endlesschatter

2.16

September 24th, 2009 | Tags: gas | Category: Gas and Such | Leave a comment

2.27

September 22nd, 2009 | Tags: gas | Category: Gas and Such | Leave a comment

Can you really believe that we pay these people…?

Maxine Waters – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Maxine Waters (born Maxine Moore Carr on August 15, 1938) is a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives since 1991, representing California’s 35th congressional district (map). She resides in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles, which is approximately six miles west of downtown. She is the most senior of the twelve African American women currently serving in the United States Congress.

As a Democratic representative in Congress, Waters was a superdelegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. She endorsed Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton for the party’s nomination in late January 2008, granting the New York Senator nationally-recognized support that some suggested would “make big waves.” Subsequently, however, Waters switched her endorsement to Sen. Barack Obama, by then insurmountably ahead in the pledged delegate count, on the final day of primary voting.

Waters voted against the Iraq War Resolution, the 2002 resolution that funded and granted Congressional approval to possible military action against the regime of Saddam Hussein. She has remained a consistent critic of the subsequent war. Waters asserted in 2007 that President George W. Bush was trying to “set [Congress] up” by continually requesting funds for an “occupation” that is “draining” the country of capital, soldier’s lives, and other resources. In particular, she argued that the very economic resources being “wasted” in Iraq were those that might provide universal health care or fully fund President Bush’s own “No Child Left Behind” education bill. Additionally, Waters, representing a congressional district whose median income falls far below the national average, argued that patriotism alone had not been the sole driving force for those U.S. service personnel serving in Iraq. Rather, “many of them needed jobs, they needed resources, they needed money, so they’re there.” In a subsequent floor speech, Waters told her colleagues that Congress, lacking the votes to override the “inevitable Bush veto on any Iraq-related legislation,” needed to “better [challenge] the administration’s false rhetoric about the Iraq war” and “educate our constituents [about] the connection between the problems in Pakistan, Turkey, and Iran with the problems we have created in Iraq.” A few months prior to these speeches Waters became a cosponsor of the House resolution to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney for making allegedly “false statements” about the war.

In May 2008, Waters told Shell Oil President John Hofmeister at the House Judiciary Committee’s Task Force on Competition Policy and Antitrust law, that if he did not guarantee reduced gasoline prices in exchange for Congress allowing the oil industry to drill where it wished, she would favor nationalizing American petroleum companies. In a widely reported exchange, she stated: “Guess what this liberal will be all about, this liberal will be all about socializing… taking over and the government running all of your companies.”

Waters was included by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (”CREW”) among its 2005 list of the thirteen “Most Corrupt Members of Congress” list and on the 2006 list for “her exercise of this power to financially benefit her daughter, husband and son.” She was not included on subsequent lists.

During the Los Angeles riots of 1992, Waters appeared on television as a commentator. Waters said “If you call it a riot it sounds like it was just a bunch of crazy people who went out and did bad things for no reason. I maintain it was somewhat understandable, if not acceptable. So I call it a rebellion.”
 Stock ownership of OneUnited Bank

Waters arranged meetings with U.S. Treasury Department officials (in September, 2008) for OneUnited Bank to plead for federal cash. It had been heavily invested in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and its capital was “all but wiped out” after the U.S. government took them over. Her husband is a stockholder (more than $250,000 as of May 2008) and former director of the bank. The bank’s executives were major contributors to her campaigns. Rep. Barney Frank counseled her against participating in the matter. The bank has its headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts, and offices in Los Angeles and Miami. It did secure $12 million in Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) money28. The matter is currently being investigated by the House Ethics Committee.

On June 25, 2009, Waters got into a fight on the House floor with fellow Democratic Congressman and Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey of Wisconsin. After the House floor had largely cleared following a series of votes, Waters and Obey split apart from a heated conversation about an earmark requested by Waters for a public school employment training center in Los Angeles that was named after herself. Obey rejected the earmark as violating policies against so-called “monuments to me.” Waters revised her request to go to the school district’s whole adult employment training program, so the district could decide whether the money would go to the school named after herself. Nonetheless, Obey let it be known that the earmark would be denied. She approached him and complained, shouting, “You’re out of line!” while walking down toward the well in the House chambers. Obey shouted back, “You’re out of line!” before turning and walking away, but stopped, turned back toward Waters, and shouted, “I’m not going to approve that earmark!” He again turned away while Waters huddled with members of the Congressional Black Caucus and was overheard saying, “He touched me first.” before being escorted into the cloakroom. Obey went to talk with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer when Waters briefly returned again, telling her colleagues, “He touched me.” before returning to the cloakroom. An aide to Waters said that Obey had pushed her while Obey’s spokesperson, Ellis Brachman, placed the blame on Waters for escalating the situation.

Citizens Against Government Waste named her the June 2009 Porker of the Month due to her intention to obtain an earmark for the Maxine Waters Employment Preparation Center.

September 20th, 2009 | Tags: Government and Politics, idiots, liars club, politics | Category: Government and Politics | Leave a comment

This week’s cover: Patrick Swayze, 1952-2009 | EW.com

Though he was nominated for three golden Globes over the course of his 30-year career, Patrick Swayze measured his success by lives touched, not money made or awards won. “No matter what opinion Hollywood has of you,” Swayze once told Entertainment Weekly, “the fans never forget you if you never forget them.”

On September 14, at the age of 57, Swayze died after an extraordinarily brave and dignified 20-month battle with pancreatic cancer. Swayze had initially responded well to treatment, and spent four months working 12-hour days on the A&E undercover drama The Beast while undergoing chemotherapy. He refused to take medication that might hinder what would become his final onscreen performance – even though the pain became intense. After he passed away, tributes have poured in from friends and colleagues. “Patrick was a rare and beautiful combination of raw masculinity and amazing grace,” recalled his Dirty Dancing costar Jennifer Grey.

The first hints of Swayze’s stardom emerged in his 1987 breakout film, Dirty Dancing. After that film’s success, Swayze was offered everything from a cologne deal to a record contract. But he was determined not to be pigeonholed as a gyrating boy toy. He sought cover in action films that let him run in what he called “crazy Swayze adrenaline-junkie mode.” The movies that he chose appealed to the side of him that was a self-proclaimed “searcher.” To Swayze, Road House showcased the beauty of martial arts via a bouncer with a philosophy degree from New York University.

September 18th, 2009 | Tags: death, Entertainment, Movies, Open | Category: Entertainment, Open | Leave a comment

Of course this is from the same representative that refuses to believe we gave Saddam weapons.

The Associated Press: Heckling of president is rare in American history

Heckling of president is rare in American history

By JOCELYN NOVECK (AP) – 19 hours ago

Some 150 years ago, a congressman from South Carolina, angered by a speech on slavery, entered the Senate chamber and beat a senator from Massachusetts into unconsciousness with a metal-topped wooden cane.

Years earlier on the House floor, a representative from Vermont attacked a colleague from Connecticut — also with a cane — only to be attacked himself with a pair of fireplace tongs.

And then there was the 1838 pistol duel in which William Graves of Kentucky shot and killed fellow congressman Jonathan Cilley of Maine over words spoken on the House floor. (He wasn’t even expelled.)

Given those breaches of congressional protocol, it would seem that a mere shout of “You lie!” from a 21st-century South Carolina congressman would be small potatoes. Especially when compared with a global tradition of brawls, scuffles, hurled insults (sometimes fruit, too) and other mayhem in legislatures around the world.

Yet there’s little if any historical precedent for a U.S. congressman individually challenging a president during a speech to Congress — let alone accusing him of lying — which is just one reason why some longtime political observers were stunned by Rep. Joe Wilson’s outburst.

Presidents didn’t even address Congress between 1800, when John Adams held the job, and 1913, says Fred Beuttler, deputy historian at the House of Representatives, who calls the Wilson incident “highly unusual, if not unique.”

“Occasionally, members of the opposing party have been known to boo and jeer as expressions of dissent on a specific point,” says Beuttler, citing instances during the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. But before Wednesday, he says, “expressions of individual opposition of members to a president’s speech had not been recorded.”

Some have compared Wilson’s outburst to those that occur routinely in Britain’s House of Commons, when the prime minister is answering questions. But one political analyst says this is vastly different, because the prime minister isn’t the head of state.

“Our president is the head of government and also the head of state, the combination of the country and the government,” says Steven Cohen, professor of public administration at Columbia University. “We expect a certain amount of deference to the president, in the same way as we would for the queen. Here, we combine the two roles.”

To another political analyst, it’s the nature of the accusation — an elected official calling the president a liar — that is not only a serious breach (accusations of lying are forbidden under House rules) but also extremely rare in politics.

“Accusing someone of lying is impugning their integrity,” says Kathleen Hall Jamieson, an expert on political communication at the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. “It was done in print a lot in the 19th century. But it is not routinely done in political discourse.”

Congress is a place of deliberation, Jamieson adds: “If you call someone a liar, you’ve ended the deliberations. This is such a strong norm that it’s been in the House rules since Jefferson.”

In Britain, too, despite its lively parliament sessions, lawmakers can be suspended for accusing others of lying. One, Tam Dalyell, was thrown out for doing just that to former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, whom he called “a bounder, a liar, a deceiver, a cheat and a crook.”

A British lawmaker was rebuked in 1986 for referring to President Ronald Reagan as Thatcher’s “cretinous friend.”

Winston Churchill was more subtle about the charge of lying, once describing a statement by another lawmaker as a “terminological inexactitude,” now a commonly accepted euphemism for a lie.

Churchill was much subtler than the Labour lawmaker who accused Thatcher of acting “with the sensitivity of a sex-starved boa-constrictor.” Or the members threatened with suspension for using terms including “hooligan,” “cad,” “jackass,” “Pecksniffian cant,” “coward,” “git,” “guttersnipe,” “stool pigeon” and “traitor.” Or Prime Minister John Major, who called Tony Blair, then the opposition leader, a “dimwit.”

And royalty hasn’t been exempt: The late Willie Hamilton, a Labour MP, was ordered to retract his description of Prince Charles as “that young twerp.”

In Asia, it can get physical — all-out brawls are almost an annual event in Taiwan’s raucous legislature, where in May 2007, lawmakers exchanged punches, climbed on each other’s shoulders and jostled violently during a debate over electoral reform.

In Seoul, hundreds of lawmakers screamed and wrestled in South Korea’s parliament in July, scuffling and shouting, grabbing each other by the neck and trying to bring opponents to the floor. Last year, lawmakers used sledgehammers to pound their way into a parliamentary committee room.

In Hong Kong, meanwhile, maverick lawmaker Raymond Wong, nicknamed “Mad Dog,” hurled a bunch of bananas across the legislative chamber to protest an old-age allowance scheme.

And in Israel, parliament speeches are often drowned out by shouting legislators leaping out of their seats, pointing fingers and running about the chamber or being ordered out by the speaker. In 2001, Ethics Committee chairwoman Colette Avital circulated a list of 68 insults she wanted banned, including: blood-drinker, boor, fascist, filth, eye-gouger, Jew-hater, Nazi, Philistine, terrorist, traitor and poodle.

Such colorful drama is less familiar to Americans these days, at least since an 1858 debate over allowing Kansas as a state.

“A brawl ensued on the House floor with 50 or more representatives rushing towards one another and wrestling and punching each other as the Speaker, James Orr of South Carolina, pleaded for order,” says Beuttler, though he notes the fight ended in laughter as one congressman pulled the wig off another, “which set the whole House of Representatives roaring with laughter.”

Recent years have been much less colorful — until this week, and Wilson’s remark, the fallout from which continues to saturate the airwaves and the blogosphere.

Many have blamed a culture of talk radio, the Internet and cable TV, where everyone has a point of a view and a platform, for creating an environment where such an incident could happen.

“If we become accustomed to hearing people call a politician a liar everywhere else — for example, in town halls — suddenly it seems more natural in a place where it’s never been acceptable,” says Jamieson,

But with any luck, she and others say, Wilson’s remark may actually serve to prevent future such outbursts, because the swift negative reaction was a powerful reminder of what is not OK.

“I’d imagine that the next time President Obama speaks to Congress,” says Beuttler, “everybody will be very polite.”

Associated Press writers Robert Barr, Meera Selva, Kwang-Tae Kim, Dikky Sin, Peter Enav and Ian Deitch contributed to this report.

September 12th, 2009 | Tags: Government and Politics, politics | Category: Government and Politics | Comments (1)

The question is will the people that are feeding us to the lions look out their windows and see the crowds?

Tea Party Express Arrives for ‘March on Washington’ to Protest Government Spending – Political News – FOXNews.com

Tea Party Express Arrives for ‘March on Washington’ to Protest Government Spending
FreedomWorks Foundation, a conservative organization led by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, has organized several groups from across the country for the Saturday event, dubbed a “March on Washington.”

The Tea Party Express — a gathering of activists protesting what they view as out-of-control spending by an expanding federal government — has arrived in the nation’s capital Saturday.

Thousands of people marched to the U.S. Capitol on Saturday, carrying signs with slogans such as “Obamacare makes me sick”

The line of protesters completely filled Pennsylvania Avenue for blocks, all the way to the capitol, according to the D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency. People were chanting “enough, enough” and “We the People.” Others yelled “You lie, you lie!” and “Pelosi has to go,” referring to California congresswoman Nancy Pelosi.

Others are waving U.S. flags and holding signs reading “Go Green Recycle Congress” and “I’m Not Your ATM.” Some men are dressed in colonial costumes. Police on motorcycles and horses watched as the marchers passed.

FreedomWorks Foundation, a conservative organization led by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, has organized several groups from across the country for the Saturday event, dubbed a “March on Washington.”

The demonstration is part of the so-called Tea Party Movement that gathered steam in April to protest tax policies. And Saturday’s event is the culmination of a 34-city, 7,000-mile bus tour that began Aug. 28 in Sacramento, Calif.

The “partiers” have cited a host of grievances and demands, such as a call for any health care reform to create more competition and be guided by market principles, not a government-run plan.

Organizers said they anticipated tens of thousands of proponents of limited government to attend. They say it will be the largest group of fiscal conservatives to ever gather in Washington.

Richard Brigle, 57, a Vietnam War veteran and former Teamster, came from Paw Paw, Mich. He said health care needs to be reformed — but not according to President Barack Obama’s plan.

“My grandkids are going to be paying for this. It’s going to cost too much money that we don’t have,” he said while marching, bracing himself with a wooden cane as he walked.

The rally comes on the heels of heated town halls held during the congressional August recess when some Democratic lawmakers were confronted, disrupted and shouted down by angry protestors who oppose President Obama’s plan to overhaul the health care system.

“I can’t figure out to save me what [Mr. Obama and the Democrats] are trying to accomplish, unless they want socialism,” 73-year-old Joseph Wright, a retired paper-mill worker, told The Wall Street Journal.

Wright rode from Tallahassee, Fla., to Washington this week on one of the many chartered buses bringing in demonstrators from states as far-flung as Massachusetts and Arkansas.

Many protesters said they paid their own way to the event — an ethic they believe should be applied to the government. They say unchecked spending on things like a government-run health insurance option could increase inflation and lead to economic ruin.

Terri Hall, 45, of Starke, Fla., said she felt compelled to become political for the first time this year because she was upset by government spending.

“Our government has lost sight of the powers they were granted,” she said. She added that the deficit spending was out of control, and said she thought it was putting the country at risk.

Other sponsors of the rally include the Heartland Institute, Americans for Tax Reform and the Ayn Rand Center for Individuals Rights.

The White House on Friday claimed it was unaware of the planned rally.

“I don’t know who the group is,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters with a shrug.

But a House leadership aide has warned fellow Democrats that up to 2 million demonstrators could turn out.

“It looks like Saturday’s event is going to be a huge gathering, estimates ranging from hundreds of thousands to 2 million people,” Doug Thornell, an aide to Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., wrote in a memo obtained by FOXNews.com.

But conservatives believe the memo is ploy to inflate expectations for the turnout anticipating that it will fall short.

“It’s an old political tactic to get out in front and make wild projections and when they’re not met, claim their opponents don’t have the juice,” said Pete Sepp, a spokesman for the National Taxpayers Union, one of the organizers of the rally.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

September 12th, 2009 | Tags: Government and Politics, politics | Category: Government and Politics | Comments (1)

2.21

September 9th, 2009 | Tags: gas | Category: Gas and Such | Leave a comment

2.32

September 8th, 2009 | Tags: gas | Category: Gas and Such | Leave a comment