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dixiegrrrrl

dixiegrrrrl's Journal
dixiegrrrrl's Journal
May 23, 2013

IRS official Lois Lerner, who took the 5th at Congressional hearing, is placed on admin. leave.

What's interesting is how it came about!

Thursday afternoon, Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and John McCain, R-Ariz., the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Government Affairs investigations subcommittee, called on Daniel Werfel, the new acting IRS commissioner, "to suspend immediately Lois Lerner from her office as Director of the Office of Exempt Organizations."
In a letter to Werfel, Levin and McCain accused Lerner of not being forthcoming about the targeting scandal during an hours-long interview by the subcommittee,
writing that she "failed to disclose the internal controversy over the search terms used by the Cincinnati office to identify 501(c)(4) groups for further review, the actions taken by that office in reviewing the identified groups, the investigation and imminent findings by the Treasury Department Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA); and TIGTA's conclusion that the IRS had used inappropriate criteria to target Tea Party and other conservative groups.
Ms. Lerner also failed to disclose that she was fully aware of these issues as early as June 2011, and, according to TIGTA, had been personally involved in reviewing questionable actions taken by the Cincinnati office."

"Given the serious failure by Ms. Lerner to disclose to this Subcommittee key information on topics that the Subcommittee was investigating, we have lost confidence in her ability to fulfill her duties," they continued.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57585938/issa-irs-lerner-waived-her-fifth-amendment-rights/
May 23, 2013

Pennsylvania Judge Sentenced For 28 Years For Selling Kids to the Prison System

I fear he may not be the only judge doing this, but sure glad he was caught.
linked article only has these 4 paragraphs:

Mark Ciavarella Jr, a 61-year old former judge in Pennsylvania, has been sentenced to nearly 30 years in prison for literally selling young juveniles for cash. He was convicted of accepting money in exchange for incarcerating thousands of adults and children into a prison facility owned by a developer who was paying him under the table. The kickbacks amounted to more than $1 million.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has overturned some 4,000 convictions issued by him between 2003 and 2008, claiming he violated the constitutional rights of the juveniles – including the right to legal counsel and the right to intelligently enter a plea. Some of the juveniles he sentenced were as young as 10-years old.

Ciavarella was convicted of 12 counts, including racketeering, money laundering, mail fraud and tax evasion. He was also ordered to repay $1.2 million in restitution.

His "kids for cash" program has revealed that corruption is indeed within the prison system, mostly driven by the growth in private prisons seeking profits by any means necessary.
http://blog.blacknews.com/2013/05/judge-mark-ciavarella-sentenced-selling-kids-prison-system101.html?m=1#.UZ4YHWR4aHc


UPDATE:

He was one of TWO judges.The 2nd judge got 17 years.

There were 2,400 juveniles involved.
The people who gave him the money:

December 16, 2011
Wealthy developer Robert K. Mericle agreed Friday to pay $17.75 million to settle civil-rights actions filed against him and his companies by former juvenile offenders who claim they were unjustly imprisoned in the kids-for-cash scandal.

The claims stem from Mericle's payment of $2.1 million to two former Luzerne County judges who placed juveniles in two for-profit detention centers built by one of his companies. The settlement does not affect ongoing claims against the judges, who are serving lengthy prison terms, the owners of the centers and other defendants.
http://standardspeaker.com/news/mericle-pays-17-75m-to-settle-kids-for-cash-claims-1.1245937


Robert Mericle's sentencing in connection with his pleading guilty to failing to report a felony has been delayed pending his testimony in the bribery trial of former Pennsylvania State Senator Raphael Musto, which is scheduled for June.
Mericle faces up to three years in prison, although he is likely to receive 12 to 18 months under United States Federal Sentencing Guidelines
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal#Criminal_verdicts

[div class="excerpt"]Robert Powell pleaded guilty in 2009 to concealing a felony and an accessory charge in the so-called "kids for cash" scandal.
(he got 18 months, apparently wore a wire so the feds could catch Mericle.)
http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/powell-pleads-guilty-1.99257


May 23, 2013

Anyone following the Sweden riots?

First time I read about it this week, I thought Sweden????".
Home of the happy peaceful people?

Here is the key part of the issue:

"We see a society that is becoming increasingly divided and where the gaps, both socially and economically, are becoming larger," said Rami Al-khamisi, co-founder of Megafonen, a group that works for social change in the suburbs. "And the people out here are being hit the hardest … We have institutional racism."

"The reason is very simple. Unemployment, the housing situation, disrespect from police," said Rouzbeh Djalaie, editor of Norra Sidan newspaper. "It just takes something to start a riot, and that was the shooting."

Djalaie said youths were often stopped by police in the streets for identity checks. During the riots, he said some police called local youths "apes".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/23/swedish-riots-stockholm?CMP=twt_gu

the article goes on to discuss the increase of minorities who live in Sweden.

May 22, 2013

One pic belies a thousand denials of guilt

This is Doug Shulman, former head of IRS, appointed by Bush, who says he knew nothing saw nothing, heard nothing,
and was not responsible for any of the scandal, therefore will not apologize for anything.

But wait...where have we seen this expression before?

Profile Information

Gender: Female
Hometown: Washington state, for half my life
Home country: USA
Current location: SW Alabama. for the rest of my life
Member since: Wed Feb 27, 2008, 02:09 PM
Number of posts: 60,010

About dixiegrrrrl

Long time political activist, working to tint my lil "Mayberry" more blue. Collector of strays of various species and minds.
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