Cunningscam to speak at Encinitas Park

On July 4th, the speeches are scheduled to start at 9:30 am. Encinitas' Cottonwood Park is the location for anyone who wishes to create a sign or two, and let Duke Cunningscam know how welcome he is amongst his constituents.

Cunningscam wrap-up

From the North County Times: First this story about the effects that the Cunningscam scandal have had on MZM's upper management. Resignations abound, and rats are deserting this particular sinking ship as quickly as possible. In that vein, the Pentagon has decided to cancel a no-bid contract with MZM worth $250 million.

And finally, the Duke himself has been served with a subpoena for documents related to his dealings with MZM and Mitchell Wade. I hope they've checked his shredder for overheating.

Kudos to NC Times

As part of their weekly "Roses & Raspberries" editorial, they called out O'side city councilman Jack Feller for his homophobic comments regarding the closing of Greystoke's, a well known gay bar in Oceanside.

The 'Intolerance Is Not a Family Value' award - A raspberry to Oceanside Councilman Jack Feller, whose glee at seeing North County's last gay nightclub change its format made clear that if it were up to him, gays wouldn't be welcome in the city by the sea.

Feller should apologize for his remarks which brand thousands of people in Oceanside as second-class citizens.

Iraqi students beaten for long hair, jeans

This story comes from Iraq, that hotbed of freedom and democracy. Students in Najaf were beaten, arrested, beaten again, and had their heads shaved. Their crime? Wearing jeans and having long hair.

"We didn't oppress any freedoms. We detained them for a while and after we knew that they were students, we released them after they pledged they wouldn't do it again," Colonel Najah Yasir told Reuters.

But apparently this isn't the only outbreak of fundamentalist Islam that is taking away priviledges that Iraqi people enjoyed under their last government.

Throughout the Shi'ite south of Iraq over the past two years, alcohol salesmen and others deemed to trade in goods that violate Islam have been harassed by militants.

But it is not only in Shi'ite areas that religion plays an increasingly influential role in society.

In Falluja, a Sunni Muslim city west of Baghdad that was until recently a stronghold of insurgents, there were efforts last year to instill a strict religious code similar to that enforced by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Several residents said they were beaten for violating it.

Yay for liberation!

Straight man discriminated against by Catholic pre-school

Yes, he's married. Yes, he's straight. But none of that seemed to matter to the Catholic diocese of San Diego and St. Mary Star of the Sea preschool. Because Danny McDonough has too feminine of an appearance, the priests of St. Mary's decided that his daughter could not attend their pre-school, citing his "lifestyle" as a concern.

Wow. When straight, married men get discriminated against in our society for being "out of the norm," what's next?

"I'm sorry, Mr. Smith. You wear far too little flannel, and your wife wears far too much. Your son's admission is denied."

Cunningscam round-up

And finally, this editorial in the North County Times.

Here's what he was talking about: Wade in 2003 bought Cunningham's house in a private transaction, let it sit vacant for nine months, then sold it at a staggering $700,000 loss in the nation's hottest housing market. Significantly, the congressman did not release the "comparables," or the data about similar home sales in his neighborhood that his real estate agent used to set the price of the house.

Yes, isn't that interesting.

What's more, Cunningham since April 2004 has been living on Wade's yacht in Washington. The congressman said that in lieu of rent, he paid more than $8,000 in dock fees and $5,000 for upkeep on Wade's boat.

We can set aside the dock fees, because Cunningham rented space for his own boat at the Potomac River marina for years before he moved into Wade's boat. According to Cunningham's accounting, that $5,000 over the last 14 months amounts to $357 a month.

Wow. In 1996, I rented a one-bedroom apartment in south Oceanside that went for $505/month. I should have been looking at yachts, instead.

Josh Marshall on Cunningscam

As usual, Josh Marshall has a great take on Duke's excuse-laden statement. He also raised a point about something that jumped out at me when I read it as well:

This is great. Duke has lived there for over a year. And he's paid $13,000 out of pocket. Yes, he says "well over". But by the looks of the document search he and his lawyers are doing it seems he's going to dig up the receipts for every roll of toilet paper and every bottle of windex he bought while he was there to pad the total.

When I lived in DC I lived in a medium to small-sized one bedroom apartment on 19th Street between R & S streets. That's in Dupont Circle.

DC housing isn't cheap. By the time I left last December I think my rent was $1468 a month. So with the help of my trusty calculator I can figure out that I was paying $17,616 in rent a year. So I was paying substantially more to live in my little one bedroom apartment than Duke was to live on Wade Mitchell's yacht down on the river.

Also read this note on the subject of Duke's most recent house purchase. Turns out that the person he bought from is also a campaign contributor, Douglas Powanda from Peregrine Systems, who just happens to be accused of securities fraud. Did Duke get a sweetheart deal from this guy, too?

Cunningham admits to poor judgement

So much for the party of personal responsibility. Read the article, then the statement at the end. All he's doing is playing the victim card -- Oh, I trusted in my friends, if anything wrong happened it must be because I'm so naive and trusting.

While Cunningham might not step down or be forced to resign, Democrat Francine Busby is already working to unseat the veteran lawmaker. Busby opened a campaign office in Encinitas earlier this month for a second run at Cunningham.

The 54-year-old former Cardiff school board member was her party's nominee in the 2004 election and drew about 36 percent of the vote in the traditionally Republican district.

Busby said Thursday that Cunningham, who earns a congressional salary of $162,100 a year, needs to come back to the district and address his constituents directly. Cunningham's current term expires in 2006."

Coming clean is more than just admitting what everybody already knows," Busby said. "It's about showing that your actions meet the high standards of honesty and integrity from a congressional representative."

Busby said there should not be any unanswered questions and that Cunningham needs to "prove flat out and openly that there are no violations here. I don't think his statement meets that standard."

In Washington, Keith Ashdown, vice president of policy and communications for Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan Washington budget watchdog, took issue with part of what Cunningham said.

"His statement that no congressman steers contracts to their favorite contractors is absolutely not true," Ashdown said. "It happens all the time."

Committee members are very influential," Ashdown said. "They control the purse strings of the armed services and they can make military officials' lives miserable if they don't do what they are told."

Ashdown added that Cunningham was presenting his own point of view but not offering any supporting documentation.

"He has to show real evidence and words are not going to cut it," Ashdown said. "These accusations are going to stick like glue until he provides evidence that proves otherwise."

Karl Rove attempts to distract public from massive Bush failures

The Big Story: Karl Rove during a speech on Wednesday, claimed: “Liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers." Only the mighty conservatives would step forward and save a vulnerable nation.

Pardon me whilst I hurl. Let's make an accounting of exactly what conservatives have accomplished in the past four years, shall we?

• 1,382 days after 9/11, Osama bin Laden is still at large and al Qaeda is regrouping. More than three-and-a-half years ago Bush vowed to capture terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden “dead or alive.” He’s failed. The administration wants you to think it is hot on his tracks, however. CIA director Porter Goss said he had “an excellent idea” where Bin Laden is hiding. Vice President Cheney said he had “a pretty good idea of a general area that he's in.” With all the bluster, you’d think they could close the deal.
• 1,382 days after 9/11, terrorist attacks are at an all time high. By quantitative measures, the Bush administration’s approach to combating terrorism is an abject failure. Last year “[t]he number of serious international terrorist incidents more than tripled,” according to the Washington Post. State Department data shows that “attacks grew to about 655 last year, up from the record of around 175 in 2003.” How did the administration respond? By halting the publication of the State Department report.
• 1,382 days after 9/11, the Iraq war—a complete diversion from the fight against al Qaeda—has produced more terrorism not less. According to the CIA, “[t]he war in Iraq is creating a training and recruitment ground for a new generation of "professionalized" Islamic terrorists.” An in-house CIA think tank concluded that in the poorly planned aftermath of the invasion, “hundreds of foreign terrorists flooded into Iraq across its unguarded borders.” There is a serious risk that Iraq is now “creating newly radicalized and experienced jihadis who return home to cause trouble in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and elsewhere.”

Oceanside Councilman Jack Feller proves himself homophobic bigot

So the big news in Oceanside this week is that one of its two gay bars, Greystoke's, has closed in favor of reopening it as a family-oriented restaurant called The Beach House. No one can, of course, argue against a business trying to make money, and the fact is that as a gay bar, Greystoke's has failed pretty spectacularly in the past few years, managing to bring in fewer and fewer members of the community. Personally, I blame that on the owners being better at managing restaurants than bars; they had absolutely no idea how to market it to their specific audience.

But the bigger story here, I think, are Jack Feller's homophobic comments, praising the owners for having "seen the light" and stating that gay bars were in no way "family friendly". As if ANY bars are "family friendly". Take a look at the Embassy Room a block away, and see if that's a place you want to take little Johnny and Susie on a Friday night. There is never any requirement for a straight bar to be "family friendly".

Sorry, Mr. Feller. Bigotry is so 20th Century, and the sooner you realize that, the better.

Cunningham pushes for jobs outside his district

More about the sordid little affair between Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham and defense contractor Mitchell Wade comes this little tidbit about how Wade essentially threatened employees of his defense contracting firm into giving money to Duke's re-election campaign. Which is illegal, by the way.

They also expressed concerns about Wade's dealings with three House members who received a large portion of the money disbursed by MZM's PAC. The three – all Republicans – are Cunningham and Reps. Virgil Goode of Virginia and Katherine Harris of Florida.

Yes, that Katherine Harris.

MZM has a facility in Goode's rural Virginia district, not far from the Army National Ground Intelligence Center, which is one of MZM's key customers.

MZM is also planning to buy a facility in Harris' district, where it can be close to two of its other customers, the U.S. Central Command and the Special Operations Command, which are in a neighboring congressional district.

Oddly enough, none of these new jobs are slated for Cunningham's district. So he gets paid $700,000, gets to use Wade's yacht, and the people in his district get...what, exactly?

If not now, when?

It's pretty obvious the shredder at the Cunningham household is working overtime. Apparently "Duke" has no timetable for releasing documents which would prove that he's not a crook; we can only presume the reason is because such documents are in the firm custody of Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny.

"The whole thing stinks," Durfee said. "The fact that he is so tight with a defense contractor whose issues go before the committees he serves on is what we call corruption."

Indeed.

Schwarzzenegger's Stock Dropping

This morning's news gave us this little present from the Union-Tribune. Democratic challengers are just salivating at the thought of challenging this guy for governor. Looks like Californians are waking up to how phony and incompetent our Governator is.

Funny

Oh, when Justice fails, can Satire be far behind...

And Josh Marshall's blog has more about the Duke. Info that was news to me: apparently the "real estate agent", Elizabeth Todd, that set the price of the mansion in question hadn't ever actually done any real estate agent-ing. Helping Cunningham purchase his second house was actually Todd's first real broker transaction, on which she got commission on a $2.55 million home. Nice first deal for anyone, much less a campaign contributor.

Liar!

Just had to throw this tidbit in here, because it made me laugh out loud:

LAUER: "But when you stood on the floor and you said, 'She does respond', are you at all worried that you led some senators…"
FRIST: "No, I never said, she responded."- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist in an interview on the Today Show with Matt Lauer, 6/16/05

VERSUS

"I have looked at the video footage. Based on the footage provided to me, which was part of the facts of the case, she does respond." -- Sen. Bill Frist on the Senate floor, 3/17/05

I do love the stuff you can find on the Center for American Progress website.

See below, re: Destroying America...

And not moments after scribing the bit about conservatives trying to destroy our American institutions, I find the following in my mailbox:

Right-wingers are taking over the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the agency intended to provide a buffer between independent public broadcast networks and the partisan government. And they are working overtime to put a conservative slant on programming, a move that completely undermines the non-interference mandate of the 1967 Public Broadcasting Act. This week right-wingers in the House voted to cut all federal funding for public broadcasting within the next two years. Unless the public demands respect for independent and public broadcasting, soon nobody will be able to tell you how to get to Sesame Street. Write Congress and demand that they save PBS from partisan operatives.

All you soccer-moms and dads out there better get moving, because it won't be long before one of the few remaining "safe" educational television stations out there goes away for good. I remember PBS as one of the few tv stations that my mother said I could watch whenever I wanted... And I did, I watched "Sesame Street", and "Electric Company" and "3-2-1 Contact". But unless parents start expressing their outrage about these theocrats destroying public broadcasting, future generations won't have the same opportunities to watch educational, commercial-free programming.

Danforth in todays NY Times

Republican Ex-Senator John Danforth writes a fine op-ed piece in the New York Times today called, "Onward Moderate Christian Soldiers". It does a good job of outlining the dangers of having the Republican party run by radical social conservatives with a narrow-minded religious agenda.

In the decade since I left the Senate, American politics has been characterized by two phenomena: the increased activism of the Christian right, especially in the Republican Party, and the collapse of bipartisan collegiality. I do not think it is a stretch to suggest a relationship between the two. To assert that I am on God's side and you are not, that I know God's will and you do not, and that I will use the power of government to advance my understanding of God's kingdom is certain to produce hostility.

Let's be perfectly clear about this. "Conservatives" aren't conservative any longer. They want to abolish Social Security, they want to abolish Medicare, they want to overturn environmental protections that keep polluters in check, they want one party rule, with that one party ruled by a very specific brand of evangelical Christianity. They want to change America so much that you won't recognize it anymore.

Liberals are this year's conservatives. And conservatives are this year's theocrats.

The "Duke Stir"

Small time politicians make for small time ethics violations, I suppose. Staying on a yacht purchased for your use by a defense contractor isn't quite as bad as taking trips to Russia funded by lobbyists, but illegal is illegal, and corrupt is as corrupt does. It's just another day in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

The "Duke Stir". How cute. How long until people in Cunningham's district realize that he's not representing them, he's representing defense contractors who do him favors?

The "Duke's" Real Estate Dilemma

So apparently Randy "Duke" Cunningham got caught with his hand in the cookie jar; allegations are surfacing that Cunningham sold his Del Mar home for $1.675 million to a shell corporation set up by a defense contractor, which held on to the home for eight months, and then resold it for a $700,000 loss.

How is anyone losing money in the San Diego real estate market right now? You don't suppose that "1523 New Hampshire Avenue LLC" actually paid more than Fair Market Value for Mr. Randy's home, in exchange for lucrative contracts awarded by the congressional committee of which Mr. Randy is a member, do you?

Because that smells like official bribery, and I'm sure such a staunch supporter of Tom Delay would never be involved in such a thing.

On Edit: Even the San Diego Union-Tribune is getting into the act.

By the way...

There has been a whole bunch of British government briefing papers that have been released that support the contentions in the Downing Street Memo with their own evidence. From thinkprogress.org:

British Knew Iraqi WMD Were Not a Threat: “There is no greater threat now that [Saddam] will use WMD than there has been in recent years, so continuing containment is an option.” [Iraq: Options Paper]

Evidence Did Not Show Much Advance In Iraq’s Weapons Programs: “Even the best survey of Iraq’s WMD programmes will not show much advance in recent years on [the] nuclear, missile or CW/BW fronts: the programmes are extremely worrying but have not, as far as we know, been stepped up.” [Ricketts Paper, 3/22/02]

Evidence Was Thin on Iraq/Al Qaeda Ties: “US is scrambling to establish a link between Iraq and Al [Qaida] is so far frankly unconvincing.” [Ricketts Paper, 3/22/02]

“No Credible Evidence” On Iraq/Al Qaeda Link: “There has been no credible evidence to link Iraq with UBL and Al Qaida.” [Straw Paper, 3/25/02]

Wolfowitz Knew Supposed Iraq/Al Qaeda Link Was Weak: Wolfowitz said that “there might be doubt about the alleged meeting in Prague between Mohammed Atta, the lead hijacker on 9/11, and Iraqi intelligence (did we, he asked, know anything more about this meeting?).” [Meyer Paper, 3/18/02]

The coming storm

For such a potentially explosive story, the Downing Street Memo has largely been ignored by the mainstream press. Maybe that's why it falls to smaller newspapers, like the Times Herald-Record to report the news.

By the way, if you haven't read it yet, you really should. Quotes of note (emphasis mine):

C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The SC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.
...

The Foreign Secretary said he would discuss this with Colin Powell this week. It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran.

...

The Attorney-General said that the desire for regime change was not a legal base for military action. There were three possible legal bases: self-defence, humanitarian intervention, or UNSC authorisation.

Because I know you're on pins and needles...

The results from yesterday's big election in Oceanside. Now Mackin has the ability to show what she's made of, so best of luck to her. And to Terry Johnson, I think Rep. J.C. Watts' father had some advice for you:

"A black man voting for a Republican makes as much sense as a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders." -- Buddy Watts

Circular Firing Squad

So it seems that Ed Schultz spent most of his 3-hour long show today beating up on Howard Dean for some remarks he made concerning the GOP being a white, Christian party. Or should I say, Ed jumped on the right-wing bandwagon that's beating up Howard Dean.

Keep in mind, Ed is a guy who spent hours upon hours criticising MoveOn.org when they decided to air ads criticising a Democratic senator who voted for the heinous Bankruptcy Bill. Complaining about how the Democrats always "eat their own" and form a "circular firing squad." And how "you don't see the Republicans doing that, do you?" Well, now Ed has allowed his frustration to guide himself into Circular Firing Squad territory.

I've listened to his show ever since KLSD went Air America (Ed is actually carried by the Jones Radio Network), and he's usually a pretty good guy. He knows how to keep a show moving, though his format of unscreened callers often does him more harm than good. But now that people are starting to call to parrot back his own rhetoric about keeping intra-party disagreements private, now Ed is saying, "When I see something wrong, I have to speak out", and "I'm not beholden to any party." Ed, Ed, Ed, what are you doing?

While we're on the subject, I'm disappointed in the prominent Democrats, too, who jumped on the Dean-bashing bandwagon. Take a page from the Republicans playbook, for gods' sake; when asked if you agree with Dean, say, "As far as Chairman Dean goes, we'll have to agree to disagree on the specifics. But I do agree wholeheartedly with his larger point, which is that unless you represent the interests of wealth, or the interests of fundamentalism, the Republican Party simply does not come through for you. It's unfortunate that message gets lost in the larger storm, but that is a stone fact."

And that's what Ed should have said as well. I'd encourage everyone who reads this blog (both of you) to write to Ed and ask him what he was thinking.

The Big Day

Honestly now, is there a city with more dysfunctional politicians than Oceanside? Yeah, ok, point taken.

Since my commute now takes me solidly through Oceanside, I've seen a lot of campaigning these past few weeks. But since my recent move has rendered me ineligible for voting in this election, all I can do is sit on the sidelines and watch.

Of course, given the choice, I would probably be voting for Sheri Mackin over either Armentrout (pro-business stooge) or Johnson (turncoat Republican Party minority stooge). This may be harsh, but it seems to me that anyone who suddenly decides that this Republican Party best represents their views is not carefully considering the full implications of that statement. (Fiscal conservative, please.) Of course, it's obvious that it's not philosophy that is the guiding light behind Johnson's betrayal, but political fortunes. With any luck, those fortunes will come to a screeching halt with the returns tonight.

Finally the Dems speak out

Today seems to be the day that Democratic Senators are voicing their opinions about the Downing Street "Smoking Gun" Memo that proved, basically, that our President lied to Congress, the American people, and the world, about why we needed to go to war in Iraq. Oh, for a return to the days of a Special Prosecutor. I never thought I'd miss that.

We know the Administration had been planning to invade Iraq for many months before the invasion actually began. We know the Administration twisted the intelligence to make the facts fit their plan. We know that the Administration never really intended to give the U.N. weapons inspectors a reasonable chance to succeed. The Downing Street Minutes demonstrate that the Administration knew their case for war was paper thin, and that in order to go into war with the support of our allies, we had to demonstrate some willingness to go along with the UN inspection process. But the Administration continued to misuse its intelligence, distort the facts and pay only lip-service to the UN’s role in disarming Iraq.

You know, legend has it that when a Roman Emperor was crowned, he would ride a golden chariot through throngs of people who would shower him with flowers. There stood next to him one person who was appointed to whisper in his ear, "Remember, you are only human." Our American Emperor has no such admonishments. For the sake of democracy, or checks and balances, or whatever you want to call it, he desperately needs one.

Trouble on the horizon?

Interesting piece (story) at the Washington Post (tool) today. How low must the approval ratings of the President drop before he is considered by the media to be neither popular nor successful?

The survey found that 58 percent of those interviewed said Bush is mainly concentrating in his second term on problems and partisan squabbles that these respondents said were unimportant to them. Four in 10--41 percent--said the president was focused on important problems--a double-digit drop from three years ago.

Of course, from a psychological point of view, this was the most interesting tidbit:

According to the poll, nearly eight in 10 Democrats say Bush is not concentrating on issues they personally view as vital while three out of four Republicans disagree.

To summarize, 80% of Democrats say Bush isn't concentrating on vital issues while 75% of Republicans say he is. Assuming that the numbers are roughly equal, this does bode more favorably for Democrats, however, that's beside the point. Where are these people being educated on the issues that makes their opinions so radically different? How is it that so little common ground can be found between these two camps, why are they so polarized in their information?

Oh yeah.

Pride and Potholes

Apparently there just aren't enough potholes in the state of California. They had to go create one so that Schwarzenegger would have something to fill for his publicity stunt.

I mean, I have a pothole on my driveway they could have filled if they were really hard-pressed to find one.

Comedy Gold

Sorry for the long posting delay, now that I'm all moved in and everything is pretty settled down, I should be able to get back to my irregular posting schedule.

By the by, if anyone out there is still not watching the Daily Show, shame on you. This is comedy gold. How the likes of Robert Novak and G. Gordon Liddy can pronounce the word "unethical" without catching on fire is beyond me.