TDPS: Supreme Court increasingly corrupt, first Alito, now Clarence Thomas & wife - TRANSCRIPT

[celtics23]

Run time: 04:24 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FObYfF1U8tI   Posted on YouTube: February 11, 2011 By YouTube Member: MidweekPolitics Views on YouTube: 294   Posted on DU: February 13, 2011 By DU Member: celtics23 Views on DU: 2063

 
From: www.davidpakman.com | Subscription: www.davidpakman.com/membership | YouTube: www.youtube.com/midweekpolitics

Real quick, before we go to break, we've talked over the last few months about the Supreme Court and my position that number one, Justice Samuel Alito should resign for his political activity. I believe he has violated the basic canons of a Supreme Court justice, not engaging in political activity or even the appearance of politically-biased activity. I know those aren't the exact words; I don't have them in front of me. And I outlined why Samuel Alito speaking at political fundraisers for Republicans, rolling his eyes and mouthing, "That's not true," at the State of the Union Address to the president, Alito has become a complete joke. He should be gone.

Well, it's going further than that. Now Virginia Thomas's activities, this is the wife of Clarence Thomas, could actually number one, create... it is obviously a conflict of interest, but it might actually now be dealing with illegal activity by Clarence Thomas. And this is... how is this happening and it's not getting more media coverage? Forget about liberal or conservative...

Louis: Well, let's discuss what's happening.

David: Yeah. Thank you, Louis, for getting me back on track. Virginia Thomas works at Liberty Consulting, and the income that she earned there... this is just such an absurd story. Clarence Thomas is not declaring that income, OK? So the idea is that Justice Thomas should be including his wife's source of income on his financial disclosures. He has not reported his wife's politically involved income for two decades.

And this is not just... if it were just the IRS you were defrauding, fine, that we're used to. That is common in the United States among politicians, as we know. But this is more than that. These are the forms used to decide whether a justice might face a potential conflict of interest based on the causes or companies that their significant other are associated with. What if some of his wife's clients came before the Court in some way? And he's not... he has not been disclosing that.

Now, when this was brought to light, Common Cause brought this to light, and Thomas amended the reports very quickly. It turns out that his wife earned $680,000 working for the Heritage Foundation, which is a conservative think tank, and the Koch brothers are involved there, the Coors family, a number of others. And Brad Friedman from Brad Blog, who's been a guest on the show, said, "If it were Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg not reporting a million dollars from working for Acorn, the right wing would be all over it, and so would the press, until someone from the Department of Justice agreed to prosecute."

And that is true. But this is not just a left-right type of thing. This is an issue of what is the truth here, are we holding people accountable, and explain to me why the allegedly, supposedly, ideally impartial Supreme Court justices are getting away with these things? Has there ever been a more politically biased Supreme Court than now, where people are making political speeches for fundraising, unreported income from spouses for conservative causes is going unreported?

Louis: It's that it's allowed to happen. It's like things like this do not go unpunished. Or, they do go unpunished.

David: That's right.

Louis: So if these things are just allowed to keep happening, eventually, the Supreme Court will, it'll just be no holds barred.

David: It'll be corrupt the way it increasingly is now. That's the reality. On today's bonus show, we'll be talking about, as a result of Donald Rumsfeld's new book, we're getting some access to the real reason for the Iraq invasion. It is stunning, but at the same time, not too surprising, we'll tell you about some of the tactics used by for-profit college recruiters, and plenty more. There's going to be a lot on the bonus show. www.DavidPakman.com/membership. And we'll be back after this.

Announcer: The David Pakman Show at www.DavidPakman.com.



Transcript provided by Alex Wickersham and www.Subscriptorium.com. For transcripts, translations, captions, and subtitles, or for more information, visit www.Subscriptorium.com, or contact Alex at [e-mail].

[donthebun]

1. SCOTUS has been corrupt for a while,

but i agree that it has been getting even worse

[Enthusiast]

7. Yeah. They have clearly

been corrupt since 2000 when they interfered with a presidential election.

[Dustlawyer]

9. The behind the scenes powers that be

Have the U.S. Chamber of Commerce buy/intimidate our elected officials (Federal, State, and Local), they own/control most media and our electorate are lazy and un/under educated so that they are easily misled. We are being forced over time to lower our living standards to that of the rest of the third world. The jobs that come back are at an increasingly lower and lower wage. They are attacking unions and trial attorneys so they can start to eliminate our rights. that is why the judiciary is so important. They have been amassing large numbers of far right Judges at all levels and SCOTUS is the biggest prize of all!!!!

[vets74]

2. Abe Fortas took less than the Thomases

The issue here is bribery. Unless you think that a no-show job is worth $686,589.

Two major questions:

-- Who put up the money that was passed to Mrs. Thomas through Heritage ?

-- How much money went to Thomas from the Koch brothers for his appearances at their events ?

-- How much other money passed to the Thomases in payments for expenses and in-kind transfers ?

The Fortas scandal prevented him from becoming Chief Justice in 1968. Fortas got $15,000 for speaking engagements at the American University Law School. The money came from some 40 businesses.

$15,000 is a lot of money.

Fortas also accepted $20,000 a year for life Louis Wolfson, a friend and former client.

$20,000 a year is one helluva lot of money.

Nixon found out about the Wolfson money and that Fortas might have asked L.B.J. to pardon Wolfson from a fraud conviction. Fortas was forced to resign in the face of numerous threats out of that White House and their allies.

Connect the dots...............................

[dotymed]

3. America has been sold.

Now, it has openly spread to the SCOTUS, during Bush years and afterward with Thomas (both unabashedly GOP hacks).

Ask any American: "Do you believe that your government is bought and paid for by the wealthy/elite."..."YES", of course..... (that is the majority)..

How can we NOT have a revolution (peaceful) and retake our government?
Really, how?

[WhoIsNumberNone]

4. More on Clarence Thomas

Thomas' un-redacted amended financial statements- Filed hours after Common Cause broke the story, received on Saturday:
http://protectourelections.org/index.php?q=node/111

More info on Virginia Thomas:
http://protectourelections.org/index.php?q=node/138

[democracy1st]

6. +1

[Shining Jack]

5. K&R

Bunch of crooks.

[Hubert Flottz]

8. Better to trust FOX these days!

We have become a nation of OUTLAWS!