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Bush Nominates Longtime Friend and Attorney Harriet Miers
for Supreme Court
Orleans Parish DA Eddie Jordan on Racial Stereotyping, Police
Looting and Private Military Contractors
Bush Nominates Longtime Friend and Attorney Harriet
Miers for Supreme Court
President Bush has selected White House counsel Harriet
Miers to replace retiring Suprem Court Justice Sandra Day
O'Connor. If confirmed, Miers - who has never served as a
judge - would become the third woman to serve on the Supreme
Court. Last year, Legal Times reported that Miers "has
long been one of the most discreet, most private, and most
protective members of George W. Bush's inner circle."
[includes rush
transcript]
President Bush is nominating his longtime friend and attorney
Harriet Miers to serve on the Supreme Court. This according
to the Associated Press.
The 60-year-old Miers is currently working as White House
counsel and was formerly President Bush's personal lawyer
in Texas. Miers met Bush in the 1980s and she was counsel
for his 1994 campaign for governor. He appointed her chair
of the Texas Lottery Commission in 1995.
If confirmed by the Senate, Miers will fill Justice Sandra
Day O'Connor's seat and become the third woman to serve on
the Supreme Court. As an attorney, she was the first woman
to serve as president of the Texas State Bar and the Dallas
Bar Association. Miers has never served as a judge. Without
a judicial record, it may be difficult for Senators to know
where Miers stands on key issues facing the court. Last year,
Legal Times reported that Miers "has long been one of
the most discreet, most private, and most protective members
of George W. Bush's inner circle."
- Jamin Raskin, American
University Law professor and author of "Overruling
Democracy: The Supreme Court vs. the American People."
- Nan Aron, President of the Alliance
for Justice which is a national association of public
interest and civil rights organizations.
- Ted Goldman, congressional correspondent for the Legal
Times. He wrote an article about Miers in December 2004
titled "Down to the Last Detail; Bush's pick for White
House counsel sports an exacting style"
Orleans Parish DA Eddie Jordan on Racial Stereotyping,
Police Looting and Private Military Contractors
We speak with the District Attorney of Orleans Parish, Eddie
Jordan about the grossly exaggerated reports of multiple murders
and criminal mayhem in New Orleans in the days after hurricane
Katrina hit. Jordan says, "I'm pleased that there was
very little bloodshed, but it seems to me that the national
media outlets had an obligation to verify the charges [of
violence] being made by some of the evacuees and some of the
public officials." [includes rush
transcript]
Last week a flurry of news reports came out showing that
earlier news reports of multiple murders and criminal mayhem
in the days after Katrina hit, were exaggerated and may have
hampered rescue efforts in New Orleans. Gruesome rumors of
killings and rapes at the Superdome and the Convention Center
and reports of roving gangs looting and terrorizing tourists,
flew in the chaos of those first days. Local officials like
Mayor Ray Nagin and the former Police
Commissioner Eddie Compass repeated those rumors to television
news outlets, while Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco instituted
a shoot-to-kill policy. All of this seemed to confirm these
reports. As it turns out the Coroner's office, which, has
conducted autopsies on the 650 bodies recovered in the city
so far, has only seen seven victims of gun shot wounds. And
Nagin and the police department have admitted that they were
repeating unsubstantiated information.
- Eddie Jordan, District Attorney of Orleans Parish. He
is the first African-American D.A in New Orleans.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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