The NY Post looked a little deeper into what has turned into a criminal investigation.  To recap, two staffers of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee have admitted to "obtaining" Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele's credit report. 

The DSCC made it sound as if they immediately slapped cuffs on the two staffers, but it doesn't look like it from my viewpoint:

Phil Singer, a spokesman for the Schumer-headed Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said two staffers were instantly suspended — with pay — in July after admitting they obtained the credit report of Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, who is running for Senate.

Sources familiar with the situation said the committee's head of research, Katie Barge, and a deputy, Lauren Weiner, got the credit report by using Steele's Social Security number, which they say they obtained from public documents.

Records obtained by The Post show the two continued to be paid by the Democratic committee at least through Aug. 31.

Hence, all their "suspension" amounted to was a vacation of sorts, with pay, despite ADMITTING they did it.  And they paid them for two months.

As Captain's Quarters notes, Ms. Barge has been around the block in leftist circles.  Before working for the DSCC she also worked as a researcher for Media Matters (which probably explains the lack of scruples) and she also worked for the Edwards campaign.  Thus, it's not surprising at the least that this stunt was pulled, considering the illegal and unethical stunts they've pulled in the past.

Another note by Morrissey:  Charles Schumer, who heads the DSCC, introduced the Schumer-Nelson ID Theft Prevention Bill , which would have created a new government office to fight and prevent identity theft.  It calls for a $1000 fine per violation.  It's no wonder he's being called a hypocrite in this instance, considering he actually PAID these women after they ADMITTED they obtained the report through fraud.  They should have been fired immediately, instead of given the chance to simply resign.

From the Washington Times:

Two members of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee have resigned after admitting they obtained Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele's credit report.

Phil Singer, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), said the two staffers told committee officials in July what they had done. He said the committee began an internal investigation and determined it was an isolated incident.

"The DSCC immediately ensured that Mr. Steele's credit report was not used or disseminated to anyone," Mr. Singer said, "It also reported this incident to the U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C."

He said the employees, who were not identified, were cooperating with authorities.
A source familiar with the investigation said the employees were "senior staff" members in the research department of the DSCC.

And this is comical in more ways than one.

First, the background:  an independent school newspaper from the University of Florida, the Independent Florida Alligator, ran a political cartoon in it's editorial section on Tuesday, September 13th featuring Kanye West showing Condoleeza Rice a "race card".  Rice responds by saying "Nigga Please".  The cartoonist is Andy Marlette, who's white and, judging from his defense of the cartoon and praise of Dr. Rice, is conservative.  But it's created some noise on Florida's campus, which culminated into a protest on Friday afternoon.

This isn't anything new per se; the only difference is it's usually from the other end of the political spectrum.  Leftist cartoonist Ted Rall's cartoon trashing Dr. Rice was several times worse, with Rice being a "parrot" on Bush's arm and admitting that she was a "house nigga".  In the past year, Janice Rogers Brown and Colin Powell have been the targets of white liberals using racial stereotypes and insults in political cartoons.  For the most part, you wouldn't hear a peep out of anyone other than conservatives about those cartoons.

However, black folks are up in arms at Florida.  There's been the usual suspects, including the minority organization on campus, the school administrators, etc.  On Friday, 50 students protested outside of the paper's offices (they weren't there, as they don't publish over the weekends) along with school administrators.

But as I said earlier, this is an independent school newspaper...one that Florida administrators can't touch because they aren't using school funds.  They aren't affiliated with the University of Florida campus.  And thus, they can afford to be a little edgy, and tick some more people off.

Here's their response to the protest:

Friday is the newsroom's day off work.

You see, we don't print a paper on Saturday.

But the Editorial Board hears that more than 50 students marched to our offices in protest of Tuesday's cartoon and its use of the word "nigga."

Several UF administrators joined the effort.

We weren't there, but we get the point.

And we agree that "nigga" is a word that shouldn't be floating around in our society. We agree the word should never appear in a news story. We agree that it does not represent all African Americans, by any stretch of the imagination.

But we're not going to apologize.

Instead, we want the administration, which has taken such a strong stance on the situation, to take a look at its own policies.

UF President Bernie Machen calls on us to print an apology because the cartoon "poison(s) the ongoing struggle to overcome the racial barriers that divide our country."

If we're reading this right, Machen wants us to retract any political commentary that propagates the use of, in his words, "damaging stereotypes."

Fair enough. We understand and respect that position, even if we disagree on whether the cartoon accomplished that.

So now we want Machen and administrators to follow through with their grand ambition.

In less than three weeks, Wayne Brady will grace the stage as the main performer for Gator Growl. He will be paid $65,000.

Not familiar with his work? Brady is a black comedian who uses "nigga" repeatedly in his stand-up.

And the administration approved his appearance at a pep rally that is arguably the most well-known event at UF.

Will UF officials protest an artist they are bringing here themselves? An artist who uses "nigga" in the same context as our cartoonist?

If Machen was willing to prohibit all alcohol advertisements in the Stephen C. O'Connell Center because they encouraged drinking, he should be willing to pull Brady because he's propagating the same "damaging stereotypes."

But he can't stop there. Brady is part of a trend.

Charlie Murphy should have never stepped on campus. "Nigga" flows from his mouth like the Mississippi River.

Kanye West himself will perform at the O'Connell Center soon. His lyrics are riddled with the word.

We want administrators to prove they don't want this kind of racist commentary within the university. Instead, they seem to be encouraging it. How irresponsible.

We have received many letters from students who resent the way these black performers use racist words. This doesn't represent their culture or their feelings on the issue. The entire black community does not use the word "nigga."

But a part of the community definitely does.

In fact, the first letter we received on the issue was from Black Student Union Treasurer Jeremy Watson. It turns out he is one of those who spreads it throughout society.

He is part of a Facebook group called N*ggas that Pledge.

We doubt he is racist. But if we spread it, then so does he.

Protesting the Alligator for printing a cartoon that depicts an existing cultural norm does not rid the world of that flaw.

We are the opinion section of a newspaper. We comment on societal norms and politics by pushing the envelope.

So to UF administrators: We're glad you have taken this opportunity to open up a discussion on the danger of the casual use of "nigga" in Gainesville and in the nation.

It means we've done our job.

Now run with the idea and actually take a stance.

Rather than focusing on a depiction of society, why don't you actually go out and protest the real thing?

*chuckles*  Yanno, Gator fans love to say, "Either you're a Gator, or you're Gator bait".  Well I think Florida's administrators and minority dept should keep an eye open tonight for any gators traps on campus, because they got baited.

Don't mistake this for defending Marlette.  Simply put, he's an idiot.  I'm sure Dr. Rice would have some choice words for him too, considering the numerous times she's had to endure racial cartoons in the past five years, even if this was supposed to place her in a positive light, as Marlette alleges.  And a simple Yahoo search shows that he's had problems with both Jews and Muslims in the past over his cartoons.  The guy is just a low-class bombthrower.

However, the Alligator editorial board has now used this incident to place the ball in the court of Florida's administrators as well as the minority organizations.  Are they going to stand up and call for an end to the double standard? 

Doubt it.  They'll probably pretend as if the editorial didn't exist.

Photo:  AP/Yahoo


Yanno folks...

Any day that Tom Brady tastes the dirt...gotta be a good day.  Especially if it's by my Panthers.

You gotta love this sport.

Don't allow Week 1 to set the pace for who you think will be the top dogs within the NFL.  Week 1 essentially means nothing.  For example, the Eagles have gone 0-2 twice within the last four years, and ended up making it to the NFC title game.  The Pats went 0-2 a few years ago....and won the Super Bowl.  Thus, this won't mean a thing.

Week 2 will get us some more clarification, but once again, take it for a grain a salt.  Enjoy the games today for what they are:  good football games.  Maybe we'll get a shocker or two, but I doubt it.

Last week I went.....11-5.  Not bad, but a few I got wrong (Atl/Philly, Carolina/N.O., Jets/K.C.) were crucial ones.

Let's see if I can do better.  My picks:

Wow.  Football season is here.

Sorry I don't have time to give a little preview, which is all well and good considering that the first week of the regular season is always up in the air.  Anyway, here's my picks:

Chicago over Washington

Miami over Denver

My Panthers over the homeless Saints

Yeah; I heard about the little Kanye West stunt that was done during the Red Cross celebrity fundraiser on NBC.  And I definitely thought it was not only inappropriate given the fact that the Red Cross is not a political organization and was trying to do all they could to help, but West was terribly misinformed about what was truly going on there, especially with the internet consipiracy theory that the media simply depicts white people as finding and black people as looting.

But today Michelle Malkin reminded me on her blog that West is supposed to be a part of the opening night festivities for the NFL's regular season.  This will be broadcast on ABC in front of a national audience.  That's why the NFL would be well advised to boot West off the show.

This isn't a punishment for what he did on NBC.  ABC and the NFL would be well within their rights to tell Kanye he is no longer needed for the show, and I don't think I'm overreacting by saying they're obligated to do so.  The NFL should not give West a platform in which to turn a performance during an NFL event into a virtual political soapbox.  West has shown several times - the Red Cross, LiveAid, a recent meltdown at a Toronto radio station (Quicktime video here), the American Music Awards speech, and several others - that he will turn his appearance into what HE wants it to be rather than what the original objective was.

The NFL was burned two years ago when Janet decided to flash millions of people watching the Super Bowl.  Tagliabue needs to wake up before another non-football spectacle gives them negative press again, and on the heels of last weekend's fundraiser, he can't say he hasn't been warned about West's grandstanding.

Football fans deserve to keep the focus on football, not on some self-righteous, spotlight grabbing celebrity.  If West wants to do political rants, tell him to do it on his own time, and at his own concerts.  It shouldn't be done when people are trying to ring in the new football season.  Hence, get rid of him.

Ladies and Gentlemen, for your reading pleasure, I'm about to try to break the world record for the most times I can say "stupid" in one post (I don't know what's the record, but hell....I'll give it a shot anyway.)

---

(kinda rhymes, doesn't it?)

Unless you've been in a cave somewhere, I'm sure you've heard about a French newspaper claiming Lance Armstrong tested positive for EPO, a performance-enhancing drug, in urine samples from 1999,  the first time he won the Tour de France.

Here's how it goes; in 1999, EPO was a banned drug for the Tour, but there wasn't a test back then to trace it in urine.  For some odd reason, Tour officials decided to keep the urine samples by freezing them, and now with new scientific breakthroughs are able to test for EPO.  They supposedly pulled them out of the freezer, and SURPRISE!  Lance was positive.

There's a lot of reasons to question this sudden "proof" that Lance is guilty.  First off, why would the labs keep Armstrong's sample for over six years?  If that's the case, then have they tested other riders from 1999, and have any of them come up positive?  Also, these were supposedly the backup ("B") samples.  Without the actual samples that were tested in 1999 ("A"), there's really nothing that Armstrong can do to challenge the validity of the samples.

Of course, the firestorm is about Lance because he's the most recognizable name in the Tour de France.  But it's a little too ironic how they kept Lance's samples, which are supposed to be anomyous.  I'm sure a simple DNA check could be done to see whether it's his urine, correct?  I'm not sure.

Besides, the jealousy of Armstrong's success by the French is well known.  Simply put, they don't like him.  He's an American and he's stomping them in their own sport.  Period.  And despite the fact that Armstrong is one of the most drug tested athletes in the world, the French media have been busy spreading rumors that Armstrong has doped before.  L'Equipe, the newspaper that "busted" him, is linked to the Tour and has led the way in criticism of Armstrong in the past. 

According to Armstrong, this wouldn't be the first time that the Tour has engaged in a witchhunt after him:

Armstrong told King that he was tested dozens of times during all his Tours, and was under exceptional scrutiny -- including right before his final race in June.

``Just a day before the start we had a knock on the door, and the minister of sport had sent a crew down there to collect two samples of urine and two samples of blood,'' Armstrong said. ``And we checked around and found out that nobody else in the peloton was tested that day. So I can't say 'witch hunt' loud enough.''

I don't blame him.  They have tested him throughout the Tours in his other victories, hence I don't see them being able to make a case of Armstrong being a doper.  Until they show without a doubt that he is one, I'm siding with Armstrong.

This sums it up:

"Armstrong always told me that he never used doping products," five-time winner Eddy Merckx told Le Monde newspaper. "Choosing between a journalist and Lance's word, I trust Armstrong."

Ditto.  Then again, I'm liable to go against the journalist every time, especially if he's French.

and I'll be done with this topic.

Instead of being the founder of the Christian Coalition, let's say Pat Robertson was a cleric at an Islamic mosque in London.  Would his statements have garnered as much press?

The answer is no.  Why?

1.  Robertson wouldn't be considered a Republican supporter, which is what this is really all about.

2.  This wouldn't be news.  Islamic clerics and terrorists issue fatwas as if they are going out of style.

Now was Robertson wrong for making those statements?  Yes.  But it isn't like he is the first religious figure to ever call for the death of someone.  Anyone remember Salman Rushdie?

Yes, the right has it's nuts as well as the left.  The difference is, we don't make ours the RNC Chairman.