By two priests.

By Jim Loney
16 minutes ago

MIAMI (Reuters) - Two Roman Catholic priests allegedly misappropriated more than $8 million from their church and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on real estate, travel, rare coins and girlfriends, police in Florida said on Friday.

The retired priests were accused of skimming cash from collection plates and bequests to the St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church in Delray Beach, Florida, over a period of years and channeling the money into secret "slush funds" they used to pay personal bills, Delray Beach police said.

Of course it's a shock that two priests would steal from their church.

The bigger shock is that the were able to pull it off. How the heck does $8 million disappear from a single church before someone notices? The priests are not the entire problem here. Someone was not minding the congregation's business.

Actually, I'm not that surprised. My career has moved me around the country, and I've had the opportunity to be a member of a number of churches. I've held various offices on occasion, including jobs as the congregational Treasurer and as the Chairman of the Finance Committee.

Every congregation is different, but they all have one thing in common -- their internal financial controls suck. Not one of them could pass the kind of audit conducted pursuant to the standards applicable to a business of comparable size.

Why are churches so lax? I think it's just the atmosophere of a church. The usual financial controls employed by businesses seem unnecessary when everyone is a brother or sister in Christ, and so trusts each other.

Unfortunately, the works of the Holy Spirit do not include excusing us from the consequences of ignoring GAAP.

Some of the misappropriated funds may have benefited the church, Delray Beach police spokesman Jeff Messer said.

"They were skimming cash out of the offering plates and other donations that came into the church," he said. "They were spending some on church projects and they were spending a lot on themselves, for vacations, buying properties, gambling trips to Las Vegas and the Bahamas, and alleged girlfriends."

"We can prove several hundred thousand has been spent on personal use by each of them. They may have done some good for the church," Messer said, adding that a church audit covered more than four decades that Skehan served at the church.

Priests accused in $8 million church theft

Posted by: Ace at 05:48 AM | Comments (26)
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And this time, it's personal.

It appears that Wal-Mart has had about enough of being demonized by the left in this country for the grave sin of providing quality goods to American consumers at low prices.

So Wal-Mart has decided to take some action to show those hippy, agrarian, land reformers who's boss after all:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. yesterday launched a voter registration drive aimed at its 1.3 million U.S. employees in what it describes as the largest such effort by a private company.

The kickoff was held in Iowa, a key battleground in the upcoming midterm elections. Workers at Wal-Mart's roughly 3,800 other facilities across the country also received registration forms yesterday. Although the world's largest retailer said it does not want to influence how its workers vote, David Tovar, director of media relations, said the drive was prompted by recent criticism of the company by politicians.

Heh. And Grand Moff Tarkin didn't want to influence the course of the rebellion by blowing up Alderaan.

Wal-Mart is working with Democratic strategist Charles Baker of the law firm DLA Piper and Republican strategist Terry Nelson, founder of Crosslink Strategy, on what it has dubbed the Voter Education Program. The company has prepaid postage for voter registration forms in Iowa and several other states. It is also allowing workers whose shifts do not give them three hours to visit the polls to take paid time off to vote. Before the elections in 2004, they received two hours of unpaid time off.

Wal-Mart sent letters to 18,000 Iowa employees in August criticizing Sens. Evan Bayh of Indiana and Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware and Govs. Tom Vilsack of Iowa and Bill Richardson of New Mexico -- all Democrats -- for participating in a bus tour arranged by Wake Up Wal-Mart, which is funded by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. Similar letters were sent to workers in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.

Well, my only criticism of this effort is why they bothered to send 18,000 letters about 4 candidates who will be lucky to get 18,000 votes between them on Iowa's caucus night.

Then again, maybe they hope that these letters will create a strange disturbance in the Democrat's party platform discussions as a couple of these jokers are running for the VP slot.

In any event, regardless of which side of the political divide you are on voter registration is a good thing, right?

Some activist groups questioned the retailer's motives, citing Wal-Mart's policy of banning voter registration drives conducted by outside parties from its stores.

"If Wal-Mart is truly interested in promoting a just democracy, then customers and employees should be included in registration activities," said Edward A. Hailes Jr., senior attorney with Advancement Project, a national civil rights group organization that works on voting issues.

Ahh, yes. Voter registration drives are as evil as Darth Vader and the Dark Side of the Force unless they are placed in the hands of committed liberal activists to run.

For the life of me, I can't imagine why Wal-Mart would want to keep their customers from being harrassed by a bunch of clipboard wielding moonbats.

Can you?

I'm just sorry that the guy is characterized as "questioning the motives". Had he only "questioned the timing" I could have done a whole Joshua Micah Leia Skywalker Cougar Mellancamp Boutros-Boutros C3P0 Akbar Marshall riff.

Anyway...may the force be with you Wal-Mart!

Posted by: Ace at 10:39 PM | Comments (40)
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Interesting... maybe with a decent replacement candidate the seat can be held.

Posted by: Ace at 04:20 PM | Comments (94)
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How To Ruin Your Life, Part 7,654.

"Maf54" is Mark Foley.

Maf54: You in your boxers, too?

Teen: Nope, just got home. I had a college interview that went late.

Maf54: Well, strip down and get naked.

...

Maf54: What ya wearing?
Teen: tshirt and shorts
Maf54: Love to slip them off of you.

...

Maf54: Do I make you a little horny?
Teen: A little.
Maf54: Cool.

But there's more:

Maf54: Do you like watching Gladiator movies, Joey?

Teen: Uhmm... I guess.

Maf54: Have you ever seen a grown man naked?

Teen: Where is this heading?

Maf54: Do you have any Irish in you, Joey?

Teen: No.

Maf54: Would you like some?

Teen: That's not even from the same movie.

Looks like there will be an investigation after all:

The language gets much more graphic, too graphic to be broadcast, and at one point the congressman appears to be describing Internet sex.

Federal authorities say such messages could result in Foley's prosecution, under some of the same laws he helped to enact.

Yes, enact. Check it out:

Mark also has worked closely with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and John Walsh (host of Fox TVÂ’s AmericaÂ’s Most Wanted) on a variety of child protection programs. Among the latest of these is a program designed to show children how to protect themselves from online predators.

The liberals are going to have a field day, but hey, apparently his advice for children protecting themselves against Internet predators worked, baby.

Why would he take the lead in such a legislative scheme?

1) To insulate himself against just these charges, just as Al Gore began a born-again campaign finance reformer after taking tons of dirty money from ChiCom agents passing donations through Buddhist nuns; and

2) Acess to all that Pete Townsend-style "child porn research."

Posted by: Ace at 02:20 PM | Comments (129)
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...or else there could be problems:

The director of the Government Press Office, Danny Seaman, told the Post Israel reserved the right to act against any media outlets working out of Israel if they "fail to conduct themselves in a professional manner."

A spokesman for AP immediately dismissed the complaint as exhibiting "disproportionate craftiness" and furthmore as coming from a "scheming Jew."

He later corrected himself to say "scheming Zionist Jew."

From mesablue.

Posted by: Ace at 02:04 PM | Comments (25)
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And since Robert Downey Jr. is slated to play Tony Stark, this classic cover of Iron Man #128 instantly came to mind:

Why Robert Downey Jr. you ask?

"The Marvel characters are not just about how high they jump or how fast they fly, they're about their character flaws," Feige said. "They're about their inner demons. They're about the struggles that they go through between being a man and being a hero."

Downey, who has battled his fair share of inner demons, worked hard to get the role, getting in shape and even growing a goatee like the one Stark sports in the comic books.

"In every casting announcement we've done, people in their mind's eye have their own view of it and let us know about it. We're used to it," Feige said. "The point is, we looked at everybody, and we found the best person for the role. It's as confident a casting move as we've ever done. The proof will be in the pudding, but he is Tony Stark."

Here's one thing I know, if Downey doesn't get nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of a skirt chasing, drug addicted, booze hound Tony Stark there is no justice in the world.

After all, he's spent his whole life preparing for this part. It makes his preparations for the lead role in "Chaplin" seem pathetic by comparison.

Posted by: Ace at 01:46 PM | Comments (24)
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In a change of pace, Zawahiri plagiarizes a Joe Biden speech. Well, not just Joe Biden. Any Democrat, really. Whines about "torture" and calls Bush a miserable failure.

Brigitte Gabriel unloads on so-called "Moderate Muslims," and agrees with Dean Esmay that the extremists are really just a few bad apples after all.

No more than 180 to 300 million bad apples, so what are you so worried about? Racists.

Posted by: Ace at 01:30 PM | Comments (14)
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Remember, this is all obviously fake.

Or is it...?

Posted by: Ace at 01:17 PM | Comments (112)
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Hey, this poll thing is pretty fun.

Although I suppose polling purists will knock the poll as being 1) self-selecting and 2) prejudicially worded with the whole "cock-smoking douchetool" thing.

I don't know. I think it's pretty accurate so far.

Updates:

"Yes:" 33%

"No:" 5%

"Cock-Smoking Douchetool:" 62%

Background... Here.

Posted by: Ace at 12:57 PM | Comments (37)
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This is libel, isn't it?

Is there any good reason Michelle shouldn't sue?

Don't give me that "blogger code" about letting crap like this slide. This wasn't presented as a parody; it was presented as fact, without even the most basic of fact-checking (or simple common sense).

It's libel.

Information wants to be free. So does defamation. But just because defamation wants to be free is no reason to give it free range.

Sue, Michelle. Sue like the wind.

I'm sick of Nick Denton's bullshit. The fact that this fucker has a blog called The Defamer is not going to help him in his argument that his blogs are absent of malice in their libel.

Not the hugest deal in the world. But it's time to cut him a little where it hurts.

And Ken Layne? Fuck you. You were a nobody even when you were a somebody. The only reason you (and many bloggers at that time) were read at all was because barely anyone at all was writing blogs.

You were talentless then, you're talentless now. The only reason people know your name is that Instapundit had a choice of eight people a day to link to. What a shock, he linked to you day after day.

He also linked to Oliver Willis, which should tell you something.

Hope you've got $20,000 to spare for a settlement, Pard.

Anyone know how... to cook up a quick poll/quiz on this?

Posted by: Ace at 12:08 PM | Comments (119)
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