What Will Blago Do?

Tons of blog links on the Blago affair. Did Obama lie to the Amercan people, as some suggest?

I'm unconvinced but think there's a lot we don't yet know. Even so, isn't that the smaller point given where we are? I believe it was William Bennett I saw discussing Blago on Fox tonight. Does anyone really think Blago isn't the kind of guy to cut a deal?

Also, as Bennett suggested, there might even be enough on the wife to warrant a charge, if for no other reason than to put more even heat on Blago to cop a plea. Personally, I doubt it's necessary, as I don't see him being the sort to do the type of long sentence he'll likely get if given an out - shorter sentence, no charge for the wife, etc.

The real story probably isn't what's been said by anyone besides Blago on tape up until now. And when and if he starts singing to Fitzgerald, I suspect the scribes will really have something to write about, resulting in a tremendous amount of fun for Right-side blogs.

Comments

[Steven Den Beste]

I don't know if Blago is willing to try to cut a deal, and I don't think it matters because I don't think Fitzgerald will want to cut a deal with him.

Who is Blago going to sing about that's more important than he himself? If he could implicate Obama, maybe, but I don't believe that's going to happen.

[LOL]

what was blago guilty of exactly? Selling a senate seat for $1 million? I forget what else. some other stuff. glad he got caught.

What do the wingers have to say about this?
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/12/asy.html

[Fred Beloit]

If a Republican official were doing this, it would be called "stonewalling".
Via Drudge: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081212/D951FE8O0.html

[syn]

The tragedy is that come January 3rd nobody will even remember Blago, Fitzgerald, Chicago corruption run by Dailey-Blago-Axelrod-Emanuel-Obama, selling senate seats, etc, etc, ect.

Americans will have effectively Moved-on.orged like the obedient drones they have been community organized to be.

See what I mean:

"what was blago guilty of exactly? Selling a senate seat for $1 million? I forget what else"

[Fred Beloit]

"What do the wingers have to say about this?"
Here is what I would say, LOL, as a representative solely of Fred Beloit:
It is a story about government waste. Whenever and wherever the government spends money it wastes money. The more spent, the more wasted. That is why we should insist the government spend as little as possible and spend only on things the government should be involved in. In other words the government should spend conservatively.

[Fred Beloit]

Here you go, LOL. Anyone can play:

"Union-founded nonprofit spent zero on its charitable purpose in two years
Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times
PROBE: Tyrone Freeman, then head of the SEIU’s largest California local, helped start the Long Term Care Housing Corp. in 2004. He is under investigation by the federal government.
The charity was founded by a scandal-ridden Los Angeles chapter of the Service Employees International Union. Its stated aim was to provide housing to low-income workers."
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-union13-2008dec13,0,6257988.story

[jharp]

http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/glenn-greenwald-talks-bill-moyers-abo

We have a law in place that says it is a felony offense punishable by five years in prison or a $10,000 fine to eavesdrop on American citizens without warrants. We have laws in place that say that it is a felony punishable by decades in prison to subject detainees in our custody to treatment that violates the Geneva Conventions or that is inhumane or coercive.

We know that the president and his top aides have violated these laws. The facts are indisputable that they’ve done so. And yet as a country, as a political class, we’re deciding basically in unison that the president and our highest political officials are free to break the most serious laws that we have, that our citizens have enacted, with complete impunity, without consequences, without being held accountable under the law.

[Jake]

jharp. You just said some stupid things.

[Lala]

"On March 8, former President Jimmy Carter criticized the war in
Iraq: “It was a completely unnecessary war. It was an unjust war. It was
initiated on the basis of false pretenses.” Blah, blah, blah.

Like most of
Carter’s routine Bush-bashing comments, this made little news.

According to Carter, President Bush has abandoned the precious liber-
al dogma of arms control — “all of those … negotiations that were
done by Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Nixon, and me…”

Worse, in his view, President Bush hasn’t made “any effort to resolve
the Palestinian issue.”

Not to mention that the President has made “a
disgraceful and illegal decision” to “spy on the American people.”

The irony is that President Bush wouldn’t have to deal with
these problems if Carter hadn’t created them.

Because the more
you look at the foreign policy predicaments we face today, the
more you realize that Carter is largely responsible for every one of
them.

Everything Carter is complaining about — the arms race,
Iraq, the war on terror, even the legal tangles over spying — can all
be laid at his doorstep:

1) Wiretapping. There wouldn’t be anything to discuss about wire-
tapping if Carter hadn’t signed a patently unconstitutional law
requiring the President to get a warrant to conduct domestic surveil-
lance. I’m referring to the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Act, or
FISA

. According to the Constitution, the President is
Commander-in-Chief; no sitting President has the authority to sur-
render those powers. But Jimmy Carter did.

When Carter, trying to
score political points during the Coretta Scott King eulogy,
announced that “it was difficult” for the Kings “with the civil liber-
ties of both husband and wife violated as they became the target of
secret government wiretapping,” Carter didn’t mention that those
wiretaps were authorized by Bobby Kennedy in 1962 and 1963.

Carter also didn’t mention that in 1977, he himself had authorized
warrantless electronic surveillance used to convict two men for spy-
ing for Vietnam. (At the time, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals
unanimously agreed that the Executive Branch has the “inherent
authority” to wiretap enemies and does not need warrants when sur-
veillance is “conducted ‘primarily’ for foreign intelligence reasons.”)

http://download.premiereradio.net/guest/rushlimb/pdf/041206_limletcarter_1.pdf

[jharp]

Jake,

Though I 100% agree they are not my words. That is why I posted a link to them.

And please point out the stupidity in these words. And you are stupid for thinking those words were stupid.

[jharp]

Posted by: Lala | Sunday, December 14, 2008 at 11:43 AM

Ah, I get it now. It was Carter's fault that Bush broke the law.. I kinda figured you'd blame it on Clinton.

And first, Lala, two wrongs don't make a right. And second, if a law needs to be changed there is a process to do so. You don't just ignore it and break the law.

[jharp]

Had to read your post again Lala and have to admit it one of the dumbest I have read here.

Your claim is FISA is/was unconstitutional. Not. And not one President since Carter, nor the Congress, nor the Courts have seen fit to even mention it. That would include Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush.

Then you go on to mention two incidents that happened before the FISA law was enacted. Two incidents that the law was specifically written to prevent.

Are you being dishonest, engaging in hackery, or are you simply that dense?

[Fred Beloit]

Would someone instruct Harpo in the use of quotation marks when quoting someone? I'm too busy.

[Fred Beloit]

Looks to me like Mr. Sockpuppet GrunerWald doesn't have the least grasp of the intent of the Congress. Harpo blindly follows GrunerWald over the edge:

"Democrats agree to shelter telecom companies, expand wiretap powers
Surveillance Bill Offers Protection To Telecom Firms
Dan Eggen and Paul Kane | Washington Post | 06.20.2008

House and Senate leaders agreed yesterday on surveillance legislation that could shield telecommunications companies from privacy lawsuits, handing President Bush one of the last major legislative victories he is likely to achieve.
The agreement extends the government's ability to eavesdrop on espionage and terrorism suspects while effectively providing a legal escape hatch for AT&T, Verizon Communications and other telecom firms. They face more than 40 lawsuits that allege they violated customers' privacy rights by helping the government conduct a warrantless spying program after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks."

[jharp]

Yes they changed the law to make it legal. A clear admission and confirmation that Bush broke the law.

Can't wait till Obama starts spying on wingnuts due to their unamerican activities.

Now let's move on to torture.

[jharp]

I have to give Bush credit though. Imagine you or I committing multiple felonies and convincing Congress to pass a law granting immunity for prior violations and making the illegal acts legal.

[WAHOO WILLIE]

Harpie, Got any proof that a felony was committed or just speculation from people who've no idea what they're talking about? I'm pretty sure Cheney personally stole my grannie's magic brownie recipe from me.......need help. Got water splashed in my face playing marco-polo last week and I need help proving it was torture.

[jharp]

Yeah, I do.

How about passing a law granting retroactive immunity. Completely unnecessary if no laws were broken.

And it is well documented Bush and Co. authorized waterboarding. The same offense we prosecuted and imprisoned the Japanese for after World War 2.

Why do continue to carry water for the GOP and Bush? Are you proud of what they have done?

And I'm sure you'll have no problem with Obama listening to your phone calls. And waterboarding anyone who he thinks might have information he needs.

[WAHOO WILLIE]

"And I'm sure you'll have no problem with Obama listening to your phone calls. And waterboarding anyone who he thinks might have information he needs."

Well, sense I know how the "telephone surveillence" actually works, I have no problem with it...Not being paranoid and all. For water-boarding, well, first of all the japs did it quite differently, second, if it as much as keeps one american from even having his feelings hurt I'm all for it..............