● 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 'Obama's Scheme'

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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From Greece, an economic cautionary tale for the U.S.

March 9th, 2010 · Corruption, Deception, Democrats, Ethics, Federal Spending, Foreign Policy, Government, Money Lost, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Tax Dollars, Taxes, Terrorism from Within, Treason

By Dana Milbank Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Look into the face of George Papandreou, America, and see your future.

The Greek prime minister is in town this week as part of a world tour seeking help for his beleaguered homeland. Greece is broke, its government on the verge of default. As Papandreou landed in Washington, there were strikes in the streets of Athens over his tax increases, his wage cuts for government workers and his scaling back of retirement benefits.

As he and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton faced the cameras Monday, she spoke of the weekend’s election in Iraq. “Greece is the birthplace of democracy, so anytime there’s a democratic election anywhere in the world, Greece should get a royalty, Prime Minister,” Clinton said.

“Would help our deficit, too,” Papandreou joked.

“Yeah,” Clinton agreed. “It’s a new way of plugging the hole.”

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Obama wants to Overhaul Immigration System. What’s Next? The People?

March 9th, 2010 · Deception, Democrats, Ethics, Immigration, Selling Out the US, Treason

Immigrant rights group slam Obama, Democrats for slow action with legalization bill

By N.C. Aizenman and Spencer S. Hsu Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Leaders of nearly a dozen grass-roots immigrant rights groups excoriated President Obama and congressional Democrats on Monday, accusing them of moving too slowly to legalize the status of undocumented immigrants and citing a record number of deportations in 2009.

“Our community is angry. Our members feel betrayed,” said Brent Wilkes, executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens. “We never believed in our wildest dreams that President Obama would have a record like this.”

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Are unemployment benefits no longer temporary?

March 9th, 2010 · Federal Spending, Money Lost, Obama's Scheme, Stimulus, Unemployment

By Michael A. Fletcher and Dana Hedgpeth Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Millions of Americans have been forced to rely on unemployment payments for extended periods as the nation struggles through its longest period of high joblessness in a generation, and critics are taking aim, saying that the Depression-era program created as a temporary bridge for laid-off workers is turning into an expensive entitlement.

About 11.4 million out-of-work people now collect unemployment compensation, at a cost of $10 billion a month. Half of them have been receiving payments for more than six months, the usual insurance limit. But under multiple extensions enacted by the federal government in response to the downturn, workers can collect the payments for as long as 99 weeks in states with the highest unemployment rates — the longest period since the program’s inception.

The unemployed say extensions help to tide them over in unusually difficult times when jobs are hard to come by. Although unemployment held steady at 9.7 percent in February, millions of jobs have been lost in the downturn, particularly in the hardest-hit sectors including real estate, construction, manufacturing and financial services. Those jobs are unlikely to return even when the economy recovers, many experts say.

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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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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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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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Obama advisers (NOW) set to recommend military tribunals for alleged 9/11 plotters

March 6th, 2010 · Deception, Defense, Democrats, Ethics, Foreign Policy, Homeland Security, National Security, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Terrorism from Within, Treason

By Anne E. Kornblut and Peter Finn Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, March 5, 2010

President Obama’s advisers are nearing a recommendation that Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, be prosecuted in a military tribunal, administration officials said, a step that would reverse Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.’s plan to try him in civilian court in New York City.

The president’s advisers feel increasingly hemmed in by bipartisan opposition to a federal trial in New York and demands, mainly from Republicans, that Mohammed and his accused co-conspirators remain under military jurisdiction, officials said. While Obama has favored trying some terrorism suspects in civilian courts as a symbol of U.S. commitment to the rule of law, critics have said military tribunals are the appropriate venue for those accused of attacking the United States.

If Obama accepts the likely recommendation of his advisers, the White House may be able to secure from Congress the funding and legal authority it needs to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and replace it with a facility within the United States. The administration has failed to meet a self-imposed one-year deadline to close Guantanamo.

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