Free Republic

The ethics committee approved a trip Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) took to an Antigua beach resort late last year — an excursion that critics say was paid for by lobbyists. Last November, Rangel, his son Steven and a top aide, George Dalley, attended a business conference at the Sandals Grande Antigua Resort & Spa for a foundation affiliated with a weekly New York-based Caribbean newspaper. The organization, the Carib News Foundation, has organized and sponsored the annual conference to promote business, trade and ties between the U.S. and the Caribbean at luxurious resorts in different areas of the islands of...

Dear Leader Nancy Pelosi has a problem. It's her credibility. While claiming to support legislation that would make it illegal to hire family members onto campaign staffs, it seems that she has been paying her husband nearly $100,000 over the past 9 years for doing just that. Pelosi paid husband with PAC funds Financial Leasing Services Inc. (FLS), owned by Paul F. Pelosi, has received $99,000 in rent, utilities and accounting fees from the speaker's "PAC to the Future" over the PAC's nine-year history. Now strictly speaking, what Pelosi is doing isn't illegal. But it is the height (or depth)...

I have just sent this appeal to my representatives in Washington. Feel free to copy and paste and send to your representatives. Dear Representative, Please do NOT support the $700 Billion Bailout Plan until the Banks and the Lending institutions indentify the Toxic Loans and DE-BUNDLE them. It would take very little effort on their part to identify each loan based on a computer search of their existing loans: 1. Full Default = no payments in 3+ months (Toxic) 2. Partial Default = no payments in 1-3 months (Potential Toxic) 3. Good Standing = on-time payments

“Welcome to the murky world of modern racism, where most of the open animus has been replaced by a shadowy bias that is difficult to measure.” – Charles M. Blow, in The New York Times Our unelected press elites, the ones who shape the opinions and convictions of millions, cannot conceive of Obama losing this election purely because of his far left politics. In the editorial echo chambers of our biggest newspapers and news networks, the “murky world of modern racism” is a forgone conclusion. It must be the ominous specter of racism, after all, reasonable and intelligent people vote...

WASHINGTON (CBS) ― CBS 2 has learned the House of Representatives will conduct an inquiry into Rep. Charles Rangel, the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. The ethics committee of Congress announced they established a subcommittee to investigate Rangel, who has already been in plenty of hot water recently. One stunning part of the determination is that the committee decided to investigate his use of congressional stationery in three separate years to seek donors for a public policy institute in his name at City College. The committee will also investigate Rangel's use of four rent-stabilized apartments leased in...

Charlie Rangel wants a Congressional Ethics Committee investigation into his shady dealings for the last 15 years. Will he get out jail free card?

Gov. Rod Blagojevich has a warning for Sen. Barack Obama. He predicts that before the presidential election, Obama will regret supporting ethics legislation that Blagojevich calls inadequate. "This is a Republican trap," Blagojevich said. "They're setting Barack Obama up by using this ethics issue in Illinois." Nonetheless, as CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery reports, Obama's endorsement appears to guarantee the ethics bill will become law. Sources tell CBS 2 that at least three teams of IRS agents are now investigating Blagojevich. It's a large commitment of federal resources. Among other things, they're sifting through documents related to allegations of...

WASHINGTON - Rep. Charles Rangel wrote six checks for about $10,800 in back taxes, and then penned an open letter to New Yorkers Friday, saying he has done nothing dishonorable and is the target of a GOP "guerrilla war." Rangel, the dean of the New York congressional delegation, has faced a string of embarrassing revelations — he didn't pay taxes on rental income for a beach house in the Dominican Republic; he used three rent-stabilized apartments in Harlem, including one for a campaign office; he used his congressional stationery to drum up private donations to a college center named after...

September 19, 2008 Op-Ed Contributor Blocking Care for Women By HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON and CECILE RICHARDS LAST month, the Bush administration launched the latest salvo in its eight-year campaign to undermine women’s rights and women’s health by placing ideology ahead of science: a proposed rule from the Department of Health and Human Services that would govern family planning. It would require that any health care entity that receives federal financing — whether it’s a physician in private practice, a hospital or a state government — certify in writing that none of its employees are required to assist in any way...

BAGHDAD — The Iraqi Army wants every Iraqi Soldier to receive ethics training just like he receives marksmanship or drill and ceremony training. Since 2003, the primary focus for the Iraqi Army has been building the force. Getting Soldiers trained to fight took precedence over many other military functions. Iraqis came from all locations and all walks of life to join the fight to secure their country from terrorists. Every one of those Soldiers brought a unique set of values with him: personal values, family values, community values and religious values. Creating a culture of ethical behavior means that each...

Jeffery Goldberg from The Atlantic Magazine is reporting that underhanded, leftist photographer Jill Greenberg has just been let go by her Representing Agency, the Vaughan Hannigan photo agency. This is a perfect example of a lesson of consequences. When Greenberg admitted that she lied and tricked John McCain so that she could manipulate his image to slander him and did so in the employ of The Atlantic Magazine, she lost any future work with that magazine for her unprofessional behavior. And now, more consequences have come her way. No one is, of course, saying that Jill Greenberg isn't allowed to...

Deal Hudson points out this Wired article published yesterday claiming that McCain has taken a "Sharp Right Turn on Stem Cells". Hudson credits McCain's "shift" to the tireless work of Senator Sam Brownback. I directly asked Sen. Brownback about these ongoing efforts earlier this year, and wrote-up his answer here. I think the jury is still out on this one, but judging by the reaction of pro-embryonic stem cell research scientists, I think there are more encouraging signs than before. Therefore when someone from the Harvard Stem Cell Institute says that he reads McCain's statement as a "bad omen,"...

"Ooohhh, isnt it nice, When your heart is made out of ice"Ride Sally Ride by Lou Reed At the Washington Post On Faith blog Sally Quinn writes, ostensibly, about the morality of abortion and the impact that should have on your choice of candidate. The piece begins by following the logical consequences of a belief that life begins at conception. I will get back to this concept of belief versus observation later (please stick with me) as I think it to be crucial, but let me run through some of Quinn's post first. She, quite rightly points the logical inconsistency...

Rep. Charles Rangel won't step down from his chairmanship at the House's tax-writing committee, his lawyer said Tuesday. "Mr. Rangel has not considered, nor has it ever been on the table, that he would step aside from his current position as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee," said Lanny Davis, the attorney for Rep. Rangel, a New York Democrat. Mr. Davis said Rep. Rangel is going to hire a forensic accountant to examine the last 20 years of his financial records, which will be forwarded directly to the House Ethics Committee. Speculation has grown in recent days that...

WASHINGTON - Even when Rep. Charles Rangel tries to explain how he got into his tax mess, he mangles the facts so much it's easy to see how his accounts — and accountants — are muddled. And this from the lawmaker who has such a big say in determining who pays taxes and how much. The chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee spent the past week reeling from a series of embarrassing revelations: He failed to report about $75,000 in rental income over two decades from a beach villa he owns in the Dominican Republic; he owes...

Since Bloomberg content is link only, and likely the headline can't be posted verbatim, I made one up. Trust me, the real one is no less offensive. The scum attempting to destroy the career of a fine American with the most blatant of lies deserve nothing less than retribution. I also call on FR management to fight back against these attempts at censorship by the media outlets. We must be able to discuss what's being said in the media without fear of litigation. Such discussion is at the absolute heart of American Democracy.

Massie Ritsch at OpenSecrets.org writes that: - John McCain "personally intervened with government regulators to allow his [Keating's] S&L to make risky investments that ultimately defrauded thousands of investors and cost taxpayers $3.4 billion" - "The Senate ethics committee investigated the Keating scandal and reprimanded McCain, the only Republican among the five senators, for his poor judgment." Massie Ritsch didn't write that: - John McCain did NOT intervene with government regulators. - The Senate Ethics Committee cleared McCain of ALL charges against him. - The Senate Ethics Committee report stated unequivocally that McCain's actions were NOT improper or negligent. -...

In July, federal authorities indicted Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, on corruption charges on the grounds that Alaska's Prince of Earmarks concealed hundreds of thousands of dollars of gifts and improvements to his Alaska home provided by a powerful oil services company. Also this summer, amid the mortgage meltdown, newspapers reported that a number of senators -- including Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn.; Kent Conrad, D-N.D.; and Barack Obama, D.-Ill. -- were the beneficiaries of sweetheart home loans. In June, the Senate Ethics Committee began an initial look into Dodd's and Conrad's discounted Countrywide Financial VIP loans, as is...

JOHN W. SCHUTT, Jr. ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Candidate for School Trustee, District E MEDIA RELEASE September 4, 2008 Complaint filed with Nevada Commission on Ethics against Trustee Janison Ethics complaint filed against Clark County School Trustee Terri Janison On September 3, 2008 Clark County School Trustee District E candidate John W. Schutt Jr. filed an Ethics complaint with the Nevada Commission on Ethics against Trustee Terri Janison. This complaint was filed on behalf of the citizens of Clark County due to Janison’s continued unethical behavior. The basis of the complaint is the thousands of dollars that Janison has taken from various construction companies...

ZWOLLE, 30/08/08 - The Regional Disciplinary Council for Healthcare in Zwolle has produced a positive verdict on a clinic that treated a sexual offender by allowing a therapist to have sex with him. The sexual offender involved had complained to the council against the psychiatrist and the psychologist who thought up the experiment. He felt humiliated by having sex with the therapist. According to the council, it was however a question of "careful medical-scientific research." The 30 year old man was treated in the Pompe clinic, a so-called TBS clinic - for serious criminals regarded as non compos mentis by...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- One of the leading researchers into the aftereffects of abortion on women says he believes the chair of the American Psychological Association task force that issued a recent report saying abortion poses no mental health risks for women violated APA's own ethics rules.Dr. David Reardon, the head of the Illinois-based Elliot Institute, says the report is tarnished by the fact that the lead author, Dr. Brenda Major, has violated the APA's own data sharing rules.He tells LifeNews.com Major consistently refused to allow her own data on abortion and mental health effects to be reanalyzed by...

The Oklahoma Legislature's only doctor says U.S. senators should thank Sen. Tom Coburn for delivering babies for free, instead of trying to censure him under ethics rules. State Rep. Doug Cox called the situation "ridiculous," referring to recent reports of an escalation in a long-running fight between Coburn and the Senate Ethics Committee.

A presidential committee explored the ethics of health system reform and plans to release a report later this year. Chicago -- A panel appointed by President Bush that met here in June appears set to endorse some form of societal obligation to provide health care access to all. The meeting was part of the President's Council on Bioethics initiative examining the ethical underpinnings of approaches to reforming the nation's health system and covering the estimated 47 million uninsured Americans. A report is likely to be issued after the November election. Bush established the council in November 2001 to advise him...

SACRAMENTO -- -- The state's ethics agency announced fines Monday against former state Sen. Martha Escutia of Whittier for failing to properly disclose at least $340,000 in payments made by 17 special-interest firms and campaigns to her then-husband's political consulting firm. The state Fair Political Practices Commission also announced fines against former Gov. Gray Davis, related to the campaign fund he used to fight the 2003 recall that removed him from office. He failed to fully disclose $187,381 in unpaid expenses and a late contribution, and he did not keep some records required for donors who gave $5,000 or more,...

On Friday, I believe, a caller to Rush's show suggested some parallels between the current Batman movie and the President, and Rush added a couple of his own. I saw the movie yesterday and viewed it with those observations in the back of my mind. I went to the movie for recreation not as an analyst, so what I have to say here may not be complete and subject to some corrections. I don't think there are any real spoiler's here either; unless the reader has never seen a batman comic or movie. Rush, suggested that the Batman spotlight in...

Rep. Charles Rangel asked the House Ethics Committee yesterday to investigate allegations that he improperly received sweetheart deals on four rent-stabilized apartments at Lenox Terrace in Harlem. While denying any wrongdoing, Rangel is taking the matter seriously. He has tapped hot-shot Washington defense lawyer Lanny Davis to try to handle the controversy. In a letter to House ethics-panel chair Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio), Rangel requested a review of "unfounded allegations against me with respect to apartment units that I have rented in my congressional district in Harlem." "Some in the press have repeatedly - and erroneously - insinuated wrongdoing...

Rep. Rangel Files Ethics Charges Against Himself Wednesday, July 23, 2008 WASHINGTON — House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., filed an ethics complaint against himself Wednesday with the House Ethics Committee. The move is believed to be unprecedented. The Washington Post recently ran articles and an editorial raising questions about Rangel's potential involvement in raising money for an academic center named in his honor at City College of New York.

Rep. Charles Rangel, chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, says he plans to file an ethics complaint — against himself. The move comes after a Washington Post reporter wrote a story raising questions about the New York Democrat’s efforts to raise money for an academic facility in Harlem that will bear his name. The story suggested that Rangel violated House rules by sending out letters bearing an official congressional letterhead seeking funds for the Rangel Center, to be located at the City College of New York, from Donald Trump and other wealthy individuals. At a press conference...

A watchdog group filed complaints with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and the Senate Ethics Committee Wednesday against Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) over a discounted mortgage he received from Northern Trust. Judicial Watch, a conservative legal watchdog group, filed the report after The Washington Post reported that Obama received a discount on a mortgage for a Chicago home valued at $1.65 million. The complaints said the Illinois senator received a loan at the interest rate of 5.625 percent, which Judicial Watch says is lower than the standard rate of between 5.93 and 6 percent indicated by surveys....

BREAKING Bobby Jindal will veto the pay raise. The Governor announced his decision during an 11 a.m. press conference. WWL broke the story. UPDATE x2: Just got word from Steve Sabludowsky - the rally has been canceled. UPDATE: Jindal’s official press release Jun 30, 2008 Governor Jindal Vetoes Legislative Pay Raise Bill BATON ROUGE – At a press conference announcing his line item vetoes in the supplemental spending bill today, Governor Bobby Jindal announced that he has vetoed the legislative pay raise bill to more than double legislators’ pay, SB 672. “I have opposed this pay raise at every turn...

Here are some additional qualities that embody superior leadership. Great leaders surround themselves with greatness. They actively seek out the best possible people and hire them to fill all key positions within their organizations. Great leaders know that surrounding themselves with excellence is a direct reflection on their own character, abilities, and effectiveness as leaders. They understand that their own success and the success of their organizations depend mostly on hiring and promoting the best qualified, ethical, skilled, responsible, mature, and productive people and giving them the proper resources, authority, and freedom to do what’s needed for the long-term benefit...

In her Sunday column this week, Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell responds to charges of improper money-making from special-interest groups against two of the newspaper's stars, David Broder and Bob Woodward. The allegations were carried in the current issue of Harper's by Ken Silverstein, the magazine's Washington editor. Both Broder and Woodward recently took buyouts from the paper but remain as contract workers. The Post Stylebook's ethics and standards section says only: "We freelance for no one and accept no speaking engagements without permission from department heads." Howell observes: "Broder and Woodward did not check with editors on the appearances...

June 20George Weigel  Theologian & Senior Fellow, Ethics & Public Policy Center in Washington, DC. Recent USCCB Spring Meeting; the growing schism in the Anglican Communion George Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, is a Catholic theologian and one of America's leading public intellectuals. Professional ExperienceA native of Baltimore, he was educated at St. Mary's Seminary College in his native city, and at the University of St. Michael's College in Toronto. In 1975, Weigel moved to Seattle where he was Assistant Professor of Theology and Assistant (later Acting) Dean of Studies at the St....

Obama fundraiser attracts criticism from GOP, raises questions on ethicsBy Alexander Bolton Posted: 06/17/08 06:42 PM [ET] An event Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) headlined last week has prompted head-scratching among Illinois ethics experts and drawn sharp rebuke from Republicans because one of the main organizers participated in Antoin “Tony” Rezko’s old fundraising network. John W. Rogers Jr., the chairman of Ariel Investments who gave $22,500 in contributions to Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) through Rezko, hosted a top-dollar special reception with Obama Thursday to raise money for the Democratic White House Victory Fund. Rogers has also pledged to raise over...

STEM CELL ETHICSBy Judie BrownThe good news out of Australia this week is that stem cells harvested from the noses of Parkinson's patients developed into dopamine-producing brain cells when transplanted into the brain of a lab rat. And while there has been no word about the potential for the human who is suffering from Parkinson's, there should be every reason for optimism. And as this news report makes abundantly clear, "Unlike unethical [human] embryonic stem cells – which have yielded no cures despite the investment of hundreds of millions of research dollars – these stem cells from a patient's nose do...

Pennsylvania’s Governor Ed Rendell (D) says lying under oath is “necessary in some circumstances.” The Governor said “however, perjury must be used judiciously, not indiscriminately.” To illustrate this distinction, Rendell argued that it would “never be permissible for an ordinary citizen to lie, but it might be for public officials such as myself. We have broader obligations that could require such prevarication.” “Take the issue of adultery, for example,” Rendell said. “There would be no need for an ordinary person to lie about this under oath. The same isn’t true for a public official like me. An admitted instance of...

Could Become a Political Liability Long-standing ties between a member of Senator Obama's new vice presidential search team and a prominent mortgage executive the senator has pilloried could become a political liability that hampers the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee's ability to tap into public ire over the subprime mortgage crisis. James Johnson, one of three people tapped by Mr. Obama recently to oversee the search for his running mate, took at least five real estate loans totaling more than $7 million from Countrywide Financial Corp. through an informal program for friends of the company's CEO, Angelo Mozilo, the Wall Street...

From the Liberals Hurt Our Kids File. Via the Washington Post. Fairfax County School Board members said they are likely to abandon a staff report that showed racial and ethnic gaps in some measures of student behavior, including in the demonstration of "sound moral character and ethical judgment." The board had delayed an April vote to approve the report after concerns were raised that findings were based on subjective measures, such as elementary report card data, and that they would fuel negative stereotypes. [snip] The school system's report was an early attempt to measure progress on a host of goals...

The headline may seem like a trick question — even a dangerous one — to ask during an election year. And notice, please, that I didn’t ask whether certain politicians are more honest than others. (Politicians are a different species altogether.) Yet there is a striking gap between the manner in which liberals and conservatives address the issue of honesty. Consider these results: Is it OK to cheat on your taxes? A total of 57 percent of those who described themselves as “very liberal” said yes in response to the World Values Survey, compared with only 20 percent of those...

Liberals are ecstatic over the latest “Tell-All” from Scott McMullen while Conservatives really don’t know how to react. Consider the dynamics of Scott McMullen and determine if you, the reader, would really want to have a guy like this anywhere around you? His friends and co workers say he never gave any indication that he was annoyed, disgruntled or even mildly disturbed at the things he saw being done within the White House. Their claim, pretty much in unison, is “This is not the Scott we knew”. Only Nancy Polosi, with her lack of appreciation for anything American, “entirely agrees”...

WASHINGTON, May 19, 2008 – The 1st Marine Division’s 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines’ is focusing on Afghan people, not on fighting terrorists, the battalion commander said May 16. “What’s unique about our mission is that we’re doing a police training and mentoring mission, as opposed to coming in here kinetically like a lot of our past exploits have been, especially in Iraq,” Marine Corps Lt. Col. Richard Hall told online journalists and “bloggers” in a teleconference. The 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, deployed at the end of March for this mission to assist Afghanistan’s Regional Security Command South with their focused...

Lobbying & Ethics Reform Seal the Pork Barrel Among the most glaring abuses in Washington is the willful setting aside of taxpayer dollars for the pet projects of special interests, often through last minute additions to appropriations bills. Pork barrel spending is an insult to taxpayers, a waste of public resources, and an abdication of our leaders' responsibility to be good and honorable stewards of the public treasury, for the benefit of all Americans, not just a few. Too often it appears that elected leaders use the treasury as a campaign kitty, channeling taxpayer dollars for pet projects to preserve...

WASHINGTON, May 16, 2008 – Showing appreciation for the men and women that risk their lives to defend the United States is essential, and yet rumors and fears about ethical restrictions that limit the amount of gift giving is a concern for many philanthropic organizations. Lee Bradley, director of the Department of Defense Ethics, Standards and Conduct Office came on ASYLive BlogTalkRadio yesterday to clarify some of these concerns. "I recognize that a whole lot of people believe that gift rules are very restrictive, ... but federal employees really live by the creed of ‘public service is a public...

The week-from-hell in Washington was endurable only because the return ticket to San Antonio was carefully tucked into my coat pocket. The business trip included some of my oldest haunts: the Pentagon, Capitol Hill, even a network TV studio – pretty much the heart of the beast. Within hours of returning, I fled to Cranky Frank’s in Fredericksburg, where they treat rookie Texans with tolerant kindness. Before serving one of their signature barbecue plates, they showed off a classic clipping of a Hill Country deer hunter. It was not particularly unusual to see a Texan carefully sighting a distant target...

I learned a key lesson about ethics by watching my all-time favorite movie over and over: "The Magnificent Seven," the 1960 flick with Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen and Eli Wallach. Yul Brynner plays Chris Adams, a gunfighter who is offered a pittance by a group of poor Mexican farmers to drive away the bandit Calvera (Eli Wallach), who has been plundering their village. The farmers explain that the tiny payment is everything of value in the village. Chris accepts, saying, "I've been offered a lot for my work, but never everything." He assembles a powerful gang of seven outlaws, and...

The world has seen many cultures rise and fall. The common thread among all, from the Ancient Romans and Greeks to others, is that prior to their fall they became selfish, gluttonous and apathetic. They adopted the feel good and do it now mentality that today’s secularists feel is an invention of their own. Anyone who studies human nature should find it apparent that our Creator set up a system whereby gluttonous selfishness leads to apathy. It is therefore of no surprise that those who embody the “feel good, do it now” movement are so out of touch with the...

andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com — A tough new video montage shows footage of Clinton from 1992 through 2008 from her first 60 Minutes interview to her lies about sniper fire, NAFTA, and Iraq. At this point, Hillary Clinton has no one left to lie to.

PLANTS deserve respect, a group of Swiss experts says, arguing that killing them arbitrarily is morally wrong - except when it comes to saving humans or maybe picking petals off a daisy. In a report on "the dignity of the creature in the plant world", the federal Ethics Committee on non-human Gene Technology condemned the decapitation of flowers without reason, among other sins. Still, commission member Bernard Baertsche suggested the body weighed such cruel acts on a case by case basis, noting "the simple pleasure of picking the petals off a daisy might suffice as a reason". Similarly "all action...

Jerry Zeifman, the Democrat chief of staff of the House Judiciary Committee that worked on the Watergate investigation, says he fired Hillary from the committee staff and refused to give her a letter of recommendation – one of only three people Zeifman refused to recommend to other employers in his 17-year career, “because she was a liar. She was an unethical, dishonest lawyer. She conspired to violate the Constitution, the rules of the House, the rules of the committee and the rules of confidentiality.” Clinton defended her actions in the Watergate investigation as “necessary for the greater good. Look, we...

TROY, Mich. (AP) - The husband of U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow told authorities that he used the Internet to arrange a $150 sexual tryst with a prostitute at a metropolitan Detroit hotel, police said Wednesday. Thomas Athans, 46, co-founder of the liberal TalkUSA Radio network, was stopped by police who were investigating prostitution at the hotel, according to a police report obtained by The Associated Press. Athans, in a statement issued by his attorney, apologized and said he "fully cooperated with law enforcement. My family and I are dealing with this matter in a personal and private way." Stabenow, D-Mich.,...