Ok. What really happened to change her mind? Someone get bought off or what? McCain did send all those republican lawyers to Alaska for a reason. Looks like they may have accomplished their goal.

And will her husband, Todd, and others now comply with the subpoenas? Or will they continue to turn their noses up to the law?

Only a very moronic America could seriously consider electing these people to ANY political office.

Palin ‘ready to cooperate’ in firing probe, lawyer says

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNN) — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s lawyer met Monday with the independent counsel hired by the state to discuss the investigation into Palin’s firing of Alaska’s public safety commissioner, campaign officials said. [...]

[Campaign spokeswoman Meg] Stapleton was asked whether Palin would agree to be interviewed by the special counsel. “If necessary and Mr. Petumenos wants it, absolutely,” Stapleton replied.

“We believe and expect Mr. Petumenos has demonstrated that he is fair and impartial and is searching for the truth and facts behind Monegan’s reassignment,” Stapleton said. “The governor stands ready to cooperate.” [...]

Last week, her husband Todd and several top aides refused to comply with subpoenas issued by a state Senate committee on September 12, arguing the probe was illegitimate and that the governor was protected by a state law that bars ethics investigations of candidates for state office.

“…a state law that bars ethics investigations of candidates for state office.”

Huh? Maybe I’m missing some fine point of law here but isn’t there a difference between a question of ethics and out and out abuse of power?

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Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is mobilizing U.S. store managers to lobby against Democrats in November’s presidential election, fearing they will make it easier for workers to unionize, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

In recent weeks, thousands of Wal-Mart managers and department heads have been summoned to mandatory meetings at which the retailer stresses the downside for workers if store workers unionize, the paper said.

About a dozen employees who attended meetings in seven states said executives argued employees would have to pay hefty union dues and get nothing in return, and might have to go on strike without compensation. They also warned that unionization could force the company to cut jobs as labor costs rise, the Journal reported.

The Wal-Mart human-resources managers who have run the meetings didn’t tell those attending how to vote in the November elections, but made it clear that voting for the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, would be tantamount to inviting unions in, the Journal said.

More at MSNBC

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CNN reports that, following these rules, you too can break the law and avoid punishment!

Every time I’m out shopping or whatever, I often catch myself saying. “There goes someone who’s desire to get to wherever it is he’s going is more important than my life!”

I too have owned a radar detector, so I can’t take the high and mighty road. But there’s something wrong in helping people beat getting a speeding ticket. There’s a good reason why police officers hand out speeding tickets - to deter that kind of behavior. Speeding increases gas consumption. Speeders can be annoying and distracting (Ever have one riding your bumper, honking his horn and flashing his lights? Ever have one blow your doors off trying to get around you, only to stop in front of you to make that long-waiting left turn?).

And did I mention that speeding kills? Unfortunately, most times, it’s not even the GD speeder that’s killed in a crash! Much like drunk drivers, speeders usually survive crashes, whereas their victims oftentimes do not.

If the only way to do deter speeding is to fine the speeder, then please let them get fined. If I decide to make a trip, I very much would like not to die doing it, thank you!

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Oh what a shock! From CNN:

NASA’s press office “marginalized, or mischaracterized” studies on global warming between 2004 and 2006, a government watchdog says.

In a report issued Monday, the NASA inspector general said the press office’s actions were a result of “inappropriate political interference.”

The inspector general’s report blamed “political appointees,” saying neither the agency’s top management nor career officials engaged in censorship of the studies.

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The reporter calls CREW a left-leaning group. I call bullshit. It just so happens most of the politicians with ethics and corruption problems are Republican. They have no problem throwing Democrats under the bus if they see them being unethical or corrupt. It just pisses me off when they label people who are exposing corruption as “left leaning.” Such bullshit.

A Washington ethics watchdog group wants the House ethics committee to investigate whether Rep. Vito Fossella (R-N.Y.) violated House rules by romancing his mistress on taxpayer-funded congressional delegation trips abroad.

The left-leaning Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, known as CREW, has sent an ethics complaint against Fossella to the ethics panel, officially called the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct.

The group called on the panel to investigate Fossella’s May 1 drunken driving charge in Alexandria, Va., as well as reports that he and his mistress, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Laura Fay, traveled together on taxpayer-funded CODELS while they were carrying on a romantic relationship. CREW noted “Fossella allegedly was the solo member of Congress who traveled to France in January 2003 in Lt. Col. Fay’s company” and cited the ethics manual, which states that a House member’s travel must not “create the appearance that the individual is using public office for private gain.”

More at the Washington Post

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“There is not a conflict, there is not an appearance of a conflict,” Mr. Ashcroft told a House Judiciary Committee hearing this morning.

Not even the appearance of one, huh? Yep, that’s gall.

Nice Work If You Can Get It: John Ashcroft’s Big Payday

John Ashcroft, the former Attorney General, insisted today that there was nothing wrong with a former employee giving him a no-bid monitoring contract that could be worth as much as $52 million. [...]

We beg to disagree. Mr. Ashcroft was awarded the contract by Christopher Christie, the United States Attorney for New Jersey. The assignment is to monitor Zimmer Holdings, a manufacturer of medical supplies accused of fraud.

Mr. Ashcroft was Mr. Christie’s boss, and as a powerful Republican, he could prove helpful again in the future. Mr. Christie is believed to have political ambitions. Mr. Ashcroft could line up political support or campaign contributions for his former employee turned benefactor.

Rep. Linda Sanchez, Democrat of California, was right to say that it looked like a “sweetheart deal.”

Just so you’ll know:

I like what NYT’s commenter, Reasoner101, had to say on the subject:

This is the hypocrite who held forced prayer vigils at DOJ and swore to bring his “Christian values” into our federal government. The hypocrite who basically regarded our Constitution as toilet paper. It says a lot about the criminal enterprise that has ruled this country since the 2000 junta that this man was its first choice to head the Justice Department. $52 million no bid contract. Incredible. Ashcroft ought to be tarred and feathered and excommunicated from whatever church he is part of.

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I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to bounce back from all of the corruption weaved throughout our government. Time to burn it all to the ground and start over.

Industries Paid for Top Regulators’ Travel

Two Heads of Product Safety Agency Accepted Trips From Manufacturer Groups

The chief of the Consumer Product Safety Commission and her predecessor have taken dozens of trips at the expense of the toy, appliance and children’s furniture industries and others they regulate, according to internal records obtained by The Washington Post. Some of the trips were sponsored by lobbying groups and lawyers representing the makers of products linked to consumer hazards.

The records document nearly 30 trips since 2002 by the agency’s acting chairman, Nancy Nord, and the previous chairman, Hal Stratton, that were paid for in full or in part by trade associations or manufacturers of products ranging from space heaters to disinfectants. The airfares, hotels and meals totaled nearly $60,000, and the destinations included China, Spain, San Francisco, New Orleans and a golf resort on Hilton Head Island, S.C.

Notable among the trips — commonly described by officials as “gift travel” — was an 11-day visit to China and Hong Kong in 2004 by Stratton, then chairman. The $11,000 trip was paid for by the American Fireworks Standards Laboratory, an industry group based in an office suite in Bethesda whose only laboratories are in Asia.

Elizabeth Williamson, Washington Post Staff Writer

The Washington Post

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I’m sure they’re whining about this one…..and don’t we feel oh so sorry for them. Let me go get my violin.

The cost of running for the presidency is about to get a lot more expensive.

An ethics bill that won final approval in Congress on Thursday requires senators, Senate candidates and those seeking the presidency to pay full charter rates for trips in private planes. For House members seeking the presidency, the new rules are more restrictive: They are banned from flying on private jets.

Until now, candidates had to pay the equivalent of a first-class ticket for such travel - a fraction of the real expense. For example, a round-trip on a midsize charter jet between Washington and Des Moines could cost as much as $41,100. The first-class fare: about $1,500.

Meredith McGehee, of the non-partisan watchdog group Campaign Legal Center, said the discounted travel amounted to a “corporate subsidy to candidates and their campaigns” and opened the door to influence peddling.

More at USA Today

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From the Jurist:

Military doctors participating in the force-feeding of hunger’striking detainees at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] are violating medical ethics, according to commentary published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) [journal website]. The three authors - Sondra S. Crosby, MD, Caroline M. Apovian, MD, Michael A. Grodin, MD - wrote that military doctors should not force treatment on detainees who have refused to voluntarily provide an informed consent, and said they were “disturbed” after conducting a review of detainee medical records and finding no evidence that the detainees had received psychiatric evaluations or been informed about the health consequences of hunger’striking or tube force-feeding. The World Medical Association (WMA) [official website] issued a revised declaration [text] last year saying:

Forcible feeding is never ethically acceptable. Even if intended to benefit, feeding accompanied by threats, coercion, force or use of physical restraints is a form of inhuman and degrading treatment. Equally unacceptable is the forced feeding of some detainees in order to intimidate or coerce other hunger strikers to stop fasting.

The American Medical Association [organization website] has also endorsed the WMA’s position and has urged the Department of Defense (DOD) to stop the practice of force-feeding detainees [press release] who have formed an “unimpaired and rational judgment” to refuse nourishment.

The DOD adopted a policy of force-feeding after up to 128 detainees [JURIST reports] went on hunger strike in 2005. Guantanamo Bay spokesperson Navy Commander Rick Haupt says that 20 of 23 fasting detainees are currently being force-fed and that the military does not punish doctors who refuse to participate in the procedures.

Boston Globe has more.

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Stories like this, (and, Lord knows, there’s plenty of them!), needs to play a big part in election year advertising. The people deserve to know what high-principled republicans are really up to!

Rep. Bob Allen arrested on sex charge

Florida State Rep. Bob Allen refuses to talk to the media on July 11, 2007 after bonding out of Brevard County Jail after his arrest on a sex charge.

TITUSVILLE - State Rep. Bob Allen was arrested Wednesday afternoon at a local park after offering to perform a sex act on an undercover officer in exchange for $20, police said.

Allen, R-Merritt Island, was booked into the Brevard County jail in Sharpes on a charge of solicitation to commit prostitution, a second-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in the county jail and a $500 fine.
[...]

Titusville police were at Veteran’s Memorial Park on East Broad Street on a burglary detail when they noticed an unshaven man acting suspicious, going in and out of the restroom three times, said Lt. Todd Hutchinson.

An undercover officer decided to go into one of the bathroom stalls, Hutchinson said. Moments later, Allen knocked on the stall door and offered to perform oral sex on the officer for $20, according to the police spokesman.

(Laurin Sellers, Sentinel Staff Writer)

Article at OrlandoSentinel.com

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Screen grab from Yahoo! News
Congress Ethics Reform Bogged Down Headline
Ranks right up there with “House votes to accept $4,400 pay raise“!

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