04.26.08
Posted in SSquirrel at 10:53 pm by SSquirrel
WASHINGTON — The former executive assistant to White House political adviser Karl Rove is seeking immunity from prosecution before testifying about administration ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a House investigative committee revealed Tuesday.
Susan Ralston, the aide who resigned last fall, told lawyers for the committee this month she would provide information if protected from prosecution.
In a sign that Congress’ probe into the Abramoff matter is widening, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform also signaled plans to seek further documents and information about the former lobbyist’s contacts with the Bush White House from “former and current White House and Administration officials who may have knowledge” about such communications.
In a memo to fellow committee members Tuesday, Chairman Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., said lawyers for the panel deposed Ralston, Rove’s former aide, on May 10. Ralston resigned her White House post in October following the committee’s finding that she had extensive contacts with Abramoff and had accepted tickets to sporting events and concerts from him.
The panel’s 2006 report also concluded that Abramoff and his associates “had 485 lobbying contacts with White House officials between January 2001 and March 2004,” Waxman’s memo noted. Ralston had worked for Abramoff before joining the White House in 2001.
Permalink
Posted in SSquirrel at 10:50 pm by SSquirrel
WASHINGTON — Barack Obama often boasts he is “the only candidate who isn’t taking a dime from Washington lobbyists,” yet his fundraising team includes 38 members of law firms that were paid $138 million last year to lobby the federal government, records show.
Those lawyers, including 10 former federal lobbyists, have pledged to raise at least $3.5 million for the Illinois senator’s presidential race. Employees of their firms have given Obama’s campaign $2.26 million, a USA TODAY analysis of campaign finance data shows
Permalink
Posted in SSquirrel at 10:49 pm by SSquirrel
the billionaire head of fund raising for Clinton is the cousin of the billionaire head of fund raising for Obama.
Bill Clinton ran the most ethical admin I know of, though the bar isn’t very high. The ethics rules he imposed were quite good, and being constantly investigated kept the greedier assholes away. Janet Reno was the longest serving AG in history, and probably one of the best.
Hillary is way to centrist for my tastes, but she’s smart, she works very hard, and she won’t fuck it up too badly. Still my fourth choice though…
Permalink
04.17.08
Posted in SSquirrel at 10:10 am by SSquirrel
BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber struck the funeral of two anti-al-Qaida Sunni tribesmen in a town north of Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 50 people and wounding dozens, police said.
Thursday’s attack took place in the town of Albu Mohammed about 90 miles north of Baghdad, during the funeral of two brothers who belonged to the local Awakening Council and had been killed in an attack a day earlier, police said.
The suicide bomber walked into a tent crowded with mourners in the village and detonated explosives strapped to his body, police in the nearby city of Kirkuk said.
Thursday’s attack came on the heels of a string of suicide attacks on Tuesday that killed 60 people in four major cities in central and northern Iraq.
Rumors persist that the bomber was President of the local Condi Rice Fan Club…
Permalink
« Previous entries ·
