More on the Walpin case—and more about Sacramento Mayor Johnson
There are two interesting developments in the Walpin case.
The first is that a possible obstruction of justice charge is being investigated by the FBI—against Johnson, the Sacramento mayor whom IG Walpin implicated in misuse of AmeriCorps funds. There’s a lot more on the story in the local paper, the Sacramento Bee.
It’s always instructive to read what those who are closer to the characters involved have to say. Here are some excerpts from a column in the Bee by Marcos Breton:
There is seemingly always a skeleton poised to fly out of Johnson’s closet. Johnson ”“ or his posse ”“ have been accused of a range of misdeeds, from inappropriate behavior with girls to misuse of hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal grants.
Now the FBI is looking into obstruction of justice allegations stemming from the earlier investigation into misuse of grant money by St. HOPE Academy. Former bank executive Rick Maya, who replaced Johnson as executive director of St. HOPE Public Schools, made the allegations that triggered the FBI probe.
In a damning eight-page letter he submitted when resigning from the St. HOPE board of directors, Maya alleged that while the organization was under federal subpoena in that earlier investigation, a St. HOPE board member deleted some of Johnson’s e-mails.
Maya claimed in the letter that he alerted the St. HOPE board, and that members did nothing except notify St. HOPE legal counsel Kevin Hiestand. Hiestand is also Johnson’s longtime friend, business partner and personal attorney. And he was the lawyer embroiled in a scalding controversy from last year’s mud-splattered mayoral election:
When Johnson was accused of inappropriately touching a student at Sacramento High, Hiestand questioned the girl before anyone at the school contacted police. The girl recanted, and police ”“ contacted a week later ”“ found no merit to the allegation. But Hiestand’s behavior was disturbing.
That’s the story of St. HOPE: great intentions, some progress, inner turmoil.
There’s more; keep reading at the link.
I have no idea whether anything will come of this—there are certainly innocuous explanations for the deletions. But it is interesting that things like this keep popping up with Johnson.
The comments to Breton’s piece make fascinating reading as well. From perusing them, I get the not-surprising impression of a fight between those who think Johnson’s a crook (including those who claim to have personal knowledge of such) and those who think it’s all smoke and no fire. It also emerged, as I read the comments, that writer Breton was originally a Johnson supporter. I’m always interested in people who change their opinions—and it seems as though a lot of this smoke has convinced Breton that there might be a fire around Johnson after all.
But back to Walpin. I mentioned two interesting developments. The second is outlined in the Village Voice, of all papers, which discusses another controversy, this time involving Walpin’s investigation of CUNY’s (the City University of New York) AmeriCorps funding. There is an even more in-depth discussion of the CUNY case here, as well.
From reading both articles (and I strongly suggest that you do) a picture begins to emerge: Walpin took very seriously “Barack Obama’s admonition to ‘scour’ federal budgets to determine if ‘taxpayers are getting their money’s worth.'” Unfortunately for Walpin, he wasn’t listening to Obama on the second channel. He was listening to Obama’s words instead, and he ruffled an awful lot of feathers.
[ADDENDUM: In another development, Senator Grassley wonders whether there is a pattern of suspicious IG firings emerging.]
[ADDENDUM II: Someone asked who replaced Walpin. There’s been no official appointment yet, and in the meantime his place is being taken at least temporarily by this man. He seems to be a criminal investigator rather than a lawyer, and a specialist in tech problems.]
[ADDENDUM III: White House lawyer Eisen—the person who actually gave Walpin the news that he had an hour to quit or be fired—claims the Walpin firing was “an act of political courage.” On the White House’s part.
Well, I guess it was ballsy, all right.]
“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”
– William Shakespeare, Hamlet, 1.4
The rather loose definition of “community services” for the Americorps and Acorns of the world is designed to create large political slush funds. Tammany Hall would approve. One of the forces driving the Bush administration’s Faith Based aid was that in general the Salvation Army would be less corrupt (and corrupting) than Government entities. If you have an alert IG looking at any of these Americorp type operations you cannot help but find problems in almost all of them. That spoils the party for lots of people.
Glen Reynolds pointed out a few years back the large salaries and perks enjoyed by the non-profit sector these days. THe ability for local pols to draw pay from several entities makes it possible to accumulate big wealth from community service.
I am getting to love that “second channel” analogy and it’s usefulness in getting to the real message of one’s words. “The One’s” words, in particular.
Actually, it’s a sub-category of critical thinking, yes? Of which there is a dearth these days……. Most people aren’t even bothering to listen in the first place, let alone put effort into divining real intent beyond words…..
I think we are seeing Obama’s “Full speed ahead” strategy in which almost everyone’s bandwidth is overwhelmed.
Right now we’ve got a global economic meltdown, various huge fix-it and stimulus packages, a mammoth and monstrous revision of American healthcare system, North Korea testing nukes and missiles, Iran continuing its nuclear program while on the edge of an overthrow, the culture war in America heating up even more (e.g. Letterman’s attack on Palin and her family), the government takeover of banks and auto companies, the Chinese laughing at Tim Geithner’s assurance about American treasuries, the global warming debate and cap-and-trade. Plus oh yeah, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. And now, Walpin? (There’s even that quaint old Blagoevich, Burris business still hanging fire.)
How is any ordinary citizen supposed to cope with this much news. At no time in my memory were we being “shock and awed” like this by the news cycle and I suspect that suits Obama just fine.
the Chicago Tribune reports that it isn’t just Walpin’s firing over which Senator Grassley wants some answers. He’s worried about a pattern, as no fewer than three IG’s have recently been fired, all while investigating so-called sensitive issues.
Gerald Walpin
Judith Gwynne
Neil Barofsky
White House: Firing AmeriCorps IG an act of “political courage”
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/White-House-Firing-AmeriCorps-IG-an-act-of-political-courage-48538447.html
Artfldgr: I already provided a link to that Chicago Trib story in the Addendum. The plot thickens, does it not?
All they see is that smile.
By the way, what does the MSM expect to gain from brown nosing the left and licking Obama’s heels? It’s not even a requirement yet. They all aren’t going to survive. Only free enterprise would provide the possibilities of that happening. How many Pravda’s does the government need?
Sorry bout that…
yes the thick plottens… but what would give a clearer picture is if one took a step back and listed out each of the areas and looked at them as steps in “peristroika” (socialist restructuring), a restructuring of the state.
lets list a few.. a crypto candidate that says what calms teh people then does the opposite. a complicit pressa and media. attacks on major huge capitalist companies (once they are defeated smaller ones cant stand), complete revamping of health care. spending to bankrupt and leave no flexibility.
one of the worst is that there is a clear sameness in what hitler did. which was in short order it became clear that one could get a plus jump if one were an early adopter. that is, look how he is paying pavlovian to those that help, and how he is punishing those that dont. from car dealerships being closed for wrong party support, firings for wrong outcomes (merit over the fix).
and how about the secret deals with russia against our freinds? kind of smacks of stalin hitler pact, except this one is the putin obama pact. Obama Offered Deal to Russia in Secret Letter / http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/washington/03prexy.html
A long while ago i got yelled at for posting a scenario that fit. that iran was the door to be closed and thats by going after that, the start of the end conflict was begun.
and dont forget that when you look at this your not just looking at the US…
and anyone want to discuss the 134 billion in bonds that were seized (The exact amount that russia was holding), as japanese nationals tried to bring them into sweden.
if they are fake, then someone is collapsing US currency… if they are real, then nation states are dumping US bonds (using them probably to pay off groups)..
part of the problem is that the US clever obama is trying to print so much money that the debt held by foreigners is numerically the same, but valued very different.
“In recent years, however, during speaking tours in the United States before university audiences and business groups, I have often told listeners that I feel Americans need their own change — a perestroika, not like the one in my country, but an American perestroika . . .” Gorbachev
and to top it off, after we have now been made very stiff, we are in a potential nuclear situation.
of course no one thinks rationally that china, russia, cuba, brazil, argentina, etc.. might be coordinating things (sicne their leaders have been meeting furiously over the past year or so).
then how about the cutting of the cables of the internet? the computer break ins at the world bank. Putin and the other BRICs calling for a new common currency for these other states.
all the while all these countryes have been using their money to upgrade their military while making a show of all their old equipment. with russia running nuclear bear bombers at western air defences, attempting to claim the pole, etc
anyone want to look at how much Gold china has been buying? how many assets she has been buying here before we devalue her cash?
we are being set up to be struck…
and just for fun…
there is a new remake of Red Dawn being in the works (except this tiem its china and russia, not russia and mexico).
he has already created the atmosphere that Pastor Niemoller wrote about
Als die Nazis die Kommunisten holten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Kommunist.
Als sie die Sozialdemokraten einsperrten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Sozialdemokrat.
Als sie die Gewerkschafter holten,
habe ich nicht protestiert;
ich war ja kein Gewerkschafter.
Als sie die Juden holten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Jude.
Als sie mich holten,
gab es keinen mehr, der protestieren konnte.
in english
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
Then they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
I did not protest;
I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out for me.
Charles Mingus – Don’t Let It Happen Here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gULhV8urjWM
this is the atmosphere that he is creating just liek hitler.. first they went after those that most didnt like or had a defference to. this was years ago with drug war, and other things… now it is big business… but after that… people start to see.. they start to figure… they start to try to not be on the wrong side of history.
so they each remain silent hoping that everything will stop before it gets to them.
we already know the script. we are falling into the parts to play. do you side with the new thing to get through it, or do you attempt to ignore it?
A good share of what we know about how this happened in Germany usually comes to us many years later from post-facto books, looking backward to the horror. There are very few examples of accounts written from the inside at the very time the events were unfolding.
.-.-.-.-.
One such book is “Defying Hitler,” by the noted German journalist/author Sebastian Haffner. The manuscript was found, stuffed away in a drawer, by Haffner’s son in 1999 after his father’s death at age 91. Published in 2000, the book became an immediate best-seller in Germany and was published last year in English, translated by the son, Oliver Pretzel.
“Defying Hitler” is a brilliantly written social document, begun (and ended abruptly) in 1939; even though it fills in the reader on German history from the First World War on, its major focus is on the year 1933, when, as Hitler assumed power, Haffner was a 25-year-old law student, in-training to join the German courts as a junior administrator.
-.-.-.-.-.-
What distinguishes “Defying Hitler,” in addition to its superb writing, is that Haffner focuses on “little people” like himself, rather than on the machinations of leaders. He wants to explore how ordinary Germans, especially non-Nazi and anti-Nazi Germans, permitted themselves to be swallowed whole into the Hitlerian maw.
.-.-.-.-.
If you read ordinary history books, he says, “you get the impression that no more than a few dozen people are involved, who happen to be ‘at the helm of the ship of state’ and whose deeds and decisions form what is called history.
“According to this view, the history of the present decade [the 1930s] is a kind of chess game among Hitler, Mussolini, Chiang Kai-Shek, Roosevelt, Chamberlain, Daladier, and a number of other men whose names are on everybody’s lips. We anonymous others seem at best to be the objects of history, pawns in the chess game, who may be pushed forward or left standing, sacrificed or captured, but whose lives, for what they are worth, take place in a totally different world, unrelated to what is happening on the chessboard.
All along the way, Hitler would propose or actually promulgate regulations that sliced away at German citizens’ freedoms — usually aimed at small, vulnerable sectors of society (labor unionists, communists, Jews, mental defectives, et al.) — and few said or did anything to indicate serious displeasure. In the early days, on those rare occasions when there was concerted negative reaction, Hitler would back off a bit. And so the Nazis grew bolder and more voracious as they continued slicing away at civil society. Many Germans (including some of Hitler’s original corporate backers) were convinced Nazism would collapse as it became more and more extreme; others chose denial. It was easier to look the other way.
Haffner saw what was starting to happen, but retreated into his law studies. Even while the Brownshirts were beating and killing people in the streets, the courts with which he worked remained a solid bulwark in defense of traditional democratic principles. And then one day, the Nazis simply marched into the Berlin court buildings and took over Germany’s judicial system. Haffner was shaken to the core, but continued studying for his final exams.
Nazi propaganda, policies and terror had broken down traditional support-networks. You couldn’t be sure whom to trust. Everyone could be on the government payroll, or could turn into informants to save their skins. And so arms went out in Nazi salutes, militarist songs were sung at rallies and on the streets, “each one of us the Gestapo of the others.” In fear, individualism was crushed, leaving most citizens to relate only to The Leader, or to their military units, the comradeship offered by fascism.
Then there was the economic factor, the terror associated with having no money with which to live. One reads Haffner’s description of the hyper-inflation crisis, but it’s difficult to accept or understand: “No other nation has experienced anything comparable to the events of 1923 in Germany. All nations went through the Great War, and most of them have also experienced revolutions, social crises, strikes, redistributions of wealth, and currency devaluation. None but Germany has undergone the fantastic, grotesque extreme of all of these together; none has experienced the gigantic, carnival dance of death, the unending, bloody Saturnalia, in which not only money but all standards lost their value.
“… Anyone who had savings in a bank or bonds saw their value disappear overnight. Soon it did not matter whether it was a penny put away for a rainy day or a vast fortune. Everything was obliterated… A pound of potatoes which yesterday had cost fifty thousand marks now cost a hundred thousand. The salary of sixty-five thousand marks brought home the previous Friday was no longer sufficient to buy a packet of cigarettes on Tuesday… In August, the dollar reached a million [marks]… .In September, a million marks no longer had any practical value… At the end of October, it was a billion… The atmosphere became revolutionary once again.”
When citizens face uncertainty on this scale — and the fear and dislocation that attend all such social traumas — a man on a white horse promising to restore order has great appeal, even to some staunch democrats.
When Hitler’s in-your-face brand of “beyond” power — with its meanness and arrogance and menace, throwing opponents in jail, beating them, even killing them — met the traditional democratic culture, those on the other end often had no tools at their disposal to combat the new hardball politics: “It was then that the real mystery of the Hitler phenomenon began to show itself: the strange befuddlement and numbness of his opponents, who could not cope with his behavior and found themselves transfixed by the gaze of the basilisk, unable to see that it was hell personified that challenged them.”
And to those that don’t understand what I mean when I say that your endless discussions over non facts have a precedent:
And how did Haffner deal for so long with this menacing force in front of him? “What saved me was… my nose. I have a fairly well developed figurative sense of smell, or to put it differently, a sense of the worth (or worthlessness!) of human, moral, political views and attitudes. Most Germans unfortunately lack this sense almost completely. The cleverest of them are capable of discussing themselves stupid with their abstractions and deductions, when just using their noses would tell them that something stinks.”
And so it becomes easier to simply permit oneself to sink, ever so slowly into this collective illness, into accommodation with the ruling party, even though the police-state is constantly violating citizens’ privacy. “We were pursued into the farthest corners of our private lives; in all areas of life there was rout, panic, and flight. No one could tell where it would end. At the same time we were called upon, not to surrender, but to renege. Just a little pact with the devil — and you were no longer one of the captured quarry. Instead you were one of the victorious hunters.”
Certainly, Haffner and others like him felt their own slide toward complicity with the Nazis, as their sense of self faded. “Things were quite deliberately arranged so that the individual had no room to maneuver. What one represented, what one’s opinions were in ‘private’ and ‘actually,’ were of no concern and set aside, put on ice, as it were. On the other hand, in moments when one had the leisure to think of one’s individuality… one had the feeling that what was actually happening, in which one participated mechanically, had no real existence or validity. It was only in these hours that one could attempt to call oneself morally to account and prepare a last position of defense for one’s inner self.”
Haffner like others with a good nose left.
Its why I want to be like my family and leave till later.
For there is nothing that can stop this once its been prepared and started.
Like the teenager who sees red lights of the police in the window, he panics and runs and ends up in a huge worse situation when the police were not even after him in the first place.
We are already in the panic situation were we will not think long term enough, that we will reflexively move rather than move with consideration.
Huxley’s observation that…
Is dead on in my opinion.
I would add that one of the major reasons we are being overwhelmed is that the MSM’s refusal to cover these issues in the same manner in which they covered problems during Bush’s term makes one have to work that much harder just to find out about what’s really going on.
Had this happened on Bush’s watch, every reasonable person knows that there would have been wall to wall coverage until you puked on it.
I will venture to say that at this point, we may have freedom of the press, butwe do not have a free press. The MSM is so in the tank for Obama and the democrat’s hard left objectives that they have become the advertising agency and cheeering squad for them.
Stories like the firing of Walpin look like a slight of hand trick to me. Like so much other news meant to keep our eye off the big picture. Which is …Whats happening to our free country and do most people even care?
This thuggery is beginning to look like Nixon’s enemies list with a Chicago twist. What won’t look the same is the response of the libral press.
Artfldgr said “all the while all these countryes have been using their money to upgrade their military while making a show of all their old equipment. with russia running nuclear bear bombers at western air defences, attempting to claim the pole, etc
anyone want to look at how much Gold china has been buying? how many assets she has been buying here before we devalue her cash?
we are being set up to be struck…
and just for fun…
there is a new remake of Red Dawn being in the works (except this tiem its china and russia, not russia and mexico).”
I wonder where do you see the EU in all this?
Artfldgr:
There are a few, you among them, who know enough to see the parallels between Germany in the 1930s and the USA today. It is, however, odd, that it took so little to tip us over as compared to what Germans went through in the 20 year buildup to Hitler and the Nazis.
The opposition in Washington is woefully muted and civil. We need a Patrick Henry, not a Jon Cornyn or a Michael Steele. But it ain’t gonna happen….
I’ll register my usual disagreement. We are a very long way from fascism or civil war.
Obama is a bad apple and we are going to pay a large price for his presidency. Much damage will be done to the economy and who knows what is brewing in the rest of the world that his term in office will exacerbate.
But short of a substantial WMD attack on the US, we are not going fascist or having a civil war.
Obama lacks the fanatical loyalty that Hitler commanded. He has not managed the dramatic economic results of Hitler. Obama’s polls are strong, though nothing special for a new president. He is liked but his policies are not and American voters are more and more coming to realize that.
In a neutral way, compare Obama and Hitler as leaders. When it comes to cunning, charm, ruthlessness, determination, historical and military knowledge, and even intelligence, I’d take Hitler over Obama every time.
Hitler pulled himself up out of the gutter, created a mass movement of iron loyalty, and with some luck, his trademark ruthlessness, and remarkable broken-field running, he became the supreme leader of Germany and came close to winning World War II.
Obama is an effete hot house flower, a community organizer, a lawyer who has never practiced or published, an untested individual who has had the wind at his back since he was sixteen. He has done a fine job of exploiting racial politics and the bitterness of the culture wars, but otherwise there does not seem to be much there.
I wonder where do you see the EU in all this?
i dont.
i see them sitting tight hoping the bad will go away and that they will not have to deal with it.
they are already neutered, so they are not much of a problem in fighting or such compared to the US soldiers who everyone else is really scared to be on the wrong side of.
i remember reading a piece by a french soldier about american soldiers and you would think it was from stars and stripes. and he french dont like us. he spoke about how we are always in gear.. mostly of good cheer… friendly to the locals.. and the best part, is when he said when you call for help. they are there fast, they are there to help, the doors open and they come flying out no hesitation. he obviously felt small looking up to them. this is contrary to the left, becuase the left dont want to look unless they look bad.
we are alienating all our friends in europe and uk… they are now less likely to pitch in… that is they are more likely to let things go to pot for spite.
one way or another we shall see…
It is, however, odd, that it took so little to tip us over as compared to what Germans went through in the 20 year buildup to Hitler and the Nazis.
its not odd at all.. its amazing it took this long at all… they have been plinking away at us since 1930s… and even before… after the 60s, they have been making every bad policy, pushing everything down to the metal, crisis after crisis…
and like a cork we havent sunk yet…
given the back facts and such in the real history, i am amazed we are still standing at all…
huxley,
But short of a substantial WMD attack on the US, we are not going fascist or having a civil war.
you mean like a nork missile fired towards hawaii on july 4th? right now there is a contingent of warships going to interdict a korean ship. an act of war technically between countries that are technically still at war.
if they blow something… even if they dont hit anything.. or hurt anything… we are tanked.
gnight irene…
ironically the ledbetter song is about suicide
we are entering the situation that Clausewitz said starts wars.
one side (US) is telling the other side (nork) what to do (dont ship nukes), the other side (norks) refuse to comply (becuase the nukes belong to iran (?) or parts do, and they have to get there or the norks dont get paid – they are hungry for money kim never gets enough – see insurance scams), so the first side (US) will refuse to back down.
ultimately its enough of a set up that the excuse will exist for transfering dirt that easily can enter our borders given how we have our culture, legal, and state..
i dont think they will nuke anything…
but they WILL fire the missile…
and then cost of all shipping from china and our supplies will be much more expensive.