Free Republic

The Senate approved Tara O’Toole’s nomination as Under Secretary for the Science and Technology Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security via voice vote last night. As we pointed out the day before, this should be of concern to anyone interested in making sure that billions in taxpayer dollars do not get funneled to a bio-security boondoggle brought to you by O’Toole and her close and corrupt ally John Murtha, who is currently under investigation for ethics violations. Under O’Toole’s jurisdiction now falls the decision concerning the Murtha-supported effort to make the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) “the...

Published on CREW's Most Corrupt Members of Congress (http://www.crewsmostcorrupt.org) Murtha Acknowledges He Is Subject of Ethics Inquiry By Paul Singer, Roll CallNovember 1, 2009After years of allegations that he improperly lavishes federal dollars on local supporters and campaign donors, Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense Chairman John Murtha (D-Pa.) acknowledged for the first time last week that ethics investigators are looking into his earmarks.After the Washington Post disclosed a leaked list of Members being investigated by the House ethics committee, formally known as the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, and the Office of Congressional Ethics — including seven members of...

Before taking control of the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, "Democrats intend to lead the most honest, most open, and most ethical Congress in history." However, with dozens of mostly Democratic lawmakers and various staff under investigation by the House's twin ethics bodies, the majority clearly values political power over clean government. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Charles B. Rangel, 20-term New York Democrat, and Defense Appropriations subcommittee Chairman Rep. John P. Murtha, 19-term Pennsylvania Democrat, are the poster children for how failed ethics cops protect old-guard lawmakers. While under investigation by the ethics committee, they continue to...

More than 30 US politicians, among them seven members of a defence procurement committee, are being investigated in congressional ethics inquiries into influence-peddling, according to a document leaked accidentally on to the internet. The disclosure sheds light on a process by which billions of dollars a year are spent on defence projects that the Pentagon does not want and which limits funds available for US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. House Representatives named in the document include John Murtha, the chairman of the House Defence Appropriations Sub-committee, who added so-called “earmarks” worth more than $100 million (£61 million) to...

Rep. John Murtha on Thursday said he is open to raising taxes if President Barack Obama decides to send more troops to Afghanistan. “This is an expensive proposition,” Murtha (D-Pa.) told The Hill. “If we send more troops over, how are we going to pay for them? We should raise taxes.” In a subsequent interview on Thursday, Murtha said he is not recommending raising taxes, but stressed it should be considered. Murtha’s comments are significant. As chairman of the House Appropriations Defense subcommittee, he controls the purse strings for any troop surge in Afghanistan. Murtha wants an honest accounting of...

When software firm MobilVox wanted to break into the lucrative world of defense contracting, it pursued an unmistakable strategy: It expanded operations from its Northern Virginia base in Rep. James P. Moran's congressional district to the southwestern Pennsylvania district of Rep. John P. Murtha. Working with two of the most powerful members of a House subcommittee that controls Pentagon spending, the company also hired lobbying firms that employed former top aides of both the Democratic lawmakers and Mr. Murtha's brother. Company executives and their lobbyists donated thousands of dollars to the two congressmen. Soon, money flowed the other way. Between...

The House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee dispensed $636 billion this year to the Pentagon. Its members must look on the $103 million they earmarked for favored projects as mere crumbs from the table. Outside the defense budget, however, $100 million a year is a tidy sum, and getting a piece of the action is a regular part of Washington's political culture. At the center is a mutually beneficial connection between members of Congress, their former staff members turned lobbyists, and corporations or non-profits seeking federal money -- what some social scientists call "relationship circles." In this instance, it's better described as...

If Obama and his Chicago thugs simply focused on the country's real enemies rather than American citizens and institutions which provide constructive criticism and honest discourse on the policies emanating from the White House, effective policy might be put in place which would advance an agenda supported by a true majority of citizens. But rather, we see an administration so focused on what, in its paranoid state, it perceives as enemies, that all of its energies are centered on discrediting Bush and Cheney, Fox News, talk radio, Rush Limbaugh, town hall attendees, tea party organizers, health insurance companies, Wall Street...

Video - little over two minutes. Watch Murtha act as Speaker on the House floor, and completely ignore the Constitution. Just astoundingly pathetic.

Congressman John Murtha reminds me of Big Julie in play Guys and Dolls, who boasts: “I got a poifect record: thoity-three arrests, no convictions.” Months ago, the FBI raided the offices of the PMA group. What they found suggested that Murtha and his buddies at the PMA Group operated their own little Earmark Factory. But that was just the tip of the iceberg, another one of John Murtha's most favorite contractors was charged for taking $200,000 in kickbacks, the FBI is Investigating Multi-Billion-Dollar Murtha favored Defense Contractor With Tax-Exempt Status, Murtha has even gotten family into the earmark business, and...

When software firm MobilVox wanted to break into the lucrative world of defense contracting, it pursued an unmistakable strategy: It expanded operations from its Northern Virginia base in Rep. James P. Moran's congressional district to the southwestern Pennsylvania district of Rep. John P. Murtha. Working with two of the most powerful members of a House subcommittee that controls Pentagon spending, the company also hired lobbying firms that employed former top aides of both the Democratic lawmakers and Mr. Murtha's brother. Company executives and their lobbyists donated thousands of dollars to the two congressmen. Soon, money flowed the other way. Between...

The Washington Post reported over the weekend on the ongoing federal investigation into defense earmarks, saying that it was “increasingly focused on a former top aide to Rep. Peter J. Visclosky (D-Ind.) who worked with the congressman on funding requests from clients of a powerful lobbying firm, according to two sources familiar with the probe.” The story said that the aide, Charles E. Brimmer, Visclosky’s former longtime chief of staff, may have “suggested to some lobbyists that companies seeking Visclosky’s help in getting Pentagon funds would need to commit to a program of donations to the member of the...

GOP Sets Sights on House Power Brokers for 2010Strategists Portray Races as Signs of Democratic Weakness By David Weigel October 16, 2009 Reps. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), David Obey (D-Wis.) and John Murtha (D-Pa.) are among the congressional Democrats facing 2010 challenges. (house.gov) ..Snip.. ...Murtha’s southwestern Pennsylvania district, however, was the only one in America that voted for the Kerry-Edwards ticket in 2004 and McCain-Palin in 2008 — narrowly, both times. In 2008, Bill Russell ran against Murtha, raised more than $3 million, and briefly garnered national attention after Murtha said his district might reject Obama because it was a “racist...

A federal investigation into defense contracts awarded through congressional earmarks is increasingly focused on a former top aide to Rep. Peter J. Visclosky (D-Ind.) who worked with the congressman on funding requests from clients of a powerful lobbying firm, according to two sources familiar with the probe. Investigators have gathered evidence that Charles E. Brimmer, Visclosky's former longtime chief of staff, suggested to some lobbyists that companies seeking Visclosky's help in getting Pentagon funds would need to commit to a program of donations to the member of the Appropriations defense subcommittee, the sources said. The Justice Department is trying to...

Published: October 13, 2009 11:27 pm 2 former colonels sentenced: Military contract case had ties to Murtha By MELISSA NELSON The Associated Press PENSACOLA, Fla. — A federal judge sentenced two former Air Force colonels to prison on Tuesday for destroying documents, lying to a grand jury and other crimes related to a wider fraud scheme by contractors and defense lobbyists with ties to powerful Rep. John Murtha, D-Johnstown. The men, both engineers and graduates of the U.S. Air Force Academy, are among those accused by federal prosecutors who are looking into alleged wrongdoing by contractors with ties to Murtha, chairman...

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...

When the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra decided to raise money with a concert honoring its powerful hometown congressman, the Boeing Co. and other defense contractors pitched in.The 2005 event — which celebrated the 50th wedding anniversary of Pennsylvania Democrat John P. Murtha , chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, and his wife, Joyce — drew a $50,000 pledge from Boeing to endow the symphony’s annual opera festival. The company spread the donation over five years, delivering the final $10,000 installment May 4.“We were pleased to be in a position to assist the symphony and looked forward to following through with...

John Murtha who has turned congressional earmarks into an art-form has directed two-hundred million of your tax dollars to the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport. The Airport has so many pictures of the Congressman you would think that it was a monument to the pork-meister. Even that wouldn't be so bad if the airport was actually used, but Murtha Airport gets a total of THREE commercial flights a day, from Johnstown to Washington DC. This tribute to John Murtha is literally the airport to nowhere. Last week Senate Republican introduced,and the Democrats voted voted down an amendment by Senator DeMint...

INDIANA, Pa. -- The buzzer is broken at the John P. Murtha Institute for Homeland Security, and a paper note invites visitors, "Please knock." On a summer afternoon, a lone intern answers the door of the mostly empty basement offices that over the years have overseen $50 million in federal funds awarded to projects designed to make the nation safer. Named for the chairman of the powerful Appropriations subcommittee on defense, who has shepherded most of its funding, the Murtha Institute was supposed to embark on projects to protect America from terrorists and clean up environmental dangers. Much of the...

September 17, 2009 Roll call number 284 (Amendment number S.Amdt.2410) in the Senate Question On the Amendment (DeMint Amdt. No. 2410 ) Amendment purpose To limit the use of funds for the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport.

DeMint to Force Vote to End Taxpayer Subsidies for Murtha ‘Air-Pork’Airport received $200 million in tax dollars, averages only 20 passengers and 3 flights dailySeptember 16, 2009 - Washington, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), chairman of the Senate Steering Committee and Ranking Member of the Aviation Subcommittee, announced he will offer an amendment to end taxpayer subsidies for the John Murtha Airport, a little used 650-acre facility in Johnstown, Pennsylvania that has received at least $200 million in taxpayer funding. U.S. Congressman John Murtha (D-Pennsylvania), who the airport was named after, has personally directed $150 million...

House defense spending cardinal John Murtha, an early bellwether of congressional opposition to the Iraq war, has made his strongest comments yet opposing more U.S. troops for the war in Afghanistan. The Pennsylvania lawmaker and Vietnam veteran, who plays a crucial role in forming the budgets that would fund an increased troop presence, is skeptical of the basic logic of adding personnel. "In Vietnam it took 500,000 troops and that didn't solve the problem. So we have to take a different approach," Murtha told The Cable in an exclusive interview. "I think that's what McChrystal is trying to do," he...

Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), one of Speaker Nancy’s Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) closest allies, is still waiting for the House to come up with a healthcare bill he would support even though he is a co-sponsor of measure that includes a single-payer provision. Murtha is one of 86 co-sponsors to a bill sponsored by Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.). That measure would provide all individuals residing in the United States with free health care. It also would prevent private insurance companies from participating in the government program, which Conyers dubbed The United States National Healthcare Program, for any kind of healthcare...

During President Barack Obama’s address on his health care bill, Representative Joe Wilson (R-SC) shouted “you lie” following the President’s assertion that his bill does not allow illegal aliens to participate in receiving benefits. The Democratic Party leadership is now planning to censure Wilson. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) called Wilson’s remark “shockingly disrespectful and unacceptable.” “While it is true that the President called his opponents liars, this does not grant others the right to respond in kind. The President represents the entire nation. He speaks for every American. Mr. Wilson’s small, red-neck constituency doesn’t give him the right to...

WASHINGTON -- Democratic leaders in Congress urged the Obama administration Thursday to quickly produce a plan for winning the war in Afghanistan or risk widespread opposition within the president's own party to a new troop buildup. Simmering congressional frustration could lead to tighter scrutiny and more limited resources, even if Capitol Hill ultimately does approve sending more U.S. troops to the war-torn nation, aides said. "I don't think there's a great deal of support for sending more troops to Afghanistan in the country or in the Congress," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the highest-ranking Democrat to signal that a push...

Ethics spotlight burns on House DemsBy Susan Crabtree - 09/09/09 06:05 AM ET The ethics spotlight on House Democrats is intensifying amid predictions from political analysts that Republicans will pick up many seats in next year’s midterm elections. Few are going so far as to say that the GOP will win back the House, but ethics controversies are key to the rise of the minority party in the lower chamber. Republicans capitalized on Democratic ethics woes to win the House in 1994 and Democrats turned the tables on the GOP in 2006, catapulting Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to Speaker. Republicans...

John Murtha (Democrat) This clip is appalling - I don't have an exact date, but it happened quite a while ago. Just watch how our government runs things. Maybe Glenn can ask what is up with this?

Johnstown, Pa. If you hate the hubbub of crowded airports, you might want to consider flying out of Johnstown, Pa. The airport sees an average of fewer than 30 people per day, there is never a wait for security, you can park for free right outside the gate, and you are almost guaranteed a row to yourself on any flight. You might wonder how the region ever had the air traffic demand to justify such a facility. It didn't. But it is located in the district of one of Congress's most unapologetic earmarkers: Democrat John Murtha. In 20 years, Mr....

One night last August, John Murtha, the U.S. Representative from PennsylvaniaÂ’s Twelfth Congressional District, paid a visit to the LBK Game Ranch, a private hunting camp in the hills above his home city of Johnstown. About 60 people had gathered in the ranchÂ’s lodge--a luxury five-bedroom log cabin decorated with deer antlers and flat-screen televisions--to raise money for his 2008 campaign. There were two odd things about the event. One was that the host was a former drug dealer. Bill Kuchera, a stocky man with a balding pate and a bristle-brush mustache, had run a bar near Johnstown in the...

Congressman John P. Murtha, Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.

A defense contractor with longtime ties to Rep. John Murtha said Thursday the Navy is lifting a suspension that has kept it from getting new government work. An agreement between Kuchera Defense Systems of Windber, Pa., and the Navy comes amid a Justice Department criminal investigation that appears to be intensifying. Dennis McGlynn, an attorney representing Kuchera, says the firm was removed from the Excluded Parties List System, a black book of contractors blocked from government work. McGlynn says Kuchera made some accounting adjustments to satisfy the Navy. "We are very pleased to be back in business as far as...

Surely House leadership didn't think the prospect of buying an additional four new corporate jets would fly with the American public? But they did. House leaders backed down only after news reports last week, most prominently from the Wall Street Journal, revealed the full details of this purchase. It appeared so routine. Before heading out on summer recess, lawmakers voted to add four more aircraft to an earlier request for four other new planes by the Air Force and Defense Department. The planes were to be added to a fleet of about 24 aircraft that the Air Force maintains for...

"If at first you don't succeed ... wait two decades for a new Congress, and then try again."If that credo isn't matted, framed, and hanging on the office wall of Rep. John P. Murtha, it should be.On July 22, Murtha's Defense Appropriations Subcommittee reported out a $636 billion appropriations bill that included funding for new airplanes in which the Air Force could ferry Members of Congress around the world. The eight new airplanes in the bill were precisely twice as many as the Obama Administration had requested -- but, for some reason, the price tag had more than doubled,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. House leaders have dropped plans to spend $550 million in the Air Force budget on passenger jets used by lawmakers and senior government officials, officials said on Monday. The House of Representatives reversed the move to upgrade the executive jet fleet after public criticism, opposition from other lawmakers and the Defense Department had said it did not need more planes that it had requested. "If the Department of Defense does not want these aircraft, they will be eliminated from the bill," Representative John Murtha, chairman of a House panel on defense appropriations, said in a statement....

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Facing controversy over a plan to use taxpayer money to purchase new aircraft for the U.S. government officials, the House of Representatives said late Monday that it would cut back its spending plans by more than $100 million.

WASHINGTON — The House on Thursday approved President Obama’s plan to kill the F-22 fighter jet. But Democratic leaders bucked White House veto threats on other programs, and they heatedly rejected a Republican effort to strip more than 550 earmarked expenditures from the $636 billion military bill. Mr. Obama and other political leaders had hailed last week’s vote in the Senate to cancel the F-22 as a sign of their progress in changing military spending practices. But in sometimes tense exchanges on the House floor on Thursday, two Republicans, Representatives Jeff Flake of Arizona and John Campbell of California, sought...

Members of the House ethics committee, who are investigating a pattern of lawmakers steering federal funds to generous defense contractors, are all set to have their pet military projects funded by the same committee whose activities they are probing. The 10 committee members together would get 29 earmarks -- or $59 million in federal funding for projects they requested in their districts or states -- under a proposed House military spending bill up for a vote today or tomorrow. The details were approved last week by the House defense appropriations subcommittee, whose practice of steering earmarks to a well-connected lobby...

Last night, Freedom Radio talked with Blackfive's James "Uncle Jimbo" Hanson about victory in this long war, what it will take to achieve it in Afghanistan, and why President Obama is uncomfortable with talking about it. Eight years into this fight, our nation's defense seems but a talking-point towards the "greater" victory in the next election cycle: The discussion continued. Uncle Jimbo expanded upon the appropriateness of members of our military using their standing to interject themselves into the controversy about Obama's birth certificate, the major contribution military blogs have made to the reporting on Iraq and the War on...

This story deserves more attention than it’s gotten, so I’m going to give it some. The eagle-eyed NZ Bear while running the show at the Victory Caucus noticed a strange little blurb on the website of MoveCongress.org. MoveCongress.org, for those of you fortunate enough to be unfamiliar with the group, boasts on its masthead that it wants to “Move Congress to End the War in Iraq.” This morning, the group was scheduled to be blessed with an exclusive briefing from Jack Murtha on how…well, I’ll let you see how MoveCongress.org described Murtha’s agenda: Chairman Murtha will describe his strategy for...

Ominous times for MurthaTimothy McNulty | July 22, 2009 The feds are drawing closer to Jack Murtha, say these stories in Roll Call and TPM..... SNIPOminously, O'Hair has said he will cooperate with the Feds. Coherent's CEO, Richard Ianieri, who earlier this month pleaded guilty to soliciting kickbacks, has also indicated he'll cooperate.

Tucked into the voluminous congressional plan for U.S. military spending next year is a $160 million pot of money intended to help Mexico's police buy American-made police radios.It's a major purchase that one radio manufacturer got rolling, 12 members of Congress formally requested and a powerful defense appropriations chairman championed, according to records and congressional staff. But details of the plan to pump Pentagon funds into Mexico's crime-fighting efforts are cloaked in vaguely worded language in the House defense bill. The program is a one of many congressional requests in the bill, which also includes 1,080 projects worth $2.7 billion...

...What we are is plain to God, and I Hope it is also plain to your conscience. 2 Cor 5:11 Jack Turda accused innocent Marines of "killing civilians in cold blood". Now that he has been caught w/his hand in the Pork Barrel again isn’t it time to admit his guilt and resign? If he can accuse Marines of murder w/no evidence, yet he fights this obvious corruption; he is a hypocrite, but I repeat myself. He received over $1.3 million in kickbacks to save his seat while giving a business in his district over $100 million of our hard...

FBI Getting Closer To Murtha?By Zachary Roth - July 21, 2009, 11:45AM Is the noose tightening around John Murtha? For months now, the Pennsylvania Democratic power-broker's name has been popping up in connection to a wide-ranging FBI investigation of defense contractors and lobbyists to whom he has ties. And yesterday brought more bad news... Mark O'Hair, a former Air Force employee pleaded guilty (sub. req.) Monday in connection to getting a kickback from a defense contract that Murtha, who chairs the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee, had provided. Roll Call reports: According to the plea agreement, filed in a federal court...

The Appropriations Defense Subcommittee — always considered the high altar of congressional spending power — has suddenly become a liability for lawmakers touched by criminal inquiries scrutinizing the nexus of lobbyists, earmarks and Pentagon contracts. Just in the past week: A Pennsylvania businessman with ties to Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) pleaded guilty in a kickback scheme, leading to new questions about Murtha’s role in getting earmarks for his brother’s lobbying business. FBI agents raided a Florida company linked to Rep. Bill Young (R-Fla.), leading Young to withdraw a $4 million funding request for the firm the next day. And Rep....

One of the most favored insiders in Representative John Murtha’s rich churn of defense earmarks has pleaded guilty to criminal charges, shedding light on a twisting, pay-to-play money trail. The contractor, Richard Ianieri, admitted taking $200,000 in bribes from another big defense contractor in the Murtha orbit, and is cooperating with investigators. “What’s that got to do with me?” commented Mr. Murtha, who previously lavished praise and tens of millions of dollars in contracts on the two companies caught up in the criminal investigation. He asks an ever more urgent question. Investigators have not identified him as a target. But...

Boehm Says Prosecutors Will ‘Get to Murtha’By Peter Flaherty 07/17/2009 In the wake of the indictment of Richard Ianieri of Coherent Systems International, for whom Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) secured earmarks, NLPC Chairman Ken Boehm has offered some thoughts. From OneNewsNow yesterday [1]: "These are crummy little firms. Many of them are located in Murtha's district. That's part of the game," he explains. "But if they have anything substantial to do, they sub it out to some real company and keep a big chunk for themselves. And out of that chunk they pay the political contributions that go hand-in-hand with...

Jack Murtha(D, PA)-linked companies in Florida corruption probe.July 16, 2009Moe LaneIt’s a lovely morning today.  The sun is shining down from a brilliantly-azure sky.  The birds are singing counterpoint to the steady rumble of people getting up, going to work and living their lives.  Somewhere, a child laughs with innocent delight as a sudden breeze stirs the grass, and sends dandelion seeds dancing through the air.  And Air Force investigators are charging that various-and-sundry companies linked to Rep. Jack Murtha (and his lobbyist brother Kit Murtha) improperly received and used earmarks funneled to them by him. When an Air Force...

A $636.3 billion Pentagon budget, outlined Thursday by the House Appropriations Committee, rejects many of Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s program terminations but leaves open potential deals on the future of the F-22 fighter and a truncated version of the Army’s Future Combat Systems. The biggest flash point could be the VH-71 presidential helicopter program, where the bill’s manager, Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) is insistent that the government can’t afford to simply walk away from the billions invested without getting some operational aircraft. “You can’t just cancel programs without getting something out of it,” he told reporters. Toward this end, Murtha...

The way we distribute our defense contracts needs serious overhaul, something a Washington Post article highlighted yesterday. I’ve written about this before and this particular instance focuses on John Murtha D-Pa and how he directed millions of dollars to companies for the development of military technology. The problems arose when: “A handful of defense firms were paid for work that was never done or not called for in the contracts. Some of the companies involved, based in Wyoming, Florida and Murtha’s district in Pennsylvania, had hidden owners, prosecutors allege; one was secretly owned by the Air Force official who helped...

WASHINGTON -- Despite cries for reform, the earmark process is alive and well in Congress. As lawmakers write the military budget for fiscal-year 2010, every member on the House defense-appropriations subcommittee has requested funds for contractors and other organizations with employees who have donated money to their campaigns. The 18 members of the subcommittee are seeking a total of about $2 billion on behalf of such companies, universities and nonprofit groups, according to a review of campaign-finance data and nearly 400 earmark requests in the 2010 defense-spending bill by the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense. Employees of those entities donated...