28-04-2005 19:33									#32
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quote: Originally posted by SpencerH Any of y'all rabid liberals want to post the actual ethics violations that he supposedly committed.

Why it is so nice of you to ask, spencer my friend. Please allow me to enlighten you.

Here's a few of old Tom's boy's dirty deeds and illegal acts:

-The TRMPAC Scandal

In Texas, it's illegal for corporations to make donations to fund political campaigns. So Tom DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority political action committee (TRMPAC) took $190,000 in corporate contributions and funneled them to the RNC, which then donated exactly $190,000 to TRMPAC-supported candidates. DeLay and TRMPAC are currently under investigation by a grand jury.

- Illegal Travel "gifts"

It's illegal to accept any gift over $50 or to have lobbyists pay for your travel or hotel expenses but... Tom DeLay's airfaire for a trip to England and Scotland was paid for by Jack Abramoff's credit card, and other expenses, including food, phone calls, and golf was charged on another lobbyist's credit card. That's in direct violation of House ethics rules that prohibit registered lobbyists for paying for expenses for members.

- The Skybox Scandal

Remember that any gift over $50 is considered an illegal bribe and every Congressman knows it especially the Speaker of the House. However... Tom DeLay invited donors to share a skybox with him at a Three Tenors concert, a skybox paid for by super lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who is currently under investigation by the Senate. Just two months after the concert, DeLay voted against gambling legislation that Abramoff was lobbying against. The skybox tickets were worth thousands of dollars, and DeLay never reported the gift.

- Travel Scandal II

Tom DeLay claims that a 1997 trip to Moscow (where he met with the Russian Prime Minister) was arranged and paid for by a nonprofit public policy organization. But people who knew about the arrangements claim that the trip was actually arranged by lobbyists and funded by a mysterious company registered in the Bahamas that may have served as a front for Russian companies with ties to Russian security forces.

- Travel Scandal III

Tom DeLay participated in a $70,000 expenses-paid trip to London and Scotland in 2000 that sources said was indirectly financed in part by an Indian tribe and gambling services company lobbying Congress.

- The Family Pay Off Scandal

Since 2001, Tom DeLay's political action committees and campaigns have funneled more than $500,000 to his wife and daughter since 2001.

- Travel Scandal IV

An investigation by the Justice Department showed that Tom DeLay accepted a trip financed by the Korea-U.S. Exchange Council, breaking House rules that prohibit accepting travel expenses from "a registered lobbyist or agent of a foreign principal."

- The Ethics Committee Scandal

This is the one which Haster has finally ben so hounded by the media over that the Republicans yesterday gave up and agreed to unrig the Ethics committee. Knowing that he faced investigation for a growing pile of scandals, Tom DeLay and the GOP House leadership purged the Ethics Committee of Republicans -- including Chairman Joel Hefley (R-CO) -- who weren't willing to overlook charges against DeLay, replacing them with members loyal to the leadership. They then changed the Committee rules to make it more difficult to begin investigations. Democrats on the Committee have refused to take any action in protest until the rules are restored.

- The K Street Scandal

Tom DeLay has pushed lobbying firms to deny jobs to Democrats, and hire only Republicans, resulting in another Ethics Committee admonishment for inappropriately pushing a lobbying firm to hire a former GOP congressman. DeLay has pressured GOP lobbyists to make contributions to Republican candidates and the RNC.

- The House Medicare Vote Bribery Scandal

When DeLay and his fellow Republicans were redrawing the Congressional districts in Texas to push Democrats out of the House, he used the Federal Aviation Administration to try and track a plane containing Democratic state legislators. The House Ethics Committee investigated DeLay's actions and once again admonished him.

- The Westar Scandal

n 2002, executives at Kansas energy company Westar wrote a memo outlining how they could purchase a "seat at the table" with $56,500 in contributions to political committees associated with Tom DeLay and the GOP. DeLay was later admonished by the House Ethics Committee for creating the appearance of impropriety.

Most of those last ones are old news but the real one which is going to hang Tom Delay is the magic soft money into hard money laundering techniques he invented. Texas is already going after him over that and the Ethics committee is suppposed to investigate and eventually issue a report which would be used as the basis for any legal action. The accepting of hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal gifts and not disclosing it is pretty bad but breaking Federal Campaign finance laws is what he will get hung on.

	28-04-2005 19:39									#33
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I also think Tom Delay is a dirt bag for gerrymandering all of the Congressional districts in TexaS IN order to prevent fair elections. There is winning elections because you have better ideas and then there is corruptly rigging everything in order to prevent competitive elections. Unfortunately, such a miscarrage of democracy isn't illegal in this country.

Last edited by Oerdin on 28-04-2005 at 19:47

	28-04-2005 19:42									#34
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Nothing will be done to him.

The repugs just did this to get it off the front pages-the media now assumes the ethics process will go its merry way, it will be less of a news item, and it can be killed through negligence.

The republicans were utter morons to ever change the rules, but who says anything will be done to him?

	28-04-2005 19:43									#35
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quote: DeLay's smoke may have run afoul of his principles, but it did not violate U.S. regulations at the time.

You don't find it at all amusing that the most out spoken supporter of the embargo against Cuba was smoking away on Castro's finest while on a foreign trip? The guy who claimed that any American who bought Cuban made goods had his hads stained with the blood of the innocents Castro had murdered?

When your rhetoric gets that out of control you need to be forced to eat crow when you are caught red handed.

quote: DeLay warned that Fidel Castro "will take the money. Every dime that finds its way into Cuba first finds its way into Fidel Castro's blood-thirsty hands..."

Where's that picture of Delay smoking the Havana again?

	28-04-2005 19:51									#36
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quote: Originally posted by JohnT Possibly. I'm not a photographer, but I'm surprised that newsies travel with cameras that are so sharp in their resolution as to actually be able to read the miniscule markings on a cigar band from 5 feet away.

Proffesional journalists/photographers tend to not use $10 disposable cameras.

	28-04-2005 20:09									#37
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quote: Originally posted by chegitz guevara quote: The regulation also noted that Americans are barred not only from purchasing Cuban goods in foreign countries, but also from consuming them in those countries. Ooooh, I'm so scared. **** you, Treasury. If I wanna buy and drink Cuban rum while I'm in Mexico, I'm damn well gonna.

Che, that quote is great. That means Tom Delay broke the expanded Cuban embargo law that he himself wrote!

With Bush sending sending homeland security department agents to arrest grandmother's visiting Cuba or buying Cuba made goods do you think anyone will investigate Tom Delay for breaking the law about buying Cuban made goods? Supposedly the max fine was something like $15,000.

Some how I don't think Tom Delay will get hit with such a fine and instead it will remain college kids and vacationing old folks who get hit for buying Cuban cigars. :shameL

	28-04-2005 22:23									#38
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quote: Now the dye is cast...

Oerdin, going back to your second post.

It's "the die is cast". Die, as in something that casts a mold/mould (#2 is brit...), wheras Dye is something that colors.

	28-04-2005 22:28									#39
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quote: Originally posted by Q Cubed It's "the die is cast". Die, as in something that casts a mold.

Not Quite. Its die as in the singular of dice. The die is cast (the die is thrown) meaning you taken an irrevocable action/gamble. The phrase supposedly spoken (in Lingua Latinae) by Caius Iullius Caesar when he craoosed the Rubicon River into Roman homeland with his Legions from Gaul in civil war against Gnaeus Pompeus Magnus and the Senate.

	28-04-2005 22:30									#40
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Here I thought it was Dye as in PETA freaks casting red dye on people wearing furs.

FUR is murder folks.

	28-04-2005 22:36									#41
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I always thought it was the dye is cast as in the dye has been released to dye fabric. The color of the fabric is changed forever.

I guess it doesn't matter all that much.

	28-04-2005 22:44									#42
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I've always known it to mean as Lefty described.

	28-04-2005 22:55									#43
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Lefty has it.

	28-04-2005 23:09									#44
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quote: Not Quite. Its die as in the singular of dice. The die is cast (the die is thrown) meaning you taken an irrevocable action/gamble. The phrase supposedly spoken (in Lingua Latinae) by Caius Iullius Caesar when he craoosed the Rubicon River into Roman homeland with his Legions from Gaul in civil war against Gnaeus Pompeus Magnus and the Senate.

I've been pwn3d!

* Q Cubed whispers into Lefty's ear whatever it was that the Romans said to the conquering hero. Something like glory is fleeting.

	28-04-2005 23:18									#45
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quote: Originally posted by Q Cubed * Q Cubed whispers into Lefty's ear whatever it was that the Romans said to the conquering hero. Something like glory is fleeting.

But it is damn fine while you have it, as obviously, you have not.

	29-04-2005 01:29									#46
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Oerdin, your partisanship is so overblown and biased as to be beyond the pale. The rule changes were not intended to block an investigation into Delay at all, and you know it. But it is true that the Dems wanted new rules so that they could continue to roast Delay until the elections next year. They don't intend to resolve anything soon

	29-04-2005 01:32									#47
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and thats a problem how? if he deserves to be roasted, let him roast. or is it you the partisan hack?

	29-04-2005 01:36									#48
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quote: Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia and thats a problem how? if he deserves to be roasted, let him roast. or is it you the partisan hack?

Deserve? The Dems have long had a plan to politicize everything. Truth does not matter. It is the seriousness of the charge that matters so long as it is a Democrat charge and not a Republican charge.

	29-04-2005 01:40									#49
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quote: Originally posted by Ned Oerdin, your partisanship is so overblown and biased as to be beyond the pale.

Ned, are you THAT dense, Oerdin is a Republican... Oh, thats right, everyone who disagrees with you must be an evil, liberal Commie-Nazi who hates America and loves Terrorism.

	29-04-2005 01:45									#50
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:shakes head at Ned's blindness:

Must be nice, living in a lockstep world.

	29-04-2005 01:47									#51
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quote: Deserve? The Dems have long had a plan to politicize everything. Truth does not matter. It is the seriousness of the charge that matters so long as it is a Democrat charge and not a Republican charge.

oh, you mean like the terri schiavo case right? hypocrite.

	29-04-2005 01:50									#52
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No, LoA. Terri Schiavo was all about how the liberal courts stymied a legal and moral duty of the American public to preserve life!

Republicans are beyond reproach!

	29-04-2005 01:50									#53
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The Republicans in the Ethics Committee were hand picked by DeLay. They're not going to do very much. Luckily, Ronnie Earle's around to bring bugboy to justice (even if the Craddick et al. are threatening to deny him funding to force him to drop the case).

As for the folks thinking that the ethics violations aren't so minor, this is a man who has been illegally using several hundred thousand dollars in corporate contributions for campaign expenses, and has been illegally laundering another couple hundred thousand in corporate contributions through the RNC to funnell to his lackies' campaigns. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. This is not something every Congressman does, but takes a very unique kind of corruption.

	29-04-2005 01:52									#54
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quote: Originally posted by Q Cubed No, LoA. Terri Schiavo was all about how the liberal courts stymied a legal and moral duty of the American public to preserve life! Republicans are beyond reproach!

Idiot. The judges who did this, from the lowest to the Supremes, were all Republicans. The judges who wanted to save Terri were all Democrats.

BTW, the effort to save Terri was decidedly bi-partisan. But he effort to smear Delay is entirely one-sided, as witnessed by your post.

	29-04-2005 01:54									#55
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idiot. republicans never let the facts get in the way of a good story, as you have once again demostrated.

	29-04-2005 02:00									#56
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quote: Idiot.

Ad hominem attack.

I'm Asian, btw. So my learning Latin to throw that back at you, that's education.

quote: The judges who did this, from the lowest to the Supremes, were all Republicans. The judges who wanted to save Terri were all Democrats. BTW, the effort to save Terri was decidedly bi-partisan.

Facts.

quote: But he effort to smear Delay is entirely one-sided, as witnessed by your post.

Where in that post did I mention DeLay?

Clearly, Ned, you've fallen victim to the Sarchasm. I understand, since my deadpan and inscrutable delivery can fool many a people, such as the whole Dear Leader thread.

Might as well ask: can you tell when I'm squinting at you?

===

quote: No, LoA. Terri Schiavo was all about how the liberal courts stymied a legal and moral duty of the American public to preserve life!

I seem to remember someone on the Republican side mentioning this as one of their talking points...

quote: Republicans are beyond reproach!

At least you didn't critique me on this.

	29-04-2005 02:02									#57
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Didn’t you guys know? Apparently Republicans are completely infallible. The body armor isn’t necessary because god will protect them from shards of shrapnel and AK-47 bullets.

	29-04-2005 02:05									#58
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quote: Originally posted by Ned The rule changes were not intended to block an investigation into Delay at all

Yes, yes they were. That's why the Republican leadership purged the Ethics committee of everyone who didn't agree AHEAD of time to not vote against Delay even before seeing the evidence. They then Changed the rules in order to block any investigation while the whole time the Democrats on the committee continued to demand the old bipartisan rules be restored. When Republicans refused to restore the 20 year old bipartisan agreed upon rules the Democrats basically conducted a sit in refusing to do anything until the original rules were restored.

quote: But it is true that the Dems wanted new rules so that they could continue to roast Delay until the elections next year. They don't intend to resolve anything soon

They've been trying to resolve it since last January but it was THE REPUBLICANS who changed the rules in order to prevent the investigation from occuring. There was no other reason to suddenly change the ethics rules other then to block the investigation into Delay's crimes.

	29-04-2005 02:05									#59
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Q, you got me!

	29-04-2005 02:28									#60
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quote: Originally posted by chegitz guevara quote: Last September, the Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control tightened its prohibitions against U.S. citizens importing or consuming Cuban cigars. Even Americans licensed to bring back up to $100 worth of Cuban goods are no longer allowed to include tobacco products in what they carry. The regulation also noted that Americans are barred not only from purchasing Cuban goods in foreign countries, but also from consuming them in those countries. Ooooh, I'm so scared. **** you, Treasury. If I wanna buy and drink Cuban rum while I'm in Mexico, I'm damn well gonna.

My sentiments exactly. The sad part is there are plenty of people who will be cowed by that and comply when they would otherwise take the opportunity to sample the forbidden goods.