Archive for felon

Former Fla Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer sentenced to 18 months in state prison

jim greer elvis

Jim Greer was one of the former Florida GOP leaders who said that voter suppression was the reason for new election law.

Greer was also accused of stealing a couple of hundred thou from the Republican party using a phony campaign fundraising operation. The Palm Beach Post reported that he was suing them right back, saying GOP leaders knew what he was doing and voiced no objection.

Now the Tampa Bay Times is reporting that Greer has been sentenced to 18 months in state prison plus one year of probation.

It turns out that in February, he pleaded guilty to four counts of theft and one count of money laundering:

[H]e had created a company called Victory Strategies to siphon to himself and an associate some $200,000 of party donations.

You’re now a convicted felon, sir,” Circuit Judge Marc Lubet told Greer Wednesday, adding that he had “egregiously violated a position of trust.”

owee

Per the Times, Greer became the party head in January 2007, former governor Charlie Crist’s personal pick. Yes, that former governor Charlie Crist, the one who may run again, but this time as a Democrat. In fact, Crist tried hard to convince us he really is a real Democrat. Not that I wouldn’t support him if he ended up being the Democratic candidate, but my heart sure wouldn’t be in it.

But I digress.

I particularly liked these sentences describing Greer’s past:

He was a regular at strip clubs and bars. Both his weddings were lavish. He …quickly worked to make friends with people he identified as politically valuable… [H]is gatherings typically had some of the area’s best snacks and booze. He often dressed as Elvis and belted out songs by the King… He wanted people to call him Chairman. He wanted to drink bourbon only from bottles with personalized labels.

Jim, you sound like a real attractive guy:

Ex-felon (burglaries, armed robberies, aggravated battery) to be GOP candidate running for Jesse Jackson, Jr. House seat

gop fail off cliff

Jesse Jackson, Jr.’s House seat is up for grabs. Ex-con Paul McKinley beat his Republican opponent by only 23 votes (!), so by some miracle, he will face off with Democrat Robin Kelly for that seat. Incidentally, she received an F rating from the National Rifle Association:

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

And yes, you read my first sentence correctly. McKinley’s an ex-con.

Republicans are hiding under tables and putting bags over their heads to avoid being associated with their victorious candidate. Gee, can’t imagine why.

Via the Chicago Tribune:

Republican voters are suggesting the 2nd Congressional District replace one felon with another after picking ex-convict Paul McKinley as the candidate to run for the seat recently ceded by former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. [...]

McKinley, a convicted felon who served nearly 20 years in state prison for burglaries, armed robberies and aggravated battery, declared victory. Wallace, however, was not willing to concede, and he called the prospect of McKinley representing the GOP “an embarrassment.” [...]

[T]he state’s Republican leadership was coming to grips with the fact that its party had just nominated someone with a long rap sheet

Maybe they should have chosen this guy instead. He sounds way more appealing:

Here is the heart-wrenching segment that Rachel Maddow previewed in the TRMS video above:

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Even Dancing with the Stars couldn’t keep Tom DeLay from prison

delay

Your Daily Dose of BuzzFlash at Truthout, via my pal Mark Karlin:

You can’t get anymore joyful than hearing that Tom DeLay, a firm believer in the health benefits of Dioxin and last seen publicly shimmying his booty in satin bolero pants on “Dancing with the Stars,” has just been sentenced to three years in prison. As The Huffington Post reports:

Former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, once considered among the nation’s most powerful and feared lawmakers, was sentenced to three years in prison Monday for a scheme to influence elections that already cost him his job, leadership post and millions of dollars in legal fees.

The sentence comes after a jury in November convicted DeLay, a Houston-area Republican, on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering for using a political action committee to illegally send corporate donations to Texas House candidates in 2002.

[...]

I recall an aide of DeLay being quoted as saying that (paraphrased) “You don’t just kick a Democrat when he’s down, you roll him in a carpet and toss him over the cliff.”  That was how DeLay played: down, mean, merciless, dirty, and well-oiled with “K Street Project” money.  The former Texas bug exterminator (we are not making this up) could bite a copperhead snake’s head off and swallow it down with a martini.

More here.

tom delay dancing with the stars

Suspect in sex assault case got pardoned by Tim Pawlenty in 2008

Let me put it this way:

Cleared by a panel that included Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Jeremy Giefer is now accused of assaulting a second girl hundreds of times before and after he received his pardon.

I smell a problem in 2012, Tim:

Two years ago, Gov. Tim Pawlenty and two other officials pardoned Jeremy Giefer, who had served a short time in jail in the 1990s as a young man for having sex with a 14-year-old girlfriend whom he later married.

Blue Earth County prosecutors now say Giefer was sexually assaulting another young girl hundreds of times before and after he received his pardon.

The criminal charges filed against Giefer this month have drawn attention to the earlier pardon as Pawlenty weighs a possible run for president.

Pardoned:

Guilty:

The deadly loophole: Gunning for trouble

By GottaLaff

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/MG/142772~Gun-Crazy-Posters.jpg

Hey kiddies, guess what? Another mentally unbalanced person got their hands on a gun because of guess what?

Go on, guess.

Give up?

The gun show loophole! Yayyy!

Yes, the right wing, anti-government Pentagon shooter, John Patrick Bedell, got his gun at a gun show through the gun show loophole, with no background check. Feel safer yet?

QuickDraw McLoopHole had already been declared too, er, abnormal to buy one through a federally licensed dealer, but pfft! That didn’t matter:


Two guns used in high-profile shootings this year at the Pentagon and a Las Vegas courthouse both came from the same unlikely place: the police and court system of Memphis, Tenn.

Law enforcement officials told The Associated Press that both guns were once seized in criminal cases in Memphis. The officials described how the weapons made their separate ways from an evidence vault to gun dealers and to the shooters.

Wow, hmm, gee, how’d that happen?

[O]n the day of the Pentagon shooting, March 4, the Tennessee governor signed legislation revising state law on confiscated guns. Before, law enforcement agencies in the state had the option of destroying a gun. Under the new version, agencies can only destroy a gun if it’s inoperable or unsafe.

Seems Version 2.0 needs to be updated.

But with that in mind, it’s only natural that oversight would tighten up, right?

[...] 24 states — mostly in the South and West, where gun-rights advocates are particularly strong — have passed 47 new laws loosening gun restrictions.

Gee, that doesn’t seem logical. Oops, did I say “logical”? Logic has nothing to do with this!

What, am I nuts?

No, but QuickDraw was:

[T]he weapons first went to licensed gun dealers, but later came into the hands of men who were legally barred from possessing them: one a convicted felon; the other mentally ill.

Change we can’t believe in.

But come on, realistically, what are the chances of some psycho ending up finding that one special dealer who would slip him a lethal weapon:

Law enforcement officials say Bedell, a man with a history of severe psychiatric problems, had been sent a letter by California authorities Jan. 10 telling him he was prohibited from buying a gun because of his mental history.

Nineteen days later, the officials say, Bedell bought the Ruger at a gun show in Las Vegas. Such a sale by a private individual does not require the kind of background check that would have stopped Bedell’s purchase.

But privatizing stuff is the GOP’s answer to everything. What could possible go wrong? Death? Don’t be silly. Murder? Ridiculous! Selling lethal weapons to a disturbed individual who would subsequently go on a shooting spree? Impossible!

Here’s the deal, gun owners: Nobody’s trying to take your firearms from you. But keeping them out of the hands of unstable felons and the mentally ill doesn’t do anything to threaten your freedoms.

The real and growing threat is to innocent lives, not the Constitution.

VIDEO- Breitbart in tussle with David Shuster: O’Keefe was slandered.

By GottaLaff

David faced off in a huge way with Andrew Breitbart. If only they hadn’t overtalked each other, this very heated exchange would have been a little easier to understand:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Video- New Orleans CBS affiliate reports on O’Keefe arrest, attorney has "no idea at this point" who is paying him

A little schadenfreude with your coffee.