Langford and Former Associates Should Settle With SEC Soon

After his guilty conviction on 60 counts and the guilty pleas of Blount and LaPierre, this almost seems like an afterthought, unless the SEC uses them as part of their case against CHASE. In that case more fireworks can ensue:

The Securities and Ex­change Commission's case against Larry Langford, Bill Blount and Al LaPierre will probably be wrapped up soon without a trial, accord­ing to legal experts.


"After the conviction and the guilty pleas, it isn't a vi­able case," said Jacob Fren­kel, a former SEC enforce­ment attorney now in private practice in Maryland. "It will be settled out of court with monetary judgments. The only ques­tion is what the terms are going to be."


The SEC, the federal gov­ernment's top investing watchdog, sued the trio in April 2008. Its allegations mirrored the criminal charges that later produced guilty pleas from investment banker Blount and lobbyist LaPierre and resulted in Wednesday's conviction of Birmingham Mayor Lang­ford.The SEC suit alleges that Blount and LaPierre con­spired with Langford, when he was Jefferson County Commission president, to get him $156,000 to pay off bank loans.


In return, the civil suit says, Montgomery's Blount Parrish & Co. investment bank collected millions in fees for helping structure and sell Jefferson County bonds and interest-rate swaps. Illicit activity related to bonds is what made the matter one for SEC consid­eration.


The SEC suit represented confirmation that Jefferson County's sewer bond deals and interest-rate swaps, which now threaten the state's most populous county with bankruptcy, were tainted by illegal activ­ity.

Jefferson County, which now faces bankruptcy, has turned to the SEC for help on these swap deals, what happens next is anyone's guess.

Nine-Count Indictment for David Rubin and Associates

Yesterdays bombshell, coming off the heels of Mayor Langford's conviction, was pretty wild. On even further interest should be the Justice Department's claims that this is only the begining of their investigation, is this what the hints of a nationwide sweep were talking about? It sure sounds like it.

The nine-count indictment, issued by a federal grand jury and filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, accuses CDR Financial Products Inc. of steering business to investment firms that paid it kickbacks. Also charged in the indictment are the firm's owner and president, David Rubin; its vice president, Evan Andrew Zarefsky; and its former chief financial officer, Zevi Wolmark. The U.S. Justice Department issued a statement describing the indictment as the first in a continuing investigation of the municipal bond industry.


A spokesman for CDR and lawyers for Zarefsky and Rubin called the government's allegations false and said they stemmed from a misunderstanding by prosecutors of the bond industry. CDR had previously come under scrutiny in an investigation that derailed New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson's hopes of becoming President Obama's secretary of Commerce. Thursday's indictment doesn't mention Richardson or New Mexico.


The three executives have not been arrested and intend to travel voluntarily to New York next week to make their initial court appearances, said Zarefsky's attorney, Jeffrey H. Rutherford of the law firm Crowell & Moring.


Rubin developed a niche helping local, county and state agencies invest money raised from bond issues for such things as school or road construction.
Because government agencies typically don't need to use the money immediately, they often hire companies such as CDR to arrange short-term and longer-term deals to invest the funds.


The indictment alleges that CDR engaged in a pay-to-play scheme in which investment companies secretly paid CDR kickbacks to win government contracts. The alleged scheme cost the government agencies money because the contracts did not always go to investment providers offering the best return, the indictment says.

All across this country state after state and city after city had been burnt by these deals, its about time something is being done.

9/11 Connection Found During Pakistan Offensive

Creepy and a positive sign in a way. What must of the Pakistani intelligence officers been thinking when they realized they found a direct connection to 9/11 while combating the Taliban?

SHERWANGAI, Pakistan — Pakistani forces pushing toward a lair of hard-core Taliban fighters found documents this week linked to a member of the Hamburg cell of Al Qaeda that is believed to have planned the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

In a small village in the dun-colored hills of South Waziristan, soldiers found a German passport belonging to Said Bahaji, a German citizen and associate of Mohammed Atta, the leader of the 9/11 hijackers.

The passport was issued in Hamburg in August 2, 2001 and was accompanied by a Pakistani visa dated August 3, 2001. The documents indicated that Mr. Bahaji landed in Karachi from Istanbul on Sept. 4, 2001.

The apparent presence of Mr. Bahaji in the tribal areas of Pakistan is a clear indication that members of the Qaeda network — including participants in the 9/11 plot — have taken refuge here, as American officials, like Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday, have chargedAlthough Mr. Bahaji was not a central plotter in the Sept. 11 attacks, he lived for eight months in Hamburg with Mr. Atta and Ramzi bin al Shibh, according to the 9/11 Commission Report.

He was described in the report as “an insecure follower with no personality and with limited knowledge of Islam.”It added: “Atta and Binalshibh used Bahaji’s computer for Internet research, as evidenced by documents and diskettes seized by German authorities after 9/11.”.

Clinton may have been undiplomatic the other day, but she was surely right in her charges that Pakistan has allowed way to much leeway for Al Qaeda. Of course they are cureently on the offensive against them, but it sure did take long enough.

David Rubin of CDR Financial Products Indicted for Bid Rigging

Having blogged on the subject for some time and detailed the damage of black box deals, the connections to the Democratic party, and the role of AIG among others in these deals, I still am somewhat surprised this finally happened.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A politically connected Beverly Hills, Calif., firm and two of its executives were indicted Thursday for what prosecutors say was a bid-rigging scheme in the municipal bond business.

The charges in the nine-count indictment filed Thursday in Manhattan federal court against CDR Financial Products Inc. are the first resulting from the Justice Department's probe of the municipal bonds industry. CDR has also come under scrutiny for its ties to New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

The indictment alleges that two CDR executives and one former executive from the firm engaged in bid-rigging conspiracies in which CDR was hired by public entities that issue municipal bonds to act as their broker and conduct a supposedly competitive bidding process.

CDR is also known as Rubin/Chambers, Dunhill Insurance Services Inc.

Prosecutors say the company's owner and president, David Rubin, vice president Evan Zarefksy and former chief financial officer Zevi Wolmark took part in two wire fraud schemes. The three are also charged with obstructing the IRS.

Because such bonds are tax-exempt, the competitive bidding process is regulated by the IRS.Prosecutors said the company secretly manipulated the bidding process to enrich themselves and the bidding companies at the expense of the municipalities, the IRS or both.

Under the scheme, CDR would arrange in advance which company would win a particular bid for bond business and arrange kickbacks to CDR in the form of inflated fees, authorities said. If convicted of the most serious charge against them, the three men face a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.

The company could face a maximum fine of $100 million for the bid-rigging charge.

With further actions against Chase also in the works and the European investigation, it looks like The 46 is still going to be pretty damn busy. By the way, what happens if Rubin and associates begin to testify about all the Democrats they had dealings with?

Update from Bloomberg:

“The Justice Department is committed to protecting the competitive process and will hold accountable individuals and companies who participate in illegal and anticompetitive conduct,” Christine Varney, the Assistant U.S. Attorney General who heads the antitrust division, said in a statement.

Also indicted were Zevi “Stewart” Wolmark, CDR’s former chief financial officer and managing director, and Evan Zarefsky, CDR’s vice president. The charges are the first to result from a more than three-year investigation into the municipal bond market that has drawn in more than a dozen banks, insurers and local government advisers.

Allan Ripp, a spokesman for CDR, said the firm hasn’t had a chance to fully review the complaint. He dismissed allegations that the firm participated in a conspiracy. Rubin’s attorney, Donald Etra, said his client will defend against the charges.

‘Nothing Wrong’

“We believe the indictment has no merit,” Etra said. “The bottom line is that David Rubin did nothing wrong.”The investigation and the charges filed against CDR and its employees center on so-called guaranteed investment contracts, which local governments buy with the proceeds of municipal bonds. Under the deals, banks and insurance companies agree to pay a fixed rate of return until the money is needed to pay for construction projects.

The allegations are reminiscent of the yield-burning scandal of the 1990s, when Wall Street banks overcharged local governments for Treasury bonds they purchased with their own bond money. Securities firms agreed to pay more than $170 million to settle SEC allegations of yield burning.

The Justice Department’s investigation into bid-rigging is ongoing. Bank of America Corp. in 2007 agreed to cooperate with the department in exchange for leniency. Others, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and UBS AG, have disclosed they may face charges by the Justice Department or the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with the investigation.

A conspiracy to fix prices on the investments would have cost taxpayers by giving them lower returns than they would receive in a competitive auction. It would also cost the federal government, whose regulations require issuers of tax-exempt bonds to pay as taxes much of what they earn on the investments.

‘Illegal Rigging’

“This case is fundamentally about collusion, the illegal rigging of a purportedly competitive bidding process,” Joseph M. Demarest Jr., assistant director in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation office in New York, said in a statement. “The result was lower rates of return on the investment of bond proceeds for the state and local governments that hired CDR.

Mayor Larry Langford Guilty On All Counts

Well, the case is over and surprise surprise, Langford was found guilty for his role in the destruction of Jefferson County Alabama:

TUSCALOOSA | Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford’s has been found guilty on all counts and faces up to 805 years in prison in his federal corruption trial.Langford spoke to the press for nearly 20 minutes after the verdict was returned, blaming racism, an inattentive jury, an over reaching federal government and the media, singling out The Tuscaloosa News' coverage of the Greenetrack lawsuit, for his conviction.

"Only in Alabama can a black man not get a fair trial," Langford's wife Melva said.Langford said he plans to appeal his conviction.Prosecutors, in their closing arguments to the jury, described Langford as a power-drunk, corrupt politician who willingly took thousands of dollars in cash and gifts in exchange for steering million of dollars of Jefferson County business to a Montgomery investment banker.

“This was a deliberate course of action for nearly five years,” said Assistant U.S. District Attorney Tamara Matthews Johnson.

Racism, I suppose shopping sprees to New York went over real well with the jury. Anyway Langford's defense consisted of 5 witnesses who tried to paint a picture of honest hard working man with one of the witnesses who ended up doing damage to Langford anyway:

Two of the defense attorneys — a 90-year-old retired librarian and a Fairfield pastor — spoke of the mayor’s character and honesty.The defense called the others in an attempt to poke holes in five days of prosecution testimony that depicted Langford as a corrupt shopaholic who owed more than $77,000 in income taxes and took $236,000 in cash and gifts in exchange for funneling Jefferson County bond business to the firm of Montgomery investment banker Bill Blount.

One of the defense witnesses, FBI Special Agent Tom Mayhall, worked with federal prosecutors in building a case against Langford.Under questioning from Langford attorney Michael Rasmussen, Mayhall testified that Blount, who was indicted alongside Langford last year, never said Langford complained to him of his financial problems.

Langford also never asked Blount for any specific gift, Mayhall said. Instead, he said, Langford would admire items in expensive stores and Blount would purchase them.However, when questioned by government prosecutor George Martin, Mayhall said Langford would tell Blount he wanted to visit specific, high-priced stores in Birmingham and New York City.

More from the Times:

Larry Langford, the controversial and flamboyant mayor of Birmingham, Ala., was convicted of multiple counts of bribery in a federal corruption trial in Tuscaloosa on Wednesday.

A jury took less than two hours to determine that as president of the Jefferson County Commission, Mr. Langford accepted more than $230,000 in cash, expensive clothing and jewelry in exchange for steering $7.1 million in county bond business to a prominent investment banker.

The bonds and debt restructuring destabilized the finances of the county, which includes Birmingham, and its sewer system, helping to push the county to the brink of bankruptcy last year.

Under Alabama law, the felony convictions automatically terminated Mr. Langford’s mayoralty. Carole Smitherman, who was the president of the City Council, immediately became the mayor of the city, Alabama’s largest.

“This, too, will pass,” Mr. Langford said after the verdict, maintaining his innocence.State Representative Patricia Todd of Birmingham said the conviction proved the need for statewide ethics reform. “I hope that every elected official learns that you can’t accept these kinds of gifts without the person wanting something in return,” Ms. Todd said. “Shame on him for violating the public trust and thinking he’s above the law.”

Prosecutors said Mr. Langford, a Democrat, was in debt and turned to Al LaPierre, a lobbyist. Mr. LaPierre, they said, was a middleman who funneled money from the investment banker, Bill Blount, a former chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party.Defense lawyers tried to portray Mr. Langford as a talented politician with a spending problem, and suggested that the gifts were actually loans.

Mr. Langford, who is either 61 or 63 (records are not consistent), was convicted on all 60 counts against him, which could carry a sentence of more than 800 years. He will also forfeit $241,000.

Langford Trial: The Prosecution Rests

In the wrap up to their case, the prosecution painted a picture of a Mayor woefully in Debt:

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.—-
Former National Bank of Commerce employee Norm Davis testified that Larry Langford had a low credit score in 2003 when Langford applied for a loan.Norm Davis told a federal jury that Langford had a credit score of 485 when they converted a bank credit card into a loan.Davis later said when he helped Langford put together a personal financial statement in 2007, Langford had $649,946 in total debt.

Those liabilities included $19,000 in credit cards, $280,000 in a mortgage and $92,000 in automobile debt.Langford faces 60 charges from a federal indictment returned in June 2008 and unsealed 6 months later.Among the charges are bribery, money laundering, conspiracy, mail and wire fraud and filing a false tax return.Prosecutors claim Langford accepted $235,000 in cash, clothing and jewelry from investment banker Bill Blount and lobbyist Al LaPierre

After other damming testimony by Langford's associates, the prosecution has rested its case leaving the defense to rebut the corruption and bribery allegations. Considering the inital defense has been to imply such behaviour was buisness as usual, it doesn't seem like they much to work with in clearing the Mayor:

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The prosecution has rested in the federal bribery trial of Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford.Prosecutors ended their case Tuesday after an Internal Revenue Service agent testified that Langford severely underpaid his taxes from 2003 to 2005. IRS agent Joe Elliott testified Langford owes taxes of more than $77,000 because of gifts and checks he received.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq Claims Baghdad Attacks

What a bunch of bastards:

Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- An umbrella group led by Al-Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility for twin suicide car bomb attacks in Baghdad that killed 155 people, according to SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant Web sites.

The Islamic State of Iraq issued a statement on militant Internet forums yesterday saying it carried out the Oct. 25 bombings that targeted the Justice Ministry and Baghdad provincial administration, SITE said on its Web site. The blasts also wounded hundreds.

The car bombings, the deadliest assaults in more than two years in Iraq, followed explosions in Baghdad on Aug. 19 that struck the Foreign Ministry and other targets, killing almost 100 people. The Islamic State of Iraq also claimed responsibility for that attack.

But it appears this attack, like all of Al Qaeda's attacks in that country may have backfired:

BAGHDAD — Iraqi officials reached a tentative agreement on a new election law on Monday, even as workers continued to recover more bodies from the wreckage of Sunday’s bomb attacks, including an uncertain number of children from two day care centers.The toll climbed to as many as 155 dead, with more than 500 wounded and an unknown number still missing.The violence appeared to have jolted members of Parliament into action: Calling the bombings an attack on the national unity government, Iraqi leaders swiftly responded with a compromise agreement on a new election law that had eluded them for weeks and threatened to delay national elections scheduled for January.

Langford Trial: Day 6

After last weeks testimony which laid a convincing case that the Mayor has been "Paid to Play" including pretty tough evidence from his former associates, today we saw the jury look at a 2007 SEC deposition where the Mayor denied taking items from Bill Blount. Of course last week Blount, along with LaPierre admitted to doing that all along . Adding a further credibility problem for the mayor is the testimony of one Kieth Nelson, who along with a partner picked up the tab for Langford's share of a land deal. Why would anyone do that unless they were trying to curry favor with Langford while he was still in power?

TUSCALOOSA - Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford denied under oath in 2007 that an investment banker who pleaded guilty to bribery lavished him with items from high-priced New York stores, evidence at his federal corruption trial showed Monday.Testifying to attorneys with the Securities and Exchange Commission before he was indicted on charges that could send him to prison for years, Langford said he and banker Bill Blount swapped birthday and Christmas gifts, and Blount may have purchased a shirt or tie for him.

"We've exchanged gifts, but I know I've given him more than he's ever given me," Langford said in a deposition that was read to jurors.Langford confirmed in his SEC statement that he visited Manhattan stores with Blount during business trips to New York, as trial testimony showed. But Langford said he paid for his purchases with his own credit cards.Langford's claims contradicted testimony and records from earlier in his bribery trial that showed Blount used his American Express card to provide Langford with clothes and jewelry worth tens of thousands of dollars.

Langford, 63, will automatically be removed from office and could face years in prison if convicted on any of multiple felony counts of bribery, fraud, conspiracy, money laundering or filing false tax returns.All the charges stem from Langford's tenure as president of the Jefferson County Commission before he was elected mayor. Prosecutors contend he took bribes totaling some $235,000 to funnel lucrative public bond business to Blount, whose Montgomery-based firm received $7.1 million.

Blount and lobbyist Al LaPierre testified for prosecutors after pleading guilty in deals that let them shave years off prison sentences in exchange for their assistance.Trying to show Langford often had his hand out for gifts, prosecutors called businessman Keith Nelson to testify about a business partnership he and several other men formed with Langford to purchase property in the Birmingham area.

Members of the partnership each put up $10,000 in earnest money to secure a loan for a $500,000 piece of property, Nelson said, but he and another man, Pat Lynch, paid Langford's share. Lynch also made monthly payments on Langford's behalf, Nelson said.It wasn't clear why Lynch and Nelson would be willing to pay Langford's way. All three worked for Birmingham Budweiser, where Langford was a promoter at the time.

Will the SEC now want to speak with the mayor about his 2007 deposition?

Langford Trial Enters Week 2 as CSM Looks at Muni-Bond Scandal

The CSN, story, which only brushes on the nationwide scope of the muni-bond scandal does provide a good look at Langford's role but doesn't expand to include Richardson or the role of black box deals in how these swaps were out together:

Justice Department investigations

The US Justice Department is investigating half a dozen former Wall Street investment bankers and scouring municipal bond deals from Florida to California, looking for more instances where taxpayers were essentially swindled by secretive gambling on the $2.8 trillion municipal bond market.

In the Langford case, “You basically had local officials setting terms, and the banks didn’t have a problem with that,” says Joe Adams, research coordinator at the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama.Langford’s alleged scheme involved a new fleet of financial instruments that hundreds of other cities and counties across the US have also utilized.

Those new instruments – which include derivatives and interest-rate swaps – came on the scene as municipal governments started making no-bid agreements with bankers behind closed doors, says Mr. Brooks at the University of Alabama.As the credit crisis undermined many of those deals, public borrowers began paying billions of dollars to escape the contracts.

Alabama’s unique Constitution, which leaves county government basically unregulated, has created a system “that’s structurally designed for corruption,” says Mr. Adams. But the Langford case may indicate that wherever the new bond financing deals involve collusion and corruption, the results can be dire.

Interest-rate swaps

Specifically, the refinancing that Langford structured for Jefferson County involved interest-rate swaps, which JPMorgan Chase bankers said could reduce the county’s interest costs. (In SEC testimony last year, Langford, who attended Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government in 2000, said he couldn’t tell a bond swap adviser from a rubber band.)

Instead, rates skyrocketed after ratings for the county’s bond insurers fell during last year’s credit crisis. Debt payments for the county’s sewer system ballooned to $460 million a year – twice the annual revenues of the system.A former TV news anchor, Langford had emerged as a pragmatic pro-business visionary by the time he became president of the Jefferson County Commission in 2002.

Trusted by both the city’s majority black community and suburban whites, Langford pushed a vision that sleepy Birmingham could become “the best ‘New South’ city in the nation.” (He was easily elected mayor of Birmingham in 2007 and has a lot of political support even today.)As county president in 2003 and 2004, Langford, according to prosecutors, received lavish gifts – including cash, cars, and fancy shoes – from Bill Blount, a former Democratic Party state chairman turned investment banker.

In return, Langford insisted that Wall Street banks do business directly with Mr. Blount, who racked up more than $7 million in fees from the Jefferson County bond deals, according to testimony.The two men would travel to New York and spend more time in the city’s shopping district than on Wall Street, Blount said in testimony this week. Langford would put clothes on the counter and Blount would pay with a credit card.

“Thank you,” Langford always said, according to testimony.The Birmingham Weekly has continuous coverage of the trial, including a Live Blog feature here

Well, at least Langford was courteous as he allegedly accepted bribes. Coming off a week where the prosecutor established a pattern of apparent pay for play that the defense attempted to dismantle as "Business as usual". Friday's testimony which was cappped by some damaging evidence from La Pierre, certainly has dug domething of a hole for Langford's team to get out of:

TUSCALOOSA, AL (WBRC) - Lobbyist Al LaPierre took the stand on Friday in the Larry Langford federal corruption trial, testifying about his role in what prosecutors said was a conspiracy and fraud between Langford, LaPierre and Montgomery businessman Bill Blount.

During his testimony, LaPierre explained how Langford called him in desperation for a $69,000 loan to pay off debts. LaPierre said he then approached Blount for the cash, but Blount told him he could not pay the loan because of federal rules. That is when LaPierre said he became the go-between between Langford and Blount for the money.

Langford attorney Glennon Threatt strongly questioned LaPierre Friday afternoon on his motives and his previous guilty with prosecutors. Threatt asked LaPierre if he and Blount decided to pay off Langford's clothing debt at Remon's to manipulate Langford and Langford's addition to clothing and gambling.

"We did it to protect him," LaPierre responded, but added, "I'm not the guy feeding junk to the junkie."LaPierre and Blount both plead guilty to charges in the case earlier this year in exchange for their cooperation with prosecutors. On the stand Friday, LaPierre admitted he bribed Langford and broke the law.

"When did you decide to break the law?" Threatt asked.

"I guess when I took the note out," LaPierre answered.

"When did Langford decide to break law?" Threatt asked.

"When he took the loan," LaPierre answered.

Threatt pounds table, asking, "Did Langford ask for a cut? Did you offer Langford a percentage of the deals?"

"No," said LaPierre.

"Was there ever an express agreement to break the law?" Threatt asked.

"Not until we signed the notes," LaPierre answered.

After attorneys finished questioning LaPierre Friday afternoon, the judge recessed the court.

Earlier in the day, Blount testified he hoped to get lucrative bond work when he began giving money to Langford.

All this for fancy suits and watches.

The End of Private Property in Venezuela

A depressing story, to say the least, click on the link and read further, from the end of Venezuela as I know it:

I feel so sad right now that I just forgot many English words I need to write this post. The government has taken away in the practice the only property my family has. In theory we are still the owners but under many conditions I’ll explain later. I know they have always said that they are not against private property but we know that they act different in reality. We also know that a property can only be public or private. So any other name the government wants to give to a property “social”, “of social interest”, “of cultural and historical value”… is just a prettier way to say that such property isn’t private anymore.


I have spent years seeing how the government simply decides to take away this land or another under any excuses off their legitimate proprietary. Sometimes the government argues that a land is not productive enough to question their private property. But when such land passes to state hands; the land also passes from being a bit productive to unproductive at all. We have also learned that any land, company that the government takes away doesn’t serves to make some social justice. Those lands are not delivered to the “people”, the legitimate owners according to the government but they are simply added to the state monopoly and we, “people”, never look at their benefits. We only see interviews of frustrated owners who have worked for such land all their lives and it has been taken away from them in a whirstle. But during all these years I didn’t do anything about it, besides watching the news with a worried look on my face and commenting them with my friends and family. To say the truth: it did not affect me. My family doesn’t have any of those proprieties neither we personally know someone who haves them. For us, those land owners were just very unlucky rich people in a reality far distant from ours. It sounds politically incorrect and irresponsible to say it but I have made the commitment to tell you all the reality about the ups and downs of living here in this blog; despite how they make me look.

Of course this is about the gorging of Chavez's insatiable desire for power and control.

Nuclear Energy Back on the Table

If there is any silver lining to the climate change debate is that it has re-invigorated the arguments for using nuclear:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Once vilified by environmentalists and its future dim, nuclear energy has become a pivotal bargaining chip as Senate Democrats seek Republican votes to pass climate legislation. The nuclear industry's long-standing campaign to rebrand itself as green is gaining acceptance amid the push to curtail greenhouse gases.

Nuclear power still faces daunting challenges, including what to do with radioactive reactor waste. Reactors also remain a tempting target for terrorists.But 104 power reactors in 31 states provide a fifth of the nation's electricity while producing essentially carbon free power and no greenhouse gas emissions.

It's something the nuclear industry has been pushing in advertising and in lobbying on Capitol Hill for nearly a decade. But only recently has it begun to resonate, not only among industry supporters, but some skeptics as well.''If you want to address climate change and produce electricity, nuclear has got to be a significant part of the equation,'' Marvin Fertel, president of Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry trade group, said in an interview.

Not unexpected from a top industry lobbyist. But the same is being heard from Republicans and Democrats in Congress, from a growing number of environmentalists, and from the White House where nuclear power otherwise has received tepid support.

Of course we had Yucca mountain as a place to store the waste, but in a payoff to Reid that deal fell apart.

The Langford Trial: Week One

After a week it appears the Langford defense team is trying to paint a picture of a seamy but not criminal political culture that the Mayor operated in. In short it was business as usual as favors were traded between powerful people in regards to the direction of public policy and the hiring of certain groups over others. In other words they have decided they can't disprove many of the allegations but have opted instead to soften the jury in hope that they can get just a couple hold outs or even an acquittal. As part of their defense they have decided to paint Blount as a informant who sold out the Mayor in hopes of getting a lighter sentence. Of course they have a point in that Blount along with 2 other key witnesses did cut deals with the Fed. Like any trial it will be up to the jury to make the decision, but the tawdry details of shopping excursions to New York City for the Mayor surely will hurt any attempt to paint Langford as some "victim". So far this week there has only been a modest look at the role of the financial institutions who actually put together the the swap deals that destroyed the county, but in a very damaging way the admission that JP Morgan Chase poured 225,000 dollars into Blount Parrish and Co even though that bank had no precious knowledge of swap deals leaves open the question as to why? The prosecutor hopes to prove that Blunt then moved some of that money to Langford who was President of the Jefferson County Commission at the time in exchange for a 112 million swap transaction. It was these deals that later led to financial Armageddon for Jefferson County. These sewer deals are the heart of the collapse in the county and are to this day devastating the residents. Next week more testimony from government wittnesses and the case should be wrapped up by Friday.

Armageddon in Alabama: Sewer Deals, Swaps, and Corruption

The collapse in Jefferson County as the worse aspect of the muni-bond scandal is well known, but to see it so starkly put in Bloomberg news adds a finality to the disaster that benefited a few, but devastated many.:

Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- In its 190-year history, Jefferson County, Alabama, has endured a cholera epidemic, a pounding in the Civil War, gunslingers, labor riots and terrorism by the Ku Klux Klan. Now this namesake of Thomas Jefferson, anchored by Birmingham, is staring at what one local politician calls financial “Armageddon.”

The spectacle -- a tax struck down, about 1,000 county employees furloughed, a politician indicted over $3 billion in sewer debt that may lead to the largest municipal bankruptcy in history -- has elbowed its way up the ladder of county lore.“People want to kill somebody, but they don’t know who to shoot at,” says Russell Cunningham, past president of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce.

One target of their anger is Larry P. Langford, who was the county commission’s president in 2003 and 2004 and is now mayor of Birmingham. The 61-year-old Democrat goes on trial today, charged in a November 2008 federal indictment with taking cash, Rolex watches and designer clothes in exchange for helping to steer $7.1 million in fees to an Alabama investment banker as the county refinanced its sewer debt.

Jefferson County’s debacle is a parable for billions of dollars lost by state and local governments from Florida to California in transactions done behind closed doors. Selling debt without requiring competition made public officials vulnerable to bankers’ sales pitches, leaving taxpayers to foot the bill for borrowing gone awry.

Swaps Blew Up

Under Langford’s stewardship, the county bet on interest- rate swaps, agreements that a representative of New York-based JPMorgan Chase & Co. told commissioners could reduce their interest costs. Instead, the swaps -- covering more than $5 billion in all -- blew up during the credit crisis after ratings for the county’s bond insurers fell.JPMorgan, through spokeswoman Christine Holevas, declined to comment for this story.

If anything comes from the trial, I wish it would be the role of the banks, cdr financial products, and the whole apparatus which orchestrated these deals across the country, that is where the big money went. Of course we could have found out some of this if Richardson and his staff had been went on trial, but Holder put a stop to that so we may never know how bad it was in New Mexico, or perhaps we will?

Credit Rating of United States at Risk

Just wonderful, and you can already get a taste of what a collapsing dollar will be like as gas prices begin to spike upwards across the country.

The United States, which posted a record deficit in the last fiscal year, may lose its Aaa-rating if it does not reduce the gap to manageable levels in the next 3-4 years, Moody's Investors Service said on Thursday.The U.S. government posted a deficit of $1.417 trillion in the year ended Sept. 30 as the deep recession and a series of bank rescues cut a gaping hole in its public finances.

The White House has forecast deficits of more than $1 trillion through fiscal 2011."The Aaa rating of the U.S. is not guaranteed," said Steven Hess, Moody's lead analyst for the United States said in an interview with Reuters Television. "So if they don't get the deficit down in the next 3-4 years to a sustainable level, then the rating will be in jeopardy."

It looks like California still is showing the Fed how to operate, having run their state into the ground as well . By the way Judd Gregg warned us:

Langford Trial Day 4: Blount on the Stand

A significant development to say the least, and one that fits the general pattern of using middleman to arrange deals and provide legal cover for bribes:

Montgomery investment banker Bill Blount is on the stand in the federal corruption trial of Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford.Blount, who has pleaded guilty to bribery and conspiracy charges, is facing up to five years in prison for his role in what the government calls a pay-to-play scheme where Blount gave Langford up to $236,000 in clothes, jewelry in cash in exchange for county bond business.

Langford, who face 60 counts including bribery, money laundering and fraud, has pleaded not guilty.This morning Blount testified that he has known Langford for 30 years and his firm Blount Parrish & Co. handled bond work for the city of Fairfield when Langford was mayor and was involved in the financing for VisionLand, an amusement park funded by public money that went bankrupt.

Blount testified that he helped raise money for Langford's County Commission campaign. Blount also testified that lobbyist Al LaPierre was his eyes and ears at Jefferson County.

Blount says soon after Langford was elected to the Jefferson County Commission, LaPierre told Blount Langford needed money to pay bills. Blount helped arrange a $50,000 loan for Langford. Blount testified he had LaPierre pay off the loan because he thought Blount Parrish would soon be involved in county bond work.

Blount said he helped Langford because he didn't want his financial problems to derail a promising career and he hoped Blount Parrish would get more county bond work.

Its a pretty serious development as far as the case is concerned since La Pierre will also be testifying for the prosecution, its not a stretch that he will be able to confirm Blount's allegations. Allegations mind you that Langford's own attorney has never fully denied but tried to explain away as business a usual. Perhaps even more damaging to the mayor will be the expensive details of Langford's trip to New York:

testimony about bond deals and the minutia of derivatives visibly exhausted jurors Wednesday morning. However, in the afternoon, the public corruption trial of Mayor Larry Langford turned toward some of the more outrageous elements of the case — in particular, the lavish gifts of jewelry, shoes and clothes Montgomery investment banker Bill Blount bought Langford on trips to New York.

Several New York retailers testified Wednesday about some of the elaborate purchases Blount made for Langford. Prosecutors showed Garie Yiu, an employee at watch retailer Tourneau, a receipt for an $11,000 watch. Yiu testified that the receipt, dated Nov. 9, 2004, showed that Blount paid for the watch with his American Express credit card and asked for it to be shipped. The shipping address listed was Langford’s office in the Jefferson County Courthouse.

Receipts from men’s clothier Emenegildo Zegna showed that Blount paid $3,290 for a two-piece suit and two jackets, also shipped to Langford at his county courthouse office. Receipts from Ferragamo demonstrated that Blount paid for clothing and ladies shoes worth several thousand dollars for Langford, and $1,100 for shoes for former County Commissioner Mary Buckalew. Those items were also shipped to Langford and Buckalew’s offices.Because the items were sent to Birmingham, Blount did not have to pay New York sales tax, only the much cheaper shipping charges, the retailers said.

Prosecutors have argued that Blount and lobbyist Al LaPierre bribed Langford with more than $230,000 in cash and gifts when Langford was president of the Jefferson County Commission. In return, Langford arranged for Blount-Parrish & Co. to be included in county bond deals that garnered $7 million in fees for Blount’s firm.

For the records the deals Langford put together devestated the county with the burden falling on working and middle class people.

Reid Loses Health Care Vote

There is often talk of reconciliation and nuclear options in the Senate, to be clear I don't think the democratic leadership can pull it off, case in point the latest mis-step by Reid over medicare payments:

Democratic leaders failed Wednesday to garner enough support in the Senate to consider a plan to permanently cancel an upcoming 21 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors.The Senate blocked the so-called "doctor fix" -- a 10-year $247 billion measure -- by a vote of 47-53, with 13 Democrats joining all Republicans in opposition. The plan required 60 votes to move forward.

The vote represents a setback for Democrats in their push for a sweeping overhaul of the health care system.The measure originally was expected to be part of the health reform legislation grinding its way through Congress now. But separating it allowed Democrats to prevent the measure from pushing health reform legislation over the $900 billion ceiling set by Obama. The president asserts that the 10-year plan will be paid in large part through savings in Medicare.

Republicans and several moderate Democrats opposed the "doctor fix" because it would be paid for by more federal borrowing for the seniors' health care program already steep in debt. They also opposed adding to the federal deficit, which hit an all-time high of $1.42 trillion in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.

Supporters of the measure, including the powerful American Medical Association and the AARP, argue that a long-term fix is needed to provide certainty to doctors, and thereby their patients, who fear the cuts and therefore refuse to treat Medicare patients.

Reid of course whine about the AMA for letting him down, it would come across as pathetic if not for the fact that we are talking about one of the highest ranking politicians in America.

A group of Democrats joined all Republicans in blocking a 10-year freeze of scheduled cuts to doctors' Medicare payments, legislation that was considered important to getting a broader healthcare bill through later this year.

Prior to the 47-53 procedural vote, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) blamed the American Medical Association (AMA) for giving him bad information on the number of Republicans expected to support the measure.

Reid had offered the doctors group a deal to pass the "doctors' fix" in return for support from the doctors on President Barack Obama's broader healthcare initiative, which is slated for the Senate floor later this year.

It reminds me of nothing so much as the first TARP vote that Pelosi bungled and to be frank I don't think the Democratic leadership is savvy enough to pull these tricks off.

To Audit the Fed

Not the worse idea and one that has gained some bi-partisan steam over the past couple years. Here is an excerpt from the Times this morning:

ON Tuesday, Senator Jeff Merkley, Democrat of Oregon, and Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, introduced legislation to allow the Government Accountability Office to audit some of the Federal Reserve’s lending programs. Different bills calling for more comprehensive Fed audits already have widespread support in the House and Senate. Expanding this oversight is long overdue.

After the financial turmoil of the last year, it should be clear that we depend on the Fed for high-quality financial data and that the Fed should be held to the highest standards of transparency. And yet we cannot be assured of either of these things unless the Fed is subjected to a thorough audit of its numbers. I worked on the staff of the Federal Reserve Board 30 years ago, and I know that without comprehensive audits to double-check Federal Reserve data, the risk exists of inadequate and sloppy accounting from the Fed.

Consider the data the Fed presented last year on nonborrowed reserves. Nonborrowed reserves are total bank reserves minus money borrowed by banks and held as reserves. Clearly, the money borrowed cannot exceed the total reserves, so nonborrowed reserves should not be negative. Yet for a few months last year, the Fed reported banks’ nonborrowed reserves at billions of dollars below zero. In its calculations of nonborrowed reserves, the Fed included in borrowed reserves new forms of bank borrowing not being held as reserves. Such incompetent accounting would not survive an unconstrained, fully informed audit.

Color me skeptical but I don't see it happening any time soon.

Gates Troop Recommendation Next Week

Its only been a couple months on the troop request so what the heck is one more week of putting things off:

SEOUL (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday he is moving ahead with his recommendation on whether to send more troops to Afghanistan and would first tell the president before a NATO defense ministers meeting this week.Gates, speaking in Seoul after meetings with South Korean officials, gave no indication of what his recommendations to President Barack Obama may be regarding troop deployments. He was headed to the meeting in the Slovak capital of Bratislava that will be held on Thursday and Friday.

Obama said on Wednesday he could reach a decision on his new war strategy for Afghanistan before the outcome of an Afghan election run-off on November 7.The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Army General Stanley McChrystal, has requested tens of thousands more troops and beefed-up training of Afghan forces.

"In terms of what I will say in Bratislava, I think that I will probably share with the president and my colleagues in the American government where I come out on this issue before I share it with 27 defense ministers," Gates said.

"I am moving into my personal decision phase," he said.

And what will the personal decision of your boss be?

Langford Trial Day 3

Some interesting developments today, first and foremost the admission that Chase paid a vast sum of money to a firm which lacked expertise:

By Robert K. Gordon -- The Birmingham News

October 21, 2009, 12:00PM

Steve Sayler, former finance director for Jefferson County, testified this morning that JP Morgan Chase paid Blount Parrish & Co. $225,000 even though the Montgomery firm had no expertise in swaps.

Sayler, who is testifying in Tuscaloosa in the federal bribery trial of Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford, said the county required JP Morgan to pay Blount Parrish as a condition to entering the $112 million swap transaction. Sayler also testified he had no knowledge of Langford receiving gifts from Bill Blount.

So why would Chase pay the money? Well the "expertise" Blount may have provided might have actually been connections to Langford and associates so that they would steer the bond deals to Chase, by the way there is a patter of using middleman to gain connections to the elected officials:(from a previous post)

Another aspect of pay for play, and one more likely to land a politician in jail is CDR's tactic of finding friends, fundraisers and associates of elected Democrats, and hiring them as "Consultants". In New Mexico it was Richardson friend Mike Stratton who was hired by CDR. On a side note the Director of Si Se Puede Fred Duval was hired by UBS ,a Swiss bank, as a consultant. UBS was also one of several banks that ended up receiving a cut of the GRIP pie. The collusion of CDR, elected Democrat, and consultants that occurred in New Mexico is similar to other CDR linked scandals. In Philadelphia it was Ron White (now deceased) who received money and super bowl tickets from the company and was hired as a consultant. He was also an associate and fundraiser for Philly Mayor Sharpe. In Pennsylvania as a whole it was Alan Kessler who was the chief lobbyist for CDR and a top fundraiser for Ed Rendell. The most egregious example would be Mayor Larry Langford of Birmingham Alabama, who is accused in a 101 count indictment of using his friend William Blount and lobbyist Albert LaPierre to funnel money, jewelry, cloths, and watches into his hands in exchange for government favors while he was President of the Jefferson County Commission. Jefferson County, which includes Birmingham is on the precipice of the greatest municipal bankruptcy in history. There are also questions of CDR's actions in Atlanta and several of municipalities and CDR is currently being sued by over 20 school districts and cities in addition to the criminal investigations.

Additionally we have Langford's long time assistant testifying about meetings she arranged between Langford and Blount:

Terri Hatcher, Mayor Larry Langford's longtime assistant, is now testifying in the federal corruption trial of Langford in Tuscaloosa.Hatcher has worked for Langford since he was mayor of Fairfield. Hatcher's testimony follows that of Steve Sayler, finance chief for the city who also served as the head of finance for Jefferson County.

Hatcher is testifying about appointments and meetings she set up for Langford with Bill Blount, the Montgomery investment banker that prosecutors say bribed Langford so he could get county business.

By the way it was Chase that later moved on to Gulf Breeze among other places and involved itself in various black box deals.

Leno Mocks Obama

Amusing, I just caught this on HA, its tasteful and intelligent, pretty much humor at its best:



The Socialist Mop!

Langford Trial Day 2

We are starting to get the outlines of strategy here as the prosecutor hammered Langford on being greedy while Langford's defense attacked Blount. It testifies to the weakness Langford has found himself in that his defense attorney has all but conceeded that favors were done between Langford and Blount, but its okay since that's how things work in Jefferson County.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Deeply in debt and fond of fancy clothes and jewelry, Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford took tens of thousands in cash and expensive gifts from a politically connected investment banker who made millions in county bond business in return, prosecutors said Tuesday.

But Langford's attorney told the federal court jury that the banker, Bill Blount, schemed to "entrap and manipulate" Langford.The case is about "a stab in the back and a deal with the devil," defense attorney Michael Rasmussen said.

Langford is accused of accepting $235,000 in cash and gifts from Blount while serving as president of the Jefferson County Commission. Blount, a former Alabama Democratic Party chairman, has pleaded guilty in the case and awaits sentencing. Prosecutors say some of the money was funneled from Blount to Langford through Al LaPierre, a lobbyist and former state Democratic Party executive director who also has pleaded guilty and awaits sentencing.

Blount's Montgomery firm got some $7.1 million in fees for the work with Jefferson County arranged by Langford, prosecutors said.Jefferson County is still dealing with fallout from soured bond deals it struck under Langford's tenure. Unable to pay some $3.9 billion in debt, officials currently are trying to avoid filing what would be the largest municipal bankruptcy ever.

Charged with multiple counts of bribery, fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and filing false tax returns, Langford would be automatically removed from office as mayor if convicted of a felony. He could also face years in prison and fines.

The defense, in opening statements, said Blount began manipulating Langford after Langford's election to the Jefferson County Commission in 2002. Langford became commission president and oversaw the financing of sewer bonds.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney George Martin said soon after winning his post Langford asked Blount for money and received the first bribe: a $50,000 loan from Colonial Bank, which Blount paid off.Unable to pay his bill at a high-end clothing store, Martin said, Langford later went to LaPierre and got another loan, which Blount also paid off.

"Around this same time, Mr. Blount began asking for business from Jefferson County," Martin told jurors.In a series of bond deals, the prosecutor said, New York investment banks JP Morgan Chase & Co. and Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. included Blount's Montgomery firm in the bond work at Langford's urging.

On five bond trips to New York, Martin said, Blount lavished the county commissioner with gifts including a $12,000 watch and $1,100 cardigan sweater. Another time, Blount gave Langford a $12,000 Rolex, Martin said.

But Langford also gave gifts to Blount, Rasmussen said, insisting that the bond work was not connected. He said that's the way politics was played: Democrats hired Democrats and Republicans hired Republicans. He said Langford needed help from someone he trusted with complicated bond deals to finance billions of dollars in work on the county's dilapidated sewer system.

"It was the practice in Jefferson County," he said. "These little county officials don't know who is going to buy $1 billion in bonds. The bankers do."

By the way the ignorance defense has been tried before and its based on the fact that these deals were so complicated as to easily baffle local government . Of course that should send up waring signs before plunging into any deal unless of course local government is in in the scam.

15% Would Re-Elect David Paterson's

Jeez, how low can a guy go?

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Democratic Governor David Paterson's ratings with voters in the 2010 gubernatorial race were near record lows while his rivals gained ground, a poll released on Tuesday showed.

Only 15 percent of the 624 voters polled between October 14 and 18 would re-elect Paterson while 72 percent preferred someone else, the poll by Siena College's Research Institute found.The governor's job performance was rated negative by 79 percent to 19 percent.

Both the performance rating and the preference for another candidate only firmed by 1 percentage point in Paterson's favor, which is within the 3.9 percent point margin of error."By every measure, voters continue to keep Governor Paterson in the electoral cellar," said Siena pollster Steven Greenberg in a statement.

The poll is the latest blow for the embattled governor who is seeking re-election despite reports that President Barack Obama has urged him not to and a series of polls showing he would lose to Democratic Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Rudolph Giuliani, the former New York City mayor.

Taliban Counter-Attack

It appears Pakistan has suffered its first set back in the ongoing battle with the Taliban, this is unfortunate and we can only hope the Pakistan military holds and goes back on the offensive:

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (Reuters) - Taliban militants attacked Pakistani forces and recaptured a strategic town on Tuesday on the approach to an insurgent base in south Waziristan, security officials said.

Government forces captured the small town of Kotkai, the birthplace of Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud, in fighting on Monday night, but militants struck back on Tuesday to retake it, security officials said.The fighting for control of lawless South Waziristan is a major test of the government's ability to tackle an increasingly brazen insurgency that has seen a string of attacks in various parts of the country.

Remote and rugged South Waziristan, with its rocky mountains and patchy forests cut through by dry creeks and ravines, is a global hub for militants, and the offensive is being closely followed by the United States and other powers embroiled in Afghanistan

"Seven soldiers, including a major, and several Taliban were killed in the fighting," an intelligence official in the region told Reuters.Another intelligence official said jets bombed Taliban positions in and around Kotkai after the militant counter-attack.

Iran Vows Revenge

I guess that video thing didn't work out:

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran vowed retaliation Monday after accusing Pakistan, the U.S. and Britain of aiding Sunni militants who stunned the Islamic regime with a suicide bombing that killed top Revolutionary Guard commanders and dozens of others.

A commentary by the official news agency called on Iranian security forces ''to seriously deal with Pakistan once and for all.'' And President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told his Pakistani counterpart that his nation must hunt down suspected members of Jundallah, or Soldiers of God.

''The presence of terrorist elements in Pakistan is not justifiable and the Pakistani government needs to help arrest and punish the criminals as soon as possible,'' state TV quoted Ahmadinejad as telling President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday.

What goes around....

Langford Trial: Day One

Not much in the way of news outside of the jury being pulled from areas less likely to know the details of the damage:

Larry Langford's federal corruption trial won't include any Birmingham residents. That's because the trial was moved from Birmingham to Tuscaloosa. Langford's attorneys asked U.S. District Judge Scott Coogler to move the trial because they believed pretrial publicity would be detrimental to Langford.

Had the trial remained here, jurors would have been selected from Jefferson, Shelby and Blount counties. Instead, the panel will be pulled from a 10-county district. Moving the trial to Tuscaloosa will increase the likelihood that the panel will include jurors from more rural areas who may not know as much about the case.The case is expected to last two weeks. Here's some information on jury selection, which is expected to begin today.

Two weeks, seems awfully quick, and considering over three witnesses are ready to testify against him it looks to be a tough two weeks at that.

Larry Langford: Power Intoxicates

The Mayor sure sounds close to confessing on this one, anyway there isn't that much new here besides the fact that major news outlets have focused on the muni-bond scandal after a hiatus following the non-exoneration of Bill Richardson:

Mayor Larry Langford, who could be tossed out of office and go to prison if convicted of federal bribery charges, recently offered some advice to a new Birmingham City Council member."The illusion of power is the most dangerous drug on the planet," Langford said. "A little bit of power — nothing intoxicates like it."

Last week's comment may sound a lot like the government's opening argument against Langford, 61, the most recent in a long line of prominent names in the state Democratic Party to face corruption charges. Jury selection begins Monday.

Prosecutors claim a greedy, power-drunk Langford accepted bribes totaling some $235,000 — a chunk of it for upscale clothes and jewelry — while serving as president of the Jefferson County Commission before he was elected mayor. In exchange, they say, Langford steered $7.1 million in bond business to a political crony's investment banking firm

Those bond deals and others turned sour during the credit crunch and brought on a financial crisis that has pushed Alabama's most populous county to the brink of filing what would be the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. The current commissioners have repeatedly extended credit agreements as they struggle to pay back $3.9 billion.

Charged with multiple felony counts of bribery, conspiracy, fraud, money laundering and tax violations, Langford automatically would be removed from office if convicted of even one count.Defense attorney Michael Rasmussen laughed at the possibility of a guilty plea, saying Langford "maintains he is innocent and expects to get a fair trial."

The trial itself could take two weeks, as for the BIG Fish financial institutions who made the big bucks off the swap deals, no punishments yet.

Pakistan Appears to Make Gains

The offensive which began the other day appears to be moving forward, we wish them luck in their battle:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The Pakistani military moved deeper into South Waziristan on Sunday, hitting Taliban targets with F-16 fighter jets, as troops supported by helicopter gunships climbed higher into the mountainous terrain, according to military personnel and a spokesman for the militants.

Pakistani Air Force fighter jets struck the militant-held towns of Makeen, Ladha and Kotkai in the heart of Taliban territory, and ground forces have occupied territory on the edge of the militant enclave, Pakistani military personnel said.

Sounding a confident tone on the second day of the campaign against Taliban and Qaeda forces, a senior military official said “the level of resistance from the militants is not very high.” Even so, said the official, who declined to be identified, the area had been heavily mined and Pakistani forces had encountered a lot of homemade bombs.

But the Taliban said part of their strategy was to encourage the military to progress deeper into the militant enclave in the center of South Waziristan, and then tie the soldiers down with hit-and-run tactics that would keep the soldiers in a protracted campaign in the inhospitable terrain over the winter.

The government forces would be hit hard once they penetrated further into the mountains, the favorite fighting areas for the militants, a Taliban organizer who is not involved in the current fighting said by telephone on Sunday from Wana, the capital of South Waziristan.

Although there is a logic to the claims of the Taliban, color me skeptical that their retreat is all part of their master plan. More to the point, if the idea is to trick and trap your enemy deep in your territory, why exclaim it to the world?

Larry Langford and the Jefferson County Bond Scandal

Mayor Larry Langford is accused of bribery and corruption charges related to his stint as President of the Jefferson County Commission and his role in the sewer bond scandal that has brought the county to the brink of the greatest municipal bankruptcy in history.



What is the mayor accused of?
Its pretty straightforward. Starting in 1996 the mayor began to push various deals including a land deal known as Vision Land. Being a man of fine tastes he found his expenses outmatched his revenues, and turned to Montgomery investment banker Bill Blount and lobbyist Al LaPierre. Blount would become the underwriter for every bond offering and LaPierre became a vehicle by which Mayor Langford would receive bribes. LaPierre would "lend" money to the Mayor to make everything nice and legal and essentially launder the bribes. In 2006 the SEC began to investigate some of these deals and by December of last year a special federal grand jury in Birmingham returned a 101-count indictment against Langford, the former commission president; Montgomery investment banker Bill Blount and lobbyist Al LaPierre. The indictment includes charges of conspiracy, bribery, fraud, money laundering and filing false income tax returns in what prosecutors described as a long-running bribery scheme related to sewer bonds and other Jefferson County financial transactions. It was this sewage deal which might bankrupt the municipality and involves CDR Financial Products Charles LeCroy of J.P Morgan Chase.
The indictment includes charges of conspiracy, bribery, fraud, money laundering and filing false income tax returns in what prosecutors described as a long-running bribery scheme related to sewer bonds and other Jefferson County financial transactions.


In summary the Mayor is the one:
Who is facing 101 counts on corruption and bribery charges
The man who bankrupted Jefferson County Alabama
Helped increase fees on middle and working class people
The man who did it for designer suits and rolex watches.
Mayor Langford's Culture of Corruption.
Who helped J.P Morgan Chase and other Financial Groups overcharge by 100 million in fees Jefferson County.
The same Mayor who has saddled his constituents with a billion dollar debt.

Now Langford was charged with bribery charges over some of these deals, and the details are tawdry to say the least:

Expensive Clothes Alleged

Blount showered Langford with expensive clothes, jewelry and watches on shopping sprees when county officials came to New York City to discuss bond and swap deals, the indictment said. Besides designer clothes, he paid for a $12,000 watch at Tourneau.

According to the indictment, Blount transferred $99,000 to LaPierre who then wrote checks to Langford. Blount also helped Langford get a $50,000 loan from Colonial Bank, which LaPierre later paid off, the indictment said. Langford used about $30,000 of the money to pay his taxes.

The federal charges mirror the civil case the SEC brought in April that accused Langford of accepting $156,000 in undisclosed payments from Blount. The SEC said Langford selected Blount’s company for every bond offering and swap agreement in 2003 and 2004.

Langford, Blount and LaPierre have denied the SEC charges and said the agency doesn’t have jurisdiction over swaps. The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, Wall Street’s lobby, has also argued in a friend-of-the court brief that the SEC doesn’t have authority over the deals.The Jefferson County sewer project, which began following a 1996 environmental consent decree with the federal government, has been bedeviled by corruption that helped push the cost to twice initial estimates.

Receiving Gifts

On Sept. 23, former Jefferson County commissioner Mary Buckelew admitted to lying about receiving $4,000 in gifts from Blount.Former Commissioner Chris McNair, who was in charge of the sewer department, pleaded guilty in 2007 to conspiracy to commit bribery for accepting money from a contractor.

Also that year, former commissioner Gary White was charged with taking more than $40,000 in kickbacks and hunting trips to South Dakota from an engineering company working on the county’s $3 billion sewer program. White was found guilty in January and is appealing.

Langford, a former television reporter, was elected mayor of Birmingham in October 2007 after serving as president of the Jefferson County commission from 2002 to 2006. The mayor, who also has a public relations job for a local Budweiser distributor, has sought to revitalize the former iron and steel center, by building a domed stadium and announcing a bid for the 2020 Olympics.

For the record Buckelew as well as Blount and LaPierre will now be testifying against the Mayor. In regards to the politics, Alice Martin who was considered a top enemy of the netroots was replaced by Joyce White Vance, who promptly recused herself over possible conflicts. In regards to J.P Morgan Chase, they are still dealing with the SEC, an issue that has not been resolved as of yet. With Jefferson County bankruptcy around the corner, perhaps some justice may be done, especially since Bill Richardson and his associates got off scot free.

Lobbyist Al LaPierre accepted plea deal with federal government.

Mary Buckelew

Mayor Langford