Posted on 05/14/2012 4:07:30 AM PDT by DaoPian
Two days after Christmas last year, Rep. Bill Owens, D-N.Y., and his wife, Jane, boarded a first-class flight to Taiwan for a four-day tour of the island. Owens and his wife roomed at $500-a-night luxury hotels and enjoyed fine meals between meetings with Taiwanese officials and a day trip to Taipei’s famed National Palace Museum.
Interactive Timeline How Lobbyists Arranged Rep. Bill Owens’ Trip to Taiwan
The Chinese Culture University in Taiwan had ostensibly invited the congressman and his wife “to promote international cultural exchange.” In fact, lobbyists for Taiwan’s government had organized the trip. Congressional ethics rules prohibit members from participating in most trips arranged by lobbyists.
Although Owens filed a travel disclosure with the House Ethics Committee that identifies the trip’s sponsor as the Culture University, email messages and other documents reviewed by ProPublica show that lobbyists from the New York firm Park Strategies, founded by former New York Sen. Al D’Amato, had invited Owens on the trip and spent four months organizing it.
(Excerpt) Read more at propublica.org ...
Pro Publica, Huff Post, WAPos all piling on a Democrat?? Why?
ABC New articles:
July 12, 2011
Tea Party activists will be going after 21 Democrats — mostly moderate-to-conservative members in swing districts, organizers say. They also said they would go after Republicans, but did not name them.
......
Another Democrat the Tea Party will call on this summer is Rep. Bill Owens, D-N.Y. He’s voted against a debt limit increase three times, but also recognizes that “clearly the country can’t default on its debt,” spokesman Sean Magers said.
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http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/tea-party-groups-target-lawmakers-debt-ceiling/story?id=14050024
Looks like he is/has been taken out to the woodshed! Uppity MF.
It is a bit odd as he generally votes the party-line.
This is suspicious. Bill Owens just barely won reelection in 2010 and this can’t be helpful to him.
This is the guy that won the special election that was forced by the resignation of Rep John McHugh R-NY after he was named Secratary of the Army by Obama.
He ran as a Democrat against Dede Scozzafava, who was a “Republican” in name only. Scozzafava was deemed to run by having the support of the Republican county chairmen of NY. Newt Gingrich threw his support to her as well even though she had zero credibility as a Conservative. The outrage over this backroom deal caused her to quit the race just before the election leaving Owens to run against a much lesser known Doug Hoffman who almost succeeded in winning what was a previously a secure Republican district.
Way to go NY Republican Party!
Most likely Bill Daley brother to Mayor Daley II, son of Mayor Daley the first.
It has been some time since I was in Taiwan, A beautiful place and nice people.
I used to carry a card with my Taipei address in English and Chinese, hand it to any cab driver, never a problem.
No matter what language do not attempt this in Chicago!
You may never return home!
He went to Taiwan and Communist China doesn’t like it. Disney does a lot of business in the PRC. Follow the Chicom blood money.
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