Draining the Swamp

[Shapley]

Well, indict and convict. Look at "Dollar Bill" Jefferson. He was indicted over a year ago and he's still going strong.

Well, he's still out of jail, but he is also out of Congress, having lost his seat to Republican Joseph Cao in the December 6th election.

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

They will have to indict him or something.

Well, indict and convict. Look at "Dollar Bill" Jefferson. He was indicted over a year ago and he's still going strong.

Indict, with or without conviction, it's still chancy. Let's go for the "or something". I'm still thinking hunting licenses and a bag limit of maybe two lawyers or one politician per hunting season...

[Haggis@wk]

I'm still thinking hunting licenses and a bag limit of maybe two lawyers or one politician per hunting season...

I would agree but you'd have to have some tough rules. Something like you couldn't "bait" a politician's home with a five dollar bill on the front lawn. After all you have to keep it fair!!

[Haggis@wk]

Remember when they promised “the most ethical congress ever”?

House Kills Effort to Investigate Lobbyist-Lawmaker Ties.

“The House voted Wednesday to kill a resolution calling for an ethics investigation into potential quid pro quo between lobbyist campaign donations and lawmakers. . . . The firm, which has contributed millions to politicians in the last decade, has close ties to senior Democratic appropriators including Reps. John Murtha D-Pa., and Pete Visclosky,D-Ind. The FBI raided PMA’s headquarters in November and is investigating the group’s founder and president, Paul Magliochetti, a former Murtha aide.”

[Shapley]

Stimulus Watch - Stimulus Projects By State

Find out where the dollars are going. (Hint, in Illinois, they aren't being spent South of Interstate 70...)

[Haggis@wk]

Civil Disobedience

I intend to start practicing civil disobedience. In the case of Treasury Secretary Geithner, I am going to have a rubber stamp made that says "Tax Cheat!" in block letters. Every time I see a piece of paper currency with Geithner's signature on it, I am going to stamp over his name with my Tax Cheat stamp. Sure, this action is just as futile as my vote, but eventually maybe others will reach the same conclusion that I have: it is far past time to make our voices heard.

Actually, that’s an interesting idea. I’m going to have to think about that a little more.

The guy who I linked above posted that "Today I received a letter from the IRS that my 2007 tax returns are being audited. Less than one month after launching TaxCheatStamps.com.”

Coincidence? Maybe, but still......

[dai bread]

I wonder if Graham Holland, (ex NZ IRD) is now employed by the U.S. IRS. He tried that trick with me in 1990, when I wrote to his Minister criticising him. The rather embarrassed auditor made it perfectly plain that the alleged company payroll audit was in fact personal.

[Haggis@wk]

If Barack Obama thought the nomination nightmare would end soon, an FBI raid today extended and deepened the REM cycle. Obama announced the appointment of Vivek Kundra as the Chief Information Officer of the Obama White House last week, but today Kundra has search warrants rather than Google searches on his mind:

Federal agents this morning are searching the Judiciary Square office of Washington, D.C.’s Chief Technology Officer.

The search is part of “an ongoing investigation,” said a spokeswoman for the FBI’s D.C. Field Office, Lindsay Gotwin, said. She declined to comment further.
The outgoing Chief Technology Officer, Vivek Kundra, was appointed last week Chief Information Officer by the Obama administration.

Obama has nominated a number of people with tax problems and conflicts of interest that floated to the surface after their appointments were publicly announced. He has lost three Cabinet appointments, two to tax problems, and his Chief Performance Officer, Nancy Killefer, over her tax issues. The raid on the DC CTO’s office will confirm again the impression that Team Obama has a real problem in vetting potential appointments.

So far, nothing is known of the investigation or the potential charges. More will undoubtedly be forthcoming, and none of it will reflect well on the White House. Didn’t they bother to check with their own Department of Justice in vetting Kundra?

Update: The Washington Post reports that the FBI conducted a bribery sting and arrested one of Kundar’s aides:

An official in the D.C. government’s office of the chief technology officer has been arrested in a federal bribery sting, according to law enforcement sources. The FBI has raided the technology office this morning and agents are continuing to search for evidence, sources said.

Yusuf Acar, 40, was taken into custody this morning by FBI agents at his home in Northwest Washington, the sources said. The nature of the charges could not be determined. Channing Phillips, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, declined to comment on the arrest, saying the case “is under seal.”

Federal authorities this morning arrested a second person, Sushil Bansal, 41, of Fairfax County, in the sting operation this morning. According to his company’s website, Bansal used to work in the D.C. government and later founded Advanced Integrated Technologies Corporation, an information technology consulting firm based in the District. That company has several contracts with D.C. government agencies, including the technology office and the Department of Motor Vehicles. Last August, he was awarded the Association of Indians in America’s Entrepenuer of the Year Award.

How far up the ladder would this corruption go? I imagine the Senate will be wondering the same thing, or at least some members of it.

I give Kundar until Friday to withdraw. Bets?

[Shapley]

Rep. Maxine Waters Steered TARP Funds To Bank With Ties To Family

The bank did not meet the criteria for receiving funds, but managed to get $12 million anyway. They had asked for $50 million.

[Shapley]

Rep. Maxine Waters Steered TARP Funds To Bank With Ties To Family

The bank did not meet the criteria for receiving funds, but managed to get $12 million anyway. They had asked for $50 million.

The aid surprised some bank analysts because the bailout was intended for healthy banks, and OneUnited was then considered to be in precarious condition. In addition, it had been harshly criticized by regulators in 2007 for failing to give a sufficient number of loans to lower income residents in Miami, while favoring wealthier customers there. And the F.D.I.C. sanctioned the institution in October 2008 for “unsafe or unsound banking practices,” including excessive compensation for Mr. Cohee. The bank had provided him with a 2008 Porsche SUV and maintained his $6.4 million beachfront compound in Santa Monica. Calif., with views of the Pacific and a spa and pool.

Critics of OneUnited, which is based in Boston and has branches in poor neighborhoods of Los Angeles and Miami, say the episode shows how special access arranged through a lawmaker with financial ties to the bank had compromised the integrity of the federal bailout effort.

[Haggis@wk]

NEWSWEEK: Follow the bailout cash:

“There was plenty of outrage on Capitol Hill last week over the executive bonuses paid out by AIG after getting federal bailout money. But another money trail could make voters just as angry: the campaign dollars to members of Congress from banks and firms that have received billions via the Troubled Asset Relief Program.”

Wow! I didn't see that one coming!

[Haggis@wk]

L.A. TIMES: So does Democrat Pete Stark represent California or Maryland?

“California’s Rep. Pete Stark, a senior House Democrat who helps write the nation’s tax laws, has been claiming a $1.7 million Maryland home as his principal residence in recent years, although he represents the Golden State’s 13th District on the east side of San Francisco Bay. The 77-year-old Stark has saved himself nearly $3,900 in state and county taxes by claiming the six-acre waterfront estate as his principal residence, according to an investigation by Bloomberg News. Maryland law allows the tax break only to those residences used ‘for the legal purposes of voting, obtaining a driver’s license, and filing income tax returns.’”

Taxes are for the little people! It would be amusing to see someone file suit to have him declared ineligible for his seat. I don’t think it would fly, but still . . . .

[Shapley]

Taxes are for the little people! It would be amusing to see someone file suit to have him declared ineligible for his seat. I don’t think it would fly, but still . . . .

I can't see why it wouldn't fly. Representatives are required to reside in the district they represent. If he is claiming residence in another district, let alone another State, he can be disqualified. If he claimed that residence while running for office, he can be charged with fraud, either in California or in Maryland. He cannot claim 'primary residence' in two places at once.

[Haggis@wk]

Whatever today’s Quote of the Day ends up being, it won’t top this:

No one has tallied the amount Mr. Murtha has steered into his district, which sprawls well beyond the Conemaugh Valley and reaches the West Virginia border. Conservative estimates are in the billions of dollars, most of it lobbied from federal agencies or won through open bidding or, more controversially, steered home directly during his 35-year career…

“If I’m corrupt, it’s because I take care of my district,” Mr. Murtha said. “My job as a member of Congress is to make sure that we take care of what we see is necessary. Not the bureaucrats who are unelected over there in whatever White House, whether it’s Republican or Democrat. Those bureaucrats would like to control everything. Every president would like to have all the power and not have Congress change anything. But we’re closest to the people.”…
He doubts earmarks will ever vanish, because once he leaves the District of Columbia, the cry stops.

“That’s only in Washington,” he said of the complaints. “That’s not out in the field. Out in the field people appreciate what has happened. They see the advantage to being able to help the district.

Sadly, he's mainly correct. He's slandered the Haditha Marines, called his constituents "rednecks" and "racists" and still gets elected. I guess corruption pays.

[Shapley]

I've said before that Democrats elect representatives in the hopes that they will steal more from the other districts collectively than the other districts collectively steal from their own. For this reason, they usually don't get perterburbed if the representative pockets a little for himself in the process. They feign outrage if a Republican does the same, however.

Republicans elect representatives with the intent that they will reduce the collective theft. For that reason, they are more likely to be outraged by corruption on the part of their representative than Democrats are likely to be on their part of theirs.

There are exceptions to the rule, however. There are Democrats who act like Republicans and Republicans who act like Democrats, and occassionally a representative who acts like neither.

[Shapley]

IRS Agent Pleads Guilty To Tax Fraud

[Shapley]

Gov. Sebelius, Obama's Latest HHS Nominee, Has To Cough Up Back Taxes



If ever there was an argument for a simpler tax code...

[Shapley]

Department Of Justice To Drop All Charges Against Ex-Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK)

'Prosecutorial misconduct' is cited as the reason.

[Shapley]

Lawmakers Issued $9.1 million in bonuses to staff in 2008

[Shapley]

House passes new bonus bill to sort of undo bill that was previously passed

The left wing knoweth not what the left wing doeth.