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Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (100196)	6/10/2007 1:15:57 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	Respond to of 173976

kennyrat proud of this ex-mayor: Former Newark Mayor Warned About Charges By DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI Published: June 10, 2007 Federal investigators have informed former Newark Mayor Sharpe James that he could soon face criminal charges for billing the city for tens of thousands of dollars in travel expenses during his final months in office and allowing his advisers and political allies to buy municipal property at rates far below market rates, according to a lawyer familiar with the case. Skip to next paragraph Alex Di Suvero for The New York Times Sharpe James, who was mayor for 20 years, has been under investigation for more than a year. Mr. James, who left office last June after 20 years as mayor, has been the subject of a federal inquiry for more than a year, after complaints from community leaders and political opponents that he was conducting a “fire sale” of vacant city lots to his associates at low prices. During the course of the investigation, federal agents have subpoenaed records and questioned city police officers who accompanied Mr. James and his aides on trips to Martha’s Vineyard, Brazil and the Caribbean to determine whether he used his two city credit cards to pay for legitimate business expenses or for vacations. Early this month, the United States attorney’s office sent Mr. James a “target letter,” offering him a chance to testify to the grand jury before its members vote on whether to hand up an indictment, according to the lawyer, who declined to be identified because the investigation was ongoing. The letter was first reported yesterday by The Star-Ledger of Newark. Neither Mr. James nor his lawyer, Raymond M. Brown, returned repeated calls for comment, but in the past they have insisted that the land sales and travel benefited Newark and its taxpayers. Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for United States Attorney Christopher J. Christie, also did not return calls requesting information about the case. The escalation of the investigation is an ominous sign for Mr. James, a brash and skilled politician who dominated Newark’s affairs for a generation. He was swept into office as a reformer in 1986, unseating Kenneth Gibson, Newark’s first black mayor, and presided over a surge in downtown development and rising real estate prices. But Mr. James’s critics say he often overlooked the city’s neighborhoods and schools at the expense of the power brokers and business leaders who contributed to his campaigns. Mr. James has been dogged by allegations of financial impropriety since 1995, when a federal investigation into his charitable foundation, the Sharpe James Civic Association, which could not account for hundreds of thousands of dollars, ended without any charges against the mayor. A separate investigation in 1997 led to the conviction of his chief of staff, who took kickbacks from insurance brokers. The reduced-rate sale of city property, which occurred mostly in 2005 and 2006, became a major issue in the campaign of Mayor Cory A. Booker, who was easily elected after Mr. James decided not to run. Mr. Booker criticized the James administration for selling property for $4 a square foot when similar parcels were appraised at more than $20, saying they were a giveaway of city resources to people with political connections. The Booker campaign also won an injunction blocking dozens of sales. Among those who were allowed to buy the low-priced property was Tamika Riley, a public relations consultant who occasionally traveled with Mr. James. Ms. Riley bought at least nine city-owned properties for $46,000 and later resold them for $700,000. She was also scheduled to buy three more properties before those sales were blocked by the injunction. Federal agents also subpoenaed records regarding a series of transactions involving Karen Hilliard-Johnson, who worked for Mr. James as a director in the city’s Department of Economic and Housing Development. Property records show that in 2000, Ms. Hilliard-Johnson bought a home for $200,000 — when similar homes were selling for well over $300,000 — from a developer who later purchased dozens of low-cost city lots from the department where she worked. In an interview earlier this year, Ms. Hilliard-Johnson said she had done nothing improper. The investigation into the financial dealings of Mr. James’s administration is one of a wide range of corruption inquires conducted by Mr. Christie since he took office in 2002. His office has won convictions or guilty pleas from more than 100 elected officials, including former Essex County Executive James Treffinger; former State Senate President John Lynch; and a variety of Monmouth County officials. Federal agents are now conducting at least two other high profile inquiries — one into appropriations by the State Legislature and the other into a leasing deal involving United States Senator Robert Menendez, who was paid thousands of dollars in rent by a social service agency he helped get federal funding when he was a United States Representative — but it is unclear whether either of those cases will lead to charges.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (100196)	6/10/2007 1:57:18 PM
From: Peter O'Brien	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 173976

I haven't heard many people volunteering to give back the tax cuts they received from the Republicans.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (100196)	6/10/2007 1:59:27 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	Respond to of 173976

Lieberman Backs Limited U.S. Attacks on Iran By BRIAN KNOWLTON Published: June 10, 2007 WASHINGTON, June 10 — Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, an independent who strongly supports the war in Iraq, said today that unless Iran stops training Iraqis to carry out anti-coalition attacks, the United States should launch cross-border attacks into Iran. “I think we’ve got to be prepared to take aggressive military action against the Iranians to stop them from killing Americans in Iraq,” Mr. Lieberman said in an interview on the CBS News program “Face the Nation.” This could be achieved mostly with air attacks, Mr. Lieberman said, adding, “I’m not talking about a massive ground invasion of Iran.” The comment from Mr. Lieberman of Connecticut, who is sometimes a swing vote in the closely divided Senate, went far beyond the official position in the Bush administration, which has warned Iran about supporting Iraqi insurgents but also recently held high-level talks with Iranian officials. There was no immediate White House reaction. The administration has criticized Tehran for failing to stop the flow of highly destructive explosives into Iraq, and training Iraqis in their use, but American officials concede that they are unable to prove that senior Iranian officials are behind the smuggling. Mr. Lieberman said he supported the high-level talks with Iran, but added that there was “incontrovertible” evidence that Iranians were training Iraqis to use the explosives, which are blamed for killing as many as 200 Americans. "They can’t believe that they have immunity for training and equipping people to come in and kill Americans," he said. "We cannot let them get away with it.” The senator also said he doubted that the White House decision not to renominate Gen. Peter Pace as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff presaged any strategy shift for Iraq. White House spokesmen have pointed to a caution from Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, that a Pace reconfirmation hearing would have provided a platform for a bruising re-examination of mistakes made in Iraq. The president “would have loved to renominate Pete Pace,” the White House spokesman, Tony Snow, said on CBS. “That was his intent.” But he said there was a desire to avoid “getting mired in a backward-looking debate.” Mr. Snow denied, in an appearance on Fox, that the White House was effectively giving the Democratic Congress a preemptive veto over its nominations. But some Democrats suggested that, congressional opposition aside, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates wanted his own man in the job — not the last high-ranking holdover from the Pentagon regime of former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. “To suggest that tough sledding on Capitol Hill is a reason to pull the plug on Peter Pace, I don’t think that’s a good argument,” said Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate. He said he probably would have voted to confirm General Pace. In the past, the Bush administration has not shied away from such battles — and Mr. Snow said today that the White House would pay no mind Monday if a Senate no-confidence vote in Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales prevailed. Mr. Snow called it “a purely symbolic vote.” Mr. Durbin expressed surprise at that reaction. “This is a White House that is prepared to fight for Attorney General Gonzales,” who has faced intense bipartisan criticism for his handling of the firings of several United States attorneys, “but not fight for Marine Corps General Peter Pace?”