My Personal Introspections » Congress

Legal Banditry: Insider Trading by Members of Congress

Lawrence — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 02:44:06 +0000

Members of Congress Are the Bandits; “We the People” Are the Fools

Did you miss the horrendous story 60 Minutes broke last Sunday. If you missed it, it will be well worth your time to see it here and now. The story shows that some members of Congress, including House leadership on both sides of the isle, are apparently engaging in insider trading. Said another way, the members of Congress are making out like bandits and “we the people” are the suckers they are stealing from by their insider trading. Insider trading by you and me would land us in prison for a long time, but it is merely another perk for members of Congress.

Kudos to CBS for this story

I know CBS NEWS has not been known for doing much hard news in the past, except for stories that cast conservatism and conservatives in a bad light, but they claim that is changing, and I, for one, am inclined to take them at their word until they prove otherwise. This video is an example of hard news that take no prisoners on the progressive or the conservative sides of the political spectrum. Kudos to the CBS show 60 Minutes for this story.

This 60 Minutes story was probably sparked by a book that touches on this subject. The book is Throw Them All Out by Peter Schweizer. Click the book title Throw Them All Out and get your own copy. The cost at the time of this writing was $15.60. (Fair warning, I will make a shekel of two if you buy using this link to Throw Them All Out.)

Book Description:

One of the biggest scandals in American politics is waiting to explode: the full story of the inside game in Washington shows how the permanent political class enriches itself at the expense of the rest of us. Insider trading is illegal on Wall Street, yet it is routine among members of Congress. Normal individuals cannot get in on IPOs at the initial asking price, but politicians can and do routinely. The Obama administration has been able to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars to its supporters, ensuring yet more campaign donations. An entire class of investors now makes all of its profits based on influence and access in Washington. Peter Schweizer has doggedly researched through mountains of financial records, tracking complicated deals and stock trades back to the timing of briefings, votes on bills, and every other point of leverage for politicians in Washington. The result is a manifesto for revolution: the Permanent Political Class must go.

We must stamp this kind of behavior. This book will provoke you and all freedom-loving Americans.

If You Haven’t Seen This Video Yet, You Need to See It Now

If you haven’t seen it yet, see it here and now. You may want to download the transcription of the show on the CBS News website here instead to read later or to read along as you watch the video.

CBS NEWS VIDEO

Should “We the People” Throw Them All Out?

There is a reason that no one should be able to use non-public information to make money with stock transactions: Such a practice creates an unlevel playing field and strips markets of credibility and fairness. There is an even better reason members of Congress should not be allowed to do so: It interferes with their ability to do their job, which is presumably to represent “we the people,” rather than represent their own selfish interests.

You would expect this sort of self-dealing from people like a Muammar Gaddafi, not members of the U.S. Congress. What makes it even worse is that this is a problem that is simple to solve. Members of Congress should do what the President does – have their assets in blind trusts so they have no ability to influence the investments they own. I hasten to add such a blind trust should be monitored by regulators to see to it that it does not engage in financial shenanigans for the benefit of its Congressional owner. Commonsense and Christian morality dictates this course of action. But since commonsense Christian morality obviously don’t work for many in the U.S. Congress, I suppose yet another law would be in order.

What do you think? Should trading on inside information be just another Congressional perk? Or do you see it my way; as common criminal activity that should be severely punished. Share your view here.

“Honest Graft” – How Our Representatives enrich themselves through Congressional Insider Trading (theleagueofaggressiveprogressives.wordpress.com)
Your Take: Congressional Insider Trading (bargaineering.com)
Connecticut Doctor Gets 5 Years Prison for Insider Trading and Over $10 Million in Fines – You Have To Be A Member of Congress To Pull Something Like This Off… (ducknetweb.blogspot.com)
OUTRAGE OF THE MONTH: Insider Trading In Congress (businessinsider.com)

Congress Took a Sharp Turn to the Right Today

Obama Courts Latinos by Suing Arizona

Lawrence — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 13:26:14 +0000

By Dick Morris & Eileen McGann

Why is President Obama suing to invalidate the Arizona law on illegal immigration? Why is he incurring the enmity of even his own Democratic Congressmen from the Phoenix and Tucson areas by trying to kill a law that two-thirds of Arizona and a similar proportion of America as a whole supports?

The answer: It is a desperate, last ditch attempt to rebuild his sagging popularity with America’s Hispanic voters.

Furious at Obama for failing to keep his election year promise to promote comprehensive immigration reform when he had a super-majority at his disposal, they are deserting the president and his party in droves. Unemployment, a sagging economy, and their sharp disagreement with Obama over social issues don’t help the president’s cause any.

So Obama has seized on the Arizona immigration law as a symbolic target, hoping to accomplish in a lawsuit the political task of rebuilding his base.

Remember that in 2008, Obama won precisely the same share of the white vote that Kerry won in 2004. There was a shift among whites as the Obama won more young whites and lost more older ones, but the white vote ratios as a whole remained constant. His entire margin of victory was based on two factors:

a) The African-American vote rose from 11% of the total in 2004 to 14% in 2008 and virtually all voted for Obama; and

b) Latinos, who had backed Kerry by only 10 points, supported Obama by fifty points.

For Obama to have a shot at keeping Democrats in control of Congress, he must replicate the enthusiasm of 2008 among minorities. But his Hispanic flank is definitely weakened. Hence the lawsuit to shore it up.

The answer on immigration reform is to adopt a three part program to dry up the jobs that attract illegal migrants in the first place. When there are no jobs, they will not come and those who are here will go back home without deportations or roundups.

We need to:

1. Strengthen penalties and enforcement of laws barring people and companies from hiring illegal immigrants. Those who do so should face prison time.

2. We need a fool proof national bio-metric ID card so employers can tell who is legal and who is not.

3. We should implement a broad guest worker program to bring upscale and manual workers into the US to fill our labor force needs. They must get at least the minimum wage and have health benefits. But, when the job is over, they must go home.

Democrats won’t embrace this program because the unions won’t let them and because they want illegals to stay here and become Democratic voters. Republican agri-businesses won’t go for it because they want to exploit illegal workers with low pay and bad work conditions.

But this is the solution. Trying to seal the border is good rhetoric but is a hopeless task. Drying up the jobs that bring illegal immigrants here is something we can and must do.

Source: Dick Morris

Voters Attitudes Harden Against Liberal Ideas as the Year Ends

Lawrence — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 05:30:58 +0000

Obama Health Care Panacea

GOP and Demos Square off over the socialistic Obama-Reid-Pelosi Health Care Plan

The latest Rasmussen polls say 58% opposed and 49% are strongly opposed to the socialistic Health Care Plan. On the other side of the issue, among the 39% who favor the plan are 19% who strongly favor it.
Many people are questioning whether those in Congress know what enough of what is in it. Be that as it may, it is certainly clear from the numbers that we are having this socialistic health care panacea pushed down our throats by the Democratic majority in Congress.

Same Song; Second Verse

78% believe the Health Care plan will cost more than projected. Come to think of it, when has the federal government every missed on the high side of a cost projection.

Democrats and liberals have more confidence in the cost projections for the plan than do other voters, but the majority of all partisans share the belief that the costs will be higher than projected. That means people are at long last awakening to the dangers of bigger and worse government.

Plan Attack Spooks Public Confidence in War on Terror

Another Rasmussen poll says belief that the bad guys are winning the War on Terror is at its highest level in over two years, and nearly half of U.S. voters say America is no safer now than it was before 9/11.
A mere 18% believed the terrorists were winning when President Obama was sworn into office last January. Now that figure has claimed to 30% of voters think the terrorists are winning the War on Terror.

Gift Cards: Use ‘Em or Lose Money

Did you get any gift cards form your local Chinese outlet store, Wal-Mart; or Bet Buy or American Express for Christmas?

Consumer advocates advise you to use them now, if you did. That is the best way to avoid potential fees and other pitfalls that can suck up the value of gift cards—at least, that is, until the Federal Reserve imposes limitations on some of those fees next year.

As far as many companies are concerned, it is still open season of shoppers. Of course, you can help make those merchants have a happy new year by not using the gift cards you received at all or not for full value, if you are feeling that generous this holiday season.

There is one other worry for you if you have a gift card. The merchant may fail before you spend it if you don’t hurry. That reminds me of a very big—for those times—check that Babe Ruth received for something-I can’t remember what off the top of my head. Anyway, the Babe showed that check around and bragged on it for a long time. Then, when he went to cash it, it the company had gone belly up and the check was worthless. Don’t let that happen to you with your gift cards. Spend ‘em.

Read full story here.

Now here’s some good news

Why doing nothing is good for you

Worried that the holidays have taken a toll on your fitness? Relax, a break from exercise is what you need

by Peta Bee

You might have been working out diligently since making last year’s resolution to get in shape. But what happens when you succumb to the inevitable under-activity and overindulgence of the festive season? Will hours spent popping chocolates in front of the TV and skipping the gym mean the past 12 months’ effort will count for nothing as your figure and fitness go to pot? Not necessarily, say leading exercise scientists. In fact, a break from the gym might be just what your body needs.

“Rest and recovery are often overlooked, but are as important as exercise itself,” says John Brewer, professor of sport at the University of Bedfordshire. “Even elite athletes have one easy day a week to allow their bodies to recover from the stresses of training and to encourage the positive physiological changes, such as muscle growth, that are induced by hard workouts.”

Without enough rest, Brewer says, a tough exercise regime is doomed. “You may improve in the short term, but each body part generally needs 24 hours to recover from hard exercise. If you have been lifting weights with your arms, for instance, it will take a full day for the tiny tears in muscle fibres to be repaired.” He says that most fitness injuries stem from a lack of rest. “Taking time out to let your body recover could save you weeks out through injury in the long run.”

Click here to continue reading the rest of the article

So, relax and enjoy for the moment.

I wish you one and all Happy New Year!

May God forget the bad that we have done and bless us abundantly.

Manhattan Declaration.org: Limited Time Offer

Lawrence — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 02:14:49 +0000

: Image via Wikipedia

Get off your Christian hands now and go to work. Do it soon. If you don’t, there will be nothing left of the American Dream to fight for. It is for this reason that I say the offer is a Limited Time Offer; for, if we continue setting on our Christian hands doing little or nothing to challenge those who are intent on taking our most basic God-given rights away from us, time is limited and it will be too late before we know it.

In fact it is very late in the day now, so read what follows below, take it to heart, and do your utmost to help the rest of us signers and activists by becoming a signer of the Manhattan Declaration and become active in anyway you can. Step outside of your comfort zone to help America remain the freest of the free countries on the face of the earth; the one that all men look up to as the epitome of freedom, economic wealth, and security.

The rights set forth in the First Amendment are among the most important in the U.S. Constitution. The text of the First Amendment is:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

These words, Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, are to my mind the most important in the constitution and are the words that give power to all the other words in that great document. In essence these words say that Congress shall not establish a state religion (or, by implication, give preference to one religion over another), as was the case in England; the country the founders of our republic fled from when they came here to establish our country.

Not only does the First Amendment prohibit Congress from establishing a state religion, but more importantly, it prohibits Congress from prohibiting the citizenry from the free exercise of religion (and by implication free choice of religion).

Those words do not sound like the basis for separation of Church and State, but that is what the liberal humanists who would overthrow Christianity’s influence in American culture have said those words mean.

I beg you, my fellow Americans to step outside your comfort zone and put forth every effort to actively fight the good fight we are all called to by Christ, and now, in these latter times, by the Manhattan Declaration.

If you go to ManhattanDeclaration.org you will see the following message:

Christians, when they have lived up to the highest ideals of their faith, have defended the weak and vulnerable and worked tirelessly to protect and strengthen vital institutions of civil society, beginning with the family.

We are Orthodox, Catholic, and evangelical Christians who have united at this hour to reaffirm fundamental truths about justice and the common good, and to call upon our fellow citizens, believers and non-believers alike, to join us in defending them. These truths are:

the sanctity of human life

the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife

the rights of conscience and religious liberty.

Inasmuch as these truths are foundational to human dignity and the well-being of society, they are inviolable and non-negotiable. Because they are increasingly under assault from powerful forces in our culture, we are compelled today to speak out forcefully in their defense, and to commit ourselves to honoring them fully no matter what pressures are brought upon us and our institutions to abandon or compromise them. We make this commitment not as partisans of any political group but as followers of Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Lord, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

And, should you elect to sign the petition (see The Manhattan Declaration post which immediately proceeded this one in time)

To all signers of the Manhattan Declaration:

Thank you for signing. We are now over 200,000 strong-and counting, for which we give thanks to God.

We have received thousands of e-mails asking what’s next – a good question. The goal of those of us who drafted and signed the document is not just to get a lot of names on a manifesto, gratifying though that is. We are seeking to build a movement – hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of Catholic, Evangelical, and Eastern Orthodox Christians who will stand together alongside other men and women of goodwill in defense of foundational principles of justice and the common good. These are people who could expose the lie which so many in our culture have embraced about self being the center of life; and then winsomely present, in the words of St. Paul, “a more excellent way.”

We are looking for people who will work in every possible arena to advance the sanctity of life, rebuild and revitalize the marriage culture, and protect religious liberty.

So what’s next for you? Let us offer some specific suggestions. More will undoubtedly follow in the weeks ahead.

Pray. We can do nothing apart from God. So lay this before the Lord every chance you have, and ask your friends and prayer chains to do the same thing.

Study and learn about these issues. We see the Manhattan Declaration as a great teaching and reference source. Share it with others. Only after you have tried to teach it to someone else will you have really learned it. And go deeper in your own study. There are many organizations that offer excellent resources in support of these foundational truths. If you can’t find resources, you can visit www.colsoncenter.org and look at the Worldview Resource Directory we’ve assembled.

Come back to www.manhattandeclaration.org if you want help in answering questions others pose to you. We’ve posted a FAQ (frequently asked questions) tab on the home page, but most people signed the statement before this was added. So revisit www.manhattandeclaration.org – and watch for other resources we will be posting.

Invite all of the friends on your e-mail lists to go to www.manhattandeclaration.org, read the Declaration (that’s most important) and sign it.

Talk to your pastor or small group leader in church. We have heard from a number of pastors who are already referring to this document in their sermons and using it in their teaching. We’ve also heard from bishops and other church leaders who are planning ecumenical gatherings in their areas of responsibility. Some are talking about campaigns to equip the faithful. Other pastors are asking their congregations to sign the document, and become informed. Go to your pastor; urge him to do this. You can really help in this area. Suggest it, and then volunteer to be a part of it. Step forward as a leader.

If you belong to a civic group like Kiwanis or Rotary, and you have regular meetings, that’s a great forum in which to share information about the Manhattan Declaration. Explain to people what you’ve signed and why you’ve signed it. A lot of people are asking about this statement, its meaning and purpose. Educate them.

Letters to the Editor can be a very effective way to spread information about important issues. According to some sources, more people read the Letters to the Editor columns than the editorials.

Watch the issues being debated in the public arena, particularly as the health reform bill is moving through Congress. As a citizen you have a duty to let your representatives know what you think about the issues, particularly on profoundly important moral questions like those being raised now.

Get on Facebook or any other chat rooms or blogs that you have access to. Social networking, as we are learning, can have a powerful impact.

Finally, talk to your neighbors. Robert Naisbitt wrote that fads begin from the top down, movements from the bottom up. We are convinced that societies are changed over the backyard fence, standing around the barbeque grill, and sitting in the barber shop or hair salon. Learn to be an advocate in any environment.

In conclusion, in asking you to sign we were not just asking you to raise your hand, but to raise your voice. Great changes in society have often come about when Christian people unite in this way – think of the Wesley awakening, the Celtic revival, or movements for social justice and civil rights in our own country. We believe God is looking for good men and women who will pledge (as you have done in signing the Manhattan Declaration), never to compromise the gospel, and to become well-informed, effective advocates true and godly principles.

This is a message of hope for every area of human life and endeavor, and a call to discipleship for every believer.

God bless you.

Dr. Robert George
Dr. Timothy George
Chuck Colson

Dearly beloved Brethren in Christ,

Do it now. Sign up and become a modern day Christian Warrior and American Patriot.

Yours truly

EU: Churches Must Hire Gays? (answersforthefaith.com)
-Re: ‘Manhattan Declaration’: A Call of Christian Conscience (answersforthefaith.com)
State and Religion (stephankinsella.com)