Judge Credits Ex-Washington Power Broker for His Cooperation in Wide-Ranging Corruption Probe

The red circle in the picture is Jack Abramoff waiting to speak with Georgie. Does the entire country need to be reminded of the corruption of this administration ? The corruption of the Republicans? If you let one in the front door, there are a million others waiting at the back door.

Republicans in Congress are not about to 'give up' their corrupt social network. Ain't no way.

The investigations and indictments since being conducted now, are a result of the elections of 2006, NOT, the efforts of John McCain. The investigations into Abramoff's Network is only beginning.

People convicted in the Abramoff investigation (click here)
By The Associated Press – 12 minutes ago
Lawmakers, lobbyists, Bush administration officials, congressional staffers and businessmen caught up in the Jack Abramoff public corruption probe:
_Abramoff was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison on charges of mail fraud, conspiracy and tax evasion. Since pleading guilty in 2006, the once-powerful lobbyist has cooperated with the federal investigation of influence-peddling in Washington. He is nearly two years into a six-year prison sentence in a criminal case out of Florida, where he pleaded guilty in January 2006 to charges of conspiracy, honest services fraud and tax evasion in the purchase of gambling cruise boats....

...Mark Zachares, former aide to Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, pleaded guilty to conspiracy. He acknowledged accepting tens of thousands of dollars worth of gifts and a golf trip to Scotland from Abramoff's team in exchange for official acts on the lobbyist's behalf....

...Meantime, Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) was trying to hang on to the chance to defeat his seat in the fall. However, with 70.5 percent of precincts reporting, he trailed Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell by 232 votes....(click here)

Palin's Lobbyist Has Abramoff Ties (click here)
By Kate Klonick and Zachary Roth - September 2, 2008, 1:01PM
It looks like Sarah Palin's claim to represent a cleaner brand of politics could be about to take a bruising.
The Washington Post reports today that, while Mayor of Wasilla, Palin oversaw the hiring of a lobbyist, Steven Silver -- a former chief of staff to now-indicted GOP senator Ted Stevens -- to help win federal earmarks for the city....

Palin's Small Alaska Town Secured Big Federal Funds (click here)
By Paul Kane

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, September 2, 2008; Page A01
ST. PAUL, Minn., Sept. 1 -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin employed a lobbying firm to secure almost $27 million in federal earmarks for a town of 6,700 residents while she was its mayor, according to an analysis by an independent government watchdog group.

There was $500,000 for a youth shelter, $1.9 million for a transportation hub, $900,000 for sewer repairs, and $15 million for a rail project -- all intended to benefit Palin's town, Wasilla, located about 45 miles north of Anchorage....

Listed as one of McCain's most sought after opinions, rather than the Joint Chiefs...

...which more or less explains the vast number of Retired Generals during the Bush/Cheney Administration that McCain threw in with. I mean why stay on as a General with significant rank only to be kicked around by field Commanders?


This is an Iraqi police/infantryman. So, what is the issue already? More deserters ?

Petraeus: No Major Iraq Troop Drawdown in '08 (click at title to entry)
General to Recommend Reduction of Only 1,500 Marines for Now
By JONATHAN KARLSept. 4, 2008
Gen. David Petraeus has recommended against any significant reduction of U.S. forces in Iraq before the end of the year, ABC News has learned.
The only drawdown Petraeus has called for, according to a senior military official familiar with his recommendation, is a modest reduction of two Marine battalions, or about 1,500 Marines, a tiny fraction of the 146,000 U.S. troops now in Iraq.
Under Petraeus's plan, the number of combat brigades -- which now stands at 15 -- would remain unchanged until next January at the earliest....




Now, why, if "The Surge" worked would it be necessary to continue to OCCUPY, Iraq?





We don't belong in Iraq.





We never did !

It is difficult at times to realize what 'Surge' McCain and Palin are discussing. The one that killed thousands more Iraqis...

... without a political solution.

Or.

The surge that killed so many Americans.

Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, a victim to his own government's neglect. (click here for video)

The Repentant Dick Cheney. He couldn't send in the Marines, so he decided to make amends through economic improvements in Georgia.

Now.

If Condi Rice can manage to find her way to Russia and negotiate a peace with an understanding of respect for Russian borders, rather than missile shield threats, this entire mess might actually turn out to be a worthwhile venture into Democratic Principles for this administration and Georgia.

Could it be possible for Cheney to actually be a viable Peace Prize candidate rather than a Neocon?

More incredible things have happened.

Palin called everyone other than her supporters a religious bigot and stated her mayorship was more worthy than her governorship.

...I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organizer," except that you have actual responsibilities. I might add that in small towns, we don't quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren't listening....

I guess God knew what he was doing when he decided Moses needed to jot down the ten commandments.

"Thou shalt not kill."

Except of course when your country enters an illegal and immoral war for oil and then its okay.

The speech was on the heels of the Giuliani rant. It was to 'bring to light' the importance of Mayors and why Ms. Palin had such valuable 'experience' that brings her to a national office as if she is actually competent to hold the Vice Presidency.

Sorry, but, being mayor, even of New York City where 'radios failed' and 'caused deaths' is very different than being a Vice President prepared for leadership in the Executive Branch of the USA. Let's face it. Giuliani lost his bid, okay?

Putting up cameras all over Alaska was a 'jobs issue' not a Homeland Security issue and it exploited the needs of a nation to prepare itself for other potential attacks from terrorists actually seeking 'WEAKNESSES' in the USA infrastructure to exploit. Does ANYONE actually think having Ms. Palin in the Vice Presidency isn't a national 'weakness?'

And the zealotry of promoting 'guns and religion' in the same sentence is a little scary.

These guys are religious zealots that seek to define the USA as the world's guardians. We aren't, nor was our government ever conceived in that light.

When the Declaration of Independence stated ... "When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another,..."; it wasn't referring to people outside the boundaries of the USA. At the time, there were 13 colonies and they were happy to be free of British domination, okay?

Where in all the struggles of the founding members of our society was there ever an implication that we would in turn invade Britain to free them of unreasonable sovereignty by a monarch? Where did the concept of being the world's liberator come from? It doesn't exist and people like Palin, Cheney and all the others that seek to impose that value on the USA, in the name of National Security are zealots of the worse kind. They have a faux face to the reality of global stability and the right of other people to cling to what they consider precious.

Palin's 'Red Meat' speech was nothing but political rhetoric laced with 'love me tender' values. It was full of hoaxes and inaccuracies and the very nonsense that facilitated the illegal and immoral invasion into Iraq leaving Afghanistan at risk that has since proved fatal to the allies we left behind.

I find her appaulingly brash without reason to believe she is competent. She is nothing but another Richard Cheney in sheep's clothing, proud of the fact that clothing doesn't come from NYC Fifth Avenue. She believes in unending right to gun use, oil at any cost and wars without sound judgement. If that 'ain't' Cheney, then I don't know what is !