The Leaky Boat Of American Political Class Corruption – Home and Away

I am constantly amazed at the amount of corruption that tends to follow our political class around, both on our domestic shores and overseas. Consider a story that appeared in the September 24, 2010 issue of The Week Magazine entitled, “The Fight Against Corruption In Afghanistan.” According to the article:

- Afghan President Hamid Karzai has recently blocked several investigations of graft in his administration.

- There have been ongoing complaints of corruption related to members of his government including his two half brothers who are allegedly involved with drug trafficking, bribery, and smuggling cash out of the country.

- Karzai recently freed one of his senior aides from prison who had been arrested on corruption charges.

- A recent in-country survey in Afghanistan found that 70% of those Afghans surveyed said that their local government officials are engaged in drug trafficking.

In return for this web of corruption and deceit from the Afghan government, the United States taxpayer expends roughly 0 billion a year and many dead American soldiers trying to get this situation right. Who should one be more mad at, the Afghan government officials and crooks who get away with this theft or the American political class that allows them to get away with it.

Another article on foreign corruption of U.S. taxpayer money comes from a New York Times article that appeared in the St. Petersburg Times on September 26, 2010, “Corruption Gobbles Up Gifts To Children.” This article reviewed a program that the U.S. political class put in place to get almost 8,100 laptop computers into the hands of Iraqi children. The computers’ value was estimate to be .8 million. The laptops arrived in Iraq last February but were not distributed right away.

While trying to track them down, it became known that in August, 4,200 of them had been auctioned off by some Iraqis for ,700. The location of the other 3,900 computers was unknown at that time and still unknown today. Now, the article does acknowledge that ten government-employed customs people have been arrested in this case. However, seven months after the taxpayer funded computers landed in country, not a single on has been distributed to an Iraqi child and the location of the computers has apparently not been determined.

These are just two of the myriad of corruption instances that the American taxpayer has paid for in both war zones, Iraq and Afghanistan. And, as always, there does not appear to have been any person in our government or political class held accountable for the corruption and the waste. From 0 billion a year we waste in Afghanistan supporting a thoroughly corrupted government down to the relatively small, but symbolic loss of .8 million of laptop computers in Iraq, we are left with the classic political class situation: everyone is in charge but no one is accountable.

But I guess we should not be too upset that taxpayer dollars are being wasted via corruption half a world away. Consider just a sample of political class corruption examples we have faced domestically in recent years:

- Hawaiian Senator Daniel Inouye has been accused of using the leverage of his Senate office to coerce government regulators to bailout a distressed Hawaiian bank in which the Senator had made a significant investment, an investment that would be lost if the bank was allowed to fail like the regulators wanted.

- Congressmen James Traficant, Randy Cunningham, and William Jefferson have been found guilty of various corruption violations and have served or are serving prison time.

- Many former Illinois governors have either spent time in jail (Kerner and Walker), are serving time in jail (Ryan), or are trying not to go to jail (Blagojevich).

- California Congresswoman Maxine Walters is accused of doing the same deal in order to save a bank that her husband had heavily invested in.
New York Congressman Charles Rangel is likely to go on trial later this year in Congress for his alleged misdealings and corruption in many areas.

- Florida Congresswoman Ginny Waite Brown was reported by the Associated Press to have been trading stocks in financial institutions at the same time she was sitting on a House committee that would determine which financial institutions got how much government/taxpayer bailout money. For most Americans, this is called insider trading and is a felony. For political class members this is called business as usual.

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- Many of President Obama’s nominees for high level government positions were found to have not paid their fair share of taxes including Tom Daschle, ex-long time Senator, and Tim Geithner, currently the Secretary of the Treasury. Again for most Americans, this type of tax evasion is at least a misdemeanor. For the political class, it sometimes feels like it is a way of life.

- The government organization that runs Medicare is so rife with corruption and mismanagement that it wastes, loses, and misspends almost 0 billion a year in government/taxpayer funds.

- Various Associated Press reports have reported that employees in the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Interior Department and most recently in the Defense Department (The Week – September 17, 2010) have been extensively involved, on work time and on government computers, in searching and downloading pornography off of the Internet. The latest Defense Department pornography finding identified over 250 Pentagon employees and contractors, some with the highest security clearance, had viewed and purchased child pornography, sometime with their government issued computers. This form of corruption at best involves the misuse of government salaries dollars and equipment, at worst sets up users of pornography for blackmail and other forms of corruption.

When the Democrats took control of the House Of Representatives in 2006, newly appointed Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, stated that she would lead “the most honest, most open, most ethical Congress in history” and that she wanted to “drain the swamp” of Congressional corruption. Part of this effort was a bill signed by President Bush called the “Honest Leadership and Open Government Act” in 2007. Parts of this bill called for disclosure of lobbyists’ spending and contributions to politicians, a ban on lobbyist gifts to lawmakers, curtailment of free vacations from lobbyists, creation of an independent ethics office, and the identification of earmark sponsors.

While sounding great, the ethics bill and the push to root out corruption has fallen short, according to a recent Associated Press article:

- It appears that few in Congress are disclosing how lobbyists are helping them raise campaign cash for their re-elections even though there is a provision in the above law that requires them to do so.

- Even though the ethics office that was created by the above bill has found grounds for misconduct with two Democratic members of Congress, Maxine Walters and Charles Rangel, Pelosi will probably be able to delay their House trial until after the November elections. You cannot say you are fighting for good ethics if you use your power to postpone possibly embarrassing ethics violations and investigations for political gain.

- Recent news reports show that three Democratic members of Congress awarded Congressional Black Caucus Foundation scholarships to their relatives. Talk about conflict of interest and a serious ethical violation, in spirit if not law.

- While the 2007 ethics law that Bush signed required earmarks to be identified by lawmaker, it obviously did nothing to curtail earmark creation and waste since they are close to an all time high. Earmarks are nothing more than thinly disguised ways for the political class to direct taxpayer money to entities that turn around and give some of that money back to the lawmaker for his or her re-election campaign, i.e. it is a giant kickback scheme. In essence, the shell game of having taxpayers pay for incumbents’ re-election campaigns is as healthy and as destructive as ever, it is just now we know who is doing the destruction.

- Recently, an influential former lobbyist, Paul Magliocchetti, pleaded guilty to funneling more than 0,000 to the re-election campaigns of three House Democrats. This 0,000 cash for incumbents cost the American taxpayer 7 million – this is the amount of defense contracts that the three Democratic Congressmen directed towards Magliocchetti’s clients.

- Beyond the above ethics violations involving money, Pelosi could be considered in serious breach of ethics as leader of the House Of Representatives on many fronts. She has allowed members of her party to call American citizens, with legitimate differences of opinion with the Democrats actions and positions, racists. Pelosi herself called Americans opposed to Obama’s health care plans un-American even though those Americans have a right to disagree with any politician. While she censured a Republican Congressman who called Obama a liar during a health care reform speech (even though the Republican apologized and his apology was accepted by the President), she had no problem with one of her fellow Democrats calling all Republicans “knuckle dragging Neanderthals.” You cannot be considered an ethical person if you do not respect the opinions and rights of others to have those opinions. She should know better, she is a leading political figure in the country. However, her behavior in berating common citizens is unethical and despicable. 

Thus, while Pelosi is taking credit for a law that is supposed to reduce corruption, a law that was signed by a Republican President and passed with wide Republican support, the fact is it does not make any difference who was responsible. Corruption, earmarks, lobbyists’ influence, conflict of interest, non-disclosure, etc. are still major corruption issues with our political class. While her boat might look better, it is just as leaky as all of the previous political class boats of corruption.

As with the corruption that wastes our foreign policy dollars, nobody (so far) of any importance has faced an consequences from these domestic acts of corruption. That is what is frustrating the American people today, we pay and pay and pay through taxes and our dead soldiers just to have these types of wasteful corruption instances thrown back in our faces.

And the sources of the corruption are never fixed. We are so afraid of losing to the Taliban in Afghanistan that our political class tolerates the corruption from Afghan officials who are more concerned with their wealth and well being then fixing their country. We prop up another government in Iraq that is so corrupt that it would deny the simplest joys to their children, the ability to have a free computer. Our politicians feast for themselves on the taxpayer dollar while comparable behavior by those same taxpayers gets them jail time. Obama passes a multi TRILLION health care plan but never fixed the leaks of corruption in the current government health care plans. Thus, we will have a bigger boat that leaks more taxpayer money quicker.

When does it end and how do we fix the leaks? The following initial steps would be a good start:

- Step 1 – reduce Federal spending by 10% a year for five years. If the political class has less of our money to spend, they are likely to waste less money also.

- Step 2 – make a conscious and determined effort to crack down on tax and other government fraud and waste, aggressively bringing those crooks and fraudsters to justice. This step would also include the strengthening of ethics violations process and prosecution of current politicians in office.

- Step 3 – bring home almost all of our foreign deployed troops. The world is full of corruption and criminals, why should we put them into power and then watch as they plunder our taxpayer money? Using this step and a much more restrained foreign policy should reduce the Defense Department budget significantly and eliminate the type of fraud that our political class subsidizes in places like Afghanistan and Iraq.

- Step 4 – remove those members of Congress, sitting on those committees that are responsible for the oversight of the waste, corruption and fraud, from their committee posts for incompetence when appropriate. For example, whatever House and Senate committees are responsible for those Iraqi missing laptops, and the other billions and billions of taxpayer dollars that have been flushed down the Iraqi hole of corruption, those politicians should be removed from their committee posts and replaced. No more being  in
charge but not accountable.

- Step 5 – institute term limits for all politicians so that they are out of office in a relatively short time, before they can learn the ropes of Washington corruption and profit both personally and politically by that culture of corruption.

Until you fix the leaks in the boat, corruption will find a way in and our tax dollars will find a way out. With TRILLIONS of dollars of national debt piling up and American families struggling in a very weak economy, every patch is needed if you are to fix our financial situation and make our taxpayer dollars more impact and useful in honest ways. Hopefully, the above suggestions to fix our culture of political corruption floats your boat also.

Source: ArticlesBase.com

Political Stewardship: Maid Abuses – Political Will Is Needed For Lawful Protection of Women Citizens Who Work As Maids

Maids are generally considered to be domestic workers for anyone who can afford to pay them their meager remuneration. This description alone leads to all types of abuses. We have to look at maids as more than just domestic workers.

In order to resolve maid abuses, a political stewardship understanding of maids should be upheld nationally by every sending and recipient country. Maids should be considered “.” Anything short of this kind of minimum understanding of maids is short-changing the women citizens who through their back-breaking toils contribute to a national economy and the well-being of their families.

Maid abuse cases are not isolated cases of certain countries only. A random scanning of maid abuses in news media has reports on maid abuses in countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Gulf States and Middle East etc. Maid abuses reported in news media are just the tip of the iceberg. For every reported case, there are countless unreported cases that go unnoticed. These are horrific and inhuman crimes committed behind closed doors.

The crimes committed against maids range in severity as well as in its criminal and sadistic nature. Maids have been forced to work without pay.  Maids have been verbally abused. Maids have been made to work without reasonable rest periods. Maids have been made to work in multiple sites for the same pay. Maids have been physically tortured: starved, punched, burned and made to swallow nails, sliced, scourged with hot water, chained like dogs and made to drink their own urine. Maids have been molested, raped and sodomized. Maids have been used as sexual slaves. Maids have been murdered and their bodies dump like rubbish in public places.  If these are not horrific and inhuman crimes, what is?

Is there justification for maid abuses? By any cultural, religious or moral standards, there is no justification for maid abuses. It is when maids are considered domestic workers, persona non-grata, human cattle, or human dispensable tools, that their abuses are justified. Even if a recipient country justifies maid abuse, it is the national duty of a sending country to defend and protect its citizens, especially their women. If a government cannot protect its own citizens, (especially women), what good are they as a governing power? Political powers, if not employed for the protection of its citizens especially women, becomes meaningless and irrelevant as governing powers. So, sending countries should use their political powers to defend their national human resources who work in other countries. Why maid abuses need political resolutions?

Recipient nation-states usually explain away, cover-up or ignore the complaints of maid abuses by a single individual or group of individuals who are not their citizens. It usually takes a high profile media exposure before certain countries had even acknowledged an abuse. It has been shown in past news reports, how maid abuse issues in certain countries have been swept under their national bureaucratic carpet and the criminal culprits have got off leniently or with impunity. Certain country seems to suffer from legal and moral apathy when it involves abuses of women citizens of other countries within their jurisdiction. What does this legal and moral apathy indicate about their value system regarding foreign women citizens?  Only in few cases, have criminals who abuse maids, been prosecuted in an open court and given a reasonable punishment. To those nations who did their duties! Bravo! Bravo! It is in the context of such national and moral apathy of recipient nations that the sending nations have to employ political leverage to ensure the protection of their national human resources and citizens. It is more efficient for a government to deal with a government on issues of national interest. Maid abuses should be considered a national interest as it involves the national human resources, especially their women citizens.

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Here are few reasons of why maids get abused in recipient countries.

The first and foremost reason, why maids get abused in recipient countries is because, there is a lack and sometimes no national polices on maid recruitment and employment in sending and recipient countries. Maid recruitment and employment when is considered a private business transaction leads to abuses that has no control. As long as sending and recipient countries ignore the need to have national policies, maid abuses will continue without the necessary checks and balances. I believe, it is in the interest of the sending country to be proactive in initiating national polices on maid recruitment and employment. Even, if governing powers treat maid recruitment and employment as a private business matter, they can still introduce reasonable legislations and policies on a national level to protect their women citizens. This is the root solution to long term checks and balances for maid abuses. There is no detail, mechanics or administrative structure that cannot be thought-out in developing

The second reason for most maid abuses is the lack of professional maid recruitment services in countries. The basic drive of a maid recruitment agency is to make a quick profit. Most of them don’t have concern for the welfare of the citizens the recruit. They are even no more bothered about the background of potential employers who could turn out to be criminals. Their inability to check, appraise, discern and follow-up professionally coupled with their narrow profit-minded mindset and attitude is a contributing factor to maid abuses.

There is a lack of legal, social and psychological support networks for maids especially in recipient countries.  As such, maids who face abuses can only find support in other maids, which is limited, as both also need support. I know certain religious institutions and NGO(s) are attempting to fill in these needs. But, until these needs for Maid Support Networks are established systematically and comprehensively under the umbrella of a national policy for maid protection, its lack will continue to be another contributing factor for maid abuses that goes unnoticed and not highlighted.

Certain employers even the so-called educated ones, have abusive mindsets and attitudes towards maids. In their distorted thinking, the meager amount they agree to pay a maid, entitles them to abuse the minds, bodies and spirits of their maids. In short, they convince themselves erroneously, that they own the maids like slaves or like any of their other material assets. When such erroneous and psychologically sick mindsets and attitudes are formed and maintained, maid abuse will be in full force. The more psychologically powerful an employer considers himself/herself to be, the more abusive they become towards their maids. These psychologically sick employers deliberately ignore the fact that their maids are the national human resources and citizens of another country who have all the rights just like them. The meager amount that they pay the maids sometimes does not compensate for the time and labor given by the maids. It is the vicious cycle of exploitation of economic poverty which the psychologically sick employers use to their advantage. If any employer or their representatives justifies maid abuses, I would suggest that they voluntarily allow themselves to be abused to know what is the pain and suffering that they inflict on others. If a recipient country justifies the abuse of the citizens of a sending country, then they should not complain when their citizens undergo any sort of abuses at the hands of others in foreign lands. It is sad to see in news reports that the judiciary processes of certain recipient countries, allow criminals of maid abuses to get away either with impunity or leniency.

Impunity and leniency shown by the judiciary processes of a recipient country in the event of maid abuses creates an atmosphere of risk and danger to all foreign maids who wants to work in such a country. The governments of the sending country should warn their women citizens of the dangers of going to countries that fails to protect them. Again, many times this doesn’t happen because the sending countries do not want to offend their political friend. So, the women citizens who are not warned get abused again and again. In the light of impunity and leniency of prosecution of maid abuse criminals in certain countries, the following are suggestions as how a sending country can confront this issue in a realistic manner:

Every time there is a high profile case of maid abuse, there will a short period of media attention on the case. Ordinary citizens would demonstrate to show solidarity with the victims. Political leaders of sending countries will comment in a discreet manner with similar discreet replies from the leaders of the recipient country. Everything is discreet and done diplomatically. That’s it. Case closed. Then, the next abuse takes place. The scenario repeats itself. Does it sound familiar?

When citizens of a democratic country elect their leaders to governing powers, one of the national expectations is that, they will be defended and protected by their leaders. Protection of citizens requires the political will to be exercised on behalf of the citizens locally and in foreign lands. All the discreet talks, diplomacy, citizens’ demonstrations and media attention will avail to nothing, until a real deliberate exercise of political will is employed to protect its citizens. The logic is simple. Though, humanitarianly and morally speaking, recipient countries of maids have a duty to protect foreign human resources. But for whatever the reasons, if they are indifferent in their response, the duty to protect falls back primarily on the government of the sending country. So, what will be the responses of the government of sending countries? The decisions they make will decide whether there will be moves towards the creation of systems like:

Comprehensive national maid protection policies in sending and recipient countries,

Promotion of governmental and Ngo maid support networks,

Implementation of professional maid training in human rights,

A creation of bilateral and multilateral systems for managing, monitoring and resolving maid abuses,

Non-response or an apathetic response by a sending country on maid abuses sends a dangerous and wrong message to perpetrators of maid crimes in recipient nations. Bilateral relationships between two countries are important in politics. However, the well-being and lives of citizens especially women, cannot be sacrificed for bilateral or multilateral political relationships. The citizens come first before any bilateral or multilateral political relationships. In the event, a country scarifies the wellbeing and lives of its citizens for bilateral or multilateral relationships, it is sending out a wrong message to the entire world. The message is clear: “we prioritize political relationships over the wellbeing and lives of our citizens. No matter what you do to our citizens, we value your political relationships more.” When that happens, the citizens become targets for abuses. So, there is only one way out for sending countries. They must protect their national human resources against all threat, local or foreign. They must especially protect their women who are their daughters, sisters, and mothers. Don’t expect a recipient country to do the job that one as a sending country should have done first – protect your national human resources. This is part of political stewardship.

Source: ArticlesBase.com