Only Liberals Get Government Freebies?
By Greg L | 15 September 2008 | Prince William County | 10 Comments
If you want a DVD from the county of one of the meetings of the Board of County Supervisors, it’ll cost you $15 a pop. That makes sense, since there are reproduction costs, and having a nominal fee for these helps make sure that some residents don’t abuse the county by making all sorts of requests for footage they really don’t need. So imagine my surprise when I find out that people working for the Obama campaign are getting these for free from county employees outside of the normal FOIA process that the rest of us have to go through because somehow they’ve been classified as “media”.
Everyone is equal, it’s just that some people are more equal than others.
So here’s an interesting thought experiment: if you set up a blog supporting John McCain, are you then entitled to free copies of footage from Board meetings as well? If the rules are applied equiably, you will be provided these at taxpayer expense and Craig Gerhart will defend the idea to members of the Board of County Supervisors if they ever discover that this is happening and start asking questions. Think that’s likely?
Yeah, right. More likely, and I speak from personal experience, any question you ask of any county employee will be treated as a FOIA request, routed through the county attorney, and subjected to as much bureaucracy as the law could possibly be construed to permit.
Maybe I should start adding a signature line to any emails I send to the county that claims I support Barry for President. Or maybe we just need to clean house in the county and get rid of these county employees that think that campaign operatives are somehow entitled to taxpayer resources for free. That’s probably a better long-term solution, as there’s little chance I can stand the idea of promoting Obama no matter what I could gain from it.
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10 Comments
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Okay,
I LOVE the fact that QUESTIONS are being raised. I do it all the time.
The EVIDENCE, I see lacking is whether or not the DVD was paid for.
How can you tell in this email?
“Yeah, right. More likely, and I speak from personal experience, any question you ask of any county employee will be treated as a FOIA request, routed through the county attorney, and subjected to as much bureaucracy as the law could possibly be construed to permit.
Maybe I should start adding a signature line to any emails I send to the county that claims I support Barry for President. Or maybe we just need to clean house in the county and get rid of these county employees that think that campaign operatives are somehow entitled to taxpayer resources for free. That’s probably a better long-term solution, as there’s little chance I can stand the idea of promoting Obama no matter what I could gain from it.’
YOUR looking for a needle in a hay stack, in my HONEST opinion.
TRY it and see what happens. I believe that you have made your name know (good or bad) that people will pay special attention.
I say Damn skippy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMtlDazGjFw
Supervisor Stirrup asked Craig Gerhart about this in a letter, which Gerhart responded to on September 9th:
Q: On November 2, 2007 Mr. Byler asks Mr. Rapela” “Participants on the website have asked how they can get the DVD pf the 12 hour Citizens Time.” Mr. Rapela responds by saying the requests for DVDs are handled by the CXO, who, of course, forward the requests to the PWC 23 staff. He asserts that they “generally charge $15.”
Were Eric Byler and Annabel Park being charged $15?
[Gerhart] No. We do not charge media for copies of videos. By the same token, media does not charge us if we request a video from them.
Thought you might want to see this
September 12, 2008
Seven companies notified of potential debarment for unlawful employment practices
WASHINGTON - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) notified seven companies that they will be considered for debarment from federal contracting because each has been found to be unlawfully employing persons without employment authorization.
“By using debarment in appropriate circumstances, the federal government can avoid working with businesses that employ an illegal workforce and unscrupulously undercut their competitors to gain an unfair market advantage because of reduced labor costs. This is yet another tool that we believe will further ensure compliance with our nation’s immigration employment laws,” said Julie L. Myers, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for ICE.
The Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) provide that contractors may be considered for debarment if they have been found to have either knowingly hire an unauthorized worker or to continue to employ an alien who is or becomes unauthorized.
The following seven companies are being considered for debarment:
* Bynum Brothers Home Improvement Co. - Buffalo, N.Y.
* CMC Concrete Construction, Inc. - Manassas, Va.
* Hedges Landscape Specialists Inc. d/b/a Exterior Designs, Inc. and d/b/a Performance Irrigation, LLC - Crestwood, Ky.
* Lochirco Fruit & Produce Inc. d/b/a Happy Apples - Union, Mo.
* MC Cleaning - Bangor, Maine
* Morgan Jones LLC d/b/a Jones Industrial Network and d/b/a Jones Networking - Baltimore, Md.
* Stonewall Concrete, Inc. - Manassas, Va.
The effect of these proposed debarments is as follows:
* Each company’s name has been entered into the Excluded Parties List System (EPLS), which is a web-based system that identifies parties suspended, debarred, proposed for debarment or otherwise excluded from receiving federal contracts, certain subcontracts, and certain types of federal financial and non-financial assistance and benefits.
* The companies are immediately prohibited from competing for new government contracts.
* The proposed debarment and immediate suspension apply government-wide. Neither ICE, nor any other federal agency, may award a new contract while these companies are on the EPLS.
* Each company may, within 30 days, challenge the decision.
The General Services Administration is the agency responsible for maintaining the EPLS. To view the EPLS and to find out more information about the system, please visit www.epls.gov. Businesses can also find out more about the ICE debarment process at www.ice.gov.
It looks like all you need to do is post a YouTube video and–voila!–you are a member of the press and entitled to freebies. I imagine a lot of teenagers would qualify.
Oh, and don’t forget the all-important Wikipedia cred.
Pot meet kettle or visa versa…no, that doesn’t make sense….people in glass house shouldn’t throw stones?…not even sure if that works…..
http://www.wtop.com/?nid=116&sid=1478352
Well damn..if liberals are getting govenment freebies, here’s what I want to request:
8 jars of tempera paint
2 reams of 18×24 manila paper
20 tri-write pencils
1 box of pens (black)
2 bundles of chart paper
1 box of sentence strips
1 box of pink erasers
1 chart rack
and a school lunch that does not offer 5 chicken nuggets to teachers with a 2.95 price tag.
I’m a liberal! My chicken should should not cost more than a happy meal. Bones should not cost extra money USDA!
Check this out from Florida
——————————————————————————–
Fla. lawmaker’s son accused of smuggling immigrants
by Jerry Kammer - Sept. 16, 2008 04:14 PM
Republic Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - The son of a Florida congressman was arrested Sunday by U.S. Border Patrol agents near Willcox and charged with smuggling illegal immigrants.
Federal prosecutors allege that John Finlayson Boyd, 30, was smuggling four individuals in his pickup truck when he was stopped at a checkpoint. Two of them were lying on the floor behind the front seat and two others were concealed under a piece of plywood in the bed of the truck, prosecutors say.
Prosecutors say that after Boyd was informed of his Miranda right against self-incrimination, he “admitted picking up the group in the desert and admitted knowing that the group had illegally entered the United States.”
Two of the immigrants said they were going to pay $3,000 to be smuggled into the U.S., according to a criminal complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney’s office.
According to the criminal complained against him, “Agents found two plastic bags that contained several rocks of crystal amphetamine, four unopened syringes, a spoon with white residue and burn marks on the bottom and three knives.”
Also in the truck, according to the complaint, was a 6-year-old girl, who since has been reunited with her parents.
Boyd made his initial appearance Monday in U.S. District Court in Tucson, where he was held over for a detention hearing.
Boyd is the son of Rep. Allen Boyd, D-Fla., whose family owns a farm in Florida and who has supported proposals to provide a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who pay fines and back taxes.
Rep. Boyd was once one of just two Democrats in the House Immigration Reform Caucus, which favors enforcement of immigration laws. But he is no longer listed as a member on the group’s Web site.
In a statement issued by his office, Rep. Boyd said, “This is a family matter that my family and I will be dealing with privately. John is a grown man and must face the consequences for his actions, but he has the love and support of his family.”
In 2008 John Boyd faced a misdemeanor charge in Tucson Municipal Court on a charge of possession of drug paraphernalia. He was later charged with violation of a promise to appear in court. In July the court issued a warrant for his arrest.
Republic Researcher Donna Colletta and reporter Sean Holstege contributed to this story.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/09/16/20080916smuggle0916ONL.html
Democrats set an affirmative action time-bomb and now it’s gone off welfare-backed mortgages has collapsed!
Threatening lawsuits, Clinton’s Federal Reserve demanded that banks treat welfare payments and unemployment benefits as valid income sources to qualify for a mortgage. That isn’t a joke — it’s a fact.
Under Clinton, the entire federal government put massive pressure on banks to grant more mortgages to the poor and minorities. Clinton’s secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Andrew Cuomo, investigated Fannie Mae for racial discrimination and proposed that 50 percent of Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s portfolio be made up of loans to low- to moderate-income borrowers by the year 2001.
Instead of looking at “outdated criteria,” such as the mortgage applicant’s credit history and ability to make a down payment, banks were encouraged to consider nontraditional measures of credit-worthiness, such as only speaking Spanish or having a child named “DeWayne.”
When Democrats controlled both the executive and legislative branches, political correctness was given a veto over sound business practices.
In 1999, liberals were bragging about extending affirmative action to the financial sector. Los Angeles Times reporter Ron Brownstein hailed the Clinton administration’s affirmative action lending policies as one of the “hidden success stories” of the Clinton administration, saying that “black and Latino homeownership has surged to the highest level ever recorded.”
Meanwhile, economists were screaming from the rooftops that the Democrats were forcing mortgage lenders to issue loans that would fail the moment the housing market slowed and deadbeat borrowers couldn’t get out of their loans by selling their houses.
A decade later, the housing bubble burst and, as predicted, food-stamp-backed mortgages collapsed. Democrats set an affirmative action time-bomb and now it’s gone off.
In Bush’s first year in office, the White House chief economist, N. Gregory Mankiw, warned that the government’s “implicit subsidy” of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, combined with loans to unqualified borrowers, was creating a huge risk for the entire financial system.
Rep. Barney Frank denounced Mankiw, saying he had no “concern about housing.” How dare you oppose suicidal loans to people who can’t repay them! The New York Times reported that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were “under heavy assault by the Republicans,” but these entities still had “important political allies” in the Democrats.
Now, at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars, middle-class taxpayers are going to be forced to bail out the Democrats’ two most important constituent groups: rich Wall Street bankers and welfare recipients.
Political correctness had already ruined education, sports, science and entertainment. But it took a Democratic president with a Democratic congress for political correctness to wreck the financial industry.