You gotta love the New Jersey governor's directness.
The Strong Conservative Blog
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- "People should not fear the government, government should fear the people." - V
2011-11-29
2011-11-27
America's Legalized Corruption in Government
Peter Schweizer has written a book called "Throw Them All Out". In it, he details the manner in which members of Congress, the Senate, and the President have made themselves separate and above the law. They have made it legal for themselves to be enriched by insider trading, enriching political friends/bundlers, and doing other things that would get regular Americans thrown in jail.
What is happening is the establishment of a political aristocracy. The system favours a government grows that exponentially in size and power through the perpetuation of the status quo within the hands a privileged political class.
The Daily Beast's Peter Boyer writes: "Schweizer had been struck by the fact that members of Congress are free to buy and sell stocks in companies whose fate can be profoundly influenced, or even determined, by Washington policy, and he wondered, do these ultimate insiders act on what they know? Yes, Schweizer found, they certainly seem to. Schweizer’s research revealed that some of Congress’s most prominent members are in a position to routinely engage in what amounts to a legal form of insider trading, profiting from investment activity that, he says, “would send the rest of us to prison.”
The corruption infests both parties and is rampant. Before new bills are passed that restructure entire industries, politicians engage in trading, investments and maneuvers that allow them to make massive profits while the general public struggles under the burden of regulation, taxation, and a stagnant economy.
"One of the more dramatic episodes in the book recounts the trading activity of Republican Rep. Spencer Bachus, of Alabama, who, as the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, was privy to sensitive high-level meetings during the 2008 financial crisis and proceeded to make a series of profitable stock-option trades."
All legal, while you or I would go to jail, Congressmen/women can do it without penalty.
But there have been no insider-trading cases brought against members of Congress, nor will there likely be. This is partly because, though insider-trading law is not settled, case law usually requires that an offending insider bear fiduciary responsibility at the company involved. But Congress’s relative immunity also owes to the fact that, in this regard, as in many others, Congress lives by its own rules.
And so the United States descends from a nation of laws, to a nation of men. In such a system, there will be corruption, oppression, and eventually tyranny in which the individual becomes a servant (or even a slave) to the state. As in the USSR, everyone is equal but some are just more equal than others. Such a system will eventually lead to revolution, either at the ballot box or in the streets. History has shown that this is inevitable: the Soviet Union, the Arab Spring, the French and American Revolutions.
Nancy Pelosi is also, rightly, taking heat for her corrupt transactions:
A privileged class will never do what is best for the country without laws that truly apply to everyone. "Washington does seem to live by its own laws of economics. The D.C. metro area has displaced Silicon Valley as home of the highest median income, at $84,523 last year." How then, can the rules be fair if government plays by different rules from average citizens? How can justice prevail if the political class is allowed to be enriched through corruption (even if it's "legal")?
To read more, buy Schweizer's book here: http://www.amazon.com/Throw-Them-All-Peter-Schweizer/dp/0547573146
What is happening is the establishment of a political aristocracy. The system favours a government grows that exponentially in size and power through the perpetuation of the status quo within the hands a privileged political class.
The Daily Beast's Peter Boyer writes: "Schweizer had been struck by the fact that members of Congress are free to buy and sell stocks in companies whose fate can be profoundly influenced, or even determined, by Washington policy, and he wondered, do these ultimate insiders act on what they know? Yes, Schweizer found, they certainly seem to. Schweizer’s research revealed that some of Congress’s most prominent members are in a position to routinely engage in what amounts to a legal form of insider trading, profiting from investment activity that, he says, “would send the rest of us to prison.”
The corruption infests both parties and is rampant. Before new bills are passed that restructure entire industries, politicians engage in trading, investments and maneuvers that allow them to make massive profits while the general public struggles under the burden of regulation, taxation, and a stagnant economy.
"One of the more dramatic episodes in the book recounts the trading activity of Republican Rep. Spencer Bachus, of Alabama, who, as the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, was privy to sensitive high-level meetings during the 2008 financial crisis and proceeded to make a series of profitable stock-option trades."
All legal, while you or I would go to jail, Congressmen/women can do it without penalty.
But there have been no insider-trading cases brought against members of Congress, nor will there likely be. This is partly because, though insider-trading law is not settled, case law usually requires that an offending insider bear fiduciary responsibility at the company involved. But Congress’s relative immunity also owes to the fact that, in this regard, as in many others, Congress lives by its own rules.
And so the United States descends from a nation of laws, to a nation of men. In such a system, there will be corruption, oppression, and eventually tyranny in which the individual becomes a servant (or even a slave) to the state. As in the USSR, everyone is equal but some are just more equal than others. Such a system will eventually lead to revolution, either at the ballot box or in the streets. History has shown that this is inevitable: the Soviet Union, the Arab Spring, the French and American Revolutions.
Nancy Pelosi is also, rightly, taking heat for her corrupt transactions:
Pelosi and her husband, Paul, are reportedly worth $40 million, with a significant stock portfolio. In the spring of 2008, when Pelosi was speaker of the House, Paul made a big play—between $1 million and $5 million—on Visa, the credit-card company. What was striking about the investment, apart from its size, was the price the Pelosis paid for it. The Visa initial public stock offering was one of the hottest of the decade, its price-per-share jumping from $44 to $65 just 48 hours after public trading began. But the initial public offering, at the $44 price, was reserved for institutional investors and mutual funds, plus a select group of individual investors. The Pelosis bought their Visa shares in three transactions, the first of which—5,000 shares—came at the lower IPO price. This may have been just a piece of investment luck or an instance of Visa extending a friendly gesture to an important political figure.
A privileged class will never do what is best for the country without laws that truly apply to everyone. "Washington does seem to live by its own laws of economics. The D.C. metro area has displaced Silicon Valley as home of the highest median income, at $84,523 last year." How then, can the rules be fair if government plays by different rules from average citizens? How can justice prevail if the political class is allowed to be enriched through corruption (even if it's "legal")?
To read more, buy Schweizer's book here: http://www.amazon.com/Throw-Them-All-Peter-Schweizer/dp/0547573146
2011-11-21
Occupy Toronto
It's great to see that the law will be enforced against the squatters in Toronto after weeks of flagrant violations of the law. However, it's somewhat ironic that these hipsters are claiming a version of property rights in a public park when their ideological hero, Karl Marx, was vociferously opposed to property rights of any sort other than that which belonged to the state.
Either way, good riddance to the squatting loafers who leach off society while enjoying the luxuries the capitalist system makes possible (i.e. cell phones).
I'd love to know why Chief Blair thinks its acceptable to enforce the law only when it's politically expedient (or correct to do so). Just recall the Tamil protests, the Toronto public worker union strikes, and now the OWS Toronto sit-in. Pathetic. Are we a nation of laws or men/women?
Either way, good riddance to the squatting loafers who leach off society while enjoying the luxuries the capitalist system makes possible (i.e. cell phones).
I'd love to know why Chief Blair thinks its acceptable to enforce the law only when it's politically expedient (or correct to do so). Just recall the Tamil protests, the Toronto public worker union strikes, and now the OWS Toronto sit-in. Pathetic. Are we a nation of laws or men/women?
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