NOBODY’S PERFECT

By Harvey Tobkes

Don’t get me wrong, I like Obama. He is confident and inspires confidence. In the vernacular of the “hood,” “He’s the man.”

But I am in a blue funk with his appointments of unethical people. With these appointments it’s like the fox guarding the hen house. Maybe Obama thinks foxes love chicken meat so much, that only a fox would know how to protect those chickens from other foxes.

O.K. here’s the scoop:

Tom Dashle: Secretary of Health and Human Services (nominee) He’s another of ‘Obama’s Bummers.’ He got caught owing over $140,000 in back taxes he didn’t pay. Though not a registered lobbyist, the South Dakota Democrat over the last two years earned more than $2.1 million as a “special policy advisor” at Alston & Bird, a law firm with more than 50 lobbying clients in the healthcare industry. Republicans are interested in hundreds of thousands of dollars Daschle earned for consulting work and speaking engagements with health care companies and groups in the years after his 2005 departure from the Senate. To cut a long stry short, Mr. Daschle is another in a long line of politicians who move cozily between government and industry.

[Addendum]: This article was written 2 days ago, but I just received this alert from the N.Y.Times, Feb.3rd 2009 1:15 PM: Former Senator Tom Daschle, President Obama’s nominee for health and human services secretary, has withdrawn from consideration for the post over his belated payment of $128,000 in federal taxes.]


Timothy Geithner: Secretary of the Treasury.
He simply forgot to pay $37,000 in taxes (that we know about). Now he controls how you pay taxes and if you violate the law, you’re toast. Geithner failed to pay, or to admit his failure to pay, the self-employment taxes for the 2001 and 2002 tax years until after President-elect Obama expressed his intent to nominate Geithner to be Secretary of Treasury. He also deducted the cost of his children’s sleep-away camp as a dependent care expense, when only expenses for day care are eligible for the deduction. Geithner subsequently paid the IRS the additional taxes owed, and was charged interest of $15,000, but was not fined for late payment. This is a man that went to Dartmouth College and then later went to Johns Hopkins University. He has worked for the US Treasury Department, the International Monetary Fund, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and has been the Vice Chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee. If this man, with the help of an accountant, can make a mistake on his taxes, what hope is there for a regular person?


Eric Holder: Attorney-General
. If you are guilty of crime, this is the man that will make you do the time. There is so much dirt on this guy that even a high pressure steam cleaner could not remove it. Go to WikiPedia.com and enter his name in the search box. You will find he was involved in obtaining a presidential pardon from Bill Clinton for Mark Rich a world class, Bernie Madoff type swindler. In addition, the firm Holder worked for as an attorney was hired by governor Rod Blagojevich to get a favorable decision for building a gambling casino. They got it despite alleged organized-crime links to the Rosemont casino’s developer. There’s more relating To Chiquita Brands International and a Puerto Rican terrorist group the Boricua Popular Army. Look it up!

Source of information used to compose this article: WikiPedia.com


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