(CNSNews.com) -- Two members of Congress said this week that someone in the White House may have committed a crime if they offered Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) an administration job in exchange for him not running in Pennsylvania's Democratic senate primary against Sen. Arlen Specter, an allegation that Sestak said was true.
Meanwhile, despite several media inquiries over the last few weeks and the comgressmens' statments, the White House continues to withhold comment on the matter.
Sestak's opponent in the primary, Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, both said this week that if Sestak's claim is true, such a job offer could constitute a federal crime.
Specter specifically said it would constitute bribery, while Issa referenced three sections of the U.S. code on the matter.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs has repeatedly declined to confirm or deny Sestak's allegation. He did so again on Thursday, Mar. 11, even after the two members of Congress said criminal conduct could have been involved. However, the Philadelphia Inquirer previously reported that an unnamed White House source had denied Sestak's claim.
This week, Sestak reaffirmed on MSNBC's Morning Joe what he claimed in other TV interviews: That he was offered a job with the Obama administration if he would drop his challenge to Specter, a former Republican who switched parties in early 2009.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/13/2010 00:00 ||
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Specter specifically said it would constitute bribery, while Issa referenced three sections of the U.S. code on the matter.
The negative fallout from climate change is having a devastatingly lopsided impact on women compared to men, from higher death rates during natural disasters to heavier household and care burdens.
In the 1991 cyclone disasters that killed 140,000 in Bangladesh, 90 percent of victims were reportedly women; in the 2004 Asian Tsunami, an estimated 70 to 80 percent of overall deaths were women. Gaia's way of fixing the over-population problem
And following the 2005 Hurricane Katrina in the United States, African-American women, who were the poorest population in some of the affected States in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi, faced the greatest obstacles to survival, according to the New York-based Women's Environment and Development Organisation (WEDO). Had to go to the back of the line for food stamps?
The 2007 Human Development Report, issued by the U.N. Development Programme, points out that women are particularly affected by climate change because they are the largest percentage – accounting for about 70 percent – of the poor population. Wow, thst sure is a lot of non-poor dudes walking around without a wife. Maybe if that 70 percent went Lysistra on those rich dudes, they'd be able to move on up.
Climate change is also exacerbating existing gender inequalities, with a devastating effect on the quality of life of poor women and girls. In many parts of the world, women and girls are responsible for collecting water and firewood.
As these resources become scarcer in the face of increasingly erratic rainfall, they must spend more time looking for and collecting them, further reducing the time they have available to engaging in economic activities, or attending school, she said.
Women are also the main producers of food, providing 70 percent of agricultural labour in sub-Saharan Africa, and so are particularly affected by reduced agricultural output, North added. These dudes really have it made. They get the women to do all the work, they keep the profit, and still overpopulate. I'll bet they have a longer life span, too.
“The care responsibilities that fall to women and girls mean that health problems associated with climate change – including an increase in waterborne diseases associated with flooding – often result in them taking on an increased burden of care as they are required to look after sick family members,' she noted.
The study also found the opposite to be true: in societies where women and men enjoy equal rights, natural disasters kill the same number of women and men. Except the United States as Katrina demonstrates. Oh, I forgot the US denies equal rights to women. That's why the men live longer and more money goes to research prostate cancer.
In East Africa – a region that is acutely feeling the effects of climate change, with widespread drought resulting in critical shortages of food and water – research suggests that increased poverty levels is having serious consequences for the education of girls. Q.E.D Post hoc ergo propter. In hoc signo vinces.
In Kenya, participants in the Gender, Education and Global Poverty Reduction Initiatives project have noted that increased poverty associated with drought has affected school attendance, with girls being more likely to be withdrawn from school than boys.
In neighbouring Uganda, the food crises associated with climate change have been linked to higher rates of early marriage for girls, as they are exchanged for dowry or bride price.
These “famine marriages' – as they are called – not only lead to girls dropping out of school, but also make them vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections and related reproductive complications. Q.E.D Post hoc ergo propter. In hoc signo vinces.
Find out how Finland deals with the tragedy of Gaia's climate induced gender discrimination at the link.
Maggie Atkinson, who was appointed last autumn, has argued that children under 12 should not be treated as criminals under the law.
Dr Atkinson said: "Even the most hardened of youngsters who have committed some very difficult crimes are not beyond being frightened."
She argued that the fact that Jon Venables, who was convicted of two-year-old Jamie Bulger's murder at the age of 10, has recently been recalled to custody should force a rethink of the system.
Dr Atkinson told the The Times that politicians should not be swayed too much by the emotional pleas of victims' familes.
"The "we are too worried about the parents issue" is something that runs like a thread through a number of cases," she said. "My constant song is "listen to the children and young people"."
She made the comments the same week that Denise Fergus, Jamie Bulger's mother, met with Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary.
Dr Atkinson said: "None of us is born a good persn or an evil person. The backgrounds from which we come, and whether we are nurtured and secure, will shape our character."
Posted by: john frum ||
03/13/2010 09:14 ||
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I guess Jon Venables didn't qualify for late-term abortion in jolly, old, liberal England? I never quite understood that many liberals were so in favor of abortion but were so opposed to capital punishment. I usually write it off to my frail mind not being able to juggle dissonance and incongruity.
#7
It's a simple equation. If the child is a sociopath, they were trained to be vicious, and can possibly be deprogrammed.
But if the child is a psychopath, they may be able to function in society, if it is a lesser form of the pathology. But this can only be determined with extensive training and evaluation.
If it is a serious form, they can no longer be allowed in public, any more than a wild leopard.
#2
I think Australia has higher standards than the Norwegian committee, DMFD.
Not that that's hard....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/13/2010 22:32 Comments ||
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Given that Krudd is such an unbelievably sycophantic follower of the affirmative action Teleprompter something is seriously amiss. The deflating zero is losing his charm.
#4
"Mr Rudd said the Indonesian president [who did receive the honor] was honoured for his work in tracking down terrorists after the Bali bombings, as well as for strengthening democracy."
Well, that leaves Bambi out....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/13/2010 23:42 Comments ||
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That's the 11th State to sign on so far, and a total of 38 are considering it. Let's all hope they can speed it up, so they can get started on the next phase of calling a constitutional convention.
March 12, 2010 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- Broadway Bank, owned by U.S. Senate nominee Alexi Giannoulias' family, was defrauded in an alleged check-kiting scheme by the owners of a popular Chicago restaurant, Boston Blackies.
Nick Giannis and his son, Chris, are charged with stealing nearly $2 million. Chris posted bond and was released Friday from Cook County Jail. His father Nick remains jailed in Detroit.
Broadway Bank is not accused of any wrong doing. Yet.
However, the senior Giannis did contribute to Giannoulias' political campaigns and receive loans from the bank.
Alexi Giannoulias said Friday in a statement he was "shocked and appalled" at the arrests Thursday of principals in the Boston Blackies restaurant chain.
Thirty-eight year-old suspects Chris Giannis and Andy Bakopoulos were picked up in Chicago while Blackies founder 62-year-old Nick Giannis was detained in Detroit allegedly trying to leave the country.
Giannoulias reportedly has known the elder Giannis and son for decades. Not only has Nick Giannis donated $119,000 to Giannoulias' campaigns for treasurer and the U.S. Senate, the Giannoulias family's troubled Broadway Bank has made business loans to the Boston Blackies chain. Please, please let this story stretch to November ...
Republican Senate candidate Mark Kirk issued a statement Friday headlined "Giannoulias' association with criminals continues." The North Shore congressman said, "Nick Giannis was second largest campaign contributor outside of (the) Giannoulias family and Broadway Bank loaned Giannis roughly $6 million in mortgages...despite his felony conviction in 1996 for illegal firearm possession."
Last Tuesday, the embattled Giannoulias Campaign was buoyed during a White House visit and meeting with President Obama's senior political adviser, David Axelrod, and a Rasmussen poll that showed the Democrat leading Kirk by 3 percentage points.
Friday, Giannoulias was back on the defensive. He called his family's Broadway Bank one of several banks defrauded by the alleged Giannis scheme and he announced that his campaign would immediately "donate all contributions from these individuals to non-profit organizations". Like ACORN, for example ...
Giannoulias was unavailable for comment Friday. His staff said he was in meetings trying to raise money for his campaign. From other customers of the Broadway Bank?
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/13/2010 10:23 ||
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Rasmussen Daily Presidential Tracking Poll
March 13, 2010
Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows that 27% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -14. Link
#5
It's a spoof, originally posted on Mark Steyn's blog on NationalReview.com. What's more, Obama wasn't even its intended target -- John McCain was. To quote Mr. Steyn's January 28, 2008 posting:
"Three weeks ago, after New Hampshire, when Hill and McCain and the gang were all bragging about being "agents of change," a (non-U.S.) correspondent of mine emailed me his all-purpose stump speech for this primary season:
"My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it."
#7
I agree with both tu3031 and lotp, and that ain't easy :-)
Patches needs to confront and surmount his personal demons. I don't know what they are and I wouldn't render a medical diagnosis based on what I've seen so far, but this man shouldn't be in Congress. He needs to get his personal life in order and find some interesting, useful and less stressful work.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/13/2010 14:28 Comments ||
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As Boston columnist Howie Carr has noted these types of outbursts occur after lunch, suggesting young Kennedy had ingested a bad ice cube.
True story: a co-worker of mine was testifying before a congressional panel recently, giving a thoughtful and thorough answer to idiotboy's question. Patches began screaming at him, hurling wild and baseless accusations (it was after lunchtime, natch).
Afterward he came up to my coworker, apologized, said he didn't mean it, and that he'd only done it as that's what his constituents expect of him.
Posted by: regular joe ||
03/13/2010 17:21 Comments ||
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Afterward he came up to my coworker, apologized, said he didn't mean it, and that he'd only done it as that's what his constituents expect of him
I woulda punched him right in the liver. When I was charged, I'd say I assaulted his conscience. Nobody would convict me due to lack of evidence
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/13/2010 17:50 Comments ||
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Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. gave more ammunition to his critics Friday, admitting he had failed to tell a Senate committee about half a dozen briefs to the Supreme Court that he had signed, including two involving a terrorism dispute.
Holder's aides said the failure to mention the briefs last year before his confirmation was an oversight and a mistake. Just one of those things, I guess ...
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, called it an "extremely serious matter" that would trigger sharp criticism when Holder is due to be questioned March 23. "The attorney general, as with all nominees, has a duty of candor. . . . It is simply unacceptable that briefs in such significant cases were not provided to the committee so they could be discussed during his confirmation hearing," Sessions said.
Holder has run into a drumbeat of Republican criticism since he announced in November that he had decided to move the admitted Sept. 11 plotters, including self-proclaimed mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, from military custody at Guantanamo Bay to be tried in a federal civilian court in Manhattan. The attorney general said this trial would demonstrate the nation's commitment to the rule of law.
His Republican critics said these foreign terrorism suspects did not deserve to be tried in a civilian court with all the rights of Americans. More recently, the Obama administration has backed away from Holder's plan, but has not decided where the men will be tried.
The six briefs to the Supreme Court were not Holder's work alone. In every instance, he was one of a group of prominent lawyers or ex-judges who signed a friend-of-the-court brief.
Twice, Holder signed briefs along with former Atty. Gen. Janet Reno in the case of accused "dirty bomber" Jose Padilla. Though he was an American citizen who was arrested in Chicago, the Bush administration maintained it could hold him indefinitely in a military brig as an enemy combatant. Reno and Holder argued that an American citizen had a right to be charged with a crime and tried in federal court.
Two lower courts agreed with the Bush administration, but when Padilla lodged an appeal in the Supreme Court in 2006, the administration reversed course. Padilla was sent to trial in a federal court in Florida, where he was convicted for supporting terrorists and imprisoned.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/13/2010 00:00 ||
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Atty Genl's assistant blows him self up at the white house gate. Nothing to see here...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/13/2010 1:29 Comments ||
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Holder should discuss some of these very disturbing international laws with the Senators:
It is illegal to wear white shoes in Tibet.
In Equatorial Guinea, it is against the law to name your child Monica.
In Italy, public kissing is legal only at railroad stations.
False teeth are against the law in Switzerland
Posted by: Shens Dark Lord of the Leprechauns6113 ||
03/13/2010 7:40 Comments ||
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Keep firing the ammo that triggers the criticism coming: there's a movement afoot to impeach Holder--Judicial Watch, I believe.
#4
Holder needs to resign, this is crooked as hell. Were it a Republican the MSM would be creating a shitstorm over this sort of thing - and they should regardless of party. Omitting important things like that brief is a serious breach of his legal duties.
#7
I am not a lawyer, but it seems to me that writing an amicus brief for the Supreme Court is not a minor event that one would forget.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
03/13/2010 12:21 Comments ||
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#7 I am not a lawyer, but it seems to me that writing an amicus brief for the Supreme Court is not a minor event that one would forget. Posted by: Rambler
Unless of course, someone else penned it and you simply attached your name.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Maggie Atkinson, who was appointed last autumn, has argued that children under 12 should not be treated as criminals under the law.
