Is there a bigger scumbag than Tom Delay?

[Mobo123]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...avo_washington

Delay is probably the biggest a$$hole in Washington, followed closely by most of those warped 'evangelical' types who jumped on that poor woman's case in order to pander to their constituency.

It's so f*ing obvious that he is doing this to deflect attention from his own crimes.

Delay, a known scumbag, liar and hopefully soon to be kicked out of the house for massive ethics improprieties as well as kickbacks, wants to impeach the lower and upper court judges who merely followed the law.

It's obvious that this scumbag doesnt even know what the law is or he wouldnt keep breaking it.

Hell, even the people who control bush immediately distanced themselves from this creep.

What does he want to do? Create his own set of laws? His own government?

My skin crawled and i wanted to scream out loud in rage every time i saw those hordes of creepy and fanatical born-agains and right-to-lifers who prayed at endless candlelight vigils for not only Schiavo's vegetative and lifeless survival but also for moral punishment and even the death of the various judges and lawmakers and doctors who dared uphold Florida law and make honest decisions about Schiavo's tenuous condition and told the government to butt the hell out.

I dont know is this ignorant jerkoff is a lawyer but if he is, he should be disbarred in an instant.
.........................................

DeLay Targets Legal System in Schiavo Case

24 minutes ago White House - AP


By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - House Majority Leader Tom DeLay on Thursday blamed Terri Schiavo's death on what he contended was a failed legal system and he raised the possibility of trying to impeach some of the federal judges in the case.

"The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior," said DeLay, R-Texas.

But a leading Democratic senator said DeLay's comments were "irresponsible and reprehensible." Sen. Edward Kennedy (news, bio, voting record), D-Mass., said DeLay should make sure that people know he is not advocating violence against judges.

DeLay, the second-ranking House GOP lawmaker, helped lead congressional efforts 10 days ago to enact legislation designed to prod the federal courts into ordering the reinsertion of Schiavo's feeding tube. He said the courts' refusal to do just that was a "perfect example of an out of control judiciary."

Asked about the possibility of the House's bringing impeachment charges against judges in the Schiavo case, DeLay said, "There's plenty of time to look into that."

President Bush expressed sympathy to Schiavo's parents. "I urge all those who honor Terri Schiavo to continue to work to build a culture of life where all Americans are welcomed and valued and protected, especially those who live at the mercy of others," he said.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan refused to join DeLay in criticizing the courts. "We would have preferred a different decision from the courts ... but ultimately we have to follow our laws and abide by the courts," McClellan said.

Joining DeLay in taking issue with the judiciary was Sen. Rick Santorum (news, bio, voting record), R-Pa., who said, "The actions on the part of the Florida court and the U.S. Supreme Court are unconscionable." Also, GOP Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina said the case "saw a state judge completely ignore a congressional committees subpoena and insult its intent" and "a federal court not only reject, but deride the very law that Congress passed."

DeLay said he would make sure that the GOP-controlled House "will look at an arrogant and out of control judiciary that thumbs its nose at Congress and the president."

But Kennedy said DeLay should watch his words, especially in light of the recent murder of a Georgia judge and the killing of a federal judge's husband and mother in Chicago. Kennedy noted that judges in the Schiavo case and their families have received threats.

"This case has been heartbreaking and tragic enough," Kennedy said. "It is time for mourning and healing, not for more inflammatory rhetoric, and responsible national leaders should understand that and stop this exploitation."

The legislation passed in an emergency session of Congress and immediately signed by Bush ordered the federal courts to review the decision by a Florida judge to allow the removal of the feeding tube that kept Schiavo alive.

U.S. District Judge James Whittemore refused. His ruling was twice upheld by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Later, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene.

As a House member, DeLay has no constitutional role in deciding who becomes a federal judge or whether a judge should be disciplined. The president selects the judges; senators confirm them. The federal court regulates those judges.

But the GOP-controlled House can initiate impeachment proceedings on federal judges, just as they impeached President Clinton, only to have the Senate acquit him.

"Congress for many years has shirked its responsibility to hold the judiciary accountable. No longer," DeLay said.

The House has impeached 11 federal judges, including former Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase, but the Senate has only convicted and removed seven.

Chase was not convicted. The last federal judge to be removed was Alcee Hastings, in 1989; he is now a Democratic congressman from Florida.

Congress does have the authority under the Constitution to limit what kind of cases the federal courts can hear. Republicans have complained for some time about what they see as an out of control federal judiciary.

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said Congress should pass the broad legislation that House Republicans favored in the Schiavo case but which was narrowed to cover only the Florida woman after a compromise with the White House.

"Terri's will to live should serve as an inspiration and impetus for action," said Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis.

The House bill, giving jurisdiction of the Schiavo case to the federal courts, would have applied to any case in which there were questions about withholding food or medical treatment from an incapacitated person.

McClellan said the president would review such legislation if it came to him.

__________________

[NCB]

You bitch about how "DeLay doesn't know the law", but you do understand that slavery and seperate is equal was the law at one time, don't you?

[Mobo123]

Originally Posted by NCB

You bitch about how "DeLay doesn't know the law", but you do understand that slavery and seperate is equal was the law at one time, don't you?

At one time, yes. but not anymore. You are missing the issue entirely.

Delay is trying to subvert the legal process. I have practiced as an attorney for 20 years. I am absolutely outraged that this evangelical asshole has the balls and temerity to take to task judges who are simply following THE LAW, not Delay's religion.

[RAGEAngel9]

Originally Posted by NCB

You bitch about how "DeLay doesn't know the law", but you do understand that slavery and seperate is equal was the law at one time, don't you?

I don't understand what you are trying to say.
Can you clarify?

Sometimes I believe that DeLay just starts talking and doesn't actually realize what he says. And how in the world does a man like Sen. Rick Santorum become a U.S. Senator?

I would like to know what some of the less extreme Senetors and Reps have to say (i.e not these 2 and Kennedy).

Originally Posted by ARTICLE

President Bush expressed sympathy to Schiavo's parents. "I urge all those who honor Terri Schiavo to continue to work to build a culture of life where all Americans are welcomed and valued and protected, especially those who live at the mercy of others," he said.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA
*cough*Bullshit*cough*

/Kind of on topic (It's in the article)

Originally Posted by ARTICLE

The House bill, giving jurisdiction of the Schiavo case to the federal courts, would have applied to any case in which there were questions about withholding food or medical treatment from an incapacitated person.

I would find it interesting if that bill Bush signed into law as Gov. of Texas was on the opposite side of a lawsuit against this bill if it was ever passed in its original way.

[meembo]

There are bigger scumbags, but DeLay is a heavy hitter. If there will truly be a backlash against conservatives following the Schiavo case by Republicans, I hope DeLay is one of the first targets.

[Fourtyrulz]

Interestingly enough there was a cartoon on the front page of today's paper depicting DeLay as a tiny insect scurrying for his life from the thrashing hooves and the massive stomping feet of both donkeys and elephants. Now is the time to squash Tom like the political roach that he is, same with all the other radicals. Just shine the flashlight on Congress and watch them scatter.

You bitch about how "DeLay doesn't know the law", but you do understand that slavery and seperate is equal was the law at one time, don't you?

NCB, it's clear to me now. If I enter a thread and post an inflammatory comment that is completely off topic, and to it 10 times a day, I can have an avatar in no time at all!

[NCB]

Originally Posted by Fourtyrulz

NCB, it's clear to me now. If I enter a thread and post an inflammatory comment that is completely off topic, and to it 10 times a day, I can have an avatar in no time at all!

Son, the initial post claimed that DeLay did not know the law. My point is, is that the law is not always correct and should not be revered as such.

[Mojo_PeiPei]

Why should Delay not be able to approach such avenues? If he does it by the books, by and by there is no need for these people to worry, nothing will happen to them. Yeah it's petty and weak, but let the man do a tank job, this will get him no where, the people of America aren't behind him, plus I'm pretty sure to impeach a judge (that's what we are talking about right?) don't you need a 2/3's majority?

I wish the evil conservatives would focus their wrath on the 9th circuit, that is a house that needs some cleaning for real.

[Fourtyrulz]

I'll ignore your attempt at authority and move on to the latter part of your statement.

My point is, is that the law is not always correct and should not be revered as such.

First off, the "separate but equal" laws you refer to were state laws specifically designed to descriminate against blacks, hardly the same as the case in question with the Terri Shaivo fiasco. Secondly, the FEDERAL judges had no jurisdiction since the state courts already denied the case because it had no merit and no base to act on. Thirdly, law in America is based off of Common Law which comes into being over time from precedents. There was no precedent from which the Supreme Court could refer to to have the feeding tube put back in. They aren't just making this stuff up as they go. And lastly, any judge who would have ruled opposite what the SC denied 5 times would have been the activist judge, not Judge Greer and whoever else ruled against the feeding tube. I'm sure Mobo could explain this more accurately and completely (in the event that I completely made an ass of myself).

[Mojo_PeiPei]

Well said Fourty. I'm largely conservative, I don't like what happened with the Schiavo situation, but the federal government had no place butting in. In a sense it renewed some faith in the higher courts, action would've set a wicked precedent.

[Fourtyrulz]

Pinch me Mojo, either I'm dreaming or we just experienced a major breakthrough.

[daswig]

Bill Clinton, anyone?

[Mojo_PeiPei]

Originally Posted by Fourtyrulz

Pinch me Mojo, either I'm dreaming or we just experienced a major breakthrough.

Awww, c'mon it's not THAT hard to fathom.

[Mobo123]

Originally Posted by NCB

Son, the initial post claimed that DeLay did not know the law. My point is, is that the law is not always correct and should not be revered as such.

NCB, what is your educational background? really curious.

[RAGEAngel9]

Originally Posted by daswig

Bill Clinton, anyone?

He was like a US President or something, right?

What is your point?

[dksuddeth]

Originally Posted by NCB

Son, the initial post claimed that DeLay did not know the law. My point is, is that the law is not always correct and should not be revered as such.

first we have to hear bitching about judicial activists writing law from the bench, then we get to hear about judicial incompetence by following the laws as they are. I guess some people would be pissed about being hung with a new rope because of splinters.

[Bill O'Rights]

The tone, in this thread, needs to improve significantly. Failing that, this discussion is done.

Now, having said that, I caught Delay's soundbite on NPR this morning. What frosted my soul was..."...will look at an arrogant and out of control judiciary that thumbs its nose at Congress and the president." That and the possibility of bring impeachment charges against judges who followed the letter of the law. I kept hoping, beyond hope, to hear those two little words..."April Fools". Sadly, I did not.

[stevo]

To answer the question-yes, there is a bigger scum bag than tom delay. His name is Michael Schiavo.

[RAGEAngel9]

Originally Posted by stevo

To answer the question-yes, there is a bigger scum bag than tom delay. His name is Michael Schiavo.

I haven't seen Schiavo whore out some ones life for political gain.

[MSD]

As far as congressional scum goes, Delay is right up at the top, I (yes, liberal me) hate Ted Kennedy and think he should be in prison for murder, and although I'm not going to go through issue by issue with each one, most of the rest of our legislators are very guilty of pissing in the Congressional pool.

Originally Posted by stevo

To answer the question-yes, there is a bigger scum bag than tom delay. His name is Michael Schiavo.

I personally feel that what happened was the right thing, but I still agree with you. He only wanted her cut off for personal gain, not because of what she wanted. He wouldn't have kept her "alive" for 15 years if she wanted to be allowed to die.

[liquidlight]

Personally I think that this entire situation was a travesty that they ever drug it into the media like they did. I don't like how it had to happen, but at least Terri Schiavo now has some dignity, I've not met many people that would want to be kept alive in the fashion that she had to endure.

As for Tom Delay, all I can say is thank God for the checks and balances in the system and the fact that this one man doesn't have the power to enforce his will into my life.

[raveneye]

Is there a bigger scumbag than Tom Delay?

Hmmmmmmmm, I dunno. I'm an amoral liberal and can't tell the difference between right and wrong.

Actually, I have to agree with Rage that Rick Santorum is pretty high on the list of insufferables, even among politicians in general, who as a group set the bar pretty high.

Here's Rick's top message today on his website:

"I am deeply saddened to hear that Terri Schiavo passed away because all efforts to reinstate her feeding tube were unsuccessful. Terri Schiavo, a daughter, a sister and most importantly an innocent person was penalized by a court system that grants convicted murderers fair treatment under the law, but not a woman whose only crime was not filing a living will...Many people have fought heroically to save Terri’s life and, as President Bush has said, to ‘err on the side of life.’ Ultimately, this fight was lost in the courts, and I am deeply disappointed that the courts chose to deny Terri the chance to live."
http://santorum.senate.gov/public/

And here's his reaction to the Supreme Court taking on the anti-gay sex laws:

AP: OK, without being too gory or graphic, so if somebody is homosexual, you would argue that they should not have sex?

SANTORUM: We have laws in states, like the one at the Supreme Court right now, that has sodomy laws and they were there for a purpose. Because, again, I would argue, they undermine the basic tenets of our society and the family. And if the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything. Does that undermine the fabric of our society? I would argue yes, it does. It all comes from, I would argue, this right to privacy that doesn't exist in my opinion in the United States Constitution, this right that was created, it was created in Griswold -- Griswold was the contraceptive case -- and abortion. And now we're just extending it out. And the further you extend it out, the more you -- this freedom actually intervenes and affects the family. You say, well, it's my individual freedom. Yes, but it destroys the basic unit of our society because it condones behavior that's antithetical to strong, healthy families. Whether it's polygamy, whether it's adultery, where it's sodomy, all of those things, are antithetical to a healthy, stable, traditional family.

Every society in the history of man has upheld the institution of marriage as a bond between a man and a woman. Why? Because society is based on one thing: that society is based on the future of the society. And that's what? Children. Monogamous relationships. In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That's not to pick on homosexuality. It's not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be. It is one thing. And when you destroy that you have a dramatic impact on the quality —

AP: I'm sorry, I didn't think I was going to talk about "man on dog" with a United States senator, it's sort of freaking me out.

SANTORUM: And that's sort of where we are in today's world, unfortunately. The idea is that the state doesn't have rights to limit individuals' wants and passions. I disagree with that. I think we absolutely have rights because there are consequences to letting people live out whatever wants or passions they desire. And we're seeing it in our society.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...737EDT0668.DTL

[Mbwuto]

Originally Posted by MrSelfDestruct

I personally feel that what happened was the right thing, but I still agree with you. He only wanted her cut off for personal gain, not because of what she wanted. He wouldn't have kept her "alive" for 15 years if she wanted to be allowed to die.

...Yes. Because there haven't been massive lawsuits in all that time. Because the case never went to the SCOFLA. What the hell man?

[Superbelt]

Rick is my Senator and I truly hate his guts and am deeply ashamed that he represents me.
I'm glad to hear Chairman Dean say that he is the number one target of the Democratic party. It'll be a great day to see this anal wart without a job. Rick has benefited in past years from being relatively low key enough to keep the Democrats from becoming too polarized against him, plus some very imept democratic campaigns against him.
That'll change in '06 with Casey running. Rick, and his Presidential aspirations are unemployed January '06.

[Ilow]

Hmmm.. I was going to say no, there isn't a bigger scumbag, but Santorium is making it a photo finish.

[Fourtyrulz]

I don't mean to resurrect the emotions of this thread but I honestly don't know what Santorum has done to deserve as bad a rap as DeLay.

[Superbelt]

DeLay is a much bigger scum bag. I was just adding my personal view of a guy who was already brought up.

What Santorum has done though...
-Milked the Pennsylvania educational system (taxpayer dollars) for over $100,000 dollars to send his kids to cyber charter school. This is while he has had no true residence in Pennsylvania having lived in Virginia since he got his Senate seat.
The rich mfer stole our money so he could charter school his kids for free when they could have gone to a perfectly good public school in Arlington.
-Took family pictures with his premature dead fetus. I believe sent them out with their christmas letter as well. Course his kids would be scarred for life anyway being twisted by him in every other way.
--As a side note to that he is against Abortion in any and all cases including rape, incest and mortal danger to the mother.
-The whole man-on-dog thing about him equating the legalization of anal sex by the SC with pedofilia and bestiality.

That's just some of the worst of him, but overall he's really just a fruitcake to the actual slimy evil of a DeLay.

[meembo]

I'd be happy to nominate Santorum as a very close second. he once held the lead. He's got the extremeist, religious thing going longer than DeLay has been around.

one link

and another

and another

[Devoid]

There's some scary shit there from Santorum. A couple that stood out to me:

" It all comes from, I would argue, this right to privacy that doesn't exist in my opinion in the United States Constitution, this right that was created,"

" Yes, but it destroys the basic unit of our society because it condones behavior that's antithetical to strong, healthy families. Whether it's polygamy, whether it's adultery, where it's sodomy, all of those things, are antithetical to a healthy, stable, traditional family."

This guy needs to learn to separate healthy, stable, and traditional families. You can be healthy and stable and not be traditional. My wife is pagan, I don't care for religion, and our daughter will be able to choose her own. I'd call us non-traditional, but if he thinks we're unstable or unhealthy he's wrong. I hate DeLay, being from TX, with a passion, but Santorum is even, or maybe a greasy nose ahead.

[analog]

Not many more, no. He's pretty high on the list. Santorum is hot on his heals, though.

[host]

Originally Posted by analog

Not many more, no. He's pretty high on the list. Santorum is hot on his heals, though.

Take Bush, Delay and Santorum's "ownership" society and place it "where the sun don't shine" !!!!! Greedy, heartless, bastards. Is child labor in sweatshops next on their agenda ?

<a href="http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14109065&BRD=1675&PAG=461&dept_id=18168&rfi=6">http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14109065&BRD=1675&PAG=461&dept_id=18168&rfi=6</a>
Delaware Cty, PA Times
Editorial: Even at a minimum, wages need to be raised

The minimum wage proposals presented by our own Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum and Massachusetts Democrat Sen. Edward "Ted" Kennedy were expected to offset one another and fail. But, the content of the two bills reveals the emphasis of both parties.

The $5.15-an-hour minimum wage has been the same since 1996. Nine long years since minimum-wage earners got a pay raise.

Kennedy’s bill would raise the minimum wage in three 70-cent increments over the next 26 months to $7.25. Santorum’s plan offered a $1.10 increase in two 55-cent jumps over 18 months.

But the Republican jump in pay was not merely a counterproposal to the Democrat plan. Kennedy promoted a bill simply aimed at raising the minimum wage. Santorum was spokesman for a minimum-wage bill with an 84-page amendment attached.

The amendment touched on overtime, a constant issue ever since Republicans gained control of the House, Senate and presidency simultaneously. The GOP minimum-wage plan attacked overtime from two sides.
<b>
First was the elimination of the 40-hour work week. Calling it "flex time," Santorum suggested an 80-hour, two-week cycle. Under the terms of this arrangement, an employer could schedule an employee 45 hours one week and 35 hours the second week and not have to pay the five hours overtime for the 45-hour week.</b>

But that’s not all.

Pennsylvania workers engaged in interstate commerce also got a special look in the Santorum amendment. Actually, any state’s workers involved in interstate commerce got the same look. These workers are currently protected by the Fair Labor Standards Act. One of the rights protected under that act is overtime pay (there’s those two words again). The Santorum amendment would eliminate that pay for workers, if they work for a firm with annual revenues of $1 million or less.

But employees have more to fear in this bill than the loss of overtime pay. Some would lose all their pay. In another gracious move to businesses of all kinds,<h3> the 84 pages added to the minimum-wage proposal excused employers whose employees receive tips from paying any salary at all -- if the employees’ tips equal the minimum wage.</h3> Of course that would be the generous $6.25 an hour the bill offers.

There is one more present to business in the amendment. This one goes to struggling firms making $7 million or less. <h3>Our compassionate conservative senator and his colleagues want to exempt those companies from paying fines for violating safety rules for their workers.</h3>

In the past, the Republican majority stopped the Democrats’ attempts to bring minimum-wage legislation to the floor. Monday, they allowed the vote, with the knowledge the competing proposals would keep both bills from passing.

Republican leadership did not care if their bill went down to defeat because they are not really interested in the raising the minimum wage. Republican leadership wants to overhaul bankruptcy laws and believes the minimum-wage issue is getting in the way.

If the legislators working so hard to limit the income of those struggling to get out of poverty or struggling to maintain a middle-class standard had their wage hikes, benefits and retirement incomes tied to the laws they want to enact, the emphasis would be quite different. That, of course, will never happen.

So everyone must pay attention to all amendments included in any wage or benefit or bankruptcy legislation. It’s the fine print that could hurt. The pay cut you save may be your own.

The apologists of the republican agenda who post on these boards should examine the threat that the agenda they espouse, poses to the economic security of some of their own family members, friends, and members of their congregations and communities. These republican politicians do not represent the majority of you!

[stevo]

They represent me. I'm against raising minimum wage. I believe it should be done away with totally. The market should decide people's wages, period. I don't want the government telling me how much my business needs to be paying my employees.

[host]

Originally Posted by stevo

They represent me. I'm against raising minimum wage. I believe it should be done away with totally. The market should decide people's wages, period. I don't want the government telling me how much my business needs to be paying my employees.

Rude personal comment removed. You were warned. Three day ban issued.
-lebell

The bill is not a minimum wage bill. It is an attempt to rollback overtime pat protections, which were instituted to lessen scheduling abuses of workers,
it is an attempt to override state laws concerning wages that tipped employees receive, and it is an attempt to eliminate penalties that employers pay when they operate unsafe workplaces. Do you advocate removing all
legislated protection of workers? IMO, that is not the action of legislators who represent the public, it is the intention and agenda of legislators who trade the trust ceded to them by the majority of the voters who elected them, in favor of contributions of money, and privelege and influence from the business lobby.

The 84 page Santorum senate bill would override state laws by prohibiting any
wage payments by employers to tipped employees who earn tip averages above the minimum hourly wage. In Nevada, for example, tis would amount to a legislated federally mandated $5.15 per hour REDUCTION in tipped employee's wages. The bill removes fines for employer workplace safety violations. The bill eliminates 40 hour maximum workweelds before overtime must be paid. This is anti-family because it permits employers to schedule longer workdays and work weeks before overtime pay is required by law.

[roachboy]

is there a bigger scumbag than tom delay?
as a faithful lackey of the corporate interests that prop up the reality of conservative politics, in the interests of which the right operates, tom delay is but a symptom.

this is yet another example of conservativism in its present guise as a self-disempowerment program dressed up rhetorically as its opposite.

it is yet another example of how important the workers' movement was for making capitalism a less barbaric system--regardless of the problems that later ensued.
this is an index of what the collapse of that workers movement means.
for 150 years, it was obvious that market "logic" and human life are not related except insofar as these converge in the persons of the holders of capital.
for them, however, it appears that the people who actually enable production to occur at all--the workers--are expendable. the right chooses not to remember this basic fact. the right would like to erase everything that has happened over the past century that enabled american-style capitalism to be functional. erase the history of capitalism, replace it with hallucinations of the "free market". erase the history of dissent, the function of dissent, replace it with a paranoiac moralizing discourse that operates to exclude dissent in all areas as evil. erase rational discourse altogether. replace all of it with a short-sighted, self-serving and suicidal ideolgy already demonstrated to be incapable of structuring rational action in the capitalist context by 1848. replace it with an ideology that would set up the american system as self-defeating even on the terms run out by makret theorists like hayek through the elimination of feedback loops.


welcome to the brave new early nineteenth century capitalism the right wants to inflict on us--behind the smoke screens of far-right christian ideology, behind the smoke screen of reactionary "wedge issues" articulated on "cultural" grounds--what the right seems to have in mind for the rest of us is the creation of new "industrial reserve armies" to fill low-wage, low-skill jobs in which any and all workers are completely interchangeable---in which working people will have little reality for the holders of capital beyond being a variable in overall calculations of profit and loss, as agents whose primary function is to introduce irrationalities into the perfection of organizational diagrams.....appendages of machines....crushed by debt peonage as a function of the struggle to survive....less than serfs...less than human beings.

welcome to the new barbarism--constant downward pressure on wages, elimination of benefits packages, the withdrawal of social security from the poor, opposition to access to basic health care for everyone regardless of income--welcome to the destruction of the state as mechanism for making political the consequences of cowboy capitalism--welcome to a world dominated at the level of reactionary fantasy by a moralizing, individualistic ideology the primary function of which is to place obastacles at the deepest possible level before any attempt to organize and on the basis of organizing to force--and i mean force--the holders of capital to see what for 150 years--thanks in significant measure to the actions of the left--has been obvious--that capitalism sits within a bigger social system that enables the holders of capital to extract profit and that therefore the holders of capital owe it--OWE IT--to contribute to the health of that system.

welcome to the type of capitalism that made revolution inevitable---with a twist--the hatred of those who oppose conservative dreams of hegemony, rehearsed through the kind of racist staging of the Enemy you saw during bushterm 1 directed at muslims, that you saw around election time directed at gay people, that you see surfacing in truly frightening form through the acccelerated integration of far-right protestant evangelical ideology, which enables those who oppose the right to be understood as minions of satan--welcome to an ideological climate that makes fascism seem preferable to trade unions. welcome to an ideological climate that acts as though an authoritarian system that talks alot about democracy is in fact a democracy.

are there bigger scumbags than tom delay?
sure
tom delay is but a symptom.

[guy44]

Yeesh.

Link:

The wife and daughter of Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, have been paid more than $500,000 since 2001 by Mr. DeLay's political action and campaign committees, according to a detailed review of disclosure statements filed with the Federal Election Commission and separate fund-raising records in Mr. DeLay's home state, Texas.

Link:

A six-day trip to Moscow in 1997 by then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was underwritten by business interests lobbying in support of the Russian government, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the trip arrangements.

DeLay reported that the trip was sponsored by a Washington-based nonprofit organization. But interviews with those involved in planning DeLay's trip say the expenses were covered by a mysterious company registered in the Bahamas that also paid for an intensive $440,000 lobbying campaign.

The CW seems to be that Republican insiders have decided DeLay is going down, and rather than have that happen during an election year a million little secrets have begun to leak to the press to take him out now.

Edit:

Link:

Work hard, play hard:

United Parcel Service provided a chartered flight between Washington and Las Vegas for between 50 and 60 people--including lobbyists, top aides and political supporters--at DeLay's request, according to a company spokesman. DeLay flew separately on a Federal Express corporate jet. Lobbyists with the National Association of Manufacturers, the D.C. law firm Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand, and the National Association of Convenience Stores were among those present for the weekend.

The weekend included a late-night party Saturday in DeLay's suite at the Rio Hotel and Casino, which featured a living room, bar and hot tub on the balcony. DeLay was not present, aides said; the event was hosted by his daughter, Dani Ferro, the campaign manager for DeLay's reelection campaign. After the party, Ferro told associates that a lobbyist poured champagne on her while she was in the hot tub.

[meembo]

Doctor Named 'Physician of the Year' -- for a Fee

link

Look who designed and ran the operation for 5 years

In a nutshell, hundreds, maybe thousand of doctores get a letter in the mail saying they have been named Congressional Physician of the Year. To claim the award, you pony up $1,250 to the National Republican Congressional Committee. That money is used to fund the 2006 midterm elections.

[JustJess]

Originally Posted by stevo

To answer the question-yes, there is a bigger scum bag than tom delay. His name is Michael Schiavo.

Michael Schiavo didn't sell the list of addresses of all the people who contributed money to "saving" Teri's life for a wad of cash. Her parents did. Before she was even dead.
Story

[guy44]

Enter the handy dandy Delay Corruption Flow Chart:



Link takes you to the original, which allows you to learn more on each corruption bubble (cubble?) by clicking on them.

[NCB]

From the peace loving Left...

[IMG][/IMG]

[roachboy]

ncb:
and that is a substantive post how exactly?
given that your "commentary" manages to find a level even more superficial than that of the limbaugh prototype
and given that you do not bother to link it to any particular source, prefering to attribute it to the entirety of your fantasy enemy "the left"

for what it is worth, i am probably well to the left of anyone you know, i have never seen this shirt and do not understand why it would be in anyone's interest to release it.
so you manage to stumble from the space of irrelevance into one of vaguely offensive.
care to qualify the above, or does this really represent your "thinking" on the matter, whatever that is (cant tell from your post, obviously)?