January, 2015, Part 3, Political Class Insanity: Banking Cronyism, A Tower To Nowhere, And A Catch And Release Terrorist Program

It is the beginning of both another year and another month which means it is time to review the latest political class insanity from the American political class. For regular readers of this blog, you know that as 2014 progressed, the insanity, stupid quotes, ineffective governing and legislating, and general incompetence of our politicians seemed to accelerate as the year grinded on. No major issues got addressed, never mind resolved. Obama Care’s implications across the entire country and entire economy continued to unfold in disaster after disaster. Our foreign policy, or what was passed off as a foreign policy, was in tatters. Terrorism was on the march across the world. Veterans were dying because the Federal government could not fulfill the medical and health care promises those brave veterans were promised. The national debt has hit a mind boggling $18 TRILLION.

And our President continued to play golf and go on political campaign swings like no other President ever did. Congress narrowly missed becoming the least productive Congress of all time. Billions were spent and wasted on the November elections to elect people that did not deserve the time of day never mind billions of dollars. Racial division spread across the country, a division that was fomented and spread by those in office with something to gain.

And guess what? Over the  this week and next, you will see nothing has changed except the calendar. The political class is still out of control, the government entities that they rule over are bloated and ineffective, and the quality of life and freedom in this country continues to deteriorate. Hang on, it is going to be a bumpy next seven days or so.

1) Nothing says crony capitalism and work the system than our first piece of insanity from today. President Obama has nominated Antonio Weiss to become a new Treasury undersecretary. Apparently, Mr. Weiss has at least some background for doing a Treasury job since he is currently the global head of investment banking for a large banking concern called Lazard.

So far, so good. The insult comes when CNN reported that Lazard is going to pay this guy an astounding $21 million or so if he takes this government job. He will get about $16 million in unvested income and between $1 million and $5 million in so-called deferred compensation down the road. These numbers were culled from official records he filed with the government ethics office.

Getting paid upwards of $21 million to LEAVE a job and take another job that pays less than 1% of that figure? Now, I am not making an accusations, hopefully Mr. Weiss is a man of the highest integrity.

But whose best interests to you think Mr. Weiss will have as a top priority when making government decisions: yours, the taxpayer, or his banking industry friends and the interests of the banking industry, especially if he has millions of dollars potentially available to him in “deferred” commission down the road?

As we have always said, the appearance of conflict of interest is as bad as actual conflict of interest. And this appearance, worth $21 million or so, could not be any worse.

2) The Washington Post recently reported on a tremendous waste of money, money wasted to the tune of $349 million with no societal benefit in return. Their article quoted a project foreman that worked on this useless construction project:

“All you’ve done is go around in a damn circle, like a dog chasing his tail,” says a project foreman.

The “damn circle” is a laboratory tower that was built in Mississippi to test the vacuum of space and a new type of engine rocket. But the rocket project got mothballed which means the tower will likely never be used.




Further details of this spending disgrace include:

• NASA originally estimated the project would cost $119 to complete but that estimate soon rose to $163 million.
• But the cost is now up to $349 million, more than double the revised cost.
• Even worse, though, according to the Washington Post, NASA will annually spend an additional $700,000 to maintain the facility that will never be used.
• Shortly after the rocket program was canceled, Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker sponsored an amendment to reinstate construction and complete it by September 2013, even though the tower’s mission would never be realized: “Administrations come and go. I think it makes sense not to leave a partially constructed asset sitting there. I do believe, a decade from now, we’ll look back and see that it has been used in a very positive way.”
• However, Wicker could not provide a specific NASA program that might use the tower in the future, and NASA says it doesn’t have any rockets in development that would need the testing the tower provides.

Obviously, this politician is looking to create do-nothing work for his constituents to protect and enhance his own standing even if it wastes $700,000 a year on top of the hundreds of millions of dollars that have already been wasted. So typical of shallow thinking, selfish people in politics. 

I would be willing to let Mississippi have the $700,000 a year and let the tower rust away if the state would spend the money on feeding their hungry, sheltering their homeless treating their addicted, etc. At least someone who needed society’s help would be getting some benefit of the taxpayer money and it would not be totally wasted on a useless piece of steel somewhere in the backwoods of Mississippi.

3) Newsmax reported on December 22, 2014 that the Federal government was offering a $5 million for a terrorist that it used to have in custody.The money is being offered for the recapture of an Islamic terrorist the government let go six years ago who returned to his terrorist ways after attending, and obviously flunking out of, a Saudi rehab program for terror suspects.

Judicial Watch reported that Ibrahim al-Rubaysh, a Saudi national, was let go in 2006 under a Saudi program endorsed by President George W. Bush and continued "full-throttle" under President Barack Obama after it came across a State Department announcement of the reward: "It turns out that al-Rubaysh is the poster child for the Saudi rehab’s failures. He’s a dangerous al-Qaida operative based in Yemen and now, years after freeing him, the United States wants him captured," Judicial Watch said in a release.

Al-Rubaysh, who was held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is now a senior leader of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP): "He serves as a senior adviser for AQAP operational planning and is involved in the planning of attacks. He has served as a senior AQAP sharia official since 2013, and as a senior AQAP sharia official, al-Rubaysh provides the justification for attacks conducted by AQAP," the State Department added.

Lately he has busied himself by calling for attacks against U.S. targets and the Saudi royal family. Nice guy, and we held him captive, where he could do no harm, released him under the Obama administration, and now it could cost the American taxpayer at least another $5 million to capture him again or kill him. Makes you wonder how many other tens of millions of dollars the taxpayer will have to shell out as Obama releases more and more rerror captives back out into the war on terror. 

Again, you cannot make this stuff up, it is so telling of our government’s incompetence and the politicians that operate it.

It is the third day of our monthly political class insanity review and we are just getting warmed up., More to follow tomorrow and after.

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Please visit the following sites for freedom:

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