Illinois Governor Arrested for Being a Politician

09 Dec

Filed Under Barack Obama, Rod Blagojevich | Leave a Comment

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, indicted on conspiracy and bribery charges, is revealed to be going nothing more than seeking to exchange political favors for political favors in the 78 page federal indictment displayed below.

While Blagojevich’s private deliberations were caught on tape by FBI wiretaps and bugs, none of the evidence revealed in the complaint proves money was paid to the governor or his campaign fund prior to his taking an official action. Nothing in the publicly disclosed “evidence” amounts to any more than the bluster of a cocky politician engaged in Nixonian ramblings with his personal staff. Perhaps that is why U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald pleaded with parties to come forward who have actual evidence of criminal bribery. Before such evidence is presented, can we say at this point what the FBI heard on its recordings– as transcribed in the indictment– is any different than what one would hear were they do bug every state governor’s office.

“The decision [about Senator Obama’s replacement], like every other one, needs to be based upon….. Our legal situation, our personal situation, my political situation…. Legal. Personal. Political.”

“[The decision will be made] in good faith… but it is not coming for free… It’s gotta be good stuff for the people of Illinois and good for me.”

How much different are the deliberations in New York Governor David Patterson’s office as he deliberates how to appease the powerful Kennedy, Clinton, and Cuomo political families as he picks a successor to Senator Hilary Clinton?

Where does tit-for-tat politics end and bribery begin? Was the Justice Department within it’s rights to do what the voters and legislators of the state of Illinois could have done themselves? Is impeachment not the more lawful way to remove a sitting governor for what may amount to no more than political crimes?

Barack Obama is Most Like Which Former US President?

08 Dec

Filed Under Barack Obama | 1 Comment

(A) Bill Clinton: Wife and staff have been nominated to key posts in new administration.

(B) John F. Kennedy: Youthful, articulate Senator representing generational change.

(C) Abraham Lincoln: Staffed cabinet with “Team of Rivals”.

(D) Chester Arthur: Other than those born before the establishment of the United States of America, only US president who was born a British citizen.

(E) Jimmy Carter: First president born in a hospital.

Answer: All but E. Barack Obama has refused to directly disclose the specific location of his birthplace or release a copy of his long form Birth Certificatae (though his campaign has released an abstract summary lacking such detail). Further, all present day medical centers in the city of Honolulu have been unable to confirm that Mr. Obama was born at their institutions.

Like Chester Arthur, Obama’s father was a British citizen at the time his American wife gave birth (Barack Obama, Sr. was a citizen of Kenya, then under British rule). Many legal scholars believe this fact complicates Obama’s eligibility to serve as President of the United States given the US Constitution’s Article II, Section I requirement that he be a “natural born citizen”, which is generally regarded as one born of two citizen parents and within the jurisdiction of the United States. More on the natural born citizen controversy here.

All those Vice Presedential Debates, but No Sign of John Edwards

14 Oct

Filed Under Political Justice, John Edwards | Leave a Comment

John Edwards No one has mentioned the name John Edwards since his marriage scandal killed his political career. Even as the National Enquirer continues to pursue stories about his alleged love child and disqualify his half-hearted mea-culpa maneuvers, I can’t understand how such a once-respected politician, the last of the so-called “good guys,” could disrespect his ailing wife and family and throw away his life and career to pursue an extra-curricular love life. Didn’t he learn anything from Bill Clinton, Elliot Spitzer and all the others? As far as I am concerned a fellow this dumb would never have made it as president.

But the Edwards story isn’t over yet. The tabloids seem determined to keep trying to bust open the whole truth about this politician’s cover-up. It’s worse than the others in some ways. First, he used his children and his wife’s illness as campaign props. Remember him proudly stating his wife urged him to run and pursue his dreams despite her cancer battle? Remember on the campaign trail all the family posed photographs straight out of a Hallmark card? Add that to his run-around media interview where he just didn’t seem sorry enough. He just doesn’t get it. If he was going to come clean he needed to do it fully, not with half- statements and half-truths. I don’t want to hear his gratuitous proclamations that he is willing to take a paternity test when his mistress has gone off into hiding and won’t even offer the child’s DNA sample to “clear the air.” Wouldn’t the first thing a mistress would want is to clear her and her child’s name from continued (and often vicious) media scrutiny? Now consider the additional circumstances of having one Edwards’ crony paying her thousands a month in living expenses and another who is married with children oddly claiming that he is the father. To me, it smacks of a diabolical cover-up.

Edwards’ explanation that he made this error because he became a narcissist is absurd. The very definition of a narcissist is someone whose sense of self is so distorted they don’t even recognize they are narcissistic. And then let’s remember his proclamation that he “doesn’t love” his mistress, and of course the most bruising admission of all—that his wife’s cancer was in remission when he cheated. The more excuses he made the worse he became. Now he is a has-been. All the work and grooming done to cultivate an image of a hometown, choir boy, folksy, soft-spoken, elegant family man and noble politician is erased. The real John Edwards stood up and he is just too textbook-prepared and overly scripted to ever appear credible again.

Stacy Schneider is the author of He Had It Coming: How to Outsmart Your Husband and Win Your Divorce.

Florida Congressman can’t Keep it in their Pants

14 Oct

Filed Under Political Justice, Tim Mahoney | Leave a Comment

Tim Mahoney But at least this one can keep it off an electronic record.

Florida Democrat Congressman Tim Mahoney, who replaced Republican Mark Foley after lurid Internet messages he sent to male teenage pages were revealed, appears to have paid $121,000 and gave a two year campaign job to a former mistress who worked on his staff and was threatening to sue him. Listen as Patricia Allen attempts to have him admit the affair on a record telephone call.

Justice Cowed: How “obscene” were the videos Kozinski’s recused himself from the case over?

13 Jun

Filed Under Judge Alex Kozinski | Leave a Comment

Kozinski cow girl With a one sentence explanation, one of the most respected judicial authorities on the First Amendment, Judge Alex Kozinski, removed himself from what will likely become a landmark obscenity case.

“In light of the public controversy surrounding my involvement in this case, I have concluded that there is a manifest necessity to declare a mistrial. I recuse myself from further participation in the case and will ask the chief judge of the district court to reassign it to another judge.”

Did Judge Kozinski need to be cowed into this decision? How necessary was this recusal? Our opinion, as previously described, is that the judge’s awareness of run-of-the-mill “viral humor” made him more likely to be an impartial magistrate than a judge too cloistered to have a practical sense of “contemporary community standards” even if the public perception of the whole website controversy might tend towards irrational umbrage.

How similar are the images discovered on the Kozinski family computer and images at issue in USA vs. Ira Isaacs?� Judge for yourself.� USLaw.com has compiled several still images form the videos contained in the Isaacs indictment.� (WARNING: Extremely graphic.)

We happen to agree with former Kozinski clerk, law professor and prolific legal blogger Eugene Volokh that the humor on the judge’s server are not remotely in the same league as Isaac’s art. We are therefore uncertain of the ‘manifest necessity’ existed on behalf of the parties at trial or on behalf of the judge at the bench.

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND:

Interviews with the artist, Ira Isaacs: AVN, Radar.

The USA vs Ira Isaacs dba “STOLEN CAR FILMS” dba “LaMedia” indictment.

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