Caption This! (Open up John)

Drudge ^

[Arrowhead1952]

I want to be your Monica when you are elected!!!!

[ConservativeMan55]

Meanwhile....desperate Democrats are still searching for votes in Florida! "Open up lady! Did you eat them?"

[ConservativeMan55]

Bwahahahahaha!

[ConservativeMan55]

Bump!

[N. Theknow]

How...do ...you...do...Mrs. Wiiiiiley?

[ConservativeMan55]

LOL!

[N. Theknow]

[ConservativeMan55]

Cool!

[ConservativeMan55]

Sweetheart Real Estate Deal with Saudi Lobbyist
John Edwards is on the Senate Intelligence Committee, whose members have high security clearances, are privy to highly classified data and have been actively investigating links between Saudi Arabia and the 9/11 terrorist attacks (15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis.)

Michael Petruzello is a lobbyist, registered foreign agent and the manager of Qorvis Communications. That firm was hired by Saudi Arabia on November 14, 2001 (just 2 months after 9-11) to counter criticism of the Arab kingdom.

On May 17, 2002, Petruzello offered to buy Edwards' Washington home -- which had been on the market for over a year -- for 3.52 million dollars. (Edwards paid 2.2 million for it in 1999.) The deal later fell through but Edwards still has the $100,000 deposit. He says he hasn't decided whether to keep it, and would only have to report the conflict of interest if he does so. The house eventually sold for $3 million, a full $500,000 less than the Saudi agent offered.

The Edwards claims he had no idea Petruzzello worked for the Saudis, but in the weeks before the offer Petruzzello visited Edwards home state of North Carolina with the Saudis as part of their publicity campaign, and he was widely quoted in Washington and national publications describing his work for the Saudis. His firm even ran pro-Saudi TV ads in 20 large markets including North Carolina (and other states from which Senate Intelligence Committee members came.)

Kent Cooper, the former head of the government's public disclosure office for federal candidates, said " The potential conflict of interest is readily apparent when a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence receives $100,000 in a real or sham business deal with a foreign agent or a person with extensive foreign contracts at teh same time the Senate is investigating possible lapses in national security."


Highly Suspicious Campaign Contributions
John Edwards, who is himself a lawyer, has received tons of campaign money from law firms. Nothing illegal or particularly wrong about that, however you may feel about lawyers.

But many of them show strong signs of being illegal contributions designed to evade limits on the amount of contributions, by having employees and spouses "contribute" money that a wealthy lawyer wanted to give. Other campaigns have used these practices; Bob Dole's national campaign co-chairman was convicted of the practice in 1996.

There are several cases described in "The Hill" (a magazine about Congress) where low-paid paralegals who had never contributed to campaigns before, and weren't registered to vote (or were even Republicans) gave the maximum $2,000 donation to Edwards. So did their spouse and several other people at the law firm where they work. Two had even filed bankruptcy recently.

We can't prove these people were helping their bosses give more than the $2,000 maximum. But, as Bill Allison of the non-partisan Center for Public Integrity said, “It seems on the surface very suspicious. I think it is somewhat questionable that people who have never donated before would suddenly donate $2,000,” he said.

In one case there IS direct evidence that such an employee was illegally contributing for her boss. Michelle Abu-Halmeh, a legal assistant at Turner & Associates in Arkansas, told The Washington Post in April of 2003 that she expected to be reimbursed by her boss for her $2,000 contribution. The Department of Justice has begun a criminal investigation of the case.

---

Sources
Saudi connection -- "Edwards House Sale Raises Questions", The Oregonian (from AP), November 1, 2003 pA4
Contributions -- "Donations to Sen. Edwards questioned," By Sam Dealey , The Hill (a non-partisan magazine about Congress), May 7, 2003

[Only1choice____Freedom]

So then I told Howard, "Well, what if I don't want to shampoo, rinse and repeat?"

Did you hear about the programmer found dead in his shower?

He was still holding the shampoo bottle that says:

Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

[ikka]

[tray-sea]

NO no I gotta a better one...

John, show me that trick you do again. I'll throw the peanut and you catch it in your mouth. Um, let me see if I can do it too....

Someone ought to photoshop that picture of them with really really long tongues .. oh nevermind..

[archy]

Someone ought to photoshop that picture of them with really really long tongues .. oh nevermind..

Brivit.