FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog

ABC News The Blotter: Officials: Hastert “In the Mix” of Congressional Bribery Investigation

Federal officials say the Congressional bribery investigation now includes Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, based on information from convicted lobbyists who are now cooperating with the government.

Part of the investigation involves a letter Hastert wrote three years ago, urging the Secretary of the Interior to block a casino on an Indian reservation that would have competed with other tribes.

The other tribes were represented by convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff who reportedly has provided details of his dealings with Hastert as part of his plea agreement with the government.

The letter was written shortly after a fund-raiser for Hastert at a restaurant owned by Abramoff. Abramoff and his clients contributed more than $26,000 at the time.

The day Abramoff was indicted, Hastert denied any unlawful connection and said he would donate to charity any campaign contribution he had received from Abramoff and his clients.

A spokesman for Speaker Hastert told ABC News, “We are not aware of this. The Speaker has a long history and a well-documented record of opposing Indian Reservation shopping for casino gaming purposes.”

This week, Hastert has been outspoken in his criticism of the FBI for its raid on the office of another congressman under investigation, Democrat William Jefferson of Louisiana.

“My opinion is that they took the wrong path, Hastert said of the FBI. “They need to back up, and we need to go from there.”

Now, Reuters is reporting the Speaker is NOT under investigation by the Department of Justice/FBI.

Which is it?

Reuters: House Speaker not under investigation: Justice

The U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday denied a report that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dennis Hastert, is under investigation by the FBI in connection with a corruption probe.

ABC News, citing high level Justice Department sources, said information implicating Hastert had been developed from convicted lobbyists who are now cooperating with the government.

But department officials, who asked to not be identified, said the story was not accurate and that Hastert was not under investigation. “The story is wrong. Hastert is not under investigation,” one official said.

Who knows?

Michelle Malkin has WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH HASTERT?

Instapundit also got that e-mail and writes:

Perhaps the bizarre bipartisan reaction to the [Rep. William] Jefferson search — and the lack of cooperation preceding it — stems from the fact that a lot of people in both parties have exposure here. And certainly if the Speaker is under investigation it’s easy to see why the FBI might be reluctant to rely further on the Sergeant at Arms and the Capitol Police.UPDATE: I’ve got an email from the Krista Cole in the House saying that the DOJ denies that Hastert is under investigation. Nothing on the DOJ webpage yet, though.

Allah floats a theory:

Brian Ross was the reporter who broke the story last week about the FBI supposedly investigating journalists’ phone records to uncover leaks. Might someone in the bureau have fed him bad info on Hastert to make his reporting look unreliable?

Who knows?

But, Hastert’s position on the Representative Jefferson search is wrong, ill-timed and frankly MORONIC.

Mr. Speaker, you know what they say about people who live in “glass houses.”

Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-IL) is seen at the Capitol in Washington May 10, 2006.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s press briefing……

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Representative William Jefferson Watch: Jefferson Refuses to Quit Ways and Means Committee

Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., takes part in a Capitol Hill news conference, Monday, May 22, 2006. The FBI revealed Sunday that Jefferson, under investigation for bribery, was videotaped accepting $100,000 in $100 bills from an FBI informant whose conversations with the lawmaker also were recorded.

ASSociated Press: Jefferson refuses to quit Ways and Means

Democrats sought to get embattled Rep. William Jefferson to resign his seat on the House’s most prestigious committee.

“In the interest of upholding the high ethical standard of the House Democratic Caucus, I am writing to request your immediate resignation from the Ways and Means Committee,” wrote House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi in the one-sentence correspondence.

All Nany Pelosi is doing is covering her own ASS. Does she REALLY want Jefferson to resign?

NO WAY!

The Louisiana Democrat was defiant.

“With respect, I decline to do so,” he wrote back to Pelosi.”I will not give up a committee assignment that is so vital to New Orleans at this crucial time for any uncertain, long-term political strategy.”

And what is the DUMBASS Speaker of the House doing?

Earlier, House Speaker Dennis Hastert demanded that the FBI surrender documents it seized and remove agents involved in the weekend raid of Jefferson’s office, under what lawmakers of both parties said were unconstitutional circumstances.

“We think those materials ought to be returned,” Hastert said, adding that the FBI agents involved “ought to be frozen out of that (case) just for the sake of the constitutional aspects of it.”

Mr. Speaker, how about scheduling a vote to throw this miscreant off of the Ways and Means Committee until further investigation?

I mean, my God, the FBI has him taking a bribe on tape and they found the cold hard cash in his freezer!

No, the Speaker of the House is MORE worried about the “balance of power” between the branches of government.

This is BULL.

Remember the First Plank of the Republican Contract with America?

On the first day of the 104th Congress, the new Republican majority will immediately pass the following major reforms, aimed at restoring the faith and trust of the American people in their government:

• FIRST, require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply equally to the Congress;

Graphic courtesy of Flip.

Flap doesn’t know who is more pathetic Jefferson or the House GOP leadership??

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Representative William Jefferson Watch: GOP Challenges FBI Raid of Jefferson’s Office

Representative William Jefferson Watch: “There are Two Sides to Every Story”

Representative William Jefferson Watch: FBI has BRIBES on Tape

ASSociated Press: Senate advances sweeping immigration bill

The Senate voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to limit debate on election-year immigration legislation, clearing the way for final passage later this week of a bill that calls for tougher border security as well as an eventual chance at citizenship for millions of men and women in the country illegally.

The vote to advance the measure was 73-25, 13 more than the 60 needed.

Despite the controversy surrounding the bill, the outcome was not a surprise. Even some of the bill’s opponents said they were satisfied they had been given ample opportunity over past week to try and give the bill a more conservative cast.

Final passage would set the stage for a difficult negotiation with the House, which passed legislation last year that exposes all illegal immigrants to criminal felony charges.

Allah has Breaking: Senate votes for cloture on immigration bill

GOP Senate leaders are clueless and only the House can save America from another immigration AMNESTY.

NOT ONE DIME NOR ONE VOTE for these fools.

Stay tuned……

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Illegal Immigration Watch: Senate Bill Protects Employers of Illegal Aliens

Illegal Immigration Watch: 10 Per Cent of Mexico’s Population Now Living in United States

Illegal Immigration Watch: Secure The Border?

Illegal Immigration Watch: Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid Calls Senate Bill Amendment “RACIST”

Illegal Immigration Watch: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says 6,000 National Guard Troops Insufficient for Border - Need is 50,000

Illegal Immigration Watch: United States Senate Defeats Ensign Amendment

Illegal Immigration Watch: Session’s Amendment Passes - To Build 370 Miles of Triple Layer Fence Along Mexican Border

Illegal Immigration Watch: GOP Senators Sell Out on “Border Security First”

Illegal Immigration Watch: The President’s Speech - WAY TOO LITTLE

Illegal Immigration Watch: President Bush - “We Do Not Yet Have Full Control of the Border and I am Determined to Change That.”

Illegal Immigration Watch: President Bush - WAY Too Little, ALOT Too LATE

Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert speaks to a joint session of Congress, May 24, 2006.

Reuters: Olmert urges action to head off nuclear Iran

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Wednesday Iran’s nuclear ambitions posed “the test of our time” and urged swift international action to meet what he termed a threat to the existence of the Jewish state.

“A nuclear Iran means a terrorist state could achieve the primary mission for which terrorists live and die: the mass destruction of innocent human life,” Olmert said in a warmly received address to both chambers of Congress.

“This challenge, which I believe is the test of our time, is one the West cannot afford to fail,” he said, estimating that Iran “stands on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons.”

In the meantime, there are FOOLS who continue to press engagement with Iran.

Olmert, on his first U.S. visit since taking office after Ariel Sharon’s incapacitating stroke in January, said Iran had declared the United States its enemy and noted that its president had called for Israel to be wiped off the map.

“For us, this is an existential threat. A threat to which we cannot consent. But its not Israel’s threat alone. It is a threat to all those committed to stability in the Middle East and the well-being of the world at large,” he said.

“History will judge our generation by the actions we take now … the international community will be measured not by its intentions but by its results,” he said, cautioning that “another dark and gathering storm” was casting its shadow over the world.

Iran insists it wants only to produce energy for civilian use, but Western powers argue it is using a civilian nuclear program as a cover for producing the highly enriched uranium needed for atomic bombs.

World powers met in London on Wednesday to discuss a package of incentives and threats aimed at defusing the Iranian crisis. It was unclear whether the talks would resolve serious differences between Washington and Moscow over U.S. demands Iran face sanctions.

The ‘POINT OF NO RETURN’ approaches.

Stay tuned……

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Iran Nuclear Watch: Ahmadinejad - Iran Has “Mastered” the Nuclear Cycle

Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Test-Fires Long-Range Missile

Iran Nuclear Watch: Israel Seeks Cruise Missiles

Iran Nuclear Watch: United States Moves To Establish Anti-Missile Site in Europe

Iran Nuclear Watch: Israel Prime Minister Olmert - Iran Just a Few Months Away from Atomic Bomb Know-How
Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Rejects Plan Floated by United Nations Security Council

Iran Nuclear Watch: Ahmadinejad - Holocaust Is a “MYTH” - But in Iran Wear A Yellow BADGE Anyway

Iran Nuclear Watch: Ahamdinjead - “Suffering from Mental and Psychological Problems”

Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Wants Accord But Will Enrich Regardless

Iran Nuclear Watch: Ahmadinejad Rejects European Offer of Light Water Reactor

Iran Nuclear Watch: Ahmadinejad - European Incentives to Halt Uranium Enrichment - “Without Any Value and Invalid”

Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Sought Pakistani Advice on Nuclear Facilities Attack

Iran Nuclear Watch: More Enriched Uranium Found in Iran - Density Close to Make a Nuclear Weapon?

Iran Nuclear Watch: Ahamdinejad - “Ready to Engage in Dialogue With Anybody”

Iran Nuclear Watch: Ahmadinejad - Israel is a “Regime Based on EVIL”

Iran Nuclear Watch: President Bush to President Ahamdinejad - “When Will You Get Rid of Your Nuclear Program?”

Iran Nuclear Watch: Ahmadinejad - Worry Over Nuclear Program “A BIG LIE”

Iran Nuclear Watch: “Ahmadinejad Isn’t Bluffing”

Iran Nuclear Watch: The Letter from Ahmadinejad to Bush

Iran Nuclear Watch: UNSC Foreign Ministers Fail to Agree on Iran Resolution

The Natanz uranium enrichment complex in Natanz is pictured in this January 2, 2006 satellite image.

Tom Kovach of Mt. Juliet tries to persuade Greg Jones, left, and Ollie O’Hanlon, 16, right, to oppose Hillary Clinton as he protests near a Hillarynow.com rally in the Germantown neighborhood

Tennessean.com: ‘Hillary for president’ rally draws 20 instead of hoped-for 200

A Hillary Clinton rally drew critics of President Bush, nonpartisan voters looking for a strong leader, and people who want to elect a female president.

About 20 people attended the Tuesday event, the national kickoff for Hillarynow.com, a grass-roots group pushing to draft the New York senator and former first lady to run for president in 2008.

Maybe Al Gore and John Kerry should consider……….

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Hillary Clinton Watch: State of Clinton’s Marriage Affects Political Calculations

Hillary Clinton Watch: Clinton - “Wall Would Be Appropriate in Certain Areas”

Hillary Clinton Watch: House Immigration Bill - “I Realize I Would Be a Criminal, Too. My Staff Would Be Criminal…”

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivers a speech south of Tehran, May 18, 2006. World powers meet in London on Wednesday to discuss a package of incentives and threats drafted by European countries aimed at defusing a crisis over Iran’s nuclear program.

Forex News: Iran promises ‘historic slap’ to any attacker; has ‘mastered nuclear cycle

Iran’s hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad boasted Wednesday that the Islamic republic had mastered the entire nuclear fuel cycle and that it would give an “historic slap” to any attacker.

“Today, Iran has mastered the entire nuclear fuel cycle, from start to finish, thanks to young Iranian scientists,” the president said in a speech in the southwestern border town of Khorramshahr.

“The enemies are looking to plot and want to create differences among Iranians to stop us getting our rights,” Ahmadinejad said.

“But if they do the slightest damage to the Iranian people, if they commit the slightest aggression, they will receive an historic slap.”

The president was speaking during commemorations of the 1982 recapture from Iraqi forces of Khorramshahr, one of the bloodiest battles of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

As usual Ahmadinejad is mastering the western media news cycle.

Nothing NEW here.

Meanwhile, in London……

Reuters: World powers meet to discuss Iran nuclear offer

World powers meet in London on Wednesday to discuss a package of incentives and threats drafted by European countries aimed at defusing a crisis over Iran’s nuclear program.

Iran’s president, however, dampened hopes of any progress by insisting on Iran’s right to a full range of nuclear technology and Britain said it did not expect the meeting to achieve a breakthrough.

Senior officials from UN Security Council permanent members China, Russia, the United States, France and Britain, plus Germany, will try to narrow divisions over how to proceed to persuade Tehran to halt its uranium enrichment work.

“(The officials) are not really anticipating that today will be the final meeting,” British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett told reporters. “It will be a key meeting today but I suspect it won’t be the final meeting.”

Iran has already stated time after time that they will NOT accept any package of incentives and that uranium enrichment is their right.

This meeting is POINTLESS.

One EU diplomat said it was hard to see what the meeting, due to start later on Wednesday, could achieve.

“It’s really just an academic exercise, since the Iranians have made it clear that they won’t accept any offer.”

And there continue to be FOOLS who think Iran can be engaged and issues can be negotiated.

So: conservatives are fully in charge; their nuclear program gives them some negotiating leverage; they don’t want sanctions to be imposed; and the Iranian public is in favor of closer ties with the U.S. On our side, we want them to commit to ending their nuclear program; we don’t want their oil exports cut off; we desperately need more stability in the Middle East; and the Bush administration has successfully forced them to make the first move.

Sounds like there’s some basis for discussion there. It might work, it might not. But it’s foolish not to try.

Wahsington Post: Iran Requests Direct Talks on Nuclear Program

Listen up!

Iran doesn’t want to dance. They don’t want to negotiate. Ahmadinejad and the Mullahs want a nuclear weapon(s).
Stay tuned……

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Previous:

Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Test-Fires Long-Range Missile

Iran Nuclear Watch: Israel Seeks Cruise Missiles

Iran Nuclear Watch: United States Moves To Establish Anti-Missile Site in Europe

Iran Nuclear Watch: Israel Prime Minister Olmert - Iran Just a Few Months Away from Atomic Bomb Know-How
Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Rejects Plan Floated by United Nations Security Council

Iran Nuclear Watch: Ahmadinejad - Holocaust Is a “MYTH” - But in Iran Wear A Yellow BADGE Anyway

Iran Nuclear Watch: Ahamdinjead - “Suffering from Mental and Psychological Problems”

Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Wants Accord But Will Enrich Regardless

Iran Nuclear Watch: Ahmadinejad Rejects European Offer of Light Water Reactor

Iran Nuclear Watch: Ahmadinejad - European Incentives to Halt Uranium Enrichment - “Without Any Value and Invalid”

Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Sought Pakistani Advice on Nuclear Facilities Attack

Iran Nuclear Watch: More Enriched Uranium Found in Iran - Density Close to Make a Nuclear Weapon?

Iran Nuclear Watch: Ahamdinejad - “Ready to Engage in Dialogue With Anybody”

Iran Nuclear Watch: Ahmadinejad - Israel is a “Regime Based on EVIL”

Iran Nuclear Watch: President Bush to President Ahamdinejad - “When Will You Get Rid of Your Nuclear Program?”

Iran Nuclear Watch: Ahmadinejad - Worry Over Nuclear Program “A BIG LIE”

Iran Nuclear Watch: “Ahmadinejad Isn’t Bluffing”

Iran Nuclear Watch: The Letter from Ahmadinejad to Bush

Iran Nuclear Watch: UNSC Foreign Ministers Fail to Agree on Iran Resolution

The Natanz uranium enrichment complex in Natanz is pictured in this January 2, 2006 satellite image.

Day By Day by Chris Muir

Discuss this blog post and MORE…. at the FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blogs, My Dental Forum.