Mark Block won’t answer on campaign finance allegations

We’ve retained independent counsel to look at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story and report back to us… Amy, why don’t we talk about the campaign going forward?
Herman Cain’s chief-of-staff, Mark Block • Refusing to give a detailed answer on the much less examined scandal afflicting the Cain campaign right now. As we mentione d earlier, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that early in Herman Cain’s presidential run, his campaign accepted about $40,000 worth of illegal donations from a charity, Prosperity USA, which was run by Mark Block himself. This is, so far as we’ve seen, the first instance of Block or any representative of the Cain campaign being asked directly about this, and it doesn’t seem like he was very keen on the question. source

Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

Yesterday, this brutal video made the rounds. In it, a then-16-year-old girl was brutally attacked by her father for downloading music illegally on the internet back in 2004. (Warning: it’s a tough watch.) The girl, Hillary Adams, now 23, released the video as her parents were in the midst of a custody battle. She secretly taped the incident and only told him about the video recently. “I told him I had the video,” she said. “He didn’t seem to think anything of it, and basically dared me to post it.” On its own, it seems like a harsh overreaction, but it’s made all the worse when you consider that the father in the video is a county judge who specializes in child abuse cases. You’d imagine that this would be the kind of case he’d have to deal with at his job. Based on comments the Texas judge has made, he may not be very remorseful over the incident. Here are some reactions:

father Aransas County, Texas Court-at-Law Judge William Adams defended the 2004 incident like so: “In my mind, I haven’t done anything wrong other than discipline my child after she was caught stealing. And I did lose my temper, but I’ve since apologized.”
daughter Here’s how his daughter, Hillary, reacted to that statement: “It’s a shining perfect example of his personality and he believes he can do no wrong. … He will cover up rather than admit to what he did and try to come clean, which is what I really want him to do.” source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

We put together an ideological principle that the mainstream media wouldn’t talk about two months ago.
The Coup’s Boots Riley • Discussing Occupy Oakland’s big day yesterday, in which thousands of people showed up and made their voices heard, stopping the operations of Oakland’s major port in the process. It didn’t remain non-violent however, with riot police showing up to arrest dozens of people as windows were shattered and buildings were broken into. ~~It was something Riley himself, prior to the incident, didn’t want to think about. “If they do that after all this …” he said with a pause, “They’re smarter than that.”~~ (Edit: As Boots Riley himself says below, the quote was taken out of context. More info here.) source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Nov 2011 14:09