Jun

2

Thursday’s Thoughts, On Wednesday

Category: Our Nation, Politics | Comments Off | 630 words | Print

Thought #1

There’s something wrong with an employer which takes applications, but disqualifies anyone currently unemployed. I wonder who the moron is that came up with this idea.

If you’re unemployed, don’t even bother applying. That’s a message some job seekers are seeing as they look for their next paycheck.

It’s not the kind of message Peter May expected to see on a job listing. But when he visited the Web site for “The People Place”, an Orlando-based recruiter, there it was, in all caps, bold type: “No unemployed candidates will be considered at all.”

I definitely won’t be purchasing any Sony Ericsson products in the future. If they aren’t going to consider candidates who actually need jobs, I am not going to spend my money on any of their consumer electronics when I actually need something.

Thought #2

Nancy Pelosi says that government policy should be dictated by “The Word”. The same woman who voted to allow partial-birth abortions now says we must all answer to “The Word Made Flesh”. Has Nanny State Nancy been enlightened? Has she seen the light? That, my friends, is the great mystery.

Thought #3

Justice Sotomayor has already proven her appointment to the Supreme Court was a huge mistake.

In a case before the court pertaining to Miranda rights, the Court ruled 5-4 that suspects must implicitly invoke their right to remain silent.

The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a criminal suspect must explicitly invoke the right to remain silent during a police interrogation, a decision that dissenting liberal justices said turns the protections of a Miranda warning “upside down.”

The court ruled 5 to 4 that a Michigan defendant who incriminated himself in a fatal shooting after nearly three hours of questioning thus gave up his right to silence, and the statement could be used against him at trial.

…

In the case about Miranda rights, suspect Van Chester Thompkins remained mostly silent for three hours of interrogation after reading and being told of his rights to remain silent and have an attorney. He neither acknowledged that he was willing to talk nor that he wanted questioning to stop.
But detectives persisted in what one called mostly a “monologue” until asking Thompkins whether he believed in God. When asked, “Do you pray to God to forgive you for shooting that boy down?” Thompkins looked away and answered, “Yes.”

The statement was used against him, and Thompkins was convicted of killing Samuel Morris outside a strip mall in Southfield, Mich.

So what did Justice Sotomayor have to say about this?

“Today’s decision turns Miranda upside down,” wrote Sotomayor. “Criminal suspects must now unambiguously invoke their right to remain silent, which, counterintuitively, requires them to speak.” She was joined by Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer.

Suspects must invoke their right to remain silent? Duh! Of course they do. Miranda states, “You have the right to remain silent”. If you don’t, well, anything you say can, and will, be used against you in a court of law.

Hello!?! Dumbass! If you choose to remain silent, you must… How do I write this in a way you’ll understand? I guess I’ll just come out and write it. If you choose to remain silent, then keep your frickin’ mouth shut. Don’t say a word. Don’t mumble, don’t stutter, don’t utter one word. Silence is just that. SILENT.

The scariest part about this decision is that four U.S. Supreme Court Justices (Sotomayor, Stevens, Ginsburg, and Breyer) actually think the right to remain silent is automatically implied by the reading of Miranda. They actually think suspects are being treated unfairly if they don’t remain silent. Does the oath for members of the Supreme Court include the right to remain stupid?

Mar

29

Enough Is Enough

Category: Life, Politics, Society | Comments Off | 231 words | Print

As I said the other night, I was busy with a project.

Last Friday, after an organizational meeting for the Douglas County TEA Party, I began production of a new website for the organization. At 11:00 pm this evening, I put the finishing touches on it, and put it live.

You can view it at www.douglascountyteaparty.com.

I need to acknowledge all of the hard work that the organizers of the Douglas County TEA Party have done. The upcoming TEA Party will be the best one yet, so you might want to keep June 4th free on your calendar.

In a world where most people used to care less about what’s happening in Washington, let alone right outside their own door, I have to thank President Obama, Speaker of the House Nanny State Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Scary Harry Reid for awakening Americans across this great nation. If it wasn’t for their insane economic and political policies, people would still be oblivious to what’s happening around them.

Now that they are awakening it’s our job, as fellow citizens of this country, to educate and inform them. It’s time we all stand up and say “ENOUGH!” It’s time to stop the spending. It’s time to stop increasing the role of the government. It’s time to stop trampling the Constitution. Enough is enough!

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Mar

20

Wheeling And Dealing In Washington

Category: Life, Our Nation, Politics | Comments Off | 5,258 words | Print

While Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi wheeled and dealed for health care votes today, we spent the afternoon at the 6th annual Rednation Pow-Wow.

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We spent our afternoon with friends and fellow camera club members, while Nancy Pelosi kept spinning her web in Washington, D.C. How confident are you with this health care bill? Remember now, Nancy Pelosi has been wheeling and dealing, offering political bribes for votes. She’ll do anything she can to get this bill passed. I wouldn’t be surprised if she has sold the souls of her grandchildren to the devil to ensure the bill’s passage.

For the past week we’ve heard, and I’ve wirtten about, the “deem and pass” proposal. This was also known as the Slaughter “rule” or the Slaughter solution. The proposed rule is unconstitutional by any interpretation of the law and today House leadership announced they will be abandoning the “deem and pass” rule.

The House appears set now to move toward an up-or-down vote on the Senate healthcare bill, as well as a separate, up-or-down vote on the series of changes to that bill. There will still be a vote on the rule, as there always is for a piece of legislation, though it will not package the two bills together.

So why did they abandon their “plan A”? Did people make enough noise that they finally heard the voice of the American people? Or do they have some other nefarious plan up their sleeves?

An estimated 30,000 – 50,000 people showed up in Washington today to voice their concerns about the bill. I wish I could have been there.

The House Committee on Rules released the summary of amendments for H.R. 4872 – the Reconciliation Act of 2010, which will modify the bill (if the Senate approves these amendments as well) once it is passed. The following is a list of those proposed amendments.

Read more

Mar

17

Reconciling Congress

Category: Opinions, Our Nation, Politics | Comments Off | 216 words | Print

Are you looking to save some money if “ObamaCare” becomes law?

Buyers, beware: President Barack Obama says his health care overhaul will lower premiums by double digits, but check the fine print.

Premiums are likely to keep going up even if the health care bill passes, experts say. If cost controls work as advertised, annual increases would level off with time. But don’t look for a rollback. Instead, the main reason premiums would be more affordable is that new government tax credits would help cover the cost for millions of people.

Listening to Obama pitch his plan, you might not realize that’s how it works.

Say what? Did the AP really question The Failed One®’s plan? Don’t they know he could smite them all with his teleprompter if he chose to do so?

Steny Hoyer, Nancy Pelosi’s left-hand man, confirmed that the Democratic leaders of the U.S. House Of Representatives will knowingly violate the U.S. Constitution while bringing the reconciliation bill to the floor for a vote.

The procedural sleight of hand Hoyer was referring to has become know as the Slaughter Solution and would involve the House Rules Committee drafting a rule that would merely deem the Senate health bill passed if Congress approved a budget reconciliation measure.

 

 

Stay tuned… It’s time to reconcile Congress.

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Mar

16

Like Lambs To The Slaughter House

Category: Opinions, Our Nation, Politics | Comments Off | 772 words | Print

We’re still waiting to see what’s actually in the bill they are going to attempt to “deem as passed”.

For weeks now we have heard President Obama tell us all why he thinks this health care bill should pass. Of course, no matter how much he speaks, he never actually gives one good reason for believing so. Back room deals have been made, arms have been twisted, and now he’s resorting to threats to get the bill passed.

The president will refuse to make fund-raising visits during November elections to any district whose representative has not backed the bill.

A one-night presidential appearance can bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars in funds which would otherwise take months to accumulate through cold-calling by campaign volunteers.

So there you have it. If a Democrat does not back the current bill, President Obama plans to hang them out to dry come November.

That really isn’t an issue though. In fact, it’s quite an incentive to oppose the bill. Each candidate Barack Obama has campaigned for, has lost their bid for re-election.

Back in November, he campaigned for Jon Corzine in New Jersey yet Chris Christie won by more than 5 percentage points. He campaigned in Virginia for Creigh Deeds and Bob McConnell ran away with the election with an 18 percent margin. This year, Scott Brown defeated Martha Coakley by more than 4 points in the special election to fill Edward “Fat Teddy” Kennedy’s seat in Massachusetts.

Forget the fact that voting against this bill will solidify any re-election chances, if I was a Democrat serving in the U.S. House of Representatives or the U.S. Senate and I was up for re-election this year, I would still be voicing my opposition to this bill.

It doesn’t make sense to pass this bill when it adds so much to our federal deficit, takes away our rights as Americans, and will end up burdening the American taxpayers for years to come.

President Obama has been lying about this health care bill for so long, he ‘s no longer even trying to pretend anymore.

Watch this video, where he states, “Your employer, it’s estimated, would see premiums fall by as much as 3000 percent which means they could give you a raise.”

Sounds good doesn’t it? Let’s presume your employer is paying $400 per month for your insurance. Do the math people. If the premium for your coverage dropped 3000% that means your employer would save $12,000 per month just on your coverage alone. Does this mean your employer will be paid by the government $11,600 per month to employ you? Premiums cannot drop more than 100% before you hit $0.00. Again, do the math.

In an article at American Spectator today, Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) wrote,

First, using the “Slaughter House Rules” to skirt a substantive vote and “deem as passed” the Senate’s government-run health care bill would violate constitutionally prescribed procedures for duly passing and enacting federal legislation. Obviously, this dysfunctional legislative branch’s Leftist majority cares little about this pesky “supreme law of the land.”

Nancy Pelosi may like the idea, but Article I, Section VII, Clause II of the U.S. Constitution states,

Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by Yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively…

If Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, Louise Slaughter, Harry Reid, and President Barack Obama (also known as the SlaughterHouse Five) use the “Slaughter House Rules” to pass this bill, the bill itself will be tied up in the courts longer than it would take to pay for the bill in the first place and Democrats will be defeated (like lambs to the slaughterhouse) left and right this coming election.

Meanwhile, we wait to see what’s going to be in the bill.

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Mar

9

Lost In The Void

Category: Opinions, Politics | Comments Off | 647 words | Print

Just a couple quick thoughts tonight, as I am up to my ears in a few things that some people call “real” life. I don’t understand why people separate their activities into “online” and “real” life.

I have been working with computers, BBS’s, and the Internet for so long that my “online” life and “real” life seem to be one in the same. I met my wife online, we found a place to live online, we both have businesses online, and our kids have their own laptops and blog, online.

If someone you know separates the two then you know something about them. Either they are hiding what they do online from their “real” life friends, or they are hiding their “real” life friends from their activities online. Some people may have justification (ie: abusive ex-spouses, jobs, etc) for doing so, but it’s all still real isn’t it? Just because they spent six hours in WoW doesn’t mean their butt wasn’t physically in that chair the whole time.

So, I was sitting here today and I read that the Obama administration is working to ban recreational fishing.

Led by NOAA’s Jane Lubchenco, the task force has shown no overt dislike of recreational angling, but its indifference to the economic, social and biological value of the sport has been deafening.

Additionally, Lubchenco and others in the administration have close ties to environmental groups who would like nothing better than to ban recreational angling. And evidence suggests that these organizations have been the engine behind the task force since before Obama issued a memo creating it last June.

While the article may (or may not) be stretching things a bit, Barack Obama has proven that anything is possible when you consider all of the other asinine ideas he’s come up with.

Is President Obama working to ban recreational fishing? Good luck with that Barry.

After reading that previous article, and wondering what I am going to do with all my tackle supplies if they do ban recreational fishing, I read that Senate Democrats are trying to add an overhaul of federal student loans into the health care reform package.

It seems they have a slight problem with scheduling and if they don’t act fast, they may just have to wait to do one or the other and you know they aren’t waiting on health care.

I don’t think they’ll add it into the bill. They’re having enough trouble getting the votes they need on health care, let alone opening that big ol’ can of worms.

If the Obama administration hadn’t been trying to ban recreational fishing those worms would have come in handy if we went fishing for the next moronic statement from Democratic leadership. Thanks to Nancy Pelosi, we don’t have too.

You’ve heard about the controversies within the bill, the process about the bill, one or the other. But I don’t know if you have heard that it is legislation for the future, not just about health care for America, but about a healthier America, where preventive care is not something that you have to pay a deductible for or out of pocket. Prevention, prevention, prevention—it’s about diet, not diabetes. It’s going to be very, very exciting. But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy.

Did you catch that? We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in the bill. Get real, Nancy!

Banning recreational fishing, adding budgetary items to a bill they want to reconcile, and blubbering about bills that can’t be read. It sounds like some strange twisted alternate reality to me.

Maybe there is some separation between “online” and “real” life. If so, then I must be lost in the void between them.

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Mar

4

Enough Already, It’s Time To Listen!

Category: Opinions, Our Nation, Politics | Comments Off | 1,000 words | Print

As you know, President Obama spoke to the American people on Wednesday. He spoke about health care. Again. During his speech he spoke about some changes in the current health care bill. You remember the current health care bill don’t you? Yeah, that’s right, it’s the one that 2/3 of the American people don’t want!

I think this was speech number 500 or something. Do I really need to see the President of the United States every day on my television? Do I need to hear his voice every day on the radio? If Barack Obama was as smart as he wants us all to think he is, he would shut up already, and he would do it now.

Let’s look at some of the things he had to say, shall we?

  1. He said, “The bottom line is: our proposal is paid for.”

    Don’t be so sure about that. The CBO (the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office) has said that it lacks sufficient details to evaluate the President’s plan. There’s no way for him to honestly claim that this “new” proposal is paid for.

  2. He said, “Now, it’s true that all of this will cost money – about $100 billion per year.”

    Over the course of 10 years, that $100 billion per year will add up to $1 trillion in costs. Costs he just claimed were “paid for”. If that cost is paid for, that means your taxes are going up and you haven’t even started paying for the new health care you’re going to be receiving yet!

  3. He said, “Finally, my proposal would bring down the cost of health care…”

    Wait. How can you bring down the cost of health care, when you’re paying $1 trillion for it before you even know what the actual costs are going be? Remember, he said it would cost $100 billion per year and the CBO hasn’t been able to verify anything about the proposal!

    Many non-partisan experts, within the CBO and the Obama Administration itself have said the Senate bill will raise premium costs for families on the individual market by an average $2,100 and raise national health spending overall. So which part of those facts show his proposal “brings down the cost of health care”?

  4. He said, “I don’t believe we should give government bureaucrats … more control over health care in America.”

    His “new” proposal creates more than 160 new boards, commissions and programs. Billions and billions (probably $100 billion) in wasteful government bureaucracy firmly planted between you and available health care.

It’s no secret that I disapprove of President Obama, but just once I would like to believe something, anything, that comes out of his mouth once he starts to make a statement. Heck, even when he starts with the words “Good Afternoon”, it usually isn’t. Have you seen the economy lately?

If his speech was meant to “rally the American people” he needs to fire his speech writers and spokespeople, immediately. All he has done is rehash all of the same aspects of a health care bill that the American people have already said they don’t want. During the presidential campaign, he made a comment about “lipstick on a pig”. If this isn’t the biggest pig to be painting lipstick on, I don’t know what is.

In addition to the cosmetic surgery he performed on the horrible health care bill, President Obama has made it clear he intends to have it pushed through Congress using reconciliation which requires a simple majority in both the House and the Senate.

By doing so, every member of the Senate and every member of the House up for re-election, who vote to pass the bill this way, will face intense scrutiny from the voters in November. My bet is less than 25 percent of them will keep their jobs. That is, if the bill ever makes it way back to the House floor at all. Steny Hoyer says they don’t even have a bill yet.

Democratic leaders are contending with a host of undecided lawmakers who want to see the fine print before making a decision. Hoyer said final language and a cost estimate should come back from the Congressional Budget Office by the end of next week.

“At this point in time we don’t have a bill,” Hoyer said. “It’s a little difficult to count votes if you don’t have a bill.”

Once again, our Congressional leaders are pimping a bill no one has seen yet. It hasn’t even been written, yet the President has spoken to the American people encouraging them to support whatever it is that they may write in the future.

The President wants Congress to act before he leaves on his trip to Asia on March 18th. Both Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer say it’s “doable”. I don’t think so, neither does Howard Dean.

Passing the healthcare proposals before Congress will “hang out to dry” every Democratic incumbent running for reelection this fall, Howard Dean said Thursday.

Dean, a physician by training who’s a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), said that Democrats in Congress — and President Barack Obama — would do themselves more harm than good by passing the current healthcare bill.

How long can the Democrats ignore the will of the American people even when their own party members begin speaking out against the bill? It won’t be much longer, I can guarantee you that.

It’s time to start over. Toss out the current bill, sit down at the table to discuss the real issues, and put together a real health care proposal that makes sense.

If the Democrats don’t see this is the best way to move forward on health care, it’s time to vote them all out of office.

It’s time to get leaders in those seats who know how to listen to the American people.

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Mar

1

It’s Time To Send The Painted Lady Packing

Category: Opinions, Our Nation, Politics | Comments Off | 635 words | Print

Do you remember a couple of years ago when House Republicans were asking Nancy Pelosi to come back to Washington so something could be done about rising energy costs in America? If you’ve been following me for any length of time, I’m sure you remember, but just in case…

 

I remember it well because I posted videos every day, sometimes more than one per day to help get the word out. Republicans simply wanted the chance to debate the matter. Funny thing. Barack Obama was not President at that time, but people seem to forget that Nanny State Nancy and Scary Harry have controlled the House and the Senate for several years now. They have been stifling debate from day one.

The Democrats accuse the Republicans of “stalling tactics” when it comes to health-care, but the Republicans are simply standing up for the American people. They did it with immigration, they did it with the energy bill, and they are doing it again now. They’re not perfect, and many of them have their own faults, but the Republicans are simply speaking (and acting) for their constituents.

The American people do not like the current bills that have been introduced by the White House, the House, or the Senate. Nancy Pelosi avoids the fact that House Republicans have introduced 70 different bills and amendments, 66 of which haven’t even seen the light of day in committee or on the House floor. Instead, President Obama, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi claim the Republicans don’t have a solution. You can only sweep so much under the rug before you trip on it!

Now, even though the bill is unpopular with the majority of the American people, President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid are planning to shove the bill through with ‘reconciliation’ which only requires a simple majority vote.

The White House called for a “simple up-or-down” vote on health care legislation Sunday as Speaker Nancy Pelosi appealed to House Democrats to get behind President Barack Obama’s chief domestic priority even it if threatens their political careers.

In voicing support for a simple majority vote, White House health reform director Nancy-Ann DeParle signaled Obama’s intention to push the Democratic-crafted bill under Senate rules that would overcome GOP stalling tactics.

A simple majority vote wasn’t good enough in the House when the Republicans wanted to introduce their own energy bill. What makes it good enough now?

Hasn’t America been led in the wrong direction long enough? The American people want a health-care solution that works. The American people have made it clear they do not like the health-care plan Democrats have proposed, and we can’t develop a new one if Democrats won’t discuss it.

Just yesterday, Nancy Pelosi said, ” A bill can be bipartisan without bipartisan votes“. She’s so out of touch with reality she can’t even speak coherently.

She is even urging her colleagues to back the current health-care plan even if it threatens their political careers because she feels the American people are not educated enough to know when they see, hear and smell the bullshit contained in the current bills being bandied about on the Hill.

What happened to the Democrat plan to lead from 2006? What about their plan to govern? Locking down the House and Senate, intimidating and bribing members into voting for their proposals, and stifling the other side of the debate is not leading or governing.

It’s criminal and it’s time for them to go.

The Democrats in Washington, D.C. have made one thing clear. Whether the issue is immigration, energy, or health-care, they have no idea what the American people want and it’s high time we, the American people, sent them a message and send them packing.

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Feb

24

Seventy Bills And Counting. Who’s Obstructing Now?

Category: Opinions, Our Nation, Politics | 1 Comment | 913 words | Print

Democrats on Capitol Hill have been pushing a health care bill that the majority of the American people do not like and do not want. President Obama has repeated over and over that he would welcome a discussion of ideas from those on the other side of the aisle (aka the Republicans).

I read through the first version of the bill (as introduced in the House of Representatives) and wrote about it over the course of several days right here on this blog. I read through the second version (as introduced in the Senate) and wrote about that one too.

At the time, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi refused to allow amendments from the other side of the aisle (aka the Republicans). Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid tried to push the bill through the Senate with almost no debate and no amendments from the other side of the aisle (aka the Republicans).

The American people have made one thing clear since the initial bill was introduced. They do not like the bill. They do not agree with many provisions in the bill. They do not want that bill. Many politicians from both sides of the aisle have said it would be better to just start over and do it right from the beginning.

Instead of starting over, President Obama has made it clear that he intends to help shove this poor idea of a health-care bill down the throats of the American people. This week, President Obama introduced a re-hashed version of the Senate bill, or was it the House bill? Does it matter? It’s a re-hash of the same old thing that even moderate Democrats do not feel comfortable debating let alone voting for. President Obama is holding a health-care summit at the White House tomorrow, but he will only consider ideas that address the goals contained in the Democratic plans already passed by the House and the Senate. In other words, he welcomes ideas that are the same as his.

What’s the point of welcoming ideas if you are going to restrict them so that they accomplish the exact same thing your current ideas already accomplish? That doesn’t make sense at all. That would be like asking me to provide two web designs that look completely different on the front end but are exactly the same and accomplish the same goal on the back end. The substance would be the same, but you’d get different eye candy when making it all work.

Websites are all about eye-candy, but health-care isnt. We’re talking about health-care here, not eye candy. WHO CARES what it looks like if it does the same thing NO ONE likes in the first place?

For months now, President Obama, his administration, Nanny State Nancy, Scary Harry Reid, and others, have claimed that the Republicans on Capitol Hill are acting as obstructionists who have no real plan(s) of their own. That, my friends, is another big fat lie from The Failed One%reg; and his henchmen.

Did you know that the Republicans have introduced 70 health care related bills during the 111th Congress alone? Republicans have been introducing health care bills as early as January of 2009. Do you have any idea how many of those bills have been considered in committee, let alone made it to the House floor?

The answer would be four. Yes, four. Just four.

One was voted on and passed. One was attached to H.R. 3200 in committee. Two others failed by a large margin on the House floor. The other 66 haven’t even been considered by Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic majority. Nothing. Nada. Read them for yourself (PDF). Those bills don’t even take into account H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act.

The definition of an obstructionist is ‘one who systematically blocks or interrupts a process’. If the Democrats want to claim Republicans are acting like obstructionists as they attempt to kill this bill that a majority of Americans do not want in the first place, then the Democrats too, by the very definition of the word itself, are acting like obstructionists by not even considering alternatives or amendments from the other side of the aisle.

For months I have heard Nancy Pelosi say that it’s time for Republicans to act in a bipartisan manner to get a health-care bill passed on the Hill. The fact remains that Republicans have been trying for more than a year now, but Pelosi herself keeps slamming the door on them.

Some of you may be chomping at the bit to say “well, Republicans did this when they controlled Congress too, so what’s the difference?”. If Republicans did it in the past, does that make it all right for the Democrats to do the same thing right now? Does keeping an attitude like that accomplish anything?

It’s high time for Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to stop their petty political games and sit down at the table with Republicans so they can all work together and get something done. It’s time for everyone to stop focusing on themselves and their political careers and start focusing on what’s right for the people of our country. You know, the people back home who are actually affected by their childish behavior taking place on Capitol Hill.

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Jan

11

Something Stinks, And It Isn’t Caviar

Category: Economics, Our Nation | Comments Off | 559 words | Print

It’s no secret, times are tough. Many families are struggling to keep up with their bills and some are having a hard time keeping food on the table.

With the costs associated with the bailout fiascos introduced by the Bush administration and the continued bailouts, stimulus packages, and proposed health care tax increases by the Obama administration families across this country will have a rough time for an extended period of time.

During this time of economic upheaval, the administration as well as members of Congress should be cutting back, shouldn’t they? Shouldn’t they be trying to save money wherever possible, especially when many of their expenses are paid by us, the American people?

With the idea of “cutting back” in your mind, guess how many members of Congress made the trip to Copenhagen for the climate change conference last month? Three? Five? Ten? How about Twenty?

CBS investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports that cameras spotted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the summit. She called the shots on who got to go. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and embattled Chairman of the Tax Committee Charles Rangel were also there.

They were joined by 17 colleagues: Democrats: Waxman, Miller, Markey, Gordon, Levin, Blumenauer, DeGette, Inslee, Ryan, Butterfield, Cleaver, Giffords, and Republicans: Barton, Upton, Moore Capito, Sullivan, Blackburn and Sensenbrenner.

Why did the United States need 20 members of Congress at this conference? I guess we won’t know because Speaker Pelosi’s office hasn’t released any cost estimates and would not agree to be interviewed by the reporter who wrote the article.

So how did they get there? They used two military 737′s and a Gulfstream 5 to get there. The Gulfstream held up to 64 passengers.

But wait. There is more.

Additional Senators (with their staff) also attended the conference, some with their spouses. To be fair, the spouses may have utilized open seats on the military jet, and the room costs were the same whether there was one person or two sleeping there.

CBS reports that there were up to “101 Congress-related” attendees. They also report:

Until required filings are made in the coming weeks, we can only figure bits and pieces of the cost to you.

  • Three military jets at $9,900 per hour – $168,000 just in flight time.
  • Dozens flew commercial at up to $2,000 each.
  • 321 hotel nights booked – the bulk at Copenhagen’s five-star Marriott.
  • Meals add tens of thousands more.

Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense, wasn’t against a U.S. presence. But he said, “Every penny counts. Congress should be shaking the couch cushions looking for change, rather than spending cash for everybody to go to Copenhagen.”

I agree completely. I don’t care what they’re reasoning is, did we really need to send such a large presence to the conference and produce enough carbon dioxide to fill 10,000 Olympic sized swimming pools? I thought the conference was all about climate change and saving the planet?

Forget the checkbooks and accountability for a second. The members of Congress who attended the conference did more to choke our planet in one day than you, and I, and a hundred of our friends would (or could) in an entire year.

Kudos to CBS for calling out Congress on this one. The problem with members of Congress is they aren’t used to being held accountable for anything.

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