John Edwards (D-NC), the 2004 Vice-Presidential nominee on the John Kerry ticket, is on trial for misappropriation of 2008 Presidential campaign contributions in order to support Rielle Hunter, his former lover and mother of his youngest child. This was going on while Edwards’ wife Elizabeth was was dying of cancer; a sordid affair. Edwards was offered a plea bargain that would have given him months of jail time, though he would have lost his law license; he could get 30 years. I suspect he turned down the deal because he thinks he can win in court. The crux of the matter is whether those payments to Hunter were actually campaign contributions.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) Executive Director Melanie Sloan notes “Sen. Edwards’ conduct was despicable and deserves society’s condemnation, but that alone does not provide solid grounds for a criminal case. DOJ’s scattershot approach to prosecuting public officials is incomprehensible and undermines the integrity of the criminal justice system.”
The lead prosecution witness is Andrew Young (no, not this Andrew Young), and he has a lot of credibility issues. I believe Edwards will be found “not guilty.” If by some bizarre chance he is convicted, he’ll win on appeal.
George Zimmerman
After the initial procrastination, prosecutors decide to charge George Zimmerman with second-degree murder in the case of Trayvon Martin. They could have charged him with manslaughter or some other lesser charge. Because the Sanford, Florida police understood the law in a particular way on the night of the incident, the jury will never know, for instance, whether George Zimmerman had been drinking or on some other substance. Absent new evidence, I think Zimmerman will be found “not guilty.”
Lehman Brothers
From the Los Angeles Times: “Less than a year before the 2008 collapse of Lehman Bros. plunged the global economy into a terrifying free fall, the Wall Street firm awarded nearly $700 million to 50 of its highest-paid employees… The documents, which were among the millions of pages submitted in Lehman’s bankruptcy, show the list of top earners each were pledged $8 million to $51 million in cash, stock, and other compensation. How much, if any, of the stock was cashed in before the bankruptcy wiped out its value couldn’t be determined. Still, the rich pay packages for so many people raised eyebrows even among compensation experts and provided fresh evidence of the money-driven Wall Street culture that was blamed for triggering the financial crisis.”
Now, why haven’t there been indictments in THIS situation? If you saw the CBS News program 60 Minutes on April 22, you have a pretty good idea. “Steve Kroft talks to the bank examiner whose investigation reveals the how and why of the spectacular financial collapse.” We discover that the Securities and Exchange Commission had staff IN the Lehman offices MONTHS before the disaster and apparently didn’t recognize what was going on. Perhaps this makes the case more difficult to prosecute. Will ANYONE from Lehman Brothers be indicted? Maybe, for show. Will anyone be convicted? I’m not holding my breath.
I too believe that Zimmerman will be found “not guilty” The early reports, before he was arrested, had a litany of all of the procedures that the local police ignored. Since his arrest and his new status as the “underdog”, I have not seen these issues mentioned, much less addressed. I have seen long articles justifying Zimmerman’s actions based on past crime inthe development and the police reponse. It would be interesting to see an article in a main stream paper justifying the actions of a black man who shot an unarmed white boy under similiar circumstances. It will never happen.
Florida overcharged Casey Anthony in the death of her child and she went free. They overcharged Zimmerman and he will go free and become a poster child for a large segment of the population who blame people of color for all of the crime and violence in the streets.
I remember right after the Oklahoma bombing everyone was convinced it was “Middle Eastern” terrorists and even detained one Middle Eastern gentleman twice who had the misfortune to fly out of Oklahoma City that day. When McVeigh et al were arrested nothing was mentioned regarding the absolute prejudice that was exhibited prior to the actual investigation and subsequent arrest, thereby giving this national expresion of predudice some sort of legitimacy, in my opinion. The Zimmerman case seems to be another lightning rod for a national overt expression of racism and it is really sickening.
George Zimmerman’s attorneys said in a press conference Tuesday afternoon that they will no longer be representing him. The attorneys claim that Zimmerman repeatedly rebuffed their legal advice, and that they have now lost contact with him.”As of now we are withdrawing as counsel for Mr. Zimmerman,”. See the whole thing http://youtu.be/EpsuFkWZkss
Suddenly “an anonymous witness has come forward” to claim that smaller, younger, blacker Travon Martin attacked Zimmerman, who was stalking Mr. Martin with a gun. Yeah, right. Fox “News” loudly blabbers this line, which immediately gets repeated throughout the corporate media.
Of course there’s the 911 recording of Mr. Martin screaming for help, which has been confirmed to be his voice by independent analysis. Plus Mr. Martin, while he was being stalked, described what was happening to him to his girlfriend by his phone. These details don’t seem to be getting mentioned by Fox or NPR.
Today I read (not in the corporate media, of course) that Zimmerman failed to report that his puny bail was more than raised by contributions from radical white supremacists, which he failed to report like he was required to do. No big deal withholding required information from the court, apparently.
Yeah, Zimmerman will become the new symbol of white supremacy. Rad righty terrorists will follow his example and the corporate media will lionize him. You’ll see.
Dan, the witness was known by the police from the beginning. This eyewitness was partially responsible for the police not charging Zimmerman.The voice analysis has been debunked as highly unreliable under the circumstances. One protocol listed on the so called expert’s web site was ignored when he did his analysis.Bail is not set by the ability to pay, but by the severity of the crime and flight risk. It is not known if Zimmerman was aware of the amount donated since he was in jail prior to donations being made.
The whole modern social justice movement needs a serious head-from-tukus-o-rectomy.
Take a step back and consider how ineffectual it is:
– Millions of people turn out for Martin. Thus, one tragedy will get one farce trial that everyone will forget about in a few months
Meanwhile…
– The law that allowed the police to ignore the slaying of Martin still stands.
– The people at Lehman still walk free, as do all the people at all the companies which cooked the books and gutted the economy
Just… argh. Our criminal justice system needs a serious overhaul.
Not everyone will forget Trayvon Martin. I think it was his death that helped people become more aware of ALEC, which has taken some hits recently.
Yeah, true, but…
I hate to be depressing, but there’s this massive problem at many levels that I tend to think of as “The Tribble Problem.”
We can get one or two. We can expose a Lehman or a case like Martin-Zimmerman. We can expose ALEC or the SOPA/PIPA.
But there’s so much and it happens so fast that it’s like trying to correct incorrect notions on the internet. The shear flood is overwhelming.
ALEC now has a bad name, but they’ll just change the name or found a new organization and it will take forever to catch those as well.
It’s like trying to move the ocean with an eyedropper.