http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/bribery/ en-us Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:13:54 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2413976/posts At least 10 states are now raising questions about the legality of the deal that Senator Ben Nelson, a Democrat, cut for his home state of Nebraska during the health care negotiations. Under the agreement, which is on the verge of being approved Thursday by the Senate, Nebraska is permanently exempt from paying for its expansion of Medicaid, shoving that cost onto taxpayers in every other state. Mr. Nelson was able to exercise such leverage because in exchange, he was providing the magical 60th vote that Democrats needed to advance their health care bill. The deal has enraged other Senators,... New York Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2413976/posts#comment Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:13:54 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2413328/posts The Democrat controlled government, opposition be damned, on the verge of a huge power grab in the name of insuring the uninsured and keeping health insurance companies “honest” are digging deep and rolling up their sleeves, set to take over 1/6 of the American economy, with a new and despicable level of partisanship. The final Senate vote to move the healthcare “reform” bill to a reality has captured the attention of the American people for its blatant maneuvers to mix politics with healthcare. Just yesterday, in order to gain support from Senator Nelson of Nebraska for the bill, Nebraska is... Political Blog http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2413328/posts#comment Tue, 22 Dec 2009 22:30:41 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2413108/posts GOP Leader: “Senate Democrats Have Sunk to Plenty of New Lows to Jam Through This Government Takeover of Health Care, But Putting Their Votes on the Auction Block Tops Them All.” Washington, Dec 22 - Americans are still combing through all the sweetheart deals Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) made in order to jam through his government takeover of health care on the night before Christmas. To be fair, Washington Democrats are making it easier to sort out this calamity by rushing to take credit for all these payoffs, proving once again how out of touch they are with... Republican leader http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2413108/posts#comment Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:48:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412685/posts Politics: Sen. Mary Landrieu was the new "Louisiana Purchase." Sen. Ben Nelson got the federal government to pick up his state's future Medicaid tab. Maybe we should just put Senate votes up on eBay. Nelson, the 60th vote in the middle-of-the-night Senate party line vote on health care reform, will go down in American political history as the inventor of the permanent earmark. His seemingly principled stand against including federal funding for abortion evaporated like the morning dew as he decided to take what was behind door No. 1. The deal for Nelson includes special Medicaid funding for Nebraska, along... Investor's Business Daily http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412685/posts#comment Tue, 22 Dec 2009 02:24:17 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2412359/posts We Used to Call this Bribery and Corruption... From Landreau's Louisiana Purchase to Nelson's Cornhusker Kickback, congressional crapulence is on full display. Senators who held out got all kinds of goodies for their own states.  Ben Nelson got Harry to exempt his state from the medicaid increases caused by the bill, and you and I are picking up the tab.  Politico catalogs the greed of these pigs at the trough, from Vermont to Michigan.  This craven, immoral display dishonors the man who set the cornerstone of the capitol, George Washington.  It is a contravention of everything our founders stood... Western Hero http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2412359/posts#comment Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:16:08 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2411972/posts Republicans poring over the bill Democrats released Saturday found this on page 328: “(a) APPROPRIATION.—There are authorized to be appropriated, and there are appropriated to the Department of Health and Human Services, $100,000,000 for fiscal year 2010, to remain available for obligation until September 30, 2011, to be used for debt service on, or direct construction or renovation of, a health care facility that provides research, inpatient tertiary care, or outpatient clinical services. Such facility shall be affiliated with an academic health center at a public research university in the United States that contains a State’s sole public academic medical... Multiple http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2411972/posts#comment Mon, 21 Dec 2009 02:16:12 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2411898/posts Back on November 21st, Senator Mary Landrieu provided the 60th vote for the Senate Democrats to cut off a GOP filibuster and start the debate on a healthcare reform bill. In exchange for that vote, the Democratic leadership offered her a $300 million ‘bribe’ in the form of additional Medicaid benefits for her home state of Louisiana and for other states ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. Now a month later Senator Ben Nelson has announced that he will provide the 60th vote to cut off debate on the healthcare reform bill. In exchange for his vote, the Democratic leadership offered him... Examiner.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2411898/posts#comment Sun, 20 Dec 2009 23:26:32 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2411583/posts Democrat Ben “Dover” Nelson, who had previously threatened to join a GOP filibuster of the Senate Health Care Bill, proved today that everything has a price – including a man’s values. The Nebraska Senator just accepted what I’ll generously describe as an enormous “monetary incentive” to do a complete 180 on his long-time position on abortion funding and thereby gave this awful legislation life with his 60th all-Democrat vote. Earlier this month, Nelson insisted that he would not support a bill without stronger anti-abortion language: The American Thinker Blog http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2411583/posts#comment Sun, 20 Dec 2009 11:26:58 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2411472/posts The state of Nebraska is going to do well under the compromise struck by Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson to ensure his support for health overhaul legislation. In the final deal-making, the senator won a commitment that the federal government would pick up Nebraska’s share of the bill’s proposed expansion of Medicaid, the federal-state health program for the poor. ... Mr. Nelson had feared the bill’s proposed expansion of Medicaid would cause financial turmoil for his home state. After the changes, he suggested Saturday that his concerns were addressed. “I’m comfortable it’s taken care of,” he said. ... Five other states,... Wall Street Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2411472/posts#comment Sun, 20 Dec 2009 02:36:23 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2411268/posts Now that we know that the Democratic leadership in Congress and the Obama Administration have bribed Senator Ben Nelson into supporting the government takeover of healthcare, the question arises, who ARE these people, anyway? Are they aliens from outer space? They certainly don't act like normal human beings who are fully aware of reality. Senator Ben Nelson, for example, will vote in favor of the mammoth, debt-busting monstrosity in spite of the fact that in the latest poll Nebraskans indicate by a 61% majority that they will vote against Nelson if he votes in favor of this bill. Columbia Conservative Examiner http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2411268/posts#comment Sat, 19 Dec 2009 19:22:40 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2409170/posts Politics: If the Democrats' stitched-together Frankenstein monster of health care reform gets the 60 votes to get through the Senate, it will have been done through an assortment of bribes and brass knuckles. (snip) Sen. Ben Nelson, a Nebraska Democrat, has also been critical of the buy-in and public option, but he has an additional issue about whatever comes out of the Senate not involving public funding of abortion in any way. Michael Goldfarb on the Weekly Standard blog quotes a Senate aide as saying the White House is now threatening to put Nebraska's Offutt Air Force Base on the... Investor's Business daily http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2409170/posts#comment Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:29:19 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2409192/posts Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., and 19 other GOP senators today called for a hearing into reports that the Obama administration used the future of Offutt Air Force Base as bargaining chip in the health care debate, according to a press release by Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev. Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., has flatly denied that Offutt came up in connection with the health care bill or any other piece of legislation. The White House also has described those reports as "absurd." The group of Republican senators called for a hearing in a letter to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin,... Omaha World-Herald http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2409192/posts#comment Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:59:53 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2408578/posts First, Senator Joseph Lieberman -- the former Democrat, current independent from Connecticut -- rejected the so-called public health care option. Then he threatened to torpedo the entire health care reform bill if it allowed people over 55 to buy Medicare plans. The aim of that idea, like the public option, is to provide more choice for consumers and more competition for the private insurance industry. And that industry, you will not be surprised to hear, has been very, very good to Mr. Lieberman. What makes it all the more hypocritical is that Mr. Lieberman claims to want health care reform.... New York Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2408578/posts#comment Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:47:19 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2403264/posts The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) yesterday announced its “endangerment finding” declaring that carbon dioxide, the very substance we humans exhale, is a danger to public health.  That this was done just before the president departed to attend the Copenhagen global warming summit is, presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs assured us yesterday, completely coincidental. The Obama administration would like to to ignore the doctored “science” backing up anthropogenic global warming claims to discount the manipulated data exposed by Climategate documents.  Public confidence in the claims of the top climate scientists in the world has been shattered by the details of the 61... HumanEvents.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2403264/posts#comment Tue, 8 Dec 2009 23:43:32 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2397239/posts Leader of Athens Democratic Party indicted on bribery charges Monday, November 30, 2009 6:10 PM By Randy Ludlow THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH The embattled chairwoman of the Athens County Democratic Party was indicted today on charges she sought to buy the votes of some Ohio University students. A grand jury charged Susan Gwinn with two counts of election-related bribery, said Delaware County Prosecutor Dave Yost, the special prosecutor in the case. No one else, including members of the OU College Democrats, was indicted after grand jurors heard testimony and evidence today, Yost said. The indictment comes after authorities investigated a charge... The Columbus Dispatch http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2397239/posts#comment Tue, 1 Dec 2009 00:14:04 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2395618/posts It has been almost a year that little Barry What’s-His-Name, the Kenyan- Indonesian-African-American lad has been going to school as President of the United States. This is an interim Report Card to his political parents, the voters of the United States. English Comprehension: Barry has the most extraordinary ability to speak in English than all but a small handful of students who have ever attended this school. However, this ability to speak in complete sentences, using words that seem appropriate to the subject at hand, is coupled with a near total lack of content in those speeches. A+ for delivery,... Special to FreeRepublic http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2395618/posts#comment Fri, 27 Nov 2009 23:38:03 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2392118/posts Staffers on Capitol Hill were calling it the Louisiana Purchase. On the eve of Saturday's showdown in the Senate over health-care reform, Democratic leaders still hadn't secured the support of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), one of the 60 votes needed to keep the legislation alive. The wavering lawmaker was offered a sweetener: at least $100 million in extra federal money for her home state. And so it came to pass that Landrieu walked onto the Senate floor midafternoon Saturday to announce her aye vote -- and to trumpet the financial "fix" she had arranged for Louisiana. "I am not going... Washington Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2392118/posts#comment Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:16:34 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2391930/posts This Congress is beneath contempt. What they are poised to pass today -- yes I know this is just a procedural vote, but everything turns on it -- is an abomination. Since Lincoln and Landrieu have been bought off it is now sure to pass. Landrieu's vote will cost the taxpayers $100 million. I wonder what we paid Lincoln to betray us? This bill will not merely ruin our healthcare system; it will impose economy-crushing taxes, pushing our already tottering economy ever closer to the abyss. No surprise there. Candidate Obama said that since we are only 4 percent of... The American Thinker http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2391930/posts#comment Sun, 22 Nov 2009 12:05:42 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2390315/posts am told the section applies to exactly one state: Louisiana, the home of moderate Democrat Mary Landrieu, who has been playing hard to get on the health care bill. In other words, the bill spends two pages describing would could be written with a single world: Louisiana. (This may also help explain why the bill is long.) Senator Harry Reid, who drafted the bill, cannot pass it without the support of Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu. How much does it cost? According to the Congressional Budget Office: $100 million. ABC News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2390315/posts#comment Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:24:14 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2386157/posts Detroit (WWJ) -- A Detroit federal judge has sentenced a Detroit businesman and corruption figure to the maximum five years in jail for conspiracy to commit bribery. Rayford Jackson arranged the bribes for now-former city councilwoman Monica Conyers WWJ.COM http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2386157/posts#comment Sat, 14 Nov 2009 05:25:35 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2385901/posts Jeffrey H. Sloman, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami Field Office, announced the filing of an Indictment charging Fitzroy Salesman, 52, of Miramar, Florida, with committing mail fraud by depriving the citizens of his honest services, extortion under color of official right, and bribery in programs receiving federal funds, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1341, 1346, 1951, and 666, respectively. Salesman was arrested on September 23, 2009 on a criminal complaint in connection with these charges. He was released... Department of Justice http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2385901/posts#comment Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:33:45 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2385105/posts Late this afternoon the federal government move to seize the assets of the Alavi Foundation, a "charitable front" for Iranian terror activities. The Alavi Foundation claims that its goals are to "promote understanding and harmony among people of different religions"; "promote the study of the humanities, arts, and pure and applied sciences"; "giv[e] assistance to public charitable organizations during times of hardship and deprivation caused by war or natural disasters"; and "provid[e] financial assistance to not-for-profit organizations that are involved in the teaching of Islamic culture and the Persian language." Former FBI official Oliver Revell has stated that the Alavi... Discoverthenetworks/Bloomberg/MSNBC/the Lid http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2385105/posts#comment Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:32:57 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2381725/posts The Democrats $283 Million Dollar Bribe Hidden in the Healthcare Bill Video explains why the dems stuffed a veterinarian loan forgiveness into the Healthcare bill Breitbart.TV http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2381725/posts#comment Sun, 8 Nov 2009 22:03:45 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2381006/posts BALTIMORE -- Baltimore mayor Sheila Dixon is about to put her political future in the hands of a jury. Dixon goes on trial Monday on theft charges. She's accused of hitting up her wealthy developer pals to donate thousands of dollars' worth of gift cards to needy families. Prosecutors say she used those gift cards for her personal shopping instead. AP / Newsmax http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2381006/posts#comment Sat, 7 Nov 2009 18:17:48 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2376965/posts Jeffrey H. Sloman, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami Field Office, and Robert Parker, Director, Miami-Dade Police Department, announced that defendant Jorge Delgado was sentenced on October 29, 2009 to two years of imprisonment, to be followed by three years of supervised release. Delgado previously pled guilty to aiding and abetting an attempt to possess ecstasy with the intent to distribute. During the time at issue, Delgado was a Miami-Dade Police Officer assigned to uniformed road patrol. This charge arose from an undercover investigation... Department of Justice http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2376965/posts#comment Mon, 2 Nov 2009 23:59:47 GMT