Jet-Set Congress

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By Joe Miller.  An interesting story last week in the Washington Post details Senator Harry Reid’s extravagant trip to China this past April.  The trip, which included some Republicans, cost the government at least $66,000 worth of per diem and “miscellaneous” expenses.  Family members and staff also traveled on the taxpayer’s dime.

It’s no small wonder Congress has single digit approval ratings —  Harry Reid can’t seem to find the time to pass a budget, but he has no problem organizing sight-seeing trips to foreign nations.

Not tabulated in the official expense report are the costs of transportation, specifically, the costs of a military jet flying over and back.  The Pentagon bills around $10,000 an hour for such planes.

So figure a round-trip to China is about 30 hours in the air and the bill for the plane — paid out of a special slush-fund for these things — would be about $300,000.   And that doesn’t include the various flights within China once the trip started.

Then there are the substantial indirect costs of countless embassy staff preparing for and serving the large delegation on the ground.

Maybe through the lens of our national $15 trillion debt this does not seem too costly.  After all, our ruling class senators are accustomed to passing trillion dollar spending bills at the drop of a hat.  So what’s a few hundred thousand dollars here and there to see the sights — especially when you don’t have any intention of paying the bill?

And to be clear, this is not just a Democratic Party issue.  Both Republicans and Democrats seem to thoroughly enjoy extravagant trips at the taxpayer’s expense.  They poll at 9%, can’t pass a solvent budget, but as Harry Reid pointed out to a Chinese government official, “having spent two days in Hong Kong and Macau eating as we did, we are all heavyweights.”

Ah, the life of the privileged beltway elite.  They certainly have earned it …

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European Union: designed to exclude democracy, invite tyranny?

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(By Christopher Booker):  So, as headlines scream that vain bids to save the euro threaten us with “Armageddon”, the EU’s ruling elite has toppled two more elected prime ministers, to replace them with technocratic officials who can be trusted to do Brussels’s bidding.

The new Greek prime minister, Lucas Papademos, was the man who, as head of Greece’s central bank, fiddled the figures to enable Greece to get into the euro (against the rules) in the first place – before being rewarded with a senior post in the European Central Bank. He is no more democratically elected than Mario Monti, who will most likely be Italy’s new prime minister and had hurriedly to be made a “senator for life” to qualify him for the job. Monti’s main qualification is that, as a former senior EU Commissioner, he has long been a member of the Brussels elite himself.

One of the few pleasures of watching this self-inflicted shambles unfolding day by day has been to see the panjandrums of the Today programme, James Naughtie and John Humphrys, at last beginning to ask whether the EU is a democratic institution. Had they studied the history of the object of their admiration, they might long ago have realised that the “European project” was never intended to be a democratic institution.

The idea first conceived back in the 1920s by two senior officials of the League of Nations – Jean Monnet and Arthur Salter, a British civil servant – was a United States of Europe, ruled by a government of unelected technocrats like themselves. Two things were anathema to them: nation states with the power of veto (which they had seen destroy the League of Nations) and any need to consult the wishes of the people in elections.

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Read more at the Telegraph HERE.

Jack Abramoff: Congress is hopelessly corrupt

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(By Jack Abramoff):  As I built what became the nation’s largest individual lobbying practice — with 40 employees at its peak — I remained the only lobbyist in the firm who had not previously worked on Capitol Hill. Former Congress members and staff are everywhere on K Street, the lair of the lobbying world. Why? Because they have access.

That access was crucial to our lobbying efforts. If we couldn’t get in the door, we couldn’t present our client’s case to decision makers. Hill veterans also had expertise. They knew the Byzantine legislative process and how to make it work for clients. Access and expertise: That’s how the great lobbying machines work.

But that’s not all.

I had many arrows in my lobbyist quiver to endear our firm to Congress: two fancy Washington restaurants that became virtual cafeterias for congressional staff, the best seats to every sporting event and concert in town, private planes at the ready to whisk members and staff to exotic locations, millions of dollars in campaign contributions ready for distribution. We had it all. But even with these corrupting gifts, nothing beat the revolving door.

During my time lobbying, I found that the vast majority of congressional staff I encountered wanted to get a job on K Street. And why not? Their jobs on the Hill were only as secure as their boss’s re-election prospects. Even then, they were never certain when they would encounter an office purge. The other side of the rainbow — K Street — was heavenly. Salaries were much higher. Perks were abundant. And lobbying is a growth industry, no matter which party is in office. As young staff members got married and had children, making the jump to K Street was often on their minds.

As I cultivated relationships on the Hill, or as the firm’s lobbyists transformed their congressional friends into champions for our clients, I noticed the staff members craved a job on K Street far more than a fancy meal or a Washington Redskins ticket.

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Read more at Bloomberg.com HERE.

The fruits of international socialism: the EU bans advertising that water prevents dehydration

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Brussels bureaucrats were ridiculed yesterday after banning drink manufacturers from claiming that water can prevent dehydration.

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(By Victoria Ward and Nick Collins):  EU officials concluded that, following a three-year investigation, there was no evidence to prove the previously undisputed fact.

Producers of bottled water are now forbidden by law from making the claim and will face a two-year jail sentence if they defy the edict, which comes into force in the UK next month.

Last night, critics claimed the EU was at odds with both science and common sense. Conservative MEP Roger Helmer said: “This is stupidity writ large.

“The euro is burning, the EU is falling apart and yet here they are: highly-paid, highly-pensioned officials worrying about the obvious qualities of water and trying to deny us the right to say what is patently true.

“If ever there were an episode which demonstrates the folly of the great European project then this is it.”

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Read more at the Telegraph HERE.

80% of ‘Green Energy’ Loans Went to Top Obama Donors

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(By Wynton Hall):  With Energy Secretary Steven Chu set to testify Thursday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee about the government’s $573 million loan to failed solar panel maker Solyndra, an explosive new list of energy loan amounts to President Obama’s top fundraisers, bundlers, and supporters has been released by Breitbart editor Peter Schweizer, author of Throw Them All Out.

As the list reveals, 80 percent of all $20.5 billion in Department of Energy loans went to President Obama’s top donors. Furthermore, some of those dwarf in size those given to Obama bundler George Kaiser, owner of the now defunct Solyndra.

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Read more at BigGovernment.com HERE.

Decision time for the GOP

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By Joe Miller.  The congressional super-committee, according to a story in the Washington Post, is creating an “identity crisis” within the Republican Party.  During the 2010 elections, Republicans promised to come to Washington D.C. and fight the proponents of big government, crony capitalism, and socialism.  Although some have stuck to their guns, most notably the courageous few who voted against the debt ceiling increase, Republicans have pretty much failed to deliver.

Instead, the GOP-controlled House – the body constitutionally authorized to raise and spend revenue –  increased the debt ceiling to the tune of $2.1 trillion.  This same Republican majority originally promised spending cuts, but we’ve found that these promised cuts are off the “projected increases” in the budget and do not amount to any real reductions.  It is sad to observe just how easy it is to abandon principles in the name of political expediency.  One day, Republicans are rightfully bashing Energy Department loans attached to the stimulus program and the next they are writing letters asking for loans to their district.

The budget super-committee creates another decision point for the GOP, and it is already beginning to look like principles will be compromised yet again.  Leading Republican members of the super-committee have, as the Washington Post reports, “lobbied party colleagues behind the scenes to forgo their old allegiances and even break campaign promises by embracing hundreds of billions of dollars in tax hikes.”  This is extremely disappointing for us in the grassroots, to say the least.  I’m sure that along with these tax increases, these Republicans will also guarantee “significant spending reductions.”  However, if the past is a guide, such promises are likely hollow.

It is time to do what is right over doing what is easy.  It is time to stop “crossing the aisle” just for the sake of doing so.  It is time to practice conservative principles or allow somebody in your place who will.  The Republican Party establishment must come to the understanding that paying lip-service to the grassroots during campaign season and then rushing to Washington to compromise with the likes of John Kerry is over.

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Obama’s Green Fiascoes and Boondoggles

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A barrage of news headlines on the Solyndra scandal continue to remind us that President Obama made green jobs one of his administration’s priorities. Those headlines also reveal this initiative to have been a costly mistake.

The bankruptcy of Solyndra, the solar-panel manufacturer that has collapsed despite receiving half-a-billion dollars from the federal government, is only the tip of the iceberg. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that several other green companies that received generous federal aid are teetering on the brink.

Ener1, whose subsidiary EnerDel received a $118 million federal grant, lost $165 million in fiscal 2010 and has dim prospects. According to the Journal, Ener1 had “lost its bid to supply batteries to Fisker Automotive, a battery-powered car maker which received a $529 million U.S. taxpayer-backed federal loan guarantee in 2010,” when “Fisker chose to buy its batteries from a company called A123 Systems, itself the recipient of a $249 million U.S. Department of Energy grant.”

Great! First Team Obama extends taxpayer dollars to green companies, then it torpedoes them by giving larger grants to their competitors. Meanwhile, Fisker, itself a recipient of over a half-billion dollar handout from Uncle Sam, is making its cars in Finland.

Team Obama’s record on creating green jobs is no more confidence-inspiring than its record in midwifing a viable electric car industry.

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 Read More at floydreports.com By Mark W. Hendrickson, floydreports.com

Please, No Excuses or Misplaced Empathy for Sandusky’s Enablers

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Well, it’s already started. With the nation still reeling in shock over the child-rape scandal at Penn State, the excuses and misplaced empathy for Sandusky’s enablers have quickly usurped the public anguish, which should rightly be reserved for the child victims.

Victims? What victims? The nation’s eyes have become fixed on the ignoble fall of a noble man, Coach Joe Paterno, in what many see as an unjust end to a luminous, generation-enriching career.

We really ought only to be thinking now of the real victims. There are eight young male victims listed in the 40-count indictment against Jerry Sandusky. Two of these are listed due to eyewitness testimony, though their identities are still unknown.

The truth is we may never know how many victims there actually were.

Some are grown men, who may never come forward even when and if Sandusky goes to trial. Deeply imbedded shame and chronic depression keep many victims of childhood sexual abuse in lifelong shadows. Some of these victims will never reveal, even to their most trusted intimates, that they were ever sexually abused. Yes, the shameful scars go that deep.

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 Read More at kyleanneshiver.com