Good taste doesn't negate my propietary rights.

Can't I get a low-cost (preferably free) license to use them?

Attribution and a % of the gross.

For the Hammer, the involvement of the Department of Justice is bad news—but not as bad as it could be. The allegations are serious enough to have drawn the attention of the Feds—whose motives can't be as easily dismissed as those of Ronnie Earle, a Texas state prosecutor and Democrat who's been tracking DeLay with Javert-like intensity. The probe is being overseen by Noel Hillman, a hard-charging career prosecutor who heads the Public Integrity Section and who has a long track record of nailing politicians of all stripes. But politics almost certainly will creep into the equation. Hillman's new boss will soon be Alice Fisher, who is widely respected but also a loyal Republican socially close to DeLay's defense team. [SIZE=7]The larger question is whether Justice—run by Bush's buddy Alberto Gonzales—will aggressively seek evidence that could lead to DeLay or to other Republicans in Congress. "I just don't know that they have the stomach for it," said a lawyer close to the probe.

Isn't that just handy? Whitewash all around. Everything this administration does has to be cleaned up for public veiwing. Morals? Where the fork do you see any?? Values? They certainly know the value, the rate of exchange, of a vote.

While Justice grinds slowly, DeLay says that he wants the House ethics committee—which is supposed to be a nonpartisan panel—to look into the matter. But what DeLay really wants is to be cleared quickly in a friendly venue whose new, far more member-friendly rules were written at the behest of DeLay's allies. Until this year the committee could take as long as it needed to authorize a probe; under the new rules the panel would have just 45 days to make such momentous decisions. Republicans on the committee last week offered to hold hearings on their own. The Democrats, who have balked at establishing the panel in this session of Congress, refused to go along, seeing a whitewash in the making.

With no ethics committee to appeal to, DeLay is throwing himself on the mercy of the court—of conservative opinion. In New York last Friday, he took his case to the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal, which had whacked him earlier this year for having become all too representative of the —excesses of Beltway life. He gave an interview to Fox Radio, making headlines by attacking Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy for "outrageous" legal thinking. And DeLay appeared before a cheering throng at the National Rifle Association, at one point brandishing a rifle and declaring that it was good to have friends and allies "who are armed."

Conservatives in Washington will gather en masse at the Capital Hilton May 12 for a Salute to Tom DeLay Dinner, organized by the American Conservative Union. "It's for Tom, but it's also for conservatives, and for our self-respect," said the ACU's chairman David Keene. "We haven't come this far in the movement after all these years to abandon an important friend when he needs us."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7615248/site/newsweek/



The bought and paid for.

DeLay has a new hat.

I wonder how that investigation into Pelosi is going? Seems to me most of the media failed to ever mention it. Hillary's bagman hasn't made the news either. Bernie Sanders paying his family for working on his campaign hasn't shown up on the front page. I saw an AP list of 7 or 8 other Senators that had relatives on staff, but the networks haven't deemed fit to cover that.

I'm hoping this new interest in ethics isn't like a little cloudburst over one house in the middle of a drought.

[RANT=ON]

What I find most interesting as the reps all scramble to correct the travel documents they previously filed - no one has seen fit to "call" them on the practice. It's as if, everybody gets a free "Do-Over" except for the first case brought to light. That one we fry - the rest of you can watch.

My question is - "How come?" If all it takes to exercise your "Stay Out of Jail Free Card" is changing what you already signed so that it now looks good - then why don't we let everybody do that (Stewart, Lay, Skilling, Ebbers, Sullivan, ad infinitum, ad nauseum)? After all, it's good enough for the Congresscritters to escape penalty. And they're just citizens like all the rest of us right? Right? All equal under the law.

BTW last time I checked falsification of government documents was crime. And punishable. Task now is to determine which "version" is false. The first? the second? Both? Ethics Committees, if not the FBI, ought to be working overtime - except that we are asking them to penalize themselves and with rare exception they've always managed to look the other way since a hard look might involve a mirror.

And its just much more fun in the Fourth Estate to skewer a "Poster Person" (preferably one that doesn't like us anyway, so no great loss) than to turn the light on all of them - that might dry up too many "sources."

Term limits? Naw, that's unfair, and SCOTUS said "unconstitutional." But needed to remind these bozos that they aren't all that bloody entitled - just elected.

[/RANT]

"What I find most interesting as the reps all scramble to correct the travel documents they previously filed - no one has seen fit to "call" them on the practice. It's as if, everybody gets a free "Do-Over" except for the first case brought to light. That one we fry - the rest of you can watch."



Because it's been about frying the correct ONE. It's great to watch people saying one thing, while their aids are correcting problems in regards to their doing another.

They're all entitled now. Campaign finance reform and gerrymandering have made most untouchable.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7634382


DeLay woes prompt rush to refile forms
Lawmakers fear fallout over ethics
By Mike Allen
Updated: 11:58 p.m. ET April 25, 2005

Members of Congress are rushing to amend their travel and campaign records, fearing that the controversy over House Majority Leader Tom DeLay will trigger an ethics war that will bring greater scrutiny to their own travel and official activities.

advertisement
Some offices have sharply limited staff travel, and some members are not traveling at all because of the intense review they believe they will face in coming months.

Lawmakers are paying old restaurant bills, filing missing forms and correcting erroneous ones as journalists and political opponents comb through records and DeLay (R-Tex.) attempts to answer questions about travel financing and his past relationships with lobbyists.


• More news about Congress
Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) wrote to the Federal Election Commission on April 15 to report that he had discovered that the Washington restaurant Signatures had not charged his credit card -- as he said he had directed -- for a 2003 fundraiser for 16 people that cost $1,846. The event was hosted by Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist and part-owner of the restaurant who is now under congressional and criminal investigation for his handling of millions of dollars in fees from Indian tribes. Abramoff was not at the event.

"I never thought about this event again until it was brought to my attention very recently that no payment or reimbursement for the event has ever appeared on our FEC report," Vitter wrote. He wrote to Signatures at the same time, directing the management to "charge my credit card today."

‘I apologize’
In another case, an aide to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had not reported a 2004 trip to South Korea until a Washington Post reporter asked her office about it. Eddie Charmaine Manansala, Pelosi's special assistant on East Asian affairs, filed a disclosure form for the $9,087 trip a few hours after the newspaper's inquiry and sent a note to the ethics committee saying, "I did not know I was supposed to file these forms and I apologize for its lateness."

Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) even asked the ethics committee to investigate him after a reporter for the newspaper Roll Call pointed out that a travel disclosure form from 2001 listed the lobbying firm Rooney Group International as paying for a $1,782 trip to Boston, which would be a violation of House rules.

Abercrombie's aides said they have since determined that the lobbying firm's expenses were reimbursed by the nonprofit group that Abercrombie addressed on the trip, the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts. House rules state that the prohibition against lobbyists paying for members' travel applies "even where the lobbyist . . . will later be reimbursed for those expenses by a non-lobbyist client."

Is this from the MSM?

Should we ignore it too?

Can we trust Ann Coulter?

Is Townhall.com still ok for the straight scoop?

Si vous plait.

S'il nous plait, my ass.

The same farqing "liberal media" with their alleged bias, manifested especially in what is not reported, are unearthing and publicizing the 'dirty laundry' of the Democrats.

Make up your mind as to whom you're going to demonize.

The MSM isn't stupid. They file a story here and there that isn't biased. Remember 13% DIDN'T vote for Clinton.

Good grief.

Coulter has ruined your brain.

Sideways.

Whats really funny is that the repuslickans - rather than make delay take responsibility and demonstrate their so-called values - change the rules, neuter the ethics committee (or at least make it more theif friendly), and start pointing fingers at dems.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/26/politics...nd-bush.html?hp



Ol Tom's wrist looks a lil limp. Not that there's anything wrong w/that.

Maybe he sucked Bushie's dick on the plane.

I've really gotten to like this tactic you've developed -- nearly perfected, Bart -- of not arguing or being defensive about a point but instead just carrying it out a fraction of a ... oh, maybe light year or so.

Er, you er, like that?

[center] Bully.[/center]

Drip, drip, drip:



http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/A...y-Lobbyist.html

When someone makes such measely backhanded references, I think it's appropriate to take them to the obious conclusion.

I could be wrong though. Perhaps Bushie was pounding his fudge instead.

You like it sideways, so why not direct?

Drip, drip, drip.

Bushie may have said bye-bye. Instead of blow me.

Might wanna get that checked.

Heywood.

LATIN AMERICA

Rice to push reform agenda

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will push for economic and political reforms during her trip through Latin America this week.

BY PABLO BACHELET AND NANCY SAN MARTIN

nsanmartin@herald.com

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, making a five-day swing through Latin America this week, is expected to tout the Bush administration's support for economic and political reforms in a region marked by occasional bouts of instability.

Rice, who left Monday for Brazil, is expected to send a clear message that reforms are needed to improve the lot of the region's poor and make democracy work for the masses, according to U.S. officials. The top issues: development of civil society, more free trade, government transparency and the fight against corruption.


http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/11488924.htm


]The top issues: development of civil society, Republicans have raised the level of hostility in DC. If you're not with us you're against us.

more free trade, Of course. More free trade for everyone.

government transparency, You have got to be kidding. Coming from the most secretive administration in modern times that is just forking ridiculous. This idiot is making the United States look like sh*t.

and the fight against corruption DeLay. Payoffs galore. Revolving door hiring.

Suuuuure Condi. Whatever you say, no one's going to believe what you spew anyway.

No she-it! This dame must have brass balls to stand up there, and tout this stuff with a straight face....

Orrrr...is she just looney-tunes?

With shrub's booze history he may not be too good at any of that.

Don't let nobody never say you never admits to maybe being wrong.

And yeah, they do amuse me.

Ethics and values in politics?

Are you sure this isn't the joke thread?

I did hear that Nancy Pelosi is a couple years behind in filing disclosures.

We dream

Good practice for discussing the actual though, and hoping for the ideal.

Welcome to the site

How many posts do I need to not be a noob? Got instructions on posting an avatar but haven't done it yet. Need something suitable.

Read the first page; you get the initial drift ... and the tenor was flamesome.




I saw her tonight. Any more facework and they may as well elect Joan Rivers.

I donut know. The Shadow & Arturo do.

Google image, baby. Suit up.

Thank you. I lost faith in parties and politics long ago. Still, it's nice to dream of people who aren't just in it for the power.

Just keep posting till you're not a noob anymore. I think the levels are set to be surprises, so are unpredictable.

Saw Joan recently. Actually looked pretty good. Must admit I have a bit of a crush on Melissa.

Gifts in High Places
Did DeLay staffers violate ethics rules?
By KAREN TUMULTY


TOM WILLIAMS / ROLL CALL / POLARIS
QUESTIONS ABOUT GIFTS: Jack Abramoff



Tuesday, Apr. 26, 2005
Lobbyist Jack Abramoff gave expensive gifts to key members of then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay's staff, which the aides accepted in apparent violation of House ethics rules, according to two sources who worked at Abramoff's law firm at the time Abramoff made the gifts. The gifts included high-end golf equipment, tickets to sporting events and concerts and, in the case of one high-ranking DeLay staff member, a weekend getaway paid for by Abramoff's own frequent flyer and hotel points, two sources who had direct knowledge of the transactions tell TIME.

The two sources say that one recipient of the gifts, including the weekend trip and expensive golf clubs, was Tony C. Rudy, who worked for DeLay for five years and served at various times as DeLay's press secretary, policy director, general counsel and deputy chief of staff when DeLay was House Majority Whip. When Rudy left DeLay's office in 2002, he joined Abramoff at Greenberg Traurig, the firm that hired Abramoff in December 2000. Rudy now works at Alexander Strategy Group, a lobbying firm headed by former DeLay Chief of Staff Ed Buckham.

A spokesman for Abramoff said he is unavailable for comment. Rudy has not returned repeated calls requesting comment.

DeLay's current chief of staff, Tim Berry, told TIME that he recalls Abramoff giving him a golf club while they were playing golf in the late 1990s, or possibly as late as 2000, when Berry was a floor assistant to DeLay. Berry said he found the situation awkward, and "got rid of it" a few days later, and added that in the current environment, he now wishes he had simply given back the gift to Abramoff. Berry could not recall the make of the club, which he believes was a wood, and said he does not know whether its value would have exceeded the gift limit under the House rules.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,...1054596,00.html

Let's have an ethics war!!! Yay!! Which party is more corrupt?

Records show DeLay, lobbyist daily contact


Posted: Wednesday, April 27, 6:12am EDT

Over two years, Rep. Tom DeLay had at least two dozen discussions with a lobbyist working to keep a US territory's factories free from new labor laws. The lobbyist contributed to the House leader's campaigns and arranged travel for him.

Records show that DeLay's staff spoke with the lobbyist, Jack Abramoff, or his team almost daily during this period.

DeLay's office kept Abramoff, now under criminal investigation, routinely apprised of congressional efforts to block new regulations on his client, the Northern Mariana Islands.

Questions have been raised about whether Abramoff himself paid for some of DeLay's foreign trips in violation of House rules. DeLay maintains they were properly financed by trip sponsors.

Abramoff's firm reported it drafted legislative materials for DeLay, and Abramoff boasted to island leaders he could use his close ties to Republican leaders to block legislation from receiving a House vote.

The documents show that Abramoff's firm and the House Ethics Committee began having concerns as early as 1996 about Abramoff's arrangement of numerous trips for congressional members to the Pacific islands and how they were being paid for.

Abramoff billed numerous trips to his personal credit card or the firm, the records state, and then he later pressed the islands to reimburse him to avoid violating the new ban on lobbyists giving gifts to House members.

http://www.csmonitor.com/newsinbrief/brief...html#USA6:12:16

[center] WOOT WOOT !!!![/center]

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[center] WOOT WOOT !!!![/center]

I see where the Republicans are talking about restoring the ethics rules.

I'll believe it when I see it. As far as I'm concerned they've proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are unethical, two faced hypocrites.