Report: Nagin dismissed in crime-camera lawsuit (click here)
05:49 PM CDT on Monday, August 24, 2009
WWLTV.com
NEW ORLEANS – Mayor Ray Nagin has been dismissed personally from a crime-camera lawsuit, according to published reports.
The Times-Picayune reports the mayor was dismissed from the civil suit brought by two crime-camera firms that allege their technology was stolen in a conspiracy by the city, Nagin's fomer technology chief and Dell Inc.
Nagin remains in the lawsuit in his official capacity as mayor.
Mayor Ray Nagin Hails New Orleans Recovery (click here)
Tue, 08/25/2009 - 19:50
By: Floyd O. Wilson
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
US News
Four years ago this week, the City of New Orleans was deep under the waters splashed ashore by a raging Hurricane Katrina. By the time the storm cleared, hundreds of men, women, children and their pets were dead. A formerly vibrant city on the Gulf Coast was left in ruins, depopulated by almost a third of its homeless citizens and property damage running at more than $100 billion.
But the damage didn't stop there. A White House that until then had seemed invincible was left reeling and humbled from the exposure of its utter incompetence to a shocked nation, whose reputation for efficiency and compassion was by now in tatters. What's more, the recovery efforts was not only disjointed, but also was thoroughly corrupt.
A lone voice that at least temporarily could be heard on radio by a grieving city that of Ray Nagin, the affable mayor who, though bearing a portion of the blame, was justly deemed the only public official still in touch with his suffering people and at least understood exactly the magnitude of tragedy that had befallen his beloved city....
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
ALABAMA EXPOSURE: Don Siegelman wants Karl Rove to Testify (click here)
www.tuscaloosanews.com
August 23, 2009
For several years, former Gov. Don Siegelman has been demanding that Karl Rove, adviser to former President George W. Bush, testify to Congress about his alleged actions in Siegelman’s federal criminal case.
Siegelman was convicted of bribery charges in federal court in 2006. Last month, Rove was interviewed over two days by U.S. House Judiciary Committee lawyers under an “agreement of accommodation.”
Here’s the relevant Siegelman question and response, according to the unofficial transcript on the committee’s Web site:
“In fact, you did have an interest in the Siegelman case, didn’t you?” asked Elliot Mincberg, majority chief counsel of investigations and oversight.
Rove said, “I had a lot more pressing things on my platter than the [2006] Alabama governor’s race, and, as a result, a lot more significant things to worry about than the Don Siegelman case.”
House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., in a press release about Rove’s interview, focused on Rove’s alleged involvement in the alleged illegal firing of certain U.S. attorneys during Bush’s term....
DIDN'T BELIEVE ME ABOUT MURDOCK AND HIS LYING NEWS EMPIRE ?
Rupert Murdoch’s WSJ Nailed on Karl Rove’s Lies (click here)
...The reason I want to thank you is that Mr. Rove has clearly lied about me in this article. You have captured and printed it without even checking to see if it is so or not. The lie he has told is and I quote, “Judiciary Democrats didn’t get testimony from either Mr. Siegelman or Dana Jill Simpson, the eccentric Alabama lawyer, who drew attention by publicly supporting the allegations.” In case you are unaware, I testified on September 14, 2007, before the House Judiciary Committee lawyers that were selected to question me. I most definitely gave sworn testimony to the House Judiciary Democrats. In fact, I gave over 143 pages of testimony before the Judiciary Democratic and Republican lawyers. It is unfortunate that your paper does not give a rip about the truth or you would have checked out the bold-faced lie that Karl Rove put in his article before you printed it....
NewsCorp’s Wall Street Journal Busted For Printing Lies (click here)
Thanking Murdoch’s Journal for More of Rove’s Lies
08/24/2009 by Gabriel Voiles
OpEd News has published an open letter from attorney Dana Jill Simpson (8/20/09) to “Mr. Murdoch and all the editors at the Wall Street Journal,” in which she expresses her wish to “thank you from the very bottom of my heart for running Karl Rove’s delusional article, ‘Closing In on Rove,’ on August 20, 2009″:
Thanking Murdoch’s Journal for More of Rove’s Lies
OpEd News has published an open letter from attorney Dana Jill Simpson (8/20/09) to “Mr. Murdoch and all the editors at the Wall Street Journal,” in which she expresses her wish to “thank you from the very bottom of my heart for running Karl Rove’s delusional article, ‘Closing In on Rove,’ on August 20, 2009″:
The reason I want to thank you is that Mr. Rove has clearly lied about me in this article. You have captured and printed it without even checking to see if it is so or not. The lie he has told is and I quote, “Judiciary Democrats didn’t get testimony from either Mr. Siegelman or Dana Jill Simpson, the eccentric Alabama lawyer, who drew attention by publicly supporting the allegations.” In case you are unaware, I testified on September 14, 2007, before the House Judiciary Committee lawyers that were selected to question me. I most definitely gave sworn testimony to the House Judiciary Democrats. In fact, I gave over 143 pages of testimony before the Judiciary Democratic and Republican lawyers. It is unfortunate that your paper does not give a rip about the truth or you would have checked out the bold-faced lie that Karl Rove put in his article before you printed it.
August 25, 2009
NJ Gov: GOP Poll Shows Race Tightening (click here)
Amid sustained attacks from Democrats over ties to Karl Rove and a personal loan to a former colleague, Chris Christie's lead appears to be shrinking. A poll conducted by Rick Shaftan, a consultant to Christie's former primary opponent, shows that Gov. Jon Corzine has pulled to within just two points....
August 25, 2009 7:23 pm ET
Continuing Fox News' pattern of falsely suggesting that the Obama administration is pressuring veterans to end their lives prematurely, Karl Rove claimed that the Veterans Health Administration is directing veterans to an end-of-life educational booklet, "Your Life, Your Choices," that includes contact information for "a group that believes in assisted suicide," and thus "the kind of guidance we're giving returning veterans" is "you ought to go to an assisted suicide group." In fact, that group is not referenced in the current version of the document, a fact that Jim Towey -- who originated the smear of the booklet as a "death book" -- acknowledged in interview on Fox News Sunday....
Aide indicted, widens Abramoff scandal (click here)
Former official accused of accepting thousands in gifts
By Ben Conery (Contact) Saturday, August 22, 2009
A former congressional aide who also worked at the Labor Department and the government's broadcasting service has become the latest public official to be ensnared in a corruption scandal surrounding disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Horace M. Cooper, 44, was accused Friday of taking thousands of dollars in gifts from Abramoff between 1998 and 2005.
Authorities say Mr. Cooper first began receiving gifts while working for former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, Texas Republican. He is accused of continuing to accept gifts while working as chief of staff for the Voice of America broadcasting service and as chief of staff for the Employment Standards Administration of the Labor Department....
Kevin Spacey's Abramoff is tight with Bush & Cheney in 'Casino Jack' (click here)
Sunday, August 16th 2009, 4:00 AM
Filming just wrapped on "Casino Jack," in which Kevin Spacey plays jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Having gotten a peek at Norman Snider's deft script, we can tell you that some of its real-life characters have cause for concern.
The screenplay paints George W. Bush and Karl Rove as much chummier with Abramoff than they've acknowledged. ("How you doing there, buff guy?" Bush asks the black-hatted con artist in one Oval Office scene.)...
Everyone is trying to 'sell' the idea that the younger voters that came out in droves for Obama have disappeared from the radar on Health Care Reform. "W"rong. They are there, but, they aren't unhappy about it, only that the man they elected into the Presidency is letting the Republicans 'get away' with lies, DESTROYING any friendly bipartisan for the sake of the country and fear mongering !
August 25, 2009
Boiling health-care pot (click here)
Posted by Michael Carper
So this is where bipartisanship gets you. Barack Obama gave Republican leadership the entire summer to voice opinions regarding health care. Instead of publicly supporting a plan and fostering thoughtful public discourse, the moderate Senate Republicans let their radical colleagues in the House and their equally frenzied allies on the airwaves dictate the Republican response.
Which leads us to where we are today: A bunch of angry boomers afraid of a non-existent health-care plan. Or, depending on when they tune into Fox News, "ObamaCare," "socialism," or "a government takeover."
Because President Obama let the health-care pot boil for three months without taking leadership by sharply defining the bills specifics, conservative commentators are bursting their kettle, screaming about select portions which may or may not be in the text of HR 3200 or whichever bill they feel deserves hyperbole. If no text exists, pundits like Karl Rove exaggerate about the British NHS or the Veteran's Affairs hospitals. They generally avoid Medicare, lest their readers remember where those checks are coming from. This active opposition, grassroots or not, is overwhelming the 77 percent of Americans that support the idea of a public option. Barack Obama can defend this idea. Let him.
George Walker Bush couldn't declare eminent domaine over the land for his library, so he thought he'd just use intimidation.
Deal between SMU, ex-condo owners to end land fight falls apart (click here)
12:00 AM CDT on Tuesday, August 25, 2009
By LORI STAHL / The Dallas Morning News lstahl@dallasnews.com
A deal that was supposed to end a long-running lawsuit against SMU – and smooth the path for George W. Bush's presidential library – has fallen apart amid charges that both sides broke the terms of a confidential agreement.
Last month, Southern Methodist University and two former condominium owners announced that they had settled the bitter four-year fight over who is the rightful owner of land now slated for the grounds of the Bush library.
The lawyers hailed the deal on the basis of an e-mail that contained four bullet points, according to filings in the case and interviews with attorneys on both sides. But now, what those bullet points said – or did not say – is in dispute, with both sides pointing fingers.
The terms of the agreement were kept confidential, but lawyers said the former condominium owners would be paid in exchange for dropping their claims to the disputed land....
According to Thomas and Scalia there is nothing in the Constitution that says a black man can't be killed even though he is innocent.
Editorial
Innocent and in jail (click here)
The Supreme Court has at last made a ruling that may help free the wrongfully convicted.
...Last week, they ordered a federal court in Georgia to reconsider the case of death row inmate Troy Anthony Davis, convicted of murdering an off-duty police officer 18 years ago. Since then, seven prosecution witnesses have recanted their testimony, and dignitaries including former President Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Pope Benedict XVI have pleaded for clemency, with the pope's representative providing Georgia officials with a detailed critique of the evidence used to convict Davis....
...In dissenting from the order, Justice Antonin Scalia (joined by Justice Clarence Thomas) complained that the court "has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is 'actually' innocent."...
Tom DeLay, the hammer, is a Birther !
Tom DeLay Joined the Ranks of the Birthers (click here)
...DeLay did not avoid the question. On the contrary, he seemed to place himself firmly in the birther camp. "I would like the president to produce his birth certificate," he said. "I can. I can, most illegal aliens here in America can. Why can't the president of the United States produce a birth certificate?"
DeLay even went so far as to ask for Matthews' help in securing the document. "Chris, will you do me a favor?" he asked. "Will you ask the president to show me... his birth certificate." Matthews declined, and pointed out that there was a newspaper announcement of the president's birth in 1961. DeLay questioned that as well: "Is a newspaper article an official document?"...
....Then we got a look at a May 1996 article from the Houston Chronicle about a series of protests by the disabilities advocacy group ADAPT, brought to our attention by Democratic consultant Peter Lindstrom.
It begins like this:
"Groups of protesters, most of them in wheelchairs, barricaded two local political offices Tuesday to demand changes in the way disabled people receive care in America. ... A second group of about 150 ADAPT supporters blockaded and occupied U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay's office in Sugar Land [Texas], until DeLay agreed to meet with them. "
And continues:
"Tuesday's protesters narrowly escaped arrest by Stafford police when DeLay, who is in Washington, D.C., agreed to meet with them next month."
Huh. And here, again, is what DeLay told Chris Matthews:
"When I did my town hall meetings, I'll never forget one back in the '80s -- on health care, by the way. They brought in quadriplegics on gurneys and dumped them on the floor in front of my podium."
Time tinges everyone's memories; but this seems like a bit of a stretch.
Is it possible that DeLay is thinking of the ADAPT episode -- and just replacing 90s with 80s, district office with health care town hall, protesters in wheelchairs with quadriplegics dumped from gurneys, and not-having-been-there-at-all with seeing it unfold in front of his podium?
Perhaps DeLay's story would have a little more credibility if he could simply produce its birth certificate.
Late Update: Two reporters who've covered DeLay extensively over the years say the quadriplegic story is new to them.
'Dancing With the Stars' pairings announced (click here)
- Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and two-time champ Cheryl Burke (hey, it had to be someone, didn't it?)...
The Cheney Observer continued below...
