Saturday Morning Confusion. # 133

Here it is Saturday Morning and I'm in my normal state of confusion. I sit here on this long weekend holiday wondering what the hell the world is coming to!

I have always hated the way kids now dress in "gangsta" clothes with their pants around their ass and underwear hiked up half a foot higher.

Why a bunch of middle class suburban white kids want to emulate ghetto black kids is beyond me but the city elders in Atlanta have apparently had enough and passed a city ordinance banning "gangsta" clothing because it makes it too easy to hid drugs and weapons in the clothing.

This harkens back to the 30's and 40's when zoot-suits were banned for the same reason. (I would ban them too, but on the grounds of good taste if nothing else.)

Now, along the same sort of line, but something that has greater implications for most of middle-class America.

I talked about how the police are an institution unto themselves and seem to be able to operate with impunity and total disregard for the very laws they are sworn to uphold. Well we have just as big a problem D.A.'s and Assistant D.A.'s in most areas.

Not only are these people prosecuting offenders with an eye to winning a conviction whether there is evidence of guilt or not, they have now sunk to a new low of exaggerating or even fabricating charges and evidence for the purpose of career advancement or political gain.

Two recent examples of this are first of all the case of Conrad Black and how how was supposedly looting the coffers of a Chicago newspaper out of millions of dollars when in fact he was for the most part following normally accepted business practises.

On top of that, most of what he was charged with happened in Canada, where there was no question of it's legality, but they decided to twist some American laws to gain an indictment and then a conviction.

(There were fourteen or so charges they threw against the wall to see what would stick. Three of them did.)

This was all done for purely political reasons (It's open season on businessmen after the Enron and WorldCom scandals so this time let's get a Canadian businessman) and because of this ol' Conrad might be spending quite a few years in the slammer.

What's even worse is that they confiscated thirty or forty million dollars of his own money to make it more difficult for him to pay his lawyers. These are dirty tricks to the max, especially since the eventual money concerned (and under appeal) amounted to some 2-3 million.

Then there is the case of Michael Vick and his trial by media for being involved in dogfighting. This is an excerpt from Barbara Amiel about that trial. (By the way, Barbara is the wife of Conrad Black!)

The fact of dogfighting is not really this issue here but rather how the US prosecutors handled it. They made political hay out of it to the point of being ridiculous.

Three other accused copped ples bargains because they were not celebrities and they all pointed the finger at Vick. (And gave him the finger!)

Prosecutors then hovered with new indictments if Vick himself didn't agree with a plea bargain.

Whether of not you have feelings about dog-fighting, and personally I think it vile, watching the pit bull tactics of American Justice makes dogfighting look sedate. Vick gave in.

"This has already cost him hundreds of thousand in lawyers' fees," said one legal commentator. "A trial would cost him millions!"

It takes a hero or a madman to fight the US Department of Justice, and Vick's lawyers were neither. I can't blame them.

A gambling conviction would have outlawed him from the NFL for life. Just as bad, the superseding indictment was expected to contain RICO charges. (Racketeering and Corrupt Organizations Act.)

That's a killer. RICO sentences are up to 20 years per charge and damages can be tripled.

Theoretically designed to prevent organized crime, RICO is now used for just about everything but.

"The real purpose of invoking the RICO statutes," writes William L Anderson, adjunct scholar of the Ludwis von Mises Institure, "is to employ a legal weapon so powerful that few people can avoid being crushed by it!"

As Anderson points out, a RICO charge can freeze an accused's assets pre-trial, leaving him no money for a proper defence.

Within a week, Vick pleaded guilty to one charge in exchange for fingering other people.

That this approach to justice is an outrage seems a matter of indifference to Americans!

So my friends, the long and short of it seems to be that you can get screwed over coming and going in the American justice system.

It's not only the cops you have to watch out for it's the prosecutors as well............. and then your own lawyer......... that he doesn't just take your money and plead you out.

Bet you won't see that on "Law and Order!"

Your "litigious" scribe;
Allan W Janssen

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God at http://www.god-101.com/

U.S. Justice on trial!

Lord Black of Crossharbour (a.k.a. Conrad Black) has a problem!

Ever since the financial scandals in the United States business community over the last 15 years (Enron, World Com, Duke Energy, Lucent Technologies, AIG etc.) the U.S. justice department has declared open season on business executives and good old Conrad got tagged as "It" in the big game of financial "gotcha."

So as not to bore you too much I will give a very brief history of what our wayward hero did over the years to get himself in this jam.

1960s to 1970s - Black began buying small Canadian newspapers during his 20s and in 1971 co-founded the Sterling Newspapers Group.

1978 - Became chair of the Argus Corporation, one of the original and biggest "old money" corporations of the Canadian Establishment.

This was a position he used as a stepping stone to launch the Hollinger Group.

1990s - By the early part of the decade Hollinger controlled 60 per cent of Canadian newspaper titles, as well as hundreds of dailies in the U.S., England, Australia and Israel. Newspapers included the Spectator, Chicago Sun Times, Montreal Gazette, Daily Telegraph, and Jerusalem Post.

Black soon earned a reputation for taking over newspapers and raising profits by cutting costs and slashing jobs and before you could shout "hold the presses" he was the third largest Media (Press) Baron in the World behind Rupert Murdoch and Robert Maxwell.

At its peak in 1999, Hollinger was earning revenues of more than $2 billion a year but then for some strange reason our protagonist decided that he had made his fortune and started selling everything in one gigantic garage sale.

The British government moved to make him Lord Black, but Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who was attacked relentlessly by Black's newspapers during his leadership, opposed the move.

Chretien pointed to the 1919 Nickle Resolution which ruled that foreign governments could not grant honours to Canadians that carry a title or privilege. Black challenged the ruling in court, but was unsuccessful so in a fit of pique renounced his Canadian Citizenship.

During the sale of Hollinger assets by November 17, 2003 Black announced he would step down as CEO of Hollinger International following an internal inquiry which found that Black and other Hollinger executives received more than $32 million US in unauthorized payments. Refusing to admit any wrongdoing, Black described his departure as "retirement."

The committee of Hollinger's board found that payments styled as 'non-competition payments' were made that were not authorized or approved by either the audit committee or the full board of directors of Hollinger."

Of that, Black and chief operating officer David Radler each reportedly received $7.2 million, while $16.6 million went to parent company Hollinger Inc. Two other Hollinger executives reportedly received just over $600,000 each. Black again denied any wrongdoing and insisted the unauthorized payments were above-board.

His position was that the "non-competition" payments were made to him and his management team and not the Board or shareholders. (Since the old board and shareholders were not the threat to the new owners/managers. Black was if he started another competing paper.)

(His position was vindicated when, after his departure, Hollinger shares fell from about $21 to less than a buck. (They went into the 'penny stock' category!) PLUS they went from being a highly profitable paper to losing money. This made the Board see red all the more.)

(Conrad wondering how things ever got so crazy!)

One thing led to another and the next thing you know lawsuits for tens and even hundreds of millions were flying this way and that.

On top of this the U.S. Justice Department had by then decided it needed another businessman to make an example of and our Hero and all his Canadian friends came under their scrutiny.

(By some strange co-incidence none of the Americans were indicted.)

November 17, 2005 - The U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago charges former Hollinger International head Conrad Black and others in an alleged scheme to divert more than $80 million US from the company. (Remember the non-competition clauses, etc.)

December 1, 2005 - Conrad Black pleads not guilty to eight fraud charges in connection with the alleged diversion of $80 million from Hollinger International Inc. He is released on $20 million US bail and ordered to live in Canada, Chicago, or Florida.

By this time the District Attorney is getting really carried away with his job and by Dec. 15, 2005 four new charges are leveled against Conrad Black, including racketeering, money laundering and obstruction of justice. Black faces a maximum of 95 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

Now, my friends, we get to the point of this diatribe.

If the bombastic, arrogant, self-righteous Lord Black had been tried in any other jurisdiction, (Such as New York) where they understood the intricacies of financial matters then I would have no sympathy for him whatsoever. But, instead he is being tried in a "blue collar" (read "lunch bucket") town (Chicago) by a blue collar jury and they do not bode well for our wayward Baron.

The day after jury selection one of these lunch bucket jurors was quoted as saying "It would take me a lifetime to make a million dollars and if this guy can make that much and more in one year he has got to be a crook!!!"

(And the prosecution didn't see anything wrong with that!)

Chicago could be a black day for our dear Lord Black!

Your "hot of the press" scribe;
Allan W Janssen