Feb 02 2009

Who’s Sorry Now?

Category: corruption — amuzikman @ 12:25 pm

Tom Daschle, former Senate Democratic leader and current Obama nominee for leading the Health & Human Services Department says he is sorry for failing to pay more than $120,000 dollars in back taxes.

Timothy Geitner, Obama nominee to be Secretary of the Treasury says he is sorry for failing to pay $30,000 dollars in back taxes.

I lost track – did Eric Holder, Obama nominee for Attorney General, ever apologize for enabling the pardon of Marc Rich, multimillion dollar tax evader?  Not that it matters, since Democratic President Bill Clinton granted Marc Rich a full Presidential pardon.  But it was ol’ Eric who made it all happen.

(click here to read more about Eric Holder and the Marc Rich pardon)

Now, imagine a nominee from a Republican President showing up on Capitol Hill for confirmation hearings, carrying baggage like this.  They’d be crucified in the hearings, and they’d be crucified again in the media.

But here we have THREE nominees put forth by Obama who have serious blemishes on their records. There is virtual silence in the media and the confirmation hearings are little more than posturing and formality.

If you were seriously delinquent in paying your taxes would you want to face the IRS with nothing more than an “I’m sorry”?  You know what would happen to you, right?

Can there be ANY doubt the media is nothing more than a Democratic lap dog?

There is really only ONE thing these cheaters are sorry about, and it’s not the “errors of judgment”. They are only sorry they got caught.

I’m sorry too.  I’m sorry so many of my fellow citizens, in their zeal to find hope and change have embraced a radical liberal leftist without moral compass who intends to surround himself with others who have similar bents.  These people will be making policies, rules and laws about you and me, after having already demonstrated the fact they think those same laws don’t apply to themselves.

So to all you who voted for Obama I have a question: Is this OK with you?

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Jan 11 2009

What Price Victory #2

Category: corruption,election 2008,politics — amuzikman @ 10:06 am

Or perhaps this blog could be more accurately entitled, “To The Victor Goes The Spoils’.  In either case there are immediate and profound consequences of this last election, and in my opinion troubling consequences as well.

As a result of the recent election three U.S. Senate seats are now vacant; one each in Delaware, New York and Illinois. Current law allows for the governors of those states to appoint individuals who will fill the seats being vacated by Obama, Clinton, and Biden.  For a moment, if you can, set aside your political affiliation and think about this. This means that 32,578,952 citizens of the United States are about to be represented by individuals who were not elected but rather selected for them by one person.

I seem to remember a lot of people were very upset after the 2000 presidential race when the Supreme Court had to intervene in the tallying of election results in Florida.  Even today you can find many of the liberal persuasion who claim President Bush was “selected, not elected”.  This has been one of the cornerstones of the “Hate Bush” crowd for eight years.  While the circumstances of 2000 are clearly subject to interpretation depending on your political leaning, this current situation is not.  Yet the silence is deafening.  Why don’t those same accusers raise their voices of protest in this case when “selection” is indisputable?  The answer, of course, is obvious.

What’s tragic for our country is that the selection process in each of the 3 current cases has shown itself to be entirely corrupt.  Apparently the seat in Illinois was up for the highest bidder, The Delaware selection process seems to be nepotism at it’s best and the New York seat is about to become a coronation more reminiscent of the British House of Lords than anything resembling our democratic process.  And in all three cases the issue of qualification is given little more than lip service.  Does ANYONE want to try and make the case that Carolyn Kennedy Schlossberg is actually qualified to be a U.S. senator?

Watching the way theses 3 senate seats are being filled should make us all demand a change in the law requiring a special election to fill all vacated seats.  Instead watching the news recently has made me feel like I’m watching “The Fall Of The Roman Empire“.  In case you are unfamiliar with the admittedly mediocre 1964 film, it ends with the hero, Livius, (Stephen Boyd), besting the evil Caesar Commodus in gladiator combat.  Immediately afterward he is offered the throne by the recently-deceased leader’s hirelings.  His (excellent) reply is, “You would not find me very suitable, because my first official act would be to have you all crucified.”  He then walks away with his true love on his arm while in the background a spontaneous auction begins for the throne of Rome.

I hope it does not need to be said that I do not advocate for crucifixion of political enemies.  But I do think there are many qualified men and women who simply refuse to participate in our political process either as candidates or even voters because they see the degree to which our political process has become corrupted.  Much of the corruption, not surprisingly, is tied to money.  Influence and access to political office has become the domain of the wealthy.  As more highly qualified, moral, intelligent, and knowledgeable individuals abdicate the election process, and as more political positions are gained by means other than that process, more of us will continue to ask:

Why bother to vote?

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Dec 17 2008

OK, as long as no quid pro quo

Category: corruption,election 2008 — harmonicminer @ 4:41 pm

It’s OK with me if all Rahm Emmanuel did is twist Illinois Gov. Blagojevich’s arm to Appoint Obama Loyalists. That’s to be expected, and is neither illegal nor immoral. It is, after all, a political appointment, and normal political considerations apply.

Incoming White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel pushed Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to appoint longtime Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett to fill Barack Obama’s Senate seat, and even gave Blagojevich’s staff a deadline by which an appointment was expected, according to a report in today’s Chicago Sun-Times.

Citing sources “with the Obama camp,” the Sun-Times report says Emanuel began to push for Jarrett to fill Obama’s seat “just days” after the Nov. 4 election.

That story also cites a source close to Emanuel admitting it is “possible” Emanuel discussed the appointment with Blagojevich chief of staff John Harris, and that a specific date for the appointment was given.

The Sun-Times’ revelations suggest that Emanuel was more deeply involved in discussions with Blagojevich and his staff than previously reported, and was more assertive in promoting a specific candidate.

Those conversations could have contributed to Blagojevich’s apparent belief that the Senate appointment held great political value.

It is only if there was some deal to compensate Blagojevich personally that we have a problem. And, of course, if Blagojevich twisted Emmanuel’s arm to offer some kind of bribe (essentially a form of criminal conspiracy), then Emmanuel was obliged to report that, even if he didn’t take the offer.  We can only hope that it turns out that Emmanuel is the one who tipped the FBI that something was imminent.  It will not help achieve a successful Obama presidency to begin it by having a Chief of Staff resign in disgrace.

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Nov 13 2008

Hang ’em, uh, high

Category: corruption — harmonicminer @ 1:20 am

It would seem that we have a problem with a certain criminal element being employed as air marshals.

Since 9/11, more than three dozen federal air marshals have been charged with crimes, and hundreds more have been accused of misconduct, an investigation by ProPublica, a non-profit journalism organization, has found. Cases range from drunken driving and domestic violence to aiding a human-trafficking ring and trying to smuggle explosives from Afghanistan.

Of course, if you took a like number of cops, say, 4,000, you’d find some bad apples there, too.

In fact, out of 4,000 school teachers, or plumbers, or professors, or (gasp!) lawyers, or especially politicians, you’d find a like number of cretins.

And, unfortunately, in all these other cases, we can’t just toss ’em off the airplane at 30,000 feet.

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Oct 02 2008

Signs Of Intelligent Life On Earth?

Category: Congress,corruption — amuzikman @ 11:40 pm

Thank God for Senator Tom Coburn.  Thank God there is someone in Congress willing to speak truth and lay the blame squarely where it belongs.  Please read the Oklahoma Senator’s press release about the so-called “bailout” bill v.2, now before Congress.

This is a man who gets it!  Why are there so few who do?  We have a largely incestuous, hypocritical, power-hungry, pompous, arrogant, self-aggrandizing and immoral group of so-called leaders (called Congress) who, having abdicated their Constitutionally-mandated role and having gotten all of us in this financial mess now declare they are going to provide the solution!  Preposterous! Congress has no business (and no right) whatsoever to be involved in home mortgage lending in ANY capacity! (vis. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac)

As I stated in an earlier blog we as citizens do have the ability to respond in a variety of ways.  We can simply bend over, grab our collective ankles and cry, “Thank you, sir. May I have another?” as these “leaders” stick it to us by pledging our money to correct their unconstitutional mismanagement.  Or we can go to the ballot box in November with a shout of, “I’m mad as Hell and I’m not going to take it any more! and vote OUT the offenders and their willing accomplices.  We don’t have to take this!

Is anyone out there?  Is anyone listening?  Is this thing on?  Hello?…………..John, Sarah, are you there?

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Sep 25 2008

Heroes & Villains

Category: Congress,corporations,corruption,economy — amuzikman @ 6:29 pm

From our earliest childhood we are confronted by the epic struggle between the forces of good and evil.   We see it in literature, in sports, on stage and screen.  It is a subject with apparently endless possibilities.  This conflict between two opposing forces is frequently illustrated through fictitious characters who personify those forces and who engage in frequent battles for supremacy.  Countless myths and stories are told of heroes vs villains, evil witches and fairy God-mothers, the cowboy in the white hat vs. the one with a black hat.  For every Luke Skywalker there must be a Darth Vader, Batman has the Joker and the Dodgers have the Giants (sorry, bias exposed!). The object lesson is clear.  These stories teach us to seek the good.  Likewise we learn to shun the bad.

But what is so very clear and simple in a play, motion picture or novel, is almost never as clear in real life.  But that doesn’t keep us from trying to disregard the complex in favor of the simple.  We want to blame someone for their evil deeds and we want the hero to show up just in the nick of time and save us just like in some old serial Western.

Continue reading “Heroes & Villains”

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Sep 09 2008

Thank You, Sir. May I Have Another?

Category: Congress,corruption — amuzikman @ 8:00 am

OK, movie trivia buffs – from what movie does the title of this blog come? If you said Animal House, (1978) you are correct. The scene is an outrageously funny spoof of a fraternity initiation. In a secretive, candle-lit, quasi-sado/masochistic ceremony, gleefully sinister hooded frat boys take sensual delight in whacking the backsides of the “whitey/tighty”-clad pledges who must cry out, “Thank you sir. May I have another?” each time they are smacked with a wooden paddle.

It struck me this scene is a perfect metaphor for the relationship between American citizens (the pledges) and the United States Congress (the frat boys). The latest wallop to our collective backsides? The recent revelations regarding unethical and quite possibly illegal real estate dealings of the “honorable” Charles Rangel, Congressman, 15th Congressional District, New York.

According to Thomas Lifson, at American Thinker:

Charles Rangel, a man who writes federal tax laws as head of the House Ways and Means Committee, not only failed to pay taxes on income he received from a luxury resort property he owns, he financed the purchase with an interest-free loan from a campaign backer who is also a politically active lawyer.

To read the complete article, go to: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/09/the_rangel_scandal_deepens.html

And, of course Speaker of the House Pelosi will do everything she can to hide, obfuscate, and delay any investigation until after the November election. The other frat boys and girls, (Congressional members of the same party) will circle the wagons in order to protect one of their own. The Mainstream Media shills will bury the story as long as possible – heck, we might even get some cries of “racism”, because ol’ Charlie happens to be black. And We The People will respond once again in enthusiastic unison, “Thank you, sir. May I have another?”

When are we going to get up off our proverbial hands and knees? When do we collectively put our pants back on, snatch the paddle from their hands and decide to offer up an equally famous quote from another movie, “I’m mad as Hell and I’m not going to take it any more!” (Peter Finch in the 1976 movie, Network)?

We CAN say that very thing, if we possess the collective will. We CAN do something about it, if and when we decide we’ve had enough. We don’t have to keep getting paddled by a seemingly endless parade of the corrupt, greedy, and hypocritical from both sides of the aisle that populate the halls of Congress. We The People can go to the ballot box. We The People can vote out EVERY incumbent. There’s one action that might just send a message.

Or we can all bend over, grab our ankles and wait for our corporal cue to utter the Animal House line once again…and again and again and again and………….

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Aug 30 2008

News Flash: Sarah Palin Should Disqualify Herself!!!

Category: Palin — amuzikman @ 3:10 pm

Is she in the pocket of \

It is the opinion of this writer that Sarah Palin should immediately withdraw from the Republican ticket and no longer be considered for the office of Vice President!

I have it on good authority she has ties to Big Fish. In fact evidence seems to point to an “evil trinity” – ethically questionable dealings over the last few years involving Ms. Palin, Joseph Hazelwood, and Charlie Tuna! And why are so many copies of The Little Mermaid sold in Alaska? Shouldn’t there be an investigation? Under the guise of ending dependency on foreign bait I think Ms Palin and her willing accomplices in Big Fish are trying to run up the price of nightcrawlers and salmon eggs. If she becomes Vice President you can kiss the government Valveeta Cheese program good bye! Then how will the poor afford to go fishing? Is this the kind of compassion we want from our government?

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Jul 09 2008

“Unaccountable Corporations”, or “Unaccountable Government”?

Category: capitalism,corporations,corruption,economy — harmonicminer @ 12:00 pm

It’s popular on the Left to bash corporations, and, by extension, capitalism, for just about every evil under the sun. When you dig a little deeper into most corporate abuses (the really big ones, that is), you tend to find that the real problem was government, which is the only way corporations can get enough power to do really bad things. Regulations, set-asides, sweetheart deals, mandated monopolies (it isn’t a monopoly if the government gives it to you), etc., are only possible when government sticks out its hand to corporations and says, “If you pay me now, I’ll pay you later.” True capitalism, which does NOT include giveaways by government to large corporations (or anyone else) would not include things like this.

Continue reading ““Unaccountable Corporations”, or “Unaccountable Government”?”

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