Gingrich: Town Hall in Jackson

Newt Gingrich will be holding a town hall in Jackson on December 3. From a Gingrich email:

We will be holding a town hall event where members of the audience can ask me questions and share ideas about how we can provide small businesses and entrepreneurs with the right incentives to create jobs and get the economy moving again.

Please click here to let us know if you plan to attend and how many people you plan on bringing so that we can make appropriate arrangements. Seating will be limited and given out on a first come basis.

Here are the full details for the event:

WHAT: - American Solutions Townhall Meeting
WHEN: - December 3, 2009, from 4:00-6:00 PM
WHERE: - Millsaps College Recital Hall; 1701 North State Street; Jackson MS 39210-0001

MSGOP: "Mr. Franks presents no ideas, no vision, and no solution to Mississippi’s budget challenges"

Mississippi Republican Party Chairman Brad White put the smackdown on Jamie Franks. As we mentioned yesterday, the Mississippi Democratic Party's reaction to Governor Haley Barbour's budget proposal was essentially: "No". Rather than suggest ideas, they only attacked.

GOP Chairman Brad White responded (ht Y'all):

“Jamie Franks shows us the difference between big government, big spending Democrats and the prudent reforms presented by Governor Haley Barbour.”

“Governor Barbour presented a comprehensive recommendation to balance the budget, improve the delivery of services, and not raise taxes. That's real leadership. And the Governor said he's willing to listen to other proposals and work with other perspectives, but Mr. Franks offers no constructive proposals, only negative attacks and tired political rhetoric. Mr. Franks presents no ideas, no vision, and no solution to Mississippi’s budget challenges. I’m sure Governor Barbour fully expects to work with a number of Democrats to hammer out a balanced budget and recognizes that Mr. Franks does not speak for them."

“The governor will have to make more cuts to our current budget, next year’s budget will be even tighter, and 2012 looks to be even worse. His reforms will balance our budget during these tough years, and when the recession ends, Mississippi will be better positioned to grow faster and stronger as a result - but not if we listen to Jamie Franks. His same old, tired, broken-down political rhetoric won’t pay the bills or balance the budget. He needs to sell his Obama-Pelosi style policies somewhere else because Mississippi is simply not buying them.”

Booya.

Majority in Mississippi also has some thoughts on this.

MS Dems become the Party of No

Chairman Jamie Franks responded to Governor Haley Barbour's budget recommendation. What is his vision for Mississippi? "NO"

He doesn't present any ideas on how to solve the budget crisis. All he does is attack the Governor. He says the Governor should cut his own staff. If he had read the budget proposal, he would see the Governor cuts his staff 12 percent on top of previous cuts to his office.

All his other comments are essentially: "NO"

We reread his statement several times to find solutions, ideas, vision, recommendations, just any kind of path or an ounce of leadership for Mississippi. But there was none.

This release is just another example of the wisdom of Mississippi voters in not choosing Franks as lieutenant governor. We guess the Mississippi Democratic Party has now been reduced to becoming the Party of No.

Jackson Municipal Judge urges residents to file contingency fee lawsuits

Dickie Scruggs once had this to say about "magic jurisdictions" where judges favored lawsuits and defendants didn't have much of a chance.

[W]hat I call the “magic jurisdiction,”...[is] where the judiciary is elected with verdict money. The trial lawyers have established relationships with the judges that are elected; they’re State Court judges; they’re popul[ists]. They’ve got large populations of voters who are in on the deal, they’re getting their [piece] in many cases. And so, it’s a political force in their jurisdiction, and it’s almost impossible to get a fair trial if you’re a defendant in some of these places. The plaintiff lawyer walks in there and writes the number on the blackboard, and the first juror meets the last one coming out the door with that amount of money. . . . The cases are not won in the courtroom. They’re won on the back roads long before the case goes to trial. Any lawyer fresh out of law school can walk in there and win the case, so it doesn’t matter what the evidence or the law is.

Certainly a municipal judge is different from what he was speaking about, but lest you think Mississippi's judiciary has swung away from favoring trial lawyers comes this story from Saturday's Clarion Ledger where a judge is actually advocating people to file lawsuits, to come together to file them as a class action, and to not worry about the cost because lawyers will take the case on a contingency fee, or a portion of the win.

Municipal Court Judge Ali ShamsiDeen, who spoke at the meeting, had some unconventional advice - sue.

ShamsiDeen said property owners can file simple negligence or nuisance lawsuits against property owners if they can show damages, such as decreases in property values attributable to the blighted property.

Damages in such lawsuits can cover more than monetary losses, including mental anguish or loss of the use and enjoyment of property "because of all these boarded up houses and the dope traffic," he said.

"People are going to have to become more involved in their communities," ShamsiDeen said. "One way is through civil suits."

ShamsiDeen said using tort law to attack blight is "new territory," but it is catching on as cities try to counteract the damaging effects of large numbers of vacant properties.

"The person or persons you are going after don't have to be breaking the law," he said. "Your claim is that (the property owner's) negligence has impacted your home negatively. You aren't looking for a crime. You are looking for cause and effect."

Such litigation can take months or even years to complete, but ShamsiDeen said it costs $155 to file suit and lawyers often take such cases on a contingency basis if a defendant with deep enough pockets can be found.

"One way to attack the problem is as a class action," he said. "The whole neighborhood can sue."

Some attorneys still frown on lawyers going out to chase ambulances for cases, here is an example of a judge doing it for them.

US Attorney Hopeful Would Never Protest Fellow Democrats

If this were a Republican nominee for U.S. Attorney, the left would be going nuts.

Northern District U.S. Attorney hopeful Christi McCoy, among those at the fundraiser, said she may not always support Childers, but she would never protest a fellow Democrat.

"It shows public discord within my party," McCoy said, making Democrats "seem vulnerable."

Frankly, we don't care whether she protests a fellow Democrat or not, as long as she will prosecute regardless of party or friendship...unlike our Attorney General who said prosecuting Joey Langston, Steve Patterson and Tim Balducci "would be like prosecuting a relative."

Jim Hood and Brandon Presley's Political Roadshows

It isn't unusual for politicians to do tours of their districts. Heck, that is part of the power of incumbency, you get to go out and meet the voters in your official capacity. We noticed two incumbents launched tours last week: Attorney General Jim Hood and Northern District Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley.

Jim Hood is doing his "Did You Know?" tour that his office describes as a "grassroots initiative" to tell Mississippians what it is the Attorney General's Office does. The trip includes visits to Meridian, Hattiesburg, Laurel, Gulfport, Moss Point, Vicksburg, Lexington, Tupelo, Starkville, Columbus, Natchez, Clarksdale, and Batesville.

Coming up on his seventh year in office, I guess its about time people find out what he does. The commenters over at Y'all Politics have had fun with this.

Brandon Presley's roadshow is different, he is setting up regular office hours in the county's in his district. He will be counting on staff to fill these offices, not himself obviously, because many counties have the same times on the same days. For example on the first and third Tuesday of each month he will have office hours in Winston, Tate, Pontotoc, Coahoma, Monroe, and Montgomery counties all at the same time (9-11am). Assuming he staffs one of them himself, that means he'll have five Public Service Commission staffers working the other courthouse offices. He also has office hours over-lapping the second and fourth Tuesday of every month, every Wednesday of every month, and the second and third Thursday of every month.

Its a good thing Presley argued for additional staff during the session and budget standoff that the Stimulus provided $824,901 to the PSC for additional staff, they obviously are in dire need of more staff to occupy courthouses in North Mississippi.

ObamaCare is Uncool

Despite pictures and audio clips of corporate sponsorship, House Dems may exonerate Bennie Thompson's travel

The National Legal and Policy Center comments on a Roll Call report that the House Ethics Committee may clear Bennie Thompson and others who attended a carribean junket with corporate sponsors in violation of House Ethics rules.

If this is true, we are not surprised. When we provided photographs and audio recordings from the trip at the request of the Committee in May, we made clear that our willingness to do so was not an endorsement of the Ethics Committee process, which has again proven to be a joke.

Rep. G. K. Butterfield (D-NC), a member of the CBC, who was appointed just days after the CBC publicly objected to the probe, heads the investigation of the trip. He went on the same trip in a previous year.

Because the violations of House Rules by Rangel and Co. were so clear-cut, the Committee maintains its reputation for ineffectiveness. The Rules against corporate sponsorship of multi-day Congressional travel and hospitality were tightened at the behest of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi herself in the wake of the Jack Abramoff golf trip to Scotland. The new Rules apparently do not trump partisan and racial double standards.

If it will not do anything about five members of Congress taking a junket to sunny St. Maarten, courtesy of Citigroup and other corporations, how is it ever going to deal the complicated cases of John Murtha’s “pay to play” empire and Charles Rangel’s tax evasion and hiding of assets?

The answer is that it can’t and probably will not.

Emmerich: Leglislature should end Hood's contingency practices

Wyatt Emmerich says its time the legislature reign in the practice of Attorney General Jim Hood in awarding contracts to his campaign contributors.

The Wall Street Journal has been highly critical of Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood. America’s most powerful newspaper has made Hood the target of at least a half dozen critical editorials.

This week the journal wrote: “In Mississippi, the state attorney general determines when the public employees retirement fund should bring a securities class action and which outside firms will represent the fund. Would you be shocked to learn that Attorney General Jim Hood has frequently chosen law firms that have donated to his campaigns?”

The journal noted that the law firm of Bernstein Litowitz received $40 million in fees. The firm was chosen by Hood just days after Hood received $25,000 in donations from Bernstein Litowitz attorneys.

It is time for the Legislature to put a stop to this practice. This kind of legal work needs to be bid out on a per hour basis. Mississippi taxpayers need to be receiving the settlement money, not some out-of-state law firm that is putting money in a politician’s pocket.

Obama, Childers...I want my money back

The Obama Administration said if Congress passed the $787 billion stimulus package, that unemployment would peak at 8 percent. Travis Childers listened and voted to spend that nearly one trillion dollars. Unemployment has reached 10.2 percent.

I want my money back.

Simpson County News: Dems switch to GOP; Diaz out in December

Not to get lost in the news from Simpson County that a number of local elected officials - including the sheriff and the district attorney of a four county district (Simpson, Covington, Jasper, Smith) - are switching from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party comes another little piece of information.

Former Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz appears to be stepping down as Youth Court Public Defender in December.

Right of Mississippi has the news on the switchers: Mississippi Democrats Switch to GOP

Bad Larry Buffington has the news on Diaz: Larry Buffington Orders Additional Appointment in Simpson County

Last time Judge Buffington made an appointment to Youth Court Public Defender, he freaked out and demanded who would leak such public information to the public and even subpoenaed the county's two Republican supervisors to come before him and answer questions on the matter. That apparently warranted an investigation by The Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance because WLBT reported the Commission issued a subpoena to WLBT News for their footage of Buffington's antics at the Board of Supervisors meeting. Somehow, we expect Buffington's reaction to be more tame this time.

Denny Crain: Bring It On

Everyone should be able to enjoy this one.

More discussion on Jim Hood's fundraising from Bernstein Litowitz

As a follow-up to yesterday's post on the relationship between Bernstein Litowitz and Jim Hood, two names from that firm were mentioned specifically. It should be noted both also specifically contributed to Jim Hood.

Max Berger, Senior Founding Partner (pictured with Hood below) contributed $5000 to Hood's campaign.Sean Coffey, who interviewed Jim Hood at an event in Ireland "on how he has helped the citizens of Mississippi push back against the destructive forces of corporate fraud" also contributed $5000.

We mention this because the Mississippi Democratic Party wants to have the conversation on campaign finance.

Jim Hood's relationship with Bernstein Litowitz

Saturday's Wall Street Journal was critical of Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood.

Pay-to-Play Torts
Pension middlemen get investigated; lawyers get a pass

Pay-to-play schemes involving public officials and the pension funds they oversee are finally getting the hard look they deserve. Some 36 states are investigating how financial brokers and other middlemen have used kickbacks and campaign contributions to gain access to retirement funds. Now if only plaintiffs law firms would get the same scrutiny.

Like investment funds, class-action law firms hire intermediaries to help win state business. But the more common practice is for plaintiffs lawyers to make campaign contributions to public officials with the goal of being selected by those same officials to represent the pension fund in securities litigation.

The law firms typically agree to take the cases on a contingency basis that means no fees up front but a huge share (30% or more) of any settlement or jury verdict. However, attorneys suing on the government's behalf are supposed to be neutral actors whose goal is justice, not lining their own pockets. When for-profit lawyers are involved with a contingency fee at the end of the lawsuit rainbow, the incentives shift toward settling to get a big payday.

In Mississippi, the state attorney general determines when the public employees retirement fund should bring a securities class action and which outside firms will represent the fund. Would you be shocked to learn that AG Jim Hood has frequently chosen law firms that have donated to his campaigns?Mr. Hood is also partial to Bernstein Litowitz. On February 21, 2006, he chose the firm to represent the Mississippi Public Employees Retirement Fund in a securities class action against Delphi Corporation—just days after receiving $25,000 in donations from Bernstein Litowitz attorneys. The suit was eventually settled, and the lawyers on the case received $40.5 million in fees. Mr. Hood's campaign would appear to deserve a raise.

There is more to Hood's relationship with Bernstein Litowitz (BLB&G) than reported in the Wall Street Journal. It is certainly not improper for a statewide elected official to speak to an organization's forum in New York City or in Dublin, Ireland. But it does illustrate a closer relationship than campaign contributions or contingency fee contracts.It seems Hood's relationship with Bernstein Litowitz includes foreign travel. BLB&G Partner Sean Coffey and Jim Hood were guest speakers at the 8th Annual UK & Irish Pension and Investing Summit Conference in Dublin, Ireland last year (Nov 11-12, 2008).

Coffey interviewed Attorney General Hood for an in-depth discussion on how he has helped the citizens of Mississippi push back against the destructive forces of corporate fraud.

Hood has also appeared at BLB&G's "Institutional Investor Forum" at the "New York Yacht Club, in the heart of Midtown Manhattan." BLBG features Hood's speech in a number of their publications.Speaking to this law firm's educational forums does not suggest anything improper, but it does illustrate a closer relationship to the firm than simply signing them on as legal contract workers for the State of Mississippi.