Congressional Misconduct

Why don’t we strip these criminals of their congressional pensions?

* Nick Mavroules (D-MA). Tax evasion, accepting illegal gratuity, 1992.
* Albert Bustamante (D-TX). Racketeering, 1993.
* Carroll Hubbard (D-KY). Fraud and corruption, 1994.
* Carl Perkins (D-KY). Fraud, 1994.
* Charlie Rose (D-NC). Agreed to pay fine for financial disclosure irregularities, 1994.
* Larry Smith (D-FL). Tax evasion, 1994.
* Dave Durenberger (R-MN). Financial disclosure misdemeanor, 1995.
* Walter Fauntroy (D-DC Delegate). Financial disclosure misdemeanor, 1995.
* Gerald Kleczka (D-WI). Convicted of DWI, 1987. Arrested for DWI, 1990 and 1995.
* Mel Reynolds (D-IL). Sexual misconduct, 1995.
* Walter Tucker (D-CA). Extortion, 1995.
* Charles Wilson (D-TX). Agreed to pay fine to Federal Election Commission, 1995.
* Joe Kolter (D-PA). Fraud and conspiracy, 1996.
* Dan Rostenkowski (D-IL). Mail fraud, 1996.
* Wes Cooley (R-OR). Lying about war record in official voter pamphlet, 1997.
* Jay Kim (R-CA). Campaign finance violations, 1998.
* Mary Rose Oakar (D-OH). Financial disclosure irregularities, 1998.
* Austin J. Murphy (D-PA). Voter fraud, 1999.

And that’s not even the most up-to-date list, and not even covering the SENATE.

If you are convicted of a crime in office, why do you deserve a congressional pension? Crime should not pay!

http://www.ntu.org/main/press.php?PressID=343

This is a hot button issue for the National Taxpayers’ Union.

I think we need to get rid of the whole bunch even if they haven’t committed a crime. Of course I guess raping the American public could be considered a crime.

With the scandal of skeptic icon Wegman unfolding, is the crusade against the "hockey stick" falling apart?

"Officials at George Mason University confirmed Thursday that they are investigating plagiarism and misconduct charges made against a noted climate science critic.

In 2006, GMU statistics professor, Edward Wegman, spearheaded a Congressional committee report critical of scientists’ reconstructions of past climate conditions — notably the 1999 "hockey stick" paper in Nature, which concluded that the 20th Century was the warmest one in a millennium. A National Research Council report later that year largely validated the 1999 paper’s research, but the "Wegman" report has knocked around in public debate over climate ever since."

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/sciencefair/post/2010/10/wegman-plagiarism-investigation-/1

http://deepclimate.org/2010/10/08/wegman-under-investigation-by-george-mason-university/

From a scientific standpoint, the Wegman Report was junk, and the fact that he had to both plagiarize and distort the work of others is revealing. It also illustrates why an independent peer review is important.
BB,

You do realize Richard Lindzen (notable contrarian), among others, has received millions in grant money, right?
Jim z,

I’ve spent hours looking at the evidence presented. It’s quite strong.

the crusade against the "hockey stick" can’t really fall apart because it only exists in denier blogs and the musings of those like Lindzen. Here in the real world there were some errors in the first graph (long since corrected) which deniers like to play up. But the fact is Mann was not the only scientist who worked on this even his own graph was a group effort and his work was also matched by a number of others since, deniers who continue to rant "it’s a fraud" or "it’s long discredited" are either badly misinformed or lying, and given the number of times the correct info on the graph has been posted, it is hard not to think the latter of the two, is the case.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hockey_stick_controversy

Congressman Blumenauer Announces Legislation to Rein in Secret War Contracts

Blumenauer’s legislation will reign in the secretive war contracting process and deny negligent contractors government bail-outs. This bill will restore basic and common-sense safeguards to the war contracting process by increasing the transparency of contracts and the accountability of contractors. Specifically, the Blumenauer legislation will:

• Require Congressional notification in all cases where the Department of Defense accepts liability on behalf of a contractor in excess of $1,000,000.

• Close the “negligence loophole,” by revoking indemnification for harm caused by a defense contractor’s own gross negligence or misconduct.

• Prevent “indemnification-creep” by clarifying that a defense contractor is only indemnified for the hazards named in the contract, and must report additional hazards immediately.

Duration : 0:1:5

McCain Tried To Reform Fannie & Freddie, But was Stopped by every Democrat Senator…

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/record.xpd?id=109-s20060525-16&bill=s109-190
The Republicans have been trying to tighten the regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac sense 2002, but they were blocked by the Democrats at every step. The question that you should be asking yourself is why.

Could this be the reason;

Some of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Campaign Contributions, 1989-2008

Sen. Dodd, Christopher J – $165,400

Sen. Obama, Barack – $126,349

Sen. Kerry, John – $111,000

Sen. McCain, John – $21,550

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/09/update-fannie-mae-and-freddie.html

McCain was constantly on their case trying to impose some common sense regulation on them, so that would explain the relatively small amount of money that he received from them.

There is no way that the Democrats are going to be able to hang this one on the Republicans, the facts speak for themselves.

FEDERAL HOUSING ENTERPRISE REGULATORY REFORM ACT OF 2005

Senator John McCain;

“Mr. President, this week Fannie Maes regulator reported that the companys quarterly reports of profit growth over the past few years were illusions deliberately and systematically created by the companys senior management, which resulted in a $10.6 billion accounting scandal.

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversights report goes on to say that Fannie Mae employees deliberately and intentionally manipulated financial reports to hit earnings targets in order to trigger bonuses for senior executives. In the case of Franklin Raines, Fannie Maes former chief executive officer, OFHEOs report shows that over half of Mr. Raines compensation for the 6 years through 2003 was directly tied to meeting earnings targets. The report of financial misconduct at Fannie Mae echoes the deeply troubling $5 billion profit restatement at Freddie Mac.

The OFHEO report also states that Fannie Mae used its political power to lobby Congress in an effort to interfere with the regulators examination of the companys accounting problems. This report comes some weeks after Freddie Mac paid a record $3.8 million fine in a settlement with the Federal Election Commission and restated lobbying disclosure reports from 2004 to 2005. These are entities that have demonstrated over and over again that they are deeply in need of reform.

For years I have been concerned about the regulatory structure that governs Fannie Mae and Freddie Macknown as Government-sponsored entities or GSEsand the sheer magnitude of these companies and the role they play in the housing market. OFHEOs report this week does nothing to ease these concerns. In fact, the report does quite the contrary. OFHEOs report solidifies my view that the GSEs need to be reformed without delay.

I join as a cosponsor of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190, to underscore my support for quick passage of GSE regulatory reform legislation. If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole.

I urge my colleagues to support swift action on this GSE reform legislation.”

Duration : 0:3:11