Tag Archives: 2010

Blagojevich trial jury selection, June 5, 2010, Rod Blagojevich familiarity, Fact versus fiction, Media bias, Entertainment culture, Blagojevich indictment far bigger than selling senate seat

Blagojevich trial jury selection, June 5, 2010, Rod Blagojevich familiarity

Some of you may be weary of hearing about the Rod Blagojevich trial. Some of you may be wondering why Citizen Wells has spent so much energy attempting to provide the complete picture of Blagojevich and his involvement in Chicago and IL corruption over many years. Here are some of the main reasons.

  • We have a biased media that has misrepresented Blagojevich and his corruption ties.
  • We have an entertainment culture. We have less news coverage and more entertainment presented. Blagojevich played this card.
  • The Blagojevich indictment is far more complex than the alleged selling of the senate seat.
  • The timing of Blagojevich’s arrest and subsequent actions by the US Justice Dept and Obama Administration are highly suspect.
  • Blagojevich corruption is directly tied to Barack Obama.

In a perfect world, juries should know little about someone on trial. However, in this case, the indicted, impeached ex governor of IL, whose name was mentioned repeatedly over many weeks during the Rezko trial, during the presidential run of fellow Illinois resident and crony Obama, gives one cause for further concern.

From the Chicago Tribune June 5, 2010.

“Blagoje-who?
Despite ex-governor’s TV forays, some jury candidates don’t know much about him”

“One prospective juror for the corruption trial of Rod Blagojevich said her familiarity with the former governor was limited to TV wisecracks she heard from Jay Leno.

“He was a joke or something,” the woman said.
Another potential juror is a labor organizer who spent months in Minnesota in 2008 working on the U.S. Senate campaign of Democrat Al Franken. She too confessed that most of what she knew about the longtime Illinois chief executive could be summed up by his recent TV appearance on “Celebrity Apprentice.”

Ever since Blagojevich’s arrest in December 2008, his legal troubles and grandstanding have been a subject of saturation news coverage as well as merciless lampooning from critics and comedians. Even so, a large share of those being sized up for the jury by U.S. District Judge James Zagel told him their understanding of the governor and his troubles was surface at best.

All of which goes to underscore a strangely symbiotic relationship between Illinois’ often ridiculed political culture and the very busy legal system aimed at rooting out corruption. Impartial juries require members who don’t know much about the defendants whose fate they will weigh. And it is surprisingly easy, even in the highest profile of cases, to find jurors who fit that description.”

“More typical were the comments of a female juror candidate identified during the proceedings as No. 119. The woman, who works in investment accounting, said she is an avid runner whose main source of printed information was the magazine Runners World.

Asked by Zagel if she kept up on the news, the woman said no.

“I don’t have time,” she explained. “I have two daughters, and we don’t have cable.””

Read more:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/blagojevich/ct-met-blagojevich-trial-0606-20100605,0,3779036.story?page=1

Blagojevich trial day 2, June 4, 2010, Jury selection, Judge James Zagel, Prosecutors and defense attorneys question jurors, Open thread

Blagojevich trial day 2, June 4, 2010, Jury selection, Judge James Zagel

From CBS 2 in Chicago June 4, 2010.

“Day Two Of Blagojevich Jury Selection Set To Begin”

“Before U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel begins questioning the next pool of potential jurors, prosecutors and defense attorneys will argue whether any of the 29 jury candidates who were interviewed Thursday should be dismissed because of bias.

Once that process is finished, Zagel will bring in another group of potential jurors for questioning.

Ultimately, the judge and attorneys expect to whittle down an original list of 100 potential jurors to about 45 likely jurors.

Then each side will be allowed to exercise peremptory challenges, which allow them to dismiss jurors without giving a reason. Defense attorneys get 13 such challenges; prosecutors get nine. The attorneys get unlimited challenges “for cause,” meaning there is a reason to believe a potential juror is biased.

The end result will be a panel of 12 jurors and likely six alternates to hear what is expected to be a three- to four-month trial. Jurors are paid $40 a day plus transportation costs for the entire trial.”

“Defense attorneys said both Rod and Rob Blagojevich will testify. They also said Patti Blagojevich will take the stand.

The defense has also subpoenaed White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, White House senior advisor Valerie Jarrett, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.”

Read more:

http://cbs2chicago.com/governor/rod.blagojevich.trial.2.1731843.html

For complete Blagojevich trial coverage:

https://citizenwells.com/

Hollister v Soetoro aka Barack Obama, Update, June 3, 2010, Motion for recusal of Judge Robertson, Attorney John D. Hemenway motion

Hollister v Soetoro aka Barack Obama, Update, June 3, 2010, Motion for recusal

From Attorney John D. Hemenway.

“On behalf of Colonel Gregory Hollister, et al, Attorney John D. Hemenway filed a “Motion for Recusal” in the Colonel Gregory Hollister, et al, v. Barry Soetoro aka Barack Obama, et al, lawsuit now pending in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The Judge in question is Judge Robertson who ruled the issue of “the President’s citizenship was raised, vetted, blogged, texted, twittered, and was otherwise massaged by America’s vigilant citizenry…,” among numerous other bias statements. Atty Hemenway cites numerous cases including a SCOTUS case regarding bias and the recusal of Judges. The Motion for Recusal embedded below the snippet speaks for itself and is well worth the time to read.

This is the same Judge that ruled that Jihadists at Gitmo are entitled to the same benefits as our Troops.

Page 18: It is evident that from the outset to the end of his second opinion the lower court judge was operating with a strong bias, much of it derived from extrajudicial sources. We have previously mentioned that the late Norbert Wiener, in his seminal work “Cybernetics” in the 1950’s said presciently that what most people did not realize was that the information revolution that was then coming and which is now upon us would mean not just the decentralization of information but the decentralization of decision making itself. We now see that with the rise of the blogosphere and the springing up of countless independent websites not part of the centralized command media that arose in the initial days of nationalized broadcasting in the 1930’s and 1940’s and 1950’s. We see today meetings in which ordinary citizens know more about what is in the details of a bill than their Member of Congress or Senator does. The dissemination is instantaneous and the rise in independent decision-making about officeholders and their doings is overwhelming. One result is a never before seen, at least since the founding days themselves, interest in the Constitution and adherence to it as a basic principle of our Rule of Law.

This inevitably has an effect upon the insistence upon an objective appearance of an absence of bias which 28 U.S.C. 455 in its present form commands. In this case the court below has become widely known in the country and will go down in history as the “blogging and twittering” judge, one for whom a sort of affirmative action progressivism is more important than protecting and preserving the Constitution sufficiently to actually analyze the issues it presents. However, in the present structure of communications, Orwellian “memory holes” become very difficult to operate despite earnest efforts.

The defendant Soetoro has in a never before seen maneuver, used a State of the Union address to try and openly intimidate the Supreme Court into not carefully adhering to the Constitution, like a Cook County politico with the courts there. He has announced at a prayer breakfast that it is not “allowed” to know about his birth documentation. Mr. Justice Thomas has observed that the issues here are being avoided. So the message has been received. Politically orchestrated “unthinkability” of course, is no substitute for the application of the Rule of Law. It presents at the very least the spectacle of decisions being made on the basis of political bias. History will not be escaped. It will reveal whether this audacious and knowing attempt to get around the Constitution and one of its most specific requirements will succeed through a tactic of seeking to intimidate and control the courts to prevent them from applying a constitutional rule of law or whether its judges will take their oath to preserve and protect the Constitution as seriously as those who have sworn the oath to preserve and protect in the military such as Colonel Hollister do. In a very real sense it is our system of a constitutional rule of law that is on trial here, and that is under attack. Those who will not defend and protect as they have sworn to do should recuse themselves.

Their decision, in adopting the opinion below, should they chose to do so, without analyzing the actual issues, is a political one echoing the bias we have set out. As such it presents at least the appearance that violates 28 U.S.C. § 455 and they are, therefore, bound to recuse themselves.

Respectfully submitted,
/s/
JOHN D. HEMENWAY
Counsel for Appellants”

http://www.scribd.com/doc/32347910/Col-Hollister-v-Soetoro-Obama-Appeal-Motion-to-Recuse-Case-09-5080-5-31-2010

Blagojevich trial day 1, June 3, 2010, Jury selection, Rod Blagojevich trial begins, Open thread

Blagojevich trial day 1, June 3, 2010, Jury selection

The Rod Blagojevich trial begins today, Thursday, June 3, 2010.

For complete coverage of the Blagojevich trial, background and events leading up to the trial and Blagojevich ties to corruption in Chicago and IL, including Tony Rezko, Stuart Levine, Barack Obama and others visit:

https://citizenwells.com/2010/05/21/blagojevich-trial-complete-coverage-from-citizen-wells/

For your friends and associates getting their information about the Blagojevich trial from the mainstream media visit:

https://citizenwells.com/2010/06/02/blagojevich-trial-transcripts-rezko-trial-testimony-il-health-planning-facilities-board-obama-chairman-of-il-senate-committee-blagojevich-rezko-levine-obama/

I have been informing those around me. The Orwellian brainwashing that has been going on still amazes me.

Blagojevich trial begins Thursday June 3, 2010, Reuters articles ties Obama to trial, Will US Dept of Justice bring justice, Open thread

Blagojevich trial begins Thursday June 3, 2010, Reuters articles ties Obama to trial

From Reuters.

“Among the 24 counts of fraud, conspiracy, bribery and racketeering that could land Blagojevich a long prison sentence are charges he dangled President Barack Obama’s vacant U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder or demanded a cabinet post for himself in exchange for naming an Obama aide to the seat.”
“Another possible wild card in Blagojevich’s long-awaited trial that begins on Thursday is whether it will entangle Obama and his aides in Illinois’ hurly-burly political theater.”

Read more:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6510VY20100602?type=politicsNews&feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Reuters%2FPoliticsNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Politics+News%29

Now, for the rest of the story, stay tuned for the next article from Citizen Wells.

https://citizenwells.com/2010/06/02/blagojevich-trial-transcripts-rezko-trial-testimony-il-health-planning-facilities-board-obama-chairman-of-il-senate-committee-blagojevich-rezko-levine-obama/

Thanks to commenter Hero.

Blagojevich trial begins Thursday, June 3, 2010, Justice prevails?, Citizen Wells open thread

Blagojevich trial begins Thursday, June 3, 2010, Justice prevails?

Let’s all keep a close eye on this trial.

Memorial day weekend, Lest we forget, Citizen Wells open thread, May 30, 2010

Memorial day weekend, Lest we forget, Citizen Wells open thread

I know more about ancestral participation in the American revolution than I do of the Civil War. However, I discovered the obituary of an ancestor several years ago. There is mention of his wound and battles. Since Memorial Day has roots in commemorating civil war soldiers, I share his obituary.

David Wells

“Death:   Oct. 11, 1914
American Fork
Utah County
Utah, USA
 
He was the son of Robert H. Wells & Lucinda Ann Gladden Wells. He married Susan Gordon January 5, 1866.
His obituary reads:
Old Canyon Character Goes to Reward-
David Wells, for twelve years Toll Gate Keeper at Mouth of American Fork Canyon, Died Sunday, Buried Tuesday.
David Wells died Sunday at 1 o’clock at the home of his son, Boyce Wells, He has been a sufferer for several years from chronic bronchitis.
Mr. Wells was born in Lincoln, North Carolina, June 10, 1844. He joined the Mormon church in 1883 and came west 31 years ago, locating in Manassa, Colorado. Ten years later he came to American Fork.
He was an old Confederate soldier and was wounded at the battle of Richmond and again at Petersburg. From the injury in the leg from a “minning ball” he never recovered. He was twelve years toll gate keeper at the mouth of American Fork canyon and was noted for his honesty and integrity. His wife, who was Miss Susan Gordon, died three years age. He leaves a son John, still in North Carolina. His other children Frances Wells, Boyce Wells, Mrs. Sarah Anderson and Mrs. Gertrude Brown all live in American Fork.
The funeral was held Tuesday in the Third Ward Meeting House. Bishop J.R. Hindley presided. The other speakers were Henry Miller, M.H. Fitzgerald and president Stephen L. Chipman. The ward choir supplied the music.
 
Burial:
American Fork Cemetery
American Fork
Utah County
Utah, USA ”

God bless all.

Blagojevich trial, May 29, 2010, Obama controls Justice Department, Blagojevich plea?, Obama is guilty of corruption, Chicago pay to play politics, Who will throw who under the bus?, Patrick Fitzgerald controlled?

Blagojevich trial, May 29, 2010, Obama controls Justice Department, Blagojevich plea?

“We control life, Winston, at all its levels. You are imagining that there is something called human nature which will be outraged by what we do and will turn against us. But we create human nature. Men are infinitely malleable.”… “1984″ by George Orwell

 

Citizen Wells May 11, 2010
“I have given this much thought. Given the amount of evidence, the number of witnesses, the suicides and other questionable deaths of those connected to Blagojevich and ultimately Obama. Given the power Obama has over the Justice Department. Given the fact that the Blagojevich team seems desperate to delay the trial. I believe that it is highly likely that Blagojevich may cop a plea.

The question remains.

Who will throw who under the bus?”

Read more

Citizen Wells, yesterday, May 28, 2010
“Obama administration opposes Blagojevich request to delay corruption trial”

“The Obama administration says the Supreme Court should let the corruption trial of ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich move forward.

Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal told the high court on Friday that he sees no reason for a delay.”

Read more

Extent of corruption and media coverup

“We have a trial, a story, about Rod Blagojevich, his numerous corrupt cronies including Tony Rezko, Stuart Levine, Barack Obama and a host of others involved in long time crime and corruption in Chicago and IL. We have a story, far bigger and more far reaching than Watergate. We have a story including businessmen, attorneys, state and local officials, the Governor of Illinois, the occupant of the White House and his long time associates, and it is barely being covered by the mainstream media. And worse than that, it is being covered up. Even our last refuge of information access, the internet, is being manipulated.”

Read more

Is this part of the setup?

“These questions beg for an answer and we deserve one.
Why wasn’t Rod Blagojevich indicted soon after the Rezko trial ended in June 2008? He was wreaking havoc on the citizens of Illinois.
Why was the arrest of Blagojevich delayed until December 2008, after the 2008 elections?
Why was prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald given this assignment by Barack Obama?
August 5, 2009
“I was preparing a new article, a more detailed version of an earlier article about Obama’s role in rigging the Illinois Health Planning Facilities Board (you know, the board mentioned in the indictments of Rezko, Levine, Weinstein, Blagojevich, et al). The events leading up to the Blagojevich trial are dragging on in typical fashion and I did not want the American public to forget about Obama’s strong ties to Chicago corruption. The Citizen Wells blog has for many months stated that Obama should be indicted next. The question was, would Patrick Fitzgerald do his duty or be controlled by the Obama camp.

Now we have the answer.”

“At the relevant time period, the Planning Board consisted of nine individuals. State law required an entity seeking to build a hospital,
medical office building, or other medical facility in Illinois to obtain a permit, known as a “Certificate of Need” (“CON”), from the Planning Board prior to beginning construction.”
Why was the above left out of the Indictment?

 
Why is this not being shouted from the rooftops?

“At the relevant time period, the Planning Board consisted of nine individuals.”

The following sentence is one of the clearest connections of Obama to the rigging of the Planning Board. Obama was chairman of the IL Senate committee that changed the number of members from 15 to 9.”

Read more

Why would the Obama administration want to get this over quickly?
Citizen Wells and many other internet sites are presenting the truth about Blagojevich and his ties to long time corruption in Chicago and IL and his ties to

Obama. This has struck a nerve. The Obama camp in cooperation with entities like Google have been trying to hide these stories.
We have a synergy coming into play.

  • Blagojevich’s cocky, overconfident attitude.
  • The Obama camp wanting this put to rest, oversimplified and not implicating Obama in the corruption.
  • The US Justice Department. Will they do their job or is the Obama Administration calling all of the shots.

I believe that Blagojevich will plead guilty. I believe that he has no choice.
If Rod Blagojevich pleads guilty and gets a light sentence, you will know that Obama has controlled this and that there is no justice. No Justice Dept.

Memorial day history, May 29, 2010, Citizen Wells open thread, Lest we forget

Memorial day history, May 29, 2010

“We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.”…Abraham Lincoln

 

Memorial Day History

“Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation’s service. There are many stories as to its actual beginnings, with over two dozen cities and towns laying claim to being the birthplace of Memorial Day. There is also evidence that organized women’s groups in the South were decorating graves before the end of the Civil War: a hymn published in 1867, “Kneel Where Our Loves are Sleeping” by Nella L. Sweet carried the dedication “To The Ladies of the South who are Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead” (Source: Duke University’s Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920). While Waterloo N.Y. was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966, it’s difficult to prove conclusively the origins of the day. It is more likely that it had many separate beginnings; each of those towns and every planned or spontaneous gathering of people to honor the war dead in the 1860’s tapped into the general human need to honor our dead, each contributed honorably to the growing movement that culminated in Gen Logan giving his official proclamation in 1868. It is not important who was the very first, what is important is that Memorial Day was established. Memorial Day is not about division. It is about reconciliation; it is about coming together to honor those who gave their all.
 

 
Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11, and was first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873. By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I (when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war). It is now celebrated in almost every State on the last Monday in May (passed by Congress with the National Holiday Act of 1971 (P.L. 90 – 363) to ensure a three day weekend for Federal holidays), though several southern states have an additional separate day for honoring the Confederate war dead: January 19 in Texas, April 26 in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi; May 10 in South Carolina; and June 3 (Jefferson Davis’ birthday) in Louisiana and Tennessee.”

Read more:

http://www.usmemorialday.org/backgrnd.html

Blagojevich trial breaking news, May 28, 2010, Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens refused to delay the June 3 trial

Blagojevich trial breaking news, May 28, 2010

From the Chicago tribune May 28, 2010.

“Supreme Court rules against delaying Blago trial”

“Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens refused today to delay the June 3 trial of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Stevens, who handles emergency appeals from the 7th Circuit Court, turned down a motion from Blagojevich’s lawyers who sought a 30-day delay.

The defense team had argued the trial should be put on hold until the high court rules in several pending cases on constitutional challenges to the law that makes it a crime to deprive the public of “honest services.

Blagojevich faces 24 counts of corruption, including bribery, extortion and racketeering, but several counts include charges of honest services fraud.

Earlier today, Justice Department lawyers urged Stevens to allow the trial to proceed on schedule.

In a 15-page filing, they noted that the judge presiding over the trial has told lawyers not to even mention the term “honest services” in their opening statements to the jury.”

Read more: