The General Services Administration’s inspector general on April 2 revealed that a 2010 Las Vegas junket, featuring a mind reader and a clown cost taxpayers more than $823,000.
Why did these guys need to hire a clown? Don’t we have enough of them on our payroll already?
“It’s ironic that the demands in the presidential campaign for Mitt Romney’s tax returns are unrelenting, but when it comes time to release the schedules, travel and entertainment expenses for senior appointees there’s a denial of access,” said Paul Light, a New York University professor who studies the federal bureaucracy.
Nineteen of 20 cabinet-level agencies disobeyed the law requiring the disclosure of public information. In all, just eight of the 57 federal agencies failed to meet Bloomberg News Services’s request for documents within the 20-day window required by the Act. No fines!
Just continuous stonewalling!
“When it comes to implementation of Obama’s wonderful transparency policy goals, especially FOIA policy in particular, there has been far more ‘talk the talk’ rather than ‘walk the walk,’” said Daniel Metcalfe, director of the Department of Justice.
During the first year of the administration, cabinet agencies employed exemptions 466,402 times, a 50 percent jump from the last year of the presidency of George W. Bush. Transparency ?
Are you worried about what Mitt Romney does with his own money? Taxpayers paid $27.8 million for more than 200 overnight gatherings attended by at least 50 GSA employees over the five-year period, according to the records.
Maybe we should worry about how our money is spent. Well that’s $2 million per minute. No need to hire clowns, we have plenty of them.
The records of Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, (a tax cheat who does not pay his “fair share”) and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, (a tax cheat who doesn’t pay her fair share) former Secretary of Commerce and Acting Secretary Gary Locke and Rebecca Blank, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Jacob Lew, the former director of the Office and Management and Budget, who is now White House Chief of Staff, failed to release documents to Bloomberg News within the 20-day deadline.
Transparency ?
Stephen Hess, a presidential historian at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, called the survey results of Obama’s transparency record “grim” assessment.
“The sad part is that Obama people led us to believe it would be different,” he said.
Well it is. They are Democrats.
The travel and entertainment expenses generated by other Obama officials, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, and Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano, remain undisclosed and out of Compliance with the Freedom of Information act.
Where’s the “Justice “ department lawsuit?
Maybe we should be more worried about what this administration is doing with our money than Mr Romney is doing with his own. Meanwhile the General Services Administration continues to “send in the clowns” with lavish awards banquets!
Roberta Merrill
Clearville, Pa.
Letters
Government waste of our money a bigger problem
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Were they really good old days? You decide
When a fellow gets old, it’s not unusual for his mind to wander back to the days of his youth. He may forget where he laid his glasses five minutes ago, yet he can remember events that took place a half a century ago. This is one of the interesting things of old age.
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Wearing the poppy tells others people that you remember
On May 25, members of Farrady Unit 24 American Legion Auxiliary, Frostburg, will once again ask the citizens of the community to remember the sacrifices our veterans have made.
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Donating your old bike will help someone who really needs it
Once again Bikes for the World is collecting used bicycles at Canal Place, May 25 from 10 a.m. to noon,
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Hosting Fresh Air Children can be a memorable experience
I got a phone call, and a little voice said, “Hi Miss Linda, I’m calling to wish you a Happy Mother’s Day.”
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Stop buying licenses; let them find the money somewhere else
A few months ago, I received two cards from the National Rifle Association. These were dealing with a legislative alert.
They asked that I should contact Sen. George Edwards and Delegate Kevin Kelly concerning the anti-gun legislation. -
Strength of gun laws is not reflected in grisly statistics
According to the FBI’s uniform crime reports, California had the highest number of gun murders in 2011 with 1,220, which makes up 68 percent of all murders in the state that year and equates to 3.25 murders per 100,000 people.
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‘Forgotten warrior’ not forgotten
The Korean War is often called “The Forgotten War.” My generation remembers the Battle for LZ X-Ray at Ia Drang, The Tet Offensive, and Khe Sahn of the Vietnam War.
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Organization needed to help utilize the Potomac River
I am a committee remember on the Tamiami Trail Scenic Highway which stretches from Palmetto to Venice, Fla.
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Reducing meat consumption can help ease climate change
A review of 12,000 papers on climate change, in the May 15 issue of “Environmental Research Letters,” found that 97 percent of scientists attribute climate change to human activities.
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Maryland has stopped being “The Free State”
I am a lifetime member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans and, last but not least, the National Rifle Association. I am a yearly member of the American Legion.
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Were they really good old days? You decide
