Author: Matthew G. Saroff

State Department Contractor Who Created Corrupt and Unsafe Baghdad Embassy Still Running Construction (and Krugman Owns Cheney)

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Note that this guy is not career State Department.

State Dept. retains manager of troubled embassy project

Warren P. Strobel | McClatchy Newspapers

last updated: December 06, 2007 08:22:34 PM

WASHINGTON — A State Department project manager banished from Iraq by the U.S. ambassador and under scrutiny by the Justice Department continues to oversee the construction of the much-delayed new American embassy in Baghdad from nearby Kuwait, State Department officials disclosed Thursday.

James L. Golden, a contract employee, is still managing the $740 million project, said Undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy, the department’s top management official.

“Mr. Golden is still . . . our project manager, and still is working with the contractor, at their base in Kuwait,” Kennedy said.

One State Department official with detailed knowledge of the unopened embassy expressed outrage that his superiors haven’t replaced Golden.

…

(Emphasis mine)

So, this guy is so bad at what he does, that he got thrown out of the Green Zone, but he’s still managing construction.

When one considers the shoddy and unsafe construction, and allegations of corruption and slavery, one wonders why this guy is still getting paid.

So, which company does he work for, and what sort of political connection with Bush and His Evil Minions™ is keeping him on the job?

I should note that the inestimable Paul Krugman puts in his two cents on this too:

Back when Hillary Clinton described Dick Cheney as Darth Vader, a number of people pointed out that this was an unfair comparison. For example, Darth Vader once served in the military.

Here’s another reason the comparison is invalid: the contractors Darth Vader hired to build the Death Star actually got the job done.

Hate Crime Expansion Defeated in Senate

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Basically, it was attached to an emergency spending bill funding Iraq, could not get the votes in the house, because about 30 Dems would not vote for a war funding bill under any circumstances.

This means that the bill is dead for this year, though I think that it will come up again next year.

I can’t help but think that this is a shot across the bow of Pelosi, who has been rather timid compared to Reid on challenging Bush on Iraq.

Expanding the law to cover hate crimes against gays has to be a huge issue in her district, and it being pulled is going to result in her office catching hell from her constituents.

Honestly, I think the that Bush will veto anything that this is attached to anyway, so we need to wait for a Dem president, so the anti-war congressmen have made the right decision.

CIA Destroyed Torture Tapes

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According to reports, “They were destroyed in part because officers were concerned that tapes documenting controversial interrogation methods could expose agency officials to greater risk of legal jeopardy, several officials said.”

So in addition to crimes against humanity, we have conspiracy to obstruct justice. Considering that this information was extant when the 911 commission and the Judge in the Moussaoui trial specifically asked for this sort of information.

What’s the Deal With the So-Called Mortgage Bailout

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To paraphrase Atrios:

To qualify:

  • have an income and live in their homes
  • are currently making their payments on time
  • would default if their interest went up
  • ARM mortgage has to have been taken between 1/05 and 7/7
  • Has a rate reset between 1/8-1/10

The following rules you out:

  • have missed payment
  • can afford mortgage rate increase
  • don’t have an income
  • own homes which are worth less than their mortgage

So, if you are poor, you are more likely to have missed a payment, and more likely not to have put anything down, and so be under water. As Duncan Black puts it:

I became increasingly skeptical that such a broad-based bailout would be workable for various reasons, but as is usually the case with anything the Bush administration gets involved in, they aren’t even really trying.

As Kevin Drum puts it:

The lower your income, the more likely you are to have missed a payment already, and the lower your income the more likely you are to have been sold a no-down loan that’s already left you underwater due to falling housing prices. Net result: no help for low-income folks.

Like Atrios, I’ve become increasingly unsure that any kind of broad-based bailout plan can work — or work well, in any case — but if you’re going to do it everyone ought to have a shot at getting help. Bush’s plan, conversely, pretty transparently doesn’t care about anyone with a modest income. Not part of his base, I guess.

My assesment is less charitable. He does not want to do anything but score political points.

National Banks Try to Bolster the Dollar

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Lower interest rates overseas make the dollar a more attractive investment, so, in an attempt to bolster the dollar, you have the Bank of England cutting rates to 5.5%, the ECB, which intended to raise rates, leaving the Euro interest rate unchanged, and the Bank of Canada cutting interest rates, which is why the Canadian dollar is below parity for the first time in about a month.

It won’t last. The Fed will cut rates at the next meeting, and might do it by 50 basis points (½%).

Clinton Aids Hired to Break Writers’ Strike

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Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers has hired Mark Fabiani and Chris Lehane to hit back on PR against the writers. Yep….While working for Clinton for the Democratic Party nomination, a party that is supposed to be pro labor, they are working to crush labor in Hollywood.

Seriously, Hillary Clinton makes my head hurt. Her campaign has amazing message discipline, they keep the press in line (they got Bob Novak to back down), and she actually votes when something controversial hits the floor, unlike the distinguished gentleman from Illinois.

And then she goes and surrounds herself to people who whore themselves out to strike breakers, and management in labor disputes.

Top Televangelists Refusing to Respond to Senate Inquiries

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About a month ago, I mentioned that Senator Grassley (R-IA) was requisting spending data from major televangelists, in order to look for evidence of things like self dealing, living high on the hog, etc.

As I said then, requiring churches to file form 990, like other tax exempts, would make all of this data publicly available, and the cost is minimal.

It appears now that most of the televangelists are ignoring the Senate’s Finance Committee’s request. Only the Joyce Meyer Ministries has turned over data to this point.

I have to figure that some of them are overcompensating their preachers.

I would remind you that the Trinity Foundation has been doing good work for years documenting fraud, waste, and lavish spending.

Pat Leahy Moves on Rove Contempt Citation

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I hope this happens.

Leahy Moves on Rove Contempt Citation
By Paul Kiel – December 5, 2007, 3:06PM

Karl Rove is gone, but not forgotten.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy has scheduled a vote tomorrow on whether to issue contempt citations to Rove and White House chief of staff Josh Bolten for ignoring Congressional subpoenas from the U.S. attorneys investigation. Of course, Republicans might defer the vote for another week. But at the latest, the citations would be sent to the Senate floor next Thursday.

The interesting thing is that congress does actually have its own jail in the basement, and the President cannot pardon contempt of congress, because it is an offense against the congress, not the Republic.

Obama and Abortion: Profile in Cowardice

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It turns out that when Barack Obama had the opportunity to take a stand on abortion rights, in the state senate, when called to make a vote on the proposed ban on the DNX procedure, he voted “present”. (see here,
here, and here)

During Senator Obama’s 2004 senate campaign, the Illinois NOW PAC did not recommend the endorsement of Obama for U.S. Senate because he refused to stand up for a woman’s right to choose and repeatedly voted `present’ on important legislation.

As a State Senator, Barack Obama voted `present’ on seven abortion bills, including a ban on ‘partial birth abortion,’ two parental notification laws and three ‘born alive’ bills. In each case, the right vote was clear, but Senator Obama chose political cover over standing and fighting for his convictions.

“When we needed someone to take a stand, Senator Obama took a pass,” said Grabenhofer. “He wasn’t there for us then and we don’t expect him to be now.”

At the time, Obama represented what was arguably the most liberal senate district in Illinois, so there was no need for him to duck and cover, but duck and cover, he did.

Of course, he did it on the Petraeus/Moveon vote too, he showed up for Barbara Boxer’s amendment, but was not in the hall later that afternoon for the Moveon condemnation.

He’s very well spoken. He’s telegenic.

But it appears that when the going gets tough, and let’s be clear in his Hyde Park senate district, being unapologetically pro choice is actually pretty damn safe, he is AWOL.

His dog whistle gay bashing behavior with his gospel tour appears to be a part of a pattern.

No guts, and the moreI hear him going on using Republican talking points like “hostility to religion” and :social security crisis”, the more he sounds like Joe Lieberman with a better tan.

As to the Presidential race…He’s still ahead of Mike Gravel in my mind, but if push comes to shove, I vote Hillary instead of him*.

*Yuck…I think that I just threw up in my mouth.

MBIA, Largest Bond Insurer, Risking Moody’s Downgrade

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Moody’s has said that MBIA is, “‘somewhat likely’ to face a shortage of capital that threatens its AAA credit rating.”

If their credit rating slips, then the bonds that they insure will have to be re-rated….House of cards.

The loss of MBIA’s top ranking would cast doubt over the ratings of $652 billion of state, municipal and structured finance bonds that the company guarantees. MBIA is among at least eight bond insurers seeking to ward off potential credit-rating downgrades by Moody’s, Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor’s. The insurers guarantee $2.4 trillion of debt and downgrades could cause losses of $200 billion, according to Bloomberg data.

Banks That Purchase Loans May Be Liable for Original Lender Misdeeds

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When I originally came across this story, it was just a glitch in foreclosures. Cleveland federal judge Christopher Boyko tossed 14 foreclosures without prejudice, because the plaintiffs could not show that they owned the loans.

Basically, the title on the loans was never changed, they just put it in the transfer contract.

I figured, this isn’t a big deal…It just means that before foreclosing, the banks have to do some paperwork, so amidst a sea of financial ice-bergs, this is a spring rain.

Well, once again, I am wrong.

It appears that the methods used to pool loans into CDOs and similar instruments may also mean that the organizations holding the CDOs are legally liable for any unethical or illegal tactics used whenever the loans were first made.

The problem stems from a shortcut that many players in the fast-moving securitization business have used in recent years. Normally, when a loan is sold, a simple document is prepared showing that the debt and any collateral attached to it has been transferred to the purchaser. That piece of paper is called an assignment. But in buying up thousands of mortgages at a time, Wall Street commonly skips this step, which requires separate paperwork for each loan. Instead, the industry customarily relies on a lengthy contract, known as a pooling-and-servicing agreement (PSA) to spell out arrangements for all of the loans in a pool. But, as some recent court rulings indicate, a PSA may not be good enough when it comes time to foreclose.

…

There also could be a more troubling consequence for investors, says Kathleen C. Engel, a professor at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. Players in the secondary market for mortgages rely on an obscure but critical legal theory–known as the “holder in due course” doctrine–to insulate themselves from problems with the underlying loans.

Under the doctrine, a homeowner who believes that a lender deceived him about the terms of a loan can’t press such claims against the purchaser of a mortgage, such as a mortgage-backed securities trust. The holder-in-due-course doctrine protects pension funds and the like from having to worry about any misbehavior by home lenders–and thereby greases the wheels for the whole mortgage-securities market. But it’s a different story if, as appears to be common practice, the trust waits to complete paperwork transferring a loan until after it goes into default. In that case, the holder-in-due-course protection evaporates, and anybody who tries to foreclose could face defenses from the borrower that he or she was lied to when seeking a loan.

Ouch!

Huckabee Pressured Parole Board to Pardon Rapist Who Later Murdered

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This could be compared to Willie Horton, but it’s not.

With Willie Horton, Dukkakis supported a furlough program to rehabilitate people. He had no other connection with the guy. With Wayne Dumond, Mike Huckabee specifically lobbied for his release, because the victim was a relative of Bill Clinton, and the daughter of a Clinton contributor.

According to Murray Waas, who has also been all over the Plame affair, Huckabee went so far as to imply that he would grant clemency if Drumond was not paroled.

Noose Tightens Around Curt Weldon: Aide Copps Plead

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It should be noted that Caso was Weldon’s chief of staff, so the ties here are pretty solid.

Former congressman Curt Weldon’s chief of staff has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy charges for allegedly helping a consulting firm championed by Weldon obtain federal funds and for concealing money the firm paid his wife, according to court papers filed yesterday.

Russell James Caso Jr. and a top official at the unnamed nonprofit consulting firm met repeatedly with Weldon to seek the Pennsylvania Republican’s help in obtaining federal funds for the organization’s defense projects, according to the court papers.

The ways things work, they got the plea, and now he has to roll on someone else. FWIW, Weldon is identified as “Representative A” in the document.

Old Family Friend Gets Prestigious Award

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My father met Michihiko Kunihiro in College. The Japanese foreign service had a policy of sending young diplomatic staff to foreign colleges for a year to learn the language, and to get exposure of the generation that they would be dealing with.

Kunihiro-san recieved the The Cordon of The Order of The Sacred Treasure, which was personally given to him by emperor.

At one point, he was the Chinese Ambassador.