Blackberry Raspberry

Appropriate, if ironic: lawmakers around the country are being bitten by the same lack of privacy so many of them advocate for the lowly citizenry. Not through wiretapping, but through their emails.

Emails and text-messages have now brought down one of the most powerful prosecutors in the country and may soon lead to criminal charges against the Mayor of Detroit. Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal resigned this week after his emails were revealed in a police abuse case. In the meantime, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has appealed the release of his text messages in a case involving police whistleblowers.

  Jonathan Turley

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Justice, Texas Style

A San Francisco friend of mine recently informed me that an attorney friend there went to Rwanda at the height of the Tutsi/Hutu massacres to try to sort out the criminals from the innocent in the subsequent sweeping roundups (a la post 9/11 sweeps) that netted thousands in jail without charge or representation, a system they referred to as 'Texas'.

And well they might. And well they might.

The lastest here in Texas justice involves justices doubling as criminals. Or vice versa.

Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina is charged with funneling $57,000 of campaign contributions into his own personal expenditure account, a charge to which he responds by saying, "Now that this matter is before the ethics commission, I plan to review the matter and take the appropriate steps," indicating he'll pay back the money. Now that it's "before the ethics commitee." Texas Supreme Court Justices Paul Green and Nathan Hecht have also been charged with the same violation: using campaign funds to pay for their commuting expenses between Austin and their home towns.

But another interesting little note about Justice Medina is that his wife was recently charged with setting fire to their house, a fire that also destroyed a neighbor's home, and he was charged with tampering with evidence. (The Medinas have been having a little trouble paying their house payments and insurance premiums.) Luckily for Medina, Harris County (Houston) DA Chuck Rosenthal had the grand jury indictments dropped (hmmm...who brings a case to a grand jury but the DA's office?), saying there was insufficient evidence to get a conviction. (The end has not yet been heard of that case, though.)

Oh, and did I mention that DA Rosenthal has just been busted for some scandalous and apparently illegal emailing activity brought to light in a case involving alleged improper arrests of two guys who were filming their neighbors' house being raided by police?

Meanwhile, Galveston County Federal Judge Samuel Kent (who has admitted publicly to having a "drinking problem") is charged with sexually assaulting his case manager, and in court favoring attorneys who are friends of his.

Hey, this is Texas, people. Texas.

Meanwhile in Texas

Harris County government chief Ed Emmett today called for Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott's staff to conduct an independent investigation of local District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal in the wake of the disclosure of e-mails on Rosenthal's county government account containing racist jokes, campaign activity and sexually explicit videos.

  Houston Chronicle

The agency that would normally conduct the investigation, the County Attorney, is currently representing Rosenthal in the lawsuit which led to the discovery of the e-mails and which was filed by two guys who were arrested after filming police raiding their neighbor .

Some people actually want Rosenthal to step down, but he says he’s not budging because he’s “done nothing wrong,” although he will not seek re-election. Probably just as well.

And soon, we may be getting a look at what Governor Rick Perry has been doing on his e-mail account, too. At least those that he hadn’t already deleted in his regular account cleanings.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Election News

You probably already know that Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama won their respective parties' Iowa caucus, if not indicating the eventual 2008 presidential candidates, at least bearing witness to two things we already knew: 1) Iowa Republicans are far and away Christian Conservatives, and 2) as long as white men hold the strings to America, a black man will still win the presidency over any color woman, particuarly if she's seen as a woman who won't be told what to do by a man. The Democrats would do well to remember that if, come nomination time, they are still thinking about running Hillary.

Meanwhile, here in Texas, we are still in the business of scandalous politics.

Harris County (Houston) Republican DA Chuck 'Hang-em-High' Rosenthal, just three minutes before filing deadlines for elections, withdrew from the upcoming DA race after having been busted for sending amorous emails to his assistant (he's married - adultery being a Republican sin - if you get caught), and erasing other emails that might have information about a case filed against Rosenthal and the Harris County Sheriff for alleged prisoner abuse.

The filing deadline had to be extended 48 hours to allow somebody else to jump in, and now that she has, Rosenthal is pulling a Larry Craig. He thinks maybe he'll run after all.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.