2007-03-29

The "good old boy" system never dies...

The numbers just get bigger.

A big "thank you" to Senator Feinstein (office phone: 202-224-3841) for taking money, at gun point, from the taxpayers, and channeling it to her husband's investments.

Oh, did I mention that she wants Attorney General Gonzoles FIRED because he was in on the firing of 8 federal attorneys that can be fired FOR ANY REASON THAT THE PRESIDENT DESIRES?

The money quote:

Now he's saying he doesn't know. I think the day of the dual-hatted Attorney General should be over. Attorney General Gonzales has had the view that he serves two masters, that he serves the President and that he serves as the chief law enforcement officer.

He serves one master, and that's the people of this country – in being straightforward, in following the law.


You do know that farming public work out to private companies that you have a personal stake in is at best shady, and at worst, misuse of TAXPAYER DOLLARS, right? It gets even more unethical if you do the above with NO BID PROCESS.

Senator Feinstein, do you have something you want to tell the taxpayers?

Un-friggin-believable.

2007-03-27

Thank you Tony Blair

I don't have a citation for this, but I agree with the sentiment:


In case you find ourselves starting to believe all the anti-American sentiment and negativity you we should remember England 's Prime Minister Tony Blair's words during a recent interview. When asked by one of his Parliament members why he believes so much in America , he said:

"A simple way to take measure of a country is to look at how many want in ... And how many want out." and ...

"Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you: 1. Jesus Christ 2. The American G. I. One died for your soul, the other for your freedom."

2007-03-23

Although this could be another political rant...

With a big thank you going out to our elected officials of the 110th House of Representatives for attempting to pass pork and defeat along with the Iraq defense spending bill (link), I found something fun. The site is in German, but the video content speaks for itself.

Concerning the latest stunt by "our Representatives" in the House: If you're not angry, you're not paying enough attention. A short list:
A minimum wage increase
Asbestos abatement in the Capitol Power plant, $50,000,000
Power subsidies for the poor, $200,000,000
Flu outbreak and subsidies for vaccination, $969,650,000
Fish research, $60,400,000
And finally, my favorites, Spinach farmers bailout, $25,000,000
Dairy farmers bailout, $283,000,000
Peanut farmers storage cost offsets (read: bailout), $74,000,000
and lastly, A fish farming bailout of $5,000,000.

Just those totals alone are by my calculations, $1,405,850,000. Out tax dollars being taken by the federal government and spent on private entities. And that was just 10 minutes of digging through this gargantuan bill with over *7000* sections. How things get done in Washington is completely beyond me. Perhaps this is why the government is the way it is now. I digress, however.

Whatever side of the fence you're on, NONE of this $1.4 BILLION dollars is going to finance *ANYTHING* to do with the war, or the fallout thereof. If that's the case, why the hell is this bill (HR1591) called The "U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Health, and Iraq Accountability Act, 2007"

Guess it turned into a political post after all. This stuff just makes me fume.

edit: They freaking don't have static links to any of the bill stuff. Thanks a lot.

2007-03-22

I would like to thank my district rep

Steve Oelrich for attempting to make the cost of post primary education go up in Florida. It's not enough that the state university system gets over $1.7 BILLION of tax revenue (from my state sales tax, thank you, NOT including cash from the state's lottery fund), they now want an extra $1000 per-student, per-year to have access to the state's university system.

Now, I'll give you "it's just $20 per week". That's as far as I go with it.

Statements like the following are what anger me:

[Representative Oelrich] said 95 percent of UF's in-state students receive Bright Future scholarships to further offset the relatively low tuition of $3,300 annually for residents. And he said the median family income of students is $100,000.


My rebuttal to that would be "so what". Lemme rephrase that statement into what I read there:

"A lot of rich people send their kids to our university, so let's get more money from them."

Thanks for playing.

Besides that, while there may be a group of students whose families have a medical doctor/surgeon/whatnot in the family, the majority of prospective students in the area don't have that kind of fiscal backing.

The surrounding counties' primary economic systems are agriculture based. Between that, and the skewed population size (year 2000 Census data) vs student count (UFL.edu fact page) in Gainesville, getting a decent paying job (Gaineville, Florida's Wikipedia entry supports this statement.) around here requires basically being in the medical field. Which requires a degree. Which Rep. Oelrich is trying to make more difficult to get for the very people who support and work at this particular university.

I wouldn't gripe about this so much if it wasn't for the sheer audacity of the statement above. It just reeks of class warfare to me. *Another* tax, except this time only on university students.

How about this, Rep. Olerich: You show me that you and the universities are working as hard as you can to cut the fat out of the university budgets, and then we'll talk about it. For now, I'll call it what it is: A TAX on STUDENTS who are trying to get a piece of paper to make more money. While we're talking about budgets, how about more work on smaller government?

2007-03-21

These kind of things just chap my ass...

Apparently, destroying property is now an acceptable form of political protest:
WXYZ, Detroit (ABC affiliate)

Also, apparently, it's now the US armed forces at fault for the trouble in Iraq, and anti-semitism is back in vogue:
Little Green Footballs

Note that none of these assholes have the nuts to do this without their identity being concealed.

If I were less of a man, I'd say it's tire slashing time.

Thing is, I'm better than any of these people. I'll just show their disrespect for property and our hard working troops to my small audience with a statement that "the vandals need to be arrested, and the other guys are just twits".