Ted Stevens and the return of the rule of law

how encouraging...!

Senator Ted Stevens, Alaska’s dominant political figure for more than four decades, was found guilty on Monday by a jury of violating federal ethics laws for failing to report tens of thousands of dollars in gifts and services he had received from friends.

The jury of District of Columbia residents convicted Mr. Stevens, 84, on all seven felony counts he faced in connection with charges that he knowingly failed to list on Senate disclosure forms the receipt of some $250,000 in gifts and services used to renovate his home in Girdwood, Alaska.

Mr. Stevens, a consistently grim-faced figure, frowned more deeply as the verdict was delivered by the jury foreman, a worker at a drug counseling center. Mr. Stevens’s wife and one of his daughters sat glumly behind him in the courtroom.

In a statement issued after he had left the courthouse, Mr. Stevens was defiant, urging Alaskans to re-elect him to a seventh full term next week.

He blamed what he called repeated misconduct by federal prosecutors for the verdict. “I will fight this unjust verdict with every ounce of energy I have,” he said.

boo-frigging-hoo...

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Ted (Intertubes) Stevens indicted

do i detect a little whiff of accountability in the air...?

A federal grand jury has indicted longtime Senator Ted Stevens, Republican of Alaska, on corruption charges after more than a year’s investigation, a federal law enforcement official has confirmed to The Times’s David Johnston.

The Justice Department plans to hold a 1:20 p.m. news briefing on details of the indictment.

Just a year ago, federal agents raided Mr. Stevens’ home following questions about renovations at the home. A few months before that, an Alaska businessman Bill J. Allen admitted to bribery, and in court papers acknowledged making $243,000 in possibly illegal payments to a state lawmaker identified only as “Senator B.” That abbreviation referred to Senator Ted Stevens’s son, Ben Stevens.

The sprawling federal investigation has ensnared several local and state officials, as well as federal officials. The Anchorage Daily News has a breakdown of those who have been charged and/or convicted.

The 84-year-old senator is up for re-election this year while under investigative scrutiny, a matter that had not gone unmentioned by Democrats. His opponent, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, has been campaigning hard against the longest-sitting Republican member of the Senate, and Democrats were hopeful that Mr. Begich would be a serious contender.

i'm happy to see ANY accountability for ANYONE, but when i start to see the really big fish like rove and his murderous former boss getting the book thrown at them, i'll pop open that bottle of hard, sparkling cider that's been cooling in my fridge for the past several years...

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"Intertubes" Ted Stevens - he's b-a-a-a-a-ack

read the following very carefully, and see if you can determine the context...



didja figure it out...? don't worry, i don't think anybody could... ready...?

Almost as freaky as his infamously disjointed "series-of-tubes" speech last year about the Internet (which briefly earned him the Most Lampooned Politician on the Web award), Stevens's reelection site asks visitors to enter a username and password and then -- as they unsuccessfully fumble for a password -- condemns them with a warning... (see above)

where, oh where, oh where did it come from...? hmmmmmmmmmmmmm...?

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