s so frustrating and discouraging that the government can’t seem to handle any major crisis honestly and efficiently. 

Posted by on February 10, 2020 at 10:58 AM in Business, Current Affairs, Legal, War | | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

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Gov. Bob Riley Says Church Burnings Are Linked

Last week 5 Baptist churches were burned in Alabama.  On Tuesday, 4 more Baptist churches about 60 miles away were also burned to the ground.

Alabama Governor Bob Riley in a stunning announcement said yesterday that the nine church fires “appear to be linked.”

Good call, Matlock.  What are you going to tell us next, that the fires were started with matches?

Posted by on February 09, 2020 at 08:39 AM in Current Affairs, Religion | | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

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Boehner in lobbyist’s bed

The Washington Post reported yesterday that Representative Boehner, the newly elected majority leader, is renting his Washington D.C. apartment from a veteran lobbyist whose clients have direct stakes in legislation Boehner has co-written and that he has overseen as chairman of the Education and the Workforce Committee.

I don’t care whether it is ethical or not, it stinks.

What does it take to clean up this horrible stench of corruption in Washington? 

Posted by on February 08, 2020 at 07:56 AM in Business, Current Affairs, Legal, Politics | | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

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THE COLORADO KID by Stephen King

THE COLORADO KID

A Hard Case Crime Book

By Stephen King

Dorchester Publishing Co., Inc., 200 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y.  10016;

$5.99, paperback, 1844 pages; ISBN 0-8439-5584-8 (2005).

 

 

            Stephen King wrote this original paperback mystery for the sheer joy of tormenting his readers – or so it seems. 

 

            The story is simple enough – set on Moose-Lookit Island, somewhere off the coast of Maine, a Boston Globe reporter is disappointed to hear that the two old men who run the local paper, The Weekly Islander, have little to offer in the way of stories for a Globe feature called Unexplained Mysteries.

 

            Vince Teague and Dave Bowie have run the island’s paper for decades.  After the reporter leaves, they confide to Stephanie McCann, a young summer journalism intern barely out of college, that they purposely overlooked a mystery each of them had been trying to solve for 25 years.  The rest of the book involves the two old timers telling Stephanie the story of the Colorado Kid.

 

            Before the men describe the details of the mystery, Vince shares a journalistic secret with Stephanie.

 

“I’m going to tell you a secret almost every newspaper man and woman who’s been at it awhile knows:  in real life, the number of actual stories – those with beginnings, middles, and ends – are slim and none.  But if you give your readers just one unknown thing (two at the very outside), and then kick in what Dave Bowie calls a musta-been, your reader with tell himself a story.  Amazin, ain’t it?”

 

            This is a warning to Stephanie (and to the reader) that this tale might not have all the elements of an actual story.  King keeps his word on this point.  . 

 

            The Colorado Kid story is pretty straightforward.  In 1980, two local kids found a dead man sitting on the island’s only public beach. He has no identification on him, and the death appears to be accidental.   But there are some questions that don’t add up.  The man has a wedding ring on but no one claims the body.  He was found on a cold spring day dressed only in gray slacks, a white shirt, and loafers – no coat or gloves.  Other details don’t add up.

 

It takes quite a while for the veteran newspapermen to identify the man and determine that he came from Colorado.  (King takes his time letting the reader know these facts too.)  You would think that identifying the man would help solve the mystery – but it only leads to even more questions.  The book turns into a laid-back character development as Vince and Dave unhurriedly dole out the facts to Stephanie.  King excels at this aspect of the book – he isn’t the world’s best-selling novelist for nothing.

 

            Unfortunately, it’s the conventional mystery that many will think gets short shrift.  At the end of the book, the mystery of the Colorado Kid remains just that – a mystery.  No elegant solution – heck, not even a marginal solution – is proposed.  King offers an afterward where he confesses that he’s “not really interested in the solution but in the mystery.”  He unapologetically admits that he knows people with either like or hate the book. 

 

            I vote solidly with the former.  This small novel is a gem that should be savored.  The joy in the book isn’t in reaching the destination; it’s in the pleasure of the journey.

 

Posted by on February 06, 2020 at 08:22 AM in Book Reviews, Books, Current Affairs | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (2)

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