Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's government wants to go after the "big fish" to make examples out of them, before going after the minnows, and towards that end, using power he was given earlier this year, sacked a high-ranking general at the Ministry of Defense for failing to comply with the income declaration requirements.
You might recall that old chestnut about actions having consequences. Well, in most of the world, even in Russia, that still remains true, for both good and ill.
Meanwhile, here in Broward County, some "people" already in a position of power want to start nibbling away at the new County Ethics rules so that they can play belle-of-the-ball.
And by some "people" I specifically mean Broward County Commissioner Ilene Lieberman, whom we have discussed previously in this space 'till we're blue in the face for her brazen oleaginous ways.
Lieberman has proven herself to be no friend of genuine reform in this county, nor of meaningful ethics legislation with predictable dire consequences for contemptuous offenders -like that general in Russia- or even financial accountability or prescience, and the sooner she is gone from the passing scene in Broward, the better your future suddenly becomes.
If Lieberman really were the redoubtable legal eagle she imagines herself to be, echoed by so many pliant sycophants in the South Florida press, she'd have long since run for judge.
She hasn't.
Instead, she has remained and participated up to her elbows in the county's tarnished way of transacting business with a wink, a nod and a campaign check from lobbyists.
She has proven to be a mere puppet-master, not a voice that made a positive tangible difference for Broward's citizen taxpayers.
It's too late for her.
Even here, as bad as things are and have been, they DON'T actually build statues to people like her, since it would necessarily have to include the caption, "friend to the lobbyists, thru thick and thin."
No doubt the pigeons would have great fun with that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RX2sgsiizo
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South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Broward Politics blog
Broward's new Code of Ethics might get its first amendment soon
By Brittany WallmanRead the rest of the post at:
September 29, 2010 08:00 AM
Commissioner Ilene Lieberman wants her colleagues to soften the gift ban in the new ethics code.
Broward commissioners argued Tuesday and then postponed making a decision on whether to do it. It would be the first change of any kind to the brand new Code of Ethics.
The new ethics code says commissioners cannot accept a gift from a lobbyist or a vendor who does business with the county. It also says that commissioners can take a gift from someone else, but only if it's not worth more than $50. Lieberman is president of the Florida Association of Counties, and argues that she should be able to accept food, travel and lodging from that organization when she goes to its events and conferences.
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2010/09/browards_new_code_of_ethics_to_1.html
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