Patterico's Pontifications

10/27/2008

Double Standard on the Reporting of Assassination Plots?

Filed under: 2008 Election,Crime,Dog Trainer,Media Bias — Patterico @ 10:25 pm



Guest blogger DRJ earlier posted about the alleged assassination plot against Barack Obama. As I always say when charges are made, charges are just charges, and have to be proved by the prosecution. But if these charges can be proved, then these men should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

But it got me thinking: this story is being reported everywhere, including in my beloved Los Angeles Times. I suspect it will be on front pages everywhere tomorrow morning.

But remember when I posted in July of this year about an attempted plot against President Bush?

According to court documents and decisions, the assassination plot against Bush involved two men who “met with a potential accomplice” and “attempted to recruit that person to participate in the assassination of the President.” Further, when the men were arrested, they “were en route to Crawford, Texas to conduct reconnaissance at the President’s ranch.”

One of the men made “oral statements to the effect that one of them, or both of them working together, would shoot the President with a rifle at the President’s ranch near Crawford, Texas.” His co-defendant is alleged to have specifically talked about shooting the President “with a modified military .30-06 caliber rifle” at the Crawford ranch, and made “statements about specific locations from which he could fire the rifle.”

Yet that story got no press attention whatsoever that I could find.

Do assassination plots count only when they are against Democrats?

Judging Obama

Filed under: 2008 Election,Law — DRJ @ 9:22 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Northwestern Law School Prof. Steven G. Calabresi analyzes the “extreme left-wing” judges he thinks a President Obama would appoint:

“[Obama] believes — and he is quite open about this — that judges ought to decide cases in light of the empathy they ought to feel for the little guy in any lawsuit.

Speaking in July 2007 at a conference of Planned Parenthood, he said: “[W]e need somebody who’s got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it’s like to be a young teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it’s like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old. And that’s the criteria by which I’m going to be selecting my judges.”

On this view, plaintiffs should usually win against defendants in civil cases; criminals in cases against the police; consumers, employees and stockholders in suits brought against corporations; and citizens in suits brought against the government. Empathy, not justice, ought to be the mission of the federal courts, and the redistribution of wealth should be their mantra.”

There is far more at the link regarding Obama’s views and how Calabresi believes they will affect the judiciary, but the bottom line for me is Calabresi’s point that Obama doesn’t think justice should be blind … and that means there will be no justice.

— DRJ

Another Bloodbath at the L.A. Times

Filed under: Dog Trainer — Patterico @ 6:37 pm



The L.A. Times is once again heeding Mickey Kaus’s perennial advice: another round of layoffs! It’s looking like 75 newsroom staffers. As always, the best information is at L.A. Observed. Just keep scrolling.

Dean Barnett (1967-2008)

Filed under: Current Events — DRJ @ 2:46 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Blogger, Hugh Hewitt stand-in, and Weekly Standard contributor Dean Barnett died today, presumably due to complications from cystic fibrosis.

A few years ago, he posted a column I enjoyed so much that I emailed him and told him I might memorize it to use in talking to my friends – “with full attribution, of course.” I had to laugh at his response: “Eh – steal it as your own. Stun them with your erudition!”

He was 41 and I know he fought hard to the end. RIP and condolences to his family.

— DRJ

Feds Uncover Neo-Nazi Plot to Kill Obama

Filed under: 2008 Election — DRJ @ 1:57 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

From court records unsealed today:

“Jim Cavanaugh, special agent in charge of the Nashville field office for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said the two men planned to shoot 88 black people and decapitate another 14. The numbers 88 and 14 are symbolic in the white supremacist community.

The men also sought to go on a national killing spree, with Obama as its final target, Cavanaugh told The Associated Press.

“They said that would be their last, final act — that they would attempt to kill Sen. Obama,” Cavanaugh said. “They didn’t believe they would be able to do it, but that they would get killed trying.”

The report states they targeted a predominantly African-American high school.

If this is true, these are sick, evil idiots.

UPDATE: I’ve changed the title because the plot was uncovered by Tennessee law enforcement:

“Both individuals stated they would dress in all white tuxedos and wear top hats during the assassination attempt,” the court complaint states. “Both individuals further stated they knew they would and were willing to die during this attempt.”

An Obama spokeswoman traveling with the senator in Pennsylvania had no immediate comment.

Sheriffs’ deputies in Crockett County, Tenn., arrested the two suspects – Daniel Cowart, 20, of Bells, Tenn., and Paul Schlesselman 18, of Helena-West Helena, Ark. – Oct. 22 on unspecified charges. “Once we arrested the defendants and suspected they had violated federal law, we immediately contacted federal authorities,” said Crockett County Sheriff Troy Klyce.

The two were charged by federal authorities Monday with possessing an unregistered firearm, conspiring to steal firearms from a federally licensed gun dealer, and threatening a candidate for president.”

— DRJ

Alaska Senator Ted Stevens: Guilty

Filed under: 2008 Election — DRJ @ 1:42 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

An Alaska A Washington DC federal jury found Senator Ted Stevens guilty on all counts for lying on his financial disclosure forms:

“Jurors found that Stevens willfully filed false financial disclosure forms that hid such gifts as the renovations that doubled his home in size. Those gifts, valued at as much as $250,000 over seven years, came mostly from his former friend Bill Allen, the star prosecution witness in Stevens’ trial and the former owner of Veco Corp. The oil-field services company was one of Alaska’s largest private employers before Allen, caught up in the federal corruption probe, was forced to sell it last year.”

The article states Stevens will be sentenced in late January and could receive 5 years on each of 7 counts, but notes that “under federal sentencing guidelines, he is likely to receive much less prison time, if any.”

Stevens is seeking re-election to his Senate seat and faces Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, a Democrat. I think we can chalk this one up for the Democrats.

H/T Another Drew.

— DRJ

Obama on Redistributing Wealth

Filed under: 2008 Election — DRJ @ 12:19 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

From Hot Air:

“Seven years ago, Obama told Chicago Public Radio that the Warren Court was too conservative and missed its opportunity to redistribute wealth on a much grander scale.”

Here’s the audio at YouTube:

Obama’s opinion comes across loud and clear to me: Since the Supreme Court can’t or won’t redistribute income, that leaves Congress or the President. What Senator Obama couldn’t accomplish, President Obama will.

— DRJ

I Voted For Sarah Palin Today

Filed under: 2008 Election — DRJ @ 11:50 am



[Guest post by DRJ]

Of course, that means I also voted for John McCain … but I think of it as a vote for Palin and it’s been a long time since I enjoyed voting this much. Many Obama voters will probably feel the same excitement but I suspect a lot more will feel like Glenn Reynolds in this Forbes article entitled “Is This the Best We Can Do?”

Reynolds analyzes several reasons why our nation’s best people don’t want to be politicians and I think his analysis is spot on. I also share his concerns, up to a point. I think qualified people will consider political careers when they see it as something important and worth doing. Thus, I expect we will see more talented Republicans get interested in politics if Obama wins, just as the Bush years brought in new blood to the Democratic Party.

As for a systemic fix, current laws favor incumbents and I think the best thing we can do for politics is to support laws that limit or eliminate the advantages of incumbency. Then may the best man — or woman! — win.

— DRJ

1&1 Plans to Keep Patterico.com Out of Commission for 7-10 More Days

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 6:47 am



Coincidentally, that will keep patterico.com dark through the election.

I do believe it’s a coincidence, by the way.

Some people are telling me it’s not. They remind me that my problems started a couple of days after I posted proof that Obama’s career was “launched” in Bill Ayers’s living room. They tell me that the problems got worse after I told the people who were trying to scrub that evidence: “you’re going to have to crash my site and come get my laptop. Because it turns out that I saved a screenshot.” They point out that, less than 48 hours later, my site did “crash” — because my domain disappeared.

Maybe I’m being naive, but I don’t think so. I believe I’m facing massive incompetence, thievery, or very possibly a deliberate combination of the two.

It feels like evil intent — but not for political reasons. It feels like cyberextortion — people going after the almighty dollar. Commenters have pointed out corporate ties between 1&1, which can’t seem to process my timely renewal, and Sedo/Domcollect, which stood to profit from 1&1’s failure. Usually, corporate incompetence does not earn the corporation money — but 1&1 and its related companies have found a way to make money off of their own slipshod procedures.

I’m not going to say you’re wearing a tinfoil hat if you see a political conspiracy. I’m just going to disagree with you.

The latest e-mail from 1&1 is in the extended entry:

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