The Is Joy in Mudville

Sometimes, just sometimes, there are miracles in sports. UW v. USC, Saturday. UW wins. Now ranked 24th in the nation.

Ya-hoo!

California's Unemployment Rate

Holy Cow: 12.2%!

Barriers to Justice

Yesterday, the Washington State Supreme Court declared a 2006 law, enacted by a Democratic state legislature and signed into law by a Democratic governor, unconstitutional.

This law essentially required anyone who was suing for medical malpractice to obtain a "certificate of merit" from another doctor or expert, that their malpractice claim was "valid."

Aside from the constitutional issues, what were the state legislature and governor thinking? This requirement is a barrier for anyone trying to seek justice. It adds one more cost, probably an exorbitant amount of money, much less the amount of time to find an expert, get more tests, copies of medical records, you get the gist.

Also just a year or two before, the state legislature mandated that defendants in civil litigation had to also pay a filing fee if they wanted to counter-claim against the party suing them. For instance, if a home owner was being sued by their bank, if they wanted to counter-claim against the lender claiming predatory lending practices, they would have to come up with some money not only for an attorney but for a filing fee.

It seems we are becoming a society that is setting barriers to justice, making people walk through more and more hoops just to get their day in court. In Texas, an innocent man was executed because he didn't file the right paper work with the parole commission. Another man was executed because his appeal didn't get to a judge before 5:00 PM the night of his execution.

Are our lives and justice so expendable? Do we really think putting up more and more barriers to justice is a good thing?

Safety and College

Sent today to all members of the Yale Community (I am an alumni):

Remarks by Yale President Richard C. Levin
Vigil for Annie Le
September 14, 2009

When I see you all assembled on an occasion so sad and so disturbing, I am reminded that we are an extraordinary community, a community of concern.

I think of the values that bind us together. These values begin with the search for truth. As scholars, as learners, as seekers – and as human souls with empathy and compassion, we find it incomprehensible that life can be so unjust. But Socrates taught us long ago that wisdom and understanding are advanced through dialogue, through conversation. And so, at a time like this, as we ponder a reality that is unsettling and frightening, we must come together, to talk with one another, to try to understand. I urge you to reach out to each other, to support one another.

Some of you, especially those of you who knew Annie Le, are grieving. Others are afraid. You can help one another, and I know you will. But to those who need more, I say please seek help. At your service are your teachers, advisers, deans, masters, directors of graduate studies, representatives of the Yale Religious Ministries, and the mental hygiene staff of the University Health Service. They are all here for you, day and night.

I am especially concerned for the many newcomers in our midst – first year students in Yale College, the Graduate School, and the professional schools. I ask those of you who know the ways of our community to reach out especially to them, to make clear to them that, despite this horrendous trauma, our commitment to truth, openness, trust, and collaboration – and to making the world a better place – will endure.

We are doing all that we can to ensure your security across the campus, and we are cooperating fully with the law enforcement authorities. I am very hopeful that the perpetrator of this dreadful crime will soon be brought to justice.

As our candles burn, let us ponder and let us take comfort in each other’s presence. Our hearts go out to the family of Annie Le, to her fiancé and his family, and to her many friends. We pray for their comfort and well-being, as we honor and remember Annie.

What Do We Want? Change

I am beginning to sound like a one-note trumpet player. Perhaps more like watching a violinist while Rome burns. But the reforms of the United States financial industry ain't gonna' happen. You know it isn't when a pundit in Forbes even admits it isn't going to happen.

To Arianna Huffington's credit, she has been writing about the failure to pursue reform last winter when the "policy window" was wide open (even President Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emmanuel admitted that a crisis provides opportunities for policy changes). Now, with Wall Street's lobbyists out moneying and out gunning everyone, the likelihood for change is, well, zip.

This time around it's up to us to watch our own backs.

Big Brother Protecting the Rich

Medina is a community across Lake Washington (and mostly on the shores of Lake Washington) from Seattle. It's mostly known as "where Bill Gates" lives. Yeah, Microsoft Bill Gates.

For years the Medina Police Department feasted off of handing out speeding tickets to young Master Gates as he roared to and from the Microsoft offices in his various fast cars. But now that the little burg is accumulating more and more wealthy residents, and Mr. Gates seems to have slowed down, the Medina Police Department disclosed that they have installed cameras and software that will record and instantaneously determine who owns what vehicle as it crosses into the Medina boundaries.

The cameras and software were installed on the basis of 11 burglaries in 2008 (having gone to school in New Haven, lived in New York and Washington, DC, 11 burglaries a day in any one of those towns would be considered a quiet event!).

I rarely if ever go to Medina. I think when I head to Bellevue, the nearest largest city, I may meekly step into Medina turf as I drive by the exclusive golf course on my way to the Orvis store (for much needed fly fishing supplies). But what concerns me is this rush to Big Brother in an attempt to deter relatively minor amounts of crime. Woe to the poor guy who is caught driving to and fro from his law partner's house, having, perhaps an affair with the wife! Or the nosey employer who may want to see the video tapes to make sure their highly paid executive isn't parked at the golf course rather than at his desk. And of course there are all the overtones of cars entering Medina that may not be Mercedes, Porches, Bentleys, Volvos...you get the drift. The very thought that I am being watched creeps me out. Guess I will find an alternate route to Orvis!

And the other issue is a larger one. Affluent residents of Sun Valley, Idaho, hired their own firefighters to protect their mega-mansions during the summer fires several years ago. Private security is hired to protect publicly elected officials. It's as if the wealthy and powerful don't trust the public and the security we provide each other. Perhaps, not only are these cameras a scary and unnerving portend of the future, but also a testament to the unravelling of community, a sense we're all in "this" together.

Word to the wise: don't drive your stolen car to Medina!

A New Hero

As promised a few weeks ago, US District Court Judge Jed Rakoff rejected the settlement between Bank of America's Merrill Lynch and the Securities Exchange Commission. The initial complaint by the SEC was over the mega-bonuses that Merrill awarded it's employees prior to the end of the year. Remember? Merrill is the one who ran into the arms of Bank of America because it was going belly-up? But the so-called geniuses of Merrill apparently still "deserved" a bonus? Go figure. Anyway, the SEC filed a complaint because of Bank of America's failure to disclose this information to it's shareholders.

Here it is, in the judge's own words, the settlement "does not comport with the most elementary notions of justice or morality."

Gotta' love it. On the same day President Obama remembered that his administration promised to reform Wall Street (oh, yeah, that idea) having lost their window of opportunity, it took a federal judge to begin the process. Hello! Wall Street! Even the SEC was willing, yet again, to go lightly on who it was regulating (in this case Bank of America) and this brave, heroic judge said it wasn't enough.