MSM Coverup of the Bell, Ca Corruption Scandal

Bell, Ca is a small, ‘blue collar’ town with a big problem, specifically, big, fat, money-grubbing, rats for officials. The residence of Bell have been up in arms ever since they learned that their city manager and council members had awarded themselves more than $5.5 million in excessive salaries.  One city official was making nearly twice Barack Obama’s salary in a city where the average annual income is less than $25,000.  Earlier this week, eight current and former city officials were arrested on corruption charges. 

It is now coming to light that the media has been engaged in a coverup of the scandal, not on behalf of these corrupt politicians, but rather, on behalf of the party to which they are affiliated.  You see, all eight of these ‘rats’ are Democrats. 

Yet, out of hundreds of stories that have been published about the scandal, very few bothered to mention the party affiliation of the politicians involved.  In fact, it seems clear that there has been a deliberate effort to avoid reporting it.

Voters Trust the Republicans More

Despite an all out campaign by the Obama administration and Congressional Democrats to convince voters that ‘D’ is for ‘drive’ and ‘R’ is for reverse, voters none-the-less now trust the Pachyderms more than the Jackasses on all 10 top issues, according to a new Rasmussen poll.

Issue	Democrats	Republicans
Education	40%	41%
Health Care	40%	48%
Iraq	40%	43%
Economy	39%	47%
Social Security	38%	44%
Government Ethics	38%	40%
National Security	37%	49%
Afghanistan	36%	43%
Taxes	36%	52%
Immigration	35%	44%

The most interesting part of this poll is the results for the issue of ‘government ethics’.  Democrats won in large measure by painting Republicans as hopelessly corrupt.  Obama ran on the promise to “clean up Washington” and Speaker Pelosi pledged that her Congress would be “the most ethical Congress in history.”  Even though Rassmussen reports that “more than one-in-five voters (22%) are still not sure which party to trust more on ethics issues”, the Republicans are edging out the Dems on that issue.

The Democrats are in real trouble.  The voters have realized that they have been sold a ‘lemon’, and no amount of salesmanship is likely to alleviate their ‘buyers remorse’.

Body Scanner Privacy Concerns Justified

Back in January, the TSA tried to assure the public that privacy concerns over the full body scans at airports were unfounded because the images would be viewed in private and would be deleted immediately after viewing.  

Gale D. Rossides, a TSA Administrator, made similar assurances to Congressman Bennie Thompson (D – MS) in a Feb. 24, 2010 letter.

 

  “TSA requires AIT machines to have the capability to retain and export imagines only for testing, training. and evaluation purposes. Testing was done at the TSA Systems Integration Facility (TSIF) and the Transportation Security Laboratory (TSL). Images used for operator training were also recorded and used at the Threat Mitigation Laboratory (TML), the facility where Transportation Security Officer (TSO) training is developed. All AIT machines are delivered to airports without the capability to store, print, or transmit images, and cannot be modified by the operators. TSOs operating in the airport environment have neither the technical capability nor the authority to change the AIT into test mode.”  

Further,  

 

 “The machine cannot transmit or store the image onto the USB device. AITs used for screening operations at airports are not able to store, export, print, or transmit images. All images are deleted from the system after they are reviewed by the remotely-located operator. The image storage functions are disabled by the manufacturer before the devices are placed in an airport and do not have the capability to be activated by the operators. The screening statistical data that may be saved or transferred include an officer’s user identification as well as log in and log out times.”

 

Now we learn that the U.S. Marshals Service saved tens of thousands of body scan images at a Florida courthouse.   

I am sure, however, that the TSA employment screening program is so comprehensive that they do not have near as many pervs in their employ as the U.S. Marshals Service does.   

 

Right! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jackass Rangel: Resigning would be un-American

Following a call for the ‘ethically challenged’ Charlie Rangel (D-NY) to resign, Rangel said Saturday that a resignation now would be un-American.

The Hill reports:

Embattled Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) said Saturday it would be un-American of him to resign in the face of a looming ethics trial.

The Hill first reported Friday night that Rep. Betty Sutton (D-Ohio) had called on Rangel to step down, the first sitting House Democrat to do so.

The New York Daily News reported Saturday that Rangel, speaking to reporters at Harlem Hospital, brushed off the call to give up his seat.

“Well, it wouldn’t be the American thing to do,” he said. “I think I owe it to the process to find out first what the investigative committee finds out.”

“…I really never heard of that concept that if someone accuses you of something, why don’t you just step aside so you don’t embarrass anybody and admit to something that you don’t believe is true.”

Rangel would like for us all to believe that he is innocent of any wrong doing and that resigning in the face of ‘false’ accusations would be un-American.  But, what he really believes is that as a socialist progressive, Rangel’s continued presence as a representative in the U.S. Congress is more important to America than anything criminal un-ethical that he may have done. 

Trust me, that is what he really thinks.

UPDATE: 7/29/10

Despite the fact that the House Ethics Committee has charged Rep. Rangel with 13 counts of violating House ethics rules, and has moved from the investigative stage, to trial stage, ol’ Charlie is still trying to ‘Rangel’ a plea deal.  I suppose that’s not un-American from Charlie’s point of view.