Category: Government Failure

Matt Taibbi Shoots And Hits!!

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, ethics, Government Failure, Philosophy of Business, White Collar Crime

Matt Taibbi is as usual dead on target. He does a veritible Indian War Dance on the horrors of the foreclosure crisis. Read the paragraph below and then go spend a delightful (quality of writing) and painful (financial corruption) story.

The moral angle to the foreclosure crisis — and, of course, in capitalism we’re not supposed to be concerned with the moral stuff, but let’s mention it anyway — shows a culture that is slowly giving in to a futuristic nightmare ideology of computerized greed and unchecked financial violence. The monster in the foreclosure crisis has no face and no brain. The mortgages that are being foreclosed upon have no real owners. The lawyers bringing the cases to evict the humans have no real clients. It is complete and absolute legal and economic chaos. No single limb of this vast man-­eating thing knows what the other is doing, which makes it nearly impossible to combat — and scary as hell to watch.

Excellent, exactly. This is not a moral crisis where six million Americans suddenly decided to buy too much house. This is a moral crisis where the biggest financial institutions in the world decided to take the home owners of America on a little trip into world finance. The banks had a hell of a vacation. The home owners never made it back.

James Pilant

The Homeowner As Victim, Not Deadbeat (via Chasing Fat Tails)

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, Government Failure, White Collar Crime3 Comments

Amen!!

I’ve blogged on this exact subject.

You can be a mortgage company or a bank and your moral status is unchanged by the destroying the world economy and by using mortgages as play money in the global securities market. But if you are a consumer who falls behind in payments on your house, you’re evading your personal responsibility and should be booted out, children, furniture, pets and all.

James Pilant

One thing that annoys me to no end is the constantly espoused view that purportedly delinquent homeowners "deserve" to get foreclosed on. The idea is that when a homeowner defaults on his payments, he loses moral claims to "justice" when it comes to foreclosure, since he violated an agreement. In the context of the current foreclosure crisis, the view seems to be that ownership of the note is a purely legalistic issue; it doesn't get over the mor … Read More

via Chasing Fat Tails

I’m not a doctor, but… (via Pharmaregulations)

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility, ethics, Government Failure

Pharmaregulations goes more satirical today. Satirical arrows are fired in several directions and hits are scored. I recommend the post.

(I have a bitter criticism of these bloggers. They do not blog enough. I know they are students and have limited time, but this is good stuff, the more the better.)

James Pilant

We know that actors are used to direct-to-consumer promotional materials. Whether or not it's on the TV (hey Brook Shields, hope those lashes are growing in well!) or simply serving as the face of a disease (who knew the JoBros cared so much about health?). But there's a bit of an large and blurry ethical line in the sand when it comes to celebrities hocking drugs off-screen or even in doctor's offices. I did a little digging, and it turns out th … Read More

via

Lots of Links on the Foreclosure Fraud Crisis (via Rortybomb)

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, ethics, Government Failure, Philosophy of Business2 Comments

As usual, our good friend, Rortybomb does not let a day go by (even a holiday) without staying on top of the mortgage foreclosure crisis.

My compliments!

James Pilant

If you are not reading Rortybomb, let me ask you, “Why not and how soon can you start?”

Like you were going to get any work done today. Chris Hayes has really been on the foreclosure crisis over at MSNBC. Here he is, substituting for Lawrence O'Donnell, interviews noted foreclosure defense attorney Bubba Grimsley about servicer abuse. I can't embed the video, but the link is here (also here). Here he is on Rachel Maddow also interviewing Matt Taibbi on the recent foreclosure fraud … Read More

via Rortybomb

I Was Wrong – The TSA (Transportation Security Administration) Should Be Abolished

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, ethics, Government Failure

When the humiliating scanners and grope searches were put in place, I believed that the government could be convinced to make changes that would respect human dignity and American rights.

It has become evident that the government from the President on down, have no interest in having a discussion on the issue. They have made it clear that they will not change course.

Their response to the legitimate claims of American citizens have been a rush of public officials and “so called” security experts to explain that this is absolutely necessary and that those who oppose these measures do not understand the dangers. At every point in this series of events, those criticizing the policies have been insulted, marginalized and ridiculed.

I have predicted and I firmly believe that the government’s next step will be to blame people with views like mine of empowering the terrorists.

Based on my observations of what has happened so far, it is now evident that private screening companies are far more amenable to public opinion and criticism than the government of the United States.

The government has taken the position that criticism on this issue is the result of internet activists and paranoid zealots.

I have long been a critic of private industry and the common abuse of citizens by exorbitant fees and other wrong doing.

But the government has indicated through its actions that criticism is not acceptable.

It is as if the government itself were a private corporation acting as if its actions were merely its own concern.

This is wrong.

Destroying this regulatory agency will be an important signal to the government to heed the people of the United States and their legitimate concerns.

I do not believe that this administration has any interest in middle class Americans, their struggles or their concerns.

James Pilant

(Subtitle From MSNBC) – Union That Represents Airport Screeners Urges Agency To Protect Employees

On By southwerkIn business ethics, ethics, Government Failure

From MSNBC written by Harriet Baskas –

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the union that represents TSA workers, is urging the TSA to do more to protect its employees from abuse from airline passengers angry over the new security methods. The union reports that some members “have reported instances in which passengers have become angry, belligerent and even physical with TSOs (transportation security officers). In Indianapolis, for example, a TSO was punched by a passenger who didn’t like the new screening process,” the union said in a Nov. 17 statement posted on its website.

Let me get this straight, you subject passengers to x-rays, look at them nude, sometimes strip search them and often grope their buttocks and genitals, and you’re surprised they get mad?

Let’s read some more –

Union President John Gage called on TSA to provide an educational pamphlet to each passenger describing both their rights and the details of the new procedures, which include full-body scans and enhanced pat-downs.

“This absence of information has resulted in a backlash against the character and professionalism of TSOs,” said Gage in a statement. “TSA must act now — before the Thanksgiving rush — to ensure that TSOs are not being left to fend for themselves.”

You guys just don’t get it. What is causing you trouble is that the passengers understand all too well what is happening. Where did you get the idea that giving people a pamphlet would make them feel all better about being groped?

“Our concern is that the public not confuse the people implementing the policies with the people who developed the policies,” said Sharon Pinnock, the union’s director of membership and organization.

You’re doing the groping. You are not some passive government official sending a tax bill. You are depriving passengers of their dignity. Does the idea, the concept, that your higher ups told you to do this and that you think that you are not responsible give you comfort? You are responsible for your own actions. You are not justified by someone giving you orders. Not ever.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Monday the government will take into account the public’s concerns and complaints as it evaluates airport security measures. He says TSA procedures will continue to evolve.

This sentence is fun to explain. This is what it means, “A bunch of you are mad, so I am speaking a totally, utterly, meaningless sentence, so that you being obviously stupid since you don’t agree with our policies, will go away and trouble us no more. This is particularly important because if you disrupt traffic on Thanksgiving, you might call attention to your claims and force us to make changes. If we can only stall you by talking about “evolving procedures,” your moment of opportunity will pass and you will return to politically hopeless activity like writing letters to your congressmen.”

From further down in the article –

Aviation and security blogger Steven Frischling said he has received comments from TSA front-line screeners complaining of verbal abuse.

“Molester, pervert, disgusting, an embarrassment, creep. These are all words I have heard today at work describing me. …These comments are painful and demoralizing,” one unnamed TSO posted on Frischling’s website.

Another said: “Being a TSO means often being verbally abused. You let the comments roll off and check the next person; however, when a woman refuses the scanner then comes to me and tells me that she feels like I am molesting her; that is beyond verbal abuse.”

Molester, pervert, disgusting, an embarrassment, creep. I bet those words hurt. They’re accurate. You are performing unethical acts. Searching a prisoner at a medium security facility is understandable. These are felons who have forfeited their rights. You are searching innocent Americans as if they were vile and without humanity.

“Instead of making this Wednesday National Opt-Out Day in which a bunch of self-appointed guardians of liberty slow down the line for everyone by asking for pat-downs,” said Baker, “maybe what we need is a day when everyone who goes through the line says, ‘Thanks for what you do.’ ”

Every American citizen has a responsibility to defend our rights and liberty, and if you think I am going to thank a mindless drone who demeans and dehumanizes my fellow Americans, you’re going to wait a long time.

“Self appointed guardian of liberty.” That’s all you’ve got. That’s it! You’re so wrong that insults are all that remain. Are you so afraid that you cannot deal with criticism or is it the idea that your embrace of fear has left you without the ability to have an actual discussion about what is reasonable?

At every step of the way the government has said it will not change policy and that those who criticize it are ill informed and a tiny minority. Now, we have arrived at insults. In a few days, people like me will be accused of endangering and, if there is an incident, of murdering my fellow citizens.

This is all you’ve got. You can’t defend your actions based on the facts or our laws, so you appeal to insults and fears. That’s all you’ve got.

James Pilant

Fed Up With Stupid

On By southwerkIn business ethics, ethics, Government Failure

This is an anonymous quote from Talking Points Memo –

I’m a lawyer. I go through security checkpoints all the time. Went through one at the local criminal courthouse this morning. They x-rayed my stuff, sent me through a metal detector, and then had me come back through it to pick up my stuff when they were done looking at it on the monitor. Done. 30 seconds. The lawyer’s line at the courthouse is ever-so-slightly less rigid than the general public line (if it’s obviously my belt buckle setting off the detector, they’ve never made me take it off; they’ve learned to accept that lawyers often keep calendars on their smartphones so we don’t have to check them before entering the building, though they check to make sure the ringer is off), but even the general public line is pretty much what we were used to pre-9/11. X ray machine. Metal detector. Wand if they can’t quickly figure out what’s setting off the detector. Pat downs only if you’re still setting off the detector and nothing’s visible. 45 seconds or a minute, tops. And you know, a rather substantial percentage of the people who go through the line to get into a criminal courthouse are people out on bail, some of whom are actual dangerous criminals. And a lot of the others are people who are witnesses to crimes whose presence is not exactly welcomed by the criminal element. Honestly, this new TSA genital-feeling stuff goes further than I’ve ever had to go through to even go into a *prison.* They cavity search prisoners for drugs and weapons, of course, but lawyers and other visitors? Not in my experience. Not in this northeastern state. Not unless they’re pretty damn sure you’re carrying contraband. And we’ve had, what, 3 attempted bombing incidents post-9/11? Out of how many scheduled flights? I just did the math. Over 150 *million* worldwide. That’s one attempt per 50 million flights.

The author wanted his identity hidden for fear of being placed on the no-fly list. It is unfortunate that his fear is fully justified. The capricious and unjust application of the no-fly lists is a well established fact. This is our America, where such persecution takes place for those the government (TSA) find inconvenient.

By the way, I’ve gone through the searches he is talking about. He describes them with perfect accuracy.

Let’s hear some more –

Profiling isn’t the answer either. The most ridiculous post-9/11 airport story I have seen involves an airport back in early ’02. I saw them stop and aggressively question a young middle eastern-looking man after he’d paid for a one-way ticket to San Francisco in cash. Sounds suspicious, right? Except that I’d been listening to him on his cell a few minutes before. My Hebrew is pretty bad, but I gathered enough to figure out he was an Israeli soldier on leave who had to fly to the west coast to visit some dying relative, not knowing when he was going to return. Sure enough, he turned up back at the gate 45 minutes later, clutching his Israeli passport, putting stuff back into his IDF-issued backpack, and cursing up a storm. I’ve heard similar stories from Sikhs, who evidently give off the “other” vibe enough to be forced into humiliating removals of their turbans every time they go to an airport. The TSA, at least at my local airport, has at least three corrupt officers. There’s evidently something broken in oversight. (changing minor details in the following) I have a client who had a bottle of DEA-scheduled medication (she’s epileptic) confiscated from her despite showing a legitimate doctor’s prescription (forcing her to have to find an English-speaking hospital the moment she got to France to get a new prescription to avoid having seizures.) Upon follow up, there was no record of the confiscation whatsoever. Of course, I can’t subpoena the videotapes for national security reasons. There’s absolutely no question in my mind that the TSA guys realized that a bottle of a hundred downers was worth quite a bit on the street, and they decided to take it from her. Simple as that. This is, coincidentally, the same airport where a TSA officer was recently fired for planting baggies of white powder into the luggage of attractive women so he could take them to the back room and chat them up. It wasn’t until one of the women went to the press that any investigation whatsoever was done.

He’s right. We need to put this organization in its place. That organization’s job is serving the public not acting as a pretend rogue intelligence agency. We already have incompetent intelligence agencies. Another one would be superfluous.

Do we have to subject ourselves to the self important pronouncements of everyone from the President on down, who assert that if we are only willing to give up our dignity we will be protected from the terrorists? Actually, that’s not true. What they assert is that there is nothing we can do that can prevent attack. It is inevitable. These measures only reduce the probability. You see, there is no measure that can be considered enough, no defense that does not require strengthening, no amount of money sufficient to make us secure. That is the real agenda. You are helpless and we know what’s best for you.

James Pilant

The Writing is on the Wall for the Irish Government (via homophilosophicus)

On By southwerkIn business ethics, ethics, Government Failure

I recommended this on Facebook. I quoted a paragraph with pleasure in another entry on this blog.

It’s not enough. I’ve waited a long time to see this kind of writing and here it is – Christianity with teeth, not some Bible thumping loon talking about the innocuous undefinable “family values” while safely giving a pass to the rapacious businessmen in his congregation. I say to you that he has his reward.

I am honored to, once again, pass on these words.

James Pilant

The Writing is on the Wall for the Irish Government Reading the prophet Amos in Ireland in the midst of this time of fear and uncertainty most certainly does not make comforting reading, but this is not to say that it is not beneficial reading. Yesterday morning it was announced on the national radio news that an Taoiseach (the Prime Minister), Brian Cowen, and Brian Lenihan TD, the Minister for Finance, finally admitted to the people of Ireland that they had decided to seek a rescue package amoun … Read More

via homophilosophicus

Power, The Strong And The Weak, The Rich And The Poor – Ireland’s Debt Crisis

On By southwerkIn business ethics, ethics, Government Failure

Homophilosophicus writing in his blog quoting the Prophet Amos. (Jeremiah is my favorite.) The first decades of the 21st century are truly the years of the Old Testament Prophets. All around us, uncertainty, stupidity and greed flourish.

“They do not know how to do right, says the Lord, those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds (Amos 3:10).”

Those of whom the writer of Amos speaks are not merely petty criminals, for they live in strongholds. Amos is referring to those who rule from their unassailable citadels, who fill up their treasuries with the wealth they have taken from the powerless by violence and theft. It is evident that this relationship between the powerful and the powerless has not changed; in fact it has become enshrined within modern economic systems. There are those who, by virtue of their monopoly on power alone, assert the right to grow fat from the labour of the powerless. In Ireland we have seen that the government have stolen from the people. They have taken tax from the people and they have failed to provide for the welfare of the people from that revenue; this is nothing other than theft. Without proper consultation with the people the government has gambled and lost billions of euros from the community purse, and have successfully lined their own pockets. This also is theft. By maintaining systems of injustice they have demonstrated their violence against the vulnerable and the weak. Ignorance is not an excuse for what they have done, but it would seem to be the case that “they do not know how to do right.” Each and every member of the present government of Ireland comes from a privileged background, a background that has taken wealth for granted and considered the accumulation of money the highest virtue. It stands to reason then that these people have suffered from a severe form of political myopia in their regard of the poor. They have consistently failed to take the needs of the poor into account when they have made decisions ‘for the good of the nation.’ What ‘good’ in this context actually means is that which is ‘economically good for the wealthy.’

Doesn’t this sound like a Minister of God with brains? All we got around here is an editorial writer explaining that the Medal of Honor has become feminized!

James Pilant

Body Scanner Manufacturers Spread A Little Lobbying Money!

On By southwerkIn business ethics, ethics, Government Failure

Scanned, once too often!
Fredreka Schouten writing for USA Today says –

The companies with multimillion-dollar contracts to supply American airports with body-scanning machines more than doubled their spending on lobbying in the past five years and hired several high-profile former government officials to advance their causes in Washington, government records show.

L-3 Communications, which has sold $39.7 million worth of the machines to the federal government, spent $4.3 million trying to influence Congress and federal agencies during the first nine months of this year, up from $2.1 million in 2005, lobbying data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics show. Its lobbyists include Linda Daschle, a former Federal Aviation Administration official.

Rapiscan Systems, meanwhile, has spent $271,500 on lobbying so far this year, compared with $80,000 five years earlier. It has faced criticism for hiring Michael Chertoff, the former Homeland Security secretary, last year. Chertoff has been a prominent proponent of using scanners to foil terrorism. The government has spent $41.2 million with Rapiscan.

Obviously, the TSA bought those scanners to protect Americans from threat, enriching well heeled manufacturers was just an after thought. I, mean, considering their ham handed arrogance so far, there can be little doubt that they do what they want. The President won’t even get in the way.

James Pilant