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Thursday, June 5, 2008

So I was thinking....

I've decided since my "thought process" is a rather long one - that I'll actually put the majority of this post in the comments section so as to not push every other entry in this blog down a few pages. That being said... read at your own risk of boredom.

3 comments:

Polvo'd said...

So then I started thinking – if a is = b and b= c… then….

Point 1.
As we all recall, following the fall of Enron and other high profile corporations the United States Government had a hard time holding anyone accountable. The CEO was quick to blame accountants, the accountants would blame the auditors, the auditors would blame the accountants and so it went. In order to combat this ‘skirting of responsibility’ if you will Congress introduced and passed the Sarbanes-Oxley act. While it certainly had other provisions – one of the provisions was that the CEO / President had to sign his name to the financial statements. Subsequently, he would no longer be allowed to claim ignorance and avoid prosecution and accountability to shareholders.

Point 2.
While I’m not fully aware of the specific law or legal wording – I do know that it is illegal for an officer, or representative of a publicly traded company, to make false or “materially” misleading statements. For example they cannot say, at a press conference, that they landed a specific contract when they didn’t, or make overly optimistic and or misleading forward looking predictions about their financial performance. This is to protect the shareholder’s investment and to make sure that their investment in said company is based on accurate information.

These two items seem reasonable, and pretty simple to understand. I don’t think you’d need to be a stock broker, congressman, or investor to say “sure, that makes sense”.

Point 1a.
As has widely been documented and reported on – we entered into Iraq for one particular reason (WMD), and that reason turned out to be false. Now, similar to Point 1 above – it became quite clear that we couldn’t hold anyone accountable for that debacle. The President blamed his intelligence department, one intelligence department blamed another and just like in the corporate world we really couldn’t hold anyone accountable. To me it seems like the exact same thing.

Point 2a.
I think it’s fair to say that a White House “Press Secretary” could easily be substituted for a Corporations “Public Relations” coordinator or whoever is designated and responsible for making “Press Releases” or “Quarterly Reports” conference calls, etc., for the corporation. Now, while it’s pretty well known, and as outlined above, that a “Public Relations” or other Officer, etc., from a publicly traded company cannot make misleading or materially false statements – why then is it possible and legal for a White House Press Secretary (See Scott McClellan and others) to willingly and knowingly make false and misleading statements without fear of prosecution? Not to mention even having the ability and freedom (or arrogance) to profit from it by writing about it and going on book tours?

I am confused about this disconnect from logic and consistency when the citizen-to- government-relationship is essentially the same thing as the investor-to-corporation relationship. Unfortunately, however, we cannot very easily sell our shares, and the losses certainly have exceeded merely financial ones.

Ribhard said...

Polvo makes a great point.

This current administration feels they can do (or say anything) and get away with it. And they have.

They never admit making a mistake, misjudgment, or wrong decision. They lie, cheat, and lay the blame on anyone and everyone except themselves. They have all the answers and the rest of the world is wrong. I have never heard any of them say they are sorry or feel bad about what they have done.

It is a disgusting situation and they should be ashamed to remain in office. I look back at the bullshit and screw ups since this administration has been in office and shake my head. I am embarrassed to have people like this representing America. The way they handled (or didn't handle) Katrina, North Korean and the uranium scam, Karl Rove: Valerie Plame (remember when Bush said he would fire anyone associated with the outing?) Scooter Libby, Dickhead Chaney and the Halliburton contract mess,” Mission Accomplished” banner - 5 years ago, hell they are still trying to find WMD's in Iraq, telling everyone that Iraq was the cause of 911 and the truth is they didn't have anything to do with it…..and the rest of the world said hey lets try to sit down and work this thing out and bush says hell no “lets give em 48 hours” to surrender or we can just go kill a few hundred thousand people, completely destroy their towns, lives, schools, and any way of life that we don’t like......Saudi Arabia had more people on the planes than anyone else...and Bush goes over and kisses their asses every chance he can…and hey what about them just throwing the Geneva convention rules out the window and redefining torture? I wish we could water board a few of the people up there that think it is acceptable. I can't even write about those guys in Washington without getting sick at my stomach.

I hope everyone that voted for them takes a good look at where we are at now. And asks the same questions polvo did: Why aren't these jackasses held accountable for their deeds? I would say that America is now probably held in the very lowest ever due to this administration.


I hate to get on a soapbox, but this is seriously a chicken bone in my throat.

And I have to think that Scott McClellan knew going in what he was getting in to and what his job was going to be. Every press secretary in history has been the front man (or woman) for whatever administration was lobbing the bullshit. Their job and sole purpose in life was to put a good spin on whatever got screwed up or anything the people were lying about in office. Come on, does anyone actually believe any of those news conferences are for fact finding? Scott is trying to make a buc off of a book. Hey that’s America.. But I can’t buy his claim that he is now all shocked and disappointed when he wasn’t when he stood up everyday in Washington telling lies and spinning. Jesus…give me a break!


And to close I offer the following:

Q. What is impeachment?
A. It is a process, authorized by the Constitution, to bring charges against certain officials of the federal government for misconduct while in office.

Q. Who are these officials?
A. Article 2, Section 4, specifies that "The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors." These "civil officers" include federal judges and cabinet members, but do not include Senators and Representatives, (the Senate and House deal with misconduct by their own members).

I am no Constitutional scholar, but I am assuming one would be hard pressed to find a more clear cut example of "other high crimes and misdemeanors" than Bush and his cronies.

Thank you and good night.

Ribhard said...

not to beat a dead horse..but I read today that the world wide opinion of the U.S. has risen.....with the thought that Bush will be gone from office soon...........