Great. Let's put the federal government in charge of the entire health care industry too ... and dentists ... and vets ... and hairdressers ... and grocery stores ... so they can run those businesses just like Social Security and Medicare and Amtrack and Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae.
There is some humor in the fact that I'm working with some great entrepreneurs in Poland (the country, not the Ohio town) who are the free market flat-tax guys, while the US circles the drain of a command-and-control economy directed by delusional utopian socialists.
Beam me up.
And send Traficant back to Washington in order to slap some sense in our lunatic Congress.
1) If the Vindy were to provide a real 'reporter' (like Patty Meade was) then it might get an interview with Traficant.
2) DeSouza and Skolnick are not 'reporters.' They are are 'editorial' writers (not that there's anything wrong with that!). Traficant is not giving interviews to editorial writers.
3) Bertram has always been a junior prosecutor who simply cannot rest until Traficant confesses and apologizes for some sort of crime.
4) Skolnick apparently considers his audience uniformed. Every article contains a formulaic recitation like this: "Traficant was found guilty in April 2002 on 10 felony convictions including racketeering, bribery, obstruction of justice and tax evasion."
5) Skolnick is nearly as pugnacious as Bertram. For example, he wrote "because we won’t throw softballs, I’m sure Traficant — who certainly talks big — will continue to duck."
That's not reporting. It's advocacy (not that there's anything wrong with that!).
6) Skolnick noted that Traficant "claimed" to Chris Matthews that “four of the seven people who testified against me, now it’s come out that they lied.”
Skolnick then editorialized: "There were more than seven people who were defense witnesses and none have publicly stated they lied during Traficant’s 2002 corruption case."
Skolnick failed to mention that Traficant has real live tape recordings and affidavits and witnesses that impeach the testimony of witnesses against him, and that these were not allowed into evidence at the trial.
7) I've encouraged Skolnick to interview the local jurors and the local witnesses. And I've encouraged the locals to talk to Skolnick. But it's probably too late. Traficant is clearly fed up with the Vindy's ankle biting reportage. No 'news' ... just a persistent 'drum beat' that Traficant is guilty-and-unrepentant.
8) N.B. that after six years and $15 million and hundreds of FBI agents, witnesses who steadfastly refused to lie about Trafciant (Okolo, Detore) ... and a also witness that Traficant caught in perjury (Nemenz) ... were kept away from Traficant's trial by the DOJ.
Witnesses who succumbed to intense DOJ pressure to lie about Traficant were put on the stand but Traficant's evidence of their perjury was never allowed before the jury.
9) As soon as the jury heard Detore one juror publicly recanted his 'guilty' verdict. But the Vindy has ignored Detore [and Okolo].
10) The Vindy is going to miss out on the political story of the year ... Traficant's conjuring of fire and brimstone to rain down on Pennsylvania Avenue here where DOJ is HQ'd ... as the Press and public finally learn about the suppressed witnesses, Okolo and Detore. (Traficant's friends have been shouting about them for years, but Jim's got the big microphone that we lack.)
11) If the Vindy were to hire a reporter to cover the Traficant story, it might get some traction.
You wrote: "Any responsible news outlet would have the tapes or transcripts at hand when asking him if he was a guilty man."
I reply: "Any responsible news outlet would have pursued interviews with Detore and Okolo, witnesses kept away from Traficant's trial, whose sworn testimony is that they were outrageously pressured by the DOJ to lie about Traficant."
The Vindicator is NOT a "responsible news outlet." It has not bothered to drive a few miles in order to interview witnesses Ferrante, Nemenz, Sugar, et al. or jurors Grodi and Glaser.
Instead, the Vindy taunts Traficant, daring him to give them an interview.
David ... some detailed observations about your coverage of Obama/Traficant:
1) Obama ... without his teleprompter, he stumbed over Capri Cafaro's name and called her a "fireplug."
* Surely the Won meant to say "sparkplug" rather than "fireplug." * (Like her father J.J. Cafaro, Capri appears genetically programmed to grow nearly as wide as she is tall.)
2) Betras ... Google the definition of "claque"
3) Ryan ... Tim -- like Capri -- appears to be an achievement-free narcissist, desperate for applause.
4) Traficant ... with all due respect to op-ed journalism, you and Bertram are living a dream world dominated by the boogeyman Traficant.
* You've had seven years to prepare for Traficant coverage. * Has it never occurred to you to investigate Traficant's guilt or innocence? * Have you read any of the trial transcript which is fully online at www.ethics.house.gov? * Have you made any attempt to interview any of the witnesses or jurors that are easily within your orbit? * Have you offered to take Rick Berger up on his offer to be lie-detected about witness confessions of perjury? * When did you ever attempt to contact Okolo, Detore, or Glaser about their sworn testimony about DOJ witness and jury tampering? * What 'hardball' questions could you possibly ask of Traficant without having talked to witnesses and/or jurors? * You guys are sitting on the story-of-a-lifetime but you are blowing it by being obsessively adversarial instead of investigative. * Submit to Traficant your list of your "hardball" questions and if he won't answer you, then we will give it a shot -- we have done the investigative reporting! * We'd be glad to publish your questions, and reply to them at length, at the under-development www.TraficantPoliticalPrisoner.com based upon our insiders' knowledge of the case.
Traficant was masterful. He is a born radio host. He has total command of local issues and can talk about them well. All this will stand him well if he elects to run for Congress.
Posted on November 8 at 3:46 p.m.
Great. Let's put the federal government in charge of the entire health care industry too ... and dentists ... and vets ... and hairdressers ... and grocery stores ... so they can run those businesses just like Social Security and Medicare and Amtrack and Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae.
There is some humor in the fact that I'm working with some great entrepreneurs in Poland (the country, not the Ohio town) who are the free market flat-tax guys, while the US circles the drain of a command-and-control economy directed by delusional utopian socialists.
Beam me up.
And send Traficant back to Washington in order to slap some sense in our lunatic Congress.
Posted on September 27 at 1:58 p.m.
Reply to Mark Sweetwood, Vindy Managing Editor
1) If the Vindy were to provide a real 'reporter' (like Patty Meade was) then it might get an interview with Traficant.
2) DeSouza and Skolnick are not 'reporters.' They are are 'editorial' writers (not that there's anything wrong with that!). Traficant is not giving interviews to editorial writers.
3) Bertram has always been a junior prosecutor who simply cannot rest until Traficant confesses and apologizes for some sort of crime.
4) Skolnick apparently considers his audience uniformed. Every article contains a formulaic recitation like this: "Traficant was found guilty in April 2002 on 10 felony convictions including racketeering, bribery, obstruction of justice and tax evasion."
5) Skolnick is nearly as pugnacious as Bertram. For example, he wrote "because we won’t throw softballs, I’m sure Traficant — who certainly talks big — will continue to duck."
That's not reporting. It's advocacy (not that there's anything wrong with that!).
6) Skolnick noted that Traficant "claimed" to Chris Matthews that “four of the seven people who testified against me, now it’s come out that they lied.”
Skolnick then editorialized: "There were more than seven people who were defense witnesses and none have publicly stated they lied during Traficant’s 2002 corruption case."
Skolnick failed to mention that Traficant has real live tape recordings and affidavits and witnesses that impeach the testimony of witnesses against him, and that these were not allowed into evidence at the trial.
7) I've encouraged Skolnick to interview the local jurors and the local witnesses. And I've encouraged the locals to talk to Skolnick. But it's probably too late. Traficant is clearly fed up with the Vindy's ankle biting reportage. No 'news' ... just a persistent 'drum beat' that Traficant is guilty-and-unrepentant.
8) N.B. that after six years and $15 million and hundreds of FBI agents, witnesses who steadfastly refused to lie about Trafciant (Okolo, Detore) ... and a also witness that Traficant caught in perjury (Nemenz) ... were kept away from Traficant's trial by the DOJ.
Witnesses who succumbed to intense DOJ pressure to lie about Traficant were put on the stand but Traficant's evidence of their perjury was never allowed before the jury.
9) As soon as the jury heard Detore one juror publicly recanted his 'guilty' verdict. But the Vindy has ignored Detore [and Okolo].
10) The Vindy is going to miss out on the political story of the year ... Traficant's conjuring of fire and brimstone to rain down on Pennsylvania Avenue here where DOJ is HQ'd ... as the Press and public finally learn about the suppressed witnesses, Okolo and Detore. (Traficant's friends have been shouting about them for years, but Jim's got the big microphone that we lack.)
11) If the Vindy were to hire a reporter to cover the Traficant story, it might get some traction.
Meanwhile, enjoy the show!
Posted on September 24 at 9:48 a.m.
Here's a link to the audio of Jim's interview with Chris Matthews:
http://msnbcpod.vo.llnwd.net/o2/QuerySpl...
Posted on September 24 at 9:36 a.m.
To: saddad
Subject: Traficant evidence
You wrote: "Any responsible news outlet would have the tapes or transcripts at hand when asking him if he was a guilty man."
I reply: "Any responsible news outlet would have pursued interviews with Detore and Okolo, witnesses kept away from Traficant's trial, whose sworn testimony is that they were outrageously pressured by the DOJ to lie about Traficant."
The Vindicator is NOT a "responsible news outlet." It has not bothered to drive a few miles in order to interview witnesses Ferrante, Nemenz, Sugar, et al. or jurors Grodi and Glaser.
Instead, the Vindy taunts Traficant, daring him to give them an interview.
Sad. Desperate.
Posted on September 24 at 9:24 a.m.
To: sotired
Subject: Q.E.D.!
Tim Ryan, alas, is a daughter-dating Pelosi pork puppet ... something certainly not envisioned by the Founding Fathers!
Posted on September 22 at 7:34 p.m.
"Strong elected representatives bring home more than they allow to be taken away."
It's this sort of zero-sum idiocy that makes Youngstown like a small child whining about its portion of dessert.
Youngstown expects its Congressmen to "fight like a junkyard dog" for 'pork' thrown from Washington.
Thank goodness Traficant was smarter than that.
Posted on September 19 at 3:20 p.m.
We are a celebrity- and presidency-obsessed culture.
Posted on September 19 at 10:36 a.m.
David ... some detailed observations about your coverage of Obama/Traficant:
1) Obama ... without his teleprompter, he stumbed over Capri Cafaro's name and called her a "fireplug."
* Surely the Won meant to say "sparkplug" rather than "fireplug."
* (Like her father J.J. Cafaro, Capri appears genetically programmed to grow nearly as wide as she is tall.)
2) Betras ... Google the definition of "claque"
3) Ryan ... Tim -- like Capri -- appears to be an achievement-free narcissist, desperate for applause.
4) Traficant ... with all due respect to op-ed journalism, you and Bertram are living a dream world dominated by the boogeyman Traficant.
* You've had seven years to prepare for Traficant coverage.
* Has it never occurred to you to investigate Traficant's guilt or innocence?
* Have you read any of the trial transcript which is fully online at www.ethics.house.gov?
* Have you made any attempt to interview any of the witnesses or jurors that are easily within your orbit?
* Have you offered to take Rick Berger up on his offer to be lie-detected about witness confessions of perjury?
* When did you ever attempt to contact Okolo, Detore, or Glaser about their sworn testimony about DOJ witness and jury tampering?
* What 'hardball' questions could you possibly ask of Traficant without having talked to witnesses and/or jurors?
* You guys are sitting on the story-of-a-lifetime but you are blowing it by being obsessively adversarial instead of investigative.
* Submit to Traficant your list of your "hardball" questions and if he won't answer you, then we will give it a shot -- we have done the investigative reporting!
* We'd be glad to publish your questions, and reply to them at length, at the under-development www.TraficantPoliticalPrisoner.com based upon our insiders' knowledge of the case.
Posted on September 17 at 11:55 a.m.
Traficant wanted the center up near Youngstown State so that it would have income from college events.
Posted on September 16 at 7:49 p.m.
Traficant was masterful. He is a born radio host. He has total command of local issues and can talk about them well. All this will stand him well if he elects to run for Congress.