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Sen. Ted "Tubes" Stevens Is Indicted
Many readers are letting us know about the indictment of Sen. Ted Stevens on seven counts of making false statements on his financial disclosure forms. We discussed the raid on the senator's house a while back. Everyone's favorite technologically challenged senator is the longest-serving Republican in the history of the upper house. An Alaskan paper gives deep background on the probe that has ensnared Stevens and a number of other Alaska political figures.
There's a joke here about federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison and clogged tubes but I'm just going to savor the indictment instead.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
It's not just a truck you can dump things on....
It's a house, that you can add things to...apparently for free.
down the...ummm...drain.
Momentarily, the need for the construction of new light will no longer exist.
AHHH No more bridges to no where. I think I am going to cry. I wanted to visit that uninhabitabed ice berg in alaska.
while this guy is an asshat, Series of Tubes as an analogy works just fine. This is one of those things other clueless asshats giggle at.
...into people claiming that everything is the fault of one party or the other and that all members of one of the two parties are corrupt.
How did he stay in office so long if there was already evidence of corruption in 2003 and 2004?
... who may potentially still turn out bad. Anchorage Int'l Airport was renamed Ted Stevens Int'l Airport a few years ago, fyi.
Asses are for crapping, not screwing.
senator's don't do hard time they get put in to camps or less.
Yep. crazy.
Jesus used to be my co-pilot, but we crashed in the mountains and I had to eat him.
Enjoy:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=_cZC67wXUTs
=^..^= all your rodent are belong to us
Being that the internet is a series of tubes, rather than a truck, Teddy didn't feel that he should have to pay taxes; money which would have been used partially to maintain roads.
Roads are obsolete. So are taxes, apparently. Just ask Sen. Stevens.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
First let me get this out of the way: Anchorage Daily News is horrible. They routinely run stories with huge problems, missing information, and always a liberal slant.
OK... to the real issue here: Ted Stevens MIGHT be convicted. Until then he is innocent until proven guilty. And it would really benefit the state if he were to be acquitted. He might not be the most technologically savvy senator in the USA but he certainly has done a great deal for the state, much more than any other politician. There is a great fear that nobody else (the up-and-comer Mark Begich for example) will be able to pull the kind of strings in Washington that Stevens was able to pull -- at least not for decades.
Our state certainly needs to rid itself of corruption. If Stevens is convicted it will be a sad day. What he is charged with is so petty compared to the greater good he has done that will be a crying shame. And entirely his fault. He should of course take the blame for his actions. But that doesn't change the fact that it will hurt the state MORE if he is convicted.
The main damage won't come from loss of Stevens, as he is 84 and wouldn't have been in his seat much longer anyway. Instead, the damage comes from the hurt this does to the Republican party in Alaska. You know, the people who want to explore and develop our natural resources like oil, gold and copper. Now that is unlikely to happen. The Liberals are going to run wild for a time, unchecked... we'll see how it all plays out in the end. I just hope it isn't too bad. Liberals AND Republicans both need to keep each other in check.
Anyway...
I do not respond to cowards. Especially anonymous ones.
text of the indictment is now available.
It was a part of the scheme that STEVENS, while during that same time period that he was concealing his continuing receipt of things of value from ALLEN and VECO from 1999 to 2006, received and accepted solicitations for multiple official actions from ALLEN and other VECO employees, and knowing that STEVENS could and did use his official position and his office on behalf of VECO during that same time period.
That sounds like good old-fashioned bribery to me, but with our screwed-up laws it's probably a lot easier to convict a politician for lying about the bribes than for taking the bribes.
Stevens, McGreevey, Republican, Democract, they are all thieves and all the same. Unfortunately it took segregationist Governor Wallace to reveal the truth that "there's not a dime's worth of difference between" Republicans and Democrats. The Democrats willingly went along with the War in Iraq, suspension of Habeas Corpus, detaining protesters, banning books like "America Deceived' from Amazon, stealing private lands (Kelo decision), warrant-less wiretapping and refusing to investigate 9/11 properly. They are both guilty of treason.
Go to the larger GOP convention and support Dr. Ron Paul and save this great nation.
Last link (before Google Books bends to gov't Will and drops the title):
America Deceived (book)
Let me be the first to shout:
"Yeee-hawww!!!"
Good riddence! The coming Alaska senate race is going to be one of the most interesting in history. I suggest everyone look into it. On the democratic front, we've got popular Anchorage city mayor, Mark Beigich, who's taken the election scene by storm in just the last month or so. And Stevens, being a long time incombant, is running virtually unopposed on the republican front.
In the house, rep. Don ("I'll beat you over the head with a walrus penis") Young is having even more trouble, due to falling public perception and the VICO scandal. This long-time incumbent may be KOed in the primary by our Lt. Governor.
The republicans only star runners, at this point, are Gov. Sarah Palin and Lt Gov. Sean Parnel. Parnel is running against Young in the house, and Sarah just had a child and is busy fighting some of her own battles.
Translation: the alaska republican party is FUCKED. Before the year is out, there's a very good chance we'll see our one house seat filled by a Dem, one of our Senate seats filled by a Dem, and the state's electoral votes go to Barak Obama (currently a very close race). AK is one of the most conservative and republican states in the country, btw.
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) offered up this bizarre explanation for why he voted against net neutrality laws. In it, he explains how the internet works...
"There's one company now you can sign up and you can get a movie delivered to your house daily by delivery service. Okay. And currently it comes to your house, it gets put in the mail box when you get home and you change your order but you pay for that, right.
But this service isn't going to go through the internet and what you do is you just go to a place on the internet and you order your movie and guess what you can order ten of them delivered to you and the delivery charge is free.
Ten of them streaming across that internet and what happens to your own personal internet?
I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why?
Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the internet commercially.
So you want to talk about the consumer? Let's talk about you and me. We use this internet to communicate and we aren't using it for commercial purposes.
We aren't earning anything by going on that internet. Now I'm not saying you have to or you want to discriminate against those people [...]
The regulatory approach is wrong. Your approach is regulatory in the sense that it says "No one can charge anyone for massively invading this world of the internet". No, I'm not finished. I want people to understand my position, I'm not going to take a lot of time.
They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the internet. And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a truck.
It's a series of tubes.
And if you don't understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and its going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.
Now we have a separate Department of Defense internet now, did you know that?
Do you know why?
Because they have to have theirs delivered immediately. They can't afford getting delayed by other people.
[...]
Now I think these people are arguing whether they should be able to dump all that stuff on the internet ought to consider if they should develop a system themselves.
Maybe there is a place for a commercial net but it's not using what consumers use every day.
It's not using the messaging service that is essential to small businesses, to our operation of families.
The whole concept is that we should not go into this until someone shows that there is something that has been done that really is a violation of net neutrality that hits you and me."
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
And when will Dodd and the Democratic senators who got their mortgages personally handed to them by bank CEOs receive the same treatment? I'm not a partisan in this, and I do enjoy seeing Stevens go down, but this guy is just the tip of the iceberg. I suspect that most of Congress would have to be indicted if a sweeping investigation were done.
The Democratic challenger to Steven's seat has actually been out-polling him in the last couple of weeks. The timing of this indictment means it is far more likely that Stevens will lose the primary next month, and Mark Begich will be facing a Republican without all of the baggage.
...they arrive in a series of tubes! That's why we must limit bribes: they clog up the tubes.
The indictment accuses Stevens, former chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, of concealing payments of more than $250,000 in goods and services....
Well, obviously he's "good at calculations"
Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
Wow that adn article is hilarious. Alaska is just crawling with these guys. I guess since its so cold and boring in alaska they have nothing better to do than steal. I mean it just kept going on and on.
Another megalomaniac politician is found corrupt. When will we ever become aware of what would be a true surprise, a politician who is found incorruptible? Perhaps when the people of America demand a return to a government for and by the people; instead of our current aristocratic governmental system. This system includes the candidate many of you currently "Hope" will usher in some sort of dramatic change. NOT!
Did you ever wake up in the morning, with a Zombie Woof behind your eyes? -- FZ
Just because some folks don't understand satire.
God forbid if our founding Fathers posted here...then again, I'm sure they've run into the same thing and folks burned their pamphlets.
I'll never stop. I'll keep pushing buttons until the cops stop me...OK, maybe a little more....but I'll REALLY stop when the Government points a gun at me or puts me in a "Free Speech Zone" - see Bush administration.
At the rate we Republicans are going, all of our guys are going to wind up in jail.
This is my sig.
his technological incompetence is the least of anybody's problems (yes, he's on the committee for regulating our future livelihoods and should understand this stuff..)
He's the guy who wanted the bridge to nowhere.... let's be frank that's a much larger problem than his blustering.
This is good - maybe the system works? It's too early to see
I have developed a truly marvelous proof of this comment, which this signature is too narrow to contain.
$urreal, and totally tubular, and if on YouTube, then it'll be $irReel...
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Flash!! Republican indicted! Must... post... to... Slashdot...
So, we've got Tom Delay, William Jefferson, and Ted Stevens (that I can recall off the top of my head) with outstanding indictments. All of these cases have been ongoing for YEARS. It took them 4 years to indict Stevens, and those indictments don't even cover the perjury or bribery charges. William Jefferson was busted red handed and he's still hanging around. These aren't complicated cases. I'd love to know why the wheels seem to grind so slowly for them. Hmmmmmm.....
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
He's intrigued by your ideas and would like to subscribe to your newsletter, Ted.
No mod points, no meta-moderating/Firehose/all the other free work Slashdot wants me to do.
I bet if he goes to prison, he'll get a whole network's worth of tubes shoved up his decrepit cornhole.
'He who has to break a thing to find out what it is, has left the path of wisdom.' -- Gandalf to Saruman
... a little bit too neat...
But how damn little it takes to buy them that shocks me. FTFA, it seems you can buy an Alaska State Senator for about $2,000 and lunch. The Speaker of the House will cost you less than $10,000. And this is to do favors worth millions if not billions to those doing the bribing. Definitely low-rent sleazeballs.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
I bought the Republican message that Democrats are not honest and that all Democrats are bad in the end and that you can't go wrong with a Republican. Now this Ted affair shatters my world view. What gives? Please help, I'm lost, not to mention untold amounts of money the republicans spent promoting the message.
Being indicited is nothing. Yet. Once convicted, either W or McCain will pardon him, if they are in office. Considering that the pubs appear to have interesting item on the dems (why would the dems, most of all waxman, not lift the gag order on Sibel Edmunds), even Obama might pardon him.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
I'm not getting it. Anyone care to enlighten me?
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
Members of Congress are more likely to be indicted than lose an election.
And, of course, unless he either gets convicted or goes the "spend more time with my family" route, he'll win re-election in spite of this.
You misspelled "incompetent."
Fuck y'all.
No, seriously, fuckyouverymuch, kthnxbi.
Reason:
Everybody Outside (that's "not in Alaska", for those Outsiders) likes to yap about Ted "Tubes" Stevens and squawk about how corrupt Alaska is and how we build bridges to nowhere bridgetonowherebridgetonowherebridgetonowhereblahblahblahblahblah, and then lament how we can be so stupid as to keep electing him.
Why do you think that happens?
This is because 70% of the land of Alaska is locked up by the federal government. This is because we have unprecedented interference in our industries and development by the federal government. This is because everybody and their dog has an opinion about ANWR, when the simple truth is that it's as much the business of Outsiders what Alaskans do with ANWR as it is Alaskan's business what development plans are in New York, Los Angeles, or Texas.
The simple truth is that Ted Stevens has been sent back repeatedly because he is effective at ensuring that Alaskans get overrun as little as possible by the Will of the People (who live SOMEWHERE ELSE), and that when they must bow to the Will of the People From Somewhere Else, that those peolpe pay mightily for the privilege. Ted Stevens has never pretended to have any other mission in the Senate, in fact.
Incidentally: most of the charges in this case are bullshit, as anybody who thinks about it for a minute can tell you; in a state that is "sparsely populated", exactly how many choices of company do you have for things like home construction? Very few. Who benefits from legislation? Likewise very few people. There are not that many people in these circles; it's difficult to avoid "benefiting" one of them.
The unvarnished truth: this is a political attack by Outside Democrats, designed to "take out" Ted Stevens, that has been ongoing for some time, pure and simple.
+5, Funny
Of the man who said the Internet is a series of tubes, being indicted for making false statements?
If we are willing to INDICT for making false claims about tubes, we should IMPEACH for making false claims about WMDs.
and maybe severity.
There is nothing particularly hypocritical in denouncing, what you think is an awful idea, while milking it for as long as it is forced upon you anyway.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Can we really blame him for losing some financial information? I mean it's not his fault when that information gets lost along with the internet sent by his staff.
If he ever serves a day in prison (unlikely), it will be in some minimum security prison where the only rape is to the taxpayers who have to pay the cable bill. Rich Republicans never pay for crimes they commit. Even when it looks like they might, they just find some slick way out of it (like Ken Lay, who killed himself so his wife and family could keep every dime of his stolen money).
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
(like Ken Lay, who killed himself so his wife and family could keep every dime of his stolen money).
That's called an Aspen Pardon. Take one for the family, and they become untouchable.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
If only there were a word for "schadenfreude"
Alaska is the RICHEST State in the Union. We actually send out checks to our residents, and have our shit together. Before you accuse our senior senator of being corrupt, do your homework.
Just because there is corruption in office, doesn't mean that person didn't help our state. Ted has fought tooth and nail against people who look at Alaska much like you all do - a wasteland.
Maybe we should stop pumping oil, watch your fuel prices rise, and read on slashdot how you guys are jumping out of windows.
There is a method to the madness.
You can bet the leftist liberals in Slashtard Moderation will surely pound this home simply because the subject of the story is a Republican.
You can bet on this as surely as the sun will rise tommorrow and Democrats are cowards plain and simple.
Congrats Slashtard.Dick youv'e once again proven your bias and you dont know fucking shit about shit!
Cant wait for your "Up Close and Personal With the Next Mesiah, Obama" expose, fucking wads
The Senate's rules require that Stevens immediately give up his committee chairs or "ranking member" status that gives him privileges in controlling most Senate business:
Indictments should be a lot more common for that gang of crooks.
--
make install -not war
I may be a conservative, but after watching in disgust when he made his impassioned plea to save his Bridge to Nowhere from the Ax of Excess, and how he'd have to leave the Senate if that piece of governmental waste was cancelled, I was shouting at the TV: "DO IT! DO IT! PLEASE DO IT! GET HIM OUT OF THERE NOW!"
Unfortunately they bowed to his threat at the time.
If the Democrats were as hard on their elected politicians as I was on this one, we could have a much better Congress than we have now. Having someone as a member of your own party doesn't make them wonderful. Sometimes they're just embarassing.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
I fail to see why this turned up on /.
Were the statements falsified by SQL injection?
Did he even use a computer?
If so, did it run Linux?
Does he run Linux?
Any genetics involved?
Chemestry?
Quantum physics?
Data-carrying signal bounced off Jupiter?
Anything?
Apart from his "tubes" analogy of the Internet, which is quite easy to make fun of (cheap shot, really), I don't see any relevance to this forum.
Most government employees have to report a gift of any size. A company I used to work for had a change-box next to the fridge with the soda's, but no body ever put any money in. I asked about that one day and they said the box was for their government customers who aren't allowed to accept anything of value, even a simple can of soda (so they paid for it instead).
If I recall there was a governor that was visiting with Edwards (back when he was still running for president) who had to turn down breakfast or coffee or something because he wasn't allowed to accept gifts. Now there was a man with some freaking ethics.
I've always known Senators and Representatives are corrupt (voting themselves a 15% pay raise when the rest of the country can't afford to fill up their gas tanks), but not having to report $10,000 gifts?
Eggs
Milk
Bread
Cat Litter
Soda
...so they can convict him before GW is out of office so he can get pardoned.
People who say "money does not buy happiness" are just people without money trying to make themselves feel better.
Stevens is one of the half dozen or so Republican senators in danger of losing his seat in the 2008 election. Nothing would be more satisfying than to see him get thrown out of the senate and straight into prison. There's also an added bonus: If he loses his seat, then there's no political reason for the Republicans to try and help with his defence.
I came here for a good argument
http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=129216
The only alternative regulators can be either a king or a deity. The former means totalitarianism and the latter — "encroachment of religion upon government". Make your pick.
Pitting politicians against other politicians may be "flawed", but it is the best known solution... Not that their believe in deities is bad — I just wish there was more of that.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
You chose such a fine example for your arguement; Nixon. Gee, how would we have gotten along without him, watergate, vietnam?
Tricky Dick FTL!
Grandpa: My Homer is not a communist. He may be a liar, a pig, an idiot, a communist, but he is not a porn star.
"It's not a dirty slush fund. It's a series of tubes. May I go now?"
Usually things like this are one of two things:
1) A congressman that has met his own 'term limit' (since we can't seem to get them to pass that) or
2) A wild accusation puffed up by the media?
Recall that one Republican was removed from office because he told a very, very old congressman "You woulda been the right guy in power all your (90=something years) and he wasn't doing anything illegal.
Another was drummed out because he seemed to be having a homosexual affair, something the Liberals/Democrats are trying to get people to embrace in the first place.
Yet another congressman had something like $90,000 cash in his fridge that he tried to get the National Guard to remove during Katrina. He's on charges the last I heard, despite casting votes and kissing babies.
Guess which one was a Democrat?
And let's not forget: every media channel other than Fox News is voting Democratic, and has shown this bias in the recent volunteering of a trip with O'Bama while ignoring every trip Mc Cain has ever taken. These are the people who were painting the picture of Karl Rove Frog-marching in prison-Orange for a leak a Liberal reporter broke, not Scooter Libby. (This was known within 2 weeks, yet we dealt with the media show for about two YEARS until it ran out of steam.)
I'm in favor of tossing actually-corrupt elected officials of ANY stripe. And I'm no fan of ANY working there as long as Hugh Hefner has worked at Playboy. But if this is another media-kill, I"m once again pissed.
And while I've brought up the subject, have you called your representative about a term limit law?
--- For a good time mail uce@ftc.gov
My grandfather bounced off a car and kept driving when he was 91. At his license revocation hearing, he was frankly honest in sharing his feelings with the judge and earned a weekend in the county jail. Sort of embarrassing since his nephew was the recently retired chief of police.
... and is it me, or is it almost entirely a hate-inspired circle jerk? It really sickens me to be honest.
So why do you have a problem?
Stevens is toad , glad he got caught. Wonder if slash would have posted the story if it had been a dem? not/.
this is a senator who has served for over half a decade in office. is anyone in alaska still awake/alive? one might even question if alaska still exists at all?! im guessing he still got the money for "berry research" in alaska...ill wait in excitement till i get to buy the first box of alaskan strawberries. imho: worst. senator. ever.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Like when you made the greatest decision of your life: being born to parents that set you up with that fat trust fund, all the contacts you'll ever need, and a lawyer to handle the results of whatever vice(s) you may indulge in...
Great decision, I don't know why more people don't go that route.
I certainly hope they extricate him from congress. The pork-barreling he's been wracking on our country and our budget is shameless and atrocious. Even as a conservative, I've been wanting him to jump off that Bridge To Nowhere for the longest time.
This is also why some of those promised reforms like Campaign Finance reform are bad ideas. It's not the money in and of itself, it's how it's being used. Blocking how much people can give to candidates, blocking speach because an election is coming up, those aren't problems if they're in crystal-clear view that anyone can take a look at, and can voice their opinions for or against. The real problems are the uncredited, in-kind contributions that congressmen give to one another via pork. As incumbants, they can stuff little projects for the people at home, then go and tell their constituents what a great politician they are, and vote for them if they want more of those 'free' goodies they 'fought' for. Challengers obviously don't have that kind of capability, and in the end it hurts us in the way of wasted money for REAL special interests, becomes a corrupting influence on those supposibly working for us, and further entrenches the incumbancy.
Throw the bums out, both parties.. I'd prefer a few of them go from chambers to cell, but stop them from sucking the life out of the US.
Just because you've bought into the whole "cheap cynicism is cool" BS
"The power of accurate observation is often called 'cynicism' by those who do not have it." (attributed to George Bernard Shaw)
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
"A congressman under investigation for bribery was caught on videotape accepting $100,000 in $100 bills from an FBI informant whose conversations with the lawmaker also were recorded, according to a court document released Sunday. Agents later found the cash hidden in his freezer.
At one audiotaped meeting, Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., chuckles about writing in code to keep secret what the government contends was his corrupt role in getting his children a cut of a communications company's deal for work in Africa."
From: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8HOCUJ81&show_article=1
- Didn't think so.
So, where did the money come from and was it given to him. I would like more answers then this person was untruthful about reporting the money he has. Was the money a bribe for policies, a bribe to give out government contracts to one company, or a bribe for something else? Did he just not want to pay his taxes or was there some other reason he was being untruthful about his money. What a sad state our news is in.
I have a cousin named Ted. He is good. You know, there is just something about that name that makes people innocent.
Should be article in sentence somewhere.
Even if you insert "having" before "a given career", it's ambiguous as to exactly whose career you mean. And that should be "given", not "give".
At least I confine myself to using words that actually exist.
False dichotomy. Logically, your posts being shit and the rest of slashdot being shit are not mutually exclusive. Empirically, both appear to be true. Epigrammatically, 90% of anything is shit.
5th grade doesn't count, no matter how many years you spent in it.
It's true I tell you, feller at work's next door neighbour read it in the paper.