Archive for December 2008
Breaking: Blagojevich appoints former Illinois attorney general to Senate seat; Update: “Unacceptable,” says Reid; Update: Can the Senate refuse to seat Burris?
He’s facing impeachment and federal prison, and both the Illinois legislature and Harry Reid warned him not to make the pick. [...] Read the rest »
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(Via Hot Air » Top Picks.)
Video: The surreal, race-baiting Blagojevich press conference; Update: No seat for Burris, says Obama; Update: Blago’s General Counsel quits
A transmission from Bizarroland, where Blago’s only option to make sure Illinois has two Senators in January is to appoint someone himself rather than resign now and let the lieutenant governor make the appointment. [...] Read the rest »
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(Via Hot Air » Top Picks.)
Blago-Rahma: Emanuel had direct contacts with Blago on Senate opening
Blago discussed laundering campaign funds
Dwanna Dukes fined by Texas Ethics Commission
Dwanna Dukes fined by Texas Ethics Commission: “
Well, someone filed a complaint against State Representative Dwanna Dukes for hiding campaign expenses behind a credit card, 19 of them! For this the Ethics Commission issued a $2800 fine, but Dukes is not required to amend her reports to disclose what was purchased, you was paid, and how much it cost, like the law dictates.
The Texas Ethics Commission, after a string of record fines to law maker who were caught breaking the law, has slapped Dukes on the hand and unlike the others, have not required her to amend her reports.
The complaint only addressed about $7000 in expenditures because of the statute of limitation, but she has charged and reported tens of thousands on her ethics reports to simply one of the 19 credit cards she used. Why wasn’t she required to disclose what she bought as the other lawmakers were required to do?
This is a very significant issue. State Representative John Davis amended his reports for charging about $43,000 to an American Express but couldn’t account for $13,000. He later paid back his campaign $13,000 from his own personal funds. Can anyone guess what he bought with that $13,000?
Dukes should have been required as part of the settlement to amend her reports and disclose what she bought with the credit cards. Surely it wasn’t for personal use. So why the reluctance to disclose.
Surely it wasn’t for personal use. Surely.”
(Via Bay Area Houston.)
Which is Worse?
Bankruptcy or congressional meddling?
- Under terms of the draft legislation, which continued to evolve Monday evening, the government would receive warrants for stock equivalent to at least 20% of the loans any company receives.
- The company also would have to agree to limits on executive compensation and dividend payments
- In the case of General Motors Corp., such a move could give the government a large stake in the company and may hurt existing shareholders.
- The auto industry would undergo a restructuring process akin to bankruptcy reorganization, only with fewer rigors and with the government, not a judge, in control, and with many associated political complications.
- The legislation, among other things, would bar the companies from participating in legal challenges to state laws designed to impose limits on greenhouse-gas emissions.
- The big three would have to analyze whether excess production capacity could be used to make trains and buses for public transit authorities.
Who wrote this legislation, Hugo Chavez? Dudes, go the bankruptcy route. You’ll be stronger companies for it in the long run. These bozos can’t even manage their own house and they basically get to write blank checks for themselves.
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(Via Lone Star Times.)
Time To Buy Early, Often: Obama On Gun Control
Time To Buy Early, Often: Obama On Gun Control: ”
Multiple reports from multiple outlets indicate that Americans are buying guns in droves in anticipation of new gun laws coming after President Elect Obama takes office. So much so that Mr. Obama felt the need to tell Americans to stop.
As gun sales shoot up around the country, President-elect Barack Obama said Sunday that gun-owning Americans do not need to rush out and stock up before he is sworn in next month.
‘I believe in common-sense gun safety laws, and I believe in the second amendment,’ Obama said at a news conference. ‘Lawful gun owners have nothing to fear. I said that throughout the campaign. I haven’t indicated anything different during the transition. I think people can take me at my word.’
Take his word for it?
But National Rifle Association spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said it’s not Obama’s words — but his legislative track record — that has gun-buyers flocking to the stores.
No, I don’t think we can take is word for it, unless by that he means to read between the lines. As in, what exactly does he mean by ‘common-sense gun safety laws’? For certain we can say goodbye to high-capacity magazines for both handguns and rifles. Who knows what else. Take a look at the Brady Campaign’s remarks for an idea:
‘Anyone who thinks they need to rush out and buy a firearm clearly has not been paying attention to how quickly we make progress on this issue. We don’t think these are first-time buyers. We think they are people who already have more than enough guns at their homes to protect themselves and are buying more.’
In other words, don’t hurry because it will take us a while to get it done. It being limits on the number of guns an individual or household may own.
Make no mistake, gun control is in the crosshairs of the Obama team.
When is the next gun show in your area? Better hurry!
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(Via Lone Star Times.)
Busted
Busted: ”
Democrat malfeasance is often ignored, downplayed, or considered a resume enhancement by reporters and hard core Democrat voters. So imagine their shock when the news about the arrest of the Democrat governor of Illinois on corruption charges broke. Even the FBI was amazed into brutal honesty.
‘If Illinois isn’t the most corrupt state in the United States, it sure is one hell of a [sic] the competitors,’ said the head of the FBI’s Chicago office, Robert Grant.
He said veteran FBI agents were ‘disgusted, sick’ as they listened to the intercepted conversations of the Illinois Governor.
How bad was the Governor’s behavior? The FBI alleges that he cusses like a sailor while seeking to sell Senator Obama’s soon-to-be-vacated Senate seat.
‘I’ve got this thing and it’s f***ing golden, and, uh, uh, I’m just not giving it up for f***in’ nothing. I’m not gonna do it. And I can always use it. I can parachute me there,’ Blagojevich said in a phone call secretly recorded by the FBI on November 5, the day after the election, according to the affidavit.
Governor Blagojevich then proceeds to commit ultimate sin by insulting the Messiah-elect.
Told by two other advisers he has to ‘suck it up’ for two years, the FBI says it heard Blagojevich complain he has to give this ‘motherf***er [the President-elect] his Senator. F*** him. For nothing? F*** him.’
The Governor is heard saying he will pick another candidate ‘before I just give f***ing [Senate Candidate l] a f***ing Senate seat and I don’t get anything.’
What a charming, warm, loveable individual Governor Blagojevich appears to be. Hopefully the FBI was gentle when removing this delicate flower from his home.
The Governor was taken into custody in handcuffs from his home by two FBI agents just after six this morning, according to Grant.
Grant said he had first called the Governor to tell him there was a warrant for his arrest.
‘Is this a joke,’ the Governor responded, according to Grant.
Looks like the joke is on you, Rod. The question now is when President Messiah will pardon his home state’s governor. Will it be a pre-emptive gift, sparing the Democrat Party the disgrace of a public corruption trial, or will Blagojevich have to be convicted in court and spend a few years in the cooler so the president can spring him after everyone has forgotten about the mess?
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(Via Lone Star Times.)
From the Land of Honest Abe
From the Land of Honest Abe: ”
Things are getting curiouser and curiouser:
U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. is ‘Senate Candidate 5,’ whom Gov. Blagojevich was considering appointing as Barack Obama’s replacement in the U.S. Senate under the belief the governor would get at least $1 million in campaign contributions, sources tell the Chicago Sun-Times.
The alleged deal was caught on a wiretap secretly planted by the feds.
‘In a recorded conversation on October 31, 2008, Rod Blagojevich described an earlier approach by an associate of Senate Candidate Five as follows: ‘We were approached ‘pay to play.’ That, you know, he’d raise me 500 grand. An emissary came. Then the other guy would raise a million, if I made him (Senate Candidate 5) a senator,’ the affidavit accompanying Blagojevich’s criminal complaint states.
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(Via Lone Star Times.)
There’s Nothing Like It
Nothing, NOTHING, perks me up like the sound of clicking handcuffs in the morning.
I’m going to sit back with my elevenes repast (organic mandarin vanilla chai and a few Almondinas) and listen to all of Blago’s bleeping. PaddyFitz: ‘These were his words, not our characterization, except for the bleeping.’
Apparently the bleeping is mostly effing.
One of the signs of corruption is that Blago was shopping around for a $150K directorship for his wife, and according to PaddyFitz, this is corruption. That reminds me of this. Money quote (really!):
Michelle Obama is on leave from her job while her husband campaigns for president, but after Barack was elected to congress, she received a big raise.
USA Today reports that officials at the University of Chicago Hospitals told the Chicago Tribune that Michelle is ‘worth her weight in gold.’
‘She’s terrific,’ added Michael Riordan, who was president of the hospital in March 2005, when Michelle Obama was promoted to vice president for external affairs and had her annual salary increased from $121,910 to $316,962.
So, 20% is her cut.
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(Via Journal.)
