It's Hard Out There For A Pimp

Well, maybe not so hard if the johns are republican members of Congress. Harper's magazine is reporting that the limousine company that provided the prostitutes for the Duke Cunningham briber's hotel parties for republican members of the Defense and Intelligence committees, Shirlington Limousine and Transportation of Arlington, Virginia, was rewarded with a $21.2 million contract for shuttle services and transportation support by the Department of Homeland Security. I wonder who steered that through.

As for the parties, they were pretty close to alcohol fueled orgies, with, are you ready for this, pictures. No names have been leaked out yet, but a clue is given to Harper's From Harper's:

I've learned from a well-connected source that those under intense scrutiny by the FBI are current and former lawmakers on Defense and Intelligence committees—including one person who now holds a powerful intelligence post.

One person who is a former lawmaker on the Intelligence committee and now holds a powerful intelligence post? That sounds a lot like current CIA chief Porter Goss.

If Porter Goss was present at these parties, and I'm not certain that he was, although I can't think of anyone else who fits that description, this poses potential peril for our nation. Who knows who holds copies of these pictures which could be used to blackmail Goss to make sure only the "proper" intelligence makes it to the highest levels of our government? Given the present state of the international sex trade, could some of those prostitutes be agents of foreign entities? Could it be the Bush administration itself?

The FBI needs to fast track this investigation, and do it in a very public manner. If Mr. Goss or other members of our nation's most sensitive Congressional Committees were present at these parties, they must be extricated from those positions and have all clearances pulled until this matter is resolved.

Hooker, Line, And Sinker

The Wall St Journal confirms what I had thought when I found out that Duke Cunningham bribers Mitchell Wade and Brent Wilkes had hotel suites rented. They were procuring prostitutes for the Duke and possibly for other members of Congress. From the WSJ:

According to people with knowledge of the investigation, Mr. Wade told investigators that Mr. Cunningham periodically phoned him to request a prostitute, and that Mr. Wade then helped to arrange for one. A limousine driver then picked up the prostitute as well as Mr. Cunningham, and drove them to one of [two] hotel suites, originally at the Watergate Hotel, and subsequently at the Westin Grand.

One question, did Mitchell Wade find somebody with a low enough self esteem to fuck Katherine Harris?

Big Oil v Retailers

With Bill Frist introducing a Senate bill to stop price gouging, I think this is a pretty good time to educate people on exactly how gasoline is sold in this country. The Frist bill is only aimed at retailers, not wholesalers, and while the station you fill your tank at may be labeled BP, Citgo, Shell, or whatever, those companies rarely have any ownership stake in the station.

Most, in fact, nearly all, gas stations are independently owned and simply sign up with a particular brand of gas basically for advertising and to take part in that brand's credit cards. My family owns a gas station / mini-mart / stop and rob. We make approximately a nickle a gallon on the fuel we sell.

At three dollars a gallon, that's a profit margin of about 1-1/2%. Hardly gouging, and if you don't get the right deal with your supplier, the credit card fee eats that up itself. On top of that, without proper security measures such as pay in advance, drive aways make selling gas as a retailer a losing proposition.

Think about this, if a person puts thirty dollars worth of gas in their tank and doesn't pay, we have to sell six hundred gallons of gas just to get even. You have to understand, when you see those enormous big oil profits, they are not made by the retailers.

Now, I'm not going to say that isolated instances of gouging do not occur. I remember a few years ago, there were some and those people were promptly prosecuted under state laws already on the books by Betty Montgomery.

Bill Frist's bill does nothing to address the problem, and is simply political pandering.

The President And The Pump

One of the big problems President Bush has with the high price of gas is that there is virtually nothing he can do about it. The speech he gave the other day gave the impression that he is doing something, even though the remedies he prescribed are simply placebos.

This can only add to the perception that he is incompetent. (I'm sure that if you're reading this you know he is incompetent, but the American public has lagged behind on this issue for some time) What will happen is that when gas prices are still high a few months down the road, Bush will face even lower approval ratings when the average person wonders why Bush hasn't done anything to lower prices.

The Washington Post has an editorial today rightly ripping Bush for not taking steps to avoid this in the first term of his presidency. However, I do have a question for the Post. Where you been? It's nice of you to jump on the bandwagon now, but you should have been pressuring Bush on the fundamental changes that need to be made to step America back from the oil precipice some time back.

Preparing To Scuttle The Ship

Well, it looks like the Ohio republican party is beyond running scared, they're preparing to scuttle the ship. With the threat of losing control of the Apportionment Board that draws Ohio's voting districts, Jon Husted has now decided that politics should be taken out of the equation.

Kind of funny, this is the same thing the republicans fought tooth and nail last year. I guess realization has set in. However, they do need a super majority to get this on the November ballot, so there might be some strange bedfellows in this fight, with safe seaters on both sides of the aisle having to cope with possible tough elections in the future.

Of course, as with any republican legislation, the devil is in the details, and we haven't seen any details. I'm very much for this type of legislation as long as competitiveness is the number one factor in drawing the districts. If it's written any other way, I'm dead against it.

Rove Testifying Before Fitzgerald Today

I think a lot of people have it wrong when they think it's bad for Rove to have to testify today. After all, the story is already out there that he has been cooperating with the investigation.

I think he's there to put the knife in Dick Cheney's back.

Going Overboard

Yes, gas prices are high, but Los Angeles drivers are taking silly measures to offset driving expenses. Apparently, drivers are intentionally running out of gas to take advantage of a publicly funded roadside assistance program which gives the drivers one free gallon of gas. From CNN:

"There was one guy a while back who was stopping every morning and trying to get his one free gallon," said [Ben] Dayan. "I think it is going to be more drastic when the price of gas is closer to $4 a gallon."

Who has the time to wait an hour or so to save three dollars?

Sidenote: Why doesn't Google spell check recognize Los Angeles?

Every Little Bit Helps

President Bush's speech yesterday about the high price of gasoline showed stark disconnect with reality. From Reuters:

Bush also gave U.S. oil companies more time to pay back emergency loans from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to put more oil on the market.

"Our strategic reserve is sufficiently large enough to guard against any major supply disruption over the next few months," he said. "So by deferring deposits until the fall we'll leave a little more oil on the market."

The amount of remaining oil that was scheduled to be delivered to the reserve was 2.1 million barrels in May, which would supply about two hours of the average 21 million barrels of oil the United States consumes each day. "Every little bit helps," Bush said.

Bush called on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to use fully its authority to waive federal clean-burning gasoline rules this summer, and called for a state task force to look in to ways to cut the dozens of so-called boutique fuel blends, which make it harder for refiners to move gasoline supplies to regions hit by shortages.

"When you have an uncoordinated, overly complex set of fuel rules, it tends to cause the price to go up," Bush said.

Where to start? Let's begin by looking at freezing the repayment to the Strategic Petroleum Reserves. What's that I hear, it's a tsunami of excess oil cascading down the street to my house. Hardly, the amount of oil scheduled to be repaid amounts to 00.33% of the oil we will use in May. That won't affect anything, other than saving oil companies money as they won't have to pay back higher priced oil than they borrowed, even though that amount of money is a pittance in oil company terms.

Bush also said that we are going to stop adding to the SPR, a move that he apparently didn't know we made a few months ago. Idiot.

The real concern here is the waving of summer gas regulations. We have these regulations for a reason, smog. And yes, we do have a complex set of fuel rules for that very reason. Look, it's because it's a complex problem, one that Bush doesn't seem to understand. Summer in Miami isn't the same as summer in Maine, or Seattle, or Los Angeles. We have different fuel blends for different weather patterns all over the United States. You can't eliminate these so called boutique fuel blends without creating a lot more smog. I'm sure asthma sufferers all around the country were happy to hear that they might not be able to breathe this summer.

Bush's speech was just symptomatic of the problem that this administration has with governing the country. I'll write about that a little later.

A Pharmacy Without Pills

Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher wiggled, squirmed, and has finally acquiesced to the religious right. Fletcher now says that he will not veto state funding for a pharmacy for the University of the Cumberlands which recently expelled a student for being opening gay.

Fletcher has waffled back and forth on the issue before announcing that if the courts say it is constitutional for the state to fund a private college, he will allow the school the money. He also noted that this isn't being funded by taxpayer dollars, but this money comes from coal severance taxes paid by coal companies.

None of that matters really. The bottom line is that the state of Kentucky is about to spend $10 million on a pharmacy that has little chance to gain accreditation from the Accreditation Council on Pharmaceutical Education given the school's bigoted behavior, thus the school is planning on building a pharmacy without pills.

This is egregious waste of money considering that Fletcher announced that he also had to cut $370 million from the state's budget.

Blogger!

Blogger seems to finally have this thing fixed.

Darfur Reaching Critical Mass

The situation in Darfur is rapidly reaching critical mass. Following an attack by Sudanese backed rebels on the capital of N'Djamena, the Chadian government has said it will expel the roughly 250,000 refugees by June 30 if international peacekeepers are not brought in to quell the rebels efforts on the Sudanese side of the border.

This would result in a quarter of a million women and children being stampeded to the slaughter house as the janjaweed, an unofficial militia with some ties to the Sudanese government, is waiting there where they will finish the genocide.

In a tape released over the weekend, even Osama bin Laden expressed more interest in the region than the American government has lately. If bin Laden is trying to rally the janjaweed, a mostly Arab militia, doesn't President Bush's statement of fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them here apply? By the way, I don't buy that argument, but you have to get republicans off their ass on this issue somehow.

A joint peacekeeping force from NATO and the African Union should be immediately deployed to the region lest we look back ten years from now and wonder how a second Rwanda occurred.

Mary McCarthy

I only have one thing to say about Mary McCarthy's dismissal from the CIA following a polygraph test. When is Condi going to take one about her role in the AIPAC leak case?

Happy Birthday To Me

Thirty-seven years ago today, an evil spawn was unleashed upon this planet.

It Just Goes On And On And On

Today, the Senate will begin the debate over an $106.5 billion dollar emergency spending bill for Iraq, Afghanistan, and Katrina. You might recall that the Senate passed "reform" legislation the last time they were in session that did not include earmark reform.

Trent Lott of Mississippi has inserted an earmark of $700 million to this emergency spending bill to relocate a rail line for the benefit of the casino industry. The rail line was destroyed by Katrina but has already been rebuilt at a cost of $250 million. I guess that was just the quick fix.

This is a complete give away to an industry that does quite well for itself. The "Big Six" gaming operators are expected to report a profit of $572 million, and that's just in the last quarter. If the casino industry wants the rail line moved, they should pay for it themselves.

There are a lot of projects the federal government needs to be spending money on to move along the rebuilding effort on the gulf coast, this isn't one of them.

Wedding Bells

Ah, it's not a hillbilly wedding until somebody gets stabbed. That's what happened this weekend when Eric Adams grew impatient with the cake cutting ceremony and stabbed the bride's father and brother. I found this part funny. From WCMH-TV4:

Adams, 36, of Plain City, is the bride's stepfather, Tate reported.

After the stabbing, investigators said, Adams allegedly rammed his car to get out of the community center's parking lot. He drove through grass and away from the reception.

A sheriff's deputy at the scene saw the car leave the community center and stopped Adams, investigators said. Adams' wife and 8-year-old granddaughter were also in the car, Tate reported.

Thirty-six years old with an eight year old granddaughter?

Bananas

Kirk Cameron has found proof of the existence of God. It's the banana. Go watch this idiotic video from about the 2:30 mark to about the 4:30 mark.

Bob Ney Skirting Taxes

Ok, here's the deal with Ney paying his legal fees though his campaign. Ney is paying his fees though his campaign to skirt paying taxes on the money he is paying to the law firm of Vinson & Elkins.

Ney has set up a legal defense fund to help defray the costs of defending his role in the Jack Abramoff scandal, and as an original member of the Jack Pack, he's got a lot of defending to do. Money donated to his legal fund generates tax liability for Ney, while the campaign dollars he spends for legal fees do not.

So, how much money are we talking about? On the $96,500 dollars he spent in the first quarter, Ney would have incurred a federal tax burden of $31,845 and a state tax burden of $7,465. That's a total of $39,310 of taxes Bob Ney has skirted using this loophole. (Note: These figures are based on an individual filing single with no deductions. I don't know what Ney's deduction are.)

As I wrote earlier, Ney has set up a legal defense fund. If he chooses to gain the benefit of high priced legal help, he should direct his donors to donate to it rather than his campaign coffers and pay his fair share of taxes on the benefit he is receiving. Ney needs to stop using campaign money for his legal defense.

This is just another example of Ney using his position in Congress for personal gain. It's far past time we put somebody in this seat that doesn't see a seat in Congress as his own personal slush fund generator.

Ney's Legal Fees

Nearly 40% ($96,500) of Bob Ney's campaign expenditures for this just closed quarter went to pay his attorneys for their work on the Abramoff case. That raises a couple of questions for me.

First of all, who are the chumps still giving Ney that kind of change?

Secondly, and more importantly to me at least, is the money Ney spent on his defense taxable income?

Grover's World

It seems Grover Norquist has failed to pay his property taxes for the first half of the year. Oh, if we could only live in Grover’s dream world with no taxes. A day in that world might look something like this.

Grover awakens in the middle of the night, and he smells smoke. He decides to call Capital 12 Home Security And Fire Protection. After fumbling with the phone book, Norquist dialed.

Welcome to Capital 12 Home Security And Fire Protection, your call will be answered in the order it was received. While you wait on the Pepsi hotline, would you like to earmark a portion of your monthly bill to go to the NRA? If so, please push the pound sign, followed by key code 72648, then star. The NRA, keeping us killing each other since 1871.

The phone is finally answered.

Operator in Indian accented English: Welcome to Capital 12 Home Security And Fire Protection, how may I help you?

Norquist: My house is on fire!

Operator: Do you have your security code?

Norquist: Yes, it’s 24587

Operator: I’m sorry Mr. Norquist, but your account is delinquent.

Norquist: That’s impossible, I sent in the check.

Operator: I’m sorry, perhaps the private courier you used lost the check, have you ever thought about using DHL? DHL offers some of the finest parcel service on the planet.

Norquist: I don’t have time for this nonsense, my house is on fire!

Operator: I’m afraid I can’t help you.

Norquist: Well, can I pay right now with a credit card? cough cough

Operator: Sure, I’ll transfer you to our credit department.

Grover gets put on hold where he ironically hears the musak version of the old Talking Heads song Burning Down The House.

Norquist (mumbling to self): I used to love this song. Cough cough. These guys, cough, certainly knew a thing or two, cough, about the perils of big government.

Twelve minutes later, the credit manager comes on the phone

Manager in Korean accented English: May I help you?

Norquist: Yes, I need to make a payment, quick. My house is on fire!

Manager: How will you be paying?

Norquist: Do you accept Visa?

Manager: No.

Norquist: Mastercard?

Manager: No.

Norquist: American Express?

Manager: No.

Norquist: What the hell do you accept?

Manager: We only accept Discover. We’re a wholly owned subsidiary of Sears, Roebuck, and Company. Home of great Craftsman tools. Craftsman, guaranteed for life.

Norquist: I don’t have a Discover card!

Manager: Do you have a Sears in your neighborhood? Perhaps you could pay in person.

Norquist: It’s three in the morning, and my house is on fire!

Ah, dreams.

Religion

I have to admit, I found this map that show religious adherence by county surprising. Who would have thought that southern Ohio is less religious than northern Ohio? In fact, most of southern Ohio falls in the under 35% adherence bracket