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Well, this is an interesting snippet in RollCall:
...At the same time, the FBI and the Department of the Interior are investigating a series of earmarks pushed through Congress over the past several years by Stevens for an Alaska nonprofit tied to Trevor McCabe, a former Stevens aide and a business partner of his son, Ben, sources familiar with the investigation said.
According to the sources, the investigation is focused on how millions in federal funds earmarked for the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward, Alaska, were used and how more than $500,000 made it to McCabe.
Marcia Blaszak, Alaska Regional Director for the National Park Service, declined to comment Monday on the specifics of the multi-agency inquiry, citing the fact that it is an "ongoing federal investigation." However, Blaszak did say staff from her office have been cooperating with investigators from DOI's Office of Inspector General. "A number of our employees have been contacted" by DOI's IG, Blaszak said....
As Howie notes, all three of Alaska's elected representatives to Congress are currently dealing with investigations of alleged improprieties at the moment. And all three are Republicans. The Hill reports that Stevens' home was raided by both the FBI and the IRS -- which really raises my law enforcement antennae that serious money and transactional questions have been raised. The IRS involvement is very bad news indeed. From the NYTimes:
The businessman, Bill J. Allen, the founder of an oil fields service company that has won tens of millions of dollars in federal contracts with the senator’s help, has pleaded guilty to bribing state legislators....
A spokesman for the Anchorage office of the F.B.I., David Heller, would not discuss details of what was being sought in the raid and referred calls to the Justice Department’s public integrity division in Washington. The division handles major corruption cases involving public officials.
Mr. Stevens is one of more than a dozen current and former members of Congress who are known to be under scrutiny by the F.B.I. ...
Can you say guilty plea with a deal for cooperation on the part of Mr. Allen? I know I can.
Home raids have become something of a trend for Beltway insiders of the Republican persuasion of late:
The Anchorage FBI office did not return a request for comment late yesterday. Two House Republicans, Rick Renzi (Ariz.) and John Doolittle (Calif.), have experienced home raids by federal authorities this year, but a raid on Stevens’ residence marks a significant intrusion of congressional corruption scandals into the more clubby Senate.
Stevens’ financial disclosure form for last year, which he requested that the ethics committee review before submission, is still under wraps after the senator requested a second deadline extension, as The Hill reported earlier this month.
The spectacle of corruption and failure continues. The Grand Obstruction Party, coming to a corruption investigation near you. Is Sen. Stevens headed down the toobz? Stay tuned...
(In the meantime, let's revisit this oldie but goodie. Because everyone needs a good belly laugh once in a while. Photo above via Dave Gorman.)
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zed
ooohhh. two days in a row. now to read …..
am I still alone up here?
Is Ed*ard Teller at the Lake? BigMitch?
Ted Stevens on a bridge to nowhere… North of no south.
No TexB you’re not alone.
TexB @ 3
No.
So how many repub members of congress have been investigated? indicte? Convicted? in the past 6 years?
Bush’s high noon letter:
Dear Homeland terrorists:
I hereby pardon Gonzo and Ted Stevens. Yes, I spy on you all. Bite me.
Shop - or go to one of our new Halliburton detention centers.
Signed,
King GWB43.com
This is from a DKos diary entitled “Is that Legal?
Seems someone tipped off Stevens before the search.
LS @ 8
You got the scoop!
Can someone make sense of what this might be about?
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news.....517-6.html
Can you say guilty plea with a deal for cooperation on the part of Mr. Allen? I know I can.
MUWAHAHAHA! The amount of corruption sticking to the Repube Party is breathtaking to those who pay attention.
I’m worried this isn’t being communicated to the general electorate however. The Conglomerate Media is doing their real job very well so far. As usual, it’ll be up to us to root out the evildoers.
Sometimes it is amusingly difficult to live in Alaska. A local radio station had a person in Girdwood who said they all wore sunglasses and the paintjob on Ted’s house would get any other remodeler fired.
It’s times like this that makes it hard for me to write/call/fax these folks. (Actually Lisa M is the only one who replies and they are standard pap.)
Good morning. My favorite Stevens non-denial denial is that he paid every invoice he received.
Bill Moyer’s Journal from last week about earmarks with Taxpayers for Commonsense spoke about the Bridge to Nowhere…
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/jour.....ript2.html
T-minus-11-minutes
a slightly belated happy day to all the birthday firedogs ….
EPU’d from the last thread:
1. Happy Birthdays to egregious & Scarecrow! Woot!
2. Robert Farley had the best takedown of yesterday’s self-serving op-ed by O’Hanlan & Pollack. Go check it out at TAPPED
Work for peace, every day.
TexB @ 7
it’s getting to the point that all repub spokespeople might as well pack up their podiums and go home…..if everything that’s the subject of an “ongoing investigation” is off limits, ain’t nuthin left to say no mo.
Man we’re all just fulla OT questions, aren’t we?!
Well, with apologies, here comes another just EPU’d downstairs:
Adie @ 174
pretty please? anyone?
TexB @ 7
Not enough!
Does Stevens have a primary opponent yet? Does anyone know the deadline for filing to run in the Alaska gooper primary?
Goopers could screw themselves with this one if they don’t act quickly.
Advance Notice - How is that a RAID!
Stevens said in a statement that his attorneys were advised of the impending search yesterday morning. He said he would not comment on details of the inquiry to avoid “any appearance that I have attempted to influence its outcome.”
so, what? the WH is going to rush its letter out to Specter at 11:59? or will they go all passive/aggressive and put it out at 12:03?
OldCoastie @ 24
Maybe it will be an announcement by Bush himself.
“…But for obscene gestures it’s hard to beat “the bridge to nowhere.” $223 million dollars earmarked for a bridge to a small local airport and fewer than 100 constituents living on island in Alaska. Taxpayers for Common Sense dug up the story and turned it over to the press. The earmark had been the work of Alaska’s representative Young (then head of the House Transportation Committee), and his colleague in the Senate, Ted Stevens (then chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.) They figured they had the political clout to push their earmark through.”
BILL MOYERS: The earmark for the bridge in Alaska was now the symbol of spending priorities grotesquely out of whack… but the message on the floor of the Senate was entirely different - don’t mess with the gentleman’s pork.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/jour.....ript2.html
Bottom line: we pay way too much in federal taxes.
p.s., sen. steevie. OH HAPPY DAY!
mebbe there be a lil’ justice in the midst of whirled peas after all.
I hope the toobz don’t hit Stevens on the way out. I almost hope Stevens holds on a little longer, so the Dems can trounce his corrupt ass in the elections. Alas, he’ll probably retire.
LS @ 8
Is it possible that they’ve spied on Nancy and she’s afraid of them?
tick-tock! Snarlin’ Arlen’s gonna be pissed!
RockPaperScizzors @ 26
I respectfully disagree. Bottom line: the Federal taxes we pay are not spent appropriately.
they keep saying Stevens is the longest running repub senator in history…..but wasn’t Strom Thurmond in office like, 150 years?
Speaking of evil Carolinians…..what ever happened to Jesse Helms? I will always cherish the memory of 1984, when I witnessed one of his re-election campaigns during my first year in law school. “Jim Hunt….a Mondale liberal.”
Some of my classmates VOTED for him. OMFG.
Mutant Poodle @ 14
I heard that bit on NPR this morning. He paid every invoice. The story said that Stevens allegedly had his Ski House remodeled with gubmint money.
I wish I could remodel my ski house.
Does ski house sound less ostentatious than a vacation home? I guess it does. Its different anyway. All these Republics remodelling their homes with the taxpayers’ money - they gotta mix it up a bit. Ski house it is.
Do note, dear friends, that when Stevens resigns “to spend more time with his family”, Alaska’s Republican governor, Sarah Palin, can’t appoint his successor. There HAS to be a special election.
This is because of a law passed in 2004 in the wake of Frank Murkowski’s appointing his darling daughter Lisa to succeed himself.
My computer clock says that it’s high noon in DC—anyone here gunfire- or a bombshell?
Helen at 31 — Exactly!
hackworth @ 33
Chalet…
Boston1775 @ 29
Could be, but I don’t think she is afraid of them.
We call our ski house —- Lego!
hackworth @ 33
The house is just the Capone gimmick, the tip of the iceberg of Stevens’ corruption. The Feds needed to search it, but not because of the remodeling.
mind the gap!
Phoenix Woman @ 34
Interesting. It’d sure be nice if Connecticut had such a law.
And hippo birdies to Scarecrow and egregious!
via dkos diary, Stevens may have been improperly tipped that the search was going to happen.
“paid every invoice he received” but not the ones that went elsewhere that he DIDN’T receive. Did he wonder why he never received invoices for roof, plumbing, electrical, windows, etc? Just the silly invoice for the doorknob that he paid promptly.
oddmommy @ 32
oddmoomy,
I believe Strom had some interim time out of office to break up his “service”
IIRC Jesse Helms is in Alzheimers territory
oh horrors! has the WH ignored Specter’s demand?
(the kabuki continues!)
If Senator Stevens goes down the Toobz, won’t he plug them up?
rwcole @ 35
nope…..ominous silence here in the nation’s capital.
punaise @ 41
clever!
Phoenix Woman @ 40
I dunno - crumpled $100 bills are surprisingly effective for wall insulation.
MSNBC this morning, when reporting on the corruption in Alaska, had to inject the 90K in Jefferson’s freezer and label all the scandal “bipartisan”. How fair and balanced they are!
Tick, Tick Tick,
Hell if the bombshell doesn’t arrive soon I’m gonna have ta head to the store for more COFFEE!
let’s be clear so we don’t get carried away with ourselves
the reason there haven’t been democrats in these scandals is the democrats haven’t been in power, they haven’t had the oportunity and they haven’t been seduced
power corrupts, abosolute power corrupts ever more
(I didn’t write that if you can believe it, it was someone named Lord Acton)
when the progressives are in controll the progressives will become corrupt and we have to be vigilant and hold their feet to the fire so it doesn’t happen
someone made a point a few days ago, I forget who it was;
the reason democrats aren’t implicated is the kay street project, they made sure democrats had no power and therefore the democrats had nothing to broker
that’s an excellant point
Actually, I would expect Angry Senator Ted to go down “a series of toobz,”
Pelosi ain’t afraid of no goopers—SHE’S WINNING!!!!
MSNBC seems to be expecting the “clarification”. I think W is going to say something.
my prediction on shorter bush;
“I wrote what spector told me might play”
perris @ 57
Bingo!!
…lost in the toobz… for 2 threads *sniffle*
when all calms down, i’d luv me a response to my #20. theez crooks have be tearin’ my hair out in great hunks. pleeze. would like to have some hope…
TexB @ 49
TPM:
let me rephrase that:
mined the gap!
Dan Schorr said on NPR last night that the NYT’s piece yesterday was a “gift” to Gonzo. I guess we get to see how accurate he was.
perris @ 57
More like “Thank you Senator for setting the stage for this latest bunch of horseshit.” Specter has been a GOP coverup artist for 40 years.
Bush:
I’m the Decider and the Commander Guy, and I’ve decided that Congress no longer exists…so move along now subjects.
Helen @ 31
Our economy is in a precarious place. When middle class people with good credit are losing their homes, when infrastructure over here is ignored to take care of the infrastructure we destroyed over there, when schools are cut to the bone, when the debt of this war is on our children’s credit cards and homeland security is a joke, our nation is in more jeopardy than being engaged in an illegal war.
We are in a precarious place.
Stevens has the longest tenure of any Republican currently in office.
-GSD
perris @ 53
Call me naive & stoopid in the bargain, but I refuse to buy wholesale the pug talking point that “everybody does it”
NO.THEY.DON’T!
Adie @ 59
Considering how many of the amendments are already gone, why do you imagine the rest of the constitution is still in effect?
40
Phoenix Woman says:
The house is just the Capone gimmick, the tip of the iceberg of Stevens’ corruption. The Feds needed to search it, but not because of the remodeling.
The Stevens ski house remodeling, its alleged improper funding and the raid was the NPR piece in total. There contained in the story no mention of any other alleged crimes or the fact that he was tipped off pre-raid.
One must use the tubes to get the real story.
Bush bombshell:
I’m the Dictator Guy.
BHatten @ 61
Mining for terroist. What else were they mining for? Who had access to the mining? Was the mining operation infiltrated by another country? Or countries?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072907Z.shtml
BHatten @ 61
Yep, a convenient leak of classified material for political purpose. Who da thunk it?
Remember the wingers calling for Keller’s (NYT) head in a noose for discussing the program.
LS @ 69
Dicktator? Me be confuzled.
Helen @ 31
I agree, but I believe federal taxation needs reformation. Imagine if any President had to ask each state for money to support earmarked pork, wars, no contract bids? I would rather pay more in state taxes and less in federal taxes. My state tax dollars would remain in state. As a blue city state, the majority of my federal tax dollars are spent in states with minimal city and state taxes. And when a disaster strikes, guess who pays, the blue states because we have the highest taxation.
Folks, telling someone’s attorney that a search may be forthcoming is generally done as a warning not to remove papers or other items that the searchers already know exist and are likely on the premises. In other words, it’s a shot across the destruction of evidence bow so that it doesn’t happen. It’s not uncommon in white collar cases where you have a cooperating defendant who has inside information in a particular conspiracy — at least not in my experience anyway.
Think about the large items of furniture, say, that Duke Cunningham purchased for his home with his ill-gotten gains…that sort of thing can’t just up and disappear without being noticed, eh?
Gang:
Let’s get one crooked thing straight:
It’s Arlen Specter. Spector, NOT.
Adie at 59 — Can I at least have time to grab a shower at some point in my day? I’ll take a peek at it as soon as I get my lunch…
OK OT sorry
Here from Edwards email today The Republican Party itself just emailed their entire national membership to lash out at John Edwards for daring to stand up and speak the truth about Bush’s failed strategy in Iraq.
My question is.. why not lock him up and throw away they key. Surely the recent proclamation from the king allows for his immediate detention, incarceration, incineration and internment?
OT to a previous thread, I spoke too soon, Rupert got it done. It’s the decline of western civilization as we know it:
TexB @ 67
to keep the NRA happy…..gotta keep that all-important Second Amendment, ya know.
TexB @ 67
i dunno. i’d just like to believe in somethin’, thas all…
okay wit you if i stir up a fuss once in awhile? is it wrong to care anymore? do we just roll over & play dead?
sorry… can’t join you in that gambit yet…
just checked, & still have a pulse.
what’s yer xcuse?
I have never watched George Galloways full testimony in front of the Senate.
It is so worth it.
The Iraqi sanctions “Infanticide maquerading as politics”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_.....556113.stm
That Bridge to Nowhere is starting to make a lot of sense now.
perris @ 53
I must be partisan now, because breaking the Republican stranglehold on our democracy set in motion by their majority requires a critical mass of people working in tandem.
But once a Democratic majority has overcome the Republican death grip, it will be time to work to grow a viable third party — or more — so that we will never again be held hostage by a scant majority. It is my personal goal to work for a third party as soon as possible, but it won’t happen until the Repugs are broken entirely and ready to begin over.
No one knows what tomorrow will look like,
let alone 2009; Pelosi’s apparently sanquine view, self-satisfied and condescending as it is, may well not be accurate.
So, we are all gambling that someone, anyone, will do the right thing, putting aside ‘partisan’ consideration and defend the constitution and our country.
Where is the real war? Is it ‘over there’ or is it here and NOW?
I’m checking the news websites for the noon letter. Nothing yet. All about Roberts leaving hospital. What’s with his marriage? Is his wife with him?
-ck- @ 47
Anybody seen the plunger?!
Is this the norm for a DOJ raid?
From The Hill:
In a statement released by his office Monday, Stevens said his attorneys were notified of the search Monday morning.
dakine01 @ 45
Wikipedia: Senate career
Apparently senators told Clusterfuck “so yer gonna really STICK to this cock and bull story about how Gonzo really told the truth cause we didn’t used ta call the program by the name we call it now?—well then we want it in WRITING you nincompoop!!”
Now if only HoJoe’s house would be raided by the FBI. Holy Joe is corrupt, he likes earmarks and hangs with the same folks (e.g. Mel Sembler) as the Republikans. Wouldn’t surprise me if he took a bribe or too.
Easy. It’s simply the decline of WSJ as we know it.
RockPaperScissors AT 73 - I’m right with ya. I’m in NYC and we’ve got all three governments taxing us plus an 8% sales tax.
Which would be just fine in my opinion if, say, the schools were teaching the kids.
“Decline” of the WSJ- not possible- at least not the editorial page.
It’s noon time, do you know where the letter is?
Will Stevens now be labeled a Democrat?
Anyone seen Gonzo’s letter? Or is it classified?
Now the WSJ is going to be taking on the the sinking mantle of Faux News.
Just another propaganda outfit.
I recommend anyone worth their salt who gets the WSJ will dump the subscription pronto.
The Paris Hiltonization of a one time media biggie.
Maybe the WSJ can run full page ads for Fox Network shows like Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire.
Everyone knew the WSJ editorial page was a bunch of righwing crapola, but now the whole news outfit is gonna be considered suspect.
Remember Rupert “I wanna influence the election” Murdick.
-GSD
Phoenix Woman @ 34
When time permits, please look at the Constitution’s Seventeenth Amendment; the law you mentioned appears to be consistent with the Seventeenth Amendment’s provisions.
Biodun @ 91
Ok, hyperbole aside. It’s the control of another major media source under an umbrella which has been shown to truck in specific sort of ideological propaganda. There will be those who say that the WSJ won’t change much. But I hold that it was, in the past, at least subject to the concerns of greedy capitalists rather than power hungry idealists. Not much difference, I’ll warrant, but some.
Time to invest in firearms! Seems to be the only amendment that hasn’t been altered by the Bush Administration.
The assault weapons ban was lifted in 2004 - Celebrate by buying AR-15s
When asked by reporters whether he saw any possible way he could avoid indictment and conviction on corruption charges, Senator Stevens reportedly answered - “NO!!”
truebluetexan @ 88
See Christy’s comment @ 74
Adie — The answer is that the Bush Administration cannot simply seize control under marshall law if the public refuses to allow them to do so, if the military refuses to execute unlawful orders, and so on. Sen. Leahy and others in Congress have already begun looking at the various edicts and emergency orders in place — and the more sunshine they get, the less likely they are to ever be executed.
Frankly, you can mark me down in the non-conspiracy-theorist category. BushCo may be power hungry, but they are inept and hamhanded at it, and they are running through supporters like water through a sieve.
Just too much for Americans to consider that this is what we are responsible for in Iraq
Iraq: One in seven joins human tide spilling into neighbouring countries
By Patrick Cockburn in Sulaymaniyah
http://www.informationclearing.....e18097.htm
Those neo-cons must be licking their “securing the realm” chops. I am more convinced than ever before that this is exactly want they wanted. Complete and utter chaos in Iraq!
Brief ThinkProgress post: CREW calls on Stevens to give up committee seat
Biodun @ 91
Naw, he promised to maintain the “editorial independence” of the WSJ. News integrity? Not so important