Campaign Blog
Gary Nolan's
Campaign Blog
Pennies from heaven?
The U.S. Senate has voted itself a pay raise. I guess trampling our rights, causing high unemployment, starting wars and passing legislation that endangers all Americans is pretty tough work. If we paid them what they were REALLY worth, the minimum wage people would have a fit!
The FDA's menu for makin' bacon
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) soon may require or encourage restaurants to display calories on their menus alongside the salads, entrees and desserts. Never mind that your neighborhood diner may have to hire a lab to determine the caloric content of the "blue plate special." I want to know what happens when the chef uses a dash too much salt or butter? What about the cost of a meal after the lab gets paid and the printer makes the new menus? I like the Atkins diet--will they make a special label for me!? Fat chance.
If restaurant owners and their patrons want to stay out of the frying pan, they need to support the only political party that supports their right to eat what they want--the Libertarian Party.
Airport Insecurity
Nathaniel Travis Heatwole, a Maryland student, was concerned about the government's continuing failure to provide adequate security on our nation's airlines. So, in time-honored American fashion, he decided to do something about it.
He successfully carried prohibited items through airport security and stashed them on four planes. He beat security at Baltimore-Washington International, which is supposed to be the model for the rest of the system..
Mr. Heatwole made every effort to make authorities aware of what he had been able to do. He left notes with the items he planted, and sent signed email messages (including his phone number) to security officials. However, the highly-touted Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) did NOTHING in response to the emails. It wasn't until AFTER the materials were found, MORE THAN A MONTH AFTER THEY WERE PLANTED, that TSA bothered to examine their email logs and found the messages.
Mr. Heatwole deserves our thanks for calling attention to the TSA's failure to provide real security. Instead, he faces criminal charges and the prospect of 10 years in prison as a "reward" for his actions. In typical bureaucratic fashion, TSA would rather shoot the messenger than respond to the legitimate safety issues he raised. Why am I not surprised.
Rush to Judgment
Rush Limbaugh has admitted that he suffers from a drug addiction. In the past, Mr. Limbaugh has advocated incarcerating drug users. Will he be turning in his microphone in for a pair of handcuffs? Neither your neighbor nor Rush Limbaugh should be incarcerated for using drugs. The Federal Government has no business writing drug laws.
Your tax dollars at work
JOHN SOLOMON of the Associated Press reports that
"While President Clinton was trying to broker peace between Israelis and Palestinians, the FBI was secretly funneling money to suspected Hamas figures to see if the militant group would use it for terrorist attacks, according to interviews and court documents."
The idiocy of this episode in American foreign policy speaks so loudly, it doesn't even need a commentary!
Another Missed Deadline
It's the beginning of October and once again, Congress has failed to pass most of its spending bills on time. That would be good if it meant they had to put the brakes on their runaway spending, but sadly, that's not the case. Instead, they'll adopt yet another huge omnibus spending bill, ladled with special-interest spending to help members with their re-election campaigns.
This is more evidence that the federal government has gotten far too big and needs to be dramatically scaled back. With fewer cabinet departments, fewer spending bills, and a much smaller budget, perhaps members of Congress could actually manage to get their work done on time.
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