BETC abuses, excuses merit a full-scale accounting of what went wrong: Editorial

The Oregon Secretary of State's office was quick to assert to The Oregonian/OregonLive's Ted Sickinger that its inquiry into the state energy department's chronically troubled tax-credit program is "not an audit."


Which raises the obvious question: Why not?


It's hard to find a better example of serial mismanagement in government than the Business Energy Tax Credit program. While the failed Cover Oregon health exchange certainly gives BETC a run for its money, it can't match the energy department's impressive record of botching due diligence and selling out taxpayers.


Read more at the Oregonian Read More......

Oregon driver card bill headed to the November 2014 ballot

Note: Jeff Kropf was extremely unhappy with the highlighted sentence below. The numbers of verifiable signatures were higher than shown in this report. He asks supporters of the initiative to read the article and comment if they believe the reporting was biased.

Voters will weigh in next year on a bill granting “driver’s cards” to Oregonians unable to prove they are in the U.S. legally. ✧ The Oregon Legislature passed Senate Bill 833 earlier this year, but opponents, led by Oregonians for Immigration Reform [OFIR] and Protect Oregon Driver Licenses [PODL], vowed to refer it to the ballot, hoping voters would overturn the law. ✧ Earlier this month the groups submitted nearly 71,000 signatures to refer the measure to voters and Friday morning Secretary of State Kate Brown announced on Twitter that the referral qualified for the ballot. ✧ The measure barely qualified for the ballot. Of the 70,973 unverified signatures submitted to the Secretary of State’s office, 58,291 were validated. Supporters of the referral needed 58,142 valid signatures to qualify. Read more at OregonLive... Read More......

The Benghazi Scandal Grows

A director David Petraeus was surprised when he read the freshly rewritten talking points an aide had emailed him in the early afternoon of Saturday, September 15. One day earlier, analysts with the CIA’s Office of Terrorism Analysis had drafted a set of unclassified talking points policymakers could use to discuss the attacks in Benghazi, Libya. But this new version​—​produced with input from senior Obama administration policymakers​—​was a shadow of the original.

Read more at the Weekly Standard

(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

John Kerry sails in Senate voting

1/29/2012, WASHINGTON — The Senate confirmed President Obama’s nomination of Senator John F. Kerry to be secretary of state on Tuesday, handing the Massachusetts Democrat a redemptive career victory that ensconces him in an elite echelon of national leadership nine years after his failed bid for the presidency. The 94-to-3 vote was the final hurdle for Kerry, whose nomination roared through the Senate after Obama’s first choice of UN Ambassador Susan Rice ­encountered stiff GOP opposition and never got off the ground. Read more at Boston Globe... Read More......

John Kerry: ‘Perfect choice’ for whom?

US President Barack Obama’s potential cabinet appointment of Chuck Hagel, a former senator who has, to put it mildly, issues with the State of Israel and America’s “Jewish lobby” (his words), is foundering against appropriate outrage. But the president made an equally important announcement this week: Obama will nominate Sen. John Kerry, his “perfect choice,” to be secretary of state.

Kerry’s nomination will sail thorough confirmation by his fellow senators. And that should alarm America and its allies.

Kerry is no Hagelian bigot. But he is a morally-preening, self-righteous mediocrity, unpopular even among his colleagues. He is prone to making thunderous, categorical pronouncements – and then adopting contrary positions shortly thereafter as the political winds shift.

While that might be overlooked in a career politician, less excusable for a secretary of state is that Kerry has shown unbelievably bad judgment about US policy his entire adult life. He is hardly the man to pursue US diplomatic interests.

Read more at the Jerusalem Post Read More......

Gun Control, the UN & 'Selling U.S. Out….Again'

The Second Amendment is precious to most Americans. The right to bear arms is, however, repulsive to liberals and they have tried all manner of maneuvers to take Americans’ guns from them. ✧ The latest tactic is to ratify a United Nations Treaty to regulate arms trade. The concept of the treaty was introduced in 2006 and was vetoed twice by the Bush Administration. The basis for the veto is the sovereignty of the United States Constitution and the unwillingness to subjugate our Constitution to any international body. [...] Now, Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-MO) and Rep. Ben Quayle (R-AZ) have introduced House Bill 5846, “The Second Amendment Sovereignty Act,” to counter the proposed treaty. The Bill would block funding for or the implementation of the treaty.

Quayle said the “U.N. treaty is a direct threat to American sovereignty and the constitutional rights of all Americans. Congress needs to put its foot down, and make clear that it, not the United Nations, is the only body with the constitutional right to impose laws in the United States.”

Read more at GOPUSA (Commentary from The Proud Americans.org)... Read More......

Voters’ guide controversy: "Yes" invades "no" on tax measures

<

(This is CHEATING with the blessings of the Secretary of State! --bc)
KATU: The "Vote Yes for Oregon" campaign in support of two tax increase measures on January's ballot intentionally printed two arguments in the section of the voters’ pamphlet reserved for the other point of view.

The Benton County Republicans recommend a "NO" vote on Measures 66 & 67! Read More......

Robert Strange McNamara dead at 93

FOX NEWS reports that [the former Secretary of Defense] “died at home in his sleep Monday morning, his wife Diana … said he had been in failing health for some time. Known as a policymaker with a fixation for statistical analysis, McNamara was president of the Ford Motor Co. when President John F. Kennedy asked him to head the Pentagon in 1961.” Read More......