Posted on 12/06/2002 6:58:22 PM PST by Constitution Day
Congressman Billybob Sez:
[posted 5 December 2002]
This here's the 327th Report ta the Folks Back Home from the (More er Less) Honorable Billybob, cyberCongressman from Western Carolina.
Ma sainted Mama offen sed, "Winners never cheat, and cheaters never win." From an early age I knew she was wrong. Sometimes, cheaters do win. I firs saw that onna playground ov the elementary school at the State Teachers College in Salisbury, Maryland, where I growed up.
But I unnerstood what she meant. Thangs don allas work this way. But that's how thangs oughta be. N, that's how I oughta conduct maself.
The mos important eggzamples ov cheatin today r rather sophisticated n possibly deadly, so I'll turn this over ta ma able assistant, J. Armor, Esq.
Enrons Are Everywhere
No, this is not about Enron, the corporation. It is about Enron, the state of mind. This combines weapons inspections in Iraq, a union-owned insurance company, and a contested state senate election in Maine. If you think those have nothing in common, hang onto your hats.
At a very early age, every child develops a basic understanding of cheating. You're playing checkers with Gramps. He's whipping your pants off. But if you put some of your jumped checkers back on the board, you can win instead of lose. An indulgent grandfather will let you do that, once. Then he'll ask you to try again, play by the rules, and live with the result.
We all learn simple lessons. Look both ways before crossing the street. Color within the lines. Play by the rules. And if you fall out of that tree and break both legs, don't come running to me. Did everyone just hear the voices of their mothers from decades ago? The problem is, the world teaches an opposite lesson: Play to win. Cheat when necessary.
The central question of all our lives is, which lessons do we take to heart? The ones our mothers told us, or the ones the world whispers in our ears? Here are three important examples in the real world, beginning with Iraq.
Iraq claims that it does not have weapons of mass destruction – chemical, biological and nuclear. Yet Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons against Iranian troops in his war with them and against the Kurds inside Iraq. Also, he has threatened to use these weapons he doesn't have, against both the Israelis and the Americans if the United States attacks.
Before Hussein booted out the UN weapons inspectors four years ago, they found ample evidence that Iraq had chemical weapons in hand, and was working on the other two forms of mass murder. Defectors from Iraq confirmed what was found on the ground.
Hussein has been an absolute dictator in Iraq for 34 years. His pattern is to use force in all forms against his perceived enemies inside and outside the country. Just six weeks ago I spoke with several Americans of Iraqi descent. Their common factor was that members of their families had disappeared into Hussein's prisons, or were known to have been killed. One man had lost five of his brothers.
Unless Hussein has changed his lifelong habit of control by force with no limits on what kind of force, of course he has developed more chemical weapons. And of course he is feverishly working on biological and nuclear weapons. And he will use those weapons whenever he chooses.
A colleague of mine was formerly a weapons expert for the 82nd Airborne. He told me during the Gulf War that Hussein had chemical-loaded artillery shells. He also told me those weapons were useless. The bombing campaign against Iraq took 30 days. The Iraqi shells used two chemicals that had to be separated and refrigerated. Otherwise, within 30 days they deteriorated. The bombing cut off the electricity. So, Hussein had the weapons and the will to use them. But they would no longer work when the troops invaded. Inspections by soldiers – not by folks in white cars with "UN" painted on them – confirmed this, after the war.
What will the current crop of UN inspectors find? Not much, and not soon. But "material breaches" will pile up. It will be the United States, not the UN (for which read: the French) who will decide when enough is enough. The attack on Iraq will therefore come in late December or early January.
Hussein's form of cheating is the most critical, because lives, perhaps millions of lives, are on the line. This time it will be ended by force; no more vain hopes that his regime will fall because of the back-to-back slaughters of Iraqis in the Iran War and the Gulf War.
The second example of cheating is homegrown. It is corporate cheating in the realm of the unions.
Ullico is a union-owned insurance company, created to serve the needs of union members. Its intention is admirable: keep the profits from necessary insurance for union members in the family. The reality is something different.
Ullico is a stock company, and both unions and their top officials own stock. Like all insurance companies, it quickly grew large cash reserves which are needed to pay the claims. Playing with all that cash became a temptation. Its principal accountant has already pleaded guilty to fraud charges. The federal government has already sued it for a Las Vegas real estate transaction gone bad.
Now three of its directors, including AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, have resigned over the refusal of the President of Ullico to release an internal report about insider trading by members of the Board other than the three who resigned. Press accounts say that the other directors are backing the withholding of the report, which claims those directors gained $14 million in corrupt profits, and that they should repay that money.
The resignations are so far, so good. But not good enough.
Shareholder suits should strip the insiders of their ill-gotten gains if necessary. The inside traders should be prosecuted, if possible. All the information should come out, and heads should roll. At present, the information is concealed and the heads are still in their positions of power.
Insider trading is an old story. Ever since stocks have existed, some people with access to information have had the opportunity to benefit themselves and selected friends with advance buys of stocks about to go up, or advance sales of stocks about to go down the dumper.
It is a form of cheating – cutting corners to line your own pockets with ill-gotten gains. The opportunities will always be there. The question is whether those who seize the opportunities will be forced to disgorge their gains, and serve time in prison.
So far, the Ullico cheaters have won, and have profited handsomely. But the last chapter in this story has not been written.
The third form of cheating we'll look at is stealing elections. One of the last of the elections for state senates and houses to be decided is a senate race in Maine. According to published results, Democrat Chris Hall has won by 9 votes. But exactly 44 votes have not been counted. And if they are counted, Republican Leslie Fossel has won by 5 votes.
The problem with the 44 votes is not a lack of clarity, or legitimacy of the registered voters who cast them. Some of these paper ballots were filled out by pen, not by pencil as required. The 11 ballots favoring the Republican and filled out with black or blue pens were not counted. Other ballots favoring the Democrat, filled out with a red pen, were counted.
Sounds like an open-and-shut case of cheating that can be readily resolved. Not so fast, litigation breath. The 35-member Maine Senate gets to decide the legitimacy of this election. And, as it so happens, this seat gives the Democrats a majority, 18-17, with the contested Democrat sworn in and voting on his own case. So, it looks like in this instance of in-your-face cheating, the cheaters will win.
Possibly, but not necessarily, a lawsuit on civil rights grounds by several of the voters whose ballots have been read, noted, and then set aside, may reverse this result.
What is the common denominator of these three stories? It is that people with power and money will sometimes cheat to retain their advantages. Appeals for integrity or common sense will fall on deaf ears. Only force – military force in the first instance, the force of law in the others – can resolve these issues.
A fundamental problem in the United States today is that the sanctions against cheaters are insufficient. They are partial, slow, wrist-slaps, or non-existent. Cheaters may keep their ill-gotten money or offices for years – perhaps indefinitely. Unless we the people demand better behavior and swifter, greater punishment for malfeasance, this will continue in government, in private corporations, in the media, in the legal profession, in education, etc. (With a colleague, John Young, I wrote a pamphlet that deals with this subject in detail, titled "to Restore Trust in America.")
To paraphrase Forrest Gump, "Cheating is as cheating does." There will always be some who are willing to abuse positions of trust by cheating us. We can't make the world perfect. But we can increase the consequences so potential cheaters and their allies will think twice before future bad actions. If they won't think twice because their Mama told them so, maybe they'll think twice because we the people threaten to sue their socks off and send them to jail.
- 30 -
Comments can be added on the "Letters to Billybob" page And please also click the link for "to Restore Trust in America." If you like these Reports, you will like that. It strikes the same theme that President Bush did, repeatedly, in his press conference after the 2002 election. Again and again he said the victories were due not to him, but to the candidates themselves who earned the "respect" and the "trust" of the American people.
(C) 2002 Congressman Billybob. All rights reserved.
"Also, starting probably next week I'll do a ten-part gig on constitutional law, on air with Jerry Agar out of Raleigh.
That will be every Monday at 5-6 p.m. With 50,000 watts, it'll reach most of the state. FReepers are welcome to call in."
John Armor will be on the Jerry Agar show on WPTF 680 AM soon!
I will post more details when I get them.
I encourage FReepers in the WPTF listening area to call in.
This will be a ten-week series.
FRegards~
CD
Backatcha
Sources, please.
BUMP
I was using an outdated NC ping list...
I accidentally deleted the current one from my home PC and had to use the one on disk.
Hope you're doing well.
CD
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