Free Republic

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...

Exclusive: Meghan McCain Writes that Palin Brought 'Drama, Stress... Panic' to Campaign Sen. John McCain's Daughter: Sarah Palin's Rise Was 'Too Fast,' 'Too Easy' Aug. 31, 2010— For the first time since the end of her father's 2008 presidential bid, Sen. John McCain's daughter Meghan McCain spoke out about Sarah Palin, writing in a new book that Palin brought "drama, stress, complications, panic and loads of uncertainty" to the losing campaign. Though she writes that during the campaign she wondered if the loss "was Sarah Palin's fault," McCain told "Good Morning America" today in an exclusive interview that Palin was...

CHICAGO (AP) - Rod Blagojevich hid in the bathroom, ducked into the back room and left the office early to avoid discussing complex issues with his top aides, his former deputy said Thursday at the ousted governor's corruption trial. Former Deputy Governor Robert Greenlee portrayed Blagojevich as disengaged from daily affairs of state, saying Blagojevich spent on average about two to eight hours a week in his office when he was governor. He said that during working hours, the governor generally was at home or attending high-profile events. Greenlee said he would confer with Blagojevich by telephone when they discussed...

HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. — During the latest episode of the battle over a sex tape showing ex-presidential candidate John Edwards being less than presidential, Judge Carl Fox stopped with a quizzical look. Rielle Hunter, a campaign videographer with whom Edwards had an extramarital affair and a child, claims the tape is hers and wants it back from Andrew Young, the former Edwards aide who wrote a tell-all book about the politician's quest for the White House. At a hearing in Orange County Superior Court on Wednesday, lawyers for Young argued that Hunter had no claim to it. They contended the video...

A Houston woman who works for the Texas Department of Public Safety used her ready access to state driver's licenses for cash, authorities said. Gracie Gutierrez, 27, remained in custody after she was charged on Tuesday with bribery. Gutierrez is accused of accepting bribes to issue driver's licenses to people who are undocumented and have not taken the written or driving exam, said Donna Hawkins with the Harris County District Attorney's office. Also charged with bribery is Saul Ramirez, 20. Officials said he does not work for DPS. Ramirez was arrested while trying to sell a Texas driver's license to...

House, Senate leaders finalize details of sweeping financial overhaul By Brady Dennis Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, June 25, 2010; 12:26 PM Key House and Senate lawmakers approved far-reaching new financial rules early Friday after weeks of division, delay and frantic last-minute dealmaking. The dawn compromise set up a potential vote in both houses of Congress next week that could send the landmark legislation to President Obama by July 4. The final and most arduous compromise began to fall into place just after midnight. Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) agreed to scale back a controversial provision that would have forced the...

At the heart of the current controversy involving free tickets at Los Angeles City Hall, one question stands out: If Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa attended big-time entertainment events because he was conducting city business, why did he not keep better records of those public duties? For weeks, Villaraigosa has argued that he appeared in an official capacity at dozens of concerts, sporting events and awards shows since 2005, from sitting in box seats at Dodger Stadium to attending a 2007 performance by R&B singer Mary J. Blige at L.A. Live. Those duties, he said, exempted him from the law that would...

Companies are preying on desperate musicians by selling them Twitter followers, Facebook fans and even download sales. But only a fool would think this is real success One of the most staggering statistics I took from this year's The Great Escape was that analytics company MusicMetric is currently tracking 450,000 artists. As it's not following every artist out there, we can safely say there are more than half a million competing for your attention. So how are they supposed to get heard? Unsurprisingly, new companies have emerged that are intent on profiting from the increasing desperation of artists and start-up...

The White House faced fresh questions over back-room dealmaking after a Democrat acknowledged he had been encouraged by one of President Barack Obama's top advisers to apply for an international development job instead of challenging the candidate whom the president favored in a Senate race. The revelation again called into question repeated promises by Obama to run an open government that was above private political horse-trading. In appealing to voters this election year, Republicans charge that Obama's promise to change the ways of Washington has given way to the craven politics he campaigned against. Former Colorado House of Representatives Speaker...

All the Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee have joined Rep. Darrell Issa, ranking GOP member of the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform, in writing a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller over the Joe Sestak affair. The lawmakers urge Mueller to investigate “collusion” and possible obstruction of justice involving the White House, former President Bill Clinton, and Sestak’s brother, who was consulted during the drafting of the new White House report. “Not surprisingly, the White House’s own report clears White House officials and former President Bill Clinton of wrongdoing,” the lawmakers write. “But assurances by the Obama...

Senior adviser to the president David Axelrod said Monday evening that there is “no evidence” that White House officials tried to keep a Democratic congressman from entering the Pennsylvania Senate race by offering him a high-ranking government job. “When the allegations were made, they were looked into. And there was no evidence of such a thing,” Axelrod said on CNN’s “John King USA.” Axelrod acknowledged that if White House officials dangled a job in front of Rep. Joe Sestak’s face to keep him away from challenging incumbent Sen. Arlen Specter, that would “constitute a serious breach of the law.” Axelrod...

U.S. Law states that it is a felony to offer a candidate for public office anything of substance, such as a job, in exchange for that candidate dropping out of a race. Pennsylvania Democrat Joe Sestak, who defeated Arlen Specter for the Democratic Senatorial nomination, claims the White House did exactly that. In explaining the law on Fox Business Network's 'Happy Hour' program, Judge Andrew Napolitano stated, Well the ramifications are potentially enormous. I mean to offer someone something of value in order to affect their official behavior as a member of Congress is a felony. We call it a...

Impeach Obama under U.S. Code Title 31 5362, “Unlawful Internet Gambling” shows that the Obama campaign ran what could qualify as lotteries, and therefore illegal Internet gambling, to raise money. Barack Obama signed his name to one such solicitation and also stated openly that the promotion cheated some of the entrants (by announcing a winner prior to the entry deadline). This activity may also have been illegal under U.S. Code, Title 18 1084, "Transmission of wagering information; penalties," also known as the Federal Wire Wager Act. Whoever being engaged in the business of betting or wagering knowingly uses a wire...