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"Whoever solicits or receives … any….thing of value, in consideration of the promise of support or use of influence in obtaining for any person any appointive office or place under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both." -- 18 USC Sec. 211 -- Bribery, Graft and Conflicts of Interest: Acceptance or solicitation to obtain appointive public office

This week we broke the story of possible criminal wrongdoing in the government takeover of insurance giant AIG. In the last several months, the US government has tried, unsuccessfully, to throw out plaintiff Kevin Murray’s case, alleging that the government’s takeover of AIG puts it in the position of supporting and promoting Islam and Shariah finance. In the discovery process attorneys for Murray, David Yerushalmi and Robert Muise (of the Thomas More Law Center), discovered that the takeover itself may have been illegal, and have attempted to get Treasury Secretary under oath to try and untangle this mess. Again, the...

AIG Bailout: How American Taxpayers Saved European Banks by: Prieur du Plessis January 28, 2010 While the AIG (AIG) controversy rages and the enquiry into the bailout gathers momentum, Professor Linus Wilson of the University of Louisiana (via Clusterstock) has put together a helpful chart showing exactly how the bailout was constructed and indicating which banks got how much. Two things stand out: The Treasury’s overpayment for preferred stock was a crucial part of the bailout, and though Goldman Sachs (GS) is usually held up as the bad guy here, SocGen (SCGLY.PK) received $2.5 billion more, remarked Clusterstock. Fascinating stuff,...

Ron Radosh reviews the handling of the underpants bomber and reports in detail why historian Martin Sklar thinks Holder can and should be impeached. Sklar... argue[s] that the decision for a civilian trial disarms our country and objectively arms our enemies. Ignoring this outcome, he argues, is malfeasance of duty, "a betrayal of the public trust and a violation of the constitutional oath of office." He then makes this historical analogy: The circumstances at present are strongly analogous to those of the Republican Party and pro-Union Democrats versus Andrew Johnson and the resurgent Secessionist/pro-slavery Democrats of 1866-68, the latter seeking...

{snip} In tonight's Heard On The Street section, the WSJ notes: As everybody knows, AIG got a huge government bailout in September 2008 to help make payments on derivatives contracts with banks, including Goldman. Yet in the previous month, Goldman approached AIG about "tearing up" its contracts, according to a November 2008 analysis by BlackRock, then an adviser to the New York Fed. So was Goldman prepared to offer AIG a haircut in the month before its rescue? A legitimate question, given that Goldman refused to accept such a cut when the New York Fed raised the idea after it...

Intensity matters in politics and, at times, is more important than approval. It may be, and the ratings certainly suggested this was the case, that the television viewing public preferred Jay Leno to David Letterman when choosing which late-night talk show to watch. From a political standpoint, however, it would do a candidate for elective office little good at the polls to announce he was a "Leno person" or to denounce Letterman. Preference in late-night talk show hosts is simply not an issue on which people vote. On the other hand there are issues which, while they matter little to...