The Associate Press reports: Mistake means tax cheat can keep $100 million

Poorly written Justice Department documents cost the federal government more than $100 million in what was supposed to have been the crowning moment of the biggest tax prosecution ever.

Walter Anderson, the telecommunications entrepreneur who admitted hiding hundreds of millions of dollars from the IRS and District of Columbia tax collectors, was sentenced Tuesday to nine years in prison and ordered to repay about $23 million to the city.

But U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman said he couldn’t order Anderson to repay the federal government $100 million to $175 million because the Justice Department’s binding plea agreement with Anderson listed the wrong statute.

This is a rookie mistake. They have no one at the Justice Department who verifies the citations in plea agreements? One hundred million United States dollars is real money, not a parking fine, and no one bothered to check on the statutes that were cited? The worst government in US history.

1-800-984-8523

Lurch at Main and Central reports on the The Wounded Warrior System:

The Wounded Soldier and Family Hotline can be reached from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. [EDT] Monday through Friday at (800) 984-8523. The call center is under the command of the U.S. Army’s Human Resources Command. As the system gears up, it is expected that it will go 24/7.

This is a reaction to the problems with the military medical system. It is a start, and should be used so they can at least understand the scope of the disaster.

In an attempt to achieve the release of their personnel, the BBC reports that the UK is in ‘discreet talks’ with Iran. This called diplomacy and is what mature countries do to resolve their differences.

So while the Blair government is conducting sensitive negotiations with the Iranians, the US Navy starts war games in Gulf.

The US Navy has begun its most extensive manoeuvres in the Gulf region since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but denies sabre-rattling aimed at Iran.

[snip]

The exercises follow Iran’s capture of 15 British navy personnel, and high tension over its nuclear programme.

The US Navy said the exercises were not meant to exert pressure on Iran.

US Navy Commander Kevin Aandahl, based with the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, across the Gulf from Iran, said: “What it should be seen as by Iran or anyone else is that it’s for regional stability and security.

“These ships are just another demonstration of that. If there’s a destabilising effect, it’s Iran’s behaviour.”

Sorry, Commander, but it’s called “gunboat diplomacy”, and the world knows a threat when it sees it. Given that the Iranians are claiming that the UK Naval people were conducting espionage in preparation for naval action against Iran, the sane people in the Iranian government have just had another defeat. Would it have killed you to wait until the UK people had been released before demonstrating that you are clueless about the world?

While this garbage, Blog death threats spark debate, regrettably exists in political blogtopia™, this case is around the bend an through the looking glass:

Prominent blogger Kathy Sierra has called on the blogosphere to combat the culture of abuse online.

[snip]

One of the issues raised is the question of how women bloggers are treated online.

Ms Sierra, author of popular blog Creating Passionate Users, began receiving death threats four weeks ago.

[snip]

Robert Scoble, author of popular technology blog Scobleizer, condemned the campaign against her.

“It’s this culture of attacking women that has especially got to stop. I really don’t care if you attack me. I take those attacks in my stride. But, whenever I post a video of a female technologist there invariably are snide remarks about body parts and other things that simply wouldn’t happen if the interviewee were a man,” he said

In response, he has decided to temporarily stop blogging and has turned off functionality that allows people to post anonymously.

This isn’t about politics, she writes about technology! While the Winnies and Macistas have argued for years and questioned each others intelligence and sanity, there is no way an individual’s sex, or sexual preferences, can be justified as relevant. You can either cut it, or not, and hormones don’t play a role. Being named Francis or Frances doesn’t make your code or logic better. The CPU couldn’t care less whether you sit down or stand up.

There’s a John McCain banner ad on Lisa’s front page at All Hat and No Cattle which tends to indicate that someone doesn’t read blogs before they buy ad space. Lisa can use the money, but I hope they don’t think she’ll lower the snark.