Author: mopress

You read it here first. See Jay J. Johnson-Castro’s Christmas letter to the President–gm

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Press Release
February 22, 2008

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD ANNOUNCES OPPOSITION TO FEDERAL JUDICIAL NOMINATION OF CCA GENERAL COUNSEL GUS PURYEAR

On June 13, 2007, President Bush nominated Gustavus Adolphus Puryear IV for a position on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. Mr. Puryear currently serves as vice president and general counsel for Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation’s largest for-profit private prison company. If appointed he would serve as a federal judge in the same jurisdiction where CCA is headquartered.

Since 2000, at least 260 federal lawsuits naming CCA, company subsidiaries or CCA employees have been filed in the Middle District of Tennessee. Such cases would constitute a conflict of interest for Mr. Puryear, and assigning them to other judges would not be an effective use of judicial resources.

Of greater concern is that Mr. Puryear lacks familiarity with the federal courts and has little trial or litigation experience. By his own admission he has tried only two cases to verdict; he has been personally involved in only five federal cases, most recently a decade ago. He is not admitted to practice before the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which is over the Middle District of Tennessee, and received only a “qualified” rating from the American Bar Association rather than a “highly qualified” rating.

Both Tennessee Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker strongly support Mr. Puryear’s nomination. Neither Senator has acknowledged the substantial financial contributions received from Mr. Puryear and his employer, CCA – which include over $80,000 to Senator Alexander and $27,000 to Senator Corker since 2004.

Further, Mr. Puryear mentioned in disclosure statements that he is a member of the Nashville-based Belle Meade Country Club. The fact that Mr. Puryear maintains membership in an exclusive, predominately white club that did not admit its first minority member until 1994, and reportedly does not afford voting privileges to female members but only to male members, is a matter of significant concern for a federal judicial nominee.

In an Associated Press national wire article concerning Mr. Puryear’s nomination, Vanderbilt Professor Stefanie Lindquist was quoted as saying his judicial appointment “might slide through as a compromise.” The National Lawyers Guild does not believe the people of Tennessee should have to compromise or settle for a less-than-qualified federal judge to represent their interests in U.S. District Court.

The National Lawyers Guild calls on the Senate Committee on the Judiciary to vote down this unqualified, conflicted and controversial judicial candidate.

Note: Following Thursday’s burning of the American embassy in Belgrade, we were reminded of nearby Albania and a Texas veteran of the Albanian democratic movement. This month marks one full year that Rrustem Neza has spent at the Rolling Plains Prison of Haskell, Texas while federal officials have toyed with his life.

While Neza’s brother has been justifiably granted asylum in the USA, owing to real dangers to his life, brother Rrustem has been treated to the dark side of federal immigration enforcement. Acting with icy indifference to Rrustem Neza’s well being, the feds are now attempting to gain a court order that will allow them to drug the Albanian refugee and throw him onto an airplane. Meanwhile, two children (ages 6 and 8) in East Texas live without their father.

With the weight of these facts in mind, we asked Mr. Neza’s attorney John Wheat Gibson to send us a statement as to why Rrustem Neza should be immediately released to his children.–gm

Dear Editor,

In what kind of society is it necessary to explain why children need their parents? Rrustem Neza’s children do not have their father because der Fuehrer says he must be deported. There is oil and gas in Albania, and
so unserer Fuehrer does not want to embarrass the organized crime syndicate
that controls Albania and Kosovo. Therefore the father of the children cannot be released from prison. Instead, he must die to make sure the oil and gas concessions go to Conoco or British Petroleum instead of some
Chinese company.

The bureaucrats who carry out the orders of der Fuehrer are afraid to exercise any judgment or morality of their own. If they did, it could affect their advancement in the federal bureaucracy. Instead, they chant,
“Zieg, heil!” and “Heil Georgiepoo!”

John Wheat Gibson, P.C.
Dallas

“Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law” (From Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948).

And the winner is Tom O’Neil, a “Gold Derby” writer for the L.A. Times who posed the rhetorical question on Dec. 24, 2007, before the list of Oscar nominees was released:

Surely, Oscar voters won’t snub “Sweeney Todd” (Tim Burton), “There Will Be Blood” (Paul Thomas Anderson), “Atonement” (Joe Wright), “The Great Debaters” (Denzel Washington) and “The Kite Runner” (Marc Forster) entirely.

Of the five films named in the question, Mr. O’Neil was correct about four.

This “Black History Month in Hollywood” special presentation has been brought to you by the Texas Civil Rights Review, because February is about making memories that refuse to go quiet.

And by “White Atlantic” Perfume — Smells Classy!

By Greg Moses

We were sad to see that Brenda Denson Prince is not among the candidates for the Precinct 3 Commissioner’s race in Kaufman County (Terrell, Texas).

The Republican who election officials claim defeated Prince in the 2004 general election has drawn an opponent. And there are three Democrats in the primary.

Terrell Tribune reporter Marcus Funk reports that during the first two days of voting, “Three-hundred and fifty-seven Democratic votes were cast at the Precinct 3 subcourthouse, or 73 percent, compared to 132 Republican votes.”

Fifty of those voters were personally driven to the voting booth by our hero, Brenda Denson Prince.

“On Tuesday, the first day, I drove 26 voters. On the second day, 24. Then on Thursday and Friday I drove 23 or 24,” said Denson Prince, speaking to us by telephone from her Terrell, Texas home.

“This morning (Saturday) I took eight more people to the polls before I had to go to a Democrat meeting,” she explained.

Her 2004 disappointments discouraged her from running again. On election night she left the vote-counting center thinking she had clearly won. By the time she got home, however, a mysterious “computer glitch” was being cited as the reason for a changed outcome.

Denson Prince attempted to have the results reviewed by court order, but she recalls that the judge refused to rule in her case, “because of a pending case in Brazos County.”

“I decided not to run again, knowing the system hasn’t changed,” she explained. But she cannot sit idly aside, either.

“This stuff is in my blood,” says Denson Prince. “I love it.” Occasionally she will tell herself to sit things out, but it never takes her very long to talk herself back into action.

Which candidate is she helping? “Joe Parnell is the most qualified candidate that we have,” says Brenda Denson Prince. And when it comes to the truth of Kaufman County we are predisposed to take her word for it.