GOP Corruption and Obstruction

Which would put this discussion in a completely different thread... ;)

I don't doubt there's some serious horsetrading going on. That number ($20b) just kinda popped up out of nowhere at the last second, so I have absolutely no doubt that there were "prior discussions and understandings" involved to get to it. BP isn't going to hand out $20b without some unpleasant discussions. For that matter, even the chairman cannot authorize that sort of loot without the approval of the entire board of directors. That had to be in place before they ever visited the White House.

Unless that number happened to be the limit of their corporate liability insurance policy... (which means no money out of BP's pocket, and wouldn't it just be a pisser if their insurance was thru AIG, currently majority owned and controlled by the US government via the bailout)
 
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As a followup, under pressure and threatening from fellow Repubican's to remove him from his commitee positions, Barton has issued an apology for his apology to BP. This doesn't get much better folks!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100617/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill_bp_s_ally

Incensed at the gift Barton had given Democrats, Republicans came close to stripping Barton of his post as chairman-in-waiting of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. GOP leaders summoned Barton to the Capitol and demanded he apologize in specific terms. The leaders threatened to launch a process to strip Barton of his seniority on the powerful panel, a particularly painful threat to any long-term lawmaker, according to two knowledgeable Republican officials who demanded anonymity so they could speak freely about private meetings.

But it was the notion of an American lawmaker apologizing to a foreign head of a corporation that had caused great hardships for millions of Gulf Coast residents that incited rare Republican-on-Republican rage. Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., became the first in his party to demand that Barton be stripped of his seniority. During a House vote later in the day, other Republicans pressed their leaders for Barton's punishment — and at least two in the leadership were still considering that option, the officials said.

"I find it incredibly insensitive, incredibly out of touch," Biden told reporters. "There's no shakedown. It's insisting on responsible conduct and a responsible response to something they caused."
Democrats, eager to tie Republicans to the oil industry during this midterm election year, piled on.
"While people in the Gulf are suffering from the actions of BP, the Republicans in the Congress are apologizing to BP," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.
 
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Yep. Again, he's 100% right about the shakedown, but I don't know that it deserved an apology and there's certainly no way in hell you can say something like that in DC as the opposing party will make political hay for all it's worth (kinda like the dems are in this case).
 
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It's an interesting battle of the anti-corporatist 'populists' versus the anti-government 'populists'--all of whom are owned by one interest group or another. Typical DC Kabuki theater (or WWA smackdown fest)....once again. I will say though, that Boner was pretty quick to get the troops in line, even though they all probably totally agree with Barton. There *is* an election coming up, so you have to be careful with what you say out loud. ;)


Being old and retired and having no life, the spouse and I curled up with the hearing coverage and some popcorn today and watched Tony Hayward repeating "please sir can I have another?" for several hours. Barton's comment was just a bit jarring after all the grandstandery and public flogging--even Hayward looked perplexed.
 
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Apologies if this forum seems to be becoming my personal blog; apparently I haven't ticked anybody off enough lately to get a response. :(

Onward nonetheless. This is (to me anyway,) an interesting case of dueling corruption--I put it under GOP even though it tilts both ways because the party figures prominently in both stories--once as alleged culprit and once as alleged aggrieved whistleblower. Anyone who can figure out who's duping who, if anyone, gets the gold-plated cowflop BS Award.

First, we have the mysterious Alvin Greene, asserted by dems to be a repub plant in the always entertaining South Carolina political circus. (I use a Fox News clip to show I can read both right and left politicalspeak):
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...-hacking-greenes-surprise-win-sc-senate-race/
In a nutshell, the man ran no campaign, has no job, had to ask for a public defender in his felony obscenity charge last year, and yet had $10K handy to pay his senate filing fee.

Now, covering the other side of the fence, repubs are saying the entire organization known as 'The Florida Tea Party' is a dem set-up, and it looks every bit as suspect as Mr. Greene. (Here I'll quote the self-policing lefty report at TPM):
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/06/okay_this_is_getting_interesting.php

Has this kind of thing always gone on and I've just never noticed, or is this a new phenomenon of modern day backstabbing political corruption and electioneering?
 
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There still doesn't seem to be enough info to feel good about calling Greene a plant, but that doesn't speak very highly of your "actual" candidate if a goof like Greene, regardless of his possible plant-hood, with absolutely no campaigning can win the primary.

There's been a lot of character assassination going on where the tea party is concerned, so I don't doubt for a second that abusing the movement for election fraud could happen. Given the tea party's growing impact in the primaries and their "stubborn refusal" to become a branch of the GOP, I wouldn't put it past the repub establishment to want to trim their wings a bit, too. The dems have never had any qualms with election fraud (see ACORN) so I could very well see TPM's angle that both sides are running scams on the tea party name being true.
 
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It just all seems so…blatant. I mean, I come from Chi-town, so I know all about getting out the graveyard vote and so forth, but this southern fried stuff seems to lack subtlety, to put it kindly.

I actually agree with you, dte, about Greene being more of an indictment on the local dems even if he should have been 'persuaded to run' by the opposition. They appear to have been totally asleep at the wheel; their excuse is there *isn't* anyone who can beat Jim DeMint in the state party, so why bother. Not too dedicated on their part to roll over and have no alternative to Greene. The scary thing is he got 60% of the vote running absolutely no campaign. Theory being he had alphabetical supremacy. (First name on the ballot)

Sidenote: correct me if wrong, but ACORN was never convicted of any kind of election fraud, btw, in terms of false vote counts, voter intimidation, hanging chads or what have you—just fictitious padding of the rolls for cash. (That is, they may have registered Mickey Mouse to vote for a dollar bill, but he and Elvis generally didn't show up at the voting booth. link) I agree it does fall under the same general umbrella, but some hairs must be split.

On the Florida thing, I can't imagine anyone who worked for Alan Grayson suddenly having a come to jesus moment and becoming a gun-toting teahadist overnight. I'd say if more than one proposed FTP candidate has a similar background, the repubs are well within their rights to cry foul.
 
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Republicans fabricated false claims against ACORN (thrown out in court) to get it defunded, so I can't believe anything else coming out of their maws against ACORN...
 
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ACORN was found guilty of numerous counts, Thrasher. I've posted links from such clearly biased sources as the New York Times. A truly inquisitive type could check court records if he wanted independent verification. But by all means, believe what you want, big boy, and don't let that pesky reality thing bother you in the slightest.

@mags- you are correct about the nature of ACORN's convictions, but I believe voter fraud (such as false registrations) is, legally speaking, a subset of the broader election fraud. Split on those hairs, missy! ;)
 
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And you could read (or conveniently not forget) the posts I made where those claims were thrown out of court as false. But that would actually mean you might have some integrity and honesty in that pighead.
 
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I really do enjoy these sessions. This site is obviously biased; however, the information reflected is public record and it's a very clear summary of numerous indictments and CONVICTIONS. As in, go to the courthouse and read it yourself public record. You are welcome to to dispute public records if you wish, but there's really nothing more I can do for you if that's the road you choose.
http://www.rottenacorn.com/activityMap.html
 
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Another link to a suspect conservative site? Really, DTE, you should know better.

I could post links to cases thrown out, and yet you would sit in silence and disregard it. What's the point, DTE, if you don't want accept the fact that claims have been fabricated and thrown out?
 
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CO 2005 Two ex-ACORN employees were convicted in Denver of perjury for submitting false voter registrations.

2008 An ACORN employee in West Reading, PA, was sentenced to up to 23 months in prison for identity theft and tampering with records. A second ACORN worker pleaded not guilty to the same charges and is free on $10,000 bail.

WA 2007 Three ACORN employees pleaded guilty, and four more were charged, in the worst case of voter registration fraud in Washington state history. More than 2,000 fraudulent voter registration cards were submitted by the group during a voter registration drive.

Show me those being thrown out. Show me public records or STFU.
 
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Why? What's the point, DTE? For every case I show you that is thrown out, you'll show me a case that was sentenced, convicted, or pleaded guilty.

And yet Republican cases of voter fraud are ignored by you.

There's fraud on both sides of the aisle.

The only difference is that ACORN is prosecuted by rich conservatives that can afford to fund their pet hobby. While Republican cases rarely come to court since they don't come with backing from corporations and the rich.
 
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Seriously? After all your whining about biased sources, you give me Guardian UK as your trump card? Good lord. You'll note that nowhere have I stated that every accusation against ACORN has led to a conviction. You'll note that your statement was that you don't believe any of it. I offered public record evidence of convictions. Thus, your statement that " so I can't believe anything else coming out of their maws against ACORN… " is refuted, no more, no less.

Let's not do this yet again, OK? Moving on.
 
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And can you refute all of the false claims against ACORN listed in the Guardian UK? It goes both ways you know?

Where are those public records you said you offered? Linking to a rightie ACORN hate site doesn't count...
 
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Where's the money come from? It's "nice" spending, but somebody still has to pay for it. You gonna give Chairman Mao yet another call, Mr. $13TTTTTTTTTTrillion?
 
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