DiMasi's Sweetheart Deals

When the guy first became speaker, the liberal professors at the college were so happy! Finally, a liberal who can look after the social needs of this state, they said. Little did they know, he'd be worse than any Republican.

"More deals for DiMasi's friends; Speaker's associates got work as Cognos got state contract" by Andrea Estes, Globe Staff and Stephen Kurkjian, Globe Correspondent | July 30, 2008

Software company Cognos ULC hired House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi's law associate, and a key Cognos sales agent hired DiMasi's personal accountant during a period when the firm was winning millions of dollars in state contracts.

Please read: What Your Massachusetts Tax Dollar Goes For

The involvement of lawyer Steven J. Topazio and accountant Richard D. Vitale adds two more names to what has become a roster of close DiMasi associates who received Cognos-related money as the company was doing lucrative, though highly controversial, business with the state.

DiMasi took an active interest in a software contract awarded to Cognos in 2007 that has been sharply criticized by the state inspector general and revoked by the state. The contract award is now under investigation by the State Ethics Commission.

Topazio and Vitale could prove problematic for DiMasi because the two maintained business relationships with the speaker as they were accepting money from Cognos or from the company's independent sales agent, Joseph P. Lally.

In addition to working as DiMasi's personal accountant, Vitale's financial relationship with DiMasi was expanding around the time of his work with the ticket brokers and Lally. In July 2006, Vitale gave an unusual $250,000 third mortgage to DiMasi at below market rate.

Since the Globe reported in late April on Vitale's work with the ticket brokers and his mortgage loan to DiMasi, Vitale has resigned from his accounting firm, DiMasi has said he paid back the loan in full, and the secretary of state required Vitale to register as a lobbyist and referred the matter to the attorney general for possible prosecution.

Yeah, so that makes the STINK SHIT SMELL of CORRUPTION go away, 'eh, you wasteful prick?

With Lally as the high-powered salesman and DiMasi providing a powerful political push for the kind of software that Cognos produced, Cognos was successful in its quest for Massachusetts business, landing at least two major contracts.

Yeah, and if you read my link they RIPPED US OFF to the tune of $9 MILLION dollars!

Well, the schools around here needed $2 million to set themsleves right, but that's better of going to this prick's fucking fat-cat friends!!!

Reserve this guy a place in the harbor, will ya?

We already did it once, way back when in 1776!!

While winning the contracts, Lally took aggressive steps to advance Cognos's interests. He boasted to state officials about his ties to DiMasi, offering a job to a key staff member of the Department of Education who oversaw the $4.5 million procurement. Lally and Cognos also sponsored a charity golf tournament hosted by DiMasi.

Yeah, DiMasi loves the golf.

This what you were hoping for, liberal fools?

Also working on Cognos's behalf during this period was lobbyist Richard McDonough, another close friend of DiMasi's, who was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to help the company secure state work. He failed to report more than $300,000 in lobbying fees until a Globe story earlier this month detailed his extent of his relationship with Cognos.

In March, the office of Inspector General Gregory Sullivan sharply criticized the administration for rushing through the purchase in violation of basic bidding rules. That contract has been canceled and the money returned to the state."

Therefore, you can't smell the stink of corruption, can you, Mass. citizens?

And the problem is, Amerika, that the COUNTRY is RIFE with POLITICAL LOOTERS and THIEVES!!!!!

Let's go cross-country, shall we?

"Alaska senator indicted in corruption case; Stevens accused of concealing thousands in gifts" by Richard B. Schmitt and Janet Hook, Los Angeles Times | July 30, 2008

WASHINGTON - Senator Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate and a towering figure in Alaska's political history, was indicted by a federal grand jury here in the alleged concealment of hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts he received from one of Alaska's most powerful employers. The indictment accused Stevens, 84, of accepting more than $250,000 in improvements to his Alaska home, and other gifts, ranging from a gas grill to a new Land Rover, from VECO Corp., an oil-field services company.

According to Citizens Against Government Waste, a Washington watchdog group, Stevens sponsored a total of 1,452 pork-barrel projects worth $3.4 billion between 1995 and 2008, making Alaska the number one state in pork per capita every year since 1999.

Reaction to the indictment yesterday was muted on Capitol Hill, where the Justice Department has been conducting of other corruption investigations. Senator Richard Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, the majority whip, described the mood among Democrats as "somber" and added that his caucus was thinking of Stevens and his family. Republicans largely avoided reporters.

WTF, DemocraPs?

How about thinking of the American people for ONCE?!

We WAZ ROBBED by this detestable piece of shit!!!!!!

Stevens is charged with seven counts of making false statements on his financial disclosure forms for calendar years 2001 to 2006. The Watergate-era Ethics in Government Act requires lawmakers to disclose gifts over a specific monetary amount as well as liabilities in excess of $10,000. The indictment alleges that, over a six-year period, Stevens failed to report the gifts from VECO, in exchange for which he "received and accepted solicitations for multiple official actions," including helping VECO obtain lucrative federal contracts."

It's called LOOTING!!!!