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Monday Open Thread
While the economic crisis continues relentlessly and without aid from a lame duck pResident and his lame duck Congress, Obama pushes behind the scenes for a major stimulus package on his day one.
This is great news for our country because too many "Main Street Americans" are watching their retirement savings disappear and watching their jobs fold just as quickly.
This news comes to us via Josh Marshall and TPM:
Even with big Democratic majorities and the incentive of crisis, you still don't get this sort of legislation through Congress in a day. So if the new Congress gets sworn in January 6th, I think it's realistic to say that you need bill basically written -- at least the major line items -- when both chambers convene.
Today is November 24th, one month before Christmas and the New Year's Holidays. The severity of the crisis and the realities of the transition will keep things moving much more than usual over the holidays. But still, the holidays block out some time.
All of which suggests to me that to keep on a realistic schedule, the basic outlines of how to spend that half trillion-plus dollars needs to be worked out over the next four weeks. And there's a lot to figure out.
'Stimulus plans' are generally numbered in the tens of billions of dollars. $500 billion is the number we're talking about now. And I think you have to assume that number grows. Extensions to unemployment insurance and other counter-cyclical spending is critical. But it doesn't put a dent in that overall price tag. So clearly to spend that kind of money you need to fund programs that do more than inject money directly into the economy. You need to fund major new programs that will likely shape the economic direction of the country for years, perhaps decades into the future -- major spending on infrastructure, laying the cornerstones of a green energy economy and more.
Looks like Congress may not be taking their usual winter break. Obama is working behind the scenes to create the stimulus package and it's regulations and oversight here and now. Once again, hattip to TPM:
Dem Congressional leaders are working with Obama officials to create and pass a massive stimulus package before Obama takes power on January 20th, a senior Dem leadership aide confirms to me.
The timing is significant because it means Obama could sign it the first day he takes office.
"We come in January 6th and Obama is sworn in on January 20th," the leadership aide emails to me, adding that the timing "gives both of us a month and a half to work on a plan that could be taken up in House shortly after we come in and sent to the Senate before January 20th."
The crisis has forced Obama to walk a tricky balancing act: He's under tremendous pressure to show that he's acting on the economy, in order to calm the markets, while not appearing to step on the current president's toes.
Hence the leaks from Obama's team last week about his choices for economic advisers -- leaks which rallied the markets on Friday -- and, now, his team's behind-the-scenes work to get a stimulus package prepped and ready for him in advance.
So...we have some movement on this crisis even if it's the under the surface. And even though the stealing continues, most of the world watches with anticipation for the change of Presidents and the changes in policy. With that expectation of change comes hope.
And so for now, I will spend the next two months hoping for the best and probably fighting for universal health-care as part and parcel to the economic stimulus package.
What will you be doing?
Could someone please explain?
So far two of the banks that my daughter has a student loan from are possibly being bailed out: Wachovia and Citibank.
Yet, we continue to pay on them each month. They earn interest. If we pay late the sock it to us. We cannot declare bankruptcy on these loans even though it's a huge struggle and the economy has gone in the gutter for her too.
So...why don't we get to bail out like those banks again?
Why is my brother losing his business while the corporations get a bail out?
And why are we paying loans, taxes, and more money to the same people who screwed up? Why is "you signed..." and "responsibility and accountability" only for the people getting double ripped off or losing their jobs? Why do these corporations need my money, my tax dollars, when they're already getting money from this family?
still celebrating ..
Now that, is just tooo damn deep!
Judge in Cheney Indictment Case Fails to Show
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x244435
This judge was indicted ALONG WITH cheney and torture boy.
HAHAHAHAHA!!!!! BTW...
You know when the prosecutor did not show last week and everyone made a big deal of it?
Well, apparently he did not show because the presiding judge Banales never gave him notice of the hearing! The dude had no idea he was suppossed to be in court that day, he went to visit family.
And now the judge that was also indicted that day is missing!
BWWHAAA HAHAHAHA!
Get yer boots on peoples, this shit is getting deep!
Christy,
I don't really get that case. The way it's reading it sounds like a farce and that nobody will take it seriously.
"And why are we paying loans, taxes, and more money to the same people who screwed up? Why is "you signed..." and "responsibility and accountability" only for the people getting double ripped off or losing their jobs? Why do these corporations need my money, my tax dollars, when they're already getting money from this family"
The problem is the foundation the banking system relies on, which is fractional banking. It means you deposit 10 into Bank A, the bank can loan out 9 to someone else, who can deposit the 9 into bank B and Bank B can now loan out 8 to someone else who deposits into Bank C, and on and on until the original 10 you deposited has been leveraged out to many percent the original deposit. There is actually only 10 real dollars, but the banks books reflect 55 dollars, 45 of which are not real. What happens when everyone tries to retrieve their money ? there is only 10 dollars backing the original 55.
This is extremely bare bones explanation, but it holds true.
The money is not real, it has been packaged into a Debt Instrument (the loan) and sold to someone else.
Multiply this by what international banks have been doing with billions of dollars. Instead of loans these are called derivatives, which are sold, repackaged, resold, repackaged, and resold until the 1 billion is now trillions of debt in derivatives. The Bank is holding Paper that cannot be valued, it is worthless.
There is approximately 1,500 trillion in derivatives held by the banking system. What brought it all down is China would not play in the same sandbox with international bankers. There was nobody left to sell worthless paper too, and markets came to a halt.
Think of it as musical chairs, with thousands of institutions and only a hundred chairs, and the music just stopped.
The economy will stabalize when Govt. finally recognizes the problem and allows certain institutions to collapse. There is no other way out of this.
"I don't really get that case. The way it's reading it sounds like a farce and that nobody will take it seriously."
I love you darlin. But, please don't call it a 'farce', because obviously a whole bunch of very powerful people are FREAKING OUT and most of the reason why is still a total mystery.
However, on its' face I will conceed it seems quite complicated. But, it is not as complicated as it sounds.
Think of this as.... Gitmo, right here inside the USA. A Gitmo like place that existed IN TEXAS, BEFORE Gitmo became the notorious Gitmo'.
The same things dick and torture boy were doing at Gitmo, they had ALREADY done... To our fellow citizens,... On our soil. ...FOR MONEY. And they just got caught!
And the way it reads to me is they have a DIRECT money trail that leads right to none other than the big dick himself.
Gonzalez has been caught obstructing justice... to cover it up. While bush was guv-nah, little torture boy was his General Council.
And apparently a state senator and another presiding judge in Wlllacy County were all in on it too, indicted even. And the presiding judge himself has very interesting connections to it all. Which is why he SHOULD recuse himself.
I love the way everyone is ridiculing this prosecutor because he was once being hounded by some of these very same people in an 'investigation' of him he was completely EXONERATED in.
Of course they tried setting him up... He was investigating them ALLLLLL... including some of the very judges he was presenting cases too.
If I knew he was about to take me down, I wopuld try setting him up first too. Only problem is, THEY are not very good at setting up something that will stick.
I think the guy is not only hillarious... but he is a FREAKING HERO!
Farce...? More like, a comical adventure that will lead us to an amazing and OUTRAGEOUS understanding of why The Land of the Free has more prisoners than the entire rest of the world combined in lockup.
Money. Money. Money.
Farce? Watching dick and torture boy dragged back down kicking and screaming into the hellish nighmare of a reality they created... If that is a farce... then we need more farce in this world.
By the way... Before anyone else dismisses this case before understanding it, I want my most pressing question answered first, and then yall can trash it all you like... And promise I will not try stopping you again.
WHY does the indictments against dick and torture boy refer to a KNOWN MURDER VICTIM.....?
"In 2006, a jury ordered the company to pay de la Rosa's family $47.5 million in a civil judgment. The Cheney-Gonzalez indictment makes reference to the de la Rosa case"
Christy--why not do a write up on it for people like me. (I admit I'm sadly lacking time and energy to read the whole story and follow along and then to think of the how's and the four w's.
(God. The letter W is now corrupted for me.)
Toolmaker thanks for answering my question.
I am just sick though that they are allowed to double sponge from us and we pay pay pay. And the automakers who provide people with JOBS to pay them...well, Congress tells them to take a hike!
This is b.s.!
Hearing set for Monday to oust judge in Cheney indictment
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6131207.html
Need little laugh?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wvo-g_JvURI
No Satisfaction:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulVDM0a49Lw
Chuck in Houston
Hey, You, Get off of my cloud!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss02sfQinxI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ8xM83fMhU&feature=related
Mann Coulter broke her jaw and it's wired shut.
http://www.silencedmajority.blogs.com
Way to go people of Thailand!
We have a person from Thailand in our kitchen right now and he says the President was corrupt so the people went to the airport and closed it down so he can't land after being in Peru where Bush was.
Why aren't we doing that? Oh, I guess we elected Obama. Maybe we should have done something like that about the time the Supreme Court decided against Al Gore.
"Christy--why not do a write up on it for people like me."
To be honest, I would not even know where to begin. (Probably with Gregario del la Rosa, but even that is more questions than answers)This case is all over the damn place and most of the evidence is still under the secret seal of the Grand Jury.
I only understand the theory of the case, not the evidence. But, I know that the Grand Jury that indicted deliberated for FOUR MONTHS on whatever it is they have. And somehow a direct link was drawn between dick/torture boy and a known murder victim. Organized criminal activity, resulting in known murders.
I mean really... WTF?
Unlike the popular saying, you can not actually indict a ham sandwich because ham sandwitches have no legal liability for anything. They can not 'act' therefore they can not be held legally accountable for their 'actions'. Even if you used the sandwich as a weapon, you can only indict the one who laced it with poison then fed it to someone.
At this point, I am putting my faith in that Grand Jury, a body of our fellow citizens who for 4 months listened to and deliberated evidence not yet in the public domain. And THEY found reason to indict some very seriously powerful people. They have seen the evidence and I,nor any of us,are in a position to question their decision until we do understand the evidence they have seen.
I believe after 4 months of deliberations, the least we owe that Grand Jury is to respect them enough to understand why they indicted and what evidence they considered. This was no rash indictment, and 4 months is a hell of a long time to understand a complex tangle of evidence.
This is what I do know... the more people who are put in jail and the longer they are held there the more money people like cheney make. People like dick and torture boy can not only make money on it, they can ENSURE it happens. Ever notice how they already had all the loopholes figured out BEFORE anyone ever even considered putting 'terrorists' at Gitmo.
They already knew HOW to do it, because they had already been doing it.
We all have heard the rumors of torture coming out of Texas prisons, we all know that Angola holds more of a stench than Gitmo ever did. Funny how easy it is to dismiss the word of criminals when they claim they are being systematically tortured. Even when they are our own countrymen..
'Well, you must exaggerate sir! I mean you are a CRIMINAL after all. Certainly it wasn't THAT bad! And besides, you probably deserved it anyway.'. But what if it is all true...? What if the worst systematic torture of detainees we do is not to Iraqis or Gitmoites at all, but our own countrymen, on our own soil?
And to have his indictment directly refer to a known murder is not only surprising, but I suspect they can directly link him to said murder. Otherwise, why would the indictment refer to his murder at all?
This case can not be summed up. It is less like a soap opera and more like a highspeed police chase. All you can do it wait to see what happens next.
Just like Gitmo, and dicks control of ICE now becomes more clear of his role.
Gitmo in Texas- Prisoners in Texas Private Detention Centers- Not Charged with a Crime, But Doing the Time
"Detaining families is the logical, if extreme, result of U.S. immigration policy. While attention has been directed toward hard-line enforcement strategies - the deployment of National Guard troops to the southwestern border, ICE's sensationalistic raids on undocumented workers, and the vigilantism of groups like the Minutemen - a vast network of immigrant jails has emerged to facilitate this crackdown. Hutto is but the latest example.
The number of beds reserved by ICE for noncitizens has exploded, from fewer than 7,500 in 1994 to 26,500 today. Sometime this year the number is expected to reach 32,000. The private prison industry has absorbed almost all of the growth in new detention beds, as the federal government has moved away from managing its own facilities. Just in the past year, GEO Group opened a 1,900-bed ICE facility in Pearsall, Texas; CCA unveiled the 1,524-bed Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia; and Management and Training Corporation built a 2,000-bed tent city in Raymondville, Texas. In January 2006, Homeland Security awarded KBR, a Halliburton subsidiary, a contract worth up to $385 million to build temporary immigrant detention facilities in case of an 'emergency influx of immigrants,' according to a KBR press release.
Private prison companies control about 20% of federal prison and detention beds, up from 3% in 2001, according to George Zoley, CEO of GEO Group. 'That's a remarkable turnaround,' he told analysts in a 2006 conference call. Zoley attributed the boom to the federal government's appetite for locking up immigrants.
And because the average stay in ICE detention is short (about 40 days and falling), the number of people moving through the detention system is vast - 230,000 each year and growing. This does not include the increasing number of noncitizens charged with federal immigration crimes who cram the dockets of border courthouses, a population that is helping to fuel the parallel explosion in U.S. Marshals Service jails. (The Marshals Service holds accused criminals awaiting adjudication.)....
Those detained in the immigration crackdown thus face the same legal limbo as do their counterparts from the war on terror. In a legal sense, 'detention' is not a punitive measure; it is not, strictly speaking, 'incarceration.' But for detainees, this is a distinction without a difference. They are not being charged with a crime yet are still effectively serving time. 'My clients repeatedly express that-"Why am I being treated like a criminal?'" says Jodi Goodwin, an immigration attorney. Depending on their circumstances, detainees may have little access to immigration court. If they do, they must represent themselves before a hostile judge from the Justice Department, because they have no right to a government-paid attorney.
The line between 'corrections' and 'detention' is further blurred by the nature of the facilities. At least 80% of ICE beds for immigrants are located in local and state jails, many privately operated, as well as in for-profit detention centers.
'Whenever we talk about immigrant detention, we hear that it's civil detention, not criminal detention. But they're housed in places that look and smell like a jail,' says Paromita Shah, associate director of the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyer's Guild. 'People are suffering violations that almost amount to constitutional violations of their rights. And when that happens, detention becomes punitive.'
http://salon.glenrose.net/?view=plink&id=4102
"Charles Grainer, one of the US soldiers featured in the infamous sex abuse photos at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, was a prison guard at a Pennsylvania maximum security prison.
Grainer was the subject of inmate abuse complaints at that prison SCI Greene, the facility housing Pa's Death Row.
"Is it mere coincidence that some of the most brutal, most vicious actors at Abu Ghraib were US Reserves, who, in their civilian lives, were prison guards. How else could they learn it?" said death row journalist Mumia Abu Jamal, in an April 2005 commentary. Abu Jamal is housed in the same maximum security prison where Grainer worked.
In mid-November, the AFSC issued a press release decrying the widespread torture existing in US prisons.
One incident listed in this press release detailed how prison guards in a California jail "put an inmate in a bath so hot it boiled 30% of the skin off his body."
American military and intelligence personnel [allegedly] use various forms of water based torture on detainees at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and those CIA operated secret prisons in European countries.
"The tactics approved in US prisons are being exported overseas," said Tonya McClary, national director of the AFSC's Criminal Justice program.
A 1999 report prepared by Bonnie Kerness contained testimonials on torture from inmates across America"
http://www.counterpunch.org/washington12092005.html
Then there is this
Roots of Abu Ghraib Traced to Texas Prisons under George Bush
27-Aug-04
Iraq Prisoners
ABC Nightline reports "Consider the following scenario: Some rather frightening prisoners - ones that might not elicit your sympathy - are placed in a situation where many are abused. Complaints are made to the proper authorities; it remains unclear if any of them made their way to chief executive George W. Bush. Those complaints largely go nowhere. Then months later, photographic evidence of the abuse emerges, whipping up a media outcry and a promise by Bush to get to the bottom of the atrocities. This scenario is not just the story of Abu Ghraib circa 2004. It was also a prisoner abuse scandal from 1997 in Brazoria County, Texas, when Bush was governor... Because of a prison abuse case in 1972, Judge William Wayne Justice eventually ruled that a sentence to a Texas prison amounted to cruel and unusual punishment and therefore unconstitutional. 'It's like a picture of the second circle of hell that emerges from that judgment,' Elsner said."
And this
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/Nightline/World/texas_pr...
Prisoner Abuse Echoes
Texas Case Sheds Light on Abu Ghraib Scandal
Human rights abuses similar to those revealed in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal have occurred regularly in U.S. prisons, but they have sparked far less attention and outrage, critics say.
-snip-
Elsner is the author of Gates of Injustice: The Crisis in America's Prisons, a book that takes a critical view of the human rights situation in the U.S. penal system. He says he "was not that surprised" when he first heard allegations that U.S. soldiers had abused Iraqi detainees, "especially when it became clear that two of the correctional officers who were involved in Abu Ghraib actually had been prison guards in the United States."
Elsner is referring to Staff Sgt. Ivan "Chip" Frederick, who recently announced he plans to plead guilty to some charges, and Spc. Charles Graner Jr. Both men are military police with the 372nd Military Police Company, an Army Reserve unit based in Maryland.
-snip-
Others from the U.S. penal system were involved in Iraqi prisons. In May, ABC News reported that four of the six former state prison commissioners chosen by the Bush administration to help set up prisons in Iraq had left their previous posts after allegations of neglect, brutality and prisoner deaths.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2275807
Christy I was actually afraid for the prosecutor. When he didn't show up and the prominence of one of the indicted scared me. Glad to know my imagination was working overtime.
Thanks for all the information. It's hard though - with most of the information closeted away.
An Australian I've known online briefly is in DC right now and was able to do a tour of the whitehouse - it must have been Wednesday morning. He gave a great account of the tour and included this little observation
Is there a reason? Does anyone know?
Ah. Ha.
The more clear it becomes, the more obvious the evil.
The Willacy County Detention Facility is the largest immigration detention facility in the country.
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/Ritmo_Inside_the_inhumane_Texas_detention_center_that_should_be_a_crime_even_if_its_not_Cheney.html
http://64.233.169.132/search?q=cache:H8ApuDTxGSMJ:www.aclu.org/pdfs/prison/unsr_briefing_materials.pdf+aclu+willacy+county&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=7&gl=us
And here
http://archive.democrats.com/preview.cfm?term=Iraq%20Prisoners
Oh. CRAP!
Medvedev and Chavez in nuclear deal
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2008/11/20081127113938361350.html
Ummmm. Ummmm. Ummmmm. Now what?
Happy Thanksgiving, all. And God Bless America!
abq
Christy, thanks for posting this article (November 27, 2008 11:09am). It's good to have it cleared up in such an easily understood way.
Yes, immigration detention practice, procedure and facilities fell apart during the Bush and Howard years - there and here. Since Rudd took over we've brought our immigrants/refugees back to Australia where hopefully most are living within the community and working and getting health care.
But who knows for sure?
In that article that dude is also trying to dismiss it as 'wacky' and also paints the DA as a 'lame duck renegade'.
He, like others are also trying to argue that a common 'shareholder' can not be held accountable, even though we all know dick was no common shareholder. He also went out of his way to note 'WellWell, but the judge has not even signed the paperwork!'
I linked up to that article because of the other info in it about Willacy, but obviously this dude is not aware that these are STATE charges, not federal charges and a Willacy County Grand Jury DOES have jurisdiction. And notice he hit ALL the talking points perfectly to try and dismiss the case as 'thinner than thin' without actually knowing the facts surrounding the indictments.
See how easy it is...? Just tell everyone it is a farce, thinner than thin, a waste of time, the result of a wacky renegade lame duck.... And the actual evidence really no longer matters...does it?
BTW... This...
"Cheney's alleged tie -- investing his millions in Vanguard mutual funds that are major owners of publicly traded federal prison contractors -- is weak beyond belief; by the grand jury's reasoning, one could surmise that others with Vanguard 401K plans (example: journalists at the Philadelphia Daily News and Inquirer!) could be charged as well."
I do believe is very close to a disclosure that the writer himself is probably personally invested in Vanguard.
Happy Turkey Day! Major issue: Will Texas A&M actually gain a yard net in the first half?
Boy, me too! If my whole retirement was riding on Vanguard 401k investments, and then I found out that I was really investing in a front for dick and torture boys own personal private dungeons complete with organized criminal activity that directly resulted in known murders, I would probably try really really hard to dismiss it all too!
Who cares if we torture illegal Latinos and our own citizens in gulags!? MY GOD my retirement account is at stake!
I would lol now, but it would only come across as a jolly HAHA! instead of the sneering snicker I am actually engaged in.
Oh! I can't believe the Aggies didn't go for it! But at least A&M now has positive yards on offense for the first half. Also, the idea that the Vanguard Group specializes in prisons is entirely wrong. It is a huge mutual fund family that may, among hundreds of thousands of other investments, also invest in companies in that industry as well. But in no way are prisons a specialty of the Vanguard Group. I am more than certain that its peer goup does the same (e.g., Fidelity).
Wow -- if anyone is watching UT/A&M, while I'm kind of rooting for the underdog Aggies, that last two plays was some serious quarterbacking by McCoy on UT!
I love that phrase. I really do.
"...huge mutual fund family "
Makes them sound so sweet, like they are selling puppies. Awww, they can't be evil if they sell cute wittle puppies!
BTW I never said that Vanguard 'specialized' in private prisons. Please don't invent 'ideas' I never had or presented as an argument.
Vanguard does not 'specialize' in private prisons. They just build them with cheneys money, then fill them with cheneys policies.
Everyone else... gets a puppy.
Christy:
I never said you said anything. Just many of these articles say "Vanguard invests in prisons" as if that is even close to what their main line is -- which it isn't. Nor do they build them (prisons, that is). They are a mutual fund family that invests in the entire worldwide economy.
Chuck in Houston
PS: McCoy can run too, it looks like. Oh well, the Aggies won last year. If Alabama stumbles, UT could be Number 1 this year.
JUAN GONZALEZ: A Texas judge has set an arraignment date for Friday for Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. They were indicted this week by a Texas grand jury on state charges accusing them of responsibility for prisoner abuse in a privately run federal jail. Cheney, Gonzales and the others named in the indictments will not be arrested and do not need to appear in person at the arraignment, the judge said.
One indictment charges Cheney and Gonzales with engaging in organized criminal activity. It alleges they neglected federal prisoners and are responsible for abuses in the privately run prisons in Willacy County in South Texas.
The grand jury accused Cheney of a conflict of interest because of his alleged influence over the county’s federal immigrant prison and his investments in the Vanguard Group, which invests in private prison companies. The indictment accuses Gonzales of using his influence to stop an investigation into corruption during the building of another federal jail.
AMY GOODMAN: The indictments were bought by Willacy District Attorney Juan Guerra. Guerra has been in office more than a dozen years but was defeated in the March Democratic primary. He leaves office December 31st.
An attorney for one of the private prison operators filed motions accusing Guerra of prosecutorial vindictiveness. Four of the eight indictments Guerra brought target judges and special prosecutors who played a role in an earlier investigation of him. On Wednesday, the judge, Manuel Banales, said he would not listen to motions to quash the indictments, because District Attorney Guerra was not in court.
Willacy County District Attorney Juan Guerra joins us now from a studio in Houston. Welcome to Democracy Now! Lay out your indictments against the Vice President and former Attorney General, Juan Guerra.
JUAN ANGEL GUERRA: Well, I mean, it’s—trying to lay it out in a very, very compact—first of all, this investigation has been going on for quite a bit. I personally started back in ’01, when the death of De La Rosa occurred, and so that quickly escalated. I prosecuted the individuals that killed De La Rosa, the other two inmates, and at that point I realized that the security and the welfare of the inmates was very lax. And at the same time, we also learned—I investigated the auditor, who was in the—also involved in the corruption. So the two things were coming in at the same time. So when the issue came up about the corruption, we brought the federals to get involved.
The federals picked up the investigation and dragged it all through 2006. In November 2006, they convicted the commissioners and Cortez, who worked for a private prison. But then, a week later, Cortez and commissioners were given only a three-month sentence, and at that point, they basically shut down the investigation. The US attorney for the southern district who was under investigation was—informed me that the investigation was over, even though just a week prior had told me that these individuals were given very light sentences, because they were bringing down higher-ups. So that stopped the federal investigation.
That was in ’06, when—the same time the other eight US attorneys were also told to stop other investigations. So I felt that at that point I needed to continue with the investigation. I knew basically, you know—since I was the one that started it, I continued it. That’s where my problem started at that point. You know, I ended up getting arrested, getting indicted in frivolous charges. And so, I knew that I was stepping on people’s toes. The person that indicted me was Marvin Mosbacker, who was there when we started the investigation, working under the Cheney and Bush administration. He was an attorney working under them, so they brought him in, Marvin Mosbacker, an ex-US attorney for the southern district, to go ahead and indict me.
So we continued tracking the money all these years, and finally my charges were dismissed about two weeks ago, after eighteen months of being indicted. And, of course, that hurt my being elected. The question was, do I just look the other way? The foot soldiers at the FBI and the Texas Rangers were telling me that I was on my own, because, you know, that the private investigation was off-limits. So I continued on my own in gathering information. Four months ago, we started Operation Goliath, when they thought that I had already lost the election and that the investigation—I mean, it was pretty much over. And so, that kind of left me open, because nobody knew that I had started the investigation again. And so, not even my staff, nobody knew in my little county. I was working out of my office, and I only trusted very few people. So we started bringing experts from throughout the country with regard to the private prisons, and then we started following the money. And there’s no—
JUAN GONZALEZ: Juan Guerra, just to get clear now, the relationship of Cheney and Gonzales to this, to what you say is corruption and mistreatment of prisoners in private prisons? What was their connection to this?
JUAN ANGEL GUERRA: Well, the connection, it’s organizing criminal activity. It has all the elements. Vice President Cheney is at the very top, and he has a lot of influence on ICE and Homeland Security. They determine how much money they’re going to pay the private prisons per day and per person. So, right now, the contracts go through the GEO Group, which is one of the highest, the biggest private prisons, CCA and Cornell. Now, these three are the biggest companies. When you round up the inmates, this is where they end up. Their money is—they’re getting paid at—right now it’s at $80 per person per day. It used to be $54, now it’s $80. And that’s controlled by the administration as to how much money they’re going to pay per person. They’re fixing to going up to $120. So this—
AMY GOODMAN: Juan Guerra, the Vice President’s attorney says this is bizarre, that you had Cheney invested in Vanguard Group, which is a mutual fund that, yes, does invest in the private prison industry, but can you indict him for being responsible for abusive behavior in the prison?
JUAN ANGEL GUERRA: Well, yes, because, again, you have the activities, the criminal activities, that his involvement is that he is aware with the Vanguard Group. The Vanguard Group has invested—is invested. It’s a top ten companies that are investing in the three top private prisons companies, the private prisons. So if you follow Vanguard, then he ended up investing $85 million. The problem here is that the Vanguard Group is not part of his blind trust. This is money that he has, quote, “on the side.” It is reported in his income tax with his signature there. So he knows exactly where his money is invested. If this was part of his blind trust, then he would have no control. So because he has control, so now they’re trying to increase the number, the price. Instead of $80, they’re trying to go to $120, which means that these private companies are going to end up making more money, which means that Vanguard would make more money, which means that obviously the Vice President would make more money.
AMY GOODMAN: And Alberto Gonzales’s connection?
JUAN ANGEL GUERRA: That’s one. You have the top boss, which is the Vice President, and then you have Alberto Gonzales, the enforcer to making sure that that criminal activity which is going on in the private prisons—we had numerous deaths that are occurring throughout our country. We brought in experts and witnesses that were telling us that the numbers of prison inmates dying in the private prisons is staggering. It’s about five times as high as the public prisons, so that all this criminal activity that is going on is contributed to now allowing investigations into what is going. Alberto Gonzales’s part was to make sure that private prisons would not get investigated, so that when we started the investigation, the FBI took over the investigation. The assistant US attorney that was handling the investigation, Marvin Mosbacker—
AMY GOODMAN: Juan Angel Guerra, we want to thank you for being with us.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/20/dick_cheney_and_alberto_gonzales_indicted
When he turned on the tv the next morning, he found that Mukasey had slurred his words and slumped at the podium right after that.
Seattle Times story
Christy:
That Willacy County case sounds utterly bizarre to me. How a grand jury can connect owning shares in a huge (rececently $1.3 trillion -- who knows now -- probably under a trillion) mutual fund to committing the crime of organized criminal behavior with respect to the management of federal prisons in Willacy County Texas is well beyond my poor ability to comprehend. I guess I will live and learn in that regard. Again, Vanguard in not in the business of building or running prisons.
Chuck in Houston
Also, I do not think that the Vice President, under our Constitution, is responsible for the management of federal prisons (nor is the Attorney General, in my understanding). Also, I have to say that this prosecutor, in his interview with Amy Goodman anyway (as posted above), is basically incoherent. I understand that he deplores conditions in US federal prisons, and that may be a very significant issue. How that leads to indicting the Vice President and the Attorney General of the USA for "organized criminal activity" escapes me.
But, if we can agreed to disagree on that, I wanted to post my favorite Aggie joke....
There was this pleasure cruise in the South Pacific and it ran into an old Japanese mine and sank. Only three people survived, and they were all college kids from Texas -- one from UT, one from SMU, and one Aggie. They all made it an island.
Anyway, one day a bottle washed up on the beach, and they all ran to it and grabbed it at the same time. A Genie popped out and said, "well, as I can't tell who opened the bottle, I'll give each of you one wish instead of giving one person three wishes."
So, the UT guy goes, "well, I sure miss my girl friend and I wish I was back with her right now." And poof, he disappears. The SMU guy says, "well, you know Genie, I'm pretty much of the same mind, can you take me back to my girl friend?" and poof, he was gone.
So then the Genie turns to the Aggie and asks, "well, what is your wish?"
So the Aggie thinks a bit, and says, "well, you know, I don't have a girl friend. And it's awfull lonesome on this island. I just wish those guys were back here again...."
So, anyway, that is my favorite Aggie joke. But I do really respect Texas A&M. Some of my best friends, as they say, are Aggies. And they did beat UT the last two years, even if they really lost badly tonight!
Happy Thanksgiving All, from Down Under.
Hey Christy Girl, looks like the thugs have left things in one hell of a mess for Obama Huh.
By the way, and totally off topic, the "A&M" as in "Texas A&M" stands for "Agricultural and Mechanical" and it relates (I think) to the land-grant college movement of the post civil-war US where the "A&M" or "State" universities (as in "Oregon State" vs. "University of Oregon") were more technically oriented while the others were more commerce and law. So I think part of the Texas "Aggie" joke genre is a play on savvy Austin types vs. redneck tractor mechanics.
Texas Tech at San Marcos (I think) is another part of that (it's also were LBJ went to college to become a school-teacher).
Anyway, for grins (and so non-initiates won't think I'm entirely crazy), google 45-35 or click this:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=47933394560
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_River_Rivalry
Update from South Korea - and very PO'd right now.
I've been alive and well (at least as well as I could be under the Republican colonial government, anyway) - I've been too busy blogging and driving to ever check in here in the past two weeks.
Yes, I am describing the so-called "Republic of Korea" as a cut-rate US Republican colony. Not even a colony of the United States of America (which won't be too bad, really), but a colony of the discredited minority party. I no longer recognize the sovereignty of the government, and will only see it as the puppet partisan colonial government that it truly is. Similarly, I am referring to all South Koreans as colonial subjects, and myself as the almighty citizen of the American motherland.
The reason why I am making this determination are as follows:
From now on, I'll do the following.
If you are ever headed this way, I must ask you to do the following:
There is one benefit to the Lee Myung-bak government. The colonial currency, the won, has fallen significantly. When I first came here, one US dollar bought 950 won. Now, it buys 1,500. I have to thank Lee for wrecking the South Korean economy through his rigid adherence to the Reaganomics of his masters.
However, given that Lee is trying to do some Confucio-Christian favors to the American Republican masters in the form of funding Proposition 8 (gay marriage ban) in California as well as those who wanted "that nigger socialist" lynched, it's cold comfort.
If Lee can wish for Obama's lynching, I will ask for Lee's own lynching. I must, in order to save the US, both Koreas, and the rest of the world. I don't care if the state thought police now arrests me.
No Chuck, it is you that is basically incoherent. And you do seem to have a very large problem comprehending it all.
Perhaps on purpose, but then again....
Rossi, La Jour Di Merci Donnant!
And yes, one hell of a mess.
Well I am listening to Q TIp "Rennaissance" album on infinite loop.
That's our Thanksgiving .. Bombay Grill. That's our Thai friend Henry. My husband Ken took the picture. My uncle said we were lucky we weren't at the Mumbai Grill. He's like that. We are trying to follow the Indian and Thai news and it is grim, and I notice that both Iraq and Afghanistan would like the US to leave.
Ally .. interesting report on South Korea. I can't help but think of the parallels with things people send me about the poor farmers in the Dakotas but then I realize that they ALWAYS vote against themselves (and us) and don't learn. Then there are the people who didn't learn the lessons of Vietnam. ..
Texas DA's Cheney Indictment Evidence Revealed (VIDEO)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/28/texas-das-cheney-indictme_n_147010.html
Slugbug
Thanks for the thoughts.
I am about to leave for the airport, to take my flight to Hong Kong.
I never thought I'd feel more free in China than in Korea. But I might actually feel that way - given that despite the Beijing takeover of Hong Kong, it has a nominal democracy. That can never be said of today's South Korea.
The only hope I have for South Korea is for the old McCarthyist Confucio-Christian fascist guard to die off, and for the young progressives to take over. The old have done lots of good by industrializing South Korea, but their time is now over.
At least in the US mainland, you have Young Republicans and aging old hippies. Such demographics are so rare in South Korea that they may be considered nonexistent.
Ally
It's such a mess in Thailand. The Nation had the best article. They have had 18 coups since 1947. Henry has a ticket back for January and may cancel it if things don't cool down. There is so much corruption and there could even be civil war. Could also end up like Tienemman Square.
Gay Marriage and a Moral Minority
By CHARLES M. BLOW
We now know that blacks probably didn’t tip the balance for Proposition 8. Myth busted. However, the fact remains that a strikingly high percentage of blacks said they voted to ban same-sex marriage in California. Why?
There was one very telling (and virtually ignored) statistic in CNN’s exit poll data that may shed some light: There were far more black women than black men, and a higher percentage of them said that they voted for the measure than the men. How wide was the gap? According to the exit poll, 70 percent of all blacks said that they voted for the proposition. But 75 percent of black women did. There weren’t enough black men in the survey to provide a reliable percentage for them. However, one can mathematically deduce that of the raw number of survey respondents, nearly twice as many black women said that they voted for it than black men.
Why? Here are my theories:
(1) Blacks are much more likely than whites to attend church, according to a Gallup report, and black women are much more likely to attend church than black men. Anyone who has ever been to a black church can attest to the disparity in the pews. And black women’s church attendance may be increasing.
- more -
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/29/opinion/29blow.html
Matthew
I agree - it's religion. There have been some hard times for black people in this country, and religion was a balm (like a drug, a palliative, a hope, etc. and also a place for bonding, organizing, even entertainment)
Most religion is conservative socially.
Slugbug
Thailand does look like a mess. At Incheon Airport in Seoul, every flight to/from Bangkok was cancelled. South Koreans stranded in Thailand are getting out, only because their airlines are flying into military airfields to pick them up.
Loved getting into Hong Kong in the dark, however! The Taiwan Strait was also great - I could see the surprisingly bright lights of Fujian Province from 80 miles offshore, and the lights stayed respectable all the way to Hong Kong.
And yes, I am in Hong Kong.
As I passed South Korea's southernmost island, I was thinking FREEDOM! I was no longer under the jurisdiction of a slave regime that is about to lose its master, and that was a priceless feeling.
I got so fed up with the thought police posters in the subway that I chose to take a deluxe bus to the airport instead. Even then, thanks to the colonial currency becoming worthless, the fare was very affordable.
Again, as I flew over the Taiwan Strait, I was thinking of all the cross-Strait cooperation between China and Taiwan, and the resulting riches of Fujian Province as seen in the distance. Neither China nor Taiwan is perfect; each side has tons of problems to sort out. And the fate of Taiwan itself remains quite murky. Nevertheless, both China and Taiwan realize that they must work together in order to prosper together. With Chinese resources and labor and with Taiwanese capital and technologies, anything is possible.
That is something that the governments of both Koreas must understand. North Korea is interested only in preserving the personality cult rather than serving its people. South Korea - well, don't even get me started about how treasonous the colonials are to their people, to the real America (which they claim to be their master, even though in reality, it's only the Republican neocons they ever serve), and to world peace. Apparently, North Korea is as PO'd over the South Korean colonials as I am, and it might start up its howitzers in response; I would HATE to see that, no matter how treasonous South Korea's colonials turn out to be, as too many innocents will die.
Under Kentucky law, Homeland Security is ordered to publicize God's benevolent protection in its reports. It must display a plaque at the entrance to the state Emergency Operations Center with an 88-word statement that begins, "The safety and security of the Commonwealth cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God."
A Southern Baptist Minister (Riner) who is also a State Representative tucked these bits into Homeland Security legislation. Homeland Security therefore has religious duties as its paramount responsibility in the state of Kentucky. These people decide how to disperse millions in federal grants intended to protect the people of Kentucky from terrorism. Their annual budget (mostly federal money) is $28 million. The previous Governor was a lay Baptist preacher and used to credit God in annual reports.
From Riner:
The 2008 Homeland Security report did not credit God, but did complain about a decline in federal funding. Riner is also upset that there is no reference to God in Homeland Security's current mission statement or on its Web site.
(Photo above from cell phone gives proof that Kentucky's fate is in God's hands.)
http://www.silencedmajority.blogs.com
I am back. But I have nothing to say. Could anyone please email me a thread header for tomorrow?
Sparrow:
How about: "Would an inflation solve all our problems?"
Chuck in Houston
Also, Christy, I am sorry if I sometimes come accross as incoherent and bizarre. I suppose sometimes my posts may seem that way. But I am at least not incoherent and bizarre in the capacity of an officer of the court speaking with members of the press, and this Willacy County prosecutor demonstrably is. I say this as a person that is politically a Democrat, and, beyond that, a person very much against what our VP Dick Cheney has done, especially as concerns his forays into the foreign policy of my country.
Chuck in Houston
Also, K, do you r4alize what UO did to OSU tonight? And in this case "O" does not stand for "Oklahoma," although that was also a heck of a game
I guess this is almost official that Gates will stay on at Defense (I prefer the pre-Truman name of "War," for the record, as it is more honest, but, then again, a name is a name is a name, to paraphrase Ms. Stein) and Clinton (Hillary) will be Secretary of State in the US:
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/29/obama.clinton/
I haven't been reading the news much lately so maybe this is old news, in which case, sorry!
I seem to remember that Clinton (B.) kept Powell on at "Defense" and that soon thereafter the Somalia affair, which was started under Bush Sr. (and hence Powell at "Defense"), turned out badly for Bubba.
And, it seems to me, it turned out bad for Somalia as well for what that is worth. Notwithstanding that, Bill Clinton's adminstration went on to achieve significant successes in domestic, especially economic, affairs, as well as in international affairs. I hope this augurs the same for Barack Obama's administration. We could use some wins.
I think I should have said "win-wins", to be PC.
"But I am at least not incoherent and bizarre in the capacity of an officer of the court speaking with members of the press, and this Willacy County prosecutor demonstrably is. "
Exactly where did you demonstrate that again,...? Because I understand everything he said perfectly well.
You, on the otherhand, seem to fail repeatedly to grasp this case. I suspect it is probably on purpose since your own finances are all tied up in it.
Go right ahead and keep on trying to smear that prosecutor with all the buzzwords you can, but fair warning, they already tried taking him down to hurt his credibility. And failed miserably. He managed to indict them ALL.
The Grand Jury does not appear to have had the same trouble understanding this case as you do.
So... DEMONSTRABLY... it is still only you that seems confused. But as I said, it is probably on purpose.
Christy:
For the record, again, my investment in Vanguard (1) has nothing to do with prisons (as is the case with most of Vanguard, I think -- that is -- for the most part hey have nothing to do with prisons) and (2) my Vanguard investment, such as it is, has very little to do with my net worth
In antoher sense, I hadn't said I had demonstated anything. Only that this guy is demonstrably incoherent. Given the challenge, I will try to demonstrate that. Give me a bit.
Chuck in Houston
Christy:
Actually, I think I am taking the wrong approach on this. All I am trying to say is that this particular case looks like a very vain attempt by this prosecutor at grabbing a spotlight -- nothing in what the prosecutor is saying looks to me serious. I am sure he could influence a grand jury in Willacy County on all of that. I could be wrong, because, as you say, none of us has the facts that the Grand Jury had. Time will tell.
But I still need to get back to you on the incoherent bit....
Chuck in Houston
You invest in Vanguard.
Vanguard, in turn, heavily invests in the private prison industrial complex. I am not sure what you think 'invests' means, but it means they help finance the building of private prisons. And the running of them.
If you are invested in Vanguard, you ARE invested in their investments, regardless of how they are classified or grouped. There is simply no way around that. If you invest in Vanguard, you are investing in private prisons.
And I am glad to know you consider it a very small finacial matter, but most people will lie for free. And we all know there are people that will kill you for a whole net gain of $1.27.
It is not that you have a large or signifigant investment at stake, it is the simple fact ANY financial stake in Vanguard, while repeatedly trying to dismiss Grand Jury indictments relating to Vanguard, makes for a conflict of interest that is impossible to ignore.
"...looks like a very vain attempt by this prosecutor at grabbing a spotlight "
And the Grand Jury.... are they indicting because they are also vain attention whores too?
Yeah! That must be it!
We all know that dick georgie and torture boy have been rounding up mass detaineees and torturing them in gulags RIGHT HERE ON OUR OWN SOIL.... But this prosecutor!!!! I MEAN REALLY, HOW DARE HE?
Doesn't he realize the only government officials that actually do THIER JOBS anymore are attention seeking fame trallops who only want their bizarre 15 minutes of the limelight?
What. The. Hell. Ever.
Well, I hope anybody that kills me gets more than $1.27. On another level, "invests" means when you buy shares in a public corporation. My investment in a specific Vanguard fund, as I have already said on this site, and as you seem to disregard repeatedly, means that I have no holding in any company connected with this bizarre Willacy County indictment.
Vanguard does not invest heavily in prisons. That is a lie that you are purveying. I guess that that makes youy a liar.
Chuck in Houston
By "heavily" I mean in a manner out of whack with the over all economy. In other words, if oil and gas is "X" percent of the global economy, and Vanguard has around "X" percent of that, then they are "in whack" in that respect. I would be surprised (and chastened), to find that Vanguard, in its peer group, tends to invest more in prison companies.
Funny, you have a repeated history of calling people liars without ever actually proving it.
And hell yes they do invest HEAVILY in private prisons. They are invested in the top three private prisons in the country.
By the way... here they are LISTED as investors in all kinds of private prison operations.
Prison Privatisation Report International
http://www.psiru.org/justice/ppri63.htm
Christy:
Thank you so much, you just proved my point. Fidelity and Legg Mason, to take just a few examples, are both in the Vangaurd peer group and are far above Vanguard in those indices. So, again, I have properly called a liar a liar.
Chuck in Houston
In case you missed it:
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA)
1. Fidelity Management & Research 3,346,624
2. Legg Mason Inc 1,704,308
9. Vanguard Group, Inc. 645,903
For GEO:
3. Fidelity Management & Research 840,800
4. Barclays Bank PLC 767,975
5. Royce & Associates, L.L.C. 571,900
6. Heartland Advisors Inc. 505,400
7. High Rock Capital L.L.C. 254,700
8. Dimensional Fund Advisors, Inc 254,400
9. Vanguard Group, Inc. 225,973
But don't feel bad: I've also inadvertantly lied a lot of times when I didn't know what I was talking about, if that qualifies as a lie.
HAHAHA! I can prove you a liar with that link, and your own words.
You before...
"Again, Vanguard in not in the business of building or running prisons."
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA)
1. Fidelity Management & Research 3,346,624
2. Legg Mason Inc 1,704,308
3. Barclays Bank PLC 956,992
4. Courage Capital Mgmt, LLC 912,805
5. Capital Research & Mgmt Co 825,000
6. William Blair & Co, L.L.C. 739,570
7. AW Asset Management, L.L.C 720,600
8. Loeb Arbitrage Mgmt Inc 660,000
9. Vanguard Group, Inc. 645,903
10. State Street Corporation 625,932
11. Merrill Lynch Inv. Managers 621,215
12. Mellon Bank NA 535,733
13. Engemann Asset Management 473,335
14. J. & W. Seligman & Co., Inc. 438,462
15. Newsouth Capital Mgmt Inc. 401,843
16. Fund Asset Management 321,536
17. Dimensional FD Advisors, Inc 321,000
18. Northern Trust Corporation 297,742
19. Allianz Dresdner Asset Mgmt 265,301
20. College Retire Equities 255,774
21. Aronson + Johnson + Ortiz L. 249,000
22. Principal Financial Group Inc 227,262
23. Bamco Inc 212,766
24. S & E Partners L.P. 196,600
25. Aim Management Group, Inc. 178,250
26. SunTrust Banks Inc 159,175
27. Citigroup Inc 154,735
28. Oppenheimerfunds, Inc. 151,600
29. Delta Asset Mgmt L.L.C. (TN) 150,688
30. Southern Fiduciary Group Inc 148,413
31. Fuller & Thaler Asset Mgmt Inc 124,700
32. Renaissance Technologies Corporation 122,000
33. Cobalt Capital Mgmt, Inc. 115,000
34. New York Life Inv Mgmt Secs 107,925
35. James Investment Research Inc 101,890
Correctional Services Corporation (CSC)
1. Dimensional Fund Advisors 775,348
2. Benson Associates, L.L.C. 712,925
3. Wells Fargo & (Northwest Corp) 678,125
4. Vanguard Group, Inc. 285,482
5. Legg Mason Inc 102,500
GEO Group Inc
1. Strong Capital Mgmt, Inc. 1,126,602
2. MSDW & Company 867,867
3. Fidelity Management & Research 840,800
4. Barclays Bank PLC 767,975
5. Royce & Associates, L.L.C. 571,900
6. Heartland Advisors Inc. 505,400
7. High Rock Capital L.L.C. 254,700
8. Dimensional Fund Advisors, Inc 254,400
9. Vanguard Group, Inc. 225,973
10. Northern Trust Corporation 116,773
You after
"Fidelity and Legg Mason, to take just a few examples, are both in the Vangaurd peer group and are far above Vanguard in those indices. "
Oh, so now all the sudden its ok because EVERYONE does it! HAHAHAHA! Your lies are not only provable, but they are rather boring and a wee bit childish as well.
Either they do, or they don't. Can't you atleast get that correct before you continue to flail about?
BTW... None of those 'peer' groups were indicted with relation to the organized criminal activities of the US VP.
No, Christy, you have to understand what Mutual Fund Families do. And they do not run corporations.
Christy:
You are simply wrong in all respects again.
Chuck in Houston
All the same, I think Cheney is indictable for something. But Fitzgerald blew that opporunity.
But on this Willacy County indictment, I am premature. Let's wait and see if I have to eat crow on this or not.
Christy:
Do you even know what a "peer group" is?
Chuck in Houston
And if none of them were indicted, why not?
Or, to be more precise, why were none of their share-holders indicted?
Control?
If so, a prosecutor has to be a bit COHERENT or, if that is not the best way to get a conviction, SILENT.
Calling me a 'liar' and 'wrong' does not actually make me either if those things.
You still have to PROVE IT.
Either back it up RIGHT NOW or you are already eating crow.
Do you know what this reminds me of..."Given the challenge, I will try to demonstrate that. Give me a bit."
Sarah freaking Palin, 'I'll try to find ya some and bring them back to ya! Ok? You Betcha!'
HAHAHAHA!
Oh, and by the way, I noticed you never did demonstrate how he was 'incoherent'...?
Again, you have to be ready to PROVE such things as soon as you say them. Otherwise, you are just a..... republican.
Christy:
There is no way to prove a negative, but on the prosecutor thing I'll try.
Chuck in Houston
"There is no way to prove a negative, "
Quit trying verbal gymnastics with a poet.
You called me a 'liar'. You called him 'incoherent'. Can you PROVE either of those accusations?
You can TRY.
Christy:
I guess if you can't believe me on this, then you can't believe me on anything, and so be it and God Bless. I voted straight-ticket Democrat this time out. More on the other to follow (and I don't have anything in particular against McCain or Palin either other than standard Party issues).
Chuck in Houston