Oink Oink – Porky the Pig Goes to Washington
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…
But wait! That’s not all… A recent report came out that proved what many of us already knew:
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.
Murtha Moved Earmark Between Brothers’ Clients & Hoyer To Be Forced to Disclose PMA Probe
Uh Oh! Could this be the moment of reckoning for the Democrats? Jack Murtha and Steny Hoyer may both be in the lime light in the coming days.
The Democrat Culture of Corruption Continues:
First, it was discovered that Murtha moved an earmark over $8 million between his brothers’ clients. Nepotism and corruption much? That’s sure to stimulate the economy and doesn’t remind me at all of what dictators did when given money. No dictator I read about would ever take money and give it to his family members or their businesses to line their pockets rather than provide for the betterment of his/her constituents/sarc.
In early 2005, Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) apparently added language to a tsunami relief bill shifting $8.2 million from a former client of his brother’s lobbying firm to a new client of the same firm.
That earmark is now tangled up in a federal indictment alleging that some of the money was skimmed by contractors and a Defense Department employee for their personal use.
Murtha’s spokesman said that no one in his office has any recollection of the transaction, and the House Appropriations Committee was unable to provide any information about how the language appeared in the tsunami relief bill.
Of course they knew nothing about it – seems like this is the norm coming from Washington, D.C. these days – I don’t think they know much of anything, in fact scratch that, they don’t know anything.
But sources familiar with the appropriations process agreed it was impossible that a provision removing earmarks from one company in Murtha’s district and transferring the money to another company in his district could have been added to the bill without Murtha’s involvement, since he was at the time the ranking member on the subcommittee with jurisdiction over the language.
The provision appears in the House committee report of a March 2005 bill providing billions of dollars worth of military spending and aid to the Asian countries that were devastated by the December 2004 tsunami that killed more than 250,000 people.
The bill included a “technical corrections” section, which transferred $8.2 million to “other procurement, Air Force” for a project called the “mobile common data link gateway.” This project — later called the “ground mobile gateway” — was an effort to build a unified battlefield communications platform for the Air Force by a Pennsylvania company called Coherent Systems.
Read roll call for the fully story and timeline of this corruption…
Steny Hoyer (D-MD) is also being pressured into complying with the federal probe into PMA and their long ties with top/senior Democrat officials. One of which was the aforementioned Murtha who probably has the most ties – I think this may be Murtha’s last stand!
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) plans to offer as early as Wednesday afternoon a privileged resolution to force the ethics committee to disclose whether it is investigating senior Democratic appropriators’ ties to the PMA Group, Democratic sources say.
Hoyer’s move follows eight attempts by Republican anti-earmark crusader Rep. Jeff Flake (Ariz.) to jump-start a probe — and aims to pre-empt Flake’s ninth stab at the issue, which was due for a vote on Thursday. It marks a sharp break from Democratic leaders’ previous approach to the burgeoning controversy involving the now-defunct lobbying firm, which amounted to them trying to keep their ranks in line opposing the Flake resolutions.
In late winter, when Flake began his assault, Hoyer argued in leadership meetings that Democrats should embrace the resolution to neutralize it.
But Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) pushed back, contending that such a move would open lawmakers up to ethics witch-hunts down the line. Since then, Democrats have slowly peeled off to support Flake: While only 17 broke ranks on his first attempt, 29 supported his latest, offered just before the Memorial Day recess.
The move comes just after Rep. Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.) acknowledged his offices and some staff had been subpoenaed as part of a federal probe into PMA. Other Democratic appropriators, including Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), have long ties to PMA and its clients.
Hoyer squared off against Murtha in 2006 for the Majority Leader post, beating him by an overwhelming margin.
Jeff Flake has been proposing an ethics panel for a couple of years and has been blocked by the Democrat majority in the House and it’s understandable as to why – they are guilty! Most of the ethics violations are within the Democrat Party, that’s not to say that some Republicans may be found guilty of some violations, but as of now the culture of corruption lies within the majority party.
Where is Our Voice?
02/18/09
Declaration of Independence
Like millions of other citizens I am angry; like millions of other citizens I am inflamed about the direction our country is heading; and it’s not just about the trillions of dollars being stuck up a hogs butt. I am angry because we are screaming and no one is listening. We have no voice.
Whether anyone wants to admit it or not, Conservatives are an oppressed people. Millions of citizens playing by the rules, following the law, paying their taxes, doing as their government demands them to do only to be told they don’t count. We have no voice.
I read countless articles and blogs. I listen to numerous talking heads. I watch as commentators and talk show hosts lament the direction our country is heading. I watch Senators and Congressmen give long blustery speeches and yet I haven’t seen a single one of them risk his reputation to stand up and scream like Howard Beale, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.” Millions of citizens grumbling about deficits, bailouts, and socialism are being ignored. We have no voice; we have no leader.
The revolutionaries who founded this country did so because they had no voice in the government which oppressed them. We have elections in which we put representatives in office, but they don’t represent us. How can they represent us when they don’t listen to us? Not even the Republican Party represents us; to wit, the three traitors who sold out their party, their constituents, and their country. We have no voice; we need a leader.
Who among us has the fire and the life of our founding fathers burning within his soul and is willing to stand up and scream, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Who among us has the ability and the courage to risk everything, possibly even life itself, to lead us out of this bondage and into the freedom our nation once represented? Show me that man and I will follow him to the ends of the earth.
Do You Feel More Prosperous Today?
02/12/09
This week Obama and his traveling minstrels have been holding tent revivals across the eastern states. As savior of the world, he has made women swoon and young men shout to the heavens praising his name. In his camp meetings Obama has made clear that his plan for us will create jobs, save homes, and put money in our pockets. He promised everything to his children like any good messiah would. Right?
While he was bringing his message of salvation, his closest disciples were cramped together chiseling out the final details of his commandments. As they descended from the mountain we find enscribed on the tablets: $46 billion highway, bridge and mass transit construction. (If you are an equipment operator or a ditch digger, this is good news. I’m college educated, I wonder if I could be a ‘digger of ditches’). Also bestowed upon us is a 60 percent subsidy to help the unemployed pay for COBRA. (I’m still trying to find out if that is retroactive for those thousands of people whose grace period for applying for COBRA has expired). The provision for helping prospective home buyers is all but cut. The $15,000 tax credit for anybody buying a home over the next year was dropped; instead, first-time homebuyers can claim an $8,000 credit; but you have to act fast! It only lasts until the end of August. (Since the banks aren’t loaning money, good luck with that one folks). Out of the $790 billion dollars being spent for this stimulus and the $2 plus TRILLION dollars Geithner wants to spend and the more than $2 trillion already spent to get us out of this “crisis,” Obama’s loyal minions can expect to receive, on average, $13 per week from late spring until January. Then it gets scaled back to $8 per week. Last week our savior told the world that with his plan his sheep “will be able to get that car repaired, pay bills, buy groceries.” He later told us, not to go to Las Vegas. I don’t know about you but I am taking my $13 and investing it. Thirteen lotto tickets.
