Congressional corruption analysis
In an earlier post I discussed Congressional Corruption. Down in the comments section Jeff and I had a disagreement…
I spent a fair amount of time researching Democratic and Republic Congressional corruption and I stand by my post in its entirety. That being said down in the comments section I stated that “I think the number of convicted Republicans and convicted Democrats is far closer than you think…”
Jeff disagreed and said that there have been far more Republicans in recent years.
Jeff was right and I was flat out wrong.
I looked through a wide range of media sources and there have been about 3 Republicans convicted of corruption in the US Congress for every Democrat from 2001 - 2008.
That being said, the trend is reversing in a hurry. Now that the Democrats are in power they are leaping to the forefront and at this pace will quickly catch the Republicans.
Consider these statistics from CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington):
From 2005 - 2008 35 different Republicans made their corruption list and only 9 Democrats. This was a ratio of 4 corrupt Republicans for every corrupt Democrat.
For 2009 their list includes 8 Democrats and 7 Republicans. Hmmm… The Democrats now control everything and wield more power; hence their members turn to corruption. Expect this trend to get continue.
I hate corruption.
Mike Sylvester
Charlie Rangel is a crook…
As the readers of this blog know I absolutely hate Congressional corruption. I feel that many members of Congress are corrupt; both Democrats and Republicans. It seems that the party in the majority is the most likely to have corrupt members.
Daily Kos is a weblog that I regularly read. It is a very liberal blog and I read it for four main reasons:
- I think that everyone should consume media from “both sides” of the political aisle and make their own decisions.
- Some of the posts are so liberal that they make me laugh due to their absurdity.
- Some of their posts are “dead on” especially concerning the misguided Patriot Act and civil liberties in general.
- Kos himself wants to purge moderates out of his party and he calls it like he sees it. He will take Democrats to task when he thinks they need to be taken to task.
Kos has a must read post about corrupt Democratic Congressman Charlie Rangel. I have postedabout this topic before. Charlie Rangel has repeatedly committed large violations of the US tax code. Worse yet he is in charge of the committee that oversees the very IRS that he regularly flaunts.
The House Democrats ran in 2006 on a platform of “Draining the Swamp” in Washington and rooting out corruption. The House Ethics Committee has been investigating Rangel for over a year… Earlier this year he had to modify his financial disclosure forms because for years he has only been reporting HALF of his money. HALF…
The Democrats need to oust Rangel and he needs to be prosecuted…
Mike Sylvester
Another Example of City Council Impotence
I found this tidbit regarding the city and county sharing the new Renaissance Square building interesting:
But Harper said the council should have waited to know the use of the buildings before approving the purchase.
“It is going to be very, very difficult for there to be a real exploration of all possibilities if the city is going ahead with financing today,” he said.
Brown said she supported the financing because she was confident the city administration would make it a priority to put the city police and county sheriff offices in one building.
“It will certainly be a travesty if it didn’t happen,” she said.
Councilwoman Brown isn’t just some citizen bystander in all this. She could actually use her power on council to force the city to put the police and sheriff offices in one building…
National Serv-All Whiners
Let’s lay out exactly what’s happening here. They were fat, dumb and happy with their current deal and thought the gravy train would never end. The city puts out an RFP and they are outbid by not one but two other firms.
Seeing a massive contract go down the tubes they go into full corporate communist mode and call in as many favors as they can with various politically connected individuals. Then they start whining to city council, and it’s attorney, that the bidding process was unfair. But according to councilman Pape it’s the exact same process used when they won the contract the last time around.
If you didn’t already know (what the hell have you been doing?) this is how business is done in this town. You need to build more houses? The city will help you build them in SE Fort Wayne where they are so out of place buyers can’t even get financing. Got some land but need it’s value increased? We’ll help you build a bridge to nowhere. Want to invest pennies in a baseball team while promising investment that never happens - the city will fork over a ton of a cash to help you out. Got a building that’s worthless and will never sell? The city needs a new police station.
Can’t win a competitively bid trash contract and are outbid by $2 million/year? Hypocritically call the process unfair while planting a list of extremely questionable reasons for city councilmembers to throw out challenging the credibility of the firm that won. And of course, offer to extend your existing contract for 2 years…
CEDIT Changes - Good or Bad?
Mayor Henry has changed the CEDIT allocation rules where now he gets to decide how all the money is spent instead of giving $450k to the individual councilmembers to spend in their district. Leo Morris supported this position in yesterday’s editorial:
“Fairness” is used often to describe the council CEDIT split: Each district gets the same amount of money to fix local problems. But those problems are not distributed fairly. Is there anybody, for example, who would argue that the 5th District has as many infrastructure needs as the 6th?
City Hall - the mayor’s office or whomever the mayor designates - is in a better position to look at the overall needs of all districts and set the priorities that need to be set.
And don’t forget what this tax is supposed to fund - economic development. If infrastructure is a part of economic development, it is usually the big projects that count. Businesses need ingress and egress and access to highways and other forms of transportation. Their utility needs must be met.
I can see Leo’s (and the mayor’s) point. And I might be willing to consider it had the administration shown the propensity to spend CEDIT dollars on worthwhile economic development projects. However, the Calhoun Street project and Renaissance Square clearly showed that the administration has no requirement that the project be economic development in any real sense.
So if we’re just going to use the money as an extension of the city’s general fund then I think the individual councilmembers are in a better position to allocate it than the administration…
Stuff Worth Reading
- James Kwak explains why the “Blame China” argument in regards to the current financial crisis isn’t entirely fair.
- Pelosi says that a Value Added Tax is on the table. In general I think a consumption tax is much more fair and efficient than the income tax. But I find it hard to believe that Congress would amend the Constitution to eliminate the income tax. Without that step, a VAT should be off the table.
- In the video below Dylan Ratigan explains the term “Corporate Communism” - similar to the idea of government looting and capitalist communism I’ve used in the past. Ratigan almost makes cable news worth watching. I loved the CNBC show Fast Money while he was the host and his new show Morning Meeting on MSNBC is even better. He has an uncanny ability to take complex financial topics and explain them in layman terms - usually describing how taxpayers are being ripped off by big banks and/or the federal government.
Fort Wayne Trash Contract
Jeff put up a couple of good posts about this topic earlier today.
As is the case more often then not; I tend to agree with Jeff.
I actually think that this is one of the only things Mayor Henry has done since he has been Mayor that I think is innovative and may help the city (I admit there is some risk).
I certainly agree with Jeff that the media coverage has been biased in favor of National Serv-All. I listened to the President of Earth First on the Pat White show today and learned a couple of things:
- The President of Earth First used to run National Serv-all.
- Jerry Henry is no longer going to be a 5% owner.
I think there are several important points to consider:
- The city put out an RFP and selected the RFP with the lowest bid. It may be that the City should have got a more detailed proposal; however, that remains to be seen. I have faith in Mr. Howard, the head of City Purchasing.
- National Serv-all must really be overcharging the City of Fort Wayne if they can afford to hire a lawyer with strong Democratic ties, a law firm with strong Republican ties, and a marketing/public relations firm to attempt to get the contract back. They should have saved that money and put out a lower proposal.
I have heard some valid concerns about Earth First; however, I think they should be given an opportunity to address those concerns.
I think that the City Council would be justified in insisting on the following:
- Some proof that Earth First has the financial ability to handle the contract. (Remember back when one City Council member wanted to do the same with the Harrison Square Project and was ignored?)
- A more firm proposal on how Earth First will handle the project including more information about where the waste will be deposited, etc.
- Some provisions that protect the City if Earth First fails to handle the contract. (Note these protective provisions are still being ignored as they relate to Harrison Square…)
I think Earth First should be given a chance to show they can handle the project.
I am disgusted by the “Blue Ribbon” panel National Serv-All has hired to attempt to get the contract back. If they have all this spare money they should make a better proposal to the City for trash removal…
Mike Sylvester
More Trash Talk
I saw this quote from councilwoman Karen Goldner ( INC via AWB):
Fellow democrat council member Karen Goldner is most outspoken, saying she’s firmly against accepting the bid presented by start up company “Earth First”.
She fears the company won’t be able to deliver the service it says it can.
She worries “Earth First” is mistakenly presuming that fuel prices will stay low over the next several years.
The people investing their time, money and energy in to this venture know more about what service they can deliver than a councilmember. And why would it be a “mistake” to presume fuel prices will stay low over the next several years? Nobody can say with any reasonable amount of certainty what is going to happen to fuel prices over the next several years so basing the decision on that is just a guess.
Until someone can give a logical economic reason why Earth First can’t provide the service they claim they can then I say award them the contract. It may be a foreign concept to the administration but they can insert termination clauses and clawbacks into contracts to protect themselves if the company fails to meet its obligation.
I also wonder why so much energy is being devoted to this when an existing company under contract, Barry Real Estate, hasn’t delivered on a damn thing they promised - and that’s AFTER we gave them millions in subsidies. Goldner and Liz Brown should look at fixing that mess while they’re worried about non-performing contractors…
Stuff I’m Reading
Gilead - This was supposed to be some great work of literature; sorry I didn’t see it. It was just a drawn-out story about a dying father writing a letter to his son. I didn’t make it past page 60.
The Road - Now this was an incredible read. A story about a father and son’s journey through a post-apocalyptic America. If you like cheery, feel good fiction then this isn’t for you. Incredibly well written and I haven’t had to look up that many words in a dictionary since I was in junior high. The movie is due out around Thanksgiving of this year.
Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America - Never cared much for MySpace but the Planet Money crew said it was a good read so I thought I’d check it out. Was definitely entertaining in a Jerry Springer kind of way. Worth reading whether or not you use or care about MySpace.
Fool’s Gold - Currently about half way through this. It details the recent history of JP Morgan and their creation of the credit derivatives market. Gives some great insight into how the idea of credit default swaps and CDO’s came to help destroy the global economy.
Iranian Twitter = Democracy; Pittsburgh Twitter = Criminal
More US police state nonsense. A man is arrested for coordinating the G20 protests through twitter. You can’t make this stuff up:
On Thursday, F.B.I. agents descended on a house in Jackson Heights, Queens, and spent 16 hours searching it. The most likely reason for the raid: a man who lived there had helped coordinate communications among protesters at the Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh.
[...]
The Pennsylvania State Police said he was found in a hotel room with computers and police scanners while using the social-networking site Twitter to spread information about police movements.
The police broadcast their movements over their own radio network. Maybe they’ll arrest their own officers for using their radios - nah, probably just all citizens with a police scanner…
