Congressional Ethics Police… LOL!

Don’t get me wrong, I love Mike Capuano from Mass A Two Sticks but he is living a pipe dream. He is proposing a regulatory independent agency to more or less police the Congress for ethics violations. The only problem with his plan is that Constitutionally this outside law force would have to be armed with feathers. Gives a whole new meaning to “Packing Heat” does it not?

I’m thinking little tiny down feathers in little tiny holsters on a lawman from the old west. Armed agents patrolling and roaming the halls of the Congress ready to arrest anyone that steps over the line of truth, justice and the American way. Stepping into the dark corners of the law and breaking the ethics rules just might get you a handful of feathers tossed in your face. Take that you wrong doer!

Over at the Washington Post they have this to say on it…

House May Add Outside Watchdog For Ethics

By Paul Kane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 20, 2007; Page A27

A House task force yesterday recommended creating an independent Office of Congressional Ethics that would have the power to initiate reviews of lawmakers' behavior.

The new office, whose creation requires the approval of the full House, which reconvenes in mid-January, would be the first in either chamber to allow an outside body of nonmembers to examine alleged ethical misdeeds.

"It breaks the appearance of the good ol' boy network," said Rep. Michael E. Capuano (D-Mass.). Capuano headed a task force that spent a year trying to craft a compromise for the new ethics office in the wake of the lobbying scandals that helped sweep Democrats into power.

But some ethics watchdogs warned that the office, if approved, would not be strong enough, particularly because it would lack subpoena power. - Washington Post

Keystone Cops mentality all over again…



Not to mention the fact that any Congressional member could at any point in time, when under fire for ethics violations, recite the Constitution and then express a raspberry with their tongue.

For those in the Congress not knowing what a raspberry is, you insert your tongue between your lips, gently press down with your lips and exhaust air from your lungs in a rapid exhale. Not through your nose People! Take two. Insert your tongue between your lips, gently press down with your lips on your tongue, and exhale rapidly through your mouth. Not through both your nose and mouth Congressman. This is going to take some practice. Most of these folks have not lived in reality for a long time so you might want to check back later. When you do come back could you bring about four hundred pair of underwear. That last try had some of the older members of the House in a most discomforting position. That’s a first isn’t it!

Oh screw it, they could just lift up the middle finger, close the rest of their fingers and show it to the Congressional Police. No, No, NO Congressman. You close your thumb too! Everyone knows that is how you hail a cab for a F’n ride. This is going to take a long time to educate these folks about how American’s really live. When you come back with the underwear would you bring some coffee too.

Speaking about how American’s really live, when we have corrupt leaders in our government, if they do not police themselves, the voters can fire them at the polls. For Congressional members that happens every two years, President is every four, and Senators every six years. Then again there is this whole whacky thing called freedom of the press that sometimes can shame SOME people in our government into resigning from office.

I applaud the attention that Congressman Mike Capuano has put into this but I fear that any outside influence on the Congress would be the first step in finally killing the Constitution. That is something as an American that I could never accept. Neither should you and that is why we all should vote based on our own personal ethics. Democrat, Republican or Independent political mindset, if you see a wrong then right it with your vote. It is as simple as that.

Papamoka

Feel free to borrow this post…

Cross posted at Michael Linn Jones and Bring IT ON!

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Our Immigration Laws are Busted, Small Business Owners Must Fix IT?

Picture courtesy of U.S. Customs and Border Protection

When in doubt our brightest of the lawmakers in Washington have pushed even more off of the Federal Govern-Mint onto the States and now the small business owners of America. With their failure to fix the immigration laws that they are supposed to enact, they figured that passing the buck was a far easier pill to swallow.

Judge Breyer from San Fransisco was right to rule as he did. It is time to face the problem and make it right. The Congress and the President need to put in place an immigration policy that works. Over at the Los Angeles Times they have this about the Judges ruling…

Illegal hiring crackdown is blocked

A federal judge stops a controversial program to punish companies based on discrepancies between their workers' names and Social Security numbers.

By Anna Gorman, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
12:56 PM PDT, October 10, 2007

In a major defeat for the Bush administration, a federal judge ruled today that the government could not use mismatched Social Security data to ferret out illegal immigrants from the workplace.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer issued a preliminary injunction that blocks the Department of Homeland Security from starting a controversial program to punish companies based on discrepancies between their workers' names and Social Security numbers.

"Altering the status quo would subject employers to greater compliance costs and employees to an increased risk of termination," Breyer wrote in his 22-page ruling.

The injunction will remain in place until Breyer holds further hearings and decides whether to strike down the proposed Homeland Security rule permanently.

The Social Security Administration had planned to begin sending out "no-match" letters in September, and the Department of Homeland Security had warned companies that they could face criminal or civil sanctions if they did not clear up the discrepancies within 90 days. The administration planned to send about 140,000 letters, affecting more than 8 million workers.

Labor and immigrant rights groups, who sued the government to stop the crackdown, called the decision a major victory. They had argued that the new policy was unlawful and that U.S. citizens and documented workers would be fired as a result of the proposed rule.

"This is a particularly important day for the labor movement because the Social Security no-match letters have long been used to defeat worker organizing," said Ana Avendano of the AFL-CIO. - LA Times

Thank you Judge Charles Breyer for laying the smack down on another policy concerning immigration by the Bush administration, not my problem, kind of busy in Iraq, but I will return your call later philosophy. America has an illegal immigration problem and the President wants to put the ownership on business owners? Let me make myself clear, if you as a business owner hire and illegal immigrant then you are breaking the law. If the government hands you questionable Social Security numbers and then tells you that you have ninety days to fire the person or prove that they are in fact a legal immigrant, is that not the govern-mint’s job to begin with? Heavy fines will follow if your employee can not prove citizenship.

Ask yourself this question? You’ve lived in America all your life, how can you prove that you are a citizen if your employer asked you to do so? Other than a birth certificate or your Social Security card you can not. If one or two of those documents is questionable by your government then both are questionable. Parading your Mom or Dad into the human resource office does not count either. For all intents and purposes, I could not find my birth certificate if you asked me for it right now. Same goes for my original Social Security card. I know they are here somewhere but I have not needed them in decades. Your job, your families livelihood is on the line and the decision to fire you or keep you on is on the line. Prove that you are an American citizen!

Everyone over at INS should get a pink slip next payday! For that matter we should fire all of the border patrol guards too because they failed to check for proper paperwork as the immigrants ILLEGALLY walked into America. Lock up all the Mom and Pop business owners and throw away the key. Mom and Pop are the ones to blame for illegal immigration is what the administration is really saying to the American people. Fine their sorry butt’s out of business. And yet they are a pro business administration?

Bush and Homeland Security on immigration is a joke. Mom and Pop don’t have the resources or the tools to handle who is legal and who is not. For some odd reason the war on terror and everyone we are supposed to be afraid of is not a high priority for this President when it comes to immigration policy. Putting illegal immigration at the feet and ownership of small businesses or big business is dead wrong. That is the job of our government PERIOD!

I’m not a basher of Legal Immigrants but I do have concerns when people come to our shores illegally. Granted, our nation and our way of life offers many opportunities to all and if you follow our laws then you are more than welcome to begin your travels and experience on becoming an American citizen. This policy deserved to be struck down because the Federal Government policy sucks and does not work, it is busted. Rather than fixing it they passed the blame down and now it is Mom and Pop’s fault.

Thought for the post here from the political mind. All you illegal immigrants that might vote Democrat raise your hands? All you illegal immigrants that might vote Republican raise your hands? All of you Democrats get the hell out! Republicans, you can stay but we are going to be watching you.

That my friends is the mine field that is Washington politics. If you were a national politician would you want to touch this topic? That is the dilemma we face here with our nations immigration policy. Nobody has the guts to call it like it is for fear of losing large new immigrant blocks of voters.

Our nations immigration policy is busted and the only way to fix it is in the White House and in the Congress. Ownership of this issue belongs there. Stop passing the damn buck. Somebody FedX from the Smithsonian Harry Truman’s desk top statement to the White House!

Papamoka

Cross posted at Bring IT ON!

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