Archive for September 19th, 2008

Disgusting.

Here is the exact footage from YouTube:

Rangel, who is presently embattled over tax problems, didn’t just commit a gaffe. Asked about it in a follow-up question, he doubled down and repeated it.

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Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY), the powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, is facing public pressure from both the left and right to step down from his chairmanship as ethics investigations into his use-and possible abuse-of his office continue and more and more ethical lapses come to light. So far, Rep. Rangel has admitted that he has failed to pay $10,000 in taxes on income from a villa that he owns in the Dominican Republic. Rep. Rangel’s excuse is that every time he tried to work with his Dominican business partners they “started speaking Spanish” to him.

Joe Donnelly has accepted $5,000 from Rangel’s personal political action committee and yesterday he voted against a House measure that would have required Rangel to step down while the ethics investigations are under way. Is it possible that a $5,000 contribution is interfering with Donnelly’s pledge to bring ethics reform to Washington? Perhaps Donnelly should return the $5,000 to Rangel so Rep. Rangel can look into whether or not he can use that money to pay his tax bill.

Luke Puckett, because of his humanitarian work in Central and South America, fluently speaks Spanish. It may be that voters in the 2nd Congressional District should vote for Mr. Puckett in part because he will be able to help Rep. Rangel understand what his foreign business partners are saying and avoid ethical and legal lapses of this sort in the future.

Speaking of the entire situation, Luke Puckett said “I would gladly help Mr. Rangel understand what his business partners are saying if I am elected and I trust that Mr. Donnelly will do his part in returning the $5,000 contribution made to him from this ethically challenged Democratic congressman’s PAC.”

Open Secrets has a list of those who were the recipients of campaign contributions from collapsed mortage firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Number two on that list of all-time donations from the fallen giants? Barack Obama.

In his less than four years in the Senate, Obama got more money than all but one person got in the entire twenty years covered by the list. Only Chris Dodd got more, and it seems like that those contributions were spread out over a much longer period of time. Dodd has been in the Senate for much longer than Obama and has chaired a committee with authority over the two companies, yet Obama is on track to outpace him easily.

Also on the list? Baron Hill. He received $5,000 of PAC money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Ah, change we can believe in; change Baron and Obama can take to the bank.

Hat tip: The View from Up Here.

As I continue to look into this alarming new trend of Indiana Democrats attempting to defeat Mitch Daniels in the courts vs. the ballot box I found an interesting article in the Anderson Herald-Bulletin. The article is about the politically-motivated lawsuit filed by Democrat state party operative Shaw Friedman:

Roob [FSSA Director] called the lawsuit “politically motivated and baseless” early in the week but failed to give an explanation for his comments.

In an e-mail, Auld said, “We aren’t going to comment on the ‘baseless’ nature of the case because legal is still working on this.”

John Cardwell, a senior advocate and critic of the modernized welfare system, said Roob once falsely accused him of being politically and financially motivated to stop the rollout.

Roob previously accused Cardwell of working in the interest of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal employees, a union that represented state welfare caseworkers, Cardwell said. Roob’s argument was that AFSCME stood to lose millions of dollars in union dues due to privatization.

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Or rather, her firm’s clients.

Wednesday, Linda Pence called on Attorney General Steve Carter to investigate the recent hike in gas prices in Indiana. She blamed price gouging.

Carter responded by pointing to busted pipelines, a hurricane closing almost five hundred oil platforms in the gulf, that big wind storm Pence was apparently oblivious to, and similar gas prices in neighboring states.

Carter then encouraged Pence to be forthcoming with any evidence of price fixing and collusion that might aid in an investigation by his office. Thus far, she hasn’t provided any.

Then Advance Indiana pointed out this:

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In response to Sarah Palin’s hope that people in every country can enjoy “God-given” rights including “life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness”, Nick Wallace remarks, “Can we really elect a leader who defines what is right for her country only by the voices she hears in her head?” (Insdiana Daily Student, September 17). A little history lesson might be in order.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” That is from the Declaration of Independence, where men who could be described as radicals announced that the 13 colonies would secede from the powerful British Empire. Notice any similarity between Palin’s statement that Wallace mocked? Would Wallace have said the same thing 232 years ago?

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