Mega-fraudster and leading republican light Tom "Coin-Toss" Noe pled guilty to federal charges today in Ohio. Yessssss, but it's just the tip of the iceberg.
A coin dealer and prominent GOP fundraiser at the center of an Ohio political scandal pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal charges he illegally funneled about $45,000 to President Bush's re-election campaign.
Tom Noe, once a powerful political figure who also raised money for Ohio Republicans, still is charged with embezzlement in an ill-fated $50 million coin investment that he managed for the state workers' compensation fund.
...
Noe was charged with exceeding federal campaign contribution limits, using others to make the contributions and causing the Bush campaign to submit a false campaign-finance statement.
He said Wednesday that he pleaded guilty to "spare my family and many dear friends" the ordeal of a trial.
So, you have to wonder, did Noe plead to avoid having other things pop up on the way to trial? After all, this does involve the 1600 Crew, whose filth and slime Noe Noe (sorry) limits. Perhaps Ol' Tom has information that FBI and other investigators might have found with respect to election fraud or somesuch, and in return for a plea, Abu Gonzales will make sure that he gets the minimum and all future investigations are cancelled, "forthwith" as they say in cop circles.
Noe still faces those charges about the coin investment scandals, and his impact on Ohio politics might be felt for years.
Oh, and as for the rest of the money that Herr Crook Noe delivered to Beloved Leader as a toll for an Inaugural Ball ticket...
Noe personally contributed more than $105,000 to Republicans during the 2004 campaign, including donations to Bush and Taft.
The Bush-Cheney campaign donated $6,000 it received from Noe and his wife to charity. The rest of the money donated at the 2003 Bush fundraiser remains with the Republican Party.
The republicans claim that they are waiting for "court direction" as to what to do with the balance of it. Yeah, and last night pigs grew wings...
Well, here's a serprize from the Chickenshit Bedwettin' Prevaricatin' Preznit who said, back during the initial Valerie Plame days:
Bush - September 30, 2003: " And if there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is. And if the person has violated law, the person will be taken care of. ... I don't know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information. If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action."
Well, we all know how well that's going.
So there's no great deal of credibilty when the Deserting Drunken Fratboy makes this statement concerning the events at Haditha:
"I am troubled by the initial news stories," Mr. Bush said. "I am mindful that there is a thorough investigation going on." If laws were broken, the president said, "there will be punishment."
In other words, anyone who swears immediate and unconditional allegiance to La Famiglia 1600 will get an automatic pass on the events at Haditha.
Oh, but wait, it gets better...
"Nobody is more concerned about these allegations than the Marine Corps," he said. "The Marine Corps is full of men and women who are honorable people, who understand the rules of war (my emphasis). And if, in fact, these allegations are true, the Marine Corps will work hard to make sure that that culture, that proud culture, will be reinforced and that those who violated the law, if they did, will be punished."
Given that this war-starting, never-send-their-kids-off-to-die administation has basically dumped the Laws of Armed Conflict and the Quaint Geneva Convention into the Rose Garden port-a-potty to be shit on by every passing Chickenhawk, Beloved Leaders words about "understanding the rules of war" truly ring hollow.
Because 9/11 changed everything. The morality of the republican party most of all...everything goes if it's in the furtherance of bedwetting and chickenhawkery.
The lives of Iraqi's and our troops are as nothing to them, as long as they can have their pyramid of bodies to swagger up and proclaim their steely-eyed resolutness on, before climbing back into their SUV's and heading to dinner with a lobbyist for the Oil Companies.
Been a long time since we had any Duchess of Dupont material up here, but browsing throught Andrew's new digs at Time I found this touching story written (allegedly) by one of her "correspondants" (remember that for years many of us have alleged that Her Royal Wrongness writes her own "fanmail")...anyhow, the story is from a gay man who helps out two Marines on liberty in New York City. The give-away line is this:
...During our conversation, one of the marines mentioned that his brother, a second lieutenant in the navy, is gay.
No Marine would tell anyone that their brother is a "second lieutenant" in the Navy, much less that they were gay. Think about it for a minute, after you get done laughing at the Navy having 2/Lt's.
I'll say this for the Captain of Self-Admitted Cognitive Dissonance, once an idiot, always an idiot.
How's worshipping that Idiot@1600 going for you these days, Andrew? Same Same, I imagine.
During the Vietnam War, Powell, as deputy assistant chief of staff at the Americal (the 23rd Infantry Division) with the rank of Major, was charged with investigating a detailed letter by Tom Glen (a soldier from the 11th Light Infantry Brigade), which backed up rumored allegations of the My Lai massacre. Powell wrote: "In direct refutation of this portrayal is the fact that relations between American soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent."
Shit, with the advent of word-processing Powell's report on My Lai could just be cut-and-pasted into a new report and sent off to Bunnypants for Rove's approval.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
I'm going to no parades. I'm going to no sales. I'm not partaking in any of the nonsense that the Media seems to feel is requisite with "Memorial Day".
I was a cold-war guy. I never fired a shot in anger, or vertrepped a bomb that got used as a lethal weapon. I spent my days up at Gonzo station, and other exotic locales, playing hide-and-seek with the Russians both in the air, on the surface and undersea.
I'm going to sit out on the back porch and pay tribute to all my friends and squadron-mates who paid with their lives for their keeping our country free and secure back in the days when a good 80% or more of America was obsessed with disco, punk, Pat Benatar, LBO's and MBA's and greenmail.
So this is for you guys. You were all too young, and I remember you all.
Mark, Cappy, Steve, Tommy, Ken, Hal, David. And you too John, I'm gonna go have that beer we never got to have at the club because you were killed on a stupid night over-water training/DLQ flight you didn't need to be on after working 13 hours.
My buddies, I remember them today and every other day.
What do you call an ex-Hiltler Youth who becomes Pope O'Rome and asks this question?
Pope Benedict XVI visited the Auschwitz concentration camp as "a son of the German people" Sunday and asked God why he remained silent during the "unprecedented mass crimes" of the Holocaust.
...
"In a place like this, words fail; in the end, there can be only a dread silence, a silence which itself is a heartfelt cry to God: Why, Lord, did you remain silent? How could you tolerate all this?"
Benedict said that just as his predecessor, John Paul II visited the camp as a Pole in 1979, he came as "a son of the German people."
And an ex-Nazi. I think that's called Chutzpah. To the max.
