Shadiness will get you nowhere!!!

Germany’s president resigned Friday in a scandal over favors he allegedly received before becoming head of state, creating a major domestic distraction for Chancellor Angela Merkel as she grapples with Europe’s debt crisis. Chritian Wulff announced his resignation a day after the slow-burning affair escalated dramatically with a request by prosecutors for Parliament to lift his immunity from prosecution over his relationship with a film producer in his previous job as governor of Lower Saxony. Those benefits allegedly included paying for a luxury hotel stay in 2007.

Wulff said Germany needs “a president who is supported by the confidence not just of a majority of citizens, but a wide majority.”

“The developments of recent days and months have shown that this confidence, and therefore my ability to act, have been lastingly impaired,” a somber Wulff said in a brief statement at the president’s Bellevue palace, with his wife, Bettina, at his side.

Merkel, who called off a trip to Rome to address the situation in Berlin, voiced “deep regret” at his resignation. She moved quickly to limit the fallout and try to ensure a smooth succession, saying she would seek an agreement with the main opposition parties on the next president.

Wulff is stepping down after less than two years in the job. He was Merkel’s candidate for the largely ceremonial presidency in 2010; before that, he was a deputy leader of her conservative party and the governor of Lower Saxony state. It wasn’t immediately obvious who might attract consensus support. Wulff emerged as president from a messy election in 2010 in which the opposition’s candidate, well-regarded former East German human rights activist Joachim Gauck, drew several votes from Merkel’s coalition.

The Wulff scandal hasn’t yet had any impact on Merkel’s popularity, which has been running high amid her hard-nosed leadership of the eurozone debt crisis. “Wulff’s resignation should not have any direct impact on German economic policies (or) on the debt crisis management,” said Carsten Brzeski, an economist at ING.

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Reuters

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Wait, we thought this guy wasn’t “accused of doing anything wrong”????

MF Global’s chief executive and former New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine has resigned as head of the brokerage which filed for bankruptcy on Monday.
Corzine is under a cloud for allegedly failing to protect client’s investments by cordoning off their funds from the firm’s money.

MF’s board announced Friday in a brief statement that Corzine had resigned from all posts and confirmed that he will not seek any severance payments.

We told y’all something was fishy. You can’t just lose “hundreds of millions of dollars” of other people’s money and there be no wrongdoing involved.

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You know things are bad when airlines are doing ish like this!!!

Air France was so used to Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexually abusing its female cabin crew that only men were allowed to serve him, it was alleged yesterday. The astonishing claim came as the former IMF chief and French presidential candidate awaits trial accused of attempting to rape a hotel maid in New York.

Now Nafissatou Diallo, his 32-year-old alleged victim, has received at least two witness statements from air crew who said they were propositioned by the 62-year-old. So many Air France crew supposedly complained about the man nicknamed the ‘Great Seducer’ that the company was said to have issued a directive saying that only men should work in the first-class sections of its planes when Strauss-Kahn was travelling.

Le Parisien newspaper, which published the claims after receiving an anonymous letter from an Air France staff member, said Strauss-Kahn’s ‘inexplicable mindset which makes him abuse women is further proof’ he could have attacked Miss Diallo on May 14. The letter reads: ‘Air France has hundreds of complaints from customers, employees and crew members against the man suspected of abusing Miss Diallo.’

Dayuummm, ‘Nique!!! They gotta do you like that, son?!?!?! He must be a straight animal with his…SMH.

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That’s what his a$$ gets!

In the latest setback for the former Democratic presidential contender, the Federal Election Commission ruled today that John Edwards’ 2008 presidential campaign owes the federal government $2.3 million.

The FEC said it agreed with an audit that showed the John Edwards for President Committee should pay back the government $2.1 million in matching funds it wasn’t entitled to receive. Presidential candidates can apply to receive “matching funds” from the government, which are financed by $3 donations taxpayers make on their tax forms.

The rest of the money owed, the FEC said, was for “stale-dated checks,” the agency’s term for checks sent back to donors but never cashed. The FEC most of those funds were refunds to donors for earlier donations intended strictly for general election use. FEC rules require any money not collected by the original donor must be sent to the government.

Now that they’ve agreed with the audit, the FEC will vote to officially approve the final audit report. Once that happens, the Edwards campaign will have 90 days to pay or 60 days to request a review of the decision.

Last month, in an unrelated case, Edwards was indicted on six felony charges for allegedly using more than $900,000 in campaign contributions to keep his pregnant mistress out of sight during his 2008 run for president.

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The man who responsible for exposing the hacking going on at News of the World was found dead but police are saying it’s not suspicious??? What the hell is going on!?!?

Sean Hoare, the former News of the World showbiz reporter who was the first named journalist to allege Andy Coulson was aware of phone hacking by his staff, has been found dead, the Guardian has learned.

Hoare, who worked on the Sun and the News of the World with Coulson before being dismissed for drink and drugs problems, is said to have been found dead at his Watford home.

Hertfordshire police would not confirm his identity, but the force said in a statement: “At 10.40am today [Monday 18 July] police were called to Langley Road, Watford, following the concerns for the welfare of a man who lives at an address on the street. Upon police and ambulance arrival at a property, the body of a man was found. The man was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after.

“The death is currently being treated as unexplained, but not thought to be suspicious. Police investigations into this incident are ongoing.”

Just to give a little more insight on how crucial Hoare was to bringing a spotlight to the ethical violations by News of the World, he opened up to the New York Times when they were investigating the phone hacking case, telling the paper that his editor Coulson knew of the phone hacking and actively encouraged his staff to intercept the phone calls of celebrities in the pursuit of exclusives.

He later spoke to the BBC, claiming that Coulson personally asked him to tap into phones and saying that Coulson’s claim that he was unaware of the practice was “a lie, it is simply a lie”.

Hoare spoke to the New York Times again last week, explaining how reporters at the News of the World were able to use police technology to locate people using their mobile phone signals in exchange for payments to police officers.

He said journalists were able to use a technique called “pinging” which measured the distance between mobile handsets and a number of phone masts to pinpoint its location.

Hoare gave further details about the use of “pinging” to the Guardian last week. He described how reporters would ask a news desk executive to obtain the location of a target: “Within 15 to 30 minutes someone on the news desk would come back and say ‘right that’s where they are.’”

He said: “You’d just go to the news desk and they’d just come back to you. You don’t ask any questions. You’d consider it a job done. The chain of command is one of absolute discipline and that’s why I never bought into it, like with Andy saying he wasn’t aware of it and all that. That’s bollocks.”

He said he would stand by everything he had told the New York Times about “pinging”. “I don’t know how often it happened. That would be wrong of me. But if I had access as a humble reporter … “

He admitted he had had problems with drink and drugs and had been in rehab. “But that’s irrelevant,” he said. “There’s more to come. This is not going to go away.”

Hoare named a private investigator who he said had links with the News of the World, adding: “He may want to talk now because I think what you’ll find now is a lot of people are going to want to cover their arse.”

Speaking to another Guardian journalist last week, Hoare repeatedly expressed the hope that the hacking scandal would lead to journalism in general being cleaned up and said he had decided to blow the whistle on the activities of some of his former News of the World colleagues with that aim in mind.

He also said he had been injured the previous weekend while taking down a marquee erected for a children’s party. He said he had broken his nose and badly injured his foot when a relative accidentally struck him with a heavy pole from the marquee.

Hoare also emphasised that he was not making any money from telling his story. Hoare, who has been treated for drug and alcohol problems, reminisced about partying with former pop stars and said he missed the days when he was able to go out on the town.

Hmmmm… So was his death cause by drinking, drugs, the after effects of taking down a marquee or… whistle blower haters???

Considering the police were in on the phone hacking, it doesn’t seem entirely out of the realm of possibility that they could be involved in the cover up of a suspicious murder. This is real suspect. Just sayin’!

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That shady Rod Blagojevich is back in the news:

Jurors deliberating in the corruption trial of ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich told a judge on Monday that they have reached a verdict on 18 of the 20 counts against him, and attorneys in the case have agreed that the verdict should be read.

Judge James Zagel said that will happen Monday afternoon. Blagojevich’s publicist Glenn Selig told WMAQ’s Mary Ann Ahern “there will be a party” if the former governor is found not guilty. Selig said the ousted governor is “anxious, nervous, all of those things.”

The jury had returned to the federal courthouse in Chicago on Monday after nine days of deliberations. They had been talking over the evidence in the case over a three-week period. Blagojevich, 54, has denied all wrongdoing, including allegations that he sought to sell or trade an appointment to President Barack Obama’s vacated U.S. Senate seat. Blagojevich took the stand at the retrial and denied all the charges. Jurors at the first trial came back deadlocked after deliberating for 14 days. They agreed on just one of 24 counts, convicting Blagojevich of lying to the FBI. “You have both in the Blagojevich case — complexity and evidence that’s not straightforward,” said Gal Pissetzky, a Chicago defense attorney who tries cases in federal court.

Prosecutors almost certainly factored that in going into the retrial. They streamlined the case by dropping racketeering counts against the ex-governor and dismissing all charges against his then co-defendant brother, Robert Blagojevich.
And at the retrial, they presented just three weeks of evidence — half the time taken at the first trial. They called fewer witnesses, asked fewer questions and played shorter excerpts of FBI wiretaps that underpin most of the charges.
There was also a new variable at the retrial: Testimony from Blagojevich himself.

At the first trial, the defense rested without calling any witnesses and Blagojevich didn’t testify despite vowing that he would. But retrial jurors saw a deferential Blagojevich look them in the eyes and deny each and every allegation, telling them his talk on the recordings was mere brainstorming. This time, jurors must decide if they believe him.

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Those shady Saudis are up to no good! A new partnership between Delta Airlines and Saudi Arabian Airlines has American Jews up in arms over what many are considering an anti-Semitism.

Delta announced plans in January to include Saudi Arabian Airlines as a part of their SkyTeam network starting in 2012, which will allow for greater commercial travel to the Middle East. The only problem is — the Saudi airline has a policy that will keep Jews off their Delta flights from the U.S. to Saudi Arabia.

If you didn’t already know how Saudi Arabia gets down — the nation is governed by strict Islamic law which requires nearly every country’s citizens to obtain a visa. Religious items not related to Islam — including the Bible can and have been confiscated at the airport. All people who enter must have a sponsor, women have to dress modestly and be met at the airport by a man who will act as their chaperone. Saudi Arabia also bans anyone with an Israeli stamp in their passport from entering the country — even in transit. Now THAT’s beef!

To make matters even more complicated, many Jews believe that individuals have been denied visas to enter Saudi Arabia just for having “Jewish sounding” names!

But if Delta thought folks were just gonna accept this new policy quietly they thought wrong…

Colby M. May, senior counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative legal group founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, said his office is trying to determine if the agreement runs afoul of U.S. law.

“The very idea that there is a common carrier airline service that would deny an American citizen in America access to their services because they are Jewish or have religious items such as a yarmulke, a cross or a priestly collar, is deeply disturbing,” May said.

May said he is “trying to get answers” from Delta.

“They have not responded in a way that answers the question,” he said. “Hopefully they’ll do so.”

In a statement to Religion News Service on Thursday (June 23), Delta said it “does not discriminate, nor do we condone discrimination against any protected class of passenger in regards to age, race, nationality, religion, or gender.”

The airline, which did not deny the new policy, insisted that it has no control over who may fly to Saudi Arabia.

“Delta must also comply with all applicable laws in every country it serves,” adding that passengers are responsible for obtaining the necessary travel documents required for entry.

“If a passenger travels without proper documents, the passenger may be denied entry into that country and our airline may be fined,” the statement said.

The Jan. 10 agreement allows Saudi Arabian Airlines to become a member of SkyTeam in 2012 after “fulfilling all membership requirements,” according to a SkyTeam statement. The Saudi airline is SkyTeam’s first member from the Middle East.

The policy has deeply angered U.S. Jewish groups, especially since Delta is an American carrier.

“Saudi Arabia, a U.S. ally, should be strongly condemned for its despicable discrimination against Jews,” said Kenneth Bandler, a spokesman for the New York-based American Jewish Committee.

“For an American company, our nation’s values should trump narrow business interests. Delta should be the first to reject Saudi airlines as a SkyTeam member.”

Dan Diker, secretary general of the World Jewish Congress, said he hoped “Delta will not be complicit with what appears to be a demonstrably anti-Semitic and racist policy by Saudi Arabian Airlines.”

Sorry but this is just wrong. We know that Israel and most of the Middle East have beef, but we’re talking about Americans here. There is no way Steven Spielberg and the rest of the Jews are gonna let this one fly. Looks like no SkyTeam partnership for SAA!

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If you thought Lauryn Hill‘s relationship with her “husband”/baby daddy Rohan Marley was shady before…

Yesterday, when news broke that Lauryn was pregnant with baby number six, we all naturally assumed the kid would be Rohan’s. After reading the report from our sister site HipHopWired.com, Rohan quickly shut that down.

When Clutch Magazine’s Britni Danielle picked up the tweet and asked if Rohan was sure, the convo took quite an interesting turn. Here is what Rohan, who is definitely the father of Lauryn’s daughter Selah, above, (and possibly not the father of her first born son Zion) had to say:

After having cleared that up, Rohan added:

While all of those tweets have since disappeared, Rohan has politely corrected at least two congratulating fans since. Which makes the situation all the more interesting. And by interesting, we mean shady.

What other “information” out there could be wrong? And how difficult could it have been for him to set people straight before the discovery of Twitter, if it was really that deep?

We hope that dirty dog John Edwards gets what he deserves!!!

Sources close to the investigation tell NBC News that the Justice Department has given the green light for criminal charges to be filed against former U.S. Senator and presidential hopeful John Edwards, for alleged violations of campaign finance laws arising from the cover-up of an affair. One source with knowledge of the case says that while prosecutors are moving toward an indictment, it is still possible that a plea agreement could be reached.

Federal authorities have been investigating whether Edwards illegally spent campaign contributions to hide his affair with one-time campaign videographer Rielle Hunter, and whether more than $1 million provided by wealthy supporters to keep Hunter out of sight amounted to illegal campaign contributions. More than a dozen witnesses have testified before a federal grand jury in Raleigh, North Carolina, over the past two years. Sources says an indictment or a plea bargain is imminent, possibly within the next two weeks.

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That Clarence Thomas stays doing shady isht:

Virginia Thomas earned over $680,000 from conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation over five years, a group says. But Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas did not include it on financial disclosure forms. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas failed to report his wife’s income from a conservative think tank on financial disclosure forms for at least five years, the watchdog group Common Cause said Friday.

Between 2003 and 2007, Virginia Thomas, a longtime conservative activist, earned $686,589 from the Heritage Foundation, according to a Common Cause review of the foundation’s IRS records. Thomas failed to note the income in his Supreme Court financial disclosure forms for those years, instead checking a box labeled “none” where “spousal noninvestment income” would be disclosed.

A Supreme Court spokesperson could not be reached for comment late Friday. But Virginia Thomas’ employment by the Heritage Foundation was well known at the time. Virginia Thomas also has been active in the group Liberty Central, an organization she founded to restore the “founding principles” of limited government and individual liberty.

In his 2009 disclosure, Justice Thomas also reported spousal income as “none.” Common Cause contends that Liberty Central paid Virginia Thomas an unknown salary that year. Federal judges are bound by law to disclose the source of spousal income, according to Stephen Gillers, a professor at NYU School of Law. Thomas’ omission — which could be interpreted as a violation of that law — could lead to some form of penalty, Gillers said.

“It wasn’t a miscalculation; he simply omitted his wife’s source of income for six years, which is a rather dramatic omission,” Gillers said. “It could not have been an oversight.” But Steven Lubet, an expert on judicial ethics at Northwestern University School of Law, said such an infraction was unlikely to result in a penalty. Although unfamiliar with the complaint about Thomas’ forms, Lubet said failure to disclose spousal income “is not a crime of any sort, but there is a potential civil penalty” for failing to follow the rules. He added: “I am not aware of a single case of a judge being penalized simply for this.”

The Supreme Court is “the only judicial body in the country that is not governed by a set of judicial ethical rules,” Gillers said. A spokesman for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, which oversees the financial disclosures, could not be reached Friday night to comment on what actions could be taken. In most cases, judges simply amend their forms when an error is discovered.

“Without disclosure, the public and litigants appearing before the court do not have adequate information to assess potential conflicts of interest, and disclosure is needed to promote the public’s interest in open, honest and accountable government,” Common Cause President Bob Edgar wrote in a letter to the Judicial Conference of the United States.

The allegation comes days after Common Cause filed a letter requesting that the Justice Department investigate whether Justices Thomas and Antonin Scalia should have disqualified themselves from hearing a campaign finance case after they reportedly attended a private meeting sponsored by Charles and David Koch, billionaire philanthropists who fund conservative causes.

In the case, Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission, the court ruled that corporate and union funds could be spent directly on election advertising. The Koch brothers have been key supporters of the group Americans for Prosperity, which spent heavily in the 2010 midterm election and claims a nonprofit tax status that allows it to avoid disclosing its donors.

Clarence Thomas has been the lone justice to argue that laws requiring public disclosure of large political contributions are unconstitutional. A Supreme Court spokesperson later said that Thomas dropped by the private event, but that Scalia did not attend.

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