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Posted at Wizbang: Explosively Unique...:
The secret "holders" have been exposed and Senator Frist has promised, "In September, I will bring S. 2590 to the floor of the Senate for the vote it deserves."...
Posted at A Blog For All:
Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) has finally acknowledged that he had also placed a hold on the legislation. There had been speculation over the past 24 hours that there was a second senator besides Sen. Ted Stevens (D-Alaska) to place a hold on a bill that would provide transparency for earmarks in Congress, the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (S-2590).
Additiction to pork transcends political affiliations. Never forget that salient point. Byrd and Stevens are masters at deliverying pork to their constituents, at all of our expense.
Others blogging: Porkbusters, Liberty and Justice, TPMmuckraker, Done With Mirrors.
UPDATE:
Thoughts Online wonders just what good this legislation will do in terms of reducing spending or pork. It's a good question. Politicians simply will not be shamed by the fact that they're bringing home the bacon for their constituents - it's what those constituents expect. What it will do is provide an easily accessible database that people can see just where and how taxpayer money is spent around the country. It could begin the process of imposing fiscal sanity and cost-benefit analysis on earmarks, but that is more of a hope than a definite outcome.
Technorati: porkbusters, earmarks, accountability, stevens, coburn, obama.
...read complete post at A Blog For All
Posted at MyDD :: Direct Democracy for People-Powered Politics:
There's lots of very cool electoral, political, and organizational news on the net neutrality front, including more public humiliation of net neutrality opponents. The video above is just one local story from Save the Internet's nationwide set of rallies over the past few days. Here's where we are in the fight.
In September and October, we're going to see a massive push by telecom companies on net neutrality. They've been doing quiet lobbying through astroturf groups, but it's going to heat up dramatically. Included in this PR campaign will be a push by the Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Deborah Platt Majoras to talk about the issue in a way that's favorable to telecom companies. Majoras is a Bush crony and comes from big business, a sort of Michael Brown of the internet, so it'll be interesting to see what kind of backlash this potential move from the Bush administration provokes. One thing to note is that the Bush administration is apparently going to unmask itself as a net neutrality opponent. I imagine the telecom companies don't realize what they're doing here, and that Deborah Platt Majoras doesn't understand that she's putting herself in a very very public spotlight. But then, political insight hasn't been a strong suit of the telecom lobby.
On our side, there have been grassroots lobbying efforts throughout August. There were rallies around the country today and yesterday in front of Senate offices, and four Senators came out in favor of net neutrality (Schumer, Jeffords, Harkin, and Dayton) this week. Tim Karr runs down the rallies. There was great local coverage of the incredible events in Detroit, New York, Buffalo, Fayetteville, Denver, Boston, Newark, Providence, Baltimore, Portland (ME), Seattle, Eau Claire and Milwaukee, Montpelier, Wilmington, Orlando, Honolulu, Louisville, Columbus, Madison, Spokane, Charleston, Albuquerque, and Santa Fe. Our Senate tally is updated here, so you can see where your Senator stands. Note all the waffling by the R's. That's not an accident.
And now we get to the most fun part of the fight, which is how the internet is taking its revenge on bad characters. This time, it's Ted Stevens and George Allen. When we set out on this fight, it wasn't a progressive issue, but based on the people who have unmasked themselves as opponents of net neutrality, it is becoming a fight over the progressive nature of the internet. And what's interesting when we're fighting over progressive values is how multiple fights always seem to converge at key points among key personalities. Take George Allen, for instance.
It shouldn't be a surprise that Allen, in his perch on the Commerce Committee, voted against net neutrality. The internet has practically destroyed his Presidential prospects in 2008, and may cause him to lose his Senate seat. Ironically, Allen is now running running TV ads touting his high technology work in Virginia, evasively avoiding discussion of his vote against net neutrality. At the time, Allen had $10 million on hand, and was considered a leading Presidential contender for the Republicans in 2008.
Since that vote, the internet has hit back, hard. It's well-known by now that George Allen's campaign is being ruined by the Macaca comment, a racist jab that flew all over the internet because of youtube and blogs, and then all over Virginia through local and national media. Allen still can't escape it, and his polling numbers have crumbled. But what's less well-known is how an internet draft campaign recruited his opponent, Former Reagan administration official Jim Webb. Moreover, internet sleuths have linked Allen with the KKK descended group the Conservative Citizens Council, circulating pictures of Allen with the group's leadership online.
So I'll just point out that net neutrality, internet politics, and electoral work are all converging on Allen. A candidate drafted by activists on the internet, Jim Webb, is now challenging Allen, an internet foe. There is just a very bright and stark line, and a real race, where before the Senate reelection was seen as a cakewalk and prep time for 2008. Earlier this year, Allen was hanging out in Iowa and talking about how bored he was in the Senate. Now he's hanging on for his political life.
Another character getting smacked is Ted Stevens, who recently placed a secret hold on a bill to prevent a searchable database of earmarks, supposedly as revenge against the Senator trying to prevent Stevens' pet pork 'bridge to nowhere' from being funded. Citizen journalists on the internet forced Stevens and his secret hold to come to light by querying every Senator about whether they had used the tricky legislative maneurver. Stevens of course is the force behind eviscerating net neutrality in the Senate. Stevens hasn't yet lived down his series of tubes moment, when he solidified his image as a cranky old man who either hangs out in haunted amusement parks or yells at pigeons.
Lead actors involved in the net neutrality fight on the other side have seen a massive loss of prestige and substantial public embarrassment. Al Wynn is facing a real primary challenge in Donna Edwards. George Allen got torched by internet activists, and saw his political career and influence reduced dramatically. And George Allen, Ted Stevens, and Mike McCurry are all to varying degrees objects of public ridicule.
There were rallies all around the country yesterday and today to save the internet, to save net neutrality. This train is leaving the station. I wouldn't want to be in its way.
Posted at Three Sources:
It's official. Sens. Byrd and Stevens both had holds on the earmark-transparency database. Confirming what we already knew, Senator Robert Byrd admitted today that he's the other secret holder. What are the odds it would be those two? I'm going...
...read complete post at Three Sources
Posted at Frost Hits the Rhubarb:
Cover story in Maclean’s nets Ignatieff 3 policy ideas , Aug. 28, 06
www.josephlavoie.com/2006/08/28
/cover-story-in-macleans-nets-ignatieff-3-policy-ideas/
[...] I was looking forward to reading Iggy’s manifesto. .... I shocked at how little substance Ignatieff has. The problem is that he’s still stuck in his professorial mode, and much like my profs at York, fills the pages with useless jargon and history. ....
[....] when you strip away the lessons, you get this policy platform:
(In his words. Policy proposals in italics) [....]
6. A future Liberal government must return to the original Kelowna agreement and meet it in full.
7. A federal working income tax benefit for low-income families. The refundable tax benefit would provide a basic tax credit and an income supplement for families struggling to survive on low wages. [....]
We should substantially increase our foreign assistance budget, to meet the 0.7 percent of GDP target. [....]
Four pages later, and all we get are three policy ideas: .... He lacks vision for the top job; good news for Conservatives if he wins the leadership because this guy’s all fluff.
Brodbeck on welfare and poverty, Tom Brodbeck, Aug. 29, 06
www.winnipegsun.com/News/Columnists
/Brodbeck_Tom/2006/08/29/1782967.html
The good news is the number of Canadians on welfare continues to fall and has been for at least 10 years, according to the National Council of Welfare’s most recent report released last week.
The bad news is Manitoba is the only province in Canada where welfare rolls have remained virtually the same for the past five years.
From 2001 to 2005, the number of Canadians collecting social assistance has fallen to just under 1.7 million, down from 1.9 million in 2005, about a 12% reduction.
[....] Either we have more lazy people in this province than others (and I’m not talking about the disabled or people who cannot legitimately work) or the provincial government isn’t aggressive enough in forcing people who can work to get a job. [....]
Welfare income levels hit new lows: study, Scott Deveau with a report from reporter Dawn Walton, via JacksNewswatch.info
www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.2006
0824.wwelfare0824/BNStory/National/home
Welfare Incomes 2005 pdf
The amount of money Canadians on welfare received in 2005 is at its lowest point in 19 years, according to a new study.
The National Council of Welfare, a citizen's advisory group to the Minister of Human Resources and Social Development, released its Welfare Incomes 2005 report Thursday on the state of Canada's welfare system. It suggests that of the 1.7-million Canadians currently receiving welfare in the country, most are living far below the poverty line -- half a million of whom are children.
The two worst provinces are New Brunswick, and Canada's richest province Alberta, according to the report.
The average income for a single person on welfare in New Brunswick is $3,427 or 19 per cent of the poverty of what is considered the threshold for the poverty line. [....]
At least some of those on welfare chose their lives -- lack of education, drugs, early pregnancy without a partner who takes responsibility ... etc. Is it not time to allow people's choices to have consequences if we don't want more of the same?
Someone please explain why those who choose drugs and degredation deserve more of other people's money to continue in their sorry state. I know, a failure of empathy on my part. I would suggest that the state not give welfare to a kid who quits school ... or the state could make any support contingent upon returning to and remaining in school -- without slacking -- must attend, be punctual, study, do assignments ... i.e. perform. It does not have to be an academic school. It could be a trades school although that does not mean they don't need intelligence, I hasten to add. I am referring to some kind of schooling which interests the non-academic students.
The writer obviously thinks the following is a bad idea.
Most welfare incomes peaked in 1994, when the federal government still contributed roughly half of the welfare dollars handed out through the Canada Assistance Plan, Mr. Murphy said. But since that federal program was cancelled, almost one-third of Canadians on welfare have seen the amount they receive drop by at least $3,000.
In Ontario, a lone-parent with one child received $21,000 in 1992. Today that figure is $14,400, Mr. Murphy said.
Where bad luck (illness or the death of a spouse, for example) comes into play, be kind but don't encourage dumb choices by funding those who make them, that is, the rest. Life has consequences ... by which we learn.
Feted or Fetid?
Tigers feted on campus -- Student club held events to celebrate Tamil group, Adrian Humphreys, National Post, August 29, 2006
www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=
a68f78d4-322f-4f8c-a80e-37d162fd8c95&k=5856
WATERLOO - Martyrdom celebrations that praised Tamil Tiger soldiers and suicide bombers were held openly in the student centre of the University of Waterloo, where the FBI alleges a "procurement cell" for the terrorist organization was centred.
Last November's event -- where a large flag of the Tamil Tigers, showing AK-47 assault rifles and a roaring tiger, makeshift tombstones and posters celebrating "Our Fallen Heroes" were displayed -- was held in the Student Life Centre despite the club being under suspension by the school at the time.
[....] The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, commonly called the Tamil Tigers or the LTTE, are fighting for a Tamil homeland separate from Sri Lanka and are notorious for their use of suicide bombings and assassinations. The group was declared a terrorist organization in the United States in 1997 and in Canada this year.
The use of the university's facilities, particularly while the club was suspended, will be part of a wide-ranging internal investigation announced yesterday.
The school has hired a national accounting firm to conduct a forensic audit of WATSA. It is also reviewing how overseas placements for students in co-operative education programs are run. [....]
Search: photographs of WATSA's "Maaveerar Naal" events, often called "National Heroes Day"
How right wing the left sounds after its moment of racial truth , Rod Liddle, Aug. 27, 06
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,24393-2330258.html
Quick, somebody buy a wreath. Last week marked the passing of multiculturalism as official government doctrine. No longer will opponents of this corrosive and divisive creed be silenced simply by the massed Pavlovian ovine accusation: “Racist!” Better still, the very people who foisted multiculturalism upon the country are the ones who have decided that it has now outlived its usefulness — that is, the political left.
It is amazing how a few by-election shocks and some madmen with explosive backpacks can concentrate the mind. At any rate, British citizens, black and white, can move onwards together — towards a sunlit upland of monoculturalism, or maybe zeroculturalism, whatever takes your fancy.
[....] the title of the commission: the Commission for Integration and Cohesion. You don’t get either of those things with multiculturalism: they are mutually exclusive.
... Some 22 years ago Ray Honeyford, the previously obscure headmaster of Drummond middle school in Bradford, suggested, in the low-circulation right-wing periodical The Salisbury Review, that his Asian pupils should really be better integrated into British society.
They should learn English, for a start, and a bit of British history and a sense of what the country is about; further, Asian (Muslim) girls should be allowed to learn to swim despite the objections of their parents (who did not like them stripping down even in front of each other). Muslim kids should be treated like every other pupil, in other words.
For these mild contentions, Honeyford was investigated by the government, vilified as a racist by the press, ridiculed every day by leftie demonstrators outside his office and was eventually hounded from his job. He has not worked since. [....]
Canada has the same thing happening, and, along with that, another problem -- sanctions against those who make mention of the divisiveness and unfairness of the languages policy, specifically, the overwhelming power of those whose language is French, the power to promote their language in areas not traditionally French-speaking, the power of exclusion -- e.g. the power to keep citizens from working if they mention the obvious--that the policy favours francophones over anglophones. They have the power to demand, in reality, that anyone who wants to get ahead mouth the mantras, the positives about bilingualism, but not mention the negatives which apply to approximately 70% of Canadians -- That is, they have not been and won't be employable in their own government civil service, and much more, it turns out. Bilingualism is the 'first' requirement, above other qualifications, for a job there, and in many other areas. We're just supposed to accept it. Well, I am mentioning that it is unfair and any government should see this, admit it, and do something to ensure that the ones discriminated against now, may work for their own government, the one which they pay for.
Olivia Chow's riding to push for funding for Hamas, posted by timwest, 8/30/2006 00:43:43
www.canoe.ca/mb2/messages/cnewsf/12164.htm
Fake funeral letter sparks fears of immigration scam
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.ht
ml?id=3f0ab843-a7d3-45b4-b029-2cd09e3c87bf
Pirate DVD ring busted , Kevin Connor, Aug. 29, 06
cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/TechNews/Other
/2006/08/29/1783782-sun.html
[....] The Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association says that the seized burners could have produced more than three million pirated discs in one year, yielding illegal revenues in excess of $17 million, assuming they were in operation 10 hours a day, seven days a week.
[....] Charged are three women, Yu Wang, 22, of Markham, and Si Ying Zhao, 22, and Jing Zhou, 28, both of Toronto, and one man, You Jie Wu, 36, of Markham.
An arrest warrant has been issued for another woman, Yannie Siu, 25, of Markham [. . . . ]
Counterfeit DVD lab busted
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/toronto/story.ht
ml?id=265c530e-368c-4584-bbe1-7e570533f137
Toronto police shut down 'highly sophisticated' counterfeit DVD lab, arrest its alleged owner
www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/toronto/story.ht
ml?id=6167a491-c990-4aa8-9422-ed2c90d24b5c
The left's boutique politics
www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/editorialsletters/story.ht
ml?id=4dcd3437-9166-40fb-94da-33b38b183adf
Will the real left please stand up?, SeanMcElroy, 8/28/2006 16:23:47
www.canoe.ca/mb2/messages/cnewsf/12140.html
tinyurl.com/r9baz
2 more charged in debit card scam, Tom Godfrey, Aug. 29, 06
cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/
2006/08/29/1783717-sun.html
Two more Sri Lankan men -- bringing the total charged to seven -- have been arrested by Toronto Police in a widening debit card scam that had apparently been in operation for at least three months. [....]
Yesterday the University of Waterloo, from where three suspects graduated, ordered an audit of the Waterloo Tamil Students Association and better screening of overseas placements.
The accused in the debit card scam allegedly withdrew about $4,000 in an hour using phony cards assembled from data stolen by the ring, Craddock said.
It's suspected the doctored machine may have been switched with a real one while the server was distracted. [....]
Watch Your Debit Card, mich71, 8/28/2006 13:02:58
www.canoe.ca/mb2/messages/cnewsf/12135.html
I know we had a rash of this S@#i going on here in the Outaouais region, one good indication that a machine as been tapered with is - before you swipe your card check the back of the hand held device, there should be a silver ring that covers a the piece of wire going in to the hand held. If it looks like it has been tampered with you will notice it right away, the police were saying that you can tell the difference from one that has just regular wear and tear and one that has been tampered with.
Comments on Small Dead Animals, via maz2 / SDA
www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/004513.html#comments
As Sentinel would say, "Feck the UN". ...-
Continuing the legacy
Toronto Sun ^ 2006-08-27 Peter Worthington
[....] After Korea, beginning in 1956 in Gaza, "peacekeeping" became the hallmark of the Canadian army -- until we joined the present war against terrorism in Afghanistan. True, Somalia in 1993 was a UN Chapter 7 "fighting" mission, but the expected fighting never occurred.
Although the country hasn't really noticed it, our military has abandoned traditional peacekeeping and returned to more active soldiering, now fighting an unorthodox war against an able and elusive enemy in Afghanistan.
CREDIT RICK HILLIER [....]
It would seem that the legacy established in WWI continues in the Canadian army today. ...-
Saddam invested one million dollars in Paul Martin-owned Cordex, by Judi McLeod, Canadafreepress.com, Friday, April 22, 2005
www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unifil/unifilpress.htm
[....] Cordex had a U.S. subsidiary.
Two years after taking the Park-through-Saddam one million dollars, Cordex went out of business.
On April 20, 1999, Bankrupt.com, an internet bankruptcy library states Kelly J. Sweeney Esquire of the Office of the Trustee in Denver, Col. as appointing four individuals to serve on an official creditor’s committee in the Chapter 11 case "commenced by Cordex Petroleum Inc."
Strong’s New Age Baca Ranch is located in Crestone, Colorado.
Indeed, according to Marci McDonald in Walrus Magazine, "Cordex Petroleums was formerly known as Baca Resources." (April 21, 2004).
…"Still, Strong has never been far from his protégé’s side. [....]
Search: Paul Volcker’s membership on the board , Power Corporation
There is more. Also, there is a lengthy list of related articles: Other CFP Stories about Paul Martin and Maurice Strong
Worth checking.
Memory Lane: Farfetched? -- Maurice Strong gets around
Who turned the lights out?, by Judi McLeod, August 25, 2003
www.canadafreepress.com/2003/main082503.htm
[....] According to Perspectives, a Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) publication, Solar Temple members believe in an imminent ecological apocalypse.
In 1996,"Natural Resources Minister Guy Chevrette acknowledged he’s worried the Solar Temple cult may have influence in Hydro-Quebec.
[....] "The Order of the Solar Temple was started in Canada by a homeopathic physician named Luc Jouret. Dr. Jouret received his funding from Ontario Hydro, a company (formerly) controlled by (United Nations guru) Maurice Strong," says Perspective. [....]
According to Brian Tokar in Z Magazine, "Hydro-Quebec suffered an additional political embarrassment when some 15 executives and former executives of the utility were tied to the Solar Temple cult after the mysterious mass killing of its members in Switzerland. [....]
How NAFTA superhighway is built under radar screen -- Officials say they see no budget 'earmarks,' because they don't know where to look , wnd.com, August 29, 2006
wnd.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51730
The entire I-69 project is expected to cost $8.8 billion in current dollars, with states picking up 10 percent of the tab. So where is the money hidden? It's not really. But nowhere in any highway bill is the project referred to as the "NAFTA superhighway." Since the money is doled out to states to spend on their portion of the project, the allocations look like any other highway spending.
A fast route from Mexico -- just what Canada needs.
The text of a speech given by a Lebanese woman recalling her experiences as a child in the Middle East and the contrast between the humanity of the two cultures at war.
Venezuela strikes oil investment deal with China worth US$5-billion
posted by rosemarie59
www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.ht
ml?id=21ada082-bc49-4950-9559-61acf09a9dca
Get off parents' backs
www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/editorialsletters/story.ht
ml?id=a8e30f47-b526-4932-bac3-a7c2a6cb65c4
The Caledonia occupation goes on
www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/editorialsletters/story.ht
ml?id=418be989-bebb-4ac4-adc8-8fea95c83d3f
...read complete post at Frost Hits the Rhubarb
Posted at Facing South:
The plot thickened today over the bi-partisan Senate legislation that would create a Google-like searchable databse of government contracts. Yesterday, Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska -- infamous advocate of the $231 million "bridge to nowhere" project -- admitted to putting a secret hold on the bill (after stalling on Katrina aid if he didn't get oil drilling in Alaska).
But sleuths in the blogosphere soon realized they had only 98 senators denying clandestine involvement in gumming up the measure; Stevens wasn't alone.
Low and behold, it turns out that none other than Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) was also stalling behind the scenes -- and promptly after the news was revealed, Byrd changed course and agreed to drop his hold on the legislation as of 4 pm today.
Senator Byrd's statement today includes the following:
There was an effort to pass a bill (S. 2590) on an important subject without debate just before the Senate recess. Senators have an obligation to their constituents to know what they are voting on before signing off on any proposal. [...]
Senator Byrd wanted time to read the legislation, understand its implications, and see whether the proposal could be improved. Now that there has been time to better understand the legislation, Senator Byrd has released his hold. Senator Byrd believes that the bill should be debated and opened for amendment, and not pushed through without discussion.Sen. Byrd's reluctance to embrace the database is understandable, given his penchant for pork spending. As Southern Exposure reporter Sean Reilly revealed in his investigation of special earmarks last year, Byrd stands in a long line of Senators who are especially fond if giving money to projects named after themselves. In last year's tight budget, for example, Sen. Byrd rushed to ensure that $6 million was spent on various projects at the Robert C. Byrd National Technology Transfer Center, "a Wheeling, West Virginia, facility named for the eight-term Democrat."
...read complete post at Facing South
Posted at Coyote Blog:
Holy foregone conclusions, Batman. It turns out the secret hold on the earmark transparency bill was finally traced to two senators: Ted Stevens and Robert Byrd. Knock me over with a feather....
...read complete post at Coyote Blog
Posted at Global Review:
The blogging campaign succeeded; the office of Senator Ted Stevens, Alaska's premier pork chef, leaked that they were in fact holding the reform bill. See here and here.
...read complete post at Global Review
Posted at Confessions of a Political Junkie:
I made the paper. This is from the syndication wire, so it will show up in your local paper, probably.
“The left can very easily find out which earmarks Halliburton is involved with, and the right can find out which earmarks Planned Parenthood is involved with,” said Erick Erickson of conservative RedState.com.
“When you have InstaPundit [...]]]>
...read complete post at Confessions of a Political Junkie
...read complete post at Instapundit.com
Posted at Austin Centrist:
The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006, which would require Congress to disclose where it dispenses tax dollars, has bipartisan co-sponsorship, from Democrats Obama and Carper and Republicans McCain and Coburn.
The bill creates a searchable online catalog of federal grants and contracts aimed at helping the general public find out who receives government support. Many activists believed the catalog would make it easier to root out pork-barrel spending.
The bill was drafted by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) in response to public concerns about the size of the federal deficit generally and, more specifically, the tendency of lawmakers to earmark funds in spending bills for favored projects back home.
"Why shouldn't the American people know where their money is being spent?" Coburn asked in defense of his bill. He predicted that lawmakers would approve less spending if voters knew what the spending was for.
There are so many pragmatic solutions available to legislators willing to work for the good of the USA rather than just their party or donors: Energy efficiency, Environmentalism, Social Security, Immigration, Terrorism, Diversity, Health care, Education... That's why I support Centrists and Independents who are most likely to bridge the divide between parties.
...read complete post at Austin Centrist
Posted at Pursuing Holiness:
Senator Ted “Bridge to Nowhere” Stevens is a uniter, not a divider. Bloggers from the left and right alike worked tirelessly together to apprehend him, and just when the suspense seemed too great to bear, he finally confessed. It was a Kyra Sedgwick moment:
Senator Stevens, a lot of people have been trying to [...]]]>
...read complete post at Pursuing Holiness
Posted at The Adventures of the Smart Patrol:
May 17: “[T]he first signs of decay are starting. … Subtle things, that no one else seems to notice, as they happen ever so slowly. The schools and the library and other public buildings aren’t quite as clean, quite as kept-up, as they used to be. The streets aren’t quite as clean. The potholes and the cracked sidewalks don’t get fixed as quickly, or at all. There are more houses around town that need fresh paint, more vacant retail spaces. Little things. Little degrees of difference. But they’re everywhere, when you really look. They’re the little things that indicate that salaries aren’t keeping up with inflation, that local and state governments don’t have the funds they used to. Belt-tightening everywhere. The house can go another year without paint. The City Hall can go another year, or two, without tuckpointing. We can get rid of a couple of sanitation trucks, give up a couple of salt trucks in the winter. We don’t need two toll booths onto the interstate open; one is fine. Little things that no one really notices, to stave off the rot for as long as we can. Little things that happen in communities like mine before crime starts to go up in communities that aren’t as fortunate, communities that don’t have any give in their belts to begin with. … [We] need someone to care about putting money—and attention—back into America again.”
Today: “You know how to tell when a nation is in decline? Just look at its infrastructure. A society on the rise is marked by trains that run on time and well, highways that are a pleasure to drive upon, and basic services that work well. That's not happening in the U.S. anymore. Our pal RJ Eskow details: ‘The American Society of Civil Engineers last year graded the nation "D" for its overall infrastructure conditions, estimating that it would take $1.6 trillion over five years to fix the problem.’ The U.S. is in decline, ladies and germs, and that decline has been hastened by the people in power for the past six years.”
Hastened by the war in Iraq, which was supposed to pay for itself. My governor, Mitch Daniels, who was the White House Budget Director during the run-up to the war, asserted the war would be an “affordable endeavor,” and rejected as “very, very high” the chief White House economic adviser’s estimate that the war would cost between $100 billion and $200 billion. The war has already cost us well over $200 billion.
Hasted by out-of-control wasteful government spending, with Congress having approved a record $29 billion in earmarks for 2006, including crap like $591,017,000 for eight additional C-130J aircraft, even though a “2004 report from the office of the inspector general of the Department of Defense rated the J model unsatisfactory and cited deficiencies in, among other things, its defensive systems,” and $1,300,000 for berry research in Alaska.
Hastened by tax cuts, 70% of the savings generated by which benefit the top 2% (those making $200,000 or more) of taxpayers. Bush’s tax cuts cost the government over $75 billion in revenue from those making $100,000 or more. (See chart below.)
(Click on image for larger view.)
Hasted by the increasing disparity in wealth between individuals and corporations. (See chart below, via Eric Hopp.)
“[W]ages and salaries now make up the lowest share of the nation's gross domestic product since the government began recording the data in 1947, while corporate profits have climbed to their highest share since the 1960’s. UBS, the investment bank, recently described the current period as ‘the golden era of profitability’.”
Additionally, corporations share significantly less of the tax revenue burden than they used to. “In 1965, individual taxpayers paid 66% of all US income taxes, and corporations paid about a third. But by 2000, the corporate share had dropped to 18%, just about half what it used to be.”
And it has fallen since. TomPaine: “The treasury department reports the federal government collected $184 billion in corporate income taxes in 2004 (up from $ 132 billion in 2003)—or just 9.6 percent of total taxes collected.”
In less than 40 years, corporations’ tax share fell from 31% to less than 10%. Meanwhile, the minimum wage hasn’t been raised since 1998, and “the median hourly wage for American workers has declined 2 percent since 2003, after factoring in inflation,” even though productivity (and corporate profits) continued to rise steadily over the same period.
The average American worker is being robbed blind by a massive redistribution of wealth orchestrated by a government that leaves itself wallowing in deficits and unable to sustain the infrastructure on which those Americans depend. The nation is crumbling. If we continue down this path, forget drowning the government in a bathtub; we won’t even be able to afford the tub.
(The crosspost was enough to make a shy, bald Buddhist reflect and plan a mass murder.)
...read complete post at The Adventures of the Smart Patrol
Posted at GOP Bloggers :: Blogging For The Majority:
Republicans have been downright disappointing: spending money like Democrats, vacillating on key counter-terror programs, engaging in simplistic nativism on trade and immigration, blocking earmark reform and legislative transparency. There's a lot about which conservatives can rightly be disappointed. But as bad as the Congressional GOP has been, imagine the House in Democratic hands.Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi would be a new Speaker of the House, 13 of the 19 [would-be Democratic primary committee chairmen] voted against the welfare reform that Mr. Clinton signed in 1996 and hailed this month as a triumph of "bipartisanship."...
Consider the man likely to run the Judiciary Committee, Michigan's John Conyers [who has an] explicit intention to investigate grounds for impeaching President Bush.
If you think Republicans have been spendthrift, don't expect much change from Wisconsin's David Obey (class of 1969) at Appropriations. Mr. Obey was one of those Democrats who ripped Mr. Clinton for endorsing a balanced budget in 1995. Rather than cut spending, his goal would be to spend less on defense and more on domestic programs and entitlements.
Ways and Means, the chief economic policy panel, would go to New York's Charlie Rangel (1970), who opposed the Bush tax cuts and recently voted against free trade with tiny Oman. His committee's crucial health care subcommittee would be run by California's Pete Stark (1972), who in 1993 criticized Hillary Clinton's health care proposal because the government wasn't dominant enough. Over at Financial Services, the ascension of Barney Frank (1980) would mean a reprieve for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, despite $16 billion in accounting scandals. His main reform priority has been to carve out a new affordable housing fund from the two companies' profits. And forget about any major review of Sarbanes-Oxley.
Energy and Commerce would return to the untender mercies of John Dingell, the longest-serving Member first elected in 1955, who was a selective scourge of business when he ran the committee before 1994. The Michigan Congressman would do his best to provide taxpayer help to GM and Ford. But telecom companies would probably get more regulation in the form of Net neutrality rules, and a windfall profits tax on oil would be a real possibility...
We also can't forget California's Henry Waxman (1974), among the most partisan liberals and who at Government Reform would compete with Mr. Conyers to see who could issue the most subpoenas to the Bush Administration. And then there's Alcee Hastings, who, should Ms. Pelosi succeed in pushing aside current ranking Member Jane Harman, would take over the House Intelligence Committee. Before he won his Florida seat in 1992, Mr. Hastings had been a federal judge who was impeached and convicted by a Democratic Congress for lying to beat a bribery rap. He would handle America's most vital national secrets.The Republicans have been lousy on policy and, sometimes, downright embarrassing. But that is a fight to wage in the primaries. When it comes to the general election, it is imperative to prevent the reins of power from being handed over to this extreme Left crowd.
]]>Posted at The Huffington Post:
In the movie Animal House, in his incessant quest to get rid of the nuisance of the Delta fraternity, the evil Dean Wormer puts them on "Double Secret Probation." It was a completely made-up term, which just made his desperation even more hilarious. For the past few weeks in the United States Senate, some unnamed Senator (who we now know to be the Republican Senator from Alaska, Ted Stevens) has used something called a "secret hold" to kill some common sense legislation. It would be as funny as what Dean Wormer did, if it wasn't an actual Senate procedure, and if the bill wasn't of such importance.
At issue is a bill sponsored by Senators Barack Obama (D-IL) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) which would open up the Federal books for citizens to see. A database, I might add, that would have have shown a total of 2.5 trillion dollars in spending last year alone. You'll never find two guys at complete opposites of the political spectrum as Obama and Coburn, which only serves to highlight how non-partisan this legislation is. The bill would require that all government contracts and grants be placed in an online searchable database (think Google), so that citizens could find out how their tax money is being spent, with the click of a mouse. The only losers, if this bill should pass, would be the special interests that get sweetheart deals from the Federal government because they flood the campaign coffers of elected officials.
Perhaps that is why Senator Stevens did not come forward until both Republicans and Democrats asked every member of the Senate if they were responsible for using an arcane rule to place a "secret hold" on the bill. Under the rules, this Senator never has to make him or herself known, and the legislation (which passed unanimously in the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee) can't move forward until the Senator lifts the hold.
Ellen Miller, who heads the Sunlight Foundation, a Washington dedicated to a more open government, was quoted last week as saying, "It really is a mystery, not only who did it, but what the rationale could possibly be and why they would go to the mat on this." Well, not such a mystery to me. Someone in the Senate has sold out the principles of a representative democracy to protect those moneyed interests that "negotiate" cockamamie deals like charging the Pentagon $500 for a hammer. It turns out that "someone" wanted to make sure that people did not get wind of $200 million being spent on a "bridge to nowhere" to serve 50 people or $450,000 to research baby food made with salmon (by the way I could do an article on all of Senator Stevens spending on salmon related things alone). No one wants to know about their money being spent on absurd things like that while they watch the national guard being cut and a rise in minimum wage being blocked, you get my point, priorities.
That's why it's not a surprise that true conservative organizations, which are against bloated budgets have also cried foul. Porkbusters.org, far from a liberal outlet, had started an online investigation to uncover who the secret Senator is, and bring them to public light. Not quite as much as fun as Larry Flynt's "investigation" , remember that one? But certainly of more public consequence.
Many citizens took part in the investigation and now that the culprit has been revealed I think we should all let him know how we feel.
Call Senator Ted Stevens @ (202)224-3004 or shoot him an e-mail.
I wrote this piece a few days ago and had not had the time to edit and post it. As I went through to make adjustments to bring it up to speed I noticed the following graph. Though my job as a commentator does not cultivate this, I must admit, there are sometimes when I am not happy to be right, this is one such time. I hate that DC and its players, particularly the ones running the show right now have become so predictable. Anyway, I will leave the graph as I wrote it on Monday:
Here in Pennsylvania, both Senators Specter and Santorum have told constituents that they are absolutely not behind this shady deal. Santorum, in fact, is a cosponsor of the legislation. At the time of this writing, Porkbusters is focusing on five Senators who have not issued firm denials. They are Senators Ted Stevens (R-AK), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Judd Gregg (R-NH), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Robert Bennett (R-UT). My money is on Ted Stevens, the King of the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" in Alaska. If there ever was a walking example of a waste of taxpayers' money, Stevens is it, and surely he has a lot to hide, that would be exposed by the database this legislation would mandate.
Regardless of who had been behind the hold, something like this should never be able to happen again. If a Senator wants to kill a bill, let them do it in public. The Senate should immediately abolish this "secret hold" rule, and make the repeal apply to this legislation. The American people have every right to know who in their own government wants to withhold information from them. Ultimately, though, all we may have are our guesses, unless public pressure can change Senate rules and force this super-secret Senator out of the special interest closet. Don't keep your outrage over this "hold" rule a secret! Call your Senator today (link to how to find) and let him or her know that you want it abolished ASAP or you may have to put a hold on your vote for them in the next election.
At the end of Animal House, the ragtag bunch of Delta House members foil Dean Wormer's "Double Secret Probation," and, ironically, one of the head frat boys, John Belushi's character, goes on to become "Senator Blutarsky." Hilarious, yes, but thinking about it, it's about time citizens rise up and fight the Dean Wormer of the United States Senate, whoever he or she is.
Resources:
Citizens Against Government Waste tells you where your tax dollars are being wasted. I often look at it to see where pork can be cut to find money for things that I believe to be a priority. This is just the tip of the iceberg,which is why we so desperately need the database proposed.
For more ways to take action visit: www.citizenhunter.com
Posted at Little Miss Attila:
Senator Stevens. Can you cope? The audience is listening. h/t: Insty....
...read complete post at Little Miss Attila
Posted at Jihad Watch:
A case that gives new meaning to "guns and butter." From AFP: "US targets Hezbollah fundraising arm" WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US government blacklisted a fundraising arm of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah which it said makes no pretence of...
...read complete post at Jihad Watch
Posted at BackyardConservative:
Now that Senators Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia) been exposed as placing a hold on a bill to make earmarks transparent, perhaps this legislation will advance. I will credit Illinois Sen. Barack Obama for co-sponsoring this with Republican Tom Coburn, as well as leaders in the blogosphere who have been pushing for this for some time. And the initial reason I started this
...read complete post at BackyardConservative
Posted at A Blog For All:
Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaksa) is behind the hold on a bill that would provide transparency for earmarks in Congress, the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (S-2590). He's the guy that a whole lot of folks in the blogosphere had fingered as the culprit.The bill has become a cause célèbre for both liberal and conservative bloggers as they tried to uncover the "secret senator" who
...read complete post at A Blog For All
Posted at Conservative Blog Therapy:
Atlas Shrugs. Water Vlogging?... The Remix:
(that song is strangely hypnotizing)
Bethany from realVerse. Good. God.
Mary Katherine Ham - Allah's Crush: (one of them)
Of course, Michelle Malkin. Vent. Everyday.
Musical Interlude - Toxic Girl:
Finally, RightWingSparkle - From Texas:
...read complete post at Conservative Blog Therapy
Posted at RightOnPeachtree:
Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) recently proposed a bill that would create a publicly accessible database containing details about government-awarded funds -- who got them, what the amounts were, etc. This was a refreshing piece of legislation that would shed sunlight on a system with much potential for corruption. The legislation was sailing through Congress, as it should have, when an anonymous senator placed a hold on the bill. This hold angered politicians on both sides of the aisle and outraged much of the blogosphere. Porkbusters led the charge in trying to smoke out the anonymous senator who seemed keen on derailing this rare bipartisan effort. The effort to identify this human roadblock was successful as the culprit has now stepped forward. It was none other than Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK), that crusty old piece of political compost.
If you'll recall, Stevens was the pork-loving brainiac who championed the infamous "bridge to nowhere". This was one of two bridges in Alaska that would benefit only a handful of people. This particular bridge had a price tag of $223M. When other senators dared to question this expense, Stevens became defensive and even threatened to resign if he didn't get his way (I'm not sure if he held his breath until they gave in, but I wouldn't be surprised if he did).
Also, Stevens is one of the biggest advocates of the elimination of net neutality. If Stevens gets his way, his large campaign donors will be able to provide differentiated levels of services on the internet that would likely relegate us second-class users to the slow lanes of the information superhighway. And Stevens' asinine dissertational speech explaining the internet is nothing short of comic genius from a man who has clearly outlived his shelf-stable date.
So what can we do to clean up messes like this one created by temper-tantrum Teddy?
In terms of corrective measures, the first step would involve getting rid of dinosaurs like Stevens. He helps to destroy the credibility of Congress because of his wasteful spending, his shameless political favors benefitting his campaign contributors, and his all-too-frequent displays of stupidity. I hope Alaska realizes how much of an embarrassment this man is to their state and puts him out to pasture as soon as they possibly can.
A second step would be the elimination of this provision whereby a senator can anonymously put a hold on a bill. That's a ridiculous way to govern. Of course, it takes a special person to have the audacity to secretly put a hold on a bill that would provide sunshine and accountability on our legislative processes. Stevens is special in that way, though. His shamelessness apparently has no boundaries.
Finally, I think Congress should adopt one of the practices of NASCAR. You know how race cars are adorned with the logos of their sponsors? Well, we should require that legislators wear logos of their sponsors as well (see the picture of Stevens shown above). The bigger the sponsorship, the larger the logo. Then we can better understand why these scoundrels vote and behave the way they do. If someone votes to give big oil companies a tax break and he has Exxon and Texaco logos across the front of his suit, we'll know exactly what's going on.
I think that's only fair, don't you?
...read complete post at RightOnPeachtree
Posted at The Impolitic:
Following up on this story, the latest rumor is the real Mr. Bridge to NoWhere, Ted Stevens (R-AK), put the anonymous hold on the porkbuster bill currently stalled in the Senate. How unsurprising. Smart money has been on him right along.
In a related development, Jay Rosen of the brainy journalism blog Press Think has a new citizen journalism project in the works. That's somehow related to a
...read complete post at The Impolitic
...read complete post at Instapundit.com
Posted at The Boring Made Dull:
Or over hype. Bruce Kluger is drawing a fairly tenuous connection in the USA Today. The basic premise – that blogging is still in it’s infancy, and currently has limited reach, is fairly non-controversial, even if delivered with the standard MSM condescension.
A few points to consider from Mr. Kluger’s examples:
Lamont - Lieberman. In this case, the lefty side of the blogosphere delivered enough buzz to help a largely self financed candidate over the top based on a single issue – the Iraq war. This was a significant accomplishment – within very recent memory, Lieberman was very nearly a winning candidate for VP. Given a quirk in Connecticut’s electoral law, he lives to fight another day, in a broader context not as driven by the activists. With out the independent option, he would be out of a job.
Snakes on a Plane. I spend far too much time surfing the web, but beyond looking at the title ‘snakes on the plane’, and thinking “what a great title! I wonder what the movie’s about?”, I was unaware of a huge buzz outside of the movie sites. Plus, “R” ratings generally depress ticket sales.
Howard Dean for President. The bloggers got Howard Dean on the map. Didn’t make President, but wouldn’t be where he is today without them. From Mr. Dean’s point of view, this has to be a success.
So, we have three cases where the blogoshpere generated significant buzz. In the case of “snakes”, fannies were not delivered to seats. Nobody outside of the Studio cares.
In the Lamont case, looks like they won the battle, but not the war. For Dean, a failure. However, in both cases, the Democratic party was pushed to the left, so from an insider’s perspective, the lefty bloggers are advancing their agenda. Whether they can successfully persuade the rest of the country to go along is another question.
As any ad executive will tell you, publicity campaigns can only take you so far. Eventually, you have to have a product that peforms. Dean didn’t perform outside of his activist base. Lamont looks to be in trouble on the same basis.
In terms of blogospheric successes, a few come to mind:
There’s bringing the MSM back to Trent Lott’s remarks about Strom Thurmond, effectively running him out of the Republican leadership. Shredding Dan Rather’s credibility. The discovery of Fauxtography. It’s too soon to say if Porkbusters will make a difference (that’s a harder row to hoe than simply exposing forged documents or photoshopping), but it doesn’t appear to be going away.
Obviously, a mixed bag, with other failures, successes, and excesses that are beyond the scope of this post to document. On balance, something more than Mr. Kluger’s “… like any kid, it needs to be watched very carefully”. Since Mr. Kluger owns to occasionally posting on Huffington, he’s probably well exposed to immature and juvenile bloggers…
Oh,and on the watching front,
quis custodiet ipsos custodes
? Seems like the blogoshpere has taken up that challenge.
False erudition disclosure: tossing in an untranslated latin statement was done intentionally to make this post look impressive and scholarly. However, I have zero working knowledge of Latin, and relied on my research assistant, Dr. Google, to come up with the above. Should a more accurate translation turn out to be “Your Edsel will not work as a pencil sharpener made of ice cream”, it’s just the price one pays for pretentiousness.
...read complete post at The Boring Made Dull
Posted at The Immoral Minority:
The identity of the blogosphere's "secret senator" has been revealed.
CNN has confirmed that Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, has placed a hold on a bill that would require the government to publish online a database of federal spending.
"He does have a hold on the bill," Stevens' spokesperson Aaron Saunders told CNN. "At the time he placed the hold he notified Sen. [Tom] Coburn and his staff and identified several questions we had with the bill. Two weeks ago Sen. Coburn named Stevens as having a hold on the bill, so we don't consider it a secret."
Senate tradition allows any senator to keep a piece of legislation from reaching the Senate floor by placing a hold on the bill.
Coburn's office confirmed that Coburn had revealed Steven's hold during a town hall meeting in Oklahoma two weeks ago.
The bill has become a cause célèbre for both liberal and conservative bloggers as they tried to uncover the "secret senator" who had blocked passage of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (S. 2590). The bill was introduced earlier this year by Sens. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, and Coburn, R-Oklahoma.
The conservative-leaning, anti-government waste site Porkbusters urged readers to call their senators and ask them to go on the record denying that they placed the hold. TPMuckraker, under the banner "blogosphere unites in pursuit of masked senator" also got in on the act, posting updates from readers around the country.
Well of course it is my very own Senator that would be putting the brakes on a bill that would reveal who spent what, and how much. He has much to keep hidden.
I am so embarrassed. But not at all surprised.
...read complete post at The Immoral Minority
Posted at MotherJones.com | MoJo Blog - Social Issues and Political Commentary:
In mid-August we reported that shortly before Congress recessed an anonymous senator placed a hold on widely popular anti-pork legislation introduced by Senators Barack Obama and Tom Coburn. The bill, which has backers on both sides of the aisle, would create a publicly accessible database that tracks federal contracts, loans, and grants, giving taxpayers the opportunity to actually see how their tax dollars are spent - and, all too often, misspent.
After we broke the story, a grassroots campaign began in earnest to unmask the offending legislator, with citizens around the country contacting their senators. Well, the anonymous senator is no longer anonymous. TPMmuckraker is reporting that Senator Ted Stevens, the Alaska Republican, is holding the bill back from floor consideration. Yes, that's the same Ted Stevens who earmarked more than $200 million to build the infamous Bridge to Nowhere, which would connect Ketchikan, Alaska, a city of 8,900, with the its airport on Gravina island, home to all of 50 inhabitants. There's speculation that Stevens may have blocked this important legislation simply out of spite for its co-sponsor, Tom Coburn. Last fall, it was Coburn who led the charge to block Stevens outlandish earmark, suggesting that the money be spent instead on rebuilding a Louisiana bridge damaged during Hurricane Katrina. When Coburn's proposal was considered, Stevens threw the senatorial version of a hissy fit, as The Washington Post described it, during which he bellowed this warning to his fellow senators: I will put the Senate on notice -- and I don't kid people -- if the Senate decides to discriminate against our state and take money only from our state, I will resign from this body. As the Post put it, and no doubt many would agree, that sounds awfully tempting to us.
Update: This is rich. Stevens' spokesman, Aaron Saunders, is now saying that the senator placed a hold on the bill because hes concerned about its potential cost. Stevens wanted to make sure that this wasnt going to be a huge cost to the taxpayer and that it achieves the goal which the bill is meant to achieve, Saunders said. The whopping price tag of the database: about $15 million, which is approximately $208 million less than the amount Stevens earmarked for the Bridge to Nowhere.
]]>Posted at Tapscott’s Copy Desk:
Check out Porkoplis, the blog of Mario Delgaudo in Cinncinnati. Mario is providing a textbook demonstration of how bloggers can use the posted database of 1,800+ Labor-HHS appropriations bill earmarks to pressure Members of Congress and earmark recipient to come clean.
You can check out the Earmarks Database on the Examiner.com web site here. You can also give it a look at the database and some excellent charts breaking the data out by various factors by Porkbusters.org here.
You can get a superb graphic representation of the database via an earmarks map created by Sunlight Foundation here.
And you can scan the database at Citizens Against Government Waste by going here.
You will also find lots of useful background information about earmarks and advice on how to research the earmarks at each of the four sites that posted the Labor-HHS earmarks database earlier this month.
...read complete post at Tapscott’s Copy Desk
...read complete post at Instapundit.com
Posted at Stubborn Facts:
...Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska!
if you want to know what the game was, go here. The short take is that a bill to establish a public searchable database of Congressional earmarks, a.k.a. "pork," has been held up in the Senate by a secret hold placed on it by an unknown Senator, and the game has been "pin the tail on the obstruction." The pin has been set--the Senator is no longer unknown
Perhaps Stevens is miffed that anyone would question using federal tax money to build a $223 million bridge to nowhere serving only fifty people--or even be able to look it up and know the proposal exists. Why Alaska must rely on the lower 48 to build a bridge when it's sitting on $25 billion in oil revenues and issues hundreds of millions of dollars in oil revenue dividend checks to state residents every year is a question we'd all love answered.
UPDATE!: My own personal pick for top suspect, the all-time King o' the Pork Barrell, Senator Robert Byrd, is still not eliminated, and some "anonymous sources" (worth exactly nothing but fun to quote) are claiming there is more than one hold on the bill. That leaves TWO potential WINNERS! All other contestants have been eliminated.
Posted at Conblogeration:
Recently, Tom Coburn (R-OK) co-authored a bill to create a searchable national database of spending projects in an attempt to bring greater accountability to federal spending.
Coburn's bill has been blocked in the Senate due to one Senator using a procedural move to place a secret "hold" on the bill, stalling it indefinitely.
Porkbusters (among others) has been all over that news, encouraging people to call their Senators and ask them if they were responsible. The goal was through a process of elimination to find out who placed the secret hold. Early guesses were based on who the biggest porkers have been traditionally (my money was on Robert Byrd).
Hot Air reported earlier today that the list was down to three: Judd Gregg, Mike Crapo, and Ted Stevens.
Justin Rood at TPM Muckracker now reports that the culprit is apparently ... Ted Stevens (R-AK). Coburn has accused Stevens of blocking his bill in revenge for Coburn's opposition to Stevens' infamous "Bridge to Nowhere."
From the TPM article, Ted Stevens sounds like a nasty piece of work -- greedy, conniving, and vindictive.
Here's hoping that bringing this shameful hold to light will force Stevens to remove it and let the bill go forward.
And Tom Coburn had better watch his back.
UPDATE: Stevens looks worse and worse while Coburn looks better and better. Coburn knew weeks ago about Stevens' hold, but didn't go public in order to give Stevens the chance to disuss concerns about the bill privately. Stevens had no such intention. He purposefully avoided Coburn and ignored multiple requests to meet. Stevens simply wanted to stick a knife in Coburn's back.
There's also a rumor circulating that there's also a Democratic hold on Coburn's bill. Gee, I wonder who that could be...?
You can read all the ugly details at Tapscott's Copy Desk (h/t: Immodest Proposals).
...read complete post at Conblogeration
Posted at D-Day:
So Barack Obama and Tom Coburn, two of the unlikeliest allies in the Senate who share little in common but their freshman status, and as such an ability to look on the outside of the system and see the need for reform, pushed a bill that would seek public disclosure for all receipients of federal funding through a Google-like database.
The federal government awards roughly $300 billion in grants annually to 30,000 different organizations across the United States, according to the General Services Administration. This bill would require the Office of Management and Budget to establish and maintain a single public Web site that lists all entities receiving federal funds, including the name of each entity, the amount of federal funds the entity has received annually by program, and the location of the entity. All federal assistance must be posted within 30 days of such funding being awarded to an organization.
"At the very least, taxpayers deserve to know where their money is being spent," Senator Obama said. "This common-sense legislation would shine a bright light on all federal spending to help prevent tax dollars from being wasted. If government spending can't withstand public scrutiny, then the money shouldn't be spent."
This bill was all set to pass, it had cleared committee and was readied for a full vote in the Senate. Then an unidentified Senator dropped a secret hold on the bill, stopping its progress. It's somehow fitting that a bill that would increase public oversight was stopped in its tracks secretly.
But the supporters of the bill wanted to do something about it. And in a rare show of bipartisanship, the left and the right sides of the blogosphere engaged in a grassroots action, led by Porkbusters and TPM Muckraker, to call every member of the US Senate to determine who placed the secret hold. They were down to the final five when someone noticed a little-seen quote in a small-town newspaper revealing the holder.
One of the senators most criticized for his personal projects, Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, has a hold of his own on Coburn's bill to make public the spending patterns of the government. Called the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, the legislation calls for the creation of a database open to the public where citizens can track government spending.
"He's the only senator blocking it," Coburn said of Stevens.
Yes, Senator Stevens, the guy who thinks the Internets are a series of tubes, the President Pro Tem of the Senate, the man who's been there longer than anyone else, he's the one that doesn't want the people to know what their government is doing. Fitting.
The rise of the blogosphere has increased partisanship in some ways, but that was happening long before there was an Internet - just check out 1994. What the blogs have done is to set the debate between the reform and the status quo. Reformers on both sides want to change government from the exclusive, inside-the-Beltway resort it is today to an inclusive, participatory process. They certainly have different ideas about how best to serve citizens once they get there. But I support all efforts to take back government and promote participatory democracy. There are allies on both sides of the aisle for that.
UPDATE: Stevens admits it. So do I get to gloat a little because it's a Republican? We can't have TOO MUCH bipartisanship, after all...
...read complete post at D-Day
Posted at CoolAqua:
TPMmuckraker has found out who placed the secret hold on a bill that would provide a public searchable database of earmark recipients; Alaska's Republican Senator Ted Stevens. Unfortunately, Ted won't be up for re-election until 2008, but I don't think anyone will forget about this.......
...read complete post at CoolAqua
Posted at Tapscott’s Copy Desk:
Congrats to TPMuckraker's Paul Keil who got a spokesman for Sen. Ted. Stevens, R-AK, to confirm that the Alaska Republican is the senator who placed an anonymous hold on the Coburn-Obama bill to create an internet database of most federal spending.
Rebecca Carr at Cox News Washington Bureau has more details, including this knee-slapper that was undoubtedly delivered with a totally straight face by Stevens' aide:
"Aaron Saunders, spokesperson for Stevens, said [Sen. Tom] Coburn was informed two weeks ago that his [Saunders] boss had concerns about the bill. Namely, Stevens is concerned that the bill would create more bureaucracy. He wants to see a cost-benefit analysis."
If that obvious BS doesn't get Stevens hooted out the U.S. Senate .... How about we do a cost-benefit analysis of Stevens' tenure in the nation's capitol?
UPDATE: Beltway Blogroll assess the campaign
Beltway Blogroll's Danny Glover has a superb look at the secret hold campaign from its outset.
UPDATE II: CNN web site features Stevens unmasking
It's the top-rated story on the web site at the moment, which is an indication of attention to the issue among the general public. Go here for the CNN piece.
UPDATE III: Here's why Coburn didn't out Stevens
John Hart, Sen. Tom Coburn's communications director, confirmed for Tapscott's Copy Desk that the Oklahoma Republican senator who is the main force behind the Coburn-Obama bill, knew two weeks ago that Stevens placed the hold on the bill, as claimed earlier today by an aide to the Alaska Republican.
So why didn't Coburn simply announce that it was Stevens who placed the anonymous hold on the bill, S. 2590, the Federal Financial Accountability and Transparency Act?
"Coburn did know two weeks ago, but his position is that it is the responsibility of the senator placing the hold to reveal himself or herself," said Hart. "That's why Coburn didn't want to go after Stevens to put pressure on him to do it."
Hart acknowledged that Coburn also places holds on proposed legislation but emphasized that when he does he goes directly to the sponsor of the bill in question and explains his concerns about it. Stevens has yet to speak with Coburn about the bill, according to Hart.
"Coburn didn't find out it was Stevens until after the August recess began," Hart said. "The difference is that Stevens has avoided press and blogger calls and he refused to meet with us to discuss his concerns."
Hart said there is concern that a second anonymous hold may also be in play, but he said the Coburn staff has been unable to confirm it one way or the other.
FYI: The superb "Stevens busted" artwork topping this post is courtesy of Andy Roth and the mischievious crew at Club for Growth. The second and third pieces of artwork are by Karl Engenberger, who N.Z. Bear calls "the talented creator of the original Porkbusters logo."
UPDATE IV: Timeline shows Stevens actively avoided Coburn
After reviewing a detailed timeline of events beginning with the April 6 introduction of S. 2590 by Coburn, it seems clear that Stevens has done everything possible to avoid working with Coburn or his staff to address the Alaska senator's objections to the proposal. That avoidance strongly suggests that the purpose of the anonymous hold by Stevens was not to force a compromise with Coburn, but to kill the bill outright.
For example, on July 18, Coburn chaired a hearing of his subcommittee on the bill. Stevens could have attended the hearing and was invited but did not.
On July 20, members of Coburn's legislative staff invited Stevens via email to co-sponsor the bill. No response was ever received.
On July 27, the full Homeland Security Committee on which both Coburn and Stevens serve voted unanimously to report the bill to the full Senate with a recommendation that it be considered under unanimous consent, which would have cleared it for quick passage. Stevens did not attend the hearing, even though his staff, if not he himself, knew the agenda for the committee meeting.
On Aug. 2, S. 2590 was placed on the Senate calendar for consideration. Stevens and his staff must have known that fact but said nothing to Coburn.
On Aug. 3, S. 2590 was "hotlined" by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, seeking unanimous consent of Republican senators to approve the bill, and by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid for the Democrats.
On Aug. 4, Coburn and his staff are informed by Frist staff that an anonymous hold has been placed on the bill but they are not told the identity of the responsible senator.
On Aug. 16, Coburn and his staff learn that Stevens placed the hold.
On Aug. 17 at 10:25 a.m., Coburn and his staff email Stevens and his staff asking to meet to discuss Stevens' reasons for placing the hold on the bill. No response was received.
At 5:17 p.m., Stevens' staff acknowledge that their boss placed the hold.
At 5:21 p.m., Coburn staff again email seeking meeting with Stevens.
On Aug. 18, Coburn staff again emails seeking meeting with Stevens. No response is received.
On Aug. 19, Coburn staff receives email from Stevens staff saying no meetig is possible because the lead aide is on "much-needed vacation" and no meeting will be possible until after the August recess is completed.
On Aug. 29, Coburn staff is told by Frist leadership staff that at least one Democrat senator has placed an anonymous hold on the bill.
On Aug. 30 at 11:39 a.m., Coburn staff emails fourth request for meeting with Stevens.
At 11:48 a.m., Stevens staff says he may be available later in the week.
At 12:12 p.m., Coburn staff requests meeting at 1:00 p.m. on Sept. 1.
At 12:29 p.m., Coburn staff is told by Stevens staff that lead aide is still on vacation and cannot commit to a meeting.
At 2:30 p.m., Stevens' aide confirms to reporters that Stevens placed the anonymous hold.
At 3:27 p.m., Coburn staff is again told by Frist leadership staff that a Democrat senator has placed an anonymous hold on the bill.
UPDATE V: How serious is Stevens about spend and bureaucracy? Hardly
One of my Hill sources did some digging and came up with these cites from the record:
As Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, Sen. Stevens has overseen the passage of 40 separate pieces of legislation in the 109 th Congress. Only 31 of those bills have been scored by CBO. According to those 31 official cost estimates, the
legislation passed by Sen. Stevens' committee will increase federal spending by at least $89 billion over the next five years
.
On March 16, 2006, only two hours after the Senate raised the nation's debt ceiling to nearly $9 trillion, Sen. Stevens' "hotlined" the Polar Bear Conservation and Management Act. When it was hotlined, the Polar Bear bill was estimated to cost $20 million over the next five years. In contrast, CBO estimates that S.2590 will cost $15 million.
S.2590, with 29 co-sponsors (and four additional co-sponsors to be added when Congress reconvenes), already has more co-sponsors than any bill passed by Sen. Stevens' Commerce Committee in the 109 th Congress according to information from the Legislative Information System.
The costs of hiding spending information from the public are well known; the benefits of hiding that information from the public are not. Numerous independent audits and investigations of Katrina spending have revealed rampant waste at all levels of government. Every dollar that is wasted is a dollar that does not go to someone in need. Greater transparency and oversight can only improve the way Congress and the federal government spend taxpayer dollars.
Existing databases of federal spending information are completely inadequate and difficult to use. For example, an August 1, 2006 article in Federal Times notes that shortcomings in the federal government's existing contracts database "are hindering policy makers and other users in their attempts to make procurement spending more efficient and responsible."
The CBO cost estimate of S.2590 notes that existing databases "do not comprise a comprehensive information source of all federal spending and reportedly are not timely nor easily queried for information"
UPDATE VI: The Best Stevens Post of the Day!
Rand Simberg of Transterrestrial Musings has it here.
UPDATE VII: Stevens career down the tubes?
Bulldog Pundit at AnkleBitingPundits wants to know!
...read complete post at Tapscott’s Copy Desk
Posted at PsychoPhil - Drink More Beer:
Porkbusters: Who is the Secret Holder?
Senators Tom Coburn and Barak Obama have proposed S.2590, legislation that would create a single website with access to information on nearly all recipients of federal funding. The bill cannot proceed, however, because one or more Senators placed a “secret hold” on it.
Who is the secret holder? We want to [...]]]>
...read complete post at PsychoPhil - Drink More Beer
Posted at FBIHOP:
One thing that both Democrats and Republicans agree on is that pork is bad. (No, not this pork).
Pork Barrel politics has become rampant in recent years. To combat this, Senators Tom Coburn and Barrack Obama put forth a bill that "require full disclosure of all entities and organizations receiving Federal funds."
This seems like a reasonable bill; making sure that the government we elect are putting tax money to use in a way that would be acceptable to us. To know that they aren't wasting our money.
So, of course, a Senator put the bill on a "secret hold".
Now the bill is in political limbo. Under Senate rules, unless the senator who placed the hold decides to lift it, the bill will not be brought up for a vote.
"It really is outrageous to do this in the dead of night as Congress is recessing," said Gary Bass, executive director of OMB Watch, a budget watchdog group based in Washington. "The public has a right to know how the government spends money."
Source:
Houston Chronicle
The attention has turned to the question of who would put this secret hold on the bill.
Many websites began campaigns to have their readers call their senators and ask if they would deny being hte secret holder. You can see TPM Muckraker's and the list at Porkbusters.
According to TPM Muckraker, only the following Senators have refused to deny being the secret holder.
Byrd, Robert C.- (D - WV)Gregg, Judd- (R - NH)Hatch, Orrin G.- (R - UT)Stevens, Ted- (R - AK)
Bennett, Robert F.- (R - UT) - a staffer denied, but not unequivocally
Source:
TPM Muckraker
Porkbusters, on the other hand, has this list of non-deniers:
Ted Stevens R-AlaskaMike Crapo R-IdahoJudd Gregg R-New HampshireOrrin Hatch R-UtahRobert Bennett R-Utah
Source:
Porkbusters
Sen. Crapo is the latest name on TPM Muckraker's list, so it looks like Porkbusters just hasn't got around to updating their list. TPM does not have any short comments about the denials. Porkbusters says of Senator Byrd "Porkbusters reader Angie reports: 'Senator Robert Byrd's office confirms that he is not the senator who placed the secret hold.'"
So that leaves just four suspects -- Ted Stevens, Judd Gregg, Orrin Hatch and Robert Bennett -- all Republicans.
The odds-on favorite is Coburn nemesis and pork-hall-of-fame member Sen Ted Stevens. Stevens, champion of the infamous Bridge to Nowhere, was accused of being the "the only senator blocking" the bill by Sen Coburn.
Let's go to Justin Rood over at TPM Muckraker, the guy who plucked the Fort Smith Times Record article out of obscurity (it was published on Aug 18, but wasn't noticed in the blogosphere until recently) about whether Stevens is the blocker or not:
But did he really do it? Well, he had a motive: As the paper and others have noted, Stevens and Coburn have clashed before -- in particular over Stevens' now-legendary "bridge to nowhere." Coburn attempted (and failed) to block the $233 million boondoggle. And revenge certainly fits the senior Alaskan's m.o. "Stevens can play rough," the Seattle Times noted in June. "Despite denials from his staff, he retaliates - and doesn't mind waiting years to do so."
Source:
TPM Muckraker
When it finally comes out who placed the secret hold (and it will come out), that person's opponents will have a huge arrow in their quiver come election time.
...read complete post at FBIHOP
Posted at Is this blog on?:
Nothing says "it's not about the money, it's about education" like marching with signs that read:
Hands off my benefits
Yet, you can always count on at least one striker making the asinine comment. This time, it was veteran teacher Audrey Gates:
"It's not about money in our pockets, it's about teaching these kid."
For the sake of the children, of course. Because, you know it really makes a difference to the students if your insurance co-pay goes up.
Articles are stressing that the teacher's want a 5% pay increase, which isn't exactly the case. They want complete protection of their benifits, and a 5% pay increase each year for the next three years. I went to Detroit public schools, but I think 5+5+5=15%.
You'd have to live on another planet to not know that Detroit is broke, and that health insurance costs have gone through the roof. Detroit schools have been bleeding students for years, resulting in a bloated system serving a diminishing student body.
Yet, the public employees believe they deserve more. Keep repeating that teacher's don't make enough, and some fool will believe it. Teacher's in Detroit with a Master's degree can make $70,046. Not exactly second-rate pay.
Perhaps unspoken is WHY they believe they deserve higher pay (because it certainly isn't for the superior product they turn out.) One striking teacher, though, let the honesty seep through after a fight broke out between two girls during registration:
"I need a raise at least as an incentive to come back to this," Dianne Brown-McDuell, an English teacher at Denby, said after witnessing the fight.
Maybe she's got a point. Could we earmark it as "hazard pay?"
...read complete post at Is this blog on?
...read complete post at Instapundit.com
Posted at Sierra Faith:
Why would the Senate not want create a public, searchable website for all federal handouts?
Surely the Senate would want to encourage transparency and accountability, right?
Uh, No.
]]>
...read complete post at Sierra Faith
Posted at Facing South:
Sometimes it's easy to forget the depth of incompetence and neglect people in the Gulf Coast suffered after Katrina -- and the lengths that federal officials went to spin and deny things were going wrong.
Bill in Portland Maine, a diarist at Daily Kos, has compiled a useful record of the pronouncements that followed the tragedy. Here's an excerpt; they would be funny if the results weren't so tragic (for links to the citations, click on the link above):
"Our Nation is prepared, as never before, to deal quickly and capably with the consequences of disasters and other domestic incidents."
--FEMA chief Michael Brown (3/9/05)
-
"We anticipate needing at least 1,000 additional DHS employees within 48 hours and 2,000 within 7 days. ... Thank you for your consideration in helping us meet our responsibilities in this near catastrophic event."
--Memo from FEMA chief Michael Brown to Homeland Security head Michael Chertoff, written after the hurricane had already struck the Gulf Coast.
(8/29/05)
-
Michael Brown: "If you look at my lovely FEMA attire you'll really vomit. I am a fashion god."
Cindy Taylor: "My eyes must certainly be deceiving me. You look fabulous---and I'm not talking the makeup."
Brown: "I got it at Nordstroms. Email McBride and make sure she knows. Are you proud of me? Can I quit now? Can I go home?"
--Email exchange (8/29/06)
-
A young [black] man walks through chest deep floodwater after looting a grocery store in New Orleans...
Two [white] residents wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store after Hurricane Katrina came through the area in New Orleans...
AP Captions at Yahoo News (8/30/05)
-
Baseball Hall of Famer Dave Winfield wasn't the only VIP who joined Padres President John Moores in the owner's box last night at Petco Park. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, here to join President Bush at the North Island Naval Air Station today, took in the game, too.
--Copy in the San Diego Union-Tribune (8/30/05)
-
"It makes no sense to spend billions of dollars to rebuild a city that's seven feet under sea level....It looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed."
--Republican Rep. And House Speaker Dennis Hastert (8/31/05)
-
"He will certainly be coming back. I'm not able to tell you the day right now. I don't have that handy."
--Dick Cheney spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride, on when the vice president would be returning from his vacation in Jackson, Wyoming (8/31/05)
-
"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."
--President Bush (9/1/05)
-
Just moments ago at the Ferragamo on 5th Avenue, Condoleezza Rice was seen spending several thousands of dollars on some nice, new shoes. A fellow shopper, unable to fathom the absurdity of Rice's timing, went up to the Secretary and reportedly shouted, "How dare you shop for shoes while thousands are dying and homeless!" Never one to have her fashion choices questioned, Rice had security physically remove the woman. (9/1/05)
-
"The federal government did not even know about the convention center people until today."
--FEMA director Michael Brown (9/1/05)
THERE'S MORE ...
"I have not heard a report of thousands of people in the convention center who don't have food and water."
--Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff (9/1/05)
-
HALLIBURTON GETS KATRINA CONTRACT
--Headline (9/1/05)
-
"Last night, we showed you the full force of a superpower government going to the rescue."
--Chris Matthews on MSNBC (9/1/05)
-
"Elimination of the death tax would be a victory for fairness and job creation. Working together, we can help eliminate the burden of the death tax once and for all."
--Mass email from Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman (9/1/05)
-
"One of the things that came out of 9/11 in 2001 was an increased focus on getting ourselves ready to deal with all kinds of catastrophes. And while nobody can ever be completely prepared for an event of this horrible magnitude, I'd say we're much better prepared than we've ever been."
--Michael Chertoff (9/1/05)
-
"Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."
--President Bush (9/2/05)
-
Out of the rubbles (sic) of [Senator] Trent Lott's house---he's lost his entire house---there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch."
--George W. Bush (9/2/05)
-
"There's trucks?"
--President Bush (9/2/05)
-
"...it was my belief, I'm trying to think of a better word than typical---that minimizes, any hurricane is bad--but we had the standard hurricane coming in here..."
--FEMA director Michael Brown (9/3/05)
-
"One other factor which must be considered: Days before Katrina nearly wiped New Orleans off the map, 9,000 Jewish residents of Gaza were driven from their homes with the full support of the United States government. Could this be a playing out of prophesy? (`I will bless that nation that blesses you, and curse the nation that curses you')"
--Rick Scarborough of Vision For America (9/4/05)
-
"I remember on Tuesday morning picking up newspapers and I saw headlines, 'New Orleans Dodged A Bullet.'"
--Michael Chertoff, who saw no such thing (9/4/05)
-
"I mean, you have people who don't heed those warnings and then put people at risk as a result of not heeding those warnings. There may be a need to look at tougher penalties on those who decide to ride it out and understand that there are consequences to not leaving."
--Republican Sen. Rick Santorum, on WTAE TV (9/4/05)
-
"When Air Force One dipped below the clouds on Tuesday so the president could peer out the window down at the disaster, the image was uncomfortably imperial."
--Newsweek (9/4/05). [The president didn't fly over the area until Wednesday].
-
"...but the media has a fascination with the blame game and instead of looking for what can we do to help now there's a lot of why didn't we do something different?"
--George H.W. Bush (9/5/05)
-
"What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is that they all want to stay in Texas. Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this...this is working very well for them."
--Barbara Bush (9/5/05)
-
"I dropped a twenty in the bucket."
--Millionaire Republican Governor Jeb Bush, speaking from the broadcast booth on a collection for hurricane relief at the Miami-Florida State game. (9/5/05)
-
"I would go back and ask the firefighter to revisit his commitment to FEMA, to firefighting and to the citizens of this country."
--FEMA spokeswoman Mary Hudak, after firefighters, realizing they were being used as props for a Bush photo-op, removed their FEMA shirts. (9/5/05. View the photo here.)
-
The nine-acre lot includes extensive gardens, ornamental pools and spectacular views of the water behind it. Deer and osprey can be seen.
--From a Washington Post article on Dick Cheney's new estate in St. Michaels, MD, where he was mansion-shopping after Hurricane Katrina destroyed the Gulf Coast. (9/5/05)
-
"Bureaucracy is not going to stand in the way of getting the job done for the people."
--President Bush (9/6/05)
-
"Americans don't sleep in tents."
--Unnamed FEMA official, responding to the head of the Hurricane Center of Louisiana State University who was trying to urge FEMA to set up tent cities in other states to handle the hundreds of thousands of Katrina survivors. The story was told by Tim Russert on `Imus in the Morning' (9/6/05)
-
"I understand there are 10,000 people dead. It's terrible. It's tragic. But in a democracy of 300 million people, over years and years and years, these things happen."
--Republican strategist Jack Burkman defending Bush (9/6/05)
-
"We really don't have time to play the political game right now."
White House Counselor Dan Bartlett (9/6/05)
-
Reporter: Just to get you on the record, where does the buck stop in this administration?
Scott McClellan: The President.
--White House press briefing (9/6/05)
-
"What didn't go right?'"
--President Bush to Rep. Nancy Pelosi (9/6/05)
-
"This is the largest disaster in the history of the United States, over an area twice the size of Europe!"
--Republican Senator Ted Stevens (9/7/05) Europe is 3.8 million square miles, the U.S. is 3.5 million.
-
"Given the abysmal failure of state and local officials in Louisiana to plan adequately for or respond to the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the city of New Orleans, and given the long history of public corruption in Louisiana, I hope the House will refrain from directly appropriating any funds . . . to either the state of Louisiana or the city of New Orleans."
--Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado (9/7/05)
-
"The view that such events are caused by God is a matter of opinion---faith if you will--and are not capable of proof. Every man must decide for himself whether or not Hurricane Katrina brought the wrath of God down on New Orleans."
--Michael Heath, leader of the Christian Civic League of Maine, suggesting that the hurricane was God's wrath on gays in New Orleans. (9/7/05)
-
"[The National Weather Service's warnings were] not sufficient."
--Republican Senator Rick Santorum (9/7/05)
-
"I'd rather have them here dead than alive. And at least they're not robbing you and you have to worry about feeding them."
--St. Gabriel, LA, resident Theresa Roy indicating her preference for morgues over shelters (9/7/05)
-
"And I also want to encourage anybody who is affected by Hurricane K'...K'...Corrina..."
--Laura Bush (9/8/05)
-
"...it's a phenomenal accomplishment by everybody involved. It's unbelievable.
--Republican Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas (9/8/05)
-
"Outstanding Political Science Professor, Central State University"
Description on FEMA director Michael Brown's resume, which turned out to be false---he was only a student there. (9/9/05)
-
"We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did."
Republican Rep. Richard Baker of Louisiana (9/9/05)
-
"The American people ... have made it impossible for any politician to make any responsible energy policy over the past 30 years."
--Charles Krauthammer, claiming in a Washington Post editorial that the American people are partly to blame for the botched response to Katrina (9/9/05)
-
"That could be good news...for some people. You never know how the left is gonna react to a lower death toll..."
--Rush Limbaugh, after suggesting that rescuers weren't pulling as many bodies as expected from homes in New Orleans. (9/9/05)
-
"I'm going to go home and walk my dog and hug my wife and maybe get a good Mexican meal and a stiff margarita and a full night's sleep."
--FEMA head Michael Brown, after he was relieved of his duties related to Katrina disaster management (9/9/05)
-
"Now tell me the truth boys, is this kind of fun? You are becoming famous all over this country and even the world!"
--Republican Rep. Tom DeLay, to three boys sitting on cots in the Astrodome (9/9/05)
-
AMERICAN RED CROSS NUMBERS TO CALL TO REGISTER: 1-800-438-4637 (1-800 GET HELP)
--Phone number posted online by Kentucky Governor Ernie's Fletcher's office for Hurricane relief.
"Want to gab with the sluttiest girls your nasty imagination can dream up? Mmmm...we can be whatever you want us to be, baby. After all, it is your fantasy..."
--What people heard when they called the above number, which turned out to be a dial-a-porn service (9/9/05)
-
"Although the loss of lives is deeply saddening, this act of God destroyed a wicked city. From 'Girls Gone Wild' to 'Southern Decadence,' New Orleans was a city that had its doors wide open to the public celebration of sin."
--Repent America Director Michael Marcavage (8/31/05)
-
"The governor does not agree with that. But far be it for the governor to try to divine the will of the Almighty."
--Robert Black, spokesman for Republican Texas Governor Rick Perry. During two private religious events, the governor refused to object to statements made by ministers that hurricane Katrina might have been God's punishment on gays. (9/8/05)
-
"He did not develop the way we wanted. He was average. Maybe that's the best way to put it. ... He would have been better suited to be a small city or county lawyer."
Stephen Jones, who once hired (now-ex) FEMA director Michael Brown into his law firm. (9/10/05)
-
"...you know it took me about a year to start hating the 9-11 victims' families? Took me about a year. ... But the second thought I had when I saw these people and they had to shut down the Astrodome and lock it down, I thought: I didn't think I could hate victims faster than the 9-11 victims."
Conservative radio talk show host Glenn Beck (9/9/05)
-
Question: Have you accepted the resignation of Michael Brown or have you heard about it?
President Bush: "No, I have not talked to Michael Brown or Mike Chertoff - that's who I talk to. As you know, I've been working."
--3:39 pm
"I can do more than one thing at one time. By the time I'm finished president [sic], I hope you will realize that the government can do more than one thing at one time, and individuals in the government can."
--3:42 pm
News conference at which Bush had to admit he didn't know that his director of FEMA, Michael Brown, had resigned (9/12/05)
-
"I came back four days early."
--Vice President Cheney, when asked by a reporter why he didn't return from vacation until three days after the Hurricane struck the Gulf Coast (9/11/05)
-
To reach $62 billion in savings, Cato Institute analysts Chris Edwards and Stephen Slivinski have proposed...slashing energy research and subsidies just as Congress is gearing up to increase them in the face of soaring gasoline prices, cutting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' budget by $4.6 billion after its levees failed to protect New Orleans, and eliminating $4.2 billion in homeland security grants while lawmakers are debating the nation's lack of preparedness.
--Closing paragraph of a Washington Post article on the cost of paying for hurricane cleanup and rebuilding. The Cato Institute is a right-wing think tank.
(9/15/05)
-
Pick as Acting FEMA Leader Has Disaster Relief Experience
--Headline in the New York Times. Featured on Air America's The Al Franken Show as a "Headline that shouldn't be necessary"
(9/13/05)
-
"Yard apes..."
Term used by Greenville Technical College official Renee Holcombe to describe hurricane evacuees. Holcombe was fired.
(9/14/05)
-
44 to 52
--Senate vote to establish an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate the government's response to Hurricane Katrina. All the "Yes" votes were Democrats. All the "No" votes were Republicans. (9/15/05)
-
"There was rejoicing...when the power came back on for blocks on end. ... The motorcade route through the district was partially lit no more than 30 minutes before POTUS drove through. And yet last night, no more than an hour after the President departed [after delivering his televised speech to the nation], the lights went out. The entire area was plunged into total darkness again, to audible groans. It's enough to make some of the folks here who witnessed it... jump to certain conclusions."
--NBC News's Brian Williams's, from his Nightly News blog, after Bush delivered a televised speech from Jackson Square in New Orleans (9/16/05)
-
"The only mistake we made with Katrina was not overriding the local government..."
--Karl Rove, off the record (9/17/05)
-
"I just wish Katrina had only hit the United Nations building, nothing else, just had flooded them out. And I wouldn't have rescued them."
--Bill O'Reilly (9/14/05)
-
"My earmarks are pretty important to that region."
--Republican Rep. Tom DeLay, saying he wouldn't give up any pork earmarked for his district in order to help cleanup efforts in hurricane-stricken areas
9/21/05)
-
"Kiss my ear! That's the dumbest thing I ever heard!"
Republican Rep. Don Young of Alaska, when asked if he'd return $223 million earmarked for the "bridge to nowhere."
(9/19/05)
...read complete post at Facing South
Posted at Global Review:
Kudos to N.Z. Bear and the other Porkbusters for their clever initiative to out the Senator who placed a secret hold on Senate Bill S.2590, which would create a database on most recipients of federal funding. Made available through FOIA, that would let bloggers and journalists figure out which companies subsist entirely on the public dole. The remaining suspected senators are all Republicans, though the bill is bipartisan, and includes veteran Porkieire Ted Stevens of Alaska.
Hat tip to Dead Parrot Society
...read complete post at Global Review
Posted at Drudge Retort: Red Meat for Yellow Dogs:
Senators Tom Coburn and Barak Obama have proposed legislation that would create a single website with access to information on nearly all recipients of federal funding. The bill cannot proceed because one or more Senators placed a "secret hold" on it. The list of Senators who have not explicitly denied being the holder is down to five. [Porkbusters]
...read complete post at Drudge Retort: Red Meat for Yellow Dogs
Posted at Dad29:
It's quite a combination, no?
Sen. Coburn of Oklahoma has co-sponsored a bill requiring that all "earmarks" be placed online for review by everybody in the country who is interested.
Ted Stevens (R-PigMaster) doesn't like this concept at all.
When someone placed a "hold" on Coburn's bill, they did it secretly. Most of us sorta-kinda KNEW it was PigMaster--but Coburn finally spilled the beans:
One of the senators most criticized for his personal projects, Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, has a hold of his own on Coburn’s bill to make public the spending patterns of the government. Called the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, the legislation calls for the creation of a database open to the public where citizens can track government spending.
“He’s the only senator blocking it,” Coburn said of Stevens
But did he really do it? Well, he had a motive: As the paper and others have noted, Stevens and Coburn have clashed before -- in particular over Stevens' now-legendary "bridge to nowhere." Coburn attempted (and failed) to block the $233 million boondoggle. And revenge certainly fits the senior Alaskan's m.o. "Stevens can play rough," the Seattle Times noted in June. "Despite denials from his staff, he retaliates - and doesn't mind waiting years to do so."
Frankly, this behavior by Stevens also cost the VA a few million dollars for brain-injury treatment problems earlier this year. Stevens didn't like the sponsor of the earmark.
Stevens should be a target of rotten apples and other stinking vegetables when/if he ever shows up in Wisconsin. He's exactly the model of politician who is MOST vile: petty, arrogant, vengeful, and gives not a damn for the good of the Country.
Screw him.
HT: Captain's Quarters
...read complete post at Dad29
Posted at Peryodistang Pinay:
AT LEAST six local governments in the Visayas, including Cebu City, are working on long-range development plans, in an attempt to ensure that projects continue regardless of who's in charge at City Hall.
They will also use scorecards to measure progress made against targets in 12 areas, from competitive infrastructure and lean government, to responsible citizenship, growth in the per capita gross domestic product and greater productivity.
Under its Dream Cities program, the Institute for Solidarity in Asia (ISA) hopes to encourage strategic planning in cities and compel them to involve the community in government's affairs. The ISA launched the program today.
The Visayan cities of Cebu, Dumaguete, Bais, Iloilo, Tagbilaran and Calbayog are in various stages of complying with the ISA's Public Governance System (PGS), a measurement tool similar to the "balanced scorecards" now in vogue in the private sector.
Each participating city will need to raise P200,000 a year, with ISA's help, to pay for training, planning and monitoring activities.
Asked how local officials can be compelled to make long-term plans, when each term lasts only three years, Mayor Oscar Rodriguez of San Fernando, Pampanga, said: "Precisely, we are trying to institutionalize the PGS, where each citizen is a stakeholder... It is time to deviate from the ordinary and pursue a different, but correct course toward governance."
The "Dream Cities" program sets measurable targets, such as making the scorecards available to at least one million Filipinos and using these in 90 percent of all cities and towns.
Once a city is selected, ISA conducts a series of training sessions that bring together government and private sector participants.
"This multi-sectoral governance coalition will help the city plan, make programs and monitor, and this will lead to transparency, good governance and, to a certain degree, eliminate graft," Rodriguez added.
It was not clear how such a coalition will avoid duplicating functions of the local development councils, special bodies required under the Local Government Code so that accredited non-government representatives can have a say in how local governments set priorities and spend taxpayers' funds.
"We will use a methodology that will ensure participation of the various stakeholders," said Dr. Nick Fontanilla, president of the Asia-Pacific Center for Research.
Dr. Fontanilla announced that ISA has also crafted a road map, which spells out "what we'd like the Philippines to be in 2030, how we can get there and a guide to tell us if we are successful in this journey."
ISA hosted Tuesday afternoon an online press conference that gathered journalists from Ilocos to Davao City in a chatroom provided by www.yehey.com.
The League of Cities is signing a memorandum to commit a counterpart fund of P75,000, which the ISA will match. Each participating city will be required to earmark P200,000 in its annual budget for each year the city remains in the Dream Cities program.
According to its website , ISA's core programs are funded by the Center for International Private Enterprise in Washington, DC.
Led by former finance secretary Jesus Estanislao, the ISA also lists at least 37 organizations as sectoral partners, including the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, Foundation for Worldwide People Power, Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas and the Rotary Club of Cebu.
(First published in today's issue of Sun.Star Cebu. The photo, snapped during my day off last Monday, is from one of my favorite spots in Cebu, a quiet corner of a coffee shop where one can read undisturbed or just rest one's eyes by looking at greenery. If only they had wifi. :)
...read complete post at Peryodistang Pinay
Posted at Impudent Domain :: Main Page:
Here is the article courtesy of Wonkette,
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The “secret hold” scandal is all but solved, and Sen. Ted “Series of Tubes” Stevens had best come clean.
Here’s the exciting background: There’s a bipartisan Senate bill
that would actually do something good for a change. S. 2590 would
create a Google-style public database that would show who gets
government money through contracts and grants. But a single anonymous
...
...read complete post at Impudent Domain :: Main Page
Posted at GOP Bloggers :: Blogging For The Majority:
Senator Frist blogs on the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (S. 2590):Last week, I blogged on the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, S. 2590, a crucial step towards fixing the federal government's spending problem. S. 2590 would create a single, easily searchable database capable of tracking approximately $1 trillion in federal grants, contracts, earmarks, and loans ... and bring the bright light of public scrutiny to the federal budget. Unfortunately, when I attempted to bring this legislation to a vote before the August recess, it was blocked.
It is deeply ironic that bipartisan legislation dedicated to transparency in government has been obstructed by the least transparent possible means. But I've not given up ... and neither has a united blogosphere.Frist then applauded online activists such as PorkBusters, for their work in calling on all Senators to address the issue clearly and transparently...
So, to get this bill passed, I am calling on all members, when asked by the blog community, to instruct their staff to answer whether or not they have a hold, honestly and transparently, so I can pass this bill. And I encourage Minority Leader Reid to do the same.It's great to see the Majority Leader recognize online efforts and let's hope some progress can be made on this bill.
Posted at Chapterhouse:
Someone in the Senate does not want you to know how $2.5 trillion of your money is awarded to contractors, and that someone has ANONYMOUSLY blocked the issue from coming to a vote.
We've got to rat this person(s) out, and that means that the people of Alaska, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, New Hampshire, Utah, and West Virginia have work to do: Call your Senators and ask them to officially deny that they were the one(s) who put a secret hold to stop legislation sponsored by Senators Obama and Coburn from ever coming to a vote. Then, go to this website and report what you were told.
Here's what's going on: I first heard about this today while listening to Jack Cafferty on CNN's Situation Room. The relevant portion of the transcript is:
KING: Take care Max. Thank you. Now Jack Cafferty joins us from New York. Hi, Jack.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: John, how would you like to pull the curtain back on that secret little world of government contracting? Actually it's not so little.
Legislation introduced by Democrat Senator Barack Obama and Republican Senator Tom Coburn was supposed to do just that, give us a look inside. It would have brought transparency to $2.5 trillion worth of government contracts. You could just go online, see how much, who got the contract, et cetera. The bill did get through the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee earlier this summer, but a funny thing happened to it on the way to the Senate floor, an unknown senator has put a secret hold on this legislation, which means unless that same unknown senator lifts the hold, this measure will never be voted on.
Nobody knows who did this yet, but there's a Herculean effort underway to try to find out. Someone in the United States Senate doesn't think the public should know how $2.5 trillion of our money is awarded to government contractors. Now there are only 100 weasels in the U.S. Senate, so you'd think they could find out who did this and I hope they do.
Here's the question. Does a single senator have a right to keep $2.5 trillion in government contracts secret from the tax-paying public? Just incredible.
KING: Maybe the secret senator is watching and will send you a note.
CAFFERTY: Yes, I doubt that will happen. I really hope they find out who this is.
KING: We'll keep on it and we'll see what the answers are. Thank you, Jack.
-----------------
Wednesday, 8/30 a.m. Update:
The only senators left as suspects on this website are from Alaska, Idaho, New Hampshire, and Nevada. Hmmm... WHO could it be???
The point is not so much that this block has been implemented (this technique has been used in the past for a variety of reasons - it's not the best way to do things, IMO, however), but the point is that this cowardly, sneaky senator has done it ANONYMOUSLY. He has not the intestinal fortitude to let his constituents (and the rest of the country) know that he is responsible from keeping information about their tax money from them. Rat this guy out and put him to shame, and keep screaming until this bill can be put to a vote, people.
...read complete post at Chapterhouse
...read complete post at Instapundit.com
Posted at JawsBlog:
So some senator out there, has some sort of special “secret hold” on a bill that would establish a internet based database of legislative earmarks.
Whomever the guilty senator is–deserves at the least, a swift kick in the behind.
Now here’s something that I’m wondeirng about.
With the bipartisan support from the grassroots on this proposed database, why [...]]]>
...read complete post at JawsBlog
Posted at Republican Senate:
Porkbusters has done an excellent job of narrowing the list of suspects for S.2590, a bill that would make federal spending transparent. The bill is being sponsored by the most liberal and most conservative members of the Senate, Dr. Tom Coburn and Barak Obama. They have narrowed the list to eight, including Sen. Ted Stevens, [...]]]>
...read complete post at Republican Senate
Posted at The Asylum:
Follow-Up To The Election Talk: Answering The Critics, And Making Points
First, Thank You To Hugh Hewitt for the link. He picked up on our answer to the doom-and-gloom being preached in the Bloomberg piece yesterday. The answer to that piece was this post originally put up yesterday afternoon. (A fine tweaking last night when I couldn't sleep had me readjusting the time, and reposting it.)
While we thoroughly appreciate the traffic, the buzz this generated in our comments section, and in e-mails, surprised both of us. And I feel a need to answer a couple of these critics. The first comes from an anonymous poster in our comments section:
Susan Collins retiring? Uh, actually it's Senator Snowe in Maine who's up, and she's a shoe in to get reelected...don't know where you folks are getting your information, but it does make one question your analysis if your basic premises aren't correct.
To wh9om this may concern, yes Susan Collins is retiring. She is a senator calling it quits. My MISTAKE here was not catching when her reelection bid is. That's in 2008, so yes I made one small mistake. Misreading the date hardly qualifies as a serious mistake. People misspeak all the time. I have corrected the record, right here, and do apologize for that mistake. And yes, Olympia Snowe will be reelected, and we have sent contributions to her race despite our differences on some issues.
The point of this election is to support the GOP. To be a "party man," which means you put petty differences aside to maintain the majority. The Bloomberg piece asserts the Democrat talking points that they will dominate the '06 election. I don't see it. I can't see it. Let's see if they can answer some basic questions:
What are your plans for the war, and specifically for Iraq?
What do you intend to do to the economy to keep the boom going?
Are your plans still for obstructing the president's agenda rather than doing what is right for the nation?
What are you going to do when it comes to illegal immigration, a rampant and growing problem for the US?
And I bring up the immigration issue because of this comment left by Damav:
The loss of the House by Republicans will virtually guarantee passage of an Amnesty Bill for illegal aliens.
Only the conservatives in the House currently stand between America and amnesty: The Senate has already passed the bill, Bush certainly supports it.
On yesterday's Hewitt show, he interviewed John Boehner, the current House Majority leaderand here is the exchange between the two of them regarding this topic:
HH: Let's take our last three minutes to talk about immigration, Majority Leader Boehner, because you're in California. I'm sure you're hearing about it at every stop, and it divided the party. The McCain-Kennedy approach did not go over well with Chairman Sensenbrenner, and Chairman Sensenbrenner seems to be winning. What's going to happen, if anything, in September? What's going to happen long term?
JB: We've had series of hearings over the last six weeks, looking at the Senate bill, and some of the more bizarre provisions in the Senate bill, the children of illegal immigrants being able to get in-state tuition, regardless of the state they live in.
HH: Social security benefits for years here illegally.
Seems like Rep. Boehner is on the same page as Rep. Sensenbrenner, and that means the bill's probably going to die. But Damav's point is well taken. IF we lose the House, this bill will go through.
But we have to have faith that America's not as stupid as the Democrats are praying for this year. And somehow we just don't get that feeling. We have been stumping for John Kyl in Arizona, and the politically-savvy here see that while the Republicans are likely to lose a seat or two, it will not be the Democrat landslide being predicted by the pundits out there. It will not be a replay of '94 in reverse. They don't have a solid leader out on the board that can rally the candidates the way Gingrich did. They are seriously lacking anything similar to the "Contract for America" that the GOP drew up then. As a matter of fact, as Marcie and I have both been saying, there is a complete lack of concensus within the Democrat Party as to what their message will be.
Let's take a look at the Senate, just as a barometer for where their party lies. These are the same people calling for yet another vote regarding Iraq, and have browbeat the president from Day One over there on how it's been handled. The Senate is also where much of the cut-and-run rhetoric is coming from. So, based on this, we can see that a part of their platform is bringing the troops home. I spotted that in the post previous to this one.
We have seen that they also stand for more judicial activists. This was evident in both the Roberts and Alito hearings. The questions they were peppered with were not only borderline idiotic, but also called for them to abide by the precedent they liked, such as Roe; a precedent that was amusingly referred to as a "superprecedent." Arlen Specter first used this phrase, and while he is a Republican, his gaffe was seized by the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee, and held onto the phrase. If it's against the Constitution, it's OK. If it's for the Constitution, the Democrats don't like it. We only need to review past cases to see where they celebrated the most. These people do not stand for correcting a near-imperialistic federal bench. They want more of the same, which is also why they have given the president headaches regarding his judicial nominees.
Immigration? the party to raise the biggest stink about what we're doing when it comes to enforcement and reform are the Democrats. They're on the record for opposing the first step in reforming immigration, which is enforcement. We have to send the message to our neighbors that they're not allowed to break the law. For too long we have allowed this practice, and it's biting us in the backside in one of the most important realms in America. Workers that can work for cheaper wages are getting the jobs over Americans, and employers have slid by in this respect, as well. If we make it tougher for them to get here, and hold employers responsible for who they hire, these people will slow their entry into the nation. Back that up with a patrolled border fence, and you have slowed the immigration ot a trickle. The Democrats are doing everything they can to demonize our side on this issue, and it's not working. The most important places to campaign on this issue are the border states alongside Mexico, and the people aren't buying the Democrats' feeble line on this that we should be open and tolerant. I think not, and our side firmly believes in this. The president's view is nice, but it's amnesty-lite, and will be a disaster for the nation.
They have opposed the missile defense system. They stand opposed to the NSA surveillance program. They were against the Patriot Act's renewal. They have been against the president's tax cuts, and many House Democrats have opposed Rep. Boehner & Co's earmark reform, and spending reform in the House.
This is what the Democrats stand for. If this is their platform, they're dead in the water. Carville will be wearing the trash can on CNN on election night. And there will be a lot of shocked Democrats on election night when their prayers aren't answered. Come November 8th, the GOP will still control the White House, and both Houses of Congress. They may not have the majorities that they did, but they will have the majority. I stand by my prediction from the previous post:
Seven to ten seats in the House
No more than two in the Senate. (And the Senate I doubt with some of the races out there.)
There's nothing to prevent the GOP from shooting itself in the foot between now and Election Day, but the same holds true for the Democrats. And the Democrats are more apt to do just that. (Anyone who has heard the leaders of the party pipe up lately can attest to this.) But we've got faith that the GOP will win in the end. You have to. If you let the predominant rhetoric win the day, that means you've already resigned yourself to a future that's not even written yet. Don't buy it. Few I know of are worried. Even less buy the line.
Publius II
...read complete post at The Asylum
Posted at Sensible Mom:
In a post on the VOLPAC blog Senator Frist states, S. 2590 would create a single, easily searchable database capable of tracking approximately $1 trillion in federal grants, contracts, earmarks, and loans ... and bring the bright light of public...
...read complete post at Sensible Mom
Posted at Sensible Mom:
In a post on the VOLPAC blog Senator Frist states, S. 2590 would create a single, easily searchable database capable of tracking approximately $1 trillion in federal grants, contracts, earmarks, and loans ... and bring the bright light of public...
...read complete post at Sensible Mom
...read complete post at Instapundit.com
Posted at A Short Course in Chaos:
[Hooh! I'm not dead! :-p]
So. Roundabouts two months ago I posted on a bill being introduced in the Senate that would make publicly available a searchable database of all government spending. I was concerned, though, that those involved in spending that money might not be keen on having people seeing how and on what they're doing that spending. I'll quote myself here, if I may:
I suppose the only problem is that it has to go far in Congress in order to get implemented... :-P Dunno how keen a lot of them are going to be on voting for something that will put a lot of scrutiny on their pet pork projects.
Aaaaand, wouldn't ya know. An as-yet unnamed senator has placed a 'secret hold' on this bill, essentially locking the legislation in the proverbial (or maybe not, I dunno) cabinet for as long as they choose. Shocking! However, the folks at Porkbusters are doing their best to ferret out who it is, here. In conjunction with a couple of other sites, they've contacted as many senators as possible and asked them if they're responsible for the hold. As of this post, there are seven senators who've not denied responsibility for the hold. (Of course, one of the deniers could easily have been lying through his/her teeth, but that would be
DUMMMBBB
...) Hafta say, it'll be interesting to see what happens when the culprit is finally revealed.
Actually, according to the post on the Corner that linked me over to TPMmuckraker, "within 72 hours the Senate leader reveals who the senator is to the bill's sponsor." While this doesn't mean that the name is automatically released to the public, I expect that the sponsors of the bill will have little reason to keep quiet on the culprit's name, and we'll get to watch the ensuing fireworks.
I'll say it again, I really like the idea of this bill. Here's hoping that this hold gets cleared up and the thing flies through!
Update, 10:30PM: Oop, make that
five
senators who've not directly denied responsibility. The plot thickens!
...read complete post at A Short Course in Chaos
Posted at A trainwreck in Maxwell:
Over at Porkbusters they are having people contact their Senators and have them go on record sying that they (Sen. Bloviating Windbag -Hack) are not the one putting a hold on the Senate bill 2590 (the Where's the Pork- bill).
So far they ave about half of them on record as not being the creator of the secret hold on the bill. Knowing how upfront and honest our Pols are- Id be willing to bet my next paycheck that there will be 100 "Not me's" ("Not me)s [?].Just look at all the integrity they've shown this year, the Dems and their 'Anti-anything-Bush" platform, and the Republican "Where's-an-illegal-I-can-brown-nose" stance.
...read complete post at A trainwreck in Maxwell
Posted at A trainwreck in Maxwell:
Over at Porkbusters they are having people contact their Senators and have them go on record sying that they (Sen. Bloviating Windbag -Hack) are not the one putting a hold on the Senate bill 2590 (the Where's the Pork- bill).
So far they ave about half of them on record as not being the creator of the secret hold on the bill. Knowing how upfront and honest our Pols are- Id be willing to bet my next paycheck that there will be 100 "Not me's" ("Not me)s [?].Just look at all the integrity they've shown this year, the Dems and their 'Anti-anything-Bush" platform, and the Republican "Where's-an-illegal-I-can-brownnose" stance.
...read complete post at A trainwreck in Maxwell
Posted at GlobalSecurity.org - Reliable Security Information:
Taiwan's MND has set aside a budget for purchasing F-16 jet fighters from the US
...read complete post at GlobalSecurity.org - Reliable Security Information
Posted at New York Young Republican Record:
Legislation that would create a searchable database of federal funding recipients (s.2590) has been held up in the Senate by a secret hold, an informal Senate procedure that allows members to anonymously delay legislation.
The bill had widespread bipartisan support and seemed likely to pass before the anonymous Senator interfered. So who is this anonymous Senator that is barring better transparency from our government? And what does he/she have to hide?
Porkbusters.org has posted a suspect list and is eliminating the Senators who issue denials. Both Senators from NY are in the clear.
Let's hope the offending Senator will be revealed and shamed into rescinding the hold.
Update:
RedState believes Senator Stevens may be the culprit.
Update 2:
TPMmuckraker discovered that Coburn himself has accused Stevens. They speculate Stevens’ might be paying back Coburn for his failed attempt to block the infamous ‘Bridge to Nowhere.’
...read complete post at New York Young Republican Record
Posted at Democracy Cell Project-Blog:
[Later Update: According to Coburn, via TPM, it was Ted Stevens who blocked him bill. Not too surprising, since Coburn took on Stevens over the bridge to nowhere. Your classic Senate pissing match. Pathetic. Your tax dollars, hard at work.]
[Update: And then there were six...and my money is STILL on Ted Stevens, who pissy attitude who love of all things pork, make him the perfect candidate.]
[Editor's Note: I came across this story yesterday on TPM Muckraker, which is also keeping a rolling tally. There are plenty of Senators who still need calling (32, as of this posting). Just pick up the phone....]
From Center for American Progress:
According to this report, a mystery Senator has placed a secret hold on open government legislation. Senators Barack Obama (D-IL) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) introduced legislation that would create a free database of government contracts, grants, financial assistance (worth $2.5,000,000,000,000 last year). The legislation (S.2590), the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, had already been passed unanimously by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, with bipartisan support.
Unless the senator who placed a hold lifts the hold, the bill will never receive a Senate vote. The Senatorial "hold" is not even part of the Senate rules. It allows a senator to delay legislation or a presidential appointment, indefinitely and can be done secretly.
Bloggers on the left (TPM Muckraker) and the right (Porkbusters) have joined forces to 'smoke out' the Senators behind the hold. Both sites are featuring a running tally of which Senators have been called and who have issued denials or statements.
Time to act.
]]>Posted at Void Where Prohibited:
Link: Ace of Spades HQ. I'm not sure I'm buying this. A lot of these denials come from spokeswomen. That gives someone plausible deniability-- the spokeswoman can always claim she only meant not to my knowlege or that there was...
...read complete post at Void Where Prohibited
Posted at Cave of the Curmudgeon:
Porkbusters Update - There is a current list of those who have not yet denied their involvement in putting a secret hold (however that works) on the proposed bill for government transparency of spending:
"Senators Tom Coburn and Barak Obama have proposed S.2590, legislation that would create a single website with access to information on nearly all recipients of federal funding. The bill cannot proceed, however, because one or more Senators placed a "secret hold" on it.
Who is the secret holder? We want to know, and we want your help finding out. Call your Senator, and ask them to go on the record denying that they placed the hold. Then e-mail Porkbusters and let us know what they said! Senators who issue denials will be removed from the suspect list --- and those who do not, won't!"
But what if they lie? It's been known to happen!
...read complete post at Cave of the Curmudgeon
Posted at http://www.onemanstrash.blogspot.com/:
McDonnell Has Reviewed Legislative Earmarks
The Martinsville Conference generated a bit of news. During the Q&A session with AG Bob McDonnell, I asked whether his office had been requested to look at the General Assembly's use of earmarks for private, nonprofit organizations.
He said his office has looked into the matter.
Which means someone in power had to request it.
Take a bow, Chris.
Granted, we're not talking about a great deal of money here -- a drop in the bucket, actually, compared to overall spending. But the totals compare nicely to that of the $137 million education funding error in this year's budget -- and that's gotten a great deal of ink. Will McDonnell's opinion on earmarks receive the same level of attention in the state press? Hope springs eternal.
...read complete post at http://www.onemanstrash.blogspot.com/
Posted at Chaos-In-Motion:
This is just amazing. I think the ability to put a hold on a bill without revealing who you are is so wrong that there should be new rules cast to require that they be named in the public record for placing the hold. The senator may have a very good reason, but without knowing who that is there is absolutely no way of holding them accountable.
A bill to promote government transparency faces an uncertain future because of a far-from-transparent hold placed upon it in the Senate.
An unknown number of senators have blocked legislation to create a public, searchable Web site of all federal grants and contracts. Senate rules permit any senator to anonymously block consideration of a bill on the floor, effectively killing the measure.
“Hopefully the person or persons blocking it will realize it’s important to promote transparency and not secrecy in government,” said John Hart, spokesman for Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., the bill’s sponsor.
Anonymous? You have got to be @#$%ing with me. What moron thought of that?
What irritates me even more is that it is more than one senator. Bet they're not running for reelection. Of course, the majority of the MSM is just ignoring this.
Here's a link to the Porkbusters site on the topic.
GOPProgress has a good piece on topic as well.
...read complete post at Chaos-In-Motion
Posted at Things Going Round & Round:
The ground game is in play, the messages are set, the ads are in the can, it’s time to talk 2008.
Yepsen and Krusty Insiders are starting to speculate on the 2008 Senate race. Who’s going to take on Harkin? A nobody who wants it bad, a Statehouse pol with a 'take no prisoners' attitude, a Statewide pressed & creased numbers guy or our favorite winger.
Whoever it is, he or she will have to work hard and work fast. Harkin’s already back up running his Elmo & Me shtick and gearing up the troops to push the next set of hot issues – fat kids, alternate fuels, debt relief for twenty-something college grads. It’s no wonder why most high profile GOP types are not particularly interested in the idea of taking on his well-oiled political machine.
But what about that other well-oiled machine on the receiving end of Harkin’s generosity with other people’s money?
Harkin’s connection to the CIETC scandal could become a huge political problem as investigations into other Iowa based quasi-governmental organizations unfold. Harkin is notorious for bringing home the chops for his friends, its old school politics, but with the momentum siding with the Pork Busters that old school habit spells trouble.
It’s not a major leap to assume that there are more well-oiled machines working the federal trough thanks to Harkin, and, for all we know, Harkin is the Senator with a hold on S2590, a bill that would create an internet database on earmarks and other federal spending. If we can lift the hold and get a fair debate in the Senate, Americans at home in their natural state will finally get to analyze the amount of fraud, waste and abuse handed down from on high.
If a potential Harkin challenger, say a Steve King, looked into the future and really understood that this issue of government waste and cronyism is not going to die with the 2006 cycle, you could really see where political teeth need to bite, and bite hard. A great investment might be to send a staffer in search of every Harkin earmark, attach each earmark to their Federal application and dig in to those earmark budgets’ for a little waste, fraud and abuse analysis. It’s all there, just waiting to be picked apart.
Steve King is the most discussed possibility to run against Harkin, and considering his long-term dislike for earmarks he could legitimately stake out that issue.
…In Iowa, the pork situation looks pretty grim, with the exception of Steve King from the 5th District. While many criticize King for his some of his views, on the issue of Pork, clearly he is a true fiscal conservative. King voted Yes (to cut the pork) on 17 of the 19 amendments. He voted No (keep the pork) on the Iowa Dairy Education amendment (190), and abstained from voting on the amendment for Tourism Development in Kentucky (338). … (Geeks with Blogs)Moreover, if Iowa does elect a Jim Nussle, Steve King will have a natural ally in fettering out waste, fraud and abuse through the new office of inspector general.
Truthfully, it could be the year Harkin goes down. If his opponent tracks the pork, and finds all the six figure incomes Tom’s been subsidizing with our money, then it’ll be really hard to maintain that Tom “do-gooder” Harkin persona, and much easier to convince voters it’s time for a change.
Potential candidates need to sit down and run a risk reward analysis on making this race. A guy like King would have a ton to lose. He’s in a safe House seat that allows him to coast through until redistricting and he likes being a Congressman, although I doubt Steve King likes the idea of sitting out this fight.
Besides, if he doesn’t move in 2008 he could face an intra-party challenge from one or two or three of the guys thinking they’re next in-line for fifth district anointment. If King does risk it and runs a good race, I think the political Karma will line up on his side, much to the chagrin of a couple of other senator wannabes who anticipate a Harkin retirement and an open seat.
Posted at The American Street:
"Here's how we Bushes do business, children.
First, we donate money to aid Hurricane Katrina victims,
but we earmark it so it goes to a company owned by someone
in our family. Second, we take the donation as a
deduction on our income tax, even though we are
investors in the company. If you follow our example, [...]]]>
...read complete post at The American Street
Posted at Immodest Proposals:
I fired off this EMail to the Instapundit regarding the hunt for the 'secret hold' Senator
Shouldn't you apply profiling to the search for the 'secret hold' culprit?
My money's on either Sen. Byrd or Sen. Stevens.
They both fit the profile, prolific abusers of pork, self righteous, been in the Senate longer than I've been alive, have been silent or hostile to the whole porkbusters movement,
...read complete post at Immodest Proposals
Posted at Center for Media and Democracy - Publishers of PR Watch:
It has been nearly two weeks since our first post on earmarks, and there are some interesting updates to report. The Sunlight Foundation has continued to employ new and innovative tools in its quest to expose earmarks, which often glide into law without legislative or executive review. Sunlight, which cosponsors Congresspedia with the Center for Media and Democracy, has teamed up with Human Events Online, Citizens Against Government Waste, Porkbusters.org, The Heritage Foundation, The Club for Growth, Townhall.com, and the Washington Examiner (and Mark Tapscott) to sift through the 1,867 earmarks which were inserted into the 2007 Labor-Health and Human Services appropriations bill (H.R. 5647) (an increase from only 51 last year). The collaborative effort has led to the development of a comprehensive database of the earmarks, tracking the money to the designated state and program.
Before getting into some of the specific earmarks found in the $141.9 billion bill, we first wanted to note that one or more senators have put a "secret hold" on a bill that could put some heat on the pork. The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (S. 2590), introduced by Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), Barack Obama (D-Ill.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), and John McCain (R-Ariz.), would create a database listing the name of each entity that receives federal appropriations, the amount of funds they receive, and the location of the entity. The bill has received the support of both Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), as well as Sens. such as Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Evan Bayh (D-Ind.). The hold has thus far prevented the measure from coming to the floor for a vote. To read more about the search for the anonymous senator, check out the handy repository at Porkbusters.
Returning to the Labor-HHS bill, Sunlight and its partners have exposed some interesting earmarks in the 60-page piece of legislation over the past several weeks. These include:
$300,000 to the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame for the "Play it Smart" program in Morristown, NJ (an academic "coaching" program for high school football players).
$200,000 to Rhode Island College for the development of a Portuguese and Lusophone Studies program.
$100,000 for Cyber Seniors (specifically, the Experience Senior Power program) in Detroit, MI.
...read complete post at Center for Media and Democracy - Publishers of PR Watch
...read complete post at Instapundit.com
Posted at The So-Called "Austin Mayor" Blog:
Whenever Barack Obama's name is raised as a possible candidate for President, the rightwing critics inevitably cry out, "But what has he accomplished in the Senate?"
Today's rightwing Washington Times tells us how a lone coward in the Senate may have put a stop to an Obama-sponsored bill that would "require the administration to create a searchable Web site that would list the name and amount of any federal grant, contract or other award of money amounting to $25,000 or more."It's a sign of just how hot an issue pork-barrel spending has become that the biggest game in political Washington this summer is trying to smoke out the senator who is blocking a bill to create a searchable database of federal contracts and grants.
The bill has the support of the Bush administration and activists on widely divergent sides of the political spectrum. It also passed a Senate committee without any objections, so the unknown senator is annoying many people.
Sponsored by Sens. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, and Barack Obama, Illinois Democrat, the bill would require the administration to create a searchable Web site that would list the name and amount of any federal grant, contract or other award of money amounting to $25,000 or more.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Tennessee Republican, tried to win speedy passage just before the Senate left for its summer break, but at least one senator objected anonymously.
Now Porkbusters.org, a Web site dedicated to exposing wasteful government spending, is conducting a public campaign to smoke out the obstructor or obstructors, while blogs on both sides of the political spectrum have weighed in, demanding action on the bill.In essence, the anonymous objection means that a senator has anonymously said that he or she would filibuster the bill if it were brought to a vote on the Senate the floor. If the Bush administration and Sen. Frist were behind Sen. Obama's bill like they say, they would simply bring the bill to the floor and call the mystery senator's filibuster bluff.
But that's a big if.
The "What's Obama Done?" meme has served the Republicans well -- and we know Illinois Republicans love "earmarks" -- so it's simply not in the GOP's interest for Sen. Obama's name to be attached to legislation that would expose pork-barrel "earmarks" to taxpayer scrutiny.
There is more non-Moonie coverage of the anonymous objection to Sen. Obama's bill here and here.
Note: If anyone saw this covered in the Chicago papers, please let me know where.
...read complete post at The So-Called "Austin Mayor" Blog
Posted at Michigan Liberal:
via Porkbusters
Senators Tom Coburn and Barak Obama have proposed S.2590, legislation that would create a single website with access to information on nearly all recipients of federal funding. The bill cannot proceed, however, because one or more Senators placed a "secret hold" on it.
Who is the secret holder? We want to know, and we want your help finding out. Call your Senator, and ask them to go on the record denying that they placed the hold. Then e-mail Porkbusters and let us know what they said! Senators who issue denials will be removed from the suspect list --- and those who do not, won't!
Contact Senators' Stabenow and Levin office
...read complete post at Michigan Liberal
Posted at The "Bush"-Whacked Administration:
As always, here’s a handy-dandy list of a few things to pay attention to and keep your eyes on as this week that’s part August and part September gets underway.
Keep an eye on former Vice President Al Gore. On Sunday, he said that ever-tighter political and economic control of the media is a major threat to democracy and that “Democracy is under attack. Democracy as a system for self-governance is facing more serious challenges now than it has faced for a long time.” (Hmmmm, he certainly seems like someone who may be ‘running’ for something in two years… but only time will tell, so stay tuned…)Speaking of possible presidential candidates, keep an eye on Senator John McClain (R-AZ)… he’s acting funny, saying things like he suppors “President” Bush but immediately counters that with a ‘Bush lied to America’ in order to get involved in Iraq. It sounds as if he is trying to appease the GOP and Moderates in an attempt to solidify a nomination in 2008…Keep your eyes on the thoroughly entertaining senate campaign of Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL). Apparently, she gave an interview to a Baptist magazine, and in it see stated that unless “tried and true” Christians were elected, those in power would “legislate sin.” She immediately backpeddaled and said that she did not mean to exclude Jews and other non-Christians from public office when she said that. (That wacky Kathy… you can always count on her for hours and hours of quality entertainment…)Pay attention to the amount of money being spent on campaign ads for the November mid-terms. So far, it’s up 45% from 2004 levels as many candidates and consultants apparently and recently made the ‘discovery’ of cable TV. (Great… as if the endless myriad of “reality” shows wasn’t ennough, now we’ll have more political ads that convey so much truthfulness… at least it’s not more episodes of “The War at Home”)Pay attention as poltical analysts across the country and across the political spectrum finally make the realization (that others made a LONG time ago) that the “Bush Doctrine” (it of preventive war, choking the basis of terrorism by sowing democracy, and brandishing power to force others into line) has failed… well, duhhhhhhhhh…Keep both eyes on a piece of legislation that would have opened up government contracting to public scrutiny. It’s been derailed by a secret parliamentary maneuver as an unidentified senator has placed a “secret hold” on it (the legislation was introduced by Sens. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Barack Obama (D-IL)) and would have created a searchable database (think ‘Google’) of government contracts, grants, insurance, loans and financial assistance. Now it’s on hold, and under Senate rules, the bill will not be brought up for a vote unless the senator who placed the hold decides to lift it (If this little maneuver infuriates you – it does me – and you want to know where your senator stands, click this link HERE and then contact them to let them know you’re PISSED as hell!!!!!)Please pay attention and keep an eye on the shifty-moves of the Bush administration. They have plans to “move rapidly” in order to impose international economic sanctions on Iran after this Thursday’s U.N. mandated deadline passes. While Russia has rejected talk of sanctions, former Defense Tool… sorry… I meant ‘secretary,’ William Cohen said sanctions are necessary or the risk of war in the region will increase. (Personally, since it is the Bush administration we’re talking about, there’s always a risk of war. Remember their doctrine; “War first, ask questions later.”)In case you’ve been living under a rock and hadn’t heard; the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall is this week and all of the networks and news channels are planning hours and hours of special programming. This will come to an end in two weeks with the fifth anniversary of 9/11. Trumped-up media circus in three... two... one...“President” Bush is marking the anniversary of Katrina’s landfall by giving a plethora of speechs in the Gulf states… (I don’t even know where to begin with this one… just keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn’t, you know, lie…)
Take ‘em as you will…
...read complete post at Instapundit.com
Posted at Pursuing Holiness:
Some Senator, with ninja-like stealth, is holding valuable legislation captive. The Porkbuster’s “secret hold” page has a few new additions to the “not me” list. But there’s still quite a few Senators who have either not been asked, or do not feel compelled to respond. They need a little constituent pressure to [...]]]>
...read complete post at Pursuing Holiness
Posted at Facing South:
Over the last year, over $9 billion has been given to corporate contractors for post-Katrina relief and recovery -- and as we and others have revealed, much of that taxpayer money was wasted in fraud and other scandals.
To help shed more light on these and other contrating deals, Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) have introduced legislation that would create a free, publicly searchable database of "government contracts, grants, insurance, loans and financial assistance, worth $2.5 trillion last year." The measure, says The Progress Report, was passed unanimously in a voice vote last month by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and has wide-ranging bipartisan support.
But according to Cox News, this legislation that "would open up the murky world of government contracting to public scrutiny has been derailed by a secret parliamentary maneuver" -- an "unidentified senator" has put the legislation on hold.
Who is the mystery senator? Conservative bloggers over at Porkbusters are trying to find out, and so far only 27 senators are in the clear.
...read complete post at Facing South
Posted at The dotFuture Manifesto: Internet Crime, Web Services, Philosophy:
Cox news reports that a Senator put a 'secret hold' on a bill to open federal records.
There is in fact no such procedure. The only way that a bill can be halted in the Senate is if the Majority party decides not to bring it to the floor or if there is a filibuster.
The Senate observes a set of 'gentleman's agreements' that allow for this type of thing but it is the majority party that decides to observe them or not. If one Senator could in fact exercise a secret veto on any measure they chose to nothing would ever get done. What is really happening here is that a senator has asked the majority leader to block the bill and the majority leader has agreed.
Pretending that such a mechanism does in fact exists allow the majority party to avoid accountability for their actions. It only works as long as the media is willing to go along with the charade. Unlike the mainstream media bloggers have no vested interest in maintaining the status quo. Bloggers do not get favored access to politicians.
Congress will eventually yield to demands for accountability and transparency, a political system where secret holds are put on legislation and secret earmarks are used to reward campaign contributors is simply not sustainable in the blogging age.
...read complete post at The dotFuture Manifesto: Internet Crime, Web Services, Philosophy
Posted at Temple Stark.com:
So fucking sue me. It's not as if I'm making a dime off this, or anything.
THE LAW :::
Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include—
(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
Then there's further case law which makes the "fair use" definition even more clear, though there are not always bright lines of distinction. But, sometimes, there are, as in stealing entire columns of material. It's especially clear if the theft means a reader will not go back to the orginal source to view advertisements there, and there is no need for people to pay the subscriber fee, if it's stolen and presented for free elsewhere. Or if your Web site seems to exist almost exclusively to reprint stolen columns, and you broadcast such in comments at various other Web sites.
Sometimes it's kindergarten obvious.
So fucking sue me. It's not as if I'm making a dime off this, or anything.
That was the reply from jurassicpork at Welcome to Pottersville when I pointed out that his reprinting of a Maureen O'Dowd column from the Select New York Times, was "theft of column."
For those who don't know, it is actual theft because NY Times Select is the material online behind the paying subscriber wall. It would be theft if the entire column was reprinted even if it wasn't Select. (Different from plagiarism.)
Bad, right?
It gets worse.
He or she also copies all the latest O'Dowd columns. And all the Paul Krugman columns. And all the Bob Herbert columns.
And he or she - judging by the reaction - doesn't think there's anything wrong with that. It's a low sign of intelligence, and it happens to varying degrees throughout the blogosphere.
There's a serious misunderstanding of what constitutes fair use prevalent on the blogs. It's a deliberate misunderstanding in most cases, and even if it's not, ignorance usually only leads to your having to retreat on this issue or get sued if pressed.
It's what's right.
But only the stupidest person would think wholesale theft of columns or articles from newspapers, magazines, other blogs is fair use of copyrighted material. Those who think the "I'm not making any money" angle is sufficient defense really aren't reading deep enough. And it's not that deep a read.
Shameless = Gutless.
]]>Posted at Murdoc Online: Military, Politics, and More:
Glenn Reynolds notes the case of the mysterious Senator who has put a "secret hold" on legislation that would authorize the creation of a searchable database of government contracts and grants.
In the Washington Times:
The bill has the support of the Bush administration and activists on widely divergent sides of the political spectrum. It also passed a Senate committee without any objections, so the unknown senator is annoying many people.
Sponsored by Sens. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, and Barack Obama, Illinois Democrat, the bill would require the administration to create a searchable Web site that would list the name and amount of any federal grant, contract or other award of money amounting to $25,000 or more.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Tennessee Republican, tried to win speedy passage just before the Senate left for its summer break, but at least one senator objected anonymously.
Porkbusters.org is leading an effort to unmask the mysterious Senator. I think they'll eventually prevail, and I hope it's before election season. Especially if the Senator in question is up for re-election.
Read the whole thing at Instapundit.
]]>Posted at Cutting to the Chase:
By Cassandra D
Did you know that U.S. senators can put a "secret hold" on legislation to block it from coming to the Senate floor?
Some anonymous (and seemingly quite nefarious) Senator has done just that, in blocking legislation proposed by Oklahoma's own half-crazy, half-great Sen. Tom Coburn and by Illinois Sen. Barak Obama, that would shed light on the federal government's $2.5 trillion annual contracting business.
There is a move afoot to find the culprit. I'm betting the senator in question has an "R" behind his or her name. Just guessing.
...read complete post at Cutting to the Chase
Posted at The Seven Realms:
Whoever this Particularly Irritating Gentleman is, he needs to be chased down and hog-tied, no two ways about it. Find ‘em and make ‘em squeeeeeal, and then let the sunshine in!]]>
...read complete post at The Seven Realms
Posted at Anchor Rising:
Marc notes how Senator Chafee "label[ed] Federal tax dollars to local/state government...as property tax relief" in a recent debate with Mayor Laffey. Earmarks as a form of property tax relief: What an economically ignorant statement! Here is why: An earlier...
...read complete post at Anchor Rising
...read complete post at Instapundit.com
Posted at Earmarks in Early Modern Culture:
A roundup of the best of this summer’s blogging on the early modern period can now be found at Early Modern Notes. Thanks to Sharon for another wonderful edition!
]]>
...read complete post at Earmarks in Early Modern Culture
Posted at Temple Stark.com:
I found Office Pirates today for the first time, to discover it is closed. Apparently it was a "lad site" funded by Timewarner or some corporate branch thereof.
I've also found, for the first time, popurls.com and this Robert Scoble character, scobleizer.wordpress.com/.
A commenter there on a post about theft, which Porkbusters.org does, shamelessly apparently, led me to Plagiarism Today -- Plagiarismtoday.com -- , and, except for the fact that the owner thinks Weird Al is a pioneer, has some information regarding the next big frontier for "citizen journalists" to tackle, or get tackled.
Bebo.com is a tinier MySpace, with a bit more native multimedia life.
There's some super confusing advice for most of Europe, Driverightpassleft.com, which is OK, because it's meant for americans. Which reminded me of a post I have lurking in my mind, "Temple's Rules of the Road." 1. Don't pull out 10 feet in front of me - especially when there's five straight miles of empty road behind me, you dumbass. 2. Trying to play bumper cars by driving up close will make me tap the brakes and you'll wet your pants, braking anyway. So, stay back anyway. 3. If you're a truck or a semi or an SUV or minivan or anything with a high profile, I will overtake you because I hate not being able to see ahead of me to what you're (over) reacting to.
This media survey @ People Press - has done a tour of the Web. People find Katie Couric, perky and cute, also smart well-informed and liberal like a lush.
AdAge mag still thinks Media Works -- Adage.com/mediaworks, but this wasn't the launch to the other links. It came later. THey have the news that Nielsen expands their TV watchers survey sample represented. Or something.
Posted at The Volokh Conspiracy - -:
Porkbusters from across the political spectrum are lining up to support Senator Barack Obama's Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, bill that would establish an internet data base describing all federal...
...read complete post at The Volokh Conspiracy - -
Posted at Cave of the Curmudgeon:
This drives me nuts - Secret holds, my ass! Smoke him or her out:
PORKBUSTERS UPDATE from Instapundit: Ed Feulner writes:
The bill would require the Office of Management and Budget to build an easy-to-use Web database containing detailed information about all the grants and contracts the federal government hands out. This database would allow virtually anyone to see how much money a federal program received and how it spent that money. And, to ensure that public oversight is timely, information about spending would, by law, have to be posted within 30 days of when Congress authorized the money.
“It shouldn’t matter if you think government ought to spend more money or less money,” Obama says. “We can all agree that government ought to spend money efficiently. If government money can’t withstand public scrutiny, then it shouldn’t be spent.”
That makes perfect sense to most people. That’s why the bill has 29 co-sponsors, including staunch liberals, determined conservatives and self-professed moderates. Small wonder it’s moved through the legislative process at what amounts to lightning speed.
The bill was introduced in early April and has already been passed by a committee (the step in the process where senators usually bottle up controversial bills) and placed on the Senate’s legislative calendar.
But one senator doesn’t like it. And that may be enough to derail it, because he (or she) has put a hold on it. A secret hold. How’s that for irony -- a secret hold on an open-government bill? (Bold mine)
...read complete post at Cave of the Curmudgeon
Posted at Republican Sentinel:
A reader named Juliette of porkbusters.org has reported that she has called Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison's office to ask if she was the one placing a hold on the Coburn/Obama bill.
She reported that Sen. Hutchison's office would neither confirm of deny if Hutchison was the one placing the hold on the bill. As far as I know none of the other Senators who have been asked have refused to deny placing the hold. You can see for yourself at http://porkbusters.org/secrethold.php.
I plan on calling her office tomorrow, since today is Sunday, and encourage other Texas residents to do the same.
...read complete post at Republican Sentinel
...read complete post at Instapundit.com
Posted at Peak Energy:
For Australian readers - 60 minutes has a segment on peak oil tonight.
You're about to hear two of the scariest words in the English language — "peak oil".
Effectively, they mean the end of the world as we know it. The point where oil production reaches its absolute peak; the point when supplies start running out. And the doomsayers are convinced we're almost there.
So, if you think paying $100 to fill your tank is painful, I hate to tell you, this is as good as it gets. It'll get worse, much worse.
Two dollars plus per litre by Christmas for a start. Naturally, the oil companies say stay calm. We'll be right for a 100 years at least. But then they would, wouldn't they?
And thanks to whoever loaded my "Of Rodents and men" post up at "Porkbusters" - the surrealness of having a full Peak Energy post (even including a tinfoil decoration) on a site run by Glenn "Instapundit" Reynolds is something that tickled my fancy - I think the relevant piece was the quote of Mungo MacCallum criticising Johnny's pork filled energy policies...
...read complete post at Peak Energy
Posted at Daily Kos: State of the Nation:
Here's a no-brainer, zero-cost, pure people power issue for Democrats to latch onto for November: Get rid of this "secret hold" crap in the Senate:
Senator who put 'secret hold' on bill to open federal records is a secret, too
WASHINGTON - In an ironic twist, legislation that would open up the murky world of government contracting to public scrutiny has been derailed by a secret parliamentary maneuver.
An unidentified senator placed a "secret hold" on legislation introduced by Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., that would create a searchable database of government contracts, grants, insurance, loans and financial assistance, worth $2.5 trillion last year. The database would bring transparency to federal spending and be as simple to use as conducting a Google search.
... Now the bill is in political limbo. Under Senate rules, unless the senator who placed the hold decides to lift it, the bill will not be brought up for a vote.
The measure in question had passed out of committee unanimously and was on the fast track for floor action until the hold was placed. This is an incredible accountability measure, especially for Internet researchers like those who abound here at Daily Kos and other websites. Here's a description of what the mysterious hold is preventing, from Obama's site:
This bill would require the Office of Management and Budget to establish and maintain a single public Web site that lists all entities receiving federal funds, including the name of each entity, the amount of federal funds the entity has received annually by program, and the location of the entity. All federal assistance must be posted within 30 days of such funding being awarded to an organization.
Holds are not uncommon; in fact, they were used to great effect recently by Clinton and Murray, who held up approval on Bush's new FDA nominee until Plan B was okayed. But anonymous holds are nothing more than cowardly attempts at obfuscation, undermining as they do the underlying assumption of representative democracy - that legislators will be held accountable by voters for their actions. Clinton and Murray took that risk. This senator did not.
I'd really like to see the duly elected objector - never mind if it's a Democrat or Republican - stand up and say: I think it's a really, really bad idea to have $300 billion worth of government contracts available for public scrutiny. And then we can hope he or she is facing re-election this cycle.
Update: It looks like Porkbusters has already begun a campaign to have constituents call their senators and deny the secret hold. Join that effort and keep checking in there to see whos still on the suspect list next week.
Posted at MyDD :: Direct Democracy for People-Powered Politics:
Hopefully, the latest generic ballot polls, which both show Democrats with huge, double-digit leads, will cause some of the people who were pushing the panic button over the Gallup and Hotline polls to relax a little. People really shouldn't have been panicking anyway, since during this entire election cycle, Gallup and Hotline have been consistently more favorable to Republicans than any other polling outfits. Then again, I recently wrote that we should expect Republicans to close the gap, and I also cautioned people against putting too much stock in national generic ballot tests anyway.
Even with all of that aside, more and more people are starting to forecast Democrats to take over at least one branch of Congress. Yesterday, Thomas Mann forecasted Democrats to win 25-35 seats in the House, and also gave Dems a 50% chance to take control of the Senate. Even Stuart Rothenberg now forecasts Dems to win the House, albeit narrowly. When my House forecast comes out on Monday, I will forecast Democrats to pick up 15-25 seats in the House, enough for a slim majority.
Even though I am probably tempting fate by asking this, with chances that Democrats will actually win control of at least one branch of congress now very real, what should we do once we are actually governing? This is something I have spent virtually no time thinking about, but it is at least worth considering. My first reaction would be to pass a series of bills that Bush could not possibly veto, such as a real minimum wage hike and earmark reform. Then, I think we should move into passing popular legislation that Bush will probably veto, such as rolling back the tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans, fixing the hideous Medicare bills, and global warming initiatives. From that point on, it is time to investigate, investigate, investigate, especially when it comes to all things Iraq. Don't impeach or censure right away, but keep saying that all options are on the table (thus drawing more attention to the investigations without it seeming like revenge for Clinton). Also, we need to make John McCain vote against a lot of things that are popular and progressive too.
Still, I think my governing outline is pretty thin. I know that MyDD is mainly a "hack" site for those interested in building improved progressive political infrastructure and campaigns, but in this post I am calling for the wonks to comment as well. If Democrats do take control of one or more branches of Congress, what should be our legislative plan for 2007? It may seem like we are tempting fate when we are asking this question, but if we in the netroots don't have a plan in the can before the elections even occur, we will have a difficult time agitating our newly powerful caucus into appropriate action.
So, let 'er rip. What should Democrats do if we take control of one or more branches of Congress this year?
Tags: Governing, Democrats, House 2006, Senate 2006 (all tags)
Posted at Liberty and Justice:
I admit: I missed this four days ago.
Mary, give me a call.
...read complete post at Liberty and Justice
Posted at Conservative Blog Therapy:
What has the GOP done other than keep Democrats out of power for 6 years? Back to the bait-and-switch switch game and the "at least we're not as bad as them" mentality?
I'm sorry Ken. You, congress, the Bush administration, have all blown it on spending, immigration, social security, energy, earmarks, and entitlements... and whatever you have done well you've been completely inept at communicating to the American people.
I'm not in the mood for BS. Beat it. I'll give money to individuals that I believe in, but I don't believe in the GOP. Dear Martin,
I wanted to send you a personal note with this must-read news from our RNC Political Director, Michael DuHaime. Our grassroots efforts are already making a huge difference - moving voters into the Republican column for the critical midterm elections just 74 days from today.
Because of this great news, I have set a goal of funding 3 million additional voter contacts for the final stretch - by the Labor Day start of the campaign. Martin, your support will make a critical difference to this effort. Your contribution of just $50 will enable our volunteers to personally call over 600 voters. A contribution of $250 enables us to reach over 4,000 voters - the margin of victory in a close election.
Please visit our special web site to contribute to this effort and track how many more voters we will reach because of your efforts:
http://www.GOP.com/3Million
Thank you again for everything that you do for our Party and our President.
--
Ken Mehlman
Chairman, Republican National Committee
kenmehlman@gop.com - www.GOP.com
---------------------------------------------------
From: Michael DuHaime - RNC Political Director
Sent: Friday, August 25, 2006 7:25 AM
To: Ken Mehlman - RNC Chairman
Subject: Getting It Done
With the traditional start of the Fall campaign just a week away, our nationwide grassroots effort is kicking into high gear. The response in August, traditionally a slow month, has been tremendous:
In the last four weeks, our volunteers have contacted more than 2.2 million voters through phone calls and door-to-door efforts, and registered thousands of new Republican voters.
Grassroots volunteers talking to their neighbors are still the best way of convincing undecided voters to support our Republican candidates. We need to make sure we have the resources to fully fund these volunteer programs through November 7.
Republicans are slightly behind in most national polls. But when the voters we reached heard about our Party's message of winning the War on Terror and reducing the tax burden, Republicans pulled even. If we can reach even more voters with this message, there is no doubt in my mind that we will retain our Republican majorities in November.
Expanding this volunteer effort is the key to victory, plain and simple. Just $180,000 raised online by Labor Day will enable our volunteers to personally contact 3 million more voters in the critical 60 days before Election Day.
Let's pass this along to our incredible online activists to let them know just how big a difference their efforts will make. Can our team get it done before Labor Day?
--
Michael DuHaime
RNC Political DirectorJay Homnick thinks people feeling like I do should take it out in the primaries:Once upon a time, electing a Democrat was a viable alternative. It cost you a few dollars extra but at least you were trading in hypocrisy for honesty. Those days are long gone. In today’s Democratic Party, left-winger extraordinaire Joseph Lieberman has been marginalized as a hawk whose talons are no longer required. Howard Dean, a screechy bit player from Vermont, is their national spokesman. Extremists like John Conyers and Charlie Rangel are in line to chair committees. Their majority would be a major catastrophe.
So what recourse do we have against errant Republicans who are untrue to their charge? The primary answer is primaries. Every representative who strays the course instead of staying it should be met by a challenger in a primary. That way, Republicans who need to be banished will be replaced in the ranks by their peers. But to let the bad guys win because the good guys are a tad adrift is to really lose sight of priorities. If they filmed High Noon in Chelm, would the sheriff lose because his watch was slow? I'll certainly give him that.
...read complete post at Conservative Blog Therapy
Posted at Palestinian Pundit:
by Ray McGovern
"While you can't judge a book by its cover, you can glean insight these days from the titles given to National Intelligence Estimates and papers meant to supplant them. Remember "Iraq's Continuing Program for Weapons of Mass Destruction," the infamous NIE of October 1, 2002, by which Congress was misled into approving an unnecessary war? "Continuing" leaped out of the title, foreshadowing the one-sided thrust of an estimate ostensibly commissioned to determine whether WMD programs were "continuing," or whether they had been dead for ten years. (The latter turned out to be the case, but the title – and the cooked insides – provided the scare needed to get Congress aboard.)
Now suddenly appears a pseudo-estimate titled "Recognizing Iran as a Strategic Threat: An Intelligence Challenge for the United States." To wit, the challenge set before the Intelligence Community is to get religion, climb aboard, and "recognize" Iran as a strategic threat. But alas, the community has not yet been fully purged of recalcitrant intelligence analysts who reject a "faith-based" approach to intelligence and hang back from the altar call to revealed truth. Hence, the statutory intelligence agencies cannot be counted on to come to politically correct conclusions regarding the strategic threat from Iran.
Hoekstra's release of this paper is another sign pointing in the direction of a US attack on Iran. Tehran is now being blamed not only for inciting Hezbollah but also for sending improvised explosive devices (IEDs) into Iraq to kill or maim US forces. There is yet another, if more subtle, disquieting note about the paper. It bears the earmarks of a rushed job, with very little editorial scrubbing. There are misplaced modifiers, and verbs often do not take enough care to agree in number with their nouns.
One wag suggested that the president may have taken a direct hand in the drafting. My guess is even more troubling. It seems to me possible that the Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal told Hoekstra to get the paper out sooner rather than later, as an aid to Americans in "recognizing Iran as a strategic threat.""
...read complete post at Palestinian Pundit
Posted at Bear Creek Ledger:
Can you imagine that? That there’s a Senator who is secretly is trying to hold up a transparency in government bill. If you want to help smoke out the good old boy or girl:
It may not stay that way for long, though. The watchdog group Porkbusters, www.porkbusters.org, is trying to smoke out the offender. It’s [...]]]>
...read complete post at Bear Creek Ledger
Posted at Void Where Prohibited:
Link: Porkbusters. Senator Jon Kyl's R-Arizona office has stated to me that he was not involved in the secret hold of Senate bill S.2590 and that he in fact supports this bill and will vote for it when it comes...
...read complete post at Void Where Prohibited
Posted at Liberally Conservative:
Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today named Rep. Charles Taylor (R-N.C.) Porker of the Month for burnishing his credentials as an unabashed champion of pork-barrel spending.xxx
As House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman, Rep. Taylor shows no shame when it comes to flaunting pork. He was even invited to attend an exclusive reception in Asheville, N.C., for the infamous Sparta Teapot Museum. xxxCAGW gave the museum the “Tempest in a Teapot” Oinker Award in its 2006 Congressional Pig Book for the $500,000 earmark it received in the fiscal 2006 Transportation/Treasury/Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Act. xxx
Rep. Taylor has not been shy about his appetite for pork. In a May 2006 letter to the Asheville Citizen-Times, Taylor’s chief of staff, Sean Dalton, proudly compared his boss to Sens. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) and Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), two of the biggest porkers in Congress (The Hill, 7/26/2006). Sen. Byrd has embraced his title of “King of Pork,” while Sen. Stevens is well-known for defending the “Bridge to Nowhere.” Anyone who puts Sens. Byrd and Stevens on a pedestal is oblivious to the dire budget realities facing the government.xxx
Rep. Taylor is well on his way to following in Sen. Stevens’ footsteps with his own so-called “Road to Nowhere.” The 30-mile road was promised to residents of Swain County in 1943 to replace one that was destroyed to create a lake and national park, but construction was stopped for environmental reasons in the late 1960’s and never resumed. Rep. Taylor wants to spend an estimated $590 million in federal funds to finally complete the road, despite the county’s willingness to give up the project in exchange for a smaller federal reimbursement of $52 million.xxx
In the mold of Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.), the senior Democrat on the House Ethics Committee who had to resign his post for securing millions of dollars in earmarks that may have benefited him personally, Rep. Taylor has come under fire for adding earmarks for the non-profit Education and Research Consortium of the Western Carolinas (ERC), which he helped to create. The ERC gets 100 percent of its funding from government grants and ERC directors have contributed to Rep. Taylor’s campaigns. xxx
For pigging out at the government trough and displaying shameless pride for bringing home the bacon, CAGW names Rep. Charles Taylor the Porker of the Month for August 2006.xxx
Citizens Against Government Waste is the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government. Porker of the Month is a dubious honor given to lawmakers, government officials, and political candidates who have shown a blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers.xxxLiberally Conservative encourages you to write and let your displeasure in pork spending and earmarks be heard! A form link and address is provided below.xxxRep. Charles Taylor (R-N.C.)339 Cannon House Office BuildingWashington, DC 20515Tel: (202) 225-6401Fax: (202) 226-6422Email: http://charlestaylor.house.gov/WriteMe/write.htm
...read complete post at Liberally Conservative
Posted at Wonkette, Politics for People with Dirty Minds:
Ok, ok. We’re on it. Stop emailing us.
Katherine Harris said something NUTS the other day.
Yes, she did. Specifically:
Separation of Church and State? “[T]hat lie we have been told.”
Elections? “God is the one who chooses our rulers”
Which, really, explains a hell of a lot.
KATY — YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE CONVINCING PEOPLE TO VOTE FOR YOU!
Apropos of nothing but handy for filling out a fairly unspectacular item (seriously, this is pretty damn sane for Katherine Harris), we have picked out Kitty’s Christmas present. Wonkette Senate Operative sez: “Shit, I’d trade an earmark for an iGallop if I were her.”
Katherine Harris ( R ) [Florida Baptists Witness]
...read complete post at Instapundit.com
Posted at State 29:
From the Des Moines Register's Editorial Board:After Jane Norman reported from Washington last Sunday that watchdog groups are increasingly complaining about "earmarks" in Congress, we wanted to write a thundering editorial denouncing the pork-barrel spending.
But it would be a waste of ink. Only one body — Congress — has the power to stop earmarks. And that is the one body that will never
...read complete post at State 29
Posted at A Mostly Political View:
Anna Diggs Taylor. According to Judicial Watch, there is a possible conflict of interest concerning her recent ruling that our government's warrantless wiretapping is unconstitutional.
According to her 2003 and 2004 financial disclosure statements, Judge Diggs Taylor served as Secretary and Trustee for the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan (CFSEM). She was reelected to this position in June 2005. The official CFSEM website states that the foundation made a recent grant of $45,000 over two years to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan, a plaintiff in the wiretapping case. Judge Diggs Taylor sided with the ACLU of Michigan in her recent decision.
According to the CFSEM website, The Foundation's trustees make all funding decisions at meetings held on a quarterly basis.
This potential conflict of interest merits serious investigation, said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. If Judge Diggs Taylor failed to disclose this link to a plaintiff in a case before her court, it would certainly call into question her judgment.
And this isn't the only case under scrutiny:
(Judge Diggs Taylor is also the presiding judge in another case where she may have a conflict of interest. The Arab Community Center for Social and Economic Services (ACCESS) is a defendant in another case now before Judge Diggs Taylor's court [Case No. 06-10968 (Mich. E.D.)]. In 2003, the CFSEM donated $180,000 to ACCESS.)
Read the rest of the article here.
Here are the facts we know, after doing several hours of research:
Anna Diggs Taylor, on her 2003 and 2004 Financial Disclosure Statements, states that she is both secretary and a trustee of CFSEM (Community Foundation of Southeastern Michigan).
2003 Statement
It has been stated that she may not have had a vote, but we think it is clear that she did, as she sits on the Board, and CFSEM itself has this to say - "The Foundation's trustees make all funding decisions at meetings held on a quarterly basis." also noted in the report from Judicial Watch.
The HOPE Fund (involved in the gay/lesbian community) is listed on their (CFSEM) grants page. On page 3 of the list of grants through HOPE Fund, the ACLU of Michigan is listed as receiving a total of $45,000 for two things- 1) To hire a lawyer for family law issues, and 2) support for some GLBT project.
It appears the judge is once removed because she is not on the board of the HOPE Fund, but is on the board of CFSEM, the organization that gave money to the HOPE Fund, who in turn gave $45,000 to the ACLU.
But wait ... there is one more thing that we have found, and it is this - Within CFSEM's guidelines for grantmaking, specifically for the HOPE Fund, we read the following: The HOPE Fund is a targeted grantmaking program of the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan that provides grants and technical assistance to nonprofit organizations serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities in southeast Michigan.
Hmmmm. This gets more interesting, doesn't it?
Now, where her issues come into play are within the Code of Conduct for U.S. Judges. Within Canon #5, it says: A JUDGE SHOULD REGULATE EXTRA-JUDICIAL ACTIVITIES TO MINIMIZE THE RISK OF CONFLICT WITH JUDICIAL DUTIES.
Feel free to read the rest for yourself. It's very interesting.
So, either she did not disclose the fact that she knew money she had a vote in was earmarked for the ACLU, OR she did not reevaluate the organizations she is involved in, in order to learn where money was actually going, thus leaving herself wide open to a conflict of interest. Considering the fact that the HOPE Fund is a TARGETED GRANTMAKING PROGRAM OF THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF SOUTHEASTERN MICHIGAN, it is very likely that Judge Diggs Taylor did, indeed, know what that money was going to be used for, that part of it was going to the ACLU.
Did she know? You make the call.
In other news:
Our phone call and email last week to Melissa Hart concerning Pennsylvania Earmarks remain unanswered. No explanation has been given as to why that is, but we are not pleased with the lack of response. We want answers and information from our rep.
Melissa Hart, are you sponsoring any of the earmarks in Pennsylvania, and if so, why is your name not publicly attached to them? These are valid questions, ones we have a right and a duty to ask, and we deserve answers BEFORE the vote occurs in September.
Voters are waiting to hear from you.
As a reminder, you can go to Sunlight Foundation to see what this is all about.
...read complete post at A Mostly Political View
Posted at Slublog - Changing the World, One Rant at a Time:
Okay, this just annoys the heck out of me. A bill to promote government transparency faces an uncertain future because of a far-from-transparent hold placed upon it in the Senate.
An unknown number of senators have blocked legislation to create a public, searchable Web site of all federal grants and contracts. Senate rules permit any senator to anonymously block consideration of a bill on the floor, effectively killing the measure.
“Hopefully the person or persons blocking it will realize it’s important to promote transparency and not secrecy in government,” said John Hart, spokesman for Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., the bill’s sponsor. Consider the irony. A bill to increase government openness is held up by an arcane senate rule that promotes secrecy. The Porkbusters are trying to get to the bottom of this by encouraging people to write their Senators. The letter I sent Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins is below the fold.
To me, this is another chance to kick Bill Frist. He could call a vote and change the Senate rules to forbid this sort of tactic, but is instead being his normal feckless self. Leadership seems to be a foreign concept to our Majority Leader.
If the Republicans don't find a way to expose the 'secret senator' and move that legislation forward, they risk irritating (again) the very people that put them in office. I know I've been down on the Republicans for the past few months, but with this sort of thing going on, who can blame me?
]]>Posted at Hillbilly White Trash:
Given that it is possible that Democrats could regain control of the House of Representatives this November thoughts are turning to what that might mean for the nation. Phil Kerpen takes on that issue in today's NRO:
Does the House GOP majority — after delivering a record number of pork-barrel earmarks, an enormous new entitlement program, and most recently a giant minimum-wage increase — deserve to become a minority this November? This question, once unthinkable among fiscal conservatives, is now a common topic of conversation in gatherings of limited-government analysts and activists in Washington.
In his excellent new book, Buck Wild, which details how the House GOP degenerated from the Contract With America to its present state, Stephen Slivinski of the Cato Institute concludes a chapter with this provocative question: “Even if you don’t agree that a divided government would make us better off, can you really argue — based on the evidence here — that it would make us worse off?” I’m not so sure.
Slivinski’s data show that the growth of government is far more rapid under periods of united control, with one party running the House, Senate, and White House, than when the House is controlled by the party not in the White House. Real per capita federal spending, which is adjusted for inflation and population growth, has increased at a 3.1 percent annual rate under Bush, faster than every president since Lyndon Johnson. This spending spree fits a larger historical trend with respect to divided government: Surveying more than forty years of data, Slivinski found that per capita government spending grows at an average inflation-adjusted rate of 3.4 percent under united government, versus only 1.5 percent under divided government.
There is reason to doubt that divided government, specifically in the next Congress, will limit spending. Bush, simply, has shown no appetite for cutting spending, and his cooperation with Democrats on landmark legislation like the No Child Left Behind Act suggests partisanship may not be the reason. When Bush did have a Democratic Senate to contend with, spending grew considerably faster at 4.3 percent annually than his overall 3.1 percent average. While Bush’s spending priorities would be largely at odds with a Democratic House, it’s possible that a Democratic House takeover would be a quid pro quo in which everyone’s pet projects grow.
The fact is that President Bush is not a conservative. He is conservative on some issues, maybe more than half of them, but he is not a "movement conservative". Advancing the cause of conservatism is not one of his goals. He honestly believes that big activist government is good for the nation.
This makes it very unlikely that he will find himself at odds with a Democrat House in the same way that President Clinton was with a Republican one. Bush's sincere belief in big government coupled with his extreme reluctance to use the veto will likely mean an explosion of spending unlike anything seen in US history. Unless the Senate, which will certainly stay in Republican hands puts on the brakes.
The Senate might do that, but then it might not. It is possible that the Democrats will make some gains in the Senate this November. A larger Democrat minority coupled with those liberal Republicans like McCain and Graham could give the Democrats effective control of the Senate as well as the House.
There is another issue besides spending. That is taxes. Kerpen continues:
Spending is only half the equation for fiscal conservatives, and the GOP is light years better on taxes than spending. The 2003 tax bill was a stunning supply-side success, restoring investor confidence and fueling a dramatic economic expansion. The expansion has, ironically, filled federal coffers and enabled the spending binge, but it also has created millions of jobs and trillions of dollars of shareholder wealth. Because major tax hikes are scheduled to occur automatically on January 1, 2011 — increasing the capital-gains tax rate by 33 percent, the dividend rate by 133 percent, and the top marginal income-tax rate by 13 percent — a prolonged period of gridlock, lasting through the next two Congresses, could cause real economic damage on the tax side.
It’s clear from the fact that this discussion is even occurring that the Republican majority has a dismal record on limiting spending. The party has lost its fiscal compass. If the Republicans do lose the House this cycle, it will be hard to argue, based on spending policy, that they deserved otherwise. The ideal scenario for fiscal conservatives would probably be a brief period in the wilderness, a single cycle in which the GOP could regroup and refocus on the core fiscal issues that powered the Reagan revolution, led by a presidential candidate with a genuine commitment to spending restraint. But there are no guarantees in politics, and the Democrats could instead hold onto control, starting an era of even bigger government.
Of course the problem with letting the Democrats have control of even one house of the legislature for even two years is the war. The global war on the Islamofascists of which Iraq is the primary battlefield.
The conventional wisdom this year is that the mid-term elections are going to be a referendum on the war. That may be as wrong as most conventional wisdom, but it is still believed. The nut case left is exerting control over the Democrat Party and if the Party wins this November the dailykos crowd will claim credit and the mainstream media will back them 100%. In that environment it will be hard for the Democrats not to pay them off by cutting and running in Iraq.
It must also be remembered that the new nutroots left is as anti-Semitic as a Nuremberg Rally. If the Democrat Party puts them in the driver's seat they will throw Israel to the wolves. Not by cutting them off, but by using the USA's enormous influence to arm-twist them into making suicidal concessions to their blood enemy.
Under ideal circumstances losing the House to the Democrats this year could light a fire under the Republican Party. It could frighten them enough to come back to their conservative principals and purge out the RINO's who do more harm than good (McCain and his wretched little hand puppet Lindsay Graham and the rest of the backstabbing seven).
But it could just as easily go the other way.
I think the safest course is to remember that the nation is at war and vote for the only party that will try to win. If the people do not know or care about that the nation is doomed anyway.
...read complete post at Hillbilly White Trash
Posted at Our View From Madison: www.Zmetro.com:
National Priorities Project:The median income family in Madison, Wisconsin paid $6,020 in federal income taxes in 2005. Here is how that amount was spent: Related: Local congressional earmark data....
...read complete post at Our View From Madison: www.Zmetro.com
Posted at Amazing Facts:
Era of bloated budgets. It has taken libertarians some time to figure it out. For years they've been having their pockets picked by honey-voiced Republicans vowing to end Big Government.
Like their odd bedfellows in the Republican coalition - the religious conservatives who have waited more than 30 years for the GOP to legislate wholesomeness - the libertarians thought they had no alternative. Surely, the Republicans were better than the Democrats.
But now the results are in, and inescapable. The outcome of Republican control has been everything Democrats were known for, and libertarians profess to abhor: wasteful government spending, titanic new bureaucracies, federal intrusion in private matters, elective war and a metastasizing national security state.
Now that Republicans have spent a decade in charge of Congress and five controlling the White House, the federal cesspool that the party vowed to drain "feels less like a cesspool than a hot tub," said Stephen Slivinski, the director of budget studies at the Cato Institute.
"Republicans just don't act like the party of Goldwater or Reagan anymore," he told his fellow libertarians at the think tank here last week.
The era of Big Government isn't over, as Bill Clinton once professed. "It's been replaced by something far worse," said Slivinski, "the era of Super-Sized Government - and for that we have Republicans to thank."
Slivinski is a bright young economist, a Floridian who cut his intellectual teeth at Cato, George Mason University and the Goldwater Institute in Phoenix. His political hero is Barry Goldwater, the late Arizona senator, Republican presidential candidate and conservative prophet.
Slivinski's new book, "Buck Wild: How Republicans Broke the Bank and Became the Party of Big Government," http://tinyurl.com/hh6bois the worst kind of news for Republican strategists hoping to spur free-thinking conservatives to the polls this fall.
"Buck Wild" makes a compelling case that the best protection for individual rights (and wallets) in America rests in divided government. And that the best thing voters can do is take Congress or the White House away from the Republicans, and give it to the Democrats.
Given complete control, the GOP has failed, Slivinski argues. The party embraced the expediency of Richard Nixon, and climbed under the sheets with venal special interests and corrupt lobbyists. Like the corrupt political machines of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, he says, the party's over-arching purpose is now self-perpetuation, whatever the cost.
"Cutting government spending now runs contrary to Republican political aims," Slivinski writes. "Today the GOP is so closely aligned with the mechanisms of Big Government that it finds itself unable and unwilling to shut the contraption down.
"The corruption scandals that have afflicted the Republican Party ... are a natural by-product."
As an economist, Slivinski has a ready sheave of numbers at hand. "After adjusting the total growth of the federal budget by length of time in office and inflation, ... George W. Bush is the biggest-spending full-term president since Lyndon B. Johnson," he writes.
"In Bush's presidency so far the federal budget has grown by 27 percent after adjusting for inflation. That's more than twice as fast as during the eight years of President Clinton."
The growth in big-ticket entitlement spending?
It was 4.1 percent under Jimmy Carter and 3.3 percent under Bill Clinton, says Slivinski - and 5.1 percent under Bush.
How about Pentagon pork? Real defense spending is higher today ($440 billion) than it was at the high point of Reagan's defense buildup ($399.6 billion) and more than Johnson's largest Vietnam War defense budget ($421.3 billion), Slivinski writes.
Wait, you say, there's a war on terror. But only 15 percent of defense spending since Sept. 11 has gone to fighting terrorism, including the cost of the war in Iraq, Slivinski notes.
And even after entitlement, defense and homeland security spending are removed from the equation, the growth of federal spending in the Bush years (4.5 percent) exceeds that of the Johnson (4.1 percent), Carter (1.6 percent) or Clinton (2.1 percent) presidencies.
One reason is earmarks - those porky, oftentimes hidden little clauses in appropriation bills that members of Congress use to promote home-state projects like Alaska's dubious Bridge to Nowhere http://tinyurl.com/femzk. In the last Democratic Congress, the number of earmarks was 1,439, says Slivinski. Today, that number is over 15,000.
"Republicans have actually become more promiscuous than Democrats when it comes to earmarks," Slivinski said. "They've become cogs in the Big Government machine."
Washington is most restrained - militarily and fiscally - when power is divided among the parties, Slivinski argues: In the course of American history, the country has more frequently gone to war under one-party government, and "united government gives us government that grows twice as fast."
One need look no further back than 1994, when the Republicans captured the House of Representatives and lay siege to Clinton's Oval Office. A divided Washington cut the government's share of the gross domestic product from 20.7 percent to 18.4 percent, and balanced the federal budget.
Then the Republicans won the White House. "This trend was reversed almost immediately after George W. Bush's inaugural parade," Slivinski writes. "Together Bush and the Republican Congress managed to expand government spending to 20.8 percent of GDP in 2006. By this standard, they have effectively overturned the Republican Revolution."
For his fellow libertarians, Slivinski has some startling advice: Clap term limits on Republican incumbents, and elect enough Democrats to ensure divided government.
"If you can't put your faith in a political party," he says, "perhaps you should put your faith in gridlock." John Aloysius Farrell's column appears each Sunday in Perspective. Read and comment on his columns at The Denver Post's Washington Web log www.denverpostbloghouse.com/washington
...read complete post at Amazing Facts
Posted at The So-Called "Austin Mayor" Blog:
By now you've got the idea -- Sometimes a political ad can inadvertently reveal more than was intended.
And what does today's NRCC mailer to the 6th District reveal?
It reveals that the Republican party has abandoned any pretense of reaching out to anyone who... well...
isn't white
.
So the NRCC is scared of immigrants -- or at least wants you to be -- but why?
Clearly it is because immigrants cause the corruption of our culture and language. Just look at this sentence from the mailer:
Surely the NRCC didn't mean to champion the citizenship of "people who play by the rules after breaking the law for years" -- but just
writing about
immigrants has wiped out their mastery of the English language.
And what about the far west suburban Las Vegas Review Journal's characterization of Maj. Duckworth's "pathway to citizenship" position as "a different term" for amnesty?
Well, her postition is strikingly like the immigration policy proposed by that other notorious liberal --
George W. Bush
.
You can't blame the NRCC for trying, though. The Roskam campaign's
focus on tax cuts
is hard to take seriously when Pork-Barrel Pete has pledged his loyalty to
tax-payer funded GOP "earmarks."
But I'm not sure that slinging every Republican turd against the wall to see what sticks is gonna get the job done.
...read complete post at The So-Called "Austin Mayor" Blog
Posted at composite drawlings:
According to House Democrats, the federal rebuilding programs have wasted gazillions of bucks by not going through complete bidding processes: Democrats Cite No-Bid Katrina Contracts.
First, this seems to me to be quite a turnaround for House Democrats -- that they should suddenly develop a sense of fiscal responsibility gives one either hope or pause... mostly pause. This is, after all, an election year. And they don't seem to be all that gung-ho about Porkbusters efforts to get some control over, among other thhings, the earmark system. Still, if they're raising their voices in favor of controlling spending, maybe we have a tool to use against their (and the Republicans') profligate ways.
But, my second thought is on this no-bid contract thingy. After having watched my friends go through the torment of taking state funding to bring their homes up to code, and their having been forced to accept the lowest bid, regardless of known quality of work, I'm inclined to skip the down-and-dirty part where they have to study every last bid and go with the lowest one. I'd rather take bids from three or four contractors I know I can trust, and then selecting the one of them with the best offer. And it may not even be the lowest bid. I want work I can continue to look at, years from now, without growning queasy from frustration and anger.
Granted, when one is answerable to the taxpayers regarding, say, the installation of wiring and plumbing, one who has a conscience may be apt to want to scrimp a bit. But not at the expense of having to completely redo it less than a year later. My best friend is doing just that, with her plumbing, with drywall, even with the hanging of rain gutters and downspouts, since the "professionals" who did the work last year left the project in such a manner that there were wires exposed, some not grounded, the bathroom sink drained uphill and the toilet and tub were installed without shoring up (or leveling) the century-old floorboards, and the rains dripped over the edge of the gutter and inside the walls, plus undermining her foundations. This entire project was signed off by a government office, who took the word of the contractor, even though an independent inspection stated the work was "borderline at best".
They "worked" on a sporadic schedule, often leaving windows open or holes in exterior walls in mid-winter. When they finished with their projects, they left scrap and tools and other garbage lying around the yard, so that my friend received warnings from the city. They nearly killed her pet cat through negligence, leaving a gas-powered generator running indoors for more than an hour while they went off to lunch -- and refused to pay the veterinary bills.
Worse, they didn't even start on the work until it was almost the end of the time frame allotted for pay from the state of IL. It forced her and the state to rush paperwork, as well as, due to the delay, forcing acceptance of the work simply because otherwise the state budget would not cover it, and all their work would have had to come from her own pockets.
On the other hand, my insurance company offered me a recommendation, to repair my front porch this summer. The chief was out at my door precisely on time, the crew have actually shown up to work and have done what is expected of them -- and asked permission to do things which might distress a homeowner. They have been courteous, and responsive, and all-around not bad (all things considered, a couple hours late on one day didn't kill me or cause the house to collapse). And, I'm going to have newly painted trim, the way I want it, without I should be doing all that crap myself. All it took was having a hunk of tree fall on it.
So, when somebody says that some contractors are getting jobs without having been the lowest bid in a government job, maybe there's some reasonable sort of rationale involved.
Of course, the thing in the ABC report about ... 19 contracts worth $8.75 billion were found to have wasted taxpayer money at least in part, costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, according to the report. It cited numerous instances of double-billing by contractors and cases of trailers meant as emergency housing sitting empty in Arkansas.Well, that, I have to admit, is not how I want tax dollars spent. Although I would like to hear the specifics as to how they "wasted taxpayer money at least in part". Did they buy fancy fixtures which weren't necessary? Did they charge the taxpayers for hand-cut parquetry? Or was it a case of tossing aside a lot of not-quite perfect lumber and supplies? Maybe it was legal fees for all the "undocumented workers" they had to bail out to get back on the projects?
Details, people! I want details!
...read complete post at composite drawlings
Posted at the ruminating pilgrim:
I’m working on a policy statement - this site’s second (here’s the first) - about federal spending. In it, I’ll focus on the process of federal spending and not necessarily budget levels and priorities - though these are just as important for what they say about our values.
But first, it’s impossible, at least for [...]]]>
...read complete post at the ruminating pilgrim
Posted at Wonkette, Politics for People with Dirty Minds:
We don’t like to get involved with “senate bills” around here, but now and then we find a non-odious proposed law — a rare bill that doesn’t aim to steal away more of our money and rights.
S. 2590 only wants “to require full disclosure of all entities and organizations receiving Federal funds.”
In other words, there would be a website on the Internets, and you the American consumer-citizen could go to this site and find out who and what is spending all your tax dollars. Republican Tom Coburn and Democrat Barack Obama sponsored the legislation, and a bunch of other big names joined the bipartisan fun: Hillary, McCain, Reid, even Frist!
But a secret crook has put a “secret hold” on the bill.
That’s right: A proposed government transparency law is being held down by a secret hold.
According to the Porkbusters gang, 27 senators are in the clear — either because they’re a sponsor or co-sponsor of the bill, or because they’ve firmly denied being the pig-thief anti-American monster.
That leaves 73 suspects, including two of the most offensive porkers in history: Robert “Exalted Cyclops” Byrd and Ted “Series of Tubes” Stevens.
If you work for one of the suspects, why not do some sleuthing and send your pals at Wonkette a nice tip?
If you’re a C-SPAN viewer, please stop watching C-SPAN for a while and call your senator’s office. Ask if your senator is the secret crook blocking S. 2590. Then tell us what happened.
It’s like citizen journalism or something!
Transparency bill subjected to secrecy [Federal Times]
Who is the secret holder? [Porkbusters]
...read complete post at Instapundit.com
Posted at Coyote Gulch:
Denver Post: "With gasoline prices hovering around $3 a gallon and electric utilities struggling with brownouts, energy has become a local concern. Both Beauprez and his Democratic opponent, Bill Ritter, are pushing plans aimed at putting the state in a position to be a leader in cutting-edge energy technology and re-energize rural Colorado, although neither sets specific implementation plans.
"Energy also has become political ammunition. Ritter has criticized Beauprez's congressional vote that cut more than $20 million from the Golden-based National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Beauprez blamed the cuts on U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid's move to earmark $34 million in energy funds for his home state of Nevada. The NREL funds were eventually restored by the Bush administration."
Category: Denver November 2006 Election
Posted at Peak Energy:
It appears that bubonic plague may be making a re-appearance, courtesy of global warming.
Climatic changes could lead to more outbreaks of bubonic plague among human populations, a study suggests. Researchers found that the bacterium that caused the deadly disease became more widespread following warmer springs and wetter summers.
The disease occurs naturally in many parts of the world, and the team hopes its findings will help officials limit the risk of future outbreaks. The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The bacterium Yersinia pestis is believed to have triggered the Black Death that killed more than 20 million people in the Middle Ages.
Bill McKibben has an elegant article on the plight of the honey bee in Orion magazine.
Honey is their fuel—a bee gets about 7 million flight miles to the gallon.
Bees pollinate more than ninety fruit, vegetable, nut, and seed crops—a third of the human diet in many countries.
And this, for budding writers: along with providing propolis (once employed in the varnishes that gave the great violins of antiquity their tone), beeswax (useful for candles), and honey (which tastes good), bees are a valuable source of metaphors. I mean, they are busy, they form hierarchies, they have division of labor, and despite their association with sweetness they sting. (See also: thorn on rosebush.) Bees also give each other directions by dancing, which is of less use for metaphor, in that you’d be hard-pressed to do it yourself.
But honeybees live their lives next to ours, and have ever since they were first domesticated about seven thousand years ago. And so when things go askew with our society, those problems can cross, quite literally, into the hive. Consider, for instance, the varroa mite, a microscopic parasite that can devastate a bee colony. It was, for many years, confined to regions of the world where it had long coevolved with bees, allowing them to develop a certain resistance. In the twentieth century it began to spread around the globe, however, and in the 1980s it got to Florida —no one knows quite how, but when every commodity on Earth is traded far and wide every day, such things happen. From there it infested hives the length and the breadth of the country, including those that were also being taken over by nasty hybridized African bees released by accident by Brazilian researchers. But that’s another story. Anyway, the varroa mites, following on the heels (perhaps not a very apt mite metaphor) of the less devastating but equally exotic tracheal mites, decimated all kinds of beehives, and threatened all kinds of crops. This spring almond growers in California were flying in beehives from Australia to service their $5 billion harvest. The National Academy of Sciences is apparently considering adding honeybees to the endangered species list. It is, more or less, a disaster of the kind that we’re becoming all too used to.
...
Kirk Webster’s secret—the way that he’s managed to produce hives that can now withstand the varroa mite—is to do pretty much what the mites did when faced with Apistan. He helps the few survivors meet each other, and through their interbreeding and the careful introduction of bees with natural resistance from other countries, he manages to produce hives with winter survival rates of 70 percent or greater. Even if some good organic controls emerge, he says, he probably wouldn’t use them. He claims his “varroa mites are much more valuable to me alive than dead,” helping cull the weakest bees.
Big beekeepers might have trouble emulating his approach because it’s labor-intensive. The whole point of American agriculture for the last century, after all, has been to produce more with fewer people, a process that has progressed about as far as it’s possible to imagine. And the rest of us will have trouble emulating his approach in our own lives, and in our civic life together—we’re as addicted to the quick fix, the stopgap, the shortcut as it’s possible to get. Fossil fuel, for instance, is the ultimate cure-all for us, solving every problem cheaply and easily. Our own CheckMite. Except that we’re going to raise the planet’s temperature five degrees this century unless we figure out how to do without it.
What Webster makes clear is that we’ve taken the wrong lesson entirely from the hive, picked the wrong metaphor. It’s industrious, like we are. But, with a little gentle help from beekeepers who understand how to undo some of our earlier mistakes, it’s also beautifully in balance. And that’s its real secret.
Also at Orion, a three part interview with Peter Matthiessen on "Our political environent" and an excellent summary of the debate over wind power called "Whither Wind" by Charles Komanoff (by and large I think its past time for any more debating the benefits of wind farms - the more wind power the better - it will take a lot of wind farm construction before the trade offs start to become relevant and we aren't any where near that point yet).
FIGHTING FOSSIL FUELS, and machines powered by them, has been my life's work. In 1971, shortly after getting my first taste of canyon country, I took a job crunching numbers for what was then a landmark exposé of U.S. power plant pollution, The Price of Power. The subject matter was drier than dust—emissions data, reams of it, printed out on endless strips of paper by a mainframe computer. Dull stuff, but nightmarish visions of coal-fired smokestacks smudging the crystal skies of the Four Corners kept me working 'round the clock, month after month.
A decade later, as a New York City bicycle commuter fed up with the oil-fueled mayhem on the streets, I began working with the local bicycle advocacy group, Transportation Alternatives, and we soon made our city a hotbed of urban American anti-car activism. The '90s and now the '00s have brought other battles—"greening" Manhattan tenement buildings through energy efficiency and documenting the infernal "noise costs" of Jet Skis, to name two—but I'm still fighting the same fight.
Why? Partly it's knowing the damage caused by the mining and burning of fossil fuels. And there's also the sheer awfulness of machines gone wild, their groaning, stinking combustion engines invading every corner of life. But now the stakes are immeasurably higher. As an energy analyst, I can tell you that the science on global warming is terrifyingly clear: to have even a shot at fending off climate catastrophe, the world must reduce carbon dioxide emissions from fuel burning by at least 50 percent within the next few decades. If poor countries are to have any room to develop, the United States, the biggest emitter by far, needs to cut back by 75 percent.
Although automobiles, with their appetite for petroleum, may seem like the main culprit, the number one climate change agent in the U.S. is actually electricity. The most recent inventory of U.S. greenhouse gases found that power generation was responsible for a whopping 38 percent of carbon dioxide emissions. Yet the electricity sector may also be the least complicated to make carbon free. Approximately three-fourths of U.S. electricity is generated by burning coal, oil, or natural gas. Accordingly, switching that same portion of U.S. electricity generation to nonpolluting sources such as wind turbines, while simultaneously ensuring that our ever-expanding arrays of lights, computers, and appliances are increasingly energy efficient, would eliminate 38 percent of the country's CO2 emissions and bring us halfway to the goal of cutting emissions by 75 percent.
To achieve that power switch entirely through wind power, I calculate, would require 400,000 windmills rated at 2.5 megawatts each. To be sure, this is a hypothetical figure, since it ignores such real-world issues as limits on power transmission and the intermittency of wind, but it's a useful benchmark just the same.
What would that entail?
The ABC's Lateline program had some interesting global warming related interviews this week - first some wise words from Ross Gelbspan on the global warming denial industry, then Queensland Premier Peter Beattie making all sorts of pathetic excuses on behalf of the local coal industry, which has the east coast state governments in its pocket it would seem.
TONY JONES: Indeed. In the story we've just seen the local scientist Jonathan Nott who's an expert in extreme climate events has been sort of a lone voice in that city of Cairns for a long time. He's been making this argument that terrible things could happen. People thought he was crazy and now they're starting to listen to him.
ROSS GELBSPAN: I'm glad people are starting to listen. It's interesting that since global warming really was established by the scientific community in the early '90s its first consequence is more extreme weather and that's been universally agreed upon, as the atmosphere warms we have more frequent heatwaves, we have more intense downpours, we get much more of our rain and snow in these severe downpours. We have more protracted droughts and much more intense storms and that's the first earmark of global warming, basically.
TONY JONES: Can I ask how you got deeply involved in this issue? You're not an environmentalist, are you? You've written you don't love trees, you tolerate them.
ROSS GELBSPAN: That's right. I really didn't get into this issue because of a love of nature. I personally got into this having been an investigative reporter because I found out that the coal industry was paying a handful of scientists in the US to say climate change isn't happening and I said, "If there's this cover-up going on, what are they covering up?" There went the next 10 years of my life. But basically you're right, the impulse that propelled me into this work has nothing to do with a love of nature. It really comes from a deeply-held belief upon which I based a 30-year career as a journalist that in a democracy we need honest information and in this case I found that very large interests were stealing our reality and I think, and I know in my bones from all my experience that really bodes very badly for the democracy. And as we've learned since it also bodes very badly for the planet.
TONY JONES: In fact, you've said, you've written, that the world was effectively blindsided by the pace of climate change. And I'm wondering if you actually believe that was a deliberate policy?
ROSS GELBSPAN: No, I don't believe it was a deliberate policy. I think there has been this resistance, but I also think that the scientific community in no way expected this to happen as quickly as it has. As you've said we've been blindsided by the speed with which this has taken place. Global warming wasn't even on the radar screen in the US until 1988, that's when the governments of the world formed the inter-governmentalpanel on global warming change. It's when we went before Congress to say global warming is at hand. A mere 18 years later we're being told we're either at, or beyond or approaching the point of no return. And that is way more quick, way more rapid than any of the scientists anticipated. Dr Paul Epstein at Harvard University said to me recently, we are seeing impacts now that we did not project to occur until 2085.
TONY JONES: Indeed the parameters of the debate have changed rapidly, too. It's not so long ago that the big coal-producing nations like Australia and the US refused to accept the idea of climate change. Now they both do in their official policy. The interesting thing is they have very different solutions. They have coal or fossil fuel solutions that they're putting forward to fix these problems. This is happening in Australia. The Australian Government believes it's possible to have cleaner coal, and also to have carbon sequestration. In other words, pump the carbon gas underground from these coal stations. Where do you see these technologies going?
ROSS GELBSPAN: Basically I see them as a real attempt to keep alive the fossil fuel component of our energy diet and I feel that's extremely wrong-headed and extremely destructive. First of all, you cannot clean the carbon out of fuel, you can clean the low-level air pollutants out of coal, but not take the carbon out of coal, otherwise it wouldn't burn. In terms of sequestration where you draw the carbon dioxide from power plants and try to bury it under ground, essentially I see that as a public works employment for companies like Bektel and Halliburton. But on a substantive basis there's no evidence that the carbon dioxide will stay down there and there is new evidence that the carbon dioxide once it's pumped into these receptacle areas underground produces toxic chemicals that erodes the limestone and sandstone that's supposed to be capturing it. It really strikes me as a way of avoiding what we need to do which is make a rapid transition to clean energy, to wind and solar and tidal and wave power and eventually to hydrogen and this is essentially an effort by the fossil fuel industry to stave off that inevitable transition.
Carbon Sink has been following the local debate over global warming and how to deal with it - recent posts on the topic include a less than impressed look at Peter Beattie on Lateline, Some scary global warming graphs, Ian Macfarlane is dangerous fool, and must be stopped and You gotta love Mungo.
Mungo MacCallum critiques the Howard government's petrol-pricing policy (reproduced in full from the Byron Shire Echo):
Once more John Howard’s opportunism, mendacity and humbuggery have come back to haunt him.
As petrol prices rise inexorably towards the $1.50 a litre mark and the public anger grows, our Dear Leader pleads for understanding: it’s all a matter of supply and demand, it’s because China’s demand for energy is insatiable, it’s because of hurricanes in America and instability in the Middle East (though not, of course, his war in Iraq), it’s an international problem and he’s really, truly, honestly not to blame.
He’d just love to bring the cost to the motorist down, he recognises it as his greatest problem, but there’s absolutely nothing he can do, fair dinkum cross my heart.
And people just don’t believe him. They don’t believe him because they know if they carry on loudly enough and for long enough that Howard will make the price come down, and the reason they know this is because it has all happened before. When the price rose at the beginning of 2001 there was a huge outcry, and the government, already somewhat spooked by unfavourable opinion polls, went into a flat panic. Not only did the bush receive a veritable cornucopia of fuel subsidies ranging from the easily rortable through the utterly inequitable to the frankly unworkable, but Howard knocked a sizeable chunk off federal government excise and abandoned the indexation of excise altogether.
This sent a firm signal to the industry that petrol was king and would continue to be king until it ran out altogether: there was to be no serious attempt to ration an increasingly scarce resource through the use of the market, and the search for alternatives was to be seen as an unnecessary frippery.
And if the message didn’t get through in 2001 it was heavily reinforced three years later when Howard offered a pre-election bribe of another $1.5 billion in subsidies both to off-road farm vehicles and to long-haul transport, a policy which became abbreviated as Cheap Diesel for Big Trucks. Just fill up at the nearest pump and don’t worry about the cost; the government will look after it.
But although the main beneficiaries of this squandermania were the farmers and the truckies, the message was clear to all motorists – indeed, to all consumers: if you just make enough fuss, if you hold your breath till you turn blue in the face and then scream and scream and scream till you’re sick, Johnny will buy you an ice cream. He’ll keep telling you no, but he doesn’t really mean it.
The problem is that this time he does mean it; he really has to. He simply can’t afford to lose any more of the excise; as he himself has pointed out, to cut the excise by even ten cents a litre would cost the budget around $4 billion a year and with the price of petrol likely to keep rising it would do very little political good. There are more profitable ways of spending $4 billion in the lead up to an election year (extra funds for political junk mail, for instance) and there have to be cheaper ways to divert the public’s attention.
It is probably too late to try and educate them to the fact that Australia has cheaper petrol than almost anywhere outside the United States and the middle east itself, or to tell them that they were silly to buy that huge four wheel drive gas guzzler just to drive the kids half a kilometre from the McMansion to the local private school: Howard has pandered to the greed of the electorate for far too long to start preaching restraint now.
The tokenism of a touch of ethanol in every tank appeals, once again, to the farmers but does almost nothing to reduce costs to the motorist and absolutely nothing to promote fuel conservation, which is the real problem. The subsidy for those who already overuse their vehicles to convert to gas is another piece of panic-driven economic nonsense: it will simply push up the price of gas (supply and demand again, Prime Minister) and in any case, the gas is to become subject to excise in a few years so the price will rise anyway. It is, after all, a by-product of the same crude oil from whichwe refine our petrol, and will run out at the same time.
Having posted some articles about crumbling infrastructure a fw days ago, I was interested to see WorldChanging predicting an investment boom in fixing the aforesaid crumbling relics of an age when public investment and planning for the future were considered a good thing.
We tend to ignore, even forget about the infrastructure which supports a contemporary developed world life. That holds doubly true for our sewers. This is too bad, as much of it is poorly designed, from an ecological perspective, and, especially in North America, much of it is decaying or groaning under the burden of its use.
Now, companies are lining up to cash in on the repair of crumbling infrastructure:
Because of these risks, EPA inspectors are aggressively monitoring and citing water systems -- mostly run by local governments or mom-and-pop operators, neither of which has the money to fund the upgrade of water systems. From its perch, the EPA estimates we need to spend $500 billion over the next 20 years. That’s $250 billion to replace pipes, tanks, valves and treatment plants in the water infrastructure, and $250 billion to upgrade the sewage system.
In short, we’re potentially at the start of a massive spending cycle -- always an interesting place for investors to hunt for long-term investment plays.
$500 billion is a lot of pipe. Perhaps its time to start re-imagining our options?
Also at WorldChanging, an update on Sweden's plan to be oil free by 2020.
"Fossil-fuel free by 2020." That was the amazing national goal announced by Prime Minister Göran Persson at the launch of the so-called "Oil Commission", an advisory body whose purpose is to chart a pathway to reach that goal.
In June, the Commission (the full title should be translated as "The Commission to End Oil Dependency by 2020", but the government translates it a bit erroneously as "The Commission on Oil Independence") released its first major report, with the nitty-gritty policy recommendations. To end its dependency on oil -- which is rather vaguely defined not as completely getting rid of the stuff, but dramatically reducing its use to the point where Sweden does not "need" oil anymore -- Sweden would need to do the following in just fourteen years:
• Increase energy efficiency throughout the entirety of Swedish society by 20%
• Reduce the amount of gasoline and diesel used in Swedish vehicles by 40-50% (with a combination of efficiency and a faster switch to renewable and biofuels)
• Reduce oil consumption in industry by 25-40%
• Eliminate oil completely in home and office heating systems
People familiar with energy issues generally can already guess how all this needs to happen: with a mixture of increased new and existing alternative/renewable fuel sources, efficiency technologies, and the policies to drive change in this direction. Fortunately, Sweden has plenty of each already, and plenty of room to develop them further.
Ross Gittins has a look at the economics of carbon taxes (the holy grail) in the "World fiddles while the planet burns".
CLIMATE change is getting to be like that old joke about the weather: everyone talks about it, but nobody does anything. Except that last week the state governments did propose to do something - which, they assured us, would neither cost us much nor do much to slow the economy's growth.
There wouldn't be many people left who still doubt the reality of global warming. According to a report by the CSIRO, Australian agriculture is likely to be affected by reduced rainfall, a greater likelihood of extreme weather events (droughts, floods, cyclones and storms), reduction in the quality of pasture and an increase in the populations of pests such as fruit flies, apple moths and ticks.
The CSIRO also predicts bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef, possibly to the point of destruction, reduction of snow cover in the Australian Alps and loss of habitat for many species in northern and south-eastern Australia.
Scientific evidence indicates we can combat climate change if the world can achieve substantial reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases (mainly from burning fossil fuels) by the middle of the century.
The trouble is that to have much effect on global emissions we need almost all countries - and, certainly, all the big ones - taking part. Without the involvement of the US, China and India, nothing any individual country achieves will make much difference.
And the trouble with this is that, while ever the big three aren't on board, the rest of us have an excuse for not getting on with it.
Another problem is that, depending on how you go about it, achieving a big reduction in emissions could involve significantly higher costs to consumers and losses of economic growth and jobs.
The economic risks are heightened for Australia because we're such a big exporter of fossil fuels, particularly natural gas and coal, as well as that "congealed energy" known as aluminium. Were we to get tough with our energy-dependent export industries before other countries, we could simply drive them offshore.
...
So much for the Howard Government's scaremongering about how the scheme would lay waste the economy. Why are the costs so manageable? Because you're not pulling down power stations, you're just moving over time to reduce waste and adopt less polluting ways of producing power.
But would it be a smart thing to do? Well, it would get us started on a process of adjustment that could be a lot more painful if we waited until it was forced on us. It would give some degree of certainty to businesses considering new investments in the energy sector.
It would increase the incentive for people to find better technological solutions. Internationally, it would add to the momentum for progress, demonstrate our bona fides and strengthen our negotiating position.
The biggest doubt is whether the states could agree among themselves to actually do it. The scheme would be much better run by the Federal Government.
I fear that when the history of our times is written, John Howard will be judged to have worried far too much about terrorism and far too little about global warming.
Labor Environment spokesman Anthony Albanese has done a good speech on "The Energy Debate: Climate Change and Energy Options for Australia" to the Australian Centre for Science, Innovation and Society and the Menzies Foundation
at the University of Melbourne.
People used to say: “Everyone talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it”. That’s not true any more.
Humans have become a force of nature. We are changing the climate and affecting the weather.
Earlier this month, the journal Science published two startling pieces of research: Firstly, that Greenland’s ice sheets are melting three times faster than scientists have previously thought. Secondly, that Antarctica is failing to lock up increased moisture from climate change, resulting in a more rapid increase in sea levels than scientists have previously thought.
The truth is that governments cannot afford to be frozen in time while the world warms around us.
Almost daily, new scientific reports are shining the light on the shocking reality of climate change. From the North Pole to the South Pole, and everywhere in between, climate change is unfolding.
We have, as Al Gore has paraphrased Sir Winston Churchill, entered “a period of consequences”. The critical question is: can we enter a period of real solutions?
This is the great nation building challenge of the 21st Century:
• Avoiding dangerous climate change;
• Preparing our economy for a carbon constrained world;
• Getting our energy mix right;
• Ensuring we are world leaders in seizing the opportunities that this global challenge will bring.
Continuing on the local theme (lots of good content aro
