Two More Yes Votes

[Gaspar]

The U.S. Department of Interior announced yesterday that it is increasing water allocations for the Central Valley of California, a region that depends on these water allocations to support local agriculture and jobs. The region has recently been starved for water and as a result unemployment has soared.  Not surprisingly, Cardoza and Costa had a hand in the announcement:

"Typically, Reclamation would release the March allocation update around March 22nd, but moved up the announcement at the urging of Senators Feinstein and Boxer, and Congressmen Costa and Cardoza."("Interior Announces Increased Water Supply Allocations in California," U.S. Department of Interior news release, 3/16/10)

Cardoza and Costa are now expected to change their votes to yes on the health bill.

[Breadburner]

Bribery....Pure and simple....

[Gaspar]

 If you view it from the other angle. . ."If you don't vote yes, no water for your people." 

I can't imagine that our government would threaten it's people with drought and continued unemployment for refusal to side on a political agenda.

Bribery, no. 

Blackmail.

Fear.

[Breadburner]

Sorry but its not blackmail....It's Bribery....The two are very diffrent.....Blackmail is when yout threaten to reveal something damaging about someone to get them to do something for you and they get nothing in return....

[Gaspar]

Sorry but its not blackmail....It's Bribery....The two are very diffrent.....Blackmail is when yout threaten to reveal something damaging about someone to get them to do something for you and they get nothing in return....

I stand corrected. 

I never spent much time in Chicago.  Don't know the lingo.

[Townsend]

If you view it from the other angle. . ."If you don't vote yes, no water for your people." 

I can't imagine that our government would threaten it's people with drought and continued unemployment for refusal to side on a political agenda.

Remember, it's not the government.  It's one, two, or a few people who make these decisions.  It's not like our entire governing body gets together and decides one way or another.

The crazy, deceptive, or evil things perpetrated are done by someone that is listened to, not by the millions of people in our government.

I'm going to stop there because the more I type, the freakier I sound on this subject.

[Gaspar]

Remember, it's not the government.  It's one, two, or a few people who make these decisions.  It's not like our entire governing body gets together and decides one way or another.

The crazy, deceptive, or evil things perpetrated are done by someone that is listened to, not by the millions of people in our government.

I'm going to stop there because the more I type, the freakier I sound on this subject.

Freak! 

[Townsend]

Freak! 

Bazinga.

When I hear someone say "The government wouldn't do that." I have to think "well no, but a few of those bastards in charge would".

Guarandamnedtee you that sumbitch James Watts would've outlawed the Beachboys if Nancy Reagan hadn't gotten in there and yanked him by the short and curlies.

[Breadburner]

It's foobared up when 545 assholes get to make descisions that impact 300 million......

[YoungTulsan]

It's foobared up when 545 assholes get to make descisions that impact 300 million......

545 people running a government that is spending $3.834 trillion the 2011 fiscal year.
That means each person has an over $7 billion say in our lives.

Imagine how many people would be hassling you for handouts, trying to corrupt you, trying to scam you if it were announced you just won the lottery for $1 million.   Now multiply that corruptible influence by 7,000

[we vs us]

I just came here to add that WTC 7 was totally brought down by a series of shaped charges planted by sleeper CIA agents.

And, me hearties, how shall we fix our representative democracy?  Shall we add a couple more reps to get our average up?  Say to 550?  Or perhaps we should double up and use 1100?  We could always use the tried and true and reduce it down to 1.  I'm interested in what the golden ratio of representative-to-budget line item might be.  Any suggestions?

[YoungTulsan]

I just came here to add that WTC 7 was totally brought down by a series of shaped charges planted by sleeper CIA agents.

Juh?

And, me hearties, how shall we fix our representative democracy?  Shall we add a couple more reps to get our average up?  Say to 550?  Or perhaps we should double up and use 1100?  We could always use the tried and true and reduce it down to 1.  I'm interested in what the golden ratio of representative-to-budget line item might be.  Any suggestions?

Well obviously we have too much power and money being controlled by too centralized of powers.  If the federal government were not taking $3.8 trillion out of the economy, local authorities would not be relying on daddy government to give it an allowance for crucial things like water.  We'd just get sh*t done with several fewer layers of bueracracy (Of course it won't be perfect, but it would be an improvement) - You can see clearly this is what the federal government does, it takes our money then puts conditions on us in order to get our money back.  There are so many things the federal government does not have constitutional or legal authority to do, but it accomplishes them anyway by holding 1/3rd of the GDP as ransom.

I don't necessarily think having more representatives with today's increased population and economic considerations is a bad thing.  The House is supposed to be more directly proportional to each state's population as a balance towards the Senate giving each state equal say regardless of size.  Keep the Senate how it is (even though I think Senators are easily the most corrupt people in Washington) and decide on what number of people is too many for a US Congressperson to represent without being too large a concentration of say in one elected position.  For example, if you pegged it at 500,000 people per representative instead of Population divided by 435, We would have about 600 reps in the House right now, and it would grow with the population as the power awarded each position remains stagnant.

[Conan71]

Blackmail:



Bribery:

[we vs us]

Juh?

Sorry if that wasn't clearer.  I only meant to point up that it's conspiracy-theory-mongering mainlined directly from the National Republican Congressional Committee.  If you look at the actual press release from the Dept of the Interior, it's a little clearer that there's no quid-pro-quo and that congressfolk up and down the valley were part of the decision.  The NRCC has cherry-picked a quote, Fox News-style, and turned that into a bribery accusation.   (Also, the Code Red group the title of the NRCC blog post references is a branch group of the NRCC itself).

In the end it's not surprising (seeing who it's coming from) but very important to point out that the accusation itself can't even be charitably called flimsy.  

[Townsend]

WASHINGTON, D.C. --  At a news conference in Washington, D.C. Thursday, Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn vowed to block any special deals for House members who switch their vote from "no" to "yes" on the healthcare bill.

http://www.newson6.com/global/story.asp?s=12164486