Enviroment != Richard Pombo = Bill Morrow

I love this commentary on our local policital race which involves Francine Busby - but Bill Morrow shines like a lump of coal in a forest fire... oh dear...
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"Meanwhile, today's NORTH COUNTY TIMES, the local newspaper for the 50th Congressional District, has a pathetic report on the environmental records of the Republicans in the area. Conservationists in California are particularly unhappy with the extreme right-wing state senator from Oceanside, Bill Morrow, who is running against Busby. He had a grade of just 4 out of 100-- even worse than Pombo's!!! According to Rico Mastrodonato of the California League of Conservation Voters, 'from an environmental perspective, we get very little support from representatives in that area.'

There are a lot of reasons it is crucial for citizens of the 50th CD, for Californians and for Americans to elect Francine Busby in April. The contrast between her environmental stands and those of Morrow and the other Republicans running to replace Cunningham is just another in a long list."
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Amen!

Of Brian Bilbray, Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff, and Mariana Islands

More points about the obvious connections, but is still worth mentioning from Logan Jenkins...

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"I'd be scouring Washington archives for a palling-around photograph of Bilbray and, say, corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Or how about a warm Kodak moment with Brent Wilkes, a defense contractor who allegedly bribed former Rep. Randall Harold Cunningham?

You know the old saying: A picture is worth a thousands slurs.

As it is, the Internet is already abuzz with reports that Abramoff arranged for Bilbray to take a trip to the Mariana Islands. (Bilbray says it was a legitimate trip to discuss naturalization issues that dovetailed with his legislative work on immigration.)"
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The Mariana Islands, are the place that Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff had worked with The Mariana Island textile industry to keep female Chinese and Korean sweatshop workers from retaining citizenship, in a US Territory. This also lead to forced abortions for the female employees, or else be fired from the company and become a penniless destitute.

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Maybe so, but you have to wonder whether Bilbray, the only former congressman in the field, will be tarred by what the chops-licking Democrats are calling the "Culture of Corruption."

In the current climate, you'd rather be a bookie in scuffed Florsheims than a Washington lobbyist in Italian loafers.

To add to the potential misery, Bilbray, who made his mark in South Bay, will have to absorb the carpetbagger charge in North County.
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Amen to that! Bilbray will be looking for a way to distance myself from his lobbist past and present. Yet, Bilbray holds dear that his "insider" status will somehow pay off for the 50th.

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: February 12, 2006 - February 18, 2006 Archives

Talking Points Memo... Josh Micha Marshall trys to keep up with the littany of ill-gotten goods reads more like a laundry list...

It also shows how he was unwilling to change his ways when caught by staffers...

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Duke's staffer catches Duke buying a Suburban at under market value from Mitchell Wade. Duke tells staffer to "Stay the f--- out of my personal business." "In an attempt to right, and conceal, this obviously corrupt transaction" Duke's staffers falisfy his DMV application and try to get him to pay up to make up the difference. Duke passes on the opportunity.
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Sick and sad...

Read the whole list here...

Bud Lewis - Taking it Back...

Bud Lewis sticks it to Duke Cunningham.

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One extra bit of cash ---- $1,000 --- was a returned check. Lewis said he asked for the money back from former 50th District Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham's campaign after allegations surfaced that Cunningham was taking bribes. Cunningham pleaded guilty to tax and bribery charges in November.
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Nice move!

Carlsbad Council Secret Meetings with Lennar?

Wow, secret meetings at City Council?!

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Following allegations that the city has been improperly holding secret meetings with a developer, the City Council voted 4-1 Jan. 17 to consider having the city manager and attorney investigate laws and policies regarding staff meetings.

Members of a local political group called the Concerned Citizens of Carlsbad have claimed meetings city planners have had with developer Lennar Corp. were not made public and represented an end-run around open government.
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Apparently the old meetings are now "public" and disclosed on this website...

http://sterlinginsights.com/events/si_171/carlsbad.html
emmerson
blue

More is over at the UT

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Concerned Citizens for Carlsbad is seeking to place an initiative on the November ballot to preserve the strawberry fields south of Agua Hedionda Lagoon, two large tracts near Legoland, and the Flower Fields near Palomar Airport Road for agriculture.

Peter Lind, the group's attorney, said yesterday he uncovered agendas on the meetings through a Public Records Act request.
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What is odd, is that I was called by a consulting/marketing firm regarding this area as a civic center or new town center. CCI Marketing did the dirty work of making the calls. But Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin & Associates. These guys are heavy hitters. They have been used by numerous cities and special interests in order to push perspective and ideas into the minds of the public.

It is all about image at this point. Yikes!

Wyland names AB1218 after William J. 'Pete' Knight, the guy that tried to ban gay marriage.

What is up with Wyland? Naming a bill after the man who attempted to ban gay marriage in California?

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"A wide range of community groups stood in opposition to AB1218, for different reasons. The bill, titled 'The William J. 'Pete' Knight Memorial Act', by Assemblyman Mark Wyland (R-Vista), would require that the Pledge of Allegiance be recited daily at elementary and secondary schools.

Without addressing the constitutional and separation of church and state issues often brought up by opponents of a mandatory Pledge of Allegiance, Equality California took an immediate position against the bill because of its namesake. Knight, the late homophobic senator who authored Proposition 22, California's gay marriage ban, should not be honored with this legislation, said EQCA Executive Director Geoffrey Kors.

'Pete Knight opposed the tenets of the pledge, which are liberty and justice for all,' said Kors. 'We strongly oppose this bill being named in honor of someone who was responsible for keeping a significant part of the population of California from having liberty and justice.'"
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I think its better to name a bill after Duke Cunningham. In fact John Kerry just did so...

The Duke Cunningham Act

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Kerry's bill – nicknamed the “Duke Cunningham Act” after the Rancho Santa Fe Republican who resigned last year after pleading guilty to accepting $2.4 million in bribes – would halt pensions for senators and House members found guilty of bribery, perjury or conspiracy to defraud the government.

Cunningham is entitled to a pension of about $40,000 a year under current law, which excludes only former lawmakers who are convicted of crimes against the United States, such as treason and espionage.

“It's disgusting that hard-working taxpayers fund the retirement of criminals like Duke Cunningham,” said Kerry, D-Mass. “We have to restore the public trust in the country.”
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Amen! I think we pay enough in sending him to jail for ten years... if that!

Dig this dirt... on Bilray's Abramoff Connection and Bill Morrow's Stem Cell-out.

It sounds like Morrow and Bilbray are attacking each other...

What is worse they sound pathetic in their attempt to out "conservative" each other.

The real truth is that neither are conservative - they are just crooks.

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"For the last few months, Republican political consultants, campaign managers and others have been predicting the 50th Congressional District race to replace former U.S. Rep. Randy 'Duke' Cunningham would turn into a mudslinging free-for-all.

In the wake of Cunningham's resignation in November after pleading guilty to taking millions in bribes, the number of candidates grew to 14 as of late last week. And the more the competition increased, the more likely it became that dirty politics would come into play, those political observers predicted.

It appears the pundits may have been right.

In recent days, two so-called hit pieces ---- campaign fliers or e-mails that portray a candidate in the worst possible light and often contain half-truths ---- have surfaced. One was an e-mail containing a memorandum that cast former Congressman and Republican candidate Brian Bilbray as a liberal with questionable ethics."
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Its starting to get deep.. that FILTHY Liberal...

.. here we go with Morrow.

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Anti-abortion activist James Hartline sent the e-mail to the North County Times on Jan. 30 in which he not only excoriated (this is a bad thing for...) Morrow but also the senator's wife, for her work as vice president and general counsel for a nonprofit organization that advocates for California's biomedical industry and embryonic stem cell research and other cutting-edge technologies and life sciences. The California Healthcare Institute's Web site is http://chi.org./

Reached by phone Friday, Hartline said that he "may have" sent the report to the North County Times and confirmed that he is the author of the piece.

The inflammatory report, titled "The secret embryonic stem cell death agenda of Senator Bill Morrow," calls its revelation of Barbara Morrow's job "one of the biggest bombshells dropped in the history of California's conservative movement."
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Not true, people are entitled to their opinion... Things get bizzare with Bilbray...

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An anonymous source from an operation that calls itself the "Bilbray File" recently sent an e-mail to the North County Times that included a copy of a memorandum listing information and articles published over the years on former U.S. Rep. Bilbray. The e-mail attributes the memorandum to "Concerned Republicans in California's 50th Congressional District." The organization does not show up on databases of either the California secretary of state's office or the Federal Election Commission.

The articles cover everything from Bilbray's 1996 trip to the Northern Mariana Islands and his lobbying activities, to his voting record on gun-related issues. (The organization Gun Owners of America gave him an "F" rating in 1998; see www.gunowners.org.)

There was also a reference to the support he received from a Republican group that advocates for the rights of gays and lesbians. FEC records show that Bilbray has received campaign contributions from the Log Cabin Club.

The articles and other information in the "Bilbray File" all appeared to be an effort to cast him in a negative light or to imply that he is a liberal.

"This is a calculated dirty-tricks campaign against me," Bilbray said last week.

Bilbray, who served in Congress from 1996 to 2000, said he believes the anonymous e-mail was sent to the newspaper by a Republican, not a Democrat.

"The one way to attack without being blamed for it is to do it anonymously through the Internet. I am used to the Democratic machine doing so, but it's sad to see Republicans doing the same stuff," he said.
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more....

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One of the articles mentioned in the "Bilbray File" was a 1998 New York Times story that talked about a possible connection between Bilbray and former Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Abramoff recently pleaded guilty to fraud, corruption and tax-evasion charges.

In his pleas, Abramoff admitted to taking millions of dollars in kickbacks and failing to pay millions in taxes on his ill-gotten gains connected with his lobbying activities for several American Indian tribes. In addition to Abramoff's role with the tribes, in the mid- to late 1990s, he also worked as a lobbyist for the government of the U.S. protectorate of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, as it fought to prevent U.S. legislation from being passed that would have removed the islands' exemption from having to pay U.S.-level minimum wages.

The New York Times article said that the government of the Mariana Islands had invited "nearly all members of Congress and their aides" to visit the islands and paid for the trips of those who accepted the invitation. The article also said that Abramoff "arranged" for the trips. The same article said those guests included Bilbray and his wife. An April 29, 2005, story by The Associated Press reported that Abramoff later reimbursed the Mariana Islands' government for many of the trips to the islands by members of Congress.

Asked about the reports, Bilbray said last week that he and his wife made the trip to the Marianas in late December 1996. However, he stressed that the government of the Northern Mariana Islands paid for the trip, not Abramoff. Bilbray said he did not know whether Abramoff was involved in that invitation nor whether the lobbyist repaid the government for the trips.

The trip had nothing to do with the legislation to increase the minimum wage that Abramoff was trying to get defeated in Congress, Bilbray said.

He received the invitation from the governor of the islands, because the islands were struggling to come to grips with foreign guest workers who were giving birth to children while staying there and then claiming birthright citizenship for their children, Bilbray said. Before he went on the trip, he also requested that the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct give its approval for the trip, he said.

In a Dec. 13, 1996, letter to Bilbray, the committee approved his request ---- with qualifications.

"Assuming the Committee's understanding regarding payment of the costs of the trip is correct, you may participate in the trip under this provision," the letter stated.

Bilbray said he doesn't remember ever having met Abramoff. However, "I assume I have run into him, but I never received any contributions from him," Bilbray said, adding that none of his staff members at the time remembered having met Abramoff.
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Sounds like President Bush and Bilbray have two things in common. 1) Meeting Abramoff. 2) Failing to remember the occasion. We can only hope Bilbray didn't take any of "Black" Jack Abramoff's casino/lobby money - but only time will tell. It would be best to avoid trading the CunningScam scandal for a "3 Dollar Bill-bray" scandal. Yikes!

When you vote, you have to ask yourself... Do you want to condone the mudslinging that Bilbray and Morrow have engaged in? Or would your rather keep your Congress clean?

The article is a good read. No wonder RJB is working it too.