Apparently Congress and the President have made a grave error.
Or maybe the objective is to bankrupt this nation.
Apparently they are doing a great job at the latter.
In fact that is about the only thing they have successfully done in the past 10 years.

We have lost billions fighting a war in Iraq and further billions in Afganistan.
The threat of cap and tax, higher income taxes, Obamacare and the willingness of the feds take over banks at the drop of a hat has new business upstart and expansion frozen.
Yesterday the unemployment figures were announced.
Unemployment is back up to 9.6% and we had a loss of 54,000 jobs in August.

It is no shock that Obama’s rating is dropping.
CLEARLY NOT ALL OF THE PEOPLE ARE STUPID ALL OF THE TIME.

The Glen Beck Restoring Honor event came and went. There were easily half a million people at this event. It was a pleasure to attend and not without some pain as the temperature and humidity caused several to be taken away to be treated for heat exhaustion. Everyone in attendance will remember the day for the rest of their lives.

At 9:59 a flock of geese flew strait over the reflecting pond to the Lincoln Memorial as if to alert the crowd of the coming event. At 10:00 AM the show began. Sarah Palin was the first notable speaker delivering a speech in praise of three wounded warriors both physically and mentally.

8-28-2010 Restoring Honor

The only downer on the day was Dr. Alveda King complaining about “white privileged” and hoping it became “human privileged” at 2:03:20 of the video. I don’t know any white man that got a free pass in life. Blacks need to look in the mirror for the answers to their problems and stop blaming the white man.

Dr. Alveda King should praise God every day that she was born in America where the average black man makes six to thirty times more than the average impoverished black man in Africa. In some African countries the purchasing power parity is $300 a year which is barley above the $140 a year mankind survived on in the middle ages.

Skip ahead to 2:08:30 if you want to skip the build up to Beck and his speech. Skip ahead to 3:02:50 for the dramatic and emotional ending.

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You know the propaganda police are out in force when the T-Shirt sellers are sold out of “Miss me Yet?” T-shirts. And what can you say? Unemployment was 4.4% under Bush. 5.5 million more people were working for America. What can you say?

I say Bush was the jerk that got his screwballs in the Republican Party to team up with the incompetent Pelosi and Obama in the (at that time) Senate to pass the ultimate poison pill condemning the United States of America to years of debt and internal strife. Yes the goof ball “Do you miss me yet?” progressive sort of guy functioned as the approval stamp for the poison pill sent up to congress and the senate by then Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson.

Now it is debatable if these (Goldman Sacks) geniuses knew what the fu.. they were doing but the result was the same. Their infamous 700 billion no strings attached bailout set the stage for Obama’s colossal $825 billion bail out fiasco.

These bastards knew what the f… they were doing; the financial equivalent of a (WWII) scorched earth policy.

Now can we fault Bush for realizing Obama and his trolls would be as stupid as to step right into the Keynesian sh..? When your opponent is so predictable do we fault people for taking advantage of that? Well yes we do when it is America and our taxpayers’ money at stake. Bush played a smart political game for the benefit of the Republican Party at the expense of the people in 2008. I hope America understands what bastards these Republicans are in 2012.

Vote Libertarian in 2012.

Why on earth would Obama roll into the muck of this skirmish like a Sherman tank when it was ABSOLUTLY NOT NECESSARY?

After the shock wore off it caused jaws to drop and heads to be scratches on both sides of the political isle.
Has he lost his mind?
What can he be thinking?
Perhaps he needs a hearing aid because clearly he CAN NOT HEAR/OR DOES NOT CARE what “we the people” think.
Two-thirds of all Americans oppose the mosque and Arizona’s immigration law.
To Bad!

This guys antics actually make me laugh out loud.
He is like some jokester who daily shoots himself in the foot.
I honestly have difficulty trying to wrap my mind around the behavior of someone who is so POLITICALLY STUPID. Apparently I am not the only one because O’Reilly is trying to figure out the same thing.
We all thought Biden needed a keeper?

Perhaps the dawn is beginning to set in on the whole thing.
Obama signed on for a 4 year joy ride?
Live and be happy at the tax payers expense?
Doesn’t matter what happens to the nation in the process?
He has already made connections and enough money to set him for life?

SCREW THE USA!

In the article below Michael Tanner discusses the stupidity of the Republicans, like our local Republican candidate Karen Diebel in Florida Congressional District 24, who stick their head in the sand and refuse to discuss Social Security in a rational manner with the voters. The solution for a rational plan that will be acceptable is one that is not controversial or complex.

Something as simple as personal accounts where the individual had to devote 5% of their gross income to the purchase of federal, state, local government bonds or AAA rated corporate bonds. That’s about as safe as a investment can get and frankly a lot safer than Social Security that is going bust in 2015 not 2019 as was predicted.

Pay off the over 55 recipients. Pay out over time the amount owed with interest to current contributers. Maybe a federal savings bond swap than can be cashed in by the individuals at their retirement date in the future. This would spread the obligation over time preventing a one time charge off for the program. The point is to keep it simple and stick to the plan.

Another factor completely ignored is the threat of inflation for Social Security recipients. With the Federal Reserve monetizing the debt, China favoring the Euro, and the monetary base blown up 162% the last couple of years its not a question of if but when we will get inflation. With bank lending up this last month another bubble could be just around the corner. Republicans need to explain to the public the danger inflation poses to the Social Security program and the importance of eliminating the program for the safety and security of their benefits. Not a easy sell.

Republicans need to show their cards. There is only three ways this game will end. They cave into the Democrats (again) and raise Social Security taxes from 12.4% to 18%. Benefits are cut dramatically or personal accounts are set up.

Michael Tanner of CATO

by Michael D. Tanner

So, President Obama believes that Republican leaders are “pushing to make privatizing Social Security a key part of their legislative agenda if they win a majority in Congress this fall.”

To which one responds, “If only!”

There is no doubt that Social Security desperately needs reform. Social Security is already running a temporary deficit, and that deficit will turn permanent in just five years. In theory, the Social Security Trust Fund will pay benefits until 2037. That’s not much comfort to today’s 35-year-olds, who will face a 27 percent cut in benefits unless the program is reformed before they retire. But even that figure is misleading, because the trust fund contains no actual assets. The government bonds it holds are simply IOUs, a measure of how much money the government owes the system. It says nothing about where the government will get the $2.6 trillion to pay off those IOUs.

Michael Tanner is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and author of Leviathan on the Right: How Big-Government Conservatism Brought Down the Republican Revolution.
More by Michael D. Tanner

Even if Congress can find a way to redeem the bonds, the trust-fund surplus will be completely exhausted by 2037. At that point, Social Security will have to rely solely on revenue from the payroll tax — and that won’t be sufficient to pay all the promised benefits. Overall, the amount the system has promised beyond what it can actually pay now totals $18.7 trillion.

Moreover, Social Security taxes are already so high, relative to benefits, that Social Security has simply become a bad deal for younger workers, providing a below-market rate of return. In fact, many young workers will end up paying more in taxes than they receive in benefits. And most important, workers have no ownership of their benefits. This means that they are left totally dependent on the goodwill of 535 politicians to determine what they’ll receive in retirement.

Benefits are not inheritable, and the program is a barrier to wealth accumulation. Lower-income families, African-Americans, and working women suffer disproportionately.

But Republican leaders, battered by the failure of President Bush’s reform initiative and years of Democratic demagoguery, show no signs of venturing back into this issue. In fact, the only senior Republican willing to support personal accounts these days appears to be Rep. Paul Ryan, who has included in his “roadmap” a plan to allow younger workers the option of investing slightly less than half of their Social Security taxes. However, it is telling that Ryan’s roadmap has just 13 co-sponsors, none of whom are among the Republican leadership.

Given their large lead in current polls, it is perhaps understandable that Republicans don’t want to risk offending voters, particularly seniors, by wading back into the Social Security thicket. But they are making a mistake.

From a purely political standpoint, if Republicans think that remaining silent on the issue will protect them from Democratic attacks, they are the stupid party indeed. The president’s comments should serve clear notice that Democrats are not going to let a simple thing like Republicans’ actual position to get in the way of a good political weapon. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has run television ads attacking his opponent, Sharron Angle, for wanting “to wipe the program out,” even though she’s made clear she wants to keep it. In Kentucky, Republican senatorial candidate Rand Paul is being criticized for remarks he made in favor of Social Security privatization — in 1998. There isn’t any escape.

Even worse, as a matter of policy, by taking personal accounts off the table, Republicans may be boxing themselves into a very bad corner. There are, after all, only three options for Social Security reform: raise taxes, cut benefits, or switch to personal accounts. While benefit cuts are defensible economically, they are not likely to prove any more politically popular than personal accounts, probably less so. Democrats are already organizing to fight any reductions. And, if Republican opposition to the Medicare cuts under Obamacare is any indication, no one should expect an overabundance of courage in fighting to cut Social Security benefits.

Therefore, if Republicans are not willing to embrace personal accounts, they will be left with … tax hikes, which has been the Democrats’ goal all along.

One reason the Democrats have been so successful in expanding the government year after year is that they have the courage of their convictions. They lose on an issue time after time, but they keep coming back until they win. Take national health care: After Hillarycare went down to defeat in 1993, the Left didn’t give up. And today we have Obamacare. Republicans lost on Social Security and curled up into a fetal position, begging for mercy.

Factcheck.org rates the president’s statement that Republicans want to privatize Social Security as “mostly false.” Before too long, we may come to wish that this time he had been telling the truth.

Michael D. Tanner is a Cato Institute expert on entitlement programs.

This article appeared in The Orange County Register on August 13, 2010.

When last we heard from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, he was proclaiming that there was no need to reform Social Security because the program “is on solid ground for decades to come.”

Well, apparently that’s true — if by “decades” Reid, D-Nev., meant “five years.”

Social Security’s trustees this month finally released their long-delayed report on the system’s finances. According to the trustees, who include President Barack Obama’s secretaries of Labor and Treasury, Social Security is actually running a cash-flow deficit today, spending more money on benefits than it takes in through taxes. Most of that deficit has been caused by the recent economic downturn and, hopefully, will be only temporary.

Michael D. Tanner of CATO

But regardless of how the economy performs in the next few years, the trustees warn that by 2015, just five years from now, Social Security will again start to run deficits — and this time they will be permanent. That’s a year sooner than predicted in last year’s report.

While, in theory, the Social Security Trust Fund will be able to pay benefits until 2037, the same as in last year’s report, that figure is misleading because the trust fund contains no actual assets. The government bonds it holds are simply a form of IOU, a measure of how much money the government owes the system, $2.6 trillion, according to the report.

Of course, no one is saying that the government will default on its obligations, but one might ask where the government will get the money to pay back that $2.6 trillion. It’s not as though the government has it laying around. To say that Social Security is fine because the Treasury will find a way to pay its debts is like saying you have plenty of money for your mortgage — as long as you don’t eat.

Even if Congress can find a way to redeem the bonds, the trust fund surplus will be completely exhausted by 2037. At that point, Social Security will have to rely solely on revenue from the payroll tax — and that won’t be sufficient to pay all promised benefits. Overall, the amount the system has promised beyond what it can actually pay now totals $18.7 trillion.

Not surprisingly, Reid and others have suggested that all of this could be fixed with a simple tax increase. They have suggested, for instance, taking the cap off the amount of income subject to the Social Security payroll tax. This would be the largest tax increase in U.S. history, and would give this country a higher marginal tax rate than, say, Sweden. And it wouldn’t come close to fixing Social security’s financial shortfall.

In fact, even if you took the cap off completely, without giving anyone additional benefits in exchange for the higher taxes, you would extend the date at which Social Security begins to run a deficit by seven years — to 2022. That’s not much gain for all that pain.

To actually “save” Social Security would require a 50 percent hike in the payroll tax, from 12.4 percent to at least 18 percent, or the equivalent in other taxes. That’s a big tax hike.

And all this says nothing about Social Security’s other problems. Social Security taxes are already so high, relative to benefits, that Social Security has simply become a bad deal for younger workers, providing a low, below-market rate of return. Many young workers will end up paying more in taxes than they receive in benefits. They will actually lose money under the program.

And, most importantly, under the current system, workers do not actually own their Social Security benefits. They are left totally dependent on the goodwill of the 535 politicians in Congress to determine what they’ll receive in retirement. Benefits are not inheritable, and the program is a barrier to wealth accumulation.

Politicians like Reid can no longer be allowed to duck this vital issue. The trustees’ report makes it clear that Social Security is not “on solid ground.” Social Security must be reformed, sooner rather than later.

Florida Congressional District 24 is currently occupied by Suzanne Kosmas the owner of Prestige Properties (real estate) and a former Florida legislature. The reason she will be losing this fall can be summed up in one bad vote for health care. She had previously flip flopped on this issue but when the final vote came last March and thousands of her constituents were pleading with her not to vote for Obamacare she caved in and that was all she wrote. Bad choice in an R+3 district. She’s gone.

Florida District 24 Congressional Candidate Sandy Adams

Sandy Adams has been a Florida House representative in District 33 for the last eight so she has excellent name recognition. She was a law enforcement officer for 17 years and her mannerisms reflect that ability to cut the small talk and get to the issues. Everyone likes her direct and helpful approach for her constituents. That is defiantly a huge positive for her.

She voted for the billion dollar boondoggle known locally as Sun Rail translated a huge government waste of money on a train through our communities that will snarl traffic and add to congestion. This is a huge negative on her record and why it is so painful to support her but the alternatives seem worse. What was she thinking?

On the positive side she is for states rights and she has pledged to not accept earmarks until the process is reformed. She is not the worse RINO in the Florida Legislature but no one will confuse her record with Marco Rubio’s.

When she is in Washington her door will always be open to the “small people.” And I guess that’s what it comes down to in this race. With Miller not even living in the district he will be surrounded by his business buddies in the restaurant industry. Diebel will be surrounded by her aristocratic friends in Winter Park and where does that leave the average guy? With no representation. I know Adams will be my representative and not my master. The other two?

Craig Miller is the former CEO of Ruth Chris Steak House

On the negative side he was endorsed by the Orlando Sentinel. Anytime the Orlando Sentinel likes a candidate for national office you need to wonder what they know and question their ulterior motives. He is the least know candidate in the race. Both his opponents have a track record to look at. Miller doesn’t.

Miller seems like a hoarse trader who will swap this for that. We don’t need that kind of person in congress. We need cold hearted ideologues that will refuse to negotiate with the progressives infiltrating every orifice of the federal government. People who are repelled by progressives and feel violated being around them. We have a $13.3 trillion dollar debt and transfer payments are consuming 44.7% of the federal budget. The time for negotiation has come and gone. Miller seems like the guy always looking to get the best deal from the other side and the country has its back against the wall. He’s a great guy and I wish he had more of a public track record or was more economically Austrian in his approach. Living in the district would also help.

Winter Park Commissioner Karen Diebel

She is touted as a leader but shies away from controversy and can give a completely flat speech when the pressure is on her to deliver. There have been complaints about her following and not leading in her role as Winter Park commissioner. Todd Long is a leader. Adams is not afraid to lead. We don’t need a back marker in District 24 in congress.

You just have to stand back and wonder why her parents wasted their money sending her to Notre Dame for a business degree. Why is this lady refusing to acknowledge reality and at least give some sort of halfway plausible defense of Social Security. Please explain how the Ponzi scheme is going to work in 2042, I am all ears. Shall we let 60 million Mexicans and Central Americans enter the United States so we can continue paying into the system making it viable? Please let us know the plan. Inquiring minds want to know.

Deon Long is the most Libertarian an “Austrian” of all the candidates. The sentimental favorite for freedom loving voters.

I don’t want to be a super economist any more than Diebel wants to criticize Social Security but now is the time for all good men and women to rise up to the occasion. I was blessed with the ability for economics and math. I have the degrees in economics and math. I feel compelled to offer up the best analysis I can to anyone who will listen of the danger this country is in and offer solutions as best I can. I would feel like a complete jerk in 2020 when the USA has stagnated to USSR circa 1990 status if I didn’t do what I could to change the course that we are on.

That money bomb out there is real Mrs. Diebel and if you have any business talent we would like to see it. Defending the stats quo is not good enough. In ten years my kids will know what I did and what I stood for. Your kids are watching you and what you do today. Here is a video of the Austrian economics and the Keynesian economics in 2006. You are on the side of the Keynesian. Bad choice and you will look just as ignorant 10 years from now as these Keynesian clowns do now. I may not have a $1.9 million dollar house but I do understand business and use my degrees to help and explain to others what is happening today.

Former Top Gun fighter pilot Tom Garcia is the Tea Party favorite

Tom Garcia is another disappointment in this race. He is the best fit for “Tea Party” candidate but never has been a factor to date. He has raised $55,000 to date. His volunteer army is modest but dedicated. He is a great public speaker and on paper he should have done much better. Diebel, Miller and Adams have all sucked the oxygen out of this race leaving very little for Long and Garcia.

Come August 24, 2010 it would not surprise me to see Miller pull this out. His fund raising is at $620,000 far ahead of Adams at $365,000. Adams best chance is for her name recognition and reputation to carry the day. If she does she can thank her tenacity and army of volunteers who have been working for many months to get her message out. Sandy is a very honest and hard worker and I would be proud to have her as my congressional representative. Good luck Sandy.

Florida Congressional District 8 is the infamous home of national jerk Alan “Die Quickly” Grayson. In a Zogby poll Todd Long was leading Grayson by 8%. Grayson is despised by both independents and the right for his outrageous statements pandering to the left. Whoever wins the August 24th primary will have little trouble firing up the base. Grayson is probably the most hated congressperson since Dan Rostenkowski had the nerve to tax the gimme generation for the Medicare catastrophic coverage act of 1994. Grayson is truly a despicable devil’s spawn bastard who needs to be in a psychiatric ward and not congress. And with that here they are.

Todd Long on the campaign trail with his book “The Conservative Comeback” that has been reportedly sent to 30,000 Republican voters in Florida District 8. Quite a impressive logistical feat.

On the negative side Todd has quite a colorful past including a DUI in 1998, a “drunk and disorderly” warning at the local Orlando Millennium Mall in 2005, allegations of sexual harassment (denied 8-16-2010), allegations of financial hard times (denied 8-16-2010) and a police report of how a cop found Mr. Long drunk and asleep on a sidewalk in Tallahassee in 2007. There is a reason when I get trashed I do it at home Todd. The worst thing that happens to me is I say something stupid on face book or my wife kicks my ass. Enough said.

Patricia Sullivan is living the American dream with four home schooled children, a loving husband and running for congress at the same time.

Patricia Sullivan is living the American Dream. She is the mother of four and has home schooled all of them. Her first daughter is graduating and on her way to college. She is the organizer of the 2009 Tea Parties in Lake County. She has no political connections or great wealth but has amassed a sizable army of volunteers to spread the message of this citizen warrior. Despite being on a shoe string budget of $56,000 she will finish well in the August 24th primary.

What she has going for her is charisma. She speaks strongly with a slow clear purpose and cadence making her thoughts clear to her audience expressing her anger over the current state of affairs. I suspect this comes from her years of homeschooling trying to make lessons both interesting and clear to her children. Whatever it is it creates compelling political drama from the normal political speech. Charisma is hard to define but she clearly has it in abundance.

Dan Fanelli is a former Navy pilot and former commercial airliner pilot.

Dan Fanelli is a Navy pilot veteran and if you don’t know that talk to him for five minutes. He will surly remind you. He is the only military veteran in the race and a formal commercial airline pilot who was flying when 9-11 happened. He is an honorable man and as far as we can tell has never been awaken by police for sleeping on a sidewalk in public.

Ross Bieling is a successful businessman who earned his law degree as a non traditional student in 2008

Ross Bieling is a very intelligent self made businessman and I would be comfortable if he was elected to congress. His list of accomplishments with his private business in the medical field is impressive as well as his education obtaining a law degree as a working nontraditional student in 2008. Very impressive.

Businessman Bruce O’Donoghue is the most successful Republican fundraiser but has a recent 2008 DUI. A very organized and intelligent political foe.

Bruce O’Donoghue is a local small businessperson who started in his parent’s traffic engineering business and eventually took it over. He has raised an impressive $478,000 in contributions (compared to Todd Long’s $220,000) with 79% from fund raising efforts and not his personal financing. On the issues he is standard Republican fare, cut waste, taxes, spending, repeal Obamacare. In person he is very articulate and in command. Mr. O’Donoghue is a very respectable opponent and very intelligent.

On the negative there is a report of a 2008 DUI and tax trouble in 2009. The recent DUI is very damaging to Mr. O’Donoghue. I think everyone is having recent financial troubles with the exception of government workers. The recent DUI drops Mr. O’Donoghue from second to fifth, what a shame. He is a very accomplished and polished individual.

Kurt Kelly’s vote supporting a multibillion dollar federal government rail system has been costly for his chances in District 8.

On the negative side he can be a weak speaker when trying to justify his stand on the ground rail system here in Central Florida. He has a hard time justifying his votes for massive government projects that will waste billions while touting himself as a fiscal conservative. Pathetic political double talk. We don’t need double talk we need a leader with a clear vision to reduce the federal governments share of the GDP.

Daniel Webster is the former Florida Speaker of the House. He is the Republican establishment candidate in a very anti-establishment year. He has been endorsed by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Mike Huckabee along with much of the Republican establishment. His fund raising is slightly above average at $228,000 with no personal contributions. He is an honorable man who is a career politician.

On the negative side he is elderly and not a very inspiring speaker. Unlike O’Donoghue or Long you don’t get the sense that there is much in his intellect beyond the standard Republican talking points. His biggest claim to fame is he has never lost a election. One could attribute that to his skills but one could also comment on the fact that he has one of the most universally recognizable names in modern political history. Who knows how many last minute voters who failed to research the candidates voted for him simply due to his name recognition? Hopefully the District 8 voters will be educated come August 24th.

Daniel Webster’s days of never suffering a political defeat are about to end August 24th. Uninspiring and standard Republican establishment candidate in a anti establishment year.

Daily it becomes more evident that Mainstream Media has shot itself in the foot again. To most of the nation it is clear if you CHOOSE NOT TO live in a fantasy world you better get your news elsewhere.

Their ratings have plummeted and most are on the verge of bankruptcy if they have not already bobbed for the last time. Those in high places at these companies have failed to realize one very important thing.
WHEN THE MASS gives up on you for whatever reason they DO NOT return.
It was a mistake for them to assume distortions and flat out lies would fly forever.

Out of the news rubble emerges the internet and the latest electronic technology.
An angry revved up public with video phones/cameras and the KNOW HOW to catch EVERYTHING on disc, then PUBLISH it.

Funny thing about that stuff published on the internet.
Once there it most likely will be there FOREVER. Tucked away in some obscure ether corner until GOOGLE dredges it up for the billionth time.

A contract with America for 2010
By Dick Morris

My observations from the campaign trail are that this year’s elections will be a total and complete disaster for the Democratic Party. In fact, it will amount to the obliteration of an entire generation of Democratic officeholders. It will become very rare to find a youngish baby boomer white Democrat in elective office in the United States. I believe that almost half of the white Democratic congressmen who are seeking reelection will lose!

A wipeout of this magnitude cannot be explained, alone, by Obama’s ratings or his policies. He has fallen sharply since he took office, but even ratings in the 40s do not explain this type of result. It is increasingly obvious that Congress has earned much of this disaster by itself, quite unrelated to Obama. The vision of the deal-making that accompanied healthcare was too disgusting for the average American to stomach. And now the failure of the Congress to expel Reps. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) underscores its inability to police itself.

But Republicans need to remember that when they lost the House in 2006, about 5 percent of their incumbents were under indictment, convicted or in prison, or resigned. Washington has always been the crime capital of America, but the House of Representatives was its highest crime-rate neighborhood!

Republicans should embrace specific ethical reforms, which they should showcase in their campaign advertising in 2010. These positive ads will do as much as any good negative to underscore the difference between a Republican challenger and a Democratic incumbent.

The reforms should include:

• The establishment of an office of special prosecutor for Congress, with its head appointed by the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court for a fixed term. The office should have subpoena power, a well-funded staff and the right to convene grand juries and issue indictments. Self-policing by ethics committees obviously does not work.

• All earmarking should be banned. Congress cannot be trusted with this power.

• A ban on spouses of members of Congress serving on boards or accepting employment by any company or organization that receives federal funds. In cases like Mrs. Chris Dodd and Mrs. Evan Bayh, corporate board employment was a way for special interests to influence their husbands and pad the family checkbook.

• A ban on families of members of Congress serving as lobbyists.

• No free travel, whether sponsored by foundations or lobbyists. Only government trips on official business — real business — should be allowed.

• Full disclosure of the precise amounts of members’ net worth, debts, investments and holdings, including home mortgages.

•Full publication, online, of all committee votes.

• No student loan repayments for congressional staffers.

• A five-year ban on lobbying for members of Congress or their staffs after leaving office. The ban should also apply to employment by a company that performs lobbying services.

• If a senator or congressman is absent more than 10 percent of the time for reasons other than illness — including running for president — his pay should be docked proportionately.

• Term limits for congressional staffers. No staff member of Congress should be permitted to serve in a job that pays above $100,000 a year for more than eight years. If we can’t get term limits for Congress, let’s at least clean out the professional staffers!

A smart candidate in 2010 will take elements of these proposals — particularly the special prosecutor — and put them in his or her campaign ads. Cashing in on Obama’s unpopularity and his failed agenda is only half the battle. Capitalizing on the dismal state of congressional ethics is the other part!

Morris, a former adviser to Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and President Bill Clinton, is the author of Outrage, Fleeced and Catastrophe. To get all of his and Eileen McGann’s columns for free by e-mail or to order a signed copy of their latest book, 2010: Take Back America — A Battle Plan, go to dickmorris.com. In August, Morris became a strategist for the League of American Voters, which is running ads opposing the president’s healthcare reforms.