This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Congress sucks

  • GOP moves to spare defense, Democrats whine

    Fox News reports that the House Republicans are finally stirring their lazy asses to spare the Defense Department from shouldering the entire burden of the $1/2 trillion in cuts they’ll endure because the super committee couldn’t be super last year. And of course, the Republicans are targeting “entitlements” – you know the same kind of things that veterans are expected to take in the ass from the Defense Department’s Panetta Hatchet Brigade. And just as expected, the Democrats are popping smoke to protect their constituency;

    “They have a totally lopsided approach,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., accusing Republicans of protecting special interests at the expense of the poor. “The result is they whack everybody else.”

    So I guess now veterans are a “special interest group” and the Democrats want to pit us against the people who are expecting their benefits having accomplished nothing except successfully navigating the birth canal.

    And the White House has issued a veto threat over the Republican bill.

    An administration statement released Wednesday evening said the bill “would impose deep budget cuts that cost jobs and hurt middle-class and vulnerable Americans.”

    But, what about the ‘deep budget cuts” in our defense budget in a time of war? Not to mention the veterans who are subjected to increased costs on fixed incomes so someone who hasn’t worked a day in their lives can afford their cable bill for their big screen TV? Of course, having not seen anything from the Republicans, I have no doubt that they’re willing to subject veterans to those increases anyway – the difference being that I don’t hear anyone coming to our defense like that shrieking moron Van Hollen is rushing to the defense of welfare checks and food stamps.

  • Lugar’s Loss…a Lesson to Future Losers

    Reading all the follow-up reports of Indiana Senator, Dick Lugar’s loss in the Republican primary to Tea Party favorite, Richard Mourdock, I’ve yet to see any journalist fully address a very good reason why voters might have been disenchanted with their long-ensconced incumbent: Lugar’s non-residency in his home state. The man had not maintained a residence in the state he represented since 1977, according to a report at Politico.

    Think about that: that’s forty-five years this guy went without being an actual, physical resident of the state he supposedly served. When you want to know what’s wrong with our Congress and why so many of our elected representatives are so out of touch with the needs of the folks at home, Lugar’s a great starting point. Think about that some more: for forty-five years the suave, elegant, sophisticated Lugar lived the good life on the taxpayers’ dime while he wouldn’t stoop to live among those Hoosier hayseeds who kept electing him. There’s a word for that:
    Arrogance.

    As the good voters of Indiana, Utah and Maryland have shown the rest of the nation, it is high time for this kind of condescending arrogance of too-long serving senators and congressmen to end. We trust them with our votes and send them to represent our interests within the system and the system wins by corrupting them to the point that they no longer care about our interests but only their own self-preservation as members of the governing elite. It is indeed true that power corrupts and with these people their gradually accumulating power corrupts them to the point they no longer are representatives of their constituents, they exist purely to represent themselves and to do whatever is necessary within the isolated confines of congressional Washington to preserve their own privileged existence.

    Enough! The voters in every state should look very closely at their members of Congress who are currently tasked with the responsibility of representing them. If they resemble Lugar in any small way, they should be replaced with someone to whom it has been made abundantly clear, “Don’t go there and sell us out for your own self-interest or you will be out on your ass.”
    Richard Lugar may be the nicest guy in the world; but can you imagine the Founding Fathers ever expecting any elected representative to the peoples’ Congress they created not living in his district for almost half a century? OK guys, you can stop spinning; he’s history.

    Do you know what really sums it all up for me about the properness of Lugar’s defeat? Guess who was on television today mourning his loss? Not his Republican colleagues but:

    Jean Fraud Kerry…

    What’s that old saying about, “Speaking volumes?”

  • House blocks Obama’s Tricare hike authority

    That’s not to say that Tricare hikes won’t happen, it’s just that the House refused to grant the Administration “new authority” for their campaign against military retirees’ Tricare costs according to the Stars & Stripes;

    But in marking up its version of the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill, the subcommittee did not adopt discreet language, as it has in the past years, that would block any Tricare fee increases.

    It also did not include language, as it has previously, that would prohibit the Department of Defense from using existing authority to raise co-payments on prescription drugs for dependents and retirees who use neighborhood pharmacies or the Tricare mail order pharmacy program.

    Of course, in the Senate, Lindsey Graham is busying himself to make sure the House joins him in screwing over veterans;

    “Between now and the end of the fiscal year, I hope we can convince the House to accept some adjustments in premiums for Tricare, because it’s just unsustainable right now,” Graham told me in a phone interview.

    Ya know what else is unsustainable, Lindsey? Those fricken $32,000 trips Leon Panetta takes home at least once every week;

    “If Congress rejects all of the modest changes we’ve proposed in Tricare fees and co-pays for retirees, than almost $13 billion in savings over the next five years will have to be found in other areas such as readiness, or we could be forced to further reduce our troop strength,” Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told Pentagon reporters this month.

    And, on cue, Graham, bends over for Panetta;

    “I don’t believe anybody was promised free lifetime medical care. That’s a popular myth,” Graham said. “I think we have an obligation to the retired force to be generous and to be compassionate to help recruiting and retention. But, you know, there was never any contract with anybody that, for the rest of your life, you will get free medical care. That’s not part of the deal and was never part of the deal.”

    Lyin’ bone smugglin’ piece of shit. It’s the reason most of us stayed for retirement, because the pension sure wasn’t all that attractive. Way to stick your brother veterans right in the ass, Lindsey, you smoldering turd.

  • That GSA clown conference, it was…whatelse…Bush’s fault

    I’m sure everyone has heard about the $1 million GSA conference in Las Vegas that taxpayers paid exorbitant prices to keep the government class entertained. Even NPR thought it was over the top, but probably only because it happened in an election year and endangered their incumbent friends. The Washington Post reports that Martha N. Johnson, the administrator of GSA has resigned;

    Administrator Martha N. Johnson, in her resignation letter, acknowledged a “significant misstep” at the agency that manages real estate for the federal government. “Taxpayer dollars were squandered,” she wrote. At the start of her tenure in February 2010 she called ethics “a big issue for me.”

    Apparently, ethics ended up being a bigger issue than she expected. We’re still waiting for someone to resign at the Justice Department, by the way, for their little conference.

    Anyway, I just saw some GSA spokespuppet on Fox News explain how this behavior was a holdover from the Bush Administration. Excuse me, but Bush has been out of office for more than three years, and I don’t remember any videos during the Bush Administration that mocked the American taxpayers like the one that was on YouTube last week.

    Even Dick Durbin has his hackles up, according to Fox News;

    “It’s an absolutely outrageous expenditure of taxpayers’ money,” Durbin said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “That kind of misuse of taxpayers’ funds is totally unacceptable.”

    But, probably because it makes Democrats look so bad in the current debate on how to balance the budget on the backs of veterans.

  • A voice of reason in the CBC?

    Fox News reports that yesterday on CNN’s “State of the Union”, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO), admonished his fellow caucus members for saying that the republicans are “waging war on women”;

    “We’ve got to quit exaggerating our political differences,” he said. “If you believe that the president is a Christian … you still come to the belief that he’s trying to destroy religion in this country? I think we’ve got to stop it. That is not doing this country this any good at all.”

    Thank you Reverend Cleaver, we appreciate that, not “we Republicans”, but “we Americans”, because lately I’m anything but a Republican. But this is a good start – just having the courage to stand up for a little truth counts for a lot. But, it’s completely different if Cleaver said that just for political points rather than standing up for the truth for a second. I guess we’ll see.

  • Unsurprisingly, Democrats don’t want you to “stand your ground”

    Old Trooper sends a link to the Fox News article which tells us that, in the wake of the public trial being held in the media everyday over the Trayvon Martin shooting, Democrats in the Congressional Black Caucus are ignoring the Tenth Amendment and they’re prepared to present legislation that forbid the “stand your ground” laws which is inforce in 30 states, with 6 others considering the legislation. the concept has in it’s roots, a couple of Supreme Court decisions (Beard v. U.S.- 1895, State v. Gardner – 1905 and Brown v. United States – 1921). But that doesn’t influence the members of the CBC, who are apparently in the business of protecting criminals;

    But the sponsors are working on the measures over spring break and plan to push them when lawmakers return later this month. They claim they’re trying to prevent another killing like the one that has touched off a raging national debate about race and the justice system.

    “I am tired of burying young black boys,” Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., said on the House floor. Martin lived in Wilson’s district.

    Wilson, who organized a rally in Miami Sunday calling for an arrest in the case, is taking a well-traveled path in response to a high-profile case — she’s forming a commission.

    It seems to me that someone who is tired of burying “young black boys” would actually do something to prevent that outcome instead of seeking to restrict the rights of property owners.

    I’m sure the CBC is reassured by Bill Clinton’s call for a “reappraisal” of the law.

    Meanwhile, in a link from ROS, The WRAP reports that it seems that NBC is launching an internal investigation regarding the editing of the audio tapes related to the Zimmerman 9-1-1 call;

    The edited call, which aired on NBC’s “Today Show” on March 27, featured Zimmerman talking to a 911 dispatcher.

    “This guy looks like he’s up to no good … he looks black,” Zimmerman said in the edited segment.

    That, it turns out, appears to be only part of the exchange. The complete exchange went like this:

    Zimmerman: “This guy looks like he’s up to no good. Or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around, looking about.”

    Dispatcher: “OK, and this guy — is he black, white or Hispanic?”

    Zimmerman: “He looks black.”

    If you can’t find news at NBC, you can just make it up, I guess.

  • Bobby Rush and his hoodie

    That doddering old turd, Bobby Rush, violates House rules by wearing a hoodie on the floor of the House to somehow end racial profiling;

    First of all, I don’t know how any member of Congress thinks that they can end racial profiling by an individual like George Zimmerman, well unless they think that they can regulate thought.

    Secondly, how is judging someone wearing a hoodie racial profiling? Is the sales of hoodies limited to a certain race? I wasn’t aware of that. Someone needs to tell the Old Navy people, because they’re selling them to everyone.

    I wish the chair hadn’t interrupted the babbling old fool Rush because he was just getting into what the Bible says about wearing hoodies, and I haven’t got to that part yet.

    And someone needs to tell Adam Weinstein, my white whale (emphasis on white) at Mother Jones, who has been making a big deal about the fact that he has a hoodie for several days now. I think he’s trying too hard to prove he’s not a white boy like the rest of us are white boys. I’ll bet he listens to Black-Eyed Peas all day long, too;

    I’d give credit for sending me the link to one of you, but I got like twenty tips on this one. You guys must really want to talk about it.

    And while we’re on the subject Old Trooper sends us a link to RealClearPolitics in which Democrats are charging Republicans with politicizing the shooting of poor little Traynor Martin. Excuse me, but I haven’t heard any Republicans say “He could have been my son”.

  • Update on Patty Murray’s lies

    Yeah, I’m hanging on to this like a pitbull with a chew toy. This is in reference to the post I did last week about [Chair of the Senate’s Veteran Affairs Committee, Democrat-Washington] Patty Murray’s response to one of her constituents in Washington State. The constituent asked Murray why there are so many illegitimate recipients of VA benefits for being POWs. Murray responded that on July 7, 2009, she asked Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs Shinseki to look into the situation. Then she said that on May 14, 2010 Shinseki responded that DVA had completed a scrub of the records and had found only two such phonies.

    Our insurgent on Capital Hill could find no such communication from Shinseki, so he asked me to call yesterday and ask for a copy of the letter from Murray to Shinseki, July 7, 2009. And I did, I talked to a polite young man by the name of Ben and told him the story and asked that he send me a copy of the letter. He went through all of the motions, then came back on the phone and said they were having trouble locating the letter, could he take my contact information and email me a copy. So we did that.

    Having not heard anything, I called back this morning. Funny thing, when I called on my cell phone, which I used yesterday, my call went straight to v-mail. But when I called using a different phone, someone picked up immediately. I asked the young lady if I could speak to Ben and after leaving me on hold for a minute or so, she came back and told me that Ben was unavailable, but that she was familiar with my inquiry and that they were checking with [someone] to see if they’re allowed to share that letter with me and that they’d be getting back to me.

    A little bird told me that no such letter exists, and they’re just hoping that my inquiry dies on the vine, but they must not know me very well. My next stop is the Washington Post, or the Washington Times, whichever finds this story more interesting.

    Ben asked me for the URL of the blog twice, so; Hi, Ben.