Even if the purge did not break the law, it appears that there are some juicy perjury charges out there.
It ain’t the crime, it’s the cover-up.
Hopefully, abu Gonzalez goes to jail over this.
Category: Corruption
Can We Impeach Him Now?
Well, we now have the definitive word on when Bush knew that there was no Iraq-al Queida link, and that he continued to claim such a link
In October 2002, a few weeks before Congress voted to authorize the Iraq invasion, Bush told a crowd in Cincinnati: “We’ve learned that Iraq has trained al Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gasses.”
Problem is, it wasn’t true. More importantly, a lot of people at the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency knew it probably wasn’t true. That’s one of the interesting revelations inside the Senate’s recent 171-page Phase II report on whether White House statements were backed up by prewar intelligence.
He knew. He knew since February 2002.
It turns out that their source was one guy, who had most of the information tortured out of him, and none of whose claims ever panned out.
Impeach Dick Cheney today. Impeach George W. Bush tomorrow.
Surprise, Torture and Abuse Readicalizes Non-Terrorists
We discover, to our surprise, that people with no connection with al Queida, following imprisonment and abuse by the United States, they become they tend to find common cause with terrorists.
It’s not just our torture that does it, it’s also that the innocent people in these prisons mix with real terrorists, and they learn from their inmates.
Once again, I am compelled to make the repeat the wisest thing that I’ve read this century:
But it does inspire in me the desire for a competition; can anyone, particularly the rather more Bush-friendly recent arrivals to the board, give me one single example of something with the following three characteristics:
- It is a policy initiative of the current Bush administration
- It was significant enough in scale that I’d have heard of it (at a pinch, that I should have heard of it)
- It wasn’t in some important way completely f#$@ed up during the execution.
Seriously, these people couldn’t screw up anything any more if they were an actual al Queida sleeper cell.
Torture Pushed Despite Legal Opinions
The Senate Armed Services Committee has reviewed documents surrounding the treatment of prisoners, and it now appears that the orders for torture came from the top down, not from the bottom up, as Rumsfeld and the rest of his merry band of sadists had insisted.
They were aggressively soliciting tortures from the Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) community, which was created to help US soldiers resist torture, so it’s clear that they knew.
What’s more, the sort of torture that SERE was created to combat was torture that had our servicemen lying, not revealing secrets.
They did not care that torture creates lies. They were not interested in accurate information. They just wanted to torture, because it made them feel strong.
This even shocked the sensabilities of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), though I have little doubt that when push comes to shove, he’ll cover for Bush and His Evil Minions™:
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the legal analysis from administration lawyers in 2002 will “go down in history as some of the most irresponsible and shortsighted legal analysis ever provided to our nation’s military and intelligence communities.”
….
In separate memos, the lawyers told the Joint Chiefs of Staff that the techniques warranted further study and could be illegal.
Seriously, these people need to go to jail for the rest of their lives.
Halliburton/KBR Stories
It now appears that the contract manager for a multi billion KBR contract was forced out after insisting for documentation for the invoices that they were sending in.
Delightful….Dick Cheney’s company, under a policy created by SecDef Dick Cheney, was allowed to submit smudged receipts on cocktail napkins.
Bear Stearns Hedge Fund Managers Face Imminent Arrest
I am so totally not surprised by this development. This sort of lying and deception is endemic in Wall Street.
No FOIA on White House Email Coverup
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has ruled that the White House email system is not subject to the Freedom Of Information Act, and so ruled against CREW.
There is still another suit alleging that the WH is not taking reasonable steps to preserve electronic records.
Agreed
The folks at The Talent Show note that the right wing slime machine is gearing up to go after Michelle Obama.
They suggest that that be our response:
I wholeheartedly agree.
Full story on stealing dope for her fix is here.
Not Enough Bullets
CEO pay higher, even though profits are down, or in some cases, losses.
No accountability. Gotta love Bush style crony capitalism™.
OMFG!!! This is So Lame!!!
Scott Bloch, the head of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, who had a computer consultant wipe his hard drive, and whose office was raided by the FBI with accusations of abuse of authority, retaliation, political bias, and obstruction of justice, now has a new title Sock Puppet* by Proxy. It appears that he ordered subordinates to post stuff supporting him on blogs when they posted bad news about him.
This is so incredibly pathetic.
*Full disclosure, I’ve sock puppeted. I acknowledge that this means that I have no personal credibility. Confirm what I write by going to the links I cite, and reviewing my arguments. Seriously. FWIW, I’ll try not to sock puppet in my own comments section. I haven’t yet.
Seriously, if I say the sky is blue, go check the Weather Channel to confirm this.
HOPE NOW Mortgage Relief Numbers Are Bogus
A report from the Office of the Controller of the Currency shows that the facts are overstated by about 10 times. The report are also showed that foreclosures are happening at a higher rate than reported.
An idea from Bush and His Evil Minions™, and it’s under performing and dishonest…who could have known?
Dodd Is So Off Obama’s VP List
He’s alleged to have gotten some sweetheart loans from Countrywide Financial too, though he is denying this.
Damn! Looks Like Hoyer May Have Found a Way to Sell Out on Telco Immunity
According to this report, Steny Hoyer, Jay Rockefeller, Christopher “Kit” Bond, and Roy Blunt have hammered something out.
Seriously. This is like social security. No compromise, no proposals.
This is not just a core Democratic value, it’s a core American value.
The telcos knew the law, and they broke it, and Bush and His Evil Minions&trade have a hard on about shielding them because they know that it can get them sent to jail.
Moody’s to Rate Muni Bonds Fairly
The original business for monoliner insurers was to insure government bonds, which were rarely rated at AAA by the agencies, even though they were at least as safe as AAA corporate bonds, so they would buy insurance, because the interest rate savings would more than pay for the insurance.
I’ve always seen this as self dealing by Wall Street. The ratings agencies set about screwing the taxpayers for the benefit of other folks, whether they be the monoliners or the investors who would get more interest.
Because of the increases scrutiny of ratings agency, there has been pressure to change this, and now Moody’s has announced that it will adopt the same ratings for Munis as it uses for corporate bonds.
About bloody time.
MBIA Execs Looting Company
Or at least that’s what appears to be going on.
MBIA has raised a lot of capital lately, and it’s considering not putting the capital it just raised into its monoline insurance division, but it raised the capital for its insurance division.
As Yves Smith puts it:
So why is MBIA hoarding cash at the parent level? Well, executives (along with other corporate charges) are paid out of the parent company’s books. The subsidiaries can dividend cash up only if the are profitable OR get permission from their regulator.
Earth to SEC, we have a problem.
Arbitration as a Racket
Businessweek has as damning article on the arbitration industry:
But internal NAF documents and interviews with people familiar with the firm reveal a different reality. Behind closed doors, NAF sells itself to lenders as an effective tool for collecting debts. The point of these pitches is to persuade the companies to use the firm to resolve clashes over delinquent accounts. JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Bank of America (BAC) are among the large institutions that do so. A September, 2007, NAF PowerPoint presentation aimed at creditors and labeled “confidential” promises “marked increase in recovery rates over existing collection methods.” At times, NAF does this kind of marketing with the aid of law firms representing the very creditors it’s trying to sign up as clients.
The laws that allow for this need to be changed.
The arbitration system is corrupt to the core.
Update on Republithug Corruption
Busy day.
We have former Congressman Curt Weldon tied into a Russian influence buying scheme, all laundered through a shady non-profit.
Curt Weldon was, of course one of those guys who saw agents of hostile governments everywhere…who knew he was one?
The fine folks at TPM note that former Rep. Sweeney’s (now ex-) wife, the one that he beat when he wasn’t driving drunk, was being paid for work she never did at a “fundraising firm” that she ran.
In the small fry category, we have Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) neglection to mention $286,278 in expenditures and $102,044 in contributions in her 2002 campaign. It could just be a clerical error, but seeing as how they neglected to mention a donation from “Friends of Duke Cunningham”, and over a hundred grand spent on her Daughter and Son-in-law’s “political consulting firm”, I’m thinking that we have some self dealing going on.
Lobbying Shop Tied to Sweeney Raided By FBI
It turns out that in addition to being tied to Sweeney, the Albany lobbying firm Powers & Company was also tied to Jack Abramhoff.
After the wife beating and drunk driving, who knew that former Congresscritter John Sweeney would be tied into Abramhoff?
I’m shocked.
SEC Looks to Ban Ratings Agencies from Consulting on How to Get Good Ratings
It boggles my mind that this is allowed:
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission may recommend this week that Moody’s Investors Service, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings be prohibited from advising investment banks on how to earn top rankings for asset- backed securities, according to people familiar with the matter.
This just buggers the mind. These companies were advising investment banks on how to game themselves.
This is not the only change proposed, the SEC is going more generally for transparency in rating:
SEC staff may also propose at a June 11 meeting in Washington that the companies disclose all the data that goes into a rating so competitors can grade bonds even if they weren’t compensated by the underwriter, said the people, who declined to be identified because the rules aren’t final. Moody’s, S&P and Fitch help design securities backed by a stream of payments, making it impossible for them to be impartial raters, a May 2007 academic study by Joseph Mason and Joshua Rosner concluded.
This is Alan “Bubbles” Greenspan’s Randroid utopia of an unregulated market, inside players conspiring to defraud the average investor.
Why Guest Worker Programs are a Bad Thing, Episode 7734
This time, it’s welders and pipe fitters from South Asia, who were misled, and had to pay outrageous fees, to get H2B visas to work in the US:
The Indian workers say they were deceived by Signal International and labor recruiters when they paid as much as $20,000 for visas they believed would allow them to work and live permanently with their families in the United States. In fact, the H-2B visas are for short-term contracts.
They are now on a hunger strike.
I would note that this problem is not a bug in guest worker programs. It’s a feature.
The goal of guest worker programs is to create an underclass of cheap and easily exploited labor.