5 million

Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling get to roam free until their sentencing on September 11th:

He (U.S. District Judge Sim Lake) set sentencing for Sept. 11.

Lake set a $5 million bond for Lay and ordered him to surrender his passport before he leaves the courthouse. The judge said the bond already in place for Skilling was sufficient. The judge said he did not believe home confinement was necessary for either.

The former corporate titans are now felons facing years in prison after being convicted of running an elaborate fraud that gave the company a glamorous illusion of success.

Jurors declared through their verdict that both men repeatedly lied to cover a vast web of unsustainable accounting tricks and failing ventures that shoved Enron into bankruptcy protection in December 2001.

Yup 3 1/2 months to live it up. Now that is really justice. How about the thousands that didn't get a free pass while their bank accounts got drained?

Earlier this week we heard that the Republicans were having problems finding their platform for this year's election. Now something else they have been quick to point out about Democrats is that they fall short on fund raising when compared to the GOP. Well looks like that other tactic has now changed:

The Republican committee that handles Senate campaigns picked up the pace in fundraising in February but still trails its rival Democratic committee by almost a 2-to-1 margin.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee raised $5.5 million in February, while the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee raised $3.8 million.

Democrats still hold a big advantage on money in the bank with $27.4 million, while Republicans have $14.5 million.

"We had a huge January and February. Where we're seeing progress is new money through small donors in the direct mail program," said Brian Nick, an NRSC spokesman.

There you have it. The Democrats are actually leading the Republicans 2-1 in Senate fund raising. If you consider everything the Republicans are not falling short on, the Democrats are looking real good this fall.

There is one last obstacle though, and this is one that all of us can help out on. That is getting people out to vote. It might seem like something that is not worth the effort, but this is going to be a close election year and every vote will be needed.

Newsweek
has an interesting article that brings up the fact Karl Rove took out a $100,000
line of credit right after his last appearance before the grand jury. It also
talks about the $5 million trust set up for the Libby defense. On the board of
this trust is some major Republican fund raisers but none is more interesting
than Melvin Sembler.

If you are not familiar with Sembler, he was our ambassador to Italy. What
makes it more interesting is the fact he was our Italian ambassador at the time
of the forged uranium documents that alleged Saddam was trying to obtain yellow
cake from Niger. In other words, the documents that caused this entire mess.

The article also talks about Rove's involvement in at least one White House
meeting that resulted in Patton Boggs gaining a large client. Robert Luskin,
Rove's attorney in the leak case, is a partner of Patton Boggs. The White House
wouldn't comment on any possible ethics violations of Rove's attorney getting
these contracts but it does seem a little fishy.