When a politician is dishonest though about his financial dealings it's bad news for voters.  Allen is going down.

P.S.  Oh yeah, Virginians definitely rank a 27-year-old article on women in the military at the top of their issues list, just ahead of Iraq, terrorism, corruption in Congress, gas prices, out-of-control health care costs, education, etc, etc.  That 27-year-old article trumps them all, no question!! :)

It's on the website of the Scranton Times-Tribune in PA.  Hope it's in the print edition tomorrow.

That's why the ethics rules require reporting of options, even those which are worthless at present.

The key graf:

Allen's office acknowledges he has met socially over the years with company executives and his office has granted "routine courtesy meetings" from company lobbyists "to hear their opinion on legislation and issues before the federal government."

Reid said he is aware of only one time that Allen's office helped any of his former companies. That came in December 2001 when Allen asked the Army to resolve a lingering issue with Xybernaut. The company asked Allen to intervene, and he urged the Army to give Xybernaut an answer, Reid said.

At the time, Allen still owned options to buy 110,000 shares of Xybernaut stock, which could be affected by any new federal contracts.

The Army answered but did not give Xybernaut what it wanted, and Allen did nothing more, Reid said. The office declined to release the correspondence, saying constituent letters are confidential.

First, we need to demand that Allen release the letters. Congressional offices keep copies of all such correspondence -- it should be easily finable in one of the bankers boxes that they keep in their storage room in the sub-basement (having had to pull a few of these myself as a Hill intern many years ago).

Second, we need to start researching this further -- "distributed research" is a key strength of the blogosphere -- harnessing the free time of dozens of people to dig up more information. Plenty will be available here, government contract records, SEC filings from the companies, Allen's disclosure statements -- much of this is publicly available over the internet.

More on this idea later...

"Be afraid. Be very afraid."

In this case though, I think Webb should go on the offensive.  Webb is running on a platform seeking a fair deal for the working class.  We can never have a fair shake if our politicians are selling their votes, or not honest with us regarding who they represent.

I wouldn't fault Webb for going after Allen on this - and using it as a tool to get airtime for his other ideas. 

I'm no expert on campaigns - and maybe from a campaign perspective what I say is a bad idea.  I'm just saying that I would be comfortable with it.  Not sure how everyone else feels - or how the voters would react. 

This story will have legs if the facts support improper behavior on the part of Allen.

He needs to bring it up at the debate.

How do I get one of these "courtesy meetings" on policy issues?  I request meetings, and I get empty promises.  I write letters, and I get form-letters with photocopied signatures.

I am so sick of politicians hob-knobbing with corporations and ignoring us!!!  Why can't labor groups and activist groups (like ones I associate with) ever get these "courtesy meetings" to present our side?

When I grew up, I had enormous respect for my government.  I had pride.  I felt as if we were the "good guys".  Now, I am ashamed of people who only represent multi-national corporations.  People elected to represent us have betrayed this country and its people.

... coin-op Congress... that's how Washington works.

The fact that Jim Webb doesn't like the current system is one of the things I've found most appealing about him.

Is that what you're saying ??  ;-)

You are special indeed!  :)

Thank you for your contacting me regarding the need for immigration reform. I appreciate your comments and value the opportunity to respond. We are a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws. I understand this well, as my own mother is an immigrant who came to our country legally after World War II.

Throughout this debate, I have consistently said the legislative priority should be to secure our borders and stop the flow of illegal entry. A country that cannot control its borders, cannot control its own destiny. I have advocated and supported measures to address this neglected responsibility with more border patrol personnel, detention centers, sensors and virtual or physical fences where necessary to stem the flow.

Once that fundamental problem of border security is addressed then the Congress should move to forge both a stable and consistent legal immigration policy and a responsible legal temporary worker plan. But I believe that no plan should reward illegal behavior and this includes a form of amnesty; therefore, I voted against the convoluted three-tiered amnesty deal.

I did support and vote for the amendment to significantly improve border security and make reasonable adjustments for legal visas for students, workers, families, health care professionals and tech workers. Alas, no proposal passed in the Senate. The need for border security and immigration reform remains inadequately addressed. I will keep working to find a solution and consensus on this growing, important issue consistent with the principles of securing our borders, not rewarding illegal behavior and devising a legal temporary worker system.

I appreciate your contacting me on this matter and hope you will not hesitate to contact me again about issues important to you. If you would like to receive an e-mail newsletter about my initiatives to improve America, please sign up on my website (). It is an honor to serve you in the United States Senate, and I look forward to working with you to make Virginia and America a better place to live, learn, work and raise a family.

With warm regards, I remain

Sincerely,

Senator George Allen

Email Note: Please do not use the reply button to answer this email.  Due to technical problems at the Capitol and the high volume of emails, we must ask that you use the web form on Senator Allen’s website to respond. Please click on this link http://www.allen.sen... to send another email to Senator Allen or use the email button on our homepage.

I watched and listened to the debate on the floor of the senate on Cspan. What I heard does not correspond with what you are saying about S 1932. If you call removing inflation safe guards in existing law, fiscal responsibility then you are correct from your point of view but not mine. And if giving the upper 20 percent of the population tax cuts fiscal responsibility you and I have a different view point of what fiscal responsibility is.
But then you back the President 97 percent of the time, so it appears you cannot think for yourself and act responsible so I understand where you are coming from.

Gordon

----- Original Message -----
From: senator_allen@allen.senate.gov
To: 
Sent: Tuesday, March 21, 2006 1:33 PM
Subject: A response from Senator George Allen

Dear Gordon:

Thank you for contacting me regarding proposed changes in the Medicaid program. I appreciate your remarks and value your input on this important matter.

As you may be aware, the Senate passed and the President has signed into law S. 1932, the Deficit Reduction Act. This legislation restores fiscal discipline by cutting the federal deficit by $40 billion over the next five years. Critics of the legislation have alleged that it is an attempt to reduce the deficit by slashing anti-poverty programs, particularly Medicaid, but this is not true. In fact, the Deficit Reduction Act cuts unnecessary spending so that Medicaid can be expanded for those whom the program is intended. It actually expands the Medicaid program by $1.38 billion to cover one million more disabled children than are currently served and provides $2 billion in additional benefits to nearly two million hurricane victims in the Gulf Coast region. Furthermore, spending on home and community-based health programs will be increased by $770 million to cover more elderly and disabled low-income individuals.

The adjustments made to Medicaid in the Deficit Reduction Act were needed in order to curtail unnecessary spending and fraud. Under the current reimbursement formula for prescription drugs, Medicaid is significantly overpaying for prescription drugs, at times up to 70 percent. This practice is not only unfair to the American taxpayers, it is harmful to the program by wasting money that could be spent to expand Medicaid benefits. The Deficit Reduction Act revises the reimbursement formula to accurately reflect the cost of drugs that are sold to Medicaid patients. Additionally, this legislation seeks to cut down on the fraud that is rampantly draining the financial resources of the program. It is a growing trend for middle and upper class individuals to hire attorneys to hide their assets to avoid using their own money to pay for long-term care, costing taxpayers $2 billion each year. I am glad this loophole is finally closed and that taxpayers are no longer footing the bill for this fraudulent practice.

These small changes will go a long way in stabilizing the Medicaid program, which is growing at an unsustainable rate. When this program was created in 1965, Medicaid was designed to help the poor and severely disabled who had no other options for health care. With Medicaid now serving one in six Americans, the system as it stands cannot continue to adequately serve our nation’s most vulnerable citizens. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) contends that Medicaid expenditures have increased 56 percent in just the last six years. Furthermore, the CBO estimates that Medicaid spending will sharply increase by another $66 billion in the next five years. At this rate, federally funded health care will soon grow to 20 percent of America’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a percentage that will affect funding for other domestic programs.

Despite the need for funding of these other programs, the Deficit Reduction Act still allows for a $64 billion increase in spending for Medicaid. Though politically motivated critics argue that these changes will negatively affect the program, it should be pointed out that the $2 billion difference will not affect anyone’s health benefits. In fact, money spent on actual benefits will be increased by $4.2 billion once the Deficit Reduction Act takes effect.

During my career in public service, I have supported funding for Medicaid at appropriate levels as I understand that affordable health care is a vital need, particularly for low-income families. I understand the important role Medicaid plans have for the beneficiaries who rely on this program. I believe that we must continue to look for ways to improve access to affordable health care for the less privileged while cutting out any unnecessary spending that wastes taxpayer money.

Please feel to contact me again about issues important to you. If you would like to receive an e-mail newsletter about my initiatives to improve America, please sign up on my website (). It is an honor to serve you in the United States Senate, and I look forward to working with you to make Virginia and America a better place to live, learn, work and raise a family.

With warm regards, I remain

Sincerely,

Senator George Allen

Email Note: Please do not use the reply button to answer this email.  Due to technical problems at the Capitol and the high volume of emails, we must ask that you use the web form on Senator Allen’s website to respond. Please click on this link http://www.allen.sen... to send another email to Senator Allen or use the email button on our homepage.

Look at http://www.opensecre...

His 2006 fundraising has skyrocketed.  About 1% of his money comes from labor.  About 81% comes from business.

Who do you think "owns" George Allen?

It is amazing that some polls have Webb leading - given that he is being outspent. 

I thought it only fair to check who is donating to Webb, so I looke him up at opensecrets also.  Good news, WE are the top donors - meaning groups representing middle class Americans.

Webb is a similar story--he has over 20,000 individual donors--this is just based on an 8 month period too. 

Damn, I love Colbert!

and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Well, Allen has rewritten it:

and that government of the corporation, by the corporation, for the corporation, shall not perish from the earth

This is the new Republican party and I am sure Lincoln would be a Democrat in this day and age.

Don't underestimate the power of the blogosphere. The MSM has limited staff time, and lots of things to cover, but with people like us donating their spare time (just like unused CPU cycles), we can mount a massive effort to tie ths all together from published sources and databases.

from The American Prospect

"Xybernaut filed for bankruptcy reorganization in July 2005, three months after an announcement by an audit committee of its board that an internal investigation -- established that February at the urging of a whistle-blowing company insider -- found that the firm’s chief executive officer and board chairman, former CIA agent Edward Newman, and his brother, president and chief operating officer Steven Newman, had “improperly used substantial company funds for personal expenses,” engaged in major unreported transactions, and hired family members whose roles with the company were not properly disclosed, in violation of its bylaws."

The author of this article puts forth the case that Allen was brought in to make the company look legitimate. In the article the author implies that Allen was just a gigolo. In fact, that was the title of the article.

Read the entire article here:

http://www.prospect....

July 15, 2002
Xybernaut Wins $600,000 Military Deal

The contract includes project management, software development, testing and wireless integration services.

This is the first publicly announced government services contract under Xybernaut's World Wide Technology (WWT) GSA schedule procurement program. The Fairfax, Va.-based company is also supplying its Mobile Assistant V wearable computers to the project under a separate contract.

Xybernaut systems and integration services will support the Maintenance Mentoring Systems (MMS) program of the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. The program covers the technologies that increase worker productivity in situations where the amount of technical data required to perform a job exceeds memory retention capabilities or in situations where personnel shortages result in a limited number of mentors/experts available to assist less experienced technicians.

-----------

can anybody look into how the contract was put out (i.e., request for proposal, who else bid on the contract, was legislation passed to fund the contract, if so, who pushed it thru, was allen someone that helped them get the contract)

these are important questions -- i can do more digging if anyone else can think of how to find out the answers -- i may have another way to get info, but can't disclose it.

let's keep it up!

NEWMAN, EDWARD
FAIRFAX STATION, VA 22039
XYBERNAUT

  ALLEN, GEORGE
  VIA FRIENDS OF GEORGE ALLEN
  08/27/1999  1000.00  20020020379
  06/14/2000  1000.00  20020302469

NEWMAN, FRANCES
FAIRFAX STATION, VA 22039
XYBERNAUT

  ALLEN, GEORGE
  VIA FRIENDS OF GEORGE ALLEN
  06/14/2000  1000.00  20020302469
  06/14/2000  1000.00  20020302469

In addition, Xybernaut officers -- four directors, an advisory board member, the comptroller, and an officer’s wife -- donated a total of $10,750 to Friends of George Allen in 1999 and 2000. After Xybernaut retained McGuire Woods to handle its more current legal problems in May 2005, McGuire Woods staff donated $32,500 to Friends of George Allen that very month -- compared to $31,625 during Allen’s entire two-year 1999-2000 Senate campaign.

Webb needs to hammer Allen on this. Bring out the hammer JIM!!!!!

Hopefully, the MSM will see they need a break from Foleygate.  Also, this is another GOP corruption story--so that will help it get play.

On the other hand, I may know as little as one of the TV talking heads.

Late Update: We have word that Allen has responded to the AP story. "I don't even know what 'stock options' means. I just made the term up. I have never used that term in my private life." Maybe so, but we understand that the use of "stock options" began in French colonial North Africa, where Allen's mother was raised. We're looking into it.

"Commonwealth granted Allen options on 15,000 shares of company stock at $7.50 a share in May 1999, company chief executive Robert Harris said."

Allen's office said he did not report his Commonwealth options on his past five Senate disclosure reports because their purchase price was higher than the current market value. Allen viewed them as worthless and believed in "good faith" he did not have to report them, aides said

BUT ... as we can see from
http://finance.yahoo...

The price went over $7.50 several times.

Look at the volume lines, too. 

Lots of activity at $7.50. 

Commonwealth granted Allen options on 15,000 shares of company stock at $7.50 a share in May 1999, company chief executive Robert Harris said.

http://biz.yahoo.com...

The question is, who purchased the shares at that price, etc.  Did the company (or another sham entity) purchase them from those who held the options?  The stock was traded so thinly at all other times, that I doubt there would have been that many people buying the stock at that high of a price.  This is why there should be an investigation for price manipulation.

For some strange reason, I am disinclined to hold my breath while awaiting the appearance of a link at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, however.

On the other hand, Washington Post seems to have left it out of their print edition.  Dunno what's up with that, unless they're working on a story of their own. . . .

Allen Spokesman John Reid said he is aware of only one time that Allen's office helped any of his former companies. That came in December 2001 when Allen asked the Army to resolve a lingering issue with Xybernaut. The company asked Allen to intervene, and he urged the Army to give Xybernaut an answer, Reid said.

At the time, Allen still owned options to buy 110,000 shares of Xybernaut stock, which could be affected by any new federal contracts.

The Army answered but did not give Xybernaut what it wanted, and Allen did nothing more, Reid said. The office declined to release the correspondence, saying constituent letters are confidential.

Allen himself said he could not recall helping, and only met former company associates socially. "Whether I see a former - whatever the question is - personally at some social event or political event over the years, so what?" Allen asked.

Xybernaut declined comment

Xybernaut Hid Gathering Storm In Bright Forecasts

By Ellen McCarthy

Thursday, April 21, 2005; Page E01

In December, Xybernaut Corp. issued 12 glowing press releases, each one trumpeting its grand successes in "mobile computing" -- the phrase it uses to describe its line of gadgets built into work clothes for soldiers, stock clerks and others.

The month before, there were another dozen. In all, the little Fairfax company put out more than 110 releases last year to tell investors just how well it was doing.

But the PR machine can't conceal bad news forever.

This week Edward and Steven Newman, the brothers who served as chief executive and president of the company, were pushed out under accusations that they used company funds for personal expenses, employed family members without disclosing it to the SEC, failed to inform the board of directors about the finances of major deals and interfered with a company audit committee investigation.

Their ouster follows the company's receipt in February of a Securities and Exchange Commission subpoena concerning sales of Xybernaut stock.

Xybernaut did have some success selling its technology to customers such as grocery chain Tesco PLC and the Army. But the adoption of wearable computers has been too slow, said Tim Shea, senior analyst at Venture Development Corp. "They've been sowing the seeds pretty well, but part of the problem is that they have this line of products that were a little on the big and bulky side and had battery problems," Shea said. "I know that they spent a lot of money, they were developing new products all the time, but they didn't have enough sales to make any money."

Xybernaut was founded in 1990 by Edward G. Newman, whose brother Steven A. Newman joined the company four years later. The company went public in 1996, and its stock traded as high as $29.97 in 2000. It closed yesterday at 27 cents. The company has disclosed a delisting notice from the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Online message boards were teeming yesterday with comments from Xybernaut stock watchers who railed against the actions of the Newmans and debated the merits of a class-action lawsuit.

Xybernaut has posted 33 consecutive quarterly losses, though its outside auditors have said that results dating to 2002 should not be relied upon.

The shirt looks similar to the one he was wearing at the macaca event, all the way up to the rolled up sleeves:

Oh, sorry, forgot who their ombudsman was.

Seriously, I've got to think they were working on a story too.  If they were, it'll be out in a day or two, as the Post writer furiously rewrites what he had and blends it with the AP story.

Arlington, Va.: Every other newspaper in Virginia, and pretty much the country, is covering George Allen's failure to disclose stock options. But NOT The Washington Post. Why not? It's big enough news for the AP, the New York Times, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and everyone else, but not for The Washington Post?

Dan Balz: Thanks. We're on the case. I hope you're not suggesting that we haven't been aggressive in covering the Virginia Senate race. Sen. Allen's supporters and campaign believe we've been overly aggressive.

That, of course, would explain the two puff pieces on Allen the Post has run in the past week--the valentine to Susan Allen and the benevolent look at the senator's big-bucks "hoedown."

Dan Balz: Thanks. That's correct. But we're not limiting our reporting to the AP story.

Arlington, Va.: Every other newspaper in Virginia, and pretty much the country, is covering George Allen's failure to disclose stock options. But NOT The Washington Post. Why not? It's big enough news for the AP, the New York Times, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and everyone else, but not for The Washington Post?

Dan Balz: Thanks. We're on the case. I hope you're not suggesting that we haven't been aggressive in covering the Virginia Senate race. Sen. Allen's supporters and campaign believe we've been overly aggressive.

Later he said: "But we're not limiting our reporting to the AP story."

Bob Lewis is a well recognized reporter?  Why didn't they just go with the AP story -- which is much more informative -- in the first place?

Bloomberg busts Allen :
Allen's Undisclosed Stock Options Were Worth Up to $1.1 Million
http://www.bloomberg...

"Stock options that Senator George Allen described as worthless were worth as much as $1.1 million at one point, according to a review of Senate disclosure forms and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

The records appear to contradict remarks he made to the Associated Press. ``I got paid in stock options which were worthless,'' AP quoted him as saying.

Federal Law Enforcement usually has "Trigger" amounts that allow them to set thresholds on violations to prioritize the investigation of an offense so as to allocate resources both people and time to the obvious violation.  This definitely hits the trigger for SEC enforcement, IRS potentially, the ethics committee on the hill, and that doesn't even consider the various agencies at Dept. of Justice..... NO MATTER WHAT THE STOCK IN NOW WORTH !!