Recently in more - Political- corruption Category

Not that long ago, when we thought Animal Farm was just fiction, we read:

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL
BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.

Now we know - it not fiction. Now we know that one man/woman one vote - Not so much! Indeed, some are more equal voters than others! Just how much more equal and why - that's the question that would make our founders turn over in their graves!


As published in the Washington Post

"...
The court-ordered election that allowed residents of one New York town to flip the lever six times for one candidate - and produced a Hispanic winner - could expand to other towns
 ..."   Read the entire article at the Washington Post

And for those of you not particularly worried about the 2010 Census and all the brouhaha over statistical sampling - where they guess, rather than actually go out to see who is really there - should get ready for more voter machinations - if not out right voter fraud. Oh yea, we should also get used to having your vote count 1/6 as much as other voters. Unbelievable!

We are at 50+ days and counting since the explosion of a BP oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico and we still haven't just plugged the "damn hole."  The destruction of our coastal environs is an unmitigated disaster, not only for the southern states directly affected, but for our whole nation.

Now our Dear Leader has announced that we will have a moratorium on drilling in water deeper than 500 feet.  Secretary of the Interior Salazar's May 27 report to BHO said a panel of seven experts "peer reviewed" his recommendations, which included a moratorium on all ongoing drilling in waters deeper than 500 feet.  Now we find out the the peer reviewers and others who contributed to the report said that they only reviewed an earlier version that wanted a moratorium on new drilling in waters deeper than 1,000 feet.

In a joint letter written by the panelists to various politicians, they stated: 

"We broadly agree with the detailed recommendations in the report and compliment the Department of Interior for its efforts.  However, WE DO NOT AGREE WITH THE SIX MONTH BLANKET MORATORIUM ON FLOATING DRILLING.  A moratorium was added AFTER THE FINAL REVIEW and was never agreed to by the contributors.  A blanket moratorium is not the answer.  It will not measurably reduce risk further and it will have a lasting impact on the nation's economy which may be greater than that of the oil spill.  We do not believe punishing the innocent is the right thing to do."

According to Minerals Management Service, a division of the U.S. Interior Department, 33 deep-water drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico must halt operations and not issue new permits under the Obama administration's moratorium.
 
According to state estimates, the oil industry employs roughly 58,000 workers in Louisiana; and its total of 260,000 oil-related jobs accounts for roughly 17 percent -- one of every six jobs in the state.

Now call me crazy, (I've certainly been called worse) but doesn't it seem odd that we have shut down 33 oil production facilities that supply almost 20% of our nation's oil and provide employment for almost 20% of Louisiana's population?  How are we going to replace that oil?  The more important question is:  will we?  And how will we replace the jobs?  Or can we?

We have a president who on many occasions has publicly stated his intent to move the United States away from fossil fuels; no matter the cost.  Did this crisis give him the fuel (no pun intended) that will propel his agenda more quickly than he had planned?  In his report, Secretary Salazar blatantly lied about the reviewers recommendations.  Why, you may be so bold to ask?  Well, obviously the truth didn't fit the agenda.

When BHO was running for president, he said he would have the most transparent administration in history.  A lot of Conservatives have taken him to task over that and have said that he has done just the opposite.  Well, I hate to be disagreeable, but I say nay, nay. 

Mr. President, when you ignore a massive oil spill for almost two months while you attend parties and concerts and play golf; when you ignore governors' of affected states pleas for assistance; when you do not seek advice from experts who offer their services; when you turn away offers of assistance from countries with the expertise we need, and when you use this crisis as an excuse to create another massive government program which will increase the cost of energy to consumers exponentially through onerous taxation, then I think you are transparent.  In fact, I can see right through you.  And I don't like what I see. 

What I see is a man who has no love for his country; a man who is vapid and narcissistic, and a man who is detached from the people he is supposed to serve.

I'm sure you'll keep looking for more crises that you can't let go to waste.  But remember this, with each crisis, you become more transparent. 

And for America, that's a "damn" good thing. 

 

Last Wednesday evening Inspector General Gerald Wilpin was unexpectedly and unceremoniously let go by the Obama administration.  He received a phone call from the White House Counsel's office telling him he had one hour to either resign or be fired.  He refused to resign.  The next day, his head was handed to him.  And not on a silver platter.

IG Walpin was the inspector general for the AmeriCorps program.  This is the national service program that just got its budget trebled and received $5.7 billion a couple of months ago.  His job is to investigate allegations of stolen money, misspent money, fraud, and other nefarious activities associated with misappropriation of public funds.

Because they often step on some political appointee's or elected official's toes, Congress has given them special protections.  There was a law passed in 2008 that said, if the president wants to fire an IG, he has to give Congress 30 days and show cause for the firing

One of the co-sponsors was none other than then-Senator Barack H. Obama.  Ah, it's so easy to be anti-corruption when you're not the one corrupting.

What got Mr. Walpin in trouble it seems, was that he went after the wrong guy.  Kevin Johnson, a former NBA star and current mayor of Sacramento, California, at one time headed a non-profit group for children called St. Hope. He was accused of misusing thousands of dollars in federal AmeriCorps grant funds.  Mayor Johnson also was a big supporter of and contributor to President Obama.  Mayor Johnson also made millions of dollars as a professional basketball player.  Did he really need to use taxpayer money for his own personal affairs?  Is he really that cheap?

The subsequent investigation by IG Walpin confirmed the allegations.  Mr. Johnson did indeed use federal funds for personal uses.  The report didn't quite please the administration so it seemed action was necessary and they took it.

Now, just in case you think IG Walpin is a Republican hack, I'd like to point out that he prosecuted Roy Cohn (one of Senator Joe McCarthy's bulldogs) and was the person responsible for the indictments against Richard Nixon's cabinet members John Mitchell and Maurice Stans.  So it would be hard to label him as a "vindictive right-wing nut case."

No reason has yet been given for firing Mr. Walpin, but a concerted smear campaign against this dedicated public servant is now being given exposure by an ever-accomodating mainstream media.  They actually have accused him of senility because of his age (he's in his 70s.)  By the way, Teddy (The Swimmer) Kennedy is 78 and Robert KKK Byrd is in his 80s.  Maybe we should fire them.  Dare we hope?

Clearly, our Dear Leader is afraid of IG Walpin.  If he lets him get away with this, other Inspectors General may start looking into other people in the Obama circle of friends.  Maybe some would be a little too close to the president.  Maybe we would find out some things about the new messiah that he doesn't want us to know.

And we can't have the truth about him coming out him, now can we?  

That would just spoil everything.  Maybe even create a crisis that we couldn't let go to waste.  

The peek in the rear view mirror of life is usually "20/20" or at least much clearer after the fact than a priori!  

And, occasionally we can catch a side glance of a current event that will give a clear glimpse into the future - as does the European Union fine of Intel. Soon, all too soon if fact, someone in "Dear Readers" circle of thugs -  will be using a similar tactic in an extortion attempt on all American business owners.

This is an event that turns the clouding old crystal ball from a murky tea leaf laden snow globe into a high def vision of what the future will be: and it's all about greed!

Like some untethered Inspector Poirot miming a bumbling Clouseau, the clowns in Brussels have fined the US based computer chip maker Intel Corporation 1.06 Billion (yes, that's billion with a "B") euros. That's approximately 1.45 Billion in (what used to be real money ) US Dollars on the premise that European consumers have been harmed by paying too much for their computers.

Yet, since 2001 actually chip prices have fallen dramatically nearly a 100 fold   and the computing power has increased exponentially. Chips that used to sell for a thousand dollars now cost ten bucks and the net result is that the for all consumers is the price of computers has fallen and even Intel's rival - AMD has garnered more market share in the EU.

And even in the most cruelest of fates the EU will not return money to the 'harmed' consumer, instead they will put the ill gotten gain directly into the coffers of the EU. Furthermore Neelie Kroes EU Competition Commissioner is now quoted as saying that Intel is not "sponsor of the European Taxpayer"



It sure seems we have a global recession on truth and it should be obvious that the EU attack on Intel has never been about the harmed consumer. Instead it has been about getting access to the revenues of the company. To which the leaders at the EU are all too eager to convince everyone of the great lie - "that we can all live at the expense of someone else"

Well, without so much as a glance at the final de-stimulation bill, the House democrats have sold us all into slavery. More likely to be truth is that they have sold our children into slavery. 

 

With a casualness that should be considered criminal, the United States House of Representative Democrats are stealing from every hard working America by taking that which was earned through effort and hard work to be distributed dishonestly to those who did nothing to earn it. Well almost nothing to earn it, nothing except to vote these monstrous thieves into office!

 

The obvious moral hazards are not enough to shame these violators of the public trust - oh - and violators their constitutional oath into abandoning their feckless charge. Instead, they move ahead in secret , without transparency  to debase themselves in an economic riot  of orgiastic theft.

 

Sadly house Democrats are stealing the future, they are stealing the "full faith and credit" from the nation, they are stealing domestic tranquility, they are stealing posterity and they are stealing our Blessings of Liberty.

 

Like thieves in the night they come to devour what was once one of our nations greatest assets - Freedom!

The 'Tin Man'

"I thought I had beaten the Wicked Witch then, and I worked harder than ever; but I little knew how cruel my enemy could be. She thought of a new way to kill my love for the beautiful Munchkin maiden, and made my axe slip again, so that it cut right through my body, splitting me into two halves. Once more the tinsmith came to my help and made me a body of tin, fastening my tin arms and legs and head to it, by means of joints, so that I could move around as well as ever. But, alas! I had now no heart, so that I lost all my love for the Munchkin girl, and did not care whether I married her or not. I suppose she is still living with the old woman, waiting for me to come after her.

"My body shone so brightly in the sun that I felt very proud of it and it did not matter now if my axe slipped, for it could not cut me. There was only one danger--that my joints would rust; but I kept an oil-can in my cottage and took care to oil myself whenever I needed it. However, there came a day when I forgot to do this, and, being caught in a rainstorm, before I thought of the danger my joints had rusted, and I was left to stand in the woods until you came to help me. It was a terrible thing to undergo, but during the year I stood there I had time to think that the greatest loss I had known was the loss of my heart. While I was in love I was the happiest man on earth; but no one can love who has not a heart, and so I am resolved to ask Oz to give me one. If he does, I will go back to the Munchkin maiden and marry her."

Both Dorothy and the Scarecrow had been greatly interested in the story of the Tin Woodman, and now they knew why he was so anxious to get a new heart.

"All the same," said the Scarecrow, "I shall ask for brains instead of a heart; for a fool would not know what to do with a heart if he had one."

"I shall take the heart," returned the Tin Woodman; "for brains do not make one happy, and happiness is the best thing in the world." Source

 

The back-story on L. Frank Baum's tin woodsman egregiously absent from the movie, is a vivid reminder to us all to:  NOT LOOSE HEART. I was reminded of this when some friends and I were discussing a chapter in John Eldredge's book:  Waking the Dead. 

 

With the ongoing crush of bad economic news, discouraging political machinations like the 'Porkulus bill', and outright fraud and deceit in nearly every corner of public life, it is easy to become habituated to the demoralizing consequences of our post-modern life and be lessened by it.  Wave after wave, it pounds and we become hollow, mechanical, and like the tin man, our capacity for humanness is reduced.

 

And it is to that battle that we are currently called: To stand on the ramparts of our own life and push back against all who would willingly "steal our joy".  Speak loudly against those who gladly diminish our humanity and shout to the heavens that while we yet breath we have do have faith!

 

From there, we can crawl back to life, heal our wounded spirits,  and stand ready at the parapet with a stout heart prepared for the hard tasks ahead. Our future depends on it, our children's future depends on it. Our way of life depends on it.

The Parable of the Shrewd Manager

 

 Jesus told his disciples: "There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. So he called him in and asked him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.'

 

 "The manager said to himself, 'What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to beg-- I know what I'll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.'

 

 "So he called in each one of his master's debtors. He asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'

 

 " 'Eight hundred gallons[a] of olive oil,' he replied.

      "The manager told him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.'

 

 "Then he asked the second, 'And how much do you owe?'

      " 'A thousand bushels[b] of wheat,' he replied.

      "He told him, 'Take your bill and make it eight hundred.'

 

 "The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

 

 10"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.

 

Luke 16 1-10 NIV

 

 

WSJ from January 15, 2009

 

Timothy Geithner, whose nomination as Treasury secretary has been delayed by his past failure to pay taxes, was repeatedly advised in writing by the International Monetary Fund that he owed Social Security and Medicare taxes on the income he earned at the organization between 2001 and 2004.

 

Questions over his initial failure to pay more than $34,000 in taxes are clouding his prospects for confirmation. The Senate Finance Committee postponed Mr. Geithner's confirmation hearing for the second time this week on Wednesday. It's now scheduled for next Wednesday, which means President-elect Barack Obama will take office without a Treasury secretary amid the biggest financial crisis in decades. Source 

 

 

Tax evader Timothy Geithner should not be confirmed as Treasury Secretary for if he is, we will all be lessen by allowing such dishonesty to stand.

 

If you live in Florida I urge you to contact both Senators Nelson and Martinez and ask them NOT to confirm Geithner. (Regrettably, Sen. Nelson is one of the 18 members of the Senate Finance committee voting so send nominee Geithner to the full Senate. We can only  extrapolate his vote will be affirmative.) 

 

Sen. Nelson     202-224-5274

Sen. Martinez  202-224-3041

 

Those reading from other states I urge you to contact your senators AND Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and urge him to take a principled stand against Geithner:

 

Minority Leader McConnell: 202-224-3135.

So Pelosi wants to "prosecute" and Conyers says "no one is above the law" . Source

 

And this pack of political jackals are already tearing at the carcass of American taxpayer,  and ripping asunder the social fabric of our society.

 

For Heaven's sake, PEBO isn't even in office yet and the vilest of criminal behavior seems to be sanction by the media, by congress  and by PEBO himself. Make no mistake these swindlers are on us,  robbing, thieving, stealing:  everything that's not nailed down. Pilfering everything  from elections to tax payer money and anything in between. By their actions they are tarnishing the very sanctity of our souls and we all are sitting around like a bunch of "new inmates in a prison movie about to get punked".

 

If Conyers applied the same standard to the office of the President elect and to his party that he wishes to apply to the opposition, then half of them would either be  in jail for corruption, collusion and racketeering or already been found guilty of treasonable offenses and giving aid & comfort to our enemies.

 

Of course there are the garden variety criminals in the landscape of PEBO. As well as the anti-American , left wing radical, communist and foreign terrorist that make up  some of  PEBO's close associates.

 

With friends, political appointments  and personal associations such as these:

 

Rezko, Mahru, Aramanda, Davis, Ayers, Dohrn, (Jodie)Evans, Baghdadi, Khalidi, Wright, Pfleger, Fraharkan, Soros, Graham-Felsen,  organizers at Acorn, ACLU;  and cabinet appointees and other political associates with sordid pasts or presents, like  Geithner, Holder, (lisa) Jackson, (carol) Brown, Blagojevich, (bill)Clinton

 

... we have every right to expect the seed of Chicago "thug politics" to bear fruit that doesn't fall far from the tree. 

 

If were a nation that still believed "In God we Trust", our own sense of shame would not let these transgressions stand. Instead, we are all besmirched when vice goes unpunished.

Here is what's really wrong with the federal "guv-ment"!

 

Our newly elected Democrat House member Alan Grayson has vowed to bring home more federal dollars - pork for the "beggar vote" thus hoping to ensure the safety of his house seat from reclamation by Central Florida Republicans.

 

In the "Orlando Sentinel (locally known as "The Slatinel") a dying Tribune Property that never met a socialist it didn't like, Mr. Grayson using the Orlando Phone books as an example is quoted as saying

 

"There's only one page for federal [services]," he said. "If you look at Chicago, it would be a dozen pages. People in Orlando need more from the federal government. . . . I want to try and increase the amount."

 

Of course with the ensuing "Tsunami of Socialists" entering Congress in January, there should be plenty of opportunity to feast at the public teat - at least until the milk runs dry.

 

Meanwhile the "Office of the President Elect", Pelosi and Read, are fermenting a new "brew of stimulus" that could be another $850 Billion bucks!!! Sweet mother of pearl - just how much money is that anyway? 

 

---

As a gentle reminder, Alan Grayson is a Democrat, carpet-bagging, opportunistic Copperhead, DC Attorney who, backed with party money and plenty of his own, moved to Orlando to unseat a politically vulnerable Rick Keller.

 

It is my belief that the United States of America was never intended to have a permanent political class. Instead, we're all supposed to do our civic duty which might include representing our fellow citizens locally, at the state and maybe even the federal level. Then, after our " our turn in the barrel"  we are supposed to leave, come home and  to get back to doing what we do! Mr. Grayson and his ilk represent probably the best reason for Term Limits -  in that without long term connections to a community they are funded and "moved in" by outsiders for both political gain and economic advantage.

Central Floridians can bet it won't be their best interests represented in Washington by this outsider. Instead, it will be the far away political interests and other fellow travelers and merry pranksters on "progressive bus" that will win the day.