Quite a debate has erupted surrounding Western PA US Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan's contemplation of running for Congress next year.Although, it isn't centered on Buchanan. Instead it is a back and forth over whether or not partisan Republican Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Corbett's team is being hypocritical for agreeing that Buchanan should step down if she runs for office while asserting it is perfectly ok for Corbett to remain in office while running for governor.
We thought we'd bring some focus back onto Buchanan and point out some whitewashes conducted by the office under her direction.
Check out this news item from 2006 and try to guess who it is referring to:
"The newspaper independently interviewed the [xxxx] staff members. Among their allegations:Any guesses? Mike Veon? This sounds exactly like what Corbett charged Veon and 11 other Democrats for allegedly doing. John Perzel? Everyone in the Capitol knows this kind of stuff was rampant in his Philadelphia offices.
Mr. [xxxx] and his campaign staff have frequently used his [xxxx] office for campaign strategy sessions, and equipment like the office's fax, copier, camera and filing cabinets for campaign-related materials, instead of using his separate campaign office a few miles away.
Members of his taxpayer-paid staff have been expected to have campaign materials with them at all times when accompanying [xxxx], in case he wants to provide them to constituents.
In sending [xxxx] staff such as unpaid interns to perform door-knocking and drop off official literature throughout the district this summer, they were instructed to stop only at the homes of registered voters.
Multiple staff members from the district office were instructed last December to devote their time to labeling, stuffing and mailing greeting cards to individuals who were campaign contributors of [xxxx]. The postage and materials were paid by his campaign fund, but several staffers said they performed the functions in the middle of the government workday, rather than on heir own time." (Post-Gazette 10/28/06)
This could be just about anyone in the Pennsylvania legislature. This kind of stuff has been going on for years in district offices...both Democrat and Republican.
You'd be wrong if you guessed any of the above.
This story was about Republican Congressman Tim Murphy in Allegheny County. A interview with Andy Sheehan with KDKA resulted in this piece de resistance:
That cring-worthy prevaricating by Murphy should join this performance by former Rep. Ken Ruffing in the politician interview disaster hall of fame.
Even though Buchanan asserts she investigates politicians of both parties equally...
"I investigate cases brought to my attention without regard to the political affiliation of the subject. Public corruption is nonpartisan, and we investigate it wherever we find it." (Post-Gazette...she's a liar:
3/18/07)
"But allegations of wrongdoing have also come up against some Republicans here over the years.Murphy isn't the only member of Congress Buchanan has ignored. In 2003, she gave a pass to Congressman Bill Shuster for using his congressional staff to spy on his political adversaries. (Post-Gazette 11/6/03 and 11/7/03)
Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum was heavily criticized for saying that his family lived in Penn Hills -- requiring the school district there to pay the cost for his children to attend a cyber school -- while they were really in Virginia.
An employee of U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, was fired after alleging that congressional staff and resources were being used for campaign work.
And local charges were filed against then-state Rep. Jeff Habay, R-Shaler, for ordering his staff to do campaign work on public time.
None of those cases resulted in criminal charges in federal court, and Ms. Buchanan would not comment on whether there were any investigations." (Post-Gazette 3/18/07)
We've been saying for months that Republican prosecutors, especially politically active ones, can and do ignore mountains of evidence while hammering Democrats. The Bush Administration's Justice Department under Alberto Gonzales is tangible and very recent proof of this reality.
Buchanan's tenure as Western PA US Attorney is just one more example of how blatant the partisanship can be. Democrats like Allegheny Coroner Cyril Wecht and Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy are worthy of millions for an investigation and prosecution, but Republicans like Congressman Tim Murphy and Senator Rick Santorum aren't?
The same holds true for Corbett and bonusgate. Reams of documents and hours of testimony have shown bonusgate extends well-beyond Veon and the eleven other Democrats arrested in 2008. Everyone in Harrisbug knows Corbett has more than enough to charge dozens and dozens of Republican members and staff.
Corbett has promised us "shocking" Republican indictments, but we aren't so sure he'll deliver.
I am dumbfounded at the easy pass the Media, Bloggers, and Team Casa still gives the Corbett Office of Attorney General.
ReplyDeleteTeam Casa continue to excuse his blunders and misses as the result of a lack of experience and bad advisors.
Lots of Corbett's OAG Prosecutorial Policies have been a creepy prolongation of the nastiest dreams of the last year of the Bush administration, while undoing some of the few things they got right. Buchanan is just another extension of these practices as his progeny and protégé.
Team Casa have been hitting that note about the need to shake up his staff for quite a while. Hitherto, isn't it true that people tend to surround themselves with like minds?
Team Casa said recently "Corbett has promised us "shocking" Republican indictments, but we aren't so sure he'll deliver”.
We are hopeful that he will rid himself soon of these one-dimensional anti-Pennsylvanian clichés.
Has it occurred to Team Casa that maybe that is just who he is and the people he surrounds himself with are just a reflection of himself?
I see Corbett and his OAG as the ultimate of the thoughts and agenda of the Rockefeller Republicans Northeastern Moderate Landed Gentry that Team Casa so much criticize.
Corbett appears to me as a cliché of all their pathologies, and yet Team Casa seem infatuated with him.
Team Casa continually attacks his speeches and demeanor while to me it seems like a mask for his lack of substance.
I find him to be a man of an oversized self-worth, with a messianic multifarious and a culprit-like following, which would not be so frightening if he did not wear the media as his own personal lap dog.
As a individual born and raised in Lancaster who studies Pennsylvania history as a hobby, I can't help but see Attorney General Corbett as the closest thing we have had in the Commonwealth to the long line of populist prosecutorial privileged.
Who have been the scourge of Pennsylvania Justice for decades and sent many that oppose them from judges to lawmakers into exile.
He is not a John Mitchell-Dick Thornburg-John Dean-like figures that uses earthiness and pressure as a bat but a more sophisticated version of a Team Casa’s Eva Fumo Peron in drag.
Firts comes Buchanan then comes Corbett, he is coming for all that think they are above the law.
ReplyDeleteWhat the Republicans cannot win at the ballot box, they will strike the Courts!
ReplyDeleteVesico Fistula
It is so very sad in a strange way, but most of CasablancaPA has no idea some within their own group, some have already cut deals and now are just informing on others.
ReplyDeleteSome may attempt to rip on Tom Corbett, but that ship has gone out of harbor.
Soon only the most enlighten people will continue a futile fight that was betrayed before it ever began.
All of what is happening in Harrisburg was arranged as a means to put some people in office while taking out others.
In time, some will come to that revealation, but it will be too late, and everything that was planned will come to those that planned it.
One was never a Democrat but a cleverly hidden Republican.
Yes I agrre with Anonymous, ever since week one of the Corbett Attorney General Operations, I have been doggedly calling for heads to roll.
ReplyDeleteAs months of obtuse ineptitude drag on, however, the blacklist of those who should be tagged for the cut off somebody's job gets longer and longer.
The most recent ignominy, of course, was the Attorney General persecution of the Ed Piroli Case.
All Ed and Lois did is change some accounts around so all Rochester Employees could be paid for Christmas.
It was ignored that Ed and Lois were victims of political vendettas by young green horn police officers that never cared about justice.
Those that cheer such humiliating fool's errand to beg rightfully got the gig, but are now gagged.
Anonymous is correct to argue that the cluster of appointees around a person in power reflects his or her belief system and modus operandi.
However, it is a mark of true leadership to recognize the need for professional evolution beyond an old comfort zone.
Corbett is approaching a turning point which will define his political future, if he has one.
He is surrounded by some mighty small potatoes who need shoveling into the dumpster.
The trivial provincials need to go, and far more sophisticated and commonwealth-savvy experts must urgently be brought on board.
Opponents of Corbett are perplexed by the disconnect in polling between Pennsylvanians' rejection of Corbett's practices, prosecutions, and policies and his personal popularity.
Count me among those who are very critical of many of Corbett's actions or evasions but who continue to like him and to believe in his potential as a Governor.
It's true he has accomplished nothing thus far and did not remotely deserve the terrible curse known as Bonus Gate.
This should be the tiara of Corbett's career and not the butt of jokes.
Until now, the tangible significance insofar as Corbett has endorsed the unrealistic dream rather than the humanistic daydream that the lion may never lie down with the lamb, but politics will always be mired in seething, selfish squalor unless idealistic people of goodwill appeal to our higher nature.
Hey, I'm just a pretend retired Prosecutor and have been one for 30 years. My daughter is a pretend Prosecutor too.
ReplyDeleteI have been deployed throughout the Commonwealth many times. These are our credentials.
I understand Team Casa opposition to either all violated the laws or none violated the laws in an intellectual sense, but I probably am tribal, too, and can't understand it in an emotional sense.
Here is my take from one who has been there and has someone I love still there thinking she is doing justice.
I agree the stated reasons such charges were brought but the timing was in error, the battles to come will have one redeeming feature.
The people we are prosecuting are political tribal in nature. All the nuts and haters are flocking to them to prove us wrong and end our careers.
That is excellent, and here is why.
If Team Casa look at the attacks against HDCC target statistics for the last 10 years before the Bonusgate revelations and the OAG incursion into the Legislative Branch of government and then look at the statistics since, Team Casa will find a significant drop in fairness because it is time to replace some office holders.
I believe this is because all the crazies are attacking us, along with the disruptions we are causing their planning as each month must be revised before any formal announcements.
While I personally dislike being accused of bias and injustice from personal experience, I much prefer that people not targeting my family at home over silly claims everyone did it.
Here's why.
In the Courtroom I have the weapons of words and support of an entire Investigative Team.
When the defendants comes along, they are neither trained nor supported as well as me.
In the majority of cases, I convict them and escape all questionable conduct.
Look at the comparative conviction rates in prior indictments’ in those prior ten years and now.
We are convicting more of them now than they will ever seek us.
In the Courts, we are prepared; in a blog attack, we are not.
By the way, I personally think prosecuting and persecuting are a waste of energy and treasure, but I am not going to stand aside while some other idiot who doesn't believe as I do goes around robbing the people of Pennsylvania.
Anything that reduces that is good, in my opinion.
What many are describing here is the Orc-Urizen rotation, a pattern identified by the great Romantic lyricist and creative thinker artist William Blake after the French revolution.
ReplyDeleteBlake saw every radical inclination toward freedom eventually ossifying and turning back on itself in a new oppression and tyranny.
Most here are quite right to detect adolescent naiveté in many demands of white middle-class young people in the 1960s.
These Prosecutors, Defendants and Representatives have been overprotected by their parents, who had suffered Depression and war for most of their lives and were determined to give us something better.
Unfortunately, the result of this well-intended paternalism was a cultural banality and stifling conformism that the '60s tried to destroy by any means necessary.
But it is still puzzling why that dissident generation so enamored of freedom would have drifted toward today's speech codes, thought control and ideological intolerance.
CasablancPA reflects these same inept raptures.
I am touched from reading all the personal testimony on many subjects dealing with politics, deceit, justice, and wrongness.
ReplyDeleteI too have been repulsed by the elitist insults flung at the OAG and Accuse here.
There is no question this is a massive, coordinated media effort to destroy both.
Hence, I have been thoroughly enjoying the way that many here, despite all the dirt thrown here by journalists and bloggers, keep bouncing back as if unscathed.
No sooner did the gloating harpies of the Pennsylvania Media think they had torn them to shreds than they exploded with each amusing triumphs, and solidifying their status as a bona fide alleged cultural criminal’s heroes and heroines.
No question, the snobbery distasteful, given the Democratic Party’s supposed allegiance to populism is once uncovered. Judging by the increasingly limited cultural and factual knowledge of elite bloggers whom one encounters working in the media, OAG, current legislative leadership and blue-chip lawyers aren't worth the parchment or websites they're printed on these days.
When any people forced through the ruthlessly competitive judgments’ of prosecutors building careers on their backs and have the independence and creativity pinched right out of them.
Proof?
Where are the major Pennsylvania artists, writers, critics or movie-makers of the past 20 years?
The most adventurous and enterprising minds have gone into high tech that now has the public in blind tech.
We're in a horrendous cultural vacuum because our status-besotted judicial industry is geared toward producing criminal’s not original thinkers but then we all become docile creatures of the system.
Did you see the article in "Parade" magazine on Sept. 20, entitled, "Online comments spark lawsuits"?
ReplyDeleteIt began with, "The Internet can seem like an open forum for people to rant and rave. But more and more, individuals are being held into account for what they write."
Then there is this very interesting passage: "People have the right to free speech," explains Matt Zimmerman, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which defends digital rights. "But they've never had the right to defame someone. They still don't." The general rule is that you can be held responsible for spreading false statements that hurt someone's reputation, whether you post them online, publish them in a newspaper, or whisper them at a cocktail party. If you want to write a negative review online, you best bet is to stick to the facts or your experience without drawing conclusions about a person's character.
To me, it would be interesting to see if an unmasked "Signor Ferrari" and "Ugarte" could defend all of their scribblings on that count in a court of law.
It could happen. And then the "peals of laughter" they often write about would be coming from me.
That's a great story. Have you heard the one about the whore?
ReplyDelete"To me, it would be interesting to see if an unmasked "Signor Ferrari" and "Ugarte" could defend all of their scribblings on that count in a court of law."
ReplyDeleteOh...don't worry...they will be in February.
ANOTHER PROSECUTOR CAUGHT WITH SOME QUESTIONABLE CONDUCT:
ReplyDeleteAustin Scott files lawsuit against Penn State
A former Parkland High School star football player removed from Penn State's team two years ago amid rape allegations has filed a federal lawsuit against the college, prosecutors and his accuser alleging they destroyed his chances for an NFL career.
Austin Scott's lawsuit claims authorities should not have filed the charges, which were eventually dropped, because they knew his accuser, Desiree Minder of Pottsville, had previously made false rape allegations against a student at Moravian College.
South Whitehall attorney John P. Karoly Jr. filed the multimillion-dollar lawsuit Tuesday in federal court in Williamsport, and it was posted to the court's online database this morning.
Karoly, who has succeeded in winning multimillion-dollar awards against Lehigh Valley police departments for excessive force claims, promised two years ago he would file a suit on Scott's behalf. At that time, Karoly compared the investigators to "lynch mobs." Scott is black and his accuser and the prosecutors are white.
Just as Karoly has attacked the inner workings of police departments, the lawsuit raises questions about the motives of the prosecutors and Penn State University Police Force investigators and questions the abilities of their supervisors.
The case was ready to go to trial and a jury had been selected in October 2008. But the prosecutors dropped the charges when the judge decided evidence could be presented showing the woman had a pattern of making such allegations. Four years earlier, she had accused a Moravian College student of rape. A Northampton County jury acquitted him.
In the lawsuit, Karoly says the accuser told Centre County authorities "within the first two minutes" of a conversation that she had been raped before. The lawsuit claims authorities and the accuser all conspired maliciously to go forward with the prosecution, violating Scott's civil rights.
Karoly claims the main prosecutor in Scott's case, Centre County Assistant District Lance Marshall, pursued the case to "to curry favor" with Scott's accuser.
The suit further claims Centre County District Attorney Michael Madeira knew of Marshall's "proclivities prior to the unlawful arrest and prosecution of Austin Scott."
Marshall resigned from his job in December amid allegations he made inappropriate sexual advances toward a victim of domestic violence, and Madeira is seeking re-election, according to the Centre Daily Times.
Marshall and Madeira, as well as seven members of Penn State University's police force involved in the investigation, are named individually as defendants.
http://www.mcall.com/news/all-scott-lawsuit-101509-cn,0,2554716.story
Austin Scott Lawsuit Continued....
ReplyDeleteThe lawsuit says they all conspired in the October 2007 arrest of the then 22-year-old Scott and, as a result, diminished his potential "earning capacity" in the NFL.
The lawsuit claims Scott was slated to be a third- or fourth-round draft pick for the National Football League prior to the false allegations and false arrest, which prompted his removal from Penn State's team.
Scott was one of the greatest high school football players in the Lehigh Valley's history, leading Parkland to a state championship in 2002. His career at Penn State was mixed, partly because of injuries, and is remembered mostly for fumbling in the red zone in a game against Michigan. He was removed from the team after the female student accused him of raping her in his campus apartment Oct. 5, 2007. Scott said the sex had been consensual just as the man at Moravian College had four years earlier.
Scott has not played a full football season since.
Last year, Scott was invited to attend the Cleveland Browns training camp and played in the preseason games. But he was cut from the roster before the NFL's regular season.
Scott, 24, of East Stroudsburg, remains an unsigned free agent.
His attorney, meanwhile, is on trial for money laundering and mail fraud charges in federal court in Allentown.
Testimony concluded in the nonjury trial last month, and U.S. District Judge Lawrence F. Stengel is expected to issue a verdict this month. The case revolves around allegations that Karoly tried to avoid paying taxes by creating a nonprofit organization.
Karoly pleaded guilty in July to willfully filing false tax returns and not paying income taxes on $5.2million.
The best ending to this story would be if after the Bonusgate defendants are convicted, they are sent to serve their sentences in one of the state prisons in DeWeese's district.
ReplyDeleteGo, Tom Corbett!
"Anonymous said...The best ending to this story would be if after the Bonusgate defendants are convicted, they are sent to serve their sentences in one of the state prisons in DeWeese's district. Go, Tom Corbett!
ReplyDeleteOctober 15, 2009 1:33 PM"
Rumor has it that Veon may be given the Motorcycle License Plate Concession in the Greene County Prison.
As Trustee of course, Cott is already working on pounding tin on this website.
What amazes me is that how could anyone hire Brett Cott for political work without checking his background?
ReplyDeleteI mean almost everywhere this guy has been working on elections one can see alleged ethical violations, fraud charges, conflicts of interest, and misappropriation of funds following his trail.
This was the fatal mistake at HDCC from the start.
I think Mary Beth Buchanan has been practicing running for a long time, just about all the time she has been in the US Attorneys office. After all, she always seems to forget something and has to page herself where ever there is a public building or a crowd.
ReplyDeleteShe also attacked Cereal Wecht and now who is the person who is saying she might run, none other than Jim Roddey. think that says it all. The little black dress does her justice. didnt Jim Roddey defeat Cereal once?
Do you think the new facilities at DeWeeseville will be making motor cycle licenses? Maybe one of the first vanity ones will be SEAMUS I.
ReplyDeleteI can actually see Mike Veon, Brett Cott, and John P. Karoly Jr. all in teh same Prison cell trying to figure out how they got caught and who was behind it.
ReplyDeleteFumo will visit them and join in the discussions.
How they think they can get away with it is beyond me.
are there really whores in Casablanca?
ReplyDeleteI heard this story, but do not if it true.
ReplyDeleteMike Manzo once stood over Brett Cott and rub his hand over Brett's head, and said, "You Know Brett Your Bald Head Feels Just Like My Wife’s Ass."
Brett put his own hand on top of his head and without blinking said, “You Know Mike, You Are Right!”
Then the fight started and Mike Manzo turned Brett Cott name into Brett Caught by fingering him before the OAG!
"Signor Ferrari said...That's a great story. Have you heard the one about the whore?
ReplyDeleteOctober 15, 2009 10:12 AM"
There are no Whores in Harrisburg anymore, Fumo went to Kentucky.
Veon lives in a House he cannot afford anymore.
All the rest live in the House of the Rising Sun and ain't in Japan!
Maybe they will name the new prison coming to DeWeese's district, "SCI-CasablancaPA."
ReplyDeleteIn addition to making license plates at that facility, they can rehabilitate inmates by teaching them how to blog.
Signor Ferrari said...
ReplyDeleteThat's a great story. Have you heard the one about the whore?
October 15, 2009 10:12 AM
I've lived long enough to know one thing: He who laughs last, laughs the loudest.
Few know it, but most Jokes come from Prison.
ReplyDeleteInmates have much time on their hands so they create new jokes, and then tell them to their Lawyers, who spread them around the Court Houses, and eventually the public hears them.
They are not loud but they are they have laugh ability!
Age quod agis, Do what you do and Do what you do best!
ReplyDeleteIn pace requiescat, Rest in peace, It's your funeral!
Upanishads say:
ReplyDeleteBehold The Pale Horse…“The Man Who "Sat On Him Was Death... And Hell Followed With Him"!
Those who know the Spiritual Consciousness of Fellowship among all living things will not distress each other with the thoughts of:
Why Did I Not Do What Is Good?
Why Did I Do What Is Evil?
Such people explore in groups seeking the meaning of life for them and others.
Others choose to hunt in groups seeking ambitions, manipulations, and the paths that places them above others in their minds.
Whoever seeks and finds this kind of bliss for their own compass in life and shares it with love ones will cherish the secret knowledge of inner self peace and outward fellowship..
In the end, the ultimate, formless, inconceivable acts of good evil that add and subtract within every soul are realize through discerning discrimination of our thoughts, words, and character.
Whoever Sees All Beings In The Soul And The Soul In All Beings,
What Delusion Or Sorrow Is There For One Who Sees Unity?
It Has Filled All.
It Is Radiant, Incorporeal, Invulnerable, Wise, Intelligent,
Encompassing, Self-Existent,
It Organizes Objects Throughout Eternity.
One of the most memorable uses of this allegory is whenever you are climbing staircases together with one in a position of power.
It is very easy for one person to do the climbing, if they are enlightened and a good person. Conversely, it is very hard for another if they have become a bad person…-- Cardinal Sinner