http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/corruption/ en-us Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:56:23 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2049444/posts By Clark BakerLast June, I posted this report about US hospitals and how many rely on fraud, preventable injuries and infections to patients to compensate for losses due to our government’s insistence that private hospitals treat and care for uninsured and underinsured citizens, indigents, and illegal aliens. [Photo: Dr. Robert Gallo]I learned how hospitals destroy good physicians and how predatory hospital chains like Tenet, Kaiser Permanente, and Adventist pressure local physicians already in successful private practice to join their groups. Those who refuse are targeted for sham peer review by corporate administrators and MDs who accuse non-compliant physicians as... Modern Conservative http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2049444/posts#comment Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:56:23 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2050623/posts Looks like Sen. Christopher Dodd needs to re-recast his story about his dealings with Countrywide Financial. In June, portfolio.com revealed he and other bigwigs got discounted loans from Countrywide under the "Friends of Angelo" program, named for and run by CEO Angelo Mozilo. Sen. Dodd initially denied getting the VIP treatment when he and his wife refinanced two mortgages in 2003. But he later changed his lie, admitting Countrywide had extended them VIP loans, not because he was on the Senate Banking Committee, but because they browbeat a flunky loan officer into lowering the rates. But that lie doesn't jibe... Waterbury Republican-American http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2050623/posts#comment Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:50:30 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2050599/posts The skeleton in Obama’s money closet By Judi McLeod Robert Wolf, CEO of UBS Americas, who has bundled more than $370,850 for Barack Obama so far this year, is one of the most embarrassing skeletons in BO’s money closet, now that the financial institution Wolf heads up in America has been outed in The Nation’s Attack of the Global Pirate Bankers. Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. A former Toronto Sun columnist, she also worked for the Kingston Whig Standard. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, and Glenn Beck. CFP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2050599/posts#comment Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:03:06 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2050335/posts Bill O'Reilly Nails Robert WexlerTue Jul 22, 2008 at 09:11:12 PM Bill O'Reilly did a good number on "local" Congressman Robert Wexler tonight. And I think Wexler is in a bit of trouble. You see, the longtime Democratic rep says he lives in Delray Beach and he's required to maintain a residence in his district. But he really lives in Potomac MD. The house in Delray that he calls his "offical residence" is owned by Lawrence and Roslyn Cohen, the parents of Wexler's wife, Laurie. And it's in a restricted over-55 community, which makes it impossible for Wexler and and... Broward Palm Beach http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2050335/posts#comment Thu, 24 Jul 2008 02:55:01 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2050197/posts Fresno, CA (LifeNews.com) -- A California court is scheduled to hold a hearing today in a case of a disabled woman like Terri Schiavo who has been deprived of food and water for nine days. Janet Rivera lost her right to food and water on July 14 when a court-appointed guardian removed her feeding tube despite her family's wishes. Rivera, 46, had a heart attack on February 2006 and she never regained consciousness. She has been on life support for two years Jesus Rivera, her husband, had been his wife's conservator until June 17, when he was replaced for unknown... Life News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2050197/posts#comment Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:59:33 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2050190/posts Congressman Robert Wexler is answering questions after a news report alleges that he doesn't reside in his home district of Delray Beach. It is required that he keep a residence in the district he represents, but, according to the report, his primary residence is in Maryland, not Delray Beach. The Delray Beach condo he has claimed as his primary residence is actually owned by his in-laws, in a 55-and-over senior community. When questioned by a Fox News reporter Wexler insists he has done nothing wrong and is following the established guidelines for a residence in his district. Statement by Congressman... WIOD Newsradio http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2050190/posts#comment Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:47:31 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2049955/posts The committee hosting the Democratic National Convention has used the city's gas pumps to fill up and apparently avoided paying state and federal fuel taxes. The practice, which began four months ago, may have ended hours after its disclosure. An aide to Mayor John Hickenlooper released a statement Tuesday evening saying that Denver 2008 Host Committee members would pay market prices for fuel and would also be liable for all applicable taxes. However, Public Works spokeswoman Christine Downs told City Council members just hours before that host committee members were fueling up at the city pumps. The city does not... Rocky Mountain News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2049955/posts#comment Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:53:36 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2050008/posts Rep. Rangel Files Ethics Charges Against Himself Wednesday, July 23, 2008 WASHINGTON — House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., filed an ethics complaint against himself Wednesday with the House Ethics Committee. The move is believed to be unprecedented. The Washington Post recently ran articles and an editorial raising questions about Rangel's potential involvement in raising money for an academic center named in his honor at City College of New York. FOX http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2050008/posts#comment Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:45:32 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2049903/posts One of the most liberal members of Congress in Florida Robert Wexler (Obamapropagandist and notorious leftist) is not a resident of his district. He has lived in Maryland since the late 90s. He claims to live in a house in Del Ray (owned by his mother-law) in an active adult community where no children are allowed, though he has three children). You can't live there with kids, it's against the rules of the community. Another example of Democrat hubris - I am above the law. It seems he has no connection to Florida at all. Clearly it's a phantom residence,... Atlas Shrugs http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2049903/posts#comment Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:09:14 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2049905/posts Menino: Bodybuilding Firefighter Should Quit Albert Arroyo Did Not Show Up To Work Monday BOSTON (WBZ) ― The Boston firefighter who claimed to be permanently disabled - but then competed in a body building contest was a no-show at work on Monday and now he might lose his job altogether. Albert Arroyo was ordered to return to work by Fire Commissioner Roderick Frazer. He sent a letter to Arroyo late last week ordering his return to work on Monday. Arroyo did not show up for his shift and he did not contact anyone with a reason for his absence. "The... WBZ-TV Boston http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2049905/posts#comment Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:15:07 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2049663/posts According to the Fox O'Reilly Factor He lists his mother-in-laws' residence in an elderly area that doesn't allow children...Wexler has three teenagers. He actually lives in Maryland and claims to own a home in Florida which is a lie. I wonder where he pays taxes? If at all. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2049663/posts#comment Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:12:56 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2049565/posts Five Koreans ― four men and one woman ― had been abducted by several unidentified kidnappers who had disguised themselves as police officers in a U.S.-Mexico border city on July 14, an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Tuesday. The official, asking not to be identified, said the abductors have demanded $30,000 in ransom, but declined to give details about the whereabouts of the South Korean nationals and their condition. "As far as I know, the kidnappers have contacted one of the families of the hostages and asked if they were willing to meet their demands... The Korea Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2049565/posts#comment Tue, 22 Jul 2008 20:48:57 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2049323/posts WASHINGTON -- Former Gov. Edwin Edwards and former Insurance Commissioner Jim Brown are among the more than 2,000 people convicted of federal crimes awaiting word on whether President Bush will give them a pardon or commute their sentences during his final months in office. Edwards, who turns 81 on Aug. 7, will be eligible for release from the Federal Detention Center in Oakdale on July 6, 2011. He's serving a 10-year sentence for corrupting the state's riverboat casino licensing process. "I'm hopeful," said former Gov. David Treen, who joined former U.S. Sen. J. Bennett Johnston in filing the request on... The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2049323/posts#comment Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:15:23 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2049263/posts Mayor Menino, tear down this wall. The firewall of low-level graft and back-scratching hackery for which Boston has become famous. It is the only thing protecting a chump like faux-firefighter Albert Arroyo. Everybody knows the story of Albert Arroyo. One day he claims to be “totally and permanently disabled.” Fifteen days later, he’s a top contender in a body building competition - caught on videotape. And yesterday, Mr. Mayor, the “Hardest Non-Working Man In City Government” ignored the commissioner’s order to show up for work. Arroyo may be known for his bulging biceps and six-pack abs, but right now he’s... Boston Herald http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2049263/posts#comment Tue, 22 Jul 2008 11:10:12 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2048841/posts Illinois should go to a military strongman form of government. Instead of the pretense of representative democracy, we should submit to one of those charismatic, totalitarian dictators with the Captain Kangaroo get-up who makes people disappear. After all, isn't that what the "Chicago 9" are doing? The Chicago 9 are the nine Chicago Democrats who live within about five squares miles of one another and who control more than $70 billion worth of government and more than 125,000 public sector jobs in Illinois. [The 9: Daley, Blagojevich, (Lisa) Madigan, White, Hynes, Giannoulias, Jones, (Mike) Madigan, Stroger] It was reported last... Urquhart Media, LLC http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2048841/posts#comment Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:37:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2048618/posts The FBI is investigating state Sen. Don Perata's role in the hiring of a Washington lobbyist to push for a road project sought by a major Perata contributor, documents show. At the urging of the powerful Oakland Democrat, local agencies in 2000 hired former Georgia congressman Dawson Mathis to lobby the Federal Aviation Administration regarding a multimillion-dollar expressway that today links Oakland International Airport with the Harbor Bay Business Park in Alameda. The park's developer, Ron Cowan, has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Perata and other politicians, and for years he had sought this access road. Mathis' hiring... San Francisco Chronicle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2048618/posts#comment Mon, 21 Jul 2008 03:24:35 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2048568/posts With scant weeks to go before the curtain rises on the $41 million Democratic National Convention in Denver, planners find themselves millions in the hole. It's not difficult to see why. Renovating the convention hall at the Pepsi Center already has cost $6 million more than they budgeted, and the work is far from done. In renting offices, the party took top-shelf space in downtown Denver at $100,000 a month, only to discover it needed only half the space, and then filled the offices with rented furniture costing $50,000 a month. A small fortune was spent to make this a... Waterbury Republican-American http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2048568/posts#comment Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:43:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2048557/posts I don't know if this has received Freeperization yet, but Atlas Shrugged has an interesting post about Obama's evidently very-rich-yet-unemployed donors. Surely this will be followed up on by the MSM? Atlas Shrugged http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2048557/posts#comment Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:00:27 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2048552/posts Unions have been decrying outsourcing for years. The word "outsourcing" has been used as a boogieman to blame declining union jobs upon for the last decade. Unions, for their part, claim to desire to stand up against outsourcing -- especially that of outsourcing jobs overseas -- and wish to push the home grown alternatives to outsourcing jobs, namely keeping them in the country and under the control of the union. Yet what have we discovered here on the blog? Why that the nation's largest union, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has outsourced the design of one of their own... Publius' Forum http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2048552/posts#comment Sun, 20 Jul 2008 23:48:58 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2048544/posts HARRISBURG -- As the pivotal 2006 legislative election season began, top Democratic House aides, using state resources, undertook a wide-ranging opposition research campaign into both Democratic and Republican office seekers, e-mails show. The project was spearheaded by Eric Webb, director of the Democratic Office of Member Services, who, on Jan. 31, sent e-mails to state employees advising them to begin digging up information on 35 declared and potential candidates for the state House. "We are mainly looking for bad things: liens, bankruptcies, homicides ... you get the picture," Mr. Webb advised a dozen House colleagues via their state e-mail accounts.... Pittsburgh Post-Gazette http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2048544/posts#comment Sun, 20 Jul 2008 23:04:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2048465/posts Excerpt - LITTLE ROCK - Taking steps to keep one of its own out of the Legislature, the Democratic Party of Arkansas changed its rules Saturday and refused to certify former state Rep. Dwayne Dobbins for the November general election ballot. At their state convention, Democrats approved a rewrite of party rules to disqualify any person who has resigned from public office as a provision of a plea agreement to avoid felony prosecution from being certified for the ballot. Dobbins, of North Little Rock, was the only candidate to file this spring for the House seat he resigned in 2005... ArkansasNews.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2048465/posts#comment Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:28:19 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2048422/posts One of Congress' strongest supporters of the Foothill tollway's controversial southern extension steered taxpayer money to and lobbied for the project while holding a financial interest in a connected tollway. Financial disclosures for Rep. Gary Miller, a land developer who represents Orange, San Bernardino and Los Angeles Counties, show he purchased $20,000 in Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency bonds in 2000. The bonds pay investors a fixed rate and are repaid by drivers' tolls. The Eastern and Foothill (241) toll roads run from the 91 freeway to Irvine and Rancho Santa Margarita. The proposed southern extension, known as Foothill South, is... The Orange County Register http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2048422/posts#comment Sun, 20 Jul 2008 17:23:30 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2048316/posts Charles Rangel, chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, is intent on raising $30 million for a new academic center in his New York district -- a center with his name on it. After securing an earmark and two other federal grants totaling some $2.6 million for the project, the Democratic congressman wrote letters on his congressional stationery to businesses with interests before his committee. They sought meetings to help him fulfill his "personal dream" of seeing the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service completed. ...Until roughly the 1960s, people had to die before a grateful nation memorialized... Wall Street Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2048316/posts#comment Sun, 20 Jul 2008 11:55:08 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2048205/posts Next time you step on a glob of tar on a beach in Santa Barbara County, you can thank the oil companies that it isn't a bigger glob. University of California, Santa Barbara http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2048205/posts#comment Sun, 20 Jul 2008 00:27:13 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2048303/posts "Friends, red-necks, suckers, and fellow hicks," he would say, . . . "That's what you are. And me - I'm one, too . . . Oh, I'm a sucker, for I fell for that sweet-talking fellow in the fine automobile . . . But I'm standing here on my own hind legs, for even a dog can learn to do that, give him time. I learned. It took me a time but I learned, and here I am on my own hind legs." And he would lean at them. And demand, "Are you, are you on your hind legs? Have... Boston Globe http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2048303/posts#comment Sun, 20 Jul 2008 10:21:37 GMT