Patterico's Pontifications

8/17/2014

Issuin’ a Veto? That’s a Jailin’

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 3:49 pm



Threatenin’ to issue a veto? Oooh, you better believe that’s a jailin’.

UPDATE: I think Ken White invented this phrase.

18 Responses to “Issuin’ a Veto? That’s a Jailin’”

  1. president food stamp this one time threatened to veto any new sanctions Congress might put on his terrorist friends in Iran

    for reals it was in the news

    but this is mostly just because Obama hates Jewish people I think

    he wasn’t being all Rick Perry about it

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  2. I see the special prosecutor said in his news conference that there was “probable cause” that a crime was committed. Isn’t that the standard for a warrant???

    David Jay (9b0bfe)

  3. what gov perry should be indited for was putting to death an innocent man cameron willingham for murder and then obstructing justice when his cell mate admitted he made up willinghams confession to get a lighter sentence and ordering jacksons letter telling how he made up the confession at behest of prosecutors but now didn’t want innocent man to die. And then removing officials looking into wrongful execution and replacing them with his stooges who closed down investigation.

    mr.gop (c83f3b)

  4. Will Hailer, the executive director of the Texzas Democratic Party, is still defending the indictment.

    The Texas Democratic Party has made Rosemary Lehmberg their new face. #TXDemsforDrunkDrivers.

    Michael Ejercito (becea5)

  5. UPDATE: I think Ken White invented this phrase.

    Patterico (aad366)

  6. I have no idea how to express my problem with this indictment. It is so beyond the pale that it has no real, communicative way to explain the injustice.

    Really, all I can say is just wait you lawless left. The things you are doing to Perry and Walker will result in a retribution, within the means of the law, that will make you regret your miserable existence.

    Actually, probably not. The right actually does not do the things the left adore. Sometimes I wish we did, but it is better not to burrow to the bottom

    Ag80 (eb6ffa)

  7. Third World Banana Republic.

    AZ Bob (34bb80)

  8. This is surreal. A new nadir for partisan politics.

    felipe (40f0f0)

  9. what gov perry should be indited for was putting to death an innocent man cameron willingham for murder

    Nonsense. Perry has never put anyone to death in his life. Nor has he had anyone put to death on his behalf. He is not an executioner or a judge, and as far as I know he has never been a juror in a capital case. He certainly wasn’t a juror in the Willingham case.

    And while some doubts have been raised about that conviction, nobody can honestly say with any confidence that he was innocent. But of course you’re not honest, so you can say whatever you like.

    when his cell mate admitted he made up willinghams confession to get a lighter sentence and ordering jacksons letter telling how he made up the confession at behest of prosecutors but now didn’t want innocent man to die.

    And you imagine this proves what, exactly? What would make anyone think he told the truth the second time and not the first time? By the way, he then recanted his recantation. So if you always trust the last thing he said, then mustn’t you believe that it was true after all? What matters is that the jury either found his testimony credible, or else ignored it and convicted without it, based on all the other evidence.

    And then removing officials looking into wrongful execution and replacing them with his stooges who closed down investigation.

    More nonsense. Perry didn’t remove anyone. The terms of some members of the pardons commission had expired, so he appointed new people. What could be more natural or unobjectionable? The fact that one of the outgoing commissioners made a fuss about not being reappointed only shows what an arrogant and unsuitable person he was, and how right Perry was to appoint someone else in his place.

    Milhouse (9d71c3)

  10. UPDATE: I think Ken White invented this phrase.

    I thought it was “Snort my taint.” I know Perry used that to great effect during his press conference a couple of days ago.

    Bill H (f9e4cd)

  11. mr.gop (c83f3b) — 8/17/2014 @ 6:31 pm

    OK, you’ve brought the charge. Do you have stones enough to present proof?

    Bill H (f9e4cd)

  12. paul ryan can certainly snort someone’s taint if it will spare him the agony of speaking out loud

    snort paul snort

    snort like the wind

    ok now shhhhh

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  13. 3. mr.gop (c83f3b) — 8/17/2014 @ 6:31 pm

    what gov perry should be indited for was putting to death an innocent man cameron willingham for murder

    You can’t indict him for that. The entire justice system got it wrong. All you can morally indict him for is delegating the examination of this case to people who did not pay attention and.or care.

    The problem was the scientific evidence of arson was false. The problem was that the whole standard for determining what was arson was wrong. And many, many, fires were labeled arson that should not have been. This was going on for years in Texas.

    Now a person with “the intellectual capability of a ham sandwich” (to coin a phrase) should not be expected to realize that, or realize that there was a real issue here, especially when the defense counsel weren’t being really, really, clear about this, and he had some people telling him this was all baloney.

    Sammy Finkelman (3ba0b7)

  14. Milhouse (9d71c3) — 8/18/2014 @ 12:14 am

    And while some doubts have been raised about that conviction, nobody can honestly say with any confidence that he was innocent.

    There’s more than reasonable doubt. He had no motive, nor any known propensities for anything like that.

    They ran a test – maybe too late – after the execution I think even – that proved that the standards for determining arson were wrong. And there was no basis for these “indicators”
    of arson in the first place.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cameron_Todd_Willingham

    Long after the original conviction, in 2004 Gerald Hurst, who has a Ph.D. in chemistry, examined the arson evidence compiled by Manuel Vasquez, the state deputy fire marshal. Hurst said that Vasquez was incorrect when he said that the extreme heat of the fire (as evidenced by a melted aluminum threshold) indicated that an accelerant was used, and said that experiments prove that wood and liquid accelerant fires can burn with equal heat. Hurst’s own experiments showed that burning with an accelerant does not leave the kind of brown stains that Vasquez claimed were created that way. Hurst also said that the crazed glass that Vasquez said was caused by a liquid accelerant had been found as a result of brush fires elsewhere.

    Experiments showed that crazed glass was caused not by rapid heating but by cooling, and that glass cooled by water from a fire hose was more likely to have a crazed or cracked pattern. A $20,000 experimental house fire set without an accelerant created the same pour patterns and V shaped pattern that Vasquez attributed to the use of a liquid accelerant.

    Vasquez thought that Willingham lied when he said he escaped without burning his feet, because he thought that an accelerant was used that would spread fire along the floor. However, since no accelerant was needed to create the results found, Willingham could well have been telling the truth when he said that he ran out without burning his feet, presuming he left before the fire achieved flashover.

    I don’t think Texas is using this person, or these methods of determining whether something was or was arson any more. And that’s telling.

    More from the Wikipedia article:

    Governor Perry said that the “supposed experts” (using finger quotes) were wrong[7] and not to listen to anti-death penalty “propaganda”.[8]

    The anti-death penalty people have only themselves to blame for this miscarriage of justice. Every case is appealed, whether there is a good case or a bad case to be made, and they use the worst arguments. Nothing special, or special enough, gets done where they really have a case.

    People get used to not listening.

    Perry aide Mary Anne Wiley said the commission’s $30,000 hiring of fire scientist Craig Beyler was a waste of taxpayer money.[9] Jackson, one of the prosecutors, admitted that an “undeniably flawed forensic report” was used to convict Willingham, but claimed that other reasons established guilt.[10]

    The other evidence, I think, being the testimony of this jailhouse informant.

    I don’t think that Governor Perry, to this day understands something went horribly wrong in the administration of justice in Texas. A man was executed for a murderr that never was.

    Sammy Finkelman (3ba0b7)

  15. You don’t know that the murder never was, Sammy. There was plenty of evidence besides the forensic theory that has now been challenged.

    There’s more than reasonable doubt. He had no motive, nor any known propensities for anything like that.

    That’s just not true. He had a history of violence, and the motive alleged at trial was that he wantred to get rid of his children. I’m always suspicious of forensic science proving a crime, because it’s always changing, and expert witnesses project far more confidence in their findings than they warrant. The Lindy Chamberlain trial was enough to prove that to me. But by the same token we shouldn’t put too much confidence in the latest theory by the same forensic scientists. Who knows but what in 20 years they’ll come up with yet another theory. So while I agree he would probably not have been convicted (or even tried) now, that doesn’t mean we should conclude that he was innocent. Maybe now he would have got away with it, that’s all.

    In any case, it’s got nothing to do with Perry, who had no connection to the case. (And no, he did not have the power to pardon Willingham or commute his sentence, so any argument about whether he should have done so doesn’t begin.)

    Milhouse (9d71c3)

  16. Let’s face it, Perry’s veto and harassment of the DA is purely and simply an pathetic attempt to thwart the Public Integrity Unit’s investigation of his corporate owners.

    The Public integrity Unit prosecutes insurance fraud, motor fuels tax fraud and government corruption – in 2013 that meant 425 cases. It’s no mistake the Unit is housed at the Travis county DA’s Office, in the capital of Texas where some element of these types of crime can take place. Since 1982 under former DA Ronnie Earl’s watch, The Public Integrity Unit had been state-funded under a reimbursement scheme to the county. In June 2013 when Governor Perry ordered the funding shut off, the unit was left to fend for itself.

    playhouse (924917)

  17. Let’s face it, Perry’s veto and harassment of the DA is purely and simply an pathetic attempt to thwart the Public Integrity Unit’s investigation of his corporate owners.

    That’s some imagination you’ve got. Do you also believe that 11-Sep-2001 was an inside job? That the CIA created AIDS in a lab? Or that it introduced crack into America? Were the moon landings faked? Please enlighten us.

    Since 1982 under former DA Ronnie Earl’s watch, The Public Integrity Unit had been state-funded under a reimbursement scheme to the county.

    That would be the same Ronnie Earle (note the E at the end) who cooked up the bogus prosecution of Tom DeLay. Not exactly a recommendation.

    Milhouse (9d71c3)

  18. the Times, notes in retrospect the indictment wasa poor choice,

    narciso (ee1f88)


Powered by WordPress.

Page loaded in: 0.0839 secs.