Category: Elections

So, Were they F&^%ing Each Other, or Just Justice and the Taxpayer?

No Comments

Bummer of a birth mark, Chris

So, Chris Christie is running for Governor of New Jersey, and we know that he made a $46,000.00 loan to his close aid, Michele Brown, that he neglected to mention on his disclosure forms, but he claimed that she had done nothing for his campaign.

Oops, maybe she did a little:

But interviews with federal law enforcement officials suggest that Ms. Brown used her position in two significant and possibly improper ways to try to aid Mr. Christie in his run for governor.

In March, when Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s campaign requested public records about Mr. Christie’s tenure as prosecutor, Ms. Brown interceded to oversee the responses to the inquiries, taking over for the staff member who normally oversaw Freedom of Information Act requests, according to federal law enforcement officials in Newark and Washington. The requested information included records about Mr. Christie’s travel and expenses, along with Ms. Brown’s travel records.

In mid-June, when F.B.I. agents and prosecutors gathered to set a date for the arrests of more than 40 targets of a corruption and money-laundering probe, Ms. Brown alone argued for the arrests to be made before July 1. She later told colleagues that she wanted to ensure that the arrests occurred before Mr. Christie’s permanent successor took office, according to three federal law enforcement officials briefed on the conversation, presumably so that Mr. Christie would be given credit for the roundup.

So, it’s clear that she has been a mole for Christie in the US Attorney’s office, someone who he mentored and who repaid the favor, but though reporter, David Halbfinger, does imply that there might have been a bit more was going on:

Those records, which the Corzine campaign has parceled out to news organizations, have already proved embarrassing to Mr. Christie. News stories last week said the records showed Mr. Christie often stayed at expensive hotels on the taxpayers’ dime, routinely exceeding per diem rates set for Justice Department officials.

Additional records provided in raw form by the Corzine campaign and analyzed by The Times show that Ms. Brown accompanied Mr. Christie on 16 trips, the bulk of them in 2007 and 2008. They were often accompanied by a junior prosecutor, Kevin O’Dowd.

I really do not care about who Chris Christie f%$#s, but it is clear that he did his best to use his position as US Attorney for maximum partisan advantage, including the fact that he, “Discussed a run for governor with Karl Rove in 2006,” an action which which is expressly forbidden under federal law.

I’m not sure if this will drive voters to Jon Corzine, but if this doesn’t, it’s likely to drive people to independent candidate Chris Daggett, and Christie has already frittered away a double digit lead on this.

Afghanistan Will Hold Runoff

No Comments

So, now we know that once he is presented with overwhelming pressure, and the threat of a withdrawal of support, which would end with him being hung from a lamp post, Hamid Karzai will observes the cosmetic niceties of a democratic government:

Karzai welcomed the ruling by the government-appointed Independent Election Commission (IEC) after hours of closed-door meetings with western diplomats and mounting international pressure to accept the need for a second round.

He’s welcoming this ruling in the same way that you or I would welcome a prostate exam…With a bowling ball.

Bend over, this won’t hurt a bit…..

UN Fraud Inquiry Calls for Runoff in Afghanistan

No Comments

So, it turns out that the ECC threw out nearly 1/3 of the ballots cast for Karzai, and the US government is saying that it cannot make a decision about more troops until the matter is resolved.

My guess is that Karzai will accept a runoff, and that he will probably win, as he has extensive support from the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, as well as a bureaucracy that will be firmly supporting him in the balloting.

Good News in Honduras

No Comments

It appears that a deal has been agreed to regarding President Manuel Zelaya. (also here)

Whether or not Zelaya needed to be removed from office, what happened was a coup. He was abducted at gunpoint by the military and put in exile: That’s a coup.

If there had been a vote in parliament, or an order from the courts to arrest him, that would be a legal removal.

I will note here that the lack of involvement of Obama and the State Department is both striking and depressing.

Swiss to Hold Referendum on Banning Arms Export

No Comments

For people who don’t follow history, the idea that the Swiss would ban arms exports seems to have little significance, but this is wrong, both historically today.

Swiss neutrality was a product of the fact that their main export from the 15th century or so was Swiss Mercenaries, the finest pikemen in Christendom, and so one of the motivations for neutrality was the ability to sell their services without regard to any alliances at home.

These days, of course, the Swiss are still in the war business:

  • MOWAG, whose Pirinah 8X8 AFV being the basis of both the Marine Corps LAV and the Army’s Stryker.
  • Oerlikon Contraves and its light cannon.
  • Wenger S.A. and Victorinox A.G., producers of the “Swiss Army Knife” (shown)

Though the last one would likely not be covered by such a ban.

In any case, it goes to Swiss voters on November 30, and is a part of an overall campaign by GSoA (Group for a Switzerland Without an Army) to demilitarize the nation.

When You Fire Someone, They Can Talk Freely

No Comments

We already know that there are widespread and credible allegations of vote fraud in Afghanistan, and Peter Galbraith, the UN’s deputy special representative for Afghanistan, just got fired for arguing that there needs to be a broader inquiry into this matter.

You know that old saying about rather having someone in the tent, pissing out, rather than being outside the tent, pissing in? Well, now that he’s been given the sack, Mr. Galbraith is arguing publicly what he had been arguing privately:

A former senior United Nations diplomat in Kabul has made a scathing attack on the UN’s handling of Afghanistan’s disputed elections, claiming that almost one in three of the votes cast for president Hamid Karzai were fraudulent.

Peter Galbraith, the former deputy head of the UN mission in Afghanistan, singled out his former chief, Kai Eide, for criticism, saying he had deliberately played down the level of cheating in an election where, in one region, “10 times as many votes were recorded as voters actually cast”.
Jon Boone on claims of election fraud in Afghanistan Link to this audio

Galbraith was sacked last week, after his disagreements with Eide, a Norwegian diplomat in charge of the UN mission, about how to deal with electoral fraud became public. Galbraith said the extraordinary level of fraud in the August vote “has handed the Taliban its greatest strategic victory in eight years of fighting the United States and its Afghan partners”.

You can read his OP/Ed in the Washington Post here.

This is moment is analogous to Kennedy and Johnson’s moment following the assassination of Ngô Đình Diệm in Vietnam.

When they both signed off on the deed, they sealed the fate of South Vietnam, and made subsequent governments little more than widely detested US puppets.

Well, Barack Obama now has his Diệm moment, and it appears that he will fall as Kennedy and Johnson did.

My Thoughts on German Election

No Comments

So, Merkel will now govern with the Free Democrats, and not in a grand coalition with the SDP.

The reason that this is happening is very simple: The SDP is not running against the CDU, it’s running against the Left Party.

So you have proclamations that there will not be a coalition with the LP under any, because….because…I’m really not sure why, except, perhaps because the SDP sees the LP as drawing in disaffected SDP members, and they see the loss of power within the party as more troubling than the lose of power in the whole country.

Fundamentally, the success of the LP is because the 3rd Way endorsed by Clinton, Blair, and to a somewhat lesser extent, Gerhard Schröder, which supported “Anglo-Saxon” hyper-capitalism, and has failed in its goals to create increased living standards.

The people with the idea that the perhaps a party with founded with the idea that government should take a role in improving a society, like Oskar Lafontaine, now co chair of the LP have been disaffected and dis-empowered, so it’s no wonder that they are looking for somewhere else to go.

There is also the whole, “world wide financial meltdown,” thing which has tarnished the 3rd way’s concept of unfettered competition, which means that the LP is, you know, do the degree that that actually have a philosophy, as, “The Left hasn’t yet adopted its own party program“.

The decline of the SDP, in a bizarre way, mirrors the decline of the Labor Party in Israel, which stopped representing “Labor”, and became the party of, “We’re not as batsh%$ insane as Likud,” and so dropped to a pathetic 4th place in Israeli elections as a result of the “Thatcherite but not as batsh%$ insane as Likud,” Kadima party.

Run, Andrew, Run

No Comments

David Paterson has announced that he will run for reelection in 2010 on Meet the Press.

Andrew Cuomo needs to do the same, because Paterson will lose the general, and so New York will be stuck with Gerrymandered districts that disproportionately represent Republicans for the next 10 years.

Seriously, Paterson is polling below 30%, and not only could Rudy Giuliani beat him, so could Eliot Spitzer, even if he got a blow-job on TV.

Massachusetts Senate Update

No Comments

The Massachusetts Republican Party just filed for an injunction against Paul Kirk’s appointment to the US Senate.

The issue is that under the state constitution, laws do not take effect for 90 days unless they are declared “emergency laws,” as Governor Patrick has.

No clue as to the finer constitutional points here.

[update]
The judge has not granted an ex parte restraining order, which would immedieatly stay the restraining order, which implies the court expects arguments and motions to be done well before the formal Friday appointment and/or that the Republicans have little or no case.

The Worst Web Site Ever

No Comments

Carlyfornia

Carly Fiorina’s site for her bid to be the next Senator from California.

You know, you would figure that maybe the site’s design would be a little more tech savvy for a former head of HP, but then you realize that it’s….well….Carly.

If there is a better example of a destructive and dishonest empty suit out there, I’d be hard pressed to find it.

Will No One Primary this Corrupt Son of a Bitch?

No Comments

I am referring to Representative Mike Ross, Democrat (hah!) of Arkansas’s 4th Congressional district.

We have always known that Mike Ross is a bit blue dog, and in the pocket of the health insurers the pharmaceutical industry, and now, thanks to ProPublica, we know why.

It turns out that he and his wife sold their pharmacy and related property to pharmacy chain USA Drug in 2007, and paid between $1 million and $1.67 million for the it, which is kind of surprising, when the county tax assessment listed it at $263,000, and an independent assessor retained by ProPublica valued it at $198,000.

This means that he was overpaid for his property, and for “the pharmacy’s assets”, and for a “non-compete” agreement from his wife, Holly Ross, something on the order of $1 million.

What’s more the owner of the pharmacy chain, Stephen L. LaFrance Sr., who has been quoted as saying that, “Universal health care will ruin our health care in America,” maxed out on his campaign contributions to Ross in 2007, the year of the sale.

It’s depressing. Mike Ross is bought and paid for by the medical industry, his biggest donor, and he routinely gets more than 70% in the general, and there is no one challenging him in the primary.

Please, someone run. I’ll through in a few bucks, and list the person on my Act blue page.

[On edit]
Ross issued a non denial denial.