Jon Stewart Blasts Congress For Gutting STOCK Act

Transparency is overrated anyway, says Obama.

Insider Trading - House Rules

When it comes to reforming the Congressional exemption from insider trading rules, lawmakers get a gentleman's F minus.  Broadcast April 23.

Part two of the Daily Show segment is below.

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Stock Act Failure From Congress And Obama

Columbia Journalism Review has the full story...

On Monday, President Obama quietly signed a bill repealing the major provisions of the much-touted ethics law known as the STOCK Act.

Passed in 2012 after a 60 Minutes report on insider trading practices in Congress, the STOCK Act banned members of Congress and senior executive and legislative branch officials from trading based on government knowledge. To give the ban teeth, the law directed that many of these officials’ financial disclosure forms be posted online and their contents placed into public databases. However, in March a report ordered by Congress found that airing this information on the Internet could put public servants and national security at risk. The report urged that the database, and the public disclosure for everyone but members of Congress and the highest-ranking executive branch officials—measures that had never been implemented—be thrown out.

The government sprang into action: last week, both chambers of Congress unanimously agreed to adopt the report’s recommendations. Days later, Obama signed the changes into law.  The meager coverage was a striking counterpoint to the waves of media attention that accompanied enactment of the STOCK Act in April 2012—310 articles in the two weeks surrounding its passage, according to a search of Lexis Nexis. Just as striking is that none of the reports on the partial repeal consulted experts who could answer the question at hand: did the disclosure rules in fact threaten individual or national security?

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Part 2

Jay Carney and Obama get torched in this clip.

Faced with the grim prospect of being held financially accountable, lawmakers come together and cripple a bill aimed at more transparent government.

60 Minutes: How Congress Trades On Inside Information

Comments

[DailyBail]

To address this question, CJR consulted four cybersecurity experts from leading think tanks and private security consultancies. Each came to the same conclusion: that Congress’s rationale for scrapping the financial disclosure rules was bogus.

http://www.cjr.org/united_states_project/security_rationale_for_stock_act_repeal_is_weak_experts_say.php?page=all

[Sagebrush]

Cover your ass mode is definitely in effect on this one. Looks like somebody took an eggbeater to the Democrats and got them all twitterpated for getting caught trying to pull a fast one. Doesn't really matter though, they'll find another way to sneak it through.


http://blurbrain.com/democrats-deny-they-were-plotting-to-exempt-themselves-from-obamacare/

[john]

Read the above DB story and then ponder this:


Speaking of trade agreements, a thought dawned on me. Remember the scandal of how it was revealed to be legal for congress to insider trade? After this was made public, Sen. Scott Brown introduced the Stock Act which made it Illegal for that practice to happen, which was enacted but gutted by congress shortly thereafter.

With these trade deals being done in secret, I wonder how many members of Congress are, or are about to, make millions on the information contained therein?

[john]

CD024: Let’s Gut the STOCK Act

http://www.congressionaldish.com/cd024-lets-gut-the-stock-act/

In the hours before the Boston marathon bombing, President Obama quietly signed a bill gutting the STOCK Act. Full details on the shady way both houses of Congress passed the bill in under two days.

Links to Information in this Podcast

Music: Money, Money, Money by The Undercover Hippy (found on MusicAlley by mevio)
Congressional Dish summary of H.R. 882, the bill that sort of stops government contracts from going to corporations with seriously delinquent tax debt.

Text of H.R. 882: Contracting and Tax Accountability Act of 2013

Congressional Dish summary of H.R. 1163, the bill about information security policies.

Text of H.R. 1163: Federal Information Security Amendments Act of 2013

Text of H.R. 756: The Cybersecurity Enhancement Act

CIA allegedly gave a $600 million contract to Amazon for cloud computing technology

Text of H.R. 249: Federal Employee Tax Accountability Act of 2013, which fires Federal workers for having unpaid taxes

Congressional Dish summary of S.716

Text of S. 716

60 Minutes segment on insider trading in Congress

C-SPAN video of the STOCK Act signing ceremony

Senate passage of S. 716 took 10 seconds

Rep. Eric Cantor’s smirky face as he takes 14 seconds to pass S. 716 in the House:

[DDearborn]

Hmmm

We reap what we sow. And our treasonous Congress has been sowing the seeds of the destruction of the Republic since 1913 when it allowed a handful of private bankers to take effective control of the economy, and with it the country. As we enter the 2nd quarter of 2016 those seeds have long since germinated, sprouted and are now full blown toxic weeds which have invested every corner of the Republic........

[Backgammon]

I miss this site …. Hugs to you all and a Happy New Year.