Free Republic

REP. JIM MCDERMOTT SHOVING COAL IN STOCKING: ...Here's your Christmas gift, right? We're going to say to 2.5 million unemployed people, no unemployment benefits because its only for 2 months and we can't... There's every excuse in the book you can give, but when they get up on Christmas there's going to be coal in their sock! The working poor of this country are counting on that tax break. They've gone out and bought gifts for their kids! And they think they are going to pay for them because they have this tax reduction and you are taking it away...

Rep. Jim McDermott appeared on Fox News to push President Obama's $447 billion 'jobs plan'. While doing so, he somehow shifted the focus to the space program stating, "We have no way of getting groceries to our people who are up in the space lab" while trying to make the case. As Jim Hoft from Gateway Pundit points out: "Last we checked – Obama shut down the shuttle program, Jim."

MEDIA MOGUL CHARGED WITH FIRST-DEGREE MURDOCH July 20, 2011In December 1996, a Florida couple, John and Alice Martin, who sounded suspiciously like union goons, claimed to have inadvertently tapped into a phone conversation between then House Speaker Newt Gingrich and House Republican leadership. According to these Democratic and union activists, they were just driving around with a police scanner in their car, picked up a random phone conversation and said to themselves, "Wait a minute! I could swear that's Dick Armey's voice!" Luckily, they also had a tape recorder and cassette in their car, so they proceeded to illegally...

Video of Washington Congressman Jim McDermott saying he's tired of reading the U.S. Constitution...

Business groups are warning that it might be impossible to comply with proposed rules requiring companies to track whether minerals came from combat-torn parts of Africa. But the two lawmakers behind the so-called "conflict minerals" provision are telling regulators to stand firm and issue strict rules as quickly as possible. The standoff played out this week in a series of comment letters filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which is required by the Dodd-Frank financial reform law to implement a provision forcing companies to take stock of how they obtain certain minerals. The provision is intended to make...

Palm Springs, Calif., man was arrested on Wednesday on a federal charge that he threatened to kill Rep. James McDermott (D) of Washington because of the congressman’s stance in last month’s debate over whether to extend the Bush tax cuts.

In short, the two Washington liberals want taxes raised on everyone because they object to upper income earners - the very earners who invest and start business that hire Washington workers - keeping some of their own money.Fox News reports the two members are working on a letter with Peter DeFazio (D-OR) to present to the House Democratic Caucus.The letter reportedly asks Pelosi to not bring the measure up for a vote. The plan is to get 60 signatures on the letter, reportedly still being drafted, and then force a vote in the caucus. DeFazio says the bill should...

Dem says it’s wrong to celebrate Christmas if unemployment benefits not extended. On Thursday’s magnificent installment of "Hardball" on MSNBC (which is barely watched by anyone…except the hardest of hardcore libs), Congressman Jim McDermott was on with Chris Matthews, making the case about unemployment benefits extension, when he brought Christianity into the mix. According to McDermott, it’s "simply wrong" to celebrate Christmas and some of its themes like caring about the poor…if Americans do not support extending unemployment benefits. This week was a particularly insane week on "Hardball," as earlier in the week, Democrat senator Sherrod Brown blasphemed that unemployment...

RUSH: One-minute speeches on the floor of the House of Representatives. MCDERMOTT: Mr. Speaker, I rise today out of disgust over recent comments by Rush Limbaugh about child hunger. A few days ago I was sent Mr. Limbaugh's response to the news that more than 16 million children will face, quote, "a summer of hunger," quote, "because they won't have access to free or discounted meals they usually get at school." Mr. Limbaugh ultimately recommended these children "Dumpster dive" -- Dumpster dive! -- to find food until school starts back up. In the midst of a deep recession that has...

"Gaza flotilla: 2 dead, dozens injured in navy boarding." By JPOST.COM STAFF AND YAAKOV KATZ 05/31/2010 07:00 SNIPPET: "Passengers tried to wrest weapons from soldiers, Army Radio reports; Turkish leadership in emergency meeting to discuss response to attack at sea. Passengers tried to grab weapons away from soldiers boarding the Gaza protest flotilla, starting the violence, Army Radio reported Tuesday morning, responding to accusations that Israeli commandos assaulted the ships guns blazing."

Rep. Jim McDermott (D-emonrat): "They are simply selfish and greedy."

Republicans stopped a provision that establishes criminal penalties for CIA officers that use cruel, inhuman or degrading interrogation methods from making it into the Intelligence bill passed Friday — but the leading Republican on the House intelligence committee said that provision is hardly dead. “This is not the last time we’ll see the McDermott stuff,” Rep. Pete Hoekstra told The Daily Caller of the legislation authored by Democratic Rep. Jim McDermott. “It will come back. They will find every way that they can to make it law.” Hoekstra said the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Intelligence chairman Rep. Silvestre Reyes,...

From yesterday, Thursday, February 25, 2010:Intel bill pulled over controversial added interrogation provision "A controversial bill that would have levied criminal punishments on intelligence officers for harsh interrogations was pulled Thursday evening [Feb 25, 2010] . House Republicans charged Democrats with trying to sneak a provision into the intelligence authorization bill that would establish criminal punishment for CIA agents and other intelligence officials who engage in “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” during interrogations."... Intelligence committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas) added the language, originally offered by Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), to his manager’s amendment, which makes several changes to the bill...

Liberal Democrats may tout openness, reform and transparency on the campaign trail but those promises never seem to make it past the Beltway when they return to Washington. In one of the more egregious examples of this truism, one needs to look no further than the efforts by Representative Jim McDermott (D-Washington) to pull a fast one and slip into the intelligence budget a provision that, in a backdoor way, impose fines and prison terms on intelligence officers who "abuse" captured terrorism suspects. The House Democratic leadership stopped a vote Thursday night on the $50 billion classified intelligence budget after...

A controversial bill that would have levied criminal punishments on intelligence officers for harsh interrogations was pulled Thursday evening. House Republicans charged Democrats with trying to sneak a provision into the intelligence authorization bill that would establish criminal punishment for CIA agents and other intelligence officials who engage in “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” during interrogations. Democrats inserted an 11-page addition into the bill late Wednesday night as the House Rules Committee considered the legislation. The provision, previously not vetted in committee, applied to “any officer or employee of the intelligence community” who during interrogations engages in beatings, infliction of...

House Republicans are charging Democrats with trying to sneak a provision into the intelligence authorization bill that would establish criminal punishment for CIA agents and other intelligence officials who engage in “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” during interrogations. Democrats inserted an 11-page addition to the bill late Wednesday night during as the House Rules Committee considered the legislation. The provision, previously not vetted in committee, applies to “any officer or employee of the intelligence community” who during interrogations engages in beatings, infliction of pain or forced sexual acts. The bill said the acts covered by the provision would include inducing...

Keith Ellison, widely hailed as America's first Muslim congressman, could more accurately be described as CAIR and Hamas' man in Congress. Congressman Ellison has been a regular presence at CAIR fundraisers and at pro-Hamas rallies in the United States. As a former member of Farrakhan's Nation of Islam , Ellison has enough anti-semitic and Islamist credentials to satisfy anyone, and had expressed openly anti-semitic beliefs in the past. Since Ellison got his start with CAIR , his attempt to provide support for Hamas is completely unsurprising. Both Hamas and CAIR are projects of the Muslim Brotherhood, which also helped...

As Congress approaches high noon for health care reform, liberal U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott urged support even as he warned that a Senate-House compromise will contain provisions that "we don't like." The congressman spoke and fielded questions at a Sunday afternoon Healthy Washington Coalition gathering. It drew nearly 400 people, many of them elderly, to the United Food and Commercial Workers hall. "I believe in a single payer system, O.K.," said McDermott, who has fought nearly two decades to have America adopt a Canada-style health system. The remark drew loud applause. He showered praise on the late Saskatchewan Premier Tommy...

<p>All it took was a wrong turn for Jorge-Alonso Chehade to face deportation.</p> <p>But that wrong turn near Seattle also brought him attention and praise from Washington state’s congressional delegation, pro bono attorneys and maybe a chance to stay in the United States. In March, the 22-year-old college graduate was visiting friends in Bellingham at Western Washington University. On the way back early in the morning, tired from a night’s fun and unfamiliar with the area, Chehade and a friend took the north Interstate 5 ramp instead of the southbound one.</p>

The White House national security adviser said Sunday that Afghanistan “is not in imminent danger of falling,” a different view expressed from the top U.S. commander in that country.Retired Gen. James Jones, appearing on CBS’s “Face the Nation” and CNN’s “State of the Union,” said the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai must improve but he believes it can succeed with a strong U.S. effort to train its army and police force.“I don’t foresee the return of the Taliban. Afghanistan is not in imminent danger of falling,” Jones said. “The al-Qaeda presence is very diminished. The maximum estimate is...

<p>WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- House legislation that would overhaul health care would also expand tax benefits for employer-provided health insurance to same- sex partners.</p> <p>The provision authored by Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., was a last-minute addition to a $1 trillion-plus health-care rewrite being considered by the House Ways and Means Committee Thursday.</p>

There's a scene in the 2008 movie "Lava Storm," a low-budget sci-fi flick about magma engulfing the globe, in which a volcanologist hatches a quixotic scheme to save humanity. He'll blow up the local dam to douse the rampaging inferno. Everyone doubts him, of course. "We can't save the world," says his wife. "No, baby," he shoots back. "But maybe we can buy it some time." It's so crazy, it just might work! That was about my reaction when I interviewed the writer and producer of "Lava Storm," West Seattle's Bill Hoffman, about his next big project. Which is, believe...

Congressman Jim McDermott has now explained what he was thinking when he sought to use taxpayer dollars to polish up The Rainier Club's windowsills. He was thinking: Why aren't you making a grab for cash, too? "This is not a ridiculous request," McDermott said. "Everybody in the 7th District has the right to make a request — the University of Washington, The Rainier Club, everybody." Set aside for now the tone-deafness of comparing our largest public university, reeling from budget cuts, with a private social club (where choice subcommittee assignments include the likes of "Greeting and Hospitality" and "Single Malt...

Seattle Congressman Jim McDermott doubts his own request for a $250,000 earmark of federal funds to pay for renovations at the exclusive Rainier Club will win approval in Congress.While descending a tiled staircase into The Rainier Club lobby, U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott said Monday he doubts his request for a $250,000 earmark to cover renovations at the exclusive downtown Seattle club will win approval from federal lawmakers. "Given what's going on in the country these days, it seems unlikely to me," the Seattle Democrat said, amid a backdrop of fine artwork and antique furniture. "I'm not going to say definitively...

Among more than 100 local projects for which U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott recently sought funding earmarks in the coming federal budget are a new cancer-research program, municipal road projects and a law-enforcement initiative to combat gang violence. Also included on the Seattle Democrat's 2010 appropriations wish list is a relatively modest — but curious — appeal: A $250,000 request to fund a "window repair and limestone sill replacement" at The Rainier Club — one of Seattle's premier private clubs, whose members include some of the city's most well-heeled and politically connected residents. McDermott's request on behalf of The Rainier Club...

Washington, D.C., political insiders were treated Wednesday morning to an unforgettable exchange of 19 e-mails. The players: an aide at McBee Strategic, a major lobbying firm, and one Elizabeth Becton, scheduling secretary to Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash. The aide's sin: He sent an e-mail addressed to Becton as "Liz." The episode is not without precedent. Ex-Sen. Elizabeth Dole is renowned for turning icy when anybody uses the nickname "Liddy." Elizabeth Taylor once erupted when fifth husband Sen. John Warner began an admonition with the words "Now Liz . . ." "Don't you Liz me," Taylor shot back, sticking a finger...

If you want to score a meeting with Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), know this: His scheduler/office manager, Elizabeth Becton, is to be addressed by her full name — not Liz or any other variant. An executive assistant at McBee Strategic recently learned this the hard way. A few weeks ago, the assistant e-mailed Becton seeking a meeting with McDermott and a client, JPMorgan Chase. Days later, the assistant checked back in and unfortunately began the e-mail with “Hi Liz.” Becton curtly replied, “Who is Liz?” When the assistant wrote back with an apology, Becton turned up the heat. “I do...

If you want to score a meeting with Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), know this: His scheduler/office manager, Elizabeth Becton, is to be addressed by her full name — not Liz or any other variant. An executive assistant at McBee Strategic recently learned this the hard way. A few weeks ago, the assistant e-mailed Becton seeking a meeting with McDermott and a client, JPMorgan Chase. Days later, the assistant checked back in and unfortunately began the e-mail with “Hi Liz.”

If you want to score a meeting with Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), know this: His scheduler/office manager, Elizabeth Becton, is to be addressed by her full name — not Liz or any other variant. An executive assistant at McBee Strategic recently learned this the hard way. A few weeks ago, the assistant e-mailed Becton seeking a meeting with McDermott and a client, JPMorgan Chase. Days later, the assistant checked back in and unfortunately began the e-mail with “Hi Liz.” Becton curtly replied, “Who is Liz?” When the assistant wrote back with an apology, Becton turned up the heat. “I do...

Our Congress with the help of Republicans is squeezing out private charity with paid "volunteers." They are paid - AmericaCorps - but called volunteers; it sound so good. What do they work on? What the politicians want; you have no say. And they tripled its funding. But what if there aren't enough volunteers for paid "volunteer" service. Force! It might be unconstitutional under the 13th Amendment's ban on involuntary servitude. But Jim McDermott (D, Washington) wants your children to serve his favorite causes. Robert Knight at Townhall ... Mandatory national service has reemerged in HR 1442, the "Congressional Commission on...

Though it represents itself to be a Muslim civil rights organization, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) devoted most of its resources earlier this month to mobilizing opposition to Israel's attempt to neutralize Hamas militarily. On Thursday, the Investigative Project on Terrorism reported that the FBI has cut off contact with CAIR due to unanswered questions about the organization's roots in a Hamas-support network. Earlier this month, the IPT showed how CAIR officials dutifully avoid mentioning Hamas by name when discussing the conflict. Yet no major media outlet or political figure is challenging CAIR's positions or tactics. That may be...

Olivia Newton-John's partner 'staged his own death to avoid debt repayments and is alive and well,' U.S. investigators claim By DAILY MAIL REPORTER 27th January 2009 The former partner of Olivia Newton-John, who was believed to have drowned at sea nearly four years ago, staged his own disappearance, private U.S. investigators have claimed. Patrick McDermott is said to be travelling along the Mexican and South America coastline under an alias to avoid paying debts and enable his teenage son to cash in on a $151,000 insurance policy. McDermott was 48 years old when he disappeared after boarding a fishing charter...

You may have heard about Argentina's plan to nationalize private retirement accounts. Some Democrats on Capitol Hill are inspired, and with their big election victory they may get the chance to test Peronist ideas in America. Meet Congressmen George Miller and Jim McDermott, who are eager to change the way Americans save for their golden years. They'll also be powerbrokers in the next Congress. Mr. Miller, who came in with the Class of 1974 from California, chairs the House Education and Labor Committee. Mr. McDermott, who has represented Seattle the past two decades, runs a House Ways and Means subcommittee...

Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., delivered these remarks on the House floor Tuesday: Mr. Speaker: For the last two years I have struggled with the issue of whether the House should consider impeachment of a sitting President. Next to declaring war, impeachment is the gravest matter the House of Representatives must consider. I fully understand the gut-wrenching consequences such a national debate could precipitate. Yet, there is one fact we cannot overlook or escape.

Brought to you by none other than Baghdad Jim McDermott (D-WTF?). I must’ve done something truly horrible in a former lifetime to be sentenced to live in this guy’s district. The proposed legislation is to create a new program along the lines of the federal food stamp program. The press release and proposed bill is here. Some highlights: “Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA), chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support, introduced legislation today to provide financial assistance to vulnerable Americans struggling to survive under crushing gasoline prices.” “The Emergency Gasoline Assistance Act (H.R. 6561) would...

Rep. Jim McDermott has paid more than $1 million to House Minority Leader John Boehner, ending a decade-long dispute over an illegally taped telephone call. McDermott, a Seattle Democrat, paid $1,093,297 to the Ohio Republican's campaign committee earlier this month, spokesman for the two men said Monday. The payment is in addition to $64,000 McDermott paid Boehner in January, as part of court-ordered punitive damages in the long-running case. A federal judge ordered McDermott to compensate Boehner for attorney's fees after Boehner sued McDermott for leaking the contents of a cell phone call that was illegally recorded in 1996. A...

CONFER: Why your loved ones have left NY The chances are very good that you know someone who has left New York. According to the US Census Bureau, from July 2006 to July 2007 the Buffalo-Niagara region lost 5,166 people and since 2000 the Rochester area has lost over 7,300 of its residents. The numbers are staggering but they tell little of the toll on our society. Emotionally, it can be quite taxing for families to be torn apart by this mass exodus with many older parents and grandparents wondering if they’ll ever see their children and grandchildren again. Socially,...

In 1998, Congressman Jim McDermott...obtained and distributed to the media an illegally-obtained tape of a private conversation of Representative John Boehner. After litigating the dispute for ten years, and losing each step of the way, McDermott is now being forced by a federal judge to pay Boehner some $1.6 million in damages and legal fees: Still, it's amazing that House Democrats have stood with McDermott in his attempts to prod the courts to authorize warrantless wiretaps by private citizens against other law-abiding private citizens, while they continue to refuse to authorize government wiretaps of terrorist communications. And unfortunately for McDermott,...

A federal judge has ordered Rep. Jim McDermott to pay House Minority Leader John Boehner more than $1 million in legal fees in a decade-long dispute over an illegally taped telephone call. Chief Judge Thomas Hogan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered McDermott to pay Boehner $1.05 million in attorney's fees and costs, plus about $40,000 in interest. McDermott, a Washington Democrat, also had to pay more than $60,000 in fines and damages, as well as nearly $600,000 in fees to his own lawyers. McDermott said Tuesday he would not appeal the judge's ruling. "It's...

WASHINGTON — Saddam Hussein's intelligence agency secretly financed a trip to Iraq for three U.S. lawmakers — possibly including Rep. Jim McDermott — during the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. The three anti-war Democrats made the trip in October 2002, while the Bush administration was trying to persuade Congress to authorize military action against Iraq. While traveling, they called for a diplomatic solution. Prosecutors say that trip was arranged by Muthanna Al-Hanooti, a Michigan charity official, who was charged Wednesday with setting up the junket at the behest of Saddam's regime. Iraqi intelligence officials allegedly paid...

Long before the news flash today ('US: Saddam Paid for Lawmaker's Iraq Trip, March 26, 2008 by Matt Apuzzo Associated Press) a series of Seattle radio advertisements revealed, in 2002 and 2005, this and other 'Hate America First' activities Congressman Jim McDermott (D)engaged in. You can listen to them at www.houndbite.com.

If we can't accuse them of being unpatriotic, can we at least accuse some Democrats of being monumentally dense? Saddam Hussein's intelligence agency secretly financed a trip to Iraq for three U.S. lawmakers during the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. The three anti-war Democrats made the trip in October 2002, while the Bush administration was trying to persuade Congress to authorize military action against Iraq. While traveling, they called for a diplomatic solution. Prosecutors say that trip was arranged by Muthanna Al-Hanooti, a Michigan charity official, who was charged Wednesday with setting up the junket at...

Follow the Money: Towards Treason Written by Melanie Morgan    Wednesday, 26 March 2008 And now for our trip in today's Way Back Time Machine.Let's visit Iraq, shall we? That's where three United States Congressmen traveled in 2002, in the days before the Bush administration launched a war to depose Saddam Hussein, sparking a huge controversy.  Following Ben Bradlee's excellent advice to Woodward and Bernstein during the Watergate era to 'follow the money', the Associated Press has learned that Saddam Hussein's secret agents financed the trip towards treason.          "An indictment unsealed in Detroit accuses Muthanna Al-Hanooti, a member of a...

... I listened last night to syndicated talk-radio host Mark Levin report the breaking news that an Iraqi-American had been indicted as a spy. In addition, he stands accused of secretly funding the October 2002 pre-invasion trip to Iraq of three antiwar House Democrats, Congressmen Jim McDermott (D-WA), Mike Thompson (D-CA), and David E. Bonior (D-MI, now retired). I first posted a clip of that audio on MarkLevinFan.com and then I followed the money. Always follow the money. You just think that you have read all where it led in this case.

Feds Say Mich. Man Arranged U.S. Lawmaker Trips for Saddam Hussein's Intel Service The former spokesman of a Detroit-area Islamic charity, who organized U.S. congressional delegations to Iraq, has been indicted for alleged conspiracy to spy for Saddam Hussein's government. Muthanna Al-Hanooti, who worked as a top official at Life for Relief and Development — a charity in Southfield, Mich. — allegedly coordinated U.S. congressional delegations to Iraq at the direction of the executed dictator's intelligence service between 1999 and 2002. In return, investigators say he received payoffs via the United Nation's Oil for Food program. The indictment, which was...

WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors say Saddam Hussein's intelligence agency secretly financed a trip to Iraq for three U.S. lawmakers during the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion. An indictment in Detroit accuses Muthanna Al-Hanooti of arranging for three members of Congress to travel to Iraq in October 2002 at the behest of Saddam's regime. Prosecutors say Iraqi intelligence officials paid for the trip through an intermediary. In exchange, Al-Hanooti allegedly received 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil. The lawmakers are not mentioned but the dates correspond to a trip by Democratic Reps. Jim McDermott of Washington, David Bonior of Michigan and...

Saddam Hussein's intelligence agency secretly financed a trip to Iraq for three U.S. lawmakers during the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.An indictment unsealed in Detroit accuses Muthanna Al-Hanooti, a member of a Michigan nonprofit group, of arranging for three members of Congress to travel to Iraq in October 2002 at the behest of Saddam's regime. Prosecutors say Iraqi intelligence officials paid for the trip through an intermediary.At the time, the Bush administration was trying to persuade Congress to authorize military action against Iraq.The lawmakers are not named in the indictment but the dates correspond to a...

WASHINGTON -- Democratic Rep. Jim McDermott has paid more than $64,000 in damages to House Republican leader John Boehner -- the first payment in a decadelong dispute over an illegally taped telephone call involving Boehner and other GOP leaders. The payment, which includes $50,000 in court-ordered punitive damages, $10,000 in statutory damages and $4,169 in interest, is the first of what could be more than $850,000 in fines and fees owed by McDermott, D-Wash.

Keith Weissman and Steven Rosen Are PhDs and Middle East Experts Who Did Some Lobbying. They Thought They Were Doing What Washington Insiders Always Do. Thomas O’Donnell didn’t reveal his job when he phoned Keith Weissman in 2004 and got the policy analyst’s wife. He says he didn’t want to scare her. When Weissman returned the call and found out O’Donnell was an FBI agent, his first reaction was to attempt a joke: “What did I do?” “I’m sure you didn’t do anything,” O’Donnell told him. He wanted to meet that day, for five or ten minutes, and get Weissman’s...

SNIP. . . . .... A possible arrangement: McDermott's legal bills are paid off. Something gets named after him. And a new posting, possibly meaningful, allows the globetrotting congressman to pursue his interests in HIV/AIDS and South Asia. Discretion is vital. McDermott's "amen corner" will entertain no criticism of our quixotic man of principle in Congress. And Seattle needs re-education on potential benefits of having an effective liberal doing its business in Washington, D.C. McDermott is a voice. At times, it is courageous. Often it irritates. The voice is usually oblivious to words that will change minds or win allies....