Day: January 11, 2011

“The Hammer” Gets Hammered

Back in the early days of the 21st century, the speaker of the House Tom DeLay, was known as the “Hammer” because of his heavy handed treatment of others in Washington…….DeLay conspired with two associates to use his Texas-based political action committee to send $190,000 in corporate money in 2002 to an arm of the Washington-based Republican National Committee. The RNC then sent the same amount to seven Texas House candidates. Under Texas law, corporate money can’t go directly to political campaigns.

After many years of legal dancing and him dancing with the stars the trial has rendered a verdict……from Salon.com…….

A judge has ordered U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to serve three years in prison for his role in a scheme to illegally funnel corporate money to Texas candidates in 2002.

The sentence comes after a jury in November convicted DeLay on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering. DeLay was once one of the most powerful men in U.S. politics, ascending to the No. 2 job in the House of Representatives.

Which is a slap on the hand….why?….he was looking at the possibility of a life sentence……will justice be done?  Not if lawyers have their way……

The Texas money laundering law is usually associated with drug dealers or white collar criminals, and Tom DeLay‘s defense attorneys say they will try to keep the former U.S. House majority leader out of prison with an appeal that focuses largely on questions about whether the law was ever intended to apply to election violations.Unlike in most money laundering cases, prosecutors argued he stood to benefit not financially but through political power.

The creative use of the statute — the first time it was ever applied in such a case — was key to his convictions on money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering charges.

Is it possible that a crook like DeLay will walk on money laundering charges?  You betcha!  Will justice be done here?  Not a chance, if the lawyers have their way………we will be watching!

Man Behind The Bullets

His name is Jared Lee Loughner….the man that killed many and critically wounded a US Congresswoman, Giffords in Arizona……….But why?

A note written by Jared Lee Loughner ahead of his shooting rampage in Tucson appears to show that he made careful preparations to assassinate Gabrielle Giffords, the congresswoman gravely wounded in the attack that also killed six other people.

The existence of the note is revealed in court papers filed after Loughner, 22, was charged on Sunday with murder and attempted assassination. The FBI document says that Loughner wrote on an envelope the words “I planned ahead”, “My assassination” and “Giffords”. He then signed the note.

Someone needs to pay attention!  Flying the flag at half-mast or postponing government or writing about one’s outrage at the act…is NOT enough!

Some so-called experts have shown that this man’s words are very telling of what he was thinking and that it could be politically motivated…….

The Southern Poverty Law Centre, one of America’s leading trackers of hate crimes, said there are signs in some of Loughner’s writings of far-right influence. Mark Potok, the director of research on hate groups at the centre, drew attention to Loughner’s online ramblings that reject the US currency.

“At one point, Loughner refers disparagingly to ‘currency that’s not backed by gold or silver’. The idea that silver and gold are the only ‘constitutional’ money is widespread in the anti-government ‘Patriot’ movement that produced so much violence in the 1990s,” he said.

Potok said the Patriot movement believes that paper money issued by the government is not legal tender. He said there were also clues to Loughner’s thinking in his internet postings in which he accused the government of “mind control on the people by controlling grammar”.

Potok said that fits with the theory of a Patriot conspiracy theorist who claims that the government uses grammar to “enslave” Americans.

But make NO mistake!  This guy is a deranged crazy……no matter of accusation will change that…..

But the national conversation will be more about the rhetoric and NOT about ease of which this person or anyone like him can obtain a firearm and achieve the same results…..while I agree that the rhetoric could well be at the heart of this man’s actions and it should be addressed….but the way firearms are obtained needs to be the focus of this debate and possibly find a way to slow the whack jobs from getting their demented little hands on implements of destruction……If only!

Sadly to say that in a month all this concern will be just a memory on facebook and nothing will be done about the ease at which lunatics can obtain a firearm……ain’t democracy great?