DeLay’s “Ongoing Victory” Over Reality
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay yesterday declared an “ongoing victory” in his effort to cut spending, and said “there is simply no fat left to cut in the federal budget.” Here’s a list of vital programs Tom DeLay has marshaled through Congress:
$25,000 to study mariachi music in Nevada
$1.5 million for an Alaskan bus stop with heated sidewalks and electronic signs
$75,000 set aside for the Paper Industry International Hall of Fame in Appleton, Wisconsin
$100,000 for a film festival in Rochester, New York.
$50 million for an indoor rainforest in Iowa.
$18,000 for a smoking booth at a private New Jersey airport.
$200,000 for a peanut festival in Alabama
$200 million to build a bridge from Ketchikan, Alaska to a nearby island with 50 inhabitants.
$1 million for the B.B. King Museum in Indianola
$300,000 to construct the Great Falls Parking Garage in Auburn, Maine
$ 240,000 for potato storage research in Madison, Wisconsin
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52 Responses to “DeLay’s “Ongoing Victory” Over Reality”
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Hmmm, how come DeLay didn’t get me any duckets? Oh yeah, I didn’t contribute to his campaign.
September 14th, 2005 at 6:18 pmDon’t be bringing up that mariachi study money, I need that for god’s sake. Keep it under your hat, OK?
And if you have good contacts with Delay, I could also use some money for a study I’m doing on evolution, a modest experiment. Would you put in a good word for me?
September 14th, 2005 at 6:19 pmI would just like to say — as a resident of Rochester — that the film festival here is an extremely worthwhile way to spend money, and it costs hardly anything in comparison with the horrendous waste of money in other parts of the Federal budget. The film festival in Rochester not only showcases films by young and unknown filmmakers, but also has a great number of progressive works that ask the audience to face difficult questions. It also showcases works by many different underrepresented communities in Rochester and around the country — for instance, the gay/lesbian community and the African-American community. Finally, it is something of a source of pride for many residents here, as we were (are?) the largest producer of film stock in the United States and have something of a history of innovation in the imaging industry.
I can assure you that the people who organize the film festival do so under the tightest of budgets, and squeeze as much as they possibly can out of the little money they have. In comparison to the other items listed on this post (”Paper Industry Hall of Fame”, “Parking Garage”, “Indoor Rainforest”) the film festival seems quite a bit different and I wonder why it was included here at all — but, at least this kind of stuff is disclosed.
Art has suffered enough cutbacks. Let’s not be overly critical when a small portion of the Federal budget goes to encouraging art. Rather, let’s ask the big questions — why is so much of our tax money being spent on a costly, irresponsible war, or on tax breaks to the wealthy?
September 14th, 2005 at 6:25 pmDelay is th eposterboy for why Americans despise Congress.
September 14th, 2005 at 6:42 pmViva los Mariachis!
September 14th, 2005 at 6:44 pmWTF is an “indoor rainforest”?????
September 14th, 2005 at 6:48 pmPaul, don’t let Delay know that they have a great number of progressive works or that money will be recalled.
September 14th, 2005 at 6:53 pmLet’s ask Greenspan what he thinks. Or we can watch MSNBC or Tim Russert to get an opinion.
In otherwords, let the insiders who actually control our finances, our government, and our media, tell us mushrooms to live with it.
In theory, the government is of the people, by the people, and for the people.
In reality, it is of this criminal gang, for this criminal gang, and by this criminal gang.
Andrea Mitchell - Talking Back Viking
A reporter given to socializing, Mitchell describes a visit she and her husband, Alan Greenspan, made to the home of former president Gerald Ford:
“We had spent a weekend at the Fords’, along with the Cheneys, earlier that summer while attending a political and economic conference hosted by the former president each summer. Alan’s term as Fed chairman was about to expire at midnight that night, and the Senate had just voted to reconfirm him for a fifth time. We were waiting to find out whether the president had signed teh legislation at Camp David so that Alan could be sworn in. Late Saturday afternoon, word came from the White House that it was official. Alan took the oath of office that evening, standing in front of the fieldstone fireplace at the Fords’ home in Beaver Creek Colorado. Dick Cheney administered the oath, and I held the Bible. The setting could not have been more meaningful, since it was Jerry Ford who had first given Alan the opportunity to go into government service exactly thirty years earlier”
If this lovely scene isn’t enough to turn your stomach, check out this
“On…December 13 [2003], Alan and I were going to a holiday party at the Rumsfelds, ” writes NBC-TV reporter Andrea Mitchell. “[There] , everyone seemed especially jolly. The defense secretary was almost bouncing on his heels. The vice president [of the U.S.] and my husband huddled in a corner. George Tenet was cracking jokes. At one point, [fellow reporter] Tim Russert told the CIA director that he’d dreamed Saddam had been captured. Tenet looked startled, but laughted it off’.
The next daybrough the announcement tha tSaddam Hussein had indeed been taken prisoner; but Mitchell says her husband, Federsl Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, refused to tell her if that was what he and Cheney had been talking about.
http://www.amazon.com/ exec/ obidos/ tg/ detail/ -/ 0670034037/ qid=1126740794/ sr=8-1/ ref=pd_bbs_1/ 104-0559649-7036749?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
September 14th, 2005 at 7:29 pmholy crap, i almost spit beer through my nose.
why are they trying to store potatos (sorry, potatoes) in wis.? don’t they grow them in idaho? maybe they should spend the money on something more worthy - i dono, say like trying to maintain a super bowl contender.
September 14th, 2005 at 7:30 pmAndrea Mitchell is an access journalist, an insider and the postergirl for what’s wrong with the media today.
September 14th, 2005 at 7:40 pmI can tell this isn’t going to be a very popular thread. Old Tom has spoken to the Left’s heart; don’t cut spending…I NEED.
Evil Dick and I spoke about this at lunch. Even though we’re both in his district and support him we felt he needs to have his ass kicked for this. But you know what he’s doing don’t you? He’s making himself lovable to the losers than vote Democratic. That’s what Bush has done. I mean really, why vote for anti-American homosexual baby killers when you can get the same stuff from the Republicans?
September 14th, 2005 at 7:48 pmTom Delay is really sad but then he got elecred!!
September 14th, 2005 at 8:07 pmTom Delay is really sad but then he got elecred!!
September 14th, 2005 at 8:07 pm#6 - an indoor rainforest is a shower with trees.
Maybe Delay is right, maybe things are slimming down, but how about those budget deficits. The deficit and the trade imbalance add up to $1,000,000,000. I think that is 1 trillion.
Bush is trying for 2 trillion before he leaves office.
September 14th, 2005 at 8:18 pmMrWrong,
Are you wearing your ankle bracelet so you don’t molest again? Pedophiles like you shouldn’t be on the internet you know… The republicans always seem to get their freak on in the most twisted and dysfunctional manner - but then they execute politics in the same eyes of a pissy brat…
September 14th, 2005 at 8:18 pmDelay is a crook, bush is a crook, they’re republican politicians - the synomym is almost always crook…
September 14th, 2005 at 8:19 pmThis poll says nearly half of Americans don’t believe that the people actually control the government.
“Only in Scandinavia and South Africa do the majority believe that they are ruled according to their wishes. ”
“The figure is 55% for the US and Canada and up to 82% in EU countries - but just 24% in West Africa.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4247158.stm
September 14th, 2005 at 8:23 pm“no fat left to cut in the federal budget”
Must .. resist .. easy .. cheapshot ..
Ah, ta hell with it ..
“DeLay, there is obviously still *plenty* of fat between your ears. Which is astounding since someone can look in one and see quite clearly out the other.”
September 14th, 2005 at 8:38 pmWho believes the bile that emantes from this slimebag?
September 14th, 2005 at 8:38 pmWhat the naive fail to recognize is that there is little connection between the title of the spending bill and the actual use of the funds. For instance, the $240,000 for potato storage in Wisconsin sounds fair enough until, with a little research, you find that the potato they wish to store is actually the Republican Party Chief of the state who is a self-proclaimed couch-POTATO and the storage facility they are researching is a 42 foot yacht on the Missouri river that he uses to entertain his Bushco buddies. What sort of participatory porn are the repugs planning to produce with the film festival grant? I’ll bet my usual odds ($20.00 to a glass of warm pee) that you won’t see any of it on the Disney Channel.
September 14th, 2005 at 8:38 pmFYI,
The island across from Ketchikan has the State’s only legal brothel. The Bushco wives (that aren’t employed there) have bribed the ferry boat crews who report dilligently on all the comsumers of the island’s product. Hence, the bridge. The grant also includes a continual bribe for the bus and taxi drivers to not report the partakers.
September 14th, 2005 at 8:46 pmThe $200,000 for the “Pee Nuts” in Alabama may be a legitimate claim to clean up the University of Alabama football stadium. It seems that over 90% of the Repugs in the State had tickets to the last “Bama” home game. Every thing was progressing nicely until late in the third quarter when one of the vendors started through the group calling “Pee Nuts!” He was the first victim of the Repugs’ Latrina flood.
September 14th, 2005 at 8:55 pmhey nice work on your facts–but perhaps you should keep digging–there isnt one recent administration that has not had foolish spending—perhaps you should report on things equally!
September 14th, 2005 at 9:36 pmhttp://vitter.senate.gov/contact.cfm
September 14th, 2005 at 9:40 pmGOP: G.reedy O.ld P.arty.
September 14th, 2005 at 9:44 pmYou’re either with B.B. King, or against us!
September 14th, 2005 at 9:58 pmwhine, whine, whine… sucks when you don’t have a clue doesn’t it.
September 14th, 2005 at 10:09 pm$15,000 for a smoking booth? Ah, yes. It must fit DeLay’s delicate tastes. He has to have somewhere to smoke his *Cuban* cigars.
$50 million towards an “indoor” rainforest. Jesus, put it towards* the rainforests.
Pablo—
September 14th, 2005 at 10:19 pm$1,000,000,000,000
#27
To whom is it, Sir (Ma’am or It), that you have reference?
Okam’s Razor says we should “Never posit a plularity without necessity.” Given that philosophy it is obvious thatt you have reference to Bushco and Delay, Knight of the Clueless, or perhaps you are reflecting upon your own hopeleee position. Should you be mocking someone on the Repug side please accept my abject apologies.
September 14th, 2005 at 11:05 pmThink of the children! Umm… I mean tax breaks. Think of the tax breaks! Somebody save the privatization scheme! Oh woe is me, never again shall I hear the pitter patter of little legislative loopholes.
September 15th, 2005 at 12:05 amSo sorry, honorable Americans. I have come to forclose on your lovely country. Please to step into the factories and work camps for your repayment schedule. A thousand thanks for this most profitable business deal.
September 15th, 2005 at 12:09 am$300,000 for a parking garage in Auburn, Maine! I’d rather see the peanut festival in Maine, much more fun. How much fun can you get out of a parking garage! It doesn’t do anything, just sits there!!!
#31 CC banking industry, So, now you’re going to send us your factories and work camps! Where were you when we really needed the work? You can forclose but you have to take GW & his cronies, as part of the package. It’s time he destroyed someone else’s country and yours is as good as any.
September 15th, 2005 at 12:34 amWe’re going somewhere else and start over. And no, we’re not telling you where.
Seriously, let’s hope they don’t call in the ‘markers’, I don’t think we want to see the bill.
“$200 million to build a bridge from Ketchikan, Alaska to a nearby island with 50 inhabitants.”
Dude, I have lived there! That island, just so everyone knows, houses the International Aiport. Currently the only way to the Airport is by ferry. The costs of running ferrys has skyrocketed as they age. Aside from the cost, the had a few incidents where people needed to be evacuated quickly to trauma hospitals. The problem is that the airport is the only place to land a medivac chopper (due to they built the town on the side of a mountain and on docks).
Now that may not require a super bridge and just a simple one. but here is where you and the govt comes in. The channel (Inside Passage) that must be crossed is the main line (Alaska MArine Highway) in which 90% of all cargo is transported to Anchorage and other northern cities. There are doz of cruise ship daily as well. The problem is that this bridge must be high enough to let them all safely pass. Then of course there is the issue of stability. It is not uncommon in Ketchikan to have constant 80+MPH wind gusts!
Just want you to all know, the bridge is very little pork in anybodys pocket!
September 15th, 2005 at 6:58 amJust want you to all know, the bridge is very little pork in anybodys pocket!
Comment by Jim
See what I mean? It’s not pork if it’s my pork.
“The problem is that the airport is the only place to land a medivac chopper (due to they built the town on the side of a mountain and on docks).”
Fine, just let everyone pay for the stupidity of a few. No problem, we’re used to it.
September 15th, 2005 at 7:21 amBush Becomes Democrat
Bush then commented on a strange feeling he was experiencing.
“My heart feels all gooshy from helping people, or at least thinking about helping them. I wonder if Democrats ever feel this way.”
September 15th, 2005 at 8:33 amYears ago I used to fly into Ketchikan every year, stay overnight at the Hilltop Motel, and bright and early the next morning take the ferry over to the airport. From there I would hire a private little plane to take me to a remote fishing area and tell him to come and pick me up next Wednesday.
That bridge would be an inconvenient convenience. It would take all the glamour out of going on such a fishing trip. The taxi fare would be double the ferry charge and one would miss the chilly wind blowing in ones face.
September 15th, 2005 at 9:49 amif we look hard enough, i bet delay had a hand in this as well– i’ll get on it an let you know.
September 15th, 2005 at 11:35 amhttp://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9340116/
#11,
Since “anti-American homosexual baby killers” is an accurate description of BushCo specifically, and not all that unfair regarding Republicans in general, your comment makes zero sense.
#25 - “GOP: G.reedy O.ld P.arty.”
Huh, thought it was G.reedy O.ld P.ansies.
September 15th, 2005 at 12:03 pmI thought Delay was in prison…. or was that just a dream.
This worthless piece of….. I digress. Delay wants to fund an indoor rainforest??? A bridge to some island in Alaska???
He is living in an inverted reality. I guess those guys from enron he has been playing golf with have some very persuasive arguments.
September 15th, 2005 at 12:46 pmAs far as the Rochester film festival is concerned, if the Rochesterians or New Yorkers want it so damned badly, THEY can pay for it. I will get no benefit from that festival down here in Virginia; so my tax dollars shouldn’t go to pay for it.
As far as the Alaskan bridge goes, that they built their international airport on an island sounds like a blunder that they now expect the rest of us to pay for; Alaska is awash in oil, so why can’t they pay for it themselves?
September 15th, 2005 at 12:53 pm…..I only have one question: What happened to Greenspan saying that we needed to CUT spending and BALANCE the budget? Is it just me or is Alan a big ole political hack?
September 15th, 2005 at 2:26 pm………I have all my money on the Fed going back to that policy right around the time that Hillary gets elected in ‘09! Do I have any takers?
As a lifelong resident of Madison, WI, and someone that has spent his life admiring the potato storage industry, I’d like to thank Tom DeLay… for… um.
=|
Hold it. Potato storage?
September 15th, 2005 at 2:47 pmSen. Ted Stevens of Alaska is the chair of the appropriations comm. and he’s a hard core conservative who believes that people should be self sufficient and take care of themselves and welfare shouldn’t be tolerated. Of course, Alaska has so much oil money there is no income tax and residents actually get a check each year as their share of the surplus. Many flood Las Vegas each year to spend their free money. Yet, they want the rest of us to build them a bridge to a bush airport someone decided to build on and island. When do I get my check from Alska?
September 15th, 2005 at 4:30 pmI say store those potatoes in Potatoland
http://potatoland.org/
September 19th, 2005 at 1:25 pm[…] […]
September 28th, 2005 at 3:30 pmDeLay’s actions in congress today, pushing the oil bill through, is just yet another example of how he is determined to force every citizen (except the fat cats) to bend over for the oil barons.
October 7th, 2005 at 7:48 pmIf it is so imperitive that we add refining capacity, then why did Shell try to close their Bakersfield, California refinery last year, even though it was their most profitable facility? Something stinks and will continue to do so until the people who put these idiots into office wise up and vote them out.
I live in a city that is heavily republican and just about everyone is disgusted with both their executive and the legislative representatives. Several can’t quite bring themselves to switch to the democratic party, however they are leaning toward the libertarian. One said the party has changed too much since the Reagan days.
That Alaskan bridge to “nowhere” angers me also. California drivers pay a lot of gas tax that never gets back to the state. We have far too many vehicles for the existing roads, which are in poor repair.
I see that the Pork Report found on my organizations web site is causing a stir. I love it!
Keep the flames burning folks, but I would also urge you to get involved. Bitching about it without actually putting skin into the game, will not help fix the issues.
If you wish to read a good story and help fight our current government structure, read the book - EARTH 2010. It is a politically charged Sci-Fi Thriller that blends current affairs with Legends of yore, and hurls modern society into unimagined Chaos.
Sold ONLY at CafePress.com
Link: http://www.cafepress.com/earth2010
Keep up the fight!
October 14th, 2005 at 12:08 pmMy name is Andrew Hillman. This Delay thing has gotten very crazy and has gotten way out of hand. Lets look close at this!
Andrew Hillman
October 15th, 2005 at 1:04 amHow about this FAT! “The state also has a standing $15,000 a month lobbying contract with the Federalist Group, which emplyed U.S. Rep Tom DeLay’s former chief of Staff Drew Maloney.” “I don’t think we need to line the pockets of our cronies, said Gammage, whos’ been accusing Perry of being part ofa corrupt political machine stretching from Texas to Washington”
“In hiring a lobbying firm with close ties to Jack Abramoff in 2004″!
FIGURE IT OUT DUMMY!!! Don’t forget to Vote the CORRUPTERS OUT, move to Texas become a resident save the Country vote the corrupters out!
April 13th, 2006 at 8:49 amCorruption - Abramoff - Delay (Defense fund)
Those who BACKED MUST GET PACKED!
April 13th, 2006 at 9:19 amMore fat found ………..ooops actually BLUBBER MASSIVE AMOUNTS BILLIONS!
* Tom DeLay showed up on June 6, 2006 with Senske the lawyer to thwarth a Congressional Investigation into MASSIVE MEDICAID/FOSTER CARE FRAUD!
And the FAKE DEATH REPORTS OF CHILDREN!
LEARN THE SECRET SYSTEM FOR STEALING MONEY!
NOTE: Lutheran Social Services has the largest foster care contracts in Texas!
Note: Lutheran Social Services took trips to Russia!
Note: Lutheran social Services runs cover for TD!
http://media.familyrights.us/expose/ExposeV2005.pdf
http://familyrightsassociation.com/hotspots/index.html
* Here is how Republicans FUND RAISE ((( LIFE INSURANCE WAY )))!
http://www.texasobserver.org/ showArticle.asp?ArticleID=2016
*** Guess why the FAKE FATALITY REPORTS ON CHILDREN??? TAKE WILD GUESS!
FOSTER CARE LIFE INSURANCE LEGISLATION DUMMY! IT AINT in the Foster Care Legislation you would have spotted it there! They made what is ILLEGAL …Legal and jacked the limits up 500%………………bet you can’t find the legislation!!!
Do you want the FAKE DEATH REPORTS POSTED NEXT TO REAL NUMBERS???
Think about it first! THEN I WILL POST!
* Why is Congressman building Group Foster Homes!?
TEXAS STATE AUDITS! FOSTER CARE VENDORS!
1.) Misappropriation!
2.) NO WAY OF KNOWING SERVICES BILLED EVER PROVIDED!
3.) BACKDATING!
Sounds like Free money to me who legislates the money JUST WONDERING?
Oh the Life Insurance on the Democratic Foster children that is REPUBLICAN BACKED AND SPONSORED!!! Just for you information!
* Abramoff Foster Care connection!
http://auctionhouse.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/11/4/114556/020
http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/11/9/15581/1958
Look at names on email!
http://www.txcfr.org/M.pdf *JUDGES
* NOTE: TD gave speech with Judge mentioned on June 6, 2003!
1.) Judge sits on CASA Non Profit as Director and congressmans wife on CASA NON PROFIT that testifies against the parents!
2.) Judge sits on CASA Non Profit as Director and its against the JUDICIAL CANNON they broke up same SCAM IN CALIFORNIA, still in TEXAS !
3.) Judge sits on other NON PROFITS AGAINST JUDICIAL CANNON!
4.) Judges wife testifies against the parents too!
5.) Judges wife has Children Therapy Contracts!
6.) Look at Crony’s on CASA. ( former TDPRS, (Aren’t they the ones that approve therapy contracts, Social Workers, JUDGES (AGAINST JUDICIAL CANNON)
QUESTION: CAN THE REST OF JUDGES FAMILY TESTIFY AGAINST PARENTS TOO! WHY NOT IF WIFE DOES??? ALSO IF THERAPIST CAN WHY CAN’T OTHER PEOPLE MAKING MONEY OFF THE CHILDREN TESTIFY ??? OH, FORGOT THEY ALREADY DO!
YOU BEEN DUPED AGAIN!
May 8th, 2006 at 10:06 am[…] 48. Ex-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) declared an “ongoing victory” in his effort to cut spending, and said “there is simply no fat left to cut in the federal budget.” [Link] […]
November 6th, 2006 at 7:41 pm