Swiss Notified Us About Polanski
According to this story:
The AP has obtained documents confirming that the Swiss Federal Office of Justice sent a fax on September 22 alerting the US Office of International Affairs that Polanski was due to travel to Zurich to attend a film festival tribute to his work. The Swiss correspondence inquired as to whether US authorities would be submitting a request for Polanski’s arrest.
Might throw a monkey wrench in one or two conspiracy theories about my office, huh?
P.S. Many people have e-mailed me about stories saying that Polanski has been moved to a hospital for treatment of an undisclosed ailment, and/or that the Swiss officially ruled today that he will not be granted bail. I didn’t see either as a particularly big story, but in case you missed those facts, there you go.
People still use faxes? Who knew?
Ag80 (2a7a2a) — 10/20/2009 @ 9:54 pmIf Polanski was going to get “the remaining 48 days” it seems like he’s going to get a lot longer than that just in his fight to stay out of the US.
John Hitchcock (3fd153) — 10/20/2009 @ 9:56 pmWell that should answer the question of “why now?”.
Gina (d38bf6) — 10/20/2009 @ 10:05 pmPlus we can hope he gets some jail time for the fleeing…
He won’t, but we can hope…
Scott Jacobs (d027b8) — 10/20/2009 @ 10:06 pmDid Polanski snork a Swiss Miss?
daleyrocks (718861) — 10/20/2009 @ 10:10 pmYou know, Oprah made quite a big splash of noise on taking on pedophiles, strengthening laws and such, to save the children.
Had a whole series of shows about it.
Also Oprah trades on big Hollywood celebrities coming in for couch time with the Big O.
This is a defining moment, not likely to come along again.
Which is more important to the Oprah?
How come Patterico hasn’t linked back to Oprah’s strong denounciation of Polanski, and of celebrities who use their status as cover for predatory behavior in general?
Defining moment?
papertiger (e6cefc) — 10/20/2009 @ 11:22 pmI’m not certain what papertiger is meowing about.
John Hitchcock (3fd153) — 10/21/2009 @ 12:24 amJohn, his issue now is that while he *would* have only received the remaining 48 days, he is now on the hook for whatever term of punishment is imposed for fleeing and eluding for 30 years.
I commend the Swiss, for the most part, for their part in finally bringing Polanski to justice.
NavyspyII (df615d) — 10/21/2009 @ 4:15 amDoes the Barcky admin have any role in the extradition of the child assrapist? Is there anything they can do/not do to gum this up?
JD (0a26e4) — 10/21/2009 @ 6:19 amWould’ve been nice if the French had been so accommodating, huh?
mojo (8096f2) — 10/21/2009 @ 7:50 amHere’s the way I figure it Hitchcock.
Polanski is toast. WHATEVER happens his fate is sealed. Talking about it is pointless.
Oprah is still on the lam. Might as well use the situation to make her life a little less comfortable.
Remember back September of last year when Oprah refused to have Sarah Palin on her show?
You ever wonder what Oprah was doing instead?
I was pretty pissed off at the time, so I went looking for a little mud to throw at Oprah.
Instead of having Sarah Palin on, Oprah was devoting her show to pushing through a bill to make the internet safe for children. In fact I think that’s what they called it, the “make the internet safe for children” act.
Of course it was mostly about giving the Feds sweeping powers to snoop in yours and my personal documents, and it was larded up with all sorts of pork for certain congressmen. I mean who wants to go into a district fight where your oppponent gets to say “he didn’t vote to keep your children safe on the internet”? A congresscritter is liable to vote funding to the JohnMurthaInternationalAirport just to keep that from happening.
Anyhow the kids saw through Oprah’s bullshit, and started making fun of it in their corner of the blogisphere.
One kid, who never gave more then the name “Anon”, took it as his mission to get Oprah to say the word “penis” out loud on the show, to her nation wide audience.
In this mission he was resounding success.
This youtube video covers the story pretty well.
I should mention that “over 9000” is a goofy catch phrase from a popular cartoon, used in this instance as provinance for the other kids to know that it was a successful prank orchestrated by one of their own.
The pointy part of this tale is this. Oprah made a big showy to do of her concern for the welfare of kids, specificly protecting them from the predations of pedophiles, and at the time used this showy concern as an excuse to blackball Sarah Palin from appearing.
Fast forward to today. What has the big O had to say about Polanski? What has she had to say about Bertha Lewis and ACORN’s child pornography tax services? It’s easy to fein concern for kids when it’s not going to alienate any of the big name hollywood celebrities or any political cronies, and maybe even boost sagging ratings as she alienates the better half of her audience.
What is Oprah’s position when it’s going to cost her something?
I’ve heard alot of crickets chirping so far.
papertiger (f08c5d) — 10/22/2009 @ 2:23 am