Category: Justice

RIAA v. Thomas Sent Back for New Arguments

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It appears that courts are becoming increasingly restrictive on the scope of RIAA claims, and new arguments, and possibly a new jury trial, have been ordered as a result.

In this case, the RIAA got a judgment of $220,000.00 from Ms. Davis, but:

That was the case in the trial last fall of Jammie Thomas of Brainerd. A U.S. district court judge, Michael Davis, instructed jurors that making sound recordings available without permission violates record company copyrights “regardless of whether actual distribution has been shown.”

On Thursday, Davis said that may have been a mistake.

He wrote that he found a 1993 ruling from the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Minnesota, that said infringement requires “an actual dissemination of either copies or phonorecords.”

One wonders why he is asking for a re-ruling without either side having brought up this original ruling.

My guess is that his grand kid with the iPod told him.

Countrywide Shareholder Lawsuit May Proceed

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Gee, what makes you think that the people running the lender were more interested in lining their own pockets than running a business competently?*

Directors and officers of Countrywide Financial, the beleaguered mortgage lender, must answer shareholder accusations of insider trading and an overall failure to monitor lending practices that led to the company’s collapse, a federal judge in California has ruled.

Rejecting the arguments of Countrywide executives and directors that they were unaware of lax loan operations that led to ballooning defaults, Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer of Federal District Court in Los Angeles ruled Tuesday that she found confidential witness accounts in the shareholder complaint to be credible and that they suggested “a widespread company culture that encouraged employees to push mortgages through without regard to underwriting standards.”

Plaintiffs also identified “numerous red flags” that would have warned directors of increasingly risky loans made by Countrywide, according to the judge, who rejected a motion to dismiss the suit. “It defies reason, given the entirety of the allegations,” Judge Pfaelzer wrote, “that these committee members could be blind to widespread deviations from the underwriting policies and standards being committed by employees at all levels. At the same time, it does not appear that the committees took corrective action.”

Hope that these folks are left completely destitute. They should spend the rest of their lives in homeless shelters and gutters.

*The interesting thing about this is how many people are shocked by this. Capitalism 101 is that people act for their own benefit, but somehow the senior executives are exempt from all this?

5 Gitmo detainees to face 9/11 capital case – 05/12/2008 – MiamiHerald.com

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In what is rather politically convenient timing, the Guantanamo kangaroo court has formally decided to charge Khalid Sheik Mohammed, Ammar al Baluchi; Ramzi bin al Shibh, a Yemeni who allegedly organized the Sept. 11 suicide squads; and alleged co-conspirators Walid Bin Attash and Mustafa al Hawsawi with capital offenses relating to the 911 attacks.

If the Bush administration gets its way, they’ll try to have the trial in process in September and October, though I think that the defense might throw a monkey wrench into the works.

The potential 6th defendant, Mohammad al-Qahtani, had all charges dropped, probably because all of the evidence against him was as a result of torture, though Paul Keil of TPM has an alternate hypothesis:

The Convening Authority Susan Crawford had planned to include charges against Mohammed al Qahtani, the supposed 20th hijacker, along with the other five, but Qahtani has been struck from the charging sheet. Now, Qahtani’s lawyer has immediately jumped to the conclusion that Crawford’s decision to dismiss the charges affirms “that everything he said at Guantánamo was extracted through torture — or the threat of torture,” and that his treatment was “so well documented and unconscionable that he is unprosecutable.” But I gotta figure that this crew is sharper than that. Crawford can bring those chargers against Qahtani at any time. The 20th hijacker deserves his own unique launch, to be sure. Maybe in October?

Me, I’m a cynic, so I’m inclined to go with Mr. Keil.

Bush and His Evil Minions™ Next Plan for Politicizing Terror Trials?

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One of the things that is going on right now is that the Bush administration, recognizing that they will be leaving power shortly, are trying to protect themselves from future prosecution and litigation. Jeffrey Toobin in the New Yorker* notes that the Bush administration is desperately trying to make their system of kangaroo courts and torture appear legal, or, failing that, at least make it appear routine:

In any case, according to lawyers inside and outside government, the Bush Administration may launch a proposal for a national-security court this summer or fall, after what they presume will be its next loss in the Supreme Court. “It looks like when Boumediene comes down the Court may say to the President and Congress that they need more procedures for the detainees,” Goldsmith said. “So, to correct the problem, the President might consider sending something up to Congress this summer or fall. It would help the Republicans in the fall election.” The measure would force congressional Democrats to take a stand on the issue in the middle of the campaign—just as Bush did successfully with the Military Commissions Act after the Hamdan defeat. “It worked very well in 2006,” Goldsmith said. “The only way the Democrats have to not make it an election issue is to give the President the powers he seeks.”

Seeing as how the only driving ideology of the Bush administration has been the abuse of government power for political advantage, this surprises me not one whit.

H/t Mithras

*So there are other reasons to read them besides just the cartoons…though their cartoons are da bomb.

Government Crisis Over Pakistani Judges Continues

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It appears that Nawaz Sharif’s party has quit the Pakistani government ruling coalition over the issue of reinstating judges.

It appears that at the center of this disupte is deposed Chief Justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, who has committed the sin of being a judge:

He held the ruling elite to account. He rattled the security establishment by pursuing the case of the “missing” – alleged terror suspects abducted and held incommunicado by Pakistan’s intelligence services.

And he took up legal challenges to President Musharraf’s re-election.

Additionally, there are indications that the Pakistani high court would likely rule that the state of emergency, and possibly Musharraf’s grant of amnesty to PPP head Asif Zardari who would otherwise be charged with corruption.

Guantanamo Court Bars Senior General from Participation

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General Thomas Hartmann, the senior officer in the Office of Military Commissions, has been barred from any participation in the Hamdan trial by senior judge Navy Captain Keith Allred.

The defense, bolstered by testimony from former chief prosecutor Morris Davis, claimed that Hartmann was exerting undue pressure on the prosecutors to rush the “sexy cases”, and hurry prosecutions for political gain, and use evidence obtain by torture.

We are seeing increasing push back, on many levels against the Bush Agenda, by judicial and bureaucratic forces, because there is an increasing realization that Bush and His Evil Minions™ have less than 9 months left on their term, and they are irrelevant.

The judge’s decision on the Yoo memos also reflects this.

Your Government at Work

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Yes, the US Department of Agriculture is taking cattle ranchers to court to prevent them from doing Mad Cow tests on beef intended for export.

A number of foreign customers, particularly the Japanese, are demanding this, but the Ag Department wants to prevent testing, because it might “confuse” consumers.

The real reason is that they are in big beef’s pocket, and they are fairly sure that if testing were done, they would get some native home grown positives.

Office of Special Counsel Raided by FBI

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Details here, here, here, here, and here.

It appears that Scott Bloch was the target of the raid, which appears to be about obstruction of justice, at least that was what was on the subpoena.

Note that Bloch had his disk wiped to NSA standards some time back, and claimed that it was virus removal:

Jeff Phelps, who runs Washington’s Geeks on Call franchise, declined to talk about specific clients, but said calls placed directly by government officials are unusual. He also said erasing a drive is an unusual virus treatment. “We don’t do a seven-level wipe for a virus,” he said.

He used the office for political advantage, and then covered it up.

Why he needed computer consultants to break the law is beyond me though.

In 1989, before it became horrific bloatware, Norton Utilities had this ability, and you could find a dozen or so similar utilities on the Google, but having a receipt like this pretty much slam

Bush Plans to Use Guantanamo Trials for November Election Failing

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It appears that non only will they miss the election deadlines, but that the trials will not have started by the time that Bush leaves office either.

This affair is a complete cock-up. We already have the former prosecutor saying that administration officials were demanding convictions because an acquittal would be inconvenient, and , “and one high-ranking Pentagon officer has been quoted talking about the “strategic political value” of doing so before the November elections,” so it looks like this mess will be dumped on whoever is sworn in in 2009, as Will Bunch notes.

The Mongoose Gang* in the US

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It appears that people under investigation in what appear to be politically motivated cases, and those who whistle blow on the same, are being systematically targeted with arson, break ins, and attempts to force their car from the road.

Cases in point:

  • Governor Don Siegelman home was burglarized twice with nothing taken, “the only items of interest to the burglars were the files in Siegelman’s home office.”
  • Siegelman’s attorney experienced the same type of break-in at her office.
  • Dana Jill Simpson, who went on 60 Minutes to allege that Siegelman was the target of a political prosecution had her home burned down, and her car forced off the road.
  • In Muississipi, in a similar case, attorney Paul Minor, had his office broken into, Mississippi Supreme Court Justice, Oliver E. Diaz Jr., had his home burglarized, again with nothing taken except documents and a computer , and another defendant, John Whitfield, had his office was the target of arson.

I want my country back.

*Mongoose Gang reference is here. I went on vacation to Grenada a number of times as a kid, and the name given to Eric Gairy’s group of thugs and bully-boys used to enforce political intimidation always stuck in my head.

Borzou Daragahi and Raheem Salman are F&^%ing Morons

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And so are the US diplomats that they interviewed, because they find it somehow culturally alien that an envelope of cash won’t make everything better with regards to the Blackwater massacre in Baghdad.

As Spencer Ackerman so eloquently states:

If an unaccountable band of politically-connected soldiers-of-fortune shot my mother as she was trying to flee from a traffic circle, and the State Department offered me $5,000 in order to make the incident go away, I would not only be angry, I would be exploring my options for revenge. You don’t have to be an Iraqi to understand this.

If this happened in America, you would have family members demanding the death penalty

$5000 and a meaningless apology does not mean anything them, and it does not mean anything to us.

We are treating them like easily bought off sub humans, and they have legitimate cause to take exception.

The problem is that some of the soldiers in Iraq will die for what the mercenaries did in Iraq.