Wednesday
May152013
Eric Holder Comments On AP Investigation
NOTHING WRONG WITH SUBPOENA
Short clip from yesterday's press conference.
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AP STORY
Govt obtains unprecedented AP phone records in probe
The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative's top executive called a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into how news organizations gather the news.
May 15, 2013 at 4:08 PM
Reader Comments (29)
http://www.politicaljack.com/threads/51931-Scandel-4-OB...
7 hours ago ... Scandel #4: OBAMA'S DOJ WIRETAPPED CONGRESS CLOAKROOM. Now that HOPE/CHANGE has morphed into Nixon on steroids, GOP ...
BREAKING: OBAMA/HOLDER DOJ BUGGED CONGRESSIONAL CLOAKROOM
Eric Holder and Barack Obama have yet even more explaining to do. According to Congressman Devin Nunes (R-CA) the DOJ has been bugging and spying on the Congressional Cloakroom, a private room where Congress eats, naps and socializes during session
Will Susan Rice ever go AWAY?
Will anyone inside the beltway come to their senses and strenuously object, simply on common sense to this action?
Report: Susan Rice’s promotion to National Security Advisor ‘definitely happening’: ”
Benghazigate might have derailed Ambassador Susan Rice’s bid to be Secretary of State, but the ‘extraordinary’ Rice might have a promotion in her future after all. Foreign Policy reports today that Rice ‘has become the heir apparent to National Security Advisor Tom Donilon — a post at the epicenter of foreign-policy decision making and arguably more influential than secretary of state.’ Writer John Hudson quotes an unnamed source as saying ‘it’s definitely happening.’
Susan Rice National Security advisor? More farce from the Obama theater.—
Wisdom for Women (@wisdomforwomen) May 15, 2013
Incredible! Obama to Promote Incompetent Leftist Tool Liar Susan Rice to America’s Top National Security Positon @FP thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/05/…—
Chris Angelini, Cris (@ConserValidity) May 16, 2013
Susan rice is going to get promoted to NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR?! Right, cuz tilting your head & lying to the public qualifies you for that—
Maya Grim (@maya0830) May 15, 2013
Oh yeah #SusanRice has proven she can lie under pressure, give her a promotion tinyurl.com/b5qu52g #
July 12 deadline has passed! The industry was pushing for the usual “race to the bottom” approach,
We need to make sure that EVERY Goldman Guy has a spot at the top!
With the anniversary of the Crash on the 15, it would be nice to hae DB to discuss the current situation.
Charlie Gasparo says the banks have learned NOTHING. Lots of new rules but still lots of holes for the Crooksters.
http://thehill.com/policy/technology/230795-ex-cbs-reporter-irs-targeted-group-leader-to-testify-on-new-ag
Lynch was the "prosecutor" of HSBC in the infamous money-laundering case in which no one was prosecuted despite the bank's flat-out admissions of criminal liability in December 2012.
Eric Holder claimed that prosecuting certain banks could destabilize the global financial system. When pressed for evidence, Holder said the DOJ relied on destabilization "experts," not one of whom was ever identified despite two congressional investigations into the experts' identities.
When asked by Congress who the experts were at a May 2013 hearing, the DOJ witness, Mythili Raman (who later left her 17-year DOJ career to join Lanny Breuer at Covington & Burling) repeatedly claimed that many banks--HSBC being one of them--were still under investigation, and thus that revealing the experts' names might interfere with these investigations (which of course are wholly nonexistent).
It turns out that the HSBC case settlement crafted by Loretta Lynch was pioneering in one regard. Up until then, the DOJ--when declining to prosecute--would either (1) not bring a case to begin with or (2) withdraw the case from the court's docket after filing by entering into a deferred- or non-prosecution agreement; either way the dismissal of the case would terminate any investigation.
Lynch changed that by keeping the case on the court's docket. Judge John Gleeson was puzzled by the maneuver, speculating that it might have been motivated by PR for the DOJ.
In fact, however, the maneuver is designed to conceal the names of the bankers (and their lawyers) who instruct the DOJ not to prosecute, using the rubric of "systemic risk" and "global destabilization" and assorted nonsense. By keeping the cases against criminal banks open, you see, the DOJ can refuse to identify its real bosses by claiming that they are experts participating in ongoing investigations.
Mythili Raman asserted this very shield of confidentiality at least a dozen times in a May 2013 hearing before the House. She was rewarded with a multimillion-dollar partnership at Covington.
For her own, much more significant part (having fooled a jurist of some stature, not a mere panel of inbred congressional nitwits), Loretta Lynch will be rewarded with the Attorney Generalship.
That's the reality.
The appearance of Sharyl Attkisson will probably make for good theater, but undeniably falls under the category of "Panem et Circensus."
http://www.wlrk.com/docs/HSBC.PDF
Gleeson's reluctance to keep the case open is apparent not only from plain language of the order itself, but also from the fact that it took him seven months to enter it.
You might wonder why, since he waited seven months, Gleeson didn't wait even longer or just refuse to enter the agreement at all. There's no way of knowing, of course, but it's worth noting that there was another player of note in the sordid HSBC affair: James Comey.
Comey had been a deputy DOJ prosecutor under boy Bush. He left for lucrative gigs at Lockheed and later Bridgewater Associates.
HSBC hired Comey in January 2013 to its Board of Directors, paying him around $230,000 per year for a sinecures. By sheer coincidence, Comey was nominated by Obama as FBI Director in May 2013.
Thus, not only was HSBC Board member and FBI Director-apparent Comey on a collision course with the FBI's own written conflicts policy...
http://www.oge.gov/OGE-Advisories/Legal-Advisories/Attachment-to-DO-97-015--Copy-of-Opinion-of-Office-of-Legal-Counsel-about-Employee-Service-on-Boards/ ("Section 208 of title 18 prohibits a government employee from serving on the board of directors of an outside organization in his or her official capacity")
...but even worse, Obama's chosen FBI Director was an active board member of an admittedly criminal enterprise THAT WAS A CRIMINAL DEFENDANT IN A PROSECUTION BY THE DOJ OF WHICH THE FBI IS A PART.
Incredibly, neither the Senate nor Comey seemed remotely aware of the FBI conflict rule that Comey was about to violate head-on. When asked at his confirmation hearing how he would handle an FBI case against HSBC AS BOTH FBI DIRECTOR AND AS AN HSBC BOARD MEMBER, Comey idiotically responded by saying he'd recuse himself!!!
Umm, that response is incorrect, to put it mildly. What's so astonishing is that it satisfied all concerned at the time. That's how saturated in fraud and corruption the U.S. has become.
In any event, that hearing was held on July 9, 2013, meaning it's very likely that Judge Gleeson received to a nudge to enter his order while most judges are on vacation. Comey didn't resign from HSBC until the end of July 2013.
As usual, there was absolutely no follow-up, either on the completely inept question or the predictably vapid answer, in which we learned--contrary to the six years of uninterrupted failure by the DOJ to jail a single Wall Street executive for any of the 100,000 crimes that caused the global financial crisis--that "no one is too big to jail."
The entire congress and the executive branch from the cabinet up ought to be hauled out on the Mall and pilloried for a week while Gibbon's Decline and Fall blares from loudspeakers and passersby have access to an unlimited supply of free rotten eggs and broccoli.
At a nifty little shop on L Street where the rich and famous coif their hair. It'll cost a small fortune, but when shit starts flying, you wanna blend in.
The ratings agency has now been fined, Wall Street has been fined, yet the victims of the crime (the buyers of fraudulently rated junk paper) have not been relieved of the loses incurred by the crime by the perpetrators...
Fines have been less than the actual theft, so chalk it all up to a tax, or just the cost of doing business.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o15uqb30Fq8&feature=youtube_gdata_player
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/23929-jury-nullification-why-every-american-needs-to-learn-this-taboo-verdict
Did you know that, no matter the evidence, if a jury feels a law is unjust, it is permitted to “nullify” the law rather than finding someone guilty? Basically, jury nullification is a jury’s way of saying, “By the letter of the law, the defendant is guilty, but we also disagree with that law, so we vote to not punish the accused.” Ultimately, the verdict serves as an acquittal.
Haven’t heard of jury nullification? Don’t feel bad; you’re far from alone. If anything, your unfamiliarity is by design. Generally, defense lawyers are not allowed to even mention jury nullification as a possibility during a trial because judges prefer juries to follow the general protocols rather than delivering independent verdicts.
Surprisingly, the Supreme Court has routinely agreed that judges have no obligation to inform juries about jury nullification. Paradoxically, jury nullification is permitted to exist as an option to all juries, yet this option cannot be discussed in most courtrooms.
A few years ago, Julian Heicklen handed out pamphlets to passersby on jury nullification to people outside of a federal courthouse. While the former professor was merely attempting to educate people about how the jury system works, he was charged with jury tampering. The prosecution labeled Heicklen “a significant and important threat to our judicial system,” but the judge ultimately disagreed and dismissed the case. Nonetheless, the fact that this case went to court at all shows how those in the legal system are willing to intimidate those who vocalize this loophole.
Jury nullification is undoubtedly feared because of its ability to upset the system. A jury that considers drug laws to be outrageous can nullify. A jury that is aware of the mass inequality in incarceration rates and believes a defendant was targeted via racial profiling can nullify. A jury that believes a harmless defendant is a victim of the prison industrial complex rather than a perpetrator can nullify. This counter-verdict exists so that citizens can right the wrongs inherent in our supposed “justice” system.
We exist to foam the runways of bad business and the politicians they buy.
http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/documents/1776-1785/the-final-text-of-the-declaration-of-independence-july-4-1776.php
...He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.
He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:
For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing taxes on us without our consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:
For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:
For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:
For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:
For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.
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Sad but true Gompers, with crony capitalism for the national business model and plutocracy for the government, the American People have been effectively removed from directing the future of the nation.