If, like many Americans, you are fed up with "fat cats" using political contributions to buy influence with members of Congress, here's something you should know:
Many of those fat cats are the members of Congress themselves.
Worse, the money that some congressmen use to buy influence over other congressmen isn't even theirs. Unlike regular fat cats - some of whom, at least, get their money from honest work - congressmen buy influence using other people's money, i.e., their contributors, and often without the contributors' knowledge and consent... [snip]
The stated purpose of campaign finance laws is to limit the corrupting influence of money on elections, yet those laws have helped make politicians themselves into corrupting influences. Members of Congress who want to "show some love" to their colleagues should be required to write personal checks instead of laundering other people's money.
Maybe this should be one of the first changes in Washington ushered in the by the next Congress and new President.
['experience' with how Washington works is the problem]
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Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Congressional Shell Games
Media Not Reporting Failed Financial Agencies Are Big Donors to Obama
A 2005 Video of Fannie Mae CEO Shown Affirming his Connection to Congressional Black Caucus and Barack Obama, Where is the Media?
In a 2005 video Daniel Mudd, at the time the interim CEO of the catastrophically failed mortgage lender Fannie Mae, affirmed his fealty and that of Fannie Mae to the Congressional Black Caucus.
The top three campaign donation recipients were Democrats, number two of which was Barack Obama, yet the media is laying mum on these facts. One wonders what would be going on in the media if John McCain were a top recipient of campaign donations from a market crashing, government bail-out getting organization like Fannie Mae?
The three top campaign donation recipients from Fannie Mae were all Democrats. Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) got $165,000, Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) was given $126,349, and failed presidential candidate Senator John Kerry (D-MA) took $111,000 from the folks at Fannie Mae. Is this information getting out there?
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Bush Called For Reform of Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac 17 Times
For many years the President and his Administration have not only warned of the systemic consequences of financial turmoil at a housing government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) but also put forward thoughtful plans to reduce the risk that either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac would encounter such difficulties. President Bush publicly called for GSE reform 17 times in 2008 alone before Congress acted.
Unfortunately, these warnings went unheeded, as the President's repeated attempts to reform the supervision of these entities were thwarted by the legislative maneuvering of those who emphatically denied there were problems.
The White House released this list of attempts by President Bush to reform Freddie Mae and Freddie Mac since he took office in 2001. Unfortunately, Congress did not act on the president's warnings
[long, explicit list of repeated attempts to do something, stymied - Recommended > ]
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Laughably Lame WaPo Hit Piece on 'First Dude'
Does anybody remember Bill Clinton boasting in 1992 that a vote for him means "buy one, get one free?"
Of course, he was referring to the fact that by electing him, you would also get Hillary as a virtual co-president. No big outrage in the liberal media back then about a spouse being too involved in the political affairs of her husband.
However, the Washington Post has now taken the involvement of Todd Palin in Alaska civic affairs to suggest that perhaps he is some sort of Machiavellian power behind the throne.
Unfortunately for their premise, the facts dug up by Washington Post writers, Alec MacGillis and Karl Vick, actually shows Todd Palin to be an upstanding citizen with very limited involvement in political affairs. In fact, the criticisms of the "First Dude" in their article are so lame as to laughable...
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National Journal Columnist Hits ‘Media Double Standard’
“Many in the media have been one-sided, sometimes adding to Obama’s distortions rather than acting as impartial reporters of fact and referees of the mud fights.”Rather than cleaning up the record, Taylor reports several instances when the media are themselves guilty of perpetuating partisan disinformation.
We still have many great journalists, but I no longer trust the major newspapers or television networks to provide consistently accurate and fair reporting and analysis of all the charges and countercharges. This in an era when the noise produced by highly partisan TV hosts and blogs creates a crying need for at least one newspaper that we can count on to play it straight.
Indeed, one reason that candidates get away with dishonest campaign ads and speeches may be that it is so hard for undecided voters like me to discern which charges are true, which are exaggerated, and which are false. Most people can't spend hours every day cross-checking diverse sources of information to verify the accuracy of slanted stories and broadcasts such as these: ...
[read the numerous examples of what was said vs. what was reported and decide for yourself - Recommended > ]
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Back in Iraq, Jarred by the Calm
Abu Nawas Park — I didn’t recognize that, either. By the time I had left the country in August 2006, the two-mile stretch of riverside park was a grim, spooky, deserted place, a symbol for the dying city that Baghdad had become.
These days, the same park is filled with people: families with children, women in jeans, women walking alone. Even the nighttime, when Iraqis used to cower inside their homes, no longer scares them. I can hear their laughter wafting from the park. At sundown the other day, I had to weave my way through perhaps 2,000 people. It was an astonishing, beautiful scene — impossible, incomprehensible, only months ago. [snip]
Farther up the street was Pizza Napoli, the Italian place shut down in 2006; it, too, was open for business. And I’d forgotten altogether about Abu Nashwan’s Wine Shop, boarded up when the black-suited militiamen of the Mahdi Army had threatened to kill its owners. There it was, flung open to the world....
[this from the NYT]
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U.S. Military Arrests 25 Suspected Al Qaeda Operatives in Iraq
U.S.-led forces arrested 25 people during operations against Al Qaeda in Iraq this weekend, the American military said Sunday. Homicide bombers struck police targets in northern Iraq, killing five people and injuring dozens
The U.S. military said those detained included alleged members of car bomb cells and financial networks, and a suspect who allegedly assisted in the movement of homicide bombers from Iran to Iraq...
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'Iran halfway to first nuclear bomb'
Iran is halfway to a nuclear bomb, and Hizbullah, Hamas and Syria are using this period of relative calm to significantly rearm, Brig.-Gen. Yossi Baidatz, the Military Intelligence's head of research, told the cabinet Sunday during a particularly gloomy briefing on the threats facing the country.
Baidatz said there was a growing gap between Iran's progress on the nuclear front and the West's determination to stop it...
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Define “Unacceptable”
Four distinguished former officials declare in the Wall Street Journal today that a “nuclear Iran is unacceptable,” and argue for a bipartisan approach to the challenge ahead. Former UN ambassador Richard Holbrooke, former CIA chief Jim Woolsey, former peace envoy Dennis Ross, and former UN representative for management and reform Mark Wallace–representing different worldviews, supporting different presidential candidates–are in agreement:
"We believe that Iran’s desire for nuclear weapons is one of the most urgent issues facing America today, because even the most conservative estimates tell us that they could have nuclear weapons soon. ...If they can really do this, and “lay the groundwork” for policies that will help the international community stop Iran, I (and everybody else) will applaud. But the one most important word in this article is “effective.” We need not a policy aimed at stopping Iran, but one that will actually stop Iran...
We do not aim to beat the drums of war. On the contrary, we hope to lay the groundwork for effective U.S. policies in coordination with our allies, the U.N. and others by a strong showing of unified support from the American people to alter the Iranian regime’s current course..."
[if you mention the UN, you can forget about 'effective' - how many times must we see it? We need start assembling our coalition of the willing now, as we'll be left little time after the UN drags this out for Russia and China to veto in the eleventh hour...]
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Nuclear Agency Head Pushes for Iran Honesty
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency warned Monday that he cannot determine whether Iran is hiding some nuclear activities, comments that appeared to reflect a high level of frustration with stonewalling of his investigators.
IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei said Iran's stonewalling of his agency is a "serious concern."
"Iran needs to give the agency substantive information" to clear up suspicions, he said at the start of a 35-nation board IAEA meeting, in comments made available to reporters.
Diplomats at the gathering described ElBaradei's comments as unusually blunt.
['unusually blunt' - now wonder Prez. I'manidiot just laughs at these folks. How about this one: "prove you're clean, or we'll assume you're dirty and act accordingly." Now that would be 'blunt' {and at least stand some chance of averting the coming violence}]
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The Modest Mahdist
If a foreign regime harbors terrorists, the United States will view that regime as a terrorist entity. But if you’ve done time as a terrorist yourself and harbored other terrorists, you’ll be treated like a visiting academic.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, currently overseeing military operations against American troops, is now enjoying his third Autumn in New York. To put this in perspective, remember that Cat Stevens couldn’t get into the U.S. for a few years because he changed his name to Yusuf Islam.
Is it any wonder Iran fails to take American power seriously?
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Henny Penny Goes Carbon-Free
Months had passed since we last talked with Ms. Henny-Penny, whose famous declaration -- "the sky is falling!" -- electrified the world. At the time, her barnyard colleagues quickly fell into line with her, save one, Chicken Little, who demurred. When last Ms. H-P and I talked, she scoffed at her former friend as a "denier."
So, the other day I called her to see how she was doing as the recording secretary of what was now the Holy Order of the Sky is Falling, the Hon. Al Gore, pontiff.
"I'm fine," she said, "but more importantly, Mr. Gore pontificated at a recent gathering in Washington and it was thrilling. He said we could switch all of the nation's electricity production to wind, solar and other carbon-free sources within 10 years."
Does he have any experts to back up that assertion, I asked. "Oh yes," she said. "Just the other day Nancy Pelosi at a news conference said the very same thing." [snip]
I reminded her that solar power now provides one-tenth of one percent of our electricity, with wind not much moresome; that 97 percent of carbon dioxide emissions come from nature, not humans; that ice core samples going back better than half-a-million years show that periodic temperature increases preceded changes in CO2 levels; and that gloom-and-doom scenarios offered by Al Gore and others were based on speculative computer models.
"So, Ms. H-P, while you may think the sky is falling and the globe is warming, the facts are otherwise. What do you think of that?"
Her reply was: "Cluck."
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Pelosi 'No Energy' Bill Part of House Draft CR
House Democrats are bypassing renewal of the offshore oil drilling ban by including the entire Pelosi “drill nothing” energy bill in a draft of a Continuing Resolution. Congress must pass a continuing resolution before September 30 in order to prevent a government shut-down for lack of funding.
The Democratic leadership has managed to do what hasn’t been done for about 70 years: go through an entire year without passing a single appropriations bill. Without appropriations measures, government agencies lack funds to operate. The CR will include measures to keep all agencies going at least until congress returns either later this year or when it reconvenes next year.
Now, the House leaders have included the “drill nothing” bill in a new draft Continuing Resolution. Section 152 of the draft CR says:[FEDERAL OIL AND GAS LEASING; INTERIOR]
If defeated by the Senate, there is every reason to believe that this maneuver will be repeated later this week, and that the House and Senate Democrats will make it a part of any deal with the President on his financial bailout package.
SEC. 152. Notwithstanding section 101, the terms and conditions for Federal oil and gas leasing set out in title I of the Comprehensive American Energy Security and Consumer Protection Act (H.R. 6899), as passed by the House of Representatives on September 16, 2008, shall apply in lieu of the terms and conditions in sections 104, 105, and 433 of division F of Public Law 110–161.
['the most ethical congress in history']
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The Party of Wall Street and Big Mouths
Only two [click!] of the top 20 corporate donors in the 2008 election cycle lean Republican . Of the top 100, only 15 lean Republican.
None of the top 15 industry sectors leans Republican . Only three of the top 20 do.
We knew that Democrats draw money from Lawyers (ranked #2, 75% to Democrats), Education (ranked #9, 79%) and TV/Movies/Music (ranked #10, 75%). But did you know that Securities/Investment firms ranked #3 and gave 56% to Democrats?
I notice a couple of things here. One is that the industries that produce or build real things give to Republicans. Democrats, on the other hand, receive their money from people who make money with their mouths: lawyers, actors, advertisers, etc.
The other thing to notice is the ranking. Teachers, those poor, underpaid souls, give more than the dreaded "Big Oil" industry. As does the entertainment industry. And lawyers give more than almost anyone (coming in second only to "retired", listed as "on the fence" in political donations). Lawyers give more than seven times as much as Big Oil. Securities and Investment firms give over five times as much.
It should be obvious that the "branding" of the parties is exactly backwards. The GOP is branded as the party of Wall Street and big money. In fact, it is the Democrats who get most of Wall Street's money and who raise more money, especially from the biggest special interest groups.
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Another Dem talking point proven false
The Democrats want you to believe that the Iraq War turned the world -- especially the Muslim world -- has turned against us because we toppled an evil killer of Muslims. Their prescription was to pull out our troops. So how do we explain this from the Jordan Times?AMMAN - Jordanian Muslims' support for Osama Ben Laden has dropped dramatically this year, with only 19 per cent expressing confidence in Al Qaeda leader, compared to 61 per cent three years ago, according to a study.
I wonder what support for bin Laden would be if we had run away and abandoned Iraq the way Obama urged a few years ago?
[recall the Arab world's penchant for 'strong horses']
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SoCal officials to pave over music-making asphalt
LANCASTER, Calif. - Residents of northern Los Angeles County are not grooving to this music.
Lancaster city officials said this week that they're paving over a quarter-mile strip of asphalt grooved to play the William Tell Overture when auto tires speed over it.
The road was completed this month as part of an ad campaign for Honda. It's engineered to play the overture — also known as the theme to "The Lone Ranger" — at perfect pitch for motorists driving Honda Civics at 55 mph.
But neighbors aren't amused. One says the road music sounds like a high-pitched drone. Another says it keeps him and his wife up at night.
Lancaster officials plan to pave over the grooves Tuesday.
[who knew they could do that]
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