With a hidden FBI camera rolling inside a New York hotel suite in 2003, an unsuspecting Rev. Al Sharpton, Democratic candidate for president, spoke candidly. Sharpton offered to help Philadelphia fund-raiser Ronald A. White win a multimillion-dollar business deal, if White helped him raise $50,000 for politics.
White offered $25,000. "If you bring my guys up on this hedge fund, and I have the right conversation," White said, "I'll give you what you need."
"Cool," Sharpton said.
The Inquirer obtained an account of the May 9, 2003, conversation, which was recorded as part of the Philadelphia City Hall corruption case. The tape helped spark a separate inquiry into Sharpton's 2004 campaign and his civil-rights organization, the National Action Network. The FBI-IRS probe resurfaced publicly Wednesday, when Sharpton aides received subpoenas.
In an interview yesterday, Sharpton said there is "absolutely nothing illegal" about tying business deals to fund-raising because he is not a public official. "nothing to see here"
"The tapes vindicate me," Sharpton said. "They show that I did not talk about bribing a public official or paying money under the table." "I did...other stuff"
The video was recorded by an FBI camera hidden in a lamp inside Suite 34A at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Manhattan. Sharpton and White were introduced by La-Van Hawkins, a Detroit businessman.
At the time, FBI agents were investigating White and Hawkins, suspecting that they were involved in pay-to-play in Philadelphia - raising campaign funds for Mayor Street and others in order to win municipal contracts for favored donors. Later FBI agents in the case infamously placed a bug in Street's office, but it was discovered before it recorded anything.
FBI agents tapping White's phones in 2003 recorded more than 20 conversations between White and Sharpton, most of them related to fund-raising for the presidential campaign and an effort to secure a $40 million pension-fund deal in New York.
About a year later, White, Hawkins and a dozen others, including former City Treasurer Corey Kemp, were indicted in Philadelphia on federal pay-to-play corruption charges. White died before trial. Hawkins was convicted of fraud and perjury and sentenced to 33 months. Kemp is serving a 10-year sentence for corruption, bribery and fraud.
No charges were brought related to Sharpton or the proposed New York pension-fund deal, which never materialized.
However, as The Inquirer reported in 2005, the New York-based investigation of Sharpton has continued. Sources said agents in that case are examining whether Sharpton violated campaign-finance laws or used money donated to his National Action Network for personal use. ya think?
FBI spokesman James Margolin in New York declined to comment yesterday.
When Sharpton and White teamed up in 2003, each had a need and a talent. Sharpton had access to business and government officials, and needed help fund-raising for his fledgling national campaign. White had access to campaign donors and was always looking for connections into business and government deals.
To qualify for matching federal funds in the presidential campaign, Sharpton needed to raise $5,000 in each of 20 states. According to a spreadsheet created by White's office staff, White and Hawkins raised contributions for Sharpton in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan and Pennsylvania. White solicited funds from donors in Texas, New Jersey, Alabama and Maryland, and made plans to raise money in a half dozen other states.
Some contributors, however, were reluctant to help White contribute to Sharpton because they didn't want their names attached to the controversial preacher in public records. One businessman in Philadelphia is heard on one wiretap expressing such concern. White convinced him to move the money through White's political action committee instead.
On a few calls, Hawkins expressed his concern about Sharpton's shortcomings as a candidate. He was sloppy with campaign finances, Hawkins said, worrying that some campaign funds might get mixed with personal or National Action Network funds. "He's a train wreck - a plane crash waiting to happen," Hawkins told White.
During the 2003 hotel meeting, Sharpton also discussed the wisdom of raising funds for voter-registration outreach because, unlike candidate contributions, there are no fund-raising or spending limits on them.
In May 2004, the FEC ruled that the Sharpton campaign had to repay $100,000 in matching funds because he spent more than twice as much as allowed of his own money on his campaign.
In the interview yesterday, Sharpton said that he has heard some of the wiretaps and they are not incriminating. He said his campaign finance reports show that he has done nothing wrong. "It's not illegal for me to help guys get contracts . . . making introductions for Mr. White and Mr. Hawkins, if they help me raise money," Sharpton said. "I'm not a public official."
"You can make tapes sound like whatever you want," he said, "but the timing of this is ridiculous." Sharpton was referring to his recent protests and commentary about the racial controversy in Jena, La., involving six black teenagers accused of beating a white classmate. "This is government harassment," he said. "I knew this investigation would come back when we started the Jena protests."
Of the investigation, Sharpton predicted, "It went nowhere three years ago and it's going nowhere now."
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/15/2007 12:27 ||
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#1
I'll lay in extra supplies of popcorn....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/15/2007 14:23 Comments ||
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Sharpton predicted, "It went nowhere three years ago and it's going nowhere now."
A bit of unreality here (Or just plain lie), didn't you have to put out a hundred grand in that "Go nowhere" Investigation?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/15/2007 15:44 Comments ||
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#3
"During the 2003 hotel meeting, Sharpton also discussed the wisdom of raising funds for voter-registration outreach because, unlike candidate contributions, there are no fund-raising or spending limits on them."
At Thursday's press day for his new show "American Gladiators," Hogan was asked which celebrity he'd like to see a Gladiator pummel. His answer: "Without a doubt Rosie O'Donnell. Somebody needs to shut that big mouth up," TMZ reported. O'Donnell responded in her blog, saying:
hulk hogan
the wrestler guy
wants to pummel me
isnt that sweet
and wildly odd
its like a gang of gross guys
a club almost
old dumb white and on tv
I'm not sure if this is some sort of attempt at haiku or if it's an illiterate scrawl.
Celebrity wrestler Hogan and Laila Ali co-host NBC's "American Gladiators," a revival of the '90s competition series. The new edition debuts Jan. 6. "Things are bigger and faster," Hogan said of the show. "Now we've got water and I wish it was shark-infested."
"With friggin' lasers strapped to their heads!"
Posted by: Fred ||
12/15/2007 00:00 ||
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"old dumb white and on tv"
There goes Rosie talking about herself again.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/15/2007 0:49 Comments ||
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#2
I hated wrestling as a kid, now I wish I could honestly say I have been a Hogan fan all my life.
If he stops into the O club, his money is worthless.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
12/15/2007 0:52 Comments ||
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#3
Leave her alone! Can't you see she's got troubles?!
#6
I'm as much in favor of pummeling Rosie as the next guy, but . . . I dunno, the whole concept of "gladiators" and "Rosie O'Donnell" just gives me the creepin' willies.
Posted by: Mike ||
12/15/2007 13:56 Comments ||
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#7
I think a far better solution would be one of those "Muting" operations they give dogs that won't quit yapping.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/15/2007 15:47 Comments ||
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Rosie O'Donnel in Gladiator attire. I'm gonna have to scrub my eyes with a brillo pad.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/15/2007 18:38 Comments ||
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Rosie torn to bits by lions....oh, wait. Wrong Gladiator
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/15/2007 19:19 Comments ||
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This was an 'Oh shit moment' for me. ONE person has died and six other have been infected by the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province in the past two months, a senior Health Ministry official said.
"Seven in total. One died and six other people were infected with the H5N1 virus," Federal Health Secretary Khushnood Akhtar Lashari said. "It was confirmed by blood tests."
He said two people had recovered and four were in quarantine.
#3
The Chinese have problems with the Islamics too. Given the normal origins of these things, I wouldn't put it past them to take the 'long view' and play the game under the table. Let the Yanks take the 'usual' blame.
#4
The big one will start with "village zero", when in just a day or two, *almost* an entire village gets the disease. The authorities will rush in and will be certain that the disease is contained.
Then, in about two weeks, in some adjacent area, just a few people will get the disease, which will further reassure them that they caught it and contained it.
Then about two weeks later, there will be a few more outlying cases. And THEN, the big one will hit. Hundreds of people in part of a major city will be smitten all at once.
But even then, the disease will seem to have stopped. In truth, at that point, it will have traveled to every corner of that country, and will be crossing international borders, invisibly.
From that point on the pandemic will be in its full growth phase.
Unfortunately, this progression will only be obvious after the fact. While it is happening, it will be pretty much out of the picture, with only two brief glimpses. At the "village zero" point and at the "city zero" point.
Most of the news will follow the extraneous circus surrounding the disease, rather than the disease itself.
#6
No hope for containment, as H5N1 is now endemic to Asia, so in a manner of speaking the niche is filled, and the H2H strain will just be supplanting the other versions of H5N1 already in the niche. Or they will mutate in the same direction as the H2H strain.
The element of control, or the lack thereof, comes from a variable only discovered in the last few weeks. Humidity and temperature.
At the optimal temperature of 41F and under 20% humidity (cool and dry), the influenza virus can spread easily on the wind over large areas. As the temperature and humidity increase, its ability to spread by air declines, until at 80% humidity and warm temperatures it cannot propagate *by air alone*.
This means that in warmer and wetter climates, such as much of southern Asia, it is *dependent* on surface contamination transfer. That is, this is how it will spread among the human population in those regions.
But in the temperate regions, it will more commonly be spread by cool and dry air.
This is ironic, in that warm and wet southern Asia is one of the places where there is expectation of poorer personal hygiene resulting in contact contamination. But in the temperate zones there is much greater awareness of contact contamination, but sanitation will be less effective because infection will be spread more by air.
#7
Moose, in the (northern) winter, Pakistan is cool and dry.
The flu virus finds new ecological niches by jumping species. Something it has clearly evolved to do.
The reason I had an 'oh shit' moment is that despite what you may hear, containment is a very effective strategy for eliminating an epidemic, H2H transmitted, infectious disease in its early stages.
Therefore, pandemic H5N1 will almost certainly come out of a place where the government is too weak or inept to implement adequate containment measures, Pakistan's NWF Province for example.
#8
i won't bore you with the numbers, but isolating just 50% of early stage cases makes the probability of a pandemic strain developing, vanishingly small.
Once the pandemic strain has developed then it's game over and all the containment in the world won't make any difference.
Nobody tells you this, because it is an unpalatable truth in our multicultural world.
A brother of one of the victims flew to the USA less than 2 weeks ago and was apparently tested by the CDC on arrival.
Meanwhile, U.S. health officials have confirmed they conducted H5N1 testing on a man who had recently visited Pakistan and was complaining of mild respiratory symptoms. The man is believed to be another brother from the affected family. A spokesperson for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control confirmed Saturday that the CDC sent its plane to Albany last Saturday to collect specimens taken from the man, who lives in Nassau County. Tests done in the state lab and confirmed at the CDC in Atlanta showed the man was not infected with the virus.
#10
Let me get this straight. The CDC thought a Pakistani man might have the bird flu so they take specimens, but don't take the guy?
Posted by: Mike N. ||
12/15/2007 16:02 Comments ||
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Phil_b: Containment is almost not a possibility in southern Asia, so it's hardly at issue. Not only from there lack of development, but because H5N1 has already been declared endemic.
So this issue might be containment of the H5N1 H2H subtype. But even that is mathematically questionable. Here's the logic:
Say there are 18 mutations that have to occur before H5N1 becomes H2H. Until you have all 18, the H5N1 only affects birds, so remains unnoticed, except when a human gets infected from a bird or some farmer's flock dies.
This means that in just the bird population, the majority of mutations may already be at "mutation 14", because that is the best mutation for birds.
But that establishes a new base level of the virus, which only needs four of the right kind of mutations to become H2H. And to mutate with just four variable in the right pattern takes a LOT fewer number of mutations than with 18 variables.
So it would seem that the successful containment of one lineage of 18 mutations, while stopping it, would not stop all the other sub types out there that are at 14, 15, 16 and 17 out of 18. They are not yet H2H, but may unpredictably be about to become H2H, even though they have no connection to the first subtype to achieve the proper 18 mutations.
Now this pattern would almost uniquely apply to influenza, because it has such an extraordinarily high number of "plastic" genes very prone to mutation. For about any other disease, containment would be much easier, and only hidden reservoirs of a particular type would be likely to cause a reemergence.
#12
Moose, the key is that the pandemic strain has to arise just once and that will occur in a chain of H2H transmission, because the final adaptations can only occur in human infections. No one knows how long that chain will be, but I'd guess somewhere between 10 and 20 transmissions.
Break that chain and the human pandemic strain doesn't arise.
Statistically, if the chain is 20 persons long and you isolate 5% of infected people before they infect someone else, then you have halved the probability of the pandemic strain arriving, put another way you have doubled the amount of time it will be before the strain arrives.
Now this is logarothmic relationship. Double the percentage you isolated and you quadrupled the length of time before the strain arrives.
Assuming that without isolation the strain will arrive in exactly one year (statistically speaking), then by Isolating 50% of infected people, it will be a million years before the pandemic arrives.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/15/2007 20:25 Comments ||
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What Phil is say is that you'll need my bunkers someday. I have a special offer just for those of you that would liek to upgrade the ones you bought from me 8 years ago. Call Now! This Deal Cant Last Forever and It's Going Fast!
*Also, see my website for special deals on the latest generation of power generation.
#18
Phil_b: That a final adaptation can only happen once it is in humans is a new one on me.
Because swine and several other mammals also share human transmissible influenzas, I would assume that even patient zero may not be the first animal to have the fully H2H subtype. That is, H5N1 could adapt to human type influenza in a pig or other animal that carries human influenza types.
The chief epidemologist of Vietnam discovered a swine herd that was acting something like a calculator to create better H5N1 strains. Each pig had about five different strains competing for dominance. Then the best strain of each pig would compete with the best strain from other pigs. Eventually the entire herd would have the best strain of them all.
I gather, physically, the only reason that H5N1 has not yet become readily H2H is because it tends to accumulate in the lower trachea instead of the upper trachea and sinuses, and thus is harder to cough and sneeze out.
However, there also may be a genetic component, in that in one noteworthy case an entire family was wiped out, but not the family spouses, of different blood lines.
This was in a comment, from petronius on a recent Samizdata posting I did about Christianity in China. I was tempted to make it todays Samizdata quote of the day, but that might confuse things, what with two nearby postings then being about the same thing. So, let it be the quote of the day here:
Rome isnt making many waves with Beijing right now, but then Rome always takes the long view. Look at what happened in Poland. The party there thought the new Cardinal was a quiet scholar. Imagine their shock when they discovered that he had secretly built an army of the best minds in the country, one student at a time. Those 50 million Bibles are going to explode one of these days, when Beijing least expects it.
Ive no idea if its true, but I love the way he puts it.
Posted by: Mike ||
12/15/2007 13:45 ||
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The Catholic Church is just about the only instutition the West has that can and does take a long view.
BRUSSELS - European Union leaders agreed on Friday to send administrators and police to Kosovo ahead of an expected declaration of independence from Serbia. In a bid to soothe Balkan tensions over Kosovos push for independence, they also offered Serbia a fast-track route to joining the bloc once it met conditions for signing a first-level agreement on closer ties.
But Belgrade bristled at suggestions that the move was designed to compensate it for the looming loss of Kosovo, the majority Albanian province. Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said any such trade-off would be an indecent proposal.
EU leaders declared after a one-day summit that negotiations on Kosovos future were exhausted, the status quo was untenable and there was a need to move towards a Kosovo settlement. They stopped short of endorsing independence. We took a political decision to send an ESDP mission to Kosovo. This is the clearest signal the EU could possibly give that Europe intends to lead on Kosovo and the future of the region, Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, the summit chairman, told a news conference.
ESDP is the European Security and Defence Policy. The 1,800-strong mission involves police, justice officials and civilian administrators.
But when asked whether and when the EU would recognise Kosovos independence, Socrates said talks on that issue were taking place at the United Nations. The EU is not forgetting its responsibilities in this area. We are talking in terms of action and not inaction, he said.
BWA-HA-HA-HA! 'Action'? What a joke! The man is a serious comedian. What? He's not kidding?
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/15/2007 00:00 ||
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"EU agrees to send mission to Kosovo"
To do what? Keep 'em in line with frowns and strongly worded letters?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/15/2007 0:46 Comments ||
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Does this mean we can finally get our troops out of that quagmire?
LANDI KOTAL: The Mulla Gori and Zakha Khel tribes in Khyber Agency at a public meeting in Mulla Gori Sherbridge on Friday announced that their women would not be allowed to vote. Tribal elders warned the Election Commission not to set up polling stations for women in their areas, saying they would shut them down. They also warned women not to violate their decision, threatening action in line with tribal traditions.
That'd include throwing acid in their faces, I guess...
Meanwhile, around 200 baton-wielding Khuga Khel Shinwari tribe women blocked the Pak-Afghan road at Charwazgai to protest against extensive power outages.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/15/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Or the new Canadian tradition of throttling your own daughter to death.
#3
The way around this problem is to conduct a census, in which all homes are visited. The male census takers go to talk with the men, and the female census takers go to talk with the women in a different area, "for modesty reasons". Then the female census takers vote the women while they talk to them.
This is not a secret ballot, so the women are required to vote.
The Indian Army is relocating a division of troops to North Bengal from Jammu after the security establishment has taken stock of a Chinese move into a high plateau in Bhutan named Dolam.
Major elements of the 27 Mountain Division have already moved out and among these are units of the 164 Mountain Brigade based in Kalimpong, an army headquarters source has confirmed to The Telegraph.
A Chinese move into Dolam means that Indias border with China gets distorted at Sikkims tri-point with Bhutan. It also means that Chinese forces move a few kilometres south from where they originally were. It brings them closer to North Bengals Siliguri Corridor. China has always laid claim to Dolam. There is a suspicion that it has now extended its claim line.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: john frum ||
12/15/2007 00:00 ||
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I should think it would be easy to stop any kind of thrust through the mountainous borders between India and China. Probably cause an avalanche or something the first time a tank fired its main gun.
Nuclear-armed India said on Friday it was ready to jump-start production of long-range nuclear missiles which can hit targets deep in China or Pakistan.
V. K. Saraswat, the chief of India's missile development project, said the assembly lines were in place to speed up the production of the precision rockets.
Military insiders told AFP the announcement was a response to reports of growing cross-border military intrusions into India by China, which has an unresolved border dispute with its smaller Asian neighbour.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: john frum ||
12/15/2007 00:00 ||
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Shipyard workers are inspecting the welds of seven more Navy ships including four aircraft carriers after faulty welds were discovered on new Virginia-class submarines built at Northrop Grumman Newport News, according to a company spokeswoman.
The carriers George H.W. Bush, Carl Vinson, Enterprise and George Washington, along with Los Angeles-class attack submarines Oklahoma City, Newport News and Toledo, are being assessed for faulty welds similar to those discovered on the Virginia-class submarines built in part at Newport News, spokeswoman Jennifer Dellapenta wrote in an e-mail response to questions from Navy Times.
But how many total ships will be evaluated has not yet been determined, she wrote.
The carrier Bush is under construction at Newport News, Vinson is undergoing a refueling and overhaul at the shipyard, George Washington is in port, and the Enterprise is scheduled to return to Hampton Roads later this month from its deployment to the Middle East.
She wrote that the ships are being evaluated combining technical analysis and inspections as necessary, in the same manner that the Virginia-class submarines were assessed. Problems with welds in non-nuclear internal piping on new Virginia-class submarines were revealed in recent news reports, but until Dellapentas statement on Friday, there had been no mention of the problem possibly affecting other classes of ships.
The scope of the weld problem potentially affects all hulls delivered and under construction in the Virginia class, new construction aircraft carriers and all ships repaired by Northrop Grumman Newport News, said Lt. Cmdr. John Schofield, spokesman for the assistant Navy secretary for research, development and acquisition.
Added Katie Roberts, spokeswoman for Naval Sea Systems Command: We are still evaluating the long-term effects. The investigation is not complete yet.
The inspections and analysis of internal piping systems of the carriers and Los Angeles-class subs is expected to continue into the first six months of 2008. None of the inspections has been completed yet, she wrote.
In a letter dated Tuesday to the shipyard work force, Sector President Mike Petters wrote the welding discrepancies have delayed sea trials and the planned year-end delivery for North Carolina and has impacted other Virginia-class ships as well.
He said the matter is a technical issue that has called into question the discipline of our processes.
Petters wrote in the letter that the problem stems from filler material used in non-nuclear welds and that welders had been allowed to carry several different types of filler material while welding.
This practice has been halted. Today you can only carry the filler metal you need for a single, particular type of weld joint, Petters wrote. We are also putting into a place a rigorous set of corrective actions that include mandatory training for each and every welder and every welding foreman.
Despite recent news reports downplaying the problem, Petters wrote that theres lots of work to do, and the work force of 21,000 needs to step up.
What really matters the most to me is that we conduct our business with the highest level of integrity, continuing to work together to provide the most technically sound and highest-quality ships to our customer in support of Americas freedom, he wrote.
#1
You have got to be shitting me. The welders went around welding in the ship, carrying the different fillers required for the different materials being welded and just went ahead and plucked whatever filler rod was handy..
Posted by: Mike N. ||
12/15/2007 19:01 Comments ||
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#2
unbelievable and unacceptably sloppy work. Did no-one do QA/QC weld testing? Heads need to roll, and NG needs to eat the big one on the costs for this shoddy work
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/15/2007 19:24 Comments ||
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#3
Watch this one get swept under the rug. It's one thing to x-ray to find welds that are poorly done, but it's much harder to retroactively figure out which ones have the wrong materials, especially on thick parts where the wrong material may be in some passes but not necessarily on the surface passes. I agree with Frank -- heads need to roll.
#6
if they're AWS-certified, as I'm sure is req'd, they know better. Should pull all AWS cards and make every one of these lazy ignorant assholes recertify - you have to KNOW what base metal and electrode/wire to use before you start current
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/15/2007 22:19 Comments ||
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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.
With a hidden FBI camera rolling inside a New York hotel suite in 2003, an unsuspecting Rev. Al Sharpton, Democratic candidate for president, spoke candidly. Sharpton offered to help Philadelphia fund-raiser Ronald A. White win a multimillion-dollar business deal, if White helped him raise $50,000 for politics.
BRUSSELS - European Union leaders agreed on Friday to send administrators and police to Kosovo ahead of an expected declaration of independence from Serbia. In a bid to soothe Balkan tensions over Kosovos push for independence, they also offered Serbia a fast-track route to joining the bloc once it met conditions for signing a first-level agreement on closer ties.
