FBI Informant Squealing On Sweeney

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Rep Gillibrand in the News

Albany Times-Union: Gillibrand priority: 'Constituent service'
Congresswoman finds best way to prepare for tough election contest is being attentive to voters

She's running for re-election against Sandy Treadwell, a millionaire who's trying the buy the seat so will need every edge she can get.

Why would a millionaire be trying to buy a seat in Congress? To get on the gravy train of lobbyist cash, of course. Gillibrand's last opponent, former Congressman John Sweeney, got plenty of money into his family's coffers by getting earmarks for clients who had hired his wife's firm. Public money to clients, paid back to wife's lobby shop. That little gambit was the subject of an FBI raid earlier this month as it involved uber-lobbyist/thief Jack Abramoff. Boy, I'd love to see John Sweeney hauled off to jail.

Looks Up To See Curb

Two days after Christmas, former Congressman John Sweeney refused to pay a cab fare after a late night ride home from a strip club. Later, someone with a brain in his family went down to the cab company and paid the fare (with a little something extra for the cabbie) and the cab co. dropped the complaint.

The cab cost $80. Maybe he spent all his money at the club?

WNYT.com: Source: cops called after Sweeney cab ride

hat tip to Talking Points Memo

Sweeney Pleads To A Lesser Offense

Former U.S. Rep. John Sweeney, left, walks out of the Town of Clifton Park court with his lawyer, E. Stewart Jones, after pleading guilty to DWI Wednesday, Nov. 14. (Philip Kamrass / Times Union)

Amazingly, this multiple DWI loser only loses his license for 6 months (and he can petition to get it back once he attends drunk driver's school, what a joke), and only pays a $1,000 fine. You and I would have faced much harsher consequences, I imagine. The glasses are a nice touch. You always want to look serious after getting caught on the Northway drunk with a girl your children's age in your lap.

Albany Times-Union: Sweeney makes plea, apologies
Ex-congressman fined $1,000, has license suspended for driving drunk

CapitalNews9: Sweeney accepts plea deal (with video link)

Congressman KickAss Arrested

The Union College party in 2006; trolling for a date?

Former Congressman John Sweeney was arrested Monday for aggravated drunk driving. He was pulled over on the Northway (I-87) and blew a .18 on the breathalyzer. No surprise given his history of drunk driving incidents:

In 1978, Sweeney, then 23, was convicted of driving while ability impaired after being stopped in Rensselaer County. That didn't keep him from becoming the county's Stop-DWI coordinator four years later. He was elected to Congress in 1998.

In 2001, Sweeney slammed a Jeep into a utility pole on his way home from the Willard Mountain ski area, cutting power to part of Washington County. At the time, State Police said Sweeney took his eye off the road to adjust the radio and lost control on the gravel on the right shoulder. No charges were filed.

[from earlier in the story]

In April 2006, the Union College student newspaper, the Concordiensis, ran photos of Sweeney at a college fraternity party. Students quoted in that story and in the Times Union said Sweeney appeared intoxicated, a charge he later denied.

[]

Sweeney and his ex-wife, Gayle, finalized their divorce in September. The pair exchanged allegations of domestic abuse last summer, with Gayle Sweeney saying she feared for her life. In 2006, the Times Union obtained a State Police dispatch report which showed Gayle Sweeney called police in December 2005, alleging her husband was "knocking her around."

Sweeney was also reportedly in a bar fight in 2004.

The surprise part of Sweeney's arrest is the 23-year-old woman on his lap. Maybe he met her at Union College last spring? Or one of his children introduced him to on of their friends. Local Republicans are probably just happy that it wasn't a 23-year-old man.
Albany Times-Union: Source: Sweeney passenger a shock
Arresting State Police officers in DWI case surprised to find a woman on ex-congressman's lap

Let's hope Sweeney sees the light and goes into alcohol rehab; at least the judge should take away his driver's license. He is a menace to society, thinking he can drink and drive and break the law with impunity.

I Don't Believe Him

That's the Sweeneys on the left in happier times

Former Congressman John Sweeney (aka Blutarski), (NY-20), now embroiled in divorce proceedings, claims his soon-to-be-ex-wife battered him. You've got to be kidding. He says he lied about the domestic violence police report that was released days before the election in November "to save his marriage". Conveniently, that lie painted him as being the subject of a sinister plot to get him by the State Police, or Kirsten Gillibrand, or whoever else he pointed fingers at. I point my finger at him in this one. I put my money on Blutarski as the abuser.

Albany Times-Union: Sweeney says he lied about domestic spat
Ex-congressman claims he wanted to shield wife from blame

JOHNSTOWN -- Former U.S. Rep. John Sweeney admitted to a gaggle of TV cameras Monday that he lied last year in a news conference when he said "there was no domestic violence" at his home.

Sweeney claimed he lied then to protect his wife because, he said, she was intoxicated and had assaulted him. The police report on that incident, which occurred late one night in December 2005, became public days before the November 2006 congressional election.

"I had to make a choice about whether my marriage was going to survive or I was staying in Congress," the Clifton Park Republican told the media, standing with his first wife, Betty Sweeney, and their three children. "If I stood up and told exactly what happened, I would have lost my marriage."

[]

Sweeney lost the election to Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand. His marriage fell apart eight months later. Sweeney, 51, filed for divorce July 11.

[]

He described Gayle Sweeney's physical mistreatment of him as "pretty extreme" and said he is afraid of her. Friday, in an interview with the Times Union, Mrs. Sweeney accused her husband of verbal and physical abuse.

[]

Meanwhile, domestic violence experts traveled to the Fulton County courtroom in support of Gayle Sweeney, saying John Sweeney's counter-accusations that he was injured are "a common tactic" in divorce cases.

Statistics prove that women rarely batter men, said Carole Fox of the Schenectady YWCA. "A lot of times, batterers will get orders of protection," she said.

[]

Last November, with her husband's congressional seat on the line, Gayle Sweeney, 36, made an 11th-hour campaign commercial accusing Gillibrand of leaking the report in a bid to win office. Mrs. Sweeney told the Times Union last week she was "coerced" by her husband's political advisers into making certain statements defending him on the eve of the election.

Albany Times-Union: Sweeney's wife claims he abused her
Says she fears for her life and that election eve denial was "coerced"

Kirsten Gillibrand in NYTimes

Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times

Potential rivals for Representative Kirsten Gillibrand's seat in Congress include a retired Army lieutenant colonel and a former candidate for governor.

Part 3 of the series:

NYTimes: The Freshman
Barely in Office, but G.O.P. Rivals Are Circling

Milford, New York, where the picture is taken, is also the home of the Cooperstown Brewing Co., where you can buy my favorite beer, Old Slugger, as well as other baseball-named beers. I wonder if John Sweeney has partaken of their wares? The New York Times outlines several Republicans who will run for Gillibrand's seat in 2008, but Sweeney is not mentioned.

Kirsten Gillibrand, Revolutionary

NYTimes Editorial: Congress and the Benefits of Sunshine

At first, the innovation sounds simple enough: Representative-elect Kirsten Gillibrand has decided to post details of her work calendar on the Internet at the end of each day so constituents can tell what she is actually doing for their money.

In fact, it is a quiet touch of revolution. The level of transparency pledged by Ms. Gillibrand, Democrat of New York — down to naming lobbyists and fund-raisers among those she might meet with — is simply unheard of in Congress. The secrecy that cloaks the dealings of lawmakers and deep-pocket special interests underpinned the corruption issue that Ms. Gillibrand invoked as voters turned Republicans from majority rule last month.

I saw this at DownWithTyranny!

Call John Sweeney The Wahhhhhhhmbulance

'Cause it's time for this very disturbed man to go home.

Albany Times-Union: On the Hill, the sound of silence
John Sweeney, still reeling from re-election loss to Kirsten Gillibrand, fails to show for votes

WASHINGTON -- Since losing re-election last month, Rep. John Sweeney has played hooky in Congress, skipping votes, dodging reporters and avoiding his new make-shift office in a basement cubicle set up for lame ducks.

Sweeney's friends and colleagues Capitol Hill say the Republican from Clifton Park is still stunned about the outcome of the Nov. 7 election when he lost to Democratic challenger Kirsten Gillibrand.

[]

Sessions [Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, a close friend of Sweeney's], asked why Sweeney was so angry and shocked about his loss, said: "John was disappointed that some frailties in his life were contributing issues to his defeat." He said Sweeney has been ill and his blood pressure had risen.

Sweeney believes he picked up "a bug" during congressional trips to Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Sessions.

"A bug got into his system and lodged in his brain," Sessions said. "It caused unimaginable pain and stress."

Hat tip to Talking Points Memo.

Saturday November 18th Blogtopia* Roundup

I want that drink. I need that drink? How long 'til this dumb dinner is over?

Actual caption: President Bush attends a dinner hosted by Vietnam's President Nguyen Minh Triet in Hanoi, November 17, 2006. (Reinhard Krause/Reuters)
New drinking game: Drink every time the media refers to Nancy Pelosi as 'Nancy'!

James Wolcott reports rumors that Bush is indeed drinking again.

Maru the Crankpot (WTF IS IT NOW?) links to this and many other funny posts (scroll up to see the post).

Glenn Greenwald: Cheney Administration is pathological, laughing as they shred the Constitution.

Soon to be former Congressman John Sweeney (R-Wife Beating and Drinking) in trouble again, this time for doctoring police records. Bye bye!

Professor Juan Cole at Informed Comment:

Bush went to Vietnam and boasted about how we would have won if we had not quit. This was, he said, the lesson for Iraq of the Vietnam War. He managed to be wrong about two wars at once and to anger both his hosts (how churlish!) and the Iraqi public. The American Right never admitted that they lost in Vietnam, thus the Rambo movies and, Melani McCallister argues, the US admiration for Entebbe. Iraq was their chance, they thought, to get it right. Bush had also said insulting things to the Philiippines about how wonderful it was that we had colonized them (and killed 400,000).

Colonialism is over with. When will they get that through their heads?

And actually we can't win in Iraq by just staying. Just like when you are sinking in quicksand, staying put is not a virtue.

Reminds me of the old joke about Bush. What's the difference between Iraq and Vietnam? Bush had a plan to get out of Vietnam. Who knew the plan was not to go until 2006 and to have Air Force One at the ready?


*yes! skippy coined that phrase!

Wonkette Is Whaling on Sweeney

And given his history, isn't that appropriate?

Wonkette: Slappy Sweeney's Story of Success

Losing your “safe seat” in the House doesn’t mean you’re a Loser — according to the Albany magazine “Success,” it means just the opposite.

After all, the alleged drunk and wife beater has a long list of accomplishments to show from his years in Congress:

* When it comes to using federal cops to lock up cancer patients using medical marijuana, he’s No. 1.
* After boozing up at a bar in Upstate New York, he successfully stranded skiers on the lifts when he expertly knocked down a utility pole with his Jeep.
* Sweeney was named one of the Top 20 Most Corrupt Congressmen by the prestigious Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
* His stripper wife started a “fund-raising company,” and the next day landed a great client: John Sweeney!
* Of New York’s 29 members of the House, Slappy McDrunk ranked No. 1 in taking campaign donations.

All Wonkette posts referring to John Sweeney

Sweeney Dirty: Is It a Twofer?

Yesterday Congressman Blutarsky, a/k/a John Sweeney, Republican who currently represents the NY-20 district, was named one of the most corrupt membrs of Congress by CREW, the Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington.

On the same day, the Albany Times-Union, the largest newspaper in the district, announced that it had discovered and banned a "sock puppet" from its politics blog, Capitol Confidential. A sock puppet in modern usage is one internet user who posts under separate identities as though more than one person is speaking. This sock puppet went so far as to compliment a posting by its alter ego. Wanna bet it was someone supporting John Sweeney? I'll make that bet. Links below.

CREW: The 20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress

Rep. John Sweeney (R-NY)

John Sweeney is a fourth-term Congressman representing the 20th district of New York. His ethics issues stem from a ski trip to New York, the exchange of legislative assistance for campaign contributions and the hiring of his wife as a campaign fundraiser.

Misuse of public funds to pay for a trip to New York

Rep. Sweeney invited 53 people to join him from January 6-9, 2006, for a “Congressional Winter Challenge” at the Lake Placid Olympic facilities. There, Rep. Sweeney and his guests enjoyed pretending to be Olympic athletes by participating in events including skiing, bobsledding and hockey, all paid for with New York taxpayer dollars. The trip appears to violate several provisions of the House gift and travel rules, including the prohibition on recreational travel.

Relationship with National Marine Manufacturers Association

In May 2006, Rep. Sweeney introduced the Boating Safety Tax Incentive Act, legislation that the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) strongly supported and even helped draft, allowing boat manufacturers to supply new boats with free safety equipment, including up-to-date lifejackets, in exchange for a tax deduction. In apparent exchange, NMMA’s PAC has supported Rep. Sweeney and contributed to his campaign committee for the past three years. In the 2006 election cycle alone, NMMA donated $4,500 to Rep. Sweeney, making him the third highest recipient of contributions from NMMA’s PAC. Additionally, NMMA has hosted fundraisers for Rep. Sweeney on its luxurious yacht, raising a total of $12,150. If Rep. Sweeney received campaign donations in return for campaign contributions he may have violated federal bribery and honest services fraud as well as violated House rules.

Employment of Spouse Gayle Ford

Rep. Sweeney has hired his wife’s firm to fundraise for his campaign, despite the fact that she has no fundraising experience and appears to have no other clients. She receives a 10% commission on the money she brings in, the campaign paid her $42,570 during the 2004-2005 election cycle, and as of April 2006, she received $30,879 for the current election cycle. Notably, records show that Rep. Sweeney has had a fundraising consultant on monthly retainer since June of 2004, who is paid $8,583 a month. The facts suggest that Rep. Sweeney is converting campaign funds to personal use in violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act and House rules.

Son Avoids Jail

Rep. Sweeney’s son, John, brutally beat another teenager, but avoided jail for his offense. The ethics committee should investigate whether the young man received special treatment because of his father’s position in violation of House rules.

The Nation: Congress's Most Corrupt

Highlights include .... New York Rep. John Sweeney (news, bio, voting record), who a few months back showed up drunk to a local frat party, threw a taxpayer funded Winter sporting weekend and hired his wife as a fundraiser even though she had no previous fundraising experience;

Times Union 'Capitol Confidential' Blog: Sock Puppets and Ethics

If you haven’t read our “rules of engagement” in a while, we’ve added a new policy:

The use of multiple identities (aka “sock puppets”) on this blog is not permitted.

We’ve also included a link to a Wikipedia item that offers a fuller explanation of these aliases.

This policy was sparked by the admitted use of multiple identities by a visitor to this blog. We discovered this rather by accident, and at a time when he happened to post a comment referring to his other identity - somewhat glowingly, no less - as if it was a different person.

That’s clearly deceptive and unethical.

[]

Editor’s Note: The individual has been blocked from the site (to the best of our ability).

Good News For Kirsten Gillibrand

The first ad should morph Abramoff's face into Sweeney's
NYTimes: Democrats Open Purse Strings for a 2nd Upstate House Race

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 — The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee plans to pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into an advertising campaign trying to unseat John Sweeney, a Republican congressman from upstate New York, Democratic officials said on Thursday.

Now if we can just get Gillibrand or the party's ads to hit Sweeney hard. Enough with the namby-pamby getting to know you ads. Time to fight. Because if you don't fight, you don't win.

I like the tactics of Charlie Brown, who's running against John Doolittle, another Abramoff bagman, in California.

From TurnTahoeBlue: "It's Time For Doolittle To Give Back The Wages Of Sin"

Charlie Brown just started a new radio ad, accompanied by a new website, attacking Doolittle on his connections to indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his client the government of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory.

This is a transcript of the ad:

Most Americans have never heard of a place called the Northern Marianas Islands .

Most of us don’t know that in this far away American territory, forced abortions, sex slavery and sweatshops are all too common.

Most Americans don’t know about these terrible abuses. But Congressman John Doolittle does – and he has for almost ten years.

How did Congressman Doolittle respond after he learned about forced abortions, sex slavery and sweatshops?

Doolittle actually helped fund the local government that tolerated forced abortions. And he refuses to return campaign contributions tied to this corrupt government.

It’s time for Doolittle to give back the wages of sin. Time for John Doolittle to stop tolerating forced abortions and sex slavery.

Time for a change...

Please, find out more at Doolittlefacts.org.

I’m Charlie Brown and I approve this message. Join the fight at CharlieBrownforCongress.org. Paid for and authorized by Charlie Brown for Congress.

Gillibrand should be running similar ads. Why was the Congressman from the 20th New York Congressional District giving a speech in the Marianas Islands to the Saipan Chamber of Commerce in January of 2001? Why did he say he'd seen worse sweatshops in New York? Why did he have so many meetings with Tom Delay's chief aide in 2001, now-convicted felon Tony Rudy?

For an excellent review of Sweeney's role as Abramoff's bagman, see Lisa M.'s post at 20TrueBlue: Sweeney Defended Sweatshops and Lobbied for Abramoff (July 28, 2006)

See Also dailykos: CA-04: Brown Hits Doolittle Hard on Abramoff, Forced Abortion and Sex Trafficking

....Republicans tied to Jack Abramoff are vulnerable to attacks for their work to protect a system of sweatshops, human trafficking, forced prostitution and forced abortion on the Commonwealth of North Mariana Islands (CNMI)--a US Territory in the Western Pacific.

I've Got an ActBlue Page

Main St USA is the name of my ActBlue page. I've got five candidates so far, and if there's someone you think I should add, send me an email (edwardssupporter@aol.com) or tell me about your candidate and your argument as to why I should support her, or him, in the comments section.

Here are my 5:

(1) Kirsten Gillibrand: Running for the NY-20 Congressional seat (my mom's district); David Boies' partner, smart lawyer, and running against the evil oaf, incumbent John Sweeney, the jerk who led the Brooks Brother riot in Dade County during the 2000 Florida vote counting fiasco, and more recently a Jack Abramoff bagman, working hard to keep sweatshops open in the Marianas Islands.

(2) John Bonifaz: Running to be Secretary of State in Massachusetts. When John Kerry took his millions and his promise to fight for every vote and left Ohio in 2004, John Bonifaz bought a plane ticket and went to Ohio and led the fight to have all the votes counted. Running against incumbent Bill Galvin, our comical Secretary of State who never saw a TV camera he didn't ham up to.

(3) Eric Massa: Running for the NY-29 Congressional seat, western New York where many friends and relatives live. One of the Fighting Dems, the large group of military veterans running to bring a realistic view of the military into government. Had enough chickenhawk leadership yet? Vote for the Fighting Dems. Oh, and Massa's opponent is a real piece of work, the Shotgun Senator (when he was in the NY State Senate, he fired a shotgun at his now ex-wife), incumbent Randy Kuhl.

(4) Jon Tester: Running for the Montana Senate seat against incumbent Conrad Burns, Abramoff bagman, and the Senator most famous recently for accosting a group of firefighters from Virginia in the Billings, Montana airport and accusing them of doing a poor job. Tester is a rancher, a gun owner, and a progressive.

(5) Joe Sestak: Running for the PA-07 seat currently held by Curt Weldon, one of the dumbest wingnuts in Congress (he keeps issuing statements saying we've found the WMDs in Iraq. Right.) Sestak is a retired 31-year Navy veteran with a Doctorate in Political Economy and Government from Harvard University. Weldon, on the other hand, is a typical corrupt Republican; his 29-year-old daughter is a lobbyist trading on Daddy's contacts. Plus he publicly criticized Sestak's choice of cancer treatment for his 5-year-old daughter. Yucch.

Another Reason To Support Kirsten Gillibrand

Rep. John Sweeney (R., NY-20) is really a moron. His office requested an ethics opinion about whether he could participate in a fundraiser. The House Committee on Standards replied, yes, but only if you get an invitation "without your involvement".

Opinion in hand, what did Sweeney do? Sent the invitation out to himself and several of his staff -- from his Congressional office.

Jeez, could the guy be any dumber?

Albany (NY) Times Union: Ethics issues raised at hearing
State official alleges Sweeney helped draw up guest list for a lobbying event in Lake Placid

ALBANY -- A state official testified Tuesday that U.S. Rep. John Sweeney played a key role in drawing up the guest list for an annual congressional winter weekend in Lake Placid, a practice deemed inappropriate by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct.

Olympic Regional Development Authority President Ted Blazer, speaking at a state Assembly hearing, said invitations to the Congressional Winter Challenge -- an event held to highlight Lake Placid Olympic facilities in hopes of securing federal funding -- were "assembled by the Washington office of Congressman Sweeney and the United States Olympic Committee."

The event has been held annually since 1998. ORDA documents state that certain participants -- including fellow House members, past and present Sweeney staffers, members of his family and lobbyists -- were invited by the Clifton Park Republican.

Last August, Sweeney sought guidance from the House Committee on Standards. He said he planned to invite House and Senate colleagues and staffers to Lake Placid Jan. 6-8 this year for the Winter Challenge and sought an opinion "as to the propriety of members of Congress and congressional staff making the trip." He did not ask about the lobbyists.

The committee informed Sweeney he could follow up invitations made by ORDA and the USOC, but only after those entities issued the invitations "without your involvement."

You can contribute to Sweeney's Democratic opponent, Kirsten Gillibrand, here. Let's Paint New York Blue in November.

Swillionaires for Sweeney

Head Swiller
Sorry I missed this political protest:

Saratoga Springs: Protest Rep. Sweeney fundraiser with McCain

"Let's Protest Sweeney and the corrupt Republican agenda of Rove, Delay, Cheney, Bush & Abramoff. Unlike Sweeney, who led a violent gang of thugs in Miami in 2000 with the order to shut down the vote recounting, we will be nonviolent."

"Feel free to bring your own signs about corruption and any aspect of the Republican agenda. Bring mops & brooms to hold with the signs, to symbolize a call for cleaning up corruption, & clean elections campaign finance reform. We'll have plenty of extra signs, mops & brooms."

"There may be creative street theater activities, such as Billionaires for Bush (or Swillionaires for Sweeney), or holding an 'auction' selling favors to cronies."

Swillionaires is such a great word, especially given Sweeney's recent frat party shenanigans. Connotations of pork and alcohol, with undertones of plain old dirtiness. Well done activists.

Kirsten Gillibrand for NY-20. Contribute here.

Frat Boy Sweeney in NYTimes

Gerrymandering can only take you so far
Look at that district. Lots of poor folks who are probably not enjoying $3.00+ a gallon gasoline. Most have never been to a frat party, even when they were the right age. The NYTimes takes note of John Sweeney's (cough, cough) ineptitude:

Congressman With Long Reach Faces Political Battle of His Life

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — Only a few years ago, John E. Sweeney was a rising star in New York Republican circles, a streetwise political operative who helped engineer the 1994 victory of a little-known state senator, George E. Pataki, over Gov. Mario M. Cuomo before going on to take a seat in Congress. There, his combative brand of politics made him a favorite of national Republican leaders, including President Bush.

But these days, with Congressional elections just six months away, Mr. Sweeney finds himself in the political battle of his life, as he faces his first significant electoral challenge since taking office in 1998, from a political novice who has not only turned out to be a surprisingly strong campaigner and fund-raiser but who also has assembled a seasoned campaign team closely tied to the vaunted Clinton operation.

The threat that independent analysts say Mr. Sweeney faces is one of the more intriguing and unexpected developments of this electoral season, since the congressman represents the solidly Republican 20th Congressional District and has emerged in recent years as one of the more prominent politicians in the state. Well liked even among his Democratic colleagues, the gregarious Mr. Sweeney has long been considered a potential candidate for higher office.

But now he finds himself battered by headlines about his own actions, including his recent attendance at a college fraternity party. He also faces the woes afflicting other Republicans around the country, who — as members of the party controlling the White House and Congress — are potentially vulnerable at a time when polls indicate that Americans are in a dark mood about the future of the nation.

[]

By most measures, Ms. Gillibrand has run an aggressive campaign that seems to have caught Mr. Sweeney off guard as it has swiftly moved to put him on the defensive.

In January, her campaign surrogates seized on reports that he organized a $2,000-a-person "Skiing with Sweeney" weekend getaway attended by lobbyists at a resort in Park City, Utah, as well as a dinner at the home of a wealthy pharmaceutical industry lobbyist.

The Further Adventures of Soon-To-Be-Ex-Congressman John Sweeney

She's got a purty face. Heh heh. Gimme another beer.
In which our porcine Congressman lets out his inner swine:

Swing State Project: NY-20: Sweeney Blutarsky At It Again

He said this. He really said this;

"You can't take a resume and a pretty face from New York City and say to people this is good for you simply because we can spend a lot of money and raise a lot of money," Sweeney told the Record of Troy. (Emphasis added.)

At Least My Congressman Didn't Vote For The Next War

Don't our representatives in Congress learn from their own mistakes? Having given the Decider-in-Chimp a blank check for war with Iraq, which he has filled out, to date, with over 2400 American deaths, over 100,000 Iraqi deaths, over $320 billion dollars; and has us stuck in a complete quagmire, how could Congress possibly go down that road again? I ask again, isn't doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result the definition of insanity?

Thank you Jim McGovern (D-MA) for voting against this charade.

afterdowningstreet.org: House votes 397-21 for “Iran Freedom Support Act”

As if Iraq isn’t a big enough mess, the House of Representatives has just voted to 'hold Iran accountable and support a transition to democracy’. Sound Familiar? Only this time Iran is a democracy. They just held an election where their president was actually elected by the people. How refreshing.

After everything that has been exposed…the lies, the profiteering, the long list of war crimes, 397 'Representatives’ gave Bush the go ahead on attacking Iran. Only 21 Patriots voted Nay. Sad to say but these are the only people we can trust…

Baldwin, Blumenauer, Boyd, DeFazio, Duncan, Flake, Hostettler, Jones (NC), Kucinich, Leach, McDermott, McGovern, McKinney, Oberstar, Obey, Olver, Paul, Rahall, Snyder, Stark, Taylor

The most disappointing aspect however is the fact that so many of our 'progressive’ leaders in congress voted for this lie. John Conyers voted yay. Maxine Waters, Murtha, Bernie Sanders, Lynn Woolsey, Barbara Lee all voted for it. On the hill today the Progressive Caucus is hosting a hearing on Iraq…

Congresswomen Lynn Woolsey and Barbara Lee will host a hearing on the Iraq War next Thursday, April 27, 8:30-11 a.m., in 2325 Rayburn House Office Building. The two Co-Chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus are continuing to do what the "leadership" of both parties does not, respond to the demands of the majority of Americans, who disapprove of current policy.

Lynn Woolsey and Barbara Lee just voted yay on giving the green light for war on Iran. I can assure them that the demands of the majority of Americans are not in accordance with their vote on Iran. We are supposed to believe that these representatives 'can get fooled again’? Are they merely posing as the opposition in order to stall for Bush?

Drunken lout Sweeney (NY-20), with a strong challenger in the November elections, abstained. I wonder if that is a measure of the war's unpopularity in his district, or did he just have a hangover?

Speaking of Louts

John Sweeney, never too OLD for SCHOOL

One must not forget John Sweeney (R-NY20)

Party on, dude

And a little ad from Kristen Gillibrand's site:

Sweeney Vacation

Love the music.