Doing the Right Thing

Most of the time, the OC points out the stupidity and corruption of our governmental "leaders".  But every now and then, I'm happy to point out when old-fashioned common sense prevails.

Take this story from Georgia.  In the city of McDonough, between Atlanta and Macon, a hot-dog restaurant was cited for "code violations" for flying flags that honor the branches of our military.  However, there is a happy ending, or at least a move towards one.

City Administrator Frederick Gardiner reportedly was unaware that CJ’s was cited and later told Miller (OC note: the owner) that he’s asking for the citation to be voided. Gardiner says the ordinance classifying flags as signs is too vague and should be rewritten.

 Could rational law be making a comeback?

H/T to Fox News.

Green video

As a followup to our post on the Obama administration's definitions of "green jobs", we bring you a video from Darrell Issa and the House Oversight Committee.



Amazing how simple truths can make a Democrat bureaucrat look so foolish.

Are we a nation of laws?

That simple question used to be routinely answered with "Of course. That's what makes America America".  But more and more, our laws are being eroded.  From the Washington Times comes this report:

A federal department ruled last week that the Forest Service violated a Spanish-speaking woman’s civil rights by calling the Border Patrol to help translate during a routine stop, saying it was “humiliating” to Hispanics and an illicit backdoor way to capture more illegal immigrants.

The ruling by the Agriculture Department’s assistant secretary for civil rights could change policies nationwide as law enforcement agencies grapple with how far they can go in trying to help the Border Patrol while not running afoul of racial profiling standards.

You have go to be kidding me.  Has someone failed to note that one important word in the first paragraph - "illegal"?  When laws are ignored by those who are sworn to uphold them, the whole system becomes a rigged game.  Whoever can prove the greatest grievance gets the most protected place at the table.

You know, if the whole government other than the courts and military disappeared, it might just be a better day.  That is, unless you are one who's protected by the government.  Like an "illegal".

GSA and OPM

Remember those wonderful folks at the GSA who were merrily spending government funds (aka Taxpayer's Money) on junkets and frivolity.  There's more.  From the Washington Post:

Ninety-five high-ranking employees at the General Services Administration who are assigned to work from home racked up $750,000 in travel expenses over nine months, documents show, prompting concerns from agency officials but no action to curtail the expenses.

The travel records, provided by the agency to congressional committees, provide fresh evidence of a spending culture at GSA’s Public Buildings Service that led to an embarrassing scandal this spring over a conference off the Las Vegas strip.

And what kind of response do we have?

GSA spokesman Adam Elkington said Friday the agency is “conducting an extensive review” of its operations that includes travel policies and staff deployment.

Civil service, combined with expansionist government, brings about some of the most cancerous rot to our system.  There is no responsibility, no accountability, and minimal fear of retribution.

And, of course, it's all done with OPM.  To remind you, that OPM is what comes from the taxpayers of America.  Aka you and me.  

Hat tip to Michelle Malkin and I Own the World for the story.

There's money in the air

If there's one thing that the OC wants everyone to take from this blog, it's "Follow the Money".  Because, when you strip away all the lofty words and emotional rhetoric, it all comes down to.....tada....money.

For as much as Congress and the DC establishment are pros at this, few hold a candle to the statist bureaucrats of the European Union.  Not content just to exert control over Europe, they want the tentacles to extend over America.  From Breitbart:

The European Union has established an Emissions Trading Scheme, which taxes all airlines including American carriers on carbon emissions, even while they are flying over the United States.

Yes, you read that correctly.  If a plane takes off in San Diego, California and lands in Madrid, Spain, an American airline would be taxed by the Europeans on its carbon emissions for the entire flight, even though the bulk of the flight occurred over the United States and the Atlantic Ocean.  Their rational?  It landed in Europe.

Read the whole story.

It's all for show

The scandal at the GSA isn't over.  Once they get a taste for the public trough, it never stops.  From the Washington Times comes this news:

More than a month after he was put on leave when a video surfaced showing him joking about the lavish spending — $823,000 — at a taxpayer-funded General Services Administration conference in Las Vegas, a top official at the agency has quietly returned to his job.

David Foley, deputy commissioner of the GSA's Public Buildings Service, was one of the speakers at the convention who has come under sharp congressional scrutiny after an audit uncovered massive waste at the gathering, including a talent show, open bar and red-carpet party.

Introduced before his speech at the conference as a “platinum big leaguer,” Mr. Foley joked at one point with a colleague: “The hotel would like to talk to you about paying for the party that was held in the commissioner’s suite last night.”

Agency sources confirmed Tuesday that Mr. Foley had returned to the GSA after being out on administrative leave. Officials made no public announcement about Mr. Foley’s return. He was placed on leave in April, the same month he apologized in an appearance before Congress for remarks he made in Las Vegas.

First he gets paid leave, which is akin to a paid vacation, then he quietly resumes his work with no consequences.  Is there no shame left in government?

But Foley isn't the only GSA official who's still taking our money.  From Bloomberg:

Taxpayers may get the multimillionaire-dollar “retirement tab” for a former U.S. General Services Administration official who oversaw an $823,000 Las Vegas conference, a U.S. lawmaker said.

The GSA announced without elaboration yesterday that Jeff Neely no longer worked at the agency. He will probably retire with government payments of more than $100,000 a year, Representative John Mica, a Republican from Florida, said today in a statement.

Mica, chairman of the House Committee on Transportation, planned to investigate the terms of Neely’s departure, according to the statement.

The public shouldn’t have to fund multimillion-dollar deals for “government administrators who abuse their positions and snub their noses at Congress and the American people,” it said.

But what the hell, it's less than the government paid out to the Green Energy gang.

Thanks to The Lonely Conservative for the story pointers.

Another troubling nominee

This time, it's at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.  Dr. Robert Zubrin writes at NRO:

Allison Macfarlane is the author of the book Uncertainty Underground: Yucca Mountain and the Nation’s High Level Nuclear Waste. This book, which is endorsed by antinuclear activist Victor Gilinsky, makes the absurd argument that rather than risk unknown consequences 10,000 years in the future should geological conditions affecting remote underground desert repositories change, that high level nuclear waste should continue to be stored in cooling ponds adjacent to nuclear power plants located near heavily populated urban and suburban areas. Thus for Macfarlane, as for Jaczko, the clear goal is to not to make nuclear power as safe as possible — which is the purpose of the NRC — but to make it as unsafe as possible — which is the agenda of those seeking to shut down the nuclear industry.

Macfarlane’s fundamental commitments are thus directly at odds with the purpose of the organization she is being nominated to lead. In addition, Macfarlane has no experience or education in engineering, and is also technically unqualified to lead an organization whose purpose is to intelligently regulate the nuclear industry.

Beyond this, Macfarlane’s bias is also shown by her role as a member of the Science and Security Board of the deeply antinuclear Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Quite understandably, her nomination was instantly hailed by Jaczko’s former sponsors, Reid and Markey.

America does not need a nicer version of Greg Jaczko as head of the NRC. The nation’s effort to create safe and secure nuclear waste storage has been brought to a dead halt because Congressional Republicans fell for Jaczko’s transparently dishonest protestations of objectivity. They should not make the same mistake with Macfarlane. Her nomination should be categorically rejected.

Well put.  Tell your Senators.

The Constitution and Cafeterias

Rep. Rob Bishop talks about the food police and how Congress made a mistake.



"We are now in the silly system".  How true.

Aside from having unemployed bureaucrats, what would really go wrong if we just eliminated tons of agencies and departments?

Thanks to I Own the World for the video.

And in news from Brussels

When is wine not wine? When totalitarian EU bureauweenies demand that you call it a “fruit-derived alcoholic beverage made from produce imported from outside the European Union”:




Still more evidence that there is no situation that a government bureaucrat can't stick their nose into and make worse.  Hat tip to Moonbattery.

Lighter moments for Wednesday

Many folks say "It's not like the old days".  Pick a subject and you can usually use that phrase.  Via a pointer at NRO, we have this story from the old days of space exploration.

Despite their (entirely deserved) hero status, astronauts are just everyday people like you and me. They put their space suits on one leg at a time, and have to fill out U.S. Customs and Immigration forms when returning from the moon. In what is perhaps the best application of bureaucracy to date, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins declared all their moon rocks and moon dust when they arrived in Hawaii after splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. It was a joke, though the astronauts did spend three weeks in isolation after their return over fears they might have brought lunar germs back with them.

However, Reddit tells us that this wouldn’t be the only tongue-in-cheek moment for the space program. After the dramatic events during the Apollo 13 mission, Rockwell received an invoice from Northrop Grumman. It seems that since the Grumman-made lunar module was responsible for bringing the crippled, Rockwell-built command module back to Earth, it was only fair that Rockwell pay for the tow. Great moments in American history, folks

Find the whole story at this Geekosystem link.  And click THIS LINK for a clear transcription of the details in the invoice.