Free Republic

General Motors Co. has begun to once again contribute to political campaigns, lifting a self-imposed ban on political spending put in place during the auto maker's U.S.-financed bankruptcy restructuring last year. The Detroit company gave $90,500 to candidates running in the current election cycle, Federal Election Commission records show. GM Resumes Campaign Contributions The beneficiaries include Midwestern lawmakers, mostly Democrats, who have traditionally supported the industry's legislative agenda on Capitol Hill, including Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.), Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio) and Rep. John Dingell (D., Mich.). The list also includes Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor, the House Republican Whip,...

Don Williams, the campaign manager for Harry Reid from 1965 to 1974 will reveal on Steve Wark's AM 670 radio show (tomorrow, August 24th at 7:00am pst) how he picked up illegal cash from Joe Conforte at the Mustang Ranch Brothel on two campaigns. The reason this is important is because there are a number of other leads now working through the system regarding a history of Reid taking money - Williams provides a polygraphed verifiable anchor point to the other stories. Once on the take, always on the take.

WASHINGTON – In February 2009, the United States had fallen into the deepest economic slowdown since the Great Depression. The housing bubble had burst, unemployment was nearing its highest level in almost three decades and the once-freewheeling banking sector had turned tightfisted. At the urging of President Barack Obama, Congress passed an $862 billion economic stimulus bill on Feb. 10, 2009, to get federal dollars flowing into the U.S. economy. Eighteen months later, the administration estimates that about 85 percent of the jobs it expected to create or save in the first two years have indeed been created or saved....

NOTE The following text is a quote: Innospec Agent Pleads Guilty to Bribing Iraqi Officials and Paying Kickbacks Under the Oil for Food Program WASHINGTON—Canadian/Lebanese dual national Ousama M. Naaman pleaded guilty today to participating in an eight-year conspiracy to defraud the United Nations Oil for Food Program (OFFP) and to bribe Iraqi government officials in connection with the sale of a chemical additive used in the refining of leaded fuel, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division. Naaman, 61, of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, was originally indicted on Aug. 7, 2008, in U.S. District...

rivate security contractors protecting the convoys that supply U.S. military bases in Afghanistan are paying millions of dollars a week in “passage bribes” to the Taliban and other insurgent groups to travel along Afghan roads, a congressional investigation released Monday has found. The alleged payments, which are reimbursed by the U.S. government, help fund the very enemy the U.S. is attempting to defeat and renew questions about the U.S. dependence on private contractors, who outnumber American troops in Afghanistan, 130,000 to 93,000. The report's author called the findings of the six-month investigation “sobering and shocking.” “This arrangement has fueled a...

Mickey Kaus is undoubtedly my favorite Democrat in California. That alone means that he is probably pretty well hated by the ruling far-left, establishment of the state party. The California Democrat Party, as well as the state itself is run almost entirely by the public employee unions. Hence the wonderful shape we find ourselves in today… People always say “well Arnold is a Republican.” Yes he is, but he’s a poor excuse for one and he was never any match against the unions and their bidders in the legislature. This brings me to the one democrat I have seen in...

The White House and Rep. Joe Sestak agree: Joe Sestak, Pennsylvania's Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, is a buffoon. For months, the White House stonewalled inquiries about whether Mr. Sestak had been offered a federal job in exchange for dropping his challenge to Sen. Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania's Democratic primary. Mr. Sestak won the Pennsylvania primary in part because his reputation for candor (apparently undeserved) contrasted favorably with Mr. Specter's blatant careerism. But if Mr. Sestak wasn't lying in February, he is lying now, or so the evidence suggests. If the facts were as the White House now claims,...

Bloody cheek. It's not every day a com moner is graced with the personage of a card-carry ing, blue-blooded, bone headed duchess. But Sarah Ferguson irritably dragged her hips into the Javits Center yesterday at the crack of 8:30, and proceeded to whine, kvetch and play the victim in a British accent as impenetrable as Scotland Yard. And, judging from the crowd she attracted, which coated the convention center like a lover's saliva on Fergie's well-traveled toes, the world's greediest, tackiest and brokest royal is quickly accomplishing a feat that has eluded her back home in England, where the weary...

When word circulated that former Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff was planning a primary campaign against Sen. Michael Bennet, Democrats were worried — so much so that Romanoff reportedly got a call from the White House exploring whether he wanted a job in the administration instead.

Allegations that the White House offered Joe Sestak a job in exchange for dropping out of the Pennsylvania Senate race echo an earlier report of a job offer to candidate Andrew Romanoff in Colorado. On September 27, 2009 the Denver Post reported that the Obama administration offered Senate candidate Romanoff a position if he canceled plans to run for the Democratic nomination against incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet. The paper said the job offer, which specified particular jobs, was reportedly delivered by Jim Messina, Obama’s deputy chief of staff. One position cited by the Post was a job at USAID, the...

The Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson told a New York crowd today of her 'pride' in her life as she fights to save her reputation over the 'cash-for-access' scandal. Sarah Ferguson brushed off her personal crisis as she spoke as she hosted a breakfast for booksellers and librarians at the Book Expo America event in Manhattan. 'I think it is a real treat for me to be here today and I can't thank you enough for listening,' the tired-looking duchess told the supportive crowd. The former wife of Prince Andrew was exposed at the weekend after being filmed accepting a...

Rod Blagojevich apparently asked the Obama Administration for a job in lieu of letting Obama have his pick of candidates to replace him as Illinois Senator. Joe Sestak was asked by someone in the White House (Rahm Emanuel?) to take the Secretary of the Navy job in lieu of allowing Obama have his pick of candidates for the Pennsylvania Senate see...i.e. Arlen Specter. One man is up for criminal conviction...the other is working in the White House.

UPDATE: See video clip after the break of an earlier interview in which Scarborough unequivocally puts it to Sestak that he had been offered the Secretary of the Navy position, and Sestak seems to confirm it. so much so that after playing the clip, today's guest Jeffrey Sachs, an ardent Obama fan, has to laughingly admit that, yes, Sestak had been offered the Navy job. ---------------- Does Chuck Todd understand the difference between offering, in return for a candidate's agreement to drop out of a race, a big federal job with its salary and perks, versus offering to support someone's...

Here is video of White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs refusing to answer a question as to whether Rep. Joe Sestak was offered a job by the Obama Administration in order to get him to drop his run for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania against Sen. Arlen Specter. Gibbs hemed and hawed, but would not really give an answer.

Given Russia's reputation for excessive bureaucracy, it's only right that a company would exist to help businesspeople to set up, find the right translators, and also provide the right legal guidance to navigate the Byzantine direction of Russia's business bureaucracy. Center of Economic Planning consists of a professional team of skilled translators, auditors and IT specialists who will also not just help foreign businesses, but also help native Russians build their businesses.

Government Attorney in L.A. Is Convicted of Taking Bribes from llegal Immigrants Constantine Kallas, assistant chief counsel with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office, accepted bribes of as much as $20,000 in exchange for helping get benefits for illegal immigrants. Anna Gorman April 21, 2010 A government attorney who posed as an immigration judge and accepted thousands of dollars in bribes from illegal immigrants was convicted Tuesday in Los Angeles of federal corruption charges, the U.S. attorney's office said. A U.S. District Court jury found Constantine Peter Kallas, assistant chief counsel at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office...

See page 31: "Bribes. If you receive a bribe, include it in your income." How long has this been in the IRS code?

The average cost of a bribe more than doubled last year, the Interior Ministry's economic safety department said Thursday, although experts say the figures may be on the low side. The cost of an average bribe last year reached more than 23,000 rubles ($780), up from 9,000 rubles in 2008, the department said in a statement posted on its web site. The ministry registered 7,856 cases of bribery involving state agencies in 2009, an increase of 10.2 percent from the year before. Of those cases, a total of 2,351 people were prosecuted for corruption last year, a rise of 14.9...

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Congressman Bart Stupak (D-Menominee) announced three airports in northern Michigan have received grants totaling $726,409 for airport maintenance and improvements. The funding was provided by the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration. “This federal funding will help these airports better provide critical services to communities in northern Michigan,” Stupak said. “I am pleased the FAA has made this investment in our local airports and the individuals and businesses they serve.” Alpena County Regional Airport received a grant of $85,500 to acquire friction measuring equipment, specifically a decelermeter and tow vehicle, to replace equipment that has...

It's almost a laugh, watching desperate Dems scratch, claw and make sundry last minute back room deals to push O'health care over the top today. I say a laugh because the reality is this.... as of this AM, the verbal media reporting (that's a caveat emptor all on it's own...) is that Pelosi is likely to bypass using a Resolution for a rule change, and having the House Dems vote to accept the Senate version of HR 3590, passed Dec 24th. Following that, they vote on a reconciliation bill. However that reconciliation bill has to also be accepted by the...