Melder's Musings

Since we won't see anything of substance discussed in the media until the incorrectly labeled "Ground Zero Mosque" issue is resolved, I have a solution.

Angry, racist Republicans, put your money and your free market principles where your mouths are. The group building the project paid a little under $5 million for the building. So, all you rich Republicans should bundle together $6 million and buy them out.

Problem solved. Of course, Republicans would rather have a non-issue to scream about than actually work to solve a problem, so I won't look for this to happen.

Labels: Conservatives, Hypocrisy

Republican State Representative Joe Driver admitted to billing taxpayers for expenses he also billed to his campaign. (Photo Credit: Texas House of Representatives)

Joe Driver is a thief.

The Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives from Garland has admitted to billing Texas taxpayers for expenses that he also billed to his campaign.

Driver made his admission when he was confronted with the findings of an investigation by the Associated Press (AP). According to the AP's report, that money went straight into Driver's pocket.

Here's the most damning information from the AP story:

"The veteran Republican legislator, faced with findings from an investigation by The Associated Press, acknowledged in an interview that for years he has been submitting the same receipts — for luxury hotels, airline tickets, meals, fees and incidentals — to both his campaign and to the Texas House. He has also been collecting thousands of dollars in state mileage reimbursements for travel in vehicles for which his campaign has shelled out more than $100,000 since 2000.

The AP’s review of hundreds of pages of state and campaign travel records found that Driver double-billed for at least $17,431.55 in travel expenses, much of it at fancy out-of-state hotels, since 2005. The number could go higher, but House travel records before mid-2005 have already been destroyed. Driver has been in office for 18 years. The double-billing figure does not include the vehicle expenses.”

Let me repeat one part of that. Records only exist to prove Driver's thievery since 2005. We will never know how much of a thief he truly is and he will likely never have to make restitution for any money he stole between 1993 and 2005.

Not surprisingly, Driver is one of those Republicans who spends a lot of time railing about taxation and government spending. I guess as long as that taxation is for spending that lines his pocket, it's no problem.

Almost as infuriating as his actions is Driver's defense of those actions. He says he didn't know that what he was doing was wrong. Driver goes on to claim that someone, but he can't remember who, told him that double-billing is an acceptable practice.

"Driver, former chairman of the House Law Enforcement committee, said that state ethics authorities approved the arrangement years ago, but he couldn't remember who told him that or when it was. He said he was told to just keep the state money and not reimburse his campaign for the expenditure.

The Ethics Commission says it doesn't provide such advice because campaign money can't be legally converted to personal use."

The Texas Democratic Party has called for a full investigation. Hopefully, we'll all get one.

Labels: Conservatives, Hypocrisy, Illegal Activity, Joe Driver

With today's news that a growing number of Republican senators want to repeal the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, the core values of Conservatism have finally become crystal clear to me.

1. Conservatives love the Bible (except for those parts they ignore).
2. Conservatives love America (except for those states they want to secede).
3. Conservatives love the Constitution (except for those parts they want to scrap).

A fourth core value would be that Conservatives love private property rights (except when people use those rights to build a mosque), but I think the list of three really drives the point home.

Labels: Conservatives, Hypocrisy

Like the anti-government Conservatives she (unfortunately) continues to inspire, Ayn Rand was a hypocrite.

"She claimed to have created herself with the help of no one, even though she was the lifelong beneficiary of social democratic largesse. She got a college education thanks to the Russian Revolution, which opened universities to women and Jews and, once the Bolsheviks had seized power, made tuition free. Subsidizing theater for the masses, the Bolsheviks also made it possible for Rand to see cheesy operettas on a weekly basis. After Rand's first play closed in New York City in April 1936, the Works Progress Administration took it on the road to theaters across the country, giving Rand a handsome income of $10 a performance throughout the late 1930s. Librarians at the New York Public Library assisted her with the research for The Fountainhead."

That's probably the most important passage from an article on Ayn Rand by The Nation's Corey Robin.

It's a shame that Depression-era tax dollars were wasted on someone who would spend the rest of her life railing against government spending and praising the people whose greed and excess made that spending necessary.

Labels: Ayn Rand, Conservatives, Hypocrisy