Congress Hit With A Capitol Offense

A recent CNN poll revealed just how fed up Americans are with their members of Congress:

Only 1/3 of voters think that their particular members of Congress should be returned next year.

Sixty three percent of voters polled are against re-electing members of the House and Senate whose terms will be up this year.

The anger seems to be equally directed between Democrats and Republicans, however this is worse news for the Democrats as they have more seats at risk in the 2010 elections.

And the voters of Massachusetts sending Scott Brown to the U.S. Senate may have sent a message that the Democrats won’t want to hear.

Yet with the general feeling among the electorate, regardless of political affiliation, leaning towards “throw the bums out”, the Republicans shouldn’t become too smug.

The Real Reason Evan Bayh Retired

Senator Evan Bayh (D) Indiana, is the latest in a growing list of Democrat incumbents who are bowing out of re-election bids in 2010.

Many political pundits are making the claim that the reason for Bayh’s retirement announcement is that come November, he would face a challenge from the man who held the Senate seat before him, Republican Dan Coats.

Even the RNC has gotten into the act.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said that Bayh’s retirement was just one more example of Democrats “running for the hills.”

My opinion is that folks who share Michael Steele’s belief are dead wrong.

Bayh, a former governor, has won a Senatorial election in Indiana twice, proving that he has a lot of bi-partisan voter support in a perennially red state.

Ever since Barack Obama won the Presidency, Evan Bayh has been butting heads with his fellow Democrats, stating in no uncertain terms that they should be focusing more on jobs creation and fiscal responsibility than on passing health care reform and cap and trade measures.

Among the numerous reasons Bayh gave for his retirement:
“There is much too much partisanship and not enough progress; too much narrow ideology and not enough practical problem-solving. Even at a time of enormous national challenge, the people’s business is not getting done.”

He has also made the claim that his re-election prospects did not influence his decision:
“My decision was not motivated by political concern. Even in the current challenging political environment, I am confident in my prospects for reelection.”

I believe that Bayh is being sincere in the reasons he is claiming are behind his actions.

However.

I think that Senator Bayh is only telling part of the story.

It’s well known in Washington political circles that Bayh harbors Presidential ambitions.

With the popularity and approval numbers for Congress and President Obama dropping on a daily basis, his retirement announcement is also savvy political strategy.

Bayh is saying, in effect:  ”I quit! You people are more concerned with your own agendas and political power than you are with serving the American people!”

Come 2012, a man who can point to that resolve as a reason for stepping down, along with a history of being able to attract Republican votes, just could make Bayh a prime contender for the Democrat Presidential nomination.

Stay tuned. 

 

Cross-posted at Vote 2010

Despite Federal Funding Ban, ACORN To Receive Four Billion Dollar Earmark

Barack Obama  hasn’t forgotten his old friends at ACORN.

In spite of President Obama’s pledge to freeze discretionary spending and reduce earmarks, ACORN stands to receive nearly four billion dollars in President Obama’s fiscal 2011 budget.

The money will come through a grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The embezzllement-prone organization will receive the funding in spite Congress last year passing a ban on federal monies being given to Acorn or any of it’s affiliated groups.

As I understand it, HUD doles out “block grants” to assist with community development needs.

Now before we go any further, let me try to put into perspective just how much a bliion dollars is, and keep in mind that ACORN stands to receive 4 billion:

If you spent one dollar every second of every hour of every day, to spend a billion dollars it would take you:
Thirty One Years
Two Hundred And Fifty Nine Days
One Hour
Forty Six Minutes
Fourty Seconds

So how will ACORN, an organization with a history of fraud, spend all of that money?

Well, some of it will surely go to pay staffers to offer advice on how to set up a child prostitution ring, as is shown in this clip from the Glenn Beck program:

Some of it might be spent on bribing members of the mainstream media.
Why do I think that may happen?
Watch the reaction of the MSM when the hidden camera interview of an ACORN staffer first broke:

They found one office where the people were stupid enough to give them this kind of silly advice.”
“It sounds to me like that’s just entrapment.”

“It’s entrapment.”
“They went to four offices and one took the bait.”

Someone must be bribing the members of the mainstream media!

It doesn’t matter if these people went to four offices or four hundred!

The bottom line remains that ACORN staffers advised someone on how to set up a child prostitution ring!!

Yet all that these pinheads are concerned about is that the people at ACORN might have been victims of entrapment.

The entrapment of children into becoming sex slaves they didn’t see fit to mention.

They might use some of the cash to influence the outcome of an election.

Some folks have asked did ACORN elect Al Franken?

So when they aren’t rigging elections, bribing the mainstream media, or offering advice on how to set up a child prostitution ring, how do these folks at ACORN spend their time?

Well, last April, I wrote an article in which I pointed out that with the help of the biggest group of supporters of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and the organization that continues to travel across America promoting President Obama’s policies, Organizing For America, may be working hand-in-hand with ACORN to have their members infiltrate Tea Party events

With all of this going on, you would think that an article in a major newspaper about ACORN sowing the seeds of their own destruction would have put an end to them receiving any federal earmarks, however it appears that report was a bit premature.

So how is it that the folks at ACORN aren’t in jail, let alone receiving 4 billion of our tax dollars?

Well, first of all, the bully tactics of the White House work to silence anyone who attempts to investigate the group.

Anyone who has any doubt about President Obama’s previous ties to ACORN can take a look at this timeline and see that Obama’s twisted ACORN roots go back a long way.

Yet in spite of all of this, ACORN is in line for a four billion dollar federal earmark.

It pays to have friends in high places.

Especially the White House.

 

To read the federal court documents ACORN filed against whistleblower Anita MonCrief, click here.

For former ACORN member Anita MonCrief’s inside look at ACORN fraud, click here.

Team Obama Is Stuck On Stupid

President Obama Changes Don’t Ask Don’t Tell To Don’t Ask Me

During his State Of The Union speech, President Obama vowed to repeal “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.
As with most things that Barack Obama does, he makes a promise without any ideas or plans as to how he is going to keep it.

Ten Rules For Republican Radicals

One of President Obama’s favorite books is Saul Alinsky’s Rules For Radicals.

As we pointed out here recently, it is even on the list of recommended reading on the recruitment applications that the members of Obama’s Army, Organizing For America, are passing out to high school students.

So if the leftists can follow the Socialist views in Alinsky’s book, it’s only fair that conservatives have their own set of rules to live by.

1) Always try to decentralize power as much as possible. The further power is removed from the people, the less it serves them. That’s why anti-government radicals should always look for ways to push power downhill. From the federal government to state governments, from state governments to local governments, from local governments to the people — the more power that can be shifted away from the government towards the people, the better.

2) Earmarks are corruption. Earmarks may be a small part of a deficit, but they’re responsible for a large part of the corruption in Congress. That’s because earmarks have turned into a way for members of Congress to pay off campaign contributors, political allies, and family members with our tax dollars. Until we get a handle on earmarks, we’re not going to have honest government in this country.

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The FBI Wants To Monitor Your Internet Usage

Anyone who has a problem with some of (or all) of the provisons of the Partiot Act will be up in arms if the government starts tracking what web sites they visit.

The FBI is pressing Internet service providers to record which Web sites customers visit and retain those logs for two years, a requirement that law enforcement believes could help it in investigations of child pornography and other serious crimes.

FBI Director Robert Mueller supports storing Internet users’ “origin and destination information,” a bureau attorney said at a federal task force meeting on Thursday.

As far back as a 2006 speech, Mueller had called for data retention on the part of Internet providers, and emphasized the point two years later when explicitly asking Congress to enact a law making it mandatory. But it had not been clear before that the FBI was asking companies to begin to keep logs of what Web sites are visited, which few if any currently do.

The FBI is not alone in renewing its push for data retention. As CNET reported earlier this week, a survey of state computer crime investigators found them to be nearly unanimous in supporting the idea. Matt Dunn, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in the Department of Homeland Security, also expressed support for the idea during the task force meeting.

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Convicted Felon To Run For Congress

If the Republican National Committee endorses this guy, I’m going to become a member of the Ron Paul Revolution.

Former U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. of Ohio, who was released from prison four months ago after serving a sentence for racketeering, tax evasion and bribery, is planning another run for Congress in 2010.

Business Journal Daily reports that Traficant told a business networking group in Youngstown, Ohio yesterday that “I’m going to run for Congress.” He said he isn’t sure which district he will seek or whether he will run as a Democrat, Republican, independent or something else.

Traficant was expelled from the House in 2002, following his conviction, and served seven years in federal prison.

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States Invoking Sovereignty Spells Big Trouble For Obama

Relying on the 10th Amendment as a means of opting-out of President Obama’s health care reform package probably would not work.
Yet the Obama administration continues to ignore the fact that the majority of Americans do not want the government running every aspect of health care.
What will it take for President Obama to start listening to the wishes of the  American people?
You would think that 34 states proposing amendments to their state constitutions as a means of banning federal health insurance mandates would be sending a loud and clear message about Obamacare.

Although President Barack Obama’s push for a health care overhaul has stalled, conservative lawmakers in about half the states are forging ahead with constitutional amendments to ban government health insurance mandates.

The proposals would assert a state-based right for people to pay medical bills from their own pocketbooks and prohibit penalties against those who refuse to carry health insurance.

In many states, the proposals began as a backlash to Democratic health care plans pending in Congress. But instead of backing away after a Massachusetts election gave Senate Republicans the filibuster power to halt the health care legislation, many state lawmakers are ramping up their efforts with a new enthusiasm.

The moves reflect the continued political potency of the issue for conservatives, who have used it extensively for fundraising and attracting new supportersThe legal impact of any state measures may be questionable because courts generally have held that federal laws trump those in states.

Lawmakers in 34 states now have filed or proposed amendments to their state constitutions or statutes rejecting health insurance mandates, according to the American Legislative Exchange Council, a nonprofit group that promotes limited government that is helping coordinate the efforts. Many of those proposals are targeted for the November ballot, assuring that health care remains a hot topic as hundreds of federal and state lawmakers face reelection.

Continue Reading: States Seeking to Ban Mandatory Health Insurance

Obama Fails Another Test

 

No matter how much of a tough guy he might have tried to sound during his State Of The Union speech, all of the making nice with folks who want to kill Americans doesn’t earn Obama a passing grade.

The national WMD commission established by Congress has given the Obama administration an “F” for failing to protect America from nuclear, chemical, and biological attacks.

“Nearly a decade after 9/11, one year after our original report, and one month after the Christmas Day bombing attempt, the United States is failing to address several urgent threats, especially bioterrorism,” stated former Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., chairman of the bipartisan Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism.
The report charges the administration “is simply not paying consistent and urgent attention to the means of responding quickly and effectively so that [WMD attacks] no longer constitute a threat of mass destruction.”

Surprisingly, the Commission concluded there still exists “no national plan to coordinate federal, state, and local efforts following a bioterror attack, and the United States lacks the technical and operational capabilities required for an adequate response.”

An outgrowth of the 9/11 Commission report, the WMD Commission is charged with evaluating U.S. defenses against WMD attacks. The report issued Tuesday examines 17 areas deemed vital to defending against WMD.
The Commission gave the administration an F for not improving the nation’s ability to respond rapidly to a biological attack inflicting mass casualties, and an F for poor implementation of the education and training programs needed to train national-security experts.

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