MEAN RUMPOLE

In the wake of our criticism of the FACDL and Judges Blake and Slom, we have been flooded with emails telling us in so many words to back off and give these guys a break. Criticizing these guys is apparently akin to kicking a puppy.

For instance:

"Rumpole: I think you need to work on your interpersonal skills. When you have a problem with someone, I have found that the better approach is to quietly sit down and talk it out with them. I would suggest that in the future you avoid public confrontations.
Sincerely, your faithful reader,
OJ Simpson."

"Mr. Rumpole: try not to act so erratically in public.
Britney Spears"

"Rumpole: Diplomacy is always the best course.
Best Regards,
George W. Bush."

So clearly, public opinion is running against our criticism of the chief judges for not quickly and effectively addressing the court house parking and access problems on Mondays (and Tuesdays when Monday is a holiday.)

Meanwhile, members of the FACDL have sent us emails promising that work is being done on the Sy Gaer memorial. Without naming names, we have been told that money has been appropriated, the memorial approved, and the only thing remaining is a few loose ends. Rumpole has obtained the emails dealing with those loose ends, which we print here exclusively:

From: FACDL Bigwig
To: Chief Judge:
RE: Sy

I am pleased to report that the joint judicial/facdl taskforce has reached the following agreements: 1) The picture of Sy will be 10 1/2 by 11 3/4, which represents an agreement by facdl to abandon their request that the picture be 10 3/4 x 12.
2) The height of the picture will be 77 inches, which represents an agreement by the judges to raise the height 4 inches.
3) The box holding Sy's book will be placed "not more than" 2 1/8 inches away from the supporting wall. 4) We still have not figured out a way to get the hammer and nails past security so we can hang the picture and secure the box. Please advise.

From: Chief Judge
To: Facdl Big wig

The hammer and nail issue remains a difficult point to resolve. We have received your request to bring the aforesaid hammer and nail through security. While you did provide the mandatory 12 copies, the original was signed in black ink, not blue as was clearly specified. The request is being returned to you to comply with our procedures. However, as you know, REGJB policy clearly requires that all items which are to be mounted on a wall for public display be done during the month of February only. Since our policy is to take 5 weeks to carefully review any requests to bring hammers and nails into the building, your request could not be approved until March 2008, which would make February 2009 the earliest this could be accomplished. However, since there will be a Judicial election in September and November 2008, we cannot actually approve your request until all new Judges have served 13 months on the bench. This means the earliest we could approve your request would be March 2009, which would push the actual instillation of the items until February 2010.
Best wishes, your pal,
CJ.

So there you have it. Your tax dollars at work.

When will Sy's memorial be up?
When will a citizen of Miami be able to come to court and find parking and not have to wait in line for an hour or more?

Call us a cynic, but we think the Dolphins will win the Super Bowl before this gets done.
We think they will find WMD's in Iraq before this gets done.
We think Dick Cheney has a better chance of being selected as Obama's running mate than these issues have of being resolved.

But what do we know?

See You in court.