Mississippi Senators Vote To Keep Earmark Spending

If Congress gives up the responsibility to direct spending then who gets all that authority? The White House. No thanks. This is a knee jerk reaction by the GOP and they should stop and think about what they're giving up in order to be popular. READ the DAMN Constitution folks!

U.S. Senator Thad Cochran is one the most profilic users of earmark spending. The U.S. Senate has decided to vote down a proposed earmark spending ban. MPB’s Phoebe Judge reports on the reaction from two of the greatest users of earmark spending, Mississippi’s own U.S. Senators.

Mississippi’s senior senator republican Thad Cochran led the senate with just under $500 million dollars in earmarks in this year’s spending bills. The proposed ban would have created a one year moratorium on earmark spending, a practice which opponents often describe as pork spending, meaning senators sending federal money back to their home states for their pet projects. But Senator Cochran says it is their constitutional responsibility to make known how federal dollars should be spent,

“To say that the Congress shouldn’t have the power to direct federal dollars to be spent in specific ways is an abrogation of congressional power that is vested in the constitution in the Congress.”

Only 15 Republicans joined the majority of Democrats in voting down the moratorium, including Senator Cochran, and Mississippi’s junior Senator Roger Wicker. Wicker said in a statement, that while he was in favor shrinking the federal budget once spending levels are determined, 'elected officials should be able to direct spending to projects with the most need and potential for economic impact.'

Last week House Republicans did impose an earmark ban, and House Democrats declared earmark spending should not longer go to for profit companies.

 

MPB

Madison aerospace firm gets NASA contract

L-3 Vertex Aerospace at Gluckstadt has received a $20 million contract from NASA.
Under the terms of the contract, L-3 Vertex will provide services for aircraft operations, maintenance and research at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., as well as operation of the Moffett Federal Airfield.

The Madison County Herald

Canton alderman's son, others arrested

The son of a Canton alderman and two others have been arrested in connection with a melee.

Eric Gilkey Jr., son of Alderman Eric Gilkey, along with Michael Jackson were arrested last week on a charge of simple assault causing bodily injury. A third person said to be involved in the incident, Candace Parker, was arrested for domestic violence.

The Madison County Herald

Madison County Journal---EDITORIAL/'I'm just a Bill' (from Capitol Hill)

A fundamental breakdown in the legislative process is occurring with the health care bill and the way Democrats are bending the rules.

A majority of Americans are repulsed by backroom deals like the Cornhusker kickback and other bribes necessary to snare votes to ensure passage.

Tax increases to pay for the new entitlements and the bureaucracy to regulate it all are all but guaranteed in what the Democrats no doubt believe is the crowning achievement of their welfare state.

School children with a basic knowledge of civics know that a bill has to pass both the House and Senate to become law.

Under the new rules Democrats have cooked up like a batch of meth, no single bill will have passed both houses in the same form as required by the U.S. Constitution.

Read the entire article at Madison County Journal Online

No CBO score Wednesday night; Saturday healthcare vote unlikely

House Democratic leaders on Wednesday night said the long-awaited Congressional Budget Office score of the reconciliation bill will not come out until Thursday, forcing an acknowledgement that a Saturday healthcare vote is likely off the table.

But leaders are still hoping for a score on Thursday, and are still preparing for a possible vote before the end of the weekend.

The release of a CBO score on Thursday – triggering the Democrats' 72-hour clock – would mean that voting on the reconciliation bill would “most likely happen on Sunday, if that scenario plays out,” Assistant to the Speaker Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) told reporters after leaving Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) office Wednesday night.

Rep. Robert Andrews (D-N.J.), leaving that same meeting, said that the delay is the result of numerous technical issues involved, and stressed that, despite any rumors to the contrary, the delays are not the result of policy problems.

My understanding is this has been much more technical than substantive,” Andrews said. “It’s not like what tax has to go or what spending has to go.”

Andrews did say, though, that the CBO is also taking extra time to protect the legislation from invariable legal challenges to the reconciliation process, if not the eventual law itself.

“The reason it’s taking so long, in part, is that we want to be sure that we have a score that’s solid as a rock for procedural purposes and potentially litigation purposes down the road,” Andrews said. “We all assume that the same forces that fought this so vociferously in the Congress will fight it in the courts, and we want to be prepared for that.”

The Hill

Ole Miss handles Troy 84-65, advances in NIT

OXFORD — Using a high-flying offense to power through the first round of the National Invitation Tournament, Ole Miss beat Troy 84-65 on Wednesday night at Tad Smith Coliseum.

Terrico White led the Rebels with 27 points — his highest point total in more than two months.

Ole Miss (22-10) advances to face the winner of the Memphis/St. John’s game in the NIT second round. A date and time haven’t yet been determined.

White was aggressive from the start, slicing his way to the basket for layups, catching alley-oop passes for dunks, and hitting a few 3-pointers.

Clarion Ledger

Madison County Journal-Report questions engineering fees

Excessive fees and a lack of checks and balances were questioned in a report on the county's engineering services commissioned privately last year by the mayor of Madison.

The report is the latest in an ongoing political fight between Madison Mayor Mary Hawkins-Butler and certain members of the Board of Supervisors and County Engineer Rudy Warnock.

The report finds, among other things, that the county's expense reimbursements to Warnock and Associates were extremely high, including in one instance fees of nearly $19,000 over a nine-month period for use of a vehicle on a single project.

It also cites a conflict of interest where Warnock, serving as county engineer, designs and approves his own work - something the report says flies in the face of the Mississippi Board of Licensure's code of professional conduct.

Warnock has discounted the report as nothing more than political theater orchestrated by Hawkins-Butler.

The report's author, Richard J. McAfee of Detroit-based PMA Consultants, was in town Wednesday when he spoke on the Paul Gallo radio show and met with members of the media.

Overall, McAfee said with limited documentation he found no illegal acts, but pointed to over $2 million in questionable spending by the county.

Read the rest of the story at Madison County Journal Online

Hi kids! Not very good at math? Then someday you may be President too!

Is there any doubt now that the President is totally in over his head? You hire an amateur, you get an amateur. Great actor, poor mathematician.





Is it his calculator that is broken, or is it his teleprompter? Have you ever known anything to decrease 3,000 percent?

Math has never been kind to me, so forgive me if this is just getting past my feeble attempts to understand Obama math. But, as I understand it, a 100% reduction would be to go, for example, from paying $4000 a year to paying $0.

A 3000% reduction would mean that for a person paying $4000 a year now, the government would, under Obamacare, be paying this person $120,000 a year.