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Ethics Troubles Loom Large for S.C. Governor
Looks like South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford’s extramarital activities, which were brought to light last summer after a faux Appalachian Trail excursion (by way of Argentina), aren’t going to be wiped from the record anytime soon. Sanford is now looking at 37 ethics charges, at least a few of which appear related to his affair.  In question is whether he used his office for personal financial gain.  —KA The Associated Press: South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford faces ethics charges he broke state laws more than three dozen times by violating rules on airplane travel and campaign money, according to details of the allegations released Monday. It’s up to the state attorney general to decide whether to file criminal charges. Sanford’s lawyers have claimed the allegations involve minor and technical aspects of the law. The second-term Republican governor has been under scrutiny since he vanished for five days over the summer, reappearing to tearfully admit to an extramarital affair with a woman in Argentina he later called his “soul mate.” A series of Associated Press investigations into his travel showed the governor had for years used state airplanes for political and personal trips, flown in pricey commercial airline seats despite a low-cost travel requirement and failed to disclose trips on planes owned by friends and donors. The State of Columbia newspaper also questioned whether Sanford properly reimbursed himself from his campaign cash. Read more READ THE WHOLE ITEM

Looks like South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford’s extramarital activities, which were brought to light last summer after a faux Appalachian Trail excursion (by way of Argentina), aren’t going to be wiped from the record anytime soon. Sanford is now looking at 37 ethics charges, at least a few of which appear related to his affair.? In question is whether he used his office for personal financial gain.? —KA

The Associated Press:

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford faces ethics charges he broke state laws more than three dozen times by violating rules on airplane travel and campaign money, according to details of the allegations released Monday.

It’s up to the state attorney general to decide whether to file criminal charges. Sanford’s lawyers have claimed the allegations involve minor and technical aspects of the law.

The second-term Republican governor has been under scrutiny since he vanished for five days over the summer, reappearing to tearfully admit to an extramarital affair with a woman in Argentina he later called his “soul mate.”

A series of Associated Press investigations into his travel showed the governor had for years used state airplanes for political and personal trips, flown in pricey commercial airline seats despite a low-cost travel requirement and failed to disclose trips on planes owned by friends and donors.

The State of Columbia newspaper also questioned whether Sanford properly reimbursed himself from his campaign cash.

Read more

READ THE WHOLE ITEM

Related Entries

• November 23, 2009 Refuse Allegiance to Coal
• November 23, 2009 Beautiful Steamer
• November 22, 2009 Obama’s Third Way in Afghanistan
• November 22, 2009 The Guantanamo Lawyers: Shipwrecked
• November 21, 2009 Obama’s Job Approval Slips Below 50 Percent

Right And Left Join To Reform Criminal Justice System
WASHINGTON — In the next several months, the Supreme Court will decide at least a half-dozen cases about the rights of people accused of crimes…

Schwarzenegger Takes Cue From Wife, Parks Porsche In Red Zone
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Just weeks after California first lady Maria Shriver apologized for parking in a red zone, her husband appears to have violated the…

Systemic Risk Panel Would Lack Independence; Treasury Secretary Would Call The Shots
If the White House and congressional leaders get their way, the vaunted new oversight council charged with overseeing systemic risk in the financial markets will…

Arianna Huffington: Will The Unemployment Disaster Be Obama’s Katrina?
There’s a Category 5 storm about to make landfall, and the president and the officials in charge of preparing for the approaching disaster don’t seem to be particularly worried. Sound familiar? Just as Katrina exposed critical weaknesses in the priorities and competence of the Bush administration, the unfolding unemployment disaster is threatening to do the same for the Obama White House. The members of the Obama administration may not be attending a birthday party at John McCain’s ranch in Sedona or shopping for expensive Ferragamo shoes in New York as a great American city is destroyed, but their decidedly lackadaisical response to what job losses are doing to multiple great American cities raises the question: will unemployment be Barack Obama’s Katrina?

In an outrageous and baseless smear, Hannity claims Sunstein “wants to… force sterilizations”

Citing no evidence whatsoever, Fox News host Sean Hannity baselessly claimed that Cass Sunstein, director of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, “wants to… force sterilizations.” Hannity has previously echoed other right-wing commentators in offering similar, false attacks on White House science and technology adviser John Holdren.

Citing no evidence, Hannity claimed Sunstein supports “force[d] sterilizations”

From the November 23 claimed that Holdren “spoke out in defense of compulsory abortion and sterilization.” And on the September 2 edition of his Fox News show, Hannity said Holdren has “spoken out in defense of compulsory abortion.”

PolitiFact.com gives “Pants on Fire” status to claim that Holdren “proposed forced abortions.” After Fox News’ Glenn Beck claimed that Holdren “proposed forced abortions and putting sterilants in the drinking water to control population,” PolitiFact concluded that “the text of the book clearly does not support that. We think a thorough reading shows that these were ideas presented as approaches that had been discussed. They were not posed as suggestions or proposals. In fact, the authors make clear that they did not support coercive means of population control. Certainly, nowhere in the book do the authors advocate for forced abortions.”

Indeed, Holdren and his co-authors advocated for non-coercive means of population control. After Holdren and his co-authors discussed involuntary fertility control in an environmental sciences book published more than 30 years ago, they concluded that “[a] far better choice, in our view, is to expand the use of milder methods of influencing family size preferences, while redoubling efforts to ensure that the means of birth control, including abortion and sterilization, are accessible to every human being on Earth within the shortest possible time. If effective action is taken promptly against population growth, perhaps the need for the more extreme involuntary or repressive measures can be averted in most countries.”

WND Editor: Muslim Mafia Scribe Is Victim Of ‘Economic Terrorism’ By CAIR
The head of the company that published Muslim Mafia says that the Council on American Islamic Relations is engaging in “economic terrorism” against the book’s cash-strapped author, who can’t afford to fight CAIR in court. The comments by Joseph Farah,…

CREW Calls On State Dept. To Probe Galbraith Over Kurdish Oil Dealings
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Palin is the New Nixon

President to Announce Afghanistan Policy
President Obama is expected to address the nation next Tuesday night to announce his new Afghanistan policy.

He held a two-hour war council meeting last night.

Schwarzenegger Picks Lawmaker as His Number Two
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), “risking a confirmation fight, announced Monday that he will appoint Republican state Sen. Abel Maldonado to fill the vacant lieutenant governor’s job,” the Sacramento Bee reports.

Schwarzenegger unveiled his pick during a taping of the Jay Leno Show.

Maldonado “has been one of the Republican governor’s few GOP allies in the Legislature. He provided a key vote this year to help push through tax increases and a budget plan over the objections of most Republican lawmakers.”

His appointment to the slot left open by the election of John Garamendi (D) to Congress earlier this month “presents an interesting dilemma for the Democratic-controlled Legislature and Republican lawmakers who want the seat themselves.”

Blackwater’s Secret War in Pakistan Revealed
An elite division of Blackwater plans targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan. And everyone’s denying it.

Lou Dobbs On Whether He’s Thought About Running For President: "Yes Is The Answer"
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Why Can’t We Look Away From Sarah Palin?
She’s an incompetent has-been. Yet she keeps getting our attention. Is it that she embodies a set of contradictions that many women grapple with?

Intel Inside? Prove It.
Here is a thought experiment. It is Sunday, and various employees of Intel’s R&D and consulting facility in Chantilly, VA, just outside of Washington, are working through the week-end. The facility is suddenly surrounded by several thousand evangelical Christians–mainly educated…


Israel – Washington – Intel – Intel Corporation – Research and development

Sullivan and Goldberg Battle It Out On Settlements (Sully Is Right)
It’s getting fun over at the Atlantic. Andrew Sullivan has been getting better and better on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. After a decade or so of keeping quiet on the 42-year occupation (probably to avoid offending his Likud mentor, Martin Peretz),…


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Fox Apologizes For NBA Announcers? Controversial Comments About Iranian Player
Last Friday, the Fox Sports Prime Ticket cable network suspended longtime Los Angeles Clippers announcer Ralph Lawler and analyst Michael Smith for controversial comments the two made on air about Memphis Grizzlies center Hamed Haddadi two days prior. During the game, Lawler expressed surprise that an Iranian would be playing in the NBA. “He’s from […]

Last Friday, the Fox Sports Prime Ticket cable network suspended longtime Los Angeles Clippers announcer Ralph Lawler and analyst Michael Smith for controversial comments the two made on air about Memphis Grizzlies center Hamed Haddadi two days prior.

During the game, Lawler expressed surprise that an Iranian would be playing in the NBA. “He’s from Iran?!” Lawler asked. “THAT Iran?!” Smith then ridiculed Haddadi by comparing him to “Borat”:

SMITH: Are you sure that’s not Borat’s older brother? […] If they ever make a movie avout Haddadi I’m going to get Sasha Baron Cohen to play the part. […]

LAWLER: Here’s Haddadi, nice little back door pass

SMITH: Look at that pass!

LAWLER: I guess those Iranians can pass the ball!

Watch it:

The National Iranian American Council (NIAC) encouraged Iranian-Americans to contact Fox to complain. “More than 2,000 people responded to our call,” NIAC claimed on Saturday announcing that Fox had issued an apology:

“We regret the remarks made by Clippers announcers Michael Smith and Ralph Lawler during Wednesday’s telecast. While we believe that Michael and Ralph did not intend their exchange to be offensive, in retrospect, the comments were inappropriate. We extend our apologies to Hamed Haddadi of the Memphis Grizzlies and to anyone who was offended. We have addressed this situation with Michael and Ralph and have taken appropriate action.”

NIAC is still working to ensure that the apology is read on air.

Washington Sketch: Seeing a setback in the race against breast cancer
Nancy Brinker, the breast cancer activist who painted the world pink, was feeling blue.

U.S. commander, ambassador to testify on war in Afghanistan
The top U.S. general and the U.S ambassador in Afghanistan have been told to prepare to testify before Congress as early as next week, according to White House and other U.S. officials, giving an indication of how and when President Obama plans to announce his war strategy.

Iraqi parliament passes another election law
BAGHDAD — Iraqi lawmakers on Monday approved an amended law to organize parliamentary elections next year, a ballot seen as crucial to U.S. plans to withdraw combat troops.

Obama Remarks on Math, Science and Technology Education
[*] PRESIDENT OBAMA: Thank you. I am extraordinarily excited to have you all here today.