Is Joe Lieberman out of his gourd?

His timing couldn't be worse.  Either that, or he's been lobbying without being registered and figures he doesn't need that charge to whatever other crimes he's committing.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

"Your Sanity and Wits They Will All Vanish, I Promise"

"It's just a matter of time."*

Remember when MEK was on the US terrorist enemies list?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

*Gogol Bordello - Start Wearing Purple

Leaky, Leaky

Marc Kasowitz, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer in the Russia investigation, has boasted to friends and colleagues that he played a central role in the firing of Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, according to four people familiar with the conversations.

Kasowitz told Trump, “This guy is going to get you,” according to a person familiar with Kasowitz’s account.

Those who know Kasowitz say he is sometimes prone to exaggerating when regaling them with his exploits.

  TOM

A perfect match for tRump.

New presidents typically ask U.S. attorneys to resign and have the power to fire them. But Trump asked Bharara to stay in his job when they met in November at Trump Tower, as Bharara announced after the meeting.

In early March, Trump reversed himself. He asked all the remaining U.S. attorneys to resign, including Bharara. Bharara, a telegenic prosecutor with a history of taking on powerful politicians, refused and was fired March 11.

[...]

Kasowitz’s claimed role in the Bharara firing appears to be a sign that the New York lawyer has been inserting himself into matters of governance and not just advising the president on personal legal matters.

Kasowitz has also said in private conversations that Trump asked him to be attorney general, according to four people familiar with the matter. Kasowitz said he turned down the role.

[...]

As ProPublica previously reported, at the time of Bharara’s firing the Southern District was conducting an investigation into Trump’s secretary of the health and human services, Tom Price.

[...]

The Southern District of New York conducts some of the highest profile corporate investigations in the country. According to news reports, it is currently probing Fox News over payments made to settle sexual harassment charges against the network’s former chairman, the late Roger Ailes. The office is also looking into Russian money-laundering allegations at Deutsche Bank, Trump’s principal private lender.

[...]

The New York Times reported Sunday that Kasowitz has advised White House staffers about whether they need personal attorneys, raising conflict of interest questions.

[...]

One of the names floated to replace Bharara is Edward McNally, a partner at Kasowitz’s law firm. More than three months after Bharara was fired, Trump has not nominated anyone to fill the Southern District job or most of the other U.S. attorney positions.

[...]

Trump has also turned to Kasowitz’s firm to fill jobs in the administration. David Friedman, a former name partner of the firm, is now ambassador to Israel. Trump considered former senator and Kasowitz Senior Counsel Joseph Lieberman to replace Comey.

Holy Joe Lieberman is a member of this sleazy firm? I shouldn't be surprised.

[Fired FBI Director James] Comey testified last week that Trump had tried to “create some sort of patronage relationship.” Bharara said in a television interview Sunday that Trump had attempted something similar with him: Comey’s testimony “felt a little bit like déjà vu.”

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Leaky, Leaky

President Donald Trump is still looking for a new FBI director more than three weeks after he fired James Comey, and sources familiar with the recruiting process say it has been chaotic and that job interviews led by Trump have been brief.

[...]

While the department has compiled a long list of candidates for the White House, there has been no “clear framework or logic for who was interviewed and why,” said one of the sources.

[...]

Another of the three sources described the process as chaotic and said that in one interview, Trump spoke mostly about himself and seemed distracted.

[...]

On May 18, Trump told reporters he was "very close" to sending a nomination for a new director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to the Senate. At the time, former Senator Joe Lieberman was a front-runner for the post. He withdrew his name from consideration on May 25.

[...]

Republican Representative Trey Gowdy was under consideration but he said on May 15 he was not interested.

The next day, Republican Senator John Cornyn, also a contender, said he would stay in the Senate.

  Reuters

....but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Can't Use Joe

Former Senator Joe Lieberman is apparently no longer under consideration for FBI director, a source familiar with the matter confirms to CBS News' Pat Milton.

[...]

One potential complication -- the Washington Post reported Tuesday that Mr. Trump hired Marc Kasowitz as his private attorney to deal with the federal investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. election, and Lieberman has been working as a senior counsel at Kasowitz's law firm for several years.

  MSN

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Joe Fucking Lieberman

And why do you think that is?

Lieberman is now a senior counsel at Kosowitz Benson Torres & Friedman LLP, the law firm where Trump has taken his legal business since 1996 and which has "represented Trump in all manner of matters since at least 2001," according to the law blog Above the Law.

  US News

Probably has nothing to do with it.

But can Lieberman pass muster?

1. The FBI director serves a 10-year term. Joe Lieberman is 75 years old. That's 20 years older than the average age of a nominee for FBI director, and 13 years older than the oldest nominee in U.S. history, Clarence M. Kelley.

2. Lieberman, a former senator, would be the first politician ever appointed to the job. Every past director served as either an agent in the bureau, a federal prosecutor or a federal judge prior to their nomination. (Lieberman was attorney general of Connecticut, an elected office, for six years in the Eighties.)

3. Lieberman is currently employed by the law firm Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman, which specializes in white-collar criminal defense – and which frequently represents Donald Trump. Most recently, one of the firm's partners, Marc Kasowitz, threatened to sue The New York Times for running a story about women who accused Trump of sexual assault. If confirmed, Lieberman would be in charge of the agency conducting a criminal investigation into Trump's presidential campaign.

[...]

Trump appears to be betting that senators will be uncomfortable grilling their former colleague too hard about his qualifications for the job. Here's hoping members of the Senate prove him wrong.

  Rolling Stone

Sometimes, though - maybe most of the time - they grill somebody and then approve them.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Toyota Cow Tow

U.S. counter-terror officials have asked Toyota, the world’s second largest auto maker, to help them determine how ISIS has managed to acquire the large number of Toyota pick-up trucks and SUVs seen prominently in the terror group’s propaganda videos in Iraq, Syria and Libya, ABC News has learned.

Toyota says it does not know how ISIS obtained the vehicles and is “supporting” the inquiry led by the Terror Financing unit of the Treasury Department -- part of a broad U.S. effort to prevent Western-made goods from ending up in the hands of the terror group.

[...]

“We have procedures in place to help ensure our products are not diverted for unauthorized military use,” said Lewis, the Toyota executive.

  ABC

And what procedures would those be? I guess it's a national security secret.  Does Toyota have undercover agents in ISIS?

Toyota Hilux pickups, an overseas model similar to the Toyota Tacoma, and Toyota Land Cruisers have become fixtures in videos of the ISIS campaign in Iraq, Syria and Libya, with their truck beds loaded with heavy weapons and cabs jammed with terrorists.

[...]

Questions about the ISIS use of Toyota vehicles have circulated for years. In 2014, a report by the radio broadcaster Public Radio International noted that the U.S. State Department delivered 43 Toyota trucks to Syrian rebels. A more recent report in an Australian newspaper said that more than 800 of the trucks had been reported missing in Sydney between 2014 and 2015, and quoted terror experts speculating that they may have been exported to ISIS territory.

For years! Since 2014.

How many Americans are going to go out and sell their Toyota pickup to so they don't get pegged as terrorists? And how much will new sales in the US drop?

“Regrettably, the Toyota Land Cruiser and Hilux have effectively become almost part of the ISIS brand,” said Mark Wallace, a former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, who is CEO of the Counter Extremism Project, a non-profit working to expose the financial support networks of terror groups.

The "ISIS brand."

Buy American, dammit!

“I don’t think Toyota’s trying to intentionally profit from it, but they are on notice now and they should do more,” Wallace said. “They should be able to figure it out... how are these trucks getting there. I think they should disclose that, put a stop to that, and put policies and procedures in places that are real and effective to make sure that we don’t see videos of ISIS using Toyota trucks in the future.”

Because Toyota has its own police force? Toyota can "put a stop to" illegal sales or terrorist trade?  Impressive.

Wlaace, head of something called the Counter Extremism Project, is today's version of Joseph McCarthy, and Toyota is now "on notice."

For the love of Pete. What next? I have to wonder if this would have happened if ISIS videos showed Ford or Chevrolet pickups.

And lest we forget in the anti-Toyota campaign frenzy, much of ISIS and other terrorist groups' actual military weaponry is made by American "defense" companies.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Holy cow.

From The Counter Extremism Project's "About Us" page:

CEP is assembling the world’s most extensive research database on extremist groups and their networks of support, providing an indispensable resource to governments, media, NGOs and the public.

[...]

Modeled in part on advocacy efforts to counter Iran’s efforts to acquire nuclear weapons, CEP will expose shadowy channels of financial support to extremist groups and bring to bear private and public sector pressure to disrupt them.

From their "Mission Statement":

The Counter Extremism Project will:

• Expose, degrade, and stop the financing and other economic support of global extremist organizations;

• Build a best-in-class clearinghouse and database of extremist groups and their supporters, mapping the social and financial networks, tools and methodologies on which these groups rely.

So Toyota is now mapped as a supporter of ISIS.

Guess who else is works for this "indispensible" provider of terrorist information?

What? No Sarah?

A desperate call must have gone out from the National GOP leadership.


"Independent."

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.