• Mediaite broke it. DocumentCloud totally owned it. The Blago corruption court case hit a new high today after it was suggested that Obama might be implicated in the case. But this fact didn’t come out directly. It was actually redacted in this subpoena released today. However, a glitch in the PDF software they used to make the document made the redacted statement very easy to read. Which gave the boys at DocumentCloud a chance to show off their mad skillz. Check ’em out. They’re pretty awesome. source

• So, Pope Benedict’s got 99 problems, and a cover-up is one. The Pope is in the middle of one massive modern scandal, one which has already tapped his shoulder personally. He should consider his next move carefully, because he’s looking just like Richard Nixon right now. Here’s how (we ganked most of this from an Atlantic article, by the way, but we figure they won’t mind):

First way: What did he know, anyway?

• Nixon While he wasn’t involved with
  the Watergate scandal directly,
  his White House denied the scandal even after finding out, claiming
  they had “no knowledge” of what took place that fateful night.
• Benedict While nobody’s claiming he committed any abuse himself, he reportedly found out about the scandal while a cardinal. The Vatican claims “no knowledge”; sound familiar?

Second way: The cover-up

• It’s not the crime that gets you… it’s the cover up.
• Former President Richard Nixon • Regarding the Watergate scandal, which ultimately was a fairly minor case in the grand scheme of things. If he came clean early and fixed the problem, he would’ve been fine! Similarly, the Pope could’ve saved himself a lot of grief if he had dealt with the incidents on his watch – a Wisconsin sex abuse case and a German priest’s case (which, admittedly, he may not have known about). The lesson here? Deal with things when first happen; they hurt less.

Third way: Shooting the messenger

• Nixon During the scandal, Nixon held a very negative opinion of the press, claiming “the press is the enemy” to his long-suffering aides.
• Pope Over the weekend, the dude said he won’t be “intimidated by petty gossip.” His aides made even more direct attacks on the media.

Fourth way: Thinking you’re infallible

• The Pope is believed to be infallible; Nixon only thought he was. One thing that Pope Benedict has over Richard Nixon is papal infallibility, a concept that many misunderstand. He’s infallible on specific dogmatic matters – matters which probably don’t include sex scandals. Nixon, on the other hand, famously claimed in 1977 that “When the President does it, that means that it is not illegal.” Too bad the Supreme Court disagreed with him. source

• Yulia Tymoshenko lost, but she won’t concede. Despite wishes by the West that she concede (and their acceptance of Viktor Yanukovich’s victory), Tymoshenko, whose hair is made of stone, was quoted as saying she “will never recognize” Yanukovich’s victory, and her supporters will fight the result. Tymoshenko’s loss would be a huge blow to the Orange Revolution which took place after the 2004 election and got her into office. source

• First, we apologize for the late poll. Today was a slow news day and there wasn’t a lot of really pollworthy stuff. Anyway, today, Transparency International released its Corruption Perceptions Index for 2009, which is a survey of the most corrupt countries in the world. The top five are fairly obvious, if you follow the news. But what are we if not people who offer you the opportunity to vote?! So vote for the country you think is most corrupt. We left an option open for you to pick your own country. So go for it, kids.source

• 93% of Jersey thinks corruption’s a problem; the rest is in on it source

• 32
  years age of Hoboken’s mayor, Peter Cammarano, who is a prominent lawyer source

• A bunch of prominent Jewish rabbis – including the grand rabbi of the Syrian Jews – apparently had corrupt ties to banks in Switzerland and Israel. Oy ye vey! source

• Talk about a secret prize. Investigators said they found $97,000 in a box of Apple Jacks cereal. It was just one example of the huge amount of cash bandied about. source

• One guy apparently convinced people to sell their kidney for $10,000, only to resell that same kidney for $16,000. And people said The Sopranos were fake! source

• rabbis source

• cereal source

• organs source

• Normally, we don’t confirm or deny those kind of allegations out there. But, by not doing so, it just casts her in a very bad light. There is just no truth to those rumors out there in the blogosphere.
• FBI Special Agent Eric Gonzalez • Regarding rumors that Sarah Palin was under investigation for corruption during her tenure as governor of Alaska. It’s interesting that they went out of their way to actually say something about it. So, in other words, she really did leave office because she wants to become president. • source