We usually marinate/roast/smoke our stuff outside.....except on Thanksgiving.
Wife will only eat turkey if the skin is "just right".

Wow! I know you guys hate the way I look at the "internals" of polls, but consider these:

"As you may know, former vice-presidential chief of staff Lewis 'Scooter' Libby was indicted on charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and making false statements. In your own personal opinion, do you think he is innocent of these charges or do you think he is guilty?"

ALL adults Innocent 18% Guilty 56% Unsure 26%
Republicans Innocent 35% Guilty 35% Unsure 30%
Democrats Innocent 7% Guilty 72% Unsure 22%
Independents Innocent 16% Guilty 60% Unsure 23%
"Do you think that the current situation with former vice-presidential chief of staff Lewis 'Scooter' Libby is an isolated incident or is this an indication of a larger problem in the Bush Administration?"

ALL adults Isolated incident 35% Larger problem 55% Unsure 10%
Republicans Isolated incident 70% Larger problem 20% Unsure 10%
Democrats Isolated incident 12% Larger problem 82% Unsure 5%
Independents Isolated incident 29% Larger problem 58% Unsure 13%

Now, Noma could go on at length. For the moment, all I wanted to say is that numbers like this, or rather more specifically, gaps like this, usually reflect very basic differences between groups about the nature of "reality". That is, about both facts and the 'truth-revealing' properties of those facts.

It would seem that one side believes the sky is green and the other that the sky is pink, and toward a possibly unbridgeable gap in concepts of "sky".

yeah those repuslickans sure are objective America first citizens.

I think that's why we have more than one political party.

I guess I didn't elaborate enough.

I was, for this purpose, ignoring the Dems completely, and pointing at the difference between indies/moderates and Reps.

What we have is roughly 2/3 of the population (Dems and Indies) sharing one world view, and the remaining 1/3 (hardcore Reps) holding a world view that is drastically opposite, so opposite that it can only be based on a different set of facts.

And as the saying goes, "You're entitled to your own opinion. You're not entitled to your own facts."

We seem to have reached a point where we disagree not only about what "facts" are more important or more persuasive or should be given more or less weight in forming an opinon, but where we're disagreeing about what the essential "facts" ARE. And that we're arriving at different conclusions not due to differing beliefs about how facts should be interpreted, but about what the facts ARE.

The fallout, perhaps, of the polarization of news, the demise of mainstream news that supplied the same set of "facts" to all citizens? That there are now FoxFacts and everyone else's "facts", and those "facts" are not the same set of data being used to form opinions?

I'm out of a job.

If you don't know the facts, when you're polled you might as well answer in such a way as to defend your "side". The assumption is usually that if you're indicted you must have done something, BUT when the prosecutor has said he's coming after you in advance you can logically assume there is at least the possibility that politics is involved. SO much for the DeLay case.

In the Libby case since most people were expecting charges of divulging secrets there is some case to be made that the lack of the expected charges means something.

Now we find out Woodward knew, and thought it was no big secret. That lends credence to Novak's original claim that it wasn't peddled to him as any great secret.

I hope they all go to jail. For a long time. With big, black, angry bunkmates. It would make me happy.

Even the mayor wonders: Who is the real Jim West?



Jim West's political career reached a pinnacle in 2003 when he was elected mayor of his hometown. Now he faces a recall election.



KEN LAMBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Spokesman-Review Editor Steven Smith says coverage of the West story went from shocking, to bizarre and then moved to the point where "it's just grindingly pathetic and sad and dismal." West, Smith says, "is standing up there and allowing us to whack away at him."
LOUIE BALUKOFF / AP, 1993

In 20 years in the Legislature, West, shown here in 1993, rose to be chairman of the powerful Senate Ways and Means Committee and was chosen by fellow Republicans to be Senate majority leader.

Enlarge this photo

KEN LAMBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES




KEN LAMBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Jim West, pausing in a discussion about his recall election, says, "I made a mistake. It was wrong, you know. I'm sorry for it; not doing it anymore. Let's move on and get back to running the city."

SPOKANE — Only one name appears on the ballot in this city's Dec. 6 recall election: Mayor Jim West.

But which West will voters have in mind when they decide whether to dump the first-term mayor?

The professional politician who was leading the city to a long-overdue renaissance?

Or "therightbi-guy," one of the names the mayor used while cruising online for young men? Or darker still, the former sheriff's deputy and Boy Scout leader who stands accused of molesting young boys decades ago?

In this toughest campaign of a 25-year political career, West says he's pitted against a caricature of himself drawn by recall sponsors and The Spokesman-Review, the local newspaper that since May has published nearly 150 stories about West, reporting allegations that he used his position as mayor to lure young men and that West sexually abused boys decades ago.

The allegations in The Spokesman-Review


Accusations of molestation: Two men told the newspaper they were molested by West decades ago, when he was a deputy sheriff and Boy Scout leader. They say they also were molested by West's good friend and fellow deputy David Hahn, who later committed suicide. The statue of limitations has expired on any potential crime, and there is no police investigation.

Accusations of misuse of office: The Spokesman-Review stories have alleged that West used his mayoral powers to try to entice young men into sexual relationships, including offering an internship to the newspaper's hired computer expert who was posing as a Spokane high-school boy in online chats with West. The stories also allege that West used his city computer to cruise for men online. An investigator hired by the City Council says West violated city and state laws. The FBI also is investigating.

Accusations of hypocrisy: Newspaper articles have asserted West's political and private lives were hypocritical, since he voted against civil-rights protections for gays as a state legislator but had sex with men.

"I have no opponent other than the person they created who is supposedly me," West said.

The mayor created his own "imaginary person" through which he lived a vast and secret online life. But he says it would also be unfair for voters to judge him as that character. "What it really allows me to do is be somebody I'm not," West said.

But even he has difficulty sorting out the real from the make-believe.

"And this is weird. This is incredibly weird for me. This is an imaginary person and this is a real person," he said, pointing with a finger on each hand. "And there are points in time where they cross over a little bit. But few and far between."

Politicians in scandals of this proportion often quickly resign, go off to seek counseling or detoxification or plow on with blanket denials. West, though, has been talking more and more about his conflicted sexuality and self-doubt in ways almost unheard of for a candidate on the campaign trail.

He also follows one well-worn path: Blame the newspaper.

West's first campaign fundraising appeal focused on The Spokesman-Review — which sparked controversy by hiring someone to pose as an online teenager to expose West — and its editor, Steven Smith:

"Are Steven Smith and The Spokesman-Review the ultimate authority in Spokane or is it the people? The choice is ours."

For his part, Smith is surprised the scandal has burned so long. "There are days I feel Mayor West is just making it too easy and that we are in a position of having to continue to write these stories," Smith said. "Now I think that's his responsibility, not ours."

Smith says West could have saved himself further scrutiny by resigning.

"But nevertheless," Smith said, "you've got to ask yourself periodically, how do I feel about this? And there are days I don't feel really great about it. Proud of our journalism. But I just feel like this guy is standing up there and allowing us to whack away at him.

"And we're grinding him into dust."

That last sentence is said without boast. It's Smith's assessment of where the story has gone.

<snip>

Last May, West's political world began unraveling after The Spokesman-Review reported on two men who say West molested them in the 1970s when they were young boys in Spokane.

Both say they were also molested by West's good friend and fellow sheriff's deputy, David Hahn.

West has denied those charges. In one interview he offers a circumstantial argument against those claims: If he were an abuser there'd be more victims coming forward. The newspaper, with its aggressive search for more victims, would have found someone else.

"Where are they? Pedophiles don't abuse just one person," West said. "Maybe in a case of an uncle abusing or a father or something abusing a family member, but pedophiles who abuse strangers don't abuse one person."

But there is mystery even to West about his past.

Can he understand how strange it looks to some that he worked with two men — Hahn and another fellow Scout leader, George Robey Jr. — who both committed suicide after being suspected of sexually abusing children? "And don't you think that maybe made me to question, 'What's wrong with me?' " West said.

Pressed to elaborate, West demurred, then said, "What was it about me that caused this to happen? Or not to cause it to happen, but had these people lined up? Was it just being [in the] cosmic space in the wrong place at the wrong time?"

Any crime committed in the 1970s would be beyond the statute of limitations. Because of that, law enforcement, government officials and sponsors of the recall against West have paid little attention to the sex-abuse claims — the worst accusations West faces. The newspaper, too, has done little to advance those allegations.

Instead, much of the public attention and the reporting has focused on a narrower legal question: Whether West misused his office by offering City Hall positions to entice young men into sexual relationships.

In one of the initial stories, The Spokesman-Review reported that West had offered an internship to someone he thought was a high-school senior. After that, others came forward to say West had also offered them city positions.

Two weeks ago, an investigator hired by the city concluded those actions had violated city and state laws. West continues to deny the charges.

The allegations against West churn dark memories in Spokane. There have been child sex-abuse allegations in the ranks of the Spokane County Sheriff's Office, the Boy Scouts, a ranch for troubled boys and the Catholic Church — a diocese so battered by accusations of molestation it has filed for bankruptcy.

This scandal is about the mayor's actions, to be sure. But many people talk of what it says about Spokane, its history, its newspaper; about the business community; and about how and why city residents don't demand more from their leaders.

<snip>

As West talks about his life, one pictures a blur of men in uniform. West's father was a postal worker. Young Jim went from the Boy Scouts, where his troop leader was an Air Force man, to join the Army, then the sheriff's department, then returning to the Boy Scouts as an adult leader.

West said the system of rules behind those uniforms "definitely makes life simpler." There also is a sense of belonging and camaraderie, he said, that he felt particularly in the Army and the Scouts.

They can be tough on a young man, too.

West's first Scout leader was a tough disciplinarian. Infractions were dealt with by sending a Scout through "the belt line," a column of Scouts using their belts to whip the offender as he ran down the line.

West was born in Oregon but raised in Spokane. As he was about to start his senior year of high school, his father took a job in Reno, Nev., and West wanted to stay behind.

A family he didn't know agreed to take him for the year.

West attended the University of Nevada, Reno, but dropped out. He stayed behind, though, when his family moved several months later, still living in a fraternity house, the place he had one of his earliest homosexual experiences.

West was married from 1990 to 1995. He remains friendly with his ex-wife, who, along with her mother, have donated to West's anti-recall campaign.

He said it wasn't until after his divorce that he admitted to himself that he was attracted to men.

He still professes to be unsure.

"It's hard for me to say this, but I'm curious about men. But you know, I have relationships with women," he said. "I'm basically an asexual. I'm not driven by sex. I mean, God, I could probably count on a couple of hands — besides my marriage itself — how many sexual encounters I've had my entire life."

About five years ago West began to use the Internet to explore his homosexual attractions.

"It was just a curiosity thing," West said. "Then you get in there and you chat with people and they don't know who you are and you don't know who they are. In some cases, you're just teasing them, razzing them."

When West talks about his online relationships, he speaks as if it is technology that draws him in; the computer is the force he feels, not a magnetic pull to young men.

He said the Internet leads to isolation, reduces inhibitions and takes away a needed sense of shame. "It just lowers all those social norms potentially," West said.

That's why he felt compelled to apologize to the citizens of Spokane.

"I think for many people I let them down," West said, "They knew me, but they didn't know everything — sitting at home, being bored, getting online and chatting with people instead of watching TV or reading a good book or whatever. You know, not very proud of it.

"So, that's wrong. And then chatting with 'motobrock' who was an 18-year-old — started out fairly innocent, but went where it shouldn't have. And that was wrong."

To repent, he says, he has sworn off the Internet and sex.

"It created this cleft, this fault, that this was like, wow, that is a place I can't go to anymore: the Internet or any kind of sexual relationship with anybody."

The transcripts of West's online chats obtained by The Spokesman-Review are thick with sexual innuendoes, explicit cybersex and ramblings about living a closeted and sexually confused life. "It's role-playing. I mean, it's like a game," West said.

But the persona he chose wasn't vastly different from his real life. He described himself as middle-aged and generally accurately described his interests and background. He said he worked in a business related to marketing and traveled a lot and had occasion to meet famous people. He said his name was Jim.

"If you're going to role-play, why would you play someone just like yourself?" asked Ryan Oelrich, 24, a Spokane man who chatted with "therightbi-guy" and "Cobra82nd," West's salute to his army division.

And as the case with other chats, "therightbi-guy" and "Cobra82nd" would bring up the mayor.

"He'd say, 'Did you see the mayor on the news today? He's a big, fat, ugly man, isn't he?' " Oelrich said.

Before Oelrich knew West's identity, the mayor went to a friend of the young man's and told him to have Oelrich apply for a seat on the city Human Rights Commission. West initially offered Oelrich the chairmanship. Oelrich turned that down but accepted a position on the commission.

Eventually, Oelrich confronted West in his online persona and the mayor confirmed who he was. He asked Oelrich to keep his identity secret.

After West admitted who he was, Oelrich says, the mayor's online behavior became more aggressive — bordering on stalking. Oelrich, who sees his appointment now as part of a clumsy seduction, resigned and filed a discrimination complaint with the commission.

The commission found West acted inappropriately but did not find that Oelrich had been discriminated against. West denied any wrongdoing.

Oelrich said he urged West to quit hiding his homosexuality.

"I don't think he ever would come out," Oelrich said. "The answer was, 'No, there is no way I can achieve the dreams I have if I was openly gay.' "


<snip>

hey were to meet for the first time the next day. The online and real-life Jim West were ready to merge.

The two were going to meet for a round of golf the next morning. Instead, West was watched by a photographer for The Spokesman-Review and the paper's computer consultant as he looked around for "motobrock."

The computer setup was a ruse — a word Smith, The Spokesman-Review's editor, prefers to "sting" — arranged by the newspaper.

That tactic has generated plenty of heat. Some journalists and academics criticized the paper for what they saw as a form of entrapment.

West has also made much of the fact that one of the chat transcripts was clearly jumbled and incomplete. He was right, despite a column by the paper's online publisher jabbing hard at West for raising the issue in June and stating the paper "won't always sit quietly when statements are being made about us that we believe to be patently false."

The transcript was corrected early this month, four months after West's complaint.

An editor's note was attached to another transcript July 2 saying that because of technical difficulties the paper's computer expert lost the electronic record of the part of the chat where West first made the offer of an internship to "motobrock." Instead, the expert had to rely on his notes for that allegation that has become central to the recall.

Two sources of the most serious allegations also tell conflicting stories of how one of them says he came to be molested by West.

The discrepancy is clear from interviews and a deposition with two men that The Spokesman-Review posted on its Web site as part of its investigation of West.

Michael Grant says David Hahn, West's fellow sheriff's deputy and close friend, picked him up one day in his departmental car, molested him, and later introduced him to West. Robert Galliher, who also alleges West raped him, says that Grant told him it was West, not Hahn, who picked him up that day in a sheriff's car, in uniform, and molested him.

The discrepancy has never been mentioned in any of the newspaper's stories.

Smith said he does not think that is a substantive conflict and that the newspaper has tried to be straightforward about how memories of events of 25 years ago can be hazy.

Smith did put one thing in the paper he's sorry for. In June he wrote a column — under the headline "Civic Response to West a Model of Timidity" — scolding Spokane residents for a lack of appropriate outrage at West.

He aimed this barb at the Catholic Church: "Are clergy embracing the mayor because this previously and admittedly irreligious politician now has found Jesus and won the Lord's forgiveness?"

Smith believes what he wrote, but says that coming under his name it made the story too personal and made things harder for his reporters.

Smith concedes that the tone of some of the news stories in the early coverage was over-amped. Also, at one point, he asked columnist Doug Clark to back off the story a bit. (Clark made The Spokesman-Review's crusade a multimedia — and R-rated — affair with a parody song posted on the paper's Web site, "I Did It Bi Way.")

Smith says the West tale has followed an unpredictable arc: It started with shocking allegations of pedophilia and Internet cruising. Then the story went through a bizarre stage with stories, for example, about whether West masturbated in his office and the like.

"I don't think anyone can argue on the absurd angle," Smith said.

West's story now, he said, is "just grindingly pathetic and sad and dismal."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/loca...95_west27m.html

The greatest difficulty in coming to a clearer picture of Lincoln's faith is the fact that his religion does not fit into modern categories.

BS

What to Davis is clowntology might sometimes afford respite to weary travelers in an airport terminal. Coocoo ka choo.

FOAD

When you come back to our country try learning to speak English.

I saw George Will on This Week whining about "criminalizing politics" again. What part of "criminal" doesn't he understand? Oh, riiiiight. He's a Republican. He's well aquainted with corruption and graft.

What part of Coocoo ka choo doncha understand?

LEFTIES ULTIMATE HYPOCRITE!
Notorious anti-American socialist Noam Chomsky has described the U.S. election system as a "system of four-year dictatorships" and has been a vehement critic of the Pentagon for decades. He once called the Pentagon "the most hideous institution on this earth." His anti-U.S. rants have caused him to be embraced by the international Left, especially its academic and Hollywood variants.

A new book just published reveals that while Mr. Chomsky has railed against American militarism, his current $2.5 million net worth was boosted by Defense Department money.

Author Peter Schweitzer writes in the new book, "Do As I Say (Not As I Do)," that Mr. Chomsky, who first made his reputation as a professor of linguistics, has been paid several million dollars in Pentagon contracts over several decades.

Among those who paid him were the U.S. Army Signal Corps, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the Office of Naval Research.

Mr. Chomsky's response to Mr. Schweitzer is that he sees no contradiction in taking the U.S. military's money and his anti-military rantings, usually in speeches, books and articles. "I think we should be responsible for what we do, not for the bureaucratic question of who stamps the paycheck," he said. The book also exposes liberal activist Michael Moore for his anti-corporate hypocrisy. Mr. Schweitzer reveals that Mr. Moore has extensive stock holdings, including shares of Halliburton, the ultimate liberal bugaboo.

CLICK HERE

Jeez, why would the Pentagon hire Chomsky?

I don't know. Why?

Why what?

Why not?

Because

On account?

Because I said so!

How much $

What for?

I want to

What?

Huh?

Who's on first?

Abbot & Costello

Bud and Lou

You got that right!

What?

ROFLMAO!!!!!

great stuff~~~

Judy,

I keep seeing news stories about teachers molesting their students. What the heck has happened to the ethics that teachers use to be required to have? There's more and more teachers molesting students every year and I really think it's becoming not in the best interest of the child to be enrolled in a public school. You have to wonder how many children have been molested by their teachers and not told anyone. You know, I actually saw a commercial (I think it was a Tag commercial, but I'm not sure) where the teacher was coming on to the student.

And take the professors in our universities - they have always gone way over the line...but, you know, everyone thinks it's okay because the students are old enough to make their own decisions about such things. Well, we know that's not always true. Some professors prey on naive students just fresh out of high school. Anyway, it's not only the physical molestation, it's the mental molestation that is most disturbing when it comes to college and how the professors try to force their ideas into the student's heads any way they can.

Take this situation for example. Here's a letter the prof wrote to a student who had invited a war hero to come to the college to speak to the students:

Posted: November 28, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern

Editor's note: The following is the complete, unedited e-mail from adjunct English professor John Daly of Warren County Community College in Washington, N.J. to Rebecca Beach, a 19-year-old freshman at the school who announced an Iraq war hero would be speaking on campus. Daly subsequently resigned from his teaching post Nov. 22.

© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com


November 13, 2005

Dear Rebecca:

I am asking my students to boycott your event. I am also going to ask others to boycott it. Your literature and signs in the entrance lobby look like fascist propaganda and is extremely offensive. Your main poster "Communism killed 100,000,000" is not only untrue, but ignores the fact that CAPITALISM has killed many more and the evidence for that can be seen in the daily news papers. The U.S. government can fly to dominate the people of Iraq in 12 hours, yet it took them five days to assist the people devastated by huricane Katrina. Racism and profits were key to their priorities. Exxon, by the way, made $9 Billion in profits this last quarter -- their highest proft margin ever. Thanks to the students of WCCC and other poor and working class people who are recruited to fight and die for EXXON and other corporations who earning megaprofits from their imperialist plunders. If you want to count the number of deaths based on political systems, you can begin with the more than a million children who have died in Iraq from U.S.-imposed sanctions and war. Or the million African American people who died from lack of access to healthcare in the US over the last 10 years.

I will continue to expose your right-wing, anti-people politics until groups like your won't dare show their face on a college campus. Real freedom will come when soldiers in Iraq turn their guns on their superiors and fight for just causes and for people's needs -- such freedom fighters can be counted throughout American history and they certainly will be counted again.

Prof. John Daly
*****

Here's what Sean Hannity has to say about it:

Hannity igniting revolt
against left-wing profs
Sick of indoctrination, Sean urges students to expose propaganda

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: November 28, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Joe Kovacs

Sean Hannity

College students bombarded with the personal political views of their professors are being urged by talk-show host Sean Hannity to fight back with hard evidence of purported indoctrination.

"All you college kids out there, check your state laws, check your campus laws," said Sean Hannity on his national radio program.

"Get your little tape recorders if legal, and I want you to start recording these left-wingers. Bring it to this program and we'll start airing it every single time on this program. I'm sick of this indoctrination. I'm sick of this left-wing propaganda."


Hannity's call to action to comes in the wake of the case of Rebecca Beach, a 19-year-old freshman at Warren County Community College in Washington, N.J., who, as WorldNetDaily first reported, was sharply rebuked by an English professor for her announcement of a campus program featuring decorated Iraq war hero Lt. Col. Scott Rutter.

In an e-mail from professor John Daly to Beach, Daly wrote: "Real freedom will come when soldiers in Iraq turn their guns on their superiors."


John Daly

He also said he would ask his students to boycott the event and vowed "to expose [her] right-wing, anti-people politics until groups like [Rebecca's] won't dare show their face on a college campus."

"That's free and open exchange of ideas and opinions on a college campus," Hannity commented sarcastically. "That's really cultivating freedom of thought."

WND broke the news that Daly submitted his resignation Tuesday just moments before an emergency meeting by the college's board of trustees to decide his fate.

But according to Hannity, the resignation is not the end of the case, saying, "This ought to be the beginning."

"This is now the new paradigm that I want to see college kids around the country pick up on," he said. "That is whenever you have the left-wing professors that are abusive to conservatives, that degrade you, that call you names, that use ad-hominem attacks, that are punishing you for your political point of view, that are purposely trying to indoctrinate you with extremist left-wing views – if it is legal, tape them. If it is not legal, take verbatim notes, get witnesses, bring these articles to the school newspapers, bring it to the local media. Expose these people for the abusive professors that they are, and I guarantee you when there's a series of these instances where we expose these people, I guarantee you this indoctrination process is going to stop dead in its tracks. ...

"Fear is a great motivator, and the fear that these left-wingers are going to get fired or be held accountable for their mean-spirited comments against people or their indoctrination is going to be the single-biggest motivation we ever see to get them to stop doing what they're doing to college kids around the country."

Beach agreed, telling Hannity, "It is intimidating, and [professors] will tell you things to make you not want to stand out and expose them. The American people need to know what they're paying for, what they're paying for their children to receive at these schools. It's not an education, it's indoctrination, and they're intimidated from speaking out the truth that they know."

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47601

Post 4000 - looking at you

Blue state:



Red state:





Blue State:






Red State:



the south shall rise again.

Republican er, ethics:



http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/A...mans-House.html

one down.


Why didn't he tell the judge not to criminalize politics?

George Will needs to look at that $700,000 bribe before he starts whining on nationwide TV about the criminalizing of politics.

It's just friends helping friends.


At public expense.

oh. well that's different.

I guess that show on the history channel (about fighter pilots) in which they tried so damn hard to make cunningham out to be a hero didnt pay off.

There's nothing that says you can't be corrupted after being a hero. (even if he wasn't)

It's gotten so hard to keep track of all the corruption in the republican party and the scores of investigations going on I went looking for a listing, and found one.

1. Memogate: The Senate Computer Theft

The scandal: From 2001 to 2003, Republican staffers on the Senate Judiciary Committee illicitly accessed nearly 5,000 computer files containing confidential Democratic strategy memos about President Bush's judicial nominees. The GOP used the memos to shape their own plans and leaked some to the media.

The problem: The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act states it is illegal to obtain confidential information from a government computer.

The outcome: Unresolved. The Justice Department has assigned a prosecutor to the case. The staff member at the heart of the matter, Manuel Miranda, has attempted to brazen it out, filing suit in September 2004 against the DOJ to end the investigation. "A grand jury will indict a ham sandwich," Miranda complained. Some jokes just write themselves.

2. Doctor Detroit: The DOJ's Bungled Terrorism Case

The scandal: The Department of Justice completely botched the nation's first post-9/11 terrorism trial, as seen when the convictions of three Detroit men allegedly linked to al-Qaida were overturned in September 2004. Former Attorney General John Ashcroft had claimed their June 2003 sentencing sent "a clear message" that the government would "detect, disrupt and dismantle the activities of terrorist cells."

The problem: The DOJ's lead prosecutor in the case, Richard Convertino, withheld key information from the defense and distorted supposed pieces of evidence -- like a Las Vegas vacation video purported to be a surveillance tape. But that's not the half of it. Convertino says he was unfairly scapegoated because he testified before the Senate, against DOJ wishes, about terrorist financing. Justice's reconsideration of the case began soon thereafter. Convertino has since sued the DOJ, which has also placed him under investigation.

The outcome: Let's see: Overturned convictions, lawsuits and feuding about a Kafkaesque case. Nobody looks good here.

3. Dark Matter: The Energy Task Force

The scandal: A lawsuit has claimed it is illegal for Dick Cheney to keep the composition of his 2001 energy-policy task force secret. What's the big deal? The New Yorker's Jane Mayer has suggested an explosive aspect of the story, citing a National Security Council memo from February 2001, which "directed the N.S.C. staff to cooperate fully with the Energy Task Force as it considered the 'melding' of ... 'operational policies towards rogue states,' such as Iraq, and 'actions regarding the capture of new and existing oil and gas fields.'" In short, the task force's activities could shed light on the administration's pre-9/11 Iraq aims.

The problem: The Federal Advisory Committee Act says the government must disclose the work of groups that include non-federal employees; the suit claims energy industry executives were effectively task force members. Oh, and the Bush administration has portrayed the Iraq war as a response to 9/11, not something it was already considering.

The outcome: Unresolved. In June 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court sent the case back to an appellate court.

4. The Indian Gaming Scandal

The scandal: Potential influence peddling to the tune of $82 million, for starters. Jack Abramoff, a GOP lobbyist and major Bush fundraiser, and Michael Scanlon, a former aide to Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas), received that amount from several Indian tribes, while offering access to lawmakers. For instance, Texas' Tigua tribe, which wanted its closed El Paso casino reopened, gave millions to the pair and $33,000 to Rep. Robert Ney (R-Ohio) in hopes of favorable legislation (Ney came up empty). And get this: The Tiguas were unaware that Abramoff, Scanlon and conservative activist Ralph Reed had earned millions lobbying to have the same casino shut in 2002.

The problem: Federal officials want to know if Abramoff and Scanlon provided real services for the $82 million, and if they broke laws while backing candidates in numerous Indian tribe elections.

The outcome: Everybody into the cesspool! The Senate Indian Affairs Committee and five federal agencies, including the FBI, IRS, and Justice Department, are investigating.

5. Halliburton's No-Bid Bonanza

The scandal: In February 2003, Halliburton received a five-year, $7 billion no-bid contract for services in Iraq.

The problem: The Army Corps of Engineers' top contracting officer, Bunnatine Greenhouse, objected to the deal, saying the contract should be the standard one-year length, and that a Halliburton official should not have been present during the discussions.

The outcome: The FBI is investigating. The $7 billion contract was halved and Halliburton won one of the parts in a public bid. For her troubles, Greenhouse has been forced into whistle-blower protection.

6. Halliburton: Pumping Up Prices

The scandal: In 2003, Halliburton overcharged the army for fuel in Iraq. Specifically, Halliburton's subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root hired a Kuwaiti company, Altanmia, to supply fuel at about twice the going rate, then added a markup, for an overcharge of at least $61 million, according to a December 2003 Pentagon audit.

The problem: That's not the government's $61 million, it's our $61 million.

The outcome: The FBI is investigating.

7. Halliburton's Vanishing Iraq Money

The scandal: In mid-2004, Pentagon auditors determined that $1.8 billion of Halliburton's charges to the government, about 40 percent of the total, had not been adequately documented.

The problem: That's not the government's $1.8 billion, it's our $1.8 billion.

The outcome: The Defense Contract Audit Agency has "strongly" asked the Army to withhold about $60 million a month from its Halliburton payments until the documentation is provided.

8. The Halliburton Bribe-apalooza

The scandal: This may not surprise you, but an international consortium of companies, including Halliburton, is alleged to have paid more than $100 million in bribes to Nigerian officials, from 1995 to 2002, to facilitate a natural-gas-plant deal. (Cheney was Halliburton's CEO from 1995 to 2000.)

The problem: The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act prohibits U.S. companies from bribing foreign officials.

The outcome: A veritable coalition of the willing is investigating the deal, including the Justice Department, the SEC, the Nigerian government and a French magistrate. In June, Halliburton fired two implicated executives.

9. Halliburton: One Fine Company

The scandal: In 1998 and 1999, Halliburton counted money recovered from project overruns as revenue, before settling the charges with clients.

The problem: Doing so made the company's income appear larger, but Halliburton did not explain this to investors. The SEC ruled this accounting practice was "materially misleading."

The outcome: In August 2004, Halliburton agreed to pay a $7.5 million fine to settle SEC charges. One Halliburton executive has paid a fine and another is settling civil charges. Now imagine the right-wing rhetoric if, say, Al Gore had once headed a firm fined for fudging income statements.

10. Halliburton's Iran End Run

The scandal: Halliburton may have been doing business with Iran while Cheney was CEO.

The problem: Federal sanctions have banned U.S. companies from dealing directly with Iran. To operate in Iran legally, U.S. companies have been required to set up independent subsidiaries registered abroad. Halliburton thus set up a new entity, Halliburton Products and Services Ltd., to do business in Iran, but while the subsidiary was registered in the Cayman Islands, it may not have had operations totally independent of the parent company.

The outcome: Unresolved. The Treasury Department has referred the case to the U.S. attorney in Houston, who convened a grand jury in July 2004.

11. Money Order: Afghanistan's Missing $700 Million Turns Up in Iraq

The scandal: According to Bob Woodward's "Plan of Attack," the Bush administration diverted $700 million in funds from the war in Afghanistan, among other places, to prepare for the Iraq invasion.

The problem: Article I, Section 8, Clause 12 of the U.S. Constitution specifically gives Congress the power "to raise and support armies." And the emergency spending bill passed after Sept. 11, 2001, requires the administration to notify Congress before changing war spending plans. That did not happen.

The outcome: Congress declined to investigate. The administration's main justification for its decision has been to claim the funds were still used for, one might say, Middle East anti-tyrant-related program activities.

12. Iraq: More Loose Change

The scandal: The inspector general of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq released a series of reports in July 2004 finding that a significant portion of CPA assets had gone missing -- 34 percent of the materiel controlled by Kellogg, Brown & Root -- and that the CPA's method of disbursing $600 million in Iraq reconstruction funds "did not establish effective controls and left accountability open to fraud, waste and abuse."

The problem: As much as $50 million of that money was disbursed without proper receipts.

The outcome: The CPA has disbanded, but individual government investigations into the handling of Iraq's reconstruction continue.

13. The Pentagon-Israel Spy Case

The scandal: A Pentagon official, Larry Franklin, may have passed classified United States documents about Iran to Israel, possibly via the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a Washington lobbying group.

The problem: To do so could be espionage or could constitute the mishandling of classified documents.

The outcome: A grand jury is investigating. In December 2004, the FBI searched AIPAC's offices. A Senate committee has also been investigating the apparently unauthorized activities of the Near East and South Asia Affairs group in the Pentagon, where Franklin works.

14. Gone to Taiwan

The scandal: Missed this one? A high-ranking State Department official, Donald Keyser, was arrested and charged in September with making a secret trip to Taiwan and was observed by the FBI passing documents to Taiwanese intelligence agents in Washington-area meetings.

The problem: Such unauthorized trips are illegal. And we don't have diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

The outcome: The case is in the courts.

15. Wiretapping the United Nations

The scandal: Before the United Nations' vote on the Iraq war, the United States and Great Britain developed an eavesdropping operation targeting diplomats from several countries.

The problem: U.N. officials say the practice is illegal and undermines honest diplomacy, although some observers claim it is business as usual on East 42nd Street.

The outcome: Little fuss here, but a major British scandal erupted after U.K. intelligence translator Katherine Gun leaked a U.S. National Security Agency memo requesting British help in the spying scheme, in early 2003. Initially charged under Britain's Official Secrets Act for leaking classified information, Gun was cleared in 2004 -- seemingly to avoid hearings questioning the legality of Britain's war participation.

16. The Boeing Boondoggle

The scandal: In 2003, the Air Force contracted with Boeing to lease a fleet of refueling tanker planes at an inflated price: $23 billion.

The problem: The deal was put together by a government procurement official, Darleen Druyun, who promptly joined Boeing. Beats using a headhunter.

The outcome: In November 2003, Boeing fired both Druyun and CFO Michael Sears. In April 2004, Druyun pled guilty to a conspiracy charge in the case. In November 2004, Sears copped to a conflict-of-interest charge, and company CEO Phil Condit resigned. The government is reviewing its need for the tankers.

17. The Medicare Bribe Scandal

The scandal: According to former Rep. Nick Smith (R-Mich.), on Nov. 21, 2003, with the vote on the administration's Medicare bill hanging in the balance, someone offered to contribute $100,000 to his son's forthcoming congressional campaign, if Smith would support the bill.

The problem: Federal law prohibits the bribery of elected officials.

The outcome: In September 2004, the House Ethics Committee concluded an inquiry by fingering House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), saying he deserved "public admonishment" for offering to endorse Smith's son in return for Smith's vote. DeLay has claimed Smith initiated talks about a quid pro quo. The matter of the $100,000 is unresolved; soon after his original allegations, Smith suddenly claimed he had not been offered any money. Smith's son Brad lost his GOP primary in August 2004.

18. Tom DeLay's PAC Problems

The scandal: One of DeLay's political action committees, Texans for a Republican Majority, apparently reaped illegal corporate contributions for the campaigns of Republicans running for the Texas Legislature in 2002. Given a Republican majority, the Legislature then re-drew Texas' U.S. congressional districts to help the GOP.

The problem: Texas law bans the use of corporate money for political purposes.

The outcome: Unresolved. Three DeLay aides and associates -- Jim Ellis, John Colyandro and Warren RoBold -- were charged in September 2004 with crimes including money laundering and unlawful acceptance of corporate contributions.

19. Tom DeLay's FAA: Following Americans Anywhere

The scandal: In May 2003, DeLay's office persuaded the Federal Aviation Administration to find the plane carrying a Texas Democratic legislator, who was leaving the state in an attempt to thwart the GOP's nearly unprecedented congressional redistricting plan.

The problem: According to the House Ethics Committee, the "invocation of federal executive branch resources in a partisan dispute before a state legislative body" is wrong.

The outcome: In October 2004, the committee rebuked DeLay for his actions.

20. In the Rough: Tom DeLay's Golf Fundraiser

The scandal: DeLay appeared at a golf fundraiser that Westar Energy held for one of his political action committees, Americans for a Republican Majority, while energy legislation was pending in the House.

The problem: It's one of these "appearance of impropriety" situations.

The outcome: The House Ethics Committee tossed the matter into its Oct. 6 rebuke. "Take a lap, Tom."

21. Busy, Busy, Busy in New Hampshire

The scandal: In 2002, with a tight Senate race in New Hampshire, Republican Party officials paid a Virginia-based firm, GOP Marketplace, to enact an Election Day scheme meant to depress Democratic turnout by "jamming" the Democratic Party phone bank with continuous calls for 90 minutes.

The problem: Federal law prohibits the use of telephones to "annoy or harass" anyone.

The outcome: Chuck McGee, the former executive director of the New Hampshire GOP, pleaded guilty in July 2004 to a felony charge, while Allen Raymond, former head of GOP Marketplace, pleaded guilty to a similar charge in June. In December, James Tobin, former New England campaign chairman of Bush-Cheney '04, was indicted for conspiracy in the case.

22. The Medicare Money Scandal

The scandal: Thomas Scully, Medicare's former administrator, supposedly threatened to fire chief Medicare actuary Richard Foster to prevent him from disclosing the true cost of the 2003 Medicare bill.

The problem: Congress voted on the bill believing it would cost $400 billion over 10 years. The program is more likely to cost $550 billion.

The outcome: Scully denies threatening to fire Foster, as Foster has charged, but admits telling Foster to withhold the higher estimate from Congress. In September 2004, the Government Accountability Office recommended Scully return half his salary from 2003. Inevitably, Scully is now a lobbyist for drug companies helped by the bill.

23. The Bogus Medicare "Video News Release"

The scandal: To promote its Medicare bill, the Bush administration produced imitation news-report videos touting the legislation. About 40 television stations aired the videos. More recently, similar videos promoting the administration's education policy have come to light.

The problem: The administration broke two laws: One forbidding the use of federal money for propaganda, and another forbidding the unauthorized use of federal funds.

The outcome: In May 2004, the GAO concluded the administration acted illegally, but the agency lacks enforcement power.

24. Pundits on the Payroll: The Armstrong Williams Case

The scandal: The Department of Education paid conservative commentator Armstrong Williams $240,000 to promote its educational law, No Child Left Behind.

The problem: Williams did not disclose that his support was government funded until the deal was exposed in January 2005.

The outcome: The House and FCC are considering inquiries, while Williams' syndicated newspaper column has been terminated.

25. Ground Zero's Unsafe Air

The scandal: Government officials publicly minimized the health risks stemming from the World Trade Center attack. In September 2001, for example, Environmental Protection Agency head Christine Todd Whitman said New York's "air is safe to breathe and [the] water is safe to drink."

The problem: Research showed serious dangers or was incomplete. The EPA used outdated techniques that failed to detect tiny asbestos particles. EPA data also showed high levels of lead and benzene, which causes cancer. A Sierra Club report claims the government ignored alarming data. A GAO report says no adequate study of 9/11's health effects has been organized.

The outcome: The long-term health effects of the disaster will likely not be apparent for years or decades and may never be definitively known. Already, hundreds of 9/11 rescue workers have quit their jobs because of acute illnesses.

26. John Ashcroft's Illegal Campaign Contributions

The scandal: Ashcroft's exploratory committee for his short-lived 2000 presidential bid transferred $110,000 to his unsuccessful 2000 reelection campaign for the Senate.

The problem: The maximum for such a transfer is $10,000.

The outcome: The Federal Election Commission fined Ashcroft's campaign treasurer, Garrett Lott, $37,000 for the transgression.

27. Intel Inside ... The White House

The scandal: In early 2001, chief White House political strategist Karl Rove held meetings with numerous companies while maintaining six-figure holdings of their stock -- including Intel, whose executives were seeking government approval of a merger. "Washington hadn't seen a clearer example of a conflict of interest in years," wrote Paul Glastris in the Washington Monthly.

The problem: The Code of Federal Regulations says government employees should not participate in matters in which they have a personal financial interest.

The outcome: Then White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, spurning precedent, did not refer the case to the Justice Department.

28. Duck! Antonin Scalia's Legal Conflicts

The scandal: Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia refused to recuse himself from the Cheney energy task force case, despite taking a duck-hunting trip with the vice president after the court agreed to weigh the matter.

The problem: Federal law requires a justice to "disqualify himself from any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned."

The outcome: Scalia stayed on, arguing no conflict existed because Cheney was party to the case in a professional, not personal, capacity. Nothing new for Scalia, who in 2002 was part of a Mississippi redistricting ruling favorable to GOP Rep. Chip Pickering -- son of Judge Charles Pickering, a Scalia turkey-hunting pal. In 2001, Scalia went pheasant hunting with Kansas Gov. Bill Graves when that state had cases pending before the Supreme Court.

29. AWOL

The scandal: George W. Bush, self-described "war president," did not fulfill his National Guard duty, and Bush and his aides have made misleading statements about it. Salon's Eric Boehlert wrote the best recent summary of the issue.

The problem: Military absenteeism is a punishable offense, although Bush received an honorable discharge.

The outcome: No longer a campaign issue. But what was Bush doing in 1972?

30. Iraq: The Case for War

The scandal: Bush and many officials in his administration made false statements about Iraq's military capabilities, in the months before the United States' March 2003 invasion of the country.

The problem: For one thing, it is a crime to lie to Congress, although Bush backers claim the president did not knowingly make false assertions.

The outcome: A war spun out of control with unknowable long-term consequences. The Iraq Survey Group has stopped looking for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

31. Niger Forgeries: Whodunit?

The scandal: In his January 2003 State of the Union address, Bush said, "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

The problem: The statement was untrue. By March 2003, the International Atomic Energy Agency showed the claim, that Iraq sought materials from Niger, was based on easily discernible forgeries.

The outcome: The identity of the forger(s) remains under wraps. Journalist Josh Marshall has implied the FBI is oddly uninterested in interviewing Rocco Martino, the former Italian intelligence agent who apparently first shopped the documents in intelligence and journalistic circles and would presumably be able to shed light on their origin.

32. In Plame Sight

The scandal: In July 2003, administration officials disclosed the identity of Valerie Plame, a CIA operative working on counterterrorism efforts, to multiple journalists, and columnist Robert Novak made Plame's identity public. Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, had just written a New York Times opinion piece stating he had investigated the Niger uranium-production allegations, at the CIA's behest, and reported them to be untrue, before Bush's 2003 State of the Union address.

The problem: Under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act it is illegal to disclose, knowingly, the name of an undercover agent.

The outcome: Unresolved. The Justice Department appointed special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to the case in December 2003. While this might seem a simple matter, Fitzgerald could be unable to prove the leakers knew Plame was a covert agent.

33. Abu Ghraib

The scandal: American soldiers physically tortured prisoners in Iraq and kept undocumented "ghost detainees" in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

The problem: The United States is party to the Geneva Conventions, which state that "No physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion, may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatever."

The outcome: Unresolved. A Pentagon internal inquiry found a lack of oversight at Abu Ghraib, while independent inquiries have linked the events to the administration's desire to use aggressive interrogation methods globally. Notoriously, Gonzales has advocated an approach which "renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions." More recently, Gonzales issued qualified support for the Geneva Conventions in January 2005 Senate testimony after being nominated for attorney general. Army reservist Charles Graner was convicted in January 2005 for abusing prisoners, while a few other soldiers await trial.

34. Guantánamo Bay Torture?

The scandal: The U.S. military is also alleged to have abused prisoners at the U.S. Navy's base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. FBI agents witnessing interrogations there have reported use of growling dogs to frighten prisoners and the chaining of prisoners in the fetal position while depriving them of food or water for extended periods.

The problem: More potential violations of the Geneva Conventions.

The outcome: An internal military investigation was launched in January 2005.


- - - - - - - - - - - -

There are many more state to state and republican business scandals, this is just the biggest. The OH Coingate scandal keeps me amused every day. I love to see the arrogant mothers cry. Watching Cunningham crying like a baby today I was thinking, if you can't do the time, baby, don't do the crime.

You have all these serious scandals, felonies and crimes and then this stupid, irrelevant story. Who cares? It's a non-issue that kept the media busy during the election. oooooh, let's talk about a questionable thing that happened 40 years ago with no proof left when there are fresh felonies to be pursued. This is the biggest distraction of the FAILED presidential run of that idiot, "John Kerry, REPORTING FOR DUTY."


And THAT was the problem with the campaign of 2004. There were all kinds of horrible things done by the administration and what do they choose to choke the airwaves with?

AWOL, AWOL, AWOL!


I could punch Moore right in his fat fucking face for ruining Wes Clark's run. And Clark showed little intelligence or strategy by letting himself be attached to that moron.


<what a bunch of idiots>




Who cares? I hate Bush and I didn't care.

1. Memogate: The Senate Computer Theft



2. Doctor Detroit: The DOJ's Bungled Terrorism Case


3. Dark Matter: The Energy Task Force



4. The Indian Gaming Scandal



5. Halliburton's No-Bid Bonanza



6. Halliburton: Pumping Up Prices


7. Halliburton's Vanishing Iraq Money


8. The Halliburton Bribe-apalooza


9. Halliburton: One Fine Company



10. Halliburton's Iran End Run



11. Money Order: Afghanistan's Missing $700 Million Turns Up in Iraq



12. Iraq: More Loose Change

13. The Pentagon-Israel Spy Case



14. Gone to Taiwan



15. Wiretapping the United Nations



16. The Boeing Boondoggle



17. The Medicare Bribe Scandal



18. Tom DeLay's PAC Problems



19. Tom DeLay's FAA: Following Americans Anywhere


20. In the Rough: Tom DeLay's Golf Fundraiser


21. Busy, Busy, Busy in New Hampshire



22. The Medicare Money Scandal


23. The Bogus Medicare "Video News Release"


24. Pundits on the Payroll: The Armstrong Williams Case

25. Ground Zero's Unsafe Air

26. John Ashcroft's Illegal Campaign Contributions

27. Intel Inside ... The White House

28. Duck! Antonin Scalia's Legal Conflicts

29. AWOL

The scandal: George W. Bush, self-described "war president," did not fulfill his National Guard duty, and Bush and his aides have made misleading statements about it. Salon's Eric Boehlert wrote the best recent summary of the issue.

The problem: Military absenteeism is a punishable offense, although Bush received an honorable discharge.

The outcome: No longer a campaign issue. But what was Bush doing in 1972?

30. Iraq: The Case for War

31. Niger Forgeries: Whodunit?

32. In Plame Sight

33. Abu Ghraib

34. Guantánamo Bay Torture?



AWOL!!!!

<god damned idots must have wanted Bush as president again. The fact that it's listed with Abu Ghraib is ridiculous>


AWOL!!!


AWOLLLLLL!!!AAAAAAAWWWWWOOOOOLLLLL!!!!!!!

what is wrong with this picture?

dat mean old liberal judge made him cry....