We hope you find Tom Corbett's rationalization of his outrageous subpoena to Twitter as appalling as we do.It boils down to this: "Yes, it's true I sought the identity of my anonymous critic so I could punish him with prison time, but only if it's this one particular guy."
We're pretty sure they covered the First Amendment at Tom Corbett's law school, but let's clarify something for him: criticism of a public official - even anonymous criticism of a public official - is not punishable by law. Not even if the anonymous critic is some guy you managed to convict of a couple of felonies.
It's been clear for more than a year that Tom Corbett and his minions have been hell-bent on proving his anonymous critics are defendants in a criminal case.
Be warned, Pennsylvania: It's a very short leap from "He's only criticizing me because he's a criminal defendant," to "He's only a criminal defendant because he's criticizing me.
Please support the ACLU of Pennsylvania.
11 comments:
Perhaps a quote from another blog is in order here. This one from the New Republic, not quite a blog and not a place I regularly visit, but the point needs to be repeated
Leon Weiseltier:
Embarrassment is an important element in the pedagogy of experience. There are mistakes I will never make again because I made them once and was usefully shamed. In the winter of 1974, when I was a bright and callow student, and did not yet grasp the difference between knowledge and knowingness, I endured such a lucky education at the hands of Diana Trilling. The subject was the danger of simplification in the intellectual engagement with politics. She had signed a letter in The New York Times Book Review protesting that Mary McCarthy, in an appreciation of Philip Rahv’s liberal anti-Stalinism, had neglected the liberal anti-Stalinism of other intellectuals, herself included. I casually wondered aloud why she protested so much. I will never forget the castigation that followed. With her uncanny mixture of ferocity and affection, Diana instructed me in the art of being against Joseph Stalin and against Joseph McCarthy at the same time. She meant genuinely against both of them, equally against both of them, without making any excuses for either of them, without any “to be sure” sentences that exposed one of your dissents as a minor premise: a position forthrightly comprised of two major premises. Not a commitment and a credential; two commitments. This was not the “center,” or half of what the left thought and half of what the right thought; it was its own place on the map. And a small place it was, too: the refusal to play the game of allowing McCarthyism to extenuate Stalinism or Stalinism to extenuate McCarthyism left these brave people somewhat friendless, though in their own terrific company. Stalinism and McCarthyism are gone now, but the style of evasion remains. Everybody is “to be sure” offended by every evil, and how dare anybody suggest otherwise, but the bifocal vision, the one that manages to hit all the stresses and honor all the emphases, is still very rare.
They really need to make Attorney Generals who abuse their power even for a single case lose their law license permanently and be thrown out of office. We could it the Corbett Kicker.
Pennsylvania needs a new law that prevents Attorney Generals elected by the voters from running for higher office.
In that way, the Attorney General remains Independent and free from becoming an Opportunists on the backs of his or her political critics and opponents.
Attorney General Corbett has not acted fairly with balance towards both political parties in the House and Senate.
In fact, the Stetler Motions and Kimment Whistle blowing Lawsuit facts have shown Corbett has violated the same laws he is prosecuting selectively towards others of his own choosing.
In the meantime, Brett Cott sits in Jail awaiting true justice and nobody seems to care and he looks to be abandoned to the delight of a few Campaign Staffers and Prosecutors at the OAG.
We need good men and women to stand up now and challenge Tom Corbett and his Prosecutors abuses but even if he is not elected Governor he will remain Attorney General.
Will someone stand up please, will many join, and can we make a better Pennsylvania from secret Grand Jury Abuses by one man bent on being Governor at every opportunity and when criticized will indict others and throw his critics in Jail?
Where is the Pennsylvania Disciplinary Board, Where is the Judicial Conduct Board, Where are the US Attorneys, Why no Special Prosecutor. How far and long will this go on, disguised as justice but made from blind ambitions on the backs of others for injustice?
TWITTER AMERICAN REVOLUTION ALERT AND CALL TO FREEDOM!
WE NEED A BRETT COTT DEFENSE FUND ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER.
TWITTERS EVERYWHERE WE NEED TO SET UP A BRETT COTT DEFENSE FUND SO WE CAN RAISE MILLIONS TO HIRE THE BEST AND BRIGHTEST ATTORNEY'S IN THE WORLD TO DEFEND AND FREE BRETT COTT FROM THE ABUSES OF LAW ENFORCEMENT BEING USED FOR HIGHER OFFICE.
JUST ONE DOLLAR SENT TO THE DEFENSE FUND, PREFERABLY BY CHECK, TO ACCOUNT FOR IT, AS A SHOW OF SUPPORT, OR CASH ASKING FOR A RECEIPT, CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
THE ONE THING IN AMERICA WHEN YOU HAVE MONEY YOU CAN PROPERLY DEFEND YOURSELF.
THE MONEY WILL GO TO HIRING FORMER PROSECUTORS AND TOP INVESTIGATORS THAT CAN RESEARCH THE ABUSES OF THE PENNSYLVANIA OAG AND THEIR PROSECUTORS AND CORBETT.
LAW STUDENTS THAT CAN VOLUNTEER THEIR TIME WITH LAW PROFESSORS TO POINT OUT THE ABUSES OF THE PENNSYLVANIA GRAND JURY SYSTEM UNDER TOM CORBETT.
PUBLIC EDUCATIONAL CAMPAIGNS OF WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF YOU DARE SPEAK OUT TO DEFEND YOURSELF ON TWITTER OR BLOGS.
PLEASE I AM NOT RELATED TO BRETT COTT AND DO NOT AGREE WITH EVERYTHING HE BELIEVES OR SAYS, BUT HIS IMPRISONMENT BY CORBETT OAG AND SENTENCE BY JUDGE LEWIS NEEDS TO CHALLENGED AND ONLY MONEY CAN DO IT.
MILLIONS CAN BE RAISED TO STOP THIS KIND OF ABUSE, PLEASE CASABLANCAPA SET UP A CASBLANCAPA DEFENSE FUND.
ONE GROWING PYRAMID OF PROUD TWITTERS PUTTING JUST $1 DOLLAR INTO THE MAIL CAN SEND A BETTER MESSAGE ALONG WITH MILLION OF MESSENGERS AND BRING WORLD ATTENTION TO CORBETT ABUSES OF POWER.
BRETT COTT AND HIS LAWYER CANNOT SPEAK, TWIT, OR DEFEND HIMSELF, SINCE HE IS IN PRISON, BUT WE ALL CAN, BY JUST SENDING $1 DOLLAR!
.This is getting more inane by the minute. The more Tom Corbett opens his mouth the more ridiculous it gets. What's the old adage? Better to keep your mouth shut and be thought stupid than open your mouth and remove all doubt.
Tom Corbett is taking the AG's office and the GOP to a new low level.
Thank you, Leon Weiseltier, your wisdom and observation is most appropriate.
Who is running Corbett's campaign for Governor? or is he micro-managing the campaign?
Who is running Corbett's campaign for Governor? or is he micro-managing the campaign?
Corbett went to law school in Texas, so the extent to which he got a decent education in the 1st Amendment is questionable.
Anonymous said...Who is running Corbett's campaign for Governor? or is he micro-managing the campaign? May 22, 2010 1:05 PM
John Brabender, a Republican consultant and senior adviser to the Corbett campaign.
John Brabender is a prominent Republican political consultant.
He earned a degree in from Gannon University and an MBA from Cleveland State University.
He is the managing partner and Chief Creative Officer of BrabenderCox, a national political consulting and advertising firm.
He has served as a campaign and advertising consultant for campaigns in nearly every state, including Tom Coburn, David Vitter, Rick Santorum, Linda Lingle, Tom Corbett, and for the 2008 Giuliani presidential campaign.
He has also worked for the Pittsburgh Steelers in their attempt to gain public funding for Heinz Field in the mid-1990s and for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
He has appeared as a guest on The Today Show, CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, CNN's Inside Politics, Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, Talk of the Nation, and CNN.
He was an adjunct professor at the Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism at West Virginia University, teaching courses on advertising and the media.
He was named one of the "Rising Stars of 1996" by Campaigns & Elections, after winning 18 of 21 races in the 1994 election cycle, including the 1994 U.S. Senate election in Pennsylvania where Rick Santorum upset Harris Wofford.
He helped "mastermind" Tom Ridge's gubernatorial victories in 1994 and 1998.
He was named to the 2002 and 2003 PoliticsPA "Sy Snyder's Power 50" of influential people in Pennsylvania politics.
He was named to the PoliticsPA list of "Republican Dream Team" political consultants.
In 2010, he was named one of the "Top 10 Republicans" in Pennsylvania by Politics Magazine, where he was called the "the go-to consultant for many [Pennsylvania] statewide candidates."
In 2009, he launched Zolitics, a "political entertainment network" with other political consultants, including Leslie Gromis-Baker.
Please don't post in all caps or I will just drop this feed.
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