Truth

MAJOR REVELATIONS IN JOHN DOE PROBE - Scott Walker Mistakenly Admits He is Under Investigation

justinspoliticalcorner:

BREAKING: MAJOR REVELATIONS IN JOHN DOE PROBE - Scott Walker Mistakenly Admits He is Under Investigation

Following reports that Scott Walker’s criminal defense fund grew by $100,000 in May, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is today reporting major revelations in the John Doe criminal corruption probe, including Scott Walker’s mistaken admission that he is under investigation.

-Scott Walker mistakenly admits that he is a target in the John Doe criminal corruption probe

Walker, in a rare moment of candor, stated to reporters that he would not use the criminal defense fund to pay for the legal defenses of his aides, who have been charged with crimes ranging from child enticement, to theft from veterans and the families of fallen soldiers, to misuse of taxpayer resources to illegally campaign for Scott Walker, and would instead use the funds for himself or his campaign.

Wisconsin law is very clear: an elected official can only establish a legal defense fund if they, or their agent, are under investigation for, charged with, or convicted of violations of Wisconsin’s campaign finance and election laws.

Since he is not paying for the defense of an agent acting on his behalf, it is now clear that Scott Walker is under investigation.

—The homes and offices of top Walker administration officials homes have been raided by prosecutors

h/t: Wisconsin Democratic Party

Ex-Wife Files Complaint About Sen. Kirk’s Payments To Girlfriend | TPMMuckraker

justinspoliticalcorner:

The ex-wife of Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, alleging that Kirk may have improperly hidden campaign payments to an ex-girlfriend by paying her through a company doing campaign work, The Chicago Tribune reports.

“Mr. Kirk seems to have believed Ms. McCracken provided him with something valuable enough, that he acceded to, directed, or tacitly endorsed … campaign donations being surreptitiously transferred to his girlfriend,” Kimberly Vertolli, the ex-wife, wrote in her complaint, filed in November 2011.

Vertolli, who has been a Navy lieutenant and intelligence officer and a lawyer for the CIA„ herself received $40,000 from the campaign, also through a company, though the Tribune reports that “she said there was nothing improper about that.”

Kirk’s campaign, meanwhile, has called Vertolli’s accusations “groundless.”

Vertolli, 39, and Kirk, 52, divorced in 2009 after nearly eight years of marriage. Eric Elk, Kirk’s campaign manager, told the Tribune that the couple split amicably, but Vertolli now blames Kirk’s relationship with Dodie McCracken, 54, for the divorce.

H/T: Eric Lach at TPM

The Proposed Auction of Ronald Reagan's Blood Isn't Surprising

reagan-was-a-horrible-president:

A British company, PFC Auctions, is currently entertaining bids for a vial of the late president’s blood; the bidding closes on Thursday and, as of writing, was approaching $12,000. The blood was collected in 1981, when deranged would-be assassin John Hinckley shot the president in Washington, D.C. The sale has elicited predictable disgust and outrage, both in the public and on the part of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation.

“If indeed this story is true, it’s a craven act and we will use every legal means to stop its sale or purchase,” John Heubusch, the foundation’s executive director, said in a statement. (It has also elicited equally predictable jokes: “Is it too late for the vial of Reagan blood to run for the GOP nomination?” “The appropriate thing to do with the Reagan blood would be to trickle it down on some poor people.”)

…..

House Democrats call for (Wisconsin Republican) Governor Walker to clarify testimony in light of new video | The Raw Story

Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform have asked Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) to obtain a clarification from Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R).

During a congressional testimony last year, Walker had denied that his actions in Wisconsin were used to punish members of the Democratic Party and their donor base, namely unions. But recently released video of the governor appears to contradict his testimony.

“This new video raises serious questions about the veracity of Governor Walker’s testimony before our Committee, in which he repeatedly described his decision to strip public sector union workers of collective bargaining rights in purely economic terms,” Reps. Elijah Cummings, Gerald Connolly and Chris Murphy wrote in a letter. “Instead, this video suggests that his motivation was to ‘divide and conquer’ public sector unions in order to turn Wisconsin into a ‘completely red state.’”

(Source: sarahlee310)

FLASHBACK: Bobby Jindal's Exorcism Problem | Mother Jones

In an op-ed for Politico on Wednesday, anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist called on presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney to select Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal as his running mate. That came just a week after former Bush speechwriter David Frum penned a piece for CNN entitled “Bobby Jindal for Vice President.” Scott Conroy captured the emeging zeitgeist with a profile of Jindal for Real Clear Politics in which he reported that, after “private conversations with people close to both Romney and Jindal,” there were plenty of reasons to believe” that Jindal could be our next vice president. Phil Klein at the Washington Examiner says Jindal is “hands down” the best to be Romney’s running mate. Jindal Fever: catch it!

Criticism of Jindal—aside from his dodgy health care privatization scheme, support for an Arizona-style immigration law, and fierce opposition to reproductive rights—tends to center on an awkward State of Union repsonse he delivered three years ago. This is dumb because most people didn’t watch it, and anyway, there’s basically no dignified way to rebut a State of the Union. (For one thing, unlike the President’s speech, there’s no one there to applaud.)

A much bigger reason why Jindal won’t be Romney’s running mate is the exorcism he conducted.

No, really. Jindal himself wrote about the experience in 1994 for the New Oxford Review, in an article entitled ”Beating a Demon: Physical Dimensions of Spiritual Warfare.” The short of it is that, while Jindal was an undergraduate, his close friend, Susan, with whom he had maintained a wholly non-romantic relationship, began acting strange. One might attribute this to the fact that she was undergoing treatment for cancer. Jindal assumed she had been possessed.

(Source: sarahlee310)

Rand Paul’s cynical budget - The Washington Post

bohemiansouth:

Referring to Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, columnist Dana Milbank writes:

The tea party darling’s plan would, among other things, cut the average Social Security recipient’s benefits by nearly 40 percent, reduce defense spending by nearly $100 billion below a level the Pentagon calls “devastating,” and end the current Medicare program in two years — even for current recipients, according to the Senate Budget Committee staff. It would eliminate the education, energy, housing and commerce departments, decimate homeland security, eviscerate programs for the poor, and give the wealthy a bonanza by reducing tax rates to 17 percent and eliminating taxes on capital gains and dividends.

It is, all in all, quite a nasty piece of work … .