Posted on 08/26/2006 9:33:29 PM PDT by Ken H
Tony Soprano Channeling Sam Spade
I don't mind a reasonable amount of trouble. If I did, would you find me in those dark hours, eyeing some broad at Blinco's, about to find myself in the middle of the biggest story to hit town in years?
I'm Tony Soprano of the Court TV discussion board fame. No, not the guy on that TV show. I just took his moniker cause it gave me cover like a cheap toupee when a fella's follicles are few. I'm not afraid of cops like Gottlieb. I was there the night the caper with the fry cook went down.
Did I see it? No.
Gottlieb and I rub each other the wrong way, like a cheap wool suit you've had one year too long. Things were tense that night, my friends. I shot off my mouth a few times.
As Gottlieb passed my barstool, he leaned in close. I could see the oily sweat on his shiny bald head. "Keep riding on me and they're gonna be picking iron out of your liver." He straightened up and, with his posse following him, sauntered out the door into the alley. What happened next, well, that's the most baffling mystery story in years.
A friend of mine, a newsie, was in Blinco's a few nights later. "Tony, Have the barkeep pour me some of that booze you're drinking, and I'll tell you a story you might want to hear." "Good booze makes any tale you're going to tell one I want to hear." I motioned for him to pull out the barstool beside me. We waited till the dame serving us gave me a wink and sauntered back to the bar.
"Did you see Gottlieb's picture on the front page of the local rag. Did you read the piece saying his boss Nifong should be worried he's going down for the Blinco's gig?'
"Yeah, me and half the town saw that. What's your beef? Gottlieb's days as a Big Shot Bully are as numbered as a Currier and Ives calendar. The cook ratted him out, said the "Bald guy" was the instigator. Of the coppers here that night, Gottlieb fit that description like a Hong Kong suit you had made to order. He's as finished as a Dame from an East Coast Boarding school. He's going down.
The newsie smiled, took another sip of his drink. "Not so fast, Tony, Gottlieb may have hired a lawyer, but he ain't gonna take the fall. Our big story tomorrow is two young cops will take the rap for him. No way bossman Nifong will let his boy Gottlieb go down till the Dukies are duked out." I took a drag on my cigarette and watched the smoke curl across the table. The newsie leaned in and pushed copy of the morning's paper my way.
Our eyes met again as I glanced at the photos of the two cops charged."
But they have hair! Their heads look like lucky sheep who ran from a careless shearer. No way they fit the Cook's description. And Gottlieb lawyered up faster than a railroad car on an icy stretch of track!"
"Exactly. Nifong's the boss. He ain't gonna let no stinking fry cook ruin the best campaign strategy since Washington rowed across a frosty river in Delaware. Gottlieb's the chief investigator. Three months later, he turned in ...pages of notes. His recollection of events added details to Nifong's case like a New York seamstress adds sequins to a songbird's gown. Gottlieb's in solid with the boss."
I sat in stunned silence, not even a come hither look from the comely barmaid could stop my thoughts. The newsie took another sip of the bourbon I bought him.
"It ain't the first time either. One morning. around 6AM, Gottlieb ran a red light and rammed his car into another guy's ride right here in Raleigh. When the smoke cleared, Mr.Nobody's car had $7000 worth of damage. Our man Gottlieb didn't even get a ticket. Tony, if that was you or me, think the Raleigh cops would let it slide like a fried egg on a greasy stove?"
I leaned back. The newsie smiled a knowing smile. "Ain't gonna happen, Tony. Watch and see. The guy with the smashed car, the poor fry cook here that got knocked around? They are NOBODYS, Tony. And NOBODY cares." My beat can be ugly, my friends. The night can be cold. But this story chilled me like a eager bridegroom's champagne waiting to be uncorked. But it's not over yet. Tony Soprano doesn't go down easy.
******Footnote: Unlike some OTHER fiction writers LieStoppers feels the need to distinguish fiction from fact. Should the NYT wish to carry this story, LieStoppers will insist they disclose the difference. Tony Soprano was NOT in Blinco's the night of the Fry Cook beating, but we link to the basic facts of the story that ARE true.
[Links are at Liestoppers, and will be listed in posts to follow]
LMAO!!!
Actually, that was the bald clown.
The Future Of The New York Times
Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. has his hands full: Weaker earnings. A changing media world. A scandal's aftermath. He also has an ambitious business plan.
By Anthony Bianco, JANUARY 17, 2005, Businessweek. - excerpt-
" Meanwhile, the once-Olympian authority of the Times is being eroded not only by its own journalistic screw-ups -- from the Blair scandal to erroneous reports of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq -- but also by profound changes in communications technology and in the U.S. political climate. There are those who contend that the paper has been permanently diminished, along with the rest of what now is dismissively known in some circles as "MSM," mainstream media. "The Roman Empire that was mass media is breaking up, and we are entering an almost-feudal period where there will be many more centers of power and influence," says Orville Schell, dean of the University of California at Berkeley's journalism school. "It's a kind of disaggregation of the molecular structure of the media." "
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_03/b3916001_mz001.htm
Now is it 'Gray Old Lady', 'Old Gray Lady', or 'Grey Lady'?
How about 'Old Indigestible'.
http://www.newsobserver.com/1185/story/479650.html
There's an interesting chart at the link above which compares how Himan and Gottlieb, who heard the same description of the suspects at the same time from Crystal, recorded what they heard.
If someone would go to the link above, look on the right under Related Content, click on Not Matching Descriptions, and post the chart here, I'd appreciate it.
Gottlieb's long delayed notes are in conflict with at least three separate contemporaneous accounts:
1. The medical record.
2. The police photographer, and apparently the photographs as well.
3. Officer Himan's contemporaneous account of CGM's descriptions. The fact that Finnery was not in the first two lineups backs Himan's account, rather than Gottlieb's.
Here's my potbanger summary:
Your star witness is driving down a one-way street with three lanes of oncoming traffic bearing down on him, and is claiming they're going the wrong way.
I tried but clearly there is a trick to pasting an image in a reply. If someone does post the image please let me know how it is done. Thanks
Oh, thank you. Will you do the same for this cartoon showing Veteran Gottlieb tutoring Rookie Himan on the fine art of notetaking?
http://liestoppers.blogspot.com/2006/08/cant-read-em-if-you-dont-write-em.html
img src="path or URL of image file"
Put that between these <>
Outstanding! That perfectly illustrates number "3" in post 106 above.
Pool photo by Christine T. Nguyen, NYT. District Attorney Michael B. Nifong, center, with a police investigator, Officer Benjamin W. Himan, at a June hearing.
Caption to the above photo:
(Nifong speaking to Himan) :
"And you really thought I wasn't going to indict you. . ."
I looked at his address - and it looks just the opposite - he's going away from Durham and towards his house.
He's Head of Investigations and my hunch is that he's fairly far removed from Midnight shifts - at the time of the accident.
I don't know. More than one person has Gottlieb going to more than one bar in Wake County.
Is that strategic?
WENDY MURPHY is on Kimberly Guilfoyle DEFENDING
her rights to FALSELY ACCUSE PEOPLE!
She claims that she has been threatened recently
to be sued because she said that John Ramsey
was guility and he had CHild Porn on His PC.
She called him guilty repeated and led people to
believe he was a pedophile. She made fun of
the lawyer that has indicated she's going to be sued.
She said " She has the right to get on go these shows
and tell people who's LIKELY guilty in these incidents."
She was loud and claims there was ample reason
to believe John Ramsey was guilty and that he
had CHild Porn on his PC.
She also pointed the Finger at Elizabeth Smarts
Father when Computers were removed from his
house.
She claims a lawyer representing Ramsey left a
message on her Cell phone telling or warning her
that she's going to be sued.
Has this woman learned nothing ?
????????
I heard her too. She's certifiable!
McMurphy: Well, that f'n' nurse, man...she, uh, she ain't honest.
Dr. Spivey: Oh now, look. Miss Ratched's one of the finest nurses we've got in this institution.
McMurphy: Ha! Well, I don't wanna break up the meeting or nothin', but she's somethin' of a cv#+, ain't she, Doc?
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