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Conviction of Sen. Ted Stevens Is Thrown Out
A federal judge has thrown out the conviction of the senator who educated us all about the true nature of the Internet. Ted Stevens had been convicted last fall of lying about free home renovations that he received from an oil contractor, 8 days before he lost his Senate re-election bid. The judge blasted the US Department of Justice prosecutors for mishandling the case in ways that might rise to the level of criminality. "In 25 years on the bench, I have never seen anything approach the mishandling and misconduct in this case," Judge Emmet G. Sullivan said. He called the allegations "shocking and disturbing." According to the article, "Several jurors have told The Washington Post that the evidence against Stevens was overwhelming during a month-long trial that ended in October."
Losing his job was the worst punishment Stevens could have received. The only downside is now they won't rename the airport.
In the end, this could be a win-win situation: a senator with some fishy payment issues is removed, and bad prosecutors get smacked down. Not how I would like to see it happen, but I can live with it.
The problem is, it has far further reaching effects than this. Sen. Tubes narrowly lost his re-election and probably would have won if it weren't for the guilty verdict. Now the Democrats are dangerously close to having cloture power in the senate. I find the specter of the White House & both chambers of Congress being run by Democrats without giving their opposition any form of checks and balances a little scary. Of course, that doesn't mean I'd like to see somebody get off just because of the political consequences. The sad thing is I wonder why the prosecutors didn't simply follow due process to begin with, when it sounds like they still would have had enough to pin on him?
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Seriously? It sounds to me like you are defending an obviously corrupt Republican.
Netbooks, they come with Linux or a $3 copy of Windows. Either way, Microsoft loses.
Yes, but let's not forget that Sarah Palin also thought that Africa was a country.
I'm not sure she is anywhere near talented enough to pull off a conspiracy like that, considering the Senator Begich can simply ignore her dumbass request for what it is, SOUR GRAPES.
Let us also not forget that Mark Begich isn't a newcomer to politics, his father, Nick Begich was a very popular politician from Alaska (U.S. House of Representatives) until the day he died (disappeared in a famous, well famous in Alaska anyway, plane crash).
In fact, he actually beat his Republican opponent for reelection AFTER HE DIED (56% to 44%).
I'm not sure Mr. Begich is going to be as easy to get rid of as some people think.
"Don't be a martyr -- BE THE ONE WHO GOT AWAY!"
Granted, you won't remember because a remodeling of your house is quite the big deal. But if you were like Stevens and had remodeling concurrently done on all seven of your houses--oh wait. Sorry, wrong guy.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
He's already been punished. He's out of the Senate.
Let's stop dilly-dallying and just change "-1: Overrated" to "-1: Disagree" or "-1: Doesn't Subscribe to Groupthink".
Here we have an example of an idiot who doesn't realize that the justice department that prosecuted Ted Stevens was run by Republicans. But don't think for a second that "Moryath" is going to let facts cloud his judgment once he's got a good head of liberal-hate going.
I bet he thinks Clinton was commander-in-chief on 9/11, too. Don't laugh. I've heard it said on "conservative" talk radio.
You are welcome on my lawn.
You raise very good points, but I have to call you on this:
You seem to have forgotten the chief definition of "immigrant":
The word "immigrant" normally connotes no legality of movement. It is only you (and a small group of people) who pretend that "immigrant" means "legal migrant" rather than "in-migrant" like it actually means to the largest portion of the English-speaking world.