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Post by Chesapeake on Sept 22, 2010 10:20:24 GMT -5
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Post by Supertramp78 on Sept 22, 2010 10:37:05 GMT -5
In Bell, the thugs COULD be arrested.
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Post by Chesapeake on Sept 22, 2010 11:06:57 GMT -5
Exactly. Also, it says a lot about the importance of a free press. The whole mess was uncovered by the LA Times. Anybody feel like opening a newspaper in Kabul?
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Post by theevan on Sept 22, 2010 11:15:39 GMT -5
Exactly. Also, it says a lot about the importance of a free press. The whole mess was uncovered by the LA Times. Anybody feel like opening a newspaper in Kabul? Good idea. It might last as long as the free press in Venezuela, no? Those are some fine looking civic leaders.
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Post by PaulKay on Sept 22, 2010 11:59:14 GMT -5
I'd be willing to bet that when the pictures of all those city leaders showed up in the news, 98% of the population of Bell were seeing them for the first time and if the captions didn't include their names, they probably had no idea what position they held. These guys took advantage of the apathy, but it's the apathy that is almost as appalling.
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Post by Chesapeake on Sept 22, 2010 12:39:11 GMT -5
Alexis de Tocqueville said the genius of democracy is that people get the kind of government they deserve.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 22, 2010 16:37:50 GMT -5
Consider the number of people who had to be involved, or at least know what was going on. The money was being stolen in a number of ways, but a lot of it turned up in grossly inflated paychecks. There were "loans" made to defendants that could be "paid back" with unused vacation/sick time. Aside from the defendants, there simply had to be a number of employees in clerk/technical positions who would have had a strong whiff of impropriety.
So, let the LA Times take a bow, I guess. But I wonder about the local papers/reporters, if there were any. Or, perhaps this was just one of those ideal "conspiracies" where dozens of people just keep their mouths shut, and enjoy the ride?
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Post by brucemacneill on Sept 22, 2010 16:49:45 GMT -5
The entire population of Bell appears to be under 40,000. What the hell was the tax rate that allowed that many people to steal that much money? Rumor is that the population isn't wealthy.
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