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Posted on 09/29/2005 3:31:41 PM PDT by hipaatwo
The DeLay prosecutor has let a film crew follow him through the whole case.
For the last two years, as he pursued the investigation that led to Wednesday's indictment of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Travis County, Texas prosecutor Ronnie Earle has given a film crew "extraordinary access" to make a motion picture about his work on the case.
The resulting film is called The Big Buy, made by Texas filmmakers Mark Birnbaum and Jim Schermbeck. "Raymond Chandler meets Willie Nelson on the corner of Wall Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in The Big Buy, a Texas noir political detective story that chronicles what some are calling a 'bloodless coup with corporate cash,'" reads a description of the picture on Birnbaum's website, markbirnbaum.com. The film, according to the description, "follows maverick Austin DA Ronnie Earle's investigation into what really happened when corporate money joined forces with relentless political ambitions to help swing the pivotal 2002 Texas elections, cementing Republican control from Austin to Washington DC."
"We approached him [Earle], and he offered us extraordinary access to him and, to an extent, to his staff," Birnbaum told National Review Online Thursday. "We've been shooting for about two years."
Birnbaum and Schermbeck showed a work-in-progress version of The Big Buy last month at the Dallas Video Festival. At the moment, they do not have a deal for the film to be shown anywhere else. Their last film, Larry v. Lockney, was shown on PBS, and they hope that perhaps a similar arrangement might be made for the new picture. Whoever ends up showing it, the film has so far been funded entirely by its makers. "We tried really hard to get it funded," Birnbaum says, "but we didn't get any takers."
Schermbeck told National Review Online that the film was an irresistible Texas story. "I've been pretty interested in watching Tom DeLay work," Schermbeck says. "I thought he was a fascinating guy, certainly the most powerful Texan to emerge on the national scene in some time, a kind of Republican Sam Rayburn type, with that kind of mastery of the machinery and the will to do it."
But DeLay did not cooperate with the filmmakers, and neither did a number of DeLay allies. Earle, on the other hand, did. "I had known about Ronnie Earle for a very long time," Schermbeck says. "I thought that would be an angle to approach the whole story, telling something about Tom DeLay, even though Tom DeLay wouldn't grant us an interview."
Earle "allowed us behind the scenes when the indictments came down last year, the first wave of indictments," Schermbeck says. "We got to follow him back to his home a couple of times, which I understand he doesn't allow anybody to do." Schermbeck says the film includes interviews with some critics of Earle, as well as lawyers who are representing some of the targets of the investigation.
So far, The Big Buy has received almost no attention in the press. With DeLay's indictment, and increased attention to Earle as well, that situation seems likely to change. (The filmmakers say they will be back at work next week, filming a new ending to the picture.) "We're pretty low on everybody's radar," Schermbeck says. "We kind of took a gamble three years ago. We didn't know what was going to happen. We feel like, as documentary filmmakers, we gambled and it paid off."
Not to mention the extremely republican electorate, that usually helps republicans too!
http://markbirnbaum.com/
Producer, Director, Writer, Cameraman, Editor
Mark Birnbaum makes documentaries, and documentary-style films for business.
He is currently filming The Big Buy, a political crime story...
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Did you just hear Mark Levin say that Delay should have his lawyers confiscate the film, before they have a chance to destroy anything...and bring up ethics charges...
Bill Burkett Films, Inc., Travis County TX
York just said with Levin, that Delay and his aides were asked to participate while the movie was being made...and they refused..
ahhh so they knew
I hope Mark calls DeLay and suggests that.
..hence..the grin:)
Maybe Delay, after having 5 Grand juries NOT indict him...figured he wouldn't get indicted...and the movie would end up with Earle looking more goofy than he already does..
Remember, the statute of limitations was getting ready to run out, and Delay agreed to keep it from running out.
Now, why would he do that...and let this film company continue making this film without causing a ruckus, because he KNOWS he didn't do anything wrong...
and unfortunately, in the world of politics, it doesn't matter if you are innocent on not.
No, I think that Earle has gotting so damned arrogant. Typical Earle, thinks since he is the law, he is above the law. If the Hammer gets a ruling in his favor, the only business I will do with any entity in Travis County will be the annual renewal of my PE license until Earle is out of office. This is clearly a blatant "in your face" ethics violation by Earle.
As a licensed professional engineer in the State of Texas I am required to have at least one of my annual Professional Development Hours on the topic of ethics. Yet Earle turns the definition of ethics upside down. And just what is the meaning of "is"?
If you are upset by the grotesquely unethical behavior of the notorious Ronnie Earle, send an ethics complaint to the Texas Bar Association demanding his disbarment.
For the required grievance form, download the document here:
http://www.law.uh.edu/libraries/ethics/attydiscipline/howfile.html
Address to send it:
http://www.texasbar.com/Template.cfm?Section=Home&CONTENTID=3961&TEMPLATE=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm
see 72
OMG...shouldn't this be ILLEGAL???
Not enough info about Earle SHAKING DOWN corporations for his "cahrities"!!! WHERE"S THE OUTRAGE???
Travis County, Texas must be the sister county of Orleans Parish Louisiana!!! TOTALLY CORRUPT!!!
Rush...Hugh.....Michael....Mike....Glenn....Shout this from the treetops!
Yeah...but, they GOOD news is...tomorrow is Friday and not Saturday..which means they have time to get in some good licks before the weekend...
I betcha the weekend shows will be scrambling to get the "players" in this little drama...
except of course Fat Timmy, Bob Scheiffer, or George Stephy, because that plays in Delay's favor...
that leaves Fox News Sunday....we have to count on Brit to get out the truth, if Chris Wallace doesn't.
Let's see "shakedown", now where have I heard that word before???
Oh, yeah, the book about Jesse Jackson.....seems like ole Ronnie Earle has gone to the same "school" as Jackson....
Something else I saw on Drudge's report....
a picture of my favorite possible nominee for SCOTUS, Janice Rogers Brown....do you think he did that to drive the dems cuckoo??? LOL
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