Talk:James Traficant

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needs clarification

Jim Traficant was a DEMOCRAT not a REPUBLICAN!

The paragraph that includes: "from a patent-holding test pilot who has a Top Secret security clearance" isn't really clear. Also, why do the witness' patents matter? The TS clearance might establish a level of integrity (or not...CIA agents lie routinely). Also, the entire paragraph is unclear as to what it means.

The CNN link only links to a comment about Traficant's toupee, not to anything substantive about the case. I suggest removing it.Mzmadmike (talk) 05:48, 29 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Second (?) person to run for federal office from prison

I don't think it's accurate to say that Mr. Traficant was the second person ever to run for federal office while in prison. One example that comes to mind is a fellow named J. John Gordon who ran for president in 1976 and eventually filed a lawsuit claiming that the election had been effectively stolen from him: Gordon v. Secretary of State of New Jersey, 460 F. Supp. 1026 (D. N.J. 1978), republished at http://members.aol.com/schwenkler/wcc/gordon.htm An argument could be made that Gordon didn't really run for president, but the better view is probably that he was a candidate. Anyway, I'm willing to bet there have been quite a few others as well. For example, Leonard Peltier has run for President from prison (I believe he was nominated by the Peace & Freedom Party in 2004, but I think---we need to check whether---he was running for federal office before then, at least as the subject of a "Draft Peltier" effort, perhaps mostly as a write-in candidate), and I'm imagining (not clearly enough to call it remembering) that Mumia (while on Death Row) might even have been on the ballot (for Vice-President?) in some states.

Eugene Debs is of course the most famous presidential candidate to run while in prison, but I'm not sure he was the FIRST federal candidate to run from prison.

I believe that Lyndon LaRouche was running for president in 1992 during the time he was in prison, but this should also be checked.160.253.0.248 16:57, 16 Dec 2004 (UTC)

David Duke ran for Congress from prison, also.

Infobox

The James Traficant infobox seems to be screwed up. I've tried fixing it, to no avail. Micahbrwn 01:21, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Artwork

We need a picture of this guy's prison artwork, it's actually pretty good. 141.213.141.25 15:36, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

RICO Acquittal

I'm not sure about this, but didn't Giacomo DiNorscio successfully defend himself from RICO charges?

Education

In what subject did Traficant receive his graduate degree? Fishhead64 21:19, 21 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

John Demjanjuk cites

Material on John_Demjanjuk needs to be sourced - at present it is significantly in conflict with the accout given at John_Demjanjuk. If you have cites for this section pleaser also correct John_Demjanjuk. SmithBlue 07:07, 23 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

A Criminal?

I have a problem with Jim Traficant being included under "WikiProject Criminal Biography". Jim Traficant is NOT a criminal, he has done so many good things for our part of Ohio over the years. He is a political prisoner, and more information about his unfair trial before Judge Leslie Brooks Wells and hearings before Congress should be posted in the article. Steve LaTourette was instrumental in this too, getting rid of Traficant was a political decsion and should be treated as such. Windsorwindsor1 (talk) 18:48, 3 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Doing "good" (or popular, anyway) things for his district and being a criminal are hardly mutually exclusive. As for being a "political prisoner", got a cite for that? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.166.27.13 (talk) 20:46, 26 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Telephone log attorney billing evidence

What is that? Is there an "and" missing? I'd understand "telephone-log and attorney-billing evidence".

Also, the Web site linked to in the reference for that doesn't mention Traficant. Is there a good source for it?

I too would like to know what his master's degrees were in. —JerryFriedman (Talk) 05:40, 25 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

2012 Presidential Bid

Does Jim's felony conviction preclude him for running for President in 2012 ? Would a paradon help ?? 209.87.237.21 (talk) 07:59, 6 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

His felony conviction does not automatically disqualify him from any public office. According to the Constitution (see Article 1.7) the House of Reps DOES have the power to permanently bar him from any public office, as a result of him having been expelled. However it does not appear that they have actually done this yet. Manning (talk) 17:28, 27 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Israel

Traficant is preoccupied with the Israel lobby, blaming his predicament on the controlling Jewish influence over the US government, believing omnipotent Jews put him in prison over the Demjanjuk case among other issues. Jews are the scapegoat again. Denies he is anti-semitic. noted on his page.

Furtive admirer (talk) 04:40, 11 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Traficant mentions foreign aid in all forms to Israel is approximately $15 billion per year, which is about $30,000 per capita annually. Traficant notes that Delphi employees in Ohio have lost their pensions.Soledad22 (talk) 05:59, 12 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Removed this info from the article because it is uncited. It can certainly be added back in, but I could not find it in the given citations. As a controversial statement, it would need a valid citation from a reliable source to be in the article. Frank | talk 13:49, 12 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

"foreign aid in all forms to Israel is approximately $15 billion per year, which is about $30,000 per capita annually." Wow, that's a bunch of baloney; divide $15 billion by $30,000 and you get 500,000. Last time I checked, the US population was much larger than 500,000, so there's no possible way that statement could be true. Besides, I read a while back that the actual contributions to Israel this year were on the order of $2-3 billion. Still a substantial sum, but far short of what Traficant claims they were. It's obviously a lie; we should not include that statement in the article unless we also mention that it is obviously wrong. Stonemason89 (talk) 21:17, 15 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

At the time the population of Israel was about 5 million. $15 billion divided by 5 million people works out to $3,000 per capita. The $30,000 figure is obviously either a misquote or a misspeak. --Alibubba7 (talk) 23:12, 19 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Detore or Defore

In the section "Indictment, conviction, testimony to House Ethics, and expulsion from Congress" Richard Detore is mentioned a number of times. But a single time Defore is mentioned (as in: ... throwing papers at" Defore for being ...). This is most likely a misprint, though I don't know. Should be corrected if it is a misprint. Mateat (talk) 22:14, 19 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Israel, part II

I added him to Category: Anti-Israel, due to the fact that this has been a huge part of Traficant's rhetoric, especially since his release from prison. If you disagree, feel free to state your objections here. Stonemason89 (talk) 02:51, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

"huge part of Traficant's rhetoric". On his radio he does not talk much about Israel or Zionism so I do not think the use of the word huge is correct. He is positive towards Israel in the sense that he refers to Israel as a democracy. I do not think I have heard him question the Jewish character of Israel so he does not seem to be anti Zionist, but it is not a subject he has addressed directly as far as I know. So I do not think anti Israel or anti Zionist is correct based on his radio program and some other public appearances I have seen.Geo8rge (talk) 23:28, 14 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Stonemason89, until you can cite specific evidence that he is anti-Israel, I have removed the category listing. That shouldn't be too hard for you, since you claim it is such a huge part of his rhetoric... --Alibubba7 (talk) 23:04, 19 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]