lawyer

Meg Whitman is out there denying that she hired an illegal immigrant for a maid, but the maid’s lawyer is set to release proof today:

Gloria Allred, a Los Angeles attorney who represents Whitman's former maid, Nicky Diaz Santillan, said she would release evidence Thursday showing Whitman was aware of the maid's illegal status as far back as 2003, a claim Whitman denies.

Throughout her employment "Nicky was undocumented and ... Whitman was aware of her status," Allred said Wednesday.

Specifically, Whitman disputes that she received a 2003 letter from the Social Security Administration that said the Social Security number provided by the housekeeper did not match the name on file.

It seems like this election cycle has been the worst so far when it comes to candidates lying. On the other hand, Republicans love a hypocrite, so this could give Whitman even more support.

The Catholic Church is so twisted in their beliefs that it is beyond scarey. Preists can rape and torture children, yet they are allowed to continue to serve, but if a nun helps save a woman's life - well they get kicked out:

From Dave at Video Cafe:

A Phoenix nun along with a hospital Ethics Committee made the decision to go forward with a procedure that aborted an 11-week pregnancy and saved the life of the mother. Sister Margaret McBride was then speedily excommunicated by the Catholic church.

"In this tragic case, the treatment necessary to save the mother's life required the termination of an 11-week pregnancy. This decision was made after consultation with the patient, her family, her physicians, and in consultation with the Ethics Committee, of which Sr. Margaret McBride is a member," according to a statement from St. Joseph's hospital.

Cannon Lawyer Father Kevin O'Rourke told NBC News that in his view McBride should not have been punished. "A person knowingly and willingly performs an abortion, then that person is excommunicated. But my contention is that there is nothing knowingly and willingly done in this regard. They were acting, you see, to save the life of the woman and that was their main concern," he said.

Wow – this sounds like something right out of a Hollywood screenplay:

Last fall, a woman went to court in the Bronx to testify that she had been violently assaulted by a top aide to Gov. David A. Paterson, and to seek a protective order against the man.

In the ensuing months, she returned to court twice to press her case, complaining that the State Police had been harassing her to drop it. The State Police, which had no jurisdiction in the matter, confirmed that the woman was visited by a member of the governor’s personal security detail.

Then, just before she was due to return to court to seek a final protective order, the woman got a phone call from the governor, according to her lawyer. She failed to appear for her next hearing on Feb. 8, and as a result her case was dismissed.

Many details of the governor’s role in this episode are unclear, but the accounts presented in court and police records and interviews with the woman’s lawyer and others portray a brutal encounter, a frightened woman and an effort to make a potential political embarrassment go away.

The case involved David W. Johnson, 37, who had risen from working as Mr. Paterson’s driver and scheduler to serving in the most senior ranks of the administration, but who also had a history of altercations with women.

Attorney General Anthony Cuomo has officially launched an investigation into this case. This could spell the end to David Patterson and I can’t help but wonder if the people of New York wouldn’t rather have a governor who likes the ladies a little too much instead of this guy.

Yesterday Sarah Palin joined the ranks of the birther movement and by late night she issued this statement on her Facebook page:

Voters have every right to ask candidates for information if they so choose. I’ve pointed out that it was seemingly fair game during the 2008 election for many on the left to badger my doctor and lawyer for proof that Trig is in fact my child. Conspiracy-minded reporters and voters had a right to ask... which they have repeatedly. But at no point – not during the campaign, and not during recent interviews – have I asked the president to produce his birth certificate or suggested that he was not born in the United States.

That’s a rather interesting statement coming from a person who considered a simple question like “what news sources do you read?” a gotcha question.

Adding… One of the most laughable defenses I hear of Sarah Palin is that she must “grow” as a candidate. She has been in the spotlight for over a year now and we have seen no proof of this happening. If anything we are seeing just the opposite happen. If she needs to grow then she should really start doing it fast because every time she makes a statement like yesterday her maturity as a candidate shrinks even more.

The crapspiracy theorists over at World Net Daily have probably out done themselves this time:

If President Obama were indeed born in Hawaii, was it while the islands were a territory of the United States?

A new wrinkle in the dispute over his birth – and whether he is eligible to be president under the U.S. Constitution's requirement that the president be a "natural born" citizen – appeared today when Obama's official MySpace page declared his age is 52, thus placing his birth year at 1957 instead of 1961 as has been claimed.

That would mean he would have been born during the archipelago's time as a territory of the U.S.,  the islands' status from about 1900 until statehood in 1959.

I never knew MySpace was such an accurate source! I would write more but I need to jump on MySpace and make some replies. First I need to tell that 19 year old college porn start that yes I would love to go out with her since she lives in my area and found my totally blank profile page intriguing. And then I most contact this lawyer in Nigeria and give him my banking info so he can send me that $5 million from my long lost relative. Oh happy days at last!

Then the special election held in Louisiana yesterday for the state senate district 16 seat, had to be a test for Bobby Jindhal. And guess what? He lost – big time:

Baton Rouge lawyer Dan Claitor beat businessman and fellow Republican Lee Domingue — the candidate with Gov. Bobby Jindal’s backing — to win the state Senate District 16 seat in Saturday’s special election.

Claitor garnered 11,713 or 66  percent of the vote to Domingue’s 6,114 or 34 percent, based on complete but unofficial election returns.

Compare that to the NY-20 race, which is still going back and forth by a handful of votes.

There is a really good rundown of the results over at MyDD.  I can’t wait to hear how Republicans attempt to spin this. So we have all our ducks in a row, here’s where we stand:

• Chris Murphy is ahead, but very slightly in NY-20, which is a very conservative district. To the Republicans this is a sign of a rebuttal of Obama’s agenda.
• A Democrat beats out a Republican endorsed by the state’s Republican Governor in Louisiana. Also this occurred in a very conservative district. Oh and that governor is supposed to be one of the front runners for the GOP in 2012.

So if NY-20 was a rebuttal of Obama, then we can only describe what happened in Louisiana as a flat out kicking to the curb of the GOP’s 2012 hope. There is no other way to describe this, but I’m sure the GOP will have some great spin to put on it in the coming days.

Bush on King last night:

KING: So there's nothing you've done in the area of treatment of prisoners that causes you any kind of pause?

G. BUSH: No. No. Everything we did was -- you know, it had legal -- legal opinions behind it. Look, you're sitting there, you've captured Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. He's the guy that ordered the September the 11th attacks. And we want to know what he knows in order to protect the United States of America. And I got legal opinions that said whatever we're going to do is legal. And my job is to protect you, Larry. And I've given it my all. I've given it my all.

So it’s legal because Bush went out and got attorneys to say it is legal – law be damned. Hell – why didn’t Clinton just get a lawyer to say “hey, the President can lie under oath, it’s legal”. That would have got away with that whole impeachment mess. Maybe Bernie Madoff should get a lawyer to say his scheme was legal, then he wouldn’t have to worry about facing charges.

Funny, but I always thought the third branch decided what was legal. Why even have a judicial branch if the administrative branch will now decide what is legal and not?

The Obama administration needs pushed to prosecute Bush and everyone involved in this. It’s part of the healing process this country really needs – to know that justice still drives the American way. By not prosecuting, we are opening up a dangerous precedent in which the President can trump the Constitution and the rule of law, and that can’t be allowed to happen.

But that's only when he really wants to. Apparently he didn't when it came to the trailers sent to New Orleans, following Hurricane Katrina:

Federal officials issued trailers to Hurricane Katrina victims even though some workplace safety tests detected high levels of formaldehyde at government staging areas for the structures just weeks after the storm, a lawyer for hundreds of occupants said Wednesday.

Documents from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration raise new questions about how much federal officials knew about the units, which were sent to tens of thousands of displaced residents, said attorney Anthony Buzbee. But they don't say whether the tests in the weeks after the August 2005 storm were conducted inside or outside the trailers.

Considering people have health problems from these trailers, it sure seems that something criminal may have happened. Of course our Homeland Security chair in the Senate won't do anything. That would be Lieberman - Bush's lap dog.