Patterico's Pontifications

8/9/2008

Andrew Young’s Criminal Record

Filed under: General — Justin Levine @ 11:39 pm



[posted by Justin Levine]

Lee Stranahan does a bang-up job in researching the John Edwards scandal:

Andrew Aldridge Young is the former Edwards campaign worker and assistant who has claimed to be the father of John Edward’s mistress Rielle Hunter’s baby. Young has a wife and three children. Dallas attorney and John Edwards supporter Fred Baron recently confirmed that he financed Young, his family, and Hunter’s move to Santa Barbara, claiming to have financed the move and living expenses without the knowledge of Edwards. Young’s name does not appear on the Hunter baby’s birth certificate, which has kept open questions about whether Young is actually the father.

Now public records searches reveal a history of criminal charges and convictions that paint a potentially different picture of Young than that of a typical campaign worker. The records, published on the website WebOfDeception.com, appear to list over twenty different criminal offenses and a tax lien.

– Justin Levine

Who’s Under Obama’s Bus?

Filed under: 2008 Election — DRJ @ 9:33 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Barack Obama has been associated with people of questionable backgrounds and beliefs like Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Williams Ayers, and Tony Rezko but he’s been willing to distance himself from inconvenient allies or supporters when it’s expedient to do so.

Obama’s actions have been described as “throwing [someone] under the bus.” I think NRO’s Rich Lowry was the first to use “under the bus” in connection with Obama, and the first recognized victim was Obama’s white grandmother as Scott Johnson explained in this Powerline post.

I want to assemble in one post the names, relationships and circumstances for people Obama or his campaign have “thrown under the bus.” Your help will be appreciated. Explanations and links are especially welcome.

— DRJ

UPDATE BY PATTERICO: I have restored Scott Johnson’s true last name. Thanks to Linda Seebach.

Thank you and my apologies to Mr. Johnson. — DRJ

Kirsten Powers: “John Edwards Was Always a Fake”

Filed under: 2008 Election,Media Bias,Politics,Terrorism — DRJ @ 6:45 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Kirsten Powers is a Democratic consultant who appears on Fox News. She strikes me as a strong advocate for her Party but she has been criticized by some on the left as a vapid, shallow, serial idiot and (apparently) a stupid, annoying Bush sycophant.

I think Powers “earned” that criticism because she occasionally agrees with conservatives. If so, Powers’ column in today’s New York Post entitled “John Edwards: He Was Always a Fake” may earn her more criticism from the left. That would be a shame because, in the long run, I think her view is the best one for Democrats and the Democratic Party.

Powers can take comfort that Huffington Post blogger Lee Stranahan is unhappy with both John and Elizabeth Edwards:

“I’m sure I’ll get some angry comments here but if you’re an Edwards supporter, let me put this bluntly; if you gave John and Elizabeth Edwards time, money, support, or goodwill, they played you.

They made a conscious decision to make their relationship a focus throughout the campaign. That emotional goodwill you feel for them? They not only let you feel, they took actions and made statements specifically so you would feel it.

Then when the rumors first surfaced, they made the worst decision of all; they decided to lie about it and to keep lying about it for months. They lied in a way that made the people who were telling the truth look like the real liars. They lied in a way that turned their supporters into attack dogs. They only started to tell the truth when John Edwards was caught at the Beverly Hills Hilton and even now both John and Elizabeth Edward are calling the people who caught him the liars. That’s the definition of shameless.”

Both Powers and Stranahan see Edwards as the “victim” of his own ego and ambition. That’s something every politician understands.

— DRJ

The Woman Who Is 99% Certain To Be The Mother Of John Edwards’ Love Child Refuses To Participate In A Paternity Test

Filed under: Buffoons,General,Media Bias — Justin Levine @ 4:47 pm



[posted by Justin Levine]

Well isn’t this special….

Rielle Hunter, the former presidential campaign aide who had an affair with John Edwards, said yesterday that she will not pursue DNA testing to establish the paternity of her 5-month-old daughter, despite the former senator’s offer to participate in such a test.

In a statement provided to The Washington Post, Hunter said through her attorney that she would not take a genetic test “now or in the future.”

The attorney, Robert Gordon, called Hunter a “private” person who is “not running for public office” and would not comment further on the media frenzy engulfing her.

“She wishes to maintain her privacy and her daughter’s privacy,” he said in the statement. “Furthermore, Rielle will not participate in DNA testing or any other invasion of her or her daughter’s privacy now or in the future.”

Now let’s remember what Edwards said: “I am and have been willing to take any test necessary to establish the fact that I am not the father of any baby, and I am truly hopeful that a test will be done so this fact can be definitively established.”

And let’s re-examine what he told ABC News before Hunter’s latest announcement: “I would welcome participating in a paternity test. I’m only one side of the test, but I’m happy to participate in one.”

Let’s look at the phrase again:  “I’m only one side of the test, but I’m happy to participate in one.”

That is a curious fact to point out if you are trying to come clean to the press. “I’m only one side” of a paternity test. You need two willing participants to be sure about the results.

Let’s also recall that there is no name listed for the father on the child’s birth certificate.

The reasonable conclusion to be drawn: Edwards already coordinated his statements with Hunter before he went public with them. He told ABC News that he would be willing to take a paternity test knowing full damn well that Hunter herself would later refuse to take one. That way, he could pretend to be putting everything out in the open, when in fact, he is still a lying sack of crap.

Why is Hunter doing this?  Only one of two reasons.  (1)  She still wants to protect Edwards, and naively thinks that the truth can still be hidden; or (2)  She is still being paid off by Edwards and/or his political operatives and needs to take this position because she still wants to collect the money.

This is all obvious by now. The lies by Edwards still stink here. But he, Hunter and most of the media still insist on treating me like I’m an idiot.

I know that most of the media think that the story is over now that Edwards has admitted to the affair, but thank goodness we still have the Enquirer to shake the truth out. If the media were still interested in this story, they would realize that Edwards’ denial of paternity still leaves many unanswered questions, and they would now be hounding political operative Andrew Young and/or his attorney to answer some direct questions.

Let’s remember:

A December statement attributed to Young’s Washington attorney, Pamela J. Marple, said, “As confirmed by Ms. Hunter, Andrew Young is the father of her unborn child. Senator Edwards knew nothing about the relationship between these former co-workers, which began when they worked together in 2006. As a private citizen who no longer works for the campaign, Mr. Young asks that the media respect his privacy while he works to make amends with his family.”

Now that Edwards continues to deny paternity, that makes Young’s statement still very newsworthy. Is anyone trying to track him or his attorney down to re-confirm all of this? Because once again, if this is true, then that would have to mean that Hunter carried on two separate affairs with married men within the Edwards camp within a short period of time. People will think that she is a political-hungry whore if this is true – that’s why we need to clear the air on this (and why Hunter’s own family is calling for the paternity test, even if Hunter herself is not).

But the media STILL aren’t interested in  getting the truth. They are only interested in getting the memo of official statements from the participants, re-printing them, and then shrugging their shoulders since they are ‘aren’t able to confirm’ anything else. They still consider the reporting of common sense conclusions to be ‘rumor mongering’ since they don’t have an actaul signed confession from Edwards, Young, Hunter, et al.

For the record: I don’t think Hunter is a political-hungry whore. Rather, I think that Edwards continues to lie and that she is being complicit in helping him try and maintain his lies.

I only ask one thing from the media and our politicians –  DON’T TREAT ME LIKE I’M AN IDIOT.  Why does that seem to be so tough?

– Justin Levine

Venomous Snake on the Loose

Filed under: Miscellaneous — DRJ @ 3:10 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

A 10″ venomous bush viper has disappeared from Moody Gardens in Galveston, Texas, for the second time in a month. Officials can’t rule out staff carelessness but they suspect someone tampered with the enclosure in the first escape and stole the snake the second time.

Like me, Moody Gardens spokeswoman Jerri Hamachek is mystified:

“She had no explanation on why someone would steal a venomous snake. “It’s hard to know why anybody would do anything like that,” she said. “But it looks like that’s what they did.”

The culprit might be a good nominee for the Darwin award.

— DRJ

Congress is the People’s House

Filed under: Politics — DRJ @ 12:35 pm



[Guest post by DJR]

The Roanoke Times’ blog The Botetourt View published a report of a tour hosted by Bryan Alphin, one of Sen. John Warner’s interns, on his last day as an intern. As he ended his last tour with 21 people in tow, they were surprised by an invitation from Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) to join her on the floor of the House for a GOP sit-in on energy:

“And then we walked up to an area that simple staffers and interns are not allowed, the Speaker’s Gallery. Over there we crossed a security guard who demanded what was going on, questioning the Congresswoman, and she said, “These are my guests.” The security guard replied, “All of these people?”

“Yes, all 22 of them!” and then we entered a room where the few privileged can enter. She exclaimed—“My guests, we’re having a protest today! We’re going to the House chamber and you all are going to sit amongst your Republican friends in the chamber. Because this is not the chamber for Democrats, but the People’s Chamber!

So it was pretty exciting, we sat on the seats of members of Congress, sitting side-by-side with them on the Republican side of the aisle. And the lights were dim and the microphones were off. The Democratic majority had recessed for the summer, but the GOP was “sitting-in for America” until Congress could settle on an energy policy. Republican representatives including Foxx, Republican Whip Blunt of Missouri and Virginia Congressman Cantor tried to speak at the top of their lungs in a room with terrible acoustics. Republican staffers attempted to turn the microphones on, but the Capitol Police intervened declaring on behalf of Speaker Pelosi’s office, that the microphones and C-Span cameras must remain off.

It was a great experience, there was a lot of clapping and cheers on the House floor, which crosses House decorum. We stayed for about 20 minutes and we decided to go–the tour group asked, “how often does that happen?”

“And truth be told we took part in history as the House has never been held up in a sit-in before, and we were part of it!”

The GOP needs to do more of this and make it known.

— DRJ

New York Times Hypocrisy on Copyright Infringement

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 9:07 am



The New York Times‘s Opinionator blog directly quotes all nine paragraphs of Justin Levine’s post on the National Enquirer.

I count 232 words lifted from the body of the post. That’s the entire post.

This paper is happy to terrorize bloggers for things that aren’t even infringement. Remember, this is the same paper that alleged copyright infringement by Robert Cox when he did a parody of the paper’s corrections page to mock them for failing to correct errors in columns.

I know Justin doesn’t care about the New York Times‘s blatant infringement, and in this case, neither do I.

Just file it away under “Rules for Thee but Not for Me.”


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