by Alex Gimarc                                Mon., April 6, 2009

Interesting Items 4/06 -

Howdy all, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy -

In this issue:

1. Stevens Trial
2. Begich
3. Analysis
4. GM
5. Pitchforks
6. Hotel California
7. NORKs
8. Mark to Market

1. Stevens Trial. Attorney General Eric Holder, in full and complete bureaucratic CYA mode, dropped all federal charges against convicted and defeated former US Senator from Alaska, Ted Stevens. The decision followed yet another discovery that the prosecutors had hidden exculpatory evidence from Stevens’ defense during the trial. The prosecution team from the Justice Dep artment’s Public Integrity division have been cited with contempt charges by the presiding judge and removed from the case. There are also whistleblower allegations of improper contact between the government’s chief witness, Bill Allen and the prosecutors. These allegations include most of the things that Ted Stevens was accused of doing and add sexual contact between Allen and one of the prosecutors to the mix. Something is badly broken in the Dep artment of Justice and Holder’s action to drop the case is intended to cover up that problem. The defense is scheduled to be in court tomorrow with a request to throw out the conviction. Presiding Judge Sullivan has asked for additional information from the Justice Dep artment, and will hopefully st art jailing some people for committing a fraud upon his courtroom in a very, very public trial. The trial and its outcome were central to Stevens’ defeat last November, as the verdict convicting him on seven felony counts came a week before the election. The entire campaign by Chuckie Schumer’s DSCC and democrat Mark Begich was based on removing the corruption (Stevens) from the political system. A number of conservative blogs and local talk shows wrongly called for Stevens’ defeat and removal from office. Governor Palin called for him to step down before the election. Stevens steadfastly defended his innocence on these charges and chose to fight. At this writing, it appears that he was the victim of a wrongful prosecution. An addendum: Judge Brendan Sullivan Tuesday dropped all charges against Stevens; overturned the verdict; and appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the Justice Dep artment’s conduct in this affair.

2. Begich. Democrat Mark Begich, wiling beneficiary of this fraudulent prosecution, released a classless press release that could have been written by Move On itself, calling the election over and for everyone to move on. However, that is not the mood up here in Alaska, with the entire political establishment calling for him to step down so that a special election can be held. On this, both Governor Palin and Republican P arty Chairman Ruedrich are on the same page. Begich is in a very difficult spot with this one, as the only reason he is in the senate is because career prosecutors in the Justice Dep artment committed a fraud upon the court. This sort of systemic fraud is one of the reasons that the RICO statute was written. Perhaps it will be applied. Begich of course has refused to resign. On the other hand, there are discussions up here of a recall petition being floated to force him to step down and run against in an election which the feds are not choosing sides and meddling. Additionally, there is the very real possibility of that a federal court can be asked to set the election aside and order a new one based on the outrageous actions of the Justice Dep artment in this one. The rationale for this gambit would be a violation of our civil rights as Alaskans to have an open, fair and free election for our selected candidates. Finally, should we be unable to get Begich removed before his term is over, we look forward to destroying his political career and making his life absolutely miserable. Begich is not real popular up here these days. I do not think he will have a good time over the next few years, and it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.

3. Analysis. The most important thing about this affair is that it has happened before. The Justice Dep artment brought indictments against then incumbent US Senator Conrad Burns (R, MT) before the election in 2006. The investigation, indictments and overall disenchantment with Burns by conservatives managed to combine to remove him from office when he was defeated by John Tester (D, MT), someone like Begich who was posing as something he isn’t, a gun-loving, conservative, law-abiding democrat. The charges against Burns were dropped a few weeks after he lost the election. This makes two elections for the US Senate that meddling prosecutors in the Justice Dep artment have managed to steal for the democrats in the last two election cycles. This is a most dangerous game for them to play, for the corruption is noted and will be responded to one way or another. Additionally, the drive-by media spin on this entire affair is that Stevens was indicted and tried by the Bush Justice Dep artment and that the charges were dropped by the Obama Justice Dep artment. This is p artially true, but it does absolutely nothing to address the Justice Dep artment and the FBI choosing sides in the political process and carefully timing their indictments and prosecutions to benefit democrat candidates for office. Remember that President Bush refused to remove all Clinton-appointed prosecutors from office in January 2001. Also remember that his attempt to fire eight federal prosecutors a few years ago was met with all manner of congressional opposition. Democrats couldn’t care less which career prosecutors were currently in the Justice Dep artment if it didn’t benefit them politically, which ought to be an indication that the career Justice Dep artment prosecutors may very well be just as corrupt, just as out of control, and just as conspiratorial as the Public Integrity Section demonstrated they were in the Stevens trial. This been going on for a long time. And it always seems to benefit democrats either running for office or already in office. This is a problem.

4. GM. President Teleprompter took over General Motors Monday, forcing its CEO out of office. It appears that he will also replace the Board of Directors. The rationale given is that if anyone takes a dime of bailout money from the feds, for whatever reason, in the mind of the Teleprompter, they then serve at the whim of the Teleprompter. There was no public discussion about the legality of this action, nor was there any constitutional justification for the action. By weeks’ end, it appeared that the new management was planning for a controlled bankruptcy – which is what they should have done months ago before tens of billions of dollars of our tax dollars were spent.

5. Pitchforks. President Barack Hussein “Teleprompter” Obama held a meeting with bankers last week, strong arming them to take TARP and bailout money. The meeting was intended to “encourage” them to get on board with administration efforts to set compensation limits, select who they will lend to, dictate business practices, and other things you would expect from Chavezistas. The bankers weren’t amused or falling all over themselves to sign on to this nonsense, prompting Obama to threaten the following: “My administration,” the president added, “is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.” (Courtesy Allahpundit, Hot Air, Sat). This is the Alinsky mob rule threat. And we all will see a lot more of it before Obama is finished.

6. Hotel California. This is based on the line from the Eagles’ song Hotel California, “You can check in any time you like, but you can never leave.” It appears that the TARP is being used by the Teleprompter administration as a tender trap. Once you accept a penny of TARP funds for whatever reason, you are then under control of both congress and the Treasury, complete with downward directed limits on executive compensation. Best of all, you will not be allowed to pay back the TARP monies with interest to escape. Stu art Varney wrote an article in Saturday’s WSJ Online and described a bank desperate to write a check totaling over a billion dollars to pay back TARP monies that they were strong-armed into accepting by Hank Paulson. Treasury is not accepting the money, and threatening them with regulatory payback should they write the check anyway. Geithner, the fascist congress and the Teleprompter administration are in the midst of taking over the banking system here in the US.

7. NORKs. Dear Leader launched his satellite Sunday, much to the distress of everyone involved. The Teleprompter administration immediately called for a meeting of the UN Security Council, which labored mightily and produced nothing. SECDEF Gates is expected to celebrate the launch sometime today by announcing significant cuts in our operational anti-ballistic missile systems. Overall, the new Sm artest Guys in the Room look pretty flaccid. And I expect both the NORKs and the Iranians who assisted with the launch are watching and taking note of what they see and what they don’t see. As I understand it, both the US and Japan had forces in place that could have shot the missile down, up to and including destroying it before it left the pad. Neither country chose to do so. Perhaps the South Koreans will now be interested in purchasing and installing a ballistic missile defense system from the US now that their neighbor to the north seem to think playing with missiles is a good thing. The satellite launch itself was a failure, as the satellite and upper stage ended up in the Pacific. On the other hand, as a ballistic missile test, it appeared to work as advertised. The tradeoff the Sm art Guys need to make on this one is to figure out how much they learn simply by watching the test and how much national prestige we lose as a nation when we sit idly by and do nothing in the face of a very deliberate provocation by the NORKs. Strap in tightly, as this is going to be a bumpy ride.

8. Mark to Market. The stock market had its best week in months last week. There are a couple reasons for this. First, President Teleprompter and 500 of his closest friends were out of country, unable to sign anything from the fascist congress. The second and best reason was that the board that sets national accounting rules voted to relax the odious mark-to-market accounting rule that has systematically destroyed banks and investment houses since it was passed. The drive-by media assigned the cause to the road show in Europe last week, which is to be expected. Like I have been writing for months, if you want to solve the current financial crisis, eliminating mark-to-market is one of the very first things that you have to do. Now we have a st art. PowerLine, Sat.

More later –

           - AG

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."
- Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia State House, August 1, 1776.