blondbraintrust

This guy is a little too preoccupied and knowledgeable about topics he finds so distasteful. I also think this memo, if he circulated it, is slanderous.

via the Washington Post: Roberts's Rules of Decorum

Roberts wrote: "If one wants the youth of America and the world
sashaying around in garish sequined costumes, hair dripping with pomade, body
shot full of female hormones to prevent voice change, mono-gloved, well, then, I
suppose 'Michael,' as he is affectionately known in the trade, is in fact a good
example. Quite apart from the problem of appearing to endorse Jackson's
androgynous life style, a Presidential award would be perceived as a shallow
effort by the President to share in the constant publicity surrounding Jackson.
. . . The whole episode would, in my view, be demeaning to the
President."

The Raw Story Ms. Noe's own scandal: Wife of Ohio GOP fundraiser does some election reform of her own
It's past the point where you can just cut out the rotten part, it's stinking up the whole state.

In yet another surreal twist in Ohio’s “coin-gate” scandal, the wife of
Bush’s chief Ohio fundraiser, Tom Noe—who is currently embroiled in campaign
finance and money laundering probes—surprised poll workers and observers alike
by disrupting the ballot count during the 2004 general election, RAW STORY has discovered.
Bernadette Noe, who served dual roles as chairman for the Lucas County
Republican Party and the Lucas County Board of Elections, sent twelve
“partisans” into a warehouse on Election Day, according a memo authored by
Ohio’s Director of Campaign Finance Richard Weghorst who was present at the
time.
But perhaps the most striking event directly linked to Ms. Noe was what
Weghorst described as “a note-worthy incident relating to security” on the
evening of the election.
Weghorst, who was present at a local warehouse where
ballots were being tabulated, says in his report that “two groups of partisan
volunteers totaling approximately twelve people" arrived, whose "purpose for
being there was not immediately known nor requested."
When the volunteers
refused to leave the premises, Weghorst called the police, who then escorted the
group away from the warehouse. It later emerged they had come at Ms. Noe's
request.
A Diebold employee, Robert Diekmann, was also present at the
warehouse that night.
Ms. Noe was an advocate of Diebold’s optical scan software as chair of the
Lucas County Board of Elections. In April 2004, she and another fellow
Republican board member voted to approve a $350,000 contract with Diebold to
lease machines for the election. The county was forced the lease the equipment
after a deadlock and a rebuke from Blackwell.
The contract was no-bid. After Democrats on the board revealed a cheaper
bid from another company, the Lucas County board was forced to open the contract
for bidding, over Ms. Noe’s objections.
The contract was eventually awarded to Diebold.
Reminiscent of an account reported on by RAW
STORY regarding ballot tampering in Clermont
County, Ohio, Ms. Noe was involved in an incident through which Republican
volunteers were brought in to “assist” processing returned voter confirmation
postcards. On her authority and that of several other board members, partisan
volunteers were allowed to copy the returned cards.
They were subsequently
caught by a Lucas County Democratic official peeling the return stickers off the
voter confirmation cards, and were told to leave. Weghorst’s inquiry found no
evidence they had been supervised.
In April, the Toledo Blade reported
Ms. Noe acted improperly as chairman of the Lucas County Republican Party in
accepting $65,000 in loans for the party from her husband. She is also involved
in a scandal surrounding an aide to Ohio governor Bob Taft (R) staying for a
reduced rate at her
vacation home.
Bernadette Noe is married to the now-infamous
Tom Noe, who invested millions of dollars of state funds into rare coins and who
is currently the target of a wide-ranging inquiry. Noe, a Bush Pioneer, also
allegedly laundered money into President Bush’s reelection campaign by paying
others to donate.
Tom Noe, the owner of several shady business ventures,
including Vintage Coins and Collectibles, funneled an estimated fifty million
dollars into his own personal and business accounts as well as to the state’s
GOP candidates. Noe’s rare coin venture came at the expense of The Ohio Bureau
of Workers' Compensation, for whom he acted as the sole fund manager.

KR Washington Bureau 08/01/2005 Bush endorses teaching `intelligent design' theory in schools
Reading this article, made me realize what an oracle old Mencken was when he predicted, "As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

U.S. admits lawyers called terror-trial system rigged'
The Pentagon acknowledged on Monday that two former members of the military team handling prosecu tions of terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had alleged last year that the trial system was rigged in favor of the government.

Officials said, however, that the prosecutors' charges were thoroughly reviewed and dismissed as unfounded.

The Wall Street Journal reported that both Carr and Preston requested that they be reassigned rather than participate in the trials. It said they accused fellow prosecutors of ignoring torture allegations, failing to protect evidence that could help defendants establish a defense, and withholding information from superiors.

Ex-nurse's aide jailed for patient abuse

Mejak and another woman gave milk of magnesia to five patients at Willowood Care Center in Brunswick to get back at another nurse.
Mejak said that they discussed the plan about 4 a.m. on May 30, 2004, and that she knew Koah was giving the patients the laxatives, which caused them severe diarrhea and dehydration. The plan was designed to make the next shift, including the nurse Koah had a conflict with, deal with the afteraffects.

Susan Mejak thought her only crime was not stopping a co-worker from giving a laxative to nursing home patients to make them sick.

Medina County Common Pleas Judge Christopher Collier didn't see it that way.

"You looked at them as if they were not people. This was a violation of their dignity," Collier told Mejak on Monday before he sent her to prison for 10 months.