Items of note...

some developments that caught my eye... they're carried in most of the msm but, for my own convenience, these squibs are from the nyt...

WASHINGTON, April 7 - Representative Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, escalated his talk of a battle between the legislative and judicial branches of government on Thursday, saying federal courts had "run amok," in large part because of the failure of Congress to confront them.

"Judicial independence does not equal judicial supremacy," Mr. DeLay said in a videotaped speech delivered to a conservative conference in Washington entitled "Confronting the Judicial War on Faith."

note to tom: a cardinal rule when finding oneself in a hole is to STOP DIGGING...

btw, the "judicial war on faith" conference is the one where mr. delay's featured prominence as a speaker mysteriously disappeared (see earlier post) from the pre-conference advert as did, later on, sens. brownback and coburn...

from an editorial opposing the confirmation of john bolton as u.s. ambassador to the u.n...

Mr. Bolton stands out because he is not only bad in a policy sense, but also unqualified for the post to which he's been named. [...] When the country chooses an ambassador to the United Nations, it ought to avoid picking someone whose bullying style of leadership symbolizes everything that created the current estrangement between the United States and most of the world. [...] Democrats on the Foreign Relations Committee are fighting to actually kill Mr. Bolton's nomination; all eyes are on Lincoln Chafee, the moderate Republican swing vote who has a record of being very supportive of the United Nations.

mexico city mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a charismatic socialist who has led more than one violent protest and, fittingly, belongs to the PRD (Democratic Revolutionary Party), would like to run against vicente fox for president next year but...


Andrés Manuel López Obrador

[Yesterday]hundreds of thousands of people were gathered in Mexico City's central square throughout the day to [...] a "desafuero," in which Mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador was stripped of his official immunity so he could stand trial in a minor land dispute.

In terms of political rights, the Mexican Constitution holds suspects guilty until proved innocent, so Mr. Lopez will be banned from politics until the end of a trial. [...[ Mr. López, 51, called the action against him a farce, staged for political reasons, not legal ones, from the offices of the president. Indeed, cases like the one Mayor Lopez is facing rarely warrant prosecution, let alone imprisonment. [...] The case against the mayor has polarized Mexico, raising concerns about civil unrest here and worrying Wall Street. Mr. López's spending on social programs and public works projects has made him popular among the poor and the struggling middle class. [...] "Nothing of violence," [Mr. ] told the crowds on Thursday. "No falling to provocation." [...] Mr. López has said he would remain in jail throughout the trial, rather than posting bail, as an act of civil disobedience.

we wouldn't want to worry WALL STREET, now would we...?

be sure to note the "guilty until proved innocent" comment in the 2d para, a little twist that makes a BIG difference, as you can well imagine...( mexico's justice system is modeled on the napoleonic code...)

i am reminded of the day when, tending our business in mexico, i heard band music and, when i looked out, saw a parade passing by... i asked simon, who worked with us, what the occasion was... he didn't know but said he would find out... he came back a few minutes later..."it's constitution day" he reported. "we're celebrating 80 years of bad government..."

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