November 2005

More Dirt On Abramoff

A front page article in today's
New York
Times shows that Jack Abramoff's dirty hands reached around the world.
According to the article, in 2003 Abramoff lobbied President Omar Bongo of
Gabon, a small African Nation, for $9 million in order to set up a meeting with
President Bush. Ten months later that meeting happened.

The contract that was drawn up for this deal shows the money going to a small
Maryland lobbying company, Grassroots Interactive, which Abramoff controlled.
This small company is also under investigation.

There is nothing in the public record to show that Abramoff had influence on
Bongo's meeting with George Bush, and the White House and State Department deny
that they do. True we know how easy it is for the White House to deny any wrong
doing.

Abramoff is under indictment in Florida for fraud, under two separate Senate
investigations, and one investigation by the Department of Justice. The
investigations so far have lead to the arrest of the former White House
procurement officer, David Safavian. There are other top figures involved in the
Abramoff scandal. Bob Ney, a Republican Congressman from Ohio, has been
subpoenaed for his dealings with Abramoff. Last Month, Timothy Flanigan, who was
nominated by bush to be the second in command at the Department of Justice,
withdrew his name from the nomination because of his dealings with Abramoff. Of
course there is still Tom Delay who had very close workings with Abramoff.

The Katrina Showdown - White House -v- Congress

Now that Brownie is totally out of FEMA, it appears that the investigation
into the Katrina Response might be heating up. Rep. Tom Davis who is chairing
the panel has threatened to issue subpoenas if the White House and other
agencies do not supply documents to the committee by Nov. 18.

The original request for the documents came in late September and had an
initial due date of Oct. 4. So far the only documents handed over have been
related to the budget and a few of Michael Brown's emails.

The emails are the most curious of what has been turned over. They have made
their way into the press and do not paint a pretty picture for the management
style Brown was exhibiting during the disaster. His lawyer said a couple weeks
ago that only a few bad emails have come out and the good ones have not been
released yet. So is there really good ones? With all the bad press surrounding
the White House right now, you would think they would be quick to get some good
news out there. Since they are delaying and forcing possible legal action now,
it appears that the remaining documents are going to really incriminate people
involved in Katrina.

Did Israel Know Abour The Jordan Bombings?

Here is an interesting story from the Israeli newspaper
Haaretz

Israelis evacuated from Amman hotel
hours before bombings

By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent

A number of Israelis staying on Wednesday at the Radisson hotel were
evacuated before the bombing by Jordanian security forces, apparently due to
a specific security alert. They were escorted back to Israel by security
personnel.

The Foreign Ministry stated Wednesday that no Israeli tourists are known
to have been injured in the blasts. Representatives of Israel's embassy in
Amman were in contact with local authorities to examine any report of
injured Israelis, but none were received. There are often a number of
Israeli businessman and tourists in Amman, including in the hotels hit
Wednesday.

Israel's counter-terror headquarters on Wednesday recommended Israeli
citizens not travel in Jordan. Travel warnings regarding Jordan were
tightened a few months ago, but many Israelis still visit the country. Many
also visit other regions such as the Jordanian Arava and the ancient city of
Petra.

Our intelligence community can certainly learn a thing or two from Israel if
this story is in fact true. Not shocking though is the fact that their
intelligence agency seems to worry only about their citizens and not trying to
help Jordan prevent this deadly tragedy.

ANWR On Hold

In some good news, well at least for the time being, the House has done away
with the ANWR drilling tonight.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican leaders in the U.S. House of
Representatives abandoned, at least temporarily, a drive to open Alaska's
National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling after concluding on Wednesday the
initiative was threatening passage of a huge bill to cut spending.

"ANWR and OCS will be out" of the legislation, said House Budget
Committee Chairman Jim Nussle, an Iowa Republican.

Besides the Alaska oil drilling initiative, the House spending-reduction
bill had also called for opening outer-continental shelf, or offshore areas,
to oil and gas drilling.

The proposals had drawn opposition from Democrats and two dozen or so
Republicans in the House.

The Senate approved the controversial ANWR proposal last week when it
passed $35 billion in spending cuts over five years. That measure estimates
the U.S. government would raise about $2.4 billion in leasing fees if
industry was allowed to develop the refuge's 10.4 billion barrels of crude.

Environmentalists have opposed expanding oil drilling to the sensitive
area in Alaska and some Florida congressmen have worked to kill the offshore
oil and gas drilling plan. Both projects have been a high priority of U.S.
oil companies.

Article continues
here

I can't help but think there's some other motive for this. It very well could
be an attempt to try and recover a little bit in popularity but with these
corrupt GOP leaders you never know.

Bush Still Sinking In The Polls

MSNBC has just released
the details of the latest NBC/WSJ poll and it still isn't good for Georgie Boy.

Approval rating - 38%
Economy approval - 34%
Foreign policy approval -35%
Terrorism approval - 39%
Iraq approval - 32%

57% now believe the President deliberately misled the people into war while
only 35% believe he gave accurate information.

The headline of the article that
details this poll says it best; "Bush,
GOP mired in political quicksand". Bush is sinking fast and
after the bad results at the polls for Republicans you can be
certain they will start jumping ship quicker.

More White House Dirty Tricks

Here's a new exciting low to the ethical level the White House will go. It
appears as though they are now changing the transcripts of the press
conferences. This view
Think
Progress:

There is a brewing controversy about what exactly was said at the White
House press conference on October 31. Everyone agrees NBC?s David Gregory
said this:

Q Whether there?s a question of legality, we know for a fact that there
was involvement. We know that Karl Rove, based on what he and his lawyer
have said, did have a conversation about somebody who Patrick Fitzgerald
said was a covert officer of the Central Intelligence Agency. We know that
Scooter Libby also had conversations.

Congressional Quarterly and FNS both transcribed Press Secretary Scott
McClellan?s answer as ?That?s accurate.? The White House transcript lists
McClellan?s answer as ?I don?t think that?s accurate.?

View full article
here.

This really comes as no surprise. If this story gains momentum then it will
be the perfect excuse for the White House to replace Scott McClellan with
someone else. As matter of fact, that could be the very reason for this
alteration.

Ohio RON Results

It was a sad defeat for Reform Ohio Now yesterday. The following are the
results on the four issues that would of changed the way Ohio votes.

	Yes	No
Issue 2	36.53%	63.47%
Issue 3	33.04%	66.96%
Issue 4	30.22%	69.78%
Issue 5	29.83%	70.17%

These results are really sad. I expected at least one issue to pass but they
all failed miserably. What really is disturbing is that they failed by a larger
margin in my home county where the houses were covered with Yes on issues 2,3,4
and 5 signs. True, after all that has come out about Diebold machines this year
and the fact this was our first election on the new electronic machines, I
wouldn't be shocked if someone messed with the results some.

As one reader stated

Well it seems that all four were defeated. And to add insult to injury,
most people I know were totally confused about the whole thing. The ones
that I talked to (unfortunately after they voted) believed that voting NO
was taking the power away from the GOP and giving it back to the
people...indeed a sad day in Ohio.

These issues were somewhat confusing unless you took the time to read each
amendment in its entirety. That is something most people don't do and the
creative manipulation of language on television ad's will easily mislead voters.

On the lighter side of things, all of Arnold's high-dollar initiatives that
made him call the special election in California were defeated. It sounds more
and more like the people of California want the Terminator terminated.

Things Looking Good For Democrats So Far

In the first of what is hopefully many good signs to come tonight, Tim Kaine
defeated Republican Jerry Kilgore for the top job in the state of Virginia.

This was one heavily watched race by analysts as they feel it will set the
stage for next years mid-term elections. Kaine got his victory with 51.2% of the
votes. Kilgore came in second with 46.5%. That is with 82% of the precincts
reporting so the margin will most likely still fluctuate.

The other highly watched race is in New Jersey where Democrat Corzine got
52.9% of the votes and Republican Forrester had 44.1% of the vote for the job of
governor.

Our country is starting to look a little more blue which is excellent news
and should send a positive message to the congressmen who are up for re-election
next year.

GOP Bar Brawl Update

Just to give an update to a story I reported on here

last week about some big wigs in the local Republican party getting into a
bar fight, it now appears charges maybe likely:

Via the

Hamilton Journal:

GOP members may face charges following
bar fight

LIBERTY TOWNSHIP ? A late-night bar fight last month could lead to
charges against three Butler County Republican Party members, according to
the Butler County Sheriff?s Office.

Central Committee Chairman Quentin Nichols of West Chester Township,
Executive Committee member Sean Maloney of Liberty Township, and Central
Committee member Timothy Dearwester of Liberty Township allegedly assaulted
a bartender at Putter?s Tavern & Grill at 6575 Cincinnati-Dayton Road about
12:15 a.m. Oct. 26, according to a complaint a bartender filed with the
sheriff?s office.

An officer is scheduled to meet with the complainant today to sign
warrants and charges are likely Wednesday, Detective Kenneth Hardin said.
Felonious assault and vandalism are the offenses listed on the police
report.

The bartender told police when he approached the trio about a damaged
advertising sign in the men?s room, it led to an altercation after one of
the men made sexual remarks about the female owner of the bar, according the
report.

After he told the men to leave, ?All three males got on top of him,
punching and hitting him with a chair,? an officer said the bartender told
him.

Poll: Libby Indictment Hits Major Nerve - Yahoo! News

By WILL LESTER, Associated Press Writer

The recent indictment of Vice President Cheney's top aide has struck a nerve with the American public. Four in five, 79 percent, said the indictment of former Cheney aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby on perjury and other charges is important to the nation, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. Pew noted that in September 1998, 65 percent said President Clinton's lies under oath were important. Clinton was impeached over his handling of an affair with Monica Lewinsky, but was acquitted by the Senate on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.

Libby was charged with lying to investigators and a grand jury during an investigation of his role in revealing the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame, wife of an outspoken critic of the war against Iraq.

Most Americans, six in 10, say they do not think the news about Libby's indictment has gotten too much coverage.

The concerns about Libby's case come at a time that a growing number of people, 43 percent, now say U.S. and British leaders were mostly lying when they claimed before the Iraq war that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, while an equal number said they were misinformed by bad intelligence.

That's up from 31 percent who felt in February 2004 that the leaders were lying, while 49 percent said they got bad intelligence.

Two-thirds of Democrats say U.S. and British political leaders were lying about weapons of mass destruction and half of independents feel that way. Only one in 10 Republicans said that was the case.

The telephone poll of 1,201 adults was taken Nov. 3-6 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

___

More Dirt On Abramoff

The Katrina Showdown - White House -v- Congress

Did Israel Know Abour The Jordan Bombings?

ANWR On Hold

Bush Still Sinking In The Polls

More White House Dirty Tricks

Ohio RON Results

Things Looking Good For Democrats So Far

GOP Bar Brawl Update

Poll: Libby Indictment Hits Major Nerve - Yahoo! News

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