Author Topic: Way to go House of Reps!!  (Read 3107 times)

deadlymonkey

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Way to go House of Reps!!
« on: January 03, 2017, 05:45:17 AM »
http://www.wsj.com/articles/house-gop-votes-to-put-independent-office-of-government-ethics-under-lawmakers-control-1483411732

First vote of 2017 and the Republican party decides they have had enough "rules" and "ethics" and votes to curtail the independent house ethics committee and make it partisan.  Harbinger of the grifting yet to come?

I'm a red panda

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Re: Way to go House of Reps!!
« Reply #1 on: January 03, 2017, 07:20:04 AM »
Oh thank goodness the title is sarcastic.

There are lots of things the government could cut. Ethics oversight shouldn't be one of them.

Kris

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Re: Way to go House of Reps!!
« Reply #2 on: January 03, 2017, 07:29:51 AM »
I don't know how they can live with themselves.

Yup. 2017's gonna be a big year for political corruption.

Drifterrider

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Re: Way to go House of Reps!!
« Reply #3 on: January 03, 2017, 07:31:42 AM »
I don't know how they can live with themselves.

Because, we the voters, let them.

deadlymonkey

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Re: Way to go House of Reps!!
« Reply #4 on: January 03, 2017, 07:37:04 AM »
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/trump-appears-mobster-affiliated-felon-new-year-bash-article-1.2932315

President Elect celebrating the new year with possible future head of FBI (sarcasm) Joseph "Joey No Socks" Cinque — a convicted felon with ties to notorious Gambino crime family boss John Gotti.


MonkeyJenga

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Re: Way to go House of Reps!!
« Reply #5 on: January 03, 2017, 07:45:59 AM »
Cross-posted from my small daily acts thread, for anyone not already reading over there:

Jan 3, 2017: Office of Congressional Ethics

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/02/us/politics/with-no-warning-house-republicans-vote-to-hobble-independent-ethics-office.html

Congressional Republicans just took a secret vote to strip the Office of Congressional Ethics of many of its powers and put it under their supervision. This vote isn't final: it still has to pass on the House floor tomorrow as part of a rules package.

THIS IS WHERE WE COME IN. If your Member of Congress is a Republican, please call them in the morning. Ask: How did Rep X vote on the measure to strip the Office of Congressional Ethic of its authority? Press them (politely) if they refuse to answer, let them know this is important to you. And then: ASK them to vote down the rules package as a stand against corruption.

If you haven't already loaded your Congressmembers' phone numbers into your phone, look them up here: http://whoismyrepresentative.com/

Alternate Sample Script from Indivisible Austin:

Calling our congressional representatives en masse is one of the hallmarks of the Indivisible guide and a proven strategy that worked for the Tea Party. When you call, be brief, respectful, and stick to a single topic. Here are some sample scripts to get you started.

The Gutting of the Office of Congressional Ethics

I’m calling about the effort to undermine the OCE known as the Goodlatte* Amendment. If the House dismantles its own ethics office, how can we trust that they have the spine to represent our interests under Trump, whose conflicts of interests present their own ethical dilemmas? As your constituent, I would like to know how you voted on this rule change.

*Pronounced “GUUD-lat”



If you don't have a Republican rep, but have friends who live in conservative areas, send this to them and request that they call TODAY! If you know their zip code and can provide their rep's contact info, even better. Post it on Facebook, tag specific people, and email anyone who might not check FB frequently.

TheOldestYoungMan

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Re: Way to go House of Reps!!
« Reply #6 on: January 03, 2017, 08:42:24 AM »
From wikipedia:

"The Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), established by the U.S. House of Representatives in March 2008, is an independent, entity charged with reviewing allegations of misconduct against members of the House of Representatives and their staff and, when appropriate, referring matters to the United States House Committee on Ethics. While currently composed of 5 Democrats, 1 Republican, and 1 Independent, the OCE remains a non-partisan organization."

You can also find a list of staff on the OCE website.  I have no doubt these are good people honestly trying to do their best.  But I doubt this is as simple an issue as is being portrayed.  For starters, if the Republican congress created an agency outside of congressional committee structure, gave it the authority to conduct investigations, and then packed it with Republicans, you would have a problem with it.  Calling something non-partisan doesn't make it so.

The republicans eliminating such things done by democrats, I get why you're suspicious, but this isn't going to cause more corruption.  Congress is corrupt to the core.  This office has been around since 2008, is congress a bastion of purity and goodness?  I agree that the House providing oversight of itself is a little ridiculous, except that there is an opposition party and it has the ability to put people on the various house committees that police congress.  Believing that one party or the other is more responsible for corruption is fantasy.  It is a lie sold to you by your side to turn you against the other side.  They are all corrupt.  Stop voting for incumbents.

The only reasonable hope you can have is to limit their total power.  So whenever any politician tries to expand the power of their office, you need to initiate a recall election, or at the very least, vote against them next time.

Kris

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Re: Way to go House of Reps!!
« Reply #7 on: January 03, 2017, 09:25:53 AM »
From wikipedia:

"The Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), established by the U.S. House of Representatives in March 2008, is an independent, entity charged with reviewing allegations of misconduct against members of the House of Representatives and their staff and, when appropriate, referring matters to the United States House Committee on Ethics. While currently composed of 5 Democrats, 1 Republican, and 1 Independent, the OCE remains a non-partisan organization."

You can also find a list of staff on the OCE website.  I have no doubt these are good people honestly trying to do their best.  But I doubt this is as simple an issue as is being portrayed.  For starters, if the Republican congress created an agency outside of congressional committee structure, gave it the authority to conduct investigations, and then packed it with Republicans, you would have a problem with it.  Calling something non-partisan doesn't make it so.

The republicans eliminating such things done by democrats, I get why you're suspicious, but this isn't going to cause more corruption.  Congress is corrupt to the core.  This office has been around since 2008, is congress a bastion of purity and goodness?  I agree that the House providing oversight of itself is a little ridiculous, except that there is an opposition party and it has the ability to put people on the various house committees that police congress.  Believing that one party or the other is more responsible for corruption is fantasy.  It is a lie sold to you by your side to turn you against the other side.  They are all corrupt.  Stop voting for incumbents.

The only reasonable hope you can have is to limit their total power.  So whenever any politician tries to expand the power of their office, you need to initiate a recall election, or at the very least, vote against them next time.

Well, let's just wait for the Republicans to release a statement that explains their rationale, eh?

I'm guessing we'll be waiting a while. 

StarBright

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Re: Way to go House of Reps!!
« Reply #8 on: January 03, 2017, 09:30:47 AM »
From wikipedia:

"The Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), established by the U.S. House of Representatives in March 2008, is an independent, entity charged with reviewing allegations of misconduct against members of the House of Representatives and their staff and, when appropriate, referring matters to the United States House Committee on Ethics. While currently composed of 5 Democrats, 1 Republican, and 1 Independent, the OCE remains a non-partisan organization."

You can also find a list of staff on the OCE website.  I have no doubt these are good people honestly trying to do their best.  But I doubt this is as simple an issue as is being portrayed.  For starters, if the Republican congress created an agency outside of congressional committee structure, gave it the authority to conduct investigations, and then packed it with Republicans, you would have a problem with it.  Calling something non-partisan doesn't make it so.

The republicans eliminating such things done by democrats, I get why you're suspicious, but this isn't going to cause more corruption.  Congress is corrupt to the core.  This office has been around since 2008, is congress a bastion of purity and goodness?  I agree that the House providing oversight of itself is a little ridiculous, except that there is an opposition party and it has the ability to put people on the various house committees that police congress.  Believing that one party or the other is more responsible for corruption is fantasy.  It is a lie sold to you by your side to turn you against the other side.  They are all corrupt.  Stop voting for incumbents.

The only reasonable hope you can have is to limit their total power.  So whenever any politician tries to expand the power of their office, you need to initiate a recall election, or at the very least, vote against them next time.

While the committee is currently made up of plenty of Dems, one of the things that helps keep it bipartisan is that all rulings have been unanimous. My understanding is that the OCE has never declared a decision unless the entire committee agreed with it. I think that is a pretty powerful (and good) example of self policing. 

I'm a red panda

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Re: Way to go House of Reps!!
« Reply #9 on: January 03, 2017, 09:32:05 AM »
Apparently even Trump was tweeting he thinks this was a stupid move.  It sounds like he doesn't disagree with it, just that there are more important things they should be doing: like gutting the ACA.

marty998

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Re: Way to go House of Reps!!
« Reply #10 on: January 03, 2017, 01:21:09 PM »
They were quick to backflip and reverse the vote though after that tweet weren't they?

Nobody wants to be on the outer with Trump before he has doled out all the plum posts for his mates...

Metric Mouse

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Re: Way to go House of Reps!!
« Reply #11 on: January 05, 2017, 07:23:29 AM »

Metric Mouse

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Re: Way to go House of Reps!!
« Reply #12 on: January 05, 2017, 09:27:08 AM »
Aaannnd...they're off:
http://www.hcn.org/articles/u-s-house-changes-its-rules-to-ease-federal-land-transfers

I can't see a lot of good coming from this--but I'm not a US resident or citizen.  I know there are some who will...

Looks like a non-issue. Land transfers are still checked and balanced by both houses of congress; this just allows land to be transferred without affecting the budgets of unrelated programs. Simplifying government interactions with the public is a good thing, in my opinion.