Sunday, February 10, 2008
Carlos Valdez Favoritism
In a latest rumor of favoritism Roland Garza SHOCKJOCK is busted again for cocaine and the congressman Ortiz is trying to intercede with Carlos Valdez? Why didn't the congressman stick up for Celis and get that dismissed! Let's talk about Carlos Valdez sense of fairness on prosecution. The dance instructor who allegedly was a molester stood in the way of a land deal of one of Valdez' cronies from the Garibaldi breakfast club. Let's talk about it. Write a book about that Carlos, not on Selena.
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21 comments:
I heard that. Carlos VAldez is very corrupt. Slamming mexicans left and right and son of a bitch is arrogant as hell. Fuera with that pendejo. I remember him as a bug tooth skinny son of a gun. Fuera. He's a puppet for the establishment. He and his Garibaldi breakfast club.
Why would Congressman Solomon P.Ortiz do anything for Roland Garza?
What does the agency who busted him have to say about this cover up?
I heard him on the radio and he said his wife died and his baby almost did, what is the truth?
I tried to confirm this story and was told "He is lying piece of shit, his wife left him."
Does anyone know if he lied to his audience?
I enjoy reading your comedy blog. I'm just wondering if you folks ever prove anything that you write? Let me guess D'anoying1 will respond with lyrics of a song and say a tickler of events to come and say some other strange things. Show some proof and your blog would be better.
You can stand in that river as long as you like Mr Anonymous.
Everybody who knows anything know D1 is not a prevaricator.
WATTS a matta are the song lyrics too much or is it they are on target.
If you would like to respond to documented articles, there are plenty of links in corroboration showing proof.
http://27thcongressionaldistrict.blogspot.com/2008/01/nueces-county-jail-federal-prisoner.html
http://cccaller.blogspot.com/2007/07/serpent-in-garden-january-14-1996.html
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/3/19/0517/48887
http://stxv.blogspot.com/2007/07/heck-if-all-compean-ramos-needed-was.html
http://nuecesdemocrats.blogspot.com/2007/05/texas-state-representative-house.html
http://27thcongressionaldistrict.blogspot.com/2007/10/rove-expedience-simple-activation.html
http://agif.blogspot.com/2007/08/kc-rove-quit-to-help-junior-john.html
I think you are referring to the TLR BACALA Insurance Cronies.
We prove it everyday. We do not hide our words behind an anonymous identity. We prove ourselves everyday, where are you?
Still hiding.
Truly it is rather unintelligent and fruitless to attack our credibility,..... for then you only confirm our work moreso.
You were better off to have remained silent and let everyone think you are a fool. Now you publish a knee jerk response prove it.
Dont you have a better punch than that?
However, we do appreciate your input.
TTFN
You can stand in that river as long as you like Mr Anonymous.
Everybody who knows anything know D1 is not a prevaricator.
WATTS a matta are the song lyrics too much or is it they are on target.
If you would like to respond to documented articles, there are plenty of links in corroboration showing proof.
http://27thcongressionaldistrict.blogspot.com/2008/01/nueces-county-jail-federal-prisoner.html
http://cccaller.blogspot.com/2007/07/serpent-in-garden-january-14-1996.html
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/3/19/0517/48887
http://stxv.blogspot.com/2007/07/heck-if-all-compean-ramos-needed-was.html
http://nuecesdemocrats.blogspot.com/2007/05/texas-state-representative-house.html
http://27thcongressionaldistrict.blogspot.com/2007/10/rove-expedience-simple-activation.html
http://agif.blogspot.com/2007/08/kc-rove-quit-to-help-junior-john.html
I think you are referring to the TLR BACALA Insurance Cronies.
We prove it everyday. We do not hide our words behind an anonymous identity. We prove ourselves everyday, where are you?
Still hiding.
Truly it is rather unintelligent and fruitless to attack our credibility,..... for then you only confirm our work moreso.
You were better off to have remained silent and let everyone think you are a fool. Now you publish a knee jerk response prove it.
Dont you have a better punch than that?
However, we do appreciate your input.
TTFN
ANON: "I enjoy reading your comedy blog. I'm just wondering if you folks ever prove anything that you write?"
D1: "If you are so curious then why are you writing under anonymous?
Keep reading and quit stealing....do you ever do anything original?"
FYI to Readers
posted by Paul Burka at 4:37 PM
I am working on a follow-up to the blog post about the dispute involving Dannenbaum Engineering Corporation and the Port of Brownsville over a proposed bridge to Matamoros. It turns out to be one of those South Texas stories that's hard to unravel. More to come ....
10 Comments:
Blogger Melissa Zamora said...
Looking forward to it! Give 'em hell.
Did you know that Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. is a consultant for DEC? Yup.
Did you know that millions were transferred to overseas accounts that were untraceable? Yup.
Did you know that engineering plans have yet to be produced? Yup.
Did you know that the so-called "settlement agreement" that DEC's yet to meet is online at the Port of Brownsville Web site? Yup.
Did you know that Lucio promised The Brownsville Herald, and in writing, too, to end all consulting work? Yup. Did he? Nope.
Did you know that James Dannenbaum has "consultants" everywhere and when they run into trouble he suddenly doesn't know who they are? Yup.
There's some great investigative work at the Herald. I should know. I used to work there.
October 25, 2007 9:24 PM
Blogger Emanuel Anthony said...
New UT Regent Dannenbaum Donated to Cobos, Teran
by Sito Negron and Rene Leon
Newspaper Tree
James Dannenbaum, owner of Houston-based Dannenbaum Engineering and a recent appointee by Gov. Rick Perry to the UT System Board of regents, gave County Judge Anthony Cobos a $2,000 campaign donation earlier this year, records show.
Posted on October 23, 2007
New UT Regent Dannenbaum Donated to Cobos, Teran
James Dannenbaum, owner of Houston-based Dannenbaum Engineering and a recent appointee by Gov. Rick Perry to the UT System Board of regents, gave County Judge Anthony Cobos a $2,000 campaign donation earlier this year, records show.
In a mandated periodic report filed with the Texas Ethics Commission, Cobos listed a $2,000 donation received on Jan. 29 from Dannenbaum; it was the largest contribution he received in the period covering Jan. 15 through July 15, 2007. [report]
Travis Ketner, Cobos’ former chief of staff, alleged in May in a court document known as an information that in January of this year Cobos met with representatives for vendors seeking to secure county contracts. [information]
The documents claims that individuals, named within as John CC7 and John CC8, met with John CC5 in his county office. John CC5 is described within the document only as a recently elected county official, although the actions described in the document make it clear that John CC5 is Cobos.
John CC7 and John CC8, respectively, are described as “a member of the Board of Directors of R.E. Thomason Hospital” and “a vendor seeking a contract with the county of El Paso to provide actuarial and dental services.”
John CC7 is widely thought to be Arturo Duran, a member of the Thomason Board, and John CC8 has been identified in media reports as Roger Garza, president of Valley Risk Consultants.
Ketner claims that in the bathroom of Cobos’ office, Duran, acting on behalf of “VRC” and “DC,” promised Cobos a $2,000 campaign contribution in exchange for his votes to secure county contracts for “VRC” and “DC.”
Additionally, Ketner alleges that Duran promised Cobos that $1,000 campaign contributions would be made to John CC13 and John CC14 for their votes to secure county contracts for “VRC” and “DC.”
John CC13 and John CC14 are identified in the document as elected county officials; from the document, it can be surmised that they are County Commissioners Luis Sarinana and Miguel Teran, respectively.
Campaign records for Teran show a $1,000 contribution from Dannenbaum received on April 11, and a $1,000 donation from "Fund for the Future," which has the same address as Dannenbaum, given on March 22. [report]
Records for Sarinana do not show any donations made by Dannenbaum, with the only $1,000 donations coming from Alfredo Corral of El Paso and the El Paso Sheriff’s Officer’s Association.
The records for Cobos, Sarinana and Teran do not show any donations from Garza. Valley Risk was an unsuccessful bidder for a county health contract.
While the El Paso Times identified "DC" as Dannenbaum Construction, there is no company with that name registered with the Secretary of State.
However, at a March 8 Commissioner’s Court meeting, a representative from Dannenbaum Engineering, along with partners from Mega Services, went before the court to give a presentation on dredging levees in the county. No contract was awarded. [minutes]
Mega Services is owned by Arturo Duran, who runs the business from his home. Neither Cobos nor Duran returned telephone calls seeking comment.
Dannenbaum said the company interacted with Duran when he was head of the International Water and Boundary Commission, because Dannenbaum was doing work in the lower Rio Grande for Hidalgo and Cameron Counties.
“We had made some inquiry to his staff for hydrologic data for engineering studies,” Dannenbaum said, “so we did have some contact when he was commissioner."
Dannenbaum said that Duran is not an employee of Dannenbaum Engineering, but that "we may after he left office have employed him for some help in getting some information from IBWC because we have ongoing work on the levees for McAllen, Hidalgo and Cameron County.
"It is possible he might have been employed to assist in getting data but … I know absolutely we did not contract with him to represent us or lobby for us.”
Dannenbaum said he remembered one of his employees giving Cobos a $2,000 check during a fund-raiser.
"I didn’t give it to him myself because I wasn’t in town, but he had a public fundraiser in a hotel in El Paso that somebody from our firm attended," he said. "I did make a contribution to the judge because we are active … not as a construction firm, active as a design firm, in the El Paso area."
Dannenbaum said he did not recall the employee who passed along the check, stating that his company has 200 employees.
He denied any wrongdoing, and said he had not been contacted by the FBI in regards to the public corruption investigation. “We’re not being investigated in any way, shape or form in El Paso,” Dannenbaum said.
He added that he did not believe any of his employees would have done anything wrong: "We have a very rigid code of ethics and policies and procedures about what we do and the way we conduct business, and anybody who did anything other than deliver a legitimate campaign contribution that had been requested by an office holder trying to pay off campaign debt or whatever it was would have been at serious risk of termination. It's extremely difficult for me to believe any of our people would have done anything."
He also cast doubt upon Ketner's allegations, as have other people implicated in Ketner's plea.
"I have no reason to believe whatever this fellow (Ketner) has said because we all know when they get into those things somebody tells them what they would like them to say and then they say it," Dannenbaum said.
He pointed to his company's long track record and his family's involvement in civic affairs.
“It might be of interest to you to know our firm has been in continuous operation for 62 years with never any criticism or any of the type of things you're asking about and I have been appointed by every governor since Preston Smith to positions of public trust and responsibility on various boards and commissions,” Dannenbaum said.
He said that he discussed issues related to claims against his company with the governor's staff prior to the appointment. His company has been embroiled in controversy regarding its projects in the Rio Grande Valley, with a civil lawsuit recently being dismissed.
Krista Moody, spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Perry, said "the governor is aware of the civil lawsuit brought against Mr. Dannenbaum. I am not aware of any other indictments or investigations.
"The governor believes Mr. Dannenbaum will serve the UT System with the utmost integrity and character."
October 26, 2007 2:18 AM
Anonymous Anonymous said...
You know, it is really not hard to unravel. You just have not been following it.
October 26, 2007 2:33 AM
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Both the Lucio and Ortiz father-and-son teams are a disgrace. If you can report the facts which would shut 'em down before those kleptocrats can promote their half-wit progeny to even higher office, you'd be doing Texas a real service.
October 28, 2007 5:55 PM
Anonymous Anonymous said...
The almost certain no-bills of central figures in the Port bridge controversy will figure prominently in the Cameron County DA's race between the former Chairman of the Brownsville Navigation District - Peter Zavaletta - and the incumbent Armando Villalobos.
Want another interesting fact? Dannenbaum makes a campaign contribution to Lucio III, who 2 days later makes a contribution to DA Villalobos.
October 29, 2007 9:06 PM
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Baby Sucio Lucio may be even worse than his good-for-nothing father.
October 30, 2007 9:19 AM
Blogger Sal Costello said...
Dannenbaum is often at the heart of many special interest road and toll road deals that are usually not in the publics best interest.
Dannenbaum has been known to have sitting commissioners, such as former Hays County Commish Bill Burnett, on the payroll while the Commish votes on MPO projects that benefit Dannenbaum.
And of course Dannenbaum and it's president (James D. Dannenbaum), are big contributers to politicos who seek to build the more expensive toll roads over free roads. At times special interests shift our freeways to toll ways using Comprehensive Development Agreements (CDAs).
CDA's are secret road and land development contracts that hand over our tax dollars, our public highways, our right of way, and our private property to private corporations for profit.
Sal "The Muckraker" Costello
http://salcostello.blogspot.com
October 30, 2007 10:05 AM
Blogger Melissa Zamora said...
Great info, Sal. Thanks!
October 30, 2007 10:27 AM
Blogger The Merovingian said...
I know we will get to the bottom of this. We are certainly in the middle of it, already.
"Of course I know. It is my business to know." -The Merovingian
October 30, 2007 11:23 AM
Blogger Jaime Kenedeño said...
Rose The Scratch Off Clerk & The Congressman & Puerta Kenneth Lencho Cohen Rendon & The Policeman.
Posted on November 11, 2007 at 08:55:36 AM by Jaime Kenedeno
Homework 1111007 Compare & Contrast
Rose The Scratch Off Clerk & The Congressman & Puerta Kenneth Lencho Cohen Rendon & The Policeman.
Start with the theoretical lotto working it to insider trading and $45 and unconscionable.
Then the Writ of Mandamus preparation.
Del Mar Academic Environment and inspired by Tenured Faculty
Del Mar Academic Environment and the proposed policy implementation direct retaliation response inspired by Tenured Faculty who currently rebuke the upper level administration without fearing a WIA specialty Hvalinka V Schubert coins as the Modification of one's JOB Opportunities. To even slightly whittle away any of these protections or to make them unachievable or more difficult to achieve (raise the Bar) will create an imprudent and an even more unbalanced version of Higher Education. If the number of Tenured Faculty increases so does the influence of the Educators ( Academic Environment). To implement this proposed policy (by a temporary College President catering to a table of decadence & Political Riff Raff) will lower the number of Tenured Faculty so flows the influence of the Educators.
Tenured Faculty in tandem with the entire faculty are the check and balance to the Political subdivision, all of its riff raff "and the like" who Yanqui and abuse their power.
Is there a difference?
Why do some reap large financial rewards, business contracts, and brown bag agreements while others work hard all of their life to get fired for a used truck and others work through college graduate and work up the latter just to be knocked down and sentenced to jail time for $45 *As per TPU 105.
Posting links to other Blogs is far from providing proof. Once again where is the Proof about Valdez?
I can only speak from my own experiences but better yet i will ask a couple of questions in demonstration.
Why did Valdez not bring the Kingsville Sherriff Tony Gonzalez into the Modesto Debacle>
Why did Valdez go after Crocker and Granato?
Why did Valdez allow Hubert to acquiesce and benefit from confessing error?
Why did the Moff case evaporate?
Why does Valdez purposely ignore / not address the allegations of high end properties being lost to loansharks operating in close proximity to the tax assessors office?
Now, to address the links and the articles there within.
The burden to disprove remains in your court.
Several of the links are linked fundamentally to mainstream media or other reputably accepted documentation.
I can say that what Roland Garza says on the radio should not be reduced because of an allegation or even if it is true his words can be either proven or not without bringing in undocumented allegations. We dont always agree with Roland but it is a good thing that his show is on the radio. I will say I do not believe Danny Noyola assaulted him and the charges were never followed up.
Now if some of the VIP players get arrested and the charges disappear how can this be proven without an investigation?
Now we do recognize there is a term called Prosecutor Discretion but it is being questioned in a quite unorthodox and hostile accusatorial methodology. Information originating from the roots cannot be ignored.
As my father always said to me, " Son,.... where there's smoke, there is fire"
You dont need to believe me for it to be true and frankly it sounds like a personal problem to me; however there are many others who read our words daily, they do believe.
I do believe Valdez has become involved in the Political agenda involving his office in political threats of prosecution but why has he not involved his office into the self dealings of Shamsie, Delay, Rendon, Dos Logistics, Omega, Rainbow building Max Rodriguez and CC DISTRIBUTORS.
Why has Valdez not nosed into the residences of Solly Ortiz or His Father like he did with Linda Garcia?
Why does he single out Celis when there is many others who operate in the same manner as it is a agreed norm in the Legal Community.
Why can he prosecute a little person for 45$ and waste over $75,000 trying to make it stick when he wont prosecute a DWI because the perpetrator is a VIP or a Brother of a Powerful Politician?
Why wont he prosecute a Judge who propositions the wrong streetwalker on Leopard?
Go back and do the research and tell which docket referee took a few months off back a few summers ago and then look into the response made by the spouse.
Now, ask yourself why is the Democratic Party on trial in time with an upcoming election?
Anyway, all that said I think Valdez spoke for himself very eloquently and respectfully in response. I believe he has seen an error in his ways and is making the correction. I hope so.
Sometimes when one fights monsters he must be careful to not become one himself.
JK,
You can say all you want in your post but again you fail to prove anything. Without Real PROOF you remain nothing more that another political HACK for hire just like those you complain about.
You say "The burden to disprove remains in your court" No Sir the BUREN OF PROOF REMANINS WITH YOU! you are making statments and alligations, with out proof it is just political talk nothing more that sour grapes on your part.
Once again Get me PROOF. I remain waiting for it.
Who is Carlos Valdez Brother in Law?
Ed Aparicio
Valley politicos
Those who the message is meant for understand perfectly well.
My credibility supersedes your rhetoric and your lack of due diligence.
Do some homework for you are way behind.
You are nobody because you are anonymous and your words have absolutely zero impact.
I never have claimed Valdez to be corrupt.
TTFN
you sound like carlos himself.
Is that you godfather?
Don Carlitos?
"You are nobody because you are anonymous and your words have absolutely zero impact"
But yet you call yourself Jaime Kenedendo and Dannoynted1, YOU are the ZERO! once agian PROOF! Where is it Chubby boy.
Didn't Samuel Clements call himself Mark Twain?
Everybody knows who we are. We are here for a reason and it is not to be a politician.
As said previously, the credibility supersedes the rhetoric.
anonymous
Main Entry:
anon·y·mous Listen to the pronunciation of anonymous
Pronunciation:
\ə-ˈnä-nə-məs\
Function:
adjective
Etymology:
Late Latin anonymus, from Greek anōnymos, from a- + onyma name — more at name
Date:
1631
1 : not named or identified an anonymous author they wish to remain anonymous 2 : of unknown authorship or origin an anonymous tip 3 : lacking individuality, distinction, or recognizability the anonymous faces in the crowd the gray anonymous streets — William Styron
"Anonymous Coward" is a term applied within some online communities to describe users who post without a screen name; it is a dummy name attributed to anonymous posts used by some weblogs that allow posting by people without registering for accounts.
Now that depends on your definition of anonymous.
For the record I wrote, "You are nobody because you are anonymous and your words have absolutely zero impact."
Anonymous (indeed a Comedy of Errors) responded with an inflection of the reverse mirror image, "YOU are the ZERO! once agian PROOF! Where is it Chubby boy.
JK's response: I did not call "Anonymous (indeed a Comedy of Errors)" a zero nor did I make any ad hominem argument.
When deficient in intellect or without reason one begins to resort to name calling. Try a little harder to follow the rules lest be disqualified before we even get started, kind of like sinking the eight ball before sinking your own 7.
rack em up!
you break.
Finally there is a pending inquiry, Where is it"
JK's response, I got it right here. If you want it,..... here it is come and get it.
Or better yet go do some homework so as to keep pace with the rest of us. We have already covered the subject matter and will be applying it as appropo.
Oh yeah, next time we go to KIKO's it is on you.
LOL
Kiko's ?????These people welch on their agreements, lie while looking (me) right in the eye.
I suggest they liquidate, lest it is their turn to compensate the "pied piper" .......usually though regulators just silently confiscate.
I wonder~~~~ why do they lie?
Pending pendejoism?
B.A.CALLA BUMS?
or just destined to ruin any credibility they might have once possessed?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credibility
Too bad his words lack any.
But thank you for trying.
Yellow: "You say "The burden to disprove remains in your court" No Sir the BUREN OF PROOF REMANINS WITH YOU! you are making statments and alligations, with out proof it is just political talk nothing more that sour grapes on your part."
D1: "Learn how to spell and/or use spell check, that way you at least "remain" you know how to "proof" read.
Now, meet the evidence........"YOU are the ZERO! once agian PROOF!"
LOL~~ROTFLMAO~~~~"SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
If you are too lazy or just too "PSYCHA" to do your own work it is probably because you never learned how to spell........proof that the reason you are anonymous is you are ashamed and a selfish "id".
If I were you I would hate myself too.
Pray~ maybe God will provide you proof that you need to pray.
Then again, look in the mirror and you will see all the proof you need.
Anonymous2 to anonymous1: Shut the hell up. Kenedeno and Dannoyted always do their homework and have blown the lid off of shit time and time again. If it weren't for them we would have no alternative media. Thank God for their blog Realsouthtexaspolitics and helping on Defenzor. GMAFB. I know you are a Lencho suckass and Roland Garza is a fucking coke addict drunk. We all know it. By the way he is washed up. As far as the other Lencho crew: Shamsie is back and up to no good and Joseph is carrying Lencho's water. They are lining their own pockets. You don't get a street named after you in Robstown and become their "accountant" for the school board on a 20 million dollar budget for nothing. Lencho's library and bridge in the valley to nowhere. By the way: Welcome Valleyites!!! You guys know your politics and can expose the Ortiz machine once and for all. Don't let Solly Jr. take his dad's slot. Nothing but selfish motives and he is a spoiled kid. He could give a flying fig about anyone else but him. I also hear he has a problem with the devil's dandruff and takes walks on the wildside. NO MORE ORTIZ MACHINE!NO MORE ORTIZ MACHINE!NO MORE ORTIZ MACHINE!PEOPLE ARE SICK AND TIRED. I have been burned by that machine way too long and will seek my revenge on them.They hurt me and my family for nothing. I was as they say collateral damage and they used me on their campaigns and then threw me away like a piece of garbage. Disgrunted with a capital D. God forgive me for what I will reveal and was on their machine for far too long. Thank you Jaime and wife for this blog. God bless you. The Lord shall absolve me, I know it.
Now connect the dots.
It's a family affair
Tom DeLay's payouts to friends and family are nothing new -- for nearly a decade he's truly been his brother Randy's keeper.
By Joe Conason
Pages 1
Apr 8, 2005
For a politician who is so plainly annoyed by liberals seeking to embarrass him, Tom DeLay has always made himself an easy target. Accusations of corruption against DeLay are hardly new, since the public record of his disdain for ethical standards dates back at least a decade. But now the national media, liberal and otherwise -- including the Wall Street Journal editorial page -- have shown renewed curiosity about the workings of DeLay Inc., the majority leader's gargantuan, greasy machine for fundraising and lobbying.
With investigations of DeLay cronies proceeding in both Washington and Texas -- and indictments against three of his closest associates in Austin -- that machine is starting to resemble a beleaguered criminal syndicate. According to recent estimates, the Republican lobbyists who formerly worked for the House majority leader have raked in more than $40 million. That figure doesn't include the enormous and notorious rip-off of several Indian tribes perpetrated by lobbyists Jack Abramoff, Michael Scanlon and Ralph Reed, which is currently being probed by the Justice Department.
Wednesday, in the latest episode, reporters reopened the files on the Texan's family, with a front-page New York Times examination of $500,000 in payments from DeLay's political and "charitable" groups to his wife, Christine, and his daughter Dani DeLay Ferro during the past four years. His office explained that the missus, who stays home in Sugar Land, Texas, "provides big picture, long-term strategic guidance and helps with personnel decisions." (Isn't that special?)
Such high-dollar family values bring the DeLay saga full circle -- all the way back to the original ethics case against the majority leader brought by the Congressional Accountability Project, a watchdog group affiliated with Ralph Nader. Nine years ago, the watchdog group filed a complaint with the House Ethics Committee that focused on the activities of DeLay's younger brother Randy. A failed restaurateur and attorney who had filed for bankruptcy in 1992, Randy's fortunes brightened considerably after Tom rose to the House leadership -- and Randy started handing out business cards as a Washington lobbyist.
For the past several years, after drawing unwanted attention to the DeLay family's business methods, Randy DeLay has kept his head down -- but kept doing business exactly the same way.
Back in 1995, the year of the Republican "revolution" that brought his brother to power, Randy DeLay first turned up as a lobbyist employed by Cemex, the Mexican cement monopoly suspected of illegal economic "dumping" of its product in the United States. He joined with the powerhouse Texas law firm of Fulbright & Jaworski to protect Cemex from sanctions. Meanwhile, Tom DeLay wrote articles and circulated letters among his congressional colleagues, urging the Commerce Department to refrain from punishing Cemex for trade violations.
In the usual course of congressional procedure, the House Ethics Committee -- then chaired by Rep. Nancy Johnson, R-Conn. -- applied a fine coat of whitewash to this apparent violation, ultimately dismissing the complaint against DeLay. But a question still lingered: Why would Cemex, represented by one of the best-connected and most skillful lobbying law firms in the country, require the costly services of a two-bit Houston lawyer like Randy DeLay?
Reporters in Texas and Washington found that Cemex was not alone in discerning Randy's hidden abilities. A coalition of special interests seeking federal funds to build an interstate highway from Texas into Mexico, known as I-69, likewise found reason to hire the younger DeLay. (Between 1995 and 2000, he was paid almost $400,000 for his work on the project.) So did Union Pacific Railroad, which faced opposition to its monopolistic merger with Southern Pacific -- and which had also hired Fulbright & Jaworksi to lobby for the deal.
Coincidentally, Tom DeLay mobilized his clout behind both Interstate 69 and the Union-Southern merger, rounding up colleagues to emphasize his support.
While the majority leader and his brother both escaped any official sanction for these gross examples of influence peddling, Tom realized that Randy had become an embarrassment. He declared that his little brother had become persona non grata in his office. Of course, he added, Randy had never had any influence over him anyway.
Indeed, an intimate 2001 Washington Post profile of the Hammer and his family rather credulously suggested that the earlier ethics flap permanently ruptured the relationship between Tom and Randy. "Tom said, 'I can't afford you as a brother right now. You chose lobbying over me,'" Randy told the Post. He said that Tom had "cut him off cold," and not spoken to him since. More recently, however, Randy seems to have realized that such tales might be bad for business. Last July, he told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times that stories of their estrangement are untrue.
"I specifically do not discuss with my brother, nor does he know any of my clients, nor do I know his staff or what they do," he insisted. "We just don't discuss those matters. I love my brother to death and I'm very proud of all the things he's doing. It's just the innuendos and the implications behind those innuendos that I get tired of."
Yet during the past four years, Randy DeLay has quietly continued to acquire lobbying clients, particularly in South and West Texas. Local officials in the Lone Star State clearly believe that they can still purchase the good will and assistance of the majority leader by hiring his brother. The local newspapers, though largely ignored by the national media, have been following DeLay's controversial lobbying career quite closely -- because the county taxpayers keep asking why they must hire the majority leader's brother to obtain adequate representation in Washington. After all, they ask, isn't Tom DeLay supposed to help his home state without the necessity of paying his brother?
Just to make sure, county officials have been signing deals with brother Randy.
In Brownsville, the local navigation district hired him to obtain millions in federal funding for deepening river channels. According to the Caller-Times daily newspaper, Randy DeLay has been hired to promote Brownsville's Brazos Island Harbor and the Corpus Christi Packery Channel dredging projects, as well as a railway-truck bridge to Mexico and other projects. The paper notes that Tom DeLay has weighed in to push the same projects. Last February, the Regional Transportation Authority in Corpus Christi also found $120,000 in its strapped budget to hire Randy. Again, some local officials objected, wondering why they had to hire him when other lobbyists are already on the payroll. But that contract went through anyway.
In Reeves County, local officials hired Randy DeLay to lobby the Federal Bureau of Prisons to place inmates in their county's privately run detention facility. He was paid $120,000 per year, plus expenses, to get federal prisoners placed in the Reeves County Detention Center. Even after the detention center won a three-year deal with the Bureau of Prisons, the county renewed DeLay's contract again.
In Nueces County last year, officials proposed to award Randy DeLay a lucrative contract to protect the region's military bases from being shut down by the Pentagon. He would have shared that one-year contract, worth $1.2 million, with former Bush aide and Federal Emergency Management Administration director Joe Allbaugh. (The two lobbyists said they "wanted to help Nueces County protect its bases from the latest round of closings as a way to give back to Texas." Isn't that special, too?)
That fat deal fell through, but some time later the DeLay brothers' local congressional ally, a Democrat named Solomon Ortiz, explained why he had endorsed the lobbying scheme. Asked whether he had urged local officials to hire Randy DeLay, Ortiz told the Caller-Times that "you don't advertise these things. The things these people were trying to do were tainted by disclosing them. There goes our big chances of getting help from sources that were willing to help."
Willing to help -- as those dedicated DeLay family members are always so eager to do -- if the price is right.
Crowds follow Ortiz on bathroom break
I am sad for Hillary now that spo is alleged to have currently be giving that same money to those "charities" ~~~when Celis gave money to Hillary.
Perhaps if he(spoj) is influential he can get Hillary to give her money from Celis donated to give his south side district a boys and girls club desperately needed.
The old cine 6 or pdplaza would do alot of good.
But you & i both know the likely hood that any "skate park or boys & girls club in that location is a JOB for "Trouble shooters"!
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