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EducateWorthington.org

The 912 Project - Glenn Beck

912 Group of Central Ohio

Please let me know if you'd like your link added

It is not corruption when a legislator does something that benefits his/her constituents.  It is only doing their job.

The "Nebraska compromise" is still not law so whether it is constitutional or not is irrelevant. However, it is good that the question is raised since the "compromise" can easily be deleted (and that would be good) from the bill that emerges from conference.  So, let us not get all lathered up about this.

What is disquieting is that the wish of substantial majorities can be thwarted by dealings to satisfy single individuals.  Republican intransigence has forced the issue. The Shadow wishes that Democrats had shown the same unified intransigence in the confirmation of Roberts and Alioto.

The Shadow seeks tranquility (hard to achieve)

[We could say [Democrats] spend money like drunken sailors, but that would be unfair to drunken sailors. It would be unfair, because the sailors are spending their own money. --Ronald ReaganAl Gore didn't invent the internet, he invented global warmingThe welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants - CamusThe person who advocates government planning of the economy always assumes that it is his plan that will be put into effect. --Hayek]

Beltway Christmas: Cash for corruptocrats
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2009

The Democrats are right. Sleazy bribes and pork payoffs didn’t start with their government health care takeover bill. They’ve been doling out taxpayer-funded goodies for votes all year. Harry Reid’s latest Cash for Cloture deals are the culmination of Washington’s 2009 shopping spree at our expense.

Go back to January and February. The multi-trillion-dollar stimulus bill was the Mother of All Legislative Christmas Trees. The ruling party used the economic downturn to redistribute wealth from struggling Americans to favored congressional districts, phantom districts, special interests from golf cart makers to fly-by-night beauty salons. According to a new study by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, Democrat districts have raked in nearly twice as much porkulus money as GOP districts – without regard to the actual economic suffering and job loss in those districts.

In fact, the researchers found far more stimulus money went to higher-income areas than lower-income areas.

That includes Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s backyard – where a $54 million no-bid contract was awarded to a firm with little experience to relocate a luxury Bay Area wine train due to flood concerns.

And it includes Barack Obama’s home state of Illinois, which reaped the single biggest earmark in the porkulus bill – $1 billion for the dubious FutureGen near-zero emissions “clean coal” plant earmark championed by disgraced Democrat and former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin.

And it includes Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s backyard – where he secured billions in high-speed rail stimulus earmarks from which he plans to fund a pie-in-the-sky public transportation line from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/12/23/beltway-christmas-cash-for-corruptocrats/

"In fact, the researchers found far more stimulus money went to higher-income areas than lower-income areas"

Fair after all that is where most of the tax money comes from

actually not very smart since most wealthy places vote Republican

The Shadow

[We could say [Democrats] spend money like drunken sailors, but that would be unfair to drunken sailors. It would be unfair, because the sailors are spending their own money. --Ronald ReaganAl Gore didn't invent the internet, he invented global warmingThe welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants - CamusThe person who advocates government planning of the economy always assumes that it is his plan that will be put into effect. --Hayek]

And if you haven't read Malkin's Culture of Corruption, I highly recommend it.  Although it will disgust you, it won't surprise you.

Get it here:

http://astore.amazon.com/columbustownh-20

It all depends who is getting paid off.  If it is your friends, it is at least not to be talked about.  If it is those you don.t like then let us make it a big issue of it.  When legislators bring home the bacon for their constituents it is (even though rather unsavory) their job.  When the payoff is to their friends/patrons/owners (the Senator from Aetna comes to mind) it is downright rotten.

The Shadow knows what evil lurks in the hearts of man 

TB

This is the way to look at the problem of corruption.  Not a partisan issue.

http://www.truthout.org/1223094

The Shadow

When legislators bring home the bacon for their constituents it is (even though rather unsavory) their job. 

Nonsense. Who says that the job of a congressman is to make sure that the district gets more in largess than it pays in taxes. The job of congress is pretty well laid out in the Constitution - we would do better if our current leaders who take a look at that document once in a while.

Marc said

"Nonsense. Who says that the job of a congressman is to make sure that the district gets more in largess than it pays in taxes......."

 

The taxpayers (voters)...   read

  http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/editorials/stories/2009/12/27/Schaefer.ART_ART_12-27-09_H4_3NG353F.html?sid=101

The Shadow knows etc. etc.

[We could say [Democrats] spend money like drunken sailors, but that would be unfair to drunken sailors. It would be unfair, because the sailors are spending their own money. --Ronald ReaganAl Gore didn't invent the internet, he invented global warmingThe welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants - CamusThe person who advocates government planning of the economy always assumes that it is his plan that will be put into effect. --Hayek]

Roman Polanski 'overwhelmed' by messages of support

The film director Roman Polanski said he was overwhelmed by messages of support as he battles extradition to the US to face a decades-old sex case involving a 13-year-old girl.

"In the darkest moments, each of their notes has been a source of comfort and hope, and they continue to be so in my current situation," wrote Polanski in a letter released online.

The 76-year-old Oscar winner made his first public statement since his arrest in September in a letter to the French philospher Bernard-Henri Levy, who has been been one of his strongest supporters.

The director of Rosemary's Baby and The Pianist is living under house arrest at his chalet in the Swiss Alpine resort of Gstaad after being released on bail on Dec 4.

Swiss authorities have said a decision on his extradition to the US is expected in January.

"I have been overwhelmed by the number of messages of support and sympathy I have received in Winterthur prison, and that I continue to receive here, in my chalet in Gstaad, where I am spending the holidays with my wife and my children," Polanski wrote.

"These messages have come from my neighbours, from people all over Switzerland, and from beyond Switzerland - from across the world."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/roman-polanski/6897179/Roman-Polanski-overwhelmed-by-messages-of-support.html

[We could say [Democrats] spend money like drunken sailors, but that would be unfair to drunken sailors. It would be unfair, because the sailors are spending their own money. --Ronald ReaganAl Gore didn't invent the internet, he invented global warmingThe welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants - CamusThe person who advocates government planning of the economy always assumes that it is his plan that will be put into effect. --Hayek]

S.C. AG: Nelson deal 'corruption'

By ANDY BARR

South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster said Monday that the deal Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) struck with Senate leadership in exchange for his vote on health care reform “represents corruption.”

McMaster is one of 10 Republican state attorneys general who are questioning the constitutionality of the Medicaid deal which would exempt Nebraska from paying its share of the program’s expansion in the state — an estimated $100 million cost over the next 10 years.

“We think that represents corruption,” McMaster said during an interview on Fox News. “We’re concerned about it. It will cost 49 states money to have to pay Nebraska’s share. We think that is unconstitutional.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/31013.html

If it is corruption it is "demanded" by constituents.  Constituents are complicit.

 http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/editorials/stories/2009/12/29/McGlone__ART_12-29-09_A10_1AG4PUM.html?sid=101

Sen. Brown needs more pork in his diet
Tuesday,  December 29, 2009 3:05 AM

Our own Sen. Sherrod Brown is not doing his job very well. If only he had held out a little longer. Oh, the wasted opportunity ("How the sausage was made," Dispatch article, Dec. 22).

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., got $100 million for a university hospital, while Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., pushed a proposal that will exempt Florida residents from losing their Medicare Advantage.

Sen. Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., secured $300 million in Medicaid subsidies for her state, and Democratic Sens. John Kerry and Paul Kirk of Massachusetts got $500 million in Medicaid reimbursements for theirs.

Democratic Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan won exemptions from an excise tax for nonprofit Michigan insurance companies. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., got Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to agree to a $10 billion increase in support for community health centers nationwide.

Senators from Montana, North and South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming will receive higher Medicare payments to "frontier" doctors and hospitals.

And Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., procured an exemption of $100 million over 10 years in Medicaid payments, plus millions of dollars in breaks on fees and taxes for insurers, such as Blue Cross Blue Shield and Mutual of Omaha in Nebraska.

But let us look at the good side; what do we get? We get 140 new government agencies, we get other people deciding our health care, we get less health care, we get to pay fines and we get to wait four years before this starts. But wait, there's more: We get $1 trillion in new taxes that start when the bill is signed!

Now, let's not be too hard on Brown; he just doesn't know how to make sausage.

MARK McGLONE
Columbus

[We could say [Democrats] spend money like drunken sailors, but that would be unfair to drunken sailors. It would be unfair, because the sailors are spending their own money. --Ronald ReaganAl Gore didn't invent the internet, he invented global warmingThe welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants - CamusThe person who advocates government planning of the economy always assumes that it is his plan that will be put into effect. --Hayek]

Holder's Justice Department Transfers the Prosecutor Who Brought the Black Panther Case   [Andy McCarthy]

At the Washington Times, Jerry Seper reports, here.  The veteran lawyer, Christopher Coates, signed off on the complaint that accused the New Black Panther Party and three of its members of civil rights violations. He has been "detailed" for at least 18 months from Main Justice to the U.S. Attorney's Office in South Carolina. Coates is not commenting on the transfer, but it sure doesn't sound like it was his idea.  The spokesman for the U.S. Attorney in S.C. said:  "It is our understanding he was willing to take the detail, and we look forward to him being on the job."

Here's Hans von Spakovsky, in a recent NRO article, discussing Coates (see my italics) in the context of absurd testimony by Thomas Perez, DOJ's Civil Rights chief, on why they Panthers case was abruptly dropped:

He said that the decision to drop the case was made by two career attorneys with more than 60 years of combined experience. From my work in the Civil Rights Division, I happen to know almost all of the attorneys who were involved in this case — and if the key to the correct decision was experience, Perez is in a lot of trouble. The lawyers who investigated this case and recommended filing suit have many more years of experience — particularly recent experience in voting cases — than the two lawyers Perez is relying on.

Those two lawyers, Steve Rosenbaum and Loretta King, are two of the worst political hacks to be found in the career ranks of the Civil Rights Division (I have previously written about King’s ambition to run for office in Maryland on the Democratic ticket). But putting that aside, Rosenbaum hasn’t worked on a voting case since he left the Voting Section in 1994. King hasn’t worked on a voting case since she left the Voting Section in 1996.

In comparison, the career lawyers who investigated the NBPP case, along with the deputy chief and chief of the Voting Section who reviewed their work and recommended this lawsuit, have more than 75 years of experience between them. The section chief, Chris Coates, who was subpoenaed by the Commission according to news reports, has more litigation experience in voting cases than Rosenbaum and King combined, has argued voting cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, and has litigated civil-rights cases for almost 40 years. He won the Walter W. Barnett Memorial Award, the second-highest award given by the Civil Rights Division. It is awarded for a leading role in major litigation and “extraordinary skill, dedication and integrity in written and oral advocacy.”

The deputy chief who worked on this case, Robert Popper, and one of the trial attorneys, Christian Adams, have both won special commendation awards from the division. Adams’s award was for his work in protecting black voters in Georgetown, S.C. And the aforementioned 75 years of experience does not even include the decades of experience of the head of the Appellate Section in the Civil Rights Division, who was apparently asked to review the work of the Voting Section in this case and also concluded a lawsuit was fully warranted.

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjJlMGQ5NWYzYThlNGMzYWZiZTkzMTdkNDQ0OTkyN2Y=

[He was one of several chairpersons for Worthington schools' 2009 levy campaign,]

Well, isn't this interesting.  And a registered Democrat to boot!!  On the bright side, the libs can say he's not as bad as Charlie Rangel, or Tim Geithner, or host of others.  Oh wait, probably not a good example.

Or as Jonah Goldberg likes to say "Democrats like raising taxes but not paying them."



Lawyer arrested, accused of evading income taxes

By Kathy Lynn Gray
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

A Columbus lawyer has been charged with filing false tax returns and trying to cover up the crime.

A federal grand jury indicted Aristotle R. Matsa, also known as Rick Matsa, on Dec. 21 on 20 counts that include 15 tax offenses, obstruction of justice, witness tampering and conspiracy. The indictment was sealed until Matsa, 53, was arrested last week.

The indictment says Matsa, of Park Overlook Drive in Worthington, set up a scheme to avoid paying income tax by establishing trusts and paying the interest on those trusts to individuals or accounts outside the United States.

Matsa set up a bank account in the Netherlands and transferred $300,000 into it from one of the trust accounts, the indictment says. Then, Matsa transferred $305,000 from the Netherlands account into a U.S. account held by his mother.

Federal agents have been investigating Matsa since 2006 and, according to the indictment, he has obstructed the investigation since that time with two unindicted co-conspirators, listed as Z.M. and G.P.

The three withheld records, lied to a grand jury and created false documents, the indictment alleges.

It also says that Matsa used other companies and properties he owned to disguise his assets and income.

Besides his private law practice in the Short North, court records show that Matsa was a licensed real-estate broker who operated the Spectrum Companies, Landmarks U.S.A. and Protidea Limited, as well as an architectural-services business, the Architects Spectrum Ltd.

He is listed in Ohio records as a licensed architect since 1980.

He also was a licensed minister and incorporated several churches in Ohio, including Metro Universal Life Church.

He was one of several chairpersons for Worthington schools' 2009 levy campaign, led opposition to the Tuttle Mall construction in the 1990s and was honored in 2007 for his volunteer work at Thomas Worthington High School.

In a related case, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service announced that they have negotiated a plea agreement with Urbana attorney George Z. Pappas. Pappas, a close friend of Matsa, admitted that he lied to a grand jury about the ownership of Matsa's law practice.

The name of the practice, known as the Law Offices of Aristotle R. Matsa, was changed to the Law Offices of George Z. Pappas in 2004.

Pappas faces a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Matsa could spend 90 years in prison and be fined $5 million if convicted.

Matsa's attorney, Thomas Tyack, said his client was released Wednesday after Loula Matsa, his mother, put up her house in Worthington instead of bond.

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/12/29/matsa.ART_ART_12-29-09_B1_KSG4S64.html?sid=101

[We could say [Democrats] spend money like drunken sailors, but that would be unfair to drunken sailors. It would be unfair, because the sailors are spending their own money. --Ronald ReaganAl Gore didn't invent the internet, he invented global warmingThe welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants - CamusThe person who advocates government planning of the economy always assumes that it is his plan that will be put into effect. --Hayek]

Hmmm....the article doesn't mention party affiliation.  I am going out on a limb here...must be Democrat.  And Venezuela....hmmmm.....what sulfur-sniffing scum resides in Venezuela?   Hmmm?


Come clean, Mr. Meeks: Congressman must explain relationship with shady billionaire

That shadow you see cast on Queens is a cloud over Rep. Gregory Meeks.

Meeks has a history of being cozy with an unsavory fellow named Allen Stanford, a Texas banker who's now an accused multibillion-dollar Ponzi scammer. Among 47 privately funded trips Meeks took between 2000 and early this year - travel valued at $176,168 - were a half-dozen bankrolled by the Inter-American Economic Council, a group funded by Stanford.

This is in and of itself unseemly.

The plot thickened of late when reports surfaced surrounding a 2006 Meeks visit to Venezuela.

The story, reported by The Miami Herald, goes like this: Stanford, then still a businessman of good repute, asked Meeks to urge Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez to investigate Gonzalo Tirado, who had been Stanford's top man in Venezuela before some sort of falling-out. And Meeks, in Venezuela on an official government visit, supposedly obliged, leading to Tirado's arrest.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/12/30/2009-12-30_come_clean_mr_meeks.html