Federal Hatcheries Closing?

[Wayne SW/MO]

The problem with entitlements are the fact they are not all equal. SS is a pyramid scheme based on everyone paying in and in theory should work fine, but enter congress, exit numerous federal and other privileged groups and the pyramid becomes a mound.

Then create unrealistic entitlements that require a large input of funds by people not in the pyramid and you have 2 pyramids being paid for by one group that is smaller than the whole.

[Al Agnew]

FF, we listened to it from audible.com, plugging Mary's I-Phone into the audio system in the car. The book is "This Town, Two Parties and a Funeral--Plus Plenty of Valet Parking!--in America's Gilded Capital", by Mark Leibovich. I guarantee it will make your blood pressure rise a bit. He pulls no punches and treats both sides and all characters pretty much the way they deserve to be treated. I don't follow the gossip columns, so I didn't know this but maybe everybody else does...Andrea Mitchell, the very well known news correspondent at the capital, is married to Alan Greenspan? That's just one example of various news correspondents in bed, literally and figuratively, with the people they are supposed to be reporting upon. Dick Gephart, the long time MO Congressman who "retired" a few years ago? He left to start his own multimillion dollar lobbying firm in D.C. You know how great a champion of unions and the working man he was supposed to have been in Congress? His firm represents huge companies who are big union busters...not unions or the working man. Remember Trent Lott? He makes no bones about leaving the government mainly to cash in on the lobbying money. It called "monetizing your service", and it would seem that everybody in Washington looks upon their job, whether it be as an elected official or as an aid or campaign manager, as simply a stepping stone to making a lot of money while remaining in Washington.

Or, read this from a review of the book by the New York Times' Christopher Buckley:

Lobbying. President Obama’s first year in office was the best year ever for the special interests industry, which earned $3.47 billion lobbying the federal government. Ka-ching — your change, sir. There’s a phrase in journalism-speak called “burying the lede,” which Leibo­vich appears to do by waiting until Page 330 to cite this arresting figure (previously reported by The Atlantic): in 1974, 3 percent of retiring members of Congress became lobbyists. “Now 50 percent of senators and 42 percent of congressmen do.” No one goes home anymore. Cincinnatus, call your office.

There are a number of sanctimonious standout “formers” in Leibovich’s Congressional hall of shame, but just to name a few exemplars who gleefully inhabit ethical no-worry zones and execute brisk 180-­degree switcheroos on any issue, including the Armenian genocide, so long as it pays: Dick Gephardt, Evan Bayh and Tim Pawlenty. (Christopher Dodd, late of Connecticut, is another beauty. Disclosure: he beat my uncle out of a Senate seat, but judge for yourself if he isn’t loathsome for other reasons.) My own modest proposal is that the media stop referring to these scoundrels as “strategic consultants” or their other camouflage titles and call them what they are: influence peddlers. I know — good luck with that.

The other major change took place pari passu with lobbying: the arrival of big money in Washington. “Over the last dozen years,” Leibovich writes, “corporate America (much of it Wall Street) has tripled the amount of money it has spent on lobbying and public affairs consulting in D.C.” Alongside this money comes the tsunami of dollars from presidential campaigns. He reports that during the 2012 contest, the so-called super PACs and megadonors pumped “upwards of $2 billion . . . into the empty-calorie economy of two men destroying each other.” He refers to a datum courtesy of The Huffington Post, which reported in the spring of 2012 that, so far, “the top 150 consulting companies had . . . grossed more than $465 million” during the campaign.

All of which has given rise to another unlovely development: political consultants and their concomitant celebrity. This breed has, Leibovich says, essentially replaced the old-style political bosses. One might ask: is it a bad thing that we now have the omnipresent James Carville and Mary Matalin and their ilk? Aren’t we better off for this “celebrity-industrial complex” instead of the smoke-filled rooms of yore? Over to you, but at least the boys in the smoke-filled rooms didn’t yap at us on TV on the Sabbath and endorse Maker’s Mark bourbon. (Honestly, James and Mary. They’re also doing the safety briefing voice-over for Independence Air. Is this a great country or what? Meanwhile, on “Good Morning America” tomorrow, George Stephanopoulos’s guests are. . . .)

Bringing us to the fourth change: Pandora’s (cable TV) box. The rise of cable television and the 24/7 news cycle, as well as Facebook, Twitter and the rest of social media, have provided all these people with heretofore unimaginable influence. “Suddenly,” Leibovich writes, “anyone without facial warts could call themselves a ‘strategist’ and get on TV. Or start an e-mail newsletter, Web site or, later, blog, Facebook page or Twitter following — in other words, become Famous for Washington.”

It has also enabled journalists to turn themselves into pundits, with all the glittery and greasy emoluments of that lower trade. “Punditry,” he writes, “has replaced reporting as journalism’s highest calling, accompanied by a mad dash of ‘self-branding,’ to borrow a term that had now fully infested the city: everyone now hellbent on branding themselves in the marketplace, like Cheetos (Russert was the local Coca-Cola). They gather, all the brands, at . . . self-­reverential festivals, like the April White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, whose buffet of ‘pre-parties’ and ‘after-parties’ now numbers more than two dozen — because a single banquet, it is clear, cannot properly celebrate the full achievements of the People Who Run Your Country.” Tom Brokaw, current wearer of the mantles of Walter Cronkite and Tim Russert, has now publicly declared he’s over and out and done with the darn thing, which has become a grotesque, narcissistic self-parody.

The proliferation of “formers” and pundits has resulted in “a high-profile blur of People on TV whose brands overtook their professional identities. They were not journalists or strategists or pols per se, but citizens of the ­greenroom.”

[Quillback]

And we now have "special government employees", in this case Huma Abedin, wife of the infamous Anthony Weiner. A special government employee is one who continues to receive a paycheck from the US government, while at the same time working as a paid consultant. Perfectly legal, but not conducive to honest government. And for the sake of fairness, I'm sure there are plenty of Republicans taking advantage of this loophole.

Beginning in January 2009, Abedin worked as a deputy chief of staff for Secretary Clinton – serving as an adviser to the secretary and supervisor of her schedule and travel.

But following the birth of her son and a maternity leave, a quiet change took place in Abedin’s employment status. In June 2012, Abedin was reclassified as a “special government employee,” and she began working as a part-time senior adviser from her home in New York.

During this time, Abedin continued to serve as an adviser to Clinton and helped plan her schedule and travel, but Abedin was not officially a deputy chief of staff – even though news reports gave her that title.

The reclassification, meanwhile, allowed Abedin to bypass conflict-of-interest restrictions for federal employees – restrictions that are in place to ensure that government workers do not bring an outside financial stake to bear in their federal dealings. With the bypass, she could work as a consultant, even while still being paid by the State Department.

Abedin took on three consulting roles. The Clinton Foundation hired her as a paid consultant, as did Teneo Holdings, a New York-based strategic planning and financial services firm that was cofounded by Doug Band, former chief adviser to former Pres.Clinton. Abedin also became a paid personal assistant to Mrs. Clinton (in addition to being Clinton’s government-paid senior adviser).

How much did she earn in these roles?

In May, Mr. Weiner and Abedin released their 2012 tax returns, which showed the couple made more than $490,000. The return indicated that Abedin earned $135,000 in her work for the State Department, but it did not specify what she made for her consulting.

[ness]

Less than an hour since the Fed made its much-awaited announcement. More of the same: keeping short term rates near zero until 2015 and buying $85 billion per month of mortgage-backed securities which keeps mortgage and other long-term rates lower. If you refinanced your mortgage in the last 8 weeks, it's time to do it again.

BTW, the way they pay for those securities is by creating an entry in the selling bank's Fed account. Hit the 'enter' key, create some dollars. It's magic!

[Quillback]

The Fed has also been buying government bonds as part of QE. So what we have is the government buying it's own debt. What a country! Heaven help us if this whole house of cards ever collapses.

[ness]

You'd think they could hit the enter key a couple extra times to keep the hatcheries open.

[Mitch f]

I knew about the Trent Lott situation about a year ago.....sickening. And they get their relatives involved too!

[bfishn]

...We interrupt this whine-fest with an important announcement from the Department of the Interior...

From Arkansas Online;
U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford said Tuesday that the Interior Department has assured him that two federal fish hatcheries in Arkansas will not close next year because of funding.

and

http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/article/111122/alexander-says-federal-decision-on-erwins-fish-hatchery-postponed

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming. Tune in next year, same time, same channel.

[bfishn]

On a related note, the Land and Water Conservation Fund is now at $40M annually, down from $900M. The LWCF is divvied up by the states. You can see what they've done (or haven't done) in your neck of the woods over the years at;

http://waso-lwcf.ncrc.nps.gov/public/index.cfm

[Old plug]

You might all think i am crazy but there is going to be a class war in this country. You can bet your life on it.