Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Karen Irby settles with Dedousis and Pogue families; Plaintiffs agree to take care of Karen Irby's debts

The Pogue and Dedousis families settled their claims against Karen Irby on August 4, 2010.  Did I miss some discussion of this somewhere?  Google's telling me I didn't.  The interesting part of this is on the second page, where the plaintiffs agree to handle Karen Irby's debts.  Looks like Karen's handing them the keys to both her assets and her liabilities, and saying "have at it."

Karen Irby settles with Pogue and Dedousis Families

This is painful

This has to be one of the strangest interviews I've ever seen.  And I mean worse than poor Basil Marceaux:

http://tv.gawker.com/5621836/providence-mayoral-candidate-gives-worst-on+camera-interview-ever

Monday, August 9, 2010

Report: FEC says no foul in Pickering-Barbour-Vitter contribution circle

The Washington Examiner, not exactly a neutral publication, reports that the FEC has cleared Chip Pickering, Gov. Barbour, and Sen. David Vitter in an alleged campaign contribution shell game reported here in previous posts here, here, here, and here.  The Examiner says:
Federal authorities say there's no reason to believe Louisiana Sen. David Vitter's campaign violated the law by accepting a contribution from a political action committee of Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour.
Louisiana Democrats claimed the contribution from "Haley's PAC" was really from former Mississippi U.S. Rep. Chip Pickering and that it was illegally funneled through Barbour's PAC to avoid publicity.
But the Federal Elections Commission, in a ruling made public Monday, dismissed the complaint.
I haven't seen the FEC ruling yet, but I do note that this was originally made public back on July 16, 2010.  I'll say that this isn't a refutation of the original charge of playing a shell game with the contribution.  Instead, this reads as "neither contribution was over the limit, and there isn't sufficient proof of hijinks":
In its release, the FEC noted that both of the contributions in question were disclosed and that neither was "excessive or prohibited."

A World Without Lawyers

Here's a great video from Consumer Attorneys of California.  It's a short and sweet rebuttal to the years upon years of awful propaganda spewing out of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.  Of course, much more is needed.