THE NEWS YOU NEED (including Fatty Cue info)

While heading into the Weekend.....

It's Friday May 14, 2010. It's the 134th day of the year, with 231 fun filled and sun splashed days remaining.

In Broward it turns out that soon to be former Judge Ana Gardiner lavashed over $600,000.00 in legal fees on her new firm, not the $300,000.00 we reported earlier in the week. Just a coincidence we're sure. Along the way she flirted with the lawyers during the trial and basically had a grand old time. Here's a neat riddle- what happened to the Plaintiff in that civil trial that didn't happen to the judge (that we know of) but that the Judge wanted it to happen?

**Answer below.

We hear that newly minted Circuit Judge Joe Fernandez will take over Judge Soto's calendar now that Soto is chief Judge for criminal courts. Soto can now turn her attention to more "Blake like matters" like.....well, something will occur to us.

Celtics knocked the Cavs out of the playoffs last night.

There's still an oil spill in the Gulf that's heading this way.

And US Senators were shocked...just shocked to learn yesterday that Supreme Court Nominee Kagan clerked for former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.

As if working for a giant in the history of this country and the history of Supreme Court Jurisprudence automatically prevents Kagan from becoming a Judge because Marshall is considered to have been "an activist" Judge.

We guess if Marshall wasn't such an "activist" as a lawyer and a Judge then maybe, in the view of these Senators, precedent would have been respected, Plessy v. Ferguson would still be good law, and little children of different colours would be going to separate (but equal) schools.

And finally, if the worst thing these moronic right wing nuts (and senators) can come up with is that Kagan shouldn't be confirmed because she has never been a judge and it's a dangerous thing to put someone without judicial experience on the Supreme Court, then lets all agree to go back and vacate every decision Justice Rehnquist participated in because he was the last Justice confirmed without prior judicial experience. (Update and erratum- A loyal reader informs us that Justice Lewis Powell was the last Justice confirmed without prior judicial experience. Wikipedia reports that Nixon nominated Powell and Rehnquist on the same day. Certainly Powell was the most reluctant nominee in recent history, turning down Nixon's request to serve in 1969. Our point about Rehnquist was that as a judicial hero of the right, the right has no right to throw stones at Kagan on her lack of experience. Right?)

We started out writing this in such a good mood. Not sure what happened.

WHAT IS FATTY CUE?

Last week as we had a 24 hour layover in NYC, a fetching acquaintance enticed us to spend an evening at an unlikely named place called "Fatty Cue". Here is the NY Times review yesterday- but we leave you with a recipe for a drink appropriately entitled a "Recession Special":

a shot of rail bourbon, a shot of spicy pickle juice and a tallboy of Pabst. The drink is best consumed in that order, pausing only to thrill to the way that pickle juice refracts the flavors of first the whiskey and then the beer.

Rumpole sort of remembers that a few of those (especially the bourbon shots) turns any acquaintance into a "fetching" one; any evening into a "fun" one; any food into "great food"; it's just hard to remember most of the specifics.

**Answer: She got screwed.