Category: Justice

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.

Because Republicans Know that Counting the Votes is Communist

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So the Coleman campaign has filed suit to stop it

Republican Sen. Norm Coleman’s campaign today asked the Minnesota Supreme Court to issue an emergency order banning county election officials from opening any rejected absentee ballots. The court has scheduled a hearing on the issue for Wednesday. The Franken campaign accuses the Coleman side of trying to keep wrongly rejected ballots from being included in the recount.

As an aside here, in addition to hitting on right and wrong, the Franken campaign should be saying flat out that Coleman knows that a real count would show him losing, because it’s both the truth and good PR.

Cover-Up Much?

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It appears that Michael Mukasey and His Evil Minions™ are refusing to provide documents to the Obama transition team.

It appears that they are unwilling to supply the torture and snooping memos drafted by the Office of Legal Counsel for the CIA and the NSA:

The opinions, some of which have been released to Congress in redacted form, contain the legal rationale of the NSA’s warrantless spying program and the CIA’s detention and interrogation policies, among other intelligence initiatives.

The claim is that the spy agencies have, “own equity or interest in the information.”

Un-dirty-word-believable.

You Know that No One Will See See the Inside of a Cell

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Or even a few days paid suspension, but it’s pretty clear that Barry Cooper found some dirty cops in Odessa, TX.

He set up a house with surveillance equipment, and then put a couple of Christmas trees under grow lights, and 24 hours later, the police swore to probably cause to get a search warrant, and entered the house.

They are currently refusing to supply the affidavits, but it’s clear what happened: They illegally used infrared cameras looking for grow lights, and then lied to a judge to get a warrant.

Defective Even by the Standards of Taser International

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Taser, International has always maintained that their little toy that should be treated as a lethal weapon is safe.

They even have studies to prove it.

Only, it turns out that their products do not meet the company’s own dubious standarsa:

A new study has found that the type of Taser stun gun used most by police officers can fire more electricity than the company says is possible, which the study’s authors say raises the risk of cardiac arrest as much as 50 percent in some people.

So, not only is their own science dubious, but their manufacturing processes are too.

SCOTUS to Review al-Marri

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This is actually probably the most significant of the “unlawful combatant” detention cases, as Ali al-Marri was a legal resident of the US arrested in the US, and so whatever precedent we see here would apply to citizens.

The short version is that he was arrested for credit card fraud, but the charges were dropped and he was detained as an enemy combatant, and detained in the US navy brig, where he has been subjected to torture.

The only evidence that has been presented is a, “sworn statement from a defense intelligence official.”

If Bush and His Evil Minions&trade win this one, and it will actually be heard under an Obama administration, it will mean that the President can lock up anyone at any time for any reason without recourse to the courts.

George W. Bush would have made Stalin proud.

On January 20, Have Her Walked Out of Her Office By Security

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Well, it looks like political hack Mary Beth Buchanan will not be submitting her resignation to Barack Obama as US Attorney for Pittsburgh on January 20, as is customary.

I’ve document a few of her partisan abuses of power here.

This is a woman who literally made a 45¢ fax a federal case, because the person in question, Cyril Wecht, was a Democrat.

She also prosecuted comedian Tommy Chong for selling bongs, went after a California erotica company, and was hip deep in the US Attorney firings scandal.

Seriously, this woman is a clear and present danger to justice, and she should not be allowed in the building without an armed escort.

Senior Citi Executives Accused of Insider Trading

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Please, just throw all of them, particularly Bob Rubin, in Jail, because enough is enough:

An investor lawsuit contends that Citigroup Inc insiders, including senior counselor and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, sold more than $150 million of their own shares at inflated prices while concealing the bank’s true financial health.

Rubin has to be front and center in all this, because he’s….well, he’s front and center in all this.

Every time you see a problem, his name crops up, either as a financial actor or a political one, and yes, criminalizing this sort of revolving door would be a very good thing.

In order to show real accountability, those who knew, or should have known, and with the stock dumping it is clearly the former, and were in a position to do something about this, need to be punished.

Pass the Popcorn

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Well, it appears that Nora R. Dannehy, the US Attorney assigned to investigate the politically motivated firings of US Attorneys, has been aggressively pursuing the case, “meeting with defense lawyers, dispatching subpoenas and seeking information about the events.”

What’s more, one of her investigators has formally contacted Alberto “Abu” Gonzalez, which means that any lies or omissions to that investigator are handled under obstruction of justice, which is much easier to prove than perjury.

Heck of a Job, Kenny Boy

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Well it now appears that the merger of Bank of America and Countrywide Financial so aggressively pushed by Bank of America CEO and President Kenneth D. Lewis is finally bearing some fruit.

Unfortunately, it appears to be fruit of the toxic variety, as investors who hold mortgage backed securities of the former subprime lender are suing to demand their repurchase at full face value:

On Monday, a hedge fund sued the Countrywide Financial Corporation, the giant mortgage lender, demanding that Countrywide compensate holders of some securities backed by mortgages if the lender changes the terms of the loans.

The fund, Greenwich Financial Services, said it and other investors stood to lose money if Countrywide, now part of Bank of America, modified loans under a settlement that it reached with 11 state attorneys general in October.

Seriously, what were you thinking when you turned over the rock that was Countrywide Financial, saw the slime that lay beneath, and started to eat that, Mr. Lewis?

The problem with superstar multimillion dollar CEOs is that they don’t think that the basic rules of reality apply to them.

I Hope That This Is False, but I Fear That It Is True

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Well, the word is out on the street, or at least the WSJ has heard, that Bush and His Evil Minions™ don’t need to pardon themselves, because the Democrats will sweep this all under the rug for him.

Read the article carefully. It doesn’t say it straight out, but with lines like:

While Vice President-elect Joseph Biden suggested interest during the campaign in pursuing a criminal probe, Brooke Anderson, spokeswoman for the Obama transition office issued a statement Monday saying, “No decisions about interrogation issues will be made before the full national security and legal teams are in place.”

It leaves very little to the imagination. They are soft pedaling this.

No Secretaries, no Under-Secretaries, no Generals, probably not even any Colonels. Maybe a Major or 2 prosecuted, but mostly enlisted men and NCOs being prosecuted for things that they were told to do by superiors.

A continuation of the Bush policy.

It’s just too icky that the previous administration are, you know, a bunch of f$ck&ng war criminals who launched the most brazen assault on the Constitution since Jefferson Davis became a bitch for slavery.

Hamdan to Be Repatriated to Yemen

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We capture him, we torture him for 7 years, we put him in front of what was intended to be a Kangaroo court, which promptly rules that Salim Ahmed Hamdan was not a terrorist mastermind, he was just a driver, and he should be sentenced to time served plus enough extra time to make sure that Bush and His Evil Minions&trade are out of office.

Well, it looks like Bush has given up on having his trophy, because Hamdan is to be shipped back to Yemen in the next few days.

Good for him, but this exercise that could best be described as Kafkaesque has harmed the United States and its interest at every step in the process, all because authorizing torture is the only way that Dick Cheney can get a hard on.

Corrupt Arbitration Update

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Well, I haven’t checked my blog email for a while, but we did get a note from a representative of American Apparrel regarding my previous blog post, which I am publishing unedited (except for ####ing out some identifying information).

I will follow with a response.

from Ryan #### <####@americanapparel.net>
to msaroff2007@gmail.com
date Sat, Nov 22, 2008 at 11:05 PM
subject Dov Charney
mailed-by americanapparel.net

Matthew,

The reason the arbitration hearing’s outcome was predetermined was because the plaintiff gave an unsolicited confession that the accusations were fault and her attorney admitted that the charges were ‘bogus.’ American Apparel agreed to a proposed settlement only to avoid further legal fees which the case would have occurred had it went to trial. The settlement hinged on press release not because American Apparel attempted to mislead the public but because we refused a settlement that did not include public vindication.

Regardless of your opinion on the arbitration process, the company was a victim of malicious and false prosecution. I would be happy to show you the court documents in Mary Nelson V American Apparel where she was fined $7,500 by the court for falsifying evidence. It is your right to publish as you wish, but in this case, your facts are mistaken and defamatory.

Ryan ######

Truth be told, I don’t care about Dov Charney, Mary Nelson, or the legion of sexual harassment charges that have dogged the former.

I thought that I made that clear in my first post, but perhaps I did not.

My issue was about the arbitration system and it’s gleeful and knowing participation of that arbitration system in an abuse of the legal process.

If someone went into a court of law under these circumstances, where the court case was merely to confirm an existing agreement, there would likely be very well deserved judicial sanctions all around.

There are a number of potential ways to handle this which do not involve a judicial process, a sworn affidavit, a joint news conference, some combination of the two, etc.

However, to use arbitration solely for the purpose of creating a press release is an indication that the arbitration process is hopelessly corrupt.

The supporters of arbitration suggest that it is like the courts, only, “streamlined”. This case shows that it is not.

It shows that arbitration is an ethical vacuum.