What would you do if a lawyer threatened, "Give me a million dollars or my client and I will publicly brand you as a rapist and destroy your life?"
Rope; tree; some assembly required? Not that I would advocate violence or anything.
On July 27, the California Supreme Court expanded the range of choices possible to one man who was presented with that threat.
The dance phenomenon Michael Flatley of Riverdance fame can proceed not only with a lawsuit for defamation against his accuser but also with one for extortion against her lawyer.
The very fact that the attorney faces possible civil liability may impact how aggressively attorneys proceed in lawsuits that allege sexual misconduct. A common reason for settling such suits is fear of publicity.
Scum. Earth. I hope Flatley wins BIG. These clowns give decent lawyers (and I do know some) a bad name.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/02/2006 20:39 ||
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#1
You notice they don't try that kind of stuff with the boys in the mob? Doesn't take someone with a college education to figure out why. Its way past time the entire 'legal' establishment get some grounding that they are not our rulers. Government and its law derives its power from the consent of the governed. When government and lawyers become destructive of the basic rights of the people, it is their right to alter the government or law or abolish it. The extortion case should have been handled in criminal not civil court, but then, like sharks I guess they have professional courtesy.
(SomaliNet) Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank has come to the rescue of Zimbabwean shoppers by slashing three zeros off Zimbabwe's currency. This will help shoppers in Zimbabwe carry less cash on their shopping sprees. "From tomorrow, the 1st of August 2006, three zeroes are being taken off every bearer cheque (bank note) which introduces a new family of bearer cheques. That makes much more sense and I hope dollars as well," Gideon Gono, Zimbabwe National bank's governor said.
Zimbabwe National Bank governor added, "It returns to us stability and convenience and of course this is just one monetary mechanism to help make commerce and everyday life more convenient. Zimbabwe is a victim of the world's highest inflation rate.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/02/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Marvelous. Only one wheel-barrow needed, instead of three.
#3
I'm very confused. Was it because they lacked space on the bills to put all the zeros? Couldn't they have made bigger bills? Bigger is better, isn't it? Or perhaps left a blank space to put the desired number of zero, as needed by inflation. It's not like it would have lessened the trust of the people into the currency or something, I mean.
#6
Hint to Gideon Gono: what it says on the piece of paper is NOT what determines the value of cash.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/02/2006 6:26 Comments ||
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#7
The UK annexed Southern Rhodesia from the South Africa Company in 1923. A 1961 constitution was formulated that favored whites in power. In 1965 the government unilaterally declared its independence, but the UK did not recognize the act and demanded more complete voting rights for the black African majority in the country (then called Rhodesia). UN sanctions and a guerrilla uprising finally led to free elections in 1979 and independence (as Zimbabwe) in 1980. Robert MUGABE, the nation's first prime minister, has been the country's only ruler (as president since 1987) and has dominated the country's political system since independence.
#12
I'm no accountant, but if the bills have FEWER zeroes, but goods "cost" the same, then wouldn't you have to carry MORE cash? In other words, if all the sudden we didn't have $1,000 bills (but only $1 bills), but a loaf of bread still cost $1,000, then I have to carry around 1,000 $1 bills instead of 1 $1,000 bill!
Posted by: BA ||
08/02/2006 10:45 Comments ||
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#14
(myopic synopsis of Rhodesia culled)
"Thank you Great Britain"
Yes! 75 years of building infrastructure, developing such things as the judiciary, sustainable farming, communications, be PC! hand it over to your commie tribes and within 10 years you too could have a basket case state to rival North Korea.
#16
Are we suggesting that white people organize and operate government and various commerce better than black people ?
Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh. Whoops, there's an elephant in the room.
#18
It takes intelligence, planning, hard work, and a bit of knowledge of how the world works to develop a government that will work. All it takes is one or two a$$hole dictators to screw it up. Zimbabwe is just an extreme example. Take a long look at South Africa, many of the Pacific island nations, the rest of Africa, and many parts of Asia for additional examples.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/02/2006 21:57 Comments ||
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(SomaliNet) At least three Burundians were killed and some 10 others injured in a grenade attack in Burundi's capital Bujumbura, the army said on Monday, Sapa-AFP reported. The incident has been blamed on the country's last remaining active rebels, the National Liberation Forces (FNL). According to Burundis Army spokesperson Adolphe Manirakiza, the National Liberation Forces (FNL) insurgents threw grenades into two bars in Bujumbura's north-eastern Gihosha neighbourhood late on Sunday.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/02/2006 00:00 ||
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Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia yesterday made a fervent call to unlock South Asia's true potential through faster and deeper economic integration so that the region could play its due part in this Asian resurgence in the new era.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/02/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
It may belong to parts of Asia, but not their little corner.
#6
Just like Asia was supposed to dominate in the 80s, 90s, etc.
Japan will be a economic and soon to be military power. Tiawan will be a economic power. China might or might not depending on how badly their banking system crashes and if they get in a war.
Vietnam might become semi-prospurous if the new free market reforms work.
The rest of asia will rot just like it always has.
#7
It will - if by 'Asia' you mean the PacRIM, ie. countries that border the Pacific.
Like the US. Australia. Japan.
But the Bangla PM is right that without real economic integration into world markets (with all that implies about cleaning up social and political corruption, and educating women, and such) they're doomed to fall farther and farther behind.
They can't have both.. which is why Pakistan and Bangladesh are screwed
Posted by: john ||
08/02/2006 9:21 Comments ||
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#9
Yet again, we have an example of cargo cult thinking.
"Hey, it's the Asian century, we're in Asia, so we're gonna be rich! - terrific, let's blow off those Indians and their damn steel works, we don't need them, we're all gonna be rich I tell ya, and all because we're in Asia!"
"Err, Mr Zia, we're in the shitty end of Asia, 10% of our country is within a metre of sea level, we have subsistence farming down to an art and we keep telling foreign firms to keep their money. How are we going to get rich?"
"Mahmoud, you dummy, we're in Asia, we're gonna be rich!"
lotp and DarthVader, I couldn't agree with you more, and Seafarious, that's just not nice! ;)
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/02/2006 9:24 Comments ||
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#10
Even Burma is more development oriented.. India has just signed an agreement with them for the building of a gas pipeline to supply SEZs in India.
Bangaldesh opposed the transit so no fees for them, the pipeline will go around Bangladesh.
(hundreds of millions a year in transit fees lost)
Posted by: john ||
08/02/2006 9:29 Comments ||
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Here is a snippet from a NY Times report
Here in Tamil Nadu state, where the changes are briskest, global corporations are already taking advantage of a shift the world has scarcely noticed.
Victoria's Secret already buys 6.5 million bras a year in this city, roughly one-tenth of its global total, from a factory its parent company, Limited Brands, invested in. Nokia just erected a high-volume factory here that it says will produce more than 30 million phones a year and account for at least one-tenth of its global output.
Hyundai Motor, which produces a new car in Tamil Nadu every minute, has made India its global hub for the Santro hatchback; it plans to ship 100,000 India-made cars to 60 nations this year, and 300,000 within two years.
"Geographically, it's close to the market, and the second thing is the very highly educated people in India," said Heung Soo Lheem, chief of India operations for Hyundai, explaining why his company had invested in the country. Thirdly, he said, "the suppliers are here - I do not say better than China, but maybe the same. And the labor costs are less than China."
In a gold rush that evokes the start of China's factory boom, multinationals like Bayerische Motoren Werke, General Motors and Intel are locking down real estate in Tamil Nadu, as are scores of little-known companies from South Korea to Italy. Outside Madras, also known as Chennai, barren grazing land that cost $1,000 an acre, or $2,500 a hectare, 20 years ago sells for up to 65 times as much today.
Within the special zones, foreign managers say, whatever fettered earlier producers is gone. "I don't know why people say it was impossible earlier," said Jukka Lehtela, the Finnish operations manager at Nokia, which operates its own special zone. "I can prove that they are wrong."
As workers nearby planted microscopic components onto circuit boards, zapped them with ion guns and snapped together $60 phones, Lehtela added: "I don't really see anything that can stop volume production here."
Posted by: john ||
08/02/2006 9:32 Comments ||
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#12
Which is probably why India is speeding up the building of the 3000 km border fence to keep out the Bangladeshis
Posted by: john ||
08/02/2006 9:33 Comments ||
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#13
...India is speeding up the building of the 3000 km border fence to keep out the Bangladeshis
#14
Crushing poverty. No infrastructure. Backward religions that value animals over people. Lack of education. Massive overpopulation. Lack of natural resources and raw materials for industry. Yep. Soulds like a recipe for success to me.
#18
Indians are averse to killing of animals so they won't shoot the errant monkeys.
With 8% economic growth sustainable for at least two decades, and 26% annual growth in manufacturing, it will make substantial progress in reducing poverty.
Bangladesh and Pakistan will have to hitch their rides on the Indian economic engine if they hope to progress - but will they ?
Or will the call of islam triumph?
Posted by: john ||
08/02/2006 17:12 Comments ||
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#19
Compare East Bengal (Bangladesh) with West Bengal (India) which has just landed this 20 billion dollar FDI
KOLKATA: In the biggest-ever foreign direct investment in infrastructure development in the country, the West Bengal government on Monday inked a landmark deal worth a whopping Rs 40,000 crore with the Indonesia-based Salim Group.
The deal is a major success for the reforms poster boy, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya. Under the pact, a 100-km expressway linking Kukrahati in East Midnapore district with Raichak in South 24-Parganas, a clutch of ultra-modern housing schemes, malls, bridges and a knowledge-and-health city will come up.
Conscious of the road bumps ahead, the CM said, "We're committed to arranging for land for these projects to come up. Much of this will have to be converted from agriculture to industrial use. And yet, we know that we'll have to strike the right balance."
By a conservative estimate, the state government will have to hand over 45,000 acres of land to the Salim Group in order to accommodate all the components of this mega project that will take 15 years to complete.
Posted by: john ||
08/02/2006 18:35 Comments ||
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#14: "India is speeding up the building of the 3000 km border fence to keep out the Bangladeshis
Gee, I wish the US had thought of that!"
But a fence won't work, DV!
Just think of all the money the Indians are wasting. Too bad they didn't ask the Dems for advice....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/02/2006 19:23 Comments ||
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#21
the Banglas do the jobs the Indians won't do...
/lying illegal rationalizer
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/02/2006 20:27 Comments ||
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#22
"...the Banglas do the jobs the Indians won't do..."
Actually, that is the case. There are things that middle class Indians will not do, and they hire the uneducated people that flock to the metropolitan areas from the villages, to do these things.
Sorry for the tortured syntax on that last sentence, I was trying to avoid using the term "village people"! Oops.
They can be Banglas, Bongs (Bengalis) etc. Keep in mind, 80% of India's 1+ billion people are uneducated and not really interested in changing that.
#23
#23: "There are things that middle class Indians will not do"
It's probably more the case of there are things they don't have to do - because they're middle class.
There are a great many things that I could do, but hire out instead - now that I can afford to do so. Changing the oil in the car is one of them; I don't care about machinery and don't like getting my hands greasy. I'm happy to give my hard-earned money to those who do.
Technically, I'd do anything I'm physically able to do in order to support myself if I had to. I have education and experience and a great work ethic, and (at least at present) I don't have to do any of a great many things I don't like in order to support myself.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/02/2006 21:00 Comments ||
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#24
"It's probably more the case of there are things they don't have to do - because they're middle class."
Uh huh. So, you've lived in a middle class Indian environment? You're married to a middle class Indian and have how many middle class Indian family members? You live in India how many months out of the year?
Indians being far more class aware than we are, there are things a middle class Indian will not do.
#25
I'm aware that Indians are different from Americans, #25 Manolo, and may well not be willing to do some things to support themselves and their families. There are unfortunately too many native-born Americans with that same attitude.
However, Indian or American, if they're middle class, they don't have to do those things.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/02/2006 21:42 Comments ||
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#26
I've not lived the middle class Indian life, but I have patronized 7-11's, gas stations, and motels....does that count?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/02/2006 22:24 Comments ||
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HAVANA -- Fidel Castro said Tuesday that he was stable and in good spirits after surgery, according to a statement read on state television, as the Communist government tried to impose a sense of normalcy on the island's first day in 47 years without the bearded leader in charge.
...the threat posed to his government by the United States means his health must be treated as 'a state secret.'
Castro, who temporarily handed power to his younger brother Raul on Monday night after undergoing intestinal surgery, indicated the operation was serious when he said: "I can not make up positive news." But he said his health was "stable," and "as for my spirits, I feel perfectly fine," according to the statement read by moderator Randy Alonso on a daily public affairs program. He said it would take some time for doctors "to provide a verdict" on his recovery. Castro apologized for not giving more details, but said the threat posed to his government by the United States means his health must be treated as "a state secret."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/02/2006 00:00 ||
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...Let me point something out - as much as I'd like to see El Commandante assume room temperature, the fact is that the majority of the Cuban people still dislike the US more than they dislike Castro. Yes, there are many people who want to leave Cuba, and they should be welcomed. Unfortunately, there's still a lot of Cubans around who remember the Bad Old Days under Batista (which the population THEN blamed on us), and a lot of Cubans believe the propaganda Fidel has been spewing all these years. US Government policy and statements on Cuba for the last 40-something years has been based in great measure on the beliefs of (and political support from) Cuban exile leaders who say that one good push will bring it down, or Castro's death will be the signal for la segunda revolución - but that's not really likely to happen, at least not this time. More likely is after Raul takes power, a quiet struggle will develop between the Party faithful and the military as to who takes over when Raul shuffles off this mortal coil.
All of the above, BTW, comes from a good friend who spent 7 years in Cuba as a missionary before ALL missionaries were expelled a couple years back. (Castro and the Party have been quietly pushing Santeria as an alternative to Christianity.) Don't remember hearing about it? Don't feel bad, it didn't even make a ripple in the MSM. After all, their buddy Fidel MUST have had a good reason for throwing them out, so why make it hard on him? My friend mentioned a conversation he had with a Cuban militiaman who said that El Commandante assured them that the world stood beside them in expelling the missionaries - and bueno, it must be true, not a single news story anywhere.
We will see a state funeral unlike any since the death of Mao, and the tears will be sincere and real...and life in the Socialist Paradise will go on. Sad, depressing, but true.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/02/2006 7:55 Comments ||
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I'm feeling better, I think I'll go for a walk ...
#10
the fact is that the majority of the Cuban people still dislike the US more than they dislike Castro
The Cuban feelings towards the U.S. are irrelevant. What's relevant is their feelings on the gap between what their lives are and what their lives could be with a different government.
Cubans may be as happy and content as the media portrays them. Or they could be yearning for a lot more, as indicated by the hundreds of thousands that take to boats and rafts whenever the government communicates that it will hold its fire for a week.
SEOUL (AFP) - Up to 10,000 North Koreans were believed dead or missing in what Pyongyang's official media is describing as the worst flooding in a century, an independent South Korean humanitarian group said. "About 4,000 people are now listed as missing, and we expect the final toll of dead and missing to reach 10,000," said the independent aid group Good Friends.
North Korea's official media has admitted that hundreds of people were dead or missing after a severe typhoon followed by heavy rain hit the country on July 10.
Good Friends, a long-term aid partner for North Korea, declined to reveal the sources for its figures. Other international aid agencies have given lower numbers, based on official North Korean statistics.
Serious flooding helped trigger a famine in the mid-1990s in which aid groups claim some two million North Koreans died. A decade later the country is still unable to feed its people and damage to farmland from the latest flooding has sparked concerns that chronic food shortages may worsen again this year.
North Korea's bare hillsides, stripped of tree cover by impoverished residents looking for fuel, are particularly vulnerable to flooding and landslides caused by erosion. Two weeks of heavy rainfall sent rainwater sweeping down deforested hillsides, unleashing rivers of mud on farms and villages.
A South Korean expert said energy and food shortages were behind the deforestation as North Koreans seek firewood and try to farm hillsides.
"North Korea began developing mountainside farming from the 1970s in an effort to boost food production," said Kwon Tae-Jin of the Korea Rural Economic Institute. "But that just aggravated the food shortage and made the country very vulnerable to heavy rains."
Worst-hit areas include Sinyang and other counties along the upstream of the Taedong river which runs through the center of Pyongyang, leaving thousands of people dead or missing, the aid group said.
In Haeju, 105 kilometers (90 miles) south of Pyongyang, witnesses saw 200 bodies fished out of floodwaters, Good Friends said. Malaria was now spreading in southern regions, the group added.
Though a massive relief operation was under way, Good Friends said that North Korea's army was confined to barracks because of tension with the outside world over its recent missile tests. The missiles shot on July 5 triggered condemnation from the international community and weapons-related sanctions from the United Nations.
Angry South Korea suspended rice and other humanitarian aid to the communist North just days before the typhoon hit.
South Korea's former unification minister Jeong Se-Hyun, who is now leading the non-governmental Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation, said North Korea was in crisis but felt it was in no positon to request aid after defying the international community over its missile launches. "It seems that North Korea is saying 'We'll receive things that others give, but we can't tell them to give,'" he said.
Even so, earlier Wednesday the Korea National Red Cross (KNRC) of South Korea said its North Korean counterpart had rejected an offer of help. "We offered them help through the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. They expressed thanks but said they would do it for themselves," KNRC spokesman Kim Hyung-Sup told AFP.
This week, citing flood damage, Pyongyang cancelled a joint celebration with South Korea scheduled for the North Korean capital on August 15, the anniversary of liberation from the 1910-1945 Japanese rule.
It also put off a mass propaganda festival known as the Arirang festival which was scheduled to run from August 15 through October.
#6
Forgive me, but I can't help thinking that no reasonable South Korean would want to saddle themselves with the horror that the North has become, it would bankrupt them for a century.
The time for "Reunification" is long past, cut the ties and move on.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/02/2006 19:05 Comments ||
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THEY are perhaps one of the largest groups of young people from the United States to visit Cuba this year. They are Chicano, Mexican, Puerto Rican, African-American, Asian, and white, many from working-class families. Coming from nine U.S. states, the 48 members of the Venceremos Brigade traveled to Toronto, Canada to fly together to Cuba, publicly stating their intention of violating the U.S. ban on travel to the island, a component of the imperialist blockade that has been intensified by the Bush administration. I feel very strongly about the right to come here, because its such an amazing place, said brigadista Priscilla Bassett, a 15-year-old high school student from New York. I think its despicable that we call ourselves a democracy and have this blockade.
... coming here would be a very strong act of civil disobedience against the U.S. government, which I do not believe in at all...
Steven Gustavo Emmons, 26, a waiter and radio journalist from New Mexico, commented, I knew that this was the only way for me to understand Cubas reality, to see it with my own eyes, and that coming here would be a very strong act of civil disobedience against the U.S. government, which I do not believe in at all.
The Venceremos (We shall Overcome) Brigade was created in 1969 when radical students in the United States decided to support Cubas Revolution and travel to Cuba, explains Kathe Karlson, 57. A social worker at a New York City public high school, Karlson herself has been on the brigade nine times, one of 9,000 people most of them young who have gone to the island with the group. In the early years it was more about coming to see Cuba; now its about openly and publicly defying the blockade, Karlson explained. Now, even though the government has taken away 90 percent of legal travel, there is increased opposition to the ban, she affirmed.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
08/02/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Same type of radical apologists at Penn State whom argued that becuz there is more enough food for everyone, the reason why ordianry Cuban hosfraus see scarcities in Cuban food markets + need food vouchers to get food is becuz Castro his Govt want to make sure the bounty of the Cuban cornocupia is fairly and equally distributed - you know, why both ordinary Cubans + now the Army are now starving ala North Korea, whilst Castro, etal. and only Castro, etal. has to have expensive hams routinely imported for his own PERSONAL, LIMITED EQUALITY = UNIVERSAL/
POPULAR ANTI-EQUALITY, use. ALL HAMS ARE EQUAL ONLY WHEN THE GREAT LEADER IS THE ONLY ONE EATING IT - SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL WARLORD-MAFIA-BANDIT SLAVER, ETC. D *** YOU, ITS THE WILL OF GOD = THE PEOPLE!
#4
Steven Gustavo Emmons, 26, a waiter and radio journalist from New Mexico, commented, I knew that this was the only way for me to understand Cubas reality, to see it with my own eyes, and that coming here would be a very strong act of civil disobedience against the U.S. government, which I do not believe in at all.
Well, now, Steven, since you don't believe in our government, there's no fucking reason for us to let you back in the fucking country. So fuck off, and enjoy your slave state.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/02/2006 6:25 Comments ||
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#5
"a waiter and radio journalist"
"Well, I'm not REALLY a waiter, I'm an actor"
"Well I'm not REALLY a record store clerk, I'm a musician."
"Well, I'm not REALLY a book store clerk, I'm a writer."
Until your making money from being an "artiste" you're a waiter/clerk. Shut your pie hole and get me accurate change.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
08/02/2006 6:44 Comments ||
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#6
I believe people have a human right and a Constitutional right to exercise their freedom to travel and exchange ideas and build friendships with whomever they please,
But only if you are one of the 'elite' like she is of course - can't have the average person able to go on guided tours. They smell bad and would ruin it for everyone else.
Hey - you want to see what Cuba really is like? Go live with one of the farmers or a 'working class family' or out without government support, housing, food, tourguides, and minders for about a year. Then report back ok? Until then you don't know.
BTW: If its so amazing - why'd you come back to the 'evil, imeperialistic' United States?
#12
Ah, yes. To be young and stupid again...
Let's see how many don't come back to evil racist fascist Amerika from the Worker's Paradise.
Over/under=zero.
Real easy to be a revolutionary when there's no revolution to fight...
And I, for one, as an American, want NO part of what "is possible." Just look at the streets of Miami as to what those who are truly free to express their opinions of Castro think of him.
Posted by: BA ||
08/02/2006 12:46 Comments ||
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#14
Must be all those middle class folk from Miami jumping into impromptu raft's and heading towards Havana that are showing them the way.
#18
"One brigadista, Soffiyah Elijah, 51, is a criminal defense lawyer and deputy director of the criminal justice institute at Harvard Law School in Boston."
And dare I suggest, perhaps a beneficiary of our nation's misguided affirmative action admissions' and hiring policies.
#19
Pinhead lawyer can't even read the federal statutes correctly. Yep, there's a reason Soffiyah's not in private practice.....
To wit, if you want to get technical, any American can go to Cuba. It's not the big act of defiance any more. However.....you're not allowed to spend American currency there unless you are part of an officially sponsored group or in a special category (educators, journalists, family reunification kind of thing).
So, if you want to "stick it to da Man" to impress hippie chicks, just be sure to change all your currency into Euros, British pounds, Canadian dollars, etc. Don't use a credit card you will pay in American dollars.
And enjoy your little holiday in the sun while other people suffer under Castro, you pathetic ratbastard. Not that your "minders" will let you see any of them. Oh no. Can't bother to learn the language, can't bother to venture out on your own and see reality for what it is, 'cause that would harsh your mellow.
(Note: Yes, traveled to the USSR when I was younger and did get out and speak to the natives. Socialism didn't look appealing at all after that, no matter how the Intourist guides tried to make it all look rosy. Thanks, Grandma & Grandpa for leaving Lithuania....best present our family ever received!!)
#20
Don't worry Swamp Blonde. I'm sure people like these asshats won't actually see the peasants lining the streets or the slums or sheet-metal housing or starving kids on their way to their state-sponsered parties.
They are immune and have self-imposed blinders.
They can look right at it in plain sight and not see it.
NEW YORK A Democratic congresswoman from Georgia is not suing The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for libel, contrary to a report in E&P yesterday.
U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney has not in fact filed suit against the Journal-Constitution, according to attorney Tom Clyde, who is representing the paper.
Yesterday, it was incorrectly reported that McKinney filed charges against AJC Editorial Page Editor Cynthia Tucker and Publisher John Mellott for an editorial column that ran in its July 30 edition about the congresswoman's alleged altercation with police.
Rather, McKinney's lawyer, J.M. Raffauf, sent a letter to the newspaper on July 31 saying that the July 30 column by AJC Editorial Page Editor Cynthia Tucker contained material that Raffauf says was "untrue, defamatory and libelous." Raffauf and McKinney have also demanded a retraction, as well as an editorial in which the attorney says the paper should "repudiate its libelous statements."
The letter, obtained by E&P today, details the segments of the AJC column with which McKinney takes issue. In one part, Raffauf says Tucker's suggestion that "When he stopped [McKinney], the officer said, she slugged him with her cellphone" is "a false allegation not supported by any witness or any other evidence," and that Tucker is "maliciously attempting to spin this into a felony by falsely alleging that she assaulted the officer with a deadly weapon."
The letter also refutes the part of Tucker's column that said the congresswoman "suggested that President Bush had known in advance about the Sept. 11 attacks but did nothing to stop them so his friends could profit from the ensuing war." Raffauf states that "The award-winning documentary film 'American Blackout' definitively exposed this statement by Tucker as false, as the Congresswoman never made this statement even though Tucker continues to assert that she did."
#2
Raffauf and McKinney have also demanded a retraction, as well as an editorial in which the attorney says the paper should "repudiate its libelous statements."..... and send Cindy a 2007 X5 from Hank Aaron's BMW at your earliest.
WASHINGTON, July 30 In addition to lofty issues of war and peace, the Senate is grappling with another urgent matter: the senators-only elevators at the Capitol are being overrun by the unelected. And... and...and.. they smell. I mean really!
I hesitate to say that its a big problem, said Senator Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey, shaking his head gravely. There is terrific crowding.
Mr. Lautenberg, a Democrat who has served more than two decades in the Senate, said he had never seen the Capitol so packed with unelected interlopers.
The crowding extends to the elevators, one of the few sanctuaries available to beleaguered lawmakers as they try to navigate between the Senate chamber, various hearing rooms and offices in the Capitol.
Sometimes you have to shove your way through, push people, Mr. Lautenberg said.
Add the elevator problem to the litany of senatorial hardships, somewhere between flying coach and the high costs of barbering.
At times, senators even find themselves on public elevators, an ordeal fraught with the possibility of having to push their own buttons (the senators-only elevators usually have attendants). Do you know who I am?
Worse, senators sometimes share their moving sanctums with staff members, lobbyists and T-shirt-clad tourists who apparently missed (or ignored or cannot read) the senators-only signs.
Or, double-worse, with reporters.
No, no, no, cmon, cmon, Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania complained recently as about 10 reporters trailed his colleague Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York onto a senators-only elevator.
Standing outside the elevator, Mr. Santorum complained that some of the rest of us need to get on board, too. (He eventually squeezed in.)
The essential idea behind the elevators is to allow senators to travel easily to the Senate floor for votes. They are designed, in Mr. Lautenbergs words, to expedite process, although some senators are not so certain. Senator John W. Warner, Republican of Virginia, called the elevators a tradition that has long since outlived its usefulness.
Even so, tradition is a potent conceit on Capitol Hill, especially in the upper crust corridors of the upper chamber.
Members of the House have their own elevators, too, but senators are fewer in number, are more recognizable and tend toward a tall aristocratic archetype. House members blend more seamlessly with the masses and are harder to recognize, which creates its own problems. (Congressional staff members related an incident in 2001, in which they recalled the freshman Representative Melissa Hart of Pennsylvania, who is white, admonishing Representative Julia Carson, who is black, that the elevator they were riding on was members-only. Ms. Carson, of Indiana, proceeded to introduce herself to her new colleague, offense taken.) Was she wearing her pin?
Theres all kinds of lore associated with the Senate elevators, said Charlie Cook, a Senate elevator operator during his college days at Georgetown and now the editor and publisher of the Cook Political Report, an independent newsletter.
Mr. Cook mentioned one episode, which he attributed to accepted lore but did not witness: Senator John Tower, Republican of Texas, was said to throw a volcanic tantrum when an elevator operator did not recognize him and failed to heed his request to take him directly to the basement. Do you know WHO I AM?
Hold onto your hat, cowboy, the attendant is reputed to have told Mr. Tower, who was wearing cowboy boots. Ive got a senator Ive got to pick up.
Mr. Cook remembered Senator Hubert H. Humphrey coming aboard an elevator, saying hello and asking where Mr. Cook was from.
Older, tradition-bound Senate veterans like Ted Stevens of Alaska and Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia have gained a reputation for hostile glares (or grumbles) when confronted by elevator interlopers.
But anyone who concludes that senators are pampered beings of privilege may rest assured that the elevators are sometimes a source of angst.
There are times when I press the senators-only button and there are people waiting for the elevators, and I do feel a little guilty. Mr. Lautenberg admitted.
Sometimes I invite them in, he said, and sometimes I hope they dont recognize me.
The basic rule is this: nonsenators are allowed to ride only if asked by a senator. Such invitations typically occur when a reporter is in mid-interview with a senator walking off the Senate floor.
Mr. Breaux concluded the matter with a nod to the public good: I think the elevators are designed to keep members of the public from having to ride with senators, he said.
F-k em. Make all the elevators public. If they want privacy they can take the stairs. This is america - there are no 'titles' here and they need to be reminded of this - either with a public elevator or a swift, hard, kick in the ass. Personally I prefer the later - but then that's me.
#4
Used to be worse. All the elevators had human operators and when they heard the 3 buzzes of a Senator they went straight to the floor where he was, change vertical directions as necessary and then went directly to the floor the Senator requested. Now that POed people.
A Democratic congresswoman from Georgia is suing The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for libel. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney filed charges against the newspaper's editor Cynthia Tucker and publisher John Mellott for an editorial column that ran in the Sunday July 30 paper about McKinney's alleged altercation with police, according to All Headline News.
McKinney's attorney, J.M. Raffauf, said the column describes McKinney whacking a police officer with her cell phone, a charge McKinney denies. The suit says that other facts were misstated including a reported suggestion by McKinney that President Bush had known about the September 11 terror attacks in advance, and had allowed the plot to unfold so that he and his friends could profit from the resulting wars.
The suits says that McKinney wants an "immediate retraction in writing these false and libelous statements" and "demands that your retraction and correction be accompanied by an editorial in which you specifically repudiate your libelous statements."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/02/2006 10:18 ||
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A public figure suing for defamation is almost always a losing cause.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/02/2006 10:22 Comments ||
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They made a crack about the hair I'll bet, didn't they?
#5
Correction, L.O.D. Down here (at least outside of McKinney's district) in "da ATL," everything's called "Coke." Soda pop sounds so "Yankee". Other than that, carry on, and break out the Coke, Popcorn and Junior Mints (or RC and Moon Pies for those in rural GA, lol!).
Posted by: BA ||
08/02/2006 10:55 Comments ||
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Thanks, Xbalanke! You in the dustbowl of red clay known as South Georgia? Next thing ya know, they'll be bringing back Jolt Cola, lol! Of course, I love Boortz's nickname for her..."the cutest lil' jihadi in Congress."
Posted by: BA ||
08/02/2006 12:54 Comments ||
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#9 Thanks, Xbalanke! You in the dustbowl of red clay known as South Georgia?
Yes indeed, she'd be a real crowd pleaser as a dinner speaker at Bullock's in Warm Springs.
#15
And, leave behind Ted Kennedy and Lurch Kerry? I can see why ya stay up there, lol! No wonder you drop by here...gotta stay sane up in Taxachusetts. Of course, even GA has its moonbats (such as McKinney) lol!
Posted by: BA ||
08/02/2006 21:55 Comments ||
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Mumbai, Aug. 2: Guess what the latest legacy of the Mumbai blasts is? No, not the hundreds of innocents whose worlds have turned upside down, but a breed of pros called the ambulance chasers.
These are lawyers who have been turning up uninvited at the doorsteps of people who have been wounded or have lost a loved one in the blasts. And offering to help them get compensation from the railways in exchange for a percentage of it.
I dont know how they found us out! exclaimed Dilip Rangle whose friend Subhash Sawant died in the blasts.
I was very surprised when a lawyer approached us. He initially asked for a 20 per cent cut, but after much bargaining brought it down to 10 per cent.
Rangle said that given the nature of the tragedy lawyers should help free of cost, but if they wanted a fee, it should be minimal.
Anyway, I think these people are taking money for their knowledge of law something an innocent victim will not understand.
If that is how Rangle put his mind at rest despite being milked by the lawyers, Hitesh Rohit Kaveria, who was injured in the blasts, said it was the entire system of disbursing damages that was to blame.
Most people think that since this is government-initiated, it will take a lot of time and effort. Many might not be in the state of mind to make frequent visits with their documents, so they hire these lawyers, Kaveria said.
A police constable who had come to take a statement from Kaveria tipped him off about the lawyers. I dont know what to say. I feel the cut the lawyer is asking for is too much, but theres nothing common people can do. We are helpless.
The term ambulance chasers comes from the US, where it refers to lawyers or lawyers agents who solicit accident victims to sue for damages.
In the context of the blasts, they would refer to lawyers who hunt out wounded people requiring an ambulance and seek to profit from their injuries. The practice is to claim damages on behalf of the injured for a contingency fee.
Although most of the blasts victims The Telegraph spoke to claimed the lawyers had approached them, high court advocate Deepak Sandvilakar insisted otherwise.
I have been approached by 20-25 people for help to claim compensation from the railway claims tribunal. The process is quite difficult for ordinary people with no knowledge of law.
Sandvilakar said lawyers who specialise in personal injury and claims cases, like himself, would be able to prepare a water-tight petition for clients. Else, they might be caught unawares by the tribunal when the railway presents its defence.
Blasts dont happen everyday. We also work to get others compensation. Many might not know they can get damages if they fall off a train. We trace these people and help them get their due under the railways passenger insurance scheme, he said.
The railway claims tribunal will pay a maximum of Rs 4 lakh to the families of the dead. Earlier, rail officials had said the whole process would take about a year.
Sandvilakar, however, refused to divulge how lawyers tracked down victims. It is a professional secret I cannot reveal.
All I can say is we get their names from websites and newspapers. We look for people and file cases on their behalf, taking a 10-15 per cent cut from their compensation. The amount obviously depends on the kind of injury they have sustained.
No other lawyer was willing to comment, even on condition of anonymity.
Sources, however, said the lawyers had agents in hospitals and police stations. Some even had assistants roaming the streets in search of victims.
Kirit Somaiya, a former MP involved with the claims tribunal, appealed to people to shun such lawyers.
I can only appeal to the families of victims not to waste societys money. It is for their family. We have 11 advocates on the tribunal who will give legal advice if required.
Further, we have free legal cells and special branches for blast victims. The tribunal chairman has assured me that all cases will be over in 3-4 months, except ones that have family dispute involved.
Posted by: john ||
08/02/2006 19:16 ||
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Try to get an American lawyer down to 10%.
Posted by: ed ||
08/02/2006 19:38 Comments ||
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try to sue the Paki-symps who did the actual bombing
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/02/2006 21:00 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
(SomaliNet) Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank has come to the rescue of Zimbabwean shoppers by slashing three zeros off Zimbabwe's currency. This will help shoppers in Zimbabwe carry less cash on their shopping sprees. "From tomorrow, the 1st of August 2006, three zeroes are being taken off every bearer cheque (bank note) which introduces a new family of bearer cheques. That makes much more sense and I hope dollars as well," Gideon Gono, Zimbabwe National bank's governor said. 
HAVANA -- Fidel Castro said Tuesday that he was stable and in good spirits after surgery, according to a statement read on state television, as the Communist government tried to impose a sense of normalcy on the island's first day in 47 years without the bearded leader in charge.
A Democratic congresswoman from Georgia is suing The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for libel. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney filed charges against the newspaper's editor Cynthia Tucker and publisher John Mellott for an editorial column that ran in the Sunday July 30 paper about McKinney's alleged altercation with police, according to All Headline News.
