I just got off the phone with the great people at the Thomas More Law Center, the organization that are defending the rights of the Haditha Marines. I don’t know how I missed their official statment yesterday on Col. Steven Folsom’s ruling but miss it I did. Here’s the heart of their statement:

The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, represents LtCol Chessani alongside his detailed military attorneys. The two Law Center attorneys assigned to his case are former Marine officers themselves. Robert Muise served in the First Persian Gulf war as an infantry officer, and Brian Rooney was a Judge Advocate officer who served two tours of duty in Iraq. Lt Colonel John Shelburne, USMC, and Captain Jeff King, USMC, the detailed military defense counsel, make up the rest of Chessani’s defense team.

Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Law Center, commenting on the judge’s decision had this to say, “We are all grateful for the judge’s ruling today. He truly was the “last sentinel” to guard against unlawful command influence.”

“Tragically, our own government eliminated one of its most effective combat commanders. The insurgents are laughing in their caves,” said Thompson.

It’s maddening that the military threw Col. Chessani’s career under the proverbial bus. Nonetheless, that’s precisely what they did when they charged him with dereliction of duty. I suspect that they were pushed into this decision by some politicians looking for a political victory. (continue reading post »)

Another Haditha Marine was acquitted Wednesday when a 7 member panel cleared 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson. This is indeed a great day for justice. Here’s what Foxnews.com is reporting:

A military jury acquitted a Marine intelligence officer Wednesday of charges that he tried to help cover up the killings of 24 Iraqis.

Cheers erupted as the seven-officer panel cleared 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson, who was the first of three Marines to be tried in the biggest U.S. criminal case involving Iraqi deaths linked to the war. The verdict came just five hours after deliberations began. The judge, Maj. Brian E. Kasprzyk, admonished the noisy courtroom, saying: “There will be no more of that.”

Grayson, who has always maintained he did nothing wrong, was not at the scene of the killings of men, women and children on Nov. 19, 2005, in Haditha. He was accused of telling a sergeant to delete photographs of the dead from a digital camera and laptop computer.

In May, 2006, John Murtha declared on national TV that eight Marines had “killed innocent civilians in cold blood.” He said that they’d cracked because they’d been deployed too long. Now that another Haditha Marine has been acquitted or had all charges dropped, it’s safe to say that Rep. Murtha lied for political gain. He said it in his quest to become House Majority Leader.

Congratulations to 1st. Lt. Grayson. I can only imagine the emotion he felt when the verdict was announced. the fact that it only took 5 hours of deliberations speaks for itself as to how straightforward this case was. This case didn’t need deliberations. This case should’ve been dropped after Grayson’s Article 32 hearing. (continue reading post »)

Sen. Obama has crafted an image that he isn’t a partisan and that he’s squeaky clean ethically. This Newsweek article will quickly dispel that myth. It also might force Sen. Obama to fired his chief strategist, David Axelrod. At minimum, it’ll cause some serious embarrassment for him after he attacked John McCain on the issue of lobbyists running McCain’s campaign. Here’s what Newsweek is reporting:

When Illinois utility Commonwealth Edison wanted state lawmakers to back a hefty rate hike two years ago, it took a creative lobbying approach, concocting a new outfit that seemed devoted to the public interest: Consumers Organized for Reliable Electricity, or CORE. CORE ran TV ads warning of a “California-style energy crisis” if the rate increase wasn’t approved—but without disclosing the commercials were funded by Commonwealth Edison. The ad campaign provoked a brief uproar when its ties to the utility, which is owned by Exelon Corp., became known. “It’s corporate money trying to hoodwink the public,” the state’s Democratic Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn said. What got scant notice then—but may soon get more scrutiny—is that CORE was the brainchild of ASK Public Strategies, a consulting firm whose senior partner is David Axelrod, now chief strategist for Barack Obama.

Last week, Obama hit John McCain for hiring “some of the biggest lobbyists in Washington” to run his campaign; Obama’s aides say their candidate, as a foe of “special interests,” has refused to take money from lobbyists or employ them. Neither Axelrod nor his partners at ASK ever registered as lobbyists for Commonwealth Edison—and under Illinois’s loose disclosure laws, they were not required to. “I’ve never lobbied anybody in my life,” Axelrod tells NEWSWEEK. “I’ve never talked to any public official on behalf of a corporate client.” (He also says “no one ever denied” that Edison was the “principal funder” of his firm’s ad campaign.) (continue reading post »)

Though Howard Dean wants all his problems to disappear, that won’t happen now that the Florida Democratic Party filed a lawsuit against the DNC for disenfranchising their voters. This comes just a day after Hillary threatened to take that fight straight to the Convention in Denver.

Florida’s history of discrimination against African Americans should force the national Democratic Party to count all of the state’s delegates at its national convention, a federal lawsuit filed Thursday claims.

The suit, filed by state Senate Democratic Leader Steve Geller and two other Democrats, claims that the federal Voting Rights Act prohibits the national party from stripping the state of its convention delegates.

The Civil Rights-era law requires the U.S. Justice Department to approve any significant voting change in Florida to make sure it doesn’t disenfranchise minority voters. Geller argues that includes the Democratic National Committee’s demand that Florida switch “from a state-run primary to party-run caucus system” to avoid losing its delegates.

“The purpose of this lawsuit is not to support one candidate over another; it’s to enforce one of the most basic tenets of our democracy: Count the votes as they were cast,” Geller said in announcing the lawsuit.

This isn’t the first time that the DNC has been accused of holding primaries that weren’t all that democratic. Gov. Ed Rendell made a similar accusation in late April: (continue reading post »)

Thanks to the hard work of Kit Lange and Tim Harrington, the truth is starting to come out about the railroading that the Pendleton 8 got and that was planned for the Haditha Marines. Fortunately, the media is picking up on what several people have known for awhile now. Kit Lange’s article in the Salem News lays out a story that should get every justice-loving American irate:

Two years ago the nation was shocked to hear of Marines coming home from the battlefield in shackles. This is not how we treat our heroes, not when they are highly decorated, highly trained, and even more experienced. It was preposterous, we said, to charge Marines with murder for shooting the enemy.

Isn’t that what we train them to do?

“Yet that is exactly what we did–and the seven Marines, together with their Navy corpsman, became known as the Pendleton 8. For the last two years, these men have seen their families disintegrate, their careers vaporized, and their freedoms taken, all because their government decided to turn its back on the men who fight to preserve it.

Now at last the real story is available. Over the next few weeks, I will tell you the real story of what happened that day in Hamdania. I will show you the autopsy reports, combat logs and diaries that prove them innocent (and that were barred from the trial!), and the tactics the government used to keep it all under wraps. What’s more, I’ll tell you what they were trying so hard to hide.

People inside and outside the Pentagon should be worried. Check the timeline for why there’s cause for more than concern over the military’s actions and motives. This part of the timeline doesn’t cast the Pentagon in a good light:

1. “According to accounts given by Hashim’s neighbors and members of his family, and apparently supported by photographs, the Marines went to Hashim’s home, took the 52-year-old disabled Iraqi outside and shot him four times in the face. The assault rifle and shovel next to his body had been planted by the Marines, who had borrowed them from a villager, family members and other residents said.”

2. “The Marines grabbed Hashim by the front of his cotton robe as soon as he came to the door, pulling him from the house, said one of his sons, Nadir, 26, an arts student in Iraq…Less than an hour later, we heard shooting.”

Note: The prosecution charged that the Marines took Awad out of the home, marched him down the road to the hole, bound him and shot him. Family members and neighbors said Awad was shot in the face four times when he came to the door. One of Awad’s sons said he was pulled from the house and they heard shots less than an hour later. The Iraqis apparently couldn’t get ‘their’ version straight. How did the prosecution arrive at its version; toss a coin?

(continue reading post »)

Yesterday, Judge Thomas Hogan ordered Rep. Jim McDermott to pay Rep. John Boehner the damages stemming from a 1998 lawsuit. Here’s the gist of Judge Hogan’s ruling:

A federal judge in Washington has ordered Democratic Rep. Jim McDermott to pay more than $1 million in attorney’s fees awarded to Minority Leader John A. Boehner as part of a protracted lawsuit involving an illegally taped cell phone call.

U.S. District Judge Thomas P. Hogan ruled that McDermott, D-Wash., must pay $1,053,181, plus $520,761 in interest to Boehner, R-Ohio.

There’s alot of history behind this ruling. Here’s a nice summarization of that history:

Boehner sued McDermott in 1998, accusing him of leaking the contents of a conference call that a Florida couple had illegally taped from Boehner’s cell phone in 1996.

In the call, Republican leaders, including then-Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia (1979-99), discussed responding to ethics allegations against Gingrich, who served as Speaker from 1995 to 1999.

McDermott at the time was the ranking Democrat on the House ethics panel.

The attorney’s fee payment comes on top of $60,000 in damages that McDermott already has paid Boehner out of his legal expense fund.

In December, McDermott paid Boehner $50,000 in court-ordered punitive damages, $10,000 in statutory damages and another $4,169 in interest, according to public disclosure filings. The payment was made shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review a federal appeals court ruling in Boehner’s favor.

What’s hillarious is McDermott’s statement after being notified of the ruling: (continue reading post »)

Charges were dropped against LCpl. Stephen Tatum on Friday, leaving Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, Sgt. Frank Wuterich and Cpl. Andrew Grayson as the remaining three Marines who haven’t had their cases resolved. Eventually, John Murtha will be exposed as a corrupt man who used the Haditha Marines in his attempt to become the House Majority Leader.

What We Know As Fact

We know that John Murtha accused the Haditha Marines of “killing innocent civilians in cold blood” before the investigation on Haditha had been completed.

We know that Rep. Murtha’s story has changed several times. When reporters initially asked him about his sourcing on May 18, 2006, Rep. Murtha said this:

“All the information I get, it comes from the commanders, it comes from people who know what they’re talking about.”

That didn’t last long. On May 30, 2006, he made this contradictory statement:

The Commandant of the Marine Corps was in my office just last week, so you know, I know there was a cover-up someplace.

He later offered another statement. This time, the spokesman for Marine Corps Commandant Michael Hagee had to correct Rep. Murtha:

He had told The Philadelphia Inquirer that Gen. Michael Hagee had given him the information on which he based his charge that Marines killed innocent civilians. But a spokesman for the Marine Corps said Hagee briefed Murtha on May 24 about Haditha.

Let’s highlight that conflict between rep. Murtha and the Marine Corps spokesman because it highlights extremely important information.

If Gen. Hagee did indeed brief Rep. Murtha on May 24, 2006, that means that Rep. Murtha couldn’t make these accusations based on irrefutable facts; at least he couldn’t do that on May 17, 2006.

That brings us to our first ‘counts’ against Rep. Murtha: Violating the Haditha Marines’ constitutional protections of (a) being presumed innocent until provent guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and (b) violating their due process rights. (continue reading post »)

It’s hard to imagine how Detroit’s liberal populace can charge hip-hop Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick for perjury. After all, doesn’t everyone lie about sex?

I’m not certain that Kilpatrick should be charged or convicted either. Those of us who live in cities like Detroit or Los Angeles accepted that kind of political double standard long ago.

Detroit clearly needs to loosen up a little – maybe create its own ethics commission. That’s what works for us.

In LA, our Ethics Commission makes it unnecessary for police to investigate messy corruption scandals or other embarrassing felonies. Our Commission would issue a warning and a fine to Kilpatrick faster than Hillary could tell Sandy Berger to take the archives out of his socks and join her campaign committee.

Equal Protection is one of the pillars of Democracy. After King John published the Magna Carta and Republicans passed the 14th Amendment, prosecutors have been prohibited from pursuing criminal complaints against one person that are ignored by others. Equal Protection demands that Mayor Kilpatrick be prosecuted like other Democrat office holders, regardless of race.

Despite the incontrovertible evidence of guilt, the US Senate (45 Democrats and five Republicans) acquitted Monica Lewinsky’s boyfriend of perjury. I’m not sure a black mayor should be charged or convicted for acts that Bill Clinton was acquitted of.

If prosecutors proceed and present overwhelming evidence against Kilpatrick, jurors have no choice but to acquit.

That’s what the NY Post’s Fred Dicker is reporting in this article:

March 12, 2008 — Originally posted at 8:38 a.m. Updated at 10:119 a.m.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer has decided to resign and is notifying top state officials of his decision, The Post has learned.

Word began circulating of his decision in state political circles earlier this morning. The decision came after what one source called “an agonizing night,” as the governor’s wife, Silda Wall Spitzer, and the governor’s lawyers went over a possible plea deal offered by federal prosecutors, sources told The Post.

Lt. Gov. David Paterson, who has remained at his suburban Albany home for the past three days, was expected to be notified of Spitzer’s decision this morning. (continue reading post »)

That’s the best way to describe this op-ed in the WSJ by Kit Bond, Peter Hoekstra and Lamar Smith. Their op-ed is in response to the Washington Post op-ed that I posted about here. Here’s what Mssrs. Leahy, Rockefeller, Conyers and Reyes said about the PAA lapsing:

First, our country did not “go dark” on Feb. 16 when the Protect America Act (PAA) expired. Despite President Bush’s overheated rhetoric on this issue, the government’s orders under that act will last until at least August. These orders could cover every known terrorist group and foreign target. No surveillance stopped. If a new member of a known group, a new phone number or a new e-mail address is identified, U.S. intelligence can add it to the existing orders, and surveillance can begin immediately.

Here’s the rebuttal from Mssrs. Bond, Hoekstra and Smith:

We are less safe today and will remain so until Congress clears up the legal uncertainty for companies that assist in collecting intelligence for the government, and until it gives explicit permission to our intelligence agencies to intercept, without a warrant, foreign communications that pass through the U.S. Here’s why:

- Intercepting terrorist communications requires the cooperation of our telecommunications companies. They’re already being sued for having cooperated with the government after 9/11. So without explicit protection for future actions (and civil liability protection for the help they provided in the past), those companies critical to collecting actionable intelligence could be sidelined in the fight. (continue reading post »)