Friday, February 22, 2008

Peter Paul v. Clinton - Hillary To Be Called As Witness If Process Servers Can Catch Her



Peter Paul v. Clinton - Hillary To Be Called As Witness If Process Servers Can Catch Her



I got a call from a person heavily involved in the case of Peter Paul v. Hillary Clinton . The latest twist in this case came Thursday, as Judge Aurelio Munoz allowed Peter Paul's attorneys to commence discovery (sworn depositions of witnesses) after a three year hiatus, while agreeing to set a trial date at a hearing to be held in April, 2008, according to Paul's website

According to the site:

The business fraud suit being prosecuted by Hillary’s largest donor Peter Paul is finally proceeding to trial after years of delays in the appellate court fight to keep Hillary in the case as a defendant rather than a material witness. Judge Munoz allowed Paul to commence discovery (sworn depositions of witnesses) after a three year hiatus, while agreeing to set a trial date at a hearing to be held in April, 2008.

In response, Hillary Clinton’s attorney David Kendall declared that none of Hillary Clinton’s lawyers would accept a deposition subpoena on Hillary’s behalf.

Hillary is declaring that she would rather dodge process servers while she is campaigning for President of the United States around the nation than honorably accept a notice of her mandatory deposition through her lawyers!!

Hillary Clinton was dismissed as a co-defendant in the case at a hearing in April, 2007 because of democrat Appellate Court Judges’ support of her belated effort to obtain the protection of California’s Anti-SLAPP law from tort fraud conspiracy charges in raising money for her Senate campaign.

At that hearing, after dismissing Hillary as a defendant, trial court Judge Aurelio Munoz admonished David Kendall by telling him unequivocally that any effort to deny Senator Clinton’s testimony as a witness in the case would be “Dead on Arrival”. To emphasize his point, the Judge followed his statement by saying “Did you hear that Mr Kendall?”

In typical Clintonian hubris and contempt for the judicial process, Hillary had her diminutive counsel with the over inflated ego state to Paul’s lawyer, Colette Wilson, that none of the three lawyers of record representing Hillary in the case would accept a witness subpoena for her deposition on her behalf, and that there would be no cooperation in the process the judge stated should include Hillary’s testimony.


In other words, Clinton's lawyer have no interest in following the judge's orders.

I directly called Peter Paul, the plaintiff (person who filed the fraud lawsuit against Bill Clinton, and to which Senator Hillary Clinton is considered a part of) to get more background on this story. In response to the remarks of Clinton's attorney, Paul said "It denegrates her office as a server of the public. After abusing the First Amendment to be dismissed (from testifying as a witness in the fraud trial), now she's challenging a judge's order. Telling the plaintiff's lawyer that she will not cooperate without being served (a subpoena ) by a process server."

Paul reports that his team will have a process server in Texas and Ohio, where Clinton is campaiging. According to Paul, It's now a race against a 70-day clock: "They're (Clinton's legal team) hoping to 'run the clock," Paul said, "and hope that they get a summary judgement." (That means a decision where the judge is convinced there's not enough evidence to warrant a trial-by-jury). If Senator Clinton's served by a process server, she has to testify, which would then give enough evidence to have a jury trial.

All of this means that Hillary Clinton will be chased by process-servers as she's campaigning in Texas and Ohio. This is a race to watch. Stay tuned.

Cogan's View of The Court

Doug Cogan, who made the movie "Hillary Uncensored", was outside the court on Thursday and gave me his take on the matter. "It really is remarkable that the candidate (Clinton) who wants to be the chief law enforcement officer for the nation continues to scoff at the law" Cogan says the Clintons never expected Peter Paul to come back from Brazil (where he was imprisoned several years ago) alive.

"I would love for some reporter to ask Hillary if she's going to obey the court's order," Cogan remarked.

Cogan explains that there is compelling evidence that Dave Kendall submitted false declarations to the court, from assertions that Hillary Clinton met Paul in 2000, when this video shows Clinton and Peter Paul talking about when they met in 1993.

As a note, this is my video on the FEC side of Peter Paul's battle against the Clinton's:

Officer in Clinton's motorcade dies

(CNN) – An officer involved in Hillary Clinton's motorcade in Dallas, Texas was killed in a motorcycle crash Friday, the New York senator confirmed.

Clinton released a statement saying she is “greatly heartsick over this loss of life in the line of duty.”

The officer was thrown at least 30-40 feet in the accident, which occurred on the Trinity River Viaduct as Clinton's motorcade made its way through downtown Dallas.

The Dallas police department has not yet confirmed the death, or released the identity of the officer.

“I want to express my deepest condolences to the family and the Dallas police department on this tragic, tragic loss," said Clinton.

She added that she had called the Dallas Police chief, and would call the family at an appropriate time, and was grateful for the police department's service.

"I am certainly grateful for all they do for me and more importantly what they do for the citizens of cities like Dallas,” she said.

There have been two fatal accidents involving motorcycle officers escorting President Bush’s motorcade over the past 18 months.

On August 28, an officer from Rio Rancho, New Mexico died when his motorcycle crashed as the motorcade approached the airport in Albuquerque. The officer, Germaine Casey, was 40. He was the lead motorcycle in the motorcade when the crash occurred.

On November 23, 2006, a Honolulu Police motorcycle officer crashed on wet roads during the President’s motorcade in Hawaii…he died of his injuries a week later. Two other officers injured in the crash were released from the hospital. Steve Favella was 30.

President Barack Obama - First Seen At Texas Debate

We've just seen our next president, and that person's Barack Obama. Senator Obama emerged into a full president tonight before the eyes of America and in the Lone Star State. Obama seemed "presidential" to many, including past Clinton supporters like CNN's Donna Brazile. Obama's ready; he's the one.

Hillary Clinton's Campaign Partying At The Bellagio In Las Vegas - Lost Money

This NY Times article details the free-spending that has gone on with the Hillary Clinton for President campaign. They took $25,000 of the money and stayed at The Bellagio in Las Vegas, Nevada, rather than a cheaper hotel. It's like someone forgot to tell the campaign they were working to get a person elected President of The United States! Wow. Read this.

Spending by Clinton Campaign Worries Supporters
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By MICHAEL LUO, JO BECKER and PATRICK HEALY
Published: February 22, 2008
This article was reported by Michael Luo, Jo Becker and Patrick Healy and was written by Mr. Healy.

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Nearly $100,000 went for party platters and groceries before the Iowa caucuses, even though the partying mood evaporated quickly. Rooms at the Bellagio luxury hotel in Las Vegas consumed more than $25,000; the Four Seasons, another $5,000. And top consultants collected about $5 million in January, a month of crucial expenses and tough fund-raising.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s latest campaign finance report, published Wednesday night, appeared even to her most stalwart supporters and donors to be a road map of her political and management failings. Several of them, echoing political analysts, expressed concerns that Mrs. Clinton’s spending priorities amounted to costly errors in judgment that have hamstrung her competitiveness against Senator Barack Obama of Illinois.

“We didn’t raise all of this money to keep paying consultants who have pursued basically the wrong strategy for a year now,” said a prominent New York donor. “So much about her campaign needs to change — but it may be too late.”

The high-priced senior consultants to Mrs. Clinton, of New York, have emerged as particular targets of complaints, given that they conceived and executed a political strategy that has thus far proved unsuccessful.

The firm that includes Mark Penn, Mrs. Clinton’s chief strategist and pollster, and his team collected $3.8 million for fees and expenses in January; in total, including what the campaign still owes, the firm has billed more than $10 million for consulting, direct mail and other services, an amount other Democratic strategists who are not affiliated with either campaign called stunning.

Howard Wolfson, the communications director and a senior member of the advertising team, earned nearly $267,000 in January. His total, including the campaign’s debt to him, tops $730,000.

The advertising firm owned by Mandy Grunwald, the longtime media strategist for both Mrs. Clinton and Bill Clinton, the former president, has collected $2.3 million in fees and expenses, and is still owed another $240,000.

“Fees and payments are in line with industry standards,” Mr. Wolfson said. “Spending priorities have been consistent with overall strategic goals.”

But some Democrats are now asking if the money spent on a campaign that appears to be sputtering — $106 million so far — was worth it.

“It’s easy to be critical, but had she won Iowa, none of this would have mattered. It wouldn’t have mattered what she spent because money would have come pouring in,” said Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic political consultant and a veteran of Mr. Clinton’s successful 1996 re-election bid. “But the fact that she did not has made everyone focus on where the dollars went — and where they think the money should’ve gone.”

Mrs. Clinton came into January with a cash advantage over Mr. Obama, with about $19 million available for the primary, compared with about $13 million for him. She wound up spending at roughly the same rate as Mr. Obama, about a million dollars a day, but because she performed dismally compared to him in raising money, she ended the month essentially in the red and was forced to lend her campaign $5 million, while he had $19 million for the coming contests.

Over all, Mrs. Clinton has spent more than $35 million on media, polling and consulting. A comparison with Mr. Obama’s spending is difficult because of the ways the campaigns labeled expenses, but it appears he spent about $40 million in those areas.

In other notable expenditures during the lean month of January, Mrs. Clinton paid $275,000 to Sunrise Communications, a South Carolina firm that was supposed to turn out black voters for her and collected nearly $800,000 in total. She lost that state to Mr. Obama by a wide margin. Even small expenses piled up in January: the campaign spent more than $11,000 on pizza and $1,200 on Dunkin’ Donuts runs.

Mr. Penn, the chief strategist, said in an interview that, since 2001, he no longer owned any of the political consulting firm of Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates. He said the firm’s fees were capped at $20,000 a month and that the “great bulk” of the payments went for direct mail.

Joe Trippi, who was a senior adviser to John Edwards’s presidential campaign, said he believed that the Clinton team had made two fundamental errors.

First, he argued, Mrs. Clinton built a top-down fund-raising operation that relied on a core group of donors to write checks early on for the maximum amount, $4,600 for the primary and the general election, which left few of them to go back to when money became tight. Mr. Obama, by contrast, focused on building a network of small donors whose continued ability to give has been essential to his success this winter.

more here...

Obama Security Screening Stopped By Secret Service In Dallas? WTF?

This is terrible! It's a totally freaking outrage! What is going on with the Secret Service?

Police concerned about order to stop screening

By JACK DOUGLAS Jr.
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

STAR-TELEGRAM/RODGER MALLISON

Barack Obama speaks Wednesday at a Democratic rally in Dallas' Reunion Arena. Police were told to stop screening people for weapons before the rally began.
DALLAS -- Security details at Barack Obama's rally Wednesday stopped screening people for weapons at the front gates more than an hour before the Democratic presidential candidate took the stage at Reunion Arena.

The order to put down the metal detectors and stop checking purses and laptop bags came as a surprise to several Dallas police officers who said they believed it was a lapse in security.

Dallas Deputy Police Chief T.W. Lawrence, head of the Police Department's homeland security and special operations divisions, said the order -- apparently made by the U.S. Secret Service -- was meant to speed up the long lines outside and fill the arena's vacant seats before Obama came on.

"Sure," said Lawrence, when asked if he was concerned by the great number of people who had gotten into the building without being checked. But, he added, the turnout of more than 17,000 people seemed to be a "friendly crowd."

The Secret Service did not return a call from the Star-Telegram seeking comment.

Doors opened to the public at 10 a.m., and for the first hour security officers scanned each person who came in and checked their belongings in a process that kept movement of the long lines at a crawl. Then, about 11 a.m., an order came down to allow the people in without being checked.

Several Dallas police officers said it worried them that the arena was packed with people who got in without even a cursory inspection.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because, they said, the order was made by federal officials who were in charge of security at the event.

"How can you not be concerned in this day and age," said one policeman.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Christine Smith Blessed By NY Post's Cindy Adams - NY Upper East Side Interior Designer A Celeb



Christine Smith Interior Design Blessed By NY Post's Cindy Adams



Taking a break from politics, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Mcain, we look at Cindy Adams who "brings you the juiciest celeb gossip and celebrity news" according to the New York Post, her employer. Well, if that's the case, then Cindy's just blessed Christine Smith as a celebrity. Cindy took note of the growing presence of Smith's workers around the Upper East Side, and gushed ..

"GUYS are around hauling demolition, filling dump trucks, wearing black T-shirts that read "Christine Smith." So who's Christine Smith? A stunning, skinny, befurred, 6-foot blonde with silver buckles on her jeans and waist-length hair. And why's anyone hauling fixtures wearing her shirts? She's this season's contractor du jour. Looking like a model, this lady is demolishing johns, pulling out sinks, building walls and redoing kitchens all over the Upper East Side."




Wow.

Not only is Christine a model, but the work of her and the crew of people she employs is as well.

Here is but one of the examples of the work of Christine Smith, who it can now be said rules the Upper East Side of New York. Visit her website at http://www.christinesmithassoc.com

Pro Clinton 527 / Emily's List Take $ From Questionable People



By now if you're a political junky like myself, you've heard about the "Pro-Clinton 527" that will concentrate on coming up with new ways to smear Senator Barack Obama on his way to what is an eventual Presidential Nomination. The Clinton 527 is being paid for in part by Steve Bing, who's a Hollywood type who reportedly -- according to the Telegraph of London -- got two starlets knocked up, then pressured the media to bury the story. Emily's List took money from this guy!

Read this from the Telegraph.Co.UK:

After Liz Hurley, Bing faces second bitter paternity row

By Oliver Poole in Los Angeles
Last Updated: 3:28pm BST 16/05/2002

Steve Bing, the playboy Elizabeth Hurley claims is the father of her son Damian, was named yesterday as the parent of a girl at the centre of the world's most expensive child support case.

The millionaire television producer was identified in court papers as the father of Kira Kerkorian.


Kirk Kerkorian
The four-year-old girl is the subject of a bitter paternity row between Kirk Kerkorian, one of California's richest men, and his former wife, who has demanded £223,000 a month in maintenance.

Mr Bing, 37, is already waiting for a DNA test to be carried out to determine whether he is the father of six-week-old Damian after Hurley agreed to the procedure last week.

However, he may have to spend thousands of pounds more on child support and make the girl heir to part of his estimated £280 million fortune after the latest development.

According to the papers filed at a Los Angeles court, Mr Kerkorian, who owns MGM film studios and a string of Las Vegas casinos, hired private detectives who matched DNA from the child with a strand of dental floss they found in Mr Bing's dustbins.

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The 84-year-old had become suspicious when he heard rumours that Mr Bing and his ex-wife, the former tennis player Lisa Bonder, had an affair around the time of Kira's conception.

The couple were living apart at the time. They were reconciled for a one-week fling in which Miss Bonder claimed that she became pregnant.

Mr Kerkorian's investigators took DNA from the floss and compared it to strands of the child's hair which showed a match with 99.993 per cent certainty, the court papers said.

The case went to court at the start of this year after Miss Bonder, 36, filed for child support as well as demanding use of her former husband's private Boeing 737 up to five times a year. She said the money was needed to keep her daughter in the manner to which she had become accustomed, which included £4,200 a month for visits to restaurants and £300 a month to look after Kira's pet rabbit.

Mr Kerkorian said he believed that the child was not his. However, he had become emotionally attached to her and was happy to continue paying £53,000 a month to help support her.

Neither he nor representatives of Miss Bonder or Mr Bing were available to comment on the new allegations yesterday. The latest development comes after the flurry of claims and counter-claims after the birth of Damian whom Hurley, 36, insists was fathered by Mr Bing during their 18-month relationship, which ended last November.

That would not only make the boy eligible to a share of his fortune - which is based in New York property - but also about £450,000 a year in child support until he is at least 18.

When the pregnancy was announced Mr Bing questioned whether he was the boy's father and said the couple were not in "an exclusive relationship" when he was conceived.

However, Hurley said she was "completely loyal and faithful" to her former boyfriend, whom she "loved enormously during the two years we were together".

A DNA test is expected to take place within the next month to settle whether he is Damian's parent. At present no father is named on the boy's birth certificate.

When proceedings to resolve the paternity case were issued in the Family Division of the High Court last month, Mr Bing's spokesman said: "If it is proved that Mr Bing is Damian's father, he would wish generously to support him and to be involved in his upbringing."

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

John McCain Lobbyist Scandal With Vicki Iseman About Power



The MSN and the Internet in the form of thousands of emails on the Barack Obama listservs were abuz with the news about John McCain's association with a beautiful lobbyist Vicki Iseman. The association between the two is eight years old and while Senator McCain says there was no sexual relationship, in my view there was a "power association" -- a marriage of a Senator flattered by the attention of a smart, lovely young woman who knew the ropes in Washington, and her desire to be in the company of a senior elected official who could open doors for her.

Vicki Iseman is no slouch. A look at the bio on her website will tell you that:

VICKI ISEMAN
Vicki Iseman, Partner, represents corporate and public clients on issues as diverse as government contracting and regulatory reform. Her experience includes representation of clients before Congress, Federal government agencies and local opinion leaders.

She has extensive experience in telecommunications, representing corporations before the House and Senate Commerce Committees. Her work on the landmark 1992 and 1996 communications bills helped secure cable access for broadcast television stations. Her experience in the communications field includes digital television conversion, satellite regulations and telecommunications ownership provisions.

She has been active in grassroots communications campaigns for clients, building community based support for legislative initiatives. Among others, she participated in the "Keep America Moving" campaign that educated community leaders on the allocation of Federal highway trust funds.

In addition, she has consulted for clients who are interested in government contracting opportunities. She has assisted corporations through the authorization and appropriation process. An active fundraiser, she has organized and participated in many political fundraising events.

A native of Pennsylvania, she holds a B.A. degree in Education from Indiana University in Pennsylvania.


(Note: the company took her bio off their main site, but a cached version is at the Huff Post. )

Iseman is skilled in getting earmarks for her clients. Earmarks are expenditures for projects in an area of interest to an elected official. While, it's not clear -- yet -- that she helped McCain in that area, it's documented that by 2006, she'd become a name partner in her firm and quite good at the practice.

And Vicky's client list is extensive:

American Maglev Technology

AMFM Inc

Arison Family Trust

AstraZeneca

BearingPoint Inc

CACI International

CanWest

Capstar Broadcasting Partners

Carnival Corp

City of Miami, FL

City of Palm Springs, CA

Click Radio

Computer Sciences Corp

Future Leaders of America

Hillsborough County

Hispanic Broadcasting Inc

Homer-Center School District

i2Telecom International

Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Ion Media Networks

Jovan Broadcasting

Latona Assoc

Marin County, CA

National Stroke Assn

Operation Warm

Paxson Communications

PriceWaterhouseCoopers

Saga Communications

Sinclair Broadcast Group

Telemundo Network Group

Total Living Network

Tulare County

Univision Communications

Walter Industries

I don't think this is a case of a classic sex scandal and to look at it that way is to miss what in my view is a much richer story: a tale of how McCain made relationships with lobbyists and very much before his relatively new efforts to curb lobbiyst activities.

But one does have to wonder if McCain's sudden war on lobbyists had something to do with his relationship with Ms. Iseman. Time will tell.

Major News From Barack Obama

I received this e-mail message from Democratic frontrunner Barack Obama less than an hour ago.

david --

We learned something extraordinary since I wrote to you last night.

We've crunched all the numbers and discovered that we are within striking distance of something historic: one million people donating to this campaign.

Think about that ... nearly one million people taking ownership of this movement, five dollars or twenty-five dollars at a time.

We're already more than 900,000 strong, including over half-a-million donating so far this year. This unprecedented foundation of support has built a campaign that has shaken the status quo and proven that ordinary people can compete in a political process too often dominated by special interests.

Unlike Senator Clinton or Senator McCain, we haven't taken a dime from Washington lobbyists or special interest PACs. Our campaign is responsible to no one but the people.

One million donors would be a remarkable feat -- something that's never been done before in a presidential primary and something no one ever thought would be possible for us. And you still have the opportunity to be a part of it.

If you make a donation right now, one of those 900,000 donors has promised to give again in order to match your first gift. You can double the impact of your first donation -- and you can even choose to exchange a note about why you are part of this movement.

We started this improbable journey a little over a year ago in Springfield, Illinois.

And because you've joined together to make your voices heard, this journey isn't looking as improbable anymore.

Since our victory on February 5th, we've won ten straight contests.

But on March 4th, we face a huge challenge in Texas and Ohio, who will vote along with Rhode Island and Vermont. We are behind in the big states and need as many people involved as possible if we're going to win.

If we can reach our goal of one million donors by March 4th, we can send a powerful message that the Washington establishment and big-money interests cannot ignore.

As one million people with one voice, we can tell them that their days of dominating Washington are coming to an end -- the old politics are crumbling and a new voice is breaking through. Our voice.

I learned the power of ordinary people coming together as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago.

I worked side-by-side with people who had been laid off from steel plants that were moved overseas. These were people who needed new jobs to rebuild their lives, and their political leaders were ignoring them.

But even though the odds were stacked against them, they discovered that by coming together with one voice, they could no longer be ignored.

When we launched this campaign, we knew we were up against similar odds. We knew we'd be running against a massive political machine with deep ties to the Washington establishment.

We knew it wouldn't be easy.

But if we can do this, we're not just going to win an election. We're going to change our country.

Thank you so much,

Barack

John McCain Wins Wisconsin and Washington State Over Huckabee

John McCain is just a few steps closer to the Republican nomination with decisive wins on Tuesday and in Wisconsin and Washington State. But John's got a bigger problem and Amy Holmes and the Republican Party has an uphilll battle in that Barack Obama himself tonight has drawn more voters than the entire Republican Party has for all of the primary contests.

Yikes!

Barack Obama's Sweep: Wisconsin, Hawaii, and Washington State

Barack Obama has one again. He won decisively in both Wisconsin and Hawaii, and by 58 percent / 41 percent in Wisconsin, and a whopping 74 percent to 26 percent, respectively in Hawaii. That's ten straight wins for Obama and a fresh set of donors and fans.

But the campaign withstood what is the strongest challenge of negative press on the part of both the Clintons and the mainstream media. It's started with what I think was a misguided and vealedly racist attack on Barack's speeches as lacking substance. But then it got worse with attacks on Michelle Obama because she said that in her adult life she was finally proud to be an American.

I agree.

Clinton fans are wondering why she's not only losing, but being totally beaten in a landslide most of the time. The answer is simple. She's using the old style politics of divide and attack and it's not working. Many public officials know that you don't attack when it's not popular to do so.

I end this blog post with a video made by the University of Wisconsin chapter of Students for Obama:

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Michelle Obama Speaks For Me. I'm FINALLY PROUD OF AMERICA

Michelle Obama speaks for me. I'm finally proud to be in America and for anyone Afirican American, they feel the same way too. Look, after decades of racial discrimination, political lies with Watergate, Clinton scandals and all the rest, we've finally reached a point where we all can exhale, because we've been waiting too long to do so.

Michelle Obama speaks for me!