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MarkusQ writes "A few days ago a bi-partisan bill (PDF) to create a searchable on-line database of government contracts, grants, insurance, loans, financial assistance, earmarks and other such pork was put on 'secret hold' using a procedure that does not appear to be mentioned in the Constitution or in the Senate bylaws. This raised the ire of bloggers left and right and started an all out bi-partisan effort to expose the culprit by process of elimination. As it turns out it was our old friend the right honorable Senator from Alaska, Mr. 'Series of Tubes', Ted 'Bridge to Nowhere' Stevens."
It is said: Power corrupts, while absolute power corrupts absolutely.
My theorem: The longer any party or group remains in power the closer they come to corrupt.
While some may draw a bead on Mr. Stevens and his 37 years in office. Remember pork is often a reward for having been loyal at some point. It's not simply Sen. Ted Stevens rolling up his sleeves for a reach into the Pork Barrel, but his reward for long, loyal service to his contemporaries. There's doubtless a bit of influence due to his seniority, but he's been a good soldier when his party has needed some. We can expect a lot of red faces when same bi-partisan muck-rakers get their hands on the online database and equally glib Senators and Representatives have to answer for decades of funny business which has passed beneath the radar in a long game of "I'll scratch your back, if you scratch mine."
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
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How the heck did it take them that long? Were they working through the Senate in geographic order, from south to north?
... Yeah, he could." How was he not the first person they looked into?
When I first heard about this thing, my immediate thought was "it's gotta be that fuckhead from Alaska. Wait -- he couldn't possibly be that stupid, could he?
It's a little alarming that there might have been that many better suspects than him to investigate first. But I guess that's become the point of the Senate these days: a high-pressure hose of pork-barrel cash back to your home state. Keep the money rolling in and your head down, and you can stay there apparently forever.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
Besides, now that we know it's him, is he lifting the hold? Sure we can shame him but my impression is that Stevens is well beyond being vulnerable to that.
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I certainly hope it is only a matter of time before some clean politicians get voted in. Since Democrats and Republicans share blame for pork-pushing, I don't know of a solution beyond knowing about the candidates for whom you vote. Unfortunately I can't see systemic changes without an end to gerrymandering. Incumbents are the only ones benefited, hence there is no motivation to eliminate it. It seems to me that politics in the United States is becoming more of a farce each election.
As someone who was born in Alaska, raised in Alaska, got a degree in Alaska, and is now a professional in Alaska, I want to apologize on behalf of the state. Also, I'm sorry we vote Republican. There just aren't enough dense population centers to cause people to pull their heads out of their cousins' asses. :)
Their may be a grammatical error, misspeling, or evn a typo in this post.
The only thing I can think of doing to remedy this situation is to move to Alaska to skew the vote, and get this guy out of office.
The way I see it, the FreeState program has it right, but instead of choosing a decent state to begin with, they should of chosen a state with a lot of potential, but without the minds to guide it, would of been better.
That and Alaska is just a wonder of nature...
Maybe I should start my own project, the Technocratic Liberation Project. Where well-educated, liberal minded, science minded people can go to live in peace from terrorists that firebomb labs, states that cut funding for schools, anti-abortionists that pipebomb buildings, Federal wiretapping, and the broadband monopoly. And whats perfect is, if America gets really bad, then we can leave and become our own nation, and to retort America would half to drive into Canada... Something thy would not do....
3 degrees of separation from Vladimir Putin
Under Senate rules, unless the senator who placed the hold decides to lift it, the bill will not be brought up for a vote.
Any senator can anonymously hold any bill? So every Republican Senator can anonymously block any Democratic sponsored bill and vice versa? Somehow this doesn't sound right. Why, then, isn't every bill deadlocked?
Developers: We can use your help.
Ted Stevens and his counterpart in the House of Representatives, Don Young, are very popular in Alaska for the very reason everyone on Slasdot is up in arms - Pork.
The Knick Arm bridge is seen as a shot in the arm for local developers and construction critters. Remember, pretty much the only economic engines in Alaska are Oil and Government. Nothing else but a bunch of trees, rocks and the occasional brown bear.
So they bring in the Pork. Christ, half of Anchorage is named Ted Stevens this or Ted Stevens that. It's a GOOD thing. Really. It's representative government at its finest....
The other way to look Mssrs. Stevens and Young is that they are pretty cheap dates. For one genuine vote in the House or Senate, you need only to bribe a couple hundred thousand people. You got the money, honey, they've got the time.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Is anybody going to actually press charges and put this guy in jail? Can we PLEASE start jailing all the politicians that are breaking the constitution left and right, STARTING with every one who voted for the patriot act?
These people need to go to jail. How do we get them there?!?!
rhY
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
You're talking about spending $233,000,000 in federeal funds to build a bridge to serve a community of 7,500 people. That's roughly $30,000 per resident. How do you justify that, especially when there's a perfectly serviceable ferry that's been in operation for ages?
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
Mea culpa. I figured it'd be a bill to hide stuff, not a bill to expose stuff, and Stevens was secretly sponsoring it. Instead, it's the other way around. But the "nothing good" I see still stands: I see no evidence that the exposure is in any way, shape or form, preventing Stevens from getting what he wants. The "bipartisan" effort at porkbusters.org refers to rank-and-file Republicans and Democrats. They don't count. Only the votes on the Hill count, and they're more than happy to let Stevens block it, because it means they don't have to look bad to their constituents. Make no mistake, Stevens will get what he wants, because it favors incumbents on both sides of the aisle.
An unfortunate side effect of turning the rascals out as often as possible is that someone will take up the void. What void? you ask ... the power void. It turns out that rookie politicians need guidance, amd even if they don't actively seek it out, they are at least unusually susceptible to its influence, and when there are few experienced politicians to supply that guidance, the lobbyists step in where they see the chance.
I still vote against incumbents and resign myself to the lobbyists having more influence. I wish it weren't so, but it sure appears to be so.
Infuriate left and right
Let's say you live in the middle of nowhere, and I mean like the village that time forgot. It's cold where you live, so your village survives by stealing from other villages. Neat thing is though, this policy doesn't anger your neighbors, because the villages you are robbing aren't theirs, but some poor suckers a long way away. When your raiding parties return, they bring resoures to fix up your homes, roads, bridges, etc.
And probably for a second there, you thought I was talking about the Vikings, and not the U.S. Senate. But anyway, I digress from my original point, which was...
...if you were a member of that village, and you started raising ethical concerns about how the raiding parties do their business to give your family and others in the village warmth and food, how well do you think that argument would be received by your fellow villagers? Would they care?
Why are people sooooooo shocked these people keep getting re-elected? These guys are the Viking warriors raping and pillaging to bring home the bacon. His constituents love this stuff...and why shouldn't they? If you want this to stop, another poster might have had it right; stop federal direct taxes, and have the fed direcly dependent upon state grants for their funding. Practical? Maybe not, but it would certainly cut down on that village half a world away robbing you blind.
Maybe it doesn't even have to be so extreme. Simple rules changes would make things much better. How about instating a germaneness rule so that senators can't hang pork like christmas tree ornaments on unrelated bills? How about abolishing anonymous holds? How about reforming conference committee selection and procedures? Any one of these things alone would make pork more difficult and more visible.
All the techniques ever used to make men moral have been themselves thoroughly immoral... (Nietzsche)
Many legislators DO, and they do it ALL THE TIME; most of them, once elected, almost immediately go back home for extended periods of time to show their presence, and make it seem as if they're helping out their community. That ability, coupled with the massive political machinery available, forms to provide the enormous power of the political incumbency.
I doubt a single congressperson has ever considered DC a "typical American town" once in office; the dynamic is completely different than anywhere else in the nation - really, this has all been discussed and debated long ago.
By the way, I highly recommend Smith's 'The Power Game' for anyone even remotely interested in the inner workings of DC. Although it is slightly dated in terms of the facts it presents, the theories and precepts are all still functional today.
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I have never known a man who didn't make similar comments about his wife.
I have also never known a man who has lost his wife and didn't grieve.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
I wonder if it might be because THE BRIDGE WILL BE CHEAPER TO RUN THAN THE FUCKING FERRY? Possibly?
Well, that would have to be the world's most expensive ferry service on a per passenger basis before that argument holds water; by several orders of magnitude.
223 million dollars is a lot of money, which would certainly pay for a lot of ferry operations many times over if invested at a normal rate of return. And that's assuming we need to give free ferry service; ferries normally charge tolls which cover their operating expenses.
If you don't believe that, consider this: The ferry in question serves 50 people, and covers one mile. It's probably a rather small and slow ferry. By way of contrast, Woods Hole, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority serves on the order of 160,000 residents of Martha's Vinyard and Nantucket, with routes that go from about two miles to something around twenty. This means they run very large ferries and run them frequently. The Authority's operating budget is $69 million dollars, and it serves 3,200 times the residents over many times the distance. And it pays for itself.
But in this "short-term" only country of the USofA, it's not surprising everyone's seeing the expenses up-front and not the savings down the line.
I love it when Republicans sound like deranged Democrats. Even accepting your dubious proposition, where would the Federal Government be if Uncle Sam pulled out his checkbook and funded every project on the basis that it creates long term cost savings for somebody (other than Uncle Sam)? That's the sort of thing you're supposed to fund with bonds.
As a liberal Democrat, I'm not against investing Federal money in communities in every case of course. But such investments should serve larger national purpose. This project is to benefit certain individuals, not the nation at large. And (surprise) it's not the residents of the Island. It's for the benefit of politically connected developers who want to make a buck treating the Federal budget as their personal piggybanks.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Because mandatory labeling will make it easy for companies and others to block porn sites, which porn sites do not want. We care about what porn sites want because internet companies are not beholden to any particular physical location to do business -- a porn site based in Russia reaches American consumers just as effectively as a porn site based in the US. The long term effect of porn site registration is that the big, profitable porn sites simply move their base of operations to another country -- there's already strong incentive to do this, as Americans are fairly trigger happy when it comes to pornography (is that 30 year old in pig tails really over 18? Maybe we should take you to court and find out) and smaller pornsites (with narrower profit margins) will be forced to label themselves, see their business die due to the ensuing blocks, and ultimately go out of business.
.xxx domain was (is this the same idea?)
The reason we should care about this is because the porn industry is an extremely profitable industry. It employs many Americans and pays an awfully large amount of corporate tax thanks to its profitability. If labeling had the desired effect -- ease of censorship -- it would quickly become financially viable to simply move operations elsewhere to avoid the situation. This would be bad for the American economy. Let's face it, porn on the internet isn't going anywhere -- all this sort of thing does is hurts Americans, it doesn't help stop porn (because, after all, all those Russian porn sites with real lolitas aren't going to be affected by this labeling scheme.)
End result: foreign porn prospers, American porn dies, Americans lose jobs, government loses taxes, and ends up raising income taxes to compensate (or sells more debt to the Chinese, which is probably not good either.)
And our ability to find porn is not improved -- because a) finding porn is already easy now and b) what's to stop a morally minded ISP owner from blocking labeled porn sites router-level?
All in all, a stupid idea. Just like the
Alexis de Tocqueville said it best, at the time of Our Great Country's inception:
The American Republic will endure, until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money.
DATABASE WOW WOW
"The US Constitution has a prohibition on funding an army for more than two years."
Solution: budget the Army (and everything else) annually.
Since there is no upper bound on the complexity of existing law, create one by adding an ammendment specifying that all federal laws expire after a certain amount of time. Nothing would preclude congress from passing them again but this would create pressure to work on what they believe is truely important.
I think all laws should come into effect with an expiration date that is proportional to the vote. (maybe elections should be run the same way). Someone squeaks by an election they get the shortest term possible. They have an overwhelming majority let their term lasts longer.