Friday, July 29, 2011

Well that ain't good

Apple holding more cash than USA

Apple now has more cash to spend than the United States government.
Latest figures from the US Treasury Department show that the country has an operating cash balance of $73.7bn (£45.3bn).

Apple's most recent financial results put its reserves at $76.4bn (£46.9bn).

I hope the first checks to be cut are the ones to the DEA - those guys have been riding high on the war on drugs for too long now - that should be a few billion in savings real quick.

Can you guys imagine DEA guys having a real job?

Me neither.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

So you want to be an AUSA in the Southern District of Florida?

Well, given the recent hiring proclivities of the current US Atty for the SD Fla., you probably shouldn't apply unless you look like this guy:


I am really not sure what is going on over there, perhaps the hiring committee has been taken over by a group of women who want to respond to a certain Federal Judge's clerkship hiring practices, but it just seems every time I am in court, I am looking up at another guy like this:


Any AUSAs care to explain?

Of course it does not matter because as we all know, by the time the FPDs get done with them in court, they look more like this: 

Monday, July 25, 2011

Did you know Muslims attacked Norway?

Well, if you watch Fox News, you may



Love the way they tie the "Muslim" attacks in Norway to the construction of a mosque in New York.

The closer link is probably between Fox News and the actual perpetrator of the attacks, a self-proclaimed "knight Templar" (yes, that would be Christian crusader), who despised liberals as much as Muslims.

I pulled the guys "manifesto" online and found that he cites Fox News as a source for some of his hateful thoughts:

"The idea that Christians must “feel themselves subdued” (Qur’an 9:29) in Islamic lands is also very much alive. When the first Catholic Church in Qatar opened in March 2008, it sported no cross, no bell, no steeple, and no sign. “The idea,” explained the church’s pastor, Fr. Tom Veneracion, “is to be discreet because we don’t want to inflame any sensitivities.”[67]"

Footnote 67 links to: "Sonia Verma, “First Catholic Church Opens in Qatar, Sparking Fear of Backlash Against Christians,” FoxNews, March 14, 2008."

Nor is the guy a fan of Al Gore, or women.  But he did seem pleased that American women don't vote, otherwise Bush may not have been elected:

"The only major political party in Norway that has voiced any serious opposition to the madness of Muslim immigration is the rightwing Progress Party. This is a party which receives about two thirds or even 70% male votes. At the opposite end of the scale we have the Socialist Left party, with two thirds or 70% female votes. The parties most critical of the current immigration are typically male parties, while those who praise the Multicultural society are dominated by feminists. And across the Atlantic, if only American women voted, the US President during 9/11 would be called Al Gore, not George Bush."

Didn't the republicans try to argue that UBL would love to see Obama elected?  Well, at least Bush and the republicans have their fans too.

Okay, maybe he didn't love Bush: "I never liked Bush very much, but Obama’s appeasement of the Islamic world trumps anything seen since the days of Dhimmi Carter..." well, at least not very much.

I realize that crazy homicidal maniacs like this guy derive their ideas from all sorts of sources, including little green men, but aren't we starting to see a pattern here?  Republicans, it is time to stand up to the nut-jobs in your party...or, would you rather remain associated with these guys --

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

My People are !@#!&!@

So it appears that in Israel, it is acceptable for the government to pass a law that uses the power of the state to punish those who would protest through boycott (sorry Dr. MLK).

And, the people seem generally okay with it.

But, if the police want to question the authors of a book that advocates the killing of non-Jewish babies (not quite for the baking of Matzo, but still) or other innocents, look out for the right-wingers.

Of course, what would you expect from a country that allows for the military detention and imprisonment of children, just so long as they are not Israelis?

Don't get me wrong - I want Israel to exist, but unfortunately is is headed in a very wrong direction.  What do you think American policy towards Israel will look like, if Israel continues to act in this manner, when the wells begin to run dry?

Monday, July 4, 2011

Happy 4th Y'all!

This is my uncle Jake at our celebration last year -- this year we are gonna go bigger

Friday, July 1, 2011

Oops - Sorry Roy

I guess Roy might make a pretty darn good juror too -

Strauss-Kahn Case Seen as Near Collapse

"The sexual assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn is on the verge of collapse as investigators have uncovered major holes in the credibility of the housekeeper who charged that he attacked her in his Manhattan hotel suite in May, according to two well-placed law enforcement officials.

Although forensic tests found unambiguous evidence of a sexual encounter between Mr. Strauss-Kahn, a French politician, and the woman, prosecutors now do not believe much of what the accuser has told them about the circumstances or about herself.

Since her initial allegation on May 14, the accuser has repeatedly lied, one of the law enforcement officials said.

Senior prosecutors met with lawyers for Mr. Strauss-Kahn on Thursday and provided details about their findings, and the parties are discussing whether to dismiss the felony charges. Among the discoveries, one of the officials said, are issues involving the asylum application of the 32-year-old housekeeper, who is Guinean, and possible links to people involved in criminal activities, including drug dealing and money laundering.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers will return to State Supreme Court in Manhattan on Friday morning, when Justice Michael J. Obus is expected to consider easing the extraordinary bail conditions that he imposed on Mr. Strauss-Kahn in the days after he was charged.


The revelations are a stunning change of fortune for Mr. Strauss-Kahn, 62, who was considered a strong contender for the French presidency before being accused of sexually assaulting the woman who went to clean his luxury suite at the Sofitel New York.

Prosecutors from the office of the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., who initially were emphatic about the strength of the case and the account of the victim, plan to tell the judge on Friday that they “have problems with the case” based on what their investigators have discovered, and will disclose more of their findings to the defense. The woman still maintains that she was attacked, the officials said.

“It is a mess, a mess on both sides,” one official said.

According to the two officials, the woman had a phone conversation with an incarcerated man within a day of her encounter with Mr. Strauss-Kahn in which she discussed the possible benefits of pursuing the charges against him. The conversation was recorded.

That man, the investigators learned, had been arrested on charges of possessing 400 pounds of marijuana. He is among a number of individuals who made multiple cash deposits, totaling around $100,000, into the woman’s bank account over the last two years. The deposits were made in Arizona, Georgia, New York and Pennsylvania.

The investigators also learned that she was paying hundreds of dollars every month in phone charges to five companies. The woman had insisted she had only one phone and said she knew nothing about the deposits except that they were made by a man she described as her fiancé and his friends.

In addition, one of the officials said, she told investigators that her application for asylum included mention of a previous rape, but there was no such account in the application. She also told them that she had been subjected to genital mutilation, but her account to the investigators differed from what was contained in the asylum application.

In recent weeks, Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers, Benjamin Brafman and William W. Taylor III, have made it clear that they would make the credibility of the woman a focus of their case. In a May 25 letter, they said they had uncovered information that would “gravely undermine the credibility” of the accuser.

Still, it was the prosecutor’s investigators who found the information about the woman.

The case involving Mr. Strauss-Kahn has made international headlines and renewed attention on accusations that he had behaved inappropriately toward women in the past, while, more broadly, prompting soul-searching among the French about the treatment of women.

The revelations about the investigators’ findings are likely to buttress the view of Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s supporters, who complained that the American authorities had rushed to judgment in the case.
Some of Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s allies even contended that he had been set up by his political rivals, an assertion that law enforcement authorities said there was no evidence to support."

Wow --

I am not sure which is more significant about this turn of events -- that Roy was dead on or that there exists in this land a prosecutor's office that actually understands Brady/Giglio obligations.  Of course, in the SD Fla., that information would never have been turned over because "those revelations do not prove his innocence"!!!