Elon Musk emailed Obama EPA director on her pseudonym account, begging director for special help

From John Fund at Fox News:

. . . But on December 13, 2012 the EPA’s assistant inspector general announced he would conduct an audit into Jackson’s use of private email accounts under the alias “Richard Windsor” to conduct official government business. 

Chris Horner of the Competitive Enterprise Institute had brought a lawsuit to make 12,000 of Jackson’s “alias” emails public. Before that could happen, Jackson announced she would be leaving office on December 27, 2012 – apparently with the strong private encouragement of the White House. 

It took three more years of litigation to get all of Jackson’s private emails released. We now know that her alias email accounts were her prime method of doing business. 

One of the more infamous emails involved the billionaire inventor and businessman Elon Musk begging Jackson on her false-identity account for an emergency assist for his already heavily subsidized Tesla Motors. Musk wanted Jackson’s EPA to give Tesla a “certificate of conformity” that other companies had to formally apply for. 

Jackson quickly brought in top EPA aides, asking “what can be done?” Within hours, the certificate was approved and Jackson wrote to her senior aides: “Done. Elon replied to say thank you.” . . .

Politicians who are being sentenced for crimes point to their efforts to push for gun control as reasons that they should have leniency? Seriously?

At her sentencing hearing, when Former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane was sentenced Monday to 10 to 23 months in jail for orchestrating an illegal news leak to damage a political enemy, her lawyer argued for leniency because she supported gun control? From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Kane's first year was marked by political and public relations successes. She drew attention for her stands in support of marriage equality and gun control and for crippling Republican Gov. Tom Corbett's move to privatize the lottery - all positions her lawyer cited Monday in arguing for house arrest. . . .

Former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos also has been making a similar argument.

As he tries to avoid a prison sentence, convicted former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos is pointing to the SAFE Act as evidence of his political courage. . . . 

Skelos played a key role in the passage of the SAFE Act, which included a broader ban on assault weapons and tougher penalties for illegal gun possession. It also limited the number of bullets in a magazine to seven, but that provision was struck down in court.
Then the Senate majority leader, Skelos allowed the bill to a floor for a vote, where it passed with votes from Democrats and a handful of Republicans on Long Island, including Skelos. 

The SAFE Act is opposed by conservatives and groups representing firearms owners, particularly those upstate, who were frequently critical of Skelos' decision and paint him as a traitor. 

"We want to tell Dean Skelos: Go home," Buffalo businessman Carl Paladino, the 2010 GOP candidate for governor, said at a 2013 rally against the SAFE Act. "Get another vocation. Go work at the car wash. Get the hell out of here."

Gun licensing and corruption

From Fox News:

. . . Two high-ranking New York Police Department officials and a police sergeant who oversaw gun license applications were among the latest arrests in a case that has cast a cloud over the nation's largest municipal police force. 

A businessman who contributed heavily to the election campaign of Mayor Bill de Blasio already has pleaded guilty in the case. Earlier this month, federal prosecutors charged the head of the correction officers' union with taking kickbacks. De Blasio, a Democrat, hasn't been implicated in any wrongdoing. 

A criminal complaint accompanying the latest charges described how Brooklyn businessman Jeremy Reichberg exploited his connections within the police department to arrange arrests, speed up gun application processing, make tickets disappear, obtain police escorts for him and his friends, get assistance from uniformed personnel to resolve personal disputes and boost security at religious sites and events. . . .

Washington Post: U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner implicated in Virginia big corruption scandal

If the Washington Post gives this scandal 1/4th the coverage that it gave former Senator George Allen's macaca quip, Warner will be toast.  McAuliffe has already been implicated in the scandal to bribe state Senator Puckett to stay in office.  Now it appears that Warner was also directly involved.  From the Washington Post:

The son of a former Virginia state senator has told federal investigators that U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner discussed the possibility of several jobs, including a federal judgeship, for the senator’s daughter in an effort to dissuade him from quitting the evenly divided state Senate. 

Warner was part of a string of high-powered Virginia Democrats who in early June pressed then-state senator Phillip P. Puckett not to go through with plans to give up his seat in the middle of a bitterly partisan battle over health care. 

A Warner spokesman acknowledged Friday that the conversation occurred, but he emphasized that the senator had made no explicit job offer. 

Puckett eventually resigned, throwing control of the chamber to the Republican Party and dooming Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s top legislative priority — expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The incident also triggered a federal investigation into Puckett’s surprise exit, which came at a time when Republicans were planning to give Puckett a job on the state tobacco commission and confirm his daughter to assume a judgeship. 

On June 6, three days before the state senator’s resignation became official, Warner called Puckett’s son, Joseph, and discussed an appointment to the federal bench as well as a potential corporate position for Martha Puckett Ketron, according to Joseph Puckett’s attorney, Charles E. “Chuck” James Jr. of Williams Mullen. 

James said that Warner suggested a post for Ketron at CGI, at high-tech firm Warner helped lure to Southwest Virginia when he was governor a decade ago. . . .

UPDATE: After the initial article in the Washington Post, little discussion is occurring.  However, Jennifer Rubin as this online discussion.

Then things got very interesting when Warner was implicated in a scandal. The Post reported: “The son of a former Virginia state senator has told federal investigators that U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner discussed the possibility of several jobs, including a federal judgeship, for the senator’s daughter in an effort to dissuade him from quitting the evenly divided state Senate.” Gillespie told Right Turn, “The report that Sen. Warner may have suggested a federal judgeship or other job in relation to a political decision is deeply troubling. We all need more answers on this matter, and he owes Virginians a full explanation of his actions” 

At issue is whether the state senator was bribed by one side or the other in his decision to resign and thereby switch control of the state senate to Republicans. Warner’s response was less than a full-throated denial: “Warner spokesman acknowledged Friday that the conversation occurred, but he emphasized that the senator had made no explicit job offer.” Not explicit but perhaps an obvious effort to induce her father not to resign his seat. (“Warner was part of a string of high-powered Virginia Democrats who in early June pressed then-state senator Phillip P. Puckett not to go through with plans to give up his seat in the middle of a bitterly partisan battle over health care.”) . . .

Corruption in Virginia, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe should be in a lot of trouble for bribing state senator, bribe caught on tape

Democrats don't seem to understand that there is a huge difference between the two cases:

1) Republicans offer a Democratic State Senator a job.  Now it is true that the Democrat has to resign his seat to take the job and that his resigning will give the Republicans control of the state Senate, but there is no explicit quid pro quo.

2) Democrats promise the that same Democratic State Senator a job for his daughter if he remains in office.  That is a definite quid pro quo and  against the law -- it is a crime.  To put it simply it is a bribe.  More specifically, the bribe was being offered to get a particular piece of legislation through.

Now prosecutors have been looking diligently into the first case, even though the now former Democratic State Senator claims that there was no quid pro quo.  Now the state Attorney General is a Democrat and prosecutors have not yet launched an investigation in to Terry McAuliffe, but the evidence here seems overwhelming simply because there is a recording of the McAuliffe's chief of staff offering the bribe.  The Washington Post has this transcript (the part in bold is the key):

“Hey Senator. This is Paul Reagan again. I just wanted to bounce one idea off you. I know there was a lot of frustration with your daughter, not, you know, getting a judgeship or something. if there’s something that we can do for her, I mean, you know, we have a couple of big agencies here that we still need agency heads. We could potentially, potentially, subject to approval of the governor and so forth, you know, the department of mines, minerals and energy could be available. So we would be very eager to accommodate her, if, if that would be helpful in keeping you in the senate. We, we would basically do anything. We just need you really, we need you for the rest of your term and beyond, but in the immediate future, we need you to help us get this Medicaid deal through and I think we’ve got a way to do it. So anyway, please let’s keep all this confidential. Call me 703-850-----. Thank you sir. Bye.”

Now the obvious point is this: Who could have turned the audio over to the Washington Post?  It seems that the only person who was likely to do that is the former DEMOCRAT state senator.

Here is the problem for McAuliffe.  His press spokesman noted: "Coy indicated that McAuliffe had no objections to it and suggested that the prospective job offer Reagan floated was not on par with what Republicans are accused of promising Puckett.  'The governor has full confidence in Paul Reagan,' Coy said."  Paul Reagan is McAuliffe's chief of staff so it is also hard to put much distance between the two of them.

It is pretty hilarious to listen to some Democrats suggest a defense for the Democrats (from the Washington Post): “Certainly based on prior cases, an offer of a job would be a thing of value. But would it be a thing of value to Puckett if the job is being offered to his daughter? That’s not clear cut.”  Does anyone who reads the above transcript not believe this is a bribe?  Read it again:  "So we would be very eager to accommodate her, if, if that would be helpful in keeping you in the senate. We, we would basically do anything. We just need you really, we need you for the rest of your term and beyond, but in the immediate future, we need you to help us get this Medicaid deal through and I think we’ve got a way to do it." Does anyone think that it wasn't clear that something of value to the state senator was being offered?

Will national media cover this?  When McDonald got in trouble it instantly got major national attention.  McDonald was convicted on less evidence than this.  Jason Riley has a write up about this in the WSJ, but there are relatively few stories on all this.

New York Times has devastating expose on how the Brookings Institution sells its research and access to Obama administration officials

Brookings is the old line liberal think tank in Washington, DC.  It isn't too surprising that the New York Times would have a lot of connections with Brookings.  Those connections have done a lot of damage to Brookings.  Here is just a few of the examples in the piece:

Qatar, the small but wealthy Middle East nation, agreed last year to make a $14.8 million, four-year donation to Brookings, which has helped fund a Brookings affiliate in Qatar and a project on United States relations with the Islamic world. 

Some scholars say the donations have led to implicit agreements that the research groups would refrain from criticizing the donor governments. 

“If a member of Congress is using the Brookings reports, they should be aware — they are not getting the full story,” said Saleem Ali, who served as a visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar and who said he had been told during his job interview that he could not take positions critical of the Qatari government in papers. “They may not be getting a false story, but they are not getting the full story.” . . . 

“I am surprised, quite frankly, at how explicit the relationship is between money paid, papers published and policymakers and politicians influenced,” Amos Jones, a Washington lawyer who has specialized in the foreign agents act, said after reviewing transactions between the Norway government and Brookings, the Center for Global Development and other groups. . . . 

The Brookings Institution, which also accepted grants from Norway, has sought to help the country gain access to U.S. officials, documents show. One Brookings senior fellow, Bruce Jones, offered in 2010 to reach out to State Department officials to help arrange a meeting with a senior Norway official, according to a government email. The Norway official wished to discuss his country’s role as a “middle power” and vital partner of the United States. 

Brookings organized another event in April 2013, in which one of Norway’s top officials on Arctic issues was seated next to the State Department’s senior official on the topic and reiterated the country’s priorities for expanding oil exploration in the Arctic. . . .

With all the corruption and unnecessary deaths in the Veterans Administration hospitals, it is interesting to see who has touted it as the big success story

With even the Obama administration admitting that 27 veterans have died because of the waiting list scam, Democrats even having a hard time with the VA now.  But a few years ago, while these problems were festering, liberals were pointing to the VA as the example that we should all follow.  As to the Obama administration's explanation On Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” NBC News chief Pentagon reporter Jim Miklaszewski claimed, “You have a VA that is overwhelmed and under-resourced,” John Merline points out that was incorrect. 

Paul Krugman in 2011 wrote of the VA’s “huge success story”:

Multiple surveys have found the VHA providing better care than most Americans receive, even as the agency has held cost increases well below those facing Medicare and private insurers…the VHA is an integrated system, which provides health care as well as paying for it. So it’s free from the perverse incentives created when doctors and hospitals profit from expensive tests and procedures, whether or not those procedures actually make medical sense. . . . Yes, this is ‘socialized medicine’… But it works, and suggests what it will take to solve the troubles of US health care more broadly. . . .

Nicholas Kristof of the Times wrote in 2009:

Take the hospital system run by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the largest integrated health system in the United States. It is fully government run, much more “socialized medicine” than is Canadian health care with its private doctors and hospitals. And the system for veterans is by all accounts one of the best-performing and most cost-effectiveelements in the American medical establishment. . . .

Uwe Reinhardt of Princeton wrote in the pages of the Times:

Remarkably, Americans of all political stripes have long reserved for our veterans the purest form of socialized medicine, the vast health system operated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (generally known as the V.A. health system). If socialized medicine is as bad as so many on this side of the Atlantic claim, why have both political parties ruling this land deemed socialized medicine the best health system for military veterans? Or do they just not care about them?  . . .

Ironically, President Obama now explains that the current problems are nothing surprising, with the VA’s issues go back years:

[A]ll of us, whether here in Washington or all across the country, have to stay focused on the larger mission, which is upholding our sacred trust to all of our veterans, bringing the VA system into the 21st century, which is not an easy task….  caring for our veterans is not an issue that popped up in recent weeks. Some of the problems with respect to how veterans are able to access the benefits that they've earned, that's not a new issue.  . . .

Click to make the screen shot from the website from when Obama was president-elect larger.

UPDATED: One of California's strongest gun control politicians arrested on firearms trafficking charges: State Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco)

California State Senator Leland Yee is well known for pushing for more stringent gun control regulations.  For example, on his website you can still find this announcement:

Click to make screen shot larger.

Just announced minutes ago from the Los Angeles Times:  "Sen. Leland Yee, S.F. Chinatown figure arrested in corruption raids"

Fox News has this:

As part of the raids, Fox News has learned that the FBI also arrested multiple people including Raymond Chow -- one of the heads of the Ghee Kung Tong, a Masonic organization. Both federal and local authorities were searching locations on Wednesday morning in San Francisco and Sacramento; local TV stations spotted law enforcement searching Yee's office at the state capitol and even caught the senator being led away in handcuffs from his San Francisco home. 

The FBI would not divulge details on what led to the arrests, or what the individuals are charged with, but local reports claim Yee has been charged with public corruption and bribery. . . .

UPDATE:  Now it is clear that Yee was arrested for trafficking firearms.  Only in the ninth paragraph does the Los Angeles Times briefly mention that Yee has been a gun control advocate, though even this understates how important of an advocate Yee has been both in California and nationally.  From the Los Angeles Times:

State Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) was charged Wednesday with conspiring to commit wire fraud and traffic firearms, part of a sweeping public corruption case outlined by federal prosecutors.
The charges sent shock waves through the San Francisco and Sacramento political establishments, as FBI agents searched Yee's Capitol office.  . . .
The indictment alleges Yee and Jackson defrauded "citizens of honest services" and were involved in a scheme to traffic firearms in exchange for thousands in campaign donations to the senator.
Federal prosecutors also allege Yee agreed to perform official acts in exchange for the money, including one instance in which he introduced a businessman to state legislators who had significant influence over pending medical marijuana legislation. In exchange, the businessman -- who was actually an undercover FBI agent -- agreed to donate thousands to Yee's campaign fund, according to the indictment.
The indictment also describes an August 2013 exchange in which Jackson told an undercover officer that Yee had an arms-trafficking contact. Jackson allegedly said Yee could facilitate a meeting for a donation. . . .
The gun charges go against Yee's stand as a gun control advocate.
In 2006, Yee was named to the Gun Violence Prevention Honor Roll by the Brady Campaign for his efforts that included co-authoring a first-in-the-nation bill to require new semiautomatic handguns be equipped with ballistics identification technology known as micro-stamping.
In 2013, he stood with law enforcement officials and then-Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to propose a bill that would regulate assault weapons. . . .

The Los Angeles Times could have gone into this much more.  But it was more than what the San Jose Mercury News mentioned in its 7th paragraph.

The charges are particularly shocking given that Yee has been among the state Senate's most outspoken advocates both of gun control and of good-government initiatives. . . .

CBS News in San Francisco doesn't even mention Yee was a gun control advocate.  Of course, the left wing TPM and NPR don't mention the gun control angle in the body of their stories, though NPR does contain a note under the picture that it has of Yee.

Corporate donors give to Democrat think tank in hopes of buying political protection

So much for the notion that corporations are conservative, they are interested in making profits and that depends more and more on political decisions.  From the WSJ:

President Obama is calling in the political cavalry, notably John Podesta, who was Bill Clinton’s White House chief of staff before he became America’s most powerful unelected liberal by founding the Center for American Progress. So it’s instructive to inspect the list of corporate donors that Mr. Podesta’s think tank released last month.
Mr. Podesta founded the alternative to the Heritage Foundation in 2003, but it has long resisted disclosing its donor list. The motivation to do so now seems to be that it would be embarrassing to keep mum amid the current Democratic political campaign against businesses that give to conservative candidates or causes. All the more so with Mr. Podesta in the West Wing. . . .
Whatever the motive, the list of 58 corporate donors is revealing about the ways of the modern regulatory state. It certainly blows apart the myth that corporate America is “conservative” in any modern political sense of that word. It’s more accurate to say that Fortune FT.T +8.00% 500 CEOs think they must buy political protection from the left. So it’s no surprise to see the list is heavily weighted toward the most politicized parts of the economy.
Health insurers are there in force (eight), befitting their new role as public health utilities. That includes the insurance lobby, America’s Health Insurance Plans, whose silence amid the make-it-up-as-you-go start of the ObamaCare shows it is now essentially a business partner of the Obama Administration. . . .

Turkey becoming a very corrupt country, removing police and prosecutors in corruption probe, imprisoning journalists

Turkey seems to have given up on the rule of law.  The question is when this corruption in courts will undermine investments in the country.  With charges of corruption spreading, Prime Minister Erdogan removes police and prosecutors from the case, replacing them with his own loyal people.  The attack on foreign powers adds a nice touch.  From Foreign Policy:

Erdogan, characteristically, responded by going on the offensive and hurling accusations at his opponents. He attacked the action as a "dirty operation," the goal of which was to smear his administration and undermine the progress that Turkey had made under his leadership. He alluded to a dark conspiracy launched by terrorist gangs, both foreign and domestic that were operating a state within the state. While insisting that Turkey was a democracy, not some two-bit banana republic, he proceeded to engineer within a day the sacking of more than 20 high-level police officers in Istanbul and Ankara, including those directly in charge of the units that carried out the raids. More heads seem almost certain to roll. Rumors that the lead prosecutor supervising the investigations had also been removed were vehemently denied -- though two new prosecutors were suddenly (and mysteriously) added to the probe. Howls of political interference in an ongoing judicial matter erupted. The crisis deepened. . . .  

. . . it's about Erdogan and the intensifying megalomania that has become an increasingly prominent feature of his governing style. The man now appears more or less incapable of brooking any challenge to his authority. Egged on by an inner-circle of sycophants who live in fear of his wrath, Erdogan appears genuinely convinced that his personal interests and agenda, and those of the Turkish nation, are now largely synonymous. What he wants is, ipso facto, what the Turkish people need. Anyone who disagrees with him is resisting the popular will. Anyone who criticizes him is attacking Turkey and constitutes, by definition, an enemy of the state, a traitor that must be broken and neutralized. . . .

More detail on the police that were removed from their positions is provided in the WSJ.

Before quitting as interior minister, Mr. Guler had purged about 100 security chiefs from top posts in the police department, accusing them of having failed to notify superiors about the probe. Mr. Erdogan also pushed through a measure that bars prosecutors from conducting investigations without informing their superiors. . . . 

Mr. Erdogan also sharpened his criticism of the West, singling out the U.S. and the media. He called the bribery case the work of foreign powers uncomfortable with Turkey's rising economic and political clout. . . .

From the New York Times:

Reports emerged in the Turkish news media on Wednesday that prosecutors were pursuing other high-level officials, but that new police officials installed by the government had resisted pursuing them. This essentially highlights a power struggle within state structures. . . . 

Meanwhile, the Turkish government is making sure that the media isn't reporting on all the problems.  Turkey has the notable achievement of being worse than other unfree countries such as Eritrea, Vietnam, Syria, Azerbaijan, and Ethiopia.  From the Associated Press:

For the second consecutive year, Turkey jailed more journalists than any other country, with Iran and China close behind in an annual report released Wednesday by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. 

"Jailing journalists for their work is the hallmark of an intolerant, repressive society," CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said in a statement accompanying the report. 

The CPJ found 211 journalists were behind bars in a snapshot survey taken on Dec. 1. The report noted the figure does not include many journalists who were imprisoned and released throughout the year. The CPJ said this was the second highest number of journalists jailed in its survey, topped only by the 232 in 2012. 

Other countries on the list of the top 10 worst jailers of journalists were Eritrea, Vietnam, Syria, Azerbaijan, Ethiopia, Egypt and Uzbekistan. . . . 

Bobby Baker's amazing history of the US Senate, the personal weaknesses of Senators

Politico has a long interview with Bobby Baker, long known as the top fixer in the US Senate.  Baker, a loyal Democrat, might have viewed the Senate through a slightly colored lens and much of the dirt seems to be on Southern Democrats or Republicans.  I have no idea how much of this is a result of the desire for political payback for the political corruption investigation that ended his career in 1963 and lead to an 18 month prison term, but it still makes for very interesting reading (see here and here for all the dirt).

Only about 10% of Chinese said that hard work is important to become successful, most think having a well connected dad more important

This shows how government control corrupts a country.  If companies let their competitors hire the brightest, hardest working employees, the company will go out of business.  Admittedly this looks like an unscientific survey, but I would guess that the relative sizes of these different effects is at least valid.  From the Wall Street Journal:

. . . a recent online survey show[s] that nearly 84% of respondents believe the young people around them would prefer to play a game of pin die rather than work hard. Meaning something like “powerful daddy,” the phrase refers to competing on the basis of family background. By that, they mean in terms of jobs – more than 80% said they believe many young people have relied on pin die to get ahead at work. 

The survey was conducted by the Social Survey Center of the China Youth Daily, a state-run newspaper, and web portal Sohu.com. 

The report said that among the 3,809 respondents, only about 10% of them said they value hard work in becoming successful. When they were asked what occurred to them first when they ran into problems, about 36% said they regretted that they lacked a “good daddy.” While 35% said they chose to solve problems by themselves, 25% said they would ask their daddy to tackle the problem for them. 

Online reaction to the survey results was divided. “It’s a sure thing, as a daddy provides an opportunity for you,” said one Sina Weibo user. 

“This is horrible,” said another. “An overturning of the value system.” . . .

How government corrupts even how companies raise money for projects

Democratic Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe figured out how to raise money for this "green" car company: get approval for foreigners to get US citizenship in exchange for $500,000 investments.  He apparently had no problem name dropping important Democrats to put pressure on bureaucrats to expedite the approval process.  You have to wonder how strong an investment is when you have to get them this type of government favors in return for the investment.  Possibly it isn't too surprising that McAuliffe's car company had been a bust.  Given that this was occurring during the Obama administration, it also raising additional questions of corruption involving other Democrats.  From the Associated Press:

The electric-car company headed until last fall by Democratic Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe and a sister company led by the brother of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are under federal scrutiny over how they used a foreign investor visa program.

. . . The inquiry is related to their use of a Department of Homeland Security program that grants permanent residency to foreign investors who invest $500,000 or more in economically struggling areas for ventures that create American jobs. . . .

"I have been extremely frustrated by the USCIS approval process," McAuliffe wrote to Doug Smith, a Homeland Security assistant secretary on July 28, 2010. "You should be aware that Senator Warner and other Members of Congress have made inquiries on this project." . . .

Years' worth of emails and other correspondence between McAuliffe and other GreenTech executives and Virginia Economic Development Partnership first reported by AP in December showed that VEDP staff under Democratic and Republican governors showed company officials a variety of sites in economically depressed Virginia regions. But the Virginia officials never got answers to questions about company operations and became skeptical of the investments-for-visas EB-5 program as a cornerstone of GreenTech's financing.

Weekly Standard: "If Guilty, Menendez Could Face 30 Years in Prison"

For a discussion of the relevant laws, see the extended discussion at the Weekly Standard:

If Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey is found guilty of traveling to the Dominican Republic to engage in sexual intercourse with underage prostitutes, he could face up to 30 years prison. The appropriate law, which would seem to apply in this instance, is the Prosecutorial Remedies And Other Tools To End The Exploitation Of Children Today (or the Protect Act). . . . 

Meanwhile four more prostitutes have come forward to confirm that Menendez was engaged in this behavior.

The main source in the Bob Menendez underage hooker scandal sent the FBI the names of four hookers who confirmed they had attended sex parties with Salmon Melgen and Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) in the Dominican Republic. . . .

So what does what learn from all this?  Just like the Secret Service agents who got in trouble over the prostitutes, Menendez got in trouble because he tried to underpay the prostitutes. Menendez apparently promised to pay $500 and instead only paid $100. 

Now it turns out that Menendez try to get a $500 million contract for the doctor who supplied the trips down to the Dominican Republic.

Sen. Bob Menendez used his influence to advocate for a Dominican Republic business deal that helped a longtime friend and donor whose South Florida office was raided by federal agents this week. 

Menendez questioned Obama administration officials at a July hearing about what it was doing to help U.S. businesses that he felt were being unfairly treated by the government of the Dominican Republic and other Latin American countries. 

One company Menendez was apparently referring to: ICSSI, acquired the year before by Dr. Salomon Melgen, a Palm Beach County eye doctor and friend. The firm was seeking to enforce a contract it had won to X-ray Dominican Republic port cargo, that could be worth $500 million to $1 billion over two decades. . . .

UPDATE: From Politico:

New Jersey political insiders tell POLITICO that even if it is proved Menendez had sex with prostitutes, he can survive that hit politically. Menendez wouldn’t even be the first sitting senator to weather a prostitution scandal; Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) admitted in 2007 that he had called a D.C.-based prostitution ring. Vitter, however, did not admit to having sex with prostitutes and the Senate Ethics Committee did not investigate the matter. 

“It is a sophisticated electorate that is very focused on policy issues, and if it were established that there was some personal failings, which is not yet at all clear, I wouldn’t say that it was politically determinative,” Torricelli said of New Jersey voters. 

But if the allegations that the women were underage prove to be true, that could be too much for Menendez — and the larger Senate Democratic Caucus — to accept and he could be forced to step down. 

Under U.S. law, it is illegal for an American citizen to have “commercial sex” with anyone younger than 18 while traveling in a foreign country. . . . 

Did government pressure cause Boeing to use a lower quality company to make batteries?

Did government corruption force Boeing to use a component that was not as high of a quality product as it would want in the new 787?  This quote from 2008 seems pretty old to imply anything about a newly released plane, but the NY Times still sees a link.

A former Boeing executive confirmed this when we spoke this week. After asking not to be named because of the diplomatic fragility of the topic, he said: “Let me put it this way: we knew the Japanese market would be Boeing’s in return for our selecting these Japanese partners. It was a silent understanding, and there was nothing in writing.” He added that Boeing’s Japanese suppliers had received low-interest loans from the Japanese government repayable only out of future profits. 

Although the Japanese airlines and suppliers are independent companies, “in Japan there’s a unique relationship between the airlines, the suppliers and the government,” according to the former Boeing official. “It’s cultural. The officials all went to the same schools and have close personal relationships. The government supported the airlines and the industries and they developed together. The government has enormous influence. They all work together.” 

As a Boeing vice president and former Boeing Japan president, Nicole Piasecki, told the company magazine in 2008: “These aren’t just relationships with people in business. The Japanese government is a powerful and important part of all economic activity and industrial development. So part of relationship building is negotiating these two important spheres of influence in Japan and understanding it’s all tied together.” 

Mr. Aboulafia agreed that Japan was unique. “This is the way things used to be in the days before free trade,” he said. “Japan is the last unreconstructed believer in industrial policy writ large.” . . . .

How Democrats used to use Patronage in Tennessee to generate donations to the party

This is an amazingly explicit discussion of how the Democrats in Tennessee used the power of government spending to get donations for the party.  From the Washington Post:

Tennessee Democrats, who’d watched their conservative voters drift to the GOP, finally lost the state House in 2010. That had been a financial lifeline for Democrats, since the legislature has broad powers over patronage. 

“That pretty much was the end,” said Cheek, the executive committee member. “Because we have nothing left. In the other low points, we had the Election Commission, we had the Building Commission. . . . If you wanted to get state deposits into your bank, those were all ours. And that’s where you’d raise your money.” 

Losing those powers “really kicked the props out from under the financing of the party,” Cheek said. . . .

Hat tip to Larry White for pointing to this link.

Democrats in Sacramento killing a bill making it easier to fire public school teachers who are sexual predators

This is a horrible situation where even when a public school teacher gets caught doing unbelievable acts the teacher gets paid to simply quit his job. While on net positive, there are problems with this CNN story, particularly its emphasis on campaign finance.  It almost seems like they did this story because of the campaign finance angle.  But rather than the donations altering how these politicians voted, it might simply be that the unions gave money to those politicians who agreed with them.  Rather than focusing so heavily on how teachers' union donations killed the bill, they should have focused just on the real story: how a majority of Democrats in the state legislature along with public teacher unions supported killing the bill.  How the unions got the legislators to go along is mere speculation (speculation that I think is wrong).  But CNN managed to turn a bad story for teacher unions into a call for what liberals want: campaign finance regulation.

Here is a related discussion about public school teachers in NYC.  From the WSJ:

. . . In the last five years in New York City, 97 tenured teachers or school employees have been charged by the Department of Education with sexual misconduct. Among the charges substantiated by the city's special commissioner of investigation—that is, found to have sufficient merit that an arbitrator's full examination was justified—in the 2011-12 school year:
• An assistant principal at a Brooklyn high school made explicit sexual remarks to three different girls, including asking one of them if she would perform oral sex on him.
• A teacher in Queens had a sexual relationship with a 13-year old girl and sent her inappropriate messages through email and Facebook.
If this kind of behavior were happening in any adult workplace in America, there would be zero tolerance. Yet our public school children are defenseless.
Here's why. Under current New York law, an accusation is first vetted by an independent investigator. (In New York City, that's the special commissioner of investigation; elsewhere in the state, it can be an independent law firm or the local school superintendent.) Then the case goes before an employment arbitrator. The local teachers union and school district together choose the arbitrators, who in turn are paid up to $1,400 per day. And therein lies the problem.
For many arbitrators, their livelihood depends on pleasing the unions (whether the United Federation of Teachers in New York City, or other local unions). And the unions—believing that they are helping the cause of teachers by being weak on sexual predators—prefer suspensions and fines, and not dismissal, for teachers charged with inappropriate sexual conduct. The effects of this policy are mounting. . . .

Billions of US Tax Dollars going to Cuba and other foreign countries?

From Mark Tapscott:

Two U.S. senators and a representative worry that billions of tax dollars could be going to Cuba and other foreign countries via criminal schemes designed to defraud Medicare and Medicaid.
The schemes often involve the use of “nominees,” individuals who are paid to be fronts for the actual owners of corporate entities being used in the fraudulent operation. By concealing the identities of true owners, the approach invites its use to funnel tax dollars out of the country.
In a letter made public yesterday to Marilyn Tavenner, acting administrator of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid, senators Orrin Hatch, R-UT, and Tom Coburn, R-OK, were joined by Rep. Peter Roskam, R-IL, said they fear billions of tax dollars are being lost annually as a result.
“Clearly, the program vulnerabilities that facilitate billions of dollars to be stolen from the Medicare program each year also allow for some of that money to be funneled to foreign countries,” the three congressmen said.
“While the fraud itself is unacceptable, the loss of American dollars to foreign countries because of flaws in our system is totally unacceptable. The American people deserve the peace of mind to know that federal officials are doing everything they can to safeguard taxpayers’ dollars and the Medicare program.” . . .

IL Rep. Mike Bost (R) furious over just getting a copy of the bill immediately before the vote

Edwards, Daschle, and Obama involved in discussions to sell public office for campaign endorsement?

Remember Illinois Governor Blagojevich soliciting bribes in exchange for Obama's Senate seat?  Didn't It appears that Obama had these types of discussions with others.  The objection was that the offer to sell the office was too early in the election process.  Doesn't Obama have an obligation to report such a crime? From ABC News:

Hindery, a longtime Democrat operative, was part of Edwards' inner circle and was dispatched to contact Barack Obama's campaign, and later Hillary Clinton's campaign, to strike a deal when it was clear Edwards would not win the 2008 presidential nomination.
On Jan. 3, 2008, the night Obama won the Iowa caucuses, Edwards ordered Hindery to contact Sen. Tom Daschle, an Obama adviser. Edwards wanted to team up with Obama, trading his endorsement for the vice-president slot early in the campaign to strike a death blow to Clinton.
Daschle questioned the Edwards' campaign reasoning for broaching the topic with Obama following the first contest of the campaign and on the night Obama was savoring victory, but brought the proposal to his candidate. Obama rejected the deal.
John Edwards Hoped to Be Appointed to the Supreme Court. . . .