The folks over at Talking Points Memo have smelled a rat in the House of Representatives, one in the form of a scandal involving a now defunct lobbying group, several crooked congressmen, the defense industry, and, of course, your tax dollars.

Here’s a rundown of the mess:

You have, at the center of all of this, the PMA Group.  This firm, which was born in the late 1980’s thanks to the former aide of Democratic Rep. John Murtha of the House Appropraitions committee, Paul Magliocchetti, and staffed throughout its existence with other former Murtha aides like Democratic Reps. Pete Visclosky and James Moran, has grown throuhout the years to be a very powerful and influential lobbying firm in Washington D.C.

The PMA Group, as far as lobbying goes, focused heavily on obtaining “earmarks,” or pork (your tax dollars) that were being passed out by the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, which, oddly enough, is chaired by Mr. Murtha.  The lobbying firm contributed “sham” donations, as the author of the Talking Points Memo post puts it, to members of the subcommittee, recieving defense pork for their troubles.

PMA apparently paid the crooked politicians very well, as Mr. Murtha certainly can attest to, as he recieved from the lobbying firm $1.75 million over the past three election cycles alone.  Of course, PMA also got paid very handsomely for their efforts, off of our dime, as always:

“The amounts of money involved — including plenty of taxpayer dollars — are staggering. Seven lawmakers who are under scrutiny by two House ethics panels steered $200 million to PMA clients in the past two years, according to watchdog groups.”

$200 million, in taxpayer money?  The author of the post tells us that the pork funds were used on projects such as “next-generation precision-airdrop capabilities” and “submarine navigation decision aids.”

Thankfully, this all came to an end, as the Feds last year raided the offices of the PMA along with (reportedly) the house of Magliocchetti.  The firm then died in spring of this year.  Mr. Murtha, along with Rep. Pete Visclosky, are now involved in a federal criminal investigation into the affair, and several other congressmen face scrutiny from a pair of congressional ethics panels for their involvment in the affair.

Folks, the stench of corruption is in the air of Washington D.C., and with scandals like this erupting over there rather frequently, it doesn’t seem like it’s going away anytime soon.

Link to Talking Points Memo article:  http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/11/pma_group_biggest_democratic_scandal_youve_never_h.php?ref=fpb

-D.R.L.

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Folks, I’m sure that you’ve heard by now about the incident last week in which someone hacked into a computer at the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit.  As you know, the information from the computer, e-mails written by top figures in the climate change movement, show how far people are willing to go to advance their cause, as the e-mails show that these prominent figures have played fast and loose with facts to push upon people their vision of climate change.

Shocking, isn’t it?  Now, one would think that given this recent development, the people in the climate change movement might start to confront some inconvienient truths about climate change and might cool down on their holy mission to derail and stagnate economies across the globe to supposedly “save” the environment.

How foolish of me to even think that would happen.  Case in point:  The Obama Administration’s Climate czar Carol Browner.  Here’s The Washington Times on her take on this current event:

“Obama administration climate czar Carol Browner on Wednesday rejected claims that e-mails stolen from a British university show that climate scientists trumped up global-warming numbers, saying she considers the science settled.

“‘I’m sticking with the 2,500 scientists. These people have been studying this issue for a very long time and agree this problem is real,’ said Ms. Browner, whom President Obama has tapped as his chief of policy on global warming.”

Yup.  It was rather foolish of me to think that those involved int the climate change movement might come to terms with uncomfortable and inconvienient truths (for them, anyway) when it comes to the issue of climate change.

But then again, given that their careers and lives are invested in this movement, it’s easy to see why people like Carol Browner won’t confront the truth when it comes to climate change.

The sad thing is, however, is that with the climate change summit at Copenhagen just weeks away, America might end up losing its sovereignty, and economies around the world might be drastically affected (in a BAD, BAD way) because of people like Carol Browner, people who can’t handle the truth.

Link to The Washington Times article on Browner:  http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/26/browner-rejects-doctored-data-claims/

-D.R.L.

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You know, I was planning to go on an all-out study binge on December 13th, seeing how I have finals for college starting the following day (Monday the 14th).

Being that I’m living in a liberal family, however, I might also have to endure the hoopla that day concerning a special that will air during primetime.

You see, that night, Oprah Winfrey, who, as far as I know, hasn’t done an attention-grabbing primetime special in a long time (the last attention-grabbing one I remember was in 1993 when she interviewed el rey de pop, Michael Jackson himself), will host a special entitled “Christmas at the White House: An Oprah Primetime Special.”

The special, according to James Hibberd’s The Live Wire, will include:

-An interview with President Barack Obama.

-A conversation with the First Couple.

-A tour of the White House.

-And, of course, a behind-the-scenes look at how White House Staffers prepare the White House for the coming holidays.

That’s nice enough.  But, I think one very important detail was left 0ut:

-Oprah, who has not endorsed people for president before Mr. Obama, will lead viewers into a worship service of “The One,” pretty much like she did when she threw her support behind the current president.

So, folks, tune in to ABC on Sunday, December 13th, and prepare to be entertained by Oprah, “The One,” his wife, and their cozy abode on 1600 Pennslyvania Avenue.  And while your at it, prepare to bow down in prayer to “The One,” the lord and savior sent by God himself to save us from the Devil (Bush) and all those other evil conservatives, at least according to Oprah and fellow liberals.

Link to James Hibbert article:  http://www.thrfeed.com/2009/11/abc-announces-oprah-obama-christmas-special.html

-D.R.L.

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Last Wednesday, Dubai, a part of the United Arab Emirates, asked its creditors for a delay in payment on billions in debt that was issued by its investment company Dubai World (more specifically, the company’s main property subsidiary, Nakheel, responsible for building flashy properties such as the palm shaped islands that attracted the world’s rich and famous).

This news has sparked quite the drop in world markets (from The Washington Times):

“The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 197.86 points, or 1.89 percent, to 10,266, in early trading. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stocks index was at 1,085, down 25.14 points, or 2.26 percent; and the tech-heavy NASDAQ was down 47.61 points, or 2.19 percent, to 2,128.

“European markets lost roughly 3 percent Thursday on fears the company would default, then stabilized Friday.”

And now, you have banks across the globe downplaying their exposure to Dubai’s recent troubles (from Reuters):

“French banks said their exposure to the Dubai crisis was limited and Italy’s central bank said Italian banks should face no problems linked to the Gulf trade and tourism hub. Those sentiments were echoed by Chinese banks.”

All of this trouble, just as it seems that the recent financial meltdown is comming to an end, eh?

Well, an important question I have about this is what exactly is the government of Dubai doing with it’s own investment company in the first place?  Didn’t they think that if they left that kind of stuff to the private sector, then only the company would have to deal with the financial consequences of doing business and not the government, or, should I say, the citizens of Dubai?

Really, now, investment companies belong to the private sector, and shouldn’t be the business of the government.  Now, Dubai is saddled with $59 billion in debt from their investment company, a huge chunk of the $80 billion in total debt that they owe, in addition to losing their luster.

Well, that sucks for them.  But if all of these complications are happening because little Dubai is having trouble paying its debts, can you imagine what’s going to happen when the U.S. (as far as I can tell, inevitably) declares that it’s having trouble paying down it’s over $11 trillion (and growing!) in debt?

-D.R.L.

Link to Reuters article on this news:  http://www.reuters.com/article/ousivMolt/idUSTRE5AP1L120091127

And The Washington Times:  http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/27/wall-street-tumbles-dubai-fears/?feat=home_cube_position1

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I’m in the process of “claiming” my blog for Technorati, and I have to insert a code this blog post to have my blog ready for verification by the site, hence:

8JYP3MMG8D2U

There it is.

By the way, I’ll try to add more posts on politics soon, amid writing up final papers and creating powerpoints for college.

-D.R.L.

It really sucks, the big things that you can miss and can’t blog about because you’re so busy.

Anyway, last Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid unveiled the Senate’s health care “reform” proposal.  Here are some facts:

- The bill is set to expand insurance to 30 million more Americans.

-The bill will include the public option.

-The bill will cost $849 billion over 10 years.

- The bill is said to supposedly reduce the federal deficit by $127 billion over 10 years.

- It supposedly will reduce the federal deficit by $600 billion in the following decade.

Of course, folks, don’t get so excited about all of the news that the bill would save us all of that cash.  Sorry to burst your bubble, but this translates to huge and unnecessary tax increases and will leave us with a program that, if we follow the trend of the amount of people the CBO has said will go for various health care “reform” proposals, a small percentage of the American population will go for.  It will leave us with a program that, if we follow the trend of government programs like this in the way of Medicare and Social Security, will go broke in the future and will cause major financial complications for America.

Now, this Saturday (tomorrow), a vote scheduled for 8:00 pm will be held in the Senate in which the Senate Democratic Leaders hope to gain all 60 Democratic and Independent votes for cloture to stop a Republican fillibuster on the bill.

However, this saturday, the Democrats plans to push through health care “reform” legislation could be derailed this Saturday, thanks to Sen. Tom Coburn, a Republican from Oklahoma.

From The Washington Times:

“The 2,074-page Senate health care bill would take 34 hours to read cover to cover — and that’s just what Sen. Tom Coburn wants done on the Senate floor.

“The Oklahoma Republican has threatened to invoke parliamentary rules to force the Senate clerk (or more likely, a team of clerks) to read the massive bill before the full Senate begins formal debate on the legislation.”

Mr. Coburn, you’ve just earned a tip of my hat, sir, for common sense.  As we all know, the wonderful men and women of Congress haven’t read the “stimulus” bill that was passed earlier this year, and it was passed without barely anyone on the Hill knowing what it entailed.  And now, American taxpayers are left to shoulder the burden of hundreds of billions of wasted dollars. 

Folks, let us all hope that Mr. Coburn gets his way and ALL  Senators tomorrow get forced to read the health care “reform” bill in it’s entirety.  After all, they should at least know what they are getting America into.

And I encourage you, folks, to read the bill to know what you are getting into.  Just click the following link and read away:

http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/11/18/hcbill.pdf

And here’s some more links:

One a Washington Times article on Mr. Coburn’s proposal for the Senate:  http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/19/health-bill-could-get-34-hour-reading-senate/?feat=article_top10_read

And one from An Informed Blog, a take on the move by Mr. Coburn:  http://aninformedmind.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/health-care-bill-could-take-34-hour-reading/

-D.R.L.

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Well folks, I’m back from my little break, so let’s get right to it:

I’ve been hooked lately on a video that has been making the rounds on the internet recently, one centered on Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s appearance yesterday in front of the Joint Economic Committee.  It was pretty entertaining, to say the least.

During the committee hearing, Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, a Republican member of the committee, lit quite the fire under Mr. Geithner as he called him out for his, and by extension, the Obama Administration’s failure in dealing with the economy (as if government could really fix the economy, or anything for that matter), and then proceeded to call for him to “step down from your post.”

Mr. Geithner responded, in essence, that the Republican congressman should be the last person giving advice to him about the economy when he, or more appropriately, the Bush Administration, have left the Obama Administration with an economy “falling off the cliff….. the worst financial crisis we’ve seen in a generation.”

Well, there we go, folks, Mr. Geithner using that ever-so time-honored tactic of the Obama Administration:  Blaming and attributing everything that’s going wrong and everything the current Administration can’t handle on the former Bush Administration.  In other words, for everything bad that happens, “it’s all Bush’s fault, right?”

Yeah, sure, Mr. Bush wrecked the economy and left it for poor old Mr. Obama to deal with.  That’s right, he put a gun to the heads of those wall street execs behind those downright silly subprime mortgages, didn’t you know.  In fact, he was the one behind that equally downright silly community reinvestment act that was passed in 1977, the one that pushed banks and other financial institutions to hand out bad loans to people who couldn’t afford them.  See, he did force wall street to wrect the economy.  HE wrecked the economy, that reckless old fool!  And he wrecks everything else too!  He IS the root of all evil!

Oh, wait, he wasn’t president in 1977?  So who was?  What?  Jimmy Carter?  So, it was Jimmy Carter who put a gun to the heads of banks, forcing them to make stupid loans?  So, he’s the cause of everything that’s wrong, and therefore, the root of all evil?  Really?

See how ridiculous this is, folks?

Seriously, though, if Mr. Bush was going around wrecking the economy, and Mr. Geithner was, as Mr. Brady pointed out, the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York at the time, why didn’t he do anything to stop Mr. Bush in the first place?  I mean, he was in a position to do something, after all.

Once again, the Obama Administration displays, this time through Mr. Geithner, its imcompetence, blaming the former Administration for all of America’s and the world’s ills and its difficulty in solving them, and turning a blind eye to the mess it’s leaving, all of the billions of wasted dollars in debt that future generations of Americans will have to shoulder.

Really, Mr. Geithner should resign.  And he should take the Big Spender-in-chief with him.

Here’s an article from The Washington Times on this matter:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/20/pressure-mounts-for-geithner-to-resign/

And here’s video of the Joint Economic Committee meeting in question:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIhsw2xZ9Gw

-D.R.L.

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More posts on the political issues of the day and other stuff will be coming soon.  Stay tuned, folks!

-D.R.L.

Take a look, folks, at some of the “letters to the editor” that appeared in today’s New York Times:

-”The decision to bring the 9/11 plotters to trial should make us all proud. As President Obama said at Fort Hood, ‘We are a nation of laws whose commitment to justice is so enduring that we would treat a gunman and give him due process, just as surely as we will see that he pays for his crimes.’

“Recall also what President John F. Kennedy said: ‘We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept.’

“It may have been possible to fashion alternative venues, and this does provide a forum for the defendants to speak, but a regular courtroom demonstrates the United States commitment to justice. Our ideals will win.”

-”To those (especially those in Congress) who so vociferously object to trying Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and others on American soil for fear of giving them greater constitutional protections, I remind them of this:

“The ‘war on terror’ is ultimately a war of ideas. It has racked up a horrific body count, but victory can be declared only when our ideas have won out. If we can’t stand behind the ideas, principles and protections that we — over generations — have encoded into our Constitution and its amendments, then we have no ammunition to fight this battle.”

A regular courtroom demonstrates the United States commitment to justice. Our ideals will win.

If we can’t stand behind the ideas, principles and protections that we — over generations — have encoded into our Constitution and its amendments, then we have no ammunition to fight this battle.

Really, now.  One truly has to wonder if the writers of these letters are really serious, or if they have completely lost all of their common sense and reason.

I mean, I’m all for the ”the ideas, principles and protections that we — over generations — have encoded into our Constitution and its amendments.”  Seriously, as a patriotic American, I stand firm behind the Constitution and all of the ideas expressed in it.

However, here’s the thing about this whole matter that these two writers and many on the left don’t seem to get that a caveman can easily see:  1- Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and fellow terrorist are not American citizens, so 2- they are not entitled to any Constitutional rights and protections. 

So simple to understand, yet many still don’t seem to.

Speaking of terrorists, common sense, and reason, allow me to touch on a subject that I haven’t been able to comment on for some time due to forces beyond my control: the riduculousness of the reaction to the Fort Hood Massacre.

I mean, you have President Barack Obama, after the incident, telling people “not to jump to conclusions.”  And then you have the Department of Homeland Security, whose secretary, Janet Nepolitano, said in the aftermath that she will work to prevent a “anti-Islam backlash.”  To top it all off, you have most of the media beating around the bush and skirting around the radical Islamic tendencies of Nidal Malik Hassan, the shooter in the incident (and that’s not to mention the fact that while clues of his radicalism were apparent, the military didn’t act on these clues, due to fears stemming from political correctness, of course).

See, that’s the major problem with this whole situation:  Political correctness.  You see, it’s political correctness that stopped the military from nipping the situation in the bud in the first place.  It’s political correctness that’s making Mr. Obama tell the public not to “jump to conclusions” on Hasan, and is making Nepolitano work to stop “anti-Islamic backlash.” 

This politically correct nonsense has already shown the dangers it could lead to (the Fort Hood massacre), and it will continue to lead us to danger as long as Mr. Obama and others in government doesn’t get this simple reality:  We are living in very dangerous times.  A group of radicals have hijacked a religion and are using the religion in a attempt to wipe out America, and it is the duty of the American government to stop this menance and to protect the lives of the American people at all cost.  That is simple common sense, and it seems to be lacking in government and in many people these days.

Link to “letters”:  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/opinion/l17terror.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1

-D.R.L.

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Ladies and gentlemen, here are some items of interest (with opinion):

- Those angelic folks in the House of Representatives are at it again, folks, trying to lend us a (very unnecessary) helping hand again:

“Democrats in the House of Representatives aim to pass job-creating legislation before the end of the year to ease double-digit unemployment levels that threaten the economic recovery, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said on Tuesday.

“Top lawmakers are looking at a variety of options, including road construction, tax breaks and assistance to hard-pressed state governments, that could create jobs but also worsen budget deficits in the short term, Hoyer said.”

How nice of those democrats, wanting to help people so much.  You know, this reminds me of the “stimulus” package that (supposedly) created so many jobs!  Of course, we all found out that the government miscalculated the amout of jobs created by the package (and seemed to have looked over the fact that many of these “jobs” were short-term, part time jobs).  As always with government “aid”, just like with the “stimulus” package, this House bill, if it becomes law, will come at a cost to taxpayers: possibly billions of wasted dollars added to the national debt.

Article:  “House plans jobs bill before year end: Hoyer,” from Reuters.

Link:  http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE5AG4OY20091117

- It really sucks that I’ve been so busy over the last few days (not to mention the fact that my computer broke down.  As they say, life sucks).  It seems that I’ve missed out on all of the fun with President Barack Obama’s big trip to Asia (and all of the bowing he’s done during the trip).

Anyways, Mr. Obama’s trip has recently taken him to Communist China (land of our creditors), and a big event held there recently was a “town hall” of sorts between Mr. Obama and 500 Chinese students.  The event was, as always in China, highly choreographed and tailored to Chinese government perfection:

“One student who participated in the meeting said she was trained for four days by the Chinese government, and told not to ask questions about Tibet or human rights and to be respectful of President Obama and consider the implications any question would have on U.S.-China relations. She asked not to be identified for fear of being punished by her university.”

Even with the highly choreographed nature of the “town hall,” Mr. Obama managed to find some moments to stick it to the high powers of the Chinese government:

“I have a lot of critics in the United States who can say all kinds of things about me.  I actually think that that makes our democracy stronger, and it makes me a better leader because it forces me to hear opinions that I don’t want to hear.”

Of course, being that he is President of the U.S., Mr. Obama is forced to hear opinions he doesn’t like because the U.S. constitution protects the speech of his detractors.  There is no such protection in China, so the government obviously goes out of their way to silence anything even mildly critical of them (for example, they haven’t allowed Mr. Obama to address the Chinese people at large, they’ve haven’t broadcast the “town hall” on Chinese television, fearing that their subjects might get ideas from Mr. Obama, and they have promptly cracked down on internet commentary about the event). 

The Chinese government clearly doesn’t like facing the truth about its regime, and it has given us more evidence about this today, with Chinese President Hu Jintao blatantly ignoring Mr. Obama’s urging him to let the Chinese currency, the Yuan, rise in value.

Articles on Mr. Obama’s visit in China:

“In Beijing, Obama Calls for ‘Strong Dialogue’,” from The New York Times.

“Obama prods China on yuan but Hu silent,” from Reuters.

Links:  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/world/asia/17prexy.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=todayspaper

                http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE5AE15L20091117

- Some news on taxpayer dollars that were spent on AIG at the onset of the recent economic crisis:

“The Federal Reserve’s initial emergency plan last fall to save then-failing American International Group was so hastily put together and poorly structured that it resulted in billions of additional taxpayer dollars spent on the insurance giant, says a new report by a Treasury Department independent watchdog.”

Costly mistakes and taxpayer waste. As always with government.  As always.

Ariticle:  “Report: Billions wasted in AIG bailout,” from The Washington Times.

Link:  http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/17/billions-spent-needlessly-in-aig-bailout-report-sa/

There it is, for now.

-D.R.L.

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