Texas governor accused of covering up innocent man’s execution | Raw Story

By Daniel Tencer
Saturday, October 3rd, 2009 -- 7:02 pm

The head of a Texas anti-death penalty group has accused that state's governor of scuttling an investigation into a possible wrongful execution for political reasons.

"[Texas Governor Rick] Perry saw the writing on the wall," Scott Cobb, president of the Texas Moratorium Network, told CNN. "He moved to cover that up."

The "writing on the wall" Cobb was referring to was the investigation by the Texas Forensic Science Commission into the execution of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was put to death in 2004 for the 1991 arson deaths of his three daughters.

Forensic investigations done since Willingham's conviction have found no evidence of arson. Nonetheless, Perry refused to grant Willingham a stay of execution in 2004, even though credible questions had already been raised about Willingham's guilt.

On Wednesday, Gov. Perry ordered the removal of three members of the forensics commission, and instituted a "political ally," as CNN described him, to head the committee. That ally is reported to have ordered the investigation into Willingham's execution delayed indefinitely, saying he "couldn't begin to guess" when the commission would reconvene.

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Texas governor accused of covering up innocent man’s execution | Raw Story

How British Police Are Criminalizing Peaceful Protest

There is a concerted campaign by UK police to deter, smear, intimidate, harass, and criminalise citizens who did nothing more than attempt to exercise their right to peaceful protest in the name of important causes. This story includes a video as well as PDF report on the way police in the UK are criminalizing legitimate protest.



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Impeachment panel begins, Blagojevich speaks

CHICAGO - Gov. Rod Blagojevich said Wednesday he is ready to tell his side of the scandal to the people of Illinois and that he would do so no later than Thursday.
"I can't wait to begin to tell my side of the story and to address you guys and, most importantly, the people of Illinois. That's who I'm dying to talk to," he said as he left his home Wednesday morning for a jog.
"There's a time and place for everything. That day will soon be here and you might know more about that today, maybe no later than tomorrow.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

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What Blagojevich was doing right before he was indicted

Interesting timing?

Coincidence?

December 8 - Governor Rod Blagojevich announces the State of Illinois will cease doing business with Bank of America.

December 9 - Governor Rod Blagojevich, who has been reportedly under investigations by the federal government for three years is indicted based on a recent wire tap.

If he is as dirty as he is being portrayed, why did it take three years to find something on him?

Also...

When is the last time you saw a governor take a high profile stand for a small business and working people against a multinational bank?

The FBI sure shut that down quick.

What convenient timing they have.

Source:  Interesting timing - Brasscheck TV

Technorati Tags: Rod Blagojevich,BrasscheckTV,video,conspiracy,conspiracy theory,FBI,government,political corruption,corruption,opinion

US Iraq 'Reconstruction' Nearly A Total Failure

Iraqi Army bulldozers roared into this squatters' camp in
Baghdad on Nov. 13, uprooting some 675 families.
A federal report is highly critical of the US-led reconstruction
effort in Iraq. (Sabah Arar/AFP/Getty Images)

BAGHDAD - An unpublished, 513-page federal history of the US-led reconstruction of Iraq depicts an effort crippled before the invasion by Pentagon planners who were hostile to the idea of rebuilding a foreign country, and then molded into a $100 billion failure by bureaucratic turf wars, spiraling violence, and gaps in knowledge about Iraqi society and infrastructure.

"Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience," the first official account of its kind, is circulating in draft form here and in Washington among technical reviewers, policy analysts, and senior officials.

It also concludes that when the reconstruction began to lag - particularly in the critical area of rebuilding the Iraqi police and army - the Pentagon simply put out inflated measures of progress to cover up the failures.

In one passage, for example, former secretary of state Colin L. Powell is quoted as saying that in the months after the 2003 invasion, the Defense Department "kept inventing numbers of Iraqi security forces - the number would jump 20,000 a week! 'We now have 80,000, we now have 100,000, we now have 120,000.' "

Powell's assertion that the Pentagon inflated the number of Iraqi security forces is backed up by Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez, former commander of ground troops in Iraq, and L. Paul Bremer III, the top civilian administrator until an Iraqi government took over in June 2004.

Among the overarching conclusions of the history is that five years after embarking on its largest foreign reconstruction project since the Marshall Plan in Europe after World War II, the US government has in place neither the policies and technical capacity nor the organizational structure that would be needed to undertake such a program on anything approaching this scale.

The bitterest message of all for the reconstruction program may be the way the history ends. The hard figures compiled for the report reveal that for all the money spent and promises made, the rebuilding effort never did much more than restore what was destroyed during the invasion and the looting that followed.

By mid-2008, the history says, $117 billion had been spent on the reconstruction of Iraq, including some $50 billion in US taxpayer money.

The history shows the chaotic and often poisonous atmosphere in the reconstruction effort.

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Illinois AG asks state high court to strip Blago of powers

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – In an unprecedented move, the Illinois attorney general asked the state's highest court Friday to strip scandal-plagued Gov. Rod Blagojevich of his powers. Lisa Madigan took the action as pressure on the governor intensified to step down and lawmakers considered impeachment. And the fallout over the scandal continued Friday as the governor's chief of staff resigned; John Harris was arrested along with the governor on Tuesday.

Madigan said that she took the action with the Supreme Court because she thinks that this is a faster way to strip Blagojevich of his power than through impeachment, which could take several weeks.
"I recognize that this is an extraordinary request, but these are extraordinary circumstances," Madigan said at a news conference in Chicago.

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Feds Charge: The $50 BILLION Scam; One Man's Amazing Crime

A powerful New York financial advisor whose handful of clients routinely expected -- and received -- double digit returns, up market or down, may have instead been running a decades long Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors of $50 billion dollars, according to a one-count criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in New York.

Bernard Madoff, 70, a former chairman of NASDAQ, was an investment advisor who catered to a handful of high net worth clients, one of whom told ABC News that Madoff was so sought after that, as recently as two months ago, he was turning down potential new business.

According to a Securities and Exchange Commission document filed in Jan. 2008, and cited in the complaint, the firm had between 11 and 25 clients for the fiscal year ending Oct. 2007 and managed about $17 billion in assets in 23 different accounts.

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Senate Dems 'insist' Blagojevich resign

From NBC’s Ken Strickland
In a letter being circulated for signatures among Senate Democrats, the members "insist" that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich resign from his post, "and under no circumstance make an appointment to fill the vacant Illinois Senate seat."

In light of his arrest, the letter, written by Democratic leaders, states: "Any appointment by you would raise serious questions."

While citing the Illinois legislature's authority to strip the governor of his appointment power by having a special election, the leadership feels his resignation would be the fastest way for a new senator to be chosen.

If Blagojevich refused to resign and appoints a new senator, the letter makes it explicitly clear that the Senate will have the final word on any appointment:

"Please understand that should you decide to ignore the request of the Senate Democratic Caucus and make an appointment, we would be forced to exercise our Constitutional authority under Article I, Section 5, to determine whether such a person should be seated."

At the end of the letter if reads, "We do not prejudge the outcome of the criminal charges against you... But for the good of the Senate and our nation, we implore you refrain from making an appointment to the Senate."

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Attorney: U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson is 'Candidate 5'

WASHINGTON – Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. says he is not a target of the investigation that led to this week's arrest of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
A lawyer for Jackson acknowledged Wednesday that the Illinois Democrat is the so-called Senate Candidate 5 in the federal complaint against Blagojevich.

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Ill. gov. charged with Cubs sale-related crimes as well.

The governor of Illinois, accused Tuesday of trying to sell the appointment of President-elect Barack Obama's seat in the U.S. Senate, is also charged with crimes resulting from his role in the sale of the Cubs and Wrigley Field.

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Rahm Emanuel may have ‘tipped’ off feds about Blagojevich

Marcy Wheeler catches local Chicago press reporting that Rahm Emanuel may have tipped off federal investigators that Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) was engaging in corrupt acts. Jack Conaty, a Chicago reporter for the local Fox affiliate, said on-air that Rahm Emanuel might have been responsible for causing federal investigators to act quickly to apprehend Blagojevich this morning:

CONATY: We did receive a tip this morning that perhaps all of this came together so quickly because the Governor may have reached out to Rahm Emanuel, the president-elect’s chief of staff, in attempting to leverage filling the Senate seat. And it may have been Rahm Emanuel who tipped the scale and made this move as quickly as it did.

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Impeachment hearings likely against Blagojevich

Several Democratic operatives from Illinois say the Illinois state legislature will likely move as quickly as possible to hold impeachment proceedings against Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D), in attempts to prevent the jailed governor from appointing President-elect Barack Obama’s successor in the Senate.

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Feds: Ill. gov tried to 'auction' Obama's seat

CHICAGO - Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich embarked on "political corruption crime spree" and tried to benefit from his ability to appoint President-elect Barack Obama's replacement in the U.S. Senate, federal officials said Tuesday.
At a news conference in Chicago on Tuesday, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald called it a sad day for the citizens of Illinois and alleged that the governor tried to "auction off" the Senate seat "to the highest bidder".
He said the alleged behavior "would make (Abe) Lincoln roll over in his grave".



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KBR Sued for Giving Soldiers Ice with 'Traces of Body Fluids and Putrified Remains'

KBR failed to provide adequate water safety, resulting in toxic drinking and bathing water. This war profiteer also failed to manage a medical incinerator properly, instead disposing medical waste and human remains in an open air burn pit.



As former KBR Water Purification Specialist Ben Carter described in this clip from Iraq for Sale and in his Congressional testimony, KBR failed to provide adequate water safety, resulting in toxic drinking and bathing water. This war profiteer also failed to manage a medical incinerator properly, instead disposing medical waste and human remains in an open air burn pit. Eller claims that at one point, he saw a wild dog running around the base with a human arm in its mouth that KBR had dumped into the pit. And the grizzly kicker, the suit accuses KBR of using mortuary trucks that "still had traces of body fluids and putrefied remains in them when they were loaded with ice" later served to U.S. troops.
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FBI Corruption Sting Catches Massachusetts Politicians

The meeting appeared routine - a businessman and politician stopped at a sandwich shop to chat about plans to develop a nearby parcel of land. But this get-together had an unusual twist: The state senator allegedly got $10,000 in bribe money and authorities left with more evidence in the most elaborately orchestrated public corruption sting.

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