The Catch 22 of Big Government – Creating a Monster

The Oil Spill in the Gulf has yet again highlighted one of government’s major failings – government regulators and bureaucracies are inept. President Obama is being criticized for his reaction to the leak, and some are comparing it to President Bush’s reaction to Katrina. However, a more suitable comparison is the financial meltdown that occurred late in President Bush’s second term. For both presidents there was little that they personally could have done prior to these terrible events, and both had strikingly few options after the event occurred. While they both have to answer questions about the effectiveness of government under their watch, in reality these events aren’t showing a failure of the executive branch, instead they show the massive failure of government regulation and associated agencies.

In both cases the failure of regulators has been so complete that it’s left the citizenry asking, ‘How did this happen?’ After the financial meltdown people wondered what good the SEC is if it can’t figure out blatant financial cons like Bernie Madoff’s ponzi scheme. Ponzi schemes have been around for eons, and shouldn’t be particularly hard to detect for someone with proper education/training. However, it’s the credit default swaps that appear tanked several large banks along with the U.S. economy, yet there was no recognition of this problem by the SEC until it was too late.

The question that most everyone has heard post oil spill is, ‘Seriously, they don’t have a plan to stop the leak?’ It seems like such a no-brainer that if a company drills offshore there should be a plan in case something goes wrong. Not just one plan, but several plans both to prevent disasters, and to mitigate disasters if they do occur. Now we’re over a month out from the initial explosion, and BP is still guessing about what might possibly stop the flow of oil. Again government regulators by definition have failed. Similarly the Minerals Management Service appears to be a joke.

Thus we end up with Government’s Catch 22. There is a need for some regulation, yet the government clearly sucks at regulation. This unfortunately is on both a big scale and on a small scale. I work for a company that was recently visited by an FDA regulator; much of it was the theatre of the absurd. Our file cabinets are now much more clearly labeled, and we provided copious amounts of information about things that have nothing to do with the FDA. Not a huge deal, but somewhat depressing when considering how much money is being spent on useless regulation, and how many serious violations are likely being missed.

There is blame to put on Congress. They are responsible for oversight, and clearly they’ve failed at providing adequate oversight of these agencies. Yet there is an even bigger problem than Congress. As a country our regulatory agencies have failed and continue to fail. We need a better system. First, we need a better selection process for picking the people who run these agencies. Choosing the buddy of someone powerful or choosing someone who has done political favors for an influential person clearly is inadequate selection criteria. Experience and knowledge matter – a lot, if people running and participating in these agencies don’t know their stuff then they don’t belong there. While that sounds obvious, clearly it’s not happening.

My theory is that people with a military background may be better leaders for these agencies. The one person during the gulf disaster that has inspired any confidence (and basically the only person that hasn’t talked in circles) is Admiral Thad Allen. Maybe the structure and the directness that a military commander would bring to an overly political government bureaucracy could help. Congress also needs to wake up and worry less about placing blame after a disaster, and instead provide the proper oversight to these agencies; that could even prevent disasters. Finally, voters have to demand that this problem is addressed. This isn’t a glamorous issue, but it is a critical one. There is a real need for voters to insist that politicians give sustentative answers on how they will make government work again. As a country we’ve created a monster with big regulatory agencies that suck up money and fail to effectively regulate. The fix isn’t obvious, but it is vital.

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Big Government’s Catch 22 – We’ve Created a Monster

Senator Coburn Blogger Call – Addresses Fiscal Crisis and Potential for the U.S. to be in the same position as Greece in Four Years. (embedded mp3)

Millionaire Mills Makes Manly Mistake

From Mary Peters, Former United States Secretary of Transportation:

“Millionaire Buz Mills thinks that it takes a “real man” to secure Arizona’s border.  But America knows differently.  They know that Governor Jan Brewer, a strong woman, has been taking the Federal Government to task on our broken borders.   

“Governor Jan Brewer has had a consistent track record in fighting illegal immigration.  As Secretary of State, she defended Arizona’s mandatory requirement of identification at the polls all the way to the Supreme Court – and won.  As Governor, she has denied all services for those in the country illegally and returned non-violent criminal aliens to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).  She is also implementing her Border Security Enhancement Program.

“Governor Brewer sent a message to Washington by signing SB 1070 and has stood up to defend it against the liberal East Coast media, Rev. Al Sharpton, Phoenix Mayor Gordon, and the rest who threaten to boycott the state.  

“Meanwhile, Buz didn’t even take an interest in illegal immigration until Governor Brewer made it a national topic.  Even more unbelievable, on several occasions, Mills has claimed that he opposes Arizona’s tough employer sanctions law.  

“Now, the Mills campaign claims that the employer sanctions comments were a mistake and his “real man” mailer was a misprint.  Arizona can’t afford Buz Mills’ mistakes.

“Arizona has a true leader, and that WOMAN is our Governor, Jan Brewer.”

If you would like to receive updates from the campaign sign up now or textBREWER to 42227.

Note* perhaps it’s time now for us to mobilze and say enough is enough and show Bubba  buz that a real man would never behave like the ass end of a WOman who has finally stepped up to do the job all men before her have failed to exercize in the first place! Maybe if they did their job she would not have to try to fix something they have left broken.  This WOman like all WOmen have had enough of this kind of  real men – its time for REAL WOmen to stand up and be counted TMU

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Democrats shut down debate on cutting their pay raises.

The YouCut citizen movement is making a difference – across the country and inside the Capitol. We have heard from over 520,000 voices putting Washington on notice that now is the time to get spending under control.

Rep. Michele Bachmann offered this week’s winning cut on the House Floor; an amendment to eliminate a pay raise for federal government employees – including right here in the Capitol – saving the taxpayers over $30 billion.

The Democrats gaveled it down from the Speaker’s chair, shutting down debate. The reason the Democrat Majority gave? It would prevent federal workers on Capitol Hill from getting a pay raise, so it could not be considered. That is literally the reason they gave. It is astounding, and an affront to every small businessperson and struggling family across this country.

The up-or-down vote was clear, the majority in the U.S. House voted to allow pay raises for non-military federal employees, while the rest of the country is facing pay cuts. Click here to see where each Representative stood on this vote.

By forcing YouCut votes, backed with your support, we are beginning to change the culture here in Washington. We will not stop until we have brought spending under control.

The next five cuts are already posted on the YouCut website. Many of the items were submitted – including this week’s winner – by people just like you, who want to see Washington halt its runaway spending.

You are making your voice heard loud and clear in your nation’s capital – together, we are making history.

Regards,
Eric Cantor
House Republican Whip

THAT’S ALL I’M SAYIN’ ABOUT THE “PHANTOM PHUND*”

By Joe Klock, Sr.

  Firstwife and I just welcomed our ninth and tenth Great-Grandbegats, a pair of identical twin boys. (Hold your applause, that’s not what this rant is about.)
   As a birthday gift, each of them and each of their nurserymates received something not bequeathed to American newborns of past generations.
   It was a personal debt of  $100,000 or more, a liability racked up by the peers of their parents and their parents’ parents, as well as those of Firstwife and this humble scribe.
   Those latter groups, including all y’all in this-here readership, are co-responsible for the fiscal irresponsibility which resulted in a national debt almost incomprehensible in size and totally unmanageable in reality, if we continue to spend like black belt shoppers.
   Let’s agree that the secret of survival in business is to take in more money than you pay out, and the business of government is in no way different.
   It is a basic economic principle which is learned the hard way in family life, but honored in the breach by our elected reprehensibles.
   It is that principle which has prompted me on several occasions to columnize the fact that our so-called “entitlement” to social security payments is no more valid than the sunny promises of Ponzi, Madoff and any number of Pyramid Schemists.
   My premise was, and still is, that – despite the admirable objectives of Social Security – the solid reserves which were to “phund”* future payment of benefits were raped and pillaged by our aforementioned reprehensibles and redirected for other unrelated purposes.
   That is to say, the money was embezzled, squandered and is as gone as a Christmas Goose and the wayward wind of pre-election rhetoric.
   In place of those solid reserves is a stack of IOUs which will come due during the lifetimes of our innocent and unaware Great-Grandbegats, when the can of accountability can no longer be kicked down the road, and for long years after readers of this opusette have kicked the bucket.
  Thus, future “entitlements” should now be regarded as a form of welfare, since they will be paid out of a long-empty purse.
   Furtherthus: Social Security “benefits,” sez I, should be paid only to those who need them to survive, which would drastically shrink the bill presented to future generations.
   However, each time that snippet of Klockwork reappears in print (and it has been widely republished), I am assailed by indignant geezers and geezers-to-be, who howl about broken promises, betrayed trusts and the undeniable fact that “we paid into that

Thank you Melia Obama

Barbara

 I want to give a great big shout out Thank You to Melia Obama.

 Apparently while our POTUS was shaving yesterday his daughter, Melia came into the bathroom and asked “Did you plug up the oil leak daddy?”

That question on day 38 of the BP gulf oil spill disaster prompted our dear leader to realize “we need to act urgently” and that HE was the one responsible for acting urgently.

  So thank you Melia for doing what Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and thousands of Americans have been begging him to do for 38 days…PLUG THE LEAK.

Recognize the urgency of plugging the leak and recognizing that the Federal government is responsible for this environmental disaster.

Millions of gallons of oil have been flowing into the gulf for 38 days and nothing, zip, nada has been done on the federal level to stop the tsunami of oil flowing into our ocean and unto our beaches and wetlands.

We were all besides ourselves wondering WTF is he doing? Does he not see the photos coming out of Louisiana? The ocean covered in death, dead birds, dead fish, dead and near dead wildlife, dying protected marshes, the gulf coastline being consumed in the black thick oil freely flowing for 5 weeks? The economy of a state still trying to rebuild from hurricane Katrina being devastated by the “it’s above my pay grade” mentality.

  So Melia’s question to daddy is what it took to have daddy realize IT is urgent and if not me who?

 “Urgency” meant a speech, a one hour press conference. Now I am not going to pretend that I understand much of what he said because I never have been able to understand the words linked together that form sentences that have people experiencing “tingling legs” and believing he is the messiah.

I heard him say this “It is “urgent” but the leak is so far down that no human can get to it” Then I saw his lips moving but I could not make out the solutions being offered.

So this is my translation… No human can reach it…so I will change into my super powers wet suit and dive down and plug the leak with Bull Shit. I will then fly over the ocean and spread my arms and separate the oil from the water.

I will then appeal to my inner self and heal the wildlife.

So thank you Melia, it is comforting to know someone in the White house is paying attention.

Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualization of Girls

Lisa Thompson

Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualization of Girls

Bratz dolls, bralettes, explicit advertising and the rise of ‘raunch culture’ – what does it mean for girls? Getting Real puts the spotlight on the sexualization and objectification of girls and women in the media, popular culture and society.

Girls are portrayed as sexual at younger ages, pressured to conform to a ‘thin, hot, sexy’ norm. Clothing, music, magazines, toys and games send girls the message that they are merely the sum of their body parts. The effects of prematurely sexualizing girls are borne out in their bodies and minds, with a rise in self-destructive behaviors such as eating disorders and self-harm, along with anxiety, depression and low self-esteem.

Getting Real brings together writers, advocates and academics including some of the most vocal critics of the widespread pornification of culture. They call corporations, the media and the sex industry to account for creating this toxic environment.

Lively and engaging, this collection is of interest to anyone troubled by what’s happening today and those seeking ideas to address the sexualization of girls. Getting Real is a book for anyone wanting to see a better world for the next generation.

Editor Melinda Tankard Reist is also editor of Faking It: The Female Image in Young Women’s Magazines (Women’s Forum Australia 2007) and is about to launch a new grassroots campaigns organization, Collective Shout, to name and shame corporations, advertisers and marketers who objectify women and sexualize girls to sell products and services.

A diverse list of high profile contributors crosses the usual political divides, including: Steve Biddulph (Raising Boys; Manhood); Maggie Hamilton (What’s Happening to Our Girls?); Clive Hamilton AM (Growth Fetish; Affluenza); Louise Newman (child psychiatrist); Melissa Farley (director, Prostitution Research and Education, San Francisco).

Advance Praise

Getting Real is powerful, disturbing, confronting. If we don’t challenge what we’re beginning to accept as the social norm, the risk to our girls will only continue to grow.

—Melinda Marchetta, author, Looking for Alibrandi

Getting Real unflinchingly tracks the abuse that, with the pervasive penetration of pornography, becomes normal culture. In the sexuality where objectification of children and infantilization of women converge, the less power you have, the sexier you are. Girls increasingly live in a world pornography has made. The book shows what needs to be stopped and why.

—Catharine A. MacKinnon, Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School, and James Barr Ames Visiting Professor of Law, Harvard Law School

This book is essential reading for parents, educators, and everyone who wishes to make the world a safer and healthier place for all children.

—Jean Kilbourne, EdD, author, So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can do to Protect Their Kids

Getting Real gives the mindlessness of this cultural misdirection a good shake. It does it in a straightforward language and with academic attention to detail. The book will be a valuable guide, helping young people reclaim their freedom.

—Tome Costellow, CEO, World Vision Australia

Getting Real contains a treasure trove of information and should be mandatory reading for all works with young people in health, education and welfare.

—Dr. Michael Carr-Gregg, Adolescent Psychologist

Second vast oil plume discovered in Gulf

Contributed by Barbara

Published: May 28, 2010 at 7:52 PM
BATON ROUGE, La., May 28 (UPI) — A Louisiana scientist said Friday he has discovered a second huge plume of oil in the Gulf of Mexico, 75 miles northwest of the leaking BP well.

James R. Cowan Jr., a Louisiana State University professor, said his crew found globs of oil by sending a remotely controlled submarine about 400 feet below the surface, The Washington Post reported.

Cowan reported his discovery a day after other scientists said they had found another vast plume of oil that stretched for miles east of the source of the leak.

The newly discovered plume contains oil so thick, it covered the lights on the submarine, which resurfaced entirely black, Cowan said.

“It almost looks like big wet snowflakes, but they’re brown and black and oily,” he said.

He said it became impossible to determine how wide the plume was because the submarine traveled for miles from side to side and never found an end to the oil.

Scientists say they worry the oil could move under the surface instead of floating, making it more difficult to contain, but BP officials have played down the threat, the Post said.

Officials and Louisiana scientists say they have found thick oil on the shores.

On Thursday scientists on a University of South Florida research vessel found dissolved oil east of the leak. The oil spread about 6 miles wide and extended 3,200 feet beneath the surface, USF Professor David Hollander said.

Oil has been gushing into the gulf since April 20 when the drilling platform Deepwater Horizon exploded. It sank two days later. Eleven rig workers died.

Pardon me, why isn’t this hitting the major news channels? From what I read above there may be two more leaks?

Mr. Sestak: Full-term delivery or cover-up of an abortion

Another Rant by BettyJean Kling

Mr. Sestak you are the epitome of hypocrisy. After 9 months the White House and Senator- elect Joe Sestak have delivered a bouncing baby boy named Bill Clinton. What do you take us for ?

What an imperfect way to get out of a federal charge because you fools have a few very big problems. The position as unpaid advisor  does not fit the description of a JOB, nor the description of a high position and Bill Clinton clearly does not fit the description someone from the White House.

The story doesn’t even make sense. Why would anyone be enticed to get out of a Senate race for an unpaid advisory position?

“After more than ten weeks of outstanding questions, the White House has offered a version of events that has important differences from what Congressman Sestak has been saying for months – that he was offered a ‘job’ by ‘someone in the White House’ in exchange for leaving the Pennsylvania Senate race.

Why would that someone now go along with this story after being silent about the details all this time? Clearly he made a mistake telling the truth in the first place and now has to play ball. First he was forced to abort the truth and now they are trying to deliver us this baby and pass it off as the truth. And it took you fools 9 months to hatch this line of crap? Gimme a break! Even other Democrats are embarrassed by this line of crap!

First if I were Specter- I would be outraged and next- as a Pennsylvanian I urge every PA voter to vote against a man who traded his honesty for his party after running against a man on those very grounds!

Another interesting thing is drumming up a suspense theory for the Republicans to jump on and make fools of themselves over! Isn’t it odd the way Sestak keep this quiet long enough to sweeten the pot and keep the Republicans thinking there was a big story against his party only to slap them all in the face with a supposed Gottcha! Well Mr. Sestak – If that is all this was all about in the first place – why didn’t you, Bill Clinton and the White House come clean 9 months ago? A little bit of diversion maybe?

Mr. Sestak shame on you. You are just as dishonest as Arlen, you are the epitome of hypocrisy! Here is Joe Sestak in his own words the day after he was offered the “JOB” from someone at the White House again saying that he said it and his answer was an honest answer.

PA vote him gone! These Democrats cannot be trusted anymore than the Republicans can but we simply cannot keep voting them in when we catch them in these lies. No Joe did not take the job and he did expose it but he stopped short of the whole truth and now he is embroiled in what amounts to a cover-up. Is that who you would entrust as your Senator for the next 6 years and probably 30 years?

State Senator testifies for friend who got a 16 year old girl drunk, in his home, and then wait until she passes out to have sex with her.

BettyJean Kling

TMU needs volunteers – I can’t do this alone – try as I might. Please consider becoming more involved so together we can tackle these problems. Together we are 52% the majority of this nation! Together we can force them to respect us! Every day I get more and more stories like this and every day I wonder what will it take to get us to stand together shoulder to shoulder and make this STOP! I know in my heart that we can do it – we must do it and that all it will take is for US TO DO IT!

Betty Jean,

We’ve emailed before (about my sister) and the support I give you in your battle to fight for women.   I have a new one for you, and it’s pretty disgusting.   My disclaimer:   I know Elizabeth Halseth, and have known her for approximately 2 1/2 years.   She is a very charming young woman, with a lovely family, who decided to run for State Senate here locally.  I also know her campaign manager, Dave McGowan, and have for well over 5 years (along with his son who worked campaigns with my daughter).

Long story as short as possible, Elizabeth decided to run against our incumbent Republican State Senator Dennis Nolan.  He has a history of voting liberal, but he’s in a primarily liberal district, so it’s expected.  Well, when Elizabeth put in her nomination, she started getting emails from a man claiming that the Senator testified on behalf of a child rapist, his daughter’s rapist.  She told him she would investigate and get back to him.   Elizabeth too was a victim of a sexual assault as a teenager, but she chose due diligence and spent well over a month investigating, including getting the transcripts from the trial.  The father wanted to nail the Senator and continued to email her, and call her, and once she was done investigating everything, she decided to give him an opportunity and made a commercial with the father pretty much saying what happened. 

This article has the radio ad, as well as an interview by one of our local pundits, who gave Senator Nolan a pass and a poo poo and literally attacked Elizabeth on how dare she bring this kind of stuff out. 

http://www.nevadanewsbureau.com/2010/05/18/senate-9-primary-race-gets-nasty-halseth-goes-after-nolan-on-rape-case-testimony/

Yesterday, the victim’s sister (who by the way was the rapist’s wife), came to Elizabeth’s campaign with a voice mail that Senator Nolan left on her voice mail which basically states if “you tell the truth” you can “benefit financially.”

Article here:  http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/05/27/nevada-senator-says-voice-message-rape-victims-sister-wasnt-intended-bribe/

Voice mail can be heard here:   http://www.elizabethhalseth.com/

Tonight’s article:   http://www.lvrj.com/news/woman-criticizes-lawmaker-over-phone-call-95078024.html

Yes, Betty Jean, we have a long way to go when a State Senator thinks it’s perfectly o.k. for his friend to get a 16 year old girl drunk, in his home, and then wait until she passes out to have sex with her.   Did I mention that he stated on the stand that she was passed out, he was naked and went downstairs, saw her, and then had sex with her while she was passed out, but (and I adlib here) she wanted it and I gave her what she wanted. 

Melody
Active Republican Women-Las Vegas

TMU needs volunteers – I can’t do this alone – try as I might. Please consider becoming more involved so together we can tackle these problems. Together we are 52% the majority of this nation! Together we can force them to respect us! Every day I get more and more stories like this and every day I wonder what will it take to get us to stand together shoulder to shoulder and make this STOP! I know in my heart that we can do it – we must do it and that all it will take is for US TO DO IT!

A New Vision: A Tribute to Hillary Rodham Clinton

TMU thanks TNA along with Lynn Forrester and her Family for this wonderful tribute to Hillary. This video is an inspiration and it is an obvious non partisan video that meets TMU standards and goals perfectly. Hats off to all those who participated and we especially thank Amy Siskind for the opportunity to share this with our readers.