Tom DeLay's Problems Prompt Expanded Coverage by USPoliticstoday.com

[seemslikeadream]

Thursday March 17, 8:37 am ET
WASHINGTON, March 17 /PRNewswire/

USPoliticstoday.com monitors news from 4,000 Internet sources selected by the company's editors. Updated hourly, the news is indexed into individual topic categories so that users can receive constantly refreshed newsletters on subjects of specific interest to them.

USPoliticstoday.com has been providing breaking news about DeLay as part of its regular service and as a supplementary "DeLay Watch" feature.

According to Joe Rothstein, editor of USPoliticstoday.com, because of increased subscriber interest, DeLay coverage has been expanded to provide more articles about the ongoing investigations into alleged illegal contributions in Texas and other ethical charges that have embroiled DeLay in recent weeks.

Sears, Bacardi, the Cracker Barrel restaurant chain and other major corporations have been charged with making illegal donations to DeLay's PAC, Texans for a Republican Majority (TRMPAC). Former DeLay aides Jim Ellis, Warren RoBold and John Colyandro, are facing trial in Austin, and another former aide, Jack Abramoff, is being investigated for his role in an Indian gaming scandal.

more
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050317/dcth003_3.html

[Kool Kitty]

1. Good, good, good.

Isn't Ralph Reed also implicated in the Indian gaming scandal?

[UpInArms]

2. and James Dobson of Focus on the Family

hope they all get new roommates.

[Kool Kitty]

4. Oh, yeah-I forgot about him.

So sad to see such self-righteous pricks get their long-overdue comeuppance. :eyes:

[Dogmudgeon]

6. You mean they're going to dare to discipline "Spanky" Dobson?

Well now.

Maybe he'll change the name of his org to "Focus On Convetousness".

--p!

[Viva_La_Revolution]

14. Do you have links?

There's a fundie at work who was touting the qualities of this Dobson guy. I just started cracking up! Had to tell him, Spongebob is GAY! lol. I've printed out a few articles on the SpongeBob accusation (he doesn't believe it), would love to add the Delay info, and tie it all up in a pretty package for him.

[UpInArms]

15. link to WashPost here

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A30274-2005Mar12?language=printer

Casino Bid Prompted High-Stakes Lobbying

When a ragtag band of Louisiana Indians won their governor's support for a casino three years ago, they never could have fathomed the powerful cast of characters who would collaborate to flatten them.

Jack Abramoff, one of Washington's most prominent Republican lobbyists, tapped into the gambling riches of a rival tribe to orchestrate a far-reaching campaign against the Jena Band of Choctaws -- calling on senior U.S. senators and congressmen, the deputy secretary of the interior and evangelical leaders James Dobson and Ralph Reed.

The story of what Abramoff did for the Louisiana Coushatta tribe provides the most complete picture yet of the role of the lobbyist at the center of a widening federal corruption investigation in Washington. It was reconstructed through interviews with tribal leaders, government officials and former business associates, as well as through Interior Department and other documents and e-mails obtained by The Washington Post.

Abramoff arranged for Dobson and Reed to pressure federal officials to reject the Jenas' bid on anti-gambling grounds. He and his partners drafted anti-Jena letters that were then signed by congressional leaders, some of whom have received thousands of dollars in donations from tribes represented by Abramoff. One ally inserted language opposing the casino into a bill late in the legislative process.

...lots more...

[seemslikeadream]

17. Abramoff says "you've seen one injun you've seen them all"

Chief Illiniwek copyrighted trademark owned by the University of Illinois' Board of Trustees.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

19. Thanks! n/t

[seemslikeadream]

3. Abramoff and an associate in turn paid $4 million to Ralph Reed,

Perhaps the most bizarre example of this contradiction was detailed by Post reporter Susan Schmidt. When one Louisiana tribe, the Jena Band of Choctaws, won initial approval of a casino three years ago, another tribe, the Louisiana Coushattas, hired Abramoff to block the potential competition. Abramoff and an associate in turn paid $4 million to Ralph Reed, a Republican consultant and evangelical leader, to organize local anti-gambling sentiment against the Jenas. To get the job done, Reed worked with his fellow evangelical James Dobson.

The result: Reed, a public opponent of the spread of casinos, profited from a battle between Indian gambling interests. Reed has insisted that in opposing one casino group, he was being consistent with his public position. He also says he didn't know that his fees came from gambling proceeds, though he does acknowledge that he knew of Abramoff's connection to the tribes.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35347-2005Mar14.html

[Erika]

5. Reed just didn't know, sure

[burythehatchet]

12. Yep. We plan to hammer that scandal as reed runs for

GA atty general

[sattahipdeep]

7. QinetiQ --- stock market launch

While many of these technologies are still under development, others
have already been rolled out to clients by QinetiQ, which made group
operating profit of 28 million pounds ($53.9 million) in the six months to
last September.

QinetiQ -- owned 30 percent by private equity group Carlyle and 56
percent by the British government -- expects rapid growth for its
security business as it gears up for a stock market launch.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3213311a12,00.html

http://www.cloakanddagger.ca/media/S_284_S/INTERPOL/_GANNON%20part%202.htm

http://www.prisonplanet.com/archive_elite_sex_ring.html

http://www.prisonplanet.com/031404exclusivephotos.html

:hi: seemslikeadream

[seemslikeadream]

11. Pray for Delay - It's the Slammer for the Hammer

To paraphrase Hunter S. Thompson, Tom DeLay is beginning to look like a farmer with terminal cancer trying to borrow money on next year's crop.

http://www.indystar.com/articles/3/230003-3043-021.html



Where have you been sattahipdeep? Where have I been? :pals: :hi:

[seemslikeadream]

13. Korea-US Exchange Council - Delay's trips and the Heritage Foundation

working links here
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3258170


Registered foreign agent - look who's on the board or was till yesterday, Henry Kissinger and who set it up Kim Seung Youn.



Hanwha Chairman Faces Charges

By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
...

Prosecutors refused to release details of the interrogation, but said the questioning focused on Kim's role in the group's provision of funds to ruling and opposition parties in 2002. They said it appears certain that Kim violated laws governing the donation of political funds, adding he will soon be charged without detention.

The 52-year-old chairman returned from the United States on Saturday following an eight-month stay that started Jan. 1. He left for the U.S. as investigators were gearing up for a major investigation into the political fund scandal, which resulted in the indictment of a number of political heavyweights and businessmen.

The Supreme Public Prosecutors' Office said that during Monday's questioning Kim admitted to offering bonds worth 1 billion won to former Grand National Party (GNP) lawmaker Suh Chung-won in October 2002, two months before the presidential election.

...

Hanwha announced in January that Kim had gone to the U.S. for study and hospital treatment. One day after his departure, the prosecution imposed a belated exit ban on him, drawing suspicions that he knew of the prosecution's intentions in advance.

Kim had refused to return to Korea despite a summons from the prosecution, citing unfinished matters in the U.S.

Kim reportedly said he had returned because trials involving him and the GNP's Suh had been concluded and he needed to work for his firm, according to the prosecution.

Suh, who took illegal funds from Kim in 2002, was released on Friday after being sentenced to a suspended jail term of three years and 1.2 billion won in fines. Suh took a combined 1.2 billion won in illegal funds from Kim and the Sun & Moon Group during the presidential campaign.
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200408/kt20040817171621...


Strong ties to the Heritage Foundation

Another Asia-related non-government group made up of influential government and business leaders that shares strong ties to the Heritage Foundation is Korea-US Exchange Council (Korusec), which has a pedigree similar to Usmea.

The council was set up in June 2001 by Kim Seung Youn, head of the explosives and chemicals chaebol Hanwha Group. Its purpose is to promote understanding of Korea in the US political community, primarily by exchanging visits with US lawmakers and their aides.

Kim is a close supporter of South Korean president Roh Moo Hyun as well as South Korea's ``sunshine policy'', inaugurated by former president Kim Dae Jung. The policy is based on trading hard cash and business investment for improved relations with North Korea.

The initial idea to establish Korusec was reportedly proposed at a function organised by the Heritage Foundation during the presidential inauguration ceremony for GeorgeWBush in January 2001. Kim was attending the ceremony as the guest of Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, whose wife is Elaine Chao.

Korusec's board of directors includes a fair number of US and Korean political heavyweights, including former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, former US ambassador to Korea Richard Walker and former Korean ambassador to the United Nations Park Soo Gil. Heritage president Feulner also sits on the board. Sheffer is an unpaid adviser to Korusec. ASG has close ties to Korusec and has lobbied on its behalf.

Korusec has effectively parlayed its inside connections to reach the highest levels of Washington politics. As part of its inauguration ceremonies in 2001, Korusec flew over then-House floor leader DeLay, his wife and aides. Since then it has played host to a number of senior US politicians, including former president Bill Clinton, who visited Seoul last November. Kim also accompanied Roh on his visit to the US last May, where they met DeLay and Senate Armed Services chairman John Warner.

In February last year, Korusec co-sponsored a conference with Heritage and the government-funded Korean Institute for Defence Analyses. Addresses were delivered by US South Korea ambassador Thomas Hubbard, UN and Korea/US combined forces commander General Leon LaPorte, and Edwin Feulner. Last October, Kim was photographed at a Heritage Foundation meeting with US Vice-President Dick Cheney.

more
http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:JQj7NsuUJj4J:www.t... (Korusec),&hl=en



May 08, 2002 The Korea-U.S. Exchange Council to Host Luncheon
When Wednesday, May 8, 2002
Where B. Smith's Restaurant
Union Station, Washington, DC
Contact Courtney Alexander,
[phone] or [e-mail]
The Korea-U.S. Exchange Council will host a luncheon on May 8th at 12:00 at B. Smith's Restaurant at Union Station. The luncheon will feature three speakers: Balbina Hwang of The Heritage Foundation; Mark Manyin of the Congressional Research Service; former Ambassador to the ROK (under Reagan) Richard "Dixie" Walker.

The conversation will be wide-ranging, from the Korean economy to U.S.-ROK relations to December Presidential elections to the North/South dialogue. Q and A will follow the brief remarks by the speakers.
http://www.kacdc.org/events/archives.html

Encouraging greater bilateral exchanges at the congressional level. Several formal organi­zations already exist within the U.S. Congress to promote bilateral exchanges, including the Korea–U.S. Exchange Council (KORUSEC), the Korea Caucus, and the U.S.–ROK Interpar­liamentary Exchange. They should be encour­aged to expand their activities to include vigorous and more frequent dialogue with their counterparts in the ROK National Assembly, including establishing study groups on specific topics of mutual interest. Furthermore, study groups should be established at the congres­sional staff levels in both countries to target issues of mutual concern and cooperation.
http://www.heritage.org/Research/AsiaandthePacific/bg18...


Kim Seung-youn's Mysterious Departure

Any way you look at it, the sudden departure of Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn is a pile of mysteries. Kim is suspected of giving illegal campaign donations during last year's presidential election. To begin with, there's the question of how the prosecution was going about security that he was able to leave for the United States a day before it moved to have him prohibited from leaving the country. If it didn't even know he'd left, discovering the fact as it raided his conglomerate's offices, then that is just pathetic.
There had already been talk circulating of how Kim and his Hanwha Group had given large sums of money to both the ruling and opposition party presidential candidates during the campaign, and there was also giving of "election victory congratulatory money." There was talk also of how this part of the overall investigation might directly affect whether or not we go over the so-called "tenth" threshold. So when Kim calmly makes his way out through Incheon International Airport a day before he would've been prevented from doing so, you naturally wonder how that happened.

How many people would believe they're being told the truth when told the chairman of a chaebol, someone buried in his work, would suddenly leave for a long stint overseas to study the leisurely subject of "U.S.-Korea Relations and the NGO of the Future"? Kim is reputed to be a businessman who is meticulous about the details of everything within his organization.

One also does not believe that Kim would have left simply to temporarily evade investigators. It wouldn't be like a chaebol tycoon, who should know quite well that the government has a whole host of methods to pressure a conglomerate at its disposal. This is why you even hear suggestions Kim made this move because he was advised to do so ahead of time, since getting out of the way would make things less uncomfortable for each party.

If there is to be an avoidance of a situation where such suggestions give birth to suspicions that further endless more suspicions, then authorities must do everything they can to strongly encourage Kim to return and submit to this investigation. Kim, in turn, really should volunteer to return on his own when you consider his importance as someone leading the country's seventh largest conglomerate and the stature of that conglomerate. January 8, 2004

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200401/2004...

Hanwha Chairman Kim Seung-youn to Appear in Court
FEBRUARY 17, 2005 22:50

As the Supreme Public Prosecutor`s Office (head: Park Sang-gil) conducts an investigation into the alleged acquisition scandal of Korea Life Insurance by Hanwha Group, it summoned Hanwha’s Chairman Kim Seung-youn on February 17. At around 1:00 p.m. on the same day, Chairman Kim appeared in the Supreme Public Prosecutors’ Office building and went into an investigation room after some words to reporters. He said, “I apologize for raising a scandal. I will disclose the details in the office.”

Prosecutors conducted an in-depth investigation into the following: whether or not Chairman Kim was involved in settling an “inside contract” with Australia’s Macquarie Life Ltd when he was forming the Hanwha Consortium for the acquisition of Korea Life Insurance; and whether he had prior notice of the operation or whereabouts of 750 million won, presumed to be used for political lobbying based on circumstantial evidence, out of Hanwha’s total slush fund of 8.75 billion won.


Reportedly, as soon as the investigation on whether or not to provoke judicial power is over, the prosecutors’ office is expected to indict Lee Bu-young, the former chairman of the ruling Uri Party, without physical restraint based on his alleged infringement of the Political Finance Law.


Chairman Kim, who was under investigation by prosecutors regarding the election campaign fund last August, was indicted without physical restraint based on the charge of providing an illegal political fund of one billion won to Representative Suh Chung-won of the Grand National Party last year. In November 2004, he was fined 30 million won by the Seoul High Court.
http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?biid=20050218...



Korea-United States Exchange Council Supporter of the USO?

http://www.uso.org/related /

Reinforcing friendship, S. Korean firm
to fund renovation at USO headquarters
By B.R. Sargent, Seoul bureau

SEOUL — The United Service Organizations headquarters on Camp Kim will get a huge remodeling job, courtesy of a South Korean company’s $400,000 donation.

“There are moments in life that are never forgotten, both good and bad,” said Kim Seung Youn, chairman of Han Wha Corp. “Sept. 11 is a day that will live for Americans and friends forever. But out of moments of great crisis comes opportunities. … n this case, it gives us the chance to reaffirm a friendship between two peoples who cherish their freedoms.

“Today as a Korean, I take my hat off to the 37,000 American men and women in uniform, who are far from home on the front lines for all that you believe in.”

During a check presentation, Army Gen. Thomas A. Schwartz, U.S. Forces Korea commander, spoke of the alliance between the United States and South Korea.
http://ww2.pstripes.osd.mil/01/oct01/ed103001e.html



US Foreign Agents Registry for the second half of 2002. These registrants worked as foreign agents on the behalf of foreign governments or political parties during the second half of 2002.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=FARA_late_20...


Korea - United States Exchange Council - 7 trips

John Carter - Republican Party
November 28, 2003 - December 3, 2003 (6 days)
Seoul, Korea
Purpose - Familiarization trip to Korea, DMZ
Total Cost - $18,832.00

Ander Crenshaw - Republican Party
August 26, 2001 - August 28, 2001 (3 days)
South Korea
Purpose - Educational / Meet with government officials
Total Cost - $27,640.00

Tom DeLay - Republican Party
August 25, 2001 - August 28, 2001 (4 days)
South Korea
Purpose - Educational / Meet with government officials
Total Cost - $28,000.00

Eni Faleomavaega - Democratic Party
November 29, 2003 - December 2, 2003 (4 days)
Korean DMZ
Purpose - mark 50th anniversary of the signing of the Armistice agreement on the Korean penninsula. Will meet with senior official re Korea/United States relations. Visit American Troops at DMZ
Total Cost - $22,098.84

Michael Honda - Democratic Party
December 2, 2003
Seoul, Korea
Purpose - Familiarization with Korea
Total Cost -

Jim McDermott - Democratic Party
November 29, 2003 - December 2, 2003 (4 days)
Seoul, Korea
Purpose - Familiarization trip to Korea, DMZ
Total Cost - $9,340.60

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen - Republican Party
August 25, 2001 - August 28, 2001 (4 days)
Tel Aviv-Seoul, Republic of Korea and South Korea to Taipei, Taiwan
Purpose - educational and meetings with governmental officials
Total Cost - $27,960.00

http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/cong...


by the way forgein agents can't give money to US officals

[gademocrat7]

8. Does this mean it is slammer time for the hammer??

Hope all his rethug cohorts go with him.

[DeepModem Mom]

9. LOL! Slammer for the hammer!

That slogan has possibilities, gd....

[William Bloode]

10. It's beginning to look bad for bug-man.

He was able to get away with a lot due to the fact he is not a nationally known figure. All the bad press he has been getting here lately are making him to widely known, this in turn is scaring Repub's i am sure. They i am sure are fearful of any of this sticking to them. The GOP has no problem eating it's own to try and save it's precious image.

[seemslikeadream]

16. Tom Delay - Extermination Intimidation Slime

[Mist]

18. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy

[Babel_17]

20. Priceless ....... Thank you. eom

[struggle4progress]

21. I like seeing Tom in the news and I look forward seeing him in ...

... handcuffs, in court, and in prison.

[seemslikeadream]

22. This guy smells like a slop jar

The stench of rotting ethics
Only Tom DeLay's removal can freshen our nation's capitol

In another example of ethical rot, DeLay took a $100,000 check from the Corrections Corporation of America, a company that runs private prisons in Texas and has a 20-year history that includes mismanagement and abuse. CCA wants the Texas Lege, over which DeLay exercises considerable sway because he's a money conduit, to privatize the prisons. And that check? Made out to DeLay's children's charity, the DeLay Foundation for Kids. Barf.
http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=18735

Demand DeLay's Resignation

Contributed by Public Campaign Action Fund

10 reasons why Tom DeLay should resign from Congress

Tom DeLay violates ethics rules at will – he has received four ethics violations -- and is a national embarrassment.
Tom DeLay embodies the worst of pay-to-play politics – puts big donors like Enron ahead of the rest of us.
Tom DeLay abuses his position as House Majority Leader to trample on the legislative process.
Tom DeLay accepted travel expenses from a registered foreign agent, in apparent violation of House rules.
Tom DeLay used illegal corporate contributions to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Texas voters with his anti-democratic re-districting scheme.
Tom DeLay uses tax dollars and government resources for partisan political gain.
Tom DeLay opposes any reasonable campaign finance laws, even disclosure of donations.
Tom DeLay shakes down small business owners for campaign contributions.
Tom DeLay received all expenses-paid junket from a lobbyist accused of bilking tens of millions of dollars from six Native American tribes.
Tom DeLay believes he is above the law.
http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/action.cfm?ItemId=18721