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The Dangerous Hypocracy of Senators Grassley & Frank

Posted by Jennine on Wednesday, March 18, 2009 8:20:15 PM
Congressional hearings are always narcissistic theater, but the AIG hearings rank among the most abusive and unfounded hearings ever held.  Today Congress is insisting that I be outraged that AIG executives received $165 million in bonuses, even though these bonuses were the result of legally binding contracts, and the Federal Reserve, Treasury Department, Congress and the Administration knew they were going to be paid.  I am upset by these bonuses, but my outrage is targeted with lazer precision on Congress and the Administation. First, compared to what Congress expects us to pay for pork and pet projects that benefit few if any Americans, $165 million is literally peanuts.  Today Congress played Gladiator to AIG's Christians.  With malice aforethought, Congress called hearings to divert attention from themselves by throwing raw meat to the American public.  Unfortunately, it appears the masses are biting.  Instead of being furious at Chris Dodd, who was responsible for putting provisions in legislation allowing the bonuses, everyone is mad at the people who  received the bonuses they had been promised.  We need to focus our attention on the people who are responsible for this ill-conceived bailout, and holding them accountable for the entire stimulus nightmare.

Two Senators deserve more than outrage.  Senators Chuck Grassley and Barney Frank have behaved in a dangerously hypocritical manner.  When Senator Grassley encourages, angrily, AIG executives to commit suicide, why is there no outcry for his resignation?  This is the most egregious behavior I have witnessed.  During the current financial crisis there have actually been suicides.  Suicide is a tragedy that affects everyone who knows the person in a devastating and personal way.  Now Senator Grassley says he didn't literally mean that these people should kill themselves, but I can't imagine what else he could have meant.  He spent some time explaining Japanese honor and suicide, so it wasn't an impulsive off-the-cuff comment.  He had thought this through and sounded very convincing that this was the proper course of action. In 2008, Senator Grassley secured $308 million in pork for his beloved state of Iowa.   Since this is almost twice the amount of the AIG bonuses, and benefited so few, what would be the proper course of action for Senator Grassley to take to apologize for his outrageous waste of taxpayer money?  I suggest  resignation, impeachment or at the least getting voted out of an office he dishonors with his rhetoric. I do not recommend suicide.

I suggest the same fate for Barney Frank, that is resignation, impeachment and/or getting voted out of office.  Today he demanded names of each person receiving a bonus.  Even after the AIG CEO read a letter from a deranged citizen threatening death to these Congressional scapegoats and their families, and asked that names be kept confidential to protect the evil bonus acceptors,  Barney refused to guarantee anonymity.  Barney, who should have the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac debacle laid at his feet, to say nothing of the earmark he inserted for his own personal  pet bank in Boston,  needs these names to offer up each time someone gets too close to his culpability.  I do not hear Barney showing the same outrage for the excessive salaries and bonuses of the above mentioned Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Administrators.

Americans, take a close look at the results of Congress taking control of private enterprise. How much money was spent by the taxpayers for this hearing?  How many more will follow in the fervor of Congress to demonize everyone involved in the financial meldown?  Except themselves, that is.  If today's circus doesn't scare us away from additional bailouts I don't know what will.  No good will come from the continuing bailouts and nationalization of industry.  Stop the madness.


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Robert Gibbs Makes Hope and Change Seem Small and Petty

Posted by Jennine on Monday, March 16, 2009 7:51:47 PM
Maybe Robert Gibbs is a nice man who is good to his family, loves kids and dogs, and volunteers time and money to people less fortunate than him.  I hope so.  Here is how he comes across to me as I have watched him through the campaign and now as the Press Secretary, glib, mean-spirited and not very articulate.  Today when asked a question about something Dick Cheney said on the Sunday talk shows, Gibbs responded by remarking that Rush Limbaugh must not have been available so they drug out the next most popular person from the Republican "cabal".  There was laughter in the Press Room.  There are so many different disturbing levels to this response that there is no way to discuss them all.  But a few really need some daylight.  The first is the continued Obama Administration's campaign to make Rush Limbaugh the new George Bush as a focal point for the far left's vitriol. Let's just go ahead and call the Limbaugh campaign what it is, a Nixon-era dirty tricks campaign.  It was abhorrent then, it is abhorrent now, especially coming from an Administration who got elected because they were going to rise above this kind of tactic.  And, Robert, this just makes you look so small. It reflects poorly on your boss, who looks small as well, as it is obvious that he is at the very least tacitly encouraging this ridiculous game you boys are playing.  It also makes you look like a bully, the kid in the schoolyard who stole other kids lunches, and made fun of those you felt weren't good enough to play with the popular kids.  Grow up.

The second issue is the sarcastic response about the Bush Administration.   If you disagree with Dick Cheney's remarks, be a big boy and tell the country why.  Treat the Press Corps and the American public like thinking adults.  I do understand the temptation to treat the Press Corps like children when they behave the way they did today, giggling as the bully kicks the victim.  Still, when a question is asked, we, the American people, actually want an answer of substance.  How and why do you disagree and what would you or are you, the Obama Administration, going to do differently. 

I remember Tony Snow representing George Bush in the Press Room.  He used humor, but it wasn't mean-spirited and sarcastic, and he didn't engage in the tactic of trying to look better by demeaning the former administration or the opposition party.  From everything I have been able to find out about Tony Snow, he really was a nice guy who loved kids and helped people who were less fortunate.  He was also a gracious person and a gentleman.  He didn't engage in petty bullying or childish games.  His boss, George Bush, was also a gentleman.  Although he did inherit many extremely messy and dangerous situations from the Clinton Administration, I never heard President Bush use the blame game to deflect responsibility.  Would that Obama could act half as graciously as his predecessor.  Maybe when he grows up a bit he too will learn a little humility, and how to accept personal responsibility without the need to proclaim that nothing is his fault.

Robert Gibbs is just another daily reminder that promises and reality bear no relationship to each other.  Timothy Geithner was billed as the smartest person in the country and the only person who could pull us out of the financial quagmire.  Not so much.  Robert Gibbs was going to be the best and smartest Press Secretary ever to step in front of the microphone in the White House Press Room.  Not even close.  Ah, Tony, I miss you. 
Tags: president  
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He really does think we're stupid

Posted by Jennine on Monday, March 09, 2009 9:17:45 PM
I have watched the great orator Obama selling his health care, energy, and education programs as the cause and the solution of our economic crisis, and I realize that he thinks we're stupid.  The media for the most part is giving him a pass on this agenda, which is stupendously illogical.  What's more I can't find any deep explanation of this supposed cause and effect relationship by the POTUS, or for that matter even a superficial explanation of why these issues caused our crises and how throwing money and time to have the Government intervene in these areas will help rather than continue to hurt us.  I did hear him claim that health care caused a bankruptcy every 30 seconds, a claim he has made in at least two speeches carried nationally.  This is a totally baseless claim that even his own staff couldn't substantiate.  So they just brushed it off, and said the idea was right even if the facts were wrong.  A recent study broke down the bankruptcy figures and came up with 8 tenths of 1 percent of Americans lived in a household that filed for bankruptcy because of medical costs.  Bankruptcies for all  reasons add up to about the same number cited by Obama, so I guess every single bankruptcy in America must be caused by health care. 

As President he continues his brilliant strategy of making stirring speeches that are absolutely devoid of any substance and light on facts.  Sometimes he makes things up if he thinks it will sound better.  And if pushed into a corner, he will blame someone else.  His very favorite target is Bush, which is already wearing thin.  Or Rush.  Or Rick Santelli.  Or Jim Cramer. Since he can never be wrong, then anyone who disagrees with him must be wrong, and must be punished.  Mr. Obama has an agenda and he is committed to pushing it down our throats and nothing and no one is going to be allowed to get in his way.  At some point, his continued misstatement of facts must be labeled by the proper term, lying.

He is steamrolling programs through the Congress and campaigning to sell them to all us dolts out there who are allowing this to happen.  In my opinion, going forward with Obamas health care, education or energy programs will harm us in a devastating economic way, but there also will be unintended consequences that will make bad things worse.  Has anyone heard of ethanol?  Not exactly a sound energy or financial investment.

Part of why liberals think conservatives are stupid is that we are quiet.  Come on folks, speak up.  Be noisy and rude about these programs.  Otherwise, don't complain to me when there's no gas to put in your hybrid or electricity to plug it in so you can go sit in an emergency room hoping that you aren't too old or sick to deserve rationed care.
Tags: Politics  
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The Audacity of Summits

Posted by Jennine on Sunday, March 08, 2009 11:54:30 AM
Recently the Administration has employed an interesting forum to solve the most complex problems facing the nation.  It's called, Let's Have a Summit.  He calls together a large group of diverse people, many of whom have never met each other, and have no in-depth working knowledge of the problem to be solved.  You know things like the economy and health care.  Then he gives them an inspirational speech and sends them into breakout groups for a few hours and they bring back the answers to problems like the reform of Social Security, Medicare, tax policy, and health care.  Built into these summits are lots of time for participants to come back and share their enthusiasm and gratitude for being part of this innovative process.   When I watch this, I can't help thinking about one of his two autobiographies, which I remember were written before he had done anything or anyone had ever heard his name.  The Audacity of Hope.  Audacity is such a good word for these summits.  It is audacious to think the greatest problems of our time can be solved in an afternoon.  Brilliant, in fact.  I wonder why no one has done this before.

Of course, I cannot help but remember the many  similar meetings I have been involved in over my professional career.  We didn't call them Summits, and the President wasn't there to cheer lead, so maybe that was why most of these were a colossal waste of time and money.  We called them less grandiose things like strategic planning, which I used to think was pretty grandiose considering the outcome.  In these less audacious exercises, we too were dealing with health care.  On a much smaller lever, so maybe that was why it took us so much longer.  For instance, we actually got stacks and stacks of material to read and absorb so that we were on a similar knowledge level to start the process.  And of course, almost everyone at these meetings was actually involved in the provision of health care.  We also took days rather than hours to come up with an outline of where we needed to go.  Then we actually put together separate teams to flesh out and follow up on all the recommendations.  We had follow up meetings and reports to keep us on track and see what was happening to all our work and great ideas.  In spite of all the unnecessary time and effort, we still usually ended up with a huge document that sat in offices of participants with ideas that slowly withered and died.  I bet most people who have ever worked in an organization of even a moderate size have been through this painful process as well.

Here's the genius of Obama's summits.  The ideas will wither and die just like the ones that came out of the prolonged process, but he's saving us an enormous amount of money by limiting these exercises to hours rather than days and months.He gets to avoid his office and doing any real work for another day.  And he gets lots of air-time showing the American public how inclusive and Presidential he is while playing Facilitator in Chief.  Wow.

Tags: president  
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addendum on card check

Posted by Jennine on Saturday, March 07, 2009 3:55:08 PM
There is more information about the Unions and card check that I wanted to put in my original post.

Prior to his stint in the White House, Mr. Ickes represented the Laborer's International Union of North American (LIUNA) and it's then President Arthur Coia.  During the 90's, Liuna was investigated by the Justice Department for ties to organized crime.  A draft complaint said Mr. Coia was "associated withand had been controlled and influenced by organized crime figures" and that he "employed actual and threatened force, violence and fear of  physical and economic injury to create a climate of intimidation and fear."  Liuna gave over $1 million to Democrats in 1994 and Congressional investigators documented more than 120 meetings between Mr. Coia and President Clinton.  The Justice case was never filed, and Mr. Coia took an early retirement and pled guilty to tax fraud in exchange for probation and a fine.  Mr. Ickes admitted to being involved and setting up and attending the meetings between the President and Mr. Coia.  All of this is well documented in a Wall Street Journal article dated October of 2000.

So when the President recently met with Union officials and publicly welcomed them back to the White House, it didn't make me feel warm and fuzzy.  I remember all too well what happened when the Union was welcome in the White House before.  Card check has been bought and paid for by the Unions.  It's up to us to stop this attack on one of our foundations, the right to a secret ballot.  Call. Write.


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Card-Check back to Union Thug Controlled Elections

Posted by Jennine on Saturday, March 07, 2009 12:34:14 PM
Did I mention that I am a recovering Democrat?  Obama is keeping me in recovery, which is a good thing.  It was during Clinton's first term that I came to my senses.  Prior to that I have been a Democrat who completely bought the old canard that Republicans were bought and owned by Big Money and Big Business.  However, an interesting case came to my attention in the early 90's involving some very interesting people.  The case involved a scheme to illegally fund and influence a union election.  And the interesting people being investigated were Bill Clinton's Deputy Chief of Staff Harold Ickes, and Clinton-Gore fundraiser Terry McAuliffe. 

When the Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Peter Hoekstra started looking into this Teamsters Union scandal, he was asked by the Clinton-appointed U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Mary Jo White, not to subpoena McAuliffe, Ickes, and certain others on grounds that their testimony might interfere with a criminal investigation that she and the Clinton Justice Department were already pursuing. But after Hoekstra agreed to White’s request, as he described it, "the entire Teamsters investigation  has fallen into a black hole." Small players in the case pled guilty.  But, despite strong evidence against them, no criminal indictments were ever handed down by White or the Clinton Justice Department against McAuliffe, or Ickes.  I was able to refresh my memory on this issue with information from DiscoverTheNetWorks.Org, which has a lot more  information.  There was also a Time magazine article about this issue at the time it was happening.  So this information does not just come of my Right-Wing mind. 

Call me crazy, but this seemed more egregious than the Big Money Big Business Republican concern I had.  I also watched as Harold Ickes continued to support the Unions and intervene in an inappropriate way on their behalf from the White House.  It soured me on Clinton, the Democrats and Unions.

Now comes card check.  Cognitive dissonance is the only way to describe this administration.  The secret ballot is sacred in America for every other election other than Union elections.  Let's see, over the years, Unions have engaged in such persuasive activities as knee-capping in order to get votes.  So card check may be an improvement, as at least the intimidation probably won't be as physical.  But make no mistake, a union official confronting an employee in view of everyone in the work site and asking that person to sign a card is intimidation.  And we all know this.  The Democrats know this.  It's just another pay back for the enormous amount of union dues given to the Democrats during elections without the consent of the dues-paying members. 

It's time to burn up the phone lines and the email.  We must stop this.  Unions are part of the problem, they do not offer a solution to the economic crisis.  And individuals deserve to be protected from the kind of intimidation that is at the very heart of card check.  We have responsibility to stop this bill.  Let's do our part.  Call.  Write.  Call again.  Write again.
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Be scared, be very very scared

Posted by Jennine on Thursday, March 05, 2009 10:37:36 PM
Since I have decided to take my political frustrations out in a blog, let me say a little about myself.  I am a moderate conservative.  In other words, I am not someone who has a history of taking hard-line polarizing political views.  During the 2008 campaign, I was ambivalent.  I felt John McCain deserved to lose as he ran a lousy campaign and I disagreed with many of his views.  I was unsure about Obama, because he wasn't saying anything, what little real record he had was liberal, and his associates were radical scary people.  But he presented himself in such an appealing way that America literally fell in love with him.  That should have rung a few more bells with all of us than it did. On Inauguration day, I sent emails to my liberal friends congratulating them, acknowledging the historic nature of the day and the excitement it was causing and saying that I wanted Obama to succeed.  By the end of the day, I was not able to make myself watch the Balls, my enthusiasm was gone and my teeth were on edge.  What I glimpsed on Inauguration Day is now shouting at me and it is scary.  As he participated in the ceremonies that day, I saw a man who was in his element.  And as the day went on I didn't see that in a good way.  He was arrogant, rather than just confident.  Since that day, I have evolved.  I no longer see him as arrogant, I see him as a megalomaniac, regardless of how paranoid and radical that may sound.  Consider this might be true, and look what has happened to countries led by megalomaniacs.   That is how I got here, to a blog.  I feel the need to shout to people, WATCH OUT.  We are in deep deep trouble.  And, God bless you Rush, I hope his policies fail.

So here I am using this forum to connect with family, friends and like-minded acquaintances.  We need to use whatever tools we have to sound the alarm and to stop the destruction of America as we know it.  One tool we have is our voice.  We need to get out of the recliner and make our wishes known.  Another tool is our vote.  We need to use our voice by calling, emailing, calling again, emailing again letting our President and our Representatives know that we will vote based on how they vote.  We need to let them know we will also use our voice to let other people know what they are doing and how we feel about it.  We need to write letters to the editor, we need attend town hall meetings, we need to be loud, individually and collectively.  We need to keep at it even when we know we aren't being listened to and when we want to just disconnect and turn off the TV.  If we don't keep at it, we lose, the country loses.  Right now the scary cult-like love affair with the President is still in effect with too many Americans.  It's like watching the Night of the Living Dead.  We can't wait for the cult members to be deprogrammed. 

Right now we have the appropriations bill, which should not be passed.  Not only is it full of pork, it is too much money.  I have already emailed Max Baucus about this bill.  Next I will email my other Senator.  Then I will call them.  Then I will send another email.  Today I sent a letter to the editor complaining about how our Senators have already voted on each of the bills which are sending us into a generational financial death spiral.  But that's not the end or even a resting point.   There is health care reform, a nightmare which Obama has on his quick-before-anyone-thinks track.  Then there is the mortgage bailout.   Yeah, we taxpayers are excited about paying for the bad judgment and poor financial habits of all the defaulters.  If I want to help someone, I think I'll choose the people I know and love, not all the idiots who think Obama means a house, a car, free gas, and enough money to keep up their unrealistic standards of living, preferably by taking it away from the rich.

So, if you are reading this, please take a stand.  Please don't disconnect.  Let's just for once try to be as tenacious and organized as the people intent on taking this country down.  More to come.

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