A quick one this evening:
• Jim Webb not only isn’t all that pleased with the announcement that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be tried in federal court, but he isn’t committed to voting for cloture in health care reform. He may need some attention.
• By contrast, the ACLU praises the Holder decision on KSM, but not the little remarked-upon decision to try five other defendants in military commissions, which the ACLU considers a broken process. Maybe those five turned down the alleged plea deals that the Administration is reportedly trying to strike with detainees, in the hopes that they can get some more usable information in court. This quote is unbelievable:
One defense attorney said federal prosecutors had so little on his client that they asked the detainee to suggest a charge he would be willing to plead guilty to.
• One interesting side issue is that Eric Holder announced he would seek the death penalty in the KSM case, contrary to the wishes of some experts.
• While President Obama reached deals with Japan on nuclear nonproliferation and climate change, it was the agreement on talks about the Marine base in Okinawa, which many Okinawans feel represents an occupation, that was the most consequential news. The Japanese probably want more than a high-level working group, however, and frankly, after 65 years on that island, Americans should too.
• No CBO health care score today. Try back next week.
• Another promise from the Administration to move on immigration reform in 2010. Yeah, that’ll be an easy vote in an election year.
• I want to thank Jim Cooper for announcing that health care is on life support after it gets further than any similar bill in American history. Thanks for all the help, man.
• There should be a contentious debate inside the California Democratic Party on Afghanistan over the weekend.
• Harry Reid is running the I’m a big macher strategy in his Nevada Senate race.
• I’m extremely happy to see an end to burrowing – but in this case, the damage has been done by the previous Administration, and civil service protections prevent Obama from doing a whole lot about it. If the last White House to put all their political officials inside the federal bureaucracy is George W. Bush’s, we’re going to have to hit the fast forward button for 30 years or so, or else not look up.



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First time Goldman Sachs has been named as a defendant in this kind of case, apparently.
SMUD sues Wall St. firms over alleged bid rigging
“The Sacramento Municipal Utility District sued Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and 45 other financial firms Thursday in Sacramento federal court for allegedly rigging bids in bond-derivatives markets and defrauding the utility.
“SMUD joined at least six city and county governments in California that already have filed similar lawsuits . . . .”
LINK.
Always love The Roundup, David, thanks!
Great. So if SMUD et al. win, Goldman, the “I’m doing ‘God’s work” ™ Company, JP Morgan, etc. will pay the award with our tax dollars, to a Utility that should have resisted greed, known better, but invested customer monies in wacky derivatives anyway. You lay with dogs, you get fleas.