[Washington Post] Lobbyist Paul Magliocchetti told the FBI that an aide to Rep. Peter J. Visclosky (D-Ind.) offered him legislative earmarks in exchange for campaign contributions annually for about a decade, according to newly released FBI files.
The lobbyist -- who pleaded guilty to illegally funneling $386,000 in campaign donations to politicians -- said a representative of Visclosky's office first approached him in 1997 and told him earmarks were "for sale" for $10,000 to $15,000 in campaign cash for Visclosky, the documents show.
When Visclosky later became chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee for energy and water development, the price for earmarks increased to $20,000, Magliocchetti told the FBI, according to the files.
The allegations -- contained in documents released as part of a public-records lawsuit -- shed new light on a multi-year corruption investigation by the FBI into Magliocchetti's former lobbying firm, PMA Group, and its ties with a network of House appropriators, including Visclosky and the late congressman John Murtha (D-Pa.). Maglioccchetti was sentenced to 27 months in prison in 2010, but no charges were ever brought against Visclosky or any of his aides.
Neither a front man for Visclosky -- who is now ranking Democrat on the House defense appropriations subcommittee -- nor Visclosky's attorneys responded to calls Thursday requesting comment.
In 2010, Visclosky's attorneys, Reid Weingarten and Brian Heberlig, told the House Ethics Committee ...think of a nudibranch pretending to be a vertebrate... that the politician's actions were "examples of typical fundraising practices that members have historically engaged in on a widespread and routine basis without recrimination."
Visclosky stepped aside as chairman of the energy subcommittee after his office and political committees were subpoenaed in 2009. His longtime chief of staff also resigned.
The House Office of Congressional Ethics in February 2010 released a report concluding there was probable cause that Visclosky sought contributions in exchange for earmarks, citing among other things e-mails in which company lobbyists said they and others seeking earmarks had been asked to donate $20,000 to Visclosky and were invited to attend a campaign fundraising event.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/20/2014 00:00 ||
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[NJ] A borough council candidate is bowing out of his race after revelations that he allegedly shouted racist slurs while mooning patrons of a local diner.
Joe Sorrentino, in a statement released Wednesday by his Democratic ticket, said he made a "stupid mistake" seven years ago, but learned from it. Local Republicans released police reports Wednesday detailing two separate incidents at the Sherbans Diner.
"I regret what happened, and I have worked every single day to prove that I am not the man that the report says," Sorrentino said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/20/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
7 years ago? Had a Pub dropped his pants, mooned, and hurled racist slurs, he would be paying forever--even after he had been relegated to the all of Dante's levels of hell throughout eternity.
Good advice, that. With prices and other costs going up continuously and incomes remaining flat or declining we should all save as much as we can. [NEWS.MSN] Yellen said a Fed survey found that an unexpected expense of just $400 would force the majority of American families to borrow money, sell something or simply not pay.
"The financial crisis and the Great Recession demonstrated, in a dramatic and unmistakable manner, how extraordinarily vulnerable are the large share of American families with few assets to fall back on," Yellen said in a Washington speech.
She said the bottom fifth of households by income -- about 25 million households -- had median net worth in 2013 of just $6,400, and many of these families had nothing saved or negative net worth, meaning their debts were greater than their assets.
Yellen said that the Fed's 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances, an in-depth analysis of family wealth, found that the next one-fifth of households had a net worth of only $27,900 in 2013 and that both of the bottom two-fifths of households had seen declines in net worth since the Fed's last survey in 2010. She said one reason for this decline was that incomes for these families had continued to decline.
"For many lower-income families without assets, the definition of a financial crisis is a month or two without a paycheck, or the advent of a sudden illness or some other unexpected expense," Yellen said.
Her remarks were delivered by video to a conference sponsored by the Corporation for Enterprise Development, a national nonprofit organization that seeks to expand economic opportunity for low-income families.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/20/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Our market manipulation game is actually quite simple. When we talk of reductions in 'Quantitative Easing' and the market tanks...... you must BUY. When we talk of continued low interest rates and QE sustainment, and the market skyrockets......you must SELL. Make some dough, keep your eye on the yoyo.
#3
"stop taxing interest income" What interest income? Most savings accounts pay much less than 1% nowadays, a huge drop from pre-2007 levels.
I have read speculation that if Americans suddenly boosted their savings efforts to match recommendations, the economy (70% based on consumer spending) would collapse. A drastic cut in government spending would have a similar effect. We're trapped, like rats, in a maze of our own making.
#4
At least cutting government spending would harm the right people.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
09/20/2014 5:16 Comments ||
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#5
How about this.....
Deport every last illegal. Let go 50-75% of the public work force. Give them a choice between doing the jobs the illegals now do at a vastly lower standard of living or starving to death.
Any business owner who gets caught hiring an illegal goes to jail for five years, no exceptions. In a corporate environment put officers of the company in jail along with the person who did the actual hiring.
Change the rent-seeking regulations that have turned Wall Street from a place that makes money off of the quality of transactions into a mill that skims off of quantity of transactions.
Peg the interest rate at the true cost of lending money.
Then watch as the economy booms AND people start saving.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
09/20/2014 5:26 Comments ||
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#6
Before the collapse, 'economists' were complaining Americans weren't saving enough. When the 'smart' people in DC were trying to jump start the economy a couple of years ago, their 'economists' were bitching that Americans weren't spending enough. Now we have the Fed saying that we need to save more again. Maybe because its dawned on the central planners that the reason, after inflating the economy with a gazillion unbacked dollars to save the campaign slush fund donors, we're not experiencing Wiemar inflation levels is because Americans are indeed socking as much as they can away for the next big engineered bubble burst. Just like 'war bonds' were sold to put an incredible amount of 'printed money' value away for years in order to avoid immediate inflationary impacts on the economy.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/20/2014 9:47 Comments ||
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#11
Don't talk to me Janet. I'm still waiting for the return of my retirement savings that disappeared in 2008. All tapped out. Next time, I will put my investments into guns and beer.
#13
I have been told by some of my most liberal aquaintences that saving my money is greedy.
Feh. It's not greedy, it's pointless: the real inflation rate far outstrips any meager interest parked cash might earn. Saving is the best way to screw yourself, without benefiting anyone else.
"Selfish" is paying down debt as fast as you can. Deleveraging is the best way to benefit yourself, but not really anyone else. If everyone did this simultaneously, the whole system would crash. (IMHO, this would be a good thing, but that's another story).
"Greedy" is obtaining huge lines of credit, using the entirety thereof to buy physical precious metals, and then defaulting and disappearing. Bonus style points for stiffing JPM Chase.
#15
The left destroys the middle class and then screams for more money via savings? That takes a great deal of brazenness or chutzpah. Washington and Detroit model.
#17
First stop the obscenity of taxing Social Security and Unemployment Payments.
Stop taxing gasoline and diesel.
Stop taxing capital gains on home sales
Stop printing money, boost the prime interest rate to stop the idiot speculation on Wall Street and once the interest paid on savings exceeds the rate of inflation, people will start saving.
Oh by the way, stop taxing the proceeds from IRAs and 401k at the other end.
And of course stop taking interest income, that would do something for savings.
AND stop allowing banks to charge these idiot "use" fees to hold your money or use an ATM. My current bank pays 1.35% on savings and collects a $6 a month fee for maintaining the account. Seems the $6 fee always cancels out the interest...I wonder what would happen if my interest was more than $6 per month...would they raise the fees?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
09/20/2014 12:34 Comments ||
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#18
Someone told me that a 1% increase in the interest rates set by the Fed would increase the cost of the debt service on the national debt by an amount larger than the defense budget. The hole is now too deep to remedy without some genuine pain, and entitlement cuts for the taking/stealing class will create civil unrest. So gutless Washington will do nothing but borrow and spend and wait until it all goes boom......when it was easy to fix many years ago they didn't bother, and now that it will really hurt, they are too frightened....we are royally screwed as the Roman Centurions must have said as they waited for the collapse.
#19
The hole is now too deep to realistically dig out. Gutless Washington will do nothing but borrow and spend and wait until it all goes boom because there really aren't any other options.
The national debt is almost $18 trillion - more than the entire US generates in a year. It is just not realistic to think it will ever be paid back. There's a saying: when you owe the bank $1000, you have a problem. When you owe the bank $1,000,000, the bank has a problem.
IMHO, default and/or a currency collapse is basically inevitable, and I say: good. The sooner, the better. Yellen, Bernanke et al. have recklessly enabled the progressive agenda and the welfare state, which has done far more harm than good.
So when the Fed Chairsatan says "boost savings," I hear, "make sure you have a chair when the music stops."
#20
The political class is not going to do much to reduce taxes because that is their life blood. It is also the life blood of a very bloated bureaucracy. Look at how much the Tea Party threatens both parties when they call for economic and tax reforms.
#21
AND stop allowing banks to charge these idiot "use" fees to hold your money or use an ATM.
Government's job to pile on yet more regulation? Or our job, to find a more productive use for our funds?
The bank is charging you to let your money sit there idle, up to a balance of $5333, at which point you "break even."
For larger amounts, I'm sure they'd pay you the interest, since they're fleecing plenty of sub-$5333 folks.
But even then, it's still a net loss to keep any money in that account, due to the inflation rate, which is far higher than 1.35%. Each day your money sits there, it is literally declining in value.
You'd come out just the same, if you stashed it under a mattress, and gave a few bucks to a panhandler from time to time. Better, even, since gifting a bum with a bottle of Wild Irish Rose makes the world a better place than a donation to the banking cartel. Seriously. CDs and savings accounts are a total ripoff.
If you have debt, it is probably accruing interest at a rate far higher than 1.35% APR. You'd get more out of your rapidly devaluing cash by closing your savings account and paying off the debt.
#22
American's do need to save more money but it is entirely rational for them to save at the present tiny rate given the circumstances. Under the present conditions it is "spend it or it will lose lots of value". The average saver cannot compete with a government willing to print billions an then loan it out at less than 1%.
1) Government must stop printing money.
2) Government should not tax interest.
3) Government should not tax capital gains on none capital (i.e. first home, unimproved land, etc).
4) The should be a 100% tax deduction per individual on all medical expenses,insurance premiums and medical saving via HSA( this will strongly encourage savings ).
4a) Eliminate employer based health insurance and deregulate and allow interstate sales of insurance. (The above should largely do this as I don't think this should be done by regulation.)
5) Greatly expanded IRA type savings accounts and the amounts that a person may contribute.
6) Simply flat tax of say 15% with one personal deduction per member of family and the only other deductions are the two listed above.
7) Eliminate corporate taxes. This is a double taxation and strongly discourages the efficient use of capital investment. The individual already pays taxes on both capital gains and dividends. When corporation compete with tax free municipal bonds don't be surprised when you see $500 million dollar high schools.
8) Require the employer contribution to Social Security be listed on all pay-check stubs so employee really sees what they are paying in (just like self-employed people do). This will help people better understand what a rip-off SS is.
Most of these recommendations address savings and investment and I am leaving out a bunch that I have that don't address this.
#23
Regarding item 6) above. The individual deduction is arranged such that everyone (after health and and retirement deductions) who is above the "poverty line" pays at least some taxes. That is the best way to get the most people to understand that they don't get much value for the taxes they pay.
#24
No. Everyone should pay income tax. Everyone should have skin in the "game". And everyone should get a refundable tax credit, which replaces all the welfare programs.
Broadcaster Al Jazeera has gone to court to fight former US vice president Al Gore over $65 million in an escrow account that each claims as part of the sale last year of Current TV to the Qatar-based media company.
In a countersuit filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery on Thursday, Al Jazeera is seeking to keep the money that Gore and his former partner Joel Hyatt had sought in a lawsuit filed in August.
#1
They say there's no honor among thieves. Apparently among lying bastards either.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
09/20/2014 8:56 Comments ||
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#2
Hard to get excited about this story. Gore and Al Jizz both are not easy to love. Gore gets stiffed--the check wasn't in the mail. Al Jizz got shafted by Gore and a few others by over-paying for a channel that existed in someone's basement (or mind). Win-Win for the rest of us?
[THEHILL] While bashing the GOP for leaving women and the middle class behind on Friday, Vice President Biden spoke favorably about a former Republican senator who resigned amid allegations of sexual misconduct.
"It's Republicans who were involved, guys like [Sen.] Mac Mathias [R-Md.] and [Sen. Bob] Packwood [R-Oregon] and so many others," Biden said, looking back fondly on GOP politicians who were once willing to work with Democrats on issues like the minimum wage.
Packwood resigned from the Senate in 1995 after the Senate Ethics Committee voted unanimously to expel him for sexual and official misconduct. A Los Angeles Times story on his resignation noted that the committee released more than 10,000 pages of documents that showed a "pattern of abuse of his position of power and authority as United States Senator." The article also said the documents included "many explicit" allegations and that 19 women had accused Packwood of misconduct.
It's been a rough week for Biden, who is no stranger to gaffes. On Tuesday, he used the term "shylock" to describe people who gave bad loans to members of the military. The word is generally recognized as an anti-Semitic slur, and he later apologized.
The next day, he referred to Asia as "the Orient" and said that "we'll determine" whether the U.S. needs to send ground forces to fight ISIS. President B.O. has repeatedly assured the American people that there will be no U.S. troops on the ground fighting ISIS.
Biden's comments came during a passionate speech at the Democratic National Committee's Women's Leadership Forum, where he spoke forcefully about domestic violence prevention and the Violence Against Women Act. Then a Delaware senator, Biden introduced the legislation in 1990 and worked to get it passed in 1994.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/20/2014 00:00 ||
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It's been a rough week for Biden,
Hopefully to be followed by several dozen more, bad weeks.
[CSMONITOR] US Attorney General Eric Inaction Jackson Holder ... aka Mister Fast and Furious... is asking a team of criminal justice researchers to study racial bias in law enforcement in five American cities.
Mr. Holder the program will be funded by a $4.75 million grant that will be used to study racial profiling in police arrests in five US cities over the course of three years.
These cities, which have yet to be identified, will serve as a testing ground for improving relations between police and citizens in communities across the country, he sais.
The program, titled the National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice, is being implemented following the rioting and civil unrest in Ferguson, Mo., last month that stemmed from the shooting death of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, which launched a national conversation on race and the use of force in law enforcement.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/20/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
His resignation would go a long way toward mending relations everywhere.
#3
No study of the disproportionate amount of crime by any particular identifiable group in the same five cities? Less crime, less need for cops, less chances for police-civilian incidents.
#4
Some village is missing a racist idiot (Holder). He would see racism in Santa Claus, Tinker Bell or the Tooth Fairy. These are not good times for the U.S. Someone turned out the inmates and somehow they got elected and appointed to positions of power. Rather than see the opportunities created by America for them, all they see is racism.
#7
Any bets Chicago is not included in Eric "My People" Holders list of five cities? Detroit looks like they may get a pass too, since the black police chief is dealing with about a 9-1 black crime issue.
#8
"He would see racism in Santa Claus, Tinker Bell or the Tooth Fairy"
Of course he does - they are all white.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
09/20/2014 13:19 Comments ||
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#9
Were catty black racists pro-smiling
And ratty white bolshies beguiling,
Then regular folks
Could engage them with jokes
And no-one would need reconciling.
[CNSNEWS] Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) said he's among the Americans who were "shocked" to hear President Barack Obama Because I won... tell the nation that the Islamic State is not Islamic.
"You know, they don't call themselves the Methodist State or the Episcopalian State or the Baptist State. They're the Islamic State, and I think for good reason," Chabot told Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... at a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
"You know, when Christians, for example, are told to convert to Islam or die, that would seem to fly in the face of the president's insistence that the Islamic State is not the Islamic State. And an indication that he may not fully accept that radical Islam is indeed something that does exist and in fact is growing."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/20/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
If it were one of those Christian organizations you know the democrats and media and administration would be hell bent of wiping them off by any means necessary. No PC rules of engagement then!
#3
Most regular people get this. The Kool-Aid drinking crowd gets this too. They just act like the emperor has clothes. However, cracks have been developing lately with the Kool-Aid swizzlers too. Recently, Leon Panetta said it was a mistake to have pulled all the troops out of Iraq.
#4
It all makes perfect sense that the IS is Non-Islamic. Remember the O-Team told us the Muslim Brotherhood is largely a secular organization. C'mon get with the program.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[NJ] A borough council candidate is bowing out of his race after revelations that he allegedly shouted racist slurs while mooning patrons of a local diner.
[NEWS.MSN] Yellen said a Fed survey found that an unexpected expense of just $400 would force the majority of American families to borrow money, sell something or simply not pay.
[THEHILL] While bashing the GOP for leaving women and the middle class behind on Friday, Vice President Biden spoke favorably about a former Republican senator who resigned amid allegations of sexual misconduct. 
