Culture of corruption: Holder, terrorists, Covington & Burling
Update: 11/19 9am…Holder hedges on GOP request for disclosure/recusal information…
Attorney General Eric Holder, Team Obama’s Dirty Dozen (get your trading cards here)
If you’ve been paying attention, you already know all about AG Eric Holder and his DOJ staff’s national security conflict of interest as senior partner with Covington & Burling — the prestigious Washington, D.C. law firm, which represents 17 Yemenis currently held at Gitmo.
I first mentioned it here in January and spotlighted the problem in chapter 4 of Culture of Corruption.
In fact, Holder and Covington & Burling have a lucrative niche in terrorist representation.
I’m reprinting the relevant section from Culture of Corruption so you have it at your fingertips. All of this was known before Holder was confirmed as AG, which, as I’ve pointed out before, makes it all the more inexplicable that 19 Republican senators — Alexander (R-TN); Bennett (R-UT); Bond (R-MO); Chambliss (R-Ga); Collins (R-ME); Corker (R-TN); Graham (R-SC); Grassley (R-IA); Gregg (R-NH); Hatch (R-UT); Isakson (R-GA;) Kyl (R-AZ); Lugar (R-IN) McCain (R-AZ); Murkowski (R-AK); Sessions (R-AL); Snowe (R-ME); Specter (R-PA); and Voinovich (R-OH) — cast their votes for him. Now, they are reaping what they helped sow.
Excerpted from Chapter 4: Meet the Mess – Inside the Crooked Cabinet, Culture of Corruption, by Michelle Malkin (see book for footnotes)
“Don’t go into corporate America,” First Lady Michelle Obama admonished supporters on the campaign trail. Remember? She extolled the rewards of public service over the material perks of life at a high-powered law firm. She certainly didn’t take her own advice—and neither did her husband’s own attorney general. If he hadn’t pulled out all the stops campaigning for the president, raising money at lavish celebrity events, and offering his strategic and legal advice—and if Eric Holder had an “R” by his name instead of a “D”—he might have served as the perfect poster boy for Mrs. O’s caustic campaign against white-shoe corporate law.
After a quarter-century as a government lawyer, Holder joined the prestigious Covington & Burling business and corporate law firm. He represented a gallery of the Left’s fattest targets in Big Pharma and Big Business, defending them in fraud and discrimination cases that drove progressives mad. Holder has served both his corporate and government masters well—and he has the bank account and stock portfolio to prove it. His salary jumped from under $200,000 as deputy U.S. Attorney General for the Clinton administration to more than $2 million a year as a Covington & Burling senior partner. During 2008, Holder spent countless hours away from his corporate office working for the Obama campaign—raising money, fielding calls, making speeches. “I hope the management committee is going to be real understanding when they see my billable hours this year,” Holder joked to The American Lawyer. It’s an investment, of course, and the law firm will get its political dividends later.
Holder returns to a more modest $186,000 salary as Obama’s attorney general. But parting has its perks, too. The Washington revolving door pays.
Covington & Burling will make a separation payment valued at between $1 million and $5 million, plus a repayment of up to $1 million from the firm’s capital account, plus a retirement plan of up to $500,000. His net worth: $5.7 million. Reflecting on his past eight years raking in the dough and watching him schmooze friends and clients from his “elegant new Manhattan offices,” an American Lawyer profile observed: “Life is good for private citizen Eric Holder, Jr.” President Obama and the missus, such outspoken detractors of climbing the corporate ladder and influence-peddling, were unavailable for comment.
One wonders what the Obamas would say about Holder’s lucrative work for Chiquita Brands International if it had been performed by, say, John McCain’s top lawyer? As chief counsel for the global company, Holder won a “slap-on-the-wrist plea deal to charges that it had paid off” Colombian paramilitary death squads. Liberal critics of Holder point out that he used his influence as a former Clinton Justice Department official to negotiate a sweetheart deal for Chiquita. The company pleaded guilty to illegally doing business with the “Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia” or AUC (designated as an international terrorist organization by the State Department in 2001). Chiquita admitted negotiating with and forking over $1.7 million in protection racket money to the guerillas beginning in 1997. AUC terrorists slaughtered thousands of civilians to gain control of Colombia’s banana fields. The company ignored the advice of outside counsel (not Holder or anyone else at Covington & Burling) to stop the illegal payments in 2003:
• “Must stop payments.”
• “Bottom Line: CANNOT MAKE THE PAYMENT”
• “Advised NOT TO MAKE ALTERNATIVE PAYMENT through CONVIVIR”
• “General Rule: Cannot do indirectly what you cannot do directly”
• Concluded with: “CANNOT MAKE THE PAYMENT”
• “You voluntarily put yourself in this position. Duress defense can wear out through repetition. Buz [business] decision to stay in harm’s way. Chiquita should leave Colombia.”
• “[T]he company should not continue to make the Santa Marta payments, given the AUC’s designation as a foreign terrorist organization[.]”
• “[T]he company should not make the payment.”
Even after disclosing the payments to the Justice Department in the spring of 2003, Chiquita continued funneling money to the terrorists. According to the Justice Department: “From April 24, 2003 (the date of Chiquita’s initial disclosure to the Justice Department) through February 4, 2004, Chiquita made 20 payments to the AUC totaling over $300,000.” And yet, despite knowingly and repeatedly breaking the law, not a single Chiquita official was prosecuted or jailed. The $25 million criminal fine was written off as the cost of doing business. And, stunningly, the plea agreement forged by Holder and the DOJ succeeded in protecting the identities of the executives involved in the bloody terrorist payoffs.
Putting on the best terrorist defense is a Covington & Burling specialty. Among the firm’s other celebrity terrorist clients: 17 Yemenis held at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. The law firm employed dozens of radical attorneys such as David Remes and Marc Falkoff to provide the enemy combatants with more than 3,000 hours of pro bono representation. Covington & Burling co-authored one of three petitioners’ briefs filed in the Boumediene v. Bush detainee case, and secured victories for several other Gitmo enemy combatants in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Falkoff went on to publish a book of poetry, Poems from Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak, which he dedicated to the suspected terrorists: “For my friends inside the wire, Mahmoad, Majid, Yasein, Saeed, Abdulsalam, Mohammed, Adnan, Jamal, Othman, Adil, Mohamed, Abdulmalik, Areef, Adeq, Farouk, Salman, and Makhtar. Inshallah, we will next meet over coffee in your homes in Yemen.”
How sweet. One of the class of Yemeni Gitmo detainees that Falkoff described as “gentle, thoughtful young men” was released in 2005—only to blow himself up (gently and thoughtfully, of course) in a truck bombing in Mosul, Iraq, in 2008, killing 13 soldiers from the 2nd Iraqi Army division and seriously wounding 42 others.
The Senate shrugged at the glaring conflict of interest Attorney General Holder presents in handling Gitmo legal issues. Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Cucullu, author of Inside Gitmo: The True Story Behind the Myths of Guantanamo Bay, makes the ethical problem plain:
As a senior partner, he undoubtedly had significant input on what kind of charity cases his firm picked up. He surely knew that dozens of lawyers from his firm were among the 500-plus civilian lawyers representing the 244 or so remaining detainees (on top of military-court-appointed defenders). Even now, his Covington colleagues continue to allege rampant torture at Gitmo. They’re fighting hard to have detainees tried through the US court system—essentially given the same rights as US citizens. And their arguments and plans hinge largely on having Holder issue a bad report card.
Recent polls indicate that at least half of Americans disagree with affording the detainees legal rights on US soil. Will they have the same access to Holder’s ears as his former colleagues do?
The White House says that Holder will formally recuse himself from charging decisions and prosecutions affecting any of Covington & Burling’s clients, but he will have unfettered oversight over Obama’s order to close the facility within a year. Moreover, there’s a gaping loophole in the Obama administration ethics rules that will allow Holder to participate in decision-making despite his conflicts of interests if he can show that his participation in a matter outweighs an appearance or actual conflict of interest. If you think Holder’s professional connections won’t have any influence on the outcome of these decisions, I have a Colombian banana farm to sell you.
Among the other eyebrow-raising cases Holder took on at Covington & Burling:
*Signing up to assist then Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich in a casino license battle in 2004. The state’s gaming board had approved the construction of a disputed casino, overruling the recommendation of the board’s staff. Rank-and-file investigators had qualms over the casino developer’s alleged mob ties and over Blago’s appointment of a crony fund-raiser to oversee the state’s deal-making with the casino. The fund-raiser, Christopher Kelly, turned out to be a business partner of convicted Obama/Blago confidante and real estate mogul Tony Rezko. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Rezko “held an option to lease a hotel site next to the proposed casino site.” Holder held a public press conference with Blago to announce his role as a special “independent” investigator into the matter. The dog-and-pony show produced no report, but Holder and his law firm had contracted to conduct the probe for a tidy $300,000. Somehow, the foul-smelling case slipped Holder’s mind; he failed to mention it in his Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire.
*Forging a massive settlement for Purdue Pharma, manufacturer of the addictive painkiller OxyContin, with the state of West Virginia in 2004. The state accused the drugmaker of deceptively marking OxyContin as safe and effective for minor pain. The firm’s marketing practices, the state maintained, led to West Virginia users becoming addicted to the drug. State attorney general Darrell McGraw Jr., a Democrat, filed suit. In an article entitled, “Why Eric Holder Represents What’s Wrong with Washington,” liberal columnist David Corn described Holder’s pivotal role in negotiating a settlement that spared executives a criminal trial:
This suit was a serious threat to the drugmaker, and it eventually called in Holder. And in November 2004, the morning that the case was about to go to trial, Holder helped negotiate a settlement. Working in the judge’s chambers in West Virginia, he forged an agreement under which the firm would have to pay $10 million over four years into drug abuse and education programs in West Virginia. Purdue would not have to admit any wrongdoing. (Days earlier, the firm had offered the state about $2 million to settle; McGraw had turned down Purdue and had not bothered to produce a counter-offer.)
The settlement was a big win for the company. Ten million dollars was a piddling amount compared to what Purdue was reaping from OxyContin sales. More important, this settlement helped keep the lid on the firm’s criminal activities. There would be no trial—and no public release of documents or testimony about the company’s actions, which were already being investigated by federal prosecutors. In late 2002, the feds had begun an investigation of Purdue, with the first of what would be nearly 600 subpoenas for corporate records related to the manufacturing, marketing, and distribution of OxyContin.
In May 2007, the company and its three top executives pleaded guilty to federal charges of fraudulently marketing OxyContin by claiming it was less addictive, less subject to abuse, and less likely to cause withdrawal symptoms. Purdue and the three execs agreed to pay fines of $634.5 million.
*Brokering a settlement for pharmaceutical kingpin Merck, which had been besieged by multiple state lawsuits over Medicaid overbilling and doctor kickbacks involving four popular drugs. Merck admitted no wrongdoing, paying $671 million to make whistleblowers, state probes over their pricing, and bribery charges go away.
In his tony Manhattan offices, Holder did what any corporate lawyer worth his multi-million-dollar salary and benefits package would do: Represent his clients to the best of his ability. But in his first tours of duty as a government lawyer, Holder repeatedly put politics above the national interest. During his Senate confirmation hearing, Holder’s infamous roles in issuing pardons to Clinton crony Marc Rich and clemency to convicted bank robbers and bombers of the Puerto Rican terrorist group, FALN (Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional), received the most heat. In both cases, the government servant played a far more active role in intervening than he ever cared to admit.
The Los Angeles Times added new information to the terrorist clemency case by disclosing before the hearing that Holder had “repeatedly pushed some of his subordinates at the Clinton Justice Department to drop their opposition to” the FALN commutations. Holder, the paper determined from whistleblower interviews and documents, “played an active role in changing the position of the Justice Department” to facilitate President Clinton’s commutations for 16 violent terrorists from the group. The FALN had waged a bloody bombing campaign that maimed dozens of New York City police officers and resulted in the deaths or injuries of scores of other victims. Holder forged ahead with his meddling on behalf of the president against the protests of the FBI, NYPD, federal prosecutors, and victims.
The nation’s top law enforcer did not pay the bombing victims or their families the courtesy of notifying them of the decision to release the unrepentant terrorists until after the clemencies were publicized in the media.
As for the Marc Rich case, former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy accurately described it as “one of the most disgraceful chapters in the history of the Justice Department.” Congressional investigators called it “unconscionable.” Fugitive commodities trader Marc Rich, on the run for evading nearly $50 million in taxes, found the best lawyer he could buy: former Democratic White House counsel and intimate friend of Eric Holder, Jack Quinn. Despite his denials, memos showed Holder knew of the pardon in advance, failed to notify prosecutors and the FBI that it was coming, “and even gave Quinn public-relations advice on getting out the ‘legal merits of the case.’” The evidence clearly shows Holder and Quinn violated department protocols and colluded to keep the Justice Department out of the pardon deal.
Appearing contrite at his Senate confirmation hearing, Holder confessed:
I’ve accepted the responsibility of making those mistakes. I’ve never tried to hide. I’ve never tried to blame anybody else.
What I’ve always said was that, given my—given the opportunity to do it differently, I certainly would have.
I should have made sure that everybody, all the prosecutors in that case, were informed of what was going on. I made assumptions that turned out not to be true. I should have not spoken to the White House and expressed an opinion without knowing all of the facts with regard to that matter.
That was and remains the most intense, most searing experience I’ve ever had as a lawyer. There were questions raised about me that I was not used to hearing.
I’ve learned from that experience. I think that, as perverse as this might sound, I will be a better attorney general, should I be confirmed, having had the Mark Rich experience.
…It was something that I think is not typical of the way in which I’ve conducted myself as a careful, thoughtful lawyer. As I said, it is something where I made mistakes, and I learned from those mistakes.
Washington, alas, was determined to repeat the mistakes of the past. The Senate, including 19 Republicans, confirmed Holder on February 2, 2009.
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Categories: Eric Holder,Gitmo
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The Senate is now grilling Holder for his version of the “Scopes Monkey Trial” by saying “Well it all looks good so far, at least in our eyes.”
The U.S. of A. is dying a little bit faster every day.
what, a crooked lawyer? have you ever noticed the only people in the court room who don’t get sworn to tell the truth are the lawyers who do most of the talking. remember, before nearly every politician went into politics, they were lawyers. and we wonder why you can’t believe them.
***
Comrade Obama (PBUH) and Holder want to try CIA agents in ex-post-facto Stalinist type show trials for waterboarding terrorists and protecting our country.
***
Holder defends and helps pardon terrorists who attacked our country. The FALN murdered and maimed people in the U.S.A.
***
What part of COMMUNIST don’t you understand? Destroy our intelligence agencies and enable / support our country’s enemies.
***
John Bibb
***
There isn’t a shovel big enough.
I wrote about this here yesterday:
http://danleereport.net/2009/11/17/is-us-attorney-general-eric-holder-scratching-backs-at-our-expense/
He should be prosecuting himself for anti-trust violations in my opinion..
Really sad that even Fox News is ignoring this important fact. This has to be repeated again & again with alerts.
Conflicts of interest laws and ethical standards only apply to Republicans and the low level government employees. Dems are exempt.
It says his law firm provided a number of pro bono lawyers to represent the GITMO detainees. They may be pro bono for the detainees but they aren’t for Uncle Sam. The trials in NYC are going to funnel loads of taxpayer dollars into their coffers representing these terrorists for “free”.
Ashcroft & Gonsalez recused themselves when Conflicts arose. Holder should do the same.
That is a clever post, “cheapseat”!
Another thing about lawyers and Congress, they have a tendency to create thousand plus page “bills” that no one reads, yet gets passed nonetheless, and they think we are “too stupid” to understand … and they are right.
I was wondering is anyone knew of the book by Mahvish Kahn called My Guantanamo Diary, in which the author tells the heartwarming tales of the lives of the innocent gitmo detainees that she was a translator for.
How many of these innocent cab-drivers and simple goat-herds returned to the Taliban to kill US soldiers? I’ve not been able to find this out.
“As Deputy Attorney General, Holder advised Reno about how far to go in the Justice Department’s use of the Independent Counsel statute. Reno made the fateful decision to permit Kenneth Starr to expand his investigation into the Lewinsky affair, indirectly leading to Clinton’s impeachment.”
Oops…
This guys career is littered with bad calls. A perfect fit for this incompetent aministration.
IMO something has happened to Fox News, they are slowly moving to the dark side with the rest of the media. Too many things about the administration and Obama himself are now off-limits even for Fox to discuss.
His firm represents GITMO terrorists, is fighting to have them granted the rights of American citizens, persecutes CIA agents, and there is any wonder why KSM is being tried in a civilian court? Eric Holder is KSM’s defense lawyer!
Eric Holder? That man needs to be impeached!!
Eric Holder on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed today:
Eric Holder on his country last Feb:
Holder said.”.
The fact that Holder can’t come up with anything more emotive than “coward” to describe KSM (which he also labeled this nation with) tells me all I need to know. He doesn’t care.
I believe that this isn’t just conferring Constitutional and civil rights onto foreign enemies, it’s about lowering US Civil and Constitutional rights into the muck where citizens can be treated like enemy combatants.
Phase 3 of implementing the Marxist Revolution is destroying the system (police, courts system, Constitution) which the capitalists would use to repel the Marxists.
Here is a thought (ok call it a conspiracy theory). Has anyone seen how much Holder former law firm paid to the Obama campaign in contributions? Just wondering if the move of KSM and the other 4 to civilian courts, where the conviction rate is much lower than military courts (I think the military is in the 90% range for convicitons), is a way to give politcal payback to these firms. Just imagine what kind of clout and prestige a lwa firm would have in the world domain if they could claim they were able to free the detainees that the evil Bush administration wrongfully held and tortured at GITMO.
Just wait until he gets started on the Assault Weapons Ban again.. He’s not incompetent.. Unfortunately he knows exactly what he’s doing, & is being a good little soldier for Obama.
On November 18th, 2009 at 3:06 pm, BOB said:
I agree with you about Fox. The change began two or three years ago, and has been steadily progressing. It’s not so much what they say as it is what they don’t say.
I honestly believe Holder and Obama want Khalid Sheik Mohammed to walk. Mohammed was not Mirandized and he was waterboarded. His defense lawyers will do their best to fill the jury with muslims and sympathetic African Americans. KSM walks out free. Lets put Obama on the same flight out.
I saw it reported on MSNBC, that Obama says that Americans may not be happy with the decision to try these terroists in NYC, but we’ll be happy when they are found guilty and then executed. Yes, it was actually reported he actually said this. IS HE STUPID?
Sounds like a win/win for Covington & Burling. They are able to unload a high-priced senior partner with questionable decision making skills, then they’re able to roll him at the Justice Department for their own benefit.
“No, no, Eric, don’t worry about it. Go work for Obama. We insist.”
On November 18th, 2009 at 3:06 pm, BOB said:
They are scared. Mortally so.
I think this overly cynical. The legal beagles here can confirm that when a lawyer is admitted to the bar he is sworn in and becomes an “officer of the court”, which automatically makes him subject to a whole bunch of legal and ethical rules.
Recall how Bill Clinton’s lawyer Bob Bennett felt a need to go to the judge in the Jones case, to alert her that he believed some of Clinton’s testimony was not accurate. Reason: Bennett could be disbarred if he knowingly let perjured testimony be placed before the court.
So lawyers can’t just lie their way through proceedings, though they clearly have the ability and the obligation to stretch the truth to benefit their clients.
The DOJ needs to come up with a new moniker for itself. I have an idea for them. Here goes:
Coddling Terrorists. So The World Doesn’t Have To.
I feel like such a freeloader. Being somewhat of a procrastinator, counting this post, I now have a collection of eight book excerpts waiting to be read.
Errah, poster boy for stuck on stupid
Michelle Obama hardly worked for Legal Aid either. Michelle Obama worked for Sidley and Austin, a superlobby-law firm which represents big pharma in products liability and regulatory matters and it did so also when Michelle Obama worked there. Barack Obama worked there also where one of his clients was, conveniently, a chap named Tony Rezko, who now sits in the federal pen.
That 19 “Republicans” voted to confirm this partisan corrupt-ocrat is not inexplicable. They are part of the problem and they need to be replaced by conservatives.
The only one listed that even mildly surprised me is Sessions. The others are dyed-in-the-wool RINOs and simply need to go.
Just 19 more confirmations of why I am NOT a Republican any longer.
Media Matters Goes For The TWOFER
Imus And Levin Exposed Criticizing Obama…
Chuckling, all he needs is a microphone.
http://imustimes.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/imus-relevant-once-again/
I was watching this morning this is a good interview of Levin.
It is not true that lawyers who lie in Court go unpunished. I can’t go into detail about the cases I’ve worked on involving these types of allegations. What I can say is that there have been a number of lawyers who lied or misled the Court and were disbarred. Others were jailed for falsifying of evidence, tampering evidence and other crimes.
Lets just say that they take KSM and friends to trial in NYC. Has any of them thought about how they are going to fill a jury pool for a trial that may last a year or more. Who would they get that will be willing to be on a jury that would likely be sequestered for that period of time. As if thats not bad enough how long would it be before the juors and their families are threatened or attacked by KSM’s friends still at large. I dont believe for a second that the government would be able to keep the jurors names from getting out or protect them if it did. These terrorist should be tried by a military tribunal at Gitmo and then fed to the sharks and not be given show trials that put jurors and others at risk for more terror.
I watched today… Holder looked like an amateur! He was TEABAGGED.. I hope he enjoys the flavor of scrotum!
NOBAMA!
If you remember, he went to them in prison and suggested they apply for a pardon…what bastard! But he is a another un-American Marxist in Odopo’s administration.
IMHO I don’t think Odopo is all that smart, I will grant you the fact he is one well trained, polished community activist, but he is no political genius. Let’s see his school records, what is he hiding?
Sorry a$$ Soros is the general here.
Session surprised me, I had hopes he was a strong, self-centered man. Like to know the reason he approved of this dolt A.G.
And the dems fight like hell every Republican nomination, Bork ring a bell? The Repubs are either sell outs or whimps.
Thanks for reprinting this list Michelle.
Any constituents of these nitwits want to send a letter to them asking if they regret their vote?
NY terror trials “create or save” jobs for lawyers.
I don’t think it has anything to do with convictions, but as you pointed out, with political and HUGE monetary payback.
Imagine how many years just KSM’s trial will take? These leeches will contest every little item, and if they win, they move on to the next item. If they lose, they make money on appeals.
I wonder how many overseas Islamic fundraisers will be funneling money into a defense fund.
KSM will die of old age while still on trial.
Yeah, justice for the victims. PFFFFT!
During the last administration the left constantly droned a corruption mantra at the behest of the media and then those same believers in the faith of ignorance elected an administration that fulfills their karmic influence multiple times over.
My local Wal*Mart has the Ruger Mini-14 for sale for $607.95. Think I’ll add one to my “arsenal.”
ECS
When you adopt the vulgar language of our political enemies you simply trivialize it.
STOP!!!!!
Sadly the House and Senate are primarily made up with Holder types.
Nobody asked Holder the obvious question: Will law firms that gave money to the Obama 08 campaign be allowed to work as defense counsel for KSM with the government picking up the tab?
Nobody asked Holder: Will the US government pay for KSM’s expenses such as jury consultants, expert witnesses, investogators, forensic experts. psychiatrists, statisticians to do jury profiles, etc?
KSM will get experts and jury consultants that a punk who said “stickemup” at the local 7-11 would never get.
Nobody asked Holder if KSM: How many hours each day will KSM be allowed to spend with his lawyers, investigators, witnesses, etc? It is quite obvious that KSM will have more hours with his guests than any regular inmate.
And even the NYTimes admitted that by moving the trial to New York City, there was a lesser chance than anywhere in the US that KSM will receive the death penalty. The NY Times thought that is a good thing. But nobody confronted Holder about it.
Ms. Malkin,
Can we bring back the terrorist deck of cards and put pictures of the Obama Administration on them? I think it would be fitting. Heck, even add a few MSM players to the deck (may have to use 2 decks).
Just click the link at the top of the article (or here). They are not the playing cards like the terrorist deck, but they do the job and tell the story.
His were not mistakes. Lawyers in his position do not make mistakes. These were highly deliberate decisions, as are his apology and current deflections. Mr. Holder and the Obama Administration are as cold and calculating as an anaconda contemplating its next victim.
Hence the history of dirty rotten lawyer jokes. Not funny anymore.
sorry to change the subject, not sure where else to put this. was reading the senate version of healthcare, and saw this:
472
O:\ERN\ERN09C11.xml [file 2 of 9] S.L.C.
1 ‘‘(B) provide consumer controlled home
2 and community-based attendant services and
3 supports to individuals on a statewide basis, in
4 a manner that provides such services and sup5
ports in the most integrated setting appropriate
6 to the individual’s needs, and without regard to
7 the individual’s age, type or nature of disability,
8 severity of disability, or the form of home and
9 community-based attendant services and sup10
ports that the individual requires in order to
11 lead an independent life;
12 ‘‘(C) with respect to expenditures during
13 the first full fiscal year in which the State plan
14 amendment is implemented, maintain or exceed
15 the level of State expenditures for medical as16
sistance that is provided under section 1905(a),
17 section 1915, section 1115, or otherwise to indi18
viduals with disabilities or elderly individuals
19 attributable to the preceding fiscal year;
20 ‘‘(D) establish and maintain a comprehen21
sive, continuous quality assurance system with
22 respect to community- based attendant services
23 and supports that—
24 ‘‘(i) includes standards for agency25
based and other delivery models with re473
O:\ERN\ERN09C11.xml [file 2 of 9] S.L.C.
1 spect to training, appeals for denials and
2 reconsideration procedures of an individual
3 plan, and other factors as determined by
4 the Secretary;
5 ‘‘(ii) incorporates feedback from con6
sumers and their representatives, disability
7 organizations, providers, families of dis8
abled or elderly individuals, members of
9 the community, and others and maximizes
10 consumer independence and consumer con11
trol;
12 ‘‘(iii) monitors the health and well13
being of each individual who receives home
14 and community-based attendant services
15 and supports, including a process for the
16 mandatory reporting, investigation, and
17 resolution of allegations of neglect, abuse,
18 or exploitation in connection with the pro19
vision of such services and supports; and
20 ‘‘(iv) provides information about the
21 provisions of the quality assurance re22
quired under clauses (i) through (iii) to
23 each individual receiving such services; and
24 ‘‘(E) collect and report information, as de25
termined necessary by the Secretary, for the
474
O:\ERN\ERN09C11.xml [file 2 of 9] S.L.C.
1 purposes of approving the State plan amend2
ment, providing Federal oversight, and con3
ducting an evaluation under paragraph (5)(A),
4 including data regarding how the State provides
5 home and community-based attendant services
6 and supports and other home and community7
based services, the cost of such services and
8 supports, and how the State provides individ9
uals with disabilities who otherwise qualify for
10 institutional care under the State plan or under
11 a waiver the choice to instead receive home and
12 community-based services in lieu of institutional
13 care.
14 ‘‘(4) COMPLIANCE WITH CERTAIN LAWS.—A
15 State shall ensure that, regardless of whether the
16 State uses an agency-provider model or other models
17 to provide home and community-based attendant
18 services and supports under a State plan amend19
ment under this subsection, such services and sup20
ports are provided in accordance with the require21
ments of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and
22 applicable Federal and State laws regarding—
23 ‘‘(A) withholding and payment of Federal
24 and State income and payroll taxes;
475
O:\ERN\ERN09C11.xml [file 2 of 9] S.L.C.
1 ‘‘(B) the provision of unemployment and
2 workers compensation insurance;
3 ‘‘(C) maintenance of general liability insur4
ance; and
5 ‘‘(D) occupational health and safety.
they are going to force the same issue Michelle wrote about previously, forcing home health workers into unions in order to “regulate and train” them.
The FLSA applies to “any individual employed by an employer” (the state/federal govt in this case)but not to independent contractors or volunteers because they are not considered “employees” under the FLSA.[8
the FLSA will govern these home care workers nationwide.
Certainly not racism!
The floor of a NYC taxi cab is nt as dirty as Eric Holder.
I emailed my Republican Senator who had voted to confirm this dirt bag and reminded him of two things; I had not forgotten and he is up for re-election in 2010.
Where is my cut?
Nice reporting, MM. I won’t hold my breath waiting for Keith OlberEichmann and company to mention this.
What hasn’t been said about this administration already? I’m tired of talking, it’s time for action. I can’t wait until 2010, and then 2012.
When we kick these fools to the curb, that’ll be the change WE can believe in!
Obama, Holder and the rest of this cabal of self-serving socialists are sickening. I wasn’t aware of Holder’s connection to that firm, or that firm’s representation of GTMO detainees.
Our government has become a joke. Unfortunately the joke is on us.
And this from Obama’s trip.
they’re “discussing” new penalties. Iran’s gov’t must be laughing their @$$es off over this. What “penalties” could Obama possible come up with that will mean anything……anything at all…. to Iran?
The only thing Iran cares about is not getting blown back to the stone age. If you want them to do something…. put the proverbial gun to A’jad’s head. Anything else is a waste of time.
There aren’t any.
Sometimes, I’m not sure about even that – at least as far as the dangerous loons in power are concerned.
Correct.
“For a moment, he became judge, jury and executioner. President Obama yesterday blurted out a predicted conviction and death sentence for 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed — then sheepishly qualified the prejudgment.”
Mr Dithers has already soiled the court process by saying this and influencing any potential jurist in ear shot of his blathering. The defence is going to take this and run with it. Another point – Steadman cannot rule on how thses animals will be tried, the President makes that call – now how can the Genious of the ages who supposedly knows constitutional law side step this?
There is always the possibility that this was an intentional move, to poison the jury pool, and to ensure a circus atmosphere, that the minion B. Hussein Obama was ordered to make by his handlers/string-pullers.
Ya think? What else could it be? He’s a lawyer and a President, he’s smart enough..oh wait…
If there’s a bigger idiot than Washington, DC than Barack Obama, it’s Eric Holder. Linsey Graham’s total smack-down of this tinny-headed twerp in THIS VIDEO clearly displays how far he is in over his head as an attorney ANYTHING.
I think that’s the first time I’ve ever been pleased with Lindsey Graham!
Oh yes it is. The problem is that more of them go unpunished than the one that do get caught.
I worked in the Court system for 12 years and it is nothing but a den of thieves. Lawyers have a license to steal.
Most people have no idea what goes on behind the scenes and would be appalled it they did.
The Courts in this country have become so corrupt that I fear it is too late to ever reform the system.
The evidence that this is so is MM’s expose on Erik Holder. He has committed more crimes than Al Capone yet he is the Attorney General for the USA.
I realize that ExSpecter-ate was a Republican at the time of his vote, but labeling any of his votes in recent years as inexplicable doesn’t make sense to me.
I imagine the jurisprudence of the KSM trial to be in the hands of fellows much like these:
Apropos of nothing cut to oak-panelled robing chamber in the Old Bailey. Two Judges in full wigs and red robes enter.
First Judge (very camp) Oh, I’ve had such a morning in the High Court. I could stamp my little feet the way those QC’s carry on.
Second Judge (just as camp) Don’t I know it, love.
First Judge Objection here, objection there! And that nice policeman giving his evidence so well – beautiful speaking voice … well after a bit all I could do was bang my little gavel.
Second Judge You what, love?
First Judge I banged me gavel. I did me ‘silence in court’ bit. Ooh! If looks could kill that prosecuting counsel would be in for thirty years. How did your summing up go?
Second Judge Well, I was quite pleased actually. I was trying to do my butch voice, you know, ‘what the jury must understand’, and they loved it, you know. I could see that foreman eyeing me.
First Judge Really?
Second Judge Yes, cheeky devil.
First Judge Was he that tall man with that very big… ?
Second Judge No, just a minute – I must finish you know. Anyway, I finished up with ‘the actions of these vicious men is a violent stain on the community and the full penalty of the law is scarcely sufficient to deal with their ghastly crimes’, and I waggled my wig! Just ever so slightly, but it was a stunning effect.
First Judge Oh, I bet it was… like that super time I wore that striped robe in the Magistrates Court.
Second Judge Oh, aye.
Fade out.
Cut back to judges’ robing room.
First Judge Well, I was ever so glad they abolished hanging, you know, because that black cap just didn’t suit me.
Second Judge Yes. Do you remember the Glasgow treason trial?
First Judge Oh yes, I wore a body stocking all through it.
Second Judge No, hen, with the party afterwards.
First Judge Oh, that’s right. You were walking out with that very butch Clerk of the Court.
Second Judge That’s right. Ooh, he made me want to turn Queen’s evidence.
Superimposed credits. Theme tune heard quietly as judges continue.
First Judge Oh, me too. One summing up and I’m anybody’s.
Second Judge Anyway, Bailie Anderson.
First Judge Ooh, her?
Second Judge Yes. She’s so strict. She was on at me for giving dolly sentences, you know, specially in that arson case.
First Judge What was the verdict?
Second Judge They preferred the brown wig.
First Judge Mm. I love the Scottish Assizes. I know what they mean by a really well-hung jury.
Second Judge Ooh! Get back in the witness box, you’re too sharp to live!
First Judge I’ll smack your little botty!
Second Judge Ooh! and again.
First Judge Have you tried that new body rub JP’s use?
Second Judge I had a magistrate in Bradford yesterday.
First Judge Funnily enough I felt like one in a lunchtime recess today. (credits end) But the ones I really like are those voice over announcers on the BBC after the programs are over.
Second Judge Oh, aye, of course, they’re as bent as safety pins.
First Judge I know, but they’ve got beautiful speaking voices, haven’t they? ‘And now a choice of viewing on BBC Television.’
Second Judge ‘Here are tonight’s football results.’
First and Second Judges Mmm.
Fade out.
So, there is an arrogant, self centered, egotistical individual, Eric Holder, who is not qualified to serve in the interests of the citizens of the United States of America, serving as Attorney General of the United States of America, under the person, Barrack Hussein Obama (Peace be Unto Him. Praise His Holy Name. Prostrate yourself before Him in adoration, obedience, love, devotion, and surrender. Accept Him as your Lord and Savior, and he will save you. Give Him your cares and burdens and He will give you shelter and give you peace) who is unqualified, inexperienced, underwhelming, over rated, and a rank amateur, serving as the President of the United States of America.
Oh, boy …
I notice that Jim Bunning is not listed as voting for Holder!
Jim Bunning, Republican of Kentucky. One of the greatest Major League baseball pitchers of all time, and one of the best, one of the most legitimately conservative congressmen of our time.
With a tip of the hat to Jim Bunning!
Thank you, Jim Bunning, for excellent service.
quick comment.. the fact that holder had a huge increase in salary moving from the public sector to the private sector is a non issue…. why does Michelle dedicate over half of her post on this??
We should be placing the focus exclusively on the whole Chiquita/AUC scandal…. this is what requires immediate attention and should be investigated in full. If it is found that Holder supported this litigation in any manner he should be immediately removed from office.