Category: Corruption

Why Barack Obama Needs to Fire a General or Two

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So, the status of forces agreement is signed, and General Ray Ordierno immediately starts making public statements about how it a binding timeline in the agreement does not really mean a binding timeline.

Now we have unnamed sources deep in the Pentagon saying that the pullout of troops from Iraqi cities will be a pullout in name only:

Even though the agreement with the Iraqi government calls for all American combat troops to be out of the cities by the end of June, military planners are now quietly acknowledging that many will stay behind as renamed “trainers” and “advisers” in what are effectively combat roles. In other words, they will still be engaged in combat, just called something else.

Let’s be clear, this is a case of the Pentagon leaking from near the top: the leaks have been approved by Gates, Petraeus, or Ordierno.

On January 21, they need to be told that they will stop all comments, and that the entire chain of command needs to know that the status of forces agreement is now the position of the government of the United States of America, and that anyone who suggests otherwise is engaging in insubordination, and will be subject to severe disciplinary actions.

And then, the next relatively senior officer (Lt. Col. and above) who shoots off his yap gets fired.

Because this really is insubordination, and while it may serve the desires of Bush and His Evil Minions™ to subvert the timetables in the SOF, it does not suit the desires or needs of the nation.

If anything else is done, Barack Obama will be rolled for the rest of his time as President by the Pentagon.

OK, This is a Story of a Celebrity Connected Drug Bush

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Which generally means that I don’t write about it.

As I have said about She Who Must Not Be Named, and They Who Must Not Be Named:

Absent some sort of political activity, such as endorsements, running for office (PLEASE GOD NO!!), or their attempting to assassinate someone, she will not be mentioned here.

So why am I writing about the arrest of Sherry L. Johnston on drug charges that appear to be associated with possession or distribution of Oxycontin.

Why am I writing about a small time drug bust in the small town of Wasilla, Alaska….Hold it….Wasilla, where Sarah Palin comes from, and Johnston, like the guy, Levi, who knocked up her teenage daughter?

Yes, Sherry L. Johnston is Levi’s mom….And Levi Johnston and and Bristol Palin are still engaged to be married, and her baby is due today, though a quick scan of the ADN web site shows that the birth has not yet been anounced.

So, why am I mentioning it?

Let’s see:

  • Palin thought that it was significant that Obama worked on a community board with William Ayers, and now her future in-law is charged with being a drug dealer.
    • So by Sarah Palin’s own standards, she’s involved.
  • Palin was just the vice-presidential nominee, and shows every indication of wanting to run for president in 2012.
  • Wasilla was a sleepy town in the middle of nowhere when Palin became mayor, and by the time she left, it was known as the “Meth Capital of Alaska,” probably because she fired the competent police chief and replaced him with her own goon.

So, yes, this is noteworthy, particularly if your name is Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien, David Letterman, or Jon Stewart.

The Nobel Prize Winner Sees the Big Picture

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Paul Krugman notes that it’s really very difficult to find meaningful differences between Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme and business as usual in the financial markets:

The financial services industry has claimed an ever-growing share of the nation’s income over the past generation, making the people who run the industry incredibly rich. Yet, at this point, it looks as if much of the industry has been destroying value, not creating it. And it’s not just a matter of money: the vast riches achieved by those who managed other people’s money have had a corrupting effect on our society as a whole.

He is right when he says that, we are “looking at now are the consequences of a world gone Madoff.”

Inouye Next on Cunningham Scandal Hit Parade?

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Interestingly enough, what should be one of the safest seats in the Senate may be at risk because of the perception of scandal.

In a situation that has macabre reflections on Ted Stevens, it appears that defense contractor Mitchell Wade has been cooperating extensively with authorities, and he has reportedly named 5 members of Congress, including Daniel Inouye, though it is unclear whether we are talking proximity, ethics issues, or actual violations of the law.

As Hawaii now has a rather popular governor, should this progress much further, the reelection of the senior Senator from Hawaii may not be a sure thing.

Why the Hit Jobs on Darcy Burner

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One of the questions in the last election cycle was, “Why was the Seattle Times so aggressively hostile to Darcy Burner?” In her close loss to Dave Reichert.

They went so far as to misstate her degree in order to claim that she had lied about her education.

Well, now we know why they hated her, and sent their reporters out with orders to lie.

It appears that Ms. Burner ran the Committee for a Two Newspaper town, which prevented the Seattle Times from using its joint operating agreement with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer to shut the publication down, and eventually forced the Times to make $24 millions in payments to keep the JOA going.

Losing the possibility of a monopoly in Seattle advertizing was probably even more expensive to the Times than was the payment, and so when she won the Democratic Primary for congress, it was payback time.

I know, it’s an almost 2 month old analysis that I’m linking to, but I just noticed it…My bad.

The Short Form

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No, I am not referring to the 1040A income tax short form, or the even shorter 1040EZ form. I am referring to the form required to apply for the Treasury Department’s TARP program, which is only two pages long.

So, now we know why we don’t want to release any more money to Hank Paulson or Neel “Cash & Carry” Neel Kashkari: They are not even applying the due diligence to these loans that Alt-A lenders applied to liar loans.

Minnesota Corruption Update

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The Star Tribune notes that Norm and Laurie Coleman, her boss, Jim Hays, and Coleman Supporter Nasser Kazemini have all high-powered retained lawyers on a matter currently being investigated by the FBI, in which allegations have been made that Kazemini funneled money to Norm Coleman via Laurie Coleman, using Jim Hays insurance company as a conduit.

The interesting paragraph in the article, and I did not catch it, the good folks at TPMMuckraker did is this:

Norm Coleman has hired Doug Kelley, Laurie Coleman is represented by Earl Gray, Hays is aligned with Doug Peterson and Kazeminy has secured the services of Joe Friedberg.

Norm and Laurie have separate lawyers. While this does not mean that they will roll on each other…yet…but it does mean that this is serious, and that they are taking this very seriously.

Heh.

Jesse Jackson, Jr. May Have Already Been Talking to Fitsgerald

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If this is true, I think I know why he sounded so pissed at that press conference.

He still won’t be Senator, but if he dropped a dime on Blagojevich months ago, he’s pretty much in the clear on this:

ABC7 has learned that since late last summer, the congressman has worked with federal prosecutors, informing on an alleged Blagojevich administration scheme two and half years earlier.

……

And sources tell ABC7 that Jackson has been in regular contact with the feds and has told the government that in 2003 Blagojevich denied the congressman’s wife Sandi an appointment as Illinois lottery director because Jackson would not donate $25,000 to the governor’s campaign fund.

I’m not sure who the sources are, because generally Fitzgerald runs a pretty tight ship, but if this story is accurate the distinguished gentleman from Illinois has been very ill served by all of this.

A Correction: Henry Blodget Did Not Get a A Haircut

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When I wrote that he invested with Madoff, I was referring to this article, which mentions both Blodget and Ezra Merkin in the same ‘graph, and got confused:

“I am shocked, as I know you are, by this fraud,” Merkin wrote. “As one of the largest investors in our fund, I have also suffered major losses from this catastrophe.” Analyst Henry Blodget wrote on his blog Friday that some savvy investors figured Madoff was up to something because his returns were so high.

I saw the name “Blodget”, and the phrase “major losses”, and tied the two together, when I should have read carefully, and realized that it applied to Mr. “Pubic Hair Wig” (look up Merkin).
Also, as much as it pains me to say, Blodget is correct in his analysis, that people were investing with him because they thought that he was cheating:

So why did these smart and skeptical investors keep investing? They, like many Madoff investors, assumed Madoff was somehow illegally trading on information from his market-making business for their benefit. They didn’t consider the possibility that he was clean on that score but running a good old-fashioned Ponzi scheme.

When one considers his numbers, this is true. While his victims are victims, they are also crooks, guilty of felony conspiracy, because they entered into this deal knowing that it was crooked.

Unfortunately, I don’t think that there is enough there to get a conviction from a jury, and even if you did, my guess would be that the judge would then dismiss any conviction, but a few show trials would be a good thing.

Not Enough Bullets: Disgraced Investment Bank CEO Edition

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In this case, former Merrill Lynch CEO Stan O’Neal, who just transferred complete ownership of his $20 million Park Avenue Co-Op to his wife, because he has been targeted in class action suits of disgruntled investors who claim that he misled them about Merrill’s exposure to toxic debt securities, and he wants to shield it from lawsuits.

If this is the case, this is a criminal conspiracy, and both he and his wife should be frog marched out of their swanky Park Avenue digs in handcuffs.

If they are getting a divorce, then there is no conspiracy, and they are just divvying up their life, and I hope he’s left with nothing but a pair of shoes.

It Seems that I am Not Alone

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Remember when I wrote that the arrests of Madoff and Dryer made me feel good, because at least they were going to jail for what they did?

Well, Frank Rich, who probably isn’t following Madoff and Dryer, just espressed what are largely the same feelings

But the entertainment is escapist only up to a point. What went down in the Land of Lincoln is just the reductio ad absurdum of an American era where both entitlement and corruption have been the calling cards of power. Blagojevich’s alleged crimes pale next to the larger scandals of Washington and Wall Street. Yet those who promoted and condoned the twin national catastrophes of reckless war in Iraq and reckless gambling in our markets have largely escaped the accountability that now seems to await the Chicago punk nabbed by the United States attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald.

We all want the Wall Street bankers, and Bush and His Evil Minions™, to go to jail.

In a best case scenario, they would end up like Richard Whitney, who spend his next 33 years working with his hands as a farmer, and not Michael Milken, who came out of stir still so wealthy that his children, and probably his grandchildren will never have to work an honest day in their lives.

Because It’s all a Scam, and They are All Well Dressed Crooks

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So, the Federal Reserve has refused to release any details about the participants in its various bailout plans:

The Federal Reserve refused a request by Bloomberg News to disclose the recipients of more than $2 trillion of emergency loans from U.S. taxpayers and the assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.

Bloomberg filed suit Nov. 7 under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act requesting details about the terms of 11 Fed lending programs, most created during the deepest financial crisis since the Great Depression.

The Fed responded Dec. 8, saying it’s allowed to withhold internal memos as well as information about trade secrets and commercial information. The institution confirmed that a records search found 231 pages of documents pertaining to some of the requests.

When you look at the recent financial scandals Madoff and Dryer, one question that keeps coming up is, “How could two guys, acting largely on their own, concoct such large criminal enterprises?”

Based on the Federal Reserve’s reticence in releasing even the most basic details of their 11 sh^%pile for cash programs, I would feel compelled to state that it is a distinct possibility that such corruption is not the exception, but the rule, and that they are terrified that an independent investigation will turn over enough rocks to completely destroy Wall Street, because they will run out of gullible idiots to sell their stuff to.

In any case, the court proceedings should be interesting.

GOP: ‘Action Alert – Auto Bailout’ – The News Hole – msnbc.com

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I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on here!

Well, it looks like the good folks at MSNBC’s Countdown, have come across a memo to Republican senators detailing strategies on the auto maker bailout.

We are all stunned and saddened that it seems to show that that the the use of the filibuster in the Senate was a crass political anti-union ploy.

Needless to say, I am disappointed. I could never imagine the Republicans using the Senate and the filibuster as nothing more than a vehicle* for crass political posturing:

From:
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 9:12 AM
To:
Subject: Action Alert — Auto Bailout

Today at noon, Senators Ensign, Shelby, Coburn and DeMint will hold a press conference in the Senate Radio/TV Gallery. They would appreciate our support through messaging and attending the press conference, if possible. The message they want us to deliver is:

1. This is the democrats first opportunity to payoff organized labor after the election. This is a precursor to card check and other items. Republicans should stand firm and take their first shot against organized labor, instead of taking their first blow from it.

2. This rush to judgment is the same thing that happened with the TARP. Members did not have an opportunity to read or digest the legislation and therefore could not understand the consequences of it. We should not rush to pass this because Detroit says the sky is falling.

The sooner you can have press releases and documents like this in the hands of members and the press, the better. Please contact me if you need additional information. Again, the hardest thing for the democrats to do is get 60 votes. If we can hold the Republicans, we can beat this.

(emphasis mine)

So all this Sturm and Drang is just a way to take cheap shots at labor….Hoocoodanode?

*Pun not intended