Williams Finally Gets Paid
It didn't take long for former Mayor Anthony A. Williams to get a big check after leaving the public sector.
But the $4,000 payment he recently received wasn't a signing bonus from his new employer. The check came from an outfit he'd rather forget—the 2002 Committee to Reelect Tony Williams.
The former mayor was apparently too busy with golf lessons at the FBR Open in Scottsdale, Ariz., to return calls from LL about the money. The disbursement is reported as a loan repayment in the committee's Jan. 31 filing. In another section of the report, the nature of the debt is listed as “legal fees.”
The other outstanding red ink in the Williams political treasury is $5,950 owed to the law firm of Greenstein, Delorme & Luchs. Vincent Mark Policy of the firm defended Williams after political consultant Tom Lindenfeld sued the sitting mayor, alleging Williams stiffed him for services. The law firm also helped Williams out during the now-famous petition-signature scandal. Widespread forgeries and fraud in the signature collection process cost Williams a place on the 2002 democratic primary ballot. He won in a write-in campaign.
During one of these legal scuffles, Williams apparently found it necessary to personally cough up $4,000—presumably to pay Policy. In November 2003, good-government gadfly Dorothy Brizill filed a complaint with the Board of Elections and Ethics, claiming Policy's decision to provide Williams with legal help on a pro bono basic violated city law. (Policy was also working as a lobbyist at the time.)
But who ponied up for Tony's check? Two local unions—the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Washington Building & Construction Trade Council—kicked in $2,000 each this summer as Williams was becoming an afterthought to D.C. voters. Neither union could explain to LL how they became aware of the pressing need for funds at the committee.
Williams didn't have to go far to get the check. His wife, Diane Simmons Williams, is treasurer of the committee, which might explain why when the union money came in, the law firm ended up second in line for the cash.
4:33 am
So did Mary Cheh!
Recently I wrote on several blogs and/or message boards the following:
Recently, the State of Texas has begun requiring that all teenage girls be inoculated against cervical cancer with the vaccine, GARDASIL® [Quadrivalent Human Papilloma virus (Types 6, 11, 16, 18) ] created by Merck Laboratories.
NBC NEWS in New York reported on February 3, 2007 that National organizations opposed to state mandated inoculations do so for four reasons, and they are: 1. There is no emergency present that would require state mandated inoculations; 2. That GARDASIL® has not been around long enough to be proven to actually protect woman from cervical cancer; 3. That requiring such under the belief it will afford such protection will send the wrong message to teenage girls; and 4. Those pushing such legislation on the state levels have been found to be or will be on the payroll of Merck and/or made promises of future campaign contributions/support. In light of the foregoing revealed on NBC NEWS, the people of DC have a right to ask Council members Catania and Cheh what promises were made directly or indirectly to them by MERCK or its alter-egos to introduce B17-0030 "HPV Vaccination & Reporting Act of 2007" now that legislators have been exposed on NBC NEWS as being.
Low and behold, Councilwoman Mary Cheh confirmed in her January 31, 2007, OCF Form 16 filing with the DC Office of Campaign Finance that she had in fact received on January 2, 2007 prior to her co-sponsoring B17-0030 "HPV Vaccination & Reporting Act of 2007 a political contribution after the general election from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers in exchange for promoting GARDASIL®.
While there is nothing illegal in what Cheh has done, it does support what many around the country are saying and that is, MERCK is buying politicians off to sponsor legislation notwithstanding the fact that there is no evidence that GARDASIL® is or will be effective in nullifying the Quadrivalent Human Papilloma virus, what the side effects may be and more.
Isn’t it nice to know that for a few lousy buck that our political leaders are ready to play GOD with our lives knowing that there have been so many drugs like VIOXX that the FDA quickly approved and bingo, look at the Hell it caused people.
What would Catania and Cheh say if this GARDASIL® becomes one more drug that the FDA quickly approved that causes harm to our daughters like maybe birth defects in their children or other matters.
Catania and Cheh need to put people before their own profitability!
9:54 am
GARDASIL® may in fact be a great drug but my opposition to it being given on a mandatory basis is:
It has not been widely tested as most drugs have been;
It has not been tested on enough people;
It has not been tested long enough before it received FDA approval;
That pharmaceutical companies will rush drugs to market out of the sheer profit of it all;
The FDA has in the past approved far too many drugs, far too soon which had to be pulled because of unforeseen side affects and some even deadly like VIOXX and a long list of others; and
The FDA does not always do its own set of tests but relies on findings done by the pharmaceutical industry and/or local medical schools/labs.
Too often we rush to judgment out of emotion and not out of well thought out processes.
My previous wife Antonetta Cisneros-Rees (Niece of former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros) died at 39 from cervical cancer but her’s was not associated with any seen HPV present.
Usually, most women do not die from cancer of the Cervix but only after it has spread to other parts of the body but usually that spread is to the bladder, liver or lungs.
Between HIV, HPV, Herpes, Hepatitis. C and a few others, it seems like 50% of the American population has been bitten by some STD that will either kill or leave them in an on again/off again discomfort.
As for the jokers who think any preventative matter will encourage sexual activity, that is absurd as people were having sex quietly long before the invention of the condom.
Rick Rosendall of the GLAA pointed out to me this morning that Lesbians have a higher rate of cervical cancer than Heterosexual women. If true, then this is a factor that both Merck and Glaxo-Smith did not give heavy consideration to in their research on various levels. Assuming that these Lesbians did not have relations with men, this would alter the causation factor greatly and demand further studies as to how the transmission HPV took place and other matters.
It is all quiet complex to discuss here but I think it is too soon to require inoculations against HPV as a matter of law.