In the politician’s version of America’s Dumbest Criminals, a prominent Maryland state lawmaker actually kept a detailed list of the illegal favors he did for executives of a grocery chain that paid him nearly a quarter of a million dollars in bribes.

As chair of the state’s powerful senate taxation committee, Democrat Ulysses Currie sold his influence to the supermarket chain (Shoppers Food Warehouse) that he helped land government business and other favors that financially benefitted the company. Federal prosecutors say the grocery chain put Currie on its payroll for about six years, making monthly payments of up to $7,600 to the corrupt legislator.

In an 18-count grand jury indictment, the feds claim that after Currie became chairman of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee in 2002, he asked to be put on the supermarket chain’s payroll to conceal the bribes. He later said his part-time grocery job was as a consultant of “minority recruitment and outreach, community relations and public affairs.” Instead the 73-year-old politician repeatedly used his power and leverage to benefit the firm and its top executives, prosecutors say.

In fact, Currie created a list, “Accomplishments on Behalf of Shoppers,” documenting his unscrupulous deeds for the grocer and justifying his bribes. Among them: Currie helped Shoppers secure a $2 million government handout for a Baltimore location and a $3 million grant for supermarket road improvements, used official letterhead to repeatedly lobby state highway officials for traffic signals at stores in two counties and coerced a county liquor board to allow the transfer of a liquor license.

Currie also persuaded government officials to give up the right to buy precious land—owned by the Washington Transit Authority—so that the property could be used to expand an existing Shoppers facility. Several executives from the grocery chain have also been indicted and the company has agreed to pay a $2.5 million penalty. Curie faces decades in prison.

The Obama Administration’s taxpayer-funded Islamic defense program has been quite busy this week, filing several discrimination lawsuits on behalf of Muslims in different parts of the country and holding Justice Department meetings to discuss prosecuting “anti-Muslim hate speech.”

The legal actions come on the same week that the White House and various federal agencies—including the Department of Homeland Security—hosted a special workshop to provide members of radical Islamic groups with direct access to U.S. government funding, assistance and resources. Read all about that here.

Now the administration is flexing its legal muscle in its ardent quest to befriend the enemy. A federal civil rights agency known as the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has filed discrimination lawsuits against companies in Nebraska, California and Colorado for discriminating against Muslims by not accommodating prayer breaks and forbidding a headscarf on the job.

The government sued meatpacking plants in Greeley Colorado and Grand Island Nebraska for religious and racial harassment because dozens of Muslim employees were “denied prayer time” during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. The lawsuit seeks changes to policies and procedures to accommodate Muslim workers, payment for past and future damages and punitive damages.

In a third lawsuit filed this week the EEOC claims that an outdoor apparel store discriminated against a Muslim female job applicant in northern California because she wore a headscarf known as a hijab. The company has a longstanding employee dress code banning any sort of head covering but the government asserts that in this particular case it’s discriminating on the basis of religion.

Also this week, the Justice Department met with a coalition of Islamic groups that demand the administration criminally prosecute anti-Muslim rhetoric as hate speech. Besides investing more resources to combat discrimination against Muslims, coalition leaders want Attorney General Eric Holder to “make a strong public statement” condemning hate crimes, harassment and discrimination against Muslims.

An Obama Administration program launched with great fanfare last summer to punish businesses that exploit illegal workers has given hundreds of flagrant offenders a free pass after Homeland Security audits determined they employed large numbers of undocumented immigrants. 

It’s the one area of immigration enforcement that President Obama vows to pursue, penalizing companies that benefit from cheap illegal alien labor rather than workplace raids that lead to mass deportations. To fulfill the mission, the commander-in-chief launched a “bold, new audit initiative” last July to inspect businesses suspected of hiring large numbers of illegal workers. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents scrutinize hiring records to determine if companies are complying with employment eligibility laws.

The inspections have determined that hundreds of companies throughout the U.S. have significant numbers of illegal immigrants on their payroll yet none have been punished, according to a Houston newspaper that obtained internal ICE records through the Freedom of Information Act. At least 430 audit cases listed as “closed” by the agency had high percentages of workers with “questionable” documents yet they faced no consequences.

The records show federal inspectors specifically identified more than 110 companies with suspect documents for multiple workers yet none of them were fined or criminally charged. They include a California business with suspicious documents for 93% of its employees, an Illinois firm with dubious paperwork for nearly all of its 200 employees and a Texas manufacturer with bogus files for more than half of its 107-member workforce.

Additionally, ICE agents in Atlanta reached a secret agreement with a manufacturing firm that had questionable records on file for 574 of its 1,187 employees. The undisclosed agreement allowed the company to avoid criminal prosecution on the condition that it complies with certain agency requirements, though ICE would not provide additional details.

So much for Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s promise that, under her leadership, the agency will focus on “renewing a priority on employers who are making money off of these illegal immigrants and giving them jobs that should be going to American workers.”

Following the steps of the nation’s Treasury Secretary and a powerful New York congressman, a two-term state treasurer who portrays himself as a vigilant custodian of public money has failed to pay taxes over the past decade.

Massachusetts Treasurer Timothy Cahill, a gubernatorial candidate, owes the state about $15,000 in taxes for income his campaign committee account has earned from investments in the last ten years. Like the other high-profile public servants who failed miserably to fulfill their civic duty, Cahill only agreed to right the wrong after the media exposed the crime.

Cahill has raised millions of dollars for his political campaigns over the years, much of it from sources with business before his agency, and a local newspaper discovered that there was no record of checks to the state to cover taxes. A former Democrat who is running for governor as an independent, Cahill quickly acknowledged the “lapse” and vowed to pay the decades worth of taxes.

He’s hardly the only public servant to blow off taxes. President Obama’s Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, got busted during confirmation hearings for failing to pay $34,000 in federal taxes on his lucrative salary at the International Monetary Fund. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) graciously waived the hefty penalties when Geithner was forced to pay the debt before getting confirmed.

Another high-profile tax evader, ethically challenged Harlem Congressman Charles Rangel, was actually the chairman of the House committee (Ways and Means) that writes the tax policy for the entire nation when he blew off the IRS. For two decades Rangel, who is embroiled in a major ethics scandal, “forgot” to pay taxes on rental income from a Caribbean villa.

Tax delinquency is so rampant among federal workers—including those at key presidential cabinet agencies—that Congress introduced legislation last year to fire derelict employees and ban the hiring of other scofflaws. Hundreds of thousands of federal employees and retirees owe Uncle Sam billions of dollars in taxes and the figure increases annually, according to the IRS, which revealed that in 2008 alone 276,300 federal workers stiffed the government out of $3.04 billion in taxes.

In its mission to prevent states from enforcing immigration laws the Obama Administration has filed another lawsuit against Arizona, this time accusing a public college system of discrimination for requiring job applicants to furnish proof of legal residency before getting hired.

The complaint comes less than two months after the administration sued the state and its governor, Jan Brewer, to halt enforcement of its new immigration control law which, ironically, was modeled after the existing federal statute that’s seldom enforced. It bans “sanctuary city” policies, makes it a state crime to be in the U.S. without proper documentation and allows local police to check suspects’ immigration status.

In that suit the Justice Department accuses Arizona of “intruding” on the government’s authority by passing a state version of its immigration laws. A few weeks go a federal judge ruled in favor of the government, temporarily blocking the law’s key provisions—allowing police to check a person’s immigration status and requiring immigrants to prove they’re authorized to be in the country—from being implemented.

Now the feds want the taxpayer-financed Maricopa Community College system to stop making prospective employees show proof of legal status. With 10 campuses and two skill centers in the Phoenix area, Maricopa County Colleges require that job applicants who aren’t U.S. citizens show their green cards to ensure eligibility.

This is discriminatory because it treats authorized workers differently during the hiring process based on their citizenship status, according to the renowned illegal immigrant advocate (Thomas Perez) appointed by Obama to head the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Therefore the community college system is demonstrating a “pattern or practice of discrimination,” Perez asserts in a news report this week.

Perez, Maryland’s former Labor Secretary, used to serve on the board of a controversial, taxpayer-funded advocacy organization (Casa de Maryland) that helps illegal immigrants by operating day laborer facilities and offering free legal services. He has long fought for the rights of illegal aliens in the U.S. by supporting Mexican and Guatemalan-issued cards as valid identification in this country, favoring discounted tuition at public colleges and providing advice to illegal aliens on how to deal with police.

It’s not surprising that he’s leading a fierce effort to combat immigration enforcement. Besides the two lawsuits, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is also under Justice Department “investigation” for his agency’s unfounded “discriminatory” practices in operating a successful immigration enforcement partnership between local and federal authorities.

In its fervent crusade to befriend Muslims, the White House will host special workshops this week to provide members of radical Islamic groups with direct access to U.S. government funding, assistance and resources.

While this may sound surreal, it’s reality in the Obama Administration, which has embarked on a never-ending mission to befriend the enemy. Previous efforts include secret meetings between Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and extremist Arab and Muslim groups to discuss national security matters and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s special order allowing the reentry of two radical Islamic academics whose terrorist ties have for years banned them from the U.S.

As contemptible as those moves may seem, the latest effort is even more outrageous. Various government agencies, including the departments of Homeland Security, Agriculture, Education and Health will participate in the White House seminars which were exposed by an independent nonprofit dedicated to monitoring the nation’s security.

The goal is to provide the leaders of groups associated with the parent organization of Hamas and Al Qaeda (Muslim Brotherhood) with tips on cutting through “red tape” when seeking U.S. government access or money. In all 20 national Muslim groups with ties to the global Islamist organization that preaches Jihad are scheduled to participate. Their mission is to obtain cash and other resources from Uncle Sam.

While the U.S. government has kept the event quiet, it was announced in a newsletter by a Saudi-funded group (Islamic Society of North America or ISNA) that was a co-conspirator in a federal terrorist funding case a few years ago. Featured in a Judicial Watch special report on Muslim charities that finance terrorism, ISNA is firmly committed to spreading the radical form of Islam, which is the driving force behind Jihad.

Now the Obama Administration is helping ISNA and its radical Islamic counterparts access American taxpayer resources as well as top government officials. 

The “most transparent administration in history” is shielding companies that annually get billions of dollars in government contracts from disclosing how they’ve cheated U.S. taxpayers by impeding a new law that requires the information to be publicly available.

Passed by Congress earlier this year, President Obama proudly signed the contractor disclosure measure over the summer so that Americans could see, before any new contract is awarded, whether a “company plays by the rules” and how well it’s performed in the past. Any firms doing business with Uncle Sam must report criminal or civil wrongdoing, previous failures in federal work or any administrative findings against it.

As per the law (Clean Contracting Act of 2008), the information is kept on a publicly accessible database that also lists whether the contractor has ever defaulted on a prior government job or engaged in egregious behavior that resulted in suspension or disbarment. The idea, according to the independent Vermont Senator who authored the measure, is to ensure that the public has access to critical information about where its tax dollars are going.

But the powerful defense companies and other industries that get a chunk of the government’s annual $500 billion contracting budget don’t want their dirty laundry aired publicly. Incredibly, they’ve found an ally in Obama, despite his world-renowned, open-government rhetoric. The White House has delayed enacting the crucial disclosure provision while it “studies the issue,” according to a newspaper report published this week.

In a statement issued to the publication, the White House said that “there will be legal and practical issues” that must be addressed before contractors are forced to reveal their corrupt past. However, Americans ran rest assured that the president’s people intend to address those mysterious issues “as quickly as possible” to keep with the administration’s commitment of increasing “transparency in government contracting.”

In the latest of many corruption scandals to rock the Congressional Black Caucus, a veteran Texas lawmaker has illegally awarded thousands of dollars in college scholarships to relatives and the children of a top aide even though anti-nepotism rules expressly forbid it.

Reported over the weekend by a Dallas newspaper, it marks the sixth time in the last few years that a member of the influential House committee is embroiled in wrongdoing. Most recently two prominent members—New York’s Charles Rangel and California’s Maxine Waters—have hogged up the spotlight for their widely reported transgressions, which have resulted in a multitude of ethics charges by House investigators; Rangel for failing to pay taxes and hiding income and assets and Waters for unscrupulously steering federal bailout funds to her husband’s failing bank.

In a federal trial last month, Illinois Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. was exposed for his involvement in the biggest political scandal of modern time, a plot to buy President Obama’s old U.S. Senate seat. Jackson and his top fundraiser offered to pay ousted Governor Rod Blagojevich, a convicted felon, $1 million for the appointment, according to court testimony in Blagojevich’s corruption trial.

A few years ago California Congresswoman Laura Richardson got busted for funding her political campaigns with hundreds of thousands of dollars borrowed against three separate homes whose loans she later defaulted on. Before that Florida’s Kendrick Meek, the state’s Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate this fall, steered millions of tax dollars to a shady developer that employed his mother as a “consultant.”

Now the baton has been handed off to Eddie Johnson, a nine-term Democrat from Dallas who gave her grandson and great nephews, as well as the children of her top aide, more than a dozen scholarships intended for needy students in her congressional district. None of the recipients even live in the area Johnson represents in the House and all violate rules explicitly forbidding awards to relatives of the CBC foundation that distributes the money.

Initially Johnson, who has served as caucus chairwoman and on the board that oversees the scholarship foundation, denied wrongdoing but subsequently said she “unknowingly” violated the rules though she assures that she didn’t “personally benefit.” However, the foundation’s general counsel has determined that the scholarships violated eligibility rules regarding relatives and residency.