> Nadeau: 10.10

Monday, October 25, 2010

WSWS: NY Times article ‘drips with malice’
at Assange disclosure of damning documents

The response of the New York Times to WikiLeaks’ posting of classified American military documents exposing US war crimes in Iraq is to downplay the atrocities and portray WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as the criminal party.

The newspaper of record of the American liberal establishment is not outraged by further proof of murder and torture on a mass scale, implicating the highest officials in both the Bush and Obama administrations, but instead reserves its fury for those courageous individuals who have dared to breach the government-media wall of silence and give the public access to some portion of the horrific truth about the US war in Iraq.

The Times assigned the job of character assassination to an old hand at penning cover-ups and apologetics for US imperialist operations, John F. Burns. The British-born journalist has headed Times bureaus in such strategic capitals as Moscow and Beijing. As head of the Times’ Baghdad bureau in the lead-up to the US invasion of Iraq, Burns played a major role in the newspaper’s promotion of US government lies about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

Burns has been London bureau chief since mid-2007. On Sunday, the Times published a front-page piece over the joint byline of John F. Burns and Ravi Somaiya and bearing the disparaging headline: “WikiLeaks Chief on Run, Trailed by His Notoriety.” The article purports to be based on an interview with Assange conducted in London on October 17. By that time, the Times had had access for close to two weeks to the nearly 400,000 military logs released to the public on Friday by WikiLeaks.

The article drips with malice. One of its aims—to depict Assange as a sinister figure, suffering from delusions of grandeur and paranoia—is indicated by the opening sentence: “Julian Assange moves like a hunted man.”

posted by Tom Nadeau at 3:06 AM 0 comments

Friday, October 22, 2010

Jury gets People v. Siavii after 2 brisk closing arguments

by Tom Nadeau
The jury heard two persuasive closing arguments Thursday in People v. Poe Blue Siavii, #08F07611 and was expected to begin deliberating Monday whether the Samoan defendant was guilty of first degree murder under special circumstances.

If convicted, Siavii could be sentenced to life in prison for May 5, 2008 killing of Joshua Kalb, 27, at the Elkhorn Boulevard Park ‘n’ Ride lot off Highway 99.

The jury must decide which one is telling the truth: Siavii, an admitted mover and shaker in the Sacramento bulk drug trade, or Steven Riddick, Siavii’s trusted money “mule” in the exchange of pounds of methamphetamine for hundreds of thousands of dollars from dope distributors in Oahu, Hawaii.

Sacramento Deputy District Attorney Chris Ore presented ample evidence that Kalb had been killed, that money was the root of the that evil-doing and how, when and where the murder took place.

Defense attorney Kyle Knapp disputed little or nothing of those allegations. What he did dispute, however, was that his client Siavii was the shooter.

Case hinges on evidence, rebuttals ... Read more »

posted by Tom Nadeau at 10:15 PM 0 comments

Monday, October 18, 2010

WSWS: Democrats turn further right...

With only two weeks remaining in the 2010 election campaign, Democratic Party candidates in closely contested races for the Senate, the House of Representatives and many statewide offices are highlighting their right-wing policies and minimizing any differences with their Republican opponents.

Opinion polls and media analysts are generally forecasting a Republican takeover of the House of Representatives, now held by the Democrats by a margin of 255 to 178, and significant Republican gains in the Senate, where the Democrats hold 59 seats out of 100, counting two independents who vote with them.

Some 40 states are electing governors as well, with Republican candidates expected to sweep a belt of economically devastated industrial states—Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin—from the Atlantic to the Great Lakes. There are more closely contested gubernatorial races in three of the four largest states: Florida, Texas and California.

The right-wing policies of the Obama administration, above all its failure to take any significant measures to alleviate mass unemployment, have opened the doors for a revival of political influence for the Republican Party, which was thoroughly repudiated by the American people in the past two elections, losing control of both houses of Congress in 2006 and losing the White House in 2008.

The anticipated Republican victories are due mainly to a projected collapse in turnout by those who voted for Obama and other Democratic candidates in 2008, not to any great surge of popularity for the Republican candidates, many of them associated with the ultra-right Tea Party movement. An Associated Press-Knowledge Networks poll published over the weekend found that one-quarter of Obama voters were considering voting against the Democrats this year, and an even larger number were not planning to vote at all.
...while other rightwingers celebrate themselves worldwide

posted by Tom Nadeau at 2:03 AM 0 comments

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Sparks cops a plea to 'vol-man'; Rampone goes to trial

by Tom Nadeau

Dustin William Sparks entered a surprise plea of guilty to two lesser counts of voluntary manslaughter in Yuba County Superior Court Friday in exchange for the prosecution dropping two first degree murder charges.

Under the terms of the negotiated plea in People v. Sparks the defendant faces up to 13 years in state prison. Visiting Judge R.M. Smith postponed Sparks sentencing until Jan. 3, 2011.

This bizarre move by Sparks came even as the defense awaited word from the US Supreme Court whether it will consider his writ of certiorari arguing he was wrongfully charged with first degree after the actual shooter in the 2005 double murder was convicted of two counts of voluntary manslaughter and was serving a term in state prison.

And it gets even more bizarre … Read more »

posted by Tom Nadeau at 9:53 AM 0 comments

Friday, October 15, 2010

A link to see your mortgage

’Demand to see your mortgage note’

Your chance to see if you’re a victim of mortgage fraud is here:
Wondering if you are one of those suckers paying a mortgage in limbo, with all the payments due to some non-existent mortgage noteholder getting retained at the servicer banks? Well, if you can spare 3 minutes then ’Where’s the Note?’ is for you. The website, which is on the verge of a viral break out, has a simple message: "Whether you are facing foreclosure, have an underwater mortgage, or are just a concerned homeowner, it’s important that you contact your bank and demand to see the original note on your mortgage. It only takes a few minutes using our free online tool." Quick, simple and easy. And in a few days your mortgage bank will have no choice but to tell you if they do in fact have your original mortgage note. And if not - welcome to cost-free living, courtesy of MERS and millions of rushed and fraudulent mortgage note assignments. Yes, it will mean the end of the GSEs, but it will also mean the accelerated write downs on thousands of MBS tranches which will rapidly collapse into insolvency (there is only so much Mark to Unicorn can cover up) and eventually take the insolvent TBTFs banks with them.
California sells Capitol buildings to fund budget
Dan Rosenfeld, the state's deputy director for real estate and buildings under Gov. Pete Wilson, said the decision was poor long-term financial policy, calling it "a quiet victim of the budget impasse" in Sacramento.

"It's like selling your garage to your neighbor to pay your mortgage," he said. "Given the choice between selling strategic assets and taxing gas guzzlers, I would have selected a different outcome."
The White House and the mortgage racket
Washington works for the wealthy

posted by Tom Nadeau at 4:53 AM 0 comments

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Witness glitch delays Leary trial again

by Tom Nadeau

The trial of former Elk Grove City Council member Michael Leary on fraud charges was postponed Wednesday until Oct. 25.

Sacramento County Superior court Judge Gary Ransom delayed the trial start at the request of Deputy District Attorney Michael Blazina.

Blazina said a key prosecution witness was unavailable until then.

The prosecution also asked Ransom to add two counts to the four Leary is already charged with. The two were one count of attempted grand theft and one count of actual grand theft. Ransom added them.

The two counts were not additional counts defense attorney William Portanova said after the five-minute pre-trial hearing. The were just different ways of phrasing the counts Leary has already pleaded innocent to. That way the jury will have additional options to consider when they deliberate, he explained.

Leary’s trial will now begin 8:45 a.m. Oct. 25 when an assignment judge in Department 9 will determine which trial judge gets People v. Leary, #09F07685.

It may take a day or two to pick a jury and the trial itself could last three to four days, Portanova estimated.

Leary now faces a total of six felony counts arising from a real estate dispute with his former live-in girlfriend, Alyc Maselli.

Maselli and the district attorney allege that Leary bilked her out of her share of a $610,000 home at 3301 Marina Cove Circle, Elk Grove.

Leary has pleaded innocent to all charges. If convicted, he could face 12 years in state prison and a fine of up to $75,000. In the meantime, he remains free on bail.

Leary has separately filed a civil counter suit claiming Maselli and ring of women notary executives have joined together to defraud him through an improper title transfer.

He filed the suit in propria persona, that is to say, on his own lonesome, rather that through an attorney.

Portanova skirted comment on Leary’s civil suit, saying his law office was not involved in the matter. It is unclear what, if any, impact this civil suit might have on Leary’s criminal proceedings.

Portanova also said Wednesday that there were no new developments in the allegations that arose about a month ago in which the Fair Political Practices Commission announced it was looking into matters relating to Leary.

Leary’s civil suit – Leary v. North American Title Company, et al, #34-2010-00085705, claims that Maselli along with Abby Patneaud, Catherine Picton and “Does 1 through 15” conspired through North American Title Company to defraud him of an unspecified amount in excess of $25,000.

posted by Tom Nadeau at 6:07 AM 0 comments

Monday, October 11, 2010

posted by Tom Nadeau at 6:01 AM 0 comments

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Those snookered should roll with the punch and hit back

Those so thoroughly snookered in the many bank borrowing scams that jacked up, looted and then laid waste to home “values” continue to refuse to come to grips with the home value decline.

Oh, more and more of them have tumbled to the fact that they are upside-down on their home value versus house payments ratio, but they are dealing with them in the wrong way.

They simply stop making their mortgage payments, sock away the “savings” for getaway money and then camp out in their unpaid-for homes waiting for the chickens to come home to roost before moving on. Two years of no payments is not an unusual grace period these days, news reports indicate.

Things got even more complicated ... Read more »

posted by Tom Nadeau at 7:51 AM 0 comments

Friday, October 08, 2010

posted by Tom Nadeau at 11:11 AM 0 comments

Thursday, October 07, 2010

UAW cuts auto workers’ pay

United Auto Workers officials told Local 5960 workers in Lake Orion, Mich. Sunday they had agreed to a 50 percent wage cut for workers with less than 11 years seniority at GM’s assembly plant in the Detroit suburb.

Shocked workers were told they would not be permitted to vote on the wage cut because “general language” in the 2009 labor agreement allowed GM and the UAW to implement “innovative labor agreement provisions” at factories producing small cars. Any workers who refused to take the wage cut would lose their jobs.

At least 500 workers―around 40 percent of the factory’s 1,300 workers―will be paid $14 an hour. […] Media and industry sources said the agreement paved the way for cut-rate wages at the factory being retooled to make the subcompact Chevrolet Aveo, currently produced in Korea and Mexico.

More ... Read more »

posted by Tom Nadeau at 7:15 AM 0 comments

Sunday, October 03, 2010

Juror in People v Mercer has regrets, wants him re-tried

Sentencing of Timothy Brian Mercer was postponed at the last moment for one month because one of the 12 jurors who convicted him of lewd and lascivious conduct with a girl under 14 had expressed deep misgivings about her ‘guilty’ vote.

Defense attorney Chad Cameron Couchot asked for the delay to give him time to verify Juror #9’s misgivings and decide whether they provided sufficient reason to re-try the 43-year-old Mercer.

As it stands, Mercer, faces from a maximum of eight years in state prison to a minimum of five years on probation, depending on which option Yuba County Superior Court Judge Kathleen Rose O’Connor imposes in People v. Mercer, #09-281.

Whichever term O’Connor chooses, Mercer will have to register as a sex offender forever more.

Too late the phalarope?* ... Read more »

posted by Tom Nadeau at 4:43 PM 0 comments

Friday, October 01, 2010

The stench of dictatorship here, now
The raids carried out by the FBI against antiwar activists last week are an ominous warning to the entire working class. The police-state tactics show the extent to which basic democratic rights—including the right to free speech and political association—have been dismantled in the US.

The Obama administration ordered the invasion of the homes of several individuals—primarily members of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization—and the seizure of documents, computers, cell phones, cameras and other personal and political material. Those targeted have been summoned to appear before a grand jury on October 12 and may face criminal prosecution for “material support” for terrorism.

What is the rationale for these actions? There are vague and unsubstantiated allegations of visits to groups that the US government officially designates as “terrorist.” These designations are entirely guided by the prerogatives of US foreign policy—that is, organizations are deemed to be “terrorist” depending on whether they are supporting or opposing US interests in the Middle East, Latin America or other sections of the globe.

Under attack is not simply one organization. The government and its array of military-police agencies aim to vastly expand the criminalization of dissent in the United States.

posted by Tom Nadeau at 5:36 AM 0 comments