Political Class Insanity, August, 2012, Part 1 - When Secrets Are Not Secrets, When Green Looks Like Red, And Other Political Insanity

Every month since we began this blog we have taken time out to review the latest insanity, idiocy, waste, and bad priorities from the political class at all levels of government. Unfortunately, as we have gone through time, one posting every month has not been enough to cover all of the insanity. Same this month, we will need today and tomorrow's posts to get it all in as we go through political silly season, i.e. the run up to the November elections.

Thus, here is the first batch of insanity for this month:

- The July 2, 2012 issue of Business Week reported that the latest Farm Bill working its way through Congress contains a $1.2 million allocation of taxpayer money to North Carolina producers of roses "to study how to extend the vase life of flowers." Of all the problems facing the nation and its citizens today, where on that list of top 50 problems would the "vase life of flowers fall" and is it worthy of even $1 dollar of taxpayer wealth never mind $1.2 million?

- The same article from Business Week reported that the American taxpayer paid American cotton farmers $639 million in direct payments. However, this kind of direct payment is a violation of existing free trade agreements, so the American taxpayer, via the Washington political class, had to also cough up another $147 million, which was really blackmail money paid to Brazilian cotton farmers to not object and legally retaliate for the trade violation.

- The LA Times recently reported, as summarized in the July 20, 2012 issue of The Week magazine, political class advertising this year will be close to $10 billion nationwide, according to Borell Associates, a media consulting firm. If true, this would be a whopping 43% increase over the 2008 Presidential election cycle. Imagine how much more long term good for humanity $10 billion would do rather than wasting it on negative, false, and misleading political advertising and activities.

- A New York Post article, which was summarized in the July 6, 2012 issue of The Week magazine, reported that an airline terminal at JFK airport was shut down and hundreds of travelers were forced to go through security checkpoints again. The reason? A TSA baggage screener realized that his metal detector was unplugged.

Makes you wonder why the TSA screener did not see the problem right away before hundreds of people had gone through his station. Or as a local law enforcement is quoted as saying: "This is a failing of the most basic level of diligence." Stating the obvious was never so obvious.

- A July 23, 2012 Associated Press article focused on the security leaks that have occurred from the highest levels of the Federal government and reported: "U.S. officials said the number of people with access to some of the nation's most carefully guarded secrets topped 4.86 million in 2011."

I do not care how careful the Federal government is with the nation's secrets, I would no longer consider them "secret" if 4.86 million people have access to them. I think they move from the realm of secret to the realm of common knowledge at that point in time.

- One of the largest tragedies of the 9-11 attacks is that many of those who hijacked the airplanes that crashed into the Twin Towers and the  Pentagon learned how to fly those plans by attending flight training schools right here in this country. As a result, the Federal government maintains a no-fly list to try and stop suspicious people from ever getting on a plane and duplicating this means of terrorist attack.

However, according to an Associated Press article from July 18, 2012, the Federal government never took what seems like the logical step of preventing the 500 or so American citizens on this terrorist no-fly list from taking flight training lessons from training schools in this country. This astounding security screwup came to light in Congressional Homeland Security hearings last month.

And a further screwup, according to the article, is that Homeland Security does not know whether an American on the terrorist no-fly list has actually undergone flight training in the U.S. in the past 10 years. Unbelievable, have we learned nothing about terrorism since the attacks?

- And finally for today, this little news brief from North Carolina. According to a news report from a local North Carolina news source (http://www.wral.com/news/state/nccapitol/blogpost/11274640/), the Governor of North Carolina, Bev Perdue, was trying to prevent one of her vetoes from being overturned.

Her veto was relative to fracking, a controversial method of extracting oil and natural gas form the ground. The Governor did not want this procedure to be implemented in her state and the legislature was trying to override the veto she had done over a bill that would allow fracking.

Unfortunately, one of her anti-fracking supporters in the state assembly hit the wrong button when the vote came up in the Assembly and this screw up was the deciding vote that allowed the Assembly to override the Governor's veto. She hit the green button to override the veto when should have hit the red button to uphold the veto. North Carolina legislature rules do not allow a lawmaker to change their vote once it is cast if it will change the outcome of the overall results.

The supporter said she was tired and that is why she hit the wrong button. Seems she is like the rest of us, tired of politicians that do not get it right, not even when it comes to determining the difference between a red button and a green button.

Tune in tomorrow for other tales from the crypt, also known as the American political class.

Please visit our Presidential website, "The United States Of Purple," at:

http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/

The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.

The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.

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Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.cato.org/
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http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
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http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/