Remember awhile back when it was discovered that Democratic VA Governor Tim Kaine has surrounded himself with ex-Union officials in his cabinet after taking the most in political contributions from Unions in Virginia history?... http://rightsideva.blogspot.com/2006/10/big-unionsbig-moneymany-votes.html
"Labor Money in Virginia In his 2005 campaign for governor, Tim Kaine received more than $1.4 million from organizedlabor. Including contributions to his inaugural committee, Governor Kaine received more than $1.55 million in union money. This is far and away the largest amount of money ever spent by labor unions in a Virginia statewide election. To put this in perspective, Governor Kaine received more than 10 times the amount of money than the previous governor received."
Seems now the Governors staff has increased a bit since he got into office...
The guys over at the VA-Cost-Cutting blog have reported:
"If you haven't checked out the publication Executive Amendments to the 2006-2008 Biennial Budget, you should. It gives you a chance to start to drill down on some of the departments of your government.
Starting at the top for instance, on page B-33 one finds the Office of the Governor.In FY 2003 there were 29 employees for a total cost of $2,088,562 = $72,000 ppIn FY 2008 there will be 41 employees for a total cost of $4,379,423 = $107,000 pp
From there one can start asking questions on why the staff has increased positions by 41% and why the total cost has increased 110%."
http://vacostcutting.blogspot.com/2006/12/final-teams-are-in-place-on-house-side.html
Keep an eye on that brow...
More information came out this week as to what Clinton National Security Adviser did with some of the 9/11 documents that he stole from the National Archives. Once again it is interesting to see how the MainScream media has presented this story and in fact CBS ignored it altogether. It turns out that the documents that Berger stole were probably about how the Clinton administration was dealing with the terrorist threats before 9/11 and Berger destroyed them to protect what\who???
CNN gave 24 seconds to talk about the story yesterday...
ABC gave 23 seconds...
CBS ignored it altogether... http://newsbusters.org/node/9791
Neal Bortz had some good info on his show and website:
"What we do know is that Berger was to testify to the 9/11 commission on what the Clinton Administration did or did not know about any links between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda .. among other things." http://boortz.com/nuze/200612/12212006.html
The Washington Times pointed out why the MainScream media has probably dropped this story and has no reason to feel they have to report anything negative about the Poster-Boy Bill Clinton:
"Democrats will assume control of Congress next month, and the request for an investigation is expected to be shelved."
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20061221-122447-6098r.htm
Don't bother looking for anything about it in the local Newspaper The Staunton NewsLeader for I looked already and once again I guess the editors determined this was not "Newsworthy" to the local people....
More information about the fraud experienced during the Hurricane Katrina “Clean-up” came out this past week and it is now estimated over $1 Billion has been stolen or misdirected already.
“WASHINGTON, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Fraud involving payments supposed to help victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita likely exceeds earlier estimates of $1 billion and only a tiny fraction of the money has been recovered, according to a U.S. government report released on Wednesday.”
Now I don’t believe it is “Official Policy” for the government to endorse any one private relief organization but it is obvious that the Red Cross has the major media machine to get themselves in the “Spotlight” when check writing time comes around…
“of $2.7 billion donated for hurricane relief through November 21, 2005, the Red Cross received $1.52 billion, compared with $270 million for the distant second-place organization, the Salvation Army”.
Just some of the facts reported on Katrina fraud:
“The GAO cited incidents in which FEMA gave $17 million in housing assistance to individuals who had already obtained free housing in the form of trailers or apartments and $20 million that went to people who improperly claimed for help for both storms that ravaged the U.S. Gulf Coast area.”
“Katrina alone caused $80 billion in damage, killed 1,500 people and displaced hundreds of thousands more. More than $100 billion was set aside by Congress to help the region recover from the 2005 storms.”
“The GAO also said that 42 out of 145 laptops bought to help with FEMA operations during the hurricanes were presumed lost or stolen, and many Global Positioning System tracking devices were also lost or stolen.”
“A hotel owner in Sugar Land, Tex., has been charged with submitting $232,000 in bills for phantom victims. And roughly 1,100 prison inmates across the Gulf Coast apparently collected more than $10 million in rental and disaster-relief assistance.”
"This started off as a disaster-relief program, but it turned into a cash cow," said Representative Michael McCaul, Republican of Texas, a former federal prosecutor and now chairman of a House panel investigating storm waste and fraud.
“The mobile homes, costing $34,500 each, were supposed to provide temporary housing to hurricane victims. But after Louisiana officials balked at installing them inland, FEMA had no use for them. Nearly half, or about 10,000, of the $860 million worth of units now sit at an airfield in Arkansas, where FEMA is paying $250,000 a month to store them.”
"There are tools that are available to get money quickly to individuals and to get disaster relief programs running quickly without seeing so much fraud and waste," said Gregory D. Kutz, managing director of the forensic audits unit at the G.A.O. "But it wasn't really something that FEMA put a high priority on. So it was easy to commit fraud without being detected."
“One Louisiana Department of Labor clerk, Wayne P. Lawless, has been charged with issuing about 80 fraudulent disaster unemployment benefit cards in exchange for bribes of up to $300 per application. Mr. Lawless, a state contract worker, announced to one man he helped apply for hurricane benefits that he wanted to "get something out of it," the affidavit said. His lawyer did not respond to several messages left at his office and home for comment.”
“First, because the Red Cross did not keep track of the hundreds of thousands of recipients they were only required to provide a ZIP code from the hurricane zone to check in FEMA frequently sent rental assistance checks to people getting free hotel rooms, the G.A.O. found.”
“In turn, some hotel managers or owners, like Daniel Yeh, of Sugar Land, exploited the lack of oversight, investigators have charged, and submitted bills for empty rooms or those occupied by paying guests or employees. Mr. Yeh submitted $232,000 in false claims, his arrest affidavit said. His lawyer, Robert Bennett, said that Mr. Yeh was mentally incompetent and that the charges should be dismissed.”
“And Tina M. Winston of Belleville, Ill., was charged this month with claiming that her two daughters had died in the flooding in New Orleans. But prosecutors said that the children never existed and that Ms. Winston was living in Illinois at the time of the storm. The public defender representing Ms. Winston did not respond to a request for comment.”
“Charities also were vulnerable to profiteers. In Burbank, Calif., a couple has been charged with collecting donations outside a store by posing as Red Cross workers. In Bakersfield, Calif., 75 workers at a Red Cross call center, their friends and relatives have been charged in a scheme to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars in relief.”
“Congressional investigators, meanwhile, have referred another 7,000 cases of possible fraud to prosecutors, including more than 1,000 prison inmates who collected more than $12 million in federal aid, much of it in the form of rental assistance.”
“There are bigger cases of government waste or fraud in United States history. The Treasury Department, for example, estimated in 2005 that Americans in a single year had improperly been granted perhaps $9 billion in unjustified claims under the Earned-Income Tax Credit. The Department of Health and Human Services in 2001 estimated that nearly $12 billion in Medicare benefit payments in the previous year had been based on improper or fraudulent complaints.”
Seems that Nancy Pelosi and her "Democratic clean-up" team is at it again in her attempts to clean up Washington as she promised before the elections. The problem is what will this mean for National or "Homeland" security once she gets her choices in there to head the committees. A good Republican friend from up near Stafford VA. sent this down to me and it's shows what we are in for once they the Democrats take control...
The Washington Times reports that the potential chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee Democratic Representative Bennie Thompson has warned Cintas Corp that they will be in trouble if they fire any of their 32,000 employees because they gave wrong Social Security numbers to be hired...(?)
"A Mississippi Democrat in line to become chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee has warned the nation's largest uniform supplier it faces criminal charges if it follows a White House proposal to recheck workers with mismatched Social Security numbers and fire those who cannot resolve the discrepancy in 60 days"
What happens when the Democratic Party goes to fix the Social Security problem and finds all of these people with "bogus" Social Security numbers???
"Rep. Bennie Thompson said in a letter to Cintas Corp. it could be charged with "illegal activities in violation of state and federal law" if any of its 32,000 employees are terminated because they gave incorrect Social Security numbers to be hired."
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20061128-122911-2961r.htm
You know, Friday has always been "Trash Day" around the house and need to make a run to the dump before work today. Might as well make Friday the "Trash Day" for Rightside and throw some more trash out here also...
Seems like the girls over at "The View" are at it again and as reported by NewsBusters http://newsbusters.org/node/9659 and it looks like Joy Behar has already discovered the plot by the "Vast Right-wing Conspiracy" of 2006...
"Well, it certainly didn’t take long for a member of the media to suggest that there’s some kind of conspiracy involved with Sen. Tim Johnson’s (D-SD) medical condition. On Thursday’s “The View,” co-host Joy Behar questioned, “Is there such a thing as a man made stroke? In other words, did someone do this to him?”
"Sadly, this wasn't the only disgrace, for when conservative co-host Elizabeth Hasselbeck asked why liberals are always seeing a conspiracy in everything, Behar unashamedly responded: “I know what this, that Party is capable of.”
Yup.
Truck is full... Gotta make that run to the dump now...
United Conservatives blog has a story over there already showing how our Senator-elect is already too busy for the people that he will now represent and in this case it turns out to be the military Veterens...
"It seems Jim Webb (X) dissed the Vets in Hampton Roads before his famous tantrum in D.C. Also please note that this Veterans event was held on the Saturday after the election."
http://unitedconservatives.blogspot.com/2006/12/webb-x-to-vets-no-plane-no-show-no-no.html
Once again the Staunton NewsLeader Editorial has started to jump on the “Republican-dominated House of Delegates” before they even get to the next General assembly session so not to miss the holiday rush…
In this weeks NewsLeader editorial:
“Astute followers of current affairs will recall that this is the same elected body that failed to address the state's transportation needs during the regular sessions of 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 and required a special session this fall, ostensibly to address the problems they failed to find solutions for during the previous several years.”
Also seems that the NewsLeader loves to go after those that they feel are not doing the job they were elected to do. “Del. William Howell, R-Stafford, the leader of the obstructionist, Republican-dominated House of Delegates (the root cause of Virginia's recurring nightmare, despite the existence of a sensible, responsible, equally Republican-dominated Senate) announced that he and his gang will insist on spending at least half of the state's surplus revenues on transportation. No budging. No compromising. Nothing less than that or no deal.”
Looks like the NewsLeader loves the Senate for they are willing to once again raise the tax rates on the Virginia workers even when the state has a surplus from the last Democratic Governor Mark Warner tax increase. The reason the Delegates would not go along with the new Democratic Governor Tim Kaine during the last session is that Kaine wanted to raise our taxes again to pay for the transportation crisis without using the surplus we now have. The Delegates stood up to the Democratic Governor who wanted to raise taxes again and would not approve another tax on the Virginia citizens without a plan to use the surplus. The Delegates should be commended for standing up to the Governor and “His” Senate…
Fact is we do have a transportation problem in Virginia and one that needs to be addressed. But it must be done in a way that uses the surplus we now have in a wise manner and include other revenue producing tools to pay for the needed work. Republican Delegate Chris Saxman has already been talking about this problem for some time. Democratic Governor Kaine wanted to save this surplus in a “Rainy-Day” fund that sounded nothing but a way to use this money on other “Pet” projects that he would not describe.
A few weeks back Delegate Saxman spoke in front of the local Chamber 0f Commerce about pending changes and closings of VDOT facilities to improve efficiency and save taxpayer money. The Staunton NewsLeader staff determined this story was not worthy of coverage and passed on covering the meeting. Another local Newspaper covered it and did a good job at reporting the discussion on this now important crisis.
This past week Republican Delegate Chris Saxman met with the Harrisonburg Rotary Club and spoke to the group of 125 for some time. It was covered by the Harrisonburg Daily News-Record newspaper (Tue. 12 Dec 06, page D1 by Dan Wright) but once again the Staunton NewsLeader must have decided that it was not “Newsworthy” once again…
If possible get a copy and read Wright's coverage on this meeting. Here are some of Delegate Saxman’s statements:
“ There’s no silver bullet for transportation. We have to reform a lot of what were doing if we’re going to solve problems long term”.
It was also discussed that the Rail solutions out there would really only be beneficial if the goods are hauled 500 miles or more… Saxman also stated that a tax increase won’t work because there’s no guaranteeing where the money will go. “We had funding last year and the Senate wouldn’t even agree to spend that”…
We need to support the Delegates as they call for sensible solutions to the transportation problem… We also need to question those who only support Tax increases when we already have a surplus being held in a “Rainy-Day” fund…
Putting Tax-cuts in terms everyone can understand…
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for dinner and the bill for all comes to $100.
If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing like they do now with the present income tax structure.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59 of the bill.
So that is what the ten men decide to do.
The ten men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. “Since you all are such good customers I am going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20”. Dinner for the 10 men now costs just $80...
The group still wanted to pay the bill the same way that they paid their taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still eat for free. But what about the other six men -- the Paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everybody would get his “Fair Share”?
They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth and sixth man would each end up being paid to eat their meal…
So, the restaurant owner suggested it would be fair to reduce each mans bill roughly the same amount; and proceeded to work out the amounts each man would pay.
The fifth, like the first four now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth man now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings)
The seventh man now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% savings)
The eight man now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings)
The ninth man now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings)
The tenth man now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings)
Each of the six was better off then before. And the first four continued to eat for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings…
“I only got a dollar out of the $20,” declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man “but he got $10”…
“Yeah, that’s right,” exclaimed the fifth man. “I only saved a dollar, too. Its unfair that he got ten times more than me!?”
“That’s true”, shouted the seventh man. “Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!”
“Wait a minute,” yelled the first four men in unison. “We didn’t get anything at all. The system exploit’s the poor!”
The nine men surrounded the tenth man and beat him up…
The next night the Tenth man did not show up for dinner, so the Nine sat down and ate without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half the bill!
And that Boys & Girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just might not show up anymore. In fact, they might start eating overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier…
David R. Kamerschen, PH.D
Professor of Economics
University of Georgia
Checked into this and found one article that claims Kamerschen did not author this but none of the articles disputed the theory or numbers used for this example…
