Free Republic

Pennsylvania Democrats reportedly were caught on tape accepting cash bribes, including one lawmaker who was paid to vote against a state voter identification law, but Democratic Attorney General Kathleen Kane shut down the investigation. "Before Kane ended the investigation, sources familiar with the inquiry said, prosecutors amassed 400 hours of audio and videotape that documented at least four city Democrats taking payments in cash or money orders, and in one case a $2,000 Tiffany bracelet," the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. "Typically, the payments made at any one time were relatively modest -- ranging from $500 to $2,000 -- but most of...

Best-selling author Kevin Trudeau, whose name became synonymous with late-night TV pitches, was sentenced to 10 years in prison Monday for bilking consumers through ubiquitous infomercials for his book, "The Weight Loss Cure 'They' Don't Want You to Know About." As he imposed the sentence prosecutors had requested, U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman portrayed the 50-year-old Trudeau as a habitual fraudster going back to his early adulthood. So brazen was Trudeau, the judge said, he once even used his own mother's Social Security number in a scheme. "Since his 20s, he has steadfastly attempted to cheat others for his own...

Warren Buffett epitomizes everything that is wrong with the global economy, and the U.S. economy specifically. He is the consummate crony capitalist, a brilliant yet conniving oligarch who intentionally plays on the gullibility of the masses to portray himself as one thing, when in reality he is something else entirely.He publicly talks about how rich people need to pay more in taxes, then turns around and pioneers new ways for his company Berkshire Hathaway to avoid hundreds of millions in taxes. He thinks that by going on television stuffing ice cream cones and hamburgers in his mouth and acting all grandfatherly...

The Weekly Standard reported yesterday that, despite the invasion of Ukraine by Russia as well as Putin calling Obama’s bluff after the ‘stern warning’ given to Russia, Barack Obama failed to attend his National Security Team meeting to discuss the situation between Russia and Ukraine. Instead, he was later ‘briefed’ by Susan Rice. According to Todd Starnes from FOX News, rather than attend the security briefing, Obama instead ‘attended a White House Film Festival where pool reporters said he socialized with second graders.’ Prior to the terrorist attack at Benghazi, Obama demonstrated a pattern of missing his security intelligence meetings....

Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog Obama gave Oregon $304 million to build its defective Obamacare website that enrolled zero people Obama gave Oregon $304 million to build its defective Obamacare website. As of February 28, 2014, exactly zero people had signed up at Oregon’s Obamacare website.I am not at all, in any way, surprised by this.Given all of the many, many, many other things that Obama has done, I actually expect things like this to happen.What I don’t expect is for Obama to do anything about it. Sure, he may pay lip service, and pretend to get all angry and upset....

Melowese Richardson’s five-year sentence for serial vote fraud was commuted to “time served” by Hamilton County (Ohio) Prosecutor Joseph Deters. Richardson was convicted of illegally voting multiple times in elections held in 2009, 2010, and 2012. “It was my sense that five years in prison was an excessive punishment for Richardson’s crime of over exuberance,” Deters contended. “A passionate devotion to a candidate or policy shouldn’t be used to justify a harsh penalty. After all, who did she hurt? It’s not like she was voting for the Communist Party. She voted for President Obama and a slate of Democrats. She’s...

I received this email today and immediately called American Express. They said that my account was in good standing and that they did not see any problem. They did not say whether they sent the email, but the woman said that she didn't see any problem with the account. This is the email: Dear American Express Member Because of unusual number of invalid login attempts on you account, we had to believe that, there might be some security problems on you account. So we have decided to put an extra verification process to ensure your identity and your account security....

Ugghhh. Via The Hill: President Obama on Thursday urged Congress to “do even more” on conservation projects after signing legislation protecting a 35-mile stretch of Lake Michigan’s coastline.“There are currently dozens of conservation proposals before Congress — many supported by Democrats and Republicans — that would protect important lands across the country and help grow our economy,” Obama said in a statement.The Sleeping Bear Dunes conservation law was the first public lands designation by Congress in more than five years — the longest lawmakers had gone without making a wilderness designation in nearly 50 years.While urging lawmakers to take up...

President Barack Obama has finally admitted what many Americans worried about all along as Democrats in Congress pushed through Obamacare: they may not be able to keep their doctor. barackobama8Obamacare opponents warned about death panels and health care rationing under Obamacare as the president and his Democratic allies pushed the legislation through Congress. Now that the implementation of Obamacare is in full swing, some of those concerns are coming to fruition as some patients like this man are almost dying because of the disastrous effects of Obamacare. One of the many ways in which rationing occurs is by limiting a...

Major benefit cheats are to have their assets seized by bailiffs as part of a new crackdown on the £1.2 billion scandal. The Department of Work and Pensions is to use new powers to access the credit rating references of fraudsters to target their cars, computers, state-of-the-art TVs and other high value items. Sources said the new access would allow officials to target those with valuable assets. The spokesman said: ‘Getting the welfare budget under control is a key part of our long-term plan for the economy. We want to end the something for nothing culture and deliver for people...

WASHINGTON -- From time to time, I put down my duties of writing about politics and other human follies and pick up a book, often a book of poetry, often by W. B. Yeats. The other night I read Yeats' poem "The Fiddler of Dooney." It is a little masterpiece, but then Yeats wrote so many masterpieces. It begins: "When I play on my fiddle in Dooney, Folk dance like a wave of the sea; My cousin is priest in Kilvarnet, My brother in Mocharabuiee. " And on it dances for a few more stanzas, delighting the eye and the...

President Obama repeatedly promised Obamacare would reduce insurance premiums by $2,500 per year. He made this promise at least 22 times. Today Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius admitted health insurance rates will increase under Obamacare. The Daily Mail reported: Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told House Ways and Means Committee members on Wednesday that she expects health insurance rates to increase as the Affordable Care Act takes full effect.

Future generations of Bitcoin billionaires may someday look back on 2014 with knowing smiles. Here was a year when thefts spread, exchanges collapsed, rates gyrated like a teenager’s moods. And yet the buying of bitcoins showed no signs of abating. The past week was particularly extreme. The apparent suicide of an American business executive in Singapore was investigated for possible ties to her Bitcoin investments. A California man fingered as the currency’s mysterious inventor reacted to his sudden fame by asking that journalists buy him lunch. After finishing his meal at a sushi restaurant, he went on to deny any...

Leave it to the sleazy down-home Democrats of the Midwest to steal more than $16 Million from various charities, including one for those suffering from AIDS. Also not so surprising, several of the scammers have ties to President Barack Obama, including one who happens to be related to President Obama’s friend and former pastor Jeremiah “God Damn America” Wright. The U.S. attorney’s office in Springfield has been busy the past few years investigating a variety of fraud schemes involving state grants. Thirteen people have been charged so far, six who have pleaded guilty. Two of them have ties to President...

A longtime adviser to Hillary Rodham Clinton personally sought and secured the funding for an illegal shadow operation to boost Clinton’s 2008 presidential bid, according to court papers released as part of a wide-reaching campaign finance scandal. Washington businessman Jeffrey Thompson, who pleaded guilty Monday on federal conspiracy charges in a case that has focused largely on District Mayor Vincent Gray’s 2010 election, told federal prosecutors that Clinton aide Minyon Moore asked him to fund pro-Clinton efforts in four states and Puerto Rico totaling $608,750 during the hard-fought 2008 Democratic presidential primary campaign, the documents show.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) used an all-night climate change campaign in the Senate to once again bash Charles and David Koch. “It's time to stop acting like those who ignore this crisis — the oil baron Koch brothers and their allies in Congress — have a valid point of view,” Reid said Monday evening. “But despite overwhelming scientific evidence and overwhelming public opinion, climate change deniers still exist. They exist in this country and in this Congress.” Sens. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) are leading an all-night Senate session to discuss the importance of climate change....

Governor Pat Quinn’s administration Monday said he was unaware that Cook County Circuit Clerk Dorothy Brown’s husband made a six-figure windfall from the governor’s now-disbanded, $54.5 million anti-violence program. A top Quinn aide also hit the top Senate Republican for her searing criticism that the husband’s payday amounted to “pure cronyism.” Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont, who has pushed for a federal criminal investigation into the program, shot back Monday, describing the governor’s office’s sensitivity to her statements as “an overreaction” and proof Quinn is “vulnerable” politically from the program. The Chicago Sun-Times reported Monday that Benton Cook, Brown’s...

I noticed a suspicious charge on my credit card. I was thinking about cancelling my card just because I have used it in so many places. I checked with the Phone Center that handles 'Lost/Stolen' cards for my account (my bank). They verified that 'WebLearn' is a fraudulent charge. It is no big deal for me as I thought about cancelling my card when I made the call, but the 'WebLearn' made sure I cancelled the Visa Card immediately.

The Health and Human Services inspector general (IG) will launch an investigation into the failed ObamaCare exchange in Maryland, Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) announced Monday. “Maryland officials ignored early warning signs and chose to waste and abuse federal taxpayer money by opening up what they knew was a flawed exchange to the public,” he wrote in a statement. “I have confidence that the nonpartisan and independent HHS Inspector General will thoroughly investigate and bring to light how hundreds of millions of dollars were wasted on one of the worst exchange roll outs in the country,” he added. An official with...

Yes, government waste, fraud and abuse are the triplet children of incompetence, greed and unbridled ambition. But these sins of public trust begin and end with dishonesty. And Joseph E. Schmitz has seen a lot of lying by the government to taxpayers in his lengthy legal career. Schmitz, who served as inspector general of the U.S. Department of Defense from 2002-05, in an interview with Watchdog.org said, “no political party has a monopoly on waste, fraud and abuse and corruption.” But he said he has seen some troubling patterns of deceit in the Obama administration. Exhibit A, according to the...