Bob McDonnell Pleads Unbelievable Ignorance - Throws Wife Under the Bus

The "Gift Gate" scandal surrounding Republican Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell continues to escalate and, based on coverage in the Washington Post, McDonnell is seemingly trying to claim that it is all the fault of his greedy wife and that he had no idea how much she was sucking up at Jonnie R. William, Sr.'s trough of gifts and questionable loans to Virginia's first family.  Frankly, McDonnell's story line defies belief - especially since Williams disputes it and says that McDonnell knew what was going on.  Whatever happens, it would seem that McDonnell's political career is over.   One can only hope that as the star Scientific scandal grows it will also envelop Ken Cuccinelli.  Here are highlights from the Post coverage: 

Attorneys for Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, will spend Monday locked in separate hours-long meetings trying to convince federal prosecutors that the first couple should not be charged in the gifts scandal that has dominated state politics.

The meetings open a new, critical phase of the investigation, timed to help prosecutors decide over the next few weeks whether to file charges, according to two people with knowledge of the investigation.

The central issues for prosecutors are what precisely McDonnell may have said or offered to Williams on his own and how much the governor knew about his wife’s acceptance of gifts from Williams and her actions to help his company just as Star was launching a new product.

As the scandal has shined an uncomfortable spotlight on the governor’s marriage, McDonnell’s side has conveyed to authorities that his wife often purposely kept him in the dark about the largess she was accepting from Williams, according to a person familiar with the investigation.

Their goal with that assertion is to convince prosecutors that it would have been impossible for Williams’s gifts to have influenced the governor in his official duties because McDonnell learned of many only after his wife had accepted them.

Prosecutors will have to decide how credible they find those assertions when considered against the timeline of the first couple’s interactions with Williams and other evidence, including Williams’s recollections.
According to two people familiar with his version, Williams has countered the account from the governor’s side.

The now fast-paced timeline of the investigation is driven in part by two factors.  First, prosecutors generally wish to move as quickly as possible if they think there is evidence of criminal actions by a sitting, still powerful elected official.  Second, Justice Department guidelines discourage prosecutors from taking action during an election season to avoid the perception that they are trying to influence the outcome.

Over a roughly 18-month span in 2011 and 2012, Williams gave $15,000 in clothing to Maureen McDonnell, a $6,500 Rolex watch he intended for the governor, $15,000 for catering at the wedding of one of McDonnell’s daughters and $10,000 as an engagement gift to another daughter.


Two people confirmed over the weekend that there were additional gifts, including golf clubs for each of the governor’s college-age twin sons and an iPhone for the first lady.

Most significant, in 2011 and 2012, Williams provided $120,000 to Maureen McDonnell and to a small holding company owned by the governor and his sister, money the governor has said were loans that he has now repaid.
[T]the governor’s team has told authorities that McDonnell did not know that Williams paid for a shopping trip for Maureen McDonnell at Bergdorf Goodman in New York City in spring 2011.  They also have told prosecutors that he didn’t know it was Williams who bought the Rolex watch inscribed with the words “71st Governor of Virginia.”

They say he learned of a $50,000 loan Williams made to his wife in May 2011, about two weeks after the money arrived, by which time it had been spent.   About $30,000 went to purchase Star stock intended for the McDonnell children and the rest to pay down debt.  McDonnell learned five months later, in November 2011, that the stock was in his wife’s name and had not been transferred to their children as she had indicated, according to someone familiar with the governor’s account.

 There's more, but it's hard not to conclude either (i) Bob McDonnell is an idiot, or (ii) that he thinks the prosecutors and Virginia voters are idiots.  I opt for option (ii).

Monday Morning Male Beauty

Alabama GOP Seeks To Oust Pro-Gay College Republican Chairwoman

Proving yet again that Alabama has gone increasingly insane and reactionary compared to when I lived there 30 years ago, the Alabama GOP is seeking to oust the chairwoman of the College Republicans in that state.  Here offense? Her support for gay marriage and having the courage to state that not all Republicans agree with the dictates of the Christofascists who have taken over the party base.   The irony, of course, is that by conducting these kinds of witch hunts, the GOP is mere guaranteeing that the party's demographics will become even more centered on elderly far right Christian white voters.  Here are highlights from Yellowhammer News:

A proposed amendment to the bylaws of the Alabama Republican Party would remove from the Party’s steering committee any member who publicly supports a position contrary to the most recent GOP platform, which was adopted during the 2012 Republican National Convention.

Don Wallace of Tuscaloosa and Bonnie Sachs of Double Springs are the amendment’s sponsors. Sachs’ husband, Harold, is the most senior staffer at the Alabama Republican Party under Chairman Bill Armistead.

Party insiders say the proposed amendment was written as a direct result of comments made by current Alabama College Republicans Chairwoman Stephanie Petelos around the time the Supreme Court ruled the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional.

“We just [love] freedom and fun. That’s all. Don’t hate.” Petelos posted on her Facebook page after the Court’s decision was announced. She also encouraged her Facebook friends to “like” a page for a pro-gay marriage group called “Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry.” Petelos said she joined the group because she believes “all people deserve to be treated equally under the law.”

[T]he ALGOP bylaws committee went a step further and proposed a written agreement that instructed Petelos to never speak publicly against any part of the Party’s platform. She declined to sign it. 

The amendment will be voted on by the Alabama Republican Party executive committee at the Party’s summer meeting on Aug. 24.

As readers may recall, the "social issues" portion of the GOP Party Platform was authored in large part by hate group leader Tony Perkins and similar Christofascists.  The clear message to younger pro-gay Republicans is that they are not wanted in the party.  I hope they get the message and walk away and thus hasten the much needed death of today's GOP.

Quote of the Day: The Abuse of Domestic Spying

I continue to find the level of domestic spying on citizens in America frightening - not to mention a violation of the U.S. Constitution's provisions against unlawful search and seizure.  Yet Barack Obama and others have continued to defend the unconstitutional practice using the excuse that it is necessary to fight terrorism and national security.  The Nazi regime used the national security ruse in the 1930's and we all know what that lead to down the road.  The potential for abuse is simply too great and there are in truth no effective controls in place to prevent abuse should someone in the government decide to do so.  In a post Andrew Sullivan sums things up well after at first defending the practice.  The final straw for him was the holding and interrogation of reporter Glenn Greenwald's husband: 

When the NSA leaks burst onto the scene, I was skeptical of many of the large claims made by civil libertarians and queasily sympathetic to a program that relied on meta-data alone, as long as it was transparent, had Congressional buy-in, did not accidentally expose innocent civilians to grotesque privacy loss, and was watched by a strong FISA court.

Since then, I’ve watched the debate closely and almost all the checks I supported have been proven illusory. The spying is vastly more extensive than anyone fully comprehended before; the FISA court has been revealed as toothless and crippled; and many civilians have had their privacy accidentally violated over 3000 times. The president, in defending the indefensible, has damaged himself and his core reputation for honesty and candor. These cumulative revelations have exposed this program as, at a minimum, dangerous to core liberties and vulnerable to rank abuse. I’ve found myself moving further and further to Glenn’s position.

What has kept me from embracing it entirely has been the absence of any real proof than any deliberate abuse has taken place and arguments that it has helped prevent terror attacks. This may be too forgiving a standard. If a system is ripe for abuse, history tells us the only question is not if such abuse will occur, but when. So it is a strange and awful irony that the Coalition government in Britain has today clinched the case for Glenn.

A disclosure upfront: I have met David Miranda as part of a my friendship with Glenn Greenwald. The thought of his being detained by the British police for nine hours because his partner embarrassed the American government really sickens me at a gut level. 

My obvious question is: what could possibly lead the British security services to suspect David of such ties to terror groups? 

[A]lthough David was released, his entire digital library was confiscated – including his laptop and phone. So any journalist passing through London’s Heathrow has now been warned: do not take any documents with you. Britain is now a police state when it comes to journalists, just like Russia is.

In this respect, I can say this to David Cameron. Thank you for clearing the air on these matters of surveillance. You have now demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt that these anti-terror provisions are capable of rank abuse. Unless some other facts emerge, there is really no difference in kind between you and Vladimir Putin. You have used police powers granted for anti-terrorism and deployed them to target and intimidate journalists deemed enemies of the state.

You have proven that these laws can be hideously abused. Which means they must be repealed.

Hampton Roads Loses an Amazing Benefactor

There are many who achieve success and do little or nothing to give back to their community. Walter Segaloff, who dies suddenly yesterday morning was not such a person.  After a successful career in building a chain of women's clothing and specialty stores Segaloff remained involved in the Hampton Roads community, especially on the Virginia Peninsula and in 1992 established An Achievable Dream, a program offering tennis lessons and summer and after-school tutoring to elementary school students in Newport News.   His vision for the program: to end the cycle of poverty through education.   An Achievable Dream evolved into an elementary school and expanded to include a middle and high school.  Now, more than 1,200 economically disadvantaged students in grades K-12 receive an education with a social curriculum at the year-round, extended-day, public/private schools.  Just recently, plans to open a replica of that school in Virginia Beach in fall 2014 were announced.  Both the Virginian Pilot and the Daily Press are carrying stories on Segaloff's passing and his many past civic activities. Here are some excerpts:

In an interview earlier this year, Segaloff said he got the idea for An Achievable Dream when he watched from his car as police handcuffed three teens.  "I felt there's no American dream here," he said in the interview. "It isn't happening."  He said he had also noticed that his family's stores had trouble hiring workers because many applicants didn't know how to act or speak in an interview. He said he wanted to change that.

The schools are operated as part of Newport News Public Schools, but An Achievable Dream's nonprofit status allows it to raise money to add longer days and more programs for students.

Segaloff has developed partnerships with local businesses, the military, law enforcement and other agencies, and employees of those entities spend time in the school interacting with students.  The students, known as Dreamers, are greeted each morning by teachers, administrators, deputies from the Newport News Sheriffs Department and Fort Eustis Soldiers who line up to shake their hands as they enter the building. "Our kids ... you just show them the way.

If you teach them socially, morally and ethically the right thing to do, they'll do the right thing," Segaloff said Friday night [when he had been honored by the Virginia Press Association as its 2013 Virginian of the Year]. "With all of our graduates, we don't have one of them in trouble.

They are in business, college or military; they're productive, law-abiding citizens."

Traditional classroom instruction is blended with lessons about ethics, etiquette, peaceful conflict resolution and healthy living.

Walter Segaloff was one of the boyfriend's clients and we supported the Achievable Dream's annual fundraiser each year.   I feel lucky to have known him.  I cannot help but contrast what he did for his community compared to what so many of the "godly Christian" crowd fail to do.  Segaloff was Jewish and like many others in that faith community gave back to others.

Was Princess Diana Murdered by the British Military?

Conspiracy theorists will be having a field day as reports come out that Scotland Yard is investigating claims that Princess Diana was assassinated by the British military.  Odds are the truth will never be known and the real circumstances of Diana's death will be the subject of endless speculation just as with the assassination of John F. Kennedy.  The Daily Beast looks at the latest news on this legend that will likely endure no matter what findings are made.  Here are highlights:

Sixteen years after a fatal car crash in a Parisian tunnel, some argue that questions still remain over the cause of a collision that killed Diana, her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, and their driver, Henri Paul. Fayed’s father, Mohamed Al Fayed, and a host of conspiracy theorists have claimed that the British military or the royal family were behind the crash.

Since the closure of a formal inquiry into her death, the British police have not considered any of the theories worthy of investigation, until now.

The latest claims originate from the family of a star witness who appeared in a recent court case involving members of the elite SAS Special Forces unit. In a letter written by the estranged in-laws of a man known only as “Soldier N,” it is claimed that the ex-Special Forces operative had boasted that the SAS “was behind Princess Diana’s death” in conversations with his ex-wife.

The allegations will be examined by specialist officers at Scotland Yard, according to a spokesman who said: "The Metropolitan Police Service is scoping information that has recently been received in relation to the deaths and assessing its relevance and credibility.”

The letter in question, which has been seen by Britain’s Sunday People newspaper, does not include any first-hand evidence. A senior military official told me there were serious doubts over the source of the claims. “This allegation was made after a marriage had broken down, based purely on comments that were, rightly or wrongly, taken seriously. That’s if they were ever said at all,” he said. “The case of Princess Diana has had a lot of conspiracy theories bandied about around it—and I’m sure this won’t be the last.”

The first of those conspiracy theories emerged in August 1997, within hours of a black Mercedes 280-S striking the 13th pillar of the Pont de l'Alma road bridge near the river Seine in Paris. The shocking death of Diana, who was 36 at the time, prompted an unprecedented outpouring of public grief in Britain led by Tony Blair, the newly elected prime minister.

Al Fayed claimed that his son and Diana were killed by the British military at the behest of the royal family because they wanted to ensure the couple would never be married. He claimed Diana was pregnant with his son’s child and the royal family was horrified by the prospect of a union with a Muslim family. The former owner of Harrods alleged that the Queen’s husband had instructed MI6 to carry out the hit. “Prince Philip is the one responsible for giving the order,” he said. “He is very racist. He is of German blood, and I'm sure he is a Nazi sympathizer.”

Diana herself had apparently feared that members of the royal family were plotting to murder her.  A decade after her death, it emerged that she had sent a letter to her butler, Paul Burrell, in which she claimed that Prince Charles was planning to have her killed.

As noted, we probably never really feel we know for certain what happend.

Sunday Morning Male Beauty

Russian Gold Medalists Kiss On Podium In Defiance Of Anti-Gay Law

Not everyone in Russia supports Vladimir Putin's and the Russian Orthodox Church's as evidenced by a same sex kiss on the awards podium by two Russian Gold Medalists at the World Track & Field Championships in Moscow.  Will they be arrested?  And will others competing in athletic events in Russia?  Or will international bodies like the IOC and those like Swedish officials who told Swedish high jumper Emma Green Tregaro that she had to paint over her rainbow flag colored fingernails act as anti-gay enforcers for Russia?  ALL international events - especially the 2014 Winter Olympic Games - need to be moved out of Russia until the anti-gay laws are repealed.  First details on the same sex kiss via Joe My God:

Kseniya Ryzhova and Tatyana Firova, two members of Russia's women's 4x400 relay team, defied their nation's ban on "homosexual propaganda" when they kissed on the podium during the presentation ceremony for their gold medals at the World Track & Field Championships in Moscow.  Just fantastic! Thank you, ladies, thank you!

As for the enablers in Sweden,  there's this from News.Com.Au:

Emma Green Tregaro modelled bright red nails yesterday as she took the field at the world championships.

Swedish officials told the 28-year-old her rainbow gesture, which brought international attention as a protest against Russia's new law against gay "propaganda," could be a violation of the competition's code of conduct.

She said the Swedish track and field federation asked her to "please respect the rules" and change the colour of her nails.  "So I decided to paint them red instead, for love," she said.

The general secretary of the Swedish federation said the IAAF, the sport's governing body, had warned them that Green Tregaro may have violated the code of conduct.

"They were saying that this was by definition a breach of the regulations, not saying anything else, really," Anders Albertsson said. "We have informed our athletes about this."

Apparently, Swedish officials leaned nothing from the 1936 Berlin games and what happens when one offers appeasement to brutal tyrants.  Shame on Sweden.

GOP Elites in Full Blown Panic Mode

The damage being done to the Republican brand continues unabated as the lunatic Christofascist/Tea Party controlled base of the GOP veers further and further off into extremism and what is basically a fantasy world.  A fantasy world that a majority of Americans tethered to reality do not inhabit - and most importantly reject. As a former Republican who left the GOP as it sold its soul to the Christofascists, I will admit that I get some perverse delight in seeing my warnings to former GOP compatriots come true.  Unfortunately, the GOP has now become a threat to America and the party base seemingly would savor destroying the American (and world) economy.  A column in the Washington Post looks at the apparent panic gripping those who allowed the lunatic fringe to take over the party grassroots.  Here are excerpts:

Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei are well sourced among top Republicans. And today they weigh in with a big piece reporting that GOP elites are in full blown panic mode about the party’s drift towards a series of Apocalyptic showdowns this fall.

The most interesting bit is the profound worry about the drift towards a government shutdown over Obamacare. But I think the fundamental problem is still being overlooked. Here’s the key part:

Republicans are in jeopardy of convincing voters they simply cannot govern. Their favorable ratings are terrible and getting worse. But there is broad concern it could go from worse to an unmitigated disaster this fall. Most urgently, according to a slew of key Republicans we interviewed, conservative GOP senators have got to give up their insistence that the party allow the government to shut down after Sept. 30 if they don’t get their way on defunding Obamacare.

The quixotic drive — led by Rubio, Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Mike Lee — is part of Rubio’s effort to make up with the conservative base after he was stunned by the backlash over his deal-making on immigration. Pollsters say the funding fight makes Republicans look even more obstructionist, and causes voters to worry about the effect a shutdown would have on their own finances.

Whit Ayres of North Star Opinion Research, who has been drilling down on this issue for the conservative public-opinion group Resurgent Republic, said: “Shutting down the government is the one way that Republicans can turn Obamacare from a political advantage to a political disadvantage in 2014.”

The government shutdown push has focused the attention of GOP elites, because it is probably suicidal politically for the party. At the same time, though, the unspoken premise is that the problem is only one of excessive tactics, rather than something more fundamental. If Republicans are in jeopardy of convincing voters they cannot govern, as top GOPers seem to fear, it’s not clear that this is only because a shutdown has become a real possibility.

A shutdown, because of its visibility and destructiveness, is obviously a glaring symbol of an inability to govern, one that voters (as the 1990s showed) easily understand in such terms. But the result of the relentless focus on the shutdown has been to quasi-normalize other opposition to Obamacare. If a shutdown risks conveying a fundamental inability to govern, why do not other efforts to sabotage the law . . . . while offering no alternative also convey the same?

Some Republicans have begun to acknowledge this larger problem in public, albeit in somewhat different terms. But the battle over the shutdown is distracting from the need to focus on that more basic challenge.

AFA's Sany Rios: the Face of Bigotry (and Insanity)

Since it's Sunday morning, it's timely to look at some of the batshit craziness being spewed by the "godly Christian" crowd.  Always a contender for the title as one of the most hate filled and virulently anti-gay members is Sandy Rios, of the certified hate group, American Family Association.  Rios like most of the Chriatofascists has a bizarre fixation on gays and gay sex whether it's because she secretly longs to have some gay sex of her own or because we threaten her flimsy faith  system is hard to discern.  The woman needs a mental health care intervention in my view.  Right Wing Watch looks at Rios' latest explosion of verbal diarrhea.  Not surprisingly, the always racist Rios attacks Barack Obama as well.  Here are highlights:

After denouncing First Amendment protections for Muslim-Americans, American Family Association talk show host Sandy Rios said that despite the political setbacks of the Religious Right, “God will even the score” with President Obama and “homosexual activists.” She said that Obama and “homosexual activists” will be punished in the end for “breaking all kinds of moral laws and mocking everyone in the process.”

I would not want to be in the shoes of any of the left right now. I would not want to be in Barack Obama’s shoes. I would not want to be in the shoes of homosexual activists. I say that with humility and with fear for them because God will even the score, he will sort things out, he will be God and he will not be mocked. Whereas they think they are getting away with breaking all kinds of moral laws and mocking everyone in the process, they just don’t know God, they don’t know who they are up against and we do. And that should bring out some mercy in us because I wouldn’t want to be—what did that old evangelist say: ‘it’s a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God.

Personally, I love her reference to "that old evangelist."   We have no idea who actually wrote the books of the New Testament other than it wasn't those to whom they are attributed and we know the Bible has been manipulated and re-edited over and over again over the course of the first 1,000 years of the Church.   As for "God punishing" Obama and gay activists, Rios is unclear as to whether she is call for far right nutcases to inflict the punishment as instruments of God or if that will only happen on the supposed Judgment Day.  The woman is insane and she's dangerous in that she spews hate and venom that could incite violence.

I would not want to be in the shoes of any of the left right now. I would not want to be in Barack Obama’s shoes. I would not want to be in the shoes of homosexual activists. I say that with humility and with fear for them because God will even the score, he will sort things out, he will be God and he will not be mocked. Whereas they think they are getting away with breaking all kinds of moral laws and mocking everyone in the process, they just don’t know God, they don’t know who they are up against and we do. And that should bring out some mercy in us because I wouldn’t want to be—what did that old evangelist say: ‘it’s a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God. - See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/rios-god-will-even-score-obama-and-gays#sthash.rpj2Sdvi.dpuf

I would not want to be in the shoes of any of the left right now. I would not want to be in Barack Obama’s shoes. I would not want to be in the shoes of homosexual activists. I say that with humility and with fear for them because God will even the score, he will sort things out, he will be God and he will not be mocked. Whereas they think they are getting away with breaking all kinds of moral laws and mocking everyone in the process, they just don’t know God, they don’t know who they are up against and we do. And that should bring out some mercy in us because I wouldn’t want to be—what did that old evangelist say: ‘it’s a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God. - See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/rios-god-will-even-score-obama-and-gays#sthash.rpj2Sdvi.dpuf

After denouncing First Amendment protections for Muslim-Americans, American Family Association talk show host Sandy Rios said that despite the political setbacks of the Religious Right, “God will even the score” with President Obama and “homosexual activists.” She said that Obama and “homosexual activists” will be punished in the end for “breaking all kinds of moral laws and mocking everyone in the process.” - See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/rios-god-will-even-score-obama-and-gays#sthash.rpj2Sdvi.dpuf