folo

It was stated in a prior post that one of the defendants in the Scruggs matter had attended Judge Lackey’s church in Calhoun City during the pendency of his criminal case.  This post was based on an email report.  I’ve asked a prominent member of the Baptist Church there that Judge Lackey attends whether that defendant ever went there; it would almost definitely have come to this person’s attention if that defendant had passed through the congregation last year, certainly before it had reached the ears of folks in Oxford.  The individual I spoke to had never heard of that defendant attending the church.

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I didn’t catch the President’s speech at Camp LeJeune in real time this morning, but thankfully TPM posted a transcript. About halfway through, he briefly addresses an audience other than the Marines in front of him:

Now, before I go any further, I want to take a moment to speak directly to the people of Iraq.

You are a great nation, rooted in the cradle of civilization. You are joined together by enduring accomplishments, and a history that connects you as surely as the two rivers carved into your land. In years past, you have persevered through tyranny and terror; through personal insecurity and sectarian violence. And instead of giving in to the forces of disunion, you stepped back from a descent into civil war, and showed a proud resilience that deserves respect.

Our nations have known difficult times together. But ours is a bond forged by shared bloodshed, and countless friendships among our people. We Americans have offered our most precious resource – our young men and women – to work with you to rebuild what was destroyed by despotism; to root out our common enemies; and to seek peace and prosperity for our children and grandchildren, and for yours.

There are those who will try to prevent that future for Iraq – who will insist that Iraq’s differences cannot be reconciled without more killing. They represent the forces that destroy nations and lead only to despair, and they will test our will in the months and years to come. America, too, has known these forces. We endured the pain of Civil War, and bitter divisions of region and race. But hostility and hatred are no match for justice; they offer no pathway to peace; and they must not stand between the people of Iraq and a future of reconciliation and hope.

So to the Iraqi people, let me be clear about America’s intentions. The United States pursues no claim on your territory or your resources. We respect your sovereignty and the tremendous sacrifices you have made for your country. We seek a full transition to Iraqi responsibility for the security of your country. And going forward, we can build a lasting relationship founded upon mutual interests and mutual respect as Iraq takes its rightful place in the community of nations.

I can only imagine how important that message will be in the cities, towns, and countryside of Iraq.

Our nations have known difficult times together. But ours is a bond forged by shared bloodshed, and countless friendships among our people.

America, too, has known these forces. We endured the pain of Civil War, and bitter divisions of region and race. But hostility and hatred are no match for justice; they offer no pathway to peace; and they must not stand between the people of Iraq and a future of reconciliation and hope.

The United States pursues no claim on your territory or your resources. We respect your sovereignty and the tremendous sacrifices you have made for your country. We seek a full transition to Iraqi responsibility for the security of your country. And going forward, we can build a lasting relationship founded upon mutual interests and mutual respect as Iraq takes its rightful place in the community of nations.

George W. Bush might have said these things at any time, but he didn’t have them in him. Then along comes Barack Obama to offer simple respect and the human solidarity of shared experience in both lands, in both histories. In four paragraphs, he changes the whole game.

It shouldn’t be remarkable, but it is. And . . . oh  . . . so godawfully long in coming.

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A couple of folks here had trouble imagining that Bobby Jindal might have told anything less that the Gawd’s Own Truth in his Katrina yarn about Sheriff Harry Lee.

Ahem. Jindal just admitted the lie.

Amazingly, for the second time in about an hour, I believe Tom Tancredo is right about something: “I think,” he says, “that performance would very well have put the last nail in the coffin for him, for running for president.”

Yes indeed, and very efficiently too.

UPDATE: “Enjoy” may not be a plausible wish, but anyhow, here ’tis (h/t TPM):

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Our friend Jawge just emailed this link from the on-the-road-to-Atlanta (he’s not driving, whew), and I find it pretty wonderful. The site is TheOnlinePhotographer, and these mugshots are of Miller Green, a high school student in Jackson when he was arrested on July 6, 1961, but today a resident of Chicago.

Here’s part of the post, a quote from Breach of Peace: Portraits of the 1961 Mississippi Freedom Riders.

“In the spring and summer of 1961, several hundred Americans—blacks and whites, men and women—converged on Jackson, Mississippi, to challenge state segregation laws. The Freedom Riders, as they came to be known, were determined to open up the South to civil rights…. Over 300 people were arrested and convicted of the charge ‘breach of the peace.’

“The name, mug shot, and other personal details of each Freedom Rider arrested were duly recorded and saved by agents of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission…what is clear, forty-six years later, is that by carefully recording names and preserving the mug shots, the Commission inadvertently created a testament to these heroes of the civil rights movement.”

Nice how that worked out.

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So at this point, according to GOP theory, a spending freeze and a capital gains tax cut will save the day.

Ya reckon? Seen any private-sector spending, had any cap gains lately? Me neither.

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Tom Ricks:

The most interesting news story of the day is that the governor of Texas wants to deploy 1,000 National Guard troops to the Mexican border. I am not sure where this situation is going, but it is the kind of thing that can come out of left field and upset all our plans for our ongoing wars elsewhere.

Meanwhile, the Mexican government also says it is sending troops to the border area, apparently to re-take parts of the city of Juarez, where, according to Reuters, more than 250 people have been killed in drug violence this month. “We aren’t going to give up an inch of the city,” vowed Interior Minister Fernando Gomez Mont. Kind of reminds me of the recent comments of the Pakistani government about Swat. The difference, of course, is that Swat is near Afghanistan, while Juarez is across the river from the west Texas town of El Paso.

As I’ve mentioned, my son moved out of Mexico earlier this year because of the violence in the capital. It all kind of reminds me of Sam Peckinpah.

There is a weird analogy between Pakistan and Mexico. In both places, American addictions — to oil and to drugs — have helped fund those who are destabilizing those countries. …

Well, you can’t watch everything, I guess, but man, what a nasty surprise. Hope the Defense Department has done some contingency planning for this kind of challenge — narco-terrorism has been an increasingly high-visibility problem in Mexico for years, after all. But damn — 250 dead in one town in one month?

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This morning the world’s disparate desperations include:

Ellen Jaskol/Rocky Mountain News, via Reuters

These employees of The Rocky Mountain News heard yesterday that today’s edition is the last for the 150-year-old newspaper, Colorado’s oldest. Also teetering over the abyss: the Miami Herald, the San Jose Mercury News, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer . . . I could go on and on. Sample headlines at EditorandPublisher:

Gannett Board Slashes its Dividend
Singleton Watching ‘SF Chronicle’ Situation ‘With Interest’
Denver JOA, Unions Reach Agreement On Wage, Benefit Cuts
‘Hartford Courant’ to Shed 100 Jobs this Week
Tribune Co. Won’t Sell Tribune Tower — for Now
San Antonio Paper to Slash Newsroom Staff

Steve Eugster sent in an interesting link: Court TV founder Steve Brill’s suggestion to the New York Times about how it might save itself by charging for online content (which I, for one of millions, couldn’t afford).

Even if it comes to the point that I can’t have fresh information, I want my President to be able to spot what’s coming. So it’s good to hear that, in this world of economic pain (Kevin Drum notes “exports plummeting in Japan, Italy rescuing its banks, Eastern Europe turning into a basket case, Russian GDP down 8%, etc. etc.”), O has asked the CIA for a daily report on the global economic crisis. As Michael Klare warns at Salon:

If you want to be grimly impressed, hang a world map on your wall and start inserting red pins where violent episodes have already occurred. Athens (Greece), Longnan (China), Port-au-Prince (Haiti), Riga (Latvia), Santa Cruz (Bolivia), Sofia (Bulgaria), Vilnius (Lithuania) and Vladivostok (Russia) would be a start. Many other cities from Reykjavik, Paris, Rome and Zaragoza to Moscow and Dublin have witnessed huge protests over rising unemployment and falling wages that remained orderly thanks in part to the presence of vast numbers of riot police. If you inserted orange pins at these locations — none as yet in the United States — your map would already look aflame with activity.

The AIPAC crowd is aflame with horror that Chas Freeman will head the National Intelligence Council. I was already liking what I’d read about him, but this response to Politico’s news from Charles Kestenbaum (not separately linked) sealed it:

Chas Freeman is no patsy for Saudis, Chinese or anyone else. He is brilliant, hard headed, practical, and his own man. He is NOT anti-Israel in any way. He IS fair, open minded, and worldly beyond almost anyone else in America. I know him well and believe he is a superb choice. If this bothers those who feel the US should be the dog wagged by an Israeli tail, Let me challenge them for their loyalty to America and state in public that one can suppot and be a friend of Israel without being a mindless automaton. Such blind agreement to anything Israel says or does is NOT in Israels best interest nor Americas, as MANY in Israel will tell you. Saying truth may be painful but it may be time for all of us, including Israel, to grow up and face reality. And don’t trash me about terrorists, I have been kidnapped, shot and lived as a Jew in the Islamic world, from Morocco to Indonesia (and Saudi Arabia) for 35 years.

By the way, Pat Lang expects that Bibi Netanyahu’s high assholery-quotient won’t help Israel a speck with Team Obama.

Now zooming in on Mississippi . . . As NatureLover spotted first, Laura Pendergest-Holt didn’t exactly level with the Allen Stanford-investigating Feds so she got herself arrested yesterday. The DJournal says its attempts to reach rill-swuft Pendergest-Holt’s lawyer “were not immediately successful” — which doesn’t quite mean they know who that might be.

Billey Joe Johnson’s family doesn’t accept the local grand jury finding that their son’s fatal shooting was accidental. They plan to seek more help in Jackson, and if it’s not forthcoming from Haley or Hood (insert expectant pause here), they’ll try Washington.

A foloer who treats us to almost as much foolery as the usual gun-nut last night opined:

BTW, your Jindal Intrade graph was a little disingenuous. If you viewed a graph from 24 hours prior to the speech there was an increase in activity and price acompanying the media exposure preceeding the rebuttal presentation (as you would expect in thinly traded market such as this). After the speech by Jindal the market returned to its baseline value or slightly higher. In other words no net effect and / or too early to tell.

So I checked with Intrade for the three-month view:

Believe our friend or your lyin’ disingenuous eyes. Doggone if that doesn’t remind me of CNBC’s Rant-O-Rama Rick Santelli, who on September 2, 2008, called the economy “healthy” and blamed the business media for the financial crisis.

Which turkeys are making you tired this morning? Got any happy news? Bring it!

UPDATE: To the Hayne-West story that ccvz alerted us to early this morning, the C-L has now added this photo of Dr. Michael West:

File Photo/The Clarion-Ledger

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If you wander in late to class today, you might miss Alyssa’s new story on Zach (and Bobby DeLaughter), so here ’tis. Note that BOP now claims Zach was in Tupelo by 1 PM — a pretty good trick for somebody spotted climbing the stairs to the second floor of a building on Oxford’s Square at 12:45. (Then again, they don’t necessarily level with reporters.)

2/26/09 – Younger Scruggs to finish jail time at halfway house
Alyssa Schnugg
Staff Writer

Zach Scruggs, son of fallen trial attorney Richard “Dickie” Scruggs, will be serving out the rest of his 14-month prison sentence at a halfway house in Tupelo, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

Scruggs was sentenced in July 2008 to 14 months in prison after pleading guilty to having knowledge of a felony and failing to alert authorities by U.S. District Court Senior Judge Neal Biggers Jr. at the Federal Courthouse in Oxford.

Zach Scruggs was one of five men who pleaded guilty to their roles in a judicial bribery scheme in which they attempted to bribe Circuit Court Judge Henry Lackey with $40,000 in 2007 for a favorable ruling in lawsuit against the elder Scruggs. Zach Scruggs worked with his father at the Scruggs Law Firm in Oxford. The Scruggses were both disbarred after pleading guilty.

Zach Scruggs was serving his sentence in Forrest City, Ark., when he was transferred Tuesday to the Community Corrections re-entry facility in Tupelo, said Felicia Ponce, spokeswoman for the BOP.

“Commonly called a halfway house, the residential re-entry program helps inmates integrate back into the community,” Ponce said.

The EAGLE received unconfirmed reports that Scruggs was seen on the Square on Tuesday night, but Ponce said Scruggs left the Forrest City prison at about 8 a.m. and arrived at the Tupelo facility at 1 p.m.

The re-entry program will allow Scruggs to leave the facility during the day to work and then check back in at night. Visitations are allowed, as they are at prisons. He will have to submit to drug and alcohol testing each time he arrives back at the facility, said Alvin Speights, Community Corrections manager for the Alabama and Mississippi District.

“We help the inmate in seeking employment, re-establish family ties and residency,” Speights said. “We try to take some of the stress away of going back into society.”
Scruggs’ release date is Aug. 19. Speights said that date won’t change, regardless of how well Scruggs does in the program.

Inmates also receive counseling and are taught life skills to help make the transition back into society easier, Speights said.

Judge’s trial in Oxford

The trial of a circuit court judge charged with mail fraud, conspiracy and obstruction will take place in Oxford, according to court records.

Hinds Circuit Judge Bobby DeLaughter’s trial date is set for April 6 at the Federal Courthouse in Oxford, unless the government or DeLaughter file and are granted a continuance.

DeLaughter pleaded not guilty to the charges earlier this month.

Prosecutors allege DeLaughter was persuaded to rule in favor of Richard Scruggs in the lawsuit Wilson v. Scruggs, over asbestos-related legal fees. They say that Scruggs hired former attorneys Joey Langston and Timothy Balducci to work with former Hinds County District Attorney Ed Peters, who was a close personal friend of DeLaughter, to gain influence over the judge.

DeLaughter once worked for Peters as an assistant district attorney. They made headlines in 1994 by successfully prosecuting Byron de la Beckwith for the 1963 assassination of Mississippi civil rights leader Medgar Evers.

Scruggs pleaded guilty to his role in the scheme and received an additional two years in prison. He was already serving a five-year sentence for the Lackey bribe attempt. Langston pleaded guilty to his role in the DeLaughter case last year and was sentenced to three years in prison.

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At longest last, ladies and gennelmen, I give you (click to enlarge)

P. L. BLAKE —

Ms. Diner’s Momma, thank you thank you thank you, from the entire folo community!

UPDATE: Arrrgh, can’t believe I screwed that up — bloggin’ whilst cookin’ doesn’t work. Our benefactress is the sainted MOMMA OF DeltaDiner, not as originally IDed.

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William Browning – Greenwood Commonwealth
Two unnamed guards man the entrance Tuesday to the Holcomb home of P.L. Blake’s son, Mark. Onetime Greenwood resident P.L. Blake has been named in federal court documents as an alleged participant in a judicial bribery scandal. No charges have been filed against Blake.

This photo adorns the fresh Greenwood Commonwealth article that Bob just sent in. It’s a long telling of what Leflore County knows of P.L. Blake and his family (not quite the version we’ve collected). One of the things you’ll learn is that this house in the photo was listed in P.L.’s name until March 2008.

Thanks much, Bob.

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