Someone in South Carolina, my money would be on a Huckabee supporter, is Swift Boating John McCain something fierce.
They are accusing him of collaborating with his North Vietnamese captors.
I might be a little bit more outraged if were not so conspicuously silent over the similar actions taken against Max Cleland and John Kerry.
If you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas, and payback is a bitch.
From Nancy Pelosi’s blog“
As part of its ongoing investigation into executive pay, the Oversight Committee has invited three CEOs implicated in the subprime mortgage crisis to testify on February 7, 2008, about their severance and compensation packages.
Read letters to Charles Prince, the former CEO of Citigroup (pdf) and E. Stanley O’Neal, the former CEO of Merrill Lynch (pdf).
Full letter to Angelo R. Mozilo, the CEO of Countrywide Financial (pdf):
January 14, 2008 Mr. Angelo R. Mozilo
Chairman and CEO
Countrywide Financial Corporation
4500 Park Granada
Calabasas, CA 91302Dear Mr. Mozilo:
I am writing to request your testimony at a hearing on February 7, 2008, before the Committee on Oversight and Govemment Reform. The hearing will address executive compensation and severance arrangements for CEOs involved in the ongoing mortgage crisis.
According to recent press reports, if Bank of America completes its proposed purchase of Countrywide Financial, you stand to collect tens of millions of dollars in severance payments and other compensation. I request that you be prepared to provide your perspective on this reported pay package. You should plan to address how it aligns with the interests of Countrywide’s shareholders and whether this level of compensation is justified in light of your company’s recent performance and its role in the national mortgage crisis.
The Committee on Oversight and Govemment Reform is the principal oversight committee in the House of Representatives and has broad oversight jurisdiction as set forth in House Rule X. An attachment to this letter provides additional information about testifying before the Committee.
If you have any questions regarding this letter, please contact Roger Sherman or David Leviss of the Committee staff at (202) 225-5051.
Sincerely,
Henry A. Waxman
ChairmanEnclosure
cc: Tom Davis
Ranking Minority Member
Countrywide’s Mozilo To Leave In Luxury
Andrew Farrell, Forbes – January 14, 2007
Angelo Mozilo made nearly $150 million selling Countrywide shares before they tanked. The mortgage lender’s chief executive can nearly double that windfall and also earn some luxurious perks if he leaves his post following the struggling company’s acquisition by Back of America.
Mozilo will reportedly receive up to $115 million in severance in cash and stock if he resigns or is fired. Mozilo’s future at the company he founded is in doubt after its sale.
On Friday, Bank of America confirmed it will buy Countrywide Financial for $4.1 billion. Bank of America Chief Executive Ken Lewis has said only that he would like Mozilo to stay at Countrywide until the acquisition closes. Then, “I would guess that he’ll want to go have some fun.”
Mozilo, the son of a Bronx butcher, would be able to have some fun in style thanks to some perks in his severance package. In addition to the huge payout, Mozilo can take free rides on the company jet and have his country-club bills paid for, according to a Friday report in the Los Angeles Times.
Hmmm…..An 80 year old megachurch leader has been charged with perjury as a result of a sex scandal.
80 years old? I had no idea that the psalms were so “uplifting”.
An 80-year-old leader of a suburban megachurch who is at the center of a sex scandal has been charged with lying under oath for saying he had sex outside marriage with only one other woman, court documents show.
A warrant for the arrest of Archbishop Earl Paulk, co-founder of Cathedral of the Holy Spirit at Chapel Hill Harvester Church, was issued Monday, according to court documents. …
Former church employee Mona Brewer is suing Paulk, his brother and the church on allegations that Paulk manipulated her into an affair from 1989 to 2003 by telling her it was her only path to salvation. In a 2006 deposition stemming from the lawsuit, the archbishop said under oath that the only woman he had ever had sex with outside of his marriage was Brewer.
But the results of a court-ordered paternity test revealed in October that Paulk is the biological father of his brother’s son, D.E. Paulk, who is now head pastor at the church. As part of Brewer’s lawsuit, eight women have given sworn depositions that they were coerced into sexual relationships with Earl Paulk.
I get the sense that super-sizing your church has much the same effect on one’s spiritual fitness as super-sizing one’s fast food does on one’s physical fitness.
When Maureen Dowd filed her story on the New Hampshire primary, it had a Derry, N.H. dateline, even though she was in Israel when she filed it.
In fact, she wasn’t at the party that she discussed, she had some stringer do the leg work.
Well, the kerfuffle that has blown up over it has driven him, “Out of My F#@$ing Mind“.
Accountability sucks*, doesn’t it Mr. Rosenthal. Spencer Ackerman notes that NY Times Reporter Rick Bragg was suspended, and then resigned after he did something similar.
At the very least, Ms. Dowd needs to explain to her readers.
*And it is the accountability that blogs occasionally force on “real journalists”, that gives them much of their value, and engenders the hostility of the “Kook Kidz”.
Well, according to the WaPo, the House is likely to vote on contempt against Josh Bolton and Harriet Miers in the “next few weeks” for their refusing to testify on the US Attorney scandal.
I’ll believe it when I see it, but I don’t see Pelosi having the guts.
We know what she said about impeachment:
NOT ON THE TABLE! NOT ON THE TABLE!
Why it’s good to have Democrats in control of Congress, when the EPA political apparatchiks decide to ignore the recommendations of professional staff, and veto California’s clean air standards, you have someone looking into what happened, and why, in this case, Henry Waxman.
Dear Administrator Johnson:
On December 20, 2007, I wrote to request that you provide the Committee with documents relating to your decision to reject California’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. I requested that the documents be produced on a rolling schedule, starting on January 10 with responsive documents from your immediate office. On January 4 and January 11, 2008, your staff responded to my letter, but did not provide any documents.
I appreciate the efforts EPA is taking to collect responsive documents, but I am concerned about the failure of the agency to meet the Committee’s January 10 deadline. I am also concerned that no schedules for document production are proposed in your letters.
In an effort to accommodate the agency without unduly delaying the Committee’s investigation, I ask that your staff work with Committee staff to establish by the close of business on January 16 mutually agreeable deadlines for producing documents to the Committee.
The Committee will also be conducting transcribed interviews or depositions of agency staff who may have knowledge of the agency’s deliberations. As a first step in this process, I request that a schedule be established by the close of business on January 16 for the interview or deposition of the following officials:
* Robert Meyers, Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator, Office of Air and Radiation
* Jason Burnett, Associate Deputy Administrator, Office of the Administrator
* Margo Oge, Director, Office of Transportation and Air Quality
* Karl Simon, Director, Compliance and Innovative Strategies Division, Office of Transportation and Air Quality
* Brian McLean, Director, Office of Atmospheric Programs
* Dina Kruger, Director, Climate Change Division, Office of Atmospheric Programs
* Rob Brenner, Director, Office of Program Analysis and ReviewIn prior investigations, the Committee has allowed counsel representing the agency to be present during transcribed interviews. In this case, since your own conduct is being examined, this accommodation would not be appropriate, although counsel employed by the agency may participate if they certify that their presence is as counsel for the witness. Attachments to this letter provide additional information about Committee interview and deposition procedures.
If you have any questions concerning this request, please have your staff contact Greg Dotson of the Committee staff at (202) 225-4407.
Sincerely,
Henry A. Waxman
Chairman
Mr. Johnson, it won’t be pretty.
It appears that the bill is, “ So riddled with loopholes and caveats to the point that some Sunni and Shiite officials say it could actually exclude more former Baathists than it lets back in, particularly in the crucial security ministries“.
So my previous report on the issue is wrong, and al-Malaki is acting true to form and doing his level best to ethnically cleanse Iraq’s Sunnis.
It’s a phony success to create a phony victory in a real war.
Really, we are, because for this ill-conceived venture, we are giving BofA can deduct $270 million a year for the next 5 years.
That’s $1.35 billion in the first 5 years, and if Countrywide’s losses are bigger (and they are), they can deduct the rest year 6.
Well, knock me over with a sledge hammer, it appears that Attorney General Mukasey is actually doing his job, at least in what has become the minority voting suppression division of the Justice Department under Bush and His Evil Minions™.
I’m pleasantly surprised, though Abu Gonzalez actually made me nostalgic for John Freaking Ashcroft, so it is a low bar.
First, John “Minorities will be Dead Soon” Tanner has resigned as head of the voting rights section, and is moving to the Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices in December, and last friday, his replacement, Christopher Coates, who was promoted from within the section, demoted Tanner’s former deputy chiefs, Susana Lorenzo-Giguere (who drew a salary while living at her Cape Cod vacation home) and Yvette Rivera (who has been accused of discriminating against blacks on staff).
Of note is that Rivera is being replaced by Tim Mellett, who was one of the professional staff who issued a report, subsequently overruled by the political appointees , that Tom Delay’s Texas redistricting was illegal.
Yes, after 736 million dollars, the State Department’s Baghdad Embassy is a fire hazard.
In addition, the power plant and electrical has not been tested at all.
No surprise. A ¾ Billion contract handed out to a, “Contractor had never built an embassy and did not realize that under State Department rules it needed approval for substituting certain materials.”
But I’m sure that they have a long history of contributing to the Republican party.
Here’s a surprise, after flipping out and indiscriminately spraying civilians with bullets, the Blackwater mercenaries security contractorspatched and repainted their trucks almost immediately.
The repairs essentially destroyed evidence that Justice Department investigators hoped to examine in a criminal case that has drawn worldwide attention. The Sept. 16 shooting has strained U.S. relations with the Iraqi government, which wants Blackwater expelled from the country. It also has become a flash point in the debate over whether contractors are immune from legal consequences for their actions in a war zone.
They knew that there was going to be an investigation, and they knew that the physical evidence was important, and they still destroyed it.
This is a slam dunk for obstruction of justice.
Regardless of your position on mercenaries private security contractors, it’s clear that Blackwater conducts their business in such a way that they should be shut down.
Of course, unlike the scariest bitch you’d ever want to meet, Martha Stewart, the management of the firm is Republican, so there will probably be no legal repurcussions.
Well, it looks like the Republicans are starting to swift boat each other, as shown by this anti-Huckabee ad, put out by Victims Voice, a 527 with unknown funding.
The principal of the organization, one Keith Emis, claims that it was done by him and a friend, and that they only spent money on tape and gas, but I think that this is too well produced for that.
Of course, the whole story shows a startling lack of unawareness. The cheerleader who was raped was a distant cousin of Bill Clinton, so there was a great hue and cry from the right wing that Wayne Dumond was railroaded because of who was governor at the time.
Mike Huckabee set him free, but he did so because a lot of people, many of them not in Arkansas pressured him, because it doesn’t matter if you are raped, if you are related to Bill Clinton.
So, he’s retiring, with investigations into his ties to Abramoff, Wilkes (Randy “Duke” Cunningham), and his wife getting a cut of campaign contributions.
This should surprise no one.
I think that Jose Rodriguez is legitimately worried about being the fall guy in all of this.
John Kerry has endorsed Barack Obama. I’m not sure how much of this is that he likes Obama, and how much is the feeling that he might have that the Clintonistas submarined him in 2004 to clear the way for Hillary.
TheHill.com – Clinton outraised Obama in the fourth quarter, $24 million to $23.5 million. No breakdown of contributions between primary and general though.
We are starting to see stories about Obama’s ties to Antoin “Tony” Rezko and his house purchase. I don’t see much being there in terms of corruption (stupidity is another matter), but if he gets the nomination, this will be a regular Republican talking point.
Richardson drops out of the race no word yet on who he will endorse, but my guess would be Clinton.
Landrieu’s corruption story seems to have had a bit of wind taken out of its sales. It appears that the earmark in question was because, “Paul Vance, the superintendent of the D.C. public schools, had written Landrieu, then the ranking member on the D.C appropriations subcommittee, and Sen. Mike DeWine (R-OH), then the chair, to ask for funds for Voyager.” It’s not the end of the investigation, but it makes it look like any developments are not imminent.
Looks like Unity ’08 will be shut down to make way for a Bloomberg campaign site. Well, f&^% you your honor.
So, the Coast Guard wants to to stretch and improve some (49) patrol boats, and the contract goes out to Lockheed-Martin and Northrop-Grumman, with the former doing the new systems, and the latter doing the hulls.
Small problem though, the systems don’t work, and the stretched boats buckle and leak. What’s more they leaked more than water. They used unshielded cables on the upgrade, meaning that your average Russian fishing trawler could listen in to a secure military network.
So the Coast Guard is asking for its money back:
The U.S. Coast Guard has asked a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp and Northrop Grumman Corp to pay $96.1 million for eight patrol boats that it modified, but that cannot be used.
I’m shocked, but less so than if it happened on a DoD, as opposed to a DHS contract*.
The coast guard is decommissioning (basically scrapping) the boats in question, and is taking back management of the program from the LSI (see my rundown on the LSI process, and why congress is moving to ban the process, here) of the , “$24 billion, 25-year modernization program known as Deepwater”.
Wouldn’t happen in the DoD. Too many generals who plan to work their retirements with the defense contractors.
*The strikethrough in the title is irony, not a correction.
From what I know of computers, I gotta figure that they are somewhere out there, and U.S. Magistrate Judge John Facciola’s order to determine whether or not the emails are on backup should reveal some interesting data.
There is dirt there, though with the fetish for secrecy, I’m not sure how much of it is that and how much is covering one or more criminal conspiracies.
Bush and His Evil Minions™ wanted to stack the Civil Rights commission. The problem? The law forbade any more than 4 of the 8members being of one party.
Bush’s solution was to have two of the Republicansregister as independent, and then appoint two more Republicans.
Well, now the non-partisan Congressional Research Service has reviewed the 1957 Civil Rights Act that established the commission, along with the 1983 changes designed to forstall Ronald “What me, Racist” Reagan doing what Bush just did.
In sum, the situation that precipitated Congress’ 1983 revision of the Civil Rights Commission – the presidential firing of five of the then six sitting commissioners – is arguably indistinguishable from the changes in party registrations that has effectively allowed the President to establish a majority of his political in control of the Commission. The intent of the 1983 restructuring, as confirmed by the Wilson decision, was to preclude similar juggling of the of the Commission’s statutory appointments process. In light of that history, together with the recognition of the Wilson court of the central importance of independence of the central importance of independence to the accomplishment of the Commission’s mission, it is likely that a reviewing court would find the OLC opinion unpersuasive and the recent appointments violative of the political balance requirements of the statute.
In English, it’s pretty clear that they just ignored the law because they felt like it.
Well, a corrupt politician in Louisiana, who would have thunk it.
The way it looks right now, it’s something like 2 to something like 133 by party, with all the Dem’s cases being in Louisiana.
This one appears to be a bit more prosaic though, no money in the freezer, just earmarks for contributions.
Personally, I would not miss her in the Senate one bit. She is a DINO, and a much too consistent vote for the Republican agenda.
At some point, party discipline must be enforced, or you stand for nothing.
Just lovely.
I guess that it might interfere with Dick Cheney’s deferred compensation package from Halliburton.