When I first learned of Edward Snowden, the computer whiz of Booz Allen Hamilton who leaked hundreds, perhaps thousands, of classified documents from the National Security Agency (NSA), the first person I thought of was J. Edgar Hoover. Hoover created the most sophisticated, large-scale crime-fighting mechanism of its time. The FBI was a formidable presence that got results. However, as...

In 1951, nuclear testing continued with a 1-kiloton bomb dropped on Frenchman Flat near Las Vegas, Nevada. President Harry Truman relieved General Douglas MacArthur of his command in the Far East. Senator Estes Kefauver headed a Senate committee investigating interstate crime, and… …on one bright and shining day in June, John Nelson Baldwin, graduating from Pelham Memorial High School in...

The president’s State of the Union address signals the start of a new federal cycle. What will this new chapter bring? How will the elected few guide the nation? Here are some thoughts for both Congress and the president to consider. At the close of Mr. Jefferson’s Declaration are these immortal words: “…we mutually pledge to each other our Lives,...

To begin with, I searched the internet with the question. The first link that showed up… no joke: “Honesty Is Still The Best Policy Free Essays 1-20 www.OpPapers.com/…/honesty-is-still-the-best-policy-page1.html 20+ items – Free Essays on Honesty Is Still The Best Policy for students.” Notice the lack of any pretense: “for students” While there are plenty of polls (and rationalizations) that examine the question,...

At the end of July, before two political conventions and, I’ve lost count of how many negative campaign ads and divisive comments about the current state of our Union, I wrote how Abraham Lincoln, on March 4, 1861, stood on the steps of a U.S. Capitol building still under construction and spoke words of reconciliation and hope. Lincoln was so hated by...

Recently a reader asked, “We know ethics scandals are all over the news. We know politicians are corrupt, that bankers, CEOs and executives lie, cheat and steal. So, what are you trying to tell us that we don’t already know? What’s the point?” The point of the site is this: to understand that there is an ethical dimension to many...

Just before signing The Stock Act which now makes it illegal for members of Congress and their staff to profit from inside financial information, President Obama declared, “The powerful shouldn’t get to create one set of rules for themselves and another set of rules for everybody else.” In 2004, I once asked a well-connected financial guy why someone like businesswoman and billionaire Martha...

Global Investment banking giant Goldman Sachs lost $2.15billion of its market value the day after London-based employee Gregory Smith told the world in a New York Times Op-Ed that the company is not only “toxic and destructive,” but is only interested in “How much money did we make off the client?” In 2009 Rolling Stone story, reporter Matt Taibbi called Goldman...

Last November, 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft reported on a nice little perk that members of Congress have enjoyed for some time, insider trading. According to a report entitled, Insiders, Kroft interviewed “Peter Schweizer… a fellow at the Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank at Stanford University… Schweizer says he wanted to know why some congressmen and senators managed to accumulate significant wealth...

This is not a good year to be a member of Congress. In its annual measure of Ethics and Honesty in Professionssurvey, the Gallup organization, not surprisingly, found that 64% of Americans rate Congress at “Low” or “Very Low,” which tied a record low score with Lobbyists in 2008. Telemarketers, stockbrokers, bankers, real estate agents, and lawyers all beat out Congress...