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March 24, 2008
Another Politician Snagged By Sin: Detroit Mayor Indicted
They say that sin will keep you longer than you wanted to stay, take you farther than you wanted to go, and cost you more than you wanted to pay.
Witness Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. It started as sin, and it's moved into scandal, and could end in prison.Kilpatrick was having an affair with his Chief of Staff, Christine Beatty, as far back as 2002. Coincidentally or not, in April of 2003, an exotic dancer named Tamara Greene was found shot to death in her car; it was rumored that she had danced at a party in 2002, at the mayor's home.
Unfortunately for the mayor, in the course of his investigation of the dancer's death, Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown discovered information that the mayor did not want known. The mayor then, in the time-honored fashion of adulterers from King David to Bill Clinton, went into heavy self-protection mode, firing the Deputy Chief.
A month later, the Michigan Attorney General found that there was no evidence of such a party, and no evidence that Kilpatrick was involved in the case. But four months later, the Wayne County prosecutor opened an independent investigation into the dancer's death. The same month, a police lieutenant was awarded $200,000 for his retaliatory firing in connection with the case.
During the ensuing investigations, the mayor's text-messages to his paramour were uncovered, some 14,000 of them, which implicated him not only in an affair, but in the firing of the Deputy Chief who was coming too close to the mayor's personal secrets. Both the mayor and his Chief of Staff denied everything, under oath, in court, and in sworn depositions.
Finally, this January, the mayor admitted to the affair and the sexy text-messages, and apologized to his wife and the public on television. (This just a few days after a report surfaced that he had brought another woman to stay at the hotel with him before a speech he made at the Martin Luther King Prayer Breakfast in North Carolina.) But, as always, there is more to be covered up than the adulterer is willing to admit. It wasn't just the adultery he needed to atone for; it was the ruthless way in which he ruined lives and trampled the public trust to protect himself from public discovery.
As recently as March 11, in his state of the city address, Kilpatrick was defiantly accusing those who questioned his activities and veracity of having a "lynch mob mentality." Only four of the nine members of the Detroit City Council chose to sit on the stage with him, while three sat in the audience, and two did not attend. On March 18, the City Council voted 7 to 1 (with one absent from illness) to ask Kilpatrick to resign--which they do not have the authority to force him to do.
Today, the hammer fell, as the mayor and his Chief of Staff found themselves on the wrong end of a 12-count indictment. Three of the charges apply to both Kilpatrick and Beatty (misconduct in office, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy to obstruct justice). Four are charged against Beatty only (2 for perjury in testimony, and 2 for perjury in a notarized statement). The remaining five charges are against Kilpatrick only (2 for perjury in testimony, 2 for perjury in a notarized statement, and misconduct in office.)
Of course, the mayor is claiming innocence, but there is not much chance he can convince a jury that the $8.4 million the City of Detroit had to pay whistle-blowers he got fired to protect himself wasn't "misconduct in office." In the sickening fashion we have come to expect from such self-aggrandizing politicians, he doesn't want to step down because it would interfere with the people's business.
If convicted on the crimes charged, Kilpatrick could get up to 80 years in prison, and Beatty 75.
Note: For a humorous take on Kilpatrick's January apology, go here.
Posted by Kerry at March 24, 2008 12:27 PM
Copyright © 2007 by author. May not be copied, published, or otherwise used (except for brief quotes) without express permission of author. Articles published with permission by Pardon My English.
-->Comments
Sounds like some bums who oughts to go.
Posted by Some Fella ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.pardonmyenglish.com//nav-commenters.gif)
at March 25, 2008 03:41 PM
SF,
I must agree, but the Mayor does not. He intends to brazen it out, humiliating the city in his mad grasp of power.
Posted by Kerry at March 25, 2008 04:13 PM
Listen, forget about these guys in "Detroit". I just came to a revelation tonight: McCain is the Manchurian candidate! His long-dead Vietnamese programmers are going to have him enter the launch codes an hour after the swear-in. Forget the queen of spades...the oath of office is the trigger! Think about it, people...
There, I said it -- vote Democrat in '08!
Posted by Some Fella at March 31, 2008 06:45 AM
SF,
That's it? That's all you got?
Come on. You're a Democrat! Surely you can go crazier than THAT!
:-)
Posted by Kerry at March 31, 2008 06:03 PM
Since y'all have not provided me an opportunity to answer a question on another thread, I'm hijacking this one as it's fairly dead.
How do explain record rates of ice melt on Greenland (all carefully documented by satellite) if we are having a cooling trend.
Easy.....because I understand the quantitative science behind it and the difference between a qualitative observation of ignorance and quantitative science.....and it's got nothing to do with warming in the area....because Greenland's temperatures have been steadily dropping for 60 years. What you're ignoring when your brain is stuck in the costal marginal areas and the melting occurring there.....is that the entire inner ice mass has been growing at a rate of 6cm per year.
You see an ice shelf collapse in the costal margin in the Antarctic and you wail about warming.....but you will ignore that not only did the ocean immediately freeze around the current ice shelf collapse.....and not only was there RECORD sea ice last winter......but the sea ice mass-gain is already 60% ahead of last year....4.0 MILLION km2 vs. 2.5 million km2.
I know...quantitative results are to be ignored by the duped masses.....here's a picture of a polar bear to cry about. Only results from the volcanically active Peninsula will be accepted. What's that, you didn't know that there's volcanic activity in the Peninsula?? Pay no attention to the COOLING going on in the VAST MAJORITY 95% of the rest of the continent. Surely don't pay attention to the fact that the Antarctic summer thaw happened a full month later than normal this year.
Most of all.....completely ignore this winter and everything about it.....doesn't bode well for alarmists.....doesn't fit the theory at all. Record low temps, record ice growth in the Arctic. The most ice seen between Canada and Greenland in 15 years, Record snow falls all over..... The entire 100+ years of warming (really only since 1970, as the earth cooled from 1940-1970) WIPED OUT IN ONE YEAR
but but but Alaska has remained warmer/wetter.
Hint to the dumbass.....it's caled the Arctic Oscillation....which MAKES Alaska warmer/wetter. The AO is in the positive cycle and it will reverse when it goes into thenegative cycle.
Pay no attention to the 3000....yes THREE THOUSAND Argo ocean buoys that, over the last 5 years found slight COOLING in the oceans
......nawwwww....the North Slope is saying something contradictory. Yep...."in the region"....but you damned well better ignore the other regions that aren't cooperating with the booga booga theory.When all else fails.........call quantitative science "BS stuck in the ears"...and whine about regional things you don't understand....and show a picture of a cute and fuzzy polar bear.
0.65 degrees C in 100+ years (really explained by land-use issues)........RUN FOR THE HILLS!!!!!!!!
Posted by Sarge at April 1, 2008 12:43 PM
By the way, did everyone have a nice "earth hour?"
(I'm keeping this on, despite its apparent irrelevance, because the Pope now says pollution is a "sin"--which puts it within the reach (so to speak) of the Mayor of Detroit's many transgressions of the old-fashioned kind.)
Apparently, "earth hour" was as big a success as that dopey international concert Al tried to pull off a while ago. Which is to say, not at all.
Posted by Kerry at April 1, 2008 12:55 PM
Haha,
Well, you can't argue with the masses and because of all the fuss regarding "Global Warming" it IS a big deal and people DO actually care. Now I'm no scientist, and I don't have the expertise to debate anyone on it, but the "gears" have started to turn in terms of reaction; good luck stopping it. It's like religion, you can't prove it for your life but that doesn't stop people. Although, I'd bet my life on global warming's legitimacy over any religion ANY day!
Posted by Star Spangled Eagle at April 1, 2008 01:09 PM
Such models agree with the new observational results. However after that threshold is reached, potentially within the next hundred years, losses from melting would exceed accumulation from increases in snowfall – then the meltdown of the Greenland Ice Sheet would be on.
This may have been skipped over in one of the link's you provided at:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/11/051107080830.htm
then, in that article are links to this article " Record Warm Summers Cause Extreme Ice Melt In Greenland" Dated from this January (the article you linked to was from 2005)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080115102706.htm
and this one: NASA Survey Confirms Climate Warming Impact On Polar Ice Sheets (Mar. 9, 2006)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/03/060308211836.htm
there are a few more regarding the impact from global warming. Did you see those when you linked to the older article?
Posted by Star Spangled Eagle at April 1, 2008 01:20 PM
"It [global warming]'s like religion..."
A-HA! Now you're getting it. It IS a "religion," and a bad and silly one at that.
Welcome to the light.
Posted by Kerry at April 1, 2008 02:45 PM
"A-HA! Now you're getting it. It IS a "religion," and a bad and silly one at that."
Most of them are silly, however my comparison was only half serious due to the fact that at least science is being looked at from both sides (if the parties are being objective.)
"Welcome to the light" In the family of religion, science is the ugly/sweaty/smelly cousin with coke bottle glasses sitting in a dark corner playing with his graphing calculator while the rest of the family is at the magic show with bright lights.
Posted by Star Spangled Eagle at April 1, 2008 03:19 PM
"In the family of religion, science is the ugly/sweaty/smelly cousin with coke bottle glasses sitting in a dark corner playing with his graphing calculator while the rest of the family is at the magic show with bright lights."
And, yet, just as welcome to the table of salvation as anybody else. Isn't that nice?
You should read the book of James. "Ugly/smelly/sweaty" aren't supposed to be important. Or glasses.
Posted by Kerry at April 1, 2008 05:34 PM
But Kerry, my glasses ARE important! I cannot see without them! I wouldn't be able to type on the computer, drive to the market, work or even read the Bible.
All joking aside, I know you don't like threads being taken OT but I didn't start it- I swear! Since we're off topic, I hope you won't mind me asking if you've watched any of "John Adams" yet. I am in love with the show and am curious on what you think of the portayal(s)
Posted by Star Spangled Eagle at April 1, 2008 07:25 PM
portrayal
Posted by Star Spangled Eagle at April 1, 2008 07:27 PM
"But Kerry, my glasses ARE important! I cannot see without them! I wouldn't be able to type on the computer, drive to the market, work or even read the Bible."
Silly eagle. I meant (of course) that such things should not be a characteristic upon which we base our assessment of the character of another person.
"All joking aside, I know you don't like threads being taken OT but I didn't start it- I swear! Since we're off topic, I hope you won't mind me asking if you've watched any of "John Adams" yet. I am in love with the show and am curious on what you think of the portayal(s)"
Actually, I am still DVRing it. With 3 kids (who were home for Spring Break last week), it's difficult to find a time for adults to sit down and watch something serious. I am looking forward to it. And I am now opening a new OT thread, so see you there.
Posted by Kerry at April 2, 2008 05:29 PM
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