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Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JBTFD who wrote (106819)	9/8/2007 12:06:29 PM
From: longnshort	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 173976

It's in Hillary's Rose Law firm box.

To: JBTFD who wrote (106819)	9/8/2007 12:06:45 PM
From: longnshort	Respond to of 173976

Fugitive fundraiser Hsu arrested in Colorado By Jerry Seper September 8, 2007 Fugitive political fundraiser Norman Hsu, who failed to appear for a California bail hearing this week in a 1992 fraud case, was arrested Thursday night in Colorado after he fell ill on an Amtrak train and was taken to a local hospital. FBI agents took Hsu into custody at St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction, Colo., after his failure to appear in a San Mateo County, Calif., courtroom Wednesday for a bail reduction hearing, where he also was to surrender his passport. Hsu, 56, who donated more than $1 million to Democrats, including the presidential campaigns of Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, was a fugitive for more than 15 years before his surrender to authorities. Deputy Attorney General Ralph Sivilla at the California Justice Department said a federal arrest warrant for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution was issued for his arrest, noting that a bench warrant issued Wednesday by the Superior Court of San Mateo, Calif., after Hsu failed to appear was still in effect. "We appreciate the excellent work by the FBI and the United States Attorney's Office in obtaining an arrest warrant and apprehending Mr. Hsu as quickly as possible," Mr. Sivilla said. Hsu was charged in an 18-count felony complaint in August 1991 with stealing $1 million from 20 investors in a scheme to buy and resell latex gloves that did not exist. He was held to answer after a preliminary hearing in November 1991, later charged with 16 counts of grant theft. Mr. Sivilla said Hsu agreed to a negotiated plea in the case in February 1992, entering a no-contest plea to one count of grand theft. He said the agreement called for a three-year sentence in state prison and an order for restitution. He said Hsu failed to appear for sentencing in June 1992 and a bench warrant was issued for his arrest, with bail set at $2 million. He remained a fugitive until Aug. 31, when he surrendered at the San Mateo County court, posting the $2 million bond and agreeing to return to court for a hearing Wednesday. Page 1 of 2 next \| Email \| Print \| Subscribe Click-2-Listen Listen to this article or download audio file. Click-2-Listen Listen to this article or download audio file. Front Page > Nation/Politics advertisement

To: JBTFD who wrote (106819)	9/8/2007 12:07:38 PM
From: longnshort	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 173976

I thought you dems wanted changes to the electoral college. Democrats vow to fight electoral college change By Steven Harmon MEDIANEWS SACRAMENTO BUREAU Article Launched: 09/06/2007 03:03:48 AM PDT SACRAMENTO -- Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean accused Republicans of trying to rig the 2008 presidential contest and vowed Wednesday to do "whatever it takes within legal boundaries" to stop a California ballot measure that would change how the state casts its 55 electoral college votes. Dean, who called the initiative a "Tom DeLay/Karl Rove-type maneuver," joined Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., in a conference call to denounce the measure, whose title and summary were released Wednesday by the Attorney General's office. Proponents, who will begin circulating petitions next week, have 150 days to gather 434,000 signatures to put it on the June 2008 ballot. "If this gets on the ballot, the election in June would determine who's the next president of the United States," said Dean, who would not divulge details of his strategy to defeat the proposal. "So, we'll treat the election accordingly." His comments signaled the gravity with which Democrats view the measure, which likely will spur a fierce campaign that could cost many millions of dollars. "Democrats should worry," said Larry Gerston, a political science professor at San Jose State. "They've got everything going their way. Absent a disaster, they believe they have a very good chance to win the presidency -- and this could easily tilt the outcome against them." Currently, California, like all but two small states, operates under a winner-take-all system and has, in each of the past Advertisement Click Here! four presidential elections, awarded its treasure trove of electoral votes to Democratic presidential nominees. Maine and Nebraska use congressional-district allocation, but they have never split their electoral votes. Under the measure, two electoral college votes would be given to the winner of the state and the rest would be apportioned based on congressional district. That could mean as many as 22 electoral college votes going to the Republican nominee -- the number of congressional districts that went for President Bush in 2004. Republicans currently represent 19 districts. "Because of this initiative, California is the main backdrop for an old-fashioned backdoor power grab to keep the presidency in Republican hands," Boxer said. "California voters are too smart for this Swift Boat-type of initiative, and we'll fight this every inch of the way." Boxer was referring to a link between Tom Hiltachk, a GOP attorney who's behind the initiative, and Bob Perry, a Texas home builder who financed the notorious "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" attacks on Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry in 2004. Hiltachk's law firm, which represents the state GOP, was paid $65,000 last year by a California-based political committee that was almost entirely funded by Perry. Hiltachk also worked on the campaign of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger during the Gray Davis recall before serving as Schwarzenegger's legal counsel. Schwarzenegger has indicated that he does not support the measure, saying Wednesday in a radio interview, "To me, what we have in place right now works ... I feel like if you all the sudden in the middle of the game start changing the rules, it's kind of odd. It almost feels like a loser's mentality, saying 'I cannot win with those rules, so let me change the rules.' "I have not made up my mind yet in one way or the other because I haven't seen the details on it, but basically I would say there is something off with this whole idea." Kevin Eckery, the spokesman for the initiative, called Democrats' attacks a "red herring." "If you can argue the merits, you do, but if you can't, you do a guilt-by-association thing," Eckery said. "If you don't have anything to respond with, you throw out character assassination. This is them protecting their turf. They view California voters as their turf. I view them as individual voters." Reach Steven Harmon at 916-441-2101 or sharmon@bayareanewsgroup.com.

To: JBTFD who wrote (106819)	9/8/2007 1:56:54 PM
From: SeachRE	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 173976

Bushies have a lot to do with billions of dollars MISSING in Iraq...and they want more...

To: JBTFD who wrote (106819)	9/8/2007 1:57:10 PM
From: longnshort	Respond to of 173976

Hollywood Pork: $4 Billion for a park in Beverly Hills It was business as usual in Washington this week as California Senator Dianne Feinstein slipped a $4 billion earmark for a Beverly Hills park into a veterans' spending bill. Sadly, when I offered an amendment to strike this wasteful earmark so the funds could be used for VA healthcare, only 25 senators had the courage stand up for America's veterans and say no to pork for Hollywood's wealthy and well connected. Here is how the Beverly Hills earmark was described by the Wall Street Journal: WALL STREET JOURNAL Rambo's View Dianne Feinstein's $4 billion earmark for Beverly Hills comes at the expense of America's veterans. By Kimberly Strassel September 7, 2007 …It takes hard work to come up with an earmark more egregious than that infamous Alaskan bridge, but California's Dianne Feinstein is an industrious gal. Her latest pork -- let's call it Rambo's View -- deserves to be the poster child for everything wrong with today's greedy earmark process. The senator's $4 billion handout (yes, you read that right) to wealthy West L.A. (yes, you read that right, too) is the ultimate example of how powerful members use earmarks to put their own parochial interests above national ones -- in this case the needs of veterans... The pork here revolves around the West Los Angeles Medical Center... 387 sprawling, prime real-estate acres in the middle of tony West L.A. More than twice the size of the National Mall, it is surrounded by the mansions and playgrounds of the city's elite, including the Bel Air Country Club and the Beverly Hills estates of Sylvester Stallone, Barry Bonds and Tim McGraw (to name a few). Huge portions of the facility are also a veritable ghost town... According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Los Angeles County also falls on the lowest end in terms of the percentage of veterans living in the area... It turns out the well-to-do in West L.A. consider the veteran's center grounds their own little rolling, personal park, and they want it to stay that way -- thank you very much. The indefatigable earmark warrior, South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, offered an amendment this week to strip Ms. Feinstein's earmark. California Sen. Barbara Boxer rose in righteous indignation on the Senate floor, and fizzed that she would never dream of leveling such a direct "attack" against South Carolina. The point of this speech was to remind her Senate colleagues that what's hers is hers, and that the penalty for voting against her and Ms. Feinstein's California pork would be the targeting of projects in their own states…