The Rule of Law in our great land has taken one heck of a beating in recent decades on certain fronts. Our Constitution has been violated and distorted in many ways to fit political and other ends. Even the people of this great land have only discretionary respect for the law; choosing which ones apply to them and which ones don't.
"This strongly suggests that we're buying the wrong stuff, the wrong way, possibly from the wrong contractors, and failing to check before, during or after," said Charles Tiefer, an expert on government contracting who teaches at the University of Baltimore School of Law.
This quote is from a Washington Post article yesterday, covering Dept. of Homeland Defense contracting procedures which leave contracts unenforceable due to their not even being able to find the contracts for which billions of our tax dollars were doled out. 33 of 72 contracts selected for review could not be found.
Democrats ran on cleaning up ethics violations and corruption in government. Now, some are back stepping, and an internal feud is building. At the center of the looming conflict, Sen. Barack Obama is calling for an independent ethics commission, and in opposition, is Sen. Diane Feinstein who says this can be handled in a bi-partisan way by the recipients of obscene sums of legal bribes for their reelection by special interests and lobbyists.
The NY Time's David D. Kirkpatrick has an excellent article written yesterday, providing a lot of information on the players and background of this looming inter-, and intra-party fight which is going to scare the bejeesus out of a number of politicians both Republican and Democratic, whose own affairs and actions in the Congress may not stand up to independent scrutiny.
Minutes of VOID Board Meeting, 10-23-2006
Meeting conducted by conference call.
In attendance, David R. Remer, Daniel Summars. Stephanie Crist was unable to attend.
Old Business:
Treasurer's Report
Accounts update
9/29/06 Bank stmt bal. 1013.67
10-23-06 Paypal 284.74
Total Cash on Hand, $1298.41
WebSite Updates:
Remer reported the following:
Indiana State VOID site now online. Another will be in the next 48 hours.
Update on Voter Education Information:
Summars and Remer agreed that it will be more efficient for each State's web page personnel be responsible for implementing a voter education web page, which would include generic material from the National VOID organization, but, be filled out with specifics for the Local VOID chapter by the State's VOID volunteers.
New Business:
Allocation of funds to targeted district get out the vote operation:
Summars and Remer agreed that if it is possible to contribute money to a district non-volunteer organization dedicated to turning out voters on a non-partisan basis, we should explore that option before the Election. Remer agreed to research the options.
Motion to adjourn was agreed to.
There is reason to hope that bipartisanship and moves away from ideological extremes are coming. But now, is no time for American voters to sit back and take a snooze until 2008. These politicians are going to be under extreme pressures to make politics of winning 2008 their primary objective, instead of finding functional solutions to major problems.
Politicians need to hear from us, loudly and often, with assurances of another anti-incumbent wave of voting should they again avoid our nation's needs, preferring instead partisan gain.
The Democrats appear, according to a new poll, to be making a lot of the right promises to appeal to the moderate, centrist, and independent voters who elected them, save one. Democrat's illegal immigration solutions don't appear to be currying favor.
First, the 'right promises' (with a small 'r' ). Not to be confused with the Right's promises, which were mostly never carried out. At least not yet. That's the Left's promises - Not Yet, they just got power. Not the Right's, - Not Yet, they had their chance and a lot of years and opportunities to bring about the 3 P's, peace, prosperity, and personal liberty. Sorry, I have been watching the 3 stooges in Wash. D.C. for so long (White House, Congress, and the Supreme Court), I am starting to babble like them. Back to business.
After spending 10 hours glued to the TV watching the election results, it became obvious none of the politicians, or the pundits for that matter, understood what was taking place. The change in leadership in the House of Representatives, and likely the Senate, was a result of a growing anti-incumbent movement amongst voters, which decided to hold incumbents responsible for lack of results and solutions to America's growing list of problems.
By 2:15 AM this morning, the spin had already begun. James Carville (D) said this was not an anti-incumbent election, but an anti-Republican one. Halley Barbour (R) said this switching of parties was just part of the cycle, which voters go through every 12 to 16 years. Others said this was all about Iraq. But, they missed the central theme of yesterday's elections.
Larry, Moe, and Curly were more commonly known as The 3 Stooges in their hilarious 1950's and 1960's black and white movies full of error, stupidity, ignorance, incompetence, and slap stick. Well, they are back and running for re-election under different names today, like Santorum, Stabenow, and Lieberman. But, it is not funny anymore.
The American tax payers shelled out 100's of billions of dollars to politicians and intelligence agency personnel for the express purpose of preventing a 9/11 from happening in America. Most of those politicians and personnel are still in office today, many are running for re-election. It would be hilarious if it were not so tragic that their 3 stooges routines leave our nation and her people nearly as vulnerable to attack today, as we were on September 10, 2001.
I'd like to share with you briefly why I am passionate about the anti-incumbent movement, as it were, and what it is about VOID as an organization that compelled me to volunteer some of my rare free time in support of it. Perhaps my story will hit home with you, and you too may feel it is a cause worth supporting in some way.
I am a life-long independent. I come from many generations of die-hard liberal Democrats. While I share many of their core beliefs and values, from an early age I recognized their tendency to follow the lead of their party, issue be damned; and I could never quite understand how they thought it best to look at things that way. I've always felt that a thoughtful analysis of each issue based on its value and merits is how people should view issues, and that that is the only way to achieve real progress for citizens.
VOID Board of Directors - Meeting Minutes
Via Internet 3-way conferencing
Monday, September 4, 2006 7:30PM - 8:30PM
ATTENDEES:
David R. Remer, President
Daniel Summars, Treasurer
Stephanie Crist, Secretary
PURPOSE: To review the progress of current projects and to consider new projects which will further VOID's progress in succeeding in our Mission.
Sabato's and Wasserman's analysis regarding the Senate races, appear to me to be dead on. 20 or more House of Representative incumbents will lose their job. Democrats may or may not take control of the Senate, the stats and analysis say it is a flip of the coin. But, whether Dem's take control or not in either house of Congress, is not nearly as important as the millions of voters (besides Democrats), who will have cast their anti-incumbent votes. Having done so in 2006, means it will be easier in 2008 and beyond.
As the election day on Nov. 7 nears, 100's of millions of dollars are being poured into the most non-issue oriented, sleazy, and lying advertising ever in the history of American politics. What is remarkable is how in a slew of races, the polls are closing their gaps as these despicable ads from all sides come pouring over our TV's, our radios, our Ipods, on billboards, and handouts.
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