Comments (64)

Legalize wrote on April 11, 2007 9:10 AM:

For fuck's sake. I wish St. McCain were here to tell me that everything is just fine with this administration.

enough wrote on April 11, 2007 9:11 AM:

Don't they realize how powerful mass identity theft can be a terrorist tactic.

Anonymous wrote on April 11, 2007 9:14 AM:

Bush admin = White Trash Run Amok

Anonymous wrote on April 11, 2007 9:15 AM:

Well, of course a GOP admin is gonna want to reduce white-collar crime, especially fraud. They wouldn't have enough people to vote for them, otherwise!

Georgette Orwell wrote on April 11, 2007 9:20 AM:

I'm certain that it's a complete coincidence that the areas that have been neglected happen to be those that would find many in this administration with their fingers in the wringer. It's much more important to stop flag burning and gay marriage anyway, because that's what really terrorize Bushco's adherents.

randron wrote on April 11, 2007 9:21 AM:

It would seem prudent for Democrats, especially those who hope to be President, to begin cataloguing the multiple areas of Bush Administration incompetence so that when they take over, the Republicans (as they are prone to do) won't have any opportunity to blame such problems on the new administration. It has been laughable to watch them try to blame the Dem Congress (in control for only a few months) for things they let slide for over six years! They have NO shame and will try ANYTHING to regain power. Plan ahead, Dems! Don't let them do it!!

Connecticut Man1 wrote on April 11, 2007 9:23 AM:

I feel so safe with the way the bush adminitstration is protecting us over there so we can be swindled over here!

Fred Fredson wrote on April 11, 2007 9:24 AM:

Plummet is not the right word, is it? Plummet implies decreasing, going down, dropping.
Here we are talking about the opposite, no?
The English police request a correction here, in
the interest of retaining the languate.

Anonymous wrote on April 11, 2007 9:25 AM:

The S&L Bank "failures" of the 80s-90s had Bush Sr. & associates' (the Bush Crime Family) fingerprints all over them as have many other major frauds that have hurt the working people of this country. Massive amounts of money disappeared in the collusion between the CIA and the Mafia and Sr. . . Al Martin points this out in his writing as do many other authors - - since the Bush Crime Family (Skull & Bones types etc.)has fully infiltrated the intelligence agencies and the FBI (in much the same fashion as you have now shown here in regards to the U.S. Attorneys)the fact that they have no interest in seeing massive fraud prosecuted is no surprise. Stories such as one written for the Washington Post on Bobby Seal, CIA agent and massive cocaine trafficker, murdered with Bush Sr.'s phone number in his pocket, were killed by a fellow Bonesman managing editor at the paper, I understand. There was no real investigation into 911 - - the "commission" that "investigated" was a farce full of Bush Crime Family members and associates. The antics of Mohamed Atta at the Venice Airport and the major drug trafficing there, and the fact that it has long been known as being used by U.S. Intelligence agencies during Iran Contra and before (strange choice of place for "training" by coke snorting muslim terrorists), was buried by the FBI serving these same interests (read Daniel Hopsicker's work and website for researched details shunned by the mainstream media and see how your FBI serves you). Only when people begin to wake up to the fact that secret gangster "families", who control the intelligence agencies and major "law enforcement", deep into the drug trade and various other major frauds, have taken over the government, both here and in nearly every other country, will there be any chance for any real, positive change in the world. Ask Paul Wellstone and Jack Kennedy. People just need to open their eyes.

tmhout wrote on April 11, 2007 9:26 AM:

looks to me like evertything is going pretty much as planned. .

someparisian wrote on April 11, 2007 9:47 AM:

Fred: "plummeting" is right here. The Feds are going after *less and less* criminals; the natural consequence is that *more* crime goes unpunished, and (as a natural consequence) more crime gets committed.

Oh, unrelated, and shoot me if I'm the only one here, but I'm tired of reading what everyone's security word is, and even more tired of the stupid puns people come up with. Just sayin' :)

mbbsdphil wrote on April 11, 2007 9:47 AM:

"By the time the bureau started putting together its fiscal 2007 budget in mid-2005, "we realized we were going to have to pull out of some areas -- bank fraud, investment fraud, ID theft -- cases that protect the financial infrastructure of the country..."

The area of law enforcement - far more than purported terrorism - that has the greatest potential to help or harm ordinary Americans in their day-to-day business and their relationships with each other and their government - is ignored, "lost" in the shuffle.

The FBI has indirectly been politicized, and a clone army of corporate fraudsters is given de facto carte blanche to work their magic. Mr. Bushes "law unenforement" priorities mirror those of a Gotham City mega-hospital that treats the profitable cancers and heart attacks of Arab sheiks, but offers no vaccines, mends no broken bones, delivers no babies.

This administration is the epitome of corruption-made-legal by the inattention or active connivance of a Congress eager to "turn the other cheek" by ignoring its constitutional obligation to oversee the use of executive power and the administration of justice. Littel wonder Mr. Bush was so adamant that we not acknowledge the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. Self-preservation, it seems, is the limit of his self-knowledge.

The Fake John McCain wrote on April 11, 2007 9:50 AM:

For legalize:

The Side of Fraud Enforcement You Aren't Seeing: All you are hearing from the media is how Americans are losing billions of dollars to unprosecuted fraud. While the isolated incident is newsworthy, it gives a false impression that America's financial system is awash in fraud. This is not the whole story.

I have myself invested in America's financial markets, and I can tell you that the President's policy of "Ignore It And Hope It Will Go Away" is already starting to pay dividends. FBI investigations are down. What does that tell us? It tells us that fraud is down. It is the same ironclad logic that tells us that, when fewer people are arrested at the border, then fewer people must be trying to enter the country.

I have personally made enormous amounts of money in these markets that are supposedly riddled with fraud. Why are we not hearing about the success stories? The people who started with mere millions, and, by hard work and knowing a few well connected folks, pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and made themselves billionaires? These are the stories Americans should be hearing, but aren't. Shame on the media for pushing their doom and gloom message when my personal reality is all sunshine and light.

Jack Flash wrote on April 11, 2007 9:50 AM:

I just had someone steal my credit card info, probably from a hacked online merchant, and buy a ticket from BA in London. CitiBank was totally confused about what to do. BA finally was able to tell me they had a note in their system saying, "Fraud Alert. Passenger must buy another ticket." That's right, if you're caught using stolen credit card info by BA out of London, they'll sell you another ticket anyway. Take that (flight), terrorists!

NoLongerAnySurprises wrote on April 11, 2007 9:50 AM:

One of the significant Republican constituencies are the sharp guys and gals looking for the "main chance." The only fraud worth worrying about is "voting fraud" (also known as voting while Black, Hispanic or poor). In the Washington Postg there was an article about a fraud that was uncovered in Georgia involving hundreds of mortgages. Only Democratic State Attorney Generals have been able to step into the breach, but Wall Stree is anxious shut them down.

Anonymous wrote on April 11, 2007 9:52 AM:

No connection here with the priorities of the US Attorneys, is there?

DTK wrote on April 11, 2007 10:00 AM:

Well at least they got this one right, the Bushies that is. They usually totally fuck up their own plans. This one seems to be going according to plans.

Apparently people don't understand that this is part of their deregulation and protecting business from fraudulent Democratic investigations and activist judges - call it the "Clean Credit,Sanctity of Identity and Fair Business Initiative".

anonymous wrote on April 11, 2007 10:05 AM:

Wow, if only we hadn't spent heds of billions on a failed war in Iraq, we might have a little chicken scratch left over for this.

I'm sure we won't be kicking ourselves when some terrorist uses identity fraud to get on a plane and blow it up.

Anonymous wrote on April 11, 2007 10:05 AM:

No connection here with a DOJ (which runs the FBI) whose top officers work double shifts, whose Attorney General couldn't manage himself out of a paper bag and who remains in thrall to Cheney's OVP - via his assistants who are former assistants to David Addington.

In CheneyWorld, it seems, the "law" is limited to what "we" use on "you". So what's a little dunk in the water?

Austin Cooper wrote on April 11, 2007 10:06 AM:

"Bush admin = White Trash Run Amok"

Except, Bush isn't 'white trash'. He's a member of the ruling elite of this country -- the "haves, and the have-mores" as he so elequently put it. The blue-bloods, the 'Bonesmen', the Plymouth-Rock 'first families' of which the Walkers, Pierces, Prescotts and Bushes count themselves. America's version of a landed aristocracy.

Theses are the people who physically own most of the country. The people who feel they are, by right of birth, better than any of you reading this -- and in the marrow of their bones, they do believe that.

Bush may be the idiot son of one of these families, but he's still one of them. The real unsavory thing for those of his crowd are the common types they have to ally themselves with.

... and that's one ironic joke: People like Gonzales, Ashcroft, Rove, Baker, Scalia or any of the rest of them are wealthy and powerful, but their influence is temporary; they'll never be as wealthy or influential as The People Who Matter. Even to a severely affected man like Bush, he will never consider any of them an equal -- or any of us.

AJ wrote on April 11, 2007 10:08 AM:

Fraud is not plummeting -- fraud indictments and prosecutions are. Fred is right -- plummeting is the wrong word in the sentence as written.

FlywheelGrinding wrote on April 11, 2007 10:09 AM:

I am suspicious of this quote from the P - I:
"In 2005, the FBI sent prosecutors 3,500 cases -- a fraction of the more than 10,000 cases assigned to agents in 2000...."
They are comparing the total number of cases ASSIGNED, which is not going to result in a 100% prosecution rate, and on the other hand they are quoting the number of cases SENT to prosecutors, surely less cases than were originally assigned to them. This kind of conflation and apples/oranges comparison irks me no end and makes it hard to determine if the data mean anything in the first place.

Ghost of Joe Liebling's Dog wrote on April 11, 2007 10:10 AM:

Call it the Rape & Pillage Exegesis. The current administration’s policies, which are hard to explain coherently as "policy" per se, or even as "politics," make pretty good sense if you take rape and pillage to be the primary goals.

With kind regards,
Dog, etc.
dog knows i tried

jeffgee wrote on April 11, 2007 10:10 AM:

If you're involved in porn, though, you can expect to be prosecuted.

CalD wrote on April 11, 2007 10:11 AM:

Someparisian:

Actually, I think Fred had it right. I mean it's a small point and I understand what Paul meant well enough, but it's really not the investigations that are "plummeting" -- those are merely being dropped or otherwise not pursued. What's plummeting is the number of investigations. The sentence is just missing the word "number." That's all.

AJ wrote on April 11, 2007 10:11 AM:

Unless of course fraud, identity theft and civil rights are all modifiers of the word investigations in which case someparisian is correct.

John wrote on April 11, 2007 10:16 AM:

I'm with someparisian, "plummeting" is the right word. It refers to the investigations.

someparisian wrote on April 11, 2007 10:16 AM:

Sorry for not specifying; I indeed meant that I understood the sentence to mean "plummeting [...] fraud".
Nitpicking on syntax points in foreign languages is my substitute for coffee.

designer wrote on April 11, 2007 10:18 AM:

But..but...but...ah, what about Nancy Pelosi in Syria? Huh, what about that? (read with extreme sarcasim, as in 'We'll gut the military, the FBI, DOJ etc. Just look the other way").

someparisian wrote on April 11, 2007 10:19 AM:

"plummeting [...] investigations", dammit.

I guess "plummeting" isn't that appropriate though: the number of investigations is decreasing, not the investigations themselves (whatever a "decreasing investigation") may mean.

Well, this is kind of offtopic. I feel silly about that "securit code word" comment now.

John wrote on April 11, 2007 10:19 AM:

Oops - CalD's point is well taken. The number of investigations is plummeting, not the investigations themselves. In fact, the investigations themselves are doing nothing, and can be ascribed no verb because they don't exist, unfortunately.

Phoenix Woman wrote on April 11, 2007 10:22 AM:

Remember, the Bushies are not only corrupt, but they've forged an unholy alliance with anti-government Mormons and Fundies who have burrowed into the Federal government so that they can destroy it from within. It's called "bleeding the beast" by the Mormons.

This isn't a bug, it's a feature.

bluestatedon wrote on April 11, 2007 10:28 AM:

If Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and Joe Biden have any brains at all, they will drop their shilling for campaign contributions for a one day, get together, and announce that when Congress returns from vacation they are collectively introducing a bill to immediately fund the additional FBI agents needed, with the necessary revenues coming from increasing the tax rate on the upper .25% of wealthy Americans. If it's done right, it will get plenty of media attention, and will force the GOP and Bush to make a choice: properly fund the FBI, or protect the super-rich, and the fraudsters praying on your families, friends, and co-workers.

Is this a political stunt? You betcha, and it's exactly the kind of thing the GOP has been executing against the Dems for years with great effect—that's exactly what Gingrich's Contract On America show on the Capitol steps was. It's time the Dems wise up and attack the GOP weak points in a similar manner.

As they say, it's a target-rich environment.

Fred Fredson wrote on April 11, 2007 10:42 AM:

Hey, on second thought,
I think I was precipitous in my comment...
it does read that fraud investigations are
plummeting. Perhaps I was thrown off
by the fact that the word plummeting
was a linked word, making it red
and bold, making it look like a modifier
of the word fraud.

nattyb wrote on April 11, 2007 10:44 AM:

This is sooo sad. They have the FBI agents to bust Tommy Chong and his bong distribution, Obscenity cases, but they don't have enough agents for Fraud, White-Collar Crime, and Identity Theft (which is an exploding field of fraud).

I had a friend who's a muslim, and yes, looks muslim too. He was reading one of the numerous hard covered best-sellers about suicide bombing and jihad and why They hate us, on a plane. For that, he was listed as a person of interest and had to meet with the FBI several times with a lawyer.

I wonder how many fraud cases could've been solved, while the FBI was confirming my friend wasn't a terrorist.

Johnsnottoodistracted wrote on April 11, 2007 10:55 AM:

I guess there will be no way to find everything they took either.That's a good one.Take everything,leave nothing and no one is assigned to the exit.And no one is assigned to look for anything.And if someone accidently did run into a jam driving too many truckloads of gold to the giant storage/party facility near Russian River Alberto and his VO5 would grease them through.Maybe things will get less slick now.

beowulf wrote on April 11, 2007 10:57 AM:

Which goes to John Edward's proposal from 2004 to create a separate domestic counterintelligence agency, instead of having the FBI do both criminal and national security investigations.

It's crazy that Homeland Security is the Department set up to protect us from terrrists and yet the lead anti-terrorism law enforcement agency (the FBI) is in an entirely different cabinet department.

What I'd do is have the Secret Service and the FBI do a job swap-- counterfeiting for counterintel.
The Secret Service is already part of the Department of Homeland Security, and they're already pretty involved in counterintel from their role protecting the president and other senior officials.

mbbsdphil wrote on April 11, 2007 11:20 AM:

No need to bleed or starve the government beast when you can cajole its many agencies into the barn and quietly geld them. Mr. Rove is not just doing this to the sheep of Mr. Gonzales's DOJ, he has his eye on the entire herd.

Why leave behind a functioning prosecutorial service - or government - when you're planning to leave office?

Not Laughing wrote on April 11, 2007 11:21 AM:

OK:

Every aspect of "homeland security" depends on identifying, tracking, and confounding threats.

Many of these threats are identified by name.

We are reducing our efforts to prevent identity theft.

Is it not unreasonable to wonder if the Bush administration isn't inviting/excusing another attack?

Why would they do that?

Anonymous wrote on April 11, 2007 11:31 AM:

Poppy's name & address were in the car of Barry not Bobby Seal...wow also the pocket of deMorenshcildt when he was suicided

and those are just two hi profile ones that we know about

Madsen is right- they are modern day Borges

Dan Kurtz wrote on April 11, 2007 11:55 AM:

This is so collosially stupid. It reeks of incompetence! Did it occur to the FBI that a terrorist cell might use fraud or identity theft as both a means of self-financing, but also to create "clean" identities that wouldn't show up on No Fly List. Instead we have Sen. Stevens' (of the intertubes) wife, one Katherine Stevens, stopped by TSA because he name matches that of Cat Stephens.

donviti wrote on April 11, 2007 12:00 PM:

sounds to me like this is some liberal puke trying to say that the Clinton Administration handle things way better.

I for one don't buy it. Just look at how rich people have gotten under Bush. That never would have happened under Clinton

bwindrip wrote on April 11, 2007 12:08 PM:

at least they have a full complement investigating peace groups...

Crusty King Veto wrote on April 11, 2007 12:17 PM:

I vote with the parisian! Shut up about the security codes (more properly called CAPTCHAs). The number of stupid comments about them should start plummeting.

lampwick wrote on April 11, 2007 12:28 PM:

Well, look at the bright side: terror is down, isn't it? Isn't it?

Don't you feel a lot less terror?

No?

Because the homicide rate rose almost 10% last year?

Oh...

foggylady wrote on April 11, 2007 12:32 PM:

Last night I watched the Mar. 27th Senate Judiciary Comm. on FBI Oversight hearing, starring Mueller. It was instructive to see it again in light of the onging AttorneyGate developments. ( C-Span video archive).
It revealed Muellers sticking close to the now familar testimony talking points and techniques.
First he channeled Gonzo in taking "full responsibility" for "mistakes" made by FBI with the spying letters..no bad intentins by anyone, just "errors" and mistakes", my bad, no big deal, we will fix it, etc.
then Mueller claimed he had little awareness of what Carol Lam was working on before she was fired, ( pause here for thoughts of another Dept. Head living in blissful ignorance of Dept. workings)..
But..he freely admitted telling San Diego FBI to stopmaking statements about the damage done to Lam's investigation now that she was gone.

He avoided topics by extraneous ramblings, said he did not have the information that any Dept. head should know, such as budget, stats on FBI performance.
In all the oversight hearings I have watched, the script was always the same.
And the Dept. heads do not seem to be very involved or interested in the workings of their ofices.

Yeah, they know what they are doing. they are gutting all the Depts, as we know by now.

Molly, NYC wrote on April 11, 2007 12:38 PM:

[sigh.] Can't get a white-collar-crime-friendly gig, and hate crime only pays if you're Rush Limbaugh or someone.

Bushed wrote on April 11, 2007 12:48 PM:

Oh stop all this whining, people! Who cares if they're prosecuting fraud under $500K? That just means the little people get screwed. But they can always pray with the elites, since hundreds of Pat Robertson's Regent University grads are now in sleeper cells all throughout the government!

Pray and make the evil go away!

wanderindiana wrote on April 11, 2007 12:59 PM:

The same thing happened all over government during the Bush reign of terror, so this report shouldn't come as a surprise.

We've been screaming about these abuses for years; I cannot believe it has taken Americans so long to wake up (oh, wait I can -- the MSM gave Bush a free pass for so many years that the majority with short attention spans didn't get the right soundbites).

Now, make the FBI Don Imus, and the fraudsters the Rutgers women's basketball team, and maybe people will pay attention.

mbbsdphil wrote on April 11, 2007 1:23 PM:

Fraud under $150,000 each? How about fraud at $2.50 each? Is that still the fee for non-home ATM transactions, that cost a tiny fraction of that? Multiply by millions per day.

I think the law enforcement questions should not be just the loss per transaction. They should include what's the aggregate cost, who bears it, how easy is it to get recompense, where does the money go, and who's in favor of or fighting a fix.

As Karl would say, it's in the numbers. Follow the money.

Anonymous wrote on April 11, 2007 2:25 PM:

The criminals, thru the "intelligence" agencies (the CIA having been set up by a Nazi intelligence chief named Gehlen after WWII brought to the U.S. thru Operation Paperclip), seized the govermment long ago. They can do whatever they want because the DC Appeals Court will reverse any conviction of a Bush Family crime member - - it's a farce . . . the federal judiciary has been nearly fully subverted with appointments who shield crime family members and interests but crucify average people who are targeted by the feds with charges stacked and snitches bribed into perjury . . . the system reeks but don't look to the Mainstream Media to open anyone's eyes since Operation Mockingbird destroyed the press in this country years ago . . .

Anonymous wrote on April 11, 2007 3:34 PM:

security code: potato

Kate Henry wrote on April 11, 2007 5:42 PM:

Just what we need. Don't enforce white color crime/identity theft at a time where our government is losing laptops (and thus exposing our SSN's) every other day. Also, the government's new Real ID program will expose our personal financial data to numerous government employees. Nothing to worry about there. All government employees are completely trustworthy and would never think of stealing our financial information and selling it to the crooks for, say, $100,000 or so. Right....

Phil wrote on April 11, 2007 5:46 PM:

It occurs to me that the clear loser in the "War on Terra" is the American people. Thanks Mr. Bush.

Richard L. Adlof wrote on April 11, 2007 5:48 PM:

Thanks beowolf.

I'm a bit confounded about Edwards and his speaking out about stuff just before it surfaces - speaking out and giving solutions. Time and time again he is out ahead of the rest of the folks running for 2008 - saying and doing the right thing and the smart thing. I find myself paying more attention to him while noting that the other front runners follow his lead but gain in the polls and pull in more cash.

Returning to the main point of the thread:

We live in a strange world shaped in big part by the verbal masterbations of the FOX Opinioncast and intended harms to the American Way by the Fascist Plutocrats in the White House. Of course, the FBI is bent and a bit broken. There is a corporation waiting in the wings to take our hard tax monies and provide notably crappier justice. Incompetence has zero to do with all of this. This is intentional.

VJB wrote on April 11, 2007 5:54 PM:

Noticing the photo of W, he really does not look well.

Whistler wrote on April 12, 2007 3:22 AM:

If the FBI is essentially not allowed to do their jobs, what about the poor Secret Service: those over-worked, under-appreciated folks who have to keep people from hurting the current occupant ... and him from doing it to himself? How many of those harried servants have gone out on stress leave; or retired? How many now see a pretzel -- which triggers post-traumatic symptoms of one "close call" sort or another? (Or hear the sound of a shotgun being loaded, and immediately scan the area, looking for Dick Cheney?) How many other ways has the current occupant hurt himself, that haven't yet come to light? What's the rate of turn-over in the Secret Service, under this administration; I wonder? What's the "Tour of Duty" length; and are tour extensions mandatory, due to a lack of adequate numbers of personnel? Are all of the 400+ days he's headed to his ranch, really days spent there ... or days in some hospital? Inquiring minds want to know.

(subject bounce, sort of)

I know this link is a joke, which caught on big ... because it's so darned plausible! ... but this is worth a look, for a laugh or two:

http://blogs.motortrend.com/6207087/editorial/how-many-bloggers-does-it-take-to-plug-in-a-president/

Note the hidden irony in their first and last sentences. First: "Alan Mulally went far to [sic] prove he's a fun, likeable guy...". Last: "But it's even more important for us to get it right."

Uh-huh. Typical reporting, in this day and age. Anyone seen the movie "Idiocracy," lately? ;-)

Whistler wrote on April 12, 2007 4:26 AM:

Whoops ... maybe. In my post, above, I picked on a (quoted, half-) sentence, thinking the author was trying to say "went too far to"; but he may not have been saying that. He SHOULD have been, giving that the point of his whole article was that someone had gone too far ... but whatever.

Whistler wrote on April 19, 2007 7:40 AM:

Geez ... it's getting to be that folks can't even joke about this administration without them going out and doing, in real life, what was joked about:

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4423

The link above talks about one or more Secret Service folks being injured, near the White House, just 5 days after I posted; above. As you'll see if you click on this link, the blogger wonders aloud where Dick Cheney was, when one of the Secret Service types got shot in the face.

I don't wish this kind of stuff on the SS. Really.

If anything, I think the continuance of Secret Service protection, once a person is done and out of office, ought not to be a "given" ... folks in office would presumably behave more, if their alloted after-office protection got prorated or something, based on their popularity in office. (I'm betting the SS themselves would like that? Then again, I can't understand taking the job?)

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