fun weekend. cubs game. golf outing. partying @ the black duck. roll over the thumbnails and click to see larger images.

well its finally over. law school year one. sigh. the only thing i feel is relief. don't let anyone kid you, the first year of law school is EVERY bit as hard as you've heard. sigh. oh well its over.

got so many plans now that i'm out of school. family, friends, thanks for putting up with my social hibernation. i'm back. paroled for a few months as shoes put it the other day. i plan on reconnecting with lots of youse over this summer. cookouts, poker games, cubs games, concerts, street festivals, family reunions, its gonna be a good time. and to kick things off going to see the cubbies take on the giants in the bleachers tonight. should be a great time, i'll post some pix.

lots of internet projects to do including some more site redesigns. check out the newest feature. comments! take some time and join me in blogging your thoughts. later.

i couldn't go to bed without fixing those broken archive links. all done. calling it a night. if you see a broken link drop me a line.

well as you can see some changes are happening here at reggienewton.com. by the end of the summer you'll see version 3.0 up and running. blogger just added a bunch of new templates, and the some commenting functionality. little fyi the archive links are broken right now, but i'm aware of the problem and i'll get 'em fixed next week.

just took my contracts final today. only civil procedure and property left.

gotta weigh in on this iraqui prison abuse story. for those that haven't read the new yorker article by seymour hersh that was the impetus for this scandal the link is here. hersh's story is shocking and graphic, moreover you have to conclude as he does "anyone who thinks this was the just the actions of six bad apples is kidding themselves. this problem is systemic."

those on the right have some interesting opinions on this matter to say the least:

1. hypocrisy - charles krauthammer on the fox news special report round table opined "these things are horrible, but no one was killed. its hypocritical for the arab world to be outraged by this. where was the outrage over sadam's atrocities, the brutal killing of american contractors in fallujah." and of course rush limbaugh who remarks "these are the people that are trying to kill us. what do we care what is the most humiliating thing in the world for them?"

all right chuck, hypocrisy in the arab world i'll grant you. but screw the outrage in the arab world. we should be outraged here at home. and rush, my expectations for the conduct of a mob in fallujah is about as low as my expectation for a mob anywhere -- NONE. but there's a world of difference btw comparing the actions of a mob and that of a american MP on duty.

2. blame the messenger - bill oreilly and others have blamed cbs for airing these pictures, saying it will endanger american soldiers.

what would you have cbs do? these actions did happen and the public has a right to know what their miliary is doing. it would seem that this problem had been ongoing and without the attention of the public the military was content to ignore the problem.

but even more cbs actually held their story for 2 WEEKS! at a request from genernal meyers. it was only when they heard that seymour hersh's article was coming out they decided that they couldn't get scooped and aired the story. what just kills me with two extra weeks to get their story straight and come out with some good answers for the american people the military did as they have done all along -- NOTHING. on sunday talk shows general meyers and other pentagon higher ups said they STILL hadn't read the taguba report on these atrocities. you have months to act on this and do nothing, you get two extra grace weeks from cbs, and your answer is still "uh. . . i haven't read the report" what the hell are you waiting for?! if cbs hadn't aired this story would you EVER have read this report?

final points. much like the rodney king video. the lesson here is if there is no picture there is no crime. one can only wonder about other incidents in afghanistan, gitmo, and other iraqui prisons that w/o photographic proof will never be known or believed.

i can't get over rummy yesterday explaing that the world was informed about this back in janauary because the pentagon had a press release on the subject. gee thanks. the senate armed services committee is going to grill you over a slow fire in the coming weeks. try that 'press release defense' on them, i want to see john mccain take your head off.

and finally as a wiser person than i wrote about the wisdom of even using this notorious prison:

"Anyone who knows anything about the history of Saddam's regime can't help but wonder what that particular decision was intended to symbolize. I mean, they didn't even change the name. Saddam International Airport became Baghdad International, Saddam City metamorphosed into Sadr City. But Abu Ghraib Prison remained Abu Ghraib Prison. It's as if the allies had captured Buchenwald or Dachau, slapped new coats of paint on them, then turned around and reopened them as occupation prison camps. . ."

pray for our troops we're in a mess.

as i mentioned in saturday's blog, a letter written by me is in this week's issue of time magazine. they just posted this issue online today. check out the excerpt here.

when you look up "whoops" in the dictionary there should be a picture of this guy.

so i said i wasn't going to post a lot due to finals and i'm holding to that. but i've been getting some emails from folks wondering if a comment published in sports illustrated is your's truly. yep its me. much like my blog i sometimes share my far from humble opinion to the rest of the world. you folks just usually read it here first.

in other news regarding my 15 minutes of published fame. i just got an email from time magazine. they're going to publish one of my letters to the editor in the may 10th issue -- on newsstands may 3rd. howabout it? if this law school thing doesn't work out i can look for a job getting an opinion column. allright its back to the books.