Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

After roe, women are no longer free.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

The willow is too close to the house.

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

“woke” is the new caravan.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

Republicans in disarray!

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Second rate reporter says what?

He really is that stupid.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

I was promised a recession.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

The words do not have to be perfect.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

You are here: Home / Interesting story

Interesting story

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L’affaire Abramoff convictee Bob Ney is out of the pokie:

Ney is spending his days in Dharamsala, trying to master the Tibetan language and eagerly awaiting the return of the Dalai Lama and the chance to hear more of the exiled religious leader’s teachings.

I like stories about people doing interesting things when they get out of jail.

Reader Interactions

40Comments

  1. 1.

    cleek

    Well, I was drunk the day my momma got out of prison,
    And I went to pick her up in the rain.
    But before I could get to the station in the pick-up truck,
    She got runned over by a damned old train.

  3. 3.

    Scott

    I have no idea what to think of that.

    On one hand, yay for the guy trying to do something with his life other than criminality.

    On the other hand, I’m half-expecting to eventually hear that he’s embezzled all the Dalai Lama’s money and is going skiing with hookers.

  5. 5.

    c u n d gulag

    I’m sure this nitwit, upon seeing him, will break out into song: “Hello Dalai!”

    Yeah, I’m not proud of that one, either…

  7. 7.

    Elizabelle

    I like stories about people doing interesting things when they get out of jail.

    Me too. I even like stories about doing interesting things while in jail. (Jean Harris — Scarsdale doctor shooter — teaching inmate mothers, Martha Stewart interacting with her prison peers.)

    May we see even more banksters and fraudsters turning their lives around after a long stint chez Uncle Sam.

    Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide

    Too many to mention from Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Merrill, the ratings agencies, Money Honey Maria Bartiromo just to give her a shot at a new beat and some new sources …

  8. 8.

    p.a.

    OT tech question. I’m running winvista, windowsmail. when i hit the ‘not junk’ button in my junk mail folder, where does my mail go? I expected it back in my inbox, but noooooo. i hit ‘receive’, but it didn’t reappear, and ‘search’ came up empty. this has happened several times (shame on me), so i know i didn’t delete by accident- besides, if i did the mail would be in the delete box.

    any ideas?

  10. 10.

    ricky

    I like stories about people doing interesting things when they get out of jail.

    So did George HW and the guys who produced the Willie Horton ad.

  12. 12.

    Cat Lady

    A buddhist friend of mine knew of a prisoner who spent his life on death row practicing buddhism and teaching the dharma. His last words were “karma’s a bitch”. I believe it is. Also, too.

  13. 13.

    SGEW

    From the article:

    Ney hopes to build on work in Columbus [Ohio] in introducing abused women to meditation. “They were battered; they were homeless. And they were in this program, and the meditation helped them greatly,” he said. “So Mending Minds could deal with some issues dealing with the homeless.” Even more promising, he said, is the potential value to veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome. “The U.S. government is just starting … to use meditation instead of just medication,” he said.

    I’m surprisingly moved by this.

  15. 15.

    J sub D

    Don’t expect me to toss accolades to a former(?) crook who now declares a desire to help others. Lots of people, I’ll bet many here, manage to do charitable works without first stealing, lying and having a spiritual reawakening.

  18. 18.

    El Cid

    Michael Milkin apparently dedicated himself to serious weightlifting in his (profitable) year in the pokey.

  19. 19.

    JoyfulA

    I guess he stole enough money that he doesn’t have to worry about making a living, unlike 99% of those who’ve served their time for lesser crimes and find themselves in an impossible job market and with a “record.”

  21. 21.

    henry

    Don’t forget political to religious convert Chuck Colson. Went from worshiping Nixon and ratfucking dissenters to worshipping Jesus and ratfucking dissenters (gays, evolutionists, etc). With Ney on the Dalai Lama’s team, China better watch their back.

  22. 22.

    p.a.

    @cleek: thanks for the info. mine have not, do not, and will not magically reappear. just got back from posting my trouble on a ms trouble resolution help page (a/k/a where hope goes to die), so we shall see. ‘move to inbox’ works fine, it’s just that my defective gray matter focuses on the pretty blue ‘not junk’ button and expects a windows product to behave rationally. stoopid stoopid moi.

  24. 24.

    ornery curmudgeon

    I wonder if Ney’s new-found spiritual awakening will extend to denouncing his criminal past and working to alert the American people to the hypocritical fraud that is Rightwing ‘politics.’

    Actually I don’t wonder this at all. It would surprise the everliving sh*t out of me though.

  25. 25.

    ruemara

    Despite being a pollyanna, I am surprisingly unmoved by former crooks like him being a goody two-shoes when they get out of jail.
    Did he give back all the money? Did he come clean about the corruption? I hope he does a lot of good, but true absolution come from real honesty.

  26. 26.

    burnspbesq

    @ruemara:

    It’s a little unrealistic to expect anything like that while the statute of limitations is still open and no book advance is on the table.

  27. 27.

    burnspbesq

    @WyldPirate:

    “Truly the greatest country and western song ever written.”

    You, sir, are walkin’ on the fightin’ side of me.

    The greatest country song ever written is ” It’s Hard to Kiss the Lips at Night That Chew Your Ass Out All Day Long.”

  28. 28.

    Fleas correct the era

    @Cat Lady:

    Thank you. I read your comment, got curious, and found this. I have not even the first clue about Buddhism, and the lines from The Dhammapada moved me deeply.

    hatred can never put an end to hatred; love alone can. This is an unalterable law. People forget that their lives will end soon. For those who remember, quarrels come to an end.

    Got some reading ahead of me… Thanks again.

  32. 32.

    burnspbesq

    @efgoldman:

    Actual song, by the Notorious Cherry Bombs, a side project of Rodney Crowell, Vince Gill and some other alumni of Emmylou Harris’ band. Them boys kin sing a little.

  33. 33.

    Chris

    I like stories about deserving Republicans going to jail.

    I just think there should be more of them.

  34. 34.

    BombIranForChrist

    Good for him.

    I am so tired of seeing corrupt assholes going to prison and then finding Jesus, uh, again, and then getting out and promising to not eat baby seals anymore, etc. etc. etc. and suddenly, well lookit there, they are now a lobbyist for Giant Fuck You Corporation, and nothing has changed.

    But for a GOP man to openly embrace a Buddhist practice is to be commended, #1, because it is commendable and #2 because he is doing it even though it means that all the Palin whackjobs will think he’s into Satanism now.

    I am a huge believer in rehabilitation and second chances, and I truly admire people who pull themselves out of the shitter and elevate themselves to points I have yet to achieve.

    Good for him.

  35. 35.

    DPirate

    I like stories about people doing interesting things when they get out of jail.

    I’d prefer he were forced to get a demeaning job and subsist on his license plate earnings, like most criminals.

    I’m sure he just wants to learn all about how to bleed the peasantry in a feudal theocracy, though.

  37. 37.

    russell

    He did his time, and paid his dues. I wish him well.

    Yeah, me too. And now I want him to STFU and sink back into harmless anonymity.

    I can introduce you to about 1,000 people who meditate every day, give their time and money to charitable causes, quit drinking, and/or otherwise are making something useful of their lives.

    I’m glad Ney is no longer spending his days being a destructive dick. Welcome to the club Bob.

    And for country songs, nothing says down home to me quite like “Drop Kick Me Jesus Through The Goal Posts Of Life”.

  38. 38.

    Janus Daniels

    I’d like to know more of how this corrupt alcoholic Republican apparatchik got through arrest, shame, regret, confession, conviction, humiliation, imprisonment, etc. apparently to remorse and some sort of grace, instead of resentment and revenge.

  39. 39.

    fourmorewars

    No mention here, yet, and so I wonder if I’m the only Thom Hartmann listener here. Every weekday at the end of his second hour, Thom hears from Ellen Ratner or Victoria Jones from Washington. Think their org. is called Talk Radio News Service. Left of center, particularly Ellen, who’s the sister of Michael Ratner, bigtime ACLU spokesman. They give a rundown of that day’s WH press gaggle to the show.

    Ney was connected to them for awhile, and you’d hear him occasionally sub for them, and talk to Thom. Always gave this listener a strange feeling, knowing his past, but it was amicable…maybe it was community service for him. But Thom did mention often that Ney had had a falling-out within his party…he is (or, was) apparently the only Congressmember, or at least the only GOP’er, who speaks fluent Farsi. And the falling-out was over his colleagues’, and the Bush administration’s, refusal to act with the least rationality toward Iran.

  40. 40.

    stickler

    Not to Godwin everything and all, but …

    You know who else did interesting things with his life after being released from prison?

    (I presume Ney didn’t dictate his memoirs from a castle prison chamber. Or, maybe, I hope.)

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