A. Scalia: “…proudest thing I have done on the bench…”
HARTFORD, Conn. — Conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia had some advice Wednesday for those who questioned his impartiality after he refused to recuse himself from a case involving his hunting buddy, Vice President Dick Cheney. “For Pete’s sake, if you can’t trust your Supreme Court justice more than that, get a life,” Scalia said.
Scalia, addressing an audience at the University of Connecticut’s law school on Wednesday, said recusing himself from the 2004 case _ which focused on an energy task force that Cheney led _ would only have given fuel to newspaper editorial writers and other detractors who have said he is too close to the vice president. “I think the proudest thing I have done on the bench is not allowed myself to be chased off that case,” Scalia said.
B. The War on Information!
On March 28, using information drawn from the IRS’s Annual Report (Data Book), TRAC posted a report stating that only 30 of the nation’s 180,000 millionaires were subject to face-to-face audits in FY 2005. (See initial report.) Within hours of the posting, the agency informed TRAC that the IRS’ official numbers were not correct. Although the IRS promised to promptly provide TRAC with new numbers and a full explanation of how it came to publish incorrect information, this accounting has not yet occurred. (In fact, the audit counts about the super rich which the IRS claims are erroneous are still posted on its web site.)
On April 4, a federal district judge in Seattle ordered the IRS to obey a 1976 court order and provide Susan Long, the co-director of TRAC and a professor at Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University, statistical information about it operations by April 17. As of April 12 no data has been produced.
On April 10, TRAC was informed by Albert D. Adams, IRS Chief of Disclosure in Washington, that the agency flatly refused to provide even sample copies of statistical reports routinely prepared by the Enforcement Revenue Information System (ERIS). This is the data system the IRS had earlier recommended would provide us with the statistics on the final results of audits we were seeking. The agency claimed a number of exemptions under the Freedom of Information Act allowed it to withhold the information. Although TRAC did not ask for any individual tax return information, Adams cited personal privacy as a reason the statistics would be withheld. The other reason was to protect outside contractor “trade secrets.” (LINK)
C. LA Times Story: U.S. Military Secrets for Sale at Afghan Bazaar
Some Highlights – BAGRAM, Afghanistan — No more than 200 yards from the main gate of the sprawling U.S. base here, stolen computer drives containing classified military assessments of enemy targets, names of corrupt Afghan officials and descriptions of American defenses are on sale in the local bazaar. A reporter recently obtained several drives at the bazaar that contained documents marked “Secret.” The contents included documents that were potentially embarrassing to Pakistan, a U.S. ally, presentations that named suspected militants targeted for “kill or capture” and discussions of U.S. efforts to “remove” or “marginalize” Afghan government officials whom the military considered “problem makers.”
…The drives also included deployment rosters and other documents that identified nearly 700 U.S. service members and their Social Security numbers, information that identity thieves could use to open credit card accounts in soldiers’ names.
…One of the men on the military’s removal list, Sher Mohammed Akhundzada, was replaced in December as governor of Helmand province in southern Afghanistan. After removing him from the governor’s office, Karzai appointed Akhundzada to Afghanistan’s Senate. The U.S. military believed the governor, who was caught with almost 20,000 pounds of opium in his office last summer, to be a heroin trafficker.
…One of the terrorism groups is identified by the single name “Zawahiri,” apparently a reference to Ayman Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s deputy and chief strategist in Al Qaeda. The document said his attacks had been launched from a region south of Miram Shah, administrative capital of Pakistan’s unruly North Waziristan tribal region. In January, a CIA missile strike targeted Zawahiri in a village more than 100 miles to the northeast, but he was not among the 18 killed, who included women and children.
…An August 2004 computer slide presentation marked “Secret” outlined “obstacles to success” along the border and accused Pakistan of making “false and inaccurate reports of border incidents.” It also complained of political and military inertia in Pakistan…A special operations task force map highlighting militants’ infiltration routes from Pakistan in early 2005 included this comment from a U.S. military commander: “Pakistani border forces [should] cease assisting cross border insurgent activities.”
(friends of ours…we give them missiles)
“I think to further comment on it would be complete speculation, but I would say that a military strike against Iran, a military option, is not a viable, feasible, responsible option,” he added. …
“I believe a political settlement will be the answer. Not a military settlement. All these issues will require a political settlement.”
RE: Millionairs and audits.
People with money generally can afford to have their taxes prepared by someone who knows what they are doing, so they probably don’t trigger an audit. This could mean that millionairs are more likely to comply or it may just mean that they cheat better.
I think “cheat better” is a more valid term.
Barry bonds just “cheated better” than most.
The Afgan thing is incomptence at its finest. One thing the right wing seems to miss is that if you do it wrong it does not matter that it may have been a good idea.
I’m glad you brought up Barry Bonds, because he will prove to be a watermark for any Republicans who think he should be punnished…because the pundits and blogsphere seems to celebrate when a crooked politician from their camp gets off. So the black athelete who didn’t have to cheat to get into the hall of fame, he’s a dirty bastard. But the Republican politician who didn’t have to cheat but did anyway…well, that’s just the cost of doing business, and Democrats have gone to jail as well…
Rationalization based purely on a partisan mentality. While at the same time, what were they saying when Lindsey Graham was talking about ‘law and order’ in the House during Clinton’s impeachment hearings?
Speaking of steroids and baseball seems like the game was better when everyone was on the juice. Maybe they should require everyone to play juiced, it would level the playing field and make the game more entertaining.
I haven’t been watching hardly any baseball with school, my blog, and the regular mundane activities of life.
The Red Sox are entertaining, really good team this year. Pitching is solid except for the 4-5 spots in the rotation.
How’re you liking Furcal & Nomaaaah?
Wisenheimer:
You would be watching more if all the players were on pace to hit a hundred home runs and all the players looked like Arnold Schartzenegger. As fans I think it is time to demand the players be all they can be and roid up. They owe it to their fans especially the children.
Heroes!
Shit, isn’t Nomar injured again? The Dodgers never learn.
A little HGH would fix him right up.
Speaking of aggressive compliance:
Michael Kirsch (Notre Dame) points out an interesting aspect of the Vice-President’s 2005 tax return:
It appears that the VP is a major beneficiary of the Hurricane Katrina tax relief act. In particular, he claimed $6.8 million of charitable deductions, which is 77% of his AGI — well in excess of the 50% limitation that would have applied absent the Katrina legislation. The press release indicates that the charitable contribution reflects the amount of net proceeds from an independent administrator’s exercise of the VP’s Halliburton options — apparently, the VP had agreed back in 2001 that he would donate the net proceeds from the options to charities once they were exercised.
The press release seems to confirm, at least implicitly, the VP’s efforts to take advantage of the Katrina legislation — it mentions that the Cheneys wrote a personal check of $2.3 million to the administrator in December in order to “maximize the charitable gifts in 2005.” Admittedly, I don’t know anything about the transactions beyond the info in the press release, but my gut reaction is that the personal check was given in order to make sure the independent administrator had sufficient liquid assets to pay all of the promised charitable contributions before the 50% limit returned on 1/1/06.
Despite the importance of the Katrina legislation to his tax return, it looks like none of the charitable contributions actually went to Katrina-related charities (the press release lists the 3 charitable recipients, all of which were designated in the original 2001 gift agreement). While there’s nothing inappropriate about that from a legal perspective, it does demonstrate how the legislation, which was sold to the public as providing relief to Katrina victims, provided significant tax benefits to the VP (and potentially other wealthy individuals) in situations that have nothing to do with Hurricane Katrina.