Free Republic

Defense attorney Roy Kulcsar disbarred for using inmates to recruit new clients Attorney -- who defended terrorist Ramzi Yousef -- paid prisoners through commissary accounts Renowned defense attorney Roy Kulcsar didn’t chase ambulances — just inmates. And to make sure he caught them, he paid cash. Kulcsar funneled nearly $20,000 in illegal “retainers” to dozens of federal prisoners as compensation for steering fellow felons to his law practice, authorities said. The cash-for-clients deal operated between August 2004 and February 2010, with Kulcsar depositing funds into prison commissary accounts, a federal disciplinary committee reported last month. Kulcsar, who once represented 1993...

Report: Debbie Wasserman Schultz ‘getting booted’ as DNC chairwoman after November By Matthew Boyle - The Daily Caller 11:17 AM 06/25/2012 Florida Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz may be “getting booted” from her chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee. Javiar Manjarres of the Shark Tank political blog reported Sunday that “Wasserman Schultz will not be back as DNC Chairwoman after the November elections.” “According to our source within the Democratic Party, who is also a close associate of Wasserman Schultz, the arrangements have already been made for her to leave DNC regardless if President Obama wins re-election or not,” Manjarres...

Request denied. A Limbaugh spokesman said that California mattress company Sleep Train asked to restart a “voiced endorsement” from Limbaugh that it had publicly cut off last week. The company said at the time that it “does not condone such negative comments toward any person.”…Sleep Train’s departure from the program had been billed by some observers as particularly significant because the mattress retailer had been with Limbaugh show for 25 years. Yet the tone of Sleep Train’s withdrawal statement last Friday hinted it might not be pulling out for the long run…Limbaugh spokesman Brian Glicklich on Thursday forwarded a copy...

And in the same week Obama vows buy one, Christmas comes early this year. (DFP) — General Motors has told 1,300 employees at its Detroit Hamtramck that they will be temporarily laid off for five weeks as the company halts production of the Chevrolet Volt and its European counterpart, the Opel Ampera.

Glenn Reynolds is correct in his weekend post to point to the social theory of the New Class as key to understanding the convulsions in the middle and upper middle class; I’ve written about it myself here at VC and in a 1990s law journal book review essay. The angst is partly income, of course — but it’s also in considerable part, as Glenn notes, “characterized as much by self-importance as by higher income, and is far more eager to keep the proles in their place than, say, [Anne] Applebaum’s small-town dentist. It’s thus not surprising that as its influence...

<p>Perplexing but true: Mitt Romney is on the glide path to the most easily secured nomination a Republican presidential candidate has ever had — while being one of the weakest major candidates either party has ever seen.</p> <p>Paul will certainly stay in it with Romney all the way. Somebody has to. And that is not good news for the Republican Party, which will have to reckon with possibly ill-behaved Paul delegates at the convention in Tampa in August — delegates who might heckle Romney from the floor and otherwise disrupt his coronation.</p>

Las Vegas copyright infringement lawsuit filer Righthaven LLC’s financial problems grew Tuesday when the federal court in Las Vegas commanded the U.S. Marshals Service to seize more than $63,000 in Righthaven assets to satisfy a creditor’s judgment and costs. Lance Wilson, clerk of the court, signed a writ of execution requested by attorneys for Wayne Hoehn, who was sued for copyright infringement by Righthaven —but then defeated Righthaven in court when his case was dismissed this summer. Righthaven since March 2010 has filed 275 lawsuits against websites, bloggers and message board posters claiming they infringed on material from the Las...

In a press release issued this morning, the NAACP condemned 24-hour cable news channel CNN for its recently announced prime time news lineup, calling the lack of diversity in its collection of news anchors a “glaring omission.” “The NAACP is deeply concerned with the lack of African American journalists in prime time news, both on cable and national news shows,” NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous said in the statement. “We have come to expect this from the likes of Fox News, but not other networks. While we understand that news is now a 24-hour cycle, most Americans get...

Company is having trouble obtaining financing for working capital. Cardinal Fastener & Specialty Co., a Cleveland-based manufacturer of screws and bolts for wind turbines, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Thursday. Cardinal President John Grabner told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that the bankruptcy filing is necessary because the company is having trouble obtaining "working-capital financing" from its primary lender, Wells Fargo. Grabner also told the Plain Dealer that the company is profitable and its revenues are growing.President Obama visited Cardinal, which is in Bedford Heights near Cleveland, in January 2009 before his inauguration. "Renewable energy isn't something pie in the...

He's made his name with a controversial show that catches would-be internet sex perverts in televised stings. But now Chris Hansen has found himself on the receiving end of his own hidden camera tactics, after the married NBC anchor was secretly filmed on an illicit date with a blonde television reporter 20 years his junior. Hansen, 51, has allegedly been having an affair with Kristyn Caddell, a 30-year-old Florida journalist, for the last four months. Last weekend he was recorded taking Miss Caddell on a romantic dinner at the exclusive Ritz-Carlton hotel in Manalapan, before spending the night at her...

Reported on MSNBC that Weiners office staff is packing up and leaving his office, locking up behind them. Phones not being answered. Pelosi to address at 10:45.

<p>Breaking: Federal Grand Jury Indicts Former Presidential Candidate John Edwards.</p>

NPR's CEO and president, Vivian Schiller, has been forced to resign, the radio broadcaster's media correspondent said Wednesday, following an undercover sting in which a senior executive was videotaped describing Tea Party members as "racist." On Tuesday, Schiller had condemned the comments by Ron Schiller (no relation) — NPR Foundation's senior vice president for fundraising at the time — that were secretly filmed by political activist James O'Keefe of "Project Veritas." But a Wednesday statement from the chairman of NPR's board of directors, Dave Edwards, said the board had accepted Vivian Schiller's resignation "with deep regret." It was effective immediately......

Oprah's new cable network -- which has not been able to get much traction since its blockbuster opening week -- is getting the "reboot." Network officials have quietly been telling worried advertisers that OWN, Oprah's new channel, will begin reshuffling its lineup in the next weeks and investing millions in advertising to win back faithful viewers. -snip- Advertisers like Procter & Gamble agreed to pay the network $100 million for the first three years, unprecedented for a cable channel that was started from scratch, based solely on Oprah's reputation.

Nice shaker. Looking for seismograph reports now.

Local police are now revealing that the trail to this $8.1 million pot bust began some 1,500 miles away, in Dartmouth. The captain of the vessel and the target of a federal probe is 58-year-old James Ormonde Staveley-O’Carroll, a shipbuilder and self-described firebrand liberal, whose daughter, Sarah, is married to Michael K. Matthews, the son of MSNBC "Hardball" host Chris Matthews

Is CNN becoming irrelevant? According to TVByTheNumbers.com, the self-proclaimed most trusted name in news's prime time ratings this year are the lowest since at least 1997: CNN’s woes worsened this year. Despite the somewhat bogus total reach-touting, the network hit primetime ratings lows (or at least going back to 1997, which is all we could dig up data for) for total viewers and viewers 25-54. A look at Tuesday's prime time numbers should give you an idea of just how terribly this cable network is doing. Fox New's "O'Reilly Factor" now frequently gets more viewers than CNN's extended prime...

Mark Mousilitas, Owner of Daily Kos, posted this screed on DAILY KOS about 30 minutes ago. Even the crazy nutroots are getting it now!! Join me in revelling as the insane realize what a failure Obama has been!! "Summer of 2009, Democratic lawmakers were swarmed by phone callers and town hall attendees by the then-nascent teabagger movement, furious at the creeping socialism of a government-run health insurance option. You see, Republicans were so worried that the government-run program would be so efficient, effective, and affordable that it would drive the private insurers out of business. And their teabagger allies rose...

It's schadenfreude time! Tonight, The Huffington Post comment section is awash with 2,000 (and growing) yummy, yummy tears. The Moonbats are beside themselves at the news Obama will allow a two year extension of the current tax rates in exchange for GOP support for an additional 13 months unenjoyment extension. A small but tasty sampling of anguish... UPDATE: Looks like comments are locked at 2,182 and they’re only letting you read the first 50, now. But that will give you the gist.

These are heady times for schadenfreude buffs. People who take delight in the misfortunes of others, and particularly those who love to see the high and mighty taken down a peg or two, are having a field day. Barack Obama just got his head handed to him in the midterm elections. Nancy Pelosi has been knocked from her perch. The Democratic party has taken more hits than Humpty Dumpty. If you're the kind of person who likes to see the tall poppies cut down to size, this is your year. This is not only true in the field of politics....