ANOTHER IL HOUSE REPUB IN TROUBLE OVER ETHICS LAWS: JERRY WELLER

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Two articles below on one of the strangest Republican stories of this election:

JERRY WELLER, INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY (Wonkette)

Son-in-law of a murderous Latin American Banana Republic dictator, husband to that dictator’s right-wing extremist daughter, possible page-fucker and all-around Republican congressman Jerry Weller is a man for our time.

And just like Bush and Rev. Moon, Weller has secret Latin American land holdings “just in case.”

Weirdly enough, Weller’s beachfront acreage is in Nicaragua — his wife and dictator father-in-law do their special work in nearby Guatemala.

To avoid the appearance of being an Global Criminal Mastermind or whatever, Weller asked his buddies in Congress for various waivers. He got them.

MORE
http://www.wonkette.com/politics/jerry-weller/jerry-weller-international-man-of-mystery-210191.php


IS JERRY WELLER’S BEACH AN ETHICS BREACH?

The Republican from Illinois, one of the most powerful men in Congress when it comes to Latin America, appears to have unreported assets in Nicaragua.

By Frank Smyth
October 25, 2006

JERRY WELLER, THE 11th District representative who’s up for reelection in November, has some explaining to do. As I wrote in an August 25 cover story, “The Congressman and the Dictator’s Daughter,” he’s already raised questions about whether he has a conflict of interest because he’s refused to step down from the House of Representative’s influential Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere even though he’s married to Zury Rios Sosa, a third-term legislator in Guatemala. Since then I’ve discovered that the congressman, a Republican whose district encompasses parts of the south suburbs, hasn’t revealed the value of any of the wedding gifts he and Sosa received when they were married two years ago in Guatemala. Such gifts are supposed to be listed on the publicly available financial disclosure forms congressmen file every year, but the House ethics committee routinely grants waivers, and Weller got one. Still, his request raises questions, because Sosa is the daughter of former dictator Efrain Rios Montt and the second most powerful person in the party he heads, so lots of people may have wanted to give the couple something very nice.

More troubling, I’ve also learned that Weller owns several pieces of property in Nicaragua, some of which he’s disclosed to Congress as required by its rules—and some of which he apparently hasn’t.

Weller seems to have bought his first Nicaraguan lot four years ago, somewhere in the coastal township of San Juan del Sur, a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Managua. Then a fifth-term congressman, he went to Nicaragua in January 2002 with other members of the House Ways and Means Committee to attend a presidential inauguration, and he seems to have bought the property sometime afterward. At the time land was still relatively cheap—Nicaragua’s the poorest nation in the hemisphere after Haiti. But cruise ships were already docking nearby, and investors had started buying up beachfront property. It’s not clear how much Weller paid for the undeveloped lot, but on his financial disclosure form, which congressmen are required to file by the Ethics in Government Act, he listed it in the assets section and checked the box indicating that it was worth $50,000 to $100,000.

Within a year Weller had joined the House International Relations Committee and its western hemisphere subcommittee, whose main focus is Latin America. In August 2003 he and other committee members went to Guatemala to discuss issues such as expanding trade relations and curbing drug trafficking and money laundering, and that’s when he met Sosa. Eleven months later they announced their engagement.

MORE
http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/wellerbeach/

INCLUDES PHOTO
Representative Jerry Weller at his wedding to Guatemalan legislator Zury Rios Sosa in 2004
AP Photo / Rodrigo Abd

[aquart]

1. Ethics? What is Ethics?

Republicans don't need no steenkeen ethics.

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2. LOL! don't need no steenkeen ethics, don't need no steenkeen laws,

don't need no steenkeen Constitution. Ain't that the truth aquart?

But take away their cheap gas, and SUVs with yellow ribbons on the back and multiplication tables on the sides, and they go absolutely apeshit!

[KharmaTrain]

3. His Wife Is The Daughter Of Rios Montt...

This guy taught Negraponte the ropes in El Salvador.

Weller's got a lot of questions that have swirled around him for years but sits under Gym Teach Denny's protection racket. Now that his protectors are in trouble, are Jerry's skeletons being exposed?

The major problem facing a Democrat controlled Ethics Committee is how many investigators it'll need to hire. Might just be wise to bring in a Federal Prosecutor and kill who birds with one stone.

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4. You're saying Weller married the daughter of a

death squad expert? Is that right? Are the voters in his district aware of that?

[KharmaTrain]

6. Here's More Info For Ya...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Weller

On November 20, 2004, just after being re-elected, Weller married three-term Guatemalan Congresswoman Zury Ríos Montt at her father's home in Antigua Guatemala. This was his second marriage, and her fourth. (Zury Ríos has also used the combined parental surname Ríos Sosa, but in Guatemala she is nowadays best known by her father's name, Ríos Montt; her personal website uses the hybrid married form "Ríos-Montt de Weller". <1>) Zury Ríos Montt has been quoted calling her father "her inspiration".<8>

The marriage has raised local and national controversy, as Ríos Montt's father is a former dictator,<9> accused of genocide,<10> with an international warrant for his arrest.<11> General Efraín Ríos Montt, 18-month term in office is best known outside Guatemala for heading a military regime (1982–1983) that was responsible in some of the worst atrocities of Guatemala's 36-year civil war. The war ended with a peace treaty in 1996. The civil war pitted left-wing rebel groups against the army, with huge numbers of Mayan campesinos caught in the crossfire. At least 200,000 Guatemalans were killed during the conflict.

And that's the stuff that's publicly known about him. Prior to his marriage there were lots of questions about his sexuality and some still remain.

His district, Will County, is still very red and there hasn't been a serious challenger to Weller since the early 90's. Here's a target for 2008.

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10. Thanks very much, Kharma!

Incredible.

[in_cog_ni_to]

7. SOME of us are aware of it. During the last election

I worked on Tari Renner's campaign (that's who ran against Weller) and Tari let it be known who Jerry Weller is and who he's married to and who Weller's Father-In-Law is. Republicans just don't CARE. They voted him in anyway....well, as far as we know they voted for him. Our County clerk is a repuke, Bruce Clark. Bruce Clark chose to store Kankakee's evoting machines at a Olivet University warehouse because, you know, our county has NO OTHER warehouses to store the evoting machine in.:eyes: The HUGE problem I have with this???? Just a few months before the last election, JERRY WELLER gave Olivet University a $300,000 grant for their science department! PLUS, it's a religious University and we all know how they vote. THEN, Bruce Clark, repuke, brings in Olivet University computer geeks on election day to help with the evoting machines...just in case there's a problem.:eyes:

ANOTHER interesting tidbit: Bruce Clark, repuke, has Diebold Touch Screen machines in Kankakee City. Kankakee, the city, has a large black poor community who votes Democratic. In my village, white community that votes repuke, we have Optical Scan machines. The repuke community can be recounted (how convenient for repukes). The Democratic community can't be recounted (how inconcenient for Democrats). I don't know what kind of evoting machines are used in the rest of the district though.

ALSO...Weller doesn't even LIVE IN OUR DISTRICT! He sold his Morris, IL. home, bought a Chicago condo, he owns a home in DC, he owns a home in Guatamala, but not in his district! He still uses Morris as his address though! He's a real CORRUPT rat bastard.

1. Jerry Weller, a repuke, gives Olivet University a $300,000 grant

2. Our county clerk is a repuke who chose to store our evoting machines at Olivet University instead of a secure government facility.

3. Olivet is a religious University that is OVERWHELMINGLY REPUKE.

4. Bruce Clark, repuke, brings repuke Olivet students in to HELP fix any problems voters may have with the evoting machines.

5. Touch Screen, no paper trail machines, are in the Democratic community. Can't do a recount.

6. Optical Scan, WITH A PAPER trail that can be recounted, are in white repuke community.

He's also guilty of IGNORING a Tritium water leak from our local Braidwood Nuclear plant, Exelon. Tritium water is radioactive water. He accepted campaign contributions from Exelon, BTW.:eyes:

Energy companies
Weller has accepted over $176 thousand dollars from major oil and gas companies.<21> Jerry Weller received donations from Exelon Corporation, the parent company of Commonwealth Edison, an electric utility serving Weller’s district as well as the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association a group representing electrical cooperatives in his district. Exelon owns three nuclear power plants in Weller's district and is being sued by Will County residents and the State's Attorney due to leaks of radioactive tritium at the Braidwood Nuclear Generating Station and the Dresden Nuclear Power Plant.<22> The radioactive leaks have contaminated well water above the Environmental Protection Agency's federal drinking water standard. Weller sent a letter to Exelon Corp expressing his concern and recommended that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission investigate the power plants in question.<23> Weller received multiple donations from Arthur Andersen and Enron Corporation, including after the scandal became public knowledge. Weller accepted a donation less than a month prior to Enron’s bankruptcy filing.<16> Weller also accepted donations from El Paso Corp., owner of ANR Pipeline company, which opened a new natural gas market center in Joliet, Illinois. The new center connects several new pipelines adding larger supply capabilities and creating additional competition in the midwest, where only the Nicor Chicago hub had previously existed.<24>



IOW...Jerry Weller is your typical CORRUPT repuke.

Go John Pavich!

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9. Thanks for your post. That's really interesting!

[radfringe]

5. enjoy

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2502450

[mucifer]

8. I really feel for Pavich. I canvassed for him a month ago and in the

lower income area I canvassed, people were very nice, but no one had heard of him except one election judge that I met. So I started working on Dan Seals campain. He has a real chance to win. Is Pavich doing any better now? I live in Chicago no chance of a dem losing a congressial seat here so us volunteers go out to the burbs.

It's very sad that someone like weller will probably get reelected.