● Congressional earmarks sometimes used to fund projects near lawmakers' properties... ● Congress's Phony Insider-Trading Reform... ● Obama denounces Senate vote to block Cordray at consumer watchdog agency... ● Walker signs 'castle doctrine' bill, other measures... ● Holder faces House Republicans over health-care law, ‘Fast and Furious’... ● Postal workers behaving badly!... ● The supercommittee failed because Democrats insisted on $1 trillion in new taxes... ● Happy Thanksgiving!... ● Supercommittee announces failure in effort to tame debt... ● Happy Veterans Day to the brave men and women of the United States Armed Forces....
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When the people fear the government, there is tyranny; When the government fears the people, there is liberty.  ~ Thomas Jefferson

 

Entries from December 13th, 2011

Congress’s Phony Insider-Trading Reform

December 13th, 2011 · Congress, Corruption, Deception, Ethics, Greed

The denizens of Capitol Hill are remarkable investors. A new law meant to curb abuses would only make their shenanigans easier.

By JONATHAN MACEY

Members of Congress already get better health insurance and retirement benefits than other Americans. They are about to get better insider trading laws as well.

Several academic studies show that the investment portfolios of congressmen and senators consistently outperform stock indices like the Dow and the S&P 500, as well as the portfolios of virtually all professional investors. Congressmen do better to an extent that is statistically significant, according to studies including a 2004 article about “abnormal” Senate returns by Alan J. Ziobrowski, Ping Cheng, James W. Boyd and Brigitte J. Ziobrowski in the Journal of Financial and Qualitative Analysis. The authors published a similar study of the House this year.

Democrats’ portfolios outperform the market by a whopping 9%. Republicans do well, though not quite as well. And the trading is widespread, although a higher percentage of senators than representatives trade—which is not surprising because senators outperform the market by an astonishing 12% on an annual basis.

These results are not due to luck or the financial acumen of elected officials. They can be explained only by insider trading based on the nonpublic information that politicians obtain in the course of their official duties.

Strangely, while insider trading by corporate insiders has long been the white collar crime equivalent of a major felony, the Securities and Exchange Commission has determined that insider trading laws do not apply to members of Congress or their staff. That is because, according to the SEC at least, these public officials do not owe the same legal duty of confidentiality that makes insider trading illegal by nonpoliticians.

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Obama denounces Senate vote to block Cordray at consumer watchdog agency

December 10th, 2011 · Accountability, Congress, Deception, Dissention, Ethics, Federal Spending, Government, Non-Transparency, Obama Exposed, Obama Nominees, Obama's Scheme, Politics, Terrorism from Within

Reference: Issues concerning past Obama Nominees

By David Nakamura and Ylan Q. Mui, Published: December 8

An agitated President Obama accused congressional Republicans on Thursday of not standing up for ordinary Americans after the Senate derailed his nominee to head a new federal consumer protection agency.

At a brief news conference, the president charged that his Republican adversaries were not acting “on the level” after they blocked, by filibuster, his appointment of former Ohio attorney general Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

“This makes no sense,” Obama declared. “Consumers across the country understand part of the reason we got into the financial mess we did is because regulators are not doing their jobs.”

Two days after signaling that he would make economic inequality a central pillar of his reelection effort, Obama seized the opportunity Thursday to restate his argument that Republicans were not acting in the interest of middle-class Americans.

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Walker signs ‘castle doctrine’ bill, other measures

December 8th, 2011 · Government, News Alert, States, Wisconsin

Governor also OKs legislation to cap attorney fees, use test results to fire teachers

By Jason Stein of the Journal Sentinel

Dec. 7, 2011

Madison – Homeowners who shoot intruders will have new legal protections, under a bill signed Wednesday by Gov. Scott Walker.

The Republican governor also signed legislation to limit attorney fees in lawsuits – a bill that conservatives said would end frivolous lawsuits but which Democrats said also would end many lawsuits with merit.

Under the intruders bill, courts in most criminal and civil matters would presume that people using deadly force had acted reasonably against anyone unlawfully inside their residence, business or vehicle, whether the trespasser was armed or not.

The proposal is sometimes known as the “castle doctrine,” a reference to the saying that one’s home is one’s castle. The bill passed the Senate and Assembly on bipartisan votes last month.

The legislation is one of 21 bills that Walker signed privately Wednesday after they were passed by the Republican Legislature in October and November.

“By signing the castle doctrine into law, I am standing with those individuals who chose to protect their family and property,” Walker said in a statement.

On Nov. 1, Wisconsin became the 49th state in the country to allow people to carry concealed firearms.

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Holder faces House Republicans over health-care law, ‘Fast and Furious’

December 8th, 2011 · Accountability, Corruption, Deception, Ethics, Government Control, Healthcare, Money Matters, Non-Transparency, Obama Exposed, Obama Nominees, Obama's Scheme, Politics, Selling Out the US, Supreme Court, Tax Dollars, Terrorism from Within, Treason

By Jerry Markon, Published: December 8

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. clashed with congressional Republicans on Thursday, defending the Justice Department in the face of criticism of its “Fast and Furious” gun-trafficking sting and its refusal to turn over documents on the health-care law adopted last year.

Under exhaustive questioning from the House Judiciary Committee, Holder reiterated that his department would not provide Congress with more information about Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan’s health-care-related role when she was President Obama’s solicitor general. Republicans are seeking internal e-mails and other documents, arguing that Kagan might have to recuse herself from the court’s decision on the health-care law if she was involved in the legislation.

Attorney General Eric Holder says it’s inexcusable for the bureau to use a controversial tactic known as “gun-walking” in its effort to identify and prosecute major arms trafficking networks along the Southwest border. (Dec. 8)

Holder also was grilled over the Phoenix-based Fast and Furious operation, in which federal agents targeting drug cartels allowed guns to flow illegally onto U.S. streets and into Mexico. The operation led to a storm of criticism from Republicans, many of whom have urged Holder to resign.

The attorney general, who has resisted calls to step down, said the controversial Fast and Furious tactic known as “gun walking,’’ was “wholly unacceptable” and “must never happen again.” But he also condemned his accusers, saying the congressional investigation of the gun sting has been political and calling for cooperation in fighting firearms trafficking along the southwest border.

“Each of us have a duty to act, and to rise above partisan divisions and politically motivated ‘gotcha’ games,’’ Holder said. “The American people deserve better.’’

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Postal workers behaving badly!

December 7th, 2011 · Ethics, Federal Spending, Government, Greed

By Ed O’Keefe

(Andrew Harrer – BLOOMBERG) Most of the 574,000 employees of the U.S. Postal Service complete their appointed rounds and quickly move envelopes and packages to final destinations. But some postal workers steal mail, burn it, hoard it or claim thousands of dollars in fraudulent workers compensation claims, according to a new watchdog report.

There’s a Texas letter carrier who earned $207,706 in fraudulent workers compensation payments after submitting false travel vouchers over five years for approximately 96,000 miles in medical reimbursable transportation claims. Though she submitted a total of 480 travel reimbursement requests, the letter carrier only actually traveled to 13 medical appointments. She was sentenced in August to three years of probation and a year of home confinement, and she was ordered to pay $172,000 in restitution.

Details of the case appear in a semiannual report published this week by the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General that reports on dozens of other postal employees who violated policies or broke the law:

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