Brown to MDOT employees: Vote For Me

Majority In Mississippi has a great post about Butch Brown instructing his subordniate at MDOT to send an e-mail to MDOT employess to vote for him in an online poll at The Magnolia Report. You would have thought the Executive Dictator of MDOT would have learned from his past mistakes.

Buffington v Buffington's Mouth

Larry Buffington should file suit against his own mouth for damages. Y'all Politics has three great audio files of Judge Larry Buffington admitting issuing subpoenas that didn't comply with the law; using his position as judge to appoint his friends to office; and helping a friend get a hospital contract from elected officials in Covington County.

Another call for sunshine on the Attorney General

Here is another call for sunshine on the Attorney General from the letters section of the Clarion Ledger: AG's office can use 'sunshine'

The Clarion-Ledger has been an active voice for open government in Mississippi. The Feb. 13 editorial ("Secrecy: Senate backslides on openness") criticized opponents of a sunshine bill by Sen. David Blount to decrease the waiting period on open records request.

But where is the editorial regarding Sen. Joey Fillingane's attempt to open the Mississippi attorney general's office to sunshine? The waiting period on those records is forever.

Attorney General Jim Hood has given more than 20 no-bid contracts to major campaign contributors, some amounting to millions of dollars in revenue. Who knows who else Hood is working with? Not the taxpayers, because there is no sunshine.

Where is the outrage over the attorney general's deals? The Clarion-Ledger and those seeking open government should also promote sunshine on the office of the attorney general.

Aaron Gentry
Clinton

Butch Brown needs to go

Bobby Harrison writes more about the Rutland controversy.

Probably no better example of that feud can be found than a March 2007 decision where the state Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling reinstating Shirley Rutland as an employee of the Department of Transportation.

According to the Court of Appeals decision, Rutland got caught up in the feud between Hall and Brown. Brown instructed Rutland not to identify Hall as the chairman of the commission in press releases.

Hall told Rutland she worked for him and to continue to identify him as the commission's chairman, as had been the practice of past chairmen.

According to the Court of Appeals opinion, Brown brought her in and asked for whom she worked.

"When Rutland stated that she works for Hall, Brown became enraged and according to Rutland stated, the Bible says that you can only serve one master, and around here I'm the (expletive) master. That (expletive) Hall does not run this agency. Rutland testified that Brown then informed her that he had hired her and that he alone could fire her."

Harrison looks at how Senators are leaning.

Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, who led the charge to ensure that Brown went through the confirmation process, said he had not made up his mind how he will vote.

He said he wants to listen to all the information, but added he would give deference to the fact that Brown is the person a majority of the elected Transportation Commission wants in the job.

While not saying how he would vote on Brown's confirmation, Sen. Alan Nunnelee, R-Tupelo, said Transportation officials "don't like accountability. In government we have a system of checks and balances. Everyone needs to be accountable to someone.

"Under Mr. Brown's leadership, they have tended to resist that accountability."

And the Greenwood Commonwealth makes their opinion very clear.

Brown’s eight-year tenure has been marked by repeated controversy. Questions have been raised about the Department of Transportation’s expenditures, including the frivolous purchase of a half-million-dollar helicopter, hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on lobbying in the state Capitol, and the pricey renovation of the agency’s headquarters. Most recently have come revelations that Brown and Transportation Commissioner Wayne Brown (no relation) have become quite the world travelers on the taxpayers’ nickel — spending between them almost $150,000 over a four-year period on junkets out of the country.

The one person who seems trustworthy when it comes to the operation of the Transportation Department is Central District Commissioner Dick Hall. It’s enlightening that Hall has been a constant critic of Butch Brown’s, even getting Brown fired temporarily a few years ago — a move that has left Hall as the odd man out ever since.

The Transportation Department is a nest of intrigue. Senators should take the opportunity of their confirmation hearings to get to the bottom of it.

If they do that probing with diligence, they will conclude that Butch Brown needs to go.

More Sunshine

It ain't just about emails and incident reports. We could use some sunshine on the Attorney General's secret no-bid multi-million dollar contingency contracts sometimes with major campaign contributors. We're glad Helen McCarty agrees in her letter to the editor to the Clarion Ledger last week.

About a year ago, the Wall Street Journal published an article praising Florida's attorney general for his full support of "sunshine" legislation, which serves to shed "sunlight" on the deals that are cut between the attorney general's office and outside attorneys.

All too often, an attorney general can use this vehicle to hire friends at outlandish rates to try a case that the state's paid attorneys are perfectly capable of handling. Remember Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood's friend Joey Langston, who was paid several million dollars for his work on the MCI settlement?

After Gov. Haley Barbour's infamous special session in 2004, which successfully passed tort reform, a Wall Street Journal article about our state claimed that, under the direction of the governor, Mississippi has passed the most comprehensive tort reform in the country.

Wouldn't it be nice if they could write the same about Mississippi's passage of sunshine legislation? I don't foresee that happening under Hood's watch.

Helen McCarty
Harperville

Party Time With Bennie Thompson

When you're Bennie Thompson, you don't have to leave the country to have a good time.

On October 15, 2008, the world turned to Hofstra University to watch the final Presidential Debate between Barack Obama and John McCain. The world, except for Bennie Thompson. Seems he had to collect some checks for his PAC, while partying down with Janet Jackson. (HatTip to PoliticalPartyTime.org).

Weekend at Bennie's II - Guest Star: Allen Stanford

Brian Perry at the Madison County Journal gives us another guest star for our ongoing "Weekend at Bennie's" marathon: Allen Stanford, the latest billionaire accused of a Ponzi scheme. You might remember we talked about Bennie Thompson's trips paid for by private groups to tropical vacation paradises here and here and here and here - all started by Kingfish's post here.

In addition to Stanford's PAC sending $2500 to Thompson, he also hosted Thompson on his yacht in the Caribbean. This put us on the search for some of this material and thanks to Talking Points Memo for the pictures and Legistorm for the documents.

In 2005, Stanford sent two corporate jets to Washington Dulles International Airport to fly several members of Congress and staff to the Caribbean for a conference hosted by Inter-American Economic Council (IAEC). The IAEC president told the Dallas Morning News the organization raises no money except from sponsors for specific events and in 2005, Stanford provided 85 percent of the council's revenue.

For the next three years, New York Carib News funded trips for Thompson to Panama (2006), Antigua and Barbuda (2007), and St. Maarten (2008). According to Washington DC's The Hill newspaper, "The trip is closely associated with the [Congressional Black Caucus]; only CBC members are invited each year."

The Stanford Financial Group, as recently as 2008, was a supporting sponsor of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (giving between $15,000 and $30,000). The foundation sponsors trips including a 2003 trip to Puerto Rico for Thompson.

On the 2005 IAEC trip, Stanford hosted a reception for lawmakers on his yacht. He hosted another yacht reception for the 2007 trip that included an appearance by Bennie Thompson who "chatted" with Stanford "about a sailing event the billionaire sponsored." Thompson's chief-of-staff told the Politico newspaper he "was not sure whether Thompson flew on Stanford's jet for the 2007 trip."

The 2007 conference agenda scheduled Thompson to speak on "National Security: A Pre-Condition for Success" sponsored by the banking firm HSBC and "Port & Airport Security" sponsored by Macy's.

The 2008 conference at the Sonesta Maho Bay Resort & Casino on the island of St. Maarten occurred about a month after Congress approved the $700 billion financial bailout package. Citigroup (who would receive $45 billion from the bailout package) sponsored the event to the tune of $100,000. Other corporate contributors included AT&T, Verizon ($35,000), Pfizer, Macy's and American Airlines who donated travel. The National Legal and Policy Center has requested an investigation of the event by the special inspector general of the financial bailout package.

Both the 2007 and 2008 trips occurred after Democrats passed new Congressional ethics rules banning corporate sponsorship of conferences like these island trips.

Bennie Thompson recently said about AIG executives, "Well, if these are the same people who fiddled while the economy was burning, then they probably need to go." I don't know if he was fiddling, but kicking it in the Caribbean isn't exactly what I call managing our nation's economic crisis.