Free Republic

Ben Nelson says that he knows who started the rumor, and that it may be embarrassing if/when that info comes out. Says, no one threatened him or offered him ANYTHING for his vote. He's says the abortion issue is not the only thing stopping him from supporting the Senate bill.

The Senate clerk has finished reading the text of the manager's amendment to the chamber's healthcare bill. After roughly seven and a half hours of reading, the clerk concluded reading the 383-page manager's amendment to the bill, which was submitted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) earlier today. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) forced a reading of the amendment earlier today in a bid to string along the Senate healthcare debate. In the interim, Senate Democrats announced an agreement with Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) to secure the necessary 60 votes to move forward with the bill. They also released...

Only a day after Senate Democrats voted to move into a historic debate on overhauling the nation's healthcare system, key centrists made it clearthat the party is still a long way from delivering on its promise to provide near-universal insurance coverage and contain medical costs. Faced with the prospect of Republican filibusters, Democratic leaders must deliver the same kind of total unity they managed to achieve in Saturday's vote to begin debate: Every Democratic senator, plus two independents who caucus with them, supported the key procedural motion. But several of those senators spoke out today to say that they will...

As the Senate health care debate enters crunch time, the pressure from all sides continued to grow today, with Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., right in the middle. His spokesman quickly dismissed a report by conservative columnist Michelle Malkin that Nelson was even being threatened with “closure of an air force base,” presumably Offutt Air Force Base, which is south of Omaha and home of U.S. Strategic Command. Malkin also said Nelson has been promised a “bribe bigger than Sen. Landrieu's.” That's a reference to Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat and one of the last holdouts on the vote to...

Here is a video report from CBS News this morning which says that the fate of the Senate Health Care Bill is now down to one vote - Democrat Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska. According to sources, Democrats are "negotiating furiously" with Nelson to get his vote. Democrats want a vote on the Bill before Christmas, which would mean they have to file for a final vote on the bill by this Saturday - December 19. . . . (VIDEO)

WASHINGTON — The White House and Senate Democratic leaders seem willing to give Senator Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, just about anything he wants to win his support of major health care legislation. Anything, that is, but the item at the top of Mr. Nelson’s wish-list: air-tight restrictions on insurance coverage for abortions. The bid to win Mr. Nelson’s support has become a race against the clock. The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, has developed plans for a series of votes beginning at 1 a.m. Monday and round-the-clock Senate sessions intended to meet his deadline of completing the...

On Tuesday, the Weekly Standard's Michael Goldfarb, citing an unnamed Senate aide, wrote that "the White House is now threatening to put Nebraska's Offutt Air Force Base on the BRAC list if Nelson doesn't fall into line." Translation: Goldfarb is reporting that, according to his source, the Obama administration is suggesting to Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska (left), who has been hesitant to support the Senate health care bill due to his concerns over abortion, that it will close the base if Nelson doesn't back the bill. It was, the source said, a "naked effort by Rahm Emanuel and...

Now that we know that the Democratic leadership in Congress and the Obama Administration have bribed Senator Ben Nelson into supporting the government takeover of healthcare, the question arises, who ARE these people, anyway? Are they aliens from outer space? They certainly don't act like normal human beings who are fully aware of reality. Senator Ben Nelson, for example, will vote in favor of the mammoth, debt-busting monstrosity in spite of the fact that in the latest poll Nebraskans indicate by a 61% majority that they will vote against Nelson if he votes in favor of this bill.

This just in, reported by The Washington Post: "Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.), the final Democratic holdout on health care, announced to his caucus Saturday morning that he would support the Senate reform bill, clearing the way for final passage by Christmas". Yesterday we ran the article which follows and today Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson (Dem) has announced his support for Health Care Reform. Was he bribed? Look for earmarks for Nebraska on the bill. Was he threatened?

Alarid...... while serving in the Army and the Marines, including two tours in Iraq, and returned to Southern California to fulfill a goal of serving in law enforcement. But, early last year, after just a few months as a customs inspector, he was waving in trucks from Mexico carrying loads of marijuana and illegal immigrants. He pocketed some $200,000 in cash that paid for, as far as the government could tell, a $15,000 motorcycle, flat-screen televisions, a laptop computer and more. Some investigators believe that Mr. Alarid, 32, who was paid off by a Mexican smuggling crew that included several...

Politics: If the Democrats' stitched-together Frankenstein monster of health care reform gets the 60 votes to get through the Senate, it will have been done through an assortment of bribes and brass knuckles. (snip) Sen. Ben Nelson, a Nebraska Democrat, has also been critical of the buy-in and public option, but he has an additional issue about whatever comes out of the Senate not involving public funding of abortion in any way. Michael Goldfarb on the Weekly Standard blog quotes a Senate aide as saying the White House is now threatening to put Nebraska's Offutt Air Force Base on the...

Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., and 19 other GOP senators today called for a hearing into reports that the Obama administration used the future of Offutt Air Force Base as bargaining chip in the health care debate, according to a press release by Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev. Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., has flatly denied that Offutt came up in connection with the health care bill or any other piece of legislation. The White House also has described those reports as "absurd." The group of Republican senators called for a hearing in a letter to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin,...

Looming reform from Washington has the financial industry nervous. Draft rules, lots of money and skittishness means one thing: lobbying. Securities and investment players -- banks, hedge funds, industry associates, etc. -- are showering money on federal candidates and parties via employees and political action committees. OpenSecrets has the numbers. So far, more than $22 million has been donated for the 2010 election cycle, 67% to Democrats and 33% to Republicans, a record imbalance. The firms don't give it directly; instead, 86% came from individual employees and 14% from political action committees. See the huge donors here >>

Elliott Broidy, the former Finance Chairman of the Republican National Committee, plead guilty yesterday to offering $1 million bribes to officials with New York state's pension funds. In return, Broidy got a $250 million investement in the Wall Street firm he worked for: Broidy, who also resigned as chairman of Markstone Capital Partners, the private equity firm, admitted that he had paid for luxury trips to hotels in Israel and Italy for pension staffers and their relatives -- including first-class flights and a helicopter tour. Broidy funneled the money through charities and submitted false receipts to the state comptroller's office...

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...