U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch protects crooked contractor

According to the NY Daily News, U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch brought the case against giant contractor Bovis Lend Lease for ripping off New York City for tens of millions of dollars. Bovis has admitted to lying to get city contracts and to padding its bills. The company has agreed to pay $50 million in in fines and restitution and one of its executives pled guilty to a single count of fraud conspiracy.

So why didn’t Bovis get charged with a crime? The Daily News says, “Lynch defended the deal saying that if the company were convicted of a crime, it would be debarred from doing government work and have to lay off workers.”

Because they employ so many people, they get a pass on the criminal charges? Loretta Lynch can Bite Me.

Note that most of the fraud happened on Mayor Bloomberg’s watch. A year ago, he got back $5 million for the City. Big whoop. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/06/nyregion/06bovis.html?_r=1

FBI Taught Agents They Could ‘Bend or Suspend the Law’

Your bitemaster was quite the innocent when he thought that the bad old days of FBI abuse of the constitution were behind us. Apparently the FBI taught its agents that they could sometimes “bend or suspend the law” in their hunt for terrorists and criminals. It kind of takes your breath away.

FBI Taught Agents They Could ‘Bend or Suspend the Law’ | Danger Room | Wired.com.

Romney surrogate tries to recapture women voters by making fun of women

“Presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s new foreign policy spokesperson Richard Grenell has an odd penchant for targeting the wives of male politicians and women in general on Twitter.

“Grenell, who served as George W. Bush’s spokesperson at the UN and was announced as the Romney campaign’s new representative yesterday, has gone after Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, Callista Gingrich, Sandra Fluke and others. He also asserted that President Obama’s children should be fair game for political debate. . . . This afternoon, Grennell offered an apology, of sorts, for his attacks, writing, ‘my tweets were written to be tongue-in-cheek and humorous but I can now see how they can also be hurtful. I didn’t mean them that way and will remove them from twitter. . . .’ ”

Mr. H.O. Hell says, “At least he realizes he’d been a dick.”

New Romney Spokesman Used Twitter For Sexist Attacks.

Rodney King memoir published

Next time I wax cynical about Christianity, remind me of Rodney King. He has struggled with his alcoholism and his rage over the beating he received at the hands of the LAPD, but he’s trying to forgive those who beat him:

“That’s how I was raised, to be in a forgiving state of mind. Because I’ve been forgiven many times, and I’m only human, so who am I not to forgive someone? … I wouldn’t be able to grow as a person inside if I was too angry and unforgiving.”

Rodney King speaks at L.A. Times Festival of Books – latimes.com.

David Lat doesn’t know the difference between a blogger and a journalist

David Lat, Managing Editor of AboveTheLaw.com was interviewed by Virginia Law Weekly.

VLW: What do you see as the difference between a “blogger” and a “journalist”?

Lat: At this point, I don’t see a huge difference. A few years ago, there may have been a greater difference between a blogger and journalist, but now, I think you can describe a blogger as an online journalist.

Let me help Lat out. A journalist is a fancy word for a news reporter. A blogger is a gadfly. Lat and I are both bloggers. Mostly, we dish about other people’s news stories. Sometimes we use our Google Fu to come up with something that the real reporters missed. But we rarely pick up the phone and we do most of our work in our skivvies.

Mind you, I like Lat’s blog and have included it in my list of Sites that Don’t Bite. But in this respect, he’s just putting on airs.

via Features: An Interivew with David Lat: Virginia Law Weekly.

NY Daily News calls the breastfeeding baby “gross”

NY Daily News calls suckling baby "gross"

By now, you must have read about the Oreo ad with the baby latched onto a breast and a headline ‘Milk’s Favorite Cookie.’

We thought it was cheeky and cute. But some people will disagree. Ok, so maybe for them the ad was “inappropriate,” or “pandering,” “in poor taste,” “NSW” or even “objectionable.”

But how the hell did the Daily News take a breast, a baby, and a cookie and come up with “gross” ?

Chris Christie goes on another _ad hominem_ rant

Like us, NJ Governor Chris Christie prefers the personal attack to actually making a cogent argument. This time, he called his state’s senior senator, Frank Lautenberg, “an embarrassment to the state and the United States Senate.”

As usual, Christie acts more like a minor trollish political blogger than the governor of a state. And that’s why he can Bite Me.

Gov. Christie: Sen. Lautenberg is an ’embarrassment’ for failing to pay tolls | NJ.com.

It turns out that it IS the devil’s music

“A close analysis of the top 20 songs on the 2011 Billboard charts reveals little about long-term commitment. There are almost no direct references to fidelity. There is a lack of a family element.

“And there are no references to regret.

“Popular song lyrics are having commitment issues. Studies have shown that references to sex, drugs and alcohol are not only becoming more blatant, they are affecting listeners.”

Popular song lyrics contain sex, alcohol and no regrets | Deseret News.

Ted Nugent plays the victim card and the Commie card

Ted Nugent, Mitt Romney’s most prominent surrogate, used to be a pretty good guitar player but he’s no longer playing with a full deck. At the NRA convention he said “If Barack Obama becomes the president in November again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year.” When questioned, he portrayed himself as somehow endangered (“I’m a black Jew at a Nazi-Klan rally.”), rather than his being a threat to the President.

And then, presaging the Republican fall playbook, he added, “Saul Alinsky. This is the Saul Alinsky ‘Rules for Radicals’ playbook. The Nazis and the Klan hate me.”

msnbc.com Entertainment – More Nugent: I’m ‘a black Jew at a Nazi-Klan rally’.