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6/8/8 On Tilt --
Inmates running the asylum!
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The DA's staff has been shaking down local businesses for Christmas donations.
The city council is considering a new pet ordinance that will punish law abiding
citizens and responsible pet owners, but will be ignored by those causing the
problem. The city council plans to change the name of "Industrial"
Blvd., regardless of the absurdity or cost to Dallas businesses located on
Industrial. Democrats are nominating a man for president with questionable
real estate and fundraising ties to convicted dirt bag, Tony Rezko. |
Last week, Ch. 4's Paul Adrian had a blockbuster story,
The DA's Christmas Wish List ,
about DA Craig Watkins and his team shaking down major Dallas businesses for
expensive (very expensive) door prizes at the DA's staff Christmas party.
Like the questions about Watkins' poor driving record during his first year in
office, the DA dismissed his own wrong doing as petty reporting. The
mantra to be repeated often and loudly is that our Bail Bondsman DA didn't know
his staff shook down American Airlines, et al, until Reporter
Adrian asked him about it. Watkins admits his staff broke the rules with
their shakedown by not having management approval before hand, but claims they
did nothing illegal -- and it was 5 months ago anyway. Give me a
break!
FOX 4 obtained the
script for a speech Watkins gave to his staff. The county’s top
law enforcer started by thanking the sponsors for donating “awesome
door prizes.”
“On behalf of the District Attorney’s entire staff,” Watkins’ script
reads, “I’d like to thank American Airlines, the American Airlines
Center, Blockbuster, Coca-Cola, Douglas D. Mulder – Attorney at Law,
First Choice Power, Greyhound Lines, Sheraton Hotels & Resorts and
Time Warner Cable for providing these prizes.”
...
The D.A. says members of his staff asked for the gifts.
On the D.A.’s official county letterhead, his assistant, Gloria
James sent
Time Warner a wish
list for a prize "...with a minimum value of
$500 or more."
In return, the letter promised Time Warner a stocking packed with
goodies, including "face to face interaction with District Attorney
Craig Watkins."
"If you give us a gift, we're going to give you a benefit, face time
with the D.A," Smith interpreted.
The D.A.’s office
asked American Airlines to gift wrap "2-to-4 round trip tickets to
anywhere American flies in the United States."
Give, the letter promised, and you will receive "direct access to
over 400 professional consumers" - that would be the District
Attorney’s staff. ...
Watkins says he never saw any of the solicitation letters
until after we asked for them. He admits sending the letters
violated
internal policy because no top manager approved them.
Watkins believes no laws were broken, but others think there may be
a problem with
Texas Law. Public servants are not allowed to ask for or accept
gifts from someone subject to an investigation.
...
Watkins gave us
a written statement saying: "Questions that have been raised
about potential violations of any kind are groundless. It is
unfortunate, that of all the real news being generated out of the
D.A.’s office... that the media would waste time reporting on our
office’s holiday event that occurred five and half months ago."
Watkins contends no one broke the law, because of
an exemption that allows gifts to be given because of a
relationship independent of the official status of the recipient.
The District Attorney claims the staff members who did the asking
simply went to their friends. So, he says, it’s all legal.
But the
thank you letter Watkins himself sent to each sponsor - began
with plugs for the prosecutors who "work tirelessly to protect... by
continuously seeking justice and getting criminals off the street."
...
Also, no one in the office seems to remember who gave the
Cowboys luxury suite tickets.
(MyFox4DFW.com, 6/3/8 by Paul Adrian) |
I don't believe any experienced
administrator would send out a solicitation letter under the boss's letterhead
without first consulting said administrator. That's assuming the DA's
office is run by an experienced administrator and not some former bail bonds
office manager. If it happened the way the DA claims, his office is in
chaos and someone's head should roll. Then again, if you believe the DA's
version of events, you are either an idiot or a blindly devoted partisan.
Even The Dallas Managed News,
which is loath to ever find fault with a minority elected official, can't buy
Watkins' lame explanation:
We've celebrated Craig Watkins' successes and saluted his causes, from his push to overturn wrongful convictions to his stand against prosecutorial misconduct, among many others. All in all, we've generally encouraged his "smart on crime" approach.
He wanted the job of Dallas County district attorney. He got it. So we're increasingly concerned by his pattern of reacting to perceived criticisms with petulant statements that sound like: "Why do you pick on us when we're doing so many good and worthy things?"
The answer, of course, is because good works do not provide a protective shield for behavior that might cause a reasonable taxpayer to wrinkle his nose and ask, "Hey, what smells?"
In short, he is a public official, not just a defense lawyer anymore. With the title, office, desk and $197,000 annual compensation comes scrutiny. Facing it squarely and correcting any problems would seem the more accountable path.
The latest troubling example, revealed this week by KDFW-TV (Channel 4), was Mr. Watkins' December holiday party, when his employees apparently saw no problem in soliciting local businesses and even a prominent defense attorney for very nice door prizes for his staff, including prosecutors.
(How nice? Tickets to a Dallas Cowboys luxury suite. Round trips from American Airlines. Dallas Stars and Dallas Mavericks seats. Hundreds of dollars' worth of gift cards.)
In return, at least some sponsors were promised photo-ops and "face-to-face time" with the district attorney of Dallas County.
One does not have to be an ethics expert to see the potential conflict of interest. Mr. Watkins says he resents the implication that any of his people broke the law, which is almost beside the point (although Texas law does specify that gifts or grants to prosecutors must be routed through county commissioners).
In fact, he says, "At this point, I would do it again," which we interpret as not recognizing an error in judgment. ...
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Pretty strong stuff for the
DMN.
Considering how much bigger Belo's Ch 8 is than little Fox 4, this story should
have come from a Belo outfit. Paul Adrian is one of the best investigative reporters in Dallas, print or radio or TV.
Who is going to pursue this indiscretion/criminal activity in the DA's office?
Allen, are you going to do something with your Ethics Board magic?
While the DA breaks existing state law, our city council is considering a new pet
ordinance that will turn law-abiding citizens into criminals. In
some parts of the city, packs of dogs run loose and terrorize
neighborhoods. This new ordinance will do nothing to change that.
The new ordinance will limit Dallas residents to 6 pets, and will grandfather 10
pets owned before the law, regardless of the size of the resident's property.
Irresponsible pet owners will just turn the rest of their cats and puppies out
on the streets.
What happens to the cats and dogs owned by responsible citizens that exceed the 10 grandfathered pets?
Are they to be gassed by the city? Isn't the city trying to reduce the
number of cats and dogs they have to kill?
There is a better solution. Most responsible pet owners have their animals
neutered. Why not allow owners to keep all pets they have before the
ordinance who have been neutered?
Those cats and dogs are not going to be procreating. It's easy to
verify that an animal has been altered. The city might require
confirmation from a vet.
Asking people to pick which pet they keep and which one has to die is cruel, and
will not solve the wild dog/feral cat problem at all.
A better solution is currently being done by a group (214.826.6903,
www.kittico.org)
that will furnish traps for catching feral cats. Once you have the cat,
they neuter it for free (you can make donations), and the cat is returned
to the neighborhood to chase off rats and new unneutered felines. Eventually,
the feral cat problem is eliminated because the neutered cats are reproducing.
As for dangerous dogs that can be identified to an address, the animal control
officer should catch the dog and return it to the owner with a big citation.
Cheaper than hauling the dog to the pound to be housed and fed and likely
gassed. If the fine isn't paid, the dog owner gets arrested! It will
only take a couple of those big tickets or an arrest in a neighborhood to get irresponsible
pet owners to clean up their act.
The proposed Draconian ordinance will not begin to fix the problem of
irresponsible pet owners turning their dogs out to run unsupervised. There
are no consequences to their bad behavior. Going after the bad pet owner
is better than penalizing responsible owners who have their cats and dogs neutered and
keep them confined to their yards or homes.
The city doesn't have the resources to enforce current pet ordinances, much less
implement and enforce new rules. We have a $50 million budget shortfall
for 2009. So, what is the council doing about it? Why, we are going
to waste thousands of dollars changing the name of "Industrial" Blvd. to
something more pleasant sounding to Our Downtown Betters.
What is unpleasant about "Industrial"? This city could use some more
industry to create more jobs. For that matter, this city could use
more industrious people. If changing the name of "Industrial" Blvd. is a
priority at City Hall rather than using our scant resources to improve city
services, things are pretty bleak for the coming couple of years.
Think about the businesses along Industrial. Changing their addresses will
be expensive. Current customers and patrons must be notified. Time
and money wasted for what? If it's named for the Trinity River, it will be
a generation or two before there is no negative connotation. Some are
pushing for Cesar Chavez as the new name, which is bizarre. Does anyone
know of any time he was in Dallas or connected to this city? The
guy was a farm union organizer in California. Dallas County is not exactly
an agricultural center. Re-naming "Industrial" Blvd. is not necessary.
Re-naming it after someone with no connection to the Trinity, the city, the
county or even the state is insane!
This Republican was not likely to vote for a Democrat for President, although I
actually considered Mrs. C when all of my preferred candidates fell under the
McCain steamroller. I am not crazy about the Arizona Senator, but he is light
years better than the Democrat's final nominee. Being able to read a
speech does not make you smart. To the morons who get their
political advice from actors, being able to read someone else's words and
emote false emotions does not make you smart or knowledgeable. Having a
law degree from Harvard does not make you any smarter than someone having an MBA
from Harvard. Not knowing there are only 50 states in the Union means you
are stupid and causes thinking people to question how you got that Harvard J.D.
Politicians make verbal bloopers, and I don't much care when they happen.
Good for a chuckle. There has
been a huge double standard about non-reporting on verbal bloopers and
inconsistencies by the Democratic Messiah compared to bloopers made by Republican politicians and even
the Messiah's former Democrat opponents. I do care very much that the Messiah had
a hugely questionable
real estate deal in his short stint as a U.S. Senator with a now convicted felon.
Democratic insider
Antoin "Tony" Rezko was convicted of federal corruption charges
Wednesday for trading on his clout as a top advisor and fundraiser
to Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich.
The conviction could have broad repercussions for the Democratic
governor, who made Rezko a central player in his Cabinet. It could
also prove a political liability for Sen. Barack Obama, the
presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, who once counted Rezko
as a friend and fundraiser. |
Former Obama ally Antoin 'Tony' Rezko
found guilty,
LATimes.com, 6/5/8.
Rezko convicted of corruption,
by Bob Secter and Jeff Cohen, ChicagoTribune. com, 6/4/8.
We can't be held responsible
for our friends' or relatives' bad behavior, but the Messiah's real estate deal
with M/Mrs Rezko occurred when it was already known there was a problem.
And, how does a junior senator buy a million dollar home? It's not like
the Messiah was ever gainfully employed in a money making enterprise.
Guess Mrs. Messiah was right to encourage young Black students not to go into
the corporate world, to instead find careers in social service work like she and
the Messiah have done. It's sure paid off for them.
We are at a pitiful place in America at every level when what we've got for
leaders and/or potential leaders is the best we can get. Decent people are
avoiding politics at every level.
Dallas County has an incompetent Sheriff and an ethically-challenged DA.
Good day for crooks and ne'er-do-wells, out of whack for law abiding citizens.
Dallas City Council is chasing dogs and cats and new street names, while the
budget is $50 million out of whack. Billionaires will get tax abatements
and law abiding citizens will get their taxes raised and city services reduced.
The Messiah will get to spend weekends in his Million Dollar Chicago Mansion,
while his benefactor spends time in Federal prison.
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The scales of justice don't seem quite balanced these
days. If anything, they seem to favor the bad guys. We need
to do something to rectify the situation, but I am not optimistic that
we will. |
sb
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