Business Archive:

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"Pete Sessions: I don't think that lobbyists in and of themselves are deceptive or deceitful people. I don't have any problem with people going and doing things whether it's at a pool or horse racing. What bothers me is if you say one thing and do something else."

"Sessions: That's right, we do a Las Vegas fundraiser every year and not only raise money, but see Las Vegas. It's a beautiful town."

"Henn: Forty Deuce is a strip club."

"Sessions: You know, I've never seen that. It is what I would call a burlesque show where there's a woman who comes out and has a dress on... Uh, she never get's naked. There's no nudity, there's no nudity in there."

"Ivan Kane: The key component would be to have girls who were dancers taking their clothes off, not just girls taking their clothes off."

Corporate - Media

-FaceTheNation -CBSNews

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"Norquist dropped by The [Los Angeles] Times’ Washington bureau today and, as part of his negative critique of Obama’s liberal stances on economic issues and other matters, he termed the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee “John Kerry with a tan.”" ... "Since Norquist isn’t running for anything, he can get away with such remarks; we doubt McCain will be incorporating the line into his speeches anytime soon."

-TalkingPointsMemo.com

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-AP via KTVZ

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-WashingtonPost

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-ABCNEWS.com

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-ABCNEWS.com

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"I am appalled by Senator John McCain's reaffirmation of support for the use of warrantless wiretapping on American citizens. Senator McCain has once again chosen to align himself with President George Bush, whose reprehensible spying program on Americans is a grave threat to our Constitutions guarantees of privacy and limited executive power. It is clear that Senator McCain, President Bush, and their Republican allies in Congress will continue to use scare tactics and fear mongering to claim that a president can simply chose to ignore America's laws... Senator McCain opposes a bipartisan House compromise bill that preserves appropriate court review of all surveillance of US citizens and gives judges the discretion to review all the necessary documents related to telecom lawsuits without offering blanket immunity."

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"[N]either the Administration nor the telecoms need apologize for actions that most people, except for the ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union] and the trial lawyers, understand were Constitutional and appropriate in the wake of the attacks on September 11, 2001. [...]"

"We do not know what lies ahead in our nation’s fight against radical Islamic extremists, but John McCain will do everything he can to protect Americans from such threats, including asking the telecoms for appropriate assistance to collect intelligence against foreign threats to the United States as authorized by Article II of the Constitution."

David Lee Hobson - Ohio - Real Estate - Politics - Lawmaker - Federal - Airport - Transportation - Construction - "Rep. David Hobson steered federal money to projects near properties he owns." ... "U.S. [United States Ohio Republican Representative] Rep. David Hobson of south-central Ohio has directed millions of taxpayer dollars to two Ohio projects near real estate he owned, a Plain Dealer review of congressional, personal-finance and real estate records shows." ... "One project used federal money to build a freight transfer center at a Columbus [Ohio's capital] airport to help move goods to and from central Ohio. Hobson co-owns an office building near the project, and his tenants -- among them U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and several freight companies, including FedEx -- use that freight center." ... "Since buying into the building in 2001, records show, Hobson has used his position in Congress to obtain more than $30 million in federal transportation money to build the freight transfer station, part of a conversion involving the old Rickenbacker Air Force Base outside Columbus." ... "In a separate project, Hobson obtained nearly $2 million from Congress to widen a road in Beavercreek [Ohio], near Dayton [Ohio], in front of a condominium development in which he was an investor, the review of records shows." ... "Neighbors of his investment properties say area real estate values rose, at least partly as a result of the projects he funded through Congress. Hobson is a senior member of a committee that determines how to spend federal money." ... "Members of the budget-writing committee decide in closed meetings which lawmaker-requested earmarks will get tax money and typically give themselves a greater share." -By Sabrina Eaton -PlainDealer

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Jim Gibbons - Nevada - Homes - Business - Health - Military - Investigation - Politics - "With the dirt flying, party backing away: GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] support for [Nevada Republican Governor] Gov. Jim Gibbons erodes after wife’s allegations revealed in filing." ... "Republicans say serious discussions are taking place around the state among political and business leaders about how to extricate the party from the increasingly messy divorce proceeding between Dawn and Jim Gibbons. They say Jim Gibbons has handled the matter poorly by attempting to evict the first lady from the mansion and not settling the matter quickly and quietly." ... "The governor’s short but eventful tenure has been marked by unforeseen challenges, as well as problems of his own making. His political appointments have drawn fire and he has been politically tone-deaf to severe problems facing the state, including the [home] foreclosure crisis and Southern Nevadans’ deteriorating confidence in the health care system following a hepatitis C outbreak at a well-known medical clinic. An FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] investigation of his relationship with a defense contractor remains unresolved." ... "The [divorce] filing comes after an editorial in the Elko Daily Press alleged that Gibbons was having an affair with an unidentified woman." ... "The court documents do not name Gibbons’ alleged mistress, calling her a frequent “bar, lunch, dinner, and even grocery store companion” with a “striking resemblance” to Chrissy Mazzeo, the woman who accused then-Congressman Gibbons in 2006 of getting drunk and making a pass at her in a Las Vegas [Nevada] parking garage during the final weeks of his race for governor." -By J. Patrick Coolican and David McGrath Schwartz -LasVegasSun.com

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Scott McClellan - Book - Noteworthy - US - Iraq - Corporate - Media - Military - Government - Politics - Marketing - Television - History - Gore - Obama - McCain - Russert- Cheney - "Scott McClellan on the "liberal media"." ... "In a minimally rational world, this extraordinary passage, from the new book by Scott McClellan, would forever slay the single most ludicrous myth in our political culture: The "Liberal Media":"

"If anything, the national press corps was probably too deferential to the [Republican President Bush] White House and to the administration in regard to the most important decision facing the nation during my years in Washington, the choice over whether to go to war in Iraq."

"The collapse of the administration's rationales for war, which became apparent months after our invasion, should never have come as such a surprise. . . . In this case, the "liberal media" didn't live up to its reputation. If it had, the country would have been better served."

"I like [Bush]. Everybody sort of likes the president, except for the real whack-jobs, maybe on the left -- I mean -- like him personally."

John McCain - Rick Renzi - Jon Kyl - Money - Politics - Federal - Investigation - Phoenix - Arizona - Real Estate - Land - Legislation - Nevada - "FBI interviews Arizona staffers." ... "Federal agents interviewed staffers for likely [2008 Election] Republican presidential nominee [and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain (Ariz. [Arizona]) as part of their corruption case against [Arizona Republican Representative] Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.[Republican-Arizona])." ... "[United States] U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona Diane J. Humetewa and fellow prosecutors disclosed the interviews with aides for McCain and fellow Arizona Republican [Senator] Sen. Jon Kyl in a written response to Renzi’s attorneys, who asked for the contents of the interview to help prepare for Renzi’s upcoming trial, which is scheduled for October [2008]." ... "The aides were interviewed about land exchanges, according to an April letter from Humetewa filed with the U.S. District Court of Arizona late last week." ... "A federal land swap critical to developing a $3 billion copper mine southeast of Phoenix [Arizona] is at the heart of the case against Renzi, who is facing 35 public corruption charges, including conspiracy, money-laundering, extortion and insurance fraud." ... "Renzi is alleged to have told executives for Resolution Copper Mining that he would not support a land deal the mining company was interested in unless they bought his former business partner’s property as part of the deal, according to the [February] Feb. 22 federal indictment." ... "Under the deal, 5,000 acres of non-federal land owned by Resolution Copper were to be exchanged for 3,025 acres of federal land. The federal land sits on a large copper deposit, and the exchange would have allowed mining on land for the first time since a 1954 executive order by [Republican] then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower." ... "Renzi allegedly wanted land owned by a business partner who owed Renzi money to be included in the deal. If the land had been included, prosecutors charge, it would have allowed the business partner to pay a debt to Renzi." ... "Resolution Copper refused to cooperate, but another company, Preserved Petrified Forest Land Investors LLC [Limited Liability Company] of Las Vegas [Nevada], agreed to buy the land. Prosecutors allege this netted Renzi more than $700,000." ... "Renzi twice introduced a land swap bill, in 2005 and 2006, before taking his name off of the measure after the FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] raided his family business in April 2007. [Arizona Democratic Representiave] Rep. Ed Pastor (D-Ariz.[Democratic-Arizona]) then introduced the legislation on [August] Aug. 1, 2007, along with Arizona [Republican Representatives] Reps. Jeff Flake and John Shadegg, both Republicans, and Democrat[ic Representative] Harry Mitchell (D[Democratic])." ... "Sens. McCain and Kyl introduced companion legislation in the Senate, most recently in July 2007. " (1, 2) -By Susan Crabtree -TheHill.com

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Barack Obama - John McCain - Home - Finance - Laws - Working - People - Nevada - Arizona - 2008 Election - "Obama assails McCain's foreclosure stance." ... "[2008 Election] Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama today slammed [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain, the presumed Republican nominee, for adopting President Bush's "bad ideas" for solving the home foreclosure crisis -- and for accepting the president's fundraising help." ... ""We've had enough of the can't-do, don't-do, won't-even-try approach from George Bush and John McCain," Obama said during a speech in Las Vegas [Nevada]. According to the Obama campaign, 3.4% of Nevada homeowners went into foreclosure last year, three times the national average." ... ""Look, this is a serious problem all across Las Vegas, all across Nevada, all across the nation," Obama said. "A lot of this wouldn't have happened if we would have done a better job regulating banks."" ... "Obama, speaking later to a crowd of about 75 homeowners in North Las Vegas, noted that McCain was to attend a private fundraiser with Bush in Arizona today." ... ""John McCain is running for a third term of tax cuts that only shift the burden onto working people," he said. "That might make sense to the Washington lobbyists who run John McCain's campaign, but it won't do anything to help families who are struggling."" -By Johanna Neuman with contributions by Maeve Reston -LAtimes

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Home - Prices - Nevada - Florida - Phoenix - Arizona - NC - "S&P: US home prices tumble a record 14.1 pct in 1Q." ... "Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller said its national home price index fell 14.1 percent in the first quarter compared with a year earlier, the lowest since its inception in 1988." ... "However, the index is still up 60 percent versus 2000." ... "Nineteen of the 20 metro areas reported annual declines, with 15 of them posting record lows. Six metro areas lost more than 20 percent." ... "Las Vegas [Nevada] had the worst performance in March, falling 25.9 percent from a year earlier, followed by Miami [Florida] and Phoenix [Arizona]. Only Charlotte, N.C. [North Carolina], stayed above water, gaining less than 1 percent over the previous year." -By J.W. Elphinstone -AP via -SFGate.com

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Obama - McCain - Money - Housing - Working - People - Families - Arizona - Nevada - 2008 Election - "Obama Hits McCain on Closed Door Meeting with Bush." ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama on Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain:] "Today, John McCain is having a different kind of meeting. He's holding a fundraiser with George Bush behind closed doors in Arizona. No cameras. No reporters," Obama said before a town hall in Las Vegas [Nevada], "And we all know why. Senator McCain doesn't want to be seen, hat-in-hand, with the President whose failed policies he promises to continue for another four years. But the question for the American people is: do we want to continue George Bush's policies?"" ... "Watch the VIDEO HERE." ... ""I don't think the American people want to continue the disastrous economic policies that have helped create catastrophes like the housing crisis that we're here to discuss today," Obama continued, "On issue after issue, John McCain is offering more of the same policies that have failed for the last eight years. That's the agenda that he and the President are raising money to support later today. But I'm here in Nevada because we know it’s time to turn the page."" ... "Obama referenced an economic address that [Arizona] Senator McCain gave last week, characterizing his comments as out of touch with working people, "Senator McCain is so out of touch with the struggles of working people that he gave a speech laying out his economic agenda last week, and he couldn't even be bothered to talk about the foreclosure crisis that has put so many families on the brink of financial catastrophe, and put our economy on the brink—or in—recession."" -From Sunlen Miller -ABCNEWS.com 

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John McCain - Rick Davis - Criminal - Government - Money - Politics - Foreign - Military - Satellite - Imagery - Technology - Israel - Ukraine - Russia - Switzerland - Arizona - US - 2008 Election - "Lobbying labyrinth in McCain camp." ... "Rick Davis, the manager of [Arizona Republican] Senator John McCain's [2008 Election] presidential campaign, is a typical Washington insider in many ways, having long worked as both a lobbyist and a political operative along the intersection of politics, policy and money." ... "Take Davis's involvement with one of his lesser-known lobbying clients, an Israeli company, Imagesat, which sells satellite imagery. Along with lobbying for it, Davis became a consultant to a private investment firm that had a financial stake in it. That connection opened the door for him to get in on the ground floor of other investments made by the firm, Pegasus Capital Advisors." ... "... Davis's business partner, Paul Manafort [of the Davis Manafort lobbying firm], has met with the United States ambassador in Ukrain    e, a time when he was advising Viktor Yanukovich, that country's onetime prime minister, a State Department official said. Yanukovich's party was opposed by both the [Republican President] Bush administration and McCain because it was closely tied to Vladimir Putin [Russia's former President]." ... "Davis Manafort received $120,000 from late 2004 to mid-2005 to lobby for Imagesat on both defense and domestic security issues. Davis and Christian Ferry, now McCain's deputy campaign manager, were the two lobbyists on the project, the records show." ... "Along with his work as a lobbyist, Davis at the time was also drawing a salary as the part-time president of the Reform Institute, a Washington group that McCain helped found to reduce "the influence of special interests" in politics and government." ... "In November 2005, Pegasus bought a stake in a company called Traxys, which trades in industrial metals." ... "In January 2006, just two months later, the subject of metals trading came up in association with a social meeting Davis helped arrange near Davos, Switzerland. At that meeting, first reported by The Washington Post, McCain met the Russian aluminum magnate, Oleg Deripaska, who has been barred from entering the United States apparently because of alleged criminal ties." (1, 2) -By Barry Meier with contributions by Kate Zernike and Andrew E. Kramer -NYTimes via -IHT.com 

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Obama - McCain - Money - Politics - Legislation - Veterans - 2008 Election - "Obama criticizes McCain on veterans' benefits." ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama told veterans Saturday that he can't understand why Republican [2008 Election Presidential Candidate] John McCain opposes legislation that would provide college scholarships to people who have served in the U.S. [United States] military." ... ""Now, let me be clear: No one can dispute John McCain's love for this country or his concern for veterans. But here's what I don't understand. I don't understand why John McCain would side with [Republican President] George Bush and oppose our plan to make college more affordable for our veterans," the Democratic presidential candidate said. "George Bush and John McCain may think our plan is too generous. I could not disagree more."" -AP via -MSNBC

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John McCain - Barack Obama - Joseph Lieberman - Lindsey Graham - Finance - Laws - 2008 Election - Ad - Iraq - War - US - Connecticut - South Carolina - Arizona - "McCain advisers on '527' attacking Obama." ... "Both [2008 Election Presidential Candidates] John McCain and Barack Obama say they want to rein in the power of the so-called "527s," the independent political committees that skirt the campaign finance laws with unlimited financing and unregulated campaign attacks." ... "But two of [Republican] McCain's own campaign chairmen are serving on the board of an independent organization behind a new attack ad against [Democratic] Obama, "an apparent violation of the Arizona Republican's new conflict of interest policy,'' the Huffington Post notes." ... ""Sens. [Connecticut Independent Senator] Joseph Lieberman and [South Carolina Republican Senator] Lindsey Graham both hold chairs for the McCain camp as well as positions on the board of advisers of Vets for Freedom, an advocacy group that supports the Iraq war,'' the HuffPost reports. "A week ago these titles may not have been a political issue. But under McCain's newly-implemented ethics policy, Lieberman and Graham's role with Vets for Freedom is now proving problematic." -By Mark Silva -Sun-Sentinel.com 

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John McCain - US_Debt - Money - Politics - Legislator- Military - Families - Housing - Construction - Iraq - Israel - Egypt - Jordan - Arizona - US - 2008 Election - Noteworthy - "McCain's Fantasy War on Earmarks." ... "[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain boasts that he can save $100 billion a year "immediately" by eliminating the so-called earmarks that legislators attach to spending bills to finance pet projects, usually in their home state. But he has refused to say exactly which projects he would cut, and his estimates of the amount of money that is being spent on earmarks have been challenged by independent experts." ... "The Facts:" ... "The Arizona senator is promising to balance the budget by the end of his first term, while simultaneously extending the [Republican] George W. Bush tax cuts, introducing billions of dollars of new tax cuts of his own, and remaining in Iraq as long as is necessary to stabilize that country. Asked how this miracle will be accomplished, McCain told George Stephanopoulos of ABC News This Week on April 20 that he could come up with $100 billion "tomorrow" by vetoing pork-barrel spending bills." ... "There are a number of problems with this magical budgetary balancing act. First of all, the suspiciously round $100 billion figure is largely a figment of the McCain campaign's imagination. I have not been able to find a single independent budget expert to vouch for it. McCain's economics adviser, Doug Holtz-Eakin, will not say how the campaign arrived at the figure, other than that it is an extrapolation from various studies, including a 2006 study by the Congressional Research Service available here [PDF]." ... "However, much of this money is tied to items such as foreign aid to countries like Israel, Egypt, and Jordan, that McCain says he will not touch." ... "By most definitions of the term, the amount of money spent on earmarks is much lower than the CRS study. The Office for Management and the Budget came up with a figure for $16.9 billion in the 2008 appropriation bills. Taxpayers for Commonsense, an independent watchdog group that focuses on wasteful spending, identified $18.3 billion worth of earmarks in the 2008 bills, a 23 per cent cut from a record $23.6 billion set in 2005 [when Republicans controlled Congress]." ... "The figure includes such items as $4 billion for the [United States] U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which could not be eliminated without halting hundreds of construction projects around the country. Another big chunk goes to military construction, including housing for servicemen and their families, which McCain has also promised not to touch." ... "McCain's talk about eliminating $100 billion a year in earmarks is largely fantasy." ... "To use a phrase coined by [Republican] George H.W. Bush, this is "voodoo economics," based more on wishful thinking than on hard data or carefully considered policy proposals." [The Washington Post gives McCain's accounting numbers four Pinochio's out of a possible four, calling the statements by Candidate McCain "Whoppers."] -WashingtonPost

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Oceans - Global - Climate - Science - Environmental - Atmospheric - Industrial - Factories - Cars - History - Animals - Seattle - Washington - California - Oregon - US - Canada - Mexico - "Acidified seawater showing up along coast ahead of schedule." ... "Climate models predicted it wouldn't happen until the end of the century." ... "So a team led by Seattle [Washington] researchers was stunned to discover that vast swaths of acidified seawater already are showing up along the Pacific Coast as greenhouse-gas emissions upset the oceans' chemical balance." ... "In surveys from Vancouver Island [British Columbia, Canada] to the tip of Baja California [Mexico], reported Thursday in the online journal Science Express, the scientists found the first evidence that large amounts of corrosive water are reaching the continental shelf — the shallow sea margin where most marine creatures live." ... "Off Northern California, the acidified water was only four miles from shore." ... ""What we found ... was truly astonishing," said oceanographer Richard Feely, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle. "This means ocean acidification may be seriously impacting marine life on the continental shelf right now."" ... "All along the coast, the scientists found regions where the water was acidic enough to dissolve the shells and skeletons of clams, corals and many of the tiny creatures at the base of the marine food chain. Acidified water also can kill fish eggs and a wide range of marine larvae." ... ""Entire marine ecosystems are likely to be affected," said co-author Debby Ianson, an oceanographer at Fisheries and Oceans Canada." ... "Though it hasn't received as much attention as global warming, ocean acidification is a flip side of the same phenomenon. The increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide from power plants, factories and cars that is raising temperatures worldwide also is to blame for the increasing acidity of the world's oceans." ... "Normally, seawater is slightly alkaline. When carbon dioxide from the atmosphere dissolves into the water, it forms carbonic acid — the weak acid that helps give soda pop its tang. The process also robs the water of carbonate, a key ingredient in the formation of calcium carbonate shells." ... "Since the Industrial Revolution, when humans began pumping massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, Feely estimates the oceans have absorbed 525 billion tons of the man-made greenhouse gas — about one-third of the total released during that period." ... "By keeping some of the carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, the oceans have blunted the temperature rise due to global warming. But they've suffered for that service, with a more than 30-percent increase in acidity." ... "The acidified water upwelling along the coast today was last exposed to the atmosphere about 50 years ago, when carbon-dioxide levels were much lower than they are now. That means the water that will rise from the depths over the coming decades will have absorbed more carbon dioxide and will be even more acidic." -By Sandi Doughton -SeattleTimes

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McCain - Obama - Clinton - Veterans - Education - Money - Legislation - 2008 Election - California - "McCain misses vote on a new GI Bill, scorns criticism from Obama." ... "Support for the troops returned as an issue to the presidential campaign yesterday with harsh words from both sides." ... "The Democratic National Committee accused [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain of being AWOL [Absent WithOut Leave] from the Senate vote yesterday for a new GI Bill to provide better education benefits for returning veterans. McCain was in California on a campaign and fund-raising trip, while both Democratic [2008 Election Presidential] contenders, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, left the campaign trail to vote for the bill, which passed by a veto-proof 75-to-22 majority." ... "On the Senate floor, Obama questioned why McCain opposed the bill. "I can't believe why he believes it is too generous to our veterans," Obama said. "There are many issues that lend themselves to partisan posturing, but giving our veterans the chance to go to college should not be one of them." ... "The bill, which [Republican] President Bush has threatened to veto, would pay tuition and other expenses at a four-year public university for anyone who has served at least three years since the 2001 terrorist attacks." -By Foon Rhee -BostonGlobe

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John McCain -