How Do You Spell Coverup?

Sometimes the crooks do such stupid things that you just have to smile! Today, the Project on Government Oversight received a response from POGO's second Freedom of Information Act request dated January 17, in which POGO asked to get copies of former USDOT Secretary Norman Mineta's original and earlier copies of his CY 2000 Public Financial Disclosure Reports.

The reason for this request was that the CY 2000 disclosure that I obtained several months ago from OGE had an obvious and glaring problem -- Mr. Mineta disclosed an income of "$100,001 - $1,000,000" in stock options for Trimble Navigation, yet checked the box saying "none" related to any transactions for calendar year 2000. Clearly, if he made money in stock options he had transactions in stock options.

It's also clear that the latest disclosure on file is an amended version, both by the dates you can see on the front page as well as the fact that these reports are due on May 15 of the following year -- which would mean May 15, 2001 for CY 2000, and the version OGE sent me is dated April 19, 2002. Hence, it's clearly an amended version.

Those dates show up huge. In the OGE's response, they say "Our file review has not located any such other copies or versions of that schedule or the CY 2000 report itself." Huh? They can't even find the report itself? Maybe I should sell my version back to them!

The OGE's response letter also talks about the six year deadline for such reports: "Please note that copies of SF 278 reports are available to the public for six years after receipt pursuant to the special access procedures of section 105 of the Ethics in Government Act..."

But the CY 2000 report they sent me a few months back is dated April 19, 2002, which means that they should keep it on file until April 19, 2008, more than a year from now.

How much do you want to bet that former Secretary Mineta, with all his contacts and clout in the Administration, pulled some strings so that OGE would conveniently "lose" all of the Calendar Year 2000 reports, because he knew that what they disclosed would be embarrassing to him or worse -- it would show that he unduly profited from Trimble stock options?

I don't know about anyone else, but I spell it "C-O-V-E-R-U-P", and somebody's going down for these shenanigans. I've already contacted members of the press who have opened investigations into the Traffic.com scandal, and am in the process of contacting both the FBI and the USDOT OIG.

This is actually getting fun, like Molly Ivins said.

Jerry

Another Corruption Watchdog Enters the Traffic.com Fray

As I've mentioned before, I've found that non-profit government fraud/corruption watchdog organizations have been very interested in the Traffic.com scandal, no matter what their political persuasions.

The latest watchdog to dig into this scandal is the Sunlight Foundation, whose goal is:

...using the revolutionary power of the Internet and new information technology to enable citizens to learn more about what Congress and their elected representatives are doing, and thus help reduce corruption, ensure greater transparency and accountability by government, and foster public trust in the vital institutions of democracy. We are unique in that technology and the power of the Internet are at the core of every one of our efforts.

Once I came across them I intuitively knew that they would be both interested in this scandal and potentially helpful, because many of the most incriminating details of this scam can be found on the Internet if you just know where to look.

In just a few short weeks, the Sunlight Foundation has really begun to dig into this scam. Late last week they issued yet another FOIA request to the USDOT about it, this time a very comprehensive one.

Senior Fellow Bill Allison is a former investigative journalist, and has already put together a major piece on Sunlight's Blog about it, entitled Tracking Contractors and Lobbyists, and a Congressional Intervention.

The founders of Traffic.com, as well as the USDOT, are now getting hammered from multiple fronts, from non-profit watchdogs, from legislators (Senator Hatch sent a pointed request to USDOT Secretary Mary Peters a couple weeks ago), from the FBI, from the USDOT OIG, and from the press.

I'll repeat something I've been saying for some time: The sordid details of this scandal, which reaches into senior levels of the Bush Administration, are going to be exposed to daylight eventually.

I just can't quite tell when, but at least I'm learning about patience.

Jerry

Molly Ivins Left Too Soon

Perhaps Texas' most famous liberal muckraker of all time, Molly Ivins, died recently, and much too soon. While she was almost universally called "liberal" and attacked President George W. "Shrub" Bush unmercifully, she certainly didn't spare her criticisms of anyone whom she thought was not morally true. She was unfailingly on the side of "right," no matter what.

I almost met Molly back in mid-November, when she was giving a talk entitled The Future of Journalism: Slow Death or Suicide? at UT's Hogg Auditorium. I wanted to hear her in person, of course -- she could spin a yarn better than almost anyone I've ever heard -- but I had a larger purpose. I wanted to tell her about this big scandal that reaches all the way into senior levels of the Bush Administration. I knew that if I could convince her that this scandal was both real and important, she would without a doubt have the courage to highlight it in her syndicated column.

When I got to Hogg, I asked the UT folks how I might chat with Molly after her talk. They didn't know, but said that her nephew had come to listen to her and was sitting in the Balcony, and they told me what he looked like. So I went upstairs, asked the usher where a young man of that description who had just came in might be sitting, and located him at the very back of the balcony.

I sat down next to him, introduced myself, and gave him a 30-second synopsis of the scandal. "Would that be the kind of thing that Molly would be interested in?" I asked. "Absolutely," he said. Would he be willing to pass on some background information to her about it? "Be glad to," he said. I gave him a manilla envelope filled with past articles about the scandal (that describe what I call the "tip of the iceberg"), copies of several of the 28 FAXes I've sent to the FBI with details of the scandal, POGO's FOIA request, and other stuff.

He said that he could tell that Molly was very weak just by how slowly and deliberately she was talking, and that she would probably be absolutely exhausted afterward, but he would likely have the chance give this information to her within the next few days.

I don't know if he ever got the chance to tell Molly what I had told him and to pass that information about the Traffic.com scandal on to her. I do know is that I never heard back from her about it. My guess is that she was just too weak from the cancer and chemotherapy by that time to spend the considerable energy required to understand how this complicated scandal works.

Molly just left this world too soon. Two very different individuals, both of whom I like and respect, have written very wonderful tributes to her.

Ralph Nader wrote a wonderful piece, called Molly Ivins Remembered, on his website. I particularly like a quote that he attributed to Molly:

So keep fightin’ for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don’t you forget to have fun doin’ it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin’ ass and celebratin’ the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after you how much fun it was.

Molly's fellow Texas humorist, Kinky Friedman, wrote an equally touching piece entitled Molly Ivins -- a truth-seeking missile. Kinky's piece is likewise wonderful, and in it he gives just a hint of his outragious sense of humor when he says:

Molly was a truth-seeking missile. She was a devil and an angel and a spiritual chop-buster who went after anybody who got in the way of a better world. Quite often she towered above the people she wrote about. They, as likely as not, were merely the slick, lubricated heads of well-oiled political machines; she was a dreamer, a little girl lost at the county fair, who somehow grew up to be a brave and bawdy and brilliant ball-buster in a state where men have always been men and emus have always been nervous.

Jerry