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.
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.
DougJ
@cleek:
You don’t have to call me darlin darlin.
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.
Omnes Omnibus
@cleek: You didn’t mention your dog.
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…
WyldPirate
@cleek:
Truly the greatest country and western song ever written.
Elizabelle
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 …
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?
eemom
wow. check out this interesting story that the emmessemm hasn’t touched:
http://politicalcorrection.org/fpmatters/201011190007
ricky
So did George HW and the guys who produced the Willie Horton ad.
cleek
@p.a.:
a little Googling shows that this is a common problem.
for example…
some people say that you just need to wait a bit for the msg to appear in your inbox…
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.
SGEW
From the article:
I’m surprisingly moved by this.
JWL
He did his time, and paid his dues. I wish him well.
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.
Just Some Fuckhead
@J sub D: I can forgive the lying and stealing but there is positively no excuse or redemption for the republicanism.
Corner Stone
@p.a.:
They’re worried about an arrest for redirecting your junk.
El Cid
Michael Milkin apparently dedicated himself to serious weightlifting in his (profitable) year in the pokey.
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.”
joeyess
Not to be presumptuous, but I think the title of this post should have been: “Get it on, bang a gong, get it on”.
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.
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.
p.a.
@Corner Stone: who knew someone besides me is concerned about my junk! that’s sweet.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
Got some reading ahead of me… Thanks again.
salacious crumb
is his going to Dalai Lama punishment for dropping the soap in the slammer?
Bill Murray
@burnspbesq: I usually pick “Fat, Old, Drunk and Proud”
J sub D
Johnny Cash – I’ve been flushed from the bathroom of your heart.
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.
Chris
I like stories about deserving Republicans going to jail.
I just think there should be more of them.
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.
DPirate
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.
Professor
@eemom: It was reported at Salon.com. I read it about rosen using AIPAC computer to view porn and chase gays!
russell
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”.
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.
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.
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.)