Tag: conrad black

Neocon publisher Conrad Black's trial is expected to wrap up today. At the outset I was excited by the prospect of the trial. So too were members of the Canadian and British press who turned up by the hundreds. But Tubby's tedious speechifying lawyers decided to forgo the pile driver defense opting instead for the sleeper hold. "If the peeps are asleep they can't convict the creep" Johnnie Cochrane might have said. Only one brief moment of excitement came from Barbara Amiel when she hissed at a TV producer "Slut" and dismissed journalists as "vermin". Then the trial returned to week, upon week, upon week of tedium.

Intrade couldn't even generate enough business on their futures market to justify the listing. It appears less than $1000 was put down, worldwide. Yawn! For what it is worth the punters are betting "Not Guilty" on all available contracts. Don't trust the predictive powers of such a thin market. For all we know that's all Con's money on the table.

So what's going to happen in the next few days to former Canadian, Conrad?

Here's my analysis:

Yeah. You heard right. What's it to ya?

It's a shooter. As usual Drinksmixer.com

Red Headed Slut
Ingredients

1 oz peach schnapps
1 oz Jagermeister® herbal liqueur
cranberry juice

Directions

Chill and serve in a shot glass

An all Canadian favourite cocktail is suggested today, invented in Calgary by Walter Chell in 1969. According to several sources Canadians drink 250 million of these beauties a year!

Bloody Caesar

Ingredients
1 1/2 oz vodka?
fill a highball glass with Mott's Clamato juice
3 dashes Tabasco® sauce?
3 dashes Worcestershire sauce

Directions
Line the rim of a glass with salt and pepper. Over ice, add vodka, fill with clamato juice, then add the remaining ingredients. Garnish with a celery stick. Add more tabasco sauce if desired.

Crossposted at DailyKos

Conrad Black's trial on a variety of fraud charges continues with jury selection today in Chicago.

For months Black's supporters have claimed that he is being persecuted by a runaway justice system. The motive for the prosecution, they say, is envy.

Conrad and the American Way  Is Lord Black the victim of a new culture of envy in the US, asks Margareta Pagano She quotes an article by Alykhan Velshi, head of a neo-con think thank, The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies:

The crux of Velshi's argument is that the vendetta against Black came about because existing laws, such as that which allows the pre-trial seizure of assets, have been corrupted by a growing culture of envy. Add to this the way corporate governance in the US has shifted in favour of minority shareholders and you have a poisonous climate in which business now operates.
The law, writes Velshi, is focused "less on securing justice than on bringing down the high and mighty, all the while pandering to the politics of envy."

Crossposted at DailyKos

What is it about Conrad Black that causes others to imitate his multisyllabic rhetoric? He's laid down the fog of war. The battlefield is obscured with the smoke of vocabulary so seldom used, and sentence structure so convoluted, that the audience is well confused before the first fact can be found. Rex Murphy's commentary was almost unintelligible last night. Everywhere I look and listen the commentators are showing off their prowess with the thesaurus.

So many sycophants are using this means of expression to excuse Black's behaviour that I'm tending to believe the accounts of the story with the lowest word counts. And I think the jury will feel the same way too. This is the way three card monte is played at the Empire club. It won't work on the streets of Chicago.

Here's a story that I think lays the case out fairly clearly. The Independent Online

Conrad Black, the once and future Canadian, is about to face trial in Chicago on a variety of fraud charges related to the governance of Hollinger International. Jury selection begins Wednesday.

Crossposted at DailyKos

Recently, to my great surprise, I received a cheque for $24,950 and a lovely note that simply said "For Summer Drinks". At first I thought it might be a mistake. Summer Drinks could be the name of a James Bond girl, or a Peterborough ballerina. But no, TNA has a patron, a sponsor, a philanthropist who is grateful for our support.
Lord Black

It seems that Conrad Black has taken offence at the way a book published in Britain portrays him and his wife Barbara Amiel.

From The Guardian

 

The 41-page complaint says Bower's work is "vindictive, high-handed, contemptuous, sadistic, pathologically mendacious and malicious", showing "deliberate disregard for the damage that might be done to the good name of the plaintiff".

snip

Lord Black has taken particular exception to the book's treatment of his wife. His lawsuit says it portrays her as "grasping, hectoring, slatternly, extravagant, shrill and a harridan", and a "Nazi apologist".

I find it interesting that he has filed the suit in Canada and not England.  IANAL so I don't know exactly how these sorts of things work, so I don't know whether the defendant or the plaintiff is required to prove their case.

Either way, if it does get to trial, someone will have to show something.  I wonder if Black even has a "good name" left to protect.  And good luck on showing that Babs wasn't extravagant.

Let's not forget the charges he is facing when he comes up for trial in March in Chicago.  And in case you forgot who is prosecuting him, it's none other than Patrick Fitzgerald, currently waiting for a decision in the Lewis "Scooter" Libby perjury and obstruction case.

Black is facing multiple charges for racketeering, obstruction of justice, money laundering and fraud.

And already he is complaining about the hardship he will face being tried by a jury not composed of his peers.

Still, the British peer--Black gave up his Canadian citizenship in order to become "Lord" Black--worries that when his case goes to trial next month in Chicago, jurors may not understand the complexity of his material needs. So he's seeking mercy from the court.

In a motion filed in September (see below and on the following seven pages), his lordship's lawyers argue that certain allegations in the indictment engender "class prejudice." The motion requests on Pages 6 and 7 that references to Black's "membership in the House of Lords"; to his multiple residences (some of them admittedly decorated in "lavish fashion"); to the (presumably less lavish) servants' living quarters situated therein; and to the surprise party Black threw for his ladyship and 80 guests at La Grenouille--that mention of these bagatelles, plus a few others, be stricken from the indictment. After all, Black's attorneys point out, a "typical juror does not reside in more than one residence, employ servants or a chauffeur ... or host expensive parties."

Until this very moment I hadn't realized I was leading a life parallel to that of Conrad Black. But I am, I have. And the similarities are amazing. After reading in the Toronto Star Bora Bora trip billed to firm: Documents by Rick Westhead I came to the awful realization.

I am he as he is me as we are we and we are all together
Cooo Coo Ka choo
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen, I am the walrus

In the dog days of summer in 2001, Conrad Black and his wife, Barbara Amiel, hopped on Black's corporate jet and headed for a vacation in Bora Bora, court documents show.
From the South Pacific island, the couple then jetted to Seattle to watch an opera before later returning to Toronto.

Months later, when the $565,000 bill for the trip arrived at Black's Hollinger International Inc., Black allegedly told the company controller in an email that the flights were "mainly" within the U.S., according to documents filed with the U.S. District Court in Chicago yesterday.

"Let's charge them to (Hollinger) International," Black wrote. "I'm happy to pay, as to half, personally, if (this will) cause difficulties."

Coming in November, 2006, is the unauthorized biography of the Lord and Lady of Crossharbour, by Tom Bower, entitled Conrad & Lady Black.

Black isn't pleased.

"Our usual response is that you have made it clear that you consider this whole matter a heart-warming story of two sleazy, spivvy, contemptible people, who enjoyed a fraudulent and unjust elevation; were exposed, and ground to powder in a just system; have been ostracized, and largely impoverished; and that I am on my way to the prison cell where I belong.

"The rough facts are that I am an honest businessman; the chances of my committing an illegality are less than zero," Black says, adding that his accusers are conducting "a prolonged assassination of careers and reputations."

What happened? Bionic was under the weather. Several others have mentioned health issues. Thank goodness for Rob in Montreal who took on the posting duties for the rest of us.  Most of us were about as active as a pig-processing python. And what's with the stinginess with the recommends?  Time to get back on in shape.

Anemia has a treatment. You have a choice. Either start the party by drinking the vitamin cocktail or one of  TN's white coated colleagues is going to have you bend over and you'll get a jab in the ass. With a syringeful, that is.

It has been a rather rough week so I called in all my favours from the entertainment industry to cheer us up. We're getting the insider preview of Oktoberfest/ La Fête de la bière courtesy of the Kitchener-Waterloo. Oktoberfest Don't forget the real festivities start next week.

Warming up with his tuba and accordion are George Kash and his Oktoberfest Express! Thanka you George.

Before we start I want to acknowledge the caterers who, in addition to supplying an array of sausages, have also supplied creton, toast and mimosas! Prole that's for you! Some might complain when the joint opens early but how else to get breakfast in?
Thanka you catering.

I'm sure this has happened to any number of us. It seems to be an inevitability of certain unhealthy relationships. You might have been the on the receiving end, you may have been the drunken fool. I'm talking about the drunk and dial.

The inevitable process of calling a romantic interest (girlfriend, boyfriend, etc) while intoxicated to confess random thoughts about absolutely nothing. Usually, you will sound very stupid and pathetic.

Friend1: Dude, I called Jessica and told her that I loved her.
Friend2: Are you drunk?
Friend1: Yeah.
Friend2: I told you not to Drink and Dial. You're such a fuckin idiot.

Yeah, well, friends don't let friends drink and dial. No matter how attractive the phone looks and how much you want to hear his or her voice, do not call. Alcohol plus phones equals a recipe for disaster.

(Stepping into paul2port's beat here)

Don't know if Lord Black of Crossharbour has been hitting the bottle put he certainly metaphorically picked up the phone.

It's still ringing over the fold.

So bright, so beautiful, Precious, My Preciousssss...

He hates the ring, he loves the ring. He will never be rid of his need for it. Conrad Black IS Smeagol in the amazing sequel to the Lord of the Ring;

Stop Lording it over Me with Peerage, Conrad tells Prosecutors

An Ontario judge has ordered that all assets worldwide of Conrad Black and of his wife, Barbara Amiel are to be frozen.

Mr. Justice Colin Campbell made the order at the request of Hollinger Inc. who contends that Black and other executives stripped Hollinger of its assets.

Observers expect that the judge will meet with Black's lawyers who will argue that the assets should be released so things could change again.