INSTEAD OF "DRAINING THE SWAMP", PELOSI IS ENCOURAGING CORRUPTION WITHIN THE DEMOCRAT PARTY

Democrat Lawmakers Try To Restrict Ethics Probes

Last Updated: Fri, 06/04/2010 - 10:12am

After being targeted in a series of corruption probes, black congressional leaders have quietly introduced legislation to essentially gut the independent office they helped create to investigate wrongdoing among lawmakers.

Ohio Democrat Marcia Fudge introduced the measure to drastically weaken the independent Office of Congressional Ethics that recently determined her top aide improperly helped black caucus members take a lavish Caribbean trip funded by corporations. Congress created the citizen-run ethics office in 2008 because the House Ethics Committee is a joke that seldom investigates corruption

But the panel’s inquiries have hit the Congressional Black Caucus hard and nearly half of its members want the vibrant new ethics office to cut back on its aggressive agenda to weed out corruption in the U.S. House of Representatives. Twenty of the 42 members of the all-Democratic caucus support Fudge’s measure, which is also sponsored by Black Caucus Chairwoman Barbara Lee of California.

In its short existence, the ethics office has investigated at least eight black caucus members, including the notoriously crooked Charlie Rangel of New York who got booted as chair of the House Ways and Means Committee this year. Besides violating House gift rules, Rangel is under investigation for tax evasion, hiding hundreds of thousands of dollars in assets, using his office to raise money from corporations with business before him and illegally accepting multiple rent control apartments in his New York district.

Until the independent ethics office was created, Rangel was practically untouchable because fellow lawmakers on the House Ethics Committee refused to take any action against their beloved colleague. Now his buddies in the Congressional Black Caucus want to severely restrict the powers of the civilian ethics office by making it harder to launch investigations and by keeping probes from the public, among other things

In a statement to the Cleveland newspaper that broke this story, Fudge claims that she’s simply trying to “perfect” the “processes” of the new ethics panel to ensure that its aims are “achieved in a manner consistent with America’s spirit of justice.” The so-called “processes” must be fair to all people involved, Fudge’s statement goes onto say. Sounds like she just doesn’t want any of her pals to get investigated.

Source: Judicial Watch

Here is an additional story on this attempt to re-write the Ethics Rules. If this doesn't scream of an attempt to cover up and protect corruption in the Democratic Party, nothing does.  This is from the same woman that said that they were going to be the most "ethical" Congress and that she was going to "drain the swamps".

The Corrupt Pelosi Congress Looks To Water Down Ethics Rules

June 11, 2010

What do you do when too many of the sleazy members of your caucus are getting caught with their hands in the cookie jar? If you're Nancy Pelosi, you try to weaken the ethics rules to keep so many of them from getting busted,

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has privately indicated she is willing to rewrite some of the ethics rules that House Democrats implemented two years ago.

Pelosi late last month met with members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) about the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), which was created to bolster the ethics of the lower chamber.

At the meeting, which was also attended by CBC lawmaker and Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.), sources said Pelosi heard complaints about the OCE’s new powers and investigation tactics.

....Some CBC members also are questioning why Fudge was allowed to lead the effort after the ethics committee just last year admonished her chief of staff, Dawn Kelly Mobley, for advising members and corporations how to get around new House rules against corporate sponsored-travel while serving as the ethics committee staff director under Tubbs Jones....

...While amending the OCE is being considered, making such changes now would be politically difficult because Republicans are citing Democratic ethics scandals in their effort to retake control of the House.

CBC members and Pelosi discussed a plan to begin a dialogue over the next few months about changing the OCE’s rules following the midterm elections. Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio), a former prosecutor who was elected in a 2009 special election after the death of then-ethics committee Chairwoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio), volunteered to lead the effort.

Sources say Fudge was expected to craft proposed changes to the OCE and circulate them among like-minded lawmakers on both sides of aisle. But in a move that has irritated some House Democrats, Fudge quietly introduced the legislation on May 28 with 19 CBC co-sponsors. Days later, government watchdogs and the editorial pages of The Washington Post and The New York Times blasted Fudge’s resolution.

How corrupt does our Congress have to be for the Washington Post and New York Times to come down on Democrats for changing the rules? If anything, they should be toughening up the rules in Congress, doing quicker investigations, and doing more to prevent the sleaze that has become the rule there.

There are a lot of things Americans may disagree about, but cracking down on crooks in Congress shouldn't be one of them.

Source: Right Wing News

MY LETTER TO THE INSPECTOR GENERAL HUD TO INVESTIGATE ACORN

September 12, 2009

Kenneth M. Donohue, Sr.
Inspector General
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
451 7th Street S.W., Washington, DC 20410
Telephone: (202) 708-1112 TTY: (202) 708-1455
Email: hotline@hudoig.gov

Dear Mr. Donohue,

In light of the recent undercover tapes involving the housing offices of ACORN in Baltimore and Washington DC, I respectfully request an immediate thorough investigation into ACORN as well as ALL of its subsidiaries . This is but one of many reports of criminal activities happening within this "organization." I would also request that all funding to ACORN and all of its subsidiaries by the government are frozen immediately.

The accusations of fraud and abuse within all aspects of ACORN are troublesome. The accusations are not just from this undercover tape, they are also from ACORN employees that are also asking for help to expose the blatant corruption within the organization that goes far beyond what we already know. It is their experience that this is just the tip of the iceberg.

What is even more troublesome is that these allegations seem to be falling on deaf ears within our government. Attached, please find a copy of a report you may already be aware of:

~U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform~

~Darrell Issa (CA-49), Ranking Member~

Is ACORN Intentionally Structured As a Criminal Enterprise?

Staff Report

U.S. House of Representatives

111th Congress

Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

July 23, 2009

This report also calls for an investigation into allegations of rampant criminal activity within ACORN and its affiliate agencies. To my knowledge, as of today, there has not been any support by Chairman Conyers. On the contrary, in March he seemed determined to investigate ACORN but just weeks later, when he was questioned about the status of the investigation, he responded by saying that the "Powers that be" have decided against any investigation. HHMMMM, I can only imagine who the "Powers that be" are. The silence from these elected officials that appear to aid and abet ACORN and all of its subsidiaries in criminal activity, is deafening.
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Here is an excerpt of a letter I emailed to Chairman Conyers on July 23, 2009:

July 23, 2009

Dear Chairman Conyers

If you truly are interested in upholding the laws in place, your political position, racial views and your long-standing allegiance to ACORN must be set aside in the interest of justice.

It has been uncovered that while ACORN is actively receiving taxpayer dollars, it is also actively participating in promoting the Democratic Party through contributions of financial and personnel resources to Democratic political nominees and members, while also engaging in voter registration fraud for the Democratic Party. This is obviously a scheme to use taxpayer money to support a partisan political agenda, which would be a clear violation of numerous tax and election laws.

In a report to be released today, it is being reported that "Both structurally and operationally, ACORN hides behind a paper wall of nonprofit corporate protections to conceal a criminal conspiracy on the part of its directors, to launder federal money in order to pursue a partisan agenda and to manipulate the American electorate," an executive summary of the report reads.

Let me assure you that it is obvious to the "little people" that are struggling to make ends meet and want accountability for how their hard-earned tax dollars are being spent, that this organization must be investigated. Anything short of a THOROUGH investigation would indicate that your committee really has no interest in waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer dollars when it involves an organization with a strong affiliation with the Democratic Party.

Another concern is ACORNS affiliation with the Census bureau. If ACORN overtly encourages, supports and pays for their organization to promote voter registration fraud, my concern is that an organization that made up people through false voter registration would lead any reasonable person to suspect they would do the same in the Census count.

I hope and pray that you will set aside your political interest and TRULY do the right thing by encouraging the Justice Department to pursue a THOROUGH criminal investigation into ACORN and all of its affiliate organizations. If there is nothing illegal taking place, I would think that ACORN would welcome the opportunity to put all of these allegations to rest.

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Of course we both know by now that the Census Bureau has opted to FIRE ACORN. That action also speaks volumes and tells me that ACORN is so toxic they don't want any association with them.

While I do believe that many of the needs that ACORN addresses are legitimate in all communities, it appears that they have been hijacked by criminals and thugs that are using it as a means to line their pockets at the expense of the people they profess to help and the tax-payers. When I saw those videos of the housing offices of ACORN in Baltimore and Washington, DC, I honestly wanted to throw up. To think that ACORN employees are educating people on how to conduct criminal activities, evade taxes, commit loan fraud, hide income, falsify tax returns, and the list goes on and on. What is frightening is that the employees didn't even bat an eye. The information they were providing these undercover reporters comes from years of doing this. It is obvious this was "business as usual".

I had worked in the title business for 12 years and can tell you that I had predicted a tsunami of foreclosures in the housing market 5 years ago. I personally hold ACORN and many of the politicians supporting ACORN responsible for much of this mess we now find ourselves in. It was their bullying and thuggish threats to banks and mortgage companies that led to the relaxed lending practices so that families could purchase a home, regardless of if they really could afford it or not. Then when the family is foreclosed on because they couldn't make their payments, ACORN rears its ugly head again and wants to use their thuggish tactics to try to prevent the banks from foreclosing!!!

I beg you to take this step to bring about the change we've been promised. You can start by Freezing any further funding to ACORN or any of its subsidiaries and seize their offices before they tamper with any evidence. It's time that when corruption is exposed, the "Powers That Be" uphold our laws, regardless of race, creed, color or political affiliation. You are now the "POWERS THAT BE." The question is, how will you use it?

God Bless.

Sincerely,
Michele