In today’s news, we are looking at more Obama appointees. Today’s CNN headline is about his nominee for the US trade representative. Former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk got the nod. He has something in common with several other Obama nominees, he can’t seem to figure out how to pay his taxes correctly.
Kirk’s tax returns for 2005, 2006 and 2007 were reviewed by the Senate Finance Committee as part of the vetting process, according to a report released by the committee Monday.
The committee found that Kirk failed to report as income $37,750 in honoraria collected for 16 speaking engagements at Austin College over those three years. One year, he deducted honoraria from four events as charitable donations though he hadn’t reported them as income, according to the committee report.
He also deducted too much for the cost of tickets to see the NBA Mavericks, reporting the entire $17,382 as business expenses, the report says.
Kirk has agreed to pay the $9,975 he owes from amended returns, according to the report.
“The mayor is working with the Finance Committee on a few minor issues,” White House spokesman Ben Labolt said, adding that the “nomination is on track.”
Tax evasion is not only considered a “minor issue” with Obama, it as apparently a requirement:
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Tom Daschle failed to pay nearly $100,000. He subsequently dropped out. Obama later said he “screwed up” with Daschle. Not sure what his explanation for Kirk will be.
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Tim Geithner is my personal favorite. The guy expected to figure out our tax code couldn’t figure out how to use TurboTax
. He was strongly endorsed by Obama and subsequently confirmed by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. Although Obama “screwed up” on Daschle, Geithner’s exact same issue, although not as big, is OK.
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Nancy Killefer dropped out as well after it was revealed she failed to pay her taxes. Obama hasn’t indicated he “screwed up” with her.
Now, the situation seems to be that in order to be in charge of something important, you have to have violated a law in regards to what it is that you’re overseeing. So, true to form, we get Kathleen Sebelius for Health and Human Services ( the position Tom Daschle gave up on ):
As governor, she had a bit of a mess with, you guessed it, health care administration. So, it just seems a natural fit she should join the Obama team overseeing Health and Human Services. However, her strong desire to raise taxes on everyone in the state of Kansas I’m sure appealed to Obama.
And, of course, we can’t forget Bill Richardson, Obama’s initial choice for commerce secretary. He dropped out when it was revealed he was under federal investigation for pay to play ( A nicer word for taking bribes. )
And, of course, we can never forget Hillary Clinton. I’m sure we’d know more about her dealings if so many people weren’t dead now.
I’m still waiting for that Rahm Emanuel ( Chief of Staff ) / Rod Blagojevich / Roland Burris saga to play out.
There ya go folks, the change you can believe in.
Nancy Pelosi’s culture of corruption is thriving quite well. Apparently her problem with Bush was he didn’t support it enough.
This is just precious:
You just have to read it all to get just how fubar this Democrat has been. Basically, the charge that prompted this was Blagovich was selling Obama’s seat to the highest bidder. The payoff apparently was, get this, he wanted a position associated with, drum roll please, labor unions. You know, the people like SIEU who donate heavily to any Democrat while their employers are going bankrupt and their members lose their jobs. If the labor union route didn’t work, Blagovich would have settled for $250,000 a year running a non-profit. Oddly enough, an apparent central figure in the whole thing is Tony Rezko. You know, the disgraced businessman, influence peddler, and Obama supporter. Given all the charges, the Illinois governor who replaced the previous governor who wound up serving time, faces a decade or two of prison time for, roll the drum please, doing exactly what the previous governor before him did. Now, Ryan’s kinda in the news now, as Dick Durbin of all people, requested a pardon for Ryan. Blagojevich, probably sensing things to come, supported the pardon request.
What’s just as precious to me, the article I cited went 667 words without ever mentioning that Blagojevich is a Democrat. What’s kind of shocking to me is that it’s Foxnews. I guess they’re in the tank as well these days ( just kiddin! ).
Anyways, things are probably going to be fun to watch in Illinois for a while I imagine. I hear Nancy Pelosi’s flying to Springfield this afternoon to condemn Blagovich as yet another example of the Republican Culture of Corruption and deny the fact that any Democrat had anything to do with Blagovich’s scandals. Also, Keith Olbermann will be doing a piece decrying Blagovish as the worst, governor, ever.
Serious question tho, with the governor under felony indictiments regarding the appointment of a US Senator, how does that affect the process? I will assume Pat Quinn, the Lt. Governor, would assume day to day responsibilities of the governor, if he doesn’t resign ( I don’t see Blagovich’s ego allowing for that ). However, I’m not sure the law would allow for a Lt Governor to appoint a Senator. And, given the situation, I can’t really see any judge allowing the appointment to continue through the Governor’s office. This will be fun to watch.
The death of the Republican Party might be a little premature. Anh “Joseph” Cao defeated William Jefferson in New Orleans. This particular district has an 11% Republican registration. If Obama was a factor at all in the general, it was his lack of an endorsement that killed any enthusiasm Jefferson might have been able to muster. As it was, due to the delay in voting due to Gustav, lack of support from the top, and of course, Jefferson’s image, he went down. The party of “change” lost to the “culture of corruption”, represented by a Vietnamese refugee from the fall of Saigon.
Additionally, in western Louisiana, Republican John Fleming defeated Democrat Paul Carmouche. Obama did endorse Carmouche. That apparently didn’t help enough.
So much for rhetoric.
WSFA is reporting that Birmgingham, Alabama mayor Larry Langford has been arrested by the FBI on some pretty serious charges. At this point CNN nor MSNBC feel it’s a story worth printing.
If you read the local story, it’s pretty lengthy. It gets into what the background of the investigation is, who’s involved, and some of the odder aspects of Larry Langford. What it doesn’t tell you is what party Larry Langford is a member of. Wanna guess? For the record, this is Larry Langford:
Mayor Larry Langford
He’s a Democrat.
The body count in Nancy Pelosi’s Culture of Corruption just keeps piling up. She, of course, will still tell you no Democrat had anything to do with Larry Langford’s criminal activities. Keith Olbermann will still tell you that Larry Langford must be innocent because Nancy Pelosi says no Democrat has anything to do with criminal activities. CNN, MSNBC and most media will still do everything they can to protect the Democrat Party by omitting painful facts by claiming they don’t have anything to do with the story itself. What Langford is accused of doing makes Ted Stevens look lame. It’s so egregious, from initial reports, it’s on a scale of William Jefferson.
And, we all know what happened to William Jefferson, now don’t we?
This one is precious. First, we start with the evidence:
Via Fox
When it gets real fun is when you read her rap sheet. She’s already in trouble for lying under oath to protect her nephew on manslaughter charges, tax evasion in the 90′s, and not reporting donations. Apparently the people of her district tired of her shenanigans and voted her out in their primary. That didn’t stop her tho, she’s running a write-in campaign. Now, this is where it gets fun for me. Regardless of the fact she has a long running criminal record and the fact her own voters wanted her out, she was still supported by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and Gov. Deval Patrick. Her supporters are suggesting that the timing of the charges was political.
Yeah.
I hear Nancy Pelosi has publicly suggested Wilkerson give up the write-in campaign and take care of her legal problems, and publicly chastised Thomas Menino and Deval Patrick for supporting a candidate who does not meet the lofty ethical standards Pelosi has established for her perfect party.
21
Oct
Everyone remembers Mark Foley. Mass media went nuts over his “issues” in 2006. Some even say Foley single handedly cost Republicans the House. So, what does the 21st century’s most “disgraced” Congressman do? He endorses Obama. Most political pundits are completely ignoring this endorsement. The Obama campaign hasn’t released any statements on Foley either that I am aware of. To top that off, the guy that beat Foley, Tim Mahoney, running on a “Family Values” campaign that obviously was a direct slap at Foley, has been outed on numerous extra-marital affairs and his wife has left him. Obama’s not touting his support either. In the meantime, this is how things have looked in the polls regarding Foley/Mahoney’s state:
FOX News/Rasmussen 10/19 – 10/19 1000 LV 3.0 48 49 McCain +1 SurveyUSA 10/16 – 10/16 553 LV 4.3 47 49 McCain +2 Research 2000 10/13 – 10/15 600 LV 4.0 49 45 Obama +4 CNN/Time 10/11 – 10/14 765 LV 3.5 51 46 Obama +5 InAdv/PollPosition 10/13 – 10/13 612 LV 3.8 48 44 Obama +4
What had been a strong surge by Obama has apparently been lost.
Now, the way I see things is, the Democrats made a huge investment in the “culture of corruption” issue in 2006, promising to do something completely impossible, rid Congress of corruption. What has happened since 2006 is nothing has changed. Instead of Mark Foley, they’ve got Tim Mahoney. Where’s the change?
So, the answer to the post header is pretty obvious to me. When Republicans go bad, the whole world knows it. When Democrats go bad, most of the world never knows, and the rest don’t really care. Mahoney will probably be OK, I hear he’s hiring William Jefferson’s PR team. And just to back up my claim, I bet 50% more visitors come to this page by Googling “Bad Republican” than they do “Bad Democrat”. I tagged both terms, so we’ll see.
Several years ago, Mark Foley was pretty well busted doing things that just weren’t terribly ethical. Nancy Pelosi and a lot of Democrat bloggers went flying off the deep end. Pelosi went so far as to demand an inquiry into how many Republicans new about Foley’s activities and did nothing about it. Of course, no Democrats were allowed to be questioned in this line of logic Pelosi had that only Republicans did such things. She demanded to know who all knew. Then, for reasons she’s never explained, she dropped it. My guess, as many or more Democrats were in on it than Republicans. Since that’s not in Pelosi’s game plan, she took her ball and went home.
Along the way, Foley’s office was raided and searched for evidence. No one raised an eyebrow. When William Jefferson was raided, his defense became the fact that Congressional offices could not be searched by the FBI and Nancy is OK with that.
In the long run, no charges were ever filed against Foley. The safety of children became a moot issue to Nancy Pelosi once a Democrat assumed the office Foley held.
A fellow named Tim Mahoney replaced Foley. Fast forward a few years and you’ve got this occurring:
Now, according to some, the reason he fired her is she accused him of cheating on her. That wouldn’t be that big a deal I suppose if they were married. But, they’re not. He’s married to someone else. This is the guy that ran on “Family Values” in 2004, and was even this year. According to accusations, he’s paid her hush money and arranged for her to work for someone else. Pretty fun stuff going on.
How does Nancy Pelosi view this? Well, she’s asking for an ethics investigation. What she is not doing is citing this as yet another example of the Democrat Culture of Corruption, even though this is what, the third time this year this has happened? She’s also not rushing to condemn the entire Democrat Party as being part and parcel to the situation as she did the Republicans. When it happens to a Republican, it’s all the Republicans’ fault. When it happens to a Democrat, it’s the exception even though she’s now having problems I’m sure finding leadership positions since there are so many under ethics review, including herself.
But what I love best is watching the radical Democrats squirm. Especially this bit from Kos:
Hmm…Patricia Allen just happened to use Mark Foley’s attorney to settle her case with Rep. Tim Mahoney and Brian Ross just happened to have the scoop a month before Election Day.
If Patricia Allen of Hobe Sound is Patricia Lynn Allen of Hobe Sound in Martin County, somebody ought to take a closer look at the case against Mahoney.
How was Patricia L. Allen’s ex-husband, William C. Allen, able to pay off a $100k mortgage in April of 2007 that he only took out in June 2006?
The property is in Jupiter which is in Palm Beach County.
William C. Allen is also the long-time owner of Allen Cabinetry at 1029 25th Court in West Palm Beach. I wonder how business is these days, given the state of South Florida’s real estate market.
Have the Allens been doubledipping? Worth a look, imho.
(Reference: Martin County Clerk, Martin County Property Appraiser, Palm Beach County Clerk. Copies of pertinent records are available on request.)
Nevermind the fact that what Mahoney did got himself into this mess, the fact anyone found out is a Republican plot. Democrats can never be guilty, they can only be set up. I’m sure Nancy Pelosi will be taking her lead from Kos.
I have picked on Debbie Stabenow quite a bit here. I think she’s an idiot. So far, just here, I have picked on her for:
- Running for reform but voting against eliminating earmarks. ( That’s called hypocrisy, or lying )
- For sticking pullout requirements into a funding bill, having it vetoed, and not being able to do anything about it even with the majority.
- Voting against stem cell research.
- Voting against certain military weaponry without having the other side agree to get rid of theirs first.
- For flogging herself publicly for some perverse, sick, reason:
However, I am going to give her some kudos today. She has done one thing right. She apparently married a man who knows the proper price to pay for a blow job:
$150 Hooker For Senator’s Husband
Cops: Debbie Stabenow’s spouse paid 20-year-old for oral sex at hotel
I love Smoking Gun!
I hear Nancy Pelosi will give a major speech on the continuing saga of the Democrat Culture of Corruption. For expediency, she’s held off on the New York Governors so she could lump them in with Debbie’s hubby.
You guys have a REAL winner there in Michigan!
A rising star of the Democrat Party, Eliot Spitzer gained fame prosecuting corporations among other things as Attorney General. Now he’s in deep doo-doo. I’m still waiting for Nancy Pelosi to cite him as yet another example of the Democrat Culture of Corruption.
Quickie update: Everyone with a keyboard has had something to say about Spitzer. Well, everyone except Nancy Pelosi so far. Two of my favorites so far:
- Jon Swift. His take on this situation, as usual, is totally unique, very insightful, and, in my opinion, dead-on perfect. If Spitzer had followed Jon’s advice he’d still be out of a job, but the sympathy factor would be a little less overwhelming.
- Me. Not that I’m that vain or anything, I just haven’t seen anyone else seeking what is so special about “some” poontang to merit $5,000 a pop.
28
Aug
I’m not really a member of the porkbusters’ club. I don’t agree with a lot of what some people define as pork. Using a very narrowly defined criteria that automatically defines something as waste doesn’t work. I’ve pointed that out here several times. However, every now and then, some things just scream pork. Take this one as an example:
Ohhhh kayyy. I guess this would fall under “education”? Do we really need to glorify prisoners? I’m all for bringing home the bacon, but don’t be stupid about it.
I like what a candidate for Congress had to say in 2006 about pork: “I’ll support legislative rules changes to ensure that proposed federal spending is subjected to a competitive awards process that values national necessity over political gain.”
Wanna guess who that candidate was? Do you need more than one try?
Now, the thing that really gets me all uppity here is that Nancy Boyda was part of the 2006 revolt. She was what Nancy Pelosi said was the answer to the Republican culture of corruption and greed. She was part of the logic some people felt that voting incumbants out guarantees a change for the better. She lied to you all in 2006 and you all bought it hook, line, and sinker because you bought the rhetoric that was spoonfed by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to the media.
Now, she’s there. She represents Kansas. She’s proven she’s part of Nancy’s Culture of Corruption by telling voters one thing and immediately doing otherwise. She’s proven she’s part of Nancy’s culture of greed because apparently bringing home the money and doling it out is more important than her word. But, this is where it’s gonna get different. You all voted her in, she’s yours. I don’t expect you all to just throw her out because she lied to every voter in her district. I actually expect most people in her district will remain ignorant of how greedy and unscrupulous she looks right now. And, the ones that do care enough to research what she’s doing I don’t expect to just throw her out either. What I do hope for is people will look much more closely at her opposition. Whether it be the Democrat Primary or the general election. Look at who’s running. If it’s some convict busted for trying to have sex in public airline stalls, she’s the best you’ve got. If it’s someome with impeccible credentials, vote for them. But, just don’t listen to crap from CBS, Nancy Pelosi, and the like to tell you what to do. From what I can tell so far, that advice hasn’t done you all any good. And, considering the seniority in the House you all lost to get this shining star of Pelosi’s Culture of Corruption and Greed, you probably lost a lot of legitimate funding and probably some better hidden pork as well.
