From the Washington Post:
A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced Dinesh D’Souza to five years of probation, including eight months in a community confinement center, ordering no jail time for the conservative author and pundit who pleaded guilty to using straw donors to make an illegal campaign contribution.
U.S. District Judge Richard Berman handed down the sentence, which also includes a $30,000 fine. D’Souza must attend weekly therapeutic counseling sessions and perform community service, the judge said.
The sentence is more lenient than the prison time sought by prosecutors…
***********
Apart from deploring the way that these RWNJ criminals are never going to learn civilized behavior if we keep letting them off with a slap on the wrist, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
dp
If your corner crack dealer had shown the degree of remorse this guy exhibited, he’d get life.
RP
Mistakes were made. Yes. But our long national nightmare is over. We must look forward, not backward, in order for healing to begin.
Mnemosyne
Well, not totally free — a community confinement center isn’t prison, but he doesn’t get to just wander away whenever he feels like it, either.
It makes me wonder if he pleaded an alcohol or drug problem on top of being an a-hole, which would make him eligible for a halfway house or rehab facility, both of which seem to qualify as a “community confinement center.”
JPL
This is good news for Mitt.
Hungry Joe
Thus ends my fantasy in which the screws gun down Dinesh in the Yard, a la Mickey Rooney* in “The Last Mile.”
*Best line was Rooney’s: “Warden! Your brother-in-law’s cold as ice! The priest gets it next!”
burnspbesq
I’m not happy about this, but guess what? The job description for U.S. District Judges doesn’t include rubber-stamping DOJ’s sentencing recommendations (or, for that matter, your or my revenge fantasies). If you’ve got a basis for alleging that the judge failed to give appropriate consideration to all the relevant factors, let’s hear it. Otherwise …
burnspbesq
‘Sides, for a self-proclaimed Modern Intellectual Giant, those “weekly therapeutic counseling sessions” are going to feel like a fate worse than death. Self-examination? Oh, the horrah!
srv
Justice has been… served.
Perhaps he can get a latte served with that, also, too.
Mike J
@burnspbesq: Pleading guilty means admitting that what you did was wrong. Going on TV dozens of times and proclaiming your innocence demonstrates that you were lying to get off easy.
Turgidson
Alas, TBogg won’t be able to taunt D’Souza about his impending jail stay on Twitter anymore. A national tragedy, this is.
Botsplainer
LGF has some pretty awful statements from Dixie regarding physical abuse over a long term, but she did take the coin for a good long while.
In other news, it looks like the terrorists are still obsessed with airplanes. When are they going to learn that they would accomplish a shitload more by attacking a football game in Plano, a mall in Dothan, a church in Jacksonville or a strip bar in Nashville than they’ll ever accomplish by taking over a plane?
Geez….
Spinoza Is My Co-pilot
I hate fascist fucks like D’Souza and his ilk with the heat of a thousand suns, but this sentence seems appropriate for the crime and the fact of no prior convictions.
I’m totally cool with being all tribal and shit in any number of circumstances and situations. Our justice system should not be one of those, no matter how much I may despise an individual perpetrator. Which is why I actually appreciated the ACLU stepping in to help enormous fucking asshole Limbaugh with his little Percocet contretemps with the law in Florida.
Violet
@Botsplainer: The plane thing has me a little bit freaked out.
shelley
Considering this was his first offense, I’m somewhat surprised he got that much.
Johannes
@burnspbesq: Yeah, whatever. The fact that he claimed to have taken responsibility for his action at the same time he was releasing a movie claiming to have been a victim at the end would suggest that a little time might be appropriate, no?
Berman’s generally not a bad judge in my experience, but tthis seems like another example of special justicer for special people.
Pogonip
Toldja.
We have several family birthdays this week, as do the Springsteens! Happy birthday, Bruce!
WereBear
Will he make progress in therapy? Will he pick up trash on the side of the road? Why do I think this will be just as pointless as the rest of the sentencing?
I must admit I was hoping justice would be served. Not soft-served.
Bleg alert: Just launched my Fall Equinox Fund Drive.
If anyone has some shekels to keep me in bandwidth, I’ll be most appreciative!
Villago Delenda Est
Vile sack of unrepentant shit should be put in prison.
Probation, my ass. Jail the maggot.
Elmo
Came home from a biz trip. New Anatolian Shep mix took offense to the overly boisterous greeting from my German Shepherd, and a spat began. I stayed in between deliberately, even tho these are 100lb+ males being offended at each other.
One bite, on my arm below the elbow. It was from the Anatolian, aimed at the GSD. Hit me instead. Deep gashes and massive bruising, but no need for stitches. Damn but dog bites hurt. Even when I deliberately stayed in the middle and accepted the consequences.
Ow.
ultraviolet thunder
@WereBear:
Make him work in a food pantry. It would be useful to the community and he might learn something about the poors. Like, they’re actual people and not a concept to be pontificated upon.
WereBear
@Elmo: I hear ya. I once grabbed a cat who was going to get away otherwise, knowing I’d get bitten and scratched. But if I let her get away we’d never find her again, and she would inevitably come to a bad end.
Me, I got antibiotics and a tetanus shot and a Mickey Mouse glove for a few days.
I don’t regret it.
Hal
What irritates me to no end is how D’Souza pleads guilty, then goes around telling everyone he’s actually innocent but can’t escape Obama’s iron grasp of tyranny. I’m surprised a judge didn’t take that into consideration. When you plead guilty, don’t you have to admit guilt in court? You can’t say “I’m pleading guilty, but I’m really innocent…” or the Judge won’t accept the plea.
Mike in NC
Those who spend their entire lives collecting wingnut welfare seldom are called to account.
Villago Delenda Est
@Hal: Exactly. This vile sack of shit pleads guilty but tells everyone he’s being persecuted by the vile Obama.
This dishonest sack of shit should be made and example of.
Mnemosyne
@WereBear:
Think who we’re talking about. I seriously doubt that even hard time in SuperMax would dent his narcissistic shell one iota. So why go to the expense when we can make him do some actual useful stuff, like picking up trash by the side of the road?
Major Major Major Major
Anybody got a good realistic read on this ISIS thing?
Elmo
@WereBear: I did that with a little dog on the side of the road, about four years ago. Ended up in the ER with their best antibiotics, because I got bit deep.
I told the ER I got tangled up in barbed wire, because the pup was neutered and I knew that meant he had his shots. So I didn’t want the report and quarantine.
This one isn’t that deep. Just bruised and cut and torn and hurts like a mother.
burnspbesq
@Johannes:
I thought he should have done some time, but considering that Bob Moffat only got six months for what he did, it’s not hard to argue that what D’Souza got was commensurate (if not necessarily fair).
And the $30k is really $30k (not deductible), so that’ll bite some.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Major Major Major Major: Just what I was going to ask, also about Khorason (sp?) and the threat to airliners.
Calouste
@Botsplainer: Violent males obsessed with long hard cylindrical metal objects? I think we have seen that before somewhere.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
Reuters:
Presumably D’Souza will be in a whole bunch of trouble with the judge if he violates the terms of his probation….
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Roger Moore
@Hal:
If you want to do that, you need to plead no contest rather than guilty.
Mike J
@Major Major Major Major:
Define realistic. Something that agrees with what you already believe?
WereBear
I sense understatement.
Major Major Major Major
@Mike J: Somebody with a good track record who knows more than me.
burnspbesq
As a convicted felon, D’Souza cannot legally possess a firearm, which will make him a laughing stock in wingnut circles.
randomworker
Judge did us a favor. Now he cant complain he’s a political prisoner in a Democrat gulag. He was planning on writing his next book from prison. So actually, this was best.
Mnemosyne
@efgoldman:
I suggest that she abandon her Twitter feed for now (if possible) and respond only with the following:
I AM GROOT.
Let the flying monkeys get bored and they’ll flitter off to someone else. Also, she should probably make her current employer aware of the harassment so they can tell any poop-flingers who demand her resignation to fuck off.
cmorenc
@Spinoza Is My Co-pilot:
I would have liked to have seen at least a short stretch (e.g. 30 days, or even just four consecutive weekends) of bona fide jail time given. However, I agree that substantially more serious amounts of true jail time might have been excessive for a first offense of this nature, even though D’Souza is a real douchecanoe of a human being.
marduk
This is why we can’t have nice things.
ultraviolet thunder
Consider the value of the deterrent in Dinesh’s case. He got dinged for an end run around campaign finance laws. He was humiliated and they socked him in the pocket pretty good. This might give second thoughts to others considering the same thing. I hope so.
Botsplainer
@ultraviolet thunder:
Fuck food pantry. Those people are grateful and thankful for bags of overaged groceries. He doesn’t deserve gratitude.
Put his skinny, worthless ass out on road detail suffering some hard, thankless work in the elements for once in his useless, entitled life. Maybe it can be a mixed crew with real inmates – if we’re lucky he’ll get shanked and bleed out in the road.
Dog On Porch
Lay off, he said he was sorry.
lamh36
Alright, I pretty much thought that the whole Dracula story was just played out but this…this “Dracula Untold” flick looks promising. Here’s hoping all the good stuff isn’t already in the trailer.
http://youtu.be/_2aWqecTTuE
ultraviolet thunder
@lamh36:
I’m pleased and surprised to recommend Jarmusch’s vampire flick Only Lovers Left Alive. I’m not particularly a fan of his, but this was great. Mostly John Hurt, Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston being ageless, undead.
Major Major Major Major
@efgoldman: I think it’s fairly clear that the violent theocratic assholes calling themselves ISIS/ISIL/IS/whatever it is this week are Bad Guys. But I also know that Iraq and Syria are Fake Countries. I also don’t see why we care, other than our fetish for… maintaining the idea that Iraq and Syria are real.
And if we’re talking about humanitarian reasons, the war-boosters can call me when they’re talking about taking out Pyongyang.
Shrug. Clusterfuck indeed.
burnspbesq
@Dog On Porch:
There is a small but telling difference between being sorry you broke the law and being sorry you got caught.
tybee
@burnspbesq:
on advice of counsel
burnspbesq
@tybee:
That’s what I wrote the first time before I edited it.
D’Souza saying he’s sorry is kinda like a litigator saying “Thank you, Your Honor” after his/her evidentiary objection is overruled. It’s the right thing to say, but you don’t mean it, and everybody knows you don’t mean it.
lamh36
Hmmm.
How ‘The Wire’ Explains America’s Fight Against ISIS
MomSense
Just came home from a meeting about the Chinese exchange student coming to my house next week. The students are from a very affluent and crowded city so we have lots of outdoors things planned–farms, apple picking, and a trip to a local beach that has lots of tidal pools. Apparently lobster is a real luxury food and he likes it very much so we are meeting my friend’s husband, who is a lobsterman, at the wharf and we will get to pick the ones we like out of the traps. We may go out in the boat if the weather holds up. This poor kid is either going to have the time of his life or he will be horrified.
Major Major Major Major
@efgoldman: Hey, I didn’t say they were *the* bad guys.
Baud
@efgoldman:
Once you leave Balloon Juice, it’s bad guys all the way down.
David in NY
FWIW, my thoughts from below:
Also re community service. He must fulfill it by teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) for eight hours a day, one day a week for the five years of his probation. I thought this a particularly nice touch by Judge Berman.
I also want to congratulate the commentariat here on a commendable lack (for the most part) of bloodthirstiness about this. The sentence is somewhat lower than what I would have given, but there is some sting in it.
I wonder if going around blaming Obama for his situation constitutes violation of probation? One can hope, but probably not.
Howard Beale IV
@Major Major Major Major:
Which we (The US and our poodle the UK) had a big hand in creating.
As the late Leo Buscaglia would say: “Those people who have lost a sense of history are going to have to re-live it themselves.”
Felinious Wench
I thought we had all agreed we are to use his proper title: Convicted Felon Dinesh S’Souza
lamh36
@ultraviolet thunder: oh yeah, I read about that one. But I mean the whole “Dracula” origins stories have been really played out.
But yeah, I also need to see better vampires than that bullshit Twilight crap
Mike in NC
@MomSense: My dad’s closest WW2 army buddy was a Maine lobsterman. When we went to visit his family they had a clambake on the beach. None of us had ever eaten a lobster before.
Mike J
@efgoldman: Assad is a genuinely bad guy. “The opposition” is not one group. Lots of people want him gone, all for slightly different reasons. And some groups got involved when it looked like it would get them press. Think of the Free Mumia t-shirted people with megaphones at climate change rallies.
Some percentage of the anti Assad people want democracy. Some (hopefully smaller) percentage want theocracy. Saying you support the opposition is a meaningless statement.
Mnemosyne
@efgoldman:
Well, then, all you can say is People Suck. Zelda Williams (Robin’s daughter) had to shut down her Twitter feed because ghouls were posting fake pictures that were purportedly of her late father’s autopsy. I can barely imagine what the hell is broken inside people like that.
Dog On Porch
@burnspbesq: I’ll need time to think that over, but your point might be well taken.
MomSense
@efgoldman:
I am so sorry that this happened to your daughter. I’ve been through it and it took me a long time to fully appreciate how much it affected me. I am sending you my support and lots of hugs.
Howard Beale IV
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
Let’s not forget he copped to a felony. Depending on where one lives, that can put a crimp on certian rights.
burnspbesq
@David in NY:
FWIW, and consider the source, there’s a post up at TownHall claiming that the DOJ sentencing memo cherry-picked the comparables.
I spend a good chunk of my time working in an area of tax law (transfer pricing) where comparables matter, and everybody always cherry-picks the comparables, so my reaction to that was a yawn.
burnspbesq
@Felinious Wench:
Sorry. We’ll try to do better.
Arclite
@shelley:
Hey, it was Aaron Swartz’ first offense too, but they were threatening him with 35 years, for the less serious crime of putting scientific papers on the internet.
MomSense
@Mike in NC:
Sounds like you got the full immersion experience!
Mike in NC
@efgoldman: By Friday the media will have informed us all that ISIS/ISIL is run by a criminal genius mastermind named Alibaba Al-Ebola, who lives inside a hollowed-out volcano and strokes a fat white Persian cat. We are doomed.
Baud
@Arclite:
Schwartz wouldn’t have gotten 35 years.
Arclite
@Villago Delenda Est:
C’mon now, don’t be shy. Tell us how you REALLY feel. :)
I heartily agree.
Also, does he lose the right to vote, like other felons?
lamh36
Oooh, new Denzel movie “Equalizer” is out this weekend. So who’s gonna see it? Was just discussing with a co-worker, that I can’t recall a really bad/terrible Denzel Washington movie, outside of his earlier career that is, and even then, he has always been a damn good actor and seems to have always taken a very serious approach to his career since he started.
So I guess here’s the test, can anyone name a Denzel Washington movie that was REALLY crappy or just plain bad. Points for a movie where he was already an established name. I mean even in the presence of lesser actors, Denzel Washington seems to up their game (cough, cough, Ryan Reynolds…Safe House…cough)
Oh and check out the trailer for The Equalizer, which I just now noticed was directred by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, Olympus Has Fallen, and I didn’t realize it, but The Replacement Killers, one of my fav Chow Yun-Fat movies)
The Equalizer
Arclite
@Baud:
No, but he would have gotten real jail time, not some fucking country club.
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: Depression: fatal if not treated, and easily exacerbated.
Still, major proprietorial overreach, especially since they must have known about his mental health issues. We’re talking about a condition that can make spending an hour in a dentist’s chair an apocalypse worth avoiding.
Major Major Major Major
@Arclite:
State-by-state… hopefully he lives in one of the red ones :)
Howard Beale IV
@Arclite:
That varies by state.
raven
@MomSense: Full Immersion is the name of the swimming regimen I follow.
lamh36
burnspbesq
@lamh36:
I enjoyed “Safe House” the first time I saw it, but on reflection it was pretty lame.
And I wouldn’t call “Mo’ Better Blues” one of Spike’s better outings.
aimai
@efgoldman: How horrible! My sympathies.
Arclite
@Major Major Major Major:
I would try Juan Cole.
MomSense
@raven:
HA!! How is that shoulder of yours, btw?
BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: Must be a Baptist.
ultraviolet thunder
@lamh36:
I watched 2 Guns and Book of Eli on a really long flight and thought both were second rate. Not horrible awful but not good enough for an actor like him.
It’s tough to make a really crappy movie these days. The bar is so low.
Major Major Major Major
@Arclite: He’s usually pretty good, thanks.
Anne Laurie
@burnspbesq:
Ergo, my category tag: #notintendedtobeafactualstatement. Aka, “snark”.
The Other Chuck
@lamh36:
Virtuosity. It’s stunningly, unbelievably bad. And he was already a star when it was made. Russell Crowe is in it too. My gf and I are amazed it didn’t wreck both their careers.
RobertDSC (Quad Intel Mac)
@lamh36:
Virtuosity.
lamh36
@burnspbesq: it was pretty meh when Denzel wasn’t on screen. I’ve always thought that Denzel Washington just ups his all his co-stars game. I’m no fan of Julia Roberts, I totally think Denzel lead her while in Pelican Brief and at the time, she was the bigger name I think.
The only time I’ve seen Denzel’s co-star giving as good has he gave was Tom Hanks in Philadelphia. Denzel and Tom upped both their games.
David in NY
@burnspbesq: I thought that might be the case, but I didn’t care enough to check them out.
raven
@MomSense: Not bad at all thanks! I’ve mostly swan three days a week but I have hit two in a row this week. I’m interested to see what happens on my annual trip to the gulf to fish. We’re going for 10 days this year so I’ll be hitting it even more. I’m thinking about using something other than the 9-10ft surf rods to reduce the stress on the shoulder when I make the long casts. . . we’ll see.
I just realized it Total Immersion Swimming not Full!
lamh36
@burnspbesq: See I’ve never been a fan of Mo Better Blues, but as you say, I don’t fault Denzel’s performance, it was his earlier work, so I can see there being more influence by Spike Lee. Still thought Denzel’s performance was good though.
But I can admit to some bias when it comes to Denzel.
raven
Rachel is showing lots of tomahawk launches.
MomSense
@raven:
Ok, so if anyone here at BJ would appreciate this it is you. My son is a blues guitarist and was so discouraged last week that he was considering quitting school. I have been trying to encourage him, console him–nothing was working. He went to his first lesson of the semester today and his teacher loved his playing and offered to mentor him and help him get established. I was so relieved. He asked my son what he is listening to now and he told him that he has been really studying Duke Robillard. Turns out my son’s teacher knows him well and has played with him for years. It was a good day.
raven
@MomSense: Roomfull of Blues! I saw him at the JVC Blues Fest with The Fabulous Thunderbirds in the ATL 20 years ago!
burnspbesq
@lamh36:
I would argue for “The Siege.” Tony Shalhoub and Annette Bening were both really good.
Matt McIrvin
@lamh36: Virtuosity. Stupid science-fiction thriller with Russell Crowe as a computer simulation of a murderer who escapes into the real world as some kind of knockoff-T-1000 nanotech robot. Denzel Washington is the cop chasing him, and can’t save the movie.
lamh36
@The Other Chuck:
@RobertDSC (Quad Intel Mac):
Virtuosity.
Yes. I was trying to remember that one.
Yeah, that was pretty darn bad, but it doesn’t even make a blip on either’s radar nowadays.
Of the two, Denzel has had the bigger box office I think. I can def name more bad Crowe movies than Denzel.
burnspbesq
Russell Crowe can make as many bad movies as he wants. He’s still going to Heaven for L.A. Confidential.
lamh36
@ultraviolet thunder:
Book of Eli, yeah, I found it just so so too.
As for 2 Guns, I admit, I CANNOT STAND Mark Walhberg unfortunately he had alot of scenes with Denzel of course, but I didn’t hate 2 Guns, and truly found it meh as well. Funny enough though, is it considered a bonafide late summer box office hit. I said on the strength of being a Denzel flick, and having younger Walhberg male fans seeing too
Arclite
@David in NY:
1. Not understanding why this is a nice touch? Perhaps to expose him to poor immigrants migrating to this country?
2. I wonder what the success criteria would be for something like this? How do they measure whether he’s fulfilling his obligation?
3. Might he use his position to indoctrinate the poor students with right wing talking points?
lamh36
@ultraviolet thunder:
I beg to differ, I found “Lucy” complete crap, but again it’s considered a summer hit too…bleh
raven
@lamh36: Ever see For Queen & Country? He plays an ex-Brit paratrooper in England after the Falklands. I liked it.
burnspbesq
@lamh36:
Aww, lighten up. “Lucy” was a hoot!
MomSense
@raven: Glad you are swimming–but fishing can be brutal on the shoulder. Pace yourself!! I once went on a fishing trip with some friends and we had all the gear but had no luck. Some kids showed up with neon marshmallows and started pulling in bass after bass. They were laughing and having a ball. It was a humbling experience.
@raven: He is sooo good. I think BB King said he is his favorite guitarist.
ETA: Spent a few days traveling in France with the girlfriend of the harpist from Fabulous Thunderbirds. She was a wild child!!
lamh36
@burnspbesq: Ooh, yes, The Siege! Love that one too. I love Annette Benning, I wish we were seeing more of her, but she seems to have either stopped doing too many acting roles, or just isn’t getting any good scripts?
Matt McIrvin
Wow, everyone trying to name a really bad Denzel Washington movie named the same movie. I guess there really haven’t been many.
ultraviolet thunder
@lamh36:
I liked Mark Wahlberg in The Corruptor with Chow Yun fat and I’ve been disappointed to not see him rise to that level again.
2 Guns was dumb fun, which is what sells a summer movie.
Hal
@lamh36:
I thought Fallen and Ricochet were both pretty bad. I hated John Q. Hey, kid needs a transplant? I know, I’ll take a bunch of people hostage in the hospital and try and force them to do the operation.
Here’s some others. Though I actually liked the Pelican Brief.
http://www.pajiba.com/seriously_random_lists/11-crappiest-movies-of-denzel-washingtons-career.php
WereBear
@lamh36: I love Denzel Washington, and he never gives less than 110%… but:
The Pelican Brief has put me to sleep. Twice. Never have been able to get through it.
Interrobang
So I got restructured out of my job today. I know there’s at least one other Juicer who works (worked?) for my now-former employer, a very, very big IT company (and further, deponent saith not, at least not in public), although I forget who. Here’s to you, fellow Juicer, and I hope you don’t get the shaft from VVBIT Co. as well.
Worse, I’m a technical writer, and the TW job market around here is so dead that come the Zompocalypse, it’s going to start eating brains. I haz a disgusted.
raven
@burnspbesq: He was really good in Cinderella Man and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World .
burnspbesq
iOS 8 bleg:
Since I got my iPhone 6 on Friday, whenever it rings, my iPad tries to pretend it’s a phone. Anyone know how to make this stop?
lamh36
@burnspbesq: the biggest problem with Lucy was that literally everything in the trailer WAS the movie. Nothing extra showcased in the movie was even worth the $10 admission.
As someone who love me some superhuman female protagonist, I expected and wanted more. Yeah it was good to see a female leading an action movie, I think the breakthrough deserved better than Lucy. I guess I expected more of Luc Besson…but bleh
WereBear
@MomSense: Dang! Like a Festivus miracle!
raven
@burnspbesq:
eta “the switch is in Settings, FaceTime to enable/disable iPhone cellular call Continuity. You can turn Handoff back on if you’d like to keep those functions active as they don’t have anything to do with the calls feature.”
burnspbesq
@lamh36:
Annette Bening was always vastly underrated as an actor. I saw her go toe-to-toe with Sir Ian McKellen in Richard III on stage in about 1993, and she was awesome.
burnspbesq
@lamh36:
but … Scarlett Johansson. In a t-shirt. With guns and knives.
raven
@burnspbesq: And the landlord in the Grifters!
Arclite
@Interrobang: Where do you live?
lamh36
@Hal:
See I remember liking “Fallen” (but I admit I haven’t seen it in a while and maybe it won’t hold up), but I like the idea and concept behind it.
Ricochet is another one I haven’t seen in awhile, but I can say that I don’t even remember much about it so that says something doesn’t it. But Ricochet def counts as one of his first eariler films It came out right around the time he won his first Oscar for Glory.
Arclite
@raven:
I adore M & C. I also love Crowe in The Insider and in A Beautiful Mind.
lamh36
@burnspbesq: lol. I know, I’m a straight female and I find ScarJo very sexy, even I watch her scenes and I’m caught up in her hotness…lol.
But even her hotness wasn’t enough for Lucy to wow me..lol
raven
@Arclite: Well there it is!
SiubhanDuinne
@David in NY:
Very nice. By the time his probation is up, the Village pundits will be totally obsessed over whether President Hillary Clinton will or won’t declare for a second term. ESL that, Dinesh D’Saster!
MomSense
@WereBear:
YES!!! The Autumn Equinox is a time when you face your inner demons (the darkness of shorter days) in preparation for welcoming the light and your own awakening!!
burnspbesq
@lamh36:
I loved one product placement in “Lucy.” I own a set of the headphones that the bad guy was wearing when Lucy busted in and stabbed him in both hands. They’re called the Aedle VK-1. Made in France. Expensive, but very much worth it.
burnspbesq
Part of Russell Crowe’s problem is that he has aged out of a lot of roles in which he would be really good. Jeremy Renner gets all of those roles now, and in seven years it’ll be somebody else.
lamh36
@Matt McIrvin:
Denzel has had a pretty good career, i’ve been looking at his filmography, and he’s def had some duds in his earlier work, but even in some of those, I didn’t find that I hated them or felt cheated out of my movie ticket price…lol
The man’s been in over 50 films. And you can probably name only 2-4 real clunkers, but even the ones that you wouldn’t rate clunkers, you’d still consider them pretty good. A lot of his films though…are bonafide classics.
kc
@lamh36:
The Pelican Brief.
SamR
@dp: The thing is that in a plea agreement one of the requirements is contrition/admission of culpability. D’Souza’s “I was targeted by Obama” outbust could have (should have?) voided the plea agreement, and probably would have done for most folks.
burnspbesq
Has anyone seen Amir? I’m a little worried that he might have had some kind of coronary event during Liverpool’s 15-round penalty shootout against Middlesborough.
Botsplainer
@lamh36:
I’ll be there Friday, bells on.
The Mighty Quinn. It wasn’t him, though – it was the miserable writing and piss poor plot for a movie that couldn’t decide whether it wanted to be comedic.
Mike G
“How to stop being an arrogant, lying douchebag”
raven
@burnspbesq: I guess my answer to you on your iPad issue doesn’t warrant any reply?
burnspbesq
@SamR:
Except for two things: (1) the two statements aren’t logically inconsistent, because selective prosecution is an affirmative defense, not the negation of an element of the prima facie case, and (2) DOJ didn’t ask to have the plea agreement voided.
WereBear
@Interrobang: I’m sorry. That does both suck and blow.
burnspbesq
@raven:
Thanks, amigo. As compensation, I will root for your Dawgs against GaTech.
WereBear
@Mike G: Is there such a thing as Dipshit Management?
Interrobang
@Arclite: Halfway between Detroit and Toronto, southwestern Ontario. I do telecommute, though. Cole has my contact details, if applicable.
WereBear
@efgoldman: I understand. Dad wants SMASH.
I think that’s great. Also great that she’s getting above the crap.
Mike in NC
@Interrobang: Feel for ya. I worked as a tech writer for a bunch of big and small IT companies around the DC Beltway for 20 years. It being DC there were times I had to change jobs every year due to contracts being won and lost. Job security was nonexistent.
Howard Beale IV
@burnspbesq:
Well, they’re not more money than brains audiophile expensive.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@efgoldman: Isn’t feeling that way part of your job as a dad?
samiam
Isn’t a criminal record almost a requirement for any Fox News regular to be taken seriously by their viewers now a days?
Dinesh appears to be moving up in the right wing world.
Howard Beale IV
@samiam: Good point-although Ollie had his conviction overturned on appeal.
J.D. Rhoades
@Hal:
Actually, you can. It’s called an Alford plea, after NC vs. Alford, the case where the Supreme Court said you can plead guilty while maintaining it’s in you best interest to do so, but you don’t have to admit you’re really guilty.
danielx
Well, it’s more punishment than any of those Wall Street assholes charged with felonies have gotten for toppling the global economy in order to stuff their own pockets. Which Wall Street assholes charged with felonies? Oh, right…..
RobertDSC (Quad Intel Mac)
@burnspbesq:
Sorry. He punched his ticket to Hell when he deliberately threw a telephone at the face of a concierge during the filming of Cinderella Man. He was arrested for that little stunt and he lost me as a fan forever after that.
Even now, years after seeing Gladiator 13 times in the movie theaters, I want to vomit when I see him on screen because of that. Man Of Steel was difficult to watch because of him. That’s the last movie I willingly saw that had him in it.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@danielx: You should look up the record of Preet Bharara.
Eric U.
@Botsplainer: there are a couple of mountain roads near State College PA that are so laden with trash that no organization will adopt them — simply too much work. I think that would be a good community service for D’Sousa
burnspbesq
@efgoldman:
That would work, but it’s a little drastic.
Gian
@burnspbesq:
so the judge was bound to accept the agreement from the guy who said he was forced into it?
seems odd to me, if someone tells a judge I only plead because the big bad president will get me if I didn’t would suggest that the plea isn’t voluntary and ought not be honored
Arclite
@Interrobang: Ah, okay. Our company is in Orange County, CA.
Amir Khalid
@burnspbesq:
I survived. It wouldn’t have been a bad way to go, though, supporting Liverpool in an epic encounter.
Chris
@efgoldman:
We got a winner.
It’s not that I’m not ready to believe that there are jihadis out there that pose a real threat to the U.S. (after all, Osama Bin Laden). The problem is that the powers that be in our society tend to treat any emergence of anyone they don’t like as a full-blown Hitler In 1939 emergency – or, at the very least, to inflate the threat far beyond what it actually was – which makes it very difficult to tell what is or isn’t a real threat, or just how much of a threat that is. Remember when the Sandinistas meant the Red Army was “just two days from the Rio Grande?”
So yeah, I’m also reading the current headlines with a fairly skeptical voice in the back of my head reminding me of these things.
Cain
@Botsplainer:
Seems to me these people shoot up some place filled with people and then say they got the guns easily from gun dealers and then ask the NRA to defend them.
Johannes
@burnspbesq: Well, that’s not in itself unreasonable, and I’m generally not the “Max ’em” type. But his effrontery and hypocritical claims of taking responsibility while claiming persecution really rub me the wrong way. Ah, well.
blueskies
@burnspbesq: Yeah, except accepting responsibility and demonstrating convincing remorse is the standard expected of many, if not most, defendants in almost any sentencing process.
So, this is an analogy to be made with the “Thank you” that you note, but I don’t think it’s a strong one..
David in NY
@Arclite:
1. Yes.
2. Success = showing up 8 hours/wk., for 5 years, doing the job, as monitored by supervisors and, more importantly, his Probation Officer.
3. You do not give much credit to the students — who are unlikely to share his elitist predispositions. They just want to learn some English.