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Morning Docket: 04.28.08

* Sen. John McCain defends his use of his wife’s private jet for campaign trips. [CNN Political Ticker]

* Mortgage industry resists greater regulation. [New York Times]

* 60 Minutes with Justice Antonin Scalia. [CBS via WSJ Law Blog]

* From the M&A front lines: Mars to snap up Wrigley’s for $23 billion; Yahoo! lets Microsoft deal deadline pass; Continental ditches merger talks with United. [New York Times; AFP; New York Times]

* Dirty old man: 73-year-old Austrian confesses to holding his daughter captive in the basement for almost 24 years — and fathering seven children by her. [CNN]

Comments

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1 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, April 28, 2008 9:46 AM

S&C special bonus checks were paid.

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2 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, April 28, 2008 10:13 AM

NYTimes cannot hide their bias. First the "McCain may have an uncorroborated affair" and now "McCain violated what could someday be against FEC regulations."

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3 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, April 28, 2008 10:22 AM

10:13 -

Two things...

First, the "uncorroborated affair" is just that, an affair. The awkward half-denials by two people who stand to lose everything isn't exactly compelling evidence that it isn't true.

Second, they weren't pointing out that it could be a violation of a future regulation, they were pointing out that McCain is a complete hypocrite with regards to campaign finance reform. Jumping through every loophole in the law he worked so hard on to end the loopholes isn't a violation of the regulation, it is a violation of decency and respect for the values you (falsely) claim to hold.

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4 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, April 28, 2008 10:29 AM

"fathering seven children by her" ... wow, what a great way to avoid active voice and say "he raped her."

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5 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, April 28, 2008 11:04 AM

Yeah, I'm not sure that "dirty old man" is the right heading there.

I'm leaning towards: "Completely sick fuck who will be raped repeatedly by large inmates in prison"

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6 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, April 28, 2008 11:29 AM

10:22 -

"First, the "uncorroborated affair" is just that, an affair. "

Seriously??

So, because a man campaigns to change a law, he should not act in accordance with the current law as written? I guess it;'s not surprising that it took the NY Times 3 paragraphs before they mentioned that it is perfectly legal. I guess McCain shold put himself at a disadvantage in the race, and hold himself to a higher standard.

You perfectly prove the back-assward thinking and hyprocracy of the left.

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7 Posted by Bitchy McBitchington | Permalink Monday, April 28, 2008 1:19 PM

How about a little common sense here anyway. What the hell is wrong with using your family's money to finance your election? Romney did it, Hillary did it, all kinds of people do it. Who cares if they keep their finances separate for tax reasons, if the jet belongs to his wife or his wife's company then he should be able to use it for free! Instead he paid several hundred thousand dollars for its use. How much did he even save by using it? If it was less than $1MM, it isn't even worth talking about. They are going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on this election cycle.

There is a huge difference between using the private jet of some company that is behind some special interest group and using the private jet of the company owned by your wife. Anyone too stupid to see that difference is obviously a total idiot.

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8 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, April 28, 2008 3:08 PM

11:29: Yes, he should hold himself to a higher standard when two main points of McCain's integrity are his honesty and work to close campaign finance loopholes.

1:19: The wrongness isn't with using family money, it's with using family money after you said you wouldn't.

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9 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, April 28, 2008 4:11 PM

Come on, if a wife cannot give her hubby a lift to a campaign stop what is the world coming to. Just because Michelle has no jet, no reason for jealousy....Besides, with the money he is raising Barack can afford a Boeing 757—way bigger than Cindy’s jet.


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10 Posted by Bitchy McBitchington | Permalink Monday, April 28, 2008 5:10 PM

3:08, the point is he didn't use family money. He paid a couple hundred thousand dollars. He might not have paid the same amount as it would have cost to charter a plane, but it probably didn't cost his wife that much for him to use it. Again, how about applying some common sense?

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11 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, April 28, 2008 5:52 PM

5:10: You should use common sense too. It is substantially cheaper to pay for a first class ticket than to charter a flight, and the price of a first class ticket is also much less than it costs to make those flights. Hence, McCain's wife's fortune did subsidize a large amount of those travel costs. Also, check out the article below from 2006 about the subject. Note the following quote: "Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., are pushing to curb the cut-rate travel service."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-03-06-congress-flights-cover_x.htm

Once again, McCain should come under scrutiny for committing the very acts he said he opposed.

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12 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, April 28, 2008 9:51 PM

YAAAAAAAAAAWN

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13 Posted by Bitchy McBitchington | Permalink Tuesday, April 29, 2008 10:20 AM

5:52 PM,

IT'S HIS WIFE'S PLANE!!!

There is nothing wrong with this. Nothing at all. Get over it.

The deciding issues in this campaign come down to the answer to a few questions:

- Do you want to abandon Iraq and let the region fall into chaos? If so, vote Democratic. If not, vote Republican.

- Do you want to have your taxes increased dramatically? If so, vote Democratic. If not, vote Republican.

- Do you want to repeal and/or change NAFTA and change our policy on free trade which will slow our already slowing economy further? If so, vote Democratic. If not, vote Republican.

- Do you want more government entitlement programs that further encourage Americans to be dependent on the government for everything? (And raise taxes even more to pay for them) If so, vote Democratic. If not, vote Republican.

- Do you want a country with socialized medicine for all, education paid for by the government up through college, a government pension program that will support you when you retire, 6 weeks of paid vacation every year, etc.? Then move to Sweden or some other similar country and pay 70%+ of your income in taxes and quit f**cking up this country for the rest of us!!!

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