Cunningham won't run for re-election

Four subpoenaed in Duke probe

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me@rescam.org

Recently i offended a memebr of our federal parliment when whilst in a pub (and very drunk)...

[font='courier,courier new']Wasn't Winston accredited with the infamous "Tomorrow I shall be sober, and you shall still be [fat|ugly|something]" quote?[/font]

I am left with only one conclusion from this and many other encounters that all pollies are truely ignorant of the effect their policies have on the world so who cares who you vote for

[font="courier,courier new"]Sarbanes-Oxley, Orrin Hatch, Sheldon Silver...

Carlin (once again) put it best...[/font]

[T]here's one thing I don't complain about: politicians. Everyone complains about politicians - everybody says "They suck"... [W]here do people think these politicians come from? They don't fall outta the sky. They don't pass through a membrane from another reality. They come from American parents, American families, American homes, American schools, American churches, American businesses, American universities, and they're elected by American citizens.

This is the best we can do, folks; This is what we have to offer, it's what our system produces: Garbage in, garbage out.

If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, then you're gonna get selfish, ignorant leaders. And term limits aren't gonna do you any good - You're just gonna wind up with a brand new bunch of selfish ignorant Americans.

[font='courier,courier new']...can't wait 'til November...[/font]

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To 'Duke': Facts and charges are not same

By Logan Jenkins

July 16, 2005

A brick – the Charging the Messenger award – to Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who in announcing that he would retire from office at the end of his term blurred the distinction between two simple words – fact and charge.

One naturally sympathizes with Cunningham's personal pain in bowing before a political reality that has been obvious for five weeks. Still, that doesn't excuse self-serving rhetoric calculated to place the blame where it doesn't belong.

"In the last month, serious allegations have been made about my conduct in office," Cunningham read in his statement at Cal State San Marcos. "I again want to assure my constituents that I have acted honorably in the performance of my duties in Congress. This truth will be evident in time. I have cooperated with the government's investigation and I am confident that I will be vindicated. But I will not ignore the damage to my standing in this community that has followed from those false charges, and the daily repetition of those charges in the press."

If the press had been fair and not repeated false charges, Cunningham implies, I wouldn't be in the fix I'm in today.

That, my fellow Americans, will not stand.

From the first day, the Cunningham news story has been fixated on unrefuted facts, not unproven charges of a crime.

Cunningham has adopted the Nixonian/Clintonian tactic of blaming the media for the wide variety of deductions that citizens, as well as partisans, form when exposed to implacable facts.

Look, no one knows if Cunningham is a criminal who sold his office. Speculations on that score are opinion, not fact.

It's up to the legal system to bring charges against – and then try – Cunningham. In that sense, he may well be able to claim vindication when all's said and done.

From Day One, the backbone of the reporting has been the names, the addresses, the dates, the prices, the contracts, the relationships, the federal probes.

True facts, not false charges.

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me@rescam.org

San Diego Mayor Dick Murphy leaves office.

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me@rescam.org

D) Identity thieves casing the house?

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Stewie: So, is there any tread left on the tires? Or at this point would it be like throwing a hot dog down a hallway?

Fox Sunday (US) at 9PM ET/PT

Governor's missteps - We're seeing more human, less action hero

UNION-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL

July 24, 2005

There was never any question that Arnold Schwarzenegger's audacious bid to overhaul the state's dysfunctional budget process, its underperforming schools, its unsustainable pensions and its undemocratic redistricting would be hugely difficult. But the conventional wisdom was if any governor could pull it off, it was this one. That's why there was such excitement in January about Schwarzenegger's vow that 2005 would be a "Year of Reform."

It is also why we now contemplate the governor's recent managerial and ethical missteps with such dismay. Schwarzenegger needed a near-perfect run of decision-making, public lobbying and arm-twisting to execute his agenda. So far, he hasn't come close.

Consider the redistricting and pension-reform initiatives he embraced. The former was thrown off the ballot by a Sacramento judge because sponsors circulated one version with petitions and gave another to the attorney general. The latter was scrapped in April by the governor because its sloppy wording apparently would have eliminated death and disability benefits for the widows and kids of firefighters hurt or killed on the job.

California history is littered with initiatives being invalidated because of clerical and drafting problems just such as these. Schwarzenegger knows this. Why didn't he set up a war room staffed with the most seasoned of pros to oversee every step of the initiative process instead of trusting incompetent outsiders and consultants?

Two of the governor's initiatives remain on the fall ballot – worthy measures to control state spending and to delay teacher tenure. Unfortunately, given recent revelations about Schwarzenegger's horrible judgment on ethical matters, he will find it much more difficult to play the role of good-government crusader in pitching them.

The story that has won the most attention dealt with the governor signing a five-year, $8 million consulting contract with a company that prints "muscle magazines" the week he took office in 2003, not revealing the deal, then vetoing a bill that would have regulated nutritional supplements, the main advertisers in those magazines. This is a conflict of interest at its most basic; how Schwarzenegger thought he could get away with it is beyond comprehension.

But a less-ballyhooed report – about the governor exploiting a legal loophole and using campaign donations to essentially pay himself $166,000 in rent for use of his Santa Monica building – is nearly as troubling. It's the sort of thing one would expect a political hack to do, not the white knight millions of Californians are counting on to save their state.

Nevertheless, while we may be disappointed, we haven't given up on Arnold Schwarzenegger by any means. At his best, he is an unusually bold and thoughtful politician. We'd just like to see more of that guy – not the bumbling, slippery fellow of recent months. Reformer, reform thyself.

Canada, Denmark at odds over Arctic islandFrom CNN


COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) -- Denmark said Monday that it will send a letter of protest to Canada over a government minister's visit to a wind-swept Arctic island off northwestern Greenland that is claimed by both countries.

Canadian Defense Minister Bill Graham set foot on the 1.3-square-kilometer (1/2-square-mile) Hans Island on Friday, saying his country has always regarded it as Canadian territory.

Denmark also claims the island, roughly 1,100 kilometers (682 miles) south of the North Pole.

"We will hand over a note to Canada in which we will express our viewpoint," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Peter Taksoe-Jensen. "Hans Island is our island."

Officials at the Canadian Embassy in Copenhagen declined to comment.

In 1973, Canada and Denmark drew a border down the inhospitable Nares Strait halfway between Greenland, a semiautonomous Danish territory, and Canada's Ellesmere Island.

But the countries decided that sovereignty over Hans Island and others in the Arctic region would be determined later.

Denmark and Canada maintain good relations despite occasional spats over the island, which can be reached only by boat during mild summers when the ice around it melts.

In 1984, Tom Hoeyem, who was Denmark's minister for Greenland affairs, caused a stir when he raised a Danish flag on the island, buried a bottle of brandy at the base of the flag pole and left a note saying "Welcome to the Danish island."

Danish navy ships visited in the island in 2002 and 2003.

Canadian soldiers came to Hans Island before Graham's visit and raised a Canadian flag.

Canada island visit angers DanesFrom BBC



A visit by the Canadian defence minister to a barren island in the Arctic has sparked a row with Denmark.

Bill Graham landed on Hans Island, which is claimed by Canada and Denmark, during a tour of Canadian military outposts in the region.

The status of the island - an outcrop barely 100 metres wide between Canada's Ellesmere Island and Greenland - has been disputed for more than 30 years.

The Danish government says it will send a letter of protest to Canada.

The dispute started in 1973 when Denmark and Canada drew a border down the Nares Strait, between Canada's Ellesmere Island and Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory.

The sovereignty of Hans Island was left to be determined later.

Bottle exchange

"We consider Hans Island to be part of Danish territory and will therefore hand over a complaint about the Canadian minister's unannounced visit," head of the department of International Public Law at Denmark's Foreign Ministry, Peter Taksoe-Jensen, told Reuters.

In 1984, a Danish minister, Tom Hoeyem, caused a stir when he visited the island and raised the Danish flag.

Mr Hoeyem also buried a bottle of brandy at the base of the flagpole and left a note saying welcome to Denmark.

The UPI news agency reported that Canadian troops landed on the island a week before Mr Graham's visit, planted a Canadian flag and built an Inuit stone marker.

Reports say Canadian troops leave whiskey at the flagpole on their incursions.

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"I'm trying to maintain a shred of dignity in this world." - Me

If I was there I'd vote for "Surfer Chick".

If I was there I'd vote for "Surfer Chick".

Only if you really really really love the term "sun kissed".

If I was there I'd vote for "Surfer Chick".

Only if you really really really love the term "sun kissed".

Looks more like "The Little Old Lady From Pasedena".

If I was there I'd vote for "Surfer Chick".

Only if you really really really love the term "sun kissed".

Looks more like "The Little Old Lady From Pasedena".

A great candidate for a total Facelift!

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HEAT WAVE

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me@rescam.org