Is VA State Senate afraid of accountability?

The state senate rules committee voted down an independent audit of VDOT. The state senators are supposed to represent the citizens of Virginia. Are they afraid of accountability?

Public servants gone wild

Millions of Americans are insulted by the actions of Congress and the holier-than-thou attitude of those elected to watch over our country.

Now Nancy Morgan of RightBias.com puts those thoughts into words in a way many have not been able to. These are our public servants yet they are treating us as if we are the employees, not they.

In Public servants gone wild, Ms. Morgan writes:

The employees I originally hired to handle certain aspects of my life are out of control. Drunk with the power I have given them, they have decided that they know better than I how to arrange my life. And there's not much I can do.

While I was busy living my life, my employees seem to have put certain rules in place which make it almost impossible for me to fire them. I wasn't aware of most of these new rules. My fault. I had just assumed the media would inform me if they crossed the line. They didn't. Or maybe I just wasn't paying attention.

My employees grandly refer to themselves as public servants, giving one and all the false impression that they are sacrificing everything in order to work on my behalf. Cushy jobs, access to power and money, enjoying unearned respect and complete lack of accountability are just some of the sacrifices they must endure.

It only gets better from there. Ms. Morgan expresses the frustration of many Americans at a time when they are tightening their belts in tough financial times and, yet, public servants are spending tax money as if there is no tomorrow:

I don't know what I've done that makes my employees treat me in this disrespectful fashion. After all, I made sure they were very well paid. Hey, I even gave them a better health plan and much more generous pension than I have. I gave them my hard earned money to travel the world in private jets and dine at fine restaurants. On my tab. Meanwhile, I make do with a 7 year-old SUV which, by the way, they're now telling me is immoral for me to drive.

She concludes with lessons learned:

With 20/20 hindsight, I now understand some lessons from history I was never taught in government schools: When you endow someone with unearned wealth, it will soon become their 'right.' When you appease tyrants, you only get more tyranny. And the only power tyrants have is that relinquished by their victims. [emphasis added]

I would add one more: lessons learned climbing up the ladder provide one for better leadership once that leadership is attained. Power unearned is squandered and abused.

H/T to David Horowitz NewsReal

Money found to reopen rest areas?

With all the bruhaha from Democrat Gov. Tim Kaine and VDOT about not having money in the budget to keep Virginia's interstate rest areas open, an interesting article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch reveals what many may consider a huge waste of taxpayer money.

What kind of bells and whistles do you find on a $9,000 laptop? That's the cost Virginia will pay for 61,000 computers.

Sixty-one thousand. Do the math. The contract is for $2.3 Billion. That's "billion" with a "b."

How much money did we need to keep the rest areas open? Reportedly the closing of 18 rest areas and one visitor center would result in a savings of $9 million. We cannot find $9 million to preserve rest areas ... but we can spend $9,000 a piece on laptop computers?

I still maintain Democrats are playing politics with a service that is used by many Virginians and visitors to the state. It is time to put pressure on Tim Kaine to reopen the rest areas.

Have you ever seen that movie, Dave? He stands in for the President of the United States and, at one point, brings his accountant friend to the White House to go over the nation's books to find some savings to preserve a children's center. Savings are found and -- voila! -- children's center saved. We need Dave!

Maybe the Commonwealth could find computers on sale at Best Buy ... and then we would have the money to save the rest areas. Wish it was that easy....


H/T Sen. Mark Obenshain's Facebook

RedState alerts voters ... stop European bank bailouts

From Erick Erickson at RedState....

The Blue Dog Democrats are wavering on supporting H.R. 2346, the 2009 Supplemental Appropriations Act. How do I know? Sources tell me Rahm Emanuel is trying to sweeten the package.

Remember: H.R. 2346, the 2009 Supplemental Appropriations Act, will provide funds to the International Monetary Fund to bail out European banks. We can stop it.

Call their local offices. Tell whoever answers the phone that you want your Congressman to vote against H.R. 2346, the 2009 Supplemental Appropriations Act.

BE QUICK ABOUT IT. WE CAN'T WASTE ANY TIME.

Virginia:

Glenn Nye - VA-02
757-326-6201
757-789-5092
202-225-4215

Tom Perriello - VA-05
434-293-9631
434-791-2596
434-392-1997

Ridiculous

$24,000. Of your money. That's how much it cost the Obamas for their "date night" in New York City.

But that was only part of it. As a former NYPD lieutenant, Yankee Phil knows how much it costs for presidents to visit the Big Apple and has all the details:

NYPD has a thing called "Ordered Overtime." Word has it that over 1000 cops were called in for OT. They are guaranteed 8 hours and 35 minutes cash overtime. That is over 8500 man hours. With Detectives, Sergeants, Lieutenants, Captains, Inspectors, and Chiefs, the bill for NYC for just the police, was over 250K. Add in the traffic control agents, sanitation, emt's, and all the support agencies, Obama's date cost NYC taxpayers a half a mil, easy.

I am waiting for a responsible journalist in the mainstream media to question the wasteful spending of this president at a time when thousands have lost jobs, companies are going under, the economy is sputtering, and many are losing their homes.

Meanwhile, their idea of stimulating the economy is to spend, spend, spend taxpayers' money.

$24,000 ... half a million dollars? Read Phil's entire post for more.

Sen. Jim DeMint opposes Universal Health Care

By Sen. Jim DeMint
(Republican, U.S. Senate - South Carolina)

It is now clear that Congress and the president’s top priority for 2009 is health care reform. Since the collapse of Hillary-Care in 1994, Democrats have been working to re-plan and re-package a government takeover of your health insurance.

This year, they’re hoping to get their chance. Last month, Senator Ted Kennedy offered a glimpse of what they have in mind when called for the creation an optional, “public health insurance plan, where coverage is provided in the public interest.”

That may sound nice, but in one sentence, it describes everything that is wrong with a government take-over of American health care.

Health care, by definition, can’t be provided in the public interest because no doctor has ever seen “the public.” Doctors see patients: one at a time, providing personal care in the patient’s interest only.

Now, if you listen to the ongoing debate about health care reform, you hear a common theme, especially from those who favor a government take-over.

They talk a lot more about costs than they do about care. Only here’s the thing: the government is the reason that costs are spiraling out of control now. Government now covers 100 million Americans, and costs are exploding. Under the proposed takeover, 130 million more will be added to government health programs. How can they expect to get costs under control by doubling the government’s role in health care?

The answer is by rationing care. If government wants to cover 230 million Americans and bring down costs, the only way it can possibly do it is denying care to people whose health care is deemed – you guessed it – not in the public interest.

Under similar schemes in Canada and Great Britain, people wait weeks to see their doctors, months to see specialists, and years to get routine procedures and treatments. High-tech tests and breakthrough medicines are off-limits because the government decides – in the public interest – that they are too expensive.

When the late actress Natasha Richardson suffered her skiing accident in Canada this spring, the hospital didn’t have an MRI machine. The doctors never knew her injuries were life-threatening… until it was too late.

That’s how a government take-over of your health care will try to get costs under control: cheap, outdated treatments, long waiting lists, and low-tech hospitals. It won’t take long before families realize the true costs of such a plan aren’t counted in dollars and sense.

Instead of the government-controlled “public option,” we should move toward a “personal option,” where we help individuals and families buy and own their own health insurance plan that no government can ever take-over or take away.

Health care is personal and private. It should be administered by doctors and nurses in their patient’s interest, not the interests of politicians and bureaucrats in Washington.

Because never forget: any law that empowers government to provide health care in the public interest implicitly empowers government to deny it for the same reason.

I plan to play a big part in the health care debate this summer, and my website will be a clearinghouse for information about the issue as it develops. Feel free to check in often, as new content will be added every week. And to help you stay informed, I’ll be in touch frequently as the health care and other debates move forward.

Thanks very much, and God bless.

Augusta: Do we need deputies on the street ... or a new $100,000 bureaucratic job?

Augusta Board of Supervisors

Wednesday night's Augusta Board of Supervisors agenda included approval of a newly created "Economic Development Director" job. The position, which is slated to pay up to $100,000, would be a liasion for the county to retain business in the county. It was voted in 6-1. David has more here.

If it is true that the sheriff's department is going to cut back on deputies, how can the county add a $100,000 job to the budget?

In the words of Supervisor Tracy Pyles, "Why rush into this?"

Photo by SWAC Girl
Lynn Mitchell
May 13, 2009

$328,835

That White House photo op with NYC landmarks? It cost $328,835 ... at a time when Americans are tightening their belts more than ever.

Who is paying for this? I hope it's not my tax money.

The Gateway Pundit writes:

After asking for ideas to cut federal spending this past weekend in his weekly YouTube Address, the Obama White House freaked out New York City residents by sending two fighter jets and Air Force One to buzz Ground Zero and the Statue of Liberty on Monday morning for a photo-op.

The cost of the morning photo-shoot was $328,835. It's really getting hard to take this administration seriously.

Barack Obama will quadruple the national deficit this year.

Did this White House not see tens of thousands of Americans take to the streets on Tax Day to protest wasteful spending?

H/T to Connie

Conservatives opposed to wasteful spending

By Jim Gilmore
Virginia Patriot Blog

People in Washington like to throw around elegant economic theories while debating the needed economic stimulus. But whether they’re Keynesians or supply-siders, conservatives or socialists, none seem to be focusing on what state governments need and could actually make use of to help them through these tough times.

We conservatives aren’t opposed to a stimulus package. We’re opposed to waste, to further government interference in our economy, and want only to make sure the government takes action that is right, not simply expedient.

Read the complete story at Human Events.

Cross-posted at SixtyFour81.com