Category: Politics & Government

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Bridge n Tunnel crowd forced out of the city – TWU Strike

So I wrote a post about the potential strike of the NYC transit workers last week (Linked here) and after their pathetic attempt to bluff the system yesterday with a 2-line private bus strike in Queens, they finally pulled the plug on the NYC commute. The first transit strike in 25 years has commenced and a walk around NYC today feels like a stroll in my home town suburb of P-town.

The TWU’s strike, initiated as a counter move in negotiations for more money, is yet another reason American Unions are deflating the US economy and these days its all about greed. These no education-having fucks make more money than the average NYer (public defender, cop, firefighter, teacher, nurse, EMT, etc.) and still think they deserve more of the financial pie from an already corrupt MTA.

It’s quite ironic actually, that through their strike, NYers are forced not to work and spend their income in the city. Thus the TWU is helping reduce the amount of taxes incurred by the city to pay their own salaries. An 18% raise, retirement at 50 and MLK day designated as a holiday for their job of driving around in circles, getting NYers to work, so we can pay for their homes and 9 person families. Well what about my family! My bills! My house er uh Apt!

“Transit workers are tired of being under appreciated and disrespected.” – Roger Toussaint (President of the Transit Workers Union). I think I deserve a thank you first for riding the train Mr. Toussaint, before I even contemplate appreciating the job a 5th grade education can afford.

If you pick a silver lining out of this, at least the BnT are stuck outside Manhattan – its quite livable in the city this morning! But if you’re forced to walk to the island today, bundle up kids, its going to be a balmy 23 degrees today!

A side note, I heard the Red Cross was set up at all the bridges in Manhattan for those walking into work today, handing out free coffee to the refugees.

Strike halts New York transport {BBC News}
Gawker has some interesting updates, comedy and posts on the strike as well.

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Did Karl Rove Hide or Destroy Evidence in Plame Case?

By JASON LEOPOLD

Valerie PlameSpecial Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald met with the grand jury investigating the leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson for several hours Friday. Short of a last minute intervention by Rove’s attorney, Fitzgerald is expected to ask a grand jury-possibly as soon as next week–the to indict Rove for making false statements to the FBI and Justice Department investigators in October 2003, lawyers close to the case say.

Moreover, Fitzgerald is said to believe that there is a possibility Rove either hid or destroyed evidence related to his role in the leak, lawyers close to the case said.

A few weeks after he took over the investigation into the leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson in early 2004, Fitzgerald had already become suspicious that Karl Rove and Vice President Cheney’s then-chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby were hindering his investigation.

In late January 2004, Fitzgerald sent a letter to his boss, then acting Attorney General James Comey, seeking confirmation that he had the authority to investigate and prosecute individuals for additional crimes, including obstruction of justice, perjury, and destroying evidence. The leak investigation had been centered up to that point on an obscure law making it a felony for any government official to knowingly disclose the identity of an undercover CIA officer.

Comey responded to Fitzgerald in writing Feb. 6, 2004, confirming that Fitzgerald had the authority to prosecute those crimes, including “perjury, obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence, and intimidation of witnesses.”

Fitzgerald was concerned that Rove had hidden or destroyed a very important document tying him to the leak. His suspicions may have been right: an email he sent to then Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley in early July 2003 later proved Rove had spoken to Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper about Plame-a fact that Rove omitted when he was first interviewed by the FBI.

The same day Fitzgerald received the response letter from Comey the White House faced a deadline of turning over administration contacts with 25 journalists to the grand jury investigating the leak. One of the journalists cited in the subpoena sent to the White House Jan. 22, 2004 was Cooper. Three months earlier, in late 2003, then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales enjoined all White House staff to turn over any communication about Valerie Plame Wilson and her husband. Gonzales’ request came 12 hours after senior White House officials had been told of the pending investigation. The email Rove sent to Hadley which specifically cited “Matt Cooper from Time” never turned up in that request either, people close to the investigation said.

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Continue article at Counterpunch