HERES YOUR Top TEN
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Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, these days released its 2009 list of Washington’s "Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians." The list, in alphabetical order, includes:
1. Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT): This marks two years in a row for Senator Dodd, who produced the 2008 "Ten Most Corrupt" list for his corrupt connection with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and for accepting preferential treatment and loan terms from Countrywide Economic, a scandal which nonetheless dogs him. In 2009, the scandals kept coming for the Connecticut Democrat. In 2009, Judicial Watch filed a Senate ethics complaint against Dodd for undervaluing a property he owns in Ireland on his Senate Economic Disclosure forms. Judicial Watch’s complaint forced Dodd to amend the forms. Even so, press reports suggest the home to this day remains undervalued. Judicial Watch also alleges in the complaint that Dodd obtained a sweetheart deal for the home in exchange for his assistance in acquiring a presidential pardon (in the course of the Clinton administration) and other favors for a lengthy-time pal and company associate. The false financial disclosure types were part of the cover-up. Dodd remains the head the Senate Banking Committee.
two. Senator John Ensign (R-NV): A quantity of scandals popped up in 2009 involving public officials who carried out illicit affairs, and then attempted to cover them up with hush payments and favors, an apparent abuse of energy. The year’s worst offender may just be Nevada Republican Senator John Ensign. Ensign admitted in June to an extramarital affair with the wife of 1 of his employees members, who then allegedly obtained specific favors from the Nevada Republican in exchange for his silence. According to The New York Times: "The Justice Division and the Senate Ethics Committee are anticipated to conduct preliminary inquiries into no matter whether Senator John Ensign violated federal law or ethics rules as component of an work to conceal an affair with the wife of an aide…" The former staffer, Douglas Hampton, started to lobby Mr. Ensign’s workplace immediately upon leaving his congressional job, in spite of the fact that he was topic to a 1-year lobbying ban. Ensign seems to have ignored the law and permitted Hampton lobbying access to his office as a payment for his silence about the affair. (These are potentially criminal offenses.) It appears as if Ensign misused his public office (and taxpayer resources) to cover up his sexual shenanigans.
3. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA): Judicial Watch is investigating a million TARP money injection supplied to the Boston-primarily based OneUnited Bank at the urging of Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank. As reported in the January 22, 2009, edition of the Wall Street Journal, the Treasury Division indicated it would only offer funds to healthy banks to jump-start lending. Not only was OneUnited Bank in enormous economic turmoil, but it was also "under attack from its regulators for allegations of poor lending practices and executive-spend abuses, like owning a Porsche for its executives’ use." Rep. Frank admitted he spoke to a "federal regulator," and Treasury granted the funds. (The bank continues to flounder despite Frank’s intervention for federal dollars.) In addition, Judicial Watch uncovered documents in 2009 that showed that members of Congress for years had been conscious that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been playing quick and loose with accounting problems, threat assessment troubles and executive compensation troubles, even as liberals led by Rep. Frank continued to block attempts to rein in the two Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs). For example, in the course of a hearing on September ten, 2003, just before the Property Committee on Financial Services thinking about a Bush administration proposal to further regulate Fannie and Freddie, Rep. Frank stated: "I want to start by saying that I am glad to contemplate the legislation, but I do not believe we are facing any type of a crisis. That is, in my view, the two Government Sponsored Enterprises we are talking about right here, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are not in a crisis. We have not too long ago had an accounting dilemma with Freddie Mac that has led to people being dismissed, as seems to be proper. I do not think at this point there is a dilemma with a threat to the Treasury." Frank received ,350 in campaign contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac amongst 1989 and 2008. Frank also engaged in a relationship with a Fannie Mae Executive even though serving on the House Banking Committee, which has jurisdiction more than Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
4. Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner: In 2009, Obama Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner admitted that he failed to pay ,000 in Social Safety and Medicare taxes from 2001-2004 on his lucrative salary at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), an organization with 185 member nations that oversees the worldwide financial system. (Did we mention Geithner now runs the IRS?) It wasn’t until President Obama tapped Geithner to head the Treasury Department that he paid back most of the funds, even though the IRS kindly waived the hefty penalties. In March 2009, Geithner also came beneath fire for his handling of the AIG bonus scandal, exactly where the company utilised five million of its bailout funds to spend out executive bonuses, resulting in a huge public backlash. Of course as head of the New York Federal Reserve, Geithner helped craft the AIG deal in September 2008. Nevertheless, when the AIG scandal broke, Geithner claimed he knew nothing of the bonuses until March 10, 2009. The timing is essential. According to CNN: "Although Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told congressional leaders on Tuesday that he discovered of AIG’s impending million bonus payments to members of its troubled monetary-goods unit on March 10, sources inform TIME that the New York Federal Reserve informed Treasury employees that the payments have been imminent on Feb. 28. That is ten days just before Treasury staffers say they 1st discovered ‘full details’ of the bonus program, and 3 days before the [Obama] Administration launched a new billion infusion of money for AIG." Throw in an additional embarrassing disclosure in 2009 that Geithner employed "household assist" ineligible to operate in the United States, and it becomes clear why the Treasury Secretary has earned a spot on the "Ten Most Corrupt Politicians in Washington" list.
five. Attorney Basic Eric Holder: Tim Geithner can be positive he will not be hounded about his tax-dodging by his colleague Eric Holder, US Lawyer Common. Judicial Watch strongly opposed Holder because of his terrible ethics record, which consists of: obstructing an FBI investigation of the theft of nuclear secrets from Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory rejecting a number of requests for an independent counsel to investigate alleged fundraising abuses by then-Vice President Al Gore in the Clinton White Residence undermining the criminal investigation of President Clinton by Kenneth Starr in the midst of the Lewinsky investigation and preparing the violent raid to seize then-six-year-old Elian Gonzalez at gunpoint in order to return him to Castro’s Cuba. Furthermore, there is his soft record on terrorism. Holder bypassed Justice Department procedures to push through Bill Clinton’s scandalous presidential pardons and commutations, such as for 16 members of FALN, a violent Puerto Rican terrorist group that orchestrated about 120 bombings in the United States, killing at least six folks and permanently maiming dozens of other individuals, including law enforcement officers. His record in the present administration is no far better. As he did in the course of the Clinton administration, Holder continues to ignore serious incidents of corruption that could influence his political bosses at the White House. For example, Holder has refused to investigate charges that the Obama political machine traded VIP access to the White Home in exchange for campaign contributions – a scheme eerily similar to a single hatched by Holder’s former boss, Bill Clinton in the 1990s. The Holder Justice Department also came under fire for dropping a voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Celebration. On Election Day 2008, Black Panthers dressed in paramilitary garb threatened voters as they approached polling stations. Holder has also failed to initiate a complete Justice investigation of the notorious organization ACORN (Association of Neighborhood Organizations for Reform Now), which is closely tied to President Obama. There have been allegedly more than 400,000 fraudulent ACORN voter registrations in the 2008 campaign. And then there had been the journalist videos catching ACORN Housing workers advising undercover reporters on how to evade tax, immigration, and youngster prostitution laws. Holder’s controversial choices on new rights for terrorists and his attacks on preceding efforts to combat terrorism remind numerous of the truth that his former law firm has offered and continues to provide pro bono representation to terrorists at Guantanamo Bay. Holder’s politicization of the Justice Department tends to make 1 extended for the days of Alberto Gonzales.
6. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)/ Senator Roland Burris (D-IL): 1 of the most serious scandals of 2009 involved a scheme by former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to sell President Obama’s then-vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder. Two males caught smack dab in the middle of the scandal: Senator Roland Burris, who ultimately got the job, and Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. According to the Chicago Sun-Instances, emissaries for Jesse Jackson Jr., named "Senate Candidate A" in the Blagojevich indictment, reportedly supplied .five million to Blagojevich throughout a fundraiser if he named Jackson Jr. to Obama’s seat. 3 days later federal authorities arrested Blagojevich. Burris, for his element, apparently lied about his contacts with Blagojevich, who was arrested in December 2008 for attempting to sell Obama’s Senate seat. According to Reuters: "Roland Burris came under fresh scrutiny…after disclosing he attempted to raise income for the disgraced former Illinois governor who named him to the U.S. Senate seat as soon as held by President Barack Obama…In the newest of these admissions, Burris said he looked into mounting a fundraiser for Rod Blagojevich — later charged with attempting to sell Obama’s Senate seat — at the identical time he was expressing interest to the then-governor’s aides about his need to be appointed." Burris changed his story five times concerning his contacts with Blagojevich prior to the Illinois governor appointing him to the U.S. Senate. Three of those changing explanations came beneath oath.
7. President Barack Obama: Throughout his presidential campaign, President Obama promised to run an ethical and transparent administration. Nevertheless, in his initial year in workplace, the President has delivered corruption and secrecy, bringing Chicago-style political corruption to the White Residence. Think about just a handful of Obama administration "lowlights" from year a single: Even ahead of President Obama was sworn into workplace, he was interviewed by the FBI for a criminal investigation of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s scheme to sell the President’s former Senate seat to the highest bidder. (Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and slumlord Valerie Jarrett, each from Chicago, are also tangled up in the Blagojevich scandal.) Additionally, the Obama administration made the startling claim that the Privacy Act does not apply to the White House. The Obama White House believes it can violate the privacy rights of American citizens without any legal consequences or accountability. President Obama boldly proclaimed that "transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency," but his administration is addicted to secrecy, stonewalling far as well many of Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Data Act requests and is refusing to make public White House visitor logs as federal law calls for. The Obama administration turned the National Endowment of the Arts (as properly as the agency that runs the AmeriCorps plan) into propaganda machines, using tax dollars to persuade "artists" to promote the Obama agenda. According to documents uncovered by Judicial Watch, the concept emerged as a direct outcome of the Obama campaign and enjoyed White Home approval and participation. President Obama has installed a record quantity of "czars" in positions of energy. Too many of these people are leftist radicals who answer to no one particular but the president. And as well numerous of the czars are not topic to Senate confirmation (which raises significant constitutional queries). Beneath the President’s bailout schemes, the federal government continues to acceptable or handle — by means of fiat and threats — big sectors of the private economy, prompting conservative columnist George Will to create: "The administration’s central activity — the political allocation of wealth and chance — is not merely susceptible to corruption, it is corruption." Government-run healthcare and vehicle firms, White Home coercion, uninvestigated ACORN corruption, debasing his office to support Chicago cronies, attacks on conservative media and the private sector, unprecedented and dangerous new rights for terrorists, perks for campaign donors — this is Obama’s "ethics" record — and we have not even gotten through the first year of his presidency.
8. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA): At the heart of the corruption issue in Washington is a sense of entitlement. Politicians think laws and guidelines (even the U.S. Constitution) apply to the rest of us but not to them. Case in point: Residence Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her excessive and boorish demands for military travel. Judicial Watch obtained documents from the Pentagon in 2009 that recommend Pelosi has been treating the Air Force like her own personal airline. These documents, obtained via the Freedom of Data Act, consist of internal Pentagon e mail correspondence detailing attempts by Pentagon employees to accommodate Pelosi’s numerous requests for military escorts and military aircraft as nicely as the speaker’s 11th hour cancellations and modifications. Residence Speaker Nancy Pelosi also came under fire in April 2009, when she claimed she was by no means briefed about the CIA’s use of the waterboarding method in the course of terrorism investigations. The CIA created a report documenting a briefing with Pelosi on September 4, 2002, that suggests otherwise. Judicial Watch also obtained documents, such as a CIA Inspector Common report, which further confirmed that Congress was completely briefed on the enhanced interrogation techniques. Aside from her own individual transgressions, Nancy Pelosi has ignored critical incidents of corruption within her own party, including a lot of of the folks on this list. (See Rangel, Murtha, Jesse Jackson, Jr., etc.)
9. Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) and the rest of the PMA Seven: Rep. John Murtha made headlines in 2009 for all the wrong motives. The Pennsylvania congressman is below federal investigation for his corrupt partnership with the now-defunct defense lobbyist PMA Group. PMA, founded by a former Murtha associate, has been the congressman’s biggest campaign contributor. Given that 2002, Murtha has raised .7 million from PMA and its consumers. And what did PMA and its consumers get from Murtha in return for their generosity? Earmarks — tens of millions of dollars in earmarks. In truth, even with all of the consideration surrounding his alleged influence peddling, Murtha kept at it. Following an FBI raid of PMA’s offices earlier in 2009, Murtha continued to seek congressional earmarks for PMA clients, although also hitting them up for campaign contributions. According to The Hill, in April, "Murtha reported receiving contributions from three former PMA clientele for whom he requested earmarks in the pending appropriations bills." When it comes to the PMA scandal, Murtha is not alone. As numerous as six other Members of Congress are at the moment below scrutiny according to The Washington Post. They incorporate: Peter J. Visclosky (D-IN.), James P. Moran Jr. (D-VA), Norm Dicks (D-WA.), Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), C.W. Bill Young (R-FL.) and Todd Tiahrt (R-KS.). Of course rather than investigate this severe scandal, according to Roll Contact House Democrats circled the wagons, "cobbling collectively a defense to provide political cover to their rank and file." The Washington Post also reported in 2009 that Murtha’s nephew received million in Defense Division no-bid contracts: "Newly obtained documents…show Robert Murtha mentioning his influential family connection as leverage in his enterprise dealings and holding uncommon energy with the military."
10. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY): Rangel, the man in charge of writing tax policy for the entire country, has yet to adequately explain how he could possibly "forget" to spend taxes on ,000 in rental income he earned from his off-shore rental house. He also faces allegations that he improperly utilized his influence to preserve ownership of very coveted rent-controlled apartments in Harlem, and misused his congressional office to fundraise for his private Rangel Center by preserving a tax loophole for an oil drilling business in exchange for funding. On best of all that, Rangel lately amended his financial disclosure reports, which doubled his reported wealth. (He somehow "forgot" about million in assets.) And what did he do when the House Ethics Committee began seeking into all of this? He apparently resorted to creating "campaign contributions" to dig his way out of problems. According to WCBS Television, a New York CBS affiliate: "The reigning member of Congress’ best tax committee is apparently ‘wrangling’ other politicos to get him out of his own monetary and tax troubles…Since ethics probes began final year the 79-year-old congressman has offered campaign donations to 119 members of Congress, including 3 of the five Democrats on the Residence Ethics Committee who are charged with investigating him." Charlie Rangel ought to not be allowed to stay in Congress, let alone serve as Chairman of the potent Property Approaches and Indicates Committee, and he knows it. That is why he felt the require to disburse campaign contributions to Ethics Committee members and other congressional colleagues.
MAKE Yourself Aware ——— They’re SUPPOSED TO BE Working FOR YOU, It really is YOUR GOVERNMENT AND GOVERNMENT IS As well Crucial TO BE TRUSTED TO LIFELONG POLITICIANS ——-
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