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President Barack Obama embarked on his highly anticipated maiden visit to Asia last week, furthering his efforts at global outreach. The trip comes as global leaders are reckoning with an unsynchronized exit from economic policies that have helped end the worst recession of the post-war era. Policy changes in Asia, particularly among major U.S. creditors, will be essential to rebalance global growth: Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation nations (including those in the Americas) absorb 55% of U.S. goods exports and provide a major market for U.S. service exports, while Asia depends on U.S. consumers and foreign direct investment to drive economic growth....

Bravely, each year Congress has rolled the cuts over, suspending them but not repealing them. So each year, the accumulated cuts threaten doctors. By now, they have risen to 21 percent. With this blackmail leverage, Obama compelled the AMA to support his bill…or else!

Note: Notice how AP does not mention Larry Langford is a Democrat!TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) - A federal jury convicted Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford on Wednesday on all charges of accepting bribes in exchange for funneling $7.1 million in bond business to a prominent investment banker. As a convicted felon, Langford was automatically removed from the office he won in a landslide in 2007. Jurors deliberated less than two hours before returning their sweeping verdict on all 60 counts. It came after six days of testimony in which they heard Langford accepted cash and luxury items worth some $236,000 while serving...

How enraged is Keith Olbermann with Joe Lieberman for announcing that he would filibuster a health care bill that contains a government-control provision? Enough that, without presenting any evidence whatsoever, the Countdown host has slyly implied that Lieberman might be on the take from insurance companies in his home state of Connecticut. You had to listen carefully, but Olbermann slipped the scurrilous suggestion into his diatribe against Liebermann on tonight's Countdown. Here was Olbermann . . . View video here.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Mayor Larry Langford, who could be tossed out of office and go to prison if convicted of federal bribery charges, recently offered some advice to a new Birmingham City Council member. "The illusion of power is the most dangerous drug on the planet," Langford said. "A little bit of power — nothing intoxicates like it." Last week's comment may sound a lot like the government's opening argument against Langford, 61, the most recent in a long line of prominent names in the state Democratic Party to face corruption charges. Jury selection begins Monday. Prosecutors claim a...

Who is Sen.Baucus more scared of Rahm Emmanuel or an angry American people? You can call them bribes if you’d like. Sen. Max Baucus’s (D-Mont.) health care bill is filled with pay-offs, bribes and graft to other senators just to get his mark up (it’s not in legislative format yet) proposal through the Senate Committee on Finance. This post details those bribes and provides the full text of the mark up. The Sound Off Sister got this story rolling on Tuesday this week after reading an opinion piece titled States of personal privilege in the Wall Street Journal by Kimberley...

Note: The following text is a quote: Thirty-Nine Individuals Charged with Conspiring to Bribe Chair of D.C. Taxicab Commission WASHINGTON—Yitbarek Syume, 51, of Silver Spring, Maryland, Berhane Leghese, 47, of Arlington, Virginia, and Amanuel Ghirmazion, 53, of Hyattsville, Maryland, were indicted on bribery charges on October 1, 2009, by a grand jury sitting in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, announced Acting United States Attorney Channing D. Phillips and FBI Assistant Director in Charge Joseph Persichini, Jr. The indictments, unsealed today, allege that Syume, Leghese, and Ghirmazion, conspired to bribe the Chairperson of the District of...

Pelosi $pares Charlie: GOPBy DAPHNE RETTER, Post Correspondent Last Updated: 5:05 AM, September 10, 2009 WASHINGTON -- Rep. Charles Rangel has donated more campaign cash to the House Democrats than virtually any other member of Congress -- and critics charge that's bought him protection from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Federal Election Commission reports show Rangel's campaign committee has forked over $2 million to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee since 1995. Only Pelosi (Calif.), Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer (Maryland) and Democratic Whip James Clyburn (SC) have been more generous. Rangel also has donated $3.8 million from his campaign and leadership committees...

Just who has been sending “the message”? And how did it permeate not only the media, but also the once-respected U.S. Congress and the courts of our land, including the once-incorruptible Supreme Court? And what menacing forces made the once-courageous conservative media abandon their mission to expose rank corruption and collusion? Two words: Money Talks! If you’re a media mogul and you get word from the FCC that your license will be pulled immediately and irrevocably if you mention only three words – Obama’s birth certificate – poof! You send that word to your employees and tell them that their...

BERLIN (AP) - German prosecutors are investigating about 100 professors across the country on suspicion they took bribes to help students get their doctoral degrees, authorities said Saturday. The investigation is focused on the Institute for Scientific Consulting, based in Bergisch Gladbach, just east of Cologne, which allegedly acted as the intermediary between students and the professors, said Cologne prosecutor's spokesman Guenther Feld. Feld confirmed reports of the investigation in both Focus magazine and the Neue Westfaelische newspaper, but would not give further details. The Institute for Scientific Consulting did not answer its phone Saturday. According to the two publications,...

Cash Bribes for Clunkers Alexis de Tocqueville said, "The American republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's own money." The U.S. Congress is unconstitutionally bribing the American people with $4,500 to buy cars in the "Cash for Clunkers" program. Many struggling families can't afford new cars and rely on the purchases of used vehicles. Hundreds of thousands of cars are being traded in and destroyed, not resold. This takes thousands of used cars off the market, driving prices upward. In turn, this dries up the supply of used parts thus...

NEW YORK — The leader of a powerful labor union that recently endorsed Mayor Michael Bloomberg in his re-election campaign was charged Wednesday with taking bribes from contractors who were scheming to cut labor costs.

Cash in an envelope. In return, a promise that a development project will speed along, unhindered by bureaucratic delays. A handshake to seal the deal. It is the most clichéd, unimaginative form of corruption — and its persistent hold on New Jersey’s elected leaders seems unrivaled in American government. Over the last decade alone, nearly 150 of the state’s senators, mayors, county executives and council members have been arrested and charged with leaping at the chance to engage in this lowest-common-denominator crime, at times for laughably small sums of money. But the history goes back much further than that. ......

For four years, Cuyahoga County taxpayers have asked questions about the commissioners' controversial $40 million purchase and renovation of the Ameritrust complex downtown, questions that have grown louder since federal investigators revealed a massive government corruption probe a year ago. A Plain Dealer review of county records and federal plea agreements shows a lawyer and construction firm accused of paying bribes in several corruption schemes also played key roles in the purchase of the Ameritrust complex. The Ameritrust deal has been a debacle for the county. The involvement of lawyer Anthony O. Calabrese III and R.P. Carbone Co. in the...

Politics: The career of Roland Burris, a political cipher from Illinois who became a U.S. senator and the lamest of ducks, is over. He can now retire into the obscurity he so richly deserves.Having obtained the seat under a cloud of typical Illinois corruption, Burris announced Friday he won't run for a full term in 2010. He was appointed by the former and recently impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich who, among his other accomplishments, tried to auction off the seat formerly held by Barack Obama. Blagojevich was forced out of office and may soon join other Illinois governors who went on...

Prosecutors: Jefferson's wife hid bribesPublished: June 30, 2009 at 3:59 PM ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 30 (UPI) -- A firm owned by the wife of former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., earned thousands of dollars but incurred no business expenses, an accountant said. Jack Swetland, a New Orleans accountant who had worked with the Jeffersons since 1982, testified Monday at William Jefferson's bribery and fraud trial in Alexandria, Va., The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune reported Tuesday. Prosecutors allege Andrea Jefferson's ANJ consulting firm was a shell company that accepted payments from companies who had sought William Jefferson's help in brokering deals in...

Monica Conyers, the wife of the powerful chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., pleaded guilty to one count of bribery in a federal court in Detroit, this morning. According to court documents, in late 2007, Mrs. Conyers, president pro tem of the Detroit City Council, twice accepted envelopes filled with cash, once in the parking lot of a Detroit McDonalds. Mrs. Conyers faces up to 5 year in prison, three years supervised release and/or a $250,000 fine. Calls to an attorney for Mrs. Conyers were not immediately returned. Jackson was working as a consultant for Synagro...

<p>ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A Kentucky businessman testified Wednesday he paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in "consulting fees" to the wife of a former Louisiana congressman that were nothing but thinly veiled bribes.</p> <p>Testifying in a green prison jumpsuit, Jackson told jurors that his relationship with Jefferson began legitimately. Jackson felt he needed some public officials on his side as he sought Army contracts for a technology he invented that purported to move data over copper transmission lines at speeds that rival more advanced fiber optic lines.</p>

Crap Matthews just had an interview with Burris, and ambushed him with a taped phone recording, that clearly gives evidence that Burris engaged in 'Pay for Play' to get his Senate seat!!!

SACRAMENTO -- Former state Senate leader Don Perata, who has been the target of a five year-long FBI corruption investigation, will not be charged with any crimes, sources told The Chronicle today. In declining to indict the 64-year-old Oakland Democrat, federal prosecutors in Sacramento put an end to a wide-ranging FBI probe into whether Perata had taken hundreds of thousands of dollars of kickbacks in return for actions he took as a legislator and as president pro tem of the Senate. Perata announced in March that he would run for mayor of Oakland in 2010. The government's decision not to...

FBI agents have made two arrests after raiding the D.C. office of the man tapped to be President Obama's chief information officer, sources told FOX News. The agents on Thursday morning raided the office of Vivek Kundra, who was leaving his post as the D.C. chief technology officer to join the administration. The investigation is related to allegations of corruption, one source said, but is not targeting Kundra. FBI agents arrested a District of Columbia government worker, Yusuf Acar, as well as Sushil Bansal, who works for a company called Advanced Integrated Technologies Corp, sources said. Both are expected in...

The U.S. senator appointed by the disgraced ex-governor of Illinois seems to have weathered a storm of controversy. Fellow Democrats are no longer demanding that Sen. Roland Burris resign. The new Illinois governor has stopped calling for a special election to replace him. And party leaders who control the Senate and Illinois state Legislature are reluctant to risk losing his seat to Republicans. "He's not going to go anywhere. I'm convinced of that," said congressman Phil Hare, one of the first Illinois Democrats to call for Burris to step down...

Lou Correa, a Democratic state senator from Santa Ana, refused to vote for the budget package that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders fashioned until a relatively tiny amendment was made that would give Orange County an injection of $35 million a year in state funds. Actually, the state will not write a check to the county. Rather, a state law that governs how property taxes are divvied up among schools and local governments will be changed to give the county a slightly bigger share, taking it from schools, and the state will "backfill" the school money. The $35 million...

The Wall Street Journal reports on what everyone already knows: the federal bailout serves as nothing more than a political payoff machine. As long as lenders have friends in Washington, they’ll get TARP funds, regardless of how they’ve run their bank or their current health as a lender. Barney Frank leads the pack in the new version of pork: Troubled OneUnited Bank in Boston didn’t look much like a candidate for aid from the Treasury Department’s bank bailout fund last fall. The Treasury had said it would give money only to healthy banks, to jump-start lending. But OneUnited had seen...

California Rep. Henry Waxman said Thursday the environment and U.S. economy depend on congressional action to confront the threat of climate change. Waxman, chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, spoke as he opened Congress' first hearing on climate legislation. A group of 14 corporate

WASHINGTON – Hillary Rodham Clinton, President-elect Barack Obama's choice for secretary of state, rejected calls Tuesday for more details about donors to her husband's foundation, saying she has revealed enough to avoid even the hint of conflicts. An Associated Press review found that Clinton stepped in at least a half-dozen times on issues involving businesses and others who later gave to the charity. Clinton said as secretary of state she will not be influenced by her husband's contributors, which include foreign governments. "It will not be in the atmosphere," Clinton said. Richard Lugar of Indiana was among GOP senators on...

-- JACKSON — Federal authorities have seized $425,000 from a former district attorney linked to the most sweeping judicial bribery investigation in Mississippi in years. While no formal charges have been made public against former Hinds County District Attorney Ed Peters, prosecutors have spelled out his alleged involvement in court documents. Peters is perhaps best known as the DA whose office successfully prosecuted a white supremacist in the cold case slaying of a Mississippi civil rights leader. --------- Snip For an over view of the Scruggs corruption case Click here The Scruggs corruption case is detailed on Y'all Politics

CHICAGO – Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich says he is not guilty of any criminal wrongdoing and plans to stay on the job. In his first official statement since his arrest on corruption charges last week, Blagojevich (blah-GOY'-Uh-vich) says he will fight until he takes his "last breath." ... The Democratic governor says he intends to "answer every allegation in a court of law."

P.A. for Play: eBay to help governor take graft into the 21st century. Governor Ed "G. Money" Rendell (D-Deficit) said Pennsylvania might benefit by studying other states for money-raising best practices. Illinois Governor Rod "The God" Blagojevich's recent auction for former Senator Barack Obama's seat might be one way to raise the Commonwealth's painfully-empty coffers. Unlike his Illinois colleague, Rendell may take a more populist approach and avoid the smokey backrooms of Blagojevich. "I think opening up to all people through an online auction, like eBay, is much more egalitarian," said Rendell. "Besides my eyes burn after a lifetime of...

Barack Obama denies having contact with the indicted Illinois governor who tried to sell his old Senate seat yet the president elect’s top advisor revealed last month that the men, longtime political pals, had in fact spoken about a replacement. When a massive federal indictment charging Rod Blagojevich with multiple corruption counts was made public yesterday, Camp Obama suddenly diagnosed the second-term Democrat governor with political plague. The nation’s soon-to-be commander-in-chief claimed to barely know his close political ally. After all, who wants to be connected to a notoriously crooked politician who just got arrested and charged with selling the...

TEHRAN: An Iranian court has sentenced to jail and lashes 16 former central bank staff for taking bribes including 35 billion rials ($3.5 million) in cash as well as gold and foreign currencies, state radio reported on Sunday. It was the latest sign of the Islamic Republic, whose leaders have vowed to root out graft, getting increasingly tough on corruption in the world’s fourth-largest oil producer. The radio report said those accused received sentences of 10 years imprisonment, lashes and fines in the Tehran court’s “initial verdict” without making clear whether all 16 were handed the same punishment. The report...

LONDON – Bribes totaling thousands of dollars were paid to facilitate WND senior staff reporter Jerome Corsi's departure from Kenya after immigration authorities there detained him and his publicist – holding them under armed guard and without food – to prevent Corsi from holding a news conference revealing what he had discovered about Barack Obama's controversial ties in the African nation. Confirmation of the payments comes just as a report from Kenya Broadcasting Corp. admitted it was politics, not the contrived paperwork reason, for which Corsi was detained. According to copies of e-mails obtained by WND, a resident of Kenya...

The Wall Street Journal reports that a federal grand jury in Los Angeles is investigating the so-called "Friends of Angelo" loan program at Countrywide Financial, under which influential borrowers received preferential terms on home loans. The reported borrowers under the program have included U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), former Fannie Mae Chief Executive Franklin Raines, and California state appeals court judge Richard Aldrich.

RANGLE:My dear friends, I am here with my dear friend and colleague William Jefferson (D) Louisiana to announce that we have both been been betrayed by our wives. Before me is what I found what my wife had stashed away. Both William Jefferson, Democrat Louisiana, and I rely heavily on wives to handle our finances while we serve our constituents and the country. We both have been grievously wounded by their actions and, of course, we will makes amendments to any tax laws our wives have by passed. The Republicans are trying to make a big issue about this oversight...

A week ago I was at McDonald's ordering lunch. It was very busy and there was a large crowd present. I ordered the food and waited around for a few minutes. While I was doing so, a manager and another crewmemeber were getting ready to put the flags up on the pole. The manager showed him how to fold the flags up and they folded up old glory into a nice triangle with loving and patriotic care. While they were folding the McDonald's flag, a funny looking woman in her thirties with two tots in a carriage walked up to...

COLLECT CALL: Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith allegedly said he would send Sen Jeff Klein as an "enforcer" against lobbyists who didn’t donate to Democrats. Smith, the married father of two fathered an out-of-wedlock child with a woman other than his wife three years ago. Smith told lobbyists that their clients would be shut out of a Democrat-controlled Senate in January if they didn't pony up large contributions now, a "shocked" longtime lobbyist has told The Post. "It was a shocking set of remarks and people were looking around the room in disbelief," said the well-known lobbyist, who has...

The Democratic National Committee may be trying to get some mileage out of recent news about oil industry contributions to Republican Sen. John McCain, launching a web site spoofing the idea of McCain sharing his presidential ticket with Exxon. But they may have found an unwelcome surprise in a just-released analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics. Turns out, the biggest recipient of contributions from Exxon executives and employees during this campaign is not McCain. It's Obama. The non-partisan center writes: "Through June, Exxon employees have given Obama $42,100 to McCain's $35,166. Chevron favors Obama $35,157 to $28,500, and Obama...

Add Monica Conyers's name to that list of Dems run afoul of the law whose party affiliation the MSM fails to mention. The Detroit City Council President Pro Tem, a Democrat and an Obama supporter, has made unwelcome headlines before, from getting into an argument with an eight-grader to allegedly threatening to shoot an aide to the Detroit mayor. Now things have taken a turn for the worse. According to the Detroit News in an article today entitled Bribe probe ensnarls Conyers: "Federal investigators have electronic surveillance evidence that allegedly links Detroit City Council President Pro Tem Monica Conyers with...

NEW YORK TIMES: "About that Mortgage, Senator . . ." It turns out that the chieftain of Countrywide -- which is smack in the middle of the mortgage mess -- extended privileged borrowing status to two Senators, Chris Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, and Kent Conrad, Democrat of North Dakota. Both Senators deny any ethical violations.   The disclosure of the V.I.P. arrangments by the political website Politico.com left constituents angry and suspicious -- particularly because the revelations came just as Congress was rousing itself to do something about the mortgage foreclosure crisis.   It would be nice to think that...

(Undercover agent paid $900 bribe, he testifies) In a stark piece of evidence, jurors saw a video recording Wednesday of former Milwaukee Ald. Michael McGee taking what an undercover federal agent said was $900 in cash in connection with the transfer of a liquor license. As the exchange is made, agent Dan Rabu is heard asking McGee to “remember” him when the matter comes before the Common Council. McGee’s response: “I got you.” Meanwhile, in an audio recording of an earlier meeting with Rabu, McGee declared, “I am the gatekeeper” when it comes to licensing matters in his north side...

A judge on Thursday dropped nearly half the charges against "private eye to the stars" Anthony Pellicano and a co-defendant at the request of prosecutors, who were preparing to rest their case in the wiretapping and bribery trial. The 28 counts against Pellicano and ex-Los Angeles police sergeant Mark Arneson were dismissed by U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer after federal prosecutors said that witnesses required to prove them could not be brought to court. Both men still face 35 counts in the case, which centers on accusations that Pellicano wiretapped telephones and bribed police and telephone company officials to run...

Star witness draws Blagojevich into Rezko caseMarch 19, 2008 BY NATASHA KORECKI AND CHRIS FUSCO Staff Reporters Star witness Stuart Levine and Gov. Rod Blagojevich (AP/Sun-Times) They were on a flight home from a political fund-raising swing to New York in October 2003, businessman Stuart Levine testified today, when he thanked Gov. Blagojevich for reappointing him to a state board. Levine told jurors this morning at the corruption trial of indicted Blagojevich fund-raiser Tony Rezko that Blagojevich responded: “Never discuss any state board with me. You discuss them with Tony Rezko or Chris Kelly, but you stick with us, and...

Sheriff Mike Carona announced his resignation today “with a heavy heart,” saying it would be best for the department and the county if he was not distracted while defending himself against federal public corruption charges...

He is a former minister from Hope, Arkansas (yes of course we know who else came from Hope and it is not a fun coincidence). He makes jokes that he knows nothing about foreign policy. It is not funny. He just proved how little he does know. If he ever wants to be taken seriously by anyone, he should not delegate his articles on the topic to neophyte and left-leaning ghost writers. An article supposedly under his byline in the new issue of Foreign Affairs says: "American foreign policy needs to change its tone and attitude, open up, and reach...

Hillary's chief strategist said yesterday that Hillary would get 360 electoral votes if the election were held today and she faced Rudy Giuliani. http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/clinton-campaign-hillary-would-win-in-a-landslide-if-the-election-were-tomorrow-2007-11-15.html Mark Penn, Hillary's strategist said, "The voters are looking for someone who has the strength and experience to lead, and little has changed in the last few weeks outside of the massive media coverage of the attacks." Well .. that's not exactly accurate. Oh, Hillary could probably win with a landslide if the election were today ... but it certainly wouldn't be because they see her as someone with the "strength and experience to lead." It...

BALTIMORE - Former state Sen. Thomas Bromwell, a powerful figure in Annapolis during his nearly 20 years in the legislature, has agreed to plead guilty to taking bribes from a construction company executive, his attorney said Friday. Bromwell, 58, will plead guilty to racketeering conspiracy and filing a false tax return, said attorney Barry Pollack. Sentencing guidelines call for a prison term of about 6 1/2 years to 8 years for the former Senate Finance Committee chairman, Pollack said. "It was a very difficult decision for him, but taking into account what's best for him, what's best for his wife,...

WASHINGTON – In two days of prison interviews with federal agents this year, former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham described a level of corruption on his part more extensive than previously known and dealt a potentially devastating blow to the defense being waged by one of the contractors alleged to have bribed him.

WASHINGTON – In two days of prison interviews with federal agents this year, disgraced former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham described a level of corruption on his part more extensive than previously known and dealt a potentially devastating blow to the defense being waged by one of the defense contractors alleged to have bribed him. The interviews were conducted in February at the federal prison near Tucson, where the longtime Republican congressman is serving an eight-year and four-month sentence after admitting to accepting more than $2.4 million in bribes. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax evasion. According to an 11-page...

When long-defiant former state Sen. Kathryn Bowers finally admits as expected Monday to taking bribes, the once-improbable Tennessee Waltz will have all but played out. She will become the 11th of 12 defendants in the FBI's undercover Waltz corruption sting to be found guilty. After Bowers, only one minor defendant remains, a former school board member. Prosecutors are undefeated -- 11-0 -- and they've scored victories against some of the biggest names in Tennessee politics. From Memphis powerhouse John Ford to his venerable East Tennessee colleague Ward Crutchfield and former Shelby County Commissioner Michael Hooks -- heir to the one...

Jefferson faces civil suit tied to alleged bribes Big Media Story