AM Feed - July 13: Indian Tribe Sues Abramoff, Reed and Others
Hot Topics
- The Alabama-Coushatta Indian Tribe has filed a lawsuit against corrupt former superlobbyist Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed, and three other men, claiming that Abramoff and his associates fraudulently mounted a campaign to defeat a gambling bill, forcing the tribe’s casino to close. Abramoff associate Michael Scanlon and Neil Volz, former chief of staff to Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH), are also named in the lawsuit. The tribe is claiming that Abramoff orchestrated a fraudulently religious-themed opposition to the gambling bill. A court order forced the casino to close in 2002. [link]
- The Republican-controlled House of Representatives is having all sorts of problems renewing the seminal Voting Rights Act, a landmark bill that offered important electoral protections to formerly disenfranchised American citizens. Ultra-conservatives in the House have rebelled against renewal, and have proposed amendments that would effectively water down the bill. One change, proposed by Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), would reduce the renewal period from 25 years to 10. Another proposition, advanced by Rep. Steve King (R-IA), would get rid of the requirement to print multilingual ballots in areas with high populations of non-English speakers, effectively disenfranchising those people. [link]
- So much for the Bush administration’s intense focus on keeping our nation secure: One year after the Department of Homeland Security created a high-level post to coordinate our nation’s cybersecurity, the post is still vacant. No candidate has even been tapped to fill it. The post is designed to help protect our technological infrastructure from attack – an increasingly important mandate in this era. “A department that has failed [for a year] to find an assistant secretary, even by Washington standards…has to be some kind of record,” said Roger W. Cressey, a former Bush administration official. [link]
Quote of the Day
“The projected budget deficit over—of over $420 billion is now assumed to be $296 billion. See, what happens is when you grow the economy by cutting taxes, more tax revenues come into the Treasury, and that’s what we’re seeing here.” – President Bush, discussing his administration’s economic record in Wisconsin on Tuesday. A deficit of $296 billion would still rank among the highest in our nation’s history.
Morning Snark
- To borrow a well-coined phrase: When it comes to the economy and the deficit, it sure looks as though the Bush team is succumbing to the soft bigotry of low expectations.
Comment
- I wonder if the Government Accounting Office hired those accountants who lost their jobs at Enron.
— Doyal Jul 13, 13:20 # - The 296 is less the war costs, isn’t it? I thought that I read that the war funds are being requested through emergency appropriations and that they have not been included in the budget again. Bush should also praise cutting student loans and economic assistance programs for the reduction in deficit…
— brian Jul 13, 13:52 # - Excellant idea ,Doyle. If things go wrong, which they sometimes do, baBuska can say he didn’t know what was going on. He’s just the CEO not the bookkeeper.
— Rosalie Stern Jul 13, 13:57 #
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