Shirtless lawmaker latest NY political scandal

NEW YORK : Former Rep. Eric Massa and his tickle fights are so 2010. Eliot Spitzer? He's two governors ago. With the shirtless photo sent to a woman he was trying to woo online, Rep. Chris Lee is the latest in a string of New York politicians whose misdeeds have riveted national attention.

Lee, a 46-year old Republican and married father, resigned his Buffalo-area seat Thursday after the gossip website Gawker published e-mails he sent to a woman he met on Craigslist, including a photo where he is shirtless and flexing a bicep. Lee released a statement apologizing to his family and constituents for letting them down.

Lee is hardly the first politician to engage in bad behavior. But many lately have come from the Empire State — from the densely packed, hyper-caffeinated New York City metropolitan area to the rural communities and industrial cities upstate.

"I don't think it's anything in the water, but we do seem to have a disproportionally large amount of scandal," state Democratic Party Chairman Jay Jacobs said. "Maybe it's because we're a high-profile state, we have a dynamic population, and we run at a faster pace than many places."

A year ago, it was Massa's turn in the spotlight.

A freshman Democrat from western New York, the 50-year old Massa abruptly resigned his seat, citing health concerns. News surfaced within days that he was under investigation by a House ethics panel for sexual misconduct, a charge he denied even as he acknowledged participating in tickle fights with some male aides.

"They are saying I groped a male staffer," Massa said in a television interview. "Yeah, I did. Not only did I grope him. I tickled him until he couldn't breathe."

Also last year, Carl Paladino, a Buffalo real estate developer, burst onto the national scene when he won the Republican primary to challenge Democrat Andrew Cuomo. Paladino, whose candidacy was backed widely by tea party activists, acknowledged fathering a child out of wedlock and, with no evidence, publicly accused Cuomo of infidelity during his 15-year marriage to Kerry Kennedy, a daughter of former New York Sen. Robert Kennedy. He later backed away from that charge.

A videotaped dustup where Paladino threatened to "take out" a political reporter became a national cable news staple for days and Paladino had to apologize for racist and pornographic e-mails that he forwarded — twice.

Cuomo trounced Paladino by 30 percentage points in the November election. But Paladino has remained visible and some supporters are already pressing him to enter the race to succeed Lee. Paladino said Wednesday he is not planning to run.

Some recent New York scandals have been huge and historic, like Gov. Eliot Spitzer's resignation in 2008 after evidence surfaced that he had patronized a prostitution ring. Others have been smaller but similarly tawdry, such as the conviction of former Democratic state Sen. Hiram Monserrate last year for beating up his girlfriend.

Spitzer's successor, Democrat David Paterson, was mired in controversies of his own, such as improperly accepting tickets to the 2009 World Series and intervening in a domestic violence case involving a close aide. Paterson escaped criminal charges in both instances, but paid a large fine for taking the baseball tickets.

Following a drunken driving arrest in 2008, Republican Rep. Vito Fossella, a married father of three, was forced to acknowledge he had fathered a daughter with a mistress. Fossella, who had represented the New York City borough of Staten Island in Congress since 1997, declined to run for re-election.

The most visible recent New York political scandal involved Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel, the former House Ways and Means Committee chairman and dean of the state's congressional delegation. Rangel was censured by the House last year after being found guilty of violating several ethics rules, including renting multiple rent-stabilized apartments in New York's Harlem neighborhood and using congressional stationery to solicit donations for a college center bearing his name. Rangel denied any wrongdoing and was re-elected last November, but the scandal and publicity surrounding it did not help national Democrats as they tried — unsuccessfully — to defend their majority in the House.

John McLaughlin, a national Republican pollster who has worked for many New York candidates, said the state's changing demographics may have given rise to a new culture of political scandal in the state.

"For years, you had a certain level of middle-class folks who were traditionally ethnic, Catholic and Jewish in New York state. Then, you had your share of political corruption but now you have moral corruption, too," McLaughlin said.

But some constituents in Lee's district said they didn't consider his downfall a New York state of mind, rather a consequence of celebrity that can infect politicians from any state.

"People in power do the darnedest things. I really don't know what they're thinking," said Bob Dickinson, 65, of Clarence Center.

Egypt's military supports Mubarak; protesters mass

CAIRO : Egypt's military threw its weight Friday behind President Hosni Mubarak's plan to stay in office through September elections while protesters fanned out to the presidential palace in Cairo and other key symbols of the authoritarian regime in a new push to force the leader to step down immediately.

The statement by the Armed Forces Supreme Council — its second in two days — was a blow to many protesters who had called on the military to take action to push out Mubarak after his latest refusal to step down.

But soldiers also took no action to stop demonstrators from massing outside the palace and the headquarters of state television, indicating they were trying to avoid another outbreak of violence.

Anti-government protesters said they were more determined than ever as the uprising entered its 18th day.

"We expected the army's decision, we always knew that it was behind Mubarak. But we know it's not going to harm us," Safi Massoud said as she joined thousands of people packed into Cairo's central Tahrir Square. "We wont leave until we choose a transition president. We don't want Mubarak, we don't want Suleiman."

The military statement endorsed Mubarak's plan to transfer some powers to Vice President Omar Suleiman and promised free and fair presidential elections later this year.

It also promised that the hated emergency laws, in force since Egypt's authoritarian ruler came to office in 1981, would be lifted and gave a somewhat more specific timeframe than Mubarak had offered in his Thursday night speech.

The military implied they would be lifted when protests end, saying it could happen "when the current security situation permits."

It also called for public services to resume and urged "the return of normal life in order to safeguard the achievements of our glorious people."

Undaunted, thousands packed into Cairo's central Tahrir Square, or Liberation Square, which has been the center of the uprising since it began on Jan. 25.

A few hundred protesters assembled outside the gate of Mubarak's Oruba Palace. The palace was protected by four tanks and rolls of barbed wire, but soldiers were doing nothing to stop demonstrators from joining the rally and chanting anti-Mubarak slogans.

Others massed outside the Cabinet, parliament and the state television headquarters several blocks away from Tahrir Square, the center of the mass rallies that began on Jan. 25.

Hundreds of demonstrators formed a human barricade around the building that houses state TV and radio, checking IDs and turning away those who work there. Tanks and barbed wire surrounded the building overlooking the Nile, but troops did not keep protesters away.

Hopes that Mubarak would resign had been raised Thursday when a council of the military's top generals announced it had stepped in to secure the country, and a senior commander told protesters in Tahrir Square that all their demands would soon be met.

Instead, several hundred thousand people watched in disbelief and anger as Mubarak refused to step down.

Mubarak called the protesters' demands legitimate and promised that September presidential elections — in which he says he will not run — will be "free and fair" with supervision to ensure transparency.

He said that on the recommendation of the panel, he had requested the amendment of five articles of the constitution to loosen the now restrictive conditions on who can run for president, to restore judicial supervision of elections, and to impose term limits on the presidency.

He also annulled a constitutional article that gives the president the right to order a military trial for civilians accused of terrorism. He said that step would "clear the way" for eventually scrapping the emergency law but with a major caveat — "once security and stability are restored."

The emergency law gives police virtually unlimited powers of arrest.

Prominent reform advocate Mohamed ElBaradei, whose supporters were among the organizers of the 18-day-old wave of protests, called in a Twitter message on the army to step in "to rescue Egypt," warning the country might "explode."

Another leading figure of the protest movement, Google executive Wael Ghonim, called for caution.

"The situation is complicated. I don't want the blood of the martyrs to be wasted and at the same time I don't want to see more bloodshed," he said in comments posted on Facebook.

The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest and best organized opposition group, called the speech a "farce."

"This is an illegitimate president handing power to an illegitimate vice president," said Mohammed Abbas, who represents the Brotherhood's youth wing. "We reject this speech and we call on Mubarak to step down and hand his powers to the army."

In his address on state TV, Mubarak showed the strategy he has followed throughout the days of upheaval, trying to defuse the greatest challenge ever to his nearly three-decade authoritarian rule. So far, he has made a series of largely superficial concessions while resolutely sticking to his refusal to step down immediately or allow steps that would undermine the grip of his regime.

Looking frail but speaking in a determined voice, Mubarak spoke as if he were still in charge, saying he was "adamant to continue to shoulder my responsibility to protect the constitution and safeguard the interests of the people." He vowed that he would remain in the country and said he was addressing the youth in Tahrir as "the president of the republic."

Even after delegating authority to his vice president, Mubarak retains his powers to request constitutional amendments and dissolve parliament or the Cabinet. The constitution allows the president to transfer his other authorities if he is unable to carry out his duties "due to any temporary obstacle."

"I saw fit to delegate the authorities of the president to the vice president, as dictated in the constitution," he said.

President Barack Obama appeared dismayed by Mubarak's announcement. He said in a statement that it was not clear that an "immediate, meaningful" transition to democracy was taking place and warned that too many Egyptians are not convinced that the government is serious about making genuine change.

Suleiman was already leading the regime's efforts to deal with the crisis, though he has failed to ease the protests, which have only escalated in size and ambition, drawing crowds of up to a quarter-million people.

Suleiman has also offered dialogue with the protesters and opposition over the nature of reforms. In a sign that he is sticking to that strategy, state TV reported that he asked Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq to appoint a deputy prime minister to be in charge of the dialogue with the protesters and the opposition.

Despite the overwhelming sense of disappointment among the protesters, some noted that Mubarak's immediate resignation would have had unintended consequences. His immediate departure would have triggered presidential elections within 60 days, with most of the restrictions that prevented free voting the past still in place, said Amr Hamzawy, an Egyptian legal expert.

By transferring most powers to Suleiman and initiating constitutional amendments, Mubarak did the maximum possible under the constitution to meet the demands of the protesters, Hamzawy said.

"He went in a direction that is more preferable to open Egyptian politics in the next few months," said Hamzawy.

Pune locals furious with Salman’s film shoot….

Bollywood: The locals of Pune are very angry with shoot of Salman Khan. Reason: Salman’s upcoming film Bodyguard being shot at the Pune Okayama Friendship Garden. It seems that, the Okayama Friendship Garden is a place where thousands of locals visit daily. But now, since the garden has been booked for the film shoot, public were denied an entry for three days.

News is that this anger has led the Assosiation of Friends of Japan (AFJ) to take up the matter with Pune Municipal Corporation, which gave the permission for the shoot. According to the members of AFJ, the shoot not just damaged the facilities in the park, but the crew left a litter of garbage after the shoot. It’s a first ever film shoot in the Pune Okayama Friendship Garden.

Bodyguard is produced by Salman’s brother-in-law Atul Agnihotri. It’s a remake of a hit Malayalam film. Kareena plays the daughter of a don and Salman plays her bodyguard.

Nepal to recall Saudi envoy involved in insurance scandal

Kathmandu: A Cabinet meeting on Tuesday (February 1) evening decided to recall Nepali Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Hamid Ansari, who allegedly transferred into his own bank account the insurance claims of more than three Nepali nationals who died in the Gulf country. However, no decision was taken on Nepali Ambassador to India Rukma Shumsher Rana over his dual responsibility as envoy and managing director of Dabur Nepal, minister for law and justice, Prem Bahadur Singh told the Post. 

The decision came after the recommendations of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) and ministry of foreign affairs (MoFA) recently. Earlier, CIAA and MoFA had separately grilled Ansari and asked him to come clean over his alleged involvement of fund transfer and also why he did not submit the money claimed by the relatives of the deceased. The Parliamentary Committee for International Affairs and Human Rights on January 9 directed the government to probe into Ansari’s alleged involvement in transferring the

compensation amount and recall envoy Rana immediately. Rana was appointed by the ruling CPN-UML in 2007.

The relatives of at least three Nepali nationals who died in Saudi Arabia - one in a car accident and two others while working inside a company - one-and-a-half years ago, had lodged separate complaints at CIAA and MoFA and asked them to take action against the envoy who repeatedly refused to furnish details of the claims that were provided by the insurance companies.

The insurance money, worth over 2.5 million rupees (US$34,387) per deceased, was handed over to Ansari. “The money did not reach the deceased’s kin for over more than a year. We started investigation case taking into consideration the sensitive nature of the case. We suspected the role played by the envoy,” a MoFA official said. The insurance company had dispatched copies of the cheques, which were received by Ansari on behalf of the victims’ kin.

Maoist supremo optimistic about winning Nepali PM post

Kathmandu: UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has filed his prime ministerial candidacy at Nepal's Legislature-Parliament in New Baneshwor on Wednesday (February 2).

Maoist Vice Chairman Baburam Bhattarai proposed and another Vice Chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha seconded Dahal's candidacy.

Talking briefly to journalists after filing his candidacy at the CA building, Dahal claimed that there is a strong possibility of his victory in today's (February 3) elections for the post of prime minister. He cited the positive talks with fring parties and Madhes-based parties for his optimism.

Dahal was prime minister after the Maoists cooperated for a peaceful return of combatants but he resigned due to differences with the military and other parties.

When they can’t beat him...

Colombo: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, in a brief interaction with the press on the sidelines of a ceremony to unveil the Hambantota Commonwealth Games 2018 bid the other day at Temple Trees in Colombo, scotched off rumours about his health. Asked why he had not kept the country informed of his movements, he said he had been wary of giving Tiger backers in the US advance notice of his visit! He also indicated that he was as healthy as a horse - glad tidings for his supporters but bad news for the Tigers and the Elephants.

The rumours swung into action following President Rajapaksa’s sudden trip to the US last month, floating the story that he had been rushed there for emergency medical treatment. The overseas Tamil Tigers (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) lost no time in claiming that he was seriously ill. They were gloating over the rumours of his ill-health. In one of the e-mails they circulated around the globe about the President, they claimed he was dying and Prabhakaran (killed Tamil leader) was alive! Some of the local web publications known for their scurrilous reports amplified and jazzed up those rumours and many people, true to form, fell for them hook, line and sinker.

President Rajapaksa is known, nay notorious, for his vanishing tricks and erratic movements. One morning at the height of war, he went missing from Temple Trees and everybody was kept guessing where he was. About half an hour later, a traffic policeman conducting random checks on passing vehicles stopped a car near Nugegoda. Down went the driver’s door shutter as a harsh voice demanded the driving licence. The driver quietly produced the required document, flashing a thousand watt smile. The poor cop leaped out of his skin; beaming in the driver’s seat was the President! He drove through Colombo’s suburbs before returning to Temple Trees, which he used to call a prison at that time. (Who doesn’t want to be imprisoned there?) He thus roamed around the city from time to time throwing caution to the wind, while the Tiger Chief was doing cross-country running like a rabbit in the Vanni with the army in hot pursuit!

Controversy that President Rajapaksa’s sudden visit to US sparked reminds Sri Lankans of the fallout of US president Dwight Eisenhower’s disappearance on the evening of Saturday, Feb. 20, 1954, while he was in Palm Springs, California. When the media got wind of his disappearance, which remains a mystery to date, they demanded an explanation, which did not come soon enough. The rumour mill cranked into action claiming that the president was either seriously ill or had died! The president’s Press Secretary came out with a queer explanation; the President had chipped a tooth while having a ‘chicken dinner’ and visited a dentist at night! The story took a different twist when someone called a radio station a few days later claiming that he had photos of ‘Ike’ inspecting the wreckage of a flying saucer in the exalted company of some extra terrestrial beings! However much the White House insisted that ‘it was the tooth, the whole tooth and nothing but the tooth’, some people refused to buy that explanation.

The late Sri Lankan president J. R. Jayewardene once famously said, "If you cannot beat your opponents, you must outlive them." When you try to outlive someone you despise, you naturally wish he/she were dead. In the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami, it was claimed that Prabhakaran, who was considered invincible at that time, had perished in the killer waves. The LTTE (Tamil Tigers) remained mum fuelling speculation that he was really dead. There were also stories of ornate coffins being taken to the Vanni. But, much to the horror of his victims, the Tiger Chief ‘rose from the dead’. Thereafter it was claimed that he was a diabetic dependent on heavy doses of insulin. Some of his enemies went to the extent of asserting that he was terminally ill. However, when the military took the battle into the heartland of LTTE terrorism causing Prabhakaran to show a clean pair of heels, people stopped worrying about his health as they knew his days were numbered anyway. When he breathed his last in a mangrove swamp hugging a lagoon in May 2009, his well maintained body bore evidence that he had been the picture of health.

So much for wild rumours about the health of leaders, democratic or otherwise, considered ‘unbeatable’!

What the opponents of the ruling UPFA should do is to make a concerted effort to revitalise the opposition as an effective countervailing force against the government bulldozing its way through. That is not something they can achieve by claiming that the President has all kinds of diseases that they would like him to have and/or by hoping and praying that he will go the way of all flesh prematurely, in a desperate bid to outlive him because they cannot beat him politically.

Untouchable

Manila: Even if Filipino congressman Ronald Singson has pleaded guilty to drug use charges in Hong Kong, as his lawyers and his father, Ilocos Sur province governor Luis “Chavit” Singson, have indicated all along, the members and the leaders of the House of Representative seem still in a quandary over what to do with him. While Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas has said that the ethics committee should on its own press ahead with disciplinary action that may lead to the expulsion of the lawmaker from the chamber, most lawmakers are pleading for Singson to resign so as to save the House from further embarrassment. Presumably the second alternative would be less bloody, less contentious.

The problem is, blood has been splattered all over the chamber. And it’s the blood from maimed and murdered decorum, from eviscerated delicadeza (sense of propriety). It is the blood of justice wrung dry and desiccated of all relevance and import. If up to this time, our lawmakers are still treating Singson with kid gloves, giving him, as they say, the benefit of the doubt, then say goodbye to public service above reproach, and say welcome to sheer insensitivity, to arrogant untouchability.

Singson was caught with 6.67 grams of cocaine and two tablets of Valium at the customs arrival hall of the Hong Kong international airport on July 11, 2010. His father initially called the incident a “set-up", blaming political rivals for tipping off the HK customs and claiming his children didn’t take drugs. But earlier this year, the governor indicated his son would plead to the lesser offense of drug use. The elder Singson’s attempts to clear his son’s name is understandable, although he must realise that as an elected governor himself, elected officials and public servants are measured by high public standards that must not be compromised.

But perhaps the more damning compromise has been committed by the House. Since day one of the controversy, the House leadership has hemmed and hawed about what to do with the Singson case. Granted that legislative courtesy would require that the leadership should give him the benefit of the doubt, still the ethics committee should at least have initiated an inquiry into the matter in order to disabuse the public of the suspicion that the chamber has been protecting one of its own.

Alas, the House leadership has not only hemmed and hawed, it has imposed upon the public its own brand of entitlement, generally declaring that it has to wait for Singson to be convicted by the HK court for any expulsion proceeding to be initiated, and shielding Singson from any ethics case by sending its representative to Hong Kong, deputy majority leader Romero Federico Quimbo, ostensibly to better ascertain his condition, check his legal defence, and provide a conduit to the House for it to be regularly updated - and all of this at taxpayers’ expense! That mission was the height of insensitivity!

“If he admits guilt, the gentlemanly, decent thing to do is to voluntarily resign,” said majority leader Neptali Gonzales II, sounding imploringly, as if begging Singson to resign so as to take the bitter cup away from the House. All right. But what if he does not resign? Then, Gonzales said the House would have no choice but to move for his expulsion. And what would that take? A two-thirds vote of the chamber. Again, all on the taxpayers’ account!

Whether the House leadership admits it or not, the chamber as well as the Philippine government has already been tainted by the case. The arraignment, coming as it did with the wounds of the Aug. 11, 2010 hostage fiasco, in which several Hong Kong tourists were killed in a bungled rescue attempt by the police, still fresh and festering, would tend to show to Hong Kong and to the world the irredeemable state of Philippine law enforcement. In the first place, how could Philippine customs and immigration and airport security have missed out on Singson’s luggage? At the very least, the fact that he was able to enplane to HK with the prohibited contraband should indicate laxity on the part of Philippine airport authorities or their connivance with Singson.

Here we have a strange situation where law enforcers, lawmakers and law breakers meld into one arrogant untouchable whole. It is a most depressing thing