The day’s top Political News:
Billions in aid go to areas that backed Obama in '08
Billions of dollars in federal aid delivered directly to the local level to help revive the economy have gone overwhelmingly to places that supported President Obama in last year's presidential election.
That aid — about $17 billion — is the first piece of the administration's massive stimulus package that can be tracked locally. Much of it has followed a well-worn path to places that regularly collect a bigger share of federal grants and contracts, guided by formulas that have been in place for decades and leave little room for manipulation.
Counties that supported Obama last year have reaped twice as much money per person from the administration's $787 billion economic stimulus package as those that voted for his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, a USA TODAY analysis of government disclosure and accounting records shows. That money includes aid to repair military bases, improve public housing and help students pay for college.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-07-08-redblue_N.htm
Democrats Say C.I.A. Deceived Congress
Democrats scramble to give Pelosi cover for her outrageous attacks on the CIA
The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon E. Panetta, has told the House Intelligence Committee in closed-door testimony that the C.I.A. concealed “significant actions” from Congress from 2001 until late last month, seven Democratic committee members said.
Panetta is a former liberal Democrat Congressman – one with no experience with intelligence, and someone who is a political appointee of Obama. Someone obligated to toeing the party line.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/09/us/politics/09intel.html?_r=1&hp
Democrats "sweating the small stuff"
This summer’s agenda is historic: health care, climate change, financial regulatory reform. So why can’t the White House — with a 60-vote majority in the Senate — win a simple fight over a $12 million bus security program targeted for termination?
The picture’s no better in the House, where the Democratic leadership didn’t even allow a floor vote last month on cutting the F-22 — Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s No. 1 target in revamping the Pentagon’s budget. And with the highway trust fund running on fumes, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and House committee chairmen are at loggerheads with the money due to tap out Aug. 21.
White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel likes to say that each legislative victory builds muscle for the next battle. But Democrats look like a team that could use a few more basic-training pushups before taking on huge sectors of the economy.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/24723.html
Opinion:
New Web site, New Mission: Stopping ACORN’s theft of elections
Back in the old days, the RNC sent me into just over a dozen special Congressioinal elections. I never lost a one of those, despite the fact we were often going into the campaigns with only 40% or so in support.
In those days, we made good use of telephone banks as a means of turning out our vote on election day. That process was simple, but it was also very successful…no matter where we used it – among the isolationists on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, to the icy realms of Morehead, Minnesota – the process worked and we won.
I developed great confidence that if we had 40% or more of the vote based on polling, we could probably win the election. Time and time again, that process was successful. It also worked in Virginia as the party’s Executive Director of the day, Kenny Klinge, and I set in motion a plan focusing turnout efforts on carefully targeted areas. Klinge’s post election analysis proved our method provided the margin of victory for Republicans in the Old Dominion.
BTW – you can see the opening web site at www.tellwashingtonno.com.
The plan is simple, but its also crucial. We intend to identify our votes by finding email contacts in targeted areas and working together to find Republican voters. It means people on our email list can have access to taking part in actually winning elections.
We are in the process of developing a list of targeted campaigns now. (We cannot win ALL elections, we must concentrate on a small number in which we can have an impact).
These campaigns will be listed within the next several weeks. We will begin, of course, with efforts close at hand – especially Allen Boyd, the Blue Dog Democrat who betrayed his people by voting for the Democrat “Cap and Trade” scam which is really a new tax that will cost all tax payers a few thousand dollars a year. We are also targeting the efforts of Bill Russell against Democrat slime ball John Murtha. (Stories of Mutha corruption are growing almost daily)
Other targets will be developed – taking geography into consideration. We will have two goals: defeating Democrats and defending vulnerable Republicans. We are assessing campaigns right now in Georgia and Alabama specifically.
Once we have selected a couple of dozen targets, we will begin raising money with which to take on Democrat efforts through cable TV commercials and commercials over the Internet with video emails. We will defend Republicans and take on with a view to taking out Democrats – especially those who ran claiming to be conservative. NO Democrat in Congress can legitimately claim to be conservative. After all, their first vote was to make Pelosi Speaker.
We will begin identifying activists in the targeted districts willing to work with us. We will work together to expand our email reach, as a means of identifying among whom and where we find support. We can also utilize survey research and demographic profiling in this process.
On election day, we will use emails to remind our voters, and to make sure they cast their ballots and remind others to do the same.
Current polling shows 40% of Americans consider themselves conservative. Of course in many districts, that number is higher – good. Plus we hope negative campaign commercials can increase that number.
On election day, we hope our turnout efforts can make a difference sufficient to win the race. We’ll see, and use experience in primary elections to reform and refine our efforts.
We MUST stop Obama’s ACORN – its been proven to have been involved in crooked voter registration and political efforts in the past – given access to the census process and other help from the Obama team – they depend on ACORN for re election plans – ACORN efforts and theft can be expected to expand and increase.
Join us in this effort. We need you and your help – so does America and its future – you can do it without leaving your computer – and by writing a check or two.
Stand up for America.
Buddy
The day’s top blogs:
1.
If You Don't Hate the Cap and Trade Bill, Let Me Show You Section 304. — I bet you thought that if you bought a house, you actually own it and can, with reasonable exceptions, do with it what you want. You probably think that if you want to live in a log cabin, with wood stoves that belch smoke …
If You Don't Hate the Cap and Trade Bill, Let Me Show You Section 304.
I bet you thought that if you bought a house, you actually own it and can, with reasonable exceptions, do with it what you want. You probably think that if you want to live in a log cabin, with wood stoves that belch smoke into the air for heat, and an old washer and dryer that don't have those little EnergyStar stickers on them you can because it's your life and your property. You paid for it with money you earned with the sweat of your brow and what the heck is America anyhow if a body can't live in the home they want furnished with the appliances they want?
Ah, silly you. You didn't reckon on the Democratic Party's desire to control every miniscule aspect of your life.
(NOTE: Injecting government into such personal things as your homesite is only one effort by Democrats designed to take over the lives of all Americans. A new “hate crime” bill – one named for Megan Meier – contains provisions that could inhibit free speech on the Internet and elsewhere.)
Let me introduce you to a little section of the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill called the "Building Energy Performance Labeling Program". It's section 304 of the bill and it says, basically, that your house belongs to the state. See, the Federal Government really wants a country full of energy-efficient homes, so much so that the bill mandates that new homes be 30 percent more energy efficient than the current building code on the very day the law is signed. That efficiency goes up to 50 percent by 2014 and only goes higher from there, all the way to 2030. That, by the way, is not merely a target but a requirement of the law. New homes must reach those efficiency targets no matter what.
But what does that have to do with current homeowners like you? Well, I'm glad you asked. You're certainly not off the hook, no way, no how. Here's what the Democrats have planned for you. The program requires that states label their buildings so that we can all know how efficient every building (that includes residential and non-residential buildings) is and it requires that the information be made public. To that end, the bill suggests a number of circumstances under which the states could inspect a building, including:
(A) preparation, and public disclosure of the label through filing with tax and title records at the time of--
(i) a building audit conducted with support from Federal or State funds;
(ii) a building energy-efficiency retrofit conducted in response to such an audit;
(iii) a final inspection of major renovations or additions made to a building in accordance with a building permit issued by a local government entity;
(iv) a sale that is recorded for title and tax purposes consistent with paragraph (8);
(v) a new lien recorded on the property for more than a set percentage of the assessed value of the property, if that lien reflects public financial assistance for energy-related improvements to that building;
or
(vi) a change in ownership or operation of the building for purposes of utility billing; or
(B) other appropriate means.
Pay close attention to (iii), (iv), and (vi) because those hit you right where you live. What that's saying is the state will be empowered to inspect your home if you want to 1) renovate your house in any way that requires a building permit, 2) sell your house, or 3) change the name of the person responsible for any utility bill.
By now, if you haven't swallowed your tongue and are in need of medical attention, you're probably wondering if there's a penalty for not being in compliance with the new efficiency ratings. The answer is no, and yes. Here's where the bill gets really sneaky. So far as I can tell, there is no direct penalty if your house does not meet the bill's target. However, it does require that the number of buildings inspected by the state meet certain percentage targets and if they do not, the state loses out on a significant portion of the money it could get from Washington. In other words, the bill demands certain things from the states, but ties funding for those demands to compliance with the demands.
Did I say the bill gets sneaky? I was wrong. The bill strong-arms the states like a couple mob heavies leaning on a witness in a Rico trial. In turn, the states are going to put the screws to you, so it gets the billions of dollars Washington is dangling in front of them. So while the Federal government won't directly punish you, it will provide the states with lots and lots of rectangular, green reasons to do so.
And it gets worse. The Federal government has graciously offered to help homeowners with the retrofits the states will force them to do through a program called the Retrofit for Energy and Environmental Purposes (REEP). REEP sets aside a pool of money in each state for property owners who have to turn their polar bear-killing buildings into lean, mean, green machines. But, and I'm sure you've guessed this already, there's a catch. Before I get to that, here's the magic formula (and don't read ahead and spoil the surprise!):
(i) AWARDS- For residential buildings--
(I) support for a free or low-cost detailed building energy audit that prescribes, as part of a energy-reducing measures sufficient to achieve at least a 20 percent reduction in energy use, by providing an incentive equal to the documented cost of such audit, but not more than $200, in addition to any earned by achieving a 20 percent or greater efficiency improvement;
(II) a total of $1,000 for a combination of measures, prescribed in an audit conducted under subclause (I), designed to reduce energy consumption by more than 10 percent, and $2,000 for a combination of measures prescribed in such an audit, designed to reduce energy consumption by more than 20 percent;
(III) $3,000 for demonstrated savings of 20 percent, pursuant to a performance-based building retrofit program; and
(IV) $1,000 for each additional 5 percentage points of energy savings achieved beyond savings for which funding is provided under subclause (II) or (III).
If you want to hit that 50 percent savings mark that all new homes have to hit, then you can get as much as $12,200, including inspection, as you scoop all those awards. That's a pretty good chunk of change that should cover most, if not all of the costs of a retrofit on any moderately-sized older house, right? Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy.
Except for that catch and boy is it a doozy.
(ii) MAXIMUM PERCENTAGE- Awards under clause (i) shall not exceed 50 percent of retrofit costs for each building. For buildings with multiple residential units, awards under clause (i) shall not be greater than 50 percent of the total cost of retrofitting the building, prorated among individual residential units on the basis of relative costs of the retrofit.
Did you get that? You'll be on the hook for half of the cost of the retrofit, no matter what. To get the full effect of that part of the bill, I suggest you visit this web page and click the big yellow button right after you finish reading it.
I think Mark Steyn sums it up rather nicely:
I confess I'm finding it harder and harder to see why you fellows bothered holding a revolution. Under this bill, it will be illegal for me to sell my property to a willing buyer without first bringing it into line with some twerp bureaucrat's arbitrary and ever shifting "environmental" regulations originally designed for California, and which have helped turn the Golden State into the foldin' state, but which are nevertheless now to be applied from Maine to Alaska. And no matter what you spend a couple of years down the road the standards will be "revised" and you'll be out of compliance all over again.
And the very worst thing about all this is that it is only one little bit of what the Democrats in Washington want to do to you. Are you getting a little bit upset yet? If not, here are 49 more things they want to do to you in the name of climate change. I'm sure you can find something in there that might give you a reason to contact your Senator today.
UPDATE: I forgot to mention that I found the nifty linkable form of the bill thanks to this post by Pat who runs the quite good blog And So It Goes in Shreveport. As some of you know, it's very bad mojo not to like to a blogger who provides nifty and/or useful information. Thank you also to those of you who are sending this link around on Twitter. You make a blogger's heart grow three sizes too large this morning!
If this is your first visit to AIP, feel free to leave a comment to say hello (or groan audibly about Henry Waxman's folly of a bill). While you're here, why not take a couple extra minutes to read some of the other good blog posts. The Morning Conservative Reading List is a great place to start (and a reason to visit every day!). From there you can read about Czar Mania, some strange economic polling, and a David Axelrod fact-check beatdown, just for starters.
UPDATE 2: Melissa Clouthier, AIP columnist and blogger extraordinaire, asks an interesting question:
Consider this for a moment. Right now, at this writing, there is a glut of new home supply. Will those homes have to be retrofitted to meet the government's 30% more fuel efficient standards? And how does one magically do this? Already, homes are being built with air-tight windows, special insulation, more efficient air conditioners, etc. What would make it more energy efficient?
I'll give you a hint: think appliances. Trust me, Section 304 is but a miniscule fraction of the mandates the Democrats want to foist upon you.
2.
Price: Call back stimulus funds
Georgia Republican wants any unspent dollars returned.
Bob Keefe
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
WASHINGTON —- Amid growing debate over the effectiveness of President Obama’s economic stimulus program, a Georgia congressman wants to end it and recall any unobligated money that hasn’t been spent yet.
U.S. Rep. Tom Price, a Roswell Republican who’s never hesitant to criticize the Obama administration, calls his bill the “Reducing Barack Obama’s Unsustainable Deficit Act.” He plans to introduce it in the House today, though it likely won’t go very far.
“What I heard when I was back home [over the July 4th holiday] was people saying, ‘Stop the madness, stop the spending, stop the bailouts,’” Price said. “That’s what this does.”
(NOTE: I we are to get effective answers to the madness now coming out of Congress and the Obama administration, it will take Congressmen such as Tom Price to make it happen. The Price position is a rational one. Obama has proven claims of “shovel ready” projects that could be funded, did not exist, had not be identified, and are unlikely. Obama had his way in forcing through an irrational “stimulus” bill. It hasn’t worked – yet Democrats are suggesting we do it again. Amazing!!)
Price’s proposal comes as the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act faces increased questioning about how much good it is doing as unemployment continues to rise and the recession drags on.
Wednesday, the Government Accountability Office released a report indicating that the Recovery Act is clearly helping Georgia and other states address budget crises and stave off mass layoffs of state employees. But the GAO also was critical of how some Recovery Act funds are being used and tracked.
Transportation funds to help create jobs, for instance, are often winding up elsewhere, according to the GAO.
At a congressional hearing Wednesday, Robert Nabors, deputy director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, testified that 150,000 jobs had been created or saved by Recovery Act spending.
Even Obama and Vice President Joe Biden acknowledge the Recovery Act isn’t having as big an effect as they’d like.
In an interview with the ABC television network, Biden said the administration “misread” the economy. Obama said in Moscow that it appears the administration had “incomplete information” about the severity of the downturn. Still, he said, “there’s nothing that we would have done differently.”
Other White House officials and some congressional Democrats have said a second round of stimulus funding may be necessary.
Price’s proposal would repeal any remaining unspent money authorized by the Recovery Act, and recall any unobligated money authorized by the Troubled Asset Relief Program to bail out banks and other financial institutions.
Price said the moves would save taxpayers more than $600 billion.
Of course, with Democrats firmly in control of Congress and the White House, Price acknowledges his proposal is likely to go nowhere. But, he said, it’s a step toward holding the White House accountable and keeping alive the Recovery Act debate.
3.
http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=50677
Democratic Leader Laughs at Idea That House Members Would Actually Read Health-Care Bill Before Voting On It
Monica Gabriel and Marie Magleby
Washington (CNSNews.com) - House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Tuesday that the health-care reform bill now pending in Congress would garner very few votes if lawmakers actually had to read the entire bill before voting on it.
“If every member pledged to not vote for it if they hadn’t read it in its entirety, I think we would have very few votes,” Hoyer told CNSNews.com at his regular weekly news conference.
Hoyer was responding to a question from CNSNews.com on whether he supported a pledge that asks members of the Congress to read the entire bill before voting on it and also make the full text of the bill available to the public for 72 hours before a vote.
(NOTE: A tactic of Hoyer and other members of the Obama government has emerged in several key legislative measures to date. They force a vote on a bill that leaves no time to read, analyze, and fully understand what that bill provides. The tactic may be effective, but it is ethically reprehensible. Of course the Obama government relects its Chicago Democrat Machine roots – “power is everything, forget what people want or need”.)
In fact, Hoyer found the idea of the pledge humorous, laughing as he responded to the question. “I’m laughing because a) I don’t know how long this bill is going to be, but it’s going to be a very long bill,” he said.
“Members clearly--and staff and review boards, they read them in their entirety. They go over it with members, and members read substantial portions of the bill themselves, but the issue is--I don’t know who signed this (pledge), but frankly the opposition has been very vociferous, not of the verbiage and bill, but on the concept that it incorporates,” Hoyer said.
Let Freedom Ring, a Delaware-based conservative organization, is circulating a pledge that asks members of Congress to promise to read the entirety of the final text of a health-care reform bill before they vote on it. They also are asking that the full bill be made available for review by the public for 72 hours before Congress votes on it.
Colin Hanna, president of Let Freedom Ring, said Hoyer’s comment is evidence that lawmakers in Congress are “off-track.”
“It tells the American people how off-track our legislative process has become,” Hanna said. “I think if the framers of our Constitution ever saw an entire legislative body vote on a 1,500-page bill that no one had read, they would shudder--if not go into fits of apoplexy.”
Hanna said the pledge to read the full health-care bill--and all future bills--is one way for lawmakers to show that they are not casual in their commitment to constituents.
“We think the American public expects their legislators to know what’s in a bill before they support it, and we’re urging legislators to sign a pledge to that effect,” Hanna told CNSNews.com.
By signing the “Responsible Health-care Reform Pledge,” lawmakers commit to reading the entire bill and making it available to the public for three days before they cast their votes.
The pledge says, “I, (Name inserted here), pledge to my constituents and to the American people that I will not vote to enact any health-care reform package that: 1) I have not read, personally, in its entirety; and, 2) Has not been available, in its entirety, to the American people on the Internet for at least 72 hours, so that they can read it too.”
Earlier CNSNews.com stories revealed that few – if any –congressmen read the 1,550-page American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 or the 1,071-page American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 before voting on the bills.
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