There was a porn king in my law school. He got into my law school by claiming that his unjust prosecution for molesting a 13-year-old was a cultural deprivation. My understanding is that he was near the same age and therefore did not know that it was a bad idea to molest young girls. Where were his parents? (A subject for an entire different post.)
What a disgusting human being! He spent his whole law school career lying to ingratiate himself with his targeted victim. I turned out not to be a good victim, and I was able to warn him off a friend or two. He took pictures of his two-year-old daughter at a national amusement park, then later claimed that the pictures were taken in his back yard. He wanted to lead the viewer into believing that he was incredibly rich. (Urping something up in my mouth.)
Clearly a self-pitying slob, which must have its own psychiatric diagnosis somewhere, he lied his way through law school and now has a solo practice. Not surprising, since anyone with half-a-brain can clearly see that he made his way through life by singing a sob song. I later heard from some of the guys that he was known as "the porn king."
I have nothing against porn. But porn addicts tend to need a great deal of external control. Addicts need help. Someone should do something about porn addicts...
This guy is so fucking creepy that his wife aborted their second child.
This is what makes me wonder about law school...how this kind of a slob could get in.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Speaking of Porn Kings...
Clarence Thomas is addicted to porn. The right wing still loves him.
Please explain, rightwingers...
Please explain, rightwingers...
RNC Head Michael Steele Is Not a Success
My comment follows...
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/130673/rnc_head_michael_steele_is_not_a_success_/?cID=1155353#c1155353
The NYT has an interesting piece on RNC Chairman Michael Steele today, noting his recent, shall we say, difficulties. It noted some elements of Steele's background I'd forgotten about.
Remind me, why did the Republican National Committee pick Steele as its chairman?
Rumor has it, Steele got the job in part because he's a compelling personality on television. Of course, television is the medium that's led Steele into all kinds of recent embarrassments.
I have to assume there are more than a few RNC members who kicking themselves right now, wondering what on earth the party was thinking.
Steve Benen is "blogger in chief" of the popular Washington Monthly online blog, Political Animal. His background includes publishing The Carpetbagger Report, and writing for a variety of publications, including Talking Points Memo, The American Prospect, the Huffington Post, and The Guardian. He has also appeared on NPR's "Talk of the Nation," MSNBC's "Rachel Maddow Show," Air America Radio's "Sam Seder Show," and XM Radio's "POTUS '08."
The New, New Clarence Thomas
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/130673/rnc_head_michael_steele_is_not_a_success_/?cID=1155353#c1155353
The NYT has an interesting piece on RNC Chairman Michael Steele today, noting his recent, shall we say, difficulties. It noted some elements of Steele's background I'd forgotten about.
Outside politics, Mr. Steele struggled. He tried the priesthood but left as a novice. Later he practiced law for seven years in Washington (after passing the Pennsylvania state bar, he said), then started a consulting firm that made so little money that he almost lost his home.Hmm. Steele wanted to be a priest, but that didn't work out. He wanted to be a successful lawyer, but that didn't work out. He wanted to run a consulting firm, but that didn't work out. Steele parlayed this "success" into a role as Maryland's lieutenant governor, but that didn't work out, either -- he was booted out after one term, and didn't follow through on his own hand-picked projects. He then wanted to be a U.S. senator, but that didn't work out.
Remind me, why did the Republican National Committee pick Steele as its chairman?
Rumor has it, Steele got the job in part because he's a compelling personality on television. Of course, television is the medium that's led Steele into all kinds of recent embarrassments.
I have to assume there are more than a few RNC members who kicking themselves right now, wondering what on earth the party was thinking.
Steve Benen is "blogger in chief" of the popular Washington Monthly online blog, Political Animal. His background includes publishing The Carpetbagger Report, and writing for a variety of publications, including Talking Points Memo, The American Prospect, the Huffington Post, and The Guardian. He has also appeared on NPR's "Talk of the Nation," MSNBC's "Rachel Maddow Show," Air America Radio's "Sam Seder Show," and XM Radio's "POTUS '08."
The New, New Clarence Thomas
One of the most disgusting political developments of the last 20 years was the appointment of Clarence Thomas to the highest court in the land. Bush 1 to America: "Hey, you want a Black on the Supreme Court? I will give you dross: Clarence Thomas." This creature sits in Thurgood Marshall's seat. How revolting. Morally bankrupt and intellectually void, he rails against the very system that allowed him to achieve his wholly-undeserved high rank is U$ society. I don't know who's dumber: a Black Republican, a gay Republican, or a female Republican. I guess it all depends on who they want to fool at any given time, eh? --OL
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Karl Rove Destroyed My Life
Last week, Al Gore sent an email message urging supporters to give money to Don Siegelman's legal defense fund. Gore is the latest in a string of high profile supporters to suggest Siegelman, the former Governor of Alabama, was the victim of a Republican plot when he was found guilty of bribery, conspiracy and fraud in 2006, and sentenced to seven years in prison.
http://www.alternet.org/rights/115526/?page=entire
Now, in the waning days of the Bush administration, Siegelman is trying to win back his freedom -- not to mention his good name -- in a courtroom in Atlanta. Earlier this year, an appeals court granted his release after he had served nine months, saying the Governor's appeal had raised "substantial questions" about the case against him. Siegelman's cause was helped by a bipartisan group of 54 former state attorneys general from across the country who filed a federal appeals brief supporting his bid to overturn the conviction. Republican insiders have also come forward to say Siegelman was unfairly targeted by Rove and his circle.
Making it in prison depends on one's level of tolerance. I'm used to mopping in my wife's kitchen. It was just a bigger floor.
Siegelman's appeal was heard earlier this month and the verdict will determine whether he returns to prison to finish out his sentence, or goes free.
How did a former governor -- and a rising star in the Democratic Party -- end up in a situation like this?
On June 29, 2006, Siegelman and Richard Scrushy, the CEO of HealthSouth, a chain of medical rehabilitation services with facilities both in the United States and abroad, were found guilty by a jury in Montgomery, Alabama, of federal bribery charges. A year later, Judge Mark Fuller, who had clear conflicts of interest in the case -- a company in which he holds a major stake received a $175 million government contract at one point during the legal proceedings -- sentenced Scrushy to almost seven years in prison. Siegelman got 88 months.
There was one central transaction that sent these men to prison for all this time. Not long after Siegelman had been elected governor in 1998, he convinced Scrushy to contribute $500,000 to a political action committee, which was supporting the establishment of a lottery in Alabama to pay for higher education. At the same time, he talked Scrushy into serving on a state hospital regulatory board on which he had already served three times -- appointed by both Democrats and Republicans -- and from which he had recently resigned. To US attorney Leura Canary, the wife of William "Bill" Canary, the close friend and former business associate of Karl Rove, the act constituted bribery, for which she charged the two men. Among the many other charges, dismissed by the jury, this was the one that stuck.
QUESTION: First, was the act for which you and Richard Scrushy convicted actually a crime?
SIEGELMAN: Fifty-four state attorneys general filed a friend of the court brief stating that it has never been a crime in America for a politician or a public official to appoint a contributor to anything, whether it's ambassador or cabinet member or a member of a board or an agency. The only thing that is a crime is if you swap a position for money. And there has got to be an express agreement that's provable. Otherwise, the United States Supreme Court says it's an infringement on a person's first amendment right to freely associate and make contributions.
QUESTION: The case with you and Scrushy seems especially weak.
SIEGELMAN: Scrushy had just recently resigned from the board and the person I had defeated, Job James, had appointed one of Scrushy's vice presidents to the position. When I got elected I called Scrushy and said, "I want you to serve in my administration like you did in three previous administration." And he said, "Oh, Governor, do I have to? I just resigned from that board. Can't I get you the name of somebody?" I said, "Nope, it's either you or nobody." So he went onto the board reluctantly. And this poor guy is still in prison today.
QUESTION: Many observers believe he is because he would not cooperate with the prosecution to convict you.
SIEGELMAN: In an effort to get me, the prosecution went to Scrushy before they indicted him and said, "Just tell us Siegelman extorted the money; just tell us he twisted your arm." He said, "I can't do that because that's not what happened." They went to him after he was indicted and said, "Okay, we will give you another chance. Tell us Siegelman twisted your arm and tried to extort money." He said, "I can't say that because that's not what happened." During the trial, he was sitting at the defense table, and they came and got him again and gave him a third chance to throw me under the bus by lying for the prosecution and he wouldn't do it. This is not the way the justice system in this country is supposed to work.
QUESTION: Describe what happened to you after you were sentenced.
SIEGELMAN: Scrushy and I were taken from the courtroom less than thirty seconds after the gavel came down in handcuffs, shackles, and chains around our waist and ankles. We were put in the back of a police car and driven to Atlanta where we were taken to a maximum-security prison and put in solitary confinement. Then they moved me around the country from prison to prison until I ended up in the swamps of Louisiana.
QUESTION: What was prison like?
SIEGELMAN: You can just imagine. But making it in prison depends on one's level of tolerance. I'm used to mopping and sweeping floors in my wife's kitchen. It was just a bigger floor and I had to mop it every day.
Seriously, all my life I've worked to try to correct and perfect our system of government to make it more fair, and here I was in the middle of something that wasn't fair. If God had a purpose in this, it was for me to see how the system is flawed so I can do something about it. There are some things I'd like to see corrected -- flaws in the system that can result in innocent people going to prison. When I get out of this situation for good, I'll be back before the Judiciary Committee advocating changes.
QUESTION: You have claimed Karl Rove was a driving force behind your prosecution.
SIEGELMAN: We know from documentary evidence and from testimony that Rove was involved in the firing of the US attorneys [at the start of Bush's second term] and he's been identified at the scene of the crime in my case. We know that others worked with Rove to carry out his conspiracies to subvert our system of justice and to abuse the power of his office and to misuse the power of the Department of Justice for political purposes.
QUESTION: Some people believe Rove wanted your political career damaged because of your standing in the Democratic Party.
SIEGELMAN: I had endorsed Al Gore in 2000 -- the first governor to do so -- and it wasn't long after that that they started the investigation. I had made plans after my 2002 re-election -- which I ultimately lost because of the bad press generated by these investigations -- to hit the primary states. I had been secretary of state for eight years, attorney general for four years, lieutenant governor for four years, and governor for four years -- I had all these friends around the country -- so I thought I could gin up a campaign not for me but against George W. Bush, against his war, against his economic policies, and against his education policies.
There is no question in my mind that Rove played a key role in what happened to me. From the beginning, the investigation was started by Rove's client, the state attorney general Mark Pryor; then the prosecution was carried out by the wife of Rove's best friend and his former business partner. [They had previously worked as political consultants together in Alabama.] We have a live witness who claims that Bill Canary -- Rove's partner -- said Rove had taken my case to the Department of Justice. Now it's up to Congress -- and the House and the Senate judiciary committees -- to bring Rove before the House Judiciary Committee.
QUESTION: Actually, the House Judiciary Committee has already subpoenaed Rove to testify and he has refused to appear.
SIEGELMAN: That's why it's so important for the House and the Senate to hold Rove in contempt of Congress and exercise their inherent authority to enforce that subpoena by sending the Capital police to go get him and bring him in or by pursuing the thing through litigation. But one way or the other, it is critically important that the subpoena be upheld. Otherwise, it sends the message to all his accomplices that they are free to carry out their mischief in the future with impunity because nothing is going to happen to him.
QUESTION: Do you believe your case will be taken up by the Obama administration?
SIEGELMAN: There are lots of good fights, and I know that Obama is looking to end the war in Iraq, to provide health care to all Americans, to fix the economy, and to deal with global warning -- there are so many important issues that are out there -- but restoring people's faith and trust in the government, assuring people the Department of Justice will no longer be used as a political weapon in this country, is vital. We are not going to allow the torture of prisoners in Guantanamo, nor are we going to permit the torturing of witnesses until we get the correct testimony to put political enemies in jail in this country.
A lot of Americans are aware of the injustices that have been going on in the Bush administration. They need to know that the Obama administration is not going to tolerate these kinds of injustices. I am hopeful that the Obama administration will work with an interested House Judiciary Committee (and hopefully a Senate Judiciary Committee) in finding the truth.
QUESTION: Do you hold George W. Bush accountable for what happened to you?
SIEGELMAN: All I know if that for a long time Karl Rove held himself up as a co-president with George Bush. He bragged about being his drinking buddy, his kicking-around buddy in the White House. They shared good times together. He was Bush's "brain." He was the genius behind Bush. For a long time, I thought they were inseparable. They were as close as close can be. I don't know what Rove told President Bush. But we need to find out.
I've already spent nine months in prison and the guy who gave the money is still in jail for making a contribution so I could persuade the people of Alabama to vote for an education lottery so their children could go to college for free. We need to know how far my case goes up in the Bush administration.
QUESTION: Tell me about the charge of obstruction of justice for which you were convicted.
SIEGELMAN: The obstruction of justice charge is ludicrous. Honda Motor Company offered to give me a motorcycle. Now if I had taken it, they may have had a case -- Siegelman took a motorcycle, an unpaid gift -- but I said no to Honda and bought the motorcycle. The prosecution in my case ended up convicting me for accepting a campaign contribution to a lottery and paying for a free motorcycle.
QUESTION: What are your feelings about your appeal?
SIEGELMAN: I am not worried one way or the other. I hope and believe that the Eleventh Circuit will see through this and reverse and rescind, which means they'll acquit me of the charges. If not, it's another fight the Good Lord has put me into and there's a reason for it. There are enough people in America made aware of Rove's shenanigans in this case, we'd have a good fight on our hands.
QUESTION: Will you run for public office again?
SIEGELMAN: I don't think so. I'm at a point in my life where I'd like to help others. Everyone says, "Never say never," but at this point I do not see it in the cards.
Paul Alexander is the author of Machiavelli's Shadow: The Rise and Fall of Karl Rove and Man of the People: The Life of John McCain, among others. His journalism has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times, The Nation, New York, The Village Voice, Salon, George, The New York Observer, The Advocate, Men’s Journal, The Guardian, and Rolling Stone.
http://www.alternet.org/rights/115526/?page=entire
Now, in the waning days of the Bush administration, Siegelman is trying to win back his freedom -- not to mention his good name -- in a courtroom in Atlanta. Earlier this year, an appeals court granted his release after he had served nine months, saying the Governor's appeal had raised "substantial questions" about the case against him. Siegelman's cause was helped by a bipartisan group of 54 former state attorneys general from across the country who filed a federal appeals brief supporting his bid to overturn the conviction. Republican insiders have also come forward to say Siegelman was unfairly targeted by Rove and his circle.
Making it in prison depends on one's level of tolerance. I'm used to mopping in my wife's kitchen. It was just a bigger floor.
Siegelman's appeal was heard earlier this month and the verdict will determine whether he returns to prison to finish out his sentence, or goes free.
How did a former governor -- and a rising star in the Democratic Party -- end up in a situation like this?
On June 29, 2006, Siegelman and Richard Scrushy, the CEO of HealthSouth, a chain of medical rehabilitation services with facilities both in the United States and abroad, were found guilty by a jury in Montgomery, Alabama, of federal bribery charges. A year later, Judge Mark Fuller, who had clear conflicts of interest in the case -- a company in which he holds a major stake received a $175 million government contract at one point during the legal proceedings -- sentenced Scrushy to almost seven years in prison. Siegelman got 88 months.
There was one central transaction that sent these men to prison for all this time. Not long after Siegelman had been elected governor in 1998, he convinced Scrushy to contribute $500,000 to a political action committee, which was supporting the establishment of a lottery in Alabama to pay for higher education. At the same time, he talked Scrushy into serving on a state hospital regulatory board on which he had already served three times -- appointed by both Democrats and Republicans -- and from which he had recently resigned. To US attorney Leura Canary, the wife of William "Bill" Canary, the close friend and former business associate of Karl Rove, the act constituted bribery, for which she charged the two men. Among the many other charges, dismissed by the jury, this was the one that stuck.
QUESTION: First, was the act for which you and Richard Scrushy convicted actually a crime?
SIEGELMAN: Fifty-four state attorneys general filed a friend of the court brief stating that it has never been a crime in America for a politician or a public official to appoint a contributor to anything, whether it's ambassador or cabinet member or a member of a board or an agency. The only thing that is a crime is if you swap a position for money. And there has got to be an express agreement that's provable. Otherwise, the United States Supreme Court says it's an infringement on a person's first amendment right to freely associate and make contributions.
QUESTION: The case with you and Scrushy seems especially weak.
SIEGELMAN: Scrushy had just recently resigned from the board and the person I had defeated, Job James, had appointed one of Scrushy's vice presidents to the position. When I got elected I called Scrushy and said, "I want you to serve in my administration like you did in three previous administration." And he said, "Oh, Governor, do I have to? I just resigned from that board. Can't I get you the name of somebody?" I said, "Nope, it's either you or nobody." So he went onto the board reluctantly. And this poor guy is still in prison today.
QUESTION: Many observers believe he is because he would not cooperate with the prosecution to convict you.
SIEGELMAN: In an effort to get me, the prosecution went to Scrushy before they indicted him and said, "Just tell us Siegelman extorted the money; just tell us he twisted your arm." He said, "I can't do that because that's not what happened." They went to him after he was indicted and said, "Okay, we will give you another chance. Tell us Siegelman twisted your arm and tried to extort money." He said, "I can't say that because that's not what happened." During the trial, he was sitting at the defense table, and they came and got him again and gave him a third chance to throw me under the bus by lying for the prosecution and he wouldn't do it. This is not the way the justice system in this country is supposed to work.
QUESTION: Describe what happened to you after you were sentenced.
SIEGELMAN: Scrushy and I were taken from the courtroom less than thirty seconds after the gavel came down in handcuffs, shackles, and chains around our waist and ankles. We were put in the back of a police car and driven to Atlanta where we were taken to a maximum-security prison and put in solitary confinement. Then they moved me around the country from prison to prison until I ended up in the swamps of Louisiana.
QUESTION: What was prison like?
SIEGELMAN: You can just imagine. But making it in prison depends on one's level of tolerance. I'm used to mopping and sweeping floors in my wife's kitchen. It was just a bigger floor and I had to mop it every day.
Seriously, all my life I've worked to try to correct and perfect our system of government to make it more fair, and here I was in the middle of something that wasn't fair. If God had a purpose in this, it was for me to see how the system is flawed so I can do something about it. There are some things I'd like to see corrected -- flaws in the system that can result in innocent people going to prison. When I get out of this situation for good, I'll be back before the Judiciary Committee advocating changes.
QUESTION: You have claimed Karl Rove was a driving force behind your prosecution.
SIEGELMAN: We know from documentary evidence and from testimony that Rove was involved in the firing of the US attorneys [at the start of Bush's second term] and he's been identified at the scene of the crime in my case. We know that others worked with Rove to carry out his conspiracies to subvert our system of justice and to abuse the power of his office and to misuse the power of the Department of Justice for political purposes.
QUESTION: Some people believe Rove wanted your political career damaged because of your standing in the Democratic Party.
SIEGELMAN: I had endorsed Al Gore in 2000 -- the first governor to do so -- and it wasn't long after that that they started the investigation. I had made plans after my 2002 re-election -- which I ultimately lost because of the bad press generated by these investigations -- to hit the primary states. I had been secretary of state for eight years, attorney general for four years, lieutenant governor for four years, and governor for four years -- I had all these friends around the country -- so I thought I could gin up a campaign not for me but against George W. Bush, against his war, against his economic policies, and against his education policies.
There is no question in my mind that Rove played a key role in what happened to me. From the beginning, the investigation was started by Rove's client, the state attorney general Mark Pryor; then the prosecution was carried out by the wife of Rove's best friend and his former business partner. [They had previously worked as political consultants together in Alabama.] We have a live witness who claims that Bill Canary -- Rove's partner -- said Rove had taken my case to the Department of Justice. Now it's up to Congress -- and the House and the Senate judiciary committees -- to bring Rove before the House Judiciary Committee.
QUESTION: Actually, the House Judiciary Committee has already subpoenaed Rove to testify and he has refused to appear.
SIEGELMAN: That's why it's so important for the House and the Senate to hold Rove in contempt of Congress and exercise their inherent authority to enforce that subpoena by sending the Capital police to go get him and bring him in or by pursuing the thing through litigation. But one way or the other, it is critically important that the subpoena be upheld. Otherwise, it sends the message to all his accomplices that they are free to carry out their mischief in the future with impunity because nothing is going to happen to him.
QUESTION: Do you believe your case will be taken up by the Obama administration?
SIEGELMAN: There are lots of good fights, and I know that Obama is looking to end the war in Iraq, to provide health care to all Americans, to fix the economy, and to deal with global warning -- there are so many important issues that are out there -- but restoring people's faith and trust in the government, assuring people the Department of Justice will no longer be used as a political weapon in this country, is vital. We are not going to allow the torture of prisoners in Guantanamo, nor are we going to permit the torturing of witnesses until we get the correct testimony to put political enemies in jail in this country.
A lot of Americans are aware of the injustices that have been going on in the Bush administration. They need to know that the Obama administration is not going to tolerate these kinds of injustices. I am hopeful that the Obama administration will work with an interested House Judiciary Committee (and hopefully a Senate Judiciary Committee) in finding the truth.
QUESTION: Do you hold George W. Bush accountable for what happened to you?
SIEGELMAN: All I know if that for a long time Karl Rove held himself up as a co-president with George Bush. He bragged about being his drinking buddy, his kicking-around buddy in the White House. They shared good times together. He was Bush's "brain." He was the genius behind Bush. For a long time, I thought they were inseparable. They were as close as close can be. I don't know what Rove told President Bush. But we need to find out.
I've already spent nine months in prison and the guy who gave the money is still in jail for making a contribution so I could persuade the people of Alabama to vote for an education lottery so their children could go to college for free. We need to know how far my case goes up in the Bush administration.
QUESTION: Tell me about the charge of obstruction of justice for which you were convicted.
SIEGELMAN: The obstruction of justice charge is ludicrous. Honda Motor Company offered to give me a motorcycle. Now if I had taken it, they may have had a case -- Siegelman took a motorcycle, an unpaid gift -- but I said no to Honda and bought the motorcycle. The prosecution in my case ended up convicting me for accepting a campaign contribution to a lottery and paying for a free motorcycle.
QUESTION: What are your feelings about your appeal?
SIEGELMAN: I am not worried one way or the other. I hope and believe that the Eleventh Circuit will see through this and reverse and rescind, which means they'll acquit me of the charges. If not, it's another fight the Good Lord has put me into and there's a reason for it. There are enough people in America made aware of Rove's shenanigans in this case, we'd have a good fight on our hands.
QUESTION: Will you run for public office again?
SIEGELMAN: I don't think so. I'm at a point in my life where I'd like to help others. Everyone says, "Never say never," but at this point I do not see it in the cards.
Paul Alexander is the author of Machiavelli's Shadow: The Rise and Fall of Karl Rove and Man of the People: The Life of John McCain, among others. His journalism has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times, The Nation, New York, The Village Voice, Salon, George, The New York Observer, The Advocate, Men’s Journal, The Guardian, and Rolling Stone.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Get yr US Border Patrol Cap!!!
http://shop.newsmax.com/shop/index.cfm?page=products&productid=1&s=al&promo_code=7188-1
I can't copy this page because of a code in the page that crashes my browser.
I can't copy this page because of a code in the page that crashes my browser.
Gulf War Illness Confirmed
Ok, now which wing of the political party do you suppose was behind the suppression of Gulf War Illness? Is this what the Republicans call supporting the troops? If I were a troop, I would probably not vote for Republicans, knowing that if I got sick because I served, that they would not take care of me. -O.L.
Thomas D. Williams
Panel: Gulf War Illness Confirmed
http://www.truthout.org/111808A
Thomas D. Williams, Truthout: "A federal health panel released conclusions Monday that evidence strongly and consistently indicates hundreds of thousands of US troops in the first Gulf War contracted long-term illnesses from use of pills, given by their own military to protect them from effects of chemical weaponized nerve agents, and from their military's pesticide use during deployment."
Thomas D. Williams
Panel: Gulf War Illness Confirmed
http://www.truthout.org/111808A
Thomas D. Williams, Truthout: "A federal health panel released conclusions Monday that evidence strongly and consistently indicates hundreds of thousands of US troops in the first Gulf War contracted long-term illnesses from use of pills, given by their own military to protect them from effects of chemical weaponized nerve agents, and from their military's pesticide use during deployment."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
