Putin's Russia, Obama's America: Mirror Images Of Corruption, Cronyism and Waste? Part 3

Last week we did a post on how the political class corruption undermining the financial integrity of the Russian Olympics in Sochi were really not that different than the rampant and growing level of political class corruption in America. Besides listing some general areas of politicians’ corruption, we went into detail on how the Obama administration was basically bequeathing ambassadorships on people who had had no international diplomatic experience but who had raised at least half a million dollars for his past political campaigns. That post can be accessed at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2014/02/putins-russia-obamas-america-mirror.html

As soon as that post went live, word came out of New Orleans that former Mayor Ray Nagin had been convicted on a whopping twenty counts of illegalities including bribery, wire fraud, and kickbacks. The depth of the corruption was quite unbelievable, the details of which can be reviewed at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2014/02/putins-rusia-obamas-america-mirror.html

So within two days, we examined major corruption examples at the local government/political level in New Orleans, at the Federal government/political level in Washington D.C., and the international government/political level in Russia and the Olympics. But as soon as that corruption was documented, two other major pieces of political class corruption came to the forefront, one example at the government bureaucracy level and one at the Congressional level:

1) The fabulous website, Bankrupting America, reported on February 14, 2014 on how the Obama economic stimulus program is still costing the American taxpayers millions and millions of dollars many years after it was supposed to be terminated: 

• Although the stimulus program and spending was supposed to last just two years, taxpayer money is still flowing from it and instances of fraud are still being reported, according to The Dallas Morning News.
• The paper recently reported that, “The top administrator [Joe White] of a chain of hospitals that collapsed under the ownership of a North Texas physician [Dr. Tariq Mahmood] faces charges that he defrauded the Federal government of nearly $800,000 in stimulus funds.”
• White allegedly “falsely certified” documents that made his hospital eligible “to receive stimulus rewards for switching from paper medical records to an electronic system.” 
• In addition to defrauding the government and the taxpayer, he may have accomplished the fraud using an employee’s stolen personal information. 
• Rather than using the stimulus funds to make the switch from paper to electronic records, hospital employees have told the government the hospital pocketed the money and “continued to use paper and uncertified technology.”
• The newspaper says White and Mahamood could face time in prison for their actions. Mahmood has pled not guilty while White has yet to enter a plea.
• The Dallas Morning News said the stimulus program that provided the funds has “major weaknesses. Care providers’ records are not screened as part of the reward process….a 2012 report by the inspector general of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department advised the funding government agency to obtain supporting documentation from some providers before paying them.”
• In typical bungling government fashion, the funding agency, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) did not take the inspector general’s advice. 
• The article reported that the Federal agency (CMS) “balked, citing concerns that doing so would create an ‘up-front burden’ for hospitals and would delay payments.” So the good news is that the taxpayer payments were not delayed, the bad news is that the taxpayer payments were obtained and wasted under false pretenses.

More taxpayer money wasted through corruption, fraud, and incompetence, years after the taxpayer spigot should have been turned off.

Many times the fraud and corruption is not as blatant as the Dallas hospital ripoff scam was. Consider the much more subtle moves of Comcast Corp., the largest cable company in the U.S. Comcast want to merge with its main competitor, Time Warner Inc. Time Warner is the second largest cable provider in the country.

Since the merger deal would further consolidate the telecommunications industry, it is likely to face tough and difficult scrutiny from Federal government officials. The legitimate and major concern is that the merger would raise monopoly and antitrust concerns at the Justice Department. It would also come under scrutiny from a public interest perspective at the Federal Communications Commission. Serious stuff with far reaching ramifications on consumers across the country.

But alas, Comcast probably has that covered. It has been among the top corporate donors to members of Congress and the perpetual reelection campaigns over the past few years. If you follow the money, as documented by the MapLight analysis of campaign contributions to members of Congress, from PACs and employees of Comcast Corp., from January 1, 2001 - December 31, 2012 via the OpenSecrets.org website, you will see that Comcast has

been focusing their contributions on members of the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology. 

It is probably not a coincidence that this committee which has jurisdiction over the Federal Communications Commission:

• House members of the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology received $853,525 from Comcast from January 1, 2001 - December 31, 2012. 
• Contributions from Comcast to House members serving in the 109th, 110th, 111th and 112th Congresses totaled $6,678,446 from January 1, 2001 - December 31, 2012. 
• Representative Greg Walden., Chairman of the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology has received $53,000 from Comcast from January 1, 2001 - December 31, 2012. 
• Representative John Dingell, has received $100,775 from Comcast from January 1, 2001 - December 31, 2012. This is more than any other member of the House of Representatives. 

It is probably not a coincidence that Dingell also is a member of the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology.

Disgusting and disgraceful corruption disguised as campaign contributions. Comcast is paying out millions of dollars in the very safe bet of receiving billions of dollars worth of government leeway in their market dealings with Time Warner, the nation’s consumers and citizens be damned. Do we really think that these Congressional members would be receiving money from Comcast if they were in charge, of say, agricultural matters? No way.

Three short days of political class corruption reviews from around the world, five prime examples of how citizens get screwed:

• Russian taxpayers funding the corruption, bribery, kickbacks and cost overruns at the Russian Olympic.
• American foreign policy interests being sacrificed with diplomatic novices staffing ambassador posts simply because they raised election money for Obama.
• Local New Orleans residents being shafted by a long time local politician, now convicted, who looks to have been heavily into kickbacks, bribery, wire fraud, and other crimes.
• The American taxpayer paying out its wealth in a stimulus program that should have died years ago, to a corrupt hospital administrator via an inept government agency.
• Corporate election campaign donors to corrupt politicians who are likely to look more favorably on those donor’s corporate needs than the needs and rights of cable service users.

As you can see, political class corruption takes many forms, from plain incompetence to serious greed. Somewhere along the line we have allowed a class of people to take over our political processes and turn those processes inwards to their own gain and away from the benefit of citizens and taxpayers. Whereas politics used to be a means to an end, I.e. get elected to promote positive change in the lives of the citizens, getting elected is now just a means in itself, get elected to stay elected to stay in the money, the good of the country be damned.

And the real shame is that a few simple steps could reverse this whole downward spiral of corruption, greed, and lack of ethics, steps that were outlined in “Love My Country, Loathe My Government:”

1. Step 1 - Reduce Federal government spending by 10% a year for five consecutive years - if there is less Federal money to waste, the amount of corruption involving less money should go down substantially.
2. Step 6 - allow only individual citizens to contribute to political campaigns, eliminating the contributions of PACs, unions, corporations, and lobbyists. This eliminates the problems like the Comcast bribes described above.
3. Step 7 - Only allow individuals to contribute to political Senate or House of Representative political candidates that represent them directly. For example, somebody living in New Jersey could no not make a contribution to a candidate in Kansas.
4. Step 34 - Hold House and Senate committee members accountable for their respective areas of responsibility, removing them form their cherished committee posts if they do not meet minimal performance standards. The taxpayers and citizens would determine if minimal performance standards were met, helping to minimize the overwhelming influence of entities like Comcast do today.
5. Step 39 - Implement term limits for all Federal politicians, one and done. With term limits, there would be no need to continually be at Comcast’s and other corporate donors mercy since there would be no need to continually raise campaign money for a continual reelection cycle.

Five simple steps to return the power to the people by taking it away from the rigged election processes that are controlled by selfish and self serving politicians who are financed and beholden to entities like Comcast. Failure to implement these freedom restoring steps just makes us look like an Americanized version of Putin’s Russian thugocracy.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

Putin's Russia, Obama's America: Mirror Images Of Corruption, Cronyism and Waste? Part 2

Yesterday we looked at the corruption, cronyism, bribery, kickbacks, and other assorted nastiness associated with the Russian Olympic Games in particular and overall corruption in the Russian political class in general. The Games in Sochi, Russia were originally estimated to cost the nation of Russia a lot less than $10 billion but ended up costing it over $50 billion.

The primary reason for the multi-fold cost overrun is that the Russian political road of life is paved with bribery, kickbacks, and other cost inflating crimes and shenanigans. On the surface and from our heritage, we would usually scoff at how backwards and inefficient a corrupt country like Russia is. Our perception is that this type of corruption and criminal activity would never happen in the U.S. 

But when you really think about it, as we did yesterday, Obama’s America today is really not much different than Putin’s Russia is. Despite lofty promises and goals:

• The Obama administration gave out tens of billions of dollars to political financial backers and cronies who just happened to own and be invested in alternative energy companies, almost all of which have gone bankrupt, taking that taxpayer money with them but providing no societal return. 
• The Obama administration failed to rein in Federal budget earmarks that usually end up being paid out to political backers, using taxpayer money, for nothing more than the financial supporter those backers gave to the political class in the past.
• The Obama administration promised to operate the most transparent administration of all time, a situation that if it had come true, would certainly help stamp out political corruption, secret payments, slush funds, and other corruption. But, alas, this administration has turned out to be the least transparent administration of all time, leaving one to wonder what kind of Putin/Russian-like kickbacks and bribery schemes are actually going on.
• And the main discussion point yesterday, was to point out the reality that the majority of people Obama has submitted for approval to become U.S. foreign ambassadors are nothing more than political backers and “bundlers” who had to have raised at least half a million dollars in support of President Obama;s previous political campaigns in exchange for a plum and cushy ambassadorship.

Thus, when you really take more than a cursory look at the American political class, things are pretty screwed up when it comes to wasting taxpayer wealth for selfish political gain. Really no different than Putin’s Russian corruption. This reality was perfectly illustrated on February 12, 2014 when a jury sitting in New Orleans found former Mayor Ray Nagin guilty of 20 counts of serious criminal misbehavior.

Nagin had been a long time political figure in New Orleans, serving as mayor for a long time including during the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Thus, he had plenty of time and opportunity to do what American politicians do, a mirror image of what Russian politicians do, make himself rich at taxpayer and citizen expense. Consider what he was convicted for:

Count 1: Bribery - Guilty

The charge: Creating, through a variety of bribes and kickbacks, "a scheme and artifice to defraud" the residents of New Orleans of his honest services as a public official. Many of the individual elements of this scheme make up the other 20 crimes with which Nagin was charged. Maximum prison term: 5 years

Count 2: Bribery - Guilty

The charge: Accepting $60,000 from the three principals of Three Fold Consulting, an engineering firm, in exchange for special treatment. Maximum prison term: 10 years

Count 3: Bribery - Guilty

The charge: Accepting a $2,500 bribe from Rodney Williams, a principal in Three Fold Consulting, in exchange for favorable treatment. Maximum prison term: 10 years

Count 4: Bribery - Guilty

The charge: Accepting a shipment of granite from Frank Fradella's company, Home Solutions, in exchange for favorable treatment.

Maximum prison term: 10 years

Count 5: Bribery - Guilty

The charge: Accepting a $50,000 bribe from Frank Fradella's company, Home Solutions, in exchange for favorable treatment.

Maximum prison term: 10 years

Count 6: Bribery - Guilty

The charge: Accepting a second shipment of granite from Frank Fradella's company, Home Solutions, in exchange for favorable treatment. Maximum prison term: 10 years

Count 7: Bribery - Not Guilty

The charge: Accepting a $10,000 bribe arranged by Rodney Williams, a principal in Three Fold Consultants. Maximum prison term: 10 years

Count 8: Wire Fraud - Guilty

The charge: Accepting, via interstate wire transfer, a $12,500 check from a company associated with Frank Fradella, ostensibly for consulting services after Nagin left office, but really a reward for favorable treatment. Maximum prison term: 20 years

Count 9: Wire Fraud - Guilty

The charge: Accepting, via interstate wire transfer, a $12,500 check from a company associated with Frank Fradella, ostensibly for consulting services after Nagin left office, but really a reward for favorable treatment. Maximum prison term: 20 years

Count 10: Wire Fraud - Guilty

The charge: Accepting, via interstate wire transfer, a $12,500 check from a company associated with Frank Fradella, ostensibly for consulting services after Nagin left office, but really a reward for favorable treatment. Maximum prison term: 20 years

Count 11: Wire Fraud - Guilty

The charge: Accepting, via interstate wire transfer, a $12,500 check from a company associated with Frank Fradella, ostensibly for consulting services after Nagin left office, but really a reward for favorable treatment. Maximum prison term: 20 years

Count 12: Wire Fraud - Gulity

The charge: Accepting, via interstate wire transfer, a $12,500 check from a company associated with Frank Fradella, ostensibly for consulting services after Nagin left office, but really a reward for favorable treatment. Maximum prison term: 20 years

Count 13: Wire Fraud - Guilty

The charge: Accepting, via interstate wire transfer, a $12,500 check from a company associated with Frank Fradella, ostensibly for consulting services after Nagin left office, but really a reward for favorable treatment. Maximum prison term: 20 years

Count 14: Wire Fraud - Guilty

The charge: Accepting, via interstate wire transfer, a $12,500 check from a company associated with Frank Fradella, ostensibly for consulting services after Nagin left office, but really a reward for favorable treatment. Maximum prison term: 20 years

Count 15: Wire Fraud - Guilty

The charge: Accepting, via interstate wire transfer, a $12,500 check from a company associated with Frank Fradella, ostensibly for consulting services after Nagin left office, but really a reward for favorable treatment. Maximum prison term: 20 years

Count 16: Wire Fraud - Guilty

The charge: Accepting, via interstate wire transfer, a $12,500 check from a company associated with Frank Fradella, ostensibly for consulting services after Nagin left office, but really a reward for favorable treatment. Maximum prison term: 20 years

Count 17: Money Laundering Conspiracy -Guilty

The charge: Conspiring with others to accept money derived from illegal activity, i.e. bribes, and transferring those proceeds through the financial system. Maximum prison term: 10 years

Count 18: Filing a false tax return - Guilty

The charge: Misstating income on his 2005 tax return. Maximum prison term: 3 years

Count 19: Filing a false tax return - Guilty

The charge: Misstating income on his 2006 tax return. Maximum prison term: 3 years

Count 20: Filing a false tax return - Guilty

The charge: Misstating income on his 2007 tax return. Maximum prison term: 3 years

Count 21: Filing a false tax return - Guilty

The charge: Misstating income on his 2008 tax return. Maximum prison term: 3 years

Look at the words that are used to describe the transgressions: bribes, kickbacks, money laundering, fraud, special treatment, favorable treatment. If you replace some of the players’ names above, e.g. Ray, Frank, and Rodney, with Igor, Ivan, and Vladimir, you have the Russian Sochi Olympic Games, a mirror image of American political corruption.

Thus, whether it is the mayor of New Orleans, the financial backers of the bankrupt solar panel maker Solyndra in California, the thousands of earmark recipients around the country, or the ambassadorships for sale in the Obama administration, it really is no different than the political thugs and financial parasites in Russia, only the names have been changed to protect the guilty.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

Putin's Russia, Obama's America: Mirror Images of Corruption, Cronyism, and Waste?

Today’s observations are based on the news stories I have been reading about the Russian Olympics. It is not about the athletes but rather about the corruption and criminality that is rampant within the Russian government and political class. 

The initial estimate to put the Russian Olympics on was substantially less than $10 billion. The final cost is already higher than $50 billion. This will make it the most expensive Olympics games ever to be put together, orders of magnitudes more expensive than all previous winter Olympics, a cost overrun that will eventually be paid by the ordinary Russian taxpayer.

Why the disconnect between the forecasted cost and the reality? Investigative journalists have pointed out how corrupt the whole Russian society, government, and political class are. Every effort, every task, every Olympic venue, every politician, every construction company, every transaction was infested with crony politics, blackmail, bribery, kickbacks, and inefficiencies that kept running up the cost of the Games.

I thought it must be a terrible place to live where anything and everything is subject to political connections, bribes, cronyism, kickbacks, etc. But then I came across a February 7, 2014 article from Slate.com which got me thinking: under the current American political class, we are really not that much different from Russia and its politically well-connected, corrupt and crony system of rewarding friends and allies at the cost of the taxpayer and the good of the country.

The Slate article, using data from the Center For Public Integrity looked at the ambassador appointments that President Obama has made during his administration. Details of the analysis include:

• Of the 85 ambassador appointments he has made, 24 (28%) of those appointments were given to people who were designated as Obama election campaign “bundlers,” i.e. political allies who had raised at least half a million dollars for the President’s political campaigns. 
• Another 24 (28%) ambassador appointments were so-called political appointees. Political appointee, another name for political ally.
• Thus, over 56% of the ambassadorships were assigned to political allies who probably have no diplomatic experience and whose only qualifications were that they made financial and/or political contributions to President Obama, tactics right out of the Russian cronyism and kickback playbook.
• The remaining 37 (44%) ambassador appointments were made to the right kind of people, career diplomats, whose experience makes them far more qualified to represent American interests than those 48 people who throw a good fund raising tea or dinner.
• As you will see from the “bundlers” list below, most of these types of ambassador appointments went to really nice situations, modern, advanced countries and economies whose governments we are in very good relations with, i.e. these are the plum and easier diplomatic posts, posts that went to political friends with no diplomatic background of experience. 
• The majority of the career diplomat appointments went to third world, smaller, more dangerous countries, the vast majority of which were in Africa or scattered around the south Pacific, hardly the plum jobs by any stretch of the imagination.

Now, Obama supporters might accuse me of singling out his President for doing something that all past Presidents have done. And I recognize that fact, he is not the first. But I would counter with the following arguments:

1) I do not recall any other President doing it to this extent.

2) I do not remember any other President setting a floor of campaign funding collected, which in this case looks like you had to have collected at least $500,000 to the get the plum ambassador job (the actual amount for each of the 24 bundlers raised is listed below with their names.)

3) Just because others did it does not mean he should also have done it. And maybe this is where Obama overextended himself, or lied outright, when he was running for President. 

He was supposed to be different than all those other Presidents. He was the hope and change President, things were going to be different and better in Washington. He was going to rise above the petty and inefficient politics of Washington past.

He was going to reduce crony earmarks in the Federal budget by half, earmarks that waste tens of billions of dollars every year of taxpayer wealth. He was not going to allow any high powered lobbyists get a high ranking position within his administration. He was going to have the most transparent administration ever, a trait that would help identify and destroy secret crony deals, back room deals, kickbacks, etc. There was going to be less waste and more efficiency in the Federal government under his administration. 

But, alas, his administration looks like a line from an old Who song: meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Earmarks and the corruption that comes with them are as big as ever. High powered lobbyists are in high levels throughout his administration. His administration is shaping up as the least transparent of any. Waste is rampant, inefficiencies in government are everywhere and growing. 

And as list below shows, it is not what you know and how well you can serve the country overseas, it is all about the money you raised for his political campaign. Yes, he may have over promised and severely under delivered but that does not make him unaccountable. It only makes him a mirror image of Putin and his Russian government, a government whose corruption is on display in Sochi and the Olympic games.

The list of Obama bundlers, where they have been appointed to overseas or where they have been nominated to serve overseas, along with the amount of money they raised for the Presdient’s political activities:

Kirk W.B. Wagar. Founder and managing partner of Wagar Law firm. Confirmed to Singapore, raised at least $1.2 million for Obama 

Matthew Winthrop Barzun, National Finance Chair for Obama's 2012 campaign. Confirmed to United Kingdom, raised at least $1.2 million for Obama 

Mark D. Gilbert, Director at financial services firm Barclays. Nominated to New Zealand and Samoa, raised at least $1.2 million for Obama 

Michael Anderson Lawson, Former president of Los Angeles World Airports’ Board of Airport Commissioners/ Nominated to UN Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization, raised at least $950,000 for Obama 

Timothy M. Broas, Attorney at Winston & Strawn LLP. Nominated to Netherlands, raised at least $945,100 for Obama 

Crystal Nix-Hines. Lawyer at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges. Nominated to UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, raised at least $872,500 for Obama 

Suzi LeVine, Former Microsoft executive. Nominated to Switzerland and Liechtenstein, raised at least $800,000 for Obama

John B. Emerson, Executive at investment firm Capital Group Companies. Confirmed to Germany, raised at least $775,000 for Obama 

Denise Campbell Bauer, 2012 finance chair for Women for Obama. Confirmed to Belgium, raised at least $753,500 for Obama 

Bruce A. Heyman, Executive at Goldman Sachs & Co. Nominated to Canada, raised at least $750,000 for Obama 

Alexa Lange Wesner, Former president of technology recruiting firm HireTECH. Confirmed to Austria, raised at least $750,000 for Obama 

Pamela K. Hamamoto, Former executive at Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch. Nominated to Representative to the Office of the U.N. And Other International Organizations in Geneva, raised at least $700,000 for Obama 

John R. Phillips, Founder and partner at Phillips & Cohen law firm. Confirmed to Italy and San Marino, raised at least $700,000 for Obama 

Robert C. Barber, Attorney at Looney & Grossman LLP. Nominated to Iceland, raised at least $600,000 for Obama 

Robert A. Sherman, Attorney at Greenberg Traurig, LLP. Nominated to Portugal, raised at least $550,000 for Obama 

James Walter "Wally" Brewster, Senior managing partner at consulting firm SB&K Global. Confirmed to Dominican Republic, raised at least $500,000 for Obama 

Colleen Bradley Bell, Producer for Bell-Phillip Television Productions. Nominated to Hungary, raised at least $500,000 for Obama 

Anthony Luzzatto Gardner, Executive at private equity firm Palamon Capital Partners. Nominated to European Union, raised at least $500,000 for Obama 

George J. Tsunis, Founder, chairman and CEO of Chartwell Hotels, LLC. Nominated to Norway, raised at least $500,000 for Obama

Keith Michael Harper, Lawyer with Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP. Nominated to UN Human Rights Council, raised at least $500,000 for Obama 

Noah Bryson Mamet, Founder and president of consulting firm Noah Mamet & Associates. Nominated to Argentina, raised at least $500,000 for Obama 

James Costos, Home Box Office (HBO) vice president. Confirmed to Spain and Andorra, raised at least $500,000 for Obama

Dwight L. Bush, Sr., President of financial and business consulting firm D.L. Bush & Associates. Nominated to Morocco, raised at least $500,000 for Obama 

Michael Froman, Former deputy national security advisor. Confirmed to US Trade Representative, raised at least $500,000 for Obama. 

Plum jobs for wealthy political donors, not the hope and change we were sold back in 2008. Just like in Russia, it is not what you know, in America today it is also who you know and how much is the bribe or kickback going to be. [Side note: I find it interesting that for a President who constantly accuses his political foes of waging a "war on woman," only 25% of his ambassadorship appointments were women.]

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w