Taco Bell's PAC

I bet you didn't know that there's a formal group representing the collected interests of Taco Bell franchisees, and that its acronym is FRANMAC (the Taco Bell Franchise Management Council). Not only does FRANMAC have its own website, it also has a political group, a PAC.  Really, it's called TACO PAC.

According to THIS US News article, TACO PAC, "has contributed $71,000 to the campaigns of 48 Republicans and just $6,000 to two Democrats."  Once a year FRANMAC apparently "woos" congressional staffers with free tacos, burritos and nachos. Last year they doled out nearly 10,000 in all.

Epilogue: John Edwards At Bunny Mellon's Funeral

I'm typically intrigued by the under-reported epilogues to high profile news stories, and this one is no exception.  Yesterday John Edwards apparently showed up uninvited to the funeral for Bunny Mellon, who back in 2008 (when she was in her late 90s) was convinced by John Edwards and his team to donate over $700K to his failed Presidential campaign. Some of that money was notoriously later used to support his mistress, Rielle Hunter. 

According to THIS article in today's New York Post, John Edwards was turned away by Bunny Mellon's famly, despite the funeral being open to the public.  Undeterred, Edwards apparently stayed anyway and watched the service "with the rest of the overflow crowd on a big screen at an adjacent parish house," and then "was working the crowd near the graveside after the service."

I wrote HERE three years ago about the unexpected origins of Bunny Mellon's family fortune, and about her colorful earlier life.

FBI Now Investigating Jesse Jackson, Jr.

Jesse Jackson, Jr. is apparently under investigation by the FBI for violation of  campaign finance laws, according to THIS 3 minute video from NBC News.  The allegations swirling around the Congressman from Illinois apparently center on renovations to a Washington, D.C. townhouse he owns, which was briefly put on the market last year for $2.5 million.

You may remember that, as I wrote HERE, Rep. Jackson has been AWOL from Congress since June. His staff have said that he is receiving treatment for a "mood disorder" in Arizona.  According to this NBC News piece, Jackson has missed over 225 consecutive roll call votes in the House of Representatives dating back to June 2012, when he took a leave of absence from Congress.

Despite that, and despite a string a personal and political scandals that have plagued Rep. Jackson in recent years (as detailed in this video), and despite rumors in July that Jackson was actually being treated for alcoholism, according to NBC News Jackson is apparently highly likely to get re-elected in November anyway.

Ratings For "Honey Boo Boo" Top GOP Convention

I've been interested in politics for my entire adult life.  But I've never been particularly interested in political conventions.  I've never understood why they command three (or even four) nights of prime time TV coverage.  That seems out of all proportion to their newsworthiness, as well as their entertainment and educational value.

This morning brings the news that the ratings for TLC's reality show "Honey Boo Boo," which follows the life of a child of the same name (and her 'redneck' family) who participates in over-the-top beauty pageants for little girls, topped those for the Republican National Convention last night.

You can read more on NBC News HERE.

Voter Fraud Actually Very Rare

"A new nationwide analysis of more than 2,000 cases of alleged election fraud over the past dozen years shows that in-person voter impersonation on Election Day, which has prompted 37 state legislatures to enact or consider tougher voter ID laws, was virtually nonexistent. The analysis of 2,068 reported fraud cases by News21, a Carnegie-Knight investigative reporting project, found 10 cases of alleged in-person voter impersonation since 2000. With 146 million registered voters in the United States, those represent about one for every 15 million prospective voters."

You can read more in today's Washington Post HERE.

Medicare Over-Spends $400M/Year On One Drug

"The U.S. health-care system is vastly overspending for a single anemia drug because Medicare overestimates its use by hundreds of millions of dollars a year, according to an analysis of federal data. The overpayment to hospitals and clinics arises because Medicare reimburses them based on estimates rather than the actual use of the drug."

"Medicare’s current estimates are based on Epogen usage in 2007 for dialysis treatments. But since then, use of the drug has fallen 25 percent or more, partly because of Food and Drug Administration warnings about its perils... The amount of the overspending is more than $400 million annually, according to calculations done separately by The Washington Post and experts."

You can read more in The Washington Post HERE. 

"Super PACs" Funded Largely By Just 47 People

"Just 47 people account for more than half (57.1 percent) of the $230 million raised by super PACs from individual donors, according to the study by U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG) and Demos, two liberal research and advocacy organizations. Just over 1,000 donors giving $10,000 or more were responsible for 94 percent of the money raised." 

You can read more in today's Washington Post HERE.

AWOL Jesse Jackson, Jr. Has Alcohol Problem

In addition to being his famous father's son, Jesse Jackson, Jr. is a Congressman from Illinois who has been on Capitol Hill for 17 years. But he has not been seen there for over a month.  His unexplained absence generated increasing concern and anger among his colleagues and Democratic party leaders, as he missed more and more votes.

Then came word a few days ago from his camp that the 47 year-old Jackson was suffering from "exhaustion." When that failed to satisfy the lingering questions, some further details were put out in a press release on Wednesday: he actually has a "mood disorder" for which he was being treated in Arizona.  That explanation, too, was greeted with skepticism, however, and raised more questions than it answered. His top Congressional aides tried to tamp down speculation with this firm denial in yet another press release, "...The rumors about him being treated for alcohol or substance abuse [are] not true."

But THIS 3 minute segment from the Today Show this morning explains that NBC News has spoken with multiple sources close to the Congressman and that Jesse Jackson Jr. is in fact in rehab for an alcohol problem while also being treated for depression.

Charlie Rangel Declares Victory In Primary

Charlie Rangel, the scandal-plagued 21 term congressman from New York, declared a surprising victory yesterday in the primary for his redrawn House seat.  You can read more on CNN HERE.

A couple of years ago, Rangel became a national laughingstock after it was revealed that, despite being the Chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, Rangel had failed to pay income taxes on a Caribbean vacation home and to make other mandatory financial disclosures.  He was ultimately censured by the House and forced to give up his chairmanship. Many thought he'd have to resign from the House altogether or, at best, finish out his term in disgrace and never run again.

In high school,  I remember reading in American history textbooks about a string of infamous political figures in the 19th and 20th centuries, and wondering how  these people managed to hold on to their elected offices for so long, despite being plagued by well known scandals for years at the time.

In my teenaged mind, I simply attributed that to vote rigging.  But Charlie Rangel's political survival today suggests that I may have over-estimated the American voter and under-estimated the potent mix of incumbency, political skill, and an almost masochistic willingness to live with public shame and scorn.

New Interview With John Edwards' Mistress

Last Night, the ABC News program 20/20 aired a new, one hour interview with Rielle Hunter, the mistress of former U.S. presidential candidate John Edwards. It was the elaborate attempts to hide her existence (from both the public and from Edwards' dying wife Elizabeth) that ultimately led to Edwards' recent trail on federal charges of campaign finance violations.  The entire interview has been posted on the ABC News website in 6 segments.  You can watch part 1 HERE.

The program was not so much an extended sit down interview with Hunter as it was an extended chronology of their entire affair (during and after Edwards' presidential campaign), in which short segments from Chris Cuomo's interview with Hunter are juxtaposed with damning clips of Edwards shamelessly promoting his relationship with his wife on  the campaign trail and later flatly denying his relationship with Hunter. Broadly speaking, there was nothing new in any of this.  But what made it compelling viewing were the 'behind the scenes' details that Reille Hunter adds to the story, which details made Edwards' already extraordinary behavior throughout the whole sordid affair all the more amazing.  One of the many details I found memorable was that their infamous 'sex tape' was apparently made during a "poverty trip to Uganda."

Throughout the program, interviewer Chris Cuomo repeatedly stops and asks Hunter incredulous questions like, "Didn't you know this was wrong?" and "Why did you keep going with this crazy scheme that was never going to work?"   And her answer, over and over, is simply, "love."

$102M Audit Finds $20M In Medicaid Fraud

"An audit program meant to combat Medicaid fraud has cost taxpayers about $102 million since 2008 while identifying less than $20 million in overpayments, according to a report released by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office on Thursday."  You can read more in today's Los Angeles Times HERE.

"The National Medicaid Audit Program used incomplete federal data to conduct 1,550 audits, and apparently because of that, the majority of the audits failed to find any fraud, the GAO said at a Senate hearing. Yet fraud in Medicare and Medicaid, the federal government's health insurance programs for elderly, disabled and low-income Americans, continues to cost taxpayers an estimated $60 billion a year, the Justice Department says."

Democrats "Play With Dynamite" On Pensions

I thought THIS Washington Post editorial today incisively analyzed one aspect of yesterday's elections.  It reads in part:

"One portion of the progressive coalition — public-sector unions — used the good economic times of the 1990s and 2000s to lock in generous health and pension benefits at the state and local level through collective bargaining...  Other members of the progressive coalition value public services highly -- parks, libraries, public safety, education, support for the homeless and such...These voters have seen the commitments made to public-sector unions devouring state and local budgets, leaving little room for any initiatives in the public good.

"In California cities where unions have been successful in securing advantages, the fiscal crisis is acute... Payments by the city of San Jose, Calif., to its public retirement fund have gone from $73 million in 2001 to $245 million this year — crowding out spending on libraries and public safety.

"By siding with public employees in the state and local budget disputes, the national Democratic Party is playing with dynamite. Voters are sometimes willing to accept new taxes to purchase shared public benefits such as roads or schools. But even in liberal California cities, voters are reluctant to raise tax revenues to transfer directly to the retirement benefits of a middle-class interest group."

Does Being President Take Years Off Your Life?

A new study of all past US Presidents has sought to determine whether being President really took years off their lives.  The fact that, in the TV age, we've been able to see Presidents age before our eyes during their terms, presumably due to the stress of the job, probably makes many of us think we already know the answer.  The results may be surprising, however, even if the explanation is simple and predictable.

The CBS Evening News discussed the results briefly last night HERE in a 2 minute segment. 

Jon Stewart On Herman Cain (Again)

In the wake of new allegations that presidential candidate Herman Cain had a 13 year affair with an Atlanta businesswoman, Jon Stewart did THIS six minute segment on The Daily Show last night. ("Wow: 13 years and no sex.  Either one of these two people is lying, or Herman Cain is the worst deal closer in the history of extra-marital affairs... Really? He was just trying to help her financially?  I guess that explains the 4:30 AM texts.'Hey, I uh just wanted to let you know that the markets will be opening in 5 hours...'")

Jon Stewart On Cain's Press Conference

Jon Stewart began The Daily Show last night with a funny 6 minute analysis of Herman Cain's press conference on Tuesday, at which Cain attempted to refute allegations of sexual harassment. You can watch it HERE.

I watched Herman Cain's Tuesday press conference live, and in this segment John Stewart expresses several of the same incredulous thoughts that occurred to me at the time.

Punctuation The Kiss of Death For Cain

After one accuser gave a compellingly detailed press conference yesterday, republican presidential candidate Herman Cain has apparently promised to address the sexual harassment allegations against him once again today.  But the way Cain's promised response is being reported by the media this morning is a good indicator, I think, of which way the winds are blowing for him.

You know you're in trouble when your vow to set the record straight is put in skeptical quotation marks by the media; as on CBS.com, where the headline reads, Cain vows to "set the record straight".  Underscoring this disbelieving coverage, the exact same headline has been published by the tabloid The New York Post. 

Jon Stewart On The Herman Cain Scandal

Jon Stewart was really funny when discussing the Anthony Weiner scandal earlier this year. I thought THIS seven minute clip from The Daily Show last night, about Herman Cain's 'evolving recollection' this week about the sexual harassment charges leveled against him in the 1990s, was pretty funny in several spots, too.  The very end of the clip, about his views on China, is also very funny, I thought.

Stephen Colbert On Michele Bachmann

On the Colbert Report last night, Stephen Colbert did THIS 4 minute segment on Michele Bachmann's formal announcement that she is running for President.  The first couple minutes of this clip are pretty average.  But then Colbert begins discussing how Bachmann was mistaken when she asserted that she had the spirit of John Wayne because he was from her same home town in Iowa. It turns out that it wasn't the legendary actor John Wayne who was from her home town, but rather serial killer John Wayne Gacy.  "Like Gacy, people may think you're a clown," Colbert says. "But if they dig a little deeper, they'll find that you are deadly serious."

I thought this harmless, funny gaff was notable because just yesterday I'd watched THIS 5 minute clip in which Michele Bachmann insists to an incredulous George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America that, "the Founding Fathers worked tirelessly to end slavery." She defended this assertion by repeatedly pointing to John Quincy Adams.  In fact, he was 9 years old in 1776, and was the son of Founding Father John Adams.  And of course many of the Founding Fathers, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, owned slaves themselves.

CNN: Bill Maher Reads Anthony Weiner

Do you remember back in the mid-1990s when Bill O'Reilly and Bill Maher were populist, common sense centrists?  I liked them both back then.  The old Bill Maher is long gone, unfortunately.  But the first 1 minute of this clip from CNN, which itself is an excerpt from Bill Maher's HBO show in which he reads some of Anthony Weiner's 'sexts' verbatim, is very funny (even 'bleeped' for CNN).

Jon Stewart On CNN's Presidential Debate

Last night on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart did this 3 minute segment critiquing CNN's coverage of the republican primary debate.

The Daily Show - Indecision 2012 - Second Republican Debate
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