Originally I wondered why there was no form W-2G.  You probably are wondering, "What the heck is IRS Form W-2G, and who cares if McCain ever filed one or not?"  

Those are fair  questions.  IRS Form W-2G is similar to the W-2 form we all know and hate.  However, instead of declaring wages, you use the W-2G to declare Gambling Winnings.  

Now why should anyone care to ask John McCain about his W-2G filings?  Answering that is slightly more complicated given his many years of marathon gambling sessions at the craps table and his ties to the gaming industry.  However, let's start with the fact aides say McCain tends to play for a few thousand dollars at a time!  Over the years that adds up to a big chunk of change.  And that has potential tax consequences.   Apparently, I was asking the wrong question.  The real question is why hasn't he ever declared ANY winnings on his 1040, or any losses on his Schedule A?  So....

UPDATE II - note title change... apparently this is the real mystery. (h/t to Mrick for really spelling this out)

I had to laugh as confident Cheney hatchet man David Addington dropped Nancy Pelosi's name during torture hearings last week.  It was right out of the Senate hearings in The Godfather II - where the Corleones have systematically corrupted key legislators, and are sending tough, coded messages even in their own public testimony.  

Addington's message: 'Chairman Conyers, if these hearings go any further than today, I'll publicly ask why your precious Speaker - who my staff secretly briefed about these interrogation methods starting in 2002 - hasn't been called as a witness.  You've earned enough political capital; I won't be charged.  Don't push it.'

This perfectly fits an observation in yesterday's diary We Can End FISA Obstruction Next Week:

The Bush administration has done what the best con artists and criminals love to do: get The Mark involved in something illegal so they never go to the police - or even better, get police and prosecutors themselves involved.

We have an utterly unique opportunity between now and the day in July that FISA is raised again in the Senate.

Many recent diaries, a damning poll, and strong appearances by Prof. Jonathan Turley on Olbermann's Countdown (links below) all lead to the same conclusion: we - the Democratic base and increasingly the American people - are realizing that the Democrats in power are accessories, colluding with the Bush administration to prevent crimes they participated in from ever being prosecuted.

Turley makes the compelling (some would say obvious) case that Democrats' 'mysterious collapses' on FISA, Iraq, impeachment, even censure - almost every issue - has its roots in what Turley calls criminal collusion.  In the guise of "compromise", Democrats are carefully obstructing justice, sparing themselves from subpeonas and prosecution.

In the next 2 weeks we have our best chance - and maybe our last - for a "Mr Smith" moment where someone actually speaks this truth into the record on the Senate and House floor and changes the game.  

I have already begun speaking directly with Judiciary Chair John Conyers and his staff about this.

Let's use this forum to help make it happen.

As many are aware, Cindy McCain’s company, Hensley & Co. has afforded the McCains much wealth and influence in Phoenix, AZ. Cindy is the chairwoman of the privately held company and shares about 68% of its stock with her children and John McCain’s son.

This could prove to be a major conflict of interest in John McCain’s political campaign, and possibly split his support right down the middle, especially among the Evangelical community. According to this article:

Hensley, founded by Cindy McCain's late father, holds federal and state licenses to distribute beer and lobbies regulatory agencies on alcohol issues that involve public health and safety.

The company has opposed such groups as Mothers Against Drunk Driving in fighting proposed federal rules requiring alcohol content information on every package of beer, wine and liquor.

I recently had a phone conversation with House Judiciary Chair John Conyers.  I'm including a link to the audio from our conversation below.  He was particularly interested in GWU Professor Jonathan Turley's conclusion that the Democrats in the FISA and impeachment cases are evidently guilty of "collusion".  Conyers did not dismiss or contradict the allegation.  He asked me to forward him references to Turley's argument.  

This is a critical time.  At this moment, multiple front-page diaries refer to unconstitutional behavior by the Democratic Congress.  One refers to Turley's even more damning assessment yesterday - of Democrats' conflicts of interest in their readiness to offer immunity for FISA violations.  In both the FISA and impeachment cases, Congressional leaders were silent accessories to the illegal behavior being charged.  

It's time to set aside our partisan bias and admit that even Democrats shouldn't be allowed to rule on crimes they have witnessed, kept secret, or committed.  Conyers, Wexler or Kucinich - or Senator Obama, whose staff says it is reviewing the new FISA proposal - needs to make that argument publicly in the capitol.

Obama's spokesman, Hari Sevugen criticized Lieberman and Graham's ties to the Vets for Freedom group today saying:

"It’s not surprising to learn that Senator McCain, who waited nearly 15 months to produce a conflicts policy that his own staff admitted was developed just to deal with a ‘perception problem,’ is now not enforcing that policy," Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan said in a statement. "But it does beg the question of whether he’s ready to change the way Washington works if he’s not even ready to enforce his own rules to change the way his campaign works."

I won’t even use the comparison to what Teresa Heinz Kerry went through and was accused of when she refused to release her tax returns.  Because, while there is a reason to compare the media hypocrisy for hounding Kerry but giving McCain a pass - this is not about a gotcha moment.

Nor is this about John McCain using Cindy’s private jet and the hypocrisy of McCain’s faux maverick persona. And it isn’t even completely about transparency, as the talking meatsticks are focusing on (even though it is consistent with past criticisms of Democrats).

Hillary Clinton's $6.4 million loan to her campaign used joint funds with Bill who has brought in more than $40 million from engagements in 6 years since he left office. The loan effectively bypasses laws which bar corporate campaign donations. Bill Clinton has earned millions from speaking to companies in the financial industry which are deeply involved in the subprime mortgage and foreclosure crisis.

The sponsors have included investment banks that later suffered billions of dollars in losses in the sub-prime mortgage debacle and now have a big stake in any regulatory changes; an insurance group with an interest in any overhaul of the nation's health care system; a group that favors the reunification of Taiwan with mainland China; a Colombian business development group that backs a free-trade agreement and more than two dozen Jewish groups, synagogues and museums.

John McCain's has similar issues and conflicts of interest with his wife's millions in stock holdings in oil and pharmaceutical companies.

Today, the New York Daily News reported that Barack Obama had accepted an interview with ESPN, but that ESPN's higher management canceled the interview.

There is an article in the Boston Globe this morning, Study finds lawmakers invested $165m in defense.  I expected this article to be more of the same old, same old about Republican conflicts of interest, Halliburton, Betchtel, ad nauseum.  But to me chagrin, it was reveled that

Several members earning money from these contractors have plum committee or leadership assignments, including Senator John F. Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, and the House minority whip Roy Blunt, Republican of Missouri.

Lieberman, of course!  But John Kerry?  What gives?

"We are not supposed to be an assembly of gentlemen who have no interests of any kind and no association of any kind. That is ridiculous. That may apply in Heaven, but not, happily, here."
      ---Winston Churchill, characterizing the House of Commons in 1947

Winston Churchill became world famous as Britain's Prime Minister during World War II, but as the above quote suggests, his attitude towards conflicts of interest was  merely that of a typical Conservative member of the House of Commons. Two Harvard political scientists have found that serving in Parliament roughly doubled the wealth of Conservative MPs but had no discernible effect on the wealth of Labor MPs. Conservative MPs profited by outside work as directors, consultants, and lobbyists, both while in office and afterwards. These results support conventional wisdom but also suggest that Conservatives' financial gains were larger than typically assumed.  Details below.

For starters, a hat tip to Daily Kos community member Jay Ackroyd for pulling together a list of those corporate media talking meatsticks who attended John W. McCain’s BBQ lovefest at the beginning of March.  I’ve put that list at the end of the diary, so we can all keep tabs on this.

In looking over some of these attendees’ recent reports, columns and newscasts, there has been identifiable bias towards John W. McCain, and should be called out on their misleading behavior and irresponsible journalism.  There are over 25 on this list, but I’ll point out a few of the offenders here.  Needless to say, we are not just fighting against McCain, we are fighting against the media, who is already pointing out that since they stopped reporting on Iraq, people’s opinions about it have improved.

If you are a regular here,  you know that McCain's top strategist works for Clinton's top strategist.  Charlie Black's firm, BKSH, is a subsidiary of Mark Penn's, Burson-Marsteller.  

Some might consider this a little close for comfort.  In DC this is not considered a problem.  

That's the problem.  

Now we have the spectacle of the Clinton campaign copying entire ads from the McCain campaign.  One might expect this to be fresh meat to a press coming off the Obama "plagiarism" story.  If you don't recall any banner headlines trumpeting "Clinton copies McCain," there's a reason.  There weren't any.  

Welcome to the land of the Incumbent Party where the "smart money" buys influence with both sides so no matter who wins, the puppet masters never lose.

That's the problem we need to solve.

From the LA Times tonight:

Toxicologist Deborah Rice was appointed chair of an EPA scientific panel reviewing the chemical a year ago. Federal records show she was removed from the panel in August after the American Chemistry Council, the lobbying group for chemical manufacturers, complained to a top-ranking EPA official that she was biased.

Rice, an award-winning former EPA scientist who now works at the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, has studied low doses of deca and reported neurological effects in lab animals. Last February, around the time the EPA panel was convened, Rice testified before the Maine Legislature in support of a state ban on the compound because scientific evidence shows it is toxic and accumulating in the environment and people.

About an hour ago I went to the website of Alcalde & Fay, McCain's probable paramour's lobbying firm.  I clicked on "Meet the Firm" and perused the alphabetical listing of names of the staff.  Since I'm pretty familiar with the alphabet, I knew Iseman should appear between Charlotte Hrncir (I kid you not) and Maurice J. Kurland.  But wait, there was no name between those two.  Maybe Iseman doesn't work there any more or maybe she's such a minor player that they don't list her?
Nope -- she was there earlier in the day.  TPM has a link to her page on the firm's website.  
http://web.archive.org/...

Beef Sold At Sam's Club Being Recalled  Wow. what does 850,000 pounds of contaminated beef look like?  Don't ask.  They just increased the number to 1,084,384 pounds because the meat may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7.

Think that is a fluke?  Hold that thought.

The Cargill recall comes on the heels of Elizabeth, N.J.-based Topps Meat Co.'s recall of 21.7 million pounds of ground beef amid E. coli concerns. The recall - the second-largest beef recall in U.S. history - caused Topps on Friday to announce that it's going out of business.

It ain't just beef contaminated with E. Coli O157:H7.

As there is a raised risk of E. coli O157:H7 contamination of 414,000 cases of pizza products with pepperoni toppings, the makers, General Mills, has announced a voluntary recall of said pizzas.

Here's the kicker....
USDA spokeswoman Sharon Randle said Saturday that the Cargill and Topps cases are not related.  Really......?!?!?!!!

...And I would like to know why:

The second-highest ranking member of the Air Force’s procurement office was found dead of an apparent suicide at his Virginia home Sunday, Air Force and police officials said today.

The official, Charles D. Riechers, 47, came under scrutiny by the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this month after the Air Force arranged for him to be paid $13,400 a month by a private contractor, Commonwealth Research Institute, while he awaited review from the White House of his appointment as principal deputy assistant secretary for acquisition. He was appointed to the job in January.

http://www.nytimes.com/...

(This story appeared in Saturday's Atlanta Journal-Constitution and can be found here: http://www.ajc.com/... )

State Rep. Bill Hembree, a Republican of Winston, who is an insurance agent, has proposed a bill giving insurance companies in Georgia the authority to raise automobile insurance rates.  Let me repeat that, an insurance agent, who is a member of the state government, wants to make it easier to raise insurance rates.  

Hembree and his allies in the state government, some of whow, like Rich Golick of Smyrna who is a counsel to an insurance company, also have interests in the auto insurance industry, argue that this will somehow bring more competition to Georgia and lower rates for consumers.

More over the flip...