FLAG BANNER
DEDICATED TO RIDDING POLITICAL BRIBERY FROM THE CENTER OF CALIFORNIA POLITICS

 

 
HOME
 

CORRUPTION UPDATES 24

December 3rd to December 5th, 2006

The CORRUPTION UPDATES reviews corruption in the news. News Stories from California, the Nation and the World are abstracted below, and followed by commentary and references.

 

 


CORRUPTION UPDATES 24


Previous Corruption Updates: Page 23

Next Corruption Updates: Page 25

1) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE LA TIMES, 12-3-06:

GOP vote suit payout: $135,000

From Times Wire Reports

December 3, 2006

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-briefs3.3dec03,1,1740821.story?coll=la-headlines-politics&ctrack=1&cset=true

State and national Republicans will pay $135,000 to settle a suit involving a scheme to jam Democratic get-out-the-vote calls on election day 2002.”

“Republicans hired a telemarketing firm to place hundreds of hang-up calls to phone banks for the Democratic Party and a nonpartisan group offering rides to the polls.”

THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

REPUBS FINED 135K FOR DIRTY TRICKS IN 2002 ELECTION

PRISON REQUIRED FOR THOSE WHO PLAY TRICKS WITH OUR MOST VALUABLE RIGHT

Crimes against our democracy are serious offenses against our most fundamental right. Tolerance of these crimes must stop. Serious punishments, including lengthy prison terms, must be imposed on all of those who rob us of our democratic rights to select our own representatives.

2) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE LA TIMES, 12-3-06:

Fundraising beat goes on for Gov.

Special accounts help Schwarzenegger add to his record cash totals.

By Peter Nicholas
Times Staff Writer

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-me-gala3dec03,1,531443,print.story?coll=la-headlines-politics


December 3, 2006

“SACRAMENTO — Reelection is behind him, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is keeping his fundraising operation at full throttle, asking donors to pay for a stylish inauguration and seeing to it that he continues to fly private jets and stage public appearances worthy of a Hollywood celebrity.”

“The governor's political team has approached Chevron Corp., PG&E, Blue Cross of California, AT&T and other businesses, asking for tens of thousands of dollars to pay for a two-day celebration surrounding his Jan. 5 inauguration.”

At the same time, Schwarzenegger is taking advantage of a new fundraising law he signed three months ago meant for politicians like himself who, for the time being, don't have another race to run.

His attorneys have set up a special "officeholder" account that allows him to collect up to $200,000 a year for assorted expenses (though not for a political campaign); donors can give $20,000 apiece per year.”

Campaign watchdog groups said the officeholder account in particular, with its $200,000 threshold, amounts to another vehicle for donors to influence the governor.

“ "It's designed to enable officeholders to get money from people who want something from them," said Robert Stern, president of the nonpartisan Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles and former general counsel to the state's Fair Political Practices Commission.”

“ "I have no problem with a limited officeholder account," Stern said. "But $200,000 is way too high. They are … taking advantage of people coming before them." ”

Campaign watchdog groups said the officeholder account in particular, with its $200,000 threshold, amounts to another vehicle for donors to influence the governor.”

“ "I have no problem with a limited officeholder account," Stern said. "But $200,000 is way too high. They are … taking advantage of people coming before them." ”

“ "The governor has always said that the issue is stopping the practice of money in, favors out," said Schwarzenegger's communications director, Adam Mendelsohn.”

“So far, Southern California Edison has pledged $15,000 for the inaugural events. PG&E, Chevron and AT&T have said they will probably help.”

Schwarzenegger aides said that although they're not required by law to reveal the names of donors, they will do so voluntarily on the governor's campaign website: http://www.joinarnold.com.”

With money coming in from so many sources, and with no uniform method for disclosing donations, it is hard for people to keep track of who is supporting Schwarzenegger and whether they're profiting from the relationship, watchdog groups said.”

THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

ARNIE HAS HUGE SPECIAL INTEREST SLUSH FUND

WITH NO MORE GOVERNOR'S ELECTIONS IN HIS FUTURE, ARNIE IS COLLECTING MONEY FOR FAVORS

Our initiative will solve these problems. No contributions from any source except qualified voters, within the present contribution limits, will stop the flow of special interest money to politicians.

Free speech will be protected by jailing those who use it as a tool of political bribery to corrupt the voters' candidates and elections. Not to mention payback time, when the bribes deliver corrupt legislation.

Political bribery will no longer be such a huge problem when it is no longer tolerated in public. We cannot stop all the bribes, but we can stop bribery from dominating the centers of our polity.

We must create the opportunity for the people to choose and elect their own representatives, rather than selecting from among a slate of special interest tainted hacks, to our state's political offices.

The Governor and the Special Interests are Special Friends:

Go To the Arnie Article Link List


Top of Page

3) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE NY TIMES, 12-3-06:

Editorial

Is the New Congress to Be Believed?

12-3-06

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/opinion/03sun1.html?pagewanted=print

Well before Election Day, the smart-money lobbyists of K Street were already shifting campaign donations to safe Democratic incumbents, greasing access to the next Congressional majority.”

Creation of a public integrity office to do more than merely audit lobbyists’ filings.”

An enforceable ban, with penalties, on all meals, gifts and travel — not just from lobbyists, but also from the organizations that hire them.”

Restraints on the revolving-door horde of Congressional alumni turned backslapping lobbyists.”

Detailed disclosure of costly and undebated “earmarks” — amendments passed as pork-barrel favors to backdoor pleaders.”

The new Congress must realize the ethics issue will test its mettle in the opening hours, and signal if real change is possible. A field general of the incoming majority, Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, is already warning that failure to deliver on ethics reform will be “devastating to our standing” in the very first moment of Democratic power.”

 

THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

EDITORIAL SUGGESTS EVERY REFORM BUT DEMOCRACY

THE TIMES, LIKE EVERY CORPORATE MEDIA OUTLET, CAN SEE EVERYTHING BUT THE REAL PROBLEM: BRIBERY. AND WITHOUT SEEING THE REAL PROBLEM, THE REAL SOULTION, DEMOCRACY, IS UNOBTAINABLE. THE TIMES IS GOOD AT PRETENDING TO SEE THE PROBLEM, AND COMING UP WITH “REFORMS,”

THAT ARE EQUAL TO PUTTING LIPSTICK ON A PIG

The NY Times puts forth valuable suggestions for reform, except the most important reform required: democracy.

If we do not acknowledged, support, and enforce the voters right to be the sole source of political power for their political representatives, then the bribery and corruption are guaranteed to continue.

Free speech is talk. Talking to the people, the politicians, and the press is fine. But when one red cent, one meal, or one round of golf is given to a politician, it is bribery, and political bribery must be regarded as a very serious crime, and be rewarded with a very long prison sentence.

Without stopping corruption at its source, the bribery of our politicians and parties, these changes are no more than lipstick on a pig.

And putting lipstick on pigs is the specialty of the New York Times.

 

For Specifics on Why neither Congress, or California's legislature, will stop selling themselves, See Click this Link


Top of Page

4) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE NY TIMES, 12-3-06:

Blowing the Whistle on Big Oil

By EDMUND L. ANDREWS

Published: December 3, 2006

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/business/yourmoney/

03whistle.html?pagewanted=all

DURING a 22-year career, Bobby L. Maxwell routinely won accolades and awards as one of the Interior Department’s best auditors in the nation’s oil patch, snaring promotions that eventually had him supervising a staff of 120 people.”

He and his team scrutinized the books of major oil producers that collectively pumped billions of dollars worth of oil and gas every year from land and coastal waters owned by the public. Along the way, the auditors recovered hundreds of millions of dollars from companies that shortchanged the government on royalties.”

“ “Mr. Maxwell’s career has been characterized by exceptional performance and significant contributions,” wrote Gale A. Norton, then the secretary of the interior, in a 2003 citation. Ms. Norton praised Mr. Maxwell’s “perseverance and leadership” while cataloguing his “many outstanding achievements.” ”

Less than two years later, the Interior Department eliminated his job in what it called a “reorganization.” That came exactly one week after a federal judge in Denver unsealed a lawsuit in which Mr. Maxwell contended that a major oil company had spent years cheating on royalty payments.”

Invoking a law that rewards private citizens who expose fraud against the government, Mr. Maxwell has filed a suit in federal court in Denver against the Kerr-McGee Corporation. The suit accuses the company, which was recently acquired by Anadarko Petroleum, of bilking the government out of royalty payments. It also contends that the Interior Department ignored audits indicating that Kerr-McGee was cheating. Three other federal auditors, who once worked for Mr. Maxwell and still work at the Interior Department, have since filed similar suits of their own against other energy companies.”

The actions of Mr. Maxwell and the other auditors have coincided with broader investigations by Congress and the Interior Department’s own inspector general into whether the agency properly collects the money for oil and gas pumped from public land.”

Investigators say they have found evidence of myriad problems at the department: cronyism and cover-ups of management blunders; capitulation to oil companies in disputes about payments; plunging morale among auditors; and unreliable data-gathering that often makes it impossible to determine how much money companies actually owe.”

Congressional investigators are worried about other problems, as well. The Interior Department’s inspector general told a House subcommittee in September that senior officials at the agency had repeatedly glossed over ethical lapses and bungling. “Short of crime, anything goes at the highest levels of the Department of the Interior,” declared Earl E. Devaney, the inspector general.

I like the oil and gas industry,” he said, as he reminisced about his years as a federal auditor. “We are neither for nor against the profits they make. Our job is to make sure the American public gets a fair return on its assets.”

Mr. Maxwell says his frustrations with the Interior Department escalated after the Bush administration took office in 2001. The Interior Department’s top priorities became increasing domestic oil and gas production, offering more incentives to drillers in the Gulf of Mexico and pushing to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other wilderness areas to drilling. The department trimmed spending on enforcement and cut back on auditors, and sped up approvals for drilling applications.”

The agency’s senior ranks also became more heavily populated with officials friendly to the energy industry. For example, its new deputy secretary, J. Steven Griles, worked as an oil industry lobbyist before joining the department, and Chevron and Shell had paid him as an expert witness on their behalf in the Benji Johnson case.”

Auditing and compliance review had generated an average of about $176 million annually in the 1990s, with an extraordinary peak of $331 million in 2000, according to data from the Congressional Budget Office and the Interior Department. But from 2001 through 2005, a period when energy prices soared to new highs, enforcement revenue averaged about $46 million a year.”

If Mr. Maxwell had not acted, of course, the government would have had no chance of recovering any money at all. James W. Moorman, president of Taxpayers Against Fraud, a nonprofit organization that specializes in the False Claims Act, acknowledged that it was less than ideal for federal investigators to have a financial stake in rebelling against their bosses. But he said the alternatives might be worse.”

 

“ “You’re talking about a situation where there seems to be complete breakdown in the system,” Mr. Moorman said. “If they’ve got evidence of fraud, why shouldn’t a court hear it?” ”

THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

BIG OIL OWNS INTERIOR DEPARTMENT

FEDS FIRE SHARP OIL AUDITOR WHO IRRITATED BIG OIL

The Committee can sum up our political policy and enforcement mechanisms easily: completely corrupted.

This corruption will continue unabated at all levels of government until we end bribery as the main force behind political victory.

Until we dig out the root of the problem, it will continue to infect our government in all of its branches.

Big Oil Owns Our Government

Top of Page

5) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE NY TIMES, 12-3-06:

As Trucking Rules Are Eased, a Debate on Safety Intensifies

NY Times December 3, 2006

By STEPHEN LABATON

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/washington/03trucks.html?

ref=politics&pagewanted=print

After intense lobbying by the politically powerful trucking industry, regulators a year earlier had rejected proposals to tighten drivers’ hours and instead did the opposite, relaxing the rules on how long truckers could be on the road. That allowed the driver who hit Ms. Edwards to work in the cab nearly 12 hours, 8 of them driving nonstop, which he later acknowledged had tired him.”

Government officials had also turned down repeated requests from insurers and safety groups for more rigorous training for new drivers. The driver in the fatal accident was a rookie on his first cross-country trip; his instructor, a 22-year-old with just a year of trucking experience, had been sleeping in a berth behind the cab much of the way.”

In loosening the standards, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration was fulfilling President Bush’s broader pledge to free industry of what it considered cumbersome rules. In the last six years, the White House has embarked on the boldest strategy of deregulation in more than a generation.

Largely unchecked by the Republican-led Congress, federal agencies, often led by former industry officials, have methodically reduced what they see as inefficient, outdated regulations and have delayed enforcement of others. The Bush administration says those efforts have produced huge savings for businesses and consumers.”

It is a frustrating disappointment that has led to a tragic era,” said David F. Snyder, an assistant general counsel at the American Insurance Association who follows the trucking industry closely. “The losses continue to pile up at a high rate. There has been a huge missed opportunity.”

In decisions that had the support of the White House, the motor carrier agency has eased the rules on truckers’ work hours, rejected proposals for electronic monitoring to combat widespread cheating on drivers’ logs and resisted calls for more rigorous driver training.”

While applauded by the industry, those decisions have been subject to withering criticism by federal appeals court panels in Washington who say they ignore government safety studies and put the industry’s economic interests ahead of public safety. To advance its agenda, the Bush administration has installed industry officials in influential posts.”

Before Mr. Bush entered the White House, he selected Duane W. Acklie, a leading political fund-raiser and chairman of the American Trucking Associations, and Walter B. McCormick Jr., the group’s president, to serve on the Bush-Cheney transition team on transportation matters.”

Mr. Bush then appointed Michael P. Jackson, a former top official at the trucking associations, as deputy secretary of the Department of Transportation.”

To lead the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the president picked Joseph M. Clapp, the former chairman of Roadway, a trucking company, and the leader of an industry foundation that sponsored research claiming fatigue was not a factor in truck accidents, a conclusion at odds with government and academic studies.”

And David S. Addington, a former trucking industry official who led an earlier fight against tougher driving limits, became legal counsel and later chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, an advocate of easing government regulations.”

In addition to supplying prominent administration officials, the trucking industry has provided some of the Republican party’s most important fund-raisers. From 2000 to 2006, the industry directed more than $14 million in campaign contributions to Republicans. Its donations and lobbying fees — about $37 million from 2000 to 2005 — led to rules that have saved what industry officials estimate are billions of dollars in expenses linked to tougher regulations.

Congress has provided little scrutiny of the trucking standards.

There has not been the kind of in-depth examination of these issues that should have occurred,” said Representative James L. Oberstar of Minnesota, the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.”

Mr. Oberstar and others blamed the failure on the political muscle of the industry. From 2000 to 2004, the American Trucking Associations donated $2 million to lawmakers, mostly to Republicans who served on committees with jurisdiction over trucking issues.”

THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

LOBBYING BY TRUCKING INDUSTRY BRINGS DEATH TO NATION'S HIGHWAYS

As an American you should know this truth: Your government will kill you in the service of their special interest masters. The concept of “deregulation,” is in theory, a good idea. But this theory is being used irresponsibly and out of its proper context.

Economic efficiency, deregulation, and “free” market theories are all economic tools which are well and good when used in the economic sphere. But when economic theory is applied to politics, it is misapplied. In the political sphere, we are only legitimate when we act as a democracy.

Misapplying economic theory to politics has created two big problems. First, the political arena has been transformed into a market, where political power is for sale. Market politics have replaced democracy as the source of political power. Second, market politics have damaged our government's ability to perform the regulation necessary for well ordered business.

Market politics, corruption, has infected our government to the point where government is unable to perform the basic tasks and services required to conduct our affairs in war and peace. Or provide for our most basic safety and well-being.

Market government has already killed the “truth,” by allowing consolidation of media by a handful of huge corporations, effectively killing our free press. Market politics has killed our democracy, drowning it in a flood of bribery.

Our government has abdicated its most basic responsibility to provide decent schools, medical care, social benefits for the weak and disabled. The most basic instruments of our general welfare are all being sacrificed to subsidize private profit, at the publics expense.

And the latest product of “market politics,” better known as bribery, is the “deregulation” of highway safety.

These market politicians are willing to kill us on our highways, in the pursuit of the bribes of the trucking industry.

The foxes are managing the hen house, and they are killing, and eating, all the hens.

Right in front of us.

DEATH, BROUGHT TO YOU BY YOUR SPECIAL INTEREST CORRUPTED POLITICIANS:

See, “Big Oil Owns our Politicians,” Corruption Updates 1, 2nd to last article on the page.

See, “Contribute to Win, Big Contribs try to Trump State Safety Laws,” Corruption Updates 2, 6th article down.

See, “Lobbyists' Donate when Legislation Pending,” Corruption Updates 2, last article on page.

See, “Big Business Spends Lawmakers into Compliance,” Corruption Updates 3, 2nd article on page.

See, “Checks in, Laws Out, It's that Simple,” Corruption Updates 4, 1st article on page.

See, “Do Bribed Politicians Provide Safe Regulation of Pipelines, or Anything else?,” Corruption Updates 10, 5th article down.

See, “ EPA STANDARDS WILL KILL YOU; SPECIAL INTEREST BRIBERY BRINGS AMERICA DEATH,” Corruption Updates 16, 4th article on page.

See, “ BIG OIL OWNS INTERIOR DEPARTMENT,” Corruption Updates 24, 4th article on page.

See, “LOBBYING BY TRUCKING INDUSTRY BRINGS DEATH TO NATION'S HIGHWAYS,Corruption Updates 24, 5th article on page.

Corruption Updates 32, 2nd article on page, “Scientists Reject Chemical Rules”

Top of Page

6) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE SF CHRON, 12-4-06:

Perks of fundraising?
Many Bay Area Assembly members who gave big bucks to Dems get choice assignments

Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross

Monday, December 4, 2006

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/12/04/

BAGGPMOUL21.DTL&type=politics

The Bay Area's members of the state Assembly did more than their share this past election season when it came to raising money for the Democratic Party -- and coincidence or not, they're well-represented among the lawmakers getting choice committee assignments.”

Take Assemblyman Mark Leno of San Francisco. He's chairing the powerful Appropriations Committee when the new legislative session starts today, after having funneled an estimated $400,000 in unused campaign contributions to candidates and causes backed by Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, over the past two years.”

THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

POLITICIANS WHO BRIBE POLITICIANS ARE LEADERS

UNCONTESTED CANDIDATES REDISTRIBUTE BRIBE MONEY TO BUY PLUM COMMITTEES AND CHAIRMANSHIPS

First, the candidate must collect a huge amount of special interest money to get elected. Then, the candidate must collect a huge sum of money to redistribute to their weaker fellow party candidates, to assure plum committee assignments.

As the special interest money is being collected, and redistributed, it gains influence as it passes from the hands of one politician to the other. Each who touches it incurs a debt to the giver. One dollar can bring political debt that is priceless.

But there's a problem with this scenario. California's electoral districts are almost completely monopolized by one party or the other. The candidates don't require large amounts of money to get elected. But they collect large sums of money anyway.

The collection of unnecessary contributions by candidates reveals the true nature of these “contributions;” as bribes for political influence.

And now our politicians are spreading the bribery money around, simultaneously magnifying their own political power, and the power of the bribe to purchase influence for the original influence seeker.


Click for RELATED ARTICLES

(The "Bribery Runs our Elections" list)

Top of Page

7) THE ARTICLE Abstracted BELOW WAS PUBLISHED BY THE LA TIMES ON 12-5-06. THESE ARE THE MAIN POINTS OF THE ARTICLE:


Nevada high court to debate judicial ethics

Proposed rules include banning jurists from personally soliciting campaign funds. Free speech may be an issue.

By Scott Gold
Times Staff Writer

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-judges5dec05,1,5420284,print.story?coll=la-headlines-politics
December 5, 2006

“CARSON CITY, NEV.
The Nevada Supreme Court this morning will begin weighing the constitutionality of a proposal to ban judges from personally soliciting or accepting campaign contributions, an important
issue in the struggle to clean up and modernize the state's troubled judiciary.”

The measure, part of a wide-ranging reform effort, would put Nevada
in line with most other states' codes of conduct that guide the behavior of judges.”

“First, however, the court's justices want to ensure that the ban would not represent an unconstitutional limit on judges' free speech.”

“Since states have added such provisions to their judicial codes of conduct, that issue has divided courts across the country; the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to resolve the matter.”

Nevada Supreme Court justices have suggested that they sympathize with a federal appellate ruling in 2002 holding that allowing judges to raise campaign funds "does not suggest that they will be partial if they are elected." ”

“According to court documents, the Supreme Court will also address these reform proposals today:”

“•  Allowing peremptory challenges — the right of each party in a court case to seek a judge's removal — of the state's "senior judges" in some cases. Senior judges, who are often retired, are hired on an on-call basis and are frequently farmed out across the state to assist with a growing workload. They are not accountable to voters and serve at the pleasure of the Supreme Court.”

“•  Requiring judges to disclose, in many cases, when former law clerks appear before them in court. "Nevada
law indicates that few relationships require a judge to disqualify him or herself," Rose noted in a recent court document. But articles in The Times, he wrote, "roundly criticized Nevada judges for not disclosing that an attorney appearing before a judge was a former law clerk to the judge. This does appear to be a relationship that opposing counsel might reasonably consider relevant."

“•  Requiring judges to disclose certain campaign contributions and limiting the amount of unspent campaign contributions that judicial candidates can keep.”

“The proposals represent the first wave of reform efforts prompted largely by The Times' investigation.”

“The investigation found, among other things, that Nevada
judges have often failed to disclose conflicts of interest, have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from attorneys and corporations with cases pending before them and have awarded millions of dollars worth of judgments without disclosing that the money went to friends, business partners and former clients.”

THE COMMITTEE SAYS;

WILL FREEDOM OF SPEECH BE PRESERVED AS A COVER FOR JUDICIAL BRIBERY IN NEVADA?

WE GUESS IT WILL BE, ON THE BASIS OF NEVADA TRADITION, IF NOT JUSTICE
The cause of this “debate on judicial ethics” in Nevada is a series of articles by The Times exposing judicial corruption in Nevada. We would expect that the exposure of corruption by the press, a rare thing in itself, would bring reform.

But the Supreme Court of Nevada does not seem to understand that political bribery is a bad thing. In fact, political bribery is so widespread that it is seen by virtually all politicians, the special interests, and the majority of the press as legitimate behavior.

Our initiative will redefine political ethics in California to clearly prohibit political bribery.

Other articles in this series from the LA Times reviewed in the Corruption Updates:

See “Buy a Judge” the last article reviewed in Corruption Updates #1, 9-3-06.

Corruption Updates 6, 1st article on page, “Fake Reform Predicted

Corruption Updates 12, 2nd article on page, “Fake Reform Completed

Campaign Cash Mirrors High Court's Rulings,” Corruption Updates 14, 4th article on page.

Bribery and Corruption Engulfing Judicial Elections: Independent Judiciary a Joke,” Corruption Updates 19, last article on page.

Nevada debate on judicial bribery hinges on free speech.” Corruption Updates #22

 

Will Freedom of Speech be Used as a Cover for Judicial Bribery in Nevada?,” CORRUPTION UPDATES PAGE 24, seventh article on page.

Corruption Updates 25, 1st article on page, “NEVADA HIGH COURT OKS JUDICIAL BRIBERY AS FREE SPEECH RIGHT ELEVATES BRIBERY TO CONSTITUTIONALLY PROTECTED STATUS”

 

Top of Page

8) THE ARTICLE Abstracted BELOW WAS PUBLISHED BY THE LA TIMES ON 12-5-06.

THESE ARE THE MAIN POINTS FROM THE ARTICLE:

U.S. Panel Rejects Plan for Paper Ballots

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/05/us/politics/05voting.html?

pagewanted=print

GAITHERSBURG, Md., Dec. 4 (AP) — A federal advisory panel rejected a recommendation on Monday that states use just voting machines whose results could be independently verified.”

The panel, drafting guidelines for the United States Election Assistance Commission, deadlocked, 6 to 6, on a proposal that would have required electronic machines to produce paper records or other independent means of checking results. Eight votes were needed to pass the recommendation.”

The resolution, proposed by Ronald Rivest, a computer scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, closely mirrored a report that warned that paperless voting machines were vulnerable to errors and fraud and could not be made secure.”

THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

FED PANEL REJECTS INDEPENDENTLY VERIFIABLE VOTING MACHINES

POLITICIANS WANT TO PRESERVE THE ABILITY TO CHEAT AT WILL, OR WHEN NECESSARY

It seems natural that our government would insist that elections not be independently verifiable, considering how election campaigns are conducted.

As election campaigns nowadays are no-holds-barred brutal battles to collect the most money, it is a short step to “dirty tricks” and outright cheating.

It appears that many politicians do not mind having the ability to manipulate, or challenge elections, as the occasion arises.

Top of Page

9) THE ARTICLE Abstracted BELOW WAS PUBLISHED BY THE LA TIMES ON 12-5-06.

THESE ARE THE MAIN POINTS FROM THE ARTICLE:

Man held in DUI had badge issued by Dymally, police say

Pirikana Johnson, 27, of Compton is charged with impersonating a state official and driving under the influence.

By Evelyn Larrubia and Dan Morain
Times Staff Writers

12-5-06

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-badges5dec05,0,5341931,print.story?coll=la-home-local

A Compton man was arrested Monday for flashing an official-looking state badge issued by the office of Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally, Redondo Beach police said.”

“Police said Pirikana Likivu Johnson, 27, became agitated on two occasions earlier this year when police confronted him about loud music or asked him to stay in his car while waiting for a friend in the Redondo Beach Pier parking garage after closing time at a nearby club, police said. Both times, Johnson took out a police-style wallet containing a metal badge that identified him as an Assembly commissioner.”

When officers told him he still had to comply with their orders during a confrontation March 18, he became belligerent, according to a police report.”

“ "This isn't a simple DUI," Redondo Beach City Atty. Mike Webb said Monday. "You have a situation where somebody is allegedly using a badge and falsely identifying themselves to get special favors and special treatment." ”

“Dymally's office issued more than a dozen of the metal badges — which are emblazoned with a likeness of the state Assembly seal and the words "California State Assembly Commissioner" — to donors and constituents. Some recipients said they received the badges after making donations.
Johnson's arrest marks the latest in a year of scandals involving honorary badges in the hands of civilians. The sheriffs of Riverside
and Orange counties and the San Bernardino County district attorney all recalled badges they had issued to citizen groups consisting mainly of campaign contributors.

After Johnson was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving in March, Dymally and his daughter, Lynn, 48, went to the police station to try to get him released, saying that Johnson had to be in Sacramento for a meeting later that morning. Police asked Lynn Dymally for identification. According to a report, she responded by displaying one of the Dymally commissioner badges.

“An officer asked her why she and Johnson had the badges, records show, and she said it was because they worked for her father. Her attorney, Anthony Willoughby of Culver City, said Monday that she did not flash the badge, but rather inadvertently showed it as she opened her wallet to retrieve her driver's license.”


It is a crime to use the state Assembly seal without authorization and to hand out or use a badge to impersonate a state official or police officer.”

THE COMMITEE SAYS:

DYMALLY GIVES OFFICIAL BADGES FOR MONEY

DRUNK SUPPORTER FLASHES BADGE FOR SPECIAL TREATMENT AND IS BUSTED FOR BEING DRUNK AND FALSE BADGE

The cost of office has many prices. Most contributors are clear: we give you money, you let us off on taxes, or subsidize our development. It is a straight quid pro quo. Other contributors seek prestige, special treatment and privileges. A feeling of power is the goal. Rather than trading money contributions for economic favors later, you get a shiny official badge right now!

The distribution of these badges, for support or contributions, was trading support for illegitimate prestige, and a pretense of official authority.

How disgusting is that?

See the next article on the Dymally badges,

Nunez wants use of Badges Probed,” Corruption Updates 27, 4th article on page.

On the use of illegal badges by LA and Riverside Sheriffs,

LA sheriff...,” in Corruption Updates #11, 6th article down.


CU 24, 9, Man held in DUI had badge issued by Dymally, police say"

Top of Page

 

Previous Corruption Updates: Page 23

Next Corruption Updates: Page 25


Contact Us: Committeefordemocracy.org

ALL ARCHIVES

Home Page

Top of Page


 

THE INITIATIVE

WHY
HOW TO HELP

THE PLAN

IMPORTANT DATES
 
 
CORRUPTION UPDATES
ALL ARCHIVES
Corruption Database
ARCHIVE I
ARCHIVE 2
ARCHIVE 3
ARCHIVE 4
ARCHIVE 5
ARCHIVE 6
ARCHIVE 7
ARCHIVE 8
ARCHIVE 9

WHO WE ARE

CONTACT US

 
 
ARCHIVE I:
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
ARCHIVE II:
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
ARCHIVE III:
Page 9
Page 10
Page 11
Page 12
Page 13
ARCHIVE IV:
Page 14
vPage 15
Page 16
Page 17
Page 18
ARCHIVE V:
Page 19
Page 20
Page 21
Page 22
Page 23
Page 24
ARCHIVE VI:
Page 25
Page 26
Page 27
Page 28
Page 29

ARCHIVE VII:

Page 30
Page 31
Page 32
Page 33
Page 34
ARCHIVE 8
Page 35
Page 36
Page 37
Page 38
Page 39
Page 40
Page 41
Page 42
Page 43
Page 44
Page 45