A British atheist speaks the truth about freedom of speech — an interesting slant from a very interesting source — involving the threat that Islam poses with regard to freedom of speech.
International law? Outside the United States? “Community cohesion”? The US Constitution being the anchor for all of Western Civilization? Islam acquiring as much respect as it gives? Zero? Learning nothing from what’s currently happening in Europe? All that and more.
Pat Condell hits on the key point: the United States really is the last, best hope for the entire planet. And this from an avowed atheist.
The federal government made at least $72 billion in improper payments in 2008.[1]
Washington spends $92 billion on corporate welfare (excluding TARP) versus $71 billion on homeland security.[2]
Washington spends $25 billion annually maintaining unused or vacant federal properties.[3]
Government auditors spent the past five years examining all federal programs and found that 22 percent of them–costing taxpayers a total of $123 billion annually–fail to show any positive impact on the populations they serve.[4]
The Congressional Budget Office published a “Budget Options” series identifying more than $100 billionin potential spending cuts.[5]
Examples from multiple Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports of wasteful duplication include342 economic development programs; 130 programs serving the disabled; 130 programs serving at-risk youth; 90 early childhood development programs; 75 programs funding international education, cultural, and training exchange activities; and 72 safe water programs.[6]
Washington will spend $2.6 million training Chinese prostitutes to drink more responsibly on the job.[7]
A GAO audit classified nearly half of all purchases on government credit cards as improper, fraudulent, or embezzled. Examples of taxpayer-funded purchases include gambling, mortgage payments, liquor, lingerie, iPods, Xboxes, jewelry, Internet dating services, and Hawaiian vacations. In one extraordinary example, the Postal Service spent $13,500 on one dinner at a Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, including “over 200 appetizers and over $3,000 of alcohol, including more than 40 bottles of wine costing more than $50 each and brand-name liquor such as Courvoisier, Belvedere and Johnny Walker Gold.” The 81 guests consumed an average of $167 worth of food and drink apiece.[8]
Federal agencies are delinquent on nearly 20 percent of employee travel charge cards, costing taxpayershundreds of millions of dollars annually.[9]
The Securities and Exchange Commission spent $3.9 million rearranging desks and offices at its Washington, D.C., headquarters.[10]
The Pentagon recently spent $998,798 shipping two 19-cent washers from South Carolina to Texas and$293,451 sending an 89-cent washer from South Carolina to Florida.[11]
Over half of all farm subsidies go to commercial farms, which report average household incomes of $200,000.[12]
Health care fraud is estimated to cost taxpayers more than $60 billion annually.[13]
A GAO audit found that 95 Pentagon weapons systems suffered from a combined $295 billion in cost overruns.[14]
The refusal of many federal employees to fly coach costs taxpayers $146 million annually in flight upgrades.[15]
Washington will spend $126 million in 2009 to enhance the Kennedy family legacy in Massachusetts. Additionally, Senator John Kerry (D-MA) diverted $20 million from the 2010 defense budget to subsidize a new Edward M. Kennedy Institute.[16]
Federal investigators have launched more than 20 criminal fraud investigations related to the TARP financial bailout.[17]
Despite trillion-dollar deficits, last year’s 10,160 earmarks included $200,000 for a tattoo removal program in Mission Hills, California; $190,000 for the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming; and $75,000 for the Totally Teen Zone in Albany, Georgia.[18]
The federal government owns more than 50,000 vacant homes.[19]
The Federal Communications Commission spent $350,000 to sponsor NASCAR driver David Gilliland.[20]
Members of Congress have spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars supplying their offices with popcorn machines, plasma televisions, DVD equipment, ionic air fresheners, camcorders, and signature machines–plus $24,730 leasing a Lexus, $1,434 on a digital camera, and $84,000 on personalized calendars.[21]
More than $13 billion in Iraq aid has been classified as wasted or stolen. Another $7.8 billion cannot be accounted for.[22]
Fraud related to Hurricane Katrina spending is estimated to top $2 billion. In addition, debit cards provided to hurricane victims were used to pay for Caribbean vacations, NFL tickets, Dom Perignon champagne, “Girls Gone Wild” videos, and at least one sex change operation.[23]
Auditors discovered that 900,000 of the 2.5 million recipients of emergency Katrina assistance provided false names, addresses, or Social Security numbers or submitted multiple applications.[24]
Congress recently gave Alaska Airlines $500,000 to paint a Chinook salmon on a Boeing 737.[25]
The Transportation Department will subsidize up to $2,000 per flight for direct flights between Washington, D.C., and the small hometown of Congressman Hal Rogers (R-KY)–but only on Monday mornings and Friday evenings, when lawmakers, staff, and lobbyists usually fly. Rogers is a member of the Appropriations Committee, which writes the Transportation Department’s budget.[26]
Washington has spent $3 billion re-sanding beaches–even as this new sand washes back into the ocean.[27]
A Department of Agriculture report concedes that much of the $2.5 billion in “stimulus” funding for broadband Internet will be wasted.[28]
The Defense Department wasted $100 million on unused flight tickets and never bothered to collect refunds even though the tickets were refundable.[29]
Washington spends $60,000 per hour shooting Air Force One photo-ops in front of national landmarks.[30]
Over one recent 18-month period, Air Force and Navy personnel used government-funded credit cards to charge at least $102,400 on admission to entertainment events, $48,250 on gambling, $69,300 on cruises, and $73,950 on exotic dance clubs and prostitutes.[31]
Members of Congress are set to pay themselves $90 million to increase their franked mailings for the 2010 election year.[32]
Congress has ignored efficiency recommendations from the Department of Health and Human Services that would save $9 billion annually.[33]
Taxpayers are funding paintings of high-ranking government officials at a cost of up to $50,000 apiece.[34]
The state of Washington sent $1 food stamp checks to 250,000 households in order to raise state caseload figures and trigger $43 million in additional federal funds.[35]
Congress appropriated $20 million for “commemoration of success” celebrations related to Iraq and Afghanistan.[37]
Homeland Security employee purchases include 63-inch plasma TVs, iPods, and $230 for a beer brewing kit.[38]
Two drafting errors in the 2005 Deficit Reduction Act resulted in a $2 billion taxpayer cost.[39]
North Ridgeville, Ohio, received $800,000 in “stimulus” funds for a project that its mayor described as “a long way from the top priority.”[40]
The National Institutes of Health spends $1.3 million per month to rent a lab that it cannot use.[41]
Congress recently spent $2.4 billion on 10 new jets that the Pentagon insists it does not need and will not use.[42]
Lawmakers diverted $13 million from Hurricane Katrina relief spending to build a museum celebrating the Army Corps of Engineers–the agency partially responsible for the failed levees that flooded New Orleans.[43]
Medicare officials recently mailed $50 million in erroneous refunds to 230,000 Medicare recipients.[44]
Audits showed $34 billion worth of Department of Homeland Security contracts contained significant waste, fraud, and abuse.[45]
Washington recently spent $1.8 million to help build a private golf course in Atlanta, Georgia.[46]
The Advanced Technology Program spends $150 million annually subsidizing private businesses; 40 percent of this funding goes to Fortune 500 companies.[47]
Congressional investigators were able to receive $55,000 in federal student loan funding for a fictional college they created to test the Department of Education.[48]
The Conservation Reserve program pays farmers $2 billion annually not to farm their land.[49]
The Commerce Department has lost 1,137 computers since 2001, many containing Americans’ personal data.[50]
Barack Obama sees worst poll rating drop in 50 years The decline in Barack Obama’s popularity since July has been the steepest of any president at the same stage of his first term for more than 50 years.
Gallup recorded an average daily approval rating of 53 per cent for Mr Obama for the third quarter of the year, a sharp drop from the 62 per cent he recorded from April. His current approval rating – hovering just above the level that would make re-election an uphill struggle – is close to the bottom for newly-elected president. Mr Obama entered the White House with a soaring 78 per cent approval rating.
You see, it could never be the result of actual Demorat politics or policies or proposals or bills; golly-gosh no!
Here’s what I think — and you just go ahead and call me wacky. I think some tactics are backfiring on Our Hero and his minions.
People are beginning to visualize that something just might be amiss with Our Hero, The Anointed One. They are beginning to sense that there may be little congruency between what He promised and what he’s (little “h”) delivering. Consternation not just with Conservatives; oh no. Much discontent piling up on the Left with his insufficiently Leftist plans and results. Mr Obama — if you can grasp this fetid little concept — is insufficiently left for the Left.
Gadzooks!
Dick Cheney didn’t help matters this past Wednesday when he said that — gulp! — Our Hero’s Afghan war strategy seems to bear a striking resemblance to that of former President Bush! Perish the thought!
Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Wednesday that the Bush administration had developed a new strategy on the war in Afghanistan before leaving office — a strategy that he said “bears a striking resemblance” to the one announced by President Obama in March.
“The White House must stop dithering while America’s armed forces are in danger,” he said.
“Make no mistake, signals of indecision out of Washington hurt our allies and embolden our adversaries,” he added. “Waffling, while our troops on the ground face an emboldened enemy, endangers them and hurts our cause.”
“Now they seem to be pulling back and blaming others for their failure to implement the strategy they embraced. It’s time for President Obama to do what it takes to win a war he has repeatedly and rightly called a war of necessity.”
Ouch.
What does this mean for America, you ask?
I say: Mr Obama will pull out all the stops at this point. Whatever vestige of “Mr Nice Guy” (I can’t believe I just wrote that) which formerly existed will now be gone. The Demorats and Mr Obama and his minions and the Religious Left will do anything and everything under the sun, primarily piled into the Unfair, Lowdown and Dirty Column (and, I’d guess, tippy-toeing into the illegal margins), in order to cram their ObamaKare and Cap N Tax down the throats of Americans whose eyes are — hey, check those polling numbers once again if you don’t believe me — slowly overcoming the Obama Glue. Things are starting to fall apart. Texas Fredproves my point right here.
Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) locked Republicans out of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee room to keep them from meeting when Democrats aren’t present. Towns’ action came after repeated public ridicule from the leading Republican on the committee, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), over Towns’s failure to launch an investigation into Countrywide Mortgage’s reported sweetheart deals to VIPs.
Why the lockout? Gosh — could it be because Mr Towns himself received a mortgage loan from Countrywide but — naturally — “insists” that he was not part of the VIP program? Right. And waves don’t turn rocks into sand. Towns further said he purposely didn’t start any investigation because he “does not want to interfere with an ongoing Justice Department probe into the matter.”
Or is it also because GOP’s Darryl Issa used technology to create a video which embarrassed the Demorats?
The truth is this: Towns has been ignoring Republican requests to subpoena records in the Countrywide case (Countrywide now owned by B of A). Last Thursday, the Oversight & Government Reform committee Republicans, led by Issa, were about to force an open vote on the subpoenas at a Committee mark-up meeting. The mark-up was canceled quickly. Only Republicans showed up, whilst Demorats failed to appear.
Imagine that. The Dems playing as 8-year-olds.
Issa’s spokesman said the Democrats readily acknowledged to Republicans that they changed the locks in retaliation to the videotape of the Democrats’absence from the business meeting even though committee rules allow meetings to be taped.
And all this in the name of Mr Obama’s TRANSparency. EVERYthing must be TRANSparent.
Uh. Except when there is a conflict. With reality. And truth.
