I'm done with DSK for a while. It's time to start enjoying the weekend. I'll leave you with the artist whose face I never get tired of looking at -- best face in rock and roll.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Alpha Condé , the President of Guinea addressed the Dominique-Strauss Kahn case today:

We are both [himself and Strauss-Kahn] members of the Socialist Party, the French Socialist Party is a member of the Socialist International, so I am very happy for him and I hope his sufferings will not have a lasting effect,” Condé told RFI at the African Union summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, after the latest twist in the sexual assault case.

He said his country will do what they can to help the accuser.

“Obviously, the lady is Guinean. It is the duty of the head of state to defend all Guinean citizens. We will see how we can come to her aid, because Guinea has to defend its children wherever they are. We will see how we can help her.”

A cynical person might ask whether, given that statement, she really still needs asylum in the U.S. (in the event she is prosecuted and convicted of fraud for her original application. Here's one example of such a prosecution.)

Update (7/5): The accuser has sued the New York Post for libel over the article.

Is anyone surprised by today's New York Post article alleging that Dominique Strauss-Kahn's accuser was a "working girl"? I opined last night,

The only remaining viable theories are: (1) It was a set-up (2) He paid her for the sex or (3) She consented, thinking she was going to paid, and got angry when he didn't offer money, didn't pay enough or refused to pay. While normally, paying for sex would be a crime, in this case, just like the rape claim, if he denied it, proving it would require believing her, and that's out of the question now.

Of course, a prostitute can be sexually assaulted and no one is saying she shouldn't be believed on that ground. [More...]

I've been waiting all day to learn the story behind the phone call with the incarcerated boyfriend of Dominique Strauss-Kahn's accuser, and here it is.

He was in an immigration jail in Arizona, the call was recorded, it took place 28 hours after she claimed to be raped, and the DA's office finally got around to having it translated from a dialect of Fulani to English. The money quote:

When the conversation was translated — a job completed only this Wednesday — investigators were alarmed: “She says words to the effect of, ‘Don’t worry, this guy has a lot of money. I know what I’m doing,’ ” the official said.

This case is toast. It's not illegal to have sex with a hotel maid. The only remaining viable theories are: (1) It was a set-up (2) He paid her for the sex or (3) She consented, thinking she was going to paid, and got angry when he didn't offer money, didn't pay enough or refused to pay. While normally, paying for sex would be a crime, in this case, just like the rape claim, if he denied it, proving it would require believing her, and that's out of the question now. [More...]

As expected, Dominique Strauss-Kahn's bail was modified today to a personal recognizance bond as the DA's office told the Judge about the problems with the accuser's credibility. In a letter to Strauss-Kahn's lawyers, the DA's office didn't mince words. The accuser repeatedly lied to prosecutors and investigators -- about a prior gang rape that never happened, about details of the incident with DSK, and more -- lies she later acknowledged. [More...]

Out of pocket for the rest of the day.

Tomorrow, the Tour de France kicks of in, erm, France. I like clen boy to win his fourth, and then have his 3rd stripped in August (when the Tribunal of Arbitration of Sport hears the WADA/UCI appeal of the Spanish Federation's non-suspension of Contador despite a finding of trace amounts of clenbuterol in his system during the 2001 TdF.)

Wimbledon winds up this weekend as well. Go Rafa! (Sharapova is the favorite on the women's side.)

Open Thread.

Paul Krugman discusses debt limit strategy:

Failure to reach a debt deal would have very bad consequences. But here’s the thing: Mr. Obama must be prepared to face those consequences if he wants his presidency to survive. [. . . W]hat’s really going on is extortion pure and simple. [. . .] And the reason Republicans are doing this is because they must believe that it will work: Mr. Obama caved in over tax cuts, and they expect him to cave again. [. . .] Republicans believe, in short, that they’ve got Mr. Obama’s number, that he may still live in the White House but that for practical purposes his presidency is already over. It’s time — indeed, long past time — for him to prove them wrong.

The New York Times reports the Dominique Strauss-Kahn prosecution may be falling apart due to problems with the accuser's credibility. Prosecutors are going to agree to a reduction in his bail conditions on Friday -- to a personal recognizance bond without monitoring conditions -- and charges may ultimately be dropped.

The Times reports the accuser has lied repeatedly to law enforcement since reporting the sexual assault allegation. The lies weren't about the incident with DSK, but about her asylum application and possible ties to drugs and money laundering. Keep reading, you won't believe it.

She's on tape the day after the incident talking on the phone to a jail inmate accused of possessing 400 pounds of marijuana about the benefits of pursuing charges against DSK. This same man is "one of several individuals" in several states who made multiple cash deposits into her bank account totaling $100,000. She denied knowing about the deposits, saying her fiance [who apparently is the jail inmate]and friends must have made them. She's paid hundreds of dollars a month in phone bills to five different phone companies, but told investigators she only had one phone. [More...]

The Department of Justice issued a new memo (available here) to federal prosecutors yesterday further "clarifying" its 2009 Ogden Memorandum. The Odgen memorandum (available here) said federal resources should not be used to prosecute those in "clear and unambiguous" compliance with state medical marijuana laws.

Sorry, the new memo says, that's not what we meant. We only meant federal resources shouldn't be used to prosecute cancer patients and other seriously ill people who used marijuana in compliance with state law. We never meant to provide a shield for those who supply medical marijuana to those in full compliance with state law.[More...]

The defense has rested in the trial of Casey Anthony. While the trial seems to have captured the media's attention, I have not been interested in it or following it. Apparently, the state didn't put on any direct evidence the child was murdered (as opposed to the victim of an accidental drowning.) Casey Anthony didn't testify and the defense didn't call witnesses to support the theory it laid out in opening arguments that her grandfather moved or hid the child's body and that Casey's lies after the fact were the result of sexual abuse by her father and brother. [More...]

Let's hope this rumor is true:

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner is considering leaving the Obama administration after a deal is reached to reduce the federal deficit, two officials familiar with his thinking said Wednesday. If Mr. Geithner does exit later this year, he would be the last member of Mr. Obama’s economic brain trust to leave the administration, after two-and-a-half years of turmoil, during which the White House confronted a financial crisis, a historic recession, near double-digit unemployment, and a recovery that has yet to gain traction.

Geithner's record of disastrous service, first as head of the New York Fed, and then as the worst Treasury Secretary since Mellon, should leave him a disgraced man. But one name floated would make Geithner look better:

A federal judge in Virginia sentenced former mortgage executive Lee Farkas to 30 years in prison today, and ordered him to $38.5 million. He was convicted of a fraud scheme involving $2 billion.

The government, aiming to send a message to the financial industry, asked Judge Brinkema to impose the maximum 385-year sentence on Mr. Farkas. As an alternative, the government recommended a penalty of at least 50 years to ensure he will “spend the remainder of his life in prison.”

Farkas was convicted of 14 counts of securities, bank and wire fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud after a ten day trial in which he testified in his own defense. What did his co-conspirators get? Those who pleaded guilty and cooperated got between 3 months and 8 years.

I'm surprised they didn't also ask the judge to chop off his hands.