DebateGate

Junk science meets junk politics.

There isn't a single court in either Canada or the U.S.A. that would accept polygraph evidence, let alone this quack's, but the right-wing nutsosphere,  which had previously taken the concept of the presumption of innocence out of the criminal courts where it belonged and plastered it all over the non-criminal world of Cain's character problems, is now just as eagerly reaching for a technique which every criminal court in Canada and the U.S.A. has unanimously and emphatically rejected.

Go figure.

<<Back when I was a lawyer I handled several sexual harassment suits. None of mine settled for less than the high end of six figures.>>  (Erick Erickson)

This guy isn't even a practicing lawyer.  His status with the State Bar Association is "inactive."  Doing the math starting with a 1975 birth date and little else available, it is extremely doubtful that his entire experience in the practice of law lasted more than seven years.  The Wikipedia bio doesn't mention anything about his career in the law, not even the firm he worked for or whether he was a sole practitioner.

The only knowledge we have of any legal activity on his part is his immortal legal opinion that "The nation loses the only goat-fucking child molester to ever  serve on the Supreme Court in David Souter's retirement."  As a journalist, we have his memorable confession that his public opinions are tailored to fit those of his bosses.  In this case, we can only guess at his bosses' opinion of the accusers of Herm the Perv.  There are other recorded examples of his journalistic dishonesty and lack of ethics.  There is no point in going on, because it would be beyond shooting the messenger.  This is a messenger who has been shot, blown up and run over by gigantic earth-moving machines.  All I can say, Ami, is that in picking this piece of unadulterated shit to provide his considered legal opinion on anything, you could not have picked worse.  (Source: Wikipedia bio, "Erick Erickson")

But let's look at his opinion anyway.  "Several" (three or four?) sexual harassment claims settling "in the high end of six figures" are close enough to the low end of seven figures to qualify as million dollar claims.  How a guy barely out of law school lands not one but "several" such claims indicates to me that he was working on someone else's files in a relatively menial capacity.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.    But there's a world of difference between million dollar sexual harassment claims and "nuisance value" claims.  From all that I've seen - - and jerk-off doesn't give us much to go on - - he has absolutely NO experience in nuisance-value claims and is talking out of his ass.  Senior counsel with million-dollar claims to pursue don't waste their time on the small stuff and Erickson has no more idea of the small stuff than he does of how to speak of a retiring Supreme Court justice.


<<"Reading about these two complaints, my gut reaction to them is that settling for five figures, which could be as little as $10,000.00 and as high as $99,999, was 'go away' money.>>

Yeah, 100K is go-away money.  Wow, duuude, what have YOU been smoking?

<<"If the Chief Executive Officer of the National Restaurant Association, at the time one of the top 25 trade associations in Washington, D.C., were sexually harassing someone, that someone could get a lot of money.>>

NEWS FLASH, Asshole.  The CEO wasn't sexually harassing anyone at the time the settlement was signed, his ass was already long gone from the premises.  There was nothing to cover up anymore.  If anything it should have been a source of pride to the NRA that as soon as the pervert's harassment was revealed, he was gone in the blink of an eye before a settlement was concluded and approved by all parties concerned.

<< It just strikes me that a settlement for less than six figures is money paid to deal with the nuisances of an employee fired or otherwise let go who decided to raise the specter of harassment to get more money to leave without causing a scene.">>

And it just strikes me that in relying on Erick Erickson to provide such an opinion, you have selected an individual who has neither the knowledge nor the experience not the integrity to provide a reliable opinion on anything at all.  Strangely enough, Joel P. Bennett, who really IS an expert in such matters approved the settlement on behalf of his client  and has since stated publicly that it was a settlement of an internal claim of sexual harassment and was not a severance agreement.  The facts that the harassment caused only "discomfort" and not lasting harm, that no physical assault was alleged and that the perp was swiftly booted out of this office were all significant in removing the motives to make a "go-away" payment here.  Erickson is a total clown and an ass-hole and Bennett is a real pro - - if he says this was a settlement of a claim for sexual harassment, and if a lawyer of his calibre negotiates it, I believe it represents fair value for harassment in the circumstances, whatever the ass-hole Erickson says about it.
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011/11/joel-bennett-lawyer-for-cain-accuser-releases-statement/

Everybody with an ounce of common sense already knows that Cain is a sexual abuser of female employees.   That FOUR women could conspire together, three of them years before Cain became a contender, to smear his name, simply defies all laws of probability.  Why weren't four accusers found for GW Bush, or Romney or Huntsman or even the loathesome Newt?

Get real, people. 

The real issue is whether GOP voters give a shit about this or not.  My gut feeling is that they don't, otherwise they wouldn't embarrass themselves with such ludicrous defences of such an obviously guilty man.  The investigation and substantial settlement of two claims, the speed with which The Perv's ass was out the employer's door, the number of accusers, all on the same payroll, the corroboration of witnesses who report being advised of the accusations at the approximate times of the offences, The Perv's constantly-changing stories of the events, etc.

Bottom line of course is that the GOP, the party of not giving  a shit, doesn't give a shit.  Bitch was asking for it, bitch couldn't make ends meet, bitch was a blonde - - any stupid reason, but at the end of the day, even if they have to admit that the guy is a pervert, they will still vote for him because they just don't give a shit.

http://www.lordmilner.com/lord_milner_hotel_london_privacy_policy.htm#a7

The Lord Milner Hotel in London, England, keeps records with personal guest information as long as is needed for the purposes for which the information was needed.  Not very specific, but future investigation of possible charges against hotel guests and those paying for their rooms would probably not be required for any longer than a half-dozen monthly billing cycles, after which it would likely be transferred to Collections if still relevant, otherwise trashed.

I can't see any possible tax implications for the hotel not retaining records of who stayed when and where and who paid for what room.  Common sense says that the room occupant and person paying is information that would be purged from the records after two years if not before then.

I can't see any hope at all for getting those records now.  Furthermore, I can't recall the names of any hotels I stayed at 12 years ago and it's ridiculous to think that Cain, a married man, would have wanted to take this babe to dinner in some illustrious DC hotel like the Mayflower, which she might have had some chance of remembering.

Sharon Bialek told what she knows and her inability to remember meaningless details like name of hotel after 12 years is of no significance whatsoever.

<<Leftists eagerly tear apart women who accuse Democratic politicians of improper behavior and then suddenly become born-again feminists when there's a black Republican to be taken down.>>

There is no doubt that the lunatics who write this crap are living in some alternate universe where reality, truth and fact never raise their ugly heads.

How else can we explain the statement quoted about about leftists eagerly tearing apart, etc., when simple facts - - like Gloria Allred having most recently represented a female complainant against Anthony Weiner,  Democrat?

Also hilarious was the revisiting of the Clarence Thomas case, and the breathlessly indignant claim that "they called  him . . .  DUMB!"  Geeze, what a travesty.  Clarence Thomas being called "dumb."  What an injustice.   Why he's turned out to be one of the brightest legal minds in the whole history of the Supreme Court.  He's even been known on at least TWO occasions, to have actually dared to ask a question of counsel appearing before him.

<<Sorry for the delay, this is a very good post and I apologise for waiting before replying.>>

No apologies necessary, plane, we all (hopefully) have lives away from our keyboards and we can only give what time to this that we are able to give.

  <<It is in the intrest of White people to promote an egalitarian society.
<<Yes!
<<WE are in perfect agreement.>>

Uh-oh!

<<  It is in the intrest of Black people and other minoritys to work against an egalitarian society . . . >>

I don't think so.

<< . . . and any [blacks] who favor meritocracy or egalitarianism must be shunned and berated as Unkle Toms or Quislings.>>

You just confused meritocracy with egalitarianism.  Egalitarianism means everyone gets the same regardless of merit; meritocracy means the best minds get the best desk jobs and the best bodies get the best coolie or peon jobs.

<<No , I can't see that as smart, reasonable or even doable.>>

You lost me here.  Blacks and whites want an egalitarian society. 

At this point in America's long and miserable history of racism and oppression, a meritocracy would obviously disadvantage the blacks to the benefit of the whites, because centuries of racism, persecution and Jim Crow have rendered large segments of the black population handicapped for meritocratic competition.

<<Any solution that includes promoteing the color of skin as a factor of power, above any consideration of content of caricter, is a racist betrayal of the dream.>>

In your ludicrous dream world of an ideal and beautiful America, that would undoubtedly be true.  But in today's real world of an ugly, fascist and racist America, it is a sheer absurdity.  Any domestic system striving for colour-neutral opportunity is just one more occasion for white racist America to preserve and seal in the benefits that centuries of racism and oppression have given whites over blacks.

 <<You seem to  think it to be the reverse of racism,(?) a tractor in reverse is still a tractor, reverse racism is just as racist as any other racism.>>

Again you seem to be confused, perhaps because the real subject of our discussion is not tractors but racism and the despicable Uncle Toms whose principal function is to enable white racists and make them less onjectionable to blacks and anti-racist whited.  An attack on racism is NOT racism or reverse racism.  An attack on racism's enablers and helpers, i.e. the Uncle Toms, is simple anti-racism, not racism or reverse racism. 

The attempts of conservatives to twist anti-racists fighting against white racists and their Uncle Toms into "racism" or "reverse racism" is just another example of the twisted kind of Bizzarro World upside down craziness that they live in in the mistaken belief that it is Reality.

IMHO, Cain would never take a polygraph test for public consumption unless he had already learned how to beat the machine in private sessions. The machine can be beaten and a guy like Cain definitely has the resources to ensure an easy win.  Hence, the "challenge" that the lying fuck has issued.  It's a fix.  D'uh.