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Subject: Fitzgerald
Impeachment, Yes! Indictments, No!
Posted by William L. Anderson at 10:24 AM
I really am saddened by all of the "libertarian" commentary of "Patrick Fitzgerald as hero" that I have been reading. First, Fitzgerald got indictments for activities that apparently did not involve an underlying crime. If Libby or anyone else committed a "crime" for "outing" Valerie Plame, then indictment for it. Let me see a libertarian defend the Espionage Act of 1917 or the 1982 act that was passed in reaction to Phillip Agee's revelations about the CIA.
Second, we see once again a federal prosecutor resorting to using the same charges used against Martha Stewart. From what I recall, libertarians who were outraged now are cheering when the exact set of charges are employed against someone they don't like.
Patrick Fitzgerald, despite what others may say, is no hero. Here is a man who has bragged about not employing "mens rea" as a standard for prosecution, something that would have made the founders of this country roll in their graves. He uses the same set of illegitimate weapons that people like Rudy Giuliani used against Michael Milken and James Comey used against Martha Stewart. People like Fitzgerald do not believe in law; they are destroyers of the law.
Now, I believe that people like Scooter Libby and the others of his ilk should be exposed for the liars and murderers that they are. If someone wants a criminal investigation into their plans for war, then so be it, for what the Bush Administration did to bring us into this war was an act of criminality. I believe this president and vice president should be impeached and removed from office, but if Congress will not do that, then we have to remember that there are elections coming soon....
But, please, let us not have the spectacle of a federal prosecutor charging someone with "obstruction of justice" and try to pretend that we are witnessing the rule of law.
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Subject: Counterpunch on Libby
Beginning of the End? Watergate 2005? Gotterdammerung for the Bushies?
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN
and JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
Scooter Libby was the lawyer who got the charges dropped against billionaire scamster Marc Rich back in Clintontime. But that had more to do with Rich's billions than with any legal talents Libby may have. On the evidence of the indictment brought by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald on Friday, October 28, one fact stands out: SCOOTER LIBBY IS INCREDIBLY STUPID.
And this is what CounterPunch gets from the Fitzgerald indictment as a whole.
Special prosecutor Fitzgerald could have suggested that there is a cancer growing on the presidency, metastasizing out of Dick Cheney's suite. He could have stated, or even hinted that yesterday's indictment of Libby is the first drum roll in a mighty symphony of prosecutorial onslaughts on felonious conduct in high places.
But special prosecutor Fitzgerald did none of these things. He trailed his coat plenty of times. In his indictment of Libby he opens a couple of doors a few inches, so that the attentive reader can see footprints that head off towards the vice president's office. But then the door shuts and there's no evidence that special prosecutor has an appetite to prise it open again.
Despite all the enormous hopes vested in the Plame affair, that it is playing the same role in the downfall of the Bush administration as did the "third-rate rate burglary" that kicked off Watergate, this could be the end of the story, even if Fitzgerald has said there might have to be further investigation of Karl Rove, identified in the Indictments as Official A.
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn10292005.html
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Subject: "French" youths riot
Youths riot for second night in Paris suburb
By Laure Bretton
PARIS (Reuters) - Hundreds of French youths fought with police and set cars ablaze in a Paris suburb on Saturday in a second night of rioting which media said was triggered when two teenagers were electrocuted while fleeing police.
The teenagers were killed and a third seriously injured on Thursday night when they were electrocuted in an electricity sub station as they ran away from police investigating a break-in, media reported.
Firefighters intervened around 40 times on Friday night in the northeastern suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois where many of the 28,000 residents are immigrants, mainly from Africa, police and fire officers said.
Unidentified youths fired a shot at police but no one was hurt, police said.
"It's not normal that these two die like that," one teenage boy wearing a hooded sweatshirt told French television, referring to the two dead boys, which media identified as 15-year-old Banou and 17-year-old Ziad.
Television pictures showed youths lobbing stones at police officers while cars burned on the streets of the suburb. Police in riot gear chased some youths down an alleyway.
Around 19 people were detained and 15 police officers and one journalist injured, police said. They were unable to give figures for the number of protesters hurt.
An officer from police trade union Action Police CFTC called for help from the army to support police officers.
"There's a civil war under way in Clichy-Sous-Bois at the moment," Michel Thooris from Action Police CFTC, said. "My colleagues neither have the equipment nor the practical nor theoretical training for street fighting."
However, Joaquin Masanet from the UNSA-Police union, which represents the majority of riot police, did not agree.
"We're not at war," he said. "The police are capable of restoring order if we are given the material and human means."
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said on Friday the youths who fled the scene of the suspected break-in and climbed into an electricity sub station were not being pursued by police when they were electrocuted.
It was unclear whether the three youths at the electricity sub station were suspected of taking part in the break-in or where just nearby when it happened.
PURSUIT
On Thursday night, youths set cars and garbage cans ablaze and attacked shops and a fire station. Officials said 23 vehicles, including some post office delivery trucks, were set ablaze and destroyed in the protests.
Several hundred people took part in a silent march to honor the two dead teenagers in Clichy-Sous-Bois on Saturday.
"Thanks to you, France will now respect us more than this morning, before this silent march," said Claude Dilain, mayor of Clichy-Sous-Bois, a suburb of high-rise social housing.
"We are showing our real face, that of united citizens, whatever our origin or religion or faith. Together, we have showed our pain and even anger, in calm, dignity and respect."
Sarkozy, whose law and order policies have been criticized by human rights groups, launched a new offensive against crime this month, ordering specially trained police to tackle 25 tough neighborhoods in cities across France.
Sarkozy, who has clearly stated his ambition to run for president in 2007, said police mobile units would patrol districts instead of having police waiting around in coaches while trouble erupted elsewhere.
The tough talking Sarkozy made his name by cutting headline crime figures during his first stint as interior minister from 2002 to 2004.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051029/wl_nm/france_riots_dc
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Subject: The Aryan Alternative in the news (Va.)
Police probe Aryan paper's distribution
October 29, 2005
WILLIAMSBURG -- Williamsburg police are investigating the distribution of a white supremacist newspaper on the grounds that it may have violated a city law against littering. One person has complained about The Aryan Alternative but no arrests have been made, police said.
Unless a person is caught in the act or clearly identified, it may be hard to make an arrest for littering, police said. The paper was also distributed late Wednesday or early Thursday in Newport News, and city police there are also investigating. It would be hard to make an arrest for littering in Newport News because the papers were neatly distributed and it doesn't appear to have violated the law, city attorneys said.
Earlier this week, a reporter for the Alternative, which is published in Kirksville, Mo., distributed the paper in Waynesboro, a city near Charlottesville.
Here.
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Subject: Nigkultur
[Enjoy the richness of nigger culture...]
#1
A billboard promoting the upcoming film "Get Rich or Die Tryin," depicting Curtis Jackson, also known as 50 Cent, holding a gun in his left hand and a microphone in his right, is displayed, Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2005, in the South Los Angeles. Local activists want Paramount Pictures to take down the billboards, claiming the advertisements promote gun violence in high-crime areas.
Studio Takes Down Some 50 Cent Billboards
Paramount Takes Down Some Billboards for 50 Cent Movie After Complaints They Promote Gun Violence
LOS ANGELES Oct 29, 2005 — Paramount Pictures is removing some billboards promoting the upcoming 50 Cent film "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" after community activists complained they promoted gun violence. The billboards depict the rapper, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, holding a gun in his left hand and a microphone in his right. At least two were near schools.
A studio spokesman said Friday that Paramount was evaluating the locations of the billboards and taking some down. He declined further comment.
One of the signs was located in front of a charter school in Altadena and another sign was near a school in south Los Angeles, areas that have struggled with gang violence.
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=1262444
#2
Rapper The Game Arrested at N.C. Mall
The Game Arrested, Accused of Causing a Scene at N.C. Mall; Rapper Says Police Overreacted
GREENSBORO, N.C. Oct 29, 2005 — The Game has been arrested, accused of causing a scene at a mall and refusing to remove a Halloween mask.
"I got arrested for signing autographs," the 25-year-old rapper told WFMY-TV after he was released on $500 bail. "Signing a little girl's autograph got me arrested."
But police said The Game, real name Jayceon Taylor, and a group of companions behaved disruptively and swearing Friday at Four Seasons Town Centre. He was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. At one point, police said, his companions were sprayed with pepper spray when they surrounded officers in a threatening manner.
Mall security officers said the rapper was wearing a full-face Halloween mask and cursing loudly, and refused to leave when asked. When police arrived, Taylor continued to act up and was arrested, a police statement said.
The Game said officers overreacted.
"They thought I was Rodney King, man. It was a case of mistaken identity," he told WFMY. "It's unfair, man. Their behavior's unfair."
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=1262712
#3
Judge Denies Motion To Dismiss R. Kelly Suit
Defense Sought To Have Case Thrown Out
CHICAGO -- A Criminal Court Judge on Friday denied a defense motion to dismiss R. Kelly's child pornography indictment.
Judge Vincent Gaughan ruled that prosecutors had sufficiently narrowed the timeframe in which they allege the singer videotaped himself and a teenage girl having sex.
"It's my finding the indictment is not void, and there's sufficient notice for Mr. Kelly to prepare a defense," Gaughan said in his ruling.
Kelly, free on a $1 million bond, was represented by his attorneys, Edward Genson and Marc Martin, but did not appear in person because he was traveling with the court's permission to Atlanta to perform at a benefit concert for Hurricane Katrina victims.
The indictment originally said Kelly made the videotape in his apartment on the 1000 block of West George Street sometime between Nov. 1, 1997, and Feb. 1, 2002. The indictment named the girl, and gave her date of birth.
Here.
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Subject: 240/1450 deserted posts in N.O.
New Orleans Fire Officers for Desertion
By MARY FOSTER
The Associated Press
Saturday, October 29, 2005; 2:53 PM
NEW ORLEANS -- Amid the chaos that ensued as Hurricane Katrina struck the city, dozens of police officers and civilian employees left their posts unexpectedly and were not heard from again. On Friday, the New Orleans Police Department fired 51 of them _ 45 officers and six civilian workers _ for abandonment.
"They either left before the hurricane or 10 to 12 days after the storm and we have never heard from them," acting police superintendent Warren Riley said.
Police were unable to account for 240 officers on the 1,450-member force following Katrina. The force has been investigating them to see if they left their posts during the storm.
Here.
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