This guy is a Pulitzer prize winning photographer, and Scott Horton has the goods on the phony trial, designed to create a real conviction, that the US military has set up for him.
Go read, then go contact your congressman.
Category: Justice
California Court Rules That Health Insurance Company Cancellations Frequently Illegal
This is good news for our friends in California.
The substance of the ruling:
- Insurance companies must check the accuracy of the applications before accepting the people for coverage.
- That the insured must be shown to have wilfully misrepresented their health status.
- That the low rescission rates upon application implied a deliberate policy of waiting until the claims rolled in to cancel.
A health plan, the court went on, “may not adopt a ‘wait and see’ attitude after learning of facts justifying rescission.” The court said companies could not continue to “collect premiums while keeping open its rescission option if the subscriber later experiences a serious accident or illness that generates large medical expenses.”
CIA Coverup: Muzzling Its Inspector General
According to this LA Times acricle, the retributive prope of the the CIA Inspector General by the CIA has yielded the desired results, “CIA Inspector General John L. Helgerson has consented to more than a dozen procedural changes designed to address complaints that investigations carried out by his office were unfair to agency employees”.
The fact that the IG signed off on a letter from an Assistant AG Kenneth Wainstein telling congress to back off on its investigations without any explanation of how such an investigation could jeopardize the AG/IG investigation, is a pretty good explanation of what happened.
It appears that the old saying is true, an operation is preformed, and there are three possible results:
- The boy dies.
- The boy sings soprano in a choir well into adulthood.
- The boy becomes the CIA’s inspector general.
A Must Read Book: How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative
Well, the continuing unfolding scandal of the 2002 New Hampshire phone jamming scandal has provided quite a lot of insight into how Republicans work, and How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative, by Allen Raymond, is one of the products of the scandal.
As a result of his being fingered as the fall guy for the phone jamming, he was guilty as hell (served 3 months), but he was a foot soldier sacrificed in an attempt to protect the higher ups.
First, we have a McClatchy review of an advance copy of the book, which notes that James Tobin, he former regional director for both the RNC and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (convicted and now on appeal), made 22 calls to the White House *cough* Rove *cough* in the 24 hours surrounding the phone jamming.
As soon as the investigation started, Tobin and Charles McGee, the executive director of the New Hampshire GOP, denied all knowledge, and basically pretended not to know Raymond. In the days following the election, when Raymond “when he phoned Tobin after Sununu’s 19,000-vote election victory to tell him that a Manchester, N.H., police officer was looking into the scheme, Tobin responded, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.'”
Also of interest is his story of the related at TPMmuckraker:
To set the scene: Raymond got a call in 2000* from two former colleagues in New Jersey who ran a consulting shop called Jamestown Associates. They were working for Dick Zimmer, who was running against Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ), the incumbent, and they were pulling out all the stops. (Ed. Note: This post originally stated that this happened in 2002 — that was my mistake, not Raymond’s.)
They’d already succeeded in getting a Green Party candidate on the ballot to drain liberal votes from Holt (a favorite GOP trick). And they had already put Raymond’s firm to work calling Green-oriented households and urging them to support the Green candidate.
But what came next was “even better”:
[Tom Blakely from Jamestown Associates] called me up and asked, “How do you guys find voice talent?”
“Well, I’ve got a whole catalog of different voices on CDs. I’ve got ‘single Northeastern female,’ I’ve got ‘Southern belle’ — what are you looking for?”
“We’re targeting Democrats of Eastern European descent using a surname select and geopolitical filter.”
“Oh,” I said, quickly doing the polarizing-voter math in my head. “How about ‘angry black man’?”
“Yeah, that sounds good. What’s his voice sound like?”
So I cued up one particular actor’s CD on my computer and put the phone to the speaker. The track I played was one in which the actor was deliberately playing up a street gang character.
After listening for a few seconds, Blakely said, “That’s the guy!”
So we had the actor record a spot over the telephone saying, “I’m calling as a Democrat, asking you to vote for the Democratic nominee. We need your vote for Holt.”
I’m not saying that all Eastern European whites are racists, but, no matter where or when an election is held, there is a always a cultural divide that you can rely on. The message was “I’m ghetto black calling you, racist Ukrainian guy, and scaring the crap out of you because you probably think that if you don’t vote for the Democrat I’m going to come to your house and take care of some business.”
The calls were extremely highly targeted, household by household, no message ever left on an answering machine. We wanted the message heard only by people whose reaction would be “I’m not voting for Holt because he uses scary black men to call my house.”
We made calls to Democratic union households supporting Zimmer, taped by actors putting on thick Spanish accents, figuring union workers were the voters who felt most threatened by immigration. The objective was to get them to throw up their hands and stay home on Election Day. We were just forcing those people to make a decision that was true to who they really were. If you want to question someone’s character, look to the people who stayed home because of those calls.
Remember — they were Democrats; they were supposed to be the tolerant ones.
Zimmer lost the election by 481 votes and the Green Party candidate picked up 2 percent in the polls.
Seriously, if it weren’t for bigotry the Republicans would barely outpoll the Monster Raving Loony Party.
BTW, you have to love this comment by Raymond, “As for his three months in a Pennsylvania prison, he wrote: ‘After 10 full years inside the GOP, 90 days among honest criminals wasn’t really any great ordeal.'”
Mukasey Limits White House Access to Investigations
This was the policy before the tenure of Abu Gonzalez, when political operatives had unlimited access to the DoJ, and now we are back to a situation where WH operatives will not have the access exert undue political influence on ongoing investigations:
The original policy authorized more than 40 Justice Department officials and 400 White House officials to know about ongoing investigations, according to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, a leading Democratic proponent of changing the policy.
During the Clinton administration, seven White House and Justice officials were permitted to receive such information.
Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr said Mukasey’s new policy mirrors the Clinton administration’s, but allows more officials to receive details about national security matters.
This is my first pleasant surprise from Bush and His Evil Minions&trade in a long time.
Barclays Sues Bear Stearns
So, now the lawsuits start:
Barclays sues over sub-prime losses
British bank says hedge fund losses were hidden
Andrew Clark
Barclays’ exposure to America’s sub-prime mortgage fiasco took a dramatic turn last night as the bank sued the Wall Street firm Bear Stearns for fraud and deception over the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in an ill-fated hedge fund.
In a lawsuit filed in New York, Barclays accused Bear Stearns of systematically hiding losses in a fund which swallowed $400m (£200m) of the British bank’s money. The fund had to be bailed out in June after reaching the brink of collapse following a disastrous series of investments in mortgage-backed securities.
Barclays described the fund’s demise as “one of the most high profile and shocking hedge fund failures in the last decade”. The suit alleges that up to the last days before the bail-out, Bear Stearns executives engaged in a cover-up to hide the slump in its value.
…
This is going to get worse. We are going to see more lawsuits, and some very big jury verdicts.
With proper regulations, you stop this sort of stuff before it gets out of hand. Without it, you just have lawsuits after the fact.
2002 New Hampshire Phone Jamming, DoJ Dragged Its Feet
In addition to reports that the Bush Department of Justice dragged its feet in investigating the 2002 New Hampshire election day phone jamming, which crippled the Democratic party GOTV efforts, we now have one of the perps dropping a dime on his former partners in crime at the Republican party.
A former GOP political operative who ran an illegal election-day scheme to jam the phone lines of New Hampshire Democrats during the state’s tight 2002 U.S. Senate election said in a new book and an interview that he believes the scandal reaches higher into the Republican Party.
Allen Raymond of Bethesda, Md., whose book Simon & Schuster will publish next month, also accused the Republican Party of trying to hang all the blame for a scandal on him as part of an “old-school cover-up.”
Raymond’s book, “How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative,” offers a raw, inside glimpse of the phone scandal as it unraveled and of a ruthless world in which political operatives seek to win at all costs.
McClatchy obtained an advance copy of the book.
I believe that we will be seeing a lot more of this.
With Democratic control of the congress, the opportunities for rewards for keeping one’s mouth closed have diminished, and if the Dems take the White House, the possibility for a pardon vanishes.
We will see a lot more people ratting out former friends, and writing books.
BTW, I love his last line, “As for his three months in a Pennsylvania prison, he wrote: “After 10 full years inside the GOP, 90 days among honest criminals wasn’t really any great ordeal.“
Your TortureGate Update
It all comes down to the tapes. It always does.
First, we have reports that the White House discussed whether or not to destroy the torture tapes. Harriet Miers, John Bellinger, Alberto “Abu” Gonzales and David Addington engaged in extensive discussions over a long period as to whether or not to destroy the tapes.
Furthermore, some White House officials were lobbying hard for these tapes destruction.
No big surprise, but there is a surprise, and a good one, the C.I.A. has agreed to share relevant documents with congressional investigators, which means that at least part of the Bush Admin coverup is now over.
Bush and His Evil Minions&trade Back Down on Attempt to Seize Control of JAG Corps
Yesterday, I mentioned how Bush was attempting to put political hacks in charge of the military’s legal corps, one would assume that they were doing this because they have so completely f$%#ed up real trials, so they wanted false ones.
Today, they have backed down. Reviews and promotions will be handled through the military chain of command, not through political hacks.
My guess is that a few dozen of the people involved with the Gitmo trials made it clear that they would resign their commissions if this went through.
Prosecutors Investigating Bear Stearns
Fortune has an article, somewhat amusingly titled titled Prosecutors loaded for Bear, looking into allegations of insider trading.
Specifically, it is alleged that senior fund manager Ralph Cioffi pulled his money out of Bear’s mortgage backed funds about 2 weeks before they imploded.
Drip, drip, drip…I stand by my prediction on Bear Stearns: They will cease to exist as an independent entity before August 2, 2008.
Members of Congress Push for Special Prosecutor in Tapes Case
I was 11 in 1973, and that hed sounds like Deja vu, but Conyers and Kennedy are calling for a special prosecutor to investigate the CIA tape destruction.
Bush and His Evil Minions™ make miss the openness, honesty, and general humanity of the Nixon administration.
I cannot believe that I just said that.
Judge: Hand Over Abramoff Visit Logs
So, a federal fudge, and a Reagan Appointee at that, has ruled that White House visitor logs are public records subject to the Freedom of Information Act.
Basically, the White House claim that maybe, if terrorists take this data, and some other data, and some pixie dust, they could use it for an attack, was dismissed.
The Bush Admin had transferred the records to the White House in an attempt to claim privilidge, but, “But U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth ruled logs from the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney’s residence remain Secret Service documents and are subject to public records requests.”
BTW, one of the kickers is that there is a similar suit before U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer, who Bush appointed, but they decided to consolidate it before Lamberth, despite the fact that Collyer had the older suit, which normally would take precedence.
I think that the judges just told Bush to politely pound sand.
Mukasey Covering Up for Bush
Mukasey has told the CIA not to cooperate with any congressional investigation. Congress would, “just have to wait until the joint Justice Department-CIA probe was done.”
This is why, when John Mitchell resigned during Watergate, the Democrats demanded a special prosecutor as a price for approving a new AG.
Bush and His Evil Minions™ to Muzzle JAG Corps
No surprise here, whenever professional standards or honesty get in the way of a Bush administration policy, you can be sure that Bush administration will find a way to punish those who choose to do the right thing.
The former JAG officers say the regulation would end the uniformed lawyers’ role as a check-and-balance on presidential power, because politically appointed lawyers could block the promotion of JAGs who they believe would speak up if they think a White House policy is illegal.
I want my country back.
Another Day, Another Halliburton Gang Rape
Raises a chicken-egg question, is this a product of Dick Cheney being CEO of Halliburton, or did they hire Dick Cheney because they were objective pro rape to start with.
In either case, this company is lawless and should be gone after the same way Elliot Ness went after Al Capone.
Death Penalty In New Jersey
Good. Only about 30 more states to go.
Now, when someone asks, “New Jersey, What Exit?” You have one fewer answers.
Harry Reid Betrays the Constitution. Chris Dodd Calls in Markers to Try to Preserve It
Harry Reid has announced that he will put forward the FISA bill from the intelligence committee, the one with few protections and teleco immunity.
I don’t know why he is choosing George W. Bush over the constitution of the United States, though I think it may have something to do with the fact that he’s gotten a lot of campaign donations from them.
He is also refusing to recognize Chris Dodd’s hold on the bill, which means that Dodd will have to actually filibuster.
I’m not sure why. After all he allowed Neanderthal Tom Coburn to block an investigation of the brutal racist murder of Emmett Till and other unsolved racial crimes.
In any case, Chris Dodd is reminding Senators Clinton and Obama of their promise to support his filibuster.
A Letter from Dodd Campaign:
Dear Tim, Today, that FISA fight we’ve all been waiting for begins — and it’s time to separate the leaders from the capitulators.
In a few hours, Majority Leader Harry Reid will ask for something called a “motion to proceed” on FISA, effectively disregarding Chris Dodd’s “hold” on the bill.
It’s unfortunate that he chose to go this route, to introduce a bill including retroactive immunity when another route could have been chosen just as easily.
So … that means Chris Dodd will start by introducing an amendment to strip retroactive immunity out of the bill.
But if that doesn’t work, he will do all he can to stop this bill that threatens our security, and that may include a “filibuster.”
Remember when this all started playing out? A lot of people rushed to send out strongly worded press releases about how committed they were to “supporting a filibuster.”
They’ll have a chance to show they are true to their word.
Call or email the Senators that pledged their opposition to this bill to support the Dodd Amendment and a filibuster if necessary. And ask them to be there with Dodd when it counts.
http://chrisdodd.com/filibuster
You don’t demonstrate leadership in the footnotes of a press release, or parroting responses from focus groups.
Leadership is demonstrated through action.
Tim Tagaris
Chris Dodd for President
Hillary I expect to stick to her word, Obama, I expect him to miss the vote.
Republicans Specter and Grassley Join With Dems to Vote Contempt Against Bolton and Rove
Well, that’s two more Republicans than I expected.
Unfortunately, I don’t think that anyone will push this any further. The Democrats don’t have the guts to even bring this to the floor.
Lamo Terrorists Jurors Deadlock in 6 of 7 Defendants | World Latest | Guardian Unlimited
And they acquitted number seven.
This case has been a ginned up clusterf%$# from the beginning. Someone found a group of nutbags, and either (the FBI or Prosecutors) thought that a terrorism bust would make their careers, or they (paid informants) thought that they were dumb enough to unknowingly play along with them so that they could stay on the Department of Justice gravy train.
These guys are too whacked out and too stupid to organize a PTA meeting, much less engage in terrorism. This is precisely the sort of manufactred bullsh&$ that seems to happen every time that Bush and His Evil Minions&trade need something to distract from the bad news coming out of the White House.
Former Gitmo Prosecutor Blasts Military Commissions, Bush and His Evil Minions™ Order Him Not to Testify Before Congress
Interesting, Colonel Morris Davis, former prosecutor writes an OP/ED for the LA Times about why he stepped down from his position as prosecutor as the Pentagon’s Chief War Crimes Prosecutor blasts the military commissions process because he, “”elt that the system had become deeply politicized and that I could no longer do my job effectively or responsibly.”
He goes on to state that the commissions lacked the, “atmosphere of honesty and impartiality”, essential to legitimacy. He accuses the convening authority (basically the people who will act as judge and jury)), of, “Intermingling convening authority and prosecutor roles perpetuates the perception of a rigged process stacked against the accused.”
Further he believes that the trials can be conducted largely in open court, and that closed door proceedings further degraded the legitimacy of the proceedings.
The Senate Judiciary Committee called him, but did not subpoena him, to testify before them on these and related issues, but he was ordered not to appear.
Orwell is spinning so rapidly in his grave that you could power all of Bristol with him.