Sunday, October 14, 2007

Hillary's Top 12 Fabrications

 
I limited the list to twelve because it's late and I'm getting tired. I could've included Henry Cisneros, Janet Reno, the Barrett Report -- and numerous others, but this list is sufficient for now.

12. Interviewed by Katie Couric, Hillary claims she'd "always been a Yankees fan." Challenged by Couric that she grew up in Illinois and was apparently a Cubs fan, Hillary dissembled.

11. In an airport, she happened to run into Sir Edmund Hillary, who was the first man to climb Mt. Everest. She claimed that her mother named her Hillary after Hillary the climber. Only problem: he didn't make news climbing anything until five years after Clinton was born.

10. Hillary attended a race-relations conference in Boston with a group of teenagers and claimed that she was on her high school soccer team. She said that a player from the opposing team had told her that she hated her kind -- and Hillary said, "you don't even know me!" The attempt at empathy appears to be an utter fabrication, since there were no girl's soccer teams at her high school in the sixties when this supposed event took place.

9. Hillary said that daughter Chelsea was in danger on September 11th, 2001, claiming that her daughter went for a jog down to the towers themselves. When the planes hit, she was in close proximity to the WTC was very nearly in peril. However, Chelsea completely debunked her mother's story in a magazine article: she was staring shocked at the TV most of the day.

8. Hillary took $1,000 and with the help of well-connected friends (who Bill just happened to shield from inspections in the poultry industry) parlayed it into nearly six figures in a short period of time; she then failed to release her tax returns, such that the windfall wasn't disclosed until after the statute of limitations was lifted. Hillary's defense of her "preferential treatment" was that other customers in the same office also were allowed to trade without having enough cash in their accounts.

7. Hillary told a federal grand jury that she didn't work on a certain key project in the Whitewater scandal; however, she did so, was caught in the apparent fib, and then stated that she didn't recognize it by that name.

6. Bill Clinton granted pardons to four Hasidic men from upstate New York, amidst allegations the men had promised to drum up votes for Hillary's Senate run as a reward for the pardons. The men, who had been convicted of stealing millions in federal funds, all received clemency. Their Hasidic neighbors -- who traditionally vote Republican -- help hand Hillary the victory with an overwhelming number of votes. Hillary claimed she didn't know anything about it.

5. In January 1996, a long sought-after copy of billing records from the Rose Law Firm were identified. The mysterious reappearance of the billing records, sought for years via various subpoenas, has never been fully explained. Shortly after their rediscovery, Hillary Clinton made history as the only First Lady ever called to testify before a Grand Jury. Of particular interest to investigators has been Ms. Clinton's work on an option agreement that "was principally designed to further obfuscate and hide the fraudulent nature of the underlying Castle Grande transactions." Hillary claimed that her initials on the billing records were effectively a misrepresentation and that "it was not an area that I really know anything... about."

4. The Washington Post and Washington Times report that Clinton aides removed "Whitewater papers" from Vince Foster's office moments after being notified of his death on July 20, 1993. The White House claimed that Hillary was notified of Foster's death at 9:45 pm; she called aide Maggie Williams at 10:13; Williams is observed by Secret Service officer Henry O'Neill exiting Foster's office with documents. Interestingly, PBS reports that investigators believe that the Rose Law Firm records that magically reappeared in 1996 were Vince Foster's copies. Attempting to explain her innocence in the ransacking of Foster's office, Hillary states in 1994 that "I -- I can tell you what I know which is that I did not know that Vince had any of the documents related to our personal business in his office until after his death."

3. In a sworn declaration taken on April 7, 2006, Hillary Clinton testified that she had "no recollection whatsoever of discussing any arrangement with [Peter Paul] whereby he would support my campaign for the United States Senate... I do not believe that I made any such statements because I believe I would remember such a discussion if it had occurred." Peter Paul's Hollywood fund raiser contributed as much as $2 million to her Senate campaign. However, a video has recently come to light in which Hillary helps plan the event, coordinates entertainers such as Cher, and acknowledges Paul's generosity. From all appearances, Hillary -- unaware of the newly released videotaped evidence -- lied under oath in 2006.

2. Hillary's brother Hugh was paid around $400,000 by a crack cocaine dealer and a "fake baldness cure" salesman; Bill Clinton pardoned them both (two of 140 pardons later termed "smelly" by CNN commentators). She later claimed she had no idea her brother was representing the drug dealer.

1. During her relentless courtship of religious voters, Hillary has described abortion as a "tragic choice", defined herself as a "praying person", and employed evangelical Christians on her staff. She's gone so far as to appear in a documentary about the late Barry Goldwater, praising the ultra-conservative Arizona Republican and reminiscing about her initial foray into politics as a "Goldwater girl".

In short, Hillary's expressed complete amnesia regarding Norman Hsu, the Rose Law firm records, Travelgate, Whitewater, the cattle futures contracts, Peter Paul's fundraising concert, her brothers hawking pardons and commutations, etc. And this ignorance is her central qualification for the presidency?

Hat tips: Blue Site, CNN, Daily Kos, EIB, Free Republic, Hillcap, Jeramayakovka, PBS, Time Magazine, Washington Post, Washington Post, WND

Bush Derangement Syndrome Sufferer Comment o' the Day

 
Don Surber links to a fascinating Washington Post op-ed that confirms the startling numbers: the surge is working... stunningly well.

The Washington Post today assailed MSM, liberals and critics of the war. But I repeat myself. It is a fine editorial by a newspaper that too many conservatives dismiss as “lefty.” The Post editorial fact checks Hillary’s claim that “civilian deaths have risen.”


The Post found otherwise: “A month later, there isn’t much room for such debate, at least about the latest figures. In September, Iraqi civilian deaths were down 52 percent from August and 77 percent from September 2006 …

Hillary lied. For political gain, she flat-out lied. She voted for this war 5 years ago to give her credibility in this presidential campaign. In September, she dumped on the efforts of Gen. Petraeus, whom she dared to portray as a liar.


William Safire pegged her well in January 1996 when he called her a “congenital liar.” He took heat for that. He spoke the truth to power before the phrase was co-opted by the power mad on the left...

As might be expected, the BDS sufferers -- not used to seeing positive news of any sort in an op-ed -- exploded in a delirious, Tourettes-like rage. Simply put, the comments are hilarious. The following, offered by 'Red Head Claudine', is typical.

So there is one sure way to end all US troop deaths in Iraq and its real simple,
just bring every one of our troops back home to the US and let the Iraqis kill every member of Nazi Dictator Draft Dodger
Darth Vader Cheney's Blackwater Republican
Guard Mercendary Army and Commander Killer
Condi's Waffen SS Blackwater Death Squads,
and safe us all that legal expense of trying and executing all of Erik Black Prince of Deaths Paid Killers and Hang
President Dry Drunk George W Bush,Darth Vader Cheney,Condoleezza Rice,Nancy Pelosi
Steny Hoyer,Harry Reid,Dickey Durbin,GOP Bush Zombie Mitch McConnell,Scumbag Trent Lott,Congressman Bonehead and Bluntbrains,
and the Black Prince of Death Blackwater CEO Erick Prince and that will help restore the rule of law and our own US Constitution and our world image as well.

Wow! If anyone can translate that deranged mess, please let us know in the comments. If any medical professionals know the author -- "Red Head Claudine" -- I'd recommend that you up her prescriptions.

And the scary thing is that Claudine is more lucid than most the Democrats I know.

More info: Gateway Pundit has the essential data and graphs.

Shocking new film -- Hillary Uncensored -- comes to Dartmouth

 
Doug from Upland writes to let us know that the explosive new film Hillary Uncensored is headed to Dartmouth. The documentary will premiere at the Hanover, New Hampshire school on Saturday, Oct. 27, at 2pm. The film describes what some have called "the largest election law fraud in history."

How explosive is the film? The "rough cut" of the trailer was uploaded to Google as a private -- i.e., hidden -- posting in July. For the past three days, it's been Google's top-ranked video.

You can see a sneak preview of the trailer here. And if you happen to be in Manhattan, the film will be shown on Tuesday, Oct. 30 at 7pm at the historic Metropolitan Republican Club.

The video itself is fascinating. Federal election law experts are on record as saying that a newly discovered videotape (included in the documentary) "shows Hillary Clinton in the process of committing at least four or five felonies under federal election law."

A whistleblower-support organization called the United States Justice Foundation relates that "the tape indicates Clinton – despite denials throughout six years of investigation – was directly involved with business mogul Peter Franklin Paul in producing a lavish Hollywood fundraiser in August 2000 that eventually cost Paul nearly $2 million."

In fact, if Clinton participated in the planning of the fundraising event, it:

...would make Paul's substantial contributions a direct donation to her Senate campaign rather than her joint fundraising committee, violating federal statutes that limit "hard money" contributions to a candidate to $2,000 per person. Knowingly accepting or soliciting $25,000 or more in a calendar year is a felony carrying a prison sentence of up to five years...

Now that the video has come to light, Doug alerted the FBI to a series of suspicious events including possible FEC violations.

Back to the premiere. Doug offers a humorous take regarding the reasons Dartmouth is a particularly apt choice for the premiere of the film:

New Hampshire is, of course, buzzing with political activity as the candidates are trying to get their message out to the voters in the state that has traditionally held the nation's first primary.

It really is about time that the voters in New Hampshire become acquainted with the scandal and coverup directed by Hillary that eclipses Watergate. Obstruction of justice, campaign finance felonies, a sham trial, and four false FEC reports are not the best items to have on a presidential candidate's resume...

Dartmouth will be a great venue. It was the recent scene of a Democratic debate. Peter Paul went to school there. Hillary went there for a Winter Carnival blind date and got ditched. Her date got stinking drunk... stripped down to his shorts, got his surfboard, and tried to surf the little moguls on the golf course.

Hillary talked about that blind date with Peter at the Spago luncheon. He has the discussion on film. She was very animated and told how everyone was watching this guy and worried that he might freeze to death.

Hillary, of course, lied in her sworn declaration to the court in which she said she could remember nothing of what she and Peter had discussed. When she says that at her deposition, she will be confronted with the film. What about it, smartest woman in the world?

This should really be fun. It would be a nice touch if I could see a protester get tazed...

Here's a request for a favor: check out the trailer and then email this post to three of your friends with a request they do the same.

It's time we broke the mainstream media's blockade of Peter Paul's historic civil suit against the Clintons.

Update: Doug from Upland certainly has brass. Check out his invitation (click to zoom):

Will Hillary be polite enough to RSVP? Stay tuned.

Saturday, October 13, 2007

CNN reveals a 'safe house'... and more!

 
CNN's done it again. Not content with marketing terrorism by airing insurgent sniper videos, the fading network just hit a new low. Gates of Vienna reports that CNN, always aware of the need for extremists to be able to locate artists and writers who "defame Islam," has revealed the safe house of artist Lars Vilks. Shockingly, our reporters have discovered an even more serious breach of protocol by CNN's Blanderson Pooper. Let's watch the tape:

I'm Blanderson Pooper. Artist Blanche Fester has attempted, successfully so far, to elude the religious extremists pursuing her over her controversial artwork. Until now, Fester's safe-house -- at 100 12th Ave. in Waltham, Massachusetts -- has been a closely guarded secret.

CNN can reveal a nearby, unlicensed gunshop where Glock 9mm semi-automatic handguns are sold with their serial numbers scratched off. Ask for Vinny.

Fester's secret residence is located here -- and she has no roommates or bodyguards. The key to the back door is stashed between the second and third bricks on the first step.

For someone quickly leaving the area, CNN recommends heading west on Fifth Avenue, where there are three exit points: the road north intersects with Route 2, heading west hits Interstate 128, and south drops into the Mass Pike.

For a person who wishes to switch vehicles, CNN recommends heading west and taking route 128 to the Burlington Mall exit. A gray, late-model Toyota Sienna mini-van is parked at the southwest corner of the first parking structure. The rear latch is open and the keys are hidden under the rear right floormat.

In the third row of seats, there is a suitcase containing several complete changes of clothing, $5,000 in cash, a Sony mini-cam, and a self-addressed, postage-free envelope for mailing the videotape back to CNN... This is Blanderson Pooper for CNN, reporting.

* * *

Maybe it's just me, but I think CNN may have finally crossed a line here. Hot Air has more.

Line o' the Day: When is a fatality a convenience? When you're in the UK

 
Don Surber quotes Charles Moore, a UK columnist on the British health care system.

Each new patient is just an added cost and each dead patient is an administrative convenience.

The NHS is, with our state school system, the last major survival in this country of the idea of the 1940s that government can decide what is best for us and make sure that it is done... A colleague of mine, who investigated alternative healthcare systems when the extreme dirtiness of many British hospitals first became an issue, went to France to compare. In hospital after hospital, he found floors so clean that you could have eaten your lunch off them. Did the Health Minister order them to clean them, he asked an administrator.

He was met with a look of incredulity. “Of course not. We run ourselves. Patients have a choice of hospital. If they do not choose us, we get no money. No hospital can survive if it is not clean.”

In France, hospitals compete. In the UK, people die because there is no competition. Go ye therefore hence, and read it all.

All you need to know about the Nobel Peace Prize

 
With Al Gore's triumph in the Nobel competition over Krusty the Clown -- primarily for his incessant marketing of global warming hysteria -- it's worth recalling the nature of the prize itself.

Past winners of the Nobel Peace Prize

Yasser Arafat: father of modern terrorism, founder of Black September and Fatah, and murderer of numerous American diplomats and Israeli civilians...

Le Duc Tho, North Vietnamese dictator: progenitor of the boat people, murderer of millions, and supporter of Pol Pot (yes, the "Killing Fields" Pol Pot)...

Jimmy Carter, former US president: friend and supporter of literally every murderous dictator in the world...

Non-winners of the Nobel Peace Prize

Ronald Reagan: the man who freed hundreds of millions from the tyranny of Communism without firing a shot.

Do the math

If my math is right, Gore's panic-stricken calls for dampening the global economy -- in a futile attempt to set Earth's temperature dial -- will surely result in food shortages and continued third-world suffering.

Perhaps the next Nobel Peace Prize should go to a large volcano that remains dormant during the course of a whole year. After all, a single massive volcanic explosion -- along the lines of Krakatoa -- could result in significant climate change.

Credits: EIB for the Al Gore/Nobel image

Presidential candidate refers to Jihadists and Caliphate...

 
...in a single, 30 second television spot.


Democrats are particularly irked with Romney's reference to "violent, radical Islamic fundamentalism" and asked that he change it to "violent, radical -- but not affiliated with any particular religion -- fundamentalism".

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Paul Krugman: Banging the Drum for Communism... Again

 
Income Inequality is New York Times columnist Paul Krugman's favorite hobby horse. For decades, Krugman has assailed the increasing gap in pay between the wealthiest Americans and the poorest.

In Mother Jones, he complains:

What few people realize is that this vast gap between the affluent few and the bulk of ordinary Americans is a relatively new fixture on our social landscape. People believe these scenes are nothing new, even that it is utopian to imagine it could be otherwise.

Did I forget to mention this article was written more than a decade ago? In 1996? Let's continue reading.

...Why has America ceased to be a middle-class nation? And, more important, what can be done to make it a middle-class nation again?

What, indeed? I know that -- in my city at least -- there are only two types of neighborhood: the first is a crumbling, decaying urban core where the poor live in huddled masses, yearning to be rich. The second are the gated communities of the ultra-wealthy. There is literally no middle class to speak of. I'm sure your city or town is similar.

...America is by far the least heavily taxed of Western nations and could easily find the resources to pay for a major expansion of programs aimed at limiting inequality...

Once you add up federal, state, local, property, sales, and other miscellaneous taxes, it would not be surprising to find most Americans -- middle class Americans, mind you -- pay well more than 50% of their gross wages in taxes.

According to Krugman, that's not nearly enough.

In particular, we also need to apply strategic thinking to the union movement. Union leaders and liberal intellectuals often don't like each other very much, and union victories are often of dubious value to the economy. Nonetheless, if you are worried about the cycle of polarization in this country, you should support policies that make unions stronger, and vociferously oppose those that weaken them... There are some stirrings of life in the union movement -- a new, younger leadership... They must be supported, almost regardless of the merits of their particular case. Unions are one of the few political counterweights to the power of wealth...

Let's recall: this article was written by Krugman in 1996. I'll be kind and just say that he's no Kreskin.

The last decade has demonstrated the utter irrelevance of unions. A plethora of government agencies -- from the EEOC to OSHA to the National Council on Disability -- protect every aspect of America's work-force.

As for the growth in "income inequality", Forbes' Dan Seligman writes:

Given the editorialists’ recurring objections to George Bush’s tax cuts, their implication here was clear: The Bush Administration has been especially awful in creating inequality. That implication is wrong. The reality is that measured inequality has been rising steadily for close to 30 years and hit successive new highs in the Carter, Reagan, elder Bush and Clinton administrations before doing the exact same thing under the younger Bush.

The standard measure of inequality is the Gini coefficient, signifying the extent to which a society deviates from absolute equality. If everybody has the same income, the coefficient is 0; if the entire GDP belongs to one person, the coefficient is 1. In the U.S. the latest reported coefficient is 0.466. In case you are wondering, it rose more under Clinton–from 0.433 to 0.462–than under any of those other chaps. It rose by only 0.004 during George W. Bush’s first four years. In case you are also wondering how many times Times editorialists complained about Clinton’s inequality record, the answer is zero.

…. Recent figures for Japan have been 0.249, for Germany 0.283, for France 0.327. But those countries have paid heavy prices for their relative income equality. Just about all of them have had lower growth rates than the U.S., and most of them (an exception is Japan) have far higher unemployment rates. The reality is that in democratic free-market societies, more inequality tends to mean more growth.

….. And in periods of boundless technological innovation, like the present, brains and talent are suddenly worth a lot more. The demand for mental skills has exploded. The total U.S. labor force has grown by a little more than one-third in the past two decades, but managerial and professional jobs have roughly doubled, from 24 million to more than 48 million.

Damn, Paul -- that sounds like a middle-class to me!

Let's do a little thought experiment to highlight the stupidity of Krugman's mental excretions. Consider Bellevue, Washington in the storied seventies -- the era of pure equality that Krugman so frequently and lovingly recalls. Bellevue was a sleepy little Seattle suburb that was more rural than urban.

The decade of the Eighties and Nineties saw the rise of Microsoft in nearby Redmond. Microsoft's growth spawned tens of thousands of jobs; grew many hundreds of regional businesses; and has transformed the Seattle suburbs into engines of opportunity.

But if Krugman is right, the income inequality represented by the Microsoft billionaire boys club -- Gates, Allen, and Ballmer among them -- is downright horrifying. In Krugman's bizarre world view, Redmond would have been better off had Microsoft never located nearby because the "income equality" of the Seventies would have lived on indefinitely.

And since Kreskin Krugman wrote his ironic 1996 treatise on the disastrous inequality of Palo Alto, California, two students changed the area forever. Larry Page and Sergey Brin created Google -- with a market capitalization approaching $200 billion dollars. They certainly increased "income inequality" greatly (Page and Brin are currently worth about $20 billion apiece), but they ended up creating scores of millionaires, many of whom were straight out of Krugman's missing middle class.

Put simply, Krugman's like a broken record. For decades, he's sung the same off-key tune using raw statistics... but no knowledge. Income inequality is a great thing. Tom Blumer at Bizzyblog writes:

Income inequality is not necessarily a bad thing, as long as it is:

– Primarily the result of economic efforts.
– There is a safety net for people in unfortunate low-income circumstances.
– There is (as is generally true in the US) real opportunity for people to move up the economic ladder through education, hard work, and creativity, with as few as possible barriers to success.

The fact that low-income children have lacked the same educational opportunity as upper-income children is probably the biggest barrier to sustaining future economic mobility, which is why initiatives like No Child Left Behind, charter schools, school vouchers, and the like are so important. Conservatives tend to favor these initiatives; liberals, especially teachers’ organizations [Ed: a nice word for teachers' unions], usually oppose them.

Attempts to reduce income inequality through higher taxes on higher earners have not only failed to reduce income inequality, but have held back economic growth from what it could have been (see: Western Europe). It also should be noted that the standard of living enjoyed by most US citizens in the bottom income quintile is significantly higher than that of most of the rest of the industrialized world.

Remember all of this the next time you hear whining about how “unfair” income inequality is. The very people who bemoan income inequality ignore the remarkable economic mobility in this country, and are the same ones who oppose the educational reforms that would make even more upward mobility possible...

In short, Krugman lobbies for a kinder, gentler Communism. He advocates the simple redistribution of wealth and lauds a centralized command-and-control system to ensure a consistent income for all.

You'd think that one hundred million fatalities -- the result of the world's last major foray into Communism -- would have taught Krugman a powerful lesson. That murderous form of government leveraged political repression, extrajudicial executions, deportations, and man-made famines to slaughter innocents at a record pace.

Oh, I forgot -- Krugman's a liberal with a conscience.

Update: Omri at The Astute Bloggers gangs up on the Washington Post. Watch one intellectual take on a rabid pack of mental midgets on the same topic.

Hat tips: Gateway Pundit and Larwyn

The Hillary Spend-O-Meter

 
Hillary Clinton told the Boston Globe today, "I have a million ideas. The country can't afford them all." 

It must have been a Freudian slip. Hillary Clinton is on a roll, introducing new plans to spend your money by expanding government... just about every day. Truth be told, she's invented so many big-government agencies over the last two weeks alone that it's getting hard to keep track. That's why the Hillary Clinton Spend-O-Meter was introduced -- it's the quickest way to see how Hillary will affect your already over-taxed wallet.

Every time Hillary proposes a new "solution", the Spend-o-meter will be updated to reflect a realistic estimate of the spending required to fund it. The current picture reflects $440 billion for her plan to have the government take over health care (a low estimate, guaranteed); $100 billion for her taxpayer-funded retirement program; $6 billion for government-funded transportation; and much more.

In fact, today, on the Spend-o-meter's first day, it is already registering $724 billion.  And it's still a year before Election Day.  Can she hit $1 trillion before Thanksgiving?  Will she make it to the $2 trillion mark before the party conventions next summer?  Visit Clintonspendometer.com to see how much of your hard-earned money Hillary Clinton is promising to spend, as she says, "on behalf of the common good."

"Common good"... Sounds kinda... Communistic to me. If she's elected, I wonder where the Gulags will be located.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

You, the Gullible

 
Prairie Pundit points to a tragic story of the human bomb pipeline that begins in Damascus:

The flat where we met was rented by a handler in Damascus, the Syrian capital, who channels aspiring "martyrs" to insurgent groups such as Ahmed's.

Our encounter was arranged as part of a four-week Sunday Times investigation into the world's biggest suicide bombing campaign. More than 1,300 bombers are said to have struck on foot or in vehicles since the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 – more than all the other suicide bombings of the past 20 years put together.

The number this year promises to be higher than ever. The bombers are estimated to have killed and injured more than 4,000 people in the first nine months. Their targets have ranged from lines of police recruits in and around Baghdad to an entire village near the Syrian border where up to 500 died.

So who are these bombers and why do they do it? How are they organised? And how much impact are they really making on a war that is sucking ever larger numbers of suicidal volunteers from across the Middle East into Iraq's vortex of violence.

We tracked down three bombers in our search for answers. The first interviews of their kind with men passing through Syria on their way to die in Iraq, they confounded expectations.

These were no psychopathic loners from the ghetto, but articulate, middle-class men in their twenties and early thirties who had come from good homes and gone to university. One was a newly married accountant.

Yet all had reached the chilling conclusion that killing "sinners" would transport them to paradise. None had the slightest inkling that they might be exploited by Al-Qaeda and other battle-hardened groups which will probably use these fresh-faced idealists for no higher purpose than to sustain the most brutal sectarian conflict of our age...

Attention, would-be suicide bombers:

They're lying to you.

You'll find no paradise. There will be no virgins. Instead, you'll receive instant unconsciousness and your family will be gone -- forever.

You've been tricked by a bunch of conniving thugs too cowardly to strap bombs on themselves. So they recruit you, the gullible. Ask your local recruiter whether they'll strap a bomb on first -- before you do. Their answer should tell you all you need to know about their true beliefs.

Blog comment o' the day: Mexifornia

 
All seven of our regular readers are sure to enjoy this comment from Don Surber's blog; it's one of the most interesting we've seen since the Internet was discovered by Al Gore in 1968.

Commenter Jose Blow responds to another's assertion that "...[Nancy] Pelosi has helped improve America, even if only slightly. She’d do a lot more for this country if Republicans would just get out of the way.”

Well, I live in Southern California. Anybody who wants to see how the Dems have “improved” the state are welcome to come here and check it out for themselves.

We’re overrun with illegals who we’re pelting with giant wads of cash. Our businesses are fleeing like Saddam’s army. Our emergency rooms have either closed or have become like the Department of Motor Vehicles, where you sit for hours among people who speak no English, to be waited on by people who speak broken English.

Our roads are so potholed you’ll actually lose pieces of your car as you bounce and plunge over them. Our law-enforcement officers aren’t allowed to use any level of force against non-Caucasians, or they’ll get suspended or fired before they’re sued.

A huge portion of our work force is on the government payroll, and they’re always clamoring for more benefits, higher salaries, and bigger pensions. Our politicians are as corrupt as oily banana-republic dictators. Our schools produce people who can’t read, write, or think, and who answer every challenge with the shout of “Racism! Gimmie money!”

California is a Third World nanny state. This is what the Dems want for the rest of you. We’re done here. We’re toast. The Golden State is no more. We’ve become Mexifornia, with a few obscenely wealthy oligarchs living in splendid isolation, a dwindling middle class, and a giant writhing mass of poor who’ll never be good for anything except manual labor, breeding, and voting themselves more government handouts.

But that doesn’t mean the rest of you have to go the same way.

Stop the Dems before it’s too late.

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Democrats Lied. Earmark Reform Died.

 
Democrats squeaked into the majority in 2006 based -- in great part -- upon a vow to clean up Congress. Their winning sound-bites included promises to "drain the swamp" and eradicate "the culture of corruption."

Instead, the 2007 Water Projects Bill demonstrates just how thoroughly corrupt the Democratic-led Congress has become.

...When Congress got around to authorizing the $4.9 billion in [spending that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers requested], here is what happened: The Senate passed a bill that cost roughly $14 billion, and the House a different bill at $15 billion. Then they got together in conference and compromised -- at $23.2 billion.

Congress's core mission was apparently not only to leave no pork-barrel project on the cutting-room floor, but to destroy the idea of a cutting room. Just about every Member gets his earmark(s). Thus the Water Resources Development Act contains more than 900 special-interest boondoggles like:

• At least $1.8 billion to build seven unnecessary navigation locks on the Upper Mississippi River, a project embroiled for years by corruption and budget overruns.

• Billions for cross-country "environmental infrastructure," which usually means building a marina or waterfront shopping center.

• $105 million to Louisiana's Port of Iberia, which the Corps estimated to generate 30 cents for every $1 spent before Senator Mary Landrieu demanded a highly dubious recount.

• A multimillion-dollar subsidyfest for wastewater treatment facilities, sewer projects, mine reclamation, beach maintenance and surface transport, none of which fall under the Corps' jurisdiction.

Even all that wasn't enough. The conference committee "airdropped" 19 earmarks that were not in the original House or Senate bills. Their appearance added $750 million to the tab, with $685 million of the new pork going to the Santa Ana River Mainstem (total cost: $1.8 billion and counting) in Southern California. The last-minute request was made by California Senator Barbara Boxer, who as chairman of the Environmental and Public Works Committee was responsible for crafting the legislation in the first place.

This airdropping clearly violates the transparency provisions of the Democrats' recent ethics "reform." Majority Leader Harry Reid, however, ruled that an "and/or" clause meant that the rules applied only to appropriations, not "authorizations," so Ms. Boxer got her wish... The Corps has a $38 billion project backlog, so those backed by the most politically powerful Members bob to the top. Congress twice rejected amendments to prioritize the most urgent works...

When the next bridge collapse or levy failure occurs, voters would do well to recall that Democrats lied... and earmark reform died. One hopes that innocent lives aren't also lost, precipitated by the greed of Boxer, Reid, and the rest of the real culture of corruption.

This simply reinforces the fact that we do need a fairness doctrine... for the American taxpayer.

Wall Street Journal: Water Carriers