We’ve long been describing Bob Ney as the “Soon-to-be-Indicted Bob Ney”. It looks like that day is finally here.
The New York Times is reporting that Ney, the leader sponsor and author of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) is headed to jail…
A guilty plea would make Ney, a six-term congressman, the first member of Congress to confess to criminal charges in the Abramoff investigation, which has focused on the actions of several current and former Republican lawmakers who had been close to the former lobbyist.
People with detailed knowledge of the investigation said Ney had entered an in-patient facility in recent days for treatment of alcoholism, making it uncertain whether he would appear at a court hearing to announce the plea.
We’ve also long reported on Ney’s “good luck” in winning $34,000 at a London casino owned by some good friends…at the exact same moment he owed exactly that much in credit card bills. Says The Times…
The casino winnings had also been under scrutiny by the Justice Department in part because the amount of the winnings coincided to a surprising degree with the amount of debt outstanding on Ney’s credit cards.
With both Ney and former Republican Majority Leader, Tom DeLay (R-TX) now facing indictments, that means there is only one remaining congress member who went on Jack Abramoff’s golf junkets to St. Andrews, Scotland who has yet to be served with criminal charges: Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL)
Feeney is currently facing a challenge for his seat by Clint Curtis, the man who has sworn in affidavit, video-taped congressional testimony and polygraph test that Feeney asked him to create vote-rigging software when they both worked at the same computer firm in Florida in 2000 (where Feeney was general counsel and registered lobbyist, even while he was also serving as Speaker of the Florida House).
Anyway, now that Ney is apparently going to jail for his Abramoff-related crimes, can someone other than The BRAD BLOG please look into the hornet’s nest surrounding the passage of HAVA, as aided and abetted by Abramoff’s old lobbying firm, Greenburg Traurig, and Ney’s former chief-of-staff-turned-Diebold-lobbyist, David DeStefano? Pretty please? Here’s a nice place to get you started!
Could Feeney be feeling the heat causing him to lash out in any ridiculous way he can?
Here’s hoping Feeney joins the crowd!
Another one’s gone
Another one’s gone
Another one bites the dust!
When you consider that THIS IS BUSH’S AND THE REPUBLICAN’S BASE, is anyone really surprised?
Oh, and we’re not suppose to think the votes were stolen? These guys are career criminals.
Our democracy is on life support and the only part of our government that is sustaining it is the federal court system which still has a few honest lawyers and judges willing to hold responsible the criminals who have accomplished this coup. God (or whatever) save us if these crooks are able to hold onto power for a few more years and thereby able to overrun the one remaining check on their criminal enterprise.
This is OT…but I have a huge prediction, based on gut feeling. Something like gas prices dropping to astronomcial lows just before the election may be the only card the GOP has, and it’s something no one’s thinking about. I’m talking $1-something a gallon. Limboob was talking about it, and I believe he’s prepped with the GOP talking points.
But, to benefit yourself, if you have oil/kerosene heating, wait until it drops to the freakish lows right before the election and lock in the rate to save money, cuz you can bet your ASSES it will go back up right after the election.
Let’s see if I’m right about this one. It’s something no one’s thinking about, but I think Limboob tipped his hand today. There’s less than 60 days before the election, lock in the rate for your heating before it goes up.
You know your whole lives, at the end of summer, heating oil starts to go up again in September, and it’s going down. Something funny’s going on. It’s good for us, but it’s only for the election because the GOP is in huge trouble. Remember, the BP thing in Alaska was supposed to make prices go way way up? That just happened, and they’re going down DESPITE that and DESPITE every September going up for the beginning of winter. Did you ever see anything like this in your life? I didn’t.
The oil companies owe trillions of dollars to the Bush administration’s policies and its Republican chorus. They are rolling in more money than they have at any time since John D. Rockefeller, Sr. Do they want to see the goose that lays their golden eggs tied down and throttled? No, they’ll do whatever they can to help, even if it meant selling at merely unscrupulous prices rather than the phantasmagorical.
Whig Said:
“selling at merely unscrupulous prices rather than the phantasmagorical” – I like that phrase!
BIG DAN maybe this is connected as well …
“Oil lease blunder hidden 6 years
Investigator says mistake cost taxpayers billions of dollars
By DAVID IVANOVICH
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON – Interior Department officials realized in 2000 that their offshore lease agreements with oil companies shortchanged American taxpayers, but they covered up their multibillion-dollar mistake for six years, an investigator said Wednesday.
After combing through 11,000 e-mail messages and interviewing 29 current and former Interior Department employees, federal investigators still aren’t ready to say who they think told a staffer to omit contract language that would have forced oil companies operating in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico to pay billions of dollars in royalty payments as energy prices rose.
“Although we have found massive finger-pointing and blame enough to go around, we do not have the proverbial ‘smoking gun,’ ” Interior Department Inspector General Earl Devaney told a House panel Wednesday.
“However, we do have a costly mistake.””
http://www.chron.com/disp/story...z/4185660.html
The Bush crime family getting caught with fingers in the cookie jar, great to hear, I only wish it didn’t take so long. And how interesting we have a little Diebold connection, Could this maybe blow the lid off these rip off devices in time for the election? One can only hope.
Sadly, this does not mean a national rollback on the flawed Help America Vote Act (HAVA) but it should.
It should also mean that his security clearance is yanked immediatly. Access to any government computers, or technology, or communications, etc. Done for life!
Anyone know does it?
Don’t worry Brad, Newsweek will run a COVER STORY in about 5 weeks:
“Will Your Vote Be Counted?”
Brad…sounds like we’re all well aware of the big picture of record breaking amount of REPUBLICANS indicted and/or going to jail, but the MSM is suppressing this huge story, as usual, providing more and more proof that the corporate MSM is in bed with the GOP. The obscene amount of Republican criminals NOT being a top story on TV news, tying it all together, reeks as usual. They’re reporting on stingrays, though. The crocodile hunter lived to the ripe old age of 44, that’s pretty old for someone nicknamed the “crocodile hunter” (Norm McDonald)
What do you expect, this is the world throught the eyes of a neocon/repug
Big Dan, I have the same feeling about the artificial drop in oil/gas prices in the run-up to November. Am hoping all the public needs is a whiff that this is just a short-term stunt to pay off the GOP and they will ignore it.
This really cracks me up. I’m paying $1.50 a liter for gas here in Prague – of course we all have health, dental, etc., care
the votes *ARE* stolen
now what the fuck you gunna do?
I hate to act this way. but wtf?!
czaragorn #16
I saw a report lately that said the cost of the actual fuel in Europe was actually lower than here, although the net cost was higher since it is taxed at a higher rate.
What do you think?
We could have added a .75 cent tax to gas back in the 1970’s when the price was .75 and gas would have jumped to $1.50 a gallon (it was Presidential Candidate John Anderson’s idea). But NO, that would have been horrible, to use that “tax money” to fund alternative fuel research, gas subsidy’s for the working poor, and energy environmental research.
You are all correct that the price of oil (and gas) is being totally manipulated in the marketplace for political purposes. And, of course, the Mass Media (corporate-controlled and 99.5% supportive of the neo-con/Rethuglican administration) are saying nothing.
Are most Americans smart enough to realize that they are being conned without the help (or in spite of the non-help) of the the mass media? Interesting question. I guess we shall soon see.
Meanwhile, DEMOCRATS VOTING ABSENTEE IS NOT THE ANSWER. That will just let the “final vote margins” be closer and allow them to whisk off the “assumptive winner” to DC for swearing in WITHOUT EVER COUNTING THE ABSENTEE OR PROVISIONAL BALLOTS.
VOTING ABSENTEE IS A GUARANTEED WAY TO MAKE SURE THE RETHUGLICANS WIN.
just lite up all the fucking gas!
enomni(like satanas) homey-land security
god damn hydrogen. liars sayin it can’t be made on the cheap! WAR PROFITEERS
fuck it I am drunk
I feel for the drunken bastard.
NOT!
how about this.
Roll back his lame ass legislation.
Roll back HACA vote.
then I will give my liver a rest
till then fsck them all burn in hell the son of bitches
Phil, Please don’t drive today!
I doubt Ney will spill any good beans – unless the time ends up being persuasive. Wish we could see what’s going into his off-shore accounts right about now. Wish I knew how to research the HAHA er I mean HAVA legislation!
Big Dan – Shhhh. Let’s enjoy the ride. We haven’t seen it all yet. If things ease, let’s blame it on Clinton!
I find this statement in knuckle nuts speech telling. “Imagine — imagine an enemy that can’t stand what we believe in getting a hold of oil resources and taking a bunch of oil off the market in order to have an economic punishment. In other words, they say, you go ahead and do this, and if you don’t, we’ll punish you economically.†Link: It’s down where someone asked this question “But how do you measure progress with a body count like that?” http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/...0060915-2.html
It’s kind of what he is doing to them ain’t it? Knuckle Nuts afraid his buddies are going to lose some money? It’s ok when Knuckle Nuts and Chirping chit pile the economic punishment on the American people by high gas prices, low wages, food that’s not safe to eat , the polluted water and the destruction of our planet, just don’t let anyone do it to them. This guy is a freak.
Do Ya think abramoff will pick up the tab for the condoms K-Y jelly and rubber gloves ? ? ?
BB2 – I think the actual cost of petroleum must be pretty standard, although Europe is definitely closer to many main sources (Russia, the Mideast) than the US is, so transport costs may well be lower (although the US pumps lots of its own oil and imports lots from Venezuela). The difference is surely in the taxes. In general, Europeans get killed by taxes – the Czech government withholds 50% of the national payroll every month, and we pay 19% in VAT on every purchase, and, in fact, here in the CheeZee Republic we don’t get much in the way of services and have to pay bribes for what we do get. I can’t stand hearing Americans bitching and moaning about taxes – they have no idea. Such greed is most unbecoming!
Bluebear2
I don’t drive. but I hear ya, I really really snapped today. I apologise for the drunk rant.
This whole thing is just completely driving me crazy. I can barely take it anymore. It’s bad news everywhere, I can not get away from it, I feel like I put a pair of glasses on and I can just see through all the lies and crap everywhere. I don’t know what to do anymore. Anyway, I woke up with a bunch of broken guitar strings around me and a boatload of empty bottles and cigarrettes everywhere. And no, I don’t feel better today. I am just gonna clean up the mess I made, making the coffee now. Tomorrow is another day. Sorry for going off topic.
I sent a thank you to Lou Dobbs the other day, but I’m real distressed about him covering the Ney story without connecting it to the voting machine and HAVA scandal.
What an opportunity to crack the case wide open Lou. Come on!
Is Ney still going to show up at the Voting machine hearings focusing on the paper “trails” this month and be praised by the chairman as the great “FATHER OF HAVA”?
I don’t think God is blessing America anymore! Wish I had health and dental. I’m currently on the “please God don’t let anything bad happen” plan!
Let’s see: We have Nee Nee (of Yang fame) Ney Ney (Ohio) No No (goes without saying), now we need a Noo Noo (we might have to go back to Madame Nhu, as long as I’m dating myself – no, I’m not that narcissistic, I was speaking chronologically), and we could have a little pre-Beatles sock hop!
Yesterday there was a confrontation on an Orlando radio station between Clint Curtis and Tom Feeney! It was wild. They both came out blazing!!!
Emma
Phil,
Trust me, nobody blames you for having a few too many, darlin’! A little dose of oblivion to dull the pain.
Emma,
Sorry I missed THAT one! How did it go between them? How did Clint do?? I hope he cleaned feeney’s clock for him!
Clint brought it all out in the open!!! He did great but to be fair (yuck…like they play fair!) Feeney did not lay down and play dead and he sure didn’t seem to be nervous about the confrontation. Of course he is a seasoned politician so that was to be expected. It’s easy to see where he is headed with this entire process….he said that Clint “needs mental help” and that he’s “crazy”. The best part was that the entire listening audience heard the allegations of vote rigging, mysterious deaths, spies and they discussed Clint’s testimony before Congress!
Emma
#30 Larry Bergan
I’ve been on that health and dental plan since 1985.
It’s not a good plan, the only doctors you’ll see are the highest paid ones.
Larry Bergan – Can you share what you know about the Newsweek cover story on election fraud in 5 weeks…..pleeeeeeeeeeeeeze?
davek #37
I don’t have any inside info, but how about this:
WILL YOUR VOTE BE COUNTED
As election time draws near, many fear votes may be in jeopardy on many fronts, not the least being from the new voting machines rolled out across America to satisfy the requirements of the HAVA act passed in 2002, to deal with the problems brought to light in the hotly contested election of 2000.
Others say not to worry, and are skeptical of motives of those who stir doubts. “For there to be a problem here, you’re basically assuming a premise where you have some evil and nefarious election officials who would sneak in and introduce a piece of software,” [Diebold spokesman, David Bear] said. “I don’t believe these evil elections people exist.”
There are problems with any election, and conventional wisdom tells us this year won’t be any different.
By the way of this thread, our TV guide here had a listing of “Sixty Minutes” this week saying there was going to be a special 90 minute edition. The show usually comes on at 6:00 just like clockwork, but was replaced by a local newscast just as if it was a regular weekday. A normal one hour “Sixty Minutes” followed.
I called to see what happened and they said the Football game went too long. I got on the “Sixty Minutes” website to see what they had, and it just listed the stories in the one hour show.
Call me cynical, but you don’t suppose they were going to cover the Bob Ney story and chickened out do you?
Ney gives up committee posts
Bluebear2:
Well, at least that’s good news, but, of course, the Republicans will get somebody worse, just to show us when we win, we really lose. They never sway from that “winning” strategy.