• California,  Election 2006,  Politics

    Governor Schwarzenegger: Hired by Muscle Magazines

    In an obvious attempt at a smear our friends of the MSM are all over California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for of all things – working and receiving an outside income.

    The Sacramento Bee has Governor’s muscle magazines packed with ads for supplements.

    Read it all!

    But, supplements are NOT Steriods.

    And wasn’t it Democrat Governor Gray Davis who vetoed legislation to regulate Ephedra, a chemical precursor to the manufacture of Methamphetamine?

    So, is the Bee accusing the Governor of a conflict of interest because of revenue from muscle magazines that contain ads of dietary supplements influencing his legislative agenda?

    Or, is it a Karl Rove type scandel created by the Left and the MSM?

    The Los Angeles Times has Gov. to Be Paid $8 Million by Fitness Magazines.

    Two days before he was sworn into office, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger accepted a consulting job paying an estimated $8 million over five years to “further the business objectives” of a national publisher of health and bodybuilding magazines.

    The contract pays Schwarzenegger 1% of the magazines’ advertising revenue, much of which comes from makers of nutritional supplements. Last year, the governor vetoed legislation that would have imposed government regulations on the supplement industry.

    According to records filed Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Schwarzenegger entered into the agreement with a subsidiary of American Media Inc. on Nov. 15, 2003. The Boca Raton, Fla.-based company publishes Muscle & Fitness and Flex magazines, among others.

    Watchdog groups and state lawmakers called the contract — which refers to Schwarzenegger as “Mr. S” — a conflict of interest.

    Larry Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington, D.C., said: “This is one of the most egregious apparent conflicts of interest that I have seen. This calls into question his judgment as to who he is working for, and it calls into question what he thinks he owes the public.”

    He added: “For a governor to have … contracted his decision-making and judgment to a company is a real conflict of interest.”

    The law allows governors and other elected officials to keep outside jobs. Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles) has been paid $35,000 a year by the Voter Improvement Program in Los Angeles, a nonprofit organization created by the former president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.

    A Schwarzenegger spokeswoman, Margita Thompson, said that his financial holdings were “probably the most complicated of any governor” and that he had complied with all laws for disclosing his income. She said the consulting contract presented “no conflict of interest” because Schwarzenegger did not solicit any advertising.

    No solicitation and legal dietary supplements – not illegal drugs or medicines.

    What is the big deal?

    Last year, the governor vetoed a bill by state Sen. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough) that would have required coaches to take a course in performance-enhancing supplements, created a list of banned substances for interscholastic sports and barred supplement manufacturers from sponsoring school events. In his veto message, the governor said that most dietary supplements were safe and that Speier’s bill would have been difficult to implement. He also said the bill unfairly focused on “performance-enhancing dietary supplements (PEDS) instead of focusing on ensuring that students participating in high school sports are not engaged in steroids use.”

    Flap sees no conflict of interest here.

    Eric Hogue has Schwarzenegger’s Muscle Money

    Read it all here.

    The Democrats are giddy with another “Big Lie” campaign, trying to crete the premise that Arnold is protecting his friends, making millions and vetoing legislation that would remove dangerous supplements from the shelves and magazines of the nation.

    Remember, supplements are NOT steroids…two different things folks.

    The only ‘muscle game’ evolving here is the ‘out-of-control’ machine of the public employee unions. If the press really wanted to remove dangerous growth hormones from our society, then they should stop the ‘hit pieces’, and focus on the paycheck protection initiative.

    Indeed.

  • Politics

    Rove Talked to Novak about Valerie Plame

    The New York Times quotes anonymous sources again, Rove Reportedly Held Phone Talk on C.I.A. Officer.

    Read it ALL.

    Karl Rove, the White House senior adviser, spoke with the columnist Robert D. Novak as he was preparing an article in July 2003 that identified a C.I.A. officer who was undercover, someone who has been officially briefed on the matter said.

    Mr. Rove has told investigators that he learned from the columnist the name of the C.I.A. officer, who was referred to by her maiden name, Valerie Plame, and the circumstances in which her husband, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, traveled to Africa to investigate possible uranium sales to Iraq, the person said.

    After hearing Mr. Novak’s account, the person who has been briefed on the matter said, Mr. Rove told the columnist: “I heard that, too.”

    The previously undisclosed telephone conversation, which took place on July 8, 2003, was initiated by Mr. Novak, the person who has been briefed on the matter said.

    So, where is the crime here?

    Why is Rove culpable in anything but playing politics? Novak has great sources and isn’t called the “Prince of Darkness” for nothing.

    Six days later, Mr. Novak’s syndicated column reported that two senior administration officials had told him that Mr. Wilson’s “wife had suggested sending him” to Africa. That column was the first instance in which Ms. Wilson was publicly identified as a C.I.A. operative.

    The column provoked angry demands for an investigation into who disclosed Ms. Wilson’s name to Mr. Novak. The Justice Department appointed Patrick J. Fitzgerald, a top federal prosecutor in Chicago, to lead the inquiry. Mr. Rove said in an interview with CNN last year that he did not know the C.I.A. officer’s name and did not leak it.

    The person who provided the information about Mr. Rove’s conversation with Mr. Novak declined to be identified, citing requests by Mr. Fitzgerald that no one discuss the case. The person discussed the matter in the belief that Mr. Rove was truthful in saying that he had not disclosed Ms. Wilson’s identity.

    Anonymous sources, Anonymous sources……. have a role……. What is the N.Y Times ethics policy?

    Robert D. Luskin, Mr. Rove’s lawyer, said Thursday, “Any pertinent information has been provided to the prosecutor.” Mr. Luskin previously has said that prosecutors have advised Mr. Rove that he is not a target in the case, which means he is not likely to be charged with a crime.

    In a brief conversation on Thursday, Mr. Novak declined to discuss the matter. It is unclear if Mr. Novak has testified to the grand jury, and if he has, whether his account is consistent with Mr. Rove’s.
    As the political debate about Mr. Rove grows more heated, Mr. Fitzgerald is in what he has said are the final stages of his investigation into whether anyone at the White House violated a criminal statute that, under certain circumstances, makes it a crime for a government official to disclose the names of covert operatives like Ms. Wilson.

    The law requires that the official knowingly identify an officer serving in a covert position. The person who has been briefed on the matter said that Mr. Rove neither knew Ms. Wilson’s name nor that she was a covert officer.

    The Left will be all over this storytomorrow, calling Rove a liar – a leaker, a traitor and anything else that they hope will stick.

    Flap hanicaps a very low likelyhood that Rove will be indicted.

    The Associated Press weighs in, Source: Rove Got CIA Agent ID From Media

    Presidential confidant Karl Rove testified to a grand jury that he learned the identity of aCIA operative originally from journalists, then informally discussed the information with a Time magazine reporter days before the story broke, according to a person briefed on the testimony.

    The person, who works in the legal profession and spoke only on condition of anonymity because of the secrecy of grand jury proceedings, told The Associated Press that Rove testified last year that he remembers specifically being told by columnist Robert Novak that Valerie Plame, the wife of a harsh
    Iraq war critic, worked for the CIA.

    Rove testified that Novak originally called him the Tuesday before Plame’s identity was revealed in July 2003 to discuss another story. The conversation eventually turned to former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who was strongly criticizing the Bush administration’s Iraq war policy and the intelligence it used to justify the war, the source said.

    The person said Rove testified that Novak told him he had learned and planned to report in a weekend column that Wilson’s wife, Plame, had worked for the CIA, and the circumstances on how her husband traveled to Africa to check bogus claims of alleged nuclear material sales to Iraq.

    Novak’s column, citing two Bush administration officials, appeared six days later, touching off a political firestorm and leading to a federal criminal investigation into who leaked Plame’s undercover identity. That probe has ensnared presidential aides and reporters in a two-year legal battle.

    Now the Democrats are getting snarky.

    On Thursday, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada pressed for legislation to strip Rove of his clearance for classified information, which he said
    President Bush should already have done. Instead, Reid said, the Bush administration has attacked its critics: “This is what is known as a cover-up. This is an abuse of power.”

    Across the Capitol, Rep. Rush Holt (news, bio, voting record), D-N.J., introduced legislation for an investigation that would compel senior administration officials to turn over records relating to the Plame disclosure.

    When will this non-story die?

  • General

    Judge Denies Lawmakers’ Bid to Join Redistricting Lawsuit: Mundell IN Perata and Nunez OUT

    Bill Mundell, Chairman, Californians for Fair Redistricting

    Sacramento Judge Gail Ohanesian ruled this afternoon that California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and Senate Pro Tem Don Perata would not be able to join the lawsuit filed by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer in order to knock Proposition 77, a Reapportionment Constitutional Amendment, off the November special election ballot. She ruled that Californians for Fair Representation, which is opposed to Proposition 77, could participate.

    Attorney General Bill Lockyer filed the lawsuit last week, claiming that supporters of Proposition 77 violated the state Constitution by significantly changing the wording of the initiative after it was approved by state officials for circulation.

    The initiative is one of three put on the Nov. 8 special election ballot by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. It would give the power to draw legislative and congressional district boundaries to a panel of retired judges – a responsibility that’s currently in the hands of lawmakers.

    “The judge felt the interests of (Californians for Fair Representation) was more direct than those of the others,” said Lance Olson, the attorney for both the lawmakers and the anti-Proposition 77 group.

    Another interested party, the Committee for an Independent Voice, also was denied intervener status at Thursday’s hearing.

    Harriet Hoffman, the group’s statewide coordinator, said her organization supports the initiative and wants to see it remain on the ballot. The group only asked to be named a party in the suit after lawmakers applied to be involved, Hoffman said.

    A hearing on the fate of the initiative is scheduled July 21 in Sacramento County Superior Court.

    Bill Mundell, chairman of Californians for Fair Redistricting, a group that gathered signatures to put the redistricting initiative on the ballot, said he felt confident the ballot initiative would survive next week’s hearing.

    “Frankly, it’s irrelevant who joins the suit because it’s a frivolous lawsuit,” he said.

    Agreed, it is frivolous and even the Los Angeles Times agrees, Prop. 77: No harm, no foul

    But, will the Governor cut a deal prior to next week’s hearing?

    Stay tuned.

    Cross-posted to the Bear Flag League Special Election Page

  • Politics,  Supreme Court

    Chief Justice Rehnquist: NOT Retiring

    Chief Justice William Rehnquist has reportedly told Fox News that in order to allay specualtion that he is announcing that he has NO plans to retire from the U.S. Supreme Court.

    Developing and stay tuned.

    Update #1

    Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, denying rumors of his retirement, said Thursday he will continue heading the court as long his health permits. “I’m not about to announce my retirement,” he said.

    “I want to put to rest the speculation and unfounded rumors of my imminent retirement,” Rehnquist, 80, said in a statement obtained by The Associated Press. “I am not about to announce my retirement. I will continue to perform my duties as chief justice as long as my health permits.”

    Good News!

    Now, the President can concentrate on a replacement for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

  • Politics

    Randy “Duke” Cunningham will not Seek Re-Election

    California Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham announced today that he will not seek re-election next year.

    A California congressman who is under federal investigation for his dealings with a defense contractor announced Thursday that he will not seek re-election.

    U.S. Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham made the disclosure at a hastily arranged news conference.

    “The time has come for me to conclude the public chapter in my life,” the eight-term San Diego-area Republican said, reading from a brief written statement. “Quite simply, right now I may not be the strongest candidate.”

    Cunningham did not take questions before ducking back into a library on the California State University campus in San Marcos.

    Cunningham has been shadowed by questions concerning his relationship with Mitchell Wade, the founder of MZM Inc., a defense firm.

    Good for Cunningham

    Better for the California Republican Party

    Best for constituents in California Congressional District 50

    What made the Duke think he could get away with this shit in today’s world?

  • General

    Joe Wilson: Bush Should Fire Rove

    Karl Rove is back in the shark tank AGAIN. Former Ambassador Joesph Wilson, husband of CIA employee, Valerie Plame, who is back at work, after a year’s leave of absense (Flap wonders what closet she is guarding at CTU) says Karl Rove, President Bush’s Deputy Chief of Staff, engaged in an “abuse of power” by discussing Wilson’s wife’s job with a reporter.

    Wilson decried what he called a White House “stonewall” in the wake of revelations that Rove, a longtime Bush confidant, was involved in the leak to the news media that Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, was a CIA officer.

    Bush said Wednesday that he would not comment on discussions that blew her cover because it is the subject of an ongoing investigation by special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald. White House press secretary Scott McClellan said, however, the president still has confidence in Rove.

    Wilson, in an interview broadcast Thursday on NBC’s “Today” show, said he thinks the White House’s posture in this controversy represents a continuing “cover-up of the web of lies that underpin the justification for going to war in Iraq.”

    Cover-up…… No Way…. PLEASE Joe you are embarassing yourself. There is an on-going federal grand jury. One in which Mathhew Cooper, the Time Magazine Reporter, testified yesterday. No cover-up and no conspiracy.

    But, what is your motivation? I know, you want Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House.

    “I think the president should call in his senior advisers and say, ‘Enough is enough, I want you to step forward and cooperate,'” he said.

    “The president has said repeatedly, “I am a man of my word,'” Wilson added. “He should stand up and prove that his word is his bond and fire Karl Rove.”

    Wilson has said the leak of his wife’s name was an attempt by the administration to discredit him after he challenged its assertion that Iraq’s Saddam Hussein was seeking to obtain from Niger material to make nuclear weapons.

    This investigation into a “Leak from the White House” has taken over two years – longer than Watergate.

    The LEFT is just PATHETIC in their smearing and overt vendetta against Rove.

    Moveon.

  • General,  Politics,  Supreme Court

    Chief Justice Rehnquist: Released From Hospital

    Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, William Rehnquist was released today from a Virginia hospital. He had been hospitalized two days ago for a fever and is currently being treated for thyroid cancer.

    Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg gave no details on the condition of Rehnquist, 80, saying only, “He’s been released and he is at home.”

    Rehnquist went to a Virginia hospital by ambulance on Tuesday night with a fever and was admitted for tests and observation. He left around midday on Thursday.

    Flap wishes the Chief Justice a speedy recovery and convalescence.

  • Los Angeles,  Politics

    Roy Romer: Clueless or What?

    Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Roy Romer, left, spoke during a panel discussion titled, “Is There an Economic Crisis in Education?” Joining him onstage at the Arrillaga Alumni Center were Eric Hanushek, middle, a senior felow at the Hoover Institution, and New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein.

    The Los Angeles Daily News Chews on Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Roy Romer in its editorial, Romer: Clueless or what?

    Flap previously reported the Pay to Play Ethics controversy in this piece, Romer: Reveals Donors to Secret SLUSH FUND.

    TO hear LAUSD Superintendent Roy Romer tell it, you’d think he was some country rube, a political novice who hasn’t yet been exposed to the darker, seedier side of politics.

    “I have absolutely no issue of ethics in what I’m doing here,” he says of his $146,000 formerly secret fund to fight efforts to break up the LAUSD — a fund financed largely by big-bucks contractors who make millions doing business with the Los Angeles Unified School District.

    Really, Roy? Really?

    Romer doesn’t believe there are any ethical questions when a superintendent calls up his school district’s contractors and asks them to kick $10,000 into a political fund? He doesn’t think that maybe, just maybe, those ponying up the cash might think they need to contribute to stay in the LAUSD’s good graces — and renew their contracts?

    Look at just a few of the generous contributors to Romer’s “Friends of L.A. Schools” organization:

    McGraw Hill and Harcourt Inc. — two big-time textbook publishers.

    DMJM H+N — an architecture, construction and engineering company.

    Goldman Sachs — an investment banking firm.

    Just good public citizens, right? These are firms that don’t even consider the fact that the LAUSD just so happens to be a major purchaser of textbooks. Or that it’s in the midst of a massive school-construction campaign. Or that it may soon be seeking a Wall Street firm to sell an additional $3.85 billion in school bonds.

    Oh, please!

    Romer ought to spare us the Mr. Innocent act. He’s no babe in the woods.

    Three-time governor of Colorado.

    Erstwhile chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

    Romer knows a thing or two about raising money. He knows how the game is played. He knows — or ought to know — an obvious conflict of interest when he sees one.

    Having been in Los Angeles these past five years, Romer should have heard the phrase “pay to play” — the nickname for the scandal that helped to end the administration of former Mayor James Hahn. One would think Romer would see certain similarities between Hahn’s shaking down city contractors to fight off Valley secession and his own attempt to hustle moneyed interests to thwart the breakup of the LAUSD.

    Romer has been around long enough to know that when government contractors make political donations, the public ends up paying. Some say the gifts are “only” $10,000, so it’s no big deal. Baloney. For the contractors, greasing the wheels of politics is simply a cost of doing business. They figure it into their bids. Somebody pays and that somebody is likely the taxpayer.

    So every textbook, every new school, every bond deal will now carry a built-in surcharge — one indirectly financing Romer’s would-be political action committee.

    Even if, by some strange chance, Romer really doesn’t know all of this, the school board that employs him should. Its members should be furious, and they should be demanding answers.

    Because either the district’s superintendent is as clueless he claims, or he’s corrupt — and neither one bodes well for the LAUSD

    Flap hears a Grand Jury calling Roy Romer’s name……Pay to Play…….Pay to Play…….Pay to Play…….