corruption

The White House today announced that President Obama will deliver his much anticipated jobs speech before a joint session of Congress next Thursday. That date also happens to be the next GOP debate and John Boehner doesn’t like that:

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has asked President Obama to address a joint-session of Congress on Thursday, Sept. 8, when it wouldn't conflict with the Republican presidential debate.

Citing logistical difficulties, Boehner requested that Obama hold his jobs address, which Obama wants to deliver next Wednesday, one day later.

The Speaker's letter made no mention of the more obvious conflict: between the president's speech, and a Republican presidential debate scheduled on Wednesday night at 8 p.m. EST. That debate is the first of the post-Labor Day political season, and the first one in which Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) is set to participate.

Why can’t both happen at the same time? John Boehner had no problem giving a speech the same time as the President a few months back, so what’s the problem now?

The debate is scheduled to appear on MSNBC only, so I don’t see why MSNBC can’t run the debate and everyone else carry the address. Also there are only two members of Congress who are to appear in the debate. Is John Boehner saying he wants to shut the House down for this debate, especially after the totally ineffective Congress he has been running just gets off a 5-week taxpayer funded vacation? Who does he think he is fooling?

Perhaps a good place to start looking at government waste is in the military contracts, specifically those tied to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan:

A new report from a bipartisan commission set up to scrutinize the unprecedented use of contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan concludes that the United States has wasted tens of billions of the nearly $177 billion that has been spent on those contracts and grants since 2002.

The report, titled "At What Risk? Correcting Over-reliance on Contractors in Contingency Operations," said its estimate may even understate the problem because it may not take into full account ill-conceived projects, poor planning and oversight by the U.S. government, as well as criminal behavior and blatant corruption by both government and contractor employees.

"For many years," the report says, "the government has abdicated its contracting responsibilities - too often using contractors as the default mechanism ... without consideration for the resources needed to manage them."

And I’m sure the number is higher. I wonder if they even considered the $9 billion that went missing in Iraq in 2003-2004? You know, that money, which whenever Democrats brought up the Republicans didn’t want to hear about it.

How can we even begin to talk about “financial responsibility” when this gross lack of oversight/accounting can continue to go on in our government without any talks of reform?

For years I have been saying that police officers who break the law not only break the law, but also their oath to enforce it. It’s not just the crime, but the betrayal of public trust that really bothers me.

Now we might finally be seeing some equal justice:

Four New Orleans police officers could face the death penalty after being accused of gunning down two unarmed people in the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the latest twist for a corruption-plagued department that already faces several federal investigations.

The four officers were charged along with two others in a 27-count indictment unsealed

I believe we overuse the death penalty in this country, but I think it is merited in this case. My reasoning is simple; if you or me did the same thing, we would be facing execution. So to say these police officers shouldn’t have to face it would be a proof that justice is not blind.

This would also be a good warning to all other law enforcement out there that they are to enforce the law, not ignore it or think they are above it. Yes they have a very hard job to do that isn’t always greeted with appreciation, but the increase in police violence is doing nothing to help them.

When the Democrats regained control of the Senate on a wave of “anti-corruption” one of the first things they did was pass something now known as “rule 44”. In a nutshell what rule 44 says is that any earmarks/congressionally directed spending must be reported before a vote can proceed.

Last night John Cornyn asked if the charts/lists to comply with rule 44 had been submitted to the chair of the Senate. The answer was no. This will now become another talking point for the Republicans and one that can hurt the Democrats. You will hear how the Democrats violated their own rules to push through health care reform expansion, and that will bring back memories of the Frist years.

It would be nice if the Democrats would follow the very rules they implemented, or even if the Senate as a whole followed their rules. This isn’t an issue of left or right, but rather right or wrong. If the Democrats are content on breaking the rule they fought for now, then what happens when the Republicans control the Senate again? Simple – they will break the very same rule and the Democrats will again complain about it. This is the cycle of the Senate that shows just how broken it is.

Both parties suffer from corrupt members of their caucuses, but the Republican party seems to have a pandemic of corruption deep within it, even locally. Here is what’s happening here in Butler County, Ohio – the home of IntoxiNation and minority leader John Boehner:

Butler County is doing more than its share these days to keep the FBI and Ohio Ethics Commission busy.

Two of the county’s three commissioners are under investigation by the ethics commission on accusations of nepotism.

The most recent subject is Commissioner Gregory Jolivette, who admits to voting on the hiring of and pay for both his son and daughter as county employees in 2004 through 2006.

There is much more listed in the article, including details of our former county auditor who was arrested and had to resign last year. What the article fails to mention is that every single person listed in it is a Republican. The Republicans have had a lock on our county for years and this single party rule has opened the door to wider spread corruption.

I’m just waiting for the day they frog march the entire county administration out.

You’re probably wondering why I am thankful for that. Well it’s because of this:

In a year when national Republican fortunes took a turn for the worse, Louisiana delivered the GOP two seats in Congress in elections delayed by Hurricane Gustav.

Indicted Democratic U.S. Rep. William Jefferson was ousted Saturday from his New Orleans area district, while Republicans narrowly held on to the seat vacated by a retiring incumbent.

The wins followed Republicans' reconquest of another House seat earlier this fall that had been lost to Democrats.

In the 2nd Congressional District, which includes most of New Orleans, Republican attorney Anh "Joseph" Cao won 50 percent of the vote to Jefferson's 47 percent and will become the first Vietnamese-American in Congress. His only previous political experience was an unsuccessful 2007 bid for a seat in the state legislature.

Jefferson should have just quit, but instead he has decided to keep on going and cost his party a seat. This sounds like a man out for his own interest – something that goes hand in hand with corruption.

Marcy Wheeler feels that the pardon pen could be whipped out for old Toobz Stevens. It wouldn't shock me one bit. The Republicans have a track record of rewarding corruption with Presidential gifts such as pardons.

Joe Scarborough and Katrina vanden Heuvel were talking about the Eliot Spitzer mess this morning. Katrina asked why our government, which is struggling to even fund "fighting terrorism", has the money and resources to prostitutes. Scarborough actually agreed with her on that, and they both feel that perhaps there was more to this than people are letting on to. Was Spitzer actually targeted because of some of the high profile names he has brought down in the past?

Something else that has been making me scratch my head. We hear some other right wing tools, like Tucker Carlson, going on about how much they hate Spitzer because of his going after corruption. These are the same tools that shoot a load every time they see Rudy Giuliani, who did the same thing. As matter of fact, Rudy and Eliot are more alike than one might think. They both have been high profile prosecutors, turned political executives. The only difference is Spitzer got caught. Rudy has been able to slip through every crack known to man. I wonder if Rudy was indicted for some of his questionable past, if he would end up getting the same scrutiny? I doubt it.