Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have been indicted

Political Roast-Cheney, Gonzales indicted in South Texas county

Article By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN (AP)

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have been indicted on state charges involving federal prisons in a South Texas county that has been a source of bizarre legal and political battles under the outgoing prosecutor.

The indictment returned Monday has not yet been signed by the presiding judge, and no action can be taken until that happens.

The seven indictments made public in Willacy County on Tuesday included one naming state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. and some targeting public officials connected to District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra's own legal battles.

Regarding the indictments targeting the public officials, Guerra said, "the grand jury is the one that made those decisions, not me."

Guerra himself was under indictment for more than a year and half until a judge dismissed the indictments last month. Guerra's tenure ends this year after nearly two decades in office. He lost convincingly in a Democratic primary in March.

Guerra said the prison-related charges against Cheney and Gonzales are a national issue and experts from across the country testified to the grand jury.

Cheney is charged with engaging in an organized criminal activity related to the vice president's investment in the Vanguard Group, which holds financial interests in the private prison companies running the federal detention centers. It accuses Cheney of a conflict of interest and "at least misdemeanor assaults" on detainees because of his link to the prison companies.

Megan Mitchell, a spokeswoman for Cheney, declined to comment on Tuesday, saying that the vice president had not yet received a copy of the indictment.

The indictment accuses Gonzales of using his position while in office to stop an investigation in 2006 into abuses at one of the privately-run prisons.

Gonzales' attorney, George Terwilliger III, said in a written statement, "This is obviously a bogus charge on its face, as any good prosecutor can recognize." He said he hoped Texas authorities would take steps to stop "this abuse of the criminal justice system."

Another indictment released Tuesday accuses Lucio of profiting from his public office by accepting honoraria from prison management companies. Guerra announced his intention to investigate Lucio's prison consulting early last year.

Lucio's attorney, Michael Cowen, released a scathing statement accusing Guerra of settling political scores in his final weeks in office.

"Senator Lucio is completely innocent and has done nothing wrong," Cowen said, adding that he would file a motion to quash the indictment this week.

Willacy County has become a prison hub with county, state and federal lockups. Guerra has gone after the prison-politician nexus before, extracting guilty pleas from three former Willacy and Webb county commissioners after investigating bribery related to federal prison contacts.

Last month, a Willacy County grand jury indicted The GEO Group, a Florida private prison company, on a murder charge in the death of a prisoner days before his release. The three-count indictment alleged The GEO Group allowed other inmates to beat Gregorio de la Rosa Jr. to death with padlocks stuffed into socks. The death happened in 2001 at the Raymondville facility.

In 2006, a jury ordered the company to pay de la Rosa's family $47.5 million in a civil judgment. The Cheney-Gonzales indictment makes reference to the de la Rosa case.

None of the indictments released Tuesday had been signed by Presiding Judge Manuel Banales of the Fifth Administrative Judicial Region.

Last month, Banales dismissed indictments that charged Guerra with extorting money from a bail bond company and using his office for personal business. An appeals court had earlier ruled that a special prosecutor was improperly appointed to investigate Guerra.

After Guerra's office was raided as part of the investigation early last year, he camped outside the courthouse in a borrowed camper with a horse, three goats and a rooster. He threatened to dismiss hundreds of cases because he believed local law enforcement had aided the investigation against him.

The indictments were first reported by KRGV-TV.

Associated Press writer Deb Riechmann in Washington contributed to this report.

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Obama Wins 2008 Election Prediction!

Got To Political Roast---Minute By Minute Results! MSN Results and The Daily Show Results!

FINAL PREDICTIONS GUARANTEED TO BE ACCURATE (50% OF THE TIME)

Projected President-elect - Senator Barack Obama of Illinois
Total Turnout - 146,670,242 voters (68% of voting age population)
Electoral Vote - 349 Electoral Votes (Obama) to 189 Electoral Votes (McCain)
Popular Vote - Barack Obama - 50.24% John McCain - 46.73%
DETAILED BREAKDOWN STATE BY STATE


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Obama and Joe The Plumber-Video

Spread the Wealth’?
"This weekend," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said today, "a plumber concerned that Senator Obama was going to raise his taxes asked him directly about his plan. The response was telling. Senator Obama explained to him that he was going to raise his taxes to quote 'spread the wealth around.'"

Is that what happened?

Judge for yourself -- here's the exchange.

Did Joe The Plumber Hurt McCain?

For California viewers, Joe the Plumber was a distraction
Peter Hecht
Sacramento Bee
At the end of the final presidential debate of 2008, the students gathered to watch Wednesday night at Sacramento State had to answer a critical question.

"Which candidate," asked government professor Kimberly Nalder, "has the Joe-mentum?"

The answer from two dozen students – a near-even split of Democrats, Republicans and independents – was clear: Barack Obama was more persuasive than John McCain.

But the biggest loser was Joe the Plumber.

McCain's debate strategy to wrest momentum from Obama by constantly referring to the circumstances of Joe Wurzelbacher was roundly ridiculed by the students, mostly government majors.

They also criticized Obama for picking up McCain's tactics and proceeding to speak directly to Joe.

The candidates may have seen the Ohio man as a metaphor for which Americans would benefit from their policies on health care, taxes and the economy. But Aliza Egger concluded "the use of Joe the Plumber was an emotional ploy" and a distraction from the substance she wanted to hear.

"I wanted this debate to introduce me to the candidates," said Egger, a Republican. "Joe the Plumber was almost a joke to me. I felt let down."

Joe the plumber eyes book deal, political career!WTF?

JOE the plumber is making the most of his time in the spotlight and there is even talk of a country music career.

Joe - real name Samuel Wurzelbacher - became a household name when he challenged Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama over plans to raise taxes on those earning over $US250,000 ($370,000).

He is now a mini-celebrity with possible plans to write a book or go into politics.

To handle the avalanche of requests for media appearances, he has signed with Nashville public relations firm The Press Office.

But there were suggestions yesterday that the suddenly famous plumber might getting a bit too big for his boots. Mr Wurzelbacher left Republican presidential candidate John McCain red-faced at a rally in Defiance, Ohio, yesterday when he was missing in action at a campaign event. "Joe's with us today. Joe, where are you? Where is Joe?" Senator McCain asked.

"Well, you're all Joe the Plumbers. So all of you stand up," the veteran Republican said after regrouping.

The awkward moment was apparently the result of a campaign miscommunication.

The burly plumber made good on his role as a campaign prop and turned up at a later event in Sandusky, Ohio, where he urged people to "vote for a real American".

One of the three people co-managing Mr Wurzelbacher is country music artist and producer Aaron Tippin, sparking speculation that a music career could be next.

But Mr Wurzelbacher poured cold water on that, saying: "I don't think people are that deaf-tone (sic) out there."

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McCain Kicks Off "Joe The Plumber" Florida Tour

McCain Kicks Off "Joe The Plumber" Florida Tour

(DAYTONA BEACH, FLA.) – John McCain kicks off a bus tour through Florida today called the “’Joe the Plumber’ Keep Your Wealth Bus Tour,” although, interestingly, “Joe the Plumber” will not actually be involved. McCain has been using Joe as an example of how he believes Barack Obama’s tax plans harm small businesses and could cause the economy to stagnate.

“As he told 'Joe the Plumber', he wants to quote ‘spread the wealth around,’" McCain says often on the campaign trail.

“Sen. Obama believes in redistributing wealth, not in policies that grow our economy and create jobs and opportunities for all Americans.”

McCain is hoping Floridians can relate to the plumber from Ohio, as polls in Florida show he’s locked in a tight contest with Obama here.

The tour opens with a rally in Ormond Beach, followed by a series of events in Altamonte Springs, Orlando, Plant City, and ending with another rally in Sarasota.

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Like everyone else in the media, John Oliver is absolutely smitten with Joe the Plumber.

'Joe the Plumber' says he has no plumbing license

Accoding to FoxNews and the AP!

HOLLAND, Ohio — Joe the Plumber said Thursday he doesn't have a license and doesn't need one.

Joe Wurzelbacher, better known as Joe the Plumber, the nickname Republican John McCain bestowed on him during Wednesday's presidential debate, said he works for a small plumbing company that does residential work. Because he works for someone else, he doesn't need a license, he said.

Wurzelbacher, who voted in the Republican primary and indicated he backed McCain, was cited by the GOP presidential candidate as an example of someone who wants to buy a plumbing business but would be hurt by Democrat Barack Obama's tax plans. Wurzelbacher said he was surprised that his name was mentioned so many other times.

me. I wished that they had talked more about issues that are important to Americans," he told reporters gathered outside his home.

Wurzelbacher, 34, said he doesn't have a good plan put together on how he would buy Newell Plumbing and Heating in nearby Toledo.

He said the business consists of owner Al Newell and him. Wurzelbacher said he's worked there for six years and that the two have talked about his taking it over at some point.

"There's a lot I've got to learn," he said.

Wurzelbacher said he started his day with an early morning workout and came back to his suburban Toledo home to do live interviews with TV networks.

Reporters camped out by his house overnight and by midmorning there were 21 people

on his driveway surrounding him, holding cameras and notebooks.

Wurzelbacher said he's feeling overwhelmed.

"I'm kind of like Britney Spears having a headache. Everybody wants to know about it," he joked.

In Toledo on Sunday, Wurzelbacher told Obama that he was preparing to buy the plumbing company, which earns more than $250,000 a year, and said: "Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn't it?"

Obama said that under his proposal taxes on any revenue from $250,000 on down would stay the same, but that amounts above that level would be subject to a 39 percent tax, instead of the current 36 percent rate.

Wurzelbacher said Obama's tax plan wouldn't affect him right now, because he doesn't make $250,000. "But I hope someday I'll make that," he said.

"If you believed (Obama), I'd be receiving his tax cuts," Wurzelbacher said. "But I don't look at it that way. He'd still be hurting others."

As he leaned against the Dodge Durango SUV parked in his driveway Thursday morning, Wurzelbacher indicated to reporters who crowded around that he was a conservative, a fan of the military and McCain. He said meeting McCain would be an honor but said he hadn't been contacted by the Republican campaign.

Still, the plumber wouldn't say who he was voting for and brushed off a question about whether he could influence the election or other voters.

"I don't have a lot of pull. It's not like I'm Matt Damon," Wurzelbacher said.

"I just hope I'm not making too much of a fool of myself," he added.

The First Joe The Plumber!

The word plumber dates from the Roman Empire[citation needed]. In Roman times, pipes were made of lead, or plumbum in Latin (hence the periodic table of the elements symbol of Pb for lead). Thus, a person with expertise in working with pipes was known as a Plumbarius[citation needed], which was eventually shortened to plumber.

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What Is A Plumber? Like Joe The Plumber

A plumber is a tradesperson who specializes in installing and maintaining systems used for potable (drinking) water, sewage, drainage, or industrial process plant piping.
[1] In most jurisdictions the piping for HVAC, fire protection, and industrial systems are installed by 'steam-fitters', 'pipe-fitters', or 'gas-fitters' tradespeople.

Many in these trades are members of organized labor groups (unions), while many are non-union. Years of training and/or experience are needed to become a skilled plumber; many jurisdictions also require that plumbers be licensed. A Master Plumber is one who has demonstrated mastery of the trade of plumbing within the complete aspect of all genre of the craft, or in one specifically. eg: Residential, commercial, institutional, multi family dwellings, underground municiplal, and high volume, long distance, transmission systems.

This type of "Master Plumber" may have worked in a single genre of the trade as a whole for many years, or may have experience in multiple generes' of the plumbing trade. Persons recognised, either formally, or informally, as a Master of their trade typically provide consultancy to developers, and even assistance to new plumbers in the trade, while overseeing large or even small plumbing projects.