This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Legal

  • Marion Barry still not in jail

    I wrote back in May of 2007 how prosecutors have been unable to force Marion Barry, former DC mayor, crack smoker, whore monger, currently DC councilman, to pay his taxes. Still free, Barry still owes on his taxes and still doesn’t file his tax returns on time according to the Washington Post;

    In all, prosecutors say, Barry has failed to file his returns on time in eight of the past nine years.

    Yesterday, they urged a federal judge to revoke Barry’s probation for tax offenses just weeks before it expires.

    Barry, 72, in the past has called such legal efforts “frivolous” and has said his tax problems are a “personal matter.”

    Yeah, that’s pretty insane to say that not paying taxes for nearly a decade is a “personal matter”. I’ll mention that Barry was robbed in October 2007 and had $14,000 in jewelry stolen but is still unable to meet his tax obligations – the same tax obligations the rest of us are coerced into meeting by government nearly every day.

    Oh, and here’s a picture I took of him getting into his chauffeur-driven car a few months back;
    Barry
    Anything else we can do for you, Marion?

  • Federal judge orders Gitmo prisoners released

    This is why courts and law don’t work when fighting terrorists. From the Washington Post;

    The decision came in the case of six Algerians who were detained in Bosnia after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and have been held at the military prison in Cuba for nearly seven years. U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon, a Bush appointee, ruled that five of the men must be released “forthwith” and ordered the government to engage in diplomatic efforts to find them new homes.
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    In an unusual move, Leon also urged the government not to appeal his ruling, saying “seven years of waiting for our legal system to give them an answer” was long enough.

    In the case of the sixth Algerian, Belkacem Bensayah, Leon found that the government had met its evidentiary burden and could continue to hold him. Bensayah’s lawyers said he would appeal.

    The judge urged the government to not appeal his ruling. Why? Because the decision was specious.

    In the case of the Algerians, the government presented mostly classified evidence in closed hearings that its attorneys asserted proved the men planned to attack U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

    […]

    Leon said the government did not provide enough credible and reliable evidence during a series of closed hearings to justify the detentions of the five Algerians…. The government did not provide enough information about the source to determine whether he or she was credible or reliable, Leon ruled.

    Funny how these guys kept their mission secret and only confided in a single incredible and unreliable witness. So secret, that the judge didn’t want to believe the witness or the evidence against them. The government ought to establish a half-way house for these five in the residence next to Judge Leon‘s home – ya know, just to asimilate them into the real world since their long imprisonment.

  • Cry havoc and let loose the regulators

    The Washington Post runs an article this morning entitled “Widespread complaints about a ruderless government” and it’s basically about the Federal workforce whining that they haven’t been able to regulate the private sector for eight years.

    When President Obama takes over in January as manager-in-chief of nearly 2 million federal employees, he will need a plan to reinvigorate a frustrated and demoralized workforce, career employees warn.

    In numerous agencies, federal civil servants complain that they have been thwarted for months or even years from doing the government jobs they were hired to do. Federal workers have told presidential transition leaders they feel rudderless, their morale impacted by the Bush administration’s opposition to industry regulation, steep budget cuts or the departures many months ago of Bush political appointees.

    I guess that’s another of the low bars the media ex[ects Obama to step over – writing enough regulations to keep the federal reg writers busy. Well, if they haven’t been busy in the last eight years, why have eight more volumes been added to the Code of Federal Regulations since 2000 – that’s an average of one every year. Sounds like the regulators have been busy all along, doesn’t it?

    Then, as if we, the reading public, are complete imbeciles, the Post adds this to the article;

    Federal employees said that they are not a passionately partisan group, but some are hopeful about an Obama presidency, assuming that their lot will improve. Several took heart from Obama’s campaign trail statements that he wanted to make federal government work “cool again.”

    Not “passionately partisan”? Funny, but the reports I got was that there was a pall over many offices after the 2004 election as if someone had died. Many offices had to have their arms twisted to post the usual photographs of the President and Vice President in 2000. I’ll betcha that Obama’s picture will be up before the Inauguration.

    The thing is, the government regulates nearly everything – I once found a diagram in the regs that specifically lays out the dimensions for theater seats – and every time the government writes a regulation, someone looses at least a little bit of their liberty. To me, federal employees gleeful about the prospect of writing more regulations is a very, very bad thing. It’s too bad the Post, which claims to  be part of the free media and watchdogs of the people, doesn’t think so, as well.

  • Obama’s aunt is illegal alien and Obama donor Updated; under the bus edition

    So AP is reporting that Obama’s aunt found in Boston was ordered to leave the country after a judge denied her amnesty request;

    And apparently she made an illegal donation to the Obama campaign;

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  • Lawyer sues McCain/Palin for hate speech

    JammieWearingFool found a Reuters report about a retired civil rights lawyer named Mary Kay Green who has decided to spend her retirement years tilting at windmills;

    Green, a 66-year-old grandmother and “semi-retired” civil rights attorney, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Kansas City this week accusing McCain, his running mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and their campaign manager Rick Davis of “intentionally, recklessly and irresponsibly” portraying Obama “as un-American, a terrorist by association,   and ‘not like us,’ a non-white individual.”

    Notice the quotes around “not like us”. As I’ve mentioned before, that’s not a quote from either McCain or Palin. It’s a quote from Obama himself when he once, on a stump speech, warned Democrats that Republicans and Hillary Clinton would tell them that he’s not like us and he has a funny name. So i guess this rocket scientist turned civil rights lawyer turned Don Quixote figures she can sue the McCain campaign for things Obama says about himself.

    The lawsuit claims that Green “suffers terror of the heart, anxiety and grave fear for the life of Presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Barack Obama” because of the McCain campaign’s efforts to invoke hatred against Obama.

    She ought to sue that cereal company to which she sent those 12 boxtops in exchange for her law degree.

  • Astroturfers busted cold by Ace and Rusty

    If you’re not reading Ace of Spades (here and then here) and The Jawa Report, you’re missing the big blog story of this election. The Astroturfing saga continues.

  • Is the Plame Game over?

    JammieWearingFool writes that an appeals court has dismissed Valerie Plame’s lawsuit against everyone who has been in the White House since George Bush became president;

    Michael Mukasey says there will be no prosecutions forthcoming in the Justice Department nonscandal, and now comes the delicious news that non-undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame has her bogus lawsuit against Vice President Cheney dismissed.

    A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday dismissed former CIA analyst Valerie Plame’s lawsuit against Vice President Dick Cheney and several former Bush administration officials for disclosing her identity to the public.

    I wonder if now the bimbo will file a lawsuit against Vanity Fair for outing her, or her husband, for that matter. Either way, it’s probably not over. Having no evidence or no case hasn’t stopped the morons from filing lawsuits before.

    But, the best part of JWF’s post is his hate mail. It seems that the trolls are pretty upset that no one went to jail for this incident, and oddly out of character, they get down right profane just because JWF writes about the decision. Just think how disillusioned they’ll be when the President and Vice President leave office on January 20th with no impeachment looming over their heads.

    Even better, when McCain wins in November. The imbecilic Left was protesting Bush before the war, imagine how they’ll be reacting when the messiah goes back to the Senate. That makes it worth voting for McCain right there – just to watch the Left freak.

  • West Chester, PA getting more bitter

    Some of you may remember that TSO and I ventured into the hinterlands to West Chester, PA back on Flag Day to spend the day with the Sheepdogs and Skye.

    I like this picture of Skye, so this gives me chance to post it again;

    Since they can’t stop the pro-victory movement from showing up against their “peace vigil” every Saturday, Skye writes in the Free Republic that the aged hippies are trying to use legal (or extra-legal means) to silence them. Below is the letter that  Rich Davis, the founder of the movement in West Chester, received (you can click the letter to make it larger, if you need to);

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