Patterico's Pontifications

8/23/2007

Nicole Richie released from jail in 82 minutes

Filed under: Current Events,General,Law — DRJ @ 7:36 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Uncharacteristically, I don’t have a problem with this. Maybe it’s because she’s pregnant, but I think it’s because I’ve become desensitized to special treatment for celebrities.

Still, I can’t imagine this happening where I live. Of course, my town doesn’t have many celebrities, either.

UPDATE: I’ve changed my mind. Our nation is founded on freedom which includes the concept of equality under the law. Equality means equal rights and equal accountability. When LA County dispenses a different kind of justice for celebrities than for everyday people, it undermines freedom and equality.

How One Person Managed To Thwart And Delay The Death Penalty For Years In California Through Her Lies And Perjury

Filed under: Crime,Scum — Justin Levine @ 4:19 pm



[posted by Justin Levine] 

Details here.

And while I have no reason to think that Ken Starr was directly involved in this, I refuse to believe he is completely innocent either. I suspect he had an “ostrich head in the sand”-style reckless indifference to truth because he wanted to believe what his own investigator was telling him.

Ken Starr employs someone who is essentially a perjurer who has no respect for the rule of law in order to save his client – how is that for ironic?

Another Novak Anecdote — The Man Who Gave Us Nixon

Filed under: Politics — WLS @ 3:00 pm



[Posted by WLS] 

Novak tells the story of a man by the name of Theordore White (?), who had organized a grass-roots nationwide campaign of young committed conservatives in advance of Goldwater’s run in 1964.    White’s group had done a lot of organizational work in early primary states that came to fruition when Rockefeller’s campaign fell apart following his sudden divorce and remarriage.

But, after Goldwater had secured the nomination, he marginalized White and his group during the general election campaign, installing into his top campaign slots many members of his “Arizona Mafia” who lacked any experience running a national campaign.  White grew disillusioned with the campaign as it unfolded, and withdrew from national politics.

 But, early in 1968, Novak made contact with White again, and White described for him the playbook he had scripted for securing the 1968 GOP nomination for  —- Ronald Reagan.

(more…)

Free Legal Research

Filed under: Law — Justin Levine @ 12:27 pm



 [posted by Justin Levine]

I have been experimenting with the free legal search site Altlaw.org and have found it to be most excellent. [hat-tip: Boing-boing]  I find the search results to be much faster and more useful than other free legal search sites.

Biggest drawback: So far, it seems limited to U.S. Supreme Court and Federal Appeals Court cases. If it manages to add Legislative codes and state court cases, this will likely become THE site for attorneys (and anyone else interested in law). There is really no reason to pay Lexis or Westlaw anything if you don’t have to.

Captain Ed skewers Bill Clinton

Filed under: General — DRJ @ 9:15 am



[Guest post by DRJ]

From Captain Ed: Did Clinton Lie About Targeting Bin Laden?

Quote:

“It appears that Bill Clinton may have exaggerated his record when it came to strategizing against Osama bin Laden. Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball take a look at the Inspector General’s report of the pre-9/11 intelligence failures at the CIA and find an interesting nugget. Despite Clinton’s angry assertion to Chris Wallace in last year’s controversial Fox interview, he never gave the CIA an assassination order regarding bin Laden (h/t: CQ reader Mark):”

“The report also criticized intelligence problems when Bill Clinton was president, detailing political and legal “constraints” agency officials felt in the late 1990s. In September 2006, during a famous encounter with Fox News anchor Wallace, Clinton erupted in anger and waived his finger when asked about whether his administration had done enough to get bin Laden. “What did I do? What did I do?” Clinton said at one point. “I worked hard to try to kill him. I authorized a finding for the CIA to kill him. We contracted with people to kill him. I got closer to killing him than anybody has gotten since.”

Clinton appeared to have been referring to a December 1999 Memorandum of Notification (MON) he signed that authorized the CIA to use lethal force to capture, not kill, bin Laden. But the inspector general’s report made it clear that the agency never viewed the order as a license to “kill” bin Laden—one reason it never mounted more effective operations against him.”

Captain Ed concludes:

“One has to sympathize with CIA officials who had read the classified report in 2005, but were unable to respond to his exaggeration in 2006. He once gave the same kind of finger-waggling tirade to the nation, which turned out as false as his Wallace interview. It’s a sad reflection on a man who somehow cannot bring himself to tell the truth, even when his nation needs it.”

I agree with Ed.

Pat Schroeder: Conservatives don’t read

Filed under: Books,General,Politics — DRJ @ 8:51 am



[Guest post by DRJ]

Former Colorado Senator Representative Pat Schroeder thinks conservatives don’t read books or, if they do, they will only read books that say “No new taxes” on every page:

(more…)


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