Republicus

"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door." The Statue of Liberty (P.S. Please be so kind as to enter through the proper channels and in an orderly fashion)

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Location: Arlington, Virginia, United States

Monday, June 09, 2008

The Cultural "Elite"



Study: 1 in 4 adults in NYC have herpes virus

NEW YORK (AP) - A city Health Department study finds that more than a fourth of adult New Yorkers are infected with the virus that causes genital herpes.

The study, released Monday, says about 26 percent of New York City adults have genital herpes, compared to about 19 percent nationwide.

The department says genital herpes can double a person's risk for contracting HIV.

Herpes can cause painful sores, but most people have no recognizable symptoms.

Among New Yorkers, the herpes rate is higher among women, black people and gay men.

The health department urges consistent use of condoms, and says its STD clinics offer free, confidential herpes testing.

___

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press

(Thanks Nanc)

14 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Brings to mind the old "Aristocrats joke". I guess I'm going to have to go see the movie again. Na-a-a-a-h!

2:56 PM  
Blogger nanc said...

anything for you, john...

*8]

6:13 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Remember how Obama supporters got their panties in a bunch about McCain and Clinton pushing for an over-the-summer gas tax rebate they couldn't deliver on?

Guess who's bribing the voters now with promises he can blame on Bush for not keeping...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- On the first day of what is to be a two-week economic tour around the country, Barack Obama said Monday that lawmakers should inject another $50 billion immediately into the sluggish U.S. economy.

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee cited the largest monthly increase in the unemployment rate in over 20 years, and record highs in oil prices, food prices and foreclosures.

"Such relief can't wait until the next president takes office. ... That's why I've called for another round of fiscal stimulus, an immediate $50 billion to help those who've been hit hardest by this economic downturn," Obama told a crowd in Raleigh, N.C.

He said that he supports the expansion and extension of unemployment benefits, as well as a second round of tax rebate checks.

Last week, Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill said that the latest unemployment rate shows that Congress and the Bush administration need to do more to help workers and the unemployed. And they called for a second round of fiscal stimulus.


Tax and spend... or in Obama's case... Spend and Spend.

6:27 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

New Abramoff Plea is Trouble for McCain & the GOP
Sun Jun 08, 2008
.

Last Monday, yet another Republican had plead guilty in the ongoing Abramoff corruption scandal.

The latest perp is a fellow named John Albaugh. He used to be the chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Ernest Istook (R-OK). Now he is a cooperating witness—just another GOP insider spilling his guts to the Feds.

Albaugh’s plea deal is a very interesting and merits an examination.

It not only spells trouble for the Republican Party, it also calls into question John McCain’s investigation cover-up of the Abramoff Scandal.

John Albaugh is significant cooperating witness. His plea and the information released to support it indicate that the Abramoff corruption investigation is active, growing and focusing on the actions of a number of Elected officials.

Associated Press

A one-time top aide to former Oklahoma Rep. Ernest Istook pleaded guilty Monday to a conspiracy to defraud the House as part of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.

Albaugh, 41, is the latest in a string of more than a dozen former government officials and lobbyists to plead guilty in the scandal involving members of Congress, their aides and Bush administration officials. He faces 18 to 24 months in prison, but that sentence could be reduced based on his continued cooperation with the government's investigation.

During the eight years Albaugh worked as chief of staff to Istook, the congressman accepted tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Abramoff and his associates. Istook has not been charged with any wrongdoing and is now a fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington.

Istook said Monday he was "as surprised and as shocked as anyone" at the case.

I love the way Istook is "surprised." This is all the more surprising when one reads the Information filing explaining the crimes that Albaugh was admitting in his guilty plea.

Istook is "Representative 4" and point #20 from the Overt Acts section of Information filing indicates that Istook had an active role in the criminal conspiracy (emphasis added):

20. On or about March 19, 2003, at the suggestion of defendant ALBAUGH, Representative 4 called Jack Abramoff, thanking him in advance for use of one of his FedEx Field suites for an upcoming fundraising event. During that call, Representative 4 also asked Abramoff which particular projects Firm B's clients wanted in the transportation bill. Abramoff thereafter sent an e-mail to the lobbyists on his team telling them that Representative 4 (Istook, R- Ok) had "basically asked what we want in the transportation bill," and instructing the lobbyists to "make sure we load up our entire Christmas list."



Also involved in the corruption is Rep. John Doolittle of California. In the past year and a half they have raided his home and his wife's office, subpoenaed mountains of documents, interviewed as many as a half-dozen of the lawmaker's former aides, even reportedly offered Doolittle a plea deal. (He reportedly turned it down; both Doolittle and his wife Julie have maintained their innocence).

Reviewing press accounts, Doolittle appears to have accepted many more gifts and contributions than Istook did from Abramoff, his team and his clients. And he reportedly took more actions favorable to Abramoff than Istook. Also, Doolittle is still in office. For prosecutors in the Public Integrity Section, convicting an active lawmaker is more professionally rewarding than putting a retiree behind bars.

6:39 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The McCain led investigation of Jack Abramoff collected over 750,000 pages of documents. Less than 7,000 have been released. In the small number of documents released by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee (SIAC) there is an interesting series of emails on pages 283 to 297 in this PDF.
The emails are between Jack's aides, folks like Kevin Ring, Neil Votz and others. In the emails, they are talking about the February 22, 2004 WP article that broke the Abramoff scandal into the news-cycle.

Starting on page 285 and working backwards to page 284, Kevin Ring and Matt DeMazza discuss the article in a series of emails (emphasis added):

Matt: So is it 100% Scanlon's fault, or is Jack partially to blame?

Kevin: Jack is equally to blame. He talked the tribes into hiring Scanlon.

Matt: That's what I gathered from the story, but I wasn't sure if you knew something that the reporter didn't know ...

So is your future with G.T. in questions?

Kevin: I don't think mine is. But the impact will be felt by everyone. Unsettling after buying a new house.

I know more than the article and the truth is worse.

Kevin Ring knows who did what and when and that is why he is a target. And there are others he can give up besides Doolittle. Don Young is clearly in the sights of the DOJ. After all, Jack used Young’s Transportation Committee as an ATM for his clients just as he used to use the Resources Committee when Young ran it.

6:45 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The Albaugh plea calls into question a central finding of McCain’s Final Report that the only problem was a few bad apples. The truth was that Jack Abramoff was part of a corrupt system of lobbying that is destroying our government. Jack Abramoff was not an aberration, he was normal in the Washington created by the Republican Party.

The lobbying system Abramoff worked in was created by a lobbyist named Charlie Black. And Black is now running McCain’s campaign.

McCain limited the Abramoff scandal to a very, very narrow scope. He collected 750,000 pages of documents and selectively used them to justify a narrow investigation.

Had he released these documents to the public, Abramoff’s easy access to Republican lawmakers and earmarks would have been exposed in 2006 or even 2004. The Albaugh plea proves McCain had evidence of crimes that he hid.

The 742,000 pages of documents being suppressed by John McCain should be released.

And John McCain needs to be defeated in November.

He is liar and a disgrace (and that is yet another reason why a McCain Presidency would be Bush’s third term).

7:26 PM  
Blogger nanc said...

i knew i should have turned my scratch and sniff monitor off...

8:24 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Two More Corrupt GOP Thugs on the Way Out...

Poll: Dems On Track To Winning Major Senate Seat
By Eric Kleefeld - June 9, 2008, 8:48AM
Democrats could be in for a major Senate win in the GOP stronghold of Alaska, a new poll finds.

The survey by local firm Hellenthal and Associates finds Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich leading longtime incumbent Republican Ted Stevens by a margin of 51%-44%, thanks in large measure to the ethics investigations that have dogged the incumbent.

Democrats haven't won a federal election in Alaska since 1974, so a win here would definitely be a really big deal.

Meanwhile, the poll also shows Rep. Don Young (R) narrowly trailing his primary opponent, Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, by 37%-34%. The data shows that Young would likely lose the general election by a 58%-38% landslide against likely Dem nominee Ethan Berkowitz, while Parnell edges out Berkowitz 43%-38% in a trial heat.

11:27 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What??? No update on the trials and tribulation of corrupt Democratic senator John Ford?

Sometimes I think your news troll has a rather slanted agenda he's trying to present here. Think he might be biased?

2:49 AM  
Blogger John said...

"...so a win here would definitely be a really big deal."

lol

"Definitely?" "Really?"

Like, fer sure?

This troll is a little minion working the congressional angle of the elections.

They're throwinmg the kitchen sink trying to convince people that the Republicans--and, by association, conservatives-- are venal, homosexual pedophiles.

...and liberal democrats, of course--by implication--are upstanding champions ofvirtue and decency.

This is all demagogic propaganda. It's part of an organized campaign agenda.

The "new" Democratic congress changed nothing except their approvals (they've gotten even lower).

Now they're trying to get a windfall profit by taxing the oil companies.

9:46 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"...so a win here would definitely be a really big deal."

lol

"Definitely?" "Really?"

Like, fer sure?


Weenie pretending losing the entire, corrupt Alaska delegation won't make him cry like a chickenhawk.

10:12 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

haha...John Ford!

They've got some little state senator to match against half the Republican, national congress.

Are you making our case for us....again!

Well, are ya, punk?

10:15 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

'I'll Sell My Soul to the Devil'
Corruption Scandals Involve Alaska's Biggest Political Names

By Karl Vick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 12, 2007; A01



ANCHORAGE -- When the FBI came looking for corruption in Alaska politics, it found an excellent perch in Suite 604 of the Baranof Hotel in Juneau, the state capital. There, a profane septuagenarian named Bill Allen did business throughout a 2006 special session called to set taxes on the oil industry. With hundred-dollar bills in his front pocket for ease of access when lawmakers turned up with their hands out, the oil-services company executive turned in a bravura performance before the pinhole camera that federal agents installed opposite his favorite chair.

"Let me count first here," Allen said, shushing a former statehouse speaker as he counted out a bribe in video footage entered as evidence in the lawmaker's September trial, one of several crowding the docket of the federal court here.

On another tape, Pete Kott, the former Republican speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives, crowed as he described beating back a tax bill opposed by oil companies. "I had to cheat, steal, beg, borrow and lie," Kott said. "Exxon's happy. BP's happy. I'll sell my soul to the devil."

"Well, that will stay in this room," one lobbyist said as a midnight session wound down.

It did not, of course. Since breaking into public view a year ago when federal agents raided lawmakers' offices and homes -- finding $32,200 neatly stacked in a closet of Kott's condo -- the federal probe has produced four indictments, three convictions, three guilty pleas and a rapt audience keen to see how high into Alaska's political hierarchy the rot reaches.

Officially, the scandal has remained confined to Juneau, where Alaska lawmakers had grown so accustomed to operating under the presumption of impropriety that several of them embroidered ball caps with the letters CBC, for "Corrupt Bastards Club." (An Anchorage coffeehouse now offers Corrupt Bastards Brew.) But with signs that the investigation is brushing against Alaska's lone congressman, Don Young (R), and its longtime and venerated senator Ted Stevens (R), residents of the Last Frontier are experiencing a rare spasm of soul-searching.

"These disclosures have come as a real shock, because of revelations of what was going on, and because Alaskans have always felt that they are special," said Vic Fisher, 83, one of four surviving members of the convention that only a half-century ago wrote Alaska's state constitution. "And that this thing is ruining our national reputation."

10:21 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well, are ya, punk?

Do these maroon's think they are some kind of Dirty Harry's? If their voices weren't so obviously "falsetto" I'd be shakin'. ROTFLMAO!

6:39 PM  

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