Street Computer Seized (Philadelphia mayoral race)

[Pale Blue Dot]

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/6976800.htm

The day a bug was found in Mayor Street's office, federal authorities confiscated the mayor's handheld computer as part of their wide-ranging probe into possible corruption in City Hall.

FBI agents sought the BlackBerry computer hours after Philadelphia police, in a sweep of the mayor's office, discovered a sophisticated listening device and two microphones that the FBI had planted in the ceiling of Street's City Hall office.

<snip>

Meanwhile, news surfaced yesterday of an FBI raid of another politically connected firm: the accounting office of Jeanice M. Salter, who has kept the books for some of the city's leading political figures and also for politically active nonprofits. The raid occurred Wednesday, the same day agents raided the offices of a small financial firm run by two Street supporters.

Though Street continued to sound a note of vindication yesterday, stressing that he was not a "target" of the investigation, the revelation about his BlackBerry is another sign that the mayor himself may be a focus of a wide-ranging federal probe into corruption in city contracts.

If there is nothing to this, it is an obvious politically motivated attack on Street. If there IS something to this, then the Republicans are about to get another major US office.:-(

[emad]

1. Didn't Watergate start with an FBI bugging?

....is this one the opener for 'Wilsongate'?

[ReadTomPaine]

2. Alas, Watergate happened when we still had something of a free press

[IndianaGreen]

3. Are these warrantless seizures and bugs?

Is the FBI using PATRIOT Act to circumvent due process in a run-of-the-mill corruption investigation?

[Pab Sungenis]

4. Don't cry for Street

Street is a boor, and the only things that put him in office are (1) the corrupt Philadelphia Democratic machine, and (2) Yellow dog votes.

After all, he won Philadelphia, where Democratic candidates usually get somewhere around 80% of the vote, by less than ten points in 1999, and even a number of long-time Democrats have been rooting for Katz this time. Katz isn't a right wingnut, and won't hurt the City much.

Sometimes, the only way to get rid of the scum in our own party is to vote them out...and come along with someone better the next time around.

[NNN0LHI]

5. Oh bullshit! Its always a big story & very important when its a Dem

How many times did you hear about this mayors boorish behavior reported about on cable? How does a corruption probe compare to the crimes this guy who ran for Liebermans Senate seet in 2000 was convicted of?

Don

http://liberty.hypermart.net/editorials/Giordano.htm

Ex-Republican Mayor in Connecticut Is Sentenced to 37 Years for Sex Abuse

June 14, 2003 BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) Former Republican Waterbury Mayor Philip Giordano, convicted of sexually abusing two preteen girls inside City Hall and other locations, was sentenced Friday to 37 years in federal prison. Giordano was convicted in March of violating the civil rights of the two girls by forcing them to have oral sex with him in City Hall, his law office, home and elsewhere. The girls were ages 8 and 10 at the time. He also was convicted of conspiring with a prostitute who is the mother of one girl and aunt of the other, and with using an interstate device, a cell phone, to arrange the liaisons. ``Your conduct is the worst I have ever seen. I've seen drug dealers, murderers. What you did is indescribable,'' U.S. District Judge Alan Nevas told the former Republican mayor in announcing the sentence. ``You, sir, are a sexual predator.'' Giordano did not speak during the sentencing hearing. He could have faced a life sentence under federal guidelines, but the judge chose a lesser sentence based on Giordano's cooperation in a federal investigation of political corruption in Waterbury. Giordano still faces state charges on the same allegations. nytimes.com

more

[Eurobabe]

6. what is yellow dog?

sorry to be ignorant I have seen this many times, what is a yellow dog?