Ethics? We have all heard of the so-called ethics investigations by the Congress….or the threat of an investigation……Weiner’s weiner comes to mind…..Rangel’s monetary antics……Ensign’s poking a staff member…. all the antics by our not-so-squeaky clean representatives. I have been calling them everything I can think of except effective law makers…..most of them are do nothing pigs….
I recently wrote a post about the insider trading done by members of Congress….that is that members had been making lots of cash trading on information that they got while serving on various committees….and I asked why there is NO ethics violations and the no need for investigation…..but read the post if you need to have it cleared up a bit…….http://bit.ly/jeYLqt
But why am I re-hashing all this? Good question…..
Let us go back to last week…..the negotiations on the debt crisis with VP Biden did not end well…..Majority leader of the House walked out of the meetings…..that would be Eric Cantor…..and we heard all the clap trap about tax hikes off the table and that Obama is NOT serious about debt reduction….yada yada….all the conserv talking points……but did you know that the big cheese Cantor is shorting US bonds?
Shorting? HUH?
Shorting, in investment terms, means……Selling a SECURITY, such as a SHARE, that you do not currently own, in the expectation that its PRICE will fall by the time the security has to be delivered to its new owner. If the price does fall, you can buy the security at the lower price, deliver it to whoever you sold it to and make a PROFIT. The RISK is that the price rises, leaving you with a loss.
In a piece written by Steve Tarlow…..
Debt ceiling negotiations were shut down by House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) last week. This raised renewed fears that the U.S. is on the verge of total credit default, and it raised a question as to whether Cantor – the GOP’s key operative in debt ceiling talks – has a “glaring” conflict of interest. According to Salon, Cantor may be fighting against government credit default in Congress, but he’s personally invested in a mutual fund that will “skyrocket” should default occur.
Okay now get this right! The person that is leading the negotiations on the debt crisis for the GOP will make a substantial profit if the country fails and defaults…..GOT THAT! The man is BETTING on the failure of the country! And to beat all, he is the lead man in the negotiations trying to find common ground to save the country from default…..
I asked before why they will not investigate those using inside trading on info they get in their job and now I ask WHY is Cantor NOT up for an ethics investigation? This guy whose party is so centered on America to succeed, then why is he betting against it?
It is time for Americans to wake UP! Know your representative….if these guys and gals are taking the country to the cleaners then we need to DEMAND more ethics investigations…….but there will be few investigations…..why? These people try to protect their own and in doing so are just as guilty as those caught in the act (whatever that may be)………
If you will recall, the media was all over Weiner’s weiner (pun intended)……they spent an inordinate amount of time and with the help of the GOP made this a 2 week story….but yet NOTHING as far as my previous post or the Cantor thing……why is Weiner’s weiner so much more important than the financial shenanigans of elected officials?
We need to demand an ethics investigation into the underhanded antics of elected reps and they need to be held to something that they are seldom held up to……accountability!
This is characteristic of the so-called free-market. Ethics are a relative matter, IMO.
If Weiner’s weiner is an ethics violation then Cantor and the others are in violation also……But since that sleazoid Issa is in charge of the ethics stuff….the GOP will NEVER be held in account…..
Very good post!
I don’t agree with LB that it’s anything to do with the free market – it’s entirely to do with the American electoral system. I DO however agree with him that ethics are a relative matter (particularly in US political life), though of course they should NOT be.
Look – let’s make this simple. If a judge was being paid a huge amount of money to help him (or her) BECOME a judge and then an enormous “retainer” as a “legal consultant” or something similar, by big gambling/whore/drug interests in say Las Vegas, would you trust him (her) to be impartial trying cases involving people charged with offences that are related, or even MAY conceivably be related?
No? I guess not, eh? Well, then – how the hell do you expect a politician who needs MILLIONS of dollars “donated” by big business and other wealthy special interests and who usually works for or is otherwise employed by the same people, to be impartial and do what’s in the best interests of the majority, or the country?
The STATE (or possibly a party) should pay ALL election campaign costs and elected members should be paid MORE than they are now (hansomely in fact) by the state, but they should NOT be allowed to have ANY other jobs, or be directors of companies, or “advisors”, or be employed in any other way by any organisation other than the state and they should NOT be allowed to deal on Wall Street. Furthermore, wives (husbands) or children of such people should not be allowed to do those things either, except where a (even remotely) POSSIBLE conflict of interests has been fully declared. ALL employments of family members should be declared openly anyway BY THOSE FAMILY MEMBERS THEMSELVES – they would have a right to refuse of course, but then the spouse, or whatever, would be barred from running for (or, once elected, retaining) office.
It’s not foolproof, naturally, but if the penalties for deliberate cheating were severe, then such people seeking public office would be forced to think long and hard before cheating.
American politics will NEVER improve until you clean up the SYSTEM itself (as I never tire of saying) 😈
Let talk about the judge thing…..state and city judges are elected and receive campaign donations which makes them partial and subject to influence…..and then there is state supreme courts which have the final opinion before moving on to SCOTUS….in my state they are also elected…….it is a pathetic situation and one that does NOT lead to justice….IMO
I kinda thought that was more or less the case, but I wasn’t sure – but anyway, there you are then… QED 🙂
I pray to God that you and your sources are wrong about Cantor shorting T-Bonds. If that’s the case, that cock sucker should be hung up by his balls. Drives home the point that the republicans are only in it for personal gain. Forget about the hypocritical Patriotism hog-wash and their other bullshit; they are no better than terrorists.
Actually, about the only good thing you can say about terrorists is that they usually are at least fairly honest about what they want and why they think they want it…
True…..so true!
I am afraid it is true……it has been written about in several articles….Hansi did you read the link about the insider trading? Another bunch of twats and we need to demand an investigation……