Saturday, December 27, 2008

Bailout Transparency: The Case of the Mysterious Redactions


BailoutSleuth is tracking the massive nationalization effort known as "the bailout". Reason Magazine (via Instapundit) highlights its most recent findings including the Treasury Department's odd definition of "transparency".

On October 13, Neel Kashkari, an interim assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury, sought to ease concerns about how the just-enacted $700 billion financial bailout plan would be implemented. “We are committed to transparency and oversight in all aspects of the program,” Kashkari said, “and have already taken several important steps in this area.”

Four days later, the Treasury Department announced one of the first major contracts of the bailout plan: The Bank of New York Mellon would oversee the auction and tracking of distressed assets, one of the biggest contracts in the package. But when the department posted notice of the contract, it blacked out how much the company would be paid.

BailoutSleuth.com, a new watchdog website, soon found more examples of the Treasury Department’s redacting the details of bailout-related contracts.

Last week Fox News sued the Treasury Department over its lack of disclosure.

Fox Business Network said Thursday it filed suit against the Treasury Department, seeking to force the agency to turn over information on its bailout deals with American International Group Inc., Citigroup Inc. and Bank of New York Mellon... The network said that the Treasury Department had either rejected its requests for details on the agreements with those companies, or failed to respond to its petitions for expedited disclosure under the federal Freedom of Information Act...

"The Treasury has repeatedly ignored our requests for information on how the government is allocating money to these troubled institutions,'' said Kevin Magee, executive vice president of Fox News. "In a critical time like this amidst mounting corruptions and an economic crisis, we as a news organization feel it's more important than ever to hold the government accountable...'

When the Associated Press contacted 21 banks last week and asked four simple questions of each regarding usage of bailout funds, they received a nice round number of answers: zero.

The Associated Press contacted 21 banks that have received at least $1 billion in taxpayer money and asked four questions: How much has been spent? What was it spent on? How much is being held in savings, and what's the plan for the rest?

None of the banks provided specific answers.

Transparency? We don't need no stinkin' transparency!

Hey, it's only $700 or so billion of our money. What could possibly go wrong?

Joel Stein can't understand why conservatives are patriotic


Joel Stein, the predictably liberal Los Angeles Times columnist, can't comprehend why conservatives believe in American exceptionalism.

I still think conservatives love America for the same tribalistic reasons people love whatever groups they belong to. These are the people who are sure Christianity is the only right religion, that America is the best country, that the Republicans have the only good candidates, that gays have cooties.

I wish I felt such certainty. Sure, it makes life less interesting and nuanced, and absolute conviction can lead to dangerous extremism, but I suspect it makes people happier. I'll never experience the joy of Hannity-level patriotism. I'm the type who always wonders if some other idea or place or system is better and I'm missing out.

Yes, perhaps Nazi Germany in the thirties would have been a better place for a guy named Stein to live.

Or did Joel Stein somehow forget that it was America's blood, sweat and treasure that defeated the twin scourges of Nazism and Militaristic Shintoism?

Or perhaps the Soviet Union, which murdered upwards of 90 million individuals, would have been a cool place to live: say, a gulag in Siberia.

Or did Joel Stein somehow miss the news that Ronald Reagan's strategy of peace through strength -- ("We win. They lose.") -- led to the economic meltdown of the Soviet bloc and the liberation of millions?

Maybe Stein would have preferred living under the Taliban, in their tolerant and forgiving culture, or in Saddam Hussein's Baathist Iraq, which had an unfortunate propensity to gas and rape its opponents?

Or were Joel Stein's newspapers swiped by the neighbor those days, so that he missed the news of George W. Bush's incredible risk-tasking to liberate fifty million Muslims from the despotic regimes of Bin Laden and Hussein?

Forget the fact that more people try to get into America than any other country. Forget, too, the opportunities afforded entrepeneurs by America's incredible innovation engine linking academia, venture capital and industry; and which has launched companies like Microsoft, Intel, Google and eBay out of whole cloth.

Were it not for America, Stein would -- today -- be living under Nazism, Communism or some other totalitarian regime.

Or, better put, not living.

Does that help you understand American exceptionalism, Mr. Stein, you ignorant pissant? Tribalism? Tribalism has nothing to do with it, you pathetic ignoramus. Were it not for America, were it not for Americans, the world be a far darker place, with hundreds of millions living behind barbed wire, in concentration camps, in death camps awaiting their smoky fate.

Stein, you are an intellectual midget and a bumbling doctrinaire liberal hack. Frankly, I'm surprised you can rub enough neurons together to keep breathing without having to concentrate.

If I were a meaner-spirited person, I'd slit the tires on your home. Instead I'll just mock your astute choice of profession: liberal hack #117 for the dying Los Angeles Times.

Update: Useless Dissident rips the dilettante to shreds using everything but brass knuckles and a cattle prod.

Hat tips: Gateway Pundit and Larwyn.

Friday, December 26, 2008

Experience the affordable luxury and the sweet sounds of the powerful V-3 in the all-new Chrysler Card-Check!


The Obama-Blago Senate seat auction: the bizarre earmark of "Senate Candidate 3"

Remember hearing about "Senate Candidate 3" in the complaint filed by the U.S. District Attorney against Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich?

You may recall that "Senate Candidate 1" was Barack Obama's choice: his friend, the ultra-qualified Valerie Jarrett. And "Senate Candidate 5" was Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., a man with a better sense of "fundraising" than Carolyn-esque entitlement. But who was "Senate Candidate 3"?

That would appear to be none other than Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL, what else?). An anonymous tipster pointed me to a fascinating post at Red County. It describes Schakowsky's sordid unique background. Her story would be shocking, appalling, perhaps even the lead story on the national news -- were she anything but an Illinois politician.

The Schakowsky family's troubling history with non-profits


• In 2006 Anne Leary reported that Schakowsky's husband -- Robert Creamer -- was sentenced to five months in prison and eleven months of house arrest for bank fraud and tax violations involving a non-profit called the "Illinois Public Action Council" (IPAC). The indictment charged Creamer with floating "check and wire transfer deposits between bank accounts to... hide their deficiencies... [and used] the inflated balances to pay expenses of his organization, as well as his own salary and discretionary expenses." Creamer resigned his longtime leadership positions after "the FBI questioned him about a $1 million overdraft... [he was also charged] with failing to pay more than $300,000 in federal income taxes for employees of the group and for himself between 1996 and 2000. Four other counts allege he filed false income tax returns between 1996 and 1999... Each count of bank fraud carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and $1 million fine. Each count of failing to collect and pay withholding taxes carries a penalty of five years, and each count of filing a false tax return carries a penalty of 3 years."

Hubby's ties to other sleazy pols


• After IPAC folded, Creamer advised a wide variety of Democratic luminaries including staunch members of the community like Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, Congressman Lane Evans, Chicago Alderman Joe Moore and others.

Schakowsky's background


• By any measure, Schakowsky is one of the most liberal (if not the most liberal) members of Congress. She belonged to, for instance, the "Progressive Caucus," where she joined the likes of Cynthia McKinney, Maxine Waters, Dennis Kucinich, Jim ("Baghdad Jim") McDermott, Bernie Sanders and Lynn Woolsey.

• Schakowsky served on the board of IPAC while her husband was committing various felonies. But we're betting she was completely unaware of her hubby's scams. Hubby was "swindling nine financial institutions of at least $2.3 million while he ran a public interest group in the 1990s." And Schakowsky "co-signed the fraudulent tax returns".

Another BDS-sufferer


• After her husband's conviction, Schakowsky implied that her husband's prosecution was politically motivated: "Schakowsky referred to herself as one of the major critics of President Bush and Ashcroft and said: 'I do think the timing is somewhat curious.'"

Schakowsky's curious earmark: SALF


• Rep. Schakowsky authored a 2009 earmark for another Chicago-area nonprofit called The Save A Life Foundation (SALF), which is described on her website as a "Community Response Systems Initiative". What the... ?

• A 2006 ABC investigation revealed that while Save a Life received millions of dollars in government funds and corporate donations, it made a series of "misleading claims [including] deceptive credentials that raise doubts about [its] integrity, funding and training." According to ABC, founder Carol Spizzirri represented herself as a registered nurse specializing in kidney transplants. But ABC claims she never received a degree of any kind nor was she ever registered as a nurse.

The president of the National Council Against Health Fraud, a watchdog organization of medical professionals, says that federal and state funding agencies have been defrauded by Spizzirri's claims that she has a nursing degree and license... Save-A-Life charged [Chicago schools] $50,000 the past two years.

...Spizzirri pays herself an annual salary of $120,000, according to Save-A-Life records on file with the Illinois attorney general. She travels on a generous expense account while working to obtain additional government funding for expansion of her organization nationally.

ABC also reported that Spizzirri fabricated circumstances of her daughter's death when lobbying lawmakers.

• A subsequent ABC investigation in 2007 revealed more problematic activities linked to Save-a-Life and possible misuse of public funds. These include allegations by a temp worker that state funds were used to reproduce a copyrighted 600-page instruction manual that Save-a-Life would then edit and claim as its own.

• ABC also noted that the American Red Cross "recommends the opposite of what Save-a-Life teaches school children for emergency response."

• In light of the two ABC investigations, most public funding sources for Save-a-Life appeared to dry up.

That is, until Jan Schakowsky got involved.

• Schakowsky's committee roles include service as a "Vice-Chair of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection and as a member of the Subcommittee on Health and the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations."

Shouldn't she be investigating SALF, not funding them?


Red County asks the salient question: given her investigatory committee roles and her own problematic history with non-profits, "why is Rep. Schankowsky carrying an earmark for The Save A Life Foundation rather than investigating them?"

What is it with Illinois? Something in the water? In any event, pass the popcorn, Nahanni.

Update: Creamer, Schackowsky's husband, is routinely given a column of honor at Puff Ho, though -- for some reason -- his felony conviction is omitted from his bio.

Update II: Commenter LadyBo suggested I ask Rep. Schakowsky this question. Excellent idea! I sent the following message to her official email address (jan.schakowsky-at-mail.house.gov).

Dear Rep. Schakowsky,

I've read quite a bit of information that calls into question the leadership, mission and spending of the Save-a-Life Foundation (SALF), which is listed as one your '09 ARs.

For instance, ABC did an investigation in '06 ( http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news&id=4770490 ) and in '07 ( http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news&id=5354419 ).

Could you please describe:

(a) your rationale for this request; and
(b) any ties between SALF and yourself, your family members, staff, lobbyists or business partners?

Thank you. Have a wonderful and safe New Year.

Best Regards,

Doug Ross

I'll let you know what I hear.

Linked by: Gateway Pundit, Bourque, Flopping Aces, Marathon Pundit, Roger's Park Bench and Palatine Mayor 4. Thanks!

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Congrats! Dems sweep the 2008 Naughtiest Politician Awards!


A national CNN/Opinion Research poll reveals the top three Naughtiest Politicians of 2008. May I have the envelope please, Vanna?

Bronze: John Edwards (D-Sleazebag), who cheated with Rielle Hunter on his cancer-stricken wife and reportedly fathered a not-so-secret love child.

Silver: Love Client #9, former New York Governor Elliot Spitzer (D-Hypocrisy), who was ensnared in the rollup of a high-end prostitution ring.

Gold: Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich (D-Batsh*t crazy), seemingly involved in so many pay-to-play schemes he probably had a dedicated IT staff to keep all of the grifts straight.

Honorable mentions weren't listed, but I'm betting they included Charlie Rangel (D-Tax Man), Chris Dodd (D-HUD Statement), Allan Mollohan (D-Self-made Millionaire), John Murtha (D-Porkmeister), and William Jefferson (D-Freezer Burn).

Linked by: Gateway Pundit. Thanks!

Delicious irony: was Chuck Schumer one of Madoff's victims?


Some call Bernard Madoff a "financial sociopath."

For about 48 years, Madoff took in people's money and claimed to invest it through his proprietary "split-strike conversion". What's that? Actually, I've never heard of it. It's some sort of investment hocus-pocus that promises something for nothing. But Madoff always claimed he was making solid returns, in good times and bad, of 8-12% per year. Like clockwork. Such a deal.

Madoff's investment firm was not for just anybody. You had to be somebody to be part of this firm. You had to be invited to invest with Madoff. So at fine country clubs up and down the East Coast, people would politely mention that "I invest my money with Madoff." And other people would say, "Oh? Can I invest with Madoff too?"

Then maybe they would get a discrete solicitation in the mail offering the opportunity to open a modest account. Maybe. Or maybe they wouldn't get that solicitation. And the people who were rejected wanted to know why. "So how come my money is no good with Madoff?" they would ask. And thus did the cachet grow. People wanted in.

"Hey, tell me how I can invest with this guy?" was the topic at many a dinner of lobster Newburg or veal a l'Oscar. So over the years, thousands of people, firms, businesses, charities, pensions, hedge funds and even government entities placed money with Madoff. And Madoff took it. With pleasure.

How did Madoff stay insulated from regulators and government oversight? As you might expect, he greased the skids. Senator Chuck Schumer was one of the primary recipients of Madoff's grease.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) Monday led a long list of officeholders and groups expected to give up more than $430,000 in political contributions from Bernie Madoff and his family...

"My money, I'm returning," Schumer said... The $100,000 Madoff donated to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, run by Schumer until last month, should also be returned, but "that is their decision," Schumer said... A spokesman for the committee, now headed by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), said, "We're reviewing it."

The critical question that arises has yet to be answered: did Madoff buy off Washington?

...it takes a village to pull off a $50 billion investment fraud. In the case of the Madoff securities fraud, that village may have included his investors, family, accountants, regulators, politicians and hedge fund bundlers. And it could be that part of that village included two New York senators and the SEC. How so? Campaign contributions from Madoff to two New York senators and a family relationship between Madoff and an SEC investigator may have deflected any efforts to shut down the fraud.

Were Madoff's Washington money connections enough to keep investigators away? It's possible. Senate Banking Committee member Charles Schumer, D-NY, was the top congressional recipient of Madoff's... donations [and] claims it has turned over the money to charity. Others in Congress [who received money] from Madoff [include] Barney Frank, D-MA ($2,250) and Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-NY ($2,800).

Did the romantic relationship between an SEC attorney and a Madoff Securities compliance lawyer deflect the SEC from doing its job? ...In 2007, Eric Swanson, who served for 10 years as a lawyer at the SEC and left in 2006 while he was an assistant director of the office of compliance inspections and examinations in Washington, married Shana Madoff, Bernie Madoff's niece and daughter of Bernie's brother, Peter Madoff, chief compliance officer for Madoff Securities. Shana is Madoff Securities' compliance attorney.

And this doesn't even detail how the $400,000 he spent on Washington lobbying got doled out. One question that remains unanswered: Where did all the $50 billion go? If the regulators had been doing their job, we might know...

Some of Madoff's victims have checked out for good. Gawker reports that one ruined investor left a gruesome suicide scene.

Bernie Madoff's $50 billion Ponzi scheme is growing fatally baroque. A French banker was found dead, in a grotesque office tableau, after losing $1.4 billion in the scheme... Thierry de la Villehuchet, CEO of Access International Advisors, a money-management operation who placed investors' funds in Madoff vehicles, stabbed himself to death with a box cutter after taking sleeping pills, according to New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who spoke to Bloomberg...

De La Villehuchet was found “with his feet propped up on his desk, a trash pail nearby to collect blood,” and no sign of a second person, Kelly said in the interview... The money manager had “multiple stab wounds” to his arms and wrists, and a box-cutter and pills were found nearby, Kelly said at a news conference. No suicide note was found.

A Gawker commenter added an interesting twist.

This suicide is in my building. I go outside to Europa for a sandwich and reporters are all outside asking everyone what the scene was like, but I was only on the 4th floor.

This is at about 2pm, hours after the body was found and taken away so I'm guessing they were hoping to find an employee or at least a chatty resident.

It's all a little morbid and many people in the building are understandably shaken up.

Also...
Schumer visits this building a lot so maybe look into whether he has also lost a lot in this Madoff batsh*ttery.

Sure, it's flimsy. Consider, however: Schumer was tightly linked with Madoff based upon the latter's contribution patterns. And to get "into the Madoff club" -- a highly desirable and elite cadre, it would appear -- you almost needed a personal invitation.

Schumer would have the means and the opportunity.

So what would you call it if Schumer really did get taken by Madoff for a good chunk of change?

How about poetic justice?

Update: Jammie Wearing Fool alerts us to the ACLU's loss of $850K in the Madoff catastrophe. And that Frank Lautenberg and several other NYC-area pols may have been hit hard as well.

Update II: Writing at The invaluable American Thinker, Richard Weltz records the monotonic meme at the rapidly hemorrhaging Gray Lady. It's suitable for saving in the time capsule for the moment when, in 50 years, the little ones ask, "Grandpa, what was 'the New York Times'?"

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

How to choose the right TV screen size (in 1949)




Update: Larwyn raises an excellent point: in 1949 dollars, doesn't $650 seem like a fortune? Consider the following automobile prices, which seem to represent both ends of the spectrum:

1947 $1,076 Ford Deluxe Model Coupe
1948 $2,057 Chrysler Royal Coupe
1948 $4,821 Chrysler Crown Imperial
1949 $1,472 Ford Custom
1949 $2,381 Hudson
1949 $3,186 Lincoln Cosmopolitan

Put in these terms, doesn't $650 seem like about $6,500 in today's dollars?

Update II: Where's the best place to put these new-fangled televisions?


Via: Popular Mechanics, Feb. 1949.

Charts: The tragic results of the 'Community Reinvestment Act'


12/24/2008 19:53 EST Bumped and updated with new graphs

Chart o' the Day provides this illustration of inflation-adjusted home prices:

Now let's add a couple of important milestones to the chart.

The first vertical line depicts the initial incarnation of The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) signed into law by President James Earl Carter in 1977. The segment starting in 1995 represents the strengthening of the CRA signed into law by President William Jefferson Clinton. These areas are shaded in blue. The CRA forced banks to underwrite loans to parties that would otherwise not qualify for mortgages: those with undocumented income, those possessing no down payments, etc. In other words, the CRA represented a government experiment into "social engineering."

The purple and red segments delimit the "massive accounting scandals" at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored entities (GSEs) that played a crucial role in packaging subprime mortgages. Fannie and Freddie executives were pushing as many subprime instruments through the system as possible in order to maximize bonus payments.


A few well-connected Democrats including Franklin Raines, Jim Johnson and Jamie Gorelick -- all of whom were former Clinton administration officials -- received payments totaling as much as $200 million for six years of work leading the GSEs.


In May of 2006 the SEC and other regulators arrived at settlements with Fannie and Freddie for their fraudulent activities. And the bad news kept coming through 2007 and the first quarter of 2008.

This coincides almost precisely with the beginning of the end for both the housing and stock markets. For decades, Fannie and Freddie were considered among the bluest of blue chip stocks. An implicit government guarantee ensured that many financial institutions held the GSE equities as core components of their portfolios.


Insurance giant AIG, for example, held $600 million in GSE stock. In total, financial institutions held as much as $5 billion in the GSEs. When the stock values of the GSEs melted down, so too did the capital base used for calculating the financial strength of banks and other institutions.

In short, when the initial dominoes fell -- Fannie and Freddie -- the rest of the system began to crumble.

The charts provide ample evidence of the tragic errors associated with attempts to "social engineer" the free market system. As citizens it is our duty to prevent government from engineering more debacles related solely to central planning. We know that central planning does not work: the Soviet Union and the Community Reinvestment Act offer stark evidence.

Instead, we would be well served to advocate cutting taxes for corporations and individuals; and forcing government itself to down-size. Now there's a radical idea.

Update: The revisionists at The New York Times blame the meltdown on -- wait for it -- George W. Bush.

Update II: Commenter Unquiet asks "...one question I always have with trend charts and corrolation with events - causation? Not to ask you to shoot holes in your own argument but, if you were on the other side, what other events than those you propose could be considered alternative causes for the trends charted?"

There are obviously many, many variables involved. Several that we might examine:

1) the Fed's Fund Rates (inter-bank lending rate) - it's easy to see, however, that the drop in the FFR has historical precedent. Prior drops didn't cause any anomalies in subprime mortgages!

2) leverage ratio for investment banks - "progressives" love to pin Phil Gramm with writing legislation loosening banking rules to permit investment banks wider leeway. But they purposefully omit any references to the underlying securitized vehicles: subprime loans.

3) inaccurate ratings for mortgage-backed securities (MBS) - There's little question that flawed MBS ratings are an area of concern. But without poisoned mortgages, said ratings would never have been an issue.

* * *
All that said, these factors pale in comparison to the underlying instigator: a changed policy within the Clinton administration. Andrew Cuomo's HUD and Janet Reno's Justice Department threatened banks with a variety of sanctions unless they loosened underwriting standards. Their aim: to hit certain thresholds for loans to the urban poor. Securitization, leverage and poor ratings were all built upon the underlying subprime rot caused by the Clinton administration's egregious experiments.
Update III: The Timeline (YouTube).

Related:
Washington Post: Six Years of 'Extensive Fraud' at Fannie Mae
Walter Williams: Subprime Bailout
Community Reinvestment Act: Obamonopoly
Linked by:
Patterico and The Artful Dodger. Thanks!

Larwyn's Christmas Eve Links


21st Annual Awards for the Year's Worst Reporting - Media Research Center
Times City Room Will Not Mention Caroline Kennedy's Special Friendship With Pinch Sulzberger - Gawker
New York Times ad revenue falls 20% in November - Reuters

ACORN Whistleblowers - Protein Wisdom
Barack Obama's Arrogant Conceit - John Stossel
Princeton Physicist Calls Global Warming Science "Mistaken" - DailyTech

Lawrence Lessig: It's time to demolish the FCC - Newsweek

Since the birth of the Republic, the U.S. government has been in the business of handing out "exclusive rights" (a.k.a., monopolies) in order to "promote progress" or enable new markets of communication [such as] giving away slices of the airwaves... No one doubts that these monopolies are sometimes necessary to stimulate innovation... [but] government has never given a thought to when these monopolies help, and when they're merely handouts to companies with high-powered lobbyists... For example, much of the wireless spectrum has been auctioned off to telecom monopolies, on the assumption that only by granting a monopoly could companies be encouraged to undertake the expensive task of building a network of cell towers or broadcasting stations... [We must] test this assumption [and ask] do these monopolies do more harm than good? With a strong agency head, and a staff absolutely barred from industry ties [we] avoid the culture of favoritism that's come to define the FCC...

...the nation's basic communications infrastructure spectrum— the wires, cables and cellular towers that serve as the highways of the information economy— [must] remain open to new innovation, no matter who owns them. For example, "network neutrality" rules, when done right, aim simply to keep companies like Comcast and Verizon from skewing the rules in favor of or against certain types of content and services that run over their networks. The investors behind the next Skype or Amazon need to be sure that their hard work won't be thwarted by an arbitrary decision on the part of one of the gatekeepers of the Net.

GM downgraded by Credit Suisse - The Street
How the Feds will govern GM and Chrysler - Yahoo! Finance
Why America is shunning GM - US News & World Report

U.S. needs to 'Americanize' immigrants, or face trouble, federal task force says - Salt Lake Tribune
Democrats are the new ethics story - Wall Street Journal
Ballot Madness in Minnesota - Fox News

The Best (and Worst) Sex Scandals of 2008 - Gawker

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

HTML version: Obama team's memo on Blagojevich contacts


An alternative to the PDF released by the President-Elect's transition team regarding contacts with Governor Blagojevich. Emphases mine.

TO: The President-Elect
FROM: Greg Craig
DATE: December 23, 2008
SUBJECT: Transition Staff Contacts with the Governor’s Office

At your direction, I arranged for transition staff to provide accounts of any contacts that you or they may have had with Governor Blagojevich or his office in which the subject of your successor came up.

The accounts support your statement on December 11, 2008 that you “have never spoken to the Governor on this subject [or] about these issues,” and that you “had no contact with the Governor’s office.” In addition, the accounts contain no indication of inappropriate discussions with the Governor or anyone from his office about a “deal” or a quid pro quo arrangement in which he would receive a personal benefit in return for any specific appointment to fill the vacancy.

One member of the transition staff, Rahm Emanuel, did have contacts of the type covered by your request. I discuss the nature of those contacts in the attached report. David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett, two other individuals on the transition staff, did not have any contacts with the Governor or his office but are included in the report to address questions raised by the press.

These accounts were communicated to the Office of the United States Attorney in interviews that were conducted last week. At the request of the Office, we delayed the release of this report until such time as the interviews could be completed. The interviews took place over a period of three days: Thursday, December 18, 2008 (the President-Elect); December 19, 2008 (Valerie Jarrett); and December 20, 2008 (Rahm Emanuel).

One other individual, Dr. Eric Whitaker, a family friend, was approached and asked for information by a member of the Governor’s circle. I have included an account of this contact even though Dr. Whitaker is not a member of the transition staff.

Report to the President-Elect

On December 11, 2008, the President-Elect asked the White House Counsel-designate to determine whether there had been any staff contacts or communications – and the nature of any such contacts of communications – between the transition and Governor Blagojevich and his office relating to the selection of the President-Elect’s successor in the United States Senate.

The results of that review are as follows:

The President-Elect

The President-Elect had no contact or communication with Governor Blagojevich or members of his staff about the Senate seat. In various conversations with transition staff and others, the President-Elect expressed his preference that Valerie Jarrett work with him in the White House. He also stated that he would neither stand in her way if she wanted to pursue the Senate seat nor actively seek to have her or any other particular candidate appointed to the vacancy.

After Ms. Jarrett decided on November 9, 2008 to withdraw her name from consideration as a possible replacement for him in the Senate and to accept the White House job, the President-Elect discussed other qualified candidates with David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel. Those candidates included Representatives Jan Schakowsky and Jesse Jackson, Jr., Dan Hynes and Tammy Duckworth. The President-Elect understood that Rahm Emanuel would relay these names to the Governor’s office as additions to the pool of qualified candidates who might already be under consideration. Mr. Emanuel subsequently confirmed to the President that he had in fact relayed these names. At no time in the discussion of the Senate seat or of possible replacements did the President-Elect hear of a suggestion that the Governor expected a personal benefit in return for making this appointment to the Senate.

Rahm Emanuel

Mr. Emanuel had one or two telephone calls [Ed: 'one or two'?] with Governor Blagojevich. Those conversations occurred between November 6 and November 8, 2008. Soon after he decided to accept the President-Elect’s offer to serve as Chief of Staff in the White House, Mr. Emanuel placed a call to the Governor to give him a heads up that he was taking the Chief of Staff’s position in the White House, and to advise him that he would be resigning his seat in the House of Representatives. They spoke about Mr. Emanuel’s House seat, when he would be resigning and potential candidates to replace him. He also had a brief discussion with the Governor about the Senate seat and the merits of various people whom the Governor might consider. Mr. Emanuel and the Governor did not discuss a cabinet position, 501c(4), a private sector position for the Governor or any other personal benefit for the Governor.

In those early conversations with the Governor, Mr. Emanuel recommended Valarie [sic] Jarrett because he knew she was interested in the seat. He did so before learning -- in further conversations with the President-Elect -- that the President-Elect had ruled out communicating a preference for any one candidate. As noted above, the President-Elect believed it appropriate to provide the names of multiple candidates to be considered, along with others, who were qualified to hold the seat and able to retain it in a future election. The following week, Mr. Emanuel learned that the President-Elect and Ms. Jarrett with the President’s strong encouragement had decided that she would take a position in the White House.
Between the time that Mr. Emanuel decided to accept the position of Chief of Staff in the White House and December 8, 2008, Mr. Emanuel had about four telephone conversations with John Harris, Chief of Staff to the Governor, on the subject of the Senate seat. In these conversations, Mr. Emanuel and Mr. Harris discussed the merits of potential candidates and the strategic benefit that each candidate would bring to the Senate seat. After Ms. Jarrett removed herself from consideration, Mr. Emanuel – with the authorization of the President-Elect – gave Mr. Harris the names of four individuals whom the President-Elect considered to be highly qualified: Dan Hynes, Tammy Duckworth, Congresswoman Schakowsky and Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr.

In later telephone conversations, Mr. Emanuel – also with the President-Elect’s approval – presented other names of qualified candidates to Mr. Harris including Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Ms. Cheryle Jackson. Mr. Harris did not make any effort to extract a personal benefit for the Governor in any of these conversations. There was no discussion of a cabinet position, of 501c(4), of a private sector position or of any other personal benefit to the Governor in exchange for the Senate appointment.

Although Mr. Emanuel recalls having conversations with the President-Elect, with David Axelrod and with Valerie Jarrett about who might possibly succeed the President-Elect in the Senate, there was no mention of efforts by the Governor or his staff to extract a personal benefit in return for filling the Senate vacancy.

Valerie Jarrett

Ms. Jarrett had no contact or communication with Governor Blagojevich , with his Chief of Staff, John Harris or with any other people from the Governor’s office about a successor to replace the President-Elect in the United States Senate or how the decision should be made. Nor did she understand at any time prior to his arrest that the Governor was looking to receive some form of payment or personal benefit for the appointment. Her only contact with the Governor was at the Governor’s Conference in Philadelphia on December 2, 2008, over three weeks after she had decided not to pursue the Senate seat and had accepted the President-Elect’s offer to work in the White House. She had a brief conversation with him on that occasion. He wished her well.

On November 7, 2008 -- at a time when she was still a potential candidate for the Senate seat -- Ms. Jarrett spoke with Mr. Tom Balanoff, the head of the Illinois chapter of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Mr. Balanoff is not a member of the Governor’s staff and did not purport to speak for the Governor on that occasion. But because the subject of the Governor’s interest in a cabinet appointment came up in that conversation, I am including a description of that meeting.

Mr. Balanoff told Ms. Jarrett that he had spoken to the Governor about the possibility of selecting Valerie Jarrett to replace the President-Elect. He told her that Lisa Madigan’s name also came up. Ms. Jarrett recalls that Mr. Balanoff also told her that the Governor had raised with him the question of whether the Governor might be considered as a possible candidate to head up the Department of Health and Human Services in the new administration. Mr. Balanoff told Ms. Jarrett that he told the Governor that it would never happen. Jarrett concurred.

Mr. Balanoff did not suggest that the Governor, in talking about HHS, was linking a position for himself in the Obama cabinet to the selection of the President-Elect’s successor in the Senate, and Ms. Jarrett did not understand the conversation to suggest that the Governor wanted the cabinet seat as a quid pro quo for selecting any specific candidate to be the President-Elect’s replacement. At no time did Balanoff say anything to her about offering Blagojevich a union position.

David Axelrod

Mr. Axelrod had no conversations with anyone outside the President-Elect’s immediate circle about who should replace the President-Elect in the United States Senate. No one ever came to Mr. Axelrod to propose a deal involving the selection of a replacement, and nothing came up in any of his conversations with the President-Elect or the members of the President-Elect’s immediate circle that suggested that the Governor was seeking some kind of quid pro quo for the appointment.

Mr. Axelrod recalls that, after the election, the President-Elect discussed – with Mr. Axelrod and Mr. Emanuel – a number of individuals who were highly qualified to take his place in the Senate. Mr. Axelrod was under the impression that the President-Elect would convey this information to the Governor or to someone from the Governor’s office, which explains why Mr. Axelrod gave an inaccurate answer on this subject to questions from the press. He later learned that it was Mr. Emanuel who conveyed those names to the Governor’s Chief of Staff, John Harris.

Dr. Eric Whitaker

Dr. Whitaker had no contacts or communications with either the Governor or his Chief of Staff, John Harris. He did have contact and communication with one individual purporting to act on behalf of the Governor.

In the period immediately following the election on November 4, 2008 – on either November 6, 7 or 8 – Deputy Governor Louanner Peters called him at his office and left a message. When he returned the call, Ms. Peters asked who spoke for the President-Elect with respect to the Senate appointment. She explained that the Governor’s office had heard from others with recommendations about the vacant seat. She stated that the Governor’s office wanted to know who, if anyone, had the authority to speak for the President-Elect. Dr. Whitaker said he would find out. The President-Elect told Dr. Whitaker that no one was authorized to speak for him on the matter.

The President-Elect said that he had no interest in dictating the result of the selection process, and he would not do so, either directly or indirectly through staff or others. Dr. Whitaker relayed that information to Deputy Governor Peters. Dr. Whitaker had no other contacts with anyone from the Governor’s office.

300 accidents caused by global warming


A freezing rain caused roughly 300 accidents in the metro area this afternoon. During the three hour commute home, I captured a few photos of the debacle.

This Toyota Four Runner passed me at high speed despite numerous warnings of icy roads. Ten minutes later I caught up with him. Yes, he cleverly pinned his vehicle up on the guardrail.

Black ice: any car hitting more than about 40 MPH was destined for an ugly demise.

One of dozens of multi-car accidents I passed; the Cherokee got the worst of this matchup.

The Mustang, facing the wrong way, lost a battle with a Ford F-150. The firetruck referees the matchup.

Three salt trucks headed in the other direction. This uphill stretch of road was impassable -- literally no vehicles were making it -- until these guys made a pass.

One of the hundreds of cars trashed by the weather.

Lousy photo due to raindrops, but this is an upside-down vehicle. Click to view the closeup.

Memo to newbie four-wheel drive owners: your SUV doesn't stop any quicker on the ice than other vehicles. Learn it, love it, live it.

By the way: I blame global warming.

Update: The rocket scientists in Washington state have decided not to salt the roads... with predictable results.

The Seattle Times has the high-larious headline (hat tip: Pat Riotic). Best comments:

I get such a kick out of all the tree huggers....no salt....dont cut the trees.....until they cant get to the granola store because the Metro 123 is stuck...now its salt it up like a margarita

Free needles for junkies, but road salt for public safety is a big no no.

Salt saves lives. It saves injuries. It prevents accidents. How many people, especially the elderly are going to be injured because of failure to salt sidewalks and streets? People could be permanently cripped from these falls. How many serious car accidents are going to occur? What about emergency crews not being able to get somewhere? ...And using rubber blades to avoid road damage. It's nuts. Tort lawyers may even sue the city because of the damages their clients have suffered.

...the major medical centers for the Northwest are located [on a hill and] a medical response team might encounter huge delays transporting a critically injured patient to one of these centers when traffic is gridlocked due to ice that is three days old. Ice that is present only becuase of the of the mayor's enormous ego... Maybe he could see first hand what I did today on the corner of Madison and Broadway, an ambulance that waited through four stop lights less than two blocks from Swedish medical center. It could not move because there were too many vehicles, too few lanes available and way too much ice to negotiate. Cars were spinning their tires, stuck on the ice. People have to get around, emergency service[s] have to get around, and our mayor needs to come around to see his policies are dangerous, if not down right stupid!

Let me get this straight: You aren't using salt because it would run into Puget Sound? Which, if I recall is a rather large body of SALT water? Are you kidding? This is what passes for good governance in a "reality based" community? I think I'll stay in my little backwoods hick town here where we get 150" of snow per year and where schools don't close unless we get more than a foot in 24 hours. Wow. Good luck!

If anyone is missing chains. I spotted them on 90 E between exit 15 and 17.

Hee hee hee! The thought of all those dreadful SUV's pulling all the little green cars out of the ditches just warms my cockles! Long live the liberals! The entertainment value is priceless.

Incredible: decades of Popular Science magazines online!


Hundreds of historical issues of Popular Science Magazine are now online, courtesy of Google Books.

The issues range from those published in the 1870s (!) to the last decade.

Johnny Horton's classic song Battle of New Orleans retooled for the Era of Obama


Remember this old classic?

You know, written at a time when entertainers supported America and lionized its heroes? Well, if that song were written today, we'd have to revamp some of the lyrics to ensure political correctness.

Johnny Horton's Battle of New Orleans

In 1814 we took a little trip
Along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip.
We took a little bacon and we took a little beans
Because bacon contributes to high-blood pressure and obesity, the City of New York requires that this line be replaced with:
"We took a little tofu and we took a little beans"

And we caught the bloody British in the town of New Orleans.
Please do not specifically name the enemy (e.g., "Muslim terrorists"), the Associated Press requires we instead use generic descriptions:
"And we caught the loyalist gunmen in the town of New Orleans"


[Chorus:]
We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin'.
MoveOn.org requires that the enemy be suitably warned using appropriate legal and lawfare mechanisms:
"We served our warrants and the British kept a'comin'."

There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin' on
MoveOn.org also requires non-deadly force be utilized:
"We fired our tasers and they began a'runnin' on"

Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

We looked down the river and we see'd the British come.
And there must have been a hundred of' 'em beatin' on the drum.
PETA requires that drumskins be made from non-animal sources:
"And there must have been a hundred of 'em beatin' on their synthetic drum-skins"

They stepped so high and they made the bugles ring.
We stood by our cotton bales and didn't say a thing.

[Chorus]

Old Hickory said we could take 'em by surprise
If we didn't fire our muskets 'til we looked 'em in the eye
The Brady Coalition to Ban Guns requires the following alteration:
"If we didn't fire our pepper-spray 'til we looked 'em in the eye"

We held our fire 'til we see'd their faces well.
Then we opened up with squirrel guns and really gave 'em ... well
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley requires removal of references to actual firearms:
"Then we opened up with calls to 9-1-1 and really gave 'em ... well"


[Chorus]

Yeah, they ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles
And they ran through the bushes where a rabbit couldn't go.
They ran so fast that the hounds couldn't catch 'em
Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.**

We fired our cannon 'til the barrel melted down.
So we grabbed an alligator and we fought another round.
The Association for Cruelty to Animals objects to this verse and requires the following changes:
"So we grabbed a dead soldier and we fought another round."

We filled his head with cannon balls, and powdered his behind
"We filled his head with paintballs, and powdered his behind"
And when we touched the powder off, the gator lost his mind.
"And when we touched the powder off, the ol' boy lost his mind."

[Chorus]

Yeah, they ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles
Greenpeace requires that any references to damage to wildlife be minimized:
"Yeah, they ran gently through the briars and ran through the brambles without disturbing the flora and fauna"

And they ran through the bushes where a rabbit couldn't go.
They ran so fast that the hounds couldn't catch 'em
Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

Service Employees International Union also requests a reference to unionizing soldiers.


Hat tip: Cowboy Lyrics.