http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070422/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_honor_and_integrity_1

Not that this is a revelation, of course. But there were a few scandals in the article I wasn't aware of.

Ya gotta love this:

"Republicans like to emphasize that scandals, some large, most small, happen under Democratic presidents too. But Bush's critics say the number of current ethics allegations is unusually high."

And I thought this was kind of funny:

"Not all the administration officials who have left under a cloud have been accused of white-collar misconduct.

Claude Allen, who was Bush's domestic policy adviser, pleaded guilty to theft in making phony returns at discount department stores. He was sentenced last summer to two years of supervised probation and fined $500."

"phony returns at discount department stores"? Come on, dude, you can do better than that!

Normally we call that shoplifting, as one of the more modern schemes for stealing from stores is to take the item, then return it for money.

One gang that targetted Target got away with tens of millions of dollars as they had also stolen register tape and printers to phoney up receipts. Now, when you shop at Target, or many other stores, you'll find that they have a barcode, and the barcode is centrally stored. This way, when you print up a reciept from a store across town, you won't get away with it any more.

Another gang had targetted CompUSA as they also had stolen a roll of register tape and were printing up receipts for computers. They'd print one up for a computer, and claim they paid in the back as they wheeled the computers out the front door, showing a receipt to the folks who used to sit at the door and harass customers.

THUGS RUNNING A POPULATION OF THUGS.

>> as one of the more modern schemes for stealing from stores is to take the item, then return it for money. <<

I had someone try that on me at the store I worked at in college.  I had special-ordered an item, but it was the wrong one when it arrived, so the boss just put it on the shelf to sell & reordered the corrrect one for me.

About 3 weeks later, some lady comes up to the register to "return" it.  I knew for a fact that we hadn't sold it (because I had been watching it, and the computer didn't have a record of the sale), so I called the cops.

Book 'em, Danno.

"Allen was apprehended by a Gaithersburg Target store loss prevention manager Pete Schomburg on January 2, 2006. According to the charging document, Allen "admitted to Agent Schomburg that he was committing fraudulent returns" [10]. He was not formally charged until March after a review of security video and credit card activity dating back to 2005. Police said he credited more than $5,000 to his credit card through about 25 similar transactions at other stores.[11][12][13] [14] [15]"

That is pretty funny.  Is this guy on crack?