Score One For Blondes
May 1, 2007
A lawyer and a blonde woman are sitting next to each other on a long flight. The lawyer asks if she would like to play a fun game.
The blonde is tired and just wants to take a nap, so she politely declines and tries to catch a few winks.
The lawyer persists, and says that the game is a lot of fun.
“I ask you a question, and if you don’t know the answer, you pay me only $5; you ask me one, and if I don’t know the answer, I will pay you $500.”
This catches the blonde’s attention; and, to keep him quiet, she agrees to play the game. The lawyer asks the first question.
“What’s the distance from the earth to the moon?” The blonde doesn’t say a word, reaches in to her purse, pulls out a five-dollar bill, and hands it to the lawyer.
Now, it’s the blonde’s turn.
She asks the lawyer, “What goes up a hill with three legs, and comes down with four?”
The lawyer uses his laptop, searches all references. He uses the Airphone; he searches the Net and even the Library of Congress. He sends e-mails all the smart friends he knows, all to no avail.
After one hour of searching he finally gives up. He wakes up the blonde and hands her $500. The blonde takes the $500 and goes back to sleep.
The lawyer is going nuts not knowing the answer. He wakes her up and asks, “Well, so what goes up a hill with three legs and comes down with four?”
The blonde reaches into her purse, hands the lawyer $5 and goes back to sleep.
One Thousand Words
May 1, 2007
Who said cats don’t pray?
Corruption? You Want Corruption?
May 1, 2007
So you want a real culture of corruption?
Try this on for size, published today in The Hill, written by David Keene:
Anyone who knows much about real power in Congress knows that almost every member of the House and Senate lusts after a seat on the Appropriations Committee and hopes one day to achieve the status of Cardinal. The Cardinals, of course, are the folks who chair the various Appropriations Committee subcommittees and literally control the billions of dollars that pass through their hands.
California Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) chairs the Senate Rules Committee, but she’s also a Cardinal. She is currently chairwoman of the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies subcommittee, but until last year was for six years the top Democrat on the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies (or “Milcon”) sub-committee, where she may have directed more than $1 billion to companies controlled by her husband.
If the inferences finally coming out about what she did while on Milcon prove true, she may be on the way to morphing from a respected senior Democrat into another poster child for congressional corruption.
The problems stem from her subcommittee activities from 2001 to late 2005, when she quit. During that period the public record suggests she knowingly took part in decisions that eventually put millions of dollars into her husband’s pocket — the classic conflict of interest that exploited her position and power to channel money to her husband’s companies.
In other words, it appears Sen. Feinstein was up to her ears in the same sort of shenanigans that landed California Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R) in the slammer. Indeed, it may be that the primary difference between the two is basically that Cunningham was a minor leaguer and a lot dumber than his state’s senior senator.
Melanie Sloan, the executive director of Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington, or CREW, usually focuses on the ethical lapses of Republicans and conservatives, but even she is appalled at the way Sen. Feinstein has abused her position. Sloan told a California reporter earlier this month that while”there are a number of members of Congress with conflicts of interest … because of the amount of money involved, Feinstein’s conflict of interest is an order of magnitude greater than those conflicts.”
And the director of the Project on Government Oversight who examined the evidence of wrongdoing assembled by California writer Peter Byrne told him that “the paper trail showing Senator Feinstein’s conflict of interest is irrefutable.”
If Ms Pelosi were so concerned with ethics, she would have investigated Senator Diane Feinstein and her husband, a Pentagon contractor that was awarded contracts that Ms Feinstein approved and oversaw, including a single contract for $600 million, with a potential of additional revenues that would bring the total contract value up to $3.1 billion dollars.
Instead, Ms Pelosi and her fellow Democrats obsess over Dick Cheney, who has long severed ties all ties with Halliburton.
Of course, a ‘culture of corruption‘ requires a community of corruption. You don’t have to go far to find that:
Mr Ethics, Harry Reid (who happily took money from Jack Abrahamoff, then denied it, then admitted it, and then refused to return the money) is backing what promises to be one of Nevada’s largest real estate development proposals. In fact, Mr Reid wanted the feds to part with valuable federal lands for nothing. When that came to light, the developer (a good friend of Mr Reid’s)- without a peep- agreed to pay ten million dollars for the land.
In fact, the developer and Mr Reid have ties that go back a long way. The developer/lobbyist, Harvey Whittemore, is a longtime friend and financial backer of Harry Reid. Of course, lawyers are always the front people for deal of this magnitude. ‘Leif Reid, who is Whittemore’s personal lawyer, has represented the developer throughout the Coyote Springs project, including in negotiations with federal officials.’ What a good daddy.
To put things in perspective, the size of the deal must be appreciated. The Coyote Springs Valley project calls for ‘as many as 159,000 homes, 16 golf courses and a full complement of stores and service facilities. At nearly 43,000 acres, Coyote Springs covers almost twice as much space as the next-largest development in a state famous for out-sized building projects. ‘ The project has been referred to as being of ‘historic proportions.’
We noted in Culture Of Corruption And Playing In The Mud that
The Empress Dowager of the Democrats, Nancy Pelosi, is fond of accusing her Republican counterparts of harboring a ‘culture of corruption.’ Her Majesty has a short memory. Notwithstanding her self righteous call, The Emperor Dowager is rather fond of corruption. As Minority House Leader, Ms Pelosi has often spoken of lobbying reform and ethical issues. She has stated she would like to see a ban on House members accepting gifts from lobbyists.
What Ms Pelosi does not want to remember is that in 1995 she voted against a provision “to prohibit registered lobbyists from giving gifts to members, officers, or employees of the House and Senate.” The Empress Dowager wasn’t alone. She was joined by Steny Hoyer, the then number two Democrat in the House. That ‘culture of corruption’ is clearly very addictive to Ms Pelosi and others in her party.
Just how addictive that culture of corruption is becomes quite clear with a bit of hindsight.
In speaking of the Abrahamoff scandal and other improprieties, John Boehner noted Ms Pelosi’s hypocrisy:
“When I hear Democratic Party leaders throwing around terms like ‘culture of corruption,’ I have to think: ‘You oughta know.’
“Yes, Republicans are outraged by the actions of Jack Abramoff. But we’re outraged, in part, because our standards are higher than the standards that were held by the Democratic majority we replaced after 1994. We are repulsed at Abramoff and his crimes, in part, because they remind us of the corruption we uprooted and stamped out when we took the majority away from the Democrats a decade ago.“Minority Leader Pelosi, who has served in Congress since 1987 and was part of the last Democratic majority, should recall that corruption well. It wasn’t that long ago that gifts and personal loans from S&L interests to a Democratic committee chairman, made in hopes of winning favorable treatment from regulators, resulted in a half-trillion dollar scandal and a $125 billion tab for the American taxpayer. Nor was it that long ago that the Democratic chairman of the House Administration Committee stood idly by while drugs were being dealt from the House Post Office, hundreds of Members of Congress were bouncing checks and floating themselves zero-interest loans from the House Bank, and lobbyists were being given assigned parking spots on the Capitol grounds. Nor was it that long ago that the Democratic chairman of the Ways & Means Committee was trading taxpayer-purchased stamps for personal cash, leading to his conviction and jail time in 1993.
“An honorable majority responds to its stumbles with contrition, reform, and an effort to fix that which is broken. This is precisely the path Speaker Hastert and Chairman Dreier have charted for our majority in recent days. I applaud the Speaker for his leadership, and challenge Minority Leader Pelosi to join Republicans in our effort to change the way Congress works.”
How’s that for a culture of corruption?
Bad Day For Nancy And Harry- On May Day, No Less
May 1, 2007
The President will veto a bill today that would cut funding for troops and set a date certain for US troop withdrawal from Iraq. The Democrats, facing the reality of a nation that will not back their initiative, are planning a PR blitz they hope will blunt the fiasco of their failed policies.
The ‘woe is us, we have lost’ cheerleaders in Congress, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi (each of whom are in the Congressional ethics violations Hall of Fame- see this and this) are facing a bad day that will get worse.
Reports from Iraq this morning indicate that terror leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri, leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq has been shot dead. Some news agencies are reporting that he was shot by Sunni gunmen.
If the reports are accurate, it will a sad day for House Democrats. Our efforts and the surge in Iraq appear to be working.
Speaking of failed leftist political ideologies, today is May Day, the Holy Day of every failed repressive, oppressive, dysfunctional, totalitarian, authoritarian, dictatorship and failed regime in the world.
The political ideologies that have been responsible for more deaths, destruction, hate, bigotry, racism and heartbreak will be joyously celebrated today by leftists around the world.
See Dr Sanity’s The Socialist Food Chain.
Clearly, when all of humanity is at stake; when the socialist utopia is at-hand; lines must be drawn and the masses must be kept in their appropriate places in order to achieve social justice, peace, and universal brotherhood.
IMPERIALIST AMERICA IS HUMANITIES NUMBER ONE ENEMY
KILL TERRORISTS: BOMB BUSH IN HIS F****ING HOUSE
I LOVE NY EVEN MORE WITHOUT THE WORLD TRADE CENTER
NAZI KIKES OUT OF LEBANON
FUCK MIDDLE AMERICA
For those of you who needs pictures:
Happy May Day.
