Hey buddy, can you spare a few bucks? Checks accepted, cash preferred.

So why is Rep. Andy Barr (R, KY) all smiles?  Because *cha ching* he was one of the lucky congressional Freshmen who was appointed to serve *cha ching* on the House Financial Services Committee *cha ching*.  Screw the lottery.  This is where the REAL gold mine is!

This is the committee, along with the Senate Banking Committee on the other side of the Capital, that oversees all of the banks, insurance companies, etc.  And these are the committee members who both party's look to to bring in the Big Buck donations.  And right now they're delivering like FedEx....$9.4M just this year so far.

This is such a desirable committee to serve on that it has been increased over the years from 44 to 61 members, which required a whole new tier of seats to be installed in their meeting room.

So how do they raise so much money, you ask?  They're "good listeners".  In exchange for patiently listening to the bankers tell them how badly they want certain new rules written, or NOT to be written, the banks shower them with campaign contributions.  

Example:  Rep. Barr heard them say how much they wanted to keep a certain federal tax break that saved them $500M a year, so he introduced a bill that would put it out of reach of reformers.  

And when the do-gooder's put into the Dodd-Frank Banking Reform Bill a requirement that banks do more thorough checks on applicants they made mortgage loans to to make sure they could make the payments, they "casually mentioned" how much it would cramp their style (read: hurt their profits), and Mr. Barr introduced legislation that kept that pesky 'ol rule from being enforced.  

Yep, not much gets by the Honorable Representative Andy Barr (R, KY).  He listens really well!

And if you think I'm just picking on Republicans and that Democrats are above all this, I have some beautiful oceanfront property in Kansas I'd like to sell you. 

After the recent election Democratic Party leaders gave a PowerPoint presentation to their newly elected members urging them "to spend as much as four hours a day making fund-raising calls while in Washington, and an additional hour of 'strategic outreach' holding breakfasts or 'meet and greets' with possible financial supporters.  That adds up to more time than these first-term lawmakers were advised to spend on Congressional business."  (NYT)

The sad thing is, nothing I've mentioned here gets even a raised eyebrow in Washington.  This is just business as usual.

It seems the financial interests are very well represented in Washington.  My question is, who is looking out for ME?  Everyone agrees Washington is a nasty cesspool and that everyone there is a crook....except for their representative, "and he's a really good guy!"  

And the mugging continues.

S

Which way did he go?

The headline read....

Family Concerned After John McCain Wanders Into Syria

Washington--Members of Sen. John McCain's family expressed deep concern Tuesday after receiving word that the aging legislator had wandered into Syria.  

Ha!  Poor old John can't buy a break.  That was reported, of course, in The Onion, a parody newspaper.  Unfortunately I'm afraid there might be more than a little truth to this one.  There are a lot of those guys in Washington (or Warshington if you're from Boston), of both parties, who are doing things I just find bizarre.  

Still, he's lived an amazing life and I sincerely wish him well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was watching Good Morning America earlier and noticed Robin Roberts interviewing Will Smith.  When she's on camera she normally speaks "unaccented TV" for lack of a better term.  But when she was interviewing Will she started speaking "inner-city street".  Then some rapper was on, and listening to him (I tried unsuccessfully to tune him out) I assumed he was black.  Then I saw him...some white guy named Pit Bull.  (Really?  Who names their kid "Pit"?)  I guess you just never know these days.

K said she lapses into and out of other dialects, too.  She's a corporate recruiter and daily talks to people from all over the country.  She said she subconsciously slips into Cajun when she's talking to people from Louisiana, deep south drawl when appropriate, etc.

I find myself doing the same.  When speaking with a sophisticated potential client my speech is The King's English, but when talking to one of my blue-collar subs it's "Hey, how y'all doin'?  Sup?"

Do you do that, too?  Is it intentional or subconscious?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My trusty (until now) chariot is in the shop getting its air conditioner fixed.  I know.....a car in Texas without working air conditioning is just scrap metal.  We're down to just one car, and I'm having to take K to work and pick her up and plan my day around my chauffeur duties.  

At one time a while back K and I discussed me retiring for real (not semi retiring) and just having one car.  Now I truly like living lean, but after experiencing a one car household, even for just a day, I'm afraid that might be just a bit too lean.

Speaking of cars, tomorrow is Cars and Coffee, weather permitting.  We need the rain, but please God, let it come after noon, OK?  :)

Have a great weekend everyone.

S

In Seattle latte's are out....Cheetos are now in.

It looks like Seattle has enthusiastically embraced the recent vote to legalize marijuana in Washington.  ;)

So today is 12.12.12, a "once in a lifetime" event.  Do you have anything planned to celebrate?  Fuzzy's is offering $1.20 tacos all day.  WooHoo!  Yeah, I know....kinda pitiful, huh?

I understand there are women having C-sections in order to deliver their babies on 12.12.12.  Isn't that kinda extreme?  Is it really that big deal?

I see that Ravi Shankar, the famous Indian sitarist, has passed away at age 92.  I never cared for that kind of music, but I surely do enjoy the music his daughter, Nora Jones, makes.

It's looking more and more like we're going over the fiscal cliff on January 1st.  Get out your wallet and prepare to fork over more taxes to The Gubment.  Now they're saying that even if Bronco Bama and John Boner can come to some sort of Grand Compromise, Boner can't deliver the votes from his ultra-ideologically conservative Tea Party faction.   Prepare to be thrown under the bus. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

At our house we don't need no stinkin' "atomic clock".  We have Luke the Wonder Dog.  His internal body clock is uncanny.  Every day, 7-days a week, he wakes up at the exact same time and wants to go outside.  He eats at 6am.  If you're 5 minutes late he'll tell you about it in no uncertain words terms.

At 7:15am he wants to go outside again, not to take care of any bodily function, but just to take a stroll.  Before K goes to work he wants to play chase round the house.  That's a new one.  K did it a couple days in a row and now it's a part of his daily routine.

His other new one is at 7:15pm....that's ice cream time.  I'll often have a small (Weight Watchers) ice cream bar, and he gets to lick the stick when I'm finished.  He doesn't like to be told "no", but he's learning, much to his chagrin.  He's definitely a creature of habit.

Oh....gotta go.  Luke's calling.  ;)

Happy Hump Day.

S

The "Pelosi-Ryan" connection

Yesterday on the news I saw GOP Veep candidate Paul Ryan trying to explain why Mitt Romney won't divulge any specific tax loopholes he would close or what tax rates he would set if he's elected.  They're being vague, he said, "....because we want to get it done."  He went on to say, "We don't want to presume to say, 'Here's exactly our way or the highway, take it or leave it Congress.'"  Huh?

Ummm, Paul....that's exactly what the Tea Party "Young Guns" have been saying since they got to Congress:  "Here's what we demand, take it or leave it."  No compromise, no way.

And didn't the Republicans lambaste then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her quip during the debate over health care reform when she said, "We'll just have to pass this bill so you can see what's in it"? 

Aren't Romney and Ryan doing the same thing, in essence saying, "You'll just have to vote for us so you can see what were going to do with your taxes"? 

One of my favorite old sayings is, "If you're not part of the solution, then you're part of the problem."  Looking around Washington today I see lot's of "problems" and very few "solutions".  

Even though you might have some potential solutions, unless you're willing to work with others, you have nothing.  Therefore you're still a "problem".

Whenever politicians, any politicians, try to fluff me off by just saying "trust me and I'll fix everything",  I immediately grab my wallet and back myself into a corner, 'cause I'm fixin' to either get robbed or screwed....quite likely both.

S

They bicker, we suffer

Have you heard the old saying, "Nero fiddled while Rome burned"?  Nero was a Roman Emperor, and many Romans believed he casually fiddled his lyre after he himself started a fire in order to clear land for his palatial complex.  It was said all he cared about was himself, and gave no thought to the plight of his subjects.

That's about what's happening right now in Washington.  If Congress does nothing, major spending cuts will go into effect in January and the Bush era tax cuts will expire, hiking taxes.  It seems that more than 40% of businesses cited this upcoming "fiscal cliff" as a major reason for their spending and hiring restraint.  Equipment isn't being manufactured and sold and people desperately in need of work aren't being hired because Congress won't work together to put an end to this stalemate.  

In fact, they've "abandoned ship", turning out the lights and going back home while the country goes down the tubes.   Of course they'll tell you they are going back home in order to "consult with their constituents", but honestly all they're doing is fund raising.  Right now the only jobs they care about are their own. 

Most everyone agrees spending needs to be cut, but both parties have drawn lines in the sand and refuse to let their (special interest's) pet projects be cut. By default automatic across-the-board cuts will go into effect in January, and they are draconian.  They refuse to get together and negotiate, everyone giving up a little for the benefit of the whole.   The same with the Bush-era tax cuts....Republicans insisting the rich keep their tax cuts, too, while the Democrats only want to extend cuts to the middle class.  They bicker....we suffer.

They're waiting until after the November elections to see how the power paradigm changes.  If there is a major shift, the big winner will dig in even more and beat the other to death to get what they want. They're playing a game where one side wins all the marbles and the other is crushed.  Not exactly a good way to bring the country together is it?

Leaders would sit down together and work something out for the good of the country.  Ideologues see thing in black and white..."we win, they lose".  We don't have leaders.  Our politicians are a despicable bunch.

S

Science confirms it....

At an archeological dig site on the Mall in Washington, DC, scientists have unearthed definitive proof of early Cro-Magnum politicians.  While further testing is underway to determine if the subject was a Democrat or a Republican, officials warn that the differences are so slight they may never be able to tell.  

The Silver Lining

So the crooks in Washington are locked in a Death Battle, each side wanting to "fix" things on the backs of someone else.  One party wants to preserve their special interest's privileged position while the other party is unwilling to give on programs their special interests "depend on".  And the clock ticks toward midnight.  The experts predict "catastrophe". 


Last night on the news they did people-on-the-street interviews, and coast-to-coast the attitude was disgust with Washington.


Do I dare hope for a 10-million-man march on Washington, and every state capital, and every party headquarter, and every congressional and senatorial office in every district?  Marchers with torches in their hands and snarls on their faces, demanding all the crooks abdicate office before things turn nasty.  Marchers demanding a new Constitutional Convention to update our beloved Founding Father's brilliant document that could never have foreseen how the subsequent centuries would play out.   Marchers wanting to return sanity to government and remove all the graft and greed that pervades it today.  


Do I dare hope?  *To be continued*


S