The Enron Scam

3:05 pm EST May 25th, 2006 | Politics | 20 Comments

Like Duncan, I lived in California during the California energy “crisis”. I had a unique perspective on the issue, because as the majority of the state was subject to rolling blackouts and insane energy bills as a result of the power company’s manipulation of the market, I had the good fortune to have my power controlled by the city of Los Angeles. Strangely enough, I had no blackouts, no wild gyrations in my electrical bill. Somehow the supposedly evil government had kept the lights on at a fair price while the great barons of privatization bent the people of California over a table.

It’s an experience that soured me on the privatization mantra and Democrats who bow at its altar (like Gray Davis). We shouldn’t do it with vital resources like power.

Kenny Boy!

12:05 pm EST May 25th, 2006 | Politics | 14 Comments

Oh, poor dears.

A federal jury today convicted former Enron Corp. top executives Jeffrey K. Skilling and Kenneth L. Lay of multiple fraud charges, writing a powerful coda to the government’s four-year-old push to hold executives accountable for wrongdoing on their watch.

Skilling, 52, and Lay, 64, once stood near the pinnacle of American business, as the energy trading powerhouse they created out of a stodgy pipeline company grew to become the nation’s seventh-largest public company. But their fortunes collapsed in a heap along with the business when it declared bankruptcy in December 2001.

I’m Glad A Stupid Talent Contest Is The Most Important Story In The World To Fox, NBC and USA Today

12:05 am EST May 25th, 2006 | Media | 17 Comments

Our Bold Congress

11:05 pm EST May 24th, 2006 | Politics | 2 Comments

Tired of being derided as a do-nothing congress, even with Republican control across the board, the GOP House of Represenatives has decided to act. Sure, they could deal with the important issues of our time: war, terrorism, health care, energy, immigration.

They chose internet casinos.

Today, the House Judiciary Committee will mark up a bill introduced by Rep. Robert W. Goodlatte (R) that would ban much online gambling, including bets on sporting events and games of chance — namely poker, which has enjoyed a boom in recent years.

The legislation could get an unexpected boost from the Jack Abramoff scandal. The disgraced lobbyist was key to blocking one of Goodlatte’s three previous attempts to ban Internet gambling, and backlash over corruption charges could help the current effort.

That’s right, because there’s a direct line between congressional Republicans being caught up in a web of corruption and graft between lobbyists and congressmen… and average Americans playing some harmless Texas Hold ‘Em in the privacy of their homes.

Dick Cheney & The Republican Culture Of Corruption

10:05 pm EST May 24th, 2006 | Politics | 11 Comments

I go by the credo of Earl Hickey, myself.

“When you do good things, good things will happen to you, do bad things and they’ll come back and bite you in the ass.”

Cheney May Be Called in CIA Leak Case

Vice President Dick Cheney could be called to testify in the perjury case against his former chief of staff, a special prosecutor said in a court filing Wednesday.

Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald suggested Cheney would be a logical government witness because he could authenticate notes he jotted on a July 6, 2003, New York Times opinion piece by a former U.S. ambassador critical of the Iraq war.

Fitzgerald said Cheney’s “state of mind” is “directly relevant” to whether I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the vice president’s former top aide, lied to FBI agents and a federal grand jury about how he learned about CIA officer Valerie Plame’s identity and what he subsequently told reporters.

Dennis Hastert & The Republican Culture Of Corruption

7:05 pm EST May 24th, 2006 | Politics | 15 Comments

Wonder why Dennis Hastert, the speaker of the House, has been so up in arms over criminal investigators raiding the House of Representatives?

Wonder no more.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dennis Hastert, is under investigation by the FBI, which is seeking to determine his role in an ongoing public corruption probe into members of Congress, ABC News has learned from senior U.S. law enforcement officials.

Federal officials say the information implicating Hastert was developed from convicted lobbyists who are now cooperating with the government.

Of course, the right’s response will be Dennis who? Clearly the Speaker of The House is a minor political figure. At least as minor a figure as the man who is right behind the vice president in the presidential order of succession.

>> ABC video of the story in question
>> Hastert denies the story, of course, but the DOJ had already denied it to Ross who said his sources stood firm
>> Hastert’s connections to Abramoff

Desperate Republicans

5:05 pm EST May 24th, 2006 | Politics | 19 Comments

The Republicans are comparing Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton and Ted Kennedy to the four horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Desperate.

Compare & Contrast

2:05 pm EST May 24th, 2006 | Politics | 17 Comments

Nancy Pelosi

Pelosi sent a letter Wednesday to Jefferson asking him to step down from the committee.

“In the interest of upholding the high ethical standard of the House Democratic Caucus, I am writing to request your immediate resignation from the Ways and Means Committee,” the letter said.

Dennis Hastert

Hastert didn’t hesitate when asked if DeLay has his “100 percent support.”

“Mr. DeLay does, right. Until it’s proven he’s actually done something that’s broken the rules and discredited himself and this Congress,” the Illinois Republican said as he walked from the House floor to his office.

Why Democratic Voters Aren’t Enthusiastic

1:05 pm EST May 24th, 2006 | Politics | 10 Comments

The Democrats in Washington exist in a world of their own making. They see the Republicans dropping in the polls, but wonder why they don’t see a corresponding increase or why their base often seems more angry with them than with the right. This is why. For some reason – and I can’t understand it – they keep acting as enablers, legitimizing the right’s assault on our government then wondering why we are suspicious when they say they’ll fight for us. They say they’re in the minority, so it doesnt matter – but it does matter. Vote against things that you think are wrong, don’t go along just to get along.

Low, Even For Bill O’Reilly

12:05 pm EST May 24th, 2006 | Politics | 19 Comments

Geez.

Some of you may have been watching the recent Bill O’Reilly rant about the American Civil Liberties Union when a local student’s name popped up.

O’Reilly snapped that Shannon Baldon was “getting a scholarship for refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance — very nice.”

It would have been very nice if O’Reilly, the top-rated Fox commentator, had got the story right.

…

Shannon’s mother, Camilla Conley, said O’Reilly was “taking a cheap shot at the ACLU and using a child to do it.”

Conley, who is supervisor of medical records at the University of Louisville’s Weiskoff Child Evaluation Center, said when she heard O’Reilly had mentioned her daughter, “I thought maybe he was finally showing some sense and saying something nice about somebody.”

The justifiably proud mom explained that her daughter got a scholarship for “establishing (Central’s ACLU) chapter and being a straight-A student and being an all-around good person.”