Day: September 24, 2013

Jimbo the clown joins Mike Chaney on the Biggert-Waters NFIP disaster front. Now we’re all truly screwed.

Biggert-Waters premium increases threaten Louisiana’s working coast, insurance commissioner says ~ Lauren McGaughy

What can I add when the post title says it all? Absolutely nothing.

Will Judge Michele Morel win one of this year’s Advocacy Awards from NAMBLA? Discuss

Actually not as this case involves a 10 year old girl that was purportedly raped twice, the last time being in Judge Morel’s courtroom.

St. Charles Parish judge refuses to quit child rape case, blasts prosecutors ~ Jeff Adelson

File this one under amazing lack of judicial temperament.

Boss Hogg crony Ashley Edwards named executive director of the Hancock County Port and Harbor Commission

Welp folks, hell must be freezing over as Hancock County has evidently run out of home grown political hacks and cronies to staff one of the local troughs.

Hancock port board endorses governor’s staffer as new director ~ Anita Lee

Hiring unqualified good ol boys to government jobs in Mississippi is nothing new as we’ve been reminded of late of that fact with DMR among other agencies but for a local plum appointment to go to an outsider in Hancock County is unheard of, especially when the board doing the appointing answers to the County Board of Supervisors.  Yes, of late local politics has made for strange bedfellows with Supervisor Steve Seymour crossing party lines to cuddle up with Lynn Fitch over at Scott Walker’s house last year but plucking a Phil Bryant staffer for a $150,000 job that could (some would say should) go to someone with the Ladner surname? OMG!!!

I did not jump right on the emerging story linked in comments by Mad as Hell on Sunday because I knew two things:

“The worst may be yet to come”: A playing on the internet disaster update

Nowdy sends the following link:

Plenty of Misconduct, and 129 Pages of One Judge’s Disbelief ~ Joe Sexton, Part of ProPublica’s continuing Law & Disorder series on the post Katrina NOPD

And a portion of her comment that struck a chord with me:

Very close to your story

What she is talking about is how Slabbed framed this story. Media bias, yes there is such a thing as cognitive bias is inherent to the human condition, is seen in how various stories are framed. Nowdy well remembers the story of Jamie Perdigao and his tie up with Team Letten and I am pleased to see some of our newer readers taking time to follow the links to that 2008 story from the posts I have brought up from the archives over the past few days. In my opinion it was one of the first public manifestations of problems at Team Letten though I’d be remiss not mentioning the good folks at Patterico’s Pontifications, who have done some excellent work on the topic. More on them in a second.

Back to the post title because I agree with Judge Engelhardt that the worst may be yet to come on this whole prosecutorial misconduct scandal. The persistent rumors of a third DoJ internet commenter proved true but there are also persistent rumors of certain problems at the FBI which bother me greatly. Those that followed Slabbed coverage of the River Birch Investigation real time remember that New Orleans FBI Special Agent In Charge Dave Welker retired in May, 2012. While I am certainly not suggesting Welker did anything wrong I firmly believe there is a backstory to the departure.

My coverage of the US Attorney playing on the internet scandal has been profoundly colored by the musing of a couple of particularly sharp lawyers, one of whom called the implosion of these prosecutions the very day the Sal Perricone news broke. What I find neat is the evolution of the story on these pages as the community here began the proverbial search for the truth immediately. I’d invite everyone to note how the Perricone’s departure in March 2012 lines up on the timeline of the events with Special Agent in Charge Welker’s retirement in May, 2012. Continue reading ““The worst may be yet to come”: A playing on the internet disaster update”