Blame Boeing, not McCain for Loss of Contract
Mar 8, 2008 Political
I wrote earlier about the contract for the military’s refueling tanker and how that contract went to a French company. I did not debate the merits of the contract and instead chose to focus on the outrage expressed over the loss of jobs in America because the contract was not awarded to Boeing. The members of Congress who object to the contract are doing so based upon the loss of jobs and they are still at it only this time they are pointing their fingers at John McCain because he was responsible for nixing the tanker contract with Boeing in the past. The politicians are trying to use the actions of McCain against him in the upcoming presidential election and many union members as well as Boeing employees are joining the bandwagon.
I wrote before and I stick to my point that government contracts should not be awarded based upon the number of jobs they provide and to whom those jobs go. The Pentagon is responsible for ensuring our troops get the best possible equipment regardless of who provides it. The idea that the Pentagon and its contracts are some sort of social welfare is ridiculous. As I stated, I do not debate the merits of the contract because I do not know them. My friend Trip at Webloggin wrote an excellent piece indicating why the contract was a bad one and the potential problems that lie ahead. If members of Congress focused on the points Trip made then I would see their point. The prattle dealing with jobs is not an argument I care to hear because it is irrelevant. Certainly Trip has valid points about the economy but they cannot be the sole reason for the contract. If there are problems with the products and the methods, it is one thing but building the economy or providing jobs is quite another.
Of course, our economy is in a slow down so any chance to cry about jobs is one that Congress jumps at. The same people who are crying about lost jobs are the ones who utter nary a word with regard to all the jobs that ILLEGALS are taking from US citizens. If they close the border and get rid of the ILLEGALS there will be plenty of jobs. I realize the jobs involved are skilled and that Mexicans are taking few, if any, of those. However, John McCain is not the reason those jobs are going to France (but he is responsible for the jobs lost to Mexicans). Boeing is solely responsible for the loss of the contract because the company engaged in illegal activity to get the contract and John McCain caught it and ended it. McCain should be praised for halting corruption.
McCain called such criticism off base.
“In all due respect to the Washington delegation, they vigorously defended the process before – which turned out to be corrupt – which would have cost the taxpayers more than $6 billion and ended up with people in federal prison,” he said. “I’m the one that fought against that … for years and brought down a corrupt contract.”
Keith Ashdown, with the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense, said Boeing executives who broke the law were to blame for the demise of the tanker contract – not McCain.
“This was theirs from day one,” he said. “This idea that any lawmaker is to blame is a joke.” My Way News
Boeing executives broke the law and that cost them the contract. That is the bottom line and no amount of finger pointing can change that fact. As McCain points out, many of the people criticizing him are the same ones who went along with the original, illegal, contract. He was the one who stopped it. In other words, the members crying about jobs were more than happy to overlook corruption in order for Boeing to gain the contract and keep jobs here in the US. That is business as usual in Congress and I would bet if we looked at other contracts there is plenty of corruption and these very members were aware and condoned it. I thought that at one time there was talk about denying any company involved in illegal contracting procedures the right to bid on contracts for some period of time. If they had something like that in place perhaps Boeing would not have been able to bid on it at all.
I have problems with John McCain but in this instance I side with him. The money for this contract comes from taxpayers and we deserve to have the money that is extorted from us spent wisely. Corrupt contracts and corrupt politicians cause the need for more money and fuels the Democrat’s desire to raise taxes. People should take a good, hard look at the folks who are upset with McCain and decide if they are the kind of people who are best suited to be good stewards of our money. I think not.
Regardless of how this plays out and regardless of how many fingers get pointed, one thing is for sure, creating jobs is not a valid argument for awarding a contract.
Tags: boeing, contract, corruption, economy, jobs, McCain, tanker
Clinton and the Politics of Fear
Dec 30, 2007 Political
For years the left has accused the Bush Administration of using the politics of fear to retain power and to get its way. The events of 9/11, according to the left, have been used to scare people into voting for Bush in 2004 and for passage of legislation designed to keep us safe. It would seem they have abandoned that criticism or, more accurately, they have shown hypocrisy with regard to it.
Former President Bill Clinton is out campaigning for his wife and touting the imagined experience she has as a major asset and reason for people to vote for her as the next president. He claims that she has the experience to lead from day 1 and that there are threats that we do not know about that she is ready to handle. Of course, there are threats out there, something the Bush Administration has been saying all along, but is Hillary best equipped to handle them just because she was First Lady?
It would appear as if the Clinton camp is using the very tactics that the left has complained about all along. They are using fear to get people to vote for Hillary. Bill want us to believe that these threats are there and only Hillary is best equipped to take the lead and mitigate them. I guess the decades of experience Dodd and Biden have pale in comparison to the 8 years Hillary spent as First Lady. Those two Senators could not possibly have the experience to handle threats to this country because they were never married to a president.
There are threats to this country out there and whoever serves as the next president will have to handle them but there is a bigger threat to this country and that threat is already known. That threat is Hillary Clinton. Having the Clintons in the White House compromised our national security for 8 years and having them there for 4 or 8 more will only make it worse. Another Clinton presidency will bring us more sold secrets, corruption and dead bodies swept under the carpets with the other evidence the media continues to ignore.
The Clintons argue that the others do not have the experience that Hillary has and that she is a known quantity competing against a bunch of unknowns. I believe that what we know about Hillary should remind us of why she should never be the president of the United States.
In this case, it is better to go with the devil you don’t know rather than the one you do. Hillary is Satan.
Source:
Washington Post
Tags: Clinton, corruption, Democrats, fear, iowa, national security, threats
Maryland Democrats Play Politics with Education
Dec 12, 2007 Political
The state of Maryland has a Superintendent of Schools who is appointed by the school board and has a term that is deliberately offset from the regular terms of political appointees. This was done to keep the position from being used as a political tool and to try, to some degree, to keep politics out of the process. Nancy Grasmick has served in the position since 1991 being reappointed by school boards put in place by Democrats (and one Republican). Several years ago Ms. Grasmick tried to take over 11 Baltimore City schools that were failing miserably and as she was required under NCLB. The City Mayor was Martin O’Malley and now, unfortunately for Maryland, he is the Governor of the state.
O’Malley fought the takeover and was successful. He only fought it because it made him look bad (he still claimed education improved while he was Mayor) and his actions were taken with little regard for the children (the very people he claims to be in support of) and those schools are still in trouble to this day. O’Malley has a long memory and he wants Grasmick out of her position. He has made that clear on a number of occasions but it is not up to him. The decision rests with the school board and this one, a lame duck one, was appointed by a Republican Governor and they have a say until July of next year. The Democrats in Maryland tried to halt the board’s action and circumvent the process to appease the Governor:
Miller and House Speaker Michael Busch had sent a letter to the board Monday asking that it defer a decision on a superintendent until July, after Gov. Martin O’Malley’s appointees constitute a majority on the board. WBAL
The board appointed Ms. Grasmick to another four year term despite the efforts of the Democrats to play political games with the position. The board recognized the ploy and decided that it is not the Governor’s job to appoint the Superintendent so they were not going to let him. Of course, this did not sit well with the governor, who hates Grasmick, and it did not sit well with the leaders of the Maryland Legislature. They are now going to do what Democrats always do when they do not get their way, they are going to change the rules.
Miller and Busch (two first class jackasses) will try to make it so that the Superintendent will serve at the pleasure of the board so that she may be more easily dismissed from her position. As it stands right now, the law only allows for removal in cases of misconduct. If they succeed in changing this then the O’Malley appointed school board (which will take office in July) may dismiss her for any reason it wants and allow the Governor to appoint (through his school board) someone else. This whole process is designed to affect ONLY one person with whom the Governor has a problem. It is designed to allow him to exercise control that was deliberately left out of the process. It is a gross misuse of power and should not be tolerated by any citizen of this state. The Democrats have a super majority in Maryland so they can push through whatever they want (which is how we got the largest tax increase in Maryland history). If they succeed in doing this they should be chased down and beaten with sticks to knock some sense into them.
The Legislature of Maryland has been abusing its power for a long time. They are accountable to no one and now that they have a spoiled, whiny, crybaby, Democrat as Governor they will continue to abuse power so long as the citizens refuse to hold them accountable. If they succeed with this I think they might have hell to pay because Ms. Grasmick’s husband is well connected and he might be able to make life tough for them.
People of Maryland, remember the tax increases and this episode when you vote in the next election. I am sure there will be others before the horror that is O’Malley and the abomination that make up the Legislature are up for reelection.
Get rid of all of them.
Tags: corruption, Democrats, grasmick, martin o'malley, Maryland, wbal
Jindal Wins One for the Good Guys
Oct 21, 2007 Political
Bobby Jindal was elected as Governor of Louisiana and will succeed Kathleen Blanco who decided not to seek reelection after she was widely blamed for the state’s slow response to Katrina. Jindal is 36 years old and becomes the nation’s youngest governor as well as the first non-white male to be elected as Louisiana’s governor since the reconstruction era.
Jindal lost to Blanco in the last election and part of his campaign was based on a “buyer’s remorse” theme. Additionally, Jindal promised to clean up the corruption in Louisiana. This will be no small task a Louisiana politics is loaded with corruption. Two millionaires tried to prevent Jindal from winning. One of them a state senator and the other a businessman. It would be interesting to find out why they spent so much of their own money in an attempt to defeat a guy who vowed to rid the state of corruption.
I believe Bobby Jindal has his work cut out for him but he seems to have his head screwed on tightly and has a plan. I wish him well and I also caution him to watch his back. Deeply rooted corruption knows no bounds when it comes to protecting the crime that helps few flourish while others are victims of mismanagement. One only needs to look at New Orleans to realize that there is a lot to clean up, both as a result of the storm and as a result of the corrupt politics that is embedded in the fiber of the the body politic.
Perhaps his election signals a new path in Louisiana politics. If they can break up the nepotism the good people of Louisiana will be well on the road to success.
Good luck Bobby.
Source:
My Way News
Tags: bobby jindal, corrupt politics, corruption, governor of louisiana, katrina, louisiana politics, mismanagement, nepotism, state senator
The Democrats Will Be Transparent, Sure They Will
Oct 4, 2007 Uncategorized
Transparent, that was the claim they made when they pandered for the votes of Americans. They would be open and honest and yet, they continue to make back room deals with people like Abscam Murtha leading the charge to spend your hard earned money. Here is an interesting video that discusses the “earmarks” that this transparent Congress has requested. I just want to know if it is so transparent, how come no one is aware? I also want to know if the Muslim Congressman, Keith Ellison, is allowed to participate in the pork fest.
They are corrupt and they need to go. Having said that, Republicans were not very good at fiscal responsibility either. We need people in office who will do what is right. Let’s replace them all and start over.
Tags: corruption, Democrats, earmarks, Murtha, Pelosi, Political Opinion, pork