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Mid week… 19 May 2009

Posted by marisacat in Divertissements.
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Reader Photos in The Guardian: Stripes by clairebelles on March 13, 2009 Photograph:  clairebelles

I am in a bit of a fog.. no grudges or issues.. ;)

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1. marisacat - 19 May 2009

:lol:

Biden at Wake Forest … frm HIS commencement speech. Lord save us.

”This has been the history of the journey of America — never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, never have the American people let their country down at rare moments, similar moments in our history. And it’s a journey we’re all going to take together.”

…

“Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you. Never gonna make you cry, never gonna say goodbye, never gonna tell a lie and hurt you.”

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BooHooHooMan - 19 May 2009

Jeezis. What did he do?
How did he close it out?

Light up a fatty and hit the beer bong?
What the fuck?

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marisacat - 19 May 2009

Love Story updated. Or soemthing.

Our Leaders.

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BooHooHooMan - 19 May 2009

He motherfuckin Rick Roll’d em. LOL.
Big Surprise. He’s made a career of it. LOL.

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marisacat - 19 May 2009

I believe so strongly, as you may recall when I was here in October, not in you particularly but your generation, that I don’t have a single doubt in my mind we’re on the cusp not only of a new century but a new day for this country and the world.

…

There’s not a single issue on this President’s plate that will not yield a change — just merely by ignoring it, it will change.

…

Folks, we’re either going to fundamentally change the course of history, or fail the generations that come after us, because change will occur. Non-action is action, unlike most generations.

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catnip - 20 May 2009

There’s not a single issue on this President’s plate that will not yield a change — just merely by ignoring it, it will change.

Now there’s a useful political philosophy. lol

Laissez faire, anyone?

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marisacat - 19 May 2009

Here is the close:

Thank you all so much. Congratulations once again. And may God bless America, and may God protect our troops. Thank you. (Applause.)

And a lotta gibber drool before that.. :twisted:

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2. marisacat - 19 May 2009

May 19, 2009
Categories: Obama Administration

Judge rejects Obama view on detaining Al Qaeda supporters

A federal judge has rejected aspects of the Obama administration’s definition of who can legally be held as a prisoner in the war on terror.

In a 22-page decision issued Tuesday evening, U.S. District Court Judge John Bates ruled that members in Al Qaeda or the Taliban could be detained, but that mere support for Al Qaeda activities is not a sufficient basis for the government to hold prisoners at Guantanamo Bay or elsewhere.

Bates said he pressed the Justice Department to explain why rendering assistance to Al Qaeda was enough to lock someone up without criminal charges.

“After repeated attempts by the Court to elicit a more definitive justification for the ‘substantial support’ concept in the law of war, it became clear that the government has none,” wrote Bates, who was appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush.

“Regardless of the reasonableness of this approach from a policy perspective, a detention authority that sweeps so broadly is simply beyond what the law of war will support. The government’s approach in this respect evidences an importation of principles from the criminal law context,” Bates said. …snip…

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3. BooHooHooMan - 19 May 2009

Courts rule WH can’t be FOIA’d.
OBAMA’s peeps argued FOR the Empire against CREW’s case before the court…

But this also caught my eye….

Disk drive with Clinton White House data disappears

…As One terabyte ain’t no address book.
1000 Gigs of Documents?
Who knows what the fuck it is..
..But Darrel Issa as the point man in shedding light on it?
Hmmmm. Event logs. Seems like Issa is carrying a message from somebody…Of course, I’d be happy if over the weekend Cheney shot himself in the face, but the Dems? I hope they all backbite each other to death running from Frankenstein.

Anyways, from the article on the latest Bergerlerized Clinton records taking a walk…

Disk drive with Clinton White House data disappears

The disappearance of a disk drive containing one terabyte of data from President Bill Clinton’s administration is being investigated as a possible theft, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said Tuesday.

The hard drive went missing from from a National Archives facility in Maryland between October 2008 and March of this year, Issa, the ranking member of the House Government Oversight and Government Reform committee, said in a statement.

LOL. .What no Dem Leadership to Break the news??
Mmmm. Sounds juicy, too:
For one thing, Unlike Obama, the Clinton’s were never BORING.

“Data on the drive includes more than 100,000 social security numbers (including Al Gore’s daughter), contact information (including addresses) for various Clinton administration officials, Secret Service and White House operating procedures, event logs, social gathering logs, political records and other highly-sensitive information,” Issa said.

Issa said he learned of the drive’s disappearance in a briefing Tuesday from the National Archives’ Inspector General.

“The hard drive was moved from a ‘secure’ storage area to a workspace while it was in use as part of a process to convert [data from] the Clinton Administration,” Issa said. “The IG explained that at least 100 ‘badge-holders’ had access to the area where the hard drive was left unsecured. In addition to those with official access to sensitive material, the IG claims that janitors, visitors, interns and others passed through the area where the driver was being kept. The IG describes the workspace as an area that Archives employees pass through on their way to the bathroom. The door is often left open for ventilation.”

The Secret Service and the Department of Justice are assisting in the investigation, the statement said.

Cue Whack on National Security. And OBVIOUS undermine attempt on “reliability” of record keeping, The Archives, etc….”No WONDER everiything gets LOST” is a Talking Point to come with bipartisan scolding and vows that “we can do better”, I’m sure..

“This egregious breach raises significant questions regarding the effectiveness of the security protocols that are in place at the National Archives and Records Administration,” Issa said.

Whatever. It’s all so formulaic.
NO COMMENT™, CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION doncha know™.
Christ We might as well all have a Pavlovian, conditioned response with this kind of shit..

A spokesman for Clinton, Matt McKenna, told POLITICO Tuesday evening that aides to Clinton were “were aware of the missing hard drive but had been asked not to discuss it because it was under investigation as a criminal matter.”

McKenna said he did not know when the Clinton team learned of the possible theft. “We have asked NARA for a full accounting of what was on the drive,” he said in an e-mail.

UPDATES: The National Archives has issued a statement confirming the loss and outlining some details about the investigation and plans to notify people whose Social Security numbers may have been compromised. One interesting detail: the personal information involved may include White House visitors as well as staff. The Archives statement appears in its entirety after the jump.

Rep. Ed Towns (D-Md.), the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, also issued a statement on the breach, saying he is “deeply concerned.™” Towns also said the incident is being investigated by the FBI.

Oh, hey- waddya know!??.
Towns, The Dem Chairman DID, EVENTUALLY, get off his ass long enough to release the “deeply concerned™ ” statement.
Not Good for Obama, Buck Stops and all, if it
happened on his “watch”, er, ..I should say..his Watch, Wait, and See.

Oh, the creeps are all playing with each other again.
Same as it ever was…

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catnip - 20 May 2009

Did they check Sandy Berger’s pants?

I’m just sayin’…

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4. BooHooHooMan - 19 May 2009

mcat, above,
could you remove a blockquote after “this caught my eye” ?
Sorry. It should format it correctly..

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BooHooHooMan - 19 May 2009

Thanks!

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5. marisacat - 19 May 2009

Our Arnold-kissed props went down to crashing failure. He got out of town, he flew to Obama.

One host on KGO is calling the event “electile dysfunction”

and Will Durst has said: “who wants to be in town for WATERLOO”.

Run off to DC Daddy.

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wu ming - 19 May 2009

hopefully he’ll stay there.

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marisacat - 20 May 2009

Well whether DC or CA, the party – the Democratic party – has made things as comfy for Arnold as possible. For years.

what a shame. A crime imo.

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wu ming - 20 May 2009

he really is their ideal governor.

“o why didn’t we think of him first?”

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marisacat - 20 May 2009

LOL

the local news is loaded with Ob and Arnold slobbering all over each other today.

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6. marisacat - 20 May 2009

Well shit.

I am convinced that even if we maintain something slightly above flat line we will crash again, in a year.. or two. Or three.

Our Loss Is BlackRock’s Gain

Posted on May 19, 2009

By Robert Scheer

How much do you know about the BlackRock hedge fund? Better bone up fast, now that the folks at BlackRock are calling the shots in the government’s trillion-dollar bailout program. As both The New York Times and The Wall Street journal reported on Tuesday, BlackRock execs are now directing key elements of the government program at a time when they stand to reap great profits from the fallout of a problem they helped create.

The U.S. picked BlackRock to manage the assets once controlled by AIG and Bear Stearns and to analyze the assets of Freddie Mac and Morgan Stanley. And as if that were not enough on its plate, the Treasury Department has just selected BlackRock to be one of the few firms trusted with using U.S. taxpayer dollars to buy toxic assets from the banks and then resell them in a process that presents enormous conflicts of interest with other BlackRock operations. …snip…

Since it is reported that NEC minions who freely roam the halls at T – with Summers in the lead – basically run Geithner.. I guess we can thank Summers. And Ob of course. And Axelrod. And Rahm.

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7. marisacat - 20 May 2009

hmmm. Hedges on permanent war.

[T]he hollowness of our liberal classes, such as the Democrats, empowers the moral nihilists. A state of permanent war means the inevitable death of liberalism. Dick Cheney may be palpably evil while Obama is merely weak, but to those who seek to keep us in a state of permanent war, it does not matter. They get what they want. Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote “Notes From the Underground” to illustrate what happens to cultures when a liberal class, like ours, becomes sterile, defeated dreamers. The main character in “Notes From the Underground” carries the bankrupt ideas of liberalism to their logical extreme. He becomes the enlightenment ideal. He eschews passion and moral purpose. He is rational. He prizes realism over sanity, even in the face of self-destruction. These acts of accommodation doom the Underground Man, as it doomed imperial Russia and as it will doom us.

…

We have been drawn into the world of permanent war by these fools. We allow fools to destroy the continuity of life, to tear apart all systems—economic, social, environmental and political—that sustain us. Dostoevsky was not dismayed by evil. He was dismayed by a society that no longer had the moral fortitude to confront the fools. These fools are leading us over the precipice. What will rise up from the ruins will not be something new, but the face of the monster that has, until then, remained hidden behind the facade.

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mattes - 20 May 2009

I must admit, Notes is one of my favorite books. Dostoesvsky one of my favorite authors. I use to have a very nice copy of Notes….lost it in a move. It would be interesting to pick it up after several decades. I know I have changed, I wonder if Notes will mean the same thing after so many years.

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James - 20 May 2009

It’s been a little while since I read the book, but thought this might be of interest:

In earlier times, when religious and moral imperatives existed, people allayed any doubts about action and decision by following these imperatives in absolute confidence. In the modern era, however, most of these absolutes have dissolved. The only people who can act with confidence, according to the Underground Man, are narrow-minded people who are too stupid to question themselves. The one remaining absolute, according to the Underground Man, is reason. Even educated men pursue the laws of science and reason without questioning them. The Underground Man—along with Dostoevsky himself—believes that such mindless adherence to the laws of reason is misguided. Dostoevsky does not necessarily believe, however, that total inaction is the best strategy for conscious people. He does believe, though, that an active person with a totally fixed mind—one that is not open to different possibilities—is more dangerous than an inactive person whose mind moves and changes.

In the translation I read, much was made about these so-called “men of action.” The Underground Man’s pathology was his paralysis into inaction – something that is not particularly helpful either. The “men of action” remind me much of people like Eichmann, like the bureaucrats who without so much of a thought can, with a few pen strokes or keystrokes consign many other human beings to terrible suffering and/or death. Suffice it to say, we have an overabundance of “men (and women) of action”, probably a few too many underground men/women, and not too many who can be conscious but willing to act.

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8. Madman in the Marketplace - 20 May 2009

Gay Marriage Slow to Draw an Opposition in N.Y.

ALBANY — Assemblyman Dov Hikind of Brooklyn was feeling distressed.

The State Assembly had just voted to legalize same-sex marriage, after gay rights groups flooded the Legislature with visits, phone calls and e-mail messages. Where, he wanted to know, was the other side?

“Wake up! Where are you?” Mr. Hikind, an outspoken opponent of gay marriage, said in an interview. “It’s the bottom of the ninth, two outs, and you’re losing — big time.”

As the Legislature considers whether to make New York the next state to legalize same-sex marriage, social conservatives have been largely missing from the debate in Albany.

The interest groups working to legalize marriage for gay couples have been laying the groundwork for more than four years, lobbying lawmakers and funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars to their campaigns. And last week they began running television commercials in three of the state’s largest media markets promoting same-sex marriage as an equal rights issue.

Their opponents, who are just beginning to organize, say they feel outgunned and underfinanced.

The difficulties in New York echo those that conservatives have faced throughout the Northeast. Over the last six weeks, Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire have all moved to allow gay couples to wed.

The region has been challenging for opponents of same-sex marriage, in part, because the measures are being decided by state legislatures — not voter referendums where the opponents’ ability to motivate large numbers of voters, rather than influence institutional players, has been an advantage.

“It is the lack of a proposition or referendum,” the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, said. “There is a disconnect within the constituencies. Many of them really have no idea how to present their grievances.”

What a pity … a ginned-up majority of homophobes can’t be rallied to deny an entire class of people their civil rights any longer. Gee, too bad.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 20 May 2009

Oh, and THIS little tidbit is rich!

The state’s Roman Catholic bishops have been somewhat distracted, too, having focused their lobbying energies this session on defeating a bill that would extend the statute of limitations for victims of sexual abuse to bring civil claims, and have appeared unprepared for the battle over marriage.

Priorities, people!

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marisacat - 20 May 2009

having focused … on … victims of sexual abuse

Altar boys are always on their minds.

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BooHooHooMan - 20 May 2009

Yes, certainly.
But intentionally devilish here now, Hikind , the Orthodox out in front with the “shocked™, shocked™ he is” message at mounting abuse claims in the Orthodox community, has lambs at the alter and monied interests of his own he’s worrying about. Not to mention the prospect that the victims of sexual abuse limitations will be used to benefit CORPS too.

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marisacat - 20 May 2009

Many of them really have no idea how to present their grievances.”

Cat got their tongue? Or something?

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NYCO - 20 May 2009

But this isn’t a new problem for the socially conservative right in NY. There IS no organization of the rightwing in this state. They’re just realizing this? Wow, they’re dumber than I thought.

Of course, there’s no organization of the leftwing either. That is why NY always just oozes its way toward progressive outcomes. I think the reason why we were only 11th to join the Union is because someone lost the paperwork.

My sense is that New Yorkers who think gay marriage is icky will go on thinking it is icky, privately. If gay activists think there is going to be a triumphal statewide celebration, they’re probably going to be disappointed.

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9. Madman in the Marketplace - 20 May 2009

poor dears, it’s getting harder and harder to pretend that those grievances are nothing more than pure, naked bigotry.

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10. Madman in the Marketplace - 20 May 2009

maybe Larry should give Katrina some hints before she goes on another Sunday chat fest:

MADDOW: I have to ask your reaction, first of all, to Liz Cheney attacking you in the way that she did yesterday morning on ABC.

WILKERSON: Rachel, I don‘t pay a lot of attention to Liz Cheney. Her bona fides are that she‘s the vice president‘s daughter just as her bona fide is when she was PDASS and DASS in the Secretary of State‘s Office for Middle Eastern Affairs, or that she was the daughter of the Vice President, meaning that for Dick Cheney, nepotism was alive and well in his government.

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marisacat - 20 May 2009

oh wow. I will scrounge up some respect for one of what I call the “Papa Imperialists”. He smacked her down.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 20 May 2009

his “it wasn’t ME” bit is old, but that was a good one.

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11. Madman in the Marketplace - 20 May 2009

Gun nuts to carry concealed weapons in national parks

that donklephant majority just looks better and better, doesn’t it?

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12. BooHooHooMan - 20 May 2009

No, no connection
between Madoff, New York Jews doin the Jewy Thing
id est, money laundering, Zionism, Israel.

LOL.

Maybe Cuomo can get Sharon to testify.
Objective observer and all. AND In an entirely different state.
As in “persistent” and “vegetative”. :lol: :lol: :lol:
FUCK HIM AND THEIR ILK.
They’re thieves and killers.

Storyyyy

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mattes - 20 May 2009

Hey…need subscription…what’s the story??

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catnip - 20 May 2009

I don’t subscribe but here’s the summary. Someone else must be running the story as well.

J. Ezra Merkin, a money manager who funneled $2.4 billion from universities and nonprofit organizations into Bernard Madoff’s firm, was charged Monday on allegations he “betrayed hundreds of investors” by repeatedly lying to them about how he invested their money.

Mr. Merkin, a New York philanthropic leader and the former chairman of finance company GMAC, raised billions of dollars for his three hedge funds, telling clients he was managing the money himself. But instead, according to a civil fraud complaint filed by New York state’s attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, Mr. Merkin collected hundreds of millions …

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13. Madman in the Marketplace - 20 May 2009

A personal story, fleshing out the piece in WaPo about poverty:

The Washington Post hits on how much it costs to be poor – the way that the poor are forced to pay more, not less, for virtually everything; if not in money, then in time.

A friend of mine put it most simply. Poor people spend time to save money. Well off people spend money to save time. That’s how you know where you are, assuming you aren’t living beyond your means.

The WP article isn’t bad, but it doesn’t really get the full flavor of poverty. When you look poor, and if you’re poor long enough you will, you just get treated worse by virtually everyone. They know you don’t have money, know you don’t have power, and thus know they can push you around, disrespect you or just ignore you.

My favorite story along this line is when I was barely making ends meet by doing odd jobs helping people move, doing yard work and painting houses. One day after painting a garage, I walk into a bank with the check from the day’s work (this is in the eighties). I’m disheveled, covered in dried paint, and look awful. The teller wants to hold the check for two weeks. I can’t wait that long, I need the money for rent. I walk out of the bank.

I go back to the rooming house I’m living in. I shower, shave and comb my hair. Then I go find my last set of good clothes – gray flannels, dress shirt, blazer, tie. I put them all on, and I head back down to the bank.

Unlike a lot of people who are poor, I haven’t always been poor. I went to one of the most elite private schools in Canada (ranked second at the time, after Upper Canada College).

I wait in line, and irony of ironies, I get the same teller.

She cashes the check.

Yeah…

But I don’t say anything, because I know she could capriciously change her mind. I just walk out.

A couple years later, during the same extended period of poverty, I get to the point where I can’t even pretend to be middle or upper class. And on occasion I get rousted because, while I’m clean, I look pasty, my clothes are threadbare and my glasses are literally taped up. One time a security guard throws me off the property of a hotel I went into to use a pay phone. In another case, I get tossed off the University of Ottawa campus: I’m beyond the point where I can fake being a student, even though I’m the right age, and was one just a few years before.

In the last ten years, since I ascended back into the middle class, I’ve never had any such situation come up.

Odd that.

The worst thing about being poor is the way you are treated. There is no rule more iron, in my experience, that the less you get paid, for example, the worse you will be treated at work. Clerks in stores treat you worse. Government bureaucrats can often barely conceal their contempt. And so on.

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NYCO - 20 May 2009

Well, this is the fear that is subconsciously drilled into every overachieving high school senior. Not going to college is now considered a Fate Worse Than Death. To fall out of one’s CLASS! oh no. It used to be “let’s go to college to get ahead,” but now that the middle class has self-consciously “arrived” and is in its 3rd or 4th generation, it’s become “let’s go to college to keep from falling behind.”

At the same time, the shrinking upper classes will hunger more and more for the “authenticity” of the lower classes, which is something that money apparently can’t buy. (Heck, they might even someday emulate poor white trash, not just the fashionable poor people of color. The poor white trash class will be getting bigger.)

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wu ming - 21 May 2009

that fear was palpable my whole time in college in the 90s, and i imagine it’s only worse now. it should be interesting to see how the formerly upper-middle class responds to being tossed into the abyss.

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14. Madman in the Marketplace - 20 May 2009

“My Son Is a Murderer” — The Gut-Wrenching Realities Facing Military Moms

Galleymore compiled these first-person narratives, along with her observations and analysis, in a newly released book, Long Time Passing: Mothers Speak About War and Terror.

We meet Elham, a Lebanese mother whose home was bombed by the Israeli air force in July 2006. She says:

“My message to Americans, especially American women, is, ‘Please try to feel how Arab women feel.’ Why do American mothers send their sons to die in Iraq? Is it for democracy? Shouldn’t democracy be built by the people? If it is imposed from those outside, isn’t that occupation?

“When Americans talk about terrorists, I look around, and I see people bombing our people, our land, and I wonder just who are the terrorists? The United States doesn’t call the Israeli attacks against us in our land terrorism, yet calls our defense of land and our people terrorism.

“America is learning now, in Iraq, what the Israelis have learned, what the British should have learned, what the French have learned, and what the Ottomans learned about Arab resistance. History will not change. Those who don’t have a history and who will not learn the lessons of history will not have a future.

“Americans haven’t yet understood that it is not only technology that wins in the long run. The spirit of the people to own their own land and their own culture will always win in the end. We have heroes and martyrs for our cause, and their young people are killed just for the material benefit of a few.”

In the U.S., Galleymore met Eman Ahmed Khammas, an Iraqi writer, translator and former director of the Occupation Watch Center, an organization that allows Iraqis to inform people around the world about conditions under occupation and monitors the activities of military forces and foreign corporations.

In March 2005, Khammas traveled to Washington to speak about the effects of the invasion. While walking near congressional offices, she began to cry. She told Galleymore, “Americans have so much. Look at these clean, orderly streets, the wide-open spaces, the quiet and the obvious wealth of the people. Yet your military is in our country, and our land is a living hell. Why? What do you want from our small and comparatively poor country?”

Galleymore writes, “I had no answer.”

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15. Madman in the Marketplace - 20 May 2009

Priest slain in Guatemala; was member of Milwaukee 14

It was Sept. 24, 1968, when a young Catholic priest named Larry Rosebaugh participated in an anti-war protest in Milwaukee that transformed his life.

“Most of us had never been involved in anything like this,” Rosebaugh wrote later. “We were going to break the law in a manner we hoped would be truly non-violent.”

Rosebaugh and other opponents of the Vietnam War made their way into the U.S. Selective Service offices at 135 W. Wells St., seized thousands of draft records and set them ablaze.

The men would come to be known as the Milwaukee 14.

Rosebaugh’s life of opposition to war and service to the poor took him on a journey from Wisconsin to Latin America.

It all came to an end Monday when Rosebaugh, 74, was murdered by masked gunmen in northern Guatemala.

At the time of the attack, Rosebaugh, a member of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, was in a car with four other missionaries who were headed to a meeting in Playa Grande, Guatemala. A Congolese priest was wounded.

“I describe him as a living saint,” said Robert Graf, one of the Milwaukee 14.

“He was a very holy, humble man,” Graf said. “He lived the life he believed in.”

Michael Cullen, another of the Milwaukee 14, said Rosebaugh was “a beautiful soul.”

“He had an extraordinary life and career, and it seems totally crazy that one man shoots him down,” Cullen said.

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16. Madman in the Marketplace - 20 May 2009
Madman in the Marketplace - 20 May 2009
17. marisacat - 20 May 2009

Can’t Reid jus be put out for the night. In the desert of NV. And left there?

The Nevada Democrat reported that one of them, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., was absent because he was receiving a new round of treatment for his brain cancer. Asked if the cancer was in remission, Reid replied, “As far as I know, it is, yes.”

Kennedy’s office refused to confirm Reid’s comments or make any statement in response, the public silence a classic Washington disavowal.

Later today Kennedy’s office released a statement denying the report.
The Cape Cod Times reported:

U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy’s office says a report that the Massachusetts Democrat’s brain tumor has gone into remission and he is returning to the Senate full time next month is unfounded.

A staffer who did not wish to be named for this story said the senator continues to balance a treatment regimen with work, adding his schedule is determined on a day-to-day basis.

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18. Madman in the Marketplace - 20 May 2009

Whoopi Goldberg Calls Glenn Beck A ‘Lying Sack Of Dog Mess’

And that’s just the start … they catch him in several lies, and he weasels around … it’s very funny.

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19. Madman in the Marketplace - 20 May 2009

Military attorney: Waterboarding is “tip of the iceberg”

Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Yvonne Bradley, the lawyer for Binyam Mohamed, said “They started this monthly treatment where they would come in with a scalpel or a razor type of instrument and they would slash his genitals, just with small cuts.”

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marisacat - 20 May 2009

They are terrified of what might come out.

And whatever small inclinations Ob had to comply with the court… they now have him in a tight tight box. He’ll be staying there too.

Oh, except Bombs Away!, that is OK.

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20. BooHooHooMan - 20 May 2009

A Daily Kos old-timer’s take on high-profile GBCWs
by Bob Johnson

Now, I’m not going to link to it. But I’m certain it is the only header I’ve read today that over 6 Billion people on the planet have no idea what it means…

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21. marisacat - 20 May 2009

nu post…

LINK

……… 8O ………..

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22. BooHooHooMan - 20 May 2009

Unbelievable. Well ,that they finally picked the guy up-

Attorney, Gangster, Pimp, and Drug Dealer
(ONE GUY – formerly of the DOJ, US Mil Guard @ Abu Graib mouthpiece – nice fat billable there)
in with the NJ Cops,, Judges, and Prosecutors,
PAUL BERGRIN HELD FOR MURDER OF FBI INFORMANT

Ex-Prosecutor in Newark Charged With Murder
By DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI
Published: May 20, 2009

::

…..In an indictment unsealed on Wednesday in United States District Court in Newark, prosecutors accused Mr. Bergrin, 53, of orchestrating the murder of a confidential witness by leaking his name to drug dealers who shot him in broad daylight on a Newark street corner; of traveling to Chicago to hire a murderer to kill a witness in another case; of coaching some eyewitnesses to lie; and of paying others to change their stories or leave town on the day they were to testify.

The charges, which left Mr. Bergrin in federal custody and facing a possible death penalty, were a stunning development for a flamboyant man who owned a Mercedes and a Bentley, hobnobbed with movie stars and boasted of beach homes in New Jersey and the Caribbean.

There’s alot more to this story. The guy is a cops son, continued the thug tradition as attorney. He’s been suspected of this, had a pattern of cases with clients getting off as witnesses get killed. Real chummy with the cops. All these city cops:: Philly, North Jersey up by new York, all these cops have been plunking down money for gigundo places in the shore towns PLUS the half million dollar fishing boats, neighbors aren’t stupid. Shore points Realtors say other than physicians Cops were their best prospects.
And it’s the cops who make Bergrin such an extraordinary gangster here. Kind of like the Bruce Cutler of New Jersey. What an honor. …Now BERGRIN is being represented by Shargel.

But Attorney Bergrin’s real racket centers on his being a pimp. Literally. Had a nice clientele of the Bar, the Bench, and the Billy Clubbers as clients.

Considering Bergrin’s client’s ( not the Law Practice, but the Cops and Pols he’d sell young women to) , he’s headed for Federal protective custody..All this stems from his 2007 case, though, in New York, When Morganthau’s “Office”,( tho I doubt the corpse himself) took the first shot at Bergrin and his Little Black book of Cops and Political Johns. Catch the last graf from the 2007 Times story:

The office of the Manhattan district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, has accused Mr. Bergrin of taking over the business from a former client and using it to offer sexual favors to unnamed New Jersey law enforcement officers and jail guards — people who were in a position to keep him informed about what inmates might be planning to cooperate against his clients.

Mr. Bergrin has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer, Gerald Shargel, called the charges “nonsense.”

. …The Times piece then was written as if the DEFENSE side of the non-Justice system is where the problem is. Why the fuck aren’t Prosecutors making protective custody available? How much is their cut from their drug dealing and sex slave running colleague in “private practice”??? In Bergrin’s case, why the footdragging by the DOJ then? Some Pols other than Spitzer doin the nasty at $1000/ hr?

But catch the following grafs from the same 2007 story before the the FBI was involved, or, more precisely, before they ran with it:

The possible role of defense lawyers in the intimidation of witnesses has angered prosecutors in New Jersey for years, and has recently attracted the interest of state legislators.

Oh sure it has. You betcha. At least THIS guy “attracted attention”., the flesh merchant who either fucked with someone’s cut or went to shake down too-big-a-fish . Like they give as hit about street dealers and rap stars other than as money marks.

For their part, prosecutors say they have grown weary of a familiar sequence of events: Shortly after they provide defense lawyers with copies of a witness’s statement, as they are required by law to do, the threats, warnings and outright attacks begin.

In gang cases prosecuted in cities including Trenton, Newark and Camden, it is not unusual for a witness’s statement to be photocopied within days of being turned over to the defendant’s lawyer, and then be posted on telephone poles or circulated throughout the neighborhood.

How fucking surreal can they get?::::

State officials are hoping to offer witnesses greater protection, state officials are pushing for lawsto restrict the information released to lawyers for certain criminal defendants.

The corrupt legislature is going to pass Laws for the corrupt cops, prosecutors, defense attorney’s and Judges to IGNORE. Just bring on the collapse.

A bill now being considered by the State Legislature and supported by the state attorney general would require that prosecutors handling gang cases turn over only a witness’s name, and make it a felony for defense lawyers to provide their clients with addresses or other identifying information.

Every time there is a case here against law enforcement or politically connected white collar thugs, unless it is cop v cop or or political PTB, they hardly EVER get convicted. Like Never EVER. Of course it’s a miracle when THEY DECIDE to “Prosecute”. Then, if they do they Botch. the. case. – held hostage to cop/thugs or pols who threaten to spill on other courthouse crooks. It sounds hyperbolic but it’s not.

When Christie was Bush’s US Attorney, (now the likely GOP opponent to Corzine this fall) despite having ample reason to move in following Morganthou’s move against Bergrin, look how the just laid down…

But federal officials have described Mr. Bergrin in open court as the “house counsel” of Mr. Curry’s drug organization, which they said was responsible for more than 80 percent of the heroin distributed in Newark. Dealers who worked for Mr. Curry have testified that Mr. Bergrin was equal part lawyer and friend whose main duty was to monitor all the cases to be certain that no one cooperated with prosecutors.

The United States attorney for New Jersey, Christopher Christie Jr., has not brought charges against Mr. Bergrin, partly because an assistant prosecutor did not properly safeguard the tapes of wiretapped conversation involving him, meaning that they may not be admissible as evidence in court.

BOTCHED THE CASE™. It the new black. And Obstruction of Justice.

Well. This guy Bergrin? He’s fuckin guilty.
…Happily, there are plenty of people that will want him dead.
And, LOL- plenty of people he can damage whether he goes or not.
So Nothing like a glimpse of karma in Jersey every now and then…

Too bad it won’t make up for the State Trooper who is about to get off for killing two teenage sisters when he plowed through their car at 90 miles an hour making a run on duty in the State Police Cruiser for free pizza. The guy said he was chasing “a speeder”, ran stops signs and lights at 90, No “speeder” showed up on vid cams through the area.

The State Police were forced into charging him as the girls were as white as the driven snow, two sisters, parents and community pushed back. HARD. So now they go through the farce of “prosecution” and last week at trial a late witness shows up to say he was “the speeder”. It will be a miracle if the guy is convicted. The cop union thugs are patrolling NJ comment boards about the case.
Just Spamming the fuck out of comments. Probably on the clock.

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