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View Full Version : corruption in the legistlature??? nah


scrappy
07-12-2007, 01:44 AM
Not sure if this has made national news or not, but we just had a HUGE Federal trial end, where one of our legislatures was found guilty on several counts of corruption and bribery. There are 3 more prominant people that have been indicted and will be going to trial in the comming months, but all of this stems from the oil industry. One of the head hanchos, Pres and VP, were indicted from an oil company and promptly pled guilty and agreed to "cooperate" with the FBI to get a lighter sentence. Well in this entangled web, at the end of it I should say is the 2 US Senators for Alaska, Murkowski and Ted Stevens. If you don't really follow politics, Ted Stevens is like the 5th or 6th man down from the President, meaning 5 or 6 people have to die in the line of succession and he becomes the Pres. He's a super powerful man, and gee the guy that just got found guilty, was attached to him.

Think Libby on a smaller scale, since we are in Alaska. Lobbyist getting paid for votes and doing some shady stuff.

Kind of cracks me up how people are so shocked that people in government get bribed for votes. DUH!!!!!!!!! Only thing that is tough, is up here we are oil country so everything has to do with Big Oil and fishing. 2 things which Alaskans take seriously, not just because of pump prices but we are also greedy like that, because we get a piece of the pie every year in the form of dividends.

Our new Governor just passed an ethics bill that has to do with what they are allowed to do, what they have to disclose about who they work for and do side work for, and so forth. Her husband works for big oil and took a leave of absence until the gas line deal goes through, because he didn't want it to be a conflict of interest. (We want to put in a HUGE natural gas line and start it up north where the pipeline starts, and have it stretch across Canada and finish in Chicago to make natural gas cheaper on the east coast because we have too much of it here with getting the oil out of the ground, but they want 1 contractor to do it but Alaska would own the pipeline)

Ever since the AGIA came out with our last governor, that's when the FBI started raiding eveyrone's office looking for bribes. So those of you who live on the east coast and pay a fortune for natural gas in the winter, had better hope no one else high up gets indicted.

sorry for my medicinal rambling


http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=6765121

Rutgers Collector
07-12-2007, 10:05 AM
Ted Stevens, the former chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committe, is directly responsible for the fourfold increase in earmarks over the past decade. Yes, those same earmarks that Chimpie Bush stomped his feet about during negotiations over war funding. The same earmarks that brought us the "bridge to nowhere" a $220 million bridge to connect 8000 residents with 50 island dwellers in a remote area of Alaska.

The same Ted Stevens who secretly blocked legislation requiring transparency in reporting legislative spending and fundraising. The same Ted Stevens who in supporting the cable monopolies and phone companies rights to tier internet service and charge a fee for high speed service ("net neutrality" is the movement opposing this and with Bush in office, expect it to fail), described the internet as a "series of tubes". The same Ted Stevens who is the ONLY member of Congress to admit to appropriating government contracts to businesses he has stock in, a conflict of interest that has drawn him into his current legal woes.

And Lisa Murkowski? That's the junior senator who was appointed by her father after he was elected governor. I think the law was changed after that because of charges of nepotism.

Down here, Alaska politics is basically synonymous with corruption, to the point that no one even cares. We basically sneer at Stevens as stupid and old.

scrappy
07-12-2007, 01:17 PM
yeah that's the same ted stevens and yep lisa murkowski was the one appointed by her daddy when he ran for governor. after that, no one liked her daddy which is why he got his ass kicked by a girl in the primary race. he even got busted right after he handed over the keys to the governors mansion because he took this stupid plane he said the state HAD to have, on vacation, so our sitting gov. billed him for the crew and gas and sold the plane.

yeah, no one up here was really surprised with the corruption, i think we were just surprised that the FBI was actually going to do something about it. kinda one of those things, that everyone knows is going on but no one talks about

detox
07-12-2007, 01:22 PM
can I get the cliff notes

scrappy
07-12-2007, 01:23 PM
can I get the cliff notes

guy got caught doing something illegal that everyone has been doing for a long time, only no one said anything before. going to jail for long time

detox
07-12-2007, 01:24 PM
guy got caught doing something illegal that everyone has been doing for a long time, only no one said anything before. going to jail for long time

thanks

He gets what he deserves.