From Sue, who is a forensic accountant

The Supreme Court reversed the Arthur Andersen conviction, ruling that the government went too far in interpreting “obstruction of justice” as including any destruction of documents that would impede its investigation.
 
If the government’s interpretation of the law was allowed to stand, then (hypothetically) Bob Morris Consulting, Inc. could be found guilty of obstruction of justice by routinely discarding old unneeded business files, if those files might have proven useful in a later (and completely hypothetical) government investigation.
 
In the original trial, the judge went along with the government’s viewpoint and neglected to instruct the jurors that they must find criminal intent to prove obstruction.
 
I think it was a good decision by the Supremes … we are all safer for it.
 
Which doesn’t revive AA … or disprove its guilt.

Here’s a good link:

Also from Sue

Donaldson steps down as head of divided SEC

Fraud. Deceipt. Corruption. Attorneys. Auditors. Politicians. Powerful Business Interests. Lobbyists. Editorial Attacks from the WSJ & Others.   Demands from Congresscritters and the President. All met with Activism and Reform. It’s been a hellish 2 1/2 years, and now the SEC Chairman is “stepping down to spend more time with his family.”  You’ve done a great job, Mr. Donaldson.  God bless, and I wish you well.

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At an ANSWER event recently I saw a Drop Kick Murphys CDs among the music we were playing and asked a friend about them. “Like Social Distortion with bagpipes,” he said.

I just got their “Blackout” CD and am blown away by this Irish band from Boston. They play amazing, exuberant, scorching punk - and it’s political too. Dunno how I missed them all these years! A couple of highlights.

The Fields of Athenry

“A classic song about famine, struggle, and once again being sent to Australia for your crimes”, a young father steals food so his children may live and is sent to a prison ship. Their version of this sad and mournful song respects the traditional yet is blistering and ferocious at the same time too.

Against the famine and the Crown
I rebelled they ran me down
Now you must raise our child with dignity

Worker’s Song (Handful of Earth)

We’re the first ones to starve, we’re the first ones to die
The first ones in line for that pie in the sky
And we’re always the last when the cream is shared out
For the worker is working when the fat cat’s about

Long live rebel music and politically aware punk. And there’s just something about bagpipes, I think it’s in the blood…

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I asked Eli Stephens at Lefti on the News if he knew of other radical blogs besides ours. He came up with quite a list.

Whatever It Is, I’m Against It
Under the Same Sun
Empire Notes
Carnival of the Un-Capitalists
Angry Arab
American Leftist
Lenin’s Tomb
Redguard’s Blog

Some non “radical” blogs but still “progressive” and worth reading:

First Draft
Suburban Guerrilla:
Baghdad Burning (Riverbend):

A good list of links (although it doesn’t include Politics in the Zeros!): 

(I just emailed them asking to be added!)

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Party for Socialism & Liberation Forum    
Deepening US Crisis in Iraq: Strategies for the Anti-war Movement

Friday June 3, 7 pm
1800 Argyle Ave. #400, Los Angeles
For more info call 323-960-4345

Speakers & Panel Discussion
Mazda Majidi, Organizer with Party for Socialism & Liberation in San Francisco
Sarah Sloan, National Staff Coordinator, ANSWER
Eugene Puryear, Youth & Student ANSWER
Marcial Guerra, Organizer with Party for Socialism & Liberation in Los Angeles

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Doug Ireland in the L.A. Weekly

The new European Constitution was not a step toward a stronger Europe, and would have actually lessened European influence on the world stage. In it, subordination of European security and military policy (and thus foreign policy) to NATO was set in concrete. And, as the former socialist defense minister of France, Jean-Pierre Chevenement (who resigned in protest over France’s support for the first Gulf War), repeatedly pointed out during the referendum campaign, under the Constitution the crucial role France played at the United Nations in opposing the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq would no longer have been possible.

The Constitution would have restricted the ability of any member of the U.N. Security Council that is also an EU country (like France — or, as in proposals for Security Council enlargement now being considered, Germany) to take a position contrary to that adopted by the European Commission. And any single EU country could veto a position contrary to Washington’s. Thus, one would only need to buy a corrupt little country — like, say, Bulgaria — to block any EU action that would counter the American imperium.

Moreover, the Constitution was anti-democratic, for it kept real power in the hands of the unelected European Commission (whose members are appointed by their national governments) rather than giving it to the elected Europarliament in Strasbourg. The EU’s presidency, currently a rotating one, was given a longer term — but the president, too, would have been appointed by the commission. The 300-page Constitution — the longest ever in the world’s history, and written in obscure legalese incomprehensible to the average voter — would have irremovably enshrined matters of policy, including conservative economic policies, that would normally be decided by democratically elected governments. And it could only have been amended by a unanimous vote of all 25 EU countries — another boon to the multinationals, which also easily could have purchased a veto from a small country’s government-for-sale.

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