Thursday, February 18, 2016

SCOTUS... "If Only..."

I first wrote a blog post about this gentleman back in 2008 - part of that post is included in one from 2012, re-aired below.

It's a pipe dream, of course - but what a superb addition to the SCOTUS line-up this man would be, to fill the now vacant seat of Antonin Scalia dec'd. According to Wikipedia Mr Fitzgerald is now in private practice, in Chicago.

By the way, regarding the late Justice Scalia, there's a good read by a favourite writer of mine, David Michael Green, at The Smirking Chimp: The Loser's Way, (or, What Do You Do When your Politics Suck ?)


Re-airing my 2012 post:
One public figure in the United States I can admire without reservation (and there are precious few) is US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. He has been in the news once more this week, this time announcing his decision to step down from his post in Northern District of Illinois after a stint of 11 years. From the end of June he intends to take the summer off before considering other job possibilities.
(Photo: Getty Images)


His 24-year, often high profile, career has included prosecuting terrorists, mob members, corrupt governors and a presidential aide - we can only guess at what job offers might be forthcoming. Possibilities mentioned here and there on the net would be to replace the current FBI director whose term will end in September 2013, or U.S. attorney general under a new administration.

Mr.Fitzgerald has never made his own political leanings known. He prosecuted Republican Governor George Ryan and Governor Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat, with equal zeal.

On Thursday, speaking to reporters he said, "For the office, it's important that there be change. I thought this was the right time." Asked about future plans, "I don't know, and that's sincere," he told reporters. "Public service is in my blood."
(Photograph: Chicago Sun Times)


Fitzgerald's parents came from Ireland's County Clare, they met in the United States, raised their son in Flatbush and guided him to a scholarship at a Jesuit high school. He worked as a school janitor in Brooklyn to make money for college and spent summers opening doors at an upscale co-op building on East 72nd Street in Manhattan. His father worked at a building on East 75th. Fitzgerald says he remembers where he came from and pinches himself when he realizes where he is. "The values we grew up with were straight-ahead. We didn't grow up in a household where people were anything but direct," Fitzgerald says.

I've posted before about Patrick Fitzgerald -this comes from a 2008 post....
A writer called Fitzgerald an "Untouchable", in the mould of Eliot Ness ."The Prosecutor Never Rests", an article by Peter Slevin from 2005 gives a flavour of Patrick Fitzgerald's personality.

"His thoroughness, his relentlessness, his work ethic are legendary," says terrorism expert Daniel Benjamin, a former member of the National Security Council.

Seeing Fitzgerald in action, says Los Angeles lawyer Anthony Bouza, a college classmate, is "like watching a sophisticated machine." Colleagues speak in head-shaking tones of Fitzgerald's skills in taking a case to trial. A Phi Beta Kappa math and economics student at Amherst before earning a Harvard law degree in 1985, he has a gift for solving puzzles and simplifying complexity for a jury."

"The staff of the 9/11 commission called him one of the world's best terrorism prosecutors. He convicted Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and all four defendants in the embassy bombings, which had left 224 people dead. He extracted a guilty plea from Mafia capo John Gambino and became an authority on bin Laden, whom he indicted in 1998 for a global terrorist conspiracy that included the African bombings"

"People who know Fitzgerald describe him as anything but a stuffed shirt. During a key moment in one New York trial, he slipped a note to his co-counsel, who interrupted questioning to read it to himself. It said, "Is there beer in the fridge?""

"He's no slouch at stagecraft, either. At the trial of a Mafia hit man, the defense argued that a ski mask -- part of what Fitzgerald called a "hit kit" that included surgical gloves, a gun and hollow-point bullets -- was really just a hat. (The defense also said the surgical gloves were for putting ointment on the defendant's ailing dog.) During closing arguments, Fitzgerald startled the jury by rolling up one leg on his lawyerly dark suit. "These are just shorts, ladies and gentlemen," he said, according to one account. "These are just shorts."




Chart above is set for 12 noon as no time of birth is known.

I was confident I'd find Saturn and/or Capricorn very prominent in Fitzgerald's natal chart, and I wasn't wrong.

Sun, Jupiter and Saturn itself are all in Capricorn. Saturn is ruler of Capricorn, both are connected to law, as is Jupiter. Saturn and Capricorn represent the discipline, rules, and structures of law. Jupiter and its sign of rulership, Sagittarius represent the judgement and philosophical aspect of law and justice.
Very apt - and evidence of astrology in action - again!

Mercury at 22 Sagittarius harmoniously trines (120*) Uranus at 25 Leo - Intuitive mind with independence of thought - somewhat ahead of his own time.

Mars at 11 Cancer exactly opposes Jupiter at 11 Capricorn - indication that he seeks out challenges, has to temper a tendency to go over the top at times, but because Saturn is positioned close to Jupiter, such tendencies are held in check, and emanate in Fitzgerald's case mainly as the excess zeal for which he is famous and occasionally criticised.

The Moon's position can't be pinpointed without time of birth, but it would lie somewhere between 22 Aquarius and 6 Pisces. If born before noon (my bet) it was in Aquarius, along with his natal Venus. Analysis is key to his work, and that's a strongly Aquarian trait.

This is the kind of guy we need as president, but as long as he returns to some public office, it'll feel reassuring that good things and good people do happen here.... sometimes.

25 comments:

mike said...

David Michael Green took the words right out of my mouth...LOL. Green smacks the Republican politicians, but it shouldn't be obscure that the House and Senate are majority Republican by virtue of the electorate. Republican voters outnumbered Democratic and independent voters 2:1 in the previous, non-presidential election season. We get what we don't want by not participating in the process.

I'm sure Fitzgerald would make a decent supreme judge. I followed the Valerie Plame and Conrad Black cases, and was impressed with his fearlessness. It was unfortunate that Fitzgerald could only trace to Libby and not the push-Libby-under-the-bus Cheney.

The USA contains quite a number of sterling legists. Should the Republicans find solace in their denial toward entertaining Obama's submissions, they may find pause with the SCOTUS candidates offered by Bernie Sanders.

Twilight said...

mike ~ Yes, non-participation has been the bugbear. It could be that the "new blood" unexpectedly surging this time via Bernie and Donald Trump (dang - it would have to be him!) will enliven and/or scare the population so much that they'll vote as never before.

I think the Republicans will accept a Justice nominated by President Obama, but only after many shenanigans, just to show how much they hate doing it. They are a scary lot, the republicans, but they're not daft! Anyone Obama nominates at this stage, hoping to fill the vacancy quickly, is hardly likely to be anything other than moderate, and that's the best they can be certain of getting, at this stage.

I've yet to come to grips with the fact that Judges and Justices in the USA are openly aligned politically. :-(

LB said...

I googled Fitzgerald. This is what I found:

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2011/01/fbir-j26.html

Apparently as Attorney General, Patrick Fitzgerald was accused of going after non-violent community leaders, labor organizers, anti-war activists and others for political reasons.

"The apparent targets, all vocal and visible critics of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and South America, deny any ties to terrorism. They say the government, using its post-9/11 focus on terrorism as a pretext, is targeting them for their political views."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/activists-cry-foul-over-fbi-probe/2011/06/09/AGPRskTH_story.html

LB said...

Correction. Fitzgerald wasn't Attorney General. Too much copying and pasting.:(

Anonymous said...

Of possible interest is this astrological analysis:

http://starpathvisions.com/Fitzgeralbirthchart.html

Would anyone care to expand on the statement:

'Analysis is ... a strongly Aquarian trait.'

I have never run across this association before.

LB said...

Here's the link to another article titled, "U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald Expands Witch Hunt — FBI Delivers Subpoenas to Four More anti-War, Solidarity Activists":

http://uspeacecouncil.org/?p=750

There are a bunch of online articles all saying pretty much the same thing.

Twilight said...

LB ~ there is also this in the 2nd link:

A spokesman for Fitzgerald, the Chicago prosecutor whose past work has sometimes riled both political parties declined to comment.

This, in my opinion, is how it should be! He does a job as a prosecutor without fear or favour. No political preferences ought to be on display. Possibly privately he didn't much like what was being done. Similarly, a lawyer defending a murderer is likely to despise the guy but it's his job to defend him.

Twilight said...

Sabina ~ Thanks for the link - I skimmed it but it's a lengthy screed - will bookmark for future reference.

You mean my own observation in the old post about Aquarius and association with analysis? I see analysis (not psycho-analysis I hasten to add) as having an undoubted link to mental acuity, of differing flavours. Air signs are said to have mental acuity, Aquarius is an Air sign, and Fixed Air. Logic is also associated with Aquarius, unless I've completely forgotten or muddled my text-book learning - and logic and analysis are kind of cousins. Maybe you's associate Virgo with analysis? I would too, but not exclusively.

Twilight said...

LB ~ I've looked at some of the news articles on this, but haven't yet grasped the whole story. There must have been a reason for Fitzgerald, as US Attorney, to have been in charge of this so-called "witch-hunt" - he wouldn't just have decided to do it on his own say-so.

I have stuff to do just now, but will see if I can find an answer later. All the pieces I've seen so far are, naturally, on the side of the anti-war people. But there must have been some reason, motive and some instruction from a higher source for the raids etc.

LB said...

Interesting read, Sabina ~ thanks. It ties in with the links I provided, all of which talk about Fitzgerald's choices several years in.

My Moon and Chiron are in Aquarius. I'd say Aquarius can be socially/politically analytical, though on its own, its abstract intellectualism often has less patience with or understanding of differing individual experiences or practical details ~ and how each relates to the WHOLE.

Aquarius is not at all above seeing what it wants to see and/or applying its high ideals selectively!

*********

Twilight ~ I'm surprised and disappointed you'd defend Fitzgerald's attempts to go after folks (for political reasons) because it was his job.


"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."

Martin Niemöller

LB said...

Twilight ~ For some reason, when I left my last response your other comment to me hadn't shown up. After reading your second response, I do hope you'll take another look.

If you find anything where Fitzgerald voices regret over the decisions he made (or claims he was misinformed), I'd appreciate you sharing.

Twilight said...

LB ~ Well - his job as an attorney, a US Attorney as he was then, is to apply the law, and the low in question was that dreaded Patriot Act - or part of it relating to material support for terrorism. I'm not actually defending him, I'm trying to understand. He was not a dictator, or President, just a US attorney, presumably carrying our instructions in relation to a law of the US.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Providing_material_support_for_terrorism

The Patriot Act has a lot to answer for - and this is an example.

Fitzgerald will never voice regrets LB! In some ways I am disappointed in him, but there must surely have been some basis for suspicion to have caused these events.
It seems like over-reach now - I do agree.

I'd still retain the word "fearless" for Fitzgerald however, but that need not always be a good thing (from our point of view)!

This is all I've found coming (reportedly) from his own lips on the matter - from someone who met him and spoke with him:

Bill Chambers: I was able to ask this question. "There has been criticism of you and your office by ten U.S. Representatives, including Jan Schakowsky in Chicago, that the investigation of anti-war and human rights activists is suppressing their freedom of speech and right to dissent. How do you respond to this criticism?"

His response - "I can't even comment on the existence of such a case, but I can assure you my office is doing nothing to suppress dissent. There were even people out in front today protesting when I came in and they have the right to do that. Look around, there are people protesting everywhere - if I was trying to suppress dissent I would not get anything done."

My follow-up - "Those protesters you are talking about haven't been subpoenaed to a grand jury and had their homes invaded and property taken. So you don't agree with Jan Schakowsky and the other U.S. reps’ criticisms then?"

His response: "People make all these criticisms of me and I can't respond. It's like I have duct tape across my mouth. How do you think that makes me feel?"
http://www.fightbacknews.org/2011/10/7/activists-challenge-us-attorney-fitzgerald-grand-jury-witch-hunt


Re Aquarius~ Wherever it is in a chart it's also subject to the rest of the planets and positions - that has to be taken into consideration too. I doubt there's any 100% accurate description of it as a sign (rather than a person - which it isn't).

How Aquarius sits in one's own chart colours one's opinion of it too. The only thing we can be 100% sure of is that it is an Air sign and it's Fixed, and the 11th sign in the zodiac circle, traditionally linked by rulership to Saturn...so it's Airy Saturnian. I've doubts about Uranus being its ruler, but that's just my thought. The rest of the keywords, ideas and colourful writings of astrologers over the years are all somewhat iffy for me. I've never met two Aquarius Sun people (Sun's the only one we know about without delving) who are similar in any respect....but same applies to all other Sun signs. :-/

LB said...

"Re Aquarius~ Wherever it is in a chart it's also subject to the rest of the planets and positions - that has to be taken into consideration too. I doubt there's any 100% accurate description of it as a sign (rather than a person - which it isn't)."

Twilight ~ Definitely! Though there is a certain something (is it an 'unreachable' quality?) generally associated with a strong Aquarius signature ~ as if they always hold some part of themselves in reserve. At least in my experience.:)

Twilight said...

LB ~ Hmmm - unreachable? A certain reservedness perhaps, sometimes manifesting as shyness, lack of self-confidence or alternatively acute independence. I can only refer to Sun Aquarius people I've known, and three of those are either my age or older. My husband's younger daughter's birthday is the day before mine, but many years later. She's a different kettle of fish altogether from the three mentioned, and me - certainly not shy or reserved, but very independent and a tad quirky. :-) Generational and environmental differences factor in too.

Anonymous said...

Thanks all for Aquarius info. One thing I recalled is that those who include modern planets refer to Uranus as the 'higher octave' of Mercury - whatever precisely that might mean.

Twilight said...

Sabina ~ They do, but I'm not certain why. It's said that Uranus' reputation as planet of the unexpected and rebellion etc. comes from its peculiar orbit - which makes some sense. The connection of the outer planets to "higher octaves" of inner planets seems to me to be something someone dreamed up as an interesting concept, but .......?
That's just me being obtuse and uncooperative.

Uranus in my own natal chart is exactly conjunct south node of Moon, in Taurus and square Sun in Aquarius. Maybe that = obtuse. ;-)

Marco Polo said...

Oh! Hope I don't infect my computer with the reference to . . to . . to . . Arrgh! SIGNS!

Here is me chart and a table of aspects in it - IN RIGHT ASCENSION! (true body position in space counting from 0° of that first Cardinal sign).

The Sun is sextile the Asc within 3°20', opp Pluto within 0°52', square Jup within 2°37', square Sat within 0°52' - Sat squares Pluto to the minute, Pluto trines Asc within 2°28', yadda, yadda, yadda.

Merc is captured in a 2°16' square to Uranus which trines the MC by 122°24'. Why am I the only person I know of to measure points and positions in space in right ascension (again, true body position in space) as astronomers do?

Marco Polo said...

Forgot to post the links. Here they are.

http://imgur.com/LaBPMKW

http://imgur.com/WNLIj

Twilight said...

Marco Polo ~ Bob? Is that you? ;-)

Most of us find it easier to go with the crowd, and follow the signs.

I suppose it depends how one suspects that astrology "works". How do you suspect it works?

Bob Polo said...

Aye Matey! 'Tis me!

Don't know. don't care. It just shows a seeming correlation in some mathematically derived charts comparing planetary relationships. These allow for what some refer to as educated guesses as to what the relationships portend.

Now, for something more important.

Why are women so beatiful?

Bob said...

I am sure I did not leave out the u. Computer may be going out or my skill is slipping. Lots of errors lately.I am sure I did not leave out the u. Computer may be going out or my skill is slipping. Lots of errors lately.I am sure I did not leave out the u. Computer may be going out or my skill is slipping. Lots of errors lately.I am sure I did not leave out the u. Computer may be going out or my skill is slipping. Lots of errors lately.

Bob said...

Ease up on the damn security.

Anonymous said...

I am sure I did not leave out the u. Computer may be going out or my skill is slipping. Lots of errors lately.

Twilight said...

Bob Polo ~ I see...well, it's a different way of researching to determine exactly is going on up there! I applaud that. There's definitely something goin' on, and I'm skeptical that it's exactly what the textbooks tell us.

Women and men are beautiful (sometimes!) ;-)

Twilight said...

Bob ~ I think Blogger was having a fit - there were numerous versions of the comment about "leaving out the u..." awaiting moderation. :-)