Posts Tagged ‘Justice Department’
September 2nd, 2011 by John Feehery
According to Wikipedia, Labor Day has traditionally been the last time it is fashionable for ladies to wear white. This weekend, it might be the time that President Obama starts waving the white flag of surrender.
Labor Day was born out of conflict. Grover Cleveland signed legislation making Labor Day a holiday in 1884 six days after the Pullman strike ended. Cleveland signed it as a peace offering to the labor movement, which was still pretty raw after the national strike where Federal troops were called in and 13 strikers were killed.
This history remains relevant today.
The Labor Department announced today that the American economy created zero jobs in August. Zero. That hasn’t happened since the end of the Second World War – September of 1945 – when people were so busy celebrating the defeat of the Japanese that they didn’t have time to create any jobs.
Some economists are saying that the dreary job numbers were caused, in part, by the debate over the debt ceiling. I find that hard to believe.
There are plenty of other reasons, including the actions of both this President and of the labor movement. Read more...
Tags: America, American Small Business League, ASBL, Barack Obama, Boeing, Catholic school, Congress, Conservatives, Department of Transportation, Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, Gibson Guitar, GOP, Government, Grover Cleveland, job creation, Jobs, John Boehner, Justice Department, Labor Day, labor movement, National Labor Relations Act, National Labor Relations Board, NLRB v. Catholic Bishop of Chicago, Politics, President Obama, Pullman strike, Republican-controlled House, Republicans, spending, St. Xavier University, The Labor Department, the Obama Administration, Verizon, Washington Examiner, World War II
Posted in Economy, Financial Crisis, GOP, Government, History, Laws, Politics, Promises, Religion, Theory, Unemployment, bad news | 1 Comment »
August 26th, 2011 by John Feehery
Our family car is a relic. It doesn’t have XM radio. It doesn’t have sync capabilities with the iPhone. It doesn’t have a satellite navigation device. It does have an AM/FM radio and a CD player, but since my wife threw out all of our compact discs, that isn’t much of an option on a long ride.
We drove back from our vacation in Florida, and as you are driving through the Old South, there aren’t many very good radio options on either AM or FM, unless of course, you want to listen to a Baptist preacher telling you how the world is going to Hell in a handbasket, and only your personal contribution to his church can buy your salvation.
With the earthquake and then the hurricane hitting Washington D.C., I could be convinced that the world is going down the tubes, but I probably would never be convinced to give any of my hard-earned money to a Baptist preacher, no matter how convincing he might sound.
Only once did I hear a radio show that didn’t have a religious theme, and it was a North Carolina representative of the NFIB talking about the crushing impact of regulations on small businesses. Read more...
Tags: America, Barack Obama, Commerce Department, Congress, Conservatives, Democrats, earthquake, EPA, House Republicans, hurricane, John Boehner, Justice Department, Obama Administration, OSHA, Politics, small businesses, spending, Tea Party, Washington, White House, XM radio
Posted in Bailouts, Economy, Financial Crisis, GOP, Government, History, Laws, Politics, Religion, spending | No Comments »
April 18th, 2011 by John Feehery
As I understand it, the Tea Party is primarily concerned about a federal government that is too powerful, too intrusive, too wasteful and too arrogant.
If that is the case – and I think it is – I have an issue for them.
Over the weekend, the Obama/Holder Justice Department decided that they were going to exert the government’s power over people who play poker for a living.
They closed down the three main poker sites that are the biggest destination for American poker players and have indicted anybody associated with it.
They did this just as the District of Columbia and Utah made Internet poker legal within their jurisdictions.
Now, as far as I know, playing poker doesn’t hurt anybody (with the possible exception of the poker player who loses). 10 million people play poker on-line in America regularly, and millions more watch the best poker players in the world play on television.
Poker is big business and a lot of fun. You can play for high stakes or you can play for low stakes. You can play for free if you want, but it is a lot more entertaining if you put some money into the game. If you own a blackberry, you will likely have poker pre-loaded on your device. If you have an iPhone, a poker application is just a click away. I am sure that poker is readily accessible on the iPad. Read more...
Tags: America, Barack Obama, Conservatives, Democrats, Government, Justice Department, Obama, poker, Poker Players Association, Politics, Republican, Tea Party
Posted in Bad Decisions, Government, Politics | No Comments »
August 18th, 2010 by John Feehery
Eric Holder, U.S. Attorney General
It has been a bad couple of weeks for the Justice Department.
Yesterday, Rod Blagojevich outfoxed U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and tied up a jury, escaping 23 out of 24 counts.
Earlier in the week, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay announced that he was no longer a target of a Justice Department investigation.
Last week, there was renewed scrutiny over a botched effort by the Public Integrity Section to convict former Senator Ted Stevens of corruption after he perished in a tragic plane accident. In every obituary, there was further reminder of an almost comical effort to throw Stevens in jail by prosecutors who were so inept and so corrupt themselves that the Judge threw out the case and turned his attention on prosecuting the prosecutors.
It is hard to say if Fitzgerald’s case was inherently weak or if Blago’s public relations efforts were incredibly powerful. But it is easy to see that Mr. Fitzgerald sees himself in overly dramatic terms as a latter day Eliot Ness, and that his case was too nakedly political and some say too rushed to get the Illinois governor really nailed to the wall. Read more...
Tags: Attorney General, Eric Holder, Justice Department, Rod Blagojevich, Ted Stevens, Tom DeLay
Posted in Politics | No Comments »
April 28th, 2010 by John Feehery
Martin Michael Lomasney, a Boston politician from the 19th Century, once said: “”Never write if you can speak; never speak if you can nod; never nod if you can wink.”
Being from Chicago, I was taught that lesson by more a few political types. The Washington corollary to that admonition is: “Never write down anything that you wouldn’t be happy to see on the front page of the Washington Post.”
I bet you that the fabulous Fab, the Goldman Sachs wunderkind, Fabrice Tourre, wish he would have remembered those golden nuggets of advice.
It was the fabulous Fab who wrote in an email: “The whole building is about to collapse any time now. Only potential survivor, the fabulous Fab . . . standing in the middle of all these complex, highly leveraged, exotic trades he created without necessarily understanding all of the implications of those monstrosities!!!”
That Fab is a cad goes without doubt.
But he isn’t the only one who failed to heed the advice of fabulous Martin Michael Lomasney.
Think of Tiger Woods. If he wasn’t text crazy, there would be no reason for his wife Elin to beat him with a seven iron, because Elin would have been none the wiser. No text, no bruise, no crash, no rehab, no problem. Read more...
Tags: CDO, Economy, Fabrice Tourre, Fabulous Fab, Goldman-Sachs, Jack Abramoff, Justice Department, Martin Michael Lomasney, tiger woods
Posted in Financial Crisis, Politics, Theory, corruption | No Comments »
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