Friday, May 29, 2015

Hastert and Fuentes and bears, oh my!

     As you know, Republican and former Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, has been in the news lately. Reportedly, he's in trouble over manipulations of financial records in an effort to obscure extorted payments owing to his (alleged) sexual abuse of a student during Hastert's coaching days, decades ago.
     You’ll recall that Hastert was the tool who provided former SOCCCD trustee (and avid mentor of conservative young men) Tom Fuentes with his “thank you” prize for his efforts to help reelect George Bush in 2004. (For Bush, Fuentes’ star was tarnished by the latter’s failure to support Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger. Hence, the shitty prize. The previous giftage was even shittier. See Fuentes, cancer, and “tumor” rhetoric. In his later years, Fuentes claimed vindication re his opposition to Ah-nuld as "Republican in Name Only." He was right, of course.)
     As we reported back in 2006,
     I learned a bit more about Mr. Fuentes’ appointment to the Elections Assistance Commission (EAC).
     I am bothering with all this detail because, as we've pointed out on this blog more than once, there's good reason to be very concerned about election fraud. (See the Conyers Report. For a brief discussion of its conclusions: Conyers Report.) The EAC has an important role in the larger "watchdog" mechanism of federal elections.
     And now our man Fuentes is part of EAC.
     The recently-sent “board highlights," referring to Dave Lang's remarks, inform us that

Trustee Thomas A. Fuentes...was on his way to Washington, D.C. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert appointed Trustee Fuentes to the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission Board of Advisors, succeeding U.S. Congressman J.C. Watts.
     See Mr. Fuentes goes to Washington (again) and More on Fuentes' appointment (DtB, 2006)

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...