Meet Rep. Jeff Flake. He’s a conservative Republican congressman from Arizona. And he’s a whistleblower.
Earmarks. It's one subject members of Congress don’t like talking about. Earmarks designate money for a multitude of hometown projects that may also benefit lobbyists and the industries they represent. Buried in the fine print of legislation is about is $70 billion worth of earmarks, give or take a billion or two. The $70 billion covers just this year's crop. Many say they’re one of Congress’s dirty little secrets, that a good part of that $70 billion is pork – government waste at its worst.
Past examples include the $223 million "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska, which almost got approved, and half a million for a teapot museum in North Carolina, which did.
This story is about one congressman’s mission to end earmarks that has pitted him against the House, in particular against members of his own party.
Rep. Flake is challenging $6 million for windmills to generate power on military bases, $500,000 for a swimming pool in Banning, Calif., $1 million to promote tourism in Kentucky, $750,000 for a new building at the Los Angeles County Fair, $1.5 million for a William Faulkner Museum in Mississippi. And he challenges a particularly mysterious item: $600,000 for the Center of End of Life Electronics in West Virginia.
As they work their way through Congress, earmarks are so shrouded in secrecy you often can’t tell who benefits from them, who sponsors them, or why.
"The vast majority of them we have no idea. Sometimes you’ll see a press release when somebody’s taking a victory lap. Some of them don’t want anyone to ever know that they got that earmark, other than the lobbyist that they got it for," Flake tells Safer.
It’s a process the Founding Fathers warned us about from the very beginning.
"Jefferson actually was very prescient about it and said it was gonna be a mad scramble to see who can waste the most money in their state," explains Leslie Paige, who studies the workings of Congress for the non-partisan group Citizens Against Government Waste. For lawmakers, she says, earmarks serve another function: you show me yours, I’ll show you mine.
"You want me to vote for your Medicare bill? What do you want for it? You know? And that actually has happened, where there’s been a lot of log rolling and horse trading to get bills through that they can’t get through any other way," she explains.
On the floor of the House, Jeff Flake has managed to smoke out the authors of a few earmarks. But as you might expect, his efforts have gotten him in trouble with just about everybody.
Read on...
This should be an interesting fight on the Hill. What will be most interesting are the actions of the newbies. I give you the post below.
And so it begins...
New AFP Video: Same Old Song and Dance on Pork-Barrel Earmark Reform?
The free-market grassroots group Americans for Prosperity today released a new online video showing House Democrats calling for stronger pork-barrel earmark reform during debate on a modest Republican reform proposal in September.
Set to the Frank Sinatra standard, "Same Old Song and Dance", the video shows House Democrats calling the GOP plan a "sham", a "fraud", and a "Trivial Pursuit", while calling for the enactment of stronger reforms proposed by Democratic Congressmen Rahm Emanuel (5th Dist. – Ill.) and Chris Van Hollen (8th Dist. – Md.)
Americans for Prosperity released the video because House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi this week said she plans to offer an earmark reform plan on her first day as Speaker that would apparently only make Members of Congress to attach their names to their pork-barrel earmarks – essentially the same Republican reform that she decried as a "sham" in September.
Watch the video here...
18 comments:
So, does that go a ways to answering the question in your previous post. Sure, everyone wants pork reform, so long as it doesn't affect their pet projects.
Hey, they're poodleheads. Do you still have the photo of the poodlehead? That's a priceless term, and so apt.
We'll see if anything like that changes since it's the major thing wrong with the system and the hardest to fix since it's endemic to the system to finance the campaigns to keep yourself in office you need a lot of money donated from lobbyists and to pay off the donations you need to grab the pork from the barrel to give the projects to the special interests, that's the vicious cycle that's so hard to break.
Since both parties benefit from it and a lot of politicians have that as their only priority these days. (Where is Jimmy Stewart and his Mr. Smith these days? Even Eddie Murphy's Distinguished Gentleman is missing) who is going to stand up against the tide of corruption when the system is rotted to the core?
It's the same thing with Jim Flake, even if his intensions are noble, is it going to work when all the influence is against him? Is he going to resist long when the lobbyists and special interests take him up on the mountian and tempt him with all the kingdoms of the Earth?
O.k. I'm functional, kind of. A lot to catch up on.
First I want to say welcome to my buddy Argon. You know the "twitch, Twich" "wink,grin" is just my New York talking. So here come Rule # 1: I am exempt from any rules and protocols because the caveat, " Ah, you know, he's from New Yawk" covers any transgressions that might pop up. I'm so used to talking to Moo on her other Blog where I KNOW we're alone, I got a little careless.
And hello to you, Cait. I hope we see you often. You seem to be pretty well wired together and boy! Moo needs a little more of that.
And now to catch up:
1. Cross posting....I don't know what that means either but in my skull sessions I always enourage tossing out ideas, like free association. If you encourage uninhibited thoughts, maybe it ignites a thought or idea in someone else and the kernal of a plan begins to form. I guess what I mean is, while Argon and Moo have different styles, concepts, and purposes, you both share one thing......lack of readers and participants. And there are billions of you out there. Since there is strength in numbers we should seek out those that fit (sort of) the concept or framework that we want to achieve. Like that Supreme Court Judge said a long time ago, "I can't define pornography, but I know it when I see it." Same goes for the kind of participants, guests, whatever we call them, that we want to attract here. You know, intelligent, literate, razor sharp, dissatisfied with most current dialogue, and yearning to "mix it up" and "laugh it up" with others of a like kind. They are rare, but not extinct.
When we find one (and slowly more) , we should engage them, invite them here, we'll visit there, and then see what happens.
The point is, I think, I.Q.+ free thinking + free spirit + good soul......IN ! Demagoguery, rigidity, doctrinarism.......OUT !
I'll continue my catch up later, but I want to share a cute little story that was e-mailed to me today from a group of friends of mine (all phd.'s, all filthy rich, all liberal, all with too much time on their hands, and believe it or not, all great people.)
Subject: No sex since 1957
A crusty old Marine Sergeant Major found himself at a gala event
hosted by a local liberal arts college. There was no shortage of
extremely young, idealistic ladies in attendance, one of whom approached
the Sergeant Major for conversation.
"Excuse me, Sergeant Major, but you seem to be a very serious
man. Is something bothering you?"
"Negative, ma'am. Just serious by nature."
"The young lady looked at his awards and decorations and said,
"It looks like you have seen a lot of action."
"Yes, ma'am, a lot of action."
The young lady, tiring of trying to start up a conversation,
said, "You know, you should lighten up a little. Relax and enjoy
yourself."
The Sergeant Major just stared at her in his serious manner.
Finally the young lady said, "You know, I hope you don't take
this the wrong way, but when is the last time you had sex?"
"1957, ma'am."
"Well, there you are. You really need to chill out and quit
taking everything so seriously! I mean, no sex since 1957! She took his
hand and led him to a private room where she proceeded to "relax" him
several times.
Afterwards, panting for breath, she leaned against his bare
chest and said, "Wow, you sure didn't forget much since 1957!"
The Sergeant Major, glancing at his watch, said in his
matter-of-fact voice, "I hope not, it's only 2130 now."
Glad to be here and TYVM for the welcome Shooter I loved that joke and LOL immediately when my wife asked me what I was laughing about I read her the joke and it took her a few mins to get it since I had been in the military and she wasn't as used to 24 hour time.
You said "...I guess what I mean is, while Argon and Moo have different styles, concepts, and purposes, you both share one thing a lack of readers and participants... When we find one (and slowly more) , we should engage them, invite them here, we'll visit there, and then see what happens..." and I can go for that and it'll be a new experience for me since I haven't had any comments on my blog in 8 months so participants might be a nice change.
OMG Cait, I forgot all about the poodlehead picture! In fact, I'd forgotten about the name poodlehead!
I'll have to see if I can find it!
Ok, so it also took me reading the joke twice before I got it. But I laughed when I finally did! I never did get military time either.
And I DO NOT need to be more better well wired...more pretty well wired...more better well wired together!
See?!?
Hey Cait, did we make up the term poodlehead? I can't find my old pics (I've reformated several times since then)and when I Google it, actual poodles are the only thing that come up.
I thought it was a well known term for moonbats, but maybe I just can't remember. What a drag, those pictures were funny!
I thought you invented the term. You saw this picture somewhere on line of a guy with a poodle on his head. It really was goofy looking. So you started calling anyone who was idiotic (ah, so many, so little time) a poodlehead. It really was delightful. I tried to find the image on line a while back, and didn't even come close. Maybe Bsti has it somewhere in his archives.
It's all coming back to me now lol. All the pics in my archive are toast. I think Bsti may have been hosting them for me back them so it's possible he may have them. I'm still looking.
But I really think the poodlehead term needs to be resurrected. I think the poodlehead guy was an anti war protester, which, as I remember, made us all so proud!
Hey Argon, sorry but I was gone a litle longer than I expected. While Moo is doing her Joe Franklin skit, You and I are gonna have to carry on. This site can't just be a slight variation of the last,with just with a few slight improvements. Right now is the most important time. Elementary trigonometry shows that tiny moves now have exponential results later, good and bad. My point was, and now I have to quote my Sainted Mom again, "Nothing bad comes from doing good." Eventually my seemingly chaotic salvo of thought-lettes will come together and you'll see, out of the fog, a coherent, powerful, throbbing, radiant, cornucopia of an entity that will be the "close to critical mass" nuclear embryo of the next great superstar Blog on the Net. In playgrounds, busses, classrooms, phone calls nationwide the air will be fllled with "Hey, have you been to that Joannie Snark Blog? Everybody say's once you get in, you never want to leave. And if you Have to leave, you can't wait to get back.!" And it will happen if we can bring together (thanks Mom) enough "good things." My handkerchief is drenched (good thing it's cotton) by the sad tale of your lonely 8 months. But it's not you. You're a "good thing." You could have been passing out tickets to eternal life, but if no one knows............. Now, you're thing isn't my thing, but so what. As long as it's good, and i must say you're perseverance is admirable, and we fill this jar with enough good marbles, the traffic created will give you your shot. You know, no one can promise you that you'll hit that home run in the 7th game of a tied world series, and I never wished for that. I just wished to be in the batter's box when that time comes.
Is it bad that I don't know who Joe Franklin is?
Me either.
I had to look him up on Wikipedia, apparently he's more famous in New York and I didn't even remember him in Ghostbusters, it must have been in that montage sequence where they were doing interviews and commercials.
I do agree since as was said in Dune "A beginning is a very delicate time." and it looks like some more people are finding this one from the Rost blog so maybe word of mouth is working to build the momentum to that "critical mass" he was talking about.
http://nobleargon.blogspot.com/
Rost blog? What's that. Would you put the URL in a comment?
Rost Blog:
http://peterrost.blogspot.com/
I got the link to here from Dr. Rost blog since I'd seen Moogirl comment on there.
I suppose that Shooter had grown up watching Joe Franklin so he was more familiar with him, just as I had grown up watching someone like Ross McGowan but I don' think he's known much outside of the San Francisco Bay Area.
http://www.ktvu.com/station/1849443/detail.html
I did get to meet him once when I went to a taping of his show "People are Talking"
I have the feeling Google will become our best friend when dealing witht he likes of Shooter!
That, and a dictionary...
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