Cohen In Constant Contact With Federal Investigation Attorneys

“I am in constant contact with the Southern District of New York regarding ongoing investigations.”

– Michael Cohen, former attorney and “fixer” for Donald J. Trump, under oath to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, February 27, 2019

 

That one sentence early in Mr. Cohen’s testimony before the committee is substantial, regardless of whether anything else he said is true, or not. There is no legitimate reason for him to make such a claim, especially if it was a lie.

Consider also the “Liar’s Paradox,” referring to knowing how to discern when a liar is telling the truth. Frankly, however, everyone – WITHOUT EXCEPTION – has lied at one time, or another; therefore, using the faulty “logic” used by Republicans, everyone is a liar… including them. Yet, they except themselves simply by ignoring that fact. So therefore, their hypocrisy is exposed.

Such exercises are part and parcel of logic and reasoning, which is also a branch of mathematics, and forms a foundation upon which philosophy and even the legal profession exists – particularly and especially in criminal trials. In other words, deduction is based upon a formula which can be expressed on paper.

But there are also behavioral (physical) clues exhibited by the liar, which may (though not always) include “body language” such as fidgeting, facial movements and gestures, including eye movement such as covering the mouth and/or looking away, intonation and inflection in their voice and tone of speech, observation of breathing patterns, use or avoidance of certain words, exaggeration of details, response to questions, repetition of certain words, sentences, or phrases (a type of stalling to increase time for crafting a lie), including a “mid-sentence jump” (changing the train of thought in the middle of expressing an idea), deflection (a conversational control tactic which changes the focus of the topic by not directly answering the question), and more.

Michael Cohen takes oath before his testimony to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Wednesday, 27 February 2019.

The Southern District of New York refers to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, and the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, a Federal court which has been in existence in New York, NY, since 1789.

The Attorney’s Office writes this about their mission:

“The Office prosecutes cases involving violations of federal laws, and represents the interests of the United States government and its agencies in criminal and civil matters. The Office investigates and prosecutes a broad array of criminal conduct of every conceivable magnitude, even when the conduct arises in distant places.”

Reasonably and logically, no liar would lie about being “in constant contact with” a Federal Attorney’s Office, or a Federal Court, after an investigation has concluded.

The fact that Mr. Cohen made such a comment is telling, simply because

The Liar Speaks Tonight

The Liar in Chief won’t tell his subjects these inconvenient official truths.

—//—

“While cross-border migrants often make headlines, the largest number of illegal migrants settling in the US each year is those who stay in the country after their visas expire.

“According to the most recent reports by the Department of Homeland Security and the Center for Migration Studies, a non-partisan think-tank, the number who overstayed their visas has outnumbered those who crossed the border illegally every year since 2007.

“Canadians make up the largest group of these illegal migrants, followed by Mexicans.”

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-44319094

Another Year Over, And A New One Just Begun

Welcome aboard!

Glad to have you in the New Year!

Curious about how the New Year was looking, I messaged some friends in Germany, where it’s 7 to 8 hours ahead of the Central Time Zone. She and their boy were visiting his father over the winter holiday season, where he was stationed on Active Duty with a Special Forces unit.

The “New Year” is often depicted as a babe, a veritable infant, wearing a diaper and banner sash with the year imprinted upon it, while the outgoing year, the “Old Year” (Father Time), is depicted as a decrepit old codger wearing a tattered cloak type garment with a staff.

When I’d earlier messaged my friends, I’d asked if they had any special plans. Not everyone celebrates the incoming New Year, you know. She replied, “Not sure quite what we are doing, there are several parties to choose from.” (Don’t you just marvel at our ability to communicate INSTANTLY to the opposite side of the world!?! Seriously. How great is that!?!)

Several hours later, just about the time when the New Year was dawning in Germany, I sent a message which stated, “How does the New Year look so far? Got any clothes on?🤣”

The reply, “Happy New Year. Hardly. In the hospital. C has a broken ankle.”

Of course, upon hearing such, one would naturally ask, “How’d THAT happen?”

As most might suppose, the typical way one breaks the ankle is by

The Government Shutdown is Democrats’ Fault

… and other lies.

Just like it’s the Democrats’ fault that Trump screwed around on his wives.

Wednesday, October 17, 2018, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in part that, “Shutting down the government is something that’s widely disliked by virtually every American and I don’t think we’re going to do it.”

But on Saturday, November 17, 2018 Trump said in part that, “If I was ever going to do a shutdown over border security — when you look at the caravan, when you look at the mess, when you look at the people coming in. This would be a very good time to do a shutdown.”

Then, on December 11, 2018 in the White House Oval Office, in front of teevee cameras, and worldwide press, speaking to Democratic leaders Rep. Nancy Pelosi (CA-12) and Sen. Chuck Schumer (NY) in the Oval Office, Trump said:

Judge Brett Kavanaugh: Liar On The Federal Bench

Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh (b.1965), United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Brett Kavanaugh, who has been said to be under consideration as a SCOTUS nominee to replace retiring Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, for whom he also clerked during the October Term 1993, presently has lifetime tenure as a Federal Circuit Court Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. In May 2006 when he last appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee as a nominee for that position, he was asked

Mobile Alabama MD & Medical Practice Settle Medicare, Medicaid & TRICARE Fraud Claims

The Department of Justice, United States Attorney’s Office, Southern District, announced that Mobile, Alabama physician Dr. James Matthew Crumb, MD (AL license number MD.24535, AL Controlled Substances Certificate ACSC.245, National Provider Identifier: 1629079793 ) a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitative physician who currently practices as Mobility Metabolism and Wellness (MMW), and a local neurosurgeon group Coastal Neurological Institute, P.C. (CNI), 3280 Dauphin Street, Suite A, Mobile, AL 36606-4060, (NPI:1740212174), have collectively paid $1.4 million to settle allegations that they violated the False Claims Act (“FCA”) by engaging in fraudulent schemes to maximize payment from the Medicare, Medicaid, and TRICARE health care programs.

In late December 2015, the United States Attorney’s Office filed a civil lawsuit against Defendants CNI, Crumb, and MMW, on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense, alleging that the Defendants knowingly billed federal health care programs for

NY @SenSchumer Mocks Insecure #Loser @POTUS @realDonaldTrump

America’s Official Pussy Grabber in Chief, Multiple Bankruptcies Expert, Prevaricator in Chief, Liar in Chief, Traitor in Chief, Liar & Cheat, Narcissist in Chief, and Overall Scumbag held his first Cabinet meeting yesterday (Monday, June 12, 2017) which was widely covered by news reporting agencies, and with his usual audacity and unmitigated gall claimed that

Jeff Sessions On His KKK “guys were OK until I learned they smoked pot” Quote

Many have said Jeff Sessions didn’t say it, and have gone back and forth on the matter.

Let’s bury that hatchet – once and for all – squarely where it rightfully belongs.

Here, from the Congressional Record, is Jeff Sessions’ 1986 testimony under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee following his nomination by then-President Ronald Reagan to a Federal Judgeship.

Recall that he was

Corruption Runs Amok In Alabama

To be certain, few are likely as concerned that Alabama’s Republican Governor Robert Julian Bentley was maritally unfaithful to his wife, as they are that in the process, he abused, and misused the power and authority of his office to attempt to cover it up, and to deceive citizens and others about it. And that in that process, he is believed to have violated state, and very likely, Federal laws. The ordeal is, as things go, a drama of Shakespearean proportion and caliber.

The full report of the Impeachment Committee may be found online, and downloaded FREE from:
http://BentleyInvestigation.com/report.pdf

 

—EDITORIAL—

Whoring for Governor Bentley and Rebekah Mason

By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on April 9, 2017
Used with permission

A lying, corrupt, and depraved Republican governor of Alabama is counting on Black members of the state legislature, all of whom are Democrats, to rise up and save him from impeachment.  No, this is not a Hollywood movie.  It is a real life drama that is playing out in real time in the Alabama State House.

The governor is Robert Bentley, who is generally regarded as the laughingstock of the nation today. Not only did Bentley engage in widespread public corruption and ethics violations with his married girlfriend, Rebekah Caldwell Mason, but the governor also (a) trashed the state’s two historically Black state universities, (b) deprived Black and poor Alabamians of adequate healthcare, (c) discriminated against Black voters in the state’s legislative redistricting plan, and (d) erected massive barriers to Black voter participation in the state’s electoral process.

In this Tuesday, November 4, 2014 file photo, retired physician, and Republican Gov. Dr. Robert Bentley, MD listens to a phone call as Rebekah Mason, right, announces his win for a second term as Alabama Governor, in Montgomery, AL. Bentley defeated his opponent, retired physician Democrat Dr. Parker Griffith, MD. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)

Yet, Bentley and Mason still exercise a shocking degree of dominion and control over many of the state’s Black lawmakers, including some of the ones who serve on the Judiciary Committee that is conducting Bentley’s impeachment proceedings.

For a fleeting moment in time, Bentley even had Judge Greg Griffin, a Black state circuit court jurist, thinking that he had the power and authority to lawfully block the Alabama Legislature’s impeachment proceedings. The Alabama Supreme Court overturned Judge Griffin’s ruling in record time. Griffin is a Bentley appointee to the bench.

Bentley has a well-known record of treating Black lawmakers like his personal servants.  When he is not whipping them for what he perceives as “bad” behavior, the governor is making these compromised souls carry his dirty, smelly political baggage.  They dutifully accommodate the governor’s commands for a mere pat on the head.

Alabamians will witness Black lawmakers engage in political servitude to Governor Bentley this week.  Please pay particular attention to

Trump lies. We know that. But why? And what effect will it have upon his presidency, the nation, and GOP?

Donald John Trump, elected November 2016, and inaugurated January 20th, 2017, is the 45th United States President. Official portrait

One might as well ask why a bird flies or sings.

Trump is a one-man show. He bullies others to get his way. He doesn’t know how to collaborate, or cooperate with others.

He’s also emotionally insecure, hence the sense of an inherent need to constantly obtain approval as evidenced by an inordinate desire to obtain adulation and adoration from media.

But, there’s more.

Why Trump Clings to Discredited Lies

by Donald V. Watkins
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Used with permission

Even though the FBI and all of America’s national security agencies have stated emphatically that there is no evidence that President Barrack Obama, or anyone else, wiretapped Trump Towers during or after the 2016 presidential campaign, President Donald Trump still claims his phones were tapped. Other than his Twitter rants about this wiretapping, Trump has offered no proof to validate his claim.

So why does Trump cling to this now discredited lie?

Based upon my observations of Trump over the past 20 months, I have notice several disturbing character traits that facilitate Trump’s ready ability to take a mental flight from reality and truth. These traits are scary and dangerous to the American people.

First, Trump is a

Eating Asparagus With Micky Mouse & Lyin’ #ALpolitics @JeffSessions Testimony Under Oath

True, or False?

If under oath, you say, “and I did not have _X_” and in fact, you did have _X_, are you a perjurer?

The statement “and I did not have _X_” is a voluntary assertion, and claim of fact by the speaker. It makes an independent statement. It does not answer a question.

By virtue of the use of the word “and,” the claimant is making a voluntary assertion which can stand alone, and which needs no other support. Rather, by using the word “and,” the statement which follows that word supports any statement predicated within it, and would appear to lend credence to any statement which preceded it, simply because it is “added onto” a primary claim.

And even though it is mentioned in a secondary manner – that is, the remark is mentioned after another statement – it becomes a primary, rather than secondary, assertion. It “flips the table,” in a manner of speaking.

For example, if the claimant were to say

Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions Lied Under Oath Orally And In Writing In Attorney General Confirmation Hearings

As part of the Confirmation process for Attorney General,

Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions (R) takes oath before his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee in his Confirmation Hearing to be United States Attorney General.

in January, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) asked nominee Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions for answers to written questions, one which was: “Several of the President-elect’s nominees or senior advisers have Russian ties. Have you been in contact with anyone connected to any part of the Russian government about the 2016 election, either before or after election day?”

Sessions wrote a one-word response: “No.”

During the Confirmation Hearings before the Judiciary Committee on January 10, Minnesota Senator Al Franken (D) asked Senator Sessions, “If there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government in the course of this campaign, what will you do?”

Senator Jeff Sessions stated, “I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign, and I did not have communications with the Russians.”

Jeff Sessions: “I did not have communications with the Russians.” (C-SPAN)

Justice Department officials said that Sessions met twice with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak: Privately on

Flynn Lied To Pence, Pence Repeated Flynn’s Lie, Flynn Quit, Trump Loves Flynn

Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, Director, Defense Intelligence Agency, USA

Vice President Mike Pence, USA

Here’s how Trump rewards those who look out for our Nation’s Security.

REMEMBER:
Before Michael Flynn resigned as National Security Advisor…

Before the Inauguration, when Flynn was asked about his calls and texts with the Russian Ambassador Sergey I. Kislyak, he lied to Vice President-elect Mike Pence.

A former administration official said the Justice Department warned the White House in January that Flynn had not been fully forthright about his conversations with the Russian ambassador, and because of that, the Justice Department feared that he could be vulnerable to Russian blackmail.

CIA Director John Brennan, and Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr., agreed with Acting Assistant Attorney General Sally Q. Yates that:

Sergey Ivanovich Kislyak, Russian Ambassador to the United States

John O. Brennan, Director, Central Intelligence Agency, USA 3/8/13 – 1/20/17

1.) “Flynn had put himself in a compromising position”;
2.) Could be vulnerable to Russian blackmail;
3.) That he had been deliberately misleading about his interactions with Russia’s ambassador;
4.) That VP-elect Pence had a right to know that he had been misled, and;
5.) Recommended that POTUS Trump be warned.

Trump then fired Yates.

Flynn publicly stated that when he was Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, he traveled to Moscow in 2013, and there met Kislyak, who continued to communicate with Flynn during, and after the Presidential campaign.

When it became known that

Federal Investigators Pursuing #ALpolitics @GovernorBentley #Corruption

—Exclusive Breaking News—

Feds Pull Protective Cover Off Bentley, Mason

By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on February 15, 2017
Used with permission

Our Facebook news team has just learned that the U.S. Department of Justice has given federal prosecutors full authority to resume their investigation of Alabama Governor Robert Bentley and his married girlfriend, Rebekah Caldwell Mason, and to prosecute them if the evidence unearthed in their investigation warrants it. The Department scaled back its earlier criminal investigation of Bentley and Mason after former Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange lulled the Department into believing that he would prosecute the First Couple of Alabama on state law ethics violations.

In December of last year, Strange decided to give Bentley and Mason a prosecutorial “pass” on state ethics law violations in exchange for an appointment to the U.S. senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions. This move, which may well constitute a form of bribery under federal law, has embarrassed and angered career federal prosecutors.

The move has also demoralized the Public Corruption Unit led by Deputy Alabama Attorney General Alice Martin and Unit Chief Matt Hart. Martin and Hart are seasoned professional prosecutors with a proven track-record of success in high-profile public corruption cases.

Public outcry over the unsavory deal between Bentley and Strange has reached a fever pitch in the state. Alabamians witnessed a sitting governor buy his way out of a messy state criminal investigation by appointing a greedy and selfish former attorney general to the senate seat in Washington. What is more, Bentley put off the mandatory 90-day special election for Strange’s senate seat until the November 2018 general election.

Bentley’s appointment of Steve Marshall as Alabama Attorney General pushed the public and the Justice Department over the edge. Marshall, who was a longtime district attorney in a small Alabama County, has no

#ALpolitics @GovernorBentley Hoodwinks @YHN & @ALdotcom

Bentley Hoodwinks Yellowhammer News and AL.com

Alabama Governor Bentley with paramour/ Rebekah Caldwell Mason, Communications Director cum Senior Political Advisor

by Donald V. Watkins
Published via Facebook Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Used with permission

Once again, Governor Robert Bentley has hoodwinked Yellowhammer News and AL.com. This time, Bentley has deceived these two news organizations by providing them with a handful of sanitized text messages between Rebekah Caldwell Mason and himself in response to their separate Open Records requests for emails and text messages between the two lovers.

Like former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, Bentley withheld the more embarrassing text messages about his illicit love affair with Rebekah from public disclosure. Of particular significance are the text messages where Bentley describes his true love for Rebekah, including a text message Bentley thought he was sending to Rebekah that he mistakenly sent to his former wife Dianne instead.

KWAME MALIK KILPATRICK
MDOC Number: 702408
SID Number: 3353708P
Name: KWAME MALIK KILPATRICK
Racial Identification: Black
Gender: Male
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 6′ 4″
Weight: 310 lbs.
Date of Birth: 06/08/1970 (45)
KWAME MALIK KILPATRICK Image Date: 5/25/2010

Yellowhammer bought into

Key Questions for #ALpolitics Mainstream Journalists

Key Questions for Mainstream Journalists

By Donald V. Watkins
Posted to Facebook 6 October 2015
Used with permission

I know it is not my job to tell mainstream media journalists what questions to ask Governor Robert Bentley (assuming they have the courage to ask him any questions about his infidelity scandal), but I would suggest the questions below for them ask the governor (assuming they want to regain their credibility):

1. Why did you hire David Byrne as your chief legal advisor after he presided over the massive collapse of

A Simple Guide For #ALpolitics Mainstream News Media Organizations

A Simple Guide For Mainstream News Media Organizations

By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on October 5, 2015
Used with permission

I have a simple guide for Alabama’s mainstream news media organizations that want to assail or independently confirm the accuracy of our exclusive reporting on Governor Robert Bentley’s martial infidelity and misuse of taxpayer and donor money. Before starting, I want to note that I hold the individual record in Alabama for exposing the highest number of major corruption scandals involving public officials. Thus, I am going to give my fellow journalists some simple tips on effective investigative journalism as it relates to the governor’s cheating scandal.

First, ask for all of the text messages between the governor and Rebekah Caldwell Mason from January 2011 to the present. These records are public documents under Alabama’s Open Records Act. They are not confidential or privileged documents. They are

#BREAKING! Seth Hammett, #ALpolitics @GovernorBentley’s Chief of Staff Resigns

Seth Hammett was three-time Speaker of House & represented Alabama’s 92 District until 2010, when he retired from the Legislature. He is a Democrat, while Bentley is a Republican.

Bentley’s Chief of Staff Resigns

By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on October 2, 2015
Used with permission

Seth Hammett, Governor Robert Bentley’s chief of staff, has resigned his post. The governor announced Hammett’s departure today with the praise and fanfare needed to “mascara” over this surprising defection.

Hammett exited the scene at the governor’s office because he was not comfortable with the growing scandal that has ensnared the governor and senior political advisor, Rebekah Caldwell Mason.

Hammett was one the staffers Bentley dispatched to get troopers on the security detail to sign confidentiality statements as

Getting the Alabama Media to Look the Other Way: #ALpolitics @GovernorBentley’s Executive Betrayal & Taxpayer Fleecing

Executive Betrayal – Robert Bentley’s Fleecing of Taxpayers and Donors – The Finale

By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on October 2, 2015
Used with permission

Getting the Alabama Media to Look the Other Way

The Birmingham News (the “News”) is a media entity in the Alabama Media Group. The Mobile and Huntsville newspapers are also in this media group. The News was a willing participant in the FBI’s COINTELPRO program that was aimed at secretly spying on, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting domestic political organizations. The News worked closely with the Alabama Sovereignty Commission and state and local officials who opposed racial integration in Alabama. In doing so, the News targeted individuals like Martin Luther King, Jr., Richard Arrington, Jr., and other civil rights leaders from the 1950s to the 1970s for an unrelenting campaign of negative news reporting in an attempt to undermine their credibility. COINTELPRO came to an official end after it was publicly exposed in the 1976 Congressional “Church Committee” hearings. Unofficial activities continued.

Today, the News plays a significant role in advancing and protecting the interests of unfit state officials. The latest case in point involves disgraced Governor Robert Bentley and his marital infidelity scandal. Bentley, who was recently divorced by his wife Dianne, used

#ALpolitics @FirstLadyDB: Strength in the Face of Domestic Abuse

Dianne Bentley: Strength in the Face of Domestic Abuse

By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on September 23, 2015.
Used with permission

In her official state biography on the Governor’s website, it states, “If Mrs. Bentley can be remembered for one thing as First Lady, she hopes that the people of Alabama will remember her stand for Christ. After all, the Bentleys feel that they have been called “for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14) and always strive to remain in God’s will.”

Governor Robert Bentley abused Dianne Bentley emotionally, psychologically, and verbally. The abuse started when Rebekah Mason became Bentley’s closest advisor and lover during the governor’ first term in office. Bentley’s domestic abuse of Dianne was pervasive, degrading, and ugly, and his malicious words and deeds, ultimately left Dianne feeling irrelevant, disgraced, and utterly inadequate.

As Bentley’s romance with Rebekah Mason heated up, so did his abuse of Dianne. Though not physical in nature, Bentley’s abusive conduct was so disparaging towards Dianne that even the couple’s four sons and some of his grandchildren have felt the need to disassociate from him.

Once Bentley became governor, he changed. He was

Follow the Money, Part 2 – Executive Betrayal: Robert Bentley’s Fleecing of Taxpayers & Donors

Executive Betrayal:
Robert Bentley’s Fleecing of Taxpayers and Donors
Part 2

Follow the Money

By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on September 20, 2015
Used with permission

Rebekah Caldwell Mason with husband Tony Mason (Facebook profile)

UPDATE 21September2015: Today, the John Kasich for President Campaign issued a statement denying that Rebekah Mason is working for the Kasich Campaign. The statement was issued in response to the sentence in the article below that, “[Rebekah] is reportedly working for Presidential candidate John Kasich (R-Ohio)”. Everybody is distancing themselves from Rebekah, except Governor Bentley. No one is denying that Rebekah Mason secured Bentley’s endorsement of Kasich.

—

Rebekah Caldwell Mason, Governor Robert Bentley’s mistress and the de facto First Lady of Alabama, is married to Jonathan P. Mason. Jonathan was a weatherman at WVUA, a small local television station in Tuscaloosa. When Bentley took office in January of 2011, however, he made Jonathan the director of Serve Alabama, which is the state agency for the governor’s faith-based programs and services.

Serve Alabama functions as the Alabama State Service Commission, granting and administering ten state AmeriCorps programs across Alabama. It is the state’s lead agency for Volunteer and Donations Management after disasters. This office serves as a liaison to the state for faith-based and community-based non-profit groups.

Serve Alabama also administered FEMA’s Disaster Case Management Program for survivors of the April 2011 storms. It administers the Governor’s Emergency Relief Fund. The office administers ReadyAlabama.gov, Alabama’s statewide disaster preparedness campaign.

Serve Alabama states that it

#ALpolitics @GovernorBentley’s CPA & Fundraiser Leaves Over Unethical Request

Mike Echols, CPA
Mike H. Echols lives in Tuscaloosa, AL, and was born December 22, 1951. He has one daughter Christy (LeFon), and is married to Amy Echols (nee Amy Celeste Holt of Montgomery, Alabama). Her son is Christopher Gattozzi. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Kentuck Art Association in Northport, AL, and is the Marketing Director at the Tuscaloosa accounting firm JamisonMoneyFarmer PC.
Mike studied at the University of Alabama from 1970-1974, and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting. And as a student, belonged to the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity.
He owns Michael H Echols & Associates, PC, (aka Echols, Michael H & Associates P.C. and Echols Coogler and Associate PC CPA), is a member of the Alabama Society of CPAs and the American Institute of CPAs, and is associated with Project Delivery Systems, LLC; Northport Professional Properties, LLC and Victory Ink Company, Inc.
He belongs to Franklin Resources Group, a public relations and lobbying firm based in Montgomery, AL, associated with many state-wide political action funds, and is a founding member of Tusco PAC, whose purpose is “to support candidates with a pro-business philosophy.”
Echols has chaired several statewide PACs, six of which have routinely made contributions in local elections. Alabama Political Reporter’s Beth Clayton reported, “In addition to chairing the T Town PAC II, Echols has been listed as both the chair and treasurer of numerous other PACs: Capital PAC, CMG PAC, GOTV PAC, KAW PAC, Pride PAC, Pride PAC II, T Town PAC, T Town PAC II and Tusco PAC, many of which are dissolved.”

EXCLUSIVE BREAKING NEWS—

Mike Echols Splits From Bentley

By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on September 18, 2015
Used with permission

Governor Robert Bentley’s long-time personal CPA and heavy hitting moneyman for the Robert Bentley Campaign Committee, has split from the governor. Echols, who handled the financial books and records for both the Bentleys and the Campaign Committee, resigned his post over a disagreement with Bentley about Rebekah Mason, the governor’s mistress and married paramour.

The precise nature of this dispute, which occurred several weeks ago, is not known at this time.

What is known, however, is that Bentley wanted Echols to do something questionable with the financial records relating to Rebekah Mason. The governor’s request did not sit well with Echols, a respected Tuscaloosa accountant and well-known PAC organizer. During a heated exchange between the two men, Echols refused the governor’s request and turned over the various checkbooks and financial records in his custody to Bentley. With this handover, the professional relationship between Echols and Bentley ended.

Echols has been Bentley’s accountant for many years. He was also the Campaign Committee’s accountant in 2010 and 2014.

In a slick move that is expected to become the focus of First Lady Dianne Bentley’s divorce proceedings, as well as law enforcement agencies in Washington, the governor stashed

Executive Betrayal: #ALpolitics @GovernorBentley’s Fleecing of Taxpayers & Donors

Executive Betrayal

Robert Bentley’s Fleecing of Taxpayers and Donors

By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on September 16, 2015
Used with permission

Governor Robert Bentley could barely contain his lust and love for Rebekah Caldwell Mason in the months leading up to his re-election in 2014. He was so obsessed with Rebekah that he sent a romantic text written for Rebekah to First Lady Dianne Bentley by mistake. It was graphic in content. Ms. Bentley’s subsequent review of her husband’s text messages answered all of her questions about the nature and scope of the governor’s marital infidelity. The text message exchange between the two lovers, along with what Dianne overheard during the governor’s private phone calls to Rebekah, let her know that the governor, 72, was “head-over-heels” in love and lust with his 43-year-old paramour.

Alabama Governor Robert Bentley with paramour Rebekah Caldwell Mason

Not only has Bentley proven to be a cheater and a sexual pervert, but now he has proven to be a crooked governor too. We have recently learned that Bentley not only had direct and personal knowledge of Rebekah’s handling of questionable financial practices with state and campaign monies, but he even went so far as to

Bentley’s Real Executive Protection – Part 3, Forbidden Love: #ALpolitics @GovernorBentley’s Secret Love Affair

Bentley’s Real Executive Protection

Forbidden Love – Robert Bentley’s Secret Love Affair – Part 3

By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on September 11, 2015
Used with permission

George L. Beck, Jr., is the United States Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama, which includes Montgomery.

George L. Beck Jr. was sworn in as the United States Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama on July 6, 2011. He was nominated by President Obama on March 31,2011, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on June 30, 2011.
Prior to being appointed, George Beck served as Deputy Attorney General for the State of Alabama for eight years, and Judge Advocate General for the Corps of Alabama Army National Guard for over thirty years, retiring at the rank of Colonel. He joined a private law firm in January 2004 where he remained until he was confirmed as U.S. Attorney.
Mr. Beck received his undergraduate degree from Auburn University and his law degree from the University of Alabama.

President Obama appointed Beck to the top federal prosecutor’s job in Montgomery in 2011. Beck’s Senate confirmation took a mere three months from the date of his nomination, even in the midst of a gridlocked Congress, because Beck enjoyed the support and loyalty of Alabama’s two Republican senators, as well as its Republican governor and state attorney general. For all practical purposes, Beck is a “closet” Republican.

Beck received his law degree from the University of Alabama, where he was a law school classmate and personal friend of David Byrne, Governor Robert Bentley’s chief legal advisor. Over the years, the two men formed

What Does It Mean To Be A Boot Licker In #ALpolitics, And Who Are They?

Various styles of “cavalier” boots, which are also called “thigh high” boots, from which the term “bootlegger” is believed to have originated. Note the boot’s high shaft which extends to, and often over the knee, and the widening taper to accommodate the thigh’s size & shape. The style originated in Spain with early cowboys, and was entirely one of functional design, then later took upon a fashionable trend among the well-to-do, moneyed nobility class.
Background image is oil on panel, dimensions 9.8 x 7.5 inches (25x19cm), entitled
“A Guardroom Interior,”
c.1630 by Jacob Duck (1600-1667), a Dutch painter whom specialized in such guardroom images and contemporary period paintings.

To be certain,
it’s NOT “boot liquor,”
which in a sense could be
(or perhaps has been)
morphed into bootlegger,
which is a person who
illegally sells liquor.
The term itself derived from
the practice of
hiding a flask of liquor
in a
high-legged boot.

But to be certain,
the term
“boot licker”
is a
derogatory term
used to describe
someone whom is

For those who like their newz with a right wring tryst, there’s… yellow reporting via @YHN YellowHammer News.

For those who like their newz with a Right Wring Tryst

Slant…

from a journalistic perspective, it’s colorizing a news report to fit the opinion of the reporter. It’s the polar opposite of hard news reporting, and is more akin to OpEd, or even News Feature writing.

More than likely, only the erudite would be aware of the differences. The average Joe is clueless about it, and only knows “where the gas and keys go,” which is another way of saying “if it’s on the Internet, it must be true.”

A one word description for that is “gullible.”

And face it, not everyone is a brainiac… and that’s okay.

What it boils down to is integrity, and truth-telling, which is precisely why journalistic integrity is of paramount importance in a free society like ours. Lack of it is what got “Lyin’ Brian Williams” canned from being the anchor of the NBC Nightly News. It wasn’t “colorful” reporting, it was blatant fabrication of a material fact. In plain language, he lied – and not just once, but several times – about events he reported, including Hurricane Katrina and being under enemy fire while flying in a Blackhawk helicopter.

Such phenomenon is not just limited to teevee news, but journalistic integrity also covers the written word. And there have been

Alabama State Senator Larry Stutts sued for malpractice… again

Alabama State Senator Larry Stutts has once again been named in another malpractice lawsuit in which a patient of his retained placental tissue, and suffered excessive bleeding following delivery of her baby.

The new case is oddly reminiscent of an older case in which Stutts was named defendant, in which his patient retained placental tissue and suffered excessive bleeding, and later died. The new case’s Plaintiff, Greta C. Cooper, did not die.

Read the PDF file of the 2015 Lawsuit against state Sen Larry Stutts

The suit alleges, among other things, that Stutts failed to order powerful antibiotics to be administered EXCLUSIVELY by Licensed Professional Nurses, and that two RNs with Gentiva Home Health Services in Russellville, Alabama, then taught the Plaintiff’s husband how to administer the medication, and that as a result of his failure to properly order, blood levels of the medication were also not taken which resulted in overdose toxicity.

Dr. Larry Stutts, DVM, MD (R), who was first a veterinarian, then became an Obstetrician/Gynecologist (OBGYN), upset 32-year veteran Alabama Senate District 6 State Senator Roger Bedford (D) by 67 votes in the 2014 November General Election. Stutts is also president of Colbert Obstetrics and Gynecology, PC (his private medical practice), located at 1120 S Jackson Hwy #104, Sheffield, AL 35660, (256) 386-0855.

Alabama District 6 State Senator Dr. Larry Stutts, DVM, MD

Alabama State Senate District 6 encompasses all of Franklin County, and portions of Colbert, Marion, Lauderdale and Lawrence Counties in NW Alabama.

Interestingly, Sutts wasn’t the GOP’s original candidate for the Senate District 6 race. Jerry Mays was the original GOP candidate, but dropped out of the primary. In response to Mays’ decision, on March 20, 2014, State Republican Party Chairman Bill Armistead announced that the Alabama Republican Party Candidate Committee had met and named Larry Stutts, who resides in Tuscumbia, to replace Mays candidacy. Stutts had never been in any elected political office.

Stutts is the same physician who was years earlier named in another lawsuit in which his patient Rose Church – a newlywed, and healthy 36-year-old Registered Nurse – died, which in turn,

How To Get Elected In Alabama: Convince the “largely poor, uneducated, and easy to command” to vote for you.

It’s a classic variation upon the theme of a “straw man argument.”

But if you’re like most folks in Alabama, you’re probably so “largely poor, uneducated, and easy to command” to know what that is.

So, I’ll tell you.

You cite an example of thing you oppose (and which many others would oppose) – even though it’s false (example: “The air in our city has killed thousands of babies!”) – and hammer on it, until you beat it up. Never mind that the example you use is pure bullshit and a total lie. That way, you get your opponent distracted from the REAL issues by responding to your bullshit lies. Studies have shown that when you repeat a lie – even if you are repeating it to refute it – the repetition can reinforce the lie in the minds of some people.

Read on.
—

Insight: How To Get Elected In Alabama

By Hardy Jackson

In my more than half-a-century of following politics — state, local and national — I cannot recall such a general disgust with the quality of the folks who govern us.

How, I hear it asked repeatedly, did these people get elected?

The answer, of course, is that they got the most votes.

But that is not the answer most people want.

What they want to know is how these politicians were able to convince a majority of Alabama voters to cast a ballot for them.

Well, I’m gonna tell you.

Today, politicians in Alabama get elected because they have mastered a strategy that has gotten Alabama politicians elected as long as there have been politicians and elections in this state.

Here is how it works.

First, a candidate must convince voters that

Alabama Governor Bentley Broke 20 Promises From 2010 Campaign

Robert Bentley, MD will say ANYTHING to get elected. In fact, he did. Is there any reason to believe he won’t do it again? He had no intention of fulfilling any of those promises. And that, my friends, is the definition of a sociopathic liar.
Sociopathic Liars are defined as someone who lies continuously in an attempt to get their own way, without showing care or concern for others. These individuals are goal-oriented. Even though it might seem hard to believe, lying is focused – they are focused on getting their own way. Sociopaths don’t have a lot of respect or regard for the feelings and rights of others. They tend to be charismatic and charming, but they will use their exceptional social skills in a self-centered and manipulative manner.

Having met with Alabama Governor Bentley a couple times, I can attest that he came across to me as a “nice guy,” a decent human being.

However – and to be absolutely certain – when I refer to Robert Bentley, or Governor Bentley, I mean to refer to him as an elected political figure, nothing more. And in that sense, as a legislator from Tuscaloosa, he was an inept, do-nothing, milquetoast, mamby-pamby, clueless, bumbling, cowardly, lazy, yellow-bellied, gutless, craven, unimaginative, clueless, pedestrian, hackneyed, lame and feeble Representative.

As Governor, he has given Alabama all that, and more… in spades!

As an elected official, Governor Bentley is a liar, and there are LITERALLY 15-20 broken promises he made while in the 2010 campaign that were very likely the hopes upon which Alabamians hung their hat, and ideas for which they cast their vote. His Democratic contender – Ron Sparks – was a man who, as Secretary of Agriculture and Industries, had his finger on the economic pulse of the state of Alabama. Ron was the man whom opened doors of market opportunity for Alabama’s farmers to sell poultry in foreign markets. Ron regularly communicated with the captains of industry in Alabama, as well the numerous entrepreneurs, small businesses owners, and Mom & Pop shops, which are the lifeblood of any economy.

Bentley’s campaign is nothing more one Broken Promise after another. It is a history of lies, infidelity, and willful deception. To characterize his administration as duplicitous would be generously diplomatic. To say it has been treacherously fraudulent would be more accurate.

Here are what I consider the Top Ten Bentley Campaign Lies from 2010.

Alabama Governor Bentley OK’d $580K Trooper Gate pay, lied about it

Alabama Republican Governor Robert Bentley, MD, OK’d $580,000 Trooper Gate pay, then lied about it
http://j.mp/TrooperGate

Bentley Punished DPS Bosses for Questioning Lewis’ Gigantic Overtime Pay

By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on October 12, 2014
Used with permission

Retired state trooper Capt. Mark Whitaker ran the Protective Services Division and Capitol Police in the Alabama Department of Public Safety (“DPS”) until this year. This is the DPS division responsible for guarding and driving Governor Robert Bentley. Wendell Ray Lewis was a sergeant under his command.

While running his division, Whitaker learned that Lewis’ overtime pay was pre-approved by Bentley and never to be questioned. This was even true with regard to Lewis’ claimed entitlement to 24 hours of overtime for a single day. Prior to Lewis, Whitaker had never seen a trooper make a claim for or receive 24 hours of overtime pay for a single day.

On January 14, 2014, Whitaker was called into then-DPS Director Hugh McCall’s office where McCall told Whitaker that his entire division would be transferred to the newly created Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (“ALEA”). As a result of the transfer, Whitaker, a highly respected captain, would fall under the command and supervision of Lewis, who at that time was a sergeant. Unbelievably, Captain Whitaker would be reporting to Sgt. Lewis.

This order came directly from Governor Bentley.

This humiliating role reversal was the ultimate insult for Whitaker, a career officer who had climbed the ranks within DPS and earned his command position. According to published reports, Whitaker believes this demeaning and insulting personnel action – a captain reporting to a sergeant – occurred merely because he sought to question Lewis’ overtime pay in the months prior.

“This is what I get for doing my job,” Whitaker complained to McCall at the time. He retired soon after.

Whitaker is the second high-ranking trooper to retire over the Bentley-Lewis overtime pay scandal. In 2011, Major Marc McHenry, now retired, served as the DPS chief over Protective Services and the Capitol Police. Lewis also worked under McHenry.

When McHenry realized in 2011 that Lewis had accumulated a gigantic amount of overtime pay, he tried to put an end to Lewis’ financial windfall. At the time, troopers were not being paid for overtime. They were given time off instead.

McHenry sent the issue to Lewis’ supervisor, and two days later he was

Cullman Alabama Mother & Son Plead Guilty to Theft from Poverty Healthcare Program

Cullman County Scum.

“Some folks just need killing.”

Either that, or chop off their hand, or foot.

This is OUTRAGEOUS!

Stealing from the poor!

This makes me LIVID!!

They’re both human ostomy bags.

—

Mother, son charged in federal health agency fraud; more than $100k used on items including adult website, fish finders

By Kent Faulk | kfaulk@al.com
Follow on Twitter
on August 27, 2014 at 5:15 PM, updated August 27, 2014 at 5:16 PM

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – A mother and son from Cullman have been charged in a scheme to defraud federal health agencies and a nonprofit east Alabama health center of more than $100,000, which they used to buy personal items such as electronic fish finders, truck tires, cell phones and an adult website membership, federal prosecutors announced.

Sheila Osborne Parker and James Robert Parker were charged in separate documents today in U.S. District Court in Birmingham, according to a joint press release issued by U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance, FBI Special Agent in Charge Richard D. Schwein Jr., IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Veronica Hyman-Pillot, and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and Office of Inspector General, Atlanta Regional Office Special Agent in Charge Derrick Jackson.

AL.com and The Birmingham News recently reported that a federal grand jury has been investigating the financial dealings of the federally-funded Birmingham Health Care center, which at one time a pioneer in the care of the homeless in Birmingham, sources tell AL.com.

Sheila Parker, 59, faces six counts of wire fraud, two counts of bank fraud and two counts of failing to file federal income tax returns, according to the press release. James Parker, 33, faces five counts of wire fraud and two counts of failing to file income tax returns. The mother and son have both entered plea agreements with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Sheila Parker worked for Birmingham Health Care, a nonprofit organization in Birmingham intended to provide free or low-cost health care services to the homeless and to people living below poverty level in the metro area, according to the press release.

In 2008, BHC assumed responsibility for

Shadrack McGill & the Facebook Strippers

Alabama State Senator Shadrack McGill (R,8th District), photo from his Facebook page

By now, the whole world knows of the fracas that that the wife of Alabama State Senator Shadrack McGill (R-8th District) has caused.

What first began as a post on Senator McGill’s Facebook page has suddenly turned into a worldwide free publicity campaign.

Even the Daily Mail – a newspaper in the United Kingdom – has picked up the too-weird-to-be-true story in an article entitled “Alabama state senator’s wife lashes out on Facebook against women who are ‘soliciting her husband for sex’ after ‘strippers showed up at their house’.”

“Multiple times since being in office he has gotten emails from women (who may not even be real) inviting him to explore, also sending pictures of themselves.”

What strikes me as particularly curious is the fact that apparently neither Senator McGill nor his wife Heather made any remarks or comments of any type, kind or variety when he alleged that it first occurred, nor did he alert authorities when a suspicious knock came at his door in the dead of night.

Referring to the first alleged incident, Senator McGill said, “Me and my wife

Alabama Governor Robert Bentley Defies Federal Law, Refuses to Establish Healthcare Insurance Exchange for Citizens

Governor Bentley is pulling a George Wallace stand-in-the-schoolhouse-door redux.

What an ignorant ass he is!

It’s exceedingly sad that he – as a physician – ordered Alabama’s 67 Counties Departments of Public Health to STOP giving Tuberculosis tests, thereby jeopardizing the public health of everyone who eats at a public restaurant, works in healthcare, and more – and was done as super-virulent, drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis are emerging. Gee, thanks, Governor Dr. Bentley. NOT!

Thanks for nothing, you jack-legged nincompoop!

By your defiant actions, Governor Bentley, you will FORCE the Federal Government to do something TOTALLY against your opinion – and that is, to establish a Health Insurance Exchange in Alabama.

You, Governor Bentley, are a lazy, sorry, idiotic jerk, in addition to being a liar, thief, incompetent boob, and contemptuous good-for-nothing.

Pejoratives aside, more than anything, this places the solitary onus of responsibility upon the governor and legislature to 1.) Increase education,; 2.) Increase employment; 3.) Increase Corporate Income Tax rates; and 4.) Increase Personal Income Tax rates on the wealthiest Alabamians who already pay a well-documented rate that is significantly lower than the impoverished.

By increasing educational attainment in Alabama, the governor will be demonstrating a high-quality, high-yield investment in the state’s most precious resource – people.

But the governor – bless him – is ignorant, and it is quite painfully obvious that he just doesn’t understand such simple concepts. He should understand them, however, because he has said previously, that he used the G.I. Bill to complete his medical training after his enlistment ended.

In stark contrast, Tennessee’s Republican governor, Bill Haslam said, “I’ve always said from the very beginning that anything we [Tennessee] can run instead of the federal government, we are going to run it better and cheaper,” The simpler thing to do is to say, ‘Here, it’s your idea, you run it,’ but I’m not convinced yet that that’s what’s best for our citizens. There’s going to be an exchange and ultimately, our citizens — through their insurance companies — are going to pay for the costs of running that exchange. So who do we think can run it cheaper: us or the federal government? I’ll bet on us every time. But we have to be convinced that the flexibility they will give us is worth taking the risk of running it ourselves.”

For the benefit of the reader who may be unaware of what an Insurance Exchange is, the exchange is designed to allow uninsured people to compare and buy health insurance plans through a single Internet portal. Those who earn up to four times the federally designated poverty level will receive subsidies to pay for the coverage.

Essentially, it’s an Internet-based non-business (nobody is making any money), that creates a database of health insurance carriers that all adhere to certain guidelines for efficiency and coverage. The law allows states to join together to run multi-state exchanges – essentially, insurance across state lines – or to exclude themselves.

In essence, make a list of companies that sell health insurance in the state, make a comparison of their plans and prices, and provide a link to the company for folks to buy insurance from whatever company they want.

Not too difficult to figure out, eh?

Here’s a link to an informative flyer from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation about what Health Insurance Exchanges are, and what they do.

You may also be interested in reading the informative site http://healthreform.kff.org.

 

—

Gov. Bentley says Alabama won’t set up exchange, expand Medicaid

By Kim Chandler | kchandler@al.com
on November 13, 2012 at 1:38 PM, updated November 13, 2012 at 5:19 PM

Bentley, in a show of continued resistance to the Affordable Care Act,  said this afternoon that he will not set up a state health care exchange and he will not expand Medicaid under the federal healthcare overhaul.

Alabama Governor Robert Bentley speaks at the Birmingham Business Alliance 2012 Governor’s Luncheon in Birmingham, Ala., Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2012. (Tamika Moore | tmoore@al.com) / Tuesday, November 13, 2012 1:17 PM

“I will not set up a state exchange in Alabama,” Bentley said during a speech to the Birmingham Business Alliance.

States have a Friday deadline to inform the  U.S. Department of Health and Human Services  if they plan to set up a state-run exchange, essentially a marketplace for people and businesses to shop for insurance. If states don’t set up their own exchange, either alone or in federal partnership, then the federal government will step in and design it.

Bentley said he has been in communication with other governors  — including peers in Texas, Florida and Louisiana — about the exchange decision.  He expected multiple governors to show a united front of resistance to the Affordable Care Act.

“If we stand together, I do believe Congress is going to have to look at this again,”Bentley said.

Bentley said he expected other governors to announce similar decisions.

“That will

The only thing that sucks harder than Alabama’s economy, is Governor Bentley.

Let’s be absolutely certain about a few things.

Number One: Alabama Governor Robert Bentley is – as a politician – a liar, thief and utter incompetent who is shitting on the people of Alabama and wiping his dirty ass with the United States Constitution.

Number Two: Alabama Governor Robert Bentley is – as a politician – a racist.

Number Three: The majority of the state’s Republican leaders are also incompetent boobs, liars and racists.

Number Four: I have utterly NO respect for the man Robert Bentley. Not as a politician, not as a human being. NONE whatsoever.

I predict Alabama will only be better off only AFTER he leaves… the dirty rotten scumbag.

—

Alabama has the worst economy in the Southeast. Wonder why? (Joey Kennedy)

Published: Thursday, October 25, 2012, 11:30 AM     Updated: Thursday, October 25, 2012, 12:17 PM

By Joey Kennedy | jkennedy@al.com

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley-R, with HB 56 sponsors Sen. Scott Beason-R, left, and Rep. Micky Hammon-R, right, still defends the state’s terrible immigration law, despite the clear damage it has caused to Alabama’s economy. (AP)

Remember when the Legislature was steamrolling through that overreaching, harsh, toughest-in-the-nation immigration law in 2011? The sponsors said not only would be be mean enough to make individuals and families so miserable they’d self-deport, but also would boost Alabama’s economy and put good ol’ red-blooded, U.S. citizen Alabamians back to work.

Odd report this week, then, from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, which said Alabama has the worst economy in the Southeast. Worse than Louisiana. Worse than South Carolina. Heck, worse than, my goodness, ThankGodforMississippi

Makes us proud, doesn’t it?

There is a saving grace. While Alabama’s economy sucks more than any other in the Southeast, it’s only the fourth worst economy in the United States. Yea us! We’re No. 47!

The outlook for Alabama isn’t that sunny, either, the report says. Unemployment is down to about 8.3 percent, from last October’s 8.8 percent, but economists attribute that to jobs that have simply disappeared, not to jobs having been created.

That, too, can be traced to the immigration law, which left farmers, construction companies, restaurants and other labor-intensive industries looking for workers, then settling for fewer of them when Alabamians failed to fill the jobs.

A University of Alabama economist was ridiculed by state officials and others when he said

Paul Ryan & campaign bum rush Ohio Catholic charity soup kitchen for Fake Photo Op (fauxtaux)

“Everything they do is for show. On their arms they wear extra wide prayer boxes with Scripture verses inside, and they wear robes with extra long tassels.”
–Jesus Christ, Matthew 23:5 (NLT)

—

Charity president unhappy about Paul Ryan soup kitchen ‘photo op’

By Felicia Sonmez , Updated: October 15, 2012

Paul Ryan & wife “wash” already clean dishes for a fake photo op in Youngstown, OH.

The head of a northeast Ohio charity says that the Romney campaign last week “ramrodded their way” into the group’s Youngstown soup kitchen so that GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan could get his picture taken washing dishes in the dining hall.

Brian J. Antal, president of the Mahoning County St. Vincent De Paul Society, said that he was not contacted by the Romney campaign ahead of the Saturday morning visit by Ryan, who stopped by the soup kitchen after a town hall at Youngstown State University.

“We’re a faith-based organization; we are apolitical because the majority of our funding is from private donations,” Antal said in a phone interview Monday afternoon. “It’s strictly in our bylaws not to do it. They showed up there, and they did not have permission. They got one of the volunteers to open up the doors.”

He added: “The photo-op they did wasn’t even accurate. He did nothing. He just came in here to get his picture taken at the dining hall.”

Ryan had stopped by the soup kitchen for about 15 minutes on his way to

Mitt Romney won’t intervene in Bain’s export of 170 American jobs to China

The company is profitable.

Sensata Technologies, 2520 S. Walnut Road, Freeport, Illinois – which was created by Bain Capital in 2006 – develops, manufactures, and sells sensors and controls for major auto manufacturers such as Ford and General Motors.

Despite rising profits, the company plans to institute the final layoffs in November. The workers are training their Chinese replacements, who have been flown to Illinois by the company.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is a co-founder of Bain Capital, the private equity investment firm that created Sensata. According to SEC filings, Romney served as CEO of Bain Capital from its founding in 1984 until 2002. Romney, however, has repeatedly said he left the company in 1999.

The employees’ website is Bainport.com.

—

Why Romney can’t save the Sensata workers

By Dan Primack September 18, 2012: 4:43 PM ET

Sorry, but Mitt Romney won’t save the Freeport jobs

Protesters want Mitt Romney to intervene on their behalf.

FORTUNE — As Occupy Wall Street celebrated its one-year anniversary yesterday in Zuccotti Park, a much smaller group of protesters set up camp in the northwestern Illinois town of Freeport. They called it called BainVille, in sarcastic homage to the private equity firm they blame for outsourcing their jobs to China.

What the protesters want is for Mitt Romney to intervene on their behalf, leveraging both his national profile and his relationship with Bain Capital executives. And, in theory, it makes sense. After all, what presidential candidate wouldn’t want to help save 170 American manufacturing jobs? Particularly someone who talks about getting tough with China?

But it simply isn’t going to happen.

For the uninitiated, here’s a quick backgrounder: Late last year, a Bain-owned company called Sensata Technologies (ST) agreed to

How Governor Bentley & Alabama’s GOP dominated state legislature raped their “constituency”

Allow me to be more explicitly succinct: Governor Bentley and the GOP led legislature are lying sons-of-bitches who ought to burn in Hades for how they’ve raped and lied to the people of the state of Alabama.

I have only one thing for them: Utter Contempt.

—

The $437 Million Hustle

Published: Wednesday, September 26, 2012, 9:07 AM
Updated: Wednesday, September 26, 2012, 9:12 AM
By George Talbot

Bridget Stafford of Montgomery casts her vote on Amendment 1 at Vaughn Park Church of Christ in Montgomery, Ala., Sept. 18, 2012. (Julie Bennett | al.com)

In honor of the constitutional amendment approved by Alabama voters on Sept. 18, we here at the South Alabama Political Animals Club would like to introduce a new award.

Let’s call it the Karl Rove – James Carville Political Slickum Trophy. The inaugural winners? Gov. Robert Bentley, House Speaker Mike Hubbard and Senate President Del Marsh, who pulled off a political hustle as sharp as anything outside of a Chicago pool hall.

The Republican leaders were in a jam, and got Democratic voters to bail them out. Impossible, you say?

The numbers don’t lie. The amendment, which allows the state to tap into the Alabama Trust Fund to pay for government operating expenses, won by big margins in Democratic precincts, and was soundly rejected in the state’s more conservative corners.

Voters in deeply Republican Baldwin, Cullman, Madison and Shelby counties, for instance, shot down the measure by nearly 2 to 1. But the GOP proposal reaped a bounty of support from Democratic voters in Mobile, Jefferson and Montgomery counties.

The margins were even greater in the Black Belt, Alabama’s last Democratic stronghold, where the amendment rode a wave of “yes” votes in Greene, Perry and Wilcox counties. In Dallas County, it got eight “yes” votes for every one “no.”

How’d that happen?

Supporters of the proposal, organized as the Keep Alabama Working political action committee, raised big money from groups that would have taken a budget hit if the measure had failed – chiefly nursing homes and hospitals.

Much of that money was raised and spent by

Guess what? Mitt Romney STILL pays a lower tax rate than you… you 47% slob.

You sleazebag, free-loading, dirtbag, entitlement-minded, mamby-pamby, wussified, two-bit, grifter…

No, not you, dear reader.

Mitt Romney.
—

Romney paid $1.9 million in 2011 taxes

Washington Post

Published 11:13 p.m., Friday, September 21, 2012, By Philip Rucker, Jia Lynn Yang and Steven Mufson

Mitt Romney paid $1.9 million in taxes on $13.69 million in income in 2011, most of it from his investments, for an effective rate of 14.1 percent, according to hundreds of pages he released Friday in a move to quiet political controversy over his personal finances.

Wall Street Crap Shoot – h (Photo credit: SouthernBreeze)

The Republican presidential nominee could have paid less in taxes, but he engineered his 2011 returns to

Do you trust this man? Can you trust this man?

The Secret Service endeavors to protect presidential candidates from physical harm by attacks upon him from those whom would seek their harm.

However, there is one death the Secret Service cannot prevent – political suicide.

NBC had the “Not Ready for Prime Time Players.”

The GOP has a “Not Ready to be President” candidate in Mitt Romney.

“After the assassination of

Wall Street Journal on @MittRomney policy plan & R’ObamaCare Mitt-Flop

Do tell.

—

WSJ chides Romney for too few policy details

By MAGGIE HABERMAN|

9/10/12 10:11 PM EDT

The WSJ editorial page weighs in on Mitt Romney‘s Obamacare response on Meet the Press, and the subsequent clean-up:

When Mitt Romney ventures into health care, political trouble usually follows. So it went this weekend, as the GOP standard-bearer made his own policy sound worse than it is.

On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” the Republican was asked what he would do about people with pre-existing medical conditions who would supposedly “no longer be guaranteed health care” if he repeals the Affordable Care Act. “I say we’re going to replace ObamaCare,” Mr. Romney replied. “And I’m replacing it with my own plan,” without defining the substance of his own agenda.

When pressed, Mr. Romney said that “I’m not getting rid of all of health-care reform. (That would be the liberal euphemism for ObamaCare.) Of course, there are a number of things that I like in health-care reform

Liar Paul Ryan claims he didn’t vote for Defense cuts he voted for

Liar.

Just like his father Mitt Romney.

Liar.

—

Ryan: I Didn’t Vote For The Defense Cuts I Voted For

By Zack Beauchamp on Sep 9, 2012 at 12:13 pm

Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan has gotten in hot water before for criticizing President Obama for the very same defense cuts that he voted for in 2011. When confronted with this incongruity today on Face The Nation, Ryan simply denied that he ever voted for the cuts, telling an incredulous Norah O’Donnell that he didn’t actually vote for the cuts he’s on record as voting for:

O’DONNELL: Now you’re criticizing the President for those same defense cuts you’re voting for and called a victory.

RYAN: No, no — I have to correct on you this, Norah. I voted for a mechanism

Mitt Romney, the “Etch-A-Sketch” Flip-Flop candidate, flips again. This time, on “ObamaCare.” Borderline Personality Disorder?

Given the number of statements which Mitt Romney has made – statements in which he contradicts his own previous statements – it’s more than disconcerting that Mitt Romney has once again switched positions. Late former president Ronald Reagan – then candidate Reagan – once famously intoned while campaigning “there go you again.”

This, however, makes Mitt Romney appear almost schizophrenic, out of touch with reality, incapable of taking a position, constantly changing positions, being a moving target, a reed blown by the wind, wishy-washy, two-faced, hypocritical, liar, indecisive, and more.

“Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) (according to the ICD-10 World Health Organization disease classification, emotionally unstable personality disorder, borderline type) is a personality disorder marked by a prolonged disturbance of personality function, characterized by unusual variability and depth of moods.”

Those are NOT the qualities America needs in it’s Chief Executive.

—

Romney backs away from healthcare pledge

By Anna Fifield in Washington
September 9, 2012 6:18 pm

Mitt Romney has said he would keep the most popular parts of Barack Obama’s signature healthcare reforms if elected president, performing an abrupt about-turn on his earlier campaign promise to repeal the whole law.

His comments will reignite suspicions that the Republican presidential candidate is a politician of expediency and

Paul Ryan is a lying hypocrite who requested ObamaCare money for his district.

Well, well, well…

Can you smell the hypocrisy cooking?

This is the kind of garbage commonly found in the GOP these days.

—

Exclusive: Paul Ryan Quietly Requested Obamacare Cash

Lee Fang, September 5, 2012 – 1:35 PM ET

Investigating the intersection of politics, lobbying and public policy.

Republican vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan is barnstorming the country, promising to repeal every provision of the Affordable Care Act if the Romney-Ryan ticket is elected. But a letter he wrote to the Obama administration may undermine this message.

On December 10, 2010, Ryan penned a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services to recommend a grant application for the Kenosha Community Health Center, Inc to develop a new facility in Racine, Wisconsin, an area within Ryan’s district. Ryan wrote, “The proposed new facility, the Belle City Neighborhood Health Center, will serve both the preventative and comprehensive primary healthcare needs of thousands of new patients of all ages who are currently without healthcare.”

Paul Ryan’s request for Obamacare funds

The grant Ryan requested was funded directly by the Affordable Care Act, better known simply as healthcare reform or Obamacare.

The letter, among several obtained by The Nation and The Investigative Fund through a Freedom of Information Act request, is a stark reminder that even the most ardent opponents of Obamacare privately acknowledge many of the law’s benefits.

Federally funded health clinics have long provided a broad range of vital medical, dental and mental health services to underprivileged communities across the country, regardless of a persons’ ability to pay. To meet the goal of expanding coverage, the Affordable Care Act provides for a sweeping expansion of such clinics, including $9.5 billion for operating costs to existing community health centers and $1.5 billion for new construction.

In public, Ryan has cultivated a profile as

Republicans: Let’s fly to Israel, eat fancy food, drink Dom Pérignon champagne, and swim nekkid!

Hey!

I know!

Let’s get lobbyists to pay for a trip to Israel where we can eat fancy food, drink Dom Pérignon champagne, and swim nekkid!

You know, it’d be funny if it weren’t first so sad… because it’s all true.

Every Dogdamn bit of it.

—-

August 21, 2012

Skinny-Dipping in Israel Casts Unwanted Spotlight on Congressional Travel

By ERIC LICHTBLAU and JODI RUDOREN

WASHINGTON — The trip was much like any of the hundreds hosted in recent years by a nonprofit offshoot of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a powerful Washington lobby, and the purpose was much the same: to solidify the support of American lawmakers for Israel at a time of Middle East tumult.

For eight all expense-paid days, House Republicans visited Israel’s holiest sites, talked foreign policy with its highest officials and dined at its most famous restaurants, including Decks, known for its grilled beef, stunning views of the Sea of Galilee, and now, for an impromptu swim party.

With hundreds of Washington lawmakers having gone to Israel courtesy of the program, the trips have a reputation as being the standard-bearer for foreign Congressional travel. “We call it the Jewish Disneyland trip,” said one pro-Israel advocate in Washington.

But for lawmakers, the attention surrounding last summer’s trip — thanks to reports of a skinny-dipping Kansas lawmaker who was part of the delegation —  has

Paul Ryan Will Save Social Security & Medicare

NOT!

The original title of this entry was “Paul Ryan Contradicts Himself & Pimps his Mother.”

For behold, it’s a case of “The pot calls the kettle ‘black.'”

First, he is a career politician damning “this board of bureaucrats,” of which he is a founding, card-carrying member.

Paul Ryan has never held an honest, private sector job a day in his life (if you count driving the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile during summer in college), and has ONLY had political jobs since he first started working.

He has completely IGNORED the findings of the Congressional Budget Office, the Office of Management and Budget and the Governmental Accountability Office, all who have independently found that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act decrease the budget and has NOT taken ANY money from Medicare, Medicaid or the Social Security Trust Fund (SSTF).

You know the saying:

Mitt Romney demonstrates more hypocrisy, required Paul Ryan show several years tax returns

What’s that smell?

Oh… never mind.

It’s the hypocrisy cooking.

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Paul Ryan gave Romney camp several years of tax returns

1:26pm EDT

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney (R) listens to his vice president selection, U.S. Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) speak at a campaign event at the NASCAR Technical Institute in Mooresville, North Carolina August 12, 2012. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Mitt Romney released two years of his own tax returns to the public but that didn’t appear to be enough when he vetted running-mate Paul Ryan and other vice presidential candidates.

The campaign team for Romney, the Republican presidential candidate, reviewed several years of tax returns from Ryan and other, according to the head of Romney’s VP search process Beth Myers.

But Romney – a former private equity executive with an estimated net worth of up to $250 million – has refused to

Republican Father of ObamaCare’s Individual Mandate Denies He Ever Created It

Liar.

Weasel.

Republican.

Can you smell the hypocrisy cooking?

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Column: Don’t blame Heritage for ObamaCare mandate

By Stuart Butler

Updated 2/6/2012 10:40 AM

Is the individual mandate at the heart of “ObamaCare” a conservative idea? Is it constitutional? And was it invented at The Heritage Foundation? In a word, no. {ed. note: That’s utter bullshit, which you’ll understand why as you read on.}

Stuart Butler, By Kate Patterson, USA TODAY (The liar looks happy as a lark, doesn’t he? Apparently, there’s no joy in Mudville.)

The U.S. Supreme Court will put the middle issue to rest. The answers to the first and last can come from me. After all, I headed Heritage’s health work for 30 years. And make no mistake: Heritage and I actively oppose the individual mandate, including in an amicus brief filed in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to the Supreme Court.

Nevertheless, the myth persists. ObamaCare “adopts the ‘individual mandate’ concept from the conservative Heritage Foundation,” Jonathan Alter wrote recently in The Washington Post. MSNBC’s Chris Matthews makes the same claim, asserting that Republican support of a mandate “has its roots in a proposal by the conservative Heritage Foundation.” Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi and others have made similar claims.

The confusion arises from the fact that 20 years ago, I held the view that

The Irony of the Death: The first nails in the coffin of DOMA were all done by Republicans.

The stinking irony of the whole matter is that the folks who are primarily responsible for the federal death of DOMA is that…

they’re REPUBLICAN.

So who’re your hypocrites?

Who’re your radicals now?

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In Defense of Marriage

Editorial
Published: June 2, 2012

The federal appeals court ruling last week that struck down part of the Defense of Marriage Act did not say whether same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, but the decision sets the stage for what will almost certainly be a Supreme Court showdown over the unfair treatment of gay people and their families.

The ruling on Thursday by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, based in Boston, marked the first time a federal appellate court had ruled against the 1996 law, which excludes same-sex couples from federal benefits accorded heterosexual married couples. (like being allowed to filed joint tax returns and to receive Social Security survivor payments).

The case was heard by two judges nominated by Republican presidents and one Democratic nominee. It involved married couples in Massachusetts, which is among the handful of states where gay couples may lawfully wed. The marriage law was being defended by lawyers hired by the Republican majority in the House after the Obama administration finally acknowledged that it was unconstitutional and decided to stop defending it in court.

The panel’s key finding was that there was no “demonstrated connection” between the law’s hurtful treatment of same-sex couples and “its asserted goal of strengthening the bonds and benefits” of heterosexual marriage. It also said another rationale for the law — that it preserves scarce federal resources — was simply not true.

We were disappointed that the panel declined to

What does Mitt Romney have to hide?

Mitt Romney provided 23 years of tax returns to the John McCain camp when the Arizona senator was considering potential running mates for the 2008 Presidential election.

Now, he’s balking at providing those same documents to Americans whom he is asking to support him.

Why?

Mitt Romney, Mr. 1% - Cartoon (Photo credit: DonkeyHotey)

Romney using ethics exception to limit disclosure of Bain holdings

By Tom Hamburger, Thursday, April 5, 1:10 PM

Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney, whose wealth has become a central issue in the 2012 campaign, has taken advantage of an obscure exception in federal ethics laws to avoid disclosing the nature and extent of his holdings.

By offering a limited description of his assets, Romney has made it difficult to know precisely where his money is invested, whether it is offshore or in controversial companies, or whether those holdings could affect his policies or present any conflicts of interest.

In 48 accounts from Bain Capital, the private equity firm he founded in Boston, Romney declined on his financial disclosure forms to identify the underlying assets, including his holdings in a company that moved U.S. jobs to China and a California firm once owned by Bain that filed for bankruptcy years ago and laid off more than 1,000 workers.

Those are known only because Bain publicly disclosed them in government filings and on the Internet. But most of the underlying assets — the specific investments of Bain funds— are not known because Romney is covered by a confidentiality agreement with the company.

Several of Romney’s assets — including a large family trust valued at roughly $100 million, nine overseas holdings and 12 partnership interests— were not named initially on his disclosure forms, emerging months later when he agreed to release his tax returns.

There is no indication that Romney is violating any rules, and his advisers note that his reports have been certified by the Office of Government Ethics, which reviews the disclosures required of presidential candidates.

Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said

Scrutinizing the Mitt Romney jobs claim record

Mitt Romney, former  governor of Massachusetts, and GOP wannabe presidential nominee, has made many assertions claiming a record of creating private sector jobs before he became governor.

However, Marc B. Walpow, a former managing partner at Bain Capital who worked closely with Mitt Romney during his time there had this to say:

“I never thought of what I do for a living as job creation. The primary goal of private equity is to create wealth for your investors.“

Let’s examine Mr. Romney’s job creations claims more closely.

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A closer look at Mitt Romney’s job creation record

The Republican presidential contender says he learned about expanding employment during his time heading a private equity firm. But under his leadership, Bain Capital often maximized profits in part by firing workers.

By Tom Hamburger, Melanie Mason and Matea Gold, Washington Bureau December 3, 2011, 7:23 p.m.

Reporting from Washington—

Shortly after Mitt Romney resigned from Bain Capital in 1999 to run the Olympics in Salt Lake City, potential investors received a prospectus touting the extraordinary profits earned by the private equity firm that Romney controlled for 15 years.

During that time, Boston-based Bain acquired more than 115 companies, according to the prospectus. Bain’s estimated annual returns were more than five times that of the Dow Jones Industrial Average in the same period.

Now a front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, Romney says his Bain experience shows he knows how to create jobs. He often cites Bain’s investment in a little-known office supply store called Staples, which now employs more than 90,000 worldwide.

DOCUMENT: Read the Bain Capital prospectus

But a closer examination of the prospectus paints a different picture of Bain’s operation. Under Romney’s leadership,