Criminal Conservatives

James O'Keefe charged in alleged plot to bug Senator Mary Landrieu's office
Washington Post

The conservative young filmmaker whose undercover sting damaged a liberal activist group last year faces federal criminal charges in an alleged plot to tamper with the phones in the New Orleans office of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.).

For some reason the Washington Post is now running away from the original text of the story that said he was their bugging the place. Instead, he was "tampering" with the phones.

James O'Keefe was among four men who created a ruse to enter the lawmaker's downtown office, saying they needed to repair her telephones, according to court records unsealed Tuesday. O'Keefe used his cellphone to take pictures of two men, Joseph Basel and Robert Flanagan, who are accused in an FBI agent's sworn affidavit of impersonating telephone company workers. Stanley Dai is accused of aiding the Jan. 25 plot.

According to the FBI affidavit, Flanagan and Basel were dressed in blue denim pants, blue work shirts, light green fluorescent vests, tool belts and white construction-style hard hats when they entered the Hale Boggs Federal Building on busy Poydras Street. The pair told Landrieu's staff members that they were telephone repairmen and needed access to the office's main reception desk telephone.

I believe that the traditional costume for this farce is plumber's overalls.

Either that, or he simply has lost his grip on reality:

With just four days before the election and Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens insisting he's not a felon, the U.S. Senate race is white hot.

"I've not been convicted yet," Stevens said Thursday in a meeting with the editorial board of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. "There's not a black mark by my name yet, until the appeal is over and I am finally convicted, if that happens. If that happens, of course I'll do what's right for Alaska and for the Senate. ... I don't anticipate it happening, and until it happens I do not have a black mark."

Reality:

The federal prison closest to anchorage sits in tiny Sheridan, Ore., where the fenceless minimum-security wing already houses 491 inmates, including a few Alaska legislators who were greased by oil money. There's an outdoor track, plus lots of fresh air perfumed by local vineyards and what former Anchorage state representative Tom Anderson calls "very professional and respectful staff."

Joining them soon may be Senator Ted Stevens, Alaska's senior Republican, who was found guilty on Oct. 27 on seven felony counts related to $250,000 of unreported gifts from influential constituents.

Also, to make the point plainer, you can't "appeal" a conviction, unless you are, you know, CONVICTED!

Alaska panel finds Palin abused power in firing
Associated Press

Sarah Palin unlawfully abused her power as governor by trying to have her former brother-in-law fired as a state trooper, the chief investigator of an Alaska legislative panel concluded Friday. The politically charged inquiry imperiled her reputation as a reformer on John McCain's Republican ticket.

Investigator Stephen Branchflower, in a report by a bipartisan panel that investigated the matter, found Palin in violation of a state ethics law that prohibits public officials from using their office for personal gain.

The report found that Palin let the family grudge influence her decision-making even if it was not the sole reason Monegan was dismissed. "I feel vindicated," Monegan said. "It sounds like they've validated my belief and opinions. And that tells me I'm not totally out in left field."

Branchflower said Palin violated a statute of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.

The stupid part about this is that McCain's camp had to know that this was about to blow up on Palin. It was in all the newspapers, for Christ's sake... oops,

Republicans don't watch anything but Fox News, so I guess they didn't know.

Since the McCain camp will be launching all out attacks against Obama in order to distract folks from they economy, people should take time to visit this site to remind themselves of the story about the last time massive financial deregulation by McCain and his cronies ended up in disaster and cost the taxpayers a few billion.

Kyrgyz cops find weapons in US citizen's apartment
Associated Press

Kyrgyz police have uncovered a large weapons cache at an apartment rented by a U.S. citizen, officials said Tuesday, though American officials say the arms were meant to be used in counterterrorism training.

Authorities in the Central Asian nation say the cache included heavy machine guns, rifles, grenade launchers, handguns and several hundred rounds of ammunition.

"Counter-terrorism training" by who? The Irish Republican Army? The scriptwriters for 24? Who, but a criminal and/or a complete idiot stores explosives in an apartment building?

Housing Secretary Jackson to Resign, Official Says
NBC News

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson is resigning Monday, according to a government official.

Jackson is under criminal investigation at the same time the housing industry is in a crisis so serious that it has imperiled the nation's credit markets, placing the country on the brink of what some economists predict will be a major recession.

The department has scheduled a 10 a.m. announcement Monday. The government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the announcement, did not disclose the reason for Jackson's resignation.

Jackson, 62, has been fending off allegations of cronyism and favoritism involving HUD contractors for the past two years.

The FBI has been examining the ties between Jackson and a friend who was paid $392,000 by Jackson's department as a construction manager in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

When the existence of the criminal probe was revealed in October, the White House said President Bush supports Jackson and that Jackson "expects that the investigation will clearly establish that he did nothing improper or unethical."

And since now it will show he is, in fact, guilty as sin, time to "spend more time with the family".

In another controversy, the housing authority in Philadelphia has filed a lawsuit alleging that Jackson tried to punish the agency for nixing a deal involving music-producer-turned-developer Kenny Gamble, a friend of Jackson.

At a congressional hearing this month, Jackson repeatedly refused to answer questions about the Philadelphia redevelopment deal.

Because honest public officials always refuse to answer relevant questions about their actions, especially under oath.

The HUD IG found that Jackson blocked the money "for a significant period of time." Jackson blamed his own aides for the delay.

In 2006, Jackson triggered the IG inquiry when he said publicly that he revoked a contract because the applicant who thanked him said he did not like President Bush.

Jackson later told the IG's investigators that "I lied" when he made the remark about taking back the contract.

As opposed to lying now about lying then.

F.B.I. Investigates Missing G.O.P. Money
New York Times

Hundreds of thousands of dollars are missing and presumed stolen from the chief fund-raising arm of House Republicans, according to party officials who described the findings of emergency internal audits.

The financial records of the group, the National Republican Congressional Committee, may also have been falsified for several years, Republican officials said. The campaign committees of several Republican lawmakers may also have been victims of a scam that is now under criminal investigation by the F.B.I.

At least, they now have the decency to steal from each other, rather than stealing from the public.

The audits were ordered after the abrupt departure several weeks ago of Christopher J. Ward, who had been treasurer of the committee. Lawmakers said that Mr. Ward, who served a similar role for dozens of individual members of Congress and their political committees, is the focus of the F.B.I.’s criminal investigation.

Oh my! I wonder how much money he stole from them?

The committee has acknowledged publicly that it was aware of “irregularities in our financial audit process” and that it had called in the F.B.I. in February because “these irregularities may include fraud.”

But until now the committee has not acknowledged that any money was missing from its bank accounts or that the financial irregularities might extend beyond the national committee to the campaign funds of individual Republican lawmakers who also worked with Mr. Ward, a longtime party operative.

The Republican officials said they could not discuss the details of their findings on the record because of the continuing criminal investigation.

Criminal investigations are such a blessing. It means answering no questions at all about what your crooked colleagues have been up to.

Mr. Ward had been treasurer of the national Republican committee since 2003. He had also been a partner in a private campaign consulting firm, Political Compliance Services, that gained notice in the 2004 presidential campaign because of its work on behalf of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group that ran advertisements that criticized the military record of Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democratic presidential nominee.

Now who would have thought that someone tied in to the Swift Boat smear campaign would have questionable ethics and honesty?

Committee officials said that bookkeeping irregularities were discovered in January after the chairman of the panel’s auditing committee, Representative Mike Conaway of Texas, a certified public accountant, repeatedly asked to meet with representatives of the audit firm that was supposed to be reviewing the committee’s books.

“I just kept insisting that we meet with the auditors,” Mr. Conaway said in an interview. “It finally came into my head, and as the circumstances unfolded, that no audit had been done.”

He said that Mr. Ward had promised to set up a meeting with the auditors and scheduled the gathering in late January.

But 30 minutes before the scheduled meeting, committee officials said, Mr. Ward sent an e-mail message to colleagues announcing that, in fact, no audit had been done. The officials said the fund-raising committee had since determined that its books had not been audited since 2003 and that Mr. Ward had submitted a series of falsified audits. The committee then called in the F.B.I. It is not clear, lawmakers said, if any fees were paid to audit firms in recent years by the committee, or where that money ended up.

Tell me again how Republicans with all their business "expertise" are better qualified to handle our money? It never occurred to anyone to conduct an audit of millions of dollars in donations?

“This was a longtime trusted employee and there were no obvious signs that he was living beyond his means,” Mr. Conaway said.

He was just living like your typical Republican, you know, better than 99% of the nation.

NRCC Asks FBI to Investigate Possible Financial Fraud
Roll Call

The National Republican Congressional Committee said Friday that it has contacted the FBI about possible financial improprieties at the committee. Without providing details, the NRCC released a statement from Chairman Tom Cole (Okla.) that said:

"As part of our ongoing efforts to institute and strengthen financial controls at the National Republican Congressional Committee, we learned earlier this week of irregularities in our financial audit process. Since these irregularities may include fraud, we have notified the appropriate law enforcement authorities. We are aggressively and thoroughly investigating the matter and, while we determine the details, we have terminated our relationship with a former employee who was engaged as an outside vendor."

Extremist taunts his victims from prison
Associated Press

Victims of Eric Rudolph, the anti-abortion extremist who pulled off a series of bombings across the South, say he is taunting them from deep within the nation's most secure federal prison, and authorities say there is little they can do to stop him.

Housed in the most secure part of the prison, he has no computer and little contact with the outside world aside from writing letters.

But Rudolph's long essays have been posted on the Internet by a supporter who maintains an Army of God Web site. The Army of God is the same loose-knit group that Rudolph claimed to represent in letters sent after the blasts.

In one piece, Rudolph seeks to justify violence against abortion clinics by arguing that Jesus would condone "militant action in defense of the innocent."

Really? And where do you get that viewpoint from? Can't say I have seen anything of the sort in the Bibles I've read.

Rudolph recalls how Emily Lyons, in court, described the pain of her injuries and made an obscene gesture at Rudolph as she showed off a finger mangled by the blast. Rudolph writes: "It was a great speech and one that the denizens of freedom should be proud to enshrine in a museum somewhere. Perhaps they could put it next to MLKs `I Have a Dream.' They could call it `I Have a Middle Finger.'"

Jeff Lyons said he doesn't often look at the Web site, which has had some items posted for nearly two years. But he said he is worried that Rudolph's messages could incite someone to violence against abortion providers.

"He's still sending out harassing communication. He's still hurting us," Lyons said.

Diane Derzis, who owns the Birmingham clinic that was bombed, killing a police officer, said someone should stop Rudolph.

Bureau of Prisons regulations give wardens the right to reject correspondence by an inmate for "the protection of the public, or if it might facilitate criminal activity." That includes material "which may lead to the use of physical violence."

The Bureau of Prisons failed to respond to repeated inquiries from The Associated Press about whether Rudolph's writings violate prison rules.

He is allowed to do this because BushCo agree with his actions. They are hoping more people will be incited to violence against pro-abortion groups.

But U.S. Attorney Alice Martin, who helped prosecute Rudolph for the Alabama bombing, said there is nothing the prison can do to restrict Rudolph or the supporter who keeps posting his writings, anti-abortion activist Donald Spitz of Chesapeake, Va.

"An inmate does not lose his freedom of speech," she said.

Really? The inmates of Guantanamo would beg to differ.

New charges filed against former top CIA official, contractor
The Fresno Bee

New charges have been filed alleging that the CIA's former No. 3 official used his influence in that role to support a proposed $100 million government contract for his best friend, a defense contractor, in return for lavish vacations, private jet flights and a lucrative job offer.

The indictment, returned Thursday by a federal grand jury in San Diego, supersedes charges brought in February against career CIA man Kyle "Dusty" Foggo and Poway-based contractor Brent Wilkes. The charges grew from the bribery scandal that landed former U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham in prison.

According to the new indictment, Foggo provided Wilkes with "sensitive, internal information related to our national security," including classified information, to help him prepare proposals for providing undercover flights for the CIA under the guise of a civil aviation company and armored vehicles for agency operations. Foggo allegedly then pushed his CIA colleagues to hire Wilkes' companies without disclosing their longstanding friendship.

In a June 2005 e-mail to the head of CIA air operations quoted in the indictment, Foggo offered to "use some 'EXDIR grease'" on Wilkes' behalf - apparently a reference to his title as the agency's executive director.

Prosecutors say that in return, Wilkes offered to hire Foggo after he retired from government service. In the meantime, he allegedly treated his friend to a Scottish golf trip during which they racked up a $44,000 hotel bill at the luxurious Pitcastle Estate.

Any more questions about why BushCo was so hot to fire the San Diego prosecutor?

'Scooter' Libby guilty on four of five counts
CNN

Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby has been found guilty on four of five counts in his perjury and obstruction of justice trial.

Libby was convicted of:

- Obstruction of justice when he intentionally deceived a grand jury investigating the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame;

- Making a false statement by intentionally lying to FBI agents about a conversation with NBC newsman Tim Russert;

- Perjury when he lied in court about his conversation with Russert;

- A second count of perjury when he lied in court about conversations with other reporters.

Jurors cleared him of a second count of making a false statement relating to a conversation he had with Matt Cooper of Time magazine.

Libby, 56, faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison and a fine of $1 million. A hearing on a presentencing report is scheduled for June 5.

CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said, "He is virtually certain to go to prison if this conviction is upheld."

After the verdict was read, Libby was fingerprinted and released on his own recognizance.

Why? Why not lock him up immediately? If it were any other person off the street, they would never have left jail.

Since his lawyer will file appeal after appeal, motion after motion, Libby will likely be dead of old age before he actually ends up in prison.

But, it is still a win for the good guys.

Merry Fiztmas, Charlie Brown!

Man Denies Raping Woman While In Town For GOP Convention
Associated Press

A lawyer who leads a Michigan young Republicans organization pleaded not guilty on Friday to raping a woman while in the city for a convention last July.

A grand jury on Feb. 7 returned a 17-count indictment against Michael A. Flory, 32, including charges of rape, kidnapping, aggravated burglary, gross sexual imposition and witness intimidation.

While it would never surprise me that a conservative could commit such acts of depravity, I must question the charge of "gross sexual imposition". I think that is pretty much covered in the charge of "rape". Prosecutors erode their credibility when they "pile on" charges. I think we can all agree that rape is a "gross sexual imposition" by its very nature, so unless this is referring to some act outside the rape, it is simply piling on.

And before anyone points it out, I am aware that people are innocent until proven guilty. But as I am not an officer of the court, nor a member of the jury that will hear the case, I am not required to make such presumptions. That said, I have no opinion of his guilt until I actually see the evidence, and reserve the right to defend him or condemn his as the evidence may indicate.

Daughter of Supreme Court justice charged in DUI
Chicago Tribune

A daughter of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was arrested Monday night in Wheaton and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and child endangerment, Wheaton Deputy Police Chief Thomas Meloni said.

Ann S. Banaszewski, 45, was stopped about 7:25 p.m. in a 1996 Ford Econoline van near Gamon Road and Longfellow Drive after a citizen reported a possible drunken driver was at the McDonald's restaurant near there, Meloni said.

Three of Banaszewski's "small children" were in the van with her at the time, leading to the child endangerment charge, Meloni said. He would not disclose their ages. Meloni would also not disclose details of her alleged intoxication, but said she submitted to a field sobriety test, though he could not disclose its outcome.

Seems Fat Tony really taught his daughter how to be a fine and upstanding citizen who respects the law and conservative Catholic values.

If she plays her cards right maybe her dad will appoint her president.

Thompson: Libby prosecutor out of control
Associated Press

Former Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., criticized Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald’s handling of the CIA leak investigation Tuesday, saying the prosecutor had to have known from the start that it was not a crime to disclose Valerie Plame’s identity as an agent.

Fred, I know that you don't have the brain power of a box of cake mix, so I will explain this to you in simple words.

Your boy Scooter is NOT charged with outing Plame. He is charged with perjury and obstruction of justice. What that means is that when Fitz asked him, under oath, about the outing, Scooter-boy lied. He not only lied, he willfully tried to prevent Fitz from doing his job, hence the obstruction of justice charge.

I know its hard for Republicans to understand, but lying about things other than blow jobs is actually wrong, especially when you lie under oath. Yeah, yeah, Clinton and his penis. But he was acquitted, so I can't help you.