Afghanistan's Forth Estate
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Monday May 7, 2007
Afghanistan’s Parliament, at the urging of President Hamid Karzai’s cabinet, is seeking to exert tighter controls over journalists and the news media in that country, alarming both human rights activists and international observers alike.
The move, which is being initiated under the auspices of the public good, is being portrayed by representatives of the government as a effort to help limit access — and thereby the influence — of the Taliban upon the populace. Critics, however, point to a year long campaign by the Karzai government to squash reports in the media of own its ineffectiveness against that country’s former militant rulers as well as Afghanistan’s rampant corrupt and graft — issues that have put any additional democratic reform on indefinite hold.
Vladimir Putin was unavailable for comment.
Afghan media freedoms under siege — Los Angeles Times
Number 27593-112
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Wednesday November 15, 2006
The Sharp Dressed Man Jack Abramoff, once the most powerful lobbyist in Washington, D.C., reached a decidedly low point in his career Wednesday morning when he reported to a Federal Prison Camp at Cumberland, Maryland to begin serving his nearly 6 year sentence for wire and mail fraud. But Mr. Abramoff’s arrival at the Big House was nearly overshadowed by word that his continued cooperation with the Justice Department may yet be yielding even more new fruit.
After months of the Republican Party taking the brunt of the lobbying scandals surrounding Abramoff—scandals that have been credited with costing them the mid-term elections—the Sharp Dressed Man appears ready to share the love with the Democrats, with “six to eight seriously corrupt Democratic senators,” as well as newly elected Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, allegedly being the target of recent conversations between Abramoff and the DoJ.
But even though a spokesperson for Mr. Reid denies that the Senator has committed any wrongdoing, the Associated Press is reporting that the new Majority Leader had “collected more than $68,000 from Abramoff’s [lobbying] firm, partners and clients” over the past few years. And coupled with Mr. Reid’s omissions on his Senate ethics report regarding a pair of Nevada land sales, there’s probably more than a fair share of fire to go along with all this smoke.
But the Republicans are not entirely off the hook either, with an even greater amount of GOP congressman and women apparently coming under even greater scrutiny than before with the continued help of Mr. Abramoff. And the holy grail of all Republicans, Senior Presidential Advisor Karl Rove, is also apparently under investigation for illegally receiving gifts from the Sharp Dressed Man.
However, there are those within the DOJ who feared that once Mr. Abramhoff became inaccessible to them behind bars, their source for a potentially limitless amount of indictments might go away. But with the DoJ doing everything they could to have him incarcerated a mere 2-hour drive from Washington, D.C., to say nothing of the former lobbyist’s continued willingness to to cooperate with prosecutors, the sky appears to be the limit for the Department of Justice as they take out the trash on Capitol Hill.
This Leftwing Nutjob advises those members of Congress with dirty hands to resign now and save the taxpayers a lot of time and money.
Sources:
DOJ: Abramoff Will Still Cooperate From Prison—The Blotter – ABC News.com
Convicted Lobbyist Abramoff Reports to Prison—The Blotter – ABC News.com
Abramoff Reports to Prison; Officials Focus on Reid, Others—The Blotter – ABC News.com
Disgraced ex-lobbyist begins 6-year prison stint—CNN.com
Ney Makes It Offical
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Monday November 6, 2006
After much hemming and hawing—ostensibly for the good of his beleaugured staff—Ohio Republican Bob Ney finally got around to resigning his seat in Congress last week; some three weeks after pleading guilty to conspiracy and other charges.
According to Mr. Ney’s chief of staff, the former six-term congressman delivered his letter of resignation to Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert’s office on Friday, heading off a potentially acrimonious confrontation between the disgraced lawmaker and GOP leaders, who had vowed to make expelling Mr. Ney their first order of business when congress reconvenes following the mid-term elections.
Mr. Ney is scheduled to be sentenced on January 19, 2007 and could face up to 2 years in prison.
Source:
Ohio congressman linked to Abramoff resigns—CNN.com
Dirty Pool
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Thursday October 19, 2006
The Republican’s have reached into their tired old bag of dirty tricks and have pulled out a whopper from the 2004 presidential election, attempting to scare the public with the threat of a massive terrorist attack if they dare vote for the Democrats this coming November.
The television ad, entitled “The Stakes” and slated to air this weekend on national cable outlets, evoke images of both Usama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, pulling quotes from their many threats against the United States over the years—some from as far back as 1998.
And while the images are meant to evoke a visceral reaction—like the one resembling a nuclear explosion—the sad reality that even the most ardent GOP supporter will acknowledge that this really is a sad attempt at trying to manipulate the public by using the only thing that the Republican’s have left—fear.
Meanwhile, in California, some knucklehead is sending threatening letters to Hispanic voters, warning them that they could be jailed or even deported if they show up and attempt to vote in next month’s elections.
The letters, written in Spanish and sent to Latinos residing in Orange Country, have several Hispanic candidates concerned that they will adversely affect voter turnout by intimidating their constituents and convincing them to stay home on November 7.
The letters have been turned over to both the state attorney general and the FBI for investigation and possible prosecution as a hate crime.
Sources
GOP to Air Ad Warning of Terror Attacks—AP via Breitbart.com
LATINOS WARNED NOT TO VOTE—Monterey Herald
GOP Nepotism?
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Thursday October 19, 2006
Things just keep going from bad to worse for the GOP, with yet another prominent Republican congressman coming under scrutiny for possible ethics violations.
Word broke late last week that the FBI had opened an investigation of both Pennsylvania House Republican Representative Curt Weldon, as well as his daughter, under suspicion that the 10-term congressman used the influence of his office to secure lucrative lobbying contracts from foreign nationals for his daughter’s company.
Quoting from the Washington Post article:
“I have not done anything wrong and my daughter hasn’t either,” Weldon said at a news conference late Monday afternoon. “I would absolutely never use my position to help anyone in an unusual way.”
So far, the investigation is centered on relationships between an energy company based in Russia and Solutions North America, a company run both Congressman Weldon’s daughter Karen—who once worked for Boeing Corporation—and a Mr. Charles Sexton Jr. The FBI searched both individual’s private residences as well as other locations in the Monday morning raids.
Weldon, who serves as the vice-chairman of the House Armed Services committee, is calling into question the timing of the FBI’s investigation, just three weeks prior to the election, pointing out that the alleged incident occurred over 2 1/2 years ago.
However, the long arm of the law is nothing if not patient. And as former G-Men have often been quoted as saying, “We always get our man,” this Leftwing Nutjob is just worried that our federal prison system doesn’t have enough beds to house all of the GOP riff-raff that have gotten caught with their hands in the cookie jar over the past few years.
I mean, talk about your overcrowding!
Source:
FBI Raids Home of Weldon’s Daughter—Washington Post
Podcast #117
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Tuesday April 15, 2008
Leftwing Nutjob Podcast, Episode 117, for Sunday, April 13, 2008
Penn hits the bricks, Iran in the spotlight again, the Obama money machine, al Qaeda’s rising star and more!