DHS just chose Flora, MS, which was 14th out of 17th on an independent evaluation, as one of the 5 finalists for a DHS biodefense lab.
DHS Undersecretary Jay Cohen, a political appointee, made the final cut to 5.
Category: Corruption
Getting Georgia’s War On
First, read Getting Georgia’s War On in The Nation, if just for the revelation that that Georgian Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze made an “investment call” to bank managers and analysts.
The original offensive had been planned for some time.
Additionally, it appears that Russia was the first to call a Security Council meeting, but their proposal, which called for both sides to , “renounce the use of force”, was rejected by Georgia, the US, and the UK.
I think that the best historical analogy out there is care of Attaturk:
1836 to 1848
Georgia = Mexico
Russia = The United States
South Ossetia = Texas
It really is clear that the Ossetians hate the Georgians, and that the desire for independence is very real, though the ability is only because of Russian support.
Meanwhile, Russia is rolling east from South Ossetia, and west from Abkhazia, and they are demanding the disarming of troops along both borders.
Again, this is calling on the the Kosovo precedent, and I think is a sign that one of the goals of the Russians is the elimination of the Georgian army as a meaningful force.
Certainly their capture Georgia’s Senaki City and enterry into Zugdidi Town, roughly 40km in Georgia from the Abkhazian border seems to confirm this.
On the bright side, Dmitry Medvedev has stated that the military operation in South Ossetia is nearly over, which should indicate a reduction of optempo shortly.
You can read a summary of official Russian losses, and they seem very light, though the loss of the Tu-22, by which I assume they mean Tu-22M Backfire, not the earlier Blinder, has to to hurt.
Jed Lewison notes that top foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, is a paid lobbyist for a foreign government, the Republic of Georgia, he claims not to lobby for them any more, but his firm still gets fees from them, and that much of his lobbying were his highly successful efforts to turn McCain into an unthinking Georgia evangelist, though given McCain’s Russo-phobia, it probably took less than a golf game to do that.
Suskind Has Interview Tapes to Confirm Forgeries
It appears that some of the people that he interviewed on the record about forgeries concocted by Bush and His Evil Minions™ regarding Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda are getting a lot of pressure to recant, so Ron Suskind will release the raw transcripts of the interviews.
Can we Chimpeach now, please?
UBS Settles on Auction Rate Securities; BoA Hit with Subpoenas
UBS has settled with the states of Massachusetts and New York, and agreed to buy $19.4 billion in auction rate securities at face value, and pay $150 million in fines.
Meanwhile, Bank of America has received subpoenas from the SEC and other agencies on its ARS activities.
Financial “innovation”, the gift that keeps on giving.
Judge Announces Expedited Schedule for Senator Stevens
Jury selection is supposed to start Sept 23, and the trial could be finished by some time in late October.
Is this special treatment because Uncle Ted is a Senator?
Just wondering.
Citi Settles on Auction Rate Securities Fraud Probe
They have settled with NY State AG Andrew Cuoma by agreeing to buy back $7 billion in auction rate securities and paying a $100 million fine, and to, “Use its ‘best efforts’ to liquidate” an additional $12 billion in ARS by the end of 2009.
This is about the fact that Citi, and most of the other banks involved in the auction rate securities, sold these as being just as liquid as a money market account, and the market then froze up, locking up $300+ billion.
I would expect increased pressure for other bankers to settle too.
Employee Fired for Refusing to Donate to Romney
An executive at Huron Consulting Group has filed a complaint that he was fired, in part, for not donating to the Mitt Romney campaign (he is also alleging age discrimination):
The company denies that charge. But officials confirm the authenticity of emails showing that the CEO of the Chicago-based corporate consulting firm, Gary E. Holdren, repeatedly linked his requests for donations to Huron’s business prospects. The emails were provided to The Wall Street Journal by Mr. Pimentel.[the complainant]
In another email, dated Sept. 21, 2007, Mr. Holdren wrote, “I wanted to thank all of you who contributed to Mitt Romney. You can’t realize how much leverage this gives Huron going forward to ask various people for business.”
Other emails from Mr. Holdren refer to conversations with Mr. Romney, deals Huron supposedly won from Romney supporters at other firms and promises to reward Huron executives with “business for your contributions.”
It’s why, when Republicans talk about running government like a business, you should run the other way. It’s all graft and back scratching.
Unintentionally Funny Line of the Day
Detroit Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick was sent to the county jail for violating his bond by going to Windsor, Ontario without the court’s permission.
Hizonner Kilpatrick is on trial for perjury and other charges as a result of a sex scandal with his assistant.
Kilpatrick’s office said that his chief of staff, would serve as acting mayor, so that:
Residents can be assured government will continue to operate as usual.
In Detroit…..Somehow….Not so reassuring.
And Monkeys Will Fly Out of My Ass
The consultancy firm Johnson & Assoc. is predicting that bonuses on Wall Street will be lower this year because the firms have lost so much money.
Given the history of American business, and Wall Street in particular, in the past few decades, I wouldn’t bet on it.
Only the little people pay for senior executive’s mistakes.
DoJ Subpoenas Bush Admin Vote Suppression Specialists
I would note that the DoJ having to subpoena former DoJ lawers, even political appointees, is almost unheard of, but it’s pretty clear that former Civil Rights Division* head Bradley Schlozman, and Hans “der Novotenfuhrer” von Spakovsky, former counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights are under some serious legal jeopardy, with credible allegations of perjury before Congress, and also appeared to be hip deep in the hiring scandal.
Dudes, bring your toothbrushes.
*Who says that irony is dead?
Justice Department Extends US Attorney Probe to White House
It appears that DOJ investigators are now investigating to see if senior White House officials were involved in the false and misleading information provided to Congress.
So, anyone want to take up a pool as to how many Bushies will be pardoned between election day and Jan 20?
I’ll put down an saw buck on, “All of them.”
Bin Laden’s Driver Convicted of Being…A Driver
He was convicted of “offering material support” by being a driver.
The Judge seems to be remarkably fair, which surprises me:
As the subsequent sentencing hearing began, the judge called Hamdan “a small player” and refused to let the government call an FBI agent to testify about retrieving bodies from the World Trade Center after the September 11 attacks.
The judge, Navy Capt. Keith Allred, said the testimony was irrelevant since Hamdan had been cleared of conspiring with al Qaeda to carry out any attacks.
While Hamdan was convicted on five counts of providing material support for terrorism, the judge said the charges duplicated each other and ordered that he be sentenced only for one count, which he summarized as “driving Mr. bin Laden around Afghanistan.”
Matt Bors put it best.
Link to cartoonist.
Michael Hirsh notes that this verdict is a loss for Bush. Among other things, it’s likely to be overturned on appeal, because the tribunals were only given authority to prosecute war crimes, and “material support” is not a war crime.
What’s more, the Judge pretty much said with his instructions, and his sentencing actions, that the Bush administration’s definition of terrorist is a 6 pounds of manure in a 5 pound bag.
McCain’s Fundraising Corruption
Hmmmm….It appears that one of McCain’s major campaign bundlers, Harry Sargeant III, is using straw donors to funnel money to the campaign from non-US citizens in the Middle East, which is a felony.
Actually it’s two, straw donors and foreign campaign donations.
Read the article. Many of the donors don’t make much money, and many of them are not even registered to vote.
And all the contributors in the story have Arab names, which when juxtaposed with Sargeant’s statement that, “I have a lot of Arab business partners. I do a lot of business in the Middle East. I’ve got a lot of friends,” does lead one to wonder what’s going on here.
Hamdan Trial at Guantanamo
The prosecution wanted the instructions to the jury changed, but withdrew the request when it was clear that this would result in a mistrial. Furthermore, the judge said that they had waited too long.
The judge instructed the jury that, in order to find him guilty on the charge of transporting the missiles, “they must find the missiles were intended for use against protected people — civilians not involved in hostilities, soldiers removed from combat by illness or capture, or religious or medical personnel.”
Since at the time of his capture, the only aircraft flying in Afghanistan were US and coalition aircraft, it seems to me that this is innocent.
The prosecution objected to this instruction, they wanted the judge to, “Tell jurors that any attempt by an ‘unlawful enemy combatant’ to kill a U.S. soldier in combat is a war crime,” which is a novel definition of a war crime, and, as the defense put it, “Then the United States committed a war crime by providing missiles to mujahideen forces who used them against the Soviet military in Afghanistan in the 1990s.” (date wrong in the article. It was the 1980s.)
These really are Kangaroo courts, and I think that the prosecutors may very well be committing a war crime, or a crime against humanity, by working under these rules.
Finally, the military managed to create this homage to Kafka:
Hamdan was allowed an hour-long phone call with his wife in Yemen on Monday evening, a Guantanamo official said. Defense attorneys said they tried to get permission for her to attend the trial but were refused on grounds that she is married to a terrorism suspect.
(emphasis mine)
We really need to prosecute the entire chain of war crimes from top to bottom when Bush and His Evil Minions™ are out of power, from the lowliest officer (the enlisted men have been prosecuted) to the very highest authority.
Latest Bizarre Ruling in Wecht Case Overturned
U.S. District Judge Arthur Schwab had ruled, after a mistrial was declared in the politically motivated prosecution of Cyril Wecht, that the names of the jurors names were to be kept secret from the press, though political hack US Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan sent FBI agents out to intimidate them.
Well, the appeals court just overturned that, saying, that their identification was a, “well-established part of American judicial tradition.”
Background here. Short story: there were allegations that Wecht used office staff and equipment for his private practice, including 24 counts involving the amount of $3.06 (no, I’m not screwing up the decimals).
Impeachable Offense
Ron Suskind, in his latest book, the Way of the world, says that the White House ordered that the CIA forge a back-dated letter between the head of Iraqi security and Saddam Hussein showing al Queida ties after the fall of Baghdad to deflect attention away from the lack of WMDs.
The National Security Act of 1947 specifically forbids the CIA from taking actions that have their primary intent of deceiving the American People.
So, what will happen?
Nothing.
NOT ON THE TABLE! NOT ON THE TABLE!
Bad Legislation
Tanta has noted that, “some of the bigger economic illiterates in Congress,” have sponsored a bill to restore the Downpayment Assistance Program (DAP). (previous posts here)
Basically, it allows a seller to supply the down payment to the buyer in exchange for a higher sales price, allowing people who won’t make a down payment to get an FHA approved loan, which require a down payment.
They funnel the money through a DAP company, and all is forgiven.
The default rate on DAP loans is at least three times those with down payments.
This is something that, “builders, real estate lobbies, and DAP companies,” are lobbying for, big time.
The Congresscritters in question also do not understand insurance apparently, details at link.
Why is Iraq Buying Abrams and Light Armored Vehicles
Seriously, anyone who thinks that a $10.7 billion purchase that includes such items as Abrams tanks is a response to actual military needs is full of it.
There are still thousands of tanks and APCs out there for them to lose, but someone in the Pentagon or the State Department has twisted their arms to buy equipment that they do not need.
They won’t be engaging in a major shooting war with anyone for the next 20+ years, and under those circumstances, T-72s and BMPs will do the job just fine.
So Not Shocking…JFS Cost Skyrockets
The cost of the JSF for Australia has apparently $AUS75 million to $AUS131 Million* (the Australian dollar is about $0.95 US).
It’s still cheaper than the F-22, which law forbids them to get anyway, which clocks in at an eye-popping $355 million (US).*
I think that a number of nations will start considering alternatives, either US (F-15, F-16, F-18E/F) or foreign (Typhoon, Rafale, Gripen,Flanker Family), when the full cost is made known.
Additionally, I think that for non-US (and non-UK) forces the support costs may be higher because their own militaries will not be able to maintain some of the systems, as they will not be given sufficient information on the aircraft’s highly integrated avionics.
But wait, there’s more!!!!
Lockheed is looking to change the accounting structure in order to generate a sh$#load more costs:
The JPO currently bills each of the three major F-35 contractors separately. This unique arrangement is designed partly to limit the amount of overhead feeds charged by each of the contractors, which can amount to hundreds of millions of dollars over time.
Lockheed’s proposal, however, would bundle all of the industry team’s charges into a single billing process for submitting to the JPO for payment.
Each charge submitted by BAE and Northrop would include a discrete fee to cover their own overhead costs. Lockheed would then add its own overhead for the aggregated bill. Since Lockheed would be charging an overhead fee on top of fees already charged by BAE and Northrop, the JPO would be paying a “fee on a fee”, Wood says.
She adds that the JPO estimates the current structure has saved $850 million already, so making a change for the full-rate production phase could dramatically increase the programme’s overall costs.
So if you read anyone who says they have a handle of the actual cost of the F-35, don’t believe them.
*There are a number of ways to price aircraft, and I believe that both are total program cost divided by number of aircraft. I’ve heard quotes at about 1/2 as much for the F-22.
Judge Removed from ‘Jena 6’ Cases
Thank goodness. Judge Mauffrey has given every indication that he had pre-judged the case.
The court of appeals has apparently had enough of him.