Free Republic

William H. Ginsburg, a seasoned medical malpractice attorney who bolted to national prominence in the brutal arena of Washington politics as Monica Lewinsky's lawyer, died Monday at his home in Sherman Oaks. He was 70. snip Later, in an open letter to Starr in California Lawyer magazine, he wrote: "Congratulations, Mr. Starr! As a result of your callous disregard for cherished constitutional rights, you may have succeeded in unmasking a sexual relationship between two consenting adults." snip

There is no "set price" to meet with President Obama, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday amid continued outcry over the role of Organizing for Action, the outside group supporting the president's agenda. "Any notion that there is a set price for a meeting with the president of the United States is just wrong," Carney said during his daily briefing. Since OFA is intended to back the president's agenda, it makes sense that Obama would meet with the group, Carney said. "As anyone would expect, the president would likely meet with their representatives to discuss his agenda." "But,...

In an explosive report set to send shockwaves through official Washington, the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) released a 108-page GAI investigation into the threat of foreign and fraudulent Internet campaign donations in U.S. federal elections

Minutes after Newsweek published a story on the threat of illegal foreign and fraudulent online campaign donations late Monday afternoon, the Obama campaign struck back hard with a response smearing one of the article’s authors and offered an anemic defense of its online fundraising operations.

Over the last few days, the internet has been abuzz with the possibility that the Obama campaign was about to be nailed with a major foreign donor scandal, with some even speculating that the President was so distracted by the pending story, that it contributed to his horrible debate performance. Paul Bedard of the Washington Examiner wrote: President Obama's reelection campaign, rattled by his Wednesday night debate performance, could be in for even worse news. According to knowledgeable sources, a national magazine and a national web site are preparing a blockbuster donor scandal story. The campaign tried desperately to block...

DE TERESINA - Federal Police in the northeastern state of Piauí are investigating allegations of a drugs-for-votes ring. Candidates for the city council in the capital Teresina used crack to lure dealers and addicts to vote for them, accuses a prominent lawyer in the region Lúcio Ribeiro, who heads the local Commission for Human Rights. The formal accusation was submitted to the Order of Attorneys of Brazil (OAB), though names of those being investigated were not initially made public. According to Folha de Sao Paulo, police are also looking for evidences that drug dealers and addicts have teamed up to...

If our corrupt media believe a Republican said something inappropriate at a fundraiser about the 47% of the American people the rest of us carry, the corrupt media attempt to destroy his campaign over it. However, if a sitting president appears to openly and brazenly break the laws surrounding the solicitation of super PAC money, this very same media dutifully report but refuse to talk about it: Speaking at a fundraiser hosted by the famous rapper and singer couple Jay-Z and Beyonce, President Barack Obama made comments, seemingly in jest, asking guests to help out his campaign against Republican nominee Mitt...

President Obama's former traveling assistant got financial assistance on his departure from government from a New York financier who is a top Obama fundraiser. Reggie Love, Obama's former "body man" and a former Duke basketball star who the President has referred to as his "little brother" left the White House last November, and is on track to receive his MBA this December from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. In the meantime, Love has received money, three sources told BuzzFeed, from Orin Kramer, the managing partner of Boston Provident and a leading Democratic fundraiser who has raised more...

Chicago Sun-Times reporter Natasha Korecki followed every step of Blagojevich’s downfall. She details his demise in a new book — Only in Chicago: How the Rod Blagojevich Scandal Engulfed Illinois; Embroiled Barack Obama, Rahm Emanuel, and Jesse Jackson, Jr.; and Enthralled the Nation. The book raises the question of whether Jesse Jackson Jr., the congressman son of the famed civil rights leader, plotted to arrange a pardon for Blagojevich from President Barack Obama.

<p>A promise not to hire lobbyists didn't even last 2 months. A promise for sweeping ethics reforms has been all hat no cattle.</p> <p>Big donors considering whether to work the phones raising money for President Obama's reelection campaign might consider the fate of his 2008 bundlers. Many of them, it turns out, won plum jobs in his administration.</p>

The revelation that the U.S. Department of Justice has been paying exorbitant prices for food and drink ($16 apiece for muffins and $8 a cup for coffee) at official functions sparked a heated exchange between Congressional critics and Administration officials. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) labeled the outlays “extravagant and wasteful. We’re in a recession. The budget is in a big hole. Families have to scrimp and save. What kind of a message does this sort of ‘lord of the manor’ attitude toward federal spending send?” Representative Frank Wolf (R-Va), who chairs the House appropriations subcommittee that oversees the Justice Department,...

In the 35th-floor conference room of a Manhattan high-rise, two of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s most trusted advisers held a secret meeting a few weeks ago with a group of super-rich Republican donors. Over tuna and turkey sandwiches, the advisers explained that New York’s Democratic governor was determined to legalize same-sex marriage and would deliver every possible Senate vote from his own party. Would the donors win over the deciding Senate Republicans? It sounded improbable: top Republican moneymen helping a Democratic rival with one of his biggest legislative goals. But the donors in the room — the billionaire Paul Singer,...

While America as a whole slides toward unemployment and poverty, certain well-connected people are doing very nicely indeed. Consider Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and her husband Paul. Kevin Bogardus of The Hill reports:  House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) saw her net worth rise 62 percent last year, cementing her status as one of the wealthiest members of Congress.Pelosi was worth at least $35.2 million in the 2010 calendar year, according to a financial disclosure report released Wednesday. She reported a minimum of $43.4 million in assets and about $8.2 in liabilities.For 2009, Pelosi reported a minimum net worth...

The nation’s top labor leader on Friday said President Obama has allowed talk of attacking federal deficits to overrun his message on jobs and economic growth, while hitting Fox News for being anti-union. “I think he made a strategic blunder whenever he confused his stimulus/jobs agenda” by letting deficits dominate the conversation, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said of Mr. Obama in response to questions at the National Press Club. The unions have long been a critical component of the Democratic Party base, but Mr. Trumka’s remarks suggested the umbrella labor group could take a more independent stance in 2012. Mr....

President Obama lashed out at Republicans Monday for having "denigrated or vilified" public union employees. Without collective bargaining and the ability to go on strike, he said we wouldn't be able to attract "the best and the brightest to public service." Are public employees simply the best and the brightest? Or are we simply lavishing them with much better employment deals than their private counterparts? To measure how attractive a job is, economists study how employees vote with their feet -- that is, comparing the rate at which different categories of employees voluntarily quit their jobs. Over the last six...

“Spread the Recovery” Labor Sec: Keeping People on Unemployment for Almost Two Years is Gov Moral Obligation http://www.theblaze.com/stories/%e2%80%9cspread-the-recovery%e2%80%9d-labor-sec-keeping-people-on-unemployment-for-almost-two-years-is-gov-moral-obligation/

Although voters abolished Houston's red light camera system Tuesday, the 70 cameras have the green light to keep recording traffic violations for months as the city weighs a legal strategy for exiting its contract with the firm operating the cameras, city officials say. Anti-camera activists slammed the delay Wednesday, insisting on immediately terminating the five-year contract — whatever the cost - with ATS, the Arizona firm that manages Houston's system. The May 2009 contract has a termination clause that requires the city to provide the company with a 120-day notice of cancellation, a period when the cameras will still be...

ANDREA MITCHELL, NBC: "What is the secret here to turn out? In the old days, the old machine days, what we called 'walking around money,' handing out money to get people to vote. Is it still the case? What do you do, what is the magic in Philadelphia? REP. ROBERT BRADY (D-PA): "We still have the street money and we're very knowledgeable." Rep. Brady is also the chairman of the Philadelphia Democratic party.

Defense Earmarks Totaling $3.36 million in 2 years in Return for $139,000 in Campaign Contributions LAS VEGAS, Sept. 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- 1001 Reasons to Vote Against Harry Reid has issued a detailed and comprehensive report on the cozy relationship between Sen. Harry Reid and Arcata Associates. Arcata is a Las Vegas-based defense contractor controlled by the Wong family whose executives have given close to $139,000 to Sen. Reid and to the Democratic Party. Sen. Reid rewarded Arcata with $3.36 million in earmarked projects in just the past two years. Justice Brandeis once said that sunlight was the best disinfectant, because...

federal government hired a New Orleans man for $18,000 to appraise whether news stories about its actions in the Gulf oil spill were positive or negative for the Obama administration, which was keenly sensitive to comparisons between its response and former President George W. Bush's much-maligned reaction to Hurricane Katrina. also spent $10,000 for just over three minutes of video showing a routine offshore rig inspection for news organizations but couldn't say whether any ran the footage. And it awarded a $216,625 no-bid contract for a survey of seabirds to an environmental group that has criticized what it calls the...