Patterico's Pontifications

1/31/2010

Obama Bows to Tampa’s Mayor

Filed under: Obama — DRJ @ 11:52 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

“U.S. President Barack Obama bows to Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio at MacDill Air Force Base on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2010 in Tampa, Fla.”

H/T Hot Air and GatewayPundit, because I didn’t believe it the first time I saw it.

— DRJ

Times-Picayune Originally Reported that O’Keefe Was Charged with Wiretapping, Then Stealth-Corrected the Error

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 8:04 pm



I was wondering how I had initially gotten the idea that James O’Keefe had been accused of trying to wiretap Mary Landrieu’s phones. After all, if you look at my original post — in which I mistakenly said O’Keefe had been arrested for “allegedly attempting to bug Mary Landrieu’s office” — I linked a Times-Picayune blog post as my source. Follow that link, and you’ll see it begins as follows:

Alleging a plot to tamper with phones in Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office in the Hale Boggs Federal Building in downtown New Orleans, the FBI arrested four people Monday, including James O’Keefe, 25, a conservative filmmaker whose undercover videos at ACORN field offices severely damaged the advocacy group’s credibility.

Hm. Nothing about wiretapping there.

When I read the affidavit later that day and saw there was no allegation of wiretapping, I tried to figure out why I had messed it up. I went back and clicked on the above link to the Times-Picayune blog post, where I saw the language quoted above. So, I assumed that I had just misread the story, and had leapt to a bad conclusion.

As it turns out, I hadn’t. The Times-Picayune blog post originally said something different:

Alleging a plot to wiretap Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office in the Hale Boggs Federal Building in downtown New Orleans, the FBI arrested four people Monday, including James O’Keefe, a conservative filmmaker whose undercover videos at ACORN field offices severely damaged the advocacy group’s credibility.

That’s how the very same story was originally quoted at Ace’s. And at a whole bunch of other places.

See, the Times-Picayune originally said it was a wiretapping plot. Then, later in the day, they stealth-corrected their post. Meaning that when I went back to look, I was reading different language than I had originally read at the same link. I rubbed my eyes and thought: “I could have sworn that story said he had tried to wiretap her. Guess not.”

I wasn’t hallucinating. It had said that. I just didn’t catch the stealth correction — until now.

Weaselly move on the part of the Times-Picayune.

By the way, that fact-challenged CBS story has now been fully corrected. Glad to see it.

Axelrod: Alito’s “Unusual Outburst”

Filed under: Obama,Politics — DRJ @ 8:01 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

David Axelrod explains that President Obama has become used to “unusual outbursts” in response to his Congressional speeches, and includes in that group Justice Alito’s reaction to Obama’s State of the Union remarks:

Alito’s “unusual outburst”:

— DRJ

Swiss Official: Polanski Could Be in His Chalet for a Year

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:19 pm



Roman Polanski could be in his Gstaad chalet for a year:

Film director Roman Polanski could spend up to a year in courts appealing if Switzerland decided to extradite him to the United States, the Swiss justice minister was quoted as saying on Sunday.

. . . .

“After an extradition decision by the Swiss justice ministry, Mr. Polanski has the possibility of appealing to the Federal Criminal Court and then the Federal Supreme Court,” Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf told the newspaper Le Matin Dimanche.

“It’s hard to say how long (an appeal) would take, but it could be from several months to a year.”

The evident goal here is for him to collect so much time “served” at his chalet that, when that time is credited against any possible prison sentence he might receive, Polanski wouldn’t have to spend any time at all in a California prison. I won’t express any opinion as to whether he would be entitled to have his time at the chalet credited against any prison sentence. But if he were entitled to such credit, and if it takes a year for all the appeals to be resolved, that could eat up most or all of the actual time he would have to serve — given he reportedly faces a maximum sentence of two years, minus any credits he would already be entitled to from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Lovely.

Disclaimer.

P.S. The story repeats the canard that there was an “agreement” that he serve only 42 more days:

He has said he feared the judge was going to renege on an agreement to sentence him to the 42 days he had already served behind bars.

An “agreement” implies a quid pro quo. And as I have explained countless times, there was no “agreement” because Polanski pled to a charge that he knew carried at least 20 years, with no agreement as to what the sentence would be.

Good luck trying to get a correction . . .

Another Kind of Love Story

Filed under: General — DRJ @ 5:46 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

The Boston Globe recounts how three Harvard Law friends sacrificed everything for their country:

“They were three best friends at Harvard Law School who turned their backs on lucrative careers to follow an exceedingly rare path: Michael Weston, who jogged through Harvard Yard in combat boots and openly scorned corporate life, joined the Marines. Helge Boes and his girlfriend Cynthia Tidler, who shared their friend’s sense of duty and adventure, joined the CIA.

Their choices – made out of passion, patriotism, and an urge to live an unconventional life – intertwined their fates.

Boes, a covert CIA operative, died when a grenade went off during training in Afghanistan in 2003, leaving Tidler, whom he had married after school, a widow. In their grief, Weston and Tidler reconnected and married earlier last year. Three months later, Weston deployed to Afghanistan; he died there in October, in a helicopter crash, widowing Tidler once again.”

It’s an article you need to read but this section in particular made me think twice:

“Weston’s decision seemed all the more strange to some of his peers because he wanted to join as an enlisted “grunt,’’ not a military lawyer. That summer, when most of his classmates worked high-paid summer jobs, he went to boot camp at Parris Island, S.C.

“People thought it was bizarre. Quirky. Maybe crazy,’’ said Orin Kerr, a former classmate who is now a professor at George Washington University Law School. “Everybody at Harvard was trying to fit in, and Mike was going out of his way to stick out.’”

Hats off to these young people who didn’t want to fit in, and bless them and the country they sacrificed for.

H/T Dana.

— DRJ

Some Like It Hot: The Texas Gubernatorial Primary

Filed under: Politics — DRJ @ 5:31 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

If you like Texas politics or you’re a fan of political showdowns, G.M. Roper looks at the Heavyweight Showdown in Texas GOP Primary for Governor.

— DRJ

Organizing High Schools for America

Filed under: Education,Politics — DRJ @ 5:10 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Atlas Shrugs reports an Ohio high school — Perry Local in Massillon, Ohio — is allowing Organizing for America to offer internships [and, based on my reading of the materials posted at the link, the internships could be] for credit as a part of or to supplement the school’s curriculum. Go there for the details.

Assuming this story is true, it’s up to the local school board to decide if this is what they want for their schools. If it is, then local Republicans should copy the OfA attachments and demand that its internships be given equal time …

… except the GOP internships should start 2 hours later in the morning and end at the same time.

— DRJ

Jack Cafferty: Nancy Pelosi Is a “Horrible Woman”

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 1:49 pm



Pretty good rant:

H/t Curtis F.


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