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(AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, file) Timberline Dodge, Oregon
For those who follow the blog-o-sphere, there is an all too familiar and disturbing pattern, that many have run into at one time or another. That phenomenon is known as "scrubbing". Information, news stories, web pages, photos and other forms of information simply disappear off the Internet. Scrubbing is a tool used by those who have some interest in hiding information. Sometimes its obviously missing in the form of a broken link. In others, whole sections of archived information can't be found. Indexes referring to chapters remain intact, but the sections it refers to are simply gone.
Today we have yet another example, this time out of the Judicial System where charges of Judicial Fraud have been made. The docket which contains the decision where this fraud was committed has gone missing off of the public website where all of the court documents were made public along with 6500 other search-able documents.
That site is Kurtzman Carson Consultants LLC, and the missing Docket is number 4145 - the Dealer Rejection Opinion which stripped 789 Chrysler dealers of their contracts and businesses. It is the docket where the Honorable Judge Gonzalez, in the form of a footnote, inserted testimony from a Fiat executive which does not exist in official court transcripts, justifying stripping the dealers of their contracts. Docket 4144 is available as is docket 4146. What you do find of docket 4145 is completely blank where it should contain at least 11 pages.
Attorney Leo Donofrio details how he and co-counsel Steve Pidgeon discovered the missing docket at his blog site Natural Born Citizen today in an article titled: "Public Docket For Chrysler Bankruptcy Has Been Sabotaged To Conceal The Fraudulent Dealer Rejection Opinion by Judge Gonzalez.". Donofrio and Pidgeon are the attorneys for lead plaintiff James Anderer and 75 other Dealers in challenging the Bankruptcy case which stripped Anderer and 788 other Chrysler Dealers, including Portland's own Timberline Dodge, of their businesses in the summer of 2009.
In an update on his site, Donofrio reveals the website "The Right Side of Life" and its owner were able to find Docket 4145 in a non-public website. So it would appear that some entity is attempting to make it difficult for the public to inform itself regarding the actions taken by Judge Gonzalez, honorable servant of the law, presiding over the Bankruptcy of GM and Chrysler in the Southern District of New York Bankruptcy Court.
Interestingly enough the missing docket appears to have done its disappearing act on or about Feb 1st according to Donofrio, who points out that this was just 4 days before Gonzalez issued a denial of their Motion to Reconsider (the Dealership Rejections) and... was made a Chief Justice.
Interesting how a Judge accused of committing a fraud in order to gain a result wanted by a presidentially appointed committee, can end up with a promotion. Interesting that the document in which that judge commits that fraud simply gets scrubbed off the public Internet. It reminds one of… dare we say it… politics - Chicago style?
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In related news, the Attorneys for Old Chrysler Jones Day, have removed footnote 13 from their Response Memo in which they attempted to defame Mr. Donofrio as a part of the Birther movement questioning the constitutional eligibility of President Barack Obama. Donofrio and Pidgeon petitioned the court to have the footnote struck from the record. Judge Gonzalez treated it as a "Motion to Strike" and gave Jones Day time to answer. Jones Day had used an article from Examiner.com writer Michael Stone to impugn Mr. Donofrio, and have appropriately decided to remove the offending footnote. Perhaps they got to reading Mr. Stones numerous articles on legalizing Marijuana and hit jobs on Glenn Beck and decided it was not worth the litigation effort to leave the attempted character assassination in place.
Donofrio and Pidgeon are also currently preparing a Rule 11 Sanctions Motion against Jones Day regarding fraudulent statements made by the firm regarding testimony of two key witnesses in Anderer's motion which they made in their Response memo. If the level of fraud and character assassination thus far displayed are any indication, Anderer, Donofrio and Pidgeon are on the right track.
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Portlanders may wonder how these are civil rights issues. After all, most people associate civil rights with the African American equal rights movement, or such things as police shootings. In reality civil rights are what make us all American, they are rights guaranteed us in the Constitution, and they are supposed to free us from a tyrannical government. To understand it's relevance, all one has to do is to imagine a government coming to your place of business, and taking that business from you with out so much as a by your leave, let alone compensation. This is precisely what happened to 789 Chrysler dealers and about 40,000 people who lost their jobs because of it.
One begins to realize that if the United States government can step in and take over Chrysler and General Motors, take the axe to hundreds of small business owners with long term contracts with those automakers, it can do it to anyone. It can do it under the guise of any sector of the public that it has control over. It puts government run anything... health care for example... in a whole new light, a very eerie and frightening light. Government should be a servant of the people, not their master.
The Founding Fathers wrote certain protections into the Constitution, which should have prevented the government from taking over Chrysler and GM. Thanks to the complete disregard of congress and the White House to the Constitution, we the people are losing our civil rights at an appalling rate, on a grand scale.
Comments
tinyurl.com/yk4423r
Not missing at all, Dianna.
Perhaps Leo should have gone to the federal courts' official public access site -- PACER. The Order is right there on the docket. Did I mention that PACER is the official access site for viewing federal court documents? If not, let me mention it now. The official government website for finding federal court documents is ...... drumroll ..... Public Access to Court Electronic Records, acronym PACER.
Perhaps Donofrio can take some remedial courses in how to access documents from PACER rather than get the freeibies on a commercial site operated by someone other than the court. The document wasn't hidden or scrubbed on the public site. Donofrio can pick his bone with a commercial vendor. Thank God for free enterprise!
Is he competing with Orly Taitz now for most incompetent?
Is there a single simple internet thing that Birther lawyers can find themselves capable of?
A private company removed some stuff from their website, stuff that is available on an actual public government website. What a scrubbing conspiracy, wooOOoooo!!!
British-at-birth Obama is not a natural born citizen of the United States. Where's the Quo Warranto, Leo?
ya, give us da birfer stuff di!
Once again, Leo shows a breathtaking naivete about the most elementary legal terms and customs. Leo today "updated" his blog with the following:
[UPDATE #2 - March 4, 2010 8:43 AM. John Charlton of the Post & Email pointed out yesterday that the " controversial Rejection Opinion is listed as "not for publication" at the SDNY Bankruptcy site.}
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
"Not for publication" means the court did not designate the Order to be published in West's Bankruptcy Reporter series. Since the Order is interlocutory and breaks no new ground as legal precedent, this means ............ absolutely nothing. (Well, except in Leo's mind.) Zero. Zilch. But I'm sure Dianne could make a late breaking story out of it!
Damn, Birthers are such freaking idiots.
How do they manage to feed themselves?
"Don't Taitz me, Leo!!!"
LOL LOL LOL LOL
So, Biker John, when did Britain take sovereignty over our citizenship laws?
Answer: Never happened. Go read Wong Kim Ark
By the way, where in the Constitution is there a "Right to own a Chrysler dealership?"
Due process was met. Period. Any competent attorney could tell you that.
Gotta love the Obots taking sides with Big Gov, Big money sticking it to the working man.
Go ask your local school district how much tax revenue was lost when those dealers and jobs went away.
Hey Chili Dog, back working for the DOJ?
you gotta love a respondant who's most effective response is name calling and generalized "broad-brushed" off-topic nothing-isms. The FACT here is; the information wasn't scrubbed. The author was simply looking at limited sources. Obviously Dianna was incorrect and, as pointed out, the information is quite available. Best advice; breathe the air of reality, not of the oxygen depraved blogosphere.
I think c.scott is correct. I find it interesting that so many posters think it is OK for the government to step in and dissolve private dealerships. I remember when Nancy Pelosi said in 2006 that the Democrats were going to come in and clean up corruption in Washington. Well it's been 4 years now and 'how's that working out for you?'. The US Government is only good for 4 things: Waging illegal wars, wasting our money, filling their pockets with our cash and getting involved in our private business. None of which are their Constitutional duties.
Since when had fat cat auto dealers been 'working men'? You got any idea how much it costs to buy into a dealship? You got any clue as to why, in any given area, one dealer or family owns so many different dealerships for different manufacturers?
'working man' my butt!
C'mon Mitch; read what you just wrote. "The US Government is only good for 4 things: Waging illegal wars, wasting our money, filling their pockets with our cash and getting involved in our private business. None of which are their Constitutional duties."
If any person, on either side of the "issue" wanted to define "rhetoric" they could cite this as a classic example. You said absolutely nothing there. You simply tried to take partisan punch. This is where the blogosphere lacks credibility. You should be ashamed of empty, base-less CRAP like that.
Mr. Kotter,
Well I guess my 'rhetoric' is accepted 'truth' by the 90% of the citizens who disapprove of the job Congress is doing. I am not a journalist, just a guy giving an opinion. If you don't like it, don't read it. At first I thought your name was a twist on the authors name. But now I realize your probably some kind of public school teacher. So save your reprimands for Vinnie Barbarossa, Horshack or any of your Ritalin, Lithium induced students who might actually value your stupid opinions.
Since when had fat cat auto dealers been 'working men'? You got any idea how much it costs to buy into a dealship? You got any clue as to why, in any given area, one dealer or family owns so many different dealerships for different manufacturers?
'working man' my butt!
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All I know is that 2 freinds of mine (mechanics) worked at one of those "dealerships" are now unemployed.
Never said I liked car dealers, who does. I don't much care for casino operators either, but they are a legitimate buisness.
If they are qualified and competent mechanics, they should have little trouble finding a decent job.
Hell, with the recession. people are driving cars longer instead of trading them in - which means more work for mechanics.
WM
Do think it was fair that US Taxpayer money was used to disolve those car dealers and give Chrysler to the Italians?
What Industry is next?
You would, perhaps, have preferred that Chrysler go into uncontrolled bankruptcy and go the way of Studebaker, Nash, American Motors, et al?
Then ALL the dealers would have lost their businesses.
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