What's my conspiracy?

[MisaBlue]

It is all just a game...

[ibdave]

such a tool....
[youtube][/youtube]

[gyre]

In press conferences today, republicans found themselves strangely unable to criticize the attempted capture of bin ladin.
The cognitive dissonance was painful to watch.


Perhaps tomorrow?

[Trishntek]

In press conferences today, republicans found themselves strangely unable to criticize the attempted capture of bin ladin.
The cognitive dissonance was painful to watch.


Perhaps tomorrow?

Oh good grief. We cannot even be united in this? We are in a sad state are we not?

[Elderberry]

In press conferences today, republicans found themselves strangely unable to criticize the attempted capture of bin ladin.
The cognitive dissonance was painful to watch.


Perhaps tomorrow?

Oh good grief. We cannot even be united in this? We are in a sad state are we not?

Other than that stupid FOX News tag line on their initial coverage "Obama bin Ladin Killed", I haven't seen too much dissonance. Even the statements from the potential republican candidates praised the action and most mentioned and credited Obama by name.

Interesting that Trump has been totally silent, invisible even. Ironic that after he was trounced on at the WHCD, his Apprentice show was then preempted by Obama's announcement of the killing of bin Ladin.

[ygmir]

In press conferences today, republicans found themselves strangely unable to criticize the attempted capture of bin ladin.
The cognitive dissonance was painful to watch.


Perhaps tomorrow?

Oh good grief. We cannot even be united in this? We are in a sad state are we not?

ya gotta consider the source there TnT............

[gyre]

Not based on reality of course.

I don't have that much suspension of disbelief when watching mickey mouse.

Pretend they wouldn't be blaming obama for being too reckless and too cautious, simultaneously, if this mission had failed.
You know it's reality.


There is a name for the 'consider the source' tactic in avoiding real discussion.
Not effective when you realize what it is.

[ygmir]

Not based on reality of course.

I don't have that much suspension of disbelief when watching mickey mouse.

Pretend they wouldn't be blaming obama for being too reckless and too cautious, simultaneously, if this mission had failed.
You know it's reality.


There is a name for the 'consider the source' tactic in avoiding real discussion.
Not effective when you realize what it is.

true Gyre.
good point.
But, at times "real discussion" for me anyway, can be difficult with you. Some of the random stuff, lists, and never ending photos, make it "challenging".

And so, in my "consider the source", I was not so much referencing you as bad or unworthy or whatever, but more so, that some of what you come up with is obtuse enough, it's hard to interpret. or follow.
Not saying you don't contribute. You do, and in a very big way.
Not attacking your intellect.

Just sayin, of all, you give me more WTF's? than anyone.

[gyre]

I'd prefer to be wrong, but I only have the behavior of these politicians every day to go by.

Occasionally republicans surprize me, usually followed by their leaving politics.
It takes tremendous character to make that choice.
The fact that they have to, is the sadder story.


Sometimes I leap a few steps without explaining them, thinking it is obvious.
Or I could be wrong.
All you have to do is ask, and I'll explain.

And I do make the occasional joke.

I nearly flunked a number of math courses because I couldn't explain how I solved problems.
I had some good teachers in the first and second grades, in the middle of mississippi, no less.
I may have taken the logic for math to heart for everything.

[Elderberry]

Rush Limbaugh is now joking about the "deathers"' or the birther equivalent of those people who want to see bin Laden's long form death certificate. Really funny stuff.

[Trishntek]

I think they buried Usama at sea like MEGATRON on Transformers. They discovered they merely knocked his All Spark loose and hurriedly buried him at sea. The All Spark is what they were after all the time, knowing it was the only thing that would truly make the Chevy Volt into an awesome automobile!

[Bin Noddin]

In press conferences today, republicans found themselves strangely unable to criticize the attempted capture of bin ladin.
The cognitive dissonance was painful to watch.


Perhaps tomorrow?

Oh good grief. We cannot even be united in this? We are in a sad state are we not?

Other than that stupid FOX News tag line on their initial coverage "Obama bin Ladin Killed", I haven't seen too much dissonance. Even the statements from the potential republican candidates praised the action and most mentioned and credited Obama by name.

Interesting that Trump has been totally silent, invisible even. Ironic that after he was trounced on at the WHCD, his Apprentice show was then preempted by Obama's announcement of the killing of bin Ladin.

Now THERE'S your fucking REAL conspiracy!

[gyre]

Concord private eye detailed 'dirty DUI' stings

Justin Berton, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

A Concord private eye at the center of a Contra Costa County law enforcement scandal admitted that he hired female decoys to drink with men he was targeting in stings that led to their drunken-driving arrests, according to a transcript of his interview with detectives.

"It all centered around the introduction of the decoy to the subject," Christopher Butler said, according to a partial transcript of the March 17 interview obtained by The Chronicle. "It had to be what I referred to as seamless. ... And it shows that, yeah, I was very careful in how these things went down. No one just plowed into a bar, called the guy and said, 'Hey, meet me at this bar and let's go drinking.' "

Butler, 49, a former Antioch police officer, made the statements during a nine-hour interrogation with detectives from the Contra Costa County district attorney's office and state Department of Justice.

He also told the detectives that clients had been referred to him by a San Ramon attorney who represented women in divorce cases - women who wanted videotaped evidence that their husbands were cheating.

In one instance, a disgruntled wife paid him $2,500 to "obtain irrefutable proof" that her husband "was actively seeking other women," Butler said in a statement he gave to investigators.

Husband given transcript

Hal Jewett, Contra Costa's senior deputy district attorney, provided the statement and interrogation transcript to the woman's former husband last month and told him in a cover letter that he considered the man's drunken-driving arrest "one of the most deplorable legal practices I have ever heard of."

Butler's attorney, William Gagen, said the transcript and the private eye's one-page written statement that outlined the man's 2008 sting was not an admission of guilt.

"It was not criminal conduct," Gagen said. "Now, is it an unseemly kind of investigation process? I think the answer is 'yes.' And I think Mr. Butler is aware of that now."

Authorities arrested Butler on Feb. 16 as part of an investigation into Norman Wielsch, a former commander of a state anti-narcotics unit who allegedly stole confiscated drugs from evidence lockers and passed them on to Butler, a close friend.


Connections probed

As the investigation has progressed, Butler's tactics and his connections to Bay Area law enforcement officers have also come under scrutiny.

On April 21, Butler pleaded not guilty to charges that he bribed a Contra Costa deputy sheriff, Stephen Tanabe, 47, to arrange the November drunken-driving arrest of a man outside a Danville bar.

Tanabe, a friend of Butler's, denied the bribe allegations and also pleaded not guilty to felony charges that he had conspired to falsely arrest two additional men at Butler's request.

In all, prosecutors suspect Butler orchestrated stings that led to the arrests of at least five Bay Area men.

A reserve sheriff's deputy told investigators that Tanabe nicknamed the practice a "dirty DUI" - an arranged arrest designed to give the target a criminal record as he was embroiled in divorce or child-custody proceedings.

Butler told investigators that women hired him to obtain evidence of their husbands' infidelity. He said he produced that evidence by enlisting decoys to approach the men through online dating sites and seemingly random public encounters.

Although he directed the decoys to drink with the men at bars, Butler said he had never promised clients that the night would end with a DUI arrest.

"As I would tell all my clients ... if he's in the bar and he drinks, he's going to drink, I said, I will always say that there's no guarantee he's going to drive," Butler told detectives. "You know, he can call a cab, he can call a friend."

A 'successful sting'

According to Butler's written statement, one "successful sting resulting in a DUI" was set in motion Dec. 3, 2008, when Susan Dutcher, a Brentwood elementary school teacher, walked into his Concord office and paid him a $2,500 retainer. Butler said Dutcher was the second referral he had received from Mary Nolan, a San Ramon divorce attorney.

In the first referral, Butler said he was "contracted" by Nolan to conduct a July 2007 sting on Declan Woods, 46, a contractor in Clayton who was in the midst of divorcing one of Nolan's clients.

Butler said he had been paid $1,500 - although he did not make it clear if he was paid by Nolan or Woods' ex-wife - to hire two female decoys to approach Woods and drink with him at his local bar. Butler told investigators he paid the female decoys $25 an hour with a four-hour minimum for their work.

After the decoys suggested Woods follow them home to Walnut Creek for more partying, Butler called Clayton police dispatch and gave a description of Woods' truck, which resulted in Woods' DUI arrest.

Butler said he had videotaped Woods being handcuffed and put into a squad car, and that Nolan was "thrilled" with the visual evidence.
Nolan did not respond to e-mail and phone messages.

The setup

The sting of Susan Dutcher's estranged husband, David Dutcher, proceeded in much the same fashion, Butler told detectives.

He said he had hired a blond decoy to contact the Lockheed Martin engineer through match.com. The woman made a date to meet Dutcher, then 46, at the Old Spaghetti Factory in downtown Concord and invited a second blond decoy to join them, Butler said.

"I didn't know if he was going to be attracted" to the first decoy, Butler said. "Maybe he wouldn't be attracted to them at all. I had no idea."
Butler told investigators he had sat at a nearby table and recorded the three drinking alcohol, which the first decoy paid for.

As the 10 p.m. closing time neared, Butler said, one of his decoys alerted him that Dutcher wanted to drink at another bar. Butler said he had called a friend on the Concord police force, Officer Don Lawson. According to Butler's website, Lawson worked as his investigation firm's identity theft expert, and the two men grew up together.

"I said, 'We got a case here where, you know, this guy, we're watching him at the bar and I think he's over the limit. ... Where are you?' " Butler told investigators.

Lawson replied that he was about to go off-duty, but agreed not to after Butler told him, " 'Wait five, 10 minutes for me, please, because I think this guy is going to drive,' " Butler told the detectives.

The arrest

Lawson arrested Dutcher less than 2 miles away for DUI as Dutcher followed the convertible carrying the two blond decoys.

In his police report on the arrest, Lawson did not say Butler or anyone else had alerted him to a drunken driver on the road. Instead, Lawson wrote that he had seen Dutcher's truck at a stoplight on Clayton Road, then pulled it over after the driver broke the speed limit.

Investigators asked Butler whether he had paid Lawson, Concord's two-time Officer of the Year, to make the arrest.

"No, (Lawson) was not compensated," Butler replied. "I swear to God. I'll get on a polygraph. He was not compensated for that."
Lawson, who retired in 2009, did not respond to phone and e-mail messages seeking comment.

Back to court

David Dutcher said he plans to submit the interview transcript and Butler's statement to a divorce court judge as proof that he unfairly lost custody of his three children because of his drunken-driving conviction. His former wife did not respond to requests for an interview.

Dutcher said he had always held suspicions about the events that led to his arrest, but that reading Butler's statements had made him sick.

"You learn your wife paid for this kind of stuff and that her attorney was in on it?" Dutcher said. "And I lost my kids over it? Guess they were all laughing at me for a long time. ... Wonder how they feel now?â€

[Elderberry]

This takes bin Laden's death to a whole new level of conspiracy. http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts303.html

[gyre]

Interesting that the only people in pakistan not questioning Bin Ladin's death so far, have been the Taliban/ alqaeda.

[gyre]

Have you seen the Frontline this week on the cia hunters on the border?
Great episode.

Somehow real conspiracies are more satisfying.

And I have to recommend Bamforth's books again.
The fictional show Spooks may have more political reality than fiction in it.
Fascinating view anyway.

[Ugly Dougly]

Osama was unarmed, but was reaching for some object in his waistband.

[Ugly Dougly]

This takes bin Laden's death to a whole new level of conspiracy. http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts303.html

History will reveal how close this turns out to be.

[Roberto Dobbisano]

PUZZLING EVIDENCE circa 1986

[youtube][/youtube]

[ygmir]

*bump*, 'cause, there's gotta be some good ones, with the OWS, earchquakes, tsunamis, MJ's doctor, Charlie Sheen, Libya, Oprah, ............

c'mon, give.....who's got 'em ?

[gyre]

My favorite is still the gm conspiracy to destroy mass transit.

[Ugly Dougly]

*bump*, 'cause, there's gotta be some good ones, with the OWS, earchquakes, tsunamis, MJ's doctor, Charlie Sheen, Libya, Oprah, ............

c'mon, give.....who's got 'em ?

We can't blame shuttle flights anymore. Quick, come up with something new.

[FIGJAM]

This one is all mine.

People as individuals are mostly ok.

Even large groups can be ok.

The problem seems to be with the power hungry 10% of the world population that want to run everything and their just fucking it up for the majority!

[Simon of the Playa]

they don't call it "The Project" for nothing...


[youtube][/youtube]

[Quaneshia Honeycooch]

My conspiracy is whatever Cowboy Braindead has declared a conspiracy.

Always good for a laugh.

[ygmir]

My conspiracy is whatever Cowboy Braindead has declared a conspiracy.

Always good for a laugh.

didn't we have sex one night, in separate tents?

[cowboyangel]

Hey sock read this nimrod:
http://truthphalanx.com/conspiracy-and- ... wer-today/

[Ugly Dougly]

they don't call it "The Project" for nothing...

"Inconceivable!" - Wallace Shawn

Wasn't it originally "The Burning Man Project"?

[ygmir]

they don't call it "The Project" for nothing...

"Inconceivable!" - Wallace Shawn

Wasn't it originally "The Burning Man Project"?

[Ugly Dougly]

Oh, it still is "The Burning Man Project". See?
Coincidence? I think not, my fellow citizen!