Monday, August 6, 2012

Political Class Insanity, August, 2012. Part 2 - Stealing From A 9-11 Charity, Dogs Vote, Obama Official Wants To Be Like China, and More

Last Friday we did the first half of political class insanity for the month of August, 2012. As we discussed yesterday, the continuing volume of insanity and idiocy coming out of the American Washington political class requires that we now devote two days worth of blog posts to get it all covered. Yesterday was the first day, today continues the insanity we have uncovered in just the past 30 days:

- According to a May 29, 2012 article from the Associated Press, after the 9-11 terrorists attacks, California lawmakers created a program to honor those Californians that perished during the attacks to support their families. The program they came up with was to create a specialty auto memorial license plates that carried the words, "We Will Never Forget."

Fifteen percent of the money raised through the sale of the plates was to supposed fund scholarships for children of California residents who perished in the attacks, while the remaining funds were supposed to help fund anti-terrorism efforts. Nice thought, bad execution.

The Associated Press article reported that of the $15 million generated since the onset of the program, only a small fraction of the money went to scholarships. While 40 percent has funded anti-terror training programs, $3 million was raided by Gov. Jerry Brown and his predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, to plug the state's budget deficit.

Thus, not only did the 9-11 families not the funds promised to them, only 40% of the funds went to anti-terrorism activities while the remaining funds have been spent on budget items with little relation to direct threats of terrorism, including livestock diseases and workplace safety. Despicable bait and switch tactics from California's politicians, an insult to the memory of those that were murdered in the 9-11 attacks.

- According to a Foreign Policy article on its website on July 5, 2012, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood argued that China outpaces the United States in building major transportation infrastructure like high-speed rail because of its authoritarian system:

"The Chinese are more successful [in building infrastructure] because in their country, only three people make the decision. In our country, 3,000 people do, 3 million," LaHood said in a short interview with The Cable on the sidelines of the 2012 Aspen Ideas Festival on June 30. "In a country where only three people make the decision, they can decide where to put their rail line, get the money, and do it. We don't do it that way in America."

According to Secretary Lahood, it truly is a shame that democracy gets in his way. Better to have a small dictatorial politburo of bureaucrats seize taxpayer money and spend it anyway they want since they are obviously smarter than everyone else in the nation. LaHood went out of his way to blame Republicans in Congress and the Tea Party for insisting that democracy be part of any government decision.

We will be dedicating an entire blog post to the fatal and economic failure of this Chinese approach to high speed train along with the failures of the same concept in this country in the near future.

- A July 13, 2012 Associated press article reviewed the efforts of the Voter Participation Center. The Center apparently has been bragging  about their distribution of some 5 million voter registration forms in recent weeks, targeting Democratic-leaning voting blocs such as unmarried women, blacks, Latinos and young adults. However, there were a few problems with their effort:

  • Rosie Charlston's name was complete and accurate as was her Seattle address. Unfortunately, Rosie was a black Labrador dog who died in 1998.
  • A Virginia man and woman received similar voter registration documents for his dead dog and her cat.
  • The AP article reported that this organization also sent voter registration forms to people who were dead, non-citizens, or below the legal age to vote.
Makes you wonder if we are still the land of "one person, one vote" principle or we are becoming the Chicago voting system where one is encouraged to "vote early and vote often."

- I always love it when politicians talk because sooner or later they show how idiotic their behavior is. Recently, the House Of Representatives passed a bill that would audit the Federal Reserve Board and investigate some of its inner, secret workings. The words "secret" and "government" should never appear together, like it often does in reference to the Fed, so I applaud this bill in the House. The vote was overwhelming in favor, more than a three to one vote in favor with support from both parties.

But Steny Hoyer, a Democratic Party Congressman from Maryland, opposed the legislation for the following reason: "Congressional review of the Fed's monetary policy decisions would be a nightmarish scenario, especially judging by the track record of this Congress when it comes to governing effectively." I could not agree with Mr. Hoyer more, the track record of this Congress and EVERY politician serving in it has been disgraceful, lacking of integrity, lacking of brain power, and lacking of a positive track record.

So in Mr. Hoyer's world we should not investigate a Federal government organization that secretly commits TRILLIONS of dollars of U.S. taxpayer wealth in potentially dubious ways because Congress is incompetent. Insanity.

- An August 3, 2012 Associated Press article reported that Congress has gone out of session and Congressional members will now get a five week vacation. The article reported that these people left town without solving some short term problems affecting many Americans including providing support to farmers hard hit by the drought and how to protect America's infrastructure from cyber attacks.

Of course, they also left for a five week vacation without solving any of the country's long term problems like escalating health care costs, high unemployment, almost $16 TRILLION of national debt, leaky borders, etc. Nice work if you can get this Congress gig, high pay, the best benefits, no pressure to get anything accomplished, and the best vacation plan in the world.

Insanity, lunacy, idiocy, and more, all courtesy of the American political class and the government functions it mismanages every day.

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.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at http://www.loathemygovernment.com/. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/

No comments: