They had me at "barbershop quartet."
 

No.

No.

I can't tell whether you really think Atticus -- whom we've stopped calling AG for now -- was laughing at Sen. Craig's homosexuality or whether you just think it's fun to rile him by suggesting that. I tend to the latter, but your naif routine is occasionally convincing.

They had me at "barbershop quartet."
 

That's a good question.

Interesting Letter and response
 

Simply not our kind, these foreign chaps. It's most damnably difficult even making oneself understood.

Interesting Letter and response
 

"We will keep improving our foxhole while we are her and in it, but transitioning that mentality and vision that we see is a challenge." Apparently the directors of the East India Company have picked up at least some modern-ish lingo.

Interesting Letter and response
 

translation:
Perhaps we could not have avoided it -- perhaps it was inevitable that we should come to be fighting the natives of those lands -- but I cannot understand it, and have never been able to get at the bottom of the origin of our antagonism to the natives. I thought we should act as their protector -- not try to get them under our heel. We were to relieve them from Sadaam's tyranny to enable them to set up a government of their own, and we were to stand by and see that it got a fair trial. It was not to be a government according to our ideas, but a government that represented the feeling of the majority of the Iraquis, a government according to Iraqui ideas. That would have been a worthy mission for the United States. But now -- why, we have got into a mess, a quagmire from which each fresh step renders the difficulty of extrication immensely greater. I'm sure I wish I could see what we were getting out of it, and all it means to us as a nation.

Interesting Letter and response
 

The idea that Al Qaeda is our big problem in Iraq is moronic. As is the notion that there are many people in the United States who want to abandon Israel in the hopes that Islamists will then leave us alone.

Winner
 

In two mere sentences, you insult all of the US Military and the entire Democratic party.

This post should win some sort of prize.

If not Boise, then Minneapolis?
 

• I don't go around anywhere hitting on men, and by God, if I did, I wouldn't do it in Boise, Idaho! Jiminy!
  
  --Sen. Larry Craig, May 14, to the Idaho Statesman

link

Gee, another Clinton money scandal is a'brewin
 

Big Source of Clinton's Cash Is an Unlikely Address
Family's Donations Closely Track Those Of Top Fund-Raiser
By BRODY MULLINS
WSJ August 28, 2007; Page A3

DALY CITY, Calif. -- One of the biggest sources of political donations to Hillary Rodham Clinton is a tiny, lime-green bungalow that lies under the flight path from San Francisco International Airport.

Six members of the Paw family, each listing the house at 41 Shelbourne Ave. as their residence, have donated a combined $45,000 to the Democratic senator from New York since 2005, for her presidential campaign, her Senate re-election last year and her political action committee. In all, the six Paws have donated a total of $200,000 to Democratic candidates since 2005, election records show.

It isn't obvious how the Paw family is able to afford such political largess. Records show they own a gift shop and live in a 1,280-square-foot house that they recently refinanced for $270,000. William Paw, the 64-year-old head of the household, is a mail carrier with the U.S. Postal Service who earns about $49,000 a year, according to a union representative. Alice Paw, also 64, is a homemaker. The couple's grown children have jobs ranging from account manager at a software company to "attendance liaison" at a local public high school. One is listed on campaign records as an executive at a mutual fund.

The Paws' political donations closely track donations made by Norman Hsu, a wealthy New York businessman in the apparel industry who once listed the Paw home as his address, according to public records. Mr. Hsu is one of the top fund-raisers for Mrs. Clinton's presidential campaign. He has hosted or co-hosted some of her most prominent money-raising events.

People who answered the phone and the door at the Paws' residence declined requests for comment last week. In an email last night, one of the Paws' sons, Winkle, said he had sometimes been asked by Mr. Hsu to make contributions, and sometimes he himself had asked family members to donate. But he added: "I have been fortunate in my investments and all of my contributions have been my money."

Mr. Hsu, in an email last night wrote: "I have NEVER asked a single favor from any politician or any charity group. If I am NOT asking favors, why do I have to cheat...I've asked friends and colleagues of mine to give money out of their own pockets and sometimes they have agreed."

Barcella, a Washington attorney representing Mr. Hsu, said in a separate email: "You are barking up the wrong tree. There is no factual support for this story and if Mr. Hsu's name was Smith or Jones, I don't believe it would be a story." He didn't elaborate.

A Clinton campaign spokesman, Howard Wolfson, said in an email: "Norman Hsu is a longtime and generous supporter of the Democratic party and its candidates, including Senator Clinton. During Mr. Hsu's many years of active participation in the political process, there has been no question about his integrity or his commitment to playing by the rules, and we have absolutely no reason to call his contributions into question."

Kent Cooper, a former disclosure official with the Federal Election Commission, said the two-year pattern of donations justifies a probe of possible violations of campaign-finance law, which forbid one person from reimbursing another to make contributions.

"There are red lights all over this one," Mr. Cooper said.

There is no public record or indication Mr. Hsu reimbursed the Paw family for their political contributions.

For the 2008 election, individuals can donate a maximum of $4,600 per candidate -- $2,300 for a primary election and $2,300 for a general election -- and a total of $108,200 per election to all federal candidates and national political parties.


Six members of the Paw family list this house in Daly City, Calif., as their address. In the wake of a 2002 law that set those limits, federal and state regulators and law-enforcement officials said they have seen a spike recently in the number of cases of individuals and companies illegally reimbursing others for campaign donations. Those cases don't necessarily implicate the candidates, who sometimes don't even appear to be aware of such payments executed on their behalf.

The 2002 law also raised penalties for infractions and included the prospect of prison sentences for offenders for the first time. That increased incentives for the FEC and federal prosecutors to investigate and prosecute infractions. Since the law was enacted, the FEC has collected millions of dollars in fines for illegal donations, including its largest-ever penalty, a $3.8 million levy against Freddie Mac last year.

According to public documents, Mr. Hsu once listed his address at the Paw home in Daly City, though it isn't clear if he ever lived there. He now lives in New York, according to campaign-finance records, on which he also lists a half-dozen apparel companies as his employer. In the campaign-finance forms, Mr. Hsu lists his companies as Next Components, Dilini Management, Because Men's Clothes and others.

He is on the board of directors of the New School in New York. News stories in the mid-1980s said he criticized trade policies that made it harder to import goods from China.

Mr. Hsu is also a major fund-raiser for Mrs. Clinton and other Democrats. When Democrats won control of Congress in November, he threw a party at New York City hot spot Buddakan with many prominent party leaders. Press reports said that toward the end of the night, he grabbed the microphone from the deejay and shouted: "If you are supporters of Hillary for President 2008, you can stay. Otherwise, get out."

Mr. Hsu has pledged to raise $100,000 or more for Mrs. Clinton, earning the title of "HillRaiser" along with a few hundred other top financial backers of her campaign. Earlier this year, he co-hosted a fund-raiser that raised $1 million for Mrs. Clinton at the Beverly Hills, Calif., home of billionaire Ron Burkle. He is listed as a co-host for another Clinton fund-raiser next month in northern California.

The Paw family is just one set of donors whose political donations are similar to Mr. Hsu's. Several business associates of Mr. Hsu in New York have made donations to the same candidates, on the same dates for similar amounts as Mr. Hsu.

On four separate dates this year, the Paw family, Mr. Hsu and five of his associates gave Mrs. Clinton a total of $47,500. In all, the family, Mr. Hsu and his associates have given Mrs. Clinton $133,000 since 2005 and a total of nearly $720,000 to all Democratic candidates.

The Paw's Daly City home is a one-story house in a working-class suburb of San Francisco. On a recent day, a coiled garden hose rested next to a dilapidated garden with a half-dozen dried out plants. The din of traffic from a nearby freeway was occasionally drowned out by jumbo jets departing San Francisco International Airport.

William and Alice Paw are of Chinese descent. The entire family got their Social Security cards in California in 1982, according to state records. All but one of the Paws registered to vote as "nonpartisan." A San Mateo County elections official said that members of the Paw family vote "sporadically."

No one in the Paw family had ever given a campaign contribution before the 2004 presidential election, according to campaign-finance reports. Then, in July 2004, five members of the family contributed a total of $3,600 to the presidential campaign of Sen. John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat. Five of the checks were dated July 27, 2004. About the same time, Mr. Hsu made his first donations to a political candidate, contributing the maximum amount allowed by law to Mr. Kerry in two separate checks, on July 21, 2004, and on Aug. 6.

From then on, the correlation of campaign donations between Mr. Hsu and the Paw family has continued. The first donations to Mrs. Clinton came Dec. 23, 2004, when Mr. Hsu and one Paw family member donated the then-maximum $4,000 to her Senate campaign in two $2,000 checks, campaign-finance records show. In March 2005, the individuals gave a total of $17,500 to Mrs. Clinton.

Since then, Mr. Hsu, his New York associates and the Paw family have continued to donate to Democratic candidates. This year, Alice Paw and four of the Paw children have donated the maximum $4,600 to Mrs. Clinton's presidential campaign.

Interesting Letter and response
 

You are way off base here. Before the dust of human particles had even cleared, the number one sentiment expressed (loudly or behind closed doors) was that the 9/11 attack was caused by that America's undue support (not just financial but support in general) of Israel. I've heard it in Manhattan, and I've heard it across the country in many communities (especially the African American community).

In short, there are many people in the United States who want to abandon Israel in the hopes that Islamists will then leave us alone.

Interesting Letter and response
 

I have never heard this expressed other than reportedly. But I avoid talking about politics and to some extent avoid reading about politics, and tend to stick to the MSM when I do read about politics.

They had me at "barbershop quartet."
 

Its not the crime Hank - so much as the cover up.

Hard to misinterpret a hand from the next stall over waving at you from under the partition? I guess he was trying to dissipate the odors?

S_A_M

Interesting Letter and response
 

On the first sentence, I don't think we here have enough information to judge, and wouldn't use that term in any event. Surely that is a subject open to debate.

On the second point, I agree with your criticism of Thaddeus' characterization of the "far left" -- at least in the implication that it represents any politically significant number or force.

S_A_M

Gee, another Clinton money scandal is a'brewin
 

"Those cases don't necessarily implicate the candidates, who sometimes don't even appear to be aware of such payments executed on their behalf."

And if you can't trust a man named Winkle (??), who can you trust?

S_A_M

They had me at "barbershop quartet."
 

Hank -

You know those times when in an argument in front of the judge you find yourself really fucked - faced with a fact that stands up your position and basically leaves you no avenue to shuck and jive, and all you can do is stupidly repeat a demand that the court find in your favor?

Yeh, well in re this Craig thing, and the ridiculous quasi-argument you've made in response - you're there.

Trying to call the Dems hypocrites is not a defense or even a response. It's funny.

Just sit down counselor. You lost.

Best,
SD