"The civil service gang is always howling about candidates and officeholders putting up money for campaigns and about corporations chipping in. They might as well howl about giving contributions to churches. A political organization has to have money for its business as well as a church, and who has more right to put up than the men who get the good things that are going? Take, for instance, a great political concern like Tammany Hall It does missionary work like a church, it's got big expenses and it's got to be supported by the faithful. If a corporation sends in a check to help the good work of the Tammany Society, why shouldn't we take it like other missionary societies? Of course, the day may come when we'll reject the money of the rich as tainted, but it hadn't come when I left Tammany Hall at 11:25 A.M. today."
-- George W. Plunkitt (1842-1924), NY State Senator (D-Brooklyn), and Chairman of the Democratic Party of New York City (aka Tammany Hall). Plunkitt once quipped to a reporter that he'd like the epitaph on his tombstone to read, "I Seen My Opportunities and I Took 'Em."

... who like to consider themselves the smartest people in the room ...

"One question, among many raised in recent weeks, had to do with whether my financial support in any way influenced several political figures to take up my cause. I want to say in the most forceful way I can: I certainly hope so."
-- Charles Keating (1924-2014), Chairman of Lincoln Savings & Loan, which was seized by federal regulators and at the time, constituted the biggest bank failure in U.S. history. Coincidentally, Keating died yesterday in Phoenix at age 90. (December 1989)

... who also have absolutely no phuquin' sense of history whatsoever?

"[T]he principles of stare decisis look at a number of factors. Settled expectations is one of them. ... Whether or not particular precedents have proved to be unworkable is another consideration on the other side[.] ... I do think it is a jolt to the legal system when you overrule a precedent. Precedent plays an important role in promoting stability and evenhandedness."
-- Federal Judge John Roberts, at his Senate Confirmation hearings on his nomination by President George W. Bush as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. (September 2005)

Shame on Chief Justice John Roberts, and his four cronies Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia, David Kennedy and Clarence Thomas. Again, from Roberts' Sept. 2005 confirmation hearings:

SEN. ARLEN SPECTER, Senate Judiciary Chairman: "One final citation from the joint opinion in Roe, quote: 'After nearly 20 years of litigation in Roe's wake, we are satisfied that the immediate question is not the soundness of Roe's resolution of the issue, but the precedential force that must be accorded to its holding.' Do you think the court -- the joint opinion is correct in elevating precedential force even above the specific holding of the case?"

JOHN ROBERTS: "That is the general approach when you're considering stare decisis. It's the notion that it's not enough that you might think that the precedent is flawed, that there are other considerations that enter into the calculus that have to be taken into account: the values of respect for precedent, evenhandedness, predictability, stability; the considerations on the other side, whether a precedent you think may be flawed is workable or not workable, whether it's been eroded. So to the extent that the statement is making the basic point -- that it's not enough that you might think the precedent is flawed to justify revisiting it -- I do agree with that."

Personally, I think Roberts is a world-class bull$H!+ artist.

"The power of the Government to protect the integrity of the elections of its own officials is inherent and has been recognized and affirmed by repeated declarations of the Supreme Court. There is no enemy of free government more dangerous and none so insidious as the corruption of the electorate. No one defends or excuses corruption, and it would seem to follow that none would oppose vigorous measures to eradicate it. I recommend the enactment of a law directed against bribery and corruption in Federal elections. The details of such a law may be safely left to the wise discretion of the Congress, but it should go as far as under the Constitution it is possible to go, and should include severe penalties against him who gives or receives a bribe intended to influence his act or opinion as an elector; and provisions for the publication not only of the expenditures for nominations and elections of all candidates, but also of all contributions received and expenditures made by political committees."
-- President Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), 1905 State of the Union Address (December 5, 1905)

Monterey Herald | April 2, 2014
Carmel calls a time-out on wine tasting rooms - "The city of Carmel is keeping any new wine tasting rooms in the bottle. The City Council voted 5-0 on Tuesday to place a 45-day moratorium on new wine tasting room permits. The city likely will extend the moratorium for a longer period "to give the staff and the Planning Commission some breathing room" to develop new rules for the wine outlets that have mushroomed in Carmel."

It's probably a good thing for those city councilmembers that Clint Eastwood isn't mayor of Carmel any more.

George W. Bush to celebrate Vladimir Putin with portrait, President reveals in daddy-daughter interview