Congressional earmarks sometimes used to fund projects near lawmakers’ properties

By David S. Fallis, Scott Higham and Kimberly Kindy, Published: February 6

A U.S. senator from Alabama directed more than $100 million in federal earmarks to renovate downtown Tuscaloosa near his own commercial office building. A congressman from Georgia secured $6.3 million in taxpayer funds to replenish the beach about 900 feet from his island vacation cottage. A representative from Michigan earmarked $486,000 to add a bike lane to a bridge within walking distance of her home.

Thirty-three members of Congress have directed more than $300 million in earmarks and other spending provisions to dozens of public projects that are next to or within about two miles of the lawmakers’ own property, according to a Washington Post investigation.
The whole story …

The list of taxpayer money spenders.

The top of the money grabbing list?

Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R – Fla.) $73.2 million
Richard C. Shelby (R – Ala.) $124 million
Harry M. Reid (D – Nev.) $21.5 million
Nick J. Rahall II (D – W.Va.) $20.1 million
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D – Calif.) $50 million
Rep. Kay Granger (R – Tex.) $51.9 million
Rep. Corrine Brown (D – Fla.) $23.7 million

Thank you George for sending this reminder my way.

Just to remind you when President Obama starts to blame Bush for all our problems.
Then the main stream media picks up on the same rhetoric.
Then the forgetful citizens start to believe the BullS*** and pass it around AS FACT.

The day the Democrats took over was not January 22nd 2009, it was actually January 3rd 2007, the day the Democrats took over the House of Representatives and the Senate, at the very start of the 110th Congress.

The Democratic Party controlled a majority in both chambers for the first time since the end of the 103rd Congress in Jan 1995.

For those who are listening to the liberals propagating the fallacy that everything is “Bush’s Fault”, think about this: January 3rd, 2007, the day the Democrats took over the Senate and the House:

The DOW Jones closed at 12,621.77
The GDP for the previous quarter was 3.5%
The Unemployment rate was 4.6%
George Bush’s Economic policies SET A RECORD of 52 STRAIGHT MONTHS of JOB CREATION!

Remember that day…

January 3rd, 2007 was the day that Barney Frank took over the House Financial Services Committee and Chris Dodd took over the Senate Banking Committee.

The economic meltdown that happened 15 months later was in what part of the economy?

BANKING AND FINANCIAL SERVICES!

THANK YOU DEMOCRATS (especially Barney) for taking us from 13,000 DOW, 3.5 GDP and 4.6% Unemployment…to this CRISIS by (among MANY other things) dumping 5-6 TRILLION Dollars of toxic loans on the economy from YOUR Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac FIASCOES!

BTW: Bush asked Congress 17 TIMES to stop Fannie & Freddie, starting in 2001 because it was financially risky for our economy. Barney blocked it and called it a “Chicken Little Philosophy” (and the sky really did fall!)

And who took the THIRD highest pay-off from Fannie Mae AND Freddie Mac? BARACK OBAMA

And who fought against reform of Fannie and Freddie?
OBAMA and the Democrat Congress, especially BARNEY!!!!

So when someone tries to blame Bush…
REMEMBER JANUARY 3rd, 2007…. THE DAY THE DEMOCRATS TOOK OVER!”

Bush may have been in the car but the Democrats had the gas pedal and steering wheel… They (the Democrats) were the ones driving the economy into the ditch.

Budgets do not come from the White House. They come from Congress and the party that controlled Congress since January 2007 is the Democratic Party.

Furthermore, the Democrats controlled the budget process for 2008 & 2009 as well as 2010 & 2011.

In that first year, they had to contend with George Bush, which caused them to compromise on spending, when Bush somewhat belatedly got tough on spending increases.

For 2008-2009 though, Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid bypassed George Bush entirely, passing continuing resolutions to keep government running until Barack Obama could take office. At that time, they passed a massive omnibus spending bill to complete the 2009 budget.

And where was Barack Obama during this time? He was a member of that very Congress that passed all of these massive spending bills, and he signed the omnibus bill as President to complete 2009. Let’s remember what the deficits looked like during that period:

If the Democrats inherited any deficit, it was the 2007 deficit, the last of the Republican budgets. That deficit was the lowest in five years, and the fourth straight decline in deficit spending since the War on Terror began. After that, Democrats in Congress took control of spending, and that includes Barack Obama, who voted for the budgets.

If Obama inherited anything, he inherited it from himself, and a Democratic Congress!

In a nutshell, what Obama is saying is “I inherited a deficit that I voted for, and then I voted to expand that deficit four-fold since January 20th, 2009.“

Soft Corruption?
Soft only because they have yet to be caught at harder stuff?

Should these ethically bankrupt servants of the people be bounced out of Congress on a rail after being tarred and feathered?
Yes indeed!
To those using the insider information they receive to feather their own nest it is “business as usual”.

Looks like it is now time these insiders get paid NO MORE than the average citizen and get tossed in the can for cheating the public while supposedly working on their behalf.

At what point did PUBLIC SERVANT change to CAREER OPPORTUNITY FOR LIFE?
Looks like it is high time THE PUBLIC voted in salary/perks for Congress members.
No doubt today a large number of them would be working for FREE.

Apparently Nancy Pelosi is a tad barked at the 60 Minutes report.

Wow, 110 Megawatts?

No SHIT? That’s almost, let’s see here, three percent of the generation capacity of the Palo Verde nuclear plant … RIGHT?

Thirty-three more of these little puppies and you can have one at the same capacity and only six times the cost of a nuke!

Well providing THE SUN IS SHINING.

This will provide 45 permanent workers costing the US TAX PAYER $16 million per job?

One of the investment partners in this endeavor is Pacific Corporate Group (PCG)?

The PCG executive director is Ron Pelosi who is the brother to Nancy Pelosi’s husband?

Where is the tar, feathers and rail to be rode out of town on?
AMERICA ENOUGH IS ENOUGH … this MUST STOP!

Obama Admin. Approves $1B in Solar Loans
By AP / MATTHEW DALY Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011

(WASHINGTON) — The Energy Department on Wednesday approved two loan guarantees worth more than $1 billion for solar energy projects in Nevada and Arizona, two days before the expiration date of a program that has become a rallying cry for Republican critics of the Obama administration’s green energy program.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the department has completed a $737 million loan guarantee to Tonopah Solar Energy for a 110 megawatt solar tower on federal land near Tonopah, Nev., and a $337 million guarantee for Mesquite Solar 1 to develop a 150 megawatt solar plant near Phoenix.

The loans were approved under the same program that paid for a $528 million loan to Solyndra Inc., a California solar panel maker that went bankrupt after receiving the money and laid off 1,100 workers. Solyndra is under investigation by the FBI and is the focal point of House hearings on the program.

SolarReserve LLC, of Santa Monica, Calif., the parent company for Tonopah, is privately held. The Energy Department said its rules prevented it from discussing the company’s financial information. Sempra Energy of San Diego, which owns Mesquite, is publicly held.

Read more:

I have one question to ask Nancy (San Fran Nan) Pelosi … how does it feel to have your ass royally kicked by AstroTurf? Pelosi has been booted from third in the line of presidential succession.

Now I have to wonder if the rest of the people in DC are going to be so willing to throw themselves on the OBAMA sword because THEY THINK the AstroTurf is to stupid, raciest, bigoted or without teeth?

So it’s step up to the plate boys and girls … who is willing to cross what the majority wants and blatantly ignore, call them names and vote against what they deem fit?

Obama’s next move.
Would any of you be shocked if ALL OF A SUDDEN he (Obama) is courting the bipartisan vote now that most assuredly HIS RAMMING DOWN THE THROATS days are over?

Nice however he was with it enough to notice/admit his party took a shellacking.
Apparently it has come as a shock that his charm has worn thin.

I have said all along when his political end comes it will be at the hands of his own party. Not sure he and his ilk understand the “survival factor” yet.
The Political “survival factor”?
Save YOUR OWN ASS!

Do we actually want these people enacting laws that are counter to the Constitution?

Common sense is YOU NEVER SIGN ANYTHING you have not read.
So what do you do with people who are to stupid to understand that.
How stupid are “we the people” to allow them to remain in office?

Who is Dennis L. Guthrie?

Simply put an ALL AMERICAN PATRIOT!
Another just like so many who have had more than enough of the corrupt renegade politics from which we all suffer.

Posted below is a letter he sent to Nancy Pelosi.
If it was witheld from her view it has not missed those of us in the real world. This letter has transversed the globe a number of times since it was written in 2009. It is as valid today as it was then.

The text is below if you can not read it off the image.
It is varified as accurate and valid by snopes.

Dear Ms. Pelosi:

I write to you out of utter disdain! You are as despicable and un-American as the traitor Jane Fonda.

I am a soon to be 65 year-old who has voted in every state and local election since 1966. I have voted for both Republicans and Democrats alike. I have worked on campaigns for both Republicans and Democrats, white and black. I served the country that I love in Vietnam, as my son did in the Middle East. I was awarded two bronze stars. I have been involved in politics since age 6 when my father was campaign manager for a truly great American Congressman, Charles Raper Jonas, who worked for his constituents and his country, and was to be admired, unlike you.

You obviously haven’t read the Constitution recently, if ever, the Federalist Papers, or even David McCullough’s book on John Adams. You ought to take the time while riding around in your government provided luxury executive jet to do just that. You represent Socialistic and even Marxist principals that our founding fathers tried to avoid when setting out the capitalistic republican form of government represented by our Constitution.

I find it interesting that you and your husband are multi-millionaires with much of your fortune being made as a result of your “public service”. You have controlled legislation that has enhanced your husband’s investments both on and off shore. At the same time you redistributed the wealth of others. Our system of a free market economy is being destroyed by the likes of you, Harry Reid, and now our President. You ride around in a Gulfstream airplane at the tax payer’s expense while criticizing the presidents of companies who produced something for the economy. You add nothing to the economy of the United States; you only subtract therefrom.

I would like to suggest that you return to the city of fruitcakes and nuts and eat your husband’s canned tuna and pineapple produced by illegal immigrants and by workers who have been excluded from the protection that 90% of the legal workers in the United States have.

I await your defeat in the next election with glee.

Don’t ever use the term “un-American” again for protesters who love this country and are exercising their rights upon which this country was founded. By the way, while I served in the Army, I was spit on by the same type of lunatics who support you and who you probably supported in the 60’s and 70’s. You are an embarrassment to all of us who served so that you would have the protected right of free speech to call us un-American. But at the same time, I have the right to write you to notify you that I consider you to be un-American, as do the majority of the people of this formerly great country. You are a true disgrace to most of the people who served this country by offering themselves for public service in the United States Congress.

I feel certain your aides will not share this letter with you, but I intend to share it with many.

Sincerely,

Dennis L. Guthrie

First: All of you who are UNITED for REAL CHANGE in our great nation?
Please feel free to add any or all of this information to your own blogs.

Apparently its time to revisit the who is qualified to be in congress and who do we actually want in congress and why?

I am going to start here in CA because the totally incompetent or corrupt we have running this state have bankrupted us years ago. Today that fact is beginning to dawn on most Californians. So true change is on the horizon.

Here in California as a start we need to elect someone who can pass 7th grade math. Applying that logic a 7th grader should replace every person in the CA legislative branch immediatly.
WE ARE BANKRUPT! Because of them.

Finally the whole of California is getting tired enough of business as usual here in this state that we are finally primed to toss the bums out.

Now for people who represent California on the Federal Side?
Boy have we failed on that level.
Everyone knows Barbara Boxer is in the run for her political life and probably will lose to Carly Fiorina or Chuck Devore since Tom Campbell the 3rd challanger for the seat refused to take the ATR’s (Americans for Tax Reform) Taxpayer Protection Pledge. That was an eye opener for me because I was leaning in his direction. The teaparty momement and his failure to sign on to the TPP sealed his NO VOTE on my ballot.
As the race heats up I will no doubt post more on this subject.

We are all painfully aware that polititions words are not the best (YES THEY LIE) but if they refuse to sign the pledge to start? … well we at least have a clue where they are headed next.

You can see who has signed and who has not signed the TPP HERE.

I have 3 targets today.
The Ms. “address me as senator not mam” Barbara Boxer, the “I LOVE HUGO CHAVEZ” Maxine Waters and well what can I say about San Fran Nan that is worse than what is written about her daily?
NOTHING! Other than she needs to be gone!

Well today a boot mark on Pelosi’s behind is the agenda.
I will be more than happy to promote that action in any way I can. Personally tar, feathers and an old time pillory might be good. If I were in charge I would be welcoming donations for those items right now … but ALAS justice of old has been abandoned today.
PITY!

So I will start with the man who has vowed to do the pillory thing in a civil manner.
Clean her clock at the voting booth!

John Dennis, businessman and real-estate investor, libertarian conservative has declared his plans to “take out Nancy Pelosi” in the 2010 election to stop her from devastating the nation.

Dennis, a businessman and real-estate investor in California’s 8th Congressional District, told WND, “I’ve decided to run because the statist Pelosi agenda will destroy America.”

Rep. Pelosi’s district covers most of San Francisco, and Democrats have held the seat since 1949. Since first winning the House seat in a 1987 special election, Pelosi, 69, has breezed to re-election 10 times. President Obama received 85 percent of the vote there in 2008.

What gives Dennis hope for 2010?

“I think we can build a very sturdy case for taking out Pelosi,” he said. “I find most of the people on the left find that she’s not their cup of tea. She engages in a lot of class warfare, and there are a lot of folks on the left who are disaffected by her and disaffected with her. We’re going to leverage as many of those relationships as we possibly can.”

Dennis, son of a longshoreman and a city hall clerk, grew up in a Jersey City, N.J., housing project. He graduated from Fordham University with a degree in business administration and co-founded Humanscale, one of the world’s top 10 design firms, specializing in office ergonomics. He later created Foundation Real Estate, a San Francisco-based investment company. In 2008, he served as Phonebank and Get Out the Vote director for Ron Paul’s presidential campaign in San Francisco.

“I became actively involved in politics about two years ago,” he said. “I was frustrated with everything – even my own party and the lost opportunities we had to put a cap on spending and the growth of government. I was looking for good candidates to support, and I just finally decided to be a candidate myself.”

Dennis is founder of the San Francisco chapter of the Republican Liberty Caucus, board member of the Republican Liberty Caucus of California and has served as an alternate on the San Francisco Republican Central Committee.

He expressed deep concern over the “looming dollar crisis,” the nation’s “mountain of debt” and what he considers the federal government’s unconstitutional expansion of power.

Dennis blasted Pelosi’s “disastrous” legislative agenda advocating government-run health care, cap and trade and the Cybersecurity Act of 2009, a bill that would give the president “emergency” control of the Internet.

“Everything that Nancy Pelosi has her hands on is anti-liberty and pro-government power,” he said, with a laugh. “I defy anybody to show me a speech or a press release that says she’s going to somehow protect their liberties and reduce the size of government.”

Dennis said he often asks people, “What’s the one thing about Pelosi that bothers you most?”

“A lot of times, truth be told, people respond, ‘Everything,’” he said. “Aside from that response, people say her holier-than-thou attitude, her above-it-all unresponsiveness.”

Pelosi professes to have sentiments of being for the people, Dennis said, but her actions speak volumes.

“Her lifestyle doesn’t support any of those positions,” he said. “I think people in this district are getting just as sick of her as everyone else.”

Thank you WND for the research on Dennis.

Below you will find video 1 in a series of 7 with John Dennis and his opponent Dana Welch for the Pelosi seat.
Note at the top of this video when it starts to play you can click a box to watch the whole debate. Worth the time if you are going to be involved in this particular race. Very interesting!

John Dennis campaign website

As the days go on things seem to get worse for San Fran Nan. Will she have the class to resign on her own?
THAT IS A RESOUNDING NO!
Will she be shoved in disgrace out of her position by her own party?
According to some … could be and as far as much of the country is concerned it could not happen to a better person.
I have to say if this does occur I will be the first to give applause to the Democrats who have the guts to admit she was a mistake in the first place.

I found what Dick Morris had to say about the issue interesting to say the least.
My oh my what kind of stuff does the CIA have on her aside from she is a LIAR that they could kick to the forefront to the media. Since things are getting a little stale it would give the media who is starting to die on the vine new chum for a feeding frenzy.

Has the Reigning Ruler lost his reins or better yet his mind?

You can tell the Washington powers that be are on the verge of havoc. When the latest tactic is to try and throw a monkey wrench into the middle of a growing conservative interest (Rush Limbaugh) in order to distract from the failing business at hand (the ECONOMY) it is a sure sign there is trouble in the magic kingdom.

What?
How can this be … they scream, cuss and whine?
There are those in the public more than willing to foist the total blame on Reid and Pelosi but the truth is our brand new esteemed leader could have put a real stop to all of this early on. He CHOSE NOT!

Barack Obama has made a real place in history which is … he is the WORST PRESIDENT … in our written history to take office yet. He can boast like no other that so far EVERY TIME he takes to the media podium the stock market takes a further dive like a stone plunged into a deep dark well. If he continues to speak (eloquent as he might be) we will no doubt see the market struggling at 3300 shortly.

NOOOOOOOOO! You all yell?
What exactly do you expect?
Certainly I am not the sharpest pencil around but common sense tells me one thing. Any sane person is not willing to plunk their dwindling life savings into a market fraught with business that is turning out to be corrupt to the core along with the politicians on the take to cover it all up.

Who so far benefits from all of this bailout?
You, me … anyone you know that is middle class?
Are we fools to think someday SOMEONE is going to come through on a hollow promise?
A promise anyone with more than 2 brain cells moving in tandem would know was a blatant lie out of the chute.

I have noticed of late the arrogant narcissistic spring seems to have left the man who commands the Whitehouse today. Do you suppose it is beginning to dawn on him how quickly the tide can turn. It makes me laugh out loud to watch those who were screaming and yelling at GW Bush every nano second are now on the receiving end.

I find it more than ironic to reflect on those who said Sarah Palin had no creds to help run a Whitehouse. HO HO HO … well clearly neither did Barack Obama. In fact I would be willing to bet the deed on my PAID FOR house she WOULD NEVER have done this bad. Unfortunate she was not running against Obama head to head we just might have seen a far different outcome to all of this.

Confidence in our leaders is shot and the market shows it so fasten your seat belts people because it will be a long time for new business to crop up that makes investors confident enough to place their hard earned money into unknown hands. In the mean time … what does one do? BUY GOLD and SILVER comes to mind. If not that make sure you have an adequate pantry just in case.

Then this week we see the infamous Ward Churchill is visiting Colorado University on a speaking engagement.
I must admit I know little about him other than what I have heard on the MSM. I decided since the MSM has gone to pot in the last few months and shown themselves to be less than credible and more along the lines of lying through their teeth or to be kind ignorant of real fact. I wanted to see for myself what was up with the philosophical bent of this man.

Do keep in mind I am a 100% advocate of free speech.
No matter what this man has as a belief system I stand behind his right to leap on a soap box and spout it until the cows come home.

You too now have an opportunity to listen and make up your own mind.
Keep in mind we find ourselves in this situation today because we were swayed by someone else’s opinion. Were we simply to lazy to research for ourselves?

Pay attention to the question from the interviewer to Russell Means (AIM member and Lawyer) and his answer to her about Ward Churchill’s questioned claims of being American Indian.

Over the years I have found it astounding how quickly claimed tribe members have been culled from tribes when the divvy of Casino money becomes involved.

Apparently who is a member and who is not IS NOT determined by blood but more like the US Government’s tactic of who you like and for whatever reason.