Category: Corruption

Judith Miller in Drag

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Well, it looks like Judith Miller style neocon warmongering is not dead at the New York Times. Yes, we now have new members of the Leonard Pinth-Garnell school of journalism, William Broad and David Sanger.

Short version of the story, is that the NIE saying that Iran had halted nuke weapons work is bunk, and they may have a nuke by next year.

This, along with Fallon’s firing, is a pretty good indicator that Bush and His Evil Minions™ want to bomb Iran before Jan 21 2009.

This is why the two Democratic nominees need to say specifically that any order to attack Iran in the absence of a congressional authorization would be an illegal order, and that, if elected, they would prosecute soldiers who obey illegal orders.

Those nuclear warheads that were “misplaced” a few months back were not “misplaced” it was an attempt to stage them for a nuclear first strike.

Thanks to Digby for the catch.

Bush Political HUD Staffers Too Stupid for Email

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You may have heard of HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson.

He was the one who said in a public speech, that he would not make grants to Democrats.

Well, it now appears that he cut off funding to the Philadelphia Housing Authority because they refused to give a vacant lot to a friend of his.

The housing authority sued, and their email records have been introduced into evidence, and it’s ugly*.

After Philadelphia’s housing director refused a demand by President Bush’s housing secretary to transfer a piece of city property to a business friend, two top political appointees at the department exchanged e-mails discussing the pain they could cause the Philadelphia director.

“Would you like me to make his life less happy? If so, how?” Orlando J. Cabrera, then-assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, wrote about Philadelphia housing director Carl R. Greene.

“Take away all of his Federal dollars?” responded Kim Kendrick, an assistant secretary who oversaw accessible housing. She typed symbols for a smiley-face, “:-D,” at the end of her January 2007 note.

Cabrera wrote back a few minutes later: “Let me look into that possibility.”

*I don’t just mean ugly, I mean ugly even by the standards of the Bush administration, which is makes this AMC Pacer ugly.

Oh Crap! I Agree With The Corner on National Review Online

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Specifically, I agree with David Freddoso when he says that a call to return Spitzer donations is patently absurd.

His money is neither the product of illegality, nor is is an attempt to buy access for an illegal or unsavory cause.

His quote at the end is prize:

If their PR pain threshold is low enough, then I suppose the candidates will return the money or give it to charity (perhaps to battered women’s shelters or something). But I’d actually admire any one of them who has the courage to keep the money and say:

“Well, at least this $2,300 won’t be spent on a whore!”

Then again, that may not be entirely accurate. It is being spent on candidates for Congress…

Amusing.

Maybe, Some Accountability

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As a result of the WaMu board decided that bad mortgages should not get in the way of obscene senior executive bonuses, it looks like some major share holders, and possibly some share holder rights groups are looking at trying to remove the board members.

It probably won’t come to anything, the regulations in place in the US make it very difficult for the owners (share holders) of a company to effect management decisions, but it’s a good start.

Just When You Think that Drug Companies Can’t Get Any More Contemptible

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Pfizer is going to court to try and force the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) to reveal the names of its anonymous peer reviewers.

They are trying to subvert the most basic principal of scientific journals, the peer review process, and making the bogus claim that “Scientific journals such as NEJM may have received manuscripts that contain exonerating data for Celebrex and Bextra which would be relevant for Pfizer’s causation defence,” for cases involving its Cox-2 inhibitors Celebrex and Bextra.

One hopes that the just slaps them down.

Thoughts on Spitzer

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First, the definitive post on this matter is from Some Guy with a Website. I won’t quote it here, it’s about 4 paras long, but if you removed the F-bombs and the word “stupid”, it would be one sentence.

According to TPM, it appears that Spitzer was not caught as the result of an investigation of the Emperor’s club escort service, but that the Emperor’s club was caught as a result of an investigation of Spitzer.

It appears that Spitzer had a large number of cash withdrawals from his bank account that were not much less than the $10,000 level which would require notification under the law, and so the bank reported possible “structuring”, of the use of smaller transactions to obscure a larger one.

This is a red flag for things like bribery, so the US Attorney’s public integrity division looked into it, and in following the case, determined that there was no bribery, but that he was paying prostitutes.

I do believe that Spitzer will resign, but not until he has cut a deal, which makes sense. If he were to resign now, he would see a no holds barred felony prosecution by the corrupt politicized Bush DoJ with the goal of putting him in jail for decades.

His resignation would be ceding a major bargaining chip to the prosecution. As a former NY State AG, he knows this.

As to the possible prosecution under the Mann Act, it isn’t going to happen when the principals were both consenting, though it may be used as a lever by the prosecution.

Monsanto Wants to Ban “rBST Free” Labels

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Monsanto has created an astroturf group that is lobbying to prohibit rBST and BGH free labels. They argue that it is “too confusing to consumers”.

I understand that Monsanto wants to market its industrial waste as widely as possible, but I object to their attempt to keep me, and the rest of the general public in the dark about it.

This is not confusing at all. I don’t their crap in my kid’s milk. Period, full stop.

And This is The Damage of the US Attorney Scandal

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Scott Horton details the political machinations of Alice Martin in Alabama.

They just banned state legislators from teaching at community colleges, where the legislator/instructors are almost all black Democrats, but it’s OK at 4 year colleges, where they are whiter and more Republican.

Surprise, the Bush Justice Department, after having purged its civil rights division, thinks that it’s all okey dokey to do this.

This is Funny, in a Very Sad Way

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It appears that musicians are disappointed that they haven’t seen any money as a result of the royalty deals that Youtube cut with the RIAA.

They are expecting to get some money out of their record distributors?

What are they smoking????

Oh…Yeah…They are rock and rollers….That’s what they are smoking.

Seriously though, the RIAA does not, and has no interest in, raising money for the artists. They represent the record distributors, who make money by shafting the artists.

GAO is on Juncket to Caymans

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They are actually going to the Cayman islands on legitimate business…no…really…I mean it.

Congress had decided to go after tax havens, and they have sent GAO investigators, and they will be visiting the infamous Ugland House, corporate headquarters for 12,748 companies.

Good for Congress, and good for GAO, it’s investigative arm.

If the Republicans were in charge, this would never have happened, because they believe that, “only little people pay taxes.”

FWIW, offering bounties for tax cheats, as German investigators did with records of trusts in Lichtenstein, would be a very good thing.

It’s Getting Ugly Over Tanker Decision

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I do not doubt that the A330 was technically superior.

The airframe and avionics are newer, the manufacturing techniques are more advanced, and the airframe is larger.

The reason I did not expect it to win was because of the USAF generals who wanted sweet retirement packages with Boeing, and the inevitable outrage from Congress.

Well, the sh%$ storm is here, care of Eisenhower’s military-industrial complex.

You can get a good Cliff Notes version of what is going on here.

Basically, a few years back, Boeing offered a lease deal which was really pretty awful. This deal was negotiated by a Pentagon official who was also negotiating with Boeing for a job as a VP.

John McCain looked at the deal, and smelled a rat, and for once, and it’s rare for him, he was right, so the contract was canceled, and a new one was put out for bid.

And now EADS has won with a clearly better plane, one that is already on order from a number of countries.

This won’t stop the poo from flying.