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Examples of lawmakers who have sponsored earmarks for private companies and received campaign contributions from them and, in some cases, their lobbyists: _Rep. David Hobson, R-Ohio, a member of the House defense appropriations subcommittee, obtained a $2.4 million earmark last year for the Greentree Group of Beavercreek, Ohio, for a digital information sharing system. Greentree Group executives, their families and consultants have donated $43,350 to Hobson since 2000, reports The Columbus Dispatch. _Rep. Peter Visclosky, D-Ind., a member of House defense appropriations subcommittee, sponsored a $2 million earmark to 21st Century Systems last year for a virtual fence demonstration project....

When it comes to running the economy, no-one could ever accuse Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez of being a hostage to conventional wisdom. With the country's most recent statistics showing consumer price rises of 29.1% in the 12 months to the end of March - the highest rate of increase in Latin America - now might not be the best time for inflation-busting pay deals. But on 1 May, Mr Chavez gave public sector workers an across-the-board salary increase of 30%. He said maintaining people's purchasing power was a more pressing priority than getting inflation down. At the same time, he...

In the threadbare border towns of South Texas, one of the country’s poorest regions, enterprising locals like Candelaria Espinoza have long been paid to round up votes for candidates on Election Day. There is even a name for these electoral soldiers of fortune: politiqueras. So when Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign arrived in South Texas in February seeking an edge in its uphill battle against Senator Barack Obama, Ms. Espinoza was happy to oblige, for a price. The campaign paid her and seven other members of her family $100 to $200 each to knock on doors, deliver fliers and...

DNC Superdelegate Puts His Vote Up For Sale Steven Ybarra Wants $20 Million For His Vote SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CBS13) ― In this tight battle for the Democratic nomination we've heard a lot about the candidates courting superdelegates. But, one superdelegate is courting the candidates. He says he'll sell his vote for a price. A very high price: $20 million. Steven Ybarra of Sacramento says that eight-figure price is peanuts for the presidency.

Fourteen months into a campaign that has the feel of a movement, Sen. Barack Obama has collided with the gritty political traditions of Philadelphia, where ward bosses love their candidates, but also expect them to pay up. The dispute centers on the dispensing of "street money," a long-standing Philadelphia ritual in which candidates deliver cash to the city's Democratic operatives in return for getting out the vote. Flush with payments from well-funded campaigns, the ward leaders and Democratic Party bosses typically spread out the cash in the days before the election, handing $10, $20 and $50 bills to the foot...

Why Rescues Don't Work By Paul Tustain "...Just like natural organisms, the financial system must have death to evolve into a better form..." NOW THAT HE'S wearing some sort of do-good government hat, even Hank Paulson is not thinking straight.Regulate in New York and finance goes to Toronto. Regulate in London, it goes to Frankfurt or Paris - and since Toronto, Frankfurt and Paris are run by the same nervous bureaucrat-types, we can reckon soon enough that the entire financial markets will be hosted out of Singapore and Shanghai.There they will accept the risks as well as the rewards,...

College Junior Breakfasts With Chelsea Clinton 21-Year-Old Wisconsin Super Delegate Gets Face Time With Former First Daughter Noooo Chelsea is not being Pimped Out!Check out the young virgin's Wikipedia page!

The fate of $600-$1,200 rebate checks for more than 100 million Americans is in limbo after Senate Republicans blocked a bid by Democrats to add $44 billion in help for the elderly, disabled veterans, the unemployed and businesses to the House-passed economic aid package. GOP senators banded together Wednesday to thwart the $205 billion plan, leaving Democrats with a difficult choice either to quickly accept a House bill they have said is inadequate or risk being blamed for delaying a measure designed as a swift shot in the arm for the lagging economy. The tally was 58-41 to end debate...

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (Reuters) - Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton courted female voters on Tuesday with a plan to expand paid family leave, boost child-care funding and fight workplace discrimination against pregnant women. In a speech peppered with anecdotes from raising her 27-year-old daughter Chelsea, the former first lady who would be America's first woman president said her plan would cost $1.75 billion a year and be paid for by shutting down certain kinds of tax shelters without expanding the deficit. "The struggle to balance family and work can be simply overwhelming," the New York senator told a gathering of about...

Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, noncitizens who legally obtained New York State driver’s licenses have been given licenses stamped “temporary visitor” along with the date their visa expired. No longer. The Spitzer administration three weeks ago quietly eliminated the state policy that required the special identification stamp on the driver’s licenses for noncitizens who are legally, though temporarily, residing in the United States. The policy change also eliminated the accompanying expiration date that was intended to show when the person’s legal right to be in the United States ended — raising the chance that a valuable form...

Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign gets kookier by the day. On Tuesday, she abandoned her widely ridiculed "baby bonds" in favor of a plan, funded by robbing the graves of "the rich," to give Americans earning less than $100,000 a year a 401(k), into which the government would deposit up to $1,000 annually. She apparently figured out babies don't vote. On Monday, she declared Sandy Berger would have "no official role" in her campaign. Her statement was meant to deflect criticism of her naming Mr. Berger as her unofficial, unpaid foreign-policy adviser. But his record of foreign-policy blunders is scary....

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 — Democrats and their allies mapped out a strategy on Friday that they hoped would enable them to override President Bush’s expected veto of a bipartisan bill providing health insurance for 10 million children, most of them in low-income families. Democratic leaders said they would highlight the contrast between the president’s request for large sums of money for the Iraq war and his opposition to smaller sums for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, known as Schip. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, said, “It’s ironic that in the very same week that the president says he’s...

WASHINGTON — Democratic lawmakers persisted Thursday in their efforts to persuade President Bush to set aside his veto threat of a large spending increase for a children's health insurance program. The Senate is expected later in the day to vote for a $35 billion increase in funding for the State Children's Health Insurance Program, a federal-state partnership that subsidizes health coverage for low-income families.

A Californian who set up a vote-swapping Web site for supporters of Ralph Nader and Al Gore in 2000, before the state shut it down with a threat of prosecution, said Tuesday he may try again next year now that a federal appeals court has ruled that online vote-trading agreements are constitutionally protected. It all depends, Jim Cody said, on a candidacy by Nader or some other third-party hopeful that might siphon away enough votes from the Democratic nominee to tip the scales to a Republican in one or more states. His short-lived Vote Swap2000.com was meant to counteract that...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WHBQ The FOX13 I-Team has discovered an undercover investigation into voting fraud in North Mississippi. The Mississippi Attorney General is trying to find out who's buying people's votes in Benton County

I watched the Democrat debate yesterday evening, not so much to learn something new, but because I have the innate curse of enjoying political speeches, even if those speeches grind against the very pit of my soul in both substance and concept. The majority of the debate uncovered no real surprises, but one particular answer to a question about drug testing sticks in my mind. The answer that Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd gave to a question about drug testing welfare recipients strikes hard at the very nature of the rampant disability and aggressive disease that infects the modern Democrat party,...

11 hours, 56 minutes ago U.S. Sen. Barack Obama says he has not softened his position on Iraq, despite suggestions to the contrary from other presidential camps and liberal blogs. The Democratic presidential candidate yesterday took issue with a weekend report suggesting that he believes that if President George Bush vetoes a withdrawal bill, Congress should quickly provide full funding for the war with no strings attached. Other campaigns privately pointed out The Associated Press's report and questioned if Obama has changed his stance. The liberal blog Daily Kos carried a headline Sunday stating, "Obama Caves to Bush." In a...

Kent Conrad's Web site proclaims that the North Dakota Democrat "has been a leading voice for fiscal responsibility" in Washington... ...$4.9 billion, which is the amount of emergency drought relief the parsimonious Mr. Conrad is attempting to shovel into a Senate military construction bill in this week's lame duck session. If this is the sort of "fiscal discipline" we can expect from the new Democratic majority, K Street ought to be popping the champagne corks. Farm-state Senators have been pushing for this handout for months, and the only good news is that they've modestly scaled back their demands. Nebraska Democrat...

(Madison, WI)….First it was “Smokes for Votes.� Then it was “Pastries for Votes.� Now Democrats are continuing their assault on the health of voters by offering “Wieners for votes.� Democrats in Eau Claire are illegally offering free food in an effort to bribe people for their vote. Today, a complaint had to be filed against Democrat Kathleen Vinehout’s campaign for handing out free food in violation of Wisconsin’s “election bribery� law. The Executive Director of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, Rick Wiley, says he doubts even free food will help Vinhout’s campaign. “Apparently, Kathleen’s campaign is so out of steam,...

Mayor Bill White today ordered a halt to a privately funded drive to offer flu vaccinations at early voting sites in Hispanic and black neighborhoods, amid conservative criticism that the effort would boost Democratic votes. Since Monday, the city had been offering the free vaccinations at four polling places around Houston under a national grant program, used in more than 20 other cities. White defended the program at a news conference today, saying public health was the city's only motive in launching the initiative. Still, he said he decided this morning to abandon the plan after today to avoid perception...

Party money bought backing in the past St. Clair County Democratic leadership has distributed election packets to countywide precinct committeemen, which include an affidavit stating that money from the party will not be used to buy votes. The unusual action follows the vote buying convictions in June of five East St. Louis politicians. They had helped distribute more than $70,000 received by city Democratic precinct committeemen two days before the 2004 election from the county Democratic organization. While St. Clair County Democratic Central Committee Chairman Robert Sprague could not be reached for comment, a fax received Monday from his Belleville...

WASHINGTON -- The Senate has agreed to put an additional $1 billion this year into a program to help poor people with energy costs, but only after overcoming resistance from warm state senators who said those suffering from summer heat weren't getting their fair share.The additional spending would increase to $3.1 billion the amount the federal government will have this year for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, a decades-old program that subsidizes heating and cooling costs for poor families.The legislation, which still must be considered by the House, passed by a voice vote Tuesday, but only after a...

One of the more amusing lines in President Bush's State of the Union Address last month was his call for yet another commission to study the problem of entitlement spending. Entitlements are programs that do not require annual appropriations. The money is paid out automatically to anyone who meets the eligibility criteria. Spending cannot be capped because people have a legal right to their benefits. Hence, spending for entitlements can only be reduced by changing the basic law applying to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. There are two reasons why the Bush proposal cannot be taken seriously. First, he has...

Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) plans to announce today that he will seek a ninth term, ending months of speculation the 87-year-old lawmaker was considering retiring next year to avoid a grueling re-election campaign.

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) -- Lebanon's finance minister on Sunday downplayed the Iraqi Defense Ministry's transfer of $500 million to a Beirut financial institution, saying he would expect such a transfer to be legal if it was made by the Iraqi government. In southern Iraq, the politician demanding a probe into Iraqi Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan's decision to make the cash transfer said he would not flee his country. Ahmad Chalabi said he was staying despite Shaalan's threat to arrest him and turn him over to Interpol based on an old Jordanian bank fraud conviction.Finance Minister Elias Saba told the private...

GOP Complains About School Voting Over Alleged Ice Cream Bribe School Administrator Denies Any Wrongdoing POSTED: 10:41 am CST November 2, 2004 UPDATED: 11:58 am CST November 2, 2004 LUFKIN, Texas -- Lufkin-area Republicans are complaining about voting by residents from the local state school for the mentally disabled. The Lufkin Daily News reports the Angelina County GOP headquarters was told that Lufkin State School employees bribed students with ice cream. They also alleged improper use of a state van to take students to the poll for early voting. County Republican Chairman Dale Ingle alleges the school was trying to...

        John Kerry's Crack the Vote Address (Satire)Presidential candidate John Kerry addresses thousands of addicts, many holding signs "WILL VOTE FOR CRACK" at a Crack the Vote rally in Washington D.C. on Saturday.My friends, I have a plan. It's a good plan.  I was talking to Marion Barry (the b*tch set me up) just the other day. He asked me what my drug plan was. I told him that the President's drug plan was the wrong plan at the wrong place at the wrong time.  The president refused to change his policy. The President made drug importation...

Thieves shattered a side window overnight at Lucas County Democratic headquarters in Toledo, stealing computers with sensitive campaign information and triggering concern of the local party's ability to deliver crucial votes on Nov. 2. (See URL for complete article) http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041013/NEWS03/410130378&SearchID=73187255382209

As the days dwindle down to a precious few leading up to November second, the big three branches of the Liberal election machine have kicked into high gear. Charges have been leveled by the political, entertainment and news divisions. Tales of galloping woe fill the crisp autumn air as accusations of repression, suppression and downright aggression emanate daily from the Left. Out on the hustings, at the obligatory Democratic pander-stop at a black church in Cleveland, John Kerry said, "We're seeing efforts by the Republicans, unfortunately, in various parts of the country to suppress votes and intimidate people, to do...

Filmmaker Michael Moore responded Wednesday to the Michigan Republican Party's request that he be prosecuted for offering underwear and food to college students in exchange for their promise to vote. "It's ironic that Republicans have no problem with allowing assault weapons out on our streets, yet they don't want to put clean underwear in the hands of our slacker youth," Moore said in a statement. "The Republicans seem more interested in locking me up for trying to encourage people to participate in our democracy than locking up bin Laden for his attacks on our democracy." Moore said Republicans missed the...

Michigan prosecutors won't bring charges against filmmaker Michael Moore who state Republicans say broke the law when he offered new underwear and food to young people who promised to vote in the presidential election. On Tuesday, the Michigan GOP asked prosecutors in counties where Moore had spoken to bring charges against him. State law prohibits offering something of value in exchange for agreeing to vote. "It's ironic that Republicans have no problem with allowing assault weapons out on our streets, yet they don't want to put clean underwear in the hands of our slacker youth," Moore said, according to the...

REPOST FROM MICHAEL MOORE: Friends, You may have heard by now that the Michigan Republican Party has called for my arrest. That's right. They literally want me brought up on charges -- and hope that I'm locked up. No, I'm not kidding. The Republican Party, yesterday, filed a criminal complaint with the prosecutors in each of the counties where I spoke last week in Michigan. My crime? Clean underwear for anyone who will vote in the upcoming election. Each night on our 60-city "Slacker Uprising Tour" through the 20 battleground states, I've been registering hundreds (and on some nights, thousands)...

LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- The Michigan Republican Party is asking four county prosecutors to file charges against filmmaker Michael Moore, charging that he illegally offered underwear, noodles and snacks to college students in exchange for their promise to vote. "We want everyone to participate in this year's election, but not because they were bribed or coerced by the likes of Michael Moore," said Greg McNeilly, executive director of the state Republican Party. The GOP said it asked prosecutors in Wayne, Ingham, Antrim and Isabella counties to charge Moore with violating Michigan's election law. The law prohibits a person from contracting...

Better than a cuddle party, and cheaper too.

LONDON, Ky., Aug. 26 - It was not so long ago, historians say, that some voting places in eastern Kentucky were virtual vote-buying bazaars. Brokers bartered half pints of whiskey and $10 bills for votes just outside polling station doors. The cheap ones could be bought for beer. The smart voters always sold twice. Those brazen days are gone. But, prosecutors and political experts say, the mountain tradition of vote-selling is not. And in a wide-ranging conspiracy trial that opened here this week, federal prosecutors are contending that influential people still try to buy elections in eastern Kentucky, just in...

3. I Will Adopt 5 Nonvoters I Know and Take Them to the Polls. You know who they are. Your slacker friends who have given up on the whole rotten group of politicians who run this country. Or they're the people you know who have had their lives made full of hardships thanks to the policies set by those very politicians. They too, have given up. And who can blame them? Why should they waste two minutes on voting? Of course, that is just what those in power want them thinking. The more of us who give up, the more...

There are still nine months to go before the South Dakota Senate election between Minority Leader Tom Daschle and his Republican challenger, former Rep. John Thune. The campaign hasn’t really started yet, but you might as well get ready now for the post-election investigation into voting irregularities. It’s a sure thing. And while you’re at it, you might as well prepare for a murky end to that investigation. There might be clear evidence of wrongdoing, but no one will be found guilty of doing anything wrong. And then it will be on to the next election. Last week, we saw...

The Bush proposal Linda Chavez January 8, 2004 President Bush announced a sweeping new immigration reform proposal this week that could become a hot-button issue in the November election. For months, insiders have hinted that the president would propose a new guest worker program aimed at allowing more foreign workers into the country on a temporary basis. Widely favored by the American business community, a guest worker program would allow employers to fill jobs in industries that routinely experience shortages of workers willing to do the often difficult, dangerous jobs Americans shun -- at least at wages that allow employers...

In politics, it’s good to be up for grabs. And it’s miserable to be a sure thing. As President Bush will prove today. In an expected announcement of sweeping amnesty and Social Security benefits for illegal Mexican aliens, the president will kick conservatives in the teeth in order to woo Latino voters. It’s clear proof that the adage “Dance with the one what brung ya” doesn’t apply in the GOP. In the GOP, conservatives exist to donate money and vote a straight ticket, and then be ignored. At least in this Administration and by this Congress. Time after time, the...

Washington is once again buzzing with charges of bribery. Rep. Nick Smith, (R-Mich.), asserted recently that unnamed individuals offered $100,000 for his son's congressional campaign if the elderly Smith would vote for the Medicare bill backed by President Bush. Smith is retiring, and his son is seeking his seat. Smith now says he was offered "substantial and aggressive campaign support" for his son and not money per se. Nonetheless, some congressional Democrats have called for an investigation of Smith's charges by the House ethics committee. If that investigation starts, where will it end? Big government itself is based on bribery....

Dr. Jerry Falwell, Publisher, National Liberty Journal I'm taking the unusual step of informing our readers about one very special 30-year-old candidate for Congress in North Carolina. His name is Nathan Tabor. Son of an ordained Baptist minister, a committed Christian active in his local church, a dynamic young leader – I am convinced Nathan Tabor is a young champion who can make a true difference for our values in Washington. That’s why I recently committed to Nathan that I will pray for him and personally assist his campaign. While the actual election is one year away, and our ministries...

Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean has been -- and I quote -- "paying `bloggers' or professional Internet surfers to keep the enthusiasm up on his website," according to The Hill, a newspaper which reports on the U.S. Congress. The shocking revelation appeared in an October 8 article titled, "Dem Presidential Rivals Suffer `Growth Pains' Chasing Dean." James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal's online Best of the Web page comments: We're all for free enterprise, but this does point up an advantage of "old media" over bloggers. Professional journalists may have their biases, but those of us who work for...

February's S.C. presidential primary could be brought to you by ... name your price. S.C. Democratic Party Chairman Joe Erwin says he plans to seek corporate sponsorships to help raise $500,000 to hold the Feb. 3 primary, which the state party has to pay for. If a corporation wants to give a little extra to slap its name on a ballot or a media backdrop -- or pretty much anything -- he'll consider it. It's a takeoff on the way ballparks sell ads on scoreboards or seatbacks. "Some statewide corporation may want their company identified with democracy," said Erwin, a...

Young Americans: Pay Attention, Or Pay The Bills If you’re in your 20s or 30s, one of the biggest decisions affecting your life likely will be made this fall. It’s not whether to get married. Or to buy a house. Or even to have and educate children. But it’s a decision that could affect your ability to afford any or all of those things. That decision, which will be made by Congress, is whether or not to give senior citizens, regardless of income or need, a prescription-drug entitlement in Medicare. The House and Senate each have approved separate bills that...

More arrests possible Iberville Parish council member Howard Oubre surrendered to Plaquemine Police Thursday. Howard Oubre Detectives say Oubre paid people $3 to $10 to vote for certain candidates in September's absentee voting. Those candidates were not involved in the alleged vote-buying schemes, according to police. Three others were booked on voter bribery charges -- Terry Wayne Baker and Geraldine Belony of Plaquemine and Victoria McKnight of Baton Rouge. Elections Fraud investigator Gregory Malveaux says his office received complaints of voter bribery in September and immediately began investigating. Oubre was booked on seven counts of voter bribery. It is a...