News Round-Up, Friday, March 30, 2007

Can't get enough of Knut
I love my Congressman. I was a little surprised when I read the headline saying that my extremely liberal Congressman Jim McGovern (D-MA) is endorsing Hillary Clinton (who voted for the war he has always opposed), but when I read the article it made sense. He's supporting her because she will make history as the first woman president; he decided after hearing his five-year-old daughter talk about Hillary with her kindergarten classmates. As the daughter of parents who told her she could become President if she wanted, I salute that. And let's face it. There are no bad candidates on the Democratic side. I'd vote for any of them in a heartbeat.

Anti-abortion zealot Dr. Eric Keroack has resigned his position as head of the Office of Population Affairs at HHS under a cloud of scandal; he is being investigated for Medicaid fraud in Massachusetts. Hah!

The Washington Post has redesigned its website. There is now a page where all articles about climate change are listed.

No comment, or should I say, speechless: Video: Rove raps at correspondents dinner.

Rudy Giuliani's caught in another lie: He knew about Bernie Kerik's ties to organized crime.

Via atrios, the new website Politico should be called Drudgico, not surprising given that Politico founder Jim VandeHei is married to a former Tom Delay staffer and reportedly has a shrine to GWB in his house. Ewww.

Tee Hee

Tom Delay started a blog! Then Tom Delay found out that blogs get comments. Tom Delay's blog got lots of very funny comments. And 75 minutes later, Tom Delay's blog was wiped of content.

Tom Delay deleted his blog, but a smart techie saved it: HERE.

I found the link at Crooks & Liars.

Bugman To Self-Exterminate June 9th

Taking his tiny penis with him, Tom Delay has announced he is resigning his Congressional seat as of June 9th. He claims to be leaving 'to pursue new opportunities to engage in the important cultural and political battles of our day'; of course, we know that he must get to work at the corporate trough, sucking in as much money as he can so he can pay his [CAUTION; pdf link] very expensive lawyer , Dick DeGuerin. Ironically, DeGuerin is the kind of lawyer DeLay has been trying to put out of business for years with his assaults on the rights of criminal defendants. A worthy transfer of assets.

Raw Story: DeLay notifies Speaker of the House he will resign June 9

Chemlawn Users, Beware

Chemlawn Lawn Spray Gun by Lesco (image rittenhouse.ca)
You might want to print out this article and distribute it to the folks in your neighborhood who have those little chemical treatment flags on their lawns.

London Free Press: Pesticides may affect penis size
A renowned U.S. scientist supports a ban on the chemicals for cosmetic purposes.

A renowned U.S. scientist who has documented fertility and sex changes -- including decreasing penis size -- due to environmental contamination says he wouldn't apply pesticides on his own lawn.

Delivering a special series of lectures this week at the University of Western Ontario, Louis Guillette has been drawn into London's lawn-care debate during question periods and talk-show interviews.

"The use of these compounds just for cosmetic reasons, just because you don't want to make dandelion wine from your yard or whatever, I think is inappropriate," Guillette, who is associate dean for research at the University of Florida, said in a lecture yesterday at UWO's Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Based on his own scientific investigations, Guillette said there's enough evidence pesticides put children, wildlife and the ecosystem at risk.

"Just because you can go buy them at the local stores doesn't meant that is appropriate use," he said.

[]

Penis size of the animals from the polluted lake was smaller than animals from the less-polluted lake.

"This is important because it is not just an alligator story. It is not just a lake story. We know there has been a dramatic increase in penile and genital abnormalities in baby boys," Guillette said.

A followup study by another scientist involving healthy couples with 5,000 healthy babies also found reduced penis size with higher contamination levels.

As Brilliant at Breakfast commented, this explains Tom Delay, who owned a pest control company before he ran for Congress.

Bush Pioneer Hijacking My Comments Section

My little blog is being bombed with pro-billionaire comments! It's the attack of the Bush Pioneers.

Look at my earlier post, Billionaires for Bush. Seven comments! I almost never get comments; most of the time you will find one or two comments on a post. Seven is a personal record.

And more surprisingly, for a small blog like mine that is read by family and friends and visitors from Newsfare and from the Washington Post when I link to their articles, all the comments from that very liberal base are against taxing excess profits, and hugely in favor of Mr. Exxon-Mobil's half billion dollar golden handshake. Curious, no?

Piqued my curiousity. So I went to my sitemeter. Some of the commenters had hidden IP or search information. But five of them posted after receiving an email from someone else with a yahoo account. And one of those five commenters posted from IP Address 68.73.130.# (STRATEGIC PUBLIC PRTNRS).

Strategic Public Partners Home Page

Profile of Tom Whatman, President

Tom Whatman founded Strategic Public Partners (SP2) in February 2001 drawing on his unique experience to create a public affairs firm specializing in helping business clients navigate political waters. In just a short time SP2 has developed a broad clientele based upon its strategic insights and ability to get things done in Ohio and Washington, DC.

Mr. Whatman served as Executive Director of the Ohio Republican Party from 1994 through the 2000 presidential elections. He was responsible for the day-to-day management of the Party including the development and implementation of an unprecedented $20 million voter contact and candidate program in Ohio during the 2000 elections.

Whatman was a Bush Pioneer. Part of the Tom Noe, Ken Blackwell, evil Ohio Republican cabal.

Mr. Whatman's last political contribution, according to opensecrets.org, was $1,250 to Tom Delay on February 15, 2006. I read that as zealot, and idiot. Who didn't know Tom Delay was on his way out?

So, anyway, this is my response to all those 'independent' commenters who responded to Billionaires for Bush (one even signed himself 'Average Joe'!)

You're wrong, wrong, wrong, and you're going down in November. (Yes! I'm a proud member of blogtopia's Angry Left!)

Speaking of going down, SPP has been down this attack road before:

E Pluribus Media: Cronyism: Bush Pioneer Behind Attacks on Reform Ohio Now (Nov. 4, 2006)

Break on Through: Ohio First: a story of Croney Kickbacks and Bush Pioneers (November 6, 2005)

dailykos: Ohio GOP chair now embroiled in Federal bank favoritism charges (July 20, 2005)

My Political Dollars at Work

As a resident of the People's Republic of, I mean the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, sometimes it seems like a waste of money to give to my preferred political candidates. Teddy Kennedy is going to get reelected. The Rethugs could run the Pope here and Teddy would kick Joey Ratz's ass.

So I want to use my political donations to gain a Democratic majority in Congress this year. I'm going to be giving to Senator Holey Joe Loserman's opponent in Connecticut, a real Democrat, Ned Lamont. Holey Joe can go on to an undistinguished career lobbying for insurance companies and addressing right wing rubber chicken banquets.

Even closer to home, I'm going to give money to whichever Democrat (former state attorney general Sheldon Whitehouse or Secretary of State Matt Brown) wins the right to oppose Lincoln Chafee in Rhode Island. Chafee voted for cloture (which would have been defeated with 41 votes), which put Alito on the Supreme Court. The fact that he cast a meaningless vote against him when the anti-Alito forces needed 60 votes to win just pisses me off. (I must be part of the Angry Left. Cue Howard Beal from Network! I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more!)

Yesterday I found this site, Paint New York Blue, on Bob Fertik's blog at Democrats.com. (I bookmarked Bob's blog during the Alito fight, when he ran myriad lists of telephone and fax numbers for contacting Senators.) Paint New York Blue's aim is to help re-take the House by focusing on the State of New York, where Democrats have a good chance of taking back some of the 15 seats we need.

Currently Paint New York Blue is targeting three races: (1) District 19, where the current Republican Congresswoman Sue Kelly voted with Tom Delay over 90% of the time; (2) District 20, where former Republican state party chairman John Sweeney is getting a serious challenge from Attorney Kristen Gillibrand, a partner of Gore election attorney David Boies; and (3) District 29, where Fighting Dem Eric Massa, a retired Navy commander, is challenging one of the true scumbags of the House, Republican Randy Kuhl, whose divorce papers reveal him to be an abusive drunk. Oh, and then there was that little incident where he threatened his wife with a shotgun. Nice.

I'm going to give my money to Gillibrand, who is running to represent my old district. Actually, I don't think my hometown is in her district anymore, because the Republican redistricters chopped up my rural county, but it's close enough. Go look at the map of Distict 20; it's crazy, running from Essex County north of Albany on the Vermont border, to Dutchess County on the Connecticut border; to rural Delaware County, almost at the Pennsylvania border.

Here's what Paint My Blue has to say about her race:

Running along the Eastern edge of New York State, District 20 has been represented since 1998 by John Sweeney, the former executive director of the New York State Republican Party who has a consistent anti-abortion record and an ‘A’ rating from the NRA. Anyone looking for a sighting of that rare bird, the moderate New York Republican, will have to look elsewhere: Sweeney has the markings of a traditional Bush-era conservative, voting with disgraced former House Leader Tom DeLay over 90% of the time in his latest term in office. Sweeney’s defining moment may have been in the aftermath of the 2000 Bush-Gore election, where he spearheaded the shutdown ofthe recount in Florida – a move that earned him the nickname “Congressman Kickass” from beneficiary George W. Bush.

Challenger Kirsten Gillibrand is a partner at the law firm of Boies, Schiller & Flexner (yes, that would be Boies as in David Boies, who represented Al Gore in Florida). At 39, Gillibrand is well established as a lawyer and as a civic activist. Called “a rising star” by NY State Attorney General Elliot Spitzer, Gillibrand has exceeded expectations in establishing herself as a viable candidate. Despite her blue chip resume and political credibility (including ties to the Clinton administration, where she served as legal counsel to the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development), skeptics initially described Gillibrand as a great candidate in a long shot race. However, she has won them over with a combination of personal charisma, hard work and organizational success. As of the first of January 2006, Gillibrand had raised over $370,000, drawing the attention of national groups like Emily’s List and the DCCC. Now, Roll Call political writer Stuart Rothenberg calls Gillibrand “the best Democratic opportunity” in New York to unseat a Republican Congressional incumbent in 2006.

Perhaps no one has helped Gillibrand more than Congressman Sweeney himself, who appears to be unsettled by his first real electoral challenge. Republicans arranged for a small group to protest Gillibrand’s campaign kick-off in Saratoga, but apparently forgot to tell them what it was they were protesting – a bungling performance that merely served to increase media coverage of the event. Sweeney’s attempt to distance himself from Jack Abramoff (and the $7,000 in campaign cash from Abramoff that had been directed his way) also backfired when a reporter realized that Sweeney had actually delivered his call for reform from the Park City, Utah vacation home of pharmaceutical lobbyist Jeff Kimble. But the Congressman wasn’t playing favorites – any lobbyist willing to pony up $2,000 had been invited to spend the weekend skiing with “House Appropriations Committee Member” John Sweeney.

It remains to be seen how the local electorate will react to Sweeney’s escapade in Utah, which drew the attention of the national press. Sweeney has other baggage to deal with as well; in November 2005 his teenage son was sentenced to 45 days in jail after pleading guilty to assault, the charges stemming from an incident that sent another boy to the hospital with a broken eye socket. Luckily for John Sweeney junior, a second judge reviewed the guilty plea and eliminated the jail time – an unusual step that has been loudly protested by the victim of the attack.

Despite Sweeney’s personal problems, there is no question that Gillibrand has a fight on her hands in a district where 53% voted for George Bush in 2004. Still, her team is encouraged by signs of change – increased numbers of registered Democrats, defeat of Republican mayors and other local incumbents in the 2005 elections, and a new energy animating the Democratic and independent opposition. The Gillibrand campaign has momentum, and the tangible evidence of that momentum is money: with a banner last quarter of 2005, Gillibrand has surpassed in dollars raised all of Sweeney’s four previous challengers combined.

The End is Near

Have I woken up in La La Land? I turned on the TV this morning, and there on C-Span is right-wing nutjob Rick Scarborough, telling us that Tom Delay is a fine man and that he supports him no matter what. Tom is a good man, persecuted by those who hate Christians. I turn to CNN and they are reporting that Seymour Hersh reports that Bush intends to use nuclear weapons against Iran. He's gonna drop the bomb! Then I turn to CBS Sunday Morning, usually an oasis of calm, but Rita Braver is doing a piece on Pat Robertson. Pat Robertson goes mainstream.

Then the host, Charles Osgood, wishes Hugh Hefner a happy birthday, and I feel the ground beneath me begin to shake.

Is the end really near?

Republican Thieves; or, It's All About the Benjamins

From large to smaller, the Republican party has been ripping off the country for the last five years. Just look at the Iraq War Cost Clock in the post below, for the big rip-off. What follows are some of the smaller rip-offs. I was tempted to say small, but how can you say that people who are siphoning tens of thousands and millions of dollars are small rip-off artists? They're just smaller. And ethically, and morally, they have to look up to see the curb. Worms.

Front page of the Washington Post, today:

Former DeLay Aide Enriched By Nonprofit
Bulk of Group's Funds Tied to Abramoff

Tom Delay's chief of staff created a nonprofit then paid 1/3 of its monies -- more than a million dollars - to himself. Nice work if you can get it.

A top adviser to former House Whip Tom DeLay received more than a third of all the money collected by the U.S. Family Network, a nonprofit organization the adviser created to promote a pro-family political agenda in Congress, according to the group's accounting records.

DeLay's former chief of staff, Edwin A. Buckham, who helped create the group while still in DeLay's employ, and his wife, Wendy, were the principal beneficiaries of the group's $3.02 million in revenue, collecting payments totaling $1,022,729 during a five-year period ending in 2001, public and private records show.

Notice that Buckham's wife was one the beneficiaries. That's because she was designated as a 'fundraiser' for the nonprofit, so she got 10% off the top of anything that was donated.

Apparently this thieving model was circulating in Republican circles, because Rep. John Doolittle's (R-CA) wife took 15% of the monies contributed to his campaign, and Rep. John Sweeney's (R-NY) wife took 10% of the monies donated to her husband's campaign. Neither woman had any prior experience as a fundraiser. Nice work if you can get it, no?

Barbara Bush earmarked a charitable contribution ostensibly for Katrina victims to her ne'er-do-well son's company, Ignite! Problem is, Barbara Bush is also an investor (Washington Post, December 28, 2003) in Neil Bush's company. So she earmarked a charitable donation to enrich her own investment. Nice work if you can get it. I guess given that she's filthy rich anyway, this is working out very well for her.

Washington Post Political Reporter Jim VandeHei is Married to a Former Aide to Tom Delay

Wouldn't you have wanted to know that when you read this a month ago:

President Says DeLay Is Not Guilty of Money Laundering

By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 15, 2005; Page A07

President Bush said yesterday he is confident that former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) is innocent of money-laundering charges, as he offered strong support for several top Republicans who have been battered by investigations or by rumors of fading clout inside the White House.

VandeHei's wife is described as "a social/family policy advisor" in the office of Tom Delay on Steve Clemons website, The Washington Note.

Why is he allowed to report on the Delay or Abramoff scandals? Why isn't this at a very minimum disclosed to the readers?

Presstitute. Notorious House of Presstitution.

Political Dictionary

I got this in an email today:

Political Dictionary

PART I

compassionate conservatism n. Poignant concern for the very wealthy.

faith n. The stubborn belief that God approves of Republican moral values despite the preponderance of textual evidence to the contrary.

free markets n. Haliburton no-bid contracts at taxpayer expense.

habeas corpus n. Archaic. (Lat.) Legal term no longer in use. (See Patriot Act)

Patriot Act n. 1. The pre-emptive strike on American freedoms to prevent the terrorists from destroying them first. 2. The elimination of one of the reasons why they hate us.

pro-life adj. Valuing human life up until birth.


PART II

abstinence-only sex education n. Ignorance-only sex education.

alternative energy sources n. New locations to drill for gas and oil.

bankruptcy n. A punishable crime when committed by poor people but not corporations.

"burning bush" n. A biblical allusion to the response of the President of the United States when asked a question by a journalist who has not been paid to inquire.

Cheney, Dick n. The greater of two evils.

China n. See Wal-Mart.

class warfare n. Any attempt to raise the minimum wage.

climate change n. The blessed day when the blue states are swallowed by the oceans.

DeLay, Tom n. 1. Past tense of De Lie. 2. Patronage saint.

democracy n. A product so extensively exported that the domestic supply is depleted.

dittohead n. An Oxy(contin)moron.

energy independence n. The caribou witness relocation program.

extraordinary rendition n. Outsourcing torture.

girly men n. Males who do not grope women inappropriately.

God n. Senior presidential adviser.

growth n. 1. The justification for tax cuts for the rich. 2. What happens to the national debt when Republicans cut taxes on the rich.

healthy forest n. No tree left behind.

homelandism n. A neologism for love of the Homeland Security State, as in "My Homeland, 'tis of thee, sweet security state of liberty..."

honesty n. Lies told in simple declarative sentences--e.g., "Freedom is on the march."

House of Representatives n. Exclusive club; entry fee $1 million to $5 million. (See Senate)

laziness n. When the poor are not working.

leisure time n. When the wealthy are not working.

liberal(s) n. Followers of the Antichrist.

neoconservatives n. Nerds with Napoleonic complexes.

9/11 n. Tragedy used to justify any administrative policy, especially if unrelated. (See Deficit, Iraq War)

No Child Left Behind riff. 1. v. There are always jobs in the military. 2. n. The rapture.

ownership society n. A civilization where 1 percent of the population controls 90 percent of the wealth.

Senate n. Exclusive club; entry fee $10 million to $30 million.

simplify v. To cut the taxes of Republican donors.

staying the course interj. Slang. Saying and doing the same stupid thing over and over, regardless of the result.

stuff happens interj. Slang. Donald Rumsfeld as master historian.

voter fraud n. A significant minority turnout.

Wal-Mart n. The nation-state, future tense.

water n. Arsenic storage device.

woman n. 1. Person who can be trusted to bear a child but can't be >\trusted to decide whether or not she wishes to have the child. 2. Person who must have all decisions regarding her reproductive functions made by men with whom she wouldn't want to have sex in the first place.

I Do Not Like Jack Abramoff

Tom DeLay Denies All Charges (As Told by Dr. Suess)

That Abramoff!
That Abramoff!
I do not like that Abramoff!

"Would you like to play some golf?"

I do not want to play some golf.
I do not want to, Abramoff.

"We could fly you there for free.
Off to Scotland, by the sea."

I do not want to fly for free.
I don't like Scotland by the sea.
I do not want to play some golf.
I do not want to, Abramoff.

"Would you, could you, take this bribe?
Could you, would you, for the tribe?"............

Read the whole thing: It's priceless. Tip o' the cap to Micah Sifry on the Huffington Post: Green Cash and Scam

Whither Journalism?

From the Smirking Chimp:

Stephen Pizzo: 'The endangered scoop'

Let's play the blame game. Whose fault is it, anyway. Seriously. Whose fault is that:

# We still don't know who met with VP Dick Cheney five years ago to formulate the national energy policies that have now brought us record high energy prices.

# We didn't know in time that the Iraq/Niger/Yellow cake business was a scam - and three years later we still don't know who cooked it up,

# We didn't know in time that there were no WMD in Iraq, and there hadn't been for years,

# We didn't know soon enough that US troops were "mistreating" Iraq prisoners, even though reporters were "embedded" with those troops,

# We didn't learn for almost four years that the NSA was breaking the law listening in on Americans and reading our email.

# Why did it take so long to find out what Jack Abramoff and Tom DeLay were up to when the evidence has been laying around since at least 2002 just waiting for someone it all together.

Who's to blame for that dismal list of disgrace?

Simple. My former profession, journalism, is to blame - hands down. Journalists are supposed to be in the "show and tell" business. But over the past five years they have done neither very well -- if at all.

As Ye Sew...

...so shall ye reap....

Lobby Firm Is Scandal Casualty
Abramoff, DeLay Publicity Blamed For Shutdown

One of Washington's top lobbying operations will shut down at the end of the month because of its ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former House majority leader Tom DeLay.

Alexander Strategy Group, which had thrived since its founding in 1998 thanks largely to its close connections to DeLay (R-Tex.), will cease to operate except for a relatively small business-development division, Edwin A. Buckham, the former top DeLay aide who owns the company, said yesterday.

[]

Buckham's firm employed DeLay's wife, Christine, for four years. It also benefited by working closely with Abramoff. Abramoff's plea agreement mentioned his close ties to Tony C. Rudy, one of Buckham's colleagues at ASG, identified in the court papers as "Staffer A."

Rudy, a former DeLay aide, worked for Abramoff before joining ASG. According to the plea document, a political consulting firm run by Rudy's wife allegedly received $50,000 in exchange for official actions Rudy took while working for DeLay.

However, most lobbyists never die, they just move laterally:

The 12 lobbyists who now work at ASG -- other than Rudy and Buckham -- intend to start a successor firm and intend to keep as many of the clients as possible, according to one of the lobbyists.

The Noose Is Tightening

In tomorrow's Washington Post:

Hastert Moves to Tighten Rules on Lobbyists

While ostensibly about Hastert's attempt to close the barn door, WaPo has new details about how prosecutors are closing in on Tom Delay:

But last week, a prominent client of Abramoff's former law firm offered fresh revelations linking Abramoff to DeLay's office, saying it had sent $25,000 to an Abramoff-linked Orthodox Jewish group in 2000 as part of a lobbying campaign to thwart a proposed postal rate increase. That money appears to have then been paid to the wife of Tony C. Rudy, the deputy chief of staff of then-House Majority Whip DeLay who was helping to spearhead efforts against the increase.

Under the plea agreement made public Tuesday, Abramoff said that he and others sought Rudy's agreement to help torpedo the postal rate increase and a prohibition on Internet gambling. "With the intent to influence those official acts," the documents say, Abramoff provided "things of value, including but not limited to . . . ten equal monthly payments totaling $50,000" to the wife of a congressional aide called "staffer A" but identified elsewhere as Rudy. Those payments came from clients "that would and did benefit" from Rudy's actions.

The Washington Post had previously reported that $25,000 had come from eLottery Inc., an Internet gambling firm and Abramoff client, which sent the money to a Seattle-based foundation, Toward Tradition, that then paid fees to Rudy's wife, Lisa.

On Friday, the Magazine Publishers of America, which had hired Abramoff's firm Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds LLP in 2000 for a $10 million campaign against the postal rate increase, revealed where the other half came from.

"I can confirm that based on direction from Preston Gates, the MPA did make a $25,000 contribution to Toward Tradition in 2000," said MPA spokesman Howard J. Rubenstein. The MPA directors "had absolutely no knowledge of how the money would be used, and if it turns out that it was used for an improper purpose, they would be, quite frankly, outraged."

{I added the links within the articles. WaPo link? I think not.}

The Incompetence, The Corruption, and The Cronyism: Sunday, January 8, 2006

Rethugs in fine form this week:

The Incompetence:

The new Medicare drug plan is an unmitigated disaster. It's impossible to figure out. Seniors can't figure it out. Pharmacies can't figure it out either. As a result, they're refusing to give people their medications. People will die because of this simple fact: The Bush Administration is incompetent. They care more about ideology than good government, and as we saw during Hurricane Katrina, that's often fatal.

States Intervene After Drug Plan Hits Early Snags

WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 - Low-income Medicare beneficiaries around the country were often overcharged, and some were turned away from pharmacies without getting their medications, in the first week of Medicare's new drug benefit. The problems have prompted emergency action by some states to protect their citizens.

Although there are no hard numbers, concerns expressed by state officials and complaints from pharmacists suggest a widespread pattern of problems.

At least four states - Maine, New Hampshire, North Dakota and Vermont - acted this week to make sure poor people received the drugs they were promised but could not obtain through the federal Medicare program.

Gov. Jim Douglas of Vermont, a Republican, said the state would pay drug claims for low-income people until the federal government fixed problems in the new program, known as Part D of Medicare. Michael K. Smith, the state's secretary of human services, said, "The federal system simply is not working."

On Thursday, the Vermont Legislature passed a bill declaring, "There is a public health emergency due to the federal implementation of Medicare Part D, which has resulted in serious operational problems, causing Vermonters to be turned away at the pharmacy without the drugs they need."

The Corruption:

Tom Delay IS the King of All Corruption.

Ethics Issues Snared GOP's Champion
DeLay's Focus on Fundraising Powered Party Gains But Led to Problems


And slowly, Delay is drawing other Republicans down into his sinking ship:

A Donor Who Had Big Allies
DeLay and two others helped put the brakes on a federal probe of a businessman. Evidence was published in the Congressional Record.

WASHINGTON — In a case that echoes the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling scandal, two Northern California Republican congressmen used their official positions to try to stop a federal investigation of a wealthy Texas businessman who provided them with political contributions.

Reps. John T. Doolittle and Richard W. Pombo joined forces with former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas to oppose an investigation by federal banking regulators into the affairs of Houston millionaire Charles Hurwitz, documents recently obtained by The Times show. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was seeking $300 million from Hurwitz for his role in the collapse of a Texas savings and loan that cost taxpayers $1.6 billion.

The investigation was ultimately dropped.

The Cronyism:

George Bush appoints unqualified Julie Myers to head the bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Here's the story, under a bad headline by the Times (surprised?) as criticism of this 36-year-old lawyer with no immigration and scant managerial experience is broad and bipartisan.

Democrats Criticize Appointment at Immigration Agency

Ms. Myers, who has held a variety of federal jobs over the last four years, drew attention because of her ties to the White House and some senior officials. She is a niece of Gen. Richard B. Myers, who recently stepped down as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the wife of John Wood, Mr. Chertoff's chief of staff.

[]

Criticism of her nomination was not limited to the comments of Democrats. In September, National Review, an influential conservative publication, urged Mr. Bush to withdraw Ms. Myers's nomination. In an editorial, the magazine compared her to Mr. Brown and called her "another unqualified nominee for a vital position in the Department of Homeland Security."

In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for. As for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican.
H.L. Mencken

LaHood: DeLay is El Toast

From Reuters:

DeLay's bid to return to US leadership in jeopardy

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Rep. Tom DeLay's bid to return as majority leader of the House of Representatives was in mounting jeopardy on Thursday as fellow Republicans feared his ties with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff have made the Texan too much of an election-year liability.

"I would not support him for majority leader," Rep. Ray LaHood told Reuters in a telephone interview from his central Illinois district.

Delay: Dehypocrite

"The time has come that the American people know exactly what their Representatives are doing here in Washington. Are they feeding at the public trough, taking lobbyist-paid vacations, getting wined and dined by special interest groups? Or are they working hard to represent their constituents?"

-- Rep. Tom DeLay, in remarks on the floor of the House [link is to a PDF file], Nov. 16, 1995

Code Pink Punks Tom Delay

Short On Guests, DeLay Fundraiser Lets In Protestors

Cheney yesterday skipped the White House Christmas party to headline a fundraiser for Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX). Top ticket prices were $4,200, where donors could attend a VIP reception,... []

While 250 people allegedly attended the event, evidently not everyone had to pay full ticket price. Protestor Diane Wilson of Code Pink said she paid only $50:

I guess they needed people inside. You can get in pretty cheap. I didn’t want to give too much.

You go, girl!

More Republican Indictments Coming

Abramoff Partner Pleads Guilty
Scanlon Admits He Conspired to Bribe Lawmaker

A onetime congressional staffer who became a top partner to lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiring to bribe a congressman and other public officials and agreed to pay back more than $19 million he fraudulently charged Indian tribal clients.

The plea agreement between prosecutors and Michael Scanlon, a former press secretary to then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), provided fresh detail about the alleged bribes. The document also indicated the nature of testimony Scanlon is prepared to offer against a congressman it calls "Representative #1" -- who has been identified by attorneys in the case as Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio).

Together, Abramoff and Scanlon are believed to have stolen over $80 million from the Indian tribes. So he must be happy to only be fined $19 million. He still has enough left over to pay his $600 an hour lawyers and keep his house in St. Bart's.

So he's singing like a canary, and the Bugman Tom Delay is going down. Sweet!

The Incompetence, The Corruption, The Cronyism: October 4, 2005 edition

The Incompetence:

This qualified for the cronyism, too, but after I read the second article, about Sen. James Imhofe (R. - Dumbf**kistan) I couldn't resist putting it here.

The Environment Is Doomed

Earlier this year, President Bush appointed 66-year-old Sam Bodman to serve as Secretary of Energy, a guy who for more than a decade ran a Texas-based chemical company that spent years on the top-five lists of the country's worst polluters.

And what action will our incompetent Republican Party take to protect the environment? Have the eternally dumb Imhofe (dumber than a bag of hammers and half as useful) have hearings featuring witness Michael Crichton, writer of fiction, testify about it (yes, truth IS stranger than fiction).

Michael Crichton, Novelist, Becomes Senate Witness

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 - His last book, "State of Fear," was published more than nine months ago, but the reviews were still pouring in on Wednesday, even as Michael Crichton folded his 6-foot-9-inch frame into a seat to testify before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.

"More silly than scary," the flier dropped off by the Natural Resources Defense Council said.

"Notable mainly for its nuttiness," an analysis from the Brookings Institution said.

"Does not reflect scientific fact," the Union of Concerned Scientists said.

[]

His is an unpopular and contrary stance when measured against the judgment of groups like the National Academy of Sciences. But it was not those organizations that asked Mr. Crichton to Washington to counsel Congress on how to consider diverse scientific opinion when making policy. It was the committee chairman, Senator James M. Inhofe, a plainspoken* Oklahoma Republican who has unabashedly pronounced global warming "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people."

In Mr. Crichton, a Harvard medical school graduate who never practiced medicine, he had found a kindred spirit - and a star witness for his committee.

* "Plainspoken" is apparently NYTimesSpeak for "stupid".


The Corruption:

Tom Delay get indicted again, by a different grand jury, for the same conduct, but this time there are two indictments. The man is just a walking ham sandwich. Oh, and this time, if convicted, he could get a life term. And in Texas, life means life.

I Love Me Some Texas Justice


The Cronyism:

Of course, today's crony is Harriet Miers,

a woman who has excelled in endeavors that require networking and shoulder-rubbing and no actual proof of legal expertise. (General counsel? Lest we forget, Mike Brown's first job at FEMA was as general counsel.) (Amy Sullivan)

Even the wingnuts are crying "crony, crony!"

What Julie Myers is to the Department of Homeland Security, Harriet Miers is to the Supreme Court. It's not just that Miers has zero judicial experience. It's that she's so transparently a crony/"diversity" pick while so many other vastly more qualified and impressive candidates went to waste. If this is President Bush's bright idea to buck up his sagging popularity--among conservatives as well as the nation at large--one wonders whom he would have picked in rosier times. Shudder. (Michelle Magalong)

Just talked to a very pro-Bush legal type who says he is ashamed and embarrassed this morning. Says Miers was with an undistinguished law firm; never practiced constitutional law; never argued any big cases; never was on law review; has never written on any of the important legal issues. Says she's not even second rate, but is third rate. Dozens and dozens of women would have been better qualified. Says a crony at FEMA is one thing, but on the high court is something else entirely. Her long history of activity with ABA is not encouraging from a conservative perspective--few conservatives would spend their time that way. In short, he says the pick is “deplorable.” There may be an element of venting here, but thought I'd pass along for what it's worth. It's certainly indicative of the mood right now...(Rich Lowry, National Review Online)

And, really, she's just your average, run-of-the-mill, crooked corporate lawyer:

Miers Led Law Firm Repeatedly Forced to Pay Damages For Defrauding Investors

In case anyone thought Harriet Miers wasn't a corporate-shill-in-White-House-clothing, take a gander at how Miers did her best Ken Lay impression while heading a major Texas corporate law firm. That's right, according to the 5/1/00 newsletter Class Action Reporter, Miers headed Locke, Liddell & Sapp at the time the firm was forced to pay $22 million to settle a suit asserting that "it aided a client in defrauding investors."

The details of the case are both nauseating and highly troubling, considering President Bush is considering putting Miers at the top of America's legal system. Under Miers' leadership, the firm represented the head of a "foreign currency trading company [that] was allegedly a Ponzi scheme." The law-firm admitted that it "knew in March 1998 that $ 8 million in [the company's] losses hadn't been reported to investors" but didn't tell regulators.

This wasn't an isolated incident, either. The Austin American-Statesman reported in 2001 that Miers' lawfirm was forced to pay another $8 million for a similar scheme to defraud investors. The suit, which dealt with actions the firm took under Miers in the late 1990s, was again quite troubling. As the 9/20/00 Texas Lawyer reported, Miers' firm helped a now-convicted con man "defraud investors and allowed the firm's [bank] account to be used as a 'conduit.'" The suit said "money from investors that went into the firm's trust account was deposited into [the con man's] bank accounts and was used to pay for his 'expensive toys.'"

If you think Miers wasn't involved in any of this -- think again. Miers wasn't just any old lawyer at the firm. She was the Managing Partner -- the big cheese.