The Hollywood Liberal

That would never happen here
The son succeeding the father without first winning an election, preposterous!

supreme court by afagen at flickr.com

This sounds vaguely familiar:

Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s son Seif el-Islam is proposing a resolution to the Libyan conflict that would entail his father relinquishing power for a transition to constitutional democracy under his son’s direction, a diplomat with close ties to the Libyan government said Sunday, citing “eminent people” in Tripoli.

See that’s not democracy. Having some spoiled brat born into wealth take over the reigns of government from his father after a short period of time — without actually winning an election? No self-respecting nation would ever legally sanction that sort of crap without five Supreme Court justices available to rubber-stamp it. Learn how its done properly Tripoli.

Bombs away then I guess.

?

Wachovia and the Mexican Drug Money
A new Guardian exposé  points an accusing finger at Wachovia Bank, which was recently purchased by Wells Fargo, for its alleged negligence in allowing the Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel to launder billions of dollars through the U.S. banking system. —JCL The Guardian: On 10 April 2006, a DC-9 jet landed in the port city of Ciudad del Carmen, on the Gulf of Mexico, as the sun was setting. Mexican soldiers, waiting to intercept it, found 128 cases packed with 5.7 tons of cocaine, valued at $100m. But something else – more important and far-reaching – was discovered in the paper trail behind the purchase of the plane by the Sinaloa narco-trafficking cartel. During a 22-month investigation by agents from the US Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and others, it emerged that the cocaine smugglers had bought the plane with money they had laundered through one of the biggest banks in the United States: Wachovia, now part of the giant Wells Fargo. The authorities uncovered billions of dollars in wire transfers, traveller’s cheques and cash shipments through Mexican exchanges into Wachovia accounts. Wachovia was put under immediate investigation for failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering programme. Of special significance was that the period concerned began in 2004, which coincided with the first escalation of violence along the US-Mexico border that ignited the current drugs war. Read more

A new Guardian exposé? points an accusing finger at Wachovia Bank, which was recently purchased by Wells Fargo, for its alleged negligence in allowing the Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel to launder billions of dollars through the U.S. banking system. —JCL

The Guardian:

On 10 April 2006, a DC-9 jet landed in the port city of Ciudad del Carmen, on the Gulf of Mexico, as the sun was setting. Mexican soldiers, waiting to intercept it, found 128 cases packed with 5.7 tons of cocaine, valued at $100m. But something else – more important and far-reaching – was discovered in the paper trail behind the purchase of the plane by the Sinaloa narco-trafficking cartel.

During a 22-month investigation by agents from the US Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and others, it emerged that the cocaine smugglers had bought the plane with money they had laundered through one of the biggest banks in the United States: Wachovia, now part of the giant Wells Fargo.

The authorities uncovered billions of dollars in wire transfers, traveller’s cheques and cash shipments through Mexican exchanges into Wachovia accounts. Wachovia was put under immediate investigation for failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering programme. Of special significance was that the period concerned began in 2004, which coincided with the first escalation of violence along the US-Mexico border that ignited the current drugs war.

Read more

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While any sober solution to the country’s deficit problem should include both revenue enhancement and spending cuts, conservatives have been completely unwilling to even consider tax increases, proposing steep cuts that will do little to solve the deficit, while doing much to hurt the middle class and the most vulnerable. Toeing that conservative line on Fox News Sunday today, Fox personality Brit Hume argued that cutting taxes will actually lead to increased tax revenue. Fox analyst Juan Williams responded by noting this is often not the case, citing the fact that G.E. — the nation’s largest company — paid nothing in taxes last year. Williams’ response flummoxed Hume, who appeared dumbfounded and at a loss for words. Host Chris Wallace had to jump in to smooth things over with a joke:

WILLIAMS: You’re going on as if, you know what, we don’t know how in America how to help our own deficit problem. We do! We just have to tax people.

HUME: Juan, Juan. What we need is not higher tax rates. What we need is higher revenue. And how do you get higher revenues? You get higher revenues from an expanding economy. That’s where the big money comes from.

WILLIAMS: Yeah, and G.E. paying no taxes? That’s good for America? Come on, you know that’s not right.

[Pause]

WALLACE: I just want to say, I pay all my taxes!

Watch it:

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Watch it:

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