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CBO Gets Minority Quota Mandate

Judicial Watch Blog — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:24:50 -0400

The overwhelmed federal agency that provides Congress with crucial economic data on pending legislation appealed for much-needed new staff this week and instead got a crazed minority quota mandate from the Democrat who controls its funding.

Overworked evaluating health care reform plans, the Congressional Budge Office (CBO), which has the task of writing official cost estimates for bills, desperately needs more manpower. Its stressed-out staff is working inhumane 100-hour workweeks and demands are only increasing with President Obama’s packed agenda, according to a Washington D.C. newspaper report. After all, the nonpartisan agency provides figures and estimates required in the Congressional budget process.

During a pitch to a House Appropriations subcommittee this week to add new staff, CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf was ordered to hire more women and minorities by the congresswoman who allocates its funding. Florida Democrat Debbie Wasserman Schultz instructed Elmendorf, who is appointed by the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate, to essentially create a quota system at the CBO.

The CBO director said he’s tried hiring more minorities by recruiting at historically black colleges and universities but claims there aren’t many women and minorities who qualify to work at the agency, which requires candidates to be U.S. citizens due to the delicate nature of the work. Not many U.S.-citizen women or minorities are earning doctoral degrees in economics, which makes the hiring pool small, Elmendorf told Wasserman Schultz.

The notoriously liberal lawmaker from south Florida insisted, telling the CBO director that he’s “got to reach down much further” by taking a “leadership role” in raising awareness of math and economics as careers for women and minorities. She also told Elmendorf that he needs to start a program to get children well before college because by that age women and minorities have already decided against math and economics.

Bill To Fire Govt. Workers Who Owe Billions In Taxes

Judicial Watch Blog — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 11:20:29 -0400

Tax delinquency is so rampant among federal government workers—including those at key presidential cabinet agencies—that a U.S. Congressman has introduced legislation 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 Internal Revenue Service (IRS). In 2008 alone, 276,300 federal workers stiffed the government out of $3.04 billion in taxes. The figure marks a substantial increase from $2.7 billion the previous year.

Practically every federal agency has delinquent employees, according to the IRS figures, and the agency with the most tax scofflaws is the U.S. Postal Service with nearly 30,000 workers who owe $297,933,756. Incredibly, this is an improvement from 2007 when more than 54,000 postal employees failed to pay over $407 million.

Retired military personnel make up around 33% of the money owed ($1,343,538,055) and nearly 30,000 active-duty military employees owe the government well over $100 million. More than 400 employees in the U.S. House of Representatives failed to pay close to $6 million and 231 in the U.S. Senate owe nearly $2.5 million. Fifty employees in the Executive Office of the President, which includes the White House, still owe $812,917.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is the cabinet agency with the highest delinquency rate at around 4% and the Treasury Department wins for best compliance with less than 1% of workers who didn’t pay their taxes in 2008, the latest available figures.

About 100,000 civilian federal employees currently owe the IRS $962 million, which disturbed a Utah lawmaker, Republican Jason Chaffetz, enough to introduce a bill that could help remedy the problem. The measure calls on the federal government to get rid employees who have “seriously delinquent tax debt” and bans the hiring of anyone who owes back taxes.

Only IRS employees can be terminated for not paying their federal income taxes, which is why the agency has the lowest level of tax delinquency of any federal agency. The pending legislation would simply extend the IRS’s effective system to the rest of the government.

After all, most federal jobs offer higher salaries than the private sector, unheard of stability and lucrative benefits not easily found outside the government.

Rise In Tuition Breaks For Illegal Immigrants

Judicial Watch Blog — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:46:30 -0400

Amid a budget crisis that’s negatively impacted public education across the country, the number of illegal immigrants benefitting from discounted tuition at colleges and universities in Texas continues rising, costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in the last few years.

With the blessing of Republican Governor Rick Perry, The Lone Star State offers illegal aliens who graduate from Texas high schools heavily discounted tuition at any of the state’s public universities or two-year community colleges. The costly perk is supposed to be reserved for U.S. citizens or legal residents who live in the state.

Instead, thousands of illegal aliens annually receive the benefit as well as other taxpayer-funded financial aid and the exorbitant tab keeps growing. Texas has awarded nearly $34 million in state and institutional financial aid to illegal immigrants in the last four years alone, according to a Dallas newspaper report that quotes figures from the state’s Higher Education Coordinating Board.

Texas education officials continue the practice even though the Attorney General ruled last year that giving illegal immigrants discounted public college tuition is not legal. In an opinion published last June, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott stated that allowing illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates breaks federal law.

Ironically, the undocumented students who obtain a U.S.-subsidized college degree can’t work in the country because of their immigration status. This hasn’t stopped a handful of states from investing in their publicly-financed educations, however. Led by Texas in 2001, nine other states have laws granting illegal aliens discounted tuition at public institutions of higher education.

Among them are California, Utah, Kansas, Washington, New York and Maryland. The practice has been legally challenged in several states, including Texas and California. Filed in December, the Texas lawsuit asserts that illegal immigrants are not eligible for federal aid such as Pell Grants.

In California a group of out-of-state American students argued that the Golden State’s public college system violates the law by charging them higher tuition and fees than undocumented immigrants. A California appellate court ruled in favor of the American students and the case is pending before the sate Supreme Court.

At least three states—Georgia, Oklahoma and Arizona—have solved the contentious issue by creating policies banning discounted tuition for illegal aliens at public schools.

Conyers Gets Public Atty. Despite Hubby’s $174k Salary

Judicial Watch Blog — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:21:29 -0400

A corrupt Detroit councilwoman married to a prominent congressman with a $174,000 annual salary will use a taxpayer-financed attorney to appeal her jail sentence, even though her guilty plea waives the right to contest it.

Jail-bound Monica Conyers, wife of the famed Michigan Democrat (John Conyers) who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, claims to be indigent and unable to afford a lawyer to represent her in the appeal she promised in a federal court document not to file. Last week a federal judge sentenced Conyers to three years in prison and two years of probation for bribery.

Months earlier Conyers admitted taking bribes from a developer to change her vote on a multi million-dollar city contract to haul and treat the city’s sewage sludge. After vehement denials and public assurances of her innocence, Conyers pleaded guilty only because the FBI had electronic surveillance evidence of her taking cash bribes in fast-food parking lots.

The developer had already pleaded guilty in federal court to paying Conyers more than $6,000 in bribes and to using a courier on four separate occasions to the deliver the money. The plea agreement signed by the disgraced councilwoman in June specifically says that if the sentence imposed falls at 60 months or less, “defendant waives any right to appeal her conviction or sentence.”

Regardless, the public will finance the legal defense of a notoriously unscrupulous politician who has no grounds for an appeal. Although her husband has made six figures as a federal lawmaker for several decades, the bribed councilwoman signed an affidavit declaring that she can’t afford a lawyer because she has no money.

Detroit’s largest newspaper, which has thoroughly covered the Conyers scandal, asks: How could she be married to one of the longest tenured members of congress and unable to afford counsel? The veteran legislator, who has been embroiled in a few public scandals of his own, refuses to comment on his wife’s sudden indigence or who financed the private attorney that represented her for more than a year.

Could it be that Detroit’s acclaimed political power couple became estranged in the last few days? At last week’s sentencing Conyers invoked her husband and son in court to try to convince the judge not to send her to jail, pointing out that the “older man” and 14-year-old boy need her. Now the old guy with the lucrative salary refuses to pay her legal fees.

Obama Bans U.S. Flag In Haiti

Judicial Watch Blog — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:04:46 -0400

The United States has overwhelmingly dominated Haiti earthquake recovery efforts yet President Obama has banned the American flag from flying in the dilapidated island to avoid looking like an occupation force even as other nation’s proudly wave theirs.

In the Obama Administration outrage du jour, Old Glory has been shelved to appease left-wing liberals who early on accused the U.S. of occupying Haiti in the aftermath of the deadly January disaster. The U.S. has sent more money (tens of millions of dollars), search-and-rescue crews, medical personnel, life-saving supplies and sophisticated medical equipment than any other nation.

Americans have also led the effort to maintain a semblance of civility in the distressed island, where looting and violence were prevalent in the earthquake’s aftermath, by deploying the largest military force of any other nation. The western hemisphere’s poorest country, Haiti has long been a hotbed of crime and the tremor’s chaos only made things worse.

While U.S. forces—around 12,000 in total—have saved the day, they can’t display the nation’s flag at their military compound like other countries. France's tricolor, Britain's Union Jack and even Croatia's coat of arms flap in the breeze, a national newspaper reveals, but the Stars and Stripes is prohibited by our beloved commander-in-chief who doesn’t want to give Haiti the wrong idea.

The official explanation from camp Obama this week is that the U.S. is not in Haiti as an occupation force, but rather as an “international partner” committed to supporting its government on the road to recovery. No comment on why other countries, which have contributed far less to the recovery effort, are dignifiedly waving their flag.

This story was first reported last week by a military publication (Army Times) that said the U.S. flag is nowhere in sight at the Port-au-Prince airport or any other forward operating bases because of concerns over “host nation sensitivities.” In the piece, the Army colonel in charge of Haitian operations diplomatically explains his marching orders from the White House—“We are respectful as the invited guests of the Government of Haiti”—and stresses that U.S. forces “proudly wear an American flag” on their right sleeve.

It’s not enough, according to insulted military veterans and those currently serving. In a letter to the Army colonel in charge in Haiti, a veteran who served on numerous disaster relief missions says that the U.S. flag was always flown for two reasons; to remind the people they were helping who came to their rescue and pride.

Government Secrecy Increases Under Obama

Judicial Watch Blog — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:46:04 -0400

Government agencies keep finding excuses to keep an alarming number of public records secret as President Obama sits idly watching his promise of unprecedented transparency repeatedly mocked.

The commander-in-chief’s open-government guarantee has turned out to be a big joke that has actually led to more secrecy than under the Bush Administration. Federal agencies have increasingly used “legal exemptions” to withhold information that should probably be made public, according to an analysis conducted by a national news organization.

The probe examined public records requests from more than a dozen federal agencies—including the Federal Reserve Board, Environmental Protection Agency and the departments of Justice, State, Homeland Security, Transportation and Treasury—during a two-year period to compare statistics from the Bush and Obama administrations.

In Obama’s first year in office, major government agencies abused legitimate exemptions to withhold information tens of thousands of times more often than during George W. Bush’s final year, according to the findings. The federal agencies rejected public records requests 312,683 times in 2008—Bush’s last year—compared to 466,872 in 2009, Obama’s first in the White House.

The most common exemption cited is one that lets the government hide records that detail “internal decision-making.” Because this particular excuse can be vague, broad and downright bogus, Obama specifically ordered agencies to cease using it so frequently and the Justice Department followed up by reminding agencies that disclosing such records is “fully consistent with the purpose” of a federal law intended to keep government accountable to the public.

Statistics prove that the executive directive and Justice Department order have been widely ignored because it’s the most frequently used excuse by government officials who deny public records requests. Major agencies cited that particular exemption at least 70,779 times during 2009 compared to 47,395 during Bush’s final year.

A couple of examples involve the Federal Aviation Administration. The agency refused to provide records involving incidents of collisions between airplanes and birds as well as records related to its approval of a controversial publicity stunt involving an Air Force One flyover of New York City that cause panic among residents.

Evidently, Obama’s pledge to provide Americans with “transparency like you’ve never seen before” has instead turned out to be a level of government secrecy never before seen.

House Impeaches Bribed Fed Judge

Judicial Watch Blog — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:56:29 -0500

A crooked Louisiana federal judge who took bribes from lawyers to pay off gambling debts has become the 15th in the nation’s history to be impeached by the House of Representatives for “high crimes and misdemeanors.”

Removing a federal judge from his or her lifetime position is a tough feat that requires overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing yet this case was a virtual slam dunk. For years U.S. District Judge G. Thomas Portreous took money and valuable gifts from attorneys with cases before him and he hid assets, filed for bankruptcy under a bogus name and defied a bankruptcy court’s order relating to credit.

His many transgressions were discovered during an FBI investigation of state judges in New Orleans’s Jefferson Parish, where Portreous served until Bill Clinton named him to the federal bench in 1994. During a lengthy criminal probe, Porteous offered incriminating information relating to the broad judicial misconduct investigation and he was subsequently suspended from hearing cases though he continues collecting his $174,000 annual salary.

In November Porteous sued the congressional task force that just impeached him in a desperate effort to block it from removing him, alleging that the committee illegally used testimony he gave under a promise of immunity to make a case for his ouster. Prosecutors agree not to use immunized testimony against defendants but the deal doesn't effect impeachment proceedings which are conducted by federal legislators.

In its unanimous decision to impeach Porteous this week the House approved four articles accusing the shady judge of taking money, meals and other expensive gifts from lawyers and a bail bond company and of making false statements in his personal bankruptcy filing. The House Judiciary Committee said that although much of the judge's "improper conduct" occurred when he was a state judge, he had an obligation to disclose his actions during his confirmation process in 1994 when Clinton nominated him as to the federal bench. The Judiciary Committee found that Porteous had engaged "in a pattern of conduct that is incompatible with the trust placed in him as a federal judge."

The matter will go to the Senate for a trial, which will be conducted by a 12-member committee that will recommend whether to remove Porteous from office. It would take a two-thirds Senate vote—67 senators voting to convict—to permanently remove Porteous from the bench. In an editorial, New Orleans’s largest newspaper says the sooner the Senate can conduct a trial to rid us of this crooked judge the better.

Only one federal judge has been stripped of his lifetime appointment in the last decade. That Texas judge, Samuel Kent (appointed to the bench by George H.W. Bush in 1990), is serving a three-year prison sentence for obstructing an investigation into charges that he sexually assaulted two female employees.

Mexican Military Incursion In Texas

Judicial Watch Blog — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 10:46:45 -0500

Highlighting the U.S. government’s perpetual failure to secure the southern border, a Mexican military helicopter was photographed by a Texas sheriff this week flying over a residential neighborhood at least a mile into the American side of the Rio Grande.

These sorts of invasions by Mexico’s corrupt military, long on the drug cartel payroll, have been going on for years but the timing of this incursion is especially alarming since it occurred on the same week that Homeland Security officials revealed Mexican drug cartels are rapidly infiltrating federal law enforcement agencies along the southwest border.

Testifying before a U.S. Senate panel, Homeland Security officials said that more than 400 public corruption cases involving federal, state and local enforcement personnel in the crime-infested Mexican border region have been solved in the last two years alone. Additionally, 576 corruption cases were opened in 2009 involving Border Patrol agents.

This makes the repeated Mexican military incursions all the more abominable, especially since U.S. officials know they’re occurring. Last year Judicial Watch obtained Homeland Security records documenting 226 incursions by Mexican government personnel into the United States between 1996 and 2005. Obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, the annual intelligence summaries of “Mexican Government Incidents” were designated as “limited official use” by the Department of Homeland Security requiring “special protection against unauthorized or inadvertent disclosure.”

Simply put, the government doesn’t want the public to know about these foreign invasions or that Homeland Security officials are aware that they’re occurring. This week’s incident was revealed in a San Antonio newspaper that quotes the Zapata County Sheriff who spotted the military chopper hovering over homes in the Rio Grande Plain region south of Laredo.

Armed personnel occupied the helicopter, which flew over a residential area known as Falcon Heights, just south of the Starr-Zapata county line, the sheriff said. He took pictures of the aircraft, which had the insignia of the Mexican Navy, and claims that U.S. military officials were informed of the incursion. This is an area where the U.S.-Mexico boundary is very clear because a major river and a large dam separate the countries, the sheriff points out.