Corruption Personified!

 A socialist is someone who has read Lenin and Marx. An anti-socialist is someone who understands Lenin and Marx.   ~ Ronald Reagan

A couple years ago the Socialist Party of America felt secure enough to announce the names of 70 Democrats in Congress that belong to their caucus. Several of our Posters are in that number along with Corrine Brown (D-FL Dist 5). It is not likely that Rep. Brown has read or understands anything about Marx or Lenin –more likely she simply follows the party line as a look at her votes indicate. See the Heritage Action scorecard.  Read the bills and how she voted and draw your own conclusion. You’ll see clearly that she votes for FedGov control of virtually every aspect of our lives --and at great cost.

The nearly $20 trillion national debt has her name on it for her 

votes over 24 years in office.  Many of the votes of the Socialist Caucus members are in direct violation of the U.S. Constitution that these Reps have taken an oath to uphold.

Citizens Against Government Waste  calls her “Hostile to Taxpayers.”   The NationalTaxpayers Union gives her an “F” a failing grade that places her in the "Big Spender" category.

The Club for Growth ranks her at 435^th out of 435 members of the House, dead last in her votes for a pro-growth economy without which we cannot generate the taxes to pay for her spending.  Mind you, she’s not alone in the basement –along with her are many other anti-growth members: in Florida alone there’s Wasserman-Schultz, Hastings, Castor, Deutch and my Rep., Lois Frankel. Don't forget Sen. Nelson.  

But she’s not just wild left-wing spender and regulator. Her tenure abounds with legal and ethical problems. Just a few from Wikipedia:

• ·        Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington reported that Brown's daughter Shantrel Brown-Fields was a congressional lobbyist, a conflict of interest.. In 2006, Brown's campaign committee paid her daughter's husband, Tyree Fields, $5,500 for political consulting work. Rep. Brown has earmarked millions of dollars in federal funding for her daughter's client Edward Waters College and for other of her daughter’s clients.
• ·        The Federal Election Commission admonished Brown and her campaign treasurer quit after he discovered that his name had been forged on her campaign reports. The staffer alleged to have forged the treasurer's signature stayed with Brown and as of 1998 was her chief of staff.^[19]
• ·        She violated the House Gift Rule when her daughter received a luxury automobile when Rep. Brown used her influence to get her friend, Gambian millionaire named Foutanga Sissoko, released from prison where he was serving time for bribing a customs officer.
•  ·         Last month, Corinne Brown and her chief of staff, Elias "Ronnie" Simmons, pleaded not  guilty to a 24 count federal indictment in relation to One Door for Education Foundation Inc.,^[32] which federal prosecutors allege was supposed to give scholarships to underprivileged students, but instead acted as the personal slush fund for Brown and her associates totaling $800,000, much of which was deposited in cash to Brown's personal bank accounts.

There’s a lot more on Rep. Brown that argues for the term limits amendment to the U.S. Constitution but let me close with this recent email from U.S. Term Limits:

   True to form, another career politician in Congress is preparing to be indicted on federal charges. These elected officials just can't seem to keep their hands out of the cookie jar.
   This time it's 12-term Florida Congresswoman Corrine Brown. Brown frequently runs unopposed for re-election or wallops her only opponent by 30-40 points. Her district was one of the most gerrymandered in America before a judge ordered its "bizarre shape" be redrawn.
   Now Brown will face charges regarding "One Door for Education," a fraudulent charity which raised $800,000 for education, then only disbursed one student scholarship for $1,000. Meanwhile, the charity's money was spent on lavish parties in Washington, D.C. and luxury skyboxes at NFL games. Lifestyles of the rich and elected, apparently.
   According to the Florida Politics blog, Brown will continue to serve in Congress while under indictment. They cite a 2014 report by the congressional research service saying "there are no federal statutes or rules of the House of Representatives that directly affect the status of a Member of Congress who has been indicted for a crime that constitutes a felony."
   This raises a question for the American people: Why do members of Congress only leave office on occasion of indictment, retirement or even death? That is evidence of a broken system which protects the powerful and excludes everybody else. It must be fixed.
   If Corrine Brown had faced the six-year term limit prescribed by the U.S. Term Limits amendment, she would have left the House of Representatives in 1999. Instead, she was given 17 more years to build power within the system and connections with special interests outside of it.
   We need to clean up the corrupt mess in D.C. as soon as possible. It will require a grassroots army of volunteers pressuring state legislators to pass resolutions for the Term Limits Convention. 
   Are you ready to join this grassroots army to fight for term limits? Sign our Super Activist Sign-up Form by clicking HERE.

Thanks for your support,
                                     Phil Blumel, President
                                     U.S. Term Limits

$16 Trillion Debt –Blame Massachusetts

            Of the ten congress-critters of the  Massachusetts contingent, eight have been in office from 12 to 38 years!  These are the ones we’re referring to when we say “the worst of a bad lot.”  Not that the other two haven’t done their share to increase spending for as long as they’ve been there –they have—but it is our firm belief that if we could retire some of them through mandatory term limits more responsible candidates would run. Even in Massachusetts.

Notice –and this is key to the failure of Congress—almost all of our posters have had no private sector experience. Yet, they make the laws that regulate the productive sector of our economy. Further, of this group all but Lynch and the other two newer Reps, Tsongas (3^rd term) and Keating (1^st term), are listed as members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. The CPC is currently co-chaired by Muslim radical Congressman Keith Ellison. The CPC is the brainchild of Bernie Sanders, now the officially Socialist U.S Senator, from Vermont, who caucuses with the Democrats. According to DiscoverTheNetworks, the CPC was formed with the help of the Democratic Socialists of America. It has maintained an alliance with the CPC ever since. In addition, the CPC has been warmly endorsed by the Communist Party USA as its “allies in Congress.” This socialist organization inside the House of Representatives has about 78 members – all of them Democrats. This is the group that Rep. Allen West recently said were communists. West's spokesman refers to the Communist Party's own website and states that, "The Communist Party has publicly referred to the Progressive Caucus as its allies. The Progressive Caucus speaks for itself. These individuals certainly aren't proponents of free markets or individual economic freedom." Guess what? The political agenda of the CPC is nearly identical to that of President Barack Obama.

 

That they are not proponents of the free market is an understatement. The Club for Growth rates CPC members at the very bottom of their ratings scale –our poster “children” are all in single digits with Keating the lowest at 2%. See details at www.clubforgrowth.org

The information which follows is based on Wikipedia reports and we let its selection of the liberal ADA and the conservative ACU represent each side of the political scale. All are ADA favorites.

 Longest tenured is 19-term Ed Markey and his record is so egregious we’ve already done a poster on him  http://tinyurl.com/cohqu22

Barney Frank has arguably done more damage to our economy in his 16 terms than any other representative –he was our easy very first choice as “the worst of a bad lot.” See http://tinyurl.com/d4yqs54 and http://tinyurl.com/bobb26g


Richard Neal received a master's degree from the University of Hartford and then became an assistant to the mayor of Springfield. He served as president of the Springfield City Council from 1979 to 1983 while teaching high school history courses and lecturing at local colleges. He served as mayor of Springfield from 1983 to 1989. With his political influence and a head start on contributions, he was nearly uncontested when he ran for election to the House of Representatives in 1988 succeeding the 18-term incumbent. He was given a 100 percent "Liberal Quotient" by Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) for his 2008 voting record, and the organization named him one of the year's "ADA Heroes.” He was given a lowly 8.19 percent "Lifetime Rating" by the American Conservative Union (ACU) based on his votes from 1989 to 2009. In the past he voted with the Democrat party leadership 95% of the time, but recently he's voted with them 99% of the time.  

John W. Olver  was a chemistry professor and served in both chambers of the Massachusetts General Court: he earned a PHD in chemistry from MIT and later taught at the University of Massachusetts for eight years. In 1968 he was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and was elected to the Massachusetts Senate in 1972.  Olver ran in a 1991 special election to succeed deceased 17-term incumbent Congressman Silvio Conte. He has since become a member of the House Committee on Appropriations and the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Olver is retiring this year at age 76 after 22 years in congress. He has enjoyed consistently high rankings from the progressive lobbying group Americans for Democratic Action, and consistently low rankings from its conservative counterpart the American Conservative Union.

James Patrick "Jim" McGovern is in his 8^th term in congress. After graduating from Worcester Academy he moved to Washington, D.C. and attended American University where he received a Bachelor of Arts in history in 1981 and a Masters of Public Administration in 1984. While in college he worked as a congressional aide to Senator George McGovern (no relation), a two-time presidential candidate he campaigned for. From 1981 to 1996 he was a senior staff member for Representative Joe Moakley. He was appointed by Moakley in 1990 to lead a House task force investigating the 1989 killing of six Jesuit priests and two women who were aiding the communists in El Salvador by the Salvadoran army. He later advocated cutting off U.S. funding for the U.S. Army School of the Americas, where several of the military members had been trained.  He was elected to congress in 1996 and joined the Congressional Progressive Caucus. He has been ranked as one of the most liberal members of Congress.

John F. Tierney is in his 8^th term in congress. He sits on the Education and Labor Committee; his priorities include green energy and increased college access. He has co-authored legislation including the Green Jobs Act of 2007 and College Affordability and Accountability Act of 2008. Tierney graduated Suffolk University Law School with a J.D. in 1976, and worked as a solo practitioner until 1981 when he became a partner at Tierney, Kalis, & Lucas. He remained at the firm until taking office in 1997. Tierney served on the Salem Chamber of Commerce from 1976 to 1997, becoming the organization's president in 1995. Described as "an unwavering liberal" by CQ's Politics in America, he has consistently high approval ratings from Democratic and liberal interest groups such as Americans for Democratic Action, and low approval ratings from conservative groups such as the American Conservative Union. His votes have been closely aligned with the other nine Democratic representatives from his state.

Michael Capuano is in his 7^th term in the district which was once represented by John F. Kennedy and Tip O'Neill. Prior to joining Congress, Capuano was mayor and alderman of Somerville, Massachusetts. After graduating from Dartmouth College and Boston College Law School he worked as legal counsel for the Massachusetts General Court. Capuano replaced Joseph Kennedy II as U.S. Representative in 1998 and since has won reelection six times with no Republican opposition. In Congress he is a staunch liberal and member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. His focuses have included international human rights, transportation, and financial services. He has been given high ratings by a variety of interest groups such as Planned Parenthood, the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, and Environment America. However, he has been rated poorly from the National Taxpayers Union and the Sportsmen and Animal Owner's Voting Alliance.

 

Stephen F. Lynch is the son of an ironworker who went into the trade after high school and became the union's youngest president at age 30 while attending the Wentworth Institute of Technology. He received his J.D. from Boston College Law School in 1991. For several years he worked as a lawyer, primarily representing housing project residents and labor unions. He was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1994 and to the Massachusetts Senate in 1995. Then he won a special election to represent the 9th district in the United States House of Representatives in 2001, and has been re-elected ever since. Lynch has a history of drugs and alcohol addiction, assault charges, defaulting on student loans and tax delinquencies but these apparently don't matter in Democrat politics.  On social issues, Lynch is considerably different than his Mass. colleagues being considered a  moderate Democrat.  He opposes abortion and has been attacked by the pro-choice group NARAL. He was the only Rep. from new England to vote against ObamaCare. However, he has sided with Democratic leaders on gay rights issues, opposing a Federal Marriage Amendment and supporting granting medical benefits to domestic partners of federal employees.

Now, obviously, Massachusetts is not the only state to blame for the gigantic generational theft that these $trillion budget deficits are implementing. New York, California and others have their share of Big Spenders but the Mass. contingent in the House continues to be 100% in favor of voting the USA into oblivion –sort of like Greece.  You can help get term limits on congress passed by signing the petition at www.termlimits.org                          

Max the Mouth

Update picture she offered as proof of global warming

8/18/2017

Rep. Waters has a long-time reputation as the most corrupt person in Congress. She’s been investigated multiple times for ethics violations; using her position in Congress to secure business dealings for her family (via The Los Angeles Times).
In fact, Waters’ family made over $1 million in eight years by doing business with companies whom the California Congressman had helped with her legislation. Waters’ pay-to-play scheme would make Hillary envious!
Waters’ politics consist of little more than the typical inner-city race-baiting peppered with reckless pork barrel spending. Throughout her time in Congress, she’s been known for little else besides her constant ethics investigations.
The reason she’s come into the limelight at all over the last months is because of her cartoonish attacks on President Trump. Waters literally says she “will fight everyday until [Trump] is impeached” (via The Washington Examiner).

When we captioned this blog “the worst of a bad lot” we had Maxine Waters (Dist 35, CA) in mind. Even the most corrupt long-tenured pols –she’s been in congress for 20 years—have done something that could be considered good for the country. At her own website we found that she has labored diligently against mandatory sentencing laws. Well, the rapists, muggers, and repeat crooks liked that one. The former football player, Jim Brown, praised her as a “Mother Theresa of Watts” for these efforts. Remember how she defended the Watts rioters, looters, and arsonists when she remarked on national television: "Riot is the voice of the unheard." National Review said she was trying to shift the blame for the riots from the rioters to everybody and everything else and in the process was giving tacit permission to riot again. Waters ferociously attacked the U.S. Government as being responsible for "the economic, social, cultural and political factors” that caused the L.A. riots of 1992. She expressed sympathy for gangs and rioters involved and what she still calls a revolution. She disagreed with LA Mayor Tom Bradley's characterization of the 1992 rioters as "hoodlums and thugs."

She did join a coalition in 1994 against violent and sexually explicit song lyrics and came out against so-called "gangsta rap" –that was a good thing. But wait, she did not blame the actual rappers for the filthy, hateful and sometimes murderous obscenities and vulgarities. No, she pointed the finger of blame at industry executives for not exercising more control over their recording artists and said it was "…foolhardy to single out rap artists as instigators of violence among young people." We tried. (We don’t think the execs are blameless, either.)

Born in 1938, Waters was one of thirteen children living in a St. Louis housing project where her mother struggled to raise her children; no father is mentioned. After graduating from high school, she married and had two children. In 1960 the family moved to Los Angeles, where Waters worked at a few menial jobs before getting involved in the Head Start program in Watts. In the late 1960s she entered California State University to study sociology. By the time she earned her degree, she was divorced and raising her children alone. Water's background is frequently cited to explain why she fights so passionately for affirmative action programs. She had no successful experience in the free market economy having grown up on welfare, gone to school on affirmative action programs and then getting involved in mostly race-based politics.

She is currently married to Sidney Williams, a former football player and automobile salesman, who she got President Clinton to name Ambassador to the Bahamas. Her husband is a stockholder and former director of OneUnited Bank and the bank's executives were major contributors to her campaigns. In September 2008, she arranged meetings between U.S. Treasury officials and OneUnited Bank, to arrange for the bank to get federal cash. It had been heavily invested in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and its capital was "all but wiped out" after FedGov took them over. The bank got $12 million in TARP money as a result of her intervention. The matter is currently being investigated by the House Ethics committee.

Maxine Waters got her start in politics as the chief deputy to Los Angeles city councilman David Cunningham. She was actively involved in the campaigns of Senator Alan Cranston and Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley. She entered the California State Assembly in 1976. While in the assembly she worked for divestment of state pension funds from any businesses active in South Africa when it had the racist policy of apartheid. Republican Cathie Wright of Simi Valley, who served with Waters for fourteen years on the California Assembly, discusses Maxine Waters' accusations of racism: “The problem I have with her are her accusations that we were racists but she wasn't. She always assumed that everything you said was because you were white and she was black...Whenever Republicans disagreed with her, she said we took the position because we were racists.”

Waters was instrumental in the formation of the National Political Congress of Black Women in 1984. In 1996, she was elected to chair the Congressional Black Caucus. She called for investigation of the CIA for being involved in a plan to distribute drugs to African Americans in Los Angeles in the early 1980s. That, plus her propensity to play the race card reflected poorly on her and the Democratic Party’s ability at that time to wield real influence in Washington. After being named co-chairman of Clinton's national campaign, she called President George H. W. Bush a "racist" in a speech at the National Press Club. She found nothing wrong with President Clinton’s taking advantage of the intern and then lying about while under oath.

A fan of Castro and especially of Che Guevara, Waters visits Cuba often to see her friend, domestic terrorist Joanne Chesimard (aka Assata Shakur plus over 20 other aliases according to the FBI). In 1977, Chesimard was found guilty of first degree murder of a police officer she shot execution style, among several other convictions including armed robbery. She was sentenced to life in prison 1977 and then in November 1979, Chesimard escaped and lived underground before being located in Cuba in 1984. Rep.Waters has used her position to oppose extradition going so far as to write Castro that Shakur (she’s an aunt of a rapper of that name) was fleeing “political persecution.” The FBI has a $1,000,000 reward for her capture.

In May 2008, Waters told Shell Oil President John Hofmeister at the House Judiciary Committee’s hearing that if he did not “guarantee” reduced gasoline prices in exchange for Congress “allowing” the oil industry to drill where it wished, she would favor nationalizing American petroleum companies. She stated: "Guess what this liberal will be all about, this liberal will be all about socializing... taking over and the government running all of your companies." Rep. Waters clearly favors Statism as she understands it and this is just one example.

Among her other distinctions, Citizens Against Government Waste named her the June 2009 Porker of the Month due to her intention to obtain an earmark for the Maxine Waters Employment Preparation Center. Her non-partisan National Taxpayers Union score is the lowest possible, as one would expect.

She opposed the Iraq War saying that the money could be used for affirmative action programs. She supported Jesse Jackson’s campaigns for president. It goes on… With Maxine Waters, it is all about race, welfare and socialism; nothing about the economy, freedom or opportunity.

Without term limits there is little chance to replace the entrenched incumbent no matter how bigoted, anti-American, pro-socialist and corrupt because of the advantages of office including the big bucks from special interests that benefit from her votes.