This is a true faith-bender. Blackwater, the former Erik Prince "security company", has negotiated a $42 million settlement with the Department of State. Having taken their gulp of medicine, they will now be eligible for even more contracts with the Department of State. How does that work, exactly?

New York Times:

The violations included illegal weapons exports to Afghanistan, making unauthorized proposals to train troops in south Sudan and providing sniper training for Taiwanese police officers, according to company and government officials familiar with the deal.

The settlement, which has not yet been publicly announced, follows lengthy talks between Blackwater, now called Xe Services, and the State Department that dealt with the violations as an administrative matter, allowing the firm to avoid criminal charges.

Amazing, though not even close to the end of Blackwater/Xe's troubles. Among the other legal actions pending:

Those include the indictments of five former executives, including Blackwater’s former president, on weapons and obstruction charges; a federal investigation into evidence that Blackwater officials sought to bribe Iraqi government officials; and the arrest of two former Blackwater guards on federal murder charges stemming from the killing of two Afghans last year.

Of course, Blackwater blackguard Erik Prince is now living in Dubai. We do have an extradition agreement with Dubai, don't we?

But no worries for Blackwater. They'll still be entitled to bid for federal contracts.

In June, the State Department awarded Blackwater a $120 million contract to provide security at its regional offices in Afghanistan, while the C.I.A. renewed the firm’s $100 million security contract for its station in Kabul. At the time, the C.I.A. director, Leon E. Panetta, defended the decision, saying that the company had offered the lowest bid and had “cleaned up its act.”

Against the weight of those charges and the absurdity of those newly-awarded contracts, there is this: Roger Clemens was indicted this week for lying to Congress. Unfortunately, he can't bid for government contracts to cover his legal fees. Oh, and let's not forget this: Tom DeLay gets off, and not in a good way.

Justice isn't blind. It's absent.

As Susie noted earlier, Techcrunch is reporting that Pennsylvania Attorney General (and Republican candidate for Governor) Tom Corbett, in a classic "we respect the Constitution until we don't" Republican move, has summoned Twitter officials to testify before a Grand Jury about two members' accounts.

It appears that two members have been openly critical of the Attorney General on Twitter and on an anonymous blog created to "expose the hypocrisy of Tom Corbett."

Here's the specific information Corbett wants (from the subpoena):

"Any and all subscriber information pertaining to the users of:

http://twitter.com/bfbarbie

http://twitter.com/CasablancaPA

This should include, but not limited to: name, address, contact information, creation date, creation Internet Protocol address and any and all log in Internet Protocol addresses."

The tweets which appear to be in question are ones like this:

Corbett is actively pursuing the prosecution of state employees alleged to have participated in a bonus program which used taxpayer dollars for campaigns. His results have been mixed: Two acquittals and three partial convictions.

Just a quick read through this article gives me the chills, especially when I came to the part where Corbett is under federal investigation for the very same charges.

Despite continued claims by the attorney general’s office that accusations, court motions and lawsuits against Corbett are baseless or “bogus,” it remains to be seen whether he can demonstrate to voters that he didn’t abuse his prosecutorial power in the semblance of cleaning up public corruption.

Additionally, a federal lawsuit filed against Corbett in 2008 alleges that thousands, perhaps millions, of public dollars were “illegally paid out to vendors.”

On March 11, Corbett was deposed in his office for six hours for a lawsuit filed against him and others in the office of the attorney general and Department of Revenue. The whistleblower case alleges that Thomas D. Kimmett, a former attorney with the AG’s office, and his assistant, Sherry E. Bellaman, were terminated because of Kimmett’s call for an independent investigation into the collection practices within the Attorney General’s Financial Enforcement Section.

The case alleges “pervasive wrongdoing” in the collection of accounts receivable amounting to upwards of $300 million to $500 million. It gives details of alleged fraudulent payouts to no-bid vendors and claims there was a “cover-up by Mr. Corbett and the other defendants.”

Back to Twitter for a minute. One of the most attractive features of the service is the rapid-fire message-in-140 one-to-many ability. It's easy, it's accessible via text message, the internet and just about any way one wants to access it, and so it enables free speech. True free speech. The kind that doesn't require millions of dollars and TV studio facilities to broadcast. It certainly facilitates the kind of free speech that Republicans extolled in their arguments for Citizens United.

What scares them most is their inability to control it like they do the airwaves and other venues. In my opinion, Corbett's efforts to expose anonymous Twitter identities is nothing more than a misguided slap at free speech and democracy.

Norwegianity: Fighting terrorism with more guns for terrorists

Economist's View: Galbraith: The Role of Fraud in the Financial Crisis

OpenSecrets Blog: BP enjoys lobbying strength and close ties to lawmakers as federal investigation looms

Little Green Footballs: The wingnut blogosphere is fuming and hissing with outrage over yet another trumped up nontroversy

Politics in the Zeros: Two former high ranking officials of the California public pension fund are being sued for fraud

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James O'Keefe went on Sean Hannity's Fox News show last night and was sticking to his story: He and his gang of "phone repairmen" were just there to try to get to the bottom of Landrieu's claim that her phone lines were jammed.

But when Hannity asked him to describe the arrest and the facts of the case in detail, he clammed up, saying it was the subject of a federal investigation? Well, yeah, but if that's a problem, why go on a national news show in the first place?

Most of all, he not only refused to corroborate Andrew Bretibart's claims that he was held without access to an attorney, but he contradicted Brietbart's conspiracy theory that the DOJ was out to get him by saying: "I have no complaints about how the U.S. attorney is handling this."

These guys need to get their stories straight, dontcha think?

This USAToday piece leaves out an important piece of the puzzle here. The company who sold the pumps was closely tied to the Bush family, at one time even employing Jeb Bush:

WASHINGTON — Huge flood-control pumps installed in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina don't protect the city adequately and the Army Corps of Engineers could have saved $430 million in replacement costs by buying proven equipment, a federal investigation finds.

The investigation by the federal Office of Special Counsel finds there was "little logical justification" for the corps' decision to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on the "untested" hydraulic pumps, which are meant to empty millions of gallons of water from the below-sea-level city during storm-related floods.

Nope, no "logical" justification. Just political! From March 2007:

Meanwhile, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., asked the Government Accountability Office on Thursday to investigate the Corps and the contract it entered into with Moving Water Industries Corp.

MWI is owned by J. David Eller and his sons. Eller was once a business partner of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in a venture called Bush-El that marketed MWI pumps.

But wait, it gets even worse:

In 2002, the U.S. Justice Department amended its suit against Eller, alleging that he twice flew suitcases of cash to offshore tax havens to hide his assets, the St. Petersburg Times reported. The DOJ also claimed that MWI improperly used more than a third of a $74.3-million U.S. loan to pay a Nigerian agent for the company. In turn, that agent and other company officials paid Nigerian government officials involved in buying MWI's pumps, the lawsuit alleges. MWI denies the charges.

According to the paper:

Between 1985 and 1993, the government says, Eller flew on his company plane to the Bahamas and to Grand Cayman, once with a "large suitcase filled with currency" and once with a "large duffel bag or suitcase filled with currency." At both places, a chauffeured limousine whisked him and the money away. Eller told his pilot he was "moving his assets out of the United States," the lawsuit contends, calling it an effort to shield the money from creditors.

Eller's lawyer, William Scherer, said the flights never occurred and neither Eller nor MWI has accounts in either country.

The lawsuit by the George W. Bush Justice Department suggests no wrongdoing by Jeb Bush, who from 1988 to 1994 worked with Eller marketing MWI pumps to foreign countries, including Nigeria.

Indeed, the amended complaint omits allegations of influence-peddling by MWI -- including Eller's bringing Jeb Bush into the pump business -- leveled in the whistle-blower's recently unsealed lawsuit. That lawsuit prompted the federal investigation.

This begs a couple of questions: Why was a company under DOJ investigation for such serious charges given a major federal contract for New Orleans reconstruction in the first place? And why is the DOJ suit against MWI still unresolved after so many years?

It's all so damned incestuous, isn't it?

The man leading the Obama administration’s efforts to restructure the auto industry has been described in Securities and Exchange Commission documents as having arranged for his investment firm to pay more than $1 million to obtain New York State pension business.

Although he is not named in the documents, a person with knowledge of the inquiry said the investment executive is Steven Rattner, co-founder of the Quadrangle Group, the prominent private equity firm.

The S.E.C. complaint, filed as part of an expansive state and federal investigation into corruption at the state pension fund, details the efforts of Quadrangle to gain business from the pension fund beginning in 2004.

The person who received most of the $1 million-plus payment has been indicted, accused of selling access to the fund.

There is no indication in the complaint that Mr. Rattner faces criminal or civil charges in connection with the inquiry.

Via Sacbee: (h/t Nate)

As the House late Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to launch speedy ethics investigations of any member indicted for criminal conduct, Rep. John Doolittle voted against two measures on the matter.

The Roseville Republican is under federal investigation for political corruption in connection with his relationship with imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff. He said recently that federal agents searched his home in April after he refused to plead guilty to a crime as part of a plea deal.

Doolittle declined a request for an interview. He instead issued a statement saying, "I believe involving the House of Representatives in an investigation when a judicial proceeding is in progress jeopardizes the rights of the defendant and the people (represented by the prosecution)." Read more...

Who could have predicted Doolittle would be opposed to such legislation?

Booman Tribune; Congressional leaders on Thursday demanded that the Veterans Affairs secretary explain hefty bonuses for senior department officials involved in crafting a budget that came up $1 billion short and jeopardized veterans' health care.

Facing South: A special U.S. House task force voted yesterday to open a federal investigation into last November's disputed District 13 congressional election in Sarasota County, Fla., where more than 18,000 ballots cast by touch-screen machines recorded no vote for either candidate.

PERRspectives Blog: GOP quotes of the week, Iraq veto edition

denialism blog: Discussing the problem of denialists, their standard arguing techniques, how to identify denialists and/or cranks, and discussing topics of general interest such as skepticism, medicine, law and science. Mark Hoofnagle be taking on denialists in the sciences, while brother, Chris, will be geared more towards the legal and policy implications of industry groups using denialist arguments to prevent sound policies.

William K. Wolfrum: Tips on how to 'civilize' your blog posts

The Orstrahyun: Australia faces the world's most extreme 'climate challenge'.  How long before the mass evacuation of cities begins?

Remember Jeanine Pirro? She gave up her Senate campaign against Hillary in favor of running for the NY Attorney General. Unfortunately, things aren't going so well there either:

TPM Muckraker:

Boy, it's been a rough year for Jeanine Pirro. First her fledging challenge to Sen. Hilary Clinton (D-NY) exploded after the worst campaign launch ever.

Now she's under federal investigation for plotting -- with onetime NYPD chief, former Iraq security head, would-be DHS secretary and crook Bernard Kerik -- to illegally spy on her own husband. (Come to think of it, it hasn't been a great year for Kerik, either). Oh, did I mention that their conversations were recorded? Read on...

Guess which big guns she's calling to help her?

"I am calling on U.S. attorney [general], Alberto Gonzalez [sic], to begin an immediate investigation and appoint a special prosecutor to get Elliot Jacobson off his witch hunt," Pirro told the New York Hispanic Clergy Association in the Bronx. "There needs to be a federal investigation of the felony of leaking sealed court documents." Read on...

You think Gonzo is going render anyone to Syria for this?

Democrats.com: Is Sam Brownback bringing Opus Dei into the Senate?

Consortium News: Over the past quarter century, South Korean theocrat Sun Myung Moon has been one of the Bush family’s major benefactors – both politically and financially – while enjoying what appears to be protection against federal investigations into evidence that his cult-like organization has functioned as a criminal enterprise.

BlondeSense: Privacy Alert

Recovering Liberal: Mystery disease affects New Yorkers in the wake of the 9/11 attacks

AGITPROP: Get out your tinfoil hats...

Spittle & Ink: The difference between Us and Them..