A federal judge has sent a Kansas man to prison for criticizing federal prosecutors, claiming that the man posed a threat of continued criminal defamation of government counsel and witnesses.
The man (Guy Neighbors) in the northwest Kansas college town of Lawrence has been accused of selling stolen goods in the popular secondhand store he has owned for two decades and has been free on bond pending trial in October.
For more than four years federal prosecutors and local police have tried shutting down Neighbors store (the Yellow House) but the charges have been dropped once by a federal judge and the trial date has been moved more than a dozen times.
This week U.S. Magistrate Judge James OHara revoked the mans bond (effectively sending him to prison) because federal prosecutors pointed out that in late April he made statements in electronic mails that accused them and police of corruption in the stolen-goods case against him.
The email that landed Neighbors in jail said prosecutors and police officers have acted in a pattern of conspiracy and cover-up. Neighbors had previously posted blogs that were similarly critical of authorities, including officers at two local police departments and the federal prosecutor handling his case.
A web site dedicated to following the case posts all the federal documents, including the judges order to revoke bail and official transcripts of lengthy court hearings almost entirely devoted to Neighbors internet blogging on the matter. It also includes Neighbors request for a change of venue alleging he cant get a fair trial in Kansas.
#1
Well, what do you expect? Bush trashed the constitution! This is what you get in Amerikkka!
/sarcasm
As Glenn Reynolds says, they told me that if I voted for Bush/McCain, people would be thrown in jail for criticizing the government. And they were right!
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
05/23/2009 21:03 Comments ||
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SEOUL, May 23 (UPI) -- Roh Moo-hyun, president of South Korea from 2003 to 2008, died Saturday in an apparent suicide during a mountain walk with an aide, police said.
The South Gyeongsang Provincial Police Agency said Roh jumped or fell just before 7 a.m., tumbling into a ravine on a mountainside near his home, the JoongAng Daily reported.
Roh's lawyer said the former president left what he described as a "brief" suicide note, Yonhap news agency said.
Roh and his family were under investigation in a bribery scandal. His elder brother was sentenced to four years in prison this month for receiving payments in return for peddling influence in the buyout of an ailing brokerage firm by a state-run company in 2006.
His kids had swank Manhattan coops which they didn't earn on their salaries ...
Roh was rushed to a hospital in Gimhae and then to Pusan University Hospital in Yangsan where he was pronounced dead just before 9 a.m.
A human rights lawyer, Roh was elected to Parliament the first time in 1988 and served off and on through 2000. After losing an election that year, he became minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries in 2000 and won a close race for president in 2002. In 2004, the National Assembly voted for impeachment, but the Constitutional Court reversed the vote.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/23/2009 8:13 Comments ||
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#3
"He shocked us twice: first, by betraying our trust in him as the keeper of justice when it was revealed that he'd received the illegitimate money; now, in showing that he was not even responsible enough to face the consequences of his action," said Kim Hye-jung, 35, of Seoul.
Suicide may be the less-than-heroic way of addressing the problem, but it's sure more efficient than trial and imprisonment.
On the other hand, it makes it a lot harder to recover the ill-gotten gains from his family & friends. (So do heart attacks - see Enron's Lay example.)
Embarrassing disclosures about the vast expenses claims of MPs amount to a "McCarthy-style witch-hunt" that risks driving politicians to suicide, an MP warned on Friday.
Clearly none of them considered that they wouldn't be feeling suicidal about their actions being revealed had they acted properly all along.
The money was sweet and the power was an aphrodisiac ...
Nadine Dorries wrote on her blog that the two-week scandal, in which the Daily Telegraph has drip-fed details of how MPs have abused their generous expense allowances, was forcing politicians to the brink.
I'm afraid I've used up my empathy on the travails of the non-criminal class. Sorry.
The scandal has triggered outrage across recession-hit Britain and opposition calls for an early general election.
European and local elections to be held on June 4 are expected to reflect the level of popular disgust, with lower voter turnout and a move towards fringe parties predicted.
British electorate turns conservative. Women and minorities hardest hit.
"The atmosphere in Westminster is unbearable," Conservative MP Dorries wrote on the blog. "People are constantly checking to see if others are OK. Everyone fears a suicide. If someone isn't seen, offices are called and checked."
Asked about her comments on BBC radio on Friday, she sought to back away from the suicide suggestion, but said the disclosures, including that politicians charged for duck ponds, horse manure, bath plugs and pornographic films, were forcing MPs to breaking point.
"What the Telegraph are executing is almost a McCarthy-style witch-hunt. The way they are deploying their tactics and the way they are treating MPs has reached a point now at almost two weeks where I think people are seriously beginning to crack.
"I have to say the last day in parliament this week was completely unbearable. I have never, ever been in an atmosphere or an environment like it, where everyone walks around with terror in their eyes. People are genuinely concerned."
Perhaps they ought to remove themselves from the stressful atmosphere by resigning?
And then plead guilty. And then allocute. And then remove themselves from their homes.
#1
The difference is that Joseph McCarthy accused people without evidence and without giving them a forum to defend themselves. He was right about some of the problem, but it was a damned foolish way of going about it.
On the other hand, these MPs are guilty! guilty! guilty!
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
05/23/2009 0:31 Comments ||
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#3
The difference is that Joseph McCarthy the Pelosi-Reid-Obama-MSM cabal accused people without evidence and without giving them a forum to defend themselves.
#4
They're bloody lucky the police haven't started arresting them yet. Anyone else, except an MP, caught fleecing taxpayers' money wouldn't be getting off half as lightly.
#8
The Daily Telegraph responded to criticisms of its publication of the scandal "The extent to which some [MPs] have paraded their self-pity at feeling unloved by the general public has not been dignified. It has also not achieved its goal of making the electorate more sympathetic to the plight of those MPs whose greed, selfish thoughtlessness and occasional outright fraud we have exposed."
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SEOUL, May 23 (UPI) -- Roh Moo-hyun, president of South Korea from 2003 to 2008, died Saturday in an apparent suicide during a mountain walk with an aide, police said.
