Petition to demand Pentagon financial audit instead of cuts to programs for the 99%

Republicans have forced devastating cuts to vital programs like food stamps and Meals on Wheels to safeguard against “fraud” and “waste.”

But here’s the real fraud: A new investigative report by Reuters shows that the Defense Department waste is so astonishingly bad that the Pentagon doesn’t know how much money it has, where it comes from, or where it goes.
Sign the petition telling Congress: Stop all spending cuts and audit the Defense Department.

We will hand deliver the signatures to Senate Budget Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) and Senate Appropriations Chair Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) who have the subpoena power to start an investigation like this. Please click here to sign the petition.

Just how bad is the waste? Faulty and fraudulent accounting across the Defense Department is so bad that no one actually knows how much money the Pentagon has, how much of it is spent, how much is wasted, how much is stolen, or how much was spent on what it was intended for.

You read that right: No one knows how much money the Defense Department has or spends, or where is goes—not even the Defense Department itself.

And the accounting problems aren’t just money related. Apparently the Pentagon doesn’t know how many weapons it has either--leading them to buy more arms and munitions than they need because they can’t account for the ones they have.

The Defense Department receives one-half of all money appropriated by Congress every year—but it can’t account for any of it. Meanwhile, Republicans have been demanding more cuts to programs like food stamps. It’s outrageous and it needs to stop.
Sign the petition: No more cuts. Audit the Defense Department.

Keep fighting,
Michael Langenmayr
Campaign Director, Daily Kos

Drunk on Ethanol

Image by Sam Beebe / Ecotrust via FlickrScientific American piece summarizing the awful truth: ethanol is an ineffective way to use land. Oregon is continuing to prop up this immoral, inefficient, counter-productive scheme, lavishing money on ethanol boondoggles in Eastern Oregon year after year. They're now pretending that they're going to turn the stands of cottonwood trees along I-84 into ethanol, but that will stop the instant the subsidies run out. Funny how folks like Congressman Walden in Oregon's 2d Congressional District hate taxes and pork, except for all the taxes wasted on pork in their district.

Related articles

• Biofuel demand in US driving higher food prices, says report (guardian.co.uk)
• Port of Morrow aims to recruit $100 million plant (oregonlive.com)
• Burning ethanol eats up energy (timesunion.com)
• Hooray! Congress Is Finally Scaling Back Ethanol Subsidies! Except for Not (reason.com)
• Right On! Senate Votes To Kill Ethanol Subsidies!!! (angrydd.wordpress.com)

Don't be a sucker. Stay away from Payday loans.

Image via Wikipedia The only way to avoid being bled by payday loan outfits is to stay the hell away from them. Evidence here.

You should never be in a position where you have to pay money to cash your paycheck, or to accept a huge interest rate because you need a couple hundred bucks to get to next payday.

If you are financially strapped and don't know how to get on your feet or get ahead, then you need to do one thing first, ahead of anything else:

JOIN A CREDIT UNION.

Salem has a number of them, no matter who you are you can join one or more of them.

Scam Alert -- Wildly overpriced "water supply line" insurance targets seniors in NE Salem

Image via WikipediaI usually keep my day job and LOVESalem pretty separate, but there are times when the interests merge, such as when I learn that there's a scam targeting seniors here in Salem.

Another giveaway to oppose, quick!

Yikes! Hundreds of teachers and librarians laid off in Salem, many more across the state. Meanwhile, the Lege is seriously considering pumping money into a for-profit School-o'-Matic dealie that would profit one particular legislator greatly?!

URGENT ACTION: Stop Matt Wingard’s Bill From Coming Back From The Dead

Today, after much public outcry, legislators stood up for Oregon students and narrowly voted down Rep. Matt Wingard’s pet bill--House Bill 2301, which would divert tax dollars away from our public schools to for-profit virtual school vendors. The bill would have been a boon to Wingard and Connections Academy, the for-profit online charter school corporation that pays him.

Wingard’s self-dealing on this bill drew strong criticism from many Oregonians, who were angry that this bill was negotiated behind closed doors, all for the financial benefit of one legislator. This opposition kept the bill from passing today.

But now, some legislators are feeling pressure to change their votes. The Oregon House is likely to bring back the bill for another vote, as early as tomorrow (Tuesday) morning.

Click here to take action and tell legislators to vote no--AGAIN.

In a legislative session when critical bills can’t even get one vote in the House (BPA Ban, Tuition Equity, Foreclosure Protection), we’re seriously going to give Wingard a second vote on his self-dealing bill that would do real harm to our public schools that are already suffering? A second chance to line his own pockets with taxpayer dollars?

We’ve asked a lot of you in the past few weeks, and it’s made a big difference. With this important bill on the line, we need you to join us once again in telling our legislators to stand up for Oregon students and say NO to Matt Wingard’s self-serving bill—again.

Go here or call 1-800-332-2313 to be connected by phone.

Watch for the Sausage Being Made in the Rush for the Exits

Image via WikipediaA real Oregon heroine, Jody Wiser, founder of Tax Fairness Oregon, sends this warning about an insanely stupid measure being jammed through at the last minute:

Another Bad Idea Gets Passed – Please Help to Stop It

Thursday was a deeply disappointing day in Salem.

The last two months have been good. I’ve watched as the Joint Tax Credit Committee, whose work this session has been so arduous, cut excessive tax code spending in place after place. They’ve done difficult and excellent work.

But as their final act of the year, they turned around and passed out of committee SB 817, creating the ironically titled “Oregon Low Income Jobs Initiative,” a bill that will actually give $78 million to an out-of-state money management firm and others like it, because they in turn agree to loan no more than $66 million to businesses in Oregon. Think what the Oregon State Bank might have done with that lost $78 million.

The travesty in this ill-considered bill is that if the state itself loaned the whole $78 million out, it could not only be more selective about what businesses it supported, it would get back the $78 million plus interest, and be able to loan that money out again and again. But with SB 817, Advantage Capital and a few other financial management companies will get the $78 million, loan out $66 million for six years or more, and after that, the whole $78 million plus all interest earnings are theirs.

The businesses that will receive the loans set up by SB 817 need not be anything special, need not hire any new employees, need not serve needy Oregonians. They do need to place themselves in lower income areas in Oregon--but the legal definition in the bill includes every acre of several counties and much of downtown Portland, Medford, Eugene, Beaverton and many other communities.

The Oregon New Market Tax Credit (NMTC) piggybacks on the unsuccessful Federal NMTC. According to a GAO report last year based on NMTC’s own data, it’s impossible to know whether its projects would have taken place even without the tax credit. Under the guise of helping needy communities, the Federal NMTC has funded projects like Portland’s Gerding and Schnitzer theaters and the Nines Hotel atop Macy’s.

In the hearing Thursday only one legislator, Rep. Phil Barnhart, asked a single substantive question that showed careful reading of the bill. He rightfully identified the full cost of the bill as $78 million. Reps Bailey and Brewer insisted he was wrong, that it was only $16 million. But Barnhart was right. When they later learned that the cost of the bill was nearly five times more than they thought, Bailey, Brewer, and every other committee member except Barnhart voted for the bill. It now moves to the Senate and House with a “do pass” recommendation.

There is still time to stop this travesty on the Senate and House floors. It may be taken up as soon as Monday. Please contact your State Legislators today and tell him or her that Oregon doesn’t need a tax giveaway that has already been discredited at the Federal level. Instead, let’s use our limited tax revenue for essential services.

Do it, just act:

If you need more guidance on what to ask, consider these points:

Questions for SB 817-1 proponents of the New Market Tax Credits:

· Why would you vote for legislation that passes out tax credits on a first come first serve basis? Don’t you believe the Oregon Business Development Department should choose amongst applicants, funding only those that will provide the best benefits to the low income communities? (Original bill, page 4 lines 33)

· Why would you pass out tax credits for $78 million but say that only 85% of it must be invested in Oregon? (Original bill, page one, line 29) What happens to the nearly $12 million that doesn’t need to be invested in Oregon?

· On page five, lines 28-32 there is another 15% that doesn’t need to be invested in an Oregon qualified low-income community investment. Is that an additional $12 million or the same $12 million as on page one? Can this money be taken as advisor fees for the money management businesses called “Community Development Entities”? The bill has no limits on fees.


· Ten states have had or currently have state side NMTC programs as in SB 817. If this mechanism is expected to bring more Federal NMTC dollars to Oregon, why has it not worked for 9 of the 10 states which have to date received fewer federal NMTC dollars per capita than Oregon receives without a state side program?

· Wouldn’t investing in a state bank be better?

· Without further amendment, it appears that as much as $4.8 million of each year’s $16 million doesn’t need to be invested in an Oregon qualified low-income community business, and that Oregon has no say in which businesses get up to $4 million each.

We note that the Oregon Business Development Department (OBDD) is not advocating for SB 817. This could be because:

1) Oregon already has other loan programs wherein the interest and principal return to the state rather than being lost to “Community Development Entities” (CDEs)

2) Where the costs for managing the programs are far below those collected by CDEs; and

3) Where the OBDD is able to target the loans.

If the Legislature wants state investments targeted to actual job creation in low income communities (as differentiated from moving jobs from one building to another as is typical with NMTC projects) then they should write that legislation.

WORD: America just going through the motions on reforms

Fake ice is just as real as our commitment to dealing with reality. Image by Kyle May via FlickrSad but true.

The large print giveth and the small print taketh away

Some arrogant outfit called "Clear" -- some sort of wireless internet scam -- sends junk mail to LOVESalem HQ, despite our energetic efforts to get on every "Do Not Call" and "Do Not Mail" list in existence and our total lack of interest in supporting any business that is converting forests to landfill material by sending junk mail to unwelcoming non-customers.

But to top it off, they reveal themselves to be deceptive liars to boot.

In clean, normal-size print in the body of the letter you see this:

CLEAR is simple
Just plug and surf. No appointment, no installation visit and no annual contract required.

But lo! Down at the bottom, in the middle of a dense paragraph SIX-POINT GREY-ON-WHITE-BACKGROUND type, you can, with a magnifying glass and strong lighting, barely make out

Requires $35 activation fee with a one-year agreement.

So just remember: CLEAR -- a firm you clearly don't want to support.

City of Salem has money to burn, apparently

Image by Smithsonian Institution via Flickr

The other night, the City of Salem signed up to submit a grant that, if it's obtained, will require the city to waste yet more taxpayer money -- $160,000 or so, from the general fund that we keep being told has no money -- as corporate welfare for a private, for-profit business, SkyWest Airlines. This is on top of $8,000 that Salem is pouring down the drain for "market analysis."

Apparently the council is fine with slashing public services like pools and parks and library services to find the money to shovel into well-tailored airline pockets in a doomed attempt to pretend that flying from Salem makes economic sense. (Not to mention that, in the era of $80+ oil, flying is making less sense for anyone, anywhere.)

It seems that Salem's losing scheduled service every time the subsidies run out should tell us something, but the optimists in City Hall have their fingers pressed firmly in their ears, determined not to hear what the market is really saying. After all, who needs public services when you can be chasing the dream of flight?