Parliament of Whores

Home | Satire on U.S. Political Scene | Government Shame Record under Bush and Obama | Congressional Hall of Shame | Supreme Court above The Code of Judicial Conduct--Clarence Thomas example | Votes Bought: Corporate Campaign Contributions | Corporate Political Power | CORPORATE WELFARE: Helping Companies Grab More | The Pork Barrel | Illegal workers cost us billions | Flooding the job market with immigration--jk | Pension Plans changes, an overview | WHY THE DEMOCRATS ARE LIKE THE REPUBLICANS--jk | Illegal workers and wages | IRAQ WAR CAUSED BY OIL--proof | HOW CONGRESS WORKS | $200 Billlion Housing Bail-out for Banks--Palast, 08 | SUV tax break | STATS ON CORPORATE CRIME | ELECTION FUNDING REFORM PASSED IN 6 STATES | KATRINA BUSH SHIT | WAR, Another Form of Corporate Welfare | The Iraq War Stimulates Our Economy | CONGRESS TRADES ON INSIDER INFORMATION | Another Election Stolen | Stolen election (Greg Palast, 6-06) | Right-wing Propaganda Machine--Brock & JK | Drug Lobby paid off with Medicare | Immigration Explosion | Constitutional Facade, pot ruling | OIL, war, hegemeny

Congressional Hall of Shame

Alphabetical, short list of members

 

David Bruce Bitter, Republican Senator from Louisiana who had a protracted affair with a prostitute.  The past affair was revealed in July of 07. 

 

Conrad Burns, Republican ex-Senator Montana, involved in the Jack Abramoff scandal.  Defeated in the 06 election.     

 

George W. Bush, President.  Lying to the public and Congress about reasons to invade Iraq.

 

Larry Edwin Craig Republican Senator who was arrest for lewd conduct in a men’s bathroom on June 11, 3007, and pled guilty to the lesser charge of disorderly conduct.  He will not run for re-election in 2008. 

 

Randal “Duke” Cunningham Republican Congressman, California, pled guilty to taking $2,400,000 bribe for which he was sentenced to 8 years in prison. 

 

Tom DeLay, Texas, Republican House Majority Leader, indicted for money laundering, resigned his position January 06, and from Congress June 06.

 

Mark Adam Foley, Republican Congressman Florida, who resigned in 06 after it became public that he had repeatedly sent for years suggestive emails to teenage boys who were congressional pages.

 

James Dale Guckert, made Whitehouse reporter (without background), open gay who works as male escort. 

 

William Jefferson, Democrat Louisiana, who was video taped accepting $100,000 payoff, in June of 07 he was indicted by a federal grand jury on 16 charges related to corruption.   

 

Jerry Lewis Republican California who traded favors for campaign contribution and other financial considerations

 

Chester Trent Lott, Sr. Republican Mississippi Majority Senate Majority Leader and then Minority Leader, who resigned his position in 02 after praising a racist and having a racist-voting record.

 

Alan Mollohan Democrat, West Virginia, directed contracts to friends and family members.  As a result of these and other allegations he relinquished his position on the House Ethics Committee.  In 4 years his assets went from $465,000 to $13.5 million. 

 

Robert William Ney, Republican Congressman Ohio resigned November of 06.  He is serving 30 months because of involvement in the Abramoff’s Indian lobbying.

 

Richard Pombo, Republican ex-Congressman California, who lost the 06 election after multiple exposure of corruption, misuse of official resources, nepotism, questionable campaign contributions, and a dismal environmental record.

 

Edward Lee Schrock, Republican Congressman Virginian, who didn’t run for a third term (06) following the exposure of having solicited male prostitutes. 

 

Donald L Sherwood, Republican Congressman Pennsylvania, who repeatedly sexually assaulted his girlfriend Cynthia Ore.  Defeated in the 06 election.

 

James Anthony Traficant, Jr. Democratic Congressman convicted of taking bribes and false tax returns; now serving an 8-year sentence

 

Curt Weldon, Republican Congressman Pennsylvania, went to bat for 3 foreign clients of a tiny lobbying firm owned by his 29-year old daughter Karen.  In 2006 Weldon was defeated 56-44%. 

 

Ethics Hall of Congressional Shame

From http://cleanupwashington.org/hos/


Meet the New Inductees into the Ethics Hall of Shame!

You voted Reps. Weldon, Mollohan, and Lewis in by a landslide as new inductees. As long as our elected officials must hustle millions from donor through a process of legalized bribery, the return-on investment process will continue.

 

List of sexually scandelous and criminal behavior of congressional members and Bush—by date.

 

Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_scandals_of_the_United_States#2000-  with modifications by JK.  Another list

 

George W. Bush, consistant lying to the public and Congress to protect his associate and further political goals.  Most grevious is the fabrication of “evidence” to support the U.S. invasion of Iraq.  Second set of acts of scandalous proportion would be his support for the energy industry, including his failure to act up the manipulation of energy prices which resulted in a spike in rates for the state of California.  Bush met numerous times with Ken Lay, CEO of Enron who played a major role in the formulation of Whitehouse energy policies.  When Enron failed and criminal action for accounting fraud became public, Bush repeatedly denied the extent of his association with Ken Lay, Enron’s president.  An entire book (The Great Unraveling) has been written by Paul Krugman of the New York Times on the difference between what Bush says publically and what the Whitehouse does.  Such blatant use of the press as an advocate for polices without regard for the truth has presidental predicessors, in particular Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.  Bush’s was involved in the leaking of Valery Plame’s indentity as CIA operative (2004) and it coverup.  Bush pardon Whitehouse aid “Scooter” Libby who was convicted of obstruction of justice and sentenced to 30 months..

 

James Anthony Traficant, Jr. (born May 8, 1941) is a former Democratic Representative in the United States Congress from Ohio (from 1985 to 2002). He was expelled after being convicted of taking bribes, filing false tax returns, racketeering, and forcing his aides to perform chores at his farm in Ohio and on his houseboat in Washington, D.C.,[1] and is currently serving out an eight-year prison term with a projected release date of September 2, 2009.

 

Edward Lee Schrock, Republican Politicain, served in House from Jan 01 to Jan 05.  He announced on August 30, 2004, that he would abort his 2004 attempt for a third term in Congress. In the weeks before his announcement, Michael Rogers' blogACTIVE.com had said that Schrock is gay — or at least a bisexual — despite having aggressively opposed various gay-rights issues in Congress such as same-sex marriage and gays in the military.  Congressman Ed Schrock has made a habit of rendezvousing with gay men via the MegaMates/MegaPhone Line, an interactive telephone service on which men place ads and respond to those ads to meet each other. 

 

Donald L. "Don" Sherwood (born March 5, 1941) Republican, served in House from 1999 until defeated in 08.  On September 15, 2004, a woman locked herself inside the bathroom of Sherwood's Washington, D.C. apartment, and called 911 to report she was assaulted. When police arrived, the woman, Cynthia Ore, accused Sherwood of choking her, though he maintained he was only giving her a backrub. No charges were filed because both Sherwood and Ore refused to provide any details. The report of the Washington Metropolitan Police Department stated, "Both parties have left out significant information or are not willing to discuss in detail what actually happened." Ore later filed a $5.5 million lawsuit against Sherwood, accusing him of repeatedly assaulting her during their relationship. [4] On November 8, 2005, Sherwood and Ore ended the lawsuit by reaching a settlement, the terms of which were not released.

William Jennings Jefferson (born March 14, 1947) Democrat of the U.S. House of Representatives since 1991. He represents Louisiana's 2nd congressional district, which includes much of the greater New Orleans area. He is Louisiana's first black Congressman since the end of Reconstruction.  Jefferson was videotaped accepting $100,000 in $100 bills from a Northern Virginia investor who was wearing an FBI wire, according to a search warrant affidavit. A few days later, on Aug. 3, 2005, FBI agents raided Jefferson's home in Northeast Washington and found $90,000 of the cash in the freezer, in $10,000 increments wrapped in aluminum foil and stuffed inside frozen-food containers.

James Dale Guckert (born 1957) worked under the pseudonym Jeff Gannon as a White House reporter between 2003 and 2005 , representing the virtual organization Talon News.  Gannon then came under public scrutiny, in particular for his lack of a significant journalistic background prior to his work with Talon[2][3] and his involvement with various homosexual escort service websites using the professional name Bulldog, he resigned from Talon News on February 8, 2005.  Continuing to use the name Gannon, he has since created his own official homepage and worked for a time as a columnist for the Washington Blade newspaper, where he came out as gay.[4] Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post wrote that, "Jeff Gannon, ... whose naked pictures have appeared on a number of gay escort sites. He also owns several male gay porn websites including Hotmilitarystud.com and Militaryescorts.com[14] and posted naked pictures of himself.”  Guckert had worked as a $200-an-hour male escort.  He had a Whitehouse connection for he given one-day press passes for two years.  One day passes do not require a background check unlike that of a permanent press pass.  Talon News was not a regular news service but one set up as his putative employer; and it folded when the scandal became public.  Moreover, Guckert had no prior media experience.  Unforturnate whom he was visiting in the whitehouse has not become public.

Robert William "Bob" Ney (born July 5, 1954) was an American politician from the U.S. state of Ohio. A Republican, Ney represented Ohio's 18th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 until November 3, 2006, when he resigned. Ney's resignation followed his guilty plea to charges of conspiracy and making false statements in relation to the Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal.  He pled guilty in October of 2006 and was sentenced to 30 months. 

Mark Adam Foley (born September 8, 1954) is an American politician who served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 until 2006, representing the 16th District of Florida.  Once known as a crusader against child abuse and exploitation, Foley resigned from Congress on September 29, 2006 after allegations surfaced that he had sent suggestive emails and sexually explicit instant messages[1] to teenaged boys who had formerly served and were at that time serving as Congressional pages.[2][3] As a result of the disclosures, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement opened investigations of the messages to find possible criminal charges.[4] The House Ethics Committee has also opened an investigation into the response of the House Republican leadership and their staff to earlier warnings of Foley's conduct.  His lawyer revealed that Foley was molested by a clergyman when he was between the ages of 13 and 15 adding that “Mark Foley wants you to know he is a gay man.”  Catholic priest named Anthony Mercieca told the newspaper about an intimate two-year relationship he had with Foley when the congressman was a teenage altar boy living in Lake Worth, Florida.

Larry Edwin Craig (born July 20, 1945) is an American politician from the state of Idaho. As a Republican, he has represented the state of Idaho in the United States Senate since 1991. In addition, Craig served in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Idaho's 1st congressional district (1981–1991).[2] Including his service in the House of Representatives, Craig is the second-longest serving member of the United States Congress in Idaho history, trailing only William Edgar Borah. In addition to serving in Congress, Craig has been a member of the Board of Directors of the National Rifle Association since 1983.[3] Craig has also been selected for induction into the Idaho Hall of Fame.[4] Although he was selected in March, 2007, the announcement was made in October, 2007.  On August 27, 2007 the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call revealed that Craig had been arrested for lewd conduct in a men's bathroom on June 11, 2007, and pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct on August 8, 2007.[6] As a result of the controversy surrounding his arrest and subsequent guilty plea, Senator Craig announced his intention to resign from the Senate at a news conference on September 1, 2007, which was to become effective on September 30, 2007. After failing to withdraw his guilty plea, on October 4, 2007, Craig released a statement refusing to resign as Senator for Idaho. Craig has stated that he will not run for re-election in 2008.

 

 

 

 

A governor worth adding:

 

Eliot Spitzer exposed

From Wikipedia.org

On March 10, 2008, The New York Times reported that Spitzer had previously patronized a high-priced prostitution service called Emperors Club VIP[125] and met for over two hours with a $1,000-an-hour call girl[126] now known to be a New York City singer going by the name Ashley Alexandra Dupré (legal name Ashley Rae Maika DiPietro).[127][128] This information originally came to the attention of authorities from a federal wiretap.[129][130][131][132] Spitzer had at least seven or eight liaisons with women from the agency over six months, and paid more than $15,000.[133][134] According to published reports, investigators believe Spitzer paid up to $80,000 for prostitutes over a period of several years while he was Attorney General, and later as Governor.[135][136][137] Spitzer first drew the attention of federal investigators when his bank reported suspicious money transfers, which initially led investigators to believe that Spitzer may have been hiding bribe proceeds. The investigation of the governor led to the discovery of the prostitution ring.[138]

In the wake of the revelations, Spitzer announced on March 12 that he would resign his post as Governor effective at noon of March 17, amid threats of his impeachment by state lawmakers.[4]

"I cannot allow for my private failings to disrupt the people's work," Spitzer said at a news conference in New York City. "Over the course of my public life, I have insisted - I believe correctly - that people take responsibility for their conduct. I can and will ask no less of myself. For this reason, I am resigning from the office of governor."


 Dishonorable Mention

Chester Trent Lott Sr. (born October 9, 1941) is a United States Senator from Mississippi and a member of theRepublican Party. He served as Senate Majority Leader from 1996 to June 6, 2001, interrupted only by a brief period in January 2001, during which he held the position of Senate Minority Leader. After Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont left the Republican Party to become an independent in June 2001, giving the Democrats control of the Senate, Lott served asMinority Leader until his resignation from that position in December 2002 due to controversial remarks. The remark in praise of Senator Strom Thurmond, an open racist, highlighted Lott’s own racist voting record.  From 1981 to 1989 he was also a House Minority Whip As Majority Leader he played a prominate role in the impeachment trial of Bill Clinton. 

 

David Bruce Vitter (born May 3, 1961) is an American Republican politician, currently serving as the junior U.S. Senatorfrom Louisiana He is known for his opposition to same-sex marriage and his support of abstenance sex education.  . Vitter won a special election to Louisiana's 1st Congressional District in 1999, succeeding Republican Congressman Bob Livingston, who resigned after an adultery scandal.  Vitter in July of 2007 was identified as a client of "D.C. Madam"Deborah Jeane Palfrey's escort service in Washington, D.C.   Vitter appeared with his wife on television following this revelation.  She stated that she forgave him. 

 New inductees into the Ethics Hall of Shame    Updated June of 08:

 Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa

 Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W-Va)

 Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Ca)

http://www.cleanupwashington.org/hos/ ia site dedicated to the corruption and malfeasance of our congressional leaders.

Listed there with details are Tom DeLay, Randal Duke Cunningham, Bob Ney, Richard Pombo, Conrad Burns, William Jefferson, and Jack Abramoff.

 

http://nofreelunch.org/reqreading.htm about drug companies influencing medical decisions. 

 Senator Ted Stevens (born  November 18, 1923) who has served since 1968 was convicted on 7 counts contected to handling of public funds.

From wikipedia.org: 

On July 29, 2008 Stevens was indicted by a federal grand jury on seven counts of failing to properly report gifts and found guilty at trial three months later (October 27, 2008).  The charges relate to renovations to his home and alleged gifts fromVECO Corporation, claimed to be worth more than $250,000.  The indictment followed a lengthy investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for possible corruption into Alaskan politicians and was based on his relationship with Bill Allen. Allen, then an oil service company executive, had earlier pled guilty, with sentencing suspended pending his cooperation in gathering evidence and giving testimony in other trials, to bribing several Alaskan state legislators, including a disputed claim about Stevens' son, former State Senator Ben Stevens. Stevens declared, "I'm innocent," and pled not guilty to the charges in a federal district court on July 31, 2008. Stevens asserted his right to a speedy trial so that he could have the opportunity to promptly clear his name and requested that the trial be held before the 2008 election.

 

 

If there lips are moving they are lying.  


The one thing you can be sure that they stand for, is to get elected.

 

If there lips are moving they are lying (said of politician)
 
 

To understand developments in our political system (both parties) one must understand the role of neoliberalism.  Any analysis which misses this connection is grossly inadequate.  (Neocons follow neoliberalism economic policies). 

 

We have an evil, evil system. Words such as imperialism, greed, corporate greed, neoliberalism, neoconservate, globalism, bought politicians, control of media are descriptive.   There are reasons why the labor movement has collapsed.  It is the politics of neoliberalism, an out growth of corporate greed.  Given how it opposes the public weal, we have devoted a section to expose just what neoliberalism is—a thing that the five corporations which own broadcasting will not do. 

 

THE BRINK OF ECONOMIC COLLAPSE

Things have gotten worse, the hole the neocons has dug is much deeper.  The economic stats are worse than bad:  the trend is toward greater disparity of wealth and on top of that the U.S. is loaded with debt and imbalance of trade.  The debt can through fiscal austerity can be paid off (as some of it was under Clinton), but the trade imbalance will only grow due to the dismantling of are industrial base and the setting up of free trade agreements such as NAFTA.   The current foreign debt is equaled to over 70% of GDP, a ratio unmatched by far among industrialized nations.  To find out what economics is called the dismal science and the role of neoliberalism.