Righthaven's Crusade Against 20-year Veteran Nurse Gets Worse

Wronghaven!—Righthaven Calls Veteran's Motion Seeking Attys' Fees for Suit Mistakenly Served Upon Her: An Effort to "extract blood money"

Denise Nichols Fights for Veterans

via mal contends—Few attorneys and defendants who have dealt with Internet troll, Righthaven LLC and its attorney, Shawn Mangano, are surprised by their duplicity and blatant abuse of process of the federal court system.

Now, Righthaven just dove deeper into the pond scum in its vendetta against an Air Force nurse (my former co-defendant), a veteran fighting for her life against Gulf War Syndrome, and life-threatening ailments--believed by this medical professional to be exacerbated by Righthaven's frivolous federal lawsuit for $150,000 and attorneys' fees.

Though veteran Denise Nichols persists in her work of helping fellow veterans, Righthaven won't halt its legal efforts against her.

Righthaven served Nichols, of Denver, Colorado, with a federal complaint earlier this year that was ordered to be dismissed on April 20 by federal Judge Gloria M. Navarro.

The complaint, in a reflection of the often shoddy work of Attorney Shawn Mangano and Righthaven generally, fails to mention Denise Nichols in the text of the complaint, even once.

Subsequent bad-faith negotiations by Righthaven ensued in which Righthaven tried to induce Nichols to sign a press release with language describing how generous and thoughtful Righthaven is to veterans and the disabled, a la the case against North Carolina blogger Brian D. Hill.

After dismissal negotiations failed, Righthaven was forced to terminate its suit against Nichols May 6 or face Judge Navaro again.

Nichols then filed a motion for $1,600 in attorneys' fees that she paid to Attorneys John Arsenault of Colorado and Mike Kimbrell of Nevada. Even these facts are disputed by Righthaven.

Both attorneys agreed the Righthaven suit lacked any merit as a defendant is of course to be mentioned in a complaint if she is accused a tort.

Reads Nichols' motion is part: "The Complaint, which was served upon defendant, Denise Nichols, on 03/23/2011, is predicated upon a likely Rule 11 violation as the plaintiff admits the complaint fails to mention the defendant in the text of the complaint, as indicated in the plaintiff's summary report (filed April 18) for the April 20 hearing at which your Honor ruled the case was to be dismissed."

In a Court filing this week, Righthaven responded by saying of Nichols' motion "it is nothing short of an attempt at trying to extract blood money in the form of an attorney's fee award to which she is not entitled."

Righthaven's position is that Nichols is not entitled to recoup attorneys' fee though she was served with a complaint that does not mention her.

Nichols, who had to appear by telephone at an April 20 federal Court hearing from a DC Veterans' Medical facility, continues her fight for her life and those of her fellow veterans.

Nichols said yesterday she is composing her response to Mangano and Righthaven's outrageous "blood money" charge and will file it this weekend.

Maj. Denise Nichols (ret), Vietnam era and Gulf War veteran, retired nurse, MSN, retired US Air Force Flight Nurse Clinical specialist in cardio-vascular nursing, served on the nursing faculty of several universities around the country.

"I think Righthaven has this backwards. Righthaven and Mangano are after blood money. They are harming people and lying about it. The idea that I, along with other prevailing defendants, are after 'blood money' for Righthaven's mistakes and abuse is absurd," said Nichols today.

Wisconsin Citizens Spied on by Walker Regime

Scott Walker regime is the most hostile to civil liberties of Wisconsin citizens in state history

Not content to threaten citizens in the Capitol, to take away local control of government, and even arrest journalists, the Walker Regime is now, according to Dane 101, prepared to deploy a "state emergency response team [that] has been operating out of the GEF-2 (101 S. Webster St.) building downtown specifically to monitor protest related activity on social media sites and elsewhere."

The team is allegedly coordinating with law enforcement to identify and shut down any major direct actions planned by protesters at the capitol, by watching things like the #wiunion hashtag on Twitter and related Facebook groups, etc."

This is Wisconsin under Republican Rule.

GOP PR Operative: "No chance" Randy Hopper Survives Recall

Update: Randy Hopper (R-Empire (formerly Fond du Lac)), defeated in recall election by Democratic nominee, Oshkosh Deputy Mayor Jessica King, on August 9, 2011.

Recall Election Results
Jessica King ,   28,187  51%
Randy Hopper 26,937  49%
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Well-known (and well-liked) writer and PR specialist James Wigderson at Wigderson Library and Pub says recall target State Sen. Randy Hopper (R-Fond du Lac) is toast.

A head faint? No.

There is no chance Hopper can win the recall election. Is he watching Weiner get roasted? Hopper’s randy behavior makes him toasted. (It’s funnier because it rhymed.)

Blogger and Republican activist Kevin Binversie has suggested Hopper resign now to give the party a fighting chance to save the seat. My only addition to that would be that the Republican Party would have to be stupid to try to save him.

Armed Guards and Metal Detectors Await Wisconsinites Seeking Entry to Capitol—Formerly the People's House

Democracy dies under the GOP

A week after State Sen. Randy Hopper (Fond du Lac) was caught on video accosting and threatening a Wisconsin citizen in the capitol, Hopper ally, Gov. Scott Walker, continues to post armed guards and metal detectors in the People's House.

"Walker and Company have slowed public access to the Capitol to a near-halt. They’ve closed nearly all of the entrances to the Capitol and force every man, woman and child who doesn’t work in the building to go through metal detectors just to get inside," notes One Wisconsin Now. "I cannot tell you how outrageous it is to watch seniors citizens emptying their pockets and having their purses gone through just to visit the Capitol, or kids on a field trip being treated like they are a security threat."

The married Hopper is good at cheating on his wife and getting his 26-year-old mistress a job in the Walker administration, but not a peep out of Hopper or any other Republican on this ongoing assault against Wisconsin democracy and Wisconsin families.

Notes One Wisconsin Now: "Gov. Walker and the Republicans have repeatedly lied to people of Wisconsin about the security 'threats' at the Capitol and the peaceful protests of Walker's disastrous agenda."

Hopper too has skipped public events in his district, citing security threats.

Maybe Walker will make an exception for allowing easy entry for 20-something mistresses in the capitol. It would be a tiny step in the right direction for Wisconsin democracy under Republican rule.

GOP Kim Simac's Contact Info: Ohio Area Code

Kim Simac - Via MyFoxWausau

Republican and Tea Partier Kim Simac (Eagle River) is challenging State Sen. Jim Holperin (D-Conover) in a recall election verified yesterday by the Government Accountability Board.

But according to Simac's press release, if you want to contact the Simac campaign, you have to call the 216 area code that covers greater Cleveland, Ohio.

That's because the campaign contact, Samantha Osborne, has not established her Wisconsin residency, said Osborne this morning. Osborne is new to the district.

Osborne assured me she is living in the Northern woods area of Rhinelander, but she could not give me the Simac campaign headquarters' phone number.

Word is the Simac operation [with its warped family values hyposrisy] is half-baked, incoherent and not much of a threat to knock off the popular Democratic legislator, Holperin [Senate District 12], who has long ties to the area.

The recall signatures against Holperin were overwhelmingly gathered by a Colorado-based operation that goes to state to state, and pays its employees by the number of signatures gathered.

The Simac press release, delivered by e-mail, follows:
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Samantha Osborne

June 8, 2011 (216) 650-4955

GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY BOARD CERTIFIES RECALL
ELECTION TO BE HELD ON JULY 19TH

RHINELANDER, Wisconsin-Kim Simac released the following statement today on the Government Accountability Board certifying recall petitions against Jim Holperin.

“The GAB ruling certifies not only the recalls petitions but the disappointment I’ve heard around the district over our current representation and the dirty politics going on in Madison. The people want real leadership. Real leaders get the job done and don’t run away when facing tough decisions.”

Jim Holperin is one of the 14 Senate Democrats that fled to Illinois during the debate on budget balancing measures. There were 19,255 valid recall signatures certified, the most against any Democratic Senator. Kim Simac announced her candidacy for the 12th Senate District on May 5th.
#

Walker of Wisconsin, Kasich of Ohio, Scott of Florida, Daniels of Indiana: Return to Robber Baron Days

Jim Hightower has an excellent summary of what GOP governors like Scott Walker are up to: Attacking the middle class and local control.

Wispolitics liveblogging GAB Hearing on GOP Attempt to Recall Dem Senators

Wispolitics live-blogging on Wisconsin GAB hearing on challenge to GOP effort to force recall elections of three Democratic senators.

GOP CouponCare Tanking; Ryan and GOP Delusional

"Amazingly, despite the strongly negative reaction so far to the Ryan budget's plan to end Medicare as we know it, conservatives are continuing to back it, arguing that all they need is better messaging about the plan. This is clearly delusional. No message is going to change the simple fact that the public doesn't like the plan and wishes it would go away ... ."
- Ruy Teixeira, quoted in The Democratic Strategist

Obama 2012 Bashes Koch Brothers

The Obama for America organization is bashing the Koch Brothers as dishonest "billionaire brothers" in a fundraising e-mail blasting the Scott Walker allies:

One of the main special-interest political groups, 'Americans for Prosperity,' announced yesterday that they're launching an expensive national campaign to pin the blame for high gas prices on President Obama.

There's nothing unusual in Washington about this sort of announcement, but it caught my eye because Americans for Prosperity isn't as well meaning as its name makes it sound. In fact, it's a prime example of the kind of special-interest groups that plan to spend hundreds of millions of dollars this election cycle to defeat the President in order to promote their agenda. Its backers are the famous Koch brothers, billionaires who, according to one profile, believe in 'minimal social services for the needy and much less oversight of industry, especially environmental regulation.'

That's right: A couple of billionaire oil men are saying that it's all President Obama's fault that Americans are getting gouged at the pump while oil companies bring in record profits. And now they'll be spending the summer touting carefully orchestrated 'grassroots' protests across the country, with two goals in mind: damaging President Obama, and deflecting people's frustration about gas prices so their own profit margins stay safe.

But while the Koch brothers have been plotting a campaign paid for by oil company interests and designed to mislead people instead of empowering them, we've been building ours one person at a time. Since last Wednesday, thousands of first-time donors matched another supporter's pledge to give what they could. People are even connecting by exchanging messages about why they're stepping up to own a piece of this campaign.

Grab a stake in this movement by matching another supporter's $5 donation today.

Conservative candidates relied on these brothers' deep pockets during the 2010 elections, and for many of them, it was a good bet. Just last month, most of our major opponents showed up at an Americans for Prosperity event to say just how much they want that help again in 2012 -- and thanks to the Citizens United decision, the Kochs can spend as much as they want on front groups and disinformation campaigns aimed at misleading Americans about the President's record.

They can flood the airwaves with negative ads. They can launch smear campaigns to divert attention away from what matters.

That's exactly the kind of politics our campaign is aiming to change. And that's why we're building this organization not by checks from people like the Kochs, but with a grassroots match drive whose purpose is to recruit the most people into this campaign, not just raise the most dollars.

Randy Hopper on Video: "I’m gonna get you for everything you have 'fracking' done"

Sen. Randy Hopper (R-Fond du Lac, Wisconsin) tells Wisconsin citizen, "I’m gonna get you for everything you have fucking done."

Hopper faces a recall election scheduled now for July 12, barring developments from Republican Court challenges to the recall petition and a GOP effort to run fake Democrats to force a primary.

From Paul I. Tascoupe at PolitiScoop last week:

RFK

June 5 is the anniversary of the assassination of Robert Kennedy Jr., a man who worked for peace and justice in response to tragedy.



Listen to the audio of RFK's response to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speech here.

Senator Robert F. Kennedy
Indianapolis, Indiana
April 4, 1968

This is the text from the news release version of RFK's response to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr..
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I have bad news for you, for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the world, and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and killed tonight.

Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice for his fellow human beings, and he died because of that effort.

In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it is perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in. For those of you who are black--considering the evidence there evidently is that there were white people who were responsible--you can be filled with bitterness, with hatred, and a desire for revenge. We can move in that direction as a country, in great polarization--black people amongst black, white people amongst white, filled with hatred toward one another.

Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and to replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand with compassion and love.

For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and distrust at the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I can only say that I feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man. But we have to make an effort in the United States, we have to make an effort to understand, to go beyond these rather difficult times.

My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He wrote: "In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."

What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black.

So I shall ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King, that's true, but more importantly to say a prayer for our own country, which all of us love--a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke.

We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times; we've had difficult times in the past; we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; it is not the end of disorder.

But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings who abide in our land.

Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.

Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.