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In 2007, I published an article that sought to show in detail how the Iraqi economy had been opened up to allow the transformation of the economy and the routine corruption that enabled a range of private profit-making companies to exploit the post-invasion economy. The article argued that the illegal war of aggression waged by a ‘coalition’ headed by George Bush and Tony Blair was tied to a series of subsequent crimes of pillage and occupation.
There are eleven diverse hill states in India which comprise the group of "Special Category States." They all suffer from the disadvantages that result from remoteness and geographical isolation, as well as historical and demographic circumstances. In addition to pathetic infrastructures, scant resources, unrealized human potential, and stymied economic growth, these states also represented various groups of marginalized minorities.
Retractions in scholarly journals have reached record levels. Doctorates have been removed from politicians and others for plagiarism, there has been tasteless denigration of academic colleagues under cover of academic freedom, researchers have been jailed for fraud, and conflicts of interest involving private industry’s role at universities have generated notoriety.
चाहे आप कुछ भी या आप माने या न माने पर एक बात झुठलाई नही जा सकती कि इस छोटी सी दिखने वाली झाडू ने राजनीति में भारी बदलाव ला दिया है. जहां हर आम और खास आदमी भ्रष्टाचार से दुखी था और उसे कोई रास्ता भी नजर नही आ रहा था ऐसे मे झाडू ने कमान सम्भाली और जीत हासिल कर के दिखा दिया कि भ्रष्टाचारियों सावधान !!!
वैसे भी अब तो अलग अलग Help line भी बन गई है और तो और जो भी कुछ गडबड होता है सब सोशल मीडिया पर आ जाता है …
In December 2013, Turkish authorities arrested the sons of several prominent cabinet ministers on bribery, embezzlement, and smuggling charges. Investigators claimed that the men were contributing members in a conspiracy to illicitly trade Turkish gold for Iranian oil gas (an act which, among other things, violates the spirit of United Nations’ sanctions targeting Tehran). The scheme purportedly netted a vast fortune in proceeds in the form of dividends and bribes. Among those suspected of benefiting from the trade was Prime Minister (now President) Tayyip Erdoğan and members of his family. The firestorm from this scandal was initially so furious many feared that Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party would not survive its implications. Yet as of this September, the investigation into this scandal has all but come to an end. The officials involved in propagating and executing the investigation have all been dismissed or transferred. Consequently, virtually all charges related to the case have been dropped.
Most of the analysis of this scandal has focused upon the political implications of the arrests and the subsequent purges of Turkey’s national police force. Events since December have indeed underscored the intense levels of strife within Turkey’s governing institutions as well as the growing authoritarian tendencies of the country’s ruling party. Yet Turkey’s “oil for gold” corruption scandal also illuminates fundamental, yet long-standing, aspects of the relationship between prominent illicit trades and the country’s politics.
Turkey’s black market, by all accounts, is exceeding large and highly lucrative. As a country sitting at a major intersection in global commerce, Turkey acts as a spring, valve and spigot for multiple illicit industries. Weapons, narcotics and undocumented migrants, as well as contraband carpets, petroleum, cigarettes, and precious metals all pass in and through the country’s borders on a regular basis. Official statistics on cigarette smuggling offer a few hints of the extent of smuggling in and out of Turkey. According to Interior Ministry sources, Turkish seizures of smuggled cigarettes grew fourteen fold between 2009 and 2012 (with ten million cigarettes seized in 2009 and over 145 million in 2012). In January of this year, Bulgarian customs officials purportedly confiscated fourteen million cigarettes illegally imported from Turkey in one seizure alone. The numbers of arrests for cigarette smuggling has also climbed precipitously, with over 4000 people arrested in 2009 and over 24000 arrests in 2012.
Organized crime takes other forms in Turkey. Criminal networks, builders, and lawmakers have been known to violate laws governing land sales, usage, building safety, and contracting. Bribes and kickbacks to government officials and regulators historically have been essential elements in the rapid building projects undertaken throughout the country for much of the last century. Charges levied against the managers of Istanbul’s Fenerbahce soccer club stand as an example of the match fixing and extortion scandals that have rocked professional sports in Turkey in recent years. Gangsters and extortionists, known as kabadayı, have been counted among Turkey’s most noted and notorious figures in the public spotlight. All in all, organized criminal trades have generated an untold number of fortunes for a select few and have provided a subsistence living for an even larger number of average citizens for a very long time in Turkey.
If Tayyip Erdoğan and his family did glean a great fortune as a result of illicit doings (which some reports claim to amount to total in the tens of millions of dollars), Turkey’s president joins a fairly sizable host of Turkish politicians who have benefited from organized criminal trades. American officials in the 1950s, for example, secretly suspected that noted members of Adnan Menderes’ Democratic Party had protected major Turkish heroin traffickers. During the 1970s, at least four members of the Turkish Grand National Assembly were official charged with attempting to transport heroin abroad. Other politicians from this era, including one-time Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, were unofficially suspected of engaging in the drug trade but never charged. Accusations of theft and corruption especially dogged the governments of the tumultuous 1990s. Tansu Ciller, the country’s first female prime minister, was implicated in organized criminal activity both before and after she was first elected to office. Tayyip Erdoğan’s JDP came to power in 2002 with the promise of bringing discipline and respectability to politics. Yet even as recent as last year, a regional JDP chairman was implicated in trading in heroin in the province of Van. The revelations of December 2013 now has many in Turkey convinced that the JDP is as dirty and corruptible as any of the parties that had preceded it.
Erdoğan’s ability to deflect last year’s corruption charges has not put the specter of smuggling and corruption to rest. Local media reports and other studies suggest that the Syrian civil war has stimulated a surge in smuggling along Turkey’s southern border. It is now estimated that fuel, cigarette, and cell phone smuggling has risen by 314%, 135%, and 563% respectively since the war began. The initial efforts to arm and maintain resistance groups in Syria were deeply indebted to Turkey’s smuggling trade. As smuggling continues, it is clear that some groups have attempted to tax trade into and out of Syria (al-Nusrah, for example, purportedly levies a fee of 500 Syrian lira for every barrel of fuel that crosses the border). What this means for the present and future of Turkey’s government is not entirely clear. Suggestions that Ankara has allowed for the passage of large numbers of foreign fighters into Syria has cast doubt over the country’s police and customs officials stationed on its borders (particularly after the official purges earlier this year). Trading schemes and corruption allegations like those revealed in December may yet again manifest themselves considering what international watchdogs call Turkey’s “grey” status as a state with loose embezzlement and money laundering controls. Whether these trends will dent the image of Tayyip Erdoğan or upend JDP control over Turkey remains to be seen.
Headline Image: Turkish flag photo by Abigail Powell. CC BY-NC 2.0 by Flickr
The destructive technology in Jessica Shirvington’s duology may not be as futuristic as it seems When a certain multinational corporation announced the creation of the Apple Watch, Jessica Shirvington fans were buzzing. Not because they were excited about Apple’s newest product but because the watch bears an eerie resemblance to the M-band technology used in […]
Political economy is back on the centre stage of development studies. The ultimate test of its respectability is that the World Bank has realised that it is not possible to separate social and political issues such as corruption and democracy from other factors that influence the effectiveness of its investments, and started using the concept.
It predates the creation of “economics” as a discipline. Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Thomas Malthus, James Mill, and a generation later Karl Marx and Friederich Engels, explored how groups or classes in society exploited each other or were exploited, and used their conclusions to create theories of change or growth.
Marx’s ideas were taken up in the 1950s by economists and sociologists of the left, such as Paul Baran (The Political Economy of Growth, 1957) and later Samir Amin (The Political Economy of the Twentieth Century, 2000) who linked it to theories of imperialism and neo-colonialism to interpret what was happening in newly independent African countries where nationalist political parties had taken power.
Marx and Engels in their early writings, and Marxist orthodoxy subsequently, espoused determinist theories in which development went through pre-determined stages – primitive forms of social organisation, feudalism, capitalism, and then socialism. But in their later writings Marx and Engels were much more open, and recognised that some pre-capitalist formations could survive, and that there was no single road to socialism. Class analysis, and exploration of the economic interests of powerful classes, and their uses of the technologies available to them, could inform a study of history, but not substitute for it.
That was how I interpreted what happened in Tanzania in the 1970s. The country was built around the economic interests of those involved, and the mistakes made, both inside Tanzania but also outside. It focussed on the choices made by those who controlled the Tanzanian state or negotiated “foreign aid” deals with Western governments—Issa Shivji’s bureaucratic bourgeoisie. These themes are still current today.
I am not alone. Michael Lofchie’s (A Political Economy of Tanzania, 2014) focuses on the difficult years of structural adjustment in the 1980s and 1990s). He argues how the salaried elite could personally benefit from an overvalued exchange rate. From 1979 on, under the influence of the charismatic President Julius Nyerere, Tanzania resisted the IMF and World Bank which urged it to devalue. But eventually, around the mid-1980s, they realised that they had the possibility of making even bigger financial gains if the country devalued and there were open markets, which would allow them to make money from trade or production. They were becoming a productive bourgeoisie.
Lofchie’s analysis can be contested. The benefits of the chaos that resulted from the extremely over-valued exchange rates of the 1980s were reaped by only a few. It is true that rapid growth followed from around 1990 to the present, but that is also due to the high price of gold on international markets and the rapid expansion of gold mining and tourism. There is still plenty of evidence of individuals making money illegitimately – corruption is ever present in the political discourse, and will continue to be so up till the Presidential elections due in October 2015.
A challenge for the ruling class in Tanzania, leaving the 1970’s, was would they be able to convert their economic strategies into meaningful growth and benefits for the population? By 2011 the challenge was even more acute, because very large reserves of gas had been discovered off the coast of Southern Tanzania, so money for investment would no longer be a binding constraint. But would those resources be used to create real assets which would create the prerequisites for rapid expansions in manufacturing, services and especially agriculture? Or would they be frittered away through imports of non-productive machinery and infrastructure (such as the non-existent electricity generators purchased through the Richmond Project in 2006 in which several leading members of the ruling political party were implicated)? Or end up in Swiss bank accounts? The jury is very much still out. To achieve the current ambition of a rapid transition to a middle income country will require much greater understanding of engineering, agricultural science, and much better contracts than have been recently achieved – and more proactive responses to the challenges of corruption. It will need to take its own political economy seriously.
Headline image credit: Tanzania – Mikumi by Marc Veraart. CC-BY-2.0 via Flickr.
When Benigno Aquino III was elected Philippine President in 2010, combating entrenched corruption was uppermost on his projected reform agenda. Hitherto, it has been unclear what the full extent and nature of reform ambitions of his administration might be. The issue has now been forced by ramifications from whistleblowers’ exposure of an alleged US$224 scam involving discretionary funds by Congress representatives. Fallout has already put some prominent Senators in the hot seat, but will deeper and more systemic reforms follow?
A crucial but often overlooked factor shaping prospects for reform in the Philippines, and elsewhere, is contestation over the meaning and purposes of accountability. Accountability means different things to different people. Even authoritarian rulers increasingly lay claim to it. Therefore, whether it is liberal, moral or democratic ideology that exerts greatest reform influence matters greatly.
Liberal accountability champions legal, constitutional, and contractual institutions to restrain the ability of state agencies to violate the political authority of the individual. Moral accountability ideologues emphasize how official practices must be guided by a moral code, invoking religious, monarchical ethnic, nationalist, and other externally constituted political authority. Democratic accountability ideologies are premised on the notion that official action at all levels should be subject to sanction, either directly or indirectly, in a manner promoting popular sovereignty.
Anti-corruption movements usually involve coalitions incorporating all three ideologies. However, governments tend to be least responsive to democratic ideologies because their reforms are directed at fundamental power relations. The evolving controversy in the Philippines is likely to again bear this out.
What whistleblowers exposed in July 2013 was an alleged scam masterminded by business figure Janet Lim Napoles. Money was siphoned from the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), or ‘pork barrel’ as it is popularly known, providing members of Congress with substantial discretionary project funding.
This funding has been integral to political patronage and corruption in the Philippines, precisely why ruling elites have hitherto resolutely defended PDAF despite many scandals and controversies linked to it.
However, public reaction to this scam was on a massive scale. Social and mass media probing and campaigning combined with the ‘Million People March’ in Manila’s Rizal Park involving a series of protests starting in August 2013. After initially defending PDAF despite his anti-corruption platform, Aquino announced PDAF’s abolition. Subsequently, the Supreme Court reversed three earlier rulings to unanimously declare the PDAF unconstitutional for violating the separation of powers principle.
Then, on 1 April 2014, the Office of the Ombudsman (OMB) announced it found probable cause to indict three opposition senators – including the powerful Juan Ponce Enrile, who served as Justice Secretary and Defense Minister under Marcos and Senate President from 2008 until June 2013 – for plunder and multiple counts of graft for kickbacks or commissions channeled through bogus non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
These are the Philippines’ first senatorial indictments for plunder, conviction for which can lead to life imprisonment. Napoles and various state officials and employees of NGOs face similar charges. Aquino’s rhetoric about instituting clean and accountable governance is translating into action. But which ideologies are exerting greatest influence and what are the implications?
Moral ideology influences were evident under Aquino even before the abolition of PDAF through new appointments to enhance the integrity of key institutions. Conchita Morales, selected by the President in mid-2011 as the new Ombudsman, was strongly endorsed by Catholic Church leaders. Aquino also appointed Heidi Mendoza as a commissioner to the Commission of Audit. Mendoza played a vital whistleblower role leading to the resignation of the previous Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez and was depicted by the Church as a moral role model for Christians.
However, there have been many episodes in the past where authorities have selectively pruned ‘bad apples,’ but with a focus on those from competing political or economic orchards. Will Aquino this time go beyond appeals to moral ideology and intra-elite combat to progress liberal institutional reform?
The accused senators ask why they have been singled out from 40 named criminally liable following the whistleblowers’ claims, inferring political persecution. Yet if continuing investigations lead to charges against people closer to the administration it would indicate not. In a clear alignment with liberal ideology, Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma recently raised expectations of such a change: ‘We are a government of laws, not of men. Let rule of law take its course.’
The jury is still out too on just how substantive the institutional change to the PDAF will prove. The President’s own pork barrel lump sum appropriations in the national budget are unaltered, despite public calls for it too to go. Indeed, some argue the President is now even more powerful a pork dispenser through de facto PDAF concentration in his hands.
PDAF’s abolition is also in a transitional phase with the 2014 budget taking account of existing PDAF commitments. The P25-billion PDAF was directed to the major public funding implementing agencies incorporating these commitments on a line item basis. There is a risk, though, that a precedent has been set for legislators’ pet projects to be negotiated with departmental heads in private rather than scrutinized in the legislature.
Certainly the coalition for change is building. Alongside popular forces, internationally competitive globalized elements of the Philippines bourgeoisie are a growing support base for liberal accountability ideology. Yet longstanding inaction on corruption reflects entrenched power structures inside and outside Congress antithetical to the routine and institutionalized promotion of liberal and, especially, democratic accountability.
Thus, while the instigation of official action on the pork barrel scam following the whistleblowers’ actions is testimony to the power of public mobilizations and campaigns, there are serious obstacles to more effective accountability institutionalization promoting popular sovereignty.
Acute concentrations of wealth and social power in the Philippines not only affect relationships between public officials and some elites, they also fundamentally constrain political competition. Oligarchs enjoy massive electoral resource advantages including the capacity for vote buying and other questionable campaign strategies. Outright intimidation, including extrajudicial killings of some of the most concerted opponents of elite rule and vested interests, remains widespread.
Therefore, parallel with popular anti-pork demands is yet another push for Congress to pass enabling law to finally give effect to the provision in the 1987 Constitution to ban political dynasties. The proliferation of political dynasties and corruption has been mutually reinforcing. Congressional dominance by wealthy elites and political clans shapes the laws overseen by officials, the appointment of those officials and, in turn, the culture and practices of public institutions.
When Congress resumes sessions in May, it will have before it the first Anti-Dynasty Bill to have passed the committee level. Public mood has made it more difficult for the rich and powerful in Congress to be as dismissive as previously of such reform attempts. The prospects of the current Bill passing are nevertheless dim but the struggle for democratic accountability will continue.
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Image credit: Dollars in envelope. By OlgaLIS, via iStockphoto.
The good news is that Spain has finally come out of a five-year recession that was triggered by the bursting of its property bubble. The bad news is that the unemployment rate remains stubbornly high at a whopping 26%, double the European Union average.
The scale of the property madness was such that in 2006 the number of housing starts (762,214) was more than that of Germany, France, and Italy combined. This sector, to borrow the title of a novel by Gabriel García Márquez, was a Chronicle of a Death Foretold. There are still an estimated more than one million new and second hand unsold homes.
The excessive concentration on the property sector, as the motor of an economy that boomed for a decade, created a lopsided economic model and fertile ground for corruption. When the sector crashed as of 2008 and house prices plummeted, 1.7 million people lost their jobs in construction out of a total of 3.7 million job losses in the last six years, households were left with mortgages they could not pay and property development companies unable to service their bank loans. This, in turn, severely weakened parts of the banking system which had to be rescued by the European Stability Mechanism with a €42 billion bailout programme. Spain exited the bail-out in January, but bad loans still account for more than 13% of total credit, up from a mere 0.7% in 2006.
Spain has emerged from recession thanks largely to an impressive export performance, achieved through an “internal devaluation” (lower unit labour costs stemming from wage cuts or a wage freeze and higher productivity). As a euro country, Spain cannot devalue. Merchandise exports rose from €160 billion in 2009 to €234 billion in 2013, an increase equivalent to more than 7% of GDP. This growth has been faster than the pace of powerhouse Germany, albeit from a smaller base. Exports of goods and services rose from 27% of GDP in 2007 to around 35% last year. The surge in exports combined with the drop in imports and a record year for tourism, with 60 million visitors, turned around the current account, which was in surplus for the first time in 27 years. In 2007, the current account recorded a deficit of 10%, the highest in relative terms among developed countries.
Unemployment is the most pressing problem. The depth of the jobs’ crisis is such that Spain, which represents 11% of the euro zone’s economy and has a population of 47 million, has almost 6 million unemployed (around one-third of the zone’s total jobless), whereas Germany (population 82 million and 30% of the GDP) has only 2.8 million jobless (15% of the zone’s total). Germany’s jobless rate is at its lowest since the country’s reunification, while Spain’s is at its highest level ever.
Mariano Rajoy
Young Spanish adults, particularly the better qualified, are increasingly moving abroad in search of a job, though not in the scale suggested by the Spanish media which gives the impression there is a massive exodus and brain drain. One thing is the large flow of those who go abroad, especially to Germany, and return after a couple of months; another the permanent stock of Spaniards abroad (those who stay beyond a certain amount of time), which is surprisingly small. According to research conducted by the Elcano Royal Institute, Spain’s main think tank, between January 2009 and January 2013, the worst years of Spain’s recession, the stock of Spaniards who resided abroad increased in net terms by a mere 40,000, which is less than 0.1% of Spain’s population, to 1.9 million. These figures are based on official Spanish statistics cross-checked with data in the countries where Spaniards reside. The number of Spaniards living abroad is less than one-third the size of Spain’s foreign-born population of 6.4 million (13.2% of the total population). Immigrants in Spain are returning to their country of origin, particularly Latin Americans.
Spain’s crisis has also resulted in a long overdue crackdown on corruption. There are around 800 cases under investigation, most of them involving politicians and their business associates. Spain was ranked 40th out of 177 countries in the 2013 corruption perceptions ranking by the Berlin-based Transparency International, down from 30th place in 2012. Its score of 59 was six points lower. The nearer to 100, the cleaner the country. Spain was the second-biggest loser of points, and only topped by war-torn Syria. The country is in for a long haul.
William Chislett, the author of Spain: What Everyone Needs to Know, is a journalist who has lived in Madrid since 1986. He will be talking on his book at the Oxford Literary Festival on 29 March. He covered Spain’s transition to democracy (1975-78) for The Times of London and was later the Mexico correspondent for the Financial Times (1978-84). He writes about Spain for the Elcano Royal Institute, which has published three books of his on the country, and he has a weekly column in the online newspaper El Imparcial. He has previously written on Spanish unemployment and Gibraltar for the OUPblog.
I have been trying to figure out how our Governor continues to lure voters to his side. This image just popped into my head. It is, of course, a twist on the poem-step into my parlour, said the the spider to the fly. Although the fly resists many advances, in the end, he gives in to flattery when the spider speaks of his mirror and how good the fly will appear if he looks into it. Politics in the CNMI is sort of like that. Promises of better times, how good people will see things, the lure of what they want to hear and believe. Flattery (and other forms of corruption) are at the core of what is happening here now. Unless and until we change it...
Alan Fletcher was called to testify before the House Impeachment committee. He gave detailed and comprehensive testimony that included his opinion that the $190 million, sole-source contract with Ken Mahmood was a bad deal for the CNMI, that it was not needed and wouldn't save consumers money. The Governor responded in the media by calling Fletcher a liar.
I originally had Fletcher saying "nanny-nanny boo boo, I can tell on you-oo" because there was something of that feeling in the reports of his testimony, but I decided that could be more a function of the reporting rather than Fletcher's actual testimony. It took some guts and professionalism to give his testimony.
(Later Fletcher came back to the committee, said he told the truth and didn't know why the Governor was slamming him, and further testified that he refused to sign the contract when asked to do so and told the governor it needed more analysis.)
Fletcher is often seen wearing Island-print shirts. The Governor usually has his big smile in place, no matter what trash he's spewing.
0 Comments on Drink Milk as of 10/16/2012 11:27:00 PM
Among ethical concepts, conscience is a remarkable survivor. During the 2000 years of its existence it has had ups and downs, but has never gone away. Originating as Roman conscientia, it was adopted by the Catholic Church, redefined and competitively claimed by Luther and the Protestants during the Reformation, adapted to secular philosophy during the Enlightenment, and is still actively abroad in the world today. Yet the last few decades have been cloudy ones for conscience, a unique time of trial.
The problem for conscience has always been its precarious authorization. It is both a uniquely personal impulse and a matter of institutional consensus, a strongly felt personal view and a shared norm upon which all reasonable or ethical people are expected to agree. As a result of its mixed mandate, conscience performs in differing and even contradictory ways. It lends support to the dissenting individual or exponent of unpopular or even aberrant claims. But it is also summoned in support of the norm, and broadly accepted ethical standards.
Each of these authorizations—the personal and the institutional—has its pitfalls. The fervent individual, summoned by burning personal conviction about the rightness of his or her cause, lies open to suspicions of solipsism or arrogance. But, on the other hand, institutionally or state-sponsored conscience, or conscience speaking for settled public opinion, risk complacency or ethically stunted orthodoxy. One recalls the predicament of Huckleberry Finn, who suffers what he identifies as conscience pangs for his decision to assist Jim to escape from enslavement, when this bourgeois or ‘churchified’ conscience is obviously a false friend and enemy to his superior ethical intuitions.
Despite such issues, conscience remains a force for much good in the world. Its most crucial function, and perhaps the one most in need of support, is its encouragement to the private individual struggling with institutional tyrannies—most dramatically, with various forms of state tyranny. We have witnessed the incarceration and continued surveillance of China’s Ai Weiwei. Ai has recently been called ‘China’s conscience’, but his more urgent need might be less public and more personal, the need to enjoy his own conscience undisturbed by governmental or other external intervention. Remarkable individuals like Ai have proven willing to endure sacrifice for conscientious belief–and sacrifice they have. Recently Lasantha Wickramatunge, a courageous Sri Lankan journalist, gave his life to expose corruption. He wrote a farewell dispatch, which amounted to his own obituary letter, which concluded, ‘There is a calling that is yet above high office, fame, lucre and security. It is the call of conscience.’ Salman Taseer, governor of the Punjab province in Pakistan, declared in a 1 Jaunary 2011 television interview that ‘If I do not stand by my conscience, then who will?’—three days before his assassination. Less dramatically, but still tellingly, one may consider some of the smaller cases of conscience that people confront daily. Explaining his break with his political party to support a faltering gay marriage bill, Fred W. Thiele Jr, a New York state Assemblyman, explained, ‘There’s that little voice inside of you that tells you when you’ve done something right, and when you’ve done something wrong. . . That little voice kept gnawing away at me.’
0 Comments on Conscience today as of 1/1/1900
A report filed by the Special Counsel to the Senate Select Committee on Ethics accuses former Nevada Senator John Ensign of a number of violations related to the end of an affair he had with the wife of a top aide who was also a long-time friend of his family. The aide, Douglas Hampton, was indicted on charges of violating the federal conflict of interest rules this past March, and there is a good chance Mr. Ensign will also be targeted by federal prosecutors.
Much like his former Senate colleague John Edwards is a target of an investigation based on payments to a former mistress, as I discussed previously, Mr. Ensign’s problem was not so much the affair but how he tried to keep it quiet through a secret pay-off. After ending his intimate relationship with Cindy Hampton, who worked as treasurer of his campaign committee, Mr. Ensign terminated both Hamptons and arranged for them to receive $96,000 from a trust fund controlled by his parents. How that payment should be characterized will be crucial in determining whether the former senator will be indicted by prosecutors from the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice, who have been investigating him for over a year.
The Special Counsel’s report reads almost like a prosecution memorandum, setting out the facts of the relationship between Mr. Ensign and the Hamptons, and offering assessments of whether his conduct constituted a violation of federal criminal laws. The former senator does not appear to have set out to purposely violate federal law, but his efforts to keep the affair quiet by placating the Hamptons with money and work for Mr. Hampton may well have led to Mr. Ensign to commit criminal acts.
The charges against Mr. Hampton involve alleged violations of 18 U.S.C. § 207(e)(2), which makes it a crime when a highly-paid member of a senator’s staff within 1 year of leaving the position “knowingly makes, with the intent to influence, any communication to or appearance before any senator or any officer or employee of the Senate, on behalf of any other person” in which the former staffer seeks action by a senator or staff member. Mr. Hampton had numerous contacts with Mr. Ensign, who assisted him by contacting government officials on behalf of Mr. Hampton’s clients.
While Mr. Ensign might try to plead ignorance of what Mr. Hampton was doing, the Special Counsel’s Report goes into great detail about how the former senator pressured companies to hire his former aide, all part of an effort to keep Mr. Hampton from speaking out about the affair with his wife. There does not appear to be much “plausible deniability” here for Mr. Ensign, so proving his knowledge and intent to provide assistance to Mr. Hampton would not appear to be difficult. In addition, a charge of conspiracy is quite possible, based on the interactions of Mr. Ensign and Mr. Hampton.
A more difficult issue, and one with much greater potential ramifications, is characterizing the $96,000 payment to the Hamptons after being terminated from their jobs with the Senate office and campaign. The money came from an Ensign family trust controlled by t
0 Comments on Former Senator John Ensign in hot water as of 1/1/1900
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins caught my attention quickly and held it fast throughout the rest of the book. The cliffhanger ending prompted me to buy the next two books without thinking twice.
A book like this makes you think about your situation as it is today and the direction everything is going. It is clearly set in a futuristic United States, but it's no future any of us (hopefully) would ever want. It has a corrupt government in every sense of the word. People nowadays may not be happy with the way things are going, but at least we aren't publicly whipped or shot if we want to speak out against things that are happening. We still have so many freedoms that The Hunger Games shows us we should be thankful for.
Who could live in a world where "games" are held every year pitting people–teenagers–against each other in a battle for their lives? Aside from that there is a constant fear of starvation or a fear of things getting worse than they already are, though that is hard to imagine. This government has torturous ways of dealing with difficulties that keeps everyone terrified.
One girl, a hunter who just wants to keep her family alive, especially her little sister, is faced with what she considers no choice. She enters the hunger games to save her sister from having to go. This sacrifice leads her down a road she can't turn away from. Her hunting skills and ability to out-think her opponents–and the government–are the only things keeping her alive. For now. But will the government let her truly win the games?
Wow! This book scared the shit out of me. And not just because of the torture and the idea of Big Brother always watching you and being able to read your thoughts, but because I can see this eventually happening and that terrifies me. George Orwell may not have guessed the correct year in which this would take place, but I'm pretty sure he hit the nail right on the head with what will happen someday.
I can't even imagine living in a world where everyone just accepts everything they see, hear, and read as fact when those "facts" are constantly changing. How can anyone believe that they were always at war with one country and always allied with another when a week ago you knew the opposite to be true? This type of mind control and seduction will, I hope, never be possible en masse, the way this book portrays, but it does make me wonder about the power of mind control. Who wouldn't be able to rule the world if they have the ability to control the thoughts and emotions of those living in it?
One thing I love and hate about books like this is that it shows how bad things can get if power is put in the wrong hands and technology is poorly utilized, but it also shows those who want this kind of power what they need to do in order to gain it and use it wisely. It blatantly shows the weaknesses of the human race and how easily our minds can become corrupt.
A good read for those who want a glimpse of the future and don't mind seeing something truly horrifying. Sci-fi always shines a light in the darkest of places. I hope we know what to do when the time comes that these things are possible and possibly happening. I want to wish the world luck.
The ten things I hate about our world the way it is today, often interact with each other. There are:
1) Corrupt political systems
2) Corrupt Criminal Justice System
3) Corporate Corruption
4) Poverty
5) Pollution
6) Greed
7) Abuses of all kinds, people and animals
8) government waste and oppression
9) Political Correctness
Our political leaders are responsible for many ills of our world. They are the ones who are elected to oversee our welbeing, and ironically it is their own welbeing that they end up overseeing. The addiction to power, wealth and control, rots their common sense, and concern for those who look up to them. They get submerged into self concern and greed. They quickly forget the purpose of their authority as soon as they are given the freedom to rule.
Corporate big wigs work together with politicians in schemes that will reap them fortunes at the expense of those they are in charge of overseeing. All this self interest leads into a chain reaction of all the other things. Political power is what steers every facet of society. Nothing can be done without government being involved in some way.
There is no such thing as privacy or freedom anymore. The evils of governments the world over have managed to destroy the world, by allowing corporations to manipulate and pollute at will, for their own benefit. Our social security numbers are used to track our every move. We can not get utilities turned on without giving our social security numbers. We now can not even stay at a hotel, rent a car or make a phone call on a public phone without having a credit or bank card.
All these agencies and companies sell our personal information to each other, If we move to another State and get a new phone number, all these people phone us before we even unpack. We are all being SPIED on, all the time. Our personal information is spread across the computer for the world to find. If a hit man were looking for us, they would have no trouble finding us.
Everyone wants a credit or bank card instead of cash. That way they have access to your bank funds, and they legally commit fraud by taking out more then you allow them to, and they get away with it. The banks are in it with them. If you tell a store, or car rental etc. not to take out more than a certain amount for whatever, because you know that you will bounce checks and be in a mess if they do, they agree to not do it, then they do it anyway.
They invent charges that they did not tell you about, and simply get them out your account. When your checks begin to bounce and you, try to talk to the bank, they only say that “YOU gave the company your account number or bank card, and they have nothing to do with it.” The bank rips you off with high over drawn fees, and the people who demand the cards, take what they want and never get punished for it. We are cohurst into becoming victims, and we can’t do anything about it. But let us steal like that from them, and we go straight to prison for years.
Many employers are now getting in on this band wagon. They require direct deposit in order to pay you your wages. We do not have the freedom for ourselves, to decide if we want to pay cash to avoid all the rip off schemes that are being used, by way of credit and bank cards.
Landlords are also culprits of greed. They charge a non refundable fee to fill our an application to rent an apartment. If ten people fill out the application and they find reason to deny them, they keep all that free money for themselves. They charge between $20.00 to $50.00, and sometimes even more for this rip off game.
Landlords now require tenants to sign a lease that is usually for a year. This is holding the tenant HOSTAGE to the lease, so the landlord can be guaranteed rent money for a year, whether the tenants wants to stay there that long or not. If the tenant moves out they break the lease, and the landlord can garnish their pay check to get the rest of the rent money for the remainder of the lease.
That is not enough greed on the part of the landlord. They also require a large deposit, and the first and last months rent, before the tenant can even move in. If you want your beloved pet to move in with you, they can refuse that you have a pet, or they charge you an outrageous deposit, and an added amount on your rent, to keep a pet. A poor person can not afford all these fees and rip offs.
Landlords have all sorts of loop holes to do as they please. They can make up things to evict you, and it’s your word against the landlords, and the courts always side for the landlord. Once you are evicted, you are placed on a black list so that other landlords can charge you higher rent for being on the list,and slumlords become like vultures who come to the rescue of those on the list, allowing them to move into their deplorable housing as if you are a criminal, and they are giving you a break. Then they charge the same rents as the decent apartments go for.
Landlords keep your deposit, claiming all sorts of damages that were not your fault. The courts also side for landlords if you dare to take them to court to get your deposit back. Judges don’t even want to hear witnesses or look at pictures that you may provide to defend your side. They don’t care. Landlords are Slave master to Tenant Slaves. Then they wonder why former tenants come back to break out windows and destroy the place.
Everyone is trying to ride the gravy train on the backs of those who are just trying to do their best to survive. Deceitfulness and greed has spread like a cancer everywhere. Poverty and homelessness has become epidemic. It has become a dog eat dog world, and the strong survive. The root of all evil has taken over with the “love” of money.
Poverty is the result of those who commit evil. Poverty is created because of GREED. Those who have financial security resent sharing with those who struggle to survive. There is no fairness or justice for the poor. Instead of seeking ways to repair the damage man has done on this earth, the wealthy in politics waste billions to fight useless wars, and explore space. They do not even appreciate the beautiful earth we have right here. They want to go and find another planet that they can destroy, like they are doing to this one. Those are the things I hate about this world.
The defense said that the numerous letters of support and an unsolicited petition with over 600 signatures representing cross-sections of the CNMI is enough to attest to the high respect and esteem the defendants hold in the community.
Because it sounds as if an attorney actually tried to convince the Court that the CNMI community supported Tim Villagomez getting a lenient sentence.
The defense counsel said there were about 600 signatures in support of a motion and petition for the court to hand down a probation sentence or a sentence outside of the guidelines.
Other petitions also were submitted to the court on Tuesday.
Judge Munson asked the defense counsel point blank if the signatures represent a cross section of the community. She said she believes it is but is not sure.
And so we see, there is some hedge there. Not a bald-face lie, just a willing belief in total fiction as truth.
The attitude seems to be: Will this fly? What will you believe? What do you want to hear?
Do those signatures really represent a cross-section of the community?
Hell no.
Just look at the comments made by non-family members at the sentencing. Look at the comments posted at the Variety about the sentencing. Read the blogs and see the comments. Go out and talk with people.
The statement that the 600 signatures believably represent a cross-section of the community appears to have been made by Leilani Lujan.
If you had any credibility, Ms. Lujan, you've just lost lost the last little shred of it.
3 Comments on More thoughts on the sentencing ruckus..., last added: 8/7/2009
The family can be so proud Tim and Santos let a mother of a minor child, the wife and sister no less, go down to save their own skin. What tough guys...puke...I mean cowards.
Any man, with his minor child facing growing up without parents, would have confessed, apologized, shown remorse, and told the courts that they will cooperate provided the wife is protected. I would have even lied and said my wife was afraid and did whatever I told her.
I will never vote for any beggar writing those lenancy letters for two limp cowards.
Pillars of community...that should make us all take pause...or puke.
cactus said, on 8/6/2009 7:26:00 PM
What is a "cross-section" of the community supposed to mean in this context? People of various nationalities? Income brackets? Families? Political affiliations? Ages?
It's hard to know how to evaluate the claim to represent a cross-section without a little more information as to what kind of cross-section it purports to be.
Cactus, I thought of that, even as I wrote this post.
I'm pretty sure a cross-section would be more like a random sample, not just some people in a bunch of different categories.
And alas, when you google to define it you get this: definition, which starts with the basic literal definition and then continues with the applicable definition here:
S: (n) cross section (a section created by a plane cutting a solid perpendicular to its longest axis) S: (n) cross section (a sample meant to be representative of a whole population)
So the real question is--were those 600 letters representative of the whole population of the CNMI?
I stick by my answer.
At the least, a cross-section would probably include people who didn't vote for you.
There are many ways the attorney could have dealt with the question. Admitting that it wasn't a random sample or even a representative sample of the community, but even so indicated some impressive support...that might have carried more weight.
A little honesty from the defense team would be oh-so refreshing...
I'm back in Saipan from vacation. Sentencing of Tim Villagomez and James and Joaquina Santos occurred on my first day back, but I didn't attend. Just stopped by to get the news (after the morning session, before Joaquina's sentence).
My two cents: * I thought in the end that Mr. Santos would step forward and plead for leniency for his wife, and take some of the blame. I'm sorry I was wrong on that score. (I sincerely feel sorry for their daughter.)
* The jail time is less than the 10 years asked for, but still hefty. 7 1/4 years for Tim; 6 1/2 years for each of Mr. and Mrs. Santos. Even with time off for good behavior, these people face serious loss of liberty for their crimes. From my point of view, this is a good balance--serious time for serious crime, but not the maximum allowable, some mercy and some consideration of first time offender-status.
* Only Mr. and Mrs. Santos were fined. I believe Tim avoided this because of his lack of income and resources. And that just makes me wonder--how could a man with a steady stream of high-paying jobs end up with nothing? What did he do with his money? While it was his, he could do whatever he wanted (including buying the boat, and running for elected office)-it's none of my business. But I'm curious. How does an intelligent, income-earning man end up with nothing?
* As for the message to others here? I doubt this will make much difference. Look at New Jersey, Chicago, Louisiana, Ohio.
And unrelated to the recent arrests, but interesting because it relates to sentencing of a public official for corruption, New Jersey's former Senator Bryant gets 4 years in jail.
(If Judge Munson looks to other jurisdictions to try to get some parity in sentencing, it's hard to imagine that Tim Villagomez will get anything like the 10 years mentioned in news reports as the presentence report recommendation. If he looks to sentencing here, though, he might consider that these high officials deserve more than the shmoe's in the utility reconnection scam got.)
0 Comments on New Jersey Corruption #2 (and unrelated corruption sentencing...) as of 7/25/2009 1:26:00 AM
The list of names of those arrested range in age from 28 to 87. They include people from every decade between those ages. They include men and women. They include white and black Americans. They include many people of Jewish faith (especially among the Syrian and Hassidic Jews), but also others with other faiths (including Christians). They include Democrats (mostly) and also Republicans.
AP photo
What is it that ties these diverse people together?
Apparently, greed, a lack of real moral ethics and opportunity.
The comments in response to the articles look very much like those we see here in Saipan--with a large group applauding the arrests, condemning those arrested, hoping the feds will clean up the state mess; and others pointing fingers at other alleged crooks, trying to use this as a reason to criticize President Obama, castigating Jews, Democrats, New Jersey, etc.
It's all interesting.
6 Comments on New Jersey Corruption, last added: 7/28/2009
It is interesting and true that, as you note, the responses to this incident "look like those we see on Saipan."
This is reflective of a larger truth, which is that all kinds of bizarre things happen all the time in the states that, if the same things had happened on Saipan, would immediately be seized upon as evidence of some uniquely local CNMI propensity for dysfunction.
For example, in New York, the state legislature was recently paralyzed for months from doing anything because of an equal split of Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, two renegade Democrats having joined the Republicans to create a new Republican majority, one of whom then quickly switched back to the Democrats. (There was no Lieutenant Governor to break the tie because the Governor had formerly been the Lieutenant Governor, but had ascended in office when the former Governor resigned in a prostitution scandal!) On one occasion, the Democrats met in the Senate chamber and blocked the hallway outside (whether purposely or not is unclear), leading a single unwitting Republican Senator to make a shortcut through the chamber, whereupon the Democrats immediately declared that a quorum existed and passed a bunch of bills, the legitimacy of which was immediately disputed. The Governor attemped to resolve the situation by appointing a new Lieutentant Governor, but the state constitution does not provide for this, and the legitimacy of the appointment was also immediately disputed. The matter was finally resolved only when the remaining renegade Senator switched back to the Democrats, which he did only when they agreed to make him majority leader!
So anyway, we may be a little wacky here sometimes, but we are not as uniquely wacky as we sometimes like to think we are.
You are so right, Cactus. Truth is so inventive, it's a wonder novelists stand a chance at all.
But then there's this mind-boggling aspect: how clueless some of those arrested were. The rabbis had to know Solomon Dwek personally. They must have known of his arrest a few years ago.
They were engaged in a sophisticated money-laundering scheme. They're educated, multi-lingual, sholars. And yet they didn't suspect that Sol might be working with the feds? Did they just assume his other legal problems evaporated?
I'm also keen on how the public corruption scandal unraveled. One guy introduced them to one crooked official, who put them in touch with two others, who introduced them to some more...
So while aspects of the story are totally original (like Deal!), others are almost trite. A theme of "the domino effect" or "it takes one to know one?"
or this trite maxim--it takes a thief to catch a thief.
hmm.
cactus said, on 7/25/2009 6:23:00 PM
I think it's likely that a lot of these people trusted Solomon more than they should have because he was a fellow member of their ethnic and/or religious community. There is always a tendency to give "one of our own" the benefit of the doubt.
I recall an incident where a Mormon con man swindled a lot of his fellow Mormons into investing in a bogus hunt for a lost gold mine in the hills of Utah that was spoken of in some old Mormon legend. One of the victims later remarked that he would have been skeptical of the scheme coming from anyone else, but implicitly trusted his own co-religionist not to lead him astray. The con man, meanwhile, recognized, encouraged, and exploited this very thought process.
You see a lot of this kind of thing on Saipan, where each national group tends to place greater faith in their fellow countrymen than in outsiders, and sometimes get burned for it. The debacle of the Chinese workers who deposited (and lost) their savings at the Long City store in Garapan and the Mary Mini Mart in CK is one example that comes immediately to mind.
Captain said, on 7/28/2009 4:41:00 AM
Along these same lines as Cactus last post, Years ago in Hawaii when we had the "Japanese Buying Boom" The Japanese were buying up and developing on every island. They literally bought up most of Hawaii and built golf courses, hotels, subdivisions etc. The biggest con men to come along were the Japanese themselves. Manyy the "Nisei" (second generation) and the rest of the island born Japanese,although this also brought out people from Japan and the "Yakusa" It was Japanese screwing Japanese on "Big deals" This was because they would trust their own race before they would trust an outside race. This is one of the reasons to the big bust, among other circumstances in Japan. Point being it seems to follow within each nationality now matter in what part of the world.In Saipan because of it's size it is more noticeable.
Ed Propst is reporting that the jury has already returned a verdict in the case against Lieutenant Governor Timothy Villagomez. According to Ed, guilty on all charges.
He says guilty on all charges in the cases against the co-conspirators, too. Confirmed. (thanks to Wendy for the cite).
I think we're all relieved. The rydlyme deal stank through and through, but that's not the same as being enough to convict on federal charges. There's also been a history of difficulty in getting guilty verdicts in cases involving corruption of public officials in the CNMI. We've seen others charged with cheating on construction contracts and such, and no convictions.
So I'm relieved that the jury was convinced by the evidence and strong enough to do what they found right.
I was most offended by the closing argument that included the phrase "choose the local mango." This was a thinly disguised attempt to turn back the clock to the time when being a Chamorro meant people owed you allegiance, especially against the US government. I'm glad that we have jurors who don't want a rotten mango at all, no matter what its origin.
I think the counsel for the accused (and now guilty) defendants seriously misjudged the mood of the jury and the people in the community. People are tired of powerful local politicians abusing their positions, enriching themselves, and causing the rest of us to suffer. Accusing Antonio Guerrero of being a patsy for the feds when he is just another regular guy being ill-used by them was incredibly offensive. The man was obviously working very hard to clear his guilty conscience. Describing FBI agent Dana McMahon as looking like a sheep but really being a wolf was another stupid ploy. She didn't testify and it was clear that the defendants were looking for any scapegoat they could get.
And the other closing arguments suggesting that the US federal government isn't "us" were also offensive. Just last November we elected a Delegate to serve in the US Congress. A record number of local men vied for the position--obviously not subscribing to the basic tenet that everything federal is bad. We're getting economic stimulus money from the US. We've been getting good press for our federally-declared national marine monument. We're heading into federal immigration and the US is respecting our wishes to have better dialogue and clear planning. We're seeing more US military in our neighboring island of Guam with spill-over tourism here.
Kudos to Eric O'Malley, who worked really hard and obviously came to court with his hammer and nails to close the lid on this mess.
(And if the reports of guilty on all charges are wrong or inflated, I still say kudos to Eric, and shake my head in disbelief and disapproval at the closing argument tactics of the defense counsel.)
Now we'll await sentencing. It's pretty clear that federal law will provide some real sanction for the wrongdoing, unlike CNMI law.
10 Comments on Brief Reflections on the Trial of the Day, last added: 4/27/2009
I was also turned off by the closing arguments of the defense team, and so were a number of people I spoke to.
Aside from the things you mentioned in closing arguments, I found it extremely arrogant for the defense to claim that "making a lot of money is not a crime." Correction. Making a lot of money illegally through a scam like the ones they concocted is a crime.
There are several questions that remain unanswered Jane, and I hope you can shed some light since this deals with CNMI law:
1. Is Tim fired from his job as Lt. Governor? If not, will he continue to collect a paycheck if he decides to appeal?
2. Will he still continue to enjoy the perks of being the CNMI's Lt. Governor, such as free electricity, courtesy of us CNMI taxpayers?
I don't know the answers with legal citations to your questions off the top of my head. But as I understand it, there is no automatic "firing" from the elected job. The Legislature, I think, has to impeach and vote for conviction for him to be ousted.
So until that happens, he would enjoy all the benefits of the position, as well as remain responsible for the duties.
Anonymous said, on 4/24/2009 7:00:00 PM
Constitutionally he no longer meets the basic requirements to to be LT. He has been convicted of a crime.
Joy's Brother said, on 4/24/2009 7:38:00 PM
You are correct, Jane. The disqualification is not self-executing. It requires resignation or impeachment.
The OPA, OAG, IRS, FBI, USAO, and jurors have all done their jobs. Now it is time for the House to step up to the plate.
lil bit said, on 4/24/2009 11:59:00 PM
i too thought the closing arguments were racist and just irritatingly assinine. the analogies they chose to highlight their arguments were so lame.
cactus said, on 4/25/2009 2:01:00 AM
Writer, your attempt to turn the verdict into a validation, even a celebration, of all things federal rings hollow.
Not "everything federal is bad," and, so far as I know, no one has ever claimed that it is. Many things are (probably most), but the jury trial system is not one of them. Why not? Because it is a system that trusts and empowers the local people.
Remember: The federal government did not convict Tim. He was convicted by a local jury of his peers. If the jury had decided to let him walk, there was nothing the feds could have done about it. Indeed, he would not have been tried in the first place had he not been indicted by a local grand jury.
All the feds did was present their case, and leave it to the locals to make the decisions, which are then binding on the feds. It is a case of total federal trust in, and deference to, local judgment.
As such, it is the direct opposite of the federal approach to such things as the immigration issue, which is characterized by total distrust of local judgment, and no deference to it whatsoever.
I don't think the outcome is a validation of all things federal and that was not my intent in the paragraph where I criticized the closing arguments attacking the federal government.
I agree with you that not everything about the federal government is wonderful and, as with any government, we must be vigilant to keep checks on the power it wields.
So, I do agree with your assessment of the jury system that lauds it as power in the hands of the people. The jury system is a check on the power of the government, whether local or federal, and democratizes justice.
I disagree with your assumption, though, that the federal government is not "us" and is somehow a foreign power at odds with our local people. The federal government is as much our government as the local government is; when it acts, it is our action.
We need greater participation in it--the vote for President, for example. But we need to own it as ours.
In this case, "we" did things right. "We" prosecuted government officials and others for crimes. "We" presented the evidence. "We" determined the outcome.
We, as both federal and local, citizens, are managing our justice.
And in this case, I feel happy about the outcome.
cactus said, on 4/25/2009 4:55:00 PM
Writer, I agree with your turns of phrase, but I do not see how they line up with the facts.
I believe, as you apparently do, that any government should be an extension of the people -- i.e., that it should be "us". But how exactly is the federal government "us"? I could see it if you called it "good" or "benevolent" or "stable," but that is not the same thing as being "us." How can its actions be "our" actions if we do not elect it?
And I agree completely that "we must be vigilant to keep checks on the power it wields." But, in your view, what checks do we here in the CNMI have on the power it wields?
Anonymous said, on 4/26/2009 8:23:00 AM
Cactus:
You are really reaching with your continual attempts to cram every issue into your Federal/Local conflict obsession. Surely you can embrace some other, more nuanced world view?
You set up a rather feeble "straw man," claiming that Writer saw the verdict as a "celebration of all things federal," and then knocked it down. I did not interpret her comments the way you did.
Your argument--that a federal prosecution is really local, since it depends on a jury of local peers, and that therefore, the feds didn't really do anything but trust the local mango--is really not apt, imho. If the FBI and the US Attorney were not willing to bring charges, neither the grand jury nor the petit jury would have had the opportunity to consider them.
It also appears that you want to have it both ways: when the feds do something you don't like, they are despots and oppressors, but when they do something good, they are really just local guys and the feds had nothing to do with it.
But the larger issue is that "us" and "them" labels aren't really helpful in discussing the complex issues we face as citizens. We are all Americans AND we are CNMI residents. E pluribus unum, remember? We all pay the same power bills, and suffer through the same blackouts. We all owe a debt to the courageous CUC employees who did the right thing by blowing the whistle on the Rydlyme scheme, to the jurors (both grand and petit), and to Eric O'Malley for a job well done.
We are all in this together, cactus. The local government has had had problems enforcing many of our laws. I, for one, am happy the federal prosecutor's office is there as one of the "checks and balances" giving locals a helping hand in investigating and prosecuting high-ranking officials.
cactus said, on 4/27/2009 5:43:00 PM
You are right that the feds CAN play a useful, helpful role in the CNMI. Federal independence from local political/personal issues can truly come in handy at times, and can help set the stage for getting things accomplished that otherwise might not be. I think that is what happened in this case.
It is precisely BECAUSE it is POSSIBLE to do these kinds of things RIGHT -- possible to have a local-federal relationship that is healthy, fair and beneficial, possible to create a new and true kind of "us" -- that it is so frustrating to see the feds constantly eschewing any such creative and salutary solutions in favor of an approach that is reactionary, visionless, top-down, and "us-vs-them" in the bluntest and crudest way possible -- i.e.: "we command, they obey."
It's too sad and too believable...allegations that our Lieutenant Governor Timothy P. Villagomez, not just in the distant past but right up to late 2007, was cooking up schemes to divert money from CUC into his relatives' pockets, money allegedy not reasonably due.
It's funny how the small details upset me. Bad enough if what's alleged is true (that Villagomez's family sold a "scaling agent" rydlyme, to CUC at exorbitant prices on sole source contracts) , but somehow the fact that there's thousands of pounds of the stuff stored in Rota at the time of the latest "purchases" --that's the fact that really upsets me.
Why? Because it's not just that CUC pays too much for stuff to enrich his family, it's that CUC can't even use what it pays for...
And Dave Lujan and Joey P. San Nicolas as attorneys for the accused. I personally don't like their style. I'm wondering if anyone else, besides Tony Guerrero, will cut a deal...
I sincerely hope that, if the matter goes to trial, the jury is not subject to corruption but faces the task of judging honestly.
4 Comments on 255. Too believable!, last added: 8/23/2008
I had a hard time believing this actually. Someone whose been involved in politics for so long, who's held the highest offices, who's father and family has played a significant role in the development of this government and many of its agencies.. practicing petty crime. This, in the end, is really just a petty crime. To me.. that's even sadder. These four people probably pulled in somewhere around $200,000 in profit after the purchase price and shipping. What a sad and sordid little scheme.
This isn't a new scheme either. Remember Kumoi's "Heavy Equipment Repair".. well not really Kumoi's, it was registered under another family members name. Only problem was.. the business was repairing primarily CUC equipment!
I am really saddened. As much as I disagree with his politics.. to discover that an elected leader of such status and with such history is no better than a thief, in some way degrades the integrity of our entire community.
But he has not yet been proven guilty.. so I won't delve too deeply into my realm of feelings regarding this.
I tend to think that nepotism and corruption are practiced nearly everywhere in the CNMI, and most often by high-status families in leadership positions.
Every sole source contract sends up a red flag to me. Every government deal made to purchase from a business owned by a family member of an influential politician or the decision-maker himself makes me wonder if it's a good deal for necessary goods or services.
It's a small community and of course there are family ties through and through. It's good that family is strong and important. But it's not good that family takes precedence over public service for those who are in public service. And maybe not even for others...
And in the nearly 24 years I've been here, I've seen that preference for family instead of the public good over and over again. From voting choices made not for the candidate whose policies reflect a voter's belief or whose stand on issues is good for all, but voting for whoever is in your family that will be able to hire you or get you benefits from government agencies; to hiring choices made by the "public servants"-hiring who in the family voted for you and will keep you in office, who will carry out your orders without too many questions, who will scratch your back if you scratch theirs; from government business for profit-politicians pushing for poker machines so they can make a bundle, touting construction contracts with special rules that only their family's company's can meet, opposing sound ideas like the national marine monument because it limits options of family & business associates to be greedy; to misplaced loyalty that results in vindictive, personal sabotage-declaring opponents as persona non grata, writing false and defamatory letters in the newspapers, making decisions in the workplace on personalities, not principles.
I noticed in the newspaper that many of Tim's supporters showed up to "lend support" to him and his family. But who was there to lend support to US, to the community who suffers?
You say this was a petty crime. The pay-off may have been relatively small for those involved, but that doesn't make the crime "small."
Corruption doesn't start and end with one deal. It's a cancer that spreads and corrupts and goes through generations, distorting all institutions and defrauding us of one of the most basic essentials of a decent life-honesty.
I may have misused "petty". It's a very serious thing.. but I see it as "petty", because it is such a small dirty thing to ruin your life over, and harm your community over. I do agree with you that it is indeed very very serious.
Your piece is right on.
lil bit said, on 8/23/2008 5:53:00 PM
I have taught on Tinian and Saipan and it is always amazing to me how there is always one student who acutally vocalizes that it doesn't matter that he doesn't do well in school, he will get a "high paying" job in the government from his uncle/dad/god father etc. I have had students tell me that point blank.
I'm just in a black and white mood today. Although there's not really any white in this. Or pure black. I just used one pencil for the whole thing.
Things are still very grey here. January is always such a bleak month. Its freezing, its wet, its grey, and I have ants in the house which are not deterred by Pine Sol on a paper towel plugging up their entryway so I have to resort to the RAID which makes me gag, then I think I'm done with them but no, hours later those buggers are back, and this has absolutely nothing to do with yarn or illustration but I was in the mood for a good run-on sentence, thanks for indulging me.
1 Comments on Black yarn Thursday, last added: 1/11/2008
The family can be so proud Tim and Santos let a mother of a minor child, the wife and sister no less, go down to save their own skin. What tough guys...puke...I mean cowards.
Any man, with his minor child facing growing up without parents, would have confessed, apologized, shown remorse, and told the courts that they will cooperate provided the wife is protected. I would have even lied and said my wife was afraid and did whatever I told her.
I will never vote for any beggar writing those lenancy letters for two limp cowards.
Pillars of community...that should make us all take pause...or puke.
What is a "cross-section" of the community supposed to mean in this context? People of various nationalities? Income brackets? Families? Political affiliations? Ages?
It's hard to know how to evaluate the claim to represent a cross-section without a little more information as to what kind of cross-section it purports to be.
Cactus, I thought of that, even as I wrote this post.
I'm pretty sure a cross-section would be more like a random sample, not just some people in a bunch of different categories.
And alas, when you google to define it you get this: definition, which starts with the basic literal definition and then continues with the applicable definition here:
S: (n) cross section (a section created by a plane cutting a solid perpendicular to its longest axis)
S: (n) cross section (a sample meant to be representative of a whole population)
So the real question is--were those 600 letters representative of the whole population of the CNMI?
I stick by my answer.
At the least, a cross-section would probably include people who didn't vote for you.
There are many ways the attorney could have dealt with the question. Admitting that it wasn't a random sample or even a representative sample of the community, but even so indicated some impressive support...that might have carried more weight.
A little honesty from the defense team would be oh-so refreshing...