{"id":183153,"date":"2015-02-16T21:10:00","date_gmt":"2015-02-17T02:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2015\/02\/16\/this-must-be-a-definition-of-ethics-i-was-previously-unaware-of\/"},"modified":"2015-02-16T21:10:00","modified_gmt":"2015-02-17T02:10:00","slug":"this-must-be-a-definition-of-ethics-i-was-previously-unaware-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2015\/02\/16\/this-must-be-a-definition-of-ethics-i-was-previously-unaware-of\/","title":{"rendered":"This Must be a Definition of “Ethics” I was Previously Unaware Of\u2026\u2026\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

The North Carolina ethics commission has decided that there is no need for a politician to report if they are f%$#ing a lobbyist<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Sex between lobbyists and government officials who are covered under North Carolina\u2019s ethics laws does not constitute a gift that must be listed in disclosure reports, the State Ethics Commission said Friday.<\/span>

<\/span>\u201cConsensual sexual relationships do not have monetary value and therefore are not reportable as gifts or \u2018reportable expenditures made for lobbying\u2019 for purposes of the lobbying law\u2019s expenditure reporting provisions,\u201d the formal advisory opinion says.<\/span>

<\/span>The opinion was in a response to an inquiry from the Secretary of State\u2019s lobbying compliance director, Joal H. Broun, in a letter on Dec. 15.<\/span>

<\/span>\u201cYou have asked whether consensual \u2018sexual favors or sexual acts\u2019 between a lobbyist and a designated individual constitutes a gift or \u2018thing of value\u2019 that would trigger the gift ban and reporting requirements,\u2019\u201d the opinion says.<\/span>

<\/span>Broun\u2019s request also wanted to know if that activity falls within the definition of \u201cgoodwill lobbying,\u201d which is an indirect attempt to influence legislation or executive action, such as the building of relationships, according to state law, and is also considered lobbying.<\/span>

<\/span>The seven-member ethics commission says Broun\u2019s letter was \u201cgeneral and largely hypothetical, with little or no supporting facts,\u201d which also limits the commission\u2019s response. But the opinion says sexual behavior would not constitute goodwill lobbying, either.<\/span>

<\/span>However, providing a prostitute to a legislator or other covered official would constitute a gift or item of value and would have to be reported on disclosure forms \u2013 which, of course, would also be evidence of a crime, the opinion says.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, if you hire a prostitute, it’s a lobbying gift covered by disclosure laws, but if you employ a temporary liaison officer at your lobbying group, at a predetermined hourly<\/span><\/b> rate, there is no need for disclosure.<\/p>\n

My guess is that we are going to see a lot of “Rent Boys” hired as consultants in North Carolina state politics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The North Carolina ethics commission has decided that there is no need for a politician to report if they are f%$#ing a lobbyist: Sex between lobbyists and government officials who are covered under North Carolina\u2019s ethics laws does not constitute a gift that must be listed in disclosure reports, the State Ethics Commission said Friday.\u201cConsensual …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[970,1090,1075,982],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-183153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corruption","category-ethics","category-sex","category-stupid"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183153"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}