Stupid Is As Stupid Does

I am from the “Show Me” state Missouri. We are known for needing to see the proof and as such we often say show me. A few years ago we elected a dead man to the Senate and I thought I had seen it all. Sure he was well love but when Mel Carnahan died in a plane crash Missourians voted emotionally to re-elect him. His wife was appointed in his stead and I thought I had seen it all. What I have seen on the American political scene in this past year makes electing Mel look sane.

If it were possible to summarize the past year it would take more time than either of us has but I can hit the highlights.

1. We elected a first-term Senator with no executive experience and a sketchy if not abominable past to the highest office in the land. He won’t allow any of his college transcripts be seen, albeit customary, and I know in my heart it is because his class schedule looked like a who’s who in statist philosophy and circumventing the Constitution.

2. We were promised a more transparent government and White House and if anything there is less transparency to everything Congress and the Administration does. Even when the White House release information it is done on their terms and to their drudges.

3. We were promised no more business as usual with pork-barrel projects and wasteful spending only to see:

• $2 billion earmark to re-start FutureGen, a near-zero emissions coal power plant in Illinois that the Department of Energy defunded last year because it said the project was inefficient.
• A $246 million tax break for Hollywood movie producers to buy motion picture film.
• $650 million for the digital television converter box coupon program.
• $88 million for the Coast Guard to design a new polar icebreaker (arctic ship).
• $448 million for constructing the Department of Homeland Security headquarters.
• $248 million for furniture at the new Homeland Security headquarters.
• $600 million to buy hybrid vehicles for federal employees.
• $400 million for the Centers for Disease Control to screen and prevent STD's.
• $1.4 billion for rural waste disposal programs.
• $125 million for the Washington sewer system.
• $150 million for Smithsonian museum facilities.
• $1 billion for the 2010 Census, which has a projected cost overrun of $3 billion.
• $75 million for "smoking cessation activities."
• $200 million for public computer centers at community colleges.
• $75 million for salaries of employees at the FBI.
• $25 million for tribal alcohol and substance abuse reduction.
• $500 million for flood reduction projects on the Mississippi River.
• $10 million to inspect canals in urban areas.
• $6 billion to turn federal buildings into "green" buildings.
• $500 million for state and local fire stations.
• $650 million for wildland fire management on forest service lands.
• $1.2 billion for "youth activities," including youth summer job programs.
• $88 million for renovating the headquarters of the Public Health Service.
• $412 million for CDC buildings and property.
• $500 million for building and repairing National Institutes of Health facilities in Bethesda, Maryland.
• $160 million for "paid volunteers" at the Corporation for National and Community Service.
• $5.5 million for "energy efficiency initiatives" at the Department of Veterans Affairs National Cemetery Administration.
• $850 million for Amtrak.
• $100 million for reducing the hazard of lead-based paint.
• $75 million to construct a "security training" facility for State Department Security officers when they can be trained at existing facilities of other agencies.
• $110 million to the Farm Service Agency to upgrade computer systems.
• $200 million in funding for the lease of alternative energy vehicles for use on military installations.

…and the list goes on and on and on. Of late the Administration has been buying votes in Congress with more Taxpayer dollars and coming up with even more pet projects.

4. We were warned that when the 3 a.m. phone call came in their would be no one in the White House to answer the phone. Ring – ring, ring – ring, ring – ring. Afghanistan, North Korea, Iran, and others are all ringing the phone off the wall not to mention that the American people are suffering.

5. Obama and his administration have installed some of the most misfit, communistic, ultra left leaning liberals to key positions and act surprised that anyone would take offense to them.

6. The new “I will reach across the aisle president” has only done so to slap the other side with insults, innuendo, and partisan remarks.

7. Oh yes. And the president who was to be for all of us cannot hear any of us that disagree with him. Obama has shown himself to be fussy, persnickety, petulant, and of an otherwise thin-skinned nature. No one’s perfect.

8. In the last 10 months Obama has played more golf, campaigned for more Democrats, and visited more monuments than Arnold Palmer, Bill Clinton, and Rick Steves respectively. And, while I can’t be sure of the number I believe Obama has made more TV appearances than Lassie.

9. While promising and failing at that Promise to close Guantanamo Bay Cuba for the detainees, Obama has managed to get 5 of the worst terrorists transferred to America to be tried with all the rights and benefits of American citizens. And I thought the way he behaved in Saudi Arabia and Egypt was inexcusable.

10. Number ten. Every good list has ten items and so shall this one. Obama has recognized that 12 million Americans have lost their jobs so he has a plan. He is going to have a Summit on the subject which is a fancy way to say, “Obama is planning a MEETING to talk about why no one has a friggin’ job”.

Lest I leave you having sounded cynical I would like to leave you on a positive note. Soon our president will be addressing us all again and he wants Congress to make spending cuts a priority. That should leave you laughing until the next time.

When Pigs Fly

If you would have asked me when New Jersey was going to elect a conservative I would have told you “when pigs fly”. No this is not a reference to Chris Christie’s size though Corzine alluded to Christie’s girth. Now I find that as I watch the election returns some flying pigs are giving me hope. Virginia has already had a triple header with 3 conservative republicans elected and now it appears that New Jersey will surely have one also. I am sure to have to go to bed before the NY23rd race ends. I think I will go to bed with flying swine.

You have to admit that you just need something to hope for in these times. As reported by Susan Ferrechio in the Washington Examiner:

The $787 billion stimulus bill was passed in February and was promised as a job saver and economy booster. Here is where some of the money went:
- $300,000 for a GPS-equipped helicopter to hunt for radioactive rabbit droppings at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state.
- $30 million for a spring training baseball complex for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies.
- $11 million for Microsoft to build a bridge connecting its two headquarter campuses in Redmond, Wash., which are separated by a highway.
- $430,000 to repair a bridge in Iowa County, Wis., that carries 10 or fewer cars per day.
- $800,000 for the John Murtha Airport in Johnstown, Pa., serving about 20 passengers per day, to build a backup runway.
- $219,000 for Syracuse University to study the sex lives of freshmen women.
- $2.3 million for the U.S. Forest Service to rear large numbers of arthropods, including the Asian longhorned beetle, the nun moth and the woolly adelgid.
- $3.4 million for a 13-foot tunnel for turtles and other wildlife attempting to cross U.S. 27 in Lake Jackson, Fla.
- $1.15 million to install a guardrail for a persistently dry lake bed in Guymon, Okla.
- $9.38 million to renovate a century-old train depot in Lancaster County, Pa., that has not been used for three decades.
- $2.5 million in stimulus checks sent to the deceased.
- $6 million for a snow-making facility in Duluth, Minn.
- $173,834 to weatherize eight pickup trucks in Madison County, Ill.
- $20,000 for a fish sperm freezer at the Gavins Point National Fish Hatchery in South Dakota.
- $380,000 to spay and neuter pets in Wichita, Kan.
- $300 apiece for thousands of signs at road construction sites across the country announcing that the projects are funded by stimulus money.
- $1.5 million for a fence to block would-be jumpers from leaping off the All-American Bridge in Akron, Ohio.
- $1 million to study the health effects of environmentally friendly public housing on 300 people in Chicago.
- $356,000 for Indiana University to study childhood comprehension of foreign accents compared with native speech.
- $983,952 for street beautification in Ann Arbor, Mich., including decorative lighting, trees, benches and bike paths.
- $148,438 for Washington State University to analyze the use of marijuana in conjunction with medications like morphine.
- $462,000 to purchase 22 concrete toilets for use in the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri
- $3.1 million to transform a canal barge into a floating museum that will travel the Erie Canal in New York state.
- $1.3 million on government arts jobs in Maine, including $30,000 for basket makers, $20,000 for storytelling and $12,500 for a music festival.
- $71,000 for a hybrid car to be used by student drivers in Colchester, Vt., as well as a plug-in hybrid for town workers decked out with a sign touting the vehicle's energy efficiency.
- $1 million for Portland, Ore., to replace 100 aging bike lockers and build a garage that would house 250 bicycles.

With all this pork it’s clear why we see flying pigs!

Stimulus Package a.k.a.: Friends of Obama Fund

There has been quite a bit said and published about the success of the Stimulus package. Cited below is from Politico.

""Politico reported on June 5 that the “Stimulus tour” — visits by Mr. Obama and other administration officials “across the country to tout the massive spending program or hand out stimulus cash to grateful local officials” — overwhelmingly took place in states that voted for Obama: “52 of the 66 events were in states that backed Obama.” The other 14 events were in states that Obama lost only narrowly. A new study released by USA Today also finds that counties that voted for Obama received about twice as much stimulus money per capita as those that voted for McCain.""

Consider the above. Obama is in fact rewarding those who voted for him, wooing those who almost helped him get elected and punishing those states who did not vote for him in large majorities. He has totally ignored the Southern States and with these actions shows himself to be the “Chief Pork Barrel Promoter” (also called earmarks). When conservatives pointed out that the Stimulus bill contained these earmarks he dismissed them as old business. Now we see that the money that has been distributed has not been spent on the basis of need but to the Gigantic Obama Pork Program to promote him and increase loyalty to him.

Never in my life did I ever expect to see so dangerous a politician in the presidency. I might have expected to see someone like this in some ideological socialist group. (Consider his Chicago roots.) Obama is not only in power but he is wielding as a hammer and sickle. The presidency is not for personal politics but is for benefit of the American people as a nation: all of us.

The Stimulus Program has of late been reported as ineffective in helping the American economy. I am not so sure it was ever intended to.