Free Republic

I love teachers. I really do. And I'm sure that most are overworked and underpaid. Certainly, no one is getting rich from teaching kids. I applaud the hardworking teachers across this land. But, as has happened in Wisconsin, when teachers unions muscle legislators like the Mafia and Democrats abandon their voting posts because they don't like projected outcomes, haven't we abandoned the very foundational principles of our republic? Where were the "be civil" mainstream media police last Friday morning, when union demonstrators screamed at legislators on the floor of the Wisconsin Assembly while they voted? More proof of union dominance...

Numerous times this year, members of Congress have held fundraisers and collected big checks while they are taking critical steps to write new laws, despite warnings that such actions could create ethics problems. The campaign donations often came from contributors with major stakes riding on the lawmakers' actions. ....Earlier this month, the chairman of the Senate committee overseeing tax policy, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), gave himself a birthday-party fundraiser - on the same day that the chamber took its first vote on an $858 billion tax package that would provide breaks to wealthy citizens and business interests. ....Over the course...

December 14, 2010 12:00 A.M. The Ethanol Idiocy that Will Not Die Bipartisan common sense is no match for the inertia of a government subsidy. When Al Gore drops an environmental fad, it has truly reached its expiration date. In his wisdom, the Goracle recently acknowledged what almost all disinterested observers concluded long ago: Ethanol is a fraud. It has no environmental benefits, and harmful side effects. The subsidies that support its use are an object lesson in the incorrigibility of Washington’s gross special-interest politics. It is the monster that ate America’s corn crop.

TSA’s other body-scanner contractor is Rapiscan Systems Inc. In 2009, the company was awarded an agreement that could be worth up to $173 million. And like L-3, Rapiscan has a notable K Street presence. Holland & Knight, Rapiscan’s outside lobbying firm, has earned $480,000 in fees from the company since May 2008, according to lobbying disclosure records. David Whitestone, a former aide to Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), and John Buscher, once the chief lobbyist for United Airlines, are lobbying for the company. Overall, Rapiscan has spent close to $3.6 million on lobbying since 2007, according to records.

You might think that a prominent veterans organization like the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) would actually reserve its political endorsements for, you know, veterans, or at least those politicians that actually demonstrate some level of respect for the military. But you would be wrong. And the problem is not just the VFW; rather, the VFW’s current lobbyist-driven fiasco simply serves to illustrate how out-of-touch the Washington in-crowd is with the feelings of us benighted souls dwelling outside the beltway. In the Florida 22nd Congressional District race, incumbent Democrat Ron Klien is running against Republican challenger Allen West. Actually, he’s...

Illustrating that a promise made is not necessarily a promise kept, this administration is again under fire for violating its own ethics pledges. On the campaign trail, candidate Obama initially pledged not to hire former lobbyists. But once in office, that directive was “clarified” to mean that any lobbyists hired would not be given the opportunity to influence any decisions involving their former employers. Now, that promise, too, has gone by the wayside with the disclosure that White House Deputy Chief Technology Officer Andrew McLaughlin has directly participated in formulating policies that would impact Google, where McLaughlin had formerly served...

Sen. Orrin Hatch's decision to oppose Elena Kagan for a seat on the Supreme Court probably wasn't made in fear of the National Rifle Association's threat to senators that the group will take their votes on the nominee into consideration during endorsement time this election season. Hatch already has an A+ rating from the gun group. But the moves by both parties -- Hatch's Friday announcement that he will vote "no" on Kagan and the NRA's Thursday announcement that it opposes Kagan and senators who vote for her risk their wrath -- are aimed at least in part at...

PHOENIX (AP) - John McCain's re-election campaign is releasing its second set of television and radio ads attacking the Arizona's senator's primary opponent for his ties to Washington. The ads point out that former U.S. Rep. J.D. Hayworth registered as a lobbyist in 2008, a year after he lost his re-election bid. Hayworth is challenging McCain in the Republican primary and casting himself as a conservative Washington outsider. But the ads challenge that image, with a narrator saying: "Outsider? A lobbyist is as inside Washington as it gets."

I am fondly recalling those hoary days on the campaign trail when Mr. Obama was all about "transparency," and when he promised to have the "strictest ethics rules" of any president evah! Seemingly hours later the president's office began to waive hose "strictest" rules to allow his favorite lobbyists and lawyers to take up residence in his administration. By Feb. 2, for instance, a dozen high profile lobbyists had already had those "strict" rules waived for them to join the administration. And by May of 2009, Obama had already lifted his so-called ban on lobbyists joining his administration. And this...

Lawsuit Seeks to Protect Americans’ Right To Most-Basic Political Speech: Talking to Their Neighbors WEB RELEASE: April 15, 2010 Seattle, Wash.—Washingtonians from both sides of the political spectrum filed a lawsuit today to stop their state from monitoring, collecting and publicly disseminating information about the political activities of private citizens who do nothing more than urge their fellow citizens to take political action. They seek to vindicate the belief that if the First Amendment protects anything, it protects the right of all Americans to speak to one another about the issues affecting their lives without having to first register with...

On March 31, 2010, the SEIU filed their LM-2 forms required by Federal law. In the quest to provide transparency of what the SEIU is doing, some startling revelations have been made since the documents have come to light. Specifically, recent information disclosed in the LM-2 forms filed begs to question about the President of that organization's status as a lobbyist. Is Andy Stern a lobbyist, and if not, what is he then? According to the dictionary of Merriam-Webster, a lobbyist is a person that conducts "activities aimed at influencing public officials and especially members of a legislative body on...

K Street appears to have cashed in on the lengthy battle over healthcare reform. About 1,750 businesses and organizations spent at least $1.2 billion in 2009 to lobby on health reform and other issues, according to a study from the Center for Public Integrity released Friday. A precise figure isn’t available because lobbying disclosure forms don’t require companies or other groups to itemize how much they spend to lobby on a particular issue. The largest lobbying firm in terms of revenue, Patton Boggs, set the pace in healthcare lobbying too, according to the Center. Fifty-three clients paid Patton Boggs $7.68...

The Energy Department worked closely with the wind industry lobby to discredit a Spanish report that criticized wind power as a job killer, internal DOE e-mails reveal. The e-mails obtained from a Freedom of Information Act request show how, starting last April, lobbyists at the American Wind Energy Association became alarmed that lawmakers were citing a study by Spain's King Juan Carlos University. The study found that Spain's massive investments in wind power cost 2.2 jobs for every "green" job created.

March 10, 2010 Teachers' union leads list of biggest political spenders The California Teachers Association has spent more than $200 million on campaign contributions and lobbying efforts in the last decade, leading what the Fair Political Practices Commission calls a "billion-dollar club" of moneyed political interests. The FPPC's report, entitled "Big Money Talks," delves into the 25 biggest - at least in financial terms - political players in the state, which have collectively spent $1.3 billion on political action in the last 10 years. "This tsunami of special interest spending drowns out the voices of average voters," FPPC chairman Ross...

March 4, 2010 Everyone hates each other — it’s Hollywood Kathryn Bigelow, director of The Hurt Locker, during filming. A producer has been banned from the Oscars Chris Ayres, Los Angeles It is a night of glittering statues, pristine red carpets and gracious speeches. But behind the air-kisses, smiles and displays of magnanimity at the annual Oscars ceremony, dirty, though often expensive, battles go on, with competitors more than willing to knife each other if it means taking home a trophy. After all, winning means more business at the box office and higher fees in the future. Not to mention...

The American Petroleum Institute announced today that Deryck Spooner will join API as “senior director for external mobilization,” i.e., the guy who does the grass-roots organizing. That’s news because Spooner’s previous job was doing the same thing for the Nature Conservancy. As of this writing, he is still listed as a member of the conservancy’s “climate change team.” Before that, Spooner did grass-roots organizing for the AFL-CIO and NARAL Pro-Choice America. API is clearly pleased with its coup, offering effusive praise of Spooner

Calpers names firms not responding on placement agents Thu Feb 18, 1:15 am ET OAKLAND, California (Reuters) – Calpers, the biggest U.S. public pension fund, released late on Wednesday a list of 11 firms with which it has invested that did not reply to its request for information on their use of placement agents, who are at the center of a probe of New York's pension fund. Calpers, the $200 billion California Public Employees' Retirement System, has been under fire since disclosing last year that a placement agent firm, led by one of its former board members, had made more...

WASHINGTON – What recession? Health care and business interests led the way as clients spent a record $3.5 billion on lobbying last year, prompted by Obama administration drives to reshape federal policy for the medical, financial and energy industries. Amid a stagnant national economy and the worst unemployment in nearly three decades, lobbying expenditures grew by 5 percent from the $3.3 billion spent in 2008, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. The growth also came despite efforts by President Barack Obama to curb lobbyists' influence. The figures underline the vast and growing sums that industries, unions and ideological...

Over the past year, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has been acting as the Presidents goons, attacking anti-Obamacare Protesters across the country. It was the SEIU who HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, reached out to when the administration needed "back up" for the town halls (H/T Michelle Malkin): From the SEIU Website: Conference Call with HHS Secretary Friday, August 7th, at 2:30pm EDT, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is hosting a call with health care activists and SEIU members to discuss what needs to happen in order to win health care reform, and to directly respond to accusations and distortions from...

WASHINGTON -- The drug industry is threatening to end its support for President Barack Obama's health overhaul effort because of a rift with the administration over protecting brand-name biotech drugs from low-cost generic competitors. In an e-mail obtained Friday by The Associated Press, the president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America told the trade group's board members that "we could not support the bill" if the industry is given less than 12 years of competitive protection for the expensive products. Obama and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., are leading the drive to shorten that...