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O noez!! Scandal!

Mar 12, 2009

maha

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conservatism, criminal justice, Obama Administration

So the headline on Ben Smith’s blog at The Politico says the FBI has raided the office of an Obama appointee. Two people were arrested on bribery charges. Rightie response: Christmas just came early.

But, wait … the office was not the Obama appointee’s office, but his former office.

The office was that of the chief technology officer for Washington, DC. An Obama appointee, Vivek Kundra, served in that position until February 4. After February 4, I assume, he vacated the office. Or, according to other stories, Kundra resigned just last week, after he was hired by the Obama Administration to be the Federal Chief Information Officer. I assume eventually the time discrepancy will be straightened out.

Today, FBI agents raided the Washington technology office, hereafter called the WTO, and arrested one employee and one private contractor. The employee, Yusuf Acar, is an information systems security officer in the D.C. government.

As far as anyone knows at this time, Vivek Kundra is not part of the investigation. We may learn otherwise in the future. Or, we may learn that Kundra was a whistle blower who led the FBI to the criminals. Or that he didn’t know anything about it. Whatever. In right-wing lore, Kundra will forevermore be a corrupt bribe-taker.

Spotlight

9 Comments

moonbat • Mar 12, 2009 @5:05 pm

Leftie response: let’s take a look at the curious case of Mike Connell, the GOP IT guru who was going to testify about vote rigging the 2004 election – that is until his private plane crashed in December. Connell was an experienced pilot, and cancelled several flights prior to this final sojourn, due to suspicions he had about his plane; a friend subsequently warned him not to fly on this last flight. Interestingly (and sorry, no link), until Connell agreed to testify, Karl Rove predicted that McCain would handily win the 2008 election; when Connell decided to sing, Rove did a 180 and predicted an Obama win. Neat how that works, huh?

So yes, righties, bring it on.
moonbat • Mar 12, 2009 @5:10 pm

Oops, one link to the Mike Connell story is here.
c u n d gulag • Mar 12, 2009 @5:26 pm

Well, I gotta give it to the reich-wing, they may be onto something. If anyone knows about corrupt bribe-takers, it would be them.

moonbat,
Funny that! Hmmmm… How could THAT have happened? What are the odds?
BTW – weren’t most of our political enemies all around the world fatally injured in plane crashes from the ’50′s to ’70′s? Again, what are the odds?
William Teach • Mar 12, 2009 @5:56 pm

So, let’s see, he was an Obama appointee, now is out. And you quibble.

Imagine if he was a Bush appointee. You would be all over this, blaming Bush. Pot, kettle.
Ian • Mar 12, 2009 @6:26 pm

No, Mr. Teach, at this point in the news cycle I would be waiting to get more information before blaming bush.

Even there, the only reason I would blame bush is that bush had a long and very well documented tendency to appoint political hacks whose only qualifications were that they were extremely loyal. Competetence, honesty, integrity, intelligence, none of these could even be said to have come second … they weren’t considered at all. So, when these differently-lawful hacks got into trouble, a big part of it could indeed be blamed on the process that put so many such people in a position to GET in trouble.

Obama has shown no such tendency. It’s possible that such a pattern might emerge at some point, but as yet it has not.

So, currently, we have no idea if Kundra actually did anything wrong, and if he did there is no real way Obama could be blamed for it anyway, unless Obama was directly involved.

That’s not a quibble, that’s basic logical thinking.

-me
zenyenta • Mar 12, 2009 @6:37 pm

No kidding? I just got home and up to now have only seen the headlines. I didn’t realize that the Obama appointee was no longer in the office in question, although the headlines were a little odd, come to think of it. Making reference to the office, I mean.
maha • Mar 12, 2009 @6:49 pm

Mr. Teach, as far as I know Kundra is still an Obama appointee, not “out.” Did you actually read the post, or did you just assume he was guilty? If the latter, thanks so much for proving my point. I knew I keep you around for something.
melbradley • Mar 12, 2009 @6:52 pm

Hey! The villianous Strawman and his henchmen Innuendo and Insinuation have returned. We need some sort of defense against them. I guess we’ll have to fight these righty evils with the only weapons we have. Facts. Mr. Teach, please take notes.
Doug Hughes • Mar 12, 2009 @6:52 pm

I am going OT, but I heard on NPR that Michael Steele said in an interview with GQ that abortion is a matter of choice. I admit I hoped that the man had found a backbone. Could he be smart enough to see what liability the fetus people (and neocons) are, and how the GOP has to modify their platform so it’s not balanced at the edge of the right wingtip.

Of course reality caught up. Steele clarified his position that Roe v Wade was wrongly decided ant the ‘choice’ is the states choice. I will leave it to the individual (not the states) to decide it the gaffe was a carefully calculated publicity stunt.

But the matter does bring to mind a question for Mr. Steele. There was a disagreement a few years back about Civil Rights being a matter for the States to decide, not the Federal Government. And had the States prevailed, he might be working a plantation south of the Mason-Dixon line. A womans right to conrol over her own body IS a fundamental civil right as personal and integral as the color of your skin. Doesn’t Steele see the irony (and feel the shame) of a black man defending the rights of states to decide Civil rights?