I purchased this book several months ago, and finally began reading it first for an hour last night, and finished it tonight in one of my own frenzied reading spells.
After reading it, I urge everyone to read this book. Of course, it is entirely fiction, as Grisham acknowledges, but its topic is quite real, and mirrors what we have seen played in politics for quite a few years.
I wont give anything away here, but during this entire primary season there was one reality that I always eventually honed in on, and it was our US Supreme Court. The reality offered by this book is that all of our courts are under assault, and most especially those courts that rely upon "elections" for the various Judges of those Courts.
In a campaign that has brought comparisons to both Willie Horton and John Grisham, a conservative candidate for Wisconsin's Supreme Court is airing a false negative, race-baiting commercial against a sitting justice -- the only African-American ever to serve on the state's highest court.
The spot makes it appear that Justice Louis Butler, when he was a public defender, used a loophole to spring from prison a defendant who had raped a child -- and who then went on to commit another child rape.
Powerful stuff -- but not true. Watch it yourself, then read on for the facts -- and the Grisham connection.
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Novelist John Grisham's latest work, The Appeal, is both relevent and frightening. It delves into the murky relationship between big business, unregulated money, attack advertising, and the literal buying of state supreme court justices to get a pro business, anti-consumer court system that would take us back to the good old days of our industrial revolution when workers had no rights and businesses had no laws whatsoever.
Grisham points out that 31 states have elections for state supreme court justices. A number of other states have elections for county prosecutors. Most state attorney generals are elected instead of appointed. As a result, a battle of funding between big business supporting "strict constructionists (the very concept itself is b.s. but more on that later) and trial lawyers, environmental groups, and consumer advocates supporting the so-called "liberal" judges.
I've got to hand it to Hillary's campaign staff. They've come up with some great ideas on how to encourage people to contribute to her campaign in the lead-up to the end of the reporting period. As you might recall, they invited the one million'th contributor to spend the day campaigning with Hillary & Bill, and last month they invited a supporter over for lunch.
(Sadly, I didn't get picked for either honor)
With the reporting deadline approaching, they came up with a new incentive - Bill will invite three of us over to watch a debate and have a chat (see my recent diary HERE), and each person will get to bring a friend. And like last time, they've sweetened the deal.
Make the jump to find out who'll be joining the party...
Let me start by saying that this piece ultimately applies the term to the Bush Administration, and is not a review of a book with an eerily similar name [The Pelican's Briefs: Revealing Reminisces of a Boomer's Hometown by Mark R. Joneschiet]. Aside from the coincidentally shared title, it's not relevant. We will, however, briefly touch upon the Grisham novel The Pelican Brief, placing it in context through the inclusion of Pelican mythology.
Ultimately, we'll relate the title to the latest spinstorm of the Unitary Executive, giving the words of our President the respect that they so richly deserve with a little help from Shakespeare's Macbeth.
I'm in with the in crowd;
I go where the in crowd goes
I'm in with the in crowd --
and I know what the in crowd knows
Anytime of the year, don't you hear?
Dressing fine, making time
We breeze up and down the street,
We get respect from the people we meet
They make way day or night...
I know, I've been out of the loop for so fucking long, this is probably OLD news to you all, but I just ran across it on YouTube...
... and the gob of self-pity I've been carrying around for what seems like weeks got yanked out of me like a cute, freshly washed little black puppy from a bin full of mud-soaked little grey ones...
Last night, I attended a truly unique, extraordinary event in Charlottesville, Virginia featuring three authors - John Grisham, Stephen King, and Jim Webb - plus Virginia Governor Kaine. I've got full coverage at Raising Kaine, but suffice it to say here that it was a special evening, with 1,000 people in the audience to see these three great men, around 200 people for the Charlottesville office opening party, and around $125,000 raised.
Here are some photos from last night, plus a few from the Webb for Senate office opening party which took place right before the Grisham/King/Kaine/Webb event. At the bottom, I'll put some intersting quotes from last night. Enjoy!
Now that George Allen's racist past AND present, combined with Jim Webb's own amazing biography and compelling candidacy, have made this U.S. Senate race competitive (essentially tied in three recent polls), it appears that help - in the form of serious cash money - is finally on the way. First, according to Bob Gibson in the Charlottesville Daily Progress:
, but there are far more disturbing images and allegories that I refer to.
[UPDATE: More photos available 
Now that George Allen's 
