● 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... ● U.S. reportedly gives billions to firms doing business with Iran... ● Key vacancies give Obama a chance to steer financial reform... ● Ethics clouds over Rangel and Paterson are the talk of political Harlem... ● Thin wall separates lobbyist contributions and earmarks... ● Democratic activists channel anger into Arkansas Senate race...
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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 'Congress'

Massa under investigation for allegedly groping male staffers

March 9th, 2010 · Congress, Corruption, Deception, Democrats, Ethics, Selling Out the US, Terrorism from Within

By Carol D. Leonnig – Tuesday, March 9, 2010; 5:01 PM

Former representative. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) has been under investigation for allegations that he groped multiple male staffers working in his office, according to three sources familiar with the probe.

The allegations surrounding the former lawmaker date back at least a year, and involve “a pattern of behavior and physical harassment,” according to one source. The new claims of alleged groping contradict statements by Massa, who resigned his office on Monday after it became public that he was the subject of a House ethics committee investigation for possible harassment.

Massa had said that the allegations were limited to his use of “salty language” with his staff. He apologized for making some inappropriate comments and argued he was being unfairly vilified.

Days later, Massa accused the White House and Democratic congressional leaders of trying to oust him from office to improve their chances of passing health-care reform legislation – a charge that the House majority leader, Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), called “absurd.”

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Key vacancies give Obama a chance to steer financial reform

March 8th, 2010 · Congress, Corruption, Deception, Democrats, Ethics, Federal Spending, Fraud Alert, Government Control, Greed, Money Lost, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Tax Dollars, Taxes, Terrorism from Within, Treason

By Binyamin Appelbaum Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 8, 2010

President Obama has the chance during his first term to appoint leaders for each of the federal agencies that oversee banks, an important opportunity to reshape the government’s approach to regulation even as the White House struggles to push structural reforms through the Senate.

In his first such decision, Obama chose to keep Ben S. Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve, in part because administration officials concluded that Bernanke had demonstrated a commitment to increasing the Fed’s focus on regulation and consumer protection. The administration also appointed a second Fed governor, Daniel K. Tarullo, to lead an overhaul of the central bank’s approach to regulation.

A second opportunity comes in August, when John C. Dugan reaches the end of his term as comptroller of the currency, the chief regulator for most of the nation’s largest banks.

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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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Democratic activists channel anger into Arkansas Senate race

March 8th, 2010 · Democrats, Dissention, Ethics, Greed, Senate

By Perry Bacon Jr. – Sunday, March 7, 2010

Democratic activists flooding money into a primary challenge against Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) say the race isn’t simply about defeating the incumbent. It is also about rebuking a Democratic-controlled Congress that they say isn’t pursuing an aggressive, populist agenda.

After Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter announced Monday that he would challenge Lincoln, liberal donors from groups such as MoveOn.org poured more than $1 million into his campaign, an unusually high sum for the first two days of campaigning. Liberals blasted Lincoln with anti-Washington rhetoric that sounded more like the conservative tea party movement. The groups are particularly critical of her opposition to the public option, as it is known, in the health-care bill and her support in 2008 for a Wall Street bailout.

The primary contest illustrates the challenge Democrats face in trying to please activists who worked hard to elect President Obama and congressional Democrats and now want to see results. They also want to lure independent voters who helped the party win the 2006 and 2008 elections but now express wariness about the Democratic agenda.

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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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Obama & Democratic Leaders – Pass Bill Now, Fix Later. Abortion is Small Price to Pay.

March 6th, 2010 · Congress, Corruption, Deception, Democrats, Ethics, Federal Spending, Greed, Healthcare Industry, Immigration, Insurance Industry, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Tax Dollars, Taxes, Terrorism from Within

Democratic leaders working to win over abortion opponents for health-care reform

By Alec MacGillis Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 5, 2010

As President Obama makes his final plea for a health-care overhaul, Democratic leaders in Congress are embarking on a delicate strategy to win over abortion opponents, a gambit that could determine whether the legislation becomes law.

The effort depends on convincing as many as a dozen antiabortion Democrats in the House that abortion language in the Senate bill is more stringent than initially portrayed. But Democratic leaders must be careful that they don’t drive away abortion rights supporters who are increasingly concerned that the measure would prove severely restrictive.

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Four Democratic senators aim to halt stimulus wind project

March 4th, 2010 · Deception, Democrats, Environment, Greed, Non-Transparency, Obama Exposed, Senate

By Dan Eggen Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 4, 2010

A group of Democratic senators called Wednesday for the government to halt a federal stimulus program aimed at building wind farms and other clean-energy projects, arguing that too much of the money spent so far has gone to create jobs overseas.

The Obama administration and wind-energy advocates strongly disputed the criticism by Sen. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) and three other Democrats, saying that most of the jobs under the Energy Department program have been created in the United States, despite the dominance of foreign manufacturers in the green-technology sector.

The dispute marks a rare public split among Democrats over the $862 billion stimulus package, which the Obama administration and party leaders have defended as crucial to saving jobs and easing the recession’s impact. Republicans have spent the past year attacking the package as a wasteful boondoggle.

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Levin to take reins of Ways and Means – More of The Same…

March 4th, 2010 · Corruption, Deception, Democrats, Ethics, Senate

By Paul Kane – Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 4, 2010; 10:24 AM

Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.), a pro-union, anti-free-trade liberal who is a close ally of the auto industry, has been selected as interim chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.

Levin, 79, succeeds Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), who stepped down amid ethics questions.

Levin’s ascension is a rebuke to the seniority system, as Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) was in line to chair the powerful panel with authority over tax and trade issues, but rank-and-file Democrats on the committee rebelled because Stark, 78, has a history of intemperate remarks and has an undisclosed illness that has made it difficult for him to be on hand in recent weeks.

Levin’s younger brother, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairs the Armed Services Committee.

Sander Levin declined comment on his elevation, stressing its temporary status as Rangel’s ethics investigations continue.

“Under the circumstances, I could not think of anyone that could serve the country, the Congress and our committee better,” Rangel told reporters.

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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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