Corruption at the very TOP!

[Gimpy]

The Bush administration's top federal procurement official resigned last Friday and was arrested yesterday, accused of lying and obstructing a criminal investigation into Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff's dealings with the federal government.

It was the first criminal complaint filed against a government official in the ongoing corruption probe related to Abramoff's activities in Washington.


The complaint, filed by the FBI, alleges that David H. Safavian, 38, the top White House procurement official involved until last week in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, made repeated false statements to government officials and investigators about a golf trip with Abramoff to Scotland in 2002.

It also contends that he concealed his efforts to help Abramoff acquire control of two federally managed properties in the Washington area. Abramoff is the person identified as "Lobbyist A" in a 13-page affidavit unsealed in court, according to sources knowledgeable about the probe.


Remember Preznit Arresting Development's statement just last week??? And I quote....."Our goal is to get the work done quickly. And taxpayers expect this work to be done honestly and wisely -- so we'll have a team of inspectors general reviewing all expenditures."

Words that ring hollow when the top guy in charge of all money being spent is about to be indicted for various and sundry things related to being fundamentally honest .

Not just any guy...the TOP guy in the money giving-out process from the Whitehouse no less! Another crony caught. The FBI has to be on the 1600 Crew shitlist right around now... I guess they didn't get the "leave the cronies alone" memo from Rove's office.


I have to wonder what the headline are going to say the day that Patrick Fitzgerald announces his indictments. It might be the equivlent of the Carny in the Capital! Coming soon to a newspaper front page near you! Remember the 'October Surprise'!!!!
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[exlrrp]

Originally posted by Gimpy ... I guess they didn't get the "leave the cronies alone" memo from Rove's office.


I have to wonder what the headline are going to say the day that Patrick Fitzgerald announces his indictments. It might be the equivlent of the Carny in the Capital! Coming soon to a newspaper front page near you! Remember the 'October Surprise'!!!!
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If they didn't investigate the cronies, they wouldn't have anyone to investigate--its all there is in the Bush administration. Its been intersting to see all the phonies start to come out. The local head of the Pacific Northwest FEMA got his diploma from a diploma mill--and no experience at all.
The most intersting choice lately is Julie Myers for head of immigration and border--a completely clueless individual with no experience AT ALL in this critical area--her qualifications? she's Richard Meyers daughter and married to Michael chernoff. And was a Bush fundraiser--thats all you need to succed in the Bush years.
Border security is something the Republican government has done nothing about at all despite being in complete control of the government. Its worse than before they started.
whenever they stop dragging their feet on this investigation it will be fun to read the results.
Stay good Gimp
James

[Gimpy]

James................You're right once again.

Bunch of damn CROOKS!

Like jackals descending upon a wounded wildebeest, the Right-Wingers are poised to ravage the Gulf Coast, as savagely as did the merciless Katrina and Rita, before they attack the economy as a whole.

Rapacious greed knows no conscience.

Just consider the "help" that the GOP is offering the reconstruction efforts.

The Administration has suspended the Davis-Bacon rule, thus allowing federal contractors to pay workers less than the prevailing wage, while not requiring the savings to be passed on to the taxpayers -- not satisfied just with profits from no-bid contracts, the Halliburtons of this country stand to make untold billions on years of reconstruction...not even counting the huge tax breaks they will receive, as will their multi-million-dollar executives, from the tax cuts Bush refuses to rescind, and as will the dynasties of their heirs, from the estate tax the Congress intends to eliminate.

The Administration has suspended affirmative action requirements for first-time federal contractors in the reconstruction zone -- regulations that help minorities, women, veterans, and the disabled -- despite the President's prime-time assurance that he would do everything in his power to remedy racism and discrimination, past, present, and future, as even he admitted exacerbated the disaster.

The Administration has suspended the requirement that employers hire only documented workers. The American victims displaced from their jobs and their homes by Katrina are now being displaced from the reconstruction efforts by big businesses' hiring undocumented workers laboring for little and living in trailers without running water and with no real power...and not just electrical hook-ups, my friends.

I swear if they thought they could get away with it, the Administration would repeal the 13th Amendment and bring back slavery -- the ultimate "ownership society".

The Administration is suspending rules right and left to protect the environment -- the very environment whose rape left the city of New Orleans so vulnerable to destruction, the wetlands that act as barrier to storm surge but a shadow of their former, natural self.

The Administration is funneling public school money into private school vouchers (as they've been trying to do for years), while hiding behind children and parents displaced and traumatized by the storm.

And others on the Right are snarling for even more vicious attacks on our systems of social justice, the very conscience of our nation.

The Cato Institute is once again calling for privatizing Social Security, because "asset accumulation plays a vital role in escaping poverty." As if "every man for himself" had not been discredited by the deaths of the masses stranded in the sewage.

Newt Gingrich calls for more cuts in federal taxes -- driving us deeper in debt, as to banks overseas, and requiring more cuts in programs helping the poor -- as well as for wholesale cuts in "red tape" for big business -- read, fewer protections for workers, consumers, and the environment.

The Wall Street Journal calls not only for big tax cuts for big business but also for a flat tax on personal income -- much more of a benefit for those at the top than for those at the bottom. "Why not allow the Gulf [Coast] to operate as a laboratory for a flat tax," asks the WSJ. Why?! Because those at the top have much more than they already need, while those at the bottom can barely survive!

Republican Senators James Inhofe, of Oklahoma, and David Vitter, of Louisiana, are pushing to allow the Administration to suspend any environmental law for up to a year and a half; and Inhofe goes further, wanting to prohibit any citizens from filing any lawsuits against federal contractors who despoil the environment!

And never to be outdone, the Heritage Foundation not only calls for eliminating all capital gains taxes in the region -- as if the prospect of hundreds of billions of dollars in federal contracts, and who knows how much more money from the private sector, weren't incentive enough to draw business to the largest construction project in the history of the nation -- they also want the infrastructure -- the very roads, rail lines, and other lifelines of civilization -- turned over to private companies "under contract" with the government, the same government that the Right wants to never interfere with business.

The jackals feast on the guts of the beast. And we are promised by the rabid Right that this is only a preview of what is in store for the rest of the country.

[Gimpy]

I hate to say 'I TOLD YOU SO'!---------Naw----------I really don't!

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By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press Writer


WASHINGTON - A Texas grand jury on Wednesday charged Rep.Tom DeLay and two political associates with conspiracy in a campaign finance scheme, forcing the House majority leader to temporarily relinquish his post. A defiant DeLay insisted he was innocent and called the prosecutor a "partisan fanatic." (Yea, right!---Ha, Ha, Ha!---Gimp)


DeLay, 58, was accused of a criminal conspiracy along with two associates, John Colyandro, former executive director of a Texas political action committee formed by DeLay, and Jim Ellis, who heads DeLay's national political committee.

In Austin, Texas, Earle told reporters, "Our job is to prosecute abuses of power and to bring those abuses to the public."

DeLay is the first House leader to be indicted while in office in at least a century, according to congressional historians.

"I have notified the speaker that I will temporarily step aside from my position as majority leader pursuant to rules of the House Republican Conference and the actions of the Travis County district attorney today," DeLay said in a statement.

Criminal conspiracy is a state felony punishable by six months to two years in a state jail and a fine of up to $10,000. The potential two-year sentence forces DeLay to step down under House Republican rules.

At the White House, press secretary Scott McClellan said the president still considers DeLay ? a fellow Texan ? a friend and an effective leader in Congress. (no surprise there......crooks of a feather will 'flock' together, right?---Gimp)

"Congressman DeLay is a good ally, a leader who we have worked closely with to get things done for the American people," McClellan said. "I think the president's view is that we need to let the legal process work."

The indictment puts the Republicans ? who control the White House, Senate and House ? on the defensive .

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., also is fending off question of ethical improprieties. Federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission are looking into Frist's sale of stock in HCA Inc., the hospital operating company founded by his family.

Less than a week ago, a former White House official was arrested in the investigation of Jack Abramoff, a high-powered lobbyist and fundraiser.

The indictment accused DeLay of a conspiracy to "knowingly make a political contribution" in violation of Texas law outlawing corporate contributions. It alleged that DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority political action committee accepted $155,000 from companies, including Sears Roebuck, and placed the money in an account.

The PAC then wrote a $190,000 check to an arm of the Republican National Committee and provided the committee a document with the names of Texas State House candidates and the amounts they were supposed to received in donations.

The indictment included a copy of the check.


The indictment against the second-ranking, and most assertive Republican leader came on the final day of the grand jury's term.

It followed earlier indictments of a state political action committee founded by DeLay and three of his political associates.
Democrats have kept up a crescendo of criticism of DeLay's ethics, citing three times last year that the House ethics committee admonished DeLay for his conduct.

"The criminal indictment of Majority Leader Tom Delay is the latest example that Republicans in Congress are plagued by a culture of corruption at the expense of the American people, " said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.


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