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Open thread
- By Phillip Brownlee
- Posted Oct. 6, 2006 at 12:05 a.m.
- Filed under Open thread
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67 Comments
More political money ignored by the Kansas press:
$100,000 Contribution from Kansan in 2002 Paying Dividends for Kansas Democratic Party in 2006?
http://www.saljournal.com/blogs/?p=1360
Slink back to the silent swamps of the Salina blog KSmeadowlark.
Ok Last time.
We have many new posters since the last “meetup” in June.
Is there any interest in another blog meet up?
Giving donations is the way we do politics in America. What is wrong with Tiller participating? Are you just mad because Tiller’s donation did not go to Republicans?
Another signing statement from Bush, and you’re gonna love this one. NOT
WASHINGTON -President Bush, again defying Congress, says he has the power to edit theHomeland Security Department’s reports about whether it obeys privacy rules while handling background checks, ID cards and watchlists.
In the law Bush signed Wednesday, Congress stated no one but the privacy officer could alter, delay or prohibit the mandatory annual report on Homeland Security department activities that affect privacy, including complaints.
But Bush, in a signing statement attached to the agency’s 2007 spending bill, said he will interpret that section “in a manner consistent with the President’s constitutional authority to supervise the unitary executive branch.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061005/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_privacy
KC Star Video: Kline faults Kansas City Star for erroneous Sunday editorial
Here’s a direct link to the video:
http://interface.audiovideoweb.com/lnk/il80win10138/100206_KLINE.wmv/play.asx
http://feeds.kansascitynews.net/?rid=479f8e5896920233&cat=cc264e50ceab3697&f=1
““Quite frankly, the editorial does not meet the standards of a major metropolitan daily newspaper,” Kline said in a short news conference in front of The Star’s building at 18th Street and Grand Boulevard.”
“Miriam Pepper, The Star’s editorial page editor, said the initial information about Harris came from the Kansas Department of Corrections. A department official contacted The Star on Monday to say that the information he provided the newspaper was in error.”
So….
Where was values boy yesterday?
Too cowardly to write as a republican shill with all his “values” boys in congress in so much trouble?
On vacation?
On hiatus?
Out to lunch? heheheheh. We’ve known that for a long time.
Could the WE be waking?
Could we be free of the hack formerly known as values boy?
Or does he need TWO WEEKS to come up with a lame excuse for the gop congress critters and their leaders who protect pedophiles.
As values boy’s REAL god, the preznit might say…
“It’s hard work”…
…defending the gop’s hypocritical scum masquerading as “protectors” of our morals.
heheheheheheh.
Where oh where was values boy yesterday?
I can only hope to utter the words “buh-bye” to his one sided, unbalanced and totally inappropriate on the editorial page writing.
So brent, let’s hope this really is buh-bye for you.
hee hee hee hee
why would it take values boy two weeks to write excuses for his oh so moral majority in congress?
Hell, it only took half a day for someone to blame it on the democrats. I think TM gets that honor here. It only took a day for Pauli’s idol, matt drudge, to blame the pages themselves for “egging on” the congressmen.
What could be taking so long? Or could it be that values boy isnt getting his daily tin-foil hat transmissions from the gop?
I mean, since the usual talking points authors are so busy right now covering their own asses with “plausible deniability”.
And they are also pretty busy taking aim in that circular firing squad on the hill.
heheheheheheheh
Today’s Bushism”
“The reason I believe in a large tax cut is because it’s what I believe.”12/18/2000
The shortest example on record for circular logic.
AMERICA HELD HOSTAGE:DAY 2084….
lucee – You missed the point. It is not about anyone having the freedom to donate to a candidate of their choice. It is about people and organizations that find ways around the donation limits that is wrong. If Tiller gave to a candidate say for the state Senate his limit to them would be $2,000 but if he gives to different political pacs he can see that the same Senate candidate can get unlimited amounts of money from him.
” It is about people and organizations that find ways around the donation limits that is wrong.”
hee hee hee hee
I am so sure, sts, that repubs NEVER do such thing.
heheheh. Once again, you must believe six impossible things before breakfast.
MOST CORRUPT CONGRESS EVER:
http://www.netscape.com/viewstory/2006/10/05/is-this-the-most-corrupt-congress-ever/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Fbill-moyers%2Fdelay-abramoff-and-the-_b_16534.html&frame=true
DeLay, Abramoff, and The Public Trust (191 comments )READ MORE: Jack Abramoff, New York Times, Indictments, Karl Rove, CBS, Tom DeLayBack in the first Gilded Age, Boies Penrose was a United States senator from Pennsylvania who had been put and kept in office by the railroad tycoons and oil barons. He assured the moguls: “I believe in the division of labor. You send us to Congress; we pass laws under which you make money… and out of your profits you further contribute to our campaign funds to send us back again to pass more laws to enable you to make more money.”
Gilded Ages – then and now – have one thing in common: Audacious and shameless people for whom the very idea of the public trust is a cynical joke.
A recent CBS News/New York Times poll found that 70% of Americans believe lobbyists bribing members of Congress is the way things work. Findings like these underscore the fact that ordinary people believe their bonds with democracy are not only stretched but sundered.
You see the breach clearly with Tom DeLay. As he became the king of campaign fundraising, the Associated Press writes, “He began to live a lifestyle his constituents back in Sugar Land would have a hard time ever imagining.” Big corporations provided private jets to take him to places of luxury most Americans have never seen – places with “dazzling views, warm golden sunsets, golf, goose-down comforters, marble bathrooms and balconies overlooking the ocean.” The AP reports that various organizations – campaign committees, political action committees, even a children’s charity established by DeLay – paid over $1 million on hotels, restaurants, golf resorts and corporate jets in DeLay’s behalf.
DeLay was a man on the move and on the take. But he needed help to sustain the cash flow. He found it in a fellow right wing ideologue named Jack Abramoff. Abramoff personifies the Republican money machine of which DeLay with the blessing of the House leadership was the major domo.Just last month Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to fraud, tax evasion, and conspiracy to bribe public officials, a spectacular fall for a man whose rise to power began 25 years ago with his election as Chairman of the College Republicans. Despite its innocuous name, the organization became a political attack machine for the Far Right and a launching pad for younger conservatives on the make. “Our job,” Abramoff, then 22 years old, wrote after his first visit to the Reagan White House, “is to remove liberals from power permanently [from] student newspaper and radio stations, student governments, and academia.” Karl Rove had once held the same job as chairman. So did Grover Norquist, who ran Abramoff’s campaign. A youthful $200-a-month intern named Ralph Reed was at their side. These were the rising young stars of the conservative movement who came to town to lead a revolution and stayed to run a racket.
Abramoff made his name, so to speak, representing Indian tribes with gambling interests. As his partner he hired a DeLay crony named Michael Scanlon. Together they would bilk half a dozen Indian tribes who hired them to protect their tribal gambling interests from competition. Abramoff and Scanlon came up with one scheme they called “Gimme Five”: Abramoff would refer tribes to Scanlon for grassroots public relations work, and Scanlon would then kick back about 50% to Abramoff, all without the tribes’ knowledge. Before it was over the tribes had paid them $82 million dollars, much of it going directly into Abramoff’s and Scanlon’s pockets.
Some of the money went to so-called charities set up by Abramoff and DeLay that filtered money for lavish trips for members of Congress and their staff, as well as salaries for Congressional family members and DeLay’s pet projects. And some of the money found its way to the righteous folks of the Christian Right.
It gets worse.
Some of Abramoff’s money from lobbying went to start a non-profit organization called the U.S. Family Network. Nice name, yes? An uplifting all-American name, like so many others that fly the conservative banner in Washington. But the organization did no discernable grassroots organizing and its money came from business groups with no demonstrated interest in the “moral fitness” agenda that was the network’s professed aim.
Let’s call it what it was: a scam – one more cog in the money-laundering machine controlled by DeLay and Abramoff. A former top assistant founded the organization. DeLay’s wife also got a sizeable salary.
Twenty five years ago Grover Norquist had said that “What Republicans need is 50 Jack Abramoffs in Washington. Then this will be a different town.”
Well, they got what they needed, and the arc of the conservative takeover of government has now been completed.
Here we come to the heart of darkness.
One of Abramoff’s first big lobbying clients was the Northern Marianas Islands in the Pacific. After World War II the Marianas became a trusteeship of the United Nations, administered by the U.S. Government under the stewardship of the Interior Department. We should all remember that thousands of Marines died there, fighting for our way of life and our freedoms. Now, the main island, Saipan, has become known as America’s biggest sweatshop.
In 1998 a government report found workers there living in substandard conditions, suffering severe malnutrition and health problems and subjected to unprovoked acts of violence.
When these scandalous conditions began to attract attention, the sweatshop moguls fought all efforts at reform. Knowing that Jack Abramoff was close to Tom DeLay, they hired him to lobby for the islands. Conservative members of Congress lined up as Abramoff’s team arranged for them to visit the islands on carefully guided junkets. They flew first-class, dined at posh restaurants, slept in comfort at the beachfront hotel, and returned to write and speak of the islands as “a true free market success story” and “a laboratory of liberty.”
Abramoff took Tom DeLay and his wife there, too. DeLay practically swooned. He said the Marianas “represented what is best about America.” He called them “my Galapagos” – “a perfect petri dish of capitalism.”
For his services to the Marianas Jack Abramoff was paid nearly $10 million dollars. One of the sweatshop moguls with whom Abramoff was particularly close contributed half a million dollars to – you guessed it – Tom DeLay’s U. S. Family Network.
To this day, workers on the Marianas are still denied the federal minimum wage while working long hours for subsistence income in their little “petri dish of capitalism” – “America at its best.”
There are no victimless crimes in politics. The cost of corruption is passed on to you. When the government of the United States falls under the thumb of the powerful and privileged, regular folks get squashed.
Washington would have you believe this is just “a lobbying scandal.” They would have you think that if they pass a few nominal reforms, put a little more distance between the politician and the lobbyist, you will think everything is okay and they can go back to business as usual.
They’re trying it now. Just look at Congressman John Boehner, elected to replace Tom DeLay as House Majority Leader. Today he speaks the language of reform, but ten years ago Boehner was handing out checks from the tobacco executives on the floor of the House. He has thought nothing of hopping on corporate jets or cruising Caribbean during winter breaks with high-powered lobbyists.
Moreover, the man Boehner beat to succeed DeLay – Congressman Roy Blunt – has been elected to DeLay’s first job as Majority Whip despite being deeply compromised by millions upon millions of dollars raised from the same interests that bought off DeLay.
And what now of DeLay? He’s under indictment for money laundering in Texas, but the other day the party bosses in Congress gave him a seat on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, and – are you ready for this? – they put him on the subcommittee overseeing the Justice Department which is investigating the Abramoff scandal, including Abramoff’s connections to DeLay.
Business as usual. The usual rot. The power of arrogance.
I have painted a bleak picture of democracy. I believe it is a true picture. But it is not a hopeless picture. Something can be done about it. Organized people have always had to take on organized money. If they had not, blacks would still be three-fifths of a person, women wouldn’t have the vote, workers couldn’t organize, and children would still be working in the mines. Our democracy today is more real and more inclusive than existed in the days of the Founders because time and again, the people have organized themselves to insist that America become “a more perfect union.”
It is time to fight again. These people in Washington have no right to be doing what they are doing. It’s not their government, it’s your government. They work for you. They’re public employees – and if they let us down and sell us out, they should be fired. That goes for the lowliest bureaucrat in town to the senior leaders of Congress on up to the President of the United States.
If you wanna look at the REAL masters of circumventing campaign contribution laws…
check out the darlings of the right in kansas. americans for prosperity and club for growth.
Then you can see how REAL manipulators work….
Hey, i have a question for anyone out there who might know…
Why is it Sedgwick County doesn’t have Reverse 911? Butler County does, I think Hutch has it. Why not Sedgwick?
(Reverse 911 is where 911 calls you to tell you that there is an emergency, i.e. fire, convict loose, etc…)
From the Parsons Sun:
Thursday’s editorial
The race is on
Voters can tell when there’s a real race by the big guns that come out, and we in the 2nd Congressional District have a real race. Challenger Nancy Boyda is taking another run at Congressman Jim Ryun, and the one-time Republican has Ryun searching for help.
The proof is in an invitation to a Ryun fundraiser, and the big gun is Vice President Dick Cheney. The whole point of the effort is to help Ryun rake in the dough so he can outspend Boyda, which should be interpreted as buying his seat in Washington for another two years.
The price to attend? A couple can get in for the modest contribution of $200, but the real money comes when egos determine they want to participate in the “VIP Photo Opportunity” at a whopping $1,000 each. Just think: A real photo, standing next to one of the most controversial vice presidents of the United States, to hang on the wall.
Loyal Republicans who are intrigued with the photo should remember that by buying the photo op they are also contributing to Ryun’s campaign chest. While Ryun obviously has his strong supporters, there is a huge base of Republicans who wish he would just go away. Feeding his campaign chest isn’t the way to make that happen.
Recent polling by the Boyda camp puts her a hair above Ryun, which is saying a lot in a strong Republican state. Ousting an entrenched congressman, regardless of which party is doing the vying, is extremely difficult.
But Boyda is tenacious in her determination to give everyone in the 2nd District a voice, not just a select few of the same ilk. She is extremely bright and able to debate the issues unlike any challenger Ryun has faced. In fact, when side by side, Boyda shows those who are really listening Ryun’s inability to deviate from catch phrases or to move beyond pablum. While Boyda eagerly seeks out questions and discussions, Ryun simply takes questions that he seldom really answers.
Ryun has never really embraced all of his constituents, as demonstrated during redistricting efforts in 2002. This is the man who tried to move seven counties of Southeast Kansas into western Kansas’ 1st District – which would then have reached 500 miles diagonally across the state, casting us into obscurity. That should not be forgotten.
This is a real race. Boyda’s strength in the polls, and Ryun’s need to lure in campaign dollars by dragging the vice president here, are proof of that.
- Ann Charles
Editor and publisher
MY FAVORITE PARAGRAPH:
“Ryun has never really embraced all of his constituents, as demonstrated during redistricting efforts in 2002. This is the man who tried to move seven counties of Southeast Kansas into western Kansas’ 1st District – which would then have reached 500 miles diagonally across the state, casting us into obscurity. That should not be forgotten.”
“the big gun is Vice President Dick Cheney”
Maybe they will go hunting together.
HOPE SO!Ryun hasn’t worked for the people, but he’s done quite well for himself.
ROBERT GREENWALD DOCUMENTARY “IRAQ FOR SALE” TO BE SHOWN FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC IN WICHITA
You probably remember a few of Robert Greenwald’s other movies such as “Outfoxed” and “WalMart: The High Cost of Low Price.” In “Iraq for Sale,” Robert takes you inside the lives of soldiers, truck drivers, widows and children who have been changed forever as a result of profiteering in the reconstruction of Iraq. The film uncovers the connections between private corporations making a killing in Iraq and the decision makers who let it happen.
http://www.dfalink.com/search_iraqforsale.php
TUESDAY Oct 10 at The Central Library Auditorium, 3rd floor, 7:30 pm
THURSDAY Oct 12 at the Rockwell Library on 9th (between Oliver and Woodlawn), 7:30 pm
Come early and enjoy the “previews.”
Tony–
Reverse911 is a brand name of one brand of public notification systems. There are different types, premise based (where you have the computer/lines in your facility)and hosted, where the company has the facilities, and calls numbers provided.
Other than the cost, there are several concerns of these notification systems. One is PRIVACY…where people scream about emergency responders having their phone number (even tho it is in the phone book). Another is updating..with a metro area of Wichita have over 100,000 residential phone numbers, updating changes is a full time job.Another area of concern is the increase in cellular only households, with no land line. It is much harder to accumulate a database with cellular numbers.
Tornado warnings are commonly used as examples for such outcalling. With many premise based systems (with limits on simultaneous calling), it would take hours to notify every residence in Wichita. Hosted systems cost every time you use them, but many companies do provide no cost campaigns for Amber alerts.
A small, premise based system can run over $40,000. Hosted systems can cost much, much more than that, depending on size and usage.
So Mrage has indicated to me that he knows my identity and is threatening to jeopardize my employment. Here is his message to me.
**********************************
“Alright Dr. CFI challenge you to put your own profanity on the chalk board or a slide show at ***** and see what a class of students say.You do hate women! Otherwise your obvious disgust with Dr. Rice wouldn’t have gone so far. Disagreeing with her politics is one thing. Breaking her femininity down, she’s an lady, like a piece of filth, its the way you talk about women. Hate women in authority, I don’t know. You can be easily vulgar about them.I hope the girls in your life know that side of you. Philosophize the outrage, recent school killings or in society daily, men who assault girls only. You just did that with words.Not man enough to stand behind what you said. It doesn’t hurt Rice, she never heard your fine cussing abilities but its you that goes along anonymous, justifying yourself as some authority with reasonability’s.From a dictionary: Philosopher–person who meets difficulties calmly.Everyone can’t be calm all the time, but when difficulties happen what are the reactions. I haven’t hurled what you said to any girl in my life or described them that way. I’ve been very angry at women, but I respect them.You may have a PH.D but your no gentleman. “
A little food for thought.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=2531534&page=1
KSFG – there is a big difference between Americans For Prosperity and Club For Growth advocate for issues vs. how Tiller does. First of all the information you receive comes from Americans For Prosperity and Club For Growth. They do not funnel money through any back outlets like Tiller. If Tiller wants to put his name on information in a campaign that would be fine. Funneling money so that you can spends hundreds of thousands without people seeing it is wrong.
thanks raptor
Consistent with what I have said that Closet Gays in a hateful group will be pathological:
Closet Life
But interestingly, it isn’t only social conservatives discussing a possible tie between sexual orientation and Foley’s predatory behavior with pages.Richard Isay, a Weisll Cornell Medical College professor of psychiatry and author who has studied gay men and women, says his psychiatric studies show that closeted gays who work for organizations that are inhospitable to them may be more prone to “doing things that are going to get themselves into trouble.”
“If the atmosphere of the Republican Party is not hospitable to gay people … you’re going to have more problems,” Isay said.In his academic opinion, Isay believes that Foley’s pathology includes “much more than just this kind of behavior — hitting on pages,” but likely includes other kind of secretive behavior.He also believes that Foley “had an enormous need to be caught and punished. You don’t send e-mails to underage pages unless you want to be caught, and that’s directly related to impoverished self-esteem and the need to be punished.”Gay conservative writer Andrew Sullivan wrote on his blog this week that the Foley scandal wasn’t about pedophilia or homosexuality.”[I]t’s fundamentally about the closet,” he wrote. “The closet is so psychologically destructive it often produces pathological behavior. When you compartmentalize your life, you sometimes act out in one compartment in ways that you would never condone in another one. Think Clinton-Lewinsky, in a heterosexual context. But closeted gay men are particularly vulnerable to this kind of thing. Your psyche is so split by decades of lies and deceptions and euphemisms that integrity and mental health suffer. No one should excuse Foley’s creepy interactions; they are inexcusable, as is the alleged cover-up. … But there’s a reason gay men in homophobic institutions behave in self-destructive ways.”
So Tiller’s donation was alot like Tom Delay’s shuffling of his donations?
Oh, I get it now. Republicans can do it just not Democrats?
raptor, tony – perhaps we need a system targetd for situations like that in NC today near out chemical and manufacturing plants.
CF,I see you have been the recipient of some hostility as well.At the rate things are going, we’ll soon have some attorneys well versed in blog law:http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20061003/1a_cover03.art.htm
So, N.Korea may test a nuke this weekend;
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/10/06/nkorea.nuclear/index.html
and, if they do so, what can the U.S. do about it? Maybe this is K.Rove’s October surprise?
Mrage–
Public officials like Condilingus basically can’t sue for libel.
That’s why Falwell could put out a video saying that the Clinton’s sold crack and used the profits to kill Vince Foster.
If you don’t like America’s freedom of speech, you could always move to North Korea.
A lot of people there think like you do.
OMGosh, CF, “you’re no gentleman.”
All your aspirations to be a bourgesoie suck-up to those in power, to be part of the old-boy back-slappers in some tony gated community, to be president of the local Rotary club . . . gone, gone with the wind, my friend.
sniff, sniff . . .
“Threaten?” CF
I have no intention of following you around with what you said.
Those were your words, live with them. Anonymously written, be proud of that.
I’m not a stalker of people who post shit. It is free speech, but some words aren’t worth saying publicly about anyone to make a point.
What’s your description of Mark Foley beyond a gay senator stalker, pedophile. What other descriptive words are necessary. Be more vulgar about Mark Foley all you want, but wants the point?
Try decent conversation and still be critical.
—–
Great commentary on BushDaBum:
http://www.netscape.com/viewstory/2006/10/05/olbermann-slams-bush-on-lies-about-democrats/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.crooksandliars.com%2F2006%2F10%2F05%2Folbermanns-special-comment-it-is-not-the-democrats-whose-inaction-in-the-face-of-the-enemy-you-fear%2F&frame=true
Olbermann: And lastly tonight, a Special Comment, about — lying. While the leadership in Congress has self-destructed over the revelations of an unmatched, and unrelieved, march through a cesspool… While the leadership inside the White House has self-destructed over the revelations of a book with a glowing red cover…
The President of the United States — unbowed, undeterred, and unconnected to reality — has continued his extraordinary trek through our country rooting out the enemies of freedom: The Democrats.
Transcripts below the fold
Yesterday at a fundraiser for an Arizona Congressman, Mr. Bush claimed, quote, “177 of the opposition party said ‘You know, we don’t think we ought to be listening to the conversations of terrorists.”
The hell they did.
177 Democrats opposed the President’s seizure of another part of the Constitution*.
Not even the White House press office could actually name a single Democrat who had ever said the government shouldn’t be listening to the conversations of terrorists.
President Bush hears… what he wants.
Tuesday, at another fundraiser in California, he had said “Democrats take a law enforcement approach to terrorism. That means America will wait until we’re attacked again before we respond.”
Mr. Bush fabricated that, too.
And evidently he has begun to fancy himself as a mind-reader.
“If you listen closely to some of the leaders of the Democratic Party,” the President said at another fundraiser Monday in Nevada, “it sounds like they think the best way to protect the American people is — wait until we’re attacked again.”
The President doesn’t just hear what he wants. He hears things, that only he can hear.
continued in link …
Interesting …
“Marijuana’s Key Ingredient Might Fight Alzheimer’s
By Charles Q. ChoiSpecial to LiveScienceposted: 05 October 200610:04 am ET
The active ingredient of marijuana could be considerably better at suppressing the abnormal clumping of malformed proteins that is a hallmark of Alzheimer’s than any currently approved drugs prescribed for the treatment of the disease.”
http://www.netscape.com/viewstory/2006/10/05/marijuanas-key-ingredient-might-fight-alzheimers/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.livescience.com%2Fhumanbiology%2F061005_alzheimers_marijuana.html&frame=true
On the other hand, cocaine accellerates onset of Alzheimers.
Ben, thanks for the post on Olbermann. Regarding the THC and Alzheimer’s; I wonder if the reason cocaine accelerates the progress of the disease is due to the refining process, and whether the natural substance from which cocaine is made contains an equally salubrious component?
I don’t know vaughn but it sure expalins a lot about the current and former occupants of the White House.
At least this guy went after females!
The Congressman’s Night on the Town
By Lloyd GroveFriday, April 4, 2003; Page C03
In his dark suit, knotted tie and official congressional ID pin on his lapel, Republican House member Mike Ferguson looked out of place at the Rhino Bar and Pumphouse, a Georgetown saloon popular with college kids.
“He shouldn’t have even been at the bar,” 21-year-old Georgetown University junior Michelle Mezoe told us. “He and his group” – two unidentified staffers, also wearing suits – “stuck out like sore thumbs.”
Yesterday Mezoe accused the congressman, a 32-year-old married father of three representing New Jersey’s 7th District, of grabbing her in the wee hours Wednesday morning. She said Ferguson removed his ID pin and handed it to her, saying she could keep it if she would “come back and have a drink with me.” Mezoe said she refused to return it unless Ferguson apologized for his “disrespectful” behavior. An apology was not forthcoming.
Ferguson initially refused to speak to us, leaving his chief of staff, Chris Jones, to counter: “What I can tell you is this is absolutely ridiculous and false. . . . The congressman emphatically denies this.” Jones wasn’t at the bar.
Late last night Ferguson changed his mind and dictated to us the following statement:
“I was having a couple of beers with my staff when she approached us and noticed my pin and began to ask about it. In a conversation that lasted fewer than five minutes, I had taken off my pin to show it to her. She then took the pin and walked away, and wouldn’t give it back until the police were called. Any other sensational stories about this are outrageous and false.”
Mezoe said the incident began around 1 a.m. as she strolled past Ferguson, who was leaning against the bar on the second floor. She said Ferguson, a Georgetown alum, grabbed her by the arm and pulled her toward him, introducing himself as a member of Congress. He pulled out his congressional ID card, she said, and pointed to his pin. “That’s special,” she said sarcastically. “Yes, it is special,” he replied earnestly, she said.
“He came across as very arrogant, as though he was invincible,” Mezoe said. “He appeared older, slightly balding, not someone I wanted to talk to. . . . It was very obvious I was a student and not someone to sit down and talk politics with over a late-night drink. I don’t think he was interested in my political views.”
Mezoe told us that as last call was announced, Ferguson gave her the pin – which she attached to her shirt. When she declined Ferguson’s offer to “come back” for a drink, Mezoe continued, Ferguson demanded his pin back. According to Mezoe and other witnesses, she refused to return it unless he apologized, and walked away.
A Ferguson staffer tried to change her mind. “This guy in a suit came up and said, ‘I’m sorry, it’s my fault. I brought him here and got him drunk, and that’s why he’s behaving like this.’ He asked for the pin and started stroking my hand. I told him, ‘If you think you’re helping the situation, you are sadly mistaken.’ ”
Then, Mezoe added, a young jeans-wearing woman, who seemed to be with Ferguson’s group, approached and tried to remove the pin by force, grabbing at her chest. The attempt was unsuccessful. Finally, Mezoe said, she was granted a brief audience with the congressman as his aides stood close by. “What is your perspective on what happened here?” she asked. “You stole my pin and you won’t give it back,” he answered. To which Mezoe replied: “How old are your children, Congressman Ferguson?”
Mezoe said the staffers immediately interposed themselves between her and their boss. “You have offended the congressman,” one informed her, she said.
Ferguson’s chief of staff yesterday insisted that no such words were ever uttered, that no hand-stroking occurred, and that no young woman with the congressman’s party ever approached Mezoe and grabbed at her.
But everyone agrees that Mezoe stood her ground, even after manager Dave Nelson offered her a $50 gift certificate to return the pin. “I won’t be bribed, it’s the principle of the thing,” Mezoe responded, continuing to insist on an apology. Nelson then called the police, and after 2nd District D.C. Police Officer Robert Ferretti arrived and cuffed one of her wrists, Mezoe said she returned the trinket. No charges were filed, and the police department’s public affairs office declined to make Ferretti available for an interview.
http://www.netscape.com/viewstory/2006/10/05/gop-congressman-accused-of-groping-college-student-at-bar/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fac2%2Fwp-dyn%3Fpagename%3Darticle%26contentId%3DA23714-2003Apr3%26notFound%3Dtrue&frame=true
Anybody else but me notice that its mostly about a dozen or so of us liberals on these blogs? You think this really does any good?
Does that ferguson coconut think he is a kennedy? :)
V.L.R.B!
Troll alert! The short post above is not mine.
I guess what I most enjoyed about the Stones concert was seeing 20,000 plus Bible-belt, Midwestern, values believing, over-the-hill’ers rockin out to Sympathy for the Devil
More from the Bush administration:
“White House Aide to Rove ResignsWASHINGTON (AP) – A key aide to presidential politicalstrategist Karl Rove resigned Friday after a congressional reportlisted hundreds of contacts between disgraced lobbyist JackAbramoff and the White House.Susan Ralston, special assistant to President Bush, submitted aresignation letter to him less than five weeks before congressionalelections in which corruption and scandal are emerging as majorissues.“She did not want to be a distraction to the White House atsuch an important time and so we have accepted her resignation,”White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said.“We support her decision and consider the matter closed,”Perino said.Abramoff has pleaded guilty to fraud and now is now cooperatingwith prosecutors in an influence peddling investigation that hasrocked Capitol Hill.Critics have pointed to Ralston as evidence that Rove – and thusBush – are possibly closer to Abramoff than the White House hasacknowledged. Ralston was Abramoff’s administrative assistant athis lobbying firm and, after Bush took office, assumed the samepost with Rove.The House Government Reform Committee last week issued a reportsaying that based on documents supplied by Abramoff’s formerlobbying firm, he had 485 lobbying contacts with White Houseofficials over three years, including 10 with Rove. At the time,the White House said it was unclear whether all the listed contactswere legitimate because they were based on sometimes-sketchyinformation provided by Abramoff himself.The report also said Abramoff and his team offered White Houseofficials tickets to 19 sporting events and concerts, and Ralstonwas the most frequent recipient.Perino said the resignation of Ralston, who helped organize andcoordinate the day’s events and message of the White House, followsa White House review of the congressional report.“Our review of the House Government Reform Committee’s reportis complete,” Perino said. “We expect nothing more after ourthorough review. She recognized that a protracted discussion ofthese matters would be a distraction to the White House and she’schosen to step down. “The report said Ralston received tickets to nine events from2001 to 2004: four Capitals hockey games, one Baltimore Oriolesbaseball game, two Wizards basketball games, and Bruce Springsteenand Andrea Bocelli concerts.The report did not make it clear whether Ralston or other WhiteHouse officials paid for any of the tickets. In one case, Ralstonwrote to Abramoff saying Rove “has to pay” for the tickets hereceived to an NCAA basketball playoff game.In another instance, Ralston wrote an e-mail saying she was“willing to pay” for Capitals tickets, but Abramoff replied: “Noproblem, and you don’t have to pay.”And after an Aug. 23, 2003, Orioles game that Ralston attended,she e-mailed Abramoff: “Thanks for the tix to the game last night.Our guests had a terrific time. (W)e had fun and appreciate yourgenerosity.””
http://my.netscape.com/corewidgets/news/story.psp?cat=50700&id=2006100617160001171044—–
And the Jack Abramoff matter claims a victim:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/10/06/whitehouse.abramoff.ap/index.html
Ben, I shoulda just waited…
Don’t call her a victim – she was as corrupt as the reat of them. Lets just hope she sings.
Iraq, from a Marine Officer’s point of view in country:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1543658-1,00.html
Ben: meant to put “” around victim.
Mrage?
For a couple days now I’ve seen you stalking C F because of comments he made about Condi Rice. You earlier explained that this was because you thought no lady should be spoken of that way.
I agree……sorta.
Let me assure you I would not hesitate to use far more colorful language to Miss Rice’s FACE or even to her family.
Rice is a jackbooted flunky to the worst president in history. She deserves every bit of scorn she gets.
And just who made you the blog language police anyway Mrage? I don’t normally use foul language but the knowledge that it burns some tender widdle ears makes it damned tempting.
Thanks vaughn. Sometimes I add (sic) afterwards.
Since this is an open thread I’d like to post a little ad.
Woofstock.
Joyce and I have supported the Humane Society in various ways over the years but we’ve never been to Woofstock.
It’s going on tomorrow at Sedgwick Co. Park from 10:00 to 3:00. I’ve been asked to help a friend that is putting on a herding demonstration all day.
For a nominal fee (I don’t know how much) you will be able to instinct test your dog on sheep. Doesn’t have to be a herding dog, he’s done Yorkies in the past! Every year that he has done it he has had more people signed up than he could get to. Everyone has a blast!
If you would like to bring your dog out and have a good time tomorrow with other dog lovers I recommend that you come to Woofstock.
Samson and I will be at the sheepherding demo and would enjoy meeting you and your dog!
Hank
Dam Ben…
U must have nothing to do at work today…
;-)
Oh, by the way, for you link freaks:
http://woofstock.kintera.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=182414
Enjoy hank! I’ll be at work but hopefully a slow day.
Hi Tony – I had some “help” (sic). Guy even claimed that Hank is a pinko!
On a much lighter note;
I’m sponsoring a 24hr caption contest. Anyone that wants to participate just click on the link and provide a caption for the picture. You have until 7pm tomorrow.
http://img.timeinc.net/time/daily/2006/0610/foley_bush1005.jpg
Rules, must be clean! Anyone can come up with someting profane, I’m looking for clever!
I’ll come up with a prize later, we didn’t sell everything at our last garage sale.
Hank
“That nerve gas canister was this big! But it got away!”
I swear, the deficit is only going to grow by this much…
‘tween I and CF…JR
Anyone is free to say what they want, but the point? Why does this audience need to hear the foulest language.
Suffer the consequence if you dare speak foul smack in someone’s face. Its an attack to that individual, not free speech.
Condi’s politics don’t matter. Have decency with the individual even here, anonymously. Attack the politics or problems that person created.
Use of the foulest language is a reflection on the person saying it. Dumbass and childish.
—–
Go Mrage!
Mrage,Don’t you know that blog Sheriff JR calls the shots around here!? This blog ain’t big enough fer two sheriffs ya hear?
hehehehehe
Yeah JR, aren’t you worried about the 16 and 17 year olds on this blog?
I’ll bet the women over at N.O.W. wouldn’t appreciate your tone.
Oops! Gotta take that back, they didn’t have a thing to say about Ol Billy Clinton taking advantage of a young female intern.
I was watching one of the news shows and they were making a huge deal about how little the Dems did to Clinton vs how much is being done by Repukes to Dashel and Foley…
I’ll bet you if Foley was screwing around with a couple of hot female interns, than his own party wouldn’t be turning against him like they are… They would be sweeping it under the carpet like they do for everyone else who screws around with hot female interns…
Oh REALLY soothsayer? Then explain this.
“KSFG – there is a big difference between Americans For Prosperity and Club For Growth advocate for issues vs. how Tiller does. First of all the information you receive comes from Americans For Prosperity and Club For Growth. They do not funnel money through any back outlets like Tiller. If Tiller wants to put his name on information in a campaign that would be fine. Funneling money so that you can spends hundreds of thousands without people seeing it is wrong”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/8/18/191323/544
“That was in 2004. Mother Jones tells us what the Kochs did in 2000. “David Koch and his wife Julie gave every penny of their $487,500 in campaign contributions during the last election cycle to the Republican Party, its candidates, and conservative political action committees. If President Bush follows through on his campaign promises to loosen environmental protections and limit jury awards against corporations found guilty of wrongdoing, the money that Koch Industries saves on fines and legal damages could make those political contributions look like pocket change.” (Mother Jones, March 5, 2001)
Did someone say jury awards, wrongdoing, fines? Let’s pace ourselves. We’ve not yet covered the Kochs’ massive lobbying machine: “Koch Industries has spent another $2.4 million `lobbying’ on more than 50 pieces of legislation before Congress, helping shape the debate on everything from limiting class action lawsuits to repealing the estate tax.” (PublicIntegrity.org, July 2004, reposted March 2006)
And we haven’t peeped at the Koch’s affairs with 527 committees, the mistress-on-the-side versions of political action committees. “Named after the section of the Internal Revenue Service code under which they’re organized, these political committees can raise unlimited amounts of money to influence elections. “
I’m so proud…
My 4 year old twins just recited the entire pledge of allegiance all by themselves (for the most part).
That’s my boys!
(Under God Included, and i aint much of a christian)
Hank–
Bush is saying: “I slept this long last night.”
Actually, what constitutes “profanity” is an ongoing discussion and changes a bit from every generation. Keep in mind Clark Gable’s shocking–shocking!–closing line from ‘Gone with the Wind.’
I don’t believe in gratuitous use of any particular words, but sometimes the designated profane words get the point across the best. . .or they wouldn’t exist.
But I do understand being sensitive to others, particularly those with small children who’d rather not increase their kids’ vocabulary. However, small children usually aren’t reading editorial blogs (those who are a little older already know them anyway).
One of the most profane words in the English language (and my apologies for typing it) is “war.”
P.S. Mrage, I had a philosophy professor who went out of his way to use the ‘p’ and ‘c’ words on a occasion–I forget his reasons. He was an odd bird, but also a good teacher. You see, there’s something called “tenure”. . .
Tony – doesn’t surprise me, they are bright little munchkins. Where I come from it isn’t the “under God” part that was controversial – it was the “indivisible” part that we left out in public school.
Bush: “If you must know, it’s about this big!”
“Funneling money so that you can spends hundreds of thousands without people seeing it is wrong.”
STS, you crack me up. Go to the kansas ethics commission website and check out the contributions made by CforG and AforP.
See anything that looks familiar? Like contributions to other groups to funnel money to other people?
heheheh. STS, we are not gonna do your research for you. Look it up yourself.
Bush: “This is how long I have left in office”.
Bush: “Everything’s bigger in Texas, so a Texan page would be about yay long!”