Obama’s Labor Department Ignores His Executive Order– The Ethics Pledge
by Don LoosOutrageously, U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Secretary Hilda Solis and other DOL Obama appointees appear to have blatantly disregarded the President’s Executive Order #13490 – the Ethics Pledge.
According to a report by the National Right To Work Committee, Solis and several other appointees gave themselves unilateral waivers on the two-year moratorium in direct conflict with President Obama’s two-year mandate:
Revolving Door Ban [for] All Appointees Entering Government. I will not for a period of 2 years from the date of my appointment participate in any particular matter involving specific parties that is directly and substantially related to my former employer or former clients, including regulations and contracts.
Solis’ only publicly available signed ethics pledge is provided by Olga Pierce and Christopher Weaver at Propublica. National Right To Work reviewed it and other ProPublica provided ethics pledges. It is clear that other DOL appointees followed Solis’ lead and granted themselves ethics waivers in conflict with the presidential order. The report identified Deputy Secretary Seth Harris, Assistant Secretary Phyllis Borzi, Assistant Secretary T. Michael Kerr (SEIU & AFSCME), and Assistant Secretary Jane Oates.
Unlike the other DOL appointees’ waivers, Solis signed her waiver a few days prior to the issuance of the Executive Order. DOL has failed to provide an updated pledge signed by Solis even though several Freedom of Information Act requests have been filed asking for copies of the Secretary’s ethics pledge.
To view the cited pledges that contain the one-year, not two-year, signed pledges click here.
Big Labor Bliss
“The Obama-Biden administration will give the Office of Governmental Ethics strong enforcement authority with the ability to make binding regulations, and it will work with inspectors general in all the federal agencies to enforce ethics rules…”
Solis and other DOL appointees are completely ignoring Obama’s “Revolving Door Ban.” When inquiring minds wanted a glance behind the DOL’s regulatory process in an effort to see if everything was on the up-and-up, their Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request was stonewalled. The National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation filed a federal lawsuit to force DOL to comply with the Freedom of Information Act.
“Starting today,” Mr. Obama said, “every agency and department should know that this administration stands on the side not of those who seek to withhold information, but those who seek to make it known.”
Solis’ direct ties with union bosses and her positions as a director and officer of the labor-union financed “American Rights at Work” were questioned by the Weekly Standard: “The Nominee Who Lobbied Herself – Hilda Solis’s breach of House ethics rules may disqualify her from serving.”
Labor Secretary Solis’ actions speak louder than President Obama’s words. A new National Right To Work Committee video, demonstrates that Solis intends to serve Big Labor at her post. In the video, Labor Secretary Solis refers to the AFL-CIO ands declares, “Our President, John Sweeney!” In another part, she announces that union bosses will be “a very, very important part of what I will be doing!”
The video also captures an impromptu cheerleading session where Secretary Solis shouts, “Are you fired Up? Ready to Go? Yes, We Can! And Yes, We Will…” Would she lead this cheer at a National Right To Work or National Federation of Independent Business convention?
Probably not, but it shows that Solis has little interest in the spiritof Obama’s Ethics Pledge.
Obama promised that he would bring change. It appears the more things “change,” the worse they get.
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50 Comments
reason number 2,594 for the voters to institute term limits – in the ballot box.
what is the process for recalling a president?
HA!
DemoRats and Ethics in the same sentence – ha ha ha ha .
http://RightWingStuff.com
Well now in their defense, it really depends on what each individuals view on ethics is. The executive order is kinda like a …….. promise. You can say you'll do it, but not really have to follow through. All the rule stuff is just inconvenient to our our elitist administration. They are better than all of us so they don't have to follow the same rules we follow.
Axelrod is still cooking revenues at his PR firm. He is feeding himself business.
By the way. I don't have a big screen tv. Don't want to watch Obama speak and see his ears. He seems to not use the ears.
Hussein and his Posse of Clowns…………….
Makes me wonder what exactly the word 'public' means in the title of public servant…?
"An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes."
~Thomas Jefferson
they are so good at "don't do what I do, but do what I say…." look the other way, it's all a shell game…..
follow the money and monitor their actions……words, just words……don't mean a damn thing! It's only what they do…..and i just heard Obama has invited all the Union bosses to the White House on Monday for a private meeting……just what is that all about???/ perhaps Obama is also ignoring his own Presidential Order — conflict of interes??? corrupt??? payback???? you bet……………………….
I don't think they can spell ethics; much less understand what it is?
There are a lot of people out there just like them. Horrible idiots that I have had to deal with.
“Starting today,” Mr. Obama said, “every agency and department should know that this administration stands on the side not of those who seek to withhold information, but those who seek to make it known.”
Unless of course you are C-Span or any other news organization outside of his MSM lap-dogs. It is also becoming quite clear that this administration has no qualms whatsoever disclosing details about our national security policies but often refuses to disclose information about its domestic social policies. How weird is that?
"Rules, we don't need no stinking rules". Sadly, rules and regulations only work when they are enforced for everyone and that ended a long time ago.
Obama is still batting 1000 in his political appointees.
Not a single one of them is satisfactory.
And we expected something different from these crooks? As we approach 11/10 let’s remember the truth, and begin to remedy the mistake, vote’em out!
They make the rules, they don't have to play by them. Remember?………………………………THEY WON!
If you followed Hilda Solis you would already know she is little more than a common criminal.
I think the biggest problem is not so much that they aren't following it, which is par for the course in politics, but instead that the president does not seem inclined to use his power to address the issue. I am sure he has or will pay it some lip service, but in the end, I would be surprised, albeit pleasantly, if he actually made a stand and there was any sort of real repercussions for violating the policy.
URGENT: I WANT FRED THOMPSON TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT IN 2012!!!
msnbc is Obama's c-span ….Is anyone in the Dem.party ready to stand up and vote down health care and be America's saving grace. Just 1 Dem. to say "your right" America this does smell funny maybe we should take our time and go line by line and let the people see who is lining their pockets with our hard earned dollars.
If you get 1 Dem. to flip more will follow. But beware the "job summit" is just cover so health care can move forward under cover of darkness. And believe me the Chrismas bomber came at just the nic of time to help with cover.The answer to the question of why he is getting his day in court and not with the military…….No msmbc coverage if it goes to military court. But NYC is 30 rock country, every lame stream media company on the court house steps reading talking points on terror………Not healthcare
I like to think of them as the "Insane A$$ Clown Posse"….
Maybe a different Hilda Solis signed the one-year pledge.
When has silly little things like ethics & integrity played into the reality of this administration? Pelosi herself eluded to this when asked about the campaign promise of having the Heath Care monstrosity completely opened to the public and again when asked about the Constitutionality of the bill or the POTUS pledge of no special interest in D.C.
How about putting a "RECALL" Button on every voting machine next to every politicians name every 2 years; Vote for him, Vote Against him or Vote to Recall him. This should apply to the Senate's 6 year term where voters have the option to fire them every 2 years.
This is some really scary stuff. I've always wondered how communism was actually implemented, and I think this is what we're actually looking at. Lots of talk about "helping the people" when actually controlling the people for the sake of the people. Of course the "leaders" are also well taken care of, etc. Totally amazing stuff.
Its pretty funny to see an administration that orders their members to take an ethics pledge, and then hand out many, many "ethics waivers". Not funny ha-ha, more like, smells funny like lumpy milk.
democratic voters expect to be lied to. how could anyone vote for hillary and not expect lies. as long as the welfare, union dues, government paycheck, government pension, stimulus money, civil rights group funding and acron funding keeps rolling in they don't care.
she is braking a pledge to cut ties with unions. democrats don't care. she will pay no price for this.
I am so glad we have the "most open and ethical government in the history of this country", otherwise I would be starting to get a little worried.
Damn them all !!!
How about putting that Recall button on our keyboards instead?
You can't even get information from the Social Secretary office about the party crashers.
One more time; 'If you want to judge me; look at who I associate with'. More of the same compadre problem.
LOSING IS NOT AN OPTION! All Conservatives lucky enough to still have a job need to claim 10(max) exemptions on their w-2's. Then start a home side business (labor only-no sales tax) and buy computers, pay for gas, claim portion of home bills, cell phones, internet, do updates and upgrades to that part of your house, pay for dinner while having meetings, etc.
Completely use up the money as writeoffs for your new business that doesn't make a profit. STARVE THEM OUT!
Everyone know he has little or no backbone. To me the bigger issue is that he has no interest in accountability, enforcing his own rules, or what we think.
Hill's pollster just got like $4 million is "stimilus money"!
That would "stimulate" me…disgusting Demon-ratSS
That's a very good idea. Most of the Mexicans I work with already claim as many dependents they can and claim they are married. Do you know the percentage of people that get audited by the IRS each year?
This is the same Hilda Solis who has quietly repealed *all* union financial-disclosure requirements. Conflicts of interests? Political activity? Campaign contributions? Slush funds? Hey, nobody needs to know about any of that stuff!
Now we finally have someone in the White House with some "balls". This gives new meaning to Obama's campaign speeches of "Change".
http://www.exposeobama.com/2010/01/06/obamas-tran...
O's word is as good as his c-span healthcare debate coverage. . .time for him to step down voluntarily or otherwise.
Pimping Union Labor. Not the Hilda I knew.
Right and left in Washington– a culture of colluding criminals bent on draining the treasury for personal gain. It's a culture of politicians and bureaucrats returned to office perpetually where they serve their own ambitions for power, privilege and perks. For that reason there'll never be serious anti-corruption reform. Washington is all about big business colluding with big government to fleece working people while subrogating our rights to arbitrarily structured laws.
"Rules, we don't need no stinking rules". Sadly, rules and regulations only work when they are enforced for everyone and that ended a long time ago.
Term limits are not the answer – accountability is. She was appointed by our government on the pledge and then broke it. What has the government done about this? Nothing. Let your vote do the talking…
We have become the "Rule of Man" instead of the "Rule of Law"
This administration makes Satan look like an honest person…….
Of course, this isn't the first time the Big-O's administration has thumbed their nose at this particular executive order. I did quite a bit of research on this topic a few months ago in order to write an essay for a business class I was taking. Anyone paying attention would realize that the administration never even began to take this "ethics pledge" seriously.
Obama's "hero" Mao Tse Tung murdered over 70,000,000 people when he got control of China, so you have a right to be scared! Mao was actually born in China too, not Kenya, and raised in "Islam"!
Just one more example of, this so-called president not having the spine to enforce HIS own rules! God help us if we actually get attacked!! Who will give the order to shoot back???
You recall a President by defeating him in the next election or there is an impeachable offense.
The first is the cleaner way.
And remember its both sides of teh asile that needs to be booted too. Getting rid of them all would not be bad.
What I do not understand is how they can just unilatteraly wave the ethics pledge for themselves? If one can do that is there even a Ethics Pledge to begin with?
Strictly lip service. Socialists think that ethics means only letting other socialists loot the treasury.
You're kidding, right freddie? She grew up in the union labor force. Look at her family history. Of course she's pimping union labor. It's a religion to her.
[...] January 8th, BigGovernment.com posted a blog that began, “Outrageously, U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Secretary Hilda Solis and other DOL Obama [...]