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Leland Yee charged with selling votes

July 26, 2014
Leland Yee

Leland Yee

A federal grand jury handed down another racketeering indictment against state Sen. Leland Yee on Friday, this one says he was part of an organized crime operation in which he sold legislative votes and influence for piles of money. [Mercury News]

In 2013, Yee, D-San Francisco, allegedly agreed to take $60,000 in exchange for his and another senator’s vote on a bill dealing with workers’ compensation insurance for pro athletes. Though that money never changed hands, Yee allegedly took money for other votes and actions.

The new count against Yee comes under the 1970’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, which levies harsher penalties for acts as part of an ongoing criminal organization.

In March, Yee was arrest for firearms trafficking and political corruption. Federal prosecutors accused Yee of sidestepping campaign donation rules and engaging in a conspiracy to deal automatic guns and shoulder-launched missiles.

If convicted on all charges, Yee faces a maximum of 65 years in prison.


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I propose a new law. If you are a public official, elected or hired and you get convicted of wrong doing in the course of your service you lose your retirement. Dirt bag leland will get convicted and will still have a huge state funded pension. I feel his attacks on the Second Amendment while running guns is treason.


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Why don’t we just do when we can’t control illegal behavior of selling votes-just tax the ill gotten gains! Isn’t that the usual democrat solution?


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Dishonest politicians do more harm to society than mass murderers. They should be shot. Seems like there is more corruption than ever because nothing much happens to these bastards anymore


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I agree, but PLEASE don’t shoot them. There would be more calls for gun control…


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Politicians push gun control for their own gain! It’s issue driven by hideous lies that is used to divide people and garner votes. If if was in this loser’s best interest to be pro-gun he WOULD have been! Whatever brings him votes and $$$.


This man needs to be punished with great prejudice.


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Perhaps we have gotten to the root of why some politicians pursue gun control measures…..they are just eliminating the competition for their gun running operations.


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I would bet that the reality is that Yee just used the “Gun Control” issue to buy political support from the voters in his district and, more importantly, from the big-money Democrat campaign donors.


While he wasn’t quite as smart as he thought he was (or he wouldn’t have been caught), he was smart enough to recognize that gun control legislation wouldn’t affect his sideline business in any significant way.


I support citizen gun owner rights too, but I am tired of looking for dubious excuses to label those in opposition on this (or, really, any) issue. The truth should be sufficient. If it isn’t, it is because the opposition is doing a better job of communicating their lies and we need to re-examine our approach or step up our game.


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I am confused though. The top law enforcement officer in the nation trafficked guns to Mexico resulting in untold deaths including Border Patrol agents and nobody is charging HIM with anything. How is it that his agency is charging Yee?


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Eric Holder and his lieutenants should have been tried for “Fast & Furious.”


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And herein lies the reason this state is completely screwed. People like this idiot and his party controlling politics in the Golden State. Yet, time and time again, people keep electing democrats to a greater majority here.


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As long as unrestructed lobbying of those in power is allowed to continue, the glitter of gold and power will be too strong a draught to avoid.


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To a certain extent, this is true. However, idiot voters STILL have to vote for the people! So, no matter how much money is spent and how much influence and power is peddled, assuming the elections are on the level, people still vote the morons in. So we can’t blame it all on money.


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How much of that is due to the fact that Republicans too often offer opposition candidates that have views on other topics that are totally out of touch with the majority of voters? I have voted for Republican representatives to the state legislature from this district pretty consistently because they tend to be moderates and open to seeing the other side of most issues. I voted for Arnold S. for governor for much the same reason.


However, when the far-right of the GOP insists that their candidates follow lock-step in their social policies or when the GOP nominates an obviously corporate tool for office, it makes selecting the “lesser of two evils” a much trickier proposition. (I often end up “throwing my vote away” on third party candidates simply to send a message to both major parties that they are not giving me acceptable choices.)


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You point out EXACTLY why the Repubs are doomed in this state. It is the liberal policies of the democrats that are ruining the state. So, if a “moderate” Repub has the same policies, which is what you advocate, why vote for them?! I WANT someone who has convictions(not criminal), stands by those convictions, and is NOT a moderate. A moderate is just a weanie who sees which way the wind is blowing on an issue before making a stand. It is obvious the liberal policies aren’t working, but the democrats have so taken control of this state that it will never be controlled by conservatives again. Henceforth, we are doomed.


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How about a Democrat


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Sadly this kind of corruption happens on both sides of the aisle–left AND right. That’s why I’m a registered Independent.


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When is the last time a rabid anti-gun Republican was arrested for trafficking shoulder-fired missiles?


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Probably never… but then again there’s this….


Glenn Champ, GOP Candidate for Governor, a registered sex offender (also convicted of voluntary manslaughter) was one of four gubernatorial candidates introduced to California Republicans Sunday by party chairman Jim Brulte at the site of the state party’s semi-annual convention. – March 21st, 2014

(Will probably garner many votes as ill-informed and misinformed as the party he represents is…)


And this….


http://www.jonesreport.com/articles/101006_republican_crimes.html


I went through the list and California Republicans are very well represented…


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But at least the democrats get to stay on the taxpayer payroll, even after conviction


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The jonesreport.com article was interesting but was as inaccurate, deceptive and blatantly partisan as any of the numerous “FFW” emails from the Republican propagandists that my nice, (but gullible,) conservative aunt sends me.


There are numerous repetitions of some of the listings. Rumor and accusations are listed along with actual convictions as if they were the same. The title “Republican” at the beginning of each name is deceptive in many cases by implying that someone who registers as a Republican is the same as someone who represents the party in office.


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And, was he an advocate for sexual assault and molestation victims and fighting for stronger sentences for the criminals who perpetrate such heinous acts?


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Does it matter, really? Any position Mr. Champ would take on those issues would be suspect, don’t you think? The point is that the California State Republican Party even allowed this individual to speak at an event meant to introduce gubernatorial candidates from their party. Pretty damn stupid, right? Much like the party, right?


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We are still waiting for them to arrest Bush and Cheney for that.


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Kayaknut…


Check out the Jones Report list and you’ll find that a lot of those Republicans have been elected AFTER their respective convictions, or, kept office after and/or are still are in them…. Wow! Keep pitchin’ them rocks in that glass house you Repub’s seem to keep replacin’ glass in, TIME-AND-TIME AGAIN!!!!


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“You Repubs..”

“You Dems…”


It’s Big Government, with other people making decisions for you and Minimal Freedom

v/s

Small Government and Individual Responsibility.


Plantation or Property?


We have to think of some more accurate descriptors for how people are thinking.


Socialism v/s Freedom


Maybe you can come up with better..


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Union or Confederation


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I’m sorry AmericaBeautiful, but if you are expecting “Individual Responsibility” to take the place of government in our lives I’d hope you’re not holding your breath…


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I am not defending the Democrats record of corruption here, but pasoparent5 is right. Corruption is non-partisan and the higher up you go in government, the more likely a politician is to get away with it.


As for Republicans trafficking shoulder-fired missiles, do you remember how the Taliban became a power in Afghanistan/Pakistan? (Granted it served a legitimate political purpose at that time, but we supplied them with such weapons under Pres. Reagan.)


Also, wasn’t the Iran-Contra affair also authorized by Reagan even though he illegally by-passed Congress in doing so? The fact that he wasn’t prosecuted for it has to do with his status as President, not the legality of the action. The same can be said for Clinton’s sexcapades, GW Bush’s lies to Congress about Iraq and probably Obama’s “Fast and Furious” affair. There is a long-history of Presidents using illegal and/or immoral means to achieve the ends they desire.


If that isn’t bad enough, Congress has now made actions legal for legislators that are illegal for anyone else. I am speaking of their redefinition of “Conflict of Interest” voting to exclude actions taken that benefit anyone other than an individual congressperson. In other words if Representative Pelosi (for example) were to own millions of dollars in VISA stock, she would not have a “Conflict of Interest” in delaying legislation that included heavier regulations for credit card companies until those regulatory changes were omitted. After all, she is not the only one who owned stock in VISA.


I would guess that most legislators of both parties are happy to use this loophole to enrich themselves.


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“Congress has now made actions legal for legislators that are illegal for anyone else.”


I hate to break the news to you but this has almost always been the case. Chief among the current hypocrisies is Congress’ exemption from Obamacare. Do you support that?


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The banality of evil

‘

Le Nouvel Observateur, Paris, 15-21 January 1998 Interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski,

Question: The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates, stated in his memoirs [“From the Shadows”], that American intelligence services began to aid the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan 6 months before the Soviet intervention. In this period you were the national security adviser to President Carter. You therefore played a role in this affair. Is that correct?

Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention.

Q: Despite this risk, you were an advocate of this covert action. But perhaps you yourself desired this Soviet entry into war and looked to provoke it?

B: It isn’t quite that. We didn’t push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would.

Q: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against a secret involvement of the United States in Afghanistan, people didn’t believe them. However, there was a basis of truth. You don’t regret anything today?

B: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter. We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.

Q: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic fundamentalism, having given arms and advice to future terrorists?

B: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?

Q: Some stirred-up Moslems? But it has been said and repeated Islamic fundamentalism represents a world menace today.

B: Nonsense! It is said that the West had a global policy in regard to Islam. That is stupid. There isn’t a global Islam. Look at Islam in a rational manner and without demagoguery or emotion. It is the leading religion of the world with 1.5 billion followers. But what is there in common among Saudi Arabian fundamentalism, moderate Morocco, Pakistan militarism, Egyptian pro-Western or Central Asian secularism? Nothing more than what unites the Christian countries.”


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What do you call a politician in jail for 63 years?


A good start.


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New law: Minimum mandatory sentencing…?


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…and a Traitor to his constituents.


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