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

Category: Congress sucks

  • Congress won’t close Guantanamo

    This ought to reverberate through the anti-war and the Amnesty International crowd – the Democrats rolled out the omnibus spending bill today without funds to close Guantanamo and move the “detainees” to the US according to the Washington Times;

    The massive spending bill Democrats released early Wednesday morning would prohibit the Obama administration from spending any money either to transfer detainees to the United States or to buy a replacement prison in the United States, as Mr. Obama had planned.

    Prohibiting spending effectively stops the administration from acting over the next year, and with Republicans about to take control of the House in January, his chances are virtually zero that Congress will relent any time before the president stands for re-election in 2012.

    The bill, which will be voted on over the next week or so, explicitly prohibits the transfer of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

    Hey, I’m not complaining, I’m just pointing out that the Democrats whined for eight years about Guantanamo and now the first time they can do something about it, they fall on their faces. It’s the same with the PATRIOT Act and the myriad other things (tax cuts?) they cried crocodile tears over that they’re unwilling to be responsible for now.

    I guess it couldn’t have anything to do with a report released Tuesday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (Bill Gertz of the Washington Times link);

    The report, made public Tuesday, stated that out of a total of 598 detainees released as of October, 150 were confirmed or suspected of “reengaging in terrorist or insurgent activities after transfer,” the two-page unclassified summary said.

    It’s almost as it Bush was right all along, isn’t it?

  • Obama: I don’t normally negotiate with hostage takers

    During his big speech to Democrats about accepting the deal he cut with Republicans, Obama told the assembled personages that he doesn’t normally negotiate with hostage takers, unless the hostage is about to harmed. He went on to say that the hostages, in this case, are the American people. Well, that’s a great way to build bridges between the aisles, isn’t it?

    Of course he stole the line from at least two journalistic sources. One being Newsweek and the other is the Washington Monthly both of which called Republicans hostage takers before the president’s little talk today.

    I watched the president get increasingly irritated as the bomb tossing press basically called him a big pussy for capitulating to Republicans. It was almost as if they were trying to change his mind. But that couldn’t be true, could it?

    In the meantime, Nancy Pelosi is living up to her reputation as an idiot who learned nothing in this last election. Obviously, she still doesn’t think all of those “Fire Pelosi” signs (coffee mugs, T-shirts, bobble heads, websites, etc….) were aimed at her. The Hill writes;

    In a post on Twitter, Pelosi said the GOP provisions in the tax proposal would add to the deficit and help the rich without creating jobs. The GOP provisions “help only wealthiest 3%, don’t create jobs & add tens of billions to deficit,” the Pelosi tweet said.

    The Speaker expanded on her criticism of the Republican proposals in a statement that notably withheld any commitment of support.

    I only wish that she was just as concerned about deficits when she rammed through all of that domestic spending last year. Of course, what she’s really worried about is the whole country is discovering what a great thing George Bush did when he cut taxes, and she’s afraid that we’ll all discover what a giant lie upon which the Democrat Party bases it’s entire philosophy.

    And I guess now Nancy Pelosi is holding us hostage.

  • Deficit Commission recommends pay freeze for Congress

    The President’s own Deficit Commission stepped away from their draft proposal last month which recommended a pay freeze for the military and they added a proposal to freeze Congressional pay according to Stars & Stripes;

    “Unlike most Americans, members of Congress benefit from an automatic salary increase every single year – deserved or not,” the report says. “Before Congress can ask the American people to sacrifice, it should lead by example. The Commission recommends an immediate three-year salary freeze for all members of Congress.”

    The recommendation comes as outgoing House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, has called for a pay freeze for some troops.

    I wonder if the commission reads This Ain’t Hell.

    Thanks to Jeffrey Schogol for the link.

  • Hoyer: We should freeze military pay, too

    I mentioned earlier that the Obama Administration moved to freeze government employees’ pay today. Not to be outdone, Steny Hoyer, the soon-to-be minority whip from Maryland said that the president should also freeze military pay as well according to The Hill;

    Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said including the military would have increased savings and add “an element of fairness.” He made the comments in a statement about he president’s announcement of a two-year pay freeze.

    An added “element of fairness” would be to freeze Congressional pay including Congressional staff, wouldn’t it Steny? Ya dope. It’s funny because I got an email from a journalist this afternoon who told me that he couldn’t get a straight answer to his inquiries to the White House on the subject of the eventuality of a military pay freeze.

    The Maryland Democrat also urged the administration to back a more comprehensive program to reduce the nation’s soaring deficit, along the lines of proposals from the president’s fiscal commission and a separate debt panel.

    Yeah, after the Democrat Congress went on the largest spending spree in the history of the world, now all of a sudden Hoyer is Peter Pinchpenny. It sure is easy to be in the minority .

    Then Hoyer went on to demonstrate that he doesn’t understand this whole war thingie, he says;

    …with a strong exception for the members of our military and civilian employees risking their lives on our behalf in Afghanistan, Iraq, and anywhere else they are serving in harm’s way.”

    How would Hoyer freeze the pay of military members who are not in a shooting war and not freeze the pay of those involved in the war? Does he think that one group is perpetually at war while the other is perpetually not at war? I’d like to see his math on that one. Of course, he’s talking to a bunch of morons who don’t know any differently.

    Thanks to ROS and COB6 for the link.

  • Boxer: With DADT, US is like Iran

    Barbara “Call me Senator” Boxer compared the Armed Forces policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in regards to gays in the military now puts this country on the same level with Iran, North Korea and Pakistan according to Fox News;

    “We now stand — with this rule — with countries like Iran, North Korea and Pakistan in banning gays and lesbians from military service
    ,” Boxer said as Lieberman, an independent who aligns himself with Democrats, nodded his head.

    Yes, we treat gays just like they do in Iran (content warning below the fold);
    (more…)

  • Lessons unlearned, part III

    So here we are mired in foreclosure, unemployment at highs not seen in more than two decades, a war, mountains of Chinese-owned debt, rogue nations with nuclear capability, impending tax hikes on workers, the largest dependent class in nearly twenty years, and what does Harry Reid think is so important that it must be resolved in the final weeks of this Congressional session? Gays in the military.

    Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s announcement makes good on his pre-election promise to resurrect legislation that would repeal the 1993 law known as “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

    But it remains far from certain whether the legislation would have enough votes to pass. Several leading Republicans, including Sen. John McCain, have said they oppose lifting the ban.

    “We need to repeal this discriminatory policy so that any American who wants to defend our country can do so,” Reid said in a statement.

    Purely political and absolutely useless. It seems to me that after barely winning reelection, Reid, the draft dodger, would be more concerned about mending the economy, avoiding the tax hikes that take effect in six weeks and working on issues that effect all of America instead of pandering to few misguided and selfish people chained to the White House fence.

    Thanks, Nevada, thanks a lot.

  • Lessons unlearned, Part II

    Well, Nancy Pelosi just won the leadership position of her party once again.

    “There was a lot of unrest in the room for several hours,” Shuler said following the vote, arguing the strength of his challenge “sends a message” that the party needs to change direction.

    If I was just a partisan Republican interested only in the number of seats my party occupied in Congress, I’d be ecstatic that Pelosi won because the voters will punish Democrats in two years. But I’m more concerned about my country, my family and my wallet.

    Pelosi has argued that she should remain in the leadership in part because she knows how to lead Democrats out of the political wilderness, having done so four years ago. She also argues that she is the most effective fundraiser for members of the caucus. She blames the party’s losses on the country’s lingering economic troubles and high unemployment rate, not her leadership.

    If by “lead Democrats out of the political wilderness” she means “out of the political wilderness into the darker, denser triple-quadruple canopy jungle” she’s probably right. This is the second time I’ve heard her absolve herself of blame for the losses in the election. I guess she doesn’t realize that the “country’s lingering economic troubles and high unemployment rate” are lingering and high because of her policies. Her pig-headed policies.

    Now they want to diddle with tax hikes. The market shot up the day after the election and now that Congress is back in session it’s back to ambling along with aimless uncertainty.

  • Lessons unlearned

    Well, it looks like the Democrats have learned nothing from the last election. Bloomberg reports that they are still arguing over what the tax structure should look like last year as the Obama Tax Hikes (can we stop calling them the Bush Tax Cuts now, since they’ve been in place for a decade) loom just a few weeks away;

    “There are a kajillion ideas floating around,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat.

    One, by Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, would steer tax cuts that would have flowed to high-income individuals to businesses in the hopes of stimulating investment and hiring. Another, by Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, would sustain the Bush tax cuts for all households earning less than $1 million, rather than $250,000.

    Representative Dave Camp, a Michigan Republican, told a meeting of business tax lobbyists that members of his party would oppose a third alternative that would extend tax breaks for middle-income households for a longer period than for richer Americans.

    Democratic senators including Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan yesterday said they oppose financing tax cuts for high-income taxpayers with deficits. Vermont Senator Bernard Sanders, an independent who votes with Democrats, also criticized the idea.

    Has anyone pointed out to these knuckleheads that when President Bush cut Clinton tax hikes, revenues increased? I guess that would be pointless when you’re talking to goofballs like Bernie Sanders.

    Not only did they not learn their lessons on tax hikes, the Democrats are still resisting earmark reform according to the Associated Press;

    “I have an obligation to the people of Nevada to do what is important to Nevada, not what is important to some bureaucrat down here (in Washington) with green eyeshades,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said. “So I am not going, personally, going to back off of bringing stuff back to Nevada.”

    So says the guy who barely kept his seat in the Senate.