Day: April 25, 2005

Via Coop’s Corner:

Conspiracy theorists, gather round

Maybe it’s all a series of random occurrences. Then again, maybe not.

On Sunday, the Washington Post ran a story reporting that a credit card belonging to Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff was used to pay for airfare to London and Scotland in 2000 for the then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.).

This gets a bit complicated so bear with me.

If the story holds up, then it’s a big problem for DeLay, these days the current House majority leader. That’s because the House’s ethics rules prohibit that sort of thing.

But what piqued my interest was the tidbit that the flight invoice listed Preston Gates & Ellis, the firm that then employed Abramoff as a lobbyist. Computer history buffs will recall that Preston Gates & Ellis was co-founded by William H. Gates, Sr., the father of Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

I point that out because only last week the New York Times reported that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation had contributed a substantial sums to the DeLay Foundation for Kids since 2001.

So maybe it is pure coincidence. Then again….

He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant and she was the East River.

Matt Margolis rounds up the latest twist in the debate over judicial filibusters.

Via AFP: US forces recently came close to capturing Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq and they have found his laptop computer and seized some of his money.

I don’t get it – why is it so hard to get this guy? I know Osama is in rugged mountains or something, and that has its challenges, but Zarqawi…this guy has been everywhere. In and out of Baghdad, in Ramadi. In cities for goodness’ sake. Could it be that we’re trying too hard to do the right ‘political’ thing and allow Iraqis to catch him? That’d make good TV wouldn’t it?

I hope not.

Matt and Lucianne, sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G

The latest report filed by Michael Totten, who is in Lebanon with Spirit of America.

*More Good News From Iraq – courtesy of Chrenkoff.