Respect??? The press covering the trial used to have a daily pool -- what time will the judge fall asleep. I don't know if it's continuing this year, but it's the truth. Generally, he snoozes through the trial for about 45 minutes in the afternoon, head back, tongue in the air, arms splayed. He's openly decided to allow hearsay. He's prevented Microsoft from discovering documents showing collusion between Oracle, IBM, Sun, Novell, and Netscape unless they resulted in legal agreements (obviously those aren't the ones they want). He's turned the courtroom into the Captain Kangaroo show by allowing videotaped snippets and soundbytes of only the Bill Gates deposition, not testimony, to be displayed throughout cross examination of the prosecution witnesses, practically before every one. He refused Microsoft's request to show it all at once. He laughed openly at the deposition and made disparaging remarks. Finally, his first ruling, the real proof of his extreme bias was struck down by the appellate court in a ruling that basically labeled his handling of the case completely irresponsible.
Why on earth does he deserve respect? In the country in which I live it is our responsibility to question authority, not blindly show respect to every political hack. It seems to me that his judgement is seriously in question.
JMHO,
Mike |
