Our founding fathers endorsed a fundamental belief in the importance of the presumption of innocence, but recently, the far left seems to be challenging that basic principle.I thought this recent editorial from the New York Times made some good points about the “Bugman” beating the rap, as it were (here)…
Tom DeLay was vindicated when the Justice Department dropped all charges. But, that wasn't good enough for left-wing extremist groups such as CREW that have continued their campaign to besmirch the reputation of the former House Speaker.
The Justice Department decided last week not to bring charges against Tom DeLay, whose unethical conduct represented a modern low among Congressional leaders. The decision is a reminder that some of Washington’s worst big-money practices remain either legal or far too difficult to prosecute.Doan continues…
Mr. DeLay, the Texas Republican who had been the House majority leader, crowed that he had been “found innocent.” But many of Mr. DeLay’s actions remain legal only because lawmakers have chosen not to criminalize them. Mr. DeLay’s wife and daughter, for example, were paid more than $500,000 by his political action and campaign committees for “strategic guidance” and event-planning. Others in Congress, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have put family members on the payroll.
The Justice Department spent six years investigating Mr. DeLay’s relationship to Jack Abramoff, the über-lobbyist who served three years in prison for fraud, corruption and conspiracy. Just to recall: Mr. DeLay, his wife and several staff members took a lavish 10-day golf trip to England and Scotland in 2000. The trip was arranged by Mr. Abramoff and paid for by gambling-industry clients, including the Choctaw Indian tribe. Two months later, Mr. DeLay helped kill a bill to ban Internet gambling — a proposal that the tribe and Mr. Abramoff’s other client feared would hurt their business.
There were several other trips arranged by Mr. Abramoff and conveniently followed by legislative favors. In 1997, Mr. DeLay and his wife visited the South Pacific island of Saipan. The trip was paid for by the island’s government and garment manufacturers, clients of Mr. Abramoff. Mr. DeLay later helped block a bill that would have required the garment manufacturers to pay workers the minimum wage.
(The group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington) has declared that Mr. Delay is “one of the most corrupt” members of Congress. But, the Justice Department looked at the evidence and decided that the evidence does not support those charges.As noted here (near the bottom), Soros “does (not) have any input over CREW's day to day activities.”
"Innocent until proven guilty" isn't directly stated in the U.S. Constitution, but it is understood to be a fundamental principle of U.S. juris prudence. When biased groups, such as CREW, try to pass themselves off as objective third parties and try to ram through their flawed sense of moral right or wrong, they undermine citizens' confidence in our system of justice.
Of course, there is a certain irony in CREW's pretense of objectivity and their, supposedly, objective declaration of Mr. Delay’s guilt since their efforts are made, at least partly, possible with generous funding from George Soros, who may be politically motivated to press such an attack.
Continuing with Doan…
This intolerance seems merely the latest manifestation of the age of oversight and investigations where powerful politicians, looking for an edge in forcing legislation or winning an election, find willing allies in the press, special interest groups and federal investigator corps anxious to escalate any “allegation” into a page one scandal.I can’t think of a word to describe the willful ignorance of that observation, considering that Doan, as former head of the GSA, was a charter member of the Bushco gang that, as noted here, used the Patriot Act to try and criminalize the activities of antiwar protesters, which, I would say, goes just a bit beyond trying to find out how their activities were funded.
For example, Speaker Pelosi's reaction when Americans objected to the building of a mosque at Ground Zero was to call for an investigation into the funding of the protesters. Too often, Americans are seeing congress abusing their positions of power, using investigations to settle policy disputes, preferring to attack using the levers within their control rather than debate the merits of an issue.
It’s fairly plain here that Doan is out to try and settle scores over accusations leveled against her that, while employed by our prior ruling cabal, she quite probably violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits government resources – including employees' time or space in a government building – from being used for partisan politics (first item from here).
Doan finishes by asking “Where does one go to get one’s reputation back?”
Gee, I don’t know - maybe the same place you would go to find out what happened to the following: $14,000 for Internet dating services and a dinner at a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in Orlando, Fla.; $45,000 at Brooks Brothers and similar stores for tailor-made suits — $7,000 of which were purchased a week before Christmas; and $642,000 from 180 convenience checks written by an Agriculture department employee for a live-in boyfriend over a six-year period (all charges on government credit cards that should have been flagged by Doan and her agency, seeing as how they constituted abuses on her watch).
The Republican National Committee is demanding that the Census Bureau stop being so nosy, or at least stop requiring that Americans comply.With that in mind, we learn the following from this Daily Kos post…
The Republican Party isn’t taking on the census itself, the count of the United States population made every 10 years, but the more comprehensive American Community Survey.
…
…the Republican National Committee resolved this month that the Census Bureau behaves “exactly as a scam artist would, asking very personal questions,” and called the survey “a dangerous invasion of privacy,” and “overreaching and intimidating.” The committee said the Census Bureau was “spending millions of tax dollars to violate the rights and invade the personal privacy of United States citizens.”
The resolution invokes the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and notes that the Constitution mandates a count only every 10 years — to reapportion seats in the House of Representatives. The party is demanding that the bureau either scrap the American Community Survey or make participation voluntary.
The resolution endorses legislation introduced by Representative Ted Poe, a Texas Republican, to require the bureau to stick to the basics: name, contact information, date and the number of people living at an address. A spokesman for Mr. Poe said on Thursday that the bill had attracted 34 co-sponsors.
..the reluctance of Texas Republicans to complete the Census might be owed to their representation in Congress, which has been quite vocal on the subject…Tee hee hee…
…
The irony, of course, is that the lunatic rants of GOP Congressman like Poe and (Ron) Paul, should they prove successful, will have one near-certain consequence: fewer Republican districts. Meaning, of course, fewer Republican Congressmen.
David A. Moss, an economic and policy historian at the Harvard Business School, has spent years studying income inequality. While he has long believed that the growing disparity between the rich and poor was harmful to the people on the bottom, he says he hadn’t seen the risks to the world of finance, where many of the richest earn their great fortunes.To which I reply, well, duuuh! (here is some food for thought on that subject…and I should note that this story appeared on the same day as this one in the Times, which was quite rightly commented on by Atrios and others, so it’s possible that it was overlooked).
Now, as he studies the financial crisis of 2008, Mr. Moss says that even Wall Street may have something serious to fear from inequality — namely, another crisis.
The possible connection between economic inequality and financial crises came to Mr. Moss about a year ago, when he was at his research center in Cambridge, Mass. A colleague suggested that he overlay two different graphs — one plotting financial regulation and bank failures, and the other charting trends in income inequality.
Mr. Moss says he was surprised by what he saw. The timelines danced in sync with each other. Income disparities between rich and poor widened as government regulations eased and bank failures rose.
“I could hardly believe how tight the fit was — it was a stunning correlation,” he said. “And it began to raise the question of whether there are causal links between financial deregulation, economic inequality and instability in the financial sector. Are all of these things connected?”
I suppose you could file it under the category of “something our corporate media doesn’t give a fig about unless it impacts the investor class” (which is a HUGE category of stories, it should be noted).
The Times story also tells us the following...
R. Glenn Hubbard, for instance, who was the top economic advisor to former President George W. Bush, said income inequality was not the culprit in the most recent crisis.This tells us the following about Hubbard who, like Lurita Doan, also served our prior ruling bunch of pirates…
“Cars go faster every year, and G.D.P. rises every year, but that doesn’t mean speed causes G.D.P.,” said Mr. Hubbard, dean of the Columbia Business School and co-author of the coming book “Seeds of Destruction: Why the Path to Economic Ruin Runs Through Washington, and How to Reclaim American Prosperity.”
President Bush also politicized the Council of Economic Advisers, which is supposed to produce straight analysis, not administration spin. CEA staffers complained that top Bush economic adviser Larry Lindsey, not even a member of the council, encouraged them to produce data supporting the president's controversial tax cut initiatives. CEA chairman Glen Hubbard also pushed staffers to find literature supporting the questionable argument that tax cuts created job growth.Many thanks to the Times for more accountability-free reporting.
To reward our congressman’s good behavior, click here.Patrick Murphy Announces New Support for Program to Expand Bucks Manufacturing
Pennsylvania Congressman visits Quakertown fabric manufacturer, highlights program that helps local small businesses secure American jobs
(Quakertown, PA) – The Delaware Valley Industrial Resource Center (DVIRC) exists to help small- and medium-sized manufacturers in the region develop strategic expansion plans, increase exports, and compete in the Philadelphia area and around the world. But not enough businesses are taking advantage of the help that DVIRC could provide.
On Thursday August 12, Pennsylvania Congressman Patrick Murphy (D-8th District) visited a Quakertown manufacturing company, Fabric Development, to highlight the work that DVIRC does and how companies can learn about and use their services. He also announced that the $185,000 in federal funding he is working to get for DVIRC has cleared a key legislative hurdle toward becoming law.
“To propel our economy out of the recession, we need to focus on making things in America again,” Murphy said. “I’m committed to connecting small businesses with the resources that will help them succeed, grow, and hire new workers. DVIRC is a key resource, and I’m proud to partner with them to support domestic manufacturing here in Southeastern Pennsylvania.”
Among other things, DVIRC puts together strategic plans for manufacturing companies looking to expand, improve the efficiency of their operations, or take advantage of new export opportunities. DVIRC will meet with business owners and put together a specific proposal for that company. If the company accepts the proposal, DVIRC will serve as their consultant and help them carry out the expansion plan.
“Patrick Murphy’s support allows us to help Bucks County manufacturers operate more efficiently and create jobs, even in today’s difficult economic climate,” said Tony Girifalco, Executive VP of DVIRC. “Many of our clients have been able to avoid layoffs or even hire new workers during the recession because of the improvements they’ve made to their operations.”
“Patrick Murphy understands the needs of small businesses,” said Mary Shafer, General Manager of Fabric Development. “By supporting organizations like DVIRC, he is helping local manufacturers from the ground up, giving us the tools to increase our competitiveness and retain or hire new workers.”
Fabric Development, a fabric and textile manufacturer with 91 employees, is one of dozens of companies in the region that have benefitted from DVIRC’s services. On Thursday, Shafer addressed the changes her company has made as a result of their partnership. She said the company has adopted new “lean manufacturing techniques” to become more competitive and retain jobs. Shafer credited DVIRC’s strategic plan for the company as a main reason why they have gotten through the economic downturn without having to lay off a single employee.
To help DVIRC serve more companies, Patrick Murphy is fighting for $185,000 in federal funding that DVIRC will be use to help more small and medium-sized manufacturers develop growth strategies. That funding has been passed by the Financial Services Appropriations Subcommittee, the first major step toward becoming law. DVIRC would use the funding to develop an Emerging Manufacturing Initiative, a program designed specifically for smaller manufacturers to help them develop growth strategies for their businesses and to become leaders in our regional economy.
In the past, Murphy has fought for full funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program administered by the U.S. Department of Commerce. DVIRC is part of the national MEP network.
Companies seeking additional information on DVIRC can click here.
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