1/16/2008

And THIS MINORITY is selecting the next Dem POTUS candidate?

I hope the rest of the people in the US have at least a chance of voicing their own views at the ballot box this fall, and NOT a rabid few in the hinterlands!

Here are some interesting numbers from the Iowa Caucuses:

If you listened to the Main Stream Media, there was a TERRIFIC TURNOUT for
Democrats at the Iowa Caucuses AND MAJOR CHANGE is in the wind.

All FOUR of the TOP Republican Candidates EACH exceeded the TOTAL NUMBER OF
VOTES CAST for ALL Democrats.

In fact, it appears that NO Democrats even bothered to show up in Nine of
the 1781 Iowa Precincts. All 1781 Precincts reported Republican votes.

THERE WERE ALMOST 9 TIMES THE NUMBER OF VOTES CAST IN THE REPUBLICAN
CAUCUSES VERSES THE DEMOCRAT CAUCUSES.


Democrats Republicans

Obama4688 Huckabee40841

Edwards4194 Romney29949

Clinton4089 Thompson15904

Richardson298 McCain15559

Biden147 Paul11817

Dodd4 Guiliani4097

Kucinich0 Hunter524

Gravel0 Tancredo5

Total Votes:
13420 118696


WHY DIDN'T THE MAIN STREAM MEDIA REPORT THESE NUMBERS? THEY WOULDN'T BE
BIASED WOULD THEY? THEY WOULDN'T BE AFRAID THIS WOULD MAKE DEMOCRATS LOOK
BAD WOULD THEY?

Looks like it is time to change a popular phrase.

New version: "There are Lies, Damn Lies, and Main Steam Media Reports."
TIFN, The above was sent too me as an email. I didn't just dream it up on my own! Didn't have to!! The big long answer below wasn't authored by me either!! It came from an article on Pajamas Media and was posted by them from an author at The New Republic magazine. Don't know his name and cannot find the post on PJM anymore!

1/15/2008

Beating a dead horse

I know I'm beating this dead horse and probably will continue to whip him but, here is one more reason to continue. Although I now see why my idea of not re-electing any incumbent will not work 'till everyone has an epifiny (sp)!

Once again, the power of pork to sustain incumbents gets its best demonstration in the person of John Murtha (D-PA). The acknowledged king of earmarks in the House gains the attention of the New York Times editorial board today, which notes the cozy and lucrative relationship between more than two dozen contractors in Murtha's district and the hundreds of millions of dollars in pork he provided them. It also highlights what roughly amounts to a commission on the sale of Murtha's power as an appropriator:

Mr. Murtha led all House members this year, securing $162 million in district favors, according to the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense. ... In 1991, Mr. Murtha used a $5 million earmark to create the National Defense Center for Environmental Excellence in Johnstown to develop anti-pollution technology for the military. Since then, it has garnered more than $670 million in contracts and earmarks. Meanwhile it is managed by another contractor Mr. Murtha helped create, Concurrent Technologies, a research operation that somehow was allowed to be set up as a tax-exempt charity, according to The Washington Post. Thanks to Mr. Murtha, Concurrent has boomed; the annual salary for its top three executives averages $462,000.

There’s been no report of Mr. Murtha’s profiting personally. “This is about jobs,” the congressman insists. But the Murtha operation — which has become a model for other entrepreneurial lawmakers — is a gross example of quid pro quo Washington. Every one of the 26 beneficiaries of Mr. Murtha’s earmarks in last year’s defense budget made contributions to his campaign kitty, a total of $413,250, according to the newspaper Roll Call.

I've written several times about Murtha's connections to Concurrent and other contractors, but Concurrent really exemplifies the way in which earmarks not only distort federal power, but also works to maintain incumbencies. Murtha created Concurrent as a vehicle for his pork power to reach back into his district. Setting it up as a tax-exempt charity allowed its revenues to remain in the district, rather than contributing to the same federal revenue that Murtha regularly raids. Its top execs make over $400,000 per year, a strange level for a "charity", and all of it coming from federal contracting where full multibid competiton comprised only 5.5% of their work in 2007.

In return for shoveling hundreds of millions of dollars into his district with no opportunity for other companies to compete for the work, he gives a market advantage to his favorites -- and they return the favor. Knowing that Murtha is the only person who keeps them in business, and in Concurrent's case the reason for their existence at all, they churn out campaign funds in huge numbers for their pork king. Do you wonder why incumbents have a re-election rate of over 90%? This is the reason; people like Murtha get legal kickbacks in order to remain entrenched in power.

In any other context, Murtha would lose his job. If a businessman in the private sector received gifts like this from vendors, his company would kick him to the curb. Not so in Congress; on Capitol Hill, Murtha's colleagues on both sides of the aisle aspire to such low ethical behavior and compete to gain access to the federal treasury for their own political ambitions. And their constituencies reward them for bringing home pork and keep the vicious cycle in motion.

It will not stop until the constituents make it clear that they want Representatives and Senators who won't be bought or even rented. When people like John Kline and Jeff Flake stop being a small minority and gain access to the levers of power because the American electorate has sickened of the corruption and elected like-minded politicians, then the Congress may actually start accomplishing the people's business rather than existing as a sinecure for the compromised and incoherent.

1/05/2008

The Sounds of Silence-Deafening isn't it?

- Ms. P, It has been well over 100 days now, and oil is now, $100 a barrel! What ever happened to our independence from foreign oil that YOU were going to deliver too us? Can't you get off your ass and motivate some of your cohorts into doing some "mandating" that would make all vehicles in the US flex fuel compatible by 20xx? Then maybe some of the small farmers in this country might have a chance to actually run in the black for a change! Oh Yeah, there will probably be some sort of rider attached to that bill that says only Archer-McDaniels can grow corn anymore!

- How is your program of ethics reform moving along? Dead in the water last I heard! Too many crooks who won't vote for it I guess huh? You could start with a "sign" program. You know like in kindergarten, plaster the halls of congress with big gaudy signs, in small words and big letters, describing what ethics are and how to introduce them into your daily lives. Oh damn, I forgot, most of you idiots can't read or by now you might have read the OTHER, "writing on the wall"!

- BTW, why don't you take Harry Reid and Richard Byrd into the cloak closet and give them a good talking to on the excess use of earmarks in their home states? I remember you made lots of grandiose statements about how you were going to fix that little problem also. Senile-ator Byrd just went over the 3 billion mark with his latest $36 million grab! How come no progress there? Oh yeah I see it now, you've got your hand deep in the jar and got such a big handful of bucks for your husbands projects that you can't get it out huh? Just like a monkey and the cookie jar!

- We are not exempt here in RI either. Sen. Jack Reed just got a quarter mil to restore the "John Brown House" Wasn't he the founder of Brown U.? Don't they own the house? How the hell come the taxpayer gets to foot the bill for the face lift?

- Why don't you in your capacity as speaker, try doing something about the the bloated and totally out of control "foreign aid" package? Why do we continually give money to countries that are actively plotting the downfall of the US? How can you people, in any semblance of rationality, continue to pour money down these rat holes? You say you do it to promote the good will of these people? You say you do it to get food aid to these poor people? You say you do it to stop genocide in these poor countries? etc. etc. etc.? Well let me tell you folks, IT AIN'T WORKING!!! The top dogs skim most of it right off the top and into bank accounts in Switzerland! And if you can't see that, it is because your head is shoved so far up your, err, dark smelly places, you will never see the light of day again! Just think what we could do with all that money if it stayed home! The first thing we could do with some of it, is to remove Joe Kennedy from the TV where he continues to blatantly shill for Hugo Chavez, Mr. CITGO himself!

-Time too quit. I have to go take a blood pressure pill before I pop a gasket. But in the meantime Ms P, hie thee hence in your Armani clad body, and your dhimmi covered head, and your wrinkle covered face, and connect with that other harridan Shrillary, and try to get at least one meaningful piece of work done in your, "House of Ill Repute" before you all go on summer hiatus. Yeah, good luck to us!! TIFN