My, how times change...

About those "Executive Orders," Mr. President...


Remember: He's got "a pen and a phone!"

 

Who stands to make $1 billion off the sales of US Postal Service properties?

That would be U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and her husband, Richard Blum...

If you don't already know the story, it's one of intrigue, corruption and power. 

In short, Blum is head of the world's largest commercial real estate company, which won the exclusive rights to sell over 600 post offices and USPS buildings is part of a plan to save $20 billion over the next three years (according to the Postal Service’s 2012 report to Congress).

The questions, concerns and controversies swirling around the role Feinstein played in landing the contract for Blum's company -- as well as the huge (potential) payoff awaiting him/them -- continues.

For more info, check out the clip below...

Benghazi...lingers.

Gregory Hicks, the former Deputy Chief of Mission in Libya who testified before Congress about the 9/11 attacks on an American diplomatic facility earlier this year, believes he has been “punished” for speaking out about the Obama administration’s response the night of the attack. He said he believes at least two of the Americans lost that night could have been saved in the United States had responded in time.

Hick said he will continue to talk about the attacks because “the American people need to have the story” of what took place that night and the four Americans who were lost in the attacks “should be remembered.” He also believes that former Navy SEALS Ty Woods and Glen Doherty, who died eight hours after the initial attack on the diplomatic mission, could have been saved.

While Hicks still remains on staff at the State Department, he has not been reassigned a post since being called back from Libya. In a statement to This Week, the State Department said Hicks was not removed from Libya due to statements about the Benghazi attacks and is working on reassigning him. (--Andrew Johnson, National Review Online's "The Corner")

Benghazi: It ain't goin' away...

Yeah, about those claims...

News item: "The head of the National Security Agency said U.S. surveillance programs had helped disrupt more than 50 possible attacks since September 11, 2001, as sympathetic members of Congress also defended the use of the top-secret spying operations."

"You can't win 'em all"...right?

"Cough Drops-The Mandate"

If you're looking for inspired satire, check out the video below...

In it, Remy crashes Sandra Fluke's Congressional testimony to demand a mandate for his cough drop addiction. "Remy: Cough Drops-The Mandate" is one of a series of collaborations between Remy and Reason.tv. To watch Remy's other videos, go to youtube.com/goremy.

See more here...

Incompetence...or worse?

"Operation Fast and Furious" -- the debacle that gives us a view of the administration's efforts to undermine the Second Amendment.

In a video clip (at bottom) from this morning's testimony by the USAG before Congress, Attorney Gen. Eric Holder admits the effort was "reckless," "tragic," "flawed" and that "...more people are going to die."

No big deal, Mr Holder?

U.S. Border agent Brian Terry: Another Fast and Furious casualty...

At the very least, Holder and his team (on this) were criminally negligent. More likely, though, they have been caught in a web of lies they offered in an attempt to cover-up a scheme to subvert the U.S. Constitution – a scheme that resulted in the murders of at least one U.S. Border agent and likely hundreds of other innocent civilians.

It’s not just a crime, it's a national shame.

He's lost that lovin' feeling...

Looks like Tingles' man-crush is history...

(See video below...)

Oh, well...better late than never?

Going Postal...or Postal Gone?

One of America's enduring institutions -- however great or flawed you feel it may be -- is the U.S. Postal Service.

For more than two centuries, our system of moving mail around has served the country well. From the Great Postmaster, Ben Franklin, to the Pony Express, mail delivery has been an important part of our lives and history.

But, as the song says, "The times they are a changin'."

Past tense: they've changed.

Unfortunately, the postal system hasn't been able to keep up. Private delivery services (like UPS and FedEx), new technologies (the web/email), and skyrocketing employment costs have made the USPS a major money hole. Each year, the postal folks post their losses...which are in the billions.

The service's unsustainable course was the subject of Congressional testimony this week and the outlook is bleak. Current plans for trying to save the system include ending Saturday deliveries, closing post offices and laying off -- perhaps -- more than 100,000 workers.

Even the White House is mulling over ways to try and save the USPS.

Megan McArdle, editor at The Atlantic, points out that the USPS, the White House and others with good intentions might very well be hamstrung in their efforts by Congress: “Congress has given the Post Office two incompatible mandates. It is to make money like a business . . . but it is not to have any of the freedom that businesses have to, say, close branch offices, cut its delivery area, or change delivery schedules. This is, to put it mildly, lunatic.”

It's not "mildly lunatic." It's straight up crazy.

The prediction here: the USPS will be trimmed (service, employees and more) but the federal government will provide a bailout. Let's face it, as much as we love the efficiency and speed of companies like UPS and FedEx, we do love our relatively cheaper and fairly reliable snail mail. And as many from one particular political party in Washington, D.C., know, adding any additional numbers to the current unemployment situation mean fewer votes.

You stay classy, Maxine...

This must be the new "civility" they were talking about...

“While the media plays up the Los Angeles congresswoman’s ‘the Tea Party can go straight to hell’ comments from this weekend, they are ignoring what she said right after that. When the wild cheers of the audience calmed down, Rep. Waters then said: ‘And I intend to help them get there.’ Is there any doubt that if a Tea Party representative had said that ‘the Congressional Black Caucus can go straight to hell and we intend to help them get there,’ we would be hearing loud condemnations about the hateful rhetoric from the extremists in the Republican Party?”

No...no doubt at all.

Video bonus: Remember the calls for "civility?"

Foot -- meet mouth

The Gaffenator strikes...again!

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the Arizona Democrat shot in the head by a gunman in January, made a dramatic entrance onto the House floor yesterday to cast her vote for the debt ceiling deal.

Predictably, her appearance brought the entire chamber to its feet and temporarily united the both sides of the aisle, which had been at odds over the debt vote for several weeks.

The moment was a tribute not only to the courageous Congresswoman who has beaten all odds to merely survive the assassination attempt against her, but also to her colleagues who were able to recognize what her presence meant.

But leave it to Vice President Joe Biden to put his special touch on the evening.

According to numerous sources, "Biden, never one to miss an opportunity to say something out of the ordinary told media, 'I told her she’s now a member of the cracked head club, like me, with two craniotomies. It was just so good to see.'”

Really, Joe? Really?

The courageous Rep. Gabrielle Giffords makes her triumphant return to Congress...

Weiner's whiners...

As Andrew Breitbart says, "When Ed Shultz sounds like the most reasonable person in your group, you have a problem."

No kiddin'...

Bonus: Gotta love Shultz telling Bill Press and Joan Walsh that they're "in denial."

Gee, ya think?

Priorities on display...

Congress still gets paid during a shutdown, but the troops won't...

Obama, Boehner, Reid: the three at the center of the shutdown crisis...

According to Talking Points Memo, " With less than 48 hours to go until the government does shut down, all [Congressional ] members -- and the President -- are still slated to receive their checks. The optics of this are so bad that members are figuring out ways to avoid political stigma for swimming in dough while their constituents suffer."

Those constituents include members of the U.S. armed forces who are now engaged in three separate wars.

What was that about "a government for the people?"

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), left, joined the vast majority of members of Congress Wednesday night, saying elected federal officials should not be paid in the event of a government shutdown.

Biden calls for president's impeachment for military action without Congressional approval*

“Ladies and gentlemen, I drafted an outline of what I think the Constitutional limits [garbled] have on the President with the War Clause. I went to five leading scholars, Constitutional scholars, and they drafted a treatise for me that is being distributed to every Senator. And I want to make it clear, and I’ll make it clear to the President: that if he takes this nation to war in Iran, without Congressional approval, I will make it my business to impeach him.”

Back in 2007*, Vice President Joe Biden (then U.S. Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del) gave a couple speeches regarding the possible impeachment of George W. Bush -- if he conducted military strikes against Iran without Congressional approval.

Today, President Barack Obama is presiding over a conflict he not only didn't get Congressional approval for...heck, he didn't even give Capitol Hill a hint he was going to let loose the dogs of war on Libya's Muammar Ghadaffi (or however you spell his name). So where's Joe?

Here in his own words, Biden...

Why is this man smiling?

Because this man (below), is making him look good...

According to The Hill, "Vice President Joe Biden, speaking at a fundraiser in Philadelphia Friday, compared Republicans in Congress to people who excuse rapists by blaming their victims.

 The vice president, known for speaking his mind and at times putting his foot in his mouth, said that Republicans who want to cut spending while at the same time cutting taxes for the wealthy are similar to rape apologists."

Yes, misspelling (or correctly spelling) the word, "potato," is much, much worse.

So much for public service...

I guess it has come to mean, "the public serves the so-called servants."

The Cato Institute, citing a Wall Street Journal article, is letting taxpayers know that it can pay - in some instances, quite handsomely - to "do the people's work."

"Departing members of the House of Representatives awarded millions of dollars in extra pay to aides as they closed down their offices, according to lawmakers' spending records," according to the WSJ article. "The 96 lawmakers paid their employees $6.7 million, or 31%, more in the fourth quarter of 2010 than they did, on average, in the first three quarters of the year....Because most of the departing members were Democrats, fourth-quarter salary increases in 2010 for Democratic staffers were the largest in the decade LegiStorm has been gathering such data." (Full disclosure: "Republican staffers enjoyed a similar boost when many of their employers left office at the end of 2006.")

Nice work...if you can get it.

PBS - Publicly (funded) B.S.?

At least when it comes to making appeals for more cash...in particular, cash from taxpayers...it takes a lot of chutzpah to poor-mouth when your "public broadcasting" executives are making big, big bucks.

In a terrific Wall Street Journal piece by U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), he gets right to the point in the lede: "When presidents of government-funded broadcasting are making more than the president of the United States, it's time to get the government out of public broadcasting."

The senator adds: "While executives at the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR) are raking in massive salaries, the organizations are participating in an aggressive lobbying effort to prevent Congress from saving hundreds of millions of dollars each year by cutting their subsidies. The so-called commercial free public airwaves have been filled with pleas for taxpayer cash. The Association of Public Television Stations has hired lobbyists to fight the cuts. Hundreds of taxpayer-supported TV, radio and Web outlets have partnered with an advocacy campaign to facilitate emails and phone calls to Capitol Hill for the purpose of telling members of Congress, 'Public broadcasting funding is too important to eliminate!'"

This blog post is being interrupted by a PBS pledge break: Send more money!

He notes that "PBS President Paula Kerger even recorded a personal television appeal that told viewers exactly how to contact members of Congress in order to 'let your representative know how you feel about the elimination of funding for public broadcasting.' But if PBS can pay Ms. Kerger $632,233 in annual compensation—as reported on the 990 tax forms all nonprofits are required to file—surely it can operate without tax dollars."

To get the whole picture, read the piece. But I'll warn you: take your blood pressure medicine, first.

Follow the money - to public broadcasting...

He was against pork before he was for it...

"Twenty-one short months ago, President Obama demanded that Congress act immediately to reform the process of earmarking in order to avoid 'another massive, last minute omnibus bill' like the one he grudgingly signed in 2009. 'Neither I, nor the American people, will accept anything less,' he said, before concluding that '[the 2009 omnibus bill] must mark the end to the old way of doing business and the beginning of a new era of responsibility and accountability that the American people have every right to expect and demand.'" (h/t: Guy Benson)

Oink...

Do as I say...

...not as I chew.

News item: Congress Approves Child Nutrition Bill - WASHINGTON — Congress gave final approval on Thursday to a child nutrition bill that expands the school lunch program and sets new standards to improve the quality of school meals, with more fruits and vegetables. Michelle Obama lobbied for the bill as a way to combat obesity and hunger. About half of the $4.5 billion cost is financed by a cut in food stamps starting in several years. Mrs. Obama said she was thrilled by passage of what she described as a groundbreaking piece of legislation.

While it seems that a bill to reduce obesity - specifically among youth - would be a laudable goal, there are some elements of the typically "fattened-up" bill that have more than a few folks unhappy with it.

According to another report, "Some, and not just the big mama grizzly [meaning Sarah Palin, who came out against the proposed law], fault the bill as being too restrictive because it eliminates not only junk food sold regularly in school, but also limits school fundraisers," according to ABC. Alexa Marrero, spokeswoman for House Education and Labor committee Republicans is quoted as saying, the new rules 'wouldn’t just apply to school meals but things like bake sales that are also used as fundraisers, or concessions sold at sporting events.'”

Ms. Obama's campaign to help America eat and exercise its way to healthiness is a step in the right direction. Americans of all ages are heavier and less physically active than ever - and it's getting worse by the day. The associated costs for everything from healthcare to industrial redesign are a huge burden on the nation's economy. But if we're going to work on improving the nation's collective waistline, blood pressure, etc., let's do it the right way and target the real sources of the overall problem.

Otherwise, the next thing you know even holiday treats might end up on some "watch list."

I'm sure those holiday cookies are made with arugula...

Charlie Rangel - guilty as charged...

It's sad news, but it's about time...

Rep. Charles Bernard "Charlie" Rangel (NY-15)...

Charlie Rangel, the 20-term Congressman from New York, was found guilty on a host of ethics violations today. Rangel, long-known to be a "dirty" pol, will now go down in the books for his misdeeds in office.

And that's a shame.

First, every member of Congress has the distinct opportunity to help his/her constituents in ways that almost no one else can. Holding office as a Representative is an honor and a privilege. Turning one's back on that in order to self-enrich/empower is criminal...and worse.

Second - and here's the really sad news - Rangel was a hero in the Korean War.

How Charles Rangel could have been remembered: as the Korean War hero...

"During the Korean War, he was a member of the all-black 503rd Field Artillery Battalion in the 2nd Infantry Division. In late November 1950, this unit was caught up in heavy fighting in North Korea as part of the U.N. forces retreat from the Yalu River. In the Battle of Kunu-ri, Rangel was part of a vehicle column that was trapped and attacked by the Chinese Army. In the subzero cold, Rangel was injured by shrapnel from a Chinese shell. Some U.S. soldiers were being taken prisoner, but others looked to Rangel, who though only a private first class had a reputation for leadership in the unit. Rangel led some 40 men from his unit, during three days of freezing weather, out of the Chinese encirclement; nearly half of the battalion was killed in the overall battle. Rangel was awarded a Purple Heart for his wounds and the Bronze Star with Valor for his actions in the face of death. His Army unit was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation, the Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation, and three battle stars." (h/t: Wikipedia)

Today's obvious findings will be an unfitting conclusion to a political career that could have been great...as well as to a legacy of military leadership and heroism that was...

How he will be remembered: In this now-infamous photo from the NY Post, "Harlem Rep. Charles Rangel dozes on the beach at the Punta Cana Resort, where he owns and rents out a villa. He was squeezing in some vacation time before attending the Democratic convention." The photo, which was part of the public outcry about the Congressman's properties (and the taxes he avoided), hastened his undoing...

A report from the Wall Street Journal's News Hub, hosted by my radio colleague, Simon Constable...

Late add: Rangel's response...

Send in the clowns...

Clown college...

(photo by source)

Comedian Stephen Colbert (at table on right) prepares to "testify" before Congress...

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), not on many folks' "Top 10 Brightest Bulbs in Congress" lists, upped her game yesterday - and challenged others in Congress to do likewise - when she invited television comedian Stephen Colbert to testify on immigration issues yesterday.

Playing to a packed hearing room and a gaggle of cameras, Colbert yucked it up in the dry, deadpan character he plays on his Comedy Central show, "The Colbert Report." Republican committee members tried to quash his appearance, saying the comedian had no expertise (outside of comedy) and his testimony was essentially "worthless" and "a waste of time." The Democrats on the panel followed Lofgren's lead and pushed for Colbert's performance. (Some reports have put the costs associated with the comic's "hearing" at approximately $100,000.)

According to an Associated Press report, "House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers praised Colbert for drawing a roomful of onlookers and photographers. Then he asked the comedian to leave the room — and to leave the job of testifying to the expert witnesses, including Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez. 'You run your show, we run the committee,' said Conyers, D-Mich. There was some grumbling from some lawmakers about Colbert testifying in character — an unusual approach although not unprecedented. After all, lawmakers once heard testimony from the 'Sesame Street' puppet Elmo. Congressional committees frequently invite entertainment or sports personalities to testify on specific issues in an attempt to draw media attention. Colbert has no background or expertise in either farm labor issues or immigration policy. Colbert said he was there at the invitation of subcommittee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif. And Conyers later gave him the go-ahead, apparently hoping Colbert's performance would counter the testimony of a political science professor who said illegal immigrants were competing with black and Hispanic citizens for jobs. Colbert's humor drew guffaws from the audience and several Democrats on the subcommittee. But most of the Republicans sat stone-faced."

I spoke with a member of the media who was present in the room during the comedian's "set." His view was that while Colbert didn't really bring anything meaningful to the debate over illegal immigration, "[Colbert] was hysterical. I laughed my ass off...(unlike most of the hearing room). That being said, I really don't know what was gained by Dems inviting a comedian to a Congressional hearing."

My guess: a little comic relief...

Late add: Commentary's John Podhoretz nails it - "This may have been the single biggest pointless blunder in American political history, and I am not kidding. With an election only five weeks from now in which Democrats are poised for major losses, this morning’s depiction of Congress as ludicrous dupes of a TV personality — which will be replayed for weeks — will make the analogistic point that the majority is unfit to be running things. How exactly will they argue otherwise? Did Colbert himself understand the damage he was going to do to the political and ideological forces he clearly supports by mocking the political process they control in this way?," Podhoretz adds. "Is he, secretly, more O’Reilly than O’Reilly? Whatever is the case, the disaster was predictable and could have been avoided. I know, because I predicted it. What I didn’t predict is that the House leadership and the Democratic leadership generally are in such a state of degeneration that they didn’t know, or didn’t try, to intervene before this political Jonestown. UPDATE: Oh my Lord. Speaker of the House Margaret Dumont Nancy Pelosi has defended Colbert’s appearance: 'He’s an American. He has a point of view.'”

Even later add...Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), the House Majority leader, summed up Colbert's appearance this way: ""I think it was an embarrassment for Mr. Colbert more than the House," the Maryland politician said on "Fox News Sunday.""What he had to say was not the way it should have been said," Hoyer added, calling the performance, "not appropriate."