The Verdict!
Yes, a verdict finally came through today on that strange public figure charged with having sex with boys. Of course I'm talking about Spokane Mayor James West.

Sorry. Cheap trick, just couldn't resist.

Seriously, a judge (brought in from another town to avoid conflicts) ruled that Shannon Sullivan's recall petition can proceed. I applaud the judge; Sullivan is not highly educated, and her petition lacked most of the technical requirements. But the judge saw through the technical problems to the basic points.

I'm still a bit puzzled. Shaun Cross, mentioned here yesterday, is an experienced lawyer and would presumably benefit from a 'bulletproof' recall process. Sullivan's helper in the recall effort is some kind of paralegal, so she presumably could have fixed the problems. Probably more than meets the eye here. I get the impression that Sullivan is mighty stubborn, so maybe she isn't accepting that kind of help. She's explicitly relying on God, and so far it seems to be working....

Here's the story, with a nice bit of video, from Northwest Cable News.

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Later: a brief comment on both verdicts. When the not-guilty verdict on the King of Pop was announced, I found myself smiling. This surprised me, and I've finally figured it out. It comes down to the most basic principle of moral NON-equivalence: Who started it? (The left wants us to ignore this question, at least when it suits their purposes.) In the incidents being considered, Jackson did not start it. His proclivities have been known worldwide for many years, and the kids in question were presented to him on a silver platter by the parents. When a mother throws her child into a pool with an alligator, she's not entitled to complain about what the alligator does. With West, it's the other way around. His proclivities were carefully concealed; in fact, he made a reputation as a moral crusader. He used his official powers to seek victims. So he started it. That's the difference, whether it shows up in the written law or not.
  ¶ 8:27 PM