UPDATED: Without warning, after hours, House GOP dismantles ethics watchdog

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Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/01/03/without-warning-after-hours.html

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Color me unfucking surprised :angry:

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We want smaller government, see, and we’re doing it! It’s…just a coincidence that the parts we eliminate first are the parts that help poor people and prevent corruption by monied interests…we’re going…alphabetically?

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Two weeks before the four-year run of “America: The Banana Republic” starts, the GOP is showing itself eager to set the stage.

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Yep, they’re not even pretending any more.

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I’d love to see how Trump voters will justify this as a good thing. What’s Fox news saying?

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From the horse’s mouth:

Mr. Goodlatte defended the action in a statement on Monday evening, saying it would strengthen ethics oversight in the House while also giving lawmakers better protections against what some of them have called overzealous efforts by the Office of Congressional Ethics.

From the NYTimes’ article, in response:

Under the new arrangement, the Office of Congressional Complaint Review could not take anonymous complaints, and all of its investigations would be overseen by the House Ethics Committee itself, which is made up of lawmakers who answer to their own party.

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It’s all about ethics in…

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  • Write a letter to the editor
  • TODAY, right now actually, write or call your House rep and RAISE BLOODY HELL about this. GOP members of the house ESPECIALLY need to know about this.

You can look up your rep here. The links generally go to a “contact me” page:

https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials

Given the time window, a PHONE CALL to your rep’s LOCAL OFFICE is the best way to show your opposition.

The GOP has proven over and over that they cannot be trusted with power.

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Rep. Bizarro say, “Destroying Office of Congressional Ethics strengthens ethics oversight in House.”

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War Is Peace.

Ignorance Is Strength

Poverty Is Prosperity

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I checked the Free Republic thread on this. It was sorta split between “The New York Times is reporting this so it’s a lie”, “The Democrats created it so it must be bad” and even one or two “This is a bad idea”.

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I’d say politicians in general cannot be trusted with power, but at least Democrats will pretend not to be powered by naked greed. Unlike the GOP.

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Straight from the horse’s mouth.

EDIT

TL;DR: It’s about due process. Due process is needed so the due process of those investigated is not due processed.

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This is hilarious, but it’s a shame that Garry Trudeau is out of a job. I wonder what we in the UK will do in response (unless we already did it)?

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I’ve always told people who were anti-Obama … the country will survive. Things were set up to ensure that one or two terms won’t be enough to change things that much. That in 4 or 8 years, it’ll be pretty much the same country as when he started his first term. Well … now I’m trying to convince myself that I was right. And it’s not working.

. . . - - - . . .

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Even if they came out and said “Look we are only going to take care of the rich and the corporations. We don’t even care about you if you make less than 6 figures a year.”, they would still get elected. All they have to do is play the race/religion/hate card and the vast hordes will vote them in.

edit: changed the spelling on a word

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I’m thinking it’s from the other end of the horse.

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I agree:

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