Kevin Earl Dayhoff Art One-half Banana Stems

Kevin Earl Dayhoff Art One-half Banana Stems - www.kevindayhoff.com Address: PO Box 124, Westminster MD 21158 410-259-6403 kevindayhoff@gmail.com Runner, writer, artist, fire & police chaplain Mindless ramblings of a runner, journalist & artist: Travel, art, artists, authors, books, newspapers, media, writers and writing, journalists and journalism, reporters and reporting, technology, music, culture, opera... National & International politics www.kevindayhoff.net For community: www.kevindayhoff.org For art, technology, writing, & travel: www.kevindayhoff.com

Showing posts with label US Congress. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US Congress. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

John P. Murtha - A Complex and Complicated Life

John P. Murtha - A Complex and Complicated Life

Click here for a larger image: http://twitpic.com/12cu3s or here: http://kevindayhoff.tumblr.com/post/381452661/john-p-murtha-a-complex-and-complicated-life

The Tentacle www.thetentacle.com: John P. Murtha - A Complex and Complicated Life by Kevin Dayhoff http://tinyurl.com/ygn5cp7

http://www.thetentacle.com/ShowArticle.cfm?mydocid=3598

John P. Murtha, the Democrat congressman from Pennsylvania, died at Virginia Hospital Center Monday at the age of 77 after complications from gall-bladder surgery.

For some, Congressman Murtha burst upon the scene to become a household name and patriot, who spoke ‘truth to power’ against the Iraq war during the administration of President George W. Bush.

For others, Congressman Murtha was a complicated and complex, hypocritical, knee-jerk opportunistic lefty whose ‘principled’ objections to the war on terrorism quickly became irresponsible in tenor and tone.

Exacerbating the criticisms of Congressman Murtha was the perception that he mysteriously lost his voice of opposition to the war efforts once President Barack Obama was sworn into office.

Funny how that happens.

Even The Washington Post, not overwhelmingly known for going out of its way to say anything particularly unkind about Democrats, identified him in its lede as the “master of pork-barrel politics … considered one of the most influential on Capitol Hill,” and “a Vietnam veteran who staunchly supported military spending…”

Mr. Murtha held the seat in Congress from the 12th Congressional District in southwestern Pennsylvania for 19 terms. He first won the seat in a special election in 1974 after Republican Congressman John P. Saylor died in office.

Even a cursory review of his life and accomplishments reveals that Mr. Murtha was a gentleman for whom there is much to be admired and respected.

Certainly not to be overlooked is the fact that Mr. Murtha continued his service to our country by being the first Vietnam veteran to take a seat in Congress.

The road to Vietnam and Congress actually began as far back as the early 1950s.

[…]

*****
Kevin Dayhoff Soundtrack: http://www.kevindayhoff.net/ Kevin Dayhoff Art: http://www.kevindayhoffart.com/ Kevin Dayhoff Westminster: http://www.westgov.net/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevindayhoff Twitpic: http://twitpic.com/photos/kevindayhoff Kevin Dayhoff's The New Bedford Herald: http://kbetrue.livejournal.com/

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

The automakers in your grill for a bailout

The automakers in your grill for a bailout

November 23, 2008 by Kevin Dayhoff

In the 1890s, William (Billy) C. Durant, a high school dropout and grandson of Michigan Governor Henry H. Crapo, manufactured horse drawn wagons in Flint, Michigan.

By September 16, 1908, 100 years ago, he had plowed headfirst into the horseless-carriage business and formed General Motors (GM) as a holding company on for Buick.

He subsequently took on overwhelming debt by purchasing the manufacturers of Oldsmobile, Cadillac, Elmore, and Oakland. Greatly overextended, after a dramatic drop in automobile sales, Mr. Durant lost control of the company in 1910 to one of the many powerful bankers’ trusts of the time.

Undaunted, Mr. Durant, went on to form the automobile manufacturer Chevrolet by forming a partnership with Louis Chevrolet and through a series of events involving intrigue and the force of his will; he regained control of GM - only to lose it again, for good after another downturn in the market.

A quarter of a century later, the United Auto Workers was founded in May 1935, during the depths of the Great Depression. Within two years, it gained recognition and clout by a series of strikes against GM and Chrysler. It would be six difficult years before it gained collective bargaining rights from Ford, in 1941.

A hundred years after the formation of the model of automobile manufacturing began in 1908, the management of the “Detroit Three,” Ford, GM and Chrysler, have essentially lost control of their destinies - and companies to the United Auto Workers (UAW.)

The day after the November 4th, presidential election which swept the Democrat Party’s nominee, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama into office and cemented a firm control over Congress, the Detroit Three and the UAW asked to be rewarded for their support by asking for a $25 billion bailout.

Various estimates run as high as $80 million to be the amount of money that the UAW alone raised for now President-elect Obama.

This comes as our nation’s taxpayers are still reeling from the passage of the $700 billion bank bailout in order to reward august financial leaders and conglomerates who behaved badly.

After decades of being blackmailed with the threat of crippling union strikes, the Detroit Three finds itself with uncompetitive work rules. It manufactures products which continue to languish with the perception that they lack the quality of its competitors. It offers vehicle models of which the American consumer has no interest. It makes these products with enormously uncompetitive salaries and benefits and now, the American taxpayers are being charged to bail them out.

No, I’m not making this up and this is not a script from “Saturday Night Live.” It’s real.

However, if you will recall, this is the same union that went on strike a year ago, in September 2007. According to a CBS news account: “While the strike may look like a test of wills, it is really a portrait of weakness, on both sides, reports CBS News correspondent Dean Reynolds.

“GM hasn't had a profit since 2004. It lost $12 billion over the last two years. And while it's making profits this year, they're coming from sales abroad, not here. For the UAW, it's lost 150,000 jobs at GM over the last 10 years amid repeated rounds of concessions, adds Reynolds.”

A year later, the Detroit Three expects the American taxpayer to reward this lunacy by bailing them out. Now that the Democrat Party is relishing being fully in charge of the Oval Office, a majority of the governorships, and both houses of congress, it did not take them long to put the election rhetoric aside.

Recently columnist Charles Krauthammer observed that saving “Detroit means saving it from bankruptcy. As we have seen with the airlines, bankruptcy can allow operations to continue while helping shed fatally unsupportable obligations.

“For Detroit, this means release from ruinous wage deals with their astronomical benefits (the hourly cost of a Big Three worker: $73; of an American worker for Toyota: $48), massive pension obligations, and unworkable work rules such as ‘job banks,’ a euphemism for paying vast numbers of employees not to work.

To revisit what I wrote in another column in “The Tentacle” on November 19, 2008; according to a recent International Herald Tribune news account: “The big U.S. companies employ about 240,000 workers and their suppliers an additional 2.3 million, amounting to nearly 2 percent of the nation's work force.

“The outright failure of General Motors would eliminate the biggest auto employer and more than 100,000 manufacturing jobs. That is about the number of jobs already lost this year at U.S. automakers and their suppliers.

“But many industry experts say the big foreign makers are established enough to take control of the industry and its vast supplier network more quickly than is widely understood.”

Underreported in the last several weeks has been the fact that the auto manufacturers in right-to-work states in the south are not clamoring for a bailout.

According to Mr. Thomas: James Sherk of The Heritage Foundation reports that these Japanese car companies provide their employees with good jobs at good wages: “The typical hourly employee at a Toyota, Honda, or Nissan plant in America makes almost $100,000 a year in wages and benefits, before overtime.”

In the end, the $50 billion corporate welfare, that Congress is asking the American taxpayer to reward the union and corporate leadership for decades of failed leadership, would be better spent on providing support, training and educational benefits to be directed to the American workers affected by the reorganization of the Detroit Three.

Against the backdrop of the Detroit Three threatening the end of the financial and manufacturing world as we know it; the clamor in Washington to reward the bad behavior of the Detroit Three has resulted in the further deterioration of whatever confidence Americans had left in either the government or the corporate captains of finance and industry.

####
20081201 The automakers in your grill for a bailout

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

This week in The Tentacle

This week in The Tentacle

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Rewarding Bad Behavior

Kevin E. Dayhoff

Instead of tooling down the highway in the fast lane, two months after General Motors celebrated its 100th Birthday on September 16, it found itself huddled over at an intersection with fate, harassing passers-by with a tin pan in hand.

William C. Durant formed General Motors (GM) as a holding company in 1908 for Buick. He subsequently took on overwhelming debt by purchasing the manufacturers of Oldsmobile, Cadillac, Elmore and Oakland. After a dramatic drop in automobile sales, Mr. Durant lost control of the company two years later to one of the many powerful bankers’ trusts of the time.

A hundred years later, the “Detroit Three,” – Ford, GM and Chrysler – have lost control of their companies to the United Auto Workers (UAW.)

After decades of being blackmailed with the threat of crippling union strikes, the Detroit Three finds themselves with uncompetitive work rules. It manufactures products which continue to languish with the perception that they lack the quality of their competitors. They offer numerous models, in which the American consumer has little or no interest. They make these automobiles with enormously uncompetitive salaries and benefits; and now the American taxpayers are being asked to bail them out.

Read the entire column here: Rewarding Bad Behavior


Fulfilling A Dream
Tom McLaughlin
“What has possessed you, Tom,” many have asked. “Leaving the country for Borneo Island for a year,” they wonder. “And what about your health?”


Baltimore Hippodrome's "Grinch"
Roy Meachum
What a delightful idea! Baltimore's Hippodrome Theatre decided to bring in for the holidays "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical."


Tuesday, November 18, 2008
New Terms and Limits in Iraq
Roy Meachum
While George W. Bush's order to invade Iraq made headline news, the several papers I read cast the real outcome somewhere in the back pages.


A Once-A-Year Happening
Farrell Keough


“[A]m I my brother’s keeper?” This was the statement Cain gave to God when questioned about the location of Abel, whom Cain murdered. It has become part of our cultural colloquialisms – generally applied when asking about our responsibility to help others.


Walkersville’s Welcome Wagon
Joe Charlebois
Well, the ugly head of unforeseen consequences has reared its ugly head. The Town of Walkersville, in its determination to keep the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community from building their worship and conference facilities, has ultimately broken the back – if not the pocketbook – of the Banner School family.


Monday, November 17, 2008
Avoiding The Temptation
Richard B. Weldon Jr.
I supported John McCain throughout the recent presidential election. Having written an entire column about why, there's no reason to re-plow that field.


Befuddled in Frederick
Steven R. Berryman
What strange days we are living in. My sympathy goes out to those whose intellectual process it is to attempt to make sense of the world around them.


Landfill & Waste-to-Energy Q & A
Joan McIntyre
My last column (from November 6) generated many questions. Trash in Frederick County certainly seems to be the hot topic. Trash is a given and we need to get out of our holding pattern. So, here I've done my best to address many of your questions.


Friday, November 14, 2008
Newly "Dis-Organized" Party
Roy Meachum
Three months after Franklin Delano Roosevelt was sworn in as the first Democratic president since Woodrow Wilson, Oklahoma-born comedian Will Rogers said on his weekly radio show: "You've got to be optimist to be a Democrat and you've got to be a humorist to stay one." Mr. Rogers was also quoted: "I belong to no organized political party – I’m a Democrat."


Thursday, November 13, 2008
Onward and Upward, Not Backwards
Tony Soltero
Now that the election is behind us, there's no shortage of analyses being offered by pundits left, right, and center about “What It All Means.” So here are a few bullet points of my own as a contribution to the discussion.


My President
Patricia A. Kelly
I’ve lived a pretty long time. I was alive and conscious during the civil rights movement. In fact, during that time, my mom drove my brother and me through the South every summer to visit my grandparents.


Wednesday, November 12, 2008
The Incredibly Shrinking Republican Party
Kevin E. Dayhoff
The ink is hardly dry on the “historic” election of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and already those with 20/20 hindsight are dissecting and revising the two-year ordeal, known as the 2008 presidential election, with the conviction of someone who has just seen a flying saucer land in the backyard.


Just Bustin’ Out All Over
Tom McLaughlin
It was as if a massive salt water wave swept over the country and washed away all of the hate and intolerance. I felt cleansed, jubilant and am still high from the November 4 election results. No more African-Americans, or Chinese-Americans, or Native Americans. We are all Americans.


Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Please, Jennifer, Not Again
Roy Meachum
Jennifer Dougherty's loss record for elections stands four-to-one after Tuesday's drubbing by Rep. Roscoe Bartlett. The only time she won, incumbent Mayor Jim Grimes shot himself in the foot. Repeatedly. When she tried for a second term, her own party dumped her; the first mayor in modern times to be defeated in a primary.


“It’s Good To Be A Teacher…”
Nick Diaz
Work-to-rule, teachers’ contract, planning time, Board of Education, FCTA, negotiated agreement – these topics, and more, have surfaced recently in Frederick concerning local education issues.

Monday, November 10, 2008
Election Post Mortem
Steven R. Berryman
Election 2008 is over. America now has a new president-elect, and an opportunity to evaluate just what Barack Obama’s victory means. Here are some lessons learned along with some 20/20 hindsight.

20081119 This week in The Tentacle

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Irate Congressman Demands Resignation of AIG CEO


Irate Congressman Demands Resignation of AIG CEO

Rep. Elijah Cummings: Latest "Junket" Violates AIG Pledge

By JOSEPH RHEE November 11, 2008—

A leading critic of AIG today demanded the company's CEO resign in the wake of the disclosure of yet another "junket" at a resort spa. In a letter to AIG's CEO Edward Liddy, Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said the decision to hold an event for independent financial advisors last week at a luxury Phoenix resort was "outrageous" given an earlier pledge by Liddy to curtail such events.

Cummings wrote that AIG can begin to restore its trust with Congress "by accepting your resignation from the positions of chairman and chief executive officer."

Reporters for abc15.com (KNXV) caught top AIG executives on hidden camera at a secretive gathering last week at the luxurious Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak Resort in Phoenix. AIG instructed the hotel to make sure no company logos and signs were seen on the property, according to a company spokesman.

Click here to see the full KNXV report.

In his letter, Cummings questioned how the Phoenix event could have taken place given Liddy's earlier assurances that "not one cent of taxpayer dollars" would by used to pay for such events. The decision to hold the event while AIG was asking for billions of dollars more in federal loans was "even more shocking", wrote Cummings.

[…]

Click here to read letter.

[…]

Click here to read AIG's full response.

Cummings asked Liddy to provide him with details on who the sponsors were and how much money they were providing, as well as an itemized list of expenses incurred by AIG. Cummings also requested a list of each of the
160 planned events that AIG said it had cancelled on or after October 30.

[…]


Read the entire article here: Irate Congressman Demands Resignation of AIG CEO

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/WallStreet/story?id=6230818&page=1

20081111 Irate Congressman Demands Resignation of AIG CEO

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Tapscott's Copy Desk: Comparison of original Paulson bailout to compromise proposal

Tapscott's Copy Desk: Comparison of original Paulson bailout to compromise proposal



More from Tapscott's Copy Desk RSS Feed



POSTED September 28, 2008



House Republican Whip Roy Blunt's office provides this side-by-side comparison of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's original Wall Street bailout proposal with the final compromise agreed to over the weekend by congressional and Treasury negotiators:



Click here: Side-by-Side Comparison of Rescue Legislation on Tapscott's Copy Desk



http://www.dcexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/TapscottsCopyDesk/Comparison_of_original_Paulson_bailout_to_compromise_proposal.html

20080928 Tapscott: Comparison original Paulson bailout to compromise prop

Monday, December 17, 2007

20070913 Light Bulb Efficiency Standards

20070913 Light Bulb Efficiency Standards

Senate Energy Committee hearing Wednesday - - S2017

http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=Jane+Harman+Light+Bulb+Efficiency+Standards&gwp=13

http://green.yahoo.com/18seconds/

http://www.house.gov/harman/press/archive.shtml

#### 12/17/2007 ####

_____

Update: March 28, 2008


Mercury in Fluorescent Bulbs - misc.health.alternative | Google Groups
The bill increases efficiency standards and effectively bans traditional bulbs
by 2014, a timetable considered a victory by supporters like Rep. Jane Harman ...
groups.google.com/group/misc.health.alternative/ browse_thread/thread/d215ea606dcae214/7735aedd9a26bd32

The Virtual Office of Congresswoman Jane Harman - News - HARMAN ...
Jane Harman (D-Venice) and Fred Upton (R-MI) to ban by 2020 the sale of any light
bulb that is not three times more efficient than today’s incandescent ...
www.house.gov/list/press/ca36_harman/June_27.shtml

Energy bill boosts fuel-economy standards - Los Angeles Times
Dec 19, 2007 ... Harman's provision would require that by 2020 light bulbs be at least three ...
to set stricter energy-efficiency standards for light bulbs. ...
www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/ la-na-energy19dec19,0,1969731.story?coll=la-home-center

EarthNews » Archive » Light-bulb bill a likely winner if ...
Sep 13, 2007 ... Jane Harman (D-Calif.) and Fred Upton (R-Mich. ... If Congress passes light-bulb
efficiency legislation, it would join a host of other ...
www.earthportal.org/news/?p=469

Hill Heat : S.2017, to amend the Energy Policy and Conservation ...
‘Tough’ Standards. Representative Jane Harman, a chief sponsor of the House ...
inefficient incandescent light bulbs toward higher-efficiency standards. ...
www.hillheat.com/events/2007/09/12/ s-2017-to-amend-the-energy-policy-and-conservation-act-to-prov...

Bill to Ban Regular Light Bulbs Introduced in House -- 03/21/2007
Mar 21, 2007 ... Jane Harman (D-Calif.) introduced legislation that would set target ... ban light
bulbs that do not comply with energy-efficiency targets. ...
www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=/ Nation/archive/200703/NAT20070321a.html

News Archive - The Virtual Office of Congresswoman Jane Harman
The Virtual Office of Congresswoman Jane Harman. return to the home page ...
PROVISION TO INCREASE LIGHT BULB EFFICIENCY PASSES HOUSE Harman-authored ...
www.house.gov/harman/press/archive.shtml

Jane Harman - SHARP Network
HARMAN, Jane F., a Representative from California; born in New York, N.Y., June 28,
... By 2020, the bill requires that light bulbs be at least 3 times more ...
sharp.sefora.org/people/house/jane-harman/

Kah Zoohl List: Light Bulbs and Liberty
Congresswoman Jane Harman is one of the few Democratic politicians whom I ...
YOUR LIBERTY to set minimum efficiency standards for light bulbs and ban the ...
kazoolist.blogspot.com/2007/03/ light-bulbs-and-liberty.html

Bush signs bill to increase fuel efficiency - Los Angeles Times
Dec 20, 2007 ... click to enlarge. We ban by 2012 the famously inefficient 100-watt incandescent
bulb. — Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice) ...
www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/ la-na-energy20dec20,1,3516223.story

For more information: Jane Harman Light Bulb Efficiency Standards

Sunday, October 07, 2007

20071006 Scrappleface: CIA May Threaten Detainees with Senate Hearings

Scott Ott – Scrappleface: CIA May Threaten Detainees with Senate Hearings



by Scott Ott (2007-10-06)



According a newly-leaked top-secret document published in The New York Times ‘Classified’ section today, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has employed controversial methods to extract information from terror suspects, including threats to put the detainee in front of a Senate committee for further interrogation.


If true, it means that U.S. agents may be using a technique “tantamount to torture,” an unnamed source told the Times.


“I’ve seen those Senate hearings on TV,” the source said. “I’d rather be waterboarded, slapped about the head and assaulted with high-volume Britney Spears music while confined to a meat locker.




Monday, June 11, 2007

20070606 “Haughty and nice” by Kelly McCormack “The Hill”

Haughty and nice

By Kelly McCormack The Hill

Posted January 11th, 2007

I have found myself reading and re-reading this piece from The Hill – from last week. I just found it to be an interesting glimpse into the day-to-day interpersonal relationships of Capitol Hill.

As any of us who have served in elected office are aware – staff can make or break ya. And I have been on both ends of that paradigm.

The rule is that you accumulate enemies by just “being,” so don’t make any.

It also gave a glimpse at some aspects of intergenerational studies…

Always – ALWAYS be good to staff…

Haughty and nice

By Kelly McCormack

June 06, 2007

Though most interns are young, work for free and have grand ambitions to learn the ins and outs of Congress, they tend to be the most bothersome to service-sector employees on and around Capitol Hill.

They don’t tip well, ask annoying questions and tend to be the rudest people in the nation’s capital, many employees say.

[…]

The employee, who has worked on the Hill for more than 20 years, said she has “plenty” of favorite lawmakers. “They treat us just like their staff,” she remarked.

The cashier said interns were the worst-behaved in the cafeteria. “They don’t really know” how to act, she said.

[…]

“Members are not rude at all. I’ve never met a rude member,” the employee, who has been working on the Hill for 17 years, said. Specifically, she said, Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) is very friendly: “That’s my girl.”

Interns are typically the rudest, not regular staff, the employee concurred.

She said her pet peeve is when interns point at food items and rudely inquire about them, though she noted that she has an old-fashioned standard for politeness that some young people do not abide by.

[…]

He said he regularly deals with staff members, many of whom are very friendly. Clyburn and Reps. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), Wayne Gilchrest (R-Md.) and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) are exceptionally nice, he said.

Read the entire article here: Haughty and nice

####

Friday, February 16, 2007

20070216 Resolution Passes House

House Roll Call Vote on resolution disapproving Iraq surge

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll099.xml

FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 99

(Republicans in roman; Democrats in italic; Independents underlined)

H CON RES 63 YEA-AND-NAY 16-Feb-2007 3:22 PM
QUESTION: On Agreeing to the Resolution
BILL TITLE: Disapproving of the decision of the President announced on January 10, 2007, to deploy more than 20,000 additional United States combat troops to Iraq
_____
246-182, Resolution Passes House

Posted by: Mary Katharine Ham at 4:29 PM

http://www.townhall.com/blog/g/fbd6c4f8-1fd7-46bf-874d-81581d61156e

Here's the roll call.

There were 17 squishy Republicans at last count.

Victory Caucus has all their info.

Huge thank you to Jim Marshall of Georgia and Gene Taylor of Mississippi-- Democrats doing the right thing.

Read the rest of her post here.