What’s your slant?

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Christopher Neiweem

Christopher Neiweem has 4 articles published.

Dept. of Veterans Affairs Gets a Reality Check

in The Political Slant by

*As lawmakers on Capitol Hill are taking part in the impeachment process, President Trump is quietly seeking to accomplish reforms at the Department of Veterans Affairs. But realizing this reform requires Assistant VA Secretary, Tamara Bonzanto, in leading accountability efforts.

Tamara Bonzanto
Assistant VA Secretary, Tamara Bonzanto

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is the second largest federal agency, and is responsible for taking care of our Veterans. Just a few years ago, it was the most tarnished agency in the nation.

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Federal Government Fails to Properly Vet Candidates

in The Money Slant/The Political Slant by

*The efficiency of government depends on human capital and that means hiring the right people. The federal hiring process is lengthy, and while background checks and steps in the hiring process currently in place seem to be sufficient, bad actors still get through.

Modernizing the hiring process to include more nascent, emerging, credential verification technologies is needed. This is not just to prevent wasted resources spent on hiring the wrong candidates, but can prevent national security threats by instituting modern credential verification processes. Modern technologies can go a long way to protect our country from bad actors, while saving the federal government a lot of money by preventing bad hires.

The Cost of Fraud

In just the recent history, the 2019 college admissions scandal, nicknamed Operation Varsity Blues, rocked the nation when it exposed a criminal conspiracy to influence admissions decisions at several top American universities. It was disclosed on March 12, 2019, by US federal prosecutors. At least 51 people are alleged to have been part of the scandal for paying more than $25 million over several years to bribe college officials, fraudulently inflating entrance exam test scores, athletic abilities and so forth. Keep Reading

Fake News & Unjust Sentencing. The Case to Pardon Blagojevich

in The Political Slant by

*Governor Rod Blagojevich’s prison sentence is the most ridiculous example of hypocrisy in the history of justice and political corruption in the state of Illinois.

Setting aside the question of whether one views the former-Governor’s fundraising activities as crimes, and whether he received fair trials, are less important than examining the real corruption the media doesn’t report.

I take issue with the charges and the conduct of the Blagojevich prosecutors, but that is not the key point; the key point is what is playing out in Illinois politics today and how outrageous it is that the real corrupt Democrats have no accountability. Add the fact that killing someone goes less punished in Illinois than alleged fundraising activism.

I support President Trump pardoning Blagojevich’s prison sentence as not only a tool to amend the excessive prison sentence, but to push back on hyper aggressive federal prosecutions, and to allow Illinois citizens to consider the bigger picture.

Pardon Blagojevich
Illinois Governors Otto Kerner, George Ryan, Dan Walker, and Rod Blagojevich
Image Credit: Washington Post

Four of the last seven Illinois Governors have been convicted of various crimes and sentenced to prison. Various other elected officials have faced criminal charges, and while that is not uncommon in other states, Illinois has had it bad.

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House Staffer Suppresses Information from Congress

in The Political Slant by
Veterans

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DISSENT MUTED AS VETERANS BILL ADVANCES TO HOUSE FLOOR

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Students around the country who study political science in high school or college are taught the fundamentals of how Congress works. This includes how Congress considers policy, passes laws, works in committees, and the rules for how issues are debated, and much much more. Each congressional session in our nation’s Capitol, students who study political science (and the nation at large), have the opportunity to watch their representatives in action at the U.S. Capitol building, legislative office hearing rooms, or of course— Live on CSPAN from the comforts of their own home. However, one of the most influential players in law making process is often hard for the citizen to see.

These unknown and underestimated influencers are not the lawmaker, not a reporter, not a lobbyist, not a celebrity, not the business executive, and sadly not the citizen. One of the most powerful and unknown voices in our modern lawmaking process is the “professional committee staffer” in Congress.

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In more than 10 years working in politics, I have never felt the need to unmask a staff member publicly, before now.

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