How many of these parents are lawyers--or have lawyers--who figure that well-off people deserve good reputations no matter what they do?
"As of the census of 2010...the racial makeup of the town was 96.7% White, 0.31% African American, 0.21% Native American, 0.14% Asian, 0.07% Pacific Islander,and 0.77% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.11% of the population...About 5.7% of families and 6.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 9.0% of those under age 18 and 7.0% of those age 65 or over."--Wikipedia
Parents aren't doing their kids a favor when they teach them to ignore the rights of others. And they certainly are not doing the country a favor.
Parents want to sue ex-NFLer for outing brats
[Photos of graffiti, damage]
By Jeane Macintosh
September 20, 2013
Former NFL offensive lineman Brian Holloway initially thought the Twitter photos showing young people partying at his family’s second home in upstate New York were a hoax. Then he saw pictures of teens standing on the dining room table he bought with his Super Bowl bonus.
Parents of the hundreds of teens who broke into and destroyed former NFLer Brian Holloway’s upstate vacation home are threatening to sue him for outing their brats on Twitter — saying he’s spoiling their chances of getting into college.
“You would not believe the calls that have come in, threatening to firebomb me or hurt or sue me — any manner of things,” the stunned Holloway told The Post Thursday as he toiled away cleaning up the damage at his 200-acre spread in Rensselaer County.
The teens defaced Holloway’s home with graffiti.
“Some complained that this will ruin their kids’ college plans. Others have threatened me, saying ‘Take my kid’s name down or I’m gonna press charges against you.’
“You’re going to press charges against me? C’mon, now. If that were one of my children, they would be doing a year’s worth of apologizing,” said Holloway, a father of eight.
Holloway estimates that the teens caused about $20,000 in damages
The former New England Patriots offensive lineman learned of the debauched bash — attended by some 200-300 trespassers — after many of the punks gleefully posted photos and texts on social media from inside the out-of-control crash party that left 10 shattered windows, urine-soaked carpets, gouged oak floors and walls covered in graffiti and holes.
Holloway estimates the damage at more than $20,000 and took to social media to try to track down the vandals so they could be held responsible.
A handful of parents have apologized for their kids’ actions — saying they hadn’t known about the party or that their kids lied to them, he said.
But only one parent and child showed up this week at a planned cleanup of the stately Stephentown home, about 25 miles from Albany and near the Massachusetts border.
Holloway said he has hauled away more than 10 massive trash bags of liquor bottles, and found drug paraphernalia strewn across his property.
“How is this OK? How did we lose our way, that this is acceptable behavior? And how do we find our way back?” said Holloway, who had to delay last week’s planned launch of his new women’s-oriented football site, HerLeague.net, to fly to New York and deal with the mess and an ongoing police probe.
The drama started on Aug. 31, when Holloway — home with his wife and kids at their year-round Lutz, Fla., home — learned from his 19-year-old son that dozens of kids were tweeting about a party at the New York country house.
Holloway watched in disbelief as the scene unfolded on Twitter. The revelers came from at least nine surrounding high schools and a local college.
“They had planned to stay there for three full days, if you can believe that,” Holloway said.
He was trying to reach local cops when someone tweeted that sheriff’s officers were on the scene.
“The sheriff came and got everyone out of the house without injury or violence, which is impressive with the amount of drinking and drugs going down and kids in a very dangerous state of mind,” Holloway said.
Holloway, who found “170 tweets from the party within its first three hours,” re-posted them to a Web site to help identify the house crashers and urge them to change their behavior.
6 Arrests In Vandalism Of Former Patriot Brian Holloway’s Home
George M. Walsh
Associated Press
September 26, 2013
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Six people were arrested Thursday on charges they were among hundreds of young partygoers who trashed a former NFL player’s vacation home, and police said more arrests were expected.
The arrests came after former New England Patriots and Los Angeles Raiders offensive lineman Brian Holloway said he signed papers authorizing the Rensselaer County sheriff to bring charges in the Labor Day weekend party, which was attended by up to 400 teenagers.
Holloway said that among those charged was a young man he had taken into his family for a time as a homeless teen, who’s accused of organizing and promoting the party. He said investigators have told him the number of people charged could end up in the hundreds as they work through the sheer volume of participants.
“Everyone that broke the law, I’m pressing charges against,” Holloway said. “The parents had a chance and students had a chance to come forward, and only four did.”
Holloway, who played offensive tackle for the Patriots and Raiders in the 1980s, gained national attention by reposting party pictures the teens had put on social media websites. He said he posted them on the website helpmesave300.com in an effort to get the teens to come forward, take responsibility for their actions and change their behavior.
[See earlier story below.]
...Police said a ringleader of the party was 19-year-old Seth Hawk, the young man Holloway said he had taken into his family a few years ago. Hawk, of Grafton, faces felony charges of burglary and criminal mischief and misdemeanor charges of endangering the welfare of a child and unlawfully dealing with a child. He’s accused of advertising the party and providing alcohol.
Three of the other arrested people face felony charges including burglary and larceny, and two are charged with misdemeanors, including trespassing. They range in age from 17 to 21.
A phone number wasn’t available for Hawk, and authorities said they didn’t know the names of the arrested people’s lawyers.
Holloway said Hawk was a classmate of his son and had a troubled youth but found stability living as part of his family when he was about 15. He said hearing about Hawk’s involvement “was a shocker.”
“We’re still pulling for him,” he said. “This may be the thing to get him on track.”
An Open Letter to the Parents of the Stephentown 300
Kelly Lynch
Huff Post
09/24/2013
What planet do you live on?
Last week, word got out that your children had broken into a home in Stephentown, NY and threw a party. More than 300 of them partied and drunkenly smashed windows, urinated on the floors, stood on tables, punched holes in the ceiling and stole a statue that was part of a memorial for the owner's stillborn grandson. Oh, it gets better. Before, during and after the party, they tweeted about it and posted pictures of themselves engaged in this behavior.
Way to go.
The house is owned by former NFL player Brian Holloway. It is his second residence, paid for in part by his Super Bowl bonus. He lives in Florida and the Stephentown house is on the market. He watched this unfold online while at his home in Florida. Instead of demanding the arrest of your kids, he instead created a website, www.helpmesave300.com, where he reposted their photos, identified the people involved, and called for ways to reach out to young people and show them that there are better ways to spend their time than drinking, drugs and vandalism.
He is a better person than I would have been in that position. It takes class and compassion to see beyond the urine stained carpets, broken windows, damaged walls and blatant disrespect to reach out to your kids. He even offered to welcome these derelicts back to his house for a picnic, where they would work together to make repairs and clean up the mess they left behind. I don't know that the rest of us would have been able to react the same way.
And one kid showed up. One, out of the 300 teens who were there.
Instead of dragging your kids back to apologize and clean up the mess, you lashed out at Brian Holloway, threatened to firebomb his house, and are now planning to sue him. For what? For identifying your kids online. Well guess what? Your little Johnny did that himself the minute he tweeted that iPhone photo standing on the dining room table, holding a red solo cup filled with beer.
Look, I don't blame you for what your kids did. Heck, I don't even really blame them. Teens will be teens, and they do stupid things sometimes. We've all been there. It's not fair to judge parents on the mistakes their kids make. It is how you handle that behavior afterwards that reflects on you as a parent...
Showing posts with label Apologies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Apologies. Show all posts
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Agriculture Dept woman was fired for promoting racial reconciliation due to Breitbard hoax
Conservative bloggers went after her with a distorted story, and Democrats caved in to the pressure.
Discrimination against black farmers (Look for the discrimination video by scrolling in the "recommended" window at top right.)
WH apologizes to fired Ag worker; she mulls return
By MARY CLARE JALONICK and BEN EVANS
AP
7/21/10
The White House did a sudden about-face Wednesday and begged for forgiveness from the black Agriculture Department employee whose ouster ignited an embarrassing political firestorm over race...
Sherrod said she resigned under White House pressure after the airing of a video of racial remarks she made at an NAACP gathering. But Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said repeatedly on Wednesday that the decision had been his alone.
"I asked for Shirley's forgiveness and she was gracious enough to extend it to me," he said after reaching her by telephone...
It all began with the airing of a video on a conservative website of Sherrod's remarks about not doing all she could to help a white farmer two decades ago. After she was told to resign — with the NAACP declaring its approval — the situation grew more complicated when the rest of the edited video was released by the NAACP and Sherrod insisted her remarks were about reconciliation, not the stoking of racism...
Jul 22, 2010
The civil rights heroism of Charles Sherrod
Andrew Breitbart sure picked the wrong people to symbolize black "racism." Taylor Branch and Clay Carson weigh in
By Joan Walsh
Salon.com
People who care about civil rights and racial reconciliation may eventually thank Andrew Breitbart for bringing Shirley Sherrod the global attention she deserves. Really. Her message of racial healing, her insight that the forces of wealth and injustice have always pit "the haves and the have-nots" against each other, whatever their race, is exactly what's missing in today's Beltway debates about race. What's even more amazing, but almost completely unexplored in this controversy, is the historic civil rights leadership role of her husband, Charles Sherrod, an early leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, who served on the front lines of the nonviolent civil rights movement in the early 1960s.
Despite Breitbart's attempt to cast Shirley Sherrod as The, um, Man ("The Woman" doesn't have the same ring), out to keep oppressed white folk down, under our first black racist president, she turned out to be the opposite, an advocate of justice for everybody. Given that history, it's fascinating to learn more about her husband, an early SNCC leader known for being willing to work with white volunteers even after tension developed over the role of whites in the organization. Charles Sherrod is important for much more than the fairness with which he treated whites, but given Breitbart's attempt to make his wife the poster woman for black "racism," that footnote to his leadership history is particularly noteworthy...
Discrimination against black farmers (Look for the discrimination video by scrolling in the "recommended" window at top right.)
WH apologizes to fired Ag worker; she mulls return
By MARY CLARE JALONICK and BEN EVANS
AP
7/21/10
The White House did a sudden about-face Wednesday and begged for forgiveness from the black Agriculture Department employee whose ouster ignited an embarrassing political firestorm over race...
Sherrod said she resigned under White House pressure after the airing of a video of racial remarks she made at an NAACP gathering. But Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said repeatedly on Wednesday that the decision had been his alone.
"I asked for Shirley's forgiveness and she was gracious enough to extend it to me," he said after reaching her by telephone...
It all began with the airing of a video on a conservative website of Sherrod's remarks about not doing all she could to help a white farmer two decades ago. After she was told to resign — with the NAACP declaring its approval — the situation grew more complicated when the rest of the edited video was released by the NAACP and Sherrod insisted her remarks were about reconciliation, not the stoking of racism...
Jul 22, 2010
The civil rights heroism of Charles Sherrod
Andrew Breitbart sure picked the wrong people to symbolize black "racism." Taylor Branch and Clay Carson weigh in
By Joan Walsh
Salon.com
People who care about civil rights and racial reconciliation may eventually thank Andrew Breitbart for bringing Shirley Sherrod the global attention she deserves. Really. Her message of racial healing, her insight that the forces of wealth and injustice have always pit "the haves and the have-nots" against each other, whatever their race, is exactly what's missing in today's Beltway debates about race. What's even more amazing, but almost completely unexplored in this controversy, is the historic civil rights leadership role of her husband, Charles Sherrod, an early leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, who served on the front lines of the nonviolent civil rights movement in the early 1960s.
Despite Breitbart's attempt to cast Shirley Sherrod as The, um, Man ("The Woman" doesn't have the same ring), out to keep oppressed white folk down, under our first black racist president, she turned out to be the opposite, an advocate of justice for everybody. Given that history, it's fascinating to learn more about her husband, an early SNCC leader known for being willing to work with white volunteers even after tension developed over the role of whites in the organization. Charles Sherrod is important for much more than the fairness with which he treated whites, but given Breitbart's attempt to make his wife the poster woman for black "racism," that footnote to his leadership history is particularly noteworthy...
Thursday, July 09, 2009
White country club folks renege on agreement to allow black and brown kids to use their pool in Pennsylvania
UPDATE July 13, 2009: The swim club in the story below now wants to make amends. They realized it would be classier to go ahead and honor their contract to allow 90 black and Hispanic kids to use their pool for an hour and a half a week for a few weeks than to abruptly cancel the agreement upon seeing the kids. Member Amy Goldman apparently explained this to the directors. But will the kids want to come back? Silvia Carvalho says no. Her nine-year-old daughter Araceli "has already said so. She doesn't want people to look at her the same way." --from Huffington Post
Also see NBC News
Here's a thoughtful analysis of what happened:
A SPLASH OF COLD WATER
By Ronnie Polaneczky
Philadelphia Daily News
Obviously, there might be less here than meets the eye. Having seen The Valley Club, I can say that its pool is a good size, but not huge. Perhaps 65 children entering the pool, en masse, does indeed overwhelm its quiet feel.
So, maybe race, for some members, has nothing to do with why Creative Steps was kicked out.
Maybe they're just greedy.
Maybe they're just too greedy to give up 90 minutes per week - just 90 lousy minutes - to make 65 children happy for the summer.
Maybe they're too greedy to say, "This camp thing isn't working the way we'd hoped. But let's ride it out, just for this year."
Y'know, for the kids.
Private Pool Bans Minority Campers
By RON TODT
AP
July 9, 2009
HUNTINGDON VALLEY, Pa.
Members and officials of a private swimming pool in a predominantly white Philadelphia suburb reacted to a visiting group of minority children by asking them not to return and pulling other kids out of the water, a day camp director said, and the state is investigating.
The Creative Steps camp in northeast Philadelphia had contracted for the 65 children at the day camp to go each Monday afternoon to The Valley Club in Huntingdon Valley, camp director Alethea Wright said Thursday. But shortly after they arrived June 29, she said, some black and Hispanic children reported hearing racial comments.
View more news videos at: http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/video.
"A couple of the children ran down saying, 'Miss Wright, Miss Wright, they're up there saying, "What are those black kids doing here?'''" she said.
The gated club is on a leafy hillside in a village that straddles two townships with overwhelmingly white populations. It says it has a diverse, multiethnic membership.
Wright said she went to talk to a group of members at the top of the hill and heard one woman say she would see to it that the group, made of up of children in kindergarten through seventh grade, did not return.
"Some of the members began pulling their children out of the pool and were standing around with their arms folded," Wright said. "Only three members left their children in the pool with us."
Several days later, the club refunded the camp's $1,950 without explanation, said Wright, who added that some parents are "weighing their options" on legal action...
Club president John Duesler told Philadelphia television station WTXF that several club members complained because the children "fundamentally changed the atmosphere" at the pool but that the complaints didn't involve race.
In a statement released on its Web site Thursday afternoon, the club called the allegations of racial discrimination "completely untrue" and claimed overcrowding from more than one outside camp was the problem.
The club said it "deplores discrimination."
[Maura Larkins comment: That's easy to say, and obviously false. If the club deplored discrimination, it would not have done what it did.]
...Amy Goldman said she's been a member of the club for two years. She said the pool wasn't particularly crowded and the children from Creative Steps were "well behaved and respectful."...
Also see NBC News
Here's a thoughtful analysis of what happened:
A SPLASH OF COLD WATER
By Ronnie Polaneczky
Philadelphia Daily News
Obviously, there might be less here than meets the eye. Having seen The Valley Club, I can say that its pool is a good size, but not huge. Perhaps 65 children entering the pool, en masse, does indeed overwhelm its quiet feel.
So, maybe race, for some members, has nothing to do with why Creative Steps was kicked out.
Maybe they're just greedy.
Maybe they're just too greedy to give up 90 minutes per week - just 90 lousy minutes - to make 65 children happy for the summer.
Maybe they're too greedy to say, "This camp thing isn't working the way we'd hoped. But let's ride it out, just for this year."
Y'know, for the kids.
Private Pool Bans Minority Campers
By RON TODT
AP
July 9, 2009
HUNTINGDON VALLEY, Pa.
Members and officials of a private swimming pool in a predominantly white Philadelphia suburb reacted to a visiting group of minority children by asking them not to return and pulling other kids out of the water, a day camp director said, and the state is investigating.
The Creative Steps camp in northeast Philadelphia had contracted for the 65 children at the day camp to go each Monday afternoon to The Valley Club in Huntingdon Valley, camp director Alethea Wright said Thursday. But shortly after they arrived June 29, she said, some black and Hispanic children reported hearing racial comments.
View more news videos at: http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/video.
"A couple of the children ran down saying, 'Miss Wright, Miss Wright, they're up there saying, "What are those black kids doing here?'''" she said.
The gated club is on a leafy hillside in a village that straddles two townships with overwhelmingly white populations. It says it has a diverse, multiethnic membership.
Wright said she went to talk to a group of members at the top of the hill and heard one woman say she would see to it that the group, made of up of children in kindergarten through seventh grade, did not return.
"Some of the members began pulling their children out of the pool and were standing around with their arms folded," Wright said. "Only three members left their children in the pool with us."
Several days later, the club refunded the camp's $1,950 without explanation, said Wright, who added that some parents are "weighing their options" on legal action...
Club president John Duesler told Philadelphia television station WTXF that several club members complained because the children "fundamentally changed the atmosphere" at the pool but that the complaints didn't involve race.
In a statement released on its Web site Thursday afternoon, the club called the allegations of racial discrimination "completely untrue" and claimed overcrowding from more than one outside camp was the problem.
The club said it "deplores discrimination."
[Maura Larkins comment: That's easy to say, and obviously false. If the club deplored discrimination, it would not have done what it did.]
...Amy Goldman said she's been a member of the club for two years. She said the pool wasn't particularly crowded and the children from Creative Steps were "well behaved and respectful."...
Monday, November 17, 2008
Bakersfield School District apologizes for assault on teacher's character
From the archives:
Bakersfield School Won't Discriminate
Lambda Legal.org
LOS ANGELES
March 18, 1999
Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund announced Thursday that client James Merrick had settled his sexual orientation discrimination case with a California school district.
As part of the agreement, the district will apologize for removing 15 students from the award-winning teacher's science classes and will strengthen district non- discrimination policy...
Lambda and the California Teachers Association (CTA) reached the settlement on behalf of Merrick, after the state Labor Commissioner ruled earlier this month that his Bakersfield school district discriminated against him because of his sexual orientation.
Officials at the Rio Bravo-Greeley Union School District removed 15 of more than 100 students from Merrick's eighth-grade science classes simply because some parents did not want their children in a gay teacher's class. Merrick is a recent recipient of the Teacher of the Year Award from the Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce...
"Faced with a devastating assault on his character, he had the courage to seek justice. The result was a historic case that creates good law for all of us," said Lambda Staff Attorney Myron Dean Quon...
In addition, as part of the settlement, the district will not appeal the Labor Commissioner's decision," said CTA Staff Counsel Scott McVarish...
[Blogger's note: See also Scott McVarish and Teachers Association of Long Beach (TALB)]
In the settlement, approved unanimously by the school district's five-member Board of Trustees, the school district agreed it would not remove students from any class for reasons relating to "the ethnicity, race, national origin, age, sex, actual or perceived sexual orientation, disability, or political or religious beliefs of the classroom teachers."
... "The Board will, in writing, express support for Dr. Merrick as a teacher and regret comments and actions by some members of the public and staff that may have called into question his fitness to teach," the settlement said...
Bakersfield School Won't Discriminate
Lambda Legal.org
LOS ANGELES
March 18, 1999
Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund announced Thursday that client James Merrick had settled his sexual orientation discrimination case with a California school district.
As part of the agreement, the district will apologize for removing 15 students from the award-winning teacher's science classes and will strengthen district non- discrimination policy...
Lambda and the California Teachers Association (CTA) reached the settlement on behalf of Merrick, after the state Labor Commissioner ruled earlier this month that his Bakersfield school district discriminated against him because of his sexual orientation.
Officials at the Rio Bravo-Greeley Union School District removed 15 of more than 100 students from Merrick's eighth-grade science classes simply because some parents did not want their children in a gay teacher's class. Merrick is a recent recipient of the Teacher of the Year Award from the Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce...
"Faced with a devastating assault on his character, he had the courage to seek justice. The result was a historic case that creates good law for all of us," said Lambda Staff Attorney Myron Dean Quon...
In addition, as part of the settlement, the district will not appeal the Labor Commissioner's decision," said CTA Staff Counsel Scott McVarish...
[Blogger's note: See also Scott McVarish and Teachers Association of Long Beach (TALB)]
In the settlement, approved unanimously by the school district's five-member Board of Trustees, the school district agreed it would not remove students from any class for reasons relating to "the ethnicity, race, national origin, age, sex, actual or perceived sexual orientation, disability, or political or religious beliefs of the classroom teachers."
... "The Board will, in writing, express support for Dr. Merrick as a teacher and regret comments and actions by some members of the public and staff that may have called into question his fitness to teach," the settlement said...
Friday, May 02, 2008
Why can't some people apologize when they make a mistake?
"I don't think there's anything to apologize for at this time."
Botched 911 Call Cited in Slaying
By RYAN J. FOLEY,AP
2008-05-02
AOL News
MADISON, Wis. (May 2) - A college student apparently called 911 from her cell phone shortly before she was killed but a dispatcher hung up, failed to call back and never sent police to investigate, authorities said Thursday.
University of Wisconsin-Madison student Brittany Sue Zimmermann called 911 before being killed but got no response, police said Thursday. The 21-year-old student's fiance found her dead in her apartment on April 2. The coroner said she died of "a complexity of traumatic injuries."
Madison Police Chief Noble Wray said it was too early to know whether a better response could have prevented the April 2 slaying of Wisconsin-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann or helped police capture her killer.
Authorities refused to release the content of the phone call, but Wray said it should have been enough for the Dane County 911 Center to take it seriously.
"It would be accurate to state that there is evidence contained in the call which should have resulted in a Madison police officer being dispatched," Wray said at a news conference. "The 911 center did not call back to the telephone number, Madison police were not notified and no officer was sent."
Zimmermann, 21, was found slain in her apartment in an apparently random crime. Police believe someone broke into her apartment before killing her. They have not identified a suspect but have ruled out her fiance, who found her body in the apartment they shared.
Dane County Public Safety Communications Director Joseph Norwick said the dispatcher who received the call from Zimmermann's cell phone inquired several times to determine whether an emergency existed. The dispatcher hung up after receiving no answer and then answered another 911 call that was waiting, he said.
The dispatcher failed to call the number back as required under the department's policy, Norwick said.
Norwick said he was investigating the incident and reviewing whether policies should be changed and employees should be disciplined. But he also said, "I don't think there's anything to apologize for at this time."
http://news.aol.com/story/_a/botched-911-call-cited-in-slaying/20080502091109990001
Botched 911 Call Cited in Slaying
By RYAN J. FOLEY,AP
2008-05-02
AOL News
MADISON, Wis. (May 2) - A college student apparently called 911 from her cell phone shortly before she was killed but a dispatcher hung up, failed to call back and never sent police to investigate, authorities said Thursday.
University of Wisconsin-Madison student Brittany Sue Zimmermann called 911 before being killed but got no response, police said Thursday. The 21-year-old student's fiance found her dead in her apartment on April 2. The coroner said she died of "a complexity of traumatic injuries."
Madison Police Chief Noble Wray said it was too early to know whether a better response could have prevented the April 2 slaying of Wisconsin-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann or helped police capture her killer.
Authorities refused to release the content of the phone call, but Wray said it should have been enough for the Dane County 911 Center to take it seriously.
"It would be accurate to state that there is evidence contained in the call which should have resulted in a Madison police officer being dispatched," Wray said at a news conference. "The 911 center did not call back to the telephone number, Madison police were not notified and no officer was sent."
Zimmermann, 21, was found slain in her apartment in an apparently random crime. Police believe someone broke into her apartment before killing her. They have not identified a suspect but have ruled out her fiance, who found her body in the apartment they shared.
Dane County Public Safety Communications Director Joseph Norwick said the dispatcher who received the call from Zimmermann's cell phone inquired several times to determine whether an emergency existed. The dispatcher hung up after receiving no answer and then answered another 911 call that was waiting, he said.
The dispatcher failed to call the number back as required under the department's policy, Norwick said.
Norwick said he was investigating the incident and reviewing whether policies should be changed and employees should be disciplined. But he also said, "I don't think there's anything to apologize for at this time."
http://news.aol.com/story/_a/botched-911-call-cited-in-slaying/20080502091109990001
Monday, July 23, 2007
An apology for releasing politically damaging information
by Michael Gormley
The Associated Press
(July 23, 2007) — ALBANY — Gov. Eliot Spitzer today suspended a top aide and will reassign another following a report by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo that said members of the administration conspired to release politically damaging information about a Republican adversary’s use of state aircraft.
Spitzer said he accepted the findings of the report. He suspended indefinitely without pay his longtime communications director, Darren Dopp, and said he will reassign his assistant deputy for public safety, William Howard, to a position outside the executive chamber. Both are senior staffers for Spitzer and among his closest aides.
Spitzer, a Democrat, said neither he nor anyone else higher up in the administration ordered Dopp and Howard to collect information on Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno. Spitzer said he knew nothing of their plans.
“Clearly this was not part of a broader package,” Spitzer said. “I will not tolerate this behavior.”
Spitzer took no action against the acting superintendent of state police, Preston Felton.
Spitzer said he won’t challenge the findings of Cuomo’s report, which found no violations of law.
“I apologize to Senator Bruno, as I did earlier today,” Spitzer told reporters. “I apologize to the people of the state of New York.”
Monday, July 16, 2007
Getting a President to Apologize for Misleading the American Public
No, I'm not talking about George Bush. I don't think the current president has enough self-awareness or empathy to apologize to the American people.
But Richard Nixon did. Not at first, of course. In 1976 disgraced ex-President Nixon was interviewed for 20 hours by British journalist David Frost.
Frost relied on James Reston, Jr., a former soldier who abhorred Nixon's Vietnam War policy. In 1977 Reston wrote a book about the experience of working with Frost on this project, but for some reason, publishers decided that 2007 was the year to publish it. 30 years ago many of us baby boomers thought Nixon was as bad as a president could get. Now we know better.
Matthew Dallek of the Associated Press writes that Nixon was "vindictive and bewildered, angered and bemused...angst-ridden..." "Frost tossed his clipboard onto the coffee table and asked whether Nixon was ready to...acknowledge that the power of the presidency had been abused and apologize to the American people for having dragged them through two years of agony."
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