OPINION - Shields and Brooks 11/30/2018

"Shields and Brooks on Mueller developments and congressional dynamics" PBS NewsHour 11/30/2018

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks analyze the week in politics, including recent developments in the special counsel’s investigations, party dynamics after the midterm elections and the “impressive” strength shown by Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) in her quest to become House Speaker.

Judy Woodruff (NewsHour):  It has been a momentous week in the Mueller investigation.

To help us better understand the broader implications, we turn to the analysis of Shields and Brooks.  That's syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks.

Hello to both of you.

So, as we just heard in Lisa's conversation, we have been watching the story all week, Mark, a lot of the information out there, a lot of it from Mr. Mueller himself, a lot more reported in the media, not confirmed yet.

What does it all add up to right now, to you?

Mark Shields, syndicated columnist:  I think it adds up to gravity.  I think it adds up to anxiety.  I think it adds up to nervousness on the part of the administration, and particularly the White House.

I think, Judy, what we saw is that the President's personal attorney testifying in court, with Mr.Mueller's own ratification of his testimony, that all the way through the nominating process in 2016, right up to the eve of the convention, by the time Donald Trump had sewed up the nomination, that they were actively — he, Mr.Cohen and others were actively seeking to establish a signature property in Moscow, an ambition, as we just heard in the previous segment, of Donald Trump for more than 30 years, and in spite of Donald Trump's denials to this effect, that he said there was no such thing going on.

And I think is — I think it becomes serious that he lied to the American people throughout the campaign of 2016, now becomes, I think, a matter of at least public debate, if not presumption.

Judy Woodruff:  But, David, the President is saying, but no deal developed, there was no hotel built.  So is there really anything here to see?

David Brooks, New York Times:  There's got to be something.

One of the things that strikes me about this investigation is that it's like a million pieces out there.  There's like the Julian Assange piece, the Moscow deal piece, the tax piece, the Roger Stone, whatever he was doing, piece, paying off strippers.  There's just a million pieces in this investigation.  And we don't which will open on any given day.

And so that tells me that this is going to occupy the Trump presidency for a long time and probably dominate the Trump presidency for the next little while.

The second thing I think what we're learning from the Cohen — what we have learned from Michael Cohen is that Trump was probably more involved in a lot of these things than we knew before, that it wasn't just some minions off somewhere.  Trump seems to have been involved in these calls and things like that.

The thing that — the crucial thing that I don't know is, when he's accused of something, he just shifts the goalposts, which is to say, he re-norms.

Mark Shields:  Yes.

David Brooks:  So, you say, oh, you were lying during the campaign?  And he said, yes, yes, I was doing that.  Fine.

You might have been compromised in Moscow to get a business deal.  Yes, well, you know, that's business.  That's what I was doing.

So every time he does something that any past administration would have thought, this is shocking and appalling, I'm ashamed of myself, he's completely unashamed of himself.

And so the question to me becomes — Richard Nixon was forced to reside, sort of over obstruction of justice .  Suppose there's an obstruction of justice case here.  Have our norms so changed that is no longer a political death sentence?  And that may have happened.

(CROSSTALK)

Mark Shields:  Yes, I think David raises a good point.

I think our — I hope and believe our norms have been changed.  There's no question that Donald Trump is a mutant.  I mean, he has no embarrassment gene.  There's no way in the world…

Judy Woodruff:  Did you say mutant?

Mark Shields:  A mutant.  He really is.

I mean, he's aberrational.  I mean, he's not embarrassed.  I mean, Richard Nixon, on tape, said, we could do this, but it was wrong, it would be wrong, and we know what's wrong.

That doesn't — that's not a construction, a sentence that would pass Donald Trump's lips.  I mean, that is — it isn't the question.  It's transactional?  Is it to my advantage?  Is it to my disadvantage?  That's — that's how he sees — that is his morality.  Does it enhance him?  Does it in any way diminish him, which, of course, is the original and most grievous of all sins?

So I do think that our norms, I hope, have not been hopelessly impaired or damaged.  And don't forget that it was, in fact, the — David is right — obstruction of justice in both the cases of Bill Clinton's impeachment, attempting to influence witnesses and how they testify, and Richard Nixon's.

So, I mean, these are serious offenses.  And there are precedents for pursuing that.

David Brooks:  But it seems to me this is the hardest thing for the Mueller team, is that there's a lot of prosecutorial discretion involved in these things.

At what point do we go out and say, this is enough to really challenge the President in some fundamental, existential way?  And do — at what point do they think we have enough to really go out in this aggressive way?  And what point do they think, no, this will just turn into a political circus?

And so the political — the norms of the culture are going to affect how Mueller is going to make that decision.

Judy Woodruff:  So you really — you believe the President is changing, may be changing the norm, the cultural moral norms of this country?

David Brooks:  He's being doing it since he walked on the stage.

(LAUGHTER)

David Brooks:  I mean, that first Republican debate, he was talking about things no President ever talked about, insulting other people's looks.

And so it's just been a continual process of that.  And, at some point, the norm runs into law.  But, again, the law has this area of discretion that Mueller is going to have to make that case.

The thing — the thing that's hanging out there is, there's just so much.  And then Mueller has — I mean, it's not really even about collusion with the Russians anymore.  There's just so much out there that this person has been involved in for the past 20 years.  And we just don't know what's going to spring up tomorrow.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION - Secretary of Commerce

aka "Trump Filling the Swamp"  Trump didn't really divest, so why should Wilbur?

"Ethics questions swirl around Wilbur Ross’ calendar and financial interests" PBS NewsHour 7/18/2018

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The U.S. Office of Government Ethics sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross last week criticizing his failure to fully divest stocks by Jan. 15, 2017 -- 18 months after Ross agreed to do so.  Amna Nawaz talks with Dan Alexander of Forbes about questions surrounding Ross’ actions as secretary in relation to his personal wealth.

UGANDA - A Country With Ethics

"Why Uganda is one of the world's most hospitable refugee destinations" PBS NewsHour 10/18/2016

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  In a world struggling with anti-immigrant sentiment, Uganda provides a rare hospitable welcome for those seeking asylum.  Refugees live in settlements where they are able to run small businesses, attend mosques and children attend school.  The country's support system is possible mainly because of its unilateral political structure.  Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports from Uganda.

Editor's Note:  A version of this story aired on the PBS program “Religion and Ethics Weekly.”

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  In a world struggling to accommodate a record number of refugees, one country has been notably welcoming.

Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro has a report from Uganda.  It's part of his Agents for Change series.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO (NewsHour):  Nakivale in Southern Uganda looks like any other dusty rural African town.  What's remarkable is that almost none of its 113,000 residents are Ugandan.

Ethiopia?

All of these schoolchildren and their parents are refugees.

Burundi? Rwanda?  Congo?

All told, 13 nations are represented in this crowded school, their families fleeing conflicts across a wide swathe of East Africa and finding haven in what must rank as one of the world's most hospitable countries to refugees.

In Uganda, refugees are placed in settlements and not camps, and the government says there's an important difference.  Camps tend to confine people, whereas, in Uganda, when refugees arrive, they are issued legal I.D.s that entitle them to move freely anywhere in the country, to find a job, start a business, put their children in school.

Refugees in rural areas are given a small plot of land to farm.  Others migrate to the urban areas.  Somalis are among the earlier arrivals in recent years.  Their enclaves in the capital, Kampala, are well-established with small businesses and mosques, a predominantly Muslim community in a mostly Christian nation.

Mohammed Abdi runs this grocery story with his partner, Zahara Hassan.

MOHAMMED ABDI, Somali Immigrant (through translator):  We have very many Ugandan customers and we are friends.  I am one of the Somali elders in the community.  We interact with the elders of the Ugandan community, whether leaders in this distract or region.  And we are friends, and they welcome us.  We're very happy.  We're like one people.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO:  And one scholar who's studied refugees in Uganda says there's reason to be happy.

ALEXANDER BETTS, Oxford University:  We showed in the capital city of Uganda, Kampala, 20 percent of refugees own businesses that employ someone else.  And of those they employ, 40 percent are citizens of the host country.  So refugees can contribute to the host societies that they're part of.

NORTH DAKOTA - Local Town's White Supremacists Crazy

"Tiny N.D. town fights against white supremacist" by Blake Nicholson, USA Today 8/30/2013

LEITH, N.D. (AP) — In a tree-fringed grassy lot with a lone picnic bench in the tiny North Dakota farming town of Leith, Craig Cobb sees the perfect venue for a white power music festival.

Across a gravel intersection between two abandoned buildings, he envisions a park — perhaps with a swimming pool — dedicated to a neo-Nazi and white supremacist activist.  He pictures the town decorated with fluttering flags and banners bearing the swastika — the symbol of Nazism.

"They would have to be approved by the town council, of course," Cobb said, gazing out over Leith's sparse downtown from his overgrown, weed-infested front yard.

Cobb, 61, a self-described white supremacist, has purchased about a dozen lots in the community about 60 miles southwest of Bismarck.  Over the past year he has invited fellow white supremacists to move there and help him to transform the town of 16 people into a white enclave.  No one has come.

Still, the community is mobilizing to fight out of fear that Cobb could succeed, and the mayor has vowed to do whatever it takes to ensure Cobb's dream remains just that.

Last week, while news of Cobb's plan was being splashed across the front pages of The Bismarck Tribune and The Forum, about two dozen people — mostly residents of Leith and concerned friends from neighboring towns — showed up for an impromptu meeting in nearby Carson.

"We all share kind of the same concerns that people living in the community of Leith have — just the unknown," said Kathy Hoff, who lives just south of the town and attended the meeting.

Cobb spends his days in his ramshackle two-story home with no running water, posting online comments advocating for white supremacists to join his settlement.

"I only need 17 people," he said with a chuckle.  "You have to have a majority to win an election.  If we get 22 we've got a landslide."

Cobb's neighbors across a back alley are Sherrill Harper, who is white, and her husband Bobby, who is black.  Bobby Harper, a 52-year-old welder, said he has spoken to Cobb only once, and that Cobb's plans don't bother him much.

"The most extreme thing you can do is hate another man because of the color of his skin, (but) I don't think we should get too excited," he said.  "I believe right will prevail."

Officials are considering enforcing health codes and ordinances relating to the upkeep of Cobb's run-down property.  A proposal to disband Leith's government and turn over control to the county is even on the table.

"He would still own his property," said Mayor Ryan Schock, a 38-year-old farmer and lifelong Leith resident.  "But … he can't control the city if there's no city government."

No decisions have been made, but the six-member town council that usually convenes once a month might call a special meeting to discuss the matter soon, Schock said.

Ryan Lenz, a writer with the Alabama-based civil rights nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center, said his organization has long tracked Cobb, who is wanted in Canada for willfully promoting hatred in Vancouver in 2010 via a blog.

"It's a pipe dream for white nationalists to have an entire area in which their neighbors are Aryan," Lenz said.

That's hard to achieve, Lenz said, but Cobb has made strides because he has gobbled up land — even transferring some to Tom Metzger, a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and founder of the White Aryan Resistance.

That doesn't mean he's any closer to enacting his plan.  Metzger said he likes Cobb but that declared plans for white enclaves never work and that he will not be joining Cobb in Leith.

"I think it's better just to have people move in quietly, have a job, operate a regular daily life and get along with their neighbors," he said.  "I wouldn't go into a town pushing my weight around."

Cobb, a native of Missouri, fled prosecution in Canada and chased the promise of high-paying jobs in the booming western North Dakota oil fields.  He said he was fired from a job because of a dispute with a co-worker and that he lost a job with a Fargo-based paving company after media coverage of his settlement plans.

Canadian authorities have not approached the U.S. to extradite Cobb.  Cpl. Normandie Levas of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the white supremacist can't be extradited because the charge against him in Canada doesn't exist under U.S. law.

Deputy North Dakota Attorney General Tom Trenbeath said authorities are aware of Cobb, and the Grant County Sheriff's Office has increased patrols in the area.  But Cobb hasn't broken any laws there, and Schock acknowledges that he has a right to live in Leith, no matter his views.

Cobb's comments and writings indicate he believes in a superior white race, distrusts both Jews and Christians, and questions the intelligence of women.  He declines to talk about his upbringing and gives no indication as to why he adopted his supremacist platform.

In an interview outside his house, he was calm, cheerful and even jovial, making comments that raised questions about whether he believes his plan could succeed — or if he's just seeking publicity.

"If I'm the only one in Leith forever, white consciousness has already been raised," he said.

NSA - More on Surveillance Programs

ON THE INTERNET:  As I commented in a previous post, privacy is a myth.  The internet, especially the WWW, has NEVER been private.  Those who think so, are naive and do not understand the underlying technology, it's like holding a conversation in a town square and expecting that it will never be overheard.

"Obama Defends NSA's Surveillance of Phone, Web and Credit Card Use" (Part-1) PBS Newshour 6/7/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  President Barack Obama defended the NSA's secret mining of Americans' phone calls, web use and credit card transactions, saying intelligence officials use the information to find leads and prevent terrorism.  The president reiterated the government is not listening in on calls or scrutinizing content.  Jeffrey Brown reports.

"Mass Collection of Communication Data Speeds Inquiries, Prompts Privacy Debate" (Part-2) PBS Newshour 6/7/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  What are the origins of the NSA's surveillance programs, how do intelligence officials use the information and what questions may arise about the cost of privacy?  Jeffrey Brown talks with two reporters who have been covering the story, The Wall Street Journal's Siobhan Gorman and Charlie Savage of The New York Times.

President Obama Speaks on NSA Surveillance (17:46)

FREE PRESS - Investigation of Government Leaks

"How Far Should Government Go in Investigation of Leaks?" PBS Newshour 5/21/2013

Excerpt

GWEN IFILL (Newshour):  Now to another story that has captured the attention of the news media and of Congress.

After new revelations about extensive investigations involving the Associated Press and FOX News, three former Justice Department officials are defending the leak inquiries.

Writing in The New York Times, they said today:  "The criticism of the decision to subpoena telephone toll records of AP journalists in an important leak investigation sends the wrong message to the government officials who are responsible for our national security."

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said today the key is to strike the right balance.

But what is that balance?

For that, we turn to Floyd Abrams, a First Amendment lawyer who routinely represents news organizations, and former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, now an attorney in private practice in New York City.

POLITICS - Romney Thinks 47% of Americans Are Government Addicts

Romney's remarks demonstrates one of the prime reasons I left the Republican Party in 2000. Romney's statement IS Republican conservative philosophy. Anyone that needs help from any government entity is lazy and dependent, and just is not working hard enough, which is JUST WRONG HEADED. In essence Romney thinks 47% of you are not worth helping.

"Romney Says Remarks on Voters Help Clarify Position" by JIM RUTENBERG and ASHLEY PARKER, New York Times 8/18/2012

Excerpt

Mitt Romney on Tuesday fully embraced the substance of his secretly recorded comments that 47 percent of Americans are too dependent on government, saying that his views helped define the philosophical choice for voters in his campaign against President Obama.

“The president’s view is one of a larger government; I disagree,” Mr. Romney said in an interview on Fox News. “I think a society based on a government-centered nation where government plays a larger and larger role, redistributes money, that’s the wrong course for America.”

The comments were Mr. Romney’s attempt to find some benefit in the political furor after the disclosure of statements he made at a closed fund-raiser in Florida in May, where he spoke of nearly half of Americans who pay no federal income taxes and, in his analysis, would never vote for him.

Those are people, he said at the fund-raiser, who are “dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them.”

Mr. Romney, who on Monday called the remarks inelegant, suggested on Tuesday that it was time for a full debate about dependency, entitlements and what his campaign characterized as a long history of Mr. Obama’s support for “redistributionist” policies.

ALSO - A liberal view:

Rachel Maddow Show
MSNBC (14:02 clip)

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Mother Jones Transcript of Romney's remarks

ECONOMY - States 'Robbing' Housing Aid

"Needy States Use Housing Aid Cash to Plug Budgets" by SHAILA DEWAN, New York Times 5/15/2012

Excerpt

Hundreds of millions of dollars meant to provide a little relief to the nation’s struggling homeowners is being diverted to plug state budget gaps.

In a budget proposed this week, California joined more than a dozen states that want to help close gaping shortfalls using money paid by the nation’s biggest banks and earmarked for foreclosure prevention, investigations of financial fraud and blunting the ill effects of the housing crisis. California was awarded more than $400 million from the banks, and Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed using the bulk of that sum to pay the state’s debts.

The money was part of a national settlement valued at $25 billion and negotiated with five big banks over abuses in their mortgage and foreclosure processes.

The settlement, reached in February after a year of talks and intervention by the Obama administration, was the second-largest in history involving the states, trailing the tobacco industry settlement, and represented the first large-scale commitment by banks to provide direct aid to borrowers.

As part of the settlement, the banks agreed to pay the states $2.5 billion, money intended to help homeowners and mitigate the effects of the foreclosure surge. But critics complained that this was the only cash the banks were required to pay — the rest comes in the form of “credits” for reducing mortgage debt and other activities. Even that relatively small amount has proved too great a temptation for lawmakers.

Only 27 states have devoted all their funds from the banks to housing programs, according to a report by Enterprise Community Partners, a national affordable housing group. So far about 15 states have said they will use all or most of the money for other purposes.

"Has proved too great a temptation for lawmakers." Now that's an understatement. Also shows just how ethical governments can be if you leave a loophole.

SYRIA - Highest Ranking Civilian Official to Date Defects

"Senior Syrian official defects to protest Assad's crackdown" AP, USA Today 3/8/2012

Syria's deputy oil minister announced his defection in an online video that emerged Thursday, making him the highest ranking civilian official to abandon the regime since the uprising against President Bashar Assad erupted a year ago.

Abdo Husameddine's announcement came one day after the top U.S. general said President Barack Obama has asked for a preliminary review of military options in Syria, as the conflict grows increasingly dire. The U.N. estimates 7,500 people have been killed.

"I do not want to end my life servicing the crimes of this regime," Husameddine said in a video posted on YouTube, adding that he was joining "the dignified people's revolution."

He appeared to address President Bashar Assad directly.

"You have inflicted on those you claim are your people a full year of sorrow and sadness, denied them the their basic rights to life and humanity and pushed the country to the edge of the abyss," said Husameddine, wearing a suit and tie and appearing to be reading from a paper.

It was not clear when or where the video was made. There was no comment from Damascus.

Husameddine identified himself as an "assistant" to the oil minister and a member of the ruling Baath Party and said he has served 33 years in various government positions. Cabinet ministers in Syria may have several assistants known as deputies.

The defection came as international condemnation on Assad mounts.

On Wednesday, the U.N. humanitarian chief, Valerie Amos, got the first independent outside look at the Baba Amr district of Homs following a deadly monthlong siege. The military took control of Baba Amr on March 1, but Amos was allowed in only Wednesday.

She said Thursday she was struck by the devastation she saw in the shattered neighborhood. She found it mostly empty after residents fled the fighting. Activists charge that Syrian forces conducted cleanup operations there, including executions and arrests.

"The devastation there is significant. That part of Homs is completely destroyed, and I am concerned to learn what happened to the people in that part of the city," she said in Damascus, a relatively peaceful stronghold of Assad's regime.

"I have been struck by the difference between what I have seen here in Damascus and what I saw yesterday in Baba Amr," she added.

But shortly after she spoke, Syrian security forces opened fire to disperse mourners in Mazzeh, an upscale neighborhood of Damascus. The crowd had gathered for the funeral of a soldier who was allegedly executed last month for refusing to obey orders to shoot at civilians in Homs.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said scores of people were arrested as security forces attacked the crowd in Mazzeh. There was no word of casualties.

In Cairo, former U.N. chief Kofi Annan said his top priority as special envoy to Syria is to end the violence and deliver badly needed aid.

He warned against further militarization of the conflict and urged the opposition to come together with the government to find a political solution.

"I hope that no one is thinking very seriously of using force in this situation," Annan said. "I believe any further militarization would make the situation worse."

Addressing a news conference after talks with Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby, he said he would be making "realistic" proposals to resolve the conflict. He did not elaborate.

Annan, who has been appointed joint U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria, is scheduled to travel to Damascus on Saturday, where he will likely meet Assad.

Annan said his mission was to start a "political process" in Syria to resolve the conflict there, and his only priority was the welfare of the Syrian people. "They are a brave, ancient people and they deserve better," he said.

Although there are widespread concerns that military action in Syria would be difficult, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday that Obama has ordered up a Pentagon review of options.

Dempsey said the options to be examined included enforcing a no-fly zone and humanitarian airlifts. Dempsey said the military would study the situation and report back on points like Syria's sophisticated air defenses and its extensive stockpile of chemical weapons. He said the assessment would include "mission, enemy, terrain, troops and time."

The committee chairman, U.S. Sen. John Kerry, said the time is not right for a U.S. move against Syria.

Kerry told CBS's "This Morning" Thursday that there are stark differences between Syria and Libya, where NATO airstrikes helped topple dictator Moammar Gadhafi last year. Kerry said Washington "can't just jump up some morning and say, 'Let's go and drop some bombs on Syrian tanks.'"

The uprising began with largely peaceful protests, but faced with a vicious regime crackdown, it has become increasingly militarized. The U.N. says more than 7,500 people have been killed in the yearlong violence. Activists put the death toll at more than 8,000.

Assad's power structure has suffered a steady stream of army defectors, who have joined a group of dissidents known as the Free Syrian Army, now numbering in the thousands, but civilian government officials have remained largely loyal.

That added significance to the defection of Husameddine, the deputy oil minister.

Among numerous military defections recently was that of Syrian Brig. Gen. Mostafa Ahmad al-Sheik, who fled to Turkey in January, becoming the highest ranking officer to bolt.

In late August, Adnan Bakkour, the attorney general of the central city of Hama, appeared in a a video announcing he had defected from the regime. Authorities reported he had been kidnapped and said he was being kept against his will by gunmen. He has not been heard from since.

In the YouTube video, Husameddine said he was defecting "knowing full well that this regime will burn my home, persecute my family and make up a lot of lies."

"I advise my colleagues … to abandon this sinking ship," he added.

AMERICA - A Sad Comment on Our Society and Governance

"New York Missed or Ignored Signs on Girl Who Died" by RAY RIVERA, New York Times 10/5/2010

Excerpt

A 4-year-old Brooklyn girl who weighed 18 pounds when she died in September appears to have gone months without a visit from child welfare workers assigned to monitor her well-being, despite indications that she could be at risk, New York’s child welfare agency revealed on Tuesday.

The agency offered a wrenching glimpse into the final months of the girl, Marchella Pierce, whose home care, it said, was “grossly inadequate.” It also found that her mother beat her with a videocassette case for punishment and tied her to a bed “for substantial periods of time.”

In a preliminary report released at a City Council hearing, the agency, the Administration for Children’s Services, provided its most detailed look yet at the events that preceded the death of Marchella, whose bruised and emaciated body was found in her family’s Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment on Sept. 2.

The report outlines a series of failures by the agency and a private provider that missed or ignored signals that the girl’s mother — who had a known history of substance abuse and who continued to fail drug tests even after the agency became involved with the family — seemed incapable of tending to her daughter’s serious medical needs.

POLITICS - The "Charity" Gravy-Train to Influence

"Congressional Charities Pulling In Corporate Cash" by ERIC LIPTON, New York Times 9/5/2010

Excerpts

Representative Joe Baca has achieved near celebrity status in his suburban Los Angeles district, as much for his record of giveaways — Thanksgiving turkeys, college scholarships, spare boots for firefighters — as for anything he has done in Congress.

That generosity is made possible by the Joe Baca Foundation, a charity his family set up three years ago to aid local organizations. It provides another benefit, too: helping the Democratic congressman run something akin to a permanent political campaign.

Joe Baca T-shirts and caps are given out at the charity’s events, where banners display his name. Local newspapers mention the charity’s donations, and cable stations show appearances by Mr. Baca and his family at functions his foundation supports.

“It’s great,” said Laura Goodloe, 36, as she watched her 8-year-old son, Jordan, play at the arena in San Bernardino, Calif., where the Baca Foundation offered a free basketball clinic last month. “He is giving back to the community.”

But unlike most private foundations, Mr. Baca’s gets little of its money from its founders’ pockets. Instead, local companies and major corporations that have often turned to Mr. Baca’s Washington office for help, and usually succeed in getting it, are the chief donors.

A review by The New York Times of federal tax records and House and Senate disclosure reports found at least two dozen charities that lawmakers or their families helped create or run that routinely accept donations from businesses seeking to influence them. The sponsors — AT&T, Chevron, General Dynamics, Morgan Stanley, Eli Lilly and dozens of others — contribute millions of dollars annually in gifts ranging from token amounts to a check for $5 million.
----
Despite rules imposed in 2007 to curb the influence of special interests in Congress, corporate donations to lawmakers’ charities have continued, thanks to a provision that allows businesses to make unlimited gifts to them. And while business executives say they want to give to a good cause, their pattern of spending — contributions that often are not disclosed, in apparent violation of ethics rules — suggests another reason.

Altria, the cigarette maker, for example, sent at least $45,000 in donations over a six-week period last fall to four charitable programs founded by House members — including Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader, and Mr. Clyburn, the Democratic whip — just as the company was seeking approval of legislation intended to curb illegal Internet sales of its cigarettes. An Altria spokesman said the donations were not related to the measure, which all four congressmen backed. (The other two are Mr. Boyd and Representative Bart Stupak, Democrat of Michigan.)

Tom Williams, a spokesman for Duke Energy, acknowledged that the company participates in lawmakers’ charitable events in part to get access to them and push its agenda. “We are not apologetic about it at all: it is part of our overall effort to work with policy makers,” he said. “Social settings are always a good way to get to know people.”

This "working with policy makers" MAY be legal, BUT is it ETHICAL? In my book, this is just a softer version of bribery.

Do you think Joe Mailman or Sue Checkout-Counter have the EQUAL opportunity, or leverage, to "working with policy makers?"

POLITICS - Yet Another Example of What the Bush Administration Protects

"EPA relaxes rules on reporting of release of toxic chemicals" by JEFF MONTGOMERY, The News Journal

The Environmental Protection Agency approved new rules today that will quadruple the amount of some toxic pollutants that companies can release before they have to reveal the amounts to the public.

...there's more

Yap, protect big busine$$ OVER the public and environment. An example of Bush ethics.

POLITICS - Aha, Yes, Another Fine Example of Bush's Promised Ethical Government

"Interior Report: Indian trust officials violated ethics rules in contract awards" by Edward T. Pound, US News & World Report

In a blistering report, the Interior Department's top investigator says that senior officials who manage $3.2 billion in Indian trust funds pressured subordinates to award lucrative contracts to executives with whom the officials enjoyed close social ties.

According to the report, officials in the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians (OST), based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, often partied with executives of an Albuquerque accounting firm, Chavarria, Dunne & Lamey LLC. The officials and executives played golf together and exchanged gifts of meals and drinks over an eight-year period. During this time, the report says, the Chavarria firm won $6.6 million in sole source contracts.

"In summary, the report presents information that establishes that the conduct of four OST officials ....created an appearance of preferential treatment" for the Chavarria firm, Devaney says. Their actions, he went on to say, violate ethics rules and an internal OST memo that directs personnel to maintain "arms length dealings" with contractors.

Federal prosecutors in New Mexico reviewed the report, and declined to prosecute.

According to the report, OST issued a $150,000 sole source contract to the Chavarria firm in October 1998 to perform trust fund accounting and consulting work. The special trustee's office modified the contract over 50 times, "increasing the value of the award to over $6.6 million, all without competition," the report says.

Investigators said that between October 1998, when the initial contract was awarded, and February 2005, Erwin and the Lords brothers "socialized on numerous occasions" with the Chavarria executives and other contractors. Their report explains, "This included golfing at exclusive resorts together ... dining at upscale restaurants together, entertaining one another at their personal residences, and attending happy hours together on a regular basis."

It says that in September 2002, OST issued a memo directing personnel to maintain arms length relationships with contractors. However, it went on, "the socializing did not cease after the guidance was in place." OST officials and Chavarria executives particularly loved to play golf, sometimes at exclusive resorts, the report says. "These golf outings occurred during both official travel related to contract work and during non-duty hours," the report explains. "The golfing took place at exclusive resorts, private golf clubs, a local country club, and public golf courses spanning seven states ..."

So, we have another confirmation of the Bush definition of ethics and ethical government.
Ethical Government = Whatever Busine$$ Says