Let's revisit this whole Sean Hannity is Michael's Cohen's secret client debacle.

Fox News star Sean Hannity was just revealed to be a secret client of Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen. Here are basically all the times Hannity has defended Cohen on his show since the FBI raid last week. https://t.co/XFdnAQ965T pic.twitter.com/tWuMagPtqv

— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) April 17, 2018

Okay the above is video of Hannity essentially freaking out after the FBI raided Michael Cohen's office and homes.

At the time it seemed a little weird, but now it sort of makes a certain kind of sense.

Here is how CNN's Brian Stelter addressed this issue: 

Something isn't adding up in the case of Michael Cohen and Sean Hannity. 

For now Hannity's employer, Fox News, isn't commenting on the issue, but even some fellow Fox hosts are raising questions. 

There were audible gasps in court on Monday when it was revealed that Hannity was the mystery third client that Cohen was trying to keep secret. Stormy Daniels' attorney Michael Avenatti, who was in the room, said it was like "a bomb went off." 

Hannity scrambled to respond -- first on his radio show, then with tweets, then on his TV show. On Monday evening, Hannity downplayed the legal relationship, saying, "Cohen never represented me in any legal matter." 

He said the two men chatted occasionally, and his questions "focused almost exclusively" on real estate. 

Hannity said "I never retained his services, I never received an invoice. I never paid Michael Cohen for legal fees." 

But if that's true, why did Cohen's lawyer identify Hannity as a client in federal court?

On his radio show Hannity downplayed the crap out of this, suggesting that he might have handed Cohen ten bucks for shits and giggles, but that he was never an actual client.

But here's the thing, Cohen's attorney identified Hannity as a client while in a courtroom standing before a judge. where lying is a punishable offense.

Hannity denied the whole thing on this radio show and on Fox News, where lying is a way of life.

And if Hannity used the services of Michael Cohen, "The Fixer," what did he need them for?

This might be a clue:

Sean Hannity is the latest Fox News personality facing allegations of inappropriate behavior after he was accused of propositioning a guest on his show. 

This article came out almost exactly a year ago during the same time that Bill O'Reilly was facing scrutiny for paying off women who accused him of sexual misconduct.

In Hannity's case the allegations seemed to simply fade away.

And making THAT happen is Michael Cohen's specialty.

Right now there is no evidence that this is the reason that Hannity was named as a Cohen client, but there was certainly SOME reason that they both did not want his name identified in court.

Here was the Daily Show's take yesterday:

Sneak peek of 'Hannity' tonight... pic.twitter.com/qud8et2cba

— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) April 16, 2018

So much truth in comedy.

Do you want to see a Trump supporter crying his eyes out while being sentenced to prison for terrorizing a black child's birthday party? Of course you do.

Courtesy of Nova Magazine:  

Trump supporter has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for making “terroristic threats.” But now Jose Ismael Torres is hoping to get out. 

The racist and others associated with a pro-Confederate “Protect the Flag” group were caught on video disrupting a black child’s birthday party in Georgia. The incident occurred shortly after the massacre of nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015. 

Their taunts led to a confrontation with the family holding the party and Torres was accused of threatening to kill them with a gun. 

“Many people tried to make the case about simply flying the Confederate Battle Flag,” Douglas County District Attorney Brian Fortner said in a statement. “This case was about a group of people riding around our community, drinking alcohol, harassing and intimidating our citizens because of the color of their skin.” 

Torres was convicted on three counts of aggravated assault, one count of making terrorist threats and one count of violating of Georgia’s Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act in 2017. His girlfriend, Kayla Norton, was also sentenced to 6 years in prison.

Yeah, everybody is super tough when they are driving around in their pickup trucks, waving their Confederate flags around, and threatening children at gunpoint.

But it is a whole different story when they are sitting in a courtroom and being told they will be living in a cage for the next twenty years.

And what is with that young woman saying that what she and her boyfriend did, was "not them?"

Yes, it "was them."

That is why "they" are going to jail.

Donald Trump may be encouraging these people to come out of the shadows, but we still have laws in this country and the shadows are far safer than what awaits them behind bars.

Two more participants in the Bundy standoff get to walk free.

Steven Stewart taking up a position to get a better shot at Federal agents.

Courtesy of Las Vegas Review Journal:

Jurors acquitted two men of charges that could have sent them to federal prison for decades Tuesday, while reaching a split decision for two others, in a retrial that stemmed from the 2014 armed standoff in Bunkerville. 

The four men hugged their attorneys, as about two dozen loyal supporters erupted into cheers from the gallery of a courtroom where they had quietly watched weeks and weeks of testimony. 

Montana resident Ricky Lovelien and Idaho resident Steven Stewart were acquitted of all 10 counts they faced and were expected to be released from custody Tuesday night. 

Stewart cried and nodded his head along with each “not guilty” U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro read aloud, while Lovelien showed little more emotion than a grin.

"Cried and nodded his head."

This man took transported weapons across state lines to use against Federal agents who were just trying to do their jobs and enforce the law.

But when he is sitting before a judge, and facing possible punishment for his crimes, he cries like a little bitch?

And they call liberals "snowflakes."

So yet another domestic terrorist gets released back into the community.

Does anybody think for a second that if these men had brown skin and were named Mohammad that they would not now be spending the remainder of their lives in prison?

Well Sarah Palin will get at least one New York Times journalist to testify in her defamation lawsuit.

Courtesy of the New York Times:

The author of a New York Times editorial will have to testify under oath in a defamation lawsuit filed by the former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, a federal judge ruled on Thursday. 

The Times filed a motion last month seeking to dismiss the case, and the judge, Jed S. Rakoff of Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York, said the testimony was necessary to help him determine whether to grant that motion. Judge Rakoff set the hearing for Aug. 16. Judge Rakoff said last month that he would rule by the end of this month on the motion to dismiss the case. 

A spokeswoman for The Times said in a statement that the news organization would provide the testimony the judge had ordered. David McCraw, deputy general counsel for The Times, said the witness would be James Bennet, The Times’s editorial page editor.

As you may remember Palin was blocked from bringing in almost two dozen New York Times reporters by the judge in this case, and instead only the journalist who wrote the op-ed will show up to testify.

There is of course a strong chance that once this individual explains the thinking that went into the piece, and points out that the portion Palin objects to was later retracted, that the judge will go ahead and throw the case out completely.

We're sorry about this and we appreciate that our readers called us on the mistake. We've corrected the editorial. https://t.co/t1FZ3iEYQJ pic.twitter.com/k7WW5uJIQO

— NYT Opinion (@nytopinion) June 15, 2017

Personally I hope that the paper counter sues Palin since she is clearly being used as a conservative canary in the coal mine trying to find a chink in the Times' armor so that others can follow after and also file suits against the paper  which has caused their president so much grief.

Remember Palin has not spent one minute in this courtroom, and I believe that if she were subpoenaed by the Times she would quickly fall apart under cross examination and the Times' might quickly learn who is bankrolling this bullshit.

That seems like something which would be in the public's best interest to report.  

The Bundy boys stamp their feet and refuse to show up for court appearance.

Courtesy of Oregon Live:  

Two sons of Nevada cattleman Cliven Bundy refused to attend, and several co-defendants shouted an oath of defiance at the end of a Friday court appearance for 17 men accused of conspiring and taking up arms against federal agents near the Bundy ranch in Nevada in April 2014. 

U.S. Magistrate Judge Peggy Leen decided not to order marshals to bring Ammon and Ryan Bundy to court by force, so the two Bundy sons remained in a nearby holding cell. Marshals were instructed to provide a speaker so they could hear audio of the court proceedings. 

Another defendant, Peter Santilli, blurted out that the Bundy brothers didn't want to be shackled. Leen admonished Santilli that he didn't get to speak on their behalf. 

So began a contentious three-hour hearing during which the judge didn't make immediate rulings on a range of arguments, including the government's request to have three trials and defendants' requests to be tried together or in groups of their choosing.

Kind of hard to blame the Bundys.

After all they were already found not guilty of conspiring against the government, so they probably figure they will soon be walking out of prison scot-free.

Besides let's face it once Donald Trump is sworn in he will probably not only give them amnesty, but he will probably give them both cabinet positions. 
 

Trial over North Charleston police shooting ends in mistrial.

To be clear the trial for THAT shooting ended in mistrial.

Here is more courtesy of the New York Times:  

The trial of Michael T. Slager, the North Charleston police officer whose videotaped killing of an unarmed black man staggered the nation as it was embroiled in debate about police misconduct and racial biases in law enforcement, ended in a mistrial on Monday. 

Judge Clifton B. Newman’s decision to halt the proceedings came three days after jurors signaled that they were within one vote of returning a guilty verdict against Mr. Slager, who could have been convicted of either murder or voluntary manslaughter for the killing of Walter L. Scott. But jurors also sent conflicting messages on Friday about whether they could break their impasse, setting off a confused legal frenzy. 

On Monday, though, the panel of 11 white people and a black man again sent word that it would not be able to reach a unanimous verdict about Mr. Slager’s conduct, prompting the mistrial ruling.

So hard for a jury to know the right decision in a case like this.

If only there were some video tape that clearly showed the suspect running away when he was shot.

Oh wait......

And as NYT points out there is nothing new about this outcome:

The outcome in the Slager case is similar to the resolutions in other recent trials involving claims of police misconduct. This fall, a jury in Cincinnati deadlocked in the case of a university police officer who fatally shot a motorist who was black and unarmed. Here in South Carolina, juries twice deadlocked when considering charges against a rural police chief who fatally shot an unarmed black man. And in December 2015, the trial of a Baltimore police officer charged in the death of Freddie Gray ended in a mistrial. (After a judge, ruling in bench trials, cleared other Baltimore officers, the prosecutor there dropped all of the criminal cases in the matter of Mr. Gray’s death.)

And people wonder why groups like BLM exist, and why they spend their time protesting in the streets. 

Oregon standoff protesters found not guilty.

Courtesy of The Guardian: 

A jury has found that brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy were not guilty of conspiring against the government, a surprising end to the high-profile Oregon standoff trial that sparked national debates about public lands and the rights of ranchers in the American west. 

The decision, unveiled in federal court in Portland on Thursday, is a blow to the US government, which had aggressively prosecuted the rightwing activists who led an armed takeover of public property to protest American land-use regulations. 

The Bundy brothers, who orchestrated a 2 January takeover of the Malheur national wildlife refuge, were acquitted on a number of serious charges, along with five other defendants. Only a day earlier the court dismissed a juror over fears of bias, raising concerns that the trial would drag on for weeks. 

“We are just so excited,” Angie Bundy, Ryan’s wife, told the Guardian after the verdict was announced. “We’ve been praying hard, and we knew they hadn’t done anything wrong.” 

They illegally took over a federal building, damaged government property, and threatened violence against law enforcement, and they just get to walk?

The whole case was a like a circus side show from the start with all kinds of bizarre demands from the Bundy boys, including asking to be paid a million dollars for being a defendant, and a request for the return of their guns, not to mention that at one point Ryan Bundy tried to break out of prison.

In fact even the end of this trial was insane.

At one point the defendants attorney was tackled to the ground and tazed, for reasons that remain a little unclear.

Ultimately I see this as setting a really bad precedent that is only going to encourage more of these sovereign citizen types to stage protests and take up arms against the federal government, and that can only lead to more people being killed.

For those who are curious there is a Twitter account from an Orgeonian reporter that will bring you right up to speed on all of this. 

Another day, another court date for Levi and Sunny Johnston.

As has been mentioned earlier on this blog Levi and Sunny appeared in court this morning, even though the custody case has been settled.

Most of you have already guessed why Bristol is still able to drag Levi through the court system, though I am apparently not supposed to state it definitively here on IM. Let's just say that today's hearing, as you can determine for yourself by visiting Court View, should be entitled the "Shut Gryphen up!" hearing.

Apparently, if my sources are correct, Bristol seems to believe that Levi controls me and can somehow keep me from posting anything that could prove damaging to her.

For the record, no he cannot.

However I think that once that part has been established today in court that the next plan will be to simply take Levi back to court as often as they can in the future and punish him financially for every negative story I write about her or her family with information that he may, or may not have provided during our conversations. (I DO have other sources still.)

In fact I learned yesterday that CSSD cleaned out Levi's accounts, and took all of the money that he had in there earmarked for the building of that house for his mother.

If I had to guess I would imagine that SOMEBODY notified the department about the Johnston GoFundMe account and tried to make sure that the money would not reach their lawyer. However the lawyer money was paid so instead they simply got the money for Sherry's house.

Just more dirty tricks my friends.

So let me take a minute to explain what I don't think a lot of people understand about Levi's case.

It may seem to simply be a child custody case, but in fact it is a 1st Amendment case.

Let me explain what I mean by that.

You see ever since Levi and Bristol split up, she and her mother have used Tripp, and other tactics, to keep Levi quiet about the things that he saw while living with them, and while dating her.

In my opinion Sherry Johnston's drug conviction was just one of those tactics. (Trust me, how she came to be arrested and the length of her conviction were HIGHLY unusual.)

When Levi hooked up with Rex and Tank (And remember that was just an attempt to get his son back in his life as well.) he started to tell the media those very stories, but at some point his handlers were compromised and once again Levi became afraid to speak freely.

(For instance do you remember when Levi supposedly apologized publicly to the Palins for the things he said in the media? Yeah? Well he never did that, in fact he only found out about it AFTER it had been published. But he was too intimidated by what they might do to correct that story.)

If you have been paying attention, EVERY time Levi came off of his leash, even to simply explain that he did NOT owe the amount of child support that was being reported in the media, he has suffered consequences. Which most of the time resulted in a loss of contact with his son.

After awhile you become afraid to even say your name to a reporter, much less tell your story.

To put that into perspective that would be like if YOU were constantly afraid that if you talked about your child, your ex, or some seemingly innocuous part of your life, with ANYBODY, that it might show up in a tabloid or blog somewhere and you would suddenly have no contact with your child or you would be viciously attacked in the press.

So when Levi came to me, after exhausting all other possibilities, you have understand how desperate he had become.

I gave him the money for his lawyer with no strings attached, but Levi felt it was only right to answer some of my questions, and so he did. Even though at the time he worried about the backlash, I assured him that nothing would be reported until AFTER the custody case was decided.

And I kept my word.

I must explain in my defense that I carefully laid this whole thing out for Levi and explained how he would be safe from retaliation if he were only to avoid a couple of missteps.

One of those missteps was to ever put trust into any deal from Bristol or her attorneys, or to believe that they would ever keep their side of any bargain.

Unfortunately I was not able to attend Levi's hearings with him and not everything went the way it was supposed to. For that reason we now find ourselves where we are today.

Today's hearing was closed so I will not be told what happened, and therefore cannot share it here.

I can tell you that Levi and Sunny have been under assault for this entire week, and that is most likely why Sunny has deleted her Facebook page.

I don't know what comes next for Levi and Sunny but I do know that I have no intention of being silenced.

In the meantime those who are helping to destroy this young couple's life seem to be largely untouched by any such drama.

Courtesy of Bristol's blog:

Dakota and I have a dilemma probably biweekly. He thinks clean shaven looks the best. 

But, I disagree! I like him scruffy. 

He says if I’m right – and people agree with me more – he’ll keep it scruffy. 

If I’m wrong – he can shave whenever. 

HELP ME OUT! Vote which look is best!

Yes while Levi and Sunny fight to keep their family together and pay their bills those with the means simply get to debate the importance of grooming.

Must be nice.

Track Palin succeeds in having his assault case moved to the Veteran's Court in Anchorage.

According to Court View tomorrow's court date in Palmer has been vacated, and Track's case has now moved to Anchorage.:

3PA-16-00145CR Crim Dist Ct Misd (3PA) 01/19/2016 

Palin, Track Defendant 06/13/2016 

Unopposed Motion for: 

Unopposed Motion for Transfer of Case File 
Attorney: Fitzgerald, Kevin T (8711085) 
Filing Party: Palin, Track 
Case Motion #2 

06/14/2016 

Order Granting Motion Order Granting Motion 
Case Motion #2: Unopposed Motion for Transfer of Case File 

06/15/2016 Temporary Transfer of Case to: 

Temporary Transfer of Case to: Anchorage

My assumption is that this is called a "temporary transfer" just in case Track does not show up or does not agree to the treatment that the court will insist upon in exchange for less jail time.

So another Palin finds a way to circumvent justice in Alaska.

Same old story that I have been telling for over eight years now.

(H/T to the Anonymous IM commenter who sent me this information. Thanks.)

Daily Mail reports on Dakota Meyer filing to change his daughter's name.

Let's label this photo "awkward."

Courtesy of the Daily Mail: 

Dakota Meyer has headed back to court and demanding his baby with Bristol Palin, Sailor Grace, legally have her last name changed from Palin to Meyer. 

The judge in the case has set a hearing for next month when he will decide whether or not to approves the name change.

According to court records obtained exclusively by Daily Mail Online, Dakota filed a change of name petition in Alaska Court on May 5. 

The records show that Bristol named their daughter Sailor Grace Palin on the birth certificate. Dakota is demanding that his newborn's name be legally changed to Sailor Grace Palin Meyer.

Now before that ridiculous troll shows up declaring how responsible Bristol and Dakota are acting as co-parents and how they are getting along so well it should be noted that if Bristol was on board with this Dakota would not have to file for it in court.

They would simply agree to the name change, skip going to court over it, and file the papers privately.

It should also be noted that Bristol has demanded that Tripp's school refer to him as "Johnson-Palin" despite the fact that his last name is legally "Johnston."

Yeah Bristol's not getting along with ANYBODY despite what the Palin fairy tale trolls might want us to believe.

By the way I understand that Dakota showed up at Tripp's soccer game this weekend.

Reports are that he was a little uncomfortable looking, and that Bristol spent the whole time with her eyes glued to her phone.

Video of Track Palin's pre-trial conference.

So as you can see it appears that both Track and his attorney essentially blew this hearing off, and did not bother to participate.

It also sounds as if the prosecutor needs more time to pick up additional discovery from the district attorney, and so asked to reschedule the pre-trial conference for March 14th at 8:30.

The trial call, which is the first time that Track can get a pleas deal, is set for March 24, 2016.

One actually good news that we learn from this video, is that there is going to be video.

That means that even if we cannot attend the proceedings, we will still see what is happening in the courtroom, and THAT is exactly the kind of thing that the Palins desperately do not want to us to see.

By the way let me give a shout out to whoever sent me all of these links in the comments.

You did most of the work for me this morning and I really appreciate it.

Gee I wonder if Track Palin's mommy will go to court with him?

Track Palin and his punching bag.

Courtesy of Radar Online: 

RadarOnline.com has learned that Track Palin will soon have to face the court to answer for his recent arrest for assault and possession of a weapon while intoxicated. 

The army vet, who pled not guilty to the charges, must attend a pre-trial conference on Feb. 19 at the Palmer Courthouse. 

If Palin does not settle his case at the pre-trial conference, the courts have set a trial call for March 24. 

I am hoping against hope that Track stubbornly refuses to plead guilty to these charges, and that we get to watch this whole thing play out in the media.

I am already trying to get somebody to cover my work responsibilities so that I can hang out in the Palmer courthouse.

I will convince Dennis Zaki to come back too, and film them entering and leaving the courthouse.

So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this idiot will not listen to reason.

And why would he? After all he's a Palin.

Levi Johnston and Bristol Palin back in court on Monday. Hopefully for the final time.

Courtesy of the Frontiersman:

Bristol Palin and former fiancé Levi Johnston have a court date together for the first time in more than a year. 

Court documents detailing a years-long custody battle between the former couple show a hearing listed on the Palmer court calendar for Monday at 11 a.m. 

“The parties have reached a final custody and visitation agreement for residing in the same community and have executed, personally and through their attorneys, a confidential stipulation regarding custody,” a notice to the court filed Nov. 16 reads. “Therefore, the only pending issue to be addressed by the Court is the matter of past and future child support.” 

The Frontiersman goes on to lay out the various legal wranglings that have gone on for almost seven years now. I think most of us here are well aware of them so I will not bother to go over them again here.

However I will say that this is one of the longest, most drawn out custody cases that I have ever known.

My own case took about two years, and that seemed like an eternity, but THIS one seems to be never ending.

Hopefully after Monday this whole thing will be over for the Johnstons and they can move with their lives, while Bristol pops out another little one and focuses on making somebody else's life miserable. 

12 year old black boy suspended for staring at white girl, which is apparently still something that happens in America in 2015.

Courtesy of Fox 19: 

A 12-year-old boy is suspended from school for 'staring' at another student. It happened in September of 2014 at St. Gabriel Consolidated School in Glendale. The parents filed suit in Hamilton County Common Pleas court to try and get the suspension erased claiming the school didn’t give their son due process. 

A Judge denied the claim, which means as of now the suspension of the 12-year-old stands. “The perception is he intimidated her,” said Candice Tolbert, his mother. 

“My son stared at a girl who was engaged in a staring game,” she said. “She giggled the entire time,” she said from her Liberty Township home. 

Court paper shows the female student "felt fearful.” The incident happened on a Monday. The school was notified by the girl’s parents on Tuesday. They allegedly notified the Tolbert’s son on Tuesday, but did not tell the Tolbert’s until Wednesday. By that time, their son had already written an apology letter, which the parents said they were unaware of until notified by the school. 

In the letter, the 12-year-old wrote, “I never knew she was scared because she was laughing.” It also read, “I understand I done the wrong thing that will never happen again. I will start to think before I do so I am not in this situation.”

When asked if she considered the actions of the school and the judge to be racist, the boy's family said they are not ready to "pull out the race card,"

Well here let me do it on their behalf.

There is NO fucking way that a white 12 year old boy in Ohio would be suspended for staring at a classmate during a staring contest. So of course this is racist!

In fact the white kid could have been standing on a desk staring down at the girl with one finger pointed at her as if to curse her for all eternity and he still would not have missed a single day of class.

And reading that letter from the boy saying that he knows he "done wrong" and it "will never happen again" is heartbreaking.

So even if this young man goes back to school, will he ever feel able to look at his white classmates, or girls ever again?

I think this family has quite a case for a discrimination lawsuit on their hands, and I hope they sue not only the school district but this judge for everything they have.

John Oliver stands up for overworked public defenders, and explains how their caseloads and lack of resources negatively impact their clients.

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

According to the host of Last Week Tonight, everyone in America is aware of the part public defenders play in our court system, but few know how overworked they are, giving the example of Fresno defenders handling up to 1,000 cases per year — or nearly three per day. 

“With caseloads that heavy, public defenders cannot possibly prepare an effective defense,” Oliver explained. “A study in New Orleans, a few years back, found the city had some part-time defenders who could only spend an average of seven minutes per case. And that is not long enough to prepare anything. If I only had seven minutes to prepare this show, I would definitely not be talking about public defenders right now. I’d be desperately trying to fill time right now by listing the Muppets in order of f*ckability.” 

Oliver said that with caseloads so high, the system is known as “meet ’em and plead ’em,” with the vast majority of cases being resolved through plea bargaining whether the accused is guilty or not. 

Furthermore, despite the Miranda warning’s promise that “an attorney will be appointed for you,” suspects in 43 states can still be billed for using a public defender regardless of their ability to pay.

Okay that fight between the judge and the public defender is  jaw dropping.

I swear Oliver is quickly becoming the voice for justice in this country.

James Holmes, the Colorado theater shooter, found guilty on all 165 charges against him.

Courtesy of Newsweek:  

A jury on Thursday afternoon found James Holmes guilty of all 165 charges against him related to a July 2012 attack at an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater. Holmes, 27, was found guilty of first degree murder, including with "extreme indifference," attempted murder and explosives offenses. 

The jury began deliberating Wednesday morning and the decision was reached in just 13 hours, a short deliberation for a case that had 10 weeks of testimony. 

Holmes killed 12 people and injured 70 others after entering a showing of The Dark Knight Rises and shooting into the crowd. He was arrested outside of the theater. It took the judge an hour to read the 165 guilty verdicts, much longer than the minutes it took for Holmes, armed with three guns, to spray the theater with bullets.

Can't say as this surprised me much.  Holmes may have been schizophrenic but that is not enough to explain systematically killing twelve people and wounding seventy others.

Of course it does not exactly escape me that on the very day that this dark chapter in gun violence in America comes to a close a brand new chapter opens up in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Just imagine how nice it would be to go an entire year without reading about a mass shooting in our country.

Perhaps somebody in Britain, or Australia, or Sweden, or just about anywhere else in the civilized world could tell us what that's like.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio is asking the public to help pay the legal bills he accrued for being a racist.

Courtesy of LA Times:  

With his legal fees mounting and a trial turning increasingly personal, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is turning to the public for money and the legal system for a new judge. 

Arpaio said in a letter to supporters that he doesn't have the money to continue paying for attorneys out of his own pocket, adding that he feels "targeted" by the immigration rights groups that have sued him to stop what they say are racist policies targeting Latinos. 

"In some instances I have to personally pay for attorneys to represent me in these cases," Arpaio wrote in an email Thursday. "I do not have the personal wealth or the wherewithal to keep up with the costly demands of paying for attorneys to defend me." 

Arpaio made the plea while awaiting a decision by U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow on whether the sheriff broke the law in failing to carry out a 2011 court order to refrain from bias against minorities.

Gee what a shame.

Well I am sure that there are plenty of racists in the country who will be more than willing to send Arpaio some money.

Maybe he can get a loan from his friend Sarah Palin?

 After all she just saved a ton of money on a wedding.

Worth a shot.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the only Boston bombing suspect left alive, has been found guilty on all 30 counts.

Tsarnaev during his arrest.

Courtesy of the Boston Herald:  

Confessed murderer Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will now be the one pleading for his life after a federal jury took just 11 hours to find him guilty of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings and aftermath that left four dead and 260 maimed and injured. 

In a silent courtroom, a clerk read aloud the verdict finding Tsarnaev, 21, guilty of all 30 counts including conspiracy, use of a weapon of mass destruction and the murders of restaurant manager Krystle Marie Campbell, 29, Boston University graduate student Lingzi Lu, 23, and Martin Richard, 8 at the marathon finish line, as well as MIT Police Officer Sean Collier three days later. 

Tsarnaev swayed slightly on his feet, his head down, as the verdict was read and as the forewoman of the jury stared directly at him. He showed no reaction. 

The jury’s work is far from done. As early as next week, the same 12 deliberating jurors will reconvene for the start of Tsarnaev’s sentencing trial, where they will decide if he is to serve out his days behind bars or be ordered put to death.

This is the biggest story of the day, so it seems appropriate that we discuss it here.

I don't think there was ever any doubt that Tsarnaev would be convicted, the defense case that he was under the spell of his older brother simply never seemed viable to me. 

The next question of course is what is the proper punishment for his crimes?

Life in prison?

Or death?

Your thoughts?

For the first time a US court has determined that homosexuality is not a mental disease. The first time?

Courtesy of Mother Jones:

 In a blow to the controversial practice of gay conversion therapy, a New Jersey judge has ruled that therapists who claim that homosexuality is a curable mental disorder are committing consumer fraud. 

The ruling, issued on Tuesday by Superior Court Judge Peter F. Bariso Jr., is part of an ongoing lawsuit filed on behalf of four men who say they were subjected to humiliating treatments by therapists affiliated with Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH), a gay conversion therapy referral service based in Jersey City. Bariso said it violates the state's Consumer Fraud Act to advertise conversion therapy services by describing homosexuality as a mental illness, disease, or disorder. 

"This ruling makes clear that when conversion therapists lie about the nature of homosexuality in order to lure these vulnerable clients into their services and their programs, they're committing fraud," says David Dinielli, deputy legal director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which filed the lawsuit for the plaintiffs. According to the SPLC, this marks the first time a US court has found that homosexuality is not a mental disease.

Just so you know I am embarrassed that I did not realize that the courts had not already made this determination decades ago. 

By comparison the psychiatric community stopped listing homosexuality as a mental illness back in 1973.

That is also somewhat shocking considering what we know today about sexuality, but the fact that it took the courts more than forty years to reach the same conclusion is mind blowing.

Levi Johnston/Bristol Palin child custody case gets moved to September.

So Tripp's custody case has been moved from July 31st, to September 8th.

Not only that but it will now be a settlement conference instead of an evidentiary hearing which means it will be closed to the public, which is of course what Bristol and her mother have wanted all along.

(Anything to keep that nosy blogger out of the courtroom.)

I can't say I am happy about this since I really wanted to be there and make sure that the Palins did not pull any shit, but this is Levi and Sunny's decision so I am going to trust their judgement.

I have heard that Levi is going for a 50/50 arrangement and I hope he sticks to that as I believe he has plenty of ammunition to demonstrate that Bristol is not a very competent mother.

Tripp deserves to see his dad at least half of the time, and Levi deserves to know that nobody will ever take his boy away from him again for an extended period of time unless he agrees to it, and unless he is compensated with equal time himself.

This is has been a long five years for Levi, and it is well past time that he broke free from the control they have been exerting over him by using access to Tripp to keep him in line.