Hookergate...LOL

[Freak]

And the Republicans want us to believe
that each and every case is NOT a culture of corruption, but "isolated" case(s). yeah, right?
Exclusive: Top CIA Official Under Investigation
No. 3 Official at CIA Is Subject of Investigation Related to Bribery Probe
By BRIAN ROSS, RICHARD ESPOSITO and RHONDA SCHWARTZ
March 3, 2006 — - A stunning investigation of bribery and corruption in Congress has spread to the CIA, ABC News has learned.
The CIA inspector general has opened an investigation into the spy agency's executive director, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, and his connections to two defense contractors accused of bribing a member of Congress and Pentagon officials.
For more investigations by Brian Ross and ABC Investigative Unit, click here.
The CIA released an official statement on the matter to ABC News, saying: "It is standard practice for CIA's Office of Inspector General -- an aggressive, independent watchdog -- to look into assertions that mention agency officers. That should in no way be seen as lending credibility to any allegation.
"Mr. Foggo has overseen many contracts in his decades of public service. He reaffirms that they were properly awarded and administered."
The CIA said Foggo, the No. 3 official at the CIA, would have no further comment. He will remain in his post at the CIA during the investigation, according to officials.
Two former CIA officials told ABC News that Foggo oversaw contracts involving at least one of the companies accused of paying bribes to Congressman Randall "Duke" Cunningham. The story was first reported by Newsweek magazine.
Friendship With Defense Contractor
The California Republican has pleaded guilty after admitting he accepted $2.4 million in bribes in exchange for arranging defense contracts. He was sentenced today to eight years and four months in prison for corruption. Federal law enforcement officials said Cunningham is cooperating and the investigation is continuing.
As executive director of the CIA, Foggo oversees the administration of the giant spy agency. He was appointed to the post by CIA Director Porter Goss after working as a midlevel procurement supervisor, according to former CIA officials.
While based in Frankfurt, Germany, he oversaw and approved contracts for CIA operations in Iraq.
Foggo is a longtime friend of Brent Wilkes, referred to as co-conspirator No. 1 in government documents filed in the Cunningham investigation. The two played high school football and were in each other's weddings.
According to government documents, Wilkes gave Cunningham $630,000 in cash and gifts in exchange for help in getting government contracts.
Wilkes was the founder of ADSC Inc, in 1995. Under Wilkes, the company obtained more than $95 million in government contracts.
Officials say they could not describe the CIA contracts in question because some of them were classified secret.
'Bribe Menu'
Cunningham is involved in what prosecutors call a corruption case with no parallel in the long history of the U.S. Congress. He actually priced the illegal services he provided.
Prices came in the form of a "bribe menu" that detailed how much it would cost contractors to essentially order multimillion-dollar government contracts, according to documents submitted by federal prosecutors for today's sentencing hearing.
"The length, breadth and depth of Cunningham's crimes," the sentencing memorandum states, "are unprecedented for a sitting member of Congress."
Prosecutors will ask federal Judge Larry Burns to impose the statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
The sentencing memorandum includes the California Republican's "bribery menu" on one of his congressional note cards, "starkly framed" under the seal of the United States Congress.
The card shows an escalating scale for bribes, starting at $140,000 and a luxury yacht for a $16 million Defense Department contract. Each additional $1 million in contract value required a $50,000 bribe.
The rate dropped to $25,000 per additional million once the contract went above $20 million.
At one point Cunningham was living on a yacht named after him, "The Dukester," docked near Capitol Hill, courtesy of a defense company president.
ABC News' Vic Walter contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2006 ABC News Internet Ventures

[572Daytona]

Far be it from democrats to be slimeballs too :rolleyes:
The Legal Woes Of Rep. Jefferson
By Shailagh Murray and Allan Lengel
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, February 16, 2006; A01
Around Washington, Rep. William J. Jefferson nurtured a reputation as a serious, even wonkish, lawmaker, a grade-school dropouts' son who graduated from Harvard Law School and was elected Louisiana's first black congressman since Reconstruction.
Then came the allegations last August that Jefferson had orchestrated a corruption scheme. Federal investigators are targeting the Democratic congressman, 58, for allegedly demanding cash and other favors for himself and relatives, in exchange for using his congressional clout to arrange African business deals. A former aide recently pleaded guilty to bribing Jefferson and is cooperating with authorities, and sources familiar with the case say a plea agreement with the lawmaker is being explored.
Jefferson's world is toppling. Tall and lean, he at times has looked ashen as he walks the halls of the Capitol. Those who know him describe him as shellshocked by the turn of events. Depending on Jefferson's fate, his central New Orleans district -- badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina and in need of effective representation in Washington -- could face a rowdy special election. The political scene is so chaotic that Republicans believe they could win the gerrymandered Democratic seat.
"It's all clear as mud," said Edward F. Renwick, a Loyola University political scientist.
Jefferson's woes are unwelcome news for his party and have undercut the Democrats' election-year assertion that Republicans have created a "culture of corruption." If Jefferson is indicted and pleads guilty or is convicted, he will have to step down or face expulsion. But if he is indicted and decides to go to trial, he may remain in Congress and stand for reelection -- the course Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) has followed since being charged last year with violating Texas campaign law.
Federal corruption investigations have produced guilty pleas from former representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.) and have forced Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio) to relinquish his committee chairmanship. Investigations also won guilty pleas and the cooperation of former Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, whose plea agreement cited only GOP aides and lawmakers.
The investigation of Jefferson and the recent guilty plea by a former aide give Republicans the chance to argue that corruption in Washington has a bipartisan tinge.
Republican groups frequently invoke the Jefferson case in defending their party from broad-brush charges of corruption. Even Public Citizen, a liberal consumer watchdog group, featured Jefferson on an "Ethics Hall of Shame" list recently.
Jefferson has said he did nothing improper. Spokeswoman Melanie Roussell said he is focused on hurricane recovery and has been traveling to his district for field hearings and other storm-related events. Jefferson has begun campaigning for election this fall to a ninth term and has scheduled a March 8 fundraiser. He attended Coretta Scott King's funeral in Atlanta last week.
In his only public statement on the case, Jefferson said he was "disappointed and in some ways perplexed" by former aide Brett Pfeffer's guilty plea on Jan. 11. Jefferson added that he has never "required, demanded or accepted . . . anything to perform a service for which I have been elected." Ron Machen, one of Jefferson's attorneys, declined to comment.
The investigation became public on Aug. 3 when FBI agents raided Jefferson's homes in New Orleans and Northeast Washington, where they found about $90,000 in cash in his freezer, law enforcement sources have said. They also raided five other locations, including the Kentucky and New Jersey offices of iGate Inc., a high-tech firm that has become central to the investigation, along with a house in Potomac owned by Atiku Abubakar, the vice president of Nigeria.
IGate has denied any wrongdoing, as has Abubakar. Pfeffer declined to comment.
Jefferson was raised in Lake Providence, La., one of 10 children. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1972 and served in the state Senate before he was elected to the House in 1990. He is married and is the father of five grown daughters.
As a senior member of the Ways and Means Committee and co-chairman of the Africa Trade and Investment Caucus and the congressional caucuses on Brazil and Nigeria, Jefferson has carved out a niche in Third World trade issues, and he has traveled extensively on privately and publicly funded trips.
"He's someone respected for doing his homework on issues," said Silas Lee, a New Orleans political analyst. "He's viewed as a very serious, very studious person."
Pfeffer, who faces as much as 20 years in prison, paints a different picture of Jefferson, for whom he worked as a legislative aide from 1995 to 1998.
According to court documents and law enforcement sources, Pfeffer, 37, became president of W2 Corp., an investment company that was owned by Lori Mody, a wealthy Vienna, Va., woman. Mody, 41, is the founder of Win-Win Strategies Foundation, whose mission includes helping needy children learn about the high-tech world.
In early 2004, Pfeffer told Jefferson about his new investment job, court records show. Jefferson told Pfeffer about a telecommunications opportunity in Nigeria and about iGate, which held the rights to a technology that enabled copper wires to transport high-speed Internet service to a wide array of consumers.
In mid-2004, Pfeffer brought Mody to Jefferson's office in Washington. There she was introduced to the founder of iGate, who has since been identified as Vernon Jackson. Not long after, Mody's company entered into a licensing and distribution agreement with iGate for the exclusive rights to market and distribute the company's technology in Nigeria.
Mody agreed to invest $45 million for the exclusive rights to iGate's technology and equipment for the Nigerian deal. She put up $3.5 million and agreed to finance the balance through the Export-Import Bank of the United States, a government-run agency that promotes U.S. business exports.
Afterward, Pfeffer told Mody that Jefferson would expect compensation for his "official assistance on the Nigerian deal," according to court documents.
In summer 2004, Pfeffer, Mody, Jefferson and others met in New Orleans at the law firm of one of Jefferson's daughters, who provided the legal work for the business deal. While in the lobby of the law firm, Jefferson approached Pfeffer in private and told him that he would require 5 to 7 percent of Mody's new Nigerian company, the court document said.
Later, in a phone conversation, Jefferson told Pfeffer that he wanted a family member to be put on the payroll of the Nigerian company and to receive about $2,500 to $5,000 in monthly payments, court documents said.
"Pfeffer understood that [Jefferson] was soliciting a bribe in exchange" for the congressman's assistance in "official acts," including influencing high-ranking officials in the Nigerian government via trips and correspondences, and meeting with officials of the Export-Import Bank to help secure financing, the court document said.
Mody, who had grown concerned about the propriety of the transactions, went to the FBI in March 2005. She agreed to record conversations in what became a sting, say law enforcement sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the probe.
On March 31, she gave $2,100 to Jefferson's campaign. And in July, months after approaching the FBI, her Win-Win Strategies Foundation was listed in congressional travel documents as the sponsor of Jefferson's trip to Ghana to promote the broadband technology venture.
Jefferson was accompanied to Ghana by a relative, a staff member, Pfeffer and an iGate employee, according to documents. The trip disclosure form that Jefferson filed with the House lists the purpose of the trip as "education and business development" and lists no accompanying family member. Win-Win Strategies paid $9,248 for Jefferson's expenses, the form shows.
During the trip, Pfeffer was in contact with Mody in Virginia, reporting on Jefferson's "official acts" with high-ranking Ghanaian officials, court papers said. Pfeffer believed that Jefferson would get similar compensation for the Ghanaian project as in the Nigerian deal, the court document said. Jefferson also told Pfeffer that a member of his extended family had been designated as the secretary of the Ghanaian company and would serve in a marketing role, the document said.
Mody said late last week that authorities told her not to comment because of the probe.
Jefferson has attracted controversy over the years. Nicknamed "Dollar Bill" in New Orleans, he is known as a formidable fundraiser with designs on his own political empire. Daughter Jalila Jefferson-Bullock is a state legislator. In helping her get elected, Jefferson was heard on an FBI wiretap soliciting improper fundraising help from his brother-in-law, Jefferson Parish Judge Alan Green, who was sentenced last week to more than four years in federal prison in an unrelated bail-bond corruption case.
Jefferson said in a statement last May that he recalled the conversation with Green but added that his request for help was familial.
"To my knowledge, nothing resulted from the conversation -- the campaign did not receive any money from Judge Green or anyone who may have been prompted by him to contribute -- and there were no further conversations on the matter," Jefferson said.
Jefferson also generated controversy when, in the midst of post-Katrina rescue efforts, he used National Guard troops to help him get belongings from his house in New Orleans.
Jefferson's legal problems have received modest attention in New Orleans, where residents and officials are consumed with rebuilding the city and upcoming local elections. But names of potential challengers are starting to circulate, and political observers are handicapping their prospects.
With only about one-fifth of the district's 500,000 residents believed to be living in New Orleans, it is possible that a white Democrat or even a Republican could take the seat, which was drawn as a black district and which Jefferson had hoped to hand off eventually to his chosen successor. That now looks less likely.
"He's strong, but not that strong that he could withstand an indictment," said John Maginnis, publisher of a weekly Louisiana political newsletter

[SmokinLowriderSS]

And the Republicans want us to believe
that each and every case is NOT a culture of corruption, but "isolated" case(s). yeah, right?
Reminds me of Howard Dean saying (I heard the quote) "No democrat ever took a single nickel from Jack Abramof". Yea? Where's that list of Democrat money recipients? It's close by .... and LOOOOONG.
Both sides of the isle are filthy Freak, don't try denying that, I don't.
I'm still waiting for a conviction in the Delay case, since the law he is accused of violating was not on the books as of the date(s) he is accused of violating it at. Doesn't that sound like a triffle difficult prosecution to you Freak?

[Freak]

Reminds me of Howard Dean saying (I heard the quote) "No democrat ever took a single nickel from Jack Abramof". Yea? Where's that list of Democrat money recipients? It's close by .... and LOOOOONG.
Both sides of the isle are filthy Freak, don't try denying that, I don't.
I'm still waiting for a conviction in the Delay case, since the law he is accused of violating was not on the books as of the date(s) he is accused of violating it at. Doesn't that sound like a triffle difficult prosecution to you Freak?
Ohh I've said it many many times. They are all SLIME. I guess I need to say it again. I'm republican. I guess I'm old school republican cause I DO NOT consider these people running the show republican. I have just as much fun trashing dem slime but we have enough people doing that here. I hate all political crooks robbing us “people” for billions.
Patrick Fitzgerald for President. :idea:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
White House won't release entire Abramoff visit list, defies judge's order.
The White House said Tuesday the list the Secret Service has been ordered to release concerning convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff's contacts with the Bush administration will be incomplete.
But spokesman Scott McClellan declined to say what is wrong with the Secret Service list, why it is inaccurate and whether it includes far fewer meetings than took place.
"I don't know exactly what they'll be providing, but they only have certain records and so I just wouldn't view it as a complete historical record," McClellan said.
Cover up, cover up, cover up (the preceding should be sung for best effect).
God, I love these people.
Hold up - the Secret Service only has 'certain records'?? Aren't they responsible for who knowing who goes in and who goes out of the White House?
Are they telling us that there really is a backdoor at the White House that the Secret Service doesn't know about, or that the White House staff routinely sneak people in? :)
Who else didn't they want to be connected with who has come a visitn'? :rollside:
How can they legally not comply to a court order? Anyone???
Cheney or the WH has refused to hand over documents concerning:
- Enron records
- energy task force notes
- recess appointment of Peter Flory as Asst Sec of Def
- John Bolton (who's NSA wiretaping records did he ask for?)
- Justice Roberts records
And refused to allow:
- Condi Rice testify before the 9-11 commission
- the sheriff to see Cheney after he shot Mr. whittington
- Pres. Bush to testify to the 9-11 commission alone
So, ya just gotta be askin yerself, what in the world are they trying to hide?
So when will the warrants for arrest be issued? Are they breaking the law by not providing what the judge ordered them to?

[Freak]

Far be it from democrats to be slimeballs too :rolleyes:
The Legal Woes Of Rep. Jefferson
By Shailagh Murray and Allan Lengel
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, February 16, 2006; A01
Around Washington, Rep. William J. Jefferson nurtured a reputation as a serious, even wonkish, lawmaker, a grade-school dropouts' son who graduated from Harvard Law School and was elected Louisiana's first black congressman since Reconstruction.
Then came the allegations last August that Jefferson had orchestrated a corruption scheme. Federal investigators are targeting the Democratic congressman, 58, for allegedly demanding cash and other favors for himself and relatives, in exchange for using his congressional clout to arrange African business deals. A former aide recently pleaded guilty to bribing Jefferson and is cooperating with authorities, and sources familiar with the case say a plea agreement with the lawmaker is being explored.
Jefferson's world is toppling. Tall and lean, he at times has looked ashen as he walks the halls of the Capitol. Those who know him describe him as shellshocked by the turn of events. Depending on Jefferson's fate, his central New Orleans district -- badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina and in need of effective representation in Washington -- could face a rowdy special election. The political scene is so chaotic that Republicans believe they could win the gerrymandered Democratic seat.
"It's all clear as mud," said Edward F. Renwick, a Loyola University political scientist.
Jefferson's woes are unwelcome news for his party and have undercut the Democrats' election-year assertion that Republicans have created a "culture of corruption." If Jefferson is indicted and pleads guilty or is convicted, he will have to step down or face expulsion. But if he is indicted and decides to go to trial, he may remain in Congress and stand for reelection -- the course Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) has followed since being charged last year with violating Texas campaign law.
Federal corruption investigations have produced guilty pleas from former representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.) and have forced Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio) to relinquish his committee chairmanship. Investigations also won guilty pleas and the cooperation of former Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, whose plea agreement cited only GOP aides and lawmakers.
The investigation of Jefferson and the recent guilty plea by a former aide give Republicans the chance to argue that corruption in Washington has a bipartisan tinge.
Republican groups frequently invoke the Jefferson case in defending their party from broad-brush charges of corruption. Even Public Citizen, a liberal consumer watchdog group, featured Jefferson on an "Ethics Hall of Shame" list recently.
Jefferson has said he did nothing improper. Spokeswoman Melanie Roussell said he is focused on hurricane recovery and has been traveling to his district for field hearings and other storm-related events. Jefferson has begun campaigning for election this fall to a ninth term and has scheduled a March 8 fundraiser. He attended Coretta Scott King's funeral in Atlanta last week.
In his only public statement on the case, Jefferson said he was "disappointed and in some ways perplexed" by former aide Brett Pfeffer's guilty plea on Jan. 11. Jefferson added that he has never "required, demanded or accepted . . . anything to perform a service for which I have been elected." Ron Machen, one of Jefferson's attorneys, declined to comment.
The investigation became public on Aug. 3 when FBI agents raided Jefferson's homes in New Orleans and Northeast Washington, where they found about $90,000 in cash in his freezer, law enforcement sources have said. They also raided five other locations, including the Kentucky and New Jersey offices of iGate Inc., a high-tech firm that has become central to the investigation, along with a house in Potomac owned by Atiku Abubakar, the vice president of Nigeria.
IGate has denied any wrongdoing, as has Abubakar. Pfeffer declined to comment.
Jefferson was raised in Lake Providence, La., one of 10 children. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1972 and served in the state Senate before he was elected to the House in 1990. He is married and is the father of five grown daughters.
As a senior member of the Ways and Means Committee and co-chairman of the Africa Trade and Investment Caucus and the congressional caucuses on Brazil and Nigeria, Jefferson has carved out a niche in Third World trade issues, and he has traveled extensively on privately and publicly funded trips.
"He's someone respected for doing his homework on issues," said Silas Lee, a New Orleans political analyst. "He's viewed as a very serious, very studious person."
Pfeffer, who faces as much as 20 years in prison, paints a different picture of Jefferson, for whom he worked as a legislative aide from 1995 to 1998.
According to court documents and law enforcement sources, Pfeffer, 37, became president of W2 Corp., an investment company that was owned by Lori Mody, a wealthy Vienna, Va., woman. Mody, 41, is the founder of Win-Win Strategies Foundation, whose mission includes helping needy children learn about the high-tech world.
In early 2004, Pfeffer told Jefferson about his new investment job, court records show. Jefferson told Pfeffer about a telecommunications opportunity in Nigeria and about iGate, which held the rights to a technology that enabled copper wires to transport high-speed Internet service to a wide array of consumers.
In mid-2004, Pfeffer brought Mody to Jefferson's office in Washington. There she was introduced to the founder of iGate, who has since been identified as Vernon Jackson. Not long after, Mody's company entered into a licensing and distribution agreement with iGate for the exclusive rights to market and distribute the company's technology in Nigeria.
Mody agreed to invest $45 million for the exclusive rights to iGate's technology and equipment for the Nigerian deal. She put up $3.5 million and agreed to finance the balance through the Export-Import Bank of the United States, a government-run agency that promotes U.S. business exports.
Afterward, Pfeffer told Mody that Jefferson would expect compensation for his "official assistance on the Nigerian deal," according to court documents.
In summer 2004, Pfeffer, Mody, Jefferson and others met in New Orleans at the law firm of one of Jefferson's daughters, who provided the legal work for the business deal. While in the lobby of the law firm, Jefferson approached Pfeffer in private and told him that he would require 5 to 7 percent of Mody's new Nigerian company, the court document said.
Later, in a phone conversation, Jefferson told Pfeffer that he wanted a family member to be put on the payroll of the Nigerian company and to receive about $2,500 to $5,000 in monthly payments, court documents said.
"Pfeffer understood that [Jefferson] was soliciting a bribe in exchange" for the congressman's assistance in "official acts," including influencing high-ranking officials in the Nigerian government via trips and correspondences, and meeting with officials of the Export-Import Bank to help secure financing, the court document said.
Mody, who had grown concerned about the propriety of the transactions, went to the FBI in March 2005. She agreed to record conversations in what became a sting, say law enforcement sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the probe.
On March 31, she gave $2,100 to Jefferson's campaign. And in July, months after approaching the FBI, her Win-Win Strategies Foundation was listed in congressional travel documents as the sponsor of Jefferson's trip to Ghana to promote the broadband technology venture.
Jefferson was accompanied to Ghana by a relative, a staff member, Pfeffer and an iGate employee, according to documents. The trip disclosure form that Jefferson filed with the House lists the purpose of the trip as "education and business development" and lists no accompanying family member. Win-Win Strategies paid $9,248 for Jefferson's expenses, the form shows.
During the trip, Pfeffer was in contact with Mody in Virginia, reporting on Jefferson's "official acts" with high-ranking Ghanaian officials, court papers said. Pfeffer believed that Jefferson would get similar compensation for the Ghanaian project as in the Nigerian deal, the court document said. Jefferson also told Pfeffer that a member of his extended family had been designated as the secretary of the Ghanaian company and would serve in a marketing role, the document said.
Mody said late last week that authorities told her not to comment because of the probe.
Jefferson has attracted controversy over the years. Nicknamed "Dollar Bill" in New Orleans, he is known as a formidable fundraiser with designs on his own political empire. Daughter Jalila Jefferson-Bullock is a state legislator. In helping her get elected, Jefferson was heard on an FBI wiretap soliciting improper fundraising help from his brother-in-law, Jefferson Parish Judge Alan Green, who was sentenced last week to more than four years in federal prison in an unrelated bail-bond corruption case.
Jefferson said in a statement last May that he recalled the conversation with Green but added that his request for help was familial.
"To my knowledge, nothing resulted from the conversation -- the campaign did not receive any money from Judge Green or anyone who may have been prompted by him to contribute -- and there were no further conversations on the matter," Jefferson said.
Jefferson also generated controversy when, in the midst of post-Katrina rescue efforts, he used National Guard troops to help him get belongings from his house in New Orleans.
Jefferson's legal problems have received modest attention in New Orleans, where residents and officials are consumed with rebuilding the city and upcoming local elections. But names of potential challengers are starting to circulate, and political observers are handicapping their prospects.
With only about one-fifth of the district's 500,000 residents believed to be living in New Orleans, it is possible that a white Democrat or even a Republican could take the seat, which was drawn as a black district and which Jefferson had hoped to hand off eventually to his chosen successor. That now looks less likely.
"He's strong, but not that strong that he could withstand an indictment," said John Maginnis, publisher of a weekly Louisiana political newsletter
YES...he needs to go down too....I agree....no one is above the law....regardless of race......“There is a lot of sensitivity on the issue of African-American lawmakers being the subject of criminal investigations” by the FBI or other agencies, said an aide to one CBC member. “The leadership knows this and wants to step gingerly.” --That is some serious B.S. What is race a get out of jail free card??? He is a crook plain and simple. There is nothing more to it...........

[Freak]

"CIA director Porter Goss is resigning, President Bush announced today. Bush said Goss had given him candid advice and brought honor to the job. "Porter's tenure at the CIA was one of transition," Bush said, "where he's helped this agency become integrated into the intelligence community, and that was a tough job." ----> Transition my ass. One word --> HOOKERGATE.
That man is up to ear with the connection to Hookergate and the lawsuit by Jerry Doe the ex-CIA. E, I read the entire lawsuit last night. Very informative. Doe should be called a hero for trying to expose the corruption under Goss' leadership.

[SmokinLowriderSS]

So, in your most knowledsgable estimation Freak, you figure this bribery scandal was birthed sometime early in the year 2001?
What if it goes back just a wee bit farther, like into the mid 90's or so? Earlier? This one has the smell of "old age" on it. IMO, a decade is not unlikely.

[Freak]

I don't know. That would be interesting...I do think the fallout will continue.
Talk about fall out....This one is getting big....
Volz Points Finger at Ney
In this, the fourth (Michael Scanlon, Jack Abramoff, Tony Rudy, and now Neil Volz) guilty plea to implicate Rep. Bob "Representative #1" Ney (R-OH), we get more details about what Ney did to earn Jack Abramoff's goodies.
Volz, Ney's former chief of staff, admits to receiving all sorts of bribes while he was still with Ney, and then turning around and taking part in the bribing once he moved over to work with Abramoff.
LOL...double dipper...
CONgress --- The best money can buy. Makes me sick.....

[Freak]

"Federal prosecutors have begun an investigation into Rep. Jerry Lewis, the Californian who chairs the powerful House Appropriations Committee, government officials and others said, signaling the spread of a San Diego corruption probe.
Arnold next on the list??

[centerhill condor]

the fundamental problem with legislators is that they are human and they stay in office tooooo long! Imagine if you will, serving one or two terms in either house then going back to work at the widget plant... less time for the absolute power to corrupt, absolutely! how would that change the culture of the beltway?
Also, how on earth can moral people find office when there are very few constituents that seek moral servants. like it or not, their performance is a direct reflection on our performance... the Russians have a saying, "you get the government you deserve".
I say send plumbers; they know some very practical info; hot goes on the left, payday is friday, and shti flows downhill...
we've replaced all kinds of jobs with machines... when will we replace the legislature with a commodore? wouldn't take much more computing power!
this country was founded on "christian" principles... when was the last time you heard a candidate take a vow to uphold just one of the ten commandments? pick your favorite... or to serve as Christ? I will not lie, cheat or steal nor tolerate anyone that does... sounds silly now, doesn't it?
any of us can have the freedom of simply doing right...if we do right.
Next time you get a chance, listen to some presidential speeches... start with ""W" and go back... you'll be amazed at how "our" country, religion, and culture have been slowly turned from the founder's intent. do this on a slow day...
there's plenty of blame to go around.... start with the man in the mirror! see what a positive difference you can make in your life and that of others. start today
Our country will only regain her footing when she regains her judgement of right and wrong.
Righteousness exalts a nation...but sin is a disgrace to any people...proverbs 14:34
there's nothing new here!