Massa may cause the Dems trouble after all

[Yonivore]

House votes to ask ethics to probe Dem leaders on Massa (http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/86213-gop-looks-to-force-ethics-investigation-of-dem-leaders-knowledge-on-massa)

:corn:

[ChumpDumper]

Nothing is going to come of this.

Sorry.

[George Gervin's Afro]

Assuming Massa had a rep of groping grown men, what's the issue? I realize the GOP is desperate to do anything possible to gain their power back but I don't see the big deal.

[Yonivore]

Assuming Massa had a rep of groping grown men, what's the issue? I realize the GOP is desperate to do anything possible to gain their power back but I don't see the big deal.
The big deal is, apparently, that Pelosi may have broken Senate ethics rules by burying the allegations until it was politically expedient to dispose of Massa.

That's the big deal.

Oh, and I don't see the GOP as desperate right now. They're not the ones attempting to pass unpopular legislation unconstitutionally.

[ChumpDumper]

So what would happen to her?

Nothing.

[Winehole23]

House votes to ask ethics to probe Dem leaders on Massa (http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/86213-gop-looks-to-force-ethics-investigation-of-dem-leaders-knowledge-on-massa)

:corn:Passed 404-2. Two republicans voted against it.

[Winehole23]

The Dems must be quaking in their boots.

[coyotes_geek]

A true victory for bipartisanship.

[Oh, Gee!!]

Two republicans voted against it.

they must be gay.

[boutons_deux]

"I don't see the big deal."

Since when do Repugs need a Big Deal to make a Big Deal of witch-hunting Dems.

After 15 years, a judge yesterday ruled the Repug witch-hunt about those Hillary Clinton folders had no substance and killed the case. Another Repug Big Deal was totally fabricated, hyped, and went nowhere.

[Yonivore]

The Dems must be quaking in their boots.

If Pelosi knew about this since October of '09 and did nothing until, of course, Massa refused to tow the party line on Obamacare...she should be quaking in her boots.


Disgraced ex-Rep. Eric Massa's long trail of bizarre behavior includes home shared with staffers (http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/03/11/2010-03-11_disgraced_exrep_eric_massas_long_trail_of_bizar re_behavior_includes_home_shared_.html)

[Stringer_Bell]

Massa's history in the Navy let to him being a little free with his hands, he said it himself. You guys can't tell me you've never been tickled by a Congressman until you're blue in the face.

BIG DEAL. MOVE ON. We have better things to spend our resources on.

[Yonivore]

Massa's history in the Navy let to him being a little free with his hands, he said it himself. You guys can't tell me you've never been tickled by a Congressman until you're blue in the face.

BIG DEAL. MOVE ON. We have better things to spend our resources on.
This issue, now, is, "what did the Democrat leadership know and when did they know it?"

[spursncowboys]

this is the dem's mo. they knew about foley months before they said anything.

[Stringer_Bell]

This issue, now, is, "what did the Democrat leadership know and when did they know it?"

omg. did the Dems know that he touched other men and when did they know it? That's what this bullshit is about? lol

That's about as stupid as the people asking "did the Bush Administration know the yellow cake uranium reports were false and when?" Knowing the answers won't change anything NOW unless you plan to hold people accountable for the Iraq War. We need to move on and stop this bullshit squandering of resources on stuff like closest gay congress people.

[George Gervin's Afro]

I'm still trying to figure out what Pelosi has to worry about. THe guy was fondling other guys... even if Pelosi kew about it who cares? Yoni seems to put 2 + 2 to get 5 all of the time but we are all used to it by now....

[Yonivore]

I'm still trying to figure out what Pelosi has to worry about. THe guy was fondling other guys... even if Pelosi kew about it who cares? Yoni seems to put 2 + 2 to get 5 all of the time but we are all used to it by now....
Okay, George, I'll speak slower.

There are ethics rules related to time frames between when the leadership is notified of an ethics problem and when it is referred to the Ethics Committee. Apparently, Pelosi violated those rules when she failed to report Massa back in October.

If she weren't worried, why is she tap-dancing around when she found out?

By the way, Democrats thought it was a big deal in the Foley case. Read up.

[George Gervin's Afro]

Okay, George, I'll speak slower.

There are ethics rules related to time frames between when the leadership is notified of an ethics problem and when it is referred to the Ethics Committee. Apparently, Pelosi violated those rules when she failed to report Massa back in October.

If she weren't worried, why is she tap-dancing around when she found out?

By the way, Democrats thought it was a big deal in the Foley case. Read up.

what ethics problems yoni? wasn't foley hitting on the Congressional pages.. teenagers?...and the GOP knew about it long before? Maybe you should have read up on it.

[Yonivore]

what ethics problems yoni? wasn't foley hitting on the Congressional pages.. teenagers?...and the GOP knew about it long before? Maybe you should have read up on it.
Yes, and House Democrats refused to drop the investigation after Foley retired because of the very reason House Republicans are citing now.

Are you really that dense?

The Foley investigation became about what Republican leaders knew and when they knew it. Why should Democrats be treated differently?

[George Gervin's Afro]

Yes, and House Democrats refused to drop the investigation after Foley retired because of the very reason House Republicans are citing now.

Are you really that dense?

The Foley investigation became about what Republican leaders knew and when they knew it. Why should Democrats be treated differently?

who did massa touch? who did foley touch? is one situation different from the other? the republicans paid for it because foley hit on male teenagers! are you that dense to not realize that?

[Yonivore]

who did massa touch? who did foley touch? is one situation different from the other? the republicans paid for it because foley hit on male teenagers! are you that dense to not realize that?
I don't think the ethics rules under which the Republicans are seeking an investigation make that distinction. They are concerned with the timing of when leadership was notified and when they referred an ethics violation to the Committee.

Like I said, if it weren't a big deal, Pelosi wouldn't be tap-dancing.

Frankly, I don't care...I just hope it gives her more heartburn than she already has.

It's good entertainment.

[exstatic]

What I can't believe is what a FRAUD D.A.D.T. is.

I guess if you're an officer, you can attempt sodomy on a sleeping subordinate and still keep your job and get your pension. God help you if you're an enlisted Arabic translator, though.


Clarke says that Massa's roommate, Tom Maxfield, was also assaulted. "Tom lived on upper bunk," Clarke say. "When you're on ship, you're almost exhausted 24-7. So a lot of times you sleep with your uniform on. Tom and Massa shared a stateroom together. Massa climbed up on the top of his bunk, which is hard to do--you never crawl up on somebody else's bunk. He wakes up to Massa undoing his pants trying to snorkel him." Ron Moss also confirmed hearing this story from Maxfield. Maxfield did not return calls and messages left for him--I'll update if he does.

In the Navy!! (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35802993/ns/politics-capitol_hill/)

[Wild Cobra]

what ethics problems yoni? wasn't foley hitting on the Congressional pages.. teenagers?...and the GOP knew about it long before? Maybe you should have read up on it.
I forget. How old were these former aides? The age of consent in DC was 16, and still might be. This was after their employment.

Now don't get me wrong, I am disgusted by Foley, but what was wrong or illegal? Lefties are all for same sex relationships. Doesn't this apply to republicans as well, or is it reserved for democrats?

[Winehole23]

http://www.tubo.co.uk/Resources/Snorkel+Mask+Fins%20Blue.jpg

[DMX7]

I forget. How old were these former aides? The age of consent in DC was 16, and still might be. This was after their employment.

Now don't get me wrong, I am disgusted by Foley, but what was wrong or illegal? Lefties are all for same sex relationships. Doesn't this apply to republicans as well, or is it reserved for democrats?

What's wrong with hitting on teenagers that work for you? Really? Is this the battle you want to fight?

[TheProfessor]

I forget. How old were these former aides? The age of consent in DC was 16, and still might be. This was after their employment.

Now don't get me wrong, I am disgusted by Foley, but what was wrong or illegal? Lefties are all for same sex relationships. Doesn't this apply to republicans as well, or is it reserved for democrats?
:lmao Wow.

[SAGambler]

Yes, and House Democrats refused to drop the investigation after Foley retired because of the very reason House Republicans are citing now.

Are you really that dense?

The Foley investigation became about what Republican leaders knew and when they knew it. Why should Democrats be treated differently?


Because they are Democrats. They have always thought the rules don't apply to them.

[EmptyMan]

lol, this dude was a freak.


http://plusdemain.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/political-pictures-george-bush-gay-navy.jpg

[Winehole23]

Speculation alert!

(Cum grano salis. It's Greg Palast.)


Getting into Massa's Drawers:
Truly Creepy Details
about the Congressman (http://www.gregpalast.com/getting-into-massas-drawersthe-truly-creepy-details-of-the-congressmans-behavior/)


Tuesday, March 23, 2010
h

Exclusive for Buzzflash.com (http://blog.buzzflash.com/contributors/3036)
by Greg Palast

For the two weeks before tickle-and-grope charges busted open on him, and before his resignation from Congress, our BBC Television investigations team was hunting for Representative Eric Massa.


http://www.gregpalast.com/images/massa/vulture_massa.jpgWe wanted to know what he had hidden in his drawers. Not his knickers, which have captivated America's peep-show media, but Massa's file drawers where he keeps his dirtier secrets.


Frankly, I don't give a rat's ass about Massa's creepy little peccadilloes. But I care an awful lot about creeps that quietly backed him.


Massa plays himself as a two-fisted Progressive Democrat, telling the President to jam his fake health care bill where the Rahm don't shine, and he gave the Iraq war his middle finger. I mean, the guy was on Rachel Maddow.


That's the television Massa. But what about the Congressman Massa? And why was he ducking us?


I specifically wanted to ask the New York Congressman about Paul Singer: "Swift Boat" Singer, the guy who funded the vile attacks on Presidential Candidate John Kerry. "Swift Boat" Singer — reportedly the biggest funder of the Republican Party in New York. Our information was that the demi-billionaire Singer was backing Massa.
Singer's nickname isn't really Swift Boat. It's "The Vulture."


Singer is a speculator, the predator-in-chief of the flock of financiers, collectively known as "vultures," who buy up the right to collect on old loans made to the world's poorest nations. Vultures use law suits, political muscle, and in some cases, bribery, to get nations like Congo and Liberia to pay these hedge funds up to 100 times what the vulture originally paid for the debt.


As you can imagine, vultures don't have lots of friends; and those they have they must purchase.


The vultures had been looking for some morally challenged congressperson to front a bill to help them crank billions from the budgets of Third World nations. The law that could make demi-billionaire Singer a billionaire is called, "The Judgment Evading Foreign States Accountability Act" (H.R. 2493).


In effect, the bill says that if Argentina (and other Third World nations) don't pay Mr. Singer and his vulture buddies the billions they demand, then the US government will act as Singer's enforcement arm, hanging out Argentina to dry, cutting off trade between our countries.


Now, as Mr. Singer became Mr. Checkbook to the Republican Party in New York, you'd assume that his make-me-richer bill would be sponsored by some right-wing GOP troglodyte. Wrong: the rent-boy, the chief sponsor of Singer's bill, was, to our amazement, the "liberal" Democrat Eric Massa.


Two sources tell us that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was not amused at Massa's weirdo attack on the financial lifeblood of US allies, nor does the White House favor a law which would provoke seizures of US assets abroad.


Our information was that Massa, crazy-desperate for campaign cash, was now getting juice from Singer and other vultures. I wanted to ask the Republican-turned-Democrat about his funding and about how he ended up in a political tryst with vultures.
The normally television-hungry Congressman refused our every attempt to get him on camera. And Singer's PR flack told me his own boss would speak to me "never, ever."
But we do know the cover story. Massa's bill was promoted by a benign-sounding group called, "The American Task Force Argentina." The ATFA website says their goal is, "Pursuing a Fair Reconciliation of the Argentine Debt Default."


There are some very progressive folk on ATFA's payroll. Its masthead lists "Ambassador Nancy Soderberg." Nancy's not actually an ambassador, but she did hold that title a decade ago under Bill Clinton, and she even worked for Ted Kennedy. The other co-Chair is listed as "The Honorable Dr. Robert J. Shapiro." Shapiro's no longer an "Honorable," but, back in the day, he held that title under Clinton as Undersecretary of Commerce. Now he's a lobbyist.


http://www.gregpalast.com/images/massa/brick1.jpg (http://www.gregpalast.com/bbc-on-the-hunt-for-an-american-vulture-attacking-liberia/)Liberian under vulture attack
These good liberals charge mucho bucks per hour for their influence. Who picked up the tab? Well, there was FH International and Montreux Capital, vulture funds that tormented West Africa's poorest nation, Liberia.
Those are the vulture funds that, when I came to question them in their New York offices last month, unbolted their name plaque from the building wall and locked their employees inside to hide from our camera crew (http://www.gregpalast.com/bbc-on-the-hunt-for-an-american-vulture-attacking-liberia/).




Also behind ATFA: Luck_The_Fakers_Luck_The_Fakers_Luck_The_Fakers_Lu ck_The_Fakers_Luck_The_Fakers_Luck_The_Fakers_ Associates -- Paul Singer, proprietor.


I wanted to ask Bob Shapiro what he and these other good Democrats were doing with vulture feathers in their wallets. (The Honorable Bob leaped at the chance to appear on BBC TV ... until he was told that the reporter would be Greg Palast. Instantly, Dr. Shapiro became unavailable.)


I'm sure Shapiro would have told me that, unlike Republicans, you can't buy Democrats. True, but apparently, you can rent them.


So, that's the cover. A "liberal" group funded by a right-wing Republican fronting for those trying to shake down Argentina to pay on bogus "loans" that Singer and FH International bought for next to nothing.


If Bob Shapiro will front for predators for cash, that's his business. But if Massa took campaign loot in a quid pro quo for legislation, that's our business.
I don't know the answer. But Massa does. And he won't talk to me. Nor will he talk to the House Ethics Committee.


On March 5, Massa abruptly resigned from Congress - which put an immediate end to the Ethics investigation of his activities.


At first, he said he was quitting Congress because he has cancer. Then he said he resigned because a buck-naked Rahm Emanuel bullied him in the Congressional shower-room and then threatened him over his health care vote. (Foxhole wing-nut Glenn Beck fell for that canard.) Then Massa said he resigned because of an aide's accusation that the Congressman tickled the aide in an "inappropriate" manner. (The mainstream press swallowed that one whole.)


I don't believe any of it. (Senator David Vitter (R-LA), known as "Vitter The **itter," was caught getting diapered by the Washington Madame, and still remains in the Senate voting against what he calls Obama's "immoral" program.)


Would the real Eric Massa please step forward and tell us the real reason he's resigning? Eric, my door's open and my microphone's on.


I don't want to talk about your zipper. I do want to ask you about any connection between speculator money and your save-the-vultures bill.


Unfortunately, despite our many pleas, Mr. Massa, you won't speak to us on camera or off. Apparently the subject of your financier buddies is a little too ticklish.