Grand Old Police Blotter: Dasen Abused Edition

Richard Dasen of Kalispell, Montana, stands accused of having sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old girl. Dasen denies the charge, and has pleaded not guilty.

On Thursday, Dasen, 61, was arraigned by District Judge Stewart Stadler.

Represented by attorney George Best, Dasen confirmed who he is, pleaded not guilty and began the process of requiring prosecutors to prove their case against him.

If convicted, he faces up to 100 years in prison.

Theoretically speaking.

It is also alleged that Dasen really likes sex:

Kalispell police have said that Dasen spent $1 million on extravagant payments to women for sex over the past 20 years. He allegedly spent $140,000 in December alone.

Wow. That's Karl Rove/Ed Gillespie/Marc Raiciot money.

How on earth can you spend four grand a day on sex? In Montana?

The rape charge is based on an allegation that he paid two teenage girls to perform sexually for him and then performed sex acts on at least one of them. The rape charge was filed because one of the girls was under 16, the age of consent in Montana.

One woman, Kimberly Neise, has been charged with promoting prostitution for allegedly arranging the girls' tryst with Dasen in her home.

Police say some of the women involved with Dasen over the years will be charged with prostitution.

According to court documents, Dasen has said he can provide the names of 400 women he has "helped." The document says that "Dasen has consistently referred to having sex with females who he has provided financial aid to as 'help.'"

"I was naked, and you clothed me. Indirectly."

Dasen ran a business called Christian Financial Counseling, where he counseled and assisted people in financial straits.

Police allege that he wrote checks from the Christian Financial Counseling account and from his personal bank account to pay women for sex.

He also has a financial interest in Budget Finance, City Service Inc., Peak Development, 3D Investments and Dasen Corp.

According to the FEC, Dick Dasen of Kalispell, Montana (and of City Service) is a Republican contributor:

DASEN, RICHARD
KALISPELL, MT 59903
CITY SERVICE

TAYLOR, MICHAEL A
VIA TAYLOR FOR US SENATE
12/27/2001 500.00

You may remember Michael Taylor. He was the heterosexual not-gay straight Republican businessman who dropped out (and then back in) of the 2002 Montana Senate race after Max Baucus dug up some old footage from a local t.v. program which showed Taylor applying lotion to a man's face. Dasen's contribution to Taylor was clearly less extravagant than his alleged payments to the cash-strapped women of Montana.

A Bomb In A Bull

International sophisticate and Torquay hotelier Paul Wolfowitz tries the subtle approach to calling the people of Spain appeasers:

In an interview on PBS television Thursday, Wolfowitz said Zapatero's withdrawal plan didn't seem very Spanish.

"The Spaniards are courageous people. I mean, we know it from their whole culture of bullfighting," Wolfowitz said. "I don't think they run in the face of an enemy. They haven't run in the face of the Basque terrorists. I hope they don't run in the face of these people."

(Link courtesy of a reader; joke stolen from the Now Show.)

"The question, simply put, is whether someone who thought I could decide this case impartially despite my friendship with the vice president would reasonably believe that I cannot decide it impartially because I went hunting with that friend and accepted an invitation to fly there with him on a government plane. If it is reasonable to think that a Supreme Court justice can be bought so cheap, the nation is in deeper trouble than I had imagined." -- Scalia v. United States, Fat Tony Scalia (R - U.S.S.C.), dissembling.

Update (3/20): Corrected, see comments.

Smears of the Clowns

Remember when a bunch of slimy right-wing thugs insinuated that Muslim U.S. Army Chaplain James Yee was providing aid and comfort to alleged Islamic terrorists? Clownhall.com favorites Michelle Malkin, Mona Charen, John Leo and Frank Gaffney sure hope you don't.

MIAMI (AP) -- Citing national security concerns, the Army on Friday dropped all charges against a Muslim chaplain accused of mishandling classified documents at Guantanamo Bay, which houses suspected terrorists.

U.S. Army Captain James Yee will be allowed to return to his previous duty station at Fort Lewis, Wash.

Capt. James Yee will be allowed to return to his previous duty station at Fort Lewis, near Tacoma, Wash., said the U.S. Southern Command, which oversees the detention center in Cuba.

"Chaplain Yee has won," his attorney, Eugene R. Fidell of Washington, said in a statement late Friday. "The Army's dismissal of the classified information charges against him represents a long overdue vindication."

Maybe it's time to sent columnists to Gitmo.

Burning Down His Father's House

Commenter Ricky West says that a comparison of USA Today to NYT as respects their respective lying reporters is comparison of "apples to dumptrucks." He further guesses that "the fact that several editors of the NYT knew about Blair's lying & he was kept on anyway isn't of importance, eh?" to your correspondent.

I say the similarities outweigh the differences.

What did the NYT know, and when? According to the paper,

The Times inquiry also establishes that various editors and reporters expressed misgivings about Mr. Blair's reporting skills, maturity and behavior during his five-year journey from raw intern to reporter on national news events. Their warnings centered mostly on the errors in his articles.

His mistakes became so routine, his behavior so unprofessional, that by April 2002, Jonathan Landman, the metropolitan editor, dashed off a two-sentence e-mail message to newsroom administrators that read: "We have to stop Jayson from writing for the Times. Right now."

After taking a leave for personal problems and being sternly warned, both orally and in writing, that his job was in peril, Mr. Blair improved his performance. By last October, the newspaper's top two editors -- who said they believed that Mr. Blair had turned his life and work around -- had guided him to the understaffed national desk, where he was assigned to help cover the Washington sniper case.

By the end of that month, public officials and colleagues were beginning to challenge his reporting. By November, the investigation has found, he was fabricating quotations and scenes, undetected. By March, he was lying in his articles and to his editors about being at a court hearing in Virginia, in a police chief's home in Maryland and in front of a soldier's home in West Virginia. By the end of April another newspaper was raising questions about plagiarism. And by the first of May, his career at The Times was over.

Blair's now-known fabrications went back to July 2000, nearly three years from when he was caught.

And what did the USA Today know, and when? According the paper,

Kelley's work first came under scrutiny in May [2003] after [Executive Editor Brian] Gallagher received an anonymous note that questioned whether Kelley was fabricating or embellishing stories. The note triggered a review of Kelley's work but eventually became only a peripheral issue.

Kelley was investigated by USA Today for seven months, and then resigned after admitting lying in the investigation (but not in his reporting). Kelley's now known fabrications go back at least to 2000, three years before he was first confronted by his employer.

In each case, there were red flags many months before the reporter was confronted proof of lying and then resigned. The Times claims that Blair's red flags were thought to be mistakes rather than lies or plagiarism. The Times does not admit that any of Blair's editors knew Blair was lying. (Anyone with facts to the contrary should feel free to interject them into the comments below.)

Should the Times have continued to employ an error-prone reporter? Probably not. Did its editors know Blair was fabricating information weeks or even days before Blair was forced to resign? I'm not aware of any facts that they did.

Putzie Buries The Lede

Reporter Jack Kelley stands accused by his former employer, USA Today, of making shit up on a global basis. The paper reports:

Seven weeks into an examination of former USA TODAY reporter Jack Kelley's work, a team of journalists has found strong evidence that Kelley fabricated substantial portions of at least eight major stories, lifted nearly two dozen quotes or other material from competing publications, lied in speeches he gave for the newspaper and conspired to mislead those investigating his work.

You have to read the whole article (and all the sidebars) to grasp the extent of Kelley's misdeeds, which occurred over a period of years. Kelley is not yet ready to confess his sins, and has unveiled a Marion Barry defense: "I feel like I'm being set up."

Atrios comments that:

I'm sure the brothers Hack, Glenn and Mickey, will spend weeks discussing how this guy's race and religion allowed him to get away with things that other journalists couldn't get away with.

That appears to be sacrasm.

The nation's preeminent media reporter, Howie Kurtz, has already decided this story is not particularly newsworthy. In his Media Notes Extra column, Kurtz buries the Kelley story beneath a number of long, stale excerpts of Kerry bashing. (It seems Kerry took a vacation, which disqualifies him from being president.) So instead of headlining a story which is actually a media story (journalist fabricates news), the Putz gives top billing to a bunch of worthless clips on a non-media story (Hugh Hewitt slimes Kerry -- now that's newsworthy!)

Remember, Kurtz is the man who "ha[d] to" take time away from his honeymoon to report on the calls for Howell Raines's resignation in the aftermath of the Jayson Blair scandal. According to the Washington Post's online archives, Kurtz wrote at least 12 stories in which Blair was named in and/or the subject of the article's headline, not including the multitude of stories about the resignation of Howell Raines in the aftermath of the Blair revelations. A cynic might wonder if the fact that Kelley's a white evangelical Christian writing stories generally favorable to the Bush Administration instead of an African-American working for the supposedly left-wing NYT has anything to do with Kurtz's lack of interest in the Kelley story.

Don't worry, though, this blog will shine the spotlight on the misdeeds of Kelley and continue to dog the fraudlent media reporter, Kurtz.

Richard Perle Libel Watch, Part Deux

Listeners to NPR this morning heard neoclown Richard Perle assert that Spanish Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said "Iraq was better off under Saddam Hussein." (A paraphrase, looking for the exact quote.) The NPR reporter said that Zapatero had made no such claim, and I haven't been able to find such a statement on the internet so far. Zapatero said the war and occupation of Iraq are "a disaster," which of course is not the same thing.

Perhaps Perle will get his libel suit after all, only as a D rather than a P.

Accentuate The Positive

Although the style of this blog tends toward simplistic insults and carping, we try not to be all negative. In that spirit, I'd like recommend the website of an advocacy group that is both progressive and positive: TrueMajority.org.

The organization's priniciples are listed here. Some of the principles seem a tad ambitious, but the goals are very important. For example, TrueMajority seeks to significantly increase funding for primary and secondary public education. That should be a top priority for the Kerry Administration, right after repealing the No Child Left Behind fraud. (The site is endorsed by the National Head Start Association.) TrueMajority also opposes paperless computer voting.

TrueMajority posits that its agenda is revenue neutral, to be paid for by cuts in military spending. It explains its position in a very clever short animation featuring a cartoon Ben Cohen (who started the organization).

Anyway, I've signed up to recieve their e-mail alerts. The site's definitely worth checking out for the animation alone.

Shout Out To My Homes, David Brooks

So I caught this blogad for "Newz Crew -- A Global Youth & NewsHour Youth Circle." (Yeah, they don't know what it means either.) The Newz Crew appears to be some sort of funky fresh news (sic) website for yoot which is affiliated with PBS's Newshour with Jim Lehrer. Yo.

The site's content is supposedly provided by high school students, but it's got a strong whiff of earnest middle-aged dogooder:

"What is the Newz Crew?

"This project is an innovative, online program by and for youth using the Internet and news media to develop and promote media literacy and youth engagement in the democratic process.

"Come again?"

And it's being promoted through "ad banners on political Web sites, including Washington Monthly and American Conservative," the favorite internet hangouts of teenz everywhere.

Scrilla for the venture is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation, the Surdna Foundation and the Time Warner Foundation. And viewers like you.

Whora! Whora! Whora!

Matt Yglasias sinks the U.S.S. Crotchfruit. Could anyone be stupider than JoJo?

Chris Hitchens writes, with a shaky hand:

I can remember when I was a bit of an ETA fan myself. It was in 1973*, when a group of Basque militants assassinated Adm. Carrero Blanco.

...

Correction, March 16, 2004: Adm. Luis Carrero Blanco was killed in 1973, not 1975 as this article originally stated. (Return to the corrected item.)

I remember it as if it was yesterday, rounded off to the nearest year or two.

Hic!th may still qualify for the G.O.P. Team Leader Points, though. The title of Chris's article refers to "appeasement," although he manages to avoid the word in the article itself. I recommend the Joe McCarthy highball glass set, Chris (only 2,000 dignity points -- cheap!)

Speaking Of Your Liberal Media

The ultraleftist National Public Radio saw fit to broadcast Mickey "Wankette" Kaus's ravings on Senator John Kerry:

Mickey Kaus shares another late-night musing -- this time, Kaus thinks the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry may be responding a bit too rapidly to some Bush campaign attacks. Listen to the segment.

No, you listen to the segment.

I'll wait for Day-to-Day to broadcast Charles Manson's late-night musings -- this time, Manson decries the prosecutorial overreaching of Vincent Bugliosi.

Meet Your Liberal Media

The ultraleft New York Times Opinion page ran essentially the identical piece twice. David Brooks called the citizens of Spain appeasers and Edward N. Nutsack Luttwak wrote the same column. Which one copied the other's paper?

Of course, this is just a dry run for The Three Tenors of Untruth (Rove, Racicot and Gillespie). In the coming weeks, Kerry voters will be smeared as appeasers, unpatriotic, traitors, fifth columnists and al-Qaeda apologists. As the Dems have been for the past 30 months.

Twin Streams And A Dental Dam

It's official. Republicans are as bad at writing about sex as they are doing it:

"How well her words describe our love - or the way it would be if we could remove all impediments, leave this place, and join together ... Then our union would be complete. Our lives would flow together, twin streams merging into a single river."

No wonder Dick spends so much time by the microwave.

Republicans Give America The Finger

The Heffelfinger.

The U.S. Attorney for the State of Minnesota, Tom Heffelfinger, is attempting to subtitute the federal government for speeding killer Rep. Bill Janklow (R-SD) in the civil lawsuit filed by the survivors of Janklow's victim, Randy Scott. Heffelfinger claims Janklow killed Randy Scott in the course of his employment for the United States House of Reprsentatives. According to CNN.com, if such is the case, taxpayers foot the bill for Janklow's lethal joyride and Scott's heirs can't recover punitive damages from the death-dealing Puke.

CNN also reports that Janklow was heading home for a campaign event. It appears South Dakota has the "going and coming rule," a principle of law which provides that "the employment relationship is ordinarily suspended from the time an employee leaves his job to go home until he resumes it." So how is the federal government liable for Janklow's dangerous antics while he was speeding home?

It appears that Heffelfinger is a Republican and former GOP mouthpiece. Janklow is worth between $2.2 and 7 plus million. Heffelfinger is working hard to ensure that Janklow has a very comfortable retirement.

Something is rotten in the State of Minnesota.

Meeting of the Minds

"Print pool reporter Chuck Lindell of the Austin American-Statesman reported to his colleagues that he saw a tuxedo-clad president plant kisses on the cheeks of singer Patti LaBelle and recording artist Jessica Simpson."

And it happened at Ford's Theater. Sometimes there's just too much material to work with.

Whores On Terror

Atrios caught the same Wan Juilliams quote I heard this morning on NPR. Wanny's not the only one conflating the invasion of Iraq with the "War on Terror." Howie the Putz did the same thing during his little chit-chat today:

I'm not accepting the premise of your question, that Bush is using 9/11 for political gain. How could a president not talk about the biggest single event of his term and the issue on which he's expended the most political energy? The election results raise serious questions for Spain - a prime minister who appeared headed for reelection is defeated because of terrorist attacks for which he somehow bears the blame? And obviously, having been closely associated with Bush's war on terror is not necessarily an asset for leaders of countries that were highly skeptical about the Iraq invasion.

I'll give Karl Rove this much: He keeps the dupes on message.

Morons Crush

It's amusing to watch all the wingnut bloggers sprouting self-righteous wood over the New York Times' cease-and-desist efforts regarding The National Debate's fake NYT Columnist Corrections page. Instacracker, for instance, whines like a wounded animal about the Times trying to "shut down The National Debate."

I'll make it simple for you simpletons. The Times is objecting to the TND's wholesale copying of its visual images and webpage format (which is, apparently, a literal cut-and-paste job). It doesn't give a rat's ass about TND's content. The point that the Times doesn't publish corrections for its columnists' errors has been blogged many times, many ways. Not a single one of those bloggers heard from the Times' attorneys. It did not happen. Bob Somerby fillets David Brooks, Bill Safire and Lizzy Bumiller in today's Howler -- will he get a letter from NYTCo.'s high-priced mouthpiece? No. Did Sully Joe or Donald Foreskin or Midget Mick or Tennessee Dim ever get a letter from the Times threatening legal action because of their incessant Times bashing? Hell, no. Have I been subject to service of process for pointing out the fabrications of Nick Pistof and Bill Safliar? Fuck, no.

Would it be asking too much of idiots like Hillbilly McInbred to give up just a bit of their limitless self-regard and stop pretending that Times is trying to "crush dissent" in the blogosphere? No. But what would they write about then?

What A Barone!

The Bush blog is highlighting this quote from conventional wisdom bore Michael Barone:

What is remarkable about our occupation of Iraq is not that it has gone badly but that it has gone so well. Last week, crude oil production was above target level, the central bank signed up for the payment system used by central banks internationally, and 140,000 Iraqi police and law enforcement officers were on duty. A new Iraqi currency is circulating, and schools are open. Wages are rising, interest rates are falling, businesses are opening and hiring. Millions of Iraqis are buying cellphones, TVs, and satellite dishes.

Barone must be paying Ahmed Chalabi for his information, because it's not quite accurate:

After years of wars, sanctions and mismanagement, Iraq's gross domestic product hovers around $1,000 per person, according to the 2004 Iraq budget - about the same as North Korea's or Mozambique's. (The United States' GDP is about $37,600 per person.) That means most Iraqis live hand to mouth, with few luxuries.

Unemployment is down - but from 60 percent to a still-whopping 28 percent, according to the planning ministry.

Underemployment is chronic. Iraq may have the world's best-educated taxi drivers and waiters.

"All I want is a job in my field," said Musadeq Mohammed, 28, a chemical engineer, who makes $200 a month working 10-hour shifts, seven days a week, waiting tables at Baghdad's Saj al Reef restaurant.

The consumer boom, while real, is the province of a relatively tiny elite. Iraqis who make the typical wages of $150 a month are not buying 36-inch TVs and $20 boxes of Swiss chocolates being sold in Baghdad's Karada neighborhood.

...

Glistening new storefronts selling newly available cell-phone service have sprouted around Baghdad, but there are only about 300,000 cell phones in use in a country of 25 million people, according to the Coalition Provisional Authority, the postwar U.S.- and British-led caretaker administration of Iraq. Mohammed, for one, cannot afford the $200 up-front cost.

Maybe they're buying the phones, but using them as paperweights.

Interestingly, the Bush blog left out the very next sentence from Barone:

Attacks on Americans have greatly diminished, and attacks on Iraqis are likely to turn them against terrorists rather than against us.

Not even Bush blog readers would swallow that one.

Update (3/15): Inky link no longer hinky.

Update (3/16): See comments.

If The Cable's Shit, You Must Acquit

O.J. Simpson is being sued in a Miami civil court for $20,000 amid claims that he used pirating devices to pilfer satellite TV broadcasts at his Miami home. DirecTV says Simpson used two "bootloaders" to decrypt its signals. The devices were removed by the feds from Simpson's house during a search way back in December 2001. Simpson attorney Yale Galanter could not be reached for comment.

Very disillusioning.