THE CALIFORNIA AUTO INSURANCE BOONDOGGLE

Step right up folks, have I got a deal for you. How would you like to have car insurance coverage that paid for any damage to your car at absolutely no cost to you? And what if it didn’t matter whether or not it was your fault? And what if you didn’t pay a single dime for all this? Does this sound like something that would be of interest to you?

This is the deal given to California’s State Legislature.

True, these are company cars, but the member gets to choose their car and they get to take it home at night. It does not have to be used exclusively for business and is free to use by any member of the family.

Who pays for all this, you might ask. Well, who else? It's the taxpayers who foot the bill. According to a Media News review of public documents, taxpayers have forked over more than $300,000.00 in the past five years for repairs to the legislators’ cars.

Another little perk here is that by not having to pay insurance premiums, the lawmakers likely saved thousands of their own personal dollars. So you, as a loyal taxpayer, are not only paying for the car and the repairs, you are also helping them put many precious dollars into their bank account.

"It is outrageous that taxpayers should be forced to pay for the damage to a vehicle given to a politician but driven and damaged by a family member who isn't even an elected officer," said Jon Coupal, president of Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

Assemblyman Hector de la Torre, D-South Gate, chairman of the Assembly Rules Committee countered with: "The vehicle is a state asset, and so our responsibility is to make sure that that asset is in top condition … It’s just simpler and cleaner for the state to fix the car."

So once again it’s a taxpayer burden and you have to come up with your own dollars to pay for their damages.

Do you ever feel that sometimes you are playing on the wrong side of the net?

The California Curmudgeon

SOMETIMES NOTHING CHANGES

Five days ago Mike Thomson of BBC Radio 4 broke an important news story, but there was nothing in our American news about it. I imagine that the reason was because of who was involved in it.

In 1933, George W. Bush’s grandfather Prescott Bush, J.P. Morgan and a bunch of businessmen from some of the best known American families, like Heinz, Birds Eye, Maxwell House, Colgate, Ford and General Motors planned what would have been the biggest ever peacetime threat to American democracy. They were planning a coup to overthrow Franklin Delano Roosevelt and implement a fascist dictatorship. They believed that America should adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression.

They formed a group called American Liberty League and approached Marine Corps Major-General Smedley Butler who was the most revered American 33-year military hero and the only man to have twice been awarded the Marine’s prestigious Medal of Honor and asked him to command a strong army of 500,000 veterans that would help stage a coup to either force Franklin Delano Roosevelt to resign or assassinate him.

Butler played along with the league hoping to determine who was involved. He later blew the whistle and identified the ringleaders in testimony given to the House Committee of un-American Activities. The Committee, however, refused to even question any of the individuals named by Butler and his testimony was omitted from the record. After that, both the government and the press attacked him and he more or less lost his highly respected reputation which is probably why you never hear of him now.

New documents, many of which were declassified just last year, show that even after America had entered the war and when there was already significant information about the Nazis' plans and policies, Prescott Bush worked for and profited from companies closely involved with the very German businesses that financed Hitler's rise to power. It has also been said that this money helped to establish the Bush family fortune and set up its political dynasty. His business dealings, continued until his company's assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act

In his documentary film Martial Law, Alex Jones interviews John Buchanan, who was instrumental in uncovering the documents tying Prescott Bush to the financing of the Third Reich. The subject is also covered in Alex's upcoming film, End Game.

Prescott Bush did not succeed but many would argue that two generations down the line the mission has all but been accomplished.

The California Curmudgeon

THE LAST DAYS OF DEMOCRACY

Yesterday the Bush administration disclosed a bold new assertion of executive privilege. He said that by his invoking executive privilege the Justice Department will not be able to pursue any contempt charges against any who work closely with him.

This is scary because it places huge obstacles in the path of the Democrats who are trying to get the information about the firing of the federal judges by prying it loose by proceeding with contempt proceedings.

Under federal law, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia has to present a statutory contempt citation before the grand jury for its action. But the administration argued that Congress doesn’t have the power to force the U.S. attorney to pursue contempt charges in cases where the president has used his executive privilege to protect official testimony or documents.

"A U.S. attorney would not be permitted to bring contempt charges or convene a grand jury in an executive privilege case," said a senior White House official, who said his remarks are the wishes of the White House. The official also said that in circumstances like these, it would be “a futile and purely political act for Congress to refer contempt citations to U.S. attorneys”.

"What this statement is saying is the president's claim of executive privilege trumps all," said Mark J. Rozell, a professor of public policy at George Mason University who has written a book on executive-privilege issues. "That's a breathtakingly broad view of the president's role in this system of separation of powers”.

The administration's statement is a dramatic attempt to get the upper hand in his constitutional battle with Congress The Bush administration has not yet informed Congress on this new stance and has been trying to figure out when and how they should let the public know what they are up to in this battle.

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said "The White House must stop stonewalling and start being accountable to Congress and the American people. No one, including the president, is above the law." Sounds good, but we have all heard that before. The big problem is that no one seems willing to stand up and demand this accountability from the administration.

This stance that the White House has taken will in essence allow the executive branch to define the scope and limits of its own powers."

Whatever happened to “equal, but separate branches of government”?

The California Curmudgeon

OPERATION POLYPS

Saturday July 21, 2007 Bush had a 31 minute colonoscopy by an elite team of doctors under the supervision of his personal physician Dr Richard Tubbs. The procedure was done in the state-of-the-art National Naval Medical Center at Camp David in Bethesda Maryland. They removed five polyps from Bush’s large intestine.

He had several other colonoscopies while governor of Texas, and this was his second as president. Dr David Weinberg, director of gastroenterology at Fox Chase Cancer in Philadelphia said the surest way to prevent cancer is to follow Bush’s example and have a colonoscopy as often as the doctor deems necessary. But to do this, most people need insurance.

Fourty-seven million Americans lack medical coverage and more than 52,000 Americans are expected to die this year from colorectal cancer and more than 153,000 will be diagnosed with the disease, according to the American Cancer Society. A large percentage of these people will have been either uninsured or insufficiently insured.

The good thing about this is that I’m sure Bush didn’t have to worry about this because all this first-class treatment: the hospital, the doctors, the nurses and all others were government-funded. That’s the way it should be for everyone. But I guess that government-funded health care is only good for Bush because he has threatened to veto any such legislation that reaches his desk.

"Such a health care bill would lead the nation down the path to government-run health care for every American,” Bush said.

I think the real reason is that 15.2 percent of the U.S. economy comes from health care spending and Bush has to tread lightly and avoid stepping on any health-care corporation’s toes.

In 2004, Canada, Australia and France all spent around $3,100 per person, England spent $2,508 and every citizen was covered. By comparison, the U.S. spent an average of $6,100 per citizen and life expectancy in the United States lower than any of these countries and infant mortality was higher. We rank number 37 among the industrialized nations of the world in the quality and cost of health care.

Tests on Bush’s polyps showed no sign of cancer, so Bush can rest easily for the next several years thanks to all that taxpayer-funded health care he enjoyed.

Now let’s talk about universal health care for the rest of us.

The California Curmudgeon

FRAUD PAYS OFF FOR PENTAGON CONTRACTORS

Government auditors discovered something odd last year when they reviewed KBR annual cost estimate to provide support services for U.S. troops in Iraq. The contractor proposed charging $110 million for housing, food, water, laundry and other services on bases. The big problem here is that these bases had been shut down and were no longer in need of these services.

KBR dropped their proposed $110 million spending on these closed bases and in return received a contract extension for$3.7 billion. It’s good to have an in with the government.

According to KBR’s spokeswoman heather Browne, The errors occurred because KBR developed the proposal under a tight schedule.

I can’t imagine the IRS accepting that reasoning for your tax records. They would probably grab you, shake you until they got their money and would then throw your ass in jail.

KBR seems to be the biggest offender in this fraudulent money game (and I’m sure you all know KBR was a subsidiary of Houston-based Halliburton until the companies split late last year and that Dick Cheney still works for them). Well, it seems that KBR collects about half of the money that the government spends on contracts in Iraq. This gives them $20.1 billion to stuff in their pockets.

This money is mostly spent on a multiyear contract to provide logistical support of our troops. KBR also has contracts to help rebuild Iraq’s oil industry. I’ll bet they can’t wait to get their hands on that piece of the pie.

Nearly $2.2 billion worth of KBR invoices and cost proposals have been challenged by the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) which ended up paying only $804 million. Which to my mind, means that KBR was trying to defraud the government out of nearly $1.4 billion dollars.

KBR also tried to overcharge by $30 Billion for shipping containers outfitted as housing for U.S. troops. KBR charged double for some handling costs and sought payment for "unjustified delays".

“The Pentagon needs to crack down on KBR and other contractors,” said Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, head of the Democratic Policy Committee. "It requires a change in mind-set at the Pentagon, for them to slam their fist down on the table and say, 'We're not going to put up with this anymore.' ".

The government always tries to minimize the number of dollars they spend, so instead of writing it out as $422, 000,000,000 they write it as $422 billion, but do you really know how much a billion is?

A billion is a thousand million.

To place it in a better perspective, a billion seconds ago, it was the year1959.

Humans first learned to write 252 billion seconds ago.

A billion minutes ago, Jesus was alive.

A billion hours ago, our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.

A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate Washington spends it.

Remember folks, these billions with which KBR is lining their pockets comes right out of your taxes while you struggle to put food on the table.

The California Curmudgeon

THE ARCHDIOCESE PREYS ON CATHOLICS

I suppose you have all heard about the big payoff the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has to pay to the victims of molestation by priests. It is reported to be between $600 and $660 million.

This is not the first, but it is the largest payout yet in the ongoing sex scandal. Last year the archdiocese said it would pay $60 million dollars to settle other lawsuits. Orange County, Kentucky and Boston pitched in their share bringing the grand total for sexual abuse payments to $2.1 billion since 1950.

“The settlement will not have an impact on the archdiocese's core ministry,” said Cardinal Roger Mahony. “but the church will have to sell buildings, use some of its invested funds and borrow money. The archdiocese will not sell parish properties or schools.”

I looked this up and found that Cardinal Mahoney was talking about selling its 12-story administrative building, and would have to consider selling about 50 other non-essential properties to raise the needed funds.

The church also has to release the confidential personnel files on the priests to the lawyers of the victims. These records will be searched for criminal activity of individual priests or anyone else. If they find anything I guess those guilty will be tried in criminal court. That’s gotta hurt.

All of this talk of multi-million dollar payoffs makes me wonder where the church got all that money. When the parishioners plop their dollar or two into the bucket I’m sure they think it is going to go to helping the poor and needy and certainly not for a partial payment on a non-essential property for the church.

As could be expected the plaintiffs' attorneys will take away up to 40 percent of the settlement money—or $264 million.

A February 2004 report commissioned by the Church said more than 4,000 Roman Catholic priests in the US had faced sexual abuse allegations in the last 50 years.

I wonder if a lot of the built-up sexual energy of the priests couldn’t be stopped or at least slowed by allowing them to marry.

The California Curmudgeon

BUSH SHOWS HIS CONTEMPT FOR THE COURT

As we all know, Bush and his crime family believe that they are above the law and so far they have been right. But this latest gambit of ordering people who no longer work for the government to ignore subpoenas is a great big slap in the face of Congress. I Congress going to back down again or are they going to find their balls and force the issue.

Former counsel Harriet Miers and former White House political director Sara Taylor were both served with subpoenas in the case of the firing of nine federal prosecutors. Miers has been ordered to defy the subpoenas and refuse to testify about the firings. Both women could and should face contempt of Congress citations if they ignore the subpoenas. For some strange reason the White House seems to think Miers is immune under executive privilege. Harriet Miers chose to not show up for her court date.

Meanwhile, Sara Taylor had answered the subpoena and after first refusing to testify she later jumped the fence into the Bush camp and told the Senate Judiciary Committee that she knew of no involvement or wrongdoing by the administration.

White House counsel Fred Fielding said "Ms. Miers has absolute immunity from compelled congressional testimony as to matters occurring while she was a senior adviser to the president,"

Committee Chairman John Conyers talked the talk by saying that he would consider pursuing criminal contempt citations against anyone who defied his committee's subpoenas.

We now must wonder if he will walk the walk.

The California Curmudgeon

THE SECRET CAROUSELS

Have you ever gotten off a flight and gone to collect your luggage at the airport carousel only to find that there are there are a number of different carousels and you don’t know which one will deliver your bags back to you?

Communication is the main thing in the running of an airport. Everyone is in communication with everyone else. Ground Control is in charge of planes on the ground and Tower is in control of planes in the air and they keep in touch with each other by radio. They all know what the other person is going to do and when they are going to do it so I have to ask why don’t they know what carousel is going to be used for your luggage?

It seems to me that it would not be hard for the baggage handler to have Ground Control radio the crew of your plane and tell them what carousel would be used for your bags. But instead of having an organized plan, they use random chaos.

As you may have gathered, my wife and I have just returned from another flight. After walking slowly down to the baggage claim area we began searching for the carousel that might shoot our bags out of that little square hole at the top of each one. We the people of flight 742 gathered around first one and then another as they each slowed to a stop.

We all stood around for at least ten minutes with all three carousels shut down. Ten minutes without an announcement. Ten minutes of waiting and wondering if we were ever going to get our bags so we could go home. Ten minutes of getting more and more angry.

Finally the lights blinked, a motor started and number three carousel began to move. After that it wasn’t long until we had our luggage and were on our way to wait for the shuttle.

To paraphrase the late Flip Wilson “If you can find Oakland in the dark, why can’t you find my luggage carousel?”

The California Curmudgeon

THROW THE BUMS OUT

Here’s a different outlook: let’s throw out the entire Congress and randomly pick out 535 ordinary citizens to replace them as Senators and Congressmen. The whole bunch is crooked and stink to high heaven. Everyone makes deals with everyone else and with each deal the congressmen win and the public loses.

I hear you saying “But they have the experience”. That is the whole trouble, they all have too much experience. They know how to get around legal obstacles; they know how to write a law that benefits certain people, but not the general public; they scratch each other’s back and exchange votes. That is why there is no integrity in Congress today. That is why they are destroying this country and that is why they should all be run out of office.

Then we should replace the president and the vice-president with two more randomly chosen people. Because of the increased responsibility they should be given a simple test to ensure that they have leadership qualities, but mostly to make sure they are empathetic and caring of all Americans.

If all of this could be accomplished we would have much better representative government than we do now.

The California Curmudgeon

WHEN THEY STAND UP, WE'LL STAND DOWN

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words -- I couldn't have said this better with two thousand words.

With apologies to Tom Toles of the Washington Post who drew this cartoon.

The California Curmudgeon

THE SECRET ARMY OF BUSHCO

I knew about this before, but I didn’t know how extensive it was until I read an article about it in the local paper this morning.

We now have more U.S.-paid private contractors in Iraq than we have American combat troops. Bush’s secret army is larger than our regular army.

Newly released figures show that 180,000 civilians are now in Iraq working under U.S. contracts and even with the recent troop surge there are only 160,000 soldiers. These numbers include at least 21,000 Americans, 43,000 foreign contractors and about 118,000 Iraqis -- all employed in Iraq and paid for with U.S. tax dollars (this is part of those billions of dollars going to Iraq that are unaccountable for by the U.S. government).

And there are signs that even those numbers may not give the full picture. Many private security contractors, who are hired to protect government officials and buildings, are not counted in that 180,000.

Bush is relying heavily on private corporations to carry out the occupation of Iraq and the contractors who are receiving the lion’s share of these lucrative contracts are the usual suspects with KBR, the once subsidiary of Halliburton Corp., providing logistics support to the troops with gas price-gouging, contaminated food and water and hiring Third World laborers to do the grunt work for $5 a day while charging the U.S. more than $50 a day. KBR is by far the largest employer of Americans, with nearly 14,000 U.S. workers in Iraq.

In a February analysis of $10,000,000,000 in waste found Halliburton (KBR) responsible for $2.700,000,000.

The most controversial contractors are those working for private security companies, including Blackwater, DynCorp, Triple Canopy, Titan, Custer Battles, Wackenhut and Erinys. They guard sensitive sites and provide protection to U.S. and Iraqi government officials. Other large employers of Americans in Iraq include L3 Communications, for translators to the troops, and ITT Corp., an engineering and technology firm.

The jobs for contractors have morphed into where they are now interrogating prisoners, training the Iraqi army, guarding the Green Zone, the Baghdad airport, protecting military convoys, analyzing intelligence and providing paramilitary security forces. These corporations are reaping billions of our tax dollars doing military work that the Bush administration has outsourced. And these people are not soldiers, they’re hired hands.

Military officials say that contractors cut costs while allowing troops to focus on fighting wars rather than on other tasks. Have you ever heard of the government doing something cheaper than a private company. The government pays out huge amounts of money to these contractors while the soldier’s minimal pay fights for its life.

Although private companies have played a role in conflicts since the American revolution, the United States has relied more on contractors in Iraq than in any other war in the nation's history, according to military experts.

"We don't have control of all the coalition guns in Iraq. That's dangerous for our country," said William Nash, a retired Army general and reconstruction expert. The Pentagon "is hiring guns. You can rationalize it all you want, but that's obscene."

I’m sure BushCo thinks the soldiers are being unpatriotic because they seem resentful about the salaries contractors in Iraq are being paid.

The California Curmudgeon

THINKING INSIDE THE BOX

I found this on the internet. I have no idea who wrote it, but I wanted to make sure both of my readers saw it. It is titled A MODERN PARABLE.

A Japanese auto company, Toyota and an American auto company, Ford decided to have a canoe race on Lake Erie. Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race.

On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.

The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for such a crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior executives was formed to look into the matter and recommend appropriate action. After months of investigation their conclusion was the Japanese team had eight people rowing and one person steering, while the American team had eight people steering and one person rowing.

Feeling a deeper study was in order, the American management hired a distinguished consulting firm and paid it a large amount of money for a second opinion. The consultants, of course, advised that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing.

Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another loss to the Japanese, the American team's management structure was totally reorganized to four steering supervisors, three area steering superintendents, one assistant superintendent steering manager and one person rowing.

They also implemented a new performance system that would give the rower a greater incentive to work harder. It was called the "Rowing Team Quality First Program," with meetings, dinners, free pens and a certificate of completion for the rower. There was much spirited discussion regarding new paddles, a redesigned canoe and extra vacation days and bonuses for practices sessions.

The next year the Japanese won by twice as much.

Humiliated, American management laid off the rower (a reduction in workforce) for poor performance, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles and canceled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses, and the next year's racing team was out-sourced to India.

Epilog:

Ford has spent the last thirty years moving its factories out of the U.S., claiming it can't make money paying American wages.

Toyota has spent the last thirty years building more than a dozen plants inside the U.S .

The last quarter's results: Toyota made 4 billion in profits while Ford racked up 9 billion in losses.

I think the Ford folks ought to have another investigative meeting or two.

The California Curmudgeon

JULY IS LOSING ITS INDEPENDENCE

Has anyone else noticed now calm and benign today’s Fourth of July celebrations are from those of years past? It seems rather ironic to me that we are celebrating our hard-won freedom from England and King George III by being as quiet as possible on this day.

In a year not so distant, the government stepped in and declared that fireworks were too dangerous for the average person to handle safely and decreed that only a qualified pyrotechnician should be able to understand the concept of setting fire to the end of a fuse.

I agree that some people would probably have a bit of trouble grasping this match-to-fuse idea, but the average person should be able do this with their eyes closed, which is not really the smart way of playing with fireworks.

We used to set off all kinds of dangerous fireworks right there on our driveway. The cracking explosions of firecrackers echoed the blasting of the war guns and the “Rocket’s Red Glare” copied by a giant display of our own aerial fireworks. The smell of burnt powder filled the air and the kids stood wide-eyed watching the marvel of up-close explosions.

It was a great feeling, one that I hadn’t fully appreciate until it was taken away.

Back in the time (this was an accepted form of speech, back in the time), the government didn’t care if you had brains enough to pour piss out of a boot, if you had a gun, it wanted you in the War of Independence. The war was also very dangerous, but a lot of people managed to live through it and came out the other end with this newly-found freedom in their hands.

Even though these pyrotechnic displays are beautiful and awe-inspiring, they are not the same as popping off a few explosions of your own in front of your house. The kids running around the yard writing their names in the air with sparklers, ignoring the pleas of the adults to be careful.

Even with all the government’s protection, I somehow feel less independent now than ever before.

The California Curmudgeon

BUSH HANDS SCOOTER A “GET OUT OF JAIL FREE” CARD

Apparently Bush didn’t think the American justice system worked for his good pal so he stepped and used his powers of clemency to spare I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby - from two-and-a-half years in prison.

Cheney supported a full pardon, but Bush didn’t want to rub people’s noses in the stinking mess just yet so instead he commuted Libby’s sentence.

The main differences between a pardon and commutation is that with a pardon he goes free and with a commutation he goes free, but he remains guilty of the felonies of perjury, obstruction of justice, and making false statements in the federal investigation of the outing of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson. He will also pay a $250,000 fine which his friends say they are going to pay.

It was shortly after the federal court rejected Libby’s appeal to stay out of jail pending an appeal of his conviction for committing perjury and other offenses that King George rode in on his white horse and rescued poor Scooter.

The decider said he had “respect for "the jury's verdict. But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive."

Some say Bush was bowing to political pressure from his conservative base. That may be, but I think protecting his own ass from revelations by an embittered former aide was somewhere in the mix.

"Until now, it appeared that the President merely turned a blind eye to a high ranking Administration official leaking classified information. The President's action today makes it clear that he condones such activity,” said Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee "This decision is inconsistent with the rule of law and sends a horrible signal to the American people.”

If you remember, "Scooter" was one of Bush’s closest advisers in the decision to go to war on Iraq and he was convicted of lying to prosecutors investigating the leaking in 2003 of CIA official Valerie Plame's identity.

I don’t know what the punishment is now, but outing a CIA agent during a war used to be punishable by death.

And about the definitions of a pardon and a commutation -- Personally, if it kept me out of jail, I wouldn’t care what they called it.

The California Curmudgeon

BUSH AND CHENEY ABOVE THE LAW?

Will Congress have guts enough to stand up against the most unpopular president ever?

Subpoenas were sent to Bush demanding documents from former presidential counsel Harriet Miers and former political director Sara Taylor with regard to the firings of federal prosecutors.

Democrats say the firings of the prosecutors were an example of improper political influence. The White House say U.S. Attorneys are political appointees who can be hired and fired at the president’s pleasure.

Thursday was the deadline for turning over the documents and Bush with his usual in-your-face attitude, cited executive privilege and refused to comply with the subpoenas saying he would not turn over any documents containing communications between the White House and Harriet Miers or Sara Taylor. He also said the neither of the two women would testify next month as directed in the subpoenas.

Congress and Bush are now headed toward a constitutional showdown. This should be a very telling confrontation, It could end up with House and Senate contempt citations and a battle in federal court over separation of powers, but I am afraid Congress will be the first to blink as they always have in the past.

The two chairmen of the investigating committees vowed to push forward with their demands.

In his letter, White House counsel Fred Fielding explained Bush's position on executive privilege this way: “Blah,blah, executive privilege, blah”

"Increasingly, the president and vice president feel they are above the law," said Democratic Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy.

His House counterpart, Judiciary Democratic Chairman John Conyers said Bush's assertion of executive privilege was "unprecedented in its breadth and scope" and displayed "an appalling disregard for the right of the people to know what is going on in their government."

Cheney was also subpoenaed along with Bush for documents pertaining to the warrant-less eavesdropping. They have also ignored its demands.

The White House declared it “Outrageous”.

I hope things will start popping, but I really doubt it.

The California Curmudgeon