BEYOND FIXING? OR, BEGIN THE PROCESS

By the time I was awake for 20 minutes this morning, trying to sip my tea, read the newspaper, and catch a few sound bites from Fox news, I was hit with these subjects of concern: gay marriage, North Korea, gun rights, and subsidized renewable energy policies,....oh, and let me add, a retired government employee who is receiving $35,000 per month in pension.   20 minutes.  And we wonder why people are tuning out of political discourse?  I'm surprised that the entire nation isn't taking Ritalin for ADHD by now.  Who can concentrate on the every day tasks at hand with those sorts of heavy threats to our culture and national defense coming at them?   If you are halfway engaged in gathering the news reports of the day, you have two choices.  You can wrestle with your brain to decide which of these weighty subjects to tackle today, or you can try to put them out of your mind long enough to proceed to your job or your own life's tasks in order to pay your own bills and live some kind of normal life.

And there lies the Alinsky method of "overwhelming the system."  Not just overwhelming the government system, though they have certainly succeeded at that.  But, I'm beginning to believe they have succeeded in overwhelming each American by overloading each person's ability to keep up with their attacks.  Simple war tactics would support this theory.  It's all about throwing so much at the opposition that the opposition can't function, whether it's bullets, poison, economic threats, or attacks on the very foundations on which the nation stands.  What is the antidote to this?  

I read a great article yesterday at Freedom Outpost by an author who is suggesting it is time to get on with the revolution.  Not a revolution of bullets, but a revolution of law-abiding citizens stepping up and taking the first step of counting the grievances and taking those grievances to the ruling class.  I agree.  The list will be long.   

Here is his request:

"The first thing that “We the People” must do is set forth a list of our demands. This is our country. We need to pinpoint every change that we wish to see made and we must deliver these to the lawmakers. I am offering today to be that messenger. That is one thing that I can do, but I cannot do it alone. I will need massive response. The only way that will happen is if this post goes viral like the post from 45 days ago.  I cannot guarantee that will happen, but I can guarantee it will happen if millions of people are truly in support of this revolution. Time will tell."

You can go to that page and comment with your list of demands.  It is time.  It is actually past time.

The ruling class will no doubt thumb their noses at such an effort as this and possibly do even more to shut down dissent.  So did the British government in the 1700's.  What happens after this?

I have read that during the American Revolution there were many who refused to take sides for various reasons.  Today we are not afforded that luxury.  This revolution is going to take a massive uprising if we are going to rein in the tyranny we are facing.  By uprising, I mean taking back the government offices and taking them out of power...such as the unelected bureaucracies in DC and the elected officials at all levels who are allowing DC to micromanage every aspect of our lives. Take back the school system. Stop sending money to DC.  By uprising, I mean turn down the grant money, turn down the regulations, turn down and turn back the power to Constitutional advocates.  

Frankly, right now I don't see this happening.  Grassroots freedom organizations are being ignored.  Christians are being ignored.  Rights are burning up faster than dry kindling doused with gasoline. While everyone is watching these issues, one by one, Agenda 21 has taken over the entire Federal government using Alinsky rules.  The Federal government, all three branches, is very busy destroying the Constitution daily.  They are being paid to do it with our own money....and that of our children and grandchildren. 

Maybe the situation could be described as FUBAR, excuse the crude jargon.  Beyond fixing?  

What do you think?

Comment from a Free Republic article explaining Alinsky 

Anybody who's ever read-up on Alinsky and the Cloward-Piven strategy can tell you that much of their technique for attacking the establishment involves 'overwhelming' public facilities, government institutions, and financial systems in order to bring bring them to a grinding halt. They then aim to get what they want through blackmail and/or a collapse of the target, inflicting wholesale changes upon the current status quo via civil disruption/force.

(Hat tips to my friend in Venezuela who changed the name of his blog to "Asylum Watch."   I think he feels the reality of "beyond fixing.")    

  

NO WHERE TO TURN - HOT LANES AND OTHER INSANITIES

Recently I was asked to help with an effort just north of Charlotte to stop yet another ludicrous project by transportation departments.  Along the way, as I've researched this project, into my inbox has come the daily influx of travesties in all sectors of government meddling.  There's the marriage issue, the monetary policy issue, the latest healthcare taxes, gun registration and confiscation, the energy / oil issue, on and on.  This week we learned the Republican legislator from Ohio named Portman has flipped on the marriage issue to support gay marriage.  We hear the establishment Republicans talking about how it is time to turn away from traditional messaging and become "inclusive" on illegal immigration and on gay marriage.   The traps are laid and, literally, I wonder where to turn for leadership or for a sign of sanity or common sense or adherence to the Constitution or any little glimmer showing the ship is turning.  But I digress...

Back to the HOT Lanes, one of my friends who is attending the NC DOT meetings mentioned the word "equity" that the promoters used in describing the reasoning for the HOT Lanes.  What?  I had to go looking to find that connection.  And find it, I did.  You see the usual complaint about HOT Lanes is that they are "Lexus Lanes," created to accommodate only the wealthy who can afford the tolls.  But wait, but wait!   Here's the little secret about HOT Lanes.  In Virginia, the State promised by contract to subsidize the vehicles carrying 3 or more people in the HOT Lanes.  And who does the subsidized money go to?  It goes to the toll management company.  Instant corporate welfare.  Voilá!! Who gets nothing out of this?  Commuters who will still be stuck in the slow lanes.  And that is most of them. The promoters admit HOT Lanes do nothing to lessen congestion on a road that is too narrow to accommodate the need of the commuters. 

 So let's count the ways our tax dollars are being corrupted by HOT Lanes, shall we?  

First, our gasoline taxes and vehicle fees are supposed to pay for the roads on which we drive.  Correct?  Nah.  Not anymore.  Now our gasoline taxes and vehicle fees are being diverted to subsidize transportation museums, greenways, bike lanes and paths, and mass transit.  (The museum part is especially funny.  I guess we will be able to eventually visit museums to visualize how we used to be able to drive where we wanted to go.)   Now, government transportation departments all over the nation announce that there isn't enough money to build and maintain roads.  Nope...just not enough money.  Add to that the twist that fuel efficient vehicles are causing a lack of transportation funding by not buying enough gasoline to cover the taxes needed for roads and bridges.  The irony of that is a bitter pill to swallow, is it not?

Next, we find out that the Republicans are all on board with "outsourcing" with Public Private Partnerships (PPP's) the maintenance of toll roads.  So the driving public and the highway freight industry have paid for roads that now are being sold off to investors in the toll road business, several of whom are foreign based corporations.  Republicans are selling this as a "free market" solution to the road financing problem.  Hmmm....selling critical infrastructure we own to foreign entities is surely a great "free market" solution, don't you think? The truth is far far away from a "free market" solution.

Drawn into this discussion come the Libertarians (? I think) who don't like subsidized light rail and don't like Smart Growth.  Two gentlemen, Wendell Cox and Randal O'Toole, who I have followed for years based on their objections to Smart Growth and light rail are now saying HOT Lanes / toll roads are the way to fix transportation problems by making users pay for driving the roads.  This completely ignores the fact that users have already paid for and are paying for maintenance and use of roads through the nose.  Sure, if you erase history and take away the gas taxes and the public funds for creating the roads in the first place, then privatizing roads might have been the way to go (excuse the pun) in the beginning of establishing the nations' highways, but that is not what happened and is not what is happening. 

Here is what these two gentlemen have to say on the subject:

A better way to use HOV lanes is to turn them into high-occupancy/toll (HOT) lanes, as recommended by Robert Poole and Ken Orski in a report published in February 2003.24 High-occupancy vehicles would still use these lanes for free, but low-occupancy vehicles could also use them by paying an electronic toll. This would get more use out of the lanes and give drivers a choice between taking the congested lanes for free or paying a little more and getting home quicker.

HOT lanes will help solve another problem that simply increasing gasoline taxes or using sales or other taxes to pay for transportation improvements would not address. It costs much more to provide roads capable of handling peak demand than it does to provide roads sufficient to meet average demand. Yet gas taxes are the same whether people drive during rush hour or at midnight.

HOT lanes can resolve this problem if they use value pricing, meaning that they charge more during congested periods than during other times of the day. This will help encourage people to take advantage of flextime or otherwise drive during less congested times of the day. Since well over half of all traffic on the road during rush hour is not work-related, value pricing can help to relieve congestion by encouraging non-work-related travel to shift to other times of the day.

The revenues from HOT lanes should be dedicated exclusively to expanding a region's HOT-lane network. One way to accomplish this is to create regional toll road authorities. Such authorities could sell bonds, buy land, take over unused state or local rights of way, and build new lanes and roads to relieve congestion.

If these ideas can relieve congestion, why are they not used everywhere? One answer is that the leaders of many urban areas have decided not to solve the congestion problem. Instead, they seek to increase congestion out of a perverse hope that increased congestion will somehow reduce congestion by convincing some people to use transit instead of driving.

I am disappointed to find those two fellows have jumped onto this bandwagon, but there it is. 

As described above I will bring in a third segment, the Democrats who want "equity."  How do they achieve "equity" when it comes to these HOT Lanes?  They demand that we dare not disenfranchise the less wealthy, so we'll bend their (the middle class and the poorer among us) behavior for environmental reasons, by forcing them to carpool (HOV - High Occupancy Vehicles) in order to get subsidies.  When they carpool during the peak hours of highway use, they get charged ZERO, NADA, ZILCH. But the "powers that be" have figured out that the toll management company can be reimbursed for this activity with our taxes.  Oh goody!  This policy also created a cute devise by the commuting public called "Slugging" where people line up to get in cars with complete strangers to carpool in order to avoid paying the tolls. (witnessed this in the DC area when visiting family last year)  

And where did this traffic congestion originate?  In the back rooms of planning departments where elected and unelected jammed neighborhoods into areas with not enough road capability to handle the traffic.  You can't tell me this wasn't done by design.  The same planners from NC DOT and from Metropolitan Urban Planning groups (MUMPO's) tell us now we need to sign onto their latest schemes called the 2040 Plans.  Gee, does anyone trust these guys?  And if someone in elected office does trust them, they ought to be thrown out of office immediately for incompetence and stupidity. 

 Another aspect of the HOT Lanes described by Cox and O'Toole above is the "peak pricing" or "congestion pricing," where the cost of driving on the HOT Lane varies according to the volume of traffic on the stretch of highway affected. More drivers in the HOT Lanes in peak hours with 3 or more in the vehicle...equals more subsidized tax dollars going to the toll road management company, not back into the public coffers.  

Folks, this is also the same mentality that is going to cause you to pay for "peak hourly pricing" on your utility bills ...coming down the pike. (pun again intended)  Someone out there has figured out how to change your behaviors, using big brother technology in necessary infrastructure.  Can you change your work hours?  Will your employer let you drive to and from work during "off peak" hours?  Will you be making dinner at 2:00 a.m.?   Will the schools change their hours so parents can avoid the high costs of the driving schedule they are now used to?  Who is playing with our lives ...and to whose benefit?

There are masses of people objecting to the HOT Lanes. Who is listening?  Common sense has left the station.  The ideological agendas and wallets of people in elected office are manipulating the rest of the masses in ways only Aldus Huxley or George Orwell could grasp. The fix seems to be in and there is no exit from this HOT Lane national trend.  At least so far I can't find one.  Stuck on the highway with no where to turn.

Hat tip:

Corporate Welfare = Hot Lanes

THE LIE THAT WOULDN'T STOP - GLOBAL WARMING

I was actually thinking of calling this one something else...like, "Is Dennis Rodman The New Jane Fonda?"  Let's take a leap into the realm of insanity once again, why don't we?  As Dennis Rodman makes himself the new best "bud" of Kim Jong Un of North Korea, our next champion of international verbal gymnastics is the Chief of Armed Services in the Pacific Region.  (If you are a member of the armed services who has taken that job in order to preserve the security of the United States, this post is not about you.) 

The story is related below and was given to me by my friend at Asylum Watch

Tree of Mamre - Chief of US Forces Pacific Cites Climate Change as Biggest Threat

Navy Admiral Samuel J. Locklear III, in an interview at a Cambridge hotel Friday after he met with scholars at Harvard and Tufts universities, said significant upheaval related to the warming planet “is probably the most likely thing that is going to happen . . . that will cripple the security environment, probably more likely than the other scenarios we all often talk about.’’ …
“The ice is melting and sea is getting higher,” Locklear said, noting that 80 percent of the world’s population lives within 200 miles of the coast. “I’m into the consequence management side of it. I’m not a scientist, but the island of Tarawa in Kiribati, they’re contemplating moving their entire population to another country because [it] is not going to exist anymore.”

 The giant hoax of Global Warming evidently is more appealing to our armed services leaders than actually fighting off armed enemies of the United States.  Think about that.  Which would you rather attempt to fight?  The North Koreans with nuclear weapons?  Or rising seas?  The terrorists strapping bombs to children?  Or the global temperatures?  When you fight actual enemies, you have to train people to kill or be killed.  But when you fight global temperatures, all you have to do is make sure your ships are using biofuels.  Seems like a no-brainer to me.  Pick the least difficult path and get paid to purport a ridiculous lie seems to be the choice du jour. 

Doesn't this make you feel so much safer?  Kim Jong Un threatens the safety and security of our allies in South Korea and Japan, and even threatens to send nuclear cruise missiles to the U.S. and yet, our illustrious Navy Admiral Locklear III believes our greatest threat from the Pacific region is Global Warming?  

Meanwhile, in the name of Truth and Science, here is a report from Steven Goddard on the World's Hottest Temperature Report from NOAA documents Note this NOAA document cites the year 1913, well before the doomsayers decided it was cool to blame the civilized world for warming the planet...and well before the increased use of fossil fuels to drive industry and prosperity.


docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/mwr/050/mwr-050-01-0010.pdf"> NOAA pdf

For some honest TRUTH about the lies of Anthropogenic Global Warming, go to Climate Depot  The world's climate changes over time and has done so since creation.  The world is not hotter now, nor is it even close to being hotter than it has been in past centuries.  To use climate as an excuse to control people with government power is a very clever and evil construction.  This is a top down lie from people who do know what they are doing to people...and all too happy to do it.  The drivers of this lie / HOAX are laughing all the way to the bank. 

Meanwhile, Dennis Rodman is planning to use a lot of carbon to take a vacation with the latest dictator of North Korea.  Do you think the arbiters of Climate Change should stop him?  You know, the U.S. Navy might find that flight to North Korea a security threat, not because of who Rodman is vacationing with, but because he is "warming" the planet?  Gee....let's ponder that for a while. 

JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN, DOESN'T MEAN YOU SHOULD

Technology is moving into the culture at such a fast pace that Joe and Jane Citizen can't even wrap their minds around it.  And, no, I am not suggesting paranoia is the best response to it.  But when government uses Joe's and Jane's money to use technology to take away their privacy, property rights, and their freedoms, I think it's time to take a hard look at what this "Brave New World" is foisting upon us.  Science fiction has become reality.  This is why we are looking at drone strikes on American citizens and why Rand Paul's filibuster was such a dramatic and seminal moment.

My readers know I have been on the rabbit trail, chasing down the power grab of Councils of Governments and trying to warn our elected officials.  To that end, I am going to share a few details with you from the grant application and grant that our Centralina Council of Governments took from the Federal government.  The grant is based on United Nations global governance.  But to hide that fact, our Federal government has obfuscated the jargon in an attempt to snooker the American public.  And a good job they've done so far.  

How do you like the idea that an unelected bureaucracy has given itself the power to assess and collect data on your personal belongings and your lifestyle?  (Worse that your elected officials are letting them do it.)  We know the Federal government is implementing data collection through the healthcare bill and through the public school system.  So why no do it through unelected planning agencies as well?  They are!

This may be too much "getting into the weeds" for some, but here is an example of what I mean:

Under the heading of "Energy Conservation" the HUD grant application sets out the budget to be spent on data collection on your home, your assets,  and your activities.  This bureaucratic cabal of self-important controllers. is using your tax dollars to pay people with infra-red thermal imaging equipment to come to your house and assess the greenhouse gases your house may be emitting.  Is your house leaking heat or cooling emissions? Remember this CCOG has captured 14 counties and all of the towns and cities within that area....four of the counties are not even in this state.

This project provides comparable analyses of energy-savings potentials for a cross-section of neighborhood houses in the CCOG/Catawba COG represented county region. Deliverables for this project include: (1) a compilation of neighborhood housing sampling per county for the Neighborhood Energy Profile Database; (2) assessments will be made as to which neighborhoods collectively have the best potential for realizing cost-effective energy savings; (3) targeting those identified neighborhoods with messages on how households can realize these savings through proven,
affordable, achievable and accessible measures.
The Neighborhood Energy Profile Database and Energy Enhancement Recommendations project team will be led by Jim Kirby, GREENTHINC., PLLC and Hamilton Cort, Cort Architectural Group, PA. Both will share the two-state/multi-county management/database development responsibilities for residential building energy performance assessment, corresponding database development, and publication of proven/affordable energy enhancement strategies. Members of the US Green Building Council-Charlotte Region Chapter (USGBC-CRC) will serve in the outreach messaging efforts and home sampling selection efforts for the 14 county CCOG region. Matthew Ryan, Efficiency 1st, LLC will provide on-site residential building diagnostics, assessment and reporting responsibilities for the two state/ multi-county residential buildings through blower-door/pressurization testing, HVAC systems review and envelope thermal imaging.

Under "Climate Change" is the taking of inventory on both public and private vehicle fleets.

ATC Associates will conduct an inventory of construction equipment used in the region to determine the model year, estimated usage hours and engine upgrade retrofits. This inventory will be conducted on both municipally-owned fleets and privately owned fleets (general contractors, grading, construction, and equipment rental companies) and entered into a database. The purpose will be to assess the age and emission levels of construction equipment used in our region to determine the scope of the problem that aging diesel fleets represents. The cost for their work, all of which is to be paid for using grant funds, is $85,760.
Mecklenburg County will assess the feasibility of expanding their highly successful GRADE (Grants to Reduce Aging Diesel Engines) Program. Currently the program targets older construction equipment in the region for engine repowers or replacement to reduce the emission of nitrogen oxide, a major component of ozone pollution. Expanding the program or creating a similar model to provide grant funding for diesel particulate filter retrofits will address the emissions of black carbon. Potential sources of funding for this program will also be explored. All of Mecklenburg County’s staff time (valued at $23,940) is being provided through an in-kind match.
UNCC will assess the job creation opportunities within the diesel retrofit sector (manufacturing, installation and maintenance) that would result from increasing the installation of diesel particulate filters on pre-2008 construction equipment and vehicles in the region. UNCC will also identify workforce retraining options for manufacturing and diesel mechanics. All funds attributed to UNC Charlotte, $31,705, are to be paid for by the grant.
Supporting work will also be provided by Clean Air Carolinas (CAC), a clean air advocacy group in the Charlotte region and by Jason Wager (CCOG Sustainability Program Manager). CAC is providing $2000 in in-kind staff assistance. Approximately 23.3% of Wager’s time is being provided by an in-kind match through CCOG. (NOTE: Wager’s time is accounted for in Section 1, Personnel Labor Costs, of the Budget Narrative.)

Presto!  There you have just two of the invasive Federal intrusions into our personal and private lives.  Oh...you say pollution is not personal and private, but is a "public" problem.  Well, the truth is the town I live in is 20 miles west of Charlotte and we do not have an air quality problem.  In fact, none of the other counties and communities outside Charlotte / Mecklenburg have any of the air quality problems that Charlotte has.  Furthermore, the idea that personal homes are causing Climate Change is just ridiculous.  Energy conservation can and should be left up to individuals who purchase energy.  That is the free market.  Here we have an unelected, self-appointed, group of meddling bureaucrats who intend to walk into your neighborhood with thermal imaging equipment, paid for with your Federal taxes, and then proceed to get the Federal government involved in your roofing, insulation, and HVAC system.  Or, how about this?  The friends I have who are in the construction business or the equipment rental business will be forced to have their equipment inspected by (again unelected) guns for hire who will then sic the Feds on them to pay for retrofits and or new equipment.  As you can see from the cited bits of that grant, the intention is to get more government grant money should the public and private entities not be able to pay for this "upgrade.  And how could they pay for this?  City governments are broke.  County governments are broke.  Personally owned businesses can't cough up money for this willy nilly.  So....who do you think is going to pay for that?  Got money?  You'd better hang onto your wallet.  Government is about to stick you with the tab ...and has already to the tune of $4.9 million for this "Sustainable Communities Initiative" planning grant.  (funny money that was borrowed from somewhere out there or printed out of fiction!)

Technology makes a lot of things possible.  Thermal imaging.  Carbon Capture. Energy efficiency.  But does that mean government has the right to trample on your rights to force you to comply with some other person's idea? What does that do to the free market?  I have some friends who own antique vehicles that are street legal.  Should these bureaucrats force them off the street?  And in doing so, does that make light rail less expensive or more environmentally friendly?  No.  Does forcing people to seal up their homes do anything to help the environment?  No.  So they use a tiny bit less energy, does that keep the snow from falling or a river from flooding?  No. 

Just because you can invade someone's privacy or personal choices, doesn't mean you should!  As compared with drone strikes on American citizens, this may seem trivial.  Trust me it is not trivial and will threaten our economic survival even more than it already is.

FOR GOD'S SAKE, I'LL GIVE YOU THE SCISSORS! CUT, PLEASE!!!

 I have a few pairs of scissors (as long as they still let me have them) and I would be more than happy to share them with Congress and the POTUS to start the cutting of government spending.  I'd even pitch in to help with the job. Heck, I'll start a campaign to send them all the scissors they would need. While everyone this past week was having kiniptions about how dreadful our lives will become if government actually cuts some spending, I thought, "Why is anyone complaining about this?"   The Federal government has become so intolerably fiscally insane, I say cut away!  And do cut some more!  PLEASE!!  CHOP CHOP!!

 I know that you all know some of the stories about wasteful spending coming out of DC.  You remember the silly little research study of Chinese prostitutes and alcohol use.  Wasn't there something about a squirrel lately?   The sad thing is there is so much of it, if we were digging it out, we'd never see the bottom of the pit. 

Heritage has a glimpse into some of it here:

Examples of Government Waste

And then of course there is the "green" slime, taking your / our greenbacks to throw down the sewers of "green" nonsense.  You don't know the half of that reality.  The next article I give you has a peek into what our dear leaders are doing on behalf of the planet:

  Alan Caruba of the National Anxiety Center writing in 2004

"It is mind-boggling the billions of US taxpayer dollars that are squandered annually in the name of “protecting the environment.” Nor are these millions and billions devoted to just the US environment. They are just as often given way to foreign nations, many of which have a track record of corruption."
I was thinking about this as I read a speech given in Stockholm, Sweden, on March 2 by John F. Turner, an Assistant Secretary for Oceans and International Environment and Scientific Affairs. If Turner were any more Green he’d glow in the dark. He represents a vast Fifth Column of Greens that are everywhere in the government, having been attracted by fellow travelers like Al Gore and Bill Clinton. They are in many agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of the Interior, and, like Turner, even in the State Department.  

The US government is engaged in one of the biggest land grabs in history and they are doing it in collusion with a matrix of so-called environmental and conservation non-government organizations. They are doing it using your money! If successful, there will be fewer and fewer places for people to live, create new businesses, ranch, farm, or use our natural resources in any fashion, i.e. mine it, drill for it, or log it.

Turner noted “the United States has cemented 13 formal bilateral relationships with both developed and developing nation to address climate change.”

And here’s the kicker! “What’s more, the US spends $1.7 billion annually on climate science and related science, more than the rest of the world combined.” It gets worse! “Over the next five years, the United States has pledged $1.7 billion to develop clean, hydrogen-powered automobiles.” That’s billion with a “B” for an automobile that nobody wants, nor needs.

This is what the Greens call “sustainable development.” If they were honest about it---which they never are---they should call it “no development.”

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The US, noted Turner (John F. Turner, an Assistant Secretary for Oceans and International Environment and Scientific Affairs), will let some countries reduce their debt by agreeing to “protect valuable tropical forests.” Peru, for example, won’t have to pay what it owes us in return for preserving 12.5 million hectares of rain forest. What Turner doesn’t mention is that logging is one of the ways Peruvians have of making a living and depriving them of that, much as was done to many American logging communities in our Northwestern States, will destroy an important element of that nation’s economy.

The waste of tax dollars in the name of the environment is beyond comprehension, but it illustrates just how totally infiltrated the federal government is with both legislators and civil servants who feel free to ignore the best interests of Americans. In the process, they are destroying the key element of our economy, private property, and, in the name of “sustainable development”, seeking to thwart every manner of development.

This next article is how California has soaked the Federal government for billions as well.:

Forbes article on California debt

Feds to pay Californians unemployment payments is shocking and unfair to the rest of the nation. California uniquely owes the federal government more than $9 billion for unemployment compensation.

This one is just another microscopic glimpse on unelected Federal agencies spending money on grants for green.  This article refers to a company named Republic who has figured out how to milk the system from all directions:

Arlington, Texas article on DOE

In Indiana, Republic acquired $500,000 to buy 15 CNG trucks as part of the DOE’s Alternative Fuel Vehicle grant program. As part of the grant process, Republic must work with the Greater Indiana Clean Cities Coalition.
The DOE is re-distributing millions of tax dollars in the form of grants to companies like Republic to upgrade its fleet to compressed natural gas vehicles (CNG). These grants are available through a nationwide network established by the DOE called the Clean Cities Coalitions.

In Mount Holly, N.C., Republic received a $100,000 state grant to help pay for new carts. One of the key requirements for getting the grant was that the carts be equipped with RFID chips. Mount Holly doesn’t have an RFID reader to collect and compute the data being sent from the chips, but the city hopes to get another $10,000 grant to pay for one.
Republic received another $500,000 in Dayton, OH, for RFID-equipped carts.

Oh, and of course they don't let the military off the hook.  You and I are paying $26.00 buckaroos PER GALLON for fuel for the U.S. Navy. 

Military spending on the green agenda

Under the administration’s directives, the Navy has launched a new “Great Green Fleet” of ships that use a 50-50 blend of conventional and alternative fuel, made from seeds, algae and chicken fat.
The cost of this fuel: $26 per gallon.

I especially love this one.  This is our money paying to teach government employees that Americans are evil bastards and stole the nation.  It's all for "Diversity" training, don't ya know.  Judicial Watch Report - plus page with videos

Within the last two weeks, Judicial Watch uncovered a major scandal inside the USDA, where taxpayers have been funding an expensive “cultural sensitivity” program that requires federal employees to bang on tables and repeat the words, “The Pilgrims were illegal aliens,” among other ridiculous chants. - See more at: http://minutemennews.com/2013/03/arrogantly-playing-politics-at-the-publics-expense/#sthash.FuJbrk7P.zQTG7CAK.dpuf

 Judicial Watch uncovered a major scandal inside the USDA, where taxpayers have been funding an expensive “cultural sensitivity” program that requires federal employees to bang on tables and repeat the words, “The Pilgrims were illegal aliens,” among other ridiculous chants.

Within the last two weeks, Judicial Watch uncovered a major scandal inside the USDA, where taxpayers have been funding an expensive “cultural sensitivity” program that requires federal employees to bang on tables and repeat the words, “The Pilgrims were illegal aliens,” among other ridiculous chants. - See more at: http://minutemennews.com/2013/03/arrogantly-playing-politics-at-the-publics-expense/#sthash.FuJbrk7P.zQTG7CAK.dpuf

Really?  I paid for that?  Oh, that must be Obama redistributing my wealth....or lack of it, as the case may be.  Yeah, those damn Pilgrims.  It's all their fault!  I need to pay up for what they did!  Yeah, that's right!

Here's an idea.  Why don't we all print a little picture of scissors and send it to our DC reps and senators.  Do you think they would get the hint?  Nah...don't waste the stamps. The situation is so far out of control, you can't even wrap your mind around it.  

Well....if any of my DC reps and senators wish to borrow my scissors.....

(I'm sure I'd never see the scissors again either.)  

Chop Chop!!!