Twitterby Chuck Ring (GadaboutBlogalot ©2009)
Quote Freely From The Article – Leave The Pseudonym Alone
Not the hill on which our Capitol resides. But, The Hill, a respected online news organ that reports on all things United States Government related. I’m afraid there are few gratifying reports, unless you are looking for some muck to rake, as I often do in seeking out night soil that tends to verify that a career politician is one of the worst things ever foisted on this Republic. I find myself hoping there will one day be brightness from the light of revelation, but I find I am pessimistic and often alert on potential governance gone awry or outright fraud and stupidity in government.
Such was the case yesterday as I opened the virtual pages of The Hill to a report about the opening of 15 new cases by the House Ethics Committee. Aside from the possibility that House ethics may be the most glaring oxymoron to leap from the confines of a dictionary, and the phrase sets the stage for a chuckle or three, the report dealt on very little regarding revelation of wrongdoing by our elected officials and their hired staff. What the report covered, I believe, was the seemingly overwhelming task of abiding by the rules of investigation and reporting for which the committee is charged. Well, just excuse me, but our federal government has so over-bloated itself that is is unwieldy beyond imagination and almost without control.
For instance, did you know that the United States House of Representatives has over 10,000 staff members, and that those staff members are each required to complete ethics training? I would wager that the majority of the staff members are graduates of some institution of higher learning with many of them holding advanced degrees in political science and/or related fields. Then there are those with law degrees. One would think, wrongly I suppose from the evidence, that members of the House and their staff would have sense enough to know what is ethically acceptable and what is a pox on their duty to do the right thing. Apparently not so, as demonstrated by the following words taken from the article:
“The report contains other interesting details about the ethics committee’s work. For instance, the panel has a poor record thus far of training House employees about ethics rules. Only 2,861 of 10,553 House employees have received the required training as of the end of June. The panel has held 34 targeted briefings for individual offices and plans 20 additional training briefings.
The committee appears to be trying to address the lack of staff training, noting in the report, that it is “in the process of updating its online training materials and has put into place systems for monitoring its online and enforcing compliance with the House’s training requirements.”
The panel has received 2,876 phone calls from offices and 813 e-mails this year, according to the report. Independent auditors have reviewed 1,972 financial-disclosure reports that members and some staffers are required to file each year, committee staff have reviewed another 972 financial disclosure reports. There are 988 of these reports the panel has yet to review. The panel has yet to receive reports from 547 members and aides.”
That’s it for now. Trying to keep up with this stuff is mind-boggling and like sifting eels from a bucket of melted butter, but try to read the entire article, if you have time.
