Thursday, September 10, 2015
Wednesday, September 09, 2015
Forbidden Love-Robert Bentley¹s Secret Love Affair - Part 2 - by Donald V. Watkins via Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/donald.v.watkins/posts/10207574063451838
Forbidden Love – Robert Bentley's Secret Love Affair – Part 2
By Donald V. Watkins
Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on September 9, 2015
Discovering Her Husband's Infidelity
First Lady Dianne Bentley, a 72-year old devout Christian and loving wife, unselfishly gave Governor Robert Bentley 50 faithful years of marriage, birthed and raised four successful sons, sacrificed her own professional career as a bacteriologist to support her husband's career as a physician and legislator, and campaigned tirelessly for her husband's successful election as governor in 2010. Governor Bentley, 72, rewarded her for this steadfast faithfulness and support by engaging in a hot and heavy romance with his senior political advisor, Rebekah Caldwell Mason.
The First Lady overheard the governor's steamy love talk during some of his private phone calls with Rebekah. She also read his text messages, which graphically depicted the nature and scope of the love affair between her husband and his paramour. No further proof of his infidelity was needed.
Devastated and hurt beyond belief, the First Lady knew from the phone calls and text messages that her marriage was over. Rebekah, 43, had stolen Robert Bentley's heart and affection. The only thing left for Dianne Bentley to do was prepare her sons and other family members for the dissolution of the marriage. She chose to accomplish this painful task in two phases. First, she would separate from the governor in January of 2015 and move back to Tuscaloosa, where she is still revered for her work as an advocate for healthy marriages and for being a staunch opponent of domestic abuse. Second, she would begin the arduous task of finding a competent lawyer who was not afraid to sue a sitting governor for her divorce.
Mrs. Bentley's Golden wedding anniversary, on July 24, 2015, sealed the deal. While she was sitting alone in Tuscaloosa and grieving the death of her marriage, the governor was having the time of his life wining and dininghis entourage of groupies on taxpayers' dollars while attending the 2015 National Governors Association summer meeting in White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia.
Financing the Love Affair
For over a year, the governor seemed oblivious to the hurt and pain he had caused to Mrs. Bentley and his children by his love affair with Rebekah. Since he was re-elected last year, Bentley's primary concern has been figuring out how best to use the financial resources of the state, along withleftover campaign funds and the financial resources of friendly political groups, to support his romantic lifestyle with Rebekah.
In February, Governor Bentley established the Alabama Council for Excellent Government, a 501(c)(4) non-profit corporation. Bentley's former legal advisor Cooper Shattuck formed the Council at Bentley's request. The stated purpose of the organization is to "support Governor Bentley in his efforts to solve real problems and to make Alabama greater, stronger and more excellent for all the hardworking men and women who call this great state our home". In reality, the Council is a slush fund that was set up to (a) fund Bentley's love affair with Rebekah while concealing payments to her from the view of publicoversight and accountability, and (b) stash money for life with Rebekah after the governor's divorce from Mrs. Bentley.
Bentley funded the Council with excess campaign funds left over from his 2014 gubernatorial campaign. The Council has also received a $25,000 contribution this year from AEA and $20,000 from the Alabama Hospital Association.
Adding insult to injury, Bentley took advantage of a legal maneuver at the end of the 2014 campaign that essentially cheated the marital estate out of $500,000 in jointly owned cash and instead channeled it in Rebekah's direction. In a classic money-laundering move, Bentley made a surprising personal loan of $500,000 to his campaign on October 24, 2014. The Bentley campaign then began funneling thismoney to the Council after its formation. From the Council, the money was channeled to Rebekah as"compensation" for whatever services she was rendering to the Governor.
Executive Perks for Rebekah Mason
Bentley also made sure that Rebekah Mason had unfettered access to state trooper transportation, the Governor's mansion (at all times of the night), the state airplane, the Winton Blount mansion in Montgomery (which was donated to the state), and to any other state resource she needed to make herself fully available to the governor for his personal pleasure. After all, Rebekah, in Bentley's mind, was the real "First Lady" of Alabama.
Just this year, Bentley pulled a state employee off of the state plane at the last minute in order to accommodateRebekah as an unscheduled passenger on this out-of-state flight. When the scheduler for this flight questioned thisexecutive action, Bentley chastised the scheduler publicly and unmercifully, shouting that he was the "Governor" and that he could do whatever he wanted to do. Rebekah was said to have been very pleased with this display of Bentley's manhood.
A Policy of Concealment and Silence
Meanwhile, Chief Legal Advisor David Byrne, Chief of Staff Seth Hammett, and other Bentley staffers have been working diligently to conceal evidence of Bentley's secret love affair with Rebekah. They have asked state troopers who were assigned to the governor's security detail to sign confidentiality agreements. They have secured a private attorney to handle Bentley's divorce case. They have also secured Joe Espy, a Montgomery attorney and fellow University of Alabama trustee, to handle the governor's potential criminal exposure for using state resources to carry on his illicit love affair.
To date, Bentley and Rebekah have remained silent about their affair. However, the electronic footprint of the affair is permanent and cannot be erased. These lovers have painted a portrait of their love in their own words through their text messages, for all time. More to come…
Written by Donald V. Watkins
Joe Biden 2016: Jill's dilemma - POLITICO
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/biden-jill-joe-2016-elections-213428
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Colin Cowherd explains why he left ESPN for Fox | For The Win
http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/09/colin-cowherd-explains-why-he-left-espn?source=newsletter
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Tuesday, September 08, 2015
Kim Davis to be released from jail - USATODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/09/08/kim-davis-released-jail/71882274/
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This Love is Real - by Donald V. Watkins/Facebook re Gov Bentley and Rebekah Mason - Sep 7, 2015
http://themeck.blogspot.com/2015/09/this-love-is-real-by-donald-v.html?m=1
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The Governor Must Speak: Opinion - Bill Britt - Political Reporter
http://www.alreporter.com/archives/2015/146-state/8203-the-governor-must-speak-opinion-1.html
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Monday, September 07, 2015
This Love is Real - by Donald V. Watkins/Facebook re Gov Bentley and Rebekah Mason - Sep 7, 2015
This Love is Real - by Donald V. Watkins
The call came late this morning. Robert Bentley’s inner circle has privately conceded that the love affair reported in Part 1 of “Forbidden Love – Robert Bentley’s Secret Love Affair” is real and deep. There will be no demand for a retraction of the facts our Facebook news team reported surrounding the Governor’s illicit love affair with Rebekah Mason. Neither the Governor, nor Rebekah Mason, wants to undergo a sworn deposition regarding their hot and heavy romance.
On the eve of tomorrow’s second special session of the Alabama Legislature, the Governor’s attention is not on the $200 million in new revenues needed to cover the deficit in the general fund budget for the 2015-16 fiscal year. Bentley’s primary focus for the moment is on whether he should publicly admit or deny his love for Rebekah Mason.
When caught, the Governor privately admitted his love for Mason to First Lady Dianne Bentley. Mrs. Bentley was devastated by his admission.
The only question for Bentley now is whether he will come clean with the public. Yesterday, the Birmingham News called on Bentley to do so.
Meanwhile, Bentley’s chief legal advisor David Byrne and other minions are running around trying to find and use every possible technique to cover-up the evidence of the Governor’s marital infidelity. This juvenile effort to conceal the affair is too little, too late.
The Governor has already decided that he will not allow his evangelical Christian base of supporters to influence his love for Rebekah Mason. By his public silence in the face of a growing infidelity scandal, the Governor has implicitly told these supporters to “Go to Hell”.
Bentley is prepared to sacrifice everything in the name of love - his marriage, his relationship with his sons, his religious tenets, and his long-time close friendships with people like Paul Bryant, Jr., and others who thought they were close to Bentley.
No matter who questions Bentley, 72, about his love for his 43-year old married paramour, he will not deny it, privately or publicly. This May-December love affair is real.
Cord-cutting of pay TV may continue to intensify - USATODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/09/06/cord-cutting-pay-tv-may-continue-intensify/71812640/
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"Forbidden Love" - Part 1 - by Donald V Watkins via Facebook (re Gov. Bentley)
http://www.themeck.blogspot.com/2015/09/facebook-forbidden-love-part-1-by.html?m=1
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Sunday, September 06, 2015
Covering Up The Bentley-Mason Affair - by Donald V. Watkins/Facebook - Sep 6, 2015
Covering Up The Bentley-Mason Affair - by Donald V. Watkins/Facebook
A married politician like Governor Robert Bentley has four options after he has been caught cheating on his wife. None of them is good.
First, he can admit the truth and accept the consequences of his infidelity. This is what former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford did after his illicit love affair was exposed.
Second, he can remain silent by asserting that the affair is a "private family matter". This was one of former disgraced federal judge Mark Fuller's approaches when he was caught having an affair with his courtroom bailiff and when he was caught again with his law clerk. Like Fuller, this is one of Bentley's approaches for dealing with his love affair with Rebekah Mason.
Third, he can stonewall the public by securing a court order sealing the divorce records. Again, this was what Mark Fuller did, and is the other approach that is being taken by Bentley.
Fourth, he can lie about the cheating by denying it. This is what former president Bill Clinton did with Monica Lewinsky. When the evidence of his affair left Clinton with no way out, he admitted the affair and apologized.
Bentley has gone one step further than these high-profile cheaters. In addition to invoking the "private family matter" and "sealed divorce records" approaches to avoid coming clean about his affair, Bentley and his staff have used his executive authority in an unsuccessful effort to cover-up evidence of the affair. These efforts will be exposed in "Forbidden Love - Robert Bentley's Secret Love Affair" - Part 3, which will be published on September 18, 2015.
As an investigative journalist and lawyer, I have exposed many cover-ups during my career. Some are more memorable than others. Two of the worst cover-ups I have exposed prior to the Bentley scandal and its related cover-up are discussed below.
In December 1975, I represented the Estate of Bernard Whitehurst in a wrongful death case against the Montgomery police department. Whitehurst was an unarmed black man who was fatally shot by Montgomery police officer Donnie Foster. The police initially claimed that Whitehurst was a fleeing felon who shot at Foster during a running gun battle. My investigation revealed that Whitehurst was shot in the back, and that the gun found beside his body was "planted" by police after his death. The case evolved into a nationally recognized scandal that resulted in the resignations of the Montgomery's mayor and police commissioner, the indictment of three police officers, and the firing or resignation of eight others. The April 3, 1977 edition of the Washington Post devoted a full two-page feature story to the Whitehurst case and its aftermath.
In 1983, an out-of-state black family was mourning the death of their mother/grandmother on Todd Road in Montgomery when two white police officers mistook the Michigan and Ohio mourners' license plates as a gathering of out-of-state drug dealers. Unbelievably, these officers raided the funeral gathering and violence erupted in and around the home. The officers, who were believed to be home invaders, were shot during the ensuing melee. The mourners were subsequently arrested and beaten while in police custody. My investigation into this matter resulted in felony criminal charges against eleven of the mourners being reduced to misdemeanors in four cases and dropped altogether in eight others.
A cover-up is usually more despicable than the original act of wrongdoing. In Bentley's case, his lust and love for Rebekah Mason were acts of passion. Bentley's ensuing cover-up, however, may well be intentional criminal acts of altering governmental records that reveal the truth about the affair. These acts may have placed Bentley in a far worse legal predicament than he would been in had he simply told the truth. Right now, it seems like Bentley is not capable of telling the truth.
Can Apple break new iPhone sales records again?
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/09/06/can-apple-break-new-iphone-sales-records-again/71789918/
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College Football Scores
https://www.google.com/search?site=&source=hp&ei=Zp_sVa7POYmnNo_AjsgO&q=college+football&oq=college+&gs_l=mobile-gws-hp.1.0.0i131j0i3j0l2j0i131.3447.5668.0.6974.9.9.0.7.7.0.167.967.4j5.9.0....0...1c.1.64.mobile-gws-hp..0.9.308.3.HgforyO52I0
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Our view: It's time for an explanation, Gov. Bentley | AL.com
http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/09/our_view_its_time_for_an_expla.html
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There's only one reason to seal Gov. Robert Bentley's divorce | AL.com
http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/09/theres_only_one_reason_to_seal.html
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8 from Alabama, 8 from Auburn let go on NFL's cut day | AL.com
http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2015/09/8_from_alabama_8_from_auburn_l.html#incart_river_mobileshort
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Poll: Sanders takes lead over Clinton in N.H. | OnPolitics
http://onpolitics.usatoday.com/2015/09/06/poll-sanders-takes-lead-over-clinton-in-n-h/
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Saturday, September 05, 2015
College football's Week 1 winners and losers - USATODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2015/09/05/college-football-winners-losers-week-1-pac-12/71770088/
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No. 3 Alabama stifles No. 18 Wisconsin, 35-17 - USATODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2015/09/05/wisconsin-alabama-college-football/71796294/
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