TPMMuckraker
Zachary Roth

Obama Removes AmeriCorps IG Who Clashed With Ally: Politicized Firing, Or Just Dessert?

Zachary Roth | June 12, 2009, 3:40PM

We weren't sure what to make of the news that President Obama has decided to fire the inspector general of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). The IG, Gerald Walpin, had been investigating the misuse of federal AmeriCorps funds by a nonprofit group run by Kevin Johnson, a former NBA basketball player and Obama supporter who's now the mayor of Sacramento.

But since we think of politicized firings as kind of our beat, we figured it was worth looking into. So here's a quick rundown on how things got to where they are, based on reporting by the Sacramento Bee:

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Topics: Barack Obama, U.S. Attorneys

Right-wing extremism

SHOCKER: Buchanan Prefers "The Old Bigotry" To Affirmative Action

Zachary Roth | June 12, 2009, 1:55PM

OK, we know it's not exactly breaking news that Pat Buchanan holds some views that are borderline racist, to put it mildly. But this one is just too blatant to pass up.

In his latest column for Human Events -- a forum he often uses to air opinions that wouldn't fly during his regular gigs as a commentator on MSNBC -- Buchanan writes that he "prefers the old bigotry" to the Ivy League affirmative action policies that may have benefited Sonia Sotomayor, because "at least it was honest."

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Topics: Media, Racism, Right-wing extremism

Racism

Latest Right-Wing Meme: Von Brunn's A Lefty

Zachary Roth | June 11, 2009, 4:19PM

It's hardly been 24 hours since James Von Brunn allegedly walked into the Holocaust Museum and shot museum guard Stephen Johns. But already conservatives from Rush Limbaugh to Red State have started advancing their latest up-is-down meme: Von Brunn -- a white supremacist consumed by hatred of Jews and blacks, who has called for President Obama to release his birth certificate -- isn't really a right-winger -- in fact, he's a lefty.

Let's count off the examples:

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Topics: Media, Racism, Right-wing extremism

Guantanamo

TPMmuckraker Presents: No Direction Home -- One Uighur's Journey From East Turkistan To Palau, Via Gitmo

Zachary Roth | June 11, 2009, 1:53PM

Here at TPMmuckraker, we've been thinking about pitching an idea for a screenplay. It's sort of a Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay meets The Kite Runner meets Borat.

You have to put yourself in the shoes of the protagonist:

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Topics: Detainees, Guantanamo

Right-wing extremism

Von Brunn's Site Was Transferred Out Of His Name June 1

Zachary Roth | June 11, 2009, 10:05AM

The registration for James Von Brunn's now-defunct white supremacist website, HolyWesternEmpire.org, was transferred out of Von Brunn's name on June 1, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The information, which SPLC obtained through a search of online records, suggests that Von Brunn was at the time planning the attack on the Holocaust Museum of which he is now suspected, and may have wanted to ensure that the site continued.

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Topics: James von Brunn, Right-wing extremism

Right-wing extremism

Did Von Brunn See Significance In The Number 88?

Zachary Roth | June 10, 2009, 4:52PM

Is there a significance to the fact that James Von Brunn allegedly carried out this shooting at the Holocaust Museum at the age of 88?

Eighty-eight is a number with particular significance in Neo-Nazi circles. The eighth letter of the alphabet is 'H', so 88 equates to HH, or "Heil Hitler." The German Neo-Nazi rock group Landser has a song called "88 Rock Band.

The lyrics:

White Power! They call me nazi and I am proud about They call me racist and I shout it out loud I am proud of my race, proud of my land White brothers and sisters Come and raise your hand
We are an 88 Rock 'n' Roll Band
We are an 88 Rock 'n' Roll Band
We are an 88 Rock 'n' Roll Band
and we play for the fallen for race and land

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Topics: Holocaust Museum shooting, James von Brunn, Right-wing extremism

Racism

Von Brunn Promoted Work Of Legendary Anti-Semite

Zachary Roth | June 10, 2009, 4:05PM

It looks like James Von Brunn tried to use Wikipedia to promote the work of Willis Carto, the right-wing Holocaust denier and founder of the Liberty Lobby.

Just last month, a Wikipedia user James Von Brunn asked the site's adminstrators:

How do I get user: James W. von Brunn on Wikipedia website. Also I have a letter from Professor Revilo Oliver pertaining to Willis Carto that I want to attach. ???????"

According to his Wikipedia page, Carto has been accused by some observers of doing more than just about anyone to keep anti-Semitism alive as a political movement in the US during the 50s, 60s, and 70s.

Late Update: The Southern Poverty Law Center, which says it added Van Brunn's website as a hate site last year, adds:

In the 1980s or early 1990s, von Brunn was employed by Noontide Press, a part of the Holocaust denying Institute of Historical Review, which was then run by Willis Carto, one of America's most prominent anti-Semites.

So Von Brunn's ties to Carto appear to go far deeper.

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Topics: Holocaust Museum shooting, James von Brunn, Racism, Right-wing extremism

Right-wing extremism

Von Brunn To Fellow Extremists: Don't Go To Montana, Holocaust Memorials Are The Enemy

Zachary Roth | June 10, 2009, 3:53PM

In the posting on a right-wing conspiracy site, Von Brunn specifically mentions the idea that the "enemy" is at Holocaust memorials.

He writes:

There are many, many informed patriots such as YOU who know the score! The question then is why don't the INFORMED, such as YOU, take action? If YOU won't take action, if the INFORMED don't take action who the hell will - certainly not the UN-informed.

Moving to Montana is a cop-out. The ENEMY is at the FED, the networks, Wall Street, Congress; at "Holocaust" memorials, at synagogues, not in some sylvan mountain retreat.

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Topics: Holocaust Museum shooting, James von Brunn, Right-wing extremism

Right-wing extremism

Von Brunn Revered By Some Neo-Nazis

Zachary Roth | June 10, 2009, 3:40PM

James Von Brunn appears to be a kind of revered elder statesman of the hardcore white supremacist movement.

A 2003 posting on the Neo-Nazi website Storm Front, by "The Celtic Pit Dog," asked readers to wish him good health after heart surgery and noted "I have heard many great things about this amazing man."

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Topics: Holocaust Museum shooting, James von Brunn, Right-wing extremism

William Jefferson

Ex GOP Lawmaker -- And Social Security Bamboozler -- To Testify For Defense In Jefferson Trial

Zachary Roth | June 10, 2009, 10:55AM

Finally, some bipartisanship in these polarized times!

William Jefferson, the Democratic former congressman who's facing trial on corruption charges after being found with $90,000 in his freezer, will get help from a Republican fellow ex-lawmaker from Louisiana.

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Topics: William Jefferson

Ben Bernanke

Congress To Bernanke: Hand Over Docs On BofA-Merrill Deal

Zachary Roth | June 9, 2009, 6:16PM

Congress has subpoenaed the Federal Reserve, to force it to hand over documents about its role in Bank of America's takeover of Merrill Lynch during the financial crisis last fall, reports Reuters.

Staffers for the House Oversight committee, chaired by Rep. Ed Towns of New York, had been allowed to view the documents at the Fed. But Towns has now concluded that the committee needs to have the documents in its possession. The Fed has said it will comply with the subpoena.

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Topics: Bank of America, Ben Bernanke, Edolphus Towns, Federal Reserve, Financial Crisis, House Oversight, Ken Lewis, Merrill Lynch, Wall Street

Financial Crisis

Lawsuit: Wells Fargo Targeted Blacks For Subprime Loans

Zachary Roth | June 9, 2009, 5:08PM

In the wake of the subprime mortgage crisis, the unsavory and sometimes illegal business practices of the mortgage lenders at the vanguard of the subprime trend have slowly been coming to light. But new claims in a lawsuit filed against Wells Fargo by the city of Baltimore -- and reported in the last week by the Baltimore Sun and New York Times -- are pretty shocking nonetheless.

The suit accuses Wells Fargo of using a range of deceptive practices to push high-interest, subprime loans onto African-Americans in Baltimore and the Maryland suburbs, leading hundreds into foreclosure. The claims come largely from two former Wells Fargo loan officers, who submitted signed affidavits filed last week.

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Topics: Financial Crisis, Racism, Wells Fargo

Barack Obama

CIA Stance On Torture Tape Docs Suggests Obama's New Open Government Era Won't Materialize

Zachary Roth | June 9, 2009, 1:49PM

It's looking more and more like Barack Obama's pledge to usher in a new era of openness in government may well go unfulfilled.

Yesterday, administration lawyers cited national security concerns to argue that Bush-era documents detailing the videotaped interrogations of detainees should not be released. And in the wake of that news, open-government advocates are reluctantly acknowledging that, despite Obama's campaign promises, his approach to secrecy on issues of national security will likely not depart significantly from that of George Bush.

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Topics: Barack Obama, CIA, CIA Tapes, George Bush, State Secrets, Torture, Wiretapping

CIA

Panetta: Too Dangerous To Release Torture Tape Docs

Zachary Roth | June 9, 2009, 9:58AM

Do we have yet another case of the Obama administration mimicking its predecessor's notorious penchant for government secrecy?

The CIA argued yesterday that Bush-era documents detailing the videotaped interrogations of detainees should not be released, citing national security concerns, reports the Washington Post.

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Topics: CIA, CIA Tapes, Leon Panetta, State Secrets, Torture, Wiretapping

Allen Stanford

Allen Stanford's New Lawyers: Admiralty And Maritime Law Experts

Zachary Roth | June 8, 2009, 5:56PM

Remember our old friend Allen Stanford? Matthew Goldstein, who had been covering the Stanford story closely at BusinessWeek, and has now moved to Reuters, has an interesting catch about the cricket-loving billionaire's curious legal strategy.

Goldstein reports that Stanford last week replaced his civil defense team with a group of lawyers from the Gulf Law Group, a little-known Washington, DC-based firm.

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Topics: Allen Stanford, Securities and Exchange Commission

Torture

Torture Advocates Mum On Whether They Support Waterboarding Roeder

Zachary Roth | June 8, 2009, 2:18PM

For years now, torture supporters have been using the "ticking time-bomb" scenario to argue that it's irresponsible to issue a blanket ban on torture. If we knew that a bomb was set to explode imminently, goes the argument, and that torture could help obtain information to avert the disaster and save hundreds of lives, who wouldn't do it?

This has always borne more relation to an episode of 24 than to the actual war on terror. Even torture supporters have admitted that no such ticking time-bomb case has ever occurred. But it looks like we may now be confronted with a version of it in a very different context -- and this time, it's hard not to notice that those same torture supporters don't seem to be rushing to call for the waterboard just yet.

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Topics: Dick Cheney, Eric Holder, John Cornyn, Right-wing extremism, Scott Roeder, Torture

Alberto Gonzales

DOJ Torture Emails: How The Times Could Have Reported The Story

Zachary Roth | June 8, 2009, 1:01PM

Over the weekend, the New York Times reported that Justice Department lawyers agreed in 2005 that harsh interrogation techniques were legal. The impact of the story -- which was based largely on email messages written at the time by James Comey, then a high-ranking Justice Department official -- has been, it seems, to bolster the Dick Cheney position in the ongoing torture debate in Washington.

But the Times also, to its credit, released Comey's emails in full, allowing us all to make our own judgments about what they show. And after a close look at the emails, it seems clear that the paper could have used them to write a very different story -- with a very different effect on the public debate.