The libertarian attack on America has begun: Wisconsin Assembly votes against collective bargaining rights for public workers in sneak vote

By Patrick

Those who would destroy or further limit the rights of organized labor -- those who would cripple collective bargaining or prevent organization of the unorganized -- do a disservice to the cause of democracy.

Our labor unions are not narrow, self-seeking groups. They have raised wages, shortened hours and provided supplemental benefits. Through collective bargaining and grievance procedures, they have brought justice and democracy to the shop floor. But their work goes beyond their own jobs, and even beyond our borders.

Our unions have fought for aid to education, for better housing, for development of our national resources, and for saving the family-sized farms. They have spoken, not for narrow self-interest, but for the public interest and for the people.

-- John F. Kennedy * August 30, 1960

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My German social-democratic heart just raised it's heartbeat: The libertarian attack on America has begun, with the Unions as the first target. Who will win this fight? Well, that's up to the American citizens, but it's already apparent that it will be a tough and long fight. The teabaggers, henchmen of the billionaire Koch Brothers, apparently feel that they have the upper hand right now.

To get into "fighting spirit", please take a look at this excellent speech by Joe Biden from 2007, when he addressed the union IAFF:

Prophetic words!

What happened in Wisconsin today? The progressive blog "blue cheddar" reports:

From the New York Times: “…Debate had gone on for 60 hours and 15 Democrats were still waiting to speak when the vote started around 1 a.m. Friday. Speaker Pro Tem Bill Kramer, R-Waukesha, opened the roll and closed it within seconds.

Democrats looked around, bewildered. Only 13 of the 38 Democratic members managed to vote in time.

Republicans immediately marched out of the chamber in single file. The Democrats rushed at them, pumping their fists and shouting “Shame!” and “Cowards!”

The Republicans walked past them without responding.

Democrats left the chamber stunned. The protesters greeted them with a thundering chant of “Thank you!” Some Democrats teared up. Others hugged.

“What a terrible, terrible day for Wisconsin,” said Rep. Jon Richards, D-Milwaukee. “I am incensed. I am shocked.”…”

Two videos were posted which show the events. First, the moment of the roll-call:

Then, the emotional moments afterwards, with the Democrats shouting "shame":

Huffington Post has an excellent page with regular updates of the events.

From Huffington Post:

After more than 60 hours in which Democrats threw out dozens of amendments and delivered rambling speeches, Republicans halted debate early Friday. In a matter of seconds, they had approved the bill. Only a few Democrats realized what was going on and managed to vote before the roll was closed.

The Democrats rose from their seats and rushed at the Republicans shouting, "Shame!" as the Republicans exited the chamber.

"I'm incensed. I'm shocked," said Rep. John Richards, D-Milwaukee. "What a terrible, terrible day for Wisconsin."

Republicans refused to speak to reporters, though Majority Leader Scott Suder did issue a written statement.

"The vote we took wasn't the easy thing to do, but it was the right thing to do," Suder, R-Abbotsford, said.

The governor has said that if the bill does not pass by Friday, the state will miss a deadline to refinance $165 million of debt and will be forced to start issuing layoff notices next week. However, the deadline may not as strict as he says.

The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau said earlier this week that the debt refinancing could be pushed back as late as Tuesday to achieve the savings Walker wants. Based on a similar refinancing in 2004, about two weeks are needed after the bill becomes law to complete the deal. That means if the bill is adopted by the middle of next week, the state can still meet a March 16 deadline, the Fiscal Bureau said.

Democratic Sen. Jon Erpenbach said he and his colleagues wouldn't return until Walker compromised.

Frustrated by the delay, Senate Republican Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, Jeff Fitzgerald's brother, ordered state troopers to find the missing Democrats, but they came up empty. Wisconsin law doesn't allow police to arrest the lawmakers, but Fitzgerald said he hoped the show of authority would have pressured them to return.

Erpenbach, who was in the Chicago area, said all 14 senators remained outside of Wisconsin.

"It's not so much the Democrats holding things up," Erpenbach said. "It's really a matter of Gov. Walker holding things up."

If this is supposed to be the new "model", with the "majority" destroying essential worker's rights within days, then there will be very tough fights ahead.

"Think Progress" explains how far the teabaggers are removed from traditional conservative concepts and the "legacy" of Ronald Reagan which is such a popular theme in the speeches of the teabaggers:

As the Main Street Movement of students, workers, and other middle class Americans erupts across America, many conservatives have invoked the legacy of former president Ronald Reagan to demand that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) not back down from his push to end collective bargaining for his state’s public employees. In a prank call with the Buffalo Beast’s Ian Murphy, where Murphy pretended to be right-wing billionare David Koch, Walker himself even fantasized about being just like Reagan.

Yet conservatives may be shocked to learn that their idol Reagan was once a union boss himself. Reagan was the only president in American history to have belonged to a union, the AFL-CIO affiliated Screen Actors Guild. And he even served six terms as president of the organized labor group. Additionally, Reagan was a staunch advocate for the collective bargaining rights of one of the world’s most famous and most influential trade unions, Poland’s Solidarity movement.

In the recent prank-call with Governor Scott Walker, he revealed in which direction things are now supposed be heading:

On the call, Walker said he expected the anti-union movement to spread across the country and he had spoken with the governors of Ohio and Nevada. The man pretending to be Koch seemed to agree, telling Walker, "You're the first domino."

"Yep, this is our moment," Walker responded.

The remarks showed Walker's private relationship with David Koch. He and his brother, Charles, own Koch Industries Inc., which is the largest privately-owned company in America and has significant operations in Wisconsin.

Its political action committee gave $43,000 to Walker's campaign, and David Koch gave $1 million to the Republican Governors' Association, which funded ads attacking Walker's opponent in last year's election.

The Kochs also give millions to support Americans For Prosperity, a conservative business group that launched a $320,000 television ad campaign in favor of Walker's legislation Wednesday.

On the recording, after Walker said he would be willing to meet with Democratic leaders, the caller said he should bring a baseball bat to negotiations.

Walker laughed and responded that he had "a slugger with my name on it."

The caller suggested he was thinking about "planting some troublemakers" among the protesters, and Walker said his administration had thought about doing that, too, but decided against it. Walker said the protests eventually would die because the media would stop covering them.

At the end of the call, the prankster says: "I'll tell you what Scott, once you crush these bastards, I'll fly you out to Cali and really show you a good time."

"All right, that would be outstanding," Walker replies, adding that the standoff is "all about getting our freedoms back."

The public workers in Wisconsin are just about to lose their "freedoms." Governor Walker now fights for the freedom of the Koch Brothers.

Just the facts, Madam: A German chief banking economist gives his assessment about the US economy in 2010 and an outlook for 2011

This post first appeared at Palingates on January 15th, 2011. As the economy is an extremely important topic Politicalgates will soon publish an article about Republican political economics which will discuss some of the issues contained in this post as well as many others.

By Patrick

In my last post I announced that I was going to publish a post about the US economy. Although not directly related to Sarah Palin, it's undoubtedly an important subject. One of the main reasons, if not the primary reason why Sarah Palin seems to have a chance of winning the Republican nomination is the dire economic situation in the USA. People are looking for a "savior", and why not choose Palin, the woman who doesn't really know anything, but also finds some resonance in her claim that she is apparently not connected to the "Washington elite", the people who supposedly are responsible for the huge economic problems, which are presently affecting many, many people in the USA. So why not choose Palin and "clean up the mess?" I fear that there still is a substantial amount of Republicans who are prepared to follow this simplistic and dangerous logic. The fact that the new GOP chairman Reince Priebus "coincidentally" visited Alaska just after Christmas 2010 also doesn't inspire much confidence.

To say that Sarah Palin is "finished" politically seems premature in my opinion. Sure, the "blood libel" speech might have reinforced the view in many independents, moderates and liberals that Sarah Palin has no business in being a serious contender for the US presidency, but what Palin apparently only cares about at the moment is her base. I get the impression that large parts of her base liked the "blood libel" speech a lot. The theme seems to be "Sarah against everybody else". Sarah against the despised "elites."

Without the economic crisis, Sarah Palin wouldn't even be worth talking about. But that's not the situation that the USA faces right now. The USA currently is probably in the deepest economic crisis since the second world war.

Views on the economy are always highly political. Also, economic developments often take a long, long time, usually several years. It's inevitable that political "blame games" are the result. The current government might not be responsible for mistakes which were made years ago, but it has the huge task of correcting those mistakes quickly in order to improve the economic situation. Therefore, it's difficult to find "unbiased" views, as the state of the economy and politics are so closely connected.

A few days ago, I got my hands on a new study which was published by the chief economist of one of the largest German banks, a bank with about 200 billion dollars in their balance sheets. The study was directed at the so-called institutional clients of the bank, at the investors: Primarily other banks and financial companies and institutions which are going to make decision about very large investments in 2011. The study examines the current economic situation in several countries, including European countries, and also including the USA.

This bank has a very good track record of making correct predictions. However, this is of course still just an opinion, and forecasts can be wrong. The study also included some data, which will be difficult to dispute and which sometimes "speaks for itself." All the data which has been compiled for this assessment comes from public sources, we are not talking about "secret" information. I found it very fascinating to read such an assessment which was written from a purely economic point of view, with no political "distortions", because it's very difficult to find such "honest" opinions.

The picture which is being presented about the state of the US economy is not pretty. As ours is a blog for facts, even if they may be uncomfortable, I immediately decided to share it with our readers.

The study is in German language, and a scan of the page can be seen here. There is another additional booklet with more statistical data, and I included all the graphics from this forecast relating to the economic situation in the USA in this post.

Here is the translation of the complete assessment for the current economic situation in the USA - the graphics follow afterwards:

USA: Between unemployment and mountains of debt

The year 2010 was dominated in the USA by a dent in the economic growth, which fostered concerns about an upcoming recession. The beginning of the year saw a promising development within the labor market, but the recovery later began to stutter. However, another economic downturn did not occur. Now, at the end of the year, the danger of a "double-dip" has decreased significantly. The economic indicators and the labor market seems to be stable.

As a whole, however, 2010 was a disappointment - since spring 2010 the US-economy started to grow only within its potential in production. Unemployment currently stagnates at 9 1/2 per cent - a very high level for the USA. This is not only a social and political, but also an economic issue. High unemployment could be the symptom as well as the cause of the rising structural unemployment. Many Americans lost their jobs in sectors (building sector, financial sector) in which there will probably not be a significant rise in jobs in the near future. Wrong or missing qualifications for sectors of high growth prevent a return of individuals to the labor market. In addition, long periods of unemployment devalue existing human capital. The USA will have to fight with these problems for a long time. Even at the end of 2011 the unemployment will probably still be higher than 9 per cent.

The federal state, which acted quickly during the crisis, when the private demand collapsed, will now act as a brake for the economic development. On the one hand, it doesn't look like there will be significant budget cuts in the new year. But in light of the very high deficit and and massively rising debt there is hardly any room for additional impulses from the federal state. The fact that the stimulus package from 2009 expires in 2011 will strain the economy. The US states and cities will probably profit from the cyclical rise of their revenues. But if these revenues will be enough to leave the budget cuts of the previous years behind remains to be seen.

However, the private demand should slowly become more stable, especially because of the slight decrease in unemployment and the positive effects on the income of the households. On average the US economy should grow about 2 per cent in 2011 (2010: 2,7 per cent), and the dent in growth at the end of 2010 will be followed by a recovery during 2011.

The US Federal Reserve will probably not extend their program for government bonds in mid-2011. A slight upturn in prices and a more robust economy will allow the Federal Reserve not to issue another stimulus. But the high level of unemployment will stop her from abandoning the "zero per cent interest policy" in 2012.

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That's the assessment. There is good news and bad news. One of the most important facts seems to me that a huge disaster, a breakdown of the economy could be prevented, due to the actions of the federal government. In addition, the situation seems to be quite stable now. But the bad news is that the high unemployment and the high debt will be problems that the USA will have to deal with for a long time.

Regarding the unemployment, there were very interesting, if not outright shocking statistics which accompanied this forecast.

(Click on pictures to enlarge)

First, we have an overview about the rate of unemployment from 1980 until today. Headline: "High unemployment - and no quick solution in sight." The graph shows the rate of unemployed people, in per cent of all people who are able to work (the grey ares mark "recessions"):

This statistic is of course already well known, but what really gives huge cause for concern is a second statistic that I wasn't aware of up until now: The statistic about the average duration of unemployment in the USA from 1950 to today. Headline: "Long-term unemployment at an all-time high."

Explanation of the German terms: "In Wochen" means "in weeks", and "Durchschnittliche Arbeitslosendauer" means "average duration of unemployment."

This statistic really shows how dramatic the current situation is: During previous times of crisis since the second world war, the duration of average long-term unemployment in the USA peaked at around 20 weeks. These days, the average duration of unemployment in the USA has sky-rocketed: It's currently at about 35 weeks!

High-unemployment always has been a "gateway" for extremists, and that's why we cannot simply "declare" at this point that Sarah Palin is history and turn to other, more pleasant topics. In these times of crisis, the "usual rules" of politics don't apply any more. Irrationality will continue to gain a foothold in 2011.

The "silver-lining" on the horizon is that the economic growth is expected to stabilize, according to the next statistic. Headline: "Expansion stabilizes in 2011."

Explanation of the German terms: "Real gross domestic product, change in % to the previous quarter, yearly rate."

Then we have a statistic about the salary development. This is a bit more complex, but also very interesting.

Explanation of the German terms:

a) Red line: Rate of unemployment (scale on the right)

b) Dark blue line: Hourly salaries (scale on the left), change in % per cent, average every 3 months

c) Light blue line: Hourly salaries (scale on the left), in % in comparison to the previous year

Headline: "Risk of deflation - High rate of unemployment dampens the salary dynamic"

What is interesting about this statistic is that there only appears to be a relatively moderate rise in salaries in the USA since the 1980s, which also certainly doesn't help to stimulate the US economy in general.

The last statistic is a more "unusal" one: It gives an overview about the "due date" ("Fälligkeit") of commercial US-mortgages (in billion USD). Headline: "The problem of re-financing continues to grow."

It is interesting to see that the need for re-financing of US-mortgages will continue to be extremely high during the next years. This will certainly also be a problem with permanent political consequences: It will greatly affect many families in the USA and will not be helpful for the current US-government and for the President, as many people will blame the government for the ongoing problems.

Please be aware that such an economic assessment and forecast is only an opinion, and other economists might come to different conclusions. But the most striking fact in my view is the dramatic scale of the current unemployment in the USA, and the data is hard to dispute. Especially the huge, unprecedented rise of the long-term unemployment which will continue to open the path for political pied pipers. The huge unemployment is not the fault of President Obama, as these economic trends took many years to develop and have complex causes which were set way back in the past, but he will continue to be blamed for not finding a quick solution. I do hope that the majority of voters will make their choice in 2011 and 2012 with a cool head and will not be swayed by those people who come along with the cheap promise of flushing out the "elites."

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Please re-tweet:

http://twitter.com/#!/palingates/status/26460485595439105

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Additional note by Patrick:

On the one hand I can see that one might feel uncomfortable to talk about facts which might be "damaging" for the current administration. But let's face it: President Obama will be blamed for the current economic situation anyway. Isn't it better to:

1) Research the facts
2) Then explain with facts why

- Obama is not to blame for the problems he inherited
- Obama did everything possible to avert an even greater disaster

The data shows that many problems appear to be structural problems: They developed over a long period of time. It's not President Obama's fault that the current workforce partly seems to have the "wrong" qualifications, and that in previous years many jobs were shipped overseas.

President Obama made huge efforts during the last two years, including saving the car industry.

Therefore I say:

Gather the facts and throw them in the face of the teabaggers. Don't retreat, re.....no, wait.....respond. ;-)

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Please treat this in the comments as an open thread.

.

Progressive Voices Cruise 2011 - Alan Grayson, Robert Kennedy Jr., Mike Farrell, Shelley Fabares,Mike Malloy and Others

Guest Post by Maddie's Mom - Open Post

Saturday, Feb. 5

Well, I got off to a rather poor start. I ordered a cab for 5a.m. I set both my alarm clock and my phone alarm, seeing as how I'm not used to getting up so early. Both alarms went off, but when the cab arrived 15 minutes later, I realized I had set both alarms for 4:45a.m., rather that 3:45a.m.! Fortunately, I had done everything the day before, so I was able to dash out the door fairly quickly. I arrived in Ft. Lauderdale, and took a Cruiseline bus to the port we would be leaving from. Our ship was a Holland America ship named "Eurodam". Having never seen a cruise ship close up, it was ENORMOUS! It was 11 stories tall. My (windowless) stateroom was on the 1st deck. There was a line outside to enter the customs and boarding area, and for one brief moment I was tempted to complain about how hot it was, until I remembered I had just come from Chicago and one of the worst blizzards in our history!

This was mostly a day for getting settled, but I did meet some crazy ladies who turned out to be part of our group, and they were able to show me the ropes as far as registration, etc. Just as I hope for a unicorn ranch someday, or that President Obama would act like a liberal/progressive, I was also hoping that our Progressive Voices group would be the only ones aboard this cruise. Sadly, that was not the case. We were about 100 out of 2500.

Previous years have seen as many as 400 participants, but that dropped after Air America went out of business. The other 2400 were mostly old, white and in need of some sort of mobility assistance. (God love 'em). Even within our group, I was one of the youngest at 51. But hey, older people know more stuff so this was all OK with me.


The notables aboard were as follows; Robert Kennedy Jr., Cong. Alan Grayson, Mike Farrell (the actor from M*A*S*H) and his wife Shelley Fabares ("The Donna Reed Show", Elvis movies, "Coach", etc.), radio talkshow hosts Mike Malloy, Cary Harrison and Leslie Marshall*, Hal Sparks ("Queer as Folk", E! "Talk Soup", stand-up comedian, contributor to "The Stephanie Miller Show" on radio, HBO specials, etc.), and Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder joined us mid-cruise. The only disappointment was that Mike Pappantonio was unable to join us. He is very involved with lawsuits against BP for the oil spill, and he had to be in court. Mike can also be seen on MSNBC, occasionally Faux News, and co-hosts the "Ring of Fire" radio show with Bobby Kennedy Jr.

We were given dinner assignment seating cards for the week. The notables would each sit at a table, and we would rotate tables from night-to-night. However, I cheated a little. Being that I was traveling alone and easier to move around than a couple, I sweet-talked one of the cruise directors to use me as a 'hole-filler' at the good tables if need be. This worked to my advantage on more than one occasion! On this night we had a pre-dinner cocktail gathering in 'The Crow's Nest' bar, followed by dinner which was fairly uneventful, but lovely, nonetheless. Oh, on the way to dinner I met and shook hands with Bobby Kennedy. Dream (partially) fulfilled. He has the most amazing blue eyes!

Sunday, Feb. 6

We were on our way to the Grand Turk island of Turks and Caicos. The seas were very calm and, as were the skies, a beautiful turqoise color. Our morning session, titled "Guts & Glory", was with Cong. Alan Grayson. Our host and moderator for both the cruise, and most of the sessions, was the charming & delightful David Bender. David started his political career in 1968, when at 12 years of age, he was a volunteer for Robert F. Kennedy's presidential campaign which only lasted a few short months before he was assassinated. In 2003 he was a senior advisor for Howard Dean's campaign. He later went on to host a radio show on Air America called "Politically Direct". Subsequently he appeared on Rachel Maddow's Air America radio show, the "Ring of Fire" radio show, and can currently be heard Thursdays on "The Stephanie Miller Show". He is an amazing man, extremely knowledgeable and funny, perfectly suited to the duties of host and moderator.

Congressman Grayson was remarkable. He talked about his one (unfortunate) term in congress, and about how cutthroat his re-election fight was. He is an attorney, also too, and spoke about being in the courtroom when the Citizen's United case was handed down. He was devastated. Then he looked over, and there was Mitch McConnell with a you-know-what eating grin on his face. Doesn't that just make you feel all warm and fuzzy?

Our afternoon session was "American Values" with Bobby Kennedy Jr. I was particularly interested in this session because of Bobby's involvement in environmental issues. Particularly, mountaintop-removal mining which is the topic of his latest film "The Last Mountain". He was just back from Sundance Film Festival where the film did extremely well. I was prepared to be very depressed, since the whole topic of pollution is so depressing, but after laying out some of the horrors of corporate malfeasance when it comes to the environment, he talked very optimistically about the gains in renewable fuel technologies. He is such a passionate man, and when he explained that women of child-bearing age have obscene levels of mercury in their wombs, it really made me sick. Mr. Kennedy is also president of The Waterkeepers Alliance, and senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

I was thrilled to be seated next to Cong. Grayson at dinner (a formal event!). We talked about many things. For instance, what his opinion was of all these crazy republicans who were now slated to head the important committees in the House of Reps.

In a nutshell, he said the next 2 years were going to be hell. I concur. We also, oddly enough, spoke at length about bonobos! If you don't know what they are, google 'em. They are the primate closest to humans in DNA and, unlike chimps or orangutans, they're are very peaceable. After dinner, we gathered in 'The Crow's Nest' for a little stand-up comedy, courtesy of Hal Sparks. He is brilliantly funny, and quite the Renaissance Man. Hal was born in Kentucky and raised in his head. He knows a lot about a lot, including politics. But, and I kid you not, part of his routine was about.... BONOBOS! Just a coincidence to be sure, but one that tickled me! Oh, and the Superbowl was on too.

Monday, Feb. 7

This morning's session with Hal Sparks, Alan Grayson, Mike Malloy, Mike Farrell and Cary Harrison was "Is Barack Obama a Progressive?" I think we all know the answer to that. Although, some thought that in certain areas he is. Mr. Malloy, the cruise curmudgeon, was the most critical of the president, but most of the others are still willing to see what happens in the rest of his term. The moderator for this panel was the charming & delightful Jon Sinton who started Air America. Jon is coming out with a Progressive Voices App for iphones. He describes it as "a one-stop-shop for everything progressive", including a news aggregate site (cuz Huffpo is worthless!). He expects it to launch live at the itunes store on March 1st.

Dinner was with Mike Malloy. Although curmudgeonly, he was very interesting to talk to. He talked about his time producing for CNN, and about politics in general. The Eurodam was headed for San Juan, Puerto Rico.

This morning's session with Hal Sparks, Alan Grayson and Mike Malloy was "Is the Right tougher than the Left?" The answer to that is... YES. Lots of good back and forth dealing with Faux News, the Tea Baggers, Koch Bros., etc. with humor thrown in for good measure.


We left the boat in the afternoon for San Juan. It was a lovely old city. I found a store called Cariloha that sells clothing made from bamboo. I bought the most amazing sheets and towels! The sheets are softer than 1000 thread-count and quite yummy. Plus, they shipped it all to my house for free!

After we stopped for an obligatory cocktail or two and a chat with Hal Sparks, we headed back to the Eurodam. On the way back, we noticed an inordinate amount of young men in inappropriately short shorts. We found out that another cruise ship, the biggest in the world, had also docked and was disgorging 5200 gay men. That's right, a ginormous all-gay cruise ship! David Bender, who has 'teh gay' was a little bent out of shape because Hal was getting all the attention (he doesn't have 'teh gay')! It was quite amusing.

Dinner was with Mike Farrell and Shelley Fabares. Mike apparently is very shy, he didn't have much to say, and Shelley wasn't feeling well, so it was a low key dinner.

Wednesday, Feb. 9

We arrived in St. Thomas with the continuing luck of beautiful weather. There are about 600 diamond and jewelry shops in St. Thomas, but I'm not much of a jewelry person. HOWEVER, I've always wanted an emerald, which is my birthstone. So, having no intention of buying anything, I went into ONE store and found a perfect ring. Yes, I bought it. I bargained down from $450.00 to $380.00 and I don't regret it one bit.

Dinner was with Mike Malloy again. Afterwards, we cheered-on one of our group in Karaoke finals. He sang 'Sweet Dreams' by the Eurythmics. He didn't win, some Canadian girl singing 'My Heart Will Go On' ran away with first place. (Is it only Canadian women that can sing that song?)

Thursday, Feb. 10

The morning session was with Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder. She won her first term to congress in 1972 from Colorado. She served 24 years in congress and has written a book titled "24 Years of House Work... and the Place is Still a Mess!" She was incredibly engaging and warm, sharing stories, good and bad, about her time in congress. And, I got to meet and have my picture taken with her. The best part is, I was wearing my 'Worst Governor Ever' t-shirt and she loved it! She asked me where I got it, and when I told her zazzle.com, she wrote it down saying she had just "done her Christmas shopping for the year"! Woo Hoo!

We were at sea all day, so I rented a private cabana deckside of the pool on the Lido deck. It was heavenly! I had dinner with progressive radio talk show host Lesley Marshall, along with her very handsome orthopedic surgeon husband. She is one of the few women in progressive talk radio, and they were both awesome.

Friday, Feb. 11

We docked at Half-moon Cay in the Bahamas and took a small boat to the private island. It was gorgeous. White powder sand beaches and, if you walk far enough down, you can find very private spaces. I spent some time reading, napping and listening to the sound of the waves gently lapping on the shore... priceless!


The afternoon session with Hal Sparks, Mike Malloy, Lesley Marshall and I believe, Cary Harrison was "Media Madness: Does the Right-Wing Control the American Press?" The answer to that is... YES.

Dinner was with... Malloy again. That was OK. He's a lot of fun, and his wife and 6-1/2 year-old daughter were a pleasure as well. After dinner we were treated to more stand-up comedy from Hal Sparks. The boy is seriously funny. And smokin' hot, also too.

Saturday, Feb. 12

Well, it had to end. It's go-home day, and Ft. Lauderdale was 40 degrees and rainy. I got dropped at the airport at 8:30a.m. for a 2p.m. flight. Thus began 11 hours of airports and airplanes. I had a one-and-a-half hour layover in Atlanta, and was was finally home at 7:30p.m. I had a magnificent time. The crew of Holland America was wonderful, I had a great tan, and I was ready to see my dog Maddie.

Special thanks to Maxine and Mike, and their golden retriever Gracie, for taking such good care of Maddie. And BTW, she didn't seem to miss me all that much!


* Links to their radio shows can be found at progressivevoices.com

Scott Walker Speaks to "David Koch" -- Confirms That He Is The First Domino In The Downfall Of The Unions

By Kathleen

The Buffalo Beast writer Ian Murphy, posing as David Koch, managed to speak to Scott Walker yesterday. He put in the call because he wanted to know who it was that Scott Walker was willing to speak to. Apparently Walker will not speak to Wisconsin State Democrat Senators but he will speak to one of the "Koch Brothers."

In the above second audio Walker appears to confirm that he knew that Andrew Breitbart was sent to Wisconsin on behalf of the Kochs. He also admits that he had considered planting troublemakers in the crowds during the demonstrations but didn't because he might be forced by the public to resolve the situation there.

Here is a link to the post at The Buffalo Beast where you can also find a transcript.

UPDATE

For some reason the links to the Buffalo Beast no longer work. It is possible that the blog is under attack but that is just a guess -- I have no evidence for this.

Here is the original post:

WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO WITNESS IS REAL. NO NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO PROTECT THE INNOCENT. THERE ARE NO INNOCENT.
-MURPHY

***

“He’s just hard-lined—will not talk, will not communicate, will not return phone calls.”
-Wisconsin state Sen. Tim Carpenter (D) on Gov. Walker (source)

Carpenter’s quote made me wonder: who could get through to Gov. Walker? Well, what do we know about Walker and his proposed union-busting, no-bid budget? The obvious candidate was David Koch.

I first called at 11:30 am CST, and eventually got through to a young, male receptionist who, upon hearing the magic name Koch, immediately transferred me to Executive Assistant Governor Dorothy Moore.

“We’ve met before, Dorothy,” I nudged. “I really need to talk to Scott—Governor Walker.” She said that, yes, she thought she had met Koch, and that the name was “familiar.” But she insisted that Walker was detained in a meeting and couldn’t get away. She asked about the nature of my call. I balked, “I just needed to speak with the Governor. He knows what this is about,” I said. She told me to call back at noon, and she’d have a better idea of when he would be free.

I called at noon and was quickly transferred to Moore, who then transferred me to Walker’s Chief of Staff Keith Gilkes. He was “expecting my call.”

“David!” he said with an audible smile.

I politely said hello, not knowing how friendly Gilkes and Koch may be. He was eager to help. “I was really hoping to talk directly to Scott,” I said. He said that could be arranged and that I should just leave my number. I explained to Gilkes, “My goddamn maid, Maria, put my phone in the washer. I’d have her deported, but she works for next to nothing.” Gilkes found this amusing. “I’m calling from the VOID—with the VOID, or whatever it’s called. You know, the Snype!”

“Gotcha,” Gilkes said. “Let me check the schedule here…OK, there’s an opening at 2 o’clock Central Standard Time. Just call this same number and we’ll put you through.”

Could it really be that easy? Yes. What follows is a rushed, abridged transcript of my—I mean, David Koch’s conversation with Gov. Walker. Listen to the whole call here.

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UPDATE

Our reader, Bellpeppery, sourced these two tweets from twitter and an article from channel3000.com which all confirm that the article in The Beast is true and that the recorded interview is not a false one:

http://twitter.com/news3jessica/status/40444174641795072#

http://twitter.com/news3jessica/status/40444235941552128#

http://www.channel3000.com/politics/26966427/detail.html

Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie released a statement confirming that governor was the voice heard on the call.

"The governor takes many calls everyday. Throughout this call, the governor maintained his appreciation for and commitment to civil discourse. He continued to say that the budget repair bill is about the budget. The phone call shows that the governor says the same thing in private as he does in public and the lengths that others will go to disrupt the civil debate Wisconsin is having," according to Werwie's statement.

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Update

Mother Jones reports that Jeff Cox, a deputy attorney general from Indiana has called for the use of live ammunition against Wisconsin protesters. Read more here.

wlfi.com reports that Jeff Cox has been fired from the Indiana Attorney General's office. That certainly did not take long -- thank goodness for some sanity.

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Hat tip to Robert!

News Corps' Silent Partner - Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal - Part 2

Guest post By Nomadic Joe

Part 2

In the first part of this two part series, I introduced Politicalgate readers to Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal of the Saudi royal family, owner of Kingdom Holdings, one of the world's richest investors and second largest shareholder in Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, parent company to Fox News. I'd like to continue this examination into Al-Waleed's life, his work and his philosophy.

Appeal to Viewers

Al-Waleed's numerous charitable efforts, especially his work with Islamic charities and foundations, are well-known in the Arab world and have earned him a great deal of "street cred" in certain circles. For example, in 2009 the prince contributed $150,000 for the rehabilitation of children with physical disabilities in the north African country of Eritrea. Additionally, The Alwaleed Bin Talal Foundation states that it encourages and supports organizations and academic centres which focus on empowering Saudi women, alleviating poverty, upgrading services provided to the population, and other social infrastructure issues that face the country.

Much of Al-Waleed's charitable activities has concentrated on educational initiatives to bridge the gaps between Western and Islamic communities by funding centers of American studies and research in universities in the Middle East and centers of Islamic studies in western universities. In 2002, Al-Waleed donated $500,000 to help fund the George Herbert Walker Bush Scholarship at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. Add to that laudable list, his $17 million donation to the victims of the Boxing Day tsunami. In April 2009, Prince Waleed bin Talal donated $20 million to Harvard University, one of its 25 largest donations.

One of his lesser known efforts was his participation in (some say hosting of) a TV telethon broadcast throughout Saudi Arabia and other parts of the Middle East, following Israeli operations in the West Bank city of Jenin.

According to an article in Scottish Daily Record & Sunday by Simon Houston, in 2002, in one of the most extraordinary television appeals ever, the Saudi rulers asked their 23 million subjects to dig deep for the families of Palestinian suicide bombers who took their own lives in the struggle against Israel. The appeal was, in fact, launched by King Fahd himself and state-run TV, controlled by the powerful Interior Ministry, was used to get the message across. But few needed much persuasion. Still, who could have expected the reaction?

Giant glass trunks were packed with banknotes while others were fit to burst with gold bangles and pearl necklaces.
Valuable electrical appliances were stacked against the walls. And then there were the cars - they included a Rolls Royce gifted from the royal family itself. It was Saudi Arabia's way of making sure the families of Palestinian suicide bombers need never go hungry. From the moment the appeal was launched, the queues began to form outside banks around the country. Other preferred to stay at home and make their pledges by phone.

Within seconds of the numbers appearing on television, the lines were jammed. The appeals were fronted by presenters in traditional Saudi costume. Within the first 11 hours, a staggering pounds 38.7million had been collected. At the end of day three, the figure had reached pounds 70million.Across the region, as much as pounds 150 million was raised as the people of Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Dubai and Qatar responded to similar appeals.

Here is how the telethon was reported on Fox News. It is an example of journalism -Fox News style. As you see there is no mention of the prince/investor involvement in the telethon, despite his supplying it with its largest individual donation at 18.5 million British pounds ($27 million)

When the allegation that the money might have been used to help families of suicide bombers became more widely known, Fox News was employed to issue statements such as the following:

Responding to charges that with the telethon Saudi Arabia was backing terrorism, Adel Al-Jubeir, foreign policy adviser to Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, told Fox television: "We have made it very clear in terms of where Saudi funding has gone to provide humanitarian assistance to the families who have suffered as a result of the Israeli occupation and the recent Israeli aggression." Adel Al-Jubeir added: "We do not support suicide bombers. Our objective is to put food on people's tables and medicine in their pharmacies" (Fox News, April 28, 2002).

However, documents seized by the Israeli Defense Force following a raid of Palestinian offices in April 2002 suggest a very different story. Kenneth R. Timmerman, journalist, political writer, and conservative Republican activist who in 2000 and as a candidate for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senator for Maryland, noted (Insight on the News "Saudi Wealth Fuels Global Jihadism) " that documents seized by the Israelis at numerous "charities" and government offices throughout the West Bank "show clearly, money paid by Saudi Arabia was considered as 'blood money.' It was used by Hamas as an enticement to murder by providing a guaranteed income to the families of the murderers."

Among the documents found in Tulkarm was a table from Saudi Arabia itemizing the tenth set of payments to the "Martyrs of the Al-Aqsa Intifada." The table details how $545,000 was allocated to 102 families. The logo at the top of the table reads: "Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Committee for Aid to the Al-Quds Intifada."This committee was established in the fall of 2000 under the Saudi Minister of the Interior, Prince Nayef bin 'Abd al-Aziz. Prince Nayef's organization was also responsible for collecting Saudi contributions during the April 11 telethon for Palestinian "martyrs" on Saudi state television.

A report by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) titled "Saudi Arabia finances terror activities (5-9-02)," indicates that the most recent payments to the families of 102 Palestinians who died in 2001, "spelled out in chilling detail the biographies of 36 of the Palestinian 'victims.' Eight of them were identified by name in the Saudi documents as suicide bombers. The other 28 were Hamas, Fatah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad military commanders and activists directly involved in planning or executing terrorist attacks." Among these were the commander of the Hamas military wing in the West Bank, one of the heads of the Islamic Jihad in northern Samaria and the General Secretary of the PFLP.

The IDF report further notes

the systematic and ongoing transfer of large sums of money to the Palestinians... The Saudi Committee for Support of the Intifada Al Quds, headed by the Saudi Interior Minister, stands out. The captured documents demonstrate that the Saudi support was not only of a humanitarian religious nature, as Saudi spokesmen in the U.S. claim. The documents clearly reveal that Saudi Arabia transferred ... large sums of money in a systematic and ongoing manner to families of suicide terrorists ... [and] to Hamas ... According to the captured documents, the Saudi Committee for Support of the Intifada was aware that the funds it transferred were paid to families of terrorists who perpetrated murderous attacks in Israeli cities, in which hundreds of Israelis were killed and wounded. An American woman was also killed in one of these attacks.

The IDF report concludes that persons and entities associated with Hamas and with Radical Islam are the main beneficiaries of the funds of the Saudi Committee for Support of the Al-Aqsa Intifada (also known as the Saudi Committee for Support of the Al-Quds Intifada).

Let's take a closer look at the names on these documents listed as martyrs.

Abd al-Karim Amr Muhammad Abu Na'sa, who appears as number 17 in the Saudi table, is described as having died in a "martyrdom act in Afula." This is a reference to his suicide bombing on behalf of Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Afula on November 27, 2001. Forty-six Israelis were wounded.

Other "martyrs" on the Saudi list may not have been suicide bombers, but were well known for their past involvement in terrorism. Thus, number 68, Mahmud Abu Hanud, was the commander of Hamas for the West Bank. Number 8, Atef Abiyat, commanded the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Bethlehem. His name was well known to those who engaged in peace process matters since Yasser Arafat promised the European Union that he was in prison while he moved about freely until his death.

While it is quite possible to dismiss this evidence as Israeli disinformation, statements made on the telethon are harder to refute. The telethon was hosted by a prominent Saudi-government cleric, Sheikh Saad al-Buraik, who took advantage of the live television coverage to tell his audience:

I am against America until this life ends, until the Day of Judgment, I am against America even if the stone liquefies. My hatred of America, if part of it was contained in the universe, it would collapse. She is the root of all evils and wickedness on Earth ... Muslim Brothers in Palestine, do not have any mercy, neither compassion on the Jews, their blood, their money, their flesh...

And even more unequivocal are the statements by Prince Naif bin Abdul Aziz, the Saudi Committee for the Support of the al-Quds Intifada and Interior Minister, "The committee will continue to provide direct assistance to the families of Palestinian martyrs and those wounded while resisting the occupation"

The ironic bottom line is, if all these allegations are true, it suggests that the prince had an ingenuous idea. Why not, through the use of his profits made by collaborating with News Corporation, have the American-flag-waving, anti-Islamic viewers of Fox News unknowingly donate to this anti-American, anti-Israel charity that was used, at least, in part to support the families of suicide bombers in Palestine?

Now that's what I call impressive.

Even More Irony

Back to Fox.

In an October of last year, in a speech to the Anti-Defamation League in New York, Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corp. -- the parent company of Fox News stated, "Today it seems that the most virulent strains" of anti-Semitism "come from the left."

Now, there's not a single person in this room who needs a lecture on the evil of anti-Semitism. My own perspective is simple: We live in a world where there is an ongoing war against the Jews. For me, this ongoing war is a fairly obvious fact of life. Every day, the citizens of the Jewish homeland defend themselves against armies of terrorists whose maps spell out the goal they have in mind: a Middle East without Israel. In Europe, Jewish populations increasingly find themselves targeted by people who share that goal. And in the United States, I fear that our foreign policy sometimes emboldens these extremists. ..Today it seems that the most virulent strains come from the left.

Given what we know about News Corporation's investor, that remark seems especially dubious but the irony doesn't quite end there.

Glenn Beck is one of Fox News' most popular and outrageous news personalities. While his ratings have been dropping of late, he is still easily capable of drawing 2 million viewers a night. Dana Millibank of the Washington Post noted,

"In his first 18 months on Fox News, from early 2009 through the middle of this year, [Beck] and his guests invoked Hitler 147 times. Nazis, an additional 202 times. Fascism or fascists, 193 times. The Holocaust got 76 mentions, and Joseph Goebbels got 24 mentions."

Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes in November of 2010 defended a recently-aired expose which accused the Jewish financier of funding a conspiratorial “shadow government” and manipulating regimes and currencies to his own benefit. The program's title- not unlike Palin's use of "blood libel" is highly charged, dating back to the Nazi claim that political leaders in Germany, and later America and Britain, were puppets of the Jews.). Condemning the broadcast liberal pundits and some Jewish leaders decried that the news story flirted with anti- Semitic stereotypes.

Moreover, this defense of Beck, in turn, sparked four hundred rabbis from almost all of the main branches of Judaism in the US to take out two full page ads, one in the Wall Street journal and another in Forward, calling upon Rupert Murdoch, owner of New Corp's Fox News to take action against what they saw as excessive use of the Holocaust and Nazi analogies to disparage his mostly liberal political opponents. They felt it had a desensitizing effect. After all, if everything is a Nazi atrocity then nothing is. If everybody is an Adolph Hitler clone, then nobody is.

Beck seems pathologically obsessed with Nazis, with a skewed view of self-taught history allowing him to link the Third Reich to whatever Obama might have said or done. There is literally so much evidence of Glenn Beck's Anti-Semitic views that it is hard to narrow the selection. Cleverly, many of the examples relate more to the kind of guests he gives a voice to on his TV and radio shows. So, just as Murdoch can claim Beck doesn't necessarily represent Fox News and his views are solely his own, Beck can say the same about his guests.

On the June 4 edition of his radio program, Glenn Beck promoted The Red Network by Elizabeth Dilling, which is a book that contains numerous passages espousing anti-Semitism and racism. At various points throughout the book, Dilling attacks "racial inter-mixture" as a communist plot, refers to "un-Christianized" "colored people" as "savages," called Hinduism and Islam "debasing and degrading," and blamed Nazi Germany's anti-Semitism on "revolutionary Russian Jews." Furthermore, Dilling was a Nazi sympathizer who visited Germany in the late 1930s, attended Nazi party meetings, and praised Adolf Hitler's leadership. Dilling also spoke at rallies hosted by the leading U.S. Nazi organization, the German-American Bund.

Dilling's history of anti-Semitism includes calling President Eisenhower "Ike the Kike" and labeling President Kennedy's New Frontier program the "Jew frontier." British professors Christopher Partridge and Ron Geaves wrote that Dilling was a "pro-Nazi anti-semite" who disseminated the anti-Semitic hoax "Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion." Furthermore, Dilling's work has been promoted by David Duke and the group Women for Aryan Unity.

One of Beck's frequent guests, a phony historian named David Barton, has spoken, according to the Anti-Defamation League, at events hosted by the Christian Identity Movement. The organization asserts that "Jews are 'the synagogue of Satan'; that Blacks and other people of color are subhuman; and that northern European whites and their American descendants are the 'chosen people' of scriptural prophesy."

As another blogger asks, “what if Beck was Muslim? What if, for example, Fareed Zakaria of CNN had spewed anti-Semitic nonsense on national television?”

Following Islamophobic doctrine, as articulated by Pam Geller and company, we’d see the anti-Muslim blogosphere fired up by the same less-than-lazy comparisons between Muslims and Nazis. Then we’d see more of the same outpour of vitriolic hate speech from the Stop the Islamization of America crowd.

But, Glenn Beck is not Zakaria and Beck is definitely not Muslim so he is allowed to use Fox News as a platform for hate-speech, meanwhile his boss addresses Jewish groups and warns them of the source of anti-Semitism, the liberals. I don't think Barton sounds much like a Liberal, do you?

New Channels

Besides being a shareholder in News Corporation, Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal is owner of an Arabic language satellite television channel, Al-Resalah, which broadcasts throughout the Middle East, North Africa and Europe. The 24-hour broadcast channel will compete with Al-Jazeera. Apparently the enterprise was in partnership with the Fox network. Earlier this year, News Corp. agreed to buy a 9.1 percent stake in bin Talal's Rotana Media group for $70 million. Rotana hosts Fox channels in Saudi Arabia. The Middle East Media Research Institute , an organization critical of Islamic media, has accused al-Reslah of airing anti-Western, anti-Semitic, and pro- Al Qaida content. Writes Steven Stalinsky:

Prince Al-Waleed made headlines for giving tens of millions of dollars to Harvard and Georgetown universities; he also reportedly approached other East Coast universities about making donations. The prince's Kingdom Holding Company paid for advertisements on major TV networks, including CNN, and in the New York Times and Washington Post lauding the donations and the prince's "continuous efforts to serve ... religious understanding."

Al-Waleed's channel could be the evil twin brother of Fox but for an Islamic audience.

Given the millions the prince has spent on public relations, Al-Resalah's excessive anti-Western content is somewhat astonishing. It is no different from any other hate-filled Saudi TV channel. Take, for example, Sheik Ahmad Al-Kubeisi, who appeared on Al-Resalah on March 15 and said: "When there is no hope for peace, there is no alternative but to resort to the gun. ... The West's conflict with Islam and the Muslims is eternal, a preordained destiny that cannot be avoided until judgment day."

Al-Resalah began with a wide range of programmes, but eventually focused on religious features, aiming to be within the top ten by Ramadan 2008. He claimed that after only one and a half years, Al-Resalah ranks at 18 out of 400 Arab satellite channels and at number one of religious channels outside of Saudi Arabia.

Ironically, Al-Waleed’s media empire is not without its critics inside the Islamic world. In 2009, an Islamic scholar called for prosecution of two royals, Waleed al-Ibrahim, a brother-in-law of the late King Fahd and Prince Alwaleed bin Talal whose TV stations air movies, saying “they are as dangerous as drug dealers.” This unprecedented outcry came soon after the prince stated that someday Saudi Arabia would have movie theaters – something that is banned in his country.

Cinemas were closed in Saudi Arabia in the early 1980s amid a rise in conservatism. Conservatives believe the movie industry encourages decadence by showing the drinking of alcohol and portraying men and women together in a country that bans liquor and the public mixing of the sexes.

“Movies are a tool that hypocrites use to implement their plot to Westernize society, corrupt it and drive it away from (religion),” said al-Ahmed in his response, posted on Islamlight.net, an Islamic Web site with news, columns and edicts.

“It is a duty to bring him (Alwaleed) and people like him, such as Waleed al-Ibrahim, to justice,” he added. “They are no less dangerous … than drug dealers.”

“He is the owner of the decadent channels that spread lewdness … and he constantly seeks to insult and humiliate women by showing them without a head cover and wearing makeup,” al-Ahmed said.

Al-Ahmed also called for Al-Waleed to repent. In the clash of civilizations, there really is no pleasing some people.

The Final Bit of Irony

Quoting C. Ann Hollifield’s Effects of Foreign Ownership on Media Content, Marc Edge writes,

“(M)ost countries have prohibited or limited foreign media ownership “at least partly out of fear that foreign owners would use those outlets to manipulate public opinion in times of national crisis.”

Multinational media ownership was thus not widespread outside of consumer magazines before the late 1980s, so there is little research on the impact of foreign ownership. Literature on media ownership deregulation more generally has been plentiful since the late 1980s, however...the libertarian rhetoric of the Reagan era was underlain by a commercial ethic that promised to unleash entrepreneurship by “getting the government off the backs of the people.” ..the ramifications of deregulation in these industries have ironically instead been equity-based, with a vast reduction in diversity of viewpoints.

Thus, the deregulation of the American media industry opened the doors for the growth of the Murdoch empire but the same time the deregulation of media ownership allowed for its widespread abuse.

Perhaps you saying to yourself, "There should be SOME law against this kind of thing." While deregulation has insured nothing can stop foreign ownership of media, there are laws against giving material support to terrorist organizations. Its prohibition is clearly defined in the Patriot Act

18 U.S.C. 2339B prohibits "providing material support or resources" to an organization the Secretary of State has designated as a "foreign terrorist organization." The material support ban was first passed as part of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. The provision's purpose is to deny terrorist groups the ingredients necessary for planning and carrying out attacks. Congress was concerned that terrorist organizations with charitable or humanitarian arms were raising funds within the United States that could then be used to further their terrorist activities. The provision outlawed any support to these groups, irrespective of whether that support was intended for humanitarian purposes.

The original definition of "material support or resources" in the AEDPA included providing tangible support such as money, goods, and materials and also less concrete support, such as "personnel" and "training."Section 805 of the PATRIOT Act expanded the definition to include "expert advice or assistance.

Well, out of respect for my readers and myself, I won't pretend to be a lawyer so I couldn't tell you if the activities I've outlined actually apply to any of the people in this post.

Now are you ready for the punchline?

The individual responsible for crafting that legal document, that is, the chief architect of the Patriot Act, Viet D. Dinh is a lawyer and a conservative legal scholar who served as an Assistant Attorney General of the United States from 2001 to 2003, under the presidency of George W. Bush.

Born in Saigon, South Vietnam, Dinh has served as Associate Special Counsel to the U.S. Senate Whitewater Committee, as Special Counsel to Senator Pete V. Domenici for the Impeachment Trial of President Bill Clinton, and He also served as counsel to the Special Master mediating a number of lawsuits by Holocaust victims against German and Austrian financial institutions. Dinh was mentioned as a potential nominee to The Supreme Court of the United States in a Republican administration.

One more thing, Dinh just happens to be on the board of directors of News Corporation.

So don’t hold your breath. When it comes to News Corp, it is often difficult to know who or what you are actually dealing with.

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READ PART ONE OF THIS ARTICLE.