9/27/2005
News, Noise, and Fish Wrap
News
- Pfc England convicted, with a possible maximum sentence of 10 years. This one's close to being Noise in that it gives us the misleading impression that the system works: the guilty are punished, and the innocent go free. The actual story is that while similar forms of abuse were found at other prison camps, no one has connected the dots to higher-ups who encouraged the abuse.
From the end of the article: "Army investigative documents have indicated that military intelligence interrogators were looking to get tough on detainees at about the same time that the abuses at Abu Ghraib were documented, and senior leaders have been faulted for failing to notice that the treatment was getting out of control. None of those leaders has been charged with a crime connected to the abuse."
See also: Cookie Jill, le monde. - FEMA Plans to Reimburse Faith Groups for Aid. The argument is that churches were so heavily used as part of the recovery from hurricane Katrina, that they will need federal funds to get back on their feet. The problem with this is that there's nothing in the constitution about temporarily suspending the separation of Church and State.
And, oh by the way, just how many mosques do you suppose will be reimbursed? - Badabing Badaboom. Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis sells SunCruz Casinos to Republican lobbyist Abramoff and a partner, Adam Kidan, in 2000. Abramoff and Kidan (allegedly) use faked papers to indicate they had invested $23M of their own money in the deal, allowing them to get a $60M loan. Kidan brings in as consultant on the deal Anthony Moscatiello, a bookeeper for the Gambino crime family.
Let's just say stuff happens, and Boulis gets bumped off in 2001.
Today comes the arrests of Moscatiello and two of his associates, Anthony Ferrari and James Fiorillo for the 2001 gang-land slaying.
Strange, they look like such pussycats.
- Frist: I Didn't Do Nothin'. By putting this in the context of a he said, she said, the story becomes another Washington tempest in a teapot. Much more to the point, Frist was named one of the 13 most corrupt members of Congress by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).
See also The Faces of Corruption by Cartledge.
- Department of That Was Predictable: "Everyone knows that Boston Red Sox fans endured decades of pain and suffering waiting for their team to win the World Series. But it turns out that Boston area residents literally put off taking care of real medical emergencies so they could watch last fall's climactic games."
I'm going to go out on a limb here and predict that sales of beer and tortilla chips will increase noticably the weekend of this year's Super Bowl.
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