6 days ago, I noted Andrew Cuomo’s investigation of collusion between banks and property assessors.
Now, he has expanded the investigation to include Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
I think that we are going to find that corruption was the rule, not the exception, in the real estate bubble, at all levels.
The prosecution dropped the attempted murder charge.
At the end of the day, the only just resolution will be that the Jena 6 have their charges dropped, and the racist cracker DA goes to jail.
Seeing as how the statute of limitations expires on November 15, this is not surprising in the least.
The most basic point is that Guiliani plucked this guy out of obscurity, and he will be going to jail because he is mobbed up.
Of course, there is also the bit where used an apartment that had been donated to the city for the benefit of ground zero workers to f%$# Judith Regan, but he’s still Rudy’s guy.
It raises the obvious question, just how will Rudy screw up in selecting his inner circle next? Is he going to select a pedophile priest or something?
Oh….Wait…He already has.
It appears that there may be a filibuster on Mukasey. FWIW, I’m hoping that there is one.
I don’t expect it to stick, but this should be a defining issue for any Democrat: Do you support, or oppose torture? If you do, I, and you, should work towards defeating these people in the primaries, and yes, that means you Schumer and Feinstein.*
*Full disclosure, my great grandfather, Harry Goldman, and her grandfather, Sam Goldman were brothers.
I should note that it is Republican Senator Charles Grassley who is appearing to take the lead on this.
They want to see if too much of the tax exempt* money is going to fund a lavish lifestyle.
Ole Anthony, of the Trinity Foundation has been trying to get coverage of this for years, and finally went to Grassley because the press would not cover it.
My guess is that part of the reason for the lack of press coverage is a fear of being attacked by the religious institutions, and the other reason is because churches are allowed to conceal their financial dealings in ways that other non-profits are not,‡ which makes it tougher for the average reporter to get the information they need to make a story.
With the threat of congressional subpoenas, the information that Grassley gets should be more complete.
*I actually have some experience with laws involving tax-exempt religious and educational institutions, section 501(c)3 of the tax code. In 1990, I incorporated a group that put on a literary conferences, Arisia as a Massachusetts non-profit and a federal 501(c)3†.
†Truth be told, in a sane world, it would have had to incorporate as a 501(c)7, a membership organization, but the 501(c)3 code is lax enough to slip it in, and we needed the low postage rates available for a 501(c)3, but not a 501(c)7. It was legal, as to the ethics, I try to think about Arisia as little as possible for any number of reasons.
‡BTW, one of the problems about getting information about how churches are run is that unlike other tax exempt organizations, churches are not required to file form 990s, which are public documents with fairly full financial disclosure.
Your tax dollars at work.
FBI Hoped to Follow Falafel Trail to Iranian Terrorists Here
By Jeff Stein, CQ National Security Editor
Like Hansel and Gretel hoping to follow their bread crumbs out of the forest, the FBI sifted through customer data collected by San Francisco-area grocery stores in 2005 and 2006, hoping that sales records of Middle Eastern food would lead to Iranian terrorists.The idea was that a spike in, say, falafel sales, combined with other data, would lead to Iranian secret agents in the south San Francisco-San Jose area.
The brainchild of top FBI counterterrorism officials Phil Mudd and Willie T. Hulon, according to well-informed sources, the project didn’t last long. It was torpedoed by the head of the FBI’s criminal investigations division, Michael A. Mason, who argued that putting somebody on a terrorist list for what they ate was ridiculous — and possibly illegal.
…
If Mudd and Hulon are still working for the FBI, something is deeply wrong.
*That title is not my idea. It comes from the guy who runs MyNuMo, who, like everyone on the bloody internet, writes better than I do.
Remember when I said that Arlen Specter would make noises, but when push came to shove, he would do whatever Bush told him to?
Specter has now confirmed that he is Bush’s Bitch will vote for Mukasey.
No surprise here. He never fails to fold like overcooked broccoli.
The most interesting thing about this case is that it would be directly applicable to any member of the press who publishes something liked to them.
It’s a pity that a bunch of stupid rightwing pukes like AIPAC are at the center of this.
I would also add as an addendum, that he likely expects to authorize such behavior, and an admission that it is torture would be an admission of guilt.
Normally, I’d go with something “earthier” but, I’m trying not to be crude.
They are voting to support Mukasey’s Nomination.
With Shcumer, I think that it’s just that he doesn’t want to admit that he’s wrong. As to Feinstein, she always seems to do this. I think that it may come from the fact that when she first (or 2nd, I can’t recall) she ran against some Republican Rich pig, and had to mortgage her house to have enough money to compete.
Her ostensible argument, that this is the best we could possibly expect, while likely true, is also not her real motivation. She’s gone this route way too many times for me to believe.
*Full disclosure, my great grandfather, Harry Goldman, and her grandfather, Sam Goldman were brothers.
This comes as no surprise. After all, as much as pukes like Joe Lieberman would have us believe it, being a Bush dog is not a statement of strength, but a statement of weakenss, so with dear leader at 26 percent, the Republicans are threatening attack ads, because they might support investigations into Bush wrongdoing.
This is cowardice, and when these folks act this way, it depicts the entire Democratic party as a bunch of cowards who can’t be trusted. That is why they are a liability that needs to be minimized.
This isn’t Dan Burton and his watermelons. This is an investigation into turning the Justice Department into a wing of the Republican party. It is worse than anything Nixon ever did.
Message to Bush Dogs, stand up for your country and grow a backbone. This isn’t politics, this is the country that you have to say.
To quote REPUBLICAN Dick Thornburgh, George Herbert Walker Bush’s Attorney General:
“The citizens of the United States must have confidence that the department is conducting itself in a fair and impartial” manner, “without actual political influence or the appearance of political influence.
Unfortunately, that may no longer be the case,” Thornburgh said.
Good, I can think of few people more deserving of being ground into the dust by their victims than the “God hates fags” crowd.
This goes to the father of a dead soldier.
It to just one case in Mississippi, but effectively it means a stay on lethal injection executions for a few months.
Considering the 3rd world level of jurisprudence in states that are heavily into the death penalty *cough* Texas *cough*, this is a good thing.
Well, there has now been a plea in the Fort Dix “terrorism” case. It’s Agron Abdullahu, and he was charged with weapons violations, not a direct involvement in the planning or execution of the event.
The more I look at what various “home grown” terrorists appear to have been planning, the more that it is clear that hese guys are serious wannabes, and they remind me less of terrorists than they do of the pseudo trekkies who referred to episodes by number in that Saturday Night Live sketch with William Shatner.
Remember these guys? They decided that they wanted to attack a military installation, and settled on Fort Dix, because one of them knew the lay of the base from delivering pizzas there.
The FBI learned of the plot when the men went to a Circuit City store and asked a clerk to transfer a jihad training video of themselves onto a DVD..
Which are they more like, this guy, 
, or this Guy? 
My money is on comic book guy.
You find the same thing with the “Seas of David” morons. You know, the ones who were “planning to bomb the Sears Tower”, but needed to get some groundwork out of the way, so they, like, you know, went down to the local 7-11 to find supporters, and combat with paintball.
Let’s be fair. While I have met some serious lamers at Science Fiction Conventions, and this is not limited to Trek, none of them are this lame. These guys make that 45 year old virgin arguing about continuity in Lost in Space look like Pierce Brosnan.
I think that you are a bit late to the game, dude. It’s been clear for years that not only are these guys supportive of torture when necessary, but that they see it as an independent good. They support torture for its own sake.
ABC News has the text of the Blackwater immunity deal:
I understand this statement is being given in furtherance of an official administrative inquiry,” and that, “I further understand that neither my statements nor any information or evidence gained by reason of my statements can be used against me in a criminal proceeding, except that if I knowingly and willfully provide false statements or information, I may be criminally prosecuted for that action under 18 United States Code, Section 1001.
While the State Department claims that this still allows for prosecution, the case clearly indicates otherwise, particularly in the DC Circuit Court, where this would almost certainly be heard.
Josh Marshall called on “a highly knowledgeable source“, and their assessment was that “Use Immunity”, pretty much eliminates the possibility of presecution:
Additionally, even if there was no authorization and the immunity was granted in error, the courts, particularly the DC Circuit, generally still treat it as if it were.
I call coverup.
First, it appears that Dodd may have an outsized effect on the other senators running for president. Since Dodd’s promise of a filibuster on telco immunity, which as I’ve detailed earlier, I believe to be be sincere, principled, and deeply held, his campaign, and his campaign donations have taken a major leap.
Because of this, I think that there are a number of candidates out there who have felt compelled to take stands both on the warrantless wiretapping and on Mukasey as Attorney General. Hillary is now opposing Mukasey over his obfuscation over waterboarding, so has Obama, and Biden is in opposition too.
Among the non-senators, Edwards is calling for him not to be approved, using references to the Spanish Inquisition*.
Meanwhile, Mukasey is saying that waterboarding is “repugnant”, but still, as he has clearly been instructed (more detail further down) refuses to call it unconstitutional torture.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT ) and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) have both said that their votes depend on Mukasey’s answer to this question, and Republicans Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) and Arlen Specter (R-PA) have expressed concerns. Truth be told, Graham is more significant than Specter. He always “expresses concern”, and then he votes with Bush and His Evil Minions™.
Time Magazine has an interesting account of the backstage negotiations:
Some Democrats on the committee have tried to help Mukasey get out of the box he’s in. Harold Kim, a former Specter staffer who works in the White House Counsel’s office, has been negotiating with Judiciary Committee Democrats, trying to find language they can live with. But attempts to compromise with Congress have met resistance from Cheney’s office, and when it comes to interrogation techniques, the Vice President and his chief of staff, David Addington, have notoriously pushed for presidential authority to go unchecked by the legislative branch.
So it looks like they are trying to split rhetorical hairs, but there is also the question as to why is this the Vice President’s business? The AG serves the President, not him.
*I didn’t expect a bloody Spanish Inquisition!†
†NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition! Our chief weapon is surprise…surprise and fear…fear and surprise…. Our two weapons are fear and surprise…and ruthless efficiency…. Our *three* weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency…and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope…. Our *four*…no… *Amongst* our weapons…. Amongst our weaponry…are such elements as fear, surprise…. I’ll come in again.‡
‡Yes, this did make my day.
I don’t normally post my emails to other lists here, but I thought this one, part of the discussion on the JOINint* list involved enough thought (well actually enough Googling) that I should post it here.
We were discussing a rather bone-headed statement by Tom Lantos, and some issues of international law came up.
On Tue, 30 Oct 2007, Ari Blumenfeld wrote:
Dear Matthew,
Thank you for correcting that. Are you absolutely certain about the
child-prisoners?
At least one, and he is charged with throwing a grenade at a soldier in Afghanistan in a pitched battle and killing him, which he denies.
This story mentions 3 children aged 13-15, and “more than two and fewer than five” children aged 16-18.
What other war crimes are there?
Systematic torture. Rendition to be tortured. The admission of torture derived evidence.
Additionally, you have “Waging Aggressive War”, which is probably not covered, but was what some people were executed for following WW II (von Ribbentrop and Tojo).
Of interest are some of the charges against Tojo (from the Wiki):
Can we extradite the Bush administration to the Hague for their part in what appears to be war crimes?
Agencies are forbidden under US law to cooperate with the ICC. That legislation also included an authorization of the use of Military force to remove US citizens from custody.
Of interest is the geographic range of the court (also from Wiki):
Since Afghanistan is a signatory, it could apply to actions originating there, but the secret gulags in Poland would probably not be, because Poland is not a full signatory yet. It would, however, apply to someone seized in Afghanistan and sent to Gitmo or the other Gulags.
*Jewish Opinions, Ideas, and News, International It spun off from another group when it descended into right wing agitprop.
The New York Times has some interesting insights into Chriss Dodd.
Mr. Dodd, who had a very public bachelorhood after his first marriage ended (dates with Bianca Jagger and Carrie Fisher) before settling down in 1999 with a wife, Jackie Marie Clegg
So he dated Princess Leia, but more significant is his fathers work as a prosecutor at the Nuremburg trials.
His issues with torture and warrantless wiretapping really stem from his experience with his father, who he clearly admired greatly, and a very large part of his work on civil right is about living up to what he considers his fathers heroism at Nuremburg.
This time, it involves Dr. Cyryl Wecht, the former Allegheny County Coroner, and former Attorney General, Pennsylvania Governor and former senate candidate, and staunch Republican Dick Thornburgh has testified before congress about this prosecution.
Thornburgh is one of Wecht’s defense lawyers, and his complaints stem from what he’s called the “sheer intensity” of the investigation, which involves relatively minor accusations that Thornburgh says should have been handled by the state ethics commission.
As a means of showing the relative triviality of the charges (the 84-count indictment doesn’t put a price tag on Wecht’s fraud), Wecht’s lawyers have calculated that the cumulative cost for the 37 charges in the indictment that involve improperly charging the county for gasoline and mileage costs add up to $1,778.55. The most colorful of the charges, of course, involve the elaborate body snatching scheme: prosecutors allege that Wecht gave a local Catholic university unclaimed bodies in exchange for laboratory space.
The source of the investigation’s “intensity” is U.S. Attorney for Pittsburgh Mary Beth Buchanan, a member of the DoJ’s inner circle who played a role in the U.S. attorney firings. It’s not the first time that Buchanan has drawn fire. During the heat of the scandal, a former assistant U.S. attorney in the district (from 1995-2000, before Buchanan took over) publicly called on Buchanan to resign because of “the extent to which she has looked to Washington for direction and political advancement.” Or to put it in plainer terms: Buchanan has prosecuted a number of Democrats but no Republicans.
There is also a history of not particularly veiled threats toward the defense attorneys.
Seriously, once Bush and His Evil Minions™ are out of office, we are going to have to deBushify our government in the way that we deNazified the German one after WW II.
Bush has polluted everything he has ever touched in his life.