Anyway……it works for me.

Move ova!! Ima sit with U in the SCARED PEOPLE'S ROW!! :>)

“What Goes On The Internet – - – Stays On The Internet – - 4 ALL 2 C!!

Congressional ethics report leaked, reveals names

Internal investigations into the conduct of over two dozen House members have been exposed in an extraordinary, Internet-era breach of security involving the secretive process by which Congress polices lawmaker ethics.

Revelations of the mostly preliminary inquiries by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct—also known as the Ethics committee—and a panel that refers cases to it shook the chamber as lawmakers were immersed in a series of scheduled votes Thursday.

The panel announced that it was investigating two California Democrats—Reps. Maxine Waters and Laura Richardson—even as its embarrassed leaders took pains to explain that several other lawmakers also were identified in the leaked confidential committee memo but may have done nothing wrong.

The committee said it was investigating whether Waters used her influence to help a bank in which her husband owned stock, and whether the couple benefited as a result. Separately, the panel is looking into whether Richardson failed to disclose required information on her financial disclosure forms and received special treatment from a lender.

In the midst of a busy legislative day, ethics chairwoman Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., went to the House floor to announce that a confidential weekly report of the committee from July had leaked out in a case of “cyber-hacking.”

A committee statement said that its security was breached through “peer to peer file sharing software” by a junior employee who was working from home. The staff member was fired.

The July report contains a summary of the committee’s work at the time, but Lofgren said no inferences should be made about anyone whose name is mentioned.

The committee typically makes a public announcement about its activities only when it begins an investigation of potential rule-breaking, which is conducted by an investigative subcommittee whose members also are made public.

However, the weekly reports include a summary of the committee’s work at an earlier stage, when its members and staff scrutinize lawmakers to see whether an investigation is warranted.

The Washington Post reported in its online edition Thursday that the document was disclosed on a publicly accessible computer network and made available to the newspaper by a source familiar with such networks.

The Post reported that more than 30 lawmakers and a few staff members were under scrutiny, including nearly half the members of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee.

The previously disclosed inquiry involves lawmakers who steered appropriations to clients of a now-defunct lobbying firm and received campaign contributions from the firm and its clients.

The names included three lawmakers previously identified in the inquiry: the chairman of the defense subcommittee, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa.; and Reps. Peter Visclosky, D-Ind., and James Moran, D-Va.

The Post said others whose names were in the report included Reps. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, C.W. Bill Young, R-Fla., and Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan.

The committee, however, has not announced an investigation of any of these lawmakers.

Waters is the No. 3 Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee and chairwoman of its subcommittee on housing. She has been an influential voice in the committee’s work to overhaul financial regulations.

Waters came under scrutiny after former Treasury Department officials said she helped arrange a meeting between regulators and executives at OneUnited Bank last year without mentioning her husband’s financial ties to the institution.

Her husband, Sidney Williams, holds at least $250,000 in the bank’s stock and previously had served on its board. Waters’ spokesman, Michael Levin, said Williams was no longer on the board when the meeting was arranged.

Waters has said the National Bankers Association, a trade group, requested the meeting. She defended her role in assisting minority-owned banks in the midst of the nation’s financial meltdown and dismissed suggestions she used her influence to steer government aid to the bank.

“I am confident that as the investigation moves forward the panel will discover that there are no facts to support allegations that I have acted improperly,” Waters said in a statement.

The committee unanimously voted to establish an investigative subcommittee to gather evidence and determine whether Waters violated standards of conduct.

The committee said it would investigate “alleged communications and activities with, or on behalf of, the National Bankers Association or OneUnited Bank” and “the benefit, if any, Rep. Waters or her husband received as a result.”

The committee also voted unanimously to investigate whether Richardson violated House rules, its Code of Conduct or the Ethics in Government Act by failing to disclose property, income and liabilities on her financial disclosure forms.

The investigation also will determine whether Richardson received an impermissible gift or preferential treatment from a lender, “relating to the foreclosure, recission of the foreclosure sale or loan modification agreement” for her Sacramento, Calif., property.

Richardson said she has been subjected to “premature judgments, speculation and baseless distractions that will finally be addressed in a fair, unbiased, bipartisan evaluation of the facts.”

“Like 4.3 million Americans in the last year who faced financial problems because of a personal crisis like a divorce, death in the family, unexpected job and living changes and an erroneous property sale, all of which I have experienced in the span of slightly over a year, I have worked to resolve a personal financial situation,” she said in a statement.

The committee ended an investigation of Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., and released a report finding no ethical violations. It investigated whether Graves used his position on the House Small Business Committee to invite a longtime friend and business partner of his wife to testify at a committee hearing on the federal regulation of biodiesel and ethanol production.

LARRY MARGASAK, AP

Oooooooo-eeeeee!!! :>) ***LAWD! HA'MERCY!!***

The Dave Brubeck Quartet – Take Five (1961) :>)

R-u-u-u-u-u-u-N!! :>) ENJOY!! :>)

Bernice King elected SCLC president

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference on Friday named Bernice King, the daughter of SCLC co-founder Martin Luther King Jr., as its next president.

King was elected over Arkansas Appeals Court Judge Wendell Griffen.The vote by the board of directors was 23-15. King was not present when the vote was announced. The Rev. Byron Clay, interim president, phoned King with news of her victory.

“In the spirit of your late father, with great anticipation, we look forward to your leadership,” Clay told King in the phone call.

Clay said the board will meet with King soon before making any other announcements. “She is excited, I am excited and the nation will be excited,” Clay said.

Clay has served as interim president since February, when Charles Steele resigned after five years in the position.

King will be the seventh permanent leader in the organization’s history. Founded in 1957 by Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph David Abernathy and Joseph Lowery, among others, the SCLC was at one time one of the country’s most powerful direct action civil rights groups.

The SCLC was instrumental in getting both the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act passed. But over the past decade, despite the christening of a new $3 million headquarters, the organization has struggled for relevancy among financial problems and internal infighting.

Bernice King, 46, is an internationally known motivational speaker and author. She is a minister at New Birth Missionary Church in Lithonia, Georgia.

She becomes the first female leader, but the third King to serve as president, following her father and older brother, Martin Luther King III.

Here was her opponent:

+Judge Wendell Griffen [Date of Election or Appointment to Current Position: 1996]

Judge Wendell L. Griffen was born September 23, 1952, in Prescott, Arkansas, and grew up near Delight (Pike County), Arkansas. He attended Rosenwald Elementary near Delight and Simmons High School in Okolona before graduating in 1968 from Delight High School. He is a 1973 graduate from the University of Arkansas where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. From May 17, 1973, to July 31, 1976, Judge Griffen served in the United States Army, attaining the rank of 1st Lieutenant before his honorable discharge.

Judge Griffen attended the University of Arkansas School of Law from August 1976 through May 1979, when he received the Juris Doctor degree. While in law school he served in the Student Bar Association, was president of the Black Law Student Association, and was a member and Associate Editor of the Arkansas Law Review. He was awarded the first Silas Hunt Memorial Justice Award presented by the Black Law Student Association in memory of Silas Hunt, the first black law student admitted to an institution of higher education below the Mason Dixon line, in 1979.

After graduation from law school Judge Griffen joined the Little Rock law firm of Wright, Lindsey & Jennings, becoming the first lawyer of color to join a major Arkansas law firm. He practiced business and tort litigation with the firm and was admitted to the partnership in January 1984, becoming the first lawyer of color admitted to the partnership of a major Arkansas law firm. On April 15, 1985, Governor Bill Clinton appointed him Chairman of the Arkansas Workers' Compensation Commission, and Griffen served in that position until February 2, 1987, when he returned to his law practice with Wright, Lindsey & Jennings. Governor Jim Guy Tucker appointed Judge Griffen to the Court of Appeals in December 1995, and he began entered judicial service January 1, 1996.

Judge Griffen is a member of the American, National, and Arkansas Bar Associations, the W. Harold Flowers Law Society (Arkansas affiliate of the National Bar Association), the Pulaski County Bar Association, Judge William R. Overton Inn of Court, American Law Institute, and is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. He has served on the Executive Council and in the House of Delegates of the Arkansas Bar Association. He has served as President (1998-99) of the Pulaski County Bar Association, as President (1996-97) of the Judge William R. Overton Inn of Court, and as President (1997-present) of the Black Alumni Society of the Arkansas Alumni Association. He was a charter board member of Volunteer Organization for Central Arkansas Legal Services (VOCALS), and is a frequent lecturer at bar seminars concerning legal ethics and professionalism. His published writings include: Race, Law, and Culture: A Call to New Thinking, Leadership, and Action, 21 U. Ark. Little Rock L. Rev. 901 (Summer 1999); Comment: Judicial Accountability and Discipline, 61 Law & Contemp. Probs. 75 (Summer 1998); and The Case For Religious Values in Judicial Decision-Making, 81 Marq. L. Rev. 513 (1998).

Judge Griffen is an ordained Baptist minister and former pastor who now serves as Coordinator of Ministries for Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church in Little Rock. He is married to Dr. Patricia L. Griffen, a clinical psychologist practicing in Little Rock, and they are parents to two sons: Martyn and Elliott.

Now, Ima leave the discussion 2 those who KNOW! :>)

I feel blessed that I found today David Brubecks…Take Five…what a relief.

Ran 15 miles today,

Posted by Bossip Staff

http://bossip.com/173129/popular-harlem-pastor-…

the graphic with this post is too funny

Posted by Bossip Staff

This may be the worst when the checks stop coming in ever. Your boy Nic Cage is reportedly broke although he has done over 50 movies over two decades and currently makes an estimated $20 million minimum per film. Cage has sold several mansions across the country in an effort to quickly raise cash but the IRS still says he owes $6 million! A few of the homes have been foreclosed on due to unpaid mortgage payments
. Cage says his “Business manager” is to blame and is suing him. SMH. Poor thang

http://bossip.com/174188/when-the-checks-stop-c…

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I thought they were kidding about his name being ABDULLAH ABDULLAH. how could his parents do this to him?

I once knew a woman named Bertha Bertha, but that was because her parents named her Bertha, and she married a man whose last name was Bertha. But, this dude's parents naming him Abdullah Abdullah?