Thread: GOP: now & in the future

scary thread .

Penn. GOP Sen. Jane Orie convicted of several corruption charges

Pennsylvania state Sen. Jane Orie, left, leaves the courthouse with her brother Jack Orie, in Pittsburgh, Monday, March 26, 2012. Orie, accused of using her state-funded legislative staff to perform campaign work for herself and a state judge who’s her sister, was convicted Monday on 14 counts of theft of services, conflict of interest and forgery and likely will be forced from the Senate. (Likely )

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Republican state Sen. Jane Orie, accused of using her state-funded legislative staff to perform campaign work for herself and a state judge who's her sister, was convicted Monday on 14 counts of theft of services, conflict of interest and forgery and likely will be forced from the Senate.

Orie, acquitted of 10 other counts including perjury and election code violations, declined to comment after the verdict but appeared to be shaken. Her attorney, William Costopoulos, said after leaving the courtroom: "I can tell you we're disappointed, and there's no positive spin I can put on it."

Orie, 50, was elected to the Senate in a 2001 special election to fill an empty seat and was re-elected three times. The multiple convictions, including on five felony counts, mean she'll almost certainly be removed from office and lose her state pension.

Prosecutors said Orie, who's from McCandless, just north of Pittsburgh, had illegally used her legislative staff since 2001 to benefit herself and state Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin, who wasn't charged.

One legal expert who has followed the trial said Orie's chances of successfully appealing are slim.

"Any serious convictions like this are exactly what the prosecution sought, and the senator is now probably going to jail," University of Pittsburgh law professor John Burkoff said. "Convicted of 14 different counts is a lot. It's serious judgment against her."

Deputy District Attorney Lawrence Claus declined to say what kind of sentence he'll seek, but he praised the jury, which deliberated for five straight days.

District Attorney Stephen Zappala said in a statement that his office will examine how much restitution Orie may owe and will submit a request to the court for recovery.

The ordeal isn't over for the close-knit Orie family.

A third sister, Janine Orie, is expected to stand trial later this year on charges that she conspired to misuse the senator's staff to campaign for Melvin and on charges that she similarly directed Melvin's former Superior Court staff to work on campaigns in 2003 and 2009. She's fighting the charges.

Melvin was subpoenaed and in December received a letter from the Allegheny County grand jury that recommended charges against Sen. Orie and Janine Orie, who remains suspended from her job as Melvin's aide. Melvin and her attorney have repeatedly ignored telephone calls seeking comment.

The jury heard 18 days of testimony about an investigation that began in October 2009. That's when a University of Pittsburgh intern complained to District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr. that she had seen Sen. Orie's staff doing campaign work for Melvin just days before her election to the state's highest court.

Prosecutors contend Sen. Orie launched a cover-up almost immediately by sneaking some political documents out of her office in Pittsburgh's North Hills suburb and by removing discarded Melvin poll cards from the trash outside the office.

Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Manning declared a mistrial during Orie's first trial last March, saying one document was so obviously fake that "even Ray Charles" could see it. An examination of the exhibits by a U.S. Secret Service document expert resulted in forgery, perjury and evidence tampering charges.

More than 20 former and current staff members, including the senator's former chief of staff, Jamie Pavlot, testified during the first trial and again this year that Orie not only ordered the political work but also sometimes even awarded staffers comp time for doing it.

The senator denied that and argued that any work that occurred was authorized by Pavlot.

Orie will be on electronic home monitoring until she is sentenced in late May.

sisters: Pa. GOP senator convicted of theft of services - Houston Chronicle

Hope she likes broccoli.

New Low: Deadbeat Congressman Joe Walsh Insults Veterans' Sacrifice

Chicago, IL - In an appalling new low, Congressman Joe Walsh today slammed his opponent Tammy Duckworth's military service. Walsh told Politico, "What else has she done? Female, wounded veteran ... ehhh." Duckworth served as a Black Hawk helicopter pilot in Iraq in 2004, and lost her legs and part of the use of her right arm. She was awarded the Purple Heart for her combat injuries and is still active as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Illinois National Guard.

VoteVets.org PAC, the largest group of progressive veterans responded in a statement, demanding an apology to Duckworth, and putting Walsh's own record up against Duckworth's service to the country and veterans.

"Just when you think Congressman Joe Walsh couldn't sink any lower, he insults the service and sacrifice of our Veterans, particularly one like Tammy who lost her limbs in the line of duty. Congressman Walsh owes Tammy Duckworth and all Veterans an apology for his outrageous disrespect for their service," said Jon Soltz, Iraq War Veteran and Chairman of VoteVets.org PAC. "But it's not just that. If you think working for America's veterans at the VA both in Washington and Illinois is nothing, if you think working to improve the economic lives of veterans is nothing, then Joe Walsh's record is below nothing. He represents the do-nothing, obstructionist, extreme Tea Party wing of the GOP, not the values that Tammy stood up for."

a pillar of society: New Low: Deadbeat Congressman Joe Walsh Insults Veterans' Sacrifice | VoteVets.org

just in case you have forgotten who Mr. Walsh is,....

A Chicago judge issued a preliminary ruling Wednesday against U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) in his child-support dispute with his ex-wife, ordering the Tea Party favorite to explain why he appears to be $100,000 behind in child-support payments.: Judge-scolds-Rep.-Joe-Walsh-in-child-support-case - Chicago Sun-Times

reminds me of what rove and co. did to max cleland in '02

In 2002 Cleland faced Saxby Chambliss for the Georgia Senate seat. Cleland enjoyed a comfortable lead in the polls early in the race but lost much ground in the weeks running up to it. A week before the voting an Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll showed Cleland ahead by five points, 49-44. By Saturday before the race a poll by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution the lead had shrunk to 48–45 which was within the poll's margin of error.[10] On election day Cleland lost to Chambliss 53-46. Some supporters blamed a Chambliss TV ad featuring the likenesses of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, while criticizing Cleland's votes against homeland security measures.[11] Cleland supporters claimed the ad questioned the senator's patriotism,[12] while Chambliss supporters claimed it simply questioned his judgment.[12][13] The ad was removed after protests from prominent politicians including Republicans such as John McCain and Chuck Hagel, both of whom are also veterans of the war in Vietnam.[14]

a bit of background on cleland and his injuries from vietnam....

On April 8, with a month left in his tour, Cleland was ordered to set up a radio relay station on a nearby hill. A helicopter flew him and two soldiers to the treeless top of Hill 471, east of Khe Sanh. Cleland knew some of the soldiers camped there from Operation Pegasus. He told the pilot he was going to stay a while with friends.


When the helicopter landed, Cleland jumped out, followed by the two soldiers. They ducked beneath the rotors and turned to watch the liftoff. Cleland reached down to pick up a grenade he believed had popped off his flak jacket. It exploded, and the blast slammed him backward, shredding both his legs and one arm.


David Lloyd, a Marine in a nearby mortar bunker, rushed to the scene, took off his web belt and tied it around one of Cleland's shredded legs.[4] When the medics arrived, Lloyd left to help another injured soldier – one of the two who had gotten off the helicopter with Cleland.


Lloyd claims that the unnamed soldier was crying. 'It was mine,' he said, 'it was my grenade.'

Max Cleland - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Originally Posted by sabang

Incidentally, this Tammy Duckworth was born in Bangkok, of a Thai mother and US military father. Fluent in Thai & Bahasa.
Tammy Duckworth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Oh, and what a turn up for the books- turns out good ole' Joe used to be an actor, and social worker. A real darling of the Teabag set.

His Constituency is a swingin' seat too. He certainly hasn't served himself any favors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Wal...ois_politician)

i just read s_landreth's post again, and i was so disgusted by the recent news that i neglected to read the last sentence.

walsh is that tea party blowhard that's always on TV spouting off about personal responsibility...and it turns out he hasn't made his child support payments. and now this.....god, what a dick.....the DCCC should be funneling money into this district.

Tammy Duckworth for Congress

Originally Posted by sabang

I suppose good ole' Joe will be saying she's not all-Amerkin next. Maybe a commie.

There's always a few bad apples in the barrel.
Duckworth deserves better.

Thugs is nuts, just completely insane: UPDATED: Fox Senior VP: Fox Anchor Knows Obama Conspiracy Tweets Were "A Mistake" | Media Matters for America

I was listening to NPR a couple days ago and a short segment was broadcast about Issa,...California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa the wealthiest congressman today,...worth as much as $450 million.


The man driving the investigation into the General Services Administration, California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, took the top seat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee after the GOP won a majority in 2010.

Issa has led several splashy investigations since. But he's also been dogged by allegations of his own.

Issa has made news in recent months by threatening to subpoena Attorney General Eric Holder, and by calling a panel of only men to talk about women's contraception.

The Car Alarm Voice

Issa made his fortune building and selling Viper car alarms. He is the wealthiest member of Congress, worth as much as $450 million. In fact, it's Issa's voice on the popular alarm's signature warning to would-be thieves: "Protected by Viper. Stand back."

What's less well known is how Issa got into car alarms in the first place.

"For years I used to tell everyone that I went into it because my brother was a car thief. Then they found out when I ran for office my brother did spend time in prison as a car thief, and it ruined the whole joke I'd had for 20 years in business," Issa said during an interview with WhoRunsGov.

Issa himself was accused several times of auto theft. In the early 1970s, he and his brother were arrested after police suspected them of stealing a Maserati sports car from a dealership in Cleveland. Issa says the police mistook his identity, and the charges were later dismissed.

Another time, Issa was arrested and eventually pleaded guilty to carrying a concealed weapon. Police found a handgun and a tear-gas gun — plus ammunition for both — in Issa's glove compartment.

Questions In The Past

These stories first arose when Issa ran for the Senate in 1998. An investigative reporter named Lance Williams was looking into the then-candidate's biography.

"He had been a soldier, and he claimed that he was part of an elite bomb detecting unit that guarded President Nixon at the 1971 World Series," said Williams.

Williams called up the Nixon Presidential Library, and was told that Nixon hadn't gone to any World Series games that year. Then Williams looked into Issa's purportedly stellar career in the Army.

"The biography that he was providing the press in the context of his campaign was all wrong. He had a bad conduct rating. He was demoted, and a fellow soldier accused him of stealing his car," said Williams.

Issa eventually took over the company that built car alarms.

Ryan Lizza, a reporter for The New Yorker magazine, detailed Issa's early business moves in a 2011 story.

The Fire

Issa had a warehouse full of electronics that, one night in 1982, caught fire. Investigators later found "suspicious burn patterns," Lizza reported, and found that Issa had done some odd things.

A co-worker claimed that before the fire, Issa had put important electronic prototypes in a fireproof box, and that he'd removed the business's computer and financial files from the building. Investigators also found that less than three weeks before the blaze, Issa had increased the company's fire insurance from $100,000 to more than $400,000.

"So you add the more than quadrupling of the insurance along with the taking the computer and putting the other stuff in a fireproof box, and you can see why both the arson investigators and the insurance investigators pointed a finger, you know, at Issa after this fire," said Lizza.

Issa said he had nothing to do with the fire, but the insurance company refused to pay the claim. The two later settled out of court.

It was in part because of these allegations that Issa lost his Senate bid in 1998. He went on to win his House seat, he worked to recall the governor of California, and now he chairs the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Issa would not talk to NPR about this, but he has told several news outlets over the years that he's surprised the allegations from his past continue to dog him. (surprised )


link: House Investigator Issa Has Faced Allegations As Well : NPR

The sad thing is, I think O'Reilly is meant to be considered one of the more reasonable Fox commentators. Again, the right demonstrates it can't be taken seriously, but Reich is correct to point out the absurdity of O'Reilly's comment as it reflects the state of the national discussion, such as it is.
Robert Reich (Why Anyone Should Care that Bill O'Reilly Calls Me A Communist)
MONDAY, APRIL 23, 2012
Bill O’Reilly, the tumescent personality of Fox News, said on his Friday show “Robert Reich is a communist who secretly adores Karl Marx.” (This came after Fox News’ Neil Cavoto called me a “sanctimonious twit” for suggesting the rich should pay more in taxes.)

O’Reilly’s accusation is odd, to say the least. If we were living in the 1950s, amid Senator Joe McCarthy’s communist witch-hunts, the claim might have some bite and cause me injury. But these days it’s hard to find a full-throated communist anywhere in the world.

O’Reilly’s accusation isn’t even logical. How can he know if I secretly adore Karl Marx, if it’s a secret?

For the record, I’m not a communist and I don’t secretly adore Karl Marx.

Ordinarily I don’t bother repeating anything Bill O’Reilly says. But this particular whopper is significant because it represents what O’Reilly and Fox News, among others, are doing to the national dialogue.

They’re burying it in doo-doo.

O’Reilly based his claim on an interview I did last week with Jon Stewart on the Daily Show, in which I argued that because America’s big corporations were now global we could no longer rely on them to make necessary investments in human capital or to lobby for public investments in education, infrastructure, and basic R&D. So, logically, government has to step in.

Since when does an argument for public investment in education, infrastructure, and basic R&D make someone a communist or a secret adorer of Karl Marx?

Obviously, O’Reilly has no interest in arguing anything. Ad hominem attacks are always the last refuges of intellectual boors lacking any logic or argument. (Whoops, I think I just stooped to name-calling. Sorry, Bill.)

Yet this is what’s happening to all debate all over America: It’s disappearing. All we’re left with is a nasty residue.

In Washington, Democrats and Republicans no longer even talk. They just vent charges and counter-charges.

The 2012 election doesn’t seem likely to clarify any issue. At this moment the candidates and their surrogates are debating the treatment of dogs.

Across the nation, conservatives right-wingers and liberal or progressive lefties have stopped debating their respective views, or even listening to anyone they disagree with. They just find broadcasters and bloggers who confirm their views.

We’re even sorting by belief according to where we live. Today your neighbors are more likely to agree with your politics than disagree. We’ve settled into like-minded enclaves where we don’t need to think because everyone we meet confirms what we assume we already know.

It’s not that the nation is more polarized than it’s been in the past. America has been through searing conflicts, some within the living memories of most of us. The communist witch-hunts of the 1950s were followed by the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, battles over womens’ reproductive rights and gay marriage.

What makes America’s current polarization remarkable isn’t the severity of our disagreements but our utter lack of engagement debating them.

So many Americans are so angry and frustrated these days – vulnerable to loss of job and healthcare and home, without a shred of economic security – they’re easy prey for demagogues offering simple answers and ready scapegoats. Take, for example, Bill O’Reilly and his colleagues at Fox News.

But people can only learn from others who disagree with them — or at least from witnessing debates between people who respectfully and civilly disagree. Without respect and civility, it’s not a debate – it’s just name-calling.

A democracy depends on public deliberation and debate. Without it, the members of a society have no means of understanding what they believe or why. The Lincoln-Douglas debates were notable not because they solved anything but because they helped Americans clarify where they agreed and disagreed on the wrenching issue of slavery.

Hence the danger today – when deliberation has stopped.

This morning I left a message on Bill O’Reilly’s office phone asking him to invite me onto his show to debate whether public investments in education and infrastructure are needed.

What are the odds he’ll invite me on?

Get #BeyondOutrage.　

GOP and their continued War on Women,.........


Texas Governor Rick Perry (R) was rebuked by a federal court on Monday for his decision to withdraw all Medicare funds from the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), in a move that triggered a showdown with the federal government amid an election season already fraught with gender politics.

The ruling, issued by Judge Lee Yeakel in Austin, will preserve Medicaid Women’s Health Program funding for PPFA clinics across the state, ensuring over 130,000 lower income women will continue to receive reproductive health care services. While Yeakel’s ruling is only a temporary injunction, it prevents Texas from shutting off the funds in the near term until the full trial can get underway later this summer.



thank goodness for some judges: Texas judge foils Perry’s plot to kill Planned Parenthood | The Raw Story

The GOP's continued War on Women,......

The Republican-controlled state Senate voted 34-8 to pass the "Personhood Act" which defines the word person under state law to include unborn children from the moment of conception: Reproductive Rights Prof Blog: Oklahoma Senate Approves Embryonic "Personhood" Measure by Wide Margin


but yesterday this happened,.......

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Monday halted an effort to grant "personhood" rights to human embryos, saying the measure is unconstitutional.

The state's highest court ruled unanimously that a proposed amendment to the Oklahoma Constitution that would define a fertilized human egg as a person violates a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court decision involving a Pennsylvania case and "is clearly unconstitutional."
Supporters of the personhood amendment are trying to gather enough signatures to put it before Oklahoma voters on the November ballot.

Opponents contend the measure would ban abortions without exception and interfere with a woman's right to use certain forms of contraception and medical procedures, such as in vitro fertilization.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights filed a protest with the state Supreme Court on behalf of several Oklahoma doctors and residents. They asked the court to stop the group Personhood Oklahoma from gathering signatures.

The nine-member court determined the initiative petition "is void on its face" and struck it down.

Why does the GOP hate women: Okla. court halts 'personhood' rights for embryos

and some more information about the GOP's War on Women,.........

House bill would make visas for undocumented abuse victims contingent on testimony of abuser

For the past several weeks, Congressional Republicans have been attempting to obstruct the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act because they object to its addition of protections for immigrants, Native Americans, and members of the LGBT community.

The law was initially passed in 1994 and was renewed by unanimous consent in 2000 and 2005. However, the version of the bill supported by the Republican majority in the House of Representatives not only strips out those added protections but adds language that could endanger undocumented immigrants by allowing officials to discuss their claims of abuse with the alleged abuser.

more: House bill would make visas for undocumented abuse victims contingent on testimony of abuser | The Raw Story

GOP's War on Women,......

Arizona governor signs Planned Parenthood funding ban

Arizona already bars use of public money for abortions except to save the life of the mother. But anti-abortion legislators and other supporters of the bill say the broader prohibition is needed to ensure no public money indirectly supports abortion services.

Planned Parenthood Arizona claims a funding ban would interrupt its preventive health care and family planning services for nearly 20,000 women served by the organization's clinics. The organization says it will consider a legal challenge.

The measure targeting funding for Planned Parenthood for non-abortion services was one of several approved by Arizona's Republican-led Legislature related to contentious reproductive health care issues this session: Arizona governor signs Planned Parenthood funding ban

Heh, just the first. There's a new wind blowing thru the political landscape and it's name is Tea Party!

"U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar has lost to a tea party-backed challenger in Indiana's Republican primary, ending a storied political career that spanned nearly four decades. Tea party-backed state Treasurer Richard Mourdock won the Republican nomination Tuesday. He spent much of the campaign portraying Lugar as too moderate for the conservative state."

Breitbart

Lugar was also a RINO...

^ Dick Lugar was one of the most senior, high profile and accomplished Senators, especially in the field of foreign policy- he was particularly influential in the START talks (which is probably a crime to the teabag set). Indeed a loss, for both the GOP and USA. Then again, aging and probably ignored his domestic voter base in Indiana. Replaced by a lightweight regrettably, but by democratic means.

Pat Buchanan:-

White America is a dying tribe.

The median age of white Americans, now 43 and rising, means that half of all white women have moved past the age that they are ever likely to bear more children.

What do these statistics mean politically? Almost surely the end of the Republican Party as a national governing institution.

Republicans now depend on the vanishing majority for fully 90 percent of their votes in presidential elections, while the Democratic Party wins 60 to 70 percent of the Asian and Hispanic vote and 90 to 95 percent of the black vote.

The Democratic base is growing inexorably, while the Republican base is shriveling.

Already, California, Illinois and New York are lost. The GOP has not carried any of the three in five presidential elections. When Texas—where whites are a minority and a declining share of the population—tips, how does the GOP put together an electoral majority?

Has the Bell Begun to Toll for the GOP? - Taki's Magazine

The message the GOP is sending any and all non-white demographics?

Restricting and discouraging 'minorities' from voting by aggressive 'voter ID' restrictions.
Populist and bombastic platforms on Illegal Immigration- while the real bosses of the GOP continue to effectively encourage it, because they benefit from it.
Right wing commentators- Fox in particular- merrily racialising the Trayvon Martin case.
Fighting any and all 'social initiatives', such as HC reform, extension of social security benefits etc.

I could go on, but Pat Buchanan is quite right. The GOP, thanks in large part to it's sharp veer to the Right with the neo-cons (a spectacular fail), then compounded with it's bunker mentality approach of catering to the populist Right (teabaggers, religious Right) whilst aggressively lobbying for the interests of the already Rich, is in a demographic death spin. Tomorrow will tell if they are able to re-invent themselves, but they will need to, to stay relevant. This would remain the case even if they, through some miracle, win the 2012 Presidential election.

I really find this quite surprising. They have access to enormous funds, and talent- so why are they proving so cloven hooved at strategising and simple demographics? Certainly, their energies are more visibly expended on attack politics, populist rhetoric (to a declining demographic), and the most petty obstructionism I have ever heard of in the Houses of Congress.

It is also quite clear that blatant lobbying for the short term interests of the already Rich is much closer to their hearts than sustainably addressing the federal deficit- how is this expected to play to the young? Another vitally important demographic being alienated by the latter day GOP.

There have been too many to count as of late and I haven’t the time to paste them all. But here are a couple that made it in the news today,…….

The GOP's continued War on Women,......

Republican who advocated acid attacks on female Democrats quits job: Republican who advocated acid attacks on female Democrats quits job | The Raw Story

A top campaign aide to Rep. Nan Hayworth (R-NY) has resigned his post after writing on Facebook that supporters should “hurl some acid” at female Democratic officials.

“Jay Townsend has offered, and I have accepted, his resignation from his position with my campaign,” Rep. Hayworth said Monday in prepared text. “Now let’s return to talking about issues that really matter to families: job creation ( ), spending restraint and economic development.”

On a Facebook discussion board maintained by local Democratic activists, Townsend mockingly suggested throwing acid on female Senators who supported the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act but paid their male staffers more than their female staffers.


(former Pennsylvania state senator) Republican Jane Orie was ordered to serve her 2 ½- to 10-year state prison sentence immediately Monday and was taken from the courtroom.: Former Pa. GOP senator convicted of using staff for illegal campaign work gets prison term - The Washington Post

A pity for the left that Chief Liz Warren ain't a Republican.