In light of the old MMS scandals what happened a year and a half ago

[NJmaverick]

Secretary Salazar Launches Ethics Reform Initiative in Meeting with Minerals Management Service Employees
Date: Jan. 29, 2009

DENVER, CO – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today launched an ethics reform initiative that will reexamine the potential criminal conduct of a group of Minerals Management Service employees, look at restructuring the agency’s oil and gas royalty program, and thoroughly review the Department’s ethics regulations and policies.

Leading the initiative for the Secretary will be Tom Strickland, the Secretary’s chief of staff who was the United States Attorney for Colorado when Salazar served as the state’s Attorney General and top law enforcement officer.

“President Obama’s and my goal is to restore the public’s trust, to enact meaningful reform, to ensure that taxpayers are getting a fair value from the resources they own, to uphold the law, and to ensure that all of us -- career public servants and political appointees -- do our jobs with the highest level of integrity,” Salazar told MMS employees at the Federal Center here.
“The President has made it clear that the type of ethical transgressions, blatant conflicts of interest, wastes and abuses that we have seen over the past eight years will no longer be tolerated,” the Secretary said. “The Department of the Interior will raise the bar for ethics, and we will set the standard for reform.”
Salazar said the American people lost trust in the department because of ethical lapses and criminal behavior that extended to the highest levels. Referring to the scandal uncovered at the MMS Royalty-in-Kind office in Lakewood, the Secretary called it “the product of a few individuals and a set of special interests who capitalized on an outdated and flawed royalty collection system.”

“So in addition to reviewing the cases of those individuals, we will examine a fundamental restructuring of the MMS royalty program so that taxpayers get their fair share from the development of natural resources, like oil and natural gas, on our public lands,” said Salazar, who noted that the royalty office collected $23 billion last year on behalf of the American taxpayer.

http://www.interior.gov/news/09_News_Releases/012909.html

[Jennicut]

1. Thanks. I was looking for any info on what Salazar did with MMS

after he came in.

[NJmaverick]

4. Not a problem, although sadly there was a time DU was full useful information

like this

[ShortnFiery]

2. An Ethics Reform Initiative? Too bad Salazar was an EPIC FAIL re: the follow-through

on the management end of the equation. When Salazar RELEASED this sternly worded initiative, that should have been ENOUGH for the MMS to follow? That is, no need for monitoring and leadership on Salazar's part. :crazy:

[NJmaverick]

3. Your claims fly in the face of the facts

the fact is, those scandals that are being discussed came from the Bush Administration (which oddly enough you are defending by trying to shift the blame to the Obama administration)

[ShortnFiery]

5. Given the recent report of sex and drugs and porno, I don't think this Ethics Reform ...

Initiative took HOLD too well. It was nice for the MMS that Salazar didn't monitor them close enough to know that they didn't change their evil ways.

As we used to quip in the Army: GOOD initiative - POOR follow through. :(

[NJmaverick]

Again your defense of the Bush administration is full in inaccuracies

the scandals you quote occurred during the Bush years and is why Salazar worked to turn things around.

[ShortnFiery]

8. Turn things around? Ask the people living on the gulf coast if these INSPECTORS did

their job fully? They are partly responsible for this mess.

Up until the last moment, one of them could have said, "Stop, use mud instead of sea water to fill the void." Remember, that was the last in a series of ERRORS that caused this disaster.

[NJmaverick]

12. Until we know exactly what happened, your comments are baseless speculation

meant to prop up a failed position

[Cha]

10. I can only imagine the

ghost you're talking to who is trying to blame Pres Obama for every damn thing.

There's no debating when the basic facts aren't acknowledged.

[NJmaverick]

14. Suffice to say anger is a poor substitute for logic and reason

[ShortnFiery]

22. I made some valid point above. Too bad your "this Administration does no wrong" blinders ...

are firmly affixed. :eyes:

The hard truth is that Salazar did NOT have the chops to clean up the corrupt MMS and it glaringly shows now. Not all the misdeeds happened under BushCo.

President Obama should have given Salazar the power to, not only write up Ethic's Reform for this division but also to TRANSFER out every single BushCo Appointee to another section. Yes, they could have transferred everyone so as not to look biased but still get the job done.

Did they CLEAN HOUSE? No.

[NJmaverick]

26. Only in your anger soaked imagination

[ShortnFiery]

28. I'm just presenting my perspective ... you can supply the anger if you wish. eom

[Cha]

25. Yeah, about that "anger"..

so easy to take it out on President Obama via the internet..but, to what solution?

[phleshdef]

6. Stop playing dumb.

None of this has anything to do with Salazar, he wasn't in charge when the people in question were committing these violations. You people are amazing. The Obama administration is actually investigating department lapses committed under the Bush administration and you call for their heads. Do you realize how fucking ridiculous you sound? You just knee jerk react and talk nothing but a bunch of negative shit without knowing anything about what actually happens. You are the last person that needs to be accusing anyone of poor judgement. You don't have enough attention span to even know how to form a reasoned opinion on such matters.

[ShortnFiery]

7. Then why is there a NEW ethics probe being conducted? Sounds like they were not all

fully investigated and disciplined?

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64O58G20100525?type=politicsNews

[phleshdef]

9. They are 2 separate investigations dealing with 2 separate offices.

And 2 separate problems.

The first was the product of a 2008 investigation that Salazar responded to by setting new ethics rules when he took office. It wasn't even an investigation that he ordered.

This new investigation is dealing with a separate office and has to do with gift accepting and its still stuff that happened prior to Obama even being sworn in.

Stop playing dumb. I'm asking you nice.

And you know as well as I do, we could have a thousand investigations and likely still not uncover every lapse of operation that took place amongst the multiple government agencies during the Bush years.

[TheKentuckian]

11. In light of a very much known set of issues, action is so overdue as to be grossly negligent

Dealing with the corruption and regulatory capture should have been an automatic but the current administration are very, very, very reluctant regulators who always prefer the private sector self police and call the plays.

Policing private industry seems to hurt this whole group to their souls, they'll do it if absolutely no choice and public pressure demand it but even then they will fight to have about the lightest hands they can conjure.

[NJmaverick]

13. Yet, you were just presented with FACTS that show actions were started

well over a year ago. Not that the facts stop you from launching into yet another tiresome and false anti-Obama crusade:eyes:

[TheKentuckian]

16. What facts? I'm not sure you even understand the meaning of the word.

Nothing I've seen points to any serious push to change the culture or actions of not only MMS but across the board. The administration is clearly reluctant to seriously regulate.

Business as usual which is business doing as they please and that's usually private property and socialized risk. Only now after the shit has totally hit the fan are concrete and meaningful actions taken.

[NJmaverick]

17. "what facts?" The ones you ignored because they don't fit your agenda

the facts that show the Obama administration was already working hard to fix the department destroyed by the Bush administration. Those facts

[NJmaverick]

27. Ironic that you would accuse someone of not understanding the concept of facts

highly ironic

[phleshdef]

15. Like so many others, you should work to improve your attention span before speaking.

New ethics rules were introduced by Salazar on DAY ONE. These investigations are ALL problems that occurred before 2008. Try actually reading what happened. Reading what actions have been taken. Collect the facts. Apply enough attention span to really know whats going on, and THEN dismiss it all because it doesn't fit your desired perception of reality.

[NJmaverick]

18. More like selective listening skills rather than a short attention span

[TheKentuckian]

19. The problems were known before the 08 election and allowed to continue

Only now has the administration even proposed to split the revenue collection body from the regulators. The administration admits that cozy relationships continue and (now) must end.

Not agreeing with you kats does not mean I have not paid attention and my desired reality doesn't include oil pouring into the gulf, corporate raiders running amok, or insurance companies and pharma controlling health care access. It does not include too big to fail. It does not include coal mine operators stripping the surface and putting workers at risk. There are a lot of things my "desired reality" include that fail to match with reality, but seldom in the way you assert.

and myopic folks should refrain from ever going there on attention span. You don't even know what a real attention span is, child.

[phleshdef]

20. There has been no information pointing to continuance of the behavior concerning the investigations.

Salazar stepped into the department and laid out all new ethics rules on DAY ONE. You have zero proof that any of these people were still employed by MMS in January of 09, let alone any proof that the behavior continued.

But I obviously struck a nerve as you are resorting to calling me "child" while failing to refute anything I said within any measure of a factual basis. Between your unstable emotions and lack of an attention span, I suppose I should take it easier on you. I might be a smart ass, but I'm also sympathetic and you got problems.

[ShortnFiery]

23. I guess that sternly worded Initiative didn't scare the corrupt members of MMS straight.

Too bad Salazar was so poor with regard to the follow through? :(

[phleshdef]

24. None of the corruption being reported occurred after Obama became President.

You've all ready had this explained to you. You know you are just being dishonest at this point.

[ShortnFiery]

29. No, that is untrue. Can I quote you on that? The report just came out and there's continuing

investigations of the MMS.

[phleshdef]

30. There is continuing investigation. But SO FAR, none of the funny stuff that we know about happened..

...after 08.

[TheKentuckian]

21. Obama can be described as a willing regulator only in contrast to a Bush or a Reagan

Obama must be drug kicking and screaming but he'll somewhat do something if forced and folks like Timmeh and Lardawg Summers reinforce the idea that big business should always be left to their own devices.

Look at the Clinton era deregulation as well as how Timmeh handled shit in New York and tell me this is not a philosophical issue.