Dead men walking long the corridors in the halls of injustice. Ah! hasn't it been a few grand weeks in the trenchs for we poor wage serfs who moil and toil therein. First, we get rid of old Arlo, who, to be frank had gone gaga and never bothered to get involved in the day to day running of the office - his last effforts before his ignominious defeat at the hands of Hallinan and Fazio had been a desperate attempt to overprosecute gay ACTUP demonstrators who had carried out a minor action in the GOP HQ on Van Ness.

The GOP had claimed $50,000 worth of damage and got an assurance from Arlo that they would be prosecuted for serious felonies - the quid pro quo was that Arlo would get their endorsement. Arlo ended up getting subpoenaed to a ppear in his own court and divulge his clandestine communications with the Repubs. Then the courts, after hearing days of testimony reduced the charges to misdemeanors and granted diversion to all defendants, over Arlo's strenuous objections.

Worse still, the courts found that the GOP had suffered economic damages which amounted at most to $1,500 and that they had attempted to practise a fraud upon the court by putting in completely false and padded bills. By then, Arlo didn't care. He was yesterday's papers.

But back to the halls of iniquity. A wise old rebel priest of my acquaintance once absolved me of the sin of 'gloating.' 'Sure, my son, when the bastards shaft you for years and you finally get one back on the owsies, your Lord will not blame you for a wee gloatie' was this wise man's absolution. So, here I sit in Department 22 and watch them shuffle by. February 24 is exit date for some of the old hacks and here they come, shuffling past and going through the motions.

Do they think of all the poor sods they either stitched up or gratuitously overprosecuted in order to cut an unfair deal which would reflect well on their conviction stats by which they all live and by which the DA's office justifies it's exhorbitant tyranny? Do they what! They scum around feeling sorry for themselves while those of their colleagues who avoided the 'night of the long knives' shun them like the plague and thank their lucky stars that the ax didn't fall upon their little dictatorial sinecure.

But, rest assured, gentle reader, as they say in the TV commercials - 'but wait, there's steak knives!' Yes kids, word has it, and, it's a pretty reliable word, that more heads will roll. Dead men walking, tombstones for their eyes. As we say in the old sod. 'dry yer eyes, wanker!'

Now, this is not to say that our new beloved D.A. Kayo Hallinan has got off to a great PR start. Let's be honest, Kayo hasn't got the best team of PROs known to the nation. Let me give comparison. El Papa. Old Red Socks as we used to call him back in our wee Ulcer. The Polish Pope.

Well, I've just read the latest oevre from El Papa and do you know what he claims? Well, hold on to your condoms kids, there ain't gonna be any sex in heaven. Nada. Zero. Zippo. Now is this guy and his buddies unclear on the concept . Even the mad Fundamentalists tell the Fedayeen suicide jockies - hey - you die for Allah and you're gonna have a good time up there.