All things arise from Tao

They are nourished by Virtue

They are formed from matter

They are shaped by environment

Thus the ten thousand things all respect Tao and honor virtue

Respect of the Tao and honor of Virtue are not demanded.

But they are in the nature of things

Therefore all things arise from Tao

By Virtue they are nourished,

Developed, cared for

Sheltered, comforted

Grown and protected.

Creating without claiming,

Doing without taking credit

Guiding without interfering,

This is the Primal Virtue.

Tao Te Ching (Ch-51)

A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.

H. L. Mencken

John E. Sweeney (born August 9, 1955) is a politician from the U.S. state of New York. A Republican, he represented New York's 20th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from January 1999 to January 2007. He was defeated for reelection in November 2006

Well Sweeney has run into some bad luck lately, poor chap:

Former U.S. Rep. John Sweeney was indicted on a felony driving while intoxicated charge Friday. Sweeney's lawyer, E. Stewart Jones, said the indictment was disappointing and unnecessary. August 2009.

Well a lot of us have been there. In the 70's I was certainly driving with an unnecessarily high BAC from time to time. Of course I was never caught. I mean everybody makes a mistake from time to time. But it sure seems disappointing and unnecessary to seek an indictment for a small error in judgment. Do you not think?

Well let's take a look at the man, what was this fine citizen like? I mean a representative of the people and all.  Wiki tells us:

According to EMILY's List, Sweeney has taken more campaign contributions from special interests than any other of New York's 29 Representatives.[9] Sweeney was also the seventh largest recipient of contributions from lobbyists out of all 435 House representatives in the 2006 election cycle. [6]

In September 2006, the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) released its second annual report on members of Congress with ethics issues, titled "Beyond DeLay: The 20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress (and five to watch)". Sweeney was one of the 20. The organization said "His ethics issues stem from a ski trip to New York, the exchange of legislative assistance for campaign contributions and the hiring of his wife as a campaign fundraiser"[10]

During the 2000 election, Sweeney allegedly helped earn his nickname from President Bush, "Congressman Kickass," by organizing the so-called Brooks Brothers riot that disrupted the Florida elections commissioners.[11] He was said to have led the charge on the third recount in Miami, flying in astroturfing GOP operatives and instructing them to "shut it down!" by raising a clamor and pounding on the election commission's doors.[12] Sweeney used the words "thugs" to describe the Florida officials involved in the recount. He defended his actions in connection with the incident as "completely and absolutely legitimate" and declared that his intent was only to stop the canvassing board from withdrawing its activities from public view.[13]

Well it appears to me that the man is and was an asshat.  Congressman Kickass. A sobriquet of honor given to him by w.  So, I must be clear here. I hope he gets life.  I mean here is a guy who was tea bagging nine years ago. Shout them down. I remember when I saw a pro golfer in that group of tea baggers and I rooted against him ever since.  Here was a man responsible for the greatest election theft since 1876.  I just picture rover doing some things to this gentleman that I have been warned against describing. Hahahaha

I mean here is a man who REPRESENTS EVERYTHING I HATE ABOUT REPUBS, ABOUT OUR ELECTION PROCESS AND ABOUT MY CONGRESS.  But I tread some uneven ground here if I even attempt to link this man's politics and political felonies to a traffic charge...or do I?

In January 2001, Sweeney traveled with Tony C. Rudy, an associate of convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, to give a speech to the Saipan Chamber of Commerce in the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, home of numerous garment sweatshops. It is currently being investigated whether Sweeney violated congressional ethics by not revealing who paid for his trip.[14] In September 2008, the F.B.I. used a search warrant hunting for leads in the ongoing investigation.[15]Sweeney has asserted that the Northern Mariana Islands government paid for his trip, although the government has disputed this claim and denied paying for the trip.

Do you all remember this Mariana Island thing?

Aside from Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands are the only other insular commonwealth of the United States. The arrangement, which began in 1978, grants all indigenous inhabitants of the islands American citizenship and allows them to elect a local island government but excludes the right to vote in U.S. presidential elections. The government of the Northern Marianas benefits from substantial U.S. federal funds-in the form of subsidies and development assistance-administered by the Department of the Interior. The United States benefits by having a strategic military site in the Pacific. http://www.pbs.org/moyers/citizensclass/capitol_crimes/abramoff_inc/

One would imagine that Tom DeLay, a right-wing Christian, would be appalled by the teeming red-light district of Saipan, the main island in the Micronesian chain of the Northern Marianas. Or Jack Abramoff, an Orthodox Jew. Yet these two men have been among the strongest supporters of an exploitative labor and immigration system on Saipan that has helped fuel not just this sex tourism, but work arrangements that are tantamount to indentured servitude.

This was and still is a matter of concern to Congress and the DOJ.  We, the American People were subsidizing slavery and do not fool yourself, we still are. And of course who would be orchestrating all this? Why our old friends To Delay and Jack Abramoff. One of them in prison while the other one dances to the stars or some such and appears on cable news to spout the onset of Marxism in the states and the lack of a birth certificate for his President. What I love best is how these monsters 'handle' reports of sweat shops where underage girls among other females work and live as slaves when they are not being farmed out as prostitutes and then forced to have abortions when the unsafe sex results in the inevitable. And the repubs involved were "all a good a family men " as Lawrence Welk might have put it:

When asked about reports of forced prostitution and labor abuses, DeLay told the Galveston County Daily News in May 2005: "Sure, when you get this number of people, there are stories of sexual exploitation. But in interviewing these employees one-on-one, there was no evidence of any of that going on. No evidence of sweatshops as portrayed by the national media. It's a beautiful island with beautiful people who are happy about what's happening."

Now I really knew nothing of this US Territory. Nothing. There are about 30,000 guest workers there from all over Asia. The clothing they make is stamped  "Made in Saipan (USA)," "Made in Northern Mariana Islands (USA)," or simply "Made in USA"--are not covered by U.S. minimum-wage and immigration laws.

So they hired Jack Abramoff, the formerly high-flying Republican lobbyist. First at the Washington, D.C., law offices of Preston, Gates, Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds and later at Greenberg Traurig, Abramoff and his team brought in nearly $11 million in fees from the Northern Marianas government and Saipan garment manufacturers to block Congressional efforts to raise the minimum wage and eliminate the islands' exemptions from U.S. immigration laws. His efforts focused on the House Resources Committee, which has jurisdiction over U.S. territories. And he also cultivated powerful allies in the House leadership--notably Tom DeLay, who, as majority whip at the time, could keep a bill off the House floor even if the Resources Committee voted in its favor... "[The islands are] a perfect petri dish of capitalism."  http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/05/09/sex_greed_and_forced_abortions.php

Or this: "[New York Republican] Representative John E. Sweeney, an upstate Republican who is in a fierce fight to keep his seat, is facing questions about a trip he took to a western Pacific island with an associate of Jack Abramoff, the powerful Washington lobbyist at the center of an extensive corruption scandal." ... "The Times Union of Albany reported yesterday that Mr. Sweeney might have violated House ethics rules when he failed to disclose who paid for a trip that he made in January 2001 to one of the Northern Mariana Islands with Tony Rudy, who worked for Mr. Abramoff." ... "Mr. Sweeney made the trip to deliver a speech to the Saipan Chamber of Commerce in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a territory of the United States. Mr. Rudy was lobbying on behalf of the commonwealth." ... "The newspaper reported that the Chamber of Commerce says it paid for Mr. Sweeney's visit. But Mr. Sweeney failed to report that the chamber paid for the trip, despite Congressional rules requiring full disclosure of privately financed travel, according to the newspaper." -By Raymond Hernandez -NYTimes    http://www.havenworks.com/world/northern-mariana-islands/

It is important to grasp the significance of this endeavor on the part of Abramoff and Delay; to work as hard as hell to maintain slavery in one of OUR TERRITORIES. I was discussing political economics and philosophy with a number of different TPMers lately, and I underlined that I do not believe that belief or core values have anything to do with the republican party. None. I already discussed many times my feelings concerning C-Street and the Christian Right....The leaders believe in nothing. Certainly Abramoff believed only in money which is so clear when you read the emails that eventually sent him to prison.

And Delay? Talk about justice delayed and justice denied, do you know tommy is still under indictment with no trial scheduled?

DeLay, nicknamed the "Hammer" because of his forceful backroom tactics, retired from Congress in 2006 after a Texas grand jury indicted him on money laundering charges related to corporate campaign contributions. The case has been held up in procedural challenges and has never gone to trial. The prosecutor who sought the indictment retired in 2007. DeLay has maintained his innocence and has plead not guilty to all charges. http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=8345720&page=1

Anyway, in the midst of all this, Representative Sweeney was on a trip to the Mariana Islands; all set up and paid for by Abramoff on January 21, 2001; only a couple months after he had managed to destroy democracy in Florida.  Tax free and fully paid vacation.

On the night of January 23, 2001, around 10:00 p.m., Sweeney lost control of his 2001 Jeep Laredo and hit a utility pole on a rural upstate road, shutting down power to the homes of several residents and to the nearby Willard Mountain ski resort, stranding skiers aloft on the chairlifts. Sweeney was not charged or ticketed, and the state trooper on the scene refused the offer by a volunteer-fire-department chief to send a crew to the site to direct traffic (instead, a local resident did this, for an hour and a half, with downed and live electrical wires about). In early February, a local newspaper reported that Sweeney had been in a bar before the crash. Witnesses came forward to insist that Sweeney had only one or two glasses of wine. The newspaper noted that Sweeney was not given a sobriety test by the state trooper on the scene.[12]

Well, we must remember now that Sweeney had a lot to celebrate. But it sure smells like Sweeney got away with something in the Willard Mountain area. Phew.

Well, shortly after he had lost his seat in the Democratic wave of 2006, Sweeney had been arrested and pled guilty to drunk driving in 2007.

So when he was arrested for the same charge on April 5 of this year, he was facing a felony charge.  This story is juicy:

Former U.S. Rep. John Sweeney was indicted on a felony driving while intoxicated charge Friday. Sweeney's lawyer, E. Stewart Jones, said the indictment was disappointing and unnecessary. A Saratoga County grand jury handed up an indictment alleging Sweeney, 54, was drunk when his car was stopped on April 5. It was his second DWI arrest since 2007. Sweeney will answer the charge at an arraignment scheduled for 9 a.m. Monday in front of Judge Jerry Scarano. Earlier this month, Sweeney completed a residential rehabilitation program but he remains in treatment, Jones said last week.

"He's had to deal with a lot in recent years between his son and the separation from his wife," Jones said, referring to John Sweeney Jr.'s arrest in 2004 for felony assault -- he later pleaded guilty to the charges -- and the elder Sweeney's divorce from his second wife, Gayle. Sweeney was driving north on Route 9 April 5 when State Police pulled him over for driving 59 mph in a 40 mph zone. Police said they smelled alcohol on his breath and he refused a sobriety test. In November 2007, Sweeney pleaded guilty to misdemeanor DWI charges in Clifton Park.http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=831143

This man is slime. He was slime politically. He was slime personally. And this time he is caught.  He is facing real prison time, not some 20 days in a county jail. And at the same time he is facing indictment for the Delay/Abramoff/Mariana Islands caper as well.

You see sometimes there is justice. But watch how his situation is spun. We are supposed to feel bad for him because in 2004 his son was convicted of a felony. What the hell has that got to do with anything; I mean from a chronological point of view. And divorcing his second wife? Hell, standard fair for a follower of Newt. The fact is that this felon has been an unrepentant drunk since at least 2001, an unrepentant slave trader, and unrepentant bribe taker.......

Sweeney Pondered and Sweeney planned
like a perfect machine's planned
Barbing the hook, baiting the trap
Setting out for the Beadle to snap
Set a sort of a scene, 'e did
Laying the trail, showing the traces
letting it lead to higher places
SWEENEY.......

Sometimes there is justice and this bastard has lost everything.

And yet there is more to lose.