Category: Corruption

Spokesman Denies Report That Virginia’s Corrupt Republican Governor Will Resign

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Some headline, huh? The problem is that if Gov. Bob McDonnell is corrupt, he obviously wouldn’t employ an honest spokesman.

So if Willie Deutsch says there’s a plea deal being worked out that would require McDonnell’s resignation, then of course his two-faced weasel of a “communications director” would lie about it.

That’s your job, when you’re working as “communications director” for a corrupt governor: You lie for a living. You are a professional liar, or otherwise you’d find honest work somewhere.

In case you haven’t been paying attention, this involves the governor’s $6,500 Rolex watch and also a Manhattan shopping spree for Mrs. McDonnell — a $10,000 Oscar de la Renta leather jacket, designer shoes, a Louis Vuitton handbag and so forth.

“State and federal investigations,” yadda yadda.

Is the corrupt governor going to resign? I don’t know, but we can’t believe a word from anyone who would work as “communications director” for someone who has disgraced his office like that.

UPDATE: Things look very bad for the corrupt governor:

Gov. Bob McDonnell, already under fire for reported ethics violations, apparently took a flight to the Final Four basketball tournament in April 2011 that was sponsored by one of his political donors, according to the Virginia-Pilot.
The newspaper reports that “people familiar with the trip” now say Jonnie Williams Sr., who heads the health supplement company Star Scientific Inc., covered McDonnell’s travel.
The FBI has been investigating McDonnell’s relationship with Williams for gifts he provided to the governor, including catering for his daughter’s wedding. . . .
As for the Final Four allegations, McDonnell’s spokesman, Tucker Martin, pointed out to the Virginia-Pilot that the trip was logged by the governor’s political action committee, Opportunity Virginia. Around the same time, Star Scientific also made a contribution of $22,371 to the PAC on April 7.

The more you look at this, the more you realize the question is not whether the corrupt governor is going to resign, but how soon.

Maybe after the FBI perp-walks him out of the Governor’s Mansion?

UPDATE II: David Brooks, November 2009:

“[Sarah Palin is] a joke. I mean, I just can’t take her seriously. … We’ve just a had guy elected Virginia governor who’s probably the model for the future of the Republican Party, Bob McDonnell, pretty serious guy, pragmatic, calm, kind of boring.”

Yeah, “the model of the future of the Republican Party” is corruption, probably resigning in disgrace, maybe going to federal prison.

It’s so . . . pragmatic.

 

Crony Journalism at Think Progress?

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Aleister at American Glob publishes “An Illustrated Guide To The Dishonesty Of Think Progress” with a link to an intriguing article at The Nation (of all places) which describes “a secret group of corporate donors” that would appear to function as a nexus between (a) businesses reliant on funding from the federal government’s “green energy” programs, and (b) the Center for the American Progress, which does not disclose the conflicts of interest behind its advocacy on behalf of “green energy.”

I used to know a guy who focused on the Center for American Progress as a key element of what he called “the institutional Left.”

Damn, I miss that guy.

 

Recusing Myself On Recent Events, Let Me Bring Up A Point About Tiananmen Square

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by Smitty

Actual courage in the face of evil.
Actual courage in the face of evil.

In the first place, the United States government is not a line of Type 59 tanks. In the second place, recent headline twerps are not Tank Man, staring down the barrel of tyranny.

The question to ask is: what constitutes heroism? It strikes me that, if in a situation where the government is doing something way out of line, e.g. interning citizens of Japanese extraction, one should have the courage both to

  • Raise the issue, and
  • Stand and deliver on the raising

That is, if you are certain enough that whistle blower mode is called for, you underscore your point by triumphantly treading titanium testicle territory, like Tank Man.

When you go all Brave Sir Robin, you seriously undercut your argument, and raise questions about motives.

Keep this in mind, patriots: irrespective of your contempt for the results of any election, try to hold true to the ideals the country was founded upon, and faith in the system to Do The Proper Thing.

That is, look past the IRS, DOJ, Pigford, and the rest of the laundry list of scandals. If there is any good to come of this wretched 100 year anniversary of Woodrow Wilson’s inaugural, it will be

  • a gut check,
  • a rejection of statism, and
  • a return to the individual and not the regime as the main point of emphasis.

Keep your powder dry, and let’s stick it to the incumbents at the election next year, Americans.

This Is What #OccupyResoluteDesk Meant By ‘Fundamentally Transforming The USA’

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by Smitty

Insty points to Steyn, a must-read:

So we know the IRS is corrupt. What happens then when an ambitious government understands it can yoke that corruption to its political needs? What’s striking as the revelations multiply and metastasize is that at no point does any IRS official appear to have raised objections. If any of them understood that what they were doing was wrong, they kept it to themselves. When Nixon tried to sic the IRS on a few powerful political enemies, the IRS told him to take a hike. When Obama’s courtiers tried to sic the IRS on thousands of ordinary American citizens, the agency went along, and very enthusiastically. This is a scale of depravity hitherto unknown to the tax authorities of the United States, and for that reason alone they should be disarmed and disbanded — and rebuilt from scratch with far more circumscribed powers.
Here’s another congressional-subcommittee transcript highlight of the week. Senator Mark Kirk of Illinois asks the attorney general if he’s spying on members of Congress and thereby giving the executive branch leverage over the legislative branch. Eric Holder answers:
“With all due respect, senator, I don’t think this is an appropriate setting for me to discuss that issue.”

If you read End the Fed, “Zimbabwe” Ben Bernanke hoisted a similar digit to Ron Paul, asking after the Federal Reserve’s skullduggery.

This level of debt and corruption is the climax of 100 years of Progress.

It’s time for the GOP to either (a) morph into a full-throated reform party, or (b) just admit that all it craves is a swap on the nameplates there in the halls of corruption. Can the GOP stand and deliver? I’ve always argued that it’s better to work within the existing structure, as the start-up costs of a new party are really, really high. The longer the GOP appears feckless, the weaker that argument gets.

Reform!

Portrait of a Thug: IRS Union Boss

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Colleen M. Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union

By now, you’ve probably seen the news:

Report: Head of IRS Employees Union Met
With President Obama the Day Before
Tea Party Targeting Began

Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union which represents employees of the Internal Revenue Service, met at the White House with President Obama the day before two IRS officials created the “Sensitive Case Report” that targeted Tea Party groups for special scrutiny on their applications for non-profit status.
White House visitors logs show that Kelley visited the White House on March 31, 2010, to meet with Obama, a day before an Inspector General’s report shows that the “Sensitive Case Report” was created, Jeffrey Lord of The American Spectator reported . . .

And you might be surprised (but probably not) to learn that Colleen M. Kelley has never worked a day in the private sector:

[A]n NTEU member since 1974, Kelley was an IRS Revenue Agent for 14 years and served in various NTEU chapter leadership positions, including chapter president of NTEU Chapter 34 in Pittsburgh. She was elected National President in August 1999 and was overwhelmingly re-elected to a fourth four-year term in 2011.
Kelley first joined the IRS upon graduation from Drexel University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting. She also earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Pittsburgh.

You might also be surprised (but probably not) that Colleen M. Kelley and her union enthusiastically support Obama:

The leader of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) today applauded the re-election of President Barack Obama.
“NTEU supported the re-election of President Obama as being in the best interests of our country and of the dedicated men and women of the federal workforce,” said NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley. “NTEU is also pleased that so many of our candidates for Senate seats and our staunchest supporters in the House won their races.”
NTEU’s efforts on behalf of President Obama and key candidates spanned the country. “Our 2012 election plan has been in place since the beginning of the year,” said President Kelley. “Many chapters and members were actively involved educating and organizing various types of activities around the country including candidate nights and volunteering for campaigns.”
NTEU’s efforts focused on battleground states where races for the presidency, Senate and House seats were competitive and where the union has substantial numbers of NTEU members including Virginia, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana.
In the days before the election, NTEU members volunteered for phone-banking and canvassing, with a particular focus on contacting other NTEU members and urging them to vote for candidates who support federal employees and federal employee issues.
“Federal employees heard our message loud and clear that everything about the lives of the federal workforce is determined by those elected to office,” said Kelley.

So, now you know who Colleen M. Kelley loves. You may be surprised (but probably not) to learn what happens to people she hates:

Catholic Professor: IRS Asked
About Her Anti-Obama Articles

IRS Requested Details of Christian
Pro-Life Organization’s Prayer Meetings

Leaked IRS Files Were Used to Attack Romney

IRS Scandal: Billy Graham Group Targeted
Last Year; Franklin Graham Charges
Intimidation in Letter to Obama

IRS Inspector General’s Report Released:
‘Inappropriate Criteria’ Used Against Conservative
Groups; Nearly 300 Were Targeted

Reporter Who Interviewed
President Obama: IRS ‘Hammering Me’

South Carolina Tea Party Mom
Describes IRS ‘Harassment’

Marriage Group Accuses IRS of Leaking
Information to ‘Political Enemies,’
Demands Explanation from Agency

 

These things are just coincidences, I’m sure. (But probably not.)

 


New York’s ‘Show-Me-the-Money Culture’ Produces Bizarre Bribery Scandal

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Reporting it at ViralRead:

A New York state senator and a city councilman from Queens were arrested today in what federal officials say was an illegal scheme to rig this year’s election for mayor of New York City.
The FBI arrested both state Sen. Malcolm Smith and city Councilman Dan Halloran for their roles in an a alleged bribery scheme to get Smith, a top Democrat, placed on the mayoral ballot as a Republican.

The money quote, so to speak, is from U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara:

“Today’s charges demonstrate, once again, that a show-me-the-money culture seems to pervade every level of New York government. The complaint describes an unappetizing smorgasbord of graft and greed involving six officials who together built a corridor of corruption stretching from Queens and the Bronx to Rockland County and all the way up to Albany itself.”

More at Memeorandum.

Detroit: What Democrats Do

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If you want to see the long-term effect of Democrat policies, there is no better example than the sad fate of the Motor City:

DETROIT — This city was already sinking under hundreds of millions of dollars in bills that it could not pay when a municipal auditor brought in a veteran financial consultant to dig through the books. A seasoned turnaround man and former actuary with Ford Motor Co., he was stunned by what he found: an additional $7.2 billion in retiree health costs that had never been reported, or even tallied up.
“The city must take some drastic steps,” the consultant, John Boyle, warned the City Council in delivering his report at a public meeting in 2005. Among the options he suggested was filing for bankruptcy.
“I thought all hell would break loose — I thought the flag would finally be raised,” Mr. Boyle recalled in an interview last week. But his warning drew little notice. “It was utterly astounding,” he said.

The Democrats who have run Detroit into the ground don’t care about anything but how much more money they can loot from the city:

Some factors were out of the city’s control. As auto industry jobs moved elsewhere over the decades, for example, Detroit lost much of its affluent tax base. Lower than expected state revenue sharing did not help, nor did corruption allegations in the administration of Kwame M. Kilpatrick, a mayor who resigned in 2008 and was convicted on Monday of racketeering and other federal charges.
But recent findings from a state-appointed review team and interviews with past and present city officials also suggest a city that over the years was remarkably badly run.

What? Democrats don’t know how to run an effective government? Shades of Jimmy Carter! I never suspected such a thing!

 

‘Professional Escort’ Tells Daily Caller Menendez Was One of Her Clients

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It is, necessarily, a one-source story:

A professional escort who travels the East Coast seeing clients in cities from Miami to Boston has identified a photo of Senator Bob Menendez as a man who paid her for sex. The woman, in her late 30s, told The Daily Caller prior to seeing Menendez’s photo that she had been paid to provide sexual favors to several U.S. senators, including a New Jersey Democrat and other politicians who are no longer living.
The escort, who earns money having sex with men in upscale hotel rooms, said during an in-person interview that many of her wealthy and powerful customers use pseudonyms when arranging for her services, and when meeting her in person. . . .
The woman granted multiple interviews to The Daily Caller after reading TheDC’s reporting on the fast-evolving Menendez saga.

You can read the rest. I would be cautious about a source like this, who contacts reporters after reading coverage of a scandal. Not to say that I doubt Senator Menendez patronizes prostitutes, just saying that without some corroborating evidence — a credit card receipt, a hotel bill, etc. — I’d be cautious about the source. Perhaps the Daily Caller has such corroboration and is witholding it.

The question of whether Menendez was in the habit of patronizing prostitutes is, of course, relevant to his relationship with Florida businessman Salomon Melgen and their alleged sex parties in the Dominican Republic, where prostitution is legal, but where at least one Dominican prostitute told reporter Matthew Boyle that she had sex with Menendez when she was 15, which is illegal even there.

If Menendez is indeed a corrupt scoundrel — and sources familiar with the story assure me that the New Jersey Democrat is, well, a New Jersey Democrat — then he’s now resorted to a sort of defamation to defend himself against the truth:

Sen. Robert Menendez, bedeviled in recent weeks by questions over his conduct, told hundreds gathered for a Black History Month celebration today that he found strength in the words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“Dr. King said that ‘the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,’” Mendez said, prompting calls of “alright” from some in the audience at the Shiloh Baptist Church in Trenton. “In the end, I believe that justice will overcome the forces of darkness. Scriptures — scriptures tell us that he who ‘puts his hand to the plough and looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.’
“I have my hand on the plough,” he said, “and I am going to continue to look forward and to work to make that plough lead us to the fulfillment of educational, economic and health care opportunity in this country.”
After slipping away from Washington for a week to meet with the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan, Menendez returned to New Jersey to find himself down sharply in the polls.
But he did not hide from his troubles. Rather, the New Jersey Democrat addressed the accusations of impropriety as he lashed out: “Now we face anonymous, faceless, nameless individuals from right-wing sources seeking to destroy a lifetime of work. And their scares are false. I have worked too hard and too long in the vineyards to allow, at my hands, for the harvest to be soured.”

If he’s guilty, that sermon will come back to haunt him.

UPDATE: Matthew Boyle stays on the story:

A local citizen who lives near Teterboro airport in northern New Jersey said he saw Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez and his friend Democratic Party mega-donor Dr. Salomon Melgen brunching together on Easter Sunday in 2012.
The citizen, who is active in local politics and a regular patron of the restaurant, told Breitbart News he saw Menendez and Melgen dining together at Arena Diner between shortly before noon and 12:15 p.m. on Easter Sunday last year, April 8, 2012. That is the timeframe in which Melgen’s plane refueled at Teterboro before flying directly to the Dominican Republic.

The question of Menendez’s whereabouts on Easter weekend arose because travel records showed Dr. Melgen’s plane flying to New Jersey that weekend before flying to the Dominican Republic, while Menendez — who has admitted other trips aboard Dr. Melgen’s plan — has denied making this specific trip. It seems rather odd that Dr. Melgen would have flown all the way to New Jersey merely to have brunch with the senator. Why?

Follow Matthew Boyle’s continuing coverage at Breitbart.com.

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