Author: Redactor

Categories
national politics & policies porkbarrel politics

Failure to Lead

Politicians in Washington constantly tell us we’re in a serious crisis. But if it’s as serious as our solons say, surely it’s affected their own behavior, right?

Many CEOs of bailed out companies have sacrificed their normal salaries, accepting pay of only $1 for this year. 

Members of Congress? They gave themselves a pay raise.

CEOs have been attacked for using their corporate jets. Heads of Detroit automakers were so browbeaten that they actually drove to Washington to plead for bailouts. On the other hand, after obtaining and reviewing emails between Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Air Force, Judicial Watch’s Tom Fitton says that “Speaker Pelosi treats the Air Force like her personal airline.”

But what about substance? Faced with tough times ahead and with taxpayers on the hook to pick up trillions in new spending, Congress might stop larding on extra pork, right?

Well, how important to our nation’s survival is a million dollars to study swine odor; $800,000 for oyster rehab; $200,000 for tattoo removal; $4 million to improve a street in Hattiesburg, Mississippi?

Leaders are supposed to lead. But, even in times of crisis, our so-​called leaders can only follow their oldest habit: spend.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
First Amendment rights general freedom Second Amendment rights

Show-​Me Madness

What if you were profiled by the police as a terrorist simply because of your political beliefs?

A new report entitled “The Modern Militia Movement,” prepared for law enforcement agencies by the Missouri Information Analysis Center, threatens just that.

The report doesn’t detail any current criminal activity in Missouri. It does suggest to police, however, that anyone opposing government bailouts, abortion, or the Federal Reserve is a potential militia member, possibly a terrorist, or both.

The report tells police how to recognize militia members. Look for literature that is “derogatory” toward the IRS, ATF, the CIA, and the like. And look also for people who support minor party presidential candidates, or one sitting Republican congressman.

Tim Neal told the Associated Press that he has become nervous about his Ron Paul bumpersticker. Hearing a litany of the tell-​tale signs that a person is in a militia, he said he “was going down the list and thinking, ‘Check, that’s me.’ ”

Remember, it’s perfectly legal — and peaceful — to wear fatigues. 

It is also legal to train, military-​style, on private property. So is paintball. And both probably qualify as good preparation for all sorts of emergencies. 

Governments focusing investigations and gathering “intelligence” on citizens on the basis of peaceful, perfectly legal political viewpoints is far more dangerous. And that’s happening right now in the Show-​Me state.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
insider corruption national politics & policies

A Suicide-​Inducing Congress?

Say you are president. You thunder about how your predecessor’s bailouts let corporate execs keep big bonuses at taxpayer expense. That won’t happen on your watch!

And then it does. AIG bigwigs take $165 million.

So you are angry at yourself, for signing that stimulus bill with its specific language permitting TARP recipients to pay bonuses if bonuses were part of contracts made before February of ’09.

Maybe somebody should have read the legislation. So who has that job? Besides you … I mean the president himself. Why, Congress, of course!

Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley said he would at least “feel better” were AIG executives to apologize and then either “resign or go commit suicide.”

Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd and New York Sen. Chuck Schumer advocate passing a special tax to confiscate all the bonus money ex post facto. 

Dodd didn’t mention that he had authored the provision specifically permitting the AIG bonuses. He has now said he’ll return the $280,000 in donations he’s received from AIG executives. Schumer was mum about his $112,000 from those same execs.

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar said, “We’ve got to do whatever it takes to make sure people that basically ripped off the American people weren’t able to profit from it.”

So is she talking about AIG … or Congress?

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
insider corruption

Modern Disabilities

You expect politicians to game the system and rip off taxpayers for their own benefit. But not our police. 

In Montgomery County, Maryland, 41 percent of retiring police officers now receive disability payments, and requests for disability pay have jumped an incredible 300 percent in the last year. 

In nearby Fairfax County, Virginia, on the other hand, only 3 percent of retirees receive disability. 

Of course, police work is often dangerous, and when officers are disabled on the job they ought to be compensated properly. Still, something is way out of whack in Montgomery County.

Former county officers receiving extra disability retirement pay have been discovered working other very physically demanding jobs — like flying commercial aircraft, or breaking up fights as a high school security guard, or serving in the army reserve. 

Thomas Evans, a former county police chief, calls snagging extra disability pay “almost as easy as signing your name on the application.”

Now the feds are investigating. That’s good, but how does a system get so far out of whack? 

Two factors are at work: (1) a unionized police force means constant pressure for more outlandish benefits, and (2) politicians negotiate these deals with securing the political support of the union in mind, not fulfilling their fiscal responsibility to taxpayers. 

Or maybe it’s just proximity to Washington, D.C.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
initiative, referendum, and recall

Scooby-​Doo, Where Are You?

Remember Scooby-​Doo? Debuting in 1969, the plot to every one of the cartoons is the same: Bad guy pretends to be a ghost or monster to steal something. Then he gets caught by the title Great Dane and teenagers Shaggy, Velma, Fred and Daphne. The crook then cries out, “I would’ve got away with it, if it wasn’t for those pesky kids!”

When it comes to politicians and their scary schemes, Texas voters perform the same service as “those pesky kids.”

Last year, Austin citizens voted on a measure that would have stopped the city from giving away millions in subsidies to the Domain shopping center. It failed, though, after a big campaign by city officials arguing the deal was already done and, if altered, taxpayers would be liable for millions of dollars in legal fees.

In Dallas, a measure on this May’s ballot would prohibit the city from owning a convention center. Now a group called Dallas Right to Vote has collected enough signatures to place another measure before voters allowing a public vote on any city giveaway of $1 million or more.

Even Scoob could figure the bad guys’ next move. State Sen. Jeff Wentworth has introduced Senate Bill 690 to double the number of signatures citizens must gather to put these local initiatives on the ballot.

Call Senator Wentworth at (512) 463‑0125. Tell him you support those pesky kids — er, voters.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
national politics & policies porkbarrel politics too much government

Homeless Red Ink

I have a prediction.

Even though President Obama insists that all of the trillions in so-​called “stimulus” spending will be expertly managed and masterfully allocated — of course, to only the most deserving and stimulating beneficiaries — lots of the hastily cobbled new spending will end up being wasted.

I’m afraid I cheated with this prediction. I already have an example in hand. The town of Union, New York, is slated to receive almost $600,000 from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Why? To combat homelessness.

Problem? There isn’t one — that is, there isn’t a homeless problem in Union. Which is why the town does not have any programs for dealing with the homeless and it has no means of administering the money that’s been flung at it. Nor did the town request the funds. Town supervisor John Bernardo says, “We were surprised. We’ve never been a recipient before.”

A less honest man would have trucked in some homeless guys and warbled, “Thank goodness we’re finally getting these funds.” But what Union lacks, Washington provides: A HUD spokesman says the new grant recipients should employ “creative strategies” in figuring out how to spend the money.

So that more than half-​million dollars will find a home somewhere — anywhere but the wallets it came from.

You see why I shake my head and say, “I could have predicted this.” This isn’t change. It’s more — way more — of the same.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.