Posted on 07/11/2006 6:28:23 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Wow, I'll say it's rare. Judges are just as much of a tribe as "journalists."
Looks like he ate all the Indians.
I always thought he was nutty, and this Panel certifies him. Most of what he brought were harrassment suits, much as his protege, Tom Fitton, is doing with the Bush White House.
Yeah, well I once voted for Jimmy Carter. People DO change.
I'm surprised Lambeth kept his cool as long as he did. The Interior Department has just treated the whole case with utter contempt and arrogance from day 1. Concealing records, destroying records, perjury, endless delays, and generally just blowing off their responsibilities. You can't make us do anything we don't want to.
I have never heard of a federal judge who swallowed so much abuse without going postal. Several of those Interior attorneys would have been serving years in jail if I had been on that bench. For the last seven years I would have been issuing bench warrants when any of those bureaucrats tried to pull my chain or blow me off.
Let's see how responsive an undersecretary can get when federal marshals haul him to court in handcuffs to testify under oath.
I love reading that!
IMHO, her Heinousness Hillary finally got some of her own back...http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/hillary_rodham_clinton/index.html?query=LAMBERTH,%20ROYCE%20C&field=per&match=exact
Regardless of all else - anyone who has researched and read documents and evidence on how the gov't continues to skim all but pennies on the dollar from the royalties due the Indian landowners -know what a disgrace it is.
The Indians 'own' their land in name only = they have no say in who 'leases' it for what reasons and, even then, they are not allowed to deal directly with the leasee - because the gov't, still operating under 100+ year old rulings, deem the Indians incapable of handling their own affairs.
The American Indian: the unseen minority
This case is, and always has been, about money.
The whole ball of wax.
If any other 'monority' were treated as the American Indian - the unseen minority = there would be hell to pay
Given how easily they were duped by Jack Abramoff, I'd say the government has a pretty good case.
If being duped by operators like Abramoff means you are incapable of being treated like a human being = where does that leave at least half the country? And who gets to decide who needs to be ruled and who does the ruling
The more responsible Native Americans left these hellholes the minute they could thumb a ride out and have never returned.
They do know how to run a good casino operation, however.
Finally! Lamberth has been the chief enabler of one of the all time great scams in lawyerdom. These Indian allottees have, with the help of Lamberth, managed to turn a $67 audit finding into a $178 Billion claim. They are hoping to settle for around $30 billion, without one single shred of evidence to support them. And the tribal claims are not far behind.
Interior Department employees and managers have spent tens of thousands of hours attempting to comply with the orders of the special master. The BIA, MMS, OST, and BLM have worked relentlessly to attempt to protect records (forever, under the orders), and to attempt to recreate what existed more than a hundred years ago. Every effort to make a reasonable settlement has been turned down, in spite of a complete lack of any evidence of any underpayment to the allottees. Lamberth has shut down computer systems time and again, delaying accurate accounting and payment to the very Indians he is (for all intents and purposes) representing.
Special offices were set up in Interior, high level officials appointed, new procedures established, and million of dollars spent on trying to comply with the numerous one sided decisions of this absurd judge.
But Cobell and her attorneys, with the help of Lamberth has turned this $67 finding into a $178 billion claim. No evidence, nothing. Interior has done audit after audit, using most of the big name audit firms as well as Interior audit resources.
Good riddance!
Please explain exactly how that skimming of Indian royalties takes place.
All the $$$$$$ will be shifted to the Soc. Sec "Fund" so they can give benefits to illegal liens. Thought everyone knew that.
Sorry, folks, that's not how government records are maintained over long periods of time.
For the most part records are placed in boxes, labels showing agency and date are placed on the boxes, and they are shipped off to a federal records center, somewhere, somehow.
Water seeps in. Fires happen. Paper crumples. Ink fades. Boxes are misplaced (among millions of other boxes).
I think Judge Lamberth forgot about the "passage of time" and what it does to boxes of paper.
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