The Washington Times has reported that Senator Feinstein offered on October 30th, 2008 to secure funds for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) just days before the agency awarded a three-year contract to CB Richard Ellis (CBRE), a company run by Feinstein’s husband, Richard Blum.

The Feinstein bill provided the FDIC with an unusual direct grant to expand its mortgage modification and loan guarantee programs. Mr. Blum’s contract with the FDIC could ne him hundreds of millions of dollars in sale of foreclosed properties held by the FDIC.

“The Senate Ethics Committee needs to investigate this apparent conflict of interest of Senator Feinstein immediately,” said Wilson. “They must ensure that this government contract was not awarded in return for the Senator introducing legislation favored by FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair.”

According to the Times story, “The proposal was a pet project of FDIC Chairman Sheila C. Bair.” Feinstein ultimately introduced the legislation on January 6th, 2009, totaling $25 billion in an unusual direct allocation to the FDIC, which usually operates by raising money from bank-paid insurance payments.

Feinstein’s unusual move came directly on the heels of her husband receiving a highly lucrative FDIC contract. By March, the FDIC had assigned CBRE 507 foreclosed properties to be sold, worth $221.7 million. It already has under contract to be sold more than $11 million worth of properties.

“While the Senate considers legislation offered by Senator Feinstein to funnel money to the FDIC, what it should really be considering is whether she did so because her husband is doing profitable business with the FDIC,” said Wilson.

Both Feinstein and the FDIC have denied there was any pay-to-play corruption involved. “That should be for the Senate Ethics Committee to determine,” Wilson said, reminding the committee of its responsibility to investigate “even the appearance of a conflict of interest.”

“The culture of corruption in Washington, epitomized by what appears to be a pay-to-play conflict of interest, will only be brought under control when the legislators involved are brought to account,” Wilson concluded.

Interview Availability: Please contact Alex Rosenwald at (703)383-0880 or at arosenwald@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

“The American people should be proud of themselves for what they did. For taking to the streets yesterday in their hometowns to protest an unjust government. For traveling miles to be in their state capitals, and elsewhere,” said Wilson.

Wilson emphatically believes that “the American people, and the American people alone, deserve credit for making their voices heard as one.”

“The beauty of this movement is that, despite some claims, nobody organized this; the American people spontaneously did this themselves,” Wilson said.

More than 250 thousand Americans are estimated to have participated in over 700 tea parties in cities, towns, and villages nationwide, protesting some $13 trillion of spending, loans and assurances by the federal government since March, 2008.

“This is just the beginning,” Wilson added. “Now Americans everywhere must become recruiters, organizers, and list-builders. Now is the time help take back liberty and defend limited government, one community at a time.”

The tea party movement was inspired by CNBC on-air editor, Rick Santelli, who in response to President Barack Obama’s $275 billion mortgage modification plan famously asked traders on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, “This is America! How many of you people want to pay for your neighbor’s mortgage that has an extra bathroom and can’t pay their bills? Raise their hands.”

After a chorus of boos by traders, Mr. Santelli promised to organize a Chicago tea party, inspiring a nationwide movement.

The movement itself was organized on websites like Taxdayteaparty.com, on social networking sites like Facebook, and through word-of-mouth. Media outlets like the national Fox News Channel, talk radio, and the thousands of local newspapers, television and radio stations across the country are also credited with giving individual activists a means of getting the word out about local events.

“Politicians in Washington, in state capitals, and elsewhere had better be paying attention,” Wilson warned.

“This is not going away,” Wilson promised. “The American people will not be denied what is rightfully theirs, they will no longer be ripped off by the welfare, entitlement, and bailout spending that is saddling the nation with the largest debt in human history, and they will only take so much.”

“And to those in power that are afraid, know this: you should be,” Wilson concluded.

Interview Availability: Please contact Alex Rosenwald at (703)383-0880 or at arosenwald@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

“Barack Obama should provide a comprehensive list of what Congress actually approved in spending instead of what Obama wants us to see,” Wilson declared. “The government website is just pure political propaganda paid for by taxpayer money to divert attention from the waste and outright fraud he and Nancy Pelosi are perpetrating.”

Wilson noted that the government website, Recovery.gov “highlights spending that promotes the Obama political agenda, but conveniently not the spending that the American people would find objectionable.”

“Why are Barack Obama and his cronies trumpeting a few road projects today?” Wilson asked. “Why isn’t he showcasing the $168 billion in welfare, or the $53 billion in handouts to state governments who refuse to rein in their wasteful spending? Or, why isn’t he showcasing the $17 billion sent to foreign banks via the AIG bailout?”

The Recovery.gov website was introduced by Obama in February of this year. Wilson noted that private news media like the Wall Street Journal “were more capable at producing a comprehensive look at the spending than the bureaucracies tasked to actually spend the money.”

On February 14th, Obama promised the nation that Recovery.gov would “allow any American to watch where the money goes… this is your money, and you deserve to know where it’s going and how it’s spent.”

Wilson believes that the Administration has broken its promise. “Obama is not following the website’s own mission to show ‘how, when, and where the funds will be spent—which states and sectors of the economy are due to receive what proportion of the funds.’”

Wilson says an honest accounting of how the money is spent may never be forthcoming. “We may never know how the money is ultimately spent,” he said.

“What we do know is that the trillion-dollar ‘stimulus’ spending bill is one of the biggest, and most expensive thefts in human history. By the time the money flows back into Obama and his Party’s political coffers, Recovery.gov will still be updating its website,” Wilson concluded.

Interview Availability: Please contact Alex Rosenwald at (703)383-0880 or at arosenwald@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

“The Senate has voted to gut taxpayer protections in the GIVE Act that would have prohibited lobbyists, political organizations, for-profits and labor groups from taking money under the program,” Wilson warned. “And now only the House can put a stop to it by voting to reject the Senate’s amendments.”

The legislation passed the Senate by a vote of 79-19. This followed a close vote that would have put language back into the bill prohibiting the groups from participating in the program.

“The House version of the GIVE Act was amended overwhelmingly to explicitly prohibit these groups from receiving tax dollars under the program,” Wilson reminded House members in his statement.

“Now under the Senate version of the bill, the groups can receive the money, they just have to promise not to use it for the prohibited activities,” Wilson explained.

As ALG News previously reported, the House version of the bill, HR 1388, was amended in a motion to recommit by Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC). It was her amendment that had inserted the prohibitions, now in danger of being completely removed. The legislation, with Foxx’s amendment included, passed the House 321-105.

Wilson warned that it will be easy for the groups prohibited under the House version to “get around toothless limits of the Senate version.”

“Because the money is fungible, or can be substituted by the organizations using accounting tricks, tax dollars will most certainly wind up being used for politics and lobbying,” Wilson explained.

“Even worse is it will be nearly impossible to enforce any prohibitions once the money starts moving. This was a bad deal for taxpayers,” Wilson said.

Wilson noted that there will not be any conference committee even though the House and Senate versions of the legislation are different.

“Because the Senate simply amended the House version of the bill, all the House now needs to do is vote to accept the Senate amendments,” said Wilson.

Wilson urged there to be a roll call on the bill. “Constituents in every single district across the nation have a right to know how their representatives vote on the Senate amendments.”

Wilson cautioned House members against overreaching. “If the House now votes to force American taxpayers to furnish money for speech with which they might not agree, we promise to remind their constituents often,” he concluded.

# #

“I introduced an amendment to change the ‘GIVE Act’ because it was allowing activities that I did not believe the American people want to have funded by the federal government,” said Foxx in the interview.

Foxx said that without her amendment, dollars going to President Obama’s national service programs would wind up in political coffers. According to the amendment, individuals and organizations that participate in national service programs would be prohibited from engaging in lobbying, and also prevented from co-locating upon the same premises as organizations that lobby.

Foxx believes that taxpayer money already is  being misappropriated to political organizations. “I do believe that the bill without my amendment did allow the left-wing groups to be funded. That has been proven to be the case in the past. And I believe that would be the case to continue if my amendment hadn’t passed.”

“We may not be able to stop every bit of funding going to these left-wing groups, but we can certainly put in measures that will force some accountability and will force people to have to think before they violate the law,” Foxx added.

“My amendment to the ‘GIVE Act’ will not in any way hinder volunteerism. What it will do will be to add some additional constraints on the way federal dollars are spent,” Foxx said.

Foxx also proposed measures to reform government accounting practices. “I believe that we should have an accounting of every penny of government money that is spent, particularly federal dollars. We don’t do that. I would go to the zero-based budgeting if I could, but we can’t get a group together to do that,” Foxx said.

The “GIVE Act” is an Obama Administration proposal to expand the national service corps from 75 thousand to 250 thousand.

Foxx in the end opposed the bill she amended, but justified her stand. “I introduced the amendment to change the ‘GIVE Act’ because it was allowing activities that I did not believe the American people want to have funded by the federal government.”

“I had overall opposition to the bill, but there are ways that we sometimes can make a bad bill a little better. And I think we should do that every chance we get,” she added.
When asked if she expected her amendment to become law, Foxx said, “When my amendment was passed so easily by the House, there were some who felt that what would happen would be that the Senate would strip my amendment or that it would be stripped in conference. That certainly is a possibility.”

The legislation, with Foxx’s amendment included, passed the House 321-105. It has been introduced in the Senate, and cloture has already been invoked, although it can still be amended.

“What I hope is that enough Republicans and maybe some conservative Democrats understand the intent of my amendment and will fight to keep it in, whether it’s in the Senate or in conference,” Foxx said.

The North Carolina Congresswoman had a call to action to the American people, “What we need is for Americans to contact their Senators and let them know that they support my amendment and urge them to keep it in the bill.”

Dr. Virginia Foxx was reelected to her third term to represent North Carolina’s Fifth District in the United States House of Representatives in November 2008. She currently serves on the powerful House Committees on Rules.

To watch Rep. Virginia Foxx’s interview speech, please follow the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzIS91iksSs

# # #

Wilson also urged members of the Senate “not to strip out provisions that protect taxpayers,” saying that “Any member of the Senate who votes against the Foxx amendment is voting for handing taxpayer funds to left-wing groups.”

The GIVE Act is an Obama Administration proposal to expand the national service corps from 75 thousand to 250 thousand.

“Virginia Foxx is a hero for taxpayers in a time when they have very few advocates,” said Wilson. “The ‘GIVE Act’ should really have been called the ‘ACORN Assistance Act’ because without Foxx’s amendment, it would pour billions of dollars into the pockets of radical political operatives.”

“Thanks to Congresswoman Foxx’s amendment, a terrible piece of legislation has become less bad: individuals and organizations that participate in national service programs would at least be prohibited from engaging in lobbying, and also prevented from co-locating upon the same premises as organizations that lobby,” Wilson explained.

“This is critical, because it will prevent the national service organizations, which are funded by taxpayers, from becoming political organizations that then go back to Congress to lobby for yet more money,” said Wilson.

The legislation, with Foxx’s amendment included, passed the House 321-105.

“The danger now is that Senate members, who are nothing more than shills for the left-wing political front group that feast upon taxpayer funds, will strip out the Foxx amendment, either in the Senate or in conference,” Wilson warned.

“A vote by any member of Congress against the Foxx amendment is a vote to allow national ‘service’ organizations to engage in lobbying on the taxpayer’s dime,” Wilson declared.

Wilson promised to release information on campaign contributions from organizations participating in the national service programs to members of Congress that vote to remove Foxx’s amendment from the bill.

“We will not let them get away with it,” Wilson promised. “We will make any member that votes to allow lobbying with tax dollars very, very famous.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Alex Rosenwald at (703)383-0880 or at arosenwald@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

# # #

“There is no question that President Obama must return the $104,332 he received from AIG during the 2008 election cycle,” declared Wilson. “And so must the members of Congress who took massive campaign contributions from cocktail-circuit cronies at the very institutions they were supposed to be overseeing. The American people are outraged—and rightly so.”

According to a Rasmussen Reports poll released earlier today, 67 percent of Americans believe that politicians who received campaign contributions from AIG should return the money.

“The American people were already hopping mad about the bailouts for failed companies like AIG. And now, when they learn that company bigwigs donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to politicians in 2008, their anger is also rightly directed at the political elite,” Wilson added.

Last week, Wilson sent a letter urging President Barack Obama and members of Congress to “return the $4.37 million they received in campaign contributions from AIG since 1989, including the $644,218 they received in 2008.”

According to OpenSecrets.org, AIG gave some $644,218 to candidates for federal office in 2008. According to Wilson’s letter, “[I]n return, it received from the Federal Reserve some $173 billion in taxpayer-guaranteed loans. That represents nearly a 27 million percent return on their 2008 ‘investment’ into politicians’ loyalty.”

“Any politician that has ever taken even a single penny, not just from AIG, but from all bailout-recipient firms, should return the money immediately,” Wilson insisted. “The politicians got campaign bonuses to turn their back on financial malfeasance.”

“And they should return those bonuses just like they are demanding their corporate cronies do,” Wilson added.

President Obama received $104,332 from AIG in 2008, which is the bulk of the $110,332 in contributions he has ever received from the company.

Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) in 2008 received $103,900 of the $281,038 he has ever received from AIG. In the 2009 $787 billion spending bill recently passed by Congress, Dodd inserted the amendment that guaranteed that bonuses would be paid by adding language to a spending cap that specifically excluded executive bonuses included in contracts.

“Of the 314 members of the Congressional majority who voted to protect the AIG bonuses, a large number of them have taken money from AIG,” Wilson noted. “They took payoffs, short and simple. And now that they’ve been caught, it’s time for them to return their ill-gotten gains.”

At the time of the legislation’s passage, Congressional Republicans opposed the speed with which the bill went through Congress, citing that members did not have an adequate amount of time to read it.

“We knew the so-called ‘stimulus’ was just a grab-bag of special interest handouts and kickbacks. And it is clear that campaign contributions from AIG and other bailout firms are just another example of pay-to-play corruption that is endemic in Washington,” said Wilson.

“And it is poisoning our system of government,” Wilson concluded.

Interview Availability: Please contact Alex Rosenwald at (703)383-0880 or at arosenwald@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

Enclosures:
Total AIG campaign contributions, 2008, OpenSecrets.org
Total AIG campaign contributions, 1989-2008, OpenSecrets.org
ALG President Bill Wilson’s Letter to Congress

# # #

“I really think that the only way that the conservative movement… people that want limited government, the only way we’re ever going to be able to sell the idea is if we learn that the media is the message,” said Breitbart to an audience of new media personnel of not-for-profit organizations, conservative bloggers, and radio staff.

“We have like a ten to twenty year battle on our hands,” the co-founder of Big Hollywood, the group blog that features contributions from high profile Hollywood conservatives, said he tells GOP Congressmen in Washington, encouraging them to “stop acting like your great, great grandfather, and not be afraid of pop culture.”

Breitbart believes the conservative movement must engage in the culture war. “Every single pop culture arbiter,” said Breitbart, citing David Letterman, Jon Stewart, Ellen Degeneres, and others, “they rigged the game so that they win on the media.”

“Over 40 years of that dominance and the conservative movement following Paul Weyrich’s, ‘we lost the culture war… let’s not fight it, let’s not engage in it,’ that’s why we’re in deep peril. It’s not because of our political point of view. It’s not because we don’t have the right ideas,” Breitbart said.

“It’s because we don’t play that game,” he said.

Breitbart is a conservative author and occasional commentator for political news programs. He has appeared on shows such as Real Time With Bill Maher, Dennis Miller and Fox News’ Red Eye With Greg Gutfeld. He is a part-time editor of the Drudge Report and developer for the Huffington Post. Currently, he runs his own news portal, Breitbart.com with the motto “Just The News”.

Breitbart believes that the conservative movement is ready to “open up that golden gate,” and take on Hollywood.

“Hollywood for the last 40 years has been controlled by the left, and I’m here to tell you that there are a lot of conservatives out there—more than you can possibly imagine,” Breitbart declared.

“40 years is too long for there not to be a counter-revolution,” Breitbart added. “And I think that Hollywood is the place, believe it or not, where… it’s going to happen.”

Breitbart stated he knew of “hundreds if not thousands of people who are in Hollywood that you would recognize their names, whether they be directors, writers, or actors, and these people have to stay silent,” citing job discrimination and intimidation.

In addition to his successes on the web, Breitbart is the co-author of the wildly popular book Hollywood, Interrupted: Insanity Chic in Babylon — The Case Against Celebrity. His publisher description of the book reads, “Celebrities somehow believe that it’s their god-given right to inflict their pathology on the rest of us. Hollywood, Interrupted illustrates how these dysfunctional dilettantes are mad as hell… And we’re not going to take it any more.”

Breitbart’s work has been published in the Wall Street Journal, National Review Online and the Weekly Standard Online, among others. He writes a weekly column now for The Washington Times, which also appears at Real Clear Politics.

To watch Andrew Breitbart’s speech, please follow the links below:

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCLewax2-zY

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-RGF7DEynU

Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNugRrPIhGY

# # #

“If the American people are to believe all the angry words and threats coming from the White House, President Obama must return the $104,332 he received from AIG during the 2008 campaign cycle,” declared Wilson in a statement.

According to OpenSecrets.org, AIG gave some $644,218 to candidates for federal office in 2008. According to Wilson’s letter, “[I]n return, it received from the Federal Reserve some $173 billion in taxpayer-guaranteed loans. That represents nearly a 27 million percent return on their 2008 ‘investment’ into politicians’ loyalty.”

“The 2008 money received by the President and members of Congress should clearly be returned, but more than that, the honorable thing would be for any politician who has ever received a penny from AIG to return it to the American taxpayers who are now paying to keep the company afloat,” Wilson said.

“These campaign kickbacks must be returned,” Wilson added.

President Obama received $104,332 from AIG in 2008 of the $110,332 in contributions he has ever received from the company. “President Obama received 94.56 percent of the money he has ever gotten from AIG, and yet he has not returned it since the bailouts began in September,” said Wilson.

Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) in 2008 received $103,900 of the $281,038 he has ever received from AIG. According to the letter, “in the 2009 ‘stimulus’ legislation, [Dodd] inserted the amendment that guaranteed that bonuses would be paid by adding language to a spending cap that specifically excluded executive bonuses included in contracts.”

“Only 11 of the 314 members of the Democratic Congressional majority voted against the ‘stimulus’ and protecting the AIG bonuses, and now they act shocked as they pretend to have never read the 1100-page bill that they are responsible for that cost $787 billion,” Wilson said.

Wilson believes that campaign contributions from AIG and other bailout firms represent “a clear case of pay-to-play corruption.”

“The corrupt cesspool in Washington needs to be drained where ‘too big to fail’ firms get taxpayer-guaranteed bailouts from ‘too compromised to resist’ politicians,” Wilson concluded.

Enclosures:
Total AIG campaign contributions, 2008, OpenSecrets.org
Total AIG campaign contributions, 1989-2008, OpenSecrets.org
ALG President Bill Wilson’s Letter to Congress

Interview Availability: Please contact Alex Rosenwald at (703)383-0880 or at arosenwald@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

# # #