Paving New Orleans with gold

September 22, 2005 at 03:28 PM | categories: liberty rants | View Comments

Joe Schembrie over at LewRockwell.com has written a very thought provoking article on the excess of spending that Congress is exercising in the name of 'Reconstruction' in the southern united States.

To share just a few of his good points:
  • Congress has recently authorized the expenditure of $62 billion for reconstruction of flood damaged property.
  • Congress is already talking about appropriating over $200 billion total by the end of reconstruction
  • $200 billion would allow the federal government to do one of the following:
    • Give $200,000 to every man, woman and child in New Orleans.
    • Purchase 32 SUVs for each family in New Orleans ($25,000 a car, for a typical 4 member family)
    • Pave all of the streets of New Orleans with pure gold.

If that last one didn't make you think about the sheer absurdity of the amount of money we are talking about here, nothing will. Who do you think has this kind of money? Certainly not the government. This will just be financed by plopping it right onto the federal charge card (read: deficit).

This is all coming from a government that is majority controlled by a party that claims to want to cut federal spending. Either our political leaders are outright lying to us or they are unbelievably stupid when it comes to economics. Now I don't believe that our leaders are economics experts, but they are far from stupid. Watch as GOP house majority leader Tom DeLay makes what the New Hampshire Union-Leader calls the 'lie of the year':

My answer to those that want to offset the spending is sure, bring me the offsets, I'll be glad to do it. But nobody has been able to come up with any yet.
Here Mr DeLay is saying that there is absolutely no way that we can cut any more out of the federal budget. He further clarifies his point by saying:
It is right to borrow to pay for it
An incredulous reporter asked him if he felt that the government was operating at peak-efficiency. Mr DeLay responds:
Yes, after 11 years of Republican majority we've pared it down pretty good

Lies, and damn lies.

The Citizens Against Government Waste have written a document describing almost 14,000 programs instituted in 2005 alone, that could easily be cut.

There are so many more tragedies here beyond the pain and suffering of the victims of Katrina. The most important one though is that the government has no responsibility in the matter, and furthermore they have no right to 'borrow' money for which is unecessary and will never be 'returned'. It is absurd to believe that reconstruction should be funded by tax dollars because it is 'the right thing to do', when the very victims are taxpayers themselves.

It is a tragedy that we are even being lied to about where this money is going. There is no way that the money will be used to buy the things that Joe Schembrie mentioned the government could spend it on. No taxpayer, nor victim will ever see that money. That money is already lining the pockets of the very people that have taken it away from you.

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Reappraising the war in Iraq - Col. Tim Collins speaks

September 21, 2005 at 05:50 PM | categories: liberty rants | View Comments

Tim Collins, a former Colnel of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment, has sobering words to say about the war in Iraq. His words have been creeping around in my mind all day long.

Long have I felt that the United states was in the wrong for going to war. Yet, although I knew that I was against it, I never fully rationalized the other side of the argument, at least, not to my requirements as of now.

We may be able to understand the war in light of it's accomplishments, let's make a check list:

  • Destruction of WMDs: Nope
  • Destruction of the Baath party: Nope
  • Control over Oil: Nope (have you seen prices lately?)
  • Disband 'Terror' groups: Nope (the war has made recruitment numbers soar)

On the surface, these criteria were exactly what the war was supposed to be about... right? Again like I said, I never agreed with those agendas, but it appears now I was disagreeing with the wrong agendas. Were any of these criteria ever on the minds of those who brought this war to pass (except in making a public justification)?

...China and India are growing and sucking up every drop of oil, every scrap of concrete or steel even as the old-world powers of the UK and US pour blood and treasure into overseas campaigns which seem to have no ending and no goal... It is time for our leaders to explain what is going on.

When I read that statement of having "no ending and no goal," I had the eery feeling that the warmongers of the world have no ultimate agenda. Not evil, nor good. Unless someone can prove me wrong, I must admit that this Empire has gone insane. Politics is no longer a war of 'difference of opinion'. It wouldn't matter what anyone's opinion was, this war is an outcry from a dying Empire.

It is the very nature of an Empire to spend money and to flex muscles, It doesn't matter to what end that power is used. If you realize the nature of the thing, it puts things into it's rightful perspective.

I'm sorry Tim, you may never get that explanation for "what is going on."

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