Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Some thoughts on government bribes

Major League Baseball has a rule that if you bet on baseball then you're thrown out of the game completely. This rule is posted in every major league clubhouse throughout the country and Toronto. You can do lots of bad things as a baseball player and receive fines, ridicule, or suspensions but only betting on baseball will get you thrown out. Why? Because being a jerk doesn't make people think the outcome is fixed. As soon as the outcome of games are no longer seen as believable then the game is finished. (On a side note I hope Pete Rose never sees the hall of fame)

Government should have a similar rule. If you receive bribes that throw the legitimate role of government into question then you should have to receive some over-top-penalty. If you receive kick-backs as a result of 'serving the public' then you should not only face jail but receive the mark of Cain.

Additionally I might also add that the larger government becomes and the more power they hold, the greater need there is for their influence to be controlled. Taking the time to bribe a leaner and more efficient government would be less likely as they would wield less power and influence.

This isn't a libertarian issue, this is something that should disturb all citizens. No time for hanging with your party here, everyone should be calling out their own.

One more side note: I read about a study that showed that members of the United States Senate received investment dividends at a higher rate than professional investors. On average these 100 people in the Senate turned out to be the wisest investors in the nation topping all of the brokerage houses. I'm glad these wise people protect the public from people like Martha Stewart. What a bunch of jerks.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Whenever the latest corrupt Republican gets indicted or investigated I usually do my, "I told you so" dance and fire off vicious emails to my Republican buddies.

I danced like John Travolta when the Abramoff scandal came to light, because I knew that would be followed by the fall of Tom DeLay and many others who will be swept up in the wake. Bill Frist was a pure gift when he did a Martha Stewart. I danced so much when Scooter Libby went down with Rove right behind him, that I'm practically in shape now.

But the latest scandal is one I take no pleasure in. Randall "Duke" Cunningham is a San Diego based Republican in the House of Representatives, who just resigned after pleading guilty to tax evasion (do not confuse him with Randall Cunningham the Eagles QB). He evaded taxes on $2.4 million in bribes he took to steer defense contracts to his sugar daddies. He also sold a home to a defense contractor at an inflated price, and was defended by...Tom DeLay, LOL. The defense contractor resold the home for a $700k loss.

Duke Cunningham is a hero of mine. He was one of the few real heros to emerge from Vietnam. Cunningham was a Naval aviator who was one of the two Aces to emerge from that conflict. Legend has it that he shot down Col. Toon, the leading Vietnamese Ace.

As good as Duke was behind the stick, he apparently is equally bad at ethics. His term in the House is rife with scandal, and now there has been a lot of doubt cast on the Col. Toon legend as well (no one can prove that Toon existed).

That's really a shame. I looked up to Cunningham and so did his constituents. Now, he's just another corrupt Republican.