The Dismal State of State Level Corruption: Why You Should be Furious

by Nomad

If you thought your government was corrupt, you are absolutely correct, according to a new study. However, that corruption is very likely to be closer to you than Washington D.C.

One look at the recently released report by the Center for Public Integrity reveals in painful detail that when it comes to corrupt practices in legislatures, the situation is a big fat mess.

The goal of the research was to study and rank the levels of corruption in all 50 states "based on systems in place to prevent and expose governmental inpropriety. The results were much more disappointed than even the most cynical citizen would have thought.

The comprehensive probe found that in state after state, open records laws are laced with exemptions and part-time legislators and agency officials engage in glaring conflicts of interests and cozy relationships with lobbyists. Meanwhile, feckless, understaffed watchdogs struggle to enforce laws as porous as honeycombs.

President Obama on Giving a Sense of Hope and Vision

by Nomad

---

Related articles

• Obama says a thing. Republican outrage. Pope Francis says a similar thing. Where's the outrage?

The Pathology Party: Carson's Habitual Lying and Trump's Narcissism

by Nomad

Accusing your political rival of a mental illness, especially a violent one, is a bold step, but such an attack- regardless of how true or untrue- can also backfire.

Republican candidate Donald Trump recently went into psychologist mode in an interview Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor." His patient was none other than his rival in the 2016 presidential race: Dr. Ben Carson.

Trump's free diagnosis really didn't have anything to do with medical compassion.

Trump- who until now has been a strong believer in public opinion polls- has seen his numbers on the decline while Carson's rise. 

As of the end of the last month, a national poll released Tuesday morning from CBS News and The New York Times announced that Carson had become the top-ranked contender for the Republican presidential nomination. Carson now has the support of 26 percent of Republican primary voters, four percentage points ahead of Donald Trump.

Now, Trump says polls don't matter so much. 

Privately he was ready to give Carson a political flying bodyslam.

Speaking to host Bill O'Reilly, Trump went after Carson's violent childhood, accusing him of having a mental problem that he might not be able to bounce back from. "When you suffer from pathological disease, you’re not really getting better unless you start taking pills and things," Trump said of Carson.

The only pills Carson admits to taking are quack cancer cures that have an embarrassing tendency to produce flatulence. Not a particularly welcome special effect for a candidate. 

Abraham Lincoln, Friend of the Working Man

by Nomad

The Truth behind Ben Carson's Candidacy: Why Winning May Not Be his Goal

by Nomad

Many have scoffed at Dr. Ben Carson's campaign. Some have wondered if he isn't mentally unstable.
But only a few have questioned whether he is actually running for office.

Writing for the Daily Intelligencer, Jonathan Chait, may be on to something. In a recent article, he asks the question:

Is Republican Candidate Ben Carson actually running for office?

Strange question, you might say, but the possible answer might surprise you. Carson's got a plan. 

An Ice Cube's Chance in Hell

Let's face the facts about Carson and the GOP. Carson hasn't an ice cube's chance in hell of ever possibly winning his party's nomination. 

The Republican Party has, since the days of Nixon, devoted so much energy wooing the Southern bigot vote. Critics of the GOP have long cited racist elements in the party. 

So, the very idea that, after eight years of unreasonable obstruction for America's black president, the Republican party would ever in a million years nominate a black candidate is mind-bogglingly ridiculous. 

Even the most qualified black candidate would never have a chance.

And Carson is far from being the best qualified.

Did Texas Gov. Rick Perry Help Scuttle in a Medical Licence Revocation Case in Oklahoma?

by Nomad

Another allegation of abuse of power against former Texas governor Rick Perry has emerged.

Get Rid of This

Medical authorities in Oklahoma spent more than 3 years and $600,000 in an attempt to revoke the license of a doctor accused of performing operations that left patients paralyzed, in perpetual pain – or dead. Many of the charges against the surgeon were serious and deserved careful consideration. 

Yet all these efforts abruptly came to nothing after a call from Texas Governor Rick Perry to Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin. if one report is correct,. 

According to one investigative organization, a memo recently found suggests that Perry called Fallin, a fellow Republican, on Dr. Steven Anagnost’s behalf as a favor to a generous campaign donor.

When Fallin’s general counsel, Steve Mullins, met with key staff members at the Oklahoma Board of Medical Licensure and Supervision in March 2013, Perry’s intervention was part of the discussion.

“He (Mullins) told us that he wasn’t here to interfere with the work of the board but Gov. Fallin didn’t want any more calls from Rick Perry about this, that Gov. Perry said it was a travesty and what would it take to make it go away,” Dr. Eric Frische, the medical board’s medical advisor, later wrote in a memo.

Insider Trading, John Boehner and The STOCK Act Travesty

by Nomad

Even though insider trading is a serious crime, until Obama, government officials were immune from prosecution.

New legislation was supposed to eliminate this oversight and it was supposed to be a major step in the right direction. It didn't quite work out that way.

Investigative journalist John Vibes, writing for the Activist Post, reported recently that less than two weeks before the economic collapse of 2008, several members of Congress took their money out of the stock market.

According to Vibes' sources, many top government officials and staff were given advance knowledge that market was about to melt down in secret meetings with the Fed and the Treasury Department. (For the full story, click on this link.)
With this information, they engaged in insider trading.

It was revealed that Senator Shelley Capito and her husband sold $350,000 worth of Citigroup stock at $83 per share, just one day before the stock dropped to $64 per share. Another shady trader was Congressman Jim Moran, who had his biggest trading day of the year days after the secret meeting, sellings stock in nearly 100 different companies.

Two weeks is a lot of advanced warning. In Washington, as the collapse approached, politicians on both sides were more interested in saving their own skins than protecting the citizens. 

Who Was and Wasn't Above the Law

However, the most amazing part of this tale is that, despite this use of privileged information for private benefit or at least, safeguarding, no laws were actually broken.