Dinesh D'Souza indicted

[Mikee]

I received an mail from Ted Keer yesterday evening I don't think he would mind being posted here:

Ted Keer:

"-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am surprised, shocked, to see Obama has indicted Dinesh D'Souza for his political documentary, Obama, 2016.

http://www.foxnews.c...-for-violating/

There are three criteria under which a government becomes a dictatorship--when it forbids freedom of speech, when it forbids freedom of travel, and when it prosecutes political crimes.

The indictment of writer Dinesh D'Souza violates the First Amendment and is a prosecution of a political crime.

Remember that Attorney General Eric Holder wouldn't prosecute Black Panthers for wielding clubs against voters in Philadelphia, but he will prosecute this.

It is time for street protests.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"

The Left is indeed serious, like a cancer.

[merjet]

The article says D'Souza was indicted for violating campaign contribution laws, not for his film stricly speaking. Of course, I have little doubt about his being targeted because he made the film, while hosts of other people who violated the same laws on behalf of Democrats aren't being indicted.

Also, it's absurd that D'Souza was indicted for indirectly contributing a few thousand dollars to support an individual candidate when somebody like George Soros indirectly contributes millions of dollars to support Democratic candidates.

[Selene]

I received an mail from Ted Keer yesterday evening I don't think he would mind being posted here:

Ted Keer:

"-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am surprised, shocked, to see Obama has indicted Dinesh D'Souza for his political documentary, Obama, 2016.

http://www.foxnews.c...-for-violating/

There are three criteria under which a government becomes a dictatorship--when it forbids freedom of speech, when it forbids freedom of travel, and when it prosecutes political crimes.

The indictment of writer Dinesh D'Souza violates the First Amendment and is a prosecution of a political crime.

Remember that Attorney General Eric Holder wouldn't prosecute Black Panthers for wielding clubs against voters in Philadelphia, but he will prosecute this.

It is time for street protests.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"

The Left is indeed serious, like a cancer.

Mikee:

Thanks. Good to hear from Ted. He is one of my A-list Ol-ers [or, is it ex-OL-ers?].

"Straw-donor cases have been brought against prominnent individuals from time to time. For example, in 2011, a prominent Los Angeles attorney, Pierce O’Donnell, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor chargest of making $20,000 in donations to the presidential campaign of former Sen. John Edwards and reimbursing straw donors."

According to the indictment, D’Souza’s straw donor scheme caused the campaign committee to falsely report to the FEC the sources of its contributions.

D’Souza was charged Thursday with one count of making illegal campaign contributions, which carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison. He also is charged with one count of causing false statements to be made to the FEC, which carries a maximum of five years in prison.

This is just one of many...

Conservative activist James O'Keefe is accusing New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration of targeting his group with document requests and a subpoena, claiming the Democratic governor's recent comments critical of conservatives "aren't simply words."

O'Keefe, whose Project Veritas is behind a series of hidden-camera investigations against left-leaning groups and causes, made the claims on the heels of the controversy over a recent Cuomo interview. In it, Cuomo blasted "extreme conservatives who are right-to-life, pro-assault-weapon, anti-gay" and said they "have no place" in New York. He later walked back his remarks, and said they were being taken out of context in the media.

But O'Keefe claimed that Cuomo's government is acting on those words, revealing that the Department of Labor has hit his office in Westchester County, N.Y., with demands for financial documents for months. He compared it to IRS targeting of conservative groups nationwide.

and...

On Thursday, Megyn Kelly of Fox News reported on a developing story out of tinseltown where the group Friends of Abe -- a networking group for Hollywood conservatives -- had allegedly been targeted by the IRS.

The report began with Fox west-coast anchor, Trace Gallagher, who stated the following:

The group is called 'Friends of Abe', named after Abraham Lincoln, and its made up of 1500 conservative members of the entertainment industry. They gather for things like meals, drinks, and to learn about the political process. It is now seeking 501©(3) tax exempt status, so that donations could be tax deductible just like some progressive groups. Getting the exemption would prohibit the group from partisan activity. Now 'Friends of Abe' acknowledges having speakers like Karl Rove and Herman Cain, but they deny having a political agenda. 'Friends of Abe' says it doesn't just suspect they were being targeted by the IRS, they say they were told they're being targeted by the IRS.

This is just the tip of the iceberg.

A...

[deanwins]

More evidence that sometimes its better to do some things anonymously... Stick your head up and the hammer will nail you back down.

[Selene]

More evidence that sometimes its better to do some things anonymously... Stick your head up and the hammer will nail you back down.

Dean, in your judgment, precisely how can that be achieved, in today's technological universe?

A...

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Mike,

I know you like Ted.

For you, I just checked to see his status and he has 2 accounts on OL.

One of them was under restriction, the other was not.

I released the restriction.

If he has any interest in posting here, hopefully, time spoke and sorted out the trouble.

If not, not.

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Incidentally, on Dinesh's movie, I saw it.

It's quite good.

He used the Hero's Journey template for the storyline of the documentary (like Micheal Moore has done).

I think Obama & Co. are going to watch how good storytelling can blow up in their faces by persecuting him. The left has known about these things for some time and has used them to great effect.

In fact, I think the producers of 2016 are jumping for joy at the free publicity from the lawsuit. And that's just for starters. Watch what happens if Dinesh becomes a victim of bullying for real. Obama's name will become muddier to the public than the documentary tried to make it.

It's odd how a group of people use a tool like storytelling so competently, but are totally blind to the effects when it is used against them to the point they make elementary propaganda mistakes.

Michael

[Selene]

I did not see the movie. However, I enjoyed his style. I also love a person who can employ a "Pearl Harbor Smile."

It's odd how a group of people use a tool like storytelling so competently, but are totally blind to the effects when it is used against them to the point they make elementary propaganda mistakes.

I have also been befuddled by that inability to respond artfully to certain attack propaganda.

There is a basic "true believer" that can never allow themselves, psychicly, to be off their "messaging/storytelling."

In addition, the "true believer" rarely listens to the other person's storytelling.

A...

Post Script:

Thanks for the info on Ted.

[9thdoctor]

I also love a person who can employ a "Pearl Harbor Smile."

What's a Pearl Harbor Smile?

BTW, let's not forget to thank John McCain and his campaign finance reform work for tying the noose they're going to try hanging D'Souza with.

[Selene]

I also love a person who can employ a "Pearl Harbor Smile."

What's a Pearl Harbor Smile?

BTW, let's not forget to thank John McCain and his campaign finance reform work for tying the noose they're going to try hanging D'Souza with.

Ah yes, the infamous Mc Cain Feingold piece of unConstitutional abuse of the First Amendment.

Ask a WWII Pacific veteran where that Pearl Harbor smile started...

Essentially, it means the gratuitous smile of the Japanese peace negotiators who knew that a sneak attack was about to hit the US.

It is purely pejorative.

Some would dub it "racist," so be it.

A...

[Francisco Ferrer]

Ted Keer:

"-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am surprised, shocked, to see Obama has indicted Dinesh D'Souza for his political documentary, Obama, 2016.

http://www.foxnews.c...-for-violating/

There are three criteria under which a government becomes a dictatorship--when it forbids freedom of speech, when it forbids freedom of travel, and when it prosecutes political crimes.

The indictment of writer Dinesh D'Souza violates the First Amendment and is a prosecution of a political crime.

Remember that Attorney General Eric Holder wouldn't prosecute Black Panthers for wielding clubs against voters in Philadelphia, but he will prosecute this.

It is time for street protests.

Ayn Rand said,

There are four characteristics which brand a country unmistakably as a dictatorship: one-party rule—executions without trial or with a mock trial, for political offenses—the nationalization or expropriation of private property—and censorship. A country guilty of these outrages forfeits any moral prerogatives, any claim to national rights or sovereignty, and becomes an outlaw.

How close is the U.S. now to an outlaw state without any proper claim to sovereignty?

[Selene]

Ted Keer:

"-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am surprised, shocked, to see Obama has indicted Dinesh D'Souza for his political documentary, Obama, 2016.

http://www.foxnews.c...-for-violating/

There are three criteria under which a government becomes a dictatorship--when it forbids freedom of speech, when it forbids freedom of travel, and when it prosecutes political crimes.

The indictment of writer Dinesh D'Souza violates the First Amendment and is a prosecution of a political crime.

Remember that Attorney General Eric Holder wouldn't prosecute Black Panthers for wielding clubs against voters in Philadelphia, but he will prosecute this.

It is time for street protests.

Ayn Rand said,

There are four characteristics which brand a country unmistakably as a dictatorship: one-party rule—executions without trial or with a mock trial, for political offenses—the nationalization or expropriation of private property—and censorship. A country guilty of these outrages forfeits any moral prerogatives, any claim to national rights or sovereignty, and becomes an outlaw.

How close is the U.S. now to an outlaw state without any proper claim to sovereignty?

Certainly now.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

I know I said that the free publicity from this indictment was going to be important to Dinesh. but I swear, if I were producing him like I used to produce pop singers back in Brazil, I would be falling on my knees in gratitude.
 
There's not enough money on earth to buy a publicity stunt this effective--but not for his previous film.

 

For his new one.
 
Dinesh D'Souza's 'America' Trailer Released
The conservative behind "2016: Obama's America" is under indictment for campaign finance violations but his next doc will open on schedule on July 4, filmmakers say.
by Paul Bond
1/26/2014
The Hollywood Reporter
 
From the article:

 

The filmmakers behind Dinesh D'Souza's upcoming doc have vowed to press on while their star defends himself after his indictment on federal charges that he violated campaign finance laws in 2012. On Sunday, they released a trailer for the movie, America, that is set for release on July 4.
 
. . .
 
In America, D'Souza -- who wrote and produced the film -- makes the claim that 1960s radical leftism is more or less indistinguishable from current mainstream liberalism, a doctrine that he says preaches the United States is the product of "stealing and plunder" from Native Americans, Mexicans and African-American slaves.
 
"I want to take this progressive, leftist critique head on," D'Souza says in the trailer.

 

You can see the trailer at the linked site (the video doesn't embed so far).

 
Why is this lawsuit so good?

 

Because justice is slow and this thing will not go away.

 

A publicity stunt normally goes poof after a short run where everyone talks about it. Then you have to do another one. And another one. And another one.

 

This suit will be the gift that keeps on giving.

 

Think about it. The hammer of Thor for an alleged $20k indiscretion to a candidate who lost big time and which will probably not be proved?

 

Good God!

 

For those who don't know what the fuss is all about, Laura Ingraham gives a pretty good overview:

 

Here I thought Obama's people were skilled propagandists.

 

What a bunch of friggin' amateurs!

 

They deserve everything they are going to get from this affair. 

 

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

It starts.

Here it is a bit closer up:

And here are the two stories.

‘Face the Nation’ Edits Out Senator Cruz Condemning Obama’s ‘Abuse of Power'

D'Souza Producer: 'I Never Feared My Govt Until Now'

This is going to go drip drip drip drip drip all the way up to July 4, when the new film is released, and beyond.

Like I said, friggin' amateurs!

What were Obama's people thinking?

Michael

[Mikee]

Guilty plea:

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/05/dinesh-dsouza-pleads-guilty-illegal-campaign-contribution-106882.html

The lefties are crowing, predicting jail time and big fines...

[Selene]

Guilty plea:

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/05/dinesh-dsouza-pleads-guilty-illegal-campaign-contribution-106882.html

The lefties are crowing, predicting jail time and big fines...

Well, when you are targeted by the Federal forces and you decide to go to trial, their conviction rates are in excess of 97%.

According to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, he is facing between one (1) year and eighteen (18) months.

He took the offer so he probably was facing 10 years, I do not know the precise charges, however, I am sure the word felony was prominantly discussed.

He screwed up.

A...

[syrakusos]

Back in 1992, I set up a table at the Michigan Libertarian Party annual convention, selling books, stamps, and coins. On the last day, they asked me to run for Congress. "You won't have to do anything. Just be a name on the line, so we can fill the ballot." Sure... Then the forms began to arrive in the mail and I had to explain to my wife why I needed to know how much her Toyota Celica was worth. ... I take campaign finance laws very seriously. Yes, other people do violate them. People rob banks, too, but so what? Having had to much more than "nothing" because my name was on the ballot, I actually ran for the office, made radio appearances, and public forums, etc. It was interesting and informative.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

This is genius.

The sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 23. Voting for midterms is Nov. 4.

I don't think fear of government reprisal is going to be the predominant emotion at that time.

I think being pissed off at government bullying will be in the air.

And the VA scandal gets worse by the day.

Obama is looking at a dreadful final two years of his presidency. That is, unless the Republican machine screws it up, which is entirely possible.

Michael

[9thdoctor]

He screwed up.

I have a question for the attorneys on the board (PDS, are you listening?). My read of this case, and this wasn't something I read elsewhere, just my own kind of conspiratorial interpretation, was that D'Souza was trying to create a test case to get campaign finance laws in front of higher courts. To set a precedent and get some bad rules tossed. And that he's so smart that he made sure to break the law in the right jurisdiction, to have the best chance for a grand slam ruling.

My question is: by entering a guilty plea has he foreclosed that possibility? Proved my idle speculation wrong? Or is he still able to appeal, on the grounds the law he violated is unconstitutional, and he's just pleading guilty to save time and move on to the next step?

I find it hard to believe he would knowingly risk jail time just to get an extra $20K in the hands of some struggling senatorial campaign. I mean, this is like Martha Stewart going to jail for insider trading that "saved" her, a multi-multi-millionaire (or maybe a billionaire, I haven't looked) from a $100K loss. So yeah, stupid happens, even to smart rich people.

[Selene]

9th:

From what I understand this plea was part of a proffer from the Federal ADA and unless there is something improper/fraudulent about the proffer, it is unbreakable.

Moreover, prior to the entrance of the guilty plea, he would have allocuted and made admissions under oath to the agreed to charges.

A...

[Jules Troy]

I listened to him on the radio last night, I really like a lot of what he says.(minus his religious crap)

[anthony]

I listened to him on the radio last night, I really like a lot of what he says.(minus his religious crap)

I caught him interviewed by Larry King just this morning. He's an impressive thinker - I didn't know he was religious. (He has a new book out on America).

[BaalChatzaf]

I listened to him on the radio last night, I really like a lot of what he says.(minus his religious crap)

I caught him interviewed by Larry King just this morning. He's an impressive thinker - I didn't know he was religious. (He has a new book out on America).

Dinesh is Mr. Woo Woo.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Reidy]

His debate with Bernstein of ARI would be a good place to learn about his religiosity.

[Frediano]

His debate with Bernstein of ARI would be a good place to learn about his religiosity.

Interesting debate. My own ponderings straddle their positions, plural. I believe in a universe, as it is, that created me. I consider the scientific examination of that process to be orthogonal to the concept of God as a Creator; I think by definition, that concept of God is forever safely outside of the Universe we are in, and so, on that topic, I am a by necessity(of logic) a devout agnostic. I am certain religion is a man made concept. I am certain church is a man made construct. I am certain that by definition, the concept of God is forever safely outside of this Universe and beyond it, and whether it, too, is purely man made is forever safely unknowable within this Universe.

My acknowledgement of the Universe, as it is, as my creator, is both not enough God for classic religionists/Christians, like my sister, and at the same time, too much God for devout athiests. I can live with that, it is my own assessment of a by definition singularity.

But Universe from nothing? Why one Universe? Why not two Universes from nothing?

0 = 0.

A + -A = 0

A = A

From a flat uniform field devoid of significant gradient, a permitted by chance local fluctuation in matter and anti-matter, and by lockstep relationship, energy and anti-energy. "Normally' such fluctuations in a flat cosmic field devoid of significant gradient would annihilate each other. But from an initial 'explosion' two intact regions, one of net matter and one of net anti-matter, hurtling away from each other (and from mutual destruction of each other), in total not violating any conservative law.

0 = 0.

A + -A = 0.

A = A.

Two for the price of None. All of our scientific conservative accounting laws taken care of. Each universe -- the universe of net matter, and the universe of net anti-matter, each in its own expansive phase, hurtling away from each other, each on its way back to a dim 3 deg K future of flat field non-gradient.

Bernstein pointed out that 'energy and mass from nothing is a logical impossibility.' I agree. But matter plus anti-matter(or equally, energy and anti-energy) from 'nothing' is not a logical impossibility. It is semantics about what is meant by 'nothing.' In my (completely made up theory), 'nothing' is a flat uninteresting field devoid of interesting gradient. What our Universe is, is interesting gradient-- of predominantly matter. It is entirely possible that our Universe is completely balanced by another Universe of interesting gradient composed of predominately anti-matter.

I can't prove anything like that. But I can easily imagine it. Just like others could easily imagine a God to explain the paradox of our Universe from nothing. But moot; for all I(or they)could know, this process of A+ -A = 0 is exactly how a God of pure conciousness got around the lack of a cosmic Home Depot preceding his wish to create 'a' Universe; he made two for the price of None.

And for all I know, the manner that all knowing God chose to create 'surprise' in our universe was to do what any mere schizoid can readily do, and split his concsiousness into that which knows, and that which doesn't know(us.)

Or, for all I know, it is all just that which is not prohibited. That which can be, can be, including A + -A = 0, and for example, from Wolfram's NKS, complexity from simple rules-- the simplest rule in our Universe also being the most well described and yet least understood-- gravity, which via simple rules, creates order out of chaos. Not just every element heavier than Hydrogen in this Universe of mostly Hydrogen, in the gravity fueled forges of stars long dead, but as well, in all those pools of muddy water along miles of ancient oceans, where gravity caused colloidal suspensions of species on solution to settle out by density, creating the miles and miles of gradient based chemistry experiments that resulted in complexity from those heavy elements, and ultimately, the buildfing blocks of self-aware heavy elements.

All from 'gravity'. During the brief cosmic span of our interesting Universe of gradient, a process which has evolved beyond ordered planets and solar systems and heavy elements slowly disassociating, but self aware heavy elements as well.

Is all that the process chosen by a God, or simply the result of a simple rule, gravity, applied to that which is not prohibited by any logic: A + -A = 0.

When a pile is created on a flat uninteresting field, two things are created: the pile, and the hole. Over time, gravity will pull the pile back into the hole. But until that happens, there is interesting gradient in the flat field; both the pile, and the hole.

A + -A = 0.

Does any of that create or imply a limitation on any man made Rule for God? Hell no. I can't imagine, logically, how the merely created create a conditional rule for their own creation.