February 12, 2008 by mr_flood.

An insightful article from the Wall Street Journal highlighting the maniacal partisanship of Henry Waxman. This doesn’t surprise me at all and makes me wonder if I should create a new category for topics entitled ‘Ho Hum’.

Mr. Waxman doesn’t much care if any of this is true, because his larger goal is to send a message to every Inspector General in government: They answer to him. Mr. Waxman expects them to tee up political scandals in the executive branch and serve as witnesses for his prosecution whether or not the facts support it.

Posted in Fascism Watch, Politics | 1 Comment »

November 23, 2007 by mr_flood.

In an article that I don’t find surprising at all we find:

In a state-by-state, district-by-district comparison of wealth concentrations based on Internal Revenue Service income data, Michael Franc, vice president of government relations at the Heritage Foundation, found that the majority of the nation’s wealthiest congressional jurisdictions were represented by Democrats.

Posted in Politics | 1 Comment »

November 8, 2007 by mr_flood.

From USA Today we get the story of politicians voting themselves millions of dollars in subsidies for running their own farms poorly. How wonderful for them. Remember this the next time they say they want to raise your taxes. An excerpt:

When the bill that would extend farm subsidies for five years goes to the Senate floor this week, eight senators will have special reason to pay close attention: They or their relatives collected about $3 million in federal payments from 1995 to 2005, according to government records compiled by a non-partisan environmental group.

Posted in Politics | 1 Comment »

November 6, 2007 by mr_flood.

From Investors Business Daily via a Harvard study:

Just like so many reports before it, a joint survey by the Project for Excellence in Journalism and Harvard’s Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy — hardly a bastion of conservative orthodoxy — found that in covering the current presidential race, the media are sympathetic to Democrats and hostile to Republicans.

Posted in Politics | 1 Comment »

February 6, 2007 by mr_flood.

I haven’t been impressed with any front running presidential candidate so far so when I read Hannity’s interview with Giuliani I was somewhat taken aback at his honesty and even more so with the substance of his answers. Here’s a snippet:

There are always disagreements. And then some people just won’t be able to vote for you. You got to live with that. Reality is you got to be who you are. You got to be honest with people. If your views change you got to be willing to express it. When I was mayor my views changed. I began as mayor thinking I could reform the school system. After four years I became an advocate of choice, of scholarships and vouchers and parental choice because I thought that was the only way to really change the school system. When I started as mayor, I didn’t believe that. When I went through three or four years of experience, that’s what it taught me. I think you have to be willing— you have strong ideas, strong views. but then you have to be willing to look at experience.

I’m against abortion but I believe it should be a State’s rights issue, the Federal government has no right to be involved at all. I’m thinking Rudy believes along those lines as well.

Via The Corner.

Posted in Politics | 1 Comment »

December 8, 2006 by mr_flood.

From Kos:

It’s gotten so I immediately distrust any advocacy organization based in DC.

Yeaup. I’m sure there’s a psychologist somewhere who’s done a study on the need to feel accepted overriding even the most strident beliefs. I’m sure their subjects probably weren’t Beltway Bimbos but oh how they should have been; it’s the perfect petri dish of social behavior.

Posted in Politics | 1 Comment »

December 8, 2006 by mr_flood.

Today is the anniversary of Congress’ declaration of war against the Axis powers which officially entered us into WWII. If I remember right, that’s the last time Congress has done so. Congress hasn’t done so since, despite the number of military conflicts we’ve been entered into, why?

In my opinion they’ve lost their spine and have slowly abdicated authority to the President. Sure, they talk a big game but when it comes down to shouldering responsibility they balk. Instead of forcing the President to garner a declaration of war they sign off on weak resolutions that can be interpreted in a myriad of ways. They do this in the belief that if the issue at hand becomes unpopular they can back away from it and still get re-elected. Because, after all, that’s what their one true responsibility is, re-election; all other considerations are secondary.

Of course this lack of political spine has consequences, the most obvious of which is that our military conflicts since WWII have become devisive affairs. I believe the way to end the devisiveness is for the President to not enter into war without a declaration of such from Congress. This accomplishes two things at least. First, it precludes Congress from abdicating responsibility for the success or failure of such campaigns. Second, it will keep the President from entering us into conflicts in which he is personally convinced we should be in but in which the rest of the nation is not.

Bottom line, if Congress started acting like representatives of a republic rather than corporate hacks looking to get ahead we might end up with a more perfect union.

Posted in Politics | 1 Comment »