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To: Joe NYC who wrote (416202)	9/10/2008 4:14:20 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574851

S.C. Dem chair: Palin primary qualification is she hasn't had an abortion South Carolina Democratic chairwoman Carol Fowler sharply attacked Sarah Palin today, saying John McCain had chosen a running mate " whose primary qualification seems to be that she hasn’t had an abortion.” Palin is an opponent of abortion rights and gave birth to her fifth child, Trig, earlier this year after finding out during her pregnancy that the baby had Down syndrome. Fowler told my colleague Alex Burns in an interview that the selection of an opponent of abortion rights would not boost McCain among many women. “Among Democratic women and even among independent women, I don’t think it helped him,” she said. Told of McCain's boost in the new ABC/Washington Post among white women following the Palin pick, Fowler said: "Just anecdotally, I believe that those white women are Republican women anyway." politico.com

To: Joe NYC who wrote (416202)	9/10/2008 4:16:07 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1574851

CBS takes down McCain webad, suggests it's 'misleading' YouTube has removed a webad that casts Sarah Palin as the victim of sexism on the request of CBS, whose anchor Katie Couric was featured in the ad. “One of the great lessons of that campaign is the continued and accepted role of sexism in American life," Couric is quoted in the ad. In the original clip, she was talking about Hillary Clinton; the ad applies her words to Sarah Palin. Asked about the ad, CBS spokeswoman Leigh Farris said, "CBS News does not endorse any candidate in the Presidential race. Any use of CBS personnel in political advertising that suggests the contrary is misleading." YouTube's page displaying the ad now tells visitors, "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by CBS Interactive Inc." Couric's original commentary can be seen here. McCain still has the ad, "Lipstick," on his website. politico.com

To: Joe NYC who wrote (416202)	9/10/2008 4:45:27 PM
From: tejek	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574851

Your lipsticked pigs haven't left a stone unturned. We'll be lucky to have any money left in Treasury by November. Wide-Ranging Ethics Scandal Emerges at Interior Dept. By CHARLIE SAVAGE Published: September 10, 2008 WASHINGTON — As Congress prepares to debate expansion of drilling in taxpayer-owned coastal waters, the Interior Department agency that collects oil and gas royalties has been caught up in a wide-ranging ethics scandal — including allegations of financial self-dealing, accepting gifts from energy companies, cocaine use and sexual misconduct. In three reports delivered to Congress on Wednesday, the department’s inspector general, Earl E. Devaney, found wrongdoing by a dozen current and former employees of the Minerals Management Service, which collects about $10 billion in royalties annually and is one of the government’s largest sources of revenue other than taxes. “A culture of ethical failure” besets the agency, Mr. Devaney wrote in a cover memo. The reports portray a dysfunctional organization that has been riddled with conflicts of interest, unprofessional behavior and a free-for-all atmosphere for much of the Bush administration’s watch. The highest-ranking official criticized in the reports was Lucy Q. Denett, the former associate director of minerals revenue management, who retired earlier this year as the inquiry was progressing. The investigations are the latest installment in a series of scathing probes of the troubled program’s management and competence in recent years. While previous reports have focused on problems the agency has had in collecting millions of dollars owed to the Treasury, the new set of reports raises questions about the integrity and behavior of the agency’s officials. In one of the new reports, investigators conclude that a key supervisor at the agency’s minerals revenue management office worked together with two aides to steer a lucrative consulting contract to one of the aides after he retired, violating competitive procurement rules. Two other reports focus on “a culture of substance abuse and promiscuity” and unethical behavior in the service’s royalty-in-kind program. That part of the agency collects about $4 billion a year in the form of oil and gas rather than cash royalties. Modeled on a private-sector energy company, the decade-old royalty-in-kind program transports, processes and resells the oil and gas on the open market. But while its officials interact with energy company executives, they are subject to government ethics rules, such as restrictions on taking gifts from sources with whom they conduct official business. One of the reports says that the officials viewed themselves as exempt from those limits, indulging themselves in the expense-account-fueled world of oil and gas executives. In addition, the report alleges that eight royalty-program officials accepted gifts from energy companies whose value exceeded limits set by ethics rules — including golf, ski and paintball outings; meals and drinks; and tickets to a Toby Keith concert, a Houston Texans football game and a Colorado Rockies baseball game. The investigation also concluded that several of the officials “frequently consumed alcohol at industry functions, had used cocaine and marijuana, and had sexual relationships with oil and gas company representatives.” The investigation separately found that the program’s manager mixed official and personal business, and took money from a technical services firm in exchange for urging oil companies to hire the firm. In sometimes lurid detail, the report accuses him of having intimate relations with two subordinates, one of whom regularly sold him cocaine. The culture of the organization “appeared to be devoid of both the ethical standards and internal controls sufficient to protect the integrity of this vital revenue-producing program,” one report said. A spokeswoman for the Interior Department secretary, Dirk Kempthorne, referred inquiries to the Minerals Management Service. The service’s director, Randall Luthi, released a preliminary statement on Wednesday morning saying he had not yet seen the reports but had scheduled a mid-afternoon conference call with reporters. “I will tell you that we requested this investigation in 2006 after an employee raised allegations of ethical lapses,” Mr. Luthi’s early statement said. “I look forward to having the opportunity to review the Inspector General’s findings so we can take the appropriate actions.” A spokesman for Mr. Devaney declined to comment. 1 2 3 Next Page » nytimes.com