After many news reports about the shady shenanigans of the House of Representatives Charles Rangel, a House ethics committee has decided that he is, indeed, unethical.

I guess it may have been his abuse of rent control in New York City, his failure to disclose funding for travel to the Caribbean, or perhaps his tax evasion for his rental property in the Dominican Republic - whatever it was, he’s since stepped down from his post as head of the Ways and Means Committee.

Personally, I think he should have been fired and charged for the crimes he’s committed long ago.

Its a shame that Congressman are seemingly untouchable!

UPDATE: I heard on the radio today that one of the contenders vying for Charlie Rangel’s seat in the house is Adam Clayton Powell, IV. The juicy part is that Adam Clayton Powell, IV’s grandfather, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr, had the seat before Charlie Rangel, and was also accused of ethics violations!

I haven’t seen the videos, but the fact that Shirley Sherrod is recorded making racist remarks about a white farmer while winning millions in a discrimination lawsuit against the US government makes me mad!

Who is paying for the lawsuit? You and me!!

UPDATE: Today I read that the video where she allegedly made racist remarks was doctored! Insanity!!

Salon is featuring an article about Jeff Greene. Its a bit sarcastic, though.

The highlights:

• Jeff Greene allegedly parties with “outlaw” Lindsey Lohan
• He became a billionaire by betting on the so-called shady business of shorting sub-prime mortgage credit default swaps
• He’s raised $3,000 in donations, while spending $5.8 million
• His campaign manager quit

Looks like I’ll have to look into what this guy is all about, after all.

The Tea Party has been all over the media lately. Personally, I think what they stand for is great! While I think that consistency across states is very important, I think the United States Federal Government has gotten way too big, and that federal spending has gotten way out of control.

They say that any media exposure is good, but I have to think that getting accused of racism is not. CNN is reporting that the NAACP is accusing the Tea Party of racism. Doh!

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/07/14/naacp.tea.party/

Craig Herskowitz is running on an interesting platform: the public dislike of speed cameras in Maryland.

I saw his signs and wrote up a blog post about it at the Bethesda Notes blog:

Annoyed by Speed Cameras?

What about you? Are you OK with the President of the United States stumping for candidates of their same party?

I’ve heard that certain employees of the federal government are not supposed to express political opinions or affiliations - so why not the president??

Aren’t we paying him or her to run the country instead of pursuing their own political agendas?

Now I’m not privy to judging the president, but I’ve seen President Obama do this way to many times. First with the race to replace Senator Kennedy in Massachusetts, and Harry Reid for Nevada.

Not cool dude. Not cool.

News agencies are reporting that Senator Byrd from West Virginia passed away this morning. He was 92 years old and served the longest term in the Congress in US history.

While he’s often celebrated, his past certainly has some skeletons. For instance, he was formerly a member of the KKK. I heard him speak about that experience once and found his perspective very interesting - how on the one hand he felt empowered by their acceptance of him, but also felt his affiliation with them hindered him on the national stage.

Its been a long time since his KKK days, and while more recently he’s supported Civil Rights laws, in between he’s opposed some other important civil rights laws.

The news is portraying him as a hero to West Virginians for bringing Federal funds to his home state while chairman of the Senate Appropriations committee. Frankly, I’m not so sure that is a good thing - steering funds based on personal ties instead of value and merit sounds almost criminal to me. I wonder if he got any kickbacks?

I’m disappointed to learn that the United States is even considering a value added tax (VAT).

Small businesses have enough red-tape to deal with!

And as Anchorite says:

VAT is a nightmare to administer and is generally very harsh on low- and fixed-income people.

When it comes to business, corporate, and special interest lobbying, I’m under the impression that being bigger is better.

I did a quick search on Wikipedia for information, and they reference OpenSecrets.org, which houses some interesting information about who the biggest spenders were in 2009:

Surprise! The US Chamber of Commerce spent the most on lobbying last year. Sounds, impressive right? According the chamber of commerce website:

More than 96% of U.S. Chamber members are small businesses with 100 employees or fewer.

However, the next 19 biggest spenders collectively spent $2,615,536,322, 4000% as much as the US Chamber of Commerce.

I’m reviewing this information to learn about how independent businesses are represented in Washington, D.C., and in the process I’m shocked at how much money is spent on lobbying. Incredible.