More here on the judge and the scumbag.

if this guy godner were a good attorney he'd have the judge
recused for bias, Same with the State's Attorney.

Of course if the guy were a good attorney he'd not damage someone's property either, he'd just have it towed

from near the end of the article:

"Yes, I'd say, 'I'm sorry if I scratched your car."

For that alone the guy deserves a lot more of an attitude adjustment. And it's an example of why lawyers as a class are so despicable.

if this guy godner were a good attorney

If the guy were a good little Leftist, he'd be yelling that keying a car (and vandalism in general) is protected speech.

Paraphrasing Dennis Miller, calling this guy a scumbag is an insult to bags filled with scum. The guy could argue about his punishment but there is NO defense for what he did. I'm surprised he was smart enough to keep his mouth shut.

Bill,
he's lucky some of those inactive Marines didn't close his mouth for him.

I say inactive because there's no such thing as an "EX" Marine. And most of them, including my younger son, were Marines at birth. It just took time and an oath to make it official.

Semper Fi to all those guys.

Hey look, it's a fascist f@ck fest!

As Jonah Goldberg has noted, the frequency with which a person uses the word "fascist" is generally inversely correlated with their knowledge of its meaning. I'd add that it's also, in my experience, an indicator of low intelligence, and ability to argue coherently.

"Hey look, it's a fascist f@ck fest!"

Wasn't there supposed to be a link to the glue huffers post or dummies underground with this post? Otherwise, it makes zero sense.

YO, FL, FO!!

How is supporting the Marines or not supporting destruction of private property by someone who doesn't support them, equate to fascism?

Regarding the suggestion that the scumbag should have encouraged the Judge to recuse himself for bias:

I rather doubt that the scumbag really wanted to make too much of a fuss here beyond what he had already stirred up. After all, the amount of property damage he did might conceivably have escalated all of this to the felony level, at which point HIS law license (not to mention his freedom) might be in jeopardy.

As a minor point, if he (the scumbag) were a smart lawyer, he wouldn't have pushed this in the first place. Like all bullies, however, he likely never thought that he would be called to account. That sort of arrogant prick (you know the type, the kind who posts on a public board without leaving a name...) thinks that he can get away with anything...

Judge O'Malley's performance in this case almost writes a new chapter in the rapidly expanding legal tome, "How to Shoot at Fish in a Barrel and Still Miss". Jay Grodner is a loser and an idiot who was caught with his pants down, big time. Keying a complete stranger's car, in his presence, is an extremely childish way to protest anything. Of course he should be punished.

So how does O'Malley handle it? By throwing every pretense of impartiality out the window, and instead lecturing Grodner on the honor of Marines. Marines' honor has nothing to do with it; Grodner would be just as guilty if McNulty had been a horse pimp. O'Malley was probably, first, trying to win a few votes for the next election; and second, counting on Grodner being embarrassed and a crappy lawyer. Which is probably right.

If Grodner were a good lawyer, or if he wanted to hire one, he might well have an argument to throw out the conviction. After all, the case is just one man's word and against another; Grodner could argue that O'Malley was going to side with a fellow Marine no matter what.

The case was not word against word Jim Harris, you would know that if you had read the content of previous links to the topic by Rand. Grodner continued vandalizing the car in the presence of at least one police officer.

So now Grodner wants to go to France to escape his bad karma... maybe he'll get assaulted by a fellow loon of his for being American (I don't think his attitude and appearance will help). Of course if he brings his keys he might get into a whole lot more trouble than that ^_^

The judge also had nothing to do with the conviction, and a recusal was not neccessary. Grodner and the DA worked out a deal between them and the judge only signed off on the deal.

Bias from the judge does not factor into the equation. The judge just made him stop trying to use weasel words to imply innocence when he forced him into a simple yes or no answer.

Thanks, Jim Harris, for ascribing selfish motives to a jurist who served his country without one shred of proof other than your own ugly bias. Well done.

Well, you guys are right about one thing. Since Grodner pleaded guilty, the judge was free to posture as much as he pleased about Marines' honor. Among other things, the judge was flattering himself. This is not particularly honorable behavior on the part of a judge, but it is safe behavior, and in any case it's not as stupid or obnoxious as vandalizing cars.

Also, to be fair, plenty Marines are just as humble as anyone else; and not nearly as sanctimonious as the ones who packed the courtroom in Grodner's case. For that matter, even if a Marine is a sanctimonious twit, he might still do a good job as a Marine.

If only these Marines could redirect a fraction of their outrage from Jay Grodner to Marine Corporal Trent Thomas, then the world might be a better place. In defense of Thomas, he didn't sink so low as to key Hashim Awad's car. But he did kidnap and murder him. Personally, I would rather have some loser key a colleague's car, even though it is an infuriating, childish crime; than to see a colleague serve less than two years in jail for kidnapping and murder.

Hey Jim Harris,
The first rule of hole digging is knowing when to stop. Why don't you just say you hate the military, add a BushitlerhaliburtonNowarforoil and be done with it?

Why don't you just say you hate the military

But I don't hate the military. If I hated the military, I would read keying some soldier's car as an Affront to the Great Dignity of the Military. It would make the military look like a pack of insecure teenagers. After all, if you have to huff and spread your peacock feathers over a car scratch, should you be trusted with live ammunition?

The real military isn't that bad at all. The biggest problem with the military isn't the men in it, but the war groupies who pretended to serve (at best) and who have commanded it do to a really big, stupid thing. In fact, honorable leaders in the military warned them against it, but they were shoved aside as fast as possible.

Jim, the President is the Commander in Chief of the military. When the President give the orders, the military has to obey. You seem to be advocating a mutany against lawful orders. That would make this country no better than the coup-of-the-month club countries that exist around the world. It shows you simply don't understand the US military and probably never will.

And yes, I spent over 13 years in the military. I know what I'm talking about. You, quite frankly, don't.

Jim,
this wasn't a minor fender brush by accident in grocery store parking lot. It was vandalism. How would you feel if one of us keyed your car because it had a sticker saying,

"Jim Harris of Transterretrial Musings Fame"?

I'm not sure I should be trusted with live ammunition around Jim Harris

You seem to be advocating a mutiny against lawful orders.

Actually, what we need is a mutiny in the voting booth. We may well get one too, but six years too late.

How would you feel if one of us keyed your car because it had a sticker saying,

It would hurt my tender feelings deeply, but then I would get over it, because I'm a grown-up.

"It would hurt my tender feelings deeply, but then I would get over it, because I'm a grown-up."

So far, your actions on this board do not jibe with that latter assertion.

If only these Marines could redirect a fraction of their outrage from Jay Grodner to Marine Corporal Trent Thomas, then the world might be a better place.

You are speaking of the Marines who packed the courtroom, yes?

- You have no idea how much outrage those individuals directed at Thomas.

- Thomas' court martial was held at Camp Pendelton, miles and miles from Chicago. I have no idea but I imagine that the court martial was not open to the public, the way a public court room is.

You have no idea how much outrage those individuals directed at Thomas.

I did say that most of the military was too professional to be up in arms over someone keying a soldier's car. However, that does not mean that the military is a perfect institution. It has a tendency to close ranks behind its boys when they murder foreigners. If Marines anywhere are outraged at either the kidnap and murder of Awad, or at the lenient sentence of Trent Thomas, they haven't said a whole lot about it.

On the contrary, the one guy who did get a long sentence for murdering Awad (15 years), earned a fair amount of sympathy from certain veterans. Again, I know that many Marines and other veterans are men of character. That does not include veterans who feel sorry for veterans who kidnap, murder, and cover up; or who puff their peacock tails when someone keys a veteran's car.

Hey Jim Harris,
The first rule of hole digging is knowing when to stop.

And telling Jim Harris to stop digging is the fastest and cheapest way to build a subway direct to China.