Future of Politics

[mindido]

Preferred,

Yup, this is going to be very interesting to watch. I was watching C-Span last night, they are running a series of articles on this (extremely interesting, you should check it out), and one of the commentators likened this to lifting up an old piece of flooring (or something like that) and discovering you have roaches scurrying all over the place.

We've only scratched the surface of this. This will put Abscam to shame.

 

[mindido]

Man!

The roaches are scurrying like you wouldn't believe! All of a sudden, pols are trying to get rid of the money they received from Abramoff and charities are doing pretty well.

http://www.slate.com/id/2116389/
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060105/ap_on_go_pr_wh/abramoff_fallout

Here's a partial list of Abramoff "donations" from 1992 to 2005:

http://www.newsmeat.com/washington_political_donations/Jack_Abramoff.php

and an interesting graph of where the money came from and where it went:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2005/12/12/GR2005121200286.html

Here is a partial list that I've been able to put together.

George W. Bush. $6000. This amount is interesting as Abramoff was a "pioneer" in GW's election campaign, which means that Abramoff actually donated at least $100,000.
Tom DeLay, R-Texas, $15,000
U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois, $70,000
U.S. Senator Conrad Burns, R-Montana, $150,000

Some of these clowns are actually going to keep Abramoffs money. A partial list:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060106/ap_on_go_co/keeping_the_money_list

Almost forgot to mention this. In addition to the federal charges Abramoff plead guilty to on Tuesday, on Wednesday he plead guilty to additional charges in Florida (fraud and conspiracy).

*Edit*

A more extensive list of pols that are returning Abramoff funds:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10723902/

 

[mindido]

Well, the first domino has fallen. Tom DeLay (R, Texas) has been forced out of his leadership position in the U.S. House:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060107/ap_on_go_co/delay

His successor is supposed to be Roy Blunt (R, Missouri) but he's also a major target of the Abramoff investigation.

The roaches continue to scurry.

 

[Iceberg]

Yet another reason to put a moratorium on capital punishment:

"DNA to decide if innocent man was executed":

RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) -- Gov. Mark R. Warner on Thursday ordered DNA evidence retested to determine whether a man convicted of r@p3 and murder was innocent when he was executed in 1992.

(continued...)

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/01/05/dna.execution.ap/index.html

 

[cableguy]

mindido, shame on you!!! abramoff was a major lobbyist, not a major republican lobbyist... unless you count harry reid, hollary clinton, chuck schumer, ted kennedy, and many other luminaries of the democrat party as republicans... if this goes as far as it can, there are well over 300 legislators that could be affected... he passed out goodies to both sides... oddly, you seem to always ignore half of the story when your people are involved....

 

[mindido]

lumbaugh,

Well, it is clear you haven't followed the story at all (Duuhhh). Abramoff's "clients" donations went roughly 2/3 to Republicans and 1/3 to Dems. Abramoff's personal donations went 100% to Republicans.

As usual, an F for your homework. Quit listening to that big fat idiot and maybe you'll actually learn something.

 

[cableguy]

casting spurious aspersions again, i see... when a lobbyist directs a client to donate money to a candidate/political party, there is little, if any, functional difference between that and a direct donation by said lobbyist... if you choose to trace the money, you will find it came from various donors anyway... direct donations and directed donations arent really different.. in any case, the point i was making is that the dems most definitely have their hands dirty in this as well...

the credit for this scandal belongs primarily to two senators... john mccain and russ feingold, and their grossly unconstitutional "campaign finance reform" bill, which President Bush didnt veto, and the supreme court, for some unknown reason, didnt overturn... as you can see, the one thing the bill did do is to get the money out of politics... oh, wait... nevermind...

heres a fascinating tidbit for you... while contributions from individuals and businesses are capped, contributions from indian tribes are not... this leads to a rather interesting set of circumstances, dont you think?? my best guess is that abramoff is merely the first name, and others will follow.. and since indian donations were almost exclusively sent to dems before abramoff, be careful what you wish for... it might just come true...

as usual, you prefer personal attack to factual reference... please grow up just a tiny bit... as a sidenote, im guessing you havent seen a picture of rush for about 8-9 years, if ever... he simply isnt fat... he was, but lost that some time ago, and looks to be in better shape than most Americans... kindly do your own homework before accusing others of same... oh, and if i didnt do my homework, kindly point out a single factual inaccuracy i made in that post...

 

[mindido]

Lumbaugh, your too easy:

oh, and if i didnt do my homework, kindly point out a single factual inaccuracy i made in that post...

OK! Happy to!

"abramoff was a major lobbyist, not a major republican lobbyist."

Check out the link below, you obviously didn't read it the first time.

"oddly, you seem to always ignore half of the story when your people are involved...."

Didn't bother to check this link out, did you?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10723902/

And just in case there is any doubt, I'll include a few other idiotic lumbaugh posts (there just isn't enough time to find them all, so I'll just find a few):

"her cover wasnt blown, she was not covert, and no laws were broken..."

Hmmm, one indictment so far with Rove not yet out of the woods.

"no one has ever explained to me the value, tangible, that having a good worldwide reputation brings... personally, i dont much care what other nations think about the US..."

It seems no one ever explained to you the value of friends. Too bad.

"ok... scooter libby (who?)"

"in other legal news, the idiot prosecutor who vowed to "get" tom delay is now facing a legal challenge from his supposed prey, and the democrat judge has been removed from the case... any bets on this one getting tossed out or ending in complete exhonoration for the senator?? "

Lets see.... Legal challenge = denied. Delay still going to court and has been pushed out of his leadership position.

"republicans get in trouble for obeying the law"

Lets see again. Abramoff himself is saying that there could be up to 60 Republican congressman eventually indicted. Bob Ney will probably be the first with many more to come shortly.

"two weeks ago, no one had heard of scooter libby... "

Well, maybe lumbaugh had never heard of him, but those that follow recent politics certainly have.

OK, that took about 20 minutes.

 

[cableguy]

because someone labels someone something does not make it so... a republican lobbyist giving 1/3 of the money to democrats?? am i the only one that finds that odd??

indicted is not convicted, and i will maintain that no laws were broken... look for libby to be exhonerated... certain media types, however, may find themselves in hot water...

i know about friends, but nations do not have friends, they have interests, and the moment those interests conflict, any "friendship" gets tossed... history shows this time and again...

delay is out of his leadership position because of a senate rule demanding anyone under indictment not hold a leadership position... as this case is taking far longer than it should, the sensible move is to replace him long term, BUT, he too, will still be exhonerated... grand jury shopping, if not illegal, is certainly unethical, and there was NO evidence against delay in the indictment... what he did, and when he did it, was legal...

democrats will fall as well... if the numbers match the money, and if your number of 60 is right, that means 30 dems as well... in the initial list of the five most in trouble, two were dems... the republicans are; conrad burns, bob ney, and jd hayworth... the dems are byron dorgan and harry reid, SENATE MINORITY LEARER harry reid... your folks are far from clean on this one...

if you went back to the time the plame non-story broke, if you polled any number of Americans NOT working in dc, i doubt scooter libby would have had a name recognition above 1-2%, and i suspect it would be far lower than that... no one really cares about Vice Presidential staffers, and if you polled whatever group of Americans today and asked them to name libbys replacement/s you would end up with close to 100% looking like a monkey doing a math problem...

twenty wasted minutes... sorry you had nothing better to do than make another failed attempt at impugning me... you may feel free to try again, though... eager eyes await what you will come up with next, and what creative names you will call me in the absense of anything worthwhile to say...

good day, sir

 

[mindido]

Domino # 2 has been forced out. Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH), chairman of the House administration committee, forced to resign:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060116...AKGbToC;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

And lumbaugh,

I really think you need to relearn elementary math. Since when does 2/3 (or 100%) = 1/2?

 

[mindido]

More shenanigans from the lobbyists, this time from Bell South:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/31/AR2005123100719.html

And just in case you think these lobbyists don't have a direct effect on YOU, here's at least part of what Bell South is trying to get:

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/70343

A brief quote:

"According to the Boston Globe, AT&T and BellSouth are furiously lobbying Capitol Hill for the right to create a two-tiered Internet, where a telco's own traffic (and those who pay) would travel faster than competitor traffic."

Nice, real nice!

 

[mindido]

I was talking with a friend the other day and it was suggested that I find Dwight David Eisenhower's farewell address to the nation given on January 17, 1961 (often referred to as the warning about the military/industrial complex speech). So I did, and here it is for all those that have an interest:

Download File

By todays standards, Eisenhower sounds like a liberal. But as we all know, he certainly wasn't.

 

[mindido]

Hey Tex,

I was watching 60 Minutes last night and they had an interesting article on some guy named Kinky Friedman, who is running for governor of Texas. He certainly isn't a mainstream politician, which I guess is why I thought he was pretty interesting.

Does he have much support down there?

 

[Texan]

Kinky has a following here, we will see if it will be enough for him to get on the ballot. It's gonna be hard for anyone to defeat Perry. Kay Bailey(I would have voted for her) had the best shot but she was publicly pushed out of throwing her hat in the race.

 

[mindido]

Tex,

I don't know anything about the guy other than what I saw last night but I hope he wins. It would be interesting to see what happens with a guy that seems to actually tell it like it is.

 

[Texan]

The problem is, he has to obtain the signatures of 1% of Texas registered voters just to appear on the ballot.

I like Kinky he is straight talking individual who doesn't pull punches. If he starts to push the border issue and comes up with a good plan to combat it, he stands a fairly good chance of winning. Perry is too wishy-washy on the border issue and the democracts here won't touch it with a 10 foot pole (they dont want to upset their base, since their base is primarily hispanic)

 

[mindido]

Tex,

He did mention the border problem last night. In fact, here's some of what he said last night:

"His two main issues are illegal immigration — he wants to close the border until Mexico cracks down — and education. He’s running as the teacher’s best friend."

Here's a link to the entire transcript:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/01/19/60minutes/main1221449.shtml

Just from what I saw last night, if I lived in Texas, I'd probably vote for him. Maybe put a real scare into these 2 blasted parties. Neither of them can be trusted.

 

[Texan]

Education and immigration are two issues that will draw attention. Wanting to close the border will gain support from conservatives as will education reform.

I will sign his petition to get on the ballot. I want to see him debate Perry and what ever dog the dem's place in the race.

 

[mindido]

I will sign his petition to get on the ballot. I want to see him debate Perry and what ever dog the dem's place in the race.

Tex,

Seems like a good idea to me. To me, there really is no difference between the two major parties anymore. I hope the guy gets into the race and I'd love to see him win. Maybe then the 2 parties would wake up and realize they're supposed to be serving us, not whoever has the most money.

 

[Preferred User]

I'd probably vote for him. Maybe put a real scare into these 2 blasted parties. Neither of them can be trusted.

We tried that in Minnesota. We put a "wrassler" in the governor's office cause the other two parties were so vanilla. It's not all it's cracked up to be. By the way, I believe the same guy is managing Friedman's campaign (Dean Barkley) as managed Jesse The Body's campaign.