Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Senate Republican in history and patriarch of Alaska politics, was found guilty of felony charges for making false statements.
The verdict could spell the end of a 40-year Senate career for a man who rose to be one of the most dominant figures in the upper chamber and who helped transform Alaska in its 50 years of statehood. The verdict was reached after the jury deliberated since Wednesday and found the 84-year-old senator guilty of failing to report more than $250,000 in gifts from Bill Allen, the former head of Veco Corp., and other friends.
The jury did not seem to buy the explanation from Stevens that Allen showered him with gifts he didn’t want and was unaware of, and that he believed the $160,000 he gave to another contractor covered all costs for the home renovations.
I’ve lived in a very conservative and very politically-active neighborhood for quite a few years, and it’s been very gratifying to not see one McCain-Palin ‘08 campaign sign on anyone’s lawn; this is a far cry from four years ago, when every other fucking yard seemed to have a Bush-Cheney sign in it.
Unfortunately, the sign that seem to have replaced the usual GOP presidential candidate signs are those for Arizona’s Proposition 102, which would amend the state constitution to define marriage in the narrowest and most bigoted of terms. Ballotpedia has more on Arizona’s propositions coming up for a vote, if you’re interested; I’m voting “No” on every proposition except 201.
At least I know who the hardcore right-wing neighborhood scum are, thanks to 102. Rather disheartening to see that I’m surrounded by them, though.
A watchdog group filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission Wednesday alleging that the Republican Party broke federal campaign laws by buying Sarah Palin and her family about $150,000 in clothes for campaign appearances.
The complaint names as defendants Palin, the RNC, Larson and other operatives associated with the RNC.
The Federal Election Campaign Act specifically prohibits expenditures for such purposes…
“As we enter the home stretch, Senator Obama is winning voter groups that no Democrat has carried in more than four decades,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Polling Institute at Quinnipiac University. “If these numbers hold up, he could win the biggest Democratic landslide since Lyndon Johnson in 1964.”
– Jane Hamsher found a really sexist cartoon she liked. Too bad Bullwinkle wasn’t holding a sign that said, “That fucking Republican shot my cousin Leon.” Palin’s political affiliation is more important than her gender, and the cartoon would’ve made the leap from, “Palin is evil” to “Republicans are evil.” Which they are.
– Barack Obama went on record a while back and called the “surge” in Iraq a success. As Chris Floyd (citing work by Michael Schwartz) notes, if this is success, then it’s a pyrrhic victory.
First the Senate does a Constitutional end-run to take up the bailout of Bush’s golfing buddies despite having no real authority to do so by tacking the bailout to the “Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2008:”
The mental health bill has passed the House before and becomes the Senate vehicle upon which everything is loaded. By constitutional mandate all tax bills must originate in the House but by attaching it to a bill that has already passed the House, that rule is circumvented and the mental health bill is so old it’s original cosponsors were Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici. Gotta love the irony that this is all on the back of keeping American workers sane.
Then, not content with looting the taxpayers’ treasury to the tune of $700 billion and completely ignoring the public outcry against that figure on Monday, the Senate plutocrats upped the price tag of this theft to $810 billion with irresponsible tax breaks:
In a historic vote, the Senate approved a massive $700 billion rescue plan for the nation’s finance system Wednesday night, but only after tacking on another $110 billion in tax breaks to lure votes from both parties.
Yes, because at a time when our infrastructure is crumbling and unemployment is at a five-year high due to the Republican Party’s criminal behavior (aided and abetted by Congressional Democrats), what we need is even more of the same tax-cut and deficit-spend idiocy that contributed so much to this overblown mess in the first place.
I’d say that there are 74 senators who should be burned in effigy, but metaphorical burning is too good for them; they should have a taste of the real thing, perhaps in the form of a “T” for “Thief” branded on their foreheads.
[Limbaugh] said Democrats never intended to pass [the $700 billion bailout] and GOPers likely realized that as they saw Democratic ‘no’ votes piling up during the vote. “It was a set-up from the get-go,” analyzed [sic] Limbaugh.
Limbaugh is projecting; the set-up was created by the Republicans on behalf of serial adulterer Newt Gingrich. I’d say that Limbaugh’s latest bevy of bullshit charges are the product of whatever prescription drug he is (most-likely) currently abusing, but he’s really just your typical right-wing fuckhead.
Barack Obama, August 15, 2007: “Obama Says He Can Unite U.S. ‘More Effectively’ Than Clinton:”
“…I can bring the country together more effectively than she can,” Obama said… I don’t think there is anybody in this race who’s able to bring new people into the process and break out of some of the ideological gridlock that we have as effectively as I can,” he said.
Barack Obama, September 30, 2008: “Obama: ‘Put The Fire Out’ on Economic Crisis:”
“I don’t think me calling House Republican members would have been that helpful, I tend not to be that persuasive on that side of the aisle.”
If you think it highly unlikely that Palin — the GOP’s female answer to George W. Bush and Dan Qualye rolled into one — might become president if she’s elected Vice President, think again:
If John McCain is elected and goes on to win a second term, there’s as much as a one-in-four chance America could see its first female president — Sarah Palin.
It’s actuarial math.
The odds highly favor either McCain or Barack Obama completing a first term in good health. After that, McCain’s odds are still fairly solid, but his chances of dying go up faster than Obama’s, mainly because of his age…
Something to consider the next time (and there will be a next time, just not with Katie Couric) that Sarah Palin takes potshots at Joe Biden’s age (despite Biden being six years younger than John McCain).
Of course, the actuaries are assuming that McCain will die of old age, when most of us know that he will be assassinated by a fundamentalist Christian who wants to indirectly install Sarah Palin as the POTUS.
…It’s another Bush boondoggle. I’m especially happy that the Repugs actually whined that a speech by “Ms. Impeachment-is-Off-the-Table” was their motivation for scuttling the unnecessary bailout and Barney Frank’s response to their petulance.
The GOP’s mishandling of the publicity surrounding their killing of the deal makes them look like a bunch of petty idiots for failing to get 12 extra votes to bail-out Bush’s golfing buddies simply because Nancy was mean to them, and America’s corporate sociopaths didn’t get their corporate welfare. It’s a twofer!
Here’s the transcript of the speech, and below is the speech itself:
House Republican Leader John Boehner, of West Chester in Butler County, has emerged as the main deal breaker in talks surrounding the proposed $700 billion bailout of the financial markets.
Boehner was one of 14 congressional and administration officials to take part in a meeting at the White House on Thursday, after which the deal that some lawmakers had said going into the closed-door session was nearly done fell apart.
Both Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., in remarks made after the meeting, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in comments made Friday morning, referred to “House Republicans” as the culprit for breaking up the deal.
As the leader of the House Republicans, they are talking about Boehner.
What a difference a day made, huh? And what a miserable situation that we actually have to hope that House Republicans will buck Boehner and do the right thing by derailing this legislative freight train, because the Democratic majority in Congress has made it clear that it will not behave in a fiscally-responsible manner. Talk about role reversals.
At the insistence of House Republicans, some of the program’s $700 billion would be devoted to a program that would encourage holders of distressed mortgage-backed securities to keep them and buy government insurance to cover defaults…
Meaning that the institutions will now have an incentive to hold the securities until that paper is absolutely worthless, thus enabling them to cash-in on their government insurance policies for a minimum guaranteed pay-out no doubt higher than what the market would offer. In other words, this bailout is going to cost much more than the current numbers being thrown at us, and will be a pain in the ass economically for several years, constantly draining the Treasury of funds for infrastructure and other expenditures that are more important.
The proposed legislation also calls for the financial sector to help make up the difference if the government does not recoup its investment in five years, ["a senior administration official who was authorized to speak only on background"] said, but details were unclear.
That’s funny; when someone speaks on background it’s usually because they’re not allowed to speak at all on the subject they’re gabbing about. I won’t be surprised if many of these statements turn out to be trial balloons from the Bush Junta, sent in an effort to manipulate the final form of the legislation and therefore the vote on Monday.
To help struggling homeowners, the plan would require the government to try renegotiating the bad mortgages it acquires with the aim of lowering borrowers’ monthly payments so they can keep their homes… Democrats insisted on greater congressional oversight, more taxpayer protections, help for homeowners facing possible foreclosure, and restrictions on executives’ compensation.
To some degree, all those items were added.
Which begs the question, “To what degree?” Two-percent? Ten-percent? How much did the Democratic Party’s proposals get watered down?
At the insistence of House Republicans, who threatened to sidetrack negotiations at midweek, the insurance provision was added as an alternative to having the government buy distressed securities…
But the Treasury Department has said the insurance provision would not pump enough money into the financial sector to make credit sufficiently available.
And since that’s the case, there is no point in the insurance provision, is there?
Despite the changes made during an intense week of negotiations, the heart of the program remains Bush’s original idea: To have the government spend billions of dollars to buy mortgage-backed securities whose value has plummeted…
“We’re very pleased with the progress made tonight,” said White House spokesman Tony Fratto…
The Bush Junta’s White House is “very pleased.” If that doesn’t have your mental alarm bells ringing, how about this next part?
It was not immediately clear how many House Republicans might vote for the measure. With the election five weeks away, Democrats have said they would not push a plan that appeared sharply partisan in nature.
And THAT is the bloody problem, isn’t it? The plan SHOULD be partisan, and the partisan angle should be steeply leftward. Instead, the Democratic Party has embraced Obama’s idiotic centrist stance — and the only way to stay in the center is to STAY. IN. THE. CENTER.
Can’t make much leftward progress if you refuse to move left, can you?
Per CNN(link pending), details are expected to be released tomorrow afternoon. Once again, the Democratic Party ignores the will of the vast majority of the American people in order to bend over backwards for the wildly unpopular Bush Junta and its political party.
Update, 09/28/08, 12:35 AM:
We now have some of the details. What a fucking travesty:
· The money would be dispersed in segments, with Paulson receiving $250 billion immediately, $100 billion upon White House certification of its necessity and the final $350 billion only after Congress has been given 15 days to object.
· Firms participating in the bailout would be required to grant the government warrants to obtain nonvoting shares of stock, so taxpayers can benefit if the companies return to profitability.
· Firms taking advantage of the bailout would be required to limit compensation for senior executives, with especially severe limits on “golden parachutes” at failing firms. The compensation limits will be enacted primarily, but not solely, through the tax code by reducing tax deductions for firms that pay executives more than $400,000 a year.
The administration also agreed to Democratic demands that the financial services industry should help pay for the program. Under the agreement, the president would be required to propose a fee on the industry if the government has not recovered its money through sales of the assets within five years.
Democrats also made a number of concessions, abandoning demands that bankruptcy judges be empowered to modify home mortgages on primary residences for people in foreclosure. They also agreed not to dedicate a portion of any profits from the bailout program to an affordable housing fund that Republicans claimed would primarily assist social service organizations that support the Democratic Party, the official said.
“$250 billion immediately.” Kiss universal health care good-bye. Among many other things. Thanks Pelosi, Hoyer, Reid, you pathetic corporate whores. And a special thanks to Obama:
Barack Obama has been oddly detached. He set out a list of principles for an acceptable bailout. And he said he was in regular phone contact with congressional leaders and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. But he’s been MIA from the Hill, at first saying he might not even return to vote on a plan if it appeared that passage was assured and there was little to do but pop champagne corks. On a matter so critically important to the economic health of our country, and involving so much taxpayer money, that doesn’t fly. He was clearly reluctant to go to the White House for the crisis summit. In a situation that so desperately called for strong leadership, he didn’t display it.
Obama’s style is dispassionate - too much so. Confronting the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, the public wants a little fervor from its leaders. Taxpayers are certainly passionate about the prospect of Washington using billions of their dollars to cover the losses of what they see as rapacious fat-cats.
For all of those Democrats who have attempted to win me back (and by “win me back” I mean berate and insult me for supporting Cynthia McKinney and the Green Party instead of your Lord and Savior Barack Obama and the Democratic Party), a few thoughts: Your candidate can’t even speak your own party’s name in a major televised debate or mention it in his fund raising letters, and he’s run from the party so often that he ran into traps set by McCain last night, so why the fuck should I go back to you folks when the leader of your own party doesn’t want to be publicly associated with you?
Sure, he likes to flirt with you in private and he’d certainly like to fuck you, but after he fucks you he’s not going to cuddle, he’s not going to stay the night, and he’s not going to call you in the morning.
Erik Daniels was convicted for a crime he didn’t commit and sentenced to an adult prison at the age of fifteen; it took seven years for him to be freed from the so-called criminal justice system, yet this is the same imperfect system that right-wing assholes would give the power of life and death to.
