Earmarks voted in and a Congressman who should be booted

Two stories today  tell me that nothing has changed in DC  -- 8 Republicans voting to keep Earmarks and Congressman Conyers who still is getting away with unbelievable in our face bull...

Why would these 8 Republicans in the light of what happened in the 2010 elections vote to keep Earmarks in place? http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45724_Page2.html

Congressman Conyers once again getting caught violating Ethics and proving once again he does NOT belong in DC...
http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/news/local/items-stolen-john-conyers-government-registered-cadillac-20101130-mr

Supreme Court Sit on their Robes AGAIN and Denies Another Obama Birther Case

Supreme Court Sit on their Robes AGAIN and Denies Another Obama Birther Case --


Obama has spent close to 2 million dollars in legal fees to protect his birth certificate -- The Justices sit on their robes --TSA - can feel us up so we won't object to their purchase of multi millions dollars naked scanners--banks and private businesses can take tax dollars to stay in business while we go broke with the tax bills - The Gov can steal our property by imminent domain - Illegals can flock into our country - to benefit big business with cheapo wages and push Americans out of their jobs - What good is the Oath of Office to Protect the U.S. Constitution if they don't uphold the laws on the books? Are we back to square one with King George? Sure seems that way...

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/11/29/scotus.birther.appeal/index.html

Go Kevin --Costner cleanup device gets high marks from BP - now to General Honore'

I said this from the get go --and kept pushing---see my earlier Blogs -- Now they need to talk to General Honore' for the rest... General Honore' should have been brought in from the start - for Emergency Preparedness...He has the experience in Disasters such as this. Has proven it over and over again.

If I had been Senator or advising - I would have pushed for both Costner and General Honroe' to be the go to guys. Why our politicians are so slow to act really ticks me off...I do have to give Senator Bill Nelson some credit for pushing for the Navy --but his pleas fell on deaf ears at the White House...Obama sat on his hands too long which proves to me he is not a good leader in a crisis situation. Governor Crist, annoyed me because he's too concerned with his candidacy for the U.S. Senate and was playing along with President Obama for Dem votes instead of doing his job as Governor...In an emergency a leader must do what is necessary to resolve the problem...doing so would make them more qualified for their jobs in the eyes of the public and the media. They are sadly mistaken when they think otherwise - just showing up and posturing for the cameras does nothing to help anyone - especially the crisis at hand... A leader must know how to evaluate the crisis and act on it immediately -- to hesitate can cost lives...Ask any General in charge of their command...hesitate, blink or pause and all that's left is regret and tears.
 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts2851

It was treated as an oddball twist in the otherwise wrenching saga of the BP oil spill when Kevin Costner stepped forward to promote a device he said could work wonders in containing the spill's damage. But as Henry Fountain explains in the New York Times, the gadget in question — an oil-separating centrifuge — marks a major breakthrough in spill cleanup technology. And BP, after trial runs with the device, is ordering 32 more of the Costner-endorsed centrifuges to aid the Gulf cleanup.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts2851

Kevin Costner Interview Clip on Larry King Tuesday on his Oil Cleaning Machines

Figure Out What Rules to Break--General Honore' Interview Transcipt CNN -Oil Spill Solution -

I looked for the Kyra with Honore' video all day yesterday & this morning --soon as CNN posts it I will add the embed link -- Here is the link to the CNN website -where I finally found the transcript -- http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1006/21/cnr.02.html

PHILLIPS: But, you know, I do have a guest with me that's no stranger to breaking the rules, General Russell Honore talking about other small towns that are taking it upon themselves now to protect themselves. I mean, they have to? They have no other choice, right? Tell me in this situation why you are not against what folks in Okaloosa, Florida are doing in other parts of the region?

GEN. RUSSELL HONORE (RET.), CNN CONTRIBUTOR: From my experience, the first thing you go to do in a disaster is figure out what rules you're going to break. Because the rules are based for normal peacetime, and they're based with all of the government agencies telling you what you can and can't do. The problem here is the oil. And we got to stop the oil from attacking the gulf shore.

As they did in Florida, here in a Mobile Bait, a little place called Magnolia Springs, Magnolia River area, and the (INAUDIBLE) river, the community, the volunteer fire department put together a plan where they would use barges and a curtain. I have been reading this with much interest. I'm looking forward to going to see it in the next couple days.

And it took their own initiative and they forced this thing through the state who wouldn't initially listen to them. They got the approval of everybody, and BP gave them a $200,000 grant to put that barge in so it can protect this fragile estuary. That's people (INAUDIBLE). That's the American spirit to defend your homeland, to defend what your way of life. And that's what they're doing, just like we got it from the revolutionary war on.

PHILLIPS: OK. And I hear you. I see what you're saying get it. I would want to take matters into my own hands too, and do whatever I needed to do to save my people, my region. But when you look logistically at what's taking place on a higher level, OK, with the government and with BP. If all these areas start taking the responsibility upon themselves to start doing something, does that affect the overall mission with what BP and the government is trying to do?

HONORE: Absolutely not. You know, one of the biggest responders we had after Katrina were volunteers. Volunteers came in and evacuated more people up front than anybody else. And that's the way it is in every disaster. In this disaster, the people that lived there and they know the coast line better. The challenge is you got about 32,000 square miles here to deal with. So you take an area like this. The local fishermen know this area better.

The problem we got to have is how do we get the Coast Guard, BP and get the assets out to find the oil and suck that oil before it gets to the coast line. Right now, the government's got about a three-mile - over here in Louisiana, about a three-mile off the coast is their area of responsibility but three miles out to where the oil rig is and then you got all these area, 32,000 square miles, Kyra.

We got to get more assets in there to find the oil and skim it before it gets inside the state boundary and then when it gets there, we got to empower the governors to be able to resource these mayors. They worry about their community and the local people so they can protect it.

PHILLIPS: We got the on-going effort that the government and BP has put together. You got all these local communities taking things upon themselves, and now you're saying when you talk about bringing in more assets, are you saying we need more from DOD? We need NORTHCOM to pull the trigger and (INAUDIBLE).

Can you be specific? Can you give me an example?

HONORE: What we need is NORTHCOM working for Admiral Allen to handle the assets, P-3s, (INAUDIBLE) search vessels as well as small Army boats, Marine landing crafts to get out here and give the C-2 here so Admiral Allen can see the oil, find the oil and skim it before it gets to the shoreline.

We need to get only DOD, has that command and control to operate over this expanse of water, to be able to track that oil and find it so you can immediately pull a BP skimmer in to deal with it.

On the coast line, we got the organization to dot his already. We got a FEMA region four, setting up here in Atlanta, moving to the coast, put them in every county. Because this is going to be (INAUDIBLE) event, Kyra. Hurricane season is coming.

PHILLIPS: So, final question, has the request - because we know that NORTHCOM cannot be activated unless the local leaders say we need help, we need military assets. Have those request been made? Is something in the process -

HONORE: It hasn't publicly been published yet but I assume the conversation is happening. On the assets from NORTHCOM, will include Army north over here in San Antonio of the First Air Force and naval command (INAUDIBLE) have the capability to reinforce it. Jacksonville, P-3s, submarine hunters, east and west coast of Florida.

PHILLIPS: Just want to point out P-3s are the aircraft that do a great job at reconnaissance. You're hoping they can spot plumes, et cetera?

HONORE: They're the best in the world. They know how to hunt for submarines.

PHILLIPS: And we should point out. That's how you were dispatched here to the New Orleans area during Katrina because the calls were finally made by the local authorities to the military. We need help. You were under north com at that time and that's when we saw National Guard coming through with those Humvees and you know, layers of water.

HONORE: The way out of that is for the governors to request it, call it a national disaster, invoke the Stafford Act, FEMA come in, and each one of these governors send their requests to FEMA. Right now, their requests are going to Coast Guard and then to BP. Then, BP decides what they're going to pay for. We will not fight and win this war, having to go through BP. Thos approvals need to go the federal government and be approved and you need to have a sector commander for each state that has the command and total authority to say yes.

PHILLIPS: We will follow it and see if, indeed, that yes is implemented. Good to see you. Always a pleasure.

Finally 3 of Kevin Costner's Oil Cleaning Machines on a Barge in Gulf!!!!

L General Honore' - Says Oil Spill needs Command and Control -No More, "Mother May I

L General Honore says we need to stop dragging our feet... I agree -- Obama should have put this experienced General in charge --not another politician...

(CNN) – Lieutenant General Russel Honore, who led the military response to Hurricane Katrina, says we need to treat the Gulf oil spill like "World War III." He joined us on Thursday's American Morning to explain what he thinks needs to be done.

Open Thank You to Kevin Costner & his brother Dan for Oil Cleaning Machines in BP Gulf Oil Spill

Thank you Kevin and to you and your brother Dan for pushing forward in search of a solution when others ignored the obvious was going to happen again. I appreciate along with my family and friends from Tampa Bay both your efforts and generosity at a time when it is so desperately needed. I completely agree that your oil cleaning machines belong in all locations where oil is being drilled and on ships that carry it. Not only to protect human businesses and homes, but for the innocent wildlife that endure our intrusions.

I will do my best as one of the "small people" in the future to insist our Congress and President mandate the use of them in all oil drilling leases and  that they be required on ships carrying oil or other hazardous materials into our seaports. Sadly accidents unfortunately do happen, especially when safety regulations are intentionally set aside and ignored for the bottom line. The beautiful emerald green waters of our Gulf of Mexico would not be in condition it is now if your machines had been deployed earlier.

In closing, congratulation's to you and your wife on the birth of your baby.

My Sincerest Regards,
Nikki Oldaker, Author/Producer

President Obama & Congress--Samuel Tilden- Solution to Resolve Financial Crisis Globally

The Governor's suggestions for a prompt resumption of specie payments seem as simple now as the discovery of America would appear to one of our accomplished transatlantic skippers, but when promulgated they provoked as much mistrust and flippant criticism as the plan of Columbus for finding a western path to the Indies encountered from the Spanish courtiers, and from much the same class of minds.

" After eleven years of convulsion without a restoration of specie payments, it now claims a restoration of specie payments without a convulsion. The problem does not seem difficult. Resumption by the government will accomplish completely resumption by the banks. The treasury has only, by gradual and prudent measures, to provide for the payment of such portion of the outstanding treasury notes as the public, not wishing to retain for use, will return upon it for redemption. The sum required in coin, if the preparations be wisely conducted so as to secure public confidence, will be what is necessary to replace the fractional currency and to supply such individuals as prefer coin to paper for their little stores of money, and also what is necessary to constitute a central reservoir of reserves against the fluctuations of international balances and for the banks. To amass a sufficient quantity by intercepting from the current of precious metals flowing out of this country, and by acquiring from the stocks which exist abroad without disturbing the equilibrium of foreign moneymarkets, is a result to l>e worked out by a study of all the conditions, and the elements to fulfil those conditions, and by the execution of the plan adopted, with practical skill and judgment. Redemption, beyond this provision of coin, can be effected as other business payments are effected; or in any method which converts investments without interest to investments upon interest, on terms the holder will accept; and by such measures as would keep the aggregate amount of the currency self-adjusting during all the process, without creating, at any time, an artificial scarcity, and without exciting the public imagination with alarm which impairs confidence, contracts the whole large machinery of credit, and disturbs the natural operations of business. The best resource for redemption is that furnished by public economies ; for it creates no new charge upon the people ; and a stronger public credit is certain to result from sounder finance, and will reduce the annual cost of the national debt.

" These opinions, deduced from reason, are confirmed, in a recent example, by experience. France, in her ten months' contest with Germany, incurred a war expenditure of one thousand million of dollars in specie values; and, in the twenty-eight months following the peace, paid an indemnity of one thousand million of dollars in specie, or its equivalent, to a foreign country. These great operations were carried on without causing a depreciation of the currency beyond two and one-half per cent. at its extreme point, and without disturbing the general business or industry of the people."

But the Governor was not content with providing remedies for the evils from which the people were suffering in their business and industries merely. " They must be broader and deeper," he said.1

" What is more needed now is, that the public mind be reassured by a wise, safe, and healing policy. The dread of imaginary evils ascribed to the methods assumed to be necessary to restore specie payments is more mischievous than the reality, wisely pursued, ought to be. As soon as the apprehension of an impending fall of values is removed, manufacturing and mechanical industries will start anew; dealers will buy for future consumption; enterprises that commend themselves to the sober judgment of investors will be undertaken; and capital, which now accepts any low rate of interest where there is no risk, but is withheld from operations of average character, will be lent on reasonable conditions.

1" Writings and Speeches," Vol. II. p. 2U2.

" But the remedies for the evils now felt by the people in their business and industries must extend beyond any measures merely relating to the currency. They must be broader and deeper. They must begin with a prompt and large reduction in governmental expenditures and taxation, which shall leave in the hands that earn it a larger share of the result of labor. They must proceed by withdrawing, as much as possible, governmental interferences that cripple the industries of the people. They must be consummated with an increased efficiency and economy in the conduct of business and in the processes of production, and by a more rigorous frugality in private consumption. A period of self-denial will replace what has been wasted.

" We must build up a new prosperity upon the old foundations of American self-government; carry back our political systems toward the ideals of their authors; make governmental institutions simple, frugal, — meddling little with the private concerns of individuals, aiming at fraternity among ourselves and peace abroad, and trusting to the people to work out their own prosperity and happiness. All the elements of national growth and private felicity exist in our country in an abundance which Providence has vouchsafed to no other people. "What we need to do is to rescue them from governmental folly and rapacity."

Again he says:

"When governments take from the people for official expenditure nearly all the surplus earnings of individuals, science and skill in the art of taxation become necessary,— necessary to preserve and enlarge the revenue, necessary to gild the infliction to the taxpayers. Our present situation is that we have more than European burdens, as seen in the most costly governments of the richest of modern nations supporting immense navies and armies and public debts; and to these burdens we have conjoined an ignorance and incompetency in dealing with them, which is peculiarly our own. We have not yet acquired the arts
belonging to a system which the founders of American government warned us against, and fondly believed would never exist in this country.

" The consequence is that the pecuniary sacrifices of the people are not to be measured by the receipts into the treasury. They are vastly greater. A tax that starts in its career by disturbing the natural courses of private industry and impairing the productive power of labor, and then comes to the consumer, distended by profits of successive intermediaries, and by insurance against the risks of a fickle or uncertain governmental policy and of a fluctuating governmental standard of value, — blights human well-being at every step. When it reaches the hapless child of toil, who buys his bread by the single loaf .and his fuel by the basket, it devours his earnings and inflicts starvation.

" Another evil of such a system of excessive taxation is, that it creates and nourishes a governmental class, with tendencies to lessen services and to enlarge compensation, to multiply retainers, to invent jobs, and foster all forms of expenditure, — tendencies unrestrained by the watchful eye and firm hand of personal interest, which alone enable private business to be carried on successfully. In other countries such a class has found itself able, sometimes by its own influence and sometimes in alliance with the army, to rule the unorganized masses.

" In our country it has become a great power, acting on the elections by all the methods of organization, of propagating opinion, of influence, and of corruption. The system, like every living thing, struggles to perpetuate its own existence.

" Every useful and necessary governmental service, at a proper cost, is productive labor. Every excess beyond that, so far as it is saved by the oflk'ial, merely transfers to him what belongs to the people. So far as such excess is consumed, it is a waste of capital, as absolute as if wheat of equal value were destroyed by fire, or gold were sunk in the ocean.

" Probably such waste by governmental expenditure in the eleven years since the war amounts to, at least, as much as our present national debt."i

i "Writings and Speeches," Vol. II. p. 277.

^
The prominence which Tilden had already acquired as a candidate for the presidency gave a purely political tone to the legislation of this session. Each party was fighting for position. It was with anything but complacency that the presidential aspirants of his own party — among whom Hendricks, of Indiana; Thurman and Allen, of Ohio; Bayard, of Delaware; Hancock, of Pennsylvania; Parker, of New Jersey; and Church, of New York, were conspicuous — witnessed his growing favor with the country.i Their discontent was more or less disclosed at the Utica convention at which delegates were chosen to attend the national convention that was to nominate a president at St. Louis on the 26th of June. Relying upon the community of interest .and sympathy of the predatory class who had felt the weight of the Governor's heavy hand, they sought to prevent the expression at Utica of a preference for his nomination, so that the delegates might be left free and accessible to such influences as competing candidates might be willing and able to bring to bear upon them. It was unsuccessful, however. The earnest friends of the Governor in the convention were in an irresistible majority, his friends constituted a large majority of the delegation to St. Louis, and to guard against any treachery on the part of the disaffected delegates, the following resolution was adopted:

i As early as the 26th of May the following article, understood to be from the pen of the late William C. Bryant, appeared in the leading column of the " Evening Post," a Republican print, and reflects very correctly the impression left upon the minds of considerate and dispassionate parties by the conduct of those Democrats who were arrayed against Mr. Tilden:

" The Democratic schism that recently developed opposition to Governor Tilden in his own party in this State is curiously significant of certain things which are worthy of careful study, and especially worthy of consideration by honest and sincere Democrats outside of New York.

" There are two ' wings,' so to speak, in that party, and Governor Tilden represents one of them, while the persons who oppose him constitute the other. It is natural enough that the canal ring and its followers, Tammany and its adherents, and that sort of Democrats who are commonly called Bourbons, should labor to defeat the nomination for high office of the man who represents everything that they oppose, and opposes everything that they represent; but it will be a most discouraging thing to every person who hopes for good at the hands of the Democratic party, and every man in that party who sincerely seeks to make it the instrument of governmental purification and a return to sound principles and honest methods, if such opposition is permitted to prevail in its councils. Governor Tilden represents all that there is in the Democratic party which the people are at all disposed to trust; his opponents represent that which the people just now most earnestly dread, and the development of the opposition in these circumstances affords that party a precious opportunity to strengthen itself and win some of that popular confidence which it badly needs, by placing itself fairly upon the side of the right.

" It will not be easy to close the breach which exists in the Democratic party in this State, for the reason that it is never easy to reconcile an honest desire to do right with a set purpose to do wrong; and it will be difficult to arrange a compromise which shall not seem to be a mere bargain. Governor Tilden has fought manfully for hard money and honest government. It is impossible to mistake his attitude on these questions; and if at this juncture the party yields to the demands of the men in New York who oppose him, it can scarcely hope to escape the reputation of having rejected those principles and written hostility to them upon its banners, whatever clever devices it may hit upon for concealing the fact under formal declarations of doctrine. His name has been put forward too far to be withdrawn now without a practical declaration of hostility to the principles which his name has come to represent.

"The country is asking the question, 'Can we trust the Democratic party?' and it will take its answer, very probably, from the temper with which the party in other States shall deal with the schism here. The case is a very peculiar one. There are other Democrats in plenty who believe in the doctrines which this particular Democrat holds to be primary principles, but he has managed to make himself the especial representative and equivalent of those principles in that party, as no other man has. He has put his principles in practice in the most fearless and resolute manner, and has made himself especially obnoxious to their opponents, as the hostility to him, of which we write, clearly shows; and the consequence is that, rightly or wrongly, the country is disposed to regard his acceptance or rejection as the head of the party in the nation as an answer to its question concerning the trustworthiness of Democratic professions of honesty and sincerity."

VOTE INDEPENDENT POLITICAL CARTOON

This cartoon (illustration) was created for my U.S. Senate Campaign Election 2000Florida. The cartoon represents the unbalanced power and greed of the two political parties in Congress vs the People and wasteful spending. The illustrator, Pete McGinn did an awesome job with my original suggestion and spent a lot of time on details. I asked for a Scale of Justice with the two political parties in Congress weighted on one side stealing and blowing the peoples money unfairly. If you look closely at the cartoon you will see Pete added a lightening bolt burning the dollar bills - It was appropriate then and it is more so today. On the original cartoon it had my name under the Vote Independent "Nikki Oldaker for U.S. Senate. I was not happy with Congress in 2000 and still not happy with them now. They are the worst Money Managers ever!!!