Category Archives: Fraud

BOHICA

Posted on by

Yes, today’s title is an acronym. No, I won’t explain it, look it up. It’s an appropriate title because John Boehner is about to stick it to us again on the Foodstamp Bill. What Foodstamp bill? It’s the one Boehner tries to pass as a Farm Bill. Yes, that nearly $1Trillion bill that is 80% for food stamps and 20% for pork, and not the four-legged kind.

Our local congresswomen is bragging how she deleted a duplicate catfish provision, saving a few tens of million dollars. Will she vote against the entire bill? I doubt it. She voted for it the last time and this time around she has her name on one little piece of eliminating a minor duplication. Of course she’ll vote for it.

But, let’s get back to Boenher. Here’s his plan that he released to the Washington Times.

John Boehner: Time is right to bring latest farm bill to House floor

By Sean Lengell – The Washington Times, Monday, June 10, 2013

After punting last year on a farm bill, House Speaker John A. Boehner said Monday he will bring his chamber’s 2013 version to the floor this month — a move sure to divide his fellow Republicans.

The announcement came the same day the Senate easily passed its own farm bill — a five-year, half-trillion-dollar measure that calls for expanded government subsidies for crop insurance, rice and peanuts while making small food stamp cuts.

Last year, Mr. Boehner declined to bring a farm bill to the House floor in a move designed to avoid a nasty intraparty fight during an election year, as farm state Republicans pushed for crop subsidies while other GOP conservatives demanded widespread cuts.

But with midterm elections almost a year and half away and the Senate passing its farm bill Monday evening by a vote of 66 to 27, the Ohio Republican decided the time was right to hold debate and a possible vote on the measure.

Mr. Boehner suggested his decision also was based on “a number of positive reforms” in his chamber’s bill shepherded by House Agriculture Chairman Frank D. Lucas, Oklahoma Republican — particularly provisions that would end direct payments to farmers and cuts in the food stamp program.

“As a longtime proponent of top-to-bottom reform, my concerns about our country’s farm programs are well known,” said Mr. Boehner in a prepared statement.

“But as I said on the day I became speaker, my job isn’t to impose my personal will on this institution or its members. Rather, it’s to ensure we have a fair process and an open debate, leading to a product that reflects the will of our majority, the will of our members and the will of those we represent.”

Farm bills usually are among the most bipartisan legislative matters on Capitol Hill, as lawmakers from agricultural states and districts — despite party — come together to ensure their success.

The most recent multiyear farm bill expired at the end of September, although programs continued through temporary funding extensions.

The House Agriculture Committee last month passed its latest farm bill with broad bipartisan support. The measure would make much larger cuts to food stamps than the Senate version in a bid to gain support from Republicans who have opposed the measure.

The Senate bill would cut the food stamp program by about $400 million a year, or half a percent. The House bill would cut the program by $2 billion a year, or a little more than 3 percent, and make it more difficult for some people to qualify.

Three percent cut in food stamps. THREE LOUSY PERCENT! The House brags it cut a billion from foods stamp when the total for food stamps is in the neighborhood of $600Billion.

But it’s uncertain whether the cuts will be enough to placate House conservatives. And even Mr. Boehner hinted he may not support the measure in its current form, saying he has concerns about some of the measure’s dairy provisions and “will support efforts on the House floor to change them appropriately.”

The speaker added that if House members “have ideas on how to make the bill better, [they should] bring them forward.”

Because the food stamp program — now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP — makes up almost 80 percent of the bill’s cost, some conservative groups have suggested splitting off the program from the agriculture-related portion of the bill.

“The urban and rural logrolling deemed necessary to pass this bill has created an unholy bipartisan alliance that has long served to thwart fiscally responsible efforts to restrain spending and limit the growth of government,” said a group of more than a dozen conservative organizations in a letter to House members dated Monday. “Separating food stamps and considering them in an alternate piece of legislation is not only sound policy, but also good politics.” — The Washington Times

Separating Food Stamps from the Farm Bill would be an exercise of Truth in Advertising. It’s time to end the subterfuge. A Food Stamps Bill and a Pork Bill. If crop subsidies are really necessary, and I question that (I grew up on a farm,) then let them be evaluated on their own merit, not hidden inside massive pork and welfare legislation.

Facebook

The End of the Story…

Posted on by

The Cass County Commissioners ended the horror story of the Cass County Broadband Initiative Monday of this week. The initiative was sold as bringing high-speed internet to everyone, every rural resident, in the county. Unfortunately, the supposed return on the county’s investment was a fantasy. The initiative would never have been self-supporting and would have been a fiscal anchor in the county’s budget for the foreseeable future. I’ve written about this project before, here and here, as well as having a few Letters-to-the-Editor published in our county newspaper.

In a 2 to 1 vote, on Monday of this week, the Commissioners voted to disband the project.

Unfortunately, the spending can’t end yet. While the project existed, it put the county deeply in debt. The county will have to cover those debts or declare bankruptcy. The up side is that no more money will be thrown down the rathole.

The legal investigations on where the money went, for what, and who benefited, is ongoing. Several millions are still unaccounted for. At least three, at my last count, former county politicos, are under investigation. The FBI is involved because some of those missing funds were provided by the USDA.

For the last forty years, Cass County has been controlled by a political oligarchy—mostly democrats. That ended in 2010 when the ‘Pubs won all three commissioner seats. Unfortunately, one, the newly elected Presiding Commissioner, was ousted by the democrat Prosecutor, and the other two ‘Pubs were members of the oligarchy. Nothing changed except for the political labels. The only member who espoused conservative principles was the one booted out.

The vote to end the project did not go by party lines. Jeff Cox, the ‘Pub Presiding Commissioner, and Luke Scavuzzo, the dem South Associate Commissioner, voted to end Broadband. Jimmy Odom, the ‘Pub Northern Associate Commissioner, voted to continue spending and the project.

Scavuzzo had originally been in favor of the project. In favor, that is, until it was disclosed that the county did not own the Right-of-Way on the roads that were to be used to lay the fiber. The county had been maintaining these roads but did not own them. When the cost of adding easements for the fiber was added to the existing cost projections, it was too much.

I didn’t vote for Luke Scavuzzo. He’s in the county south and I’m in the north. I must say that he has impressed me since his initial appointment a year ago and his actions since winning his current position last November.  Not that I’d vote for him. He’s still a dem.

Still, in this case, Luke Scavuzzo has demonstrated fiscal restraint and good practices. I wish I could say the same for the other ‘Pub associate commissioner.

Here’s the official report as it appeared in the Cass County Democrat Missourian.

Cass County broadband project dies

By Bethany Bashioum, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013

The Cass County Broadband Project initiative has lost all of its steam.

Cass County Commissioners decided Feb. 25 that there is little to no feasibility left for the county’s broadband project, and made the decision to ultimately kill it during a public meeting by a 2-1 vote.

The project, conceived two years ago, looked to build a broadband fiber network in order to bring high-speed Internet access to 11,592 households and 701 businesses in rural areas of the county.

But after swiftly moving through a short list of other agenda items during Monday’s meeting, Presiding Commissioner Jeff Cox entertained a motion to approve a resolution in regard to the county’s Request for Proposals with general contracting firms to take the broadband fiber to homes in rural Cass County.

Associate Commissioner Jimmy Odom made a motion for approval, but the question quickly died due to the lack of a second.

In response to the previous motion, the following agenda item, a resolution to authorize the publication and release the broadband project’s RUS Form 515 became moot.

A few moments later, Cox then asked the Commission for the authority to disband the project.

Associate Commissioner Luke Scavuzzo seconded the decision.

In a brief statement, Cox cited a number of reasons for his decision after spending nearly two months studying the project.

Part of the decision, he said, was linked to the issue that although the county has requested a 60-day extension to the United States Department of Agriculture for the county’s 2011 audit as well as releasing a reimbursement of $326,000 that the county has spent on recent engineering costs.

Cox said that to date, the USDA has refused to release those funds.

“USDA funding is still frozen and we’re continuing to incur engineering costs that are not being reimbursed from the federal government,” Cox said. “We’re basically at the point where we can either take the monies out of the general fund to pay the engineers or we can just default on our contract with the engineer. Or, we can take the money out of the Certificates of Participation, which are supposed to be used for non-USDA eligible costs.”

…

When Cox opened the floor for the other commissioners to voice their perspectives, Odom, who has supported the project for it’s prospect to enhance economic development in the county, said he wants to hear more about the audit issues and why the USDA funds aren’t being released.

“I’ve never seen anything like that in government where we’re that far behind and I would like to know why,” he said.

On the other hand, Scavuzzo voiced his disapproval of the project, but thanked Freeman for her work.

…

Concluding the discussion, the Commission carried the vote to disband the project 2-1.

Cox and Scavuzzo voted in favor of ditching broadband.

“Initially, what I will be doing will be notifying all the parties involved now that the Commission has given me the authority to do that,” Cox said. “We will then have to deal with getting all those final bills paid.”

Cox said that there are few options available to deal with the debt that’s been accumulated, one being that it can be rolled into the county’s existing COP funds since the county is already paying the full interest on those funds.

“I think we need to return our focus to providing the core services that county government is responsible for,” he said. “I think it’s important that we get out now while we still can afford to do so.”

The county should have never gotten into this project. Jeff Cox restated that this project did not fall into any core responsibilities of the county government.

“I think we should return our focus to providing the core services that county government has a responsibility to provide, such as road and bridge and law enforcement. The things that the people in the rural areas, that this initiative was meant to help, are the people that I have seen hurt the most out of all of this because all the money that has been diverted from those core services.”

Facebook

Whispers from the Internet

Posted on by

Unless you’re a listener of Mark Levin, you probably haven’t heard this bit of news. Levin’s Landmark Legal Foundation is suing the EPA to acquire documents concerning pending regulation, post-election, and whether those regulations are politically biased.

Conservative talker Mark Levin’s legal arm sues EPA

12:28 AM 10/25/2012

Conservative radio talk show host Mark Levin’s legal group is suing the Environmental Protection Agency to obtain documents pertaining to the regulations the agency plans to implement after the election.

Levin’s law firm, the Landmark Legal Foundation, filed the lawsuit in federal court this week, seeking a court order directing the EPA to preserve and produce all records related to the agency’s regulatory plans after the presidential election.

The suit argues that news stories and political observers have indicated the EPA is “intentionally delaying the issuance of controversial new regulations until after the November election” with the possibility that “a) the Obama Administration is improperly politicizing EPA activities; b) EPA officials are attempting to shield their true policy goals from the public; and/or c) EPA officials themselves are putting partisan interests above the public welfare.”

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/10/25/conservative-talker-mark-levins-legal-arm-sues-epa/#ixzz2AK91q6TL

One of the things Levin wants to establish is a pattern of behavior by the EPA of malfeasance and political manipulation of regulations to support a leftist agenda. Levine filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOA) and the EPA denied the request.

Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Inhofe, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, released a report last week on the regulations he expects the EPA will implement after the election. The senator told The Daily Caller that he appreciated the [Landmark Legal Foundation] challenge to the agency. — The Dailycaller.

The EPA has been a rogue agency for years, progressively getting worse with each administration. It’s time for the EPA to go and it’s legitimate functions absorbed into another department like the Department of the Interior.

***

The democrats have been caught instructing people how to vote fraudulently. The individual is the son of Virginia democrat congressman Jim Moran. Moran’s son is also Moran’s campaign manager.

James O’Keefe video leads to resignation of Patrick Moran from father’s campaign

1:39 AM 10/25/2012

Democratic Rep. Jim Moran’s son, Patrick Moran, has resigned from his father’s campaign after apparently advising an undercover Project Veritas reporter on how to commit voter fraud.

“Effective immediately, I have resigned from the Moran for Congress campaign,” Patrick Moran said in a statement to TPM.

Conservative activist James O’Keefe released the damning video that led to Moran’s resignation earlier Wednesday.

“There will be a lot of voter protection,” Moran explains to the reporter in the video. “So, if they just have — you know just the utility bill or bank statement — bank statement would obviously be tough — but, they can fake a utility bill with ease.”

“You have to forge it,” Moran says, referring to the utility bill required to pose as a registered voter.

Watch the undercover video:

Moran told the undercover reporter that an attorney from either the Obama campaign or the Democratic National Committee would defend him if things went bad.

Voter fraud: it’s what democrats do.

Facebook

Cass County Candidate Forum #3 and other items

Posted on by

The third Cass County Candidate Forum was held last night. This time it was only the six Commission candidates and the two for Sheriff. There were some minor difficulties. First the sound system failed. That happened at the first forum held at the same location. Second the moderator used a timer app on his phone. The “Bell” was too faint for some to hear. Other than that it all went smoothly.

At first I tried to note my impression of each individual. I came up with some labels: The Conservative, The Pro, Slick, Legal Eagle, Snake-oil Man, Bureaucrat, The Politician. I couldn’t come up with a name for the 8th that could be printed.

There wasn’t anything new that I could determine.  Jeff Cox set the tone. His goals were fiscal responsibility, setting spending priorities, building the emergency fund, and forcing transparency in the Commission’s activities by creating a video archive/streaming video of all Commission meetings with using the internet to publish the working packets and documents for everyone to review. In essence, to duplicate public access methods used by Raymore and Belton.

Cox’s opponent and the other candidates essentially repeated those points. Terry Wilson spoke after Jeff Cox and said, “I agree with Jeff.” He didn’t add anything to Jeff’s comments. My thought was if all he was doing was copying Jeff Cox’s ideas, why bother with Terry Wilson—go with the originator of those ideas.

Terry Wilson has been in office as the appointed Presiding Commissioner since May of this year. The transparency initiatives brought up by Jeff Cox aren’t complicated nor all that expensive. If Terry Wilson is in favor of them, why hasn’t he already implemented some of them? The same applies to South Commissioner Luke Scavuzzo who was appointed in January after the resignation of Commissioner Bill Cook.

Talk is cheap. Actions show intentions. Neither Wilson nor Scavuzzo have acted and that shows they’re just giving lip-service to transparency.

***

The UN has decided they are going to intrude in our Federal election. I’m surprised Obama hasn’t already invited them. He’s their bud.

The Texas Attorney-General, on the other hand, has a contrary view.

Attorney General Abbott Tells International Election Observers to Abide by Texas Election Laws

Texas AG says Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe has no jurisdiction over Texas elections

AUSTIN – Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott today advised the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe — a United Nations partner — that groups and individuals from outside the United States do not have jurisdiction to interfere with Texas elections. The Attorney General’s letter comes after the international group — comprised of 56 members including EU nations and other countries—announced they would be sending election observers to sites throughout the United States, including Texas, on Election Day.

The UN and the EU are in Obama’s hip-pocket. The only election violations will come from the dems. Having the UN and EU rubber-stamp dem election fraud does no one any good.

***

My, my! The White House was notified within hours of the Benghazi attack according to internal State Department e-mails. Yet, Obama and the White House continued to blame some obscure 10-minute video as the cause for over two weeks.

White House told of militant claim two hours after Libya attack: emails

WASHINGTON | Tue Oct 23, 2012 9:11pm EDT

(Reuters) – Officials at the White House and State Department were advised two hours after attackers assaulted the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11 that an Islamic militant group had claimed credit for the attack, official emails show.

The emails, obtained by Reuters from government sources not connected with U.S. spy agencies or the State Department and who requested anonymity, specifically mention that the Libyan group called Ansar al-Sharia had asserted responsibility for the attacks.

The brief emails also show how U.S. diplomats described the attack, even as it was still under way, to Washington.

You can find the complete story at the website.

Facebook

Pugsley wins

Posted on by

As we get closer to November, the polls are tightening. Romney is either at par or slightly ahead of Obama in most of the polls. He’s doing better in the crucial swing states as well.

If that is true, why do I not feel optimistic—I usually am? Perhaps it’s the travesty of an election in Venezuela. Chavez, known in some circles as Pugsley, was up for his third 6-year term. This time he had a courageous opponent. One who had a real chance of winning.  On election day, exit polls indicated a huge win for Chavez’ challenger. Hours after the polls closed Chavez was called the winner with 54% of the vote.

Something smells.

Obama congratulated Chavez.

We have had ample examples of democrat vote fraud, locally and at the state and federal levels. We’ve already seen democrat controlled states disenfranchising the military by refused to send them absentee ballots within the time-frame required by law. Ohio and Wisconsin are the most obvious examples.

In the last election we had examples of democrats shuffling illegals through polls and registering the dead. Breitbart investigated A.C.O.R.N. and exposed their fraudulent tactics.  A.C.O.R.N. continues to get federal funding despite legislation passed in Congress.

After his extremely poor performance in last week’s debate, Obama and the democrats are getting desperate. When ‘rats get desperate, they do desperate things. If Obama loses, we can expect protest, lawsuits, more examples of the “hanging chad,” any tactic to whittle away votes for Romney. Think Florida of 2000 but across the country, especially in those critical swing states.

I do not expect this election to be quiet even with an overwhelming margin for Romney. ‘Rats and the parasite class won’t give up their government subsidies without protests.

Facebook

TGIF

Posted on by

Obama’s spin machine is up and running. He’s back to using his established tactics…like continuing to fudge the unemployment reports.  The Drudge headline this morning was “7.8” implying the unemployment rate dropped from 8.3 last month to 7.8 this month.  As usual, it’s misleading.

There are two numbers, the U3, the 7.8 number mentioned above, and the U6.  The difference between the two is dramatic. The U3 number is a result of a survey of households.  It excludes those who work part-time. It excludes those who are no longer receiving unemployment because they’ve run out for that household. It does not include farm-related job losses.  The U3 measures the change of those in the unemployment system. Those just beginning to receive unemployment and those who are ceased drawing unemployment.  The assumption of the latter is that if you’re no longer drawing unemployment, you’ve found a job!

The U6 is different. It’s more commonly known as the “true” unemployment number. Last month is was in the mid-teens. It includes all those that are in the U3 and those excluded by the U3. The U6 remained essentially unchanged from last month.

There is an additional number that is released with these reports.  The size of the labor force. That number has been steadily dropping since 2001. If the labor forces continues to shrink and the numbers of unemployed remains the same, the percentage of the unemployed increases.  The U6, if I understand the formula correctly, incorporates the size of the labor force. The U3 does not. You can find a better explanation on the U3 and U6 here.

So. What does this new “low” number mean? Not much. If this number follows the trend established since Obama took office, it will be revised upward next week, and the following week—as will the quarterly numbers. It’s a well established pattern. Throw out some number to make Obama look good, then when the public’s attention is elsewhere, release “corrections.”

This should be no surprise to anyone after Obama’s abysmal performance in the first Presidential debate. He has to do something to divert attention from his performance.  You can bet nothing damaging will be released until after the election in a few weeks.

Facebook

Revelation and Observation

Posted on by

When people hear the word, Revelation, most will think of the last book of the Bible.  Their next thought is frequently the horror stories of the end of the world. Many even speak that name of that book incorrectly saying, “Revelations,” plural.

Rev 1:1. The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him, to show to his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel to his servant John:

As you can see, Revelation is singular and of Jesus Christ. I could go into more theology but that isn’t the theme for this segment of today’s post.

Yesterday, the Cass County Courthouse was a site of Revelation. The outside auditor’s report was officially presented to the public by the county Commission. A representative of the auditing firm reported on the most egregious errors discovered and answered questions from the two attending Commissioner. The County Auditor was added to the discussion and between him and the outside auditor revealed a number of revelations to the public including a $2,000,000 deficit in several projects started by prior commissioners.  The only sitting commissioner who served during the time in question, 2010, was not present.

Not only were the projects overspent, but over $1,000,000 could not be properly accounted for. Money had been spent with no invoice nor receipt to indicate why the money had been spent.

The first revelation: Four hundred thousand dollars had been paid to the BioFuels project but only $50,000, expenses and assets, could be accounted for. A visit to the site found only a used tank some piping and pumps. The prototype supposedly built by the funds was a failure. Where was the remaining $350,000?

The second revelation was in the Broadband project. $1.7 million had been spent and only $700,000 can be accounted for. Timesheets, invoices and receipts only totaled $700,000. Where was the remaining $1 million?

The next revelation was the disclosure by the outside auditor of conflicts of interest in these project by all of the commissioners at the time, 2010. The planned sorgum pipeline (biofuel) for the Justice Center’s power plant was routed through property owned by a commissioner. The two other commissioners were heavily involved in the engineering company designing the Broadband project. Money was paid to that company with no supporting documentation, nor, apparently a contract!  Cass County’s former Presiding Commissioner was later employed by that company.

The final revelation should not surprise anyone. During the followup Q&A with the public, it was revealed that the Department of Justice has started an investigation since the funds not accounted for were provided by the Department of Agriculture as part one of the “stimulus” bills approved by Congress. As one member of the public later remarked, “The only thing stimulated was the Commissioners’ pockets.”

The only serving commissioner from that time was conspicuously absent. That, too, raised a number of questions about his conduct

The mood of the audience was…enraged. Several members asked why those involved were not in jail or charged with fraud.  The short answer is that the current commissioners have no authority to do so.  All they, the County Auditor and the outside auditor can do is document what happened and turn that documentation over to the proper legal authorities.  That has been done. As one retired lawyer in the audience said, “While the wheels of justice grind slowly, they do grind very fine.”

Time will tell. I do expect, at some time in the future, some or all of those commissioners will be wearing orange jumpsuits with numbers.

***

The main stream media is trying to convince the nation the election is over, Obama won.  That couldn’t be further from the truth.

I’m a poll watcher. When a new poll is released, I ignore the publicly touted results and dive into the supporting data. I have found that most of the polls, with a few exceptions, are skewed in favor of the democrats.  The exceptions are Rasmussen and the Pew polls.  I’m not the only one to see the deception. The information below was mentioned by Rush Limbaugh earlier this week.

Demoralized as Hell, The poll the media isn’t talking about edition

by Datechguy | September 17th, 2012

For the last two weeks we have been treated to the narrative that Barack Obama is surging at the polls, Mitt Romney is in trouble and unless there is a massive change in direction it is all over.

Simply put this is a lie.

Of all the polls you have seen, there is one poll that has gotten no attention, it is a poll that has been taken monthly, it is a poll that Doug Ross spotted and promoted on his site. It is the Rasmussen Poll of party identification.

…

At no time during the year do the Democrats have a registration advantage vs republicans, the gap closes in July & re-separates in August. The low point for the GOP was July for 34.9 and the high August at 37.6 For democrats the high was 34.0 in June & July the low was 32.4 in Feb

What does this mean for November? It means a lot.

The Democrats won 2 election in this period 2006 & 2008 with a 6.9 advantage in 2006 & a 7.6 advantage in 2008.

There is no example of the Democrats winning since 2004 with an advantage less that 6.9.

The GOP won two elections in this period 2004 with a -1.6 disadvantage & 2010 with a 1.3 advantage. This means the GOP has proven it can win with not only a small lead but with an actual disadvantage. Additionally with an advantage of only 1.3 they pulled off the biggest house swing in my lifetime.

There is more at the website and further supporting information.  He uses similar techniques that I do. My attention is more towards MO state polls but our observations match.

The bottom line is that since 2010, the democrats have lost their numerical edge. However many of the polls still use sampling distribution between the dems and the ‘pubs from earlier years. The result is oversampling of democrats and skews the poll results in favor of the democrats.

This election is not a slam-dunk for Obama and the democrats.

Facebook