Eideard

The happy family

Former Senator John Ensign appears to have violated federal law in a sex-and-lobbying scandal that drove the once-rising Republican star from office…

The Senate ethics committee said it found “substantial credible evidence” against Ensign, and referred the case to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution. In a report capping its 22-month probe, the panel listed possible charges, including “potential obstruction of justice” for what it described as Ensign deleting “relevant documents and files…”

Ensign, 53, first elected to the Senate from Nevada in 2000, resigned last week after earlier announcing he would not seek re-election.

Ensign admitted in 2009 to having had an affair with Cynthia Hampton, who worked for his campaign, and whose husband, Douglas, was a legislative aide to the senator.

The Senate ethics investigation focused, in part, on $96,000 that Ensign’s parents gave to the Hamptons, which Ensign’s attorney has characterized as a gift.

Douglas Hampton was indicted in March on suspicion of trying to lobby and seek assistance from his former boss on behalf of his new employers, an airline and an energy company…

Ensign had been a member of Senate Republican leadership and was seen as a potential future presidential contender.

He’s certainly as qualified for the presidency as just about anyone the Republican Party has put forward in the last century.

I’ll say it again. Too bad Christians get credit for inventing hypocrisy – Congress is so much better at it.

UPDATE: Watch the Rachel Maddow Show, tonight on MSNBC, Friday, 13th May – she is on the story, on the facts of this sleazy joint enterprise of Conservative Congressional Christians working to cover-up the fall of this creep.

Mahaveer Kankariya asked the dumb question

Two New York Diamond District wholesalers were already awaiting sentencing for hiring men to dress up as Hasidic Jews and rob their store at gunpoint in an insurance fraud. That’s when one of them reportedly asked a bail bondsman if they could bribe their way out of trouble.

According to the New York Post, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice threw Atul Shah and Mahaveer Kankariya back in jail last week after one of them asked, “Is there any way I can bribe the judge?”

Prior to the reported blab, both men were allowed to remain free pending sentencing.

Shah, 49 and Kankariya, 43, were charged Feb. 23 with grand larceny, insurance fraud and falsifying business records in connection with the bogus gunpoint robbery at their Midtown jewelry store on New Year’s Eve 2008.

Investigators became suspicious after the robbery when they discovered that the two owners had taken out a new insurance policy just before the heist.

Both men could face up to 15 years when sentenced April 29.

And maybe a bonus for the advice on bribery. I hope.

Could this corrupt your local gendarmes?

A Polish man arrested by police on suspicion of drunk cycling faces up to 10 years in prison after allegedly attempting to bribe the police officers with two pieces of chocolate fudge.

Prosecutors have charged the man, known only as Leszek, with being drunk in charge of a bicycle and attempting to pass on “material benefits” to the police.

The man apparently offered the fudge to the officers as he sat in their patrol car after being found asleep beside his bike by a road in the eastern town of Minsk Mazowiecki.

“I had only had two beers,” Leszek told the TVN24 television news channel.

“Anyway they put me in the back of the car, and I said ‘gentlemen would you like some fudge as an act of kindness, and can you let me go because I live right next door…?”

Leszek’s alleged bribery attempt means that he now faces a possible jail sentence 10 times longer than the one-year sentence he may have received for drunk cycling.

Penny-ante political crap from yokel police departments apparently hasn’t changed since last I was in Poland.

That was over 30 years ago. And you thought the obvious benefits of Western-style democracy was going to change everything, right?

Fifa is investigating allegations two of its officials offered to sell their votes in the contest to host the 2018 World Cup, ahead of December’s ballot.

Reporters from The Sunday Times posed as lobbyists for a consortium of American companies who wanted to bring the tournament to the United States. The reporters approached Amos Adamu, a Nigerian who serves as a Fifa executive committee member.

He allegedly said he wanted $800,000 to build football pitches…

The Sunday Times footage appears to show Adamu asking for money to be paid to him directly for endorsing a US bid.

In the video, he was asked whether the money for a “private project” would have an effect on the way he voted.

Adamu, who is president of the West African Football Union, replied: “Obviously, it will have an effect. Of course it will. Because certainly if you are to invest in that, that means you also want the vote.”

Reynald Temarii, president of the Oceania Football Confederation, is also alleged to have asked for a payment, in his case to finance a sports academy.

A statement from Fifa read: “Fifa and the Fifa ethics committee have closely monitored the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 Fifa World Cups and will continue to do so…”In any case, Fifa will immediately analyse the material available and only once this analysis has concluded will Fifa be able to decide on any potential next steps. In the meantime, Fifa is not in a position to provide any further comments on this matter.”

Don’t you love 3rd Party press release copouts?

I would have linked the original story, btw; but, you would have to PPV to Rupert Murdoch to read it.

Do you spell Ballmer with one or two “l’s”?
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

Microsoft has had talks with News Corp about a tie up, which would involve News Corp getting paid to take its news websites off Google. News Corp, which owns such papers as the Wall Street Journal and the Sun, started the discussions, which were at an early stage, the source said.

News Corp Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch has said he wants to make people pay for access to his news websites. Other publishers including The New York Times are also searching for ways to charge for news online, convinced that they must not give news through search engines such as Google and Yahoo…

Microsoft, which relaunched its search engine as Bing this year, has been looking for ways to challenge market leader Google.

Earlier this year, it signed a 10-year global web search partnership with Yahoo, a deal that U.S. and European antitrust regulators are evaluating.

This not only sounds like an anti-trust violation, seems to me it would be restraint of trade under the Robinson-Patman Act. Not that either Murdoch or Ballmer really gives a hoot about ethics.

Then, there are reasonable considerations of the reception this cabal might receive among ordinary users of the Web and search engines. Yes, I might be concerned that Google wasn’t offering me 100% of what’s extant. No, I wouldn’t touch Bing with a 10-foot pole if they were skewing search results to offer up their business partners.

A former U.S. Interior Department official says he accepted $15,000 in kickbacks in part because he had to pay his child’s private school bills.

Edgar Johnson, 60, of Bowie, Md., pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Washington to charges of accepting kickbacks from representatives of an unnamed New Jersey firm looking to sell insurance to government agencies, The Washington Post reported.

Court documents indicate Johnson told prosecutors he needed the cash on top of his $121,000 year salary in his position at Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs because he was struggling to pay private school tuition for one of his children and that he was looking to “maintain his lifestyle” after his retirement, the Post said.

Nothing like a political career dedicated to serving the people. Wonder where he got the idea to steal?