A federal jury on Thursday awarded $15 million to three Los Angeles police officers who alleged they were falsely arrested and maliciously prosecuted during the Rampart corruption scandal that roiled the LAPD for years beginning in 1999.

The jury award represents a bitter pill for the city, which already has doled out about $70 million in Rampart-related settlements to gang members, drug dealers and other victims of police abuse — and now faces the prospect of paying another significant judgment to officers who were accused of committing some of that same misconduct.

The Orange County jury deliberated for 2 1/2 hours before voting unanimously in favor of Sgt. Edward Ortiz, Officer Paul Harper and former Sgt. Brian Liddy. The award was split evenly among them.

“It was real, real obvious that they were made the fall guys,” said juror Rose McKay. “We listened to the evidence for three weeks and never heard any hard evidence against them.”

Dale Goldfarb, a private attorney hired to defend the city, said he disagreed with the verdict and planned to challenge it in post-trial motions. “We think the verdict was completely wrong and was not supported by any evidence at the trial,” he said.

A spokesman for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the city probably would appeal if those motions failed. “It’s obviously a significant amount of taxpayer money,” spokesman Joe Ramallo said. “It’s serious.”

The verdict could hardly come at a worse time for the mayor. Villaraigosa, who has pledged to expand the Police Department and tackle other city needs even as the government faces a persistent structural deficit, is working to prepare the first city budget of his tenure since being elected last year.

The $15 million, Ramallo noted, would be enough to fund 150 more police officers.

Ortiz, Liddy and Harper were arrested in April 2000 on corruption-related charges stemming from the then-unfolding Rampart scandal, in which corrupt former Officer Rafael Perez alleged that he and his colleagues routinely framed, beat and otherwise mistreated suspects.

This from the man who ran the Bush Cheney Blog during the campaign, so it is legit. Patrick Ruffini Gives us W’s iPod playlist here. and for you people who just want the screenshot it is here.

Methinks you may be surprised.

The caption:

Diana Ponce talks on a phone in the yard of her San Pablo home Wednesday, the fifth day of a hunger strike to protest the gathering of armed volunteers, the Minuteman Project, at the Arizona-Mexico border to keep illegal immigrants from entering the United States. Chronicle photo by John O’Hara

Photo credit: SF Chronicle

I could make up my own caption, but discretion is the better part of valor. I do wonder, though–does she see the irony?

Here is a recent piece on the “Flat Tax Revolution”. Enjoy.

Makes me almost wish I weren’t using Panther. Almost. Of course with Tiger coming out IN 15 DAYS, it is not even a close call.

China builds a military that’s clearly designed to counter our ability to do whatever we damn well please in Asia. Hard to believe, isn’t it? Doesn’t being the world’s Leviathan mean we get to have everyone unable to stand up to us no matter what we do or where we do it? No, it just means it’s impossible to wage war successfully unless the U.S. agrees to that proposition. That’s real power all right, it’s just not unlimited with regard to our own desires. Being Leviathan doesn’t mean you’re God, just that you can prevent anyone else from assuming that role on anything significant.

When someone gets to the point of accumulating power that calls into question your ability on some specific issue, then you have to start viewing both the rising power and the issue in question differently. We are not doing this yet. We see only the danger, not the possibility. We ask, Will China “behave” in the Gulf? Hopefully not like America does! One Big Banger in the region is enough, I would say.

China’s just waking up to a world in which the Core relies on the unstable regions of the Gap for its short-term economic security via energy. You can change that dependency if you want, but it will take some time. Other route is to work the issue with military, but that’s takes a military, now doesn’t it? We’ve got one, so we work it. China doesn’t, so it’s getting one. Sound odd to you? Sounds pretty “real” to me.

I suggest checking him out on a regular basis.

His wishes were to have a quiet grave-side memorial and nothing more. That is what they were doing in Fayetteville Arkansas last Wednesday at noon PST.

He was a good man. One of my favorites. My mother’s father. I am also his spitting image–at least when he was younger. Shortly after my father committed suicide, I changed my last name and took grandpa’s when I was 24–a decade ago. Given that he had all daughters, this meant I would be the one to carry on his name–something I had not even thought of. I just wanted to honor him and leave my father’s side of the family to distant memories. Shortly before I was married, grandpa gave me *his* grandfather’s pocket watch. An old railroad man’s watch that still works. Built like a tank.

He fathered 4 daughters. He leaves 3 behind. One died in a car accident years ago. My grandmother, Lucille, who is the same age-ish survives him as well. He was an elder in the Church of Christ [protestant] for 30 years. He was good natured, jovial, and basically believed that men should not cry and you did not marry outside your own race. He used to talk about his investment [investing groceries in his belly] while rubbing his pot belly. I took to teasing him about it and rubbing his pot belly when I saw him and asking him how his investments were doing.

They owned 5 acres in Fayetteville Arkansas. one of those acres was their “garden”. They grew corn, berries, vegetables, melons, etc. Grandma used to sell fresh ready-to-bake pies to anyone who drove by and saw their sign until the health department found it to be their business to put a stop to it for no reason other than the vague “public health/safety” declarations.

There was a great fondness between us–as infrequent as our communication was.

They flew out for my wedding in 2000. It is the last time I saw him.

Everything has a nature–it arises and passes away. This is the law of impermanence. This has me smile.

UPDATE: I was wrong. There is more to be said. That means he gets months of sunshine filled joy with all the bad food a guy could want and I get…well, I get to wait while the Niners figure out if they want to run the team like a business and cut costs, or they want to win.