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On Friday, October 9th, the Administration formally swore in a New Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management at the Department of Labor. What’s News about that? The New Assitant Secretary is a Member of SEIU. According to an Article on the SEIU Blog, T. Michael Kerr, was sworn in as the New Assistant Secretary for the Administration and Management at the Department of Labor. Here is T. Michael Kerr’s Bio, according to the March White House Press Release announcing his nomination:

PARIS – President Nicolas Sarkozy's 23-year-old son is angling for a key job overseeing billions of euros in commerce at France's top business district — a job critics say he does not deserve. Jean Sarkozy's conservative backers insisted Monday that he's qualified to chair EPAD, the quasi-governmental agency that manages the La Defense financial district on the western outskirts of Paris. The sprawling complex of skyscrapers houses the headquarters of some of Europe's biggest companies, such as oil giant Total and bank Societe Generale. Sarkozy, a law school student at the Sorbonne, is the main candidate for the chairmanship. Socialist...

Vicki Kennedy should be considered as a potential interim replacement for her late husband in the U.S. Senate, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle said Sunday. "I think Vicki ought to be considered," Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said on CNN's "State of the Union." "She's a very brilliant lawyer. She's a very solid individual," Hatch said of Sen. Edward Kennedy's widow. "She certainly made a difference in Ted's life, let me tell you. And I have nothing but great respect for her." Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), a close friend of Ted Kennedy, said he too would be supportive of...

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, longtime Democratic senator and the patriarch of the Kennedy political family, has died after a lengthy battle with brain cancer. The Kennedy family released a statement early Wednesday morning saying, "Edward M. Kennedy – the husband, father, grandfather, brother and uncle we loved so deeply – died late Tuesday night at home in Hyannis Port. We've lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever. We thank everyone who gave him care and support over this...

ALBANY, N.Y. -- The son of a powerful state senator instrumental in this summer's Senate coup was given a newly created $120,000 job in the chamber in the latest political appointment during the governor's hiring freeze. Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada's son, Pedro G. Espada, holds the new job of Senate liaison between governments, Senate Democratic majority spokesman Austin Shafran confirmed Tuesday. The elder Mr. Espada, a Bronx Democrat, was one of the dissidents who created a June coup in the Senate when he joined a Republican-led coalition, taking the slim majority from his Democratic party in exchange for a...

Conventional wisdom holds that the social rate of return to R&D significantly exceeds the private rate of return and, therefore, R&D should be subsidized. In the U.S., the government has directly funded a large fraction of total R&D spending. This paper shows that there is a serious problem with such government efforts to increase inventive activity. The majority of R&D spending is actually just salary payments for R&D workers. Their labor supply, however, is quite inelastic so when the government funds R&D, a significant fraction of the increased spending goes directly into higher wages. Using CPS data on wages of...

SOME hardworking folks at NBC and MSNBC -- who work long hours for little pay -- are wondering, "Where in the world is Luke Russert?" One insider sniped, "He was hired last year to be the youth correspondent -- he got a great contract and was supposed to cover youth issues, blog and bring in young viewers, but he's been MIA for a while. It's like, 'Well, that's what you get for nepotism.' "

Well, one good thing you can say about the king of pork, he is a family guy. Another way to look at it is, he continues to thumb his nose at the American people. Even though the FBI is investigating him and his relationship with the PMA group, the man who put the ear in earmark continues to move as much as the defense budget as possible to his district even when it unwarranted like the Airport, named after him who's total traffic is three flights a day. Along with the all that pork, there are accusations from contractors that...

Making work pay … Washington DC style. My guess is this isn’t what Hope n Change was talking about. The Courant does the digging. Every day we see more and more why people will spend so much money for a job that pays so little. Today’s Hartford Courant reports that Dodd’s wife, Jackie Clegg has seen her income soar since marrying the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. No … nothing illegal here on its surface, and in fact that is the problem. As the Courant points out, appointing the spouses or relatives of high powered Congress people to corporate...

Unemployment in California may be at its highest since 1983, but there are jobs with the state Legislature for the well-connected. Yolie Flores Aguilar, a longtime friend and political ally of some powerful California Democrats, last year supplemented her income as vice president of the Los Angeles school board with more than $32,000 as a consultant assigned to a state Senate committee that, during her tenure, did not meet or release any reports. State Sen. Rod Wright (D-Inglewood) was paid at least $27,900 by the state Senate last year for miscellaneous tasks as he was campaigning for his current job....

President Barack Obama's illegal alien aunt has enlisted the help of an immigration lawyer to help her win asylum and stay in the United States. Margaret Wong and Associates is representing Zeituni Onyango, the 56-year-old Kenyan half-sister of Obama's deceased father, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports. Onyango and her lawyer are scheduled to attend an immigration hearing in Boston on April 1. "The judge will be looking at evidence that they may not have been aware of four years ago," Michael Rogers, spokesman for Wong, told the newspaper. "Wong is optimistic. We would have preferred to not conduct this case...

On my way to another chapter in the oddball Odyssey of Burris and Blago—which could be outdated instantly—a friend sent the sad story of the University of Chicago Hospital. The hospital is about to trim $100 million or 7 percent of its budget by laying off hundreds of employees because of the economic downturn. Very sad. Who wants to see hundreds more unemployed in the Chicago area? But a bigger question comes to mind: The Tribune reports that the budget and job cuts—including 15 “senior executive” positions—will not affect medical care. If they don’t affect medical care, why the hell...

Former President George H.W. Bush said on Sunday he'd like to see his second son, Jeb, become president of the United States some day. Interviewed on "Fox News Sunday," Bush said his second son, a former governor of Florida, had all the qualifications to serve in the White House. Jeb Bush, 55, has said he was considering running for a U.S. Senate seat representing Florida in 2010. The current incumbent, Republican Mel Martinez, has announced he is stepping down. "I'd like to see him run. I'd like to see him be president one day, or senator, whatever, yes I would,"...

After weeks of criticism that she had not opened up to the public or the press, Ms. Kennedy has embarked on a series of interviews. But in an extensive sit-down discussion Saturday morning with The New York Times, she still seemed less like a candidate than an idea of one: forceful but vague, largely undefined and seemingly determined to remain that way.... . She provided only the broadest of rationales for her candidacy for the Senate, saying her experience as a mother, author and school fund-raiser, her commitment to public service and her deep political connections had prepared her for...

Blagojevich refuses to budge NBC Nightly News VIDEO: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/vp/28200681#28200681&gt1=43001

*SNIP* The notion that a newly elected president who is also a sitting U.S. Senator would have no "contact" whatsoever with the governor charged with appointing his Senate successor is a fantasy. *SNIP* By sheer accident, there is a current example of this kind of thing right alongside Obama himself -- Vice President-elect Joe Biden. Like Obama, Biden is a sitting Senator and must yield his seat. The Governor of Delaware, indeed, has already announced "her" choice to fill the Biden vacancy: none other than Biden's longtime Senate chief of staff Ted Kaufman. Does anyone seriously believe this appointment occurred...

OAKLAND, Calif. -- The Oakland City Council met Tuesday night and approved new reforms to end nepotism in city government, a move made in response to this past summer's scandal involving former City Administrator Deborah Edgerly. Oakland city leaders say they want the public to have confidence in City Hall, by eliminating the chance of government workers giving favors to friends and family members. The ordinance approved Tuesday night bans nepotism effective immediately. From now on, anyone who applies for a job with the city must disclose all personal relationships with city officials and employees. "Hopefully we'll begin to restore...

With the possible exception of the mainstream media...who apparently believe that Barack Obama’s wealth is not newsworthy, but the number of homes owned by Cindy McCain’s is...there is much written these days about the dire economic circumstances of Obama’s 25-year-old half brother, George Hussein Onyango Obama. According to press reports, George Obama has been located by Italian Vanity Fair living in a 6 ft. by 9 ft. makeshift hut on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya, subsisting on less than $1 a month. He told reporters, “If anyone says anything about my surname, I say we are not related. I am...

New Mexico Republicans are angry that Secretary of State Mary Herrera hired U.S. Senate candidate Tom Udall's son-in-law to head the state Elections Bureau. The new director, Jim Noel, is married to Udall's wife's daughter, Amanda Cooper. Cooper is managing the Northern New Mexico congressman's campaign against Republican U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce for the seat being vacated by retiring U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M. Noel, currently executive director of the state Judicial Standards Commission, starts his new job Sept. 8. "The hiring of Tom Udall's son-in-law as state elections director is a stunning conflict of interest," spokeswoman Shira Rawlinson said...

WASHINGTON - A son of Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden was paid an undisclosed amount of money as a consultant by MBNA, the largest employer in Delaware, during the years the senator supported legislation that was promoted by the credit card industry and opposed by consumer groups. ADVERTISEMENT Barack Obama's presidential campaign said Biden helped forge a bipartisan compromise on the measure, which is now law and makes it harder for consumers to obtain bankruptcy protection in the courts. MBNA's consulting payments to Hunter Biden, first reported by The New York Times, followed his departure in 2001 from the...

OAKLAND — A federal grand jury has subpoenaed the city for the personnel records of former City Administrator Deborah Edgerly, her closest City Hall adviser, and four of their relatives, sources said, less than two months after Edgerly was fired amid allegations of nepotism and interfering with a police investigation. The criminal subpoena is the clearest sign yet that federal authorities are interested in investigating City Hall, in a probe seemingly aimed, at least partially, at determining whether Edgerly gave preferential treatment to relatives during her tenure as the city's top nonelected official. The grand jury made the request earlier...

Ex-Gov. Mario Cuomo 'helped' target of probe By Kenneth Lovett Daily News Albany Bureau Sunday, August 17th 2008, 9:44 PM ALBANY - An investment firm doing business with the state pension fund sought out former Gov. Mario Cuomo to help it get more business, the Daily News has learned. Mezzacappa Management LLC contacted Cuomo months after his son, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, requested information from the company as part of a probe into a possible pay-to-play scam during former Controller Alan Hevesi's tenure. Mario Cuomo said he had recently received a call from a longtime acquaintance, famed lawyer Philip...

It's "her time" to get into the family business. Caroline Kennedy's high-profile appointment to Barack Obama's vice-presidential search team was orchestrated in a deal brokered by her famous uncle, Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy, in exchange for his endorsement, The Post has learned. It was the result of Carolina, a 50-year-old Harvard grad, indicating to her now-ailing uncle that it was "her time" to get into politics, insiders told The Post. JFK's daughter is looking to get her feet wet in political affairs, sources said, including the possibility she could one day run for office in some capacity or accept a...

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama has released a list of $740 million in earmark requests he made in the past three years, and it includes $1 million for the hospital where his wife Michelle is a vice president. The request for $1 million for the University of Chicago Medical Center was to help pay for construction of a new pavilion. “I can tell you with 100 percent certainty that Michelle Obama was not part of our lobbying over the request, not in any way,” Kelly Sullivan, another vice president at the medical center, told the New York Times. In any case,...

Removing any doubt about how she sees the world from the left, Valerie Plame Wilson, in an interview Thursday which aired Saturday night on a Washington, DC area cable channel, admired the work of the far-left Media Matters as she revealed she seeks out the group's postings for their “accuracy” and presentation of “the facts.” Carol Joynt (her blog), a former CBS News producer who as the owner of the Nathans of Georgetown restaurant every week interviews a newsmaker in front of a lunch crowd in what becomes the hour-long Q&A Cafe on NewsChannel 8, asked whether she reads “news...

All In the Family by: Bethany Stotts, December 07, 2007 .... A new report released by Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) reveals that American political nepotism extends not just through the executive branch, but throughout Congress. The report showed that of the 535 Congressional seats (Senators and Representatives), 50 Members had relatives who served as Senators, Representatives, or Governors. The ATR report identified 15 members, 13 from the House and 2 from the Senate, who gained their seats immediately following their relatives’ resignation, retirement, or death. Of these “legacy” Congressional seats: • Four seats were inherited by widows...

Sometimes chronicling media bias and hypocrisy is just too easy. You couldn't have asked for better material than what was provided Wednesday by the New York Times which ran a thousand-word-plus article discussing the alleged nepotism of Commentary’s hiring of John Podhoretz to run the magazine. I’ll grant that this type of character assassination article is typical when it comes to the liberal press’s normal gorillas-in-the-mist view of conservatism. Still, you’d think that the Times might be a little more inclined to avoid such journalism when its prestige and profits have been on a downward spiral ever since publisher Arthur...

When I went to my office Monday, July 7, 2003, Joe Wilson was not in the forefront of my mind. Frances Fragos Townsend was. She had just been named deputy national security adviser at the White House though her background was in liberal Democratic politics, including Attorney General Janet Reno's inner circle during the Clinton administration. Her appointment was a political mystery of the kind I had been exploring for forty years in my column. I wrote the Townsend column Tuesday morning because I had a busy schedule the rest of the day, including a 3 p.m. appointment with Richard...

Anyone who wonders why Congress has a job approval rating of 23 percent, seven points lower than even Bush's, need only look at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and her failure to change the ethics of the Congress. Having pledged to make Congress full-time and put the lackadaisical members to work, she then announced a schedule for 2007 in which House members will have 20 weeks off (and when they work, it's Tuesday to Thursday most of the time). Now Pelosi has come up with her own version of the No Child Left Behind program by asking the Defense Department...

Anyone who wonders why Congress has a job approval rating of 23 percent, seven points lower than even Bush’s, need only look at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) failure to change the ethics of the Congress. Having pledged to make Congress full-time and put the lackadaisical members to work, she then announced a schedule for 2007 in which House members will have 20 weeks off (and when they work, it’s Tuesday to Thursday most of the time).

When Valerie Plame Wilson swore that she did not recommend or suggest her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, for a fact-finding trip to Niger in 2002, Sen. Christopher Bond took note. Wilson’s words, given in testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, didn’t jibe with what Bond’s investigators had learned a few years earlier when they looked into the CIA leak matter. Now, we know why Bond was suspicious. (last paragraph) Taken in sum, the evidence in Bond’s additional views seems to definitively lay to rest the question of who suggested Joseph Wilson for the trip to...

***......I find it disturbing to hear Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton assert that she would appoint her husband as a "roaming ambassador" ("Bill of Goods," April 22). It is frightening to contemplate the paternity lawsuits against our country from every corner of the world, should such an appointment be made. Rockville Centre *** I agree with Hillary.....Bill Clinton should be sent out of the country.....under the guise of being a goodwill ambassador. Let's just get rid of him, and maybe she will follow. Staten Island *** Hillary's co-candidate has been an impeached president, a disbarred lawyer, a blatant liar on public...

VALERIE PLAME AND JOSEPH WILSON: THE BAD NEWS BOORS © by Norman Liebmann It’s time to reconsider Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame, two operatives of the maggot-infested Washington bureaucracy. The Wilsons are mid-level non-entities bobbing in a sea of Republican apathy. Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame are darlings of the liberal Guttercrats that infest Washington and worm through the rot of its agencies and commissions. The Wilsons are a couple of party animals who think of themselves as the Fred and Ginger of Georgetown. They are, in fact, the Al and Peg Bundy of mid-level bureaucracy, the Bonnie and Clyde...

Attorney General-elect Jerry Brown said Wednesday that he will appoint his wife, Anne Gust, as his unpaid special counsel, giving her a "broad mandate" in a new post that will be part of a significant reorganization of the state attorney general's office. "It will be a very important and high-level role very close to the policy and administrative processes," said Brown, who was in Washington, D.C., to attend House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi's inauguration. "It is a broad title and she certainly will have a broad mandate because her experience is very broad." This will not be the first time Brown...

On another thread the subject of neoptism of hollywoodies came up, and it seemed that it might be interesting to pool knowledge about who in Hollywood broke into the tight movie union because of their connections. Who's Whose Kid in Hollywood Nicholas Cage is Francis Ford Coppola's nephew. Anyone who saw him in Peggy Sue Got Married KNOWS he only got hired because of his uncle. He got to learn by being an apprentice in the trenches--that's a gift. Kate Hudson is Goldie Hawn's daughter.Gwennie Paltrow is the daughter of Bruce Paltrow and Blythe Danner.

Nancy Pelosi tried to snatch an early victory in the race for party whip in the summer of 1999. Her tactic was essentially a blitzkrieg, a fast sweep of the Democratic caucus that would wrap up the contest before Members left for the August Congressional recess. This was begun almost three years before the post was even to become available. But at the time, Democrats believed they had a shot at the majority, and a vacancy at whip would have resulted. At first, many of her fellow Democrats expressed annoyance that the cart was being placed before the proverbial horse....

Please, bear with me. I posted this before but didn't do a very good job of it. Forgive me. When I was a child actress at Universal, everyone knew that Sid Sheinberg was Steven Spielberg's uncle. Somehow that family connection never made the news. I would like to know if it's true. A Hollywood Story -- Sid Sheinberg, former MCA Universal President and credited for "discovering Steven Spielberg, may have been his maternal uncle. Do you wanna graduate college or do you wanna be a film director?" – Spielberg makes his choice More from this book. Following on from the...

WATERBURY -- Teachers and staff members would be blocked from working in the same school as spouses, siblings and other relatives under a strict nepotism policy being considered by the Board of Education. If the policy is approved, employees would not be assigned to the same school as relatives "whenever possible." Nor would they be hired or moved into positions where a relative can "influence employment" or access confidential information, such as their personnel files or medical records. The school system already has a nepotism policy instructing the superintendent to "make every effort" to prevent relatives from supervising or evaluating...

She's married to Sen. Chuck Schumer, but if you're suing city Transportation Commissioner Iris Weinshall, leave him out of it. A judge has ordered a name correction in a lawsuit filed by ex-Staten Island ferry Capt. Michael Gansas that refers to her as "Iris Weinshall-Schumer." Weinshall, a defendant in the suit, doesn't use Schumer's name. "A motion was filed to correct the caption, as part of a larger motion to dismiss this case, since the commissioner's name was wrongly stated," said Department of Transportation spokeswoman Kay Sarlin. Brooklyn Federal Judge Leo Glasser granted the city's request for the name correction,...

'MISBEGOTTEN' TIMES(NARROWNESS, MR. SULZBERGER, NOT WIDTH) PINCH'S NON-APOLOGY APOLOGY by Mia T, July 18, 2006 WAR AND TREASON AND THE NEW YORK TIMES by Mia T, December 29, 2005       inch Sulzberger scurried to the C-SPAN confessional even as the fires raged under the mammoth heap of ash and twisted steel that was once the Twin Towers and 2801 human beings. He had to make certain no one would blame The New York Times. The Times' 1996 endorsement of bill clinton1 was the problem. The endorsement, you may recall, was contingent on clinton getting a brain transplant--specifically of...

It's hard to imagine that Patrick Kennedy would have gotten elected to Congress a dozen years ago without his last name. It's equally hard to imagine that the media would be going wild about his late-night car crash and prescription drug addiction if he weren't a Kennedy. The only lingering mystery is why national news organizations didn't pounce earlier on the Rhode Island Democrat's long history of alcohol and drug abuse, depression and a series of downright embarrassing incidents.

A high-ranking official at the National Fraternal Order of Police cited the mishandling of Rep. Patrick Kennedy's (D-R.I.) car accident Thursday as just one more example of problems the Capitol Police Department is experiencing since Chief Terrance Gainer retired. Jim Pasco, executive director of the National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), said the fact that no investigation was conducted after Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I) crashed his car into a security barrier at C and First Street SE was unacceptable but symptomatic of the way the Capitol Police Department is being run after Gainer's departure on April 6.Gainer retired after charges...

The original mega-thread: CIA Fires Officer For Leaking Classified Information to Media I think this is as big as rathergate.   Dana Priest's Pulitzer has just turned to dust. Not only that,  the Pulitzer's are finally dust themselves...it is up to us and others to find out, because  the Drive-By Media will ignore the story. Let's Play Connect the Dots Let’s connect some dots in the Mary McCarthy CIA leak tale, shall we? (Hat tip: WordWarp).Mary McCarthy leaks the secret CIA prisons story to Dana Priest, in what may have been a sting operation.Mary McCarthy and Joe Wilson served at the...

The local San Diego FOX-6 Channel has just broken the story tonight that the San Diego Chapter of "Kind Hearts" Charity has also had it's finances frozen for having links to terrorist organizations. Two of the 9/11 hijackers were living and taking flying lessons here in San Diego.

Flanked by a row of much older, somber-looking men, Julie Myers took the podium and, without much posturing or fanfare, proudly described her agents' latest successful crime-fighting operation. The Friday morning news conference at the San Antonio office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, was Myers' first public appearance at the helm of the massive agency, part of the Homeland Security Department and the second-largest federal investigative organization after the FBI. Her announcement focused on back-to-back busts last week by a multiagency task force based in Laredo that netted homemade explosives, heavy weaponry, cameras, drugs and more than...

Celebrity blogger Arianna Huffington regularly attacks "Meet the Press" moderator Tim Russert as a Washington insider who gets chummy with the powerful. Usually there's no response. But now Huffington has really gotten under Russert's skin - to the point of drawing blood. Yesterday the entire NBC News publicity machine went ballistic on the impresario of Huffingtonpost.com, whose Web site is eight months old.

James Carville, Luke Russert to host new sports talk show (XM) RUSSERT: James Carville, before you go I understand that politics may be part of your past, that you're going to go on XM Satellite Radio and do sports? CARVILLE: Well, Mr. Russert, I can't talk about that too much, but I think there's going to be a story in tomorrow's paper. Tomorrow night I'll be on the Jay Leno show on NBC, and we'll be talking about some exciting new developments and maybe a new twist on an old career. RUSSERT: With anyone I know? CARVILLE: Maybe you would...

Jan 2, 5:18 AM EST Schuller's Son to Run Crystal Cathedral GARDEN GROVE, Calif. (AP) -- The Crystal Cathedral didn't have to look far to find its next senior pastor. Robert H. Schuller, head of the famed all-glass church southeast of Los Angeles, told his congregation Sunday that his son, Robert A. Schuller, will succeed him. As founding pastor of the church, the elder Schuller, now 79, is considered one of the most influential religious leaders in the country. He plans to remain chairman of the board of international ministries and stay active in the church. Robert A. Schuller, 51,...

THE ETHICS SCANDALS SWIRLING ABOUT Capitol Hill make it all but certain that the 2006 elections will be unusually focused on character. That's a good thing, of course, except that it obscures a different development, one that stands to be equally influential in determining the personality of our national legislature--the rise of the heirloom congressional seat.In the 109th Congress, there are 30 members of the House and Senate whose parents also served in Congress, four sets of siblings, and four wives who succeeded their husbands. There's also a gaggle of congressional offspring back home, quietly positioning themselves for their parents'...

The son of Travis County district attorney Ronnie Earle plans to run for the Texas House. Jason Earle will campaign for House District 47 in Southwest Travis County. The district's current representative Terry Keel said he won't run for reelection. Instead, he is seeking a seat on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Earle will formally announce his candidacy Tuesday evening (10/11/05) at Pease Elementary School in Central Austin.