Yesterday was good news for those believing in freedom, small government, and democracy. The Senate does not plan on voting for Cap and Tax until September. This delay will certainly give us more time to change minds, write letters, send emails, and melt the phones of our representatives. We must continue to do so, even whilst they are away for the month of August. The beginning of the next session begins immediately after Labor Day in which the Senate plans on voting/passing an immigration reform bill. September will be a very busy month for those of us fighting for our country. Hopefully the impact of the 9/12 tea party protest will be felt far and wide. I also hope that we do a little more – Since Congress begins the new session after Labor Day, which is the week of the massive 9/12 March on DC, why not take the week off as vacation time and engage in a sit-in on the steps of Capitol Hill as our Congress-critters come back to work for the first day after their summer vacation!? It’s time to make them realize who they work for; a good government is one that fears its people.
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee began their hearings on the 1,500 page Waxman-Markey cap and trade legislation Tuesday, and ranking member Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) won a startling admission from Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson. Inhofe produced an EPA chart generated last year during the Senate’s debate of the Lieberman-Warner cap and trade legislation. The chart showed that the carbon reductions under that bill would not materially effect global carbon concentrations in the atmosphere. Inhofe then asked Jackson if she agreed with the chart’s conclusions. Jackson replied: “I believe that essential parts of the chart are that the U.S. action alone will not impact CO2 levels.”
Also at the hearing, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said he did not agree with chart which is interesting since all the best science confirms Inhofe’s and Jackson’s conclusions. For example, a recent study of cap and trade by MIT concluded: “The different U.S. policies have relatively small effects on the CO2 concentration if other regions do not follow the U.S. lead. … The Developed Only scenario cuts only about 0.5 °C of the warming from the reference, again illustrating the importance of developing country participation.”
Michelle Malkin and Nate Silver put some great information together regarding the “softies” on cap and tax in the Senate. There is a chance to change several Democrat’s minds, especially those living in energy and coal producing states. (Don’t forget the liberal repubbies either)!
There is also some new and interesting data coming from those reading through the bill now that it has been posted. One of those interesting tidbits is the amount of money going to ACORN in a CLIMATE CHANGE bill:
“The American people will see tax dollars go to so-called community development organizations like ACORN, to teach low-income residents how to live in accord with the worldview of the Environmental Left,” scowled a news release yesterday from Congressional critics of the Cap and Trade bill.
Sure enough, there are 19 mentions of the term “community development” in the bill, but nothing specific about ACORN.
Sec. 264 of the bill is on “Low Income Community Energy Efficiency Program,” which says the feds will dole out grant money to community development organizations “to provide financing to businesses and projects that improve energy efficiency” for low-income residents.
On page 561, the bill authorizes $50 million per year for six fiscal years, so that’s $300 million in all for these kind of programs.
“I just want to know if ACORN would qualify for these grants,” said House GOP Leader John Boehner, who was the only Republican to note the ACORN issue during debate on the House floor.
If you really want to make your blood boil and find the additional goodies that were hidden in the bill go here.
The latest bill set to pass through congress, the health care bill, is stacked with pork products, and not the type you eat at baseball games.
Congress is trying to stuff the bill full of projects that have absolutely nothing to do with health care. I will provide some examples:
1. Walking Paths: walking paths drastically increase health because it is almost impossible to walk and exercise on streets, grass, gyms, your home, or school race tracks.
2. Streetlights: Although not directly associated with vitamin D – it could serve as a great replacement for the sun some time in the future… or wait…
3. Jungle Gyms: I am hoping that those who need health care the most, i.e. senior citizens, get some new ‘sneaks’ and hit the playground. I’m sure their hips and joints will love climbing up and down. Is it just me or aren’t jungle gyms and things related to parks and recreation considered city works? – eh… who am I kidding – it’s not like Congress follows the rules; the Constitution.
4. Farmer’s Markets: After cap and tax and the new Food bill on the table – why worry about additional Farmer’s markets? Our grocery stores will become just that… Plus, given the economic downturn I may just be forced to grow my own food or steal some from Michelle Obama’s garden!
I am hoping that those of you reading this are beginning to see the insanity if you haven’t already. This is unbelievable, and the sad part; most Democrats think it all makes sense:
Advocates, including Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, defend the proposed spending as a necessary way to promote healthier lives and, in the long run, cut medical costs. “These are not public works grants; they are community transformation grants,’’ said Anthony Coley, a spokesman for Kennedy, chairman of the Senate health committee whose healthcare bill includes the projects.
Let’s compare public works to community transformation, because the way in which politicians mask the truth is through words and labels: Community = Society at large; a commonwealth or state; a body politic; the public, or people in general. Transformation = to perform a specified action or activity; work; operate
“If improving the lighting in a playground or clearing a walking path or a bike path or restoring a park are determined as needed by a community to create more opportunities for physical activity, we should not prohibit this from happening,’’ Coley said in a statement.
Teddy’s idea of exercise comes in the form of running from a murder scene…
Counties that supported Obama last year have reaped twice as much money per person from the administration’s $787 billion economic stimulus package as those that voted for his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, a USA TODAY analysis of government disclosure and accounting records shows. That money includes aid to repair military bases, improve public housing and help students pay for college.
$17 Billion in aid has gone to Obama backers from his stimulus bill. This is a captain obvious moment, but it should be disconcerting that when the country’s future is at stake, the good of the citizens takes a backseat to the pay-to-play political games of politicians – including Mr. Hope and Change himself.
George Soros, one of the wealthiest men in the world, as well as one of the largest hedge fund owners, is behind Obamacare.
Health Care for America Now (HCAN), endorsed by President Obama as the coalition pushing his health-care (euthanasia) reform, is a project of billionaire British-agent speculator George Soros, his Tides Foundation, and the Saul Alinsky counter-insurgency networks Soros used to ramp up the Obama Presidential candidacy.
Though labor unionists will come into Washington on June 25 to rally and lobby for the Obama “reform,” the HCAN organization sponsoring the D.C. events explicitly opposes the single-payer health-care plan favored by labor and by most Americans.
The group was established in July 2008 as an adjunct to the Soros operations supporting the Obama candidacy. At the outset, HCAN National Campaign Director Richard Kirsch wrote (July 16, 2008, Huffingtonpost) under the headline, “Why Not Single-Payer?” “I want to take a moment and address those of you who have been asking why Health Care for America Now is not focusing on creating a single-payer health insurance system.” Kirsch explains that he used to believe in that sort of thing, but came to realize it would scare people.
HCAN has a $40 million budget, with $10 million pitched in by The Atlantic Philanthropies — a Bermuda-based organization fronted by Soros acolyte Gara LaMarche. Also in the money mix: notorious Democratic donors Herb and Marion Sandler, the left-wing moguls who made billions selling subprime mortgages and helped Soros fund his vast network of left-wing activist satellites. By their side is billionaire Peter Lewis of Progressive Insurance, whose “Progressive Future” youth group has dispatched clueless volunteers armed with clip-boards and literature bashing Rush Limbaugh and Fox News to scare up support for Obamacare.
And two more left-wing heavyweights joining the HCAN parade: the corruption-plagued SEIU (which has battled numerous embezzlement scandals among its chapters across the country while crusading for consumer and patients’ rights) and Obama’s old chums at fraud-riddled ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.
Oh the tangled web we weave. The tentacles of all the progressive organizations are intertwined as much as the sub-prime market was woven throughout the stock market. These progressive groups with their new super majority finally feel as though they can pass through their agenda.
It doesn’t cease to amaze me how connected all of these groups are. This begs the question – who is the head of the snake? Is it George Soros? There was a lot of speculation and perhaps a lot of fact, of his attempting to bring down the United Kingdom. Many of these radical left wing groups are funded and run by the same individuals. I hope that somebody can someday figure out the exact tree/web/links in the chain, and make a movie out of it. It could be called The Twilight Zone – never mind that movie already exists… but perhaps something similar!
George Soros is also involved in another scheme that has not received much attention at all. He has received over $300K of taxpayer dollars to open a restaurant in a very run-down, poor area of New York where, on average, people only make about $30K per year and pay their taxes like law-abiding citizens. Mind you, this man made millions, if not billions, last year during the collapse so please keep that in mind as you read about his ties to progressive groups, his encouragement for government run health care and cap & trade, etc.
George Soros is opening up another Dinosaur Bar-B-Que in the old rust belt of up-state New York; Troy. His company, Soros Strategic Partners, owns over 70% of the famous rib joint among other things like moveon.org, factcheck.org, hedge funds, not to mention he is also the single largest contributor to the DNC.
When Soros found the right building to create an additional franchise, the building came with a gift of approximately $218K of back taxes. Normally, the back taxes on a building would be tacked on to the purchase price of the property but, because it’s Soros and as we’ve seen with ACORN and his other groups, he can just bully his way into welfare for the rich and additional perks that men like him could afford on their own.
Further, Dinosaur Bar-B-Que is getting a five-year deferment on the property tax that improvements on its property would have otherwise obligated it to. That five-year lag will continue for 20 years.
Meaning that Dinosaur Bar-B-Que will spend the next two decades paying less than its fair share of property taxes – while the locally owned businesses against which it competes will have to pay their full obligation.
Dinosaur Bar-B-Que is also being given exemption from $60,000 in sales tax for materials used to improve its building, and the $53,000 fee for recording its mortgage is being waived.
These are just further examples of progressive policies and individuals becoming cancers on our society.
California, one of the most solvent states is of course good for their debts/sarc.
This really should have been expected – a state-run bank accepting an insolvent, soon-to-be-bailed-out-state. Seems like monopoly money to me! This is similar to a false economy, where government interference and regulation make free markets anything but FREE/REAL.
Ponzi scheme has become my favorite catch phrase. It effectively seems as though California is issuing it’s own fake currency called IOUs, although it is already insolvent, to pay back at a later date – of which, will never happen. Bank of America is already suffering and got into trouble the last time it bought a toxic company and toxic assets, as did many others – but here it is doing the same thing again. Insanity = Doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.
Bank of America Corp. says it will accept warrants issued by California’s state government through July 10.
BofA says the state’s budget crisis prompted its decision.
“To support our customers, while giving the state legislature additional time to pass a budget, we will accept California state-registered warrants — or IOUs — from existing customers and clients,” Charlotte-based BofA (NYSE:BAC) says in a written statement.
It is always important to ask “Why” in these very odd and overwhelming times.
Why would Bank of America, who is already in financial trouble and dire straights, accept California IOUs, which it will probably never see? Why does this seem incredibly like the forced situation of Merrill Lynch? Is Bank of America doing this as a favor to the US government? Should I assume that Bank of America will get more bailout dollars if it accepts such a risky investment?
My biggest “beef” with this scenario: who is supporting Bank of America? The government! And where does the government get its money? The taxpayers! It’s not ok by me, that my money is being used to help bailout California due to its liberal/progressive policies that it enacted on the state.
“It is impossible to introduce into society a greater change and a greater evil than this: the conversion of the law into an instrument of plunder.” ~ Frédéric Bastiat 1801-1850 “The Law”
