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  1. #126
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    Speaker Boehner’s Lawyer Is Charging The American Taxpayer $500 An Hour To Sue Obama

    Last January, a Washington attorney named David Rivkin co-authored an article inPolitico Magazine that laid out a legal theory that Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) now plans to use to sue President Obama because the president is not implementing Obamacare fast enough. Yet, as ThinkProgress laid out shortly after Boehner announced that he would file the lawsuit, Rivkin’s legal theory rests upon “a glaring misrepresentation of a recent Supreme Court decision that undermines much of the basis for this lawsuit.
    Nevertheless, Boehner decided to hire Rivkin to represent the GOP-led House in its suit against the president. Rivkin’s price? $500 an hour, all charged to the American taxpayer.

    The contract caps Rivkin’s fees at a total of $350,000, although, if past is prologue, this cap will rise quickly. During the litigation challenging the Defense of Marriage Act, Boehner hired former Solicitor General Paul Clement to defend anti-gay discrimination at a fee of $520 per hour. Although an early iteration of Clement’s contract capped his total fees at $500,000, the total cost of Boehner’s legal services rose to $2.3 million. Clement’s legal fees were also charged to the American taxpayer.

    However much money Rivkin ultimately collects from the American people, he is unlikely to win his lawsuit if the judges who consider it follow existing law. As a general rule, a plaintiff bringing a lawsuit must have actually been injured in some way by the person they are suing. Neither Boehner nor any other member of Congress, however, has been injured by President Obama’s decision to delay implementation of the provision of the Affordable Care Act at issue in this case.

    Additionally, in a 1997 case called Raines v. Byrd, the Supreme Court explained that suits brought by members of Congress alleging that their ins utional rights as lawmakers have been injured are highly discouraged.


    Nevertheless, it’s worth noting that the Roberts Court has shown a willingness to abandonestablished law when Obamacare is involved, so there is no guarantee that Rivkin will lose.

    http://thinkprogress.org/justice/201...to-sue-obama/#



  2. #127
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    Rick Perry’s Clown Show

    Trial lawyers will tell you that any good prosecutor could convince a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich.

    The day before his courthouse circus opened, Ringmaster Rick brought in the clowns — a whole troupe of $450-an-hour, hotshot lawyers wearing red power ties, came blustering onstage with Perry from out of a back room, as though tumbling out of a tiny clown car. Introduced as the indictee’s legal dream team, each tried to outdo the other in a slapstick show of résumés, puffing themselves up as junkyard-tough lawyers who would shred this prosecutor and his flimsy case.

    Meant to show how strong Perry is, the pack of lawyers only raised another question for Perry in the public mind: If the charges against you are nothing, as you keep saying, why do you need so many heavyweight, extremely pricey lawyers?


    Well, meet that ham sandwich! Here in my burg of Austin, Texas, a grand jury has just indicted Gov. Rick “Rooti-Toot-Toot” Perry, a real ham — only not as smart.


    Perry has hornswoggled the pundits, but don’t let them fool you — Perry clearly abused his power as governor. Again, the issue is not Perry’s veto, but his linking of a veto threat to his effort to oust an elected public official. As for his hamming it up about being a poor victim of Democrats, the judge who appointed the prosecutor is a Republican, and the prosecutor himself was nominated to federal office by President Bush I, and endorsed by Texas’ Republican senators. This indictment is not a show.

    It’s way more serious than Perry is, and the real explaining he’ll have to do will be in a somber courthouse — under oath. To keep up with Perry’s circus, go to Texans for Public Justice at
    www.tpj.org.

    http://www.nationalmemo.com/rick-perrys-clown-show/

  3. #128
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    Rick Perry deletes tweet calling district attorney the ‘most drunk Democrat in Texas’


    Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Sunday deleted an image posted by his official Twitter account that labeled Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg “the most drunk Democrat in Texas.”

    The image, imitating Dos Equis’ “Most Interesting Man in the World” beer advertisements, stated: “I don’t always drive drunk at 3x the legal blood alcohol limit… …but when I do, I indict Gov. Perry for calling me out about it. I am the most drunk Democrat in Texas.”

    The tweet was quickly deleted, but can still be viewed thanks to the Sunlight Foundation’s Politwhoops tool.


    “A tweet just went out from my account that was unauthorized. I do not condone the tweet and I have taken it down,” Perry tweeted.

    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/09/01/rick-perry-deletes-tweet-calling-district-attorney-the-most-drunk-democrat-in-texas/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaig n=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story%29

  4. #129
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    Rick Perry might go away for a long, long time: What even the liberal media isn’t reporting about his indictment

    At least in 2012, Rick Perry realized he’d forgotten the name of the federal department he wanted to abolish. But when it comes to the charges he’s just been indicted for, he’s certain of what they are. “Bribery,” he said in New Hampshire recently — but he’s wrong. It’s not exactly a strong position to start from if you’re going to loudly proclaim your innocence. At least he’s got one thing right: “I don’t really understand the details,” he added.

    In that, Perry is far from alone. Few, if any, of his high-profile defenders, either left or right, seem to understand much more than he does. Still, you don’t have to be a lawyer to at least have some idea of what’s being charged. The indictment is online for anyone to read, and it’s not that hard to understand — one count for abuse of official capacity, the other for coercion of a public official. Yet few in the national media seem to have figured that out.

    “It was very clear to me that some of the pundits-at-a-distance based their initial opinions on two false assumptions,” Smith said, via email, “1) That the Perry indictments were the product of a nest of angry but unsophisticated Austin liberals; 2) That it was a governor’s cons utional power of the veto that was being challenged.”

    faced with the facts that not one but two Republican judges failed to dismiss the criminal complaint against Perry and that an accomplished, conservative special prosecutor had overseen the grand jury indictment, a street-level reporter would think, “There must be more to the game that’s afoot than the Perry narrative wants me to believe.”

    “Many reporters in Texas know Perry and are much more familiar with the details in this case, the fact that these are Republicans investigating this and that Perry has a history of hardball politics in forcing people out,” Slater said. “This is a much more nuanced story than some in the Beltway understand.”


    1) The indictment was not brought by the Tavis County DA. Nor were any other Democrats involved. It’s worth quoting at length from Smith at the Texas Tribune:

    Not a single Democratic official was involved at any point in the process, except to recuse him or herself.

    That’s what the victim of Perry’s “offers,” Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, did. So did District Judge Julie Kocurek.


    Kocurek referred the criminal complaint to Judge Billy Ray Stubblefield, a Republican and Perry appointee.

    Stubblefield could have dismissed the complaint. Instead, he assigned it to Judge Bert Richardson, also a Republican.

    He, too, could have dismissed the complaint. Instead, he appointed conservative, well-respected former federal prosecutor McCrum as special prosecutor.

    Republican U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison once
    recommended McCrum for the job of U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas.

    McCrum could have dismissed the complaint. Instead, he took it to a grand jury.

    2) The indictment is not an attack on the governor’s right to veto, any more than a bribery charge would be, if Perry were accused of having vetoed a bill in return for a bribe.

    As Rachel Maddow put it, covering the story the day it broke, “You may have the cons utional right to vote, for example; you don’t have the cons utional right to sell your vote.”


    3) Perry’s purported motivation — outrage over Lehmberg’s DWI violation and conviction — was not matched in two other cases where GOP district attorneys were convicted. Nor has he offered any rational explanation why a DWI violation — particularly after rehab — should be seen as so uniquely heinous.

    Another key Perry talking point has been that “In Texas we settle things with elections.” Why not this time, then?


    4) Perry did have a prima facie political motivation to go after Lehmberg: Her office was investigating corruption involving Perry cronies at the Cancer Prevention and Research Ins ute of Texas at the time he sought to force her out, and replace her with his own appointee.


    5) The indictment of Perry is not about the “criminalization of politics” — a rhetorical framework that dates back to at least Richard Nixon. As Smith told Salon:

    The very term is profoundly disturbing because its real meaning is, “We are the law so it is logically impossible for us to violate it.” Political insiders — from politicians to those who work or used to work for them — know full well that politics now is little more than ins utionalized bribery. How do even well-meaning players cope with that psychologically? They have to set their/our political practices outside the reach of the law.


    A good parallel is seen in popular culture presentations of Mob life, in which the wives, sons, daughters of mobsters are willfully blind to the source of their wealth. Anyone who wants to turn on the lights becomes a snitch who wants to “criminalize” their everyday lives.

    But it does tell us that Perry’s media defense has no relation to known facts, so why should he get the benefit of the doubt in matters where the facts remain unclear?

    MADDOW: I will say — as people look at Rick Perry as a potential 2016 contender. You know, he’s taking this New Hampshire trip tomorrow, people talk about this indictment. If you’re thinking about looking at whether or not Rick Perry is a viable 2016 contender and thinking about looking at these indictments as part of that, get behind the pay wall, right? Pay for subscriptions to the Texas publication of your choice. Start reading Texas papers on this. The coverage is like reading it from Mars when you compare stuff that`s being written in Washington.

    Lind links this with a much less impressive point — that it will only embolden Republicans to bring trumped-up charges against Democratic governors. This would be an excellent point, if Republican operatives had time machines.

    How else to explain their successful
    2006 conviction of Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, which a bipartisan group of over 100 former attorney generals argued against in a recent Supreme Court amicus brief?

    since one of Lind’s greatest concerns is how Republicans can co-opt anti-corruption prosecution strategies, he must also acknowledge how thoroughly right-wing co-optations of populism have already succeeded, both in Texas, and all across America.

    Which is why it really is best to keep focused on the facts. Let’s hear them first; only then can we have informed opinions.

    http://www.salon.com/2014/09/03/rick...is_indictment/


    Last edited by boutons_deux; 09-07-2014 at 09:21 AM.

  5. #130
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    Start reading Texas papers on this. The coverage is like reading it from Mars when you compare stuff that`s being written in Washington.

    Oh BS

    Read the Gov. McDonnell stuff.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/...d02_story.html

    In Virginia.
    Maddow going too far again in her statements while crap like the above is happening in DCs backyard.

  6. #131
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    Start reading Texas papers on this. The coverage is like reading it from Mars when you compare stuff that`s being written in Washington.

    Oh BS

    Read the Gov. McDonnell stuff.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/...d02_story.html

    In Virginia.
    Maddow going too far again in her statements while crap like the above is happening in DCs backyard.
    what?

  7. #132
    I play pretty, no? TeyshaBlue's Avatar
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  8. #133
    my unders, my frgn whites pgardn's Avatar
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    Do you read your own stuff?

    Jesus, you bolded it as well...

  9. #134
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    Do you read your own stuff?

    Jesus, you bolded it as well...
    what?

  10. #135
    my unders, my frgn whites pgardn's Avatar
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  11. #136
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    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/0...detail=email6#

    RickyBobby as popular as ever with Texans ( a majority DON'T want him as Pres )

  12. #137
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    Apart from RickyBobby extorting drunk Austin lady, the audit of the Repug political slush fund, aka Texas Enterprise Fund, is looking like real trouble for both RickyBobby and Abbutt.

    money handed out with to bids, no contracts, no followups, and lots of the TEF stuff, aka taxpayer $100Ms, remains secret.

  13. #138
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  14. #139
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    Prosecutor Claims Perry Threatening Grand Jury After Indictment

    "I am confident we will ultimately prevail, that this farce of a prosecution will be revealed for what it is, and that those responsible will be held to account," Perry said following the indictment.

    Some have interpreted that statement as intimidation.

    "This comment struck many listeners as a threat against the members of the grand jury and all of those associated with the grand jury process,"

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewir...+%28TPMNews%29

  15. #140
    dangerous floater Winehole23's Avatar
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  16. #141
    dangerous floater Winehole23's Avatar
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  17. #142
    Independent DMX7's Avatar
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    How many people are really wearing suits in their mug shots?

  18. #143
    dangerous floater Winehole23's Avatar
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    a step closer to the case being laid out in public. CT21 and TEF contracting shenanigans have been bubbling along in the background.

    A Texas judge on Tuesday refused to dismiss a felony abuse-of-power case against former Gov. Rick Perry on cons utional grounds, ruling that criminal charges against the possible 2016 presidential candidate should stand.




    District Judge Bert Richardson, who like Perry is a Republican, rejected calls from Perry's defense team to toss the case because its client was acting within his rights as chief executive of America's second-most populous state when he publicly threatened, then carried out, a 2013 veto of state funding for public corruption prosecutors.


    Richardson wrote that, "Texas law clearly precludes a trial court from making a pretrial determination regarding the cons utionality of a state penal or criminal procedural statute as the statue applies to a particular defendant."
    http://news.yahoo.com/judge-refuses-...213341554.html

  19. #144
    Still Hates Small Ball Spurminator's Avatar
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  20. #145
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    krazy kruz' opinion is gold, his judgement irreproachable

  21. #146
    Mr. John Wayne CosmicCowboy's Avatar
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    Hey Boo.

    betcha $100 before it's over he doesn't get convicted.

  22. #147
    W4A1 143 43CK? Nbadan's Avatar
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    Hey Boo.

    betcha $100 before it's over he doesn't get convicted.
    I think he will be convicted, maybe on a lesser charge, but not much more than a fine will come from it....

  23. #148
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    Hey Boo.

    betcha $100 before it's over he doesn't get convicted.
    nah, TX is too corrupt to expect a conviction. Somebody will get to the juror(s), prosecutor(s) who have to think about their careers in Repug-poisoned TX

    I'll will be you $100 that JimmyRicky will never be US President, not even the Repug candidate.

  24. #149
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    nah, TX is too corrupt to expect a conviction. Somebody will get to the juror(s), prosecutor(s) who have to think about their careers in Repug-poisoned TX

    I'll will be you $100 that JimmyRicky will never be US President, not even the Repug candidate.
    Corruption? Boos scared to put his money where his big mouth is.



    Chicken , much? That's no bet at all. Of course Perry will never be President.

  25. #150
    Mr. John Wayne CosmicCowboy's Avatar
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    I think he will be convicted, maybe on a lesser charge, but not much more than a fine will come from it....
    Maybe in Austin but it won't withstand an appeal. He clearly didn't exceed his authorized power as Governor even if he did it for the wrong reasons.

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