Interesting -- no elected official goes through a security clearance process ...

FSM: Considering this situation we find ourselves in today, do you think presidential candidates should be vetted more before they are allowed even to run for their party's nomination?

BR: Well that's very difficult to say how you would do that - no elected official - senator or congressman or the vice president or president - goes through a security clearance process. The very election process itself is considered vetting.

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"read and compare." Read every link that is supplied, double-check to make sure nothing has been removed from the article that might change its meaning. Read unfounded allegations and "fears" and the "I'm scareds" all over the board.

Now, if you can supply me a racist post that she's made -- which is what the accusation is -- please copy and paste it. I will then "read and compare" and perhaps come up with a different conclusion.

If you're going to make a serious allegation against someone, at least have the documentation to back it up.

it is seriously under-funded, which is why Obama signed legislation to delay the deadline for conversion. That, I believe, was the whole point of putting funds for it in the stimulus. I would guess that a lot of people do not have TVs and/or digital cable, and the coupons that the stimulus talks about would help those people who would not otherwise be able to afford to change equipment by the deadline. Changed from Feb to (I think) July.

As far as stimulus for the economy, these coupons act as money which would go to the cable companies which creates more demand = jobs, jobs, jobs. -- people have to hook this stuff up -- people who build converter boxes -- people who make the parts for the converter boxes........etc.

Any time money is spent for, in particular, a product, it creates demand and therefore creates jobs.

However, talking about the supreme court. I really don't like the idea of lifers. What happens if several get sick at the same time? Then you have a president who is able to fill those positions with whatever he decides, thus shifting (either way) the whole court for MANY years to come. I think their terms should be staggered and only about 10 yrs (at most). You can also wind up with a court that is elderly, set in its ways (whether because of age or what they've lived through), and completely out of touch with current changes in society. I think there needs to be infusion of new blood on a regular basis.

What we have all been thinking for months has finally been confirmed by "the experts." We are officially in a recession and have been for the past year. Why did it take them so long to finally figure it out?

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN02ELLSNA20081201?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

Completed vetting process. I think BC had to agree to withdraw from "day-to-day" involvement in his foundation to avoid conflict of interest.

I propose that from here out, we all quit with the bellyachin' and become part of the solution, instead of continuing to be part of the problem.

G-20 summit is now living proof that Obama has kissed everyone's butts and sold this county down the river......... Now, all European socialists will make ALL regulatory rules for ALL U.S. firms................

Thanks to all the Obama lovers and fools out there who thought he was your savior!! You better really have a savior because you're gonna need it now!!!

SORRY..... YOU CAN'T BLAME BUSH FOR THIS ONE!! OBAMA SWAGGERED HIS WAY THROUGH THIS ONE AND THERE WAS NO BUSH IN SIGHT!!!

Bush Official Arrested in Corruption Probe

The Bush administration's top federal procurement official resigned Friday and was arrested yesterday, accused of lying and obstructing a criminal investigation into Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff's dealings with the federal government. It was the first criminal complaint filed against a government official in the ongoing corruption probe related to Abramoff's activities in Washington.

The complaint, filed by the FBI, alleges that David H. Safavian, 38, a White House procurement official involved until last week in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, made repeated false statements to government officials and investigators about a golf trip with Abramoff to Scotland in 2002.

Procurement chief David H. Safavian was connected to probe of lobbyist Jack Abramoff. (Melina Mara/twp - Twp)

It also contends that he concealed his efforts to help Abramoff acquire control of two federally managed properties in the Washington area. Abramoff is the person identified as Lobbyist A in a 13-page affidavit unsealed in court, according to sources knowledgeable about the probe.

Until his resignation on the day the criminal complaint against him was signed, Safavian was the top administrator at the federal procurement office in the White House Office of Management and Budget, where he set purchasing policy for the entire government.

The arrest occurred at his home in Alexandria. A man who answered the phone there yesterday hung up when a reporter asked to speak to Safavian.

Abramoff was indicted by federal prosecutors in Miami last month on unrelated charges of wire fraud and conspiracy. He remains the linchpin of an 18-month probe by a federal task force that includes the Internal Revenue Service, the Interior Department and the Justice Department's fraud and public integrity units. His lawyer did not respond to phone calls seeking comment.

Abramoff's allegedly improper dealings with Indian tribes -- which netted him and an associate at least $82 million in fees -- prompted the federal probe. But investigators have found that his documents and e-mails contain a trove of information about his aggressive efforts to seek favors for clients from members of Congress and senior bureaucrats.

Accompanying Safavian and Abramoff on the 2002 trip to Scotland, for example, were Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Administration Committee, lobbyist and former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed and Neil Volz, a lobbyist with Abramoff at the Washington office of Greenburg Traurig.

Like Abramoff, Safavian is a veteran Washington player. He is a former lobbying partner of anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist and previously worked with Abramoff at another firm. Both he and Abramoff have represented gambling clients and Indian tribes with gambling interests.

At the time of the golf trip, Safavian was chief of staff at the General Services Administration, where ethics rules flatly prohibited the receipt of a gift from any person seeking an official action by the agency. When Safavian asked GSA ethics officers for permission to go on the trip, he assured them in writing that Abramoff has no business before GSA, according to the affidavit signed by FBI special agent Jeffrey A. Reising.

Reising alleged, however, that Abramoff had by then already secretly enlisted Safavian in an effort to buy 40 acres of land that GSA managed in Silver Spring for use as the campus of a Hebrew school Abramoff founded. Safavian also allegedly tried to help Abramoff lease space for Abramoff's clients in an old post office building downtown.

On July 22, 2002, Abramoff sent Safavian an e-mail with a proposed draft letter that at least two members of Congress could send to GSA supporting the lease, according to the affidavit. Does this work, or do you want it to be longer? Abramoff asked.

Three days later, Safavian forwarded Abramoff an e-mail describing how an employee at OMB was resisting Abramoff's plan to lease space at the post office. I suspect we'll end up having to bring some Hill pressure to bear on OMB, Safavian messaged Abramoff.

On the same day Safavian discussed the golf trip with the ethics office, he sent an e-mail to Abramoff from his home computer, advising him how to lay out a case for this lease. Abramoff subsequently wrote in an e-mail to his wife and two officials of the school that Safavian had shown him a map of the property at his GSA office but had cautioned that Abramoff should not visit again given my high profile politically.

Safavian nonetheless arranged a meeting for Abramoff's wife and business partner with officials at GSA on the day before he departed for Scotland aboard Abramoff's chartered jet. The trip cost more than $120,000 and was paid for mostly by a charity founded and run by Abramoff, the Capital Athletic Foundation.

When Safavian was questioned by The Washington Post about the trip in January, he said he paid his share of the expenses and took unpaid leave. The trip was exclusively personal; I did no business there. . . . Jack is an old friend of mine, Safavian said.

But the complaint alleges that Safavian lied about his contacts with Abramoff on three occasions after his initial false pledge to the GSA ethics officer. The first was during a 2003 investigation by GSA's inspector general, who was responding to an anonymous tipster's hotline complaint; the second was in a March 17, 2005, letter to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs; and the third was during an FBI interview on May 26, 2005.

as far as foreign affairs go to restore credibility to the US...and that's what he's doing. -- As opposed to the shrub method of trying to bully the world. Get a grip and try to catch up with the rest of us.

We are all fooling ourselves if we thing otherwise. It is literally picking the lesser of two evils. The one thing that I can say is that at least McCain makes decisions. He votes instead of just voting present like Obama and when Obama actually has voted yes or no.....he has consistently said one thing and voted the exact opposite. I just do not think he has the experience or the ability to make executive decisions. I do not trust his associations and I do not have the same values as he does.

those who supported the opposition and who warned of the types of sweeping changes to come during his presidency were told not to jump to conclusions based on what he had said during the campaign, or with whom he had chosen to associate throughout his life but to ''give him a chance'' to show the American people what he would actually do. We were told that racial prejudice and sour grapes were behind our feelings and that Obama would prove himself worthy of the office. To me, in just four months he has proven the exact opposite and further demonstrated a lack of character.

I did not necessarily want McCain in office. I voted the ''NObama'' ticket because I felt McCain would be slightly less destructive to our country and because I was pretty sure he is not a marxist. Voting third party would have been a wasted vote.

Sure, had McCain been elected I would have told his opposition to give him a chance to prove his worth as well. (I believe McCain's character has already been proven; I'm sure you'll correct me if I'm wrong.) But if he then demonstrated himself, through his words and actions, to be a screwup and/or a liar I would be posting exactly the same type of opinion.

Interesting -- no elected official goes through a security clearance process ...

Bush Official Arrested in Corruption Probe

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