From four different angles, jurors saw a former Louisiana congressman accept a suitcase filled with $100,000 on videos played in court Tuesday.
The July 2005 handoff of the suitcase from an FBI cooperating witness to former Rep. William Jefferson, a Democrat who represented parts of New Orleans, is one of the key pieces of evidence in the ongoing bribery trial of Jefferson. He's accused of accepting more than $400,000 in bribes in exchange for brokering business deals in Africa.
Four days after Jefferson picked up the suitcase of cash outside a northern Virginia hotel, FBI agents searched Jefferson's Washington home and found $90,000 of the money hidden in his freezer.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/08/2009 00:00 ||
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Then no more need be said as to his guilt or innocence.
Oh wait. This is "Bizarro World".
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/08/2009 16:09 Comments ||
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Mmmm, Ok be devil's advocate here, did the video show an open case filled with cash, or a closed case and TOLD it contains cash?
Huge difference there.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/08/2009 17:29 Comments ||
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Iraq's feuding leaders may be nudged toward political compromise by one hard fact: as the U.S. military occupation ends, Iraq still badly needs American help to rebuild, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said on Sunday.
"Once they realized that their old buddy Joe wasn't coming to impose something on them, they were then willing to say, 'We need you to help us,'" Biden said.
Oh. Come. On. Does he really talk like that?
Biden's hopeful words were repeatedly put to the test during his brief trip. On Friday, hundreds of supporters of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr paraded through a Baghdad slum burning U.S. flags, a sign that not all Iraqis are persuaded of America's good intentions.
Biden spoke to both by phone and officials said he planned further in-depth discussions with them by phone this week.
"My impression is that they feel very comfortable," he said. "The fact that I'm vice president of the United States is very reassuring to them." Well I'm glad somebody is reassured by that...
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/08/2009 17:30 Comments ||
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#2
The fact that Iraqis CAN march in protest in the streets of Bagdad without fear of being skinned alive is brought to you by the blood of American soldiers.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
07/08/2009 17:47 Comments ||
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#3
good God! What a narcissistic moron. Dan Quayle is smiling somewhere
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/08/2009 17:58 Comments ||
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#4
"The fact that I'm vice president of the United States is very reassuring to them."
#5
"The fact that I'm vice president of the United States is very reassuring to them."
Yeah, Joe - they're grateful you're not their vice president.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/08/2009 19:50 Comments ||
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#6
The Fact That I'm Vice President of the United States is Very Reassuring to Iraqis
Good. Because it scares the bejesus outta ME.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/08/2009 20:15 Comments ||
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#7
This administration is plodding slowly, arduously, and narcissisticly. Looking at Joe's ominously stupid activities, it going to be a long four years. Thank God they are losing popularity fast.
L'AQUILA, Italy -- President Obama joined other world leaders on Wednesday in backing new targets for battling global warming, a move the Bush White House had resisted.
White House officials confirmed that Obama agreed to language supporting a goal of keeping the world's average temperature from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
The agreement by the Group of Eight industrialized nations, meeting in Italy, marks a significant step in efforts to limit greenhouse gases blamed for the world's rising temperature. The G-8 previously had not been able to agree on that temperature limit as a political goal.
It remains only a target, however, and it is far from clear that it will be met, especially as China, India and other rapidly industrializing nations generate and consume more energy from coal and other sources.
Climate change experts say the 2-degree threshold wouldn't eliminate the risk of runaway climate change but would reduce it. Even a slight increase in average temperatures could wreak havoc on farmers around the globe, as seasons shift, crops fail and storms and droughts ravage fields, scientists say.
The G-8 leaders also agreed to a goal of having industrialized nations reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050. It would be part of a worldwide goal of a 50 percent cut in such gases from all nations, rich and poor.
James Connaughton, the chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality under President George W. Bush, said the G8 agreement goes a step further than a deal struck at a meeting last year in Japan by assigning a specific goal to industrialized nations. Developing countries back then balked at agreeing to a 50 percent worldwide reduction come 2050.
"This would appear to be a good-faith attempt to assure the developing countries that the developed countries will bear a greater proportion of the task," Connaughton said in an interview with The Associated Press.
White House adviser Mike Froman said the administration supports the new nonbinding goals.
He said the starting point for the targeted reduction could be as early as 1990. The two goals will not be included in a declaration from a broader group that includes poor and developing nations that are wary about the potential impact of such reductions on emerging economies, Froman said.
Opponents say such sharp reductions in carbon emissions would hamper businesses and industries.
The Department of Energy in 2008 completed a study for the Bush White House in 2008 that showed if industrialized countries slashed their emissions by 80 percent, that would require developing countries to cut their future emissions by 65 percent to meet the worldwide target.
#4
As I recall, Germany planned to opt out, too, while demanding the changes hold for everyone else. They plan to build quite a few coal-fired power plants in the near future, you see.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Tuesday that the health-care reform bill now pending in Congress would garner very few votes if lawmakers actually had to read the entire bill before voting on it.
If every member pledged to not vote for it if they hadnt read it in its entirety, I think we would have very few votes, Hoyer told CNSNews.com at his regular weekly news conference.
Hoyer was responding to a question from CNSNews.com on whether he supported a pledge that asks members of the Congress to read the entire bill before voting on it and also make the full text of the bill available to the public for 72 hours before a vote.
In fact, Hoyer found the idea of the pledge humorous, laughing as he responded to the question. Im laughing because a) I dont know how long this bill is going to be, but its going to be a very long bill, he said.
Members clearly--and staff and review boards, they read them in their entirety. They go over it with members, and members read substantial portions of the bill themselves, but the issue is--I dont know who signed this (pledge), but frankly the opposition has been very vociferous, not of the verbiage and bill, but on the concept that it incorporates, Hoyer said.
Let Freedom Ring, a Delaware-based conservative organization, is circulating a pledge that asks members of Congress to promise to read the entirety of the final text of a health-care reform bill before they vote on it. They also are asking that the full bill be made available for review by the public for 72 hours before Congress votes on it.
Colin Hanna, president of Let Freedom Ring, said Hoyers comment is evidence that lawmakers in Congress are off-track.
It tells the American people how off-track our legislative process has become, Hanna said. I think if the framers of our Constitution ever saw an entire legislative body vote on a 1,500-page bill that no one had read, they would shudder--if not go into fits of apoplexy.
Hanna said the pledge to read the full health-care bill--and all future bills--is one way for lawmakers to show that they are not casual in their commitment to constituents.
We think the American public expects their legislators to know whats in a bill before they support it, and were urging legislators to sign a pledge to that effect, Hanna told CNSNews.com.
By signing the Responsible Health-care Reform Pledge, lawmakers commit to reading the entire bill and making it available to the public for three days before they cast their votes.
The pledge says, I, (Name inserted here), pledge to my constituents and to the American people that I will not vote to enact any health-care reform package that: 1) I have not read, personally, in its entirety; and, 2) Has not been available, in its entirety, to the American people on the Internet for at least 72 hours, so that they can read it too.
Earlier CNSNews.com stories revealed that few if any congressmen read the 1,550-page American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 or the 1,071-page American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 before voting on the bills.
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 32% of the nation's voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-seven percent (37%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of --5.
The number who strongly disapprove inched up another point to the highest level measured to date and the overall Approval Index is at the lowest level yet for Obama (see trends).
In the wake of last week's disappointing report on job loss, consumer confidence has fallen to the lowest level in two months. The Rasmussen Investor Index shows investor confidence falling to the lowest level in three months. The number of investors who say the economy is getting worse jumped from 43% before the jobs report to 51% today.
The Presidential Approval Index is calculated by subtracting the number who Strongly Disapprove from the number who Strongly Approve. It is updated daily at 9:30 a.m. Eastern (sign up for free daily e-mail update). Updates also available on Twitter.
Overall, 52% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President's performance so far. Yesterday and today are the first time that the number of voters who approve of the President's performance has slipped below the 53% share of the vote he won last November. Forty-eight percent (48%) now disapprove. For other barometers of the President's performance, see Obama By the Numbers or review recent demographic highlights from the tracking polls.
An early look at the 2012 race for the Republican nomination shows Mitt Romney at 25%, Sarah Palin at 24%, and Mike Huckabee at 22%. Forty percent (40%) of GOP voters say that Palin hurt her chances of winning the nomination by resigning as Alaska's Governor last week. Among all voters, Republicans now have a three-point edge on the Generic Congressional Ballot.
Just 27% of voters nationwide favor passage of a second economic stimulus package. Sixty percent (60%) are opposed.
Fifty-four percent (54%) say the average Democrat in Congress is more liberal than they are, while 36% believe the average Republican congressman is more conservative.
President Obama, in between negotia tions and public ceremonies with Russian leaders Dmitri Medvedev and Vladimir Putin, had to take time out to extract Joe Biden's foot from his mouth.
The president had to disabuse the world of the notion that Biden had given Israel a green light to attack Iran's nuclear facilities.
Asked on Sunday whether the United States would prevent Israel from such an attack, Biden refused to say no, arguing suggestively that "Israel can determine for itself -- it's a sovereign nation -- what's in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else."
Yesterday, Obama tried to repair what was widely seen as diplomatic damage.
"Absolutely not," the president replied when asked if Biden was sending Israel a go signal. "And I think it's very important that I'm as clear as I can be, and our administration is as consistent as we can be on this issue."
Well, it's certainly important that the administration be as clear as it can be on any number of issues -- arguably the most important being Mideast policy. How that squares with allowing Joe Biden out in public without a muzzle strapped to his face isn't quite clear.
One of these days, his mouth is going to cause problems that can't be papered over with soothing presidential rhetoric.
In the meantime, it's safe to say that the veep is certainly entertaining.
That some taxpayers are upset that governments are spending federal stimulus money on promotional road construction signs is completely understandable. The money should be used to fix roads, period.
In case you missed the story, the Associated Press reported in Monday's Daily News that the federal government encouraged state governments to create signs which read "Putting America to work" and "Project funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act."
Sounds more like a paid political advertisement than an educational tool for the public, don't you think? And let's face it, the project is funded by dollars that the government doesn't have and that the taxpayers will have to pay back.
President Barack Obama's administration said the signs are useful sources of information for the public because they help citizens see how the stimulus money is being spent. "We look at it as a way to promote transparency," said Sasha Johnson of the U.S. Department of Transportation.
If the government really wanted to promote transparency, the signs would read something like this: "This project put America another $5.8 million in debt. Your share of that debt keeps growing every day."
The stimulus road signs cost between $500 and $1,200 to design, make and install. By the time the cost for all of these signs is added together, millions will have been spent that could have gone toward road work. That wasteful spending should be upsetting to all taxpayers.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/08/2009 05:41 ||
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President Barack Obama's administration said the signs are useful sources of propagandainformation for the public because they help the clueless citizens see how the stimulus money is being spent.
#2
I noticed one of those signs on Sunday, and frankly, I can't too worked up about it. I doubt I've ever seen a highway project that didn't tout the sponsor. And as far as government spending goes, at least it's for something concrete.
#5
Illinois must have spent a bundle of their 'stimulus check' on changing the 'Vanity Highway Signs' from Rod Blagojevich to Pat Quinn. It seems that every highway, rest stop and tollbooth sign in the state had his name on it. I do notice that in some areas they've changed it from Blagojevich to a more generic "The People of Illinois". Might make it cheaper when the next governor is 'disgraced' (as seems to happen every few years).
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/08/2009 12:20 Comments ||
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Blago's name was taken off all those "Open Road Tolling" signs. No replacement by Quinn "the Eskimo" either.
If the signs really upset you, plow your car into them and when asked, point out that garbage collectors have to eat to. And they also can vote.
Waste as economic stimulus is a very Keynesian theory - oft demonstrated by his public throwing of towels on to the floor so the bathroom attendants would have something to do.
Approximately two weeks ago, the House of Representatives passed an amendment, introduced by Congressman Alcee Hastings, that would prohibit people affiliated with hate groups from joining the military. The amendment is one of dozens tacked on to the National Defense Authorization Act for 2010 -- the bill that OKs money to be spent on the armed forces. The full bill passed the House and the companion bill was read aloud today in the Senate.
Rep. Hastings himself has conceded that his amendment is somewhat redundant, since "the Armed Forces already have a great many regulations in place regarding the prohibition on extremist activities by military personnel." He claimed, however, that "in many instances recruiters and commanding officers are looking the other way."
But the folks over at Right Wing News have read the amendment closely, and they don't believe it's so innocuous. Referring to it as a "disturbing piece of legislation," they noted the fine print: the text says that persons associated with hate groups, "as determined by the Attorney General," may not be enlisted or retained in the armed forces.
Right-wingers worry that this grants too much power to current Attorney General Eric Holder, who could theoretically label them members of "hate groups" by virtue of being pro-gun, anti-abortion, or anti-illegal-immigration. After all, they say, Holder is a "terrorist's best friend" who plans to release Guantanamo detainees in the U.S., and the Department of Homeland Security in April issued a report warning of a resurgence in right-wing extremism.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/08/2009 00:00 ||
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Does that include Trinity United? And should it exclude other branches of government?
Posted by: ed ||
07/08/2009 1:00 Comments ||
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"a resurgence in right-wing extremism"
aka basic American patriotism...like saying the Pledge of Allegiance, removing your ball cap and putting your hand over your heart during the natl' anthem at sporting events, lighting sparklers on the Fourth - you know all that Right Wing extremist shit.
#3
Yeah, heaven forbid the military should be rotten with pro-gun types...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/08/2009 1:15 Comments ||
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Proposed legislation brought to our attention by the same people who ignored the current economic tsunami until it was too late. You can never get enough of what you don't need or want.
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.
From four different angles, jurors saw a former Louisiana congressman accept a suitcase filled with $100,000 on videos played in court Tuesday. 
L'AQUILA, Italy -- President Obama joined other world leaders on Wednesday in backing new targets for battling global warming, a move the Bush White House had resisted. 
President Obama, in between negotia tions and public ceremonies with Russian leaders Dmitri Medvedev and Vladimir Putin, had to take time out to extract Joe Biden's foot from his mouth. 
