Political Roundup

Political stories from around the blogosphere.

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Dateline: Bin Laden

Interesting date for the release of the bin Laden tape: 1/19. That's the reverse of 9/11. (National Terror Alert)

Is that Loan Kosher?

The Raw Story reports Rep Chris Cannon (R-UT) (right) loaned nearly $100,000 to the president of a Nebraska bank.

A year later, the bank president extended between $250,000 and $500,000 in credit to Rep Cannon's kosher beef-packing plant -- Premium Beef -- in the Cornhusker state. (The Raw Story)

Vote for Pedro

Gov Frank Murkowski (R-AK) (right)has been borrowing a catch phrase from Napoleon Dynamite.

In at least two speeches in a week, the Associated Press has quoted the Governor saying "Flippin' sweet!"

Meanwhile, state Rep Eric Croft (D-Anchorage) described the Governor's 80-minute budget speech as "Flippin' long." (KTVA)

Friends in High Places

Three Congressmen helped a political contributor beat an investigation -- and cost taxpayers $300 million.

Podcast:


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A trio of Republican Congressmen used their clout to stop an investigation of a political contributor.

California Representatives John Doolittle and Richard Pombo hooked up with former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas in their effort.

They opposed a federal banking investigation into Houston millionaire Charles Hurwitz.

Holdover from the S&L Crisis

Mr Hurwitz once owned a controlling interest in the United Savings Association of Texas.

That Savings and loans' failure was one of the worst of the S&L disasters back in the 80s.

Mr Hurwitz's stood to lose 300 million dollars.

That's what the FDIC wanted back from the Mr Hurwitz's S&L collapse that cost taxpayers one-point-six billion.

But his lawyers -- with the help of Congressmen Dolittle, Pombo, and DeLay -- beat the bank investigators.

Congressmen to the Rescue

The lawmakers inserted regulatory agency investigation files into the Congressional Record.

That let Mr Hurwitz’s lawyers see what the investigators were up to -- including confidential testimony and all the evidence the FDIC had gathered.

The move effectively destroyed the government's case -- and the FDIC dropped the case.

Mr Hurwitz has been a loyal Republican political contributor -- raising $30,000 for Rep DeLay since 2000 -- including $5,000 for Mr DeLay's legal defense.

Election records show he and his political action committee have given Reps Pombo and Dolittle a total of $8,000 since 1996.

Mr Hurwitz cost taxpayers one point-six billion dollars.

He gives politicians $38,000.

And he gets to keep $300 million.

Mr Hurwitz gets an "A" in Washington math. (LAT)

Hillary Clinton, Newt Gingrich, and Plantation Politics

The House "has been run like a plantation, and you know what I'm talking about," said Clinton, D-N.Y. "It has been run in a way so that nobody with a contrary view has had a chance to present legislation, to make an argument, to be heard." [AP, 1/16/06]







"I clearly fascinate them," Gingrich said of the Democrats. "I'm much more intense, much more persistent, much more willing to take risks to get it done. Since they think it is their job to run the plantation, it shocks them that I'm actually willing to lead the slave rebellion." [Washington Post, 10/20/94]

Thomas Nast's Legacy

"An editorial cartoonist is a sort of Rush Limbaugh with brains, or a Bill O'Reilly with a sense of humor. Or, to extend the metaphor further, a Sean Hannity with brains and a sense of humor." -- Media professor Chris Lamb (Baltimore Sun via Romenesko)

No Terrorists -- But the School Teacher Ordered Another Pepperoni

The warrantless wiretaps flooded US intel and law enforcement agencies with useless information -- tying up hundreds of counter terrorism agents to spy on innocent Americans and run down dead ends.

FBI investigators complained repeatedly about being swamped with information from the wiretaps.

And FBI Director Robert Mueller even raised concerns about the wiretapping's legality.

"We'd chase a number, find it's a schoolteacher with no indication they've ever been involved in international terrorism - case closed." -- A former FBI official quoted in the New York Times

Sources tell the New York Times the program has failed to uncover any terrorist plot or al Qaeda cell operating in the United States.

Agents in FBI field offices joked about the intercepts from the NSA as "more calls to Pizza Hut" every time they were told to run down new leads from the NSA. (NYT)

Dear George Clooney, You Are Sooooooooo Dreamy! Luv 4-Evr, George H.W. Bush

What makes a former President write a fan letter to a movie star?

For the elder George Bush, it'd be a screening of Good Night and Good Luck. That's George Clooney's take on how Edward R. Murrow took on Sen Eugene McCarthy in the 1950s. Mr Clooney wrote and directed the movie.

Few people may remember but George H.W. Bush's father -- that'd be President George W Bush's grandfather -- also took on Sen McCarthy for his red-baiting tactics. Sen Prescott Sheldon Bush (R-CT) served in the US Senate from 1952-63.

The former President fired off a letter to George Clooney saying he enjoyed the film. (ClooneyStudio.com)

Band of Brothers

Band of Brothers 2006 is an outfit highlighting and supporting the 30+ veterans running as Democrats for Congress.

It's a fundraising and pro-Democrat website. But it has bios and information on the candidates. (Band of Brothers 2006)

Throwing his Weight Around

Rep Tom DeLay was able to get a Texas TV station to pull an ad critical of the Congressman. It's here if you want to see it.



The ad is from a left-leaning outfit called Public Campaign Action Fund.

The Houston Chronicle reports:

"A day before a television ad linking Rep. Tom DeLay to disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff was set to hit the airwaves in the Houston area, lawyers for his campaign told local stations Tuesday that the ad contained falsehoods and hinted that it could lead to court action. At least one station, KTRK (Channel 13), quickly decided against broadcasting the commercial...."

Threatening TV and radio stations with lawsuits -- or with having the FCC yank their license -- is a frequent tactic of incumbent candidates running for re-election. Under the law, a broadcast outlet is required to air any ad by a Congressional candidate -- regardless of how honest they are.

But ads from third parties -- such as this one -- do not enjoy that protection.

PCAF is also running this radio ad in Ohio, critical of Rep Bob Ney's (R-OH) (right) ties to lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Rep Ney is the only Congress member mentioned in Mr Abramoff's plea deal and is expected to face indictment soon.

Hotline on Call reports that House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) has asked him to resign as Chairman of the House Administration Committee -- just a week after Speaker Hastert and other top Republicans called on Rep DeLay to permanently resign as House Majority Leader.
(Houston Chronicle)

Joe Biden Borrowed My Idea -- Like That's the First Time Anyone Ever Said THAT!

Just brought to my attention.

Did Sen Joe Biden (D-DE) plagiarize me? Here's what he said on "Meet the Press" on November 28, 2005:

"Look, you had phrases like 'mushroom cloud,' 'much graver threat than grave threat,' 'mortal threat,' 'the threat is urgent,' 'grave and gathering danger,' 'urgent threat,' 'immediate threat,' 'serious and growing threat,' 'real threat,' 'significant threat.' These are all phrases these guys used. "

This sounds suspiciously like a passage from a Watching Washington post from a month earlier, October 28, 2005, called FBI Looking for Sources of Forged Uranium Documents:

October-November, 2002: Citing Iraq's purported weapons of mass destruction (WMD), President Bush or senior members of his administration refer to the WMD threat from Iraq as: "significant," "real," "real and dangerous," "serious and growing," "of unique urgency," "unique and urgent," "grave," "much graver," "terrible," "immediate," and "imminent."

Think Sen Biden's people stumbled onto my little ole site? Borrowed the long list of desperate words?

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. And to have Sen Biden borrow your words -- hey, that'd make me a Labor Party leader in the UK! (Watching Washington)

President Bush and his GRAVE Concerns

"Iran, armed with a nuclear weapon, poses a grave threat to the security of the world." -- President Bush, January 13, 2006

"There's a grave threat in Iraq." -- President Bush, October 2, 2002

Iraq - Iran. More proof the last three years were a typographical error. (The White House)

Worker Safety, Employer Cash

North Dakota employers are pocketing credits on their workers' compensation insurance premiums totaling $46 million.

Business groups like the idea. That $46 million will go into the bank accounts of businesses. They can use it to invest in expansion -- or pocket it for themselves.

Critics -- like the state's AFL-CIO -- point out North Dakota's workers comp system gets low ratings compared to the rest of the nation. They want the mone to go back as vouchers that would only be good if employers used them to buy safety equipment or upgrade existing equipment. They say it would prevent worker injuries in the future. (The Forum)

Disposable Phones Skirting Wiretaps

Terrorists could be behind a sudden upsurge in the sale of disposable cell phones. The phones are cheap and difficult to track. You can use them once, then throw them away.

They make wiretapping virtually useless. Since people can buy them without ID, there's no way to tell who's using the phone you're tapping.

The FBI reports 150 phones purchased in one sale, 60 in another. Police showed up at a Wal-Mart in Midland, Texas (President Bush's old home town) after six people tried to buy 60 of the disposable phones.

Even counter terrorism outfits have found the phones untracable. ABC News' Brian Ross reports:

The CIA recently used them in a kidnapping in Milan, Italy. Italian authorities were able to track the telephones. But they mostly tracked them to a dead end — the false identities in which they were purchased.

The idea of using the disposable phones to avoid wiretaps is nothing new. Investigators say terrorists used disposable cell phones to set off explosives in the Madrid train bombings.

Even an episode of the Sopranos (right) a couple of seasons back had mobsters using the phones once, then tossing them, to avoid wiretaps. (ABC)

Tax Time

The high cost of paying your taxes.


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For every dollar you spend on federal income taxes...you spend about 22-cents just following the tax law.

That's what the Tax Foundation found out in a study of tax compliance.

The study figures we spent a total of six billion hours last year to comply with the federal tax code -- looking for deductions, keeping records, filling out your 1040.

The foundation figures an average cost of around forty to forty-eight dollars an hour in complying with tax rules.

That's cheap if you've priced a tax accountant lately.

But applying that rate to individuals, businesses, and non-profit groups...that adds up to more than $265-billion we spend...just to do our taxes.

How much is that?

Try more money than Wal-Mart took in last year -- about $6 billion more.

And it'd take 2.8 million people -- more than the population of Dallas, Detroit, and Washington, DC combined -- working 40 hour weeks to put in those six billion hours.

That's more people that what work in the auto making, computer building, airplane manufacturing, and steel industries combined.

Maybe I'll see if I can use the short form this year.

Dadgum Them Dadburned Interwebs!

Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Sen Ted Kennedy (D-MA) got into a spat during Wednesday's confirmation hearing for Judge Samuel Alito (right).

Seems it was all a misunderstanding.

Sen Kennedy had requested Sen Specter to request papers from William Rusher detailing Judge Alito's involvement in Concerned Alumni of Princeton.

Sen Specter didn't remember it. Said later it was a "computer letter."

That's apparently what us young whipper-nappers call an "e-mail."

Can't trust them new-fangled computafiers. They're the devil's toy box. All them electrons and pixels racing around the Internets. Can't trust anything that ain't written on parchment with a quill, consarn it!

As Strom Thurmond would say: "Talk into the machine."