Federal prosecutors oppose a bid by lawyers for former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to delay his corruption trial until November. Blagojevich is charged with conspiring to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama and other misuses of his office. I think early October is a fine time to open the trial ...
Blagojevich's lawyers last week asked to postpone the trial from June 3 because the U.S. Supreme Court has not yet decided whether to limit or throw out the "honest services" fraud law. They also cited a voluminous amount of evidence turned over by prosecutors in recent days.
In their filing Monday, prosecutors contended that neither argument by the defense is persuasive, "particularly in light of the strong public interest in resolving this case as expeditiously as possible."
Blagojevich's repeated public statements against the case have heightened that interest, the government contended.
"The charges in this case allege that the defendant engaged in a longstanding and pervasive abuse of his power as the governor of the state of Illinois," the prosecution said. "The defendant has repeatedly and publicly challenged the legitimacy of the charges against him. As a result, the public has a strong interest in the expeditious resolution of the charges."
Prosecutors argued that no matter how the Supreme Court rules on the "honest services" law, the underlying evidence against the former governor would remain the same at trial.
Blagojevich is charged with conspiring to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama and other misuses of his office. Part of the indictment depends on the controversial fraud statute that requires elected officials perform their duties honestly. The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the statute early in the summer.
Prosecutors also dismissed the defense claim that it has been overwhelmed with evidence from the prosecution. By the time the trial would begin in early June, the defense would have had months to review all the material, they said.
The issue will be before U.S. District Judge James Zagel on Wednesday.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/16/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
UK slang - To blag,
To convince by rhetoric; to gain acceptance or approval through persuasive banter or conversation; trickery; keenly persuasive; to scrounge by means of conversation.
Will this make him Olbermann's, 'worst person in the world'?
While Speaker Nancy Pelosi talks "Deem and Pass," President Barack Obama is going a different route -- he's talking to Fox News.
In an "extended, exclusive" interview tomorrow he will sit down with Special Report anchor Bret Baier to make his health care reform pitch to the FNC audience. What a long, strange trip it's been.
The interview will air in full at 6pmET tomorrow and will take place earlier in the afternoon. "We welcome the opportunity to sit down with the President and try to get some specifics on the health care legislation," said Baier in making the announcement right after NoonET today on Fox News.
The history between the White House and Fox News has been a shaky one. In September he went to every major news outlet except Fox for an interview. That started things, and with FNC essentially "winning" the war it came to a head in late October with a meeting between Robert Gibbs and Michael Clemente. In November Major Garrett sat down with Pres. Obama in a round of interviews.
But now this interview is exclusive -- and very meaningful. "It's been a long time coming," said Baier.
A state appellate panel today ruled New Jersey's secretary of state must accept a petition a citizens group filed to recall U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez. The court stayed with its decision to allow Menendez (D-N.J.) to appeal its ruling.
NJ Tea Parties United and the Sussex County Tea Party have said they want Menendez, (D-N.J.) recalled from office because he votes for too much government spending.
The case -- which puts the state in the unusual position of arguing against its own law and calling part of its constitution unconstitutional -- began last fall after then-Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells rejected the committee's notice that it intended to begin a recall effort against Menendez. The removal process requires the secretary of state to approve such a notice before a recall committee can begin generating petitions.
After the notice is approved, the committee then must secure the signatures of 25 percent of registered voters of the affected district before a recall election can be held. There were 5.2 million registered voters in November, meaning the committee would have to secure 1.3 million signatures.
Menendez lawyer Marc Elias argued that the petition drive should be halted because voters do not have the right to recall a federal lawmaker under the U.S. Constitution.
Menendez will be up for re-election in 2012.
Posted by: Bob Gleanter3083 ||
03/16/2010 14:15 ||
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#1
Vote them out or throw them out; whatever comes first.
#4
If this recall does work, it would be a powerful deterent to politicians who are not responsive to the voters and who act outside of or try to sidestep the Constituted duties. Or who are corrupt.
This is a long read -- but you will want to read it! Obama is getting closer and closer to his Watergate moment. And Major Garrett of Fox is searching this out. These are just some pieces from the article
In a blink, Specter has raised the stakes here.
What we are now talking about is the potential for a significant unraveling of the Obama White House even as their biggest domestic agenda item, health care, sucks in most of the media oxygen.
If in fact Sestak is telling the truth, if in fact the Denver Post story about Andrew Romanoff is correct -- and neither Sestak nor Romanoff reported these offers to federal authorities -- Specter is saying both could in fact do jail time for committing a felony.
Even more remarkable is to comprehend why Robert Gibbs may now be standing at that White House podium five different times and refusing to answer questions from Jake Tapper and Major Garrett. If Sestak has told the truth, if the Denver Post got it right -- then not only is the person or persons within the White House who made these job offers in big trouble, but anybody else on the Obama White House staff who currently knows this has happened and has not reported it to the proper authorities -- the FBI, just for starters -- is, according to Specter, a potential prosecution target for "misprision of a felony." For which this person or persons could also go to jail along with whomever offered the jobs in the first place.
Quite possibly, that could include Robert Gibbs, if in fact he knows these job offers occurred.
Which is surely incentive enough for Gibbs to understand that he doesn't want to ask this question of his colleagues -- much less get an answer. An answer for which he could be legally liable. Which in turn makes it a lose-lose proposition for him to say anything -- anything beyond some version of no comment -- to Major Garrett or Jake Tapper.
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Days after Romanoff dodges Boyles and myself, Senator Arlen Specter says that if anyone gets such an offer -- and in this case that would be Romanoff in Colorado and Sestak in Pennsylvania -- and didn't report it, they could go to jail for committing a felony.
Stunningly, this would presumably also include anyone on the Obama White House staff who knew one of their colleagues had offered such a job -- which is to say committed a crime -- and didn't report it.
Let's catch up.
After the February 22nd column in this space noted what no else had yet said -- namely that the Sestak accusation was actually a charge of a federal crime -- the Washington Times checked into the story and agreed, editorializing in favor of an investigation into the Sestak/Specter/Romanoff/White House mess.
Next, our colleagues at National Review Online run a news story by former Justice Department official Hans von Spakovsky in which Spakovsky not only further elaborates on other federal laws that may have been broken, but adds this:
Moreover, the Justice Department has a handbook on the prosecution of election offenses published by the Criminal Division that it distributes to all of its federal prosecutors. That handbook specifies that prosecutors can also use 18 U.S.C. § 600 to prosecute corrupt public officials who use "government-funded jobs or programs to advance a partisan political agenda."
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Now, the heat begins to rise as Arlen Specter steps into the middle of all this on Friday. It should be recalled here that Specter is not just Sestak's opponent. He is a former Philadelphia district attorney and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Asked last week about Sestak's charge by Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC, Specter replies: "That's a very, very serious charge. It's a big black smear without the specifications. But I'm telling you it is a federal crime punishable by jail, and anybody who wants to say that ought to back it up. Listen, Congressman Sestak has gotten a lot of political mileage out of that, and it's really an attack on the administration."
By Friday, March 12, as Gibbs is stonewalling Major Garrett yet again on this issue, Specter is a guest on a WSBA-radio show in York, Pennsylvania. Since the show is in York, and not on national radio or television, Specter's answer goes virtually unnoticed.
#1
When talking to friends and they wonder if Obama will be a one term president, I reply, "If he is very lucky. Most likely he will be a two year president and impeached for his Chicago corruption team."
#3
It is not the crime...it is the cover up! Hmmm...where have I heard that before?
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
03/16/2010 14:59 Comments ||
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The Chicago union way, vote with me and I will get you a new higher paying job. Whats wrong with that??? I bet they had no idea they were breaking the law.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/16/2010 15:19 Comments ||
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It does not appear to me that Specter is the paragon of morality and ethics. That leaves the possibility of being doddering and not knowing what the wider implications are of what he is doing. This indeed might open the door for the a Watergate legal cascade directed at the Presidency.
The president will refuse to make fund-raising visits during November elections to any district whose representative has not backed the bill. Is that a threat or a promise?
A one-night presidential appearance can bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars in funds which would otherwise take months to accumulate through cold-calling by campaign volunteers. And this is a bad thing? If I was a democrat in a tight race and I knew people were P.O.'ed at the bill, I would run like hell from it and campaign on it. Rest at link
#3
Why does the image from Enemy at the Gates with the commissars herding the sheep prols into the killing zone come to mind? You're all cannon fodder for the glory of the Socialist state!
#4
"Under the ruling of the Supreme Court, any lobbyist could go into any legislator and say, if you don't vote our way on this bill, we're going to run a million-dollar campaign against you in your district. And that is a threat to our democracy."
#1
> But at least when we've had celebrations of president in schools in the past the president in question at least had the decency to have already left office or even died
Rheterotically speaking then this PropObamaganda is acceptable.
#2
Musically a pastiche of mediocre film score exerpts as the composer attempted to apply everything he'd learnt from books of theory and composition. Textually full of fatuous posturing in the style of the worst of the Beat poets. Granted, the composer was handicapped by his choice of text -- Obama's autobiography, really? -- but he could have chosen less extended excerpts that conveyed his meaning without boring the listener into delta wave sleep.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said on Monday that she is leaning toward using a "deeming" mechanism to push health care reform across the finish line.
The Speaker, in a press briefing with progressive media in her Capitol office, said that three options were under consideration. One of them involved a vote on the Senate health care bill, followed by a vote on a reconciliation package. "Nobody wants to vote for the Senate bill," she said. She wouldn't rule out that option, she said, because there is no official bill language yet, which she said she needs first before she makes a decision on process.
A second option would entail a vote on a rule followed by a vote on the reconciliation package. The Senate parliamentarian, Pelosi said, has told Democrats that such a strategy would not be acceptable, because the Senate bill must pass the House before the reconciliation amendments can.
So the third option is to write the rule so that the passage of the reconciliation package deems the Senate bill to also have passed, a parliamentary maneuver she said the Senate parliamentarian had said was acceptable.
It's a technical distinction and Democrats hope that it's deep enough in the weeds that average voters will focus instead on the substance of the legislation instead of the confusing process. Asked if she had firmly decided to pursue the third option, she answered, "I like the third one better."
Pelosi said she expects the Congressional Budget Office to return with a cost analysis of the final amendments shortly, at which point she'll call for a vote.
"Get the bill," she said, punching her fist into her hand. "Go for it."
#3
Dang it CrazyFool, you know that's next on the list.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
03/16/2010 1:56 Comments ||
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ION MACAU DAILY TIMES > [POTUS Bammer] MANY AMERICANS HAVE LOST FAITH IN THEIR OWN GOVERNMENT. It existed before the Bammer became POTUS, + had been getting worse since He did.
HMMMMM, HMMMMM, wehell, IMO by the Bammer's own [indirect] admission, he has failed thus far as POTUS to redeem the credibility + image of Washington + USGovt in the eyes of mainstream America.
#5
November is going to be a methodical Nanny Beating. Its going to be a one way slow motion messy brutal sadistic blood smeared squealing grind. And when its over its going to go on echoing in hell for the Doinks.
#9
If you subtract out those who do not work but are subsidized by socialism and those who work for the state, the reminder are less than the average of Americans. Enough though to make sure that Nancy's cannon fodder will pay dearly at the polls in November and beyond.
#10
I regret that I do not now who wrote the following:
For decades pundits have been saying that the New Orleans Saints were so bad at playing football that Hell would freeze over if the Saints ever won The Super Bowl.
On Sunday, February 7, 2010 the Saints won the Super Bowl.
On that same Sunday, Washington D.C. was paralyzed under several feet of snow and the Government was shut down.
Question: Do we now have indisputable proof of the existence and location of Hell?
I'm very much afraid that November is the last chance for number 2 to work. If the tyrant wannabe in the WH and his slimy minions are willing to go to these lengths to impose their will. A win in Nov. would give them all the motivation they need to totally rewrite electoral rules and "deem" them passed.
Be afraid, be very afraid. CF is not being funny, he is being honest.
#13
If I said what I'm thinking, I would get "sinktrapped" for certain. Health care reform is not about "health" or "care." It is a sheer grab for power by the Demoncrats. It is just pure evil, arrogance and a disregard for the voters. I have never seen such rough shod gangster politics. The vote will be close. I hope some of the fence straddlers in the Democratic Party do the right thing and vote "NO". This bill will break the bank. It will be an albatross around the necks of the American people for generations to come. Our children's children will be paying for this bill. The country will never recover from it and we will be headed the way of third world countries.
#14
Hell indeed. It does seem as if the very devil himself is biting their butts because they are desperate to cram this thing down our throats no matter what. It's pretty scary.
And the longer this drama goes on I think the more desperate Obummer will become. He's been at it now for over and year and so far he has nothing to show for it. He hasn't accomplished a single thing yet as president so if health care fails he will be widely perceived as a failed president. There's no telling what he might do to avoid that.
#15
And those poor fence sitting donk representatives who are being called into the Oval Office are gonna get their arms twisted every which way. Imagine the calculations going through their heads. Do they dare defy this man? Is he gonna be a one term president shuffling back to Chicago with his tail between his legs or is he gonna pull it together and then screw the hell out the guys who said no to him? Will they survive this battle with their principals in tact or will they compromise? And if they compromise will they lose their next election?
Squirm, you guys. Think about it and then squirm some more.
#18
Confusing? You mean like when people should follow y'alls rules when you cannot follow your own?
Seems to be a big deal recently taking old movies and remaking them. Perhaps a filmmaker out there could re-do 'Day Without a Mexican' into 'Week Without a Taxpayer'? Heck go big time 3d special effects and make it a month.
What could be a greater guide to a man's true nature, than those from whom he seeks spiritual counsel?
Posted by: ed ||
03/16/2010 08:14 ||
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No matter which way he turns our president always ends up on the far left side of things. If this guy is broadly exposed I wonder who the next spiritual leader will be....
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The president will refuse to make fund-raising visits during November elections to any district whose representative has not backed the bill.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said on Monday that she is leaning toward using a "deeming" mechanism to push health care reform across the finish line. 
