WASHINGTON – Former Rep. Bob Ney was sentenced Friday to 30 months in federal prison for his role in a congressional bribery scandal. The Justice Department had asked for a term of 27 months in prison. Ney, the only congressman charged in the case to date, pleaded guilty to trading official favors for golf trips, tickets, meals and campaign donations from disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Ney admitted that he traded official actions for expensive trips, sports tickets, meals and campaign donations from the former lobbyist, who is already in prison. […] Prior to the sentencing, nine letters from citizens, most […]
FIRST AMENDMENT: Provision Of Lobbyist Reform Bill Requires ‘Political’ Bloggers To Register With Congress Or Face Year In Jail, Where The Wireless Really Sucks
It remains to be seen whether or not the provision in question will still be in the Lobbying Reform bill by the time it hits the Senate floor for a vote — ideas this blatantly unconstitutional and vampiric tend to crumble under the first light of judicial review — but this is the latest bit of nastiness ringing the blogosphere’s Orwellian alarm bell: In what sounds like a comedy sketch from Jon Stewart’s Daily Show, but isn’t, the U. S. Senate would impose criminal penalties, even jail time, on grassroots causes and citizens who criticize Congress. Section 220 of S. […]
BROKEBACK MAMA: Old Lady Of ‘Gay American’ To Publish Tell-Some On Being A Mother, Wife And Beard
Silent Partner, a memoir of [Dina] Matos McGreevey’s life with her husband, is to be published this spring by Hyperion Books, a unit of Disney-owned ABC Inc. Last fall, McGreevey’s memoir The Confession was published. In it, he discussed his homosexuality, including what he said was an affair with a former aide and a tryst while his wife was recuperating from a C-section. The former aide, Golan Cipel, has denied they ever had sex and he accused McGreevey of sexually harassing him. The book, briefly on best-seller charts, sold about 36,000 copies. During the now-famous news conference in August 2004 […]
ABU GONZALES: Senators Probe Top Cop, Invasive Procedural Deflected By Impenetrable Congeniality
BY GLENN GREENWALD This is what I have learned so far: All of the Senators are very “concerned” and sometimes even “disturbed” about many things, almost all of them different for each Senator. Gonzales definitely shares their concerns about everything, and assures them he takes it very seriously and he is happy to sit down with them and explore ways to fix/improve/think about it. For any information the Senators want, Gonzales does not have it, but he will definitely endeavor to get it for them. When pointed out that he has made the same promises many times before and told […]
Shhhhh…Listen…It’s Snowing…Almost
Reader Ansel Adams just sent in this amazing cameraphone snap of Passyunk Ave. Nice.
THANK YOU FOR SMOKING: Angry Torch Wielding Villagers Demand End Of Smoking Ban, Bar & Restaurant Owners Claim Biz Down Nearly 50%
CHICAGO — Orland Park’s restaurants and pubs claim sales have plunged by half because of a two-week-old smoking ban. Now the mayor is considering changes. Dan McLaughlin, responding to a standing-room-only crowd of irate bar owners, wait staff, liquor distributors and residents at this week’s village board meeting, will suggest modifying a ban that has pushed customers to neighboring towns and left local businesses reeling. The pronouncement came after about 100 ban opponents packed village hall Monday. “We’re slighted by this ordinance,” said Brian Wojak, owner of Koppermill Bar and Grill in the south suburb. Wojak said his restaurant’s revenue […]
Human Skull + NFL Career = Dain Bramage?
Since Andre Waters killed himself in November, an explanation for the former Eagles safety’s suicide has remained a mystery. But after examining remains of Waters’ brain, a neuropathologist in Pittsburgh is claiming that Waters had suffered brain damage from playing football and he says that led to his depression and ultimate death. Dr. Bennet Omalu, of the University of Pittsburgh, a leading expert in forensic pathology, determined that Waters’ brain tissue had degenerated into that of an 85-year-old man with similar characteristics as those of early-stage Alzheimer’s victims. Omalu said he believed the damage was either caused or drastically expedited […]
AMUSE BOUCHE: Means ‘Fun For The Mouth’
BY AMY Z. QUINN This morning, “Good Morning America” featured segments from a sit-down Diane Sawyer did with the U.S. Senate’s so-called “Sweet 16,” or its entire female membership. In case you failed math the way I did, that’s a paltry 16 percent of the Senate’s membership, a fact not even vaguely “sweet.” To make it worse, ABC undercut Sawyer’s entire effort by including the obligatory “Can women senators handle job and work” poll. Still, either I’m getting old, or my sense of what matters is waaay off, because I came away from the piece bothered not so much by […]
Company Response To Guild Diversity Complaints: Seniority Rule Is Colorblind & Indestructible
Melanie Burney, an Inquirer reporter who attended the meeting, said the group was upset that the recent layoffs involved a “disproportionate” number of minorities. While the Inquirer newsroom is just 18% minority, some 28% of those laid off were minority employees, she said. During the meeting, Tierney agreed to form a diversity committee for the two papers to study the issue, but stopped short of making any changes to the layoffs list, Burney said. “I wanted to see something concrete happen today,” Burney told E&P. “An immediate solution, but we did not get any. I wanted too hear that there […]
McCaingry: Is Presidential Bid Of SAINT JOHN THE ESCALATOR The Latest Casualty In Iraq?
For seven years, conventional wisdom has said that the state’s pivotal independent voters would line up behind maverick Sen. John McCain, as they did so famously in the 2000 GOP primary. But new polling data, to be released later this week, will suggest that might no longer be the case. Manchester, N.H.-based American Research Group finds that McCain’s popularity among New Hampshire’s independent voters has collapsed. “John McCain is tanking,” says ARG president Dick Bennett. “That’s the big thing [we’re finding]. In New Hampshire a year ago he got 49 percent among independent voters. That number’s way down, to 29 […]
GUNCRAZY: Is That A Gun Under Your Crested Blazer Or Are Just REALLY Pissed To See Me?
(CBS 3) PHILADELPHIA Police are searching for several young suspects after a shooting outside a school in West Philadelphia. Authorities said a 17-year-old male was shot at least three times in the leg outside Sayre Middle High School near 59th and Spruce. The victim was taken to the Children?s Hospital of Pennsylvania. His condition is unknown. Three young males, possibly wearing school uniforms, were seen running from the scene following the shooting. Police recovered a gun one block away at 59th and Walnut. No arrests have been made. KYW: We’ll Settle This Like Men, After Gym Class
JACKASS FUNHOUSE: Iggy & The Stooges To Play Bam Margera’s Wedding, Said To Be Working Up Really Friggin’ Awesome Smear-Yourself-In-Peanut-Butter And Roll In Broken Glass Version Of ‘Electric Slide’
Rock legends Iggy and the Stooges will perform at the Feb. 2 wedding of Bam Margera and Missy Rothstein. So will The Sounds. “Jackass” troublemaker Margera announced the news on his Sirius Satellite Radio show on Monday. Margera and Rothstein are being followed by MTV for a new series, “Bam’s Unholy Union,” which premieres Jan. 30. The wedding will be held at an as-yet- undisclosed location in the area, and we’re told the couple had a difficult time finding a spot because a few locations turned them down, afraid the hellraiser, or his cronies, would tear their place apart. DAN […]