● Chief Justice John Roberts found State of the Union scene 'troubling'... ● Obama's plans for NASA changes met with harsh criticism... ● House Ways and Means Chairman Levin says job creation will be top priority...Again?... ● Massa flirts with the right, but Beck isn't tickled... ● CBO Update... ● Massa under investigation for allegedly groping male staffers... ● From Greece, an economic cautionary tale for the U.S.... ● Obama wants to Overhaul Immigration System. What's Next? The People?... ● Are unemployment benefits no longer temporary?... ● Analysis finds uneasy mix in auto industry and regulation...
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When the people fear the government, there is tyranny; When the government fears the people, there is liberty.  ~ Thomas Jefferson

 

Entries Tagged as 'Accountability'

Chief Justice John Roberts found State of the Union scene ‘troubling’

March 10th, 2010 · Accountability, Democrats, Ethics, Greed, Obama Exposed, Obama's Scheme, Supreme Court

By Associated Press – Wednesday, March 10, 2010

TUSCALOOSA, ALA. — Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said Tuesday that the scene at President Obama’s State of the Union address was “very troubling” and that the annual speech has “degenerated to a political pep rally.”

Obama chided the Supreme Court in his Jan. 27 speech, with the justices seated before him, for a campaign finance case decision.

“The image of having the members of one branch of government standing up, literally surrounding the Supreme Court, cheering and hollering,” Roberts told University of Alabama law students, “while the court — according to the requirements of protocol — has to sit there expressionless, I think is very troubling.”

Breaking from tradition, Obama criticized the court’s decision that allows corporations and unions to freely spend money to run political ads for or against specific candidates. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. responded by shaking his head and mouthing the words “not true.”

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs responded later Tuesday, “What is troubling is that this decision opened the floodgates for corporations and special interests to pour money into elections — drowning out the voices of average Americans.”

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Ethics clouds over Rangel and Paterson are the talk of political Harlem

March 8th, 2010 · Accountability, Congress, Corruption, Deception, Democrats, Ethics, Government Control, Greed, States, Tax Dollars, Taxes

By Wil Haygood Washington Post staff writer
Monday, March 8, 2010

NEW YORK — Few will deny that the political landscape here in Harlem has yielded rich and galvanizing story lines. The arcs of those narratives have been taught and shared in classrooms across America.

Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and Charles B. Rangel became chairmen of powerful congressional committees. David N. Dinkins became the first black mayor of New York City, and David A. Paterson became the state’s first black governor. Percy Sutton and Basil Paterson, David’s father, became genuine power brokers, rolling between downtown and uptown with a sophisticated ease. The accomplishments gave Harlem a swagger and also a sweet pride.

Then came last week.

In what seemed like a double-barreled whammy of political shock and setback, Rangel stepped down as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee because of an ongoing ethics investigation and Paterson’s reign took on a tick-tock, tick-tock echo as many — supporters and foes alike — called for his resignation because of allegations that he interceded on behalf of a staffer in a domestic abuse case and accepted free tickets to a baseball game.

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Thin wall separates lobbyist contributions and earmarks

March 8th, 2010 · Accountability, Congress, Corruption, Deception, Ethics, Greed, Money Lost, Politics, Selling Out the US, Tax Dollars, Taxes

By R. Jeffrey Smith Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 7, 2010

House Appropriations defense subcommittee member James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) works hard at fundraising: Two to three times a week, he telephones contributors to ask for more. Yet, according to the account he supplied to the Office of Congressional Ethics last year, he is unaware of “who made donations” or how much they gave, and so that information plays no role in his earmarking — the systematic granting of public funds for mostly private purposes.

Fellow subcommittee member Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) similarly presides over fundraisers arranged by his staff for defense firms and lobbyists every three months or so, according to his office’s account. An aide in charge of Dicks’s earmarks attends the fundraising events. But Dicks and the aide told investigators they were unaware of the substantial overlap between defense industry contributions to Dicks and his earmarks to contributors.

The House ethics committee on Feb. 26 exonerated Dicks, Moran and five other defense subcommittee members of allegations that they had abused their offices by, in essence, selling earmarks to donors. In so doing, it drew heavily on promises such as these by lawmakers and staff members that their campaign fundraising operations had been carefully walled off from their earmarking decisions. Otherwise, their actions would violate laws and rules that bar any link between such donations and legislative acts.

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In e-mails, lobbyists perceive ties between campaign cash, earmarks

March 6th, 2010 · Accountability, Congress, Corruption, Deception, Ethics, Federal Spending, Greed, Money Lost, Obama's Scheme, Politics, Selling Out the US, Stimulus, Tax Dollars, Taxes, Treason

By Carol D. Leonnig Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 6, 2010

Lobbyists and corporate officials talked bluntly in e-mail exchanges about connections between making generous campaign donations and securing federal funds through members of an important House Appropriations subcommittee, according to not-yet-public documents reviewed by ethics investigators.

In summer 2007, for example, senior executives at a small McLean defense firm tried to figure out which of them would buy a ticket to a wine-tasting fundraiser for Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), a member of the Appropriations subcommittee on defense. At the time, the company sought help from Moran’s office in securing contracts through special earmarks added to the defense bill.

In an e-mail exchange, one senior officer said he didn’t understand why he had to attend the fundraiser when he didn’t even drink wine.

“You don’t have to drink,” Innovative Concepts’ chief technology officer, Andrew Feldstein, shot back in an e-mail. “You just have to pay.”

“LOL,” responded the other officer.

The fundraiser was hosted by the PMA Group, a powerful lobbying firm whose unusual success in obtaining “earmarked” contracts from members of the military subcommittee was a key focus of a recent House ethics investigation.

Moran raked in $91,900 in campaign checks to his personal campaign and leadership PAC that day. He secured an $800,000 earmark for Innovative Concepts in the 2008 defense appropriations bill.

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Democrats’ ethical lapses could threaten hold on power

March 6th, 2010 · Accountability, Corruption, Deception, Ethics, Government, Greed, Politics, Selling Out the US

By Perry Bacon Jr. – Saturday, March 6, 2010

Congressional Democrats reclaimed control of Congress in 2006 by pledging to “drain the swamp” after Republican ethics scandals rocked Capitol Hill. Now, a series of controversies involving Democratic members has robbed the party of its claim to hold the higher moral ground — and could threaten its hold on power in this fall’s elections.

The announcement Friday by freshman Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) that he will resign amid allegations that he sexually harassed a male staffer capped a week of near-daily ethical distractions for a party struggling to pass heath-care reform legislation.

A few days earlier, congressional Democrats forced Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) to step down temporarily from the chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee. The House ethics committee had admonished Rangel for accepting corporate-sponsored trips, and he remains under investigation for other alleged violations.

Five other Democratic lawmakers were cleared last week by the House ethics committee. They had been investigated for allegedly steering no-bid contracts in exchange for campaign contributions. One of them, Rep. Peter J. Visclosky (D-Ind.), remains under investigation by the Justice Department.

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D.C. Council votes to censure Barry, strip him of chairmanship

March 3rd, 2010 · Accountability, Corruption, Ethics

By Nikita Stewart and Jonathan Mummolo Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, March 3, 2010

D.C. Council member Marion Barry, at times slumped in his seat, pleaded with fellow Democrat Muriel Bowser, reminding her that he had known her since she was 7 years old. He appealed to Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray, recalling their 35-year friendship, filled with intimate conversations.

Once the city’s most powerful politician, Barry dropped his usual defiant tone in Tuesday’s council meeting, where he was reduced to calling on longtime friends to save what’s left of his stature. “You don’t want to be known as the person who took Mr. Barry’s due process away from him,” Barry told Gray. “You’re too good a person. I know you better than that. I love you. You’re my friend. You got caught up.”

But his pleas and his argument that he was being unfairly “singled out” did not persuade Gray or any other council members, who voted 12 to 0 to censure Barry, strip him of his committee chairmanship and refer allegations of public corruption to the U.S. attorney’s office for possible prosecution.

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Senators propose consumer-protection regulator within Fed

March 3rd, 2010 · Accountability, Banking Industry, Deception, Senate

By Binyamin Appelbaum and David Cho Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, March 3, 2010

It’s an unlikely twist after all the beatings that Democrats and Republicans have laid on the Federal Reserve over the past year.

Some lawmakers who set out to improve financial regulation by stripping the Fed of its powers are moving toward the grudging conclusion that the Fed should hold even more power.

The central bank was responsible for the health of the nation’s largest banks and the safety of American borrowers. Its failures in both roles have been well documented.

Even so, key lawmakers on the Senate banking committee are seeking bipartisan support for a plan to house a new consumer-protection regulator inside the Fed. Separate efforts to strip the Fed of its responsibility for overseeing large banks have lost momentum.

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Obama administration plans to close International Labor Comparisons office

March 3rd, 2010 · Accountability, Corruption, Deception, Ethics, Government Control, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Politics, Selling Out the US, Terrorism from Within, Unemployment

By Alec MacGillis Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Like a scorekeeper for the world, a tiny unit within the Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks globalization’s winners and losers, and the results are not always pretty for the United States. Manufacturing jobs here, for example, have fallen faster since 1979 than in Canada, Germany or Japan. Compensation for those jobs dropped here in 2008 but jumped in South Korea and Australia.

Soon, however, Americans may be spared the demoralization in these numbers: The White House wants to shutter the unit that produces them.

President Obama’s budget would eliminate the International Labor Comparisons office and transfer its 16 economists to expand the bureau’s work tracking inflation and occupational trends. The White House says the cut, estimated to save $2 million, is one of many difficult decisions the president was forced to make to control spending.

“This budget had to make some tough choices and prioritize the nation’s most pressing needs during a challenging economic and fiscal climate,” said Office of Management and Budget spokesman Tom Gavin. But the proposed cut has triggered an outcry from an eclectic group of academics, business leaders and union officials — a reminder that, in the sprawl of the federal government, some seemingly obscure offices have built a loyal following around their discrete missions.

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Rep. Charles Rangel to temporarily quit key tax post

March 3rd, 2010 · Accountability, Congress, Corruption, Democrats, Ethics, Greed, Selling Out the US, Tax Dollars, Terrorism from Within

By Paul Kane and Perry Bacon Jr. Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, March 3, 2010; 11:12 AM

Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) announced Wednesday that he would temporarily step down as chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, days after being admonished for breaking House rules by accepting corporate-financed travel.

The longtime incumbent from Harlem, who was facing a growing wave of opposition from within his party, said he didn’t want the ethics probe into his activities to affect fellow Democrats running in next fall’s House elections.

“In order to avoid my colleagues having to defend me during their elections, I have this morning sent a letter” to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), “asking her to grant me a leave of absence until such time as the ethics committee completes its work,” Rangel said.

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U.S. airstrike kills at least 27 Afghan civilians

February 23rd, 2010 · Accountability, Defense, Foreign Policy, War on Terrorism

By Joshua Partlow and Rajiv Chandrasekaran- Tuesday, February 23, 2010

QALAT, AFGHANISTAN — A U.S. airstrike targeting a convoy of buses traveling in southern Afghanistan killed at least 27 civilians and wounded a dozen more in a bombing that could fuel a political backlash against the ongoing military offensive in Afghanistan.

The Afghan cabinet condemned on Monday what it called the “unacceptable” attack and asked NATO troops to “coordinate with the Afghan security forces” before any operation. A statement issued by the cabinet said that 27 people, including four women and a child, died in the airstrike, while 12 others were injured.

The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, held a video conference Monday morning with task force and regional commanders across the country to remind commanders about the need for “the judicious application of fire,” according to a senior military official. “There was no danger to coalition forces” in the attack on the convoy, the official said. McChrystal, the official added, “was apoplectic.”

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