Does Ann Smith feel guilt and remorse about illegal benefits?

Congratulations, Ann Smith!
Your clients once again got away with breaking the law--because the law didn't go after them soon enough! Judge Barton said yesterday that illegal pension benefits have to stay because the city later made agreements based on them. You just love it when your clients get clean away with something, don't you, Ann? I'll bet you sleep well at night.

Perhaps that's why San Diego is in such a mess. We have far too many people who sleep well after profiting from illegal actions.

Farm subsidies reached $25 billion last year, despite near-record farm revenue

Long ago, small farmers fed America, and needed help in bad years to stay afloat. Now huge conglomerates dominate farming, and their lobbying power allows them to take over $25 billion a year in tax dollars--most of which come from middle income workers.

1. People who don't farm, who have NEVER farmed, are paid $1,300,000,000 each year in farm subsidies because their land WAS FARMED AT SOMETIME IN THE PAST.

2. Both Democrats and Republicans are at fault.

In 2003, a California rancher named Hein Hettinga started bottling his own milk and selling it for 20 cents a gallon cheaper than subsidized milk. It's hard to understand why huge dairies with over 3,000 cows need to be subsidized in the first place, but subsidies weren't enough for the dairy lobby. They also wanted to keep the price of milk high. So they got Democratic Senator Harry Reid to pass a new law ending Hettinga's enterprize--without holding a single congressional hearing.

In 2002, a group of Republicans created the Livestock Compensation Program without consulting Congress. Why? So they could give $50 million to South Dakota ranchers in an effort to help Republican Rep. John Thume defeat Democratic Rep. Tom Daschle.

3. BUT YOU DON'T NEED A DROUGHT TO GET DROUGHT RELIEF. In 2003, if debris from the space shuttle Columbia landed TEN TO TWENTY MILES FROM THEIR CATTLE, East Texas ranchers were allowed to collect up to $40,000 in disaster compensation.

(All information is from the Washington Post's "Harvesting Cash" series in July-December 2006)

Why did Premier, under investigaton by the U.S. Senate, get a Commerce Department award?

Premier, a Del Mar medical-supplies company, has won the Baldridge award from the Commerce Department.

The prize is considered "the Nobel Prize for quality business practices."*

The company is under investigaton by the U.S. Senate because of concerns that the industry is "rife with kickbacks and other corrupt practices that limit competition, restrict access to medical products and actually drive up prices."*

Apparently, the company drives smaller companies out of business.

Another problem is that there is a startling conflict of interest between the company and the award donors.

Richard Norling is a board member of Premier and a member and former chairman of the Foundation for the Baldridge Awards. He brings in a lot of money for the award which he obtains from "vendors that depend on contracts with his company to sell their products to Premiers' member hospitals."*

Premier is under investigaton by the U.S. Senate because of concerns that the industry is "rife with kickbacks and other corrupt practices that limit competition, restrict access to medical products and actually drive up prices."* Apparently, the company drives smaller companies out of business.

Marc Lampe, professor of business and ethics at University of San Diego, suggests an investigation into the integrity of the "firewall" separating the Foundation from the Award Program.


*San Diego Union Tribune, December 8, 2006

file/local corruption