http://www.inthesetimes.com/archives/tags/corruption/ In These Times features award-winning investigative reporting about corporate malfeasance and government wrongdoing, insightful analysis of national and international affairs, and sharp cultural criticism about events and ideas that matter. en-us Expression Engine jessica@inthesetimes.com seamus@inthesetimes.com Mon, 15 May 2006 11:58:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2652/hooray_for_hookergate/ On April 27, Republicans awoke to a PR disaster. Tucked away on page A6, a brief Wall Street Journal article updated the saga of former Rep. Randall "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.), who was convicted in March of taking bribes. Investigators were expanding their inquiry to determine whether, in addition to the $600,000 he pocketed from defense contractor Brent Wilkes, Cunningham had also accepted the complimentary services of prostitutes. The article further revealed that investigators were looking into the possibility that other members of Congress or their staff were being similarly serviced. Wilkes, it seems, was using a sketchy limousine company to connect his friends with escorts and making hospitality suites available in that most suggestive of Washington crash pads, the Watergate… Corruption Congress David Moberg Fri, 26 May 2006 07:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2655/if_ken_lay_was_black/ If Kenneth Lay was black (and, say, a former athlete or fading pop star) and Jeffrey Skilling was the has-been lead of a '70s detective show (or a domestic diva), might the Enron trial be getting more front and center coverage? After all, this was supposed to be the trial about the corporate corruptions of the late 20th and early 21st centuries--the case that dramatized the ongoing and urgent need for corporate oversight and reform. Yet, despite reports that the trial's Houston courthouse is surrounded by media, it has received virtually no coverage. While lacking sex and murder, the case has a simple and dramatic story line: A couple of very greedy guys became obscenely rich while allegedly bilking their… Corruption Race David Moberg Thu, 08 Jun 2006 23:40:01 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2684/rot_in_the_barrel/ Take a moment to savor the convictions of top Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling. Anything short of those verdicts would have been outrageous. That's especially true after a defense--"we did nothing wrong and didn't know what was happening anyway"--that was more of the fraud that pumped Enron up, then brought it crashing down. Keep in mind that Lay and Skilling aren't anomalies in the corporate world. Besides the rogue's gallery of CEOs already convicted or awaiting trial, new stories are breaking about self-enrichment and cover-ups in the corporate ranks. A federal oversight agency reports more than a dozen executives and the board of Fannie Mae, the mortgage finance enterprise, were involved in misleading accounting tricks that generated more… Corporations Corruption David Moberg Thu, 15 Jun 2006 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2695/overthrow_over_and_over/ The old saw goes, "the trend is your friend."  Let's try that one again. Stephen Kinzer's new book, Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq (Times Books) puts the kibosh on that notion. Kinzer, a former New York Times foreign correspondent, deconstructs America's disturbingly counterproductive foreign policy through competing critiques of the country's imperialism and its incompetence. His chronicle of America's role in interventions into 14 sovereign nations posits failure and avarice as our lasting progeny. It is a history lesson we can't afford to forget.  Surfers, slackers, grass skirts and sunsets--that's what Hawaii is all about, right? Think again. Think regime change. The 1893 overthrow of Hawaii's monarch, Queen Liluokalani, launched 110 years of American-led regime… books politics corruption David Moberg Tue, 27 Jun 2006 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2716/delay_may_be_gone_but_his_legacy_isn/ Every so often a documentary film comes along that makes you think, "If only more people could see this." The Big Buy: Tom Delay's Stolen Congress, by filmmakers Mark Birnbaum and Jim Schermbeck, is such a film. The subject: how corporate money corrupts democracy. The case in point: former Speaker of the House Tom "the Hammer" DeLay's successful scheme to funnel illegal corporate donations into races for the Texas House in order to gain control the Texas legislature. He then had the legislature redraw congressional district boundaries to give the Republicans control of five additional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. As DeLay bragged to Fox News, "We took the house, we did redistricting, we gained five Republican seats."… Corruption Congress Movies David Moberg Mon, 10 Jul 2006 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2698/legislating_under_the_influence/ When I was hired to work on the U.S. House Appropriations Committee in 2001, I was told by many in Washington that the panel was one of last remaining places in Congress where things actually get done. By the time I left Capitol Hill some two and a half years later, I had learned what all Americans are now realizing: The panel certainly does get things done, but not for the people who elected its members. It gets things done almost exclusively for those lobbyists and corporate interests that buy influence through campaign contributions. The committee has become, in short, the breeding ground of congressional corruption. Over the last year, the public has learned exactly how lawmakers on the Appropriations… politics congress corruption David Moberg Tue, 25 Jul 2006 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2737/if_the_paint_sticks_sling_it/ Perhaps you have thought, "If the voters knew how venal a GOP member of Congress was, they could never get re-elected." MoveOn is testing that proposition with a public service ad campaign that targets four Republican candidates whose votes in Congress have put special interest profits before the public good. "Caught red-handed" is the moniker for a series of MoveOn TV ads that expose the lawmakers' fealty to the corporations that fund their campaigns. MoveOn PAC Director Eli Pariser puts it this way: "The most visible and insidious form of corruption is the form that is also legal, and that is the money politicians take from big companies and the votes that they give in return to help those companies… corruption media corporations elections congress voting David Moberg Fri, 28 Jul 2006 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2741/processing_pain_at_smithfield_foods/ Located in Tar Heel, N.C., the Smithfield Packing pork processing plant is the largest in the country. It employs 6,000 workers who work to slaughter 33 hogs a minute, 24 hours a day. In 2000, Human Rights Watch issued a report that chronicles how Smithfield Packing, Inc. abused workers during union elections held in 1994 and 1997. The report detailed other practices at the plant: According to union officials, approximately forty-five workers were bused into the plant each day from the Robeson Correctional Center, a state prison. They were bused into the plant premises without stopping to receive union flyers and boarded the bus at the same internal point so they could not receive flyers leaving the plant. Smithfield management… labor Medical and Health corruption David Moberg Mon, 31 Jul 2006 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2732/capital_crimes/ The irony of the ongoing federal corruption investigations striking fear into the hearts of members of Congress is that nearly everyone who has gone to jail, been indicted or served with a subpoena could have gotten away with it. Under the current campaign finance system, there is more than enough perfectly legal graft to fund all the five-star restaurant dinners and jet trips to luxury golf resorts that a legislator could desire, and still have enough left over to finance a winning reelection campaign for a job that offers a $165,000 salary, healthcare plan and generous pension. These perks can be funded by perfectly legal campaign contributions as long as they are written off as "campaign expenses." And every day… corruption congress elections Government: Administration David Moberg Wed, 02 Aug 2006 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2748/hastert_earmarks_pork_or_politics/ In June, Speaker of the House Dennis J. Hastert (R-Ill.) made headlines twice. At the start of the month, he became the longest-serving Republican Speaker in history. But at month's end, he was answering questions about a land deal that netted him $1.8 million. The land he'd sold was located five miles from a highway for which he'd earmarked $207 million. That funding was a small part of a $286 billion transportation measure that contained more earmarks than any federal transportation bill to date. When the bill was in final committee, Hastert placed in two earmarks to fund the Prairie Parkway--a north-south connector west of Chicago that runs through fast-growing Kendall County, which is in Hastert's district. President Bush signed… Corruption Congress Economy David Moberg Thu, 03 Aug 2006 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2769/police_torture_and_the_need_for_repair/ When the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) mobilized opposition to a bill naming one Chicago block in honor of the late Fred Hampton, the legislation died, despite vigorous support from African-American activists and politicians. Hampton, a Black Panther killed by police in an infamous 1969 raid, was popular among many in the black community because he aggressively challenged police brutality. Hampton's brazen assassination confirmed his complaint and transformed him into an international martyr. But the FOP said Hampton advocated cop killing and the bill for an honorific street died without any support from the city's white aldermen. More than three decades later, many white Americans remain unconvinced by blacks' complaints of police abuse. Those same differences likely explain why charges… Criminal Justice Government Agencies Race Corruption David Moberg Wed, 20 Sep 2006 14:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2825/how_a_few_harm_all/ The following is an excerpt from "Kicking the Pigeon," a 17-part series on police abuses by Jamie Kalven, a journalist who for more than a decade immersed himself in the life of the Stateway Gardens public housing development on the South Side of Chicago. Originally posted on the Web site The View From The Ground, Kalven's reporting focuses on a series of incidents that gave rise to a federal civil rights suit against five police officers known on the street as "the skullcap crew," their supervisors and the City of Chicago. The City responded by serving Kalven with a subpoena demanding his notes and other writings regarding 24 named individuals "and/or any allegations of misconduct by any police officer at… social justice corruption policing David Moberg Mon, 04 Dec 2006 05:00:01 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2928/is_congress_gates_keeper/ Robert Gates, George W. Bush's choice to replace Donald Rumsfeld as Defense Secretary, is a trusted figure within the Bush family's inner circle. But there are lingering questions about whether Gates is a trustworthy public official. The 63-year-old Gates has long faced accusations of collaborating with Islamic extremists in Iran, arming Saddam Hussein's dictatorship in Iraq, and politicizing U.S. intelligence to conform with the desires of policymakers--three key areas that relate to his future job. The Bush administration is seeking to slip Gates through the congressional approval process by pressing for a confirmation before the new Democratic-controlled Senate is seated. In 1991, Gates got a similar pass when leading Democrats agreed to put "bipartisanship" ahead of oversight when President George… Congress Government: Administration Corruption Government Agencies David Moberg Tue, 20 Mar 2007 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3103/and_now_the_justice_department_eight/ An indispensable operating principle of any viable democracy is that the judicial branch of government function free from interference by the executive or the legislature. The other hallmarks of democracy--regular elections, freedom of speech and press, written laws and administrative procedures, etc.--are all hobbled, if not nullified, if judges and other judicial system officers are subject to coercion, whether direct or oblique, by external forces. Over the past decade, the focus of those defending an independent judiciary has been to publicly defend judges from the intemperate attacks of the likes of the deposed House Majority Leader, Rep. Tom Delay (R-Texas), who regularly took to the House floor to call for the impeachment of judges who made rulings he disagreed with.… administration corruption David Moberg Mon, 16 Jul 2007 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3276/the_subprime_bait_and_switch/ When the housing market began its rapid ascent in the mid-'90s, many observers waxed rhapsodic about the potential of high-interest, subprime loans to merge the financial interests of investors and low income and minority communities. The hope for subprime boosters was that such loans would allow the mortgage industry to continue business as usual while at the same time meeting government mandates for fair and affordable housing. As recently as April 2005, Alan Greenspan praised the deregulation of the banking and lending industries for having "vastly expanded credit availability to virtually all income classes." It's true that the number of minority homeowners increased at a similar rate to that of all homeowners during the last decade, but the housing market's… corruption economy David Moberg Thu, 24 Jul 2008 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3828/bad_days_for_newsrooms_and_democracy/ The decline of newspapers is not about the replacement of the antiquated technology of newsprint with the lightning speed of the Internet. It does not signal an inevitable and salutary change. It is not a form of progress. The decline of newspapers is about the rise of the corporate state, the loss of civic and public responsibility on the part of much of our entrepreneurial class and the intellectual poverty of our post-literate world, a world where information is conveyed primarily through rapidly moving images rather than print. All these forces have combined to strangle newspapers. And the blood on the floor, this year alone, is disheartening. Some 6,000 journalists nationwide have lost their jobs, news pages are being radically… technology media corporations corruption David Moberg