At the Bidding of the Queen...and other friends in low places...

John Murtha bows...

Relations between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and the Department of Defense grew testy last year when the Pentagon couldn't come up with the aircraft she wanted for congressional travel. But this year the House has a $132 million solution: buy the Air Force more executive jets so Congress can take more junkets.

Roll Call newspaper reports the addition of two unasked-for new Gulfstream 550 jets to the executive aircraft stable at nearby Andrews Air Force Base. It is not even considered an earmark under the rules of the House, just an "expansion" of an existing Air Force mission.

But it isn't hard to trace the influence of House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John Murtha, D-Pa. When Ms. Pelosi's demands first surfaced in 2007, Mr. Murtha said the Pentagon was making a "mistake" by being uncooperative.

With Rep. Murtha leaning hard on the Pentagon from his position of control over defense spending, the legislative demands got quite aggressive last year. Judicial Watch, a non-profit watchdog group, earlier this year published an e-mail in which a Pelosi staffer complained, "It is my understanding there are no G5s available for the House during the Memorial Day recess. This is totally unacceptable. ... The speaker will want to know where the planes are."

Of course, the high-flying Madame Speaker of the Universe notwithstanding, having never met an earmark he didn't like, Murtha, as usual, was again quick to reward his campaign contributors:

Murtha got 15 earmarks, worth $61.4 million, for companies whose employees or related political action committees (PACs) donated $199,050 to his campaign or leadership committee since 2007. All have offices, and jobs, in Pennsylvania. This is business as usual for Murtha. Federal prosecutors are investigating a defunct lobbying firm, PMA Group, whose defense clients have contributed heavily to Murtha and remain immensely successful at getting earmarks.

My, Jihad Jack, but what a tangled web we weave, when power through corruption is your plan to achieve.

Murtha: Shaking Down Contributors?

Yid With Lid points us to a CBS Report that not only is Murtha doing quid-pro-quo pay-to-play earmarks with defense contractors, he is acting like a two-bit racketeer in the process:

That line was crossed in one case, according to a defense contractor who spoke to us on condition of anonymity for fear of losing government contracts.

The contractor was set to receive $1 million tax dollars. He said the military told him the money would come through a company called Commonwealth Research Institute, whose parent company, Concurrent Technologies, ranked among the largest earmark recipients. Both were set up with Murtha's help in his own hometown. The defense contractor said Commonwealth officials told him to get the money, he should "consider opening an office" in Johnstown, Murtha's hometown, and chided his company for not giving "enough campaign contributions to Murtha," and not making "a showing at Murtha's annual defense contractor fair."

The contractor told CBS News: "I wouldn't do it. We're just not going to play." He didn't get the funds.

"You called this a 'shakedown?'" Attkisson asked Ellis.

"If you want the money then you've got to do these things, and that's being shaken down," Ellis said.

We've many times documented Murtha's up-front-and cozy relationship with Concurrent Technologies, a concern Murtha's taxpayer-funded earmarks helped create.

Now it looks more and more that Concurrent Technologies is nothing more than a front for Murtha's earmark- and campaign-fund laundering.

How much more corruption are you willing to withstand, PA-12?

Murtha and Kuchera Industries: Follow the Money

As I posted yesterday, the FBI raided a Pennsylvania defense contractor with strong ties to our very own Jihad Jack Murtha.  What I didn't know was just how entwined our porcine earmark king was with the bigwigs at Kuchera Defense Systems:

Over the last several years, Murtha, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, has helped steer more than $100 million in contracts to Kuchera, a government contractor founded in 1985 by Bill Kuchera. The company and its employees have donated more than $65,000 dollars to Murtha’s re-election campaign and leadership PAC, according to Federal Election Commission records.

How many more times are the folks in PA-12 going to send this slime-laden, corrupt bloated dinosaur of a politician back to what should be a position of trust in Washington? How many times must he be caught with his fat, greasy fingers in the cookie jar before PA-12 voters finally get sufficiently disgusted to say, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH?!?"

Murtha, the Pork King, continues to try to buy votes with bacon

From the Johnstown Democrat (note how the J-T avoids the term, "earmarks"):

Local companies in line for defense budget funds
By SHAWN PIATEK
The Tribune-Democrat

Congress on Wednesday passed the fiscal year 2009 Defense Appropriations bill, including at least $80.7 million earmarked for local organizations out of the $487.7 billion budget.

After the bill passed, U.S. Rep. John Murtha announced directed funding to 10 Johnstown-area companies and agencies included in the bill.

[SNIP]

The remaining $36.7 million was spread among nine other Cambria- and Somerset-county companies as follows:

n$10 million is provided for Northrop Grumman Corp. and Conemaugh Health System, both of Johnstown, to continue working on a digital health-care testbed to evaluate electronic health-care technologies in a rural setting.

• $3.2 million is included for MTS Technologies Inc., Johnstown, for the Joint Collaborative Medical Information System. The bill also includes $2.4 million to develop a computerized training tool for recruits that simulates virtual training environments and combat scenarios.

• Kuchera Defense Systems, Windber, will receive $4 million to continue development of Roll-On, Roll-Off reconnaissance technology. The bill also includes $2.5 million for a support facility that will be used for the repair and maintenance of unmanned ground and aerial vehicles.

• $4 million is included for DRS Technologies, Richland Township, to continue upgrading the combat information center consoles on Aegis class Navy ships.

• Gautier Steel, Johnstown, will receive $3.2 million to continue transitioning its capabilities as a Defense Department regional supplier of titanium steel.

• Environmental Systems Research Institute, Johnstown, will receive $3 million to produce highly sophisticated geographic information systems software for the military to map battle terrain more effectively.

• MountainTop Technologies, Johnstown, will receive $2.4 million to develop distance learning modules for Joint Task Force teams.

• $2 million is provided to research improvements to body armor being developed by KDH Defense Systems, Johnstown

But perhaps the pease de resistance of all the earmarked taxpayer dollars that Santa Claus Murtha is O so graciously bestowing upon his fifedom:

Of the directed funds, more than half – $44 million – are targeted for the National Drug Intelligence Center in downtown Johnstown, funding the center for another year and allowing it to grow.

So, Jihad Jack has earmarked 44 million of your taxpayer dollars to a corrupt, redundant, pork-laden vote farm, and is allowing it to grow even more?

The time is nigh when the citizens of Johnstown and the surrounding PA-12 area are going to need to make a stark choice: Will they continue to send to Washington a bloatedly corrupt, twisted version of Santa Claus, who bribes his constituents with their own money, and is more than willing to throw the honor and fortunes of innocent Marines under the bus to further his political ambitions?

Or will they finally refuse to hold their nose at the ballot box and instead send an honorable candidate to Washington, in the form of one Lt. Col. William Russell to represent their interests?

Murtha Pork Fest...

In a gala reminiscent of the Appalachian Mob Meeting back in 1957, Murtha is having a thank you party for all the defense contractors who have contributed to his ongoing culture of corruption.

Tonight, Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) will be hosting a gala dinner tonight at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Pentagon City for defense industry lobbyists who have received and who hope to receive millions of dollars worth of earmarks in FY 2009 appropriations bills.

Mr. Murtha will be joined by Reps. James Moran (D-VA) and Peter Visclosky (D-IN). All are well known for their “Earmark for a Contribution” prowess. Last year Roll Call found that these three members funneled millions of earmarked tax dollars to firms whose executives subsequently contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to their campaign funds.

Par for the course, eh Jack??

Sooo-weee!!!! Sooo-Weee!!!!

A Murtha Earmark--up close and personal-like.

Murtha's "mystery earmark" saga has jogged the memory of Uncorrelated's Dave Calder of a similar earmark mystery that he encountered, that seemed to have Jack Murtha's grubby little paw prints all over it.

Read the whole story.

The Poster Child for Earmark Reform...

Who's the go-to guy when an editorial board needs an example of why we need earmark reform in Congress?

Well, four out of five editorial boards polled voted for our good-ol' self-serving gasbag Jack Murtha. Like the Adrian, Michigan Daily Telegram, for instance:

Lawmakers have grown skilled at hiding these projects. Murtha, for example, waited until five weeks after the deadline before attaching his requests to an intelligence authorization bill. And, despite promises of greater accountability, the number of earmarks so far this year already had hit 32,684 earlier this month. That’s 75 requests for each House member.

Good ol Jihad Jack--when it comes to corruption, nobody delivers like him!