Recruiting Young Republicans and Off to the Sex Club...

There was quite a bit of talk yesterday concerning the RNC's interesting expense account... Obviously spending the money people donate to the Republican National Committee on a night out at an expensive Hollywood bondage and lesbian themed sex club was not exactly what the donors would hope for, never mind the $17,000 on private jets and the other booze as well...

But relax folks! It is just the good old fashioned way that Republican leadership wants to help raise your kids:

One California blog, Red County, reports that Brown isn't the staffer. Instead, they say, Brown paid the bill (and submitted it to the RNC as an expense) after a staffer's credit card was declined, according to anonymous sources.


The blog also reports that the excursion took place after a recruiting event for the RNC Young Eagles at the Beverly Hills hotel.

This makes it all OK, right?

From BarbinMD:

A group of RNC "Young Eagles" were escorted to a bondage-themed nightclub by an RNC official to blow off a little steam after a rough night of partying in Beverly Hills, the RNC accidentally picked up the tab but they're getting their money back. It could happen to anyone.

Young Eagles, by the way, are the next generation of big money donors to the Republican party ... and it should be noted that the GOP defines "young" as anyone under 45, a sad little attempt to lay claim to the youth vote ... whose mission statement is to:

Define the future leaders of tomorrow by creating a vibrant base of young, conservative oriented members that can and will take an active role in shaping the party's message, as well as that of the country, well into the future.

Well, mission accomplished, Young Eagles.
 

And what lessons can we all take away from this? First, that it's a good day when you can write a headline that says, "RNC to investigate spending at bondage-themed nightclub featuring lesbian sex acts," and second, that the RNC's explanation that the brain trust in their financial department accidentally paid out $2000 for a night out for the "boys" at a strip club isn't going to inspire their donors. That they had to put out a statement assuring those donors that Michael Steele doesn't go to bondage-themed strip clubs was just a bonus.

Banks - Breaking up is hard to do:

Via the LA Times:

Britain is forcing breakups of bailed-out major banks

The British government -- spurred on by European regulators -- is forcing Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group and Northern Rock to sell off parts of their operations. The Europeans are calling for more and smaller banks to increase competition and eliminate the threat posed by banks so large that they must be rescued by taxpayers, no matter how they conducted their business, in order to avoid damaging the global financial system.

The move to downsize some of Britain's largest banks comes as U.S. politicians are debating whether American banks should also be required to shrink. The Obama administration has maintained that large banks should be preserved because they play an important role in the economy and that taxpayers instead should be protected by creating a new system for liquidating large banks that run into problems. But Britain's decision already is being cited by a growing chorus of experts, including prominent bankers and economists, who want the United States to pursue a similar approach.

"We still need to see exactly which parts the [British] banks will need to sell off to judge whether the goal of having smaller banks is really achieved," said Richard Portes, an economics professor at the London Business School. "But there are lessons here for the United States. The supposed economies of scale of massive financial institutions are outweighed by the difficulties in controlling risk inside them."

Hopefully the US will follow suit but I don't expect that since the big banks that failed here still managed to hold on to their biggest asset: The US government.

Blue Dog Mike Ross Real Estate Scandal?

Via TomP at dKos, Rep. Mike Ross is getting his first taste of promised push-back for going against what the majority of Americans want:

ProPublica is reporting that Blue Dog Congressman Mike Ross (DINO-AR) "sold a piece of commercial property in 2007 for substantially more than a county assessment and an independent appraisal say it was worth."

Who did he sell it to? An Arkansas-based pharmacy chain with an interest in defeating universal health care.

Ross sold the real estate in Prescott, Ark., to USA Drug for $420,000 -- an eye-popping number for real estate in the tiny train and lumber town about 100 miles southwest of Little Rock.

"You can buy half the town for $420,000," said Adam Guthrie, chairman of the county Board of Equalization and the only licensed real estate appraiser in Prescott.

ProPublica: Mike Ross Raises Eyebrows With Healthy Haul

But it's not just $420,000. There is an extra almost 1 million dollars that went to the Rosses in the deal. The total value of the transaction is between $1 million and $1.67 million.

Any other Blue Dogs or Money Party candidates in Congress want to reconsider selling out Americans to the health insurance and pharmaceutical corporations? If we don't hear from you, you will very likely hear from us...

Update: Rachel Maddow gives the story a little love:



Crooks and Liars has a statement from Ross on this "Gotcha Politics" traditionally called bribes.

First UBS Client Goes Down: Rubinstein

According to the NY Times, the first of UBS' tax evading client list is being charged:

The client, Steven Michael Rubinstein, an accountant, was arrested in Boca Raton, Fla., and charged with one criminal count of filing a false and fraudulent tax return, according to court papers unsealed on Thursday.

The arrest is the first of a major American client of UBS, which has been under criminal investigation for helping scores of wealthy Americans evade taxes through secret offshore accounts that went unreported to the Internal Revenue Service. It signals that federal authorities are making good on a promise to pursue American clients suspected of tax evasion, and in some cases to make indictments.

The money hidden away for him by UBS? Around $6,000,000.00.

Mr. Rubinstein had an account with UBS worth at least $6 million, including stock and gold coins worth $2 million, according to court papers filed in Federal District Court in Fort Lauderdale. He holds both United States and South African passports.

The gold coinage were South African Krugerrands.

There only about 19,000 more tax delinquents to go.

Meanwhile, never forget that Phil Gramm was on the receiving end of an orchestrated McCain campaign Friday Night Dump during the elections because of his lobbying and working directly for UBS.

Lobbyists Can Cry Me A River

From Think Progress:

Last Friday, the Obama administration released a directive stating that lobbyists “cannot meet or speak with executive branch officials regarding specific stimulus projects or applications.” The head of the American League of Lobbyists is now saying the rule “smacks of segregation, discrimination” and is vowing to “push back” against the rule. The group is keeping “all options open, including litigation.”

After the way they have lobbied politicians for legislation that tore the economy down... All I can say is that they should get out in this great job market they helped create and find some honest work.

The Big Congressional Lie

If the United Auto Workers (UAW) union contracts can be on the table... So can the Financially United Corporate Kleptocracy of the United States (FUCK-US) nonunion contracts:

A friend called last night, and asked me why Congress didn't include anything in the bailout legislation to ensure that any company receiving a bailout didn't pay out bonuses? If the courts would have required the contracts to go through, then amend whatever law the courts are relying on to make that ruling, specifically as it applies to companies that accept bailout monies and the enforcement of bonuses. In essence, pass "cram down" legislation that applies to bonuses at companies like AIG.

These failed bankers need to be hammered. Not pampered by their elected kissing cousins. They were the ones that caused all of this in the first place. I think we need to put Congress' contracts back on the table, as well, so we can clawback their health care and heaping shitpile of their money. And then we could put an idiocracy tax on all of their incomes.

I may be furious at Dodd

for his position on health care, and Countrywide, and the credit card indentured servant act, etc., BUT it appears he may have done something right here.

Credit where credit is due, Senator Dodd, and all of that.

As for a brain drain at these insolvent banks? If those idiots in the "top leadership" leave... Then they are even dumber than the complete and utter failure of the banks they lead into destruction proved they were.

IOW: Please, Mr. and Mrs. Corporate Welfare Banker, leave and don't let the doors on the bank vaults you looted hit you on the ass on yer way out!

Is Gregg Just a Chicken?

When Gregg took the job he said that he would have supported the stimulus package but would not vote on it. Will he tuck tail and run from that position too?

Time for Gregg to own up to what he said.

Will Gregg chicken out when he has to face the ironic ridicule and egging on of the equally ridiculous wingnuts. What would you expect from anyone in the GOP? Seriously? Their track record says they will refuse to take responsibility for their votes, actions and statements even after the majority of voters have tossed them out of office for their blatant incompetence and brazened corruption. Can you think of any reason for Gregg to be any different? Now.

Also, the fact that Gregg now says he will not be running for office again tells me...

Time to wait for the scandal.

Any "bankers/gambling addicts" willing to set the odds on that for the credit derivatives market?

[update] The waiting may be over.

Judd Gregg has a Jack Abramoff problem.

At the very least, Abramoff and his team had easy access to Gregg’s Senate staff and were able to use that access to help their clients by stopping unfavorable legislation while getting earmarks and favorable legislation passed into law.

As it stands right now, Gregg’s best defense is that he is a terrible manager and that "bad apples" joined his staff, went "rogue" and traded favors in his name. And to be fair, Gregg may be that dense. After all, look at the sloppy and moronic way he withdrew himself from consideration as Obama’s Commerce Secretary: it was not the actions of a competent man. On the other hand, it was the actions of a man distracted other things. Gregg strikes me as a nervous man deeply worried about another shoe dropping.

Perhaps he is clean of scandal, but I suspect that Gregg had a fair understanding of what his staffers were doing in his name. After all, Kevin Koonce is not the only link between Senator Judd Gregg and Jack Abramoff.

Like most Republicans since 2005, Judd Gregg denies that he ever knew or had anything to do with Jack Abramoff. The money he returned from Abramoff’s clients was just a coincidence. In fact—to hear Gregg or one of his fellow Republicans explain it—any of the growing list of links between Abramoff and Gregg or Abramoff and the Republican Party are just random points of unrelated data. Yeah, right.

They are tap dancing in the graveyard.

Perhaps it was Jack Abramoff who best explained why this line of BS is so hard to believe when he told Vanity Fair in 2006:

"Any important Republican who comes out and says they didn’t know me is almost certainly lying," he says. Such lies are not just, well, lies, but dumb to boot, he adds, for, as his own humiliations suggest, old e-mails never die; they just sit on hard drives, waiting to be subpoenaed and then to be leaked to the press. "This is not an age when you can run away from facts," he declares. "I had to deal with my records, and others will have to deal with theirs."

It is looking like Judd Gregg will have to deal with his Abramoff record. Perhaps this is why he withdrew as the Commerce Secretary and why he has decided to retire from the Senate at the end of this term.

A: The "best little whorehouse on Wall Street"

Q: Where did some of these incompetent and corrupt bankers spend their time and the banks' money last year?

• an investment banker from Lehman Brothers who saw "Kelsey and Keely together" and later saw "Aria and Skyler at the same time"
• an investment banker at JP Morgan Securities who "loves Brooke" and spent $41,600
• an investment banker at Goldman Sachs who "only wanted all-American girls" and spent $27,000
• a managing director from Merrill Lynch who saw "Lana" using the name "Nataly"
• a managing director from Deutsche Bank "who called about seeing Nataly again"

Oh yeah... I guess these "corporate expenses" are very likely getting covered by "US" now.

"Some of these guys, I was invoicing on corporate credit cards," she said. "I was writing up monthly bills for computer consulting, construction expenses, all of these things, I was invoicing them monthly so they could get it by their accountants," Davis said.

C'mon an' say it with me: "FRAUD"

Of course, Kristen Davis was prosecuted, jailed and fined for her part... As for the nearly 10,000 high powered clients committing fraud to cover up their misdemeanor crimes, making these crimes a felony? Typically, the men remain untouched by these scandals.

How do you feel about bailing these people out?

Note to ABC news: We want names! All 10,000 of them.

On Dodd's VIP Countrywide Mortgages

"I am not a crook!"

Senator Chris Dodd released the details of his Countrywide mortgages. In a statement released with it he said that he would refinance the loans. But, please, pay no attention to this fact:

"Jackie and Chris have "decided to refinance (their) homes", which seems unremarkable, given that they had an ARM that guaranteed their rates for 5 years and the rates re-set last July or so, I gather. Who wouldn't at least try to refinance?"

h/t to ctblogger and greenpeas, with more commentary, videos and documents available at the link.

A Weekend at Bernie's

The Associated Press reports on what Bernard Madhoff has been up to and what the prosecutors want to do about it:

US govt to NY judge: Jail Madoff without bail

Prosecutors on Monday said disgraced financier Bernard Madoff violated bail conditions by mailing about $1 million worth of jewelry and other assets to relatives and should be jailed without bail.

"The defendant's recent actions amount to obstruction of justice," Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Litt told a judge at a hearing in federal court in Manhattan.

Madoff's lawyer, Ira Sorkin, described the items as heirlooms that included cufflinks and antique watches. He said they were not significant assets. The items were sent to Madoff's children and to unidentified friends vacationing in Florida.

Not only should this cretin be jailed ASAP for violating bail, they may as well just throw away the key.

Are the Big Banks Completely Bankrupt?

Bob at Politics in the Zeros seems to think there is good reason to believe this is the case...

Jim Rogers is a legendary investor and partner of George Soros. He is known for being blunt, and, I’ve found from watching what he says, usually quite correct. He is now saying most major US banks are bankrupt.

And it it just gets worse from there in a back assward game of "theftocracy"...

GOP Declares War on American Economy

How else can you anyone view what they are doing right now?

Republicans spent the last eight years like drunken sailors on their first shore leave after years at sea. They wantonly drained the treasury of billions and billions of dollars on harebrained schemes to induce "birthpangs of democracy" around the world, chasing phantom enemies and enriching their defense contractor contributors. They created a lobbying culture so corrupt it finally collapsed of its own weight. They deregulated the financial industry so thoroughly that it created an elaborate ponzi scheme that has just about destroyed the world economy.

They have no standing to lecture anyone about responsibility, fiscal or otherwise, and no right to obstruct the cure for the problem they created.

It's true that Democrats have, over the years, enabled Republicans and helped their ideology to run amock. But right now they are all we've got and their intentions, quite clearly, are to keep the economy from tanking, if only out of self interest.

And, clearly shown, the GOP's hatred of the American worker... They blame you hard working Americans for the banking scams the GOP caused and that flushed this country down the drain.

Fortunately for us in this case... The GOP knows absolutely nothing about winning wars. See Afghanistan and Iraq.

Cheney and Gonzales Indicted in Texas

VP Dick Cheney and ousted Attorney General Alberto Gonzales were indicted for prisoner abuse:

The indictment criticizes Cheney's investment in the Vanguard Group, which holds interests in the private prison companies running the federal detention centers. It accuses Cheney of a conflict of interest and "at least misdemeanor assaults" on detainees by working through the prison companies.

Gonzales is accused of using his position while in office to stop an investigation into abuses at the federal detention centers.

No word on presidential pardons from the outgoing White House turd... Yet.

[update] TPM says this could be entertaining. And they certainly may be correct there:

Also indicted are state District Judges Janet Leal, state District Judge Migdalia Lopez, The GEO Group (formerly Wackenhut Corporation), former U.S. Attorney Mervyn Mosbacher, Gus Garza and Gilberto Lozano.

They all face a stream of criminal charges including abuse of office, profiting from office, and murder.

For more information on this story, read Wednesday's The Brownsville Herald.

Murder? Abuse of power for profit and and a cover up? Dagnabit! I don't have enough popcorn to last until tomorrow...

Palin On Stevens Guilt

Via Think Progress:

Hotline reports that Sarah Palin issued a statement about the guilty decision in the Ted Stevens corruption case:

Thanks for your patience there. It’s a sad day for Alaska, and a sad day for Senator Stevens and his family. The verdict shines a light though on the corrupting influence of the big oil service company up there in Alaska that was allowed to control too much of our state. And that control was part of the culture of corruption that I was elected to fight.

Just exactly how did Palin fight this corruption in Alaska?


Yep... She has an image as some kind of political reformer but she is just another booster of the Corrupt Bastards Club. Obviously the feelings are mutual:

I bet Governor Palin wishes she could take this commercial back.

Ted Stevens Endorses Sarah Palin

Oh yeah... And Palin was groomed by the criminal as the director of a Stevens organized 527:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin began building clout in her state's political circles in part by serving as a director of an independent political group organized by the now embattled Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens.

Palin's name is listed on 2003 incorporation papers of the "Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service, Inc.," a 527 group that could raise unlimited funds from corporate donors. The group was designed to serve as a political boot camp for Republican women in the state. She served as one of three directors until June 2005, when her name was replaced on state filings.

snip

At the time Stevens revealed the existence of the 527 group -- a type of independent political corporation named for its the section of the tax code -- ethics experts questioned whether it was appropriate.

The Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call reported that several experts called the group an example of the fine legal line between a legal effort to conduct political activity and then-new prohibitions against raising unlimited soft-money.

The same kind of "maverICKY" 527 groups that are skating on the edge of election laws and attacking Barack Obama with outrageous lies for the McCain campaign. Both John McCain and Sarah Palin are prime examples of everything that is wrong and needs to be reformed in politics... Hypocritical sell outs to the big corporations that are corrupting the system.

America: Did you enjoy the economic rape?

For those of you thinking that anything was solved with the handover of 700 billion dollars to the criminal and lecherous rich of this country, you have been sadly misinformed:

“More families with children are becoming homeless as they face mounting economic pressures, including mortgage foreclosures, according to a USA TODAY survey of a dozen of the largest cities in the nation.”

Saying the bailout benefited everyone is like saying rape benefits everyone and making the victim pay the rapist for the privilege of being victimized and terrorized.

They were bailed out with our money. They get to keep their expensive lifestyles and massive homes as a reward for their criminal actions and greed.

We get more homeless families.

They keep talking about helping the homeowners that are losing their homes to the real crisis. They have yet to do anything for them. They all talk about it and they all do nothing. They pass programs with so many loopholes to turn down the homeowners that I have yet to hear of one home being saved.

And what about the millions of Americans that already lost their homes?

Nothing. They will do nothing for them.

California GOP Voter Registration Fraud Arrest

Something you rarely ever hear about.. The GOP is trying to tag ACORN and the Obama campaign with the hoax of voter fraud... An actual arrest for what is the real voter registration fraud being used as voter suppression efforts by the GOP:

• BREAKING: CA GOP's Voter Reg Contractor Arrested for Reg Fraud
• VIDEO: Brad Breaks the Story LIVE on Fox News (w/ John Fund)!
  
  
• Washington Post: 1000's of Voters 'Incorrectly' Purged from Rolls
  
  
• Watchdog: Enormous 'Problems Facing Voters' Nationwide
  
  
• AZ Republican Promises to Go After Diebold
  
  
• WV: Touch-screen Votes Flipping to McCain in Early Voting
  
  
• TN: E-Registration Computers Delay Voting

(h/t Jim Starro at ePluribus Media)
Previously brewed here:

Supreme Court Stops Ohio GOP Voter Suppression Effort

Via the AP, the Supreme Court kicks the voting suppression efforts of Republicans where it counts... Out of court:

The Supreme Court is siding with Ohio's top elections official in a dispute with the state Republican Party over voter registrations.

The justices on Friday overruled a federal appeals court that had ordered Ohio's top elections official to do more to help counties verify voter eligibility.

Across the nation the GOP is trying to suppress newly registered voters' rights. Because a very few people turned in ridiculous voter registration cards the GOP has been trying to use it as an excuse to boot as many of the millions of newly registered voters from voter lists.

Republicans screech about "Mickey Mouse and Acorn!"

I say "GOP voter caging and voter suppression."

"I'm astounded that this issue is being trotted out again. Based on what I saw in 2004 and 2006, it's a scare tactic."

Who's that speaking? And what's he talking about?

That's fired US Attorney David Iglesias talking about the news leaked today that the DOJ and FBI are opening a nationwide investigation into allegations that the community organization ACORN is somehow working to undermine the November election through fraud. For more from Iglesias and his fellow fired US Attorney Bud Cummins, don't miss TPMMuckraker's Zack Roth's interview post from earlier this evening.

Previously Brewed in New Milford:

Acorn Droppings

Aldon Hynes over at Orient Lodge has been on top of sorting out the issues from the non-issues involved with the GOP's assault on Acorn in Connecticut.

This is problematic in many different aspects. Perhaps most troubling is that it shows a disregard for due process and the American belief that people, and organizations are innocent until proven guilty. Yes, two complaints have been filed. As noted above, there is good reason to question these complaints, and I believe that the SEEC will do an appropriate job in investigating the complaint and taking proper action.

The other concern is that instead of trying to make sure that “Everyone who is eligible has the right to register and vote”, Mr. Healy is calling for an end of a very successful and at least by every indication I’ve seen, properly run, voter registration effort.

Brad Blog has a whole bunch of it too:

So, Where's That ACORN 'Voter Fraud'?!

So far, nobody's been able to offer us a single instance of voter fraud as committed by ACORN, or even by any of the 1.3 million registered by them over the past two years. You sure wouldn't know it if you listened to the crazed rightwingers...

• McCain Was ACORN'S 2006 Keynote Speaker
  Video: Tells crowd they are "what makes America special"
  
  
• Brad at UK's Guardian: 'The Republican Voter Fraud Hoax'
  
  
• 1.3 Million Reasons for the GOP 'Dixie-Chicking' of ACORN
  
  
• See BRAD BLOG's "GOP ACORN 'Voter Fraud' Lie" page for more...

My suggestion when it comes to Acorn?

Grab a beer, read those sources... And then tell the GOP to go fuck themselves and their attempts at short cutting Republican voter caging efforts to its source based on the fact that Americans are registering to vote en masse because they are so pissed at Republicans and they can't wait to vote for candidates like Barack Obama and Jim Himes.

Heck... With the mob tied Cappiello running in CT-05, some Nutmeggers are probably even excited about voting for Chris Murphy.

Chris Healy is DWI if he thinks anyone is going to help him suppress the legitimate rights of people to vote just because he is tired of having to drink away the daily hangover of working for the GOP. Nobody in Connecticut is fat, drunk and stupid enough to take Chris Healy's low road on this issue.

Mickey Mouse tried to register to vote?

Whoopde-fuckingdoo! The GOP can grow up and get back to me when Mickey Mouse actually shows up on election day and tries to vote.

Does anyone discount the probability that Republicans filled out some of the fake cards to try and fabricate an Acorn scandal? And it really is a non-issue from the get go as long as the people paid to process the forwarded registration cards and the poll workers do their jobs.

Economy Derails and McCain says: Slime Obama!

Via Steven D at The Booman Tribune:

DOW Jones Industrial Index down nearly more than 300 400 500 points since the opening bell. NYSE Trading would be suspended one hour if there is an 1100 point decline in the DJIA before 2:00 pm today under current NYSE rules.

And $600 Billion Dollars of US assets frozen in UK bankruptcy involving Lehman Brothers.

In Europe and Asia markets are going nuts too.

And all McCain wants to do, via BooMan, is point to stupid GOP talking points about Barack Obama.

McCain's announced plan was to make every attempt to shift the focus of the campaign off of the economy and onto Barack Obama. In particular, McCain wanted to use a kind of Kevin Bacon seven-degrees-of-separation argument to tie Obama to the dubious activities of people for which Obama bears no responsibility. It was a weak strategy to begin with, but a tumbling stock market will make it impossible. Perhaps even more troublesome for McCain is the fact the Obama campaign has launched a major media campaign to re-raise and educate the public about the Keating 5 scandal.

Don't look at the economy that is running off the tracks and "ssshhhh! about all that Keating 5 stuff":

John "Keating 5" McCain can color me surprised...

I never noticed...

Bill Maher's "New Rule" asking people not to think the worst about John McCain just because he is white:

Now, take a look at these pictures. Here are the CEOs of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG and the Lehman Brothers. I know the first thing that jumps out about these faces is that they all happen to be white, and they all happen to be responsible for stealing. But what you have to understand is that these whites are a product of a society that made them that way. It was the neighborhoods and the schools they went to: Harvard, Yale, the Wharton School of Business. They never learned the value of doing real, actual work and the first step to fixing that is better role models, so kids growing up white today don’t think the only way out of Westchester is corporate crime. Or a government handout or sailing. So I get it, the temptation is to look at McCain and vote against him because you don’t see an individual, you just see another typical welfare whitey.

And it’s true, he’s spent his entire life shuffling from one low-paying government job to another. Well, except those years he spent in prison. Typical! And between you and me, he’s not very articulate. Oh, he may have some street smarts, but he’s not what you call an educated man. He freely admits he’s ignorant about the economy. And apparently the only thing his white running mate knows how to do is crank out one baby after another. And now of course, her teenage daughter is pregnant out of wedlock. Because she learns it at home! But that doesn’t mean we should assume all white people are like that, just because so many of them are.

C&L has the video

It's not like John Keating 5 McCain should ever be damned for this kind of stuff just because he is white. McCain should be damned for this kind of stuff because he is in the GOP.

A little more on John "Keating 5" McCain:

During the 2000 Republican Presidential Primaries, Slate.com writer Chris Suellentrop wrote an excellent in-depth feature article about John McCain and his role in the Keating Five. This is a must read article for every American, especially for anyone who thinks John McCainis a hero.

Two Important things to know before you read the article:

1. John McCain admitted to intentionally filing false income tax returns to defraud the IRS by not claiming thousands of dollars in gifts McCain and his family received from Charles Keating and Keating’s company. Years later, when the IRS noticed Keating’s company had written off the gifts to McCain as business expenses, McCain fessed up and admitted filing false returns and made a “donation” to the U.S. Treasury to cover the amount he defrauded American tax payers. (Committing tax fraud is one of the least offensive things John McCain has done over his career, but this article just focuses on his role in the Keating Five, and the Lincoln Savings and Loan scandal of the late 1980’s-early 1990’s). McCain also leaked information about the Keating Five to the press multiple times in an effort to appear above the other Senators in the scandal. A 1989 Phoenix New Times article summed it up best with their title - McCain: The Most Reprehensible of the Keating Five.

2. John McCain’s wife, Cindy McCain, along with her father, made a $359,000 investment in retail property owned by Charles Keating in 1986, a year before John McCain first met with federal regulators on behalf of Keating. Keating was later convicted on 73 counts of fraud, conspiracy, and other crimes. Years later, Cindy McCain sold her investment for $15,000,000.

For anyone not aware of the Keating Five, here’s a very simple summary.

Because some in the media don't want you to know about the Keating 5... It is just a little bit too maverICKY all over again.

Meanwhile, Sarah Winky Palin is out there screeching that "this election is all about a guy who did bad things when Obama was 8 years old, dontcha know?":

Sarah Palin recently accused Obama of palling around with terrorists. This is funny because she has her own radical extremist connections that could be construed as terrorists as well. Palin accused Obama of seeing America as so imperfect, that he was pallin around with a terrorist. Funny enough Palin for years was pallin around with a group of Alaskan radicals that saw America as imperfect enough that they wanted to secede from the union.

While Obama knew Ayers years after he had reformed and began making an honest contribution to society, Palin was a member and or strongly affiliated with a radical Alaskan secessionist party whose founder died in plastic explosives deal gone bad. Her husband was definitly a member from 1995-2002 according to voting records. While is is questionable to call them terrorists, they were definitely radical secessionists who did not fall in line with the Republican credo of ‘loving America’ or McCain’s slogan ‘Country First’.

If you want a really good idea of about what Sarah Palin's connections to the secessionist group AKIP are, that article at Blackplanet goes on to interview AKIP leadership to try and get to the bottom of it.

Meanwhile, while many have known about the radical Mark Chryson's - Sarah Palin's friend of 15 years - ties to AKIP, what many people miss is that Mark Chryson appears to be a batshit loopy bigoted Nazi sympathizing holocaust denying type.

Here are some of the web sites Sarah Palin's Mark Chryson hosts on his own personal web pages, and this is some weird, scary and wacky stuff:

Okay, it appears that web-ak.com is a webhosting company that is owned by this friend of Palin's. I went to this site and had a look around. Under the links page, we find something called the "Waco Holocaust Museum". Now, note that this is on the links page and is hosted on the same domain. In fact, it appears to be the only thing on the links page on the same domain. At the bottom of this Waco page, there are more links, a big list of them at the bottom. Half the links don't work (archive.org anyone?), but the ones that do work include:

"Seventh Seal" An 'apolitical' history of the Axis (Nazis).

"The Confederate Memorial Association"

"Brasscheck" Appears to be a 9/11 truther site.

"Real History Archives" Assorted conspiracy theories.


"Brood of Vipers" More conspiracy theories.

"Final Conflict" Incoherent website about Nationalism. The page has an article "Did six million really die?"

Enjoy!

Mark Chryson is one radical, scary and wacko dude.

And Mark Chryson was friends of the Palins for 15 years - the entire time Todd Palin was a member of this radical secessionist group, AKIP - and Chryson even helped Sarah Palin take down the Alaskan GOP chairman.

Now... That is all just Secessionist Sarah Palin's ties to the far reaches of wingnuttery batshit loopyness, but not all of her ties to it...

a builder named Steven Stoll, a computer repairman named Mark Chryson, and a third man named Mike Christ. All three subscribed to a bellicose, "Patriot" movement brand of politics -- far-right libertarianism with a John Birch streak.

According to Stein, Steven Stoll -- whose local nickname, according to Phil Munger, is "Black Helicopter Steve" -- was involved in militia organizing in Wasilla the 1990s, and subscribed to most of the movement's paranoid conspiracy theories: "The rumor was that he had wrapped his guns in plastic and buried them in his yard so he could get them after the New World Order took over."

This wasn't particularly unusual in the valley at the time. Like much of the rural Northwest, survivalist worldviews often led to Patriot organizing activity and its attendant paranoia: "There were other folks who also got all worked up about the supposed Y2K thing," Stein said, recalling a home he'd looked at with a full array of bunkers and stored food supplies.

But Stoll, Mike Christ, and Mark Chryson were a special case: "They would demonstrate in front of the Wasilla Council," recalled Stein, saying that the causes varied but invariably involved an animus to "socialist" government, such as planning and public education. "This same group [Stoll, Christ, and Chryson] also challenged me on whether my wife and I were married because she had kept her maiden name. So we literally had to produce a marriage certificate. And as I recall, they said, ‘Well, you could have forged that.’ "

And they were a vocal part of Sarah Palin's base of support.

Look... These two incompetent, corrupt and failed conservatives can try to distract you from the GOP's economic legacy that is unfolding before your very eyes right now with BS about Obama as an 8 year old BUT I guarantee we will talk about what these two have done as irresponsible adults.

And the GOP better realize...

What This Election Is Really About

Barrack Obama on what this election is really about:

This financial crisis is a direct result of the greed and irresponsibility that has dominated Washington and Wall Street for years. It’s the result of speculators who gamed the system, regulators who looked the other way, and lobbyists who bought their way into our government. It’s the result of an economic philosophy that says we should give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else; a philosophy that views even the most common-sense regulations as unwise and unnecessary. Well, this crisis is nothing less than a final verdict on this failed philosophy – and it’s a philosophy I’m running for President to end.

That’s what this election is all about.

Crooks and Liars has some video up:

“I don’t know what yardstick Senator McCain uses, but where I come from, there is nothing more ‘fundamental’ than a job. The fundamentals of our economy are not strong and it’s time we had a President who understands that.” - Barack Obama

John "Keating 5" McCain can color me surprised...

I never noticed...

Bill Maher's "New Rule" asking people not to think the worst about John McCain just because he is white:

Now, take a look at these pictures. Here are the CEOs of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG and the Lehman Brothers. I know the first thing that jumps out about these faces is that they all happen to be white, and they all happen to be responsible for stealing. But what you have to understand is that these whites are a product of a society that made them that way. It was the neighborhoods and the schools they went to: Harvard, Yale, the Wharton School of Business. They never learned the value of doing real, actual work and the first step to fixing that is better role models, so kids growing up white today don’t think the only way out of Westchester is corporate crime. Or a government handout or sailing. So I get it, the temptation is to look at McCain and vote against him because you don’t see an individual, you just see another typical welfare whitey.

And it’s true, he’s spent his entire life shuffling from one low-paying government job to another. Well, except those years he spent in prison. Typical! And between you and me, he’s not very articulate. Oh, he may have some street smarts, but he’s not what you call an educated man. He freely admits he’s ignorant about the economy. And apparently the only thing his white running mate knows how to do is crank out one baby after another. And now of course, her teenage daughter is pregnant out of wedlock. Because she learns it at home! But that doesn’t mean we should assume all white people are like that, just because so many of them are.

C&L has the video

It's not like John Keating 5 McCain should ever be damned for this kind of stuff just because he is white. McCain should be damned for this kind of stuff because he is in the GOP.

A little more on John "Keating 5" McCain:

During the 2000 Republican Presidential Primaries, Slate.com writer Chris Suellentrop wrote an excellent in-depth feature article about John McCain and his role in the Keating Five. This is a must read article for every American, especially for anyone who thinks John McCainis a hero.

Two Important things to know before you read the article:

1. John McCain admitted to intentionally filing false income tax returns to defraud the IRS by not claiming thousands of dollars in gifts McCain and his family received from Charles Keating and Keating’s company. Years later, when the IRS noticed Keating’s company had written off the gifts to McCain as business expenses, McCain fessed up and admitted filing false returns and made a “donation” to the U.S. Treasury to cover the amount he defrauded American tax payers. (Committing tax fraud is one of the least offensive things John McCain has done over his career, but this article just focuses on his role in the Keating Five, and the Lincoln Savings and Loan scandal of the late 1980’s-early 1990’s). McCain also leaked information about the Keating Five to the press multiple times in an effort to appear above the other Senators in the scandal. A 1989 Phoenix New Times article summed it up best with their title - McCain: The Most Reprehensible of the Keating Five.

2. John McCain’s wife, Cindy McCain, along with her father, made a $359,000 investment in retail property owned by Charles Keating in 1986, a year before John McCain first met with federal regulators on behalf of Keating. Keating was later convicted on 73 counts of fraud, conspiracy, and other crimes. Years later, Cindy McCain sold her investment for $15,000,000.

For anyone not aware of the Keating Five, here’s a very simple summary.

Because some in the media don't want you to know about the Keating 5... It is just a little bit too maverICKY all over again.

Florida Outlaws an Open and Verifiable Vote Count

On this FOX news report their answer at the end of it is even more technology. But this does not - in any way, shape or form - address the reality of an open and verifiable vote in a recount... As Florida has outlawed hand recounts:



This needs to be challenged in the courts immediately so real recounts - including hand recounts - can and will go ahead as needed. Do any of you doubt that hand recounts will be needed? Why else would they be outlawing them now?

In other Florida news:

The location of a Bush fundraising event in Florida has been changed after event planners realized that the original host is under an IRS investigation. The event was originally scheduled to be at the home of John Boswell, whose Boswell House Ministries is undergoing an IRS probe.