Category: Corruption

Will De Blasio Get Away With This?

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“You’ve got a group of people who are being fed nonsense. The guy who’s funding all this is a real estate guy. . . . He’s interested in buying the land. The stables are located right by the Javits Center and they want to put hotels up in there.”
— David Koch, New York carriage driver

Real estate developer Steve Nislick

“The bad guy in this drama, according to the carriage drivers, is Steve Nislick, chief executive officer of a New Jersey-based real-estate development company, Edison Properties. The company ’employs legions of lobbyists to influence city decisions on real estate and zoning in its favor,’ journalist Michael Gross reported in 2009, pointing out that two of Edison’s businesses ‘have multiple locations in the same Far West Midtown neighborhood as the stables where the Central Park horses are housed.’ An anti-carriage pamphlet Nislick circulated in 2008 made this interesting observation: ‘Currently, the stables consist of 64,000 square feet of valuable real estate on lots that could accomodate up to 150,000 square feet of development. These lots could be sold for new development.’
Gross asked the obvious question: ‘What are the odds that good neighbor Nislick, the out-of-state real estate developer, simply covets those valuable, underdeveloped New York lots — and has teamed up with ambitious pols to use the emotions of animal rights activists as fuel for their own agendas?'”
— Robert Stacy McCain, The American Spectator, “DeBlasio’s Horse-Drawn Carriage Ban: Is It Really About Campaign Cash?”

It was right there in the open: A story that, if it didn’t exactly “write itself,” as they say, was not very difficult to put together. All you have to do is go to SaveNYCHorseCarriages.com and start clicking links. Everything is right there, including links to news coverage of the shady background of the anti-carriage crusade:

It’s Parkingtown, Jake
— Michael Gross, Feb. 11, 2009

Secret tape: how to spin council
— David Seifman, New York Post, Jan. 1, 2012

Top de Blasio supporters funded anti-Quinn group
— Chris Bragg, Crain’s, Oct. 3, 2013

Anyone can go see the “Timeline of a Scandal,” and anyone can find out how to contact carriage industry supporters for interviews. So why isn’t this sleazy hustle — real-estate money bankrolling politicians to push a phony animal-rights issue — front-page headlines in the New York Times? They won’t do it, so we’ll have to do it ourselves.

 Linked by Instapundit and a Memeorandum thread. Let’s roll.

 

Obama’s Millionaire ‘Green’ Ambassador to Finland Mocks Critics in Holiday Card

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Bruce Oreck is a lawyer who got rich from his family’s famous vacuum cleaner business. He is an environmentalist who gave about a quarter-million to Democrats in the past two decades and who “bundled” about a half-million in contributions to Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign. Oreck was rewarded with the ambassadorship to Finland:

In 2003, Ambassador and Mrs. Oreck founded the Zero Carbon Initiative which is committed to implementing both experimental and off-the-shelf technologies in the built environment, not just to reduce but to offset greenhouse gas emissions.

Why Finland? Does the name “Fisker Karma” ring a bell?

“Green” parties are a major force in Scandinavian politics, and the Fisker Karma — designed in Denmark and built in Finland — was one result of such environmentalist enthusiasms. Unfortunately, the company burned through more than a billion dollars, built fewer than 2,500 cars, losing $35,000 on each one it built, and did so with the help of a huge loan from Obama’s Department of Energy:

In September 2009, Fisker won a $529 million loan from the Energy Department to develop the Karma and build a second model in the United States. The financing came as part of a broader Obama administration effort to shore up employment in the recession-ravaged auto industry and improve the fuel efficiency of the U.S. auto fleet by extending government loans to so-called green-energy initiatives.
A month later, Fisker agreed to buy an idle General Motors factory in Delaware for about $20 million. The government loan approval was a welcome relief for Fisker, which was hurting for cash by late that summer and eager to raise more money from investors, according to an email from [Fisker executive Barney] Koehler.
“We are oversubscribed in this equity round with the Energy Department support — and nowhere without it,” Koehler said in an August 2009 email to Energy Department officials.
The announcement triggered a flood of investor interest in Fisker. The company raised some $600 million before it ever sold a car.

Tundra Tabloids has provided extensive coverage of Bruce Oreck’s ambassadorship to Finland for the past four years, and has suggested that Oreck is exploiting his post to develop business contacts with Finland’s “green technology” sector.

So last Christmas, Oreck — who is, among other things, an amateur bodybuilder — sparked controversy by sending out a Christmas card in which he displayed his muscular left bicep. And this year, Oreck decided to mock his critics by sending a card with a photo of himself posing with four naked men in a Finnish sauna. Eric Dondero at Libertarian Republican says this is all over the news in Finland:

Alyssa Newcomb of ABC News says this is “hilarious.”

Perhaps you disagree. She’s @AlyssaNewcomb on Twitter.

 

IRS Leaker ID’d; Confidential Information Given to 2007 Harvard Graduate UPDATE: Gay ‘Diversity’ Program

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Eliana Johnson of National Review reports that congressional investigators have identified the Internal Revenue Service employee who leaked confidential information about donors to the National Organization for Marriage. Federal rules forbid the leaker’s name being made public, but we know to whom the information was leaked:

[A]n IRS agent working in the Exempt Organizations Division — the same division that, until May, was under the direction of Lois Lerner, who retired under duress last month — leaked NOM’s Schedule B to Matthew Meisel, a former employee of Bain & Company, the management consultancy where former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney worked in the 1970s and 1980s and where he served as interim CEO in the early 1990s. Between his stints there, Romney founded the private-equity firm Bain Capital in 1984. After he obtained NOM’s donor list from the IRS employee, the committee says, Meisel then turned it over to the Human Rights Campaign. Neither Meisel nor the Human Rights Campaign returned calls seeking comment. . . .
The emergence of Meisel, a 2007 graduate of Harvard University, and his connection to Romney’s firm may shed light on the motivation behind the leak, which was used to hammer Romney for supporting California’s Proposition 8.
[NOM chairman John Eastman] wants the Department of Justice to prosecute both the unnamed IRS leaker and Meisel, the recipient of the leaked documents. “This should be a relatively simple matter,” he says.

It also should be “a relatively simple matter” for a congressional committee to subpoena Meisel and officials of the Human Rights Campaign to testify at a hearing, and to subpoena Lerner for her testimony as well. Let them all plead the Fifth, if they want, but hold the hearing and let the American public see what has happened here.

UPDATE: How did this happen? In a word, “diversity.” From a December 2008 article in the Harvard Crimson:

On a Monday night in September, about two dozen Harvard students gathered at the Harvard Square hot spot Red Line, to be wined and dined by recruiters from the consulting firms Bain and Co. and the Bridgespan Group. . . .
This event hosted by Bain and Bridgespan was just one in a series of efforts from a variety of firms across the country to target LGBT students interested in a future in finance. . . .
“Questions run the gamut, everything from what are your hours like to can I bring my boyfriend out with colleagues? About significant others and everything in between,” says Matthew S. Meisel ’07, an associate consultant from Bain and Co. . . .
About Bain and Co.’s larger diversity goals, Meisel says, “Bain is really looking for a diverse set of people and diversity means a lot of things of course, but as our clients change and as our clients’ needs change, one of the important things is that our team members come from diverse backgrounds.”

Score another win for Cultural Marxism.

UPDATE II: More on gay “diversity” from the Yale Herald, Nov. 5, 2010:

Matthew Meisel, a senior associate consultant at Bain who graduated from Harvard in 2007 and is a member of BGLAD [Bain Gay and Lesbian Association for Diversity], highlighted diversity in the workplace as an asset to the collaborative nature of consulting.
“If you get six identical people in a room together and ask them to solve a really difficult problem, you’re not going to get a very good answer,” he said. “But if you have people from diverse academic and personal backgrounds, you get more creative answers.” . . .
[C]andidates who want more information about specific companies should look to metrics such as the Corporate Equality Index published annually by the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBT civil rights organization in the U.S. According to Matthew Meisel, Bain was the first major consulting firm to receive a perfect score of 100 and has received that score for five years running.

So, it seems, Matthew Meisel was a sort of poster boy/P.R. spokesman for this corporate “diversity” program at Bain.

 

Police State: Feds Raid Investigative Reporter @AudreyHudson, Seize Notes

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As soon as I saw the headline, I called Audrey, whom I worked with for years at The Washington Times. Audrey said she was “terrified” when she learned that police who raided her home in August — believe it or not, they had a search warrant for a potato launcher her husband had bought online — had taken notes containing information about sources for some of her reporting on TSA scandals.

By the way, you can blame Audrey for my career as a blogger. The day in January 2008 it was announced that the Times had hired a new executive editor from our hated rival — passing over veteran newspaperman Fran Coombs as replacement for retiring Wes Pruden — Audrey and I went outside for a smoke break. “If I had wanted to work for a Postie, I’d have applied at the f–king Post,” she said, and I resolved at that very moment to resign, which I did the next day.

While I hesitate to suggest a political motive for the raid on Audrey’s house, Alex Pappas’ report at the Daily Caller raises suspicions:

A veteran Washington D.C. investigative journalist says the Department of Homeland Security confiscated a stack of her confidential files during a raid of her home in August — leading her to fear that a number of her sources inside the federal government have now been exposed.
In an interview with The Daily Caller, journalist Audrey Hudson revealed that the Department of Homeland Security and Maryland State Police were involved in a predawn raid of her Shady Side, Md. home on Aug. 6. . . .
At about 4:30 a.m. on Aug. 6, Hudson said officers dressed in full body armor presented a search warrant to enter the home she shares on the bay with her husband. She estimates that at least seven officers took part in the raid.
After the search began, Hudson said she was asked by an investigator with the Coast Guard Investigative Service if she was the same Audrey Hudson who had written a series of critical stories about air marshals for The Washington Times over the last decade. The Coast Guard operates under the Department of Homeland Security. . . .

Read the whole thing by Alex Pappas. Discussing the story with me, Audrey praised Alex’s reporting — high praise, indeed.

UPDATE: Now a Memeorandum thread, with more commentary by Bryan Preston at PJ Tatler and Rick Moran at the American Thinker.

 

Lee Stranahan: The Pigford II Settlement Is ‘The Atlas Shrugged Of Fraud’

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by Smitty

I don’t know if I’d go comparing Atlas Shrugged to Pigford, myself. Rand was far more restrained and delicate when it came to the sex scenes, in contrast to the ~50 trillion shades of green Obama has whipped up these last years.

More at Lee Stranahan’s site:
You just claim to farm, fill out some forms, and pocket some loot. Recalls the old Steven Wright gag:

I’ve been doing a lot of abstract painting lately, extremely abstract. No brush, no paint, no canvas, I just think about it.

Only this joke isn’t funny. What will be interesting, going into the election next year, is how many donations are tied to addresses in the settlement list. We should fall short of wondering if the Democrats are using bogus settlements to fund parties. Of a political sort. The presence of questionable settlements and political parties are just dots. Far be it from me to connect them. That would best be done through investigative means.

‘Cracker!’ Says Mendacious Swindler Charlie Rangel, Who Should Be in Prison

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Behold, the antonym of honesty speaks!

In an interview with the Daily Beast published Friday, Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) suggested Tea Partiers are the “same group” who fought for segregation during the Civil Rights movement. “It is the same group we faced in the South with those white crackers and the dogs and the police. They didn’t care about how they looked,” Rangel said.

Every time Charlie Rangel opens his mouth, remember that the only time his name ever appeared in the same sentence with the word “ethics” was when he was censured by the House Ethics Committee:

Rangel was found guilty by the ethics panel of 11 counts of violating ethics rules, including charges that he improperly solicited millions of dollars from corporate officials and lobbyists for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at City College of New York, failed to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars of income and assets on financial disclosure forms, maintained a rent-stabilized apartment as a campaign office in a Harlem apartment building and failed to pay income taxes on a villa in the Dominican Republic.

If he weren’t in Congress, he would be in federal prison, which is basically true of every Democrat, but Charlie Rangel is so crooked, even Democrats can’t deny it (and they lie about everything).

You could call him a “thief,” but that would be an insult to thieves.

 


Satanic Media Ties McDonnell Millstone Around Ken Cuccinelli’s Republican Neck

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Entirely predictable news:

As Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell faces an ever-growing investigation into gifts he accepted in office, the Republican who hopes to replace him this fall, state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, is doing what he can to keep his distance.
“What we’ve all been seeing has been very painful for Virginia, and it’s been completely inconsistent with Virginia’s very reserved traditions,” said Cuccinelli of the scandal engrossing his fellow Republican in an email to TIME. “Right now there are two investigations running, one of which began with my referral, and we need to let those play out; however, all of this emphasizes the need for clearer and faster disclosures that cover the whole family, as well as a cap on the size and types of gifts.”
Terry McAuliffe, Cuccinelli’s Democratic opponent, has been trying to find ways to make the McDonnell mess stick to Cuccinelli, asking him to endorse an outright ban of any gift over $100 to all Virginia elected officials and their immediate family. “Cuccinelli’s repeated refusal to support a gift ban reflects a tenure that has embarrassed Virginia and hurt the reputation of the Office of the Attorney General,” says the press secretary for McAuliffe, Josh Schwerin. “There are ongoing investigations that will provide concrete facts and evidence so that Virginians know exactly what happened.”

The headline at Politico:

Bob McDonnell’s stunning fall from grace 

Some commenters have chastised me as an MSM-believing RINO sellout for saying that the Corrupt Governor is doomed and should resign. But this is not a matter of opinion.

This ain’t my first time at the rodeo, buckaroos.

Two months after I arrived in Washington as an assistant national editor, the Lewinsky scandal broke, and I subsequently co-wrote the book on Democrat Party corruption, so there’s a bit of experience and authority talking when I tell you how this scandal is going to play out.

If Bob McDonnell had resigned Monday, there was about a 50-50 chance Cuccinelli could somehow change the subject between now and November and pull out a narrow win over McAuliffe. Every day that McDonnell remains in office, those odds diminish.

This is fact, not opinion.

My opinion and your opinion are equally irrelevant as to the real consequences of what the media are calling the “GiftGate” scandal.

You can say, “Well, the media are biased, this is unfair, ‘reasonable doubt,’ ‘presumption of innocence,’ Democrat hypocrisy” or whatever. Yadda, yadda, yadda — it just doesn’t matter.

Try to focus your attention on the cold, cynical calculus of this political situation. Because based on years of direct observation and experience, I can tell you what is actually happening — or will soon happen — behind the scenes of this story.

People are doing polls. Private polls. Polls commissioned by the Republican Governors Association, the Virginia GOP and the Cuccinelli gubernatorial campaign. And on the basis of those private surveys, they’re trying to figure out what impact this mess is likely to have on the November election. With 99.44% accuracy, I can predict the results: Things don’t look too good for Ken right now.

OK, so now the consultants, the “message” team and the other heavyweights involved in this campaign — including RGA people — have to figure out, “How do we fix this ugly mess?” Simple answer:

Corrupt Governor Resigns in Disgrace;
Cuccinelli Calls for New Reforms
GOP candidate vows to ‘clean up this mess’

That might work, or it might not. Like I say, if McDonnell had resigned Monday, it was just 50-50 Cuccinelli could squeak through.

Just briefly to explain the electoral reality: The key for GOP victory in Virginia is a strong turnout in the Shenandoah Valley and the rural Southside (below Richmond), which means a lot of blue-collar voters and Christian conservatives. If you think people like that don’t have a problem with the governor’s wife getting a Manhattan shopping spree (including a $10,000 Oscar de la Renta leather jacket), you obviously don’t know a damned thing about practical politics.

Never mind the other relevant fact that everybody already knows: Democrat Terry McAuliffe is a venal dishonest swine.

It’s not like any Christian would ever vote for McAuliffe, whose endorsement by Satan remains unofficial only because Satan doesn’t do official endorsements. The real problem is that a scandal-plagued Corrupt Republican is poison for grassroots Christian conservative voter enthusiasm, and the Satanic Media Establishment is going to make sure that this story stays at the top of Page One until Election Day.

Some things are beyond changing, so you change what you can. McDonnell’s resignation is the only card the GOP can play now if they want to change the narrative of this story, which otherwise ends with the headline: SATAN WINS; McAULIFFE ELECTED.

What we can therefore expect — mark my words — is a lot of news stories quoting anonymous “senior officials” and “sources close to the Cuccinelli campaign” more or less saying it’s about time for McDonnell to deliver his “Spend More Time With My Family” speech.

Good-bye, Bob. Nice knowin’ ya.

That’s how this story will end. Fact, not opinion.

One other thing to think about: Suppose that you are the Obama-appointed U.S. Attorney charged with investigating McDonnell. Your boss is Eric Holder. Maybe you’d like a nicer job — say, an appointment as a judge on the Court of Appeals — and so you want to make the boss happy. Also, you’re a Democrat, and a real Team Player, or otherwise you never would have gotten this U.S. Attorney gig.

If you are this U.S. Attorney, have you already started presenting this case to a federal grand jury? If not, how soon do you present it, in order to announce an indictment in mid- to late October?

Good-bye, Bob. Nice knowin’ ya. Enjoy your $6,500 watch.

UPDATE: A liberal Richmond-based blog Wednesday:

This story first broke on Saturday, July 6, 2013 when Republican blogger Willie Deutsch told his shocked readers that Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell was negotiating a resignation. It being the weekend, I was unable to confirm this story immediately. I now have multiple sources from within Richmond’s legal community confirming that an investigation of the connections between Bob McDonnell, Maureen McDonnell, Star Scientific,Inc., and Star Scientific’s CEO Jonnie Williams has turned up sufficient evidence to present a case to a federal grand jury this week. The McDonnells have apparently seen the writing on the wall and are now trying to avoid a felony conviction in exchange for a quick and clean exit from Virginia’s Governor’s Mansion.

Which may be true or not, I don’t know. There is talk that McDonnell’s Republican lawyers have more or less threatened to blackball any bloggers on the Right who reported the resignation rumors, and I don’t know if Willie Deutsch’s sources were right, nor can I vouch for this liberal blogger claiming to have confirmed Deutsch’s report. But if Brett Kimberlin can’t scare me off a story, you can bet good money I ain’t afraid of anybody’s Republican lawyers.

Please sue me, you swindling pettifoggers.

UPDATE II: Pity the Governor of Virginia, fourth highest-paid governor in the nation, forced to make ends meet on $175,000 a year.

Wait, what’s that sound? Yes, I’m pretty sure it’s “My Heart Bleeds for You” being played on The World’s Smallest Violin.

 

Corrupt Virginia Republican Governor’s Son Allegedly a Foul-Mouthed Drunk

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When last we heard from corrupt Gov. Bob McDonnell, his spokesman denied reports of a plea deal in which the Republican would resign.

Now, the disgraced governor’s 21-year-old son reportedly has been arrested for public drunkenness. “This is a personal matter and is being addressed by the family,” said Tucker Martin, communications director for the scandal-stained GOP politician.

Neutral Objective Journalism™ . . .

UPDATE: The stench in Richmond grows ever worse.