Patterico's Pontifications

10/4/2012

The New York Times: Boy, Was This Debate Unhelpful

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 9:05 pm



Ha!

The first debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney, so long anticipated, quickly sunk into an unenlightening recitation of tired talking points and mendacity. With few sparks and little clarity on the immense gulf that truly separates the two men and their policies, Wednesday’s encounter provided little guidance for voters still trying to understand the choice in next month’s election.

Subtext: let’s just pretend that never happened, OK?

Nadia Naffe Sues Patterico, Mrs. Patterico, and Our Boss

Filed under: Brett Kimberlin,General,Nadia Naffe,Neal Rauhauser — Patterico @ 7:42 am



I have learned that my wife and I are being sued by Nadia Naffe, who leveled accusations at James O’Keefe last year, and was the subject of criticism at this blog earlier this year. Also named in the lawsuit are Los Angeles County, and Steve Cooley, the District Attorney of Los Angeles County. The complaint has been filed in the U.S. District Court in the Central District of California, Case No. 2:12-cv-08443-GW-MRW, and is captioned Nadia Naffe v. John Patrick Frey, et al.

Brett Kimberlin associates have played a role in instigating this lawsuit. Kimberlin’s associate Neal Rauhauser recently admitted in a complaint to my office that he introduced Naffe to attorney Jay Leiderman:

I brought this situation to the attention of Los Angeles attorney Jay Leiderman, then introduced he and Naffe, and he is now representing her in a civil case against Frey.

In the same document, Rauhauser declared that if Naffe is successful, he believes it will put an end to my career as a Deputy D.A.:

[T]he lawsuit he faces from Nadia Naffe is another matter and it is understood that if she prevails that may put an end to Frey’s career in the DA’s office.


Above: Neal Rauhauser and Nadia Naffe, 2012

As regular readers are well aware, Rauhauser has long wanted me sued, fired, and so forth for several reasons — one of which is the fact that I have defended James O’Keefe on this blog. Here is a quote from Rauhauser from July 2011:

This new situation is a little different. Patterico I want to see fired from his Deputy District Attorney job, barred from practicing any sort of law, sued to the point of bankruptcy, or criminally charged. Better yet, all five of these would not be sufficient for this tiresome little punk. The motivation, briefly, is that he used to spend his time vigorously defending that little creep James O’Keefe, and his behavior of late seems to indicate he had a hand in the stalking and smearing of Congressman Weiner.

I have not seen the complaint, but a tort claims action Naffe filed earlier this year primarily related to my publication of public documents from the federal PACER system in this post. (The PACER system is open to the public. This, by the way, is the same PACER system that Leiderman encourages his Twitter followers to consult, for details on the lawsuit.)

Naffe’s previous claim also attaches Brett Kimberlin’s State Bar complaint against me. That is one of several details showing a connection between Kimberlin (and his supporters) and Naffe. To cite just a few examples:

  • Rauhauser and Naffe discussed the issuance of a subpoena for James O’Keefe’s emails.
  • Kimberlin issued a subpoena for those emails, in a lawsuit (Kimberlin vs. Allen) where there had already been a final judgment.
  • Rauhauser has claimed that he then rode the train with Naffe to collect the emails.
  • Brett Kimberlin supporter Breitbart Unmasked claimed that “we” have Naffe “covered” after another Kimberlin supporter complained about my blogging about Naffe:

  • Breitbart Unmasked also told Naffe to complain about me to my office, reasoning that such complaints cause me to have less power as a blogger:

I am fortunate to have pro bono representation from two fine lawyers: Kenneth P. White (whom you may know from Popehat), and Ron Coleman (whom you may know from Likelihood of Confusion). I will be responsible for expenses, so any help would certainly be appreciated. The tip jar is on the sidebar.

I don’t know to what extent (if any) I will be blogging on this case as it develops. However, I am confident that the court will see that my speech about Naffe was protected under the First Amendment.

On the advice of Ken and Ron, I will not be allowing comments on this post.

Mitt Romney Wins Debate

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:41 am



You expect a candidate’s partisans to put the best spin on his performance — but don’t take Republicans’ word for it. Look at what the Democrats are saying.

James Carville says Romney “came in with a chainsaw”:

Al Gore hilariously tried to blame Obama’s poor performance on the altitude:

Obama arrived in Denver at 2pm today. Just a few hours before the debate started. Romney did his debate prep in Denver. When you go to 5000 feet and you only have a few hours to adjust, I don’t know . . .

Hahahahahahahaha. (H/t Icy.)

Finally, we have the Democrats at the L.A. Times, who tried their best to spin it, but ultimately couldn’t:

See that? Romney worked on his “empathy problem.” He’s shifting positions again, even if we acknowledge he performed well. Also: so what if he won? So did John Kerry! Nyah nyah nyah! And hey! Look at this goofy picture of Romney!!!

And last night, one of their instant reactions was: “Romney loves Big Bird, will kill funding for him anyway.”

If that’s the best they can do, Romney won. Period.

Attempted Swatting at Ashton Kutcher’s Home

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:35 am



Like Miley Cyrus, he wasn’t home at the time:

Ashton Kutcher is the latest famous name to be associated with a “swatting” — a malicious prank in which a seemingly serious distress call to police turns out to be a false alarm with a spoofed phone number, aimed at luring a SWAT team to swarm a particular location.

Police hurried to Kutcher’s Lake Hollywood home late Wednesday morning after a woman called police — more on that “call” later — and claimed to be hiding in a closet because there was an armed man inside the home, L.A. Now reported. The actor was not home at the time.

Upon arriving, authorities found no woman hiding and no armed man in the home, though they did detain some workers who were at the property.

“Detained.” That sounds rather antiseptic. I bet I have a pretty good idea what that word signifies in practice.

Although I’d like to think that police are getting wise to the tactic, including this quite common method:

Also, what was being referred to as a “call” was not a 911 call but actually a teletype message, the type of communication that a deaf person would use, a police spokesman said Wednesday at a news conference.

I got a call from CBS News yesterday about this. They were looking to have me go on camera to discuss my incident. I declined, but told them about what had happened to me.

I call the incidents at Kutcher’s and Cyrus’s homes “attempted swattings.” The swatter(s) didn’t take steps to assure that the victims were home. The incidents didn’t happen in the middle of the night. Someone was sending a message of some sort, but it’s not clear they wanted anyone killed.

I wonder what kind of police attention these attempted swattings are getting, as compared to the politically motivated swattings of four of us between June 2011 and June 2012. It would be interesting to know, wouldn’t it?


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