Burnt Orange Report

Wow. It's nice that the Free Enterprise Fund has found a cause to champion, since their last cause - ending the estate ("death") tax seems to be going nowhere post-Katrina. Those ads mysteriously were discontinued after September 1st, however, you can still find them on the website below the Earle ad.

Here's Tom Delay's office phone numbers. You can call him and tell him whatever you'd like.

Washington Office
Ph. (202) 225-5951

Stafford, Texas District Office
Ph. (281) 240-3700

Webster, Texas District Office
Ph. (281) 557-8855
Toll Free 1(800)759-5748

I believe that the FMF said Earle was part of a liberal plot to block the "free market agenda." If that the agenda that makes the United States look like DeLay's favorite example of the free market in action: the garment gulags of Micronesia.

What a bunch of assholes...

Sorry, meant Free Enterprise Fund. I get so annoyed thinking about DeLay that I can't even type correctly.

I think this is a good thing. I think it shows real desperation on the part of the RNC who is no doubt collaborating with the Free Enterprise Fund.

The reality is, outside of Austin nobody really gives a rat's behind about Ronnie Earle, but people all over the country are sick of Tom DeLay and they KNOW he is a corrupt and totally ruthless.

The greatest thing about Tom DeLay is that you cannot successfully put him on camera to defend himself, he is too big an idiot and he'll say something totally dilusional and stupid like "I am the Federal Government" or "I'm in the Constitution". He has no choice now but to get his butt out in front of the media and attempt to fix his image.

If the RNC and the Free Enterprise Fund had any sense at all they wouldn't touch DeLay with a 10-foot poll, but lucky for us, they are running boogie man commercials againt Ronnie Earle, a virtual unknown person outside of Texas State political circles instead of making a "real" case that DeLay is innocent.

I'm sure that Westlake Hills will be in open revolt against the Earle-ocracy by the end of next week. Here's a hint, FEF: shred your suitcases full of 20-dollar bills next time. At least you'd get something out of that (hamster cage padding).

"But it is a crime to be corrupt.."

Half the corruption that exists in this country is the result of campaign finance laws that make the corruption legal. Something Ronnie Earle was investigating in the beginning. Now he seems to only be investigating Tom De Lay. And engaging in what some would call overkill. If you have to keep going to different grand juries to get an indictment, there's a problem with the evidence. And if you want telephone records, you subpoena them before you go to the grand jury. Not after. I've had my fill of Ronnie Earle. A man who until all of this began to unfold, or unravel, I held in high esteem. Just as I've had my fill of Chris Bell. Who I never held in high esteem personally but still put some hope in as a politician who might be capable of rising above it all. Just as I had already had my fill of Tom De Lay, long before Chris Bell went to Washington. It's all becoming a parody of a very bad daytime soap opera.

Tom De Lay without doubt is the sleaziest politician that ever walked the halls of Congress. That said, he's good at what he does. He gets what he wants. And what those who line his pockets and vote for him want. But he's guilty of a crime when a jury says he's guilty. Not when Chris Bell says he's guilty, not when Ronnie Earle says he's guilty, not when you or I say he's guilty. Hating someone is not reason under the law to render a guilty verdict.

And the grand jury that indicted him didn't say he was guilty. Only that there was sufficient evidence to indict him and have him stand trial. Last time I checked, our system is still "innocent until proven guilty." Some of you would like to change that apparently and so some of you need to think about what would happen to you if some district attorney charged you with something and you were forced to prove your innocence rather than someone else being forced to prove your guilt.

Reality is the only way to get rid of corrupt politicians in the end is to get rid of the campaign finance laws in this country that allow the corruption and then feed it. Then you can get rid of the politicians themselves at the polls and that often means voting against your own party which quite a few Democrats as well as quite a few Republicans aren't willing to do. That may happen next year in Ft. Bend County. And it may not. Reality is the constituents themselves may not be willing to take a chance on Nick Lampson. His constituents didn't elect Tom De Lay to create a political machine or to hijack the Constitution, or become the most powerful man in Washington. They elected him to serve them and their particular interests. And so far they seem quite happy with him. And they aren't all "lily white" Southern Baptists in Ft. Bend. Minorities in fact are the majority in Ft. Bend. As for Nick Lampson, do you really believe these special interest groups will not start contributing heavily to him as well? Just in case? Again, you need only to look at the mayor of Houston and what some refer to as the "second chance" fundraiser after the election for those who hadn't bought the access to have the opportunity to still buy it before he took office. They said it was to pay off campaign debt. It was to sell influence. Do the politicians really think we are that stupid? We're not. I'm not anyway.

These ads are just the latest episode in the soap opera. Like everything else, they probably won't play well in reruns. I wish someone would cancel the show and cancel the reruns already running as well.

WTF is that add for medical liability reform doing on this Advertise Liberally website. The click through is clearly to an organization that sees one solution to medical malpractice: removing patient's rights to redress when they've been harmed by incompetent physicians/hospitals. Sure, some plantiff's actions are stupid--but the DMLR's solution is to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Ever notice how these doctors never want to submit to serious quality control? It took 20 years and several drug convictions to finally get Dr. "Eric the Red" Sheffey's license pulled in Texas--this after he maimed at least tens, maybe hundreds of patients with botched and frequently unnecessary orthopaedic surgery.

Please remove this ad from your site!

I was wondering how long it would take before someone finally commented on that. Last week I saw that come into queue for approval. I thought it was stupid they'd want to advertise on BOR, wrong audience right? But then again, I figured I'd just take their $25 and let them in essance waste it. It'll be gone on Tuesday when it expires. Just about no one is clicking on it anyways so.

I think Eric Sheffey actually filed some defamation lawsuits at one point and threatened to file others. And probably threatened to file one against the Medical Board. That is a very common trick used by attorneys in responding to complaints filed with the Texas Ethics Commmission. "Proceed at your own risk and be aware that my client may sue you for defamation."

I think the legislature closed the indemnification loophole that allowed such lawsuits to be filed against the commissioners themselves as well as the commission but I'm not sure they did. Nothing like a little coercion to stop a complaint dead in its tracks. And nothing more coercive than being threatened with a lawsuit. Just for investigating a complaint.

And the attorneys themselves are not much better. File a complaint with the State Bar and they turn it over to the local bar. As if local attorneys are going to risk retaliation by acting against someone they probably are already doing business with or most likely will in the future. Our whole system is corrupt. From top to bottom.

Tom Delay and his associates circumvented the intentions of the campaign finance laws of Texas in the same way that George Soros violated the intentions of federal campaign finance reform. They violated the spirit of the laws while being technically legal. The fact that you all hate Tom Delay does not make him a criminal. The ironic thing about Ronnie Earle's peculiar effort to indict Delay is that the person who may face criminal sanctions when this is all over and done is the partisan, inept D.A. of Travis County.

Nah, if anyone's facing criminal sanctions, it'll be Tom DeLay, sorry.

ASS, oh, sorry, AAS Watch--

Have you seen the ratio of Dems and Reps that Earle has prosecuted?? Look at the numbers, and you'll see what a witch-hunting, agenda-driven partisan Earle is. (Sarcasm.) More Ds than Rs.

K-T is right; Delay will have to finally face the fan and the shit, not Earle.

I believe these ads are tantamount to jury tampering.