AP can't seem to figure out what party this guy was in:
Former Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann used his campaign account to bankroll home repairs and family vacations, according to a newspaper review of state investigative reports.
The reports are part of a complaint filed last week with the Ohio Elections Commission by state Inspector General Tom Charles. Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner also filed an elections commission complaint against Dann last week alleging misuse of campaign funds. The Ohio Elections Commission will address both complaints Jan. 22. And state Auditor Mary Taylor plans Monday to release her own investigation into Dann's spending.
Dann resigned in May amid a sexual harassment scandal in his office that included his admission that he had an affair with an employee.
Dann told The Associated Press on Saturday that he planned to prove to the elections commission that his expenditures were legal. "The allegations that have been made in these complaints are either false or they lack a basis in law," Dann said. "We operated the campaign committee lawfully, and all the expenditures were made with the advice of counsel and were appropriate."
Charles' complaint accuses Dann of reporting incomplete, inaccurate and false information about campaign expenditures. Charles used expressions such as "absolutely incredible" and "defies logic" in describing the allegedly improper campaign spending, according to a review of more than 1,000 pages of reports by The Columbus Dispatch.
Anthony Gutierrez, a former top Dann aide, said in an interview filed with Charles' report that Dann and his wife misused the campaign fund. "I've never seen people go through money as fast as them two in my life," said Gutierrez, former general services chief in the attorney general's office.
But Charles also criticized Gutierrez, saying he attempted to launder campaign fund money. When Dann spent $40,000 on a new security system and new windows for his house, according to Charles, Gutierrez had a contractor add $5,000 to the bill, then had the contractor cut checks to three businesses to which Gutierrez owed money.
The complaint also claimed that Dann laundered campaign funds by paying communications director Leo Jennings $3,000 a month for "consulting services," then had Jennings pay the rent and utilities at a condo shared by Dann, Jennings and Gutierrez.
Messages seeking comment were left Saturday with Gutierrez and Jennings.
A corporation that Dann established to pay for his inauguration and transition gave more than $12,000 to Zesty Dishes, a business owned by his wife, Alyssa Lenhoff Dann, Charles said. The campaign fund also paid for a "family excursion" to a Utah resort and a "spring break vacation" to San Francisco timed with official Dann trips to those places, Charles' complaint said.
Dann's attorney, campaign finance attorney Don McTigue, said the complaint was baseless. Dann's spending involved "lawful and appropriate uses of campaign funds," he said turns out, he's a Democrat. Go figure!
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/21/2008 10:54 ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
12/21/2008 15:00 ||
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Leahy deserves a lot more than that. We could start with trial for treason, conviction on all counts, and a firing squad. That would be letting him off light, IMO.
I wish Cheney had been out front fighting a lot more in this Administration. Bush just wouldn't do it so we lost the public relations war by default.
The South may have inched toward Democrats in November, but that progress isn't showing in President-elect Barack Obama's Cabinet selections. Obama hasn't nominated a single Southerner among his 15 Cabinet secretaries. So far, Obama's only pick from the region is a borderline Southerner in a relatively low-profile position: former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk for U.S. trade representative.
The disparity isn't an accident -- critics already are calling it a snub -- and that perception could slow the pace of recent electoral gains Democrats have made below the Mason-Dixon line.
"Southerners need not apply," said Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga. "It's hard to believe that there wasn't anybody qualified for something from the South."
The South accounted for nearly half of the 22 states Obama lost to Republican John McCain on Election Day. Still, Obama won surprise victories in North Carolina and Virginia. Democrats also won key congressional races in other Southern states, including Alabama and Mississippi, renewing hopes that the party can spread its success if it pays closer attention to the region.
Obama's appointments could leave him without a high-profile Southern surrogate, not just for his own re-election bid but also the midterm elections in 2010, which could prove critical for his agenda. Betsy's Page points out that one other excluded group has been persons of business experience. The most business experienced person is Rahm Emmanuel who was on the board of Freddie Mac. Oh, oh.
#1
The South should celebrate this "disparity" as a just apartheid of true men and believers from hypocrits. As I want none of his plunder, I fully intend to wear the "snub" of an upity imposter with upmost pride and distinction. Davis said it so eloquently, "All we ask is to be let alone."
More than 30 members of the House and Senate appealed to President Bush yesterday to provide financial protection for Metro and 31 other transit agencies as part of the White House's auto rescue plan.
The protection had been included in the auto bailout bill that passed the House with White House support, but failed in the Senate. The transit relief was not included in the plan Bush announced yesterday.
"It's critically important that [Bush] also act to protect [Metro] and the rest of our nation's public transit systems from becoming collateral damage due to troubles they had nothing to do with," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who along with Rep. Jim Moran (D.-Va.), led the group that signed the letter.
Transit advocates have wanted the federal government to step in as a guarantor in complicated long-term leasing deals between transit agencies and banks. The deals are souring because they were insured by troubled companies such as American International Group. When AIG lost its top credit rating, the contracts were put into default, allowing banks to demand millions in immediate payment from cash-strapped transit agencies.
The House bill authorized the federal government to guarantee the transactions.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2008 00:00 ||
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GROZNY, Russia Ineffectual Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas arrived on Sunday in Grozny, capital of Russias troubled region of Chechnya. Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov welcomed Abbas at the airport to take him to his residence along a road decorated with photos of their previous meetings.
We feel at home here. We thank the Almighty that we came to the Chechen Republic, Abbas told journalists through an interpreter.
Chechnya is a bombed-out rubble. Of course it feels like home ...
Kadyrov is seen by Chechens as dedicated to the revival of the Muslim religion and has met several influential Muslim leaders from Arab states. Kadyrov, a former rebel who now declares loyalty to the Kremlin, held talks with Abbas during the haj pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia earlier this month.
Chechnya, on Russias southern border, is now relatively peaceful after two wars fought by separatist rebels and Islamist militants against Moscows rule starting in 1994. Some analysts say that, in return for quelling rebel attacks, the Kremlin has let Kadyrov enforce some Islamic rules, such as requiring women working in government offices to wear headscarves and long skirts, and imposing periodic alcohol bans.
A Kremlin spokesman in Moscow said Abbas would stay in Russia until December 22, when he was due to hold talks with President Dmitry Medvedev.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/21/2008 00:00 ||
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"Chechnya is a bombed-out rubble. Of course it feels like home"
Snark-O-The-Day®
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
12/21/2008 13:39 Comments ||
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Hedge funds will be allowed to borrow from the Federal Reserve for the first time under a landmark $200bn programme intended to support consumer credit.
The Fed said on Friday it would offer low-cost three-year funding to any US company investing in securitised consumer loans under the Term Asset-backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF).
This includes hedge funds, which have never been able to borrow from the US central bank before, although the Fed may not permit hedge funds to use offshore vehicles to conduct the transactions. But if they can't use their usual offshore banks, how can they evade paying taxes on it? How unfair!
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.
More than 30 members of the House and Senate appealed to President Bush yesterday to provide financial protection for Metro and 31 other transit agencies as part of the White House's auto rescue plan. 
