http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/democratscandals/ en-us Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:50:50 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2417880/posts ...Mayor Bill White on Tuesday announced a 21-member commission to study Houston's term limits and make recommendations by July 1. Any changes to the current limit of three, two-year terms for Houston's mayor, controller and 14 City Council members would be subject to approval by the council and by voters... In November 1991, after Kathy Whitmire had completed 10 years as mayor and some council members had served continuously for decades, 56.9 percent of Houston voters approved term limits that took effect in 1993. The panel appointed by White represents the first serious effort to change this system. “Houston has... Houston Chronicle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2417880/posts#comment Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:50:50 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416459/posts Washington, DCJudicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released its 2009 list of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians.”  The list, in alphabetical order, includes: 1. Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT):  This marks two years in a row for Senator Dodd, who made the 2008 “Ten Most Corrupt” list for his corrupt relationship with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and for accepting preferential treatment and loan terms from Countrywide Financial, a scandal which still dogs him.  In 2009, the scandals kept coming for the Connecticut Democrat.  In 2009, Judicial Watch filed a Senate ethics complaint against... judicialwatch.org http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416459/posts#comment Mon, 28 Dec 2009 19:50:52 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416294/posts It has been more than four years since Jacob Kiferbaum pleaded guilty in a kickback scheme involving a hospital that needed state approval for a construction project, one of the earliest corruption scandals under former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Kiferbaum, though, has yet to spend a day in prison. The north suburban construction magnate is one of 12 men convicted in Illinois political corruption cases who still await sentencing months -- in some cases, years -- after their convictions. The lone exception among them: Tony Rezko, who was a major campaign fund-raiser for Blagojevich, among other politicians. Like the others, Rezko... Chicago Sun-Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416294/posts#comment Mon, 28 Dec 2009 15:57:29 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2413940/posts Just in ... C-SPAN Live Senate proceedings http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2413940/posts#comment Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:24:25 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2413843/posts A retired Florida couple would appear an unlikely source to have given $83,000 in campaign donations over a five-year period to members of Congress from all over the country. Both in their 80s, they lived in a $118,000 Daytona Beach house they didn't own; they each voted only twice since 1992; and they seemed to lack the financial means to make the contributions. Yet, both were listed as having given dozens of donations to lawmakers, nearly half of which went to members of the House Appropriations Committee - legislators who were especially important to their then-son-in-law, superlobbyist Paul Magliocchetti, who... Washington Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2413843/posts#comment Wed, 23 Dec 2009 17:17:21 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2411815/posts Former DA Earle running for Lt. Gov. By Kate Alexander | Friday, December 18, 2009, 06:36 PM Former Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle is running for lieutenant governor of Texas. Earle, who retired last year after more than three decades as district attorney, filed paperwork with the Texas Democratic Party late Friday to seek the party’s nomination for the statewide office. The winner of the Democratic primary in March will probably face the Republican incumbent David Dewhurst next fall. At this point, Earle is the sole filer for the party’s nomination, but Austin deli owner Marc Katz is... American Statesman http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2411815/posts#comment Sun, 20 Dec 2009 20:30:43 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2413058/posts This is so potentially great, even greater than we thought it could be. For a while, ex-Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle talked about running for governor. That could have led to a November battle between Democrat Earle and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, now running against Gov. Rick Perry in the GOP gubernatorial primary. Earle v. Hutchison would have been a rematch of the battle previously known as The State of Texas v. Hutchison, a long-ago criminal case in which Earle was The State of Texas and he wanted to send Hutchison to prison for up to 51 years. The... Austin American-Statesman http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2413058/posts#comment Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:54:54 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2412294/posts Many experts have pointed to tort reform as a key element of any effort to hold down the costs of health care: Old Democratic presidential aspirant John Edwards won $175 million in judgments over a 12-year period suing doctors, hospitals and insurance companies, everyone but the candy stripers, over infant cerebral palsy cases allegedly caused by mishandled deliveries. As the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists noted in a study in 2003, cerebral palsy could not be blamed on delivery trouble in the “vast majority” of cases. Using bad science, Edwards enriched himself by bankrupting innocent physicians. The effect is... wasington examiner/the lid http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2412294/posts#comment Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:44:57 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2410715/posts The Office of Congressional Ethics has closed its investigation into Reps. John Murtha (D-Pa.), Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) and Jim Moran (D-Va.) and their relationships to the lobbying firm PMA Group, and the OCE advised against a formal House ethics investigation, the lawmakers’ offices said Friday. George Behan, Dicks’ chief of staff, said the OCE, which reviews potential rules violations and refers investigations to the House ethics committee, informed the Washington lawmaker on Dec. 2 that it had recommended the inquiry be dismissed. “In his case, there was never anything there,” Behan said. Murtha spokesman Matt Mazonkey and Moran spokeswoman Emily... Roll Call http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2410715/posts#comment Fri, 18 Dec 2009 21:12:02 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2409710/posts Houston Mayor Bill White will officially launch a fingerprint-based immigration screening program in the city's jails today, fulfilling his pledge to have the system up and running by the time he leaves office. ...the outgoing mayor and Texas gubernatorial candidate, has faced harsh criticism for perceived flip-flopping on the issue of immigration enforcement in the jails. He previously requested to have the city participate in the controversial 287(g) program that would have trained officers to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents screen for illegal immigrants in the jails, but he backed away from that proposal after negotiations with the federal... Houston Comical http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2409710/posts#comment Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:44:31 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2409689/posts DEARBORN, Mich., Dec. 17 (UPI) -- Ethnic groups, especially Arab-Americans, say the U.S. census all but eliminates any way of distinguishing their background by simply classifying them as white. "It's unfair because we are not treated as white in society and by the government, but we also don't qualify as minorities to get the benefits of some programs" such as minority contracts, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee Regional Director Imad Hamad said. The concern arose because, for the first time, the regular 2010 U.S. census form eliminates a question asking people about their ancestry. Government officials say they shortened the form so... upi via email, no link http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2409689/posts#comment Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:20:07 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2408834/posts The Justice Department has told the federal attorneys who filed a civil complaint against the New Black Panther Party for disrupting a Philadelphia polling place last year not to cooperate with an investigation of the incident by the US Commission on Civil Rights. The commission last week subpoenaed at least two Justice Department lawyers and sought documents from the department to explain why the complaint was dismissed just as a federal judge was about to punish the New Black Panther Party and three of its members for intimidating voters. Joseph H. Hunt, director of the Justice Department's Federal Programs Branch,... The New Media Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2408834/posts#comment Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:32:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2408948/posts New York's famously garrulous senior senator, Chuck Schumer, got busted Wednesday for calling a female flight attendant the B-word aboard a US Airways flight from New York to Washington on Sunday. Schumer was sitting next to protege Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, gabbing away on his phone, when a flight attendant told him to shut it down. Schumer turned off his phone, and then argued with the attendant that he was allowed to talk while the cabin door is open. He lost. NY Daily News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2408948/posts#comment Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:46:10 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2408855/posts Former U.S. vice president Al Gore addresses the UN Climate Change Conference 2009 in Copenhagen December 15, 2009. Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, right, follows with Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store a discussions with ministers from Nordic countries on Greenland's ice sheet at the UN Climate summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, Monday, Dec. 14, 2009. With a week for the climate summit to end, the split between the developing and developed world became sharper as ministers of the world's nations started to arrive for a crucial second week of climate talks. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2408855/posts#comment Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:00:12 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2408868/posts Sen. Tom Coburn has just demanded that the Senate clerk read the single-payer amendment offered by Sen. Bernie Sanders -- and it's 767 pages. Typically, Senators offering amendments will ask for unanimous consent to avoid reading the entire meausure, but all it takes is one Senator to object to demand its reading, and Coburn objected to Sanders attempt to dispense with the reading of the amendment. To give you a sense of how this could delay things, it took the Senate clerk 18 minutes to get through the first 6 pages of the amendment, which were the table of contents.... http://spectator.org/ http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2408868/posts#comment Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:10:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2408140/posts A House Democrat from Connecticut said Tuesday that Sen. Joe Lieberman should be recalled from office over his opposition to the Senate health care bill. "No individual should hold health care hostage, including Joe Lieberman, and I'll say it flat out, I think he ought to be recalled," Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) told POLITICO. Connecticut has no recall law for state officials, and the Constitution does not authorize states to recall members of Congress since each house has the authority to police its own members. But DeLauro’s comments speak to concerns running through Democratic circles in Connecticut and in Washington... Politico http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2408140/posts#comment Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:02:57 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2408118/posts Big Government founder Andrew Breitbart has been summoned to New York for a grand jury appearance tomorrow morning, reports Andrea Shea King at the Radio Patriot.Breitbart's appearance is in regard to the sting operation exposing ACORN that was broken in the media by Big Government.Breitbart informed King about that the grand jury summons when he explained to her he was unable to appear on her radio show this evening because he would be in transit to New York at the time. King is a contributor to Big Government and its sister site, Big Hollywood.Breitbart did not disclose whether he would... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2408118/posts#comment Tue, 15 Dec 2009 19:32:13 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2407518/posts Speaker Pelosi named finalist for Time magazine 'Person of the Year' By Jordan Fabian - 12/14/09 05:21 PM ET House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is among the seven finalists chosen for Time magazine's annual "Person of the Year," according to media reports on Monday. Other finalists in the realm of politics include last year's winner President Barack Obama, Afghanistan commanding Gen. Stanley McChrystal and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. "Look, she's the first woman Speaker of the House. She's the strongest Speaker of the House in decades," Time managing editor Richard Stengel said of Pelosi on NBC's "Today" show. "She... The Hill http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2407518/posts#comment Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:04:40 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2405908/posts SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal appeals court in San Francisco has reversed a judge's order that backers of Proposition 8, the state initiative that banned same-sex marriage, give their campaign strategy documents to opponents trying to overturn the measure. In a unanimous ruling today, the Ninth U.S. Circuit of Appeals tossed out the order that Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker issued in October against backers of Prop. 8, which state voters approved in November 2008. Walker had said lawyers for two same-sex couples and a gay-rights group were entitled to see internal memos and e-mails between Yes on 8... San Francisco Chronical http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2405908/posts#comment Sat, 12 Dec 2009 03:03:00 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2405902/posts A federal judge blocked U.S. officials from enforcing a funding ban on Acorn, the beleaguered community organizer. Congress cut off funding for Acorn -- the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now -- in September after Web sites and TV news outlets played secretly recorded videos in which employees of an affiliated organization offered advice on how to set up brothels and avoid paying taxes. Acorn sued the federal government in November, arguing Congress had violated the Constitution by singling out the group. It says it has fired employees suspected of wrongdoing. U.S. District Judge Nina Gershon in New York... The Wall Street Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2405902/posts#comment Sat, 12 Dec 2009 02:47:08 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2402177/posts An outside review of the beleaguered community group ACORN has found “serious management challenges,” but no pattern of illegal activity. The review, commissioned by ACORN in the wake of a hidden video expose that showed a few of its employees appearing to offer tips on how to break the law, also largely absolved the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now’s current management, laying much of the blame on founder Wade Rathke for lax oversight and dangerously rapid growth. Scott Harshbarger, the former Massachusetts attorney who led the inquiry for the Proskauer Rose law firm, found that ACORN is not... Politico http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2402177/posts#comment Mon, 7 Dec 2009 18:39:45 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2397878/posts Embattled Athens County, Ohio Democratic Chairwoman Susan Gwinn was indicted Monday on two counts of election-related bribery, special prosecutors announced today. Gwinn, who last month was charged with six felonies for campaign finance crimes and money-laundering, became the subject of a voter fraud investigation after an email from College Democrats Vice President Kellie Galan surfaced in which students were promised a cash bounty for every voter brought to the polls. "Remember, if you bring a friend from 4th ward they are more then [sic] a friend, they're 5 bucks!" Galan wrote to fellow College Democrats in the email. Athens' 4th... RedState http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2397878/posts#comment Tue, 1 Dec 2009 21:07:39 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2397810/posts Rasmussen: Number of Democrats in US Falls to Four Year Low... Developing... Drudge Report Home Page http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2397810/posts#comment Tue, 1 Dec 2009 19:42:42 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2396961/posts Political analyst Charlie Cook says that the scandals enveloping Reps. Charles Rangel (D-NY) and John Murtha (D-PA) threaten to increase losses for their party in next year’s election. He writes: As House Democrats try to avert political disaster by limiting their 2010 losses to about 16 seats, the norm for post-World War II presidents' first midterm elections, dealing with their members' ethics problems may be one of their toughest tasks. The task is tough because of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s reluctance to move against either one, notwithstanding her promise to “drain the swamp” of Congressional corruption and to  “create the most... NLPC http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2396961/posts#comment Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:35:21 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2393520/posts Lift up a rock and another snake comes slithering out from the ongoing University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit (CRU) scandal, now riding as “Climategate”. Obama Science Czar John Holdren is directly involved in CRU’s unfolding Climategate scandal. In fact, according to files released by a CEU hacker or whistleblower, Holdren is involved in what Canada Free Press (CFP) columnist Canadian climatologist Dr. Tim Ball terms “a truculent and nasty manner that provides a brief demonstration of his lack of understanding, commitment on faith and willingness to ridicule and bully people”. “The files contain so much material that... canadafreepress.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2393520/posts#comment Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:38:30 GMT