Democrat Transparency Behind Closed Doors

Henry Waxman and many of the top Democrats have returned to DC to start working on reconciling the House and Senate versions of the health care overhaul. The House does not reconvene until January 12th and the Senate after that. The reason that these slugs are gathering is so they can work on an end around with the White House.

The House and Senate leaders are working on ways to keep from using the reconciliation process properly to merge the bills. The game will involve bouncing amendments back and forth and working out more back room deals in a fashion that does not allow Republicans to participate and because the normal process would require 60 votes each time the Senate had to vote. They had to bribe a lot of people to get 60 the last time and they do not want to go through that mess again.

This will also allow Pelosi to provide cover for some Democrats in the House but Republicans are not the only ones who are being screwed in this game. Democrats who have certain items they will not waiver on will not be able to ensure what they want is included. Pelosi will likely have the votes she needs and Reid will not have to do anything ethical like follow the Senate rules.

It was Pelosi who promised the most ethical Congress. It was Obama who promised transparency and all Democrats have thrown that word around quite a bit. They were not transparent during the initial work on this disaster and they are even less so now. These slugs are hiding behind closed doors and working on stuff out of the eye of the public.

They are hiding like the cowardly vermin that they are. This is no way to run a government and one can be sure that if the parties were reversed the liberal bloggers and the Democrats would be having a cow and talking about how the process was being hijacked.

Regardless of how one feels about the health care bill there are rules and procedures that must be followed if we are to maintain a legitimate government. This closed door stuff is more in line with Russia, China and a host of other nations that rule in a manner that was never in our design.

The Democrats and their leader Obama have completely shredded the Constitution and the rules that govern the House and Senate. They are hiding like cowards and pushing what they want regardless of the will of the people and regardless of the desires of some of their own members.

Now is the time for a Joe Lieberman to step up and say he will vote against final passage if this is not done properly.

Now, more than ever, we need the Republican to win Ted Kennedy’s seat in this month’s special election. We need these things now because our Republic has been hijacked by a bunch of cutthroat thugs who are moving closer and closer to iron fist rule of the Communists and less in accordance with the Republican form of government we were promised by our Founders and that is clearly spelled out in the Constitution.

I know that the Democrats think losing what they have in numbers is acceptable as long as they get what they want now. That is their choice to make and as foolish as it is, they are moving full steam ahead.

They will have a bloodbath in the next election but are they looking for more than that? Are they begging people to walk into the Capitol and throw them out onto the street and put in place a new government? Are they begging us to overthrow them by force? We have a solemn duty to cast off the bonds of oppressive government. We have a duty to get rid of any government that does not follow the rule of law.

We have elections to do that but it seems as if these morons are begging people to enter the Capitol and kick their asses out.

Nothing would make me happier than seeing them in shackles on a plane to Gitmo but I am content to wait for the next election.

What will come first, the next election or the tipping point?

Source:
US News

Big Dog

Gunline

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Nominee To Head TSA Is Also Ethically Challenged

We already know that Barack Obama has had trouble finding people without some kind of ethical or tax problem to fill spots in his administration. A number of people were found to be tax cheats. Some dropped out of consideration and others were confirmed even though they committed crimes that would have had severe repercussions for the rest of us.

I was listening to the news after the failed Christmas Day bombing attempt (a terrorist on an airliner). On one of the stations a Democrat apologist was discussing the fact that there was not yet a leader in place at the TSA and this was because a Republican was holding up the nomination. The Republican was not named but whoever it is is doing a great job.

The nominee, Erroll Southers, is another one of those ethically challenged people that seem to be attracted to the Obama administration. Southers, a former FBI agent, did something bad a few decades ago and he was reprimanded for it. What did he do? He “inappropriately accessed a federal database, possibly in violation of privacy laws” in order to do a background check on his estranged wife’s new boyfriend. Southers says he was concerned for his young son. Can you imagine if you were in the same position and asked the FBI to check out your wife’s new boyfriend?

But Big Dog, this happened two decades ago and the guy was reprimanded for it. Yep and that would be no big deal for me if he were up for some job that did not involve databases full of personal information. I also wonder why those who worried about a Bush DUI, drug use or Guard attendance decades earlier are not all over this guy. I am also concerned that Southers has not been up front about the issue.

He misled Congress on the issue. He now claims that it was a mistake, an oversight (I wonder if he used Turbo Tax) and that it was inadvertent. He gave differing accounts of what happened and he was not completely honest about ALL that he did (like passing the information he obtained around to others).

This guy is troubling. He will be in charge of an agency that has tons of data at its fingertips. Suppose this guy gets ticked at an ex wife or neighbor. He won’t need to do a background check, he can get them on the no fly list. He can flag them for the extra search (you can get those by ticking off the counter agent too – trust me) or he can make their lives miserable. He has demonstrated that he would use information in an unethical manner for his own personal gain so perhaps he is not the person for this job.

Evidently the Republicans who are holding this nomination up are doing so on a matter that is unrelated but now that he has misled Congress it might be a good idea to take a much closer look at this fellow to see what other problems he might have.

In the over all scheme of things this would just be another corrupt person in the Obama administration. Hell, he would be just another face in the crowd but since he would have access to a lot of data it might be a good idea to keep him away from it.

I never thought I would see the day where we would find someone too unethical for this administration but it looks like that day has actually come.

Of course, the White House is defending him…

Big Dog

Gunline

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Democrats Campaign For Third Party Candidate in New Jersey

The Democrats in New Jersey are campaigning for Independent candidate Chris Daggett. The robocalls are from the New Jersey Democratic State Committee and are telling voters to vote for Daggett. This, of course, is a means to an end and the end is a win for Corzine. Corzine is despised by a large number of the people in New Jersey but since it is a heavily Democratic state, they are having trouble with their vote. They do not want to vote for Corzine but Christie has an “R” next to his name and they have been trained that they are never to punch that button.

The Democrats are trying to get those who decide not to support Corzine to vote Daggett so that they can split the votes and Corzine will win. Once can discuss the ethical implications and the dirty tricks appearance of this but that is for another time. I am zeroed in on two different messages that are generated from this tactic.

The first is, the Democrats know Corzine is a slug, a poor candidate, and not well liked but they want him to win nonetheless so they can keep their stranglehold on the state. So they had to come up with a plan to help him win and since he is not good enough to win on his merits or his record they had to trick voters. By asking people who will not vote for Corzine to vote for Daggett they are effectively getting people who take that path to vote for Corzine.

Folks will think they voted against the man but a vote for Daggett is effectively a vote for Corzine or the Democrats would not be doing this. This can only help Corzine or it would not be the tactic. Democrats want to win, not lose.

People in New Jersey, what does it say about Corzine that his own party would ask you to vote for some other candidate instead of trying to convince you he deserves your vote? How miserable is he that they would ask you to vote for someone else?

On top of that, and the second item, is how stupid do they think the voters are? They are calling you and telling you that if you are upset with Corzine then please vote for this other person. Do they think you are dumb enough to believe that they are not doing this to get Corzine elected? Do they really think you are that stupid and shouldn’t you be angered by their portrayal of you?

It would actually be kind of funny if this plan backfired and Daggett won. It would serve them right for this kind of deception.

As you folks in New Jersey head to the polls keep this in mind. This sleezy tactic is coming from the party of the guy who is already your governor, the guy who has had an administration full of this kind of sleeze. If you vote for him or for Daggett then you are saying that you condone this kind of thing and are happy no matter what they do to you.

You have been hammered with high taxes and high unemployment not to mention the corruption.

The question is, do you want more of the same?

You know you will get it. Look at what they are doing to win…

When Corzine was sworn in he asked you to hold him accountable. Today is the day you get to do that.

Source:
Big Government

Big Dog

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ACORN And CRA Flow DownHill (Plumbers Know This)

Progressives, despite their deceptive name, want to look backwards, which is why, when you have a real question about one of their half- baked and failing policies, they love to point out former President Bush ( don’t they know he hasn’t been around for eight months?).  So I guess it is in keeping with their character to go back to the past for ideas that didn’t work then, and rework them into ideas that won’t work now.

At least, in this aspect, they are consistent.

As we try to shake off the financial crisis, here’s a bright idea. Take a law that has led to the writing of an enormous amount of bad mortgages and expand it. Then take enforcement away from bank examiners and give it to housing activists.

Sound like a poisonous cocktail? Well, it is what the Obama administration and Democrats are currently stirring up onCapitol Hill.

The White House and Congress want to expand a 30-year-old law–the Community Reinvestment Act–that helped to fuel the mortgage meltdown. What the CRA does, in effect, is compel banks to seek the permission of community activists to get regulatory approval for bank expansions and mergers. Often this means striking a deal with activist groups such as ACORN or unions like the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and agreeing to allocate credit to poor and minority areas that are underserved.

In short, the CRA encourages banks to make loans they would not ordinarily make. What’s more, these agreements often require that banks offer no-money-down mortgages and remove caps on how much debt a borrower can take on. All of this is done in the name of “financial democracy.”

Liberals pooh-pooh the idea that a 30-year-old law could have contributed to the current subprime crisis and credit crunch. But what they ignore is the massive expansion of CRA-commitments forced on banks in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis.

forbes.com

 

This is stupidity on a truly mind boggling scale. These are the people you want to represent you? 

According to the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, in the first 20 years of the act, up to 1997, commitments totaled approximately $200 billion. But from 1997 to 2007, commitments exploded to more than $4.2 trillion. (Keep in mind this is more than four times the size of the current health bill being debated in Congress.) The burdens on individual banks can be enormous. Washington Mutual, for example, pledged $1 trillion in mortgages to those with credit histories that “fall outside typical credit, income or debt constraints,” and was awarded the 2003 CRA Community Impact Award for its Community Access program. Four years later it was taken over by the Office of Thrift Supervision.

forbes.com

And some liberals still maintain that the CRA had nothing to do with the mortgage meltdown. Yeah, right- only if you hold your hands over your ears and yell, “La, La, La-” at the top of your lungs.

And then to compound the situation, ACORN, the “community organizing” group that used the CRA to crowbar favorable mortgages from reluctant banks, thus contributing to the mortgage meltdown find themselves under investigation.  They were largely untouched by the myriad scandals because they had patronage in Congress, and indeed the WH. Now they have found that there are limits to what even they can get away with.

Let the investigations begin, and spare no one- scorched earth policy should apply here.

Louisiana’s attorney general has broadened the scope of an investigation of ACORN to include a possible embezzlement of $5 million a decade ago within the community organization, five times more than previously reported.

ACORN Chief Executive Officer Bertha Lewis said the new reported amount is “completely false.”

Attorney General Buddy Caldwell has been conducting an investigation of ACORN since June. He issued subpoenas in August seeking documents related to former ACORN International President Wade Rathke and his brother Dale Rathke, who kept the group’s books. Those subpoenas were focused on possible ACORN violations for non-payment of employee withholding taxes, obstructing justice and violating the Employee Retirement Security Act. No charges have been made.

The attorney general had inquired in June into an alleged embezzlement within ACORN that happened 10 years ago. The group last year dealt with an internal dispute and a lawsuit involving accusations that Dale Rathke made nearly $1 million in improper credit card charges in 1999 and 2000. The brother and a donor repaid the money.

nola.com/politics

Yes, New Orleans would be a great place to begin- after all, it is the home base of ACORN, and her sister agency (although you might think there could be the teeniest bit of “conflict of interest”) SEIU, the union that is as close to Nobama as the warts on his backside. This could get real ugly, because there are so many pols in Washington who are tangled in ACORN’S web, and a true and thorough investigation will flush them out like the roaches they are.

Caldwell said last month that the statute of limitations presented obstacles to prosecutors taking action on the embezzlement, and that his investigation was not focused on that issue. Thesubpoena issued Monday changed the tone of the investigation and put a new emphasis on the embezzlement issue.

“Current high-ranking members of ACORN have publicly acknowledged that embezzlement did in fact occur, but the exact amount of the embezzlement was unknown until it was recently acknowledged in a board of directors meeting on Oct. 17, 2008, by Bertha Lewis and Liz Wolf that an internal review had determined that the amount embezzled was $5 million, ” the new subpoena says.

The subpoena says, “It is still unclear if some of the monies embezzled are from state, federal or private funds.”

The subpoena requests documents from Citizens Consulting Inc., a financial arm of ACORN, and from various accounting and legal consultants in New Orleans. Investigators are trying to verify the issues raised in the subpoena.

“We’re going to follow the evidence where it leads us and try to do the right thing,” said David Caldwell, head of the attorney general’s public corruption and special prosecutions divisions. “We are actively investigating the case, whatever the outcome might be. This is something we are devoting our full attention to.”

Wade Rathke, who was in Bangkok, Thailand, on Monday, referred questions to ACORN officials. Lewis said she would comment further after she and ACORN attorneys had a chance to review the subpoena.

nola.com/politics

It’s convenient that Wade Rathke is in Thailand- taking a vacation in the land of underage prostitution? We may never know, but he is beyond reach of a subpoena at the moment. We need to grab Dale, his brother, and squeeze him dry in front of a Grand Jury- but would he lie? I think he would- which leads us back to Deep Throat’s famous words- “Follow the money.”

That may well be our best course- because the money trail will tell us the truth.

The other players, probably not so much.

Blake
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It’s Past Time To Be “Presidential”

Well, now that the combined “star power” of Oprah, Michelle, and Barak Obama couldn’t (as usual) persuade a European anything (nation, president, leader, or Queen) to accede to his personality, and grant Chicago (and his cronies) the 2016 Olympics, perhaps he could decrease his Sasquatch- like carbon footprint and fly his A$$ home to attempt, for the first time ANYWHERE, to be “Presidential”.

I know it is a hard ask, considering he has so little experience doing anything other than campaigning- he has spent more time doing that  than anything else. Now, there’s nothing else to do.

Chicago was eliminated in the first ballot of voting for the 2016 Olympics on Friday, a stunning defeat for the city that was expected to be one of the two finalists. Not even the presence of President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama — nor a long list of celebrities — was enough to help the United States’ third-largest city.

The race for the 2016 Olympics has come down to just Rio de Janeiro and Madrid; Tokyo was knocked out in the second round.

That left just Rio and Madrid still in the mix. The IOC voted again to separate the two and elect a winner, which will be announced by IOC president Jacques Rogge later Friday.

chron.com

Yep- I know it’s not a grand venue, like speaking to the German people ( and some wonder at where the idea for the mustache on that poster came from), but you just have to buck up, little buckaroo- there’s work to be done, and you can’t cry over spilt graft.

Chicago’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics would probably bring in more money from a United States TV network — and more from corporate sponsors — than Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo or Madrid, industry executives say. The International Olympic Committee will pick a city Friday in Copenhagen, setting the stage for the negotiations that will provide the bulk of its television revenue. A Chicago win is expected to generate a three-way bidding war betweenNBC UniversalESPN and Fox.

nytimes.com

Can’t you smell that smell? The smell of defeat, the smell of failure, the smell of impotence- of course you recognize that- it wafted from you during every meeting you have had with other world leaders, leaders who would barely give you the time of day, Mr. Resident- this is because they do not respect you- when the President of France scolds you, you cannot sink much lower, can you? Even someone as clueless as you must know this.

Obama held out the enticing prospect of a Chicago games helping to reconnect the United States with the world after the presidency of George W. Bush, pledging that the “full force of the White House” would be applied so “visitors from all around the world feel welcome and will come away with a sense of the incredible diversity of the American people.”

 “Over the last several years, sometimes that fundamental truth about the United States has been lost,” Obama said. “One of the legacies, I think, of this Olympic Games in Chicago would be a restoration of that understanding of what the United States is all about and the United States’ recognition of how we are linked to the world.”

chron.com   

Even Michelle’s dragging her poor dead father into the mix didn’t sway the judges, who evidently thought little of this blatant attempt to play on their “compassion”.

His wife tugged at IOC members’ heart strings by discussing her late father, who had multiple sclerosis. She recounted sitting on his lap, watching Olympians such as Carl Lewis and Nadia Comaneci compete, and how her father “taught me how to throw a ball and a mean right hook.”

“My dad would have been so proud to witness these games in Chicago,” she said.

chron.com

That’s it, drag him out and prop him up- didn’t help, did it? I didn’t think that it would- you can’t make a childish argument and expect to win, and since everyone with a rudimentary brainstem perceives the Resident as a very weak and naive person, they had no trouble ignoring his pleas, and indeed probably took a sly delight in telling an American President  no, so sorry, you and your nation don’t qualify.

So, back to the grind, you know, the job you were elected to do- I know it is not as glamorous as the job of Messiah, but you , face it, do not have the chops for that position- 

That position is way above your intellectual “grade”.
Blake
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