[onedoug]

Business as usual.

[Maceman]

IMHO, this really is an issue that grass roots activists ought to promote the hell out of. I think this could be a great issue to hammer politicians on in the coming elections.

Add to it the fact that our elected officials routinely pass bills whose contents they have not read, and which often contain stealth legislation inserted by individual congressmen that other senators and represetnatives do't know about at the time of voting.

I think this is an issue whose time has come.

[lepton]

Recall also the 1995 Price Waterhouse audit of the previous Congress's books. They eventually had to give up, because the books were so sloppy that they couldn't even read them.

[mewzilla]

And let's not forget the billions of dollars these geniuses can't even account for, that are just plain missing. Seems to me the members of the House and Senate make guys like Ebbers look like pikers.

[geaux]

Reminds me of that e-mail about Congress that went around a few years ago with the subject "Would you want to work here?"

"It has a little over 500 employees with the following statistics:
29 have been accused of spousal abuse
7 have been arrested for fraud
19 have been accused of writing bad checks
117 have bankrupted at least two businesses
3 have been arrested for assault
71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
14 have been arrested on drug-related charges
8 have been arrested for shoplifting
21 are current defendants in lawsuits
In 1998 alone, 84 were stopped for drunk driving"

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Ping. Don't foget the potential windfalls for the Dems. biggest $$$ donors...the Trail Lawyers, so many companies, so many disgruntled "victims" expecting easy $$$ with no risk.

This is beyond "politics as usual". The Republicans voted for policy that helped us financially in the 90s...they didn't work to undermine our economy simply to hurt Clinton, nor would they. The Democrats with the help of the press are working to destroy our President and our economy during wartime. Benedict Arnold was a Boy Scout by comparison, imho.

[Republic]

Today on 'Your World with Neil Cavuto', Fox News Cable, Neil interviewed ol Gephardt himself, and cut the snakey congressman to shreds, imho.

When Geppy tried to explain how Bush's plan did not go far enough (concerning actions regarding corporate fraud) and attempted to talk about how marvelous the dem plan was.....Neil stopped him short.

Neil bluntly asked Geppy if more rules were really the answer, if more bureaucratic crappolla wasn't really only going to make things worse.

Geppy got frustrated and said 'well right now we have the chicken guarding the hen house...er, I mean, the fox guarding the hen house' (lol) and so Neil said...AND I COULD HAVE HUGGED HIM FOR THIS....

" Well HOW is it going to be any better having congress guard the hen house....congress cannot handle its own budgets....mismanaging billions, losing track of the same, throwing money to pork projects etc." Geppy was stunned for a minute...then had to evade the question...very, very obviously. I loved it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[leprechaun9]

CHECK THIS OUT:

Published in Star Ledger, July 7, 2002:

Enron, Global Crossing, WorldCom and ... the Feds?
By MILES BENSON
miles.benson@newhouse.com
c.2002 Newhouse News Service

WASHINGTON -- When corporate officers cook their books, it's a crime and an outrage. When the U.S. government does it, critics say, it's business as usual.

Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives alike cite routine government behavior that resembles the misbehavior now rocking the business world. Activities described as fraud in the private sector are tolerated as "politics" in the public sector, where misreporting of facts and manipulation of information is a way of life, these critics say.
...............