It's enough to make your blood boil!

Two reports today made my blood-pressure spike, my eyes turn red with rage, and my heart pound harder than I prefer it to do (since my 2009 heart attack, that is). Both concern the misconduct of officials.

The first, from Judicial Watch, is their List of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians” for 2011. Judicial Watch is non-partisan, so the list is split between both major parties. It's quite sickening to read about the shenanigans of our elected representatives. I won't bother to reproduce their report here, but I highly recommend that you go to Judicial Watch's Web site and read it for yourself.

The second, from journalist and self-described 'agitator' Radley Balko, are his nominations for 'The 2011 Worst Prosecutor of the Year Award'. He describes their misconduct in no uncertain terms, and invites his readers to vote for who should receive the award. Again, I won't steal his thunder here, but I invite (and urge) you to click over to his site for the details. You certainly won't feel so sanguine about the US legal system after doing so!

I hope all my readers will let these reports inform and influence their voting in the November 2012 elections. As I've said many times before, I'm non-partisan - I distrust both the Democratic and Republican Parties equally! Both are, in my opinion, self-serving, essentially corrupt institutions, more interested in 'feathering their own nests' than serving this country or putting its needs before their own. We can't do much about that; but what we can do is try to help select, then elect, honest, upright citizens, who'll represent our interests in Washington rather than those of a political party, and won't simply become part of the status quo. I don't care what party they're from: if they're honest, moral, ethical citizens, they'll have my support, even if I can't agree with everything in their platform. It's far more important to me to have trustworthy politicians in office than it is to elect someone who thinks in lockstep with me.

(In that regard, may I recommend a book by Peter Schweizer? It's titled 'Throw Them All Out: How Politicians and Their Friends Get Rich Off Insider Stock Tips, Land Deals, and Cronyism That Would Send the Rest of Us to Prison'. He covers much of what Judicial Watch talks about, but in a great deal more detail, and expands his reporting to cover many more politicians. Rage-inducing but worthwhile reading - and if your Congresscritter or Senator is on his list of those who particularly need to be thrown out, you know what to do!)

Peter