A Gentleman’s view.

Posted on Alexander Higgins Blog: Excerpt.

Video:

Gulf Oil spill coverup!

Well, Corexit is one of a number of dispersants, that are toxic, that are used to atomize the oil and force it down the water column so that it’s invisible to the eye.

In this case, these dispersants were used in massive quantities, almost two million gallons so far, to hide the magnitude of the spill and save BP money.

And the government—both EPA, NOAA, etc.—have been sock puppets for BP in this cover-up.

Now, by hiding the amount of spill, BP is saving hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars in fines, and so, from day one, there was tremendous economic incentive to use these dispersants to hide the magnitude of the gusher that’s been going on for almost three months.

Congressman Markey and Nadler, as well as Senator Mikulski, have been heroes in this respect.

Congressman Markey made the BP and government put a camera down there to show the public the gusher.

And when they did that, experts saw that the amount of material, oil being released, is orders of magnitudes greater than what BP and NOAA and EPA were saying. And the cover-up started to evaporate.

…

… People who work near [Corexit] are hemorrhaging internally [but the] EPA now is taking the position that they really don’t know how dangerous it is, even though if you read the label, it tells you how dangerous it is.

…  for example, in the Exxon Valdez case, people who worked with dispersants, most of them are dead now.

The average death age is around fifty.

It’s very dangerous, and it’s an economic—it’s an economic protector of BP, not an environmental protector of the public.

…

We know there is a cover up.

Dispersants are being used.

[In] Congress, at least three Congress folks—Congressman Markey, Congressman Nadler and Senator Mikulski—are on the case.

And I think the media now has to follow the money, just as they did in Watergate, and tell the American people who’s getting money for poisoning the millions of people in the Gulf.

The sole purpose in the Gulf for dispersants is to keep a cover-up going for BP to try to hide the volume of oil that has been released and save them hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars of fines.

That’s the purpose of using the dispersants, not to protect the public health or environment.

…

I did the ombudsman investigation on Ground Zero, where EPA made false statements about the safety of the air, which has since, of course, been proven to be false.

Consequently, you have the heroes, the workers here, a large percentage of them are sick right now, not even ten years later, and most of them will die early because of respiratory problems, cancer, etc., because of EPA’s false statements.

…

And you’ve got the same thing going on in the Gulf, EPA administrators saying the same thing, that the air is safe and the water is safe.

And the [EPA] administrator misled Senator Mikulski on that issue in the hearings you talked about.

And basically, the problem is dispersants mixed with oil and air pollution.

[The] EPA, like in 9/11—I did that investigation nine years ago—was not doing adequate and proper testing.

The Rise of Right Wing Hate!

As posted on FACBOOK by Betsy Burdette.

The Teabagger Pledge

I, ________________________, do solemnly swear to uphold the principles of a socialism-free society and heretofore pledge my word that I shall strictly adhere to the following:

I will complain about the destruction of 1st Amendment Rights in this country, while I am duly being allowed to exercise my 1st Amendment Rights.

I will complain about the destruction of my 2nd Amendment Rights in this country, while I am duly being allowed to exercise my 2nd Amendment rights by legally but brazenly brandishing unconcealed firearms in public.

I will foreswear the time-honored principles of fairness, decency, and respect by screaming unintelligible platitudes regarding tyranny, Nazi-ism, and socialism at public town halls.

Also, I pledge to eliminate all government intervention in my life. I will abstain from the use of and participation in any socialist goods and services including but not limited to the following:
• Social Security
• Medicare/Medicaid
• State Children’s Health Insurance Programs (SCHIP)
• Police, Fire, and Emergency Services
• US Postal Service
• Roads and Highways
• Air Travel (regulated by the socialist FAA)
• The US Railway System
• Public Subways and Metro Systems
• Public Bus and Light Rail Systems
• Rest Areas on Highways
• Sidewalks
• All Government-Funded Local/State Projects (e.g., see Iowa 2009 federal senate appropriations)
• Public Water and Sewer Services (goodbye socialist toilet, shower, dishwasher, kitchen sink, garden sprinkler)
• Public and State Universities and Colleges
• Public Primary and Secondary Schools
• Sesame Street
• Publicly Funded Anti-Drug Use Education for Children
• Public Museums
• Libraries
• Public Parks and Beaches
• State and National Parks
• Public Zoos
• Unemployment Insurance
• Municipal Garbage and Recycling Services
• Treatment at Any Hospital or Clinic That Ever Received Funding From Local, State or Federal Government (pretty much all of them)
• Medical Services and Medications That Were Created or Derived From Any Government Grant or Research Funding (again, pretty much all of them)
• Socialist Byproducts of Government Investment Such as Duct Tape and Velcro (Nazi-NASA Inventions)
• Use of the Internet, email, and networked computers, as the DoD’s ARPANET was the basis for subsequent computer networking
• Foodstuffs, Meats, Produce and Crops That Were Grown With, Fed With, Raised With or That Contain Inputs From Crops Grown With Government Subsidies
• Clothing Made from Crops (e.g. cotton) That Were Grown With or That Contain Inputs From Government Subsidies
• If a veteran of the government-run socialist US military, I will forego my VA benefits and insist on paying for my own medical care
• I will not tour socialist government buildings like the Capitol in Washington, D.C.
• I pledge to never take myself, my family, or my children on a tour of the following types of socialist locations, including but not limited to:
* Smithsonian Museums, eg. the Air and Space Museum or Museum of American History
* The socialist Washington, Lincoln, and Jefferson Monuments
* The government-operated Statue of Liberty
* The Grand Canyon
* The socialist World War II and Vietnam Veterans Memorials
* The government-run socialist-propaganda location known as Arlington National Cemetery
* All other public-funded socialist sites, whether it be in my state or in DC
• I will urge my Member of Congress and Senators to forego their government salary and government-provided healthcare.
• I will oppose and condemn the government-funded and therefore socialist military of the United States of America.
• I will boycott the products of socialist defense contractors such as GE, Lockheed-Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Raytheon, Humana, FedEx, General Motors, Honeywell, and hundreds of others that are paid by our socialist government to produce goods for our socialist army.
• I will protest socialist security departments such as the Pentagon, FBI, CIA, Department of Homeland Security, TSA, Department of Justice and their socialist employees.
• Upon reaching eligible retirement age, I will tear up my socialist Social Security checks.
• Upon reaching age 65, I will forego Medicare and pay for my own private health insurance until I die.

SWORN ON A BIBLE AND SIGNED THIS _____ DAY OF __________ IN THE YEAR _______.

X__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

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CREW’s Crooked Candidates 2010 from AlterNet

Roy Blunt — Running for U.S. Senate, Missouri
Running for U.S. Senate, Missouri

Roy Blunt is a candidate in the Republican primary for the United States Senate in Missouri. For the last 14 years, Rep. Blunt has served in the U.S. House of Representatives in the state’s 7th congressional district. As a member of Congress, Rep. Blunt came under fire for a variety of issues including employing the same corrupt tactics that forced his mentor, former Texas Rep. Tom DeLay, to resign. Rep. Blunt’s ethical issues were documented in CREW’s 2006 report on the most corrupt members of Congress.

In 2003, Rep. Blunt divorced his wife of 31 years to marry Philip Morris (now Altria) lobbyist Abigail Perlman. Before it was known publicly that Rep. Blunt and Ms. Perlman were dating – and only hours after Rep. Blunt assumed the role of Majority Whip – he tried to secretly insert a provision into Homeland Security legislation that would have benefitted Philip Morris, at the expense of competitors. Notably, Philip Morris/Altria and its subsidiaries contributed at least $217,000 to campaign committees connected to Rep. Blunt from 1996 to 2006.

Also in 2003, Rep. Blunt helped his son, Andrew Blunt, by inserting a provision into the $79 billion emergency appropriation for the war in Iraq to benefit U.S. shippers like United Parcel Service, Inc. and FedEx Corp. Andrew Blunt lobbied on behalf of UPS in Missouri, and UPS and FedEx contributed at least $58,000 to Rep. Blunt from 2001 to 2006.

Family connections have also helped another of Rep. Blunt’s sons, former Missouri Governor Matt Blunt. Gov. Blunt received campaign contributions from nearly three dozen influential Missouri lobbyists and lawyers when he ran for governor of Missouri in 2004, half of whom had provided financial support to his father. Earlier in 2000, when Matt Blunt was running for Secretary of State, Rep. Blunt was involved in an apparent scheme, along with Rep. DeLay, to funnel money through a local party committee into Matt Blunt’s campaign committee.

Rep. Blunt and his staff had close connections to convicted former lobbyist Jack Abramoff. In June 2003, Mr. Abramoff persuaded then-Majority Leader DeLay to organize a letter, co-signed by then-Speaker Dennis Hastert, then-Whip Blunt, and then-Deputy Whip Eric Cantor, which endorsed a view of gambling law benefitting Mr. Abramoff’s client, the Louisiana Coushatta, by blocking gambling competition by another tribe. Mr. Abramoff had donated $8,500 to Rep. Blunt’s leadership PAC, Rely on Your Beliefs.

Charlie Crist — Running for U.S. Senate, Florida

Governor Charlie Crist is an Independent candidate running for United States Senate from Florida. Charlie Crist is currently the governor of Florida, but has held several public offices over the last 18 years.

Gov. Crist handpicked Jim Greer to head the Florida Republican Party. Despite multiple calls for Mr. Greer’s resignation by fellow Republicans, due to extravagant spending at the party’s expense, Gov. Crist defended Mr. Greer. Mr. Greer is now facing six counts of grand theft, fraud and money laundering. He is accused of secretly setting up a shell company, Victory Strategies, and signing a deal that would give Victory Strategies 10% of GOP donations – a deal that Gov. Crist allegedly approved.

Prior to serving as governor, Gov. Crist was the state’s attorney general. As attorney general, Gov. Crist was criticized for failing to investigate those with whom he had political or financial ties. First, he failed to investigate state contractor GDX for leaking the personal information of 100,000 state employees. GDX had been subcontracted by computer company Convergys to index electronic personnel records but when GDX outsourced the job overseas, the personal information of up to 100,000 state employees may have been exposed. Convergys had close ties to then-Attorney General Crist. The company had hired his advisor as a lobbyist and was a donor to the Republican Party. Attorney General Crist dropped the investigation.

As attorney general, Gov. Crist also failed to fully investigate boy-band mogul Lou Pearlman. Mr. Pearlman, who ran a $300 million investment scam, was eventually indicted by federal authorities and pled guilty of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering charges. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison. A lawsuit brought by investors claimed Gov. Crist and Florida regulators knew about the scheme but turned a blind eye for four years. The suit alleges Mr. Pearlman got a pass from the then-attorney general because he had donated at least $12,000 to Gov. Crist’s campaign.

Jeff Denham — Running for U.S. House, California
Jeff Denham is the Republican candidate for California’s 19th congressional district. He has served as a California State Senator since 2003.

Sen. Denham has been accused of supporting the interests of Chukchansi Indian’s casino in exchange for the tribe’s political support. Sen. Dunham used his influence to oppose construction of a $250 million casino proposed by the North Folk Rancheria of Mono Indians, which would likely compete with the existing Chukchansi casino.

The Chukchansi Indian tribe has been tied to campaign ads and a charity event supporting Sen. Denham. First, the interest group, Californians for Fiscally Conservative Leadership, set up by the Chukchansi Indian tribe, aired radio ads attacking Sen. Denham’s opponent just before the congressional primary election.

Additionally, Sen. Denham donated $25,000 and loaned $150,000 from his state senate campaign account to the nonprofit Remembering the Brave. The nonprofit was working in coordination with the Chukchansi Indian Tribe to host a charity concert. Remembering the Brave sponsored radio and television advertisements, prominently featuring Sen. Denham, to promote the concert. Experts agreed that the exposure the ads afforded Sen. Denham likely benefited his run for Congress. By donating and loaning the money from his state campaign account Sen. Denham may have violated rules forbidding the use of state campaign money on a federal race.

Furthermore, the Chukchansi Indian Tribe stated in a marketing memo that the charity concert would “raise funds for Jeff Denham and Joe Alberta campaigns.” The tribe later called the memo a misprint.

Lastly, Sen. Denham may have violated federal election law in late March when he traveled on a plane owned by Harris Farms, a California agribusiness. Since 2007 it has been illegal for congressional candidates to fly on corporate planes. Sen. Denham boarded the plane with Karl Rove and Andy Vidak, a Republican candidate from the neighboring 20th district, and flew from Fresno to East Bay and then to Harris Ranch. Local charter operators estimated the cost of the flight to have been at least $750, but Sen. Denham, in his campaign finance disclosures, reported only $150 to Harris Farms for travel expenses.

Alvin Greene — Running for U.S. Senate, South Carolina
Alvin Greene is the Democratic nominee for United States Senate from South Carolina.

There are major questions about the legitimacy of Mr. Greene’s campaign.  When Mr. Greene won the primary he had engaged in no fundraising, had no website and had no organized campaign.  Mr. Greene was discharged from the Army in August 2009, is currently unemployed and lives with his father. In addition, when Mr. Greene was charged with obscenity in November 2009 for showing pornography to a University of South Carolina student, he was assigned a public defender, a service normally provided only to indigent defendants.

Given Mr. Greene’s apparent lack of funds, CREW and others raised questions about whether someone had paid the $10,440 fee to file as a candidate with his own money.  The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) investigated Mr. Greene’s finances and found he had used his own savings from the Army to pay the registration fees.  SLED also found Mr. Greene had no intent to deceive the court when he applied for a public defender to defend him against the obscenity charges though he is now being represented by a private lawyer.

Several politicians have criticized Mr. Green including House Majority Whip James Clyburn who claimed Mr. Greene is “someone’s plant” from an outside party and called for an investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s office.

CREW also filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging Mr. Greene violated the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) and FEC regulations by failing to file mandatory disclosure reports prior to the election. CREW’s complaint to the FEC alleges Mr. Greene failed to file a Statement of Candidacy and that his campaign committee, Alvin M. Greene for Senate, failed to file a Statement of Organization as well as the April 15th and 12-Day Pre-Primary reports. These reports would have disclosed the campaign’s contributions and expenditures leading up to the June 8, 2010 primary.  CREW asked the FEC to refer any knowing and willful violations to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution.

Offering an unusual job creation proposal, Mr. Greene suggested someone “make toys of me, especially for the holidays. Little dolls. Me. Like maybe little action dolls. Me in an army uniform, air force uniform, and me in my suit. They can make toys of me and my vehicle, especially for the holidays and Christmas for the kids.  So you see I think out of the box like that. It’s not something a typical person would bring up. That’s something that could happen, that makes sense. It’s not a joke.”   Later, Mr. Greene elaborated, “I am a true American hero and if any of the toy companies want to put something like that forward that would be good.” He said he has not received any inquiries, but that it would be “Just a good positive thing for the kids.”

Timothy Griffin — Running for U.S. House, Arkansas
Timothy Griffin is the Republican nominee for Arkansas’s second congressional district.

Mr. Griffin was a former aide to and protégé of notorious political operative Karl Rove. In the 2004 presidential election, Mr. Griffin was the research director of the RNC where he may have spearheaded Republican vote caging efforts, a legally questionable direct mail campaign to disenfranchise poor, minority and military voters.

Mr. Griffin was most prominently touched by scandal when he was picked to replace a U.S. Attorney in Arkansas who, despite being highly regarded, had been asked to resign.  Emails between the Justice Department and the White House revealed that despite his lack of prosecutorial experience, the selection of Mr. Griffin was personally important to Mr. Rove.  Knowing that he would never pass muster at a Senate confirmation hearing, Mr. Griffin was appointed interim U.S. Attorney for an indefinite time period under a misused, emergency provision of the PATRIOT Act.

Mr. Griffin resigned effective June 1, 2007, after less than six months on the job and in the midst of an investigation by the House Judiciary Committee into the political motivations behind the U.S. Attorney scandal.

J.D. Hayworth — Running for U.S. Senate, Arizona
J.D. Hayworth is a candidate in the Republican primary for the United States Senate in Arizona.

Mr. Hayworth served in the U.S. House of Representatives for twelve years before losing his 2006 bid for reelection in part due to his ethics issues.  While in Congress, Rep. Hayworth drew intense criticism for his extensive ties to Jack Abramoff and for employing his wife to run his political action committee (PAC).  Rep. Hayworth’s ethical issues were documented in CREW’s 2006 report on the most corrupt members of Congress.  After losing his seat, Rep. Hayworth hosted a conservative talk-radio show, but he left that job earlier this year to run for Senate.

While in Congress, Rep. Hayworth accepted donations to his campaign and leadership PAC from convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s clients. Rep. Hayworth also used Mr. Abramoff’s skyboxes five times without reporting the costs in his Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings.   Rep. Hayworth’s failure to report the skyboxes as campaign contributions violated federal election law, and Rep. Hayworth was later forced to repay the skybox owners. Rep. Hayworth was later cleared of any additional wrongdoing in the Abramoff scandal.

Rep. Hayworth’s ties to Abramoff also enriched his family.  Between 1999 and 2007, Rep. Hayworth’s wife, Mary, worked as the sole paid employee of TEAM PAC, his leadership PAC.  During that time, Ms. Hayworth was paid over $140,000. Additionally, $83,000 of the PAC donations came from Abramoff-related interests.  Given that the PAC’s bookkeeping was farmed out to an accounting firm, Ms. Hayworth’s role in the PAC was unclear.  Rep. Hayworth terminated the PAC in 2008.

Ed Martin — Running for U.S. House, Missouri
Ed Martin is a candidate in the Republican primary for Missouri’s third congressional district.

Mr. Martin was previously the Chief of Staff for former Republican Missouri Governor Matt Blunt.  After serving the governor for a mere 15 months, Mr. Martin was forced to resign.

On August 20, 2007, Mr. Martin sent emails from his government account to Republican Party activists urging them to rally against Attorney General Jay Nixon, a Democrat and rival of Governor Blunt.  A reporter caught wind of Mr. Martin’s actions and requested access to the emails under Missouri open government laws.  The governor’s office falsely claimed the emails had been deleted.  When Scott Eckersly, the lawyer responsible for processing the reporter’s request, notified Mr. Martin that deleting emails was a violation of state law and the governor’s office’s own policy, Mr. Martin fired him.

Due to the controversy surrounding Mr. Eckersly’s termination, Mr. Martin was pressured to resign, though Governor Blunt denied forcing him out.  Mr. Eckersly subsequently brought a wrongful termination and defamation suit against Mr. Martin and other officials in the governor’s office.  The State of Missouri ultimately agreed to a $500,000 settlement with Mr. Eckersly and spent an additional $1.3 million on legal fees – all because of Mr. Martin’s inappropriate conduct.  An investigation by state officials later found that the governor’s office failed to properly disclose Mr. Martin’s emails.

In 2005, a hydroelectric dam collapsed causing a deluge of water to damage a Missouri state park.  The subsequent investigation by the Missouri State Patrol found no evidence of criminal conduct.  Citing the State Patrol’s report, Attorney General Nixon declined to press criminal charges against the operator of the dam.  Mr. Martin, who had attacked Attorney General Nixon throughout the investigation, strongly urged the State Patrol to criticize Mr. Nixon for failing to prosecute.  Under intense pressure from the governor’s office, the superintendent of the State Patrol released a statement urging the attorney general to follow-up on the report.  Once it became clear that Mr. Martin had prompted the superintendent’s statement, Mr. Martin was roundly criticized for trying to play politics with the State Patrol.

Finally, Mr. Martin has demonstrated insensitivity to race issues. In an appearance before the Missouri Housing Development Commission, in response to a lawyer’s argument about the availability of a federal database to screen illegal immigrants, Mr. Martin responded, “I’ll tell you what’s available, is every frigging developer can figure out who is illegal, and when he says – like he told them – there’s a bunch of Mexicans out there, I guess some of them are probably not legal.”  While Mr. Martin claimed he was simply paraphrasing a statement made earlier in the meeting, his tactless comments prompted Jim Torres, a secretary and legislative liaison for the Commission, to resign.  In a letter to Governor Blunt, Mr. Torres said that he found Mr. Martin’s comments offensive and asked the Governor to apologize.  In the wake of the Mr. Martin’s comments, Hispanic groups across Missouri called on Mr. Martin to resign.

Kendrick Meek — Running for U.S. Senate, Florida
Representative Kendrick Meek is a candidate in the Democratic primary for United States Senate from Florida. Rep. Meek has spent the last 15 years holding public office, including the last 8 years representing the 17th district of Florida in the U.S House of Representatives.

Rep. Meek has been criticized for his relationship with developer Dennis Stackhouse, who is now awaiting trial for grand theft and organizing a scheme to defraud. Rep. Meek earmarked $1,072,750 million for Mr. Stackhouse’s development project and requested an additional $4 million in earmarks for Mr. Stackhouse, which were never awarded. In addition, both Rep. Meek and his former district director, Anthony Williams, served on the Miami-Dade Urban Revitalization Task Force, which loaned $2.2 million to Mr. Stackhouse’s project, but Rep. Meek did not vote on that particular loan.

At the same time Mr. Stackhouse employed Rep. Meek’s mother, former Congresswoman Carrie Meek, as a consultant paying her $90,000, giving her the free use of a leased Cadillac Escalade and donating the use of a 2,600 square foot office for her foundation. Mr. Stackhouse further curried favor with the congressman by contributing thousands to Rep. Meek’s campaign in 2003. Furthermore, Mr. Stackhouse gave Mr. Williams $13,000 to help him buy a house. Police tried to make a case against Mr. Williams for mortgage fraud, but prosecutors believed the evidence gathered was insufficient.  Rep. Meek claimed not to have known about the mortgage deal.

During Rep. Meek’s tenure in the state Senate, he was employed by Wackenhut Corrections Corporation as a business development officer. Rep. Meek’s relationship with the company led to numerous conflicts of interest. For example, Rep. Meek failed to recuse himself from voting on bills that directly impacted Wackenhut’s bottom line. He was also a member of the Senate appropriations Subcommittee on Public Safety and Judiciary, partly in charge of doling out state funds, while corrections-giant Wackenhut had multi-million dollar business dealings with the state.

The circumstances surrounding Rep. Meek’s initial election to Congress are questionable. Rep. Carrie Meek, his mother and representative for the 17th district, decided two weeks before the qualifying deadline for the primary election that she wasn’t going to run again, putting potential opponents at a disadvantage.  She also announced her son would be running in her stead, essentially bequeathing him the seat.

Dino Rossi — Running for U.S. Senate, Washington
Dino Rossi is a Republican candidate in the primary for the U.S. Senate in Washington.  He is real estate investor who previously served as a state senator and twice ran for governor of Washington.

In the 1990s, Sen. Rossi developed a relationship with one of Seattle’s biggest real estate developers, Michael Mastro.  In 1997, when Sen. Rossi was serving in the state Senate, he purchased a building from Mr. Mastro.  Two of Sen. Rossi’s fellow investors were Washington state lobbyists, David Ducharme and his father, Richard Ducharme.  Mr. Mastro loaned the threesome $2 million to purchase the $2.5 million property.  Separately, Sen. Rossi borrowed $50,000 from Mr. Mastro for the purchase, which he did not report as required on his financial disclosure forms.  Mr. Mastro was also a donor to both of Sen. Rossi’s campaigns for governor.  In 2008, Mr. Mastro’s multimillion dollar empire crumbled after it became apparent he had been promising untenable returns to investors.

Sen. Rossi’s relationship with the Ducharmes continued long after they sold the building they had purchased from Mr. Mastro.  While still a state senator, Sen. Rossi turned to the pair once again and convinced them to invest in a bank that he had started.  Sen. Rossi invested at least $75,000 of his own money in the bank and made David Ducharme CEO.  In 2009, the bank came under investigation for “engage[ing] in unsafe and unsound banking practices relating to its strategic and capital planning, credit underwriting, credit administration, concentration risk management, and liquidity management.”  David Ducharme is currently working to secure enough capital to appease federal regulators.

Following his defeat in the 2004 gubernatorial race, Sen. Rossi started the Forward Washington Foundation. Sen. Rossi used the foundation to pay himself $75,000 a year while traveling the state giving speeches but little else.  Sen. Rossi treated the foundation much like his own campaign committee, but he didn’t have to abide by campaign contribution limits or disclosure laws.  The Public Disclosure Commission (PDC)  opened an investigation into the foundation but Sen. Rossi stepped down as president before the investigation was complete and declared his candidacy for governor. The Commission later ended its investigation because of insufficient evidence.

In his run for governor in 2008, Sen. Rossi was supported by the Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW).  The BIAW spent $6.9 million largely to promote Sen. Rossi and criticize his opponent throughout the race. A complaint filed with PDC alleged that Sen. Rossi violated state law by coordinating fundraising with the BIAW, failing to register as a candidate in a timely manner, exceeding contribution limits and failing to disclose contributions. After an investigation, the PDC eventually cleared Sen. Rossi of any wrongdoing, but its final report revealed how closely the BIAW skirted the law in promoting his candidacy. Sen. Rossi’s close relationship to the BIAW shouldn’t have come as any surprise, though; Richard Ducharme is a former lobbyist for the BIAW.

Marco Rubio — Running for U.S. Senate, Florida
Marco Rubio is a candidate in the Republican primary for United States Senate from Florida. Mr. Rubio served 8 years in the Florida House of Representatives, including two years as the Speaker of the House.

Mr. Rubio is currently implicated in a federal criminal investigation for the misuse of Florida Republican Party credit cards during his time as Speaker. Specifically, the IRS is examining records to determining if Mr. Rubio and other party leaders personally benefitted from the credit card scheme. Legally, party credit cards can only be used for political activities, but Mr. Rubio and his staff charged many seemingly personal expenses on the cards including car repairs, and grocery purchases. Mr. Rubio’s chief of staff racked up thousands of dollars in expenses on behalf of Mr. Rubio on his card including dinners and a Rubio family trip to a Georgia resort.

Mr. Rubio also admitted he double-billed both the Republican Party and state taxpayers for eight flights totaling about $3,000 in 2007. Mr. Rubio promised to refund the party, because the trips were for official business, but had not as of April 20, 2010.

Additionally, Mr. Rubio inserted earmarks into the state budget for his personal financial gain.  While preparing to leave his position in the Florida House of Representatives, he accepted a $69,000 per year, part-time, unadvertised professor position with Florida International University (FIU). When he was hired, FIU had a $32 million budget deficit and had cut 23 degree programs and 200 jobs.  During his tenure in the House, Mr. Rubio helped steer at least $29 million to the university, leading FIU’s president at the time to say that Mr. Rubio was “worth every penny”.

Similarly, Mr. Rubio was hired as a consultant for Jackson Memorial Hospital after he earmarked $20 million for the facility.  Jackson Memorial paid Mr. Rubio’s firm $8,000 per month. The same firm, which also employed Mr. Rubio’s former aide, the wife of fellow Florida House Rep. Esteban Bovo, scored a $102,000 contract with Miami Children’s Hospital. At the time of the contract, Rep. Bovo was the Miami Children’s Hospital in-house lobbyist.

Furthermore, Mr. Rubio seems to have misused two political committees for personal gain. Mr. Rubio’s committee likely violated state law by failing to disclose $34,000 worth of expenses in 2003 and 2004 including a $7,000 payment to Mr. Rubio. While other Floridian candidates tend to itemize travel expenses, Mr. Rubio billed more than $51,000 in unidentified travel expenses to his committee. The same committee paid $5,700 to his wife, who is listed as its treasurer. Another Rubio political committee listed $14,000 in payments to family members, at least one of whom had a non-existent address.

Mr. Rubio has been criticized for giving preferential treatment to the Dosal Tobacco Company. Dosal had been a significant donor to Mr. Rubio’s campaigns and was a prominent player in Mr. Rubio’s Cuban-American constituency. Due to loopholes in Florida tobacco regulations resulting from a 1997 settlement reached by the state with big tobacco companies, Dosal had been able to avoid a significant per pack surcharge levied on most other tobacco companies. Since at least 2004, the Florida House debated closing the loopholes, but in 2007 and 2008, when Mr. Rubio was the very powerful Speaker of the House, no loophole fix bill was even introduced.

Moreover, Mr. Rubio secretly inserted language into the so called “proviso language,” passed along with the state budget, to increase the chances that Max Alvarez, a close friend and a political contributor to Mr. Rubio, would win a contract with the Florida Department of Transportation.  Mr. Alvarez, who considers Mr. Rubio “like a son,” owns a small fuel business, which would not have been allowed to compete for a Florida Turnpike contract under the original language of the budget. Mr. Alvarez approached Mr. Rubio to insert the favorable language allowing his business to bid on the contract. Governor Charlie Crist eventually vetoed the bill underlying the proviso language.

Allen West — Running for U.S. House, Florida
Lieutenant Colonel Allen West is a candidate in the Republican primary for Florida’s 22nd congressional district. Col. West previously served as a battalion commander in the Army’s Fourth Infantry Division in Iraq.

Col. West was stripped of his command and forced to resign for assaulting an Iraqi citizen during a harsh interrogation. In response to an intelligence report alleging a threat against Col. West and the men who traveled with him, he ordered the apprehension of Iraqi policeman Yehiya Kadoori Hamoodi. Although it was not Col. West’s job to conduct interrogations, he nevertheless interrogated Mr. Hamoodi.

Col. West allowed his soldiers to beat Mr. Hamoodi on the head and body.  After the beatings, Col. West threatened to kill Mr. Hamoodi and shoved his head into a sand-filled barrel into which he fired at least one gunshot. Col. West later admitted that he couldn’t remember how many shots had actually been fired.  After the gun was fired, Mr. Hamoodi “admitted there would be attacks” and gave names of alleged conspirators but subsequent investigations found no evidence of a plot to kill Col. West.

At a military tribunal on the incident, Col. West admitted he was not sure any corroboration of a plot was ever found and he may have been wrong about Mr. Hamoodi.  Although the tribunal found Col. West guilty guilty of three counts of aggravated assault and thought that his actions merited a court martial, his admission of guilt and his long record in the Army allowed him to return home to retire with a mere $5,000 fine.

The witch hunt vs. Shirley Sherrod.

by Keith Olbermann Anchor, ‘Countdown’

Let me make this utterly clear: What you see on Fox News, what you read on Right Wing websites, is the utter and complete perversion of journalism, and it can have no place in a civilized society. It is words crashed together, never to inform, only to inflame. It is a political guillotine. It is the manipulation of reality to make the racist seem benevolent, and to convict the benevolent as racist — even if her words must be edited, filleted, stripped of all context, rearranged, fabricated, and falsified, to do so.

What you see on Fox News, what you read on Right Wing websites… is a manipulation. Not just of a story, not just on behalf of a political philosophy. Manipulation of a society, its intentional redirection from reality and progress, to a paranoid delusion and the fomenting of hatred of Americans by Americans. And nearly every last word of it is never, in any tangible sense, true. Ask Shirley Sherrod.

But this evil has not become institutionalized just because of the hard, soul-less work of Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes and the scum Breitbart. Our society has not bought into the premise of this 24-hour parade of feces dressed up as news just because of a clever marketing plan. The assassins of the Right have been enabled on the Left.

The legitimate media didn’t first look at the whole videotape. We didn’t first ask if the doctored clip perverted by the scum Breitbart didn’t seem to be leading up to a “however.” We didn’t, even today, when even this network let this pornographer of propaganda Breitbart come on and spew his lies and his venom and his fraudulent self-defense like a quack doctor attending a life-or-death surgery, we didn’t once…consider the source.

“We are appalled by her actions” said the head of the NAACP. “She mistreated a white farmer in need of assistance because of his race.” Benjamin Jealous didn’t first look at the whole videotape, didn’t first ask the farmer if, as proved true, Ms. Sherrod had saved his farm. “We have been working to turn the page on the sordid civil rights record at USDA,” said the Secretary of Agriculture. “This controversy could make it more difficult to move forward on correcting injustices.”

Tom Vilsack didn’t first look at the whole videotape, didn’t first ask if the event took place when Ms. Sherrod worked for USDA, and not 24 years ago.”We could have waited all day, we could have had a media circus,” said the Deputy Chief of Staff at the White House. “But we took decisive action and it’s a good example of how to respond in this atmosphere.”

Jim Messina didn’t first look at the whole videotape, didn’t first ask if the “decisive action” might not have really been like sending Dreyfus to Devil’s Island. “It’s a good example of how to respond in this atmosphere.” This atmosphere. This atmosphere exists because the people around him have let this president be dumbed down.

The question used to be “fired up?” – and the answer: “Ready to go!” The question now is “fired up?” – the answer now is: “Not ready, because we cannot afford the impression of not looking sufficiently presidential and neutral and inviting a media circus in this atmosphere.”

To paraphrase President Reagan’s Secretary of the Interior, James Watt — Mr. Messina, and Mr. Emanuel, and everybody else in this White House who is gradually remodeling this President into something generic and safe and electable in 2012 by the slimmest of margins on the strength of being as media-circus-free and better suited to “this atmosphere” as possible.

Let Obama be Obama! And that advice must be heeded by one man above all others. “Can you give us some, specifically, some things that he said that would help us?,” Mr. Gibbs was asked at this afternoon’s press briefing. “Well again,” Mr. Gibbs replied, “I think he, he talked about the fact that, that, that a disservice had been done here and an injustice had happened.”

He was quoting you Mr. President. Fired up!? “A disservice has been done.” Fired up!? “An injustice had happened.” Mr. President, it is beyond admirable that in your position, and at this time of fearful division in this country, that you view yourself as President of everyone, not —as your predecessor did — only as President just of those who voted for you.

But you must, at long last, Sir, come to terms with the fact that while you have spent these first 18 months and one day of your presidency bending over backwards for those others, they have spent this time insisting you are not actually president, or you are a communist, or you are bent on destroying whatever is starring this week in the paranoid fantasies churned out by Fox News and the farcical Breitbart.

If only for the arrogance of the irony – that this Crusade to prove you a foreign influence is led by an Australian named Murdoch and his sons who pretend to be British, and his second largest shareholder Prince Alwaleed bin Talal al-Saud of Saudi Arabia — you, Sir, must stand up to this attack on you, and on this nation. Their game-plan is transparent:

They can strand together all the forces of anti-black racism in this country, direct them at you and all for which you and this nation stand, and convince the great unwashed and unthinking out there that not only are they not racists, but you, you Barack Obama, and Van Jones, and Shirley Sherrod, you are the real racists, and so in opposing you they are not expressing the worst vestige of our past, but are actually standing up against it.

As you stay silent and neutral and everybody’s President, they are gradually convincing racists that they are civil rights leaders and you are Police Chief Bull Connor. And then some idiot at Fox news barks, and your people throw an honorable public servant under the nearest bus, just for the sake of ‘decisive action’ and the correct way to respond in this atmosphere.

Mr. President, please stop trying to act, every minute, like some noble, neutral figure, chairing a government of equal and dispassionate minds, and contemplative scholars. It is a freaking war out here, and the imagined consensus you seek is years in the future, if ever it is to be re-discovered.

This false consensus has gotten us only the crucifixion of Van Jones, and a racist gold-shilling buffoon speaking from the Lincoln Memorial on the 47th Anniversary of Dr. King’s speech, and now it has gotten us Shirley Sherrod. And your answer is to note a “disservice” and an “injustice.”

Sir, get a copy of the Michael Douglas movie “The American President.” When you get to the line where he says “I was so busy keeping my job, I forgot to do my job” — hit the rewind button. Twenty times. “Fired up?” “Fired up?” Anybody? Anybody? Lastly. Ms. Sherrod?

I’ve got no business speaking on behalf of the people of the United States, that’s the President’s job. But frankly I don’t know why he hasn’t done this yet, so I’m going to.

We all would like to apologize to you, and ask you to return to work. Or if they want to make you Secretary of Agriculture, or especially White House Deputy Chief of Staff. The President could use somebody like you in there. Tonight!

But mostly I want to thank you for being, honorably, quietly, and until these last few days, anonymously, such an outstanding American. Long ago, there was harm done to you and you responded as nearly all of us would. And one day, 24 years ago, you realized that you were not ending that harm, you were just passing it along through vengeance and blindness. And you stopped. You stopped not with fanfare nor with self-aggrandizing tears nor in publicized rehab nor on a political stage.

You just stopped and you re-joined the righteous who occupy every corner of our great nation, and indeed every corner of our politics. And even in this hour of undeserved trial and abuse, in your ‘Devil’s Island of the mind,’ you have maintained your dignity and your honor.

Only one of us in all of this, from the mountebanks to the presidential advisors to the unchallenging reporters, only one of us in all this, has done her job correctly. You, Ms. Sherrod, know what “decisive action” is and “how to respond in this atmosphere.”

Good Old Ronald Reagan, hero to the modern conservative movement, we are still paying for his great works.

1. Criminal: Iran-Contra treason. Lied about it. Likely encouraged Iran to keep US Embassy hostages until he was into office.

2. Fiscal: Supply-side economics. National debt tripled. $12 billion trade surplus turned into $100+ billion trade deficit. Deregulated savings and loans, precipitated huge economic crisis. Tax raiser. Taxed the poor, cut taxes for the rich. SDI “Star Wars” boondoggle. Military spending increased to match imaginary spending in the USSR. Deregulation caused oil bust. Broke the air traffic control union.

3. Social: Gutted social welfare. Release of mental patients without recourse, homeless population up. Ignored AIDS crisis. Abstinence-only sex education. Strengthened ATF, banned automatic weapons and blamed Democrats for it. Increased spending for War on Drugs, National drinking age of 21. Underfunded the NEA. EPA Superfund grands manipulated to help Republicans in local elections. Deregulated kids’ TV, initiated 22 minute toy ads. Killed energy programs. Crack in the ghettos.

4. Foreign: Wars all over Central America, including Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras. Promoted Iran-Iraq war. Sent Marines into Beirut, abandoned mission after terrorist bombing. Broke detente with USSR until Gorbachev personally made things better. Backed Contras in drug running schemes. Supported right-wing dictators and movements everywhere, including the Apartheid regime in South Africa, Marcos regime in the Phillipines. Saddam Hussein and Baathist regime in Iraq, even after the Kurds were gassed. The Taliban in Afghanistan. Manuel Noriega in Panama. Augusto Pinochet in Chile.

5. Concepts: Welfare queens. Trees cause pollution. Ketchup as a vegetable.

6. Appointments: 30+ convicted appointees; Ed Meese at Justice; addicted to porn. James Watts at Interior; idiot and corrupt. William Casey at the CIA; religious nut, had to be terminated on his way to testify before grand jury. Military strikes into Uzbekistan. HUD became a corrupt mess under his watch. Politicized the CIA. Attempted to appoint Robert Bork (anti feminist) to Supreme Court; segregationist and asshole. Got Antonin Scalia in; same as Bork.

7. Personal: Unfit to serve at end of term because of Alzheimer’s Disease, horrible excuse for a human being in general. A known McCarthyite. Neo-Conservative. Backed the Moral Majority. Pardoned Robert Walker who subsequently killed his wife. Laid a wreath at a SS cemetery in Germany. Considered Vietnam War to be a ‘Noble Cause”. Help start the right wing noise propaganda machine. Hated sex. Made his son, Ronnie feel like a sissy and quit ballet. Dumb as a stump. Believed in and used Astrology to run the government. Initiated and used cue cards for talking points. Famous phrase: “I don’t recall” in response to queries from the press. Outlawed Russia forever.

This is the man the Republicans look up to and admire as one to emulate as their party’s standard bearer.

Post by Laura Bassett of Huffington Post:

Prominent conservative media critic Dan Gainor has offered $100 to the first member of Congress who punches “smary [sic] idiot” Alan Grayson (D-Fl.) in the nose, reports Media Matters. When fellow conservative Jim Geraghty responded (via Twitter) that Gainor should offer that $100 to Grayon’s opponent instead of “financ[ing] violence,” Gainor tweeted that he was joking, although he would “love to see the video.”

The outburst was prompted by comments that Grayson made on the House floor last night regarding unemployment: namely, that Republican lawmakers are “taking food out of the mouths of children” and “trying to revive the America of desperate straits and cheap labor” by blocking the passage of legislation that would extend unemployment benefits. Gainor tweeted that Grayson is “a caricature of a Congressman,” in addition to offering cash for a physical assault on him.

Gainor is the vice president of the Media Research Center, a $6 million-a-year organization that has been praised by Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, and Newt Gingrich, and he is often cited, interviewed and otherwise taken very seriously by Washington Post ombudsman Andrew Alexander.

But Grayson is not one to back down from a media brawl. He told HuffPost: “I think he’s overlooking something important: I punch back.”

Per Huffington Post.  Are these the leaders we want to give control to in taking back America?

Meet Congressman Paul Ryan. Ryan is the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee. If the Republicans once again take control of the House, he will be the Chair of the Budget Committee. Ryan believes — and says out loud — that Medicare, one of the most popular Federal programs in history, should be abolished and replaced with vouchers for private insurance. Let’s recall that one of the ways Republicans stirred up opposition to health insurance reform was by falsely accusing Democrats of wanting to cut Medicare. They convinced some unwitting seniors that “Government” should keep its hands off Medicare — which is, of course, a “Government” program. Democrats need to make it crystal clear in this campaign that Republicans — who opposed Medicare from its inception — actually want to abolish the program and hand over control of health care for America’s seniors to the same private insurance companies responsible for driving up rates three times faster than wages while their profits have exploded.

Congressman John Boehner, the House Minority Leader, has endorsed another Ryan proposal to raise the retirement age of Social Security to 70 years old — a proposal that might go over fine with a guy like Boehner who makes speeches for a living. But it won’t be very popular at all with someone who has laid bricks, or run an earth mover, or waited tables for forty-five years.

The whole Republican crew wants to resurrect the failed Bush proposal to “privatize” Social Security. The defeat of Bush’s privatization plan was the turning point in the Bush Presidency. It was all downhill from there. Yet — whether it’s to pad the investment accounts of their friends on Wall Street or because they are “private markets uber alles true believers” — the Republicans want to try it again. Only this time retirees won’t have to work very hard to imagine what it would have been like if their Social Security checks had plummeted in value the way their 401K’s did when the market collapsed just two years ago.

The Republicans want to weaken and repeal the new law to rein in the recklessness of the big Wall Street banks. Most Republicans and Democrats voted to bail out the big banks to prevent a 1930′s style market collapse. The difference is that Democrats supported legislation to rein in their recklessness — that had cost 8 million Americans their jobs — and assure that a bailout was never allowed to happen again. But with very few exceptions, the Republicans voted to a person against holding Wall Street accountable. Given a chance, they plan to team up with their pals on Wall Street to free them to return to their reckless ways at will. In fact, they told the titans of Wall Street as much in fundraising meetings, where those “masters of the Universe” were asked to ante up. Republicans claim to oppose more Wall Street bailouts, but they refuse to support legislation that would prevent one in the future and hold Wall Street accountable. That — coupled with those big contributions from Wall Street — is a position that is very difficult for average voters to swallow. In fact, the polling says it’s down right toxic.

Republicans have consistently voted against extending unemployment benefits to workers who have been laid off because of Bush-era policies and the recklessness of Wall Street. Remember, people who get unemployment benefits — by definition — are looking for jobs that the economy doesn’t provide. In addition, many Republicans actually believe that the best way to spur employment is to lower the minimum wage.

Finally, meet Congressman Joe Barton. If the Republicans win back control of Congress, he would once again most likely serve as the Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee — the Committee that oversees the oil industry. Congressman Barton has never met an oil company he doesn’t like. In fact, he’s the guy who actually apologized to BP when they were forced by the Obama Administration to take economic responsibility for the disastrous Gulf oil spill. As a political matter, that’s like apologizing to Jack the Ripper.

Excerpt from Alternet.org:

For far too long white Americans have been told that diversity is something beneficial to their existence. Statistics prove that the opposite is true. New Hampshire residents must seek to preserve their racial identity if we want future generations to have to possibility to live in such a great state. Affirmative action, illegal and legal non-white immigration, anti-white public school systems, and an anti-white media have done much damage to the United States of America and especially New Hampshire. It is time for white people in New Hampshire and across the country to take a stand. We are only 8 percent of the world’s population and we need our own homeland, just like any other non-white group of people deserve their own homeland. The Tea Party at its core is all about race but most of the Tea Partiers do not even realize it. They downplay the race issue every chance they get because they are afraid of being perceived as racist.

It seems to me they are saying for them freedom equals religion that exist without people of color. These are the descendants of the Puritans who hunted witches in the early development of America, who then morphed into the Klu Klux Klan aka the Tea Party movement.  Welcome to America.