October, 2014, Part 7 Political Class Insanity: Rich But Ineffective Politicians, The Transparent Administration That Isn't, Hawaii Going Bankrupt and More

It is the beginning of another month which means it is time to check in with the American political class to see what insanity they have wrought over the past month or so. It is always amazing to follow the exploits, quotes, and actions of our politicians and the government entities they operate to see how often idiocy, incompetence, and heartbreak are almost always the output from their actions.

We started dong these updates several years ago, usually taking one or two days every month to get all of their insanity covered. Unfortunately, over time, the insanity has seemed to accelerate almost exponentially, causing us to now have to take six or seven posts each month to get it all in. This month will be no different. As our foreign policy implodes, the economy stagnates, and the midtem elections approach, the insanity levels are intensifying daily.

To check out past instances of political class insanity in this post, simply go to the first week of each month and check out the posts that begin, “Political class Insanity.” This is the seventh entry in this series for this month, with the first six posts appearing over the past few days.

For the latest insanity, read on:

1) Fiscal and economic insanity is not restricted to Washington. Many times we have discussed the financial abyss in front of states like California and cities like Chicago. We can now add the state of Hawaii to that list of poorly run state governments.

Senate Minority Leader Sam Slom recently warned his fellow Hawaiian lawmakers he has serious concerns about the state’s economic future because of the following financial numbers and realities:

• “Hawaii is set to go bust in 2016 unless the new governor and the state legislature make some serious cuts,” Slom said.
• Since he claims that Hawaii is already one of the highest taxing states in the union already, raising taxes even more will have the least desirable financial benefits to the state and its residents.
• He cites work done by the state Council on Revenues, an appointed Hawaiian entity that forecasts economic trends in Hawaii from which lawmakers create their budget, which predicts that the state will have $76 million less revenue than anticipated to work with in 2014 and $188 million less in 2015. 
• That is a $264 million deficit in just one two-year budget cycle.
• Even though the governor has told state government departments to cut their budgets by 10% over the next two years, those reductions, if they occur, will reduce government spending by only $14 million within the overall state budget of $6 billion.
• This will force the state to go into an emergency reserve budget to cover the shortfall, but which does not resolve the long term budget and spending crisis.

Looks like Detroit and Stockton, California and other government entities that have spent themselves into insolvency will soon have another member of their dubious club, the state of Hawaii.

2) In the recent past we discussed the good news that the state of California was moving to enact legislation that would limit the amount of spying law enforcement could do in California via drone operations. Their effort would have made it illegal to use drones to spy on California citizens without first showing probable cause and obtaining a search warrant from a judge. This is great news from a freedom and liberty perspective since it would have respected the privacy of innocent citizens while preserving all of our rights under the Fourth Amendment.

Good news accept for the fact that for some daft reason, Jerry brown, the governor of California, vetoed the bill, at least temporarily preserving the right of the government and law enforcement to spy on you in the state as it sees fit, without judicial oversight. He did this even though the legislation left plenty of flexibility for exceptions that don’t entail secret, uncontrolled drone use such as disaster assessment, traffic accidents, “hot pursuit” situations involving threats to public safety, and wildfire surveillance.

Many observers n this area reacted appropriately by criticizing the veto action: 

• Slate’s Margot E. Kaminski: “A warrant requirement does not prevent law enforcement from using drones, which are cheap and useful technology; it checks the scope of drone surveillance by involving legal standards and a judge. California’s drone bill is not draconian. It includes exceptions for emergency situations, search-and-rescue efforts, traffic first responders, and inspection of wildfires. It allows other public agencies to use drones for other purposes — just not law enforcement.”
• California Assemblyman Jeff Gorell, a Republican from Camarillo and the bill’s sponsor, said that Brown had sided with the wrong side in the area of electronic privacy law: “We’re increasingly living in a surveillance society as the government uses new technology to track and watch the activities of Americans. It’s disappointing that the governor decided to side with law enforcement in this case over the privacy interests of California.” 

Brown apparently is also in the minority vs. other governors according to Ars Technica. Ten other states already deny police the authority to conduct warrantless drone surveillance: Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Montana, Oregon, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin. Just when you think the political class will actually do something right, they screw it up again.

3) According to an article in the September 19, 2014 issue of The Week magazine by Carolyn O’Hara:

• For the first time ever, more than 50% of the members of Congress are millionaires.
• Former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor recently left Congress, where he was earning about $175,000 a year, to take a job with a wall Street lobbying firm where he will make over $3 million a year.
• The Clintons are now worth far more than $100 million as a couple. Heck, their daughter is worth over $7 million.
• Five of the nine Supreme Court justices are millionaires.
• The President of the United States is a millionaire many times over.

Ask yourself this: do you really think that these millionaires, and a few instances have any idea what it is like living in America today and what the daily struggles are of feeding a family, educating a family, keeping a family safe, etc.? Do really think they have our best interests in place when economically and wealth wise they are so far different than us? 

I think not but that is just me ….and the fact that over the past five decades these wealthy and getting wealthier Washington types of been unable or unwilling to resolve a single major issue facing this country.

4) One of the biggest lies and deceptions of the Obama administration was that it was going to be the most “transparent’ Presidential administration of all time. Well, it did not take long for that promise to go poof in so man ways:

• Freedom of Information Act requests were routinely ignored, partially filled, illegally delayed beyond the time frames prescribed by law, or redacted so much as to be useless.
• The administration tried to illegally charge those who submitted Freedom of Information Act requests in order to have their request fulfilled, often at exorbitant rates.
• Journalists were tailed, bugged, or had their computers hacked.
• Administration members failed to produce documents requested by Congress, either by ignoring them or claiming executive privilege, such as in the Fast and Furious Congressional investigation.
• The administration oversaw the intentional destruction of documents, hard drives, back up copies, etc. in order to avoid fulfilling Congressional investigation request, such as in the IRS targeting of innocent Americans and EPA actions.

As you can see, this insanity shows that the Obama administration could not be any further away from being a “transparent’ administration. This reality was recently succinctly and easily summarized by recent writing by the Associated Press’ Washington bureau chief, Sally Buzzbee, who became the latest journalist to criticize the Obama administration for failing to live up to its promise of transparency” “Bush was not fantastic. The [Obama] administration is significantly worse than previous administrations.”

To prove her point, Buzbee described eight ways the Obama administration is restricting access to information at a recent joint meeting of the American Society of News Editors, the Associated Press Media Editors and the Associated Press Photo Managers, as recently outlined in a Heritage Foundation summary:

A) Journalists Can’t See the Fight Against Islamic Militants: Buzbee contends Americans are being kept in the dark about recent military action, noting that journalists aren’t allowed to take photos or record video of bombers when they take off. This is unlike the Bush administration which embedded journalists right with our fighting forces.

B) Journalists Often Are Barred From Obama’s Meetings With World Leaders: Buzbee says previous administrations advocated for journalists to be present during the president’s meetings with world leaders when he is abroad. This change, she says, sends the wrong message to the rest of the world.

C) Access to Upcoming 9/11 Trial Is Restricted: Journalists do not have access to court filings in real time, Buzbee says, and even access to nonclassified information about the trial has been blocked or delayed.

D) Coverage of Guantanamo Is ‘Virtually Nonexistent’: Information normally released by the previous administration is now nearly impossible to come by. “The military won’t release the number of prisoners on hunger strike or the number of assaults on guards,” Buzbee says.

E) Sources Are Being Intimidated: Sources have told Associated Press reporters they could be fired for talking to the media. Buzbee called the intimidation tactics “chilling,” adding: “Government press officials say their orders are to squelch anything controversial or that makes the administration look bad.”

F) The Freedom of Information Act Is ‘Under Siege’: FOIA requests have become so expensive and delayed that many organizations are forced to sue federal agencies to get a response at all.

G) The White House Uses FOIA Requests to Monitor What News Organizations Will Cover: Political appointees use FOIA requests as a “tip service” to gain insight into upcoming stories, Buzbee says. At the agency overseeing Obamacare, political appointees have been put in charge of FOIA requests.

H) State and Local Governments Release Less Information: The Obama administration has tried to dictate to state and local governments what they can and cannot reveal, particularly when it comes to surveillance programs.

Another promise, an other lie, another hit to freedom and liberty from a seasoned journalist.

5) And finally for today, what or who do we really think has a chance it eliminating all of the insanity we have been discussing over the past week or so and actually put the country on the right track? If you believe the results of a Gallup poll from this past July, that is a very difficult challenge for the country. According to the poll results, only 30% of those surveyed had any confidence in the Supreme Court, only 29% had confidence in the Presidency, and a dismal 7% had any confidence in Congress. 

All the more reason to impose term limits on all Washington politicians and court appointees. If we got rid of everyone in Washington in all three branches of government, how much worse could it get than these Gallup results? You can help move that effort along at the following site:

www.howmuchworsecoudlitget.com

To do anything else or to live with the status quo is a true definition of insanity.

Seven days into this political class insanity view and we are still not done, more idiocy and such tomorrow.

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:

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:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w