Sun: Powerbroker Bromwell Sentenced to Seven Years

Baltimore Sun, November 17, 2007:

A humbled and contrite Thomas L. Bromwell, who exercised extraordinary political power during almost a quarter-century in elected office, was sentenced yesterday to seven years in prison, ending a public corruption investigation that exposed how a local construction-firm executive spent years bribing the former state senator.

...

"I am guilty of getting my wife into this situation," Bromwell said as a gallery of more than 100 spectators watched in silence. "I'm the one who kept her in. ... My wife's involvement is clearly on my shoulders. I will never be able to forgive myself for what I have done to my wife and my children and my friends."

...

The Parkville couple in return reaped thousands of dollars worth of building materials for their seven-bedroom home and almost $200,000 in bogus salary for a no-show job from a contractor controlled by Poole and Kent.

I guess the guy tried to argue that because he was a nice guy and liked by white middle class people and business people, that meant jail was not for him. He will probably not serve in what Fark.com calls "PMITA" prison but seven years for a man with kids is real. His wife gets time also and they perhaps alternate so that the kids will have a parent at home. Whether the kids would actually be better in foster care is another blogger's guess.

It doesn't get a whole lot more blatant than a $200K no show job for construction contract steering. Poole and Kent is a major construction company in this area and they are facing serious problems also. Even Tony Soprano would have hesitated with this one.

Pakistani Attorneys Targets of Musharraf Dictatorship

MD Daily Record (from AP), November 9, 2007:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Thousands of black-suited lawyers facing police batons and tear gas to protest the declaration of emergency rule have become Pakistan’s political conscience.

...

The general’s botched attempt to oust Pakistan’s top judge this spring sparked a mass movement against military rule, with lawyers in the vanguard. That put wind in the sails of a defiant Supreme Court, which challenged Musharraf’s dominance and the secret workings of Pakistan’s spy agencies.

Fearing the court would declare his recent presidential election victory illegal, Musharraf finally pulled the plug on its activism on Saturday by suspending the constitution and purging its ranks. Deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, now under house arrest, has urged lawyers to revolt.

It is tempting, especially for an American raised on goofball "hero revolts against the system and emerges victorious" cotton candy movies, to cast Pakistani lawyers as some sort of Solidarity-esque counter-tyrannical force. In individual cases, perhaps some are worthy of the comparison to Lech Wałęsa. But the public esteem of both judges and attorneys in Pakistani is quite low, due to widespread perceptions of cravenness and corruption.

Yet perhaps it is even more important that flawed men and women in a flawed Pakistani system stand up, however imperfectly, for justice and the rule of law? After all, is there any method to demand justice other than for flawed men and women in flawed systems to do so imperfectly, in Poland, the U.S. or Pakistan, or anywhere else?

In Honor of The Reverend Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church

Fred Phelps and his church/family/cult got hit with about 11 million in damages for protesting a Westminster funeral for a fallen serviceman. While I have a feeling that this verdict won't hold in full, I am glad that this bunch of quasi-Christian stalkers and death cultists got punched in the teeth in court. I just feel bad that the family didn't kick his ass physically; it would have been a "freebie" ass-kicking as any civil judgment for assault/battery would simply have netted out against the Plaintiff's verdict and I doubt that a Carroll County jury would convict a father who kicked the ass of a soldier's funeral protesting freak. The foregoing comments are offered in my capacity as redneck, not in my professional capacity.