A Poster for Modern Times As Well

It's Simple, Really...

Marisa Taylor, a reporter with McClatchy Newspapers, reports on the government employees in the scandal going on in the oil and gas royalty program in the U.S. Department of the Interior. And she posits a pretty good question...

WASHINGTON — The Interior Department's watchdog criticized the Justice Department on Thursday for declining to prosecute the managers of an oil- and gas-royalty program that's been tainted by allegations of illicit sex, drug use and taking favors worth thousands of dollars.

The Justice Department prosecuted two employees from the Minerals Management Service, but Inspector General Earl Devaney said he didn't know why the department's lawyers didn't act on his recommendation to prosecute two high-ranking officials who've since retired.

But really - the answer is pretty simple. Since there are so many crooks in the Republican party, and within the Bush Administration in particular, the Justice Department is trying to protect as many of them as they can. It would be a shame if half of the Republican Party leadership was all in jail or under indictment.

Did You Know - Alaskan Crooks

ETHICS -- SCANDAL-CLAD REP. YOUNG FACES FEDERAL INVESTIGATION FOR POLITICAL FAVORS:

Rep. Don Young (R-AK) is now under federal investigation by the Justice Department for alleged political favors for a company in Alaska, the Wall Street Journal reports today. "Federal investigators are examining whether Rep. Young...accepted bribes, illegal gratuities or unreported gifts from VECO Corp., Alaska's largest oil-field engineering firm." "While the investigation into Sen. Ted Stevens' (R-AK) ties to Veco, including the remodeling of his Girdwood home, has been widely reported, this is the first time Young has been implicated in the scandal." "For a decade, former VECO Chief Executive Bill Allen has held fund-raisers for Mr. Young in Anchorage every August, known as 'The Pig Roast,' participants said." Public records show that between 1996 and 2000, VECO employees and the company's political action committee gave at least at least $157,000 to Young. The congressman's history of abuse of power is well-documented. Recently, he collaborated in a pork project with several Alaska congressmen to earmark a "Bridge to Nowhere" for personal profiteering and has long-standing ties to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Young also confessed to "taking more than $5,500 in illegal campaign contributions from a seafood trade association since 2001," but he refuses to return all the donations.

From Progress Report 7/25/2007

Here's a Link

to a great post. TPM Muckraker has a great post up with the names and offenses of all of the Bush administration's crooks. It's difficult to remember without this score card - there've been so many.

TPM Muckraker Link

Something's in the Water

Crooks and Liars

From Raw Story...

Kent "Dr. Dino" Hovind, founder of Creation Science Evangelism and the Dinosaur Adventure Land creationist theme park in Florida ("where Dinosaurs and the Bible meet!"), and his wife face more than 200 years in jail for tax fraud. (Previous post with background here.) Yesterday, Dr. Dino was found guilty on 58 counts, including not paying an $845,000 employee-related tax bill.

Just Another Day At The Office

One of Congress' most crooked Republicans (not already removed from office) has just fired most of those who were investigating a lot of his work. Just like the house committee investigating the Foley issue - they're investigating themselves. Wonder how that's going to work out for them?

Read more here at TPM Muckraker

Where is Waldo?

The Wonkette blog has a post highlighting most of the crooks and crimes commited by the Republicans over the past few years. It's quite a list...

Read the post here...

CIVIL RIGHTS -- HUSBAND OF DECEASED FIRST OPENLY GAY CONGRESSMAN DENIED PENSION BENEFITS:

From the Center for American Progress

"Gerry Studds, the nation's first openly gay congressman, pushed the country to another landmark development when he died Saturday," the Lowell Sun reports. The federal government "for the first time will deny death benefits to a congressman's gay spouse." Studds and husband Dean Hara were partnered for 15 years and married in Massachusetts in 2004. "Wives and husbands of deceased lawmakers have for years found financial comfort in their ability to collect more than half of the generous congressional pension earned by their late spouse"; Hara would have received $62,000 a year from Studds' pension program. But under the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, the federal government does not recognize state gay marriage laws like the one in Massachusetts, and federal benefits normally passed along to surviving spouses are specifically limited to "a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or wife." Meanwhile, criminal former Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-CA) and Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH), who just pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges, will continue to collect their congressional pensions while they serve their time in prison.