The Amazing Story of Clarence Thomas' Confirmation Hearings 2/3

by Nomad

In the first part of this three part series, we took a closer look at the rise of Clarence Thomas, starting from his graduation from Yale to a circuit court judge. 

Now I want to report the story of the reaction when the Bush Administration pushed to have Thomas, after only one year as a circuit court judge, confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice.

The Battle Begins

Even before the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings had begun, it was clear that a public relations battle was brewing about the administration’s choice. President Bush clumsily said, at the announcement of Thomas’ nomination, that he was the "best qualified [nominee] at this time." This was odd phrasing, to be sure. In typical Bush fashion, the president floundered while trying too hard to explain what he really didn’t mean: 

"I've kept my word to the American people and the Senate by picking the best man for the job based on merits. And the fact that he's a minority, so much the better. But that is not the factor, and I would strong resent any charge that might be forthcoming on quotas when it relates to appointing the best man to the court.

The Amazing Story of Clarence Thomas' Confirmation Hearings 1/3

by Nomad

It always comes as a shock to realize that many people may not be aware of the history of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. 

As a service, I thought I would take a careful examination of the lead-up to his confirmation, the struggle and the scandalous allegations in a three-part post. I hope you will find it an interesting and enlightening peek backward.

Prelude

In the autumn of 1971, Clarence Thomas, having graduated from College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts with an A.B. cum laude in English literature, enrolled in Yale Law school, in part under the university’s affirmative action plan to increase the numbers of minority students. As a black man, Thomas was troubled by this policy which he saw as nothing more than a selection by quota.


According to the book, "First Principle" the jurisprudence of Clarence Thomas, Thomas would later say of the policy,

"You had to prove yourself every day because the presumption was that you were dumb and didn't deserve to be there on merit."

Republican Faust: The Rise and Fall of Mike Connell -3

by Nomad

Part One and Part Two of the Series. In this last part of the series, I'd like to take a closer look at the strange circumstances of the airplane crash that took the life of Mike Connell.

Accident or Conspiracy?

The timing of Mike Connell's sudden death in a plane crash was. given the situation he was involved in, remarkably coincidental. So coincidental that it is the kind of event that naturally creates speculation about conspiracy. All the elements are certainly there.

On the other hand, planes all too often do fall out of the sky. Pilots make misjudgements about their abilities, or the weather. Planes may be poorly maintained. Planes crashes involving light aircraft are much more common than you'd think.
In the year of Connell's death, there were 156 other crashes and 884 other deaths. And the most likely scenario- as opposed to sabotage- would be problems with ice on the wings.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report speculates that the most probable cause of the crash was a combination of pilot error and weather conditions. 

In this case, Connell was faulted for deciding to conduct the flight into "known icing conditions."

Republican Faust: The Rise and Fall of Mike Connell -2

by Nomad

In Part One of this three part series, we discussed the rise of one of the GOP's insider, who quite possibly helped to engineer the 2004 presidential election fraud.

Taking the Fall

After agreeing initially to give critical information in a vote-rigging case in Ohio, Mike Connell, for whatever reasons, apparently had a change of heart. Given the potentially disastrous consequences of defying his former bosses, it is perhaps understandable.

Back in Ohio courts, King Lincoln Bronzeville v. Blackwell was an ongoing case filed on August 31, 2006 and dragged on and on. The former Ohio Secretary of State Blackwell the defendant, was accused of 

"having conspired to deprive and continue to deprive Ohioans of their right to vote and have, in fact, deprived and continue to deprive Ohioans of their right to vote by, in a selective and discriminatory manner, unfairly allocate election resources (such as voting machines), institute a system of provisional ballots, purge voter registrations, and broke the bi-partisan chain of custody ballots."

Republican Faust: The Rise and Fall of Mike Connell - 1/3

by Nomad

The story of the rise and fall of Republican insider, Mike Connell isn't a familiar one. This investigation looks at the life and death of one of the people who was implicated in the rigging of the Ohio results in the 2004 presidential election. 

At about 6 p.m. on Friday, 19 December 2008, a single-engine 1997 Piper Saratoga aircraft, with only the pilot aboard, crashed into a residential area in Uniontown, Ohio as it was preparing to land at Akron-Canton airport.

Arriving  at the scene, fire crews found only burning wreckage of the plane scattered between homes on Charolais Street. The pilot had been thrown upon impact and had died instantly of massive blunt force trauma, his belongings scattered in the yards.

First responders arrived on the scene immediately after the crash. Even then, irregularities began. Simon Worrall in an article The Mysterious Death of Bush's Cyber-Guru, writes of those first minutes:

Capt. Lorin Geisner of the Greentown Fire Department was the first person to arrive at the scene. “We received a 911 call, so we contacted the tower and asked what size plane it was and how many souls were on board,” he recalls. “But we were informed that the tower was in lockdown and that no information was available.”

This was to be the first of many abnormalities in a case that would send shock waves through the blogosphere with speculations of sabotage and foul play. In the bewildering reality-bending world of conspiracy theories, the events that surround the Connell crash belong in a class all their own.