From: "Alex Gimarc" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Monday, Nov. 3, 2008 Interesting Items 11/03 - Howdy all, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy - In this issue: 1. Stevens 2. Begich 3. Joe the Plumber 4. Auntie 5. Art 1. Stevens. A DC jury found Alaska Senator Ted Stevens (R) guilty of all seven counts of misreporting income and gifts to the Senate. The verdict was unexpected and may open the door for the election of Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich (D) to the Senate. Begich went from a point of so behind to at least eight points ahead as a result of the verdict. I have heard over the weekend that the race has tightened up significantly again, mostly due to the notion that Stevens did not get a fair trial, his accuser Bill Allen lied in court and that the prosecution knew he was lying. Senator McCain and Governor Palin immediately called for Stevens to resign from the senate, prompting harsh criticism among Stevens supporters on the right here in Alaska. However, McCain and Palin are simply echoing what they both said from the beginning of this affair. They said this at the beginning and are being consistent. The Stevens legal team has chosen to attack the process, detailing problems with the trial in a 16-page letter to the US Attorney General accusing the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section of prosecutorial misconduct. I have a copy of the letter. It is a 3meg PDF and can forward it upon request. We also have a former federal prosecutor named Wev Shea, who has over the years donned the mantle of opponent to all manners of corruption, particularly going after the legislators picked up earlier in this corruption investigation. Shea spent an hour Thursday on one of our local talk shows detailing what he thought was wrong with the way Stevens was accused, tried and convicted. As far as he is concerned, the Public Integrity Section and federal prosecutors made a deal with Bill Allen, who was the main witness against both Stevens and a number of the convicted legislators over the last couple of years. They knew he would say and do anything to protect his family members from threatened federal prosecution. And he lied on the stand during the Stevens trial, with his lawyer sitting on the front row coaching him through answers. The prosecution hid exculpatory evidence from the Stevens defense team, including Allen’s observation at the beginning that Stevens was of the frame of mind that he would pay whatever was billed. Allen’s company, Veco, didn’t bill everything the feds thought they ought to have billed, and you automatically get a discrepancy between what the goods and services were worth and what Stevens paid and reported – an automatic and manufactured corruption case. If Shea is correct, and Allen has been lying all along to protect his family – which he has publicly stated he was willing to do, this also puts into question the convictions the 3-4 state legislators that were convicted over the course of the last couple of years based on his cooperation. As a result of all this, there is a substantial sympathy movement for Stevens here in Alaska. While Begich and the DSCC continue to hammer away at corruption, convicted felon, and similar names, the notion that this was wrongly accused, tried and convicted is a powerful undercurrent. I do expect Stevens to fight this with every inch of his being until the convictions are overturned or he assumes room temperature. I do not know whether or not he will be successful. But I do know that something smells very, very fishy – and I smell rotten fish every single summer while chasing salmon on Alaskan streams. There are simply too many lawyers telling me that this was wrongly done. We will let the wheels of justice continue to grind and see what comes out of the other end. This is not over yet. 2. Begich. Recipient of this prosecutorial largess is Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich (D), who has been pushing the corruption card for all he is worth. Should he be successfully elected Tuesday night, he may not enjoy his single term in the Senate very much – especially if Stevens is successful getting his conviction overturned on the basis of wrongful prosecution / prosecutorial misconduct. Begich is tied at the hip to the unions, the greens and the gay / lesbian activists. While he talks the good talk, he will not be able to hide from what his party is on the verge of doing – raising taxes, going after the 401K, passing carbon taxes, confirming liberal activist judges, passing the unions’ Card Check legislation doing away with the secret ballot. He will be in a position from which he cannot hide. And his win will be tainted. His party and his personal choices will force him to be far, far more leftist than this state is willing to put up with. Note to Mr. Begich and your supporters: Be careful what you wish for. 3. Joe the Plumber. Obama supporters in the employment of the State of Ohio unleashed official computers, databases, and an array of state agency assets in an attempt to assist the media in digging up dirt on Joe “The Plumber” Wurzelbacher. The illegal use of government assets was led by Helen Jones-Kelly, head of Ohio’s Department of Jobs and Family Services. Her excuse was to do a quick background check for child support for any Ohio resident that showed up on television, the so-called famous person rule. She was unable to discuss why the information generated from state databases ended up in the hands of the drive-by media. Michelle Malkin has been al over this and has been pushing the privacy – related issues with great vigor and righteous indignation. Ed Morrissey in Hot Air Thursday made the following observation: The real message this sends Ohioans is one of intimidation. Don’t ask questions of public officials, Jones-Kelley’s actions say, or else watch your reputation get shredded. Be quiet. Don’t rock the boat. We know where you live, and we know what you’ve done. This, apparently, is Hope and Change for Ohio. Want to bet that’s a 57-state strategy as well? 4. Auntie. Well the media finally found Barack Obama’s Kenyan Aunt. Note that it was not American media. It was first reported in a British paper. The lady is an illegal alien from Kenya, dodging a deportation order, having lived in a Boston slum for at least a decade. Glen Reynolds wrote about this in InstaPundit Thursday and cross posted the following observations:
The Obama campaign found the Aunt. Their first inclination was to hide her rather than help her. They also told her not to talk to the media until after the election. Note that Obama, who thinks that the government must do everything for everybody, has no idea or inclination of the notion of families helping out family members first. Note also that he did not learn this basic lesson during his 20 years sitting at the feet of his Marxist Black Liberation Theology pastor Jeremiah Wright. Finally, Obama has talked in glowing terms about his extended family – this Aunt, for example, and others. But he uses these people as campaign props rather than real, live relatives. 5. Art. Yet another example of the tolerant left happened last week. This one came from West Hollywood, CA, where a homeowner decorated his home with a hanging effigy of Governor Sarah Palin. It was a mannequin with a Palin wig, complete with noose. The leftist homeowner and the local constabulary didn’t see anything wrong about this at all, calling it performance art. Neighbors removed the effigy from the house a few days later. Imaging the outrage had the same homeowner used a black mannequin with an Obama sign on it. Why, that would be hate speech, a hate crime, and a crime against Creation itself. The double standard exists and is celebrated and encouraged by the left and the drive-by media. But don’t think that the rest of us don’t notice and aren’t motivated to do something about it when an opening presents itself. More later - - AG "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia State House, August 1, 1776. Note: Interesting Items can be found at the following locations: MatSu Valley News http://www.matsuvalleynews.com ; District 28 http://www.dist28.com/ , subscriber and supporter Elbert Collins at http://thatselbert.wordpress.com/ and the home page: http://home.gci.net/~agimarc Rod Martin's The Vanguard site is also a long-time supporter of this column: http://www.thevanguard.org/
