McCain, Bush and Palin – The Freeloading Riches Of The GOP

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images.thumbnail.jpegTurns out Sarah Palin has a very spotty attendance record in her brief experience as Governor of Alaska. Juneau is the state capital of Alaska. From the Juneau Empire:

Palin has spent little time in Juneau, rarely coming to the state capital except when the Legislature was in session, and sometimes not even then.

During a recent special session called by Palin herself, she faced criticism from several legislators for not showing up personally to push for her agenda.

Someone at the Capitol even printed up buttons asking "Where’s Sarah?" Rep. Andrea Doll, D-Juneau, called it a telling question.

"At a time when her leadership was truly needed, we didn’t know where she was," Doll said.

Local Alaskan reporter Shannyn Moore, on Tuesday night’s Countdown on MSNBC, confirmed that many members of the Alaskan legislature wore yellow "Where’s Sarah" buttons. Of course, this must be read in conjunction with the fact that Palin has bilked taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office (well over half of the time), charging a per diem allowance normally intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business. She charged the State of Alaska for staying in her own house and away from her job at the state capital.

Habitually away from where her governing job, for which she is paid to attend and perform by the citizens; gee, that makes Sarah Palin just like….

George Bush. Although you can certainly make the argument that the country is better off when Bush is not on the job, the fact remains that he has been the most absentee President in modern history. As of March 2008, Bush had spent 452 days on vacation at his Crawford ranch in Texas; well over a full year of his seven years in office spent down on the farm ranch. And this, of course, doesn’t include the other fun filled time Bush spends slapping bikini clad babe’s butts at the Olympics and all the other larks he galavants off on.

Habitually away from his governing duties in Washington DC, for which he is paid to attend and perform by the citizens of this country; gee, that makes George Bush just like….

John McCain. McCain is the most absent senator in Congress, having missed 63 percent of the votes since the 110th Congress opened session on January 3, 2007. 63%. McCain’s absentee record even beats that of Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD), who was completely absent nearly a year while recovering from a brain hemorrhage. Read more →

It’s Palin! Because They Couldn’t Get Geraldine Ferraro…

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Well, the big news of the morning appears to be that John McCain has picked Palin as his running mate. I see this as a brilliant move; one sure to baffle Democrats and lead to victory for the Republicans in November. Palin is a fantastic writer, and his ribald sense of humor will surely offset the growing tendencies of John McCain to be a total angry, old prick. After witnessing the Obama acceptance spectacular last night, it was darn near impossible to envision what the GOP could do to regain some oxygen and momentum.

Boy, was I wrong. Naming Michael Palin, a founding member of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, as McCain’s running mate was a stroke of genius that is sure to revive a rotting, dying campaign that….

What??? Oh, wait a minute. I am being corrected; it is not Michael Palin, it is Sarah Palin. Well, who the heck is she? Hmmm, Wiki says:

Born in Idaho and raised in Alaska, Palin played point guard on her high school’s basketball team. She was the 1984 runner-up in the Miss Alaska pageant, receiving a scholarship that allowed her to attend the University of Idaho, where she received a degree in journalism. After working as a sports reporter at an Anchorage television station, Palin served two terms on the Wasilla, Alaska, City Council from 1992 to 1996, was elected mayor of Wasilla (population 5,470 in 2000) in 1996, and ran unsuccessfully for Lieutenant Governor in 2002. She was elected Governor of Alaska in 2006.

NPR’s Linda Wertheimer was asked by the host of their coverage for her thoughts. Paraphrasing, she said:

“I can’t think of a VP candidate on either party’s ticket whose resume is so thin and weak. Given that McCain’s health is what it is, he’s said that his VP pick is perhaps more important than most presidential candidates. Given that, I just don’t get this choice.”

Wow. Palin really does have a pretty thin CV for the party that only yesterday was carping about Obama’s lack of experience. It does, however, set up a fantastic campaign slogan:

"Sarah Palin: She Hasn’t Been Indicted Yet!"

Of course, she is from Alaska, so that could change any second now. At least this is a well thought out, carefully planned, choice for McCain that will help him combat Obama’s energy policy. Wait, hold on, I am getting another call (these breaking news stories are tough I tell ya; hard work, hard work). Ooops, it turns out that Ms. Palin just a couple of weeks ago was profusely praising Obama’s energy platform; but worry not my friends, there has been an emergency purge of that fact from her website, apparently last night, so nobody should ever pick up on that Read more →

Malevolence In Mississippi

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Ill winds have been blowing through the Mississippi political and legal scene for a long time now. There is Trent Lott and his son-in-law Dickie Scruggs. A real soap opera there. Scruggs was a legal legend and one of the biggest, if not the biggest, Democratic donors in the state. Now he has pled guilty and Trent Lott has been implicated in the mess. Then there is the highly disturbing tale of Judge Wes Teel that Scott Horton has been doggedly following. Oh, yes, there was also the political persecution of attorney Paul Minor who, wouldn’t you know, was the other biggest Democratic donor in Mississippi. And, of course, there is the by now famous case of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman; which, although an Alabama case, has ties to Mississippi. Man, the Delta sure ain’t a safe place for Democratic lawyers, judges and politicians; guess I best stick to the desert here.

The common thread running through all these prosecutions is the selective targeting of Democrats by the hand of the politicized Bush Department of Justice. From Noel Hillman, the former head of the Public Integrity Section at DOJ Main in Washington, to Leura Canary, to Dunn Lampton, to Alice Martin. All Bush appointed prosecutorial political attack dogs. All tied to Karl Rove. By the way, if you are not familiar with all these stories, do click and read the links, you will find fantastic tales.

Oops, did I forget to mention the attempted take down of Mississippi Supreme Court Judge Oliver Diaz in the same situation that involved Paul Minor? Well, Judge Diaz and the Mississippi Malevolence is back in the news today. Turns out that when you are a centrist or progressive Supreme Court Judge in Mississippi (Diaz, by the way, was originally a Republican, but he was fair minded, and thus shifted), if the Right Wing hit squads can’t persecute you into prison, they simply prevent you from discharging your judicial duties and exercising your judicial discretion.

A jaw dropping report out today in the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal:

Something unusual happened Thursday at the Mississippi Supreme Court.

It may be the first time a majority of the justices voted to prohibit a colleague from publishing a dissent in a case.

In other words, Presiding Justice Oliver Diaz of Ocean Springs disagreed with a court decision and wanted to write about it. His fellow judges said, no, he couldn’t and they apparently stopped the court clerk from filing Diaz’s statement into the record.

Diaz’s document Read more →

The First Time

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Back when I lived in a city state with public transportation, I amused myself (in an indulgent way) watching the tourists try to work public transportation for the first time.

I would always think back to my first time. It was downright scary, I remember, not knowing where everything goes and what the rules are and where you’re supposed to go and all the while still trying to look cool or–at the very least, for reasons of safety–to look as if this weren’t your first time.

In some ways, the sight of someone using public transportation for the first time (the second time gets easier, as most public transportation systems work roughly the same) is a sweet reminder of how innocent we all once were.

Until I read Mary Ann Akers’ description of Trent Lott’s first time.

"I took the Metro for the first time," Lott told the Sleuth Thursday afternoon in the makeup room of MSNBC, where he and his new lobbying partner, former Sen. John Breaux (D-La.), were fixin (as Lott says) to do a TV segment.

"He’s been standing in front of his house waiting for his car and driver," laughed Breaux from the makeup chair, adding with a tinge of a low-country twang, "He’s learning how to hail a cab." (Read: HAY-ul a cab.)

Life in the private sector isn’t as cushy as Lott thought it would be. No more free lunches, no more taxpayer-funded car and driver, no more overprotective press secretary guarding him from the pesky media.

Lott says he doesn’t drive. He doesn’t own a car. Usually, he walks. One day, he says, he walked the 30 or so blocks from his downtown office on 14th Street Northwest to his home in Southeast Washington on Capitol Hill.

Lott took his first Metro ride ever last weekend, when thousands of tourists were in town enjoying the annual Cherry Blossom Festival. Could there be a more perfect time for a prima donna first-time rider?

"I stood up the whole time," Lott said, smiling, as if he enjoyed it.

Lott really had no idea how to even go about taking public transportation. He didn’t know how to use the Metro fare card machines, or how much money to put on his trip ticket, or how to add money to one of the fare cards his wife gave him. Truly: clueless.

Read more →

What’s Wrong With This Picture? Wilkes Sprung From Slammer!

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Almost like it was a Friday evening news or document dump coming out of the Bush White House, news has just hit the wires that convict Brent Wilkes has been released from prison pending appeal.

A federal appeals court has ordered the release from prison of former Poway defense contractor Brent Wilkes while he pursues an appeal of his bribery conviction and 12-year sentence.

The order from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was issued Thursday by judges Thomas G. Nelson and A. Wallace Tashima. Wilkes was convicted in November of bribing former Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham and sentenced three months later to 144 months in prison. He immediately appealed the conviction and sought to remain free, but U.S. District Judge Larry Burns refused and ordered him into custody.

In a brief order, Nelson and Tashima said it was unlikely that Wilkes poses a danger to the community or would flee if he were released.

Moreover, the judges said his appeal raised a "substantial question" of law or fact, that "is likely to result in reversal, an order for a new trial, or a sentence that does not include a term of imprisonment."

That was certainly fast; Wilkes was only sentenced about a month ago. Things sure work faster and better if you are a card carrying wingnut member of the Cheney/Bush criminal cabal as opposed to, say for instance, a Democratic governor in the Gooper infested South eh? Now, don’t get me wrong, I made the last statement somewhat tongue in cheek. I don’t think that the timeframe was necessarily accelerated as to Wilkes at all; however, anybody that now doesn’t understand how egregious and malicious the treatment of Don Siegelman was needs to give up the ghost, because any argument to the contrary just doesn’t fly. Are the judges in the 9th Circuit really nine times faster and better than those in the 11th Circuit? Or was something else going on? Go figure….

Sometimes You Eat The Bear, Sometimes The Bear Eats You – Stearns Thoughts

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That whole financial disaster, black hole rivaling the Great Depression, collapse of the American economy thing is oh so last week eh? Because from what I can tell this week, Britney has been on a sitcom, Barrack (gasp!) has listened to a fiery preacher man, Bush and McCain say stupid things (okay, that is not news, but it is being reported on), and Hillary (gasp!) won’t quit a race that is essentially neck and neck (and this reference does not make this a thread for discussion of the horserace, so give that a rest). What happened to the biggest financial crisis in our nation’s history?

What was the the Bear Stearns takeover/bailout about anyway? Who really benefitted in the present? What does it portend for the future? I don’t have these answers; but I have a lot of questions and the ground seems to be morphing so fast on this that not only are we not getting answers, the real questions are getting left behind in the wake. To paraphrase Wilson Pickett, we need to "slow this mustang down" and think about what has occurred and where it will lead us for the future. Really, the implications are pretty incredible. The federal government, under the cover of a spring weekend, stepped in to force one private financial company to sell itself to another private financial company at a price more than fifteen times less than the market valuation at the time. And then the government pledged the public’s money to guarantee the worst parts of the deal. Wow. And here I thought the free market was the golden holy rule for those currently running our country into the ground.

How did something so huge, and with so many far ranging implications, happen literally overnight? One thing is sure, if the economy was as great as they say, and Bush and his band of merry pillagers were on top of everything as much as they claim, this never would have happened. There has been plenty of discussion about the sub-prime shitpile and the exponential rise in derivitives in the financial industry, but my question here is what really happened with the Bear Stearns deal itself? Thankfully, people that know a whole lot more about this than I do are starting to ask the right questions. Today’s example is an outstanding Read more →

The NRCC Meltdown: An Introduction

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I haven’t commented on the FBI investigation of the NRCC treasurer, Christopher Ward yet because, well, because this damn FISA bill is taking all my time.

Top House Republicans were told in recent days that a former employee of their campaign committee may have forged an official audit during the contentious 2006 election cycle and that they should brace for the possibility that an unfolding investigation could uncover financial improprieties stretching back several years, according to GOP sources briefed on the members-only discussions.

But let me make some initial points and then illustrate and then I’ll do a follow-up post on just one example of what I suspect the FBI is investigating.

  • Per the Politico, Christopher Ward has been doing the NRCC’s books since 1993–that is, since the "Contract with America" cycle and since the Republicans started marching in neocon lockstep
  • Per RawStory, Ward also worked for a finance firm that has done the books for a bunch of other GOP entities, including the Swift Boaters
  • Per Politico, a number of Congressmen for whom Ward served as treasurer have already announced their retirement

It just so happens that I just finished Allen Raymond’s How to Rig an Election in preparation of the FDL book salon for tomorrow. So I read this passage–in which Raymond described his brainstorming for a new online political consulting firm–just as this scandal was breaking.

If all it took to get venture capital for a political dot-com was a shitty idea, hell, I could easily exceed the standard.

The first one I had was to develop an online currency exchange where the Republican national campaign committees, such as the RNC, and its affiliated state parties, could log in and trade hard money for soft and vice versa. When I ran the idea by Curt Anderson, he said, "What are you, fucking crazy? This is the stuff that’s suppose to happen in the dark of night."

"Why shouldn’t it be transparent?" I reasoned. "It all gets filed in FEC reports anyway."

"Allen, no one’s going to buy it." He was right. THe currency exchange that happened almost daily between the national Republican organizations and the state parties was the equivalent of Scarface turning drug cash into Treasury bonds. No one would want to be on record doing it.

Read more →

Competence versus Populism

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A number of people are pointing to David Frum’s seeming come-to-Jeebus realization that Conservatives should beware of picking incompetent hacks in the guise of political loyalty.

Here’s the lesson to learn: It’s always important to respect the values and principles of the voters. But politicians who want to deliver effective government and positive results have to care about more than values — and have to do more than check their guts. They need to study the problem, master the evidence, and face criticism.

It’s not only conservatives who succumb to gimmicks of course. The left still feels a lingering attachment to socialism, the most disastrous gimmick of them all. Tough-minded conservatives slashed that illusion to pieces decades ago. But since then, we have begun to go a little easy on ourselves. And over the past half dozen years, the consequences of our militant anti-elitism has come home to roost.

If elitism means snobbishness, then of course it is a vicious thing. If it means being impressed by credentials instead of evidence, then again: good riddance. But if it is elitist to expect politicians to be able to see through glaringly false and stupid ideas — well in that case, call me elitist.

But few note where Frum’s criticism is directed: to those who support Mike Huckabee or Ron Paul. Read more →

Dick DeVos and KayBee Hutchison Go After Bloggers

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That’s a way to make you feel good about blogging, huh? To be attacked by both Dick DeVos and KayBee Hutchison?

DeVos is suing 30 anonymous bloggers and YouTube users because he believes they are among a group for former distributors who sued Amway and were put under a gag order by the judge in the suit.

In the lawsuit filed this past week in Ottawa County Circuit Court,Quixtar seeks an injunction and damages of more than $25,000 againstthe posters, identified only as John Does.

[snip]

Quixtar believes the videos and other postings are part of anorganized effort by former distributors who unsuccessfully sued Alticorand are under court order not to disparage the company or discloseproprietary information, according to the lawsuit.

Quixtar plans to ask for permission to subpoena various onlinecompanies to figure out who posted the materials, spokesman Rob Zeigersaid.

According to the Grand Rapids Press, an Alticor representative saidthe court action was merely to identify anyone who might be associatingwith those under court order, rather than expressing their own personalopinions.

Zeiger told the paper that his company was not interested inpursuing people not associated with the former employees, and wouldeven reimburse their legal fees if there was no connection. "Anindividual who is expressing their own opinion, we don’t have a problemwith that," he said. "They’re not doing anything wrong."

I thought at first this might be an attempt to neutralize the power of anti-DeVos blogs, which had been really effective against him in the last governor’s election in MI. I need to see the complaint here, because I’m not sure the allegations made in the YouTubes actually relate to the failed lawsuit against Amway. So DeVos risks amplifying the blog material which appears like it may be factually correct: that is, that Amway’s online division Quixtar, sucks. (Full disclosure, I have a family member who was a Quixtar believer before he became a Southern Baptist.) That’d be nice, huh? If in pursuit of a bunch of people who tried to bust the pyramid scheme, DeVos actually informed more people that Amway is a big hoax?

KayBee Hutchison, for her part, is complaining about bloggersbecause–wait for it–they don’t follow the esteemed principles ofjournalistic ethics.

Too Late

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Two more exhibits in too little, too late to keep the Republican party in the mainstream. First, Chuck Hagel calling General Petraeus General Betray-Us Bush’s used car salesman.

Maher: Isn’t a dirty trick on the American people when you send a military man out there to basically do a political sell-job?”

Hagel: It’s not only a dirty trick, but it’s dishonest, it’s hypocritical, it’s dangerous and irresponsible.The fact is this is not Petraeus’ policy, it’s the Bush’s policy. Themilitary is — certainly very clear in the Constitution — is subservientto the elected public officials of this country. but to put our military in a position that this administration has put them in is just wrong, and it’s dangerous.”

Hagel, of course, has announced his retirement from the Senate and may well be replaced by conservative Democrat Bob Kerrey.

And then there’s Lincoln Chafee, who, after having had the decision to retire made for him, has disaffiliated with the Republican party (hat tip Susie).

Lincoln D.Chafee, who lost his Senate seat in the wave of anti-Republicansentiment in last November’s election, said yesterday that he has leftthe party.

Chafee said he disaffiliated with the party he had helped lead, andhis father had led before him, because the Read more →