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I’m sorry. About Something. Sort of.

I would like to take this opportunity to apologize.

On the advice of my attorney, however, I can’t tell you exactly what it is that I am apologizing for. But trust me, it’s worth saying I’m sorry.

That’s because what I did was wrong, and I understand that now. I would like everyone to know that I take full responsibility for my actions, and see clearly that I’ve let my colleagues, my friends and my family down. And my publicist. And I deeply regret the pain my behavior has caused.

Especially for my publicist, who will now have to go out and try to sell a new endorsement deal for damaged goods.

I wish I could tell you what it is that I’m sorry about, but apparently such a move is no longer required when publicly apologizing for bad behavior.

I’m taking my cue here from New York Yankees slugger Jason Giambi, who, confronted with suspicions that he has used performance-enhancing steroids, held a Feb. 10 press conference in which he said he was sorry, but wouldn’t admit to what it was that he had done.

Senators Clinton and Boxer, Representative Tubbs Jones and others unveil major election reform bill

Legislation Would Enact Sweeping Reforms by Next Major Election Cycle in 2006

WASHINGTON, DC- U.S. Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) today unveiled comprehensive voting reform legislation to make sure that every American is able to vote and every vote is counted. Senators Clinton and Boxer announced the legislation today in a press conference joined by Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH), who will sponsor the legislation in the House of Representatives, and voting rights advocates. 

"Voting is the most precious right of every citizen, and we have a moral obligation to ensure the integrity of our voting process," said Senator Clinton.  "The smooth functioning of our democracy depends on voters having faith in the fairness and accuracy of our voting system, and the Count Every Vote Act is an important step toward restoring this covenant.  We must be able to easily and accurately count every vote so that every vote counts."

Added Senator Boxer: "Every citizen of this country should be guaranteed that their vote matters, that their vote is counted, and that in the voting

Representative Conyers and others file amicus brief in Ohio Supreme Court

Today, Congressman John Conyers, Jr., Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, will be filing an amicus brief in the Ohio Supreme Court with the support of Senator Russ Feingold and 17 other members of the House of Representatives recommending that the Court not sanction the attorneys who brought Ohio election contest in Moss v. Bush (no.04- 2088). Mr. Conyers offered the following statement:

"The attorneys in this case had reason to believe that the election results did not reflect the will of the electorate. In good faith, they brought a case based not only on statistical probability but the depositions and affidavits of computer experts, statisticians, and election volunteers. In only a couple months, these attorneys have amassed over 900 pages of evidence.

"While we take no opinion on the underlying case, we firmly support the right of citizens to challenge elections results in court when they have a good faith basis to do so. Truly, Secretary Blackwell's attempt to sanction these attorneys is meant to send a message to anyone who dare challenge his questionable election administration. For our democracy to work properly, we can't

Bush’s Judicial Nominations are Hardly Mainstream

President Bush has re-nominated seven candidates for the federal appeals courts. Each was blocked by Senate Democrats during his first term. He also sent back to the Senate five other nominees for the federal appeals courts whose confirmations were slowed because of Democratic concerns regarding their legal backgrounds. Bush has accused Democrats of blocking votes on so many of his nominations that they have created “judicial emergencies.”

In reality, Bush has had more judicial nominees approved than in the first terms of Presidents Clinton and Reagan, and the administration of his father. Of the 214 nominees sent to the Senate for a vote during his first term, Democrats blocked only ten, using the filibuster. As such, 95 percent of Bush’s nominees have been approved. By contrast, from 1995 to 2000, while Republican Senator Orrin Hatch was chairman of the Judiciary Committee, the Senate blocked 35% of Clinton’s circuit court nominees.

Bush's "Mission Accomplished" election charade

Once again the toady army of media Bushlickers has proclaimed "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq.  And once again, the real outcome is murder, mayhem and utter catastrophe, with worse yet to come.

For endless prime time hours, Fox and the major news desks -- the Izvestia and Pravda of Bush's America -- blare the party line about the "miraculous success" of the Iraqi balloting. 

No doubt it set amazing precedents.  For example, this may have been the world's first election in which the location of the polling places was kept secret, along with the list of the major candidates. 

It may also be remembered for the vast numbers of Iraqis who refused to vote.

The Iraqi vote did differ from the recent balloting in Ohio in that those Iraqis who turned out were at least able to get ballots. 

No surprise: "Suprise parties" can kill

Years ago, my friend Edward Said's wife, Mariam, asked if I would make available my apartment in New York, where I lived at that time, as the site for a surprise 40th birthday for Edward Said. I dislike surprise parties, but, of course, I agreed. The evening arrived; guests assembled on my sitting room on the 11th floor of 333 Central Park West. The dining room table groaned under Middle Eastern delicacies. Then came the word from the front door. Edward and Mariam had arrived! They were ascending in the elevator. Now we could all hear Edward's furious bellow: "But I don't want to go to dinner with ******* Alex!" They entered at last, and the shout went up from 70 throats, "Happy Birthday!" He reeled back in surprise, staggered and, for a moment, I thought he was going to keel over with a heart attack. Of course he didn't, and after a few minutes looking somewhat dazed at the greetings of friends he hadn't seen for 20 years, he had a great time.

Proposed "Academic Bill of Rights"

To the Editor:

History provides another "other side" to the debate over Senate Bill 24, the misleadingly titled "academic bill of rights for higher education".  Consider... 

There was a time when most people thought Earth was flat...  Until the 1500s, most people believed that Earth was the center of the universe, and Copernicus was excommunicated for arguing that Earth revolved around the Sun... 

I'd like to think that Senator Mumper will continue to support teachers persistently teaching that the Earth is round and goes around the Sun, even though his intellectual forebears would challenge HIS right to challenge THEIR values by doing so.  I'd also like to think that Senator Mumper would support discriminating against flat-earthers in hiring airline pilots, air traffic controllers, bombardiers, astronauts, and astronomers. 

The President's budget

AUSTIN, Texas -- Budgets are the guts of government. That's where you find the answer to the first of the three important questions about who runs a society: Who's getting screwed? Who's doing the screwing? And what the hell will they do to us next?

There was a time when reporters actually read budgets to find out what was going on, but the things are so humongous these days, we've given up on that. Consequently, there's usually a bit of a pause after a budget comes out, while we wait to hear from the various special interest groups that study their own section of a budget in minute detail. Then, the screaming from injured parties commences, and the press presumably sits up and takes note of who's screaming loudest.

With President Bush's proposed budget, may it die in committee, no pause is necessary. Read any overview of the proposal, and you can see exactly who's getting screwed: children.

Back to Salem: Shanley prison-bound

Off goes former Father Paul Shanley to state prison in Massachusetts for 12 to 15 years, convicted of raping and otherwise sexually abusing Paul Busa 20 years ago. He's now 74, so the earliest he can hope to get out is when he is 86, at which point the district attorney could determine that he is still, though frail, "a sexually dangerous person" and can remain in confinement for whatever years remain. And, in fact, a district attorney in Massachusetts exercised just that option in the case of Father James Porter, who was released in 2004 after pleading guilty in 1993 to molesting 28 children. At the time of his death earlier this month at the age of 70, Porter remained in civil confinement, with the state seeking to keep him behind bars indefinitely.

Tort reform: not as simple as they'd like you to think

AUSTIN, Texas -- Sometimes the ironic timing of events in our public life is so striking as to cause one to wonder if the Great Scriptwriter in the Sky isn't trying to make a point. Thus, the word that the U.S. Senate voted for tort deform last week came just a few days after the news that seven executives of W.R. Grace and Co. were indicted on criminal charges for knowingly putting their workers and the public in danger by exposing them to asbestos ore.

Hundreds of miners, their family members and townsfolk in Libby, Mont., have died, and at least 1,200 more are sick from breathing the air polluted by the mine. Since the ore was shipped all over the country and was used as insulation in millions of homes, the total health effects are incalculable. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer deserves credit for bringing Grace to public attention with a series back in 1999.

The executives and the company were indicted on 10 counts of conspiracy, knowing endangerment, obstruction of justice and wire fraud.

W.R. Grace & Co. "categorically denies any criminal wrongdoing," said a spokesman.

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