October, 2014 Part 3 Political Class Insanity: Sex For Cougars, Art For Walls, A Least Productive Congress 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 third entry in this series for this month, with the first two posts appearing over the past two days. For the latest insanity, read on:

1) Recently we discussed the reality that this Congress is on track to enact the fewest piece of legislation than any other Congress over the past 60 years. With all of the major issues facing the country today (e.g. failing public schools, a lost war on drugs, terrorism, leaky borders, etc.), this Congress has done nothing to alleviate those crisis and improve the lives of Americans.

And how much do they get paid for basically doing nothing except taking extended vacations? The Heritage Foundation recently published some interesting and depressing numbers in this area, courtesy of writer Romina Boccia: 

• At a base salary of $174,000, members of Congress make more than 95: percent of American income earners. 
• They earn more than three times what the median U.S. household earns.
• Once their generous benefits are added on top of their high salaries, total Congressional compensation comes out to $286,000 per year. 
• To add insult to injury, one member of Congress argued recently even this generous compensation level wasn’t enough and that members of Congress also should get a housing stipend.

Good work if you can get it. Especially when you do very little to deserve it. This is no more evident in the Congressional budgeting process for the Federal government. Or the supposed budgeting process. According to Heritage, when it comes to passing annual spending bills, members of Congress have not accomplished that in full and on time since 1997. 

Amazing, for the past eighteen years, Congress has failed to execute its primary mission in life, pass a comprehensive, timely and effective budget, regardless of which party controlled what parts of Congress. When you have a flawed budgeting process in life you usually end spending more than if you had budgeted in a timely manner and with attention to detail. 

This may explain why our national debt has ballooned to an amazing $18 TRILLION since 1997, we have had no budget process in operation to contain out of control spending. It certainly explains the reality that at $286,000 a year, the 535 members of congress are grossly overpaid relative to performance.

2) Since the Obama administration has come into office:

• The number of Americans receiving food stamps has increased by about 50% despite the fact that we are many years away from the end of the last recession, a sad commentary on the economic ignorance of Washington politicians.
• Currently about 46.5 million Americans get government food assistance every month.
• 46.5 million people is almost equal to the entire population of Spain.
• It is equivalent to 71% of the French population and 76% of the Italian population.
• 46.5 million people would fill Yankee Stadium about 925 times, according to data from the Department of Agriculture (USDA).

So if the economy is doing so great, how come there are still over 46 million Americans in need of food assistance? Or is the program so corrupt that there are millions or tens of millions of people ripping off the government and taxpayers every month? 

In either case, this is either a major break down of government efficiency or just another example that shows Washington politicians have no idea how to implement economic policies that encourage economic growth and less dependence on government assistance.

3) California is in really bad financial shape. They are facing billions and billions of dollars in future debt obligations, they have had trouble balancing their state budgets over at least the past decade, their school systems need more financial support, etc. So what are their politicians considering doing in the Los Angeles area?

According to an article from the Heritage Foundation written by Kelsey Harris, citing the Wall Street Journal, state politicians and special interest groups are potentially going to allocate upwards of $10 million to build a dedicated freeway overpass that would allow wild cougars to travel and mate more safely. Yes, $10 million to help cougars find mates.

How many more teachers could be hired in the L.A. area for $10 million? How more homeless could be fed and sheltered for $10 million? How much more debt on future taxpayers could be avoided for $10 million? Horrible set of priorities if a cougar driven freeway overpass is even being discussed as a use for taxpayer money.

4) The Independent Journal Review and writer Jim Bogash reported some distressing and disgusting news relative to the Boston Marathon bombing victims. Apparently, according to Federal law, these victims do not have to be paid any insurance money because the parameters of what defines a terrorist attack under Federal law were not met.

You might ask how can this be since even the President said: “Any time bombs are used to target innocent civilians it is an act of terror.” Sounds pretty straightforward, “an act of terror.” But wait, he did not say “terrorism,” and that is the glitch.

It seems that the Treasury Department has not deemed the bombings as an act of terrorism, as per the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act. The Terrorism Risk Insurance Act was passed after the 9/11 attacks. It is a federally-administered and underwritten insurance program for terrorism-caused damage, designed to compensate policy owners in the event of a man-caused disaster.

Twenty-two Boston-based companies carried that insurance and for insurance pay-out purposes, the attacks have not been classified as acts of terror. The law’s says that insurance losses must exceed $5 million to be certified as terrorism, and so far only $1.9 million in claims have been issued relative to the Boston bombings. The reality that terrorists blew up bombs, killed people, maimed people, and caused damage is not enough to make the bombings an “act of terrorism.” The dollar threshold was not met.

Thus, according to Washington, and to the relief of the insurance companies, blowing up Americans in a major American city, resulting in deaths and maiming, is not terrorism. Unbelievable.

5) One last piece of insanity for today. Keep in mind that millions of Americans are hungry and homeless, untold numbers of veterans are not getting enough medical care, the Federal deficit is about $18 TRILLION, and annual Federal government deficit spending is still about half a trillion dollars a year.

Which is why spending half a million dollars on artwork for the San Diego’ San Ysidro Land Port of Entry is a tragic waste of money.

The Weekly Standard recently ran an article that described how the U.S. General Services Administration has paying $500,000 in estimated art commissions for Phase 3 of a $735 million project to renovate and expand the busiest land port in the western hemisphere. The taxpayer funding for the art commission comes from the GSA’s “Art in Architecture” program. The program reserves “one-half of one percent of the estimated construction costs for each new federal building” for pieces of art.

Thus, this is not an isolated waste of half a million dollars. There is an actual formula to use to divert taxpayer dollars into decorations for new construction. On the GSA’s website, there is a justification for the program, saying the program intends to facilitate “meaningful cultural dialogue between the American people and their government,” by installing permanent works of art in Federal buildings throughout the country.

How about we bypass the “meaningful cultural dialog” and feed our hungry, shelter our homeless, treat our addicted, or just stop wasting taxpayer money on useless pieces of art until we have taken care of the myriad of other problems in this country?

That’s it for today: wasteful spending on useless art, bureaucratic nonsense on the definition of terrorism, helping cougars get sex, tens of millions of Americans on food stamps, and a least productive Congress and Washington political class. Tell me that is not all insanity.

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

October, 2012 Political Class Insanity, Part 1: Standing At The Urinal, Spying At The FDA, Not Doing Just Fine and More

As our regular readers know, every month we do a set of posts regarding the latest insanity and idiocy from the American political class across a wide spectrum of government entities and actions. Unfortunately, over time, one post has not been enough to review each month's craziness and sadness emanating from our politicians. This trend remains true again this month, as we will need the next two posts to get it all in.

1) According to a short blurb in the May 14, 2012 issue of Business Week magazine, in the first quarter of 1982, about 65% of all American homes were owned, not rented, in America. In the next thirty years, the American political class rolled out expensive program after expensive program to get that home ownership rate higher, regardless of the credit and debt risks.

Their actions resulted in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac needing close to $200 billion (and growing) worth of taxpayer wealth to bailout these government mortgage entities, massive bailouts of banks who lent the money to increase home ownership levels, and the Great Recession that devastated the economy and the lives of millions of American families.

According to the Business Week analysis, as of the first quarter of 2012, thirty years later, the home ownership rate in America is....65%. In other words, the decades' long effort of our political class to increase home ownership is right back to where it was in 1982. Unfortunately, in order to get nowhere in thirty years, trillions of dollars of taxpayer and home owner wealth was destroyed to get nowhere.

2) According to an article that appeared in Politico earlier this summer, although the Dodd-Frank financial reform law was passed over two years ago, only about 37% of the required regulations outlined in the law have actually been written by their deadlines. At this rate, it will take almost six years to write the regulations that support the intentions of the legislation.

In six years, the whole world of both finance and politics could change drastically, making one wonder why the law was even passed at all if its effects will not be felt for a very long time. In the real world, such incompetency would be dealt with by firing those for not doing their job in a timely manner. In Washington, this laxity and laziness is just business as usual.

3) A Wall Street Journal article that was summarized in the July 6, 2012 issue of The Week magazine reported that more than 3.5 million Americans, aged between 45 and 64, were unemployed as of the end of May, three years after the recession supposedly ended. The Journal called this reality “an unprecedented rate of long term unemployment rate for workers in their prime working years.” Thus, despite what our President might believe, the private sector is not doing “just fine” for this group of experienced American workers.

4) As I understand it, the Federal Reserve Board has been buying trillions of dollars worth of bank assets, via its so-called “quantitative easing” strategy, in order to get more cash into the hands of the banks who might then loan this new found cash to businesses and consumers to spur the economy. Besides being a fancy name for “printing money,” the strategy does not appear to be working.

According to an article in the August 27, 2012 issue of Business Week, these banks now have about $1.7 TRILLION more in deposits than they have out in loans. This gap is the largest it has been in two years and is continuing to get larger and larger as the banks take this new found cash and use it for their own investments rather than investing it in the economy.

Thus, the American taxpayer via the Federal Reserve, is pumping wealth into the banks in this country so that they can speculate and invest it for their bottom line and profits, not for the economy. As always, the taxpayer gets screwed, the banks get rich, and the politicians get more campaign cash for the reelection from the bankers.

5) Recall that the Federal government’s General Services Administration (GSA) was busted for spending $832,000 worth of taxpayer money on a self serving Las Vegas party for themselves. Fortunately, the wasteful spending was uncovered by the Inspector General, Congress got involved, and many of those responsible for the waste were fired.
However, according to a recent Associated Press report, it may be that many employees in the GSA did not get the message that illegal activities are not to be pursued. The article reported on an alleged scam where the GSA promised to give a Federal tax break to building contractors it might hire in exchange for the contractors writing a check, payable to the GSA, for 19% of the tax break’s value.

In many areas of the real world, this is called a kickback and is almost always illegal. It appears that GSA managers are trying to get their own GSA budgets augmented via this kickback scheme and bypassing, to some extent, the need to go before Congress and the regular government budget setting processes. Obviously, the American taxpayer loses here when any government bureaucrat can hand out tax breaks in order to enhance their own operating environment. Disgraceful.

6) According to some recent research from the Pew Research Center, the percentage of Americans who consider themselves lower class has grown from about 25% of the population four years ago to just under one third of the population today. Since four years ago, we have supposedly been in an economic recovery mode for three of those four years, but the perception of lower class has grown by about 33%. So much for the private sector doing “just fine,” at least from a self perception perspective.

7) From a George Orwell “1984” perception, consider an article from the July 27, 2012 issue of The Week magazine. Apparently, the FDA was being operated so poorly and incompetently that many FDA employees were blowing the whistle on the bad behavior, informing Congressmen, lawyers, and other officials of what was actually going on within the FDA.

Rather than fix the problems, FDA management decided to go after the whistle blowers. According to the article, the FDA setup a surveillance program to find out who in their organization was snitching. Their program resulted in the capture of over 80,000 FDA employee emails in an attempt to root out the whistle blowers rather than solve the problems. U.S. Senator Charles Grassley was properly outraged by the FDA actions, saying that “the FDA is discouraging whistle blowers,” and “they think they can be the Gestapo and do anything they want.”

If the government spies on itself rather than fixing its own problems, there is little doubt it would spy on its own citizens rather than fix its own problems.

8) I guess we should not be to discouraged by the incompetency and greed of our politicians since political class insanity and idiocy is not restricted to the U.S. The September 7, 2012 issue of The Week magazine showed such insanity from around the world.

In Russia, political opposition leaders to Russian President Vladimir Putin claim that the President is spending mega bucks on outrageously lavish palaces, yachts, and jets, many of which he has for his own personal use. To get to and from his palaces, coastal homes, and luxury ski lodges, he can choose from his fleet of 13 helicopters, four yachts, and 41 airplanes, one of which has gold plated bathroom fixtures. Lenin and Marx must be turning over in their graves.

In Taiwan, the government has started a campaign to encourage men to sit down in public restrooms rather than stand in front of a urinal to relieve themselves. The official reason for the taxpayer funded effort is to produce less of a mess in restrooms. You cannot make this stuff up when it comes to politicians and wasteful spending. I find it hard to believe that there are not better uses for these government funds than to change the urinal habits of Taiwan’s male citizens.

That is enough for today. The insanity and idiocy will continue tomorrow, as will the continued wasteful spending of politicians everywhere.

We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new 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 our 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 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

September, 2012 Political Class Insanity - Part 2: Solyndra Revisited, The Best Jobs In The World Are GSA Jobs, And Lost Money In California

Yesterday, we covered the first set of political class insanity acts that we have uncovered over the past month or so. Unfortunately, as time goes by, it seems we need more and more space just to cover the increasing insanity, idiocy and wasteful ways of our politicians. Thus, today is the carry over from yesterday's first set of the latest shenanigans from Washington and politicians all over:

- Most knowledgeable Americans are aware of the incredibly disastrous Solyndra escapade. In this example, we have reviewed the gory details many times:

• Solyndra, a California solar panel company, was given a Federal government/Department of Energy loan guarantee of over half a billion dollars, a loan guarantee that went south along with the taxpayer funding when Solyndra proved to be incapable of competing in the solar panel market.
• Another investor in Solyndra, with strong ties to the Obama administration, illegally had its investment priority put in front of the American taxpayer's, resulting in taxpayers receiving nothing in return after the bankruptcy proceedings of Solyndra divvied up the remains of the business.
• The biggest advocate for giving Solyndra the loan guarantee was a high ranking employee in the Department of Energy whose wife worked for the law firm that Solyndra used, a clear conflict of interest.
• The loan guarantee was made prematurely from a financial due diligence perspective because the President and his advisers wanted the loan guarantee to conform to his political photo op schedule, not the needed financial review schedule. This premature action resulted in the loss of over a half billion dollars worth of taxpayer wealth.

This is all serious stuff. However, to understand the true insanity of how our politicians cavalierly flushed half a billion dollars down the cronyism drain, consider the insulting quotes that have come to light from the actual emails that were generated as a result of Solyndra:

• The Office Of Budget Management was one of the government organizations that was not allowed to complete its analysis on the wisdom of the Solyndra loan. However, when it finally finished its analysis, an email from one of its analysts, Kelly Coylar, sent out an email with her estimate of what the American taxpayer might lose as a result of the Solyndra financing: "Expected loss: $385 million principle plus deferred interest." Thus, at least someone in the Federal government knew what was going to happen. Unfortunately, Ms. Coylar was not in a position to avoid the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars.
• Another investor in Solyndra, Brad Jones, who was an advisor with Solyndra investor Redpoint Ventures, emailed that the Federal loan guarantee for Solyndra would be a positive move for Redpoint. However, even Mr. Jones knew any government investment in Solyndra was a stupid idea: “I can’t imagine it’s a good way for the government to use taxpayer money.”
• Thomas Baruch, who was the founder of the investment firm CEMA Capital, which was another private investor in Solyndra, is quoted in an email discussing how getting taxpayer money out of Washington was as important as actually succeeding in the marketplace: “Getting business from Uncle Sam is a principal element of Solyndra’s channel strategy.” You know you do not have a viable business model and product when getting free Washington money is critical to your success.
• This importance of Federal government financing was reinforced by an email from Solyndra CEO Chris Gronet that he wrote on October 9, 2009: "The Bank of Washington continues to help us!" What a disgrace that he viewed taxpayer money as a piggy bank for his company. That is how far from reality and success in the marketplace this project had strayed when it took down half a billion dollars of taxpayer wealth.

You can see many other disgraceful, attitudes, quotes, and the actual emails at the following web page:

http://blog.heritage.org/2012/08/03/the-10-most-revealing-solyndra-emails/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

How disgusting that business leaders, political cronies, and politicians can toss around hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer wealth as if they were in a nickel/dime poker game.

- Over the past few months we have covered the fiscal collapse and coming insolvency of various levels of California state governments, mostly as a result of wasteful spending over the decades by the California political class:

• A southern California city was rocked by scandal a few years ago when it came to light that the politicians in that city were making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to perform their duties, payment levels that were orders of magnitude greater than what most other local politicians are paid.
• Two large California cities, Stockton and San Bernadino, and other smaller California towns, have filed for bankruptcy as a result of having paid their current and retired city employees too much in salary and job benefits.
• Another southern California city revealed earlier this year that it sometimes paid it lifeguards over $200,000 a year, more than three times the average U.S. household income and orders of magnitude higher than your average lifeguard around the nation.
• The Associated Press recently reported that Hermosa Beach, a 1.3 square mile California town, was paying the two supervisors of its "meter maids" almost $100,000 a year and paying the rest of its meter maid staff an average salary of $75,000 or so, simply for writing parking tickets.

Thus, it is no surprise that towns, counties, and the state government are in deep, deep financial trouble. But in these times of tight tax revenue and revenue shortfalls, a recent audit of California state government financials found that the state is so poorly operated that the audit uncovered the fact that the state government has pots of unknown money laying about unused:

• $54 million was found in the California’s State Parks Department as the department planned to shut down 70 park facilities and was actively soliciting private donations to keep those same facilities open.
• Another $113 million was located in a bottle recycling program which had previous been reported as broke.
• As a result of these and other embarrassing discoveries of lost money, Governor Jerry Brown has called for a more detailed look into the state’s controller’s office, which is responsible for managing the state's financials.

What a disgrace. As California schools are closed, public servants like police and fire fighters are laid off, as social services are cut, it turns out that California has more money than it thought but just cannot find it. This insanity was neatly summed up by Nicholas Johnson, vice president for state and fiscal policy for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, to comment, “When a state’s revenues have been hammered as hard as California’s have during the last few years, the reasonable expectation would be that state officials are finding every last dollar before going after services with a meat cleaver.”

That would certainly be a reasonable expectation for everyone, except those that are in the political class.

- Keeping in mind a previous government spending scandal where General Services Administration (GSA) employees threw themselves a lavish, $832,000 Las Vegas party using taxpayer wealth and the average household income in this country is about $50,000, consider more depressing and despicable spending, again courtesy of the GSA. These findings came about by an investigation by WUSA Channel 9 in D.C. using GSA payroll official records and reported in the Washington Free Beacon on August 6, 2012:

• Although GSA employees make up only 1% of the Federal government workforce, GSA bonuses made up 10%  of Federal government bonuses paid out in 2011.
• A number of 2011 GSA employee bonuses were worth $50,000 or more.
• One GSA employee received an $80,000 bonus, in addition to $180,000 in salary and other compensation.
• The analysis found widespread abuse of GSA overtime pay including one instance where a GSA electrician received an $84,000 salary plus $115,000 in overtime and a $4,600 bonus.
• Two GSA air conditioning mechanics earned total pay of $130,000 and $201,000.
• The director of the Federal Acquisition Service made $257,000 2011, which included more than $63,000 in overtime pay and a $7,100 bonus.
• An environmental specialist at the Federal Acquisition Service received a $3,500 bonus on top a of $117,000 salary.
• Another “greening officer” at the GSA Public Buildings Service (PBS) earned a $150,000 base salary and a $7,500 bonus.
• A “gardener inspector” earned $90,000 in total pay, including more than $15,000 in overtime and a $2,500 bonus. Unbelievable.
• Three painters were paid about $80,000 each, which included bonuses averaging about $2,700 and overtime pay ranging from $12,000 to $16,000.
• One plumber made nearly the equivalent of his base salary ($51,000) in overtime pay ($45,000).
• An electrician earned a base salary of $93,000 and received $87,000 worth of overtime pay, as well as a $3,400 bonus.
• In an ironic twist, in the midst of this disgraceful spending, the GSA “cash control officer” in the GSA office of the chief financial officer earned just $41,000 total pay, including $432 worth of overtime and no bonus.

I had always thought that best job in the world was being a Washington politician. However, based on these payroll records, it might not be too bad of a gig to be a plumber, painter, electrician or just about any employee at the GSA. Ridiculously bad set of payment priorities in the midst of almost 13 million American taxpayers out of work and unemployed.

That is enough political class insanity today. Unfortunately, we will need another day to cover all of the insanity and goofball actions from around the country that occurred this past month. We will do that tomorrow along with providing some suggestions on how to stop the insanity of the American political class, insanity we can no longer afford to finance and insanity we should never be forced to endure in the first place.

We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new 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 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/

Political Class Insanity, July, 2012 - Part 1: Tax Evaders Win, Expensive Solar Jobs, Bad Senate Priorities and More

Its that time of month again where we review the latest insanity from the American political class that has arisen in the past month or so. This insanity can include wasteful spending of taxpayer money, useless government programs, quotes from politicians that reaffirm how out of touch they are with reality, etc.

Unfortunately, as has been the case over the past few months or so, there has been so much insanity and idiocy coming from the American political class that we cannot contain it all in one post.

Today is the first of two posts where the insanity just keeps on flowing:

- According to a June 18, 2012 Associated Press (AP) report, earlier this month in Las Vegas, Manny Pacquiao seemed to have won a boxing match but two of the judges at the match decided otherwise, giving his opponent, Timothy Bradley, the split decision victory.

On the surface, especially if you are not a boxing fan, your reaction might be "Who cares?" However, Senate majority Leader Harry Reid was so outraged by this turn of events that he has introduced legislation in the Senate that would create a Federal oversight function for the sport of boxing, as reported by the AP. Not that he was outraged, not that he was only thinking about regulation, he actually proposed legislation to do so.

Let's review:

• Under Harry Reid's so-called leadership, the U.S. Senate has not passed a formal budget for over three years.
• Unemployment is still over 8% with almost millions of  Americans without jobs.
• The national debt fiscal time bomb is fast approaching $16 TRILLION.
• We are still losing the war on drugs, our public schools still stink, our borders still leak. our health care costs are still escalating and we still have not national energy strategy or policy.
• The government easily wastes hundreds of billions of dollars every year due to waste, criminal fraud, and inefficiencies.

Given all of the problems and challenges facing the country, Reid is focusing on some boxing match and how to regulate that very small industry. Pathetic priorities.

- According to an article in the Roanoke (Virginia) News from June 18, 2012, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack was quoted as stating that the U.S. economy has "obviously turned the corner."

Combine this quote with the President's quote from several weeks ago that the private sector of the economy is dong fine, it makes you realize that some of our politicians are not of this reality. 8.2% unemployment, 15% or so combined unemployment and underemployment, millions of Americans still looking for jobs, gas prices up more than 70% since Obama took office, millions of Americans who have become too discouraged to look for a job, tens of thousands of small businesses shutting down every year, almost half of this year's college graduating class unable to find a job that they want, 85% of this year's college graduating class moving home rather than striking out on their own because of the economy.

Makes you wonder what corner the economy has turned, in Mr. Vilsack's opinion. It certainly isn't easy street. How stupid do these people think we are?

- According to a recent Federal Housing Authority report:

• Over the past few years, the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) backed $20 billion in home mortgages for approximately 87,000 homeowners in the U.S.
• No big deal but if you get under these gross numbers you find that 6,327 of those were mortgages held by delinquent taxpayers.
• Thus, the FHA insured about $1.4 billion in home mortgages for 6,327 Americans who owed $77.6 million to the IRS, around $12,000 apiece, in unpaid taxes.
• To add insult to injury to the American taxpayer, the FHA also provided some of those same tax evaders with a first home purchase tax credit worth up to $8,000 per mortgage, totaling $27 million paid out to individuals with unpaid taxes, the IRS and Federal government essentially paying the individual tax evader for buying a new home, while they still owed the IRS back taxes.

Insanity, pay the law breakers with money from taxpayers who do not evade paying their fair share.

- In 2008, Candidate Obama promised he would close the prisoner of war camp at Guantanamo Bay if elected President. He was elected President but has made little effort and had less success in fulfilling that campaign promise. In fact, according to a recent NBC News report, the American taxpayer is paying out $140 million a year to house 169 prisoners. That comes out to about $800,000 per prisoner, year in and year out.

Think about it. Congress got all outraged, which they should have done, when the GSA wasted $832,000 of taxpayer funds on a lavish Las Vegas party but remains silent when we waste almost the same amount of money EACH YEAR to run a prison for each of 169 people in a foreign land. Bring them stateside, put them in existing detention facilities where the per prisoner cost has to be significantly less than $800,000 and shut down Gitmo.

-  A recent report was published by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, part of the U.S. Department of Energy, regarding the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (“economic stimulus”) of 2009, summarized the findings from Section 1603, a grant program run through the Treasury Department.

Apparently, under the stimulus program, the Obama
 administration handed out $9 billion in taxpayer funds to solar and wind projects from 2009 until 2011. This $9 billion created 910 “direct” jobs, i.e. ongoing operation and maintenance positions. This math works out to about $9.8 million to create just one of those long-term, direct jobs. Obscene, inefficient waste of taxpayer funds.

According to his Federal government report, even if you include those green energy projects' 4,600 “indirect” jobs, i.e. positions indirectly supported by the annual operation and maintenance jobs, the cost per job is still a ridiculously high $1.63 million each ($9 billion divided by 4,600 plus the 910).

Stupid, wasteful spending, tax evaders winning while tax payers lose, bad Senate priorities, and out of touch politicians when it comes to the economy. Can't wait for tomorrow's insanity, can you?

We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new 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 our 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/

GSA Wastes Thousands= Heads Roll, Politicians Waste Millions = Good Times Roll

I am always amused when politicians actually try to do their job and get all in a lather, especially when they are on camera during Congressional hearings. They are outraged, they want answers, they want copies of documents and emails, they want people fired, they want to know how the injustice under investigation could ever happen, yada, yada, yada.

Recently such an explosion of caring actually erupted within the political class. It is now pretty certain that regional employees of the Federal government's General Services Administration (GSA) threw themselves a lavish, over-the-top Las Vegas party that was thinly disguised as a business conference/convention. About $832,000 of taxpayer wealth was wasted on dumb team building activities, entertainment, food, etc. The most disgraceful part of the festivities were skits put on by Federal employees who mocked the very taxpayers who paid their higher than average Federal salaries and better than average Federal benefit packages.

Congressional hearings were held, political class outrage was expressed. People involved in the actual conference were fired or suspended from their jobs. Their leaders, who had no direct input or control over the perps, were also fired or suspended from their job for not being good supervisors and managers.

When it was all said and done, the politicians patted themselves on the back for a job well done. I, however, would disagree somewhat on their performance:

• Why did the political class and their roles of Congressional oversight not make sure this did not happen in the first place? Step 34 from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" would see that those politicians sitting on Congressional committees with GSA oversight would also lose their jobs, on those committees, for allowing this type of behavior and waste to occur in the first place.
• Why I definitely agree that the $832,000 was money wasted away and the people responsible be made to pay the price for their wasteful ways, is it possible that the showboating and Congressional hearings  looking into this episode of government gone wild actually cost the taxpayer more than the original $832,000 (politicians' time, staff time, testifying time, document preparation time and cost)? Was there no better and less expensive way to handle the the wasting of $832,000 that was more efficient and cost effective?
• Wouldn't the political class get a bigger bang for our buck if they showed such ardor and enthusiasm in going after the Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security bureaucracies that waste over $200 billion a year of taxpayer wealth? The annual waste from these government entities is more than 240,000 times larger than the $832,000 wasted by the GSA. Their enthusiasm in dealing with this large pile of waste would be much more appreciated by the American taxpayer.
• Wouldn't the political class get a bigger bang for our buck if they showed such ardor and enthusiasm in going after the IRS and reasons why it is incapable of collecting the $385 billion a year that tax evaders get away with in this country? The annual loss from tax evaders is about 470,000 larger than the $832,000 wasted by the GSA.

Yes, it was good to go after the GSA perps who wasted $832,000. However, I would be so much happier, and the country would be so much better off, if these same politicians used their energies to go after the really big destroyers of taxpayer wealth that exist within the Federal bureaucracy today.

And besides the handful examples listed above, I have a great suggestion on another simple way to save over $100 million of taxpayer waste. According to the June 11, 2012 issue of Business Week magazine, American taxpayers are again going to finance the political conventions of the Republicans and Democrats later this summer.

According to Business Week, this year we will have to pay about $136 million so that people we mostly despise, according to most pubic opinion polls, can go to an unnecessary convention to just party for three or four days. These conventions are unnecessary relics from our political past.

These conventions no longer decide who will be each party's Presidential candidate, the primaries have already decided that.

These conventions no longer are needed to develop their party's platforms. These platforms were and are never read by anybody anyway.

The only people that want to have these conventions are the political elitists in this country that want to act important in front of the cameras for a few days, pumping up their own egos, and partying their butts off, all on taxpayer expense. This travesty and need for change was documented as Step 13 in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government:" Stop funding political conventions with taxpayer money. All costs, including security costs, should be the responsibility of each political party."

If Congress really wants to do something worthwhile, they should terminate the wasteful tradition of using taxpayer money to fund their political conventions. Other political parties (Libertarian, Socialist, Green, Constitution) do not get free money to run their conventions, the Republicans and Democrats should also not get any taxpayer support.

The $136,000,000 that will be expended this year is 163 times more wasteful than what the GSA employees did. Thus, the political class would be 163 times more effective if they attacked the wasting of taxpayer money on their conventions with the same enthusiasm they used in attacking the wasting of taxpayer money on the GSA "convention." Heads, not good times, should roll because of the wasteful convention spending.



We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new 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 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/

A Facebook Conversation Why Obama Does Not Deserve Another Term

A few days ago I got into a civil and interesting Facebook conversation after I posted the following post regarding President Obama attending a Hollywood election fund raiser where some very rich people each paid thousands and thousands of dollars to attend at George Clooney's mansion. The point I was trying to make is that I was getting tired of President Obama portraying wealthy Americans as evil while he continued to constantly hang out with them and take their evil money:

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LIKE if you are tired of Obama complaining about the greed of the rich when he just raised $15 million at George Clooney's home.



Hypocrisy. Let's not forget about the $70,000 a plate fundraiser dinner Warren Buffet threw for him several months ago or the $100,000 per couple fashion show fundraiser his wife worked last month in North Carolina or the numerous 1%ers from Goldman Sachs and other Wall street bankers who have already given him untold millions of dollars or the million dollars Bill Maher donated to an Obama PAC...

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Several people commented on my "Like" and associated comment. One person strongly stated that he would vote for Obama since Romney was "too rich." Another stated that he would vote for Obama in November because Obama overcame more hardships in his life than Romney did.

Since I did not think that we should vote for anyone for President who is "too rich" or had had a rougher upbringing than their opponent, that we should vote for the candidate best qualified to resolve our many problems today, I offered the following reasons why Obama should not get a second term (the only difference from the Facebook post is better formatting options):

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Ron, Thanks for reading and commenting. You and I obviously have different criteria for who to vote for, neither one right and neither one wrong. I really could not care less from what background a President came from, I would prefer to look at his or her record of accomplishment and problem solving and how well that past record translates to fixing what ails the country today, not in the past.

I am not a big fan of Romney but he at least has a track record of problem resolution with big organizations including private industry, the Olympics, and as governor. To my knowledge, his wealth had nothing to do with illegal tax evasion, illegal business actions, or anything in private industry that Democratic supporters like Warren Buffet, George Soros, and Goldman Sachs do everyday, create wealth.

Given that understanding, I could care less where he keeps his money [note: there was a reference that Romney was bad because he allegedly keeps some of his money in Swiss bank accounts, an assertion that I do not know is true or not]. My only criteria is problem resolution and I believe we have a better chance of that under anyone else but Obama.

Given that the Democrats have controlled the White House and Congress 80% of the time since the midterm elections in 2006 and that in his first two years in office Obama had sky high approval ratings and large Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate, his economic problem resolution record is horrid:

• Record high food stamp enrollment
• Record high long term unemployment
• Record low labor participation rate
• Record levels of deficit spending
• Trillions added to the national debt
• Some MONTHLY deficit spending numbers that were higher than some of Bush's ANNUAL deficit spending numbers
• Many failed but expensive economic programs (Cash For Clunkers, Cash For Appliances, Cash For Caulkers, HAMP, etc.)
• Failure to prod Harry Reid to do his job and have the Senate actually produce a budget after three years of not producing a Senate budget, etc.

And worse of all, I see nothing from this administration that tells me he has an economic plan or the knowledge to remedy these failures in the near future. I think football coach Jon Gruden once said: "You are only as good or as bad as your record." Under my criteria of problem resolution ability and history of accomplishment or non-accomplishment, Obama's record fails miserably.


But my disdain for the Obama administration does not end with his economic failures. It is pretty apparent that government dysfunction and waste have not been addressed by this administration even after three and a half years:

• The recent GSA and Secret Service embarrassments are just a couple of examples of government and government waste gone wild.
• Reputable sources, not Fox News, have quantified the waste lost to inefficiency and criminal fraud in the Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid programs to be about $200 billion a year.
• The IRS fails to collect more than $300 billion a year due to the Feds from the tax code.
• This administration is still hitless when it comes to "betting" taxpayer money on alternative energy busts (Solyndra, Evergreen, Beacon, Spectra, ENER1, all failures).
• Iran and North Korea are three and half years closer to being nuclear powers.
• This administration via Eric Holder is covering up the failed Fast and Furious gun running operation that was illegal from a domestic law perspective, illegal from an international treaty perspective, and has resulted in human beings, both Americans and Mexicans, being killed with Fast and Furious weapons.
• For simply having a different opinion from this administration on some major issues, myself and other Americans have been constantly demeaned and slandered by Democrats (Unpatriotic-Nancy Pelosi, Racists- Charles Rangel, Ku Klux Klan Members - Shelia Jordan Lee, Racists - Howard Dean, Terrorists - Pope and Biden, A**h***s - Van Jones, Knuckle Dragging Neanderthals - Alan Grayson) while Obama has remained silent in the face of ordinary Americans being insulted and verbally attacked.
• He violated the Constitution with an illegal military action regarding Libya and he has violated domestic law by ignoring a judge's court order regarding Gulf oil drilling.

As with the economic issues discussed above, I see no plans, no ambition, and no ability of this administration to address any of these other problems. I do not think we can take the chance with him for another four years, under my criteria of problem resolution, given his lack of success and problem resolution the past three and half a years, regardless of his background and upbringing.

************

It was a very good Facebook exchange of ideas, information, and positions. It was an exchange which reinforces my long time opinion that Americans are really good, civil people that are abused and incited by very uncivil and unproductive politicians.

We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new 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 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/