Pennmur's Blog

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Taxpayers Go Trick-or-Treating

Washington, D.C. - Once again, as All Hallow’s Eve approaches (and we don’t mean the election!), Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) dispatches its list of Taxpayer Tricks and Treats.  The horrifying spectacle of bloated, blob-like government spending continues to frighten all Americans.

Trick:  The Haunted Housing Bailout Bill gets marquis billing as the worst trick perpetrated on taxpayers this year, as it opened the way to a toxic brew of bills that have turned into a fiscal Nightmare on Main Street.  After dipping its toe in to salvage Bear Stearns ($30 billion), and AIG ($85 billion), as well as stepping in to stanch the flow of blood at Fannie Mae and “Freddie Kreuger” Mac in the housing bailout bill, the U.S. Treasury Department and Congress shoved the taxpayers completely underwater with a $700 billion bailout of the entire banking industry.  The specter of a nationalized banking and mortgage industry sucking the life’s blood of taxpayers will draw more socialist vampires to Washington for decades to come.

Treat:  Once again, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) gets the undying gratitude of the taxpayers for successfully blocking passage of a grotesquely wasteful collection of spending bills masquerading as serious legislation.  The bill, sarcastically dubbed the Senate “Tomnibus,” was a monster mash-up of bills which would have created 36 new spending programs worth about $10 billion, all of it unpaid for with spending reductions in other areas.  In late September, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) tried to jam the whole Frankenstein-like package through, but Dr. Coburn was able to block it, at least for now.  However, the undead do come back again and again.  Sen. Reid is threatening to use the upcoming congressional lame duck session to take another stab at the bill.  Keep the garlic handy.

Trick:  The federal budget deficit reached a record $455 billion in fiscal year 2008 and is likely to more than double to $1 trillion in fiscal year 2009.  Congress’s reaction to the bad news is to propose spending increases and a $300 billion “stimulus” bill instead of taking a Texas-sized chainsaw to the plethora of federal government programs that are outdated and wasteful.  Spending in fiscal year 2008 went up by 9.1 percent, the largest increase since a 9.6. jump in 1990.  Revenue dropped by 1.2 percent, the first time since 2003 that the government received less than the prior year.

Treat:  Justice has been dispensed in the case of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska).  On October 27, the 40-year veteran of the Senate was found guilty of seven counts of failing to report gifts.  The senator has been a ravenous porker for his entire career and has been CAGW’s top porker for 10 of the last 12 years.  No date has been set for sentencing, but on behalf of taxpayers, who deserve retribution for the loss of tens of billions of dollars in wasteful pork-barrel spending in Alaska, we suggest an eternity walled up in the catacombs beneath Washington, D.C. with a nice cask of Amontillado.

Trick:  CAGW’s October Porker of the Month, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin, squandered $355,000 of the taxpayers’ money to sponsor a NASCAR driver from his home state of North Carolina.  This may be part of a diabolical plot to run for Senate or governor after the next president pulls the plug on his tenure.  The ill-fated car, which crashed in its first race, was supposed to draw attention to the switch to digital television in February, 2009.

Treat:  The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste’s 2007 Congressional Ratings highlighted the stellar voting records of the three Taxpayer Super Heroes with a score of 100 percent:  Reps. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), and F. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.).  Taxpayer Heroes are members who scored between 80 and 99 percent.  The total number of Heroes in the House increased from 39 in 2006 to 59 in 2007.

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government. 

"U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months," he said in an interview with Der Spiegel that was released Saturday.

"That, we think, would be the right time frame for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes," he said.

But a spokesman for al-Maliki said his remarks "were misunderstood, mistranslated and not conveyed accurately."

Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the possibility of troop withdrawal was based on the continuance of security improvements, echoing statements that the White House made Friday after a meeting between al-Maliki and U.S. President Bush.

In the magazine interview, Al-Maliki said his remarks did not indicate that he was endorsing Obama over presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain.

"Who they choose as their president is the Americans' business. But it's the business of Iraqis to say what they want. And that's where the people and the government are in general agreement: The tenure of the coalition troops in Iraq should be limited," he said.

"Those who operate on the premise of short time periods in Iraq today are being more realistic," al-Malikisaid.

The interview's publication came one day after the White House said President Bush and al-Maliki had agreed to include a "general time horizon" in talks about reducing American combat forces and transferring Iraqi security control across the country. iReport.com: What should the next president know about Iraq?

The Bushadministration has steadfastly refused to consider a "timetable" for withdrawing troops from Iraq.

In a statement issued Friday after a conversation between Bush and al-Maliki by closed-circuit television, the White House said that conditions in Iraq would dictate the pace of the negotiations and not "an arbitrary date for withdrawal."

The two men "agreed that the goals would be based on continued improving conditions on the ground and not an arbitrary date for withdrawal," the White House said.

In an interview to air Sunday on "Late Edition," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that "those goals are being achieved now, as we speak. And so, it's not at all unusual to start to think that there is a horizon out there, in the not too distant future, in which the roles and responsibilities of the U.S. forces are going to change dramatically and those of the Iraqi forces are going to become dominant."

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said al-Maliki had made it clear that such decisions will be based on continuing positive developments.

"It is our shared view that should the recent security gains continue, we will be able to meet our joint aspirational time horizons," he said.

The prime minister's remarks emerged as Obama visited Kuwait and Afghanistan before embarking on a tour of the Middle East and Europe to boost his foreign policy credentials. He also plans to visit Iraq.

The Democratic candidate says he supports a phased withdrawal of troops, promising to remove all combat brigades from Iraq within 16 months of taking office if he becomes president.

McCain does not think American troops should return to the United States until Iraqi forces are capable of maintaining a safe, democratic state.

He has been a strong advocate of the 2007 "surge" to escalate U.S. troop levels and says troops should stay in Iraq as long as needed.

McCain says Obama is wrong for opposing the increased troop presence, and Obama says McCain's judgment is flawed. 

I recieved an email regarding Obama take a look at the video on the link below;

SIMPLY AMAZING!

Great Job David Archuleta!

This article I found is from 2003 = Does anyone know if there has been any positive changes since then?

Posted by Ampersand | February 6th, 2003

http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2003/02/06/m
ore-donahue-breast-cancer-vs-prostate-cancer/

On Donahue, Mike Angelucci of the National Coalition of Free Men argued that "male judges and male politicians" discriminate against men. One of his supporting examples struck me, because I've heard this meme passed around anti-feminist discussions so often:

"That's why our government spends four times more on breast cancer research than prostate cancer research, even though they kill the same number every year."

It's true that breast cancer research gets more government funding than prostate cancer research - although not "four times more." Breast cancer research receives about twice as much funding - $900 million annually for breast cancer compared to $438 million annually for prostate cancer, according to the National Prostate Cancer Coalition.

The greater spending on breast cancer is at least partly due to decades of activism and pressure on Congress from women's groups. Since men's groups haven't organized as well or as long, I don't think "breast cancer vs. prostate cancer" is really a good way to measure government's alleged preference for women (when the government does something only because of outside pressure, that's hardly an example of government bias). But even ignoring that, breast cancer research should get more funding, not because of sex, but because of differences in the diseases.

Mr. Angelucci claims breast cancer and prostate cancer "kill the same number every year." In fact, according to the American Cancer Society, 40,200 people die of breast cancer annually, compared to 28,900 people - a substantial difference. (Put another way, 130 people die of breast cancer for each 100 people who die of prostate cancer). It's not the mortality rate alone that makes breast cancer scarier, however: it's also that breast cancer typically strikes at much younger ages.

Today was a Wonderful day I had to share the JOY!

Our youngest daughter had their 1st Baby Mckenzie Nicole our 5th GRANDchild @ 2:06 am today on Mother's Day!

She was born at the new hospital in Taylorsville so she is the first

Mothers Day Baby for the hospital!

We hope your Mother's Day was a Happy One Also!

Here is a Poem we would like to dedicated to our daughter

 I hope you also enjoy Happy Mothers Day!

***VIRUS WARNING ***  

For anyone-using Internet mail such as Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL and so on:

This information arrived this morning, Direct from both Microsoft and
Norton. Please send it to everybody you know who has access to the Internet.

You may receive an apparently harmless e-mail titled "Mail Server Report"

If you open either file, a message will appear on your screen saying:
'It is too late now, your life is no longer beautiful.'

Subsequently you will LOSE EVERYTHING IN YOUR PC, And the person who sent it to you will gain access to your name, e-mail and password.

This is a new virus which started to circulate on Saturday afternoon.
AOL has already confirmed the severity, and the anti virus software's
are not capable of destroying it.

The virus has been created by a hacker who calls himself 'life owner'.

PLEASE SEND A COPY OF THIS E-MAIL TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS, And ask them to PASS IT ON IMMEDIATELY!

THIS HAS BEEN CONFIRMED BY SNOPES:

http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/mail
server.asp