The elder George Bush's son Neil broke conflict of interest rules when he was a CEO at Silverado Banking Savings and Loan in Denver.

A cease and desist order restricting Neil Bush's banking activity was demanded immediately.  The judge who worked for the Office of Thrift Supervision demanded that Neil Bush make a full disclosure of all of his business dealings annually.  Also the judge insisted that Bush never vote on an issue where he held an interest if he joined any bank.

Neil Bush, a Denver oil man, had been director of Silverado from 1985 to 1988.  Neil resigned when his father was nominated on the Republican presidential ticket.  Later that same year regulators seized Silverado Bank, declaring it insolvent.  Silverado's bank failure cost taxpayers billions.

The elder George Bush's son Neil broke conflict of interest rules when he was a CEO at Silverado Banking Savings and Loan in Denver.  Regulators discovered that Bush had failed to reveal to his fellow Silverado bank directors the fact that he had extensive business dealings at the pivotal moment Walters and Good received those enormous loans.

200,000 dead!  2 million displaced!

While the Bush Administration was spending billions to bring freedom and democracy to Iraq, or so those Republican leaders told us, all hell broke loose in a violent sectarian war.  

The most horrifying wars of all are religious wars.  How many of those Republican leaders such as Tom DeLay (former pest exterminator) and Dennis Hastert (former wrestling coach/teacher) were well grounded in historical knowledge of the Dark Ages or of Middle East religion and politics?

Sadly name value, such as Reagan the actor, Schwarzenegger the actor, or Jesse Ventura the wrestler, were all names and careers with which a lot of voters could easily identify.

Isn't it enough that this Republican Administration got us into Iraq?

Isn't it enough that it is now provable there never were those "weapons of mass destruction" that launched us into this bloody spectacle?

Every congressman should be required to have knowledge of the historical background and irrefutable proof of the nation they want to war against as an "imminent threat" to the U.S.A.

Otherwise innocent men, women, and children will be killed in a slaughter spree.

The AP reports: "Gov. Rick Perry on Tuesday ordered a Nov. 7 special election to temporarily replace resigned US Rep. Tom DeLay, a date that coincides with the general election." In the general election, Nick Lampson "is the Democratic candidate. Republicans have thrown their support to Houston City Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs as a write-in candidate after the courts refused to remove DeLay name from the ballot."

And according to the New York Times, Sekula-Gibbs "said she would run in the special election. That means she will be on the ballot in the special election, but not in the general. Although some Republican strategists said that could leave voters hopelessly confused, Dr. Sekula-Gibbs, a dermatologist and member of the Houston City Council, said she believed that voters could cope with it."

Yeah, we all know how well voters 'cope' with election confusion. Was she asleep in a cave during Bush v. Gore?

Nevertheless, Sekula-Gibbs' listing on the Special Election ballot, but not the General Election ballot, means she is more likely to find victory in the Special Election since write-in candidates have rarely been successful in federal level general elections (about 4 times in the last 75 years).

The winner of the special election will fill DeLay's seat until his congressional term expires in January 2007. From there, the General Election winner will take over.

How does this help the Republicans in the long-run?

Governor Perry has called a special election for November 7th to fill Tom DeLay's seat from November 7th until the end of the year. Therefore, TX-22 voters will have to vote twice on election day - once in the special election, which will have ALL of the candidates on the ballot and once in the general election, which will not have a Republican on the ballot.

With this special election, the voter will have the name of the Republican candidate right there in front of them. As Democrats had signaled their intention to challenge any misspellings/variations of Republican front-runner Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, the special election is a life saver for the Texas GOP.

That's a 'life saver' alright. Tastes sweet at first but eventually dissolves into nothing.

Nick Lampson retains the edge in TX-22.

There is dynamite material in this blog round-up that points to themes that have never been adequately exploited by those affected by the religious right. If these themes were further developed, they could almost serve as a briefinb book on how to bust the religious right. Three examples:

1) Routine lies and distortions by religious right organizations and leaders

2) The bizarre role of Rev. Sun Myung Moon in the GOP

3) Forced abortion and prostitution in the free market paradise of the Mariannas promoted and protected by Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff.

There have been a great many unexploited or underexploited fractures, flaws, hypocrises and more over the years. To make effective use of such things requires knowledge and skills in using the material effectively. These are things that are rarely encouraged anywhere left of the religious right.

And people wonder why the religious right is so powerful.

As the Republican 'Culture of Corruption' continues its tumultuous death spiral, conservative apologists are working tirelessly to cloud the lines between their breathtaking, broadly-swept lack of integrity (Abramoff, Iraq, Plame, torture, Cunningham, Delay, and on and on) and isolated individual shortcomings with certain Democrats (Patrick Kennedy). Or, as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi put it:

...Pelosi sought Thursday to differentiate the [William] Jefferson case from what Democrats have labeled the "culture of corruption" linking the Republican majority and special interests represented by disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff. "The Republicans are all tied together," she said. "Mr. Jefferson is his own behavior, he is responsible for it."

In addition to Pelosi's point, there is one very telling difference between the Democratic and Republican leadership of which all potential voters should be aware.

To illustrate, we'll take two real-life purveyors of alleged corruption within each party.

With so little time, and so much to catch up on, here's a round-up of late-day "news," stories, commentary, and other items of interest to the blogosphere. Just a few snippets with links to get you started:

Nine states are suing Bush over fuel efficiency. (Do we detect a pattern here?)

"At a time when consumers are struggling to pay surging gas prices and the challenge of global climate change has become even more clear, it is unconscionable that the Bush Administration is not requiring greater mileage efficiency for light trucks," said New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer in a press release.

Disgraced former Republican House Majority Leader Tom Delay has already proven to be the king of political corruption. That feather-in-hat safely secured, Tom turns to other opportunities.

With Jack Abramoff likely to soon be staring at the far side of prison bars, a throbbing void is bulging in the lobbying world -- one that can only be satisfied by the likes of Tom Delay.

That's right, in an interview with Time Magazine, Delay spills it asserting "he has not ruled out becoming a lobbyist."

You know the saying, 'Do what you know'. If there's anything Delay knows...

Crossposted at Daily Kos

For those of you who don't know, back in the heady days of the Texas "Lege" in the '80s, Tom Delay was quite the party animal, earning him the nickname "Hot Tub Tom". That was before he became a "born again", obviously.

In honor of his departure from Congress, I give you "An Ode to Hot Tub Tom"

After spending his victorious primary night partying with his lobbyist buddies, Representative Tom DeLay has decided to call it quits.

Uh, oh! Someone knows something about Tom DeLay that Tom DeLay doesn't want anyone to know.  

So what does he do? Why, the only thing that comes naturally to him -- he ran away -- to Virginia to partake in their delicious hams, their proximity to K-Street, and their distance from Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle.

It's true. The former House Republican Majority Leader has abandoned his reelection bid and is expected to resign from the House within the next few weeks. DeLay said "his decision was best for his district and based on troubling internal polling numbers" which "showed him beating Democrat Nick Lampson in the general election but in a race that would be too close for comfort."

The Abramoff scandal -- the inside-the-beltway story of Congressional corruption and the influence of connected lobbyists, that finally brought down former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) -- will probably, eventually, also consume longtime Christian Right political leader, Ralph Reed.  

In the 1990s, Reed epitomized the emergence of the Christian Right as an organized political force. Times have changed, and several major political careers may turn on the widening gyre of the scandal.  

Bob Moser, writing in the current issue of The Nation, has a long and revealing look at the trajectory of Reed's career -  from boy political wunderkind to the combustion of the Abramoff corruption scandal.  

Every week brings a new revelation about the millions in dirty money Reed earned by duping his fellow evangelicals into putting their political muscle behind "Casino Jack" Abramoff's gambling clients. Reed's huge leads in both popularity polls and fundraising have almost disappeared. Instead of making his triumphant debut as a politician, the man Time magazine called "The Right Hand of God" is fast becoming the new poster boy for Christian-right corruption.

The source is Bob Novak, so take this with a HUGE grain of salt:

Disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff has advised friends that he has no derogatory information about former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and is not implicating him as part of his plea bargain with federal prosecutors.

 Abramoff's guilty plea on fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy charges requires him to provide evidence about members of Congress. That led to speculation that this would mean trouble for DeLay, who faces money laundering and conspiracy charges in Texas.

 However, Abramoff has not given a clean bill of health to any other congressman -- including Rep. Robert Ney, who has stepped down as chairman of the House Administration Committee. Ney was the only member of Congress named in court papers connected with Abramoff's guilty plea Jan. 4.

Russian authorities still deny pre-war connections to Saddam Hussein


Washington, DC (Washington Prost) - An anonymous White House/Pentagon source today revealed further photographic and documentary evidence suggesting that Russian intelligence sources inside America were able to feed information to Saddam Hussein prior to the US invasion. The information was reputedly confiscated by US troops from various Hussein command posts after the invasion.

Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton has resigned from her post in the Bush administration after five years at  that post. An anonymous source claims Norton "is not leaving because of any problems" but simply "wants to go home for a while."

Proclaimed reasons notwithstanding, Norton leaves as the Abramoff scandal is progressively enveloping the White House - a scandal that has firmly ensnared the interior secretary.

Investigators have unearthed e-mails showing Rep. Tom DeLay's office tried to help lobbyist Jack Abramoff get a high-level Bush administration meeting for Indian clients, an effort that succeeded after the tribes began making $250,000 in donations.

Tribal money went both to a group founded by Interior Secretary Gale Norton, the Cabinet secretary Abramoff was trying to meet, as well as to DeLay's personal charity.

"Do you think you could call that friend and set up a meeting?" then-DeLay staffer Tony Rudy asked fellow House aide Thomas Pyle in a Dec. 29, 2000, e-mail titled "Gale Norton-Interior Secretary." President Bush had nominated Norton to the post the day before.

Rudy wrote Abramoff that same day promising he had "good news" about securing a meeting with Norton, forwarding information about the environmental group Norton had founded, according to e-mails obtained by investigators and reviewed by The Associated Press. Rudy's message to Abramoff was sent from Congress' official e-mail system.

Within months, Abramoff clients donated heavily to the Norton-founded group and to DeLay's personal charity. The Coushatta Indian tribe, for instance, wrote checks in March 2001 for $50,000 to the Norton group and $10,000 to the DeLay Foundation, tribal records show.

The lobbyist and the Coushattas eventually won face-to-face time with the secretary during a Sept. 24, 2001, dinner sponsored by the group she had founded.

While the rest of us are groaning about her replacement, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor seems very glad to have shucked that black robe.  Why?  Because now that she off the bench, she's free to air her opinion on those preaching against "judicial activism"

Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor showed Thursday that she's not absent from judicial issues. During a speech in Washington, she said Republican leaders' attacks on the courts threaten the constitutional freedoms of Americans.

NPR has not yet provided audio or a transcript of the story online.  However, in her speech she blasted "Justice Sunday," Tom Delay, and all those trying to cripple the judicial branch for political ends.

I'll update this story as more details become available, but it's clear that Justice O'Connor is quite willing to put herself on the front lines of the war against justice.