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Thomas R. Eddlem

Tuesday, 01 May 2012 05:55

The GSA and Government Waste

When the General Services Administration's Las Vegas party that cost taxpayers more than $800,000 made national news, even congressional Democrats got outraged, though they missed the point about the general inefficiency of government. 

Ron Paul dominated the Louisiana presidential caucuses April 28. The same day, his supporters also out-organized the presumed GOP presidential nominee in Mitt Romney's home state of Massachusetts and took over the Alaska Republican Party.

 

Wednesday, 18 April 2012 16:30

Global Government Debt Crisis Emerging

A sugar-coated analysis of the global economy released by the International Monetary Fund April 17 nevertheless contains dire warnings about a world in a looming global government bond crisis.

Tuesday, 10 April 2012 22:30

Santorum Suspends Presidential Campaign

SantorumFormer Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum announced his withdrawal from the presidential race April 10, citing excessive campaign debt and daunting delegate math in upcoming primaries. “We made a decision over the weekend, that while this presidential race for us is over, for me, and we will suspend our campaign today, we are not done fighting,” Santorum said in his concession speech in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

The Food Network broadcast a documentary “Hunger Hits Home” April 14 that exaggerated the level of childhood hunger in the United States by at least a factor of 20.

“America has a problem,” narrator Jeff Bridges began the documentary. “One in five of our children struggles with hunger.... Childhood hunger is a crisis, right here at home.” Bridges was backed up by statements from U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsak, who told interviewers “We're a wealthy nation, we're a powerful nation. One out of five of our children simply doesn't get enough to eat.”

The U.S. General Services Administration official responsible for a $822,000 Las Vegas party on the tab of the U.S. taxpayer refused to answer any questions before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform April 16, followed by hand-wringing by former GSA head Martha Johnson. Hearings also revealed that the GSA employees may have stolen iPods purchased for an employee incentive program.

Orrin HatchSix-term incumbent Utah Senator Orrin Hatch (left) will face a primary opponent for the first time since he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1976, after the Utah GOP convention narrowly failed Saturday to give him the 60 percent super-majority needed to avoid a primary. The 78-year-old Senator came up just 31 votes short of avoiding a primary, and will face former state Senator Dan Liljenquist in the primary.

Marvin “Chick” Heileson (left) is making his second attempt in 2012 to unseat seven-term incumbent Republican Rep. Mike Simpson in Idaho's second congressional district GOP primary.

Simpson voted for the original Patriot Act and its continued extension last year, despite the fact that it allows warrantless searches in flagrant violation of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. On foreign policy, Simpson's voting record demonstrates a belief that the President can ignore Congress and the U.S. Constitution and take the nation to war without the explicit consent of Congress. Simpson voted against the Kucinich amendment last year to require a vote of Congress before American servicemen's lives were put at risk in Libya. Simpson backed all major Republican-supported entitlement spending during his congressional tenure: 2001's No Child Left Behind Law, the 2003 Medicare prescription drug law, and the TARP bailout in 2008.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney swept presidential primaries in five northeastern states April 24, widening his delegate lead on rivals Rep. Ron Paul of Texas and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.  Romney won GOP primary contests in Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Delaware.

President Obama has two initiatives to help victims of Haiti's devastating earthquake, a private initiative that deserves lavish praise and a new government dole that lacks constitutional authority and merits condemnation. The January 12 earthquake in Haiti has unquestionably wreaked unspeakable violence.

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