Ted Stevens’ SUV
We can only hope.
Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican senator and once the chief power broker for dispensing federal dollars, says he’s worried that a corruption investigation “could cause me some trouble” in running for re-election next year.
The 83-year-old Alaska Republican has drawn Justice Department scrutiny over a renovation project in 2000 that more than doubled the size of his home.
The remodeling was overseen by Bill Allen, a contractor who has pleaded guilty to bribing Alaska state legislators. Allen is founder of VECO Corp., an Alaska-based oil field services and engineering company that has reaped tens of millions of dollars in federal contracts.
Step back in awe at the ethics of our favorite Congressional thug! Here’s my favorite quote:
“I’m working to get this concept out of my mind that someone is trying to make something illegal out of all this, That’s what’s really disturbing.”
At least he’s proved that Alaskan voters are as ignorant and gulllible as the electorate in the lower 48.
Wouldn’t it be nice if Ted could live out his remaining months in a federally funded correctional facility?
#1, they could just drop him in one of his tubes and see if he ever surfaces.
Somewhat off topic, but…
Members of Congress should have mandatory retirement at age 70 or 80. I know there are a lot of elderly people who are as sharp as a tack, but I have a feeling they are not among our elected officials.
This is what, the third time you hacks have done the “Aren’t Alaskans stupid?” line with your entries. It’s nice to know you’re not only incompetent, but lazy as well.
Look at the amount of pork Ted brings home… Alaskans don’t care how he does it. Alaskans known damn good and well the guy is corrupt, and fifteen minutes of research on your part would have found stories about his son and his recent troubles.
This is the same state where Lisa Ann Murkowski inherited her Senate seat… and no one really cared because she’s a genuinely good person.
Alaskans have a better grasp of how things run than you can imagine, though based on the intellect shown on this blog that isn’t a monumental statement.
4. Wow. 3 comments about Alaskans? I’m not even going to count the number about Texas…
Texans aren’t not all that dumb, just most of them.
#4 – Like you are some sort of Mensa candidate….
#4 is on his period. Was that mature enough for you?
#7 – Hee hee hee #4 said “pork”
WELL,
Im ashamed…
OK,
1. It STILL comes to the point…WHO wants the Job ANYWAY.
2. Who gets backing to Run? NOT the honest man that dont have the money.
3. how do we select who we want? Who ever gets their FACE on TV the most.
4. the only difference between this person and many others? He did know HOW to bury the bones.
Think about it.
Who wants a job fighting OTHER crooks?
Getting backing from 2 major parties, ISNT easy, and all they want is a puppet, and someone they can control. Someone with ABIT of dirt in their past, they can DIG up and bury you with, IF you dont follow their instructions.
To many of us ONLY watch TV for our info, and not always the BEST channels. It isnt Cheap getting TV time, and there are Laws on HOW you can run and HOW you can get on TV to tell your story. They have made it a paper chase. And Money SPEAKS LOUDLY.
This person just didnt know what the OLDER ones knew and he got caught, probably many times. I wonder if you know HOW they caught Many MAFIA crooks? It wasnt on a Major crimes, but on TAX evasion and racketeering and even Illegal Alien status. Compared to what they had done, these are MINOR inconveniences..
NOW,
What to do about it.
REALLY cant do much until we can get about 1/2 the nation behind us. And it took LESS to get them IN OFFICE. If you run the numbers for Bush, you will see it took >17% of this nation to get him elected. Which is a SHAM. 300mil People, only 100mil voted, the election was split about 50/50… sooo…33% voted and then it was split almost in 1/2… 33/2=16.5%
Between the Laws, rules, and money required to run. You can consider that ANY other candidate has been virtually blackballed from having the ABILITY to run.
2 things I would like.
1. A button/vote for NONE OF THE ABOVE of a Blank vote to be counted against BOTH. Just because 100 people voted, and 1 person got 20 votes, and the other got none, still Leaves 80 NO’ votes for either one.
2. I WANT every state to run 1 candidate…NOt the democrat’s or republicans, then a regional 10 state grouping, to select 5 to run. For national elections.
Those *dumb* Alaskan’s just voted to dump Murkowski in the primary and replace her with a real honest to goodness honest person named Palin. She is shaking up Alaska and doing good things and she is a conservative who believes in God, she’s just not obnoxious about the God stuff.
Stevens is an ass by any standard, but he is typical of all long term Senators of both parties….think Byrd of West Virginia and others. I believe in term limits, but maybe a cutoff age might be a good thing.
I was born and raised there. Alaskans
know whats going on, they just are so
far away from most of it and that includes
their own politicos. A good percentage of
them are up there to get away from it all.
And they’ve got a complete disconnect
from their state gov’t which is hiding 100’s
of miles away from their population centers
and yes are corrupt as hell. But the people
up there have seen the writing on the wall
forever. Are you kidding, growing up in the
60’s and 70’s there all I heard about was the
banksters and the gold standard…. etc,
not even from my parents, but on the radio
and the street…….
#10 – I believe in term limits,
I also believe in term limits. We already have them, though. They are called elections.
#6 – Compared to you I’m a fucking oracle of knowledege.
#10 – No argument from me on that one: It was a good move for the state.
#7, #8 – Your worship is noted.
#6 – Also, if you’re smart enough to catch the joke in my previous post, kudos.
Looks like its time for Bushco to fire another Att-Gen for reasons Alberto won’t be in the room to hear.
Fuinny, sheeple being upset about Alaska, or Texas, or intelligence level, or age, or length of term.
Only #9 posted to the crux of the matter. Every single person in Congress is a crook. Vote every incumbent out. Of choices given, vote for the lowest person in the polls that raised the least amount of money. Yes, he will be terrible==but really, any worse?
14,
Not quite…
HE WONT be a politician…At least not the best, and he wont play HIDE the DUCK, when he needs something done.
Heh. The average rural voter is gullible one way, the average urban voter is from the lower 48 and is gullible another way (voting mostly Democrat). Know what terrifies me? They might be “average” instead of “more gullible”. I moved here during the pipeline era, and one of the first things I learned in Juneau was that anyone who wanted to make money in Alaska had to go through VECO, and that was about 30 years ago. It sure took long enough for the FBI to figure out what was common knowledge back then. BTW, Joshua? That was Lisa Murkowski’s father, and he ain’t no she.
#12 –
“The folly of mistaking a paradox for a discovery, a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths, and oneself for an oracle, is inborn in us.”
— Paul Valéry, 1895
17—How do you resist adding that to every other post?
Keep the good stuff coming.
Maybe we should take note from China and start executing our leaders who take bribes and abuse power..
#19
That would wipe out the Bush clan in the same way the Russian Czar was.
#16…Phillep….sorry…I stand corrected(again….lol)….for some reason I was thinking she was the Gov…and he was back in the Senate.
Bobbo….not being quite as cynical as you….I still believe there are some decent people in Congress. When you tyhrow out all incumbants, you just create another batch of incumbants. No matter how innocent or inexperienced they are when arriving in Washington, it dosen’t take most of them long to figure out what a good deal they have.
Since the average American voter is basically a lazy sod, and they all seem to fall in love with their local Congressperson, the odds of the rascals being thrown out are nil. In fact, it seems that more of the decent, hard working ones are the ones who get tossed the most. The rascally ones survive to steal another day. So, thats why I’m for term limits. It’s unfortunate that the good will go with the bad in a term limit form of elections, but thats the price we pay for allowing Congressman to become a full time position and not the farmer/politician or merchant/politician that the founders envisioned them to be.
I tend to cringe when the media goes on about congressman so and so being in his or her 15th term in the House or Senator so and so being in his 6th term in the Senate….most of them no longer actually live in their districts, as evidenced by the fact they stay in Washington when they finally do leave office, because they don’t have a clue what their districts are anymore. I’m 24 y/o…Until 4 years ago, my district had a Congressman that was there 6 years before I was born…..thats just wrong. After about 3 terms for a house member and 2 terms for a Senator they start to feel the seat is their’s exclusively…..it’s no wonder that policies and laws never get changed as needed, the same people who made them 30 years ago are still in power…..you never get change that is needed that way.
Does he have money in his freezer?
Angel Wong, you are dreaming if you think Bush and crew are the only crooks in office. Jefferson (D) had how much in the freezer? Pelosi and Boxer sent /how/ much money to their husbands’ businesses? Speaking of abuse of power, neither Bush can compare to Clinton.
#4. “Alaskans have a better grasp of how things run than you can imagine, ”
Hell, yes! they live in a state so rich off of oil leases that they can afford to PAY people to live there and they they still grab double-helpings of Federal pork.
I don’t know what that is, but its not dumb, that’s for sure.
#23 – neither Bush can compare to Clinton.
Bullshit.
20,
DITTO…
That would be making a felony out of an ASSHOLE….It might work.
WOO HOO – It’s a ranting time again… 🙂
HEY JOSH!
#22 – Since the average American voter is basically a lazy sod
I won’t really argue that point… But you claim that:
I’m 24 y/o…Until 4 years ago, my district had a Congressman that was there 6 years before I was born…..thats just wrong.
And presumably it’s “just wrong” because its a long time. Isn’t that thinking just as lazy?
Hey, this might be a big shock, but Massachusetts voters LIKE Ted Kennedy. They seem to think he brings value to the state. I’m not stating an opinion (but honestly, you could guess what i think… I mean, it’s me…)
I say if voter’s are lazy, they get what they deserve. Let them get what they deserve. And some of these long time guys are actually quite effective leaders. Joe Biden comes to mind… Who I used to dislike over the plagerism thing… but that was a long time ago and he’s turned around in my eyes.
Anyone who says “they are all crooks” is just too lazy to have an opinion taken seriously. They aren’t all corrupt. They aren’t all stupid. They aren’t all addled and worthless. Many are amazingly valuable leaders, bordering on statesmen, and duly elected by the will of the people in their districts and whether we like them or not, who the hell are we to say to an electorate, “You cannot have your choice.”?
====
Dude… You are 24. When i was 24 I got sick and tired of having people twice my age telling me I was still too young to really understand what was going on and that I didn’t know jack shit. But that’s only because I was still too young to really understand what was going on and I didn’t know jack shit.
Age brings wisdom. Now Steven’s might be a bonehead, but I’m pretty sure he was bonehead before he was old and elected a billion times. And I might be pissed that Alaskans keep sending the guy back… But he is their guy. I’ll advocate bringing him up on charges if he committed a crime, but I’ll not advocate taking Alaska’s choice away. I am content to live with their guy, because they have to live with mine (who happens to be Dick Lugar, one of the few Republicans I have little quarrel with).
=====
When I say “you” I mean “everybody” not just you, Josh…
And on that “they are all corrupt” bullshit:
And you know… which one of you guys wouldn’t take advantage of your position as the regional manager of a chain of electronics stores to get a sweet deal on home remodeling from a business your company is partnering with on a project?
Which of you guys wouldn’t sleep with a hot swimsuit model who was impressed with your social status since becoming the lead engineer at the (insert product here) company?
Why do you guys get so bent out of shape when you discover that senators and representatives and presidents are humans? Just like you.
The Democrat with 100K in his freezer was a crook. The Republican trying to fingerbang male teenage pages was corrupt. Most of the rest of those guys go to work every day and try to be effective, or at least keep their jobs, just like YOU.
Humans are flawed and flaws are what you get with any candidate. Choose the one who best reflects your ideas, and keep him or her working for you as long as possible. Their “character” isn’t your concern unless they are stealing your money.
James….”I’m a fucking oracle of knowledege.” Hahaha YES!
While it is easy to bitch and moan about Ted Stevens’ past actions, wouldn’t it be more germane to discuss pending legislative actions that the new and ethically sound congress are suppose to be passing?
I’d like to draw your attention to http://porkbusters.org/scorecard.php where they rate congress members on their ability to well..bust up pork. Rankings are based on a 100 point scale and the website has 2 key histograms. The new, ethically sound and superior DNC weighing in with an incredibly positive, or right skewed histogram (holy cow); while the RNC has at least symmetry. Porkbusters.org also has an awards section, with Ted Stevens winning the Grand Prize, but failing to surpass Robert “Bird-dog-it” Byrd’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Must be something in the water in West Virginia.
Damn nice rant OFTLO.