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— Columbia University has a “director of the center for gender and sexuality law” by the name of Katherine Franke who is considered an authority on sexual matters by The New York Times. Her position seems to be that recent scandals in the news are not really scandalous, except in terms of being sensationalized and overblown by the media. She told the paper that Kevin Clash and David Petraeus were victims of a “sex panic” when they resigned from their respective positions. The Times story written by Elizabeth Jensen and Brian Stelter is noteworthy for the claim that Clash, the...

Your lawmakers are voting more than once for the same bill, they are actually voting for their buddies and are even blatant enough to cast other lawmakers votes for them when they have their back turned! these clowns need to be in jail not tomorrow, not after breakfast NOW!PLEASE SHARE THIS VID WITH EVERYONE AND DEMAND JUSTICE!What would happen to you if police caught you on video fraudulently voting? Would cops quickly arrest you and throw you in jail, only to have the District Attorney immediately charge you with fraud?What would happen to elected government officials if they were...

California Democratic congresswoman Maxine Waters will not be charged with ethics violations. At a meeting Friday, House Ethics Committee members said they found no violations in their investigation of allegations she steered a $12 million federal bailout to a bank where her husband owns stock. Waters is a senior Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. The committee, however, said Waters' chief of staff, Mikael Moore, did take actions in Congress in an attempt to help the bank and violated standards of conduct. Moore likely will receive a letter admonishing him for his conduct. but will not face more severe punishment,...

The theater was packed. "2016: Obama's America" was playing at the local Midway theater in Lewes, Delaware. The movie run began the Friday before Labor Day and I rejoiced. No one goes to the movies "downey ocean" on Labor Day weekend. I decided to go on Labor Day proper. Let the tourists stay at the beach, I was going to the movies. The place was packed. Oh there were a few empty seats but believe me, I go to those movies all the time, granddaughter in tow, and usually about the same time, a middle of the day hour, a...

111th Congress Added More Debt Than First 100 Congresses Combined: $10,429 Per Person in U.S. Monday, December 27, 2010 By Terence P. Jeffrey (CNSNews.com) - The federal government has accumulated more new debt--$3.22 trillion ($3,220,103,625,307.29)—during the tenure of the 111th Congress than it did during the first 100 Congresses combined, according to official debt figures published by the U.S. Treasury. That equals $10,429.64 in new debt for each and every one of the 308,745,538 people counted in the United States by the 2010 Census. The total national debt of $13,858,529,371,601.09 (or $13.859 trillion), as recorded by the U.S. Treasury at...

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It is no secret in Washington, D.C. that the Obama administration’s vast bureaucracy is working overtime to prepare for the new Republican controlled House. The reason for this frenzy of preparation is the new oversight power that the House Republicans will have to peer in to what Obama’s cronies are up to behind the curtain. You can probably hear the loudest hum of shredders working double time at the Department of Labor. According to DOL emails, the department is working frantically to be prepared for what might happen in January. On December 14, the political staff at the Department of...

The House on Thursday formally censured Rep. Charlie Rangel for financial misconduct despite pleas from the New York Democratic lawmaker and some of his colleagues for a less punishing reprimand. The House voted to censure Rangel 333-79. Rangel, who became the 23rd House member to be censured, appeared at the front of the chamber while Speaker Nancy Pelosi read the resolution.

Jurors considering the political money laundering case against former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay on Tuesday delved deep into the evidence, but asked so many legal questions that the judge warned them that they were getting off track... DeLay had with him a copy of Empire of the Summer Moon, a recent nonfiction book about the Comanche people and their famed chief, Quanah Parker, and a TouchPoint Bible that allows readers to find Scripture relevant to their lives. "No demons, nor angels nor DAs can keep you separated from the love of Jesus Christ," DeLay said, playing off of...

Five years after former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay demanded a speedy trial on political money laundering charges, a Travis County jury is now determining his fate. The six-man, six-woman panel showed up at court Monday with a majority of the members dressed in black. They elected one of the women as foreman. And when they returned three times to the courtroom to ask the judge questions during their four hours of deliberation, they all looked away from DeLay. The jurors also were asking visiting Judge Pat Priest questions that indicated they were buying into DeLay's defense that no...

Testimony in Tom DeLay's money-laundering trial ended in Austin, Texas, without the former House majority leader testifying. Closing arguments are set for Monday, the Houston Chronicle reported. DeLay said after Thursday's court session he got to make his case when prosecutors played his 2005 interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News. "The reason I didn't testify is there was no need to. … I can't believe the prosecution finished their case with my testimony," he said. In the interview, DeLay said he knew of a money swap between his Texans for a Republican Majority and the Republican National Committee, but...

The House ethics committee's chief counsel has recommended that Rep. Charles Rangel be censured in connection with a finding that he engaged in improper financial and fundraising conduct. Chief counsel Blake Chisman called for this punishment despite the New York Democrat's plea to his colleagues for "a drop of fairness and mercy." If Chisam's recommendation is carried out, this would be the most serious punishment, short of expulsion, which is highly unlikely. Chisam and Rangel argued their positions Thursday in a public hearing on sanctions held by the ethics committee.

A House panel on Tuesday found Representative Charles B. Rangel guilty of 11 counts of ethical violations, ruling that his failure to pay taxes, improper solicitation of fund-raising donations and failure to accurately report his personal income had brought dishonor on the House. After a public hearing Monday that was truncated by Mr. Rangel walking out in protest, an adjudicatory subcommittee of the House ethics committee deliberated for four hours before finding him guilty of all but one of the 13 counts against him. (Two other counts, involving Mr. Rangel’s misuse of House franking privileges, were merged into one.)

Republicans are likely to urge the Obama administration not to shred documents as they transition to the House majority. 

 Before the election, GOP officials on Capitol Hill privately discussed the issue but refrained from publicly tackling it, not wanting to assume what would happen on Election Day.

 Now that Republicans will control the House, the shredding matter will move front and center. 



Rangel won another term by a wide margin Tuesday despite lingering concerns over ethics allegationsBy Sarah Darville and Leah Greenbaum Published November 3, 2010 Staffers purchased a dozen bottles of champagne weeks ago to celebrate Representative Charles Rangel’s victory Tuesday night. But the short celebration at the Martin Luther King Jr. Democratic Club on 128th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard did not pass without mention of the 40-year incumbent’s upcoming public trial for ethics charges. Rangel won another term by a wide margin Tuesday despite lingering concerns over ethics allegations related to failing to pay income taxes and not...

Nowhere will Nancy Pelosi's loss of the House speakership be felt more acutely than here in the Bay Area, where her power has been used to help steer hundreds of millions of dollars into infrastructure projects. "It's difficult working the halls of Congress when you don't have the speaker of the House who understands specific facets of your region, and isn't there to help set up meetings," said Jim Wunderman, head of the Bay Area Council business group. "There will be a price to pay." San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed said the loss would be felt in the South Bay...

Republicans to win control of House with 231 seats: Reuters/Ipsos poll 12 mins ago WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republicans will take control of the House of Representatives from Democrats in Tuesday's midterm elections, a Reuters/Ipsos poll predicted on Tuesday. Fifty percent of likely voters said they will choose a Republican candidate at the election while 44 percent will pick a Democratic hopeful, the survey showed. Republicans are poised to win some 231 seats in the House and take control of the chamber

New prognostications show Republicans easily overtaking the House next week, but Democrats are dispatching their top figures for a last round of campaigning and injecting fresh cash into the races, in an attempt to stave off a blowout. Republicans could easily pick up 50 seats on Nov. 2, far more than the 39 needed to win the majority, according to the Hill. The newspaper's 2010 midterm election poll surveyed 17,000 likely voters in 42 toss-up districts, and the results mirror those of other recent projections. Democrats face the potential of "a political bloodbath the size of which we haven't seen...

In a shortage economy, rationing forces some hard choices. Democrats running for Congress in both chambers have discovered this as donors have begun closing their pocketbooks or tapping out, and the desperation for dollars has them competing not against Republicans but each other. Politico reports that a dwindling pool of patrons are being pitched by Senate campaigns to skip sending any money to House candidates as Republicans will take control in the next Congress anyway: House and Senate Democrats are increasingly competing against one another over a small universe of deep-pocketed donors who could make a financial difference in the...

Many political observers were stunned by the new Gallup poll showing the Republican party with a 10-point advantage in the so-called "generic ballot" question. Now we have a better idea how that happened. According to new, more detailed Gallup numbers, Democratic advantages on issues like health care, the economy, and handling corruption in government have simply disappeared. Democratic leads that were enormous when the party took control of Congress in 2006 have dwindled to nothing or have now become Republican advantages. The most striking example is in health care. Back in October 2006, just before Democrats won control of Congress,...