RICO?

Americans will be shocked by what Young, Allen, Stevens, and Murkowskis have been doing with earmarks for 20 years. Only the Feds can bring it to light. How many Federal Agents do you need to get a solid RICO case together?

I hope the are arrested on the Congress floor while they are giving a speech. This would be great

>I hope the are arrested on the Congress floor while they are giving a speech.

And against the law, sorry. All the same, arrest them when they are leaving their D.C. hotel room after a pleasant evening with their "companion"

>>> This is unbelievable.

> No, this is Business As Usual in Sunny SW Florida.

It also appears to be Business As Usual in Alaska.

This is the party of 'Morality' and 'Family Values' and all that other good stuff they've been promising for the last 20 years?

Remember the "Bridge to Nowhere"? (the one near Anchorage, not the one in Ketchikan) They were (are?) going to call the road to it "The Don Young Way". Talk about arrogance.

Oh shucks folks.

Nothing to see here. Move along.

Is this the same technique that was used to insert the AG's US Attorney appointment authority into the Patriot Act?

I'm not an Attorney, but it seems to me the argument could be made:

1. A Bill was apssed by Congress

2. A different Bill, not voted on by Congress, was sent to the President. Therefore, the bill signed by the President cannot be the law.

3. The Bill actually passed is the Law, becuase the President did not veto it.

so now Florida partners with Alaska to join Illinois, Louisianna, Maryland and New Jersey.
Who's next? Common states, corruption should ba available to everyone, equally.

Just the House's version of a signing statement.....

Here another example from today in Missouri...a shining example at that.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/laworder/story/35E121F1AEF39BEA862573320058E089?OpenDocument

"Legislator-lawyer Nathan Cooper of Cape Girardeau has pleaded guilty of fraud in connection with a scheme to import immigrants as truck drivers.

The announcement was made today by the U.S. attorney's office in St. Louis. Sentencing will be Oct. 19 for Cooper, a Republican in the Missouri House. He faces a maximum of 15 years in prison and a fine of $500,000."

Someone want to show me where the Republican scandal trainwreck that Rove so lamented, ended?

Still looks like a runaway train to me.

...from what Rob pointed out for us here, and the story yesterday about the President of some national Young Republican group and his unreqiuted romantic, it lookes like there's no caboose on that Republican corruption freight train, more dirty coal-cars just keep snaggin' on to the tail end of it...

How low can they go? The Republicans could change their name, they are the first Limbo Party in American politics.

>>>How many Federal Agents do you need to get a solid RICO case together?

Ask the "D.C. Maddam" Deborah Jeane Palfrey. Aren't they trying to get her using the RICO act?

"Federal prosecutors have not charged Palfrey with prostitution, which is not a federal crime, but with racketeering and conspiracy charges which assume Palfrey's business violated local laws against the sale of sex." - from ABC News, The Blotter - June 18, 2007 10:55 AM
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/06/dismiss_all_cha.html

Maybe if Young and Aronoff had been having sex, oops, I mean "just a massage", then maybe RICO would want to join in.

Maybe?

"I'm not an Attorney, but it seems to me the argument could be made:

-snip-"

Depending on the timing, it could be that the original bill received a 'pocket veto'. But even then, the bill that is passed must be presented to the President. That never happened here. I strongly suspect the entire bill may be invalid, especially since this is not a scriveners' error, but fraud in the execution, if I can use contract terminology here.

I bet this has never happened before, and there is no case law on the subject. Who has standing to get the bill thrown out? Would th epresent congress have such standing?

These are great con law exam questions. What a nightmare to be experiencing them for real!!!

I'm from Naples/Fort Myers, Florida area and in my opinion the Coconut Rd. interchange is a waste of money. This will only benefit the wealthy few in the area. I-75 needs to be widened, at least that will help everyone. I-75 is bumper to bumper 6-8 hours a day when there are no accidents. They need to get their priorities straight. This is why I moved to Colorado and don't ever plan on moving back.

"Check my math.
He gets a $40,000 contribution in return for a $10,000,000 earmark. That is a return of .04% (.0004). But then, it wasn't his money, it was the taxpayer's (our) money.
Posted by: Johann"

Yep. Where else can a guy with $40,000 earn a 25,000% rate of return? When it comes to getting top dollar for your bribes, Don Young is the best value in town.

I hate to tell you, but I think the earmark still has the force of law.

After the final bill is passed, the leaders of both Houses have to sign a certification essentially saying "this, right here, is the bill we passed."

If Young changed the bill before it was certified by the House leaders, then there's nothing the courts can do about it. Even though the leaders were wrong that the bill before them was the bill that was passed, the certification can't be reexamined. There was a Supreme Court decision on this earlier this year.

If Young changed the bill after it was certified, then that should have no legal effect, but I'd be surprised if anyone had access to the bill after it was certified.

Wasn't there a case, a few years ago, where both the Senate and House bill were "certified", and Bush signed it, but then it turned out the the Senate and House versions had some differences?

Whether this earmark, or the bill that contains it, has legal force, this is the kind of shenanigans that should get a House member expelled.

But if this kind of stuff is "okay":
how about slipping a "withdraw from Iraq by date certain" into an omnibus spending bill? I bet that Bush doesn't read the fine print before signing it.

OK, no html. Here's the link in plain text:

http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&ll=26.396483,-81.772957&spn=0.034136,0.058365&t=h&z=14&om=1

if that does not work out, go to google maps or google earth and go to latitude 26.396 and longitude -81.774.

You can see Coconut Road ending a quarter mile before it hits the interstate and a reserved trumpet-bell plot of land (currently being farmed for hay) between the end of that plot and the interstate.

That this reserved plot exists says to me that this interchange has been in the minds of developers in that area for quite some time and they have cut current profits for future gain to make sure there is land available to be condemned (at residential rate no doubt) for it.