The narrative the banksters and their enablers have used to fight a foreclosure moratorium focuses on property values. If we put off foreclosures, they argue, it’ll have detrimental effects on the local community, not least by (continuing to) drive down local property values. But there’s another problem with that narrative: the banks are deadbeat neighbors.

As bmaz has pointed out in language blunt enough that one presumes even the willfully obtuse Holder Justice Department might understand it, many of us are bearing witness to investigator John H. Durham intentionally allowing the statute of limitations to expire on Jose Rodriguez’s crime of destroying videotaped evidence of torture. Marcy Wheeler’s torture timeline links to the documentation that the tape destruction occurred on November 8, 2005. The five year statute of limitations on that charge will expire in just a few days. Further, my understanding of the timeline is that the last known waterboardings took place in March, 2003. Some aspects of the torture statutes carry an eight year statute of limitations, so that deadline for waterboarding prosecutions will expire in just a few months. However, with over a hundred deaths of prisoners during US interrogations, there are a number of potential murder charges that are not subject to a statute of limitations.

NBC News has an ethics policy in place that bars its personnel from making political contributions without the approval of Steve Capus, the president of the news division. “Anyone working for NBC News who takes part in civic or other outside activities may find that these activities jeopardize his or her standing as an impartial journalist because they may create the appearance of a conflict of interest.”

A new DNC memo implies that voting for health care actually helped candidates. That is just stunningly dishonest.

Barney Frank was considered one of Cook’s “competitive races.” His district has a Democratic partisan voting index of +14, and Barney crushed his GOP opponent, 61-36. So no, it’s not really fair to compare what happened to Barney Frank to what happened to say, Chet Edwards in an R+20 district. Of the 53 Democrats who hailed from districts with a Republican partisan voting index of +1 or more, only three who voted for the health care bill survived: Joe Donnelly, Bill Owens and Nick Rahall.

From a troubling piece in today’s New York Times about Peter Rouse, the new White House Chief of Staff.

Keep in mind that for the most part, Pelosi never brought anything up for a vote in the House unless she knew she would succeed. I assume we have the same dynamic here.

From the Department of Reading the Wrong Message in an Election is the news of Timmeh Geithner meeting with the Chamber of Commerce’s odious Thomas Donohue to talk about international issues (read: “let’s talk about other countries we can ship American jobs to”).

Are the voters in Massachusetts ready to embrace marijuana legalization in 2012? Analysis of the vote on local marijuana legalization advisory ballot question strongly points to yes.

I really did think she would leave, but the most effective leader in the Democratic Party may just hang around for a while longer.

As we have heard absolutely nothing from Eric Holder, John Durham, the DOJ or the Obama Administration in relation to indictments or other results of the investigation Mr. John Durham has been conducting since January 8, 2008, nearly three years, I thought a letter was in order asking just exactly what their status was. Here is that letter.