Emma Berry

Archive for the ‘Character & Characters’ Category

BACKGROUND
For those who may not know of the events that have unfolded:   On June 2, 2010 the Texas Rangers, on a tip from five citizens who work in the Collin County District Clerk’s office,  raided the Collin County Court House.  In his sworn statement, Ranger Sergeant Davidson told of 5 District Clerk employees who came to him with evidence of off-the books time sheets used to pay Collin County District Clerk’s employees for time spent on Patricia Crigger’s campaign.

The affidavit charges that, “On or about the dates of December 28, 2009 and June 1, 2010, in Collin County, Texas, Patricia Wysong CRIGGER, Sherry L. BELL, Rebecca A. LITTRELL, Amy E. MATHIS, Lorrie M. ROBERTSON, Marcia E. SIMPSON, Judy A. BLAZIER, and others did then and there, with intent to establish maintain and participate in a combination and in the profits of a combination, collaborate with each other and conspire to commit the offenses of Tampering with a Governmental Record, and Theft by a Public Servant by agreeing with each other that they would engage in conduct that constituted said offenses, namely, the falsification of official Collin County time and attendance records for employees of the Collin County District Clerk’s Office and the maintenance of a separate system of accounting for their own additional program of unauthorized paid leave at Collin County Taxpayer expense…”

The affidavit makes accusations against 6 ranking employees of using the “Blue Book” to reimburse employees time taken off for campaigning and/or for campaigning on County time and with County computers and printers. In short these woman are accused of using taxpayer money to pay for their Republican campaigning activities.

Bill Baumbach of The Collin County Observer has reported on this case from day one.  His articles have documented many important pieces of information.  For example, The Ranger’s raid on the court house resulted in 68 items being seized, including computer hard drives, removable storage drives, calendars, binders, and 2 employee Access Cards.  Because of Bill, the citizens of Collin County know what was seized.  There is one more place where this information can be found so it is not likely to be “forgotten” or “lost” during the investigation.

RECENTLY

On August 19, 2010 McKinney Courier Gazette reporter Danny Gallagher, Bill Baumbach of the Collin County Observer and Ed Housewright of the Dallas Morning News were subpoenaed and ordered to bring all articles they have  written on Littrell and report to the 401st District Court on August 25.

I went to the McKinney  Gazette and to the Dallas Morning News and I see that both newspapers have scrubbed all articles except for the subpoena information on Gallagher and Housewright.

However, when I went to The Collin County Observer, I see that Bill Baumbach is not so easy to muzzle.

Here is part of the latest article posted by Bill.  The entire article may be read at The Collin County Observer.

The most OUTRAGEOUS thing that I find about this latest development is that one of the person who signed the subpoena is a a deputy district clerk who was mentioned in filings in this case as having been awarded at least 2 days “Blue Book” time off during the six months the Texas Rangers have investigated. Ms. Greer has not been charged with any crime.

I hope that Bill is not the only reporter in Texas with the Courage to report on this story.

Collin County Observer subpoenaed

Rebecca Littrell

Deric Walpole, the attorney for indicted deputy county clerk Rebecca Littrell has issued “Subpoenas Duces Tecum” to local reporters including me.

A “Subpoenas Duces Tecum” requires the recipient to both appear in court and to bring with him named papers or documents. I have been ordered to appear before the 401st District Court on August 25 and to bring “articles regarding Rebecca Littrell… including but not limited to ‘Blog’ posts and responses”.

The subpoena was signed by Sylvia Greer, a deputy district clerk who was mentioned in filings in this case as having been awarded at least 2 days “Blue Book” time off during the six months the Texas Rangers have investigated. Ms. Greer has not been charged with any crime.

The Collin County Observer will likely file a motion to quash the subpoena.

“An Evening of Hope with Sarah Palin,” an event featuring the former Alaska Governor, was supposed to be a minor blockbuster in Jacksonville, Florida, next week, but not everything has gone as planned.

Slow ticket sales have forced event organizers to move the function from the 2,936-seat Moran Theatre to the significantly smaller 609-seat Terry Theatre.

***************************************************************

*in reference to the video that she and Michelle Bachmann starred in touting their bodies as “Hot” and calling women Democrats Dogs.  Could they possibly be more juvenile and stupid?  And neither of those two ladies have youth as an excuse.  Bachmann is 54 and Palin is 46–hardly teenagers or even 20 somethings or even 30 somethings.

If you are not a Clinton fan, then you must read Robert Scheer’s article in THE NATION.  It is hilarious and also true.  I was was so glad to read it this evening as I thought I was the only one in the world who knew that Chelsea was once a Wall Street hedge fund manager or that her new father in law is a convicted felon. Or that I am the only one who does not consider any of the Clintons as “royalty.”

Following are the first two paragraphs from Scheer’s piece to tempt you:

Out of respect for privacy, even concerning famous people, I wasn’t going to write about the marriage of Chelsea Clinton to a Goldman Sachs alum and budding hedge-fund hustler with the resources to buy a $4 million loft so soon after graduating from Stanford. Hopefully Marc Mezvinsky won’t follow in the footsteps of his financier father, “Fast-Talkin’ Eddie,” as they called him back in Iowa, a former Democratic House member who just completed a five-year federal sentence for dozens of fraud felonies.

Anyway, Chelsea also worked at a hedge fund, her mother dabbled in banking shenanigans in her Whitewater days and father Bill’s radical deregulation made it a lot easier for financial plunderers to stay on the right side of the law. So the Clintons and the Mezvinskys have a lot in common. I hope their children will do better, and I was going to simply wish them well until I read Tina Brown’s paean to power, “Why America Needed Chelsea’s Wedding,” in the trend-chasing Daily Beast, which she edits.  MORE

Coleman has a close relationship with Minnesota businessman Nasser Kazeminy, a big donor to the G.O.P. and to Coleman. In 2005, Coleman and his daughter jetted down to the Bahamas on a private plane owned by Kazeminy, a trip valued at $3,960. In 2004, he and his wife flew to Paris on Kazeminy’s plane, a $2,870 value.

Kazeminy is also reported to have covered the bills for Coleman’s lavish clothing purchases at Nieman Marcus in Minneapolis. The former finance chief of a Texas company controlled by Nasser Kazeminy, a close friend of former Sen. Norm Coleman, said in a deposition that Kazeminy ordered $100,000 in fees be paid to a Minneapolis insurance agency where Coleman’s wife was employed.

In the two weeks before the November 2008 U.S. Senate election, two lawsuits were filed against Deep Marine — one by McKim and one by a group of minority shareholders. In them, Kazeminy was accused of funneling payments to Hays to benefit the Colemans, as well as other alleged financial wrongdoing.

The fastest way to identify a racist was pointed out to me by Bill Maher who said that the minute that someone prefaces their remark with “I’m not a racist, but.  .   . ” that you can bet your ass that they are about to conclusively prove themselves wrong.

My lord! George Bush was the biggest fake and carpet bagger in the history of our nation!

He was born in New Haven Connecticut.  He attended Phillips Academy prep school at Andover.  He graduated from Yale where he was a member of the elitist Skull and Bones Society. You can’t get much further away from Texas grass roots than that.

Bush went to such great lengths to portray himself as a macho Texas male/Reagan cowboy that he purchased Crawford Ranch and had photo shoots of himself doing “manly” things on the ranch throughout his presidency.  At least Reagan rode horses.  Bush so did  not ride horses, he was afraid of them.
Vicente Fox, the former president of Mexico, derided his political friend as a “windshield cowboy” – a cowboy who prefers to drive – and “the cockiest guy I have ever met in my life”.

He recalled a meeting in Mexico shortly after both men had been elected when Mr Fox offered Mr Bush a ride on a “big palomino” horse.  Bush backed away.

During his tenure as President,  Bush spoke of his fondness for shooting doves and cutting brush on his Crawford ranch in Texas, which he bought in 1999.

The property reportedly had no horses and only five cattle.  AND WITHIN A FEW MONTHS AFTER HIS PRESIDENCY CRAWFORD RANCH, THE ULTIMATE IN A PRESIDENTIAL PROP, WAS SOLD.  The Bushes now reside in the rich elitist neighborhood of Preston Hollow with plenty of golf courses nearby.

AND TO THINK:

The people of Collin County elected another rich carpet bagger yesterday–Van Taylor, when they could have had a true local grassroots Republican.

It’s still true:  “You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time.”  If you don’t believe me, just read the election results from the Texas runoff yesterday.

You would have thought that the “conservatives” would have learned their lesson from all the  flap they got in 2008 for purchasing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of clothes for Sarah Palin and her family so their wardrobe didn’t  offend the elitist Republicans, but apparently not.

When people like Sarah Palin use  analogies like “putting Democratic candidates in their ‘cross hairs’ ” and have maps produced that mark “targets” using the cross hairs window of a rifle scope instead of a dot or an innocuous mark on their map to indicate the location of the candidate, THEY KNOW EXACTLY WHAT THEY ARE DOING.

Subtlety is not their strong suit.

They are suggesting that these people be shot.  Their violent overtures are more than obvious.  Sarah Palin is violent as are many of the people who follow her.  A non-violent person does not hunt down and shoot wolves from a helicopter. People like Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck are terrorists who incite violence by innuendo.

If those two had their ideal world realized, it would NOT be a democracy.  It would be a world ruled by Conservative fanatics.  Would you like to have a government where Dick Cheney, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, and Glen Beck choose what is “good” for the rest of us? –People who feel it is their “God-given” right to lie  to us about Weapons of Mass Destruction in order to commit mass murder against the people of another nation?  That’s the kind of government you get when real fanatics are in charge.

Their right-wing “conservative” government would  like the right-wing military junta of Augusto Pinochet.  Disagree with them and you would die.  They are true believers–fanatics.  I consider them a large menace to Democracy.

In order for a democracy to survive, there must be at least two parties.  In their world, there is only one party. If you disagree with ideas and viewpoints, then vote, but don’t threaten with violence or even innuendo of violence–that is evil and irresponsible.

*********************************************************

REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP IN CONGRESS DOES NOT SUPPORT DE-CENTRALIZED GOVERNMENT

Both Bush and Cheney held a view of presidential power that revolved around a largely unregulated and centralized executive branch with massive authority over the citizenry. I find it less than amusing that the Tea Party activists refer to Obama as a “socialist” and worse—imply that he is a brother to Hitler. The truth is that if the vision that Bush and Cheney held for executive branch of our nation were to be carried to its final logical conclusion, we would be a right-wing totalitarian government. Our government would look like that of the right-wing Chilean despot, Augusto Pinochet and his 16 year reign of terror dispensed via his military junta.

Like the Republicans today, Pinochet hated those on the left. After illegally seizing the office of presidency from the duly elected president, Allende, Pinochet immediately suppressed all opposition by banning all the leftist parties.

The Rettig Report found that 2,279 persons who disappeared during the military government were killed for political reasons or as a result of political violence, and approximately 31,947 tortured. and 1,312 were exiled. These exiles were then chased all over the world by the intelligence agencies. Operation Condor was a cooperation plan between the various intelligence agencies of South America who were assisted by a US CIA base in Panama. Pinochet believed these operations were necessary in order to “save the country from communism”.

The important question should have been: Who will save the people from viscous hate mongers like Pinochet?

Pinochet shut down parliament, suffocated political life, banned trade unions, and made Chile his sultanate. His government disappeared 3,000 opponents, arrested 30,000 (torturing thousands of them) … Pinochet’s name will forever be linked to the Desaparecidos, the Caravan of Death, and the institutionalized torture that took place in the Villa Grimaldi complex. –Thor Halvorssen, president of the Human Rights Foundation, National Review

And this is exactly the type of government that the Tea Party activists are advocating whether they know it or not—a right-wing military junta, not unlike that of Augusto Pinochet.

George Bush, after shaking hands with Haitians, wipes his hand on Bill Clinton’s shirt.
Bush is well known for his compulsive need for hand sanitizer.  I wonder why he didn’t have a tissue of it in his pocket.