Ethics reform took another big hit. So much for Democrat campaign promises of ethics reforms (maybe they were only valid for the duration of their campaigns). Nevertheless, this isn’t solely a Democrat/Reid issue. While Democrats are taking the lead to terminate meaningful earmark reform, some Republicans are also not doing much to stop them (I believe Hatch and Bennett quite enjoy the taste of pork, for example). Some notable exceptions to the pork lovers are Senators Coburn and DeMint. However, there is talk that Sen McConnell (R-KY) may cave to Reid and avoid a fight on ethics reforms.
Long story short - call your Senators and Representatives - all sides need to feel the heat on this one. It would also be wise to firmly, but politely, ask them to support DeMint and Coburn’s reforms and call McConnell’s office with the expectation that he do the same.
This is an op-ed written by Michael E. O’Hanlon and Kenneth M. Pollack Brookings Institution, published in today’s New York Times. Both are left-leaning folks, who have been critical of the war. I think Pollack was Clinton’s National Security Advisor. I’ve posted some snippets below but (as usual) suggest reading the entire op-ed as it includes some cautionary notes on other improvements that need to be made in the future. Excerpts follow:
Here is the most important thing Americans need to understand: We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms. As two analysts who have harshly criticized the Bush administration’s miserable handling of Iraq, we were surprised by the gains we saw and the potential to produce not necessarily “victory” but a sustainable stability that both we and the Iraqis could live with.
Today, morale is high. The soldiers and marines told us they feel that they now have a superb commander in Gen. David Petraeus; they are confident in his strategy, they see real results, and they feel now they have the numbers needed to make a real difference.
In Ramadi, for example, we talked with an outstanding Marine captain whose company was living in harmony in a complex with a (largely Sunni) Iraqi police company and a (largely Shiite) Iraqi Army unit. He and his men had built an Arab-style living room, where he met with the local Sunni sheiks — all formerly allies of Al Qaeda and other jihadist groups — who were now competing to secure his friendship.
We traveled to the northern cities of Tal Afar and Mosul. This is an ethnically rich area, with large numbers of Sunni Arabs, Kurds and Turkmens. American troop levels in both cities now number only in the hundreds because the Iraqis have stepped up to the plate. Reliable police officers man the checkpoints in the cities, while Iraqi Army troops cover the countryside. A local mayor told us his greatest fear was an overly rapid American departure from Iraq. All across the country, the dependability of Iraqi security forces over the long term remains a major question mark.
But for now, things look much better than before. American advisers told us that many of the corrupt and sectarian Iraqi commanders who once infested the force have been removed. The American high command assesses that more than three-quarters of the Iraqi Army battalion commanders in Baghdad are now reliable partners (at least for as long as American forces remain in Iraq).
In addition, far more Iraqi units are well integrated in terms of ethnicity and religion. The Iraqi Army’s highly effective Third Infantry Division started out as overwhelmingly Kurdish in 2005. Today, it is 45 percent Shiite, 28 percent Kurdish, and 27 percent Sunni Arab.
In the past, few Iraqi units could do more than provide a few “jundis” (soldiers) to put a thin Iraqi face on largely American operations. Today, in only a few sectors did we find American commanders complaining that their Iraqi formations were useless — something that was the rule, not the exception, on a previous trip to Iraq in late 2005.
How much longer should American troops keep fighting and dying to build a new Iraq while Iraqi leaders fail to do their part? And how much longer can we wear down our forces in this mission? These haunting questions underscore the reality that the surge cannot go on forever. But there is enough good happening on the battlefields of Iraq today that Congress should plan on sustaining the effort at least into 2008. [emphasis added]
Another thing worth noting about Petraeus is that he firmly believes in second chances (big time - check the link). It would be nice if Reid and Congress would bother giving him a first chance.
UPDATE: Plucked this from a HotAir post (the post also has links to an interview with the NYT’s John Burns - a worthy read):
Next, I recently put up a post about an interim legislative hearing on employer verification as a means to interdict identity theft. I also included a set of “Key Links” at the bottom of the post. One link I should have included (sorry, just thought of this), is UCourts. UCourts has the (so far) cheapest way to check your and your children’s SSN records to make sure no one is using their number. Right now, that is pretty much the only way to fight SSN theft (for employment) as there is no employer verification requirement in Utah. Unfortunately, it will only allow you to catch the theft after it has occurred (rather than preventing it with employer verification) but you will be able to take action before things get worse. Click here for a post with more information on UCourts.
I’ve excerpted Novak’s column (Reid presses stealth attack on ethics legislation) below. As usual, I would suggest reading the entire piece (it is fairly short, and to the point). Excerpts follow:
When Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid picked up his ball and went home following his staged all-night session last week, he saved from possible embarrassment one of the least regular members of his Democratic caucus: Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska. Reform Republican Sen. Tom Coburn had ready a defense authorization bill amendment to remove Nelson’s earmark funding a Nebraska-based company whose officials include Nelson’s son. Such an effort became impossible when Reid pulled down the bill.
That Reid’s action would have this effect was mere coincidence…But Reid also is working behind the scenes with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to undermine transparency of earmarks and prevent open debate on spending proposals such as Nelson’s.
While Johnson used chicanery, Reid resorts to brute force that shatters the Senate’s facade of civilized discourse. Reid is plotting to strip anti-earmark transparency from the final version of ethics legislation passed by the Senate and House, with tacit support from Republican senators and the GOP leadership.
At stake is the fate of Coburn’s “Reid Amendment” previously passed by the Senate — so called because it would bar earmarks benefitting a senator’s family members such as Reid’s four lobbyist sons and son-in-law.
In requesting the 21 CSI earmark, Nelson did not disclose his son’s employment there…Inclusion of Nelson’s son, however, would be required if and when the ethics bill provision passes.
When the defense authorization bill came up last week, Coburn prepared amendments to eliminate the Nelson earmark and the most notorious earmark now pending in Congress: Rep. John Murtha’s proposed $23 million for the National Drug Intelligence Center in his Pennsylvania district. Reid’s game plan to satisfy anti-war activists with an all-night debate averted debate for now on these two earmarks.
Reid, the soft-spoken trial lawyer from Searchlight, Nev., in his tumultuous 6½ months as majority leader, has tended to suppress free expression in the self-proclaimed World’s Greatest Deliberative Body. Last week, he cut off an attempt to respond to him by Sen. Arlen Specter, the veteran moderate Republican, in an abrupt way that I had not witnessed in a half century of Senate-watching. Neither had Specter. When Specter finally got the Senate floor, he declared: “Nothing is done here until the majority leader decides to exercise his power to keep the Senate in all night on a meaningless, insulting session. … Last night’s performance made us the laughingstock of the world.” It may get worse if plans to eviscerate ethics legislation are pursued.
Obviously, pressure needs to be applied to both parties, but so much for the Democrat leadership campaign promises of meaningful ethics reform. Don’t count on the media covering this, either.
The Victory Caucus has been relaunched. If you are interested in a news story, blog, and data clearinghouse (maps, metrics etc) on the war (including Afghanistan), this, now, looks like a good place to go:
Welcome to the new Victory Caucus!
With this new design, we hope to come closer to our goal of being a one-stop-shop for anyone interested in learning about what’s really going on in the war. New features include:
Integrated maps and charts. Check out our metrics page, or the Major Operations Map , which shows information on the significant offensive operations that have kicked off recently.
Automatic aggregation of official US news sources, including MNF-Iraq , Centcom , and DoD .
Document library including documents such as the latest status reports from DoD and the State Department
A full-text search engine that includes all content on the site — including PDF’s in the document library
And this is just the start; many more new features and content to come. Please take a look around, and let us know what you think!
Michael Yon has also posted a very interesting dispatch. The dispatch discusses a meeting held between US commanders and former insurgent commanders (now cooperating with coalition forces) in Baqubah: 7 Rules: 1 Oath
On July 18th, the Interim Business and Labor Committee (Utah Legislature) comprised of both State Senators and Representatives met to discuss some issues related to employment verification and misclassification of employees (independent contractor vs traditional employee).
Audio (real player) of the hearing is available below (or click here). I have also put key links I used in this post at the bottom for easier reference as well as links to sign up for EEV and IMAGE. If you choose to listen, the hearing is long (almost 3 hours). There is an introduction to the subject matter at the beginning and testimony on the verification begins about a half hour into the audio and goes for around an hour:
***Note: ICE has made a lot of improvements in the Basic Pilot program. It was superseded by the Employment Eligibility Verification Program (EEV), but many still refer to it as the Basic Pilot.***
I’ll try to summarize the verification part, as best I can (focusing on the verification stuff). My comments are have brackets and are in green. First, all industry reps noted their annoyance with the federal government for not addressing this issue and allowing the problem to fester resulting in States having to tackle the problem.
The first testimony came from Jim Olsen, representing the Retail Merchants and Food Industry Associations.
He then stated they shouldn’t be a police force and already use the I-9 form.
[Verification doesn’t require enforcement, just not hiring an ineligible worker and companies already collect taxes for the government etc. The I-9, as noted later, sits in employer files and does absolutely zip for ID verification].
He then stated that the Basic Pilot program is not perfect as the only information returned is the name and SSN and someone who has stolen the name along with the SSN will not be caught.
[Assistant Attorney General Richard Hamp refutes the latter stating that 90% of his cases involve SSN only theft – ie they thief didn’t have the matching name. Also, the program does include the SSN holder’s date of birth (you plug in the same data as collected on an I-9) – something none of the legislators or those testifying, including Hamp, seem to be aware of. The DOB entry will virtually eliminate a child ID theft for employment. Also, photos may be added to the program].
Mr. Olsen states one benefit of Basic Pilot is that companies gain legal protection if they unknowingly hired ineligible/illegal workers while using the program, as seen in the Swift Plant raids.
Mr. Olsen noted that the State is at full employment and employers hire almost anyone. He then says we shouldn’t deport 12 million illegal immigrants.
[This has nothing to do with the EEV program, it only denies employment to ID thieves and doesn’t deport anyone. Remember, too, that identity thieves are not just illegal immigrants – fugitives, deadbeat moms and dads, parents with bad credit (now in process of using their child’s id to trash the child’s credit), among others, rely on identity theft to get by].
Then Mr. Olsen threatens that we better have garden plots, as the food industry will shut down without immigrant labor.
[If he's referring to illegal immigrant labor, the fruit grower rep inadvertently blows this out due to his success with the H2A program and a Senator calls BS on this tactic noting that it is also about paying a market driven wage].
Rep. Morgan asks if there are any holes with the Basic Pilot program.
Mr. Olsen responds that he’s heard that the telephone number can be busy as can the internet service. [He relies on hearsay, more on this later. Also, he seems to be confusing a weak Social Security Administration
program that allows employers to call a 1-800 number to verify social security numbers and names with the internet based Basic Pilot program which verifies all info on the I-9 form - name, DOB, SSN, etc., etc.].
Rep Ferry notes an employer can’t challenge documents related to the I-9 [nothing to do with EEV/Basic Pilot] and wouldn’t as he would want to hire any warm body.
Olsen notes Mexico has a thriving document fraud industry with excellent counterfeiters who can even duplicate drivers licenses.
[Again, nothing to do with the Basic Pilot program…maybe he’s not clear on what the Basic Pilot program is? Further, it sounds like the document rings only forge the documents (not stealing a full, valid ID - EEV will thwart these fraudulent IDs].
Rep. David Clark complains that his business [Banker - Zions Bank, I think], has been deputized by the feds to track money transfers. We shouldn’t beat employers to do this – we shouldn’t legislate morality.
[Is he complaining about stuff that helps prevent money transfers for terrorist activities?].
Tom Bingham, representing the Utah Manufacturers Association. States his annoyance with the Fed and notes States will have to address this, now.
Rep Niederhauser brings up Sen Walker’s legislation dealing with ID theft noting that most SSN abuse occurs with non-matching names and one child had 37 people using their number. Why isn’t Social Security Admin (SSA) doing anything about this? He doesn’t like putting more pressure on business, but it will alleviate a lot of problems.
Bingham notes it won’t solve all problems.
[Correct, it won’t stop full identity theft (SSN, name, DOB, address etc etc) but it will make things much tougher – thieves will have to find someone close to their age, and child id theft will be virtually eliminated (a 10 year old man applying for a job, is sure to raise flags – plus he’ll be ineligible, anyway, based on child labor laws)].
Someone notes that SSA won’t say anything about the mismatches as it is more money to keep the program afloat.
[Partly true, but I think some privacy law ends up prohibiting SSA from informing victims. Finally, to SSA's credit, they are involved in EEV].
Rep. Morgan says she doesn’t want to needlessly burden business but we should protect people’s identity. The I-9 doesn’t help (brings up child SSN theft) and says there is not central place for I-9 inspection – all are stuck in the employers file. [ICE has a program (IMAGE) for companies to, voluntarily, allow ICE to run the forms in their database – but not many have signed up…imagine that].
Chad Rowley with Payson Fruit Growers is up next.
He discusses how well the H2A (seasonal migrant worker) program has worked very well for him and thinks that 100% of his workers are legal because of using it, something he could not have boasted 5 years ago. [This goes against Mr Olsen’s implication of needing the illegal workers].
Someone asks about illegal workers and Mr. Rowley responds by stating ‘we don’t know of any working for us’ (he stresses “know”). Everyone laughs [this contradicts his earlier statement?…]. He then threatens: we’ve never been hungry here and if we do what is suggested here, maybe we’d find out.
[Not sure where he’s going here – maybe he thinks legal immigration will be shut down (ie the H2A program)? Also, his point is BS – we’ll get the workers (he’s already stated the migrant worker visa works great and no one is going to let our food supplies tank). By the way, labor accounts for only about 6% of the cost of food, despite Geraldo’s hilarious rhetoric, it won’t cost us $10 for a head of lettuce].
A legislator notes that he used to work in the fields and low wages is a reason he moved on. If we’re having trouble getting people, maybe wages should be raised.
Sheri Hayashi with the Utah Labor Commission is up next. She says they have already talked with the Dept of Workforce Services and are willing to cooperatively implement and enforce any such program, if passed.
Someone asks if she is aware of any better methods than the Basic Pilot – she says no, but notes that ICE is coming out with improvements. [She may not be aware of EEV].
Next up is Bill Starks with Workforce Services. He discusses his agencies role in collecting wage data etc and notes many names do not match SSNs. Recent legislation has allowed him to start informing victims and employers of mismatches. In the first quarter of 2006, there were 20,000 mismatches and thinks only about 20% (4,000) are id theft victims (suggesting the rest forgot to change their maiden name with SSA etc). Notes that these are ONLY people on public assistance, and not the general public.
He says he is ready to work with the Labor Commission on implementation and enforcement.
Finally, Richard Hamp with the Attorney General’s office is up.
He states the Basic Pilot is workable and readily accessible, having used it himself [refutes Olsen’s hearsay statement].
Notes 90% of ID theft he deals with is unsophisticated – the name and SSN don’t match.
Also says 90% of theft is driven by illegal immigrants using someone else’s SSN.
States deporting all would create a problem BUT continuing the current system is fostering a large amount of ID theft.
He doesn’t believe it would be a violation to check the legal status of a worker as long as you didn’t do it based solely on national origin. This reflects Mr. Olsen’s remark.
[Also, signing up to use EEV only applies to new hires, not current employees – for current employees you would have to sign up for the voluntary ICE program (IMAGE) I mentioned earlier].
Someone asks if internet access to program is more reliable and doing better.
Mr. Hamp notes that other States have required employers to use it and it hasn’t shut down business in their states. [Politely slaps down the implication made by some of the industry folks who testified at the beginning].
He thinks it will help solve a large part [90%, as noted] of the ID theft problem and admits it will not do much against full identity theft.
That pretty much wraps it up. The chair assigns some legislators and state agency folks to try to hammer out a solution for this (by the next legislative session with the qualification that they try to avoid a new burden on employers).
I got tired of listening, so I’m not sure if they took public comment at the end of the hearing.
One last item. Someone at the hearing also mentioned this (stole my thunder!) – use of the Basic Pilot may push thieves to the more sophisticated (and difficult) full identity theft. However, again, this will still be difficult with the date of birth data (and, possibly, photos) in the program and it would still virtually eliminate child SSN theft. A big win in my book.
HotAir and Michelle Malkin, among others, have been tracking this today:
Democrats are trying to pull a provision from a homeland security bill that will protect the public from being sued for reporting suspicious behavior that may lead to a terrorist attack, according to House Republican leadership aides.
I’m just going to link up his posts. I really don’t have anything to add other than to say, if you aren’t aware of this al Qaeda massacre, this issue is ‘need to know’ stuff:
Not quite as sweet as capturing the leader of AQI, but given that ISI is the umbrella group for Salafist jihadists in the country, it’s the next best thing. His name is Khalid al-Mashhadani, a.k.a. Omar al-Baghdadi, a.k.a. phantom caliph of the nascent Islamist paradise the Salafis are trying to form in Iraq.
I love starting the day with good news. So far I haven’t seen a news story stating how we captured him (were we tipped off etc).
Recently, the Standard Examiner ran an editorial entitled “Moneygrubbers” regarding the Jordan School District Board of Education raising (astronomically) their salaries. Excerpts follow:
The Jordan School District Board of Education raised its own pay from $3,000 per year to $12,000 last week. It also bestowed health insurance benefits on its members; but if board members choose not to take the health insurance, they get a cash payment instead: an extra $17,456. That means it’s possible to pull down $29,000-plus for serving on a school board.
Compare that to a starting salary for a school teacher in the Jordan District: $31,672.
Naively, we — and, we’ll bet, most other Utahns — had always assumed the people who run for school board positions did so for primarily altruistic reasons: For some, it may be a first stepping stone to another public office, but at heart these people want to help the children, shape the future, that kind of thing. In other words, we had believed the story that they performed the service for honorable reasons.
While we’re sure some do, others are obvious mercenaries. Kim Horiuchi, a Jordan Board member, was quoted in a Salt Lake newspaper as saying, “I mean, $3,000 is just really an insult” given the time and effort board members put into their positions. Media reports have the various board members whining about time away from family, the expense of hiring babysitters, travel to and from board meetings, time spent talking with concerned parents and education officials, overseeing an $850 million annual budget, etc.
Oh, the humanity.
And while this would otherwise be an amusing tale of greed and shameful behavior on the part of would-be public servants — they’re down south in Salt Lake County, after all, normally off our radar — we recognize this for what it really is. The Jordan School District Board of Education is taking a bullet for the team, for the other school boards in Utah. If the Jordan Board should manage to survive with its ridiculous pay raise intact, the result will be a windfall in pay raises to school boards across the Beehive State [emphasis added]. The Washington and Alpine boards are discussing pay increases, too.
The enablers of this disreputable situation are Utah lawmakers and the governor, who changed the law that limited compensation to $3,000.
Over the past decade, there has been a slow but steady movement within Utah’s various government bodies — municipalities, counties, the schools and the state — to equate what once was regarded as lower-paying but noble government service with exploitative business practices.
If people serving on our school boards think $3,000 — or $4,000 or $5,000 — per year is too little, they should resign to make way for someone who has first and foremost a passion for serving the children, the teachers and the schools. This should not be tolerated, anywhere.
I have nothing to add.
UPDATE: Even the SL Trib Editorial Board has come around to smack them over this (sort of) - The Standard Examiner was much more focused and solid on the issue.
