From the Pestilance of Consultants, Deliver Us

There are no more dreaded words in any school district than "the consultants are coming." They come, some openly, some covertly, spying and observing, taking snippets of the average day and compiling them into some blurry snapshot of the "normal" work day. Then they pronounce from on high how deficient, creeping and low the schools are, how immobile their staffs have become, how unmotivated their students appear. And then a frenzy of quick fixes and largely touted gestures are put in place that do absolutely not one whit more than was being done before. This is in an educational setting. Education is one of the most fad-driven industries in our nation. Remember New Math? How about Phonics First? Whole Language? Open Classrooms? Self-contained classrooms? Mainstreaming? Pull-outs? Inclusion, exclusion and on and on and on? Is it any wonder that our school are in a constant scramble to change and adapt when all parents and the education hierarchy want to do is throw good thoughts and meaningless cosmetic changes into the mix?

And it's not just education. Ask any company that has been bought, downsized, moved, renamed or suborned and you will find the nasty memos of consultants making their rulings from on high. Just what qualifies these folks to judge others? If they were so good at what they do, wouldn't they be DOING IT THEMSELVES?

Well I have a solution. I will put on my own consultant hat and I am going to give every single superintendent, CEO, boss a bit of my own infinite wisdom for free.

1. Hire good people and let them work without constantly interfering.

2. Stop asking for reports you don't need. Busy work does nothing for the bottom line. If you want to look good, buy a new suit.

3. Remove the entire layer of VP, assistant superintendents, advisors to..., department head bureaucracy that does nothing buy supervise people and either make them work at actual projects or get rid of them.

Note: Someone whose sole function is to demand meaningless spreadsheets from a worker is NOT benefiting your business. Spreadsheets have never made a product, sold a product, taught a child, put our a fire or saved a life. If your business is run solely on the glossy lines of glitzy Excel productions, you are already in deeper trouble than you know.

4. Never ever let an engineer or an accountant be the head of any firm or school district in which actual human contact is involved. Sorry, but the skill set for those professions often don't include dealing with actual human emotions. These are the types of people who can't conceive of a situation which can't be solved by throwing a report in the works. Anyone who thinks that all life's problems can be boiled down to numbers and statistics has no business telling anyone else how to handle people, and especially children, in new and sometimes stressful situations. (These people should be locked in small rooms with slow computers and a dial up modem-possibly with a slide rule in place of a calculator.)

5. Finally, when you have removed the necessary flotsam and jetsam from your business or school, you will find you have more money to do the things that will actually improve workers' situations, like hiring enough people to do the work. Or maybe even small things like having more buses so that irate suburban moms don't descend on the parking lot blocking teachers' exits. Or maybe just having small enough working groups and classes to begin to know people on a personal level, rather than the superficial numerical level that seems to be the current rage.

Bottom Line-because I know you love it...stop stop stop micromanaging our schools, our homes, our businesses and our lives. Life has always and ever been messy. Trying to straighten it up with the vise grip of totalitarian, utilitarian, monarchical control is killing our workers, our kids, our productivity and our sanity. No freedom loving human ever thrived in an environment where their every move and action is measured and calculated. It is impossible to control every utterance, thought or conjecture. And I am pretty sure that it isn't normal, and is actually unhealthy to live under the constant threat of unspoken retribution if the whim of the week isn't followed to the letter. I am not condoning revolution, but I have to admit, there's a small part of me that wants to rally the troops on every campus, in every break room and at every coffee shop to wake people up to the ridiculous tyranny being imposed by people who have absolutely no stake in the success or failure of the enterprises involved. Think about it. 

Basic Budgeting for Political Candidates

With the bridge collapse in Minneapolis-St. Paul, the politicians have come out of the woodwork demanding new and bigger spending for infrastructure. The federal government sets standards which the states are supposed to monitor and maintain for a variety of public works from electrical grid, levees, water supply and roadways. While the bridge collapse is certainly a tragic and dramatic example of system failure, does pointing fingers and laying blame based on a political model help at all? There are those in our legislatures that want the federal government to basically seize control of every issue. Do we really want to have to petition Washington to have a street widened or turn lanes installed? I ask that because that is what many in Congress claim to want. In essence, this would take local bond issue improvement funding and revert it to federal control. If you want an example of what that is like, consider that the state of Texas, for all of its highways, bridges, dams and such only gets back around 70% of the money sent to Washington in the form of fuel taxes. With larger populations and related larger numbers of Congressional members, more populous states would get the lion's share of funding under a federally controlled system,leaving states like Kansas, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Arizona with minimal attention. That is virtually the system now in place for federally funded programs, the results being things like "The Bridge to Nowhere" and "The Big Dig" both programs earmarked by well connected Congressmen.

The problem is WHERE do we spend our money? If your family income is say, $2000 a month-your first needs are shelter,food, utilities, transportation,clothing. Beer, cigarettes and lottery tickets are in that frill area of "want" over "need". If your family has problems making determinations about what is necessary over what is a frill, then you probably have serious cash flow problems. Ramp that up to a federal level, and unless the government creates new and bigger taxes, there is only so much money to go around. Yet we have Congresspersons and lobbyists that place pet projects in the way of real and necessary improvements. And that can come from a whole plethora of sources. Dams and levees can be almost permanently delayed by lobbying from environmental groups. Educational funding can be diverted for free lunches and ESL programs over books and computers. Highway funding can be delayed years, even decades, over silly internal squabbling such as we are seeing on the Trinity River parkway fiasco. And the list goes on and on and one.

With finite resources, the federal government CANNOT pay for everything. Right now, voters are being hit with a number of campaign proposals such as National Health Care, Infrastructure Improvements to highways, dams, power plants and water resources, Educational reform that would cost billions to implement and programs that we can't even begin to detail here. I know different people have different needs,but when you look at these promises, please stop and ask yourself from which pocket of income the funding for such programs will come. It has to come from somewhere. And the last big wave of corporate taxation is what led to massive offshoring of critical industries. Perhaps, like many families out here, the federal government needs to live within its means and allow a free citizenry to define their own priorities and pay for their own needs rather than taxing everyone and giving us back only a fraction of services in kind.

Read this first:

" The following editorial appeared in Saturday’s Washington Post:

There was a time when many people in Oakland, Calif., admired Your Black Muslim Bakery, a neighborhood enterprise founded in 1968 by a charismatic African American known as Yusuf Bey. Community members, politicians and the local media hailed the bakery as an example of black self-help in an otherwise dispiriting environment of urban poverty.

For years, they tended to ignore or play down reports about the more violent side of Bey’s operation, or about such disturbing events as a political rally at which Bey remarked that Jews “are not worthy of being hated.”

Among the many who were a bit soft on the bakery was a reporter for the Oakland Tribune, Chauncey Bailey, who doubled as news director for a television channel that Bey paid to broadcast his sermons.

But in 2002, the East Bay Express, a local alternative newspaper that had praised the bakery, ran a penetrating series of articles on the activities of Bey’s minions, including the alleged torture of a Nigerian immigrant. That series earned reporter Chris Thompson threats from Bey’s group.

Bey’s arrest in 2003 on 27 counts of raping four girls further damaged both Bey’s image and that of his organization, though most of the charges were dropped and he died before his trial.

Bailey began to take a second journalistic look at Your Black Muslim Bakery. Having become editor of the Oakland Post, a small weekly newspaper focused on the African American community, Bailey probed the bakery’s murky finances — until the morning of Aug. 2, when a masked man approached and fired a shotgun at his head.

According to police, a 19-year-old employee of the bakery has confessed to the murder, saying he carried it out because of Bailey’s reporting. The suspect denies he confessed and claims he is innocent.

Job-related murders of journalists are extremely rare in the United States: The last one took place in 1993, and there have been only 13 since 1976 (including Bailey’s), according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Yet this murder is a reminder of the need for reporting by professional journalists, even in an era when amateur video of war zones can be had at the click of a mouse. Aggressive journalism is still a vital part of every community’s defenses against corruption and crime. It can save lives.

Chauncey Bailey died doing his duty as a reporter. That duty is not only indispensable in a democratic society; it’s also risky. Now that the police have raided the bakery, confiscating weapons and arresting six people in addition to Bailey’s alleged assassin, there is some hope for a safer Oakland. That would be the most fitting memorial for Chauncey Bailey."

Now-We live in a nation where we are blessed with freedom to say and write what we want. Not all nations have that privilege. In fact many nations subject those who dare to question authority, demonstrate a lack of religious conformity such as carrying a Bible, or refusing to bow to social limitations such a wearing a hajib or purdah to jail, to beatings, to whippings or worse. As a free nation, writers are able to express their opinions in what used to be news. But I question the wisdom of adhering to politically correct imagery on certain ethnic groups while overlooking more sinister and serious issues. In this case, the writer did a fluff piece on the main character showing his positive side. But when the same writer found out about major criminal activity associate with this same person, the writer was killed. That's not supposed to happen in the United States. But it does happen in many of the nations whose egregious behavior is being whitewashed by a media that seeks to control the vote through only the most politically correct presentation of groups that seek to do us harm. You can see it with certain radical elements within domestic Islamic beliefs, you can see it with the refusal to site the resident status of known offenders, you can see it in the way they show people involved in a crime based more upon their perceived minority or ethnic status rather than on the heinousness of the offense. This cannot stand. We can't allow people to corrupt us from within. Somewhere there must be judges and juries who are not blinded by the polling of an issue. I think the location of this event also is telling since that area of California is one of the most willing to accept people precisely because they oppose the concepts that make the United States what is it today. Please consider this issue and discuss it with your kids. They need to know what they are up against.

It's Illegal Immigration, Stupid.

To paraphrase a quote from past elections, most of the problems we are currently dealing with on the domestic front have at least some small part of the immigration issue within them. Follow my thinking:

-Environment-Water and resources are finite in number. Add more users without comparable building of water treatment, reservoirs and sewage and you end up with a serious health issue. Clean water is one of the things our population has come to expect as a given. If you think Collin county suffered during the last drought, imagine how much worse it will be if illegal immigration continues unchecked.

-Education-Schools by law cannot ask a student's legal status. We have students who are living with distant relatives. They are getting an education at our expense and quite often their parents are not paying commeasurate taxes via rent or mortgage since many homes have been subdivided by absentee landlords or sublet by legitimate residents who rent to multiple families in single family units. This is to the detriment of other residents. By having multiple families living in one residence they are not paying their share of school taxes. Many of these children have special needs, and those are federally mandated to be provided by the district.

-Insurance-With 25% uninsured and unlicensed drivers, the rates of insured drivers goes up. Instead of tolerating this skirting of the law, drivers without licenses should be arrested then turned over to Immigration for deportation if they aren't here legally. Cars involved in moving violations, drunk driving, or not having insurance should be impounded. And this goes for EVERYONE. It's just more serious with someone who has a false identity because you can't ever find them to make them pay for the damage they do.

-Health and Welfare-Public hospitals by and large will not ask status. A person having no insurance can get care that a normal person isn't able to afford simply by waiting. Parkland is funded by taxes. Wages must be paid, supplies must be purchased, and bills reconciled. If someone uses a false identity, or has one courtesy of the matricula consulare-which cannot be verified-and skips on their payment, who do you think ends up paying?

-Security-We already know that drug cartels have placed personnel in this country through the sieve that acts as a border. West Texans have known two-legged coyotes to abandon their cargo of people, drugs or other smuggled goods in the middle of ranches. There are not enough law personnel to monitor or cover the vast area between Del Rio and El Paso. As a consequence, there is the possibility that some very serious contraband has already entered our nation. Is this not a serious issue? And don't those who deny the problem in fact exacerbate it by their ostrich attitudes?

-Wages-Because of workers willing to work for lower wages off the books, we have wage erosion. And raising the minimum wage will only result in inflation as a result. The myth that these are jobs that "Americans won't do" is simply that, a myth. Instead what we have is companies large and small getting away with pocketing taxes as profit. And in return, we have young people who cannot get important first jobs because they are taken.

-Identity Theft-This is the most serious issue. The news shows something on this at least twice a week. But what is using someone else's social security number, but identity theft? It is simply wrong that people are screwing around with a program that some people have paid into for fifty years only to find it misused and abused by those who forge documents and by the employers who look the other way.

-Crime-Look at any city on the receiving end of the immigration train and you will find neighborhoods that accept crime and violence as a way of life. Trying to avoid getting caught in Immigration's net, they allow gang violence, drug distribution (Cheese, anyone?), and a slew of other criminal activities to continue. Areas that used to be middle class are now criminal and gang war zones. And those residents who own homes there are stuck because they often can't afford to move, but they also cannot sell. This is why towns such as Farmers Branch and Hazelton and now University Park are seeking to find ways to keep single family homes for single families and to require criminal background checks on potential tenants. We have had several instance of people being attacked by offenders with criminal histories. How many drunk drivers,domestic abusers, pedophiles or rapists do we have to accept? Dont' we have enough of our own criminals here already? How can police keep up with the flow other than arrest and release programs that make situations worse?

-Health Care-This is the issue the Democrats are trying to cloud the voting population's brain with. But even for health care, there are huge issues regarding illegal immigrants. Most Democrats will blindly say to give them aid. But at what point do we cut that off? Do we only give aid to Canadians and Mexicans? Or to the hemisphere? Or how about the whole world? As I have already stated, some countries take taxes as much as 68% to pay for comprehensive programs. And their success rate on anything over basic care is not as good. Plus there are delays. If we do not have some sort of permanent biometric identification system, then it is very possible that Aunt Tillie in Milwaukee will have cataract surgery while her doppelganger in San Diego has her third child. We simply cannot run into this issue without some safeguards. But the Democrats are offering none.

Solutions:

-Fines for employers the first time they knowingly hire. Jail time the second time and denial of access to local, state and federal bid lists.

-Deportation for the illegal. NO return allowed for any purpose for ten years.

-Identity Theft-County jail time then deportation.

-Enhanced border security-more personnel. No catch and release of anyone, especially OTM's
.

Nationalized Health Care: Disaster in the Making

In their misguided attempts to steer the American Publics view away from the truly serious impact of Illegal Immigration, the Democrats are trying to dazzle their political base with talk of nationalized health care. Whoever wins their nomination can expect this to be the centerpiece of their platform. Let me outline some of the reasons that this is a BAD IDEA.

1. Americans are naive. They look at loosely organized documentaries and rather than questioning the validity of this idea or that, they accept it even at its most outrageous. "Sicko" glossed over many of the more egregious problems with Canadian national health. Those problems have led their court system to allow private insurance because of the failure of citizens to receive adequate care in a timely manner. In one example a Canadian was denied services over 40 times for a hernia operation. In the end he came to....you guessed it...The United States and got surgery. Likewise many Canadians find themselves without doctors due to the many doctors who feel compelled to leave Canadian health care systems due to lack of income as well as lack of truely adequate care. Nobody in the healthcare field likes to see people suffering needlessly. But that is what happens when you ration care.
Americans, being the idiots we often are, will demand the same type of care that they recieve now, which is impossible when you are giving care to anyone that walks in the door. We don't have the capacity, we don't have the staffing, we simply do not have the money. Democrats like to veil this as a deficiency of action, but you cannot force people to become doctors or nurses, nor should you. If the income for these rigorous careers goes down due to federal limitations and ever higher malpractice insurance rates, do you think you will see a spike in applicants? Didn't think so.

2. The cost of nationalized health care is staggering. If you enjoy paying more for less care, then it probably won't bother you. But some of the tax rates for the role model nations are truly more than I think the American public realizes. The Democrats are doing their best to make this seem like something which can be cheaply and easily funded. One of the nations they love to trot out is Denmark. Denmark has cradle to grave service. And for that they pay 68% of their income in taxes. That is more than double what the top wage earners pay right now. So look at your pay stub, look at the withdrawals for Social Security and taxes and DOUBLE IT. Can you live on that income? Most people cannot. While other nations like to trot our their comparative "bang for the buck" with nationalized care, they don't have any way of accounting for what amounts to health care rationing. Likewise, treatments that are pretty much an on demand issue, such as hernia surgery or gall bladder surgery is sometimes postponed, causing those who can afford it to go somewhere else, or to acquire private insurance, which according the Democrats, we can't afford anyway.

3. There is NO SECURITY IN OUR SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM. And by that I mean that we MUST have rock solid individual identification in order to get service. If American taxpayers are footing the bill, they aren't going to be too happy if the 12 to 20 million illegal immigrants jump in line. Likewise, as identity theft is causing economic havoc for individuals, how can HIPPA laws be adequately addressed on a national level if you have NO IDEA WHO THE PATIENT REALLY IS? If we have the vaunted national system, that would include a databank that would have everyone's medical history. If you are a retired secretary in Michagan going in for reconstructive bladder surgery, it's going to be difficult to reconcile that you just left the maternity ward in San Diego. And that, is part and partial of why this is an amazingly draconian task.

4. Americans live in a very mobile and open society. If we don't like our doctors, dentists or PA's we find others that suffice. That may not be the case with a nationalize plan. In fact, to be truly effective the plan would have to resemble the Kaiser program rather than the conventional HMO or PPO programs we have now. In fact to be truly efficient, they would create regional centers at hospitals and assign people to specific gateway physicians. I am not sure that that will work for many people who are used to going to the doctor they like the best.

5. I am not sure that the medical stats in terms of personal expenditure are all that accurate. I know people who take plastic surgery, the meds associated as well as other loosely attached medical procedures off taxes as medical expenditure. If that is the amount people are using to demonstrate our expenditure per citizen, then I am not sure how accurate that truly is.

6. The cost of drugs has risen along with the rise in lawsuit payouts. While I understand that when people get harmed or die as the result of bad medicine, it's a tragedy and they deserve compensation, our legal system has gone too far addressing this making trial lawyers into millionaires while the true victims get a mere pittance. You have seen the ads and so have I for trial lawyers looking for cases to force a class action suit. That's wrong, but it's happening. In the end what this has done is force malpractice insurance rates through the roof, forcing some specialties virtually out of business. Likewise the factories that make drugs are forced to downsize, close their doors and move to Europe or China or somewhere where their existence isn't under attack. Do you really want medications made in China or some other nation where their is little or no oversight? Yet during the last Great Flu Pandemic Scare, flu vaccine had to be imported because our remaining factories could not generate vaccine quickly enough. People seem schizophrenic in this regard-they want total safety in everything all the time BUT they want the newest medication off the line. You can't have it both ways. But Americans have become critically dumb on this topic.

7. The media has to shoulder a good deal of the blame for the way Americans panic in reaction to every medical whim or fancy. Every day on the news there's some other food that will make you healthy, make you die, make you fat, make you thin, counteract Alzheimers or raise your IQ and there is absolutely NO AGREEMENT ON ANY OF THESE "FACTS". I think reporters on slow newsdays cruise the latest medical journals for obscure trivia they can milk for air time. Think back to Bird Flu, or Legionnaires Disease, or Lyme Disease or any of countless number of syndromes, diseases or problems that the media in its curiosity likes to flaunt as "common and could be coming to your home." Oh please. I know people have these diseases, but the hype is overdone and the result is an American public that doesn't think it can eat anything safely, and so eats EVERYTHING because when you are faced with certain death, What the Hell does it matter that you had a cheeseburger WITH FRIES.

What I find especially worrisome is that attitude that our health is just in our hands. And by that I mean the attitude that whatever your flaws-asthmatic, smoker, overweight-you are to be punished for it. I am one of those people who has struggled through various diets, programs and drills for years in order to lose weight. Now I hear that there's a company in Indiana that will fine people such as me, further condemning and confiring society's opinion of how those of us that are overweight are simply stupid and lazy. If I were of a minority race or religion I would have legal support to sue the pants off such obvious bigotry. But with a rampantly liberal nationalized system, I could see that happening on a national basis. Fat taxes, smoker taxes, drinker taxes....frankly it is far more scary than anything I read in "1984." And the zeal with which the Democrats are approaching this issue should cause all kinds of warning bells to go off in your head. Unless you are just another one of the drones that would prefer to have the government control your life cradle to grave.

America You've Got Problems

America has a problem. We are bunch of garage saling, bargain chasing cheapskates. And while frugality in itself isn't bad, when you do so and end up with merchandise that is poor quality, dangerous or simply inoperative, it sort of defeats the purpose. So we have China. China likes to bill itself as a poor little third world country. They undercut pricing of domestic producers of food, clothing and other products. American wholesalers always liked to think it was simply a matter of lower pay-so many companies moved manufacturing to China. Well guess what, when you don't have a factory in the United States, you also don't have inspectors that can assure high quality of the products. So we end up with killer pet food, possibly dangerous toiletries and now, toys made with outlawed lead based paint. There's a message here for manufacturers AND for consumers- First of all-Cheaper is not always better. In fact many times it is far worse. Secondly-People who aren't paid very much, don't really give a darn about quality. Thirdly-You really do get what you pay for.

We've become a nation of consumers. And a nation that largely doesn't know basic maintenance on any of its own products. My sons and husband did most of the work on all of our cars, but there are kids out there gifted with a better car than I have ever owned, who barely know how to put gas in. I had a student show up late one day because she didn't understand the oil idiot light was important. She burned up an engine on a brand new Honda-a Sweet Sixteen gift. I know kids who have super computers, but don't know how to change their type fonts. C'mon folks, there's more to life than just buying things and throwing them away. That is TRUE environmentalism-and true conservatism as well.

Democrats Squelch Honest Vote

Just a few video highlights of how the Democrats are enacting their alleged "fair and transparent non-partisan" control of Congress. They are pretty much in the order that they occurred. In explanation-members of Congress opposed to the trampling of citizen rights through the hiding of social security benefits for illegal immigrants in the Agriculture bill, had the votes to return it to the committee for redrafting. In a curious and somewhat suspicious coincidence, the electronic vote system went offline-send what was a victory for citizens into defeat at the hands of the Democrat leadership. Is this "transparent?" Or is this taxation without representation since our elected representatives were denied their action due to political chicanery. I am very concerned about the validity of voting and voters in the next election because this is just the tip of the iceberg. I predict we will see numerous illegal fitted out with voter registration cards and ID's with the sole goal being to control the election. I am also concerned that our military personnel overseas will be denied their right to vote, as they were in the last election due to an Al Gore fiat. People, wake up. You should be far more concerned than you are. And you should be online letting these usurpers know that it is not business as usual to so cavalierly manipulate the vote.

Questionable Earmarks (Pork Barrel Spending)

Request for Rollcall Vote

Political Maneuvering (Breaking the Rules)

Outrage on the House Floor (Immigration Bill Fiasco)

Reaction to the Fiasco

Political Accounting

Once again the allegedly "open and transparent" nature of the Democrat controlled Congress, escapes me. Last night, an Agriculture bill was tabled, although the Republicans tried to return it to committee for rewriting WITHOUT the perq's hidden inside for illegal immigrants. Instead of accepting the fact that most Americans are very bitter about the porous nature of our borders and the blind acceptance of them by the political Left, the presiding chair called it a tie and recessed Congress. Interesting side note: Who was paid to pull the plug on the monitor recording votes? Talk about a situation that needs investigation.....

The following senators voted Against making English the official language of America :

Akaka (D-HI)
Bayh (D-IN)
Biden (D-DE)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Clinton (D-NY)
Dayton (D-MN)
Dodd (D-CT)
Domenici (R-NM)-His state is so impacted by this and he has no idea that there is an end at some point to political subsidies.
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Jeffords (I-VT)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Kohl (D-WI)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lieberman (D-CT)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murray (D-WA)
Obama (D-IL)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Sarbanes (D-MD)
Schumer (D-NY)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Wyden (D-OR)

Now, the following are the senators who voted TO GIVE ILLEGAL ALIENS Social Security benefits. They are grouped by home state. If a state is not listed, there was no voting representative. Republicans who knuckled under due to pressure from political action groups, unions and general cowardice are in red. The comments are mine.

Alaska : Stevens (R)
Arizona : McCain (R) -note to self-never elect this man
Arkansas : Lincoln (D) Pryor (D)
California : Boxer (D) Feinstein (D)
Colorado : Salazar (D)
Connecticut : Dodd (D) Lieberman (D)
Delaware : Biden (D) Carper (D)
Florida : Martinez (R)-Make sure the national committee denies funds
Hawaii : Alaska (D) Inouye (D)
Illinois : Durbin (D) Obama (D)
Indiana: Bayh (D) Lugar (R)
Iowa: Harkin (D)
Kansas: Brownback (R)-Go ahead and jump parties now, not later
Louisiana: Landrieu (D)
Maryland: Mikulski (D) Sarbanes (D)
Massachusetts: Kennedy (D) Kerry (D)
Montana: Baucus (D)
Nebraska: Hagel (R)-Are you so in bed with corporate farming that you will sell your national security?
Nevada: Reid (D)
New Jersey: Lautenberg (D) Menendez (D)

New Mexico: Bingaman (D)
New York: Clinton (D) Schumer (D)
North Dakota : Dorgan (D)
Ohio : DeWine (R) Voinovich(R) -If you are going to let unions make the call, you might as well jump to the other party.
Oregon : Wyden (D)
Pennsylvania : Specter (R)-I guess it's easy to make these votes when your cities aren't paying the tab. I betcha walk out of the restaurant before the bill comes, don't ya?
Rhode Island : Chafee (R)-sell out Reed (D)
South Carolina : Graham (R)-I will never support you for any national office
South Dakota : Johnson (D)
Vermont : Jeffords (I) Leahy (D)
Washington : Cantwell (D) Murray (D)
West Virginia : Rockefeller (D), by Not Voting
Wisconsin : Feingold (D) Kohl (D)

Send this list to all you know. The entire population of the UNITED STATES needs to know this information, UNLESS they don't mind sharing their social security benefits with ILLEGAL foreign workers who are NOT paying into Social Security!!!

Here's Why Our Bridges Haven't Been Repaired.

I am sure all the major media outlets will have editorials whining about the lack of funding for infrastructure such as roads, bridges, water treatment and such. They will point their fingers at the Iraq War and accuse the Bush Administration of failure. Never mind that the national association of civil engineers has been telling Congress for over TEN YEARS (for those of you that are time impaired-that's back when Bill Clinton was in office) Instead he funded social welfare programs that only hit some targeted and politically desirable groups at the expense of an entire nation of citizens who drive every day, who drink water every day and who pay their taxes. The taxes in question are those that are tacked on to every gallon of gas. And Texas doesn't get dollar for dollar project back. Instead much of the money goes to densely populated cities and to political porkbarrel programs. Below is just one egregious example. Keep in mind that the engineer from the NTSB said it would cost only $65 billion to repair bridges that needed repair. Compare that to the cost of the boondoggle below. And then think about the countless other programs that are hidden inside every bill this Congress sends to the Oval Office. Earmarks matter. And so does transparency and honesty-something that Congress is sadly lacking.

From the Boston Globe......

Big Dig costs may rise by millions US memo says total could reach $14.7b

By Raphael Lewis, Globe Staff | December 24, 2005

The US Department of Transportation's inspector general has drafted an internal memo that says the Big Dig's cost may rise by tens of millions of dollars, according to state, industry, and federal officials.

One of the officials pegged the estimated increase at $75 million. If the estimate proves accurate, the project would cost $14.7 billion instead of the current $14.625 billion, an increase that Massachusetts taxpayers or tollpayers would have to absorb, because the federal government has capped its contribution to the controversial megaproject.

A spokesman for the inspector general's office emphasized that the document is a draft and may change.