Showing posts sorted by relevance for query sarokin. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query sarokin. Sort by date Show all posts

Monday, October 26, 2009

Judge H. :Stinky" Lee Sarokin Calls Cook County States Attorney's Request a Gestapo Move


Old Judge H. "Stinky" Lee Sarokin a rock-ribbed Civil Rights Activist Judge who was overruled by an Appellate Court that a homeless gent 'did in fact stink' and could be asked to leave a Public Library - going without soap and water (at minimum) is not - it seems - a 1st Amendment right - free speech by stinking out loud and on ice.

Old Judge H. "Stinky" Lee Sarokin resigned after 17 years of Judicial Activism, which included opening the cell door for Ruben Hurricane Carter, because he was called names by Bob Dole - get this :

Federal judges granted the protection of lifetime tenure by the Constitution should be made of sterner stuff, even if it means having to endure public scorn and ostracism. Judges, of course, are only human. It is understandable that Judge Sarokin does not like being counted among those who have been singled out by Senator Bob Dole as excessively sympathetic to the constitutional rights of criminals. Nor does he relish the prospect of remaining a campaign issue until the Presidential election.

It is also easy to understand his frustration that a few controversial decisions in a generally energetic and honorable judicial career -- including a misguided 1991 ruling refusing to bar a homeless man from a New Jersey town library for his annoying behavior and bad odor -- have been used as grist by Republicans to paint Democratic judges as soft on crime.

But the right response to what Judge Sarokin has called attempts to "Willie Hortonize the Federal judiciary" is not to contribute to the demonetization of the institution he reveres, which is what he has effectively done by surrendering to judge-bashing politicians.

There is a question, too, of candor. President Clinton, who nominated Judge Sarokin to the appellate bench, supported him through bruising confirmation hearings in 1994 -- something the President might not have been willing to do had he known that just 22 months later the judge would surprise everyone by deciding to move to part-time senior status. Just weeks before Judge Sarokin's resignation, colleagues on the bench correctly rejected a nervy request by the judge to transfer his offices from Newark to California. That has led at least some judges to question whether political attacks are the real reason Judge Sarokin decided to resign.


http://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/07/opinion/judge-sarokin-s-retreat.html

And that is the New York Times all but pulling down Stinky's Britches.

The Northwestern University Innocense Project has called in all its chips against the Cook County States Attorney, Anita Alvarez in her attempt to get the entitled and endowed University lambs to offer up the requested documents.

The Headline Club of which I am a member ( I think I paid the last dues) sent a letter of protest.

Now Huffington Post has trotted out Old Judge H. "Stinky" Lee Sarokin to roundly harrumph that this is Gestapo Stuff!! Click my post title for Stinky's howl - it's a good 'un!

Thus, ""the grades, grading criteria, class syllabus, expense reports and e-mail messages of their journalism students themselves" at Northwestern University warrants and deserves the Gestapo label.

It is a flagrant attempt to intimidate the Medill Innocence Project and other similar projects which have been so successful in overturning wrongful convictions."

Oh, Stinky. Non Sibi sed Patriae Not California Country/Beach Houses!

Jesus, Stinky, it's not like Ms. Alvarez is asking them to relocate to California?

Friday, November 13, 2009

Judge H. "Stinky" Lee Sarokin is Back Doing Medill Bidding and Wrong from the Headline


Judge H. "Stinky" Lee Sarokin is a retired East Coast Federal Judge who quit amid a cloud twenty years ago for sunny Californ-eyeAy!

Judge Sarokin was the the legal-air-freshener for all Stinky Jurors and Library Card Holders back in the day. Hence my sobriquet -that and Judge Stinky* is doing hack work for the Medill Empire and the Greek Pastry Arianna Huffington at Huffington Post. Hey, why not pick up a few nickels!

Here's the deal Professor Dave Protess a Progressive Sacred Cow stepped on his ethical Johnson, or rather bid his Kids to do the stepping by bribing (it seems) crack-head Witnesses for the Prosecution's Overturn in the Andrew McKinney Case.

Andrew McKinney is an Innocence Project pet-Convict - McKinney was convicted of murdering a security guard -Professor Dave and Kids Demand that McKinney is Innocent, because the Innocence Project has adopted McKinney. Professor Dave Protess is a Scared Cow in a Herd of Scared Cows - Medill Empire -Northwestern Law and School of Journalism.

Walp! Cook County States Attorney Anita Alvarez did not roll-over and 'accept' Protess Protestations of McKinney Innocence. In fact Alvarez asked for Discovery Items - student notes and other such stuff. Judge Stinky Lee Sarokin has labeled States Attorney Alvarez a Gestapo thug. A bit strong there Stinky . . .well, you are Okay with strong.

Protess and be Damned!

The Medill Empire goes Jihad on any and all critics and has trotted out an endless parade of Protess Protestors including Judge Stinky and the Editorial Board of the Medill rival Sun Times who have manged to get that paper as close to closed as possible.

Judge Stinky Sarokin is a howl. Here is his headline from Huffington Post:
Voila!
Cook County Prosecutor Continues to Investigate Students for Trying to Free an Innocent Man

Nope. That is not why, nor is she investigating the Kids, Stinky.

She, Alvarez, subpoenaed their notes and academic records for Professor Dave's class; now, Dave had them act like Private Investigators (P.I.s) and argues that they are journalists and Medill's lawyer managed to insult the judge in the case and it was revealed that the kids appear to have bribed a witness.

Not only did Stinky paste up a dead-wrong headline but his last paragraph is what the non sequitur is all about!

The Medill Innocence Project was successful in exonerating 11 inmates and the Illinois governor cited those wrongful convictions in commuting the sentences of everyone on death row. One can understand that the prosecutor's office might be embarrassed as a result by the efforts of a bunch of journalism students, but such embarrassment does not warrant a vendetta against them. ( really?)The prosecution should join in the righting of wrongful convictions not be investigating the students engaged in the effort, no matter what their personal motives may be. ( Follows Whta?)If they get a good grade for freeing an innocent person, they deserve it. Right now the prosecution is flunking. (Participle Dangling? The Flunking Presecution? Flunking Science? Flunking Broadway. . .Do The Flunking Broadway?)

Medill. Protess and the Innocence Project do not smell too good at this point -Sacred Cows or not - but Judge Stinky thinks that it is Chanel # 5!

*On June 5, 1996, Sarokin announced that he would resign outright from the Third Circuit, effective July 31, 1996.[10] Sarokin cited his fear that his opinions from the bench might be used politically. "It is apparent that there are those who have decided to 'Willie Hortonize' the Federal judiciary, and that I am to be one of their prime targets," he wrote in a letter to President Clinton. "In the current political campaign, enforcement of constitutional rights is equated with being soft on crime and indeed, even causing it."[10]

In a separate letter to colleagues, Sarokin denied that his decision to retire had had anything to do with the court's decision not to allow him to move his chambers to California.[10]

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Shell Games Catches up to Professor Dave Protess - Innocence?


After the student paid the cabbie, the driver recorded the transaction in his log, today's filing states. Apparently suspicious that it was a drug deal or a sting, he wrote: "detective gave me 60, told me to give him 40, gave me 60... gave him change." The "him" refers to Drakes.

Seems like Professor Dave Protess and the Kids of the Innocence Project - in the zeal to free Mr. McKinney of course - engaged in a little Pay-to-Play.

"You be a Witness to Justice , Mr. Drakes, and You Keep the Change! Change You Can Believe In!"

The Medill Empire encompasses Northwestern Law and Schools of Journalism and they work very well and nicely with the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board.

Americans love to root for Innocent Men Falsely Accused/Tortured/Disrespected/Hookwinked/Bamboozeled/Bewitched/ Bothered and Bewildered - we do, honestly we do.

However, given the thick padding American Justice gives to the accused it sometimes might be a stretch to find a really innocent man. The more Innocent men the more news it will be and the more funding for pet projects like the Innocence Project.

Every young law student harbors the dream of being this Century's Darrow - the Lawyer of the Damned. There are no Clarence Darrows. There are only the balsa wood imitations like G. Flint Taylor.

Thus, I have a tough time soiling my boxers when the Tribune fulminates against Cook County States Attorney Anita Alvarez in her rather respectful demand that Professor Dave Protess, an insulated Professor at Northwestern University whose work on behalf of career criminals looking to get out of prison has been most newsworthy and celebrated, cough up the Discovery material - it seems Professor Dave may have let it be known that grades might be attached to convictions overturned by the Kids. Professor Dave gets crowds to hush at the sound of his name - he is such an on-the-level-straight- shooting- Justice Samurai.

Until now. Hokey-pokey! Cab Cash!

It sure looks like States Attorney Alvarez caught Professor Dave with his Innocence down around his ankles.

Officials with the state's attorney's office also said there could be a bias on the part of students seeking better grades by finding more witnesses.

Northwestern and its attorneys respond by saying the investigation should be treated as one conducted by journalists. They said the county already has all on-the-record information, including interviews and copies of audio and video tapes.


I wonder if Judge Stinky Sarokin will continue treating us with his Cook County States Gestapo pieces.

Saturday, April 09, 2011

Northwestern Professor Protess , Our Tweedy Fagin of Medill


Fagin: Clever dogs, clever dogs. Never blowed on old Fagin.

David Protess:

Maybe the Chicago Innocence Project will be going great and I won't want to go back (to Northwestern) because of the hassle ... Maybe it won't succeed and I will want to go back. Or maybe I'll want to go somewhere else, go to some other university. All of my options are on the table.


Chicago Tribune Editorial April 9, 2011:

If Protess misled administrators and attorneys in this case—and it appears he did—what does that say about all those cases he has worked on with students? That question will linger at least until prosecutors and McKinney's lawyers resolve what happened in his case.

That day can't come soon enough.


Had Anita Alvarez caved to the limitless media enabling of Professor David Protess, the Fagin of Medill, all would be just dandy and it ain't. I have long suspected that David Protess was a later-day "kidsman." A Kidsman was a 19th Century recruiter of children for training and guiding pickpockets and cut-throats. The vicious Bill Sykes was one of Fagin's students. The Artful Dodger, who befriends the naive orphaned child of privilege Oliver Twist, is on his way to the next level of crime. Fagin beats and threatens his "children" with warnings of dire consequences for "peaching," or "blowing" on Fagin's activities.

The "children" are rewarded for doing Fagin's bidding.

When Anita Alvarez initially petitioned for Fagin Protess's student e-mails, notes and records pertinent to the McKinney case, the academic, journalistic and legal communities marshaled a formidable army of protest and calumnies leveled at Anita Alvarez.

CNN, Huffington Post, Salon, The New York Times, MSNBC, joined the Chicago Tribune editorial board in terming Cook County States Attorney Alvarez a Gestapo bully. A former Federal Judge, of dubious record and achievement, wrote frequent attacks on Alvarez and defences of Fagin Protess. Click my post title and view a few.

Most telling were the star Protess pupils, now rewarded with CNN, AP, and other blue-chip journalistic postings. The kids did alright by Medill, The Innocence Project and old Fagin himself -Professor Dave Protess.

The Innocence Project and Northwestern University have been besmeared by the very advocacy they demand - outcomes be damned. That is as old as John Dewey, the bespectacled avuncular father of generations of Progressive Fagins.

Fagin was the leader of gangs of children, in Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, patterned on the historical 19th Century criminal Ickey Solomon of London.

What does American philosopher and granddad of American public education have to do with David Protess's Procrustean pedagogy? Plenty.

John Dewey holds that Inquiry is Truth - play, if you will, the root of the Laboratory Method in education that established the Lab School of University of Chicago - play long enough and arrive at the original point of inquiry.

The start of an inquiry is an indeterminate situation, usually coming from some practical matter ( convicted felon we want out of jail to raise a the larger issue of systemic failure of American Justice). The first step is to getting a clearer and more specific picture of the problem; the indeterminate situation becomes a “problematic situation”. The inquiry then proceeds by coming up with possible solutions to the problem That is, hypothesis that might help to act upon in the problematic situation. Evaluation then takes place; possible consequences of different solutions are considered, and by doing this the relative value of the solutions are estimated. The final test is when a solution actually is tried as a guide to action. The question of truth and falsehood come into play at this last stage of inquiry, and it is dependent on whether the consequences of acting upon the hypothesis under test are such that they resolve the problem and settle the indeterminate situation. Here, it is important to keep in mind the fundamental that role that Dewey ascribes to the indeterminate situation. It is our conceptions of this situation that guide the rest of the inquiry, and that determines how to evaluate and praise ideas and hypotheses. The indeterminate situation is the beginning of an inquiry, but also controls it throughout [p.207]. Coming back to the correspondence relation, it could be said to hold between the between the first and last stage of inquiry.


The opposite of John Dewey was the mathematician and philosophical historian Bertrand Russell whose rigorous methodologies eschewed "play" for study. Russell takes apart Dewey's playful assertions that begin and end in the very same place. Dewey, and his child Fagin Professor Protess "look" into the assertion that the American Justice System is flawed, because it is sytemnically and intrinsically racist, brutal, dishonest, lazy and corrupt - "What do you think, kids?"

Here is Bertarnd Russell's deconstruction of Dewey in summary by Swedish student of philosophy Björn Östbring:


His (Russell) version of the ( Dewey) correspondence theory is the classical one: the relation is between statements, propositions or beliefs to an independent reality, to empirical facts. A statement is true if what is referred to also posses the properties that the statement asserts. Dewey’s theory is obviously radically different from this, and in Russell’s view it does not even deserve to be called a correspondence theory. Russell’s description of Dewey’s whole theory of inquiry and truth is as follows (2): individuals engage in inquiry with the purpose of better interacting with their environment. In an inquiry, “assertions” are tools, and these assertions can be “warranted” to different degrees. The degree to which an assertion is warranted is determined by their ability to produce the desired results. During inquiry assertions can come to be replaced by better assertions, and sometimes they are the very means that lead to better assertions. The term “better” simply means that it produces more of the desirable results, lets us cope better with our environment, and hence “better” could basically be substituted with “more warranted”. An inquiry does not end; no assertion is the best for all times. The important point in this summary is that an assertion is warranted if it produces the desired results, and that the idea of truth thus loses its static and privileged nature.


Dewey and Protess begin inquiry with the conclusion and all the rest in between is just "play." What student would not rather play than work? Bertrand Russell's logical positivism is damned hard work.

Deweyesque inquiry is tailor made for a Fagin and advocacy journalism and education provides the charming "Master" with high moral ground and an embracing protective laissez faire attitude

Unlike the probity of Russell, the Dewey trained journalists, scholars, and academics will apply no further "inquiry" to other Fagins. Protess, now in disgrace with Fortune and Men's eyes will be an anomaly. A freak.

While the Medill engine will trot out more Heater cases and our Justice System will be further deconstructed in the advocacy playland that is John Dewey's Progressive America, David Protess will disappear into the shadows. Nothing to see here, folks! Inquiry? We don't need no stinkin' Inquiry! Right, Judge Stinky Sarokin?

Police, prosecutors, judges and juries will be villainized and criminals will always have much more benefits than doubts and greater Fagins than David Protess will threaten and reward more students - so long as they don't "peach," or "blow" to the cops.

Americans are fair-minded, but not really all that stupid. No one wants an innocent man punished, but no one wants any and all faith in our justice system destroyed by Fagins and an equally culpable media. We can thank States Attornney Alvarez for sticking to her guns during this entire shabby inquiry.

*
Fagin is described as "disgusting" to look at. He is the leader of a group of children, the Artful Dodger and Charley Bates among them, whom he teaches to make their livings by pickpocketing and other criminal activities in exchange for a roof over their heads. At the time of the novel, he is said by another character, Monks, to have already made criminals out of "scores" of children who grow up to live—or die—committing the same crimes as adults. Bill Sikes, one of the major villains of the novel, is hinted to be one of Fagin's old pupils, and Nancy, Sikes' girlfriend and sex worker clearly was.
Whilst portrayed as relatively humorous, he is nonetheless a self-confessed miser who, despite the amount he has acquired over the years from the work of others, does very little to improve the squalid lives of the children he takes in, allowing them to smoke pipes and drink gin "with the air of middle-aged men". In the second chapter of his appearance, it is shown, albeit when talking to himself, that he cares less about those children who are eventually hanged for their crimes and more about the fact that they do not "peach" on him and the other children



http://bjornostbring.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/dewey-vs-russell-on-truth/

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Professor Dave Protess -Innocence Project or Blair Which Project?


Last night the State of Virginia executed a monster. Ironically enough the sniper-serial killer John Allen Muhammad - the Beltway Sniper was covered by Life Coach and former Journalist Jayson Blair.

Blair made more mistakes in his reports than the number of people who firmly believe that there is a steam heater (used to torture poor black men) in Area 2 Police Headquarters on East 111th Street. That's alot of mistakes.

Only a very few years ago the Medill Empire went to war on Sheriff Mike Sheahan. When the MacArthur Center for Justice teamed with the Medill Empire ( Tribune journalists/Chicago Magazine Medill School of Jornalism/Bernardine Dorhn & etc.) to PROVE that Sheriff Micahel Sheahan brutalized prisoners at Cook County Jail, it took a jury less than twenty minutes to tood all charges. Sheriff Sheahan quipped "Tribune Investigative Journalism is BS."

Medill Professor Dave Protess, an icon in the Justice Industry, seems to have wildly overplayed his hand in the controversy surrounding the McKinney Gambit. The McKinney Gambit holds that the Innocence Project has sanctified his cause and therefore he must be set free.

Hold on there, Professor Dave! Cook County States Attorney Anita Alvarez requested that all students involved in this project turn over notes and that their records be admitted as discovery items.

Howl! Howl! Howl! The Medill Empire went on full boil

1. CNN:
Editor's note: Nicole Lapin is an anchor and reporter based at the CNN Headquarters in Atlanta. She graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

(CNN) -- It was two-and-a-half days before Illinois Gov. George Ryan was to leave office in 2003. I sat in a crowded auditorium in Northwestern University's Law School in Chicago, where Ryan was expected to make a major announcement on capital punishment.

2. Retired Federal Judge Sarokin in Huffington Post .

But I truly believe that the attempt of prosecutors to subpoena "the grades, grading criteria, class syllabus, expense reports and e-mail messages of their journalism students themselves" at Northwestern University warrants and deserves the Gestapo label.


3.The Chicago Headline Club of the Society of Professional Journalists

The Chicago Headline Club, a chapter of the national Society of Professional Journalists, strongly protests the subpoenas issued by the state's attorney's office. The club issued this statement:

"The Headline Club believes Alvarez should rescind the subpoenas and stop pressuring Medill Innocence Project students to reveal all of their notes, recordings, e-mails and even grades given. Instead, her office should use what they have already from Medill students as a basis for their own further investigation. We recommend applause for the students' efforts to protect the innocent."


4. Daily Protess Protestations of Purity in the Chicago Tribune/WGN/& etc.

Until yesterday. Now it seems that Dave Protess and the Innocence Project were doing Procrustean Investigations - All the News That Fits.


Two witnesses were paid it appears, $40, or $50-$100. Cab Fare or Crack Cash it matters not. Here's some money tell our truth.

States Attorney Anita Alvarez called the bluff of a Sacred Cow in a herd of Scared Cows and the lowing of the cattle will only get more deafening.

This whole issue just may prove to be a Jayson Blair Which Project - journalism and lawsuit lotto lawyering where the facts are fabricated to fit the agenda.

I am cynical. We will see if I am wrong.

Virginia did a great service to America in putting a monster down. There is another such monster in Cleveland. There are many monsters for Professor Dave to service.

However, thanks to Anita Alvarez, the Justice System will be a little more wary of the Innocence Projects.