Nifong Contempt Hearing — Day 2

Today's items — updated:

KC Johnson:

• Morning in Wonderland -- Even in the Wonderland that is Durham, this morning’s session was surreal.
  
  A sitting judge served as a de facto character witness for a district attorney who was forced to resign his office after being disbarred.
  
  A sitting ADA testified as the Durham equivalent of Sgt. Schultz, suggesting that he “knew nothing”—or at least as close to nothing as absolutely possible—about how the case was prosecuted...
  


• Morning Session II -- Nifong testimony...


• Morning Session I--Meehan: Nifong Statement to Court "False"--The morning session resumed with Dr. Brian Meehan returning to the stand...


• Avoiding the Issue -- Nifong attorney Jim Glover might be seeking to seize from Dr. Brian Meehan the title of “Mr. Obfuscation.” In an entire day of questioning and arguments yesterday, Glover never once specifically referenced Nifong’s remarks in the September 22 court session, for which he’s on trial...

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Anne Blythe and Joseph Neff, News & Observer:
Nifong might testify today on charge -- The former Durham DA could defend himself against a judge's charge that he lied to the court -- Mike Nifong, who has raised more questions than he has answered about his zeal to prosecute the Duke lacrosse case, could take the stand today in the criminal contempt case against him.

The disbarred former district attorney pleaded not guilty on Thursday to Judge W. Osmond Smith III's charge that he lied in court.

Smith's accusation focuses narrowly on an oral exchange between Nifong and the judge during a court hearing last September.

But Thursday's hearing meandered as Jim Glover, the Chapel Hill lawyer representing Nifong, went on at length about the intricacies of DNA testing and the procedural history of the Duke lacrosse case.

Nifong's defense is similar to the unsuccessful one he mounted before a State Bar disciplinary panel in June. [...]

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William West, Herald-Sun
[registration required]
DNA expert denies lacrosse case scheme -- A DNA expert in the Duke lacrosse case on Thursday claimed he didn't engage in any scheme with since-disbarred Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong to hide information that would have helped the defense.

Brian Meehan, director of the Burlington testing lab DNA Security, was testifying in a contempt of court hearing against Nifong that opened Thursday. Nifong is accused of misrepresenting to the court in September 2006 that all evidence, including all DNA evidence, had been turned over to the lacrosse players' defense team.

Superior Court Judge Osmond Smith is presiding in Nifong's contempt case. The hearing resumes at 9:30 this morning. Nifong has pleaded not guilty.

Moments after testifying Thursday afternoon, Meehan told reporters that Nifong "never indicated or said anything or suggested anything to me to withhold any information from the report" he prepared for the then-prosecutor after meetings with Nifong and two Durham police investigators in the spring of 2006.

related:
Herald-Sun:
Nifong hearing arguments get heated

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KC Johnson:
Hearing Highlights -- Nifong attorney Jim Glover had no discernible defense strategy, instead changing arguments on the fly and without warning, often in ways that contradicted his previous remarks.

During the day, Glover pursued at least seven separate approaches to the Nifong defense: [...]

The highlight of the day—as in the Bar proceedings—came from Brad Bannon. Bannon eviscerated Glover’s claim that the multiple male DNA found by Meehan was “not significantly exculpatory.” Bannon responded, “That’s absolutely false.” He then paused before adding, “And you know it.” [...]

discussion:
LieStoppers forum: What's your take?, On Thursday's proceedings

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LieStoppers blog:
Feast day of St. Raymond Nonnatus -- Whether one believes in the saints and religion is a personal matter. However, the irony that the last day of Mike Nifong’s criminal contempt of court hearing falls on Saint Raymond Nonnatus' Feast Day is fitting. Saint Raymond is Patron Saint of the Falsely Accused. . .

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John in Carolina:

• Nifong’s contempt trial: a few comments
• Nifong Today & "The Attorney's Lesson"

Nifong Contempt Hearing — Day 1

Today's items — updated:

AP/ABC11-TV:
Defense: Nifong Didn't Intentionally Try to Mislead Court [video] -- The former prosecutor who led the now-discredited Duke lacrosse rape case never intentionally tried to mislead the court and believed he gave all DNA test results to defense attorneys, a lawyer for Mike Nifong said Thursday during his criminal contempt trial. [...]

"The question is not whether those statements Mr. Nifong made are literally true or literally false," Glover told Superior Court Judge W. Osmond Smith III. "The question is were they willfully and intentionally false and were they also part of an effort ... to hide potentially exculpatory evidence, and that's the issue before the court."

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Anne Blythe & Joseph Neff, News & Observer:
Nifong contests contempt charge -- Former Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong began fighting a criminal contempt of court charge today in the same courtroom where he once prosecuted people accused of crimes.

Nifong, who was stripped of his law license this month, is facing Judge W. Osmond Smith III on the charge, which arose from his handling of the Duke lacrosse case.

The former prosecutor pleaded not guilty this morning. And at the close of prosecution evidence this afternoon, Smith refused Nifong's motion to dismiss the charge.

[...]

The contempt charges are limited to a short exchange during the September hearing, when Smith asked Nifong whether the May 2006 DNA report given to defense lawyers was complete: "So his [Meehan's] report encompasses it all?"

Nifong answered haltingly: "His report encompasses ever -- because we didn't -- they apparently think that everybody I speak to about, I talk about the facts of the case. And that's just, that would be counterproductive. It did not happen here."

The judge pressed for an answer: "So you represent there are no other statements from Dr. Meehan?"

Nifong responded, "No other statements. No other statements made to me."

Himan testified today that the report did not include everything Meehan had discussed with Nifong and police in April and May.

Meehan has said that he told Nifong several times that tests found DNA from unidentified men on Mangum's body and underwear. Nifong has confirmed Meehan's account in interviews and sworn testimony.

related:
LieStoppers blog: The Return of Mr. Obfuscation

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WRAL:
Lawyer: Nifong Never Read DNA Report That He Gave Defense [video] -- Former Duke lacrosse prosecutor Mike Nifong never read a report about DNA evidence in the case before giving it to defense attorneys and, therefore, did not intentionally lie to the court last fall, his attorney argued Thursday. [...]

related:
LieStoppers blog: Nifong Didn't Intentionally Lie, His Attorney Says

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KC Johnson:
Afternoon Session -- -- Kathryn Jean is the first witness after lunch.

Appearing under subpoena with the State Bar file dealing with Nifong grievance.

Begins by discussing her grievance notice to Nifong re DNA—December 19, 2006 letter of notice and substance of grievance; and Nifong’s wild Dec. 28, 2006 response. A long pause ensues while Nifong attorney Jim Glover reads (for the first time?) the Dec. 28 letter.

Nifong response, as read by Kathryn Jean: in that, Nifong conceded that Meehan had told him about the unidentified male DNA. Also reads from Nifong response to the Bar: Smith’s “failure” to sanction him showed that Smith believed he had not behaved unethically.

[Nifong is, in effect, being hoisted by his own words, ad his varying stories in his responses to the Bar.] . . .

related:
News & Observer:
Letter from Mike Nifong to NC State Bar (7 pages, .pdf, 28Dec06)

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KC Johnson:
Morning Session -- Nifong, looking gaunt, arrived in the courtroom just after 9.00am. In an event that hardly gives people confidence in the Durham judicial system, he received a warm hug from Durham judge Marcia Morey. [...]

Nifong pleads not guilty. [...]

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Anne Blythe & Joe Neff, News & Observer:
Nifong faces judge today -- Fallen prosecutor Mike Nifong, who spent the past 30 years accusing people of crimes, knows now what it is like to be the accused.

The former district attorney, stripped of his law license this month, faces Judge W. Osmond Smith III today on a criminal contempt charge that arose from his handling of the Duke lacrosse case. If found in contempt, Nifong could do jail time.

Some longtime court observers said they could not recall another case in which a judge filed contempt charges against a prosecutor.

"I've never heard of it," said Jim Drennan of the School of Government at UNC-Chapel Hill."I can't think of anything like this," said Peg Dorer, director of the N.C. Conference of District Attorneys for the past 15 years.

Smith, the superior court judge assigned to the Duke lacrosse case, entered a strongly worded order against Nifong in late June.Smith's accusation? That Nifong lied to him on Sept. 22, 2006...

discussion:
LieStoppers forum: Live Coverage of Nifong Contempt Hearing

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WAMU Radio (Wash., DC):
Stuart Taylor/Barry Scheck on D Rehm Show, Prosecutorial Misconduct [audio] -- Former North Carolina prosecutor Michael Nifong was disbarred for withholding exculpatory evidence, dishonesty and fraud. What the case against the Duke lacrosse players may reveal about the power of prosecutors and the potential for prosecutorial misconduct

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KC Johnson:

• The Contemptible Nifong, IV
• The Contemptible Nifong, III

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Editorial, News & Observer:
... truth and risks -- It makes sense to think strategically when a lawsuit dangles over your head, which is where the City of Durham finds itself regarding false charges of rape lodged against three former Duke University lacrosse team members.

Ex-District Attorney Mike Nifong lost his law license and his job over his eyes-closed pursuit of the accusations leveled by a hired exotic dancer. But Durham police played a role in the misguided prosecution, whether by going along with Nifong's efforts, by not protesting strongly enough that the evidence did not justify charges, or by both. Because a report in May by City Manager Patrick Baker and Police Chief Steve Chalmers totally failed to explain the department's conduct, the City Council had to order an independent investigation, conducted by respected experts and headed by former state Supreme Court Justice Willis Whichard.

City administrators have put that investigation in neutral gear for the next several days because the insurance company that would face a big payout if the students sue and the city loses is having the jitters. [...]

Reaching the truth as to how this case went so badly awry has to trump an insurance company's bottom line.

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John Stevenson, Herald-Sun:
Cabbie who figured in (Duke) lacrosse case sues -- Durham cabbie Moezeldin Ahmad Elmostafa is suing a department store chain and a security guard over a shoplifting charge that figured heavily in the now-ended Duke lacrosse case.

As it turned out, Elmostafa beat the shoplifting rap and was known among lawyers as the "hero of the lacrosse case" for becoming a defense alibi witness and standing up to former District Attorney Mike Nifong and Nifong's then-investigator, Linwood Wilson.

Nifong recently resigned and was stripped of his law license for misconduct in the lacrosse scandal. Wilson also lost his job.

Elmostafa's lawsuit was drafted by lawyer Tom Loflin and filed in Durham County Superior Court just before the close of business Wednesday.

The named defendants are Hecht's Company Inc.; May Stores X Inc, with which Hecht's is now merged; and Jonathan Massey, a former Hecht's security guard who originated the shoplifting charge against Elmostafa at Northgate Mall.

Attempts to reach the corporate defendants for comment were unsuccessful Wednesday evening. Likewise, someone at Massey's house said he was working and wouldn't be home until after midnight.

Defense lawyers had accused Nifong of belatedly bringing the misdemeanor shoplifting charge against Elmostafa as a pressure tactic in the controversial lacrosse case.

The alleged shoplifting incident was in 2003, but Elmostafa wasn't formally accused until May of last year.

The charge came shortly after Elmostafa signed a sworn affidavit saying lacrosse suspect Reade Seligmann was in Elmostafa's taxi around the time an exotic dancer claimed she was raped by Seligmann and two others during a party at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. in mid-March 2006.

Elmostafa said he drove Seligmann to a bank machine, a fast-food restaurant and a Duke dorm.

When the shoplifting incident came up in court a year ago this week, Elmostafa testified that he merely gave a cab ride to a woman who later pleaded guilty to stealing several handbags from the Hecht's store at Northgate Mall. He claimed he didn't know what the woman was up to and didn't aid or abet her thievery.

Elmostafa was acquitted. [...]

discussion:
LieStoppers forum: Cabbie who figured in lacrosse case sues
FreeRepublic.com: Cabbie who figured in (Duke) lacrosse case sues

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John in Carolina:

• What about a visit to LS boards?
• Highlighting H-S Editor Ashley (Post 2)

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Michael Gaynor, WebCommentary.com:
Duke Case: Herald-Sun Hysteria -- When it came to the Duke case, Durham. North Carolina's horrible Herald-Sun was an utter disgrace.

Now the day of reckoning is here and it's accusing the true victims of being punitive! [...]

I say that the Three should be compensated fully and then do whatever they want with the compensation they receive.

After all, reparations to them are in order and the North Carolina NAACP should be demanding that they be paid!

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La Shawn Barber:
PC and Injustice in the Duke Lacrosse Case -- I just received a review copy of Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case, by journalist Stuart Taylor and blogger/professor KC Johnson (who’s attending former Durham County district attorney Mike Nifong’s criminal contempt hearing). Buy this book! [...]

related:
TalkLeft: The Book: Until Proven Innocent -- "Anyone interested in this travesty of a prosecution simply must read this book."--Jeralyn Merritt, criminal defense attorney and publisher, TalkLeft

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Will the tenured vigilantes in the Group of 88 go back to teaching? Or will they continue to pursue extracurricular activities and advancing their pet agendas?

Jordan Everson [Trinity senior], Duke Chronicle:
Dear professors -- Please note your job title. It is not expert, not researcher, not congressional testifier, not future Nobel winner. It is professor, maybe associate or assistant, but still professor.

So then profess! Enlighten your students with the marvelous task you have undertaken, the ideas that inspired you, that you have dedicated your life to studying.

I know, I know, you spent years researching for that Ph.D., and before arriving here your main concern has probably been research.

There is little for you to gain from professing; Research, not teaching, determines your career advancement. Only disastrously bad student evaluations will hinder your upward mobility, an easily avoidable fate so long you reserve low grades only for the truly indolent and hand out evaluations during the last day of classes.

Still, as professors you have an obligation to teach us, your students...

I fear that I am not receiving the education that I should be receiving in the basic world of knowledge. For that is, I think, the purpose of our undergraduate years-to get our real education, not to train for our profession. I hope that you will understand my pleas, that you will rededicate yourselves to professing and to resuming the sacred conversation between teacher and student.

related:
Jon Ham, Right Angles blog:
Duke student asks professors to reassess their role -- Everson’s point is among those addressed in a new research paper published by the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy and written by Princeton Lecturer Russell K. Nieli.

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Shuchi Parikh, Duke Chronicle:
Prez blasts judicial policy, cites alternative plans -- Duke Student Government President Paul Slattery discussed his agenda at the organization's first meeting of the 2007-2008 academic year Wednesday night. [...]

At the meeting Slattery presented comparative data showing that Duke lags behind peer institutions in the number of procedural rights reserved to students.

"We continue to not fare so well," Slattery said. "In fact, I think [the Duke administration] hates us."

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Guess Not. Group of 88 professor goes off the reservation again.

LieStoppers blog:
Say What? Part II -- Duke University has begun another academic year and that means the group of professors called the Duke 88 are back. It didn’t take long for one of them to cause controversy. No, not about the Duke Lacrosse Case. They were warned that their indemnification from lawsuits only would include any actions before the settlement date of June 2007. This time it was about the Michael Vick Dog-Fighting Case.

Duke Professor Mary Kathy Rudy is an associate professor of women's studies and she wrote a column for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on August 28.

White culture's hypocrisy about Vick

Unable to withhold herself she had to introduce Race & Class issues in her column. [...]

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Stanley B. Chambers Jr., News & Observer:
Duke students play nice in town -- Incidents drop off after lacrosse case -- Don Ball has had fewer sleepless nights since the Duke lacrosse case erupted in his Durham neighborhood.

Off-campus incidents involving Duke University students for the 2006-07 school year declined more than 75 percent from the previous year, according to a recent report by Duke's Office of Judicial Affairs.

For neighbors, the drop indicates how the lacrosse case, in part, has caused students to realize the ramifications of their behavior, said Ball, 46, who has lived in the Trinity Park neighborhood, which borders Duke's East Campus, for 16 years.

"Everyone was nervous and concerned," Ball said. "There was a heightened awareness of not misbehaving off-campus. And I think it had a positive effect for a lot of people." [...]

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Edward G. Robinson III, News & Observer:
Duke seniors decide to play -- Lacrosse players to use extra year -- Four former Duke men's lacrosse players have decided to return to the team for the spring season, accepting an extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA.

Duke announced Monday that Matt Danowski, Dan Loftus, Nick O'Hara and Tony McDevitt were accepted as graduate students and have enrolled for the fall semester. The four completed their undergraduate studies at Duke and graduated in the spring.

Now they are back in school.

The four players were key contributors to the Blue Devils' run toward a 2007 NCAA Division I national title. The Blue Devils lost 12-11 to Johns Hopkins in the championship game. [...]

Duke Lacrosse Case — When's Picture Day?

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Big day coming up.

WRAL:
Former Duke Lacrosse Prosecutor Heads to Court -- The criminal contempt case against former Duke lacrosse prosecutor Mike Nifong is scheduled to begin Thursday in Durham.

The hearing will be broadcast live on WRAL.com and the WRAL NewsChannel (digital cable channel 256 or over the air at 5.2) beginning at 9:30 a.m.

Superior Court Judge W. Osmond Smith found probable cause in June to believe Nifong willfully and intentionally made false statements during a Sept. 22 hearing last year in the case against three former Duke University lacrosse players who were accused of raping, sexually assaulting and beating a woman at a party in March 2006.

Smith's order stems from a 42-page motion in which the players' attorneys alleged that Nifong broke at least a dozen rules in court on two occasions. His violations, they said, involved potentially exculpatory evidence that indicated DNA profiles based on evidence from the accuser, Crystal Mangum, matched the profiles of four men who were not lacrosse players. [...]

discussion:
LS forum: Nifong/Smith hearing 8-30-07, Handcuffs anyone?

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update:
Mike Nifong went to jail and had his mug shot taken on September 7, 2008.

Duke Lacrosse Case Update — Durham Punishment

Bob Ashley-led Editorial, Herald-Sun [registration required]:
City next target in lacrosse case -- The train wreck that is the Duke lacrosse case is about to come crashing into the City of Durham's living room. The total damage is yet to be determined, although it seems likely to be extensive.

Former District Attorney Mike Nifong has already been disgraced and disbarred for pursuing sexual assault charges against three former Duke students despite having no evidence. Now the students and their families have retained some of the highest profile lawyers in the nation to punish the city and its Police Department.

The players' attorneys for this round of blood-letting include Barry Sheck, (sic) who helped represent O.J. Simpson, Brendan Sullivan Jr., who defended Lt. Col Oliver North during the Reagan-era Iran-Contra scandal, and David Rudolf, who represented former Carolina Panthers player Rae Carruth and Durham murder defendant Michael Peterson. You know it's going to be a bad day when these three want to see you.

The City of Durham is in a tough spot because, as they say, mistakes were made. We already know that a police lineup in which an exotic dancer identified the three lacrosse players violated police procedures. We can wish, in retrospect, that someone inside the department had stood up and screamed that the lineup was wrong and the case was a sham, but that didn't happen. We can take some solace that a new police chief, Jose Lopez, will come on board next month.

We may also wish that the players would refrain from demanding a huge settlement that will only hurt Durham taxpayers who played no part in putting them through what, admittedly, was a long nightmare. But the players appear to have a case, and they certainly have every right to pursue it.

The latest news is that the city's insurance company has demanded that a committee created to get to the bottom of what happened at the police department halt its work. The insurance company is understandably nervous that the committee will be performing unpaid services for Sheck, Sullivan and Rudolf.

We supported the committee's work in order to seek accountability in the case. But there's no choice now but to shut it down. Reality can be a difficult pill, and this is no time for the city to lose its insurance company. Even without the committee, we know enough to realize that a bad crash is probably unavoidable. Now we're just bracing ourselves.

comment: Didn't the fine Durham taxpayers vote Mike Nifong into office on November 7th, 2006, when it was clear to all, but the blind, that this was a trumped up case? The fine fine citizens of Durham therefore allowed the injustice to continue for another five months, until April 11, 2007. The taxpayers voted this guy in, now they can apologize with their wallets, thank you. Bob Ashley just continues to vent gas against the lacrosse families.

related:
KC Johnson:
Editorial Page Extremists [see comments] -- Two truly astonishing editorials today. [...]

Durham taxpayers can wish, in retrospect, that the city’s only newspaper had stood up and screamed that the lineup was wrong, but that didn’t happen.

It’s not easy to make the Bob Ashley-led editorial board look moderate, but Group of 88 member Kathy Rudy was more than up to the task. Writing in today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution [...]

Bill Anderson:
Email to Bob Ashley and his reply --- Now you have the gall, the utter gall to call for the former accused and their parents to modify their demands so poor, poor Durham won't have to pay through the nose. If you two were so damned interested in Durham not having to pay and pay and pay for what city employees did, then why were you not urging caution when it counted? [...]

Bob Ashley: Thank yor sharing your thoughts.
We clearly disagree on our performance, and in the end, our success here will be assessed more by our readers and this community than by observers from afar...

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Editorial, Duke Chronicle:
Restoring faith in the Durham Police -- Although the lacrosse players have every right to demand retribution for their losses-including the heavy financial burden of attorney fees-their pursuit of justice may hinder the revelation of truth that only an external investigation of the case can procure.

It is difficult to blame the stalling of the external investigation on Durham city officials because they are caught in such a "lose-lose" situation.

If officials move forward with the external investigation, they risk losing taxpayer money as payment for potential lacrosse claims if AIG withdraws its liability coverage. And the company has hinted it may do just that.

To do so will likely lead to charges of city officials' fiscal irresponsibility.

If council members cave into AIG demands and end the external investigation of DPD, they will fail to bring the truth of DPD's missteps in the lacrosse case to light...

At the very least, the DPD's investigation procedures need to be examined independently. To lay this issue to rest without further examination of DPD is to willingly obliterate our already uneasy faith in our city's police department.

discussion:
KC Johnson: Chronicle On Target, Again

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The running KC Johnson is a "Horowitzian" and "right-wing trope" debate has moved over to this thread:

Scott Eric Kaufman / Acephalous blog:
More on KC Johnson's Durham in Wonderland; or, "Horowitzian," adj.
-- KC Johnson: "If I'm a "Horowitzian" or a "right-wing trope," what does that make the 80 or 85 percent of the American public that's to the right of me?"

related:
Ralph E. Luker, Cliopatria:
KC's Moment -- At Acephalous, our colleague, Tim Burke, addresses the suggestion that KC's Durham-in-Wonderland fostered an anti-intellectual commentariat...

Chronicle of Higher Education:
The Book on the Duke Lacrosse Case -- it takes a slam at how academics, Duke administrators, the news media, and the prosecutor responded to accusations of rape leveled at several Duke lacrosse players last year...

Expect a lot more next week, after people receive their books.

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Dr. Helen's blog [forensic psychologist]
Men, Rape and Injustice -- I have been reading the fascinating new book by KC Johnson and Stuart Taylor on the Duke Lacrosse fiasco entitled, Until Proven Innocent ...

My favorite chapter in the book is entitled "Presumed Guilty: Feminist Overkill" as it describes the statistics for false rape allegations. The chapter opens with a look at Catharine MacKinnon's Yale commencement speech in 1990 in order to understand the eagerness of so many journalists and academics to find the Duke lacrosse players guilty. MacKinnon's words that day, capture the radical feminist line clearly that has permeated current PC circles. She stated, "Look to your left, look to your right, look in front of you , and look behind you. Statistics tell us you have just laid eyes on someone guilty of sexual assault." The radical feminist line is that women never lie about rape. But statistics belie this belief....

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On the road again
KC Johnson / Durham-in-Wonderland (KC's second home):
The Contemptible Nifong, II -- Here’s Nifong on September 22, 2006 [...]

The Contemptible Nifong, I -- Tomorrow in Durham, Mike Nifong faces a criminal contempt hearing before Judge Osmond Smith. (I am heading down to Durham later today and will be live-blogging the event.) At issue, did he lie to the court on September 22, 2006? ...

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John Stevenson, Herald-Sun [registration required]:
Nifong up on lying charge Thursday -- After 30-odd years of wielding legal power, defrocked chief prosecutor Mike Nifong will be in a far more humble role Thursday when he goes eyeball to eyeball with a judge.

He may make history as the first former elected district attorney in North Carolina to be hauled into court for alleged dishonesty.

Numerous lawyers and judges say they remember no other incident of its kind.

Nifong will be in the defendant's chair Thursday, charged with lying about DNA evidence favorable to three defendants in the now-ended Duke lacrosse case.

If Superior Court Judge Osmond Smith rules against him, he could be jailed 30 days for contempt or fined up to $500, or both.

The contempt charge accuses Nifong of lying about DNA evidence indicating three lacrosse players did not sexually assault an exotic dancer during an off-campus party on North Buchanan Boulevard in mid-March 2006.

The same genetic results showed the woman did have intimate contact with several other men.

Nifong allegedly withheld the scientific information and told Smith and defense lawyers he didn't have it when indeed he did.

It is a far cry from the garden-variety contempt cases that routinely arise in Durham.

Most involve more predictable issues, like mouthing off to a judge or failing to show up for jury duty. For example, a man was fined $500 last weekend and jailed 30 days for being loud and boisterous in the Magistrate's Office, which is considered a court of law. [...]

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John in Carolina continues to investigate the News & Observer's role in starting the rape hoax firestorm. The N&O editors and reporters started the "wall of silence" lie about the lacrosse team despite some people in the newsroom knowing the truth about the lacrosse co-captains cooperation:

N&O police blotter story on March 22, 2006:

According to the report, the victim, who told police she was raped March 13 at a party at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd., was also robbed of a $300 cell phone and a large amount of cash.

It is The News & Observer's policy not to identify victims of reported sex crimes.

No suspects have been named in the case, but Sgt. Mark Gottlieb of the Durham Police Department said Tuesday that police are following several leads and that the residents of the rental house, which faces the university's East Campus, are being cooperative.

About 30 people were at the party, which started late March 13 and went into the early morning, and alcohol was involved, Gottlieb has said.

News & Observer's Crystal Mangum is a victim story, March 25, 2006:

Forty-six members of the men's lacrosse team submitted DNA samples Thursday in the unusual case. As of late Friday, there had been no arrests. Duke officials briefed university staff Friday on the allegations, and authorities vowed to crack the team's wall of solidarity.

Ruth Sheehan, N&O column, March 27th: Teams’ Silence Is Sickening

John in Carolina:
N&O, Duke & Player Cooperation (Post 2) -- If the N&O had reported on Gottlieb’s and Duke University’s statements about the players' cooperation, the “wall of silence” lie would have been challenged by intelligent and fair-minded people.

And in that case, the “wall of silence” lie would have been exposed for the lie it was.

The N&O helped trash the entire lacrosse team and frame David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann.

John in Carolina:
N&O, Duke & Player Cooperation (Post 1) -- Does anyone know why the N&O’s March 25 story doesn’t mention the Duke statement and the players’ cooperation?

Does anyone know why the N&O made no mention of the Duke statement in its Sunday, April 26, story reporting on a vigil Saturday night in support of “the victim" or in its April 27 story reporting the “potbanger” rally in which “the activists” gathered around a large “CASTRATE” banner?

Of course, we can all understand why Ruth Sheehan wouldn’t mention the Duke statement in her “Teams’ Silence Is Sickening” column. Mentioning the Duke statement would have destroyed the whole point of her column.

Final question: Does anyone know when the N&O finally reported the very important news that Duke had issued a statement on March 24 saying the players were cooperating?

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Link list of recent stories:

There they (G88 sympathizers) go again
Charlotte Observer:
UNC News in Brief /Professor to discuss Duke lacrosse case -- Syracuse University professor Linda Alcoff will discuss the Duke lacrosse case in a lecture on Sept. 6 called "Racial Profiling as Epistemic Practice: When is Identity Relevant?"

related:
LieStoppers: Say What? -- Since Crystal Gail Magnum did lie, no lacrosse player sexual assaulted her, and she did portray herself as a victim of a crime that never happened, we recommend a pass on the lecture and a reevaluation of the use of Narratives when dealing with matters of Guilt or Innocence.

Duke Chronicle, August 28th, 2007

• Bye-bye, Brodhead?
  
• Students question DUPD handling of race issues
  
• Patio serves up booze, food

KC Johnson:

• Item re Scott Kaufman
• Gene Upshaw; On the Schedule -- National Football League Players Association executive director Gene Upshaw, on Until Proven Innocent: The Duke lacrosse hoax is fundamentally a tale of incredible courage and integrity on the part of the falsely indicted players, their families, their defense team, a few of their faculty (particularly Professor James Coleman), and the entire Duke lacrosse team, including their current and former coach. Theirs is a tale of incredible grace under searing pressure.
• Butler on Brodhead
• Credentials

LieStoppers;
News from Little Bighorn
New & Observer:
Review of lacrosse case halted
Herald-Sun
Insurance company wants city to halt independent probe into lacrosse case
Duke Basketball Report:
Durham About To Get Sued & More High Comedy

LieStoppers:
Big Trouble for Durham?
News & Observer:
Suits endanger lacrosse panel
ABC11tv.com
Lawsuit Threat Could Suspend Duke LAX Panel
WRAL:
Lawsuit Threat Puts Panel Probing Durham PD in 'Holding Pattern'

related forum topics:
LS forum: More news on lawsuits coming, City's Insurance Policy and the lawsuits
FreeRepublic: (Civil) Suits endanger lacrosse panel (Duke Lacrosse)
TalkLeft: DUKE PANEL IN PERIL BECAUSE OF POSSIBLE LAWSUIT

William L. Anderson:
Socialists, Deceit, and Duke -- socialists in this country have decided that politics trumps all truth and are still declaring the three young men to be rapists, the evidence be damned. To obtain a better sense of what I am saying, I will show what is being said on a socialist web site and then point out why the lies that socialists are saying are perfectly consistent with that ideology...

Duke Chronicle, August 27, 2007

• Post-lax, group boosts equality
  
• Redefining normalcy
  
• Donations rise nearly $40M in ‘07
  
• Why we pulled the plug

John in Carolina, August 26th
New suits in Durham

KC Johnson

• Coleman: Durham Likely Will Settle
  
• Duff's Anniversary
  

LieStoppers:
Enough from Duff Anniversary

John in Carolina, August 24, 2007

• Duke Plans Pres Review
  
• Duke Law & Annual Giving

Please Buy: Until Proven Innocent

If you are reading this blog then please buy Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson's book:

Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case

“A gripping, meticulous, blow-by-blow account of the whole grotesque affair. It is beautifully written, dramatic, and full of insights, exposing how vulnerable the prosecutorial system is to abuse and how ready the liberal media and PC academics are to serve as leaders of the lynch mob. A must read for anyone who cares about individual rights and justice.”
—William P. Barr, former attorney general of the United States

--------

Glenn Reynolds the InstaPundit:

K.C. JOHNSON & STUART TAYLOR'S BOOK ON THE DUKE NON-RAPE CASE is now up to 590 on Amazon. I hope it gets a lot of attention. With a cover blurb from John Grisham, it just might.

-------

Michael Gaynor:
Why to buy Until Proven Innocent -- Race hustlers, political correctness extremists and feminuts will not be buying the book. People who care about the truth instead of reinforcing their prejudices will...

-------

TJN reasons to buy Until Proven Innocent:

If you think that citizen journalism and blogs are an important counterbalance to the sloppy and biased journalism of main stream media then you absolutely owe it to yourself to kick in a few bucks for this book.

The knock against bloggers is that they never investigate anything, they just leech off the good work of MSM journalists. Well, here's a blogger, KC Johnson, who investigated the hell out of an important story. He made twelve trips to Durham to cover the case and conduct interviews, plus he delivered the absolute highest quality investigative journalism for over a year (DIW celebrated its one year anniversary earlier this month) on his blog for free.

Come on, it's only $17.79 + shipping at Amazon.com [eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25]. If you don't buy it then you are a wanker. If you don't have time to read it, buy it and give it to your local library, or to your friendly neighborhood enabler or race-baiter, or to a 'something must of happened' head up their keister acquaintance.

If you are a 'Group of 88' vigilante buy it so you can perhaps see your name in a published book before you pass away.

Full disclosure: We get brownie points if you use the Amazon link above or on our sidebar to order.

Diversity: Version 1.0

An inconvenient truth: Diversity Hurts Higher Education

One of the stories that flew past the radar this month was the Boston Globe article entitled the "Downside of Diversity" by Michael Jonas. The stunning finding that it reported has had a few weeks to rattle around the blogosphere. It was a shocker:

A Harvard political scientist finds that diversity hurts civic life. What happens when a liberal scholar unearths an inconvenient truth? -- IT HAS BECOME increasingly popular to speak of racial and ethnic diversity as a civic strength. From multicultural festivals to pronouncements from political leaders, the message is the same: our differences make us stronger.

But a massive new study, based on detailed interviews of nearly 30,000 people across America, has concluded just the opposite. Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam -- famous for "Bowling Alone," his 2000 book on declining civic engagement -- has found that the greater the diversity in a community, the fewer people vote and the less they volunteer, the less they give to charity and work on community projects. In the most diverse communities, neighbors trust one another about half as much as they do in the most homogenous settings. The study, the largest ever on civic engagement in America, found that virtually all measures of civic health are lower in more diverse settings.

"The extent of the effect is shocking," says Scott Page, a University of Michigan political scientist.

The related issue about the value of diversity in higher education was raised today by Prof. KC Johnson's profile of Duke Group of 88 member, Prof. William Chafe. Prof. Johnson's post made these observations regarding academic diversity:

William Chafe is Alice Mary Baldwin Professor of History, where his scholarship, as his website states, “reflects his long-term interest in issue of race and gender equality.” He specializes in U.S. history after World War II, with a particular focus on African-Americans, women, or radical whites [...]

In a 2002 address, he explained his strategy to faculty personnel matters: “There has remained a tendency to think of Duke as a place of wealth, whiteness and privilege. We aim to change that.” The Chronicle added that “Chafe said faculty diversity is still lacking, and that the University must continue to seek new ways to attract women and minorities.” [...]

Chafe’s policies drew strong praise from the expected quarters. His associate dean, future Group stalwart Karla Holloway, gushed later that Chafe “managed, urged and encouraged institutional change around the issues of diversity.” (The diversity of which Holloway spoke, of course, did not include intellectual or pedagogical diversity, in which neither she nor Chafe have shown any interest.) [...]

Elite schools normally have placed academic excellence, not “diversity,” as their primary goal in hiring, as Economics professor Roy Weintraub pointed out at the time[...] Duke makes choices at the margin in every resource allocation decision and every programmatic expenditure. Have we chosen to settle for using our resources to achieve a more diverse faculty instead of a more intellectually distinguished one? The record of the past decade seems to indicate that the answer is ‘yes.’”

Chafe dismissed the concern, glibly suggesting that “diversity enhances our quality rather than diminishes it.” But Chafe—like extreme “diversity” advocates more generally—eluded Weintraub’s point [...]

Critics from outside the academy often suggest that “diversity” leads to the hiring and retention of under-qualified minority candidates. There are, of course, a few examples of the pattern among the Group of 88—take, for instance, Wahneema Lubiano (Ph.D. 1987, no scholarly monographs published) or Thavolia Glymph (Ph.D. 1994, no scholarly monographs published). [...]

Duke also has a highly unusual policy requiring the provost, “in the event the AP&T Committee’s recommendation is negative . . . to determine whether all factors relating to the merit and value of the candidate, including ethnic, racial, and gender diversity, have been fully and adequately considered.” [emphasis added]

That said, it’s illegal to openly restrict the applicant pool by advertising that no white males (or, in some cases, white females as well) need apply[...]

if a “diversity” dean wants more African-American female professors, he more likely can achieve his goal through green-lighting new positions in African-American cultural studies than by granting the Economics Department a new line to hire a specialist in high finance—again because the applicant pool for the former slot will likely contain a disproportionate share of African-American females [...]

The part about a "diversity" dean would have been considered funny once upon a time. But, after watching the diversity enabled Duke Group of 88, attack, vilify, and academically injure their own students, the word diversity now makes us flinch as if a dark dangerous shadow swept over us.

If diversity hurts civic life, then it seems logical that it could also hurt academic life, especially in the extreme. It's been said, "job security tends to corrupt, and tenure corrupts absolutely." Tenured diversity looks like the extreme that fostered Duke's tenured and corrupt G88 vigilantes.

The Duke lacrosse scandal and the diversity fueled and fed Group of 88 and its rabid supporters is solid proof of the inconvenient truth that too much academic diversity hurts the academy. Duke is a much poorer institution for diversifying to a point where a Group of 88 could stage a putsch and drag the whole university down the toilet.

Assorted reactions to "The Downside of Diversity"/Putnam study:

Rick Garnett / PrawfsBlaw -- I came away from the article wondering if Putnam's study provides some support for my intuition that some non-"diverse" institutions (e.g., some religious universities) are important in pluralist societies precisely because of their non-"diversity." What can we learn from this study, or what should this study make us want to know, about what Paul Horwitz calls "First Amendment institutions" (like universities, etc.).

Prof. C.N. Le / Asian-Nation.org -- as an academic myself and given the descriptions of his credentials, I will presume for now that Prof. Putnam’s study is indeed methodologically sound and that its results are scientifically valid. The question then becomes, what do they mean?

After reading the Boston Globe article and after getting over the initial shock of it, I sat back and reflected on what it means for American society in general and me in particular as one of many who has sincerely believed all along that cultural diversity does indeed produce more benefits than costs for American society.

In trying to understand and explain these findings, one quote kept coming to mind and struck me as a profound rebuttal to the study’s results -- Audre Lourde’s famous quote “It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.”

In other words, as applied to this particular study, I think part of the answer to the question of how would diversity harm American society is to say that the respondents in this study may not have been reacting to high levels of racial/ethnic diversity per se, but rather, to the political and social climate that have and continue to frame such demographic changes.

OrthodoxyToday.org Blog -- The study is part of a fascinating new portrait of diversity emerging from recent scholarship. Diversity, it shows, makes us uncomfortable — but discomfort, it turns out, isn’t always a bad thing. Unease with differences helps explain why teams of engineers from different cultures may be ideally suited to solve a vexing problem. Culture clashes can produce a dynamic give-and-take, generating a solution that may have eluded a group of people with more similar backgrounds and approaches. At the same time, though, Putnam’s work adds to a growing body of research indicating that more diverse populations seem to extend themselves less on behalf of collective needs and goals.

Charles P. Nelson / Explorations in Learning blog -- These are serious findings. Diversity is important for creativitiy and learning. At the same time, it creates friction and distrust. As noted in the post Multiculturalism and Prejudice, promoting multiculturalism has a side effect of increasing prejudice for some people. Somehow, while maintaining respect for all cultures, we, our schools, and our communities need to emphasize and teach what we have in common instead of our differences.

Stephen Downes / Stephen's Web blog -- The proposal that diversity results in less civic engagement - reported here, from a (very biased) Boston.com story (on a site that blocks access after four pages) - sounds dire, but should be discounted. The conclusion is obtained, not by actually measuring civic engagements in diverse cities (such as, say, Toronto) but rather by surveying people. So now we know that Americans think that diversity in their community would reduce civic engagement. But we knew that already. Here's a more interesting proposal: diversity in a community results in less of an emphasis on collaboration (a group phenomenon) and more of an emphasis on cooperation (a network phenomenon). So you might get, say, less voting and charity work, but more political activism and community networking.

Whitney Tilson's School Reform Blog -- These are some very interesting (and troubling) findings. I wonder what the same analysis would show about the impact of diversity in school settings? If all other variables were held constant (a rarity, to be sure), might schools with little or no diversity yield better educational outcomes? It seems heretical to even ask the question, but it's important to think about because many of our schools are de facto segregated and some (like Jonathan Kozol) feel a huge effort should be made to desegrate them (somehow), while others (like me) view the segregation as unfortunate but largely inevitable and that efforts would be better made to improve the schools as they are. I've visited roughly two dozen KIPPs nationwide and recall only two that had even a single white student, yet that isn't preventing the minority children from achieving at extraordinarily high levels.

More 'Group of 88' Spraying

Like General Sherman marching through Georgia, Professor KC Johnson has burned a swath through the boll weevil infested academic cotton fields of Duke University. Prof. Johnson's searing analysis and criticism of the Duke Group of 88 academics and their addled agendas conducted at his Durham-in-Wonderland blog has exposed an insidious blight on higher education.

So the question is, will Prof. Johnson's forthcoming book "Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case, written with Stuart Taylor, elevate the discussion of the moral and ethical rot in higher education to a broader audience? Will the book lead to any changes in higher education?

Hopefully yes, but the blight runs deep. Here we can just nibble around the edges of that issue; while the academic heavy weights slug it out, alumni vote with their financial donations, and incoming freshman classes pick their schools. Seeing Duke President Richard Brodhead burrow into his plush Duke cotton bud and tell the world that it's time to move on is a sign of how virulent the problem is.

The Taylor/Johnson book sounds like it will be sweeping in scope. A preliminary review said, it "covers all five aspects of the case (personal, legal, academic, political, and media) in a comprehensive fashion."

How much academic rot can Taylor/Johnson possibly fumigate given the massive corruption of Mike Nifong and the Durham PD that they have to map out? The main stream media's horrible performance is also a vast and juicy target. The still simmering scandal brings the phrase "target rich environment" to mind.

This target rich Duke environment is well documented on Prof. Johnson highly regarded and extremely popular blog (TJN has touched on it too). Prof. Johnson points out that his blog has grown to around 750,000 words spread over 970+ blog posts, and with just under 2.9 million unique visitors. The book, he says, is about 130,000 words. So every word should hit a case-related academic vector.

The timing of the book is good. Releasing the book at the start of the back-to-school, back-to-work period should help sales if the publisher and merchants can get it out on the bookshelves. Plus there should be another good burst of news and attention shortly if Nifong gets thrown in jail for his criminal contempt. To say the book is highly anticipated in the small corner of the world known as Johnsville is an understatement.

However, Prof. Johnson doesn't sound like he's giving up his day job. He's pointed out that blog popularity doesn't necessarily translate into a best seller. He said, "that isn't a business model that has frequently occurred in the blogosphere. (If it did, we'd all be rich!) That said, I hope the book sells extremely well."

Some of the impact of KC Johnson's book and blog on academia, a/k/a the academy, is starting to percolate in the blogosphere. Recently, Scott Eric Kaufman at his Acephalous blog aimed some criticism at Prof. Johnson:

If the research presented on the blog is indicative of the content of his soon-to-be-published book—Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case—then I can only conclude that the book'll be positively Horowitzian in tenor and substance.

Like Horowitz—and clocks twice a day—Johnson occasionally nails his target...

Prof. Johnson responded to Kaufman in the comment section of Kaufman's post:

I'm a bit amused by the Howoritzian argument, as I have been publicly denounced by Horowitz and have publicly opposed (through an AHA amendment) the ABOR. In any event, Until Proven Innocent has received strong words of praise from ACLU president Nadine Strossen, former Crossfire co-host and LA Times editorial page editor Mike Kinsley, defense attorney and author John Grisham, and Kirkus Reviews. It would strike me as rather unlikely that such figures would endorse a book that was "positively Horowitzian in tenor and substance."

For the non-academic, you can better understand the "Howoritizian" label by going to this reference - Wikipedia: David Horowitz - Academic Bill of Rights (ABOR)

There are more interesting back and forth comments on the Kaufman article. It will be interesting to see if there is any serious fallout from Until Proven Innocent. But aren't weevils second-cousins to cockroaches, and they've survived pretty well.

Hopefully, the book royalties will at least reimburse KC for his twelve trips to Durham to cover the case. And good folks will learn not to send their kids into infested schools.

source:
Scott Eric Kaufman, Acephalous blog:
On K.C. Johnson's Durham in Wonderland and Until Proven Innocent

related:
John in Carolina:
BRODHEAD'S FAILED DUKE
Kristin Butler, Duke Chronicle:
Bye-bye, Brodhead?

Duke Lacrosse Case Update — Durham in Legal Crosshairs

Barry Scheck was an O.J. Simpson lawyer, so you can say: "If the rape charges are not true, the city you must sue."

Ray Gronberg, Herald-Sun [registration required]:
Lacrosse Players Tap Legal Team -- Two of the country's best-known lawyers are representing three former Duke University lacrosse players falsely accused of rape and may file a federal civil-rights lawsuit against the city next month, multiple sources say.

The players have hired Washington, D.C., lawyer Brendan Sullivan and New York City litigator Barry Scheck to represent them in the pending civil case.

Sullivan -- who gained fame in the 1980s while representing former Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North -- is working for lacrosse players David Evans and Collin Finnerty.

Confirmation of that came Friday from Chris Manning, a law partner of Sullivan's in the Washington firm Williams & Connolly.

Manning said that Scheck -- a member of O.J. Simpson's legal "dream team" in the 1990s -- is representing the third falsely accused player, Reade Seligmann.

Sources say Sullivan and Scheck contacted the city's lawyers recently and told them Durham faces litigation over how police handled the Duke lacrosse case.

Their move prompted City Council members, senior administrators, City Attorney Henry Blinder and a private-practice attorney retained by the city, Joel Craig, to huddle behind closed doors twice this week for consultations.

Blinder and Craig are supposed to attend a face-to-face meeting with the players' attorneys sometime in the next few days to hear them describe the basis for a lawsuit and perhaps terms for an out-of-court settlement.

The council has scheduled a closed-door meeting on Sept. 6 to hear a report from Blinder and Craig on the results of that meeting.

Supporters of the three players have anticipated the filing of a lawsuit for months, even before state Attorney General Roy Cooper pronounced bogus the rape, kidnapping and sexual assault charges police and former District Attorney Mike Nifong tried to pin on the students last year.

The news that players had retained Sullivan and Scheck was not a surprise in those quarters.

"That was the whole point of why this case was so extraordinary," Duke Law School professor James Coleman said Friday. "These were not run-of-the-mill, poor, unconnected people. These are students who could command the very best lawyers in the country."

discussion:
LieStoppers Forum: Lacrosse players tap legal team
LieStppers blog: Is the Day of Reckoning approaching for Durham? -- News of this development should be the final five-alarm fire bell warning to Durham’s City Leaders. Despite the many warnings that disgraced, disbarred, and former DA Nifong along with the Durham PD were attempting to imprison three innocent players for a crime which never happened, the Durham Leaders did little to stop the impending train wreck. Those heady days of indignation, protests, and false statements of March-April 2006 are coming home to roust.

--------

Other items:

Anne Blythe, News & Observer:
Nifong must pay some costs of hearings -- Mike Nifong had to pay dearly for his misdeeds in the Duke University lacrosse case this month when he surrendered his law license.

Now the ousted former district attorney is going to have to pay more.

The State Bar sent Nifong an invoice Friday for $8,897.71.

The bill covers the the cost of having a court reporter at hearings Jan. 24, April 13 and June 12-16. It also covers costs for depositions of Linwood Wilson ($865.60), the former investigator for the Durham District Attorney's Office, police Sgt. Mark Gottlieb ($1105.05), Investigator Benjamin Himan ($1295.00) and Nifong himself ($2523.05)...

The ex-prosecutor, stripped of his law license, is to face Judge W. Osmond Smith III next week on a criminal contempt charge...

related:
LieStoppers blog:
How's that Hoax working out for you Nifong?
KC Johnson:
Nifong's Bill from the Bar
The Smoking Gun:
Paying For Your Own Funeral

--------

Anne Blythe, News & Observer:
Next Durham DA still up in air -- When Jim Hardin stepped in to run the District Attorney's Office after Mike Nifong's fall from power, he expected to fill in for a couple of months and go back to being a judge.

But Wednesday was the end of Hardin's second month as interim district attorney, and the governor's office has been mum about how much longer he might be there.

Gov. Mike Easley did not respond to requests for an interview. His staff said he would not comment on his search for a district attorney or say whether Hardin might stay in the job for a year, as some lawyers speculate.

Instead, Renee Hoffman of the governor's press office recycled responses that Easley gave a reporter Aug. 9...

---------

John in Carolina:
Former DPD Sgt Says Top Cops Involved --

The Whichard committee is currently investigating the Police Department. Some leaders of the department may be held accountable. The trail leading to ineptness will most certainly reach the highest levels of the department. (emphasis added)

When the end of the trail is reached, it will be interesting to see if the new chief and the City Council really believe change is needed.

Jerry Grugin
Durham

The writer is a former Durham Police Department sergeant.

--------

William L. Anderson, LewRockwell.com:
Narratives and Nonsense -- Duke's Bourbon Intellectuals - They learn nothing, and they forget nothing -- in statements made by many Duke faculty members and others following the very public exoneration, the True Believers have made it quite clear that Cooper’s words mean nothing. By emphasizing that since one cannot "prove" a negative, the three young men are guilty until proven guilty. Literally, with much of the Duke faculty, absolutely nothing has changed; in fact, the very dropping of the charges, should one follow the thinking of Dean Deutsch, is in itself a travesty of justice.

One asks how we ever got to this point where facts don’t matter and, to further the point, the insistence upon emphasizing the facts of the case is in itself "proof" of guilt. The answer lies in the modern application of academic Marxism, for while Marx and his Labor Theory of Value have long been discredited among economists, the Marxian "narrative" and the "polylogism" of which Ludwig von Mises writes in Human Action have become the polestar of higher education. One cannot understand what is happening in disciplines such as literature, English, history, sociology, and the gaggle of "identity studies" (such as African American Studies, Womens’ Studies, Queer Studies, and the like) that are dominating much of the academic curriculum, unless one understands the Marxist mindset, with its emphasis upon "narratives" and power...

--------

John in Carolina:
Democracy & Journalists --

News & Observer reporter, Joe Neff: we did not use a single anonymous source or unnamed source in our – uh – I think as of now we’ve written 541 articles by – with at least 19 different bylines on it...

The N&O’s Duke lacrosse reporting relied on so many anonymous and/or unnamed sources ( Is there a difference?) that three weeks after the “Dancer … ordeal” story appeared, the N&O published a story, Mother, dancer, accuser , identifying its sources as “former classmates and neighbors, friends and family members.”

The N&O even published on April 2, 2006 a photo of a “Vigilante” poster which it obtained from an anonymous source...

--------

Michael Gaynor:
Duke case: THE book is coming -- Read the book. Carefully. And try to read between the lines too. -- Until Proven Innocent is the only book that covers all five aspects of the case (personal, legal, academic, political, and media) in a comprehensive fashion. Based on interviews with key members of the defense team, many of the unindicted lacrosse players, and Duke officials, it is also the only book to include interviews with all three of the defendants, their families, and their legal teams...

Link List — August 24, 2007

• Ryan Block / Engadget:
  iPhone unlocked: AT&T loses iPhone exclusivity

  It's high noon, Apple and AT&T — we really hate to break it to you, but the jig is up. Last night the impossible was made possible: right in front of our very eyes we witnessed a full SIM unlock of our iPhone with a small piece of software.
  
  discussion
  Emily Price / Download Squad: iPhone Addict for August 24th 2007
  Kent German / CNET News.com: Unlocking an iPhone for real
  Melissa Perenson / Today @ PC World: iPhone: The Unlock Heard 'Round the World
  Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider: Apple iPhone Backlash: Flaky Device Overrated, Expectations Out of Hand
  Ed Oswald / BetaNews: Software Developers Successfully Unlock iPhone
  Dan Moren / iPhone Central: iPhone unlocked *again*, now via software
  Sean Cooper / Engadget Mobile: iPhone software unlock is legit, and we have proof
  Macenstein: My conspiracy theory - expect an iPhone update with new features soop
  Ashley / CyberNet Technology News: Unlocked iPhone Works on T-Mobile and Others...
  Jeremy Kaplan / Gearlog: It's Official: iPhone Unlocked
  John Biggs / CrunchGear: Phone Unlocked OhMyGoDOHGODSH!
  Geoff Duncan / Digital Trends: iPhone Unlocking Solutions Emerge
  Joshua Karp / The Boy Genius Report: iPhone unlocked. For reals!!
  Jesus Diaz / Gizmodo: Another Not-free Unlock Method: iPhone Unlocked (AGAIN!) With Paid Software Fix
  Sam Mcloughln / PalmAddicts: iPhone unlocked the painless way with software
  Christopher Vendemio / Neowin.net: Software Sim Unlocks the Apple iPhone
  Erica Sadun / The Unofficial Apple Weblog: Engadget announces first full-software iPhone unlock
  Mark Brezinski / wirelessinfo.com Blog: iPhone fully unlocked
  Luigi Lugmayr / I4U News: iPhone unlock Software finished
  Jose Vilches / TechSpot News: First full-software iPhone unlock finally available
  Michael / Apple Gazette: Briefly: iPhone fully unlocked, Apple special event rumors, Market Share Up
  Xeni Jardin / Boing Boing: NJ 17-year-old claims iPhone unlock success
  Todd Cochrane / Geek News Central: Time to get an iPhone using T-Mobile
  digg: iPhone unlocked. AT&T loses iphone exclusivity!
  

• The Smoking Gun: Michael Vick Felony Plea - Statement of Facts
  

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• WordLogic Patented the Predictive Interface

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  At 13,123 feet high, the massive, mountain-shaped building envisioned by Japan's Taisei Construction Company would overshadow Mount Fuji itself by nearly 700 feet. That's the equivalent of NINE Empire State Buildings stood one upon the other!

• In Alabama, you can sell guns on any street corner, but not dildos!

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• Audiophiles vs. the iPod: the battle over loudness

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• 10 Things I Learned From My Patients

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• Palm responds to the Engadget's open letter

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• "Ron Paul: Americans are Living on Borrowed Money and Time"

• TSA Confiscates Pudding, Misses Knife

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• Stretching Crystals Promise Bendy, Full-Color Displays

  NewScientist is reporting that a new approach to crystal formation could help create power-efficient, flexible color displays. These new photonic crystals, structured similar to opals, can be tuned by adjusting the gaps between the crystals. "The beauty of the device is that it can produce the…

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• Apple giving next-gen iPod Touch the OS X, um, touch?

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• Interview with National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell

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• Security Guard Powertrip

  TigerDirect staff in Naperville, Illinois are nuts.

• Ted Nugent threatens Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton during a performance- with machine guns in hand!

• Article V of the Constitution states that, "on the application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, [Congress] shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments." This would allow us, the citizens, the ability to initiate amendments so we could change and/or clarify the Constitution. All 50 states have applied numerous times, and yet a convention has never been held. Why?

• Microsoft's Open Source Trashware

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• Scientists found life on Mars back in the 70s

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• Top 10 Physically Modified People - Scary Stuff

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• New court ruling is a serious blow to legal protection of open source

• India Decides to Vote "No" For OOXML

  Indian writes to mention that after an intense meeting at Delhi's Manak Bhawan the 21-member technical committee has decided to vote against Microsoft's Open Office Extensible Mark Up Language (OOXML) standard at the September meeting of the International Standards Organization (ISO).…

• BioShock's "Little Sister"-killing gets mainstream attention

  We knew it was coming. Any game that features little girls as an enemy was bound to eventually draw the attention of the mainstream media...

• World's Highest Escalator [Images]

• BioShock/SecuROM customer support at its finest... [pic]

  Got a problem with your new copy BioShock? Just drop an email.

• Canadian Police Caught Attempting To Stage Riots In Quebec

• Study: Martian soil may contain life

• Mysterious, Obscure Company Is Behind 9/11 Demolition Work

  The John Galt Corporation of the Bronx, hired last year for the dangerous and complex job of demolishing the former Deutsche Bank building at 130 Liberty Street, where two firefighters died last Saturday, has apparently never done any work like it. Indeed, Galt does not seem to have done much of…

• Daily Show: 'America to the Rescue' in the Middle East

  "Obviously, the Iraq War is very complicated," began Jon Stewart on theDaily Show. "You can't have a newbie overthrowing the delicate balance that we have engineered and maintained in this complex region." Stewart then outlined the way the US arms the Saudis against Iran,…

• Spirit Airlines CEO Says "Let Them Tell The World How Bad We Are" In Response To Customer Complaint In Email Faux Pas.

• Insurance company sends a private fire department to a wild fire zone in an effort to protect only the homes owned by their more wealthy clients

• City of Atlanta Considers Banning Baggy Pants

  Baggy pants that show boxer shorts or thongs would be illegal under a proposed amendment to Atlanta's indecency laws. The amendment, sponsored by city councilman C.T. Martin, states that sagging pants are an "epidemic" that is becoming a "major concern" around the country.

• BitComet Pollutes BitTorrent with Junk Data

  Due to a new feature recently introduced into Bitcomet's torrent maker, people who do not use BitComet (the majority) are sometimes forced to download so called "padding files" which is -- for them -- a waste of time and bandwidth.

• IP Holders Press For Access To WHOIS Data

  Stony Stevenson writes to tell us that the battle for access to whois data remains at a stalemate this week. "In a blog post on the Internet Governance Project's (IGP) Web site, Milton Mueller, Professor and Director of the Telecommunications Network Management Program at the Syracuse…

• Top GOP senator: Bring troops home before Christmas

  In a MSNBC's News Live broadcast, Senator John Warner, the Armed Service Committee's senior Republican, calls on Bush to bring the troops home before Christmas

• Surveillence video shows at least 10 witnesses watched 90 minute sexual assault in hallway

• Out-of-body experience recreated

  Experts have found a way to trigger an out-of-body experience in volunteers.

Link List — August 23, 2007

• Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:

  Mary Meeker's YouTube Math

  Morgan Stanley's Internet analyst Mary Meeker was a good deal more optimistic than we and others were about the revenue impact of YouTube's new overlay ads. Specifically, Mary concluded that the overlays could immediately add $4.8 billion of gross revenue …

  Link Search: Google, Ask, Technorati, Sphere, and IceRocket
  +

  Discussion: Techdirt, Epicenter, Valleywag, HipMojo.com, Marketing Profs Daily Fix, Howard Lindzon, broadstuff, Mashable! and Business Week
  Discussion:

  Joe Weisenthal / Techdirt: Mary Meeker's YouTube Math Misses The Mark

  Adario Strange / Epicenter: Found: Morgan Stanley's Billion-Dollar YouTube Mistake

  Valleywag: YouTube: Mary Meeker makes a math mistake

  Ashkan Karbasfrooshan / HipMojo.com: Henry Blodget vs. Mary Meeker - Part II

  Marketing Profs Daily Fix: Jim Kukral: Everyone Hates YouTube's New, 'Dumb' Video Ads?

  Howard Lindzon: Do Wall Street Analysts Matter?

  Alan Patrick / broadstuff: MARY MEEKER DOES NEW MATHS

  Pete Cashmore / Mashable!: YouTube Users Hate Ads; Won't Make Money Anyway

  Heather Green / Business Week: YouTube Numbers: Someone is Going to Lose a Job

• 99 Mind Mapping Resources, Tools, and Tips - College Degree.com

• BrainDotty » local delicious

• The Manager's Cheat Sheet: 101 Common-Sense Rules for Leaders - Inside CRM

• 18 Tips for Killer Presentations - lifehack.org

• How to Buy a Cheap Airline Ticket in First Class

• Freelancer Tools | Lifehacker

• President Bush: We Left Vietnam To Early

  The president's "new defense" of the war in Iraq? Pretty much the same as his old defense of the war in Iraq: The war in Iraq is part of a larger war on terrorism, and that war is a lot like World War II, the Korean War and some other wars in which we've fought.

• Smooth Mac-like Backgrounds in Photoshop

  This tutorial is about making a “mac” style background. You can use these in all sorts of situations, including the obvious – your desktop as well as part of your designs or for corporate work (powerpoint presentations, flash work etc).

• Cruis'n Is The Worst-Looking Wii Game Ever

  Just...look.

• Chinese Bloggers Encouraged to Register Contact Info

  Raver32 writes "Blog service providers in China are "encouraged" to register users with their real names and contact information, according to a new government document that tones down an earlier proposal banning anonymous online blogging. At least 10 major Chinese blog service…

• Weight Training Workout Sheet (download and print)

  "The PDF has two pages...I print this onto a two-sided sheet of paper for an ultimate couples’ workout tracking sheet – one piece of paper for two people, and instead of having our names at the top, we can quickly tell by looking at the colors which side we should be filling out. "

• Yes this really is a Moon...... (pic)

  This is a cool picture..... It almost doesn't even look like a real moon.

• Simpsons quotes enter new Oxford dictionary

  The brains behind the world's favourite cartoon series has three new entries in the latest volume of quotations from the experts at Oxford University.

• Why the 2004 Presidential Election Matters More than Ever

  If we don’t know how Bush won, ratifying the election results is mindless magic. If we don’t demand an understanding of how he won, then can we dismiss the notion of election fraud made over and over with to an ever widening and receptive audience? Are elections the one area of administration…

• YouTube Implements New Comment System

  And it's a hell of a lot like Digg's! Thumbs up and thumbs down system.

• School Uniforms With GPS to Track Kids

  Parents already have a way to monitor kids' phone calls and text messages, and soon they might have the means to track children wearing school uniforms.An English manufacturer of uniforms is considering adding satellite tracking devices to its line of school clothing so that parents can locate…

• Craig Newmark quits Craigslist

• NY City before and after cars (pics)

• Imagine how this sounds to the average Iraqi. "America is fighting this war for your freedom and safety. Also, we're drawing all the world's worst terrorists into your backyard so they blow up your markets and police stations, and steer clear of ours."

• Anatomy of a Successful Viral Video

  there was a video post (Trust Me Im A Professional) that hit the front page of Digg.com today, where in a video supposedly shot in 1984 a motivation speaker talks a woman into doing a trust fall where she smacks her head on the floor. -- It is called a viral video. Made specifically to fool you into…

• "Doesn't he realize that if the U.S. had stayed in Vietnam longer, they would have killed more people?" said Vu Huy Trieu of Hanoi, a veteran of the communist forces that fought American troops in Vietnam. "Nobody regrets that the Vietnam War wasn't prolonged except Bush."

• Bionic Arm With Muscle Emulation

  Gugo writes "German based company FESTO has develop a bionic arm that uses muscle emulation,(video included) with a product called "fluidic muscle". It works like a normal animal-human muscle but moved by air inside. This new type of prosthetic offers rapid response, small size,…

• Firefox Extension TubeStop Stops YouTube Ads

  Since YouTube is only serving ads through the player on their main site, and not on the embeddable/syndicated player, and TubeStop works by replacing YouTube’s native player with the embeddable version, you won’t see any ads when you’re using TubeStop.

• Mr. Mendel, who is claiming $3.4 billion in damages on behalf of Antigua, has asked the trade organization to grant a rare form of compensation if the American government refuses to accept the ruling: permission for Antiguans to violate intellectual property laws by allowing them to distribute copies of American music, movie and software products, among others.

• NASA's 2 Voyager Spacecraft Celebrate Over Thirty Years in Space

  NASA's 2 venerable Voyager spacecraft are celebrating 3 decades of flight as they head toward interstellar space. Their ongoing odysseys mark an unprecedented and historic accomplishment. Voyager 2 launched on Aug. 20, 1977, and Voyager 1 launched on Sept. 5, 1977. They continue to return…

• Comcast Caught Astroturfing About "Big Ten" Channel

  When will companies learn that astroturfing is lame? Never! Comcast's PR agency has been caught posing as fans on messageboards in an effort to spread their propaganda about the "Big Ten" channel.

• The key to understanding right-wing rhetoric can be found in an episode of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. “Temba, his arms wide.”

• Jenna Jameson Removes Implants and Quits porn

• White House bars its info office from complying with information request

  The Bush administration argued in court papers this week that the White House Office of Administration is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act as part of its effort to fend off a civil lawsuit seeking the release of internal documents about a large number of e-mails missing from White House…

• Man served 10 years in prison for selling light bulbs [WAR ON DRUGS]

• "Great design is not stuffing 10 lbs of shit in a 5lb bag."

• Using revolving doors saves 74% of energy. You can use it to heat 5.1 houses for a year!

• CPU Desk - Made From Several Hundred Old CPUs [ Pics ]

  Matt Tovey collected several hundred old CPUs during a company upgrade and made this awesome desktop! Then he posted the process with pictures.

• White House: Wealth Inequality "Is Not A Very Interesting Story"

• Removing Backgrounds Quickly in Photoshop

  A tutorial on using the Extract filter for quick and dirty background removal.

• Ten minutes of sun 'could stop 30,000 cases of cancer', researchers say

  The researchers believe vitamin D deficiency may be to blame for 600,000 cancer cases worldwide each year, particularly in northern European countries where sun exposure levels are relatively low.

• Get Ready For YouTube Ads

  Now Google believes it finally has found the formula to cash in on YouTube's potential as a magnet for online video advertising and keep its audience loyal at the same time.The company said late Tuesday that after months of testing various video advertising models, it was ready to introduce a…

• New HD TiVo and Cable Incompatibilities

  Lauren Weinstein writes "The rapid deployment of Switched Digital Video (SDV) by cable companies can cause major problems for buyers of the new HD TiVo, preventing any access to some channels." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

• Gas Pump Prank!

• Video: Ari Fleischer Can't Name Soldier Used In His Own TV Ad

  On MSNBC’s Hardball tonight, former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, who is leading a White House front group to defend Bush’s escalation, was unable to name the wounded Iraq veteran featured in his organization’s pro-war ad. “I don’t have his name in front of me,” said…

• The Hardest Bosses of All Time - Part 3 of 3

  GamerHelp concludes their list of the most brutally tough bosses in video game history with part III of their three part series.

• Text-Messager hit by Train

  fficials think that Zachariah Smith was so engrossed in sending a text message Monday that he didn't notice a train - until it hit him as he crossed tracks in Elmwood Place.

• Review: Mac Pro 2 x 2.66Ghz

  This looks like some kind of shrine. That said... I want one!

• "Ron Paul: Unconstitutional Government Has Created a War Crisis"

• Is it morally wrong to take someone else's wireless internet?

• Bush's Vietnam analogy not playing well with vets. “The real insult to Vietnam veterans accrues from somebody who didn’t see fit to fight but seems more than capable of defining what our sacrifice was all about.”

• A lone senator is single-handedly ensuring that the health insurance industry can use your own DNA against you.

• City of Atlanta Considers Banning Baggy Pants

• Vietnam rejects Bush's Iraq comparison

• Russia claims that the aim of any lunar program of its own (a permanent moon base by 2015-2020) will be extracting He3.

• The "offending" doodle that got a 13-year old suspended from school, must see to believe

• There's nothing photoshop can't fix (PIC)

• Arizona school suspends 13-yr-old boy for sketching gun, saying the action posed a threat to his classmates

Link List — August 22, 2007

• Bush to invoke Vietnam in arguing against Iraq pullout

  As he awaits a crucial progress report on Iraq, President Bush will try to put a twist on comparisons of the war to Vietnam by invoking the historical lessons of that conflict to argue against pulling out...
  
  Discussion: Crooks and Liars, The Van Der Galiën Gazette, Big Brass Blog, THE CUNNING REALIST and Rising Hegemon
  

• Taliban terrorises RAF families

  TALIBAN fanatics terrorised the wife of an RAF officer by phoning her and saying: “You’ll never see your husband alive — we have just killed him.” Rebels in Afghanistan are targeting British forces’ families with hate calls after tapping into Our Boys’ mobile phones.

• Google Aims to Make YouTube Profitable With Ads

  The company said late Tuesday that after months of testing various video advertising models, it was ready to introduce a new type of video ad, which it said was unobtrusive and kept users in control of what they saw. The ads, which appear 15 seconds after a user begins watching a video clip, take the form of an overlay on the bottom fifth of the screen, not unlike the tickers that display headlines during television news programs.
  
  discussion:
  Scott Karp / Publishing 2.0: YouTube's New InVideo Ad Format Is Not Google AdWords
  Mark Evans: The Monetization of YouTube Begins
  Ben Homer / Online Video Watch: YouTube's Monetization Answer: Lower Fifths
  Tony Hung / Deep Jive Interests: Yes, Google / YouTube Introducing In Video Ads Is A "Big Deal"
  Cory Bergman / Lost Remote: YouTube unveils video overlay ads

• S.C. Prisons Director Defends Pink Plan

  South Carolina's prisons director on Tuesday defended a policy of punishing inmates who perform sex acts by dressing them in pink, despite a lawsuit claiming the rule subjects prisoners to ridicule. State Corrections Department John Ozmint said the two-year-old punishment deters inmates and protects female officers. His agency has asked a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit.

• Average Incomes Fell for Most in 2000-5

• The Secret to Getting Others to Talk about You at Weekly Articles About Blogging - NxE

• Glary Utilities - Absolute Uninstaller

• Relaxing music, sleep-aids, anxiety reduction, relaxation tools

• MilkandCookies - Content Aware Image Resizing

• How to Get 6,312 Subscribers to Your Business Blog in One Day | Copyblogger

• Vlad the Deployer

• This is what you find in the shower when you have kids. [pic] (Yes, that's a bar of soap with a set of teeth marks in it)

• Forbidden Lego: the sets that never got released - new book reveals building instructions [includes video demo]

• Asperger Syndrome: "From early childhood, my memory was so acute and my wit so bleak that I was described as a genius."

• Scientists Discover Methane Ice Worms On Gulf Of Mexico Sea Floor

• Secrecy of Voting Machines Ballots At Risk

  JimBobJoe writes "On Monday, Cnet published the findings I made as an Ohio poll worker regarding a major oversight in my state's election's system: Using a combination of public records, plus the voting machine paper trails, you can figure out how people voted. Though most agree that…

• Can Prius top 100 mph? Ask Wozniak; Busted for doing 104 mph

  The Prius, Wozniak said, handled great at 104. And that wasn't the first time he reached the speed that sends shudders down my I-like-60-mph spine.

• Google Earth - Just Added GALAXIES

• Kucinich Campaign Submitted Complaints to ABC News, Awaits Answers

• Dell takes huge hit as Apple laptop sales soar

  'Halo effect' generated by demand for iPhones has caused a transformation in Apple's laptop sales

• ABC Crops Kucinich

• Agent Provocateurs Attempt To Start Riot At PEACEFUL Demonstration

• 2k Games' Bioshock suffers widespread crashes/errors.

  The posts grow on 2k Games' Bioshock tech support forum. The general consensus? "We are pissed" Widespread PC versions of Bioshock have left gamer's with the inability to start the game, play it for more than a few hours (random desktop crashes), and even random reboot crashes…

• Blogger tracks down the guy who hacked him, publishes his name and photo

  Justin Watt discovers that his website disappeared from Google search results. He investigates, discovers that he was hacked by a Russian SEO hacker scumbag, then he TRACKS THE GUY DOWN. Vadim Smelyansky, you have been p0wned.

• DARPA Files Patent On Predictive Simulation

  An anonymous reader writes "New Scientist has a post on a patent filed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), seeking to control a new potent predictive simulation. The patent outlines the process, which may someday allow researchers to accurately predict the behavior of…

• Dick Cheney Once Again Claims He Isn't Part Of Executive Branch

  Another bizarre claim from the VP.

• Congress Approval Rating Matches Historical Low - Just 18% approve

  A new Gallup Poll finds Congress' approval rating the lowest it has been since Gallup first tracked public opinion of Congress with this measure in 1974. Just 18% of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing, while 76% disapprove, according to the August 13-16, 2007, Gallup Poll.Will…

• Earth and Mars are Converging at 25 Miles per Sentence

  By the time you finish reading this sentence, you'll be 25 miles closer to the planet Mars. Earth and Mars are converging, and right now the distance between the two planets is shrinking at a rate of 22,000 mph--or about 25 miles per sentence.

• Coldest August Day Ever in NYC

  Cold. It's so cold...

• Longest lunar eclipse in 7 years expected

  People across the western United States will have the best opportunity early Aug. 28 to witness the longest lunar eclipse in seven years.

• Philosophy of the Great Alan Watts Animated by Trey Parker and Matt Stone

• Monster.com Attacked, User Data Stolen

  Placid writes "The BBC has an article detailing a successful attack on the US recruitment site, Monster.com. According to the article, 'A computer program was used to access the employers' section of the website using stolen log-in credentials' and that the stolen details were…

• Cheney has wiretapping docs, won't turn them over

  Vice President Dick Cheney's office has in its possession more than 50 documents related to a congressional investigation of the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program, but Cheney's lawyer on Monday refused to hand over the documents in response to a subpoena.

• BioShock: So awesome and cool that it blows up computers! [Pics]

  "For about half a second I sit there stunned. The first thought in my mind is "Holy F****** S***, that is the greatest effect I've ever seen. They should have given this game an 11." Immediately following this a sickening realization dawns on me as I look over at my tower. Blue…

• Air and Sea Power [PIC]

  An amazing photo of the air and sea military might.

• How to Get 6,312 Subscribers to Your Blog in One Day

  Here's a great 7-step case study on getting a large amount of blog subscribers right at launch.

• China Airlines Paints Over Name, Logo On Wreckage Of Jet [pics]

• Comcast Is Starting The Tiered Internet.. Whether We Like It or Not

  I am not surprised that the major ISPs didn't try this sooner. In my opinion, this IS the tiered internet. I'm unsubscribing from Comcast today. This is just a ploy to show that the tiered internet can work. Let's make sure it doesn't!

• The Secret to Getting Others to Talk about You

  Mary would passionately tell anyone willing to listen about her son's new company. One of the people who listened was a fellow United Way board member: John Opel. Five years later, John – president of IBM is looking for a computer os. And where does he go? To Redmond, Washington to meet…

• Monster.com Hacked

  US job website Monster.com has suffered an online attack with the personal data of hundreds of thousands of users stolen, says a security firm.

• Kucinich Blasts Bush Administration For ‘Setting The Stage’ For War With Iran

• Mom that's selling Pokemon Cards on E-Bay because her Kids snuck the cards

  I'm selling a bunch of Pokemon cards. Why? Because my kids sneaked them into my shopping cart while at the grocery store and I ended up buying them because I didn't notice they were there until we got home. How could I have possibly not noticed they were in my cart, you ask? Let me explain.

• [VIDEO] Introducing: The Mirror Made Out Of Wood.

• Man with IQ of 172 lived as 5-year old, collected Mr. Rogers episodes

• Content Aware Resizing (The real shit, not the garbage youtube video)

• Green Roofs: An Introduction with Pretty Pictures

  It's not just for hobbits anymore. The logic of green roofs is becoming more apparent. We can minimize our bills while maximizing the beauty of the urban landscape. And every day it's becoming a little easier to live in a house that just happens to have plants growing on it.

• No... Some... Most Children Left Behind

  The Bush Administration, like many conservative groups, cares a lot about young lives. From zygotes to embryos to nine-month-old fetuses, Bush 'n' friends care a great deal about the well-being of an almost-child. After your born, though, you'd better hope you weren't born poor.

• How much extra does green building cost? A lot less than people think!

  Construction and real estate professionals often misjudge the costs and benefits of "green" buildings, creating a major barrier to more energy efficiency in the building sector. Respondents estimated costs at 17% higher than conventional construction -- more than 3 times the actual rate of…

• Blogger Pwns the hacker who filled his blog with search engine spam

• The Most Hated Man in Bodybuilding

• Bill O’Reilly Declares Iraq War Over August 20, 2007

  On June 20, 2007, Bill O’Reilly stated that if the Iraqi government had not passed oil legislation sharing oil revenues throughout Iraq within two months then the war was over and our troops should come home. Well, it's now been over two months. The oil legislation has NOT been passed. So Bill…

• Police accused of using provocateurs at North American integration summit

• Fred Thompson is breaking the law.

• Why is the Democratic Congress so unpopular? Because Americans Overwhelmingly Want Congressional Investigations of the Administration.

Link List — August 21, 2007

• Sun-Times: Michelle Obama gets stronger all the time

  'I don't want my girls to live in a country based on fear' — Barack Obama often says that his wife, Michelle, is smarter than he is, stronger than he is, and gives better speeches than he does. — On a trip to Iowa last week, Michelle was a firebrand …
  
  Discussion: CNN Political Ticker, The Atlantic Online, TalkLeft, Althouse, Political Radar, Hot Air, Roger L. Simon, A Blog For All, MSNBC, INSTAPUTZ and Right Voices

  –

  Discussion:

  CNN Political Ticker: Did Michelle Obama take a swipe at Clinton?

  Andrew Sullivan / The Atlantic Online: "Tired Of Being Afraid"

  Jeralyn / TalkLeft: Obama's Wife Takes a Swipe at Hillary

  Ann Althouse / Althouse: Obama's rock and roll gaffe.

  Ed OKeefe / Political Radar: Obama: Nothing Personal

  Allahpundit / Hot Air » Top Picks: Obama's wife attacks Hillary?

  Roger L. Simon: Michelle Obama - the new Elmer Gantry

  Lawhawk / A Blog For All: Spouses Making Impact On 2008 Elections

  Mark Murray / MSNBC: ANATOMY OF A CONTROVERSY — From NBC's Mark Murray, Chuck Todd, and Andrew Merten

  INSTAPUTZ: Roger Simon: I Used to Be a Pussy But Now I Hate Barack Obama

  Peejz / Right Voices: Oh No She Di'int! — Things are getting ugly on the Democratic side today!

  » All Related Discussion

  « Hide All Related Discussion
  Related:
  Greg Sargent / Election Central:
  Obama Spokesman Denies Michelle's Speech Was Attack On Hillary

  Link Search: Google, Ask, Technorati, Sphere, and IceRocket

  +

  Discussion: The Corner and The Atlantic Online

  The Corner: Michelle vs. Hillary

  The Atlantic Online: Michelle Obama's "Swipe"?

• Advice to the lovelorn: You will survive: study

  Despite the laments of pining pop stars and sad sack poets, U.S. researchers now think breaking up may not be so hard to do.

• MTV NETWORKS, REALNETWORKS AND VERIZON WIRELESS JOIN FORCES TO OFFER A NEW INTEGRATED DIGITAL MUSIC EXPERIENCE

  RealNetworks, Inc. (NASDAQ: RNWK), MTV Networks, a division of VIACOM International (NYSE: VIA.A and VIA.B), and Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ), and Vodafone (LSE: VOD) today announced they are teaming to create a single, integrated digital music experience that consumers can access via their PC, portable music device or mobile phone.
  
  discussion: Silicon Alley Insider, Digital Media Wire, Wall Street Journal, Digital Trends, John Cook's Venture Blog, SMS Text News, Brier Dudley's blog, GigaOM and mocoNews.net

  –

  Discussion:

  Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider: Fred Wilson: What MTV Should Do With Rhapsody

  Jay Baage / Digital Media Wire: Analysis: Rhapsody Hooks Up With MTV, Verizon and Vodafone to Challenge iTunes

  Wall Street Journal: MTV, RealNetworks to Form Online Music Venture

  Geoff Duncan / Digital Trends: Real Pacts with MTV, Verizon, and Universal

  John Cook / John Cook's Venture Blog: MTV, RealNetworks to partner on music service

  Alex / SMS Text News: Verizon customers get full-length CBS shows

  Brier Dudley / Brier Dudley's blog: MTV dumps Microsoft for RealNetworks

  Om Malik / GigaOM: MTV+Real+Verizon Vs. Apple & iTunes

  Rafat Ali / mocoNews.net: More on MTVN-RealNetworks Music JV; VZW's Role

  » All Related Discussion

  « Hide All Related Discussion
  related:
  Jeremy Kirk / InfoWorld:

  MTV, RealNetworks said to merge digital music stores — San Francisco (IDGNS) - MTV Networks and RealNetworks will merge their online digital music stores in the latest attempt to reduce Apple's hold on the music download market, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday morning.

  Link Search: Google, Ask, Technorati, Sphere, and IceRocket

  +

  Discussion: Associated Press, Engadget, ZDNet and paidContent.org

  –

  Discussion:

  Associated Press: MTV Networks, RealNetworks, Verizon announce new music service

  Paul Miller / Engadget: MTV and Real flesh out a few Rhapsody America details

  Adrian Kingsley-Hughes / ZDNet: Universal and Wal-Mart pile the pressure on iTunes

  David Kaplan / paidContent.org: MTV-RWNK Music Venture: New Company Rhapsody America; Talks With Microsoft Ongoing

  biz.yahoo.com:

  Entry into a Material Definitive Agreement, Regulation FD Disclosure — Item 1.01. Entry into a Material Definitive Agreement. — The Joint Venture — On August 20, 2007, RealNetworks, Inc. ("Real" or "RealNetworks") and MTV Networks, a division of Viacom International Inc. ("MTVN" …

  Link Search: Google, Ask, Technorati, Sphere, and IceRocket

  +

  Discussion: paidContent.org, Silicon Alley Insider and Epicenter

  –

  Discussion:

  Rafat Ali / paidContent.org: MTV-RNWK Music Venture: The Financial Details; Cash Plus $230 Million Note From MTVN

  Peter Kafka / Silicon Alley Insider: MTV/Rhapsody Details: RealNetworks In Charge, MTV Kicking In $230M

  Adario Strange / Epicenter: MTV Invests $230 million In RealNetworks Deal

  Ina Fried / CNET News.com: MTV and RealNetworks: A sound decision?15 minutes ago

  Link Search: Google, Ask, Technorati, Sphere, and IceRocket

  Eric Bangeman / Ars Technica:
  MTV bails on Microsoft, partners with RealNetworks for "Rhapsody America"

  Link Search: Google, Ask, Technorati, Sphere, and IceRocket

  +

  Discussion: Tech Check with Jim Goldman and Engadget

  
  

  Jim Goldman / Tech Check with Jim Goldman: MTV Gets "Real" As Microsoft Gets Tuned Out

  Paul Miller / Engadget: MTV, Real and Verizon Wireless join hands for new music service

• Plone: A user-friendly and powerful open source Content Management System — plone.org

• SQL Designer

• Full WEB 2.0 API List | Tech Magazine

• SSHKeychain - About

• kaourantin.net: What just happened to video on the web?

• "The War On Drugs Cannot Be Won": Drug Expert Makes A Case For Legalization

  A "drugfree world," which the United Nations describes as a realistic goal, is no more attainable than an "alcoholfree world"--and no one has talked about that with a straight face since the repeal of Prohibition in the United States in 1933.

• ABC News Censors Poll Because Kucinich Won

  They even cut his picture out... this is just not acceptable.

• suprnova.org - "We're Back!"

  "Suprnova has been down for some years due to some heavy pressure from the copyright lobby. The former owner sloncek donated suprnova to The Pirate Bay - and as you know, we like to kick ass and bow for noone!"

• Monster.com has suffered an online attack with the personal data of hundreds of thousands of users stolen.

• Come and sit on my knee little girl // PIC

  I wonder if the little girl still gets flashbacks from this event!!!

• Foundation on which RIAA builds cases in danger of being undermined

  Does making a song available on KaZaA constitute distribution as defined by the Copyright Act? We should find out soon, as two judges have decided to rule on the issue in separate file-sharing cases.

• FCC Puts 4.6 Billion Minimum Bid on Spectrum Auction

  ChainedFei writes "Wired News notes that the Spectrum auction is moving forward, with the FCC placing a minimum bid for the C-block spectrum being offered at $4.6 billion. That, coincidentally, was the amount that Google fronted as a minimum bid to endorse certain open standards for the…

• Great Scott! The DeLorean will return in 2008!

  James Espey, VP of DeLorean Motor Company: "Job one will begin the third quarter of this year, with delivery by Q1 of 2008. We're aiming for $57,500 as the sale price."

• This has to be one of the best "singles" ads

  SINGLE BLACK FEMALE seeks male companionship, ethnicity unimportant.

• How I Built My Family A Windmill

• Health And Safety At Work [PICS]

  Crouching worker, Lifting ladder!

• Log a forest, leave a tree behind [PIC]

  The area was logged after the trees fell over in a wind storm. The shape of the logging was unintentional. The photo was taken by the photographer as he flew over the area unintentionally.

• Iran's Happy Jewish Population A Big Problem For Israel

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Duke Lacrosse Saga in Pictures

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March 13, 2006 — Three co-captains of the Duke lacrosse team host a team party at their off-campus residence at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. during spring break. They hire two strippers to perform for two hours for $400 each. Approximately 40 other students attended the party; most, but not all, were team members.

March 13, 2006 —The first stripper, Kim Roberts, aka Nikki, arrived at the party shortly after 11 pm. At approximately 11:40 pm the second dancer, Crystal Gail Mangum, aka Precious, was dropped off at the party house by her driver. Sometime just before midnight, the two veteran sex-workers entered the living room to begin their performance for the party attendees.

March 14, 2006, 12:00:12 a.m. — The first party picture of the two strippers. The accuser, Crystal Gail Mangum is wearing pink and white lace lingerie. She is lying face down on the floor. The second performer, Kim Roberts, is wearing all white.

March 14, 2006, 12:01 - 12:02 a.m. — Lacrosse party photos. Crystal Mangum and Kim Roberts performing.

March 14, 2006, 12:03:57 a.m. — Crystal Gail Mangum and Kim Roberts leave the living room after a very brief performance. The photo shows Mangum left her right shoe on the floor. The women go to the back of the house. At 12:05 a.m., just after the performance ended, Reade Seligmann, began using his cell phone and initiated a series of calls to his girlfriend and others. At 12:14 a.m., he called On Time Taxi company to pick him up. Seligmann and his teammate, Robert Wellington, were picked up at approximately 12:19 a.m.

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March 14, 2006, 12:24 am — Reade Seligmann getting out of a taxi driven by Moezeldin Elmostafa at a Wachovia Bank ATM. The bank is at Ninth St. and Main, 0.9 miles from the the Duke lacrosse house. Seligmann's attorneys provided this photo and other information confirming his alibi in a court filing on May 1, 2006.

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March 14, 2006, 12:30:12 a.m — Crystal Mangum is standing outside the back door of the house. The team captains told police she was pounding at the door around that time, but they wouldn’t let her in. She is carrying the shaving kit of Dave Evans, perhaps due to her intoxicated state. Her clothes are intact.

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March 14, 2006, 12:30:47 a.m. — Crystal Mangum is still on the back steps of the Duke lacrosse house. She is still clutching Dave Evans' shaving kit. She is demurely smiling.

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March 14, 2006, 12:38 a.m — Crystal Gail Mangum lying face down on the back steps of the lacrosse house, passed out. Mangum had consumed alcohol and taken the drug Flexeril prior to the party. The NC State Attorney General's report said she was high at one of the interview sessions with investigators in 2007.

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March 14, 2006, 12:41 am — Mangum was helped to Roberts' car by some of the players and the night appeared to be coming to an end.

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March 14, 2006 — In order to stay out of an involuntary 24-hour intoxication confinement Crystal Gail Mangum started telling numerous contradicting versions of the alleged crime in the hours after the party. One version that she told Durham police investigators Mark Gottlieb and Benjamin Himan on March 16th was used for a Probable Cause Affidavit. That version of the alleged crime was described as follows:

Shortly after going back into the dwelling the two women were separated. Two males, Adam and Matt pulled the victim into the bathroom. Someone closed the door to the bathroom where she was, and said "sweet heart you can't leave." The victim stated that she tried to leave, but the three males (Adam, Bret, and Matt) forcefully held her legs arms and raped and sexually assaulted her anally, vaginally and orally. The victim stated she was hit, kicked, and strangled during the assault. As she attempted to defend herself, she was overpowered. The victim reported she was sexually assaulted for an approximately 30 minute time period by the three males...

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March 16, 2006 — A police photo shows that there are no signs of injury two days after Crystal Mangum alleged that she was brutally gang-raped, beaten, and strangled.

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March 17, 2006 — In the days and weeks after the attack Crystal Mangum went back to the hospital complaining of neck, back and knee pain she claimed was caused by the rape. 60 Minutes and other news outlets show a video of Mangum dancing at the Platinum Pleasures Club on March 25-26th, eleven days after the alleged attack. The club manager, H.P. Thomas, tells 60 Minutes that she had consistently performed her routine normally. Thomas also told Inside Edition that Mangum was back pole dancing three days (Mar. 17th) after making allegations of a brutal sexual assault.

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March 22, 2006 — The second stripper/sex-worker, Kim Roberts, aka Kim Pittman, is arrested for a parole violation stemming from a 2001 embezzlement conviction. Before her arrest she calls the rape allegation a "crock." The convicted felon starts cooperating with Durham investigators and Mike Nifong in order to improve her chances of staying out of jail.

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March 25, 2006 — Durham police spokesman, Cpl. David Addison, lied about the full cooperation of the Duke lacrosse co-captains. The Herald-Sun reported: “Addison said police approached the lacrosse team with the five-page search warrant on March 16, but that all of the members refused to cooperate with the investigation. The refusal led officials to issue a "non-testimonial" order -- which allows police to threaten suspects with legal consequences if they choose not hand over evidence -- for each player's DNA." Addison said it was "unfortunate" that police had to go to such lengths, but that the team members "denied participation or knowing anything... Addison said the team got several chances to cooperate with police and that the non-testimonial order was issued only after the players kept silent."

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March 25, 2006 — A woman hired to dance for the Duke lacrosse team describes a night of racial slurs, growing fear and, finally, sexual violence — North Carolina's leading newspaper, the News & Observer, publishes a sympathetic, misleading, and inflammatory front page story about Crystal Mangum that is based on Mangum's only public interview. The article entitled "Dancer gives details of ordeal" makes Mangum into a poor, single mother and college student, who is clearly the victim of a brutal gang-rape and racial attack. The paper withheld and covered-up for over a year Mangum's claim that the second stripper, Kim Roberts, was also sexually assaulted at the party. Mangum said Roberts didn't report the attack because she was afraid she’d lose her job. Mangum also accused Roberts of being willing to “do just about anything for money.”

Mangum was on her way to work, pole dancing, when she told the N&O reporter, "This [Duke lacrosse party] was the first time she had been hired to dance provocatively for a group".

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March 25, 2006 - April 2006 — Numerous protests were held to condemn the lacrosse team and their non-cooperation. The "Castrate" banner is symbolic of the rush to judgment atmosphere around the Duke Campus. Duke President Brodhead does nothing to quell the fury. The three lacrosse team captains, who lived in the party house, had fully cooperated with the police investigation; but that fact is not widely reported.

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March 27, 2006 — Ruth Sheehan, a columnist for the News & Observer writes an article entitled, "Team's silence is sickening." In the story she convicts the Duke lacrosse team of being a gang of rapists. The article starts off:

Members of the Duke men's lacrosse team: You know. We know you know.

Whatever happened in the bathroom at the stripper party gone terribly terribly bad, you know who was involved. Every one of you does. And one of you needs to come forward and tell the police.

Ms. Sheehan was one of the few journalists, who later apologized to the lacrosse team for her rush to judgement.

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March 28, 2006 — Vigilante and Wanted Posters targeting the lacrosse team start circulating on and around the Duke campus. The local Crime Stoppers organization and DPD Cpl. David Addision are involved in the distribution of the Wanted Posters.

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March 29, 2006 — Prof. Houston Baker, a member of the Duke Departments of English and African-American Studies, released a public letter denouncing the "abhorrent sexual assault, verbal racial violence, and drunken white male privilege loosed amongst us." He stated that "male athletes" were "veritably given license to rape, maraud, deploy hate speech, and feel proud of themselves in the bargain." Baker later sent an email to a lacrosse parent in which he called the lacrosse players a "scummy bunch of white males," who lived like "a bunch of farm animals." Baker soon left Duke and took a job at Vanderbilt.

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March 29, 2006 — Duke President, Richard H. Brodhead apologizes to the still anonymous Kim Roberts for her fake 911 call:

"I was asked about the 911 tape involving a racial slur, which only became known late yesterday. I have now had the opportunity to listen to the tape. It is disgusting. Racism and its hateful language have no place in this community. I am sorry the woman and her friend were subjected to such abuse."

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March 31, 2006 — Nancy Grace of CNN does a "guilty until proven innocent" story about the case:

DAVE FOLEY, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, Nancy, in terms of this, we`re dealing with young people, OK, who are not necessarily familiar with the law, number one. So they need to have their legal rights...

GRACE: You`re kidding, right?

FOLEY: ... protected...

GRACE: You`re -- you`re kidding?

FOLEY: No, I`m not kidding.

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April 2, 2006 — Rev. Sam Wells, Dean of the Duke Chapel, gives a sermon in which he denounces the lacrosse team. He discusses an incident with "disputed facts of an ugly evening." An incident rooted in "a disturbingly extensive experience of sexual violence, of abiding racism, of crimes rarely reported and perpetrators seldom named, confronted, or convicted, of lives deeply scarred, of hurt and pain long suppressed. The activists among us shout loudly about reckless drinking, the reputation of particular sports teams, the sense of entitlement, the need to reassess what it means to be a man..."

"The last week has exposed the reality that sexual practices are an area where some male students are accustomed to manipulating, exploiting and terrorizing women all the time – and that this has been accepted by many as a given."

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April 4, 2006 — Crystal Gail Mangum identifies four assailants at a procedurally flawed police photo ID session. She said the mugshot of David Evans looked like her assailant without his mustache. She was 90% sure that Evans was her assailant. Mangum never told the same story twice about the alleged crime and could not ID any assailants until three weeks after the incident.

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April 5, 2006 — Lacrosse coach Mike Pressler is forced to resign. He is told by Duke Athletic Director Joe Alleva that the incident is "not about the truth" any longer. Duke President Richard Brodhead cancels the team's season after authorities unseal a search warrant containing an e-mail from player Ryan McFadyen in which he says he wants to kill and skin strippers. McFadyen is suspended from school. The e-mail is later shown to be part of a running joke based on the American Psycho novel. McFadyen is reinstated in June. Brodhead introduces committees assigned to examine the administration's response to the incident, the lacrosse team's culture, and the overall campus culture.

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April 6, 2006 — Duke professors known as the "Group of 88" sponsor an advertisement in The Chronicle entitled "What Does a Social Disaster Sound Like?" It denounces the lacrosse team and expresses concern "about what happened" to Crystal Mangum. It thanks the demonstrators "for not waiting and for making yourselves heard." The slapdash ad described a culture of sexism and racism at Duke that spawned the crime.

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April 7, 2006 — Mike Nifong demonstrates for Dan Abrams of MS-NBC how Crystal Gail Mangum was grabbed from behind and strangled by a lacrosse player during the alleged assault. Nifong completely fabricated this scenario.

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April 9, 2006 — A crowd of protesters gather on Sunday at the site of the alleged rape involving members of the Duke lacrosse team. (AP Photo/Karl DeBlaker)

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April 11, 2006 — Nifong attends an open forum at Mangum's college, North Carolina Central University (NCCU). A mostly black crowd of 700 heckles, hisses and screams at Nifong because he would not agree with a claim that Duke University tampered with the DNA evidence, and because he won't arrest the entire lacrosse team. Nifong needs a police escort to help exit the building after the forum.

The forum mob echoes the sentiment of Chan Hall, a member of the NCCU student government, who told Newsweek that the Duke students should be prosecuted "whether it happened or not. It would be justice for things that happened in the past."

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April 11, 2006 — Eric Adelson of ESPN The Magazine writes a wild story in which an anonymous source claims Crystal Mangum was "pretty banged up," "beat up," "hysterical," "there were bruises on her face, neck, and arms" and "there were injuries to the woman’s pelvic area" when she arrived at Duke Medical Center after the incident. All of this is not true. The story is picked up by other news outlets.

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April 16, 2006 — Protesters and the media gathered in front of the Duke lacrosse team’s house on Easter Sunday.

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Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnertry

April 18, 2006 — Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann are indicted for the sexual assault and kidnapping of Crystal Mangum. They turn themselves into authorities at the back of the Durham County Jail. They were handcuffed and driven 15 yards to the front of the jail, where they were then paraded in front of waiting camera crews.

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Durham Sheriff Col. George Naylor (left) hands out police mug shots of Duke lacrosse player Reade Seligmann to the media.

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April 20, 2006 — Richard Brodhead makes an appearance at the Durham Chamber of Commerce meeting, two days after Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty are arrested. WRAL-TV quotes Brodhead as saying, “If our students did what is alleged, it is appalling to the worst degree. If they didn’t do it, whatever they did is bad enough." Finnerty and Seligmann just went to a party and drank some beer.

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May 1 2006 — New Black Panther Party demonstrates at Duke University and at the lacrosse house. New Black Panther Party Chairman Malik Shabazz leads chants:

Shabazz: "What do we want?"
Crowd: "JUSTICE!"

Shabazz: "When do we want it?"
Crowd: "NOW!"

Shabazz: "How do we find Duke University?"
Crowd: "GUILTY!"

Shabazz: "How do we find the lacrosse team?"
Crowd: "GUILTY!"

Shabazz: "How do we find Seligmann?"
Crowd: "GUILTY!"

Shabazz: "How do we find Finnerty?"
Crowd: "GUILTY!"

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May 2, 2006 — Mike Nifong wins the Democratic primary election with 45% of the vote to Freda Black's 42%. Black support enables Nifong to win despite growing criticism about his case against the Duke defendants. ADA Shamieka Rhinehart (above) said of Nifong: "He's a good man. I'm so proud of him."

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May 15, 2006 — One day after his graduation, David Evans is indicted. After surrendering to police he tells reporters the accusations are "fantastic lies" and reiterates that he and his teammates are innocent.

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June 19, 2006 — Dan Abrams of MS-NBC examined the entire 1300 page discovery file for the Duke case and reports that Nifong has no case.

"I don‘t understand how Mike Nifong brought this case. I really don‘t understand it."

"I‘ve seen it all now everything that the D.A. handed over to the defense team, and this case is even weaker than I originally thought."

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June 28, 2006 — The Independent Weekly (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill) publishes a front page Hal Crowther article that libels the lacrosse team and bends over backwards to support Nifong.

“To imply that rich white athletes are unsafe in the North Carolina legal system is like saying the Pope can’t get a fair trial in Vatican City.”

Duke history professor Peter Wood joins in bashing the lacrosse team: "A few years ago, a new kind of student began to show up at Duke," recalls Wood, who's had two of the three rape defendants in his classes. "Cynical, arrogant, callous, dismissive--you could almost say openly hostile. They weren't all athletes, by any means. But some of the first ones I noticed were lacrosse players."

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July 22, 2006 — North Carolina columnist Cash Michaels uses Crystal Mangum's cousin Jakki, aka Clyde Yancey, as a source to report wild stories about Duke alumni offering Mangum $2 million in hush money to drop the case. Michaels claims he was only reporting what he was told by Jakki.The NC NAACP echoes this lie in a legal memorandum. Mangum even says this story is false.

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August 9, 2006 — The North Carolina NAACP publishes a legal memorandum on their website authored by the NAACP legal redress committee lawyer, Al McSurely, entitled ‘Crimes and Torts committed by Duke Lacrosse Team Players.’ The memo is filled with case-related errors and and is clearly libelous to the Duke lacrosse team. The NAACP leaves it posted on their website until August 2007.

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August 25, 2006 — Duff Wilson and Jonathan D. Glater of the NY Times write a 5,000+ word article that attempts to prop up Mike Nifong's sagging case. Dan Abrams of MS-NBC calls the article, “shameful.”

It is an editorial disguised as a news story that tries to advance a race-sex-class ideological agenda. It has several glaring factual errors. It says: "an examination of the entire 1,850 pages of evidence gathered by the prosecution in the four months after the accusation yields a more ambiguous picture. It shows that while there are big weaknesses in Mr. Nifong's case, there is also a body of evidence to support his decision to take the matter to a jury." This was a lie. Wilson later recanted his own story.

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August 29th 2006 — Moezeldin Elmostafa is acquitted of a misdemeanor charge related to a three-year-old shoplifting case that surfaced after the cabbie came forward as an alibi witness for Reade Seligmann. Nifong and his henchmen were intimidating a witness. He was arrested May 1oth.

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October 15, 2006 — A CBS 60 Minutes lacrosse story by Ed Bradley features an interview where Kim Roberts directly contradicts the statements of Crystal Mangum regarding the alleged rape. Bradley posthumously won a Peabody award for this story.

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October 30, 2006 — Kim Roberts tells Chris Cuomo of ABC's "Good Morning America" in an interview that Crystal Gail Mangum told her to "go ahead, put marks on me" after the alleged attack. Roberts said the comments "chilled me to the bone, and I decided right then and there to go to the authorities."

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November 7, 2007 — Mike Nifong, right, tries to approach Bob Harris, left, play-by-play announcer for the Duke Blue Devils, while visiting a polling location at Temple Baptist Church in Durham, N.C. Harris refused to shake Nifong's hand.

The reported exchange between Harris and Nifong:

You've got to be nicer than that," Nifong said.

"Get out of here," Harris said. "Don't pull this crap."

"This isn't about Duke," Nifong said. "This isn't about Duke at all."

"No," Harris said. "It's about honesty. You're not honest."

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November 7, 2006 — Nifong defeats Lewis Cheek and write-in candidate Steve Monks to win his DA election bid. He receives 49.5% of the 56,213 votes cast in the hotly contested race. Nifong's race-baiting strategy worked. He received over 95 percent of the black vote.

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Nifong reveled in his victory: "while receiving props from friends and supporters, the victorious D.A. allowed himself to crow just a little.

When the returns showed a clear margin in Nifong's advantage, a local lawyer went up to shake Nifong's hand and pat him on the shoulder.

'I just wanted to be the first to congratulate you,' the man said.

'You aren't," Nifong said. "Most people went ahead and congratulated me yesterday.'"

When the final vote totals were confirmed, there was an immediate cheer from the yellow-clad Nifong supporters clustered on one side [of the courthouse]. Shanieka Rhinehart, an assistant district attorney, started a chant of "Let's go Nifong" and others supporters exchanged hugs and high-fives.

"This goes to show that justice can't be bought by a bunch of rich white boys from New York," said Harris Johnson, a former state Democratic party official and Durham resident for 56 years.

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December 15, 2006 — Under cross-examination by defense attorney, Brad Bannon, at a pre-trial hearing, Brian Meehan, the director of DNA Security repeatedly admitted that he and Mike Nifong agreed to coordinated an effort to avoid turning over exculpatory information to the defense. This was the dramatic turning point when Nifong's case started completely coming apart.

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December 16, 2006 — Amy Poehler of Saturday Night Live does a parody of Nancy Grace reporting the Duke case:

"For the false accuser, when they are finally proved to be lying, it’s like being raped all over again—except for the fact that they weren’t actually raped the first time. And in that moment, the phony victim is forced to relive the horror of what she claimed had happened to her, which is not only emotionally wrenching, but almost impossible to do—since, again, it didn’t actually happen to her."

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December 21, 2006 — Nifong sends his investigator, Linwood Wilson, to re-interview Crystal Gail Mangum. This is one day after he received the initial grievance letter from the NC State Bar. Mangum as described by Wilson recants her previous statements. For the first time, she starts using the real names of the defendants. Mangum now remembers that: "Someone opened the door and handed them towels and they started wiping me off, Dave Evans off and wiping up the floor." This new version of the crime wipes clean the significance of DNA evidence.

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December 22, 2006 — Nifong dismissed part of the rape case against three former Duke University lacrosse players after Mangum told DA investigator, Linwood Wilson, she wasn’t certain now if she had been penetrated during the attack. The three men were still charged with first-degree sexual offense and first-degree kidnapping.

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December 28, 2006 — The North Carolina bar filed ethics charges against Nifong. The charges accussed him of saying misleading and inflammatory things to the media about the lacrosse players. Specifically, the charges say: "Nifong engaged in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation."

January 2, 2007 — Nifong is sworn into office at a private ceremony. He amazingly says: "I need to be part of the healing process."

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January 12, 2007 — Columnist Barry Saunders of the News & Observer expresses the viewpoint of Nifong's supporters in the black community. They want a court to decide the matter. — "Accusers, even when they're strippers with possibly faulty memories, have a right to be heard -- once prosecutors ensure that the case deserves to be heard. So let it be heard....That's why we have courts."

Saunders like many people who were incited by this case forgets that the Constitution's Sixth Amendment only guarantees that the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial.

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January 12, 2007 — Nifong asks to be removed from the case. “He feels, as a result of the accusations against him, that he would be a distraction and he wants to make sure the accuser receives a fair trial,” Nifong's attorney David Freedman told The Associated Press. “He still believes in the case. He just believes his continued presence would hurt her.”
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January 14, 2006 — CBS 60 Minutes interview: When asked what they would say to Nifong if he were in the room, Rae Evans, the mother of indicted player David Evans, says, "I would say with a smile on my face, 'Mr. Nifong, you've picked on the wrong families … and you will pay every day for the rest of your life.'"

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January 20, 2007 — Charlotte Allen, The Weekly Standard: ... it was the Duke faculty that could be said to have cooked up the ambient language that came to clothe virtually all media descriptions of the assault case -- that boilerplate about "race, gender, and class" (or maybe "race, gender, sexuality, and class") and "privileged white males" that you could not read a news story about the assault case without encountering, whether in the New York Times, the Washington Post, or Newsweek for example. The journalists channeled the academics ... The metanarrative they came up with was three parts Mandingo and one part Josephine Baker: rich white plantation owners and their scions lusting after tawny-skinned beauties and concocting fantasies of their outsize sexual appetites so as to rape, abuse, and prostitute them with impunity....

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January 25, 2007 — NY Post: The prosecutor in the Duke lacrosse case lied to the court and withheld evidence from the defense about the sensational rape charges, the North Carolina state bar charged yesterday...

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January 29, 2007 — Rev. William Barber head of the NC NAACP is invited to give a Sunday sermon at the Duke Chapel. He defends Crystal Mangum, saying, “What about a society where young ladies even have to consider sexual occupation for financial sustainment, or to use those things as a flawed attempt to gain self-esteem?” He called attention to "the real issue of sexual violence against so many women.” On January 18th Barber had said, "We sincerely believe that the high level of public scrutiny and controversy involved in this matter is unwarranted and threatens to pervert the truth finding process." He asked the defense attorneys to shut up and stop leaking information about the case to the media. Barber said it could contaminate a potential jury pool and heighten community emotions.

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April 11, 2007 — North Carolina, Attorney General Roy Cooper holds a press conference and declares all three Duke defendants are completely "innocent." He calls Mike Nifong a "rogue prosecutor."

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April 11, 2007 — David Evans, Collin Finnerty, Reade Seligmann and their attorneys hold a press conference after Attorney General Roy Cooper's announcement.

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April 12, 2007 — The New York Post published Crystal Mangum's 2003 mugshot on the front page.

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June 12, 2007 — On day one of the North Carolina State Bar Disciplinary Hearing Durham PD investigator Ben Himan revealed that Nifong was worried about the lack of evidence early in the case. He quoted Nifong as saying, "'You know we're f*****d"

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June 12, 2007 — Defendant Mike Nifong listens to testimony regarding his unethical prosecutorial misconduct during the first day of the state bar hearing.

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June 15, 2007 — State Bar Disciplinary Hearing Committee Chairman F. Lane Williamson reacts to Mike Nifong's "Mr. Magoo" defense for his premeditated, contrived, corrupt, unethical, and malicious prosecution of three innocent men.

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June 15, 2007 — On day four of the state bar hearing a teary-eyed Mike Nifong said whatever the outcome of the ethics hearing he will resign as Durham DA. He offered a half-hearted apology to the lacrosse players. Nifong's weak apology was shortlived when two hours later he restated that he thought "something happened that night."

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June 15, 2007 — Mie Nifong's son and wife watch him offer his resignation on the witness stand.

----

June 19, 2007 - Judge Orlando Hudson suspends Mike Nifong with pay and asks the Durham County sheriff to confiscate the former prosecutor's keys and courthouse access card. Hudson signs an order, which removes Nifong from office until his resignation becomes effective.

----

June 25, 2006 — Mike Nifong's chief investigator, Linwood Wilson is fired by new DA Jim Hardin. For over a year Wilson did everything he could to undermine justice and help railroad three innocent men. The next day Judge Orlando Hudson accused Wilson of threatening a witness and violating the constitutional rights of someone in a case not related to the Duke incident.

----

July 26, 2007 — Disgraced former prosecutor Mike Nifong issues his third apology to the Duke players at his criminal contempt hearing. He said, "there is “no credible evidence” that three Duke lacrosse players committed any of the crimes he accused them of more than a year ago. It is his first unequivocal apology for prosecuting the bogus lacrosse case.

----

August 15, 2007 — Nifong turned in his law license as ordered - but complained that the document wasn't fit for showing off anyway because his dog ate some of it. He also accused the bar of "Fundamental Unfairness." On August 23, 2007, the State Bar sends Nifong a bill for $8897.71 to cover the costs of the depositions and hearing.

----

August 31, 2007 — Superior Court Judge W. Osmond Smith III finds Nifong guilty of criminal contempt after a two day trial. Nifong is sentenced to 24 hours in jail.

----

September 4, 2007 — The book, Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case, is released. Stuart Taylor, Jr. and Prof. KC Johnson wrote the definitive book about the lacrosse case. They go on Good Morning America to talk about the injustice.

Stuart Taylor Jr. said: "I think it happened in, most generally, because Mike Nifong, the prosecutor, was desperate to win an election. The reason he was desperate to win an election was not that he wanted to be a big-shot politician or governor. He was worried about his pension."

----

September 7, 2007 — Mike Nifong goes to jail for 24 hours. He is escorted to and from the jail by a group of his supporters in a very strange procession. His mug shot is quickly published around the world.

------

September 29, 2007 — Duke University President Richard Brodhead apologized at a Duke Law School conference for the school's lack of full support for the three lacrosse players falsely accused last year of raping Crystal Gail Mangum.

It was Brodhead's first public apology for the university's handling of the case. He said:

First and foremost, I regret our failure to reach out to the lacrosse players and their families in this time of extraordinary peril. Given the complexities of the case, getting this communication right would never have been easy. But the fact is that we did not get it right, causing the families to feel abandoned when they most needed support. This was a mistake. I take responsibility for it, and I apologize. [...]

-----

October 5, 2007 — The three former Duke lacrosse players wrongly accused of rape filed a sweeping civil rights lawsuit against the city of Durham, a host of police officers, former District Attorney Mike Nifong, and the DNA laboratory hired by the disbarred former prosecutor.

David F. Evans, Collin Finnerty, and Read Seligmann, Plaintiffs v.
The City of Durham, North Carolina, Michael B. Nifong, Mark Gottlieb, Benjamin Himan, David Addison, Linwood Wilson, Steven Chalmers, Beverly Council, Ronald Hodge, Jeff Lamb, Steven Mihaich, Michael Ripberger, Lee Russ, DNA Security, Inc., Richard Clark, and Brian Meehan, Defendants.

-----

December 18, 2007 — ABC News reported:

Unindicted Duke LAX players sue Duke University -- In a filing Tuesday in Federal Court, [three] unindicted Duke Lacrosse players are suing Duke University, the City of Durham, Duke University professors, Mike Nifong and the DNA lab involved in the case.

The suit also names doctors and nurses who treated the alleged victim the night she claimed she'd been raped at a party. The players are also suing City Manager Patrick Baker and former Durham Police Chief Stephen Chalmers. As part of the investigation, the unindicted players had to give up DNA samples and were named in the school paper. [...]

----

Robert Bork, Jr. (left), spokesman for the lacrosse plaintiffs & Steven Henkelman, father of Duke lacrosse player Erik Henkelman speak at a Washington press conference

On February 21, 2008, 38 members of the Duke lacrosse team and several of their parents filed a lawsuit against Duke University, the City of Durham and a number of other defendants for their roles in what has come to be known as the Duke lacrosse scandal.

----

On March 27, 2008, Durham taxi driver Moezeldin Elmostafa received the Reader's Digest 2008 Hero of the Year Award. Peggy Northrup of Reader's Digest presented the award on the Today Show.

Moezeldin Elmostafa was a key witness in supporting Reade Seligmann's alibi. Because he came forward Nifong and his people tried to intimidate Elmostafa by arresting him on an old bogus warrant (for picking up an alleged shoplifter).

----

On October 23, 2008, Crystal Mangum held a press conference to promote a forthcoming book, entitled The Last Dance for Grace. The Crystal Mangum Story, in which she maintains she was assaulted by the Duke lacrosse players.

At the press conference Mangum states, "I'm not just someone that tried to frame innocent people for sexual assault."

Lacrosse attorney Joe Cheshire said, “Her press conference and her continued assertion that an assault happened is really pathetic . . . She’s clearly doing this to make money. By continuing to lie, she makes everything in the book, everything she says, a lie."

Phil Seligmann, father of former Duke lacrosse player Reade Seligmann, responded to Mangum's press conference by issuing a statement. He said: "Ms. Mangum's 'manuscript' is simply a pathetic attempt to further her need to remain in the public eye at the expense of demonstrably innocent individuals... We are presently evaluating all available legal options. If Ms. Mangum and those associated with her continue to slander Reade, we will have no choice and will not hesitate to utilize those options."

----

admin note: This is a *very* large web page. If pictures are slow to load do a refresh or right click an image space and select "view image."

related:
TJN: The Duke Lacrosse Saga in Cartoons
TJN: Duke Case: Index/Timeline [case coverage from March 24, 2006 - Dec. 2007]

Link List — August 20, 2007

• WaPo: As Democracy Push Falters, Bush Feels Like a 'Dissident'

  By the time he arrived in Prague in June for a democracy conference, President Bush was frustrated. He had committed his presidency to working toward the goal of "ending tyranny in our world," yet the march of freedom seemed stalled. Just as aggravating was the sense that his own government was not committed to his vision...

  Discussion:
  
  Prairie Weather: All Bush ever wanted was democracy
  Laura / War and Piece: The WP's Peter Baker missed a few important insights in its piece
  
  P.M. Carpenter / p m carpenter's commentary: OF SOFT-HEADED MESSIAHS AND HARD KNOCKS
  Lambert / Corrente: WaPo to readers: The government is Bush's. People to WaPo: No, it's ours
  The Heretik: The Dissident — George Bush is that put upon fellow …

• YouTube: Plane catches fire at Japan Naha-airport - August 19, 2007

• The Sultan, a miniature copy of the Koran, and an unpaid bill for $8m

  the Sultan, despite his estimated £22billion fortune, allegedly failed to pay up, and yesterday the case reached the New South Wales Supreme Court - where it was promptly dismissed. Judge Robert McDougall ruled it could not be heard in Australia and said the men would have to sue in Brunei. But Michael McGurk, director of their company, Garsec, said this course of action was not available. The Sultan, 60, has declared himself above the law in his own country...

• Ted Nugent might run for Governor of Michigan

  At age 58, Nugent still brims with teenage enthusiasm for hard rock music. He is also one of the nation's most outspoken gun and hunting advocates. And he is considering a run for political office...
  

• Are We Failing Our Geniuses? - TIME

• Linux 101: Mount a Windows shared folder in Linux - Lifehacker

• Geek To Live: Compare and merge files and folders with WinMerge - Lifehacker

• Hibernate Mapping Cheat Sheet

• Top Free Web Hosting | Web Hosting Guide

• Matt Cooper Says Rove DID Leak Valerie Plame’s Identity To Him: UPDATED!

• A Geek Wife's statement after a night of drinking [PIC]

  This is awesome. She told her husband through his computer, how she really felt of him, and at the same time, rearranged all of his desktop icons!

• "We know you can't see this but if you drive past it you'll get a ticket." How north Texas cities get more fines from drivers.

• And You Think You're Cramped? (Photos)

• The Truth About Santa Claus [PIC]

  Santa gives more to rich kids!

• Google's Continued Growing Pains

  eldavojohn writes "The Mercury News is reporting that Google's 500 percent growth since its IPO hasn't come without a cost. With the purchase of DoubleClick, Google is facing antitrust charges in both the United States and the European Union. And with their rising success, there are…

• 20 Comic Book Covers Which Reveal Superman's Identity

  A compilation of 20 comic book covers on which Superman's identity (Clark Kent) is supposedly found out by some enemy/ friend/by-stander.

• The Last Jedi Supper [pic]

  Use the Fork, Luke.

• Dilbert: Secret salaries are a bad idea

• Methinks the system is broken! U.S. airport officials stop 7-yr-old Brit as terror suspect

• 10 Most Underreported Stories of Last Year

  Time takes a look at stories that mainstream media didn't give proper coverage to.

• The World’s 3 Most Expensive Beers

  There are different ways to measure it, and everyone has their own personal favorite, but it seems pretty clear that the official title of "world's most expensive beer" goes out to these 3 luxury brands of beer.

• XKCD wants your photos of naked chicks playing electric guitar in the shower

• XKCD: Rule 34

• Matt Cooper Says Rove DID Leak Valerie Plame's Identity To Him

  Cooper, who was dead center in the Valerie Plame scandal, stops just short of calling Karl Rove a liar, insisting that he did, in fact, leak Valerie Plame’s name to him in 2003.

• Grossly oversimplified, but nonetheless absolutely true - graph showing that Democrats and Republicans are virtually the same thing - right wing authoritarian facists.

• Survey: Majority of Americans Agree with Dennis Kucinich

• Why You Shouldn't Park Here (PIC)

  Best Private Parking Sign Ever. Anyone know where this is located?

• Money: Educate Yourself With 20 Investments

  Want to diversify your financial portfolio? Try reading Forbes' writeup of twenty investment options, part of their stellar Investopedia service.You'll learn about all sorts of good stuff here: annuities, common stocks, corporate bonds, etc. Each definition is short and to the point,…

• Top 100 Independent Games

  Independent games are interesting, but it can be hard to find the best games. Without further ado, Game Tunnel presents the Top 100 Indie games from the last 3 years!

• Algorithm draws on millions of images to seamlessly fill blanks in photos

  The advent of digital photography has opened up a new world of image editing possibilities including the ability to fill-in blanks or replace unwanted parts of an image.

• First Hour of Metroid Prime 3

  That’s right, brought to you by YouTube(man I love this thing they call the interweb 2.0).

• 12 volt battery hack

• My glasses

• Unlock the $40 hidden inside a 12V battery

• A World Without Humans? It All Falls Apart

  NYC subways flood in 2 days, Fires rage after 5 years........See the destruction.

• Damn Interesting: When "They" Became "Him"

• Stephen King confirms 'The Dark Tower' Movie

  Who's doing it? The writers of ABC's "Lost". “I know J.J. Abrams’ work and Damon Lindelof, who is his collaborator on Lost. Damon is just a total comic-book freak, and he loves the Dark Tower books. I trust those guys, and they have a lot on the ball."

• Not a bug.

• Company Refunds Part Of Guy's Shipping Fee Because He Lives Nearby

• Wifes statement after a night of drinking [pic]

• What's a Splatter Zone? Oh.. // pic

  I'd definitely stay away from one of these.

• Paper: How Rove directed federal assets for GOP gains

  Sunday's Washington Post reports on how presidential adviser Karl Rove directed federal assets for GOP gains, calling his efforts "unprecedented in its reach.""Thirteen months before President Bush was reelected, chief strategist Karl Rove summoned political appointees from around…

• Real gangstas have vines on their curtains

• Canada is America's #1 trading partner. Not China. Canada.

• The real center of the U.S

  Its not where you would think...

• Build Your Own YouTube With Lighttpd And FlowPlayer (Debian Etch)

  This article shows how you can build your own video community using lighttpd with its mod_flv_streaming module (for streaming .flv videos, the format used by video communities like YouTube) and its mod_secdownload module. I will use FlowPlayer as the video player, a free Flash video player. I will…

• BioShock PC Demo: Tomorrow (Monday 20th) 7 PM EST

  "The wait is nearly over. At 7 PM EST the BioShock PC demo will go live for you to enjoy. We will have exclusive pre-loading at Fileplanet. Set your watches for 7 o'clock! IMPORTANT: Please be sure to download the latest drivers from ATI and Nvidia that will be available Monday for best…

• The Top 100 Sci-Fi Books

  I don't know what voting agency chose this, but it looks like a pretty informed list.

• Diabetic hospitalised after airport securty takes insulin

• Rep. Young's earmark rejected!

• [Cartoon] Why are so many Republicans Running?

  Just look who is behind them.

• The Dog Who Waited For His Owner Everyday For 11 Years

  "During his owner's life, Hachikō saw him off from the front door and greeted him at the end of the day at the nearby Shibuya Station. Even after Ueno's death in May 1925, Hachikō returned every day to the station to wait for him, and did so for the next 11 years."

• Where should we meet today? [PICTURE]

  Well this looks like a good place..

• Karl Roves father's pierced penis exposed on BoingBoing

  It appears Karl's dad had some interesting hobbys.

• Another weird example of the Onion predicting the future...

YouTube videos in the news:

• SEGMENT 1 -- FEDERAL INCOME TAX

  Lie Free Zone presents Tom Cryer, the Shreveport Lawyer who has taken on the IRS, who explains why most Americans are not liable for the income tax: There Is No Law Making Them Liable!

• QualityStocks Daily Video 4/20/2007

  Welcome to The Daily Stock Report...brought to you by QualityStocks.Net, performance tracked daily. I'm James Christopher and for Friday April 20th we're bringing you the latest news from around the markets as well as the top movers to look out for today... (HEADLINE NEWS) In Headline News…

• Chemtrail Activist

  GET ACTIVE. Find YOUR own creative way to expose chemtrails.

• Minister George Yeo's address at World Economic Forum

  This is an excerpt of Minister George Yeo's address at the plenary session of the World Economic Forum on East Asia on 24 June 2007. The topic of the plenary is "Where is leadership needed the most in Asia?"

• I get blown up!

  Hit by a IED (Roadside Bomb) in downtown Ramadi

• The Space Shuttle Columbia

  v The Space Shuttle Columbia touches down on lakebed runway 23 at Edwards Air Force Base, California, to conclude the first orbital shuttle mission.

• Border Crossings/ Cruzando Fronteras

  Border Crossings/Cruzando Fronteras touches on crucial issues that surround the increased militarization of the U.S./Mexico border. The United States Border Patrol, now part of the new formed Department of Homeland Security, has a history of abusing its power. Examples of this abuse range from…

• My Apartment, Flint Village, North Campus, Buffalo NY

  My Apartment, Flint Village, North Campus, Buffalo NY

• Hurricane Chris-A Bay Bay

  Hurricane Chris A Bay Bay (C) 2007 J Records, a Unit of SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT

• Mickey 3D - Respire

  Respire par Mickey 3D

• Ducati Corse is a start-up, Silicon Valley way!

  http://www.uberpulse.com/us/2007/07/ducati_corse_tiny_team_big_results_video.php Believe it or not, at least for the ones, like me, who are not totally familiar with motorcycle racing, the Ducati race team dubbed Ducati Corse is a very small one compared to the "Japanese" like Honda or…

• Key Bank Tower Implosion in Salt Lake City

  A series of explosions in quick sequence shattered Saturday's still morning air in downtown Salt Lake City, and seconds later what once was Utah's tallest bank tower fell in on itself in a billowing cloud of dust and was reduced to a pile of rubble. The implosion of the former Key Bank tower…

• Diabetes - patient engagement

  How the University of Warwick Medical School involves patients in the development of research programmes and treatments

Link List — August 18, 2007

• White House to Offer Iraq Plan of Gradual Cuts

  The White House plans to use a report next month assessing progress in Iraq to outline a plan for gradual troop reductions beginning next year that would fall far short of the drawdown demanded by Congressional opponents of the war, according to administration and military officials.
  
  discussion:
  Tom Maguire / JustOneMinute: Gonna Walk (Before They Make Us Run)
  Atrios / Eschaton: Thanks, Oh Wise Old Men of Washington
  The Xsociate / All Spin Zone: Numbers Game — The White House may propose troop cuts.

• LA Times Editorial: It's not journalism

  Google's latest effort highlights the difference between what it does and what newspapers and magazines do... Many publishers consider the Internet, and Google in particular, a greater threat to their livelihoods than Osama bin Laden. Among those who have taken particular offense at Google are some current and aspiring newspaper publishers, including Sam Zell (who's in the process of buying Tribune Co., owner of the Los Angeles Times), who once famously asked, "If all of the newspapers in America did not allow Google to steal their content, how profitable would Google be?"
  
  Discussion:
  David A. Utter / WebProNews: LA Times Loses It Over GoogleDonna Bogatin / Insider Chatter: Google News is a Joke: LA Times is NOT LaughingDave Winer / Scripting News: Journalism is the new Catholic ChurchMike Masnick / Techdirt: LA Times: Publishers Think Google Is Worse Than Osama bid Laden
  Amy Webb / mydigimedia: From the "Um, I don't think so..." Departme
  Andy Plesser / Beet.TV: Could Topix "Kill Off American Newspapers?"
  RELATED:
  Robert Niles / Online Journalism Review:The L.A. Times tells its readers: 'Shut up' — Commentary: A Times editorial attacks the concept of reader comments on news stories, declaring Google a greater threat "than Osama bin Laden." — The Los Angeles Times this morning insulted its readers in a stunning editorial that compared Google …
  
  Discussion: Scripting News, paidContent.org and Techdirt Discussion: Dave Winer / Scripting News: Google running circles around the journos
  Staci D. Kramer / paidContent.org: Weekend Reading II: Experimental Google News Comments Feature …
  Mike Masnick / Techdirt: SF Chronicle's Stages Of Google Grief Lead To Suggestion For Google …

• Tourist Wrestles Gator in Penn.

  Joe Remenar is no Steve Irwin, but his last day of vacation was action packed when the Washington state resident and his family and friends spotted an alligator in a Pennsylvania creek Monday night.

• Australia: Crocodile snaps up shark [pic]
  

• The Smoking Gun: Bonds sold steroids to nuns, and hid the rest in the hollow portion of Hank Aaron's corked bat.

  Barry Bonds and Bud Selig are in a secret conspiracy together to boost television ratings. Mr. Seilg has been secretly giving Barry Bonds steroids for over 9 years under the supervision of Sammy Sosa. Mr. Selig on 2 occasions (Dec 10th 2001, Feb 6th, 2003) met Mr. Bonds at the I-70 Steak N Shake, Booth #11 made an under the table cream exchange, needles, HGH [Human Growth Hormone],as Mr. Bonds provided Mr. Selig 22 thousand for his services. I planted a buy in booth #10, Robert Novak and Judith Miller have copies of the transcripts... I also witnessed Mr. Bonds selling steroids to nuns.

• 535-foot version of the Slip ‘n Slide [pics]
  

  The whole thing started when my father, my two best friends, and myself were drinking beer out on the back porch of my father's place. About a 9 Killian's into the conversation, we decided to build a slip and slide for a party we wanted to throw... We decided to use a 'dozer to cut a trench for the slide to fit into...

• The software awards scam « Successful Software

• Marcello's Homepage - Comics - Calvin & Hobbes

• 404 Error Pages: Reloaded | Design Showcase

• 'We have broken speed of light' - Telegraph

• GovSales - Home Page

• A taxonomy of Rails plugins

• TSA's "Behavior Detection Officers"

  Stanistani sends us to MSNBC for a dyspeptic Newsweek commentary on the TSA's latest attempt to make air travel safer: the rather ominously named "Behavior Detection Officers" now working in a dozen US airports, and slated to go nationwide in 2008. They are trained in the discipline of…

• China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission

• Could you jump off a bridge or a tall building and survive the fall?

• Why can't Yahoo shut down the email addresses of 419 scammers? Marking as spam doesn't help anyone.

• Colleges Wrestle With Thumb Drives

  Lucas123 writes "IT managers at colleges and universities are grappling with the problem of finding ways to better secure removable storage media in an environment that encourages information sharing. Draconian security mandates 'may be common in the corporate world, but "we don't…

• Could you Jump off a Bridge or a Tall Building and Survive?

  I've often read that if you jump off the Golden Gate Bridge, you will accelerate to the point where hitting the water will be like hitting concrete. But my little brain keeps saying, "Yeah, but it's WATER!" Could you jump off a bridge like the Golden Gate and contort your body in…

• Journalists Sue HP For Invasion of Privacy

  Stony Stevenson writes "Four journalists and one of their family members are suing Hewlett-Packard for obtaining their personal phone records. The journalists filed lawsuits in California this week, claiming that HP invaded their privacy, intentionally inflicted emotional distress, and violated…

• Escape Attempt (PIC)

  Run little guy, run!

• The Limits of Tolerance [PIC]

  Respect all People and Religions except ...

• If programming languages were cars...

  Ruby - is a car that was formed when the Perl, Python and Smalltalk cars were involved in a three-way collision. A Japanese mechanic found the pieces and put together a car which many people think was better than the sum of the parts. (List oddly misses off PHP).

• Chewie cops a feel (PIC)

  Graaaawr!

• Pizza Delivery 2.0

  Dominos now accepting pizza orders via SMS

• How Much Time Rudy Giuliani Really Spent At Ground Zero [GRAPHIC]

  Records show that Giuliani spent 29 hours there, far less time than that of recovery workers, who often worked consecutive 12-hour days.

• Colection of all Calvin and Hobbes, in chronological order.

• I wish I was a salesman this lucky.

  [link] [more]

• How Societies Commit Suicide

• How I Got Arrested for Holding an IMPEACH Sign

  "You were obstructing the sidewalk!" and "I'm sick of this s***!" then he said, "Here's your 15 minutes of fame buddy!" I looked back to see his name plate and he said in a mean condescending tone, "Yea, that's 'Sergeant Riddle' get it…

• Scientology buys a chunk of Harlem.

• EA Finally Delivers Those Mac Games

  Yo! The Apple store finally has those Mac games EA promised this summer. This week, plenty of Mac sites (with writers who have never heard of this thing called the X-BOX) have complained about the ship delay.

• Alex Albrecht SMS Sounds Set

  A collection of 13 SMS sound effects made from the rac-it-car sounds of the Unique Alex Albrecht... Awsom as Short put strange SMS alert tones ! Dont Forget to Digg This

• Cookbook For Third-Party Apps On iPhone

  a_skripko suggests this easy step-by-step procedure for adding third-party applications to an Apple iPhone. While the article claims "this procedure can be performed by the average user," it might at least have to be an average user with no fear of the command line. Read more of this…

• (Video) The most infuriating Colbert Report interview I’ve ever seen

• "After our wedding we received two sackloads of hate mail"

• Mark Levin encourages phone scam. [blowback]

  Mark Levin is encouraging his listeners to call in to Ron Paul headquarters and telling them that they can't win. But there is a blowback brewing...today Friday, August 17th, the grassroots will flood the phone lines of his show to punish his actions.

• War Odometer (bumpersticker -- makes me wish I had a car to put it on... wait a minute...)

• How one cup of Starbucks coffee cost a customer $450

• NASA decides no shuttle repairs needed...This should end well

  NASA decided Thursday that no repairs are needed for a deep gouge in Endeavour's belly and that the space shuttle is safe to fly home. Mission Control notified the seven shuttle astronauts of the decision right before they went to sleep, putting an end to a week of engineering analyses and…

• 10 things you didn’t know about PHP.

  Here’s a short list of cool features that might have slipped under your radar.

• Aussies get lesson from pirated "Simpsons" movie: can't plug a digital leak

  Australian authorities have announced that they have arrested a man believed to be responsible for leaking the Simpsons Movie to the 'Net. A Sydney-area man is alleged to have used a mobile phone to record the film in a theater on the day of its release, which he then uploaded hours later,…

• How Can I Make My Computer Efficient?

  You probably won't be surprised to discover that I spend quite a bit of time thinking about this very question.

• CIA & FBI computers used for Wikipedia edits

  People using CIA and FBI computers have edited entries in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia on topics including the Iraq war and the Guantanamo prison, according to a new tracing program. The changes may violate Wikipedia's conflict-of-interest guidelines, a spokeswoman for the site said on…

• Man Cut in Half Lives but Thats Not the Amazing Part

• United States Poverty Map

• Jessica Biel getting naked for new role

  The 25-year-old actress will star in "Powder Blue," where she will play a stripper trying to earn money to raise her terminally ill son.

• The 17th century women's guide to looking good

  An edition of a rare 1694 manual, The Ladies' Dictionary: Being a General Entertainment for the Fair Sex, is going up for auction next month. Described as the Cosmopolitan magazine of its day, its pages include pointers on dating, make-up, diet and expanding the mind, as well as a large portion…

• Fark founder accuses Fox newsman of hacking.

  Curtis claims to have assembled all-but-conclusive electronic evidence that Phillips has tried to hack into Fark's servers, potentially breaking several laws.

• Are we failing our geniuses? TIME analyzes the real impact of leaving no child behind

• Daily Show to air reports, REAL reports, from Iraq

• Couple try to name baby "@"

  A Chinese couple tried to name their baby "@", claiming the character used in e-mail addresses echoed their love for the child.

• One of the Saddest Pictures You'll See

  A dog, alone, in a tropical storm, in the middle of the street, sitting.

• Could Linux become the dominant OS?

  The truth is that there can be multiple OSes but only one commodity OS, and Linux will eventually become that OS.

• 2008 Aston Martin DBS: Full specs, 45 photos

  Sex on wheels, thy name is DBS. Wow.

• Protect Your Creationist Beliefs in Style! (PIC)

• Comcast ruins Bittorrent transfers - not just bandwidth limiting

• best craigslist ad EVER

• The limits of tolerance [PIC]

• Photo of The Day: Aerial Shot of Blast That Killed 400 People In Iraq on August 17, 2007

YouTube Videos in News:

• Disney's The Rescuers - Hush, little baby

  Penny, from Disney's 1977 classic "The Rescuers" is featured in this short video montage of the lullaby, "Hush, little baby." This is the second video in celebration of the film's 30 anniversary.

• Heike Boutik

  Gift store for baby bibs, crib sheets, towel sets, finger mits, pilow blankets, and gift baskets

• Europe's Long Dream

  For fifty years Europe has dreamed of building a common market a community and a union of nations into what some have likened to a United States of Europe. Today, the European Union, takes in 27 nations and is the largest trading bloc in the world. Its population is larger than the United States and…

• 1. brooke astor

  1. brooke astor2. mary louise parker3. monty stratton4. van halen tour dates5. hurricane flossie6. john jacob astor7. brian crush adams8. van halen press conference9. spot runner10. bill plante11. hawaii hurricane12. sydney white13. mike wieringo14. hawaii weather15. jamie durie16. micronesia17.…

• Garibong Chinese Migrant Workers Center

  These pictures were taken during the celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival of 2006 at the Karibong Chinese Migrant Workers Center. The Center is owned and operated by the Archdiocese of Seoul. Fr. Francis Kim, SDB is the Director of the Center. The Divine Word Missionaries help at the Center along…

• Los Angeles - The Gang Capital of The World

  Los Angeles - City of Angels Many movies and songs about Los Angeles depict the notion that the city is home to a large number of gangsters and professional criminals. According to a May 2001 Drug Threat Assessment by the National Drug Intelligence Center, Los Angeles County is home to 152,000 gang…

• Cafe del Mar - Jose Padilla - Adios Ayer

  Este video que hoy os muestro lo subo por un motivo sentimental que tengo acerca del Chill Out ... Cafe del Mar y Jose Padilla han estado y seran simbolos del Chill Out actual. Este video les pertenece y por tanto quiero adjuntar sus respectivos enlaces. Cafe del mar WEB…

• Texas Republican slams Bush "demented philosophy of conquest

  Full story at http://www.thebluestate.com/2007/02/video_texas_rep.html Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) stood his ground and joined the twenty-or-so other Republicans that have decided to vote with the House Democrats in favor of a non-binding Iraq resolution that condemns President Bush's troop…

• Haggard Live in Ankara, Turkey 2006

  Saklıkent, Ankara 04-02-2006

• Dr. Jeff Zeiger on Alternative Fuels and Oil Independence

  Dr. Zeiger, Executive Director of the Alternative Fuels Institute speaks on the dire need for using alternative fuels to lessen our dependence on foreign oil and the importance for the "future of our children."

Link List — August 17, 2007

• Lewis Z. Koch /Firedoglake: Reflections On Padilla

  Looking back, there was a part of the trial I "missed" and thus couldn't share with you or comment upon. It happened before the trial itself actually started. I think if I had been as aware of it then as I am now, I would have forecast a much gloomier conclusion.
  Link Search: Google, Ask, Technorati, Sphere, and IceRocket
  +

  Discussion: Democracy Now, Jules Crittenden and Democrats.com
  –

  Discussion:

  Democracy Now: RUSH TRANSCRIPT — This transcript is available free of charge.

  Jules Crittenden: Up Creek With Padilla — A terrorism conviction by a jury …

  Bob Fertik / Democrats.com: Jose Padilla Trial Adds Another Urgent Reason for Impeachment

  » All Related Discussion

  « Hide All Related Discussion
  RELATED:
  Lindsay Beyerstein / Majikthise:
  The menticide of Jose Padilla

  Link Search: Google, Ask, Technorati, Sphere, and IceRocket

  +

  Discussion: Liberty Street, At-Largely, Associated Press, Salon, INTEL DUMP, Kiko's House, The Moderate Voice, Outside The Beltway and The Reaction

  –

  Discussion:

  Kathy / Liberty Street: Menticide and Jose Padilla

  Larisa Alexandrovna / At-Largely: Malkinites at work on "democracy"

  Associated Press: Padilla Convicted of Terrorism Support

  Glenn Greenwald / Salon: Posting news — Barring some unforeseen event and/or a profound …

  Phillip Carter / INTEL DUMP: Jury Finds Padilla Guilty

  Shaun Mullen / Kiko's House: (Updated) Jose Padilla & America's Shame

  Shaun Mullen / The Moderate Voice: (Updated) Jose Padilla & Our Shame

  James Joyner / Outside The Beltway: Jose Padilla Convicted on Terrorist Charges

  Creature / The Reaction: Padilla guilty, Bush and cronies still at large
  Democracy Now:
  EXCLUSIVE: An Inside Look at How U.S. Interrogators Destroyed …

  Link Search: Google, Ask, Technorati, Sphere, and IceRocket

  +

  Discussion: Associated Press

  –

  Discussion:

  Associated Press: Jury reaches verdict in Padilla terror case
  Abby Goodnough / New York Times:
  Jose Padilla Convicted on All Counts in Terror Trial
  Link Search: Google, Ask, Technorati, Sphere, and IceRocket
  Discussion: Balloon Juice, Brilliant at Breakfast, Washington Post, The Mahablog, CNN, The Atlantic Online, Truthdig, The Democratic Daily and Hot Air

• CNN: Coalition death toll in Iraq hits 4,000

  The gloomy milestone was reached as a U.S. general said there has been a rise in insurgents booby-trapping houses. Most of the fatalities throughout the Iraq war -- almost 3,704 -- have been U.S. military service members. That number also includes seven civilians working for the Pentagon. The nearly 300 others hail from countries, such as Italy, Poland and Ukraine, that have supported the U.S. effort, which began in March 2003...

• 3 rescue workers killed at Utah mine

• Musician Uncle Kracker jailed in Raleigh on sex charge
  

  Musician Matthew Shafer -- who performs under the name Uncle Kracker -- was in the Wake County Jail this morning on a charge of second-degree sex offense. Shafer was in Raleigh on Thursday night to perform in an outdoor concert at the Depot building on Davie Street downtown. Raleigh police spokesman Jim Sughrue said the charge stemmed from an incident at a downtown nightclub. Shafer was arrested early today at the Embassy Suites in Cary. He was being held in lieu of $5 million secured bond and was scheduled for a first appearance in court at 2 p.m. today.

• BuzzMachine (media eye): Vigilante journalism

  I love Jimmy Justice, the guy who wanders the streets of New York videotaping traffic cops who are violating the traffic laws they are supposed to enforce and confronting them with their sins. This is the power of the people, armed with their own cameras and the internet, acting as watchdogs on government. Isn’t that journalism? ...
  

• Noam Chomsky: How Propaganda Works in the West [edstrong.blog-city.com]

• YouTube - Royksopp - Remind Me

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• Watermarking to Replace DRM?

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• Thomas Jefferson once said, "The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first."

• Restarting Windows Without Restarting Your PC (Vista or XP)

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• Zoomed in Food Art [PICS]

  This is pretty creative stuff.

• MIT Focuses on Chip Optimization

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• Cleverest crows opt for two tools

• 10 Things You Don't Know About Women

  #1. Sorry, but we're actually all not "a little gay." Thanks for dashing all our manly man perverted dreams with that one. I'm still holding onto that one, ladies please can you at least fake a little bit for me? I guess the truth hurts.

• How planespotters turned into the scourge of the CIA

• How to get fired from Dairy Queen [PIC]

  Making something like this will surely get you fired from Dairy Queen

• An embarrassed Fox News hits Wikipedia

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• How to Haggle, there is no such thing as a firm price.

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• xkcd: Midnight Stories

• Pics of Awesomely Bad Action Figures

  Hmm I never ever knew they made gay dolls and named them Bob. Lol Gay Bob even comes with a catalog inside.

• Forced to Pick a Major in High School

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• 5 Reasons Not to Drink Bottled Water

  Just look at the labels or the bottled water ads: deep, pristine pools of spring water; majestic alpine peaks; healthy, active people gulping down icy bottled water between biking in the park and a trip to the yoga studio.

• "Imprisoning a U.S. citizen, on U.S. soil, with no charges of any kind, and then keeping him for years completely incommunicado, is just one of those lines which many people believed would never be crossed in America"

• An embarrassed Fox News strikes out at Wikipedia

• A boyfriend's public revenge on cheating girlfriend.

• White House may prevent general from testifying publicly

  If the White House gets its way, the Bush Administration's Sept. 15 progress report on Iraq may be delivered by the U.S. secretaries of state and defense -- and not by top US Iraq General David Petraeus and US Iraq Ambassador Ryan Crocker in a widely anticipated public congressional briefing.

• Diebold vote-hack roundup - Everybody's talking but nobody's doing anything. Can we PLEASE get this HUGE problem fixed before 2008? Or are we going to watch a third election get trashed.

• Get some exercise while stuck at your desk

  Check out this list of simple exercises you can do while stuck at your computer. Just because you're a slave in the cubicle farm, doesn't mean you have to be out of shape. Get fit, and help save humanity from the forthcoming robot war!

• Researchers create gravity in lab experiment - why has this gone quiet?

• IGN Xbox 360 Gives Bioshock a 9.7, highest rated game for the 360

  But to call this game simply a first-person shooter, a game that successfully fuses gameplay and narrative, is really doing it a disservice. This game is a beacon. It's one of those monumental experiences you'll never forget, and the benchmark against which games for years to come will, and…

• Want Yet Another Reason to Have Sex?

  Researchers have established a link between regular sexual activity and longevity, confirming what we already suspected: Sex is good for the heart.

• The software awards scam

  This software product has so far won 16 different awards and recommendations from software download sites. Minor issue is it doesn't even run - it is just a text file with the words “this program does nothing at all” repeated a few times and then renamed as an executable.

• BitTorrent Anime Downloaders Identified, $3500 Bill in the Mail

  A company that distributes Japanese animated cartoons has tracked down thousands of BitTorrent users it accuses of breaching their copyrights and has successfully forced their ISPs to reveal their identities. Next step - threatening letters: “Pay Us $3,500 or Else”.

• The Original Debian Announcement From 1993

  "This is just to announce the imminent completion of a brand-new Linux release,which I'm calling the Debian Linux Release. This is a release that I have puttogether basically from scratch; in other words, I didn't simply make somechanges to SLS and call it a new release."

• Group that advocated Bush become "President-for-Life" linked to Bush Administration itself

• Hottest Beach Volleyball Tournament of the Year

  bikini girls and hardbodies are the norm for the Southern California beach culture, but once a year during Surf Fest the Manhattan Beach hotties get suited up in costumes and compete with AVP pros and college stars for Six Man, the hottest vball action you'll see [photos]

• Liquid Kiss (PIC)

  Very cool!

• Government pushing religious video games.

  US Government pimping the "Left Behind" video game.

• BioShock gets another 10/10 this time from 1up.

  We emerge from the deep for our BioShock review.

• Group that wants Bush to be "President-for-Life" linked to Bush Administrat

  heard about this on, where else, the Thom Hartmann show. He discussed Democratic Underground's look at Family Security Matters. This bunch of sickos (apologies to Michael Moore) advocates that Bush should be our permanent president and that there should be no more democracy. Democracy is bad.…

• Iraqi Women Prostituting Themselves to Feed Their Children

  The women are too afraid and ashamed to show their faces or have their real names used. They have been driven to sell their bodies to put food on the table for their children -- for as little as $8 a day.

• Creationists tout Inca stones of dinos as proof of mans living with dinosaurs - but have you seen the ones with gay sex with giant penises?

• McCain Says 'No Similarity' Between Alcohol Prohibition and Drug Prohibition

• Undercover police officer's plan to check bar for underage drinkers fails when he forgets to bring his ID, decides instead to arrest bar owner for "impeding a public officer"

• Hotel mistakes Nobel laureate for bag lady, throws her out

• How UPS Delivers When You're Not Watching (Video)

• “You've reached this page because the site you were trying to visit now blocks the FireFox browser.”

• TJX Security Breach Described

  Bunderfeld notes more details coming out about how bad guys got into the TJX network. Last time we discussed this, the best information indicated that a WEP crack had started the ball rolling. Now we learn that instead, or in addition: "Poorly secured in-store computer kiosks are at least…

• Ron Paul: "[T]he drafters of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, both replete with references to God, would be aghast at the federal government’s hostility to religion."

• Behind the USPTO's Working With Peer-To-Patent

  Down-with-the-patents writes "As this community discussed earlier, the US Patent and Trademark Office is collaborating with the Peer-to-Patent program to stop bad patents from issuing. Brigid Quinn, spokesperson for the USPTO, explains the motivation of the USPTO to open up to the public what…

• Smile at the airport... or else: A new level of absurdity for America

• A Commonsense Proposal On Net Radio Rates

  quark235 tips us to an open letter to the RIAA, proposing a fairer royalty structure for Net radio, written by Paul A. Gathard. Gathard is president of Barnabus Road Media, a company that provides streaming radio services to commercial and non-commercial stations across the US. He contends that his…

• 3D Sidewalk Art

  

YouTube videos in the news:

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  A CAR THAT RUNS ON WATER!

• Big Ears in the Mountains, part 1 of 3

  This story looks at the role a secluded base in Sugar Grove, West Virginia, plays in the federal government's surveillance of communications. It first aired in March of 2006 on the program "Outlook," just a few months after the revelation of the Bush Administration's domestic…

• Cafe del Mar - Jose Padilla - Adios Ayer

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• Webster Tarpley comments on Rudolph W. Giuliani

  Webster Tarpley comments on Rudolph W. Giuliani

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• THE play in college footbal

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• Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln Part II

  Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln

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• J-COM Mis-order in Tokyo Stock Exchange.

  Mis-order of brokerage firm.

Nifong/Mangum Hoax — August 17, 2007

Updated - items:

KC Johnson:
Week in Review -- As the Michael Vick case moves on, Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Terence Moore had an interesting article that brought to mind events of the Duke case...

The reaction to Vick in some quarters of the African-American community brought to mind the blind—and short-sighted— support for Crystal Mangum among some Durham black residents...

As things appear now, those who blindly supported Vick appear to have been misguided—but surely no more than those who blindly, and in some cases gleefully, championed Mangum’s cause...

---------

John in Carolina:
Rickards’ Letter: Duke’s Silent So Far -- In response to a Durham Herald Sun story on fundraising at UNC –Chapel Hill and Duke for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2007, Ed Rickards (Duke ’60, Duke Law ’63) wrote a letter the H-S published last Friday.

The H-S story reported:

Officials at Duke reported Thursday that giving to their school was up about 11 percent, pushing the overall total for the fiscal year that ended June 30 to $380.1 million.

Campus fundraisers credit the figure to the popularity of Duke's efforts to endow scholarships. […]

Rickards' letter reminded readers Duke’s President, Richard Brodhead, and his administration have a pressing need “to proclaim good news in order to survive their handling of the lacrosse debacle.” ...

--------

Herald-Sun
Case casts cloud on Sheriff's Office -- Michael Paul Owens is expected to be sentenced in November on charges of drug trafficking, crimes that could land him in federal prison for up to 20 years. Owens has already pleaded guilty to dealing cocaine out of La Zona, a nightclub on North Roxboro Road where he was part owner.

But Owens is not just another run-of-the-mill drug pusher. While he was trafficking in illegal substances at La Zona, Owens was also supposed to be enforcing the law in his job as a Durham deputy sheriff...

---------

Paul Martin, Guest columnist, Herald-Sun:
Sheriff didn't hide a thing -- An Aug. 15 story in The Herald-Sun seems to imply that the Sheriff's Office is hiding illicit or unethical behavior from the public. Nothing can be further from the truth.

In the first place, all the information mentioned in the article was developed by Sheriff's Office SACNARC investigators. The investigators knew that when the case was adjudicated the information would become public...

---------

Patrick Wilson, Winston-Salem Journal:
Report brings questions about assistant DA -- Review of Marker case unclear as to showing of an exculpatory videotape -- A lawyer working on behalf of the man convicted in the 1995 beating of Jill Marker raised the specter yesterday of disgraced Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong in the way that Forsyth County prosecutors handled the case.

On Tuesday, the city of Winston-Salem released a report of an administrative review of the case by the police department. That review raises new questions about why an assistant district attorney who helped prosecute the case filed a document in court that was not accurate.

Questions also remain about whether the assistant, Mary Jean Behan, showed the defense attorney an exculpatory piece of evidence - a videotape showing that Marker did not identify Kalvin Michael Smith, the man who was convicted, as her attacker during a photo lineup...

--------

Kevin P. Hopper, Hopper law firm, MMDNewswire:
More Scandal in the Durham, North Carolina Legal System -- Durham, North Carolina -- Following on the heels of the recent scandal involving Durham Prosecutor Mike Nifong’s handling of the Duke Rape Case, a Durham family court judge acted today to imperil the life of an innocent eleven year old boy...

---------

Inside Lacrosse:
Men's lacrosse: Caputo named assistant coach at Duke -- Ron Caputo has been named assistant men’s lacrosse coach at Duke, announced on Thursday by Blue Devil head coach John Danowski.

Caputo spent the last four seasons on the Hofstra University men’s lacrosse staff as an assistant coach. He joined the Pride in 2004 as a volunteer assistant coach under Danowski, who served as the head coach at Hofstra from 1986-2006. During Caputo's tenure at Hofstra, the Pride compiled an overall record of 35-28.

"Ron is going to be such a great addition to our staff," said Danowski...

---------

Letter to Herald-Sun:
Praise for Whichard --

I'm writing this letter to praise the selection of Judge Willis Whichard to study the Durham police handling of the Duke lacrosse case. I've known Whichard since we were students at Durham High School. We spent time at Durham Jaycees and Hollow Rock Racquet Club. I know him to be one of the most honest, clear-headed thinkers that's ever come from Durham.

Durham should remember to use Whichard and others like him because they have great insight into Durham. I feel that people will realize what an outstanding place Durham is because of the work of people like Bill Whichard.

BOB COX
Durham

---------

Baldo, LieStoppers:
Let the X Games Begin [cartoon]

---------

KC Johnson:
The Lacrosse Case, Law & the Media -- To date, only one [law journal] article has been published that focuses entirely on the case. Penned by Susan Kosse, an assistant professor at the University of Louisville’s Brandeis School of Law, the article (31 S. Ill. U. L. J. 243) asks, “Do race and class impact media rape narratives?” ...

Kosse’s basic argument: Based on what she observed of the lacrosse case, “media rape coverage leaves much to be desired.”...

In other words, maybe this was a false claim, and maybe Nifong did indict without probable cause and then commit massive misconduct to sustain his case, and maybe the lacrosse players’ professors did advance their personal, professional, and pedagogical agendas on the backs of their own students, but . . . the media should have downplayed these issues and sacrificed the players on the altar of a “victims’ rights” agenda.

That sounds a bit like how the New York Times and the Herald-Sun approached the case.

related:
LS forum:
William L. Anderson e-mail to Susan Kosse -- Prof. Kosse,

I was stunned in the reading of your piece on the Duke case, not because I agreed with it, but rather because of your blatant disregard for the facts of that case. It is amazing to me with all of the information available, that people who actually have time to research the case nonetheless decide that once they have the "narrative" (your term) on which to base the case, then the truth does not matter. In essence, the "narrative" creates the truth, no matter what really might have happened...

---------

NY Post:
DUKE DA: DOG ATE MY LAW LICENSE -- The disbarred prosecutor in the Duke rape case has turned in his law license as ordered - but complained that the document wasn't fit for showing off anyway because his dog ate it.

Mike Nifong, the former Durham County district attorney, mailed the damaged license to the North Carolina Bar Association last week to comply with a ruling that stripped him of his right to practice law because of his unethical handling of the sensational case.

In his letter, he complained that his middle name was misspelled on the license, and added that there is damage to it "inflicted by a puppy in her chewing stage."

"Consequently, it has never been framed or displayed," Nifong wrote in the letter, obtained by the Web site The Smoking Gun...

---------

Keith Olberman, MSNBC:
‘Countdown with Keith Olbermann’ for August 15 -- KEITH OLBERMANN, MSNBC HOST:… but first time for COUNTDOWN‘s latest list of nominees for Worst Person in the World...

The silver to the disgraced and ousted North Carolina prosecutor Mike Nifong of Duke lacrosse infamy. Ordered to hand in his law license, the document he returned to the state featured extensive damage, which he claimed had been done, quoting his letter, by a puppy in her chewing stage?

Your dog ate your law license? What a fitting end...

---------

Alfaonso A. Castillo, Newsday:
Disbarred Duke DA takes final shots -- Former Durham, N.C., District Attorney Michael Nifong, disbarred and disgraced, went down swinging in his final act as a licensed attorney -- blasting state bar officials for their "unfairness" as he surrendered his law license last week.

Nifong was ordered to turn in his license after being found guilty of various ethics violations in a state bar disciplinary hearing in June. The hearing involved Nifong's actions in charging three Duke University lacrosse players, including Collin Finnerty of Garden City, with raping a stripper last year. The students were later cleared.

In a letter dated Aug. 7, Nifong said he was returning, unsigned, an "acceptance of service" for the state bar's order, which he said was modified without his knowledge since he last reviewed it. Nifong said that state bar disciplinary chairman F. Lane Williamson's characterization of the change as a "clerical correction" was "preposterous beyond belief, and is further evidence of the unfairness with which this entire procedure has been conducted."

---------

DukeBasketballReport:
Bad Nifong Reappears -- Mike Nifong is back in the news with an unhappy letter to the state bar decrying “the fundamental unfairness” of the procedures.Hmmm…fundamentally unfair procedure….now why does that sound familiar? Hmmm….

Oddly enough, when his hearing was over, Nifong said he was treated fairly...

---------

John in Carolina:
DPD’s Hodge & “evidence collected” -- In that N&O story we find a subhead,

A police view,

followed by this:

Deputy Police Chief Ron Hodge said Nifong's stepping aside won't change the substance of the evidence collected by the department's detectives that a sexual assault occurred.

Hodge said he thinks that the case will still go forward and that the remaining charges will be prosecuted.

"I don't think it changes anything that we've done," Hodge said. "It just means that we'll have to deal with a different attorney."

My reactions? Wow!

---------

Jonathan Martin, Seattle Times:
DNA evidence overturns Yakima man's rape conviction -- On a fall morning 12 years ago, a woman was nursing her infant in her Yakima home when a man wearing a nylon stocking over his head broke in. He covered her face with a mask, then raped her while her baby wailed in the background.

Ted L. Bradford was convicted of the rape and completed a nine-year prison sentence, but did not stop professing his innocence. DNA, he claimed, would prove him right.

Tuesday, a state appeals court agreed, making Bradford the first person in Washington whose conviction was overturned because of DNA evidence...

The ruling, however, does not end Bradford's case. Kevin Eilmes, a Yakima County deputy prosecutor, said his office would likely retry him based on a confession before his trial and other evidence.

The prosecutor also is considering an appeal to the state Supreme Court, he said...

Link List — August 16, 2007

• TechCrunch: Google Removes Blog Showing Leaked Facebook Code

  FacebookSecrets, the blog that posted the accidentally released source code for the Facebook main index page, has been taken down. The blog was hosted on the Google-owned Blogger blog network and was removed pursuant to a DMCA take down notice from Facebook.

• Canada: Manitoba Mounties nab Whiteshell 'sasquatch'

• Associated Press: Dutch bishop: Call God 'Allah' to ease relations

  Roman Catholic leader stokes already heated debate on religion — AMSTERDAM - A Roman Catholic Bishop in the Netherlands has proposed people of all faiths refer to God as Allah to foster understanding, stoking an already heated debate…

  Discussion:
  
  Wretchard / The Belmont Club: The Nine Billionth Name of God
  Steve Bainbridge / ProfessorBainbridge.com ®: The Name of God — WND reports: … Setting aside …
  Gaius / Blue Crab Boulevard: The Stars Going Out — There is a flurry of comment …
  Blogs of War: Dutch Bishop: Call God Allah to Ease Tensions
  Allahpundit / Hot Air: Netherlands Catholic bishop: Let's ease religious tensions — by calling God "Allah"
  

• KnowledgeWorks - Map of Future Forces Affecting Education - Education Map

• Product Advisory: Nokia BL-5C battery

• Greetings From Idiot America - Esquire

• Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | Charlie Brooker: Nightclubs are hell

• 30+ Tools For Working With Wordpress Posts

• Probably the most incredible picture you'll see today - does anyone have the original link for this? (PIC)

• New URI Browser Flaws Worse Than First Thought

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• CIA caught editing Iranian president's Wikipedia entries

• Quantum Computing and Optically Controlled Electrons

  eldavojohn writes "Researchers have released a new paper on quantum computing theorizing how to use optically controlled electrons to make an ultrfast quantum computer. From the article, "Scientists have designed a scheme to create one of the fastest quantum computers to date using light…

• Eating a Nut [pics]

• Olbermann Destroys Fox Anchor For "America Needs Another 9/11" and Jon Stewart Mocking

• Scientists show that it is possible to travel faster than the speed of light.

• Asian markets crashing, panic sets in as Fed bailouts fail

• Scientists break the speed of light

  It was supposed to be the one speed limit you cannot break. But scientists claim to have demonstrated there is the possibility of travel faster than the speed of light.

• Lifehacker's Top 10 PDF Tricks

  Chances are you've already got a free PDF reader installed on your computer, but you can do a lot more with your PDF files than you might think. Hit the link for our top 10 list of techniques for converting, exchanging,sharing, managing and editing PDF documents

• 58% of American's Get Fooled by Spam

  58% of American's don't even know that online scams exist. So, when the get spam, they assume it is real. Consumer Reports says Internet scams have cost American consumers $7 billion dollars since 2005

• Kucinich: 'Belligerent' Bush Admin. trying to 'deceive' US into war in Iran

  "The belligerent Bush Administration is using this pending designation to convince the American public into accepting that a war with Iran is inevitable," Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich said, referring to the Bush administration's decision to lable Iran's Revolutionary Guard a…

• Ever wonder what's in those black SUVs that follow the presidents car?

• Greetings From Idiot America

  Creationism. Intelligent Design. Faith-based this. Trust-your-gut that. There's never been a better time to espouse, profit from, and believe in utter, unadulterated crap. And the crap is rising so high, it's getting dangerous.

• Windows Is Free

  Conspicuously missing from most debate over which operating systems are better is the distortions created by the existence of pirated software. Windows, and Mac OS, are effectively free in the minds of most consumers. Most debate centered around features or stability is eclipsed by the lack of money…

• “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy” is not even in bookstores, but already anxieties have surfaced about the backlash it is stirring, with several institutions backing away from holding events with the authors.

• EA Caught Touching Up NBA Screenshots (PIC)

  It's no secret that most so-called "screenshots" of video games released by game publishers aren't just grabbed out of the game. They're carefully posed, using in-game assets. Now, sometimes these are exactly reflective of what the game looks like. Sometimes they are total…

• Boston Judge Denies RIAA Motion for Judgment

  NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "In a Boston case, Capitol v. Alaujan, the defendant is representing herself, without a lawyer. Nevertheless, the Judge denied the RIAA's motion for summary judgment, which the RIAA had based upon the defendant's alleged failure to respond to the RIAA's…

• Want to gain a little perspective on the last six years? - Jon Stewart's monologue his first day back after September 11th

• Scans 'show CIA wikipedia edits'

  An online tool that claims to reveal the identity of organisations that edit Wikipedia pages has revealed that the CIA was involved in editing entries. Wikipedia Scanner allegedly shows that workers on the agency's computers made edits to the page of Iran's President.

• YouTubeDesktop.com - the slickest YouTube browser yet?

  The idea behind YouTube Desktop is to bring a desktop application experience to navigating and viewing YouTube videos through a web browser.

• NASA discovers a "star unlike any seen before."

  when you look at this image of Mira with its comet-like tail, think on this: you are seeing a star’s way of making new stars. Like life itself, in death is renewal and the foundation for future generations.

• How to navigate a multi-mini roundabout [PICS]

  iIt’s called a multi-mini roundabout and was designed in order to defeat congestion problems and lower the amount of accidents that were occuring when it was an unsafe, normal roundabout. It gives me a headache just thinking about giving way to that many streams of traffic.

• Leaked: AT&T Customer Service Playbook

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• Ubuntu Girl - Spread the Linux with victorious weapons!

  This picture will be much more successful than any other right-minded strivings ;-)

• She's Only Wearing a Nintendo

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• The Secret to a Healthy Body

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• QUIZ: Which Transformer Are You?

  For centuries, two races of robotic aliens - the Autobots and the Decepticons - have waged a war, with the fate of the universe at stake. Now it’s your turn to engage in this epic battle. Will you Protect or Destroy? Take the quiz and see how you do.

• Psychologists to CIA: We condemn torture

  The American Psychological Association, the world's largest professional organization of psychologists, is poised to issue a formal condemnation of a raft of notorious interrogation tactics employed by U.S. authorities against detainees during the so-called war on terror, from simulated drowning…

• R.I.P: FOX’s “Half Hour News Hour” Canceled

  FOX Opinion Channels dreadful “Half Hour News Hour,” billed as the “right-wing answer to ‘The Daily Show;” has been canceled. It was really only a matter of time, wasn’t it?

• Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker Running @ 1600x1200, 8x AA, 16x AS

  Lets not wait for the Wii's successor which will 'only' be able to upscale to 1080p (at best). Gekko, an up and coming GameCube emulator, is already going in game with some classic GC games and outputting crisp graphics while it's at it.

• We are all just a Simulation [PIC]

  The Joy of Tech has the last laugh on the concept that we're all living in the Matrix.

• Bioshock Reviewed! 10/10 - "a dark and astonishing masterpiece"

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• Russians get day off to screw

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Nifong/Mangum Hoax — August 15, 2007

Updated — today's items:

Joseph Neff & Matt Dees, News & Observer:
Nifong sends in his license -- The former Durham district attorney vents as a panel reviewing police work in the lacrosse case inches along -- One form of resolution in the Duke lacrosse case came last week when former Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong mailed his law license to the N.C. State Bar, ending his legal career.

Another form will have to wait. It could be weeks before a committee even meets again to discuss the police department's handling of the case, let alone finishes its report.

Nifong left with a parting shot, mailing his license with a note decrying "the fundamental unfairness" of how the bar had treated him.

The bitterness in his letter, dated Aug. 7, contrasted with his statements in June, when the bar's Disciplinary Hearing Commission ordered him stripped him of his law license for intentionally and repeatedly lying and cheating during his prosecution of rape charges against three Duke lacrosse players.

Near the end of the June hearing, Nifong said through his attorney that the State Bar had treated him fairly and that he would not appeal the verdict....

source:
N&O: Nifong letter to bar, dated August 7, 2007 [pdf, 1 page]
SmokingGun: Nifong: The Dog Ate My Law License

The North Carolina State Bar
Attenion: Dottie Miani
Post Office Box 25908
Raleigh, NC 27611-5908

Re: The North Carolina State Bar v. Michael B. Nifong
06 DHC 34

Dear Ms. Miani:

Pursuant to F. Lane Williamson's signed order of July 20, 2007, a copy of which I received on July 18, 2007, I am hereby tendering my law license. You will note that it contains a misspelling of my middle name (which I unfortunately did not notice until after my swearing in) and damage subsequently inflicted by a puppy in her chewing stage. Consequently, it has never been framed or displayed.

I am unable to comply with the order that I surrender my membership card, as I have never been sent one. Since I have never encountered a situation in which I needed the card, I have never requested one.

I am also returning, unsigned, the Acceptance of Service for the amended order signed on July 24, 2007, which I received on August 3, 2007. Since the original order was prepared by the attorneys for the State Bar, submitted for review by the parties, and modified after objections were made, ample opportunity was given to include any proposed changes, and the changes incorporated in the amended order were not suggested by anyone. Mr. Williamson's e-mail assertion that the addition of a new conclusion of law based on the request of a Duke University law professor is merely a "clerical correction" is preposterous beyond belief, and is further evidence of the fundamental unfairness with which this entire procedure has been conducted.

Sincerely,
Michael B. Nifong

comment: The dog ate Nifong's license. Did he call poison control?

related:
Herald-Sun [registration required] :
Nifong gives up law license as ordered -- Former Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong is now a former lawyer, too.

Nifong mailed his law license to the N.C. State Bar last week, complying with an order issued July 10 by Lane Williamson, who chaired the Bar panel that disbarred Nifong in June for his handling of the Duke lacrosse case.

The panel accused Nifong of nearly two dozen violations of ethics rules and found him guilty on 11 counts.

In an Aug. 7 letter accompanying his law license, Nifong has sharp words for Williamson's decision to amend the original order to include an omitted count a Duke law professor noticed.

The change, he says, "is further evidence of the fundamental unfairness with which this entire procedure has been conducted."

Near the end of his Bar hearing in June, Nifong said he had been treated fairly...

discussion:
KC Johnson: Nifong Accuses Bar of "Fundamental Unfairness"
LS forum: Nifong: State Bar Unfair...
Fark: Nifong complains about "the fundamental unfairness" of bar...

---------

LieStoppers blog:
"Deja vu all over again" -- he [Nifong] claimed the poor shape of his law license was due to a puppy who chewed on it...

Word quickly spread throughout the community to canine lovers to keep their dogs off the streets. Chief Chalmers could not be reached but the Durham PD promised to investigate the matter fully and has assigned their best District II investigators. Sergeant "No Notes" Gottlieb’s EZ Dry Erase board was wiped clean in preparation and "With What" Himan promised he would buy some film...

---------

KC Johnson:
Nifong, Unfiltered --Mike Nifong’s August 7 letter surrendering his law license combined the pettiness, arrogance, and self-pity that characterized his performance throughout the lacrosse case...

Nifong’s most recent petulant response only confirms the DHC’s wisdom in taking his law license. This is a man who, in his unfiltered form, still appears to believe that he handled the lacrosse case in a procedurally proper manner.

--------

Less than 3 weeks to release - Order now
Amazon.com:
Until Proven Innocent --

“A gripping, meticulous, blow-by-blow account of the whole grotesque affair. It is beautifully written, dramatic, and full of insights, exposing how vulnerable the prosecutorial system is to abuse and how ready the liberal media and PC academics are to serve as leaders of the lynch mob. A must read for anyone who cares about individual rights and justice.”--William Barr, former U.S. Attorney General

“A chilling, gripping account of how our judicial system can go terribly wrong. This is an important book that brings the Duke story to life and exposes troubling facts about our justice system and our citadels of higher learning. You may think you know the Duke story—but you don’t until you read this book.”
—Jan Crawford Greenberg, ABC News legal correspondent and author of Supreme Conflict

---------

Forum topic(s) of note:

LieStoppers forum:
ESPN SOURCE... ESPN Shielding Lying source
-- This source was the originator of many falsehoods that were accepted by the General Public...
ESPN "journalism" is a joke.

--------

Mike McCusker, Crystal Mess blog:
Michael [photo essay] --

What have I got to do to make you love me?
What have I got to do to make you care?
What do I do when lightning strikes me?
And I wake to find that you're not there?

What do I do to make you want me?
What have I got to do to be heard?
What do I say when it's all over?
And sorry seems to be the hardest word.

It's sad!

So sad!

It's a sad, sad situation! ...

Link List — August 15, 2007

• WP: Iranian Unit to Be Labeled 'Terrorist'

  The United States has decided to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country's 125,000-strong elite military branch, as a "specially designated global terrorist," according to U.S. officials, a move that allows Washington to target the group's business operations and finances. The Bush administration has chosen to move against the Revolutionary Guard Corps because of what U.S. officials have described as its growing involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan...
  
  related:
  NY Times: U.S. Weighing Terrorist Label for Iran Guards
  
  discussion:
  Captain's Quarters, Firedoglake, Comments From Left Field, Harry's Place, The Atlantic Online, At-Largely, Hot Air, The Agonist, Ezra Klein, Riehl World View, JammieWearingFool, Roger L. Simon, Jules Crittenden, The Gun Toting Liberal™, The Reaction, Blogs of War, Prairie Weather, My Two Sense, Corrente, Brian Beutler, Wake up America and Dean's World
  
  Countdown / MSNBC: Drum Beat — For the first time ever, the United States Government …

  Chris Floyd / Empire Burlesque: Mob Rule: Gearing up for the Tehran Hit
  Frank James / The Swamp: Swamp Gas, Aug. 15, 2007
  Mike Carney / On Deadline: Reports: Iranian military branch to receive 'terrorist' designation
  Joe Klein / TIME: Swampland: Iranmania — More saber-rattling from the Bush Administration.
  Bill Scher / LiberalOasis: Time To Lead on Iran
  Hoffmania Himself / Hoffmania!: Bush Is Going For Broke — Another country that didn't attack America …

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• The "blog" of "unnecessary" quotation marks

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• [pics] Extreme sandwich making

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• Verizon vs. the Needham Fire Department

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• Toothpick and Nails Art [Pics]

• Olympic Committee Chooses XP Over Vista

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• BBC edits Wikipedia - calls George Bush a "wanker"

• 15 Amazing little known body tricks [videos]
  

• Congrats, you are on the frontpage of Digg (and reddit). As your webhost for the past 8 years, we have a special gift for you.

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• Michael Vick outed as an Al Qaeda operative, sued for 63 zillion dollars

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• How to make your own glowing tomato (not for consumption)

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• 10 'Million Dollar Ideas' That Shouldn't Have Worked

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  Looks like we do a better job of it than terrorists do.

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Guide to the Duke 'Group of 88'

Contents

• Timeline of events
• Who paid for the Listening statement?
• Bogus departmental endorsements, bogus anonymous quotes?
• Dowd lawsuit
• Settlement between Duke and families of 3 indicted men
• Reactions to Group of 88
• G88 members pre-Listening Statement remarks
• Clarifying their position.
• Rational for Listening Statement
• More attacks by Duke professors against the lacrosse team
  
• Original 'Group of 88' faculty members
• Concerned Duke Faculty (reorganized 'Group of 89')
• Motion to Change Venue
• Listening statement
• Clarifying statement/Open Letter to Duke Community
  
• College editorials criticising the 'Group of 88'
• KC Johnson articles

--------

Timeline of events:

The 'Group of 88' is a group of eighty-eight Duke University faculty members, who signed and published an advertisement they referred to as the 'Listening Statement,' in the independent Duke University student newspaper, The Chronicle, on April 6, 2006.

The advertisement was entitled, "What Does A Social Disaster Sound Like?" The advertisement was published shortly after the start of the Duke University lacrosse team scandal when three members of the 2006 Duke University's men's lacrosse team were falsely accused of raping a black stripper and prostitute, Crystal Gail Mangum, during a team party held, on March 13-14, at the residence of three of the team co-captains (David Evans, Dan Flannery, and Matt Zash).

The Listening Statement advertisement is generally considered to be prejudicial to the presumption of innocence regarding rape allegations made against three members of the Duke lacrosse team. It condemned the lacrosse team in the eyes of the world of being implicated in a sexual assault of a "young women."

The listening statement asserted unequivocally that something must have "happened" to the accuser, and that these members of the faculty had committed themselves to "turning up the volume." The advertisement also said "thank you" to the protesters who had participated in potbanging demonstrations (one with a 'Castrate' banner) against the lacrosse team and who were distributing "wanted" posters of the Duke Lacrosse team throughout the community.

The advertisement signaled to Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong that he had the support of a vocal segment of the Duke faculty as he pursued his fabricated indictments against the three innocent lacrosse players. This emboldened Nifong even further.

The Group of 88 was primarily comprised of faculty from the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences. Group of 88 members were concentrated in the following academic departments:

African & African-American Studies 80%
Women's Studies 72%
Cultural Anthropology 60%
Romance studies 44.8%
Literature 41.7%
English 32.2%
Art & Art History 30.7%,
History 25%.

The Listening Statement and the subsequent statements and actions of the Group of 88 members and their faculty supporters sparked a national controversy.

Shortly after the Listening Statement was published, Duke Chronicle (student newspaper) columnist, Stephen Miller, wrote an article condemning it. The Chronicle, then wrote an editorial saying the Listening Statement was "one example of the instances of radical, inflammatory discourse that obscures what should be our true aim: reasonable discussion."

Supporters of the three accused Duke lacrosse players (David Evans, Collin Finnerty, and Reade Seligmann) led by Prof. Robert David "KC" Johnson of Brooklyn College and a group called "The Friends of Duke University," were early and frequent critics of the Listening Statement advertisement and the anti-lacrosse actions of the 'Group of 88.'

A broad cross-section of liberal and conservative bloggers, columnists, college and commercial newspaper editorial writers, main stream media pundits and personalities joined in condemning the prejudicial and unethical actions of the Group of 88. Some critics of the Group of 88 started referring to them the as the "Gang of 88," because of their continuing campaign of slanderous and unapologetic attacks upon the reputation and character of all of the student athletes on the Duke men's lacrosse team.

The Listening Statement advertisement was posted on the website of the Duke African & African American Studies Department until its removal on November 10th, 2006, following mounting criticism.

The publication of the advertisement violated an ethical trust that exists between students and faculty in a university environment. The group dispensed with the presumption of innocence regarding their students. They also inflicted harm on their own students.

Members of the 'Group of 88' swatted away all these ethical and moral considerations as they used the scandal to condemned their own students and thereby promote their own personal, pedagogical, or ideological agendas.

The lacrosse supporters have sought an apology or some retraction from the Group of 88 regarding their advertisement. Only one member of the Group of 88, math professor Arlie Petters, has publicly expressed regret about the statement’s impact. Petters said in regard to the Listening Statement: “Whenever something causes undue pain to people, then of course that isn’t something I would want to be a part of.”

Prof KC Johnson reported: "two other (tenured) Group members privately apologized, in writing, to lacrosse families—only to retract those apologies when they signed the “clarifying” letter."

On December 15, 2006 attorneys for the three Duke lacrosse defendants filed a Change of Venue Motion that cited the "Group of 88," their "listening statement," and other statements by various Duke faculty members as harmful to Evans, Finnerty, and Seligmann because they "repeatedly condemned the Defendants."

On January 10, 2007, seventeen members of the economics department faculty sent a letter to the Duke Chronicle, student newspaper, expressing their support for the players, and stating in part, "We regret that the Duke faculty is now seen as prejudiced against certain of its own students."

On January 16th, the Group of 88 returned as a reconstituted Group of 89 to publish a defiant statement entitled "An Open Letter to the Duke Community" in which they defended their publication of the Listening Statement. They claimed "a misperception that the authors of the ad prejudged the rape case."

Media personalities such as Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Tucker Carlson, and Dan Abrams have criticized the Group of 88.

Group of 88 members have subsequently issued numerous statements, letters, essays, interviews, and speeches collectively and individually to clarify and defend their position regarding their support of the original "Listening Statement." This body of work to clarify their initial advertisement is varied and contradictory.

Who paid for the Listening Statement?

Prof. KC Johnson: "According to e-mails from April 2006, the ad was paid for by Duke funds, funneled through the African-American Studies Program. This action violated official Duke policy."

Bogus departmental endorsements, bogus anonymous student quotes?

The departmental endorsements listed at the bottom of the Listening Statement are not legitimate. [...]

Questions were raised about the authenticity of the anonymous student quotes used in the Listening Statement. Professor Wahneema Lubiano, author of the advertisement, had the opportunity and the motive to edit the anonymous student statements to make them sound more compelling.

Dowd lawsuit

Filed January 4, 2007 against Duke University and Prof. Kim Curtis, a Group of 88 member, by former Duke lacrosse player Kyle Dowd. Dowd's suit claims Curtis unfairly gave him a failing grade because he was a member of the lacrosse team.

Settled May 11, 2007:

This lawsuit has been settled through mediation to the mutual satisfaction of Kyle Dowd and his family and Duke University, and without any admission by any party of legal liability. The mediated settlement terms are, of course, confidential.

As reflected on Kyle’s transcript, he has received from Duke University a “P” in the Politics and Literature course he took in his senior year.

Settlement between Duke and families of 3 indicted men

On June 18, 2007, Duke University leaders announced they have reached a settlement with David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann. Writer Stuart Taylor, Jr. believes the confidential scettlement was for $10+ million.

duke.edu:
STATEMENT OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES AND THE PRESIDENT OF DUKE UNIVERSITY

--------

Reactions to the Group of 88:

Duke lacrosse player Kyle Dowd is quoted in the book, It's Not About The Truth, by Pressler-Yaeger, as saying the following about the the Group of 88:

If you look at it, their whole argument is, “We only put that ad out there to start a dialogue about these issues.” The only problem is, you are willing to start dialogue but now you refuse to speak to the media, you refuse to speak to us, you refuse to speak to other professors. So you’ve actually decreased dialogue about these topics, which is in complete contradiction to your original goal.

No matter which way you look at it, they’ve failed.

----

Joseph W. Bellacosa, Newsday, Aug 3, 2007:
[former dean and a professor of law at St. John's University School of Law, and a former judge of the New York State Court of Appeals.]
Duke faculty should be shunned by students --Eighty-eight members of the Duke faculty publicly promulgated a dreadful letter, enflaming a premature and prejudicial atmosphere against their own students. Yet, their conduct is largely shielded from accountability. Equally troublesome, their ironically and suddenly protective university masters executed a confidential settlement to further immunize the Duke cabal from civil liability exposure...

[...]

--------

G88 members pre-Listening Statement remarks

LieStoppers forum:
Prof Kim Curtis, Gang of 88 - post made by Kim Curtis on Yahoo group "Durham Responds" on Wed Mar 29, 2006 -

question dawning

The self assurance in the statement issued yesterday by the team that
they will be exonerated by the results of the DNA testing makes me<