Michael Phelps may have a bit more to worry about than losing some of us promotional contracts, he could lose his freedom. The 14-time gold medalist was shown smoking marijuana from a pipe. In both real estate and criminal law, the key is always location, location, location. This was not a good location to go for the Acapulco gold. South Carolina prosecutors are looking into charges and in Richland County, Phelps could get as much as 30 days — though jail is rare in such cases.
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said he is trying to prove that the picture came from his county and involved pot. This makes some of Phelps public comments problematic for his defense counsel. The incident appears to have occurred during a visit at the University of South Carolina. His sponsors — Speedo and Swiss watchmaker Omega — have already said that they are not troubled by the incident, but might change their minds if he is criminally charged. He has also apologized to the International Olympic Committee.
This falls under the category of “one day on the cover of Time, the next day doing Time.” With the picture, the apology, and back story, prosecutors are likely to jump on the case.
Such cases of incriminating video do occur in the age of YouTube, including the case of billionaire Henry T. Nicholas III . Obviously, you have to prove the content of the pipe, but a denial by Phelps after all of his apologies would seem a bit strange. He also does not want to get into a fight with prosecutors, who might give him a misdemeanor fine and be done with it.
For the full story, click here.
Obama Picks Porn Lawyer for #2 at Justice
February 3, 2009
CHICAGO – President Obama has made a major mistake and put America’s families at risk by selecting David Ogden to become Deputy Attorney General, says Fidelis, a pro-family organization.
“David Ogden is a hired gun from Playboy and ACLU. He can’t run from his long record of opposing common sense laws protecting families, women, and children. The United States Senate has a responsibility to the American people to insure that Mr. Ogden’s full record is fully reviewed before any vote on his nomination” said Brian Burch, President of Fidelis.
“Ogden’s record is nothing short of obscene. He has represented Playboy Enterprises in multiple cases, Penthouse Magazine, the ACLU, and the largest distributor of hard-core pornography videos. He has opposed filters on library computers protecting children from Internet smut, and successfully defended the right of pornographers to produce material with underage children.”
“David Ogden has collected checks from Playboy and Penthouse to fight any attempts to establish filters on federally-funded public libraries. Ogden even sued the federal government in an attempt to publish Braille versions of Playboy magazine – at taxpayer expense, of course,” said Burch.
As a lawyer in private practice, Ogden has argued for an unlimited abortion license, gays in the military, and has urged courts to treat traditional definitions of marriage as a social prejudice.
“A vast majority of Americans support parental notification before a minor’s abortion and protecting kids from Internet pornography in our libraries,” continued Burch. “Yet David Ogden has fought tooth and nail against these common sense laws protecting our children from harm. At a time when America’s families are under increasing assault, Mr. Ogden is a dangerous choice for a position whose responsibilities include the enforcement of our nation’s laws. “
According to GeostrategyDirect.com, a newsletter published by The Washington Times’ national security reporter Bill Gertz, “Diplomatic sources said Barack Obama has engaged several Arab intermediaries to relay messages to and from al Qaeda in the months before his election as the 44th U.S. president. The sources said al Qaeda has offered what they termed a truce in exchange for a U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan. ‘For the last few months, Obama has been receiving and sending feelers to those close to al Qaeda on whether the group would end its terrorist campaign against the United States,’ a diplomatic source said. ‘Obama sees this as helpful to his plans to essentially withdraw from Afghanistan and Iraq during his first term in office.'”
Al Qaeda, on the ropes after seven years of dealing with George Bush and Dick Cheney, must think Allah has finally come through for them with the election of Barack Obama.
The list of lobbyists in the Obama administration
Politico provided a list of twelve of these last week, a handy reference with which we can start building our lists of “exceptions” to the Obama Administration Ethics Policy:
Here are former lobbyists Obama has tapped for top jobs:
Eric Holder, attorney general nominee, was registered to lobby until 2004 on behalf of clients including Global Crossing, a bankrupt telecommunications firm [now confirmed].
Tom Vilsack, secretary of agriculture nominee, was registered to lobby as recently as last year on behalf of the National Education Association.
William Lynn, deputy defense secretary nominee, was registered to lobby as recently as last year for defense contractor Raytheon, where he was a top executive.
William Corr, deputy health and human services secretary nominee, was registered to lobby until last year for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a non-profit that pushes to limit tobacco use.
David Hayes, deputy interior secretary nominee, was registered to lobby until 2006 for clients, including the regional utility San Diego Gas & Electric.
Mark Patterson, chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, was registered to lobby as recently as last year for financial giant Goldman Sachs.
Ron Klain, chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden, was registered to lobby until 2005 for clients, including the Coalition for Asbestos Resolution, U.S. Airways, Airborne Express and drug-maker ImClone.
Mona Sutphen, deputy White House chief of staff, was registered to lobby for clients, including Angliss International in 2003.
Melody Barnes, domestic policy council director, lobbied in 2003 and 2004 for liberal advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the American Constitution Society and the Center for Reproductive Rights.
Cecilia Munoz, White House director of intergovernmental affairs, was a lobbyist as recently as last year for the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy group.
Patrick Gaspard, White House political affairs director, was a lobbyist for the Service Employees International Union.
Michael Strautmanis, chief of staff to the president’s assistant for intergovernmental relations, lobbied for the American Association of Justice from 2001 until 2005.
This doesn’t count Tom Daschle, who never registered as a lobbyist but got paid millions for his political connections in pursuit of preferential treatment for his clients in the health-care industry. The AP notes this in today’s look at the Lobbyist Administration:
Sloan and others said embarrassments over Daschle, one of several top Obama appointees with a history of influencing government for clients, should not detract from the president’s first-day vow to sharply limit the role of lobbyists in his administration.
Daschle, a former senator tapped to head Health and Human Services, is not technically a lobbyist. But he was paid more than $5.2 million over the past two years as he advised health insurers and hospitals and worked in other industries such as energy and telecommunications.
Fred Wertheimer of Democracy21 is one of Washington’s best-known advocates of more open and honest government. He called Obama’s executive order “unprecedented and almost revolutionary in nature” and “a direct attack on the culture of Washington and the way business is done here.”
“A few waivers will not undermine it,” he said, provided they are justified and limited.
Limited? It’s been less than two weeks since Obama took office, and he’s appointed a lobbyist a day to a government position. What kind of governing philosophy is that, if not a big “For Sale” sign on the White House, at least according to Obama’s own anti-lobbyist rhetoric on the campaign trail? A lobbyist a day helps keeps accountability away.
Gauging meida by their coverage of this issue, if the AP has started to point it out, even this mildly, others may soon follow.
Obama’s Popularity Slipping
In today’s Rasmussen survey, President Obama’s approval rating is down to 61 percent. It’s now in line with what most Presidents have experienced near the beginning of their terms; slightly lower, actually, that George W. Bush’s approval rating in the Gallup poll 60 days into his first term, notwithstanding the acrimony surrounding the 2000 election.
Obama’s decline was inevitable once he actually started making decisions. His approval rating will probably fall further as more voters learn details about the Democrats’ pork bill, as foreign policy setbacks continue, and as he continues to govern like a traditional Democrat.
There seems to be a myth inside the Beltway that Obama enjoys some sort of super-popularity that makes his policies difficult to challenge. That is simply untrue. Two weeks into his administration, Obama’s approval rating is what one would expect from any newly-elected, generic Democrat. Where it goes from here depends on how the public perceives the administration’s successes and failures. Based on what we’ve seen so far, there will be plenty to criticize.
scumbucket
Why would a thinking person ever be caught in South Carolina in the first place? Here’s a state that took 38 years to remove a confederate battle flag from atop it’s statehouse, and then only moved it to a monument on the grounds of the capitol.
And now for your viewing pleasure . . . more examples of Project Mayhem coming to life. I bet Chuck Palahnuik didn’t think he was psychic when he wrote “Fight Club”.
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/hourlyupdate/278448.php
Hey! At least they didn’t run the PETA ad.
I am humbled in the face of superior intellects. I defer to such great thinkers on all maters. I have now been converted, I am a socialist. The state is all, I am nothing, I live for the state and my brothers, what is mine is theirs. I shall have no thoughts save what the state requires me to think. I am now at peace with all mankind. The state is my father and my mother, I shall be blessed by the will of the people for the collective is all knowing and good.
My desires matter not if they do not align with the greater good of the collective. I will henceforth be We98.
Sincerely,
We98
Let me see,Madoff stole $50 Billion dollars from his clients,under house arrest in a $7 Million dollar penthouse,and thousands of peoples lives ruined.Well Mr. Phelps if you think you should lose your sponsors,make up your mind “for this tape will self destruct in thirty seconds”
MAS,
Well taken. And lest we forget, the favorite of the Winter Olympics, the Snowboarders. In their case though, you might be able to argue performance enhancement.
Pvt. Keepout,
Those laws were put into effect back… when America… was a bunch of easily… scared… sheep?
Yeah nothing’s changed since then. Touché.
Would mature adult citizens in a civilized nation criminalize this act? No.
That the US does speaks volumes about Americans.
love the heading
At the top right hand corner of Page 17 of the New York Post of January 24th, 2009, was a short column entitled “Replacing Michelle” in the National Review “The Week” column. Here it is, word for word, as it appeared two days ago……
‘Some employees are simply irreplaceable. Take Michelle Obama: The
University of Chicago Medical center hired her in 2002 to run “programs for community relations, neighborhood outreach, volunteer recruitment, staff diversity and minority contracting.”
In 2005 the hospital raised her salary from $120,000 to $317,000 – nearly
twice what her husband made as a Senator.
Oh did we mention that her husband had just become a US Senator? He sure had. Requested a $1 Million earmark for the UC Medical Center, in fact.
Way to network Michelle!
But now that Mrs Obama has resigned, the hospital says her position will
remain unfilled. How can that be, if the work she did was vital enough to be worth $317,000?
We can think of only one explanation: Senator Roland Burris’s wife wasn’t interested.
—The Editors of National Review, writing in the Magazine’s Feb 9 issue.’
Buddha,
I wish that he had been trying to make a statement, it would make me palmface less. But we should keep in mind that this isn’t the first time that a skilled athlete has been distracted by plant based gold. I point you to the golden apple and the fleet footed Atalanta.
“Let’s not pretend that Phelps was making a political statement here, this isn’t ‘bong hits for Jesus’ we’re talking about here.”
Thanks for the clarification, MAS. I wasn’t trying to say he was, just that I spoke to someone who saw it that way.
I think Seamus hit the nail on the head with this one.
Let’s not pretend that Phelps was making a political statement here, this isn’t ‘bong hits for Jesus’ we’re talking about here. He’s just someone famous caught on camera doing something that literally millions of other Americans already do every weekend. The most dangerous thing about smoking weed is the risk of going to jail.
Judging from the picture it’s more proof: Where there’s smoke, there’s … oh, wait. There is no smoke.
This is just stupid. It also shows that, judging by the rapidity of this story’s lack of manufactured “outrage”, society’s attitudes towards a harmless weed has finally turned the corner. His sponsors aren’t particularly troubled. Perhaps because President Obama is guilty of the same dastardly “offense.”
It’s time for America to grow up, get real, and legalize marijuana. Enough of making criminals of the harmless and millionaires of the the criminals.
Then again, such actions could seriously impact the budgets of such illustrious jack-booted organizations like the DEA, among many others. That said, the 23-year-old scofflaw Phelps must be destroyed lest we halt America’s slide towards complete authoritarianism.
If they charge him it’s just so some limp-dick d.a. can get his name in the paper. How are they going to prove the case without the weed??????
His sponsors get it. The IOC gets it. Most of America gets it. When will the government get it? Prohibition does not work.
Prosecute? Hell, to some people he’s a hero for disobeying a patently unjust and outmoded law – I talked to one today. Consider this is a crime that HAS NO VICTIM and no legitimate purpose but to act as a form of welfare for the prison industry and justification of misaligned law enforcement budgetary inflation by treating a health issue and personal choice as a crime.
How about the government worry about the REAL criminals who HURT PEOPLE? Not bong hits for the willing. The only thing they are likely to hurt is a pizza.