It’s a classic case of do as I say, not as I do.

The movement to ban insider trading started with the release of a book that exposed the practice. The book specifically singles out Moran for his egregious use of the practice – in October 2008, Moran attended a “terrifying” closed door briefing with top government economic officials warning that a financial crisis was about to hit. The next day, Moran dumped his shares in ninety different companies that were set to be hit hard by the recession. The crisis hit a few days later.

This is a classic case of do as I say, not as I do.

From RealClearPolitics:

‘People like Mr. [Allen] West, and Governor Brewer and so on, particularly Mr. West, is not only not representative of the African-American community or of the Republican Party, let alone of the American public. So what he says really is of little or no consequence, but it’s unfortunate,’ Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) said about Rep. Allen West telling liberal leaders to ‘get the hell’ out of the country.

‘He just seems clueless not that he has climbed abroad ship. He’s climbed this ladder of opportunity that was constructed by so many of his ancestors’ sweat, sacrifice, blood, you know they did everything they could for his generation to be successful. But now that he’s climbed abroad ship, instead of reaching down and steadying the ladder, he wants to push it off. ‘I’m up here. If you’re not with me, too bad.’ And President Obama, fortunately, is the kind of guy that says ‘I was very fortunate to get where I am and I’m going to spend my life trying to steady that ladder of opportunity by reducing college tuition and training our workers, trying to get a decent job for everybody. Making sure that while I’m African-American, it really doesn’t matter. What matters is my commitment to public service, my love for this country and I’m going to leave a constructive legacy,’ he said.

Moran says that Obama ‘doesn’t engage in this nonsense’ and calls him our ‘Lion King’ while comparing his Republican detractors to ‘hyenas.’”

Apparently Jim Moran gets to decide who’s black and who’s not. How about we stop focusing on people’s race, Jim?

“Jim Moran said Northern Virginia was more reflective of the D.C. metro area than the rest of the state.

‘We’d all be better off if they took the Virginia and Maryland suburbs and made them part of the district,’ he said. ‘But that’s not going to happen, so we’re dependent on what happens in Richmond.’”

The idea is not only dumb, but unconstitutional. Article One, Section Eight of the Constitution specifies that the size of the District shall not exceed ten square miles.

Patrick Murray shows just how dumb this idea is:

“At first blush, it’s hard to fathom why anyone, Republican, Democrat, Independent or space alien, would want to trade Virginia’s great leadership, budget surpluses and low unemployment for that of Washington DC. The city politicians who control our nation’s capital aren’t exactly a beacon of efficiency, honesty or character. Right now DC is in the throes of Ward 5 Council member Democrat Harry Thomas’s resignation, after he confessed to stealing over $350,000 from the city for personal use.

This is hardly an isolated incident; in fact DC seems to be frequently in the ‘throes’ of scandal. DC Mayor Vincent Gray has been fighting allegations of nepotism and hiring improprieties, including Gray’s promise of government jobs in exchange for people bad-mouthing then-Mayor Adrian Fenty. But perhaps the most ‘colorful’ is DC Council Chairman Kwame Brown’s SUV scandal. Last year, despite the District’s $400 million budget deficit, Chairman Brown felt he deserved a fully-loaded, black-on-black Lincoln Navigator luxury SUV for his personal use, costing taxpayers $1,900 per month. But when the vehicle arrived, it wasn’t black-on-black at all; the Lincoln’s interior was tan. Who could put up with that? Well, not Chairman Brown, who insisted the problem be corrected. ‘I said black-on-black!’ So the District apparently ended up leasing two Navigator L models at $1,900 month each! I wonder what poor sap had to settle for the black-on-tan?

Of course we all remember Mayor Marion Berry’s legacy of corruption, culminating in his 1990 arrest and jail term for smoking crack cocaine with a woman in a DC hotel room. ‘B**** set me up’ was the Mayor’s exact quote as he was cuffed and led away by FBI agents.

So it is no secret that DC has a history of corruption, crony capitalism and career politicians who use their elected office to break the law, fleece their citizens and enrich themselves. Who would want to be part of that? Why, apparently Jim Moran!

Moran is the king of crony capitalism and self-enrichment in the U.S. Congress, with a legacy of earmarks-for-kickbacks, sweetheart bank loans, and most recently the shocking revelations of Moran’s prolific insider trading, when he dumped stock in 90 companies hours after getting private briefings from Federal Reserve Chairman Bernake and then-Treasury Secretary Paulson. Instead of worrying about the nation, Jim’s first priority was to lock in his personal profits. No wonder Moran wants to move Northern Virginia into Washington DC; he’s a perfect fit on the DC City Council!

Demand honest leadership!”

He started the year as only Jim Moran can by saying that Republicans won control of the House because the American people are a bunch of racists:

“[The Republican successes in the 2010 elections] happened for the same reason the Civil War happened in the United States. It happened because the Southern states, the slaveholding states, didn’t want to see a president who was opposed to slavery.  In this case, I believe, a lot of people in the United States don’t want to be governed by an African-American, particularly one who is liberal, who wants to spend money and who wants to reach out to include everyone in our society.”

Does Jim Moran believe that the 71,145 citizens of the 8th District who voted for his Republican opponent in 2010 did so because they don’t like a black president? Apparently he does…(Full story)

Moran’s first legislative action of the year was to vote against a 5% cut in congressional office budgets. He was one of 13 out of 435 members of the House to vote against the cut. (Full story)

In March, Moran bombastically talked about getting around the House prohibition on earmarking. (Full story) Moran is one of Congress’s most notorious earmarkers – in fact, he was #4 on the list of top earmarkers in 2010. (Full story)

Moran spent some of the year tackling such important issues as styrofoam cups in the House cafeteria. (Full story)

The highlight of Moran’s 2011 came on April 7th, when he blew up in classic Jim Moran fashion at a Navy veteran and constituent at a town hall meeting:

RetireJimMoran’s video of the incident went viral, receiving over 100,000 hits online and being shown on local and national television networks, including MSNBC, Fox News, WUSA 9, and more. (Full story)

The week after his blow-up heard round the world, Moran hosted a taxpayer funded event that he spent thousands in taxpayer dollars advertising but didn’t feel the need to attend – after a five minute introductory speech, he left the event. Makes you wonder if you should laugh or cry. (Full story)

During the whole year, RetireJimMoran put the heat on Jim Moran for his games on the Mark Center debacle, publishing an extensive report exposing Moran’s politically brilliant but ethically wrong scheme of criticizing the Mark Center while benefiting from allowing it to happen. RetireJimMoran confronted Moran himself on local radio, and personally told Moran’s chief of staff that he could send a rebuttal of what this site has said on the matter, and it would be published here verbatim. Five months later, he has yet to send anything. (The offer is still good, though!)

In July, Moran held a very interesting event in which citizens could work together to find solutions to control our runaway debt. Unfortunately, Moran’s hyper-partisan speech at the event proved that Moran was going to ignore any solutions that came out of the event. (Full story)

Moran blew up on camera again in July. Watch his head nearly explode:

In August, Moran decided to take the month off instead of holding meetings with constituents during the congressional recess. He is so out of touch that he thinks he doesn’t need to listen to his constituents, and we reward him for it by re-electing him with 61% of the vote. (Full story)

In September, Moran introduced a bill to abolish the debt ceiling. Apparently he thinks the federal government should have unlimited spending power. (Full story)

In October, Moran headlined a fundraiser for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a shady organization with ties to terrorist groups like Hamas and to the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Moran was co-headlining the banquet with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, who the United States Department of Justice considers an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center building that killed six Americans and injured over a thousand more. Wahhaj has called the FBI and the CIA “terrorists” themselves, and wants all Americans to become Muslims. Moran has no problem with that, apparently. (Full story)

Moran rounded out the year by proposing a bill to restrict circuses’ use of animals, which would eliminate over 750 jobs, including 250 in the 8th District. (Full story)

A major scandal broke in November when author Peter Schweizer exposed the insider trading of members of Congress, where they trade stocks based on non-public information to turn a profit out of being a member of Congress. Schweizer revealed that in October 2008, Moran attended a closed-door briefing with top U.S. economic officials warning that an economic disaster was imminent. The next day, Moran dumped his shares in 90 different companies. When the financial crisis hit later that month, Moran emerged just fine while our portfolios tanked. (Full story)

It’s been quite a year for Jim Moran. Let’s make it his second-to-last year in Congress by voting him out of office on November 6, 2012. Happy New Year!

Author Peter Schweizer’s book Throw Them All Out, which was spotlighted in 60 Minutes, alleges that members of Congress from both parties have engaged in insider trading, most notably in 2008 just before the financial crisis hit.

Schweizer reports that on September 16, 2008, Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke held a “terrifying” closed-door classified meeting with members of Congress briefing them that a worldwide financial crisis was about to hit. The next day, Moran went wild with his portfolio, writes Schweizer:

“The next day Congressman Jim Moran, Democrat of Virginia, a member of the Appropriations Committee, dumped his shares in ninety different companies . . . [his] most active trading day of the year. He dumped shares in Goldman Sachs, General Dynamics, Franklin Resources, Flowserve Corporation, Ecolabs, Edison International, Electronic Arts, DirecTV, Conoco, Procter & Gamble, AT&T, Apple, CVS, Cisco, Chubb, and a dozen more companies.”

In fact, Moran made over 90 trades in that one day.

The 60 Minutes piece pointed out the fact that insider trading, probably one of the worst forms of corruption that a member of Congress can do, is not illegal because the people who could make it illegal are the members of Congress who do it.

While the economy was tanking and people were losing huge amounts of money in the markets, Jim Moran was protecting his money and emerged just fine. This is disgusting. He is lining his pockets while claiming to be working for the people of the 8th District.

Sources: Slate, Washington Post, Newsweek

This legislation would make it impossible for Ringling Bros. or any other circus to continue to operate with such animals. As a result, H.R. 3359 would jeopardize more than 750 Feld Entertainment jobs that are directly tied to Ringling Bros., including 250 located in Moran’s district. H.R. 3359 also has the potential to jeopardize thousands of local jobs in the more than 120 markets Ringling Bros. plays throughout the country.

What is particularly troubling is that Representative Moran refused Feld Entertainment’s repeated efforts to meet with him about this legislation. He then held a press conference yesterday with former game show host Bob Barker behind locked doors, even requiring one of our representatives to leave the room. Congressman Moran apparently prefers to serve animal rights activists from other states and countries rather than his own constituents.

http://www.ringling.com/Legislative/

Moran wants to eliminate circus 750 jobs when the unemployment rate is 9.1%. With Jim Moran, it’s apparently animals over people. Absurd.

Jim Moran’s entire political career has been a circus itself, and now he’s trying to put the real circuses, which actually employ people, out of business. Maybe the voters should finally put the Jim Moran Circus out of business on November 6, 2012.

Get the full story here.

CAIR’s history is shady, and they have been suspected by various government officials of ties to terrorism and ousted Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. CAIR had extensive ties to the now-defunct Holy Land Foundation, which was shut down by the U.S. government after it was found to be funding the terrorist group Hamas and its founders were sentenced to life in prison for terrorist financing. But the most troubling part of Moran’s appearance at this event is the man who is also headlining the event: Imam Siraj Wahhaj.

Wahhaj was named in 1995 by the Justice Department as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that killed six people and injured over a thousand.  Wahhaj has defended the convicted WTC bombers, called the FBI and the CIA “the real terrorists”, and said he wants all Americans to become Muslim. (Source: New York Post)

Wahhaj was invited to a meeting in 2009 with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, but Bloomberg’s staff said he should never have been invited and that they should have checked his background. (Source: New York Daily News)

Moran has had ties to terrorists and terrorist sympathizers before. As we note in Moran’s Greatest Hits, in 2002, Moran received $2,000 in campaign contributions from Abdurahman Alamoudi, who voiced support for the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah. After the American Jewish Committee called on Moran to return the money, he did. (Source: Washington Post) In 2003, Moran received $11,450 in campaign contributions from three officers of Muslim organizations that were raided by federal agents because of their link to terrorist financing. Moran returned that money as well. (Source: Washington Post)

Moran should call off his appearance at the fundraiser tonight and disavow CAIR for associating with a terrorist sympathizer. Call Moran’s district office at 703-971-4700 and tell him to do the right thing.

First, the deadline for BRAC disaster is on September 15th, but due to Moran’s attempt to clean up and gain politically from the mess he facilitated, you won’t notice an immediate change. The AP reports 2,500 workers moved into the Mark Center last month, and the remaining 3,900 will move in gradually over the next year. So it’s a slow death on 395, so to speak, and you’ll know who to thank for it.

This week, Moran did something completely mind-boggling: He introduced a bill to abolish the debt ceiling, saying the debt ceiling is “an unnecessary law increasingly used as an impediment to Congress’s ability to further economic recovery.” Translation – the debt ceiling forces Congress to get serious about reducing the debt and impedes its ability to carelessly spend trillions of dollars we don’t have, so get rid of it! This is the definition of irresponsibility. But it’s not a big surprise coming from him – instead, it’s further reason to retire Jim Moran.