14
Oct
Michael Fumento has written an article I think is a MUST READ!
The quips are great:
- In the wake of Hurricane Katrina two sports were all the rage in New Orleans. One was the blame game, attributing all local and state incompetence to the feds. The other was inventing and spreading stories of murder and mayhem — killings, rapes, firing at rescuers, bodies stacked like cordwood.
- Editor & Publisher headlined an article, "Mortuary Director Tells Local Paper 40,000 Could Be Lost in Hurricane," while the French paper Liberation ran a detailed report on 1,200 people drowning in a single school.
- CNN claimed snipers were taking potshots at helicopters trying to evacuate patients from hospitals, while separately CNN host Paula Zahn breathlessly spoke of "reports" of "bands of rapists, going block to block."
- To be fair and balanced, we note that Fox News’s Geraldo Rivera claimed from the scene that "Yesterday the sun set on a scene of terror, chaos, confusion, anarchy, violence, rapes, murders, dead babies, dead people."
- Oprah Winfrey‘s special report from New Orleanswas wall-to-wall hysteria. Mayor Ray Nagin told her "They havepeople standing out there, havebeen in that frickin’ Superdome for five days watching dead bodies, watching hooligans killing people, raping people."
- Police Chief Eddie Compass (since resigned) added that "little babies [are] getting raped."
- Winfrey herself, knowing how trusting (or gullible) her audience is, told them that in the Superdome "gangs banded together and had more ammunition, at times, than the police."
It just gets better and better. He sums up everything I’ve wanted to say perfectly.
30
Sep
This is the best one yet. Following in the line of Boobs 4 Bourbon Street and Girls Gone Wild for New Orleans, I have now been introduced to PinkAid. YOU can be a sexual superhero and help the victims of Katrina/Rita by having sex with your preferred partner. Sounds simple don’t it? I love the teaser:
All donations go to the Habitat for Humanity. I can’t see that they are endorsing this event.
The characters running that site are hoots and a story on their own from what I can gather. Yes, that is a clip from one of their movies.
More blogs on Katrina Relief, Habitat for Humanity, Pinkaid
I have not been a fan of the Porkbusters effort. I think I’ve made that clear already. They have taken an idea and run amok with it. Rather than attacking our own, why not look at what we’re giving to people who never pay ANY taxes at all? Rather than pulling money out of circulation that can stimulate economic growth, why not look where no economic growth would affect us anyway? Rather than penalizing innocent US citizens because of a natural disaster, why not put pressure where pressure is do and expect the members of NATO and EU to pick up some of the slack on foreign spending? Hmmm? Whatsayou Porkbusters? Now, here’s a list that pretty well sums up what is leaving the US in 2003 that in more cases than not doesn’t really affect someone living in the towns Porkbusters wants to take money from:
| Summary of All Countries | |
| in $US millions, constant | |
| Source: US Overseas Loans & Grants [Greenbook] | |
| Account Name | 2003 |
| > USAID Child Survival and Health Fund | 1,512.65 |
| > USAID Development Assistance | 1,457.38 |
| > Assistance to Eastern Europe & the Baltic States | 496.32 |
| > Assistance for the Independent States of the Former Soviet Union | 489.69 |
| > Transition Initiatives, International Assistance Program | 58.74 |
| > International Disaster Assistance (OFDA) | 480.26 |
| > International Organizations and Programs | 288.17 |
| > Development Fund for Africa | 1.3 |
| > Central America & Caribbean Disaster Recovery Fund | 1.13 |
| > USAID Operating Expense, General | 614.46 |
| > USAID Operating Expense, IG | 34.5 |
| > USAID FS Retirement & Disability Fund | 45.2 |
| > USAID Working Capital Fund | 3.39 |
| > Security Support Assistance/ESF | 4,266.07 |
| > USAID Development Credit Authority | 16.84 |
| > USAID Property Management Fund | 0.55 |
| > USAID Foreign National Employees Separation Fund | 4.13 |
| > USAID Capital Investment Fund | 39.85 |
| > Oceans, Environment and Science Initiative (OESI),ESF | 1.78 |
| > Democracy & Human Rights, State; ESF | 36.66 |
| Total USAID and Predecessor Grants | 9,849.07 |
| > Title I Food For Peace Loans, in $US | 134.3 |
| Total Food Aid Loans | 134.3 |
| > Title I Food for Progress | 73.96 |
| > CCC Food For Progress | 111.81 |
| > Title II Emergency Programs | 1,276.54 |
| > Title II Development Programs | 432.87 |
| > Title II Other | 258.32 |
| > Section 416(b) Regular | 176.07 |
| > Section 416(b) Global Food for Education | 85.34 |
| Total Food Aid Grants | 2,414.92 |
| Total Food Aid Loans and Grants | 2,549.22 |
| > Contribution to IADB | 18.23 |
| > Contribution to IDA | 0 |
| > Contribution to Asian Development Bank | 0 |
| > Contribution to African Development Bank | 5.08 |
| > EBRD, General and Support Fund | 38.72 |
| > Debt Reduction | 91.06 |
| > Global Environment Facility | 146.85 |
| > Contribution to IFAD | 14.91 |
| > Contribution to MIGA | 1.62 |
| > Global fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and Tuberculosis, CDC | 347.73 |
| Total Other Economic Assistance – International/Multilateral Institutions Grants | 664.2 |
| > Peace Corps | 295.07 |
| Total Other Economic Assistance – Peace Corps Grants | 295.07 |
| > Drug Interdiction & Counter Drug Activities, Defense | 276.21 |
| > Andean Counter-Drug Initiative, State | 729.45 |
| > International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement | 220.72 |
| Total Other Economic Assistance – Narcotics Grants | 1,226.38 |
| > Inter-American Foundation | 14.94 |
| > Migration And Refugee Assistance, State | 747.67 |
| > Trade and Development Agency | 60.81 |
| > African Development Foundation | 14.19 |
| > Compact of Free Association, Interior | 166.3 |
| > Ambassador’s Fund, State | 0.97 |
| > Fish & Wildlife, Interior | 35.25 |
| > Mine-Action Related Activities, CDC | 4.9 |
| > Intl Affairs Technical Assistance, Treasury | 10.73 |
| > Intl Child Labor and Education Init., Labor | 125.22 |
| > Open World Program (formerly Russian Leadership Program) | 19.18 |
| > Agricultural Research Service, USDA | 9.76 |
| > Cooperative State Research Education and Extension Service, USDA | 14.84 |
| > Foreign Agricultural Service, USDA | 4.08 |
| > Forest Service, USDA | 63.1 |
| > Transportation Planning, Research, and Development, DOT | 5 |
| > Federal Aviation Administration, DOT | 0.63 |
| > National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, DOT | 0.1 |
| > Federal Highway Administration, DOT | 0.03 |
| > Federal Trade Commission | 1 |
| > National Endowment for Democracy, State | 39.65 |
| > Patent and Trademark Office, Commerce | 0.01 |
| > Global AIDS and Immunization Program | 531.23 |
| > International Criminal Investigative Training and Assistance, DOJ | 4.65 |
| > Iraq Reconstruction and Relief* | 3,477.56 |
| Total Other Economic Assistance – Other Active Grants | 5,351.82 |
| > Credit Sales Under Foreign Military Sales (FMS) Loans | 3,800.00 |
| Total Military Assistance Loans | 3,800.00 |
| > Military Assistance Program (MAP) Grants | 257 |
| > Foreign Military Fianancing Program (FMFP) | 5,955.77 |
| > Peacekeeping Operations | 214.25 |
| > Non-Proliferations, Anti-terrorism, Demining and Related Programs | 378.41 |
| > International Military Education & Training | 79.48 |
| > Cooperative Threat Reduction, Defense | 480.96 |
| > Overseas Humanitarian, Disaster and Civic Aid, Defense | 72 |
| > Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation, Energy | 373.2 |
| > Humanitarian Demining Defense Wide, Defense | 12.89 |
| > International Trust Fund for Demining and Mine Victims Assistance (ITF) | 10 |
| > Warsaw Initiative, Defense | 15.98 |
| > Arctic Military Environmental Cooperation, Defense | 0 |
| > Defense of Israel against Terrorism | 11.89 |
| > HIV/AIDS Prevention Program (DHAPP), Defense | 7 |
| > Biochemical Nonproliferation and Security, CDC | 9 |
| > Biochemical Nonproliferation and Security, EPA | 2.95 |
| Total Military Assistance Grants | 7,880.78 |
| Total Military Assistance Loans and Grants | 11,680.78 |
| > Ex-Im Bank Loans | 1,116.17 |
| > Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) | 45.8 |
| Total Non-Concessional U.S. Loans | 1,161.97 |
| > Contributions to International Organizations | 923.37 |
| Total Annual Obligations to International Organizations | 923.37 |
| Total | 33,701.87 |
Now, I’m not going to go so far as to say we need to cut off spending on food and medical supplies. But, eleven point six BILLION dollars in military aid can be put off for a year or two and go a LONG way towards rebuilding New Orleans without penalizing the rest of the US.
It’s not pork, I know that’s not the rage. But, I think it’s a lot more logical. Come on EU and NATO, let’s see what you guys can do without the US carrying the full load for a few years while we take care of our own for a while.
More blogs on pork spending, Katrina, Katrina relief, US foreign military spending
27
Sep
I have been chastised more than once for interfering with people’s efforts at browsing for soft porn. My links to Tara Reid’s boob and Paris Hilton have brought people here only to be rewarded with the desired content, but, they have to read about boring politics and other social ills, which browsing for soft porn is supposed to be a distraction from. I thought I had hit gold by combining the two with the Girls Gone Wild for New Orleans charity. Now, I’m probably the first to introduce yet another in the theme of exposing yourself for the benefit of others: Boobs 4 Bourbon Street. I love their idea as much as GGW4NO. You donate at least the minimum to the charity of your choice in a list they have, forward the email receipt to the boob people, and you get access. Pretty clever.
And who said faith based initiatives would never work?
I guess it goes without saying that the debate over rebuilding these parts of New Orleans will intensify. I’m going on record as being against it.
I bet FEMA doesn’t come under fire in Houston. This is why.
21
Sep
Some people are predicting the end of the world as we know it based on the projected size and path of Rita. Here’s why exactly:
The darker grey area is the area impacted by Katrina. The white area is the area projected to be impacted by Rita.
There is a little sliver of area between the two not impacted by either.
These could be the only functional offshore oil rigs left after Friday.
21
Sep
Every now and then, a cause gets going that sounds so simple it has to work. With the disaster in The Gulf Coast, a cause has taken root to take all the pork in the federal budget and spend it on rebuilding the Gulf Coast. Sounds simple. Sounds politically correct. The Truth Laid Bear has taken that cause and run with it. They start their page off with this statement:
The list below shows the amount of pork Representatives and Senators have committed to cutting as reported by bloggers and blog-readers who have contacted them. The goal is to get every Representative and every Senator to commit to cutting significant pork projects in their district or state. So if your representatives show as ‘NO CUTS COMMITTED’, contact them and ask what they would cut — then report back here and let the world know what they say!
They then list every single US Representative and Senator and their response to date.
This is wrong folks. For several reasons. Primarily because when you make blanket attacks on people, they react negatively. Secondly, and most importantly, most representatives have little to no impact on budgets. Let me start by giving porkbusters a primer in federal finance procedure:
The federal budget cycle begins each year with the preparation and submission to Congress of the President’s budget. The President’s budget is only a request to Congress; Congress is not required to adopt his recommendations. Nevertheless, the President’s budgetary proposals often guide congressional revenue and spending decisions, though the extent of the influence varies from year to year and depends more on political and fiscal conditions than on the legal status of the budget.
The Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, as amended, establishes the congressional budget process as the means by which Congress coordinates its various budget-related actions. The process is centered around an annual concurrent resolution on the budget that sets aggregate budget policies and functional priorities for a multiyear period. Because a concurrent resolution is not a law — it cannot be signed or vetoed by the President — the budget resolution does not have statutory effect; no money can be raised or spent pursuant to it. The main purpose of the budget resolution is to establish the framework within which Congress considers separate revenue, spending, and other budget-related legislation. Revenue and spending amounts set in the budget resolution establish the basis for the enforcement of congressional budget policies through points of order. The budget resolution also initiates the reconciliation process for conforming existing revenue and spending laws to congressional budget policies.
Budget resolution policies are implemented by Congress through the enactment of annual appropriation and other spending measures, revenue measures, debt-limit legislation, and reconciliation bills. Each class of budgetary legislation is considered under its own set of rules and procedures.
The President may avail himself of special authority to impound appropriated funds. Under the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, the President may propose the cancellation of spending; special procedures are included in the act to provide for House and Senate action on these proposals. Beginning in January of 1997, the President may use special line-item veto procedures to propose the cancellation not only of annual appropriations, but new entitlement spending and targeted tax benefits as well. The line-item veto procedures provide that the President’s recommendations go into effect unless disapproved by Congress within a relatively short period of time.
Now, what that basically says is all budgets come from appropriations committees. The President can veto the entire budget, and in special circumstances, items within a budget. The President can not, under any circumstances, add to a budget. Following me so far? If you are, then you’d know the key people to be contacted in the Senate would be:
| Richard Shelby | Ted Stevens | Wayne Allard |
| Sam Brownback | Mitch McConnell | Thad Cochran |
| Christopher Bond | Conrad Burns | Judd Gregg |
| Pete Domenici | Arlen Specter | Kay Bailey Hutchison |
| Robert Bennett | Robert Byrd |
These are the people that control the agenda of their respective appropriations. Unless they want to do something radical, nothing gets done.
However, you’re doing more harm than good if you harass:
- Jeff Sessions
- Lisa Murkowski
- John McCain
- Jon Kyl
- Blanche Lincoln
- Mark Pryor
- Dianne Feinstein
- Barbara Boxer
- Ken Salazar
- Chris Dodd
- Joe Lieberman
- Joe Biden
- Thomas Carper
- Bill Nelson
- Mel Martinez
- Saxby Chambliss
- Johnny Isakson
- Daniel Inouye
- Daniel Akaka
- Larry Craig
- Mike Crapo
- Richard Durbin
- Barack Obama
- Richard Lugar
- Evan Bayh
- Chuck Grassley
- Tom Harkin
- Pat Roberts
- Jim Bunning
- Mary Landrieu
- David Vitter
- Olympia Snowe
- Susan Collins
- Paul Sarbanes
- Barbara Mikulski
- Ted Kennedy
- John Kerry
- Cark Levin
- Debbie Stabenow
- Mark Dayton
- Norm Coleman
- Trent Lott
- Jim Talent
- Max Baucus
- Chuck Hagel
- Ben Nelson
- Harry Reid
- John Ensign
- John Sununu
- Jon Corzine
- Frank Lautenburg
- Jeff Bingaman
- Charles Schumer
- Hillary Clinton
- Elizabeth Dole
- Richard Burr
- Kent Conrad
- Byron Dorgan
- Michael Dewine
- George Voinovich
- James Inhofe
- Tom Coburn
- Ron Wyden
- Gordon Smith
- Rick Santorum
- Jack Reed
- Lincoln Chafee
- Lindsey Graham
- Jim DeMint
- Tim Johnson
- John Thune
- Bill Frist
- Lamar Alexander
- John Cornyne
- Orrin Hatch
- Patrick Leahy
- James Jeffords
- John Warner
- George Allen
- Patty Murray
- Maria Cantwell
- Jay Rockefeller
- Herbert Kohl
- Russ Feingold
- Craig Thomas
- Michael Enzi
These are the people that have very little to no control over one red cent. However, they do vote to approve appropriations put before them. Now, "outing" 86 people that have no control while accurately targeting the 14 that do is just going to give the 86 a bad taste about the entire effort. That’s not a good thing. Those 14 don’t do what they know there is no support for. You want those 86 pushing the 14.
On the House side, these are the people in charge:
| Henry Bonilla | C. W. Bill Young | David L. Hobson |
| Jim Kolbe | Harold Rogers | Charles H. Taylor |
| Ralph Regula | James Walsh | Frank R. Wolf |
| Joe Knollenberg | Jerry Lewis |
Those 11 are the ones that need to be on the list. The other 424 are the ones you want supporting the cause, not being annoyed by it.
What porkbusters needs to do is lay off the heavy handed targeting until they understand the process. Then, they need to accurately target those in control and educate and lobby those who are not.
Either way, what they are doing right now is bad wrong and isn’t accomplishing anything. I mean, look at it. The only person who’s committed to dealing with any of the pork is Nancy Pelosi. Is she the chairman of anything? How’s she gonna change an existing budget? Quick answer here folks, she can’t. She’s taking you guys for a ride.
Identify the pork. That’s good. But, put the responsibility where it’s due and you might get some results. Otherwise, you won’t.
The second point is that budgets are a catch-all situation. They cover huge arrays of services and projects. Money within the subcommittees can be moved without any special legislation or groundswell of public pressure. If agency A is way over budget and agency B is way under, money can be moved with nothing more than a stroke of the pen after the fact. Given the massive economic cost of Katrina, it will happen regardless of public pressure. No one in Washington has suggested borrowing one penny to deal with Katrina. They know there’s no need to. New roads not needed will be pushed back a year. Bridges going nowhere will wait a year. Etc.. They don’t have to be outed or identified or targeted by special interest groups ( or which Truth Laid Bear is now ). It just will happen. When the federal government allocates X number of dollars for a project, that does not compel them to spend it. They are only compelled to spend it AFTER contracts have been let. If there’s no money in the budget, no contract is let. What it all boils down to is in order to appropriate funds to rebuild The Gulf Coast, Congress has to do NOTHING. They don’t need to borrow money, they don’t need special legislation, they don’t need to raise taxes. All that will happen is Bush will spend the money on recovery and those pork items that are not urgent will go unspent for another year.
So, sure, this sounds like a neat idea, slaying bad to help good. But, I really don’t think these people have spent five minutes really thinking about what they are trying to accomplish. It didn’t take me five minutes to come to the conclusion it won’t work, and, what’s even worse, it wouldn’t matter if it did or not.
And, people will start slamming members of Congress because they didn’t do what it was that they didn’t need to do but people thought they did. And that just gets tiresome to me.
20
Sep
( Slowly tapping my forehead repeatedly ) Some things that I foretell happening:
- New Orleans will be rebuilt. Hopefully safer than it was before.
- More hurricanes will threaten the Gulf Coast, some will be worse than Katrina.
- As long as there are more than six hurricanes in one year, global warmists will tell us it’s the fault of man.
- "Stuck On Stupid" will become an incredibly popular phrase in the US for at least 100 years. It is that perfect.
- In five years, no one will remember who said "Stuck on stupid" or why.
It was said today by Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, who bailed out New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin during a press conference. I wanted to very clearly put that here so when those five years are up, there will be a very easily traced record to who said it and why. It has been used in the past, but Honore has given it national exposure when it was most appropriately used.
It is that perfect. Man, Honore needs to move into politics ASAP.
Kudos to Radioblogger via Vodkapundit via Instapundit.
And, while kudoing Instapundit, Glenn might have initiated a phrase of his own, "Dan Rather crying" should be synonymous with lousy reporting being outed by the pajama army.
Ya know, I had this very thought not long ago. Several voyeur sites have made a career out of getting women of all shapes, sizes, or ages to flash their assets at the camera for beads. Yes, beads. Nowhere else could that much produce be generated than during Mardi Gras in New Orleans. What’s going to become of this industry? Well, apparently the flash industry isn’t going to sit still while the home of Mardi Gras, the epitome of mindless flesh, struggles to recover from it’s recent misfortunes:
Apparently the folks at Girls Gone Wild are yet another shining example of "smut peddlers who care". Do all you can to help New Orleans. I have sorta met these people, well, I met their bus anyway, their bus was worthy enough for my endorsement alone.
Kudos to Independent Sources!
