The Ethical Barometer

Mark S. Kirk is a candidate for the U.S. Senate in the grand state of Illinois.  He has been spinning some yarns about, what else?  Military Service.  His Naval Reserve service statements have raised some fact checkers’ eyebrows. Big deal, take a number on telling stories about candidates “misspeaking” about their military service.  Yes, but Mr. Kirk had more. His tales of working in a nursery school found the fact checkers wagging a finger and shaking their heads. So, the little senate candidate who cried wolf or coyote or really big dog one too many times had skeptics emerge with demands for proof of the tale of his boating accident in 1976 Read more »

Hell hath no fury.  Never mind that. No fury needed here — just cull through your ex’s e-mails during divorce discovery!  Karen Kaiser used to be married to David Zilkha who used to work for Microsoft who then went to work for Pequot Capital Management, which was founded by Arthur Samburg who agreed to pay the SEC a$28-million fine to settle charges that he obtained inside information from David Zilkha who was married to Karen Kaiser, oh, and there you Read more »

The Barometer has been covering each painful incident about Representative Charles Rangel as they percolated out in dribs and drabs.  Rangel is now in settlement contentions (apparently not talks) with the ethics committee on his pending ethics charges and hearings.  Here are some classic quotes from the former chair of the House Ways and Means Committee:

• He has referred to the proceedings as “a boil that needs to be lanced.” Always the charmer with the right words for the occasion.
• “It’s kind of awkward to explain to your kids and grandkids but, hey, I’m in the kitchen and I’m not walking out.”[1] Yes, and something’s boiling.
• “Nobody in his right mind would be looking forward to something like this in public.  But frankly I knew one thing, when a person is elected to public office, there is a higher level of honesty and openness and transparency that is on him rather than just the ordinary citizen.”[2] Yes, so many of us ordinary citizens get away with not reporting rental income to the IRS.  The Barometer wishes she had a nickel for every New York City resident who has 4 rent-controlled properties. Oh, what times are these when the man who writes the Internal Revenue Code is expected to abide by it.  Who could live up to the standards this House ethics committee seeks to impose on Mr. Rangel?

[2] David Kocieniewski and Eric Lipton, “Rangel in Talks on Settlement of Ethics Cases,” New York Times, July 24, 2010, p. A1.

Michael Vick, who entered a guilty plea to federal charges related to a dogfighting enterprise,  got back into the NFL on a lick-and-a-promise.  Following his release from prison, the Philadelphia Eagles took on the quarterback  with the NFL’s imprimatur, provided he could live the clean life.  The promise was licked on Vick’s 30th birthday celebration in Virginia Beach.  Keeping company with one of the co-defendants in his dog-fighting case, the celebration somehow reached a point of exchanging gunfire.  Vick’s role remains unclear Read more »

Not so fast, Mr. Bremmer.  In comparing China and the United States, your categories on statist vs. rule of law are correct.  However, the United States’ political philosophy has shifted.  The facts and logic point to the U.S. as the statist nation. China renders the death penalty for bribery.  Thankfully, the United States does not go that far or we might lose a good portion of Congress and most municipalities. But China makes no bones about Read more »

The conduct is different from McNeil’s 1982 recall when the 8 cyanide poisoning deaths occurred in Chicago. In that situation, McNeil earned the praise of the president, the loyalty of customers, and a get-out-of-jail free pass on everything since that critical decision to recall without hesitation $150 million in Tylenol.  How the mighty art fallen! In 2010, the FDA found metal particles Read more »