The Attack of Judge Halverson

Infamous Nevada Judge Elizabeth Halverson, reportedly both a terrible person and a completely incompetent judge, shows up at a Clark County Bar Association luncheon to oppose a non-political judiciary.

Almost immediately after Halverson first raised her hand, the 60 or so audience members averted their eyes, seemingly enthralled by their silverware.

Halverson questioned ABA information on the Missouri Plan, which she said had only actually been adopted in four counties in Missouri. (It has been adopted in four counties, the state Supreme Court and Appellate courts).

Halverson, elected this winter with just less than half the vote , favors Nevada's existing system, in which voters choose judges directly.

Otherwise, she wouldn't be a judge, which, given her record thus far, is probably something most Clark County voters wish was the case.

Yum

Well, it's not cat.

They may contain plenty of fibre, but that's all you can say for the cardboard-stuffed dumplings found on sale in the streets of Beijing in the latest example of China's food-safety woes.

In a case that has made television and newspaper headlines, a vendor was found selling the dumplings -- filled with cardboard that was passed off as meat.

An expose by undercover TV reporters showed how the unnamed man made the dumplings by softening shredded coardboard strips in caustic soda, an industrial chemical, and fortifying the bogus meat with a bit of fatty pork.

The merchant told the reporters that most customers noticed nothing wrong in eating the dumplings, known as "baozi".

He added that he himself never ate them.

Obviously.

China has taken a number of steps in recent months to improve consumer safety amid regular reports of fake, shoddy or dangerous goods emanating from the nation's chaotic and corrupt food and drug industry.

Toxic seafood, virus-plagued pigs and chemical-laden toothpaste are just some of the problems to have hit headlines around the world in recent months.

Of course, "taking steps" in China is a little different:

China this week executed the former head of its food and drug safety watchdog for corruption, in what was widely seen as an attempt by the government to show it is serious about the problem.

I'm pretty sure the foods and drugs remained exactly as unsafe after his execution as they would've after, say, a simple firing.

Helsinki, Sweden

Bruno Behrend notes that many Illinois conservatives, opposing a Constitutional Convention, appear to be suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.

If your goal is to return Illinois Government to one run by the citizens for the benefit of citizens, then there is no intellectually sound reason to be against a Convention. If your goal is to maintain the status quo of a class of mediocre kleptocrats reaming tax payers for the benefit of connected insiders, then a new Constitution is your worst enemy.

I know many smart conservatives with more experience in Illinois policy circles who disagree with me. I respectfully argue that they are wrong and that their position is based upon fear rather than reason.

I respectfully agree. Fear of what lies beyond the status quo is the ultimate failure of the conservative and good government movements in Illinois: The Chicago Democrats have become the wellspring from which all things flow, and unseating the Combine means cutting what can easily look like an important tether.

I'm not sure a Constitutional Convention is the answer, but it's certainly an answer, and to dismiss it out-of-hand is not reasonable.

He Throws Like A Girl

Rod Blagojevich was last seen complaining that state legislators don't work hard enough. Actually, he sent a henchperson to do it, because apparently he was far too busy to come down to the state capital (where he allegedly works but does not live and is rarely seen). Including among the duties that keep him away, apparently, is standing around in the yard of his Chicago home on a weekday during a critical overtime budget session, playing catch.

Would they feel better if we covered the border with landmines?

You have got to be kidding me.

Mexico's government, which complains violent drug cartels are battling each other with firearms bought in the United States, slammed slack U.S. gun laws as absurd on Thursday.

Mexico complains most of the often high-powered weapons used by warring Mexican traffickers come from gun shops in the United States and Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora said there was not enough control over their sale.

"I think the American (gun) laws are absurd because they ... make it very easy for citizens to acquire guns," he told a meeting of academics and businessmen.

More than 1,000 people have been killed in drug violence in Mexico this year as a three-way war between cartels and the Mexican military spirals to unprecedented levels.

This is obscene. In America, drug gangs do not routinely engage in activities like leaving severed heads on the steps of city hall, assassinating legislators, butchering city councilmen and leaving the head in a cooler at a newspaper ofice, staging pitched machinegun battles with the military and police, murdering reporters and gunning down newly-appointed police chiefs. This doesn't even happen in Vermont, which, by the Mexican Attorney General's logic, should be among the bloodiest of all states, with the disembodied heads of cops and reporters being as popular a medium of communication as they are on the Mexican border. In fact, Mexican government is such a joke that in order to combat this problem, Mexico took away the guns of Tijuana police officers, issuing them slingshots instead, because they suspected the police were using their government-issue firearms to conduct killings on behalf of the drug gangs.

It doesn't matter where the guns come from: In Mexico, the biggest problem is Mexico. Not Mexicans, not a few Mexican towns, but Mexico, the nation-state, and that entity is now suddenly heavily invested in diverting the blame, because not only do Mexicans not want to live in Mexico, but now an unusual number are dying horribly as a result of the state of things there. Mexico's drug gangs are powerful and influential, they have no problem getting automatic weapons and explosives, the sort of weapons that aren't readily available in the United States. American firearms are only a preference because it's so incredibly easy to get into America and back unnoticed. The contempt that I feel for the Mexican government making comments like this, criticizing our 'failure' to address their corruption and anarchy, while simultaneously demanding unobstructed passage for illegal immigrants, is immeasurable.

By Mexico's own admission, our open border with Mexico allows some of the most brutal organized crime syndicates in the world into our country. In a just world, trying to pin their comical collapse of governance on our freedoms would have diplomatic consequences. We don't need a fence, we need to arm the border, enforce our sovereignty and stop this outlandish idiocy.

Update: On that note, the immigration bill is back, after supporters on both side worked all day to figure out a way to keep it from dying a well-deserved death. Poor guys, they must be tired.

Mr. Bush said the $4.4 billion [for increased border security] would "come from the fines and penalties that we collect from those who have come to our country illegally" and apply for legal status.

Unbelievable taken by itself, even more insane when put in context of the above.

Code of Silence
For some reason, Rod Blagojevich doesn't want developers to talk about their own plans until he can spin it:

Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration has ordered private developers not to talk about plans for a huge new resort near Pinckneyville until Blagojevich himself can announce it, sources say.

Some lawmakers who support the project say that public relations directive could be endangering the proposal.

"People have asked, 'If these (developers) are credible, why don't they answer the phone?'" said state Sen. David Luechtefeld, R-Okawville. He is among several lawmakers who say they learned late last week of the administration's gag order, and now are pressing to have it lifted.

The Toney Watkins Co., a Glen Carbon-based investment group, wants to construct a Branson-like, 5,000-acre resort near Pinckneyville, possibly under a controversial land swap arrangement with the state. That controversy has been heightened in the past week by the dead silence of the company and its lobbyists, to the point of failing to even answer reporters' phone calls.

Several legislators and company officials confirmed Friday that the reason for the silence is a directive from Blagojevich's Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, which has been involved in talks on the project and could potentially offer financing or other assistance for it.

Belleville consultant Geri Boyer, who is working with the developers, said the gag order was contained in a letter from the agency. "It says we are not allowed to talk with the press until the governor announces the project," Boyer told the Post-Dispatch.

Chicago attorney Walter R. Dale, general counsel and vice president for the Toney Watkins Co., also confirmed on Friday the existence of the letter, though he said he couldn't detail its contents because it wasn't in front of him. He said the company's public silence has been partly because "we're trying to get a clear reading on what we're allowed to discuss" as laid out in the letter.

A spokesman for the economic development agency initially denied on Friday that the agency has told developers not to discuss the project. When pressed specifically about the letter that Boyer and Dale said the developers received from the agency, the spokesman would neither confirm nor deny its existence.

"I'm not sure what letter she's referring to," said the spokesman, Andrew Ross. "We're aware of the project, but that's for the developers to talk about."

A message left with Blagojevich's office Friday wasn't returned.

I'm going to guess it was intended purely to allow him to get the facetime. It fits his pattern, but nothing good can come of it.

In other news, Blagojevich says he will not accept a new budget that does not provide a $100,000,000 bailout for the Chicago Transit Authority. I continue to wonder where he thinks this money comes from, and that concern is shared by some new Democratic legislators.

Sen. Mike Frerichs, D-Gifford, said he was asked what it would take for him to vote for Blagojevich's universal health care plan.

"There's nothing you can give me," Frerichs said he told Blagojevich's staff. "I just don't think that the timing is right or that this particular bill is the right way to address our health care problem in the state, and I'm not willing to trade a vote for 30 pieces of silver in order to do that."

Frerichs and others say Jones hasn't pressured them to cast potentially dangerous votes. They say he knows the political realities of their new districts and doesn't want to endanger their chances of re-election.

Perhaps he didn't have to. Earlier in the session, Jones stunned the Statehouse by using a rare parliamentary move to reverse a victory that one of his own members had achieved on legislation the Senate president opposed. It sent a clear message: Jones wields the power.

Blagojevich and Jones have accused House Speaker Michael Madigan of blocking progress. Blagojevich has suggested lawmakers don't work hard enough. Sen. Mike Jacobs, D-East Moline, accused the governor of threatening to ruin his career unless Jacobs voted for his health plan.

Blagojevich claiming that state legislators don't work hard enough is absolutely insane, given that he's the man who refused to move to the state capital, and sent a flunky to hurl the accusations at the Assembly, being too lazy to come down and do it himself. Even former Illinois Governor Dan Walker, who, as Blagojevich likely will in the future, ended up spending some time in prison after his time in office, says that Illinois government is too corrupt and that Blagojevich is a cretin.

Only in Illinois: An ex-con, saying Illinois politics is too corrupt.

The Blagojevich Life
Paris Hilton's grandfather, it turns out, is a contributor to Sheriff Baca's election campaign fund. Given his past pattern of repeated accusations of odd and potentially unethical behavior, including accepting more gifts than California's 57 other sheriffs combined, that's intriguing.

Also stomping on Paris Hilton is George Clooney:

Ocean's 13 star George Clooney believes the Simple Life star is a hypocrite for manipulating the press attention to create her current "star" status, only for her to whinge about the current media frenzy.

WENN reports Clooney as saying, "You can only get so far without discernable talent - then you either work, or use cheap publicity tricks to keep the public's attention.

Heh.

Paris in Chains
When Paris Hilton, despite her absolutely shocking disregard for the judicial system, had her sentence reduced to 23 days for showing up in court on time, many felt it was a miscarriage of justice. (Yet another reminder of Chris Rock's routine about people who expect to be praised for doing what they're supposed to do anyway.) When she was released after three days, virtually all of us thought it was an abortion.

Now? She's back for all 45.

Screaming and crying out for her mother when she was ordered back to jail, Paris Hilton's cool, glamorous image evaporated as a judge ruled she must serve out her entire 45-day sentence behind bars rather than in her Hollywood Hills home.

"It's not right!" shouted the weeping Hilton in court Friday. "Mom!" she called out to Kathy Hilton, who also was in tears.

Hilton had been brought to court, handcuffed and crying, in a sheriff's car that picked her up from her home. She was escorted into court disheveled, without makeup, hair askew and face red with tears.

Allow me a moment to indulge in cruel laughter.

Superior Court Judge Michael T. Sauer was apparently unmoved by the pleas of Hilton's three lawyers to send her back to home confinement due to an unspecified medical condition. He ordered Hilton returned to a Los Angeles County jail to serve out the remainder of her 45-day sentence for violating probation in an alcohol-related reckless driving case.

The sheriff later hinted at a news conference that Hilton had psychological problems, and said she would be watched in jail "so that there isn't anything that is harmfully done to herself by herself."

Following the hearing, Hilton was taken to a correctional treatment center at the downtown Twin Towers jail for medical and psychiatric examination to determine which facility she will be held in, said sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore.

Her blond hair was pulled back in a disheveled knot, in contrast to the glamorous side-swept style in her booking photo from earlier in the week. She was wrapped in a long gray fuzzy sweatshirt over slacks.

Her body shook constantly as she dabbed at her eyes. Several times she turned to her parents, seated behind her in the courtroom, and mouthed, "I love you." At one point, she made the sign of the cross and appeared to be praying.

When the judge announced his decision to return her to jail, Hilton screamed. Deputies ordered all spectators out of the courtroom. Hilton's mother, Kathy, threw her arms around her husband, Rick, and sobbed uncontrollably.

Crikey. She's not going to prison for 20 years, she's going to jail for a few weeks. Get a grip.

Of course, Hilton has never been responsible for anything in her life: Her family has sheltered her from responsibility and burden, her career was something she chose for fun, not because she needs to earn a living, and even now her mother validates her belief that she is above accountability. She is, for all practical purposes, a child, because she's never been made to grow up.

This baffles Sheriff Baca and his psychiatrists:

The sheriff later defended his decision, citing jail crowding (although Hilton was in a special unit and did not have a cellmate) and what he termed "severe medical problems."

He said he had learned from one of her doctors that she was not taking a certain medication while previously in custody, and that her "inexplicable deterioration" puzzled county psychiatrists.

Baca also charged that Hilton received a more severe sentence than the usual penalty for such a crime, which he said would have been either no jail time or direct placement in home confinement with electronic monitoring.

Hilton didn't "deteriorate": This is the same helpless misfit we all know, and this is what the fragile muppet is like without her bubble, her drugs, and her validation. Given her unbelievable arrogance and defiance toward the law over such a simple issue, there's nothing unreasonable severe about her sentence. Most people don't behave like she did, which is why most people are treated more leniently. It's an affront to American justice that she would be released early because she's too cowardly and irresponsible to deal with the consequences of her actions. If she needs to be on suicide watch because she's that cracked up over a few weeks in the clink, whatever: Being an emotional invalid is not a basis for being released from jail to spend her time in her mansion surrounded by pictures of herself. Whatever mental issues she has should be dealt with in jail, just like has to be done for everyone else. Good on Judge Sauer for ensuring she serve out her sentence, and shame on Baca, who has a history of controversial judgement. Nevermind her mother.

Of course, The Man Show's Adam Corolla put it best when he said that none of us would be happy if she were doing well "on the inside", using the time to herself to think and write her memoirs. Instead, we can only feel justice is served if we can open our windows to hear her screams of anguish in the night. If anything, it's an easily understood abomination of a situation that gives the public an opportunity to reflect on whether or not their courts are functioning properly.

Update: Unbelievably, we now have Socialists defending Paris Hilton.

One can only feel sympathy for the young woman and contempt for the authorities in this case.

Apparently, it's some kind of media conspiracy to distract us from how unhappy we are with capitalism.

That's A Lie
Corrupticon William Jefferson has pled not guilty, despite, in fact, having committed the crimes of which he is accused.

As conditions for his release, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III denied the congressman access to shotguns and rifles in his Louisiana home. Jefferson said the guns were used for hunting.

Ellis also ordered Jefferson to surrender his passport.

Oddly, I haven't seen any reference in the press to the Hurricane Katrina incident. It seems important in establishing the filthwad's character.

Update: Ironically, William Jefferson is a gun control advocate. Yet, he owns multiple firearms.

A Century of Attorneys
Since January first, 134 attorneys have asked to have their cases transferred out of Elizabeth Halverson's court. Halverson, you may recall, is Clark County, Nevada's now-famous psycho-judge.

The Lesser Jefferson
Absurdly corrupt and just plain absurd Louisiana Congressman William Jefferson has at last been indicted:

Nearly two years after federal agents reported finding $90,000 in a freezer in his Washington home, U.S. Rep. William Jefferson has been charged with a global campaign to solicit bribes, obstruct justice and engage in racketeering, Justice Department officials said Monday.

The veteran Louisiana Democrat faces 16 criminal counts, said Alice Fisher, assistant U.S. attorney general in the criminal division.

In addition to the racketeering and solicitation charges, Jefferson has been charged with money laundering, wire fraud, conspiracy and violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

"Congressman Jefferson is innocent. He plans to fight this indictment and clear his name," said Jefferson's attorney, Robert Trout. He said the "creative" indictment does not say Jefferson promised anyone legislative favors.

O.J. killed Nicole, Michael Jackson molested those kids, and William Jefferson is most certainly corrupt.

The charges are based on 11 schemes in which Jefferson allegedly solicited bribes for himself and his family from government and business officials in the United States, Nigeria, Botswana, Equatorial Guinea and Sao Tome e Principe, U.S. Attorney Chuck Rosenberg said at an afternoon news conference.

"Mr. Jefferson corruptly traded on his good office and on the Congress where he served ... to enrich himself and his family through a pervasive pattern of fraud, bribery, and corruption that spanned many years and two continents," Rosenberg said.

Jefferson sought millions of dollars in cash and company stock and received "somewhat less than $400,000," Rosenberg said.

Jefferson has denied wrongdoing, and won a ninth congressional term in a December runoff despite the allegations. But the probe already has led to guilty pleas by a Kentucky businessman and a former aide to the congressman.

Republican leaders have now moved for a vote to have Jefferson expelled from Congress. Conviction on all charges could see Jefferson sentenced to over two hundred years in prison, and the odds are, he'll receive at least a good portion of that, because he's guilty as sin:

At one audiotaped meeting, Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., chuckles about writing in code to keep secret what the government contends was his corrupt role in getting his children a cut of a communications company's deal for work in Africa.

As Jefferson...passed notes about what percentage the lawmaker's family might receive, the congressman "began laughing and said, 'All these damn notes we're writing to each other as if we're talking, as if the FBI is watching,'" according to the affidavit.

Ironically, the man Jefferson was passing the note to was an FBI informant, from whom Jefferson accepted $100,000 in bribe money.

William Jefferson has been a subject of some note on this blog, including his aid's confession and my all time favorite, when, during the flooding following Hurricane Katrina, William Jefferson diverted a National Guard rescue helicopter and two trucks to help remove what one could easily speculate was incriminating evidence from his flooded New Orleans home.

The man's dirty as hell, and he belongs in a prison cell.

Another One Bites The Dust
Ali Ata, a corrupt flunky of corrupt Governor Rod Blagojevich flunky Tony Rezko, is going down:

The former executive director of a billion-dollar state bonding agency was indicted Thursday on charges of helping a political contributor and entrepreneur defraud General Electric Capital Corp. out of $10 million.

Ali D. Ata, 55, was accused of producing a bogus letter designed to help Antoin Rezko borrow the $10 million from the corporation in what prosecutors described as a plan to buy two groups of pizza restaurants at inflated prices.

Ata, of suburban Lemont, will plead not guilty, said his attorney Thomas McQueen.

Prosecutors already had charged Rezko with defrauding GE Capital in the deal, which involved the purchase of the restaurants at inflated prices and a transfer of their assets to himself and another buyer. He has pleaded not guilty.

The state agency that this fraudster was in charge of?

Ata was named the executive director of the Illinois Finance Authority in January 2004. He left in March 2005. A longtime Rezko friend and business associate, he contributed $65,000 to Gov. Rod Blagojevich's campaign. The governor has not been accused of wrongdoing.

Oh, sure he has. Just not by the Feds. Yet.

The indictment alleges that in February 2004, at Rezko's request, Ata signed a letter on finance authority letterhead that falsely made it appear an unnamed investor had applied for financing in connection with the purchase of pizza restaurants in Chicago and Milwaukee.

Ata knew that Rezko intended to show the letter to GE Capital to persuade the lending company to give him funds to take part in the restaurants' purchase, the indictment said.

In addition to the charge of defrauding GE Capital out of the $10 million, Rezko also has pleaded not guilty to separate charges that he worked with millionaire political contributor Stuart Levine to squeeze payoffs out of money management companies seeking state business.

You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. Dan Curry is eyeballing David Gustman suspiciously, another man tied up in the same bunch.

Newest Reason To Abolish Income Tax
Man, if this is correct, Durbin's really got a foot-in-mouth problem.

Move America Forward, a group that supports the U.S. military and wants to eject the United Nations from the United States, is currently running broadcast ads criticizing Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, for comparing U.S. troops at Guantanamo Bay to Nazis, Soviets in their gulags or mad regimes like Pol Pot's.

Durbin's office is trying to silence Move America Forward, the group says, by hinting to an Illinois newspaper (the Northwest Herald of Crystal Lake) that the Internal Revenue Service should audit Move America Forward.

Someone from Durbin's office was quoted as telling the newspaper - in connection with Move America Forward -- "Have you ever seen that H&R Block commercial where the guy leans in and says, 'I see an audit'?"

"One of the grounds used to threaten impeachment of President Richard Nixon was that he politicized the IRS and tried to use IRS audits of his political enemies to shut them down or silence them. That is precisely what Senator Durbin's office is doing now, Washburn said.

Move America Forward also accused Durbin's office of pressuring Illinois television stations not to run the television ad criticizing Durbin's remarks about U.S. troops at Guantanamo Bay.

According to Move America Forward, two television stations have buckled under the pressure, including the ABC and NBC affiliates in Chicago. Both stations are refusing to run Move America Forward's ad, it says, although CBS's Chicago affiliate is running it.

Boy, it'd sure be a shame if he got drafted. *cough*

The Man Behind The Curtain
I told you that Mayor Daley's offhand comment was the driving force behind Durbin's apology, and you probably thought I was being silly, but who's laughing now?

Durbin started Tuesday with no intention of backing down from his June 14 remarks, delivered from the Senate floor, which touched off a fire storm and the biggest crisis of his career. Democratic senators were gearing up to defend Durbin, the No. 2 Democratic leader.

Daley's off-the-cuff criticism Tuesday morning forced a change of strategy. Daley's strong words came at the end of a Navy Pier press conference to promote a new anti-prostitution policy, listing the names of alleged johns on a Chicago Police Web site.

The mayor responded to the question about the apology saying, "It's a disgrace and [Durbin] is a good friend of mine. But I think it's a disgrace to say that any man or woman in the military acts like [Nazis] or that a report is like that," Daley said. "You go and talk to some victims of the Holocaust, and they will tell you horror stories and there are not horror stories like that in Guantanamo Bay."

Daley, however, never intended for Durbin to apologize, he was just playing the crowd:

Daley, said Heard, thought he was offering to the reporters an updated version of his anti-Washington rhetoric. For years, Daley has complained about Washington partisanship even when his brother Bill was the commerce secretary under President Bill Clinton.

Walking back to their car at Navy Pier, Heard said she and the mayor looked at each other and said, "Whoa, there you go again.'' Heard told Daley his words were going to be a national story. The mayor thought, Heard said, he did not make any news.

Meanwhile, Durbin staffers were told about the mayoral hit and called Heard to find out what happened. Handling an attack from the White House, GOP senators and the rabid right wing was one thing for Durbin's team. A slam by one of the nation's most prominent Democrats -- the mayor of the largest city in Durbin's state -- was another.

Heard briefed the mayor in his fifth floor City Hall office. "The moment he realized that this had gone to a different level, he called Durbin to say this was not meant to hurt him,'' Heard said.

But Daley never connected with Durbin. Heard said the senator was already on the floor of the Senate when Daley phoned.

Heard told me Daley and Durbin talked Wednesday afternoon for about 20 minutes. They will have dinner together in Washington on Monday night -- previously planned.

Mayor Daley is so powerful in Illinois that he can casually criticize one of our United States Senators, and that Senator will rush to the Senate floor and cry.

This place is amazing.