DU giving me some loving! Good ole boy code of honor cracked.

[The Backlash Cometh]

I posted this on Saturday and the weekend crowd was outside enjoying the weather for the attention it got. This is a wonderful example of the local good ole boy system in my county (the county which allowed a Republican to go into the elections office and change absentee ballots during the Bush v. Gore incident) Why it's such a great article is because it shows how the good ole boy network works in Florida. I've been paying close attention because it can't be anything but discriminatory since the only minorities who ever "enjoy" the same free passes, are minorities who are willing to carry their water and keep the crooked system propelled:


Here's the issue: The Sheriff of the County was hired by an insurance company to serve on an advisory board from 2008 to 2009 (that's the years for his most current financial statements). He got compensated for being on this board, making roughly $10,000. During the same years, the sheriff allowed the insurance company to hold sales meetings four times from 2008-2010 to procure business from his employees. A complaint was filed, and here's where the good ole boy system rears its ugly head: The Florida Attorney General's Office ignores this information and presents this case to the Florida Ethics Commission with a recommendation to clear him because the Sheriff didn't buy any coverage for himself!

You see how that works? If your good buddy is guilty of the charges, you do one of two things. You go blind and dismiss the complaint, hoping the person who filed the complaint will just go away, or you plead the case down to a fact that makes the case insignificant. And this is where discrimination is most evident these days where everyone has learned to express their prejudices only to their inner circles.

Seminole Sheriff Don Eslinger cleared by state ethics panel.

Seminole County Sheriff Don Eslinger faced the state's Commission on Ethics in Tallahassee today and was cleared of wrongdoing for his involvement with an insurance company that pays him several thousand dollars a year as an advisor.

A Geneva man had accused Eslinger of official misconduct: of steering his employees to buy insurance from the company, Star & Shield Insurance Exchange.

<snip>

The Florida Attorney General's Office, which presented the case to the ethics commission today, concluded that because the Sheriff's Office bought no coverage from Star & Shield, Eslinger had broken no law.

<snip>

He was hired by Star & Shield in 2008 to serve on an advisory board. His most recently-filed financial disclosure statement – for 2009 – reports Star & Shield paid him $7,500 that year, $2,500 per meeting.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/seminole/os-sheriff-eslinger-ethics-hearing-20110401,0,1709646.story

[era veteran]

1. Sounds like Kentucky

We have dirty self serving bastards too.

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. The problem in Florida is that nobody is a mensch to balance them out.

Bob Graham was the closest. Bill Nelson is a no show.

[niyad]

2. k and r for visibility

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. Thank you.

[CanSocDem]

4. Sorry to be cynical...

...but having read this with last nights 60Minutes bank scandal still fresh in my mind, I can only conclude that the United States of America has given up any pretense of serving the public interest and promoting justice and democracy. Stealing from them is easier.

.

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. Yes. And now we go through the process of documenting how they're doing it.

One of thing that none of them deserve is a good reputation.

[CanSocDem]

7. Even "reputation" isn't what it used to be.

Wealth trumps everything.

.

[Shagbark Hickory]

8. Flori-duh is one of the most corrupt states in the union.

[The Backlash Cometh]

10. It's like all the corruption from the north moved down south and mated

with all the corruption that's always been here. What we don't have are people or groups who are genuinely interested in exposing this garbage. Somebody always knows someone who is in the line of fire and the best investigations are stopped short of full success.

[Shagbark Hickory]

12. They don't call it a banana republic for nothin nt

[gratuitous]

9. And if Eslinger had bought insurance from Star & Shield?

Then it would have been, "This product is so good, the sheriff himself bought a policy!" The excuses are just built in to the system when the system is corrupt.

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. You go to the front of the line.

The one big unknown is who was on the FEC board. Not everyone who gets on that board has the best reputation. That's a big problem.