Daily Nonsense

Jay Leno:   "How many people in our studio got your seats tonight because you paid off Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich?"

Jay Leno:   "Don’t you love watching congressmen lecture auto executives on how to run their business? I mean, you got people that put us a trillion dollars in debt lecturing people who put us a billion dollars in debt."

David Letterman:   "We’re not kidding about this economy," which "is so bad that" Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich "had to mark down the price of a Senate seat 40%."

David Letterman:   "But did you hear about this guy?" Blagojevich "is charged with corruption and apparently" he "was stealing a lot of money, getting a lot of bribes" and "kickbacks and hiding them in his hair."

David Letterman:   "Well, I just hope to God this doesn’t tarnish the fine reputation of Illinois politics."

Craig Ferguson:   "Big news from Washington today. Even though it may make some people uncomfortable, President-elect Obama says he’ll use his full name, Barack Hussein Obama, when he’s sworn in next month. To show support, Joe Biden is also using his full name, Joseph Adolph Fidel Puppykiller Biden."

Conan O’Brien:   "A plan to bail out the Big Three automakers stalled in Congress today. Yeah. As a result, Congress plans to buy a better-built Japanese bailout plan."

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Jay Leno:   "Insiders say that President Bush and his wife Laura have already bought a home in Dallas, Texas, to move into after they leave the White House. And if this turns out to be true, this would be the first time in his Presidency he’s actually had an exit strategy."

Jay Leno:   "President-elect Barack Obama was on ‘Meet the Press’ yesterday, and he told the American people the economy was ‘going to get worse before it gets better.’ … See, that’s when you know the campaign is really over. Remember before the election? ‘The audacity of hope!’ ‘Yes, we can!’ ‘A change we can believe in!’ Now it’s, ‘We’re all screwed.’"

Jay Leno:   "Senator Chris Dodd said the CEO of GM should resign as part of any bailout deal. His feeling is if you run up a giant deficit, and you don’t give the American people what they want, you should resign. Wait, how did" Dodd "keep his job?"

David Letterman:   "Let me just say a word about these jokes that I am telling right now, ladies and gentlemen. Like President-elect Obama says, ‘It’s going to get worse before it gets better.’"

Conan O’Brien:   "This weekend, at a Kennedy Center Awards ceremony, Barbra Streisand kissed President George W. Bush. Yeah. The ultimate liberal kissed President George W. Bush. Yeah. Afterward, Bush said, ‘Who was that guy?’"

Defense Lawyers for the Blackwater 5 had thought to influence justice by having their clients surrender in Utah.  A state that traditionally supports the military, the lawyers for the defense hoped to find a sympathetic jury there.

Those hopes were squashed like bugs underfoot when a federal judge there ordered the defendants to report to a District of Columbia courthouse on January 6th of next year.  Considering the likelihood that this will be a high profile case that is sure to set precedent, I can only applaud the judge’s decision to move venue to the capitol.

Of course, the larger issues remain.  Will the corporation itself and the legislators who approved the no-bid contract which allowed Blackwater to be in Iraq in the first place ever be called to task?  Probably not in this lifetime, but Karma is a bitch and we will certainly hope for justice.

 

Judge: Blackwater guards must report to DC court

Staff and agencies
08 December, 2008

Blackwater charges: 14 counts of manslaughter

The shooting by the largest U.S. security contractor in Iraq sparked international condemnation, launched congressional hearings and inspired anti-American insurgent propaganda.

A sixth Blackwater guard struck a deal with prosecutors, turned on his former colleagues, and pleaded guilty to killing one Iraqi and wounding another.

Prosecutors said the slain included young children, women, people fleeing in cars and a man whose arms were raised in surrender as he was shot in the chest.

Blackwater, which was not charged in the case, maintains its guards were protecting themselves from what they believed was an imminent car bomb attack.

In all, 17 Iraqis were killed in the assault. But Assistant Attorney General Patrick Rowan said evidence in the case could only prove the guards shot 14, although he left open the possibility of future charges.

The guards are Donald Ball, a former Marine from West Valley City, Utah; Dustin Heard, a former Marine from Knoxville, Tenn.; Evan Liberty, a former Marine from Rochester, N.H.; Nick Slatten, a former Army sergeant from Sparta, Tenn., and Paul Slough, an Army veteran from Keller, Texas.

The sixth guard, who is cooperating with the government, is Jeremy Ridgeway of California. He pleaded guilty to one count each of manslaughter, attempted manslaughter, and aiding and abetting. In his plea agreement with prosecutors, Ridgeway admitted there was no threat from a white Kia sedan whose driver, a medical student, was killed and his mother, in the front passenger seat, was injured.

Following a car bombing elsewhere in the city, the heavily armed Blackwater convoy sought to shut down an intersection. Prosecutors said the convoy, known by the call sign Raven 23, had violated an order not to leave the U.S.-controlled Green Zone.

Khalid Ibrahim, a 40-year-old electrician who said his father, Ibrahim Abid, 78, died in the shooting, welcomed the charges.

"The killers must pay for their crime against innocent civilians, Ibrahim said in Iraq. "Justice must be achieved so that we can have rest from the agony we are living in. We know that the conviction of the people behind the shooting will not bring my father to life, but we will have peace in our minds and hearts."

But the drama is far from over. After more than a year of investigative missteps and fierce debate, the Justice Department now faces stiff challenges to the evidence and legal grounds at the heart of its case.

Most importantly, prosecutors must prove they did not rely on protected statements the guards gave to State Department investigators within hours of the shootings.

The State Department gave limited immunity to all the guards in the four-car convoy, promising not to prosecute them based on the initial statements recounting how the violence began. The move left Justice Department and FBI investigators with a crime scene long gone cold and with limited forensic evidence to bolster their case.

"We fully expect that the defendants will raise the issue," Rowan said. "We‘ve been very careful and very painstaking in the way we have investigated this case, the way we have assembled evidence. And we fully expect to prevail when the court hears that issue."

Defense attorneys also will argue that the guards cannot be charged under a law intended to cover soldiers and military contractors since the men worked as civilian contractors for the State Department. Rowan, however, said Blackwater was supporting the military‘s mission in Baghdad and the law therefore applies to them.

It is the first time prosecutors have used that argument to prosecute contractors. The Justice Department recently lost a somewhat similar case against former Marine Jose Luis Nazario Jr., who was charged in Riverside, Calif., with killing four unarmed Iraqi detainees.

The Moyock, N.C.-based Blackwater said it stands behind the guards despite being "extremely disappointed and surprised" that one had pleaded guilty.

[Thanks, News One]

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Remember those 17 Iraqi civilians murdered by member of the ‘elite’ security force, Blackwater?  On September 16th, 2007, a firefight (if the strafing of civilians with automatic weapons can be considered a firefight!) in Nisour Square left 17 civilians dead, 14 of whom the FBI has determined were unjustifiable.

Well, the 5 Blackwater murderers implicated in that heinous crime have agreed to surrender to US authorities in their home state of Utah. Specific charges against the murderous crew will be made public today.  Eye-witnesses are expected to testify that the killings were unprovoked.

Some of my original posts:

• Blackwater: Murderer, confession revealed.

• FBI Confirms: Blackwater Employees are Murderers

• Blackwater: Murderer, confession revealed.

Blackwater guards ‘to surrender’

Five employees of the US security firm Blackwater charged over the 2007 fatal shooting of 17 Iraqis will surrender to US federal authorities, reports say.

Contracted to defend US diplomats, the firm says its guards acted in self-defence when they opened fire when ambushed by Baghdad insurgents.

Details of the charges are expected to be made public on Monday, with reports saying the men will surrender in Utah.

The Iraqi government has welcomed the move to hold "criminals accountable".

The killings have become a central issue in Iraq’s relationship with the US and raised questions about the oversight of US contractors operating in war zones.

Witnesses and family members maintain the shooting on 16 September 2007 was unprovoked.

‘Politically motivated’

Although the indictment was made in Washington, the Associated Press reported that the men would surrender to federal marshals in Utah, the home state of one of the five guards, Donald Ball.

That way the men could argue that the case should be heard in Utah, considered more conservative and pro-gun than Washington, AP said.

"Donald Ball committed no crime," said his lawyer, Steven McCool. "We are confident that any jury will see this for what it is: a politically motivated prosecution to appease the Iraqi government."

Defence lawyers are expected to file a series of challenges before the guards can even go to trial.

While the exact charges remain unclear, the US justice department has been considering manslaughter and assault charges against the guards for weeks.

The New York Times has previously reported that an FBI investigation had concluded that 14 of the deaths at the busy Baghdad intersection were unjustified.

Young children were among the victims.

As well as Mr Ball, the other men indicted are Dustin Heard, Evan Liberty, Nick Slatten and Paul Slough.

A sixth Blackwater employee is negotiating a plea deal in return for testifying against his colleagues, AP reported, adding that the indicted men are decorated military veterans.

Contractor conditions

The problem of private armed guards in Iraq remains unresolved, mainly because they continue to provide security for the many American and other foreign officials in the country.

US law is unclear on whether contractors can be charged in the US or anywhere else for crimes committed overseas.

In October 2007, the Iraqi government approved a draft law revoking the immunity from prosecution that private security contractors enjoyed under Iraqi law.

The US has since put in place new guidelines for security contractors.

Based at a vast ranch complex in North Carolina, Blackwater is one of the main private providers of security within Iraq, and its contract there was extended in April.

[Thanks, BBC News]

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As the ripples of the economic debacle continue to spread we will be seeing more cases like WaMu.  Washington Mutual collapsed in September and was acquired by JPMorgan for $1.9 billion. It was this nation’s largest bank failure in history.

Hopefully it will be the last such failure, but my guess is that the greed and malfeasance that fueled Wall Street for so many years under the tutelage and consent of still president Bush will find other companies at the brink of disaster.

WaMu cutting 3,400 Seattle-area jobs, 9,200 total

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is eliminating the jobs of 3,400 Washington Mutual employees in the Seattle area, part of 9,200 job reductions nationwide, a spokesman said Monday.

By TIM KLASS
Associated Press Writer

SEATTLE — JPMorgan Chase & Co. is eliminating the jobs of 3,400 Washington Mutual employees in the Seattle area, part of 9,200 job reductions nationwide, a spokesman said Monday.

Outside of Seattle, where WaMu is based, the biggest number of job cuts is 1,600 at credit card call centers in San Francisco and Pleasanton, Calif., and layoffs are generally no more than a few hundred in other areas, JPMorgan spokesman Thomas A. Kelly said.

None of the more than 20,000 workers in branch banks are being cut, he said.

"Our branch staff is not changing at all," Kelly said. "We need all the branch personnel we have now."

Washington Mutual, the nation’s largest savings and loan, collapsed in September and was acquired by JPMorgan for $1.9 billion. It was the nation’s largest bank failure in history.

WaMu had between 41,500 and 42,000 employees nationwide at the time, and the 3,400 Seattle-area layoffs amount to about 80 percent of the bank’s local work force, leaving about 900 workers, mostly at branches.

Earlier Monday, JPMorgan chief executive James L. "Jamie" Dimon met here behind closed doors with about 200 WaMu employees from retail branches. His visit came on the final day of WaMu pink slips, although "the vast majority were notified previously," especially in the last two weeks, Kelly said.

Dick Conway of Dick Conway & Associates, an economist and regional economic forecaster, said the job losses underscored his prediction that the four-county region that includes Seattle will have fallen into recession by the end of the month.

King, Pierce, Snohomish and Kitsap counties already have been hard hit by the construction and homebuilding industry collapse, making layoffs in other sectors especially painful, "but this one doesn’t appreciably affect the (regional) forecast," Conway said.

The WaMu jobs being eliminated are almost entirely white-collar positions ranging from executives, managers and supervisors to less highly paid workers in areas where JPMorgan staff can assume the added load, Kelly said.

Kelly said 4,000 positions nationwide, including 1,500 in the Seattle area, will be gone by the end of January while another 5,200, including 1,900 in the Seattle area, will help with the transition to the new ownership, with some work extending through the end of 2009.

All are getting severance packages based on longevity under WaMu policies, and transition workers are being paid at twice their previous rate until their jobs end, he said. The Seattle Times quoted unnamed bank sources as saying that severance consists of five weeks’ pay for each of the first two years of service and two weeks’ pay for each succeeding year.

"The transition employees are helping us move from WaMu computing systems, accounting systems and branding to the Chase brand," Kelly said.

The extra pay for transition staff will cushion the impact of the layoffs "but will not in the end prevent it," Conway said.

Loss of the WaMu headquarters in the 55-story Washington Mutual Tower will likely boost the downtown Seattle office vacancy rate, especially as new buildings that were started before the economic tailspin are completed, he added.

Washington Mutual was weighed down by its deep exposure to the crumbling mortgage market, which has been the hardest hit area of the markets since the middle of 2007. As mortgages increasingly defaulted beginning in 2007, Washington Mutual was forced to set aside billions of dollars to cover losses.

Shares of JPMorgan fell $5.54, or 17.5 percent, to $26.12 Monday as the broader market tumbled as investors continue to worry about the sagging economy.

[Thanks, Seattle Times]

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