Dennis Kucinich: America's most popular vegan kicks some ass; names taken

Dennis Kucinich is on a roll, of late. Presidential ambitions once again dashed, this tofu chomping political bad-ass is apparently just warming up.

On September 10th, Kucinich presented a petition signed by over 50,000 individuals to house majority leader Nancy Pelosi (D - Ca) calling for the impeachment of President Bush, citing criminal mishandling of the war in Iraq, and calling it "errant retributive justice"

Three days later, on September 13th, Kucinich was quoted, saying that "The U.S. is playing with fire" regarding recent illegal border raids striking at alleged terror camps within Pakistan, a sovereign nation.

Yesterday, showing how much this seitan-satan really hates America, Lil' Denny Kucinich came down on Our national pastime by declaring in a house subcommittee meeting that there was "Substantial evidence of improprieties and possible fraud by the financial architects of the new Yankee Stadium." The stadium, scheduled to be built in the South Bronx is being funded in large part by hundreds of millions of dollars in tax-free bonds issued by the City of New York. The alleged fraud centers around the value of the property that the stadium is to be built on, and the issuance of the bonds based on the reported value. Kucinich calls in to question major gaps between two separate appraisals of the land in question. One as low as $45 per square foot, another for as much as $275.

How does such a disparity exist? According to Seth Pinksy, president of the city's Economic Development Corp, and the group responsible for coordinating the deal, it lies with the appraisal methods: One assuming the existence of a billion dollar stadium on the property, and on based on the property's value alone. Pinksy went on to claim that the project has been "...One of the most open and transparent processes in the history of the country," and continued on, citing the benefits of a "billion dollar investment in one of the poorest areas of the country." But Kucinich has not been the only critic of the deal. State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky (D - Westchester) has been a  vocal critic of the construction, and has said that there would be "little, if any, economic benefit to the public resulting from taxpayer subsidies."

It may at first seem unclear how a congressman from Ohio becomes embroiled a fishy project in New York state. But Kucinich sits on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and actually chairs the Domestic Policy Subcommitte, therefore he may have precedent in addressing the City of New York's issuing of bonds under IRS rules. How city officials stand to benefit from any underhanded dealings is still unclear. The Yankees have since also requested over 300 million dollars in additional tax-free bonds to help complete the project, and IRS officials are seeking a way to block the issuing of these bonds until an in-depth investigation may take place. Con. Kucinich has also implied that certain city officials may face perjury charges if it can be proven that they knowingly provided false information to the IRS. Yankee organization representatives are scheduled to to testify Oct. 7th in front of his Domestic Policy Subcommittee, which Kucinich chairs.

In an election cycle focusing more and more on government spending and ear-mark reform, Kucinich has recently gained mention in the media partly thanks to Barrack Obama who earlier this week - talking about McCain's favoring of both less and greater amounts of government regulation in the economy - referenced him saying "[John McCain]...can't decide whether he's Barry Goldwater or Dennis Kucinich." 

Zing!