Monday, December 6, 2010

The U.S. House and it's silly punishments


Representative Charles B. Rangel was censured by The House because of some unethical conduct. He was chairman of the Ways and Means Committee which is heavily involved in writing tax law. His unethical behavior included things like, attending conferences in the Caribbean payed for by corporations, not paying taxes on $75,000 of income from rental properties, not paying mortgage interest for 10 years, and using his office for fundraising activities for the Charlie P. Rangel Center for Public Service including seeking donations from companies that had business before his ways and means committee. In total there were 11 charges he was found guilty on.

From the way he speaks in defense of himself it sounds like he thinks this is all an overreaction and nothing should happen to him, and that his service in the military should count for something. It is clear that he committed these crimes and should be punished for them.

So here's the houses punishment. A censure. A censure is a very serious punishment and is rarely used. It entails his charges being read by the speaker of the house in front of the entire house of representatives (Though from what I've heard she only read one charge). Can you believe the severity! Can you believe people are debating the death penalty and all the while something as horrific as censure is going on!

This is a joke. They could easily remove this guy from office and even put him in prison (I believe Wesley Snipes just got put in prison for not paying taxes). Instead the house basically decided not to do anything. He even got standing applause after he gave his defense.

Miller's Justice - Throw him out of office and put him in prison for 2 years. Throw anyone who applauded him out of office. Revoke voting rights from the people in New York that re-elected him despite the charges until they have taken some basic courses on ethics and how to do some research before casting a vote.

2 comments:

mom said...

That whole situation really is rediculous and beyond belief!

rheasty said...

It has been 1/2 a Year. 6 months. Approximately 180 days. 4,320 hours. 259,200 minutes. 15,552,000 seconds since your last post. I am ready for a new post! Bring it Miller!