The day’s top political news:
The climate industry is costing taxpayers $79 billion and counting
Al Gore’s designated myth has made him wealthy, cots US taxpayers heavily
The US Government has spent more than $79 billion of taxpayers’ money since 1989 on policies related to climate change, including science and technology research, administration, propaganda campaigns, foreign aid, and tax breaks. Most of this spending is deemed unnecessary.
Sound science cannot easily survive the vice-like grip of politics and finance.
http://www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?id=104031&cat=12
Democrats Block GOP Health Care Mailing
Democrats are preventing Republican House Members from sending their constituents a mailing that is critical of the majority’s health care reform plan, blocking the mailing by alleging that it is inaccurate.
House Republicans are crying foul and claiming that the Democrats are using their majority to prevent GOP Members from communicating with their constituents.
The dispute centers on a chart created by Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) and Republican staff of the Joint Economic Committee to illustrate the organization of the Democratic health care plan. When trapped by fact and reality – Democrats use the heavy hand of government to censor what Americans can read.
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/55_12/news/37125-1.html?type=printer_friendly
Senior House Republican demands Investigation of AIG Treatment of Creditors.
Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala , ranking Republican in the House Financial Services Committee wants a hearing about the way American International Group Inc. has spread its bailout funds a process through which AIG may have short-changed smaller banks owed money by AIG.
In a letter from Bachus to the committee's chairman, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., Bachus wrote: "In order to fully air the appropriateness and fairness of the distribution of U.S. taxpayer money by AIG, I request a hearing dedicated to this issue." He said the hearing would be "important to promoting public understanding of the interventions of the federal government into private businesses and markets."
Bachus had questioned Treasury Sec. Tim Geithner about the AIG (NYSE: issue at a recent hearing. "What was paid off dollar-for-dollar were these risky credit default swaps agreement in most cases," Bachus is quoted as saying in the transcript. "What is still not being paid off is the more tradition loans to AIG of actual money." Geithner said that he'd have to examine the issue before he could issue "a thoughtful response." Bachus expressed in his letter that he wasn't satisfied with the subsequent answers.
Opinion:
The NEA – its priority is political power, don’t bother them with concern for the school children in their care.
The quality of our public education has declined precipitously over the years. Today’s public schools are not what they are expected to be nor do they teach what normal American parents expect them to teach.
The NEA – the teacher’s union that is the largest labor union in the country, is at the base of that decline. In fact, the decline in public education can be traced back to the summer of 1968 when the NEA voted to cease being a professional organization of educators and become a labor union. That same summer. LBJ forced federal financing of education on all states, thus giving Washington a major say-so in school policies.
Both acts served to help destroy educational quality. Within eight years, the NEA union had become so powerful it was able to hand Jimmy Carter the Democrat nomination. Carter then created the Department of Education as a crass political pay off for the NEA action.
Thus the NEA became the only labor union with its own cabinet position. Public education was the price Carter actually paid for the NEA gift.
Fast forward to the recent NEA convention.
The NEA's retiring General Counsel Bob Chanin stated without blinking: " Someone really is after us. Why are these conservative and right-wing b****rds picking on NEA and its affiliates? I will tell you why: it is the price we pay for success."
“The NEA and its affiliates are effective advocates”, claims Chanin, “because we have power." Chanin explains, "And we have power because there are more than 3.2 million people who are willing to pay us hundreds of millions of dollars in dues each year."
The NEA is an organic element of the Democrat Party. It is 1--% partisan and it is 100% liberal. Extreme liberal.
Many are slow to grasp reality on this. Time and again, well meaning members of local school boards deny they are having problems with NEA extremism and its exercise of power. They overlook the fact the NEA totally controls the US Dept of Education and much of the damage proceeds from that fact. Certainly curriculae and textbook content are radicalized at the behest of the NEA.
Opposing NEA at the local level can be done. We have been involved in helping a conservative, effective, and very active member of the Alabama State School Board, despite the rabid efforts of the Alabama NEA chapter.
The Alabama Education Association is the most active and powerful NEA local chapter of all. But they CAN be defeated, no matter how much power they bring to bear. In the last Alabama election, the NEA chapter tried to pull a fast one with a last minute attack on the conservative incumbent. They failed and some involved with the AEA are facing potential prosecution for other, unrelated charges.
The Alabama success must be replicated by others. Only when the NEA and its liberal Democrat politicians are removed from our educational decision making, can public education in this country begin the long march back to a condition in which “quality public education” is no longer an oxymoron.
Buddy
The days top blogs:
1.
Pelosi: We Have the Votes to Pass Health Care
Tory Newmyer
Roll Call Staff
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Wednesday that she has the votes to pass a health care overhaul in the House, even as the bill remains stalled in the Energy and Commerce Committee.
“I have no question that we have the votes on the floor of the House to pass this legislation,” Pelosi told reporters.
The Speaker said she still intends to put the package to a vote next week but left open the possibility of keeping the House in session past the chamber’s scheduled adjournment of July 31. The Senate is poised to adjourn one week later on Aug. 7, but that date also may slip because of health care reform.
Pelosi’s original timeline has been thrown into doubt by a revolt of Blue Dog Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee, who have raised concerns about the cost and scope of the package. Panel leaders are huddling Wednesday with the seven moderates on the committee to try forge breakthroughs.
Pelosi forecast a light at the end of the tunnel. “We are going in a forward direction,” she said. “We are on course. We are pleased with the progress being made. We believe the American people have waited long enough.”
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., today insisted everything is smooth sailing with the House bill that would require every American to have health insurance or pay a fine; create a government run health plan to compete with private insurers to drive costs down; and impose an up to 5.4% new tax on top wage-earners.
(NOTE: “Not so fast, my friend”. A “Blue Dog” Democrat tells ABC News that claim is questionable.“I don’t think they have the votes,” Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., says, arguing if that were the case he and the other six Blue Dogs on the House Energy and Commerce Committee who have been holding up the bill in committee would be under far less pressure.)
“I have no question that we have the votes on the floor of the House to pass this legislation,” Pelosi told reporters.
And what about on the Senate side?
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chair of the Senate Finance Committee, was overheard jokingly telling House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, “let me tell you, praying might be helpful here.”
2.
GOP Congressional Report Accuses ACORN of Political Corruption, Widespread Fraud
House Republicans issuing a report Thursday accusing ACORN of fraudulent activities and widespread corruption, concluding a criminal investigation into the advocacy group is needed
FOXNews.com
ACORN engaged in a scheme to use taxpayer money to support a partisan political agenda, according to a new report from Republicans on a House oversight committee.
The report, to be released Thursday afternoon, accuses ACORN of fraudulent activities and widespread corruption and calls for a criminal investigation into the advocacy group. It offers the first detailed account of the allegations that have dogged the organization in recent months.
(NOTE: ACORN and many of its officials have been under assault regarding fraudulent political activity – all in the interests of liberal Democrats. Obama has a long history of deep involvement with ACORN and it is likely White House sources are nervous about an investigation.)
ACORN, or the Association of Community Organizations for Reform, has been under constant fire from conservatives since last year for its support of Barack Obama's presidential candidacy and its planned participation in next year's 2010 census.
The report will be released by Rep. Darrell Issa, the top Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Issa's GOP colleagues.
The executive summary of the report says ACORN provided contributions of financial and personnel resources to indicted former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown and candidate Obama, among others, in what the report calls a scheme to use taxpayer money to support a partisan political agenda, which would be a clear violation of numerous tax and election laws.
"Both structurally and operationally, ACORN hides behind a paper wall of nonprofit corporate protections to conceal a criminal conspiracy on the part of its directors, to launder federal money in order to pursue a partisan agenda and to manipulate the American electorate," an executive summary of the report reads.
ACORN, which was sent a copy of the executive summary by FOXNews.com, dismissed the report as a "partisan attack job."
"We are busy fighting to stop the foreclosure crisis, to win quality affordable health care for all Americans and to build a stronger economy for working families, so we haven't had the opportunity to read Rep. Issa's screed at length," Bertha Lewis, CEO of ACORN, said in a written statement to FOXNews.com.
"But an initial review indicates that the document is a recycled and repackaged partisan attack job on ACORN's good work," she added.
The report accuses ACORN, after receiving more than $53 million in federal funds since 1994, of blurring the legal distinctions among 361 tax-exempt and non-exempt entities to divert that money into partisan political activities.
Evidence found in the report relies in part on documents provided by former ACORN employees.
"Operationally, ACORN is a shell game played in 120 cities, 43 states and the District of Columbia through a complex structure designed to conceal illegal activities, to use taxpayer and tax-exempt dollars for partisan political purposes, and to distract investigators," the report read.
"Structurally, ACORN is a chess game in which senior management is shielded from accountability by multiple layers of volunteers and compensated employees who serve as pawns to take the fall for every bad act."
Kurt Bardella, a spokesman for Issa, said ACORN's response suggests the report "hit a nerve."
"We stand by the findings of the report," he told FOXNews.com. "There are a lot of legitimate questions raised about the political activities and organizational structure of ACORN. We'd certainly like to have a venue and platform for ACORN to respond to our report."
Bardella added that the report is not about partisan politics.
"It's about getting to the truth," he said. "And when there are significant accusations and questions about millions of taxpayer dollars, those questions should be answered and any significant doubts should be addressed and the truth should be brought to light."
It would be up to the chairman of the oversight panel to hold hearings on the ACORN report and up to the Justice Department to pursue a criminal investigation. Likewise, the census director will determine whether ACORN remains a partner with the U.S. Census Bureau to assist with the recruitment of the 1.4 million temporary workers needed to go door-to-door to count every person in the United States.
A spokeswoman for Rep. Edolphus Towns, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
3.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203517304574304161389163586.html
ObamaCare in Trouble
KARL ROVE
Polls are turning against President Barack Obama’s health-care plan.
The political calendar is, too.
On Monday, the Washington Post/ABC poll reported that 49% of Americans approve of his handling of health care while 44% disapprove. What many people missed is that those who strongly disapprove of the president’s approach on health care now outnumber those who strongly approve by 33% to 25%.
That presages further decline. Already, 49% of independents disapprove of the president’s approach, up from 30% in April, a staggering shift in 11 weeks.
Mr. Obama is also slipping on the economy. Those who strongly disapprove now outnumber those who strongly approve of his handling of the economy (35% to 29%), of deficits (38% to 19%), and of unemployment (31% to 26%). On Tuesday, Gallup showed Mr. Obama’s personal approval was 55%, down from more than 60% a few weeks ago and lower than the 56% George W. Bush had at this point in his first term.
The polls are crumbling because of a flood of bad news about Mr. Obama’s health-care proposals. One batch of such news came from a July 17 study by the Lewin Group that was commissioned by the Heritage Foundation. It projects that if the House bill becomes law, 83.4 million people—nearly half of those with private coverage—will lose private insurance as employers drop their plans. Mr. Obama’s promise that you can keep your plan is being left on the cutting room floor with nary a peep from the president.
Another batch of bad news came this week as Democratic governors from Colorado, Tennessee, New Mexico and Washington joined GOP colleagues at the National Governors Association summer meeting to blast the administration for plans to shift millions of families into Medicaid. That could stick states with $440 billion in new costs over the next decade.
But the most damaging news came from Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Director Douglas Elmendorf, who said last week that the White House’s health-care proposals would not “reduce the trajectory of federal health spending by a significant amount.” This shattered the central claim Mr. Obama has been making: that his health-care plan controls costs. In a July 17 letter, Mr. Elmendorf added that the House’s health-care bill would result in a “net increase in the federal budget deficit of $239 billion” over 10 years. That’s likely a low-ball estimate because it assumes that Congress will increase taxes by $583 billion over the next decade.
Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel says he’ll pay for the Obama health proposal by raising taxes on Americans making $280,000 a year ($350,000 for couples). Most of those stuck with higher taxes will be small business owners. Even Democrats don’t like that approach: 21 of 39 freshmen House Democrats penned a letter opposing the tax hike. Many are among the 66 Democrats from districts that either Mr. Bush or John McCain carried in recent presidential elections. Mr. Obama shrugged off the letter by saying that the surtax would only force some to pay “a little bit more.”
The Democratic National Committee is now running ads pressuring Democrats to vote for the president’s health-care plans, including new ads in the districts of House Ways and Means Committee Democrats who have raised questions about the health-care bill. It is hard to think of a more obvious sign of weakness than attacking members of your own party.
Team Obama was rushing to pass health care before the August recess out of fear that allowing members to go home for an extended spell before voting on the bill would give them an opportunity to hear from their constituents. They fear that the 300 protestors who showed up at a town hall meeting in Panama City, Fla. held June 30 by Democrat Rep. Allen Boyd shortly after he voted for the cap and trade energy tax) are only the start of a larger backlash.
(NOTE: The public uprising against Boyd is only one symptom of a spreading problem for liberals. The tea party protest movement continues gaining steam and is aimed at vulnerable Democrat congressman and at congressman who vote against the interests of their voter and who can be made vulnerable -- as is the case with Boyd. Boyd was so damaged that a California-Based environmental company is waging a very expensive paid TV campaign trying to give the hapless Boyd cover. The effort seems to be backfiring -- the California company is only interested in plush government hand outs from the Cap and Trade tax scam.)
Democratic leaders, including the president, are now backing away from a vote on health care before August. But that’s not likely to decrease voter angst. Americans for Prosperity and others are already organizing voters to attend public meetings with members of Congress this summer. My guess is that members of Congress are about to hear a lot from their voters on the government takeover of health care, new energy taxes, the failed stimulus, record deficits, and growing joblessness.
Mr. Rove is the former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush.
That's understandable that money can make us independent. But what to do when one doesn't have money? The one way is to get the personal loans and just secured loan.
Posted by: SANTANALindsey27 | September 08, 2011 at 11:01 AM