Black news

Recommended reading, economic debates, predictions and opinions.
User avatar
kcowan
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 16033
Joined: 18 Apr 2006 20:33
Location: Pacific latitude 20/49

Post by kcowan »

His latest column linked above rates 53.4
For the fun of it...Keith
WishingWealth
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 6701
Joined: 27 Feb 2005 10:53

Post by WishingWealth »

I was looking at the: Readability (Gunning-Fog Index) : (6-easy 20-hard) for the article: The Obama fiasco/ Black

@ Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunning-Fog_Index
Gunning fog index

In linguistics, the Gunning fog index is a test designed to measure the readability of a sample of English writing. The resulting number is an indication of the number of years of formal education that a person requires in order to easily understand the text on the first reading. That is, if a passage has a fog index of 12, it has the reading level of a U.S. high school senior. The test was developed by Robert Gunning, an American businessman, in 1952.[1]

The fog index is generally used by people who want their writing to be read easily by a large segment of the population. Texts that are designed for a wide audience generally require a fog index of less than 12. Texts that require a close-to-universal understanding generally require an index of less than 8.
...
WW
User avatar
Darrell Greenwood
Contributor
Contributor
Posts: 269
Joined: 01 Mar 2005 19:40
Location: BC
Contact:

Conrad Black's last stand

Post by Darrell Greenwood »

The stage has been set for the United States Supreme Court to hear Conrad Black’s appeal. On Dec. 8 at 10 a.m., Black’s lawyer, Miguel Estrada, will stand before nine justices of the nation’s highest court and attempt to persuade them that Black’s convictions on three counts of mail fraud are terribly flawed and should be reversed.

It is ironic that a man whose trial was largely unknown in America (with the notable exceptions of Chicago and New York) could become associated with changing the law on prosecuting corporate boardroom corruption in the United States. Black’s landmark appeal relates to a controversial 28-word law known as “honest services fraud,” which has been used zealously by some federal prosecutors in public corruption and corporate fraud cases.

The law has been described as “incomprehensibly vague.” Black’s counsel, in a joint written brief (John Boultbee and Mark Kipnis are co-appellants), called it an “ambiguous theory of criminality that has bedevilled the lower courts for two decades.” The contentious rule, as extended by prosecutors, makes it a crime to deprive shareholders or the public of “the intangible right to honest services.” It has been savaged by critics as being “a runaway freight train” and “a nightmare.” As one Georgetown criminal law professor told The New York Times, it permits broad discretion for federal prosecutors “to go after people they don’t like or people they disagree with politically.”

Gerald Lefcourt, a former president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, believes that the law is unconstitutional and will be struck down by the Supreme Court because there is insufficient notice as to what behaviour violates the fraud statute. Lefcourt describes the law’s overreaching feature as follows:

“It is a law used to charge people with crime on such a shockingly wide array of behaviour, both by public officials but also by private employees and corporate officers … without making clear what ‘the intangible right of honest services’ is. It is so vague that it can literally be used by prosecutors to make conduct criminal that they may not like but which no one would understand is illegal.”

<snip>

And what if Conrad Black is ultimately successful and his only surviving criminal conviction is for the “gotcha case” of obstruction of justice? The legacy of his weighty prosecution will be that Black was convicted and served years in a Florida federal prison for a crime committed wholly in downtown Toronto involving the movement of boxes without a single supporting conviction for fraudulent conduct. It would provide a fascinating final chapter to Conrad Black’s book.
From <http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/10/20/steven-skurka-conrad-black-s-last-stand.aspx>

Cheers,

Darrell
User avatar
Darrell Greenwood
Contributor
Contributor
Posts: 269
Joined: 01 Mar 2005 19:40
Location: BC
Contact:

Conrad Black: On teaching fellow inmates

Post by Darrell Greenwood »

"My arrangement with my gracious temporary hosts includes the understanding that while I write a great deal for publication in many places in several countries, I do not describe what happens here, other than in the sketchiest terms. I depart slightly, but inoffensively, from that understanding to record some experiences I have had as a tutor in English to high school-leaving candidates here..."

Conrad Black:On teaching fellow inmates
User avatar
Mike Schimek
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 2698
Joined: 04 Nov 2007 18:25
Location: Montreal, Quebec

Post by Mike Schimek »

Well I like this part.
In fact, my greatest moment of enthusiasm for the government of Quebec, and there haven’t been many in the last 45 years, was when Premier Daniel Johnson (Senior) -- for whom I occasionally wrote speeches that he rarely used -- in 1967 broke a French-language teachers’ strike on Montreal Island. He did this by threatening to decertify the teachers’ union, arrest its executives, impound its assets, and place a Quebec provincial policeman in every classroom while he and the vice-premier, Jean-Jacques Bertrand, delivered the lectures by closed-circuit television to the students and the teachers’ salaries were rebated to the taxpayers of Quebec.
I wish all the laws permitting unions would be revoked, forcing unionized workers to be paid what they are worth according to market forces and their skills, like the private sector, putting an end to the exploitation.
Research until your head hurts then scream Banzai!!! and charge fearlessly to victory or death!
Dennis
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 3613
Joined: 09 Mar 2005 14:52
Location: Muskoka, Ontario

Post by Dennis »

I wish all the laws permitting unions would be revoked, forcing unionized workers to be paid what they are worth according to market forces and their skills, like the private sector, putting an end to the exploitation.
Yup, that would level the playing field. :roll:
"Liberals feel unworthy of their possessions. Conservatives feel they deserve everything they've stolen.".....Mort Sahl
Jaunty
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 1539
Joined: 19 Feb 2007 16:41
Location: Niagara

Post by Jaunty »

Probably news to the CAW and many other unions that they are operating in the private sector.
User avatar
Beezy
Contributor
Contributor
Posts: 109
Joined: 08 Jul 2008 16:28
Location: North Vancouver

Post by Beezy »

Dennis wrote:
I wish all the laws permitting unions would be revoked, forcing unionized workers to be paid what they are worth according to market forces and their skills, like the private sector, putting an end to the exploitation.
Yup, that would level the playing field. :roll:
x2
User avatar
Mike Schimek
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 2698
Joined: 04 Nov 2007 18:25
Location: Montreal, Quebec

Post by Mike Schimek »

oops; by private sector I meant non unionized private sector.
Research until your head hurts then scream Banzai!!! and charge fearlessly to victory or death!
User avatar
Peculiar_Investor
Administrator
Administrator
Posts: 13271
Joined: 01 Mar 2005 14:52
Location: Calgary
Contact:

Re: Black news

Post by Peculiar_Investor »

Is his 15 minutes up yet :wink: ‘Honest services' key issue in Black appeal. Can we really use Conrad Black and 'Honest services' in the same article. Guess we'll find out after tomorrow's hearing.
Imagefiniki, the Canadian financial wiki New editors wanted and welcomed, please help collaborate and improve the wiki.

Normal people… believe that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain’t broke, it doesn’t have enough features yet. – Scott Adams
User avatar
Darrell Greenwood
Contributor
Contributor
Posts: 269
Joined: 01 Mar 2005 19:40
Location: BC
Contact:

Re: Black news

Post by Darrell Greenwood »

The Supreme Court normally is not eager — far from it — to decide a constitutional question; its traditions suggest hesitancy in using that ultimate power. But on Tuesday, the Court seemed quite impatient to ask, and answer, an issue of constitutionality: the validity of the 1988 law that is a vital government weapon against corruption — the “honest services fraud” law.

It seemed, however, that there could be a scheduling problem: should they wait until March, to see if it is properly raised in a case then, or should they tell lawyers sooner to come up with the arguments in one or both of the cases just heard: Black et al. v. U.S. (08-876) and Weyhrauch v. U.S. (08-1196)? No one seemed enamored of a third option: act as if the issue is already before the Court in one or both of those cases, as presently composed.

It seemed evident, after two hours of oral argument Tuesday, that the Court had agreed to hear three cases this Term on the scope of the “honest services” law in order to make a major declaration about it, and perhaps go all the way to strike it down. Justice Antonin Scalia reflected what appeared to be on the mind of most of his colleagues: ”Why should I turn somersaults” to find a way to save the statute?

<snip>

Washington lawyer, Miguel A. Estrada, representing Conrad Black, a Canadian media tycoon convicted of failing to give “honest services” to his company, opened his by noting that lower courts had agreed that the law at issue was “fraught with” constitutional problems of vagueness and intrusion into state powers. There was, he said, no solution that would provide an “elegant out” of the statute’s difficulty. He thus was pressing an argument not made in the opening petition, but pursued energetically in the merits brief.

Justice Scalia immediately pressed to see if, in fact, Estrada was summoning up the constitutional question, and the lawyer said he was, that it was implicit in the question the petition raised. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy also asked for clarification on what Estrada was arguing on the vagueness question. And a question from Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., gave him a chance to spell out the constitutional problem he was arguing.

When other Justices wondered whether the statute could be read at least to criminalize bribes and kickbacks (a limiting suggestion made by the government), Justice Scalia said there was “no basis in the statute for limiting it to that.” Soon after, Scalia was becoming more aggressive toward the statute, saying in response to Estrada’s suggestions for possible narrowing, “What if I think you don’t avoid constitutional problems?” The lawyer responded that the Court should not go out of its way to save the law.
From http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/reaching-a ... nal-issue/, full transcript of oral argument at http://www.supremecourtus.gov/oral_argu ... 08-876.pdf

Cheers,

Darrell
User avatar
Peculiar_Investor
Administrator
Administrator
Posts: 13271
Joined: 01 Mar 2005 14:52
Location: Calgary
Contact:

Re: Black news

Post by Peculiar_Investor »

Imagefiniki, the Canadian financial wiki New editors wanted and welcomed, please help collaborate and improve the wiki.

Normal people… believe that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain’t broke, it doesn’t have enough features yet. – Scott Adams
User avatar
Shakespeare
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 23396
Joined: 15 Feb 2005 23:25
Location: Calgary, AB

Re: Black news

Post by Shakespeare »

U.S. high court finds fault with Conrad Black fraud conviction
While the court sent the ruling back to the Appeal Court for review, it left it up to that court to decide if the “error was ultimately harmless”. That means Lord Black’s conviction could still stand.
Sic transit gloria mundi. Tuesday is usually worse. - Robert A. Heinlein, Starman Jones
User avatar
kcowan
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 16033
Joined: 18 Apr 2006 20:33
Location: Pacific latitude 20/49

Re: Black news

Post by kcowan »

Shakespeare wrote:U.S. high court finds fault with Conrad Black fraud conviction
While the court sent the ruling back to the Appeal Court for review, it left it up to that court to decide if the “error was ultimately harmless”. That means Lord Black’s conviction could still stand.
A little more back ground in the Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/25/us/25 ... ss&emc=rss
For the fun of it...Keith
mac1214
Contributor
Contributor
Posts: 442
Joined: 08 Mar 2010 10:53

Re: Black news

Post by mac1214 »

Conrad Black is a lot like Donald Trump in that both of them inherited a few million dollars, then they go around acting like financial geniuses, hating unions because they want to maintain their members wages at levels that they feel are justifiable. There's a big difference between working from the bottom up and becoming the owner and buying a company with inherited money. When they say get rid of unions, they should also say get rid of inherited millions. They have a nice privilege, but they begrudge others from the same. He went to jail because he wanted more millions, while trying to screw the companies shareholders.
User avatar
de facto
Contributor
Contributor
Posts: 82
Joined: 17 Apr 2010 20:01
Location: Lost in Time and Space above People City

Re: Black news

Post by de facto »

As I recall, Conrad inherited something like a million dollars. Even after tripling it to today's value, not a big deal at all. Ditto the Donald. His father was a modest developer of middle class rental apartments. The Donald is an on again, off again billionaire. It is a fantasy of everyone's that if only they had been born with a silver spoon (or a million dollar inheritance) it would be them in the news with the babes on their arms jetting between their various homes. If that were true, how come all those lottery winners we read about never seem to show up other than as broke somewhere down the road?

I often read about entrepreneurs who had a fraction of the capital I had twenty, even thirty years ago who are now the toast of the business world and beyond. Why not me? I'm realistic enough to realize I don't have what it takes. (Believe me, if I knew what it was, I'd be doing it!)
Hope you can believe in:
"July deadliest month in Iraq for two years." Gov't. of Iraq 31/07/10
"Violence in Iraq continues to be near the lowest it's been in years." B. Obama 2/08/10
User avatar
patriot1
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 4883
Joined: 28 Feb 2005 03:53

Re: Black news

Post by patriot1 »

What Black and Trump inherited which was more important than money was social connections. In particular, as I recall Black was able to take control of Argus Corp by getting a bunch of little old ladies in his social circle to back him. That sort of access is a lot more important than a million bucks or two.
User avatar
Bylo Selhi
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 29494
Joined: 16 Feb 2005 10:36
Location: Waterloo, ON
Contact:

Re: Black news

Post by Bylo Selhi »

patriot1 wrote:getting
Somewhat of an understatement.

Meanwhile the usual apologists are beginning the long, slow process of rehabilitating their hero.
Sedulously eschew obfuscatory hyperverbosity and prolixity.
User avatar
Darrell Greenwood
Contributor
Contributor
Posts: 269
Joined: 01 Mar 2005 19:40
Location: BC
Contact:

Court grants bail to jailed ex-media mogul Black

Post by Darrell Greenwood »

CHICAGO – Jailed former newspaper magnate Conrad Black was granted bail on Monday by a federal appeals court, weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court kicked his 2007 fraud conviction back to a lower court.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100719/ap_ ... black_bail

Cheers,

Darrell
User avatar
de facto
Contributor
Contributor
Posts: 82
Joined: 17 Apr 2010 20:01
Location: Lost in Time and Space above People City

Re: Black news

Post by de facto »

If the "crimes" are found not to have been crimes in the first place, what rehabilitation is necessary? If no new trial is called for, he will still remain convicted of the crime of covering up something that wasn't a crime in the first place. Much like Martha Stewart was found guilty and served time for lying about a non-crime.

But I will never forgive Connie for his hagiographic tome on FDR. You'd think a guy sent to jail under hazy statutes by a central government of unlimited powers might be sceptical of those most guilty of advancing those powers.
Hope you can believe in:
"July deadliest month in Iraq for two years." Gov't. of Iraq 31/07/10
"Violence in Iraq continues to be near the lowest it's been in years." B. Obama 2/08/10
User avatar
Shakespeare
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 23396
Joined: 15 Feb 2005 23:25
Location: Calgary, AB

Re: Black news

Post by Shakespeare »

Sic transit gloria mundi. Tuesday is usually worse. - Robert A. Heinlein, Starman Jones
User avatar
kcowan
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 16033
Joined: 18 Apr 2006 20:33
Location: Pacific latitude 20/49

Re: Black news

Post by kcowan »

Shakespeare wrote:Black loses appeal on fraud, obstruction convictions
So he remains a convicted crook.
At least the US seems to mete out justice properly once in a while.
For the fun of it...Keith
User avatar
Shakespeare
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 23396
Joined: 15 Feb 2005 23:25
Location: Calgary, AB

Re: Black news

Post by Shakespeare »

Sic transit gloria mundi. Tuesday is usually worse. - Robert A. Heinlein, Starman Jones
User avatar
Bylo Selhi
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 29494
Joined: 16 Feb 2005 10:36
Location: Waterloo, ON
Contact:

Re: Black news

Post by Bylo Selhi »

TFA wrote:Lord Black’s resentencing is scheduled June 24 before a federal judge in Chicago.
So now the big question is if he can resist the temptation to publicly bloviate about the injustice, never mind insult the the judge, for 3½ weeks. Has he ever before managed to restrain himself that long?
Sedulously eschew obfuscatory hyperverbosity and prolixity.
User avatar
Shakespeare
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 23396
Joined: 15 Feb 2005 23:25
Location: Calgary, AB

Re: Black news

Post by Shakespeare »

And back to jail he goes:
"I still scratch my head as to why you engaged in this conduct," Chicago Judge St. Eve said. "Good luck to you."
Sic transit gloria mundi. Tuesday is usually worse. - Robert A. Heinlein, Starman Jones
Post Reply